BrOp's Age of Worms Adventure Path (OOC)

[Bront]

I'm here, just remembering why first level mages suck Just trying to conserve myself this time, so we don't have to do the whole "Fight and then rest" thing after every other battle.

 

[Someone]

I realize, we´ve been a lot of time with that beetle, so we really chould know each other pretty well. And that should open a possibility to non-violence. If we had a bard, he could inspire courage with this song:

Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?

I seen you 'round for a long long time
I really 'membered you when you drink my wine

Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?

I seen you walkin' down in Chinatown
I called you but you could not look around

Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?

I bring my money to the welfare line
I see you standing in it every time

Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?

 

[Branding Opportunity]

I know it's not much, but the encounter with the giant beetle garnered everyone:

86 XP

 

[Erekose13]

So we are at 386 now right? Just checking.

 

[Branding Opportunity]

So we are at 386 now right? Just checking.

Yes, that is correct.

Errr, and I think I forgot to give you folks the XP for "overcoming" the flaming trap on the sarcophagus. That's worth another 86 XP, which should bring everyone to ***mental math***

472 XP

 

[Ranger Rick]

I will be offline until Tuesday/Wednesday.

 

[Branding Opportunity]

I will be offline until Tuesday/Wednesday.

Thanks for letting us know RR. I hope you enjoy celebrating the end of the summer!

 

[Branding Opportunity]

I've added some more locations in the town of Diamond Lake to the first post. Check it out!

 

[Branding Opportunity]

I always think that one of the most interesting things about PbP is that you have the time to really flesh out a character. You can develop a detailed history, figure out complex aspects of his/her personality, and dream up goals and desires that your PC might strive towards. I generally find that as a player the more I understand my character's personality and motives, the more fun I have playing him. Of course, that may just be me

In an effort to encourage this kind of behavior, I've written each of you a little letter. Feel free to respond to as much as you like, either here or by adding to your character sheet in the Rogue's Gallery thread for this game.

On the other hand, if you are happy just playing a combat and problem-solving game, don't let me spoil your fun and keep on going with that.

Sine I’m writing quite a bit in these, I’ll do a few at a time.

Someone:[sblock]I've been thinking that it might be interesting to give Rial a bit more of a backstory, and flesh him out a bit more. Have you had any thoughts in this direction? Warlock powers are obviously not run of the mill, not even in a magic-rich world like Eberron. They are definitely dark stuff, and would probably cause quite a bit of distress when they first appeared.

When do you think they first appeared for Rial? How did they appear? In dreams? Did he have a near-death experience? Did he discover them while sitting on the john? Was he taken and tortured by servants of the Dragon Below? Did he have a traumatic encounter during the last few years of the war? Did he get to close to a Khyber dragonshard? On the subject, did they powers just "come to you" or did you seek them out? If you looked for them, why did you do that? For revenge? For power? I often see warlock powers kinda like Dark Jedi powers if that helps you at all.

Here's another thought. There's a pretty good chance that you've had run-ins with members of the Church of the Silver Flame. They have a pretty big presence in Diamond Lake, and you could have figured out pretty quickly that they would not see you and your powers in a very good light. Also the followers of the Silver Flame are a pretty radical and fanatical bunch who literally whip themselves into a holy frenzy as a way of purifying their souls (yeah, they're a fun bunch). What is your history and current relationship with these folks? Do they know what you are? If so, why haven't they tried to bring you to the light (at best) or lynch you (at worst)?

Just some thoughts. If you feel like adding more to Rial's background feel free to either post it here on in the Rogue's Gallery for this thread.[/sblock]

Bront:[sblock]I've been thinking about your ultimate desire to become a recaster. You obviously won't be able to qualify for a few more levels, but that doesn't mean that you can't start thinking about what kind of a changeling would want to become a recaster.

I don't know if you've read the "Changeling Psychology" section of Races of Eberron, but they detail three categories that changeling's generally fall into personality-wise. Of the three, recasters are generally becomers or reality-seekers.
Becomers believe in embracing their birthright of physical mutability, and therefore have many different personas or identities. To fully be a changeling, one must change, convincingly and frequently. They revel in their mutability and believe that nothing is beyond their abilities. They disguise, deceive, and lie as needed to further their individual goals. A becomer considers himself simultaneously to be both a mutable changeling and the individual he portrays.
Reality seekers reject the notion of conforming to human culture at the cost of identity and spurn the becomers' philosophy of transience and impermanence. These introspectives believe that there is an ultimate Perfect Truth, and a Way of Being. Reality is out there, and it can be sought and understood. Their quest is to discover what's real.
The reality seekers, also known as perfecters, prefer their natural form and the society of their own kind. Most do not engage in deception, but the definition of deception varies among them.
Which one of these is Zan? I'm guessing that he is more of the latter, but I just wanted to make sure. A reality seeker would probably see being a recaster as a way of approaching the truth, following the phrase "truth is a pathless land".

During his time at Morgrave, he also probably ran into the changeling wizard Ziv, who is the General Studies Chair of Metamagical Physics there. She would have probably made quite an impression on you. I see recasters as not having any codified structure or organization, but generally knowing each other. They would be interested in the basic ideas and theories behind magic, versus crude application, seeing magic as a way of glimpsing that ultimate Truth of their own being.

So why is he on this expedition? Is he looking for something? Is he just bored? How does he feel now that he's the only changeling in the group? Does he feel like an outsider? How does he think the others feel about him? Is he close enough to them that this is not an issue? How does he feel now that his brother has left the group? How does he feel about the Whispering Cairn?

Just some things to think about.

BrOp[/sblock]

Knight Otu:[sblock]I was just looking over the character sheet for Meldain when a thought came to me. How he feel about this adventure in the Whispering Cairn? From your description of him he seems to have gotten by on his reflexes and his charm most of this life. His charm hasn't helped much so far, although his reflexes certainly have kept his bacon out of the fire. Is it exciting enough yet for him? Does he want more, or is he learning his limits?
I also saw that he learned elven. Did he leave town or did he learn that in Diamond Lake? The only elves in Diamond Lake are Ellival Moonmeadow and his followers who run a mine for the government of the city of Sharn. They almost always keep themselves, so why would they have associated with a young human trickster and con-man such as yourself? Have you worked for them, or did you simply make friends with one of them? The younger of Moonmeadow's elves have been known to frequent the Emporium's dreamlily parlor, Lazare's House (a gaming house), or Venelle's (a bowmaker with some elven blood). Could you have met them in one of these places? If it's the first location, have you tried dreamlily, or might you even be addicted, or a dealer? Drugs are obviously not an easy topic, but I just thought I'd throw them out there. After all, Meldain in Chaotic Neutral, which means that he almost always puts his own needs first.
Speaking of his alignment, how does this influence his relationship with the other PCs? Does he merely see them as stepping stones to greater wealth and glory, or does he actually care about them? If he had the chance to rip them off, would he do it? How does he feel about other PCs taking leadership roles? Does he want to be in charge, or does he merely not want other people telling him what to do? I'm just speculating here based on the alignment you've assigned to him.[/sblock]

Ranger Rick:[sblock]I think that the warforged are one of the most interesting races to play RP-wise. After all, Sniffer is between 2 and 6 years of age, which means that he hasn't had very much time to assimilate much about how the non-warforged world functions. He was trained to be a scout, and until the war ended two years ago, that is all he knew about. He probably served in an all-warforged unit with human officers and was considered valuable, yet ultimately disposable property until the Treaty of Thronehold was signed at the end of the war. Warforged are still widely reviled and mistrusted.
Which country's army did Sniffer serve in? Just because the adventure takes place in Breland doesn't mean that he served here. Breland was widely known to have a very liberal attitude towards warforged, and so many warforged traveled there after the armistice.
How does Sniffer feel about the non-warforged in the group? Because they were built to be machines of war, they generally see everything in terms of the military. Don't think of family, think of your squad, don't think of friends, think of brothers in arms Just imagine that you had spent all of your childhood in military school and after graduating had gone straight into active duty. Freed warforged do no consider other creatures their masters but instead tend to view them through the filter of their old lives, placing them in one or more of five categories: commander, comrade, ally, civilian, and foe.
Warforged consider an individual to be their commander if they take orders from that person. Taught to recognize the marks of authority on the battlefield, warforged also categorize others’ commanders and look for their place in the chain of command.
Comrades are those who work or fight alongside the warforged on a consistent basis. The term “comrade” is a label that a warforged used to indicate that experience. Warforged feel camaraderie for a group or individual after going through trying times, but it is only now, among the humanoids in peaceful times, that warforged are beginning to understand the concept of friendship.
Allies are creatures with the same goals as the warforged. Warforged always view allies with some suspicion. During the Last War, alliances were frequently broken, and warforged learned not to trust allies to remain true.
A warforged considers anyone with whom it does not have a quarrel or common goal a civilian. Civilians and noncombatants were to be ignored unless a warforged was ordered to do otherwise. Thus, warforged have difficulty relating to others now that they have no masters to tell them how to do so, and many people see warforged as disrespectful, rude, and cold. Given Sniffer’s charisma score, I would say this would be true in spades for him.
A warforged chooses its foes based on its goals. A foe need not be attacked, but a foe is someone to be defeated. When labeling someone a foe, a warforged also looks to see who that person’s allies are and what position the individual occupies in a chain of command. Of course, foes often became allies during the Last War, and warforged often attach less rancor to the words “foe” and “enemy” than do most creatures.
Now the war is over and most of Sniffer's kind don't know what to do with themselves. They lost the structure of their existence. Suddenly thousands of warforged were left bereft of leadership or purpose.
This freedom is wonderful, but it can also be terrifying. Warforged were created to fight and trained to follow orders; lacking a war to win or a leader to follow, many warforged are intimidated by the possibilities of freedom and seek comfort in roles where expectations are clear. Although some of the indentured warforged of Thrane and Karrnath bristle under the yoke of servitude, many are pleased by the safety and simplicity of their roles as builders and workers.
A warforged may revel in freedom and despise authority, look for someone to serve, or test the waters of freedom by creeping slowly across self-imposed boundaries. Feelings about freedom an impose themselves on even the smallest decisions. A warforged offered the choice of several colors of cloaks to wear might take them all, choose a color he has seen others choose, or beg off choosing entirely.

Sorry, I know that’s a lot to read. Hope some of it is useful.[/sblock]

 

[Bront]

[sblock]

I've been thinking about your ultimate desire to become a recaster. You obviously won't be able to qualify for a few more levels, but that doesn't mean that you can't start thinking about what kind of a changeling would want to become a recaster.

I don't know if you've read the "Changeling Psychology" section of Races of Eberron, but they detail three categories that changeling's generally fall into personality-wise. Of the three, recasters are generally becomers or reality-seekers.
Becomers believe in embracing their birthright of physical mutability, and therefore have many different personas or identities. To fully be a changeling, one must change, convincingly and frequently. They revel in their mutability and believe that nothing is beyond their abilities. They disguise, deceive, and lie as needed to further their individual goals. A becomer considers himself simultaneously to be both a mutable changeling and the individual he portrays.
Reality seekers reject the notion of conforming to human culture at the cost of identity and spurn the becomers' philosophy of transience and impermanence. These introspectives believe that there is an ultimate Perfect Truth, and a Way of Being. Reality is out there, and it can be sought and understood. Their quest is to discover what's real.
The reality seekers, also known as perfecters, prefer their natural form and the society of their own kind. Most do not engage in deception, but the definition of deception varies among them.
Which one of these is Zan? I'm guessing that he is more of the latter, but I just wanted to make sure. A reality seeker would probably see being a recaster as a way of approaching the truth, following the phrase "truth is a pathless land".

During his time at Morgrave, he also probably ran into the changeling wizard Ziv, who is the General Studies Chair of Metamagical Physics there. She would have probably made quite an impression on you. I see recasters as not having any codified structure or organization, but generally knowing each other. They would be interested in the basic ideas and theories behind magic, versus crude application, seeing magic as a way of glimpsing that ultimate Truth of their own being.

So why is he on this expedition? Is he looking for something? Is he just bored? How does he feel now that he's the only changeling in the group? Does he feel like an outsider? How does he think the others feel about him? Is he close enough to them that this is not an issue? How does he feel now that his brother has left the group? How does he feel about the Whispering Cairn?

Just some things to think about.

BrOp

He's definately closer to a more perfectionist reality seeker. He seeks to test and push his limits, as well as the limits of magic. He feels that power over his form and magic will come with knowledge, as will power over other things. He's not power hungry per say, but he seeks control over the mutability, perhaps to stabilize the unstable life of being a changeling.

Not knowing much about Ziv, he probably was influenced by him to some degree, seeing his extra control of magic.

With his brother leaving, he's more worried that he'll find something a bit more unscrupulous to do than anything else. In this adventure, he's began to feel a bit more helpless and out of control, and so he is actualy a bit relieved that his brother is safe. He's tried to take control when he can, by examing things, spouting off what he knows, and as a result, he's begun to focus on the minuta of things. Other than the Enlarge person, he hasn't been particularly effective when it comes to combat, but he knows that his time will come in that regard.

I'll have to think on all this a bit more, but that's my initial reaction.[/sblock]

 

[Knight Otu]

[sblock]was just looking over the character sheet for Meldain when a thought came to me. How he feel about this adventure in the Whispering Cairn? From your description of him he seems to have gotten by on his reflexes and his charm most of this life. His charm hasn't helped much so far, although his reflexes certainly have kept his bacon out of the fire. Is it exciting enough yet for him? Does he want more, or is he learning his limits?
I also saw that he learned elven. Did he leave town or did he learn that in Diamond Lake? The only elves in Diamond Lake are Ellival Moonmeadow and his followers who run a mine for the government of the city of Sharn. They almost always keep themselves, so why would they have associated with a young human trickster and con-man such as yourself? Have you worked for them, or did you simply make friends with one of them? The younger of Moonmeadow's elves have been known to frequent the Emporium's dreamlily parlor, Lazare's House (a gaming house), or Venelle's (a bowmaker with some elven blood). Could you have met them in one of these places? If it's the first location, have you tried dreamlily, or might you even be addicted, or a dealer? Drugs are obviously not an easy topic, but I just thought I'd throw them out there. After all, Meldain in Chaotic Neutral, which means that he almost always puts his own needs first.
Speaking of his alignment, how does this influence his relationship with the other PCs? Does he merely see them as stepping stones to greater wealth and glory, or does he actually care about them? If he had the chance to rip them off, would he do it? How does he feel about other PCs taking leadership roles? Does he want to be in charge, or does he merely not want other people telling him what to do? I'm just speculating here based on the alignment you've assigned to him.[/sblock]

[sblock]Meldain is certainly learning that he has limits, though he would not admit it in front of the others. He's just as likely to forget those limits again. For now, the memories of the crashing corridor are still fresh in his mind, and if he had any doubts about the stability of a corridor, he'd think twice about entering it. Unless there's a huge mystery or promise of riches, though, as with the corridor with the hole, where he still was uneasy.
I did not know that there are so few elves in Diamond Lake when I wrote my character sheet. Given that, he should propably know a different language. However, trying drugs may be something Meldain might do in his youthful ignorance. I'm not quite sure which direction to go here. He did leave town for some forays into the surroundings, but it is unlikely that he could have learned Elven there.
Meldain doesn't like being bossed around, and at times he might try to direct people to do stuff he thinks is more exciting, and more likely to bring the group forward (as seen in the case of the sarcophagus and the convenient hole in the ground). He does care about his friends, and would try to check for traps where it is suspicious. If that gives him a chance to add a coin or two to his share, it's an added bonus.
[/sblock]

 

[Someone]

Someone:[sblock]I've been thinking that it might be interesting to give Rial a bit more of a backstory, and flesh him out a bit more. Have you had any thoughts in this direction? Warlock powers are obviously not run of the mill, not even in a magic-rich world like Eberron. They are definitely dark stuff, and would probably cause quite a bit of distress when they first appeared.

When do you think they first appeared for Rial? How did they appear? In dreams? Did he have a near-death experience? Did he discover them while sitting on the john? Was he taken and tortured by servants of the Dragon Below? Did he have a traumatic encounter during the last few years of the war? Did he get to close to a Khyber dragonshard? On the subject, did they powers just "come to you" or did you seek them out? If you looked for them, why did you do that? For revenge? For power? I often see warlock powers kinda like Dark Jedi powers if that helps you at all.

Here's another thought. There's a pretty good chance that you've had run-ins with members of the Church of the Silver Flame. They have a pretty big presence in Diamond Lake, and you could have figured out pretty quickly that they would not see you and your powers in a very good light. Also the followers of the Silver Flame are a pretty radical and fanatical bunch who literally whip themselves into a holy frenzy as a way of purifying their souls (yeah, they're a fun bunch). What is your history and current relationship with these folks? Do they know what you are? If so, why haven't they tried to bring you to the light (at best) or lynch you (at worst)?

Just some thoughts. If you feel like adding more to Rial's background feel free to either post it here on in the Rogue's Gallery for this thread.[/sblock]

[sblock]I´ve thinking on that since you posted, and I´d like to wait somemore until something interesting on that comes to my mind. However, I´ve always had some vague ideas about Rial; oneof them is that his powers come from some his family (his mother) did; that he knows that his abilities are dark stuff, but he doesn´t think on them as unnatural or frightening. After all, being able to use them at will, I´m sure he grew used to them quickly, whithout worying about them being corrupting or something.

Since the other characters didn´t worried or even flinched when he used Spider walk the first time, it seems that Rial has had the power for a quite long time, maybe manifesting it since he was a child. I imagine his mother encouraged him to use them.

Also I´ve made Rial had sudden changes in humor, almost as if he had a vision. Maybe the dark power within is corrosive in the long run.

About the Silver Flame folk, it´s a good idea. I´ll think something about them in the future.[/sblock]

 

[D20Dazza]

Hey Knight, Fixit tossed Meldain's knives back to him when he exited the room so if he didn't catch them they're either at his feet or imbedded in his limbs somewhere

Cheers

Daz

 

[Branding Opportunity]

I just realized that we seem to have lost lotuseater, who hasn't posted since 8/15. Anyone have any info on him?

 

[Bront]

Gen Con ate him???

No clue.

 

[Erekose13]

Havent seen him either, though I am still here.

 

[Branding Opportunity]

Hmm, well if we've truly lost lotuseater then the party now has no cleric. I'll NPC him a bit more (a week, let's say) before trying to find a replacement or writing the dwarf out of the story.

BrOp

 

[Bront]

BO, your current player links aren't quite right, (Lotus Eaters particularly goes to Cadnide's character), and probably should point to the RG instead of the OOC thread anyway. Just a minor point

 

[Branding Opportunity]

Thanks for pointing it out, Bront. I've corrected the error.

 

[Bront]

No problem, glad to help