WotBS Emeraldbeacon's Burning Sky (live game)

[Tolamaker]

It's interesting to me that your online game has steadily kept an adventure behind ours, while your live game is already about to pass us.

 

[emeraldbeacon]

It's interesting to me that your online game has steadily kept an adventure behind ours, while your live game is already about to pass us.

I've found that games just move slower online than in person. There's no subtlety of non-verbal communication, and no easy give-and-take at the table, so conversations just take a bit longer. Sometimes, connection issues stall the game a bit, as well, with people needing to reload their character sheet to make a roll, while in-person play often has everyone ready to go right then.

For me, our online game is a bit more time-restricted as well; we stick to only about 3 hours per week, while the live game can stretch to 4 or 5 depending on how we're feeling.

 

[emeraldbeacon]

Made a little toy for the live group, for when they decide to start climbing the lift... made of cardboard and fomecore, a bit of glue and a brad fastener, the lever swings pretty freely back and forth, with enough resistance to stay put, as long as nobody goes messing with it.

I also worked out that "clue rhyme" for ascending the lift, that the group might find in someone's quarters, as an alternative to getting the full & accurate code from Gorquith. I find myself really hoping they only get the clue, and have to discern what they're doing right or wrong on the way up the lift.

 

[VicsHacienda]

As the play begins, the party is regaled with Katrina's amateur analysis of the narrative points of the play, including what (in her opinion) is a ham-fisted attempt to parallel the story of Toteth Topec with the current struggle against Ragesia, particularly the various elemental sages who help the titular hero.

At the end of the second intermission, however, as attendants finish serving refreshments to the audience, they notice a figure who doesn't seem to belong, hurrying out of the theater towards the deck. Meanwhile, the performing bard sees Pickens Frankart, bleeding from the stomach, wheezing about the theft of the control ring.

Together, the team quickly understands what happened, and rushes to the deck, looping Katrina into their attempt to rescue the ship. While Giorgio activates the teleportation desk, the orcish defenders try to fend off the other heroes. In the end, the team overpowers Giorgio's protectors, who either fall or flee, leaving the bard to his own end. Despite a desperate attempt to flee, he is tracked down and stopped, saving those on the ship from a fiery fate.

In the aftermath, after the Wayfarer's Control Ring was recovered, the team finds a charred boat filled with burnt Shahalesti soldiers... who nevertheless might not be exactly what they seem. Headmaster Simeon Gohanach requests that they find Harbormaster Lee Sidoneth, to figure out how the hell this attack could have happened.

As the storm begins to intensify, they investigate the home of the hydromancer. Inside, they initially find surprisingly little, beside evidence of a hasty departure. A secret door is ultimately found, though, that opens into a makeshift Biomancy lab, complete with another corpse of a half-formed elf, presumably a failed experiment.

The Lyceum agrees to send forces to the shop of Paradim Dogwood, to find and stop any experiments he might be aiding in. Meanwhile, Simeon suggests that, this late evening, the team takes time to rest, in the hope of gaining new information in the morning...

SESSION NOTES: Near the end of the fight on the ship, Giorgio (sensing his own mortality) decided to dimension door away, with a mere 20 hit points remaining. The burning sky dealt him 19 damage... enough to BARELY survive! I was beginning to consider how to use him as a later villain, when one of the heroes cast Fly on the archer, who raced after him and sniped him from the sky, with a desperation disadvantage shot. Collecting his unconscious body (miraculously, Giorgio self-stabilized after 3 failed medicine checks) from a VERY CONFUSED ship in the harbor, they now have another captive to question...

Since Setales got away, I'm thinking of including him in the Pyromancer's Tomb fight. (Nira did too, but she's definitely in the wind)

My party has captured Paradim and intimidated him (21) into confessing. He is described as "loose lipped" so I figure he would give up everyone and everything...
He knows Lee and Cernaban Gremman. Does he know about the Ragesians?
What's the connection with Ostalin?
What happened to the girls that's Paradim altered for Cernaban's brothel?

 

[RangerWickett]

My party has captured Paradim and intimidated him (21) into confessing. He is described as "loose lipped" so I figure he would give up everyone and everything...
He knows Lee and Cernaban Gremman. Does he know about the Ragesians?
What's the connection with Ostalin?
What happened to the girls that's Paradim altered for Cernaban's brothel?

I'm afraid if you're hoping for EmeraldBeacon to answer, you'll be waiting a long while. They haven't been on EN World since August 2023. I guess either the game fell apart or, y'know, the time it takes writing up session reports felt like it wasn't worth it.

As for the canon answers? Uff, I wrote the campaign and I can't recall. It was 17 years ago.

Some of the stuff might've been added in the 4th edition conversion, which I wasn't involved with. They added a couple extra plot threads to create new encounters that would give extra XP, since 4e went to 30th level, instead of just 20th.

 

[Tormyr]

Their online and live games are still going strong. The live game is in the dreamworld. The online game is a little behind that as having to pause for online interaction tends to make the game run slower.