L4W Discussion Thread III

[Lord Sessadore]

I take it you haven't seen Palindrome's hand in action...

Well, my first thought when thinking of crazy roleplaying props was Pal's mage hand (and other assorted tricks), but those are sort of built-in to his powers. I suppose they count, though

 

[Ecce]

HAHA! That's hilarious!

On a more serious note, I don't see why not. We do have some characters with some pretty crazy personalities, and while I'm not aware of any peculiar roleplaying props along the line of this PDA, I figure it was just a matter of time until someone thought of one. If it doesn't give any mechanical benefit, I don't really see any grounds to say "no".

Most excellent. I could even add it to my costs/inventory if really necessary. Being an adventurer is busy work, the PDA will help. Matlal is going to have an earful of a sarcastic and spiteful spirit though.

On that note, I'm still in need of a judge confirmation on Matlal. *wink*

 

[covaithe]

The only issue I can see with carrying around a pocket undead is that Lauto has a pretty strong presence in Daunton, and his priests have strong feelings about the undead.

There's a way around that, though. I have a half-baked adventure idea that revolves around legitimate, officially sanctioned undead in the Valley of Bone, who have a deal with Lauto's priests. It's a pretty simple deal: they give Lauto's temples a lot of money, and Lauto agrees to defer his claim on their souls. After all, they won't actually live forever; sooner or later their bodies will fall apart or someone will step on their phylactery or they'll cheat the wrong adventuring party, and Lauto will still get his due. And if they ever annoy Lauto too much, he can simply refund their money. And kill them.

I had it in my head that the fees for high-functioning undead, like liches or vampires, would be significantly higher than for, say, mindless zombies. I imagine we could say that your PDA was either something really cheap that you picked up years ago (and so doesn't take any of your starting wealth), or an heirloom; all that's left of what used to be a more powerful undead shaman, to whom the years have been particularly unkind.

Or you could have it be unsanctioned, and take your chances with Lauto's priests. That could be amusing, too.

 

[CaBaNa]

Kamotz would have something to say... I don't know what yet, but something!

 

[Lord Sessadore]

Everyone, please note that there's a new tavern thread. It's all the same to your characters, we just needed a new thread because the old one got too long. If you're going to the tavern use the new thread, please

 

[JoeNotCharles]

The Closed Eye is gonna need a new thread soon, too...

 

[Don Incognito]

Eh, they're almost done, anyways.

At least it looks like they are.

 

[Dunamin]

The Closed Eye is gonna need a new thread soon, too...

We'll need some for the sequels, right Cov?

 

[ryryguy]

Isle of Opposition

Yet another in my series of questions about the setting...

I have an idea for an adventure on the Isle of Opposition.

On the map of the proximate isles, is the Isle of Opposition the one in the upper right corner? That seems like the most crescent shaped.

Assuming that's it, was there some notion about what the small island or outcropping in the middle of the circular harbor is supposed to be? Or is that still to be filled in? (I was thinking: good spot for a Daunton outpost/embassy.)

Also, the gates are supposed to be at opposite ends of the island (Isle of Opposition, duh). But with the shape of the island it's kind of hard to see what that means. Are the gates on the "horns" of the crescent opposite each other? That might work... they'd be close as the crow flies, but if those are high cliffs on both sides, there might not be sea access. Then, it'd be a long trip by land around the island, and the respective colonies could spread out towards the middle of the island.

(Eventually someone could perhaps build a donkey track or something up the cliffs for direct access to the gates from the sea, a la Santorini, but that might not happen for a while.)

 

[Ecce]

The only issue I can see with carrying around a pocket undead is that Lauto has a pretty strong presence in Daunton, and his priests have strong feelings about the undead.

There's a way around that, though. I have a half-baked adventure idea that revolves around legitimate, officially sanctioned undead in the Valley of Bone, who have a deal with Lauto's priests. It's a pretty simple deal: they give Lauto's temples a lot of money, and Lauto agrees to defer his claim on their souls. After all, they won't actually live forever; sooner or later their bodies will fall apart or someone will step on their phylactery or they'll cheat the wrong adventuring party, and Lauto will still get his due. And if they ever annoy Lauto too much, he can simply refund their money. And kill them.

I had it in my head that the fees for high-functioning undead, like liches or vampires, would be significantly higher than for, say, mindless zombies. I imagine we could say that your PDA was either something really cheap that you picked up years ago (and so doesn't take any of your starting wealth), or an heirloom; all that's left of what used to be a more powerful undead shaman, to whom the years have been particularly unkind.

Or you could have it be unsanctioned, and take your chances with Lauto's priests. That could be amusing, too.

I think some sort of ancient deal with the Valley of Bone might leave the undead free to be within the kingdom itself, but they must pay a price outside of the valley. Perhaps an ancient king went through ten thousand slaves to build Lauto's throne in the heavens in return for the right to persist in undeath undeterred within his kingdom.

I was figuring on the PDA as an heirloom, a rather dilapidated and cranky heirloom. I'll add it to weight though, 1 pound is probably right for a shrunken head (especially for a small humanoid).