stonegod's Expedition to Castle Ravenloft: Ch. II [OOC]

[DEFCON 1]

Well if James is done, this then brings up the question whether or not we've going to try and recruit again? Do we think we need to? Is a paladin, cleric, rogue/cleric, warlock, and paladin cohort enough to continue the adventure? Is an Area of Effect damage dealer of some type a necessity?

 

[s@squ@tch]

The traditionalist in me misses an arcane caster of some sort with AOE goodness, whereas the kid in me enjoys the frosted side.

 

[stonegod]

Still catching up after all of the deadline madness on Monday.

I'm inclined to think an AoE/more "controller" like role would be beneficial. That being said, it might strain credibility to say that one is just waiting in the caravan (not impossible, just odd). I couldn't NPC Janis long. Options as i see them:
- No recruitment. While mass battles of many minions isn't going to happen, you have no major AoE effects (Tessa can pull some, true)
- Recruit a new PC.
- Recruit someone to take over Janis. This is a thorny issue. James set the bar real high, and its like giving away someone's child. James, however, isn't coming back (which we know now, instead of later like other PCs). In a continuity sense, this is easiest.

I'm going to chew on the issue some; comments welcome. Meanwhile, expect an update later this afternoon.

 

[s@squ@tch]

I would have to agree that an arcane type caster hasn't been hiding in the caravan over the past couple of weeks -- or a local wizard has not barricaded him or herself into its house, so the introduction of a new PC like that would not make much sense.

BUT, perhaps this old evil castle had a prison or whatnot and maybe that prison held a prisoner...but with vampires flitting about, would have no reason why said possible PC would not already be turned into some undead minion....

Or Marot smacks Janis over the head with his mace and causes some sort of internal trauma that changes her personality into Snow White.

 

[DEFCON 1]

As much as the continuity would work best for someone new taking over Janis, I think s@squ@tch is right that we'd need someone to bash her over the head to change her personality to make it work. I also don't think it's fair to James to have someone take it over since he did the honorable thing and told us he was giving it up rather than just disappearing.

That being said... as far as how we'd get a new character involved would probably need to be something like we release someone from the castle prison like s@squ@tch said, or one of the Vistani with magical ability now has nothing going on since the others were witches and were killed, or some other contrivance to get a player in.

Hard to say what is best.

 

[James Heard]

I know I'm not part of the game any longer, but I was curious to see what you folks were thinking of doing too.

Anyways, I have a suggestion: Janis abandons any pretext of aiding Mad Mateusz's plans any longer. She reincarnates a dead hero from the past to aid the party before going native and spending her time with the villagers (or going evil and letting Stonegod explore the possibilities of crunchy evil Janis goodness, which is pretty much what I'd expected was going to happen anyways.) Bringing the dead back to life would right up Janis' ego alley, especially if it involved pimping her credentials with the villagers. It allows anyone you recruit to make up just about anything they like, and Janis can do it as many times as someone extends a line of credit for to provide as many people as can be dreamed up. Seriously, if you recruited people who are itching to play troglodytes it could easily be accommodated with appropriate adjustments to the back story. They just can't have been killed by any of the things that prevent people from coming back to life (like just about everything that killed every other person in the party).

 

[stonegod]

Reincarnate is interesting... until you run up onto that "dead up to a week" issue...

 

[James Heard]

Details, details. She's an NPC now. She could have superpowers if it meant you guys got someone who'd enter the game fully engaged rather than "And suddenly, Biff McMercenary develops a personality and joins you on adventures!"

 

[stonegod]

Ping? Waiting for where you folks are going next.

 

[Stormwind]

I vote for going upstairs (stairs to the north) to try and find the Tome. Although the library could be anywhere in the castle, I would guess that it is on the upper floor (or on one of them if there are more than one).

Just a heads up for the future - I was just thinking about things, and Ashlyn may have a problem later on with you guys handing the Tome over to Mateusz. It would depend on what information is contained in the Tome, but if it details anything regarding how to create undead ... then she would rather see it destroyed than in the hands of a Karrnathi and she would most likely be quite verbal about it ... she doesn't exactly trust them and if she had her way then all Karrnathi Zombies would be destroyed as the abominations they are