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"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." -Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick
-After the Castor fiasco, the group received a message, inviting them back to Joe's Arena. -Upon returning, Valerian spotted Burson. In the meantime, Amy did some sleuthing, and discovered that no message had been sent. -Burson claimed to have great news for the group: He had uncovered Aluxial's location! -Meanwhile, Amy borrowed Valerian's Commstones and finally established communication with her Ioun stone, a tiny remnant of the goddess of magic. -Burson told the assembled party about his plan to free Aluxial. Reluctantly, they agreed to help. -Arriving at the prison that held the now-depowered Original Mage, the group hunted down the jailkeepers of the prison and ruthlessly killed them, with the exception of two. Amy gets special credit for this, having killed two of them with surprise gunshots. -Additionally, the group freed hundreds of prisoners, the scum of the Twilight, put by Rael in this prison to contain them. -Finding Aluxial, the group met her warden: Sonya, post Good Girl Training. A fierce battle ensued, and Sonya was defeated, surrendering. -Knowing the risks of taking a deranged teleporter with dozens of guns onto the ship, the group argued long and hard about what to do with her. In the end, it was decided that she had to be executed, as there was no way to keep her down and she was too much of a threat to leave alone. Amy tried to shoot her, but Brona beat her to the punch with a dagger through the heart. Valerian took her shotgun. -Before departing, the group looked at the freed prisoners. They begged to come with them. Quentyn recovered Atharathes, a girl he had previously flirted with. Valerian had been partial to leaving the prisoners behind, freed but stranded and depowered, but in a final scan, one woman caught his eye. Her name was Teracor, and in her past, she'd been a Blackguard, devoted entirely to the concept of evil. Intrigued by the strength of her convictions, Valerian took her back to the ship. -Post-game, Valerian briefed Raita about Sonya's death. She seemed at peace with her end, until the subject of the place Rael's minions go to after death was broached. She proceeded to flee, leaving Val wondering about the reasons behind her distress, and if he hadn't doomed Shursh and Eren to a horrible fate ten years ago.
Does T'horon even make two attacks within a single turn ever? I don't think he can...
PS: Unrelated, but our ritualists should take a long hard look at the Comrade's Succor and Fantastic Recuperation rituals, from Dragon 380 and EPG respectively. I just chanced upon them and damn they're good.
Went back to the old thunder/lightning wombo combo.
Also edited my mythweavers sheet so the attack bonuses and damage bonuses for each skill are listed there too.
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"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." -Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick
It's okay, Kirie is gaining bonus defenses in the form of "IF ANYBODY HITS MY BRO, I'M KICKING THEIR ASS", since T'horon is now level 10 and guardian themed. Gonna bro up with my fellow bard and gain bonuses to kicking the ass of anybody that attacks my bro!
Edit: Since we leveled up I exchanged one or two powers, I'm going to steadily transition out of my reliance on melee basic attacks in favor of more utility (like applying -3 penalties to target's speed in addition to the ground around me being difficult terrain for enemies).
Edit again: ...I read barrage bracers wrong and now I don't want them. Swap that for Warded Vambraces (Adventurer's Vault 2)
-- Accel ACE Totally still relevant, totally not just a lurker. Totally.
-Burson departed after receiving some information about something called Vengatol from Aluxial. He's definitely up to no good. -Aluxial ended up as a hair dec of Kirie, after her tube was soundproofed. -We disembarked and went on a shopping spree. Miss R. went shopping too. -We discovered that Miss R. had been kidnapped by Wilden bandits. They were easily dispatched... -But the Huntsman, their boss, revealed herself. She threatened to kill Miss R., but Amy's fortunate intervention saved the day. -After a fierce battle, we defeated the Huntsman. She threatened to blow herself up, but thanks to a spectacularly fortunate Natural 20, Valerian hit her with a haymaker, stopping her from killing herself. She was captured, and a new cage was bought for her. -Lots of talking happened. Brona and Teracor discussed the nature of the latter's philosophy... -T'horon and Adelie played with Forget... -Quentyn expanded his harem by chatting up Dubs and Atharathes... -Kirie was faced with the difficult conundrum of finding a way to entertain the two ex-jailkeepers she had taken under her wing... -Amy worked with Rogdar on some ship designs and began to torture Learrette with the full intention of breaking her mind... -...And Valerian spoke a great deal with the captured Huntsman, whose name was Tevalin (Or Tevaline), and engaged in a session of psychotherapy. They exchanged questions until Valerian's perseverance and refusal to grow angry made Tevaline quit the conversation. -Everybody gained 1000 XP.
What a cool session. All due to the final RPing, really - it made the whole thing (besides the hilariously awesome combat rolls, like T'horon surprising Tevaline, Valerian going super Goku, and Brona critting Val into unconsciousness with the finishing blow) truly great. I think I might try to make logs specifically detailing each conversation, if you guys want to see them. They'll add coherency to the whole thing, probably, and show how cool the stuff that went down really was.
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"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." -Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick
No, Learrette wouldn't touch Quentyn if Amy spent a hundred years mindbreaking her into loving Quentyn. It's Atharathes, I thought I was getting that across in their interactions?
-- Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig. Started: July 6, 2005
I was making a joke <_<. Ath seemed pretty dere though, just in a weird way.
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"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." -Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick
Also, guys, there will be a shortish RP session for anyone who wants to come at our normal time. I can only stay until 6:00 or so, though, because I have to be somewhere tonight.
-- Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig. Started: July 6, 2005
So, after spending the past hour looking at Paragon paths. (Just doing the Hybrid Paragon thing, since most Paragon paths seem a little dull, incidentally.) Finally got around to finding what we put Tevalin/e in.
Either this: Or this:
Really rather depends on what you guys decide. <_<'
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"If you own this thing you own you will own it!"
Hybrid Paragon, huh? I don't know if that's worth it...
The first one there is more old Tevalin before we confiscated her stuff; the second one is ludicrously unfitting.
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"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." -Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick
From: Anagram | #023 Sceptilesolarbeam posted... Is it Learrette?
No, Learrette wouldn't touch Quentyn if Amy spent a hundred years mindbreaking her into loving Quentyn. It's Atharathes, I thought I was getting that across in their interactions?
Won't stop Quentyn from trying! >_>
I mentioned this yesterday, but I won't be here tonight - going out of town.
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"As a chess Grandmaster, what's your view on America's war strategy?" "SEND IN THE CLERGY! THEY CAN MOVE DIAGONALLY!"
From: IhatethisCPU | #026 So, after spending the past hour looking at Paragon paths. (Just doing the Hybrid Paragon thing, since most Paragon paths seem a little dull, incidentally.) Finally got around to finding what we put Tevalin/e in.
Either this: Or this:
Really rather depends on what you guys decide. <_<'
Don't paragon hybridize, BTW, it's a total gimp. I'd take Heartwarder if you want a PP that works, to reflect Kirie's blessing of Irune.
Whoops, I was thinking of Lifesinger, though Heartwarded is actually also rather boss. Lifesinger is in Arcane Power, and Heartwarder in Forgotten Realms Player's Guide.
-T'horon spent his time talking and being confused by Teracor's philosophy. -Kirie kept annoying Aluxial, and sewing sweet new duds for her proteges. -Amy spoke with Aluxial and decided to arrange for a meeting and set course for the Vengatol island. -Valerian spoke with Tevaline and managed to get to her much more quickly this time. Afterwards he spoke with Vance and came up with the idea to ask Aluxial about ways to turn a doll back to normal...which would require Aluxial's tome. -Vance and Kirie met, while Valerian called for a meeting. Amy revealed what she had learned from Rael, and the course was set for the island.
Miss R Eren Forget, Broguard, Winter Sonya, Rael (current) Vivi Samantha Calmarie Teracor, McQueeniel Konamy Hammerconnery, Ephestral Burson Ashara, (Dwarf), Arena Joe Dubs, Rael (Past) (Quentyn's Tsundere girl from the jail), Swiftfoot Shursh
---line of dislike and/or indifference Huntsman Learette Fanas, Queen Aluxial, Aluxial (Past) Marial, (The two jailors)
...I know I'm forgetting some, besides a few names, here. Bold are the NPCs on our ship.
Vance, if he comes back, if going to make it a point to get Miss R to the end with us. It would be poetic justice for the "weakest" of the furies, one labeled so insignificant that Rael discarded her, to be a big part of the downfall of Rael.
-- Accel ACE Totally still relevant, totally not just a lurker. Totally.
I keep wanting to call him Rodger for some reason.
As for character rankings, it is hard for me to be completely objective as I will tend to want to rank higher the ones Amy interacts with more. Obviously Samantha and Konamy get high marks. Definitely seeing potential in Rogdar too. Forget I considered meh until the picture became a thing; now she is too cute to not have around and one of the few beacons of light on the ship. I loved Amy and Rael's dynamic, though it will be much much harder to justify future conversations now that he has slid into the 'needs to die' category for Amy. In that regard, Rael will technically lose character, but the story seems to demand this anyway so no loss. We're supposed to hate him.
Most of the other characters are just kinda there for me. They do their job be it to be despised or beloved. Some I don't agree with having on board like Teracor, but I can see her potential and acknowledge she is a character with depth being added to her.
I think if I had one criticism overall, it is that everyone with power seems to either be a hand or a former hand. It really speaks to how rigid this universe is set up when you have three powers and below them everything else a pawn. To the point where we can look at a powerful being with a checklist. Divine power? Omna. Likes bossy women? Aluxial. Is a woman? Rael. Some independent powers would be nice. We probably should have had the mages be more backdrop until paragon anyway given how absurd the power gap is anyway. It just sucks out a lot of the potential narrative drama when the only action your character can take is to agree and hope the opposition doesn't blast you into molecules. Not that we haven't been doing a nice job dancing around the mages and capturing semiimportant people and forgetting to name out ship.
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There is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out
It's both a complaint and a point of interest, to me. On the one hand, it really sucks that our heroes really are stuck fighting an unbeatable foe. When I had Valerian say that it really didn't matter what Rael could do and if he knew, the first thought that crossed my mind, as a player, is 'he probably has the whole Twilight permanently divined - he knows where we are and we stand out as a point of nondetection, so he just doesn't care about us yet', which is a really, really depressing and lame thought because it means we literally can't win unless Rael screws up. If we get the Vengatol and it doesn't have enough juice to start playing with some fundamental forces (or if Burson escapes with it), we're completely screwed. I have a plan set already if the Vengatol is as primally powerful as it sounds like it is, but otherwise we're completely in the dark.
On the other hand, there's something to be said about fighting a nigh-unbeatable foe. It gives the story a very Black Company or Myth kind of feel, where the good guys mostly eke out minor victories as darkness wins and wins, until a brilliant gambit wins the day for the forces of good. And when (not if) we beat Rael, our victory will be absolutely sweet because we will have defeated an effectively unbeatable foe. Personally, I feel that unless we have something that lets us proactively fight Rael and start screwing with him directly, I'd rather stick to sidequesting and accruing power, character development, and more evil misfits for the ship. Our crew is already so interesting that I could spend a whole session just chatting with them and having minor adventures, and each PC has his own minor goals that have been calling for attention for a while and we haven't been able to tackle (Valerian seriously wants to return home, it's just that we've had literally no time to rest so far). We don't need an epic plot that is totally out of our league when we can have a super engrossing plot that is smaller and more character-focused.
PS: As for a complaint of my own, the only thing that I really don't like is the fourth-wall breakingness and obvious referencing. It's funny if limited to comic relief characters and the occasional joke, but when I see Rael make a quip directly at us just as he's slouching in his throne and monologuing, it breaks my immersion, which is really bad when the story is generally very engrossing otherwise. I'd cut down drastically on the mention of classes, levels and such, and just use in-world terms. It makes the world feel more alive, instead of being a setpiece for our antics.
PPS: On the plus side, the thing I really DO like is how the world has adapted to our actions so much - Valerian started the game by saving Raita, and through persistence and kindness made her turn a new leaf. He spoke to Tevaline and slowly started to cut through that aloof shell. He refused to let someone die on his watch and I got a chance to jab Tevaline out of killing herself instead of getting cutscene'd into a death. It's very cool stuff, and I love it.
PPPS: I'll get character rankings up later today. Additionally, I'll see if I can get logs of our conversations up for easy perusal.
Themes (For most of the recurring NPC cast. ((You'll notice a theme after the first few, and a few might be jumpiing the gun on characterization.)). <_<):
