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File 148160211009.jpg - (43.21KB , 593x389 , cover.jpg )
106446 No. 106446 ID: b9aa79

Thread: https://tgchan.org/kusaba/quest/res/765391.html
Wiki: http://tgchan.org/wiki/Please_do_not_Take_these_Organs
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4587981

For all our discussion needs
Expand all images
>>
No. 106447 ID: b9aa79

I'd highly recommend checking out that patreon link if you guys like the quest. Everyone needs to eat, and if you like the quest I'm sure some extra money in their pocket would help JamesLeng devote more time to making cool stuff for us.

In regards to the quest though, is anyone with good visualization skills and has MS paint installed? Due to my own personal brain anatomy translating the words on the page to a 3d image in my head is something I'm really not good at, much to the detriment of my map drawing character last season. If anyone is able to draw the room, it might be easier to work out a puzzle involving how we move along the grid. I'm assuming it's something along the lines of "there is invisible danger on all the squares except the right ones, so you have to move in a set path or die"
>>
No. 106448 ID: 13d7b7
File 148160377874.png - (11.30KB , 400x300 , pdntto_.png )
106448

I'm using a track pad atm, so this is the best we get. Let me know if I missed anything.
>>
No. 106449 ID: 750f88

>>106448
Beautiful

Quick question. Can I work on deciphering the puzzle or do I have to wait for my character to get denied or accepted? I haven't read through the actual puzzly part because I didn't know if it would be cheaty or whatever.
>>
No. 106450 ID: b9aa79

>>106449
I think the silence is a good thing- no comments or edits means your character is good as is. I'm not JamesLeng though so I could certainly be wrong, but you should be good to join in since we're all just chilling in the starting area

>>106448
Thank you muchly friendo
>>
No. 106451 ID: b9aa79
File 148160531395.jpg - (22.31KB , 400x402 , chess.jpg )
106451

Depends on how literal we wanna get with the puzzle and how much like chess this actually is, but a knight leaping forward, and the "their right, could mean something like
g1, g2, h2,
or b1, b2, c2. Personally I'm not so great with riddles and puzzles, and my character in game is not gonna bother, so I'm throwing my 2 cent in over here so I can stay in character in the main thread and not clog it up with images of chess boards and such.
>>
No. 106452 ID: b9aa79

Unrelated to puzzle solving:

>>765451
>Lower ambition: Ladies.

If you're rich hot and into chicks Maru is ready to, as she puts it, "shag", any time just fyi.
>>
No. 106458 ID: 3abd97

>>106443
>>106445
I think your respective difficulties largely resulted from disagreements over basic assumptions. I think if you wanted to avoid that you might want to ask more clarifying questions of the gm before taking action, or spend more text / posts making sure you and the gm actually think the same things about your character?

Personally I have no objection to having you at the table, as it were, even with past silly arguments.

>>106452
For clarity, I chose that ambition not so much to mean she's a rabid womanizer, but to put her base desires somewhat at odds with her high ambitions. I figure they're interesting when they're opposites or different expressions of the same thing.

Interpersonal inter-party relations would depend a lot on how personalities end up being played (and who doesn't die horribly in a few turns), making it a little soon for me to say how that would go.

Rich is relative, I suppose. Nice equipment and a coin purse make Davina richer than the average dungeon rabble, but by her standards she's a lot poorer than she started out in life, and has a lot of rebuilding to do.
>>
No. 106459 ID: a107fd

Hey, one of my fans started a new discussion thread without me.

*blinks in surprise*

Hey, I have fans.

>I think JamesLeng was just feeling frustrated with the way you expressed yourself because it felt as though you were constantly unhappy
This is an accurate assessment. I have no objection to Tunic rolling up a character (perhaps a hedge witch, with brassfruit balm) and otherwise participating in the new game. Just... when there's a problem, try to phrase your initial comments on the subject more as a polite question, rather than an outraged accusation.

>>106449
Feel free to declare your first action along with your character sheet, and if everything is fine (or close enough) I'll save time by saying so and resolving that action in the same post.

>>106448
This is an adequate map of the starting area for quick-reference purposes. More accurate cartography is possible, but would require an in-game time investment.
>>
No. 106460 ID: b9aa79

>>106459
No problem, I just wish I could contribute more ✌🏻️👍🏻👌🏻
>>
No. 106461 ID: a107fd

>>106460
Can't even spare a single dollar per month? Four straight years of that would still be less than fifty bucks.
>>
No. 106462 ID: 3d2d5f

>I didn't even blink before giving you teleportation
I think my perspective is warped by the semi-sentient spacial anomaly dungeons of The Gods Must Be Bastards (who take umbrage to adventurers who take too many liberities in problem solving) or Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, where controlled blinking is one of the most useful abilities to have in your toolbox, and corresponding expensive to access and continually targeted by the nerf hammer.

I'm amped to have an abusive ability with suitably weird / awesome flavor to play with.
>>
No. 106463 ID: 383927

>>106461
Sorry, like I said I really do wish I could but my current budget has me deciding between eating food or visiting the doctor. It's not life threatening or anything, but a dollar is quite literally the difference between a hot meal or an empty stomach, so it's hard to give that up sometimes

That being said, I've got a job prospect coming up which would give me the opportunity for quality of life improvements likes having two working head lights and affording travel costs to see my loved ones etc; if ilu physically and mentally well enough to hold that down and continue to earn my degree it's more likely I'd be able to budget a couple dollars for this exact kind of thing. Like I said if you'd rather me not okay if I can't donate, I totally understand, this is your hard work and time and you deserve to be compensated, but currently I just really need that extra.
>>
No. 106464 ID: 383927

>>106463
Not sure what the hell happened with auto correct just then

*if I'm physically

*if you'd rather me not playing I can't donate

*Need that extra dollar
>>
No. 106467 ID: a107fd

If I went around excluding people from the game for failing to pay me, I would have no players. Accordingly, I'm not going to do that.
>>
No. 106468 ID: b9aa79

>>106467
I think you'd just have to shift to a medium that involved a significantly higher portion of furry porn to quest story than your current format details.
>>
No. 106469 ID: a107fd

>>106468
If I tried to make mostly porn I would also get nowhere, because I have so little interest in the subject, updates would soon become less frequent and of lower quality. Three cheers for the ace.
>>
No. 106470 ID: 383927

>>106469
If food lion has taught me anything, it's that you don't have to love what you do to have people be interested in it and pay you for it.

Jokes aside though if all goes well in the future I do intend to dontate a little, and sincerely hope you're able to garner some additional income
>>
No. 106472 ID: a107fd

I'd like to take a moment to publicly thank Mageykun for becoming my first patron.
>>
No. 106475 ID: 3abd97

I find it amusing and kind of cute that two separate people stopped to help Davina in her little panic attack.

>such as deep yet bloodless wounds in otherwise normal flesh
Do all undead trigger this? I assumed most would be too far past the sell by date to pass as "otherwise normal".

Possibly unfortunate synergy with Eric's ability, there. Speaking of,

>The undead are an abomination unto Tittivila.
Poor Eric and Vos may not get along too well.

Looking forward to my otherworldly passenger eventually showing up on Vos' aura-sight, or someone's mage-sight, though.
>>
No. 106477 ID: a107fd

>>106475
>Do all undead trigger this? I assumed most would be too far past the sell by date to pass as "otherwise normal".

Decomposition doesn't make the phobia any less applicable. "Locked-room murder mystery" can easily include situations where the body isn't found until days or weeks later, when neighbors complain about the smell. That said, most undead actually wouldn't trigger it. Skeletons and (most) ghosts don't have any apparent flesh on which to bear visibly unnatural wounds. Vampires can pass for the living. Mummies or ghouls are too lean and rubbery to seem "otherwise normal." Even the basic moldy walking corpse might not be an issue, if it clearly perished from some blood-encrusted stab or slice or something else medical science can adequately explain, such as plague or head trauma. The horrid omen is flesh separated or subtracted in physiologically impossible ways, with no bleeding or swelling or scarring. Just a cylinder of missing biomass, as if it were only a clay statue that was being vivisected.
>>
No. 106480 ID: af6e04

>Poor Eric and Vos may not get along too well.
Haha probably not. Though I wonder if the touch of Tittivila will bypass his aversion to healing magic.

>Looking forward to my otherworldly passenger eventually showing up on Vos' aura-sight

Me too. I don't think it would be a stretch to have Vos take a peak at this point, since he just saw her fade from existence.
>>
No. 106483 ID: b9aa79

I am really dumbfounded by everything that just happened

May I ask why everyone decided to take the actions they just took? Because from my perspective they seemed to be rather poor choices
>>
No. 106485 ID: 3d2d5f

>>106483
Mine was pretty much purely chracter based. Davina just heard two of her party members express alarm at someone being left behind, and one suggest backtracking, immediately followed by a loud noise indicating they were in urgent distress. Doesn't help that she's on edge, and the two people showing concern are the two who just helped her, so she's more liable to give weight to that concern and trust their reaction.

She needed to move, so she moved. She's rather literally used to taking the direct route to solving problems she can (I mean being a noble and a teleporter since childhood sort of encourages that). And she's not really used to being the mode of transportation for a group, either.

As for the other threats, I'd already stated Davina had turned back towards the bridge from the corridors, so she didn't notice the change in the mist before reacting.

And yeah, the zombies didn't charge until after she set off, or they reacted at about the same time she did, so she was already moving.

tl;dr- In character emotional snap to action.

Really not the best tactical move, I agree. Whatever I do next will be more focused on keeping us alive. Obvious priorities is getting the group back together, maybe using the tunnel as a choke point, or perhaps crossing the chess board, holding that portal till it closes, and forcing the zombies to walk across the trapped board.

Unless people get stranded on the wrong side of the chasm, whatever's in the mist probably isn't an immediate priority.
>>
No. 106487 ID: 460de0

I would like to add that Ji's time is likely limited, Davina getting cornered alone by six zombies would be bad, and Davina is nice lady as justifications for Vos' actions.
>>
No. 106488 ID: b9aa79

>>106485
Gottcha- I totally respect acting in character, all that makes sense. Just so we're clear, Maru will likely be a bit frustrated with how everything went down, but if she yells at anyone it's because she's in character angry at your characters, not me OOC angry at their players.

It just seemed like a lot of needless danger and I personally was a little confused as to why that seemed to be the course of action to take, but I think that character authenticity has got to be #1 priority for any good RPG. Good luck and hopefully we all survive with our lives if not our skin intact
>>
No. 106489 ID: 3d2d5f

>>106488
Yeeeeeah, a little more needless danger than I was hoping for, to be honest. If I saw the zombie charge coming I probably would have been more careful to keep the group together.
>>
No. 106490 ID: b9aa79

>>106489 I figured an attack was not unlikely, but was hoping we could make sufficient progress up the tunnel so that they would either get away before my ax song fully set them off, or would at least be able to make a choke point in the tunnel. Their aggression is clearly related me deciding to arm up so I am at the very least partially to blame, if not entirely. I think the current best case scenario is that the group is able to travel together with Davina rather than being split up, and like you said fighting in a choke point as a group. I doubt we'll be able to get across the chessboard safely enough to use it as a defensive point but at this point we'll have to see what happens next
>>
No. 106492 ID: 460de0

You guys worry too much. If things go wrong then we will all soon be in Tittivila's warm fleshy embrace.
>>
No. 106501 ID: 750f88

We can totally survive this guys. Plus i cant run away and leave you guys to die because my Phobia does not allow it.
>>
No. 106504 ID: 3abd97

>>106492
Hey some of us are less eager to meet the creepy extraplanar bug thing attached to our soul face-to-face, thank you very much.
>>
No. 106508 ID: a107fd

>>106501
Only tactical decision I'm confused about at this point is why Eric Grimwald, Aspiring Lich is trying to destroy these undead rather than recruit them.
>>
No. 106509 ID: 750f88

>>106508
I thought to control a creature id have to kill it first?
>>
No. 106512 ID: 3abd97

>>106509
Well, your ability to command undead and your magic item to raise undead are separate. ...and your specialization is command, and it's your ambition too.

Kinda seems like dominating undead should be right in your wheelhouse, yeah.

No wonder these guys seem so imposing, if they're supposed to be a gift and we picked a fight instead! :p

...not that Davina is gonna be happy to have these things around. And they might make troublesome pets if the blood axe is gonna keep setting them off.
>>
No. 106515 ID: 750f88

>>106512
Well damn I have made a huge mistake.
>>
No. 106517 ID: b9aa79

Hey dont sweat it, with the online format things get muddled really easily and it's not always as simple as knowing the answer to those questions intutively

For instance: the current situation is about my worst case senario, and was exactly what I was trying to avoid, but due to my poor phrasing Maru jumped off alone leaving you guys to fend off the oncoming horde yourselves. Hopefully Eric can wrest control of some body guards but I'm fearful whatever's controling them might be strong than you, or that the monster approaching from the red mist is going to intercept you before you all can get a chance to finish off the threat in front of you. I really should have just stuck with you and Kome and crossed my fingers that the other 3 would be okay but I of course was overly hopeful and optimistic that I could get everyone across as a group.
>>
No. 106519 ID: 3abd97

>>106515
I know it might sound like I was stating the obvious there but I honestly only realized how suited you were for it myself when I reread you character sheet myself just then.

Not too bad an error, I think. You probably still have time to dominate the 5 with you (or at least some of them) before they rip you to pieces or get past the gnoll if you retreat behind her.
>>
No. 106520 ID: b9aa79

To develop Maru a bit more, and make her character traits a little more obvious, she is heavily group focused because of her trouble finding a place to belong group up. She's extremely concerned with ohana-means-family-family-means-no-one-gets-left-behind and this ingrained ideology affects how she dungeon delves; taking care of everyone and having each others backs is the most important priority in her books. After that, she's all about the glory.

Calistra, for anyone who's wondering, is a goddess of lust and revenge. For Maru's story I've adapted her character from the pathfinder pantheon and made her a CE demon who was the bloodline influence on Maru's family. Maru is decidedly Chaotic, and probably wavers along the G/N line, but after she brutally tortured and murdered her birth father, Calistra was like, you're alright girl, have this ax as a token of my favor. So after that Maru has considered her like a patron of sorts. She hasn't seen her since, but the ax is wicked cool.

And yes, because I know all of you just went a looked her up because you all are deeply invested in this character backstory, Calistra's favored weapon is usually a whip, I know. But come on, Maru is using and electric guitar as a weapon, how could it NOT be an ax? I mean really, think about it.
>>
No. 106522 ID: a107fd

>>106509
Per my proposed edit, which I inferred that you had accepted based on your reference to the quiver being magical, you only need to have personally slain some body (or delegated and observed the act) in order to reanimate with your innate ability. You can't just turn any old graveyard or corpse pile into an army. If they're already up and shuffling around, though, doesn't matter so much how they got that way. Seizing control isn't guaranteed, since these meat puppets have some slight will of their own (and possibly an existing master who could resist your takeover remotely), but it's definitely a plausible option.

>>106512
>supposed to be a gift
Rolled 'em up on the relevant random encounter table fair and square, with no larger intention. I am, for the most part, a staunch simulationist; narrative causality will not avail you.

That being said, looking out for any and all potential assets is very sensible. If you're only considering threats, even flawless victory just means you're no worse off than before, so sooner or later there's nowhere to go but down.
>>
No. 106523 ID: af6e04

>rolled 6, 5, 6 = 17
Pfff big fucking hero

Quick question, is my power completely up to GM discretion or would you like me to describe the nature of the mutation I'm attempting?
>>
No. 106526 ID: a107fd

>>106523
Whims of the underlying divinity mean that even on a success, the mutation thing won't always do what you intended or expected. You should, however, specify as clearly as possible what you're trying to achieve, as with any action.
>>
No. 106533 ID: 3d2d5f

Zombie count:

Far side of the chasm 6:

2 Dominated
1 Fell
3 Disabled by Hore, Pending regeneration

Mist creature(s) unaccounted for, if any.


Near side of the chasm 6:

1 chess board kill
1 (mostly) dismembered and off the cliff
1 grappling Maru
3 approaching door and Davina
>>
No. 106535 ID: 60f74d

I bet the smoke monster from lost is going to gank Eric and Hore.
>>
No. 106536 ID: af6e04
File 148182114747.png - (61.91KB , 393x395 , chessmap1.png )
106536

Seems worth keeping track of. Yellow is the path Ji took. Green check marks are probably safe?? as per Maru's assessment. Red x's are death.
>>
No. 106537 ID: 3d2d5f

>>106520
I do like the how you've neatly superimposed a role as "team mom" on top of the seemily incongruous foul mouthed glory seeking axe rocker. It's endearing. Too bad about the cliffhanger.

>>106535
Hey, for having the rest of the party bail on you, you two are arguably in the least awful defensive position right now, with your half the zombies dealt with. You have the option to retreat across the bridge, at least.
>>
No. 106538 ID: af6e04

In case anybody wants to know, I stole the idea for my character from Zak Sabbath's 5e paladin homebrew http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2016/07/knight-of-tittivila.html
>>
No. 106539 ID: 4526f0

>>106538
Dont worry, my character is recycled from a quest i ran some time ago.
>>
No. 106541 ID: a107fd

>>106472
Thanking strngy, likewise, as my second patron overall and first at the #5 level.
>>
No. 106542 ID: eefa4e

Heheh. At least my boys are trying. Sorry guys. After we clean up shop lets take a breather.
>>
No. 106547 ID: a107fd

>>106542
Meat puppets have some independent tactical thought, and ability to interpret the intention behind a command, so you probably won't get mishaps like the flinchworm suicide incident http://archives.erfworld.com/Book%203/200 but they're still dead stupid (in a fairly literal sense), and driven primarily by destructive instincts besides. Might make sense to add an explicit "...without injuring my allies," and other such caveats, to any further orders.
>>
No. 106548 ID: 383927

>>106538
LOVE IT, a great concept. I always find character building to be one of the best parts of any game like this

>>106542
If we clean up shop that is. Whatever that thing in the mist is, invisibility combined with a cliff ledge gives me a bad feelings, OOC, and additionally it seems the only current means we have to rid ourselves of those undead is insurmountable distance. I wouldn't be overly surprised if they could scale the chasm given enough time. Just because this is the first batch of monster doesn't mean this is easy pickings. We're not gonna be coddled here so make each action count. Just FYI, Maru is willing to put her life on the line for the group
>>
No. 106551 ID: 3abd97

>I wouldn't be overly surprised if they could scale the chasm given enough time.
I think if they hit bottom, we'll be fine, as they'll constantly be crushed and battered by the writhing dragon-serpents down there. They'll never be intact enough to reliably climb out, even if the regen holds up.

That or we just wait till Eric manages to dominate them all.

>invisible mist monster
If it's the same thing we ran away from with the goblins in the first thread, I don't think we want to even touch it. That one was slow enough to retreat from, though.
>>
No. 106552 ID: 750f88

wait. Why don't I just turn their bones into crossbow bolts
>>
No. 106554 ID: 750f88

Also, i've decided to name my boys. First Lieutenant Dan and Second Lieutenant Dangle.
>>
No. 106556 ID: a107fd

>>106552
The quiver can work with any dry bones. Meat-puppet bones are still sorta... juicy. So, you could try, but it'd void the manufacturer's warranty, and even if it did work you'd need to scrub a lot of gunk out of the quiver afterward.
>>
No. 106562 ID: 398fe1

I'm curious as to if non-players can suggest. I think I figured out the answer to the chess puzzle.
>>
No. 106563 ID: a107fd

>>/quest/766201
>If I jumped and cut up, could I open a portal above me? (And fail to follow through it due to gravity).
Cutting a portal that leads upward is common enough when you're trying to get somewhere higher, but it's no more difficult to step through. Cutting a portal when you're in mid-jump, or falling, or swimming, or otherwise don't have a solid surface to brace against, generally doesn't work at all. Closest thing was when you managed to teleport off of a galloping horse (a pony, technically) but that was really awkward. Branched out like a great big horizontal lightning bolt, and there was such a fuss afterward, hiring landscapers and sorcerers to clean up the mess, that you didn't get any sherbet with dinner for months.

Having the portal face in a different direction than it's actually headed is a matter of glancing at the destination out the corner of your eye during just the right moment as you're beginning the cut. It's an interesting trick, but doesn't change the basic mechanics.
>>
No. 106564 ID: a107fd

>>106562
I'd prefer you generate a character first and then suggest things to the group IC, or just directly attempt your clever strategy. If you haven't got a character concept in mind, pick class and equipment and so on at random, and if you don't want to continue participating after that, let me take 'em over as an NPC.
>>
No. 106565 ID: 3abd97

>>106563
Neat! Thanks for answering that with a story. Good to know I can't use it as a reliable means to recover from a fall, because that likely would have come up sooner or later.
>>
No. 106566 ID: 398fe1

>the riddle is useless
Well that's odd, I thought my solution fit perfectly. I guess I'll wait until after it's solved for real to post what I thought the solution was.
>>
No. 106569 ID: af6e04

>I'm curious as to if non-players can suggest. I think I figured out the answer to the chess puzzle.

Play with us
>>
No. 106571 ID: a107fd

>>106566
>the riddle is useless according to someone who's frustrated, and having some brain problems
FTFY. If you've got an idea, let's hear it. I'd prefer another player, but I won't bite anybody's head off for discussing part of the quest in the quest discussion thread.
>>
No. 106572 ID: 398fe1

>>106571
Okay.

The way I look at it, it's saying to start at the knight on the black square, then jump right (there's only one spot to go that direction, and it's a white square), then move as a bishop up-left all the way to the top, then move right two squares as a rook to take the King.
>>
No. 106573 ID: 398fe1

>>106569
Erh, my experiences with roleplaying haven't been pleasant to look back on. I'd rather not.
>>
No. 106580 ID: 0915dc

>>106573
Dont worry about it friend. Im terrible at roleplaying. You just got to have confidence. Feel free to join if you wish
>>
No. 106581 ID: af6e04
File 148191924848.jpg - (279.33KB , 2400x1600 , Sad-pug.jpg )
106581

>>106573
Well okay. If you're sure...
>>
No. 106583 ID: 3abd97

For what it's worth, I wasn't planning on making opposition to undead or their use a major thing or significant character conflict, but I figure anyone would be unhappy to keep something that prompts a will save versus fear around. Eric just needs minions without creepy bloodless flesh wounds.

More broadly, I don't even think Davina would even really object to his stated goal of lichdom, if/when it's something that comes out into the open (I assume that's not something that usually comes up in adventuring introductions? Precisely because a lot of people might object. Violently). She would recognize something of her own motivations in that, if obviously misguided or less worthy in execution. (Although I suppose there's room for him to improve that impression depending on his actions, or if they ever sit around discussing philosophies).
>>
No. 106587 ID: af6e04

The problem with allowing your friend to amass an army of undead is that you don't know when you'll end up as the newest recruit.

And especially for Vos, who finds the practice blasphemous(undead flesh never grows, and it does not decompose to feed another creature's growth) it is certainly difficult to accept. Vos isn't in the habit of attacking companions though, and he will always try to draw the line before you cross it.
>>
No. 106590 ID: a107fd

>>106565
>reliable
That's the tricky part. If you could manage to brush a single toe or fingertip against a wall while plummeting down that chasm, it would be possible to open a portal and avoid a lethal impact, but the eventual side effects could be similar to an earthquake. Distortions in local geometry ripping the stone apart in some places, compressing in others until fragments spall off with explosive force.

Yeven Surgis's power could have had similarly devastating effects, but in more controlled ways, if applied cleverly. That's a big part of why I was so sad to see BadTransetor leave, that lost potential. For example: hug a wall, turn a 4-meter-wide section of it into a 'ceiling' with no support pillars, and it'll probably collapse, maybe bringing the actual ceiling down too. Find a stone disk, say, 10' diameter and two feet thick, interpose it between yourself and enemies, and they probably won't be able to shoot around or through it... or, get a running start and roll it toward them at ten or fifteen or twenty meters per second, and they'll have to either flee or be crushed. GURPS has rules for calculating object HP and collision damage and so on that correspond to real physics remarkably well. A thirteen-ton block doesn't have to be going all that fast to be extremely dangerous, but gravity propels it along at just under ten meters per second per second, same as anything, and someone with control over gravity can redirect that acceleration.

Simulationism means I'm not overly concerned with balance. I won't try to claw something back just because you found a clever application for it. More likely, I'll be happy to see your thoughts so deeply immersed in the setting's internal logic. If you use that newfound strength to crush your enemies and drive them before you, some will be smart enough to retreat, maybe investigate and exploit your weaknesses (and you'd have to have some, if you took an innate power). Others will throw down their arms when the situation looks hopeless, swear to serve you, and then you've got kingdom-management problems.
>>
No. 106607 ID: 3abd97

>>106590
Actually, the first place my mind went from that anecdote is that portals would seem not to conserve velocity across the step (or at least not when Davina initially opens them) as her younger self didn't get injured by finding herself blasted out her exit portal along the ground at the speed of a galloping pony. Not conserving momentum is of course trivial, as it's a vector quantity and portals readily allow changes in direction.

Which raises the obvious question of what happens to projectile velocity if you try to pass one through a portal, since that will come up sooner or later.

Being able to dump the velocity of a terminal fall would be nice, the tricky bit is having a convenient surface to push off. And not breaking something making contact.

Weaponizing the mess left behind really doesn't jump to the top of my priority list. It's a nice gun for Chekhov to leave out there, but... too many hard to control consequences in an enclosed underground space.

>More likely, I'll be happy to see your thoughts so deeply immersed in the setting's internal logic.
One thing I've wondered is if already being part eldritch horror would mean Vos' healing ability would react oddly with Davina. Not that I really want to experiment with that (best case might mean my existing augmentations stabilize, guide or direct it, worst case might mean exponential amplification).

I feel like there's potential for some really interesting abuse between Davina and Ji's abilities, though I haven't settled on anything actually useful yet.

>Others will throw down their arms when the situation looks hopeless, swear to serve you, and then you've got kingdom-management problems.
Hey, as a noble looking to restore a lost power base, those are exactly the kinds of problems Davina would like to have someday.
>>
No. 106609 ID: a107fd

>>106607
>wormhole physics
Key to understanding this sort of thing is the idea of inertial reference frames. In the real world, according to relativity, there is no preferred reference frame: equations work the same whether it's A zipping past while B stands still, B zipping past while A stands still, or both of them cruising along in parallel at nearly the speed of light. In this setting, that is not the case. The Old Gods have the power to ordain a preferred inertial reference frame within their own world-bodies, which is how things like Immovable Rods can work at all.

Davina's symbiote can violate those laws, but isn't (yet?) powerful enough to supersede them entirely and impose it's own physics from scratch, even on a small area. That's why teleporting out of a "moving" reference frame is difficult and dangerous, while a poorly-defined frame such as floating or pure freefall is impossible. A large vehicle might be easier than a horse.

As for projectiles, it's possible, but accuracy would suffer due to a mix of visual distortions (as in spear-fishing) and actual deflection (as in gale-force crosswinds).
>>
No. 106610 ID: 750f88

Do we care for going for the chess prize? (If such a prize exists, im slightly confused about the room in general.) We've got willing test subjects to try and solve the puzzle. A whole lotta pawns.
>>
No. 106620 ID: 3abd97

>>106610
I feel like a prize existing in one form or another is likely, and am not particularly inclined to trust the opinions of bloodthirsty auditory hallucinations to the contrary.

The two biggest points of concern would (1) if we've already placed the puzzle into an unsolvable configuration (if white tiles were required, the fact Ji flipped them red might be a problem) and (2) if we really want to spend on regenerating meatshields in this manner. Is the potential prize worth the potential loss of useful resources? (Which they are, despite any in-character distaste for them).
>>
No. 106622 ID: a107fd

>>106610
>If such a prize exists
Some of the squares carry 'curse' effects which are more beneficial than inconvenient under the right circumstances, but The Prize is different. You get to choose from at least two dozen options, and they're all unambiguously positive stuff like "doubled ground movement speed" or "become one of the world's greatest carpenters" or "everlasting youth and health, assuming reasonable diet and exercise."
>>
No. 106624 ID: 3abd97

There's also then the risk then if we use zombie proxies to solve it, the puzzle will dump the reward on it's unimaginative and disposable head.
>>
No. 106625 ID: 398fe1

I'd like to note that you could use zombies to attempt a partial solution, to see if you're at least on the right track.
>>
No. 106628 ID: cd076d

Wait, if Eric falls asleep are the undead going to gain free will? I was just thinking about my CS and i remembered putting that if he is knocked unconscious any beings under his control are freed.
>>
No. 106636 ID: a107fd

>>106628
You could find out the hard way, or you could seek the chessboard puzzle's prize for that one option which removes the need for sleep.
>>
No. 106637 ID: 3abd97

>>106628
That would seem a pretty big problem for any would-be necromancer if they lose control of their undead army nightly.

One good motivation for seeking sleepless lichdom, I suppose.

Hopefully we're someplace we can lock the zombies out of (or we have somewhere to lock the zombies in) before you need to sleep.
>>
No. 106646 ID: a107fd

>>/quest/766673
>half-crazed dog things with extra organs

Yisheng Ji had an effective skill of 6 or less for that roll, due to various penalties, so 16 was a critical failure. Hore most likely does not have an abnormal number of kidneys, and Maru's sprained ankle is almost certainly in no danger of getting involved in a religious war that was concluded and then largely forgotten (outside specialized scholarship) decades ago.
>>
No. 106647 ID: 3abd97

>>106646
I may have been too cute with my wording. The extra organ I was referring to was not her kidneys, but the one below her belt.
>>
No. 106657 ID: 750f88

/cries.

Okay boys, the way i see it mah men arent going to make it. I shouldnt of named them cause now im all attached. Might have 1 or 2 jump down the Chasm, regen, and follow us from behind while Delilah tries to lead it into the chess room.
>>
No. 106659 ID: 77f1b6

Sorry buddy, I think you're right. Maru will likely be uninterested in Erics pouting at best and callous at worst, but I feel your pain
>>
No. 106661 ID: 3abd97

Naming minions in high casualty exploits is emotionally hazardous, yes.

I am reminded of the Orc Priest role in Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, where the damn game names your orc followers for you. You watch them grow, they literally sing your praises, save your life time and time again, and then you inevitably watch them die, calling out to you for help. Usually as you run in the opposite direction as they lay down their lives covering your retreat from some threat you can't hope to kill, as we did here.

If you have the strength of will to keep it up, a necromancer who stubbornly insists on naming his "boys" and trying to protect them, despite abysmal survival rates and their inherent disposablity (and their trying to kill him nightly in his sleep) could be a fun character quirk to play with,
>>
No. 106662 ID: 77f1b6

sorry about taking a swing at Ji everyone- Maru is of the mind that she knows what's best for everyone, which at this point and time is sticking together and not delaying, hence the aggressive approach. She just thinks that knocking you out and taking you with them will drastically improve your survival rate as opposed to going off alone, and that not wasting time discussing which hallway + having a living, albeit sore doctor would be good for everyone's health. I promise it's an act of IC concern, not OOC aggression
>>
No. 106663 ID: 750f88

Its going to be real awkward if he doesn't get knocked out on the first swing.
>>
No. 106664 ID: af6e04

And then Vos trips and the party goes down like dominoes.
>>
No. 106665 ID: 77f1b6

>>106663
Extremely. I thought about that before hand but to Maru, he looks like a wimpy doctor with feathers coming out of his neck. He's exhausted, rambling about voices, and has been acting in ways which are quite clearly dangerous to his health. She was hoping he'd be out of it enough that she could catch him in the head by surprise before anyone could say anything and then just carry his hopefully light body. She herself has been fighting all her life and has definitely done this sort of thing many times. She just thought in this instance brawn would beat brains, the doctor wouldn't do anything suicidal again, and they'd save precious time, as well as hopefully quelling anyone else who might want stray from the group. Of course, it could end up in a horrible brawl and get a third of the party killed, but hey, again, not really too much time to be debating these things. She made a plan of action and then carried through- if shit hits the fan then oh well, better luck next time. They can't all be winners right?
>>
No. 106666 ID: a107fd

Empty Sweeper has a bit over 300 hit points, and is difficult to attack effectively at a distance because it only takes half damage from spears and broadhead arrows, or 1/5th damage from Eric's armor-piercing bone crossbow bolts. Nothing the goblins said about it was actually 100% accurate, but their tactical doctrine was developed and refined through hard firsthand experience, and has served them well for years.
>>
No. 106668 ID: 398fe1

>>106666
Sounds like an invisible gelatinous cube.
>>
No. 106669 ID: a107fd

>>106668
Empty Sweeper's not completely invisible, just transparent.

Also, you're clearly interested enough in this quest to keep commenting on it. How about playing as Yeven Surgis? No prep work, power set covers for Davina's weaknesses in mobility, clear agenda, no backstory commitment to stick with the group. She could float up out of the chasm right now, no explanation needed, and then bounce away again soon as you feel like it's turning into another bad experience.
>>
No. 106670 ID: 3d2d5f

>>106666
Yeah that's about what I expected. Practical knowledge doesn't equal absolute understanding.

>>106668
Going off guesswork and what what Vos' sense told us, but the Sweeper seems more like a colony of small organic consusumers, where I've always imagined slimes and cubes as really big single celled organisations.

>>106669
Woooow. Um, yeah, straight up gravity control would have pretty broken synergy. Would be trivial to dump the sweeper into the chasm, safe portalling locations become much more prevalent, and being able to put Davina in a falling reference frame at will makes it trivial to portal frag an environment (and conversely, to arrest moving reference frames to allow safe portaling). Plus gravity can be used to block enemy passage exactly the way portals can't.

I'm not sure I want to advocate for that, actually. Great munchkin potential, but also potential to overshadow a lot else (I'm already coping with the unexpected consequence of being the party's mode of transportation- I didn't plan that initially and it's played a big role).
>>
No. 106673 ID: af6e04

>>106668
Traditionally they are transparent and require high perception to see. Who doesn't have a story about a party being wiped because nobody spotted the gelatinous cube? Haha best monster.


>>106669
I didn't read all of the old Pdn[T]tO threads so this might have all been answered before, but I'm curious about the specifics of Yeven Surgis' powers. Did they create a localized bubble where the gravity vector is changed? I'm assuming so. How big is this bubble? Is the size variable, and how small/large can it be? Is it geometrically a bubble, a cube, cylinder, torus, etc.? If, inside the bubble, the gravity vector is up and you reach the top, do you just float in equilibrium? Do the gravity vectors project orthographically inside this bubble or do they all point toward some apparent center of mass? Can it be used to redirect any form of kinetic force, or just gravity?
>>
No. 106677 ID: a107fd

>>106670
>broken
Still doesn't let you skip through walls, or know which way you need to be going. There are plenty of monsters down here that could still pose a threat. Vampire spawn, for instance, can cling to walls and move around at full speed, or turn into mist and fly, even when gravity's working against them, and disrupt a tactical plan with their mind-control gaze. Yeven's immune to that last one, but the way those portals work, Davina is mostly obligated to take point, and definitely can't be blindfolded.

>trivial to dump the sweeper into the chasm
Not really. >>711187
>serious gravity control is limited to a 2-meter radius around her heart, and about as strenuous to maintain as holding her breath.

With no exceptional resistance to acid or neurotoxins, and a sight-substitute that might plausibly be even worse at spotting the Empty Sweeper than ordinary vision, there'd simply be no safe range where she can mess with enough of it's mass while staying outside it's reach.

>>106673
>technical details
Yeven can reorient the gravity vectors however she pleases within that range, but not increase their magnitude. Objects retain momentum as normal. That trick with the stone disk would require running alongside for best results, lest it continue rolling and move out of range before attaining sufficiently dangerous speed.
>>
No. 106684 ID: 3abd97

If you're gonna link cross-board you need to include the board in the link, since they're numbered separately. Like so:

>>/questarch/711187

(Except quest / the graveyard / questarch all count as the same board so thread links don't all get broken when old threads are archived).

>>106677
I forgot her range limitation was that steep to be honest. Most of the maneuvers I was imagining would require the two of the moving in close concert.
>>
No. 106699 ID: a107fd

Y'see, I may not concern myself too much with the exact minutia of game balance, but I haven't exactly rejected it as an invalid concept, either. If somebody wants a power that would be literally world-shaking, I'll figure out how to give them a more limited version, and make sure those limits are thematically coherent rather than arbitrary "nerfs."

If you can figure out how to use your teammates' powers together for greater synergistic effect, cool! Go for it! Creativity and problem-solving are what this kind of game is all about. Practically speaking, it'll probably be a precarious solution with lots of potential points of failure, since every additional PC is another internet person you need to coordinate with, and, in-character, an under-equipped murderhobo wracked by strange fears, lusts, obsessions, and vulnerabilities. That's all before even considering the fundamental hostility of the dungeon/labyrinth/underworld environment and it's denizens. http://dwarffortresswiki.org/Fun
>>
No. 106706 ID: 3d2d5f

>rolling encounters
>1
I... really hope the monster placement God didn't just roll a crit.
>>
No. 106729 ID: af6e04

>>/quest/767195
This is really cool. Sometimes I just feel the need to complement you.
>>
No. 106740 ID: 3abd97

>>/quest/767369
Okay, so this raises an obvious question. We're pretty fine with necromancy as a tool as murder hobo player characters (phobias and deific mandates notwithstanding), but how would the open practice of necromancy, or using undead minions, or actively seeking lichdom be perceived in more civilized company? Or more generally among the more frontiers-y dungeon delving groups?

Cultural / legal / religious reaction (or crack down) are kind of serious factors to consider if we're trying to make our way back to civilization.
>>
No. 106747 ID: a107fd

>>106740
Random peasants will probably be grossed out, and either avoid you or overcharge for basic goods and services in an effort to encourage you to move on, but you're not looking at an angry mob situation unless there's an obvious threat to the entire town or village which you could plausibly be blamed for, or a religious zealot gets them riled up somehow. If you can keep the disease risk under control, and provide valuable services on an apparently sustainable basis, it's probably possible to win their trust.

Some cities have strict laws about how bodies can be handled and transported and so on, which add up to an effective ban on necromancy. Others use walking corpses on a massive industrial scale, in place of slave labor. Dragons don't object either way, so long as most messes are cleaned up before they need to get involved and the gold keeps flowing.

If you want to avoid trouble, do at least as much advance scouting and research as you would before marching in at the head of a more conventional army. Even in the most tolerant communities, an out-of-town necromancer is going to attract some negative attention if people start disappearing or turning up dead, same as a firebender would if their arrival coincided with some unusual arson.

As for lichdom... if all you really want is to carve a domain out of the wilderness and rule it with an iron fist while preserving your body and mind in a state of eternal undeath... if you're willing to comply with Drakocratic bans on "experimental alchemy" and other atrocious weapons, willing to participate in long-range trade routes and so on... well, your kingdom's monthly random encounter table is probably going to swap out 'assassins' for 'righteous champions of light,' but you're not gonna see the whole world allied against you unless you do something else special to earn that.
>>
No. 106748 ID: 77f1b6

A quote shamelessly stolen from banner saga 2 paint a good picture of what motivates Maru:

"women, gold, fighting, and drink for me, in that order"
>>
No. 106763 ID: 3d2d5f

>>106747
Cool. Mostly pragmatic, then.

>>106748
And of course, for songs sung of all of the above.

>Vos isconstricted, on fire, fighting something missing lots of vital weak points
Dang. Hope your luck improves. I feel a little guilty not being around to put a rapier through its brain. First thing we encountere where precision stabs seem like a solution and I'm not around. :p
>>
No. 106785 ID: b1b4f3

The snake boar fight is turning out to be hilarious.
>>
No. 106796 ID: 24aec8

Maru will abide by the coin toss if it comes down to needing a tie breaker, but she'd prefer to wait until they have to go, so she wants to hear Eric weigh in. If he doesn't care either way though she'll bow to Davinas good luck with the dice
>>
No. 106799 ID: 24aec8

>>106796
The reason I'm putting this here is not to state an action, but to inform the other party members why I'm not making an actions quite yet.
>>
No. 106805 ID: 74621b

I'm just chilling until my character's R&R timer runs its course and I can be useful again.
>>
No. 106806 ID: a107fd

>>106805
Want to roll up a second character? It'd be stretching the original definitions, but consistent with the spirit of the law.
>>
No. 106814 ID: 74621b

>>106806
No need. Yisheng Ji is about to be woken up early by Hore and I'll be back to playing him again in the next post.
>>
No. 106815 ID: af6e04

>>106785
I don't see anything funny about any of this!!
>>
No. 106817 ID: 3abd97

>>106796
Why's Maru keen on waiting around, anyways? Tactically, it seems like a bad move to me to wait and see if the implacable pursuer catches up / comes this way instead of putting more distance between us, and it also would put us at a further disadvantage if we're then forced to flee into the unknown ahead of it, when we could instead be advancing into the unknown at our own pace now, with more wiggle room to deal with traps and/or enemies on the path safely. Running headlong into potential threats with death on your heels seems a recipe for disaster.

And it's not like this is a great defensible position to wait for our allies, either. It's wide open, the doors are mostly too wide to act as effective choke points, and we might end up facing threats from multiple sides at once.

And natively, waiting to see if (not when) the other players wrap up what they're doing and come our way (if that hall really is one-way, they won't be able to double back, and are either trapped or need to find an alternate exit) is a boring course of action that may leave us with nothing to contribute for several RL days. I'm not keen on that.
>>
No. 106818 ID: b80329

>>106817
Tactically, you're 100% right, but Maru doesn't care about that honestly. She's a no man left behind run into a burning building to save your friend kinda deal. She saw a space where nothing was trying to kill them and figured until that changed this was a good enough place to wait and see. She is afraid moving forward is a slow walk to their death and was kinda hoping 3 more bodies would help with that not being the case.

As for waiting, I do agree that could blow because this tends to move a little slowly but we're getting random encounters at an equal rate- so there's the potential for non-boring events. Also considering the holiday season is upon us some people may be able to reply less in general and there might be days of waiting regardless of which option we choose.
I would be happy to move forward like I said she would abide by the coin toss but I was waiting until we heard from Eric's player reguarding the matter to go IC and say she folds and will march towards what she suspects is a grizzly end. It's 3:00pm here- I'm guessing the DM will move us forward manually to keep the pace going but if Eric's player hasn't chimed in by the time I wake up tomorrow for the sake of not waiting forever in real time I'll have Maru go ahead with Davina- sound good?
>>
No. 106820 ID: a107fd

>>106818
>no man left behind
>>/quest/766796
>>/quest/766884
Far as I can tell, leaving Vos, Ji, and Hore behind was entirely Maru's idea.
>>
No. 106821 ID: 3abd97

>>106818
Okay, if it's in-character dithering over screwing up / leaving people, I'll respond with some something biting ( >>106820 ) or comforting to try and motivate her into moving if it comes up again.
>>
No. 106822 ID: 77f1b6

>>106820
Interesting- the way I saw it, Maru was willing to fight tooth and claw, literally, to keep the group together. Ji wanted to pursue the advise from the voices in their head to seek safety, and Maru said she would be happy to follow. However, Davina decided to forge ahead and take a different route before the group could come to a consensus and vote on what to do. Ji feared their best interests did were not being looked out for and decided to split. Maru and Vos attempted to incapacitate him so as not to split the group, but failed, and Vos having tried to grapple him physically ended up heading down the tunnel, at which point they decided to stay- I'm assuming to offer Ji some protection. Maru, knowing that Davina was going to keep moving forward and that going down that tunnel would likely lead to death by ooze, cursed her inability to save Ji and pressed forward, hoping they could make it out alive. Hore wanted to fuck something, and went after them- Maru didn't stop her, for hope the creature would help increase their chances of survival, on the possibility the Ooze would follow group A rather than go down the narrow tunnel, giving group B time to recuperate and escape. I don't think she ever voiced the idea that they should split up, but she did think they were essentially dead, and going down the tunnel after them would be the end of everyone else who followed. I personally don't think that falls under "entirely her idea"
>>
No. 106843 ID: a107fd

>>/quest/768005
I am, admittedly, seeing more 4s and 6s than 1s and 2s and 3s. Maybe some appropriately qualified programmer and/or statistician should examine tgchan's RNG, make sure it's not misbehaving? Still going to stick with the GURPS dice mechanics, though.
>>
No. 106844 ID: f1cea9

>>106843
By the way, for reference, I figure I should mention that Maria's Purging Light is extremely concentrated. The light brightens a very small area, due to being concentrated enough to burn her targets. Think of using sun through a magnifying glass to burn ants, except there's no sun. If that makes any sense?
>>
No. 106852 ID: 3abd97

>>106843
Too small a data set to be statistically significant. To do a real check you'd want to set the board to simulate hundreds or thousands of rolls, and run the output through something that tallies the results so we can see each result occurs approximately 1/6th of the time. (Although the problem you run into in designing that experiment is how many rolls you really want to do in a single post. You're more likely to test if the board code does something weird if you try to do too many reps than you are to test if the rng is broke).

Anecdotally: Kome's had one critical success and one critical failure. Seems reasonably fair.
>>
No. 106859 ID: a107fd

Looking over the thread with ctrl-F for numbers 1 through 6 followed by a comma, I'm seeing 78 sixes, 39 fives, 68 fours, 52 threes, 53 twos, and 59 ones, which would be consistent with the hypothesis that for d6 rolls, the RNG is biased toward 6 and 4 but away from 5, with the overall effect of skewing toward high results. Still not a huge sample.

Interestingly, that sample skips the last die from any given roll. Anybody want to tally those up, see whether it's regression toward the mean or further confirmation of bias?
>>
No. 106861 ID: 4201a2

>>/quest/768060
>Maria incapacitated in near-record time
Yeah, Archivist, I recommend you go for a power that either lets you bypass, tank, or out-heal the chessboard. Any character not either built to deal with it or in the company of someone built to deal with it, is pretty much screwed.
Yisheng Ji had to waste 12 whole hours worth of power to get past it and still has only half-recovered from its effects.
>>
No. 106863 ID: af6e04

New player woo! Welcome Archivist.

>>106861
Unless she figures out the secret way to cross one hundred percent safely . . .
>>
No. 106864 ID: b1b4f3

Or you could, you know, try the solution posted in here instead of starting from a random spot.
>>
No. 106866 ID: 81819e

>>106864
I felt like it would be cheating. But to be honest I'm not making that mistake twice, if I roll another character.
>>
No. 106868 ID: b1b4f3

Oh right, and knights JUMP. They don't move three spaces then two spaces or one space then diagonal.
>>
No. 106872 ID: 3abd97

I know it's been largely rendered irrelevant by our bard's anti-diplomacy, but I would be interested in a response to the religious lore musing in >>/quest/768058 . Who are the gods a rich bitch's family might have played lip service too, either due to some similarity to their own driving philosophy of legacy, or for political / social capital?

>>106859
>doing your stats by hand instead of getting a script to count for you
Aaaaaaaah.

Seriously though, the fives and sixes are both about the same distance away from the expected value, and they're withing one sigma. That's nothing concerning.
>>
No. 106873 ID: a107fd

>>106866
>cheating
Pledge five bucks a month or more and you get unconditional permission to act on OOC knowledge in my games! As we've just seen, that might be a lifesaver.
>>/quest/768065
>Can that character be her brother?
Yes. Why would that be anything other than perfectly fine? Just go ahead and post the new character sheet. If you've got more silly questions, post them along with the sheet.
>>
No. 106875 ID: 81819e

Okay, Daniel Agate has been submitted! Strngy, I dunno which ways Vos swings, but he may have found a "new friend", if you catch my drift...
>>
No. 106876 ID: 77f1b6

There was definitely human error involved, but I spent the last 20 minutes or so tallying all the rolls of the first thread. I'd like to do the others as well, but without someone to check up behind me I'm worried I'll end up skewing the numbers due to mistakes. This kind of stuff excites me, but I don't have a particular talent for it.

The numbers I got were as follows:
1: 70 ~19%
2: 60 ~17%
3: 60 ~17%
4: 58 ~16%
5: 45 ~12%
6: 70 ~19%

Total: 1147

That means the average roll is just above 3, so we're not being jipped by the dice when you count everything up. I do think it's weird though the extreme difference in fives rolled compared to all other numbers- being 4-7% less likely to get rolled than the other numbers, which were all within 3% of eachother seems really weird. Overall the other discrepancies make up for it when you average, but still it seemed strange. Maybe after the holidays I'll be able to tally up the other threads if no one steps up to count it, but I will note that it was just me scrolling down and recording the numbers and totals by hand, and by the end when I added my rolls and compared them to the total the first time I was about 30 off, so I'm definitely making mistakes. Still, it is a rough jumping off point, and it does make me feel assured at least that the dice are pretty fair to us
>>
No. 106877 ID: 77f1b6

Also can I just say, with Maru Davina and now Daniel I'm very pleasantly surprised with how gay our party is. It warms by bitter shriveled heart
>>
No. 106881 ID: a107fd

333 posts in... what, twelve days?

>>106729
Thank you. I'll try to keep doing whatever makes you feel that way.
>>
No. 106886 ID: af6e04

>>106875
Vos is not picky on gender. Hope Daniel likes eel men.
>>
No. 106887 ID: 77f1b6

Magey I'm very sorry for what will likely end up being Maru ruining our chances to talk with these people like reasonable adventurers. I seem to have a habit for playing abrasive characters- I'll need to fix that with my next one.

In her defense, she is somewhat unnerved and frightened at the very real prospect of dying down here, and her bardic strengths lie more in getting people riled up and energetic than diffusing situations with diplomacy. Here's to hoping you roll well enough to counter both her personality and my luck with the dice. I think thus far with a 6 and a 17, and then your 5 and my 16 we're just about canceling out eachothers rolls- or we would be if Maru wasn't being an asshole. Just crit succeed and you should save everyone's bacon as you have been for the last 300 posts. Easy game easy life
>>
No. 106889 ID: 3abd97

In response to Davina not going full murder-hobo on the Orcus worshipers when they proved less cooperative:
(Because I restrained myself from going full character-motivation sperg in the main thread).

When I played Marijke, she was someone concerned about trying to do the right thing, who wanted to be a good person. (Something that frequently ran right at odds with her greed, her mercantile background, her mental manipulation specialty, and by the end of things, her employment as a literal pirate captain. She had a lot to be conflicted about, and a conflicted character is fun to play with and explore). Davina, on the other hand, is blessed by her upbringing with pretty much total certainty that what she's trying to accomplish is right. She has her moral imperative, and with that comes certain self assurances.

One consequence of that, as I see it, is that would leave her somewhat amoral or apathetic on certain maters that don't directly relate to that? The same factors that would leave her somewhat indifferent towards the lines Eric might cross in pursuit of his goals (assuming he avoids phobic triggers) also mean she's not going to be particularly negatively disposed towards the church of Orcus unless they make themselves an obstacle. Their less savory practices haven't impacted her, so they don't really enter into the equation in the moment.

I mean, she darted back to help a fallen comrade in an instant, but don't expect anything like crusading righteousness from her if it doesn't relate to her ambition.

Ironically, the thing that prevented her from getting violent here is the same thing that allows turning towards violence on a dime when it comes to it. No need to worry about killing people, or stabbing them in the back with portals, or hitting someone with poisoned jewellery when you know what you're trying to do is right and they're in the way of that.

>>/quest/768094
Jeebus, Santova, can you let me have a good roll without immediately sabotaging it.

Honestly, I had hoped the implied blaming of Maru for splitting the party in that dressing down would have taken her momentarily aback seeing as how she was almost BSODing dithering over it before.
>>
No. 106890 ID: 3abd97

>>106887
Maybe if I'm really lucky, my excellent apology roll and your terrible insult roll will mean I successfully gag your attempt to butt in, or you trip on your own swagger. :V

If this is all motivated by Maru acting out due to fear and uncertainty maybe she should indulge in her lower vice and light up at some point.
>>
No. 106893 ID: 77f1b6

>>106889
I will say this- she wasn't planning on killing them, just subduing them less gently than needed and hoping they would give them what you just got. She assumed they'd be scrawny book worms, not even considering that if they're alive down here they must have some way to defend themselves. As for your scathing remark, it cut quite deep, but Maru doesn't give herself time to mope when they could be beset by death at any turn. Regret is only useful to avoid itself, and she generally tries not to worry about herself or anyone else fucking up. Not every plan can be a winner right? Past is in the past though so unless it makes a good song she might as well move on
>>
No. 106894 ID: 77f1b6

>>106890
As for lighting up, she'd love to, but she's more afraid of that impairing her ability to defend everyone than she is of the dangers in the dungeon. It's a mild effect, but I doubt it helps with reaction times and reflexes
>>
No. 106897 ID: 3abd97
File 148268648840.png - (12.97KB , 1231x534 , Flowchart map.png )
106897

Okay, I just wanted to make sure I understood the directions before acting on them.

Here's a crude, flowchart style map, which shows how things connect with each other but ignores petty details like "relative distances" and "cardinal directions". (So don't expect lefts and rights to be right). Honestly I want a quick sketch and measuring everything out properly would have taken a while. I might make a real map later.

Does this look about right? Black is where we've been, blue is what the Orcus priest / worshiper / art restorer told us.

>wasn't planning on killing them
Someone who's fighting style depends on putting something pointy and/or poisoned through somewhere vital as quickly as possible sort of has difficulties with non-lethal combat (unless we're assuming some kind of fair bout where both sides have agreed to try and avoid injury, or a massive disparity in skill). Especially against people who are quite possibly hostile casters and it's therefore hard to be sure you've disabled them past the point of fighting back.

I imagine someone who fights with an axe that literally feeds on blood would have similar difficulties.
>>
No. 106900 ID: 77f1b6

>>106897
Maru wasn't planning on getting her ax out- she was mostly planning on headbutting people. I imagine her horns to be plateau shaped, much like Hell Boy, so they don't have a stabby point but they do have a nice edge to hit people with. She gets in a lot of bar fights, and usually doesn't resort to chopping people up. As for you being mainly good at stabbing and less good at non-lethal, she didn't really think that far ahead. You might start notice a pattern with that regard. Unsurprisingly, the bard-zerker tends to punch first and ask questions later.
>>
No. 106901 ID: 3abd97
File 148268989189.png - (13.23KB , 1231x534 , Flowchart map.png )
106901

>>106897
Oh, derp. Left out the Orcus guys who actually gave us the directions.
>>
No. 106902 ID: a107fd

>>106901
It would be more correct to add an extra box between 'inner spiral' and 'outer spiral' called 'lots of confusing stuff.' Otherwise, looks about right.
>>
No. 106909 ID: af6e04

>>/quest/768243
Welcome new player!! Cool power
>>
No. 106910 ID: 3b108e

>>106909
I'm not technically in yet, but it's still nice to be welcomed. Glad you like the power.
>>
No. 106911 ID: 77f1b6

>>106910
Welcome to the game! Whether you're in or not it's always fun to see fresh faces- just to be clear my comment on your power wasn't a critique ! I also think it's a pretty creative and interesting tool, but I'm not sure it satisfies the rules for an innate power. We'll see what JamesLeng says soon enough though.

And to everyone in general, happy holidays guys.🎉
>>
No. 106912 ID: 4201a2

>>/quest/768243
>>/quest/768246
>>/quest/768249
>>106911
>Djan Seriv's innate power is to automatically make iron more flexible
To be honest, it feels underpowered to me. I think you could easily go as far as "the ability to, at will, adjust the elasticity of any item he's touching to any value, from vulcanized rubber to glass, and maintain it without effort as long as it stays in contact with his body. If it stops touching his body, it takes concentration to maintain it. The farther from his body it travels, the more difficult it is to maintain it, and eventually it reverts to its original elasticity."
>>
No. 106914 ID: 3b108e

>>106912
Huh, really? That'd be neat.

>>106911
Glad you like it, and happy holidays to you too!
>>
No. 106916 ID: 716fdd

>Telescopes don't work so well

Interesting- does that mean glasses or other lenses either on her face or as a barrier she has to gaze through would impart her ability to portal?
>>
No. 106917 ID: a107fd

>>106916
The more an image is distorted, the harder it's going to be to define the destination with sufficient precision. A cylindrical box full of compound lenses, telescope or microscope or whatever, effectively creates a false image at very different size and distance than the real thing it represents. If she can only focus on it with one eye, that doesn't do depth perception any favors, and lack of peripheral vision means she can't correct for that problem by using the larger context. Then there's all the esoteric technical issues of preindustrial optics, such as spherical and chromatic aberration.

Bottom line is, protective goggles, or looking through a grimy window, or heat ripples in the air, will apply the same penalty to portal stunts as to ordinary vision. High-powered spyglasses for range extension will face much heavier penalties, unless they're so smoothly integrated as to seem natural.
>>
No. 106919 ID: 3abd97

Another bonus of being a rich bitch: having parents who paid to test all this ability related stuff out at some point in your youth. :v

>Scrying pools and crystals also seem to work, but remain dangerous
I want to assume that's in the context of "local" range extensions, rather than "scry and die" style tactics. Trying to shoehorn something into a long range teleport sounds like the kind of story that ends with the wizard's research tower exploding and new regulatory ordinances being passed.

>>106916
Also might have some interesting side effects if say, Dav was blinded and Vos regrew tentacle horror or cuttlefish style eyes.

....not that I really want to test this. Due to high ambition, Davina would be leery of modifications that might be inheritable. And asking an extraplaner tentacle horror to mess with your biology when you already have an extraplaner horror who's set up residence and significantly altered your biology might have complicated side effects. Best case, the blink-bug acts as an intermediary and prevents the usual weirdening. Worst case... um. Not sure I can get hyperbolic enough for that.

I also sort of wonder if/when Vos catches a glimpse of Davina's passenger if it would ping more as "abomination" or "angel" to the tentacle-paladin.

>>/quest/768240
Also curious to see what benefits the spectral axe has compared to a mundane, besides the obvious (can't be effectively disarmed so long as you can bleed, makes a rather large and obvious weapon concealable).
>>
No. 106920 ID: edbc12

>>106919
Well another obvious trait is the musical component. Based on heart beat and mood the "Ax" (play on words, it's both the cutting tool and the instrument) the Ax resonates with her and sort of "amplifies" and broadcasts it out in the form of music. With Maru's sort of brazen attitude and her enjoyment of a good tussle, the idea is that it improves moral and attitude of the friends around her, and intimidates the foes they face. It should also increase their lust for battle to some degree, based on how much she is enjoying herself

The blood thing also does not need to be her blood, there just needs to be blood physically on her skin. The more blood, the longer she can use it. This puts her at a distinct disadvantage against things which don't bleed. The action economy as well is useful, as it means I don't need to switch between weapon and bardic instrument, nor do I need to switch between playing and instrument and attack. In order to play it Maru must simply have emotions and it works.

With the discussion about Hore being a less than pleasant person to be around, I should make it clear that Maru has tortured someone and would do so again, if she finds the village that filled her horns down as a child. She doesn't really bring up her past without prompting but if anyone had asked about why she was on this expedition, should wouldn't shy away from the fact that she was running from the law after torturing and killing her birth father. She's generally strongly loyal and willing to risk herself for the sake of others, and usually forgiving of mistakes as long as your intentions are good. She is however, devilishly vindictive, so much that a demon goddess of revenge gave her a token of favor. Just figured it wouldn't be unlikely for your characters to know this so I should get it out there
>>
No. 106921 ID: a107fd

>>106919
>I want to assume that's in the context of "local" range extensions,
Nope! If you can find a long-range scrying technique, you can turn it into transportation. Main limiting factors would be that, first, tunnels are two-way and take their own sweet time closing, so you either worry about pursuit and counterattacks or leave a rear guard to maybe get stranded, and second, good luck finding a crystal ball that doesn't feel like diving naked through a wall of fishhooks.
>>
No. 106922 ID: 398fe1

>>106866
>>106873
Wait are you serious? By attempting to solve the puzzle I've actively hindered future attempts?
>>
No. 106923 ID: a107fd

>>106922
Could you explain the reasoning behind that statement? At most, you've provided information that some people feel they shouldn't make use of, which is no more of a hindrance than failing to provide information at all, except possibly in some psychological sense involving the effort of compartmentalization.
>>
No. 106925 ID: 4201a2

>>106923
If stating it here prevents people from attempting it, and it's the correct answer, then stating it here has prevented people from trying the correct answer. If it's not the correct answer, there's no real effect.
>>
No. 106926 ID: a107fd

>>106925
>stating it here prevents people from attempting it
It does not. Someone could simply claim to have independently derived the strategy, since it's based entirely on information from the first post. I'd prefer they be paying me, but that's true regardless.

To the extent that there even IS a problem with this, the simplest solution would be for 398fe1 to generate a character and convert the plan in question directly to in-character knowledge.
>>
No. 106930 ID: a107fd

>>/quest/768333
>draw a real map

This kind of thing is always appreciated.
>>
No. 106931 ID: 3abd97

>>106920
>With the discussion about Hore being a less than pleasant person to be around[...]
I kind of feel like this deserves a long, thought out response, but it's late, so for the moment I'll limit myself to this:

There's a rather large gulf between "has committed a tortuous violent revenge killing in the past, and may do so again" and "threatens to rape two allies right in front of you" in terms of what even murder-hobos can tolerate.

>>106930
Map's decent until we get to the lake / fire scorched room. Trying to map doors into positions on what was described as a square room from clock directions is a little dicey (especially since that's measuring from the center of the scorch, and I'm not sure if that's centered in the room). Then "150', gently curving to the left" is kinda hard to deal with, since that's pretty long and a small change in curvature can greatly change where the connecting rooms end up (my first draft would have put the next junction in the middle of the chasm).

Also your latest post just put the three-arch ledge on the opposite side of the bridge I thought it was on, which means something is gonna have to cross over / under something.
>>
No. 106932 ID: af6e04

>what even murder-hobos can tolerate.
But we're not tolerating it. That's why Vos dragged her out and chastised her. She at least seems willing to listen to Vos. What more can we do, kill her?

Is this an IC problem or an OOC problem? Would you rather we not allow people to play rapists? I can understand that.
>>
No. 106933 ID: 4201a2

>>106931
>a rather large gulf between "has committed a tortuous violent revenge killing in the past, and may do so again" and "threatens to rape two allies right in front of you"
In simpler terms, it's the gulf between Chaotic Neutral and Chaotic Evil, and it's why most parties, murder-hobos or otherwise, don't contain evil PCs.

It also has a relatively easy solution: an evil PC just needs to understand what is or is not an tolerable target, relative to the party morality. Paladins won't let you get away with anything fun, but most Neutral characters have the ability to weigh their allies' usefulness against their level of atrocity without losing too much sleep over it. Your typical graverobber, for example, is not going to object to a serial killer, as long as the killer doesn't target him or anyone he cares about, on the grounds that he has much to gain from the murders he wouldn't dare to commit himself.

Particularly in a grim horror fantasy like this one, replacing "two potential allies who haven't taken any hostile action" with "two random cultists who threatened the party" would almost certainly allow you to get away with it.
>>
No. 106934 ID: 77f1b6

>>106931
>There's a rather large gulf
Of course- I simply wanted to throw it out there because I was thinking about Maru's character a bit and I figured the party as a whole might not care a whole lot about Maru's past, but if your characters might know then I should actually tell you. She might also want to go find that town at some point in the campaign, assuming she survives that long.

In that vein, JameLeng, since there is this character element to Maru that might draw her towards this town should I create some elements and townsfolk, or make any background details/info for it, or would that be something you'd prefer to make given your significantly deeper and more firm grasp on the setting and rules that govern it? I don't care either way, and it's entirely possible it may never come up so it could very well be a cross-that-bridge-if-we-come-to-it scenario, but I wanted to ask none the less

Also, while we figure out map and portal stuff I'm probably not gonna have Maru do much- as previously mentioned the visualization of a 3D space from any sort of description is weak point of mine. I tested very low on spacial reasoning skills as a child. Until we actually start moving back and forth, I will keep an eye on the thread but most likely won't have Maru do too much
>>
No. 106936 ID: a107fd

>>106931
>something is gonna have to cross over / under something
Yep. The Bloodmist Labyrinth isn't just a large, complex, three-dimensional environment, it's specifically optimized to confuse and disorient non-natives. Fortunately, now that you've got both a metalbender and someone who understands magnetism on the team, it should be possible to construct compasses, then begin describing rooms and halls in terms of "north" and "south" instead of "relative to the way you came in" and, well,
>"150', gently curving to the left"
instead of a specific angle.

Assuming, of course, that there's a generally consistent ambient magnetic field down here. Let's cross that bridge when we come to it.

Even without such tools, you could go back and take the time to map out hallways precisely instead of just counting rough distances between turns or intersections, but that time has a cost in supplies and random encounters. Even a partial map of a hellhole like this can easily be considered a treasure in itself, for the difficult, dangerous work that went into making it, and the trouble it lets you avoid.

>>106934
>since there is this character element to Maru that might draw her towards this town should I create some elements and townsfolk, or make any background details/info for it
Maru Red is a skald, yes? A bard-barian, the archetypal wandering teller of tales?

Go ahead and recite stories IC, including some about her own previous adventures. For reading comprehension's sake, go easy on the fonetik aksent. Later, when it becomes relevant, some parts of those stories will turn out to have a basis in fact. Maru will probably know which parts are which before anyone else does... assuming she's being honest with herself about what happened. Memory's a funny thing.
>>
No. 106938 ID: 77f1b6

>>106936
>go easy on the fonetik aksent

Yeah, I'm trying to describe my actions without accents, and only use them when she needs to actually speak. Basically she drops the h off the beginings of words, and th becomes f or d. Occassionally I throw in a glottal stop, for words like but'uh, but those are harder for me to add, and harder to understand so I try not to use them much. It's supposed to give the impression of a thick Cockney accent but I don't think it quite comes off in text.

Story-telling sounds good though- if the group gets a chance to rest at any point I may take the chance to recite a bit of bardic tale, in a more easily legible format than accented speech or poetic verse.

As for memory, she was young and traumatized, as seems to be a re-occurring theme in my characters. On top of that she embellish most stories with an element of creative flair to draw in listeners. I agree that it's doubtful she has an accurate perception of the events that unfolded early in her life.
>>
No. 106942 ID: 81819e
106942

For what it's worth, speaking as the guy whose characters were threatened, I'm okay with them being threatened...

As long as everyone else is okay with the idea that Maria will actually burn Hore alive if the gnoll tries anything stupid sex-wise. An IC eye for an IC eye.
>>
No. 106956 ID: 3abd97

>>106932
>Is this an IC problem or an OOC problem?
For now, OOC. Davina wasn't in the room when any of this occurred. Based solely on what she's witnessed, her current opinion of Hore is merely a disgusting gibbering fool who's leaning more towards the liability column than asset, and whose offensive presence is tolerated because of an extreme situation and the immediate demands of survival.

If Dav had been in the room? I would have seriously considered taking stronger action than putting her in time out. (I'm not sure if I would have made it verbal, or physical, or a threat, or a deliberate attempt to trigger her fear of an unseen attack, or violent, or fatal... but it would have been less gentle than what she got from Vos).

>What more can we do, kill her?
It's a fair question, actually. Adventurers go around killing things that get in their way, oppose them, or otherwise cross a line past what they tolerate. What line does a fellow adventurer have to cross before they move from the "asset" column to the "intolerable monster" column? (Threatening / turning on other allies is a good first step towards crossing that line, at least).

>Would you rather we not allow people to play rapists? I can understand that.
That's a more complicated question that I'm not sure I can answer. Forbidding choices gets messy, and there's probably ways for a sufficiently motivated player to make almost anything interesting or compelling.

Would I prefer Kome wasn't playing his character the way he is? Yes.

>>106933
That's a fair way to look at it, honestly. Characters tolerate what doesn't cross lines they're personally concerned with.

In the case of the hypothetical you offer though, I'm less sure I'd give that a pass, still. Would obviously depend on context and character development though.

>>106920
>>106934
Putting aside Hore and focusing on Maru for the moment:

I figure a noble, Davina would understand and accept the idea of decisive revenge, to an extent (considering she's the heir to a fallen house, there are doubtless people out there she herself wouldn't hesitate to avenge herself against, if the opportunity presented itself). Unnecessary torture would be frowned upon (as would be wasting time not getting to the point of the exercise). Lawbreaking? Well that very much depends on whose law is being broken, and where, and if it's currently a complication in her own affairs.

Honestly the thing that would disturb Dav the most about the whole thing is that it's a patricide, and a family turning on itself in that way is pretty much incompatible with her High Ambition / the way the world should work as she sees it. Honestly she'd probably have to think long and hard to figure out how she felt about the details (and what blame Maru or her father deserve in the mess) and unprompted is most likely to regretfully file the entire thing aside as "man, the outside world is fucked up, isn't it?" and further affirmation of her own beliefs ("look how wrong things can go when people don't think the way I do / the way my family does").
>>
No. 106959 ID: af6e04

>Would I prefer Kome wasn't playing his character the way he is? Yes.
Well, we can tell him to cut it out. If one player is making the rest uncomfortable then that behavior shouldn't be tolerated.
>>
No. 106960 ID: 77f1b6

>>106956
>patricide

That's part of why i mentioned it- we can flesh these kind of interactions out in character, but Maru is very much of the oppinion that the only thing blood is good for is letting you know who not to fuck. She doesn't have a problem with Davina wanting a family and a legacy, she gets that, but I would bet Davina would be more perturbed by her understandable dislike for her own blood kin. Maru doesn't tend to mince words when it comes to how much she hates her father, and how much she does not regret what she did. She's not so keen on the ideas of respecting elders, or keeping the family business/legacy/trade alive, or the people who are like family will always be there for you, you should always forgive your blood because that's what family does, your family loves you and you should love them etc etc. If you've ever played FFX, she talks about her dad the same why Tidus talks about his.
>>
No. 106961 ID: a107fd

>>106959
I'm willing to support that.

Kome! Henceforth, no sex with other PCs unless they want it as much as you do. Hore Wutashi's lower ambition is now simply "murder." Bloodshed, dismemberment, and death get her going like nothing else, provided she can see it coming and isn't exclusively on the receiving end, but, in accordance with her recent religious awakening, she will seek willing partners with whom to share that excitement.
>>
No. 106967 ID: af6e04

The Eel-man tumor paladin gets all the action. I am amused.
>>
No. 106968 ID: 4abab6

>>106967
Daniel is way too gay for his own good.
>>
No. 106969 ID: 3abd97

>>106960
Except Tidus was a whiny brat whose dislike of his dad stemmed half from (unavoidable in the circumstances) neglect, half from typical teenage angst. I feel like he'd have been just as busy shit talking the old man if he'd been around the whole time and a model father and not, you know, living in a simulated dream world created and maintained by the dead.

But yeah, I get yah.
>>
No. 106977 ID: 2cb678
File 148289838888.png - (111.29KB , 320x211 , IMG_5268.png )
106977

>>106969
Of course Jecht didn't have a whole lot of options when it came to taking care of him after he left- but you have to admit he was kind of a dick before he left too.
>>
No. 106978 ID: 4201a2

>>/quest/768557
>permanent -4 debuff to all rolls unless we coerce an enemy of at least six times our level into helping us
I don't want to complain too much, but isn't that a little much for a first-room trap?
>>
No. 106980 ID: af6e04

>>106978
Maybe Orcus will lift the curse if you solve the puzzle. We have a couple hours of down time.
>>
No. 106981 ID: 3abd97

>>106978
That's just the brute force means of breaking the curse, though. It might be there are subtler, less obvious means of lifting it, or that it has a limit on duration and she can wait it out.

>>106977
If we consider Tidus a reliable narrator (which he kind of wasn't), sure. Dreams and exaggerated childhood memories aren't known for accuracy either. But yes, Jecht wasn't presented favorably in what the player actually saw.

The point I was more trying to make is that Maru has far more reasonable grounds to complain.
>>
No. 106982 ID: 4201a2

>>106843
>>/quest/768514
>>/quest/768547
>>/quest/768568
Also, I'd like to note I've rolled three 13s in a row now, with a 6,5,2 combination each time. What are the odds of that?
>>
No. 106983 ID: 094652

>>106961
Sorry, didn't realize there was a discussion thread for this quest thread. Your objection is noted.
>>
No. 106985 ID: 094652

>>106982
Odds of rolling a particular number on an n-sided die = 1/n
Odds of rolling x distinct particular numbers in a specific pattern = (1/n)^x
Number of possible patters containing x distinct particular numbers = x!
Odds that a specific event x will occur y times = x^y
((1/n)^x*x!)^y
Plug in:
((1/6)^3*3!)^3 ~= 2.1433470507544581618655692729767e-5

... I think Yisheng Ji deserves retirement. NOW.
>>
No. 106986 ID: 3abd97

>>106982
>>106985
If it were the odds of rolling 9 specific d6 values in an exact order, (for example 6,5,2,6,5,2,6,5,2) then the odds are just

(1/6)^9 = 9.92 * 10^-8 = 9.92 * 10^-6 %.

Rolling 3 sets of three specific numbers is better odds, since there's play in the order (so 6,5,2 and 2,5,6 and other combinations are equivalent). That works out to:

(3/6 * 2/6 * 1/6)^3 = 2.14 * 10^-5 = 2.14 * 10^-3 %

Because the first roll can be 6, 5, or 2 (so three "right" answers), the second roll can either of the two that didn't appear in the first roll (two "right" answers) and by the third roll you're down to only one desired result left on the die.

For perspective, the odds of rolling any specific ordered series of 3d6 is 0.46%, the odds of getting any specific set of 3d6 results (order of the values not important) is 2.8%. These are small odds you're starting with- when you start stacking them shrinking by orders of magnitude quickly isn't unreasonable.
>>
No. 106988 ID: a107fd

>>106978
Yisheng Ji is actually 2nd level at this point, and a cleric would have access to third circle spells as early as 5th level.

Yes, it's extremely nasty for a first-room trap. That's balanced by how easy it is to bypass, once you know the trick or have the right abilities. Most of the trouble has been the result of poor intraparty communication, and people deciding to come back and touch the stove again. https://www.xkcd.com/242/
>>
No. 106989 ID: 4abab6

>>106988
On the other hand, I had no party to communicate with and was thrown in right off the bat. But I suppose I'm fine with this.
>>
No. 106990 ID: 4201a2

>>106986
>>/quest/768636
Alright, we're up to four rolls of 13 in a row, although the latest mixes it up with a 6,6,1. That's still, what, .097222 ^ 4 = 0.0000893425 = 0.00893425% or roughly 8.9 thousandths of a percent?
>>/quest/767975
>>/quest/768002
Since kome received a benefit for getting a really unlikely roll, can I combine my four consecutive rolls of 13 into a roll that will allow me to not be killed or further crippled by the deathtrap Yisheng Ji is inevitably about to step into?
>>
No. 106991 ID: 3abd97

>>106990
Calculating the odds of four thirteens in a row is slightly different, since as you just demonstrated, there's more than one way to get the final result to 13.

6,6,1
6,5,2
6,4,3
5,5,3
5,4,4

Are the valid combinations. The odds of getting a specific combination of results (die order not important) is the same as it was before, put this time we have 5 different combinations that work! So the odds of getting 13 at all on a given 3d6 roll is:

(3/6 * 2/6 * 1/6) * 5 = 0.139 = 13.9 %

The odds of getting 13 4 times in a row is:

((3/6 * 2/6 * 1/6) * 5)^4 = 0.00037 = 0.037 %

Of course odds are worse if we ask instead "what are the odds of rolling the exact die combinations for 13 you did" (The 5 becomes a 2 and the final odds are 0.00095%) or "what are the odds of rolling all those dice from those posts in the exact order you did" ((1/6)^12 = 4.59*10^-8 %).

This is getting a little silly, though. The fact of the matter is, the more dice you roll, the more improbable any specific final result is, but you're still going to generate one of the vast number of improbable results.
>>
No. 106993 ID: 3abd97

>>106991
Also, silly as this may sound, these long odds only apply at the beginning.

The odds of rolling 4 13s from 3d6-es in a row, as shown, is low.

But the odds of your next roll being 13 again, now that that's already happened? Still 13.9 %. The past doesn't weight future outcomes in this kind of problem.
>>
No. 106996 ID: 4abab6

So in case anyone gives a fuck, I came up with some basic appearances for Maria and Daniel.

Maria: Rather pretty, though hardened by her time spent adventuring. Due to her usual close proximity to intense light, she has a slight tan. She wears her blonde hair short, and has blue eyes. She is tall and thin, though with much more muscle than her brother. Normally rather buxom, she binds her chest with ropes in order to keep her self control in even the most taxing of situations. Usually clad in simple clothing that allows her to move her limbs easily.

Daniel: Somehow manages to be even prettier than his sister, fresh-faced and youthful in appearance. Unlike his sister, he remains rather fair-skinned. His hair is blonde and slightly longer than that of his sister, and his eyes are a bright green rather than the blue of his sister's. He's as tall as Maria, though rather than her thin, somewhat angular appearance he manages to seem more lithe and soft, with a distinctly feminine way of holding himself. He keeps a spare set of candles strapped to his inner thigh at all times. His outfit is a robe meant to shame Purifiers such as himself, slightly too small for his body.

This was probably dumb, but whatever, I posted it.
>>
No. 106998 ID: 4201a2

>>106991
I was referencing this source: http://gamesandgadgets.org/theblogs/perrol/dice-odds-for-3d6/ which notes the odds of rolling 13 on 3d6 as 9.7222%, which is rather lower than 13.9%.
>>106993
It's true that any additional roll also has the same 9.7222% chance of being a 13, but what I was calculating was the odds of rolling four consecutive 13s, which would be (0.097222)(0.097222)(0.097222)(0.097222), or (0.097222)^4, if I'm not mistaken.
>>
No. 106999 ID: 3b108e

>>106996
While we're doing this, here's Djan.

Djan Seriv is a large, bulky elf ugly enough to easily qualify as an orc. He has no style, he has no grace, this adventurer has a funny face. Djan was born with a somewhat asymmetrical facial structure, and his years of fighting weren't kind enough to give him the sort of scars people think are attractive on anime characters. His nose has been broken at least once and healed poorly, while another scar pulls a lip up to display several damaged teeth. He dresses in plain, drab clothing remarkable only because of a damaged patch on one lapel where it looks like part of the fabric was torn off and patched again.
>>
No. 107001 ID: 3abd97

>>106998
Yeah, that's the right formula to apply.

>which is rather lower
Not really? ~9% to ~13% isn't large, and out final answers agree to the same order of magnitude, which is the most significant factor.

I wish the source you cited showed their work but the most likely explanation for the discrepancy is my back of the envelope calculation here inadvertently double-counts some of the permutations.

Oh derp, I think the oversimplification was not appropriately weighting the ones with doubles. Three of the 5 combinations have doubles in them, so it should instead be

(3/6 * 2/6 * 1/6) * ( 3/2 + 2 ) = 0.0972 = 9.72%

Missed a factor of 1/2 in there.
>>
No. 107003 ID: af6e04

>>106996
>>106999
Vos is your typical knight in not-so-shining armor, except he's an eel man. He wears an old beat up chain shirt with his cloak over the top, crusader style, and a long loin cloth covering his lower bits (pants are difficult because of his thick tail) and a set of worn boots. The large eye on his chest has a cloudy, spotty pupil and peeks out through a hole in his shirt. It tends to dart around when he is in the presence of multiple people and stare unblinking when he's alone with somebody. He has dark grayish rubbery skin. His neck tends to slightly expand and contract when he breathes. He has a pair of lidless eel eyes on his head and a row of small pointy teeth. In his throat is a set of pharyngeal jaws that allow for pronunciation fairly similar to a human tongue, though the sounds he makes are never quite human.
>>
No. 107004 ID: 094652

In regards to the thundering voice overhead, this does not trigger Hore's regular phobia because (A) they are announcing their presence, (B) they seem force-oriented and not fixated on stealth or unfair cheap shots, giving Ji a fair chance to convince the entity to spare him, and (C) they're currently fixated on Ji right now. That said, Hore is about as scared as any regular motal would be; not stiff, but panicking as she tries to think up good ideas with limited time.
>>
No. 107005 ID: 3b108e

Isn't time frozen? The voice seemed to be talking to one person so I'm assuming this is Yisheng's moment in the spotlight.
>>
No. 107006 ID: af6e04

>>107004
>>107005
Yes, and I believe the spoilers also signify a message that is intended for one player only.

Divine blackjack. Good luck!
>>
No. 107008 ID: 094652

>>106996
>>106999
>>107003
Hore has furred paws for hands and feet, but started out with ten fingers and ten toes (she lost two fingers on her left hand from a plasma pistol misfire), with fingers that feel human with claws instead of nails, but the palms of her hands and feet have animal pads. As per her mutations, she has an additional two wolf-like ears, her tail is long, thin, and bushy but she keeps it close for fear that it will get wrecked, and the last part is doggy-like. Still, she has distinct curves and a modest bust for her large frame, though her arms are slightly muscular, but generally she focuses on speed and agility rather than her innate bruthe strength. Her hair has the texture of fur but goes down to her shoulders, and is mostly brown with red streaks here and there, which she trims further than the rest to keep a constant "blood speckled" look. Hore is also covered in light scars, which she considers her 'fur coat' as they contrast against her fair skin, a trait that she is not proud of. One thing to note is that most of her cybernetics are centered around the left arm and breast, causing them to heal the scars around her but take on a faint, almost undetectable glow of various LED lights centered around a green aura coming from where her heart should be which represents the power core. Her actual heart is on the right, moved by the cybernetic augmenations over the course of fifteen years by the nanomachines in her bloodstream.

Note that these nanomachines are incredibly basic and produced by an artificial organ conjoined with her liver, they cannot self-replicate and due to programming restrictions they must take orders from the main processor, then flow throughout the entire bloodstream until they find the right organ or cyberware, and then they either place nutrients for the organs to self-recover or work on fixing the cyberware and then they self-destruct into their basic components for the bloodstream to collect and recycle. This was because these nanos were meant for civilian use in experiments and tests and if something went horribly wrong then their first protocol is to shut down or self-destruct and let the grown-ups do their work. Hore's cyber would have been done in a mere three months and with less health complications if she was born in her mother's own world with all the fancy augmentation auto-docs, but safety precautions are necessary to prevent the nanomachines from fritzing during a weatherstorm and eating the host alive. So when Hore takes serious damage the nanomachines don't repair her body like in The Expanse, they just shut down and the nanomachine factory builds more from the junk materials in her liver.
>>
No. 107009 ID: 3abd97

>Ji crits and solves the puzzle
Congrats!

Choose well, don't forget to bug the gm with follow up questions if you need to before committing to something.
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No. 107014 ID: 4201a2

>>/quest/768687
This is the most genuinely surprised I've been so far. I already had another character drafted up and everything.

>>107009
Okay, I have a few questions for the GM. Is this limited to "one boon less than or equal to 21 motes", or "any number of boons totalling up to a value less than or equal to 21 motes"?
Could I take, for example, Immunity To All Curses for 15, and then say, 5 motes worth of Rapid Healing? Or would that be an instant smite for greed?
Also, if I take Immunity To All Curses, will it cure my current curses, or will it merely prevent any further ones?
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No. 107015 ID: 3abd97

>>107014
Half surprised you're not jumping for eternal youth as it pings your high ambition, but then again if your natural life cycle is to evolve / ascend into some kind of spiritual godling, you might be on track to get that anyways. (And "longer natural life span" doesn't add much in terms of practical dungeon crawling survivability).
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No. 107016 ID: 4201a2

>>107015
In the eternal words of Master Li Kao: "What use is it never to age when you can be extinguished in an instant by the bite of a mosquito or a slip upon the stairs? Immortality is a meaningless word unless invulnerability goes with it."
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No. 107019 ID: 398fe1

I'm really surprised the solution was to find a specific tile inside the board, and not to capture the (absent) king or safely traverse to the opposite side by following a specified path.

I'm not sure how to correctly interpret the puzzle. G6 is not below the rook, it's below the knight. Maybe you're supposed to go up-left as a bishop where I was thinking but stop in the king's column so that you can mimic a "castling" move by moving east to the knight's column? Apparently you can also solve the puzzle just by getting to G6 somehow. I bet you could walk on the lines or climb on the walls and still get the reward. Or maybe you have to at least step on G1?
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No. 107020 ID: 4201a2

>>107019
Both F3 and G5 were deathtraps, but only after stepping on G1, so it can be assumed that both G1 and E5 (and possibly other tiles) reconfigure the layout of the board in some way, and the solution tile either shifts position, or only exists in a particular configuration. So it's likely the solution was indeed some winding path across the board.
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No. 107021 ID: a107fd

>>107014
>Is this limited to "one boon less than or equal to 21 motes", or "any number of boons totalling up to a value less than or equal to 21 motes"?
Can consist of multiple traits, but should have some thematic cohesiveness. The "eternal youth" package, for example, consists primarily of improved cardiovascular fitness, along with some sleep-cycle and time-perception tweaks that make it easier to get an extra hour of exercise per day. Direct mitigation of the core metabolic flaw that leads to decrepitude and senescence is less than 10% of the cost. It's not eternal in any absolute, inviolable sense; someone could squander that boon and eventually wither away and die from all the usual symptoms of old age, but to do so would require truly unconscionable levels of self-neglect, and even then the process would take far longer than might otherwise be expected. It doesn't directly prevent death by violence, but youthful vigor means you can fight twice as hard on half as much rest, and provides a further bonus to recovery from crippling or mortal wounds, among other things.

>Also, if I take Immunity To All Curses, will it cure my current curses,
Yes. If you suddenly became immune to an otherwise incurable disease with which you had already been infected, it would immediately be purged from your system (unless you paid extra to retain it for 'Typhoid Mary' biological warfare purposes), though symptoms might take a little while to clear up. Same with curses, poisons, or any other adverse condition.

>Could I take, for example, Immunity To All Curses for 15, and then say, 5 motes worth of Rapid Healing?
Some elaboration of how those are both facets of the same boon would be preferable, but that specific combination doesn't seem like it would require particularly tortured logic.
>Or would that be an instant smite for greed?
The blackjack comparison is apt. In-character, you have little or no context on what these soul-motes are, while the granting entity considers that information painfully obvious, a waste of it's time and effort to explain. If you pick something that's under budget, but has a clear theme to it, excess gets spent on other effects to flesh out the theme. You'll only be smote if you go over budget.

*baleful glare at kome's "mastery over spacetime" suggestion*

The downside of being too cautious, or picking a crooked theme to justify barely-related stuff, is that you might get powers which you don't really want, and which don't have a handy off switch, as in the Typhoid Mary example.
>>
No. 107022 ID: 398fe1

>>107020
The tiles did nothing when you stepped on G1 the first time, and I think this is because you kept going while the board was flipping colors. The second attempt you stepped on G1 but the board didn't flip again. Also, you intentionally waited 10 seconds between tiles so even if it had happened every time you still would've gotten nailed. Keep in mind that G1 triggered a white noise magic blast the second time so it was probably the same effect.

I'm not sure if the color change actually did anything to the tiles, trap-wise or solution-wise, though I guess I didn't take that into account when trying to figure out why G6 was the correct tile. If it mirrored the solution along with the board, then the tile was B6 before. I haven't the foggiest notion how to interpret the poem in that case, so I'll just assume it wasn't B6.

I guess it doesn't matter though. I doubt the board will give out a second reward to anyone attempting another solution.
>>
No. 107023 ID: 3abd97

>>107022
>I doubt the board will give out a second reward to anyone attempting another solution.
Well the last line in the poem could be read as only one prize being given.

>And journey continues with prize one can keep.
Although it could also be read as a given prize only being usable by one person. Although if it's possible to collect the prize a second time, I assume the board has been shuffled / randomized in such a way we're effectively starting over.

I suppose if we're done with the puzzle we could just ask for spoilers, but as long as we're in the same environment and someone could conceivably end up on the board, it's probably too soon for that.
>>
No. 107024 ID: a107fd

>>107023
>ask for spoilers
Once per week, by e-mail, per patron at the $5 level or above. Strngy is the only current pledge at that level.

I'll say this much publicly: even with extensive knowledge of the puzzle's workings, extracting what you want from it would still involve some challenge and/or risk. There is more of a limit on how many boons are handed out than 'how fast can you bounce between squares to re-trigger the effect,' but it's not as strict as 'only one, ever.'
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No. 107025 ID: af6e04

Vos doesn't care for the blessings of Orcus anyway.
>>
No. 107026 ID: 77f1b6

>>107021
>doesn't seem like it would require particularly tortured logic

Perhaps something like your body rejecting and repairing misfortune and malady, both magical and mundane. I'm sure you can make it more flavorful and tasty Tunic, but that might be a good theme to tie that together if it doesn't seem too smite worthy

As for character descriptions, Maru Red is a young dark skinned woman with a thick cockney accent, and a shaved head which has begun re-growing its thickly curled strands, to a small degree, since they started their expedition. ~5'8, probably 160lbs or so, with a build more accurately described as scrappy and wirey, rather than bulky or muscular. She has as much of a beer pouch and she can build up, but regular bar fights exercise tends to keep the weight off despite her best efforts. Her nose has obviously been broken more than once, and the multitude of white-ish scars running across her face, and the entirety of her body really, show either a lack of regulars for her own well being, or an intimate home life with a loving briar patch. Possibly both. She could probably drink the rest of the party combined under the table, although she might not remember doing it, and she has a tendency for crudeness rivaled only by her seeming lack of an inside voice. She tends to be quick to action, with few regrets. Everyone makes mistakes and she can't predict the future, so why worry over something she, or anyone else for that matter, screwed up on. Buy everyone a round of drinks, or maybe a really expensive round of drinks if you fucked up big time, and move on. Mistakes are inevitable, but regrets are a choice, and when she's the most famous name since the days of the empire, she doesn't want to have anything weighing down on her creative process and inspiring deeds.

In short, she's a raucous girl with an appetite for grog and action, driven by the dream that some day, her name alone will inspire countless imitators, epic tales, and have the tavern girls fighting over who gets to help warm her bed in the cold winter nights.

I'm just glad that she was not anywhere she could see Ji attempting that puzzle or she would have tried to incapacitate him once again, because clearly that bird man is being driven by forces who do not regulate his life highly. Seriously though, nice solve on the puzzle, I'm glad you can perhaps save Ji from his chess board death run de-buffs
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No. 107028 ID: 4201a2

>>107021
>>107026
Actually, the "eternal youth" package as described sounds pretty ideal. I thought it'd be 100% pure fluff, but it's actually a useful boon. Life (and the RNG) seems more or less out to keep Yisheng Ji as exhausted and beaten-down as possible, and having a better capacity to withstand and recover from everyday suffering will be more generally useful than personal immunity to curses. (Particularly since Maria is under the same curse, and Daniel appears to be climbing the progression tree towards curse removal as directly as possible.) Also, mageykun has a point: picking something else would be kind of OOC.
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No. 107029 ID: 398fe1

...out of curiosity, how many tiles were activated? I suspect that the chessboard gains soul motes to spend on boons as tiles are activated, and that is why there will always be risk involved in getting a boon from the board.
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No. 107031 ID: 77f1b6

>>107028
Yeah man it's your character your choice, enteral youth sounds pretty bangin
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No. 107058 ID: a107fd

Everybody's heard the 'three blind men describing an elephant' parable. http://www.threepanelsoul.com/comic/the-blind-men-and-the-elephant This chessboard puzzle has been more like six blind men and a dog fighting a porcupine.

"Damn, that stings."
"Ow, there's a huge needle stuck in my hand!"
"It's... less than four feet high, or wide. I'm not getting any closer than that."
"It can't throw those needles very far."
"Nor move very fast. We'd already be dead."
"It smells like it's made of meat! Rich, juicy meat... I'm so hungry."
"Not worth it. Let's go do something else."
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No. 107060 ID: 3abd97

>>107058
http://www.threepanelsoul.com/comic/the-blind-men-and-the-elephant

I think we're just waiting on the random encounter roll / scene change to further exploration now?
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No. 107061 ID: 4201a2

>>107058
I think it'd be more apt to describe it as seven blind prisoners fighting a horse-sized porcupine, which is blocking the only exit from their prison. There's a certain amount of desperation and casual lethality.
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No. 107064 ID: 77f1b6

>>768860
>Ive become incredibly sick as of late

Good luck, and wishing you the best bud. Hoping for a swift recovery and an eventual return.
>>
No. 107066 ID: af6e04

>>/quest/768860
Get well soon. We will miss you!
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No. 107135 ID: 77f1b6

I'm laughing, as soon as the party gets together it tries to split again, and as soon as Maru says "let's not waste time talking about timey-wimey stuff" we immediately start talking about timey-wimey stuff. If she gets hostile with anyone it's 100% IC not OOC anger, although I am once again dumbfounded. Hopefully we can keep the party together without coming to blows
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No. 107136 ID: 77f1b6

Sorry about the roll, that was my bad, I'll keep it all together in the future.
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No. 107137 ID: 3abd97

>>106563
>didn't get any sherbet with dinner for months [after wrecking part of the grounds in a teleporting mishap]
>>/quest/769168
>Regular food wouldn't satisfy Davina's aberrant metabolism, and even small quantities cause severe indigestion
So, is my favorite dessert one that just doesn't upset my mirrored biology? Was it that the sherbet made from the same fruit trees I'm carrying rations from? (Although even if sherbet is mostly ice and fruit juice, depending on the recipe it can include honey or dairy, I think?). Do only some things lead to indigestion, and others merely fail to provide certain key nutrients and vitamins? (Which most deserts would to even begin with). Or is quintessence-bread a general term that can apply to a wide variety of magically conjured foodstuffs?
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No. 107139 ID: 2169b1

TFW you accidentally created a solution to a major problem just by making a character you thought was cool.

Though I get the feeling that, considering Maria is currently cursed a bunch and will probably become more cursed if they're killed, it may not be a fantastic idea to kill the Death Babies with her.
>>
No. 107140 ID: 77f1b6

>>107139
Yeah currently as far as I'm aware the D.R.B. as they were so amusingly acronymed, are not anywhere visible or detectable to us, so it shouldn't be a huge probably if we can keep the group together and get to an exit. If we make it out with everyone alive I will be very surprised though- last time it took like 2 threads to reach the surface
>>
No. 107141 ID: 750f88

I'm good now. I'll start reading from where I left off and try to catch up. Feel no need to wait for me. I would feel even worse if I ruined the steam that this thread is chuggin to.
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No. 107142 ID: a107fd

>>107137
The setting includes both alchemists who can do actual lead-into-gold elemental transmutation (although, economics being what it is, this ultimately does more to raise the cost of lead and other process inputs than to lower the price of gold), and monstrous bees the size of sheep. Some exotic type of bee that produces, and can digest, honey based on levorotatory sugars wouldn't be a stretch at all. In fact, they'd probably be necessary for the long-term survival of the fruit trees in question.

Sorbet is just sugar and water ice flavored with fruit juice and sometimes honey. Water isn't chiral, of course, so I think you're covered.

By "normal food" I was mostly thinking of stuff with lots of fat and protein and interesting spices, the sort of thing you'd want to see in trail rations or served at a noble's banquet. Every time a reasonably diverse load of levoprotein hits her guts, it wakes up dormant bacterial spores (some mix of normal intestinal flora, the stuff you'd find on a festering wound, and who knows what else) into frenzied scavenging and rot, like a microcosm of the mess when a fifty-ton whale carcass washes up on the beach. For the next few hours or days, Davina's small intestine becomes a befouled shipping canal run by insane alien bandits.

Quintessence-bread can be any color, and shaped in a variety of ways for presentation purposes, but it's always got a consistent texture somewhere between marzipan and hard cheese. Moderately sweet, slightly spicy aftertaste, indefinite shelf life regardless of temperature if kept away from vermin, scentless when dry, but when bitten and held in the mouth a moment it becomes the most delicious and filling thing most people have ever tasted. Sixty pounds costs 4.5 gold ($1800) and would be adequate-bordering-on-generous rations for three men, or a rider and his horse or griffon, for a month of hard labor or combat. (Equivalent supply of conventional food, for comparison, weighs at least three times as much, but would be less than half the price - maybe less than a tenth for local produce appropriated during harvest season, or substandard almost-spoiled stuff)

That's a reasonable lower-bound pay rate for mercenaries, if supplemented by plunder rights proportionate to the risk. They'll likely end up trading most of it for cheaper rations, various camp-follower services, or coins with higher value density, but q-bread has the key tactical advantages that 1) debased alloy coins may be tricky to recognize, but any fool can tell if the Elemental Food has lumps in it or tastes wrong, and 2) during a siege or a famine, all the merchants suddenly remember that silver is no good to eat, and adjust their prices accordingly. A salary denominated in q-bread thus rises in value to match the severity of any such crisis.
Riders at that pay grade will just be couriers, dragoons who dismount to fight on foot, scouts, or skirmishers, though. Horseback archers might get by on that much if you also provide them with ammo, but you're not going to attract the best by cutting corners, and long-term training is a huge factor in archery. Serious sword-and-lance cavalry needs at least half again that much pay, mostly for equipment maintenance and repair. Armor for a horse has lots of fiddly buckles, and a horse can't exactly strip down after a battle, wash the sweat off before rivets start to rust, hammer the dents out, and so on, all by itself.

>>107140
Strictly speaking, they reached the surface at the end of thread 1, and thread 2 involved making their way overland back to town. The latter problem will be considerably simplified with Davina's ability to open portals from one hilltop to the next. In clear weather, sixty miles an hour would be an almost leisurely stroll, a hundred-yard step per three seconds, completely ignoring typical terrain-based movement penalties. Reaching the surface at all might not be as easy this time, though.
>>
No. 107154 ID: 3abd97

>>107142
>Sorbet is just
Honestly I got a thrown when I went to wikipedia to make sure I was talking about the right thing and discovered there are apparently small discrepancies between "sherbet" and "sorbet" and regional American / British inconsistencies as well and ended up with far more information than I ever wanted.

(I'd really have to do a lot more research as to which edible molecules are chiral. Off the top of my head I know the amino acids, many sugars, and I think at least some vitamins. Some fat or starch chains might be simple enough to have rotational symmetry? Entirely unsure about organic alcohols. Although outside of a chemistry lab, it's a moot point though- not gonna get pure samples of anything in ordinary food and it wouldn't take much to throw bacterial fauna into disarray).

But tl;dr- don't order the sorbet (or anything but water and q-bread) if we ever make it to a civilized eating establishment.

>Only people known to produce quintessence-bread in bulk and apply it indiscriminately are White Elves
At least I now have a sort of rational in-universe reason for learning that particular language.

>Reaching the surface at all might not be as easy this time, though.
Yeah it was honestly surprising how fast we stumbled across the exit last time. I would not be surprised if we weren't as lucky this time. (Although hopefully it doesn't take too long. I find interacting with some kind of civilization and factions of intelligent beings more interesting than wandering caves indefinitely. Although dungeons do offer more constrains, lessening the risk of dithering forever over planning and a frontier of wide options like we did with assembling our pirate ship).

Also interested to see what happens if/when we make it to a logical break / safe point and get to make level up choices. I think we've only seen the choices for hedge witch and soldier before. (I don't think we had a rich bastard / bitch that early, and I'm not sure either of the townies stayed PCs long enough).

>>107141
Welcome back! Glad you're ok.

>>107139
Well you could always just flare up in an attempt to drive them off. They have shown the tactical wherewithal to withdraw if they encounter something that actually harms and/or scares them, and indiscriminate light blasting might have that effect.

A wide dispersal / low intensity holy light bath might also serve to block propagation of negative energy beams, or disable their shield bubbles, providing us with a defense or setting them up for a less direct finisher. (If one-step removed is far enough, the zombies might be able to land finishing blows and tank the death curses for Eric).
>>
No. 107157 ID: a107fd

>>107154
>make it to a logical break / safe point and get to make level up choices
It's actually just whenever you get a full night's rest, with enough XP. Yisheng Ji should've gotten one already, but then he went and stepped on an energy drain trap, so it's less of an immediate issue.

Punnet-square advancement was originally set up to narrow the field of Pathfinder classes, and give some clear basis for comparison between them without getting into specific mechanics. Marijke's options were based as much on her specialty, and even specific equipment, as on the hedge witch class in general. I'll be customizing options for the various rich bastards case-by-case.

>>/quest/769333
>"...does this mean we should infer there is a practicing necrophiliac in these caves?"
That would neither be a strictly necessary nor a sufficient condition. Mordnaissants happen when a woman who's already pregnant dies in an extremely inauspicious environment. Such an act might have contributed, though, and the Church of Orcus is very broad-minded on the subject of what sorts of interaction between the living and the dead are permissible.

>>107141
Glad to have you back. Hope you don't mind my use of your character to spew thematically-relevant exposition while you were gone.
>>
No. 107181 ID: af6e04
File 148331054650.png - (7.19KB , 453x451 , vosnude.png )
107181

I'm sure you've all been waiting for those hot eel-man nudes! (I hope it's okay to post art here)
>>
No. 107182 ID: 77f1b6

I love him we're married now, the honeymoon is set for June. Also be careful about trying to mutate the boys, last time you got a maggoty feeling running up your arm, so it may not be advisable to keep at it
>>
No. 107185 ID: af6e04

>>107182
To be fair, I did crit fail the first time. But yeah, the mutating zombies plan didn't work out so well. I thought it was a long shot anyway.
>>
No. 107187 ID: 2169b1

>>107181
Daniel: "OH NO HE'S HOT!!!"
>>
No. 107193 ID: 3abd97

>>107181
Adorable.

And yeah, even if he is the tumor paladin of a terrifying tentacle god(dess), he's definitely won a lot of points by being generally the nicest guy in the party.
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No. 107194 ID: 750f88
File 148333322498.png - (325.96KB , 600x816 , Maria_jpeggyhll.png )
107194

I made a meme am I one of the cool kids yet.


Sidenote: Almost caught up.
>>
No. 107196 ID: 2169b1

>>107194
Holy fuck I'm dying, this is basically a perfect depiction of Maria's personality.
>>
No. 107198 ID: 750f88

>>107196
I'm glad you like it. Haven't seen the outcome to that predicament but I hope you survived.
>>
No. 107200 ID: 2169b1

>>107198
She's fine now! And ready to smite some bitches now that she's better. Though she's gonna try not to leap headfirst into any magical traps any time soon thanks to her friendly, much saner brother being around to rein her in.
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No. 107202 ID: 77f1b6

>>107194
This is the funniest fucking thing I've seen all year
>>
No. 107204 ID: 77f1b6

Question for JamesLeng- for a rich bastard with an expensive/unique starting item, does a trained war mount fit into that category? For instance could a rich bastard start with a war horse companion or some such creature?

As an additional, would intelligent creatures also be allowed, such as a slave or intelligent animal large enough to be used as a mount?
In pathfinder the cavalier class would let you have a mount that was up to a certain CR, and the dire template added to a creature would give some creatures just enough intelligence to learn a language- there's also spells that allow you to "awaken" animals and animal companions by giving them a certain amount of extra intelligence. What is permissible here in terms of start items for rich bastards when it comes to mounts, intelligent mounts and intelligent life in general?
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No. 107206 ID: af6e04

>>107194
Pfff dying

>generally the nicest guy in the party.
I thought the contrast was neat in making an icky creepy alien character that was still very much lawful good.

I honestly didn't expect any of the other characters to actually want to fuck him but am pleased with this outcome.
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No. 107207 ID: a107fd

Line 5: Speleid is to cave as dryad is to tree. More information about their typical traits is available in GURPS Underground Adventures.

Line 8: The Old God whose sacred number is 4 is literally the sun. It's what this setting has instead of an Elemental Plane of Fire. You can get there with any of the usual methods of cross-planar travel. Sunspots (observable through a telescope, with suitable precautions) are continent-sized floating cities ruled by fire-aspect genies. "Heliocentric religions who insist their faith is the only way" are as rare, and widely mocked, as IRL flat-earthers.

Line 10: Trying to get any Old God's direct personal attention is almost exactly as wise as poking Azathoth with a pointy stick. Accordingly, it might be more interesting to swap those two goals. http://www.balderdashcomic.com/comic/iii51

Line 12: Involuntary physical effects means it's not a suitable power, but might work as a mutation or vulnerability. Bears comparison to the example princess's vulnerability... or for that matter, mutation, but spinning off into something like ball lightning or will o' wisps.

Line 14: Impossible to conceal the fact that you're a dangerous supernatural being means it's not a suitable trait at all.

Line 20: This is much more like the kind of thing an innate power should be. Some 'smart weapons' may even be persuaded to turn against a cruel or unworthy master. http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch02/ch02_27.html http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch02/ch02_33.html

Line 24: Yes.

Line 26: This is a plausible extension of that same power, just as Vos's eye can't count as mutation and vulnerability both.

Line 28: The "race" field is mechanically irrelevant. Shoehorn your template into those four traits, or don't take it.

Line 30: Summarize that as "super drowning skills." I'll spare you the TVTropes link.

Line 42: Some sort of crowbar/spork hybrid is acceptable. Inefficient on low-density stuff, reduced reach, but sturdy and versatile.

Line 50: Before the Church of Orcus moved in and allied with them, local goblinoids primarily revered certain sites of geothermal activity. Perhaps some relevant divinity laid with one of those remaining faithful geyser-worshippers, with the intention of creating a political pawn.
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No. 107214 ID: a107fd

>>107204
Short answer, no. Riding a horse underground means you could be banging your head on a 10' high ceiling, hundreds of pounds of meat when the poor thing expires would render food rationing largely irrelevant, action economy...

Fundamentally, an animal companion or slave is most likely too heavy to carry, and/or significantly more expensive than a masterwork sword (the biggest, fanciest nonmagical blade TL 4 money can buy is $18,000, slaves for construction labor average $24,000, any slave capable of really skilled work would likely be worth at least twice that much... someone you'd trust to carry a deadly weapon, while watching your back, alone in the dark... that's a whole new batch of multipliers), or at the very least not considered an "item." If you want multiple characters under your control, go multiball, or figure out a reliable way to manipulate NPCs.

That being said, a 'minor permanent magic item' could be something like a tiny bejeweled clockwork beetle, or maybe a plain-looking statuette of a hawk or a housecat, which can be animated to serve as a scout, messenger, and/or assassin. Exact costs and limitations are negotiable, but such a thing will mainly be a quirky, dangerous toy rather than a top-of-the-line milspec reaver drone.
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No. 107220 ID: 3abd97

>>107207
Oh geeze. The whole point of a pm was to not clutter up the thread with potential future characters, but if you're going to get everyone else all curious with half a conversation I might as well provide the rest of the context. http://pastebin.com/Tgc6fHRF

>Heliocentric religions mocked
Bit of an unclear worldplay on my part there. I meant "religions centered / focused on the sun" not "religions founded on our model of a solar system." (Although with the lore just provided they'd both pretty much be equally open for mockery; sun worship sounds like asking for trouble).

>More information about their typical traits is available in GURPS Underground Adventures
I don't have access to this tome, and google has proven unable to provide a convenient online repository short of pirating or purchasing the sourcebook.

If spelieds are to the earth as classical dryads are to trees, I'm guessing the important overview is made of a specific kind of stone rather than meat, crystals for hair, and broadly elveniod? (And don't cut down their tree dig up their vein).

>The "race" field is mechanically irrelevant
Yes, yes, but it's a lot more fun flavor wise to be able to slap something on and have an easy reference. I mean, names are irrelevant too, but we add those for the same reason.

>power / mutation stuff
Okay, I think I can restructure / rework that accordingly with active elements under power and passive / involuntary under mutation in a way that will make sense.

Probably going to end up making more sense going with your suggested background rather than the initial spelied idea to avoid trying to justify a way too many things under mutation.

>Impossible to conceal the fact that you're a dangerous supernatural being means it's not a suitable trait at all.
Being un-able to conceal a supernatural nature is a deal-breaker for traits in general, or just active abilities in particular? Requiring active powers have an off switch makes a certain amount of sense, but something that complicates your life by marking a character openly seems like an interesting thing to play with to me. (And that's basically what the example princess has, doesn't she?).

>ambitions
Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Yeah. I had an idea on how to approach a character who's noblest ambition is absurd / nigh un-achievable / based in a fundamental misunderstanding of how the world works, but having it both be readily achievable and completely suicidal does pretty much break it. A sort of moth to flame thing is an interesting and on point suggestion, although I have to think about how I'd want to handle that.
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No. 107227 ID: af6e04

>>107220
This is a really cool concept! The ambitions are cute, even if they don't work out exactly the way you were thinking.

Since we're posting character ideas, here's the Badass Normal I was going to make if something ever happened to Vos...

Helen Nabot
Class: Townie
Ambitions: Ending the curse that will one day erase the reality of her existence / Writing
Mutation: The Cosmic Maw, a giant toothy mouth on her back that represents the terrible curse that eats her past, starting from her birth and moving forward.

Left Hip: Arrows (crossbow)
Right Hip: Shovel
Left Shoulder: Echoes of the Old World - An Abridged Account of Observed Abominations and Phenomena
Right Shoulder: Crossbow
Chest/Neck: Moldy tome of ancient curses, purchased from a collector with the only money she owned that had not been swallowed by the removal of cause from effect
Top of Head: Plate Armor
Somewhere Uncomfortable: Opium

Once an intellectual of some wealth and renown, she somehow managed to offend a dragon and was cursed to be stricken from existence. She believes her salvation may lie within the secrets of the old empire.
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No. 107232 ID: a107fd

>>107220
>sun worship sounds like asking for trouble
Praying to the Old Gods on a transactional sort of basis is fine. Number four in particular provides perennially popular effects such as miraculous healing, righteous charisma, and simple clear-cut solutions to complicated problems. (It must be noted that these are not necessarily good solutions. All too often they end up being downright horrific. If you want a god who can cope with ambiguity, stop staring directly into the sun.) It's only the claim of a monopoly over such things which attracts derisive mockery. The Old Gods do not play favorites. It's like saying you've managed to cram a million-mile-wide round peg through a 10' square hole.

>Being un-able to conceal a supernatural nature is a deal-breaker for traits in general, or just active abilities in particular?
All traits, but only for a dangerous supernatural nature. Point is to be able to operate easily back in town.
>example princess
Occasional dramatically-appropriate sparkles, cherry blossoms, cheerful ambient music, and pervasive yet pleasant perfume may make it hard to sneak past any remotely competent sentry, but won't have random shopkeepers howling for the town guards or other emergency services. Swirling barely-controlled fires? Probably will.

>>107227
Looks good, with one caveat: Helen is deeply mistaken about what the curse actually does.

Permanent, irrevocable destruction is an absolute impossibility within the setting's metaphysics. An angry god could smash somebody's body, burn it to ashes, obliterate the ashes, eat their soul, erase the memories of everyone who ever met them, redact every document and crush every monument that ever bore their name, but that whole mess wouldn't stop some chump, anywhere in existence, maybe the very next day or maybe thousands of years later, from bringing the target of all that wrath back to life. Usual standard is three ninth-circle Wish spells: one for the information necessary to clearly specify who you want, one to gather and/or recreate the parts, and one for the actual reassembly/resurrection. For someone murdered less thoroughly, it tends to be much easier.

Smart folks who want to put some entity out of circulation long term generally try to keep the subject alive, inside a multilayered mix of active and passive defenses. Depending on power levels and resource budgets, this basic 'sealed evil in a can' idea covers anything from The Man In The Iron Mask to Cthulhu.
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No. 107236 ID: a9068b

>>107232
Fine with me. Helen is on standby.
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No. 107246 ID: 3abd97

Okay, he's a second draft that should be more workable. A baker fire-bender has too much amusing mundane utility to pass up. Behold, the baker-mage. A change in character motivations meant rethinking equipment, where I took at least one liberty taking something not on the list.


tl;dr- dungeon meshi meets fire bender meets language barriers
http://pastebin.com/Sfh30QZk


>Swirling barely-controlled fires
I was thinking something reasonably predictable like Dhaos' balls https://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/talephantasia/sheet/13788/ (can't seem to find a handy gif, so have a sprite sheet) or ioun stones, rather than say http://lahainatown.com/images/hawaii-dangers/fire-dancing.jpg

The uncontrolled bit being the mood-ring like nature of her flames to vary appearance / presentation, rather than what they're doing. (Warm flame, "cold"/harsh flame, friendly looking, vicious looking, twinkly, soft, wan, etc).
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No. 107253 ID: a107fd

>>107246
Looks good overall. As a technicality, fire immunity should be part of the power, and extend (imperfectly) to her equipment. It's like diplomatic immunity: flames hesitate and ask permission, by tickling her skin, before inflicting damage. She can also extend the protection to items she's not carrying (though not directly to actual creatures) by marking them as official correspondence and reciting a short prayer. Concealing an ordinary paper document inside a lit hearth, then retrieving it intact after the logs have burned down to ashes, is easy; turning beekeeper suits into volcano-exploration gear for her friends might be trickier to justify. Poking her with a lit torch is a great way to wake her up, similar to a bucket of water on most people, while dumping an actual bucket of water on her would probably be interpreted as a terrifying assassination attempt. Deliberate choice (for some ritual?), extreme confusion, mind control, or suicidal despair could cause her to give up (more precisely, fail to reflexively invoke) that protection, and fire controlled by magic can push through her immunity on the same criteria that could cause it to ignore her influence, though not as easily.

Keeping 'mood-ring' fires suppressed is comparable to deliberately shallow breathing: physical exertion costs twice as much FP, and rest provides only half the normal benefit, but it is possible to maintain while asleep, with enough practice. Might have meditative benefits.

Total lack of fluency in goblin language seems inconsistent with the backstory.
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No. 107256 ID: 3abd97

>As a technicality, fire immunity should be part of the power, and extend (imperfectly) to her equipment
Yeah that's fine. I was thinking passive equals mutation, but that makes logical sense.

>Total lack of fluency in goblin language seems inconsistent with the backstory.
Derp. I was thinking they were native earth-speakers still. Should just swap the earth 3 for gobo 3 (with possible lesser additions if there are multiple related dialects like elvish. Might make sense if the deep tribes still following the old ways of fire worship speak something a little different than the shallower tribes doing the more "modern" Orcus worship).

>is comparable to deliberately shallow breathing
Yeah, putting it in terms of breathing is pretty much how I was thinking of it. Probably mostly not an option to keep them tamped down in active combat, involved casting, in the middle of ritual magic, etc.


Okay, seems good to have on standby until (if/when) something disables Dav and gives me an excuse to multiball or reason to bring in a replacement.
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No. 107264 ID: 77f1b6

Good luck Dav. Time to make an earthquake level tear in space time
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No. 107269 ID: 3abd97

>>107264
Well I stopped just short of a crit failure, I think, but yeah I'm probably looking at an earthquake to prevent falling to death. Sorry, Ji, falling rocks.

Unless Hore running out at the last minute to calculate angles and position things pushes me over the edge. :V

It was kind of cool we found a way up that involved using multiple powers working together. Looks like things won't be that easy, though.
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No. 107274 ID: 3abd97

Wooooo! Apparently putting everything in dexterity pays off.

>barely survives a bad roll on something dangerous
>kome gets a damn near perfect roll to catch my boot.

I am laughing my ass off.
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No. 107276 ID: 77f1b6

>>107274
Hey that's important stuff- if that boot doesn't get stopped it'll shatter our painstakingly crafted mirror, maybe worse. I doubt that'd be helpful for us, considering without it, we might have trouble getting anyone else up since you might not be able to see the top of the shaft any more in the case you portaled back down to let us up
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No. 107277 ID: 750f88

Almost there, I need to hurry before one of you fucks with my children. I'm reading in horror at all these ideas of thinning my heard and mutating/mutilating them.
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No. 107278 ID: af6e04

>before one of you fucks with my children
I'm so sorry
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No. 107279 ID: 77f1b6

>>107277
Sorry mate- to eric they're just as deserving of respect as the rest of us. To "the rest of us" though, they're expendable. Eric is probably gonna have a hard time convincing pc the zombies lives are just as valuable as theirs- not that it isn't admirable, or incredibly endearing. Of course, the PCs probably won't find it endearing that Eric wants them to risk their own skin instead of the regenerating deathless meat puppets that tried to kill them. Hopefully we won't have to sacrifice anyone if everything goes well which it so far isn't but hey, who's counting
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No. 107283 ID: 77f1b6

Also Dav sorry about Maru hearding people up your half finished portal, possibly onto you- she knows your portals don't last forever, knows they can't stay in this tunnel forever, and isn't confident that Davina can portal back down and then up again, so she saw you land and crossed her fingers, hoping trusting that if Dav made it to the ledge, they could too. She wasn't privy to the sword fumbles, and with the boot falling and nearly breaking the mirror, she was more worried about people getting stranded at the bottom than falling down the tunnel. Here's to hoping we don't fall 300 feet and die, or 9 distance units and break ourselves and eachother
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No. 107284 ID: 3abd97

>>107283
You can see Dav's ass hanging off the cliff above you, you saw Hore stab her fallen boot out of the air in front of you, you saw Vos jump to the rescue, and anyone who looks up (which really is the direction of interest right now) should be able to plainly see the portal hanging mid air in a location that's not safe. After you were advised to stay back and that this wouldn't be safe if something went wrong.

There's no in-universe way Maru can't know something is wrong unless she's willfully ignoring what's in front of her face, hallucinating, or doing it on purpose.

It's bad enough the dice aren't with me tonight. Please don't compound it by making bad calls that don't actually make sense.
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No. 107285 ID: 77f1b6

>>107284
Sorry I guess I missed something OOC? You're talking about jumping a lot which I'm not really sure about how that's working. I guess I just didn't really think it was a bad call- Maru can see you hanging clearly in need of help, but other than that I don't think I can see anything else that went wrong right? From her perspective, you portaled up, and are hanging on the ledge, but other than that it looks safe, vs us being stuck at a dead end, with a slime that may or may not be dead slowly advancing, no other ways to get out if you can't get us up the tunnel, and a dungeon full of monsters probably hustling towards the screaming they heard. It just seemed like keeping everyone together, towards a supposed exit, and not stuck in a dead end as food for whatever's coming was worth the risk of things going wrong. I can see why going up is dangerous, but it feels like staying down is also dangerous, and at least up and dangerous has the possibility of an exit right?

Like I said though I am sorry- it seemed like what Maru would do, and I guess because I'm not quite understanding everything that's going on it may be a lot worse or more inherently risky than how I'm perceiving it OOC, so I'm making my pc do stupid things. Worst comes to worst though it's not like we don't have extra characters ready to go- I know no one wants to die, that's not exactly fun, but I figured this is kind of an unforgiving setting, built to mow through characters who are unlucky or dumb or both me being dumb, you being unlucky
I came into expecting that not everyone would make it out, but I pinky promise I'm not doing dumb stuff on purpose because I don't care if we survive. I really do hope this goes well and we all make it out.
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No. 107286 ID: 3abd97

>I guess I missed something
>but other than that it looks safe
That's what you missed. It doesn't look safe.

If you look though the portal, it doesn't show you anywhere to stand, it's facing open air and the ceiling.

If you look up, you'll see the shimmering portal floating in mid air, somewhere in the middle of the shaft, not on the ledge where Dav and Vos are on. (And you can see up, thanks to the parabolic sun brick trick).

Trying to herd the entire party through means either having them step off a 400ft elevator shaft, or trying to have everyone make the jump, and not everyone is terribly athletic, and some of us are tired or injured.

Trying to rush to help makes sense. Trying to force everyone off a cliff or to make a dangerous jump in a hurry? A lot less so.
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No. 107287 ID: 77f1b6

>>107286
>somewhere in the middle of the shaft
I think that's where I'm tripping up- knew there were 2 portals, but I thought one went to the ceiling, and from there the second one trying to get to the floor got bungled. If it's halfway through the shaft, did Dav only ever see the floor coming out of the second portal, but because she lacked momentum she ended up falling straight back down rather than towards the floor?

Also, still confused about the jumping bit- are we supposed to jump between the portals in the middle of the shaft? Or jump out the top of the second portal to the floor? I was figuring on Maru being able to see up given that it's essentially a shaft of broad daylight, and I can probably hear things going on, but without being able to breath I didn't think Davina was able to warn anyone, so I didn't realize we knew it was more dangerous than dangling off the ledge.

I saw that I would need a roll, but given Maru and Ji's mistrust of eachother, and my current lack of a firm grasp on whats going on, I'm just gonna refrain from meddling until the situation resolves for better or worse, as it's clear Maru has not been very helpful since we started.
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No. 107288 ID: 3abd97
File 148342235229.png - (8.85KB , 800x600 , really crap map.png )
107288

Yeah, the portals got a little confusing. Here's what happened:

Dav opened her first portal mid air, and high, so she's have a second or two at the top of her jump out of it to try and see the room in front of her. Somewhere iddle of the shaft in terms of xy, not z).

She then tried to push off something solid mid air and portal down to the ledge she saw.

The portal cut failed. The cut in reality was a "graze". A funny looking ripple you couldn't pass through.

So Dav went for plan B- try and get on the ledge the hard way. And barely made it.

Which means the only set of active portals opens mid air and requires a bit of athletics to make the jump.
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No. 107289 ID: af6e04

How we got into the situation is a little complicated, but from what I am able to tell there is one portal on the party's level that leads to an exit that is a very precarious distance away from safety. Davina fell nearly thirty feet to reach solid ground, and also had to traverse a non-trivial horizontal distance. It's certainly not a short hop.

>I saw that I would need a roll, but given Maru and Ji's mistrust of eachother, and my current lack of a firm grasp on whats going on, I'm just gonna refrain from meddling until the situation resolves for better or worse, as it's clear Maru has not been very helpful since we started.

I hope you won't be this way just because of a misread situation. I know things are tense right now, but I don't think anybody wants you to quit participating.
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No. 107291 ID: 2169b1

So I figured I should ask, would Maria's phobia expand to the scent and/or sight of excess blood? Because if so, Maria may freak out a little when they arrive. And so will Daniel, because someone's injured. And basically Maria's gonna cause another fucking scene and it'll be absolutely humiliating.

...no joke, I am actually having way too much fun with this.
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No. 107292 ID: 750f88

Oi Gm. Lets say a member of our party dies, then was brought back to life as an undead. Would they be able to use their power/ability as an undead?

For example. If Vos fell in the heat of combat, and i rezzed him, would his zombie be able to mutate people.
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No. 107293 ID: 750f88

>>107292
Just for this example lets assume im the one who killed em, and resurrection was possible.
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No. 107294 ID: a107fd

>>107288
Pretty good map, actually. Players should be drawing maps more often.

One other interesting detail I don't think I explained: Vos was able to cross more horizontal distance than Davina did, coming out of the top portal, because he didn't have any reason to tap the ceiling. Davina ran into the portal going straight ahead, for a high narrow arc, while Vos threw himself feet-first at an angle more toward the floor, like somebody going into an amusement-park waterslide, resulting in more of a flat exit trajectory.
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No. 107296 ID: 3abd97

>>107294
I'm already kicking myself for it being wrong as the shaft was described as coming up the center of the room, not touching the edge of it.

Honestly I would do more maps but the rooms are annoyingly irregular enough I can't do them easily digitally, and there's enough play in how the rooms might line up that it's kind of frustrating to do them by hand without the ability to easily slide pieces around.

Trying to make a big map of stuff is still on the to do list, though.

>>107293
Harsh. Lesson learned: don't mess with Eric's children, or he'll murder you.
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No. 107297 ID: a107fd

>>107291
Yeah, feel free to roll for the phobia. Considering kinematics, some of that blood probably sprayed or spilled in such a way as to fall down the shaft. Somebody staring upward, mouth hanging open in awe and confusion, might even accidentally catch a drop on their tongue like a snowflake.

>>107292
Basic non-intelligent 'shamblers' don't retain any of the abilities they had in life, other than those implied by body structure. If you want something fancier than that, gain more levels and/or invest in elaborate ritual preparation.

Regardless, an undead Decaro Vos would probably not retain his patron goddess's favor.
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No. 107298 ID: 77f1b6

>>107289
>I don't think anybody wants you to quit participating.

I hope not! Sorry if I came accross as mopey, I was more trying to say that I/Maru have been making bad decisions pretty consistently since we started, and it was clear I didn't understand what was happening currently. As a result of those two things, interacting with Ji would be ill advised, as would be trying to make a decision based on a circumstance I didn't quite comprehend. So I wanted to talk it out, get a better grasp, and let other people take actions before I tried anything, for fear of inadvertently killing anyone. Not upset with anyone OOC, and I hope no one OOC is upset with me despite the goof ups, I just thought it would be better to figure out whats going on before I try to act any more.
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No. 107299 ID: 77f1b6

>>107297
>probably not retain his patron goddess's favor.

Especially given her dislike for the undead.
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No. 107300 ID: 2169b1

>2, 6, 5 for phobia roll

Allow Maria to sing you the song of her people.

*clears throat*

"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH-"
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No. 107301 ID: 2169b1

>>107300
Whoops, I was wrong. Maria will apparently not be singing the song of her people...

Which is a good thing, I suppose!
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No. 107310 ID: a9068b

>Are you feeling it now Mr Krabs
This is the best outcome I could have hoped for *click clack*

Also welcome new player. Initiation screech!
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No. 107312 ID: 2169b1

>>107310
TFW the terrifying mutant claw will probably not dissuade Daniel very much, if at all.

But yes, hello, new friend! Welcome to our special hell!
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No. 107313 ID: 9f3729

Taking this in here now since I don't wanna clog the thread!
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No. 107315 ID: 4c2788

I don't think Eric would ever murder one of his companions, but his mood is slowly declining and so is his awareness. I hope he doesn't crash too soon.
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No. 107328 ID: 9f3729

RIP Geoffrey Vargas, "crit failed a pole vault across a trap room"
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No. 107329 ID: 74621b

>>/quest/770165
>>/quest/770167
>>/quest/770176
>phobia and innate ability are WAY too broad
>(no suggestion for replacement)
>>/quest/770182
>planning to keep his phobia of everything
>perhaps instead of easy escapes he's just supernaturally fast
>>/quest/770192
>enchanted belt which provides enhanced strength and/or speed
>brand could also make monsters prefer him
>you can simply choose to respond to [mortal peril] in a cowardly sort of way without being compelled to do so
>consider those examples [of available alternate powers]
>>/quest/770202
>I'll go with that!
>>/quest/770247
>in the starting room

Okay, JamesLeng must have read something I didn't, because as far as I can see, Geoffrey Vargas is still missing some key features. What is his phobia? "Everything dangerous" was rejected twice, but no substitute was given. What is his ability? "Escaping anything" was rejected. The Houdini skillset was given to him as a specialization. Supernatural speed was turned into his Rich Bastard magic item. Making monsters prefer him seems to be a passive effect of being branded, (Berserk, much?) which is his mutation. Other options for powers were given, but the answer given amounts to giving an eager "Yes!" to a multiple choice question, which apparently was good enough for to get him placed in the starting room as a valid, complete character. Is his phobia "everything"? Is his power "making escape trivial"? What am I supposed to put on the wiki?
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No. 107330 ID: 9f3729

Well shit, that's a good point! For some reason I thought I'd gotten that, I think I confused ambition with phobia somehow.
I'm a bit delirious since I've been up a bit too long trying to reset my sleep cycle, apologies for all the confusion here.

I'm picking his personality together largely from characters like Rincewind, the "heroic coward" type, so his phobias have to be at least somewhat generalized to work around that. His answer to most situations is going to be "run very fast in the opposite direction."

If I had to nail anything specific down as a primary fear, though, it'd probably be witches and warlocks. Casters terrify him since they're the whole reason for his curse deal.

His magic thing gives him general heightened speed and strength as described in the post. Nothing especially crazy like lifting boulders, it's essentially an adrenaline boost so he can either run very fast away, or fight like a proper cornered rat.
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No. 107331 ID: 398fe1

>>107329
He just has a mutation. No phobia, no vulnerability. He has an enchanted belt but no supernatural ability.
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No. 107333 ID: a107fd

>>107331
This is correct.

>>/quest/765391
>Pick either a phobia, a concealable mutation/parasite, or a supernatural vulnerability - or all three plus an innate power.

Most people have been going for the complex option this time, since it comes with more powers, but it remains possible to be a relatively normal human.

>>107330
To reduce confusion, please post the complete character sheet as you currently understand it.
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No. 107335 ID: 74621b

>>107333
I've posted the character details as I currently understand them on the wiki, so feel free to point out if I've mistaken anything.
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No. 107337 ID: 3abd97

Jan 03 17:59:19 <mageykun>Well, I suppose it's still sort of random which tile(s) he actually ends up falling on. The funniest possible result would be if he knocked himself out slamming into the reward tile.


I can't believe I called that.
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No. 107338 ID: 9f3729

>>107337
I crit-failed so hard god themself decided to take pity on me, this is an incredible start already
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No. 107342 ID: af6e04

>>107337
>I crit-failed so hard god themself decided to take pity on me, this is an incredible start already

Oh my god this is hilarious
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No. 107346 ID: 750f88

Man, Eric should try his hand at this puzzle for that no sleep perk.
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No. 107350 ID: 3abd97

>>107346
You won't need sleep once you're an undead lich anyways!

...actually, what circle magic would necromutation be in this setting, anyways? How far off is that goal for Eric? Makes sense for it to be long term, but it would be really interesting for the party to participate in the ritual / actually get to travel with a lich instead of it being in the distant endgame.

(Need someone to land the finishing blow? A blade to the heart is nice and quick, and won't damage any of the parts you plan on keeping).
>>
No. 107361 ID: af6e04

>>107350
That does sound fun, but you will assuredly need to find a new eel-man friend.
>>
No. 107364 ID: af6e04

At least, unless Lord Grimwold can turn him into an undead pawn like he was asking about.
>>
No. 107366 ID: 77f1b6

Surely both Eric and Vos are too nice to let their religious difference result in a fight to the death, no?
>>
No. 107368 ID: a107fd

>>107350
Reliably creating intelligent undead is 6th circle magic, and "self-made" necromancers tend to be capable of that, but becoming a lich is an intensely personalized ritual, not a repeatable spell. Theoretically someone could do it with little or no magic or skills of their own, although they'd need some exceedingly powerful and generous friends. Three key elements: a small kingdom's worth of materials and workmanship for the phylactery (roughly $3*10^7), an exotic alchemical poison to 'save a template' while the body's functions shut down (far cheaper in absolute terms, but involves dealing with unsavory types just to get a reliable recipe), and magic to bind it all together, somehow involving the Old God whose sacred number is 0 (portfolio includes beauty, physical prowess, void, and the horror of non-being which precedes existence).
>>
No. 107372 ID: 77f1b6

>>107368
Holy shit that is a lotta dosh. So far, with no tangible loot, and a fair bit of bad luck, it's doubtful we'll get that kind of capital in a game, even if we get to the city building stage. Good luck sirrah.
>>
No. 107373 ID: 3abd97

>>107361
Resolving interesting and complex doctrinal / philosophical differences between party members is part of the fun!

>>107368
>>107372
Well, we might still make a sizeable find before we leave the dungeon, and if nothing else, we can make an annotated map of what we explored and discovered and sell that.

And if/when we roam the world outside of the dungeon money making becomes a littler more reliable, since we have an improved ability to pick battles on our own terms, instead of having all our choices dictated by the environment. (Provided we can agree on things and not dither forever).
>>
No. 107375 ID: af6e04

>>107366
It depends on how 'megalomaniacal necromancer lord' Eric decides to go. Remember, Vos' higher ambition is defending the weak, which means he's not willing to put the gains of the party over the needs of others. If any of his companions decide to start murderboning people for personal gain or any other reason then he will try to put a stop to it.

>Resolving interesting and complex doctrinal / philosophical differences between party members is part of the fun!
An eel-man's gotta draw the line somewhere though! I can retire the character if the party's values start to diverge too much from his own.
>>
No. 107378 ID: 77f1b6

>>107373
>Well, we might still make a sizeable find

The most expensive thing we found was worth 3 and a half million, and after that we turned that into something useful, we were squabbling over 1000 gold pieces at a time. In turn, if I'm counting my zeros right, the lichdom procedure costs over 300 million. That's 2 orders of magnitude larger than any kind of wealth we've seen before. I seriously doubt we want to encounter any sort of area that contains that kind of wealth, given the likely hood something proportionally nasty will lay claim to it.

>megalomaniacal necromancer lord
Pretty sure at this point Eric has been nothing but overwhealming nice, same as Vos. We have little reason at this point IC and OOC to believe he'd want to go around murderhobo style to fule his necromantic hobbies. You two might not see eye to eye, but he hardly seems to be evil in action so much as more concerned with the fair and equal treatment of the dead than your average eel-man paladin.
>>
No. 107380 ID: 750f88

>>107378
I imagine eric as a Drew the Lich type character. Might have him become a death doctor down the line. If he travels with Hore, the bodies are sure to pile up. Maybe if he assists Davina in reclaiming her right to the throne or whatever he can rake in some followers.
>>
No. 107382 ID: 3abd97
File 148351152615.jpg - (149.13KB , 599x459 , YouKnowWhatThis RemindsMeOf.jpg )
107382

>The massive vault door has an elaborate and sturdy-looking locking mechanism, with dozens of bolts all around the perimeter, on display under a plate of magically reinforced glass. There's a little ratchet-wheel you can turn to unlock the whole thing, and then just push it open, but there's no apparent way to re-lock the door from this side.
>All that black marble, and the glass on the vault door, appears to have been enchanted to be ghost-proof.
>Some quality of the room's neat, tidy, perfectly square corners gives Davina the flickering heebie-jeebies
>Dav's vulnerable to certain warding effects and afraid of specific geometries (as might be used in some kind of seal)
...I have a sneaking suspicion we haven't found a way out at all, but instead a some kind of sealed something in a can.

Who wants to be the brave soul to peer in the glass window?

>>107380
Participating in honorable / justifiable conflicts and/or wars is certainly one way to accrue bodies for an undead horde if you need to be able to claim credit for the kills and want to limit the bad publicity / general ill will you accumulate doing so.

Honestly, more than anything else, I think Dav might see associations with longer lived (well maybe life is the wrong term) entities like Eric would be and Ji already is as a kind of networking. Besides the obvious benefits of useful allies in the present, friendly contacts who will be around for a while might be positively disposed to one's heir's and descendants. Hey there lich king my great-grandmother once helped, I could really use a favor.
>>
No. 107384 ID: af6e04

I'm just saying! An undead army can only be used for one thing! Unless Eric plans on having his skelly knights build roads and playground equipment.

Vos certainly has no negative feelings for Eric so far, aside from the religious disagreement which he can overlook.
>>
No. 107398 ID: a107fd

>>107378
>if I'm counting my zeros right, the lichdom procedure costs over 300 million. That's 2 orders of magnitude larger than any kind of wealth we've seen before.

Off by an order of magnitude, there. Hundreds of millions would be 10^8. Still, yes, that is a big investment, all the more so since it needs to be mostly in the form of highly skilled labor, working a small item to unique specifications, rather than simple stuff like stone and timber and grain and ingots, or even mass-production finished goods. If immortality was something any old duke or countess could achieve without putting a serious dent in the budget, to the point of maybe damaging the whole economic structure of their own realm and any major trade partners, it would be a lot more common. Not everybody is going to have moral objections.

>>107382
>Who wants to be the brave soul to peer in the glass window?
There isn't any window going all the way through. Only hole in that multi-inch-thick steel is the bearing for the axle on which the central cog of the locking mechanism turns.
>>
No. 107400 ID: 9f3729

In case anyone's wondering where I got the text runes:

https://www.furorteutonicus.eu/germanic/runescribe/index.php
>>
No. 107402 ID: 2588b2

>>107384
kekekekekekek. Nah. Totally don't plan on doing anything evil with an army of the dead.
>>
No. 107403 ID: 3d2d5f

>wakes up to find the corpse fairy has left gold under his metaphorical pillow
Riot your luck is amazing.
>>
No. 107405 ID: 2169b1

>>107403

WHO NEEDS COURAGE WHEN YOU'VE GOT LUCK LIKE THIS?

I think all of Maria's incredibly shitty luck is just acting as a counterweight to this.
>>
No. 107406 ID: a107fd

There's an option in GURPS Horror for voluntarily accepting a more severe result on a fright check than the dice would otherwise indicate. If Davina and Vos are momentarily incapacitated by their respective phobias, Helen and Rhea would be able to join up with Geoffrey. On the other hand, something is concealed in that room which Vos's third eye would be helpful for spotting.
>>
No. 107410 ID: 3d2d5f

>>107406
Honestly I wanted to fail that check, yeah. Dav being locked out of phase for a while is the safest excuse to multiball, and it gives the rest of the group a chance to shine against whatever's in here.

Maria probably makes a fine ghost buster, and who knows, maybe a spiritual axe will work too.
>>
No. 107411 ID: 4c2788

Eric's undead boner is alerting him of a boss battle. A ruin filled with elvinoid undead, a room sealed from the inside, an elvinoid corpse sitting on a throne.

Totally going to come to life, control our minions, and fuck us.
>>
No. 107413 ID: 2169b1

Maria is having none of this shit, and is fully prepared to smite some rotting ass as soon as it starts shambling for her.
>>
No. 107416 ID: 37ebd5

>>107406
Sounds fine to me. It'll hurt to is away a decent roll though haha
>>
No. 107417 ID: 37ebd5

Throw* away. I guess autocorrect has gone completely rogue
>>
No. 107418 ID: b8bbf0

Time to earn some brownie points from the other royal party member. Eric is going to save ze girl while you guys deal with lich lord.
>>
No. 107419 ID: a107fd

>>107417
What harebrained algorithm corrects "throw" to "is" when they don't have a single letter in common?

>>107411
The word "elvenoid" is an artifact of in-setting linguistic politics. It refers to the entire spectrum from elves to orcs, with humans in the middle, and would more rightly be called "humanoid," if only certain bigoted elves didn't have so much influence on public education by virtue of their longevity.

"Elvenoid corpse" mostly just means two arms, two legs, upright posture somewhere between five and seven feet tall, with no huge horns, scary teeth, other obvious deviations.
>>
No. 107420 ID: b8bbf0

>>107419
Ohhhhh i was thinkin like they all were short and had pointy teeth and ears.
>>
No. 107421 ID: 74621b

>>107419
>autocorrect algorithm
Two possibilities:
1. On a phone in qwerty using swipe typing, thrOW can become IS if the screen didn't register the first second of input, since O is right next to I and W is right next to S.
2. The autocorrect is trying to predict words based on common sentences, and erroneously selected "is away" as two words most commonly next to each other.
>>
No. 107424 ID: 37ebd5

>>107421
I think it was the latter, but it's possible that 'autocorrect' is just a code word for my slipping sanity. I'm sure I typed throw though.
>>
No. 107425 ID: 3abd97

I understand if people opt not to risk getting stranded at the top of the shaft, in maybe a dead end, with the portal maker down (or the rushing to my rescue! That's awful sweet of you). Hore found evidence there's some way to walk up / down the shaft though, and that there might be a mechanism that controls that up top. Someone might want to look into that while you still can? Might make getting up or down safer / possible even with Dav down. (She's only supposed to be passed out for five minutes, but conceivably the intangibility could take longer to wear off).

So if I wanna multiball, should I post the final version of Rhea's stats in the main thread, or am I just waiting for her to get dropped into a starting room?
>>
No. 107427 ID: 37ebd5

Vos has already jumped blindly into danger after Davina twice. Why wouldn't he do it a third time?
>>
No. 107433 ID: a107fd

>>107425
>post the final version of Rhea's stats in the main thread

Yes, do this. Also include an initial action and corresponding roll.
>>
No. 107435 ID: a107fd

>>107433
Just to clarify, Rhea will be starting in the chessboard room, seeing Geoffrey Vargas amid the signs of a recent battle.
>>
No. 107436 ID: 9f3729

>>107435
Oh boy, finally a reason to talk to someone! Provided I don't pass out again.
>>
No. 107437 ID: dc887b
File 148358686119.jpg - (109.91KB , 436x636 , IMG_5298.jpg )
107437

To provide some reference, 400 feet is really fucking tall
>>
No. 107442 ID: 9f3729

Out of curiosity, what would happen if I tried a full heal right now? Like, would I black out but wake up ok or would I just die immediately?
>>
No. 107450 ID: a107fd

>>107442
With 8 FP remaining and no energy reserve? First you'd bottom out your FP (to -10), and take 12 HP of injury, putting you at -58, two points from certain death. Crossing the threshold of -50 means you'd have to roll for a mortal wound, but on a failure by 3 or more (which would normally mean instant death) you stay alive (at -50 instead of -58), but the spell automatically fails due to insufficient power. If you succeed at that roll, and the roll to actually cast the spell, then you're back to full HP, good as new. Still need to rest and recover all that fatigue, though, which would take two or three hours. Food helps. Fail the roll to cast the spell, you're still out the FP, and probably spend those hours unconscious due to the new injury. Crit-fail the roll to cast the spell, especially in an environment like the Bloodmist Labyrinth? Something really bad happens. If you're familiar with the 40k RPGs, Dark Heresy and so on, suffice it to say I have a comparable "Perils of the Warp" table ready.
>>
No. 107451 ID: 9f3729

>>107450
On the one hand, I REALLY want to roll those dice, critical failure is my favorite kind of failure.
On the other hand, I already have concept art for Geoffrey half sketched up in the vague hopes he contributes to the story.
Also wouldn't fit with Geoffrey's risk-averse nature, bleh.

Guess I'm sticking with med-heals, sleep, and conversation for a couple turns until I can walk along the dividing lines for a bit.
>>
No. 107455 ID: 2169b1

TFW the world (and her player) seem to conspire to make Maria say and do embarrassing things.

Can "Ominous Rope" be a meme?
>>
No. 107456 ID: a107fd

>>107451
Problem is, no matter how much energy you're willing to spend, at skill 12 you're only going to be able to hit yourself four times in a week with Major Healing and four more with Minor, and after the second success with either you're about as likely to botch as to achieve anything useful. The more of healing you spend digging yourself partway out of that hole, the less benefit Great Healing gives if it does work, and then you haven't got reliable reserves to deal with subsequent injuries. Of course, it would be better still not to be injured in the first place. How's that working out so far?
>>
No. 107457 ID: 3d2d5f

If I'd crit and fire-mom had given me the current location (or way to access) the boon square for free, I was totally going to take Master Tradecraft: Baking. Why not get the family's old business rival to pay for your education? Revenge sweet enough to frost a cake with. (Maybe toss in a bit of polyglot to address an obvious weakness justified as comprehending recipes).

Naive character with a silly ambition is great fun writing for. Hopefully she's lucky with random encounters or finding allies before her obvious unsuitedness for delving gets her.
>>
No. 107458 ID: 2169b1

>>107457
Baking so good it literally defies the natural order.
>>
No. 107459 ID: a107fd

>>107457
If fire-mom knew how to safely bypass the Church of Orcus's various horrific traps, the whole strategic situation would be different. Try asking Geoffrey, or Yisheng Ji.

Cooking skill lets you construct socially acceptable (and incidentally, non-transferable) bribes out of commonly available, relatively cheap materials. Bribery, in turn, can simplify (or outright solve) many conflicts. It's good enough for Ch'vorthq, http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2002-01-24 Jamie Halligan, http://www.leftoversoup.com/archive.php?num=602 and
Lizzie Shinkicker. http://lparchive.org/Princess-Maker-2/Update%2011/
>>
No. 107460 ID: 3d2d5f

Hahaha, if I run into things that can be placated with food (not sure that would work with the slimes and undead the others keep running into), I'm totally going to.

Best justification I can think of for breaking or cheating the board game might have been hacking it via the fire trap tile, which could have potentially have been identified and suborned. (The corpse might mark the current location, unless he was cooked by lightning, and if we assume they died after the board reset, not before). Moot point though, Rhea was given her answer, she's not gonna poke at things further.

Geoffrey's solution was kind of the opposite of "safely bypassing" the danger and maybe isn't the best source.
>>
No. 107462 ID: 9f3729

To answer your questions, absolutely fantastic.
Being near-death as your first action is really helping his mood. I'll probably be a crutchtacular weight on the party for a while until that heals, but I'm sure he'll learn something useful along the way at minimum.
Maybe.
Don't count on that, is what I'm hinting at here!

In more pressing terms, I'm unclear as to how far away the gold is, since I'm dumb. Will Geoff have it in his hands by the time Rhea reaches him, is it there already..?
Apologies for all my bumbling, it's been awhile since I've been in a campaign and I'm not used to needing in-depth reading comprehension again.
>>
No. 107463 ID: 4c2788

Time to fulfill my lower ambition.

There is a necrophiliac in this dungeon Davina
>>
No. 107464 ID: 3d2d5f

>>107462
The board is only about 40 ft across, and one casting let you move the bag up to 60 yards in a minute. We can safely assume Rhea's impromptu ritual and muddling through a written language she's got low proficiency in took more than a minute. So I'd say you should have it by now.

>>107463
Sounds like I picked a great time to be unconscious! I'm the only one in the room who won't need brain bleach.
>>
No. 107465 ID: 4c2788

>>107464
Meh, eric is going to be undead soon enough, so he might as well aim low.
>>
No. 107468 ID: 398fe1

>>107450
So with a max of 10 FP, he can't actually cast greater heal? I mean if it automatically fails due to insufficient power...
>>
No. 107469 ID: 9f3729

>>107468
fuck, meant to type minor heal
>>
No. 107471 ID: 74621b

>>107469
>>/quest/770710
>attempt high-risk high-reward Major Heal, nearly crit the roll, and then try to bring it down to a minor heal instead
But why? You know low numbers are better rolls, right?
>>
No. 107472 ID: 9f3729

>>107471
I mean yeah but I do try to play honest
I'll accept the greater heal if they go with that but eh, you know?
>>
No. 107473 ID: 398fe1

>>107469
Why are you replying to me?!
>>
No. 107477 ID: b9aa79

On the topic of eating eyes, I know your half goblin baker is more into pastries than cooking, but if anyone's gone finshing in the under-dark I bet they'd eat their food eyes involved:
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/03/06/172902511/eating-eyeballs-taboo-or-tasty

There's plenty of ways to eat eyes, and even if you don't usually candy them, I don't think its out of the question to have them boiled or cooked in some other manner before- maybe if she ever reaches the party they can all try a round of bear eye soup or something. Maru would have great fun watching other, more squeamish party members trying to figure out what to do when their food stares back at them.
>>
No. 107479 ID: 3abd97

>>107477
I was mostly trying to offer a joking reassurance, but yes, there will not be hangups about cooking up weird things to survive in the dungeon. An eyeball monster would be fair game. I mean, unless it's undead, poisonous, a construct, or an alien with hazardous chemical composition, it's probably edible after you kill it. (Sapient might get immolated for last rites instead, depending. Although in a dungeon crawl, a lot more than you expect might be sapient).

Fine dessert and baking is where her passion lies, but that doesn't mean the rest of the cooking spectrum is closed off. The dungeon is like Master Chef- you cook to the challenge presented to you.

Her interacting with Maru probably could be pretty funny (food for bardic language lessons strikes me as an obvious exchange, with amusing opportunities for misused vocabulary), too bad the rest of the party isn't going to be easy to bump into unless they're forced to double back. And Rhea's too nice to move on without seeing if there's anything she can do to keep her first surface dweller from dropping dead on her.
>>
No. 107481 ID: b9aa79

>>107479
she would 100% teach her swears under the guise of polite conversation for weird goblin food. I can just imagine a little baker half goblin going up to some merchant like "'ello ya cunt faced knob! Where can I get a cheeky bit 'o nutmeg?" *innocent smile*
>>
No. 107483 ID: b9aa79

@JamesLeng

I've been mulling over a few character ideas, and I wanted to know a little more about magically animated constructs and golems- are there any sort of standards or norms reguarding their function and creation in this setting?
>>
No. 107486 ID: a107fd

>>107468
Casting from hit points is possible when you're out of FP, or when long-term injury would be preferable to short-term exhaustion, but only if those hit point are actually present and available to be lost. Some dynastic sorcerers can deliberately kill themselves in the course of unleashing a final, devastating attack, or other magical effect at or beyond the usual peak of their abilities. but Geoffrey "The Coward" Vargas is not one of those.

>>107483
>magically animated constructs and golems- are there any sort of standards or norms reguarding their function and creation in this setting?

Major categories of known constructs:
-Clockworks. Some combat-rated types exist, but keeping one in workable condition under real battlefield conditions would be a logistical nightmare. Failed prototypes, training dummies, the occasional assassin. Mostly they're just toys and follies, physical evidence of long rivalries between engineers trying to outdo each other, and proof of concept for achieving unlikely tasks with little or no magic.
-Golemetry. Summon an elemental into a prepared shell, bind it with a snarl of geasa until it's got little or no free will. The design process involves at least as much work from logicians, tacticians, and martial artists, calculating and restricting possible responses to myriad problems too small for explicit orders in the moment ("Whenever a blade is coming toward you at such-and-such an angle, move your arm in this particular way to deflect it, unless..."). Some templates have known instabilities (attack subroutines that fail to terminate when enemies are dispatched, instead rolling on in a berserk rampage) and yet are manufactured regardless, partly because it's so difficult to track down and eliminate one flaw in the binding without introducing two more, and partly for strategic intimidation. Most common types are ogre-sized, few if any are smaller than that, but more powerful variants can be as large as castles. They are primarily war machines, made to rip open fortifications while resisting almost all spells and weapons, but also provide tireless heavy labor in peacetime. Anthropomorphic sword-and-sorcery armored vehicles, basically.
-Necrolithography. Kill somebody, leave an impression of their mind on an object. Same principle behind attic whisperers, 'haunted' dolls, psychometry, and the Speak With Dead spell, but set up under controlled conditions, and the donor is usually restored to life very shortly afterward. It's like waking up in the recovery room after some risky surgery, "you were technically dead for a few minutes there." If an iron golem is equivalent to a heavy tank with a bulldozer blade and nerve gas sprayers, a typical necrolithographic animated statue would be something more like a rusty Pinto with a cargo rack on the roof. Sometimes you're not trying to win the war at all costs; maybe you just need to deliver pizzas. More expensive than zombies, but not by too much when training time is taken into account, and they don't present any risk of disease. Far cheaper, pound for pound, than other construct types. They can be quirky, and are nigh impossible to adjust or reprogram short of scrapping and starting over, but background skills and knowledge of the world means they can deal with unexpected complications, so less supervision is required overall. The Mantis Courier Guild employs them extensively, often 'adopting' those which outlived the purposes for which they were created by other groups.
-Tesseract squid abide in prehuman cities deep under the sea, and are best left undisturbed.
>>
No. 107487 ID: 3d2d5f

>>/quest/770843
OOC commentary, since I'm neither awake nor tangible enough to participate in this negotiation.

>you and those who serve you will never strike the person of, nor speak harshly of, nor hold imprisoned, any faithful priest of the church Deggin Tar gave his life to protect, nor despoil and plunder any shrine or temple attended by such a priest
Unless Deggin Tar is sufficiently in universe famous that we have all heard of him, someone might want to confirm exactly which faith this is, so there are no mistakes on our part (no disrespect intended towards he whom you honor, lady). (Even if it is probably a safe assumption she means the church of Orcus).

If she does mean the church of Orcus, she might be pleased to hear modern worshippers still remember this place, as they directed us to her.

The fact these terms are all worded as "you and those who follow you" is kind of convenient. If we consider Eric party leader for at least the purpose of this agreement, everyone else is bound to these terms only until they leave his service. (And anything any of us kill is indirectly credited to Eric as far as his undead creating magic item is concerned).

>Hore want the undead Queen to study Dav
Is she trying to give Dav reasons to be upset with her now.

(For the record I'm probably going to object violently to being treated as a gifted magical puzzle to study if she takes that invitation that way).

>Geoffry stuff
Is transfer FP outgoing only? If he found a willing (or not so willing) donor, could he go over his own normal limit and avoid casting a full heal from hp?
>>
No. 107489 ID: 2169b1

I really hope mentioning The Demogorgon as if they were A Thing That Exists isn't a problem or anything. If I ever go too far with this sort of thing, I apologize!
>>
No. 107490 ID: b8bbf0

Should we add the appearances that people gave for their characters to the wiki?
>>
No. 107492 ID: 9ab5d3

>>107490
I don't see why not.
>>
No. 107493 ID: 3d2d5f

>>107489
Worst case Maria is just wrong about it being a thing that exists.
>>
No. 107502 ID: a107fd

>>107489
Honestly, while I've got the broad strokes of the setting worked out, the edges have plenty of space for less-immediately-relevant details to be filled in. "Here be dragons," although of course drakocrats would invert that classical notation. There's no exhaustive roster of demon lords anywhere in my notes; in-setting, it's at least conceivable there isn't even a countable number of them.

Now I'm picturing some gateway to the abyss with a velvet rope in front, entities on the level of Erembour and Yabalchoath and Cthulhu chatting idly as they wait in line. The bouncer says "Sorry, pal, you're not in the Book of the Damned." Zuul protests, "But I'm best friends with the manager!" Absurd, isn't it? That's just not how realms of terror and chaos work.

More generally, anything from D&D/Pathfinder, I've probably got some ideas on how to adapt.
>>
No. 107505 ID: b9aa79

>>107486
Would a Necrolithography character be acceptable in this setting? Obviously Maru is not incapacitated or dead at this point, but I wanted to go ahead and ponder on possible characters anyways
>>
No. 107506 ID: 750f88

>>107505
I am interested in this question for no obvious reasons....
>>
No. 107508 ID: af6e04

JamesLeng has allowed an eel-man worshiper of a benevolent eldritch abomination, a fallen noble infected with an extraplanar parasite, and a cybernetic gnoll/human hybrid from the future. I don't think he's too picky on setting details.
>>
No. 107511 ID: 9f3729

Two questions I have, with regards to my current situation:
1, if I were to remove the belt temporarily and give it to my goblinoid friend so she can get me off the board, would that wind up backfiring? Magey posited a valid concern that its magic may be what's keeping Geoff upright right now.
Second, if said goblin steps onto the panel with me will it reactivate the new trap under it or is it inert until I move off what I'm assuming is a pressure pad?
>>
No. 107512 ID: 3abd97

Another concern would be if Geoffry can currently move under his own power or not, and if attempting to Houdini off the board under his own power, or assisted is possible, or if he's have to be dragged or carried.
>>
No. 107514 ID: 750f88

>>107511
If you take off the belt, I bet you will be our first causality.
>>
No. 107516 ID: af6e04

>>107490
Went ahead and did this. Let me know if I missed anybody.
>>
No. 107517 ID: af6e04

>/quest/771052
Pff eel man cannot catch a break on getting horrifically maimed. He's gonna be a terrifying flesh beast by the time we get out of this dungeon.
>>
No. 107518 ID: a107fd

>>107462
>where is the gold
It was on one of the borders of the square you were laying in, when you touched the bag in order to cast Apportation on it. Now it's tucked away with your equipment, effectively replacing the broken spear.

>>107505
>Would a Necrolithography character be acceptable in this setting?
The animate product of that process, or a technician who creates them? Answer is yes, regardless, but the former case is trickier. Mutation slot would have to be used for a lack of metabolism (immune to poisons and so on, needs a workshop to heal damage). Normally they can't really learn and grow, so consider what caused an exception. Under drakocratic law, if you're not a placental mammal, a spellcaster, or an adult female dragon, you might legally be someone else's property, and if outed as a construct, your protests may be dismissed as the babbling of an unusually eloquent chatbot.

>>107512
>if Geoffry can currently move under his own power or not
He can, though not easily.
>>107511
These are not things Geoffrey would be able to remember, directly observe, or confidently deduce. Try it, roll, and we'll see.

>>107508
> I don't think he's too picky on setting details.
It's a broad setting, and I'm willing to accommodate a lot of things, but I do have some standards I'm fairly strict about. Note that every one of those characters you mentioned had to go through some sort of revision process before being approved for play.
>>
No. 107520 ID: 3abd97

Man, this is not been a good campaign for boots. I was hoping Maru's offer for storytime would have been accepted and we'd have a rest period before moving on.

>>/quest/771068
>I've sworn fealty to Agatia, can't work for you
Is that supposed to be the name of Maria's faith, her family's philosophy, her order of nuns, or a specific member of her family?

In most cases, being sworn to uphold the tenants of some faith / order / mission isn't mutually exclusive with aiding others in their causes (so long as their cause doesn't run directly contrary to your mission statement, or they don't try and order you to do things for them you're sworn not to).

I mean this would hardly be the first time a priest of X worked for mortal Y (even if an undead gueen pushes the envelope on mortal a bit).

Of the top of my head, an order of nuns dedicated to oppose the impure wouldn't necessarily oppose the undead on all fronts. A sentient corpse has shed quite a few mortal vices and temptations, and this one seems to be dedicated to honoring a memory and a faith, holding stoic vigil, and producing a hand made craft good. On the surface, those are all fairly virtuous pursuits that seem to have required a certain degree of self-sacrifice.

(Not trying to tell you how to play the situation, just giving you a possible out if you've painted yourself into a corner).

>>/quest/771057
You're performing a non-trivial action, you should probably roll for an attempted magic healing.
>>
No. 107521 ID: 2169b1

>>107520
Agatia is both an ancestor of Maria's, and her deity of choice. Goddess of Flames, Purity and Rebirth, she's kind of a bitch. Maria just feels like she should be better safe than sorry.
>>
No. 107522 ID: 361f68

>>107520
I'm pretty sure she's blatantly not a queen, and everyone just started calling her that
>>
No. 107523 ID: 9ab5d3

She seems to like being called a queen though. I see no reason to take that away from her.
>>
No. 107524 ID: 39f4a6

>>/quest/771099
Daniel seems to have Vos under control. I don't see anyone immediately injured, nor any way to immediately escape the area without provoking the wrath of the trigger-happy and way-more-powerful-than-us lich. I feel like anything Yisheng Ji could do at the moment would be one failed roll away from instant death, so... I'm just gonna wait until Djan suffers the incoming mortal injury, and do what I can to try to heal him then, hopefully without drawing (probably-lethal) attention.
>>
No. 107525 ID: 3abd97

>>107521
Fair enough. Maria could always pray on it for clarity, but if the answer runs a risk of being "smite the unholy bitch or die trying" you might not particularly want divine guidance right now.

>>107522
>>107523
She's got at least one follower now, controls territory, and has the power to smack down others who might contest her claim. She ticks the important boxes, except heredity maybe, although her backstory with Deggin Tar might count if she's the heir or keeper of his legacy.

It's not like Marijke earned a military or nautical promotion to captain until she was spontaneously appointed one, either. :V

>>107524
Hey, if Djan is lucky, he can apologize and fix his vandalism, and avoid being smote.

And don't fret, you're providing a very important role as a comforting set of arms right now. (That feel when you realize you created a character who hasn't been physically able to be reliably hugged when she's upset for most her life).
>>
No. 107527 ID: b9aa79

>>107525
I suppose her claim to queendom is true as long as she can smite those who oppose it- but I will say that one follower isn't much of an army, and I'm not sure what territory she can really lay claim to, other than that which she can defend with her's and Eric's hands. It sounds to me like she idolized or loved a high ranking church official, who was likely not directly in line for the throne, although with the amount of details we have it's hard to tell much of anything concrete

Unrelated, but here seem to be people pretty consistently attempting to rush off without talking to or involving the rest of the group- this is totally fine, but probably won't lead to any long lives. First rule of dungeon crawling is don't split the group. So if you're attached to your characters, just be careful with the willy nilly silently-running-off-without-consulting-anyone actions.

If you want to introduce a new character though, it's not at all unfeasible for someone to peal off from the group solo-style and end up dead much more quickly, allowing you to get someone new. Hell, if you really want to get a new player in, just take a swing at the queen, I'm sure she can quite quickly free up a slot for you.
>>
No. 107528 ID: 3abd97

>Hell, if you really want to get a new player in, just take a swing at the queen, I'm sure she can quite quickly free up a slot for you.
Possibly problematic as it might drag anyone a little more attached to their characters into the conflict if she doesn't interpret that as a lone action, or force them to come up with in-character justifications for standing around watching your ass get murdered for interrupting parley with an unprovoked attack (well, okay, it wouldn't be too hard to justify).

Although if anyone does show up at the beginning again, that would leave Rhea and Geoffrey less alone. I've basically got her paused to see what Geoffry tries to get off the chessboard (or if he just decides to camp out there), and to try and help / patch him up / perform last rites and light his corpse on fire as necessary.
>>
No. 107529 ID: 9ab5d3

To be fair, Vos just went up a relatively short staircase. I doubt he would want to chill out in the room that inspires mortal fear in him. The only reason he maimed himself is because of his own stupidity (bad roll)
>>
No. 107530 ID: b9aa79

>>107529
Of course- wasn't aiming it at you specifically, just saying in general. It's not like its a bad thing to explore around, just be cognisant that things happen based on when JamesLeng sees them, so when we all do different actions in different places, we can end up divided, and weaker because of that. Just something to keep in mind if people are looking to outlive the dungeon
>>
No. 107531 ID: 3abd97
File 148383636681.png - (8.62KB , 786x397 , thisVosnow.png )
107531

So... just to be clear, but Vos is now an eel-naga with little prehensile flipper spike limbs on front, sort of like a spider's pedipalps?
>>
No. 107532 ID: 9ab5d3

Hahaha I guess I asked for this when I chose my power. I just wonder how this will effect my lower ambition.
>>
No. 107533 ID: 9ab5d3

Also slithering on an eye sounds very painful
>>
No. 107535 ID: 1fbb38

>>107531
Don't forget the giant crab claw.
>>
No. 107536 ID: a107fd

>>107530
I'll do my best to respect any explicitly conditional or delayed actions. Boring stuff like "stand watch on [specific path], asking for the password/shouting a warning/attacking if I see anything approach" or "follow [other PC] and help with whatever they're doing/defend them against whatever threats arise" might be worth considering.

>>107527
>one follower isn't much of an army
One aspiring lord who can turn enemy corpses into fresh recruits, plus fourteen meat puppets (three of whom still have their hands tied together) to serve as sergeants, and some other adventurers for junior officers? Massacre a village or something for more rank-and-file, that could be a credible infantry company.
>>
No. 107538 ID: 3abd97
File 148383895862.png - (9.57KB , 786x397 , thisVosnow.png )
107538

>>107535
Whups!
>>
No. 107539 ID: a107fd

>>107532
Tittivila's blessings will only ever improve, or have no effect on, the subject's ability to have sex, except possibly on a critical failure for something that already directly involved the genitals. Seduction is a more complex issue involving aesthetics and social context.

>>107531
Spikes are on the ends of the flipper-limbs, like Vog here but with less reach. http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2015-07-26
>>107535
And the crab claw, yes. It's otherwise accurate.
>>
No. 107540 ID: a107fd

>>107538
The claw was described as concealable inside long baggy sleeves, by which I meant that it was not significantly larger than Vos's original hand.
>>
No. 107541 ID: 9ab5d3

>>107531
>>107538
>>107539
Reading comprehension suffers when one is on mobile and otherwise occupied. I was under the impression that Vos was basically turned into a crippled horrorserpent. This is actually a much better outcome than I had originally expected.
>>
No. 107542 ID: 3abd97
File 148383978128.png - (8.93KB , 786x397 , thisVosnow.png )
107542

Okay here's the last draft of my comical alterations, I think. Pending further mutations or someone with better than mspaint tier drawing skills creating a new and improved base.
>>
No. 107543 ID: b9aa79

>>107536
> that could be a credible infantry company

Of course, Eric alone would be difficult for us to face with our current load out. But a proper King or Queen would likely be able to muster more than enough to hunt them down and destroy them, even with a village of undead recruits. Or so I assume at least. I was not commenting on their lack of absolute power so much as their lack of power compared to someone else with a similar title
>>
No. 107544 ID: a107fd

>>107543
>a proper King or Queen would likely be able to muster more than enough to hunt them down and destroy them, even with a village of undead recruits. Or so I assume at least.

Yes, you'd be a small fish in a big pond... a big sparsely-populated pond, with plenty of dark corners the bigger fish can't easily search. Out on the frontier, you'd mainly be facing individual monsters, squad-sized packs of starving outlaws, or platoon-sized bandit clans. Trade caravans and patrol groups with royal backing tend to stick to the main roads.
>>
No. 107545 ID: af6e04

>>107542
This is beautiful, thank you. My eel powers grow every minute.

>Tittivila's blessings will only ever improve, or have no effect on, the subject's ability to have sex
I feel like this fact warrants tucking away and remembering going forward.
>>
No. 107552 ID: a107fd

>>107545
Logic behind that goes back to some previous discussion of sorcerous vs. thaumaturgic magic. Divine oversight means you're more likely to be stuck with fine details you don't want, but it won't screw up the 'big picture' - at least, from the perspective of the god in question.
>>
No. 107571 ID: b9aa79

I'm fucking pissed because my mouse has a couple extra buttons on the side, and one of them is seemingly bound to the back button on my browser, and as such a 5 minute piece of writing is taking me 20 minutes because I keep accidentally going back and loosing everything.

@The Archivist, I was listening to a new CD of mine, and a song reminded me of Maria. It doesn't fit the bill perfectly, but the imagery of impure thoughts, ropes, purification, etc made me think of her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c4mTu-Wjaw

@JamesLeng I had a few more questions about Necrolithography, and characters who are a by-product of it.

1) If the creator of a necrolithography was a favored servant of a god who dealt with death as one of their domains, (Hanspur) asked for divine favor while they were making it, would that be a satisfactory explanation for it having the abnormal capacity to learn and grow?

2) I know they can't heal normally, but what other sort of things come with the package? If one was bound to a suit of armor like Alphonse in FMA, would they have similar characteristics? Resistance to many forms of damage, no need to sleep or rest, unable to gain pleasure or experience from things that are normally enjoyable like eating or indulging in other experiences limited to those who can feel, abnormal strength and agility, etc? What does being a soul attached to an animated item mean in terms of capabilities and weaknesses?

3) Is there like a piece of paper with writing that can be removed like a Jewish golem, or a blood seal that can be broken like in FMA that serves as a super natural weakness, or even just a normal weakness? Are their senses tied to that central point, or could they feel if a piece of them was taken 10 kilometers due south, deep underground, somewhere with running water?

Completely unrelated to that character, but going back to the mount thing,
4) what if instead of being a horse it was a giant intelligent lizard? Just barely inteligent enough to learn a language, but still more than animal intelligence, and also far better suited to underground travel than a horse might be?

Secondarily,
5)if a new character would to be introduced at a tavern on the surface or some such location where having a horse is much more feasible, it that permissible?

And
6) if owning slaves is generally too expensive to count as a seriously expensive item, are items like a necrolithography, or other things which could be considered property cheap enough to fall within permissible margins?

Lastly for now at least
What about a regular sized intelligent animal as a seriously expensive starting item? Like a bearded dragon that been magically given abnormally advanced intelligence.

I don't currently have a character who I can picture owning slaves, I'm just kinda curious about that one, and since I DO have a character who might want an intelligent animal companion, I figured why not ask about other intelligent life as starting items, considering the only major difference is shape. I also figure it's worth asking since hedge witches can't start with familiars, but those are part of them, level with them, and are magical, whereas some guys super smart pet lizard is none of those things.
>>
No. 107572 ID: af6e04

>>107571
>>/tg/11362
I think we both just want to see this idea happen.
>>
No. 107573 ID: b9aa79

>>107572
I mean who doesn't????
>>
No. 107574 ID: 3abd97
File 148391904962.png - (43.75KB , 742x511 , example.png )
107574

>frustrated by losing writing by accidentally going back in your browser
May I recommend the Lazarus browser addon? It saves everything you write in fields on sites, so if you ever lose your work due to a crash, refresh, or navigating away, you can just recover the text with a right click.
>>
No. 107575 ID: b9aa79

>>107574
Dang he's tall

Also thank you so much I do this so often you're a life saver
>>
No. 107577 ID: a107fd

>>107571
>5 minute piece of writing is taking me 20 minutes because I keep accidentally going back and loosing everything
For that kind of problem I usually compile it in a text document, then copy and paste.

1) Yeah. Might want some thought on the 'how' in addition to the 'why.'

2) If you want abnormal strength and/or agility, take it as an innate power. The rest of that stuff could be bundled as a mutation.

Important clarification: necrolithographs are NOT bound souls, any more than dental X-rays are bound teeth. It's a snapshot of memories and personality traits and so on, transferred to an object as psychic impressions.

As long as we're talking about FMA armor suits, Barry the Chopper might be a better point of comparison. Psychic impressions don't normally have the ability to recursively self-modify, but new stuff could be added by seeking out or arranging the sort of intense emotional experiences that create new impressions. Sex, romance, death, horror, obsession, joyous epiphany, pretty much the entire spectrum of melodrama. Risks involved could be usefully compared to performing brain surgery on yourself with scavenged tools.

3) For some, there's a core item which carries the actual psychic impressions, which tends to be centrally located, fairly sturdy in itself, and not directly exposed to attack. Effectively it's the brain. In such cases, the body can be modular. Limbs are swapped out, or the entire body (other than the core) can be destroyed and replaced without having to kill somebody again. All components have to be physically contiguous (barring expensive, experimental hyperspatial shenanigans), and crafted and/or enchanted specifically to be easy to animate. This kind of thing can blur the line with clockworks.

Alternatively, there's animated statues. Carve a solid block of stone (also works well with ivory or wax, but clay and metal not so much) and make a psychic impression on the whole thing. No single point of failure, so there's no way to disable the thing short of smashing it completely, but lack of interchangeable parts means repairs are only possible with magic. Waxen statues can be self-repairing, but wax is soft and flammable.

5) Any lizard capable of filling a horse-like niche is going to have a horse-like price tag, and weigh hundreds of pounds, and be a creature rather than an item.

You might be able to have an item that summons a mount. Instead of the usual D&D fixed-duration summons, I decided to plug in some GURPS mechanics: any summoned creature has a number of Fatigue Points proportional to the caster's level, which cannot be recovered through rest, and are instead lost at a minimum of one per hour, or faster according to the normal rules for strenuous exertion or combat. When they're all gone, the summoning ends, poof. Magic to recover FP can be used to keep summoned creatures around longer.

5) Not planning to change the character creation rules based on starting location. If somebody wants to play, I want them to be able to jump in right away rather than having an incentive to wait for circumstances where they'd get a better deal.

6) Possibly, yes. A necrolithograph with mostly human-equivalent capabilities can work 16-hour days, week after week, without food or water, in a variety of inhospitable or even swiftly lethal environments, all without complaint, and as such is unlikely to be valued any less than a similarly skilled slave. Aim for something more modest.

7) If you want a shoulder-dragon, specify details in the backstory, and make your seriously expensive item the creature's perch, most likely occupying a shoulder slot. It can double as armor. Item's main function is to facilitate a long-distance empathic bond, with just enough of a directional element to point you along the right path to eventually reunite.
>>
No. 107579 ID: b9aa79

>>107577
Honestly I should compile most things in a text document first, it would save me a lot of typos.

First off, thanks for the time and detail in your responses. I really appreciate the amount of effort you put into these things, ensure that even if there's a no, you usually try to offer a feasible way that doesn't break the restrictions.

As for the how, I was assuming given divine power, one could simply flare a nostril, utter the phrase "Let there be life" and it would be done. Not sure exactly what the requirements are for Hephaestus to turn Pinocchio into a real boy.

As for the lizard stuff, I read you loud and clear. The rules are pretty much that you can't start with living creatures in your inventory, although there are sneaky magic ways one can possibly reunite with a childhood bear friend or some other such creature given time and resources.

The distinction regarding what a Necrolithograph can be imprinted on interests me though- are the cores limited to the same materials the full body imprints are? And are those the only 3 things you can make a NLG on? Or could you use something like coral? Or even something more abstract like snake skin, or spider's silk, or the carved shell of a giant abalone snail? The distinction between stone, but not clay, wax but not metal, has thrown me a bit for figuring out what exactly the rules and regulations are on these bad boys
>>
No. 107581 ID: a107fd

I just ran some math on Wolfram/Alpha. Pop quiz, hotshot: you've got a 36,000 cubic foot room, initially full of air at STP. There are two exits. One is a nearly-airtight 4'x8' door leading to some much larger habitat. The other is a 1' diameter hole leading to hard vacuum.

At the end of the first minute or so, how many total pounds of force is the 0.14 psi pressure differential applying to the door? How long until it's a hundred times that much?
>>
No. 107582 ID: b9aa79

>>107581
I'm not even going to pretend that I've got a firm grasp on whats happening. Considering that I'm a rather tall human person, I'd try the door not the vacuum. Assuming the vacuum is sucking the air out I guess I try to plug it with something to the best of my abilities? Can't say I know the math on how fast the air pressure of a room will decrease though given a 1 inch hole through which the air is presumably escaping into a vacuum, that will leave me unable to breath eventually. Depending on the scenario of the quiz can I check for a home alone style bucket of hot laughs propped on the door, ready to soak the first fool that opens it in comedy?

Gonna be honest I'm not sure how big 36,000 cubic feet is, or if we need to factor in movement speed or anything like that in our math here. Also not sure how to do the math in the first place, although I'm sure google could tell me if I were that way inclined
>>
No. 107583 ID: 3abd97

>At the end of the first minute or so, how many total pounds of force is the 0.14 psi pressure differential applying to the door? How long until it's a hundred times that much?
First question is easy, you can do it just by apply dimensional analysis.

0.14 lbs / in^2

4 ft * 8 ft = 32 ft^2

30 ft^2 * (12 in / 1 ft)^2 = 4320 in^2

0.14 lbs / in^2 * 4320 in^2 = 604.8 lbs

Second question requires you to model the rate of pressure loss from the room with the leak, which requires me to think for a little bit longer or look up an equation I've forgotten.
>>
No. 107584 ID: a107fd

>>107579
Core-and-module necrolithographs can be made of almost anything. Problem with the homogenous types is, the material has to retain psychic impressions well, AND animate easily despite lacking actual mechanical joints, AND be reasonably cheap. Cost isn't an absolute requirement, but if you want to make an animate statue out of, say, solid moonsilver, meticulously thermoregulated to prevent flaws from developing as it cools, any cost and time advantage from not needing to explicitly program a quasi-mind becomes insignificant, so golemetry becomes the obviously superior option.

Those requirements often conflict, similar to the problems of armoring aircraft windows (lightweight, AND hard enough to stop bullets, but not brittle, AND transparent of course, AND curved for aerodynamic purposes, but not so thick, or with such a high refractive index, that it distorts the view... on and on). Standard way to resolve such conflicts is composite materials, but then it either wouldn't count as a solid block (creating vulnerabilities), or the production process would involve cost-prohibitive amounts of laminating and welding and so on.

A core, on the other hand, just needs to retain impressions well, and it can be made of expensive and/or elaborately worked material because you only need a little bit, while the moving parts just need to be easy to animate, and can include actual mechanical joints.

Big advantage to solid animated statues, though, is they don't need much of a dedicated supply chain. Ordinary statues originally created for other purposes will often work.
>>
No. 107585 ID: a107fd

>>107583
>1 minute = ~600 lb

Every second's delay is, indeed, another ten pounds. If you'd set off that trap, doors would have slammed shut from the wind, then soon after become effectively impossible to reopen.
>>
No. 107586 ID: a107fd

>>107579
>As for the how, I was assuming given divine power, one could simply flare a nostril, utter the phrase "Let there be life" and it would be done. Not sure exactly what the requirements are for Hephaestus to turn Pinocchio into a real boy.

There are varying degrees of divine power, but, yes, effective abiogenesis isn't all that rare. A 4th circle spell commonly available to druids can turn a tooth fragment and a pile of ashes into a healthy adult of a random race appropriate to the environment. (Note that this is the immediate environment; many people being artificially reincarnated pay extra to construct a 'microclimate' and thereby slant the odds toward a race they'd prefer, and conversely, some poor fools have been slain on adventures in the deep desert and then been reborn the next day as eelmen, mermaids, or other hopelessly aquatic types when some companion didn't think to conduct the ritual far enough away from an oasis) The problem is, if Hephaestus or whoever turned you into a real boy... you are, ipso facto, a real boy, with all the usual benefits and drawbacks of a metabolism. This line of inquiry seems to be aimed instead for some tricky liminal hybrid condition, with a mix of living and unliving qualities. I'm not asking how it got to be that way, but rather how it works on an ongoing basis. A human-level mind is estimated at 100 terabytes. In what form is the data stored and processed? Amino acids, phospholipid membranes, and ion channels? Crystalline grid of doped silicon semiconductors and polarized light? Spiritual ephemera? Nanoscopic gears and camshafts? Tangles in the threads of Time? Psychic impressions alone aren't usually dense enough to hold that much on a single object. Standard necrolithography creates a superficial impression of the donor's mind, orders of magnitude less complex than the original.
>>
No. 107590 ID: 3d2d5f

>>107585
Turns out I haven't forgetting equations: closest thing I've done to this kind of fluid dynamics problem was statistical thermo, which doesn't quite apply. :P

So you can treat it as linear? In normal conditions I'd think pressure equalization would be an asymptotic processes, but I was wondering if hard vacuum put an infinity or fixed zero in there that simplified things.
>>
No. 107596 ID: af6e04
File 148398746199.png - (542B , 16x16 , deadstarbaby.png )
107596

Possible favicon? Points if you can tell what it's actually supposed to be from that tiny image
>>
No. 107598 ID: a107fd

>>107590
With the problem as stated, it would indeed be asymptotic (flow rate decreases as pressure in the room gets closer to zero, since vacuum can't suck any harder than that), but a linear approximation is adequate for the first little bit. By the time you're talking about a 1 psi difference, multiple tons of force are on the doors, far more than ordinary adventurers could realistically apply toward opening them. For practical purposes, by the time you're close enough to the asymptote to notice the slowdown, you're also too loopy from hypoxia to notice much of anything.

Get magic involved, though, and the usual rules of fluid dynamics go out the window. Maxwell's Demon might not report directly to Orcus, but they surely move in the same circles. Possible to call a favor now and then, force molecules to move in statistically impossible ways and maintain a flow rate equivalent to a 15 psi difference regardless of the actual conditions.
>>
No. 107600 ID: a107fd

Aaphia has been doing this dungeon thing longer than all the PCs combined. Name a common object or architectural element, she's probably fought an ambush predator specialized in imitating it. Her concept of "ordinary precautions" is simultaneously more broad and more strict than most people could readily imagine.

>>/quest/771281
Unconsciousness due to severe wounds definitely counts as being incapacitated, thus allowing you to bring in a new character, possibly heavily specialized in dealing with the immediate problem. Davina already showed that "teleportation" can work, with the right set of restrictions, and some narrow power or skillset like analyzing and/or temporarily disabling big stationary magic items (notably including magical traps) would probably be fine.
>>
No. 107602 ID: b9aa79

>>107596
Sorry, these faltering eyes of mine can't make out what it is amigo

>>771522
With magic involved, it could always be a leap of faith kinda deal, that only works if you trust it to work. Inversely it could be a bridge that appears to be there for all attempts and purposes except for attempting to cross on it. I had a group of PCs once going through a sort of trick tower full of puzzle rooms and traps which they blew through (mostly). The one that stumped them longest though was an invisible bridge that could only support inorganic material; they circumvented it by covering the bridge in their armor, the only serviceable items for the task at that point, and then walking across them, as the bridge supported the items, and the items supported the players.

Basically, there's not a whole lot you can do to guarantee that there's a safe usable bridge, and that even if there is, the lights are leading you somewhere good and safe and useful. Wouldn't recommend following, personally.

>>107586
Could one's sort of consciousness or mind or soul or data storage unit or whatever we want to refer to it as be stored in a sort of pocket dimension demi-plane kinda deal? So that when Hanspur intervened on the behalf of the cleric and created a living psyic imprint capable of learning and growth, they just sort of made a demi-place or little bubble of soul thats sort of tethered to said character, but not directly part of this dimension? Thus they have a sort of spiritual server bank that records data much like a brain or series of circuits, and allows them to learn and grow?

The basic scenario I'm envisioning is someone the priest loved dearly was put unexpectedly into critical condition, in hostile, foreign lands. Their patron deity was more into the death arts, not so much the healing or reversal of said condition, but our priest very much wanted this person alive. SO they grabbed what was nearby, plead for divine assistance, put them out of their misery, and imprinted the psychic memory onto a nearby item. Big dude in the sky is like, sure, you're a cool dude, have my favor, and then bam, the psychic imprint now has the capacity to learn and grow, and just also happens to be a construct.
>>
No. 107603 ID: af6e04

>Sorry, these faltering eyes of mine can't make out what it is amigo
Undead fetus is hard to convey in 16 pixels. Might try something else
>>
No. 107604 ID: 595d54

>>107603
If it helps, I was able to guess what it was even before I saw the filename.
>>
No. 107605 ID: af6e04
File 148402444402.png - (594B , 16x16 , deadstarbaby.png )
107605

>>107604
That does make me feel better. Here's a transparent version.
>>
No. 107606 ID: 3abd97

>>107596
>Sorry, these faltering eyes of mine can't make out what it is amigo
It's a D.R.B.!

>Basically, there's not a whole lot you can do to guarantee that there's a safe usable bridge, and that even if there is, the lights are leading you somewhere good and safe and useful. Wouldn't recommend following, personally.
The delver's mantra should be to trust nothing and be suspicious of everything, of course.

The problem, of course, is there are no safe options, (short of staying out of the dungeon). Heading down tunnels previously explored by our other characters is no guarantee of safety. (And it's boring, from a player perspective. Not to mention that OOC information tells me I can't follow the path the others took). I'm just as likely to run into trouble on an explored path as an unexplored one.

Honestly, it's lonely in the dungeon by oneself, and I assume odds of survival on one's own are pretty bad. Honestly, unless she befriends some npcs or finds a way to hook up with other PCs Rhea's in big trouble. So... the metagamey logic is to explore new paths, hoping for new friends, or some kind of merciful shortcut (I won't hold my breath, even it would be nice to be dumped in with the rest of the party somehow).

Non-metagamey logic says do what the character would do. Aaaaaand investigating the shiny lights trying to talk to her is pretty much literally what this character is about?

I mean, the possibilities are kind of endless. They could be some kind of elemental thing, being friendly because Rhea's half-fire spirit. Or maybe their idea of friendly ends up being air dancing. They could be an angler fish type bait lure into a trap (the invisible bridge could be a tongue). They could be some kind of messenger spell sent by another delver trying to call for help. This could be the secret entrance to where the goblin patrol came from, and there's a beacon spell leading me in due to being a gobo. The path might be a temporary spell cast by the lights, so this is a one-way shortcut (or doom) for Rhea no one else will be able to follow.

tl;dr- uncertainty is not sufficient reason to rule a path out, cause they all got that!

>>107605
Honestly I think the contrast of the black background makes it pop more.
>>
No. 107607 ID: a107fd

>>107602
A uniquely young and unaligned example of that fourth category of construct, then. Sustained by prayer, which can be stored in clay tablets impressed with cuneiform symbols. Soft clay is easy to 'recharge,' but goes 'stale' after a week or two, while fired earthenware remains usable for a year or more, and stoneware or glazed earthenware indefinitely. The process of extracting prayers from a brick causes it no physical harm. Basic exchange rate in town of giving alms to beggars in exchange for informal shouts of gratitude is comparable to buying normal bread, and the resulting storage medium weighs about the same; acquiring higher-density or longer-lasting supplies would require cultists with a more extended commitment of time and attention, facilities such as a shrine or kiln, and so on. You can 'heal naturally,' very quickly in fact, but only while submerged in a vat of boiling lye mixed with certain mineral salts. Easy enough to find the parts (a big bathtub or cauldron, charcoal for a heat source which is just partially burned wood, lye which is made from ashes (wood again) and fat, some reasonably common rocks), but labor-intensive to set up, and dangerous while in operation.

Take that mechanical/thaumaturgical metabolism as a mutation. If you'd like to go for an innate power, might as well copy Davina's vulnerability, maybe a phobia of things lurking in deep dark water. The power itself is the ability to fold and rotate parts of your own body through higher dimensions. This includes a hammerspace pocket, shapeshifting (slow, mostly cosmetic, and often fascinating or disturbing to watch), remote operation of severed limbs, easy reattachment of severed limbs, and distorted perspective that makes it possible to 'dodge' attacks you can't see coming, or while physically immobile. Anything that would block teleportation blocks the power, and is painful.
>>
No. 107624 ID: 3abd97

>Davina nolastnamegiven
That's actually deliberate. Kinda weird to have a noble obsessed with the continuation of the family legacy not using the family name, but as far as she's concerned, she doesn't have the right to use it until she's set things right again.

(Plus also it let me get through chargen faster, and maybe lets me pick something actually setting appropiate if/when I get to it).
>>
No. 107631 ID: a107fd

Might make sense to track inventory on the wiki.
>>
No. 107644 ID: 99a5aa

>>107631
>track inventory on the wiki
We could, but unlike the other character creation details, it's constantly changing information, so people would have to be constantly making tiny updates to the wiki to keep up with it, bordering on revision spam. Take brass balm, for example. Someone gets injured, they get treated with balm, the wiki has to be updated to record the balm consumption. Do we really want to have to update the wiki every single time someone gets injured? At that point, you may as well just publically release your dm notes on all the PCs instead, so everyone can see the status of wounds, curses, afflictions, known abilities, etc, on a live google document. A wiki page is a poor choice of medium for a status screen.
>>
No. 107645 ID: 383927

>>107644
With that being said, we could just create our own google doc. Probably won't be anywhere near as accurate, but it'll be easier to edit, and have more info available than what would be easy to keep track of on the wiki
>>
No. 107648 ID: a107fd

>>107644
>Someone gets injured, they get treated with balm, the wiki has to be updated to record the balm consumption.

I was thinking of the original inventory picks and particularly notable loot, not specific counts of consumables.
>>
No. 107663 ID: 3abd97
File 148418152788.png - (7.72KB , 400x326 , example turn.png )
107663

Okay, trying to map stuff again, and got a question.

When you say a hall is X long, then there's a turn, and the next hall is Y long, where are we measuring X and Y? The long sides of the corridors? The short sides? Down an imaginary center line that terminates on the diagonal?
>>
No. 107665 ID: a107fd

>>107663
Along the short sides, to minimize ambiguity about intersections vs. rooms.
>>
No. 107676 ID: 9f3729
File 148424846377.png - (3.41KB , 144x144 , geoffrey2.png )
107676

Behold, a Geoffrey!
He is significantly more athletic than he looks.
>>
No. 107677 ID: 9f3729
File 148424865295.png - (3.12KB , 144x144 , geoffrey2nohat.png )
107677

And here he is without his helmet on, whee
>>
No. 107679 ID: af6e04

Our fearless hero! I'm really hoping he makes it out of this.
>>
No. 107680 ID: 595d54

>>107676
Are you Sergeant Colon?
>>
No. 107682 ID: 9f3729

>>107680
Funny story, he is vaguely designed off him actually!
Always was one of my favorite discworld characters.

Personality's a bit more on the grumpy end of the spectrum than him though.
>>
No. 107683 ID: 9f3729
File 148425708535.png - (2.29KB , 130x130 , BuffaloVanDyke.png )
107683

>>107682
He's also based off this loveable scamp
>>
No. 107686 ID: af6e04

>>107683
You know in a similar vein, I've always wanted to play a campaign as a character who only speaks in terrible rhymes like Geese Thompson, but I don't think I'd have the patience.
>>
No. 107687 ID: 383927

Quick everyone!! Roll for moss knowledge!!
>>
No. 107688 ID: 750f88

Passed exams my doods. Now time to get back into the swing of things.
>>
No. 107691 ID: 3abd97
File 148427507130.png - (111.09KB , 1000x785 , Aaphia Floor map.png )
107691

Made a map. Granted, not the most useful one (it's not like this part of the maze has any turnings) but everything was nice and square and it has a fixed entry and exit point, which made it a lot simpler to approach.

There's a few dimensions that weren't specified, but all altering them really does is wiggle the spiral a little. It doesn't change the layout.
>>
No. 107693 ID: a107fd

>>107691
All the stairs have been 20' horizontal AND vertical, steep enough to be awkward to climb.

The stairs leading away from Aaphia's throne room were in the middle third of the relevant wall, rather than the back corner.

Big room with the murals was oriented the opposite way. Both exits were centered on their respective walls.

From the archway to the back wall of the narrower shaft is actually 50'. Thirty feet of hallway, then a door that opens away from the room with the bottle, then another 10' before you're underneath the shaft.

Thanks a bunch for mapping!
>>
No. 107694 ID: 750f88
File 148428209520.png - (6.41KB , 233x178 , Eyebrow game.png )
107694

Whilst I catchup yet again because I am a lazy bastard. Enjoy some fanart I made for some of the characters. Its kinda shitty compared to some of your works, but I like it.
>>
No. 107698 ID: af6e04

>>107694
I love the way you drew Vos! I like to think he just drives the rest of the party crazy by constantly clacking his crab claw while everybody is walking.
>>
No. 107699 ID: af6e04

>>107648
This ended up being a lot more tedious than I thought it would be, but it's done. I think a doc would make handling these things a lot easier. But on the other hand, the wiki is right there and easily accessible by new players.

Also went ahead and added Rhea's character sheet, though I shortened it a bit. Hope you don't mind magey.
>>
No. 107708 ID: 3abd97
File 148432085366.png - (106.92KB , 1000x759 , Aaphia Floor map (updated).png )
107708

>>107693
Right. Fixes are in.

>added Rhea's character sheet, though I shortened it a bit. Hope you don't mind magey
Yeah that's fine stats are for quick ref anyways. Removing fluff for conciseness is fine.
>>
No. 107727 ID: 84aebf

>>107708
I'd like to try to keep track of all the character fluff, lore, art, and maps but putting it all on the wiki seems insane. Does anybody object to a supplemental google doc? If not I'll make it tonight.
>>
No. 107728 ID: 3abd97

>>107727
My biggest complaint with google docs over the years is they're crazy limited when it comes to fine / detailed formatting control (At least, compared to an actual word doc, or a wiki (with or without tapping into html), or something like LaTeX). Especially if you were going to include a ton of images for a lot of maps (not that we have that many maps drawn yet)). But it works fine for blocks of text, especially if you want people to be able to comment on specific bits of it.

But no, there's no practical reason you couldn't have a concise stat page on the wiki, and link to an external resource with more fleshed out information. If you're going to be taking the time to document everything, work in whatever format you're comfortable with.
>>
No. 107730 ID: 74621b

>>107727
>>107728
I think it's reasonable to keep any information that's expected to never change (or change very infrequently) on the wiki, and everything else on a google doc. If it's publically editable though, I'd have concerns about vandalism. If you're building it, strngy, would you have any objection to being the one to keep it updated?
>>
No. 107735 ID: b9aa79

>>107730
If it's editable only by link or permission or something like that hopefully none of us would vandalize it, right?
>>
No. 107736 ID: 094652

>>772424
FURTHER elaboration, since this is dangerous territory and needs careful explanation.

Hore has stabbed the left side of her crotch area, next to her pseudo-dick and between her thighs. She has not actually penetrated her vaginal cavity or pseudo-dick, but has caused serious pain to herself in an attempt to stay focused when this lust room affects her the most.

Note that she will ONLY do this action if she and the party followed Davina and Maru, as she would not be so desperate to stab herself if she had time to figure out a solution to the lust vapors, and would definitely refrain from causing herself to bark in pain if she was still in the same room as the marrow-sucking giant moss dogs.
>>
No. 107737 ID: 84aebf

Damn it kome I am at work chuckling like a fucking maniac because of you. Why would you do this to me
>>
No. 107738 ID: b9aa79

>>107736
>huge fungal creatures, like thick, squat, leafless trees ... These are bonesuckers

>marrow-sucking giant moss dogs.
I'm confused as to what this is exactly refering to. The bonesuckers could be mistaken as mossy in theory, given their fungal qualities, but they're certainly not dog-like. There is a soft black moss coating the floors and walls, but that stops before we get to the bone suckers, probably because it gets eaten but the rats, which also aren't dogs, although some of them may be from the fire swamp given that there's holes big enough for an elvenoid to crawl through. >>772272

>>772436
> that mold you picked up
I don't believe Hore ever actually went through with her plans to go after the brain mold, given a lack of description in the body of the quest about anything happen. No roles, so it's safe to say without any backup or help, Hore didn't finalize her plans before the party opened the door to the sex room.
>>
No. 107739 ID: b9aa79

>>772429
Also Vos, I do appreciate the attempted save, but if you wanna bodily remove people from the room that compels everyone in it to have sex, you may actually have to enter the room and get compelled to have sex. Although if you used your new snake tail and kept your body out of reach, you might be able to attempt such an action at a distance, keeping your lungs free. I doubt you'd have an easy time though, trying to remotely use a new limb to forcibly remove two + full grown people having sex. It's gonna be wild to see what happens, although the rolls aren't looking great thus far.
>>
No. 107740 ID: 84aebf

>>107739
Well I figured the roll would be both for grapple check as well as resisting the effect. I can make a separate roll if I need to though.
>>
No. 107741 ID: 3abd97

>>107736
>>107738
Gotta put in the board in the link if you're linking to a different one. (So for example >>772272 works fine in /quest/, but you need >>/quest/772272 to hit it from /questdis/).
>>
No. 107742 ID: b9aa79

>>107741
Gottcha, I'll try to remember that in the future.. half the time I don't even bother putting the links because it's too much trouble when you're on mobile so I didn't even notice
>>
No. 107745 ID: a107fd

>>107736
Yeah, that's... pretty much exactly where the femoral artery is closest to the surface. Good place to check for a pulse (if the wrists and neck are somehow less accessible), not so good for less-than-lethal stabbing.
>>
No. 107749 ID: 383927

It seems to me this trap is designed to make us fuck ourselves to death basically- we can exit the room, but we'll probably be at least 4 fatigue points down if we factor in exertion along with the first 3 lost from banging. Already that's a third of our fatigue, and forces us to either pass through the sex room again or head back towards the bonesuckers, which will likely grow hungry again soon. It seems like our best bet will be to have Ji open the door on the far side, and evacuate the room as quickly as we can, because I'm doubtful we'll be able to reliably make that save with the way we've been rolling. We can't check for traps, but a sex den with trapped doors kinda defeats the purpose in the first place, so we can at least cross our fingers that there's nothing deadly at the door
>>
No. 107750 ID: 3d2d5f

It's sort of problematic in that everyone sitting around rolling to resist until it works and hoping your characters don't do anything too squicky in the meantime isn't the most interesting conflict, even if a hard to resist lotus eater trap is effective from a dungeon defense POV. (I mean, there's the potential for creative measures to get through without breathing, but not a lot of room for tactics if you're afflicted).

If the Agate siblings take action, they might be able to resolve this reasonably quickly? Their whole theme is self control / fighting corruption. And here we have a literal corrupting influence compelling people to give into their crude, base desires / wallow in sin.

Daniel's pretty much the perfect person to attempt purging the drug from the afflicted, and a large burst of Maria's cleansing light attack might be able to burn the room clean of the corrupting influences. Puritan powers to the rescue.
>>
No. 107752 ID: dc887b

>>107750
Ubdfortunately, as JamesLeng hinted at, I don't think Maria is fully recovered from her ordeal on the chessboard. It's not really a matter of rolling until we recover- we can leave the room and then hopefully it'll just be a matter of time before it wears off. The real danger here is that we're racing against time because in an hour and a half we're gonna pass out and be unable to really keep ourselves safe from anything. We've gotta move forward and hope it doesn't burn too much of our stamina before we shake off the effects
>>
No. 107753 ID: af6e04

>rolling to resist until it works and hoping your characters don't do anything too squicky in the meantime
Yeah... not sure how to feel about this or what to do to escape. Also, having heedless sex while your companion bleeds to death right in front of you is already pretty high on the squick meter. Was hoping Hore's noble sacrifice would save the day.

>If the Agate siblings take action, they might be able to resolve this reasonably quickly?
>I don't think Maria is fully recovered from her ordeal on the chessboard
Also, Archivist hasn't posted for a few days.
>>
No. 107755 ID: 9f3729

>>107753
See this is where player creativity comes in, just do weird goofy shit.
"I roll to lick belly button in my erogenous confusion."
"I lovingly coat myself in yogurt."
"I channel the spirit of Fernando https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dm0Ksl7isc"

It's goofy and maybe a bit of a bad move but it's salvageable for comedy purposes
>>
No. 107762 ID: 595d54

Is Hore even in serious danger? Geoffrey's managed to recover from being negative fifty HP, iirc.
>>
No. 107763 ID: af6e04

>>107762
Hard to say. She stands to lose two HP per minute, assuming she fails every con save but not taking crit fails into account.

If Ji's recent crit fail results in him taking an accidental breath, nobody will be in the right mind to help Hore for the next 30 minutes. This means up to 60 hp loss due to bleeding. Not to mention that everybody might fail the (difficult) will save again on the second round, which means another thirty minutes of bleeding. Also, Geoffrey has a magic survival belt.

Also it's been a while, but this has been bugging me...

>Some drugs function normally, and in the cruel and arbitrary Gygaxian tradition, I checked on a random table to determine that, yes, this is apparently one of them.
How do you even put together a random table for something so specific? Legitimate question!
>>
No. 107765 ID: 3abd97

>self mutilation
>arterial blood spray
>flesh shaping the knife wound into a new vagina
Woooooooow.

I feel like anyone witnessing this who isn't turned on by gorn or flesh shaping (Hore and Vos) should be getting a pretty hefty circumstance bonus to resisting feeling anything sexy right now.
>>
No. 107766 ID: 9f3729

>>107762
I mean, I'm still having to roll just to move
>>
No. 107770 ID: af6e04

>>107765
>Oh gosh when did this turn in CoC.
You know, when I made a joke about regrowing genitals with the flesh blessing at the beginning of the thread I never thought it would actually come up.

Also it should be noted that Maria's phobia is blood.
>>
No. 107771 ID: 595d54

>>107766
Well yeah but she was at full HP and not taking nearly as much as Geoffrey did.
>>
No. 107772 ID: 3abd97

>>107771
I don't think she's starting from full hp. She crit failed taking a death laser to the face earlier and barely survived.

>>/quest/772801
... ... ...

I don't even know how to respond to this. I'm going to bed.
>>
No. 107773 ID: a107fd

>>107764
Key word there is 'witnessing.' In-character, you're not reading the grisly descriptions, just seeing things happen. Doesn't necessarily look like much of anything from a distance. For example, here's a scientifically accurate, non-sexualized depiction of an anthropomorphic canid with severe bleeding on her inner thigh: http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff400/fv00348.htm As you can see, there's no visible blood spray. It mostly looks like she's just sitting there.

>>107763
>How do you even put together a random table for something so specific?
GURPS 4e basic set, pages 160 (the actual drug effects, and costs for proper versions) and 532 (result #5, 'tau-factor error,' summarizes the consequences of mirrored biochemistry). The 'U' stands for 'universal,' and they really mean it.
>>
No. 107774 ID: a107fd

>>107772
>I don't even know how to respond to this.

I'm sorry, it's not my intention to make anyone OOC uncomfortable. How would you prefer the subject be addressed?
>>
No. 107775 ID: 3abd97

>>107774
Honestly, I'm more OOC uncomfortable with the Roofie Room. The spontaneous ghost form nudity is actually absurdly ridiculous enough to nudge the situation a few pegs back towards farce from freakshow, but also to leave me thoroughly flabbergasted.

That is one massive "wat" moment and I am not awake enough to process a response to that now.
>>
No. 107778 ID: 398fe1

Oh god it's a filthy disease-ridden roofie room
>>
No. 107779 ID: 398fe1

It's like a joint project between Slaanesh and Nurgle

horrifying
>>
No. 107780 ID: a107fd

>>107779
Yes, this game starts off with the process of escaping a horrific megadungeon, which was constructed (or at least extensively modified) by sadistic demon-worshippers with immense magical power at their disposal. Not the Chaos Gods of 40k, though forces comparable to them do exist in the setting. I thought I'd already made that premise clear to everyone involved.
>>
No. 107781 ID: af6e04

>The 'U' stands for 'universal,' and they really mean it.
Wow, no kidding!

Unrelated - was the old empire mostly composed of Orcus worshipers or did they move in after it fell? Did the old empire predate Drakocracy?
>>
No. 107782 ID: b9aa79

Whatever door you exit out of, I highly recommend you leave the room. There should be nothing stopping you, and we can wait for the effect to wear off somewhere that we're not breathing in the fumes.
>>
No. 107783 ID: 3d2d5f

>>107780
I think the problem here is a disconnect in reasonable expectations as to what's fair game when sitting down for a tabletop dungeon crawl.

Am I signing up to be killed, maimed, murdered and sacrificed in creative and possibly unfair ways? Sure. Am I expecting to get drugged into fucking party members without my say so? Uh, no, not really, unless I'm attempting some kind of drunken pickup in a tavern or I joined an orgy. (Or I sat down at a table with the Corruption of Champions devs). There's a presumption that certain things are opt in?

(I mean, granted, considering certain characters in the group, one could argue that door was already opened. Not that I really feel it's appropriate to generalize that to everyone else).

In regards to my reaction last night? When I took a step back and stopped taking actions in a situation I was uncomfortable in, waiting to see if anyone else would resolve it? I expected to be treated like the partially absent half of the party with less time or interest to suggest that hangs out on the periphery when they aren't making rolls. Not to be dragged naked into the middle of things and everything I own nearly covered in napalm (that Ji wasn't even supposed to have anymore), and in a manner that runs specifically counter to the way that power was described (Yes, even if I can see the argument you're going to use as to how that intangibility quick would be justified, that's not the point). That's just... well as I tried to express last night, stupefying.

Not that I'm asking for an undo or a dues ex machina or anything like that at this point, or for you to defend the logic you used (it's mostly obvious with hindsight). Just trying to put my reaction in context. As I said before, the absurdity is something of a saving grace, and I at least have a few ideas as to how to play my current situation that are actually interesting.
>>
No. 107784 ID: a107fd

>>107781
The modern Church of Orcus can't credibly trace it's history beyond a few persecuted secret societies during the decadence, decline, and fall of the Old Empire. Orcus himself was already ancient (by elven standards, at least), and a veteran of the Titanomachy, when the side effects of artificially perfect food were first being discovered and the Old Empire's foundations were being laid.

The drakocracy was founded by a blue dragon named Aguinbreke, who held a high position (in more than one sense: prestigious, powerful, and physically located in a city on top of one of the tallest mountains in the world) on the eve of the Old Empire's final collapse. She observed how some parts of that system remained functional, under what conditions, which vices were tolerable, and how certain acts that might initially seem like civic virtue ultimately led to disaster, then distilled those observations into an autobiography and philosophical treatise called simply "Aguinbreke's Account of the Fall." It's the one book every adult dragon has read, outlining a proposed political system optimized for keeping the lesser mortals busy and out of trouble, while reserving adequate personal time and industrial capacity to support the enjoyable practice of rolling around on heaping piles of gold.

The Church of Orcus is one of those dangerous relics that the Drakocracy as a whole would prefer to wipe out, or modify to the point that it's unrecognizable (but is willing to settle for mostly sealing away, occasionally launching expendable heroes at). Twisted enough to think up that chessboard puzzle, or the "inexorable lust mold" you're currently struggling with, then resourceful and remorseless enough to actually make it happen? Too much like the worst parts of the Old Empire, without even the noble excuses of knowledge for it's own sake, or last-ditch contingency planning.
>>
No. 107787 ID: a107fd

>>107783
These are entirely reasonable complaints. I apologize for having made you OOC uncomfortable by having disrupted expectations to that extent.

In my defense:
First, and least central to the issue, Yisheng Ji had only used one flask of greekfire thus far, and I did specify in the OP that consumable magic items are "one slot per type, but that represents several applications."

Second, if you'd like some sort of retcon for reasons of inappropriate sexual content, there's already precedent for that with Hore's lower ambition. Clothes back on? No big deal. Better to handle such a thing immediately, though, so complications from interaction with subsequent events are kept to a minimum.

Third, "roofie room" isn't very accurate or fair descriptors. RL date-rape drugs mostly induce unconsciousness and/or memory loss, and even fantasy 'bimboification' effects pair increased sex drive with decreased mental capacity. This effect doesn't do that. It makes lust a marginally higher priority than food or water, but doesn't outweigh escape from an obvious, immediate hazard like an uncontrolled fire or a rotting corpse (which is why the room needs that illusion in order to be an effective trap), or, as Vos demonstrated, rescuing a friend from immediate danger. It doesn't even inhibit leaving the room: if Eric had run off to attempt to seduce Aaphia, he probably would have snapped out of it before reaching her, and could have circumvented any hazards on the way as competently as ever.

Fourth, given that Davina hasn't rolled for miasma exposure one way or another, and was listed toward the back in the marching order... she could easily be intangible due to a horrified reaction at everyone else's behavior, and have somehow avoided exposure entirely, especially if we're considering minor retcons anyway. Perhaps as a side effect of Yisheng Ji's minor aerokinesis, or simply by correctly implementing some relevant subset of Aaphia's "ordinary precautions."

Fifth, I didn't design this particular room. It's part of the same off-the-shelf megadungeon I've been using as a base all along, including the ecology. Meat puppets from the bonesuckers, mordnaissants ("death ray babies") from here. There's another cryptic poem that gives some hints, but you haven't seen that part, because you're going through the whole mess backwards.

Finally, disengaging and not taking any rolled actions has been previously, and very firmly, established as being a sub-optimal strategy for the avoidance of having the party's main healer accidentally set all your worldly possessions on fire. Remember when you said this?
>>99316
>I had interpreted what befell Nick as a warning about the tone and level of forgiveness to expect in the game.

I didn't set up the parallel deliberately; it's an emergent behavior. If you're not declaring actions for your character, then to some extent they're 'zoned out,' operating on autopilot. I'll tend to err on the side of waiting, to give everyone a chance to participate even if they're not constantly checking the thread, but when somebody else does something that would logically involve your character (such as Yisheng Ji's crit fail on the rescue), there's no plot armor for having been AFK.
>>
No. 107790 ID: 3d2d5f

>Fifth, I didn't design this particular room
I don't really feel that's a much of a defense. Choosing to lift something wholesale from source books for your world is as much a design decision as any other, even if you have less personal investment in it. Ultimately you're as responsible for those as we are for every (bad) gameplay decision. As you just argued yourself, making yourself less present in the decision doesn't protect you from it.

>Third, "roofie room" isn't very accurate or fair descriptors
Granted. Deliberate innacurate liberty taken there for alliteration, and to convey emotional impact / personal distaste.

>if you'd like some sort of retcon for reasons of inappropriate sexual content
Honestly I'm not so much bothered by the involuntary disrobing or nudity (it's more farcical than anything else and gave me an excuse to write a fun sort of starchild bit) but the compulsory / involuntary sexual participation. The former sequence was shocking to the extent it was unexpected, not something I would have thought to defend against (I mean, I expected Ji to faceplant or something), and ran contrary to my own disengagement. The later falls squarely in "not what I signed up for".

Not really sure how to adress that as things stand unless you wanna just apply the same exertion penalty to my ghost-trip, revise that particular ruling on drug compatibility, or allow a generous bonus in ignoring the primary effect. Or claim I'm intangible from horror, but that kind of contradicts the bit of role-playing I liked from this.

...although if the greekfire had gone off and destroyed all my equipment, the only supply of food I can safely eat and my means of purchasing more (functionally killing me) without so much as a request to roll to avoid Ji's clumsiness, that last update would be more outrage inducing than weirdly surprising.

>there's no plot armor for having been AFK
That's untrue at least to the extent that characters who are AFK are not taking risks to the extent characters who are present are, and may in fact, have other characters actively taking risks on their behalf.

Senantics aside, I won't defend noping the fuck out as a good strategic decision, because you're right, it's not. It's just how I reacted. I'll speak up the next time I have a complaint instead of trying to wait it out.
>>
No. 107791 ID: f7f8ea

>>107787
Speaking of complaints, I think you might have missed me here James! http://tgchan.org/kusaba/quest/res/765391.html#772794
>>
No. 107792 ID: af6e04

>I mean, granted, considering certain characters in the group, one could argue that door was already opened
Vos was meant to be a squicky character, but not some sort of creepy fetish fuel. I can try to tone him down if you want. In my defense, I did dispense with any lurid descriptions in favor of focusing on the goofy horror of the situation (calmly deliberating with Hore about the nature of the mutation while she's panicking and bleeding out)

>I highly recommend you leave the room.
Vos sees no reason to leave. If I'm being honest about my metagameyness, I thought it would be more interesting for Hore to drag him out since she just received an urgent divine message to rescue Vos.

>I'll speak up the next time I have a complaint instead of trying to wait it out.
Please do. Remember we've made changes in the past because of OOC discomfort.

On a positive note, I don't know how kome feels about his character's redemption arc but I'm really enjoying it.
>>
No. 107796 ID: 398fe1

Personally I think the room that makes the character want to get naked and have unprotected sex being a trap to make them roll around in filth is a pretty great gotcha, though perhaps more demoralizing for the player than mechanically dangerous.
>>
No. 107798 ID: 0f6a80

>>107792
I would suggest that you take a second look at the situation if you're not thinking about leaving; I didn't read the text in Spoilers, under the assumption it wasn't something my character could hear, so unless you share in game I can't really address it.

But as for why you shouldn't stay in the room, 1 the compulsion will never stop. You will have sex before eating and before drinking. You will screw until you pass out and when you wake up you'll want to screw some more. If you decide to leave, which you can do easily enough, you still have to wait for it to wear off, and then you're exhausted when the monsters come to play. So that's obviously not desirable. 2, you might not be able to reach orgasm here, so it's basically just sort of frustrating inability to reach climax until you pass out from exhaustion. Also not desirable. 3, the room appears to be an illusion covering up a mold which is doubtful at best in terms of cleanliness. Do you really wanna fuck did you drop whist wallowing in mold and rat droppings? Probably not very good for the health of your partner at the very least. Which brings me to 4, that Vos has a higher ambition to keep others safe. It's obviously up to you how to role play that, but anyone who stays in the room with you is clearly being placed in danger of the same problems listed in 1-3, and if Vos is havung sex with them you're at least partially to blame, so there's a conflict of interest. On top of that, a large portion of the party appears to be leaving, which means that if you want to protect them from what has been proven as a very deadly dungeon thus far, you'd have to leave to go with, not to mention that anyone left in here is also put in more danger by that, simply through loosing the strength that is gained through numbers. This isn't as obvious a danger as, say, meat puppets attack us, but it's certainly deadly in its own way. I'd say leaving is a smart move if you're interested in longevity here
>>
No. 107799 ID: 3abd97

>>107792
I don't have a problem with Vos as you've been playing him. He manages to be a pretty affable body horror critter. And even if he wasn't, that's not really the salient point. Creepy and/or adult stuff in a game in fine. Really just not comfortable with loss of agency in that regard.

Although in-character Dav might suffer a freak out at the prospect of being on the receiving end of Vos' healing. Having already had her life fucked up by one alien horror, and with that whole legacy thing, the thought of being rearranged further, or picking up anything inheritable, would not go over well at all.

Actually, I'm a little surprised you were able to heal Hore with as minimal a change as that last one introduced. Up till this point I was assuming the gross (scale, not perception, though usually that too) mutation was mandatory and the repair was a happy side effect.

>Vos sees no reason to leave.
>>107798
Yeah, the best IC reason is the last one. Seeing other people leaving and/or Hore trying to drag him along gives Vos a possible reason to leave. Vos has been pretty amenable to helping others, and wouldn't want to see people going off into danger without him even if he sees his current environment as pretty great and doesn't understand what all the fuss is about. (I mean if nothing else you can't have sex with anyone if they've all left the room).
>>
No. 107801 ID: af6e04

>>107798
>>107799
Vos is mainly just waiting for Hore to drag him out. He won't put up a fight.

>Although in-character Dav might suffer a freak out at the prospect of being on the receiving end of Vos' healing.
Vos would only perform the flesh blessing on Davina or any other party member with their explicit permission, unless they were unconscious and on the brink of death.

>Actually, I'm a little surprised you were able to heal Hore with as minimal a change as that last one introduced.
I think this might have been a special case.

Got a question that I feel might become relevant when we reach the surface. How big is the Church of Tittivila? I assume at this point it's just a small religion mostly practiced by eel-men.
>>
No. 107803 ID: a107fd

>>107790
>I don't really feel that's a much of a defense.
I agree that I screwed up, that point was more a matter of clarifying the balance of incompetence/negligence/malice.

>revise that particular ruling on drug compatibility
Yeah that works. Let's say it's only partially compatible, and effectively harmless because the dosage is self-limiting.

>It's just how I reacted.
Nothing wrong with that. Inaction is a normal response to confusion and stress.
>I'll speak up the next time I have a complaint instead of trying to wait it out.
Thank you.

>expected Ji to faceplant
Considered that for a moment, realized it'd be spitting on his innate power. Mutations or parasites are supposed to be sort of weird, prone to side effects especially when interacting, but powers are supposed to be more controllable and the core effect tends to be absolute.
>>
No. 107804 ID: a107fd

>>107801
>Actually, I'm a little surprised you were able to heal Hore with as minimal a change as that last one introduced.
>I think this might have been a special case.
Hore Wutashi asked for something internal, and for her canid nature to be maintained, and then there's the logic of "first one's free, kid."
>>
No. 107812 ID: 9f3729

>>107803
Thanks james!

Unrelatedly, I've got no idea what to do now. I'm taking stock of myself now so I can be better equipped to handle my injuries but I've no clue how I'm going to rejoin the rest of the party.
Taking the big jump is out since I'm pretty close to death and it'd probably be a tossup on my surviving, and evidently my reading comprehension is worse than I could ever believe because I've no idea how to track people the long way through to where they're at either.
>>
No. 107816 ID: b9aa79

>>107812
Yeah, none of us are anywhere that you can get by jumping, either up or down. You're on the right track, but we're a ways away at this point. No clever ideas here unless Maru gets incapacitated and I roll up a new son to come join you all
>>
No. 107817 ID: 3abd97

>>107803
>I agree that
Yeah, sorry to harp on it. Apology accepted, I didn't handle that as well as I could have either.

>>107801
>Vos would only perform the flesh blessing on Davina or any other party member with their explicit permission, unless they were unconscious and on the brink of death.
Sure. Adventuring just significantly increases the odds on of us is going to end up on the brink of death.

>>107812
Don't sweat it, the layout of the "main" floor of the dungeon is kind of confusing to follow, especially since if you're trying to reconstruct it by reading earlier stuff. You have to follow the travels of two different groups at the same time, and we doubled back, and we took a portal shortcut to undo the doubling back. I should make a proper map, but there are a lot of fiddly bits that have delayed it.

By my counts you'd have to pass through... seven? branch points / intersections to reach the shaft we went up (at least, if you go the same way we did) and that leads up to the floor I actually drew map of >>107708 , and then it's a single (twisted) path right to where we are.

It's possible there might be some kind of shortcut, or you might be able to in-character track which way we went if we left evidence of which passages we went down. Some ability to track isn't an implausible skill for a mercenary, although that might be hard as you currently lack a light source (whups, sorry about that, your light source jumped off a cliff and then held a tea party for trolls).

>Taking the big jump is out since I'm pretty close to death and it'd probably be a tossup on my surviving
Yeah Rhea's basically only alive because the dice smiled on my faffing around like a niave ninny with crit minimum fall damage. As a big human in armor, Geoffry would have to roll more dice for fall damage, you're already in bad shape, and there's no tarp stretched across scaffolding to break your fall after I broke it.
>>
No. 107832 ID: 67456a

I'd like to apologize for being inactive, I've just been getting metaphorically hammered lately. I'll try to catch up and start postint again.
>>
No. 107833 ID: af6e04

>I'd like to apologize for being inactive
No need. Glad to have you back though!
>>
No. 107839 ID: df17e7

>>107832
Ditto what our eel paladin said, good luck with your hammers!

@JamesLeng, I had another question about creating a Necrolithography character.
1) can a core be made of a liquid or gel like substance?
2) I'm guessing it can't be, and in that case I'm imagining a core with a suit of armor, but I was curious if, since the suit would normally be full of air, could it be full of another medium and still operate, like have a person in it, or water, or even have a gel filling as a permenant part of the structure of something of that nature, so it's a core suspended in jelly surrounded by armor. I was thinking about how a core would make a suit of armor ambulate, and naturally I thought electrical impulses considering that's how we work, and I was wondering how adding a conductive non-solid medium to the mix would work
>>
No. 107848 ID: a107fd

>>107839
Yeah, you could have a liquid or gelatinous core. For practical purposes it'd probably need to be in some sort of watertight container with contact points for sensors and control, like a brain-in-a-jar plus prosthetic-body cyborg, but with pure psyche-imprinted goo in the flask instead of an actual biological brain.

The animation isn't accomplished by electrical impulses. That's either clockwork, or direct magic, or some combination. An enchanter starts with a porcelain doll, and looks at, say, one of the knees, and says "this thing has knee-like characteristics, but not the quality of being able to flex as a knee does. I want to give it that quality - but not to flop loosely like a hinge, only to bend and straighten at the command of another part, to be specified later." Then there's a lot of fussing around with chanting and diagrams and candles and astrological correspondences and eye of newt or whatever to make that happen. Then the other knee, ankles, hips... it's a bottom-up process, like forging a suit of plate armor. All the parts have to be custom fitted to some extent, but they can be made in parallel, according to approximately standard templates. Final assembly is a comparatively small part of the work. Golemetry, by contrast, is top-down. If you're working from a standard set of geases, there's no point getting more than two people involved, unless you count unskilled labor for the setup (which can be significant, especially for larger models, when you're hauling hundreds or thousands of pounds of stuff to assemble the body). Can't start binding until you're done summoning, can't start summoning until you've got a vessel ready.

The actual commands are information with no strictly corresponding physical medium. A null-magic zone would make it collapse, precisely as insensate, rigid, and fragile as an ordinary porcelain doll, but high-voltage shocks (of the sort optimized to paralyze a living creature by electromuscular disruption, or kill by stopping the heart) would have no effect until there was enough current for heating from resistance to cause actual burns. http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20051118
>>
No. 107866 ID: 9f3729

>2 away from a crit fail
ha
ha....
>>
No. 107869 ID: a107fd

>>107866
In GURPS, an 18 is always a crit fail, but a 17 usually also is (exception being with effective skill 16+, where it's only an ordinary failure) and a roll of 16 can also be a botch if your effective skill is 6 or below. That applies all the way down to a roll of 13 being a botch at skill 3. (With skill 2 or less, success is a mathematical impossibility, so you don't even get a roll.) Furthermore, some things can turn all ordinary failures into critical failures under relevant circumstances. The more severe version of the "klutz" disadvantage, for example, turns any failure on a dexterity-based roll into impromptu physical comedy.
>>
No. 107871 ID: 9f3729

>>107869
Well, hopefully Geoffrey's specced well around stealth AS WELL as speed, because yikes almighty
>>
No. 107873 ID: b9aa79

>>107871
Heads up, don't tell them they can come in. Honestly' couldn't tell you if that would work in this setting, given my lack of insider knowledge, but popular lore dictates they can't cross running water, have a compulsion for counting, and need permission before entering a threshold.
>>
No. 107875 ID: 3abd97

>>cover self with additional blood
>Clearly the best plan.

>"No, this is an empty barrel."
Geoffrey's antics continue to be the most entertaining of the entire group.

And hey, at least your spear with the broken off head now counts as a stake, right?

>>107873
Gameplay would seem to support that lore, if we interpret "That's weird. Hey! Anyone home in there?" as the vamps running into a barred threshold they didn't expect and "Unguarded outer perimeter clearly marked 'no entry'" being document as a defense.

But yeah, vampires are something to not make casual assumptions about since they vary so wildly between settings.
>>
No. 107878 ID: 9f3729

>>107875
No arguments here. Yet again I love the results of my horrendous failure.
>>
No. 107884 ID: 9f3729

I just came up with an excellent, excellent plan. I cant put it in motion yet since i'm up super late, but be prepared



For antics
>>
No. 107889 ID: 3abd97

Was thinking on getting on the descriptions bandwagon (even if a little late) and I have to ask:

What do normal goblins look like in this setting? General height, coloration, ear pointedness, hair or not, etc. Need a baseline before I can decide how Rhea's heritage might have weirded things.

>>/quest/773602
>>/quest/773615
Maybe if Geoffrey is very lucky the vampires will watch his antics with barrel home construction and decide he must be insane or seriously sick and that they don't want any part of his blood lest it's catching. :p

If you wanna give Geoffrey wiggle room before committing suicide, there's no reason constructing his makeshift barrel "home" and actually field testing it outside the safety of the room couldn't be considered separate actions. He could do the one and still have a chance to back down / think better of it before the next.
>>
No. 107891 ID: 9f3729

>>107889
What magey said, he's trying to sneak past on a technicality. Presumably they wouldn't be able to harm the home either without permission or vampires would just take out a wall so it's just a cubbyhole to get at the delicious juicy center all the time.

By building a mobile house he's (presumably) building himself a mobile anti-vampire box.
>>
No. 107895 ID: b9aa79

>>107891
Keep in mind though that even if he builds a crude wooden barrel house, the vampires simply can't enter. Doesn't mean they can't attack and destroy his house. Also, a house is usually sealed on all sides, generally speaking. If his legs are sticking out the bottom it's like laying across the threshold. Any part that's not tucked away is fair game.
>>
No. 107896 ID: 3abd97

Honestly, the biggest problem would probably be that thresholds aren't usually supposed to be mobile. No matter how fancy he makes his barrel-home, it probably counts as clothing.
>>
No. 107897 ID: af6e04

>>107896
But then what about a trailer home? Or a tent?
>>
No. 107898 ID: 3abd97

>>107897
I suspect a trailer home would keep a vampire out if set up, but not prevent entry in the case of a high speed nighttime pursuit with vamps boarding one being towed behind a car. Distinct "home" and "vehicle" states.

Ditto for a tent, although I'm not sure a tent counts as enough of a boundary even when set up.

Of course this is all wild mass bullshitting / guessing.
>>
No. 107900 ID: a107fd

>>107898
A mobile home could continue to offer protection while in motion. A ship on the open sea, for example, could be proof against aquatic vampires, because it has a well-defined perimeter which all that "permission to come aboard" stuff has linked up with the laws of sacred hospitality.

The room Geoffrey is in was a feast hall long ago, continuously occupied by one of the original residents from that day to this, and then rededicated to Tittivila by Decaro Vos. Accepting a religious conversion, driving off intruders, eating and drinking, medical care, sex... any one might not be sufficient, but collectively that all says "people still live here" and then it takes more than a few hours' absence for that reinforcement to fade.

A house is more than just four walls and a door. Geoffrey's barrel doesn't have that kind of metaphysical reinforcement. These vampires would lift it right off of him, and complain that he didn't have enough blood left to be worth the trouble of splitting eight ways.

He doesn't know any of that IC, but he does know that he'd be betting his life on occult wisdom (and carpentry skills) that he knows he doesn't have.

On the subject of carpentry, 'supernal mastery of a trade skill' is a perfectly sensible boon when you might need to be working in the dark, with a limited selection of scrounged material, and no tools. Those penalties really add up.
>>
No. 107901 ID: af6e04

>>107900
So in a way, Geoffrey owes his life to Tittivila too! Her mercy is endless. Everybody should convert.
>>
No. 107902 ID: af6e04

>>/quest/773790
>I thought we were waiting for Hore and Vos' three stooges routine to wrap up, but it would seem to have done so already.

Sorry? I genuinely missed the paragraph where JamesLeng described the ladder and the rooms beyond, so I thought we were still waiting at the bottom of the shaft for Davina and Ji to devise a way to traverse it. I can understand being annoyed at us for screwing around instead of getting to the dungeon crawling, but it's not like you couldn't have taken the initiative to advance things yourself.

>rolled 6, 5, 3 = 14
Also your tumor paladin could probably use rescuing.
>>
No. 107905 ID: 3abd97

>>107902
No need to apologize, that wasn't intended as criticism or complaint. You'd rolled for a takedown, I just expected that to resolve in some manner before we got marching again.

Weirdness of the medium more than anything else.

>Also your tumor paladin could probably use rescuing.
Hmm. Yes. It occurred to me to try and open a portal in front of you to the stairs, but having Dav appear in front of Vos, sword first, as you're running (slithering?) forward at top speeds (and potentially being orb-tackled from behind) might result in something of the opposite of a rescue.

Might require some more complicated multi-portalling. Or someone else having a better idea.
>>
No. 107906 ID: af6e04

>>107905
Think I read more hostility in your text than was intended. My fault.

This might be a tough one. Probably would have been a whole lot easier if Vos hadn't wandered in and gotten himself trapped. On the bright side, the corner should be fairly safe however difficult to escape from.
>>
No. 107907 ID: 3abd97
File 148503344384.png - (12.85KB , 600x287 , Ball room.png )
107907

>into one of the corners near the stairs
Okay, so that puts Vos 10' from the stairs. That's about 3 seconds travel at a the tar-ball's speed of a leisurely walk, less if we assume he's doing snake-equivalent running.

If we assume the tar ball started in the center of the room, there's also 10' between the door and the edge of it's expansion range, so in about 3 seconds it would be able to clip someone trying to pass through the door, or trap someone in the corner from being able to reach the stairs. (Not sure if it would be able to continue forward and kill someone in the corner, we don't know if it can deform the sphere that much). Of course, it was moving around, so I'm not sure exactly where it was sitting when it first pufferfished out. You moved 8', but I think that was distance to the first impact, not counting the bounce into the corner?

Made a quick map to make visualizing this easier, this one to scale.
>>
No. 107915 ID: af6e04

>>107907
>I think that was distance to the first impact, not counting the bounce into the corner?
That makes sense, reading over it again.

Looks like things could have gotten really nasty there if Vos hadn't made it out of that corner! I can imagine the possibilities of people getting trapped while trying to maneuver around this thing. Hope we don't regret adding fire to the equation haha.
>>
No. 107917 ID: a107fd

>>107907
This map is accurate.

When figuring tactical movement, keep in mind Vos is eighteen feet long, from top of head to tip of tail, and has about two-thirds of that length in contact with the ground when in motion. He's occupying a lot more horizontal space than a typical standing human would. His head or shoulders could be bouncing off one of the side walls while the end of his tail was still on the stairs.
>>
No. 107926 ID: e7e8e8

>>107917
Augh, havent been on a while. Workimg on an alternative plan, give me till tomorrow
>>
No. 107954 ID: 74621b

Sorry I've been absent these past few updates. I'm averse to posting any actions along the lines of "Contemplate, but ultimately do nothing" since it'd just be pointless filler. Unfortunately in retrospect, my character has exactly one skill, which is to heal people's injuries. However, he is actually only mediocre at mundane healing right now because of the roll penalties for being energy-drained and soul-scarred and whatever else God decided to inflict on him, so he can't even reliably do that. And his divine healing only works three times a day, and requires multiple uses to heal even one person's injuries, so that doesn't amount to much either. (Especially compared to Vos, who can cure mortal injuries unlimited times per day, albeit with some body alteration.) So at the moment, Yisheng Ji is actually only marginally better at treating injuries than, say, Hore.

Furthermore, he doesn't appear capable of casting even first-circle divine magic, as evidenced by his failure to cast Air Bubble (a level 1 cleric spell) on a roll of 7. His miraculous lightness / balance has not been particularly useful either, since he needs to spend FP to use it in any non-trivial way. The walkways in the latest room, for example, are explicitly noted as being slippery, and it's been mentioned several times that Yisheng Ji's power is more-or-less nullified by slippery surfaces, since he's just as vulnerable to slipping as anyone else, and therefore just as much at risk as anyone else. He has zero combat ability, and even his emergency Greekfire has been more of a threat to the party than anything else, as one bottle was wasted on a slime monster who wasn't even slowed down by it, and the other can apparently slip out anytime Davina is in trouble and kill party members if I make a poor roll.

I almost feel like I should have taken the boon to not require food or drink, because at this point, Yisheng Ji is nothing more than a drain on party resources, with nothing to contribute. Even though I'm keeping up on the thread, any post I could make would amount to "Just follow the party and hope for the best", which is what the default non-post action is. So right now, I'm basically just waiting around to roll against danger whenever it pops up. I know JamesLeng will probably give me less experience than everyone else (or just drain it away when I do get it, as has been happening so far) for non-participation, but honestly I don't see how I can contribute right now, and I'm just choosing to not post to avoid filler. Sorry. I'll still pop in to risk his life to try to save someone else if it comes up, since that seems to be all he's useful for, not that he's particularly good at that either, judging from his less-than-stellar performance in the aphrodisiac-opium chamber.

Also, on a slightly different note, I have a lot more character detail, descriptions, and notes about the inspiration for Yisheng Ji, (and have had basically since character creation), but I decided not to write up a post until the character at least survived level 1, so I wouldn't just be composing a big long obituary. Anyway, that's about it. Happy Year of the Rooster, everyone.
>>
No. 107961 ID: b9aa79

>>107954
It sounds to me like theres a bit of a disconnect here between how you're seeing Ji vs how I'm seeing him, and more fundamentally what the purpose of the game is for either of us.

This whole block of text caught me off guard because from my perspective Ji was a major force creating action in the environment. It's been stated that this is supposed to be organized as a simulation rather than a story, so the grim reality is, it's not balanced or designed for us to all ding and get the treasure after beating the boss. It's very explicitly designed to kill characters actually, or at least it seems that way, with simple and easy rules for creation and implementation to allow it to work well in this medium. As I see it, the point of this isn't really to have power so much as it is to be creative, thoughtful and cautious in our decision making, all qualities you as a player possess. We all want to be strong adventurers, to have that feeling of power and agency, to come ahead in the race against death here in this dungeon but if you lay it out Ji has been more useful that Maru. Thus far, Maru has done 0 good things for the party's survival. She upset the meat puppets, tried to manhandle Ji, offended the cultists, and hasn't really done anything to balance that out. Now I don't know how the others feel definitively, but so far it seems like they're not really bothered by that OOC at least, bc even though I'm making dumb decisions I am doing my darndest for the most part, and more importantly, I'm adding a layer of interaction to the environment. If this was all about being as powerful as possible, we could design our characters with a lot stronger loadouts then what they currently have, and get cracking on "beating" the dungeon, but honestly I don't see that as the point. We're not here as players to beat the dungeon, that's just what our characters want to do. We as players are designing interesting lives and seeing how they interact in this sandbox open world sort of simulation.

It feels to me, more than anything, that this may be a case of feeling frustrated because you are incapable of doing what you though was agreed upon as something you could do. Your main points that I see are revolving around being unable to heal, use your powers and cast spells. Now as I understand, normally we start at level 0 and can't cast spells anyways. You leveled up, but before you did that, you took a damn near deathly amount of damage after literally running headlong into about the most obvious trap we've encountered. You've had 12 hours of rest, but you're still pretty fucked up by what happened on the chessboard. Any one of those squares could have knocked a normal villager out of the long game permenantly, and you're alive after hitting a whole field of them. On top of that, you're going to be able to heal more in a day, after you rest and recharge, and I bet most of the party would prefer that to fleshy mutations.

My point is, you're not powerless here, and even if you aren't well equipped to take on the dungeon that's not a bad thing, nor does it reflect poorly on you/your character. If your grievance is that you feel like you should be stronger/able to do more, then that is something to talk about, but bad rolls and mistaken solutions won't keep you from being strong for much longer once we get out of the dungeon and get re-equipped. I understand if you're still feeling upset but on my end Ji has been a driving force in making this more fun and has definitely been more useful to the party than Maru, so maybe just give it some time and you'll be stronger and better able to act as you envision Ji doing so
>>
No. 107962 ID: 3abd97

>healing too limited
I expect that will improve a lot when we get a level up and you gain more structured spell slots.

>not sure how to contribute
Well, there's always rolling for spot / perception / alertness. Anyone could be the one to see the detail or notice the one thing that saves the group from trouble.

And as a hedge mage, Ji has some degree of supernatural perception certain other members of the group lack (I think half of what I did with Marijke was "check that for magic" or "examine that magic in more detail" rolls).

Or there's in-character bouncing words off of other characters or reacting to things, or discussing tactics or solutions to problems. I mean, Ji's sort of serious compared to some of our sillier people, which allows for a natural counterpoint in RPing.

Also, if I remember right, you immortal optimization means you need less sleep, which means you're invaluable for watching people's backs when they're flagging.

>He has zero combat ability
The vast majority of the threats we've dealt with haven't been resolved by combat, actually. I mean, my fighter's main strength is as the party's transport, and my fire-mage is basically a diplomat / support character who's running PC-solo atm.

...and arguably, perfect balance, mobility on unusual / unexpected surfaces, and an in depth knowledge of biology could make him kinda dangerous in hand to hand against an elvenoid opponent.

>it's been mentioned several times that Yisheng Ji's power is more-or-less nullified by slippery surfaces
It has? I thought being immaterial / ghostform was a special case.

>So at the moment, Yisheng Ji is actually only marginally better at treating injuries than, say, Hore.
At the very least Ji will have a lot better bedside manner. And his hands are a lot more likely to be clean. ...and he's not likely to try and treat fainting with smacking.

>the other can apparently slip out anytime Davina is in trouble and kill party members if I make a poor roll
In your defense, I don't see how any of us could have seen that one coming. I sure didn't. And now you now know to set your dangerous incendiaries aside before risking intangibility dropping all your possessions, at least?

>his failure to cast Air Bubble (a level 1 cleric spell) on a roll of 7
I thought that worked, it was just it expired on your subsequent bad luck roll while trying to evac people.

>miraculous lightness / balance has not been particularly useful either, since he needs to spend FP to use it in any non-trivial way
That honestly does feel like a legit complaint, considering the portal and mutation abilities seem to be useable at will. Although I suppose it depends on the rate of FP consumption and how quickly you recover it.
>>
No. 107964 ID: af6e04

>>107954
Actually I always felt like Ji was a very useful party member. The problem is that when so many people are playing together in a large group, a few people are always going to feel kind of useless at any given obstacle. At some points I've felt like the situation has boiled down to 'let Davina and Ji devise a plan for traversal'.

Usually in these situations I just offered ridiculous solutions like 'construct a meat rope' for the sake of participation and because I thought it was funny. Or I just goofed around with other characters. I think it's fine to interact with other characters if you feel like you have nothing to contribute to the situation. Maybe it's filler, but it's fun.

As far as whether the characters are 'balanced', I don't think it really matters. Consider the fact that Vos' primary utility to the party has been his willingness to blindly throw himself into mortal danger to help his companions, not any of his actual powers. I think there are plenty of opportunities to leverage whatever advantages you have to overcome obstacles.

>Thus far, Maru has done 0 good things for the party's survival
I disagree with this too. Coming up with marching orders and keeping the party moving and focused is important. Also, she cleaned house the one time she really got the chance to see combat.
>>
No. 107967 ID: a107fd

>>107954
>healing
I think you may be undervaluing the lack of grotesque and permanent side effects, the reliability of Vancian spell slots relative to a fickle divine mutagen, and the potential to restore people who are properly dead. Hore stopped bleeding out, but didn't actually recover any more HP from Vos's treatment than she would have from mundane bandaging.

>it's been mentioned several times that Yisheng Ji's power is more-or-less nullified by slippery surfaces
Less reliable, arguably weakened, but not at all nullified. Take a silk thread as thick as three strands of hair braided together, stretch it across a gap, he can walk across with no roll, as if it were a sturdy bridge. Blow a hurricane down the canyon? Still no roll, if he's free to lean into the wind like Marcel Marceau, and the bridge doesn't break on it's own. Even if the 'tightrope' isn't really tight at all, but has enough slack to bounce around, that doesn't matter. http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/14p38/ No FP cost for any of that, beyond whatever is required for the normal exertion of walking or running, which is ten reduced by half thanks to eternal youth. Coat the rope in ice or slime, and then, yes, he needs a roll to avoid a fall, but perfect balance still provides a +6 bonus to that roll. That's not bad, in a system where skill 10 is a coin-toss while skill 16 succeeds 53 times out of 54.

In the latest room, Yisheng Ji's acrobatic abilities could be very relevant. Jumping from one path to another would normally be extremely dangerous, because, apart from the risk of missing the target outright, all that forward momentum would make it hard to come to a sudden stop, even if the surface had ideal traction. The high, slow arc of a wire-fu jump doesn't have that problem. Even if he slips off a platform, or has it drop out from under him, walking on water means he can limit goo exposure to the soles of his boots, or at absolute worst his knees and a glove, rather than sinking in waist-deep.
>>
No. 107968 ID: a107fd

>>107967
*which is THEN reduced
>>
No. 107969 ID: 3d2d5f

Also, it's not relevant from a dungeon tactics point so much, but Ji is someone I'd hoped to do some kind of role-playing against when we reached a safe spot and playing characters off one another. Someone who essentially trivialized the greatest inconvenience in her life has caught Dav's attention.

>the potential to restore people who are properly dead
I'd be curious to hear more detail about that, actually. That's a potential last ditch safety net I didn't realize we had. Especially since I think the random-race bargain rez was 4th circle magic, and more reliable means were higher up than that.
>>
No. 107970 ID: 3d2d5f

>crit fail a lore check
Whups. Guess poor naive Rhea is gonna believe things that are the opposite of true or worse.
>>
No. 107971 ID: a107fd

>>107969
>I'd be curious to hear more detail about that, actually. That's a potential last ditch safety net I didn't realize we had.

Well, quoting the OP of the first thread and the reboot, "A hedge witch specialized in healing can resurrect the dead, if all the key giblets are in place, but after they start to go rancid it's like pushing an avalanche back uphill." From a mechanical standpoint, it couldn't be simpler: alchemical healing potions only restore HP to living creatures, but Cure spells can also target corpses. When targeting a corpse which has been reanimated as an undead creature, Cure spells cause injury by working against the underlying dark spirits; otherwise, they heal damage.

As an example, take Geoffrey Vargas, wounded down to negative 46 HP. Let's say, as a hypothetical, that someone then stabbed him for six more damage. He'd be at negative fifty-two, and definitely dead. As a corpse, he'd be somewhat more resistant to further injury (no more worries about suffocation, for example, and piercing doesn't do quite as much damage when your various fluids are coagulated rather than pressurized) but he wouldn't have any chance of healing naturally, and would start to decompose. Let's say it takes two more damage from some combination rot and rat-nibbles, down to negative 54, and then somebody casts Least True Healing, restoring 5 hp. Now Geoffrey's body is at negative 49 hp, and alive again. It's conceivable he could then recover all the way to full on his own, or with mundane medical care, although crippled limbs, hypothermia (Least True Healing doesn't magically set your core body temperature back to a healthy level) gangrene, corpse-eating beetles stranded under his skin, etc. could complicate the process. Sufficient repetitive application of various true healing and Lymphatic Auditor could 'power through' most of those problems, while Osseous Auditor fixes the stuff that wouldn't normally heal naturally at all. If you're only a little bit dead, a single Least True Healing will be enough... but probably not enough to get back to 100% unless you're really tiny and squishy, with max HP in the low single digits.

At minus one hundred HP, the corpse would have been completely destroyed, no longer a valid target for repair attempts... but the remaining fragments would still be enough of a sympathetic connection to Geoffrey for him to be reincarnated with 4th circle magic. Since the result of that would be a completely new healthy young adult body, only psychological or spiritual problems could possibly carry over.
>>
No. 108031 ID: 9f3729

AAAAND I'm back! Sorry for the delay, was far busier than I expected and haven't been online for the most part.
Should be good now, and hopefully better at planning now.
>>
No. 108034 ID: 3abd97

>>108031
I figure you either have to wait out the vamps / something draws them away (might be helped by doing things that reinforce the room as a "home" so the protection doesn't wear off, you have to find a way to drive them off, wait for some other npc to arrive (or PC, if someone else joins or someone gets killed or disabled and rolls a new character), or engage in diplomacy with things that want to eat you. (Or pit them against each other?).
>>
No. 108036 ID: 9f3729

>>108034
I have several possible solutions, and two of them still involve tearing apart furniture for building materials!
I'm going to run through a couple before I shoot straight to the more faulty ones, though!
>>
No. 108039 ID: 595d54

Hey guys, sorry for the radio silence but classes have eaten most of the free time I had. Feel free to NPC Djan for the time being, I'll try and get back in the game when I can actually commit some time. Figured I should actually say something instead of ghosting people.

Also I'd honestly rather the sex stuff stayed to a reasonable minimum with Djan, if it's not an obstacle.
>>
No. 108040 ID: a107fd

>>108037
With one attempt per day, and one day's rations, you can get two rolls for Great Healing before needing to either scrounge up more food and water, or face starvation/thirst penalties. First attempt needs to come before extended rest for that to work, though.
>>
No. 108087 ID: 9f3729

I... suppose I'll wait until the big problem happening with the rest of you folks is over, then?
>>
No. 108088 ID: 3d2d5f

>>108087
Why? Always gonna be some danger facing the group. As there's no direct interact between groups, it doesn't hurt us if you make progress or vice versa.
>>
No. 108090 ID: d36af7

>>/quest/774813
>static puzzles do sort of encourage a slow approach

Slow and incremental is fine. My problem was that it seemed like three days with no actions I could usefully respond to.
>>
No. 108091 ID: d36af7

>>108087
No. Please go ahead. Say what you're doing and roll for it. Delaying action for nebulous indefinite reasons leads to stalling out, which leads to the game ending in an unsatisfactory way.
>>
No. 108094 ID: af6e04

>>108090
The problem was that the people who were best suited to solve the puzzle weren't actively posting at the time. It seems dumb to die just because the PCs with traversal powers are sitting there spaced out.
>>
No. 108097 ID: 9f3729

>>108091
I did though! I assumed you were waylaying my action until the end of the current situation but I rolled to heal again before I started other things
>>
No. 108099 ID: 3abd97

>>108090
>>108094
Hey my gap in activity was only... 45hs. Not even two full days.

And I did open the portals before I got distracted, so anyone could have sent zombies through to investigate or experiment.

(Really, the biggest issue right now is we outsmarted ourselves ducking out of the room just in case, so we didn't observe what happened. So we gained very little new data- yes, there's at least one trap there, and the doors don't open to pulling. We didn't anticipate looking in and not seeing an open door).
>>
No. 108101 ID: d36af7

>>108097
I couldn't tell which kind of healing you meant. You've got three different relevant spells, plus the option of resting to heal naturally.
>>
No. 108103 ID: 1d0e08

So I figure I should describe Agatia, so nobody thinks I'm about to start bullshitting things about her for my own benefit.

Agatia is a Goddess of Fire, Battle, and Purity. She ascended to godhood after devouring the heart of a Demon Lord. This damned her to Hell, but she uses this opportunity to generally rampage through the place, killing absolutely everything she can get her flaming mitts on.

She values the ability to fight, and all of her descendants have access to the flames she commanded in life, and that she commands as a deity. Most are born with the Art of Purging, which operates by burning the target's flesh AND sins, basically damaging the soul along with the body. In Undead, it instead burns away at the magic keeping them animated.

A very few of Agatia's descendants are instead capable of Purification, using softer golden flames to burn away disease and curses, along with cauterizing smaller wounds. They're usually looked down upon by Purgers.

Agatia had no children in life, but instead occasionally reproduces with human women. This occurs through an intense, burning flame that causes great sexual ecstasy in the "victim". When it passes, the woman usually needs intense medical attention... and is pregnant.

There are rumors Agatia has a male's reproductive organs in place of a woman's, and the flames are simply a metaphorical smokescreen for a coupling with an invisible Agatia. Those who spread such rumors are found charred to a crisp in their beds if they're too loose-lipped.

If any of this won't work, just let me know. This is just what I came up with.
>>
No. 108105 ID: 3abd97

>sitting around discussing possible slow careful options using undead proxies, rope, and bondage portals
>rest of the party get impatient and starts running across the goo and sticking their hands in it.
Pfffff. I'm cracking up now. Hope that works out, Ji got a pretty good roll.

>If any of this won't work, just let me know. This is just what I came up with.
The convenient thing here is that it doesn't have to work, nessarily. The traditions and teachings of a god's followers aren't necessarily the literal truth, and cross examining the god in question for confirmation is liable to get you smote.
>>
No. 108106 ID: 1d0e08

>>108105
Daniel is used to his aura saving him from things. And he has a bit of a thing for taking hits for "useful" people. And he thinks Ji is hot. It's basically the perfect storm of convenient powers, an inferiority complex honed by an abusive family, and his Lower Ambition.

But yeah, he's also just a little bit stupid.
>>
No. 108111 ID: af6e04

>>108106
Vos can always grow his finger back
>>
No. 108125 ID: b9aa79

I wouldn't imagine mutations are good for small detail work like re-growing a singular finger- I would imagine, considering its divine and biological nature it's more likely to be a big picture kind of effect, like your tail. Try to re-grow his finger and you might replace his entire arm with a tentacled appendage. Just be cautious
>>
No. 108126 ID: 398fe1

>>108106
You still didn't roll.
>>
No. 108127 ID: af6e04

>Try to re-grow his finger and you might replace his entire arm with a tentacled appendage.

Yeah. Vos got his crab arm for a relatively small (but critically positioned) cut. Anybody undergoing the flesh blessing should expect some pretty heavy body alteration. Tittivila is merciful but her ways are mysterious.

One thing worth noting though is that, despite some heavy mutations, none of the flesh blessings have rendered Vos or anybody else (just Hore so far) physically crippled or exceedingly impaired.
>>
No. 108130 ID: 3d2d5f

>>108127
It wasn't poisoned, actually. Dav has concealed weapon jewellery with reservoirs for poison, but they're currently empty (because starting with poison is a townie option). All they can do right now is be a pointy surprise. Buying poison is neaely at the top of my shopping list when we reach civilization, right after q-rations. (Further down the list, and currently out of price range, would be something like enchanted grav boots so Dav could trivially open portals without having to pass through them).

That, and she got Vos reasonably seriously with the rapier, not the jewellery. Nicked a blood vessel and (partially?) cut a tendon in the elbow. The rapier isn't poisoned at all (unless Vos is allergic to whatever vague historical enchantment might be on there).

But Tl;dr, I think part of the reason the claw mutation was drastic was because it had to restore arm functionality, which was otherwise pretty impaired.
>>
No. 108137 ID: d36af7

>>108125
It's possible to 'hold back/clamp down' the effect and direct it toward something specific. With a bit of luck and a bit of willpower, that may produce nothing more severe than the equivalent of a minor birthmark or scar. Small patch of scaly skin, one fingernail that's thicker and yellower than the rest, that sort of thing. Tittivila is less enthusiastic about that outcome, but it's also less of an exertion/investment on her part, so it's more of a "welp, *shrug* you get what you pay for" than some "for having rejected my blessings you will taste my wrath" sort of thing. Also tend to get less severe complications when there's an open wound for the energy to 'vent' through, and when you're otherwise calm and well-rested rather than sickly and stressed out, and the longer it's been since your previous dose of mutagens (hours good, weeks better). Daniel's purification aura might make an effective "good cop/bad cop" sort of combo with Vos's power, clearing out all the little stuff that tends to exacerbate uncontrolled mutations.

>>108103
Solid concept for a god. One cosmological quibble:
>This damned her to Hell
Plausible mortal theological interpretation. Agatia might even believe it herself, if she was more lucky than smart on the way up, and hasn't put much stock in introspection since. In truth, she simply usurped control over a demiplane, and can leave it as easily as the former lord could have. She'd be weakened outside her realm, but only in the sense of no longer having admin-level access to the local laws of physics. Any personal prowess she had as a mortal hero would still be available, along with anything new she learned or acquired since... but stomping around in very literal God Mode isn't a great way to find meaningful challenges to refine your existing skills, and losing access to cheat codes can really sting once you've gotten used to 'em.

"Hell" isn't a unified place in this setting. Each of the Old Gods corresponds to - in some sense IS - a plane of existence, extending infinitely in at least one direction.
The Old God whose sacred number is 1 (known to some as The Storm Forge) corresponds to the layer of the sky where weather happens.
The Old God whose sacred number is 2 (known to some as The Blood Mire) corresponds to... well, in most D&D settings it'd be called the "material plane." Land, especially wetlands, but also including everything from beaches to the relatively habitable outside parts of mountains, plus rivers, most of the smaller lakes, and shallow caves. Continues at least as far down as the depth of topsoil and at least as far up as the tops of trees.
The Old God whose sacred number is 5 (known to some as Tiamat) corresponds to the greatest lakes, shallower parts of oceans and deeper parts of caves, including any serious dungeon, and is the root cause of seismic activity such as mountain ranges and earthquakes.
The Old God whose sacred number is 6 (known to some as a serpent coiled around an egg) corresponds to something beneath the deepest caves, a secret hearth to light the darkest parts of the oceans, and is the root cause of geothemal activity such as hot springs and volcanos.
Sun, Moon, and Stars are 4, 8, and 7, respectively. Zero, three, and nine are harder to summarize, though I'd be happy to answer questions.
>>
No. 108138 ID: 48ca8d

>>108137
We've got 0-8, is there a nine in there? Was there at one point but no longer? Pantheons are cool stuff, I really dig mythology and might like incorporating some of this lore into some of my stories if that'd be okay with you
>>
No. 108141 ID: af6e04

>>108130
>(but critically positioned)
Sorry, weird wording but I meant where the cut was and not how deep.

>It's possible to 'hold back/clamp down' the effect and direct it toward something specific.
>Tittivila is less enthusiastic about that outcome
I figured this was at least part of it. Vos will always be perfectly ecstatic with whatever horrifying blessing Tittivila decides to bestow upon him. Hore's mutation was relatively tame because that's what she wanted (at least I thought?). Vos recognizes that those not of the faith might have apprehension about body alteration. Everybody knows that when it comes to new converts, you have to give them aid and companionship before you start giving them tentacles.

>Daniel's purification aura might make an effective "good cop/bad cop" sort of combo with Vos's power, clearing out all the little stuff that tends to exacerbate uncontrolled mutations.
The guidance of Tittivila has brought these two together. But who's the good cop and who's the bad?
>>
No. 108142 ID: 3abd97

>positioned versus poisoned
A+ reading comprehension, me.
>>
No. 108143 ID: d36af7

>>/quest/775104
Yisheng Ji would fit perfectly into an Exalted game as either a god-blood, or an air aspect terrestrial exalt, with Dodge 5 (We Used To Be Friends +3). Cover the rest with a few Athletics and Medicine charms, and procedures from the thaumaturgical Art of Alchemy.
>>
No. 108144 ID: af6e04

>>108143
Bonuses to dodge allies might be warranted but are probably completely unnecessary at this point. At least by all appearances, Ji damn well knows what he's doing and we all need to quit doubting his skills.
>>
No. 108145 ID: 3abd97

>>108143
Ji the untouchable, he who grasped the intangible.
>>
No. 108146 ID: d36af7

>>108138
>We've got 0-8, is there a nine in there? Was there at one point but no longer?
If there is an Old God whose sacred number is 9, it must be very strange even by the standards of inscrutable cosmic horrors, for no mortal has ever successfully worshipped it to efficacious result, nor knowingly visited it's domain and returned to tell the tale. There are creatures, called 'qashmallim,' 'mothmen,' or 'aeons,' which sometimes profess direct and personal service to, and orders from, such an entity... but then again, some demons or madmen can claim almost anything with that same utter sincerity, so it is also plausible they serve nothing but their own, largely arbitrary if not outright random, compulsions and delusions.

>Pantheons are cool stuff, I really dig mythology and might like incorporating some of this lore into some of my stories if that'd be okay with you
Yeah! That's fine, happy to have contributed to a larger cultural idea-pool. Just, y'know, credit me as an inspiration, in such a way as to point more people back here when possible, and keep up the support on Patreon.
>>
No. 108147 ID: 0218f8

>Magical healing good cop/bad cop

Well, as long as Tittivilla doesn't mind dealing with a repressed homosexual pretty boy priest dampening her Gifts and Agatia can withstand supporting the follower of a perverted flesh goddess that probably wants to roger said pretty boy.

Also, I figured unless there's a particularly long way to go or someone starts shoving him, Daniel wouldn't require a roll? He's not gonna suddenly go "WHOOPS" and shove his fist into the goo when he only plans on grazing it with his fingertip. Is there a particularly long drop?
>>
No. 108149 ID: 74621b

>>108143
I'll keep that in mind if I ever try Exalted. I've heard good things, but don't know much about it beyond the premise.

>>108144
>Bonuses to dodge allies ... are probably completely unnecessary at this point
Wanna bet?

>Ji damn well knows what he's doing and we all need to quit doubting his skills
Yisheng Ji would probably agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment all the way into his early grave.
>>
No. 108150 ID: 0218f8
108150

Also, figure I should mention another little tidbit about Agatia's flames. Hypothetically, someone sufficiently pure could actually survive Agatia's flames, as when they run out of sins to burn, they stop burning flesh as well.

So far, nobody has actually succeeded at this. The theological implications of someone simply having the sins burned out of their soul and doing no real repentance tend to give scholars such bad headaches they tend to prefer it that way.
>>
No. 108152 ID: 77f1b6

I was under the assumption Daniel was trying to stick his finger into the maybe-acid and either purify it or protect Ji from it in some way. Either of those things I would assume is non-trivial and requires a roll, and he was also being shoved around. Even though purifying junk is in his wheelhouse, I think he still has to roll for stuff like that.

Also, JamesLeng, do you still have the system in place where Hedgewitches would attempt a spell and based on effort put in via a 10 point scale their risk/reward options would be affected? Or is that not happened so much anymore?
>>
No. 108153 ID: 3abd97

>>108152
I think Daniel was spared putting his finger in anything because he didn't roll for it. So rolled actions took priority.

Or perhaps because he couldn't get near the door with Vos and Hore flailing around trying and failing to grab Ji.
>>
No. 108156 ID: d36af7

>>108153
The illusory wall is 30' wide, so there's plenty of room for multiple people to be reaching through it side-by-aide.

>>108152
That system is still applicable for improvising new ritual magic.

>>108150
One big idea underlying the setting is that "purity" seldom means what we'd want it to mean. White Elves eat magically pure, perfect food... and then get symptoms similar to lead poisoning (including unreasonable anger and poor impulse control), psychic powers, and grotesque transformations, but none of that can be 'cured,' at least not in any conventional healing-magic way, because technically, it's not a matter of anything going wrong. The extra limbs and venom glands and whatnot aren't even Tittivila-style mutations, but rather the full realized potential of what elves can be, polar opposite of deformities caused by chronic malnutrition.

Accordingly, someone like Maria might actually be in more danger from Tittivila's interdimensional cleansing-fire-dick than a random woman off the street. Sure, Maria's already shed some aspects of what the cleansing fire targets, but she's repressed others, hidden and compacted them into a knot close to her heart, which then quietly festers. Would you rather get burned a little bit all over, or a whole lot in just one spot that happens to be near your vital organs?

>>108149
>I've heard good things, but don't know much about it beyond the premise.
There's a pirated playtest version of the 3rd edition core rules floating around. Very close to the final ruleset. I'd recommend finding that if you want to 'try before you buy.' There's also Jukashi's comic Keychain of Creation, which is a handy intro to several major factions and all the exalt types except Infernals and Liminals, and Earthscorpion's ZnT crossover "A Green Sun Illuminates The Void," which is... well, it's not actually inside the default Exalted setting, but canonically there could plausibly be such places off the edges of the map. Mostly it's a great look at how Infernals work in practical terms, rather than the (often disorienting) top-down metaphysics, and more generally an illustration of what a starting celestial-tier exalt can do to a society of mortals and god-bloods when she's running around without support or supervision.

Personally I'm more familiar with 2.5e, but willing to acknowledge that the poor organization of second edition rulebooks, and sheer volume of changes slipped in nominally as errata, due to the baffling managerial decision not to pay someone to typeset and release proper 2.5 rulebooks, presents serious barriers both to learning those mechanics, and to easily referencing them at the table. Third edition has been heavily described as easier to learn if you're starting from scratch, and easier to play once you know it, which seems very plausible, but also as having thoroughly excluded some of my favorite parts of the mechanics and setting background. So, I dunno how to feel about it. Accordingly, I have been sticking with the rulebooks I already possess, and know that I like, rather than spending money from a very tight budget on the 'new hotness' that I'm so ambivalent about. Also, seems to be a broad consensus among the fans that the kickstarter for 3e was badly mishandled. Lotta broken promises about timing and communication.

Exalted is kinda like the tabletop equivalent of Dwarf Fortress. You can look at the rough edges and wonder why anyone bothers, but then once you get in there, it's amazing, with infinite replay value. One of the last books they put out for 2.5e was "Shards of the Exalted Dream," which covers ideas for fitting the game into completely different settings. Space opera, modern hidden-world fantasy (The Matrix), Gunstar Autocthonia which is sort of a Battlestar Galactica/Gundam hybrid, and more.
>>
No. 108163 ID: 3abd97

>White Elves eat magically pure, perfect food... and then get symptoms similar to lead poisoning (including unreasonable anger and poor impulse control), psychic powers, and grotesque transformations, but none of that can be 'cured,' at least not in any conventional healing-magic way, because technically, it's not a matter of anything going wrong. The extra limbs and venom glands and whatnot aren't even Tittivila-style mutations, but rather the full realized potential of what elves can be, polar opposite of deformities caused by chronic malnutrition.
Welp. Poor Davina, with her diet, and with her fully realized potential being linked to / defined by some kind of extraplaner creepy critter. If she's lucky, those kind of gross changes don't manifest on the timescale of a human lifespan. If she's fantastically lucky, any changes just optimize her as a metaphysical anchor / conduit for crazy translocations powers rather than making her more like what she's connected to.

(Although not surviving long enough for any of this to be an issue is also kind of probable with adventuring life spans).
>>
No. 108165 ID: af6e04

>Well, as long as Tittivilla doesn't mind dealing with a repressed homosexual pretty boy priest dampening her Gifts
Since we're on the subject of our characters' religions, Tittivila probably doesn't mind a lot of things. For a god who treats her followers in a similar fashion to how Sid from Toy Story treats his toys, rigidity probably isn't much of a theme for her.

Of course, she does have values that her followers are expected to uphold. Love your fellow creatures, undead (stagnant flesh) are a mockery/abomination, worldly wealth (gold can't breed) has no meaning. Logically, they would align pretty well with the average Lawful Good religion despite the outward 'eldritch sex cult' appearance.

>probably wants to roger said pretty boy.
Yep! As soon as there's free time
>>
No. 108167 ID: 77f1b6

Hey, about what size are the lead bullets for the sling? Fist sized? Or significantly smaller? Maru is thinking of weilding one as a weapon, but if they're pebble sized that would likely be more comical than effective
>>
No. 108168 ID: 398fe1

>>108156
>Tittivila's interdimensional cleansing-fire-dick
Wait, what? Did you mean Agatia?
>>
No. 108170 ID: d36af7

>>108168
Yes. Sorry about that, silly mistake. I probably need more sleep than I've been getting.

>>108167
Sling bullets are leaden spheres, twenty of which weigh a pound. Not remotely fist-sized; you could hide one in your palm with barely more difficulty than a coin. Useful comparison could be made to modern-day pistol bullets. Entire ammo pouch might be usable as a bludgeon.
>>
No. 108173 ID: 24aec8

Hm, alright, that might still be doable. I know Djans PC is wrapped up with school right now, but his powers might be useful here if he can launch the lead spheres at high speeds towards the creature. Speaking of said creature, are there any languages commonly spoken among the more intelligent undead? Any sort of necromatic tongue that they usually understand? Maru is considering trying to parlay with this creature if possible, although it seems doubtful to me she'd know of a way to communicate with undead, Eric might be able to facilitate or even convert it entirely. I can't remember if lord Eric gave permission for Eric to become an NPC but dominating this particular undead would be mighty useful I feel. Elephants are big
>>
No. 108175 ID: 74621b

>>108173
It's highly likely it's not even an undead creature at all. Golems are non-necromantic magical constructs, even if they're made of bones.
>>
No. 108176 ID: 595d54

>>108173
Djan's player speaking, and iirc it was agreed that he needs contact of some sort to use his metalbending. On the other hand, launching the bullets as projectiles is why I have a sling. He's a trained soldier, so even NPCed he should be reasonably effective at a range.
>>
No. 108177 ID: ebf8a3

>References the Cenobites from Hellraiser

Please replace "Cenobite" with your chosen BDSM Demon Cult of choice, James. I'm gonna guess you have one skulking around.
>>
No. 108180 ID: 74621b

>>108177
>>/quest/775345
Nice reference, but once again, you still didn't roll for either of the two actions you took in that post. If you're trying to make this running gag, it's not an especially funny one.
>>
No. 108181 ID: 24aec8

>>108176
Another idea could be fashioning some metal from her sling into some crude brass knuckles for Maru or something of the like. Wasn't sure if you could hold the bullets with your hand and the fire them out with your powers though, basically become a human gun or something like that.
>>
No. 108196 ID: 67456a

Fuck, I knew I forgot something. Sorry, I'll get right on that.
>>
No. 108197 ID: 595d54

>>108181
Okay yeah, that would be pretty neat if JamesLeng thinks it would work, and brass knuckles are doable. Although it's lead, so I dunno if you want to risk punching stuff with a cumulative toxin on your knuckles.
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No. 108201 ID: 3abd97

Right, much belated attempts at physical descriptions:

Davina's of average to slightly above average height, unsurprisingly has a fencer's build, and (generally) moves with deliberate grace and precision. She's been physically training in one way or another for most of her life, and it shows. She's light skinned with sharp facial features, and doesn't tan or burn (good breeding, or a quirk of her altered biology). Her hair is blonde, straight, cut above her shoulders, and usually worn swept back (with her jaunty hat worn askew, like a small black pillbox hat). When she has a choice in color preferences she tends towards golds, blue, and white (although the palate of her current outfit is somewhat dominated by the metal breastplate and the leather parts of her gear). She's wearing enough (gold) jewellery to the point it's ostentatious (though this seems to be a deliberate statement or stylistic choice, rather than fashion ignorance), although it's all individually of good quality and taste (and deadly, although that would not be obvious to a causal observer). Her mutation, when active, varies in intensity and exact effect. Davina might appear slightly (or greatly) out of focus, the lines and edges of her frame might blur, or she might flicker or fritz (at varying frequencies) like an unstable hologram. Or some combination therein.

The unnamed extraplaner parasitic horror is vaguely insectoid in appearance, although more detail than that is impossible as it occupies a space with physical laws and dimensions different than our own. Not that anyone should be seeing it outside of possible mage or aura sight visions, unless we screw up big time and rip a hole leading out of reality. (I am kind of hoping our resident tentacle horror paladin gets a good look at it eventually and perceives it as angelic). Associated colors would be yellow and gold.


Thanks to her divine heritage, Rhea is tall for a goblin, but still rather short for most everyone else (say, half a head above most gobo males?). Her skin is ruddy, the color of clay or brick (I'm assuming garden variety goblins mostly come in greens and greys). Her facial features are less... pronounced than is usual for her species (if that's the right word for it), lending to the impression she's not really ugly enough for a goblin in surface dwelling elvenoids (YMMV with other gobos if this means Rhea comes across as strange and otherworldly, attractive, or unattractive). Her hair (assuming this isn't a setting where all greenskins are bald) is short, chestnut, more frizzy than curly, with sticks of cinnamon incense worn as hair sticks. Ears are pointed, toss up if that's due to elemental or gobo heritage. Dress style is something of a hodgepodge, eclectic mashup of "traditional miko" and "adventuring chef" (so think reds and whites, with cooking utensils and supplies strapped on). At any given time (assuming she's not actively suppressing it) she has at least 3 to 4 wisps of flame drifting around her person, though the number varies, and they change in appearance to reflect her mood.


Marijke, if anyone was wondering that far back, was a little on the short side, shabbily dressed in robes (and her fashion sense would have tended towards gaudy if we'd had a chance to dress up nice. Think clashing colors and too much, and too large jewellery), with a mop of dark, wiry, and usually unkempt hair that reached below her shoulders. Honestly, she rather looked the part of a pirate before anyone placed a giant bird on her shoulders, or a ship's deck under her feet, providing a proper context. Light skin, though she probably tanned a bit since we found the surface and started spending time on the open sea.
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No. 108203 ID: c7fea6
File 148569907077.png - (19.69KB , 500x721 , hallwaysurprise.png )
108203

>>/quest/775442
There is a lot of missing information here, such as what spikes you're referring to, but from context, this is what I've pieced together. Where did the descending ceiling come from? There was a straight hallway behind Yisheng Ji before. How can Yisheng Ji wall-jump out if the hallway's no longer connected to what it was originally?
>>
No. 108204 ID: d36af7

>>108197
Toxicity would be less of an issue than the fact that lead is much softer than brass, so it wouldn't hold it's shape very well when you're punching stuff with it.
>>
No. 108207 ID: d36af7

>>108203
The walls, floor, and ceiling are moving together as a single consistent tube on a pivot point back by the intersection. Yisheng Ji hit his head on the ceiling because it's falling faster than he is and also sideways. Details are deliberately a bit vague because he doesn't have much time to react, and during those crucial moments, the room is spinning both metaphorically AND literally.
>>
No. 108208 ID: 3d4ffd

>>/quest/775465
>hard to balance on
>failing means you immediately impale a foot
Yisheng Ji's ability is perfect balance and lightness. Nothing should be difficult to balance on, and he should be completely invulnerable to harmful effects related to natural gravity, with the justification that dropping a feather onto a bed of upright nails is unlikely to pierce the feather. If there were some force pushing down on it, it'd be another story altogether, which is part of the reason why Yisheng Ji has a phobia of crushing. If ever there were a person for whom a sudden pitfall trap with spikes at the bottom were Not A Concern, Yisheng Ji would be that person. That is, of course, assuming he didn't just lose all his innate divine powers from getting knocked on the head.
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No. 108212 ID: d36af7
File 148572221820.png - (30.85KB , 1144x490 , Dropdown Hallway.png )
108212

Hello! Sorry I haven't participated in these new threads as of yet. I've heard bits of it secondhand and read the earliest posts, and it's been going pretty quickly from the looks of things, which is cool, but I've been too distracted/low energy between important stuff we had to go do and working on my own projects (such as the Zelda Classic fangame I finally finished and released on PureZC, "Link and Zelda: Panoply of Calatia", and a couple other prospective art projects I haven't posted anywhere yet), so I haven't gotten involved so far.

I saw the cool little diagram about the trapped hallway Yisheng Ji fell into and JamesLeng was talking about it's partial accuracy, and I volunteered to adjust the diagram a little bit to help clarify what he was talking about; he confirmed this new version is correct (but then he went to go get groceries, which I clarify just in case tight timing might present any communication issue).

I hope it helps!

>>Description:

Panel 1: Yisheng Ji enters hallway, activates trap.

Panel 2: Hallway starts to drop down (on some sort of joint/sliding mechanism thingy); Ceiling collides with Yisheng Ji's head.

Panel 3: Hallway is now a shaft straight down onto a stationary spike pit that was previously concealed. Yisheng Ji is hanging on to the gap where it connected with his super balancing skills, as this is otherwise something of a straight-down shaft. I think he also avoided falling damage if I understood all this correctly, and has yet to touch the spikes.
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No. 108216 ID: d36af7

>>108208
A normal person in that situation, running down a hall that suddenly became a pit, right after being surprised by a monster, while already short of breath (he was looking behind the illusory wall for a place to resume breathing, remember?), would have simply fallen with little or no chance to react. A normal person who was then plummeting more than twenty yards, onto jagged spikes... would have died instantly, or at least been severely injured, and would then be stuck at the bottom of a pit.

The fact that Yisheng Ji took a low-relative-velocity blow to the head, and has otherwise merely been temporarily inconvenienced, rather than sentenced to death in a deep and smooth-walled oubliette? That despite the injury, he had sufficient presence of mind to look down and evaluate possible landing zones, and the maneuverability to choose between them? That balancing on the tip of a blade is even a workable option for him? All these things are attributable to his half divine/half martial-arts powers.
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No. 108228 ID: 74621b

>>108216
Well I'm glad Yisheng Ji was the one who fell in this trap then, if any other party member (except perhaps Davina) would have been instantly killed by it with no save. I suppose I should have him take point more often.
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No. 108229 ID: 3abd97

>>108228
Well, usually we have flesh puppets on point, and it probably wouldn't even have been fatal for one of those to land on spikes. We probably could have even hauled it back up with the rope if we didn't want to lose it.

...Dav falling for that would have been messy. Assuming she didn't hit her head and die, opening a portal mid-fall would have meant telefragging the tunnel, and who the hell knows what that could have done.

>>/quest/775522
Can I just say the way things are going for Rhea is hilarious. The main party is fighting it's way past undead horrors and trapped room after trapped room, while she's blithely skipping between playing with lights, tea time with trolls, accidentally collecting artifacts, and winning religious converts.

(With dungeon oriented language skills, cooking, and a mapping tool, she's really shaping up to be a very useful support character. Too bad she's not likely to bump into a party to support until we come out on the surface at different exits, at this rate).
>>
No. 108231 ID: d36af7

>>108229
Rhea has been on friendlier territory, working within her specialty, and got incredibly lucky on a few pivotal rolls. Let's see how she holds up when those factors change.
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No. 108237 ID: 9f3729

Gaaaah, I'm sorry I keep flagging in and out like this! I'm afraid school's been keeping me plenty busy.
I meant to go for the mid-level heal, but if I can I'd like to petition for a short pause on my goings-on with geoffrey until I can catch up on schoolwork properly. Should happen by the end of the week, with any luck, but it's a bit stressful trying to balance everything atm
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No. 108239 ID: d36af7

>>108237
Yeah, Geoffrey's at a pretty good place to pause.
>>
No. 108240 ID: 383927

Davina finally has an enemy she can use her dex fighter abilities against. Here's to hoping once you slip past those bone plates, size isn't preventative for your precise methods of attack
>>
No. 108242 ID: 84aebf

Things are looking up. Maybe someday Vos will get to wrestle something that won't melt his face / shred him on contact too haha
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No. 108253 ID: 3abd97

>>108231
Oh poo, don't be such a downer. It sounds like someone didn't pay attention to the moral of the tale of Ankh Man and his +1 Sword of Shininess!

More seriously, the fact she stumbled into friendly territory at all is pretty amusing in and of itself. Her adventuring has mostly been visiting people and being nice at them / trying to improve their quality of life. Even if she eventually dies horribly, hey, she made a difference for those goyles and trolls, who will now enjoy better food and not being hassled by goddamn bats.
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No. 108256 ID: b9aa79

>>108253
I thought stirges were more like large fleshy mosquitoes, given to fits to blood sucking and disease spreading.
Also, one of the monsters JamesLeng described sounded like it had manticore-Raquel properties. That's not a boy you wanna mess with as far as I can tell
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No. 108258 ID: 383927

Wow, same rolls! I'm a little fuzzy on statistics but that's not likely! I know us rolling the same first number is 1/36, do you know the math on three numbers in sequence?
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No. 108259 ID: 383927

Also, look at mr chatty over here posts three times in a row, unable to form a single cohesive block of text with everything I wanna say, but I don't think we should be trying to kill the elephant sized bone golem. I know it's there, and not entirely friendly, but it might be better to try evasion as compared to Force here. Be a shame to die so close to possibly the exit, if the "Queen" is to be trusted
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No. 108261 ID: 3abd97

>>108256
The technically inaccurate description is a trope reference.

>manticore-Raquel
I'm afraid I don't get the reference and google has failed me.

On the surface I sort of agree, going and poking a legendary creature is risky business, and Rhea setting out to win over another defender on purpose sort of spoils it. She'd need more of an internal reason than just that to head that way, I think.

Although then again, it might not be more dangerous than riskier the intangible mad centaur's territory.

(The boring but sensible option would be to follow the armed forces and their supply lines back to the city and pick up a trade route to the surface somewhere, but hey, Rhea already set off on a lone pilgrimage like a crazy person).
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No. 108263 ID: 3abd97

>>108258
Odds of rolling 8 on 3d6 is 9.72%, odds of two 8s in a row would be 0.95%. Which isn't great odds, but any chain of specific result gets low very fast.

>>108259
Well, her information has been good so far.

But yeah, if the immolation didn't do enough damage to kill it or drive it back, retreat might end up being the better option. Especially since evidence would suggest earlier adventures made it to the bile room without killing it? Still felt like taking a stab at it, though.

The problem, of course, is retreating into the unknown can be more dangerous than whatever you're running from.
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No. 108266 ID: 383927

>>108263
Sorry that was supposed to say manticore-esque, auto correct got involved though. And I don't think it got imolated so much as a patch of Greek fire burned out on its back. The main reason I make that distinction is that it's big. Unknown is scary but I'm very sure this is gonna result in causalties if we do not roll well consistantly.
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No. 108267 ID: d36af7

>>108261
>centaur
Gangsta-rap minotaur, actually.
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No. 108270 ID: 67456a

I know I've already got two characters running around, but I've had this character idea on the backburner for weeks, and I wanted to at least post her as a "standby character" if Daniel or Maria fucking die. So here, have a Witch.

Name: Sarah Whitelily
Class: Rich Bastard (Alchemy)
Phobia: Skeletons
Mutation: Melodious Voice
Vulnerability: Allergic to raw meat.
Power: Minor ability to convert materials into other materials. Could turn a stone into a different kind of stone, or a fungus or plant into one with more use for her.
Backstory: Sarah belonged to a small village that was deeply distrustful of "witchcraft"... which did not bode well for a young woman with a supernaturally melodious voice and the innate power to magically convert materials. Though she was never outright removed from the village, she was very much feared, reviled as a Witch in Training and, eventually, just a Witch. Rather than beg for acceptance, she chose to embrace the image, learning the arts of alchemy and beginning to take up the role as "town witch". Eventually, she was fully chased from the town, and she took up adventuring and wandering as a source of funds and alchemy supplies.
Equipment:
Left Hip: Coin Purse
Right Hip: Kindling
Left Shoulder: Iron Statuette of Mother Holle, Patron Saint of Winter and Witchcraft
Right Shoulder: Rope
Chest: A cauldron with two enchantments. One allows it to switch sizes between full sized and travel sized, and the other allows her to convert raw flesh into a nutritious, but bland, dough. Becomes savory and filling if baked, but still serviceable as a food source if consumed raw.
Head: Jade Amulet
Somewhere Uncomfortable: Chalk, hidden in her cleavage.

Appearance: Despite her self-proclaimed status as a "wicked witch", Sarah is a stunning young woman, who is fully aware of it. Pale skin that seems to almost glow, a full, voluptuous figure, and an appealing face combine with voluminous black hair to create a figure that screams "beautiful sorcerer" more than anything. Usually clad in outfits that accentuate her body, Sarah is someone visibly confident in their looks, and not afraid to show off.

I figure it'd be good to have her in reserve, just in case.
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No. 108272 ID: 3d2d5f

>>108267
Oh from the initial description, I thought he was tauric minotaur, something like:

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/yugioh/images/b/b1/RabidHorseman-DB2-EN-C-UE.png/revision/latest?cb=201605

26142710

>gangasta rap
Where's a foul mouthed bard when you need one! (I wonder if Mode has a suitable music library now).

>>108266
Sorta hard to judge threat by size, since I'm not sure how much of that is spread out empty tentacle space versus actual mass, versus piles of bone. Also hard to tell if the Greek fire landed on part of it that will actually hurt.

And it's not that the unknown is scary, it's that "don't retreat into the unknown" is one of the first rules for avoiding YASDs you learn playing roguelikes. Running from something you can't handle is one problem- getting sandwhiched between other threats is way worse. Granted, if we're right on top of the exit it might be the right move here, although a thunderstorm presents its own threats.

>>108270
Minor quibble, but I'm not hearing wealth reflected in her background. It reads more like "poor village girl subject to persecution" than "scary witch the supersitious peasants couldn't fuck with due to daddy's wealth who flaunted it" (or something, there's more than one way to play that).
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No. 108274 ID: d36af7

>>108270
Resizing would be enough to qualify the cauldron as a minor magic item. Let's say it can go from as small as a cup to as big as a bathtub, or anywhere in between, can't be corroded by much of anything short of alkahest, and food never sticks to it, but it has no other powers.

The power seems kinda broad. How about, she can transmute any unliving organic matter into dough by touch? Dry wood, raw meat, whatever. Peaty soil, or dung, or anything rotten, may end up with unpleasant inclusions such as sand or live insects. Works on most corporeal undead, but doesn't necessarily stop them, while wooden siege-men may be made temporarily vulnerable but will quickly recover. Very effective for structural attacks on wooden buildings.
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No. 108275 ID: b9aa79

>>108272
>getting sandwhiched between other threats is way worse
Very true! I guess I was just assuming this massive creature was out of our league, so I'd rather face possible death than certain death. But it's more perspective than objective at this point- I may be over estimating how deadly what we're facing is. For all we know there could be a wizard with 7th circle casting capabilities waiting to kill us outside. My gut tells me that's not really the case though

>>108270
For some reason your description reminds me of Yennifer, although I'm not really that familiar with Witcher lore it made me think of her
>>
No. 108277 ID: 84aebf

>>108274
Should be gingerbread
>>
No. 108278 ID: 84aebf

Everybody chooses either rich bastard or hedge witch but I have my suspicions that townie is actually the most powerful class by far. A book could have anything in it. Even instructions for printing more books (infinite knowledge).
>>
No. 108279 ID: 67456a

>>108274
Sounds good! Presumably the cauldron can be used for alchemy and such, right? Also, could the dough taste differently depending on the material used? Raw flesh makes it taste slightly meaty, plants make it taste like grains, stone/wood is harder when baked, etc?

>>108277
I was considering making the dough she produces cookie dough, actually. But nah, weird meat bread sounded better.

>>108272
It was the only way I could get her the cauldron. I figured the "rich" part was kinda flexible.
>>
No. 108280 ID: b9aa79

>>108278
Maru is a townie- but she took drugs, and didn't bring any books. Instructions on printing books don't give you the knowledge to put inside them though- and even if you have a copy of the necronomicon, a townie likely can't do the magic required to utilize the information. I think the class specalizations work best when you take into consideration what other people already have at their disposal rather than making a concept character- character synergy is a lot stronger than character design on it's own
>>
No. 108282 ID: 84aebf

I was mainly joking about how hedge witches get spells and rich bastards get magic items and townies get books as their special equipment option, which is a lot less immediately glamorous so they don't seem to be picked as often. I genuinely think they have more potential than people realize though given how a lot of the obstacles we face are exacerbated by a deliberate lack of info.

One thing I'm curious about though is the archetypes that the classes are supposed to fill. Hedge witch seems like the obvious caster, and soldier the martial class. I'm guessing townie and rich bastard are meant to fill the utility roles similar to bard and rogue.
>>
No. 108286 ID: 3abd97

>>108282
The "classes" seem pretty flexible, with your chosen focus seeming to matter more to your role / playstyle than background, really.

Like, Hore is seemingly only technically a hedge mage- she's more like some combination of barbarian and engineer with all the magic crammed into prosthesis technomancy. Davina and Letkra, special powers and physical properties aside, are speced as fighters, where Eric is right back to basically being a mage.

You could probably get any of the adventuring archetypes out of any of the starting classes, though some are obviously more natural fits than others.

Like I rolled Rhea as a fire witch, but it would have taken very little tweaking to make her a fire princess or a more dedicated civilian townie fire chef instead. Soldier would have taken a little bigger shift in character, but goblin military priest-corps or food services could have worked.

>book potential
OP flat out says a tonwie can start with the Necronomicon, so yes, there's potential there, from devastating occult (or other) knowledge, to books that could probably count as a magic item in their own right (something like a deck of wonders in book form? A self-drawing tome of maps? PDA in magic book form? Universal translation tool? Or a eerie tome of self-drawing portraits of everyone the party ever killed, with mutilated portraits of the party themselves, of unknown purpose).
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No. 108287 ID: af6e04

>>108286
Hmm, but I wonder what you could actually do with the Necronomicon. As Santova said, you can probably take books with powerful arcane or occult knowledge but not have the magical ability to use them. Seems more practical to take a book with information you can surely utilize (like say, a detailed guide on all the ridiculous rules a demon must follow when on the material plane) rather than a book that will just result in you getting ripped to shreds by demons as soon as you read it.

Magic item potential is interesting. Kind of overlaps with the rich bastard's specialty, but I guess the distinction would be that the rich bastard's magic items will always behave predictably whereas a magic tome keeping record of your murders could have some ulterior function that you'd be totally unaware of.

I'm also wondering how crazy you can go with the drugs and poisons too. Can you take a drug that allows you to completely ignore pain? One that gives you legitimate psychic visions of the future? Can you take a poison that transforms the victim into an ooze?
>>
No. 108289 ID: d36af7

>>108287
Books can have magical functions, but should be slanted toward purely cosmetic effects, or bizarre curses, rather than anything that would improve the resale value.
>Can you take a drug that allows you to completely ignore pain?
Sure. Pain is important for some stuff, though.
>One that gives you legitimate psychic visions of the future?
Consider what happened to Uncle Petros when he experimented with a drug to get visions of the past.
>Can you take a poison that transforms the victim into an ooze?
Sure. The practical benefits of intensely deadly poison are sorta self-limiting, though. Wear thick gloves while you're applying it to a blade, and remember to take 'em off before you touch anything else. Sometimes somebody gets sweaty and goes to wipe their forehead with the back of a hand, without taking the gloves off, or takes one glove all the way off and then starts to remove the other one by grabbing it with a bare hand. And for god's sake don't lick the blade afterwards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQTn1QxCZ2s
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No. 108293 ID: b9aa79
File 148592154095.jpg - (131.67KB , 640x853 , IMG_5369.jpg )
108293

I feel like this applies to a number of our misguided party members
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No. 108296 ID: 3abd97

Hey James, you mind rolling some common drugs against that table for anything for Davina? Just for curiosity's sake. Wondering if the pipeweed would work on her. Or if she can get drunk (although it would be have to be pretty much pure alcohol not to contain other stuff that would upset her digestion). Or if she's shit out of luck when she gets a headache.

>I'm honestly surprised no ones died yet- I was counting on Maru being able to take a weapon off someone's corpse. Hopefully we'll make it into town and I can buy one instead
Um, why? You have a magic axe you can summon at will.

If you really wanted something else to work with you do have the standard starting kit knife to work with. And your purchasing power in town will be greatly improved if you can convince Daniel to try breaking the curse on the ruby no on seems willing to buy.
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No. 108298 ID: 094652

Okay, looks like we're outside. Are we at the top of a mountain, or have we finally made it to a surface area that is a few miles away from a local road? Or are we in some hidden valleyway? OR is there a ceiling of earth and rock above us with some holes of light shining through?
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No. 108302 ID: d36af7

>>108296
Risky in-game experimentation, or expensive consultation with sages, will be necessary to figure out which drugs do what.

Ethanol is definitely achiral, though, so she can get drunk same as anyone. Hard liquor on an empty stomach might, ironically, be the safest option, by poisoning discontent intestinal flora before they get a chance to rebel.
>>
No. 108303 ID: 3d2d5f

>>108302
I was assuming rich kid coming down with a baffling condition would have resulted in a certain degree of parents paying off sage types for poking and prodding, and that life experience might have already covered experimental exposure to certain common chemicals, but fair enough. It's not relevant now, and it's generally not a good idea to experiment unnecessarily with drugs, even without weird biology.
>>
No. 108304 ID: b9aa79

>>108296
>Um, why?
She's gotta be touching blood that's at least fresh-ish for her to summon her ax. Having a backup weapon doesn't hurt.
>>
No. 108307 ID: 67456a

Gay Priest is concerned for Eel Friend!

Also, seriously, Daniel's flame aura is probably amazing for staying dry when it's raining outside.
>>
No. 108308 ID: 3d2d5f

>>108304
...if you want minimum self injury and maximum weapon accessibility, you might want to try bumming a piece of Dav's concealed weapon jewellery (Well, if/when Maru learns that's what they are). They're meant to be used with poison, so they probably only cause pinpricks. Although super bling would sort of stand out on Maru, so it wouldn't help you if you wanted to still be able to summon your axe as a prisoner, say. It would probably get stolen or confiscated.

An alternative that doesn't stand out so much or involve talking the noble out of expensive bling would be to have Djan craft you something similar. A plain metal ring with a needle point or sharp edge would pass casual inspection and allow to nick yourself at will by clapping, smacking your hand against something (or someone), or even curling one finger around against it if you're restrained.
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No. 108309 ID: d36af7

>>108303
Some research was certainly done, but how much of it did Davina personally memorize? What happened to her family's private libraries? Were they plundered, auctioned off, perhaps even burned?

It's possible that her parents' dedication to understanding and treating her condition was, in itself, a significant underlying factor in the family's downfall. The physical consequences of sugar chirality can't easily be explained without understanding molecular structures, and any comprehensive theory of molecular structure would also aid the development of chemical explosives. When a ruling family delves deeply into experimental alchemy, to the detriment of public safety and/or the prosperity of the precious metal industry, it is every dragon's duty to discredit that family's elders, harrow their lands, abduct their daughters, massacre their sons, and then invite more suitable neighbors or barbarian heroes to capitalize appropriately on the resulting power vacuum.
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No. 108312 ID: b9aa79

>>108308
>pinpricks
While that's not a bad idea, the length of time Maru can summon her spectral weapon is determined by how much blood there actually is. Much in the way a car needs some gas to start, but more gas to keep going, a pinprick doesn't drop much blood and even then it dries up fast. If it's not "fresh" aka wet, it simply doesnt work. This isn't so much an eren yeager thumb biting situation as it is a tool designed to compel it's wielder to keep fighting, keep maiming, keep killing, etc. It heightens emotions in everyone around it and increases the thirst for battle. It's a good tool to highten morale, ensure that the line doesn't break and that people are better able to resist spell and other effects which would cause fear or turn them away from a fight, but it's also designed by a powerful demon/god of revenge. It's supposed to be somewhat malicious and sinister in design and function. Maru only uses it when she want to kill, and I'm gonna try really hard not to make her a murder hobo. If we make it back to town, she's gonna try to get a blunt force hand weapon like brass knuckles or something like that.

>>108309
>It's possible that her parents' dedication to understanding and treating her condition was, in itself, a significant underlying factor in the family's downfall.
Ouch. That's a painful bit of irony.
>>
No. 108319 ID: d36af7

I'm thinking about starting a new thread for surface wilderness adventures. Rhea and Geoffrey would continue playing in the current thread, along with any new PCs.
>>
No. 108321