OOC Chatter II

[Rusty Tincanne]

Interesting point. I will change Able's offer a bit then, putting up some personal treasure as a prize in that contest. And then he will offer up cash for a MASH-style, soup kitchen and infirmary outside the curtain walls.

Stirling, two more points of clarification about Isaachar's challenge:
1. Are clerical prayers allowed? I am guessing not, but I wanted to be sure before we have a battlefield of magically Held priests lying on the ground, and one lucky cleric going around bonking the rest on the heads.
2. Are clerics going to follow the "no magic items rules" like the general melee, or are they allowed to go out there fully kitted like an adventure? Father Clauson prefers no magic, but I am open to either. (And I wonder what a cleric of Gwanwyn would say about created items being used on them.)

Thanks to Dram and Stirling for jumping in with both feet! I'm even more excited for this now!

[Stirling]

Unless you want it to rain at the festival I don't think prayers (spells) should be used. Besides higher level clerics have a bit of advantage.

Isaachar's idea was just to flail or mace some priest's head in. He would pray for your healing after if course (if you had any more blood left to shed). Mind you a newbie low level cleric like him isn't going to do many rounds.

[Jernau35]

Piers is coming along to the festival too. He's got 10,000gp to spend on stuff. But what stuff? That's a lot of money. Can he just show up with a wagon load of "Kiss me quick, Smite me slowly" t-shirts, or does he have to order them and spend the money. Basically, is Marullus going to say " No you can't give everybody who shows up item X because there aren't that many item X's in Gaul?

And since his money in in gems, can he actually convert it into 10,000gp?

Right now I'm thinking of a large tented "cathedral " for services throughout the day. Bringing up the choir from the cathedral in Gaul. Furniture and statues brought up too. Food and clothing given away. Large feasts and banquets. Bonfires in the evenings. Musicians and entertainers. Can magic users make light shows, like Gandalf (smaller scale obviously)?

Sling contests and other missile weapons for those who don't use bows.

[Rusty Tincanne]

The Lord Commander Bremen pulls out a map with an obvious look of irritation on his face. The festival isn't in Gaul! It's at The White Tower, home to my Knights of Baudhil, guardians of the Yoldessi Plains, Deliverers of Justice. He is clearly touchy on the subject and wants some recognition.


_________________

I believe you just make a post describing what you are doing/donating, and then an OOC tag of how much cash was spent/XP earned. It's all very hand-wavy, aside from the role-playing of it all.

It'll be great to have Piers show up. I hope he enters the clerical melee, since there isn't a representative of Baudh yet.

[Jernau35]

No, I'm just trying to figure out how to spend all that money Piers is going to show up and play through it all. I just didn't want to type "Piers hands over the money" and leave it at that.

[Rusty Tincanne]

You could arrange to have a meditation fountain/garden built. Just don't give the cash to Father Clauson, or Bremen won't ever see a cent of it.


Edit: I don't know if this is okay, but 10,000gp would probably fund a series of towers along the road, with bells or fires. On top, so Gaul and the White Tower can warn one another of danger. A la LOTR.

[Jernau35]

I was looking into building something. That's a good idea. A bit more permanent than giving out free bread and soup to ungrateful heathens who only show up to services for the free food

[Rusty Tincanne]

Quick heads up that I've got the plague. Fever, aches, child, sinus-pressure-related-migraine... Not that the festival is going super fast.

Actually, if folks planning to attend/compete can make some parts, we can start the competitions early next week. Everyone is invited, of course, including Markd.

[onlyme]

Honestly, if I could figure out how to mentally place Markd there for the fun and games, while also having him risk his life saving the kingdom from the incredible challenges facing his group below the lovely gargoyle adorned city, then I would.

Seriously... I just cannot figure out how to play my PC in an event that happens after an adventure where he may or may not die or become disfigured. I am 1 dimensional when it comes to timing...

[Rusty Tincanne]

I get what you're saying. Except the "disfigured "part. Because this is Markd we're talking about. He started the game that way.

[Jernau35]

I just looked at the game clock thread. Halfpint's expedition left on the 7th and arrived in Amistad on the 10th. They stayed overnight. So if Piers returns to Gaul, he'll arrive on the 14th? The he wants to go see the dwarves: he"ll be there on the 15th? Where do I post all this this? On the clock thread? A new post, or add them to a post that's already referring to things on that date?

Sorry, too many questions!

[Rusty Tincanne]

I just looked at the game clock thread. Halfpint's expedition left on the 7th and arrived in Amistad on the 10th. They stayed overnight. So if Piers returns to Gaul, he'll arrive on the 14th? The he wants to go see the dwarves: he"ll be there on the 15th? Where do I post all this this? On the clock thread? A new post, or add them to a post that's already referring to things on that date?

Sorry, too many questions!

Tavern threads get a "Piers was here," type of post. Then double it up in the Game Clock thread to advance the clock officially.
But the Game Clock is up to Oct 1 now, so you'll need to speak with Marullus about retconning something.

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Evil is worse than Good and should be cleansed by Baudth's holy light. I expect that Bandy is right and the Elf is both angry and mad. I'm certain that if it could have left of its own accord it would not have remained in the tunnels. We should be careful not to fall afoul of whatever has prisoned it here.

I've got a question about this, because it isn't the first time I've read someone post something like this, while my interpretation has been different. Per the Deities thread, Baudh's dominions are Sun, "lightening" (was that supposed to say "lightning"?), Gold, and Order. His Alignment is written only as "Law." I read that as Lawful good, Lawful neutral, and Lawful evil are all fine under Baudh's eyes. But maybe that is too much "rules-as-written." Is everyone else interpreting that as "Lawful good"? Bremen an anomaly because I have poor reading comprehension!?

[onlyme]

I just looked at the game clock thread. Halfpint's expedition left on the 7th and arrived in Amistad on the 10th. They stayed overnight. So if Piers returns to Gaul, he'll arrive on the 14th? The he wants to go see the dwarves: he"ll be there on the 15th? Where do I post all this this? On the clock thread? A new post, or add them to a post that's already referring to things on that date?

Sorry, too many questions!

Tavern threads get a "Piers was here," type of post. Then double it up in the Game Clock thread to advance the clock officially.
But the Game Clock is up to Oct 1 now, so you'll need to speak with Marullus about retconning something.

_______________________________

Evil is worse than Good and should be cleansed by Baudth's holy light. I expect that Bandy is right and the Elf is both angry and mad. I'm certain that if it could have left of its own accord it would not have remained in the tunnels. We should be careful not to fall afoul of whatever has prisoned it here.

I've got a question about this, because it isn't the first time I've read someone post something like this, while my interpretation has been different. Per the Deities thread, Baudh's dominions are Sun, "lightening" (was that supposed to say "lightning"?), Gold, and Order. His Alignment is written only as "Law." I read that as Lawful good, Lawful neutral, and Lawful evil are all fine under Baudh's eyes. But maybe that is too much "rules-as-written." Is everyone else interpreting that as "Lawful good"? Bremen an anomaly because I have poor reading comprehension!?

I thought this rules version was more linear: lawful (good), neutral, or Chaotic (evil).

from the text:
Law: Lawful beings believe in truth and justice. To this end,
they will follow laws and believe all things must adhere to
order. Lawful beings also believe in sacrifice to a greater good,
and will choose the good of a larger group over the good of
an individual.
Neutrality: Neutral beings are more self-centered. They believe
in a balance between the ideas of law and chaos, and in their
actions they tend to do what will serve themselves. They might
commit good or evil acts in order to further their own ends,
and generally will not put othersÊ needs ahead of their own.
Chaos: Chaotic beings are in direct opposition to law. These
beings should be seldom trusted, for they tend to act in "evil"
ways and will be much more selfish than a neutral being.
Chaotic characters believe in chance and that there should be
no innate order to life.

[Zhym]

Marullus uses the full 3x3 alignment grid from AD&D, though. When "good" and "evil" are actual alignment points, the law/chaos axis is about something different.

[Starbeard]

Hi everyone.

I'm really sorry to have stalled things on my expedition thread. I thought I could handle it, real life got in the way, and now I realize I just can't. Between the baby, work and the rest of life, I just can't keep up with anything else. I'm phasing out of all my online games for the indefinite future, and this will have to be one too, as much as it saddens me. It would be too unfair to those adventuring in my area to put up with my constant unavailability, so stepping down now rather than later is really the best way to handle it, I think.

I think there are a couple of options to move forward from that. One is to give the players in my current expedition a chance to relocate their expedition somewhere else. Another is to let someone else step in to DM my forest region. There's really nothing that's happened that isn't already obvious from the thread, and the whole point of the expedition is simply to do some exploring and see what's out there. Anyone who wants to pick it up would have a clean slate to bring in whatever they like as the party explores.

I'm also posting in the private DM forum so we can discuss solutions there.

[Rusty Tincanne]

About 6-7 years ago I was in my friend's "family band." It was me and two couples - step siblings and their spouses. Both couple got pregnant at the same time and they all kept saying how excited they were to record, learn new material, and play out more and more once the babies were born. I already had a child and kept trying to tell them that their freetime would not actually increase once they had their babies in arms... Suffice it to say, that band ended abruptly when the babies were.

Anyhow, I believe you're making a good decision here. The first year or two are a total whirlwind as your daughter changes each and every day. There is no solid ground, so limiting your non-family hobbies for that time will make everyone (except us) happy. Best of luck Starbeard.

And if old people continually tell you how their children all slept through the night, and they don't understand why our generation can't figure it out, just remember that it was still acceptable to let babies sleep on their stomachs back then. It's a huge, huge difference. Once my second child could roll over into his stomach, he would do so and sleep for hours and hours. We finally had to get some sort of pad to slide under the mattress, which would alert us if he didn't move every few minutes. It was a total game changer.

[Spearmint]

It wouldn't make sense for me to pick up the forest area and northern plains as Amistad has a financial and adventuring interest. I hope someone can pick it up though as the forest has provided many adventures so far, the Morlock hybrids, Green dragon lair, Medusa tower, Apple of my eye Cyclops farm, etc.

Going to take ages for the loggers to deforest it. Any takers from folk not already DM'ing?

[Marullus]

I'm sorry to see you step back, Starbeard, but I understand. I would just suggest that you quit all other games and only stay on to GM this one. Even at your "slow" pace you have been posting more than me or the other sub-GMs since my own situation changed.

It wouldn't make sense for me to pick up the forest area and northern plains as Amistad has a financial and adventuring interest. I hope someone can pick it up though as the forest has provided many adventures so far, the Morlock hybrids, Green dragon lair, Medusa tower, Apple of my eye Cyclops farm, etc.

I actually think Spearmint would be a good choice. His financial interests aren't a problem (the way I handle financial interests, that is) and the main restriction is that Amistad won't be able to adventure in the forests as a PC. Amistad is already acting as an NPC in the area and looking to adventure again into the far unknown instead of close to home, and Halfpint is the PC assigned to handle the troubles in the forest. The main narrative purpose of the loggers is that they're the ones uncovering and/or causing trouble that PCs then need to deal with - that's a fine role for Spearmint to oversee. (Spearmint has a very creative mind for inventing ecology and trouble for the beings in this area, already.)

[Zhym]

I'm sorry to see you step back, Starbeard, but I understand. I would just suggest that you quit all other games and only stay on to GM this one. Even at your "slow" pace you have been posting more than me or the other sub-GMs since my own situation changed.

I'd argue the opposite, to some extent. I find it much less time-consuming to participate as a player than to run a game. Running a game takes a lot of time, done properly, and if you slack on it, it has a bigger effect than when you flake out as a player. A DM can NPC a PC whose player has vanished; it's hard to do the same with a DM who disappears.

That's even more true of games you're already in, IMO. With no hard feelings to Rusty (who did this in one of my games), it seems—I dunno, a low-grade breach of etiquette?—to quit a game you've been participating in to go co-run a game that already has lots of opportunities for players.

[Marullus]

Evil is worse than Good and should be cleansed by Baudth's holy light. I expect that Bandy is right and the Elf is both angry and mad. I'm certain that if it could have left of its own accord it would not have remained in the tunnels. We should be careful not to fall afoul of whatever has prisoned it here.

I've got a question about this, because it isn't the first time I've read someone post something like this, while my interpretation has been different. Per the Deities thread, Baudh's dominions are Sun, "lightening" (was that supposed to say "lightning"?), Gold, and Order. His Alignment is written only as "Law." I read that as Lawful good, Lawful neutral, and Lawful evil are all fine under Baudh's eyes. But maybe that is too much "rules-as-written." Is everyone else interpreting that as "Lawful good"? Bremen an anomaly because I have poor reading comprehension!?

Marullus uses the full 3x3 alignment grid from AD&D, though. When "good" and "evil" are actual alignment points, the law/chaos axis is about something different.

So, we ARE using the 9-alignments over the 3-alignments.

All three deities and cultures that reign in the southlands are fundamentally "good" varieties aligned to their singular aspects of law/chaos, but there are are variations.

• Eruanna, as Chaotic Good, is fundamentally a "good at all cost" model. The impact to society and order is not a factor in ensuring a good outcome. She varies in her worshipers who come from "any good."
• Gwanwen, as Neutral, seeks balance and is primarily concerned for the proper operation of birth and death. The main agricultural churches of the southlands are Neutral Good, with a focus on the prosperity of the whole community together. We have true-neutral Monks and neutral-evil Assassins as sub-sects within this group, though.
• Baudh is the god of Law. In the southlands (and thus also in Gaul) this is primarily Lawful Good - it wants to promote both good and law. That's considered the base-normal. Followers obviously vary in good/evil (not all Kings and Lords who patron the Baudic church for its support of Law are themselves Good).

Since this is particularly relevant right now, with Baudic clerics coming from Gaul to the White Tower and observing different doctrinal emphasis, I'll share what I wrote to Rusty on his private forum previously (quoted below). Those who adventured in the White Tower lands saw the Khollorim "horse lords" worshipping Baudon, which is a Lawful Neutral emphasis. The White Tower worships Baudh but is run by the sect of the Knights of Baudhil, who came northward when Bremen established it. They differ from the main church in that they're a monastic-knight theocracy seeking "back to basics" religious rule without Kings being differentiated. (Thus, Lord Commander Bremen being elevated by divine right rather than southron succession under the Archduke, then establishing an "alliance" with the Archduke.)

Baudh is the God of Law. Baudh, Baudhon, and Baudhil are seen as local cultural variations of the same doctrine. Baudh is the dominant name as it is the homogeneous culture spread throughout the southlands. Baudhon is what the Khallorim (and thus the northlands horsemen) call him. Baudhil is a southlands offshoot that came up here to take root -- they're a "back to basics" movement. Secular authority of the King/Duke system deviates too far from pure religious practice and so a Theocratic Rule is needed. Think of it like Anglican (English Aristocracy based), Presbetyrian (Scottish refusal of English Aristocracy), and Methodist (English commoner revivalists). One God, one book/doctrine of law, one island to live on, one language, but different cultural views on the subject.

The "Followers of Baudhil" are followers of Baudh. Being evil isn't heretical; it's just a different interpretation of the same Baudhic law. The Southeron traditions of "Baudh" are generally lawful good. Pure consideration of Baudh's law (including the back-to-basics Theocratic rule) would generally be Lawful Neutral. The NPC Knights of Baudhil espouse Lawful Neutral but act Lawful neutral/evil.

Baudhic Laws are deliberately written to allow this spectrum (as there are certainly faithful, evil, Baudh-following rulers in the southlands).

Decretum of Dominion: The strong bear responsibility for protection over all weaker than they, ensuring the care and well-being of the community.

Good: Emphasis on the "protection" and "care." The strong must ensure the well-being of the weak as a form of compassion.
Evil: Emphasis on the "Dominion." A more pure might-is-right approach, where the weak are servile to their beneficient lords.

Decretum of the Just: Those who break the laws must pay the price. Penance forges strength and ensures justice, and justice applies to all from peasant to king.

Good: Emphasis on Just Action, takes into account the intention and circumstances of the act as well as the letter of the law to ensure fairness before the law.
Neutral: Emphasis on "Fairness before the law." i.e. "Lady Justice is Blind." The circumstances of the individual are not relevant to the pure application of "the letter of the law."
Evil: Emphasis on the penance. The rule of dominion applies foremost to the judge, who is the arbiter of what is Just and ensures justice through penance. The more penance, the more strength forged.

Decretum of the Light: To remain in light, a follower must ever move against darkness. Dispelling evil, injustice, undeath, and bringing the law to the uncultured all are compelling needs for a follower of Baudh.

Good: Emphasis on fighting evil.
Evil: Emphasis on bringing law to the "uncultured."

Make sense?