OOC VI

[frobozz]

Silver Weapon Requests:
* Silver bullets (Drudsa)(Marodin)
* Silver arrows (Saul x5)(Rhys x9)
* Silver-coated sword (Lanny)(Tratiln)(Innana)(Bregalad)
* Silver-coated dagger (Saul x2)(Innana x4)
* Silver-coated warhammer (Marodin)
* Silver-coated spear (Bregalad)

6 daggers, 4 swords, 1 warhammer still to be picked up / payed for. Who still wants what?

Lanny will claim one of the silver-plated swords.

Potion Requests for Oleg:
* Request for herbalist to make one potion of healing and one of antidote for every party member.
* Purchase three healing pots and one Fire Resist pot currently available (Lanny)
* Request for Protection from Magic potion (Innana)

I think Oleg told Innana that he didnt have anything like a Protection from Magic potion in his shop, so I think we can safely purge the potion orders from the To-Do List.

[frobozz]

I would definitely like this to be a whole party thing. Now, that's not to say you can't take an additional week or so to take care of this stuff, but I wouldn't consider the trip to be "down time", like this current week is. This southern route is sort of on the route to Penhaligon. In addition, it looks like you guys might be needing to earn some more money before paying to have magical items made.

I'm kind of reading this that the visit to Aediel in Rifflian should also be postponed (perhaps until said time that we are ready to make the trek to Penhaligon) as it is further away than Bethany (I think) and Lanny probably does not have enough money to do this anyway. I'll update the week's itinerary accordingly, unless I hear otherwise.

Now, if you want to investigate this on your own, it's totally your call. But I'm going to need some more specific instructions as to how you're going about it. "Barthos spends the day visiting the brothels and wineshops of Fogors Isle, asking questions about people who might not be acting like themselves. He is willing to spend up to five gold per establishment, and if anyone has any information that may be pertinent he is willing to spend an additional ten gold."

Doing this sort of investigation is going to require a minimum of one day and the whole party.

If the party agrees to it, Lanny would be ok with setting aside 2 days (instead of 1) for party business:

1 day to do the chain/skull/pelt marketing and casually find out about new adventures/adventurers in town
1 day to specifically investigate rumors on Fogor's Isle (concerning Bargle's minions and the Iron Ring)

and then 4 days (instead of 5) for individual pursuits.

Thoughts? Votes?

[Finglas]

Bregalad the elf

Bregalad will pick up and pay for the silvered weapons. He will then distribute them to the party members at the end of Day 1 and collect individual payments. He's fine with the group spending 2 days (or 1 day) for party business, but he is not interested in investigating rumors concerning Bargle or the Iron Ring.

After that he will relax in Threshold, replenish his supplies, and then wait for anyone who wishes to accompany him in meeting Bethany the Bold. If things go well with her, he will stay at her inn, and then return to Threshold at the end of the week. If things go poorly, he will return to Threshold sooner, and then wait for the others to complete their business.

[Innana]

Innana the Fighter:

Innana will be going with Drudsa, and the part of the group who is going to pay Zoltar a visit. If that all goes well, then Innana will go to Threshold with Lanny to help sell the group spoils, and go shopping for capes. If that all goes smooth, then Innana plans to hang out at the Inn, and work on her alcohol tolerance, and see if she can level up. If Innana is needed she can help to see what is going on with the Iron Ring, and Forgle Island.

These are Innana's intentions, but could change along the way depending on surrounding circumstances.

Lanny, I did not even remember the lucky potion. Yes purge the list, unless of course Innana can get lucky somehow.

[Grognardsw]

Silver Weapon Requests:
...
* Silver-coated warhammer (Marodin)...
Who still wants what?

Aquar happens to be proficient in the warhammer. My purse is quite light though at the moment with 61 gp. I am mystified giant cats don't hoard gold

[frobozz]

Sorry, Frobozz. I did not mean to make things more confusing. It's just that Myraal seems to be ok with answering so many questions, taking back Innana's sword for identification, and even taking on other new items for identification, but then he feels put out when I bring back the spear and plate mail.

No worries dude. I initially found Myraal's response a bit odd myself, but in all honesty, I think it was more an OOC miscommunication than an IC insult. In fact, when I re-read it again, it really seems like the comment is directed more towards the group as a whole than towards Bregalad specifically. I would hate for the group to miss out on finding the history of these items due to an OOC miscommunication. I hope Bregalad will reconsider and leave the items with Myraal as originally planned. Lanny cherishes his role as the group historian, and for myself, I just really enjoy that part of the game (learning the history of the items we find and gathering clues and/or plot hooks from them).

Bregalad will hand his magical spear and armor to Lanny, so that they can be further identified by Myraal. This is assuming Lanny will want to visit his preferred mage yet again!

Also, I had forgotten that you had mentioned this in a post a few pages earlier. Had I remembered this, Lanny would have included those items in the batch of items he gave to Myraal in the first place, and this whole thing might have been avoided.

However, I just want to reiterate that I believe my funds will be depleted soon. So, guys, please be careful about what you commit "our group" to pay.

Lanny will give 500 gp to Bregalad to cover his portion of the amount owed... He will not allow his fellow elf to pay someone 1,000 gp and then get absolutely nothing in return!

[Finglas]

Bregalad can pay for your hammer, Aquar. He remembers what it is like starting out with little funds.

[Grognardsw]

Bregalad can pay for your hammer, Aquar. He remembers what it is like starting out with little funds.

Thank you! Aquar will say a prayer for you, and feel more confident bashing lycanthrope skull. Give him the magic platemail, and he will rename himself in Bregalad's honor as Aqualad. I jest. Say the word and I will stop.

[thirdkingdom]

Okay. So it sounds like the upcoming day will be spend doing the following:
1)Retrieve silvered weapons from the smith.
2)Visit Oleg and see what he's got in stock.
3)Try and sell the chain mail.

3a)GSW, can you be more specific as to what information you are looking for from Lady Usyl?

Please note that the trip to Myraal took one full day.

[thirdkingdom]

Important, Please Read

I feel like I should probably be a little more explicit about my request that the group stay together whenever possible. I have had some success both running and playing in pbp games, and one of the things I have learned is that games oftentimes die when they lose their momentum. One of the reasons games lose their momentum is because people stop posting. One of the reasons people stop posting is because people get bored. The real-life pace of pbp game is probably one of the hardest things to coordinate when a party splits up. For instance, I will be making a random encounter check when people go to visit Bethany the Bold. If this results in a combat, it could take a week of real time to resolve, during which time everyone who did not go will be sitting around twiddling their thumbs.

So, I know it is a bit unrealistic, having the entire party shuttle from one task to the other, but I am going to ask that you do this, or at least make a good attempt to, for the following reasons:
1)It makes my job easier.
2)Everyone is moving at the same real-life pace, and there is less of a chance that people get left behind.
3)I feel like the one week downtime I suggested gives plenty of time for things to be resolved without having one person do this, another person do that, etc.


If you feel like you must split the party and do different things, please please please be as specific as possible and be ready to respond quickly to posts in order to move things along. If you post only once a day your character is not a good candidate to go solo. If you are going to spend money looking for rumors, please please please indicate how much you will spend.

Thank you.

[frobozz]

I guess I was under the impression that random encounters would sort of be waived during this period as long as we werent travelling very far from Threshold (ie. no further away than Bethany the Bold) so as to avoid the types of delays that you mentioned. If this is not the case, then Im not sure how the spellcasters will be able to spend a few days studying with their respective sages as planned. Unless, of course, the spellcasters are handled separately from the rest of the group (I figure a single post could handle all three spellcasters at the same time, with the spellcasters just posting what spells they wish to study). For everyone else, perhaps there could be a main activity of the day (I think Al suggested something like this), and that those not participating in the main activity would be counted towards those who are "gathering rumors" that day in Threshold.

TK, do you think that this would be a manageable approach?

If you are looking for even greater consolidation of activities, then I suppose we could all go and spend a couple days with Zoltar, a couple days with Bethany, and a couple days with Myraal (and then any other group activities we might wish to do), although that will likely take longer than a week's time to accomplish. (This assumes that all spell study done with Zoltar/Bethany/Myraal must be done "in-house", and that no spell materials may be borrowed from those respective locations. If this is not the case, then a single day's visit to each location would probably be sufficient.)

[thirdkingdom]

I always roll for random encounters. It is just that the ones on an established road are less likely to involve ravenous, slobbering monsters.

Look, I'm not trying to be a dick about this, but I'm trying to get this down-time wrapped up as quickly as possible. I have mentioned repeatedly that there is a thread dedicated specifically to keeping track of what everyone is doing (The To-Do thread) and that it would be a good idea if you were to use it. It is really difficult for me to collate and keep track of what everyone is doing, especially if the desires are, shall we say, a little vague on details.

So, I am willing to try splitting the party, but I am going to need you guys to step up and help me with this. frobozz, you've done a fantastic job book-keeping and have really gone above the call of duty. Now is the time for some of the other players to pick up slack and help out.

What I propose is this. In an earlier post, I condensed the desired activities for the entire party for the upcoming day to the following:

Okay. So it sounds like the upcoming day will be spend doing the following:
1)Retrieve silvered weapons from the smith.
2)Visit Oleg and see what he's got in stock.
3)Try and sell the chain mail.

3a)GSW, can you be more specific as to what information you are looking for from Lady Usyl?

Please note that the trip to Myraal took one full day.

There will be a chance to pick up rumors every evening, but as I've stated earlier the better rumors will require work. If this is okay for you guys I will go ahead and do an IC post for the 23 of Flaurmont. By the time we are done dealing with all that stuff, I expect you all to come up with a detailed, concise and specific plan about how you want to spend the rest of the week. This plan should be hashed out in the OOC thread and then someone is going to have to condense it in the To Do thread for me. I understand that some of you guys might view this as an unnecessary amount of work for you to have to do, but, quite frankly, that is how I feel when I get a bunch of vague, disparate posts thrown at me. Again, I'm not trying to be a dick, and I'm sorry if I'm coming across as a little annoyed, but I'm getting a bit frustrated with the amount of work I'm having to put into parsing everything, despite repeated requests to keep things as simple and clear as possible.

[frobozz]

Let me take one more crack at this. Here's a proposed 7-day schedule based around the spellcasters spending some quality time with their respective sages to learn new spells:

Day 1 - party visits Myraal; drops off magic items for research; Lanny remains with Myraal
Day 2 - escort the mages to their sages to begin their studies: Innana/Rhys/Semele accompany Drudsa to Zoltar, Aquar/Thordin accompany Bregalad to Bethany (along with a few hired men-at-arms in each group, if desired, to deter encounters with neer-do-wells on the to/from)
Day 3 - party in town gathers info: buyers for chain mail (cat's skull, cat's pelt)
Day 4 - party in town gathers info: new adventures / new adventurers
Day 5 - party in town gathers info: Fogor's Isle/Iron Ring/Bargle's Minions
Day 6 - escort the mages from their sages (same groupings)
Day 7 - party visits Myraal; picks up magic items, pays Myraal, and returns to Threshold; party picks up silver weapons; party visits Oleg's apothecary (in case we want to sell any of the potions identified by Myraal)

Days 3-5 could be changed/customized by the non-mages who will be in and around Threshold on those days (this is just a proposed blueprint to get things started).

Thoughts?

[zebediah]

Guys, I'll be stepping out of the game. TK, thanks for all the work, you're putting together quite an experience here. Frobozz, thanks for taking the time to organize so much stuff for us. As for the team, thanks for the great times and game on!

[Finglas]

Wow, Zeb, I will miss your equanimous mage.


I might as well say this now -- Bregalad will be leaving too. There is a real life endeavor I wish to start, that will take up a lot of my time.

TK, thank you so much for creating and running this world. I loved being a part of it.

(If you guys don't mind, I'd like to wrap things up with my character and say my farewell in the IC thread.)

[thirdkingdom]

Hmm. It seems my last post came off harsher than intended. My bad. Anyway, I'm trying to make the decision now about whether I should recruit some more people and continue or close the game down.

[Alethan]

Let me take one more crack at this. Here's a proposed 7-day schedule based around the spellcasters spending some quality time with their respective sages to learn new spells:

Day 1 - party visits Myraal; drops off magic items for research; Lanny remains with Myraal
Day 2 - escort the mages to their sages to begin their studies: Innana/Rhys/Semele accompany Drudsa to Zoltar, Aquar/Thordin accompany Bregalad to Bethany (along with a few hired men-at-arms in each group, if desired, to deter encounters with neer-do-wells on the to/from)
Day 3 - party in town gathers info: buyers for chain mail (cat's skull, cat's pelt)
Day 4 - party in town gathers info: new adventures / new adventurers
Day 5 - party in town gathers info: Fogor's Isle/Iron Ring/Bargle's Minions
Day 6 - escort the mages from their sages (same groupings)
Day 7 - party visits Myraal; picks up magic items, pays Myraal, and returns to Threshold; party picks up silver weapons; party visits Oleg's apothecary (in case we want to sell any of the potions identified by Myraal)

Thoughts?

Rhys does not have anything he specifically NEEDS to do at this point, so...

Accounting for recent changes, this plan seems fine. We certainly don't want to get more complex than that. We always take it too complex, I think is our problem; trying to do too much at once, maybe.

[Alethan]

Oh. Looks like we're losing three now?

Sorry to see you guys go.

[frobozz]

1. Zeb, Finglas, Innana - It has been a pleasure gaming with you guys this past year. Thanks for being a part of this magical world we all helped create.

2. Honestly, I don't think anyone needs to apologize for anything. I think we've all been trying to do the best we can to accomodate each other's particular interests in the game (not an easy task with a group our size). You could almost see some player/DM frustrations coming through PCs/NPCs alike. The most important thing to remember here if that we have been running and playing a very successful campaign on this site for well over a year. That in and of itself is a great accomplishment!

3. On the question of whether to continue or close down:

For myself, I dislike abandoning games in the middle of a story and leaving the "ending" unresolved. The completion of the "Beast of the Logging Camps" adventure is not necessarily a bad place to end the story - we did successfully defeat a monster that was plaguing Threshold, and we will be long remembered for that (especially if they mount the Great Cat's head at the inn! ). I think, though, that if we do continue on, I would like to see us pursue a specific objective, which, if completed, might bring our story to a proper conclusion that brings us full circle, so to speak. I initially thought that the death of Bargle would bring us full circle, but that is probably a long way away. Even the death of Elwyn is probably a long way away. One possible objective which is a little closer at hand is that we are aware of a plot between Bargle and Elwyn that will be unfolded soon (on the first day of summer, which is approximately one month away in game time). If we manage to disrupt that plot and save Threshold from destruction, that, to me, would be a fitting end to the story... even if Elwyn and Bargle themselves still live.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that I would prefer to have a specific end-goal rather than just continue on from random adventure to random adventure. I acknowledge that everyone else might not feel the same way.

4. Assuming that Semele is out of the picture as well, that leaves us with 4 PCs. (I realize that riftstone and grog have yet to chime in yet on their desire to continue on, so this is pending). It just so happens that we have one of each of the "core 4" types (fighter/wizard/rogue/cleric). We could continue, if desired, as a smaller, specialized force, in which each PC's role and importance to the group is elevated. Just one possibility.

5. Regardless of what happens next, I want to emphasize once more that we have had a really great run up to this point. It has easily been the best D&D campaign I have ever been a part of. Thank you to all the players, and especially to TK and his creativity, for making this possible.

[riftstone]

Oh wow, lots of things going on...

This may not be the best time to tell you, but I am going to have to drop from the game. This actually has nothing to do with the others leaving, or your post TK (which was fine, I must say). I have some work and family issues going on and will not be able to post reliably for the next few months. I really have to apologize on the timing of this.

I do want to say that I really did enjoy this campaign. Although I am not a big fan of this time in the setting (my Duchy of Karameikos was less civilized, being from the 1st Expert set), I loved the creativity you showed in many of the adventures.

All, it has been a pleasure playing this game with you.