Before I go to bed

Sunday, April 15th, 2012 01:47 am
dev_chieftain: (rain)
1. Bra shopping

I had to get new bras. )

2. Movie time with Emma

The gist of this is, Mirror Mirror is a romantic comedy, but I was expecting better of it. )

I will say it tried a little, though, and Sean Bean does know how to tug at the heartstrings a bit.

Movie could have used more dwarf scenes. They were seriously the best part.

Oh! And who put in the drawn out "attacked by badly animated CGI puppets" scene? Seriously, that was just-- not funny or entertaining. It just felt long to sit through.

Final complaint: Just say the whole name. "Snow" is a dumb nickname. Every time someone called her Snow, I wanted to reach through the screen and punch them.

Interesting note: I did have dreams the following morning that involved being pestered by the robot other-self of Julia Roberts, who I kept grabbing by the head to snap her neck. She unfortunately kept reappearing and butting in on whatever it was I was doing in my dream, so I kept doing it. It wasn't a violent or evil act in the dream, but it felt odd to have been dreaming about something like that when I woke up. Mostly I was frustrated that it required so much effort, but wasn't permanent because she was a robot.

3. The neighbors

I met our actual neighbor last night. The one who was screaming for help the night I called.

She, as we suspected, thought we were making ALL of the 911 calls, and that we were complaining about noise, and I explained what had happened. Why I had called, and only called once.

She told me how upset she was. (She was a little tipsy and holding an open can of Bud Light, so probably feeling pretty vulnerable.) She's trying to get her son back. She was trying to do a nice thing for friends of hers across the street who'd been evicted by letting them stay at her place. These friends are the ones who fight all the time and have gotten her the eviction notice. These friends are the ones whose presence have led to her boyfriend abusing her, and beating her the night I called. These friends left pot in her apartment, which nearly got her arrested.

I told her how upset I had been that the police did nothing to help her, and that I had called because I was worried about her; never about the noise. Never because I would want to kick someone out of their home.

She said, "I don't know where I'm going to go. And it just-- sucks. Because I never even got to properly introduce myself to you guys, you know? I didn't want to be the shitty neighbor."

I held out my hand and told her my name.

She shook my hand and told me hers.

I told her I hope things get better for her. Soon.

Her boyfriend came home while we were talking, and after he went into her apartment, she leaned in and whispered,

"I'm really glad you did call. Thank you. I'm really glad you did."

And then I cried for a while. I'm really glad I called, too. Even if the police didn't do anything to help her, even if I've contributed to any of the bad stuff, even if we have to live in fear until the eviction is done.

Maybe it made some tiny difference for her to know that someone heard her and cared. I really hope so.

I don't know how to do better than what I tried to do. I can't offer her a place to stay, or a way out. I wish there was something concrete I could do. I do think I might start volunteering somewhere, or at least look more heavily into jobs where I could help people who are really in need, more like this. I had already looked a little, but I was being kind of a wuss about it and letting myself be chased off by the fact that I don't have the prerequisite qualifications yet. Maybe I can get them.

4. D&D

I am still mopey now, and was definitely mopey in the morning, with regards to the conversation I had with the neighbor. D&D fortunately was scheduled for today though, and that helped to keep my mind off of it for the most part. (It's pretty hard to be mopey when your friends are being awesome at you.) We did start late because Bret bailed on us without letting us know earlier in the day, so we were waiting for him to show up; but we had a blast. The group we ended up with has a great dynamic!

Most of the session was spent alternately kicking ass and making fun of the Ice King-- er, Winter King, but we couldn't resist calling him Ice King, really-- as we explored his mysterious castle and took out his creepy army. The gist of things was, back in Sweetgrove, winter had mysteriously started out in the middle of late spring, and everyone was puzzled by the sudden, unseasonal snow. A magic flying boat full of undead warriors crashlanded in town and started attacking everyone. By the time Tamli and Charlie drove off the jerks, they'd already killed a guy; and it turned out that the winter would be eternal if we couldn't return the Ice King's scepter.

We did end up returning it, but then the guy had the gall to ask us to kneel before him. While Charlie politely gave it a shot, Tamli, Alice and Damien were having none of that, and with Charlie's reluctant assistance we were able to trash him. (A lot of this session involved Tamli shouting victoriously over fallen foes, Charlie neatly and efficiently clobbering things when they least expected it, Alice wearing the mysterious Ice Crown and sneaking around in the nude, and Damien discerning magical secrets with his keen eyes and other senses. There was also a point where Damien breathed fire for a bit, which was awesome!)

When we got back, Tamli rushed off to the church to resurrect the civilian who'd been downed by the undead soldiers. She'll be spending the next two weeks helping work the poor guy's farm while he rests up. That frees up Fletcher to be available to help the town guard, who Danny hilariously joked are close to installing a Batman-esque signal with a bow and arrow on to summon him.

Ultimately, we returned back home richer, but it took us long enough that a big group dinner was needed to refuel us afterward.

Tomorrow I get to see my brother, since he's in town. I'm very excited to see him! He also sent me a mystery text around midnight...curious!
dev_chieftain: (Devpony)
Man, my journal's been a downer like all week! Except that clip from DS9. (Which is a secret downer. A sting-downer, if you will.) SO here are the good things:

1. Danny should be okay! He recently lost his job and for reasons I don't feel comfortable sharing here, things were pretty scary for a week there. But it looks like he'll probably be okay, and even able to make rent (which is good, because I'm not THAT well off!), so hooray!

2. I'll be finishing my delayed (for the above reasons) comic script, and am very glad of it.

3. We wrapped up the AD&D game with an epic (and hilarious) finale on Tuesday. The long and short of it is this: We kidnapped Bishop Dinta, and last time Iris had turned him in to a statue as a medusa before she accidentally died. We went against her religious beliefs (the church of Sulafta is against resurrection in the permanent sense, since it bucks the natural order) and had her resurrected, which severed her connection as a Sulaftan cleric, but turned her into a mischievous pixie (appropriate!). Then we turned Dinta back into himself after acquiring the Helm of Opposite Alignment, which turned him good.

Ostensibly, we were doing this to see if he was unsalvageable and still wanted to summon Orcus. What we hadn't forseen was that he DID want to do so...so we could banish Orcus's evil forever. So he summoned Orcus! And we fought mightily, and bested derp-tastic 2E Orcus, the demon-lord. Esra's main contribution to this fight: rod of cancellation to break Orcus's staff of power. Llewain, Sabine and Kelta did the bulk of the work.

4. Just got accepted into [community profile] edge_of_forever as Julian Bashir! I am super excited. Trudy dragged me over.

5. Pathfinder tonite!

6. We've been finishing more of DS9 season 7 and it's such a pleasure to pick that back up again. Oh, DS9. Why you so good? Mmmm. ♥

Most recently, we watched an episode last night about a communications array in Dominion space. The premise was that a crew of soldiers long overtaxed by being kept on the front were stuck there guarding the relay because there weren't enough people to relieve them. Included some really awesome scenes with exceptional extras, and we're finally getting to see Ezri developed. Regrettably, the kinda nice engineer guy she almost might've developed a romance with died in battle at the end. Bummer! Meanwhile, Bashir brought along recordings of Vic Fontaine's singing, which lent a creepy but awesome feeling to the battle that followed with the Jem'Hadar.

Episode dealt with Sisko's fear that the names of the dead in the war were blurring together in his mind and he wasn't paying proper respect to those who'd died serving; Quark's continued mild racism and fear towards humans and their 'penchant for violence', opposite Nog's kind of crazy devotion to Starfleet. Nog is such an interesting character. Ezri's first time on the battlegrounds was awesome, and an interesting parallel with Bashir, who I've come to think of as being the rookie, being more experienced and older than her since he's no longer what he started as.

Best of all was Rom trying to be a singer, of course. Oh, Rom!

The next episode after that was like the umpteenth time Dukat has tried to get Kira to love him, and utterly failed. I would not be able to tolerate these plots if she ever changed her mind, but instead I got to grin as she kicked lots of ass and Dukat utterly failed. Oh, Kira! I just love everybody today!

7. And, Danny got a copy of Flight of Dragons, which is a Rankin-Bass film about science v. magic (a theme I often like) that is properly animated, unlike Ralph Bakshi's stuff. Woo! So we'll be watching that sometime this weekend.
dev_chieftain: (rain)
I've made my meager (possibly financially unwise, but hopefully sound) contributions to two of the politicians in my state who are fighting the reprehensible HB 2625, and trying to put forth anti-bullying legislation to actually help children. I'm not rich, and that's not likely to change any time soon, but damn it, the only part of the country I have any ounce of ability to change is the one I live in.

So I've decided to do what I can. Not just voting-- though that's important too-- but putting my money where my mouth is.

Yesterday, we completed the module for ModuleMonday, and killed the mighty Orcus. Next week, I'll be running Steampunk London; just have to decide what system it's in. It sounded like neither Emma nor Melissa could make it otherwise, though I might check with Emma one last time. (Melissa definitely can't.)

Should find out today whether to be panicking or get back to my life. So that's something!
dev_chieftain: (Devpony)
We're all caught up now! In general, I'm not sure where I'd like to see Adventure Time go. I love the show thus far, though, and if Finn's going to maybe take a chance with the Flame Princess in coming episodes, I would be totally down for that. I like Princess Bubblegum a lot, but I don't like seeing Finn suffer-- I've been stuck waiting for someone who had no intention of actually going through with anything with me before, and it totally blows. So, the resolution of him finding someone new, growing past his crush on PB and being able to deal, that sounds like a nice resolution to me. It seemed like a testament to how upset he was to see him cry, considering the ridiculous crazy stuff he's weathered with the immediate follow-up of "Nah, I'm fine, dude!"

With that said, I safely received Being John Malkovich and Interstella 5555, so now I can show them to Danny.

Yesterday's session of D&D was totally crazy. First we had to recap the events for Christian since he was away the week before; then we proceeded to do a bunch of wacky things. This included splitting up the loot we'd acquired from Zarathustra's lair while finding her necklace and mirror for her; one item found was a suit of armor imbued with the ability to send all creatures running in fear, which Sabine took. She then handed over her old armor (emblazoned with the symbol of Sulafta) to Iris, who insisted she would need it cleaned before she could use it. A spear went to Kelta and so on. (I haven't caught up the summary here, have I? Denar died when Esra polymorphed him to try to cure a plague that we all nearly died from. Ironically, the polymorph totally cured the plague-- but when turning back, Denar passed away, so we had to have him resurrected-- thanks to the gold dragon, Zarathustra, after we cured her of a madness-inflicting curse-- through reincarnation. He came back as an ogress, named Kelta.) Before we left there was some minor business, like Llewain giving Asha a raise...

IMPORTANT FACT: Everyone on the ship, except Asha, is paid at least 5 gold per week. Asha is paid 1 gold, 1 silver.

Exchange: I could be off by a factor of ten, but: 1 gold = 10 silver. 1 silver = 10 copper.

ESRA: Honestly, Asha, you're all right sometimes, provided you don't consistently complain about not getting a raise.
ASHA: Hahah...uh, gee, now that you mention it-- and since it came up naturally, and stuff, um. Llewain, could I- could I get a raise?
LLEWAIN: You know what, Asha? YOU KNOW WHAT? That's a great idea. How do you feel about making 1 gold, 1 silver, and ...two coppers?
ASHA: *flatly* Really? That's-- geez, boss, do you even have any coppers?
LLEWAIN: *checks his bags* No.
ASHA: Then, maybe you could--
LLEWAIN: Do you have eight coppers you can give me in exchange for this silver piece?
(Dev: You're such a cheapskate!
Bret: Meh!)
ASHA: Uh...sure. *he hands over eight copper pieces and takes the silver*
(Bret: And I THROW THE COPPER INTO THE OCEAN)
ASHA: No! What are-- why did you do that? That was perfectly good copper!
LLEWAIN: That's right, I owe you two weeks' pay. Do you have eight more copper?
ASHA: *hesitant* ...
LLEWAIN: You want this silver, right?
ASHA: ...okay, well. *he hands over eight copper coins for the silver.*
(Bret: And I THROW THOSE INTO THE OCEAN TOO
Dev: But WHY
Danny: Pffffffft-!
Bret: I THROW THEM. I do it.)
ASHA: No! Why would you do that?
ESRA: He's right, that's currency you're wasting, Llewain. To what purpose?
LLEWAIN: *ignoring Esra* You going to go dive for them?
IRIS: *tiredly* I will pay you five gold NOT to go dive for them.
ASHA: I can't believe you! *storms off*
SABINE: Hahaha, let's set sail before some idiot goes diving for those useless copper coins!
ESRA: They're not useless! Someone of Asha's class is honestly safer with smaller coins-- people won't assume he stole them.
LLEWAIN: Naaaaahhh.
IRIS: Honestly, he made a net profit of 4 copper, so he's nothing to complain about.

*Iris sneaks off to find Asha*

ASHA: *answers her knock eagerly* Y-yes, miss Iris? What can I do for you? Do you need anything?
IRIS: Oh, well, you see. He's too embarrassed to admit it, and it's not a raise, it's a, um, bonus, a one-time sort of thing, but this is for you. *she gives him an amethyst, worth 100 gold*
ASHA: Oh, wow! Thank you! I-I'll do whatever you like, miss Iris, really!
IRIS: In that case, could you clean this armor? *she hands over Sabine's old armor* Thoroughly.
ASHA: Sure, sure!

Once we set sail we headed for Carina, but in town were sidetracked by Maligos, who was pestering us through dream-controlling folk, and Bishop Dinta, whom we found in the local church. Taking Dinta hostage and temporarily expelling Maligos from his host, we decided to escort Dinta to the Council of Four for fair trial (which is secret code for "putting the helm of opposite alignments on him to see if that fixes him"). We nearly left immediately, but Esra worried for the crew's morale and insisted we stay at port overnight.

SABINE: No! Who cares, they'll be fine, they got paid!
ESRA: But they can't spend their money if they have to stay aboard! It's for the best, let them carouse. It's only a day, and so long as we do not harm him, Dinta has agreed to come peaceably.
SABINE: This is stupid! We should gooo, come onnn! I never leave the ship!
ESRA: Well, you should!
SABINE: Nu-uh!
ESRA: *pointing* Sabine, I order you to go out into Nys and have fun tonight!
SABINE: *lassos ESRA's arm, then ties him up and THEN ties him to the mast* I'll do whatever I want!
SYLVIA: Oh! Lady Sabine, uh...should I call back the rest of the crew?
SABINE: Leave 'em! *she stalks off the ship* I'm going into town.
ESRA: *struggling* Damn it, Sabine! ERGH. Could-- somebody help me?

Here, we made use of the Carousing Table, which I think Danny found on Jeff Rientz's blog; I might be misremembering. In any case, Sabine ended up rolling 12 and waking up with a splitting headache!

(Danny: You have the ultimate hangover as you awaken!
Dev: What're you drawing?
Christian: The thing. How much does it cost to get tattoos?
Danny: Huh?
Christian: Tattoos.
Danny: Oh, 10 gold.
Christian: Heheh, then Sabine wakes up with all her hair shaved off, and THIS *holds up his drawing* tattooed over her face, centered around her eye! This part is patterned like dragon scales.)

SYLVIA: Shall we set sail, Esra?
ESRA: Hm. Is everyone back aboard?
SYLVIA: I think so, though some of the crew are hungover. Can't hold their whiskey.
ESRA: Oh, dear. Should we wait, or will we be able to pull together a skeleton crew?
SYLVIA: We should be fine.
ESRA: All right, well in that case--
SABINE: *limps on deck*
ESRA: Oh my-- Sabine?! Is that you?
KELTA: Who is that?
LLEWAIN: Yeah, hey, do you belong on this ship? I don't recognize your face.
SABINE: *cringing* Not so loud. *scowl* Yeah, it's me.
ESRA: Did-- *frown* Did you find that diplomat you kept insisting you were going to kill? And lose?
SABINE: Naw, man.
ESRA: My goodness, you really shaved it all off.
SABINE: Yeah, yeah.
ESRA: --um, yes, Sylvia. Now we can set sail.

On the way (at sea, but not too far out of port), Iris offered her magic (cursed) comb to Esra mysteriously while she, Esra, Sabine and Llewain were on deck. Seeing that it had no effect on his hair, Iris grew frustrated with the mysterious comb and combed her own hair with it.

And turned into a medusa!

She turned Esra and Sabine into stone, but Llewain managed to avoid her stony gaze, and she became deeply desirous to mate with him. (We have been joking for quite some time that Llewain will just leave Iris-- as portrayed in the mysterious dream we shared months ago-- once they have kids, and they sorta kinda have some modicum of romantic tension going on). So she led him belowdecks, warning the rest of the crew to look away, and turned Dinta into a statue. Satisfied, she then fucked the snot out of Llewain, which was mostly okay except for the part where her snake heads were constantly biting him. (She cast slow poison on him beforehand to keep him from dying.)

Following that, she rushed off to her room and laid medusa eggs.

On the upside, Xenocrates was able to discern, through use of Esra's mage lab, how to turn those made stone back into flesh. On the downside, it required used of the medusa's blood. We decided to leave Dinta a statue for a while, and Iris turned Esra and Sabine back, then removed the curse upon herself, as well. Since she had no ability to cure Llewain of the poison until the next day, she belatedly realized that she would need to turn him to stone to successfully save his life.

We all agreed we'd let her and Llewain be inside Iris's cabin, as she wouldn't be able to turn herself back until the next day, either, and closed the cabin doors.

Iris pulled out the comb, combed her hair, and--

died, instantly, failing to survive the system shock of being turned into another being. Luckily, Llewain survived the poison-- but Iris may be gone forever! And when her medusa eggs hatched we're all probably going to get medusa'd. Particularly amusing is the fact that earlier in the session, Esra asked Iris during an argument about the conflicts between the religion of Sulafta and the religion of the Birds of Heaven if she objected to being brought back to life if she should fall in battle at their side, then, and she said she would.

Knowing us, we might try to bring her back by going to Rukri anyway. Man, there were a lot of points last night where I was laughing too hard to breathe!
dev_chieftain: (Default)
So say a guy gets drunk, buddy buddy with some other guy while he's drunk, and they go off somewhere to sleep it off together. A few weeks after waking up the next morning, the first guy discovers that he's feeling kind of sick, and getting swollen, like there's some kind of hideous parasite living inside his guts. Turns out the other guy put it there.

Is the first guy at fault?

I just ask because this seems to be a common attitude towards rape victims, and that annoys me. The "qualifying factors" don't matter. It doesn't matter what the clothing worn was, the behavior was, it doesn't matter if they consented at first because they were too inebriated to realize they didn't want to have sex. Choosing to get someone drunk in order to try to trick them into having sex with you would be a criminal act, so why are you defending the criminal? Trying to force someone else to do something they wouldn't normally want to do is criminal no matter how you slice it. Especially if it results in putting a parasitic creature inside the other person that could very well kill that person. (Yes, childbirth can kill! It can also wound someone for the rest of their life if it DOESN'T kill them! It's not some awesome thing to be carrying the child of someone you didn't want to have sex with in the first place, all right.)

Should there be degrees? Totally. A pair of folks who were BOTH drunk and out of it and then fucked? I think that needs to be talked out, not criminalized. But the majority of cases of rape that even get reported are not situations like this, and making excuses about it is ridiculous.

The annoying thing is, I see great, forward-thinking writing on the subject often, but the commenters on these much-more-trafficked-than-my-piddly-blog sites will generally chorus in with a lot of judgmental trash about how 'still but women shouldn't be wearing XYZ, it's SO slutty'. Dude, NO. Women should be allowed to wear whatever, and you should be adult enough to either walk by unaffected, or if it's in YOUR HOUSE to politely ask the woman if she could wear something a little less sexy, since it's distracting for you.

Anyway, serious post tax. Making interesting criminals for a city!

How I did it:

1. Roll 3d6. The number you roll is the number of active, non-imprisoned criminals currently out and about in town.
2. Make a numbered list, but no names yet. Roll 1d6 for each criminal; odds are male, evens female.
3. Now fill out the names as fit the naming scheme of your setting.
4. Create a 12-option list of potential crimes. See below for mine.
5. Roll 2d6 on the list for each criminal and assign as you see fit.
6. Assign nicknames that the locals might use to refer to the criminal.

Ta-da!

Example:

1 - F - Eloise - 1 - Effigy Eloise
2 - F - Marie - 4 - Mad Marie the Slasher
3 - F - Cecelia - 8 - Cecelia of the Moors
4 - M - Claude - 1 - Kerosene Claude
5 - M - Maurice - 1 - Matchstick Maurice
6 - M - Raoul - 6 - Raoul Redcheeks
7 - F - Perrine - 11 - Perrine the Pickpocket
8 - F - Seraphine* - 12 - Seraphine Sweetness
9 - F - Suzanne - 3 - Suzanne Stabber

Chart:
1 Arson
2 Rape
3 Murder
4 Violent crime (not murder)
5 Graffiti
6 Public indecency
7 Libel/slander
8 Political crime
9 Bombing
10 Serial murder
11 Theft
12 Innocent of whatever charges

* - The hilarious coincidence of Seraphine being innocent was totally unplanned, but hooray for luck and online dice rollers!

I won't pretend I lean to anything but silly alliterative names, because that would be misleading, but y'know, people who aren't me might have better luck with serious names (and criminals).

Also, if you are a D&D buddy and missed it, the post below has thoughts on handling resurrection in tabletop if you're interested. Check it out.
dev_chieftain: (rain)
Adventure Time is awesome, but the nature of the setting and story is such that it is not actually stopping me from getting back in my freaking out over mortality place. The episode about Jake wanting to see the prophecy of his death through to the end was totally rough on my heartstrings. Damn it, Finn, I totally think your solution is awesome. Even if it makes me all sad.

In less creepy (to me) thoughts, I've been thinking about how I would handle certain elements of running tabletop games that go longer and are more deadly than the ones I've run before.

Resurrection: Now, I think resurrection should totally be available to the party, but it pisses me off when it's got never got an effect. Here's how I think it'd be interesting to handle.

*Cost: cheap as dirt. It's easy to get your friend revived.

*Urgency (part the first): If you do it quickly, then the consequences are pretty much invisible. As the resurrectee, you would essentially have a sense of having gone into the light for a moment, but then you came back. Disconcerting and weird and probably a little nervewracking, but you'd get over it after a bit. (Roleplaying will be enforced by electric cattle prod.)

*Urgency (part deux): If you take a full day to resurrect your friend, they will be Messed Up when they come back. Because in the time it took you to resurrect them, they were reborn elsewhere. They've started to forget their past life already. As the resurrectee, it'd be difficult to remember names, places. Important details of your past might be forgotten. Also, you might have the strangest urge to go back to the life you are now denied. You might even follow those urges, depending on how you want to play it. (Roleplaying will be enforced by a demonic stare.)

*Urgency (the other part): If you do it after your friend's body has started to rot (this would vary in terms of time based on terrain; a body in a swamp might rot faster/more easily than a body in a dry desert castle), there is a chance that your friend will come back undead. The amount of forgetting is higher, the difficulty of re-connecting with your friend is greater. This also puts back the use of rituals like Gentle Repose, which might do things** to the friend's soul while also preserving their body for resurrection purposes. As the resurrectee who is not Repose'd, you would essentially be like a zombie self, remembering only the most bittersweet pieces of who you once were. You could still become a whole person over time, perhaps, but you would need to make new memories to fill the void left by the old. See below for if Repose'd. (Roleplaying will enforced by the banshee howl of the unknowable creatures of the id.)

**- A body held in Gentle Repose would essentially also trap the soul, preventing it from proceeding on to the next life as it should. While resurrection in this particular idea would usually account for stillbirths (so and so was brought back to life; the baby he was going to be born as therefore can't be born), with Gentle Repose there is no baby the soul was sent to. This would have its own consequences, as the soul would be in limbo the whole time until the friend is resurrected. Instead of having the 'I went towards the bright light and then came back' experience, you might have the more terrifying 'there was nothing I could feel it THERE WAS NOTHINNNNG' experience to roleplay. Yes. Roleplaying will be enforced. BELIEVE those characters, baby.

I'm of course exaggerating the seriousness and creepiness of the scenario, and in my experience, resurrection doesn't have to come up that often. But I think the deterrents to resurrection should totally be the creep factor, and not the cost. Cost is lame. When a party is arguing about whether Jerk the Wizard is really worth the five thousand gold it'd cost to revive him, I want it to be because Jerk the Wizard was a total jerk, and not because five thousand gold is a lot of money.

As for out of character discussions about it occurring at the table, I want those to be tinged by the player's own feelings on having to roleplay coming back from the dead. If the rules are "you can't just ignore it if your other friends take too long or do this; that is a part of your character now" then the option is always there, for players who don't enjoy being melodramatic (and for shame, why are you even playing an RPG? Honestly!), to just make a new character and say 'whoa guys, no thanks. Do not resurrect me, playing a resurrected character would just be toooooo spooky!'

As for games I'm planning to run, there is STEAMPUNK LONDON coming up. I'll have to sound out my players and make sure they're still potentially available. Here's hopin'.

And back to serious towne, the bill for my first car payment arrived today. It's not due for a month, but I have the unpleasant feeling that the financing company may not be willing to accept online payments, which bites. I do not remember to buy stamps, ever.
dev_chieftain: (leonard roland)
~The Tale of the Black Knight~

Broad summary + some dialogue.

Not many days ago, Dame Varnell received a mysterious invitation from the Black Knight, a mysterious fellow who'd been active in the region many years ago, but quieter lately. His goons had raided a local village, and while they'd also stolen many other artifacts, they'd kidnapped an elderly woman named Gertrude as well. Taking it upon her honor to save fair Gertrude, Dame Varnell accepted the invitation, which had challenged her to participate in a jousting match with several other knights famous in the region. The winner, it was said, would later battle against the Black Knight himself.

Dame Varnell is a knight errant who travels the kingdom, righting wrongs-- even, in her own words, the wrongs that others do not perceive as being wrong. Around ten years ago, this resulted in a run-in with a young would-be thief by the name of Farin Attar, known in his city of origin by the other street urchins as 'Whistler' due to his prominent missing front tooth, which he lost in a scuffle that also left him with a prominent facial scar.

When they met, it was under the circumstances of thief and mark; Whistler attempted to steal some coins of value from Dame Varnell, and was caught by her instead. After making it abundantly clear that he could not escape her, she made it her personal mission to see to it that he became a man of honor and righteousness, and took him on as her unwilling squire. Through their years of association and travel, he seems to have become fond of her as a surrogate parental figure, and while he probably wouldn't always admit it out loud, actions speak louder than words-- at twenty two, he's pretty old to be a squire, yet he followed her on this trip as well, into the keep of the Black Knight-- this time, leading her horse.

[Disclaimer: NPC names may be incorrectly spelled!]

Inside the castle, we encountered the Black Knight's man-servant, Revitt, who greeted us and informed us that he would see the horse to the stable. Following that, he showed us to the room set aside for Dame Varnell, which had a single bed and the look of a room that had not been cleaned up for use until very, very recently. After making it abundantly clear that we were not to go to any rooms that were locked, but were otherwise welcome to wander the castle as we wished, Revitt left us in peace, warning us that he would fetch Dame Varnell when she was to participate in a jousting match.

After some quick discussion amongst ourselves, the Dame Varnell made it clear that she wished to meet the other knights of the joust formally, as it was only proper. Whistler followed dutifully.

-Dame Varnell met Riana, who talked about shieldmaidens and special bonds in great detail. She explained that her shield sister, Taris, and herself were incredible in battle and their bond was such that they traveled everywhere together. Whistler's eyebrows nearly scurried up into his hairline at all that suggestive talk.

RIANA: I'm somewhat famous in these parts. My shieldsister Taris and I will wipe the floor with the competition in this tournament, I'm looking forward to it.
DAME VARNELL: I see. Well, besides your charming but misplaced confidence, I am very pleased to meet you, Dame Riana. I am Dame Francesca Varnell. I serve as knight errant in these lands. *grand gesture*
RIANA: Hah! I've never heard of you.
WHISTLER: *frown* So if you're so tough, how's it going to go when you have to fight this Taris? All of the competitors have to fight each other.
RIANA: *waves her hand in dismissal* We may be shieldsisters, but she'll have to accept her inevitable loss when she is pitted against me. *eyeing him disapprovingly* Are you competing in the joust? You lack...muscle.
WHISTLER: *bristling* Wh- I-!! *folds arms sulkily across his chest*
DAME VARNELL: Ah, no, Attar is my squire. He is not ready for such a competition!

-Then we knocked on the door of our next-room neighbors. Met Renk, who was unfriendly towards Varnell, but seemed to like Whistler and invited him in for drinks. He asked how much money Whistler had on him at that moment and Ehistler went along to gather info. While Varnell tried to visit the last room of the contestants (locked, no answer) and then investigated the storage closet, Whistler assured Renk he had no money on him, had a swig of whiskey, offered some wine, and after a couple of unsubtle attempts on Renk's part to ascertain whether Whistler was 'one of his' or not, Whistler lied and said he was. He then discovered that Renk and his pal, Stimdon, had received a letter from 'the Boss' (who Whistler assumed was the Black Knight) saying to watch over Varnell using the peephole and make sure she didn't cause trouble or go snooping around in search of Gertrude. The letter also said that they would end up imprisoned if they failed, and suggested in no uncertain terms that the Boss intended to kill all upstanding persons personally during the proceedings. Whistler engineered an opportunity to read the letter by casually asking if Renk had checked it for secret messages. Renk made it clear he would try to kill Whistler if Whistler lied, and that he would know if Whistler did. The note also mentioned two women, a younger woman as well as Gertrude. Whistler only pretended that there might be a message, but overall simply read the letter and returned it. He assured Renk that he'd been sent by the Boss to ensure that Renk and Stimdon were well-rested for the joust. While in the room he also checked the back wall of their room for secret doors beneath the tapestry, but found nothing.

-Stimdon returned to the room and was suspicious of Whistler. His hostility to Whistler transferred to Renk, so Whistler played on Renk's hurt, promising to be his buddy and reinforcing Renk's trust in him, as if they were all in on it. When pressed for credentials, Whistler played a risky bid, claiming that Stimdon could just kill him, but what would that prove? If he didn't want to sleep that was fine, but as it stood, Whistler was there to keep an eye on the old lady to spare them the neck pains that would otherwise result from using the peephole. Stimdon urged him to get back to work then, not trusting him anyway.

[Inside of The Scary Thugs's Guest Chambers, Whistler is trying to gather information about the competition, since the odds seem stacked against the Lady Varnell. He is trying to play it cool.]

WHISTLER: Oh, hey, was there any secret message stuff in your letter? You know how the Boss stashes those in there sometimes.
RANK: Huh?
WHISTLER: You want me to check it for ya? I'll look and see.
RANK: Oh, sure. I'm not too good with that sort of stuff, but uh.
[He gives Whistler the piece of paper, and then points his dagger menacingly at Whistler's throat.]
RANK: If you lie to me, though, I'll know.
WHISTLER: Right. Well, hmm.

[The letter states, in no uncertain terms, that the Black Knight has hired Rank and Stimdon to keep an eye on Lady Varnell by use of the peep hole in her room; it goes on to assert that the joust will see to it that all non-Chaotic persons shall be crushed, and that Rank and Stimdon will reap the rewards as the Black Knight's right hand man. Further, the Black Knight needs them to ensure that Lady Varnell doesn't search the castle and find the old woman or the young lady he's kidnapped and is questioning at the moment, lest Stimdon and Rank wish to end up in a cell beside them.]

WHISTLER: [gulp] Hmmm. Well, this all looks pretty legit, but if you move the 'e' here, see how these letters line up? That could be a message saying to keep watch tonight if things go south. But it might be nothing, you never know. [he hands it back to Rank]
RANK: Tonight? I didn't know we were gonna be here that long. Figured we'd just kill everybody in the joust.
WHISTLER: It's probably a back up plan.

[STIMDON returns and is displeased to see WHISTLER there.]

STIMDON: Who the hell is this?
RANK: Come on in, Stimdon, I'll tell you all about it. He's workin' for the boss too.
STIMDON: Oh yeah? Has he got the you-know-what that proves he works for the boss, like we do? [suspicious look]
WHISTLER: What, are you saying you don't trust me? [spreads his hands]
STIMDON: No, I don't. I trust one person here, and that's me and ONLY me.
WHISTLER: Not even Rank? That's pretty vain.
STIMDON: ONLY me. Right, Rank?
RANK: [hurt] But I thought- we could trust each other, and only each other. I guess, if that's not true, then I only trust ME...and my new buddy here.
WHISTLER: Thanks, Rank. I trust you, too.
RANK: Right!
STIMDON: Ugh! Just kill him, he's working for the old woman anyway, isn't he?
WHISTLER: Fine! Kill me, and spend the whole night staring out that cramped peephole while you watch over the old lady. [he shakes his head] Don't be stupid. The boss sent me here to make sure you get plenty of sleep for the final round of the joust tomorrow. We can't have you guys at less than top shape to handle the uh, competition, now can we?
STIMDON: Sleepin' does sound mighty nice.
WHISTLER: It does, doesn't it? So if you don't mind, I'm gonna do my job and you do yours-- like the Boss told you to!
STIMDON: Well then what the hell are you doin' in here? Get out there and keep an eye on her!
WHISTLER: Fine, fine--

[He leaves, finding Dame Varnell in the hall]

WHISTLER: [whispering hoarsely] Lady Varnell oh boy I think we're in big big trouble! Let's get out of here! Let's-- let's go for a walk! Come on, let's go!
DAME VARNELL: Oh, there you are, Attar. I suppose the occupant of this room is not in, so we may as well go for a walk, if you wish.
WHISTLER: [still whispering as they walk up the hall] I- I just read a letter, okay? From the Black Knight. A-a-and he's keeping Gertrude and some young lady--
DAME VARNELL: No, Attar, I think the young lady he's referring to IS Gertrude.
WHISTLER: [flat expression; sigh] No, the letter mentioned two women, actually. But they're being held in his prison here somewhere, and those big goons are gonna try and kill everybody in the joust!

[We pass a closet.]

DAME VARNELL: That closet there contains a wealth of ordinary household supplies, Attar. There's even a long pole.
WHISTLER: [brightening] Ten feet long?
DAME VARNELL: Yes, I think so-- and sacks of feed and various cleaning supplies...
WHISTLER: [shaking himself] I'm a thief, I have SOME pride in taking things that are actually of value, you know.
DAME VARNELL: Oh yes, quite.

-Whistler related what he'd heard to Dame Varnell in the hall as she tried to greet the mystery knights again and they still didn't answer. She waved it off and misinterpreted part of what he was relating as being a slight to Gertrude. He reaffirmed that there were two women, and people aiming to kill Dame Varnell. She suggested they explore the castle for now, and he followed doggedly, trying to warn her more along the way. She informed him of the contents of the storage closet as they passed it, to which he briefly brightened. Then, they were summoned for a joust!

-Dame Varnell's first opponent was Taris, shieldsister of Riana. She won! Her form was so incredible she shattered her lance on Taris's shield and unseated Taris on the first pass. Whistler was so surprised he exploded into cheering for her. Taris was a sore loser, and very angrily stalked off. Riana wanted to follow her, but her match was next. Everyone had turned out for the jousts, but Dame Varnell and Whistler returned to the castle to 'rest'.

-They met no one in the halls, and then unstuck the door to, and stepped inside a room just to the west of the front room. (Left coming back in.)

-There were many suits of armor, holding axes and black shields, and one with a red shield at the front. In the far corner stood a mysterious creature, glowering. There was also a lever on the south wall, in the middle of the room. Not thinking, Whistler stepped forward, with Dame Varnell behind him, to investigate the lever. The two armors nearest them swung their axes, a trap that cleaved through Attar's leather armor and flesh with vicious acuity, knocking him and Dame Varnell down. Coughing up blood, he passed out instantly. Only bruised, but still hurt (and worried for Attar), Dame Varnell hid by the door, bandaging her friend. Though she was able to stop the bleeding, the trap reset while she'd been bandaging him. She tried depressing the red shield, and it deactivated again. She then went to the lever Whistler'd pointed out. She then played with the lever, which was 'up.' At midway, the trap was deactivated; at 'down', another armor (a golem) fell apart in the back corner, but the trap was reset. She proceeded to the far door, trying to open it. She could not, even with the skeleton that Revitt had given us. She returned to Whistler, using shields from some of the armors to throw at the red shield and depress it. When she succeeded, she carried Whistler back to the room.

-She did not encounter anyone on the way, and was able to get him to the room without incident. She kindly laid him in the bed and tucked him in so he'd be warm. She was then summoned to joust! He wondered what'd happened, but remembered once she explained to him. He wished her luck but opted to sit the joust out when she was summoned.

Danny: Okay, you make it back to your room with the single bed. Do you lay Whistler out on the floor?
Dustin: *primly* No, he's hurt, so I lay him out on the bed.
Dev: Aw!
Danny: After a few minutes, he stirs!
WHISTLER: ...ergh...Lady Varnell? What happened...?
DAME VARNELL: We discovered a trap in the armory! You were nearly sliced in two.
WHISTLER: *feeling his stomach* Oh, yeah. I kinda remember that. That was scary!
DAME VARNELL: I then examined the lever you were going to examine, and discovered that it could be used to disable the trap entirely. I couldn't proceed into the next room without your assistance, however, so I decided it was best for us to make a retreat.
WHISTLER: *weak chuckle* I-
REVITT: *knock knock* Dammmme Varnellll, you have beennn....summmonnnned for your nexxxxt jousssssst.
WHISTLER: I- think I'm gonna sit this one out, milady.
DAME VARNELL: Yes, please rest, Attar! Recover your strength.
WHISTLER: *grin* I'm rootin' for ya!

-Her second opponent was the Just Sir Bryon. They fought many passes without being able to unseat each other, but she triumphed in the end! Notably, Sir Bryon had very, very shiny armor!

-While Dame Varnell was fighting her opponent, Whistler weakly snuck out and into Renk and Stimdon's room. He'd seen that they had a healing potion stashed here when he'd been in it before, and quaffed some of it, re-examining the letter to be sure he hadn't missed anything. He also checked around the room; but nothing. He may have checked the peep hole to figure out where it was? He returned to their room and began writing about their exploits, lest they should meet doom in the castle!

-When Dame Varnell returned, Whistler blocked the peep hole and offered vaguely that she should drink of 'this', handing her the rest of the healing potion. She was surprised but pleased. With the last drops of it, he followed her out of the room and created a false trail of potion leading from Renk and Stimdon's room to the room shared by Riana and Taris, leaving the bottle in the corner by their room to try to allay suspicions from himself. He then followed Dame Varnell back to the room they'd been investigating before. She showed him how to deactivate the trap, and he was impressed.

-Whistler unlocked the door for her. In the next room were two suits of armor, a wall lined with weapons, a bag of grain, and five chests.

-Part Two coming up later!-

Mathematical!

Monday, March 19th, 2012 11:48 am
dev_chieftain: (totallyrad)
So we watched almost all of Adventure Time over the weekend, and we're totally hooked. It's awesome for all the obvious reasons, though my favorite are the occasional moments of 'actually, there's quite a lot of backstory you'll never know' that immediately get slapped away with more crazy randomness. Why not, right?

My weekend was spent alternately working from home, and trying to squeeze in some fun times and relaxation here and there. I did get to chat with my brother on the phone, which was nice; and it rained here, while it was snowing up there, so we were both pretty content with the weather. (It sounded sucky, honestly! He had the day off but his housemates were all out! Booo!)

I hear that Emma has broken up with her boyfriend, which sounds really rough and like maybe ice cream and movie nights are needed. I am determined to make the Steampunk London game super fun as a result! Well, okay, I was already thus determined, but now I'm double-determined!

I'm thinking I might want the players to be detectives, since I keep drafting up mysterious goings-on for them to investigate. But I like the idea of coming away with a fishmonger, a hatter and a penniless poet for players instead, so I think I want to encourage creativity rather than suggest a profession.

Also, Kali's doing a 30-days-of-cool-ladies meme. I kind of wanted to participate, but I also just can't focus that well on a meme for thirty days in a row.

Tonight, we have to go grocery shopping, and we're hoping to finish up the Sword and Shield module with Whistler and Dame Varnell. Should be exciting! Though I suppose it won't take too long, either.

Oh yeah! Summary of Friday! I worked late and was late to the game as a result-- just really exhausted and a little out of it still-- but the gist of things is this. Calderax piloted our ship safely to dock in the Wheel, where we had to deal with thugs after Doc and the Captain, Mac Macadilly (or possibly Macadillydilly), who apparently were the sole survivors of the crew, who owed on the insurance of the ship. So we offered to let Doc adventure with us to help him pay off the money with a 1/7th share of the treasure we'd made in the process.

Merys and Joceyln decided to take things right to the desk of the collecting agency, protesting the alacrity with which the goons had come after doc and suggesting that there be some offer of leniency on the loan so that people who hadn't been making very much money to begin with wouldn't be crippled and crushed for nothing. The president of the company, presumably overwhelmed by the pair of them, acceded, giving Doc and Mac a six-month grace period. We did turn in one of the decanters of endless water to the Adventurer's Guild, and when Aigua inquired as to the nature of the guild's desire to possess the items, was met with stoic silence by the Guild's stoically silent member, and silly nonsense from their cheery bard. Suspicious!

Merys and the bard coordinated their lists of items-to-find, and she asked him for all the leads he might have currently on where to look for the items. It turned out that there were dimensional shackles being used to keep a demon imprisoned in a swamp. Aigua didn't want to go, but Calderax's sword had heard of the demon and suggested it would be wise to banish him to another dimension. There was also a humorous moment where one of the items on the list, soul gems, came up; the bard explained that a tiefling had been making them, but apparently his apprentice had killed him, so those might be tricky to find. (At this point, Calderax totally unsubtly excused himself from the room).

There was the question of how to get Zetsian royal blood. Merys was deeply interested in trying to get the blood from Erith, who wanted no part of that, thanks! In any case, we were mostly made up to go to the swamp, since Calderax had an idea of where the spot they needed might be. They went to inform Captain Mac that they'd be helping him out and found him in a local tavern. Here, the proprietor turned out to be Erith's ex-lord, from the days before Zets had fallen. He spoke with her for a while, embarrassed to have been found out in his much diminished state. Captain Mac, who was wildly drunk, ended up getting a free room, which the bartender had offered Erith. She accepted for Captain Mac's sake, giving him a place to stay.

Resolved, we headed out for the swamp on our airship, and were startled when a druid-Orc arrived to warn us off if we were going to try to set the demon free. Aigua and Calderax bespoke it, asking it if perhaps they could kill and banish the demon. Would that be okay? He agreed, and we landed the ship, avoiding a Froghemoth that the Orc warned us about in the swamp, before walking into the subterranean temple where the demon had been bound for several centuries. We tried talking to it to find out why it'd been bound there (we knew it had something to do with a paladin not wanting the demon to share certain secrets with its kindred when it returned to hell), but it was having none of that. So, we entered into battle with it. Erith almost singlehandedly defeated the beast, aided by Merys, Joceyln and Calderax (Aigua somewhat ineffectively threw bones at it); with its dying breath, it told us of a secret to do with a man serving close at the Goddess's right hand, who had discovered a secret to immortality and was not in fact dead as many would believe. Then he disappeared, leaving the shackles behind for the taking!
dev_chieftain: (red)
Man! D&D last night was awesome. We fought our way through the rest of a dungeon. I might have more time to post the summary later today, so hopefully that'll catch us all up! Suffice it to say, despite a lack of Sabine, we had great fun! Also, Llewain spent most of the dungeon naked.

I've never participated in a game mechanics discussion very heatedly, but recently Danny's been questioning the way Turn Undead works in various editions (searching for the best), and also started considering potential alternatives to default handling for Wizards memorizing spells in D&D Basic up through D&D 3.5.

Turn Undead's come up because of the recent Legends and Lore post by Mike Mearls on the subject. As most of the responders, Danny's against the idea of the proposed 5th edition alteration that makes Turn Undead a class feature for all Clerics, and puts the effects of that feature in monster stats in the monster manual instead of the player's hand.

My personal opinion on the subject is somewhat simple, since I've only played a few clerics, and rarely played a cleric built around the ability to Turn Undead.

1. Not every cleric worships a deity who gives a shit about the undead. Some deities like the undead, too. Some clerics are evil. So why should turn undead be a class feature? This only severely limits a class that is currently one of the most varied and potentially interesting.

2. The defense "Undead aren't scary enough because Clerics can turn them" brings up two big problems for me. Most important is this: the game is not about keeping the DM's monsters alive because they're oh so cool! Yes, we all want our badass villain to be appreciated and respected by the players. We all also know that the average tabletop player is gleefully irreverent. You know how in 80's movies, the characters are ALWAYS cheesily sassing the villains, even when the villains totally outclass them? Yes, well, most people default to that attitude when playing tabletop. You can take away their power to get rid of the undead without slogging, level-drained and annoyed, through a two-hour battle, but you can't take away their power to snark at you and your monsters. I assure you that a party that HAS to fight the undead, even if they'd rather be able to crush them instantly or run away, is going to be a lot snarkier (and likely sulkier) than a party granted all three options.

3. Undead are not the majority of the enemies I encounter in D&D. I know this must vary from DM to DM, but in the games where I have played Clerics, here's how it actually went down.

Iron Kingdoms (Witchfire Trilogy, reimagined by DM): Most enemies were living or robots; when undead appeared, I could only turn them 1/5 or 1/6 times because I was level 2 and the enemies were level 10. Literally. (The DM later told us as much, impressed we hadn't been murdered yet.)

Kingdoms of Kalamar: We encountered no undead at all. That was fine, since my Cleric was a Cleric of freedom and travel.

4E module (Keep on the Shadowfell): A couple of Undead encounters. I was able to turn some basic zombies when we were deep inside the Keep and trying to rest, but on other attempts I missed.

D&D Basic module (First Quest): Used Turn Undead twice to keep an Undead encounter from attacking us. Instead of fighting them, we walked past (pressed for time) and completed the task needed to save our lives. On the way back, did the same. We walked past, rested in a safer room, and left.

Notably, in all four of these examples, we still had to fight quite a few things that weren't undead. Faced with these, I had no means to send them packing.

4. The power isn't 100% reliable as written in most editions. Generally, even though in AD&D the power says: Cleric can turn up to 2d6 undead creatures if the attack succeeds and hits, that means only once every thirty-six battles is a cleric going to be able to do their max turning (assuming, of course, that they even succeed at hitting the enemies). Furthermore, the chart for the ability also states which level of Undead you can turn based on your own level. The enemies are ALSO only turned in order of weakest to strongest. So say you have six undead, and a level six cleric Turns them. Well, that Cleric rolls low, only a three. Not only does that Cleric only turn the three zombies, that means that the Cleric has now drawn the attention of the remaining three vampires, or whatever. That's nothing to sneeze at!

When you get right down to it, as far as I can tell the complaint about Turn Undead essentially equates to this: 'Players have the ability to surprise the DM with this skill, and can alter the course of the game. I don't feel like they should be able to do so so easily.'

As a DM, and having heard from other DMs, I can honestly say that the best moments in running a game ARE when the players surprise you. It can be kind of boring to be stuck playing arbiter otherwise. Moments where the players do unusually well or hilariously poorly are the moments that everyone remembers about their games, DM and player alike. Trying to take that out of the realm of possibility sounds like anything but fun.

Anyway. Oof, I'm extremely tired today and I'm not precisely certain why.
dev_chieftain: (Devpony)
What a weekend! Let's see if I can remember it all.

Friday - So right after work, I headed on over to Derek's place Friday for the first session of Dustin's Pathfinder game. We were still getting some details worked out, including names for some of the characters.

Here's the play by play: )

Saturday - We were determined to go see John Carter of Mars, and we did! It was great fun and I totally recommend it to anybody who has the cash on hand to go see a movie, and the desire to have a good time.

My background is that I'd read one of the books many years ago, but forgotten the title for a while. )

I definitely want to recommend this movie as highly as possible to as many people as possible. I'll give you a spoilery list of reasons why if you want; but here I'm just trying to get people who might not have been thinking about it to give the film a go. Take it from me, I really don't like going to the movie theater lately. Being forced to sit with other people just doesn't appeal! But I was happy to go to the theater for this film, and didn't even mind paying 10$ to see it. It's fun, actiony, and it's got heart. If you like adventure, give it a shot!

Additionally, if you'd like to read these books and don't want to head down to your local library, Edgar Rice Burroughs's books are available on Project Gutenberg (even in ebook format, it looks like, for those who don't like reading the .html on their computer screen):

A Princess of Mars

The Gods of Mars

Warlord of Mars

Sunday - A lazy day; we had acquired the night before a copy of Ralph Bakshi's Wizards, as much because Danny was curious as for any other reason. We watched it after we'd been to the grocery store, and dissected it as thoroughly as we could.

Wizards I would not recommend, unless you are an enthusiast of animation and want to see something a little weird and unusual. Unlike Thief and the Cobbler, it's not much to look at. Bakshi's budget was low and to some degree, I think he liked the look of certain things that to me just look weird. What I had supposed was half-finished rotoscoping in his Lord of the Rings movies was apparently part of the completed project that is Wizards; the movement of the characters has a certain weirdness that sometimes you can point at and say 'I see what he's going for here' and sometimes you can watch and go 'what the hell is the internal structure of this thing, and how is it even moving?'

Seriously, the film was interesting but it dropped the ball on most of the things I found genuinely intriguing about it, and glossed over the good vs. evil thing in that most generic fantasy of ways, which was crappy. )

Anyway, after that, we fetched us a Dustin and settled down to do the most awesome thing ever: a two-person module in basic D&D! Basic's fun because it's easy to roll up a character. The module's about a jousting tournament, so I made a thief who's squire to Dustin's awesome fighter. They are:

Dame Francesca Varnell, the elderly errant knight and proponent of good and just conduct. She much enjoys adventure, and helping others. She has a streak of gray but is otherwise quite vigorous and looks to be in great shape for her age.

And her squire is Farin "Whistler" Attar (whom the lady Varnell calls 'Adder', naturally, mispronouncing his last name). A young would-be thief, he has somehow ended up serving as the Lady's squire and follows her around. He is missing one of his front teeth and has a knife scar along his left cheek. Aside from being scruffy and somewhat scrawny, he is otherwise unremarkable in appearance.

We had a raucous good time together! Having received a mysterious invitation to the castle of the Black Knight, Dame Varnell seized on the opportunity to investigate the place. She had good reason to want to look, as a local maiden named Gertie had been recently kidnapped in a raid presumably by the Black Knight, and taken to his castle.

As soon as we entered the castle, the drawbridge began to rise, effectively trapping us within the keep. Whistler, leading Dame Varnell's horse, grew nervous.

Whistler: Are you sure this is a good idea, Lady Varnell? Because I don't think we're gonna be able to get out of here!
Dame Varnell: Oh, well, it would do us no good to leave before we've located Gertrude, Attar, you know that.
Whistler: But the gate--!
Dame Varnell: It's almost certainly a trap, after all.
Whistler: Why couldn't you have said that before we got here?
Dame Varnell: Don't be ridiculous! We must take care of Gertrude, in any case.
Whistler: You know, there's a reason nobody else wants to find her. She's mean.
Dame Varnell: Attar! That's no way to speak about a lady.

I will write up a bunch more, but for now there's work to do. Suffice it to say, we had a blast!

Edit: Hey! A more uplifting article about handling internet arguments in a way that turns them back into discussions. Very nice piece!
dev_chieftain: (simon belmont)
Here is an article that everyone should read.

What is it about: Healthcare, family planning (that is to say, being allowed to plan your family instead of forced to allow someone else to do as they like), maternal mortality (that is, death because of pregnancy or attempted illegal abortions during pregnancy).

What is the TL;DR of this article?: Numbers prove that, like prohibition, anti-abortion activists are only putting us at risk by suggesting that abortion be stopped. In countries where abortion is legal, it is less common. In countries where it is not, it is often the only option for women who are denied access to contraceptives.

What is the secondary TL;DR?: Women cannot be given equal standing in a society that denies them the right to control how many children they have, and when they have them.

So make it up to me, now I'm kind of depressed about how shitty things are for women internationally!: I'm planning for a short Steampunk London (yes yes it's cliche, blah blah) game, and I need to decide on some Details!

1.) The game will be short enough that I plan to do a short comic of each session's events for the players to refer to. Should this comic be:

a) In color?
b) A specific length (short or long?)
c) available on just the journal(s), or also DeviantArt?

2.) The game will be a sandbox (In essence: A fully designed setting with all the NPCs, treasure, what not I expect could possibly come up already planned; I will give the players the map of London, the low-down, and they will decide what THEY want to do without any This is Your Mission nonsense from me. It is meant to be a silly, fun game). Should I...

a) Make the map a little like a pop-up book?
b) Make the map just flat, with tokens or whatever on top of it?
c) Give only a description, not the map, and let the players make their own map?

3.) Finally, if you'd like to contribute to the setting a little, comment with a person, place, or thing you think would be awesome to find in AU, Magic-is-Real! Steampunk London, and I will work it in!

Edit: Man, does anybody else hate cutesy speak with a passion? Sometimes I read internet stuff and I wonder if I'm alone in that. (From porn that talks of a woman's "clitty" to fandom squeeing over predictable 'ambiguously' gay nicknames in anime to discussion of Game of Thrones' end and whining about the 'cliffy' lasting forever...seriously, what? Am I weird for thinking this is, well, weird?)
dev_chieftain: (ColdHardCash)
Earlier, Danny mentioned to me that Zak S of playing D&D with porn stars had posted in response to a poorly drawn, sexist comic marginalizing gamer girls as either fake (sexy gamer girls) or disgusting (smelly gamer girls obsessed with their games; ie, the lady nerd). Unrelated to my feelings on the comic in question (which summarily end at 'Oh, stereotyping. You know nothing, but you think you know everything!'), this got me to thinking about the Golarion RPG setting, past games I've played with the guys, and the way female characters get portrayed in general.

I recently made a footnote to a post explaining why I rarely play female characters in tabletop. The ugly reason is: I feel more comfortable playing dudes. I'm a lady myself, but I like the challenge of playing a dude. Am I buying into the social fallacy that unless I'm a dude I can have no agency? Maybe, which is what bugs me. So, I'm making the effort to play girls in upcoming games (Scarpur, the foul-tempered lady kobold; and then Aigua, the whimsical adventuring lady monk) who are specifically not the genre standard. They're not ugly, but they're not pretty. They're not young. I play old guys, why not play old girls? I figure I need to make an effort to change that, because I have a problem with it, which means I have a problem with me.

But I'm not the only one who has trouble portraying non-standard girls! So I think about it a lot. For example, let's talk about Golarion. I think the setting is pretty awesome. It's based around science and pseudoscience, with liberal borrowing from awesome speculative thought in the late 1800's and early 1900's; there's all sorts of neato nations and histories in the setting. I bought setting books for Pathfinder before the game was even out because I was curious about it.

There are also NPCs in this setting, with plot hooks just begging to be used. Danny recently started reading up on Golarion (which is awesome) and was telling me about some of the stuff he'd read last night, including an NPC with a very interesting backstory. She was brought back as an undead leader for a region, meant to control it; however, her organs were removed before she was revived, and anyone who's holding one of her organs can control her. Pretty creepy and awesome, right? Nothing about this is gender specific.

Oh, but also, she was a prostitute before she died.

Now it's certainly not Danny's fault, and I wouldn't be surprised if he just omitted that detail anyway, should he decide to run in Golarion and use this character, but really? She was brought back to life to run nations and she couldn't have been...a thief who was murdered for stealing? A mercenary who people respected and revered? A political leader? A poor farmer? A nobody seamstress or something? She's a prostitute. Really.

This is the first place that female NPCs get dragged, in a lot of situations, and it's not always the same people calling the shots, but it's treated like an acceptable job function that is just a natural part of being female by a lot of people in the tabletop world, and I don't really like it. If you say 'okay, so where are the male prostitutes?', most people laugh and think you're joking. Or hey, if you were to play a male prostitute, you'd still be a joke character by their definition, even if you played it seriously. Because men don't get defaulted to prostitution. Apparently, women don't come with marketable skills beyond 'sex for cash'. Men do, but women don't.

And that is bullshit.

I can think of plenty of situations where this has come up in games where I was playing alongside someone who thought it was totally reasonable to want to play a lady prostitute. Did it ever occur to them that they could have played a lady...something else? Or a male prostitute once in a while to even things out? I don't know. I assume that they didn't know or mean any harm because in most cases these are people I consider to be my friends and companions. I like them.

The one time I did play in a game with someone playing a male prostitute, he was a cat-boy ex-sex-slave, and he was played by a fellow lady at the table. He also was in a homoerotic relationship with the male leader of the party; that game was silly and fun, and I have really fond memories of it.

In a one-shot Vampire game, one of our players played a "business woman" Malkavian vampire who used her talents to make herself look sexy and human so she could fuck her way to the top. On top of this, she was subject to the Malkavian problem "generally clinically insane", so she wore a business suit but was actually just a prostitute who didn't know it.

In another game, one player who we ended up not inviting to the game wanted to play a Pathfinder Gnome lady. Except, he wanted her to be a prostitute after having been The Shit in her hometown (where here, 'The Shit' means 'Original Character Fiction levels of awesome'). Why? Because when she left her hometown, she left behind her fabulous wealth and friends, and needed to make money and get by somehow, so she fell back on her "talents". (For the record, one of the reasons he was not included in the game proper was this bad character concept; but it wasn't the only reason.)

In yet another game, the same player with the gnome decided he wanted to play a young woman who was extremely sexualized. He regularly informed us that his character had scratches all over again from having wild sex with her werewolf boyfriend, who was still in werewolf form when they did it. The worst of this character showed up when, during a dream sequence where we had to awaken to our true identities from pseudo-selves the dream had assigned us based on what it thought would make us happy, he informed us that his now-schoolgirl character 'just fucked the teachers when they called her to task at school' in the dream. When called on this, he informed us that he did so because that was just how girls get through high school. You can imagine how awkward it was for us all to be at the table with that statement hanging in the air.

I wish I could say that this player was always a jerk and write him off, but he is only this bad sometimes, and he does have other problems that exacerbate his issues. One of them, as you might imagine, is misogyny. As my friend, I do want to defend him, and to believe that he can improve. I know he's been better lately; in the current game he has even gracefully accepted being transformed (by accident!) into an ogre woman without making any nasty remarks. Still, as a woman, I'd like to see more positive female characters in tabletop, not less. These are all examples of players who I still play with by my own volition, so what I'm saying is, these aren't the worst: these are just 'the bad'. This idea that women, at the base of 'what do women do to get by', are prostitutes, bothers me a lot. Not least of all because I like sex, and think that liking sex shouldn't be something people consider remarkable anymore than they consider liking special kinds of foods remarkable.

So lady characters in general. I'm trying to take myself to task over playing male characters most of the time. For example, here's every female character I've ever actually played.

I started with Liz. She was stupid, but not sexualized. The joke was, she had once been a dog, but a magical accident turned her into a half human. She hated that, and wanted to become a dog again, to go back to when life had been simpler. The caveat was, she could only become more human and smarter.

Several years later, there was Mirzam. Finally, another girl! Mirzam was a young magician and favored daughter of a horsebreeding family in the Anima setting, with adoration for her stunted-growth friend Ariadne and her heart in the right place. How can I best describe Mirzam? She barely had any character at all. She was air-headed, and an air-themed magician. Literally.

Then Matachin. Matachin was a rude elf-druid from Sigil who didn't bathe and talked a foul streak a mile wide. Oh, and a pathological liar. The game was so short I unfortunately didn't have time to do much else with her.

Most recently, there was Sri, an ex-sailor turned slave Barbarian who was bought as a bodyguard by another PC at the start of the game, and ended up constantly bossing her mistress around. Sri was the oldest member of the party at thirty, and not particularly remarkable for her physical appearance. I feel like she was a step in the right direction for me with female character variety.

Now, I don't want to seem like I'm saying it's bad to play characters that are sexual ladies. Would it have been okay to be porny with these characters? Totally, yes. There's no reason I couldn't get porny about ANY of my characters. Even the old men. Or the weird little gnome things. Or my old lady kobold. Hawt hawt kobold on kobold action!

So long as it actually made sense for the character, I would be willing to mention their sexual proclivities and even have them come up. The whys and hows are simple: It's fun to play a guy or girl who sees a sexy vision, and totally falls for it. A large percentage of the monsters in D&D, for example, figure heavily around "seduce people to trick them: now eat them". Thus, should sexy funtimes be mentioned in D&D? Sure, if you and your players are comfortable with it. I just want to see sexy funtimes be an option, not an assumption, for what's part and parcel with a lady character. I'd like to think that a lot of folks out there agree.

Edit: Associated icon for this post now 15% more appropriate?
dev_chieftain: (tyrion)
Nervous about the test drive tonight. I want to walk in, find that the car is exactly what I was expecting, that the price has not skyrocketed, that the trade-in value of my old car is enough to knock out the cost of the warranty over BBV so there won't be issues with my loan-- basically, if everything goes well, I want to walk out of the dealership owning a new car that drives well, safely, efficiently, reliably. There's not really any good reason this shouldn't happen, but I worry anyway.

D&D last night was excellent, including such highlights as fighting a black pudding with a green slime! I'm behind on the summary, I know, but this car-buying nonsense has sort of gotten in the way of doing anything but worry about it for a few days. In the meantime, here's how the black pudding troubles went down:

[Llewain opens a secret door. Behind it is a massive black ooze! We shut it quickly, and Esra desperately tries to remember details about such creatures.]

Esra: Wait. Wait! I think-- creatures like that are known to dissolve metal, not just people. You shouldn't attack it with anything made of metal unless you want to lose it, and your armor--
Llewain: I've maces made of stone, then!
Denar (who has become Kelta, long story): Yes, and my weapon is made of shell.
Sabine: Well shiiiit.
[Llewain throws open the secret door again]
Llewain: Foul ooze! [he strikes it with a stone mace]
[It splits into two oozes.]
Esra: Oh, dear. Let's see if we can't stop this here.
[He polymorphs one of the two oozes into a canary, which then flies away. Sabine strikes the other. It splits.]
Iris: Confound it, Sabine!
Sabine: [innocently] What?

[Eventually we give up and run back out. We discover, down a not-secret corridor, a room of green slime, which is clinging to the ceiling.]

Llewain: Wait. I have an idea. The fire didn't kill the black ooze from before, but we've seen this slime at work before; anything it consumes is turned into more of it.
Esra: Oh! And as Sabine demonstrated for us before, that sort of slime is quite flammable.
Llewain: Exactly. You all hide down in the interment room, and I'll lead the black ooze into the green slime. On the far side of the room I'll leap through the door and once they've been consumed you can set alight the slime and it will be safe to cross.
Iris: ...Well, if you're sure.
Llewain: It ate my armor and I'm in tattered rags, I think I'm the best candidate.
Esra: About that-- [he unties his yellow sash] Here you go, if you like.
Llewain: Oh, thanks. [He ties it thoroughly as underpants.]
(Danny: And later Esra will be all *snifffffff* Mmm, Llewain
Dev: Pfft! No! You mean Asha. Esra will be like 'no thanks, you can keep it, I have more where that came from'!)
dev_chieftain: (chuckle)
I'm nervously excited about test driving what might be my new car tomorrow, and also, you know, fidgeting about trading in my old one, which I might be able to offer as a down payment to keep from having to dip into my checking account. That would be good, since, uh, since rent hasn't come out for the month yet, and I won't get paid till end of next week. But, well, it'll be okay. Hopefully. Probably.

Pfft, Dev, nobody cares about your fandom endeavors. )

CLAIRE is trading cute emails with a cute BOY and I am a meddlesome lout so that makes me all cheeky and excited for her. Hurrah! And also, D&D is tonight. I have the summary in progress, but have had such a ludicrously small amount of free time to write lately that it hasn't quite caught up to the end of stuff we did last week.

Last night we did the first session of the module where I'm playing the kobold druid, Scarpur; Danny is a crazy mohawked dwarf lady with filed teeth who is a cleric of...Talos?, while Derek is a half-orc who worships the Silver Light and tries to pass as human; Christian and this fellow named Dyrr are both Thri-kreen, while Greg is a Tiefling wizard, so we have a pretty weird party for it. What did we do? Well, we sassed gods, then got put in a boat in the middle of chaos and beat up some ghouls and demons. I was exhausted, having come straight from work, but it was fun!

Tonight shall be even more fun! Nothing against the module, but it is only a module. And nothing against Derek's house, but I have to admit being back in a "coffee table for D&D" situation made me want to cry a little. I do not love coffee tables too much. They're way less awesome than dining tables!
dev_chieftain: (Default)
1. Danny's brother noted him yesterday asking him for advice about DMing D&D, which was just about the coolest thing ever. I know it might not seem like much to those of you who yawn and roll your eyes whenever I talk about D&D, but it's pretty damn awesome to have someone who's just getting into tabletop say to you, personally, "Oh my gosh...this game is really cool! Please teach me everything you can about it!" I've gotten that feeling a couple of times when DMing for events at the local gamestore, and it is a VERY warm fuzzy feeling. This is so cool!

2. Dustin's going to be running a pathfinder game on Fridays, so I'm trying to decide what kind of character to play. The setting is a floating-islands-over-ravaged-planet type, with a central goddess that people never really see, but frequently worship; the floating islands were created by mages to save life, since they're higher than the endlessly hungry monsters that ate the world beneath.

Here are what I'm considering playing:

Gnome Bard - Mahi

Description: Extremely dark complexion; dark eyes, and blue-and-indigo hair. She is whimsical in her choice of speech, often rhyming intentionally or being alliterative more than one is naturally inclined to do.

Sea-Singer! (Sort of)

Obsessed with the written and spoken word. Her prized possessions are dictionaries, quills, ink, the accoutrements of writing. She is not the kind of bard who always sings, but she is totally the kind of bard who has limerick-offs with anyone who dares challenge her. Bookmaking, from tanning the hide for the cover to writing the contents of the book in question, is her deepest passion. She loves writing down everything-- even the things people would rather she didn't-- in her books. Prior to her current obsession, Mahi was into rapier-fighting, and she still duels with people regularly for sport (though not to kill). She has no concept of ownership over anything except books-- she would never take someone's books, or tools to make them, without asking or paying first. However, to her food, clothes, houses, money, horses, whatever-- that's all pretty much free for all. Mahi would probably be chaotic good. Possibly chaotic neutral in some situations.

She has long experience traveling. She is likely to abandon a ship if it lingers in the same place for too long.

Human Monk - Aigua

Description: Dark-haired, with sea-green eyes and a darker complexion. She is stocky and muscular, tanned from many years' travel, but not notably short or tall for a human. Friendly, with a tendency to be loud and rambunctious.

Monk of the Empty Hand!

Once a palace guard for royalty, Aigua used to serve as a matter of course, loyally, faithfully, until one day she was inexplicably called to trial for plotting the assassination of the very people she protected. Through her farce of a trial, she was able to see that she had been selected to avert suspicions from a nobleman of the house that was seeking to perform the very assassination she was now taking blame for. She was unable to convince the nobility of her innocence, stripped of her rank, armor and weapons, and cast into prison for several years. The assassination later occurred as the woman orchestrating it had planned, and, gloating, that woman came to taunt Aigua in her cell.

She released Aigua, as apology for using her in the plot to create greater trust between herself and the now-dead lady-warrior that had previously headed the house. Aigua made an attempt to kill her, but years of imprisonment had made her weak, and her opponent was a Witch. Amused by the attempt, she decided to curse Aigua with silence, put upon her a charm that forced her to serve whomever should hold the accompanying charm, and sent her as a house servant to a political ally. Aigua was thus forced to serve around the house of an innocent, but somewhat airheaded gentleman on a faraway island for some years.

By chance, the gentleman for whom Aigua worked befriended a wizard who, unfamiliar with woman of her complexion, considered her very beautiful. After detecting the spells upon her, he offered to remove them in exchange for her romantic affections. She refused, repulsed by the offer, but they became friends because of it, when he realized that she was quite capable of reading and writing, and could communicate with him in that way. She related her story to him, revealing the foul play of the woman who'd sold her to the man for whom she currently worked, and he brought the woman to justice with the power of the ruling nobility that backed him. When they offered to remove her curses as payment for her service in bringing the woman to justice, she agreed.

Having befriended the wizard, and having no particular ill-will to her erstwhile Lord of the house, she began to travel with the wizard. Reclaiming the full use of her voice took a lot of practice, but having been forcibly silenced for so long, she had quite a bit to say. The wizard's ultimately lawful intentions made him dear to her as a close friend, and they policed the land as best they could together, seeking out injustice or duplicity and exposing it. Though she'd once worn armor and fought with a sword, she abstained from returning to the use of them, abhoring weaponry in favor of simply using whatever came to hand.

After many years of successfully working with her friend, they parted ways, partially because she wished to keep traveling and he to settle down, and partially because they did not see eye to eye on what justice or law meant.

I kind of have a half-baked idea that the party is a bunch of airship pirates and they decided to pillage a town she happened to be in, picked her up among the rest of the people and stuff they were stealing, and then she just Could Not Be Bothered With This Shit and decided to join their crew. They were so surprised they didn't stop her.

Personality wise she probably seems much more cheerful / loud / thoughtless than she actually is, and then drops into Okay, Now We Talk Quietly and Seriously when necessary.

Alchemist Dwarf- Vode

Description: Gray-brown haired, with dark eyes and fairly pale complexion. Not many freckles. Slender, with a tendency to frown and a dour demeanor.

Not much for exploration at all, given the choice. Vode grew up in the thick of a big city, working for the guard. She comes from a long line of Dwarven guardsfolk, but her own interests proved to be more scholarly than battle-driven. Where she and her family met and could agree, however, was alchemy: the service of providing the guard cover in battle through the use of bombs. While her favorite uses of alchemical works are extracts and mutagens, she learned to make bombs as well so that she'd get along better with her family.

Vode is completely out of her element on airships, preferring to stay within bustling city streets whenever possible. (Of course, bustling city streets and cities in general want little to do with alchemists unless they're helping the guard to fight off invaders and pirates and all.) She is wily and streetsmart, a fast-talker and deeply fond of games of chance.

Why did Vode join the party? She owed a massive gambling debt and so came aboard the ship to earn enough to pay the debt off. If she doesn't succeed in a year's time, they've threatened to harm her family (children? siblings?).

(If children probably should detail how that happened.)

Cavalier Halfling OR Dwarf - Tanli

Description: Dark complexion, black hair, long and smooth, with gray eyes and a tendency to smirk.

Order of the cockatrice Cavalier

Tanli grew up knowing she was skilled and wanting to show the world that this was so. She always worked extra hard to impress her teachers-- both her parents, who trained her in the arts of battle and strategy, and her masters, who then taught her the arts of history, etiquette, and chivalry. As the only daughter of a family of lowly guardsfolk, who worked around the town doing nice stuff for free and as often as not having trouble managing to put food on the table, Tanli was expected to join the town guard and likely follow in their footsteps. This was not good enough for Tanli, who felt that not only her parents but her entire home village deserved better in life-- as well as herself.

She set out to become famous, and bring back such wealth that people would come from far and wide to see the incredible artistry and beauty of her home. She set out to accomplish as many deeds of notoriety as possible, doing such things as snatching an arrow out of the air to save the life of a kindly priest of the Goddess; rescuing sailors who were falling into the depths of the world from an attacked airship; altering the course of another airship that nearly crashed into an unoccupied, barren floating island in midst of a storm; and other such deeds of bravery. (Indeed, Tanli is not known for challenging people to battle very often, it seems.)

She makes a point of offering her services to anyone who seems to need them, and while she always requires payment, she is never unfair about it. She carefully maintains her image as one who is noble, willing to right wrongs, and is deserving of reward. She may hope to someday serve the Goddess directly.

I mostly thought this would be fun because the idea of playing a dwarf or halfling cavalier sounded too cool to pass up. Dwarf works for the serious, Justice! side, but Halfling works for the ridiculously nice, I'm Super Friendly! side.

I might be willing to go another route than order of the Cockatrice, but I kind of like it. Order of the dragon is probably the best for the party though, so whatever.

Mounts: Either a wyvern or a kirin?

A wyvern mount might be kind of hard to explain, but I like the idea of Tanli having rescued the wyvern's nest of eggs or something from certain destruction, and the wyvern then choosing to befriend her as thanks. (Or something). A kirin is really easy to explain-- young kirin are specifically hotheaded enough to go around helping out cavaliers-- but it's up to Dustin whether either of those is ok.

If he says no, I'm pretty sure I want to ride a Giant Frog with a flying saddle on, since we'll be on an airship as far as I know. I don't know if there's such a thing as a flying saddle, but if there isn't, and my mount can't fly, I'd like to make one up. Giant Frogs are like the best mounts ever. Ribbit!


3. And most importantly, D&D is tonight! So here's what I'd already written up of last week's summary:

It's pretty long though! )

Module Tonite!

Monday, February 27th, 2012 04:24 pm
dev_chieftain: (Default)
I'm stupid excited for this because I'll be playing a Druid in 4E, which is the only place I've played a druid before, but means I know I enjoy the gameplay as well as the roleplay side (assuming there's anything to roleplay).

Edited: Okay!

So I made a kobold druid named Scarpur, who's from the Dark Sun setting and hates so-called divine beings because they abandoned her planet. She's in her sixties and, well, let's just say she'll be scampering all over the battlefield, even if it doesn't do her a lick of good. Hurray!

In less awesome news, I seem to have a runny nose and feel a little weird. Hopefully I just need to sleep. I did end up taking my hair down because the bobby pins and tight braids were giving me the itchiest headache ever. So, now I have kinky hair like some kind of 80's thing.
dev_chieftain: (risha)
D&D was excellent last night! Dustin made me a Wild Tiger mask for Valentine's Day, because he is awesome (or just enjoys seeing me geek out) so I dutifully wore it for the whole session, except when it got too warm.

I never finished last week's summary, so here's the short version: once we'd awakened from the dream, the party was torn on what to do. We investigated Hektos to see if he'd caused the dream, and found that he'd awakened after we escaped through our own means to a mysterious explosion in the dream that was so violent said dream had ended; Sabine, Denar and Llewain questioned where Xenocrates had gotten his 'reagent' that he'd planned to use to enhance his spell, and what it was. On being told that it had to be freshly-dead brains and he'd gotten them at the night bazaar, they grew thoroughly fed up with him and told him to shut up while he was in midst of explaining how he'd learned to enhance the ESP spell from an old woman. We then proceeded to investigate said bazaar. There, we all encountered some problems-- a) that nobody decided to disguise themselves, and b) that nobody actually had any plans of what to ask the merchant when we found him-- which left us floundering for a moment. The merchant would not say exactly where he got his wares, simply that he sold the pieces of the body for smaller prices and the whole body for ten gold pieces if the party was interested. Unwilling to make such a purchase unless it were absolutely necessary (and in Iris's case, at the very least, disturbed by the idea of making such a purchase at all), the party broke away from his stall and discussed what to do. We were all agreed that Maligos, whom we suspected had been disguised as a woman in the dream realm and might come to attack us, must be found and at the very least talked with, if not stopped; we were also agreed that we wanted to look into the ritualistic murders we'd heard about before.

However, since we could not re-enter the dream realm and had no means of determining where Maligos might be physically, Esra decided to go talk to Xenocrates and find out more about the old woman he'd mentioned, since 'enhanced ESP spell' had been mentioned in the same breath as 'she was a master of dream magics'. Meanwhile, the rest of the party wandered the night, trying to look like appealing targets and lure out an ambush that we thought might be waiting for us. (I suppose 'tried' is debatable. No one divested themselves of their armor/vestments or feigned drunkenness, for example, haha!)

Esra did talk to Xenocrates, who was pouting, and tried to soothe his ruffled feathers and reassure him that he was totally awesome while asking after the old woman. Xenocrates explained that her name was Red Alexandra, and she might be able to teach the group how to control their dreams to protect themselves. He also said he could probably find her place again, provided she hadn't moved in the two years since he'd last seen her. Xenocrates also professed concern about Kristoffer, the mage who we took on some time back after changing him back from the ferret he'd been trapped as. Esra, who'd completely forgotten about poor Kris, agreed that he'd have to look into that sometime and then promptly forgot again-- once the night was over, we provisioned the ship over the next couple of days and then set sail for Lyn and Red Alexandra!

Last night picked up while we were at sea, heading towards the central island of Lyn. Shortly into our voyage, we caught sight of a ship approaching us, with a white sail. (We briefly discussed which flag we were flying at the moment, and decided that the Lyn flag was safest since we were headed there. As usual, we apparently are keeping one of each nation's flag.) When the ship got in range for us to see more clearly, we could make out first that the white flag was decorated with a crossed out Jolly Roger, and second that their crew was standing at the ready to board us, swinging grappling hooks on ropes in preparation. Between Sabine and Denar's cajoling, and his own agitation, Esra used the scroll of fireball that Sabine had insisted on getting, and set the ship's sails on fire, killing several of their crew instantly and making it possible, as we watched their mast collapse and their crew struggling to salvage the ship, to outrun them without having to fight them directly.

Sabine: THAT WAS AWESOME!
Esra: Yes, well, I won't be doing it again. No scroll, you know.
Sabine: Why don't you know that spell?
Esra: It's barbaric!
Iris: Um, yes, you did just set five people on fire.
Denar: They could have been innocents, why'd you do that?
Esra: Innocents do not stand around clearly trying to engage in combat and board our ship!
Llewain: But they were antipirates. Their flag said so.

[We then have a long side discussion about whether anti-pirates would explode on contact with Sabine; then on whether antimatter and matter could possibly react in as volatile a fashion as suggested by Captain Harlock; then on why Voyager is so bad, and has such scenes as jettisoning plasma and then "igniting" it with their phasers, which Bret likened to setting water on ice. It is suggested that perhaps it is blood plasma like the kind he works with, and joked that oh yes, THAT is actually quite flammable! Bret sets us to rights with his phlebotomy: Oh, no, that stuff is like 90% water.]

We sailed without further incident for some time, but at one point late in the third night of travel, Sabine noticed a mist gathering around the ship, and a strange, unearthly seeming light. It manifested into the figure of a woman, who croaked "Turn back! Danger!" when Sabine tried to speak with her. Ringing the bell to alert the others-- who were primping (Iris), cleaning up the magic lab (Esra) and consulting the seacharts (Llewain) respectively. Denar, who had been on deck the whole time, simply melted out of the shadows in his customary rangery way.

We could get no more out of the old woman than Sabine had; while Denar and Llewain were unmoved by the warning and Sabine laughed at the superstitious nature of it, Esra and Iris wondered if it would be possible to chart a course that turned them back, considering the mist dimming the stars. Ultimately, it was decided they'd just go forward, so everyone went below deck who'd been there and slept a while, while Sabine continued to steer the ship.

Until a chill went down her spine, and she wrenched the ship hard to port, narrowly evading a giant, quivering, slick black mass-- an enormous squid!

The squid latched on to the ship and began attacking it, while Sabine rang the alarm and the group groggily returned to deck, buckling on armor and supplies, nursing bruises from being thrown from their beds (or knocked over where they stood) when Sabine pulled port. She pointed out the beast off the starboard bow and the group tried to figure out what to do, even as the slimy monster's huge tentacles descended on the ship.

Sabine began hacking tentacles off at the tips, while Denar and Llewain both stabbed the tentacles nearest them through. Esra pulled free the wand of lightning we'd recently acquired, while debating the merit of equipping Sabine with the rings of free action and gills so she could fight the sea monster beneath the waves. Ultimately he decided against it, calling lightning through the rod and into the monster in a sharp bolt.

Between getting stabbed, hacked at and shot, it was not happy. So it started grabbing us all up in chokeholds with its slimy tentacles and started trying to crack us open! We kept barely managing to struggle free, then being grabbed again, so Esra gave up struggling when he was caught the second time, and, with his one free hand, kept striking the monster with the lightning wand. Iris healed herself just in case, while Denar and Llewain struggled free again, and Sabine tried to hack Esra free. You see, it's reasonable to note that while still in the squid's grip, everyone thus immobilized was being hit by Esra's crazy attacks. Still bound, even though he was just shy of passing out, he activated the wand again, blasting the monster as hard as he could and, by extension, himself and Iris. Iris stayed up, but Esra passed out-- just in time, because so did the squid. Victorious, we continued to sail away, but realized we were taking on water. So once Iris had reawakened Esra, we asked Albert and Jacques to help repair the ship. The next few days of travel were spent in recovery, resting up on part of the party and fixing the ship on part of our darling NPCs.

Along the way, Xenocrates wondered where Glorya had gone, and Esra went to ask Slasher if she'd seen him. She explained that he'd left a couple of ports ago, citing "irreconcilable differences", which made Esra wonder what'd caused them. Slasher professed that she totally liked Esra more than Glorya anyway and he could be her new friend!

Esra: *returning to the bridge* Apparently, Glorya left the ship a couple of weeks ago, possibly more. Troublesome, really.
Sabine: Why?
Esra: Slasher says he had 'irreconcilable differences' with someone?
Xenocrates: I just wondered where he was because I hadn't seen him in a few days. Well, weeks, I suppose.
Denar: *drily* I wonder who he had differences with.
Iris: Indeed.

In any case, Xenocrates guided us faithfully to the town of Ular, while relating that he is actually from Portsmouth and has a wife and children there, from whom he is estranged (for whatever reason). As we were docking he also explained that Red Alexandra lived a couple of days' travel inland from Ular on foot, and that she lives in what he thinks of as a crossbow hut-- you know, a hut where all approaching strangers are shot by the owner with a crossbow.

More later!

Partial summary!

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012 08:12 am
dev_chieftain: (ColdHardCash)
Oh man you guys! First of course we were full of excitement and nonsense because we were out of town and had missed the guys since there was no D&D last week. We also received likely accurate accusations of forgetting to tell Christian and Jason about the fact that we were going to be out of town for a week, since neither of them had remembered. Last tuesday, I got a text something like this:

Christian: Your concubine is not responding! Is there D&D tonight?
Dev: No, fool, we're in Florida!
Christian: Why? there's nothing in Florida
Dev: Disneyworld, haha!
Christian: Pffft, who cares about Disneyworld?

In any case! We'd last left off, as you may know, trying to figure out how to interact with the dream realm, but planning to make our decision about whether we should investigate the ritual murders happening in Nys, the mysterious tiny girl Lily, or just pack up and head off to Hurdu straightaway. We decided we'd wait until morning and went to sleep, apparently, which means that we then entered a shared dream.

The background to this is, Christian challenged Danny to base a session around "sk8terboi", because we already did Hotel California and Piano Man in recent memory, so Danny did. Thus, in the dream, time jumped around, showing us at the inn, then the boat, then Libra for some festival of young love where Hektos, Iris's goofy gawkish bagboy, tried to give her a lily to show his affection for her. In the cutscene she wanted desperately to accept the token but felt our disapproving stares (apparently) and rejected it. Time leapt forward again, and apparently everyone except Llewain and Iris had been killed by the dragon of Hurdu; Llewain had left her after fathering her daughter, which Iris had, in fit of pique, evidently chosen to name Sabine. (This was a source of amusement for Christian for...well, the rest of the night, to be quite honest, haha!)

Now we were all Iris's "friends" in her post retirement-- Bret was Erika, her freckled but kind of boyish 20-year old friend; Jason was Chloe, Erika's 16-year old younger sister; I was Delia, her 26-year old somewhat-matronly friend still in the church; and Christian was Kassandra, the way hotter than Iris chick who constantly teased Iris for being pudgy, frumpy, and otherwise less full of sex appeal than she was. Iris was herself, but the dream didn't seem to belong to her, as we were all focused on the fact that Hektos was in town and performing soon, apparently. Iris had not purchased a ticket, but I had two so I gave her one of mine.

"Delia": I have two! You can have one of mine?
Iris: Oh, thank you. But why did you purchase two tickets? Surely you meant this for someone else?
"Delia": Oh, um, yes! I had bought it for my brother, who just tragically passed away, tragically, from a horrible, horrible illness!
"Kassandra": When was this?
"Delia": Oh, just yesterday! Perhaps you'd better take both of my tickets, actually, so that I may mourn and weep for his loss!
Iris: ...huh?
"Delia": I bought two because I knew you'd forget, moron, let's go to the concert.

BUT first there was a montage of us cattily giving Iris a makeover and getting her a sexy dress for the concert (not, of course, that 'Kassandra' didn't try to sabotage it here and there for laughs). 'Kassandra' did Iris's make-up, and she and 'Delia' helped pick out the dress (a pale green affair that only sort of clashed with her red hair). It's worth noting that Jason was having none of being Chloe, so immediately played Denar realizing that he was in a dream and trying to figure out why he was trapped in the body of a little girl. Bret played Llewain as completely aware of being in a dream, but not particularly bothered by it.

I think Sabine was also aware the whole time, but just likes messing with Iris. I played Esra as realizing when we were on our way to the concert and he noticed he had breasts, since Chloe broke off from the party for a while and it gave Denar and Esra something to grumble about while we were walking to the concert. When separated from the party, however, Llewain and Denar found a studious girl messing with a magic scroll that she let Llewain have, and when Llewain passed it to Esra they discovered it was a scroll of the Sleep spell. Puzzled, they carried it in to the concert performance venue, just as special effects fireballs signaled the start of the show. Denar had also discovered, by asking around, that there was a woman in Hektos's band who the dream identified as a mage. Wondering if this might be Maligos disguised as a woman as his dream-self, they decided they would need to keep an eye on the so-called lute player.

As it turned out, Hektos had aged in the interim, becoming an extremely attractive, well-muscled young man after growing up doing such physically intensive work. Both Esra and Iris were distracted by this fact, though Esra eventually recovered enough to read the sleep spell at Llewain and Denar's encouraging. We didn't know what would happen, exactly, but it seemed wiser than letting the lute-player get the better of us-- so Esra cast the sleep spell upon her. It put her and the rest of the back-up band to sleep, and then water flooded the stage, splashing down over us.

We 'woke up' to find Xenocrates standing over us and Sylvia holding an empty bucket. They professed relief, and Xenocrates explained that he'd been able only to cast the ESP spell upon two of us, instead of all five of us. Llewain related our experiences in direct quotes of the sk8erboi lyrics, which Esra interrupted saying 'could it be any more obvious?', and pointed out that Xenocrates had specifically told us that he only had one more casting of the ESP spell; he postulated that we were not, in fact, awake yet.

Xenocrates began sweating, and Esra (because I got all excited about Total Recall references) pointed at him, saying "He's a fake! Kill him!" Denar lunged to do so and we awoke again, this time to just Sylvia, who explained that Xenocrates had gone to get an ingredient to enhance his single ESP spell in the hopes of casting it upon all five of us at once.

I will continue later but whew! Lots happened!
dev_chieftain: (Devpony)
So, after watching Intermission, I had to add my Clannad album (a best-of collection) to my .mp3 player and have been listening to them again. The sound takes me back to high school, and also to the beach, and sometimes the music just sinks down into my brain and I regret, in that horrible melancholy way where the world could all be right and I'd still regret that I couldn't do everything. But it's also fun to listen to them, and while I probably don't have the Celtic soul noted in Intermission necessary to make me worthy of listening to them, I definitely have to conclude that I like Clannad pretty well.

Getting excited for vacation time as it nears!

But here is D&D summary, since I did not have time before now.

-We met back up in Lunel, where Esra identified the items we'd found before and we doled them out as fit. Llewain came away with a serrated dagger, Sabine with a frosty sword, Esra with a scroll and a wand and a ring of jumping. Denar had the FLAILSNAIL shell made into a rainbow mace that leaves shiny trails. And, he can use it twenty times to sap people's will to resist him, which is pretty impressive even without the glowy rainbow trails. Sabine also gave Esra the scroll of Fireball she'd asked Maligos to draft for her, and he identified that it truly was a fireball spell (Danny noted that it also had definitely been scribed by Maligos).

-We returned to Nys, pursuing Kelisandra and Korad. But we found them in the Greased Goose inn, where questioning, prying, and severe irritation with their deception yielded the information that, in fact, they had been posing as us under Maligos's orders.

-Esra may need to compare the writing on the fireball scroll with the writing on 'Bishop Dinta's secret notes; also, the scene I did the excerpt from earlier happened, as we checked our ship to be sure nothing much had been stolen.

-I'm also remembering some mysterious hooded figure had lunch with Esra waaaaay back at the beginning of the game, where by 'lunch' I mean 'a cup of boiled water, which he or she did not finish.'

-Hmmmmm. But yes: ritual murders have been happening in Nys, as have nightmares, so we figured we'd probably need to resolve that. This may all be connected to Dinta, Maligos, and the fact that anyone was ever interested in the Crown of the Speaker to begin with.

And Dustin kept claiming that we don't want our island unless it's threatened. To which I say no, we're just savoring it, man. Jeeeez. We're taking our time. We're being prepared, that's all. It's ours and we'll go when we're good and ready. ...probably.

We also made terrible jokes, including poop jokes, jokes about "pass womb", the spell that allowed a crazy knife-wielding NPC to escape his mother's belly, and so on. So on track and mature! That's us. :D

and that was D&D

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 01:54 pm
dev_chieftain: (tyrion)
I want to tell you all about D&D last night, but work is super busy today and I am preparing for being out of town next week.

So, the highlight is:

Esra: Maligos's realm is in dreams? Hmm, that's a whole different story...
Denar: He did say you didn't have much he wanted in your lab.
Esra: But he MESSED WITH IT
Xenocrates: I could probably read the mind of someone in the dream realm, and then we might be able to discover what he's doing. Maybe even communicate with him!
Sabine: That's a great idea!
Esra: Yes, I quite agree. Xenocrates, please be sure to save at least one, preferably two ESP spells to learn more about this tonight--
Sabine: You! Sleep now! *PUNCH*
Esra: OW. What was that for?
Sabine: I want you to go to sleep and dream so we can find this guy!
Esra: *clutching his nose and wiping away blood* It doesn't work that way, if you knocked me out I would just be unco--
Sabine: *PUNCH* DREAM!
Esra: OW! *stumbles*
Denar: *mildly* Stop that.
Esra: Could Llewain or someone else please stand between Sabine and myself so she'll stop hitting me?
Sabine: *PUNCH!*
Esra: Aughawfgjkasfh!!! *stumbles AWAY* That's it, let's-- let's go find Sylvia and Lily.
(Christian: How are you still awake?
Dev: I don't know, did you actually damage me enough to knock me out?
Danny: Okay, roll to see if you knock him out.
Christian: Okay!
Danny: Not on the first punch, and roll again--
Christian: Okay?
Danny: Oh, Esra gets knocked out by that. You pass out! And Esra slips into a dreamless sleep for a few minutes.
Christian: Damn it! *laughing*
Dev: I told you! You bully.)
dev_chieftain: (SUBTLE LIKE A NEON-PINK T-REX)
Dear melodramatic "Well I just guess I'm not going to follow the meme to Dreamwidth because it's SO HARD to find my old prompts and fills. *FLOUNCE* GOODBYE" posters on the t-and-b-anon community:

Prove to me that you ever had a fill.

What page is it on on the LJ meme?

Guess what: it's on the exact same page on the DW meme. Yes, really. Yes, you have your fill bookmarked which means you could easily find it again in this way.

How much sympathy do I have for you? Exactly none.

I understand that some people don't want to move to Dreamwidth, and I have no problem with that. But don't try to make out like it's harder to find things on Dreamwidth than it was on livejournal, because it was hard on livejournal, too.

The thing that really makes me roll my eyes, though, is the attempted veiled threat of "hmph! I'm not going to finish my fills!"

Fine, take your ball and go home. The rest of us'll play tag.

SOON TO BE EDITED IN: D&D SUMMARY

NOW PLAYING: D&D SUMMARY

I must open this summary by saying man, Esra, you are just not so great at the planning thing!

So we arrived in the Grand Cathedral, where we had to bully our way in past unimpressed and surly church officials (Esra, feeling pretty badly out of it after traveling for eight hours following our ruckus in Nys; Iris, feeling pretty confused as to why the church is so stubborn about going to bed so early-- it was barely sunset; Sabine and Denar, annoyed that Esra kept talking them out of just killing their way in; Llewain, facepalming and wondering why he's with these crazy people, I'm sure). Eventually we found Bishop Barlowe and warned him about Bishop Dinta.

An aside:

Every single person the party had encountered while we were on the search and asked about the rod had apparently heard of it, and described it exactly as Dinta had, then claimed it did exactly what Dinta said it did. Despite this, Barlowe is the first person to summarize the description of the item, and then tell us "that's the Rod of Cancellation". Nobody thought this, or the previous instances, was strange except for Esra, who can't really fairly judge the religion-and-politics-his-country-recently-trounced-in-a-war without looking like an asshole. Generally he abstains from saying much, beyond muttering about it, but this whole thing is getting a bit ridiculous.

Just once, I wish I could get to play a wizard without having to deal with conspiracy theory plots. There is not a genre I hate more.

End aside, back to summary: So we warn Barlowe about Dinta, and he claims to have found a secret lab in the basement where Dinta was performing cultist rituals to communicate with the evil demon, Orcus (cue like eight hundred jokes about whether that's the god of the orcs, because we are Very Mature in this party, haha), then asks us to go down into the basement and take care of something there. Esra, who was in a bad mood about not going to an inn for the night and catching some sleep, Denar, who was in a bad mood because Barlowe kept insulting us in a misanthropic hates-everyone kind of way, and Sabine, who is just cantankerous, were all pretty leery of doing anything for Barlowe OR the church.

At one point, this happened:

Iris: Well, it would really behoove us to find a new Seeker--
Barlowe: Speaker.
Iris: Speak a new Seeker of Sulafta--
Barlowe: (to Llewain, the only one he liked) Why do you permit the strumpet to speak?!
Esra: (hotly) Because that "strumpet" is the only one of us with any affection in the least for your asinine, backwards church!
Denar: Honestly, calling her a strumpet...
Sabine: She's OUR 'ho
Iris: I guess I'm not a very good public seeker
(Danny: WHAT, hahaha!)
(Dustin: *smirk and nod*)

Anyway: it came down to this. Barlowe wanted us to oust some kind of demon (or wanted us to go into the basement and get killed by it), claimed through lack of evidence and unwillingness to come forth that 'one of the bishops represents both genders as is Sulafta's will', implying 'himself' to be the hermaphrodite in question. Personally, I doubt it, since at this point Sabine's plan of making Llewain the Speaker of Sulafta appeals to me more than letting any existing official have the job-- in fact, I'm not against letting Denar kill them all, because that would be easier than having to determine if they were all working together to try to kill us or not.

After much debate, and irritated discussion about whether we could trust Barlowe or not, we acceded to the request and went down into the basement, where we discovered a demon and two treasure chests-- one all fancy-shmancy encrusted in jewels and one all rank and emitting grossness. Sabine, Llewain, Denar and Iris engaged the demon, while Esra ran up to try to open the rank chest, figuring it might contain the demon's heart. (I'm just going to say right here: I hear "ornately decorated treasure chest in room with demon", the first thing I think is 'shit, we're going to need to catch the deer, then the rabbit inside, then the bird, then smash the diamond at its feet!' because Russian myths are best myths, okay.)

Unfortunately, the rank chest contained dead apprentices, to Esra's horror, and then when he tried the other chest because why the heck not, his hand stuck to it.

The others finished off the demon, while Esra struggled to free himself from the Mimic unsuccessfully, complaining that it was gross. Llewain attacked the beast, but Esra's flailing got him in the way and earned him a couple of daggers in the back, which put him unquestionably on the ground, unconscious and pale as death.

Sabine started hitting the thing with various swords, Denar shot it, and between Llewain, Sabine and Denar's concerted efforts to defeat the sticky gooey monster, it finally collapsed into a puddle, allowing Iris to pull Esra away from it and force a potion of magical healing down his throat. Within the creature lay a small bag coated with runes, in which were hidden a scroll, a ring, a dagger, a sword, and a wand; the party's initial curiosity, which had been Dinta's notes and research-- presumably concealed in a cipher, according to Barlowe-- was collected before they trudged back upstairs, Esra trying to ignore Sabine bullying him (unsuccessfully) while Llewain had to be the Dad.

(multiple conversations last night went something like this, which was hilarious:
Sabine: Aww, poor baby Esra, want me to carry you?
Esra: *stubbornly keeps walking* I don't need your help!
Sabine: Want me to give you horsey rides up on my shoulders? I bet you do~
Esra: Llewaaaain, Sabine is picking on me again.
Llewain: Now Esra, Sabine will never stop bullying you until you stand up for yourself.
Esra: She'll just keep bullying me even if I do!
Llewain: Stop picking on Esra, Sabine.
Sabine: Hahaha-- no!)

Barlowe waited too long to open the door, so Sabine broke it open, smacking him in the nose on our way out. Esra was relieved when Barlowe offered to assist him with some healing magic, (since Iris was still out from before), but aside from collecting more of Dinta's notes from Barlowe (and getting growled at again for letting Dinta go earlier), he had nothing more for us. We headed out of the Cathedral and checked in at Inn Sulafta's Name, where Esra was then bedridden for a while. Denar had collected the abandoned skin of the demon and played with it a while, even considering making it into armor, before he ended up burning it to ensure that the demon could not re-enter the skin. He met a smith who claimed to be able to work any material, and made a plan with Sabine to go back to Nys for the FLAILSNAIL shell.

They discussed this while a cute serving girl in the inn offered to get Esra soup and bread since he was recovering from some injuries, to which he was not averse at all. The soup ended up having a golden ticket at the bottom of the bowl, which turned out to have an enchantment upon it that revealed it was from The Puzzler (the wizard Esra attacked with the Rod of Cancellation before) and invited anyone holding such tickets to come try to prove their worth as the Puzzler's potential apprentice. Esra was annoyed, but kept the ticket-- mostly in the interest of taking the Puzzler down. Anyway, Sabine decided she and Denar would go because Esra is boring, and Esra waved them on, saying they'd have plenty of time to get the shell before he was done recovering and, more importantly, identifying the items they'd found. Llewain and Iris decided to chill in the other inn room after Sabine and Denar left, which meant that the serving girl (who'd been offering to collect hot towels for Esra) came back to play Nurse with him. There will probably be fanart. I can't help myself!

Sabine and Denar returned to Nys to find that imposters-- Kelisandra and Korad, specifically-- had tried to make the claim that they had killed the gold dragon of Hurdu and THEY were the Hurdu Trading Company, pretending to own the ship and kicking the crew off of it so they could do what they wanted with it. While it's possible they're involved, the only person Sabine and Denar found on the ship was our old buddy Maligos, who was rooting through Esra's mage-lab for "something" and claimed he'd not been able to find anything before sneaking off. It's hard to say whether Maligos orchestrated the whole thing or not, since he has interest in the realm of dreams and further, he could have posed as the Hurdu Trading Company himself. In any case, Sabine stayed aboard the ship to establish their rightful claim to it while the Port Authority checked (and drank one of the guards under the table while she waited) while Denar went to find and retrieve the crew, informing them of the deception.

More next week!

One last edit to add:

During the fight:
Llewain: Oops. *wince* sorry, Esra.
Esra: This thing is gross and sticky get it off!
Sabine: What have we learned, Esra? Do not kiss pretty girls, do not talk to strange men who smell nice, and don't touch sticky treasure chests!
Esra: Shut up!
[Another dagger]
Esra: L-Llewain, if I've done something to offend you, I apologize! Please don't throw more knives at me!
Llewain: Just-- hold still--
[And another]
Esra: *collapse*
Llewain: Er, oops.
Sabine: Pfft, what a pushover.

This is the stuff

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 10:42 am
dev_chieftain: (chuckle)
Excerpt, Session 11:

Sabine did not know of where it would be but the library at Varseilles might have the information they were seeking. She noted that he might not have been to Varseilles, but-- Faure looked away and answered that oh, he'd been once or twice.

Kiever wanted to know what the one or two reasons he had gone had been, and Faure answered with a grin that they had been Charise and Marjorie. His first dwarf, actually. Sabine squawked, "Philippe! you're as bad as ever!" while Kiever embarrassedly said "Now it's time to change the subject." and Faure countered, "Well, it was a long time ago."


I love these characters so much!

D&D happens tonight! With different Sabine than NPC Sabine! And with Esra, and with Llewain and Denar and Iris! Last week we averted an attempt to assassinate us and steal the anti-magic rod of power we hunted down--actually, two attempts at different times, now I think of it--and this week we're rushing to the Grand Cathedral (having already arrived in Lunel) to inform Bishop Barlowe of Dinta's treachery.

...hopefully it works out for us!

Man! Hosanna is playing, and making me love Caiaphas all over again. I even like smug-asshole Jesus in this one.

"Why waste your breath moaning at the crowd?
Nothing can be done to stop the shouting!
If every tongue were stilled,
the noise would still continue:
the rocks and stones themselves would start to sing!"
dev_chieftain: (Devpony)
Kristen has come to DW! Not that I can't call her whenever I like, but exciting nonetheless!

Went over some of the summaries to prep for aforementioned project. My goodness, the summaries are SO DENSE, and I still didn't capture the entirety of what was going on. On the upside, it does mean I can re-read exact lines. Some things Dustin once said that I didn't understand at the time are more obvious on rereading-- specifically, in-character Gwenn complained once that Faure was intentionally withholding the truth about his life from her, and had lied about how he was going to answer her questions before. I had completely forgotten the scenario she meant, so Faure's response was, like mine, 'I...did? I'm sorry, I don't remember' which is in character, sure, but hilariously, I now know why I didn't have any recollection of that. Yes, he was absolutely going to answer their questions-- but in an almost comically bad series of events happening every time they were about to settle down and ask, the entire session during which he was going to respond was interrupted by other things happening, or other people pursuing conversations with the party. So, I can honestly say, he meant to tell you, Gwenn, it really just got put by the wayside and nobody remembered to ask the next day!

It's hard to decide whether to alter certain small details (or sometimes not so small details) in the adaptation. Like, Faure did mean to answer the questions. Should he? I'm a little torn, but I figure I'll get there when I get there. That's around the halfway mark and storyboarding even the beginning is going to be pretty intense work.

Gwenn has the highest ratio of adorable lines to times she opens her mouth of any character I've ever seen, so rereading the logs is totally a treat. Between her cuteness, Raven and Kiever's hilariousness, and Eberk's seriously badass lines, I can't help but grin like an idiot whenever I reread these things.

Last night on

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012 08:54 am
dev_chieftain: (chuckle)
As you may have noticed, we've been having a difficult time finding our focus in D&D these last couple of months, between holidays and just a general sense of nonsensical goofiness. It's hard not to get distracted when you're at a table with a bunch of your friends, laughing like an idiot over something goofy like bursting into Sisters, Sisters and unexpectedly getting four of five guys to back you up on it. (That was, by the way, one of my favorite moments in quite some time!)

Last night we did have a Motherlover moment where Jason and I couldn't help bursting into raucous song, but in my defense, we also had several moments where we just laughed too hard to do anything. Still! It was the most focused we've been on D&D in a while.

As the party prepared to set sail from Vellas, we discovered several things were off about our ship. For one, Xenocrates wanted to inform us that he'd discovered a mysterious crate with airholes and, for whatever reason, cast ESP on it. It seemed that there was some kind of sentient creature there, so the party rolled up their figurative sleeves and went to investigate (we made Sylvia open the box, though Sabine or Llewain might be stronger than her-- well, you know, it's good to be PCs and it's even better to be prepared in case the box had contained something actually threatening). Rather than be anything dangerous, however, it turned out to be a little girl, eight or ten at most, in a ragged dress. She tried to tell us her name was Darkstar, to which no one would agree, and then reluctantly said we could call her Lily. We tried to figure out who'd sneaked her aboard, but weren't certain; we sent Iris and Sylvia into town to get a new, not-ragged dress for her, then prepared to set off for the constabulatory to see if she matched any missing persons reports. However, we were waylaid by two suspicious figures who were dressed as members of our crew, but asked rather noticeably if we had anything we wanted to leave behind.

We gave them a suspicious look, and when they tried to run, Sabine tackled one, Denar tried to grab the other, and Llewain caught him with a dagger to the hamstring when he kept running. Esra approached the fallen one, turning him over with one foot and wondering what their business was, only to nearly get attacked as the man drew a shortsword. Esra hastily backed off as two extremely convenient guards walked up to 'arrest' the men, claiming that the man Llewain had handicapped was Vargas, the infamous assassin! The guards made as if to arrest the others and assured us we needn't come to the barracks with them, to which Llewain responded that we were already headed that way to identify whether the little girl was missing or not. When they tried to demur that they really didn't need us to come with them, we became suspicious of them as well. They tried to run, and Esra cast a spell upon them that made them each light as a feather. Before they could blow away, Denar caught their feet and held them, as Iris called for the REAL guard.

Arresting the four assassins, the cadre of the guard who'd responded to our call asked us to come with them to answer a few questions (had we ever seen the men before, what was our business on the boat, etc), and we fell into step behind them to do so. This left us with the discussion of what to do with Lily, who Esra was giving a piggy-back ride. Sabine, being Sabine, wanted to toss her overboard; Llewain and Iris and Denar thoughtfully wanted to take her to the constabulatory to see if she matched any missing-persons reports. Esra, being not-so-secretly lonely without his cute daughters around, wanted to add Lily to the crew and had very few qualms about it. Iris seemed perplexed.

Sabine: Don't you have some already? Daughters.
Iris: Yes, that's a good question. Of course, don't take this the wrong way, we're very pleased to have you with us and you've been quite helpful, but-- why aren't you home with your daughters?
Esra: Ah. Um. Well, you know how-- Llewain has assassins after him because of things he used to do, back in the day?
Iris: You used to be an assassin?
Esra: Oh, no. Well, I stole things for a, um, society back during the war, but as it turns out someone seems to be killing everyone in that society...
Sabine: For crying out loud! Does anyone else have assassins after them?
Iris: Well, I don't, but I think my share comes from the rod, which means they went to Esra since he's carrying it right now.
Esra: Er, yes.
Sabine: You? Do you have any assassins after you? [to Denar]
Denar: ....possibly.
Sabine: Damn it!

At the barracks, we asked that they check for reports of the girl going missing, expressing our desire to confirm that she was not a runaway before permitting her to join our crew. Meanwhile, they interrogated our would-be assassins and told us they'd come to us once they had the information and asked where we'd be staying. We decided to head back to The Last Honest House and have a meal (as much for Lily's benefit as that we were already hungry). In the inn, we were faced again with the daunting task of deciding where the blazes we wanted to go. Denar expressed a mild interest in going to Carina, which brought Sabine back to her desire to head there and seek out the nobleman we escorted the one time so she could kill him for the bounty on his head. The problem of whether we should confront Bishop Dinta or not (about his obvious plot to in some way engineer a Speaker of Sulafta who was false) was bandied back and forth.

Whilst eating, Esra tried to convince Sabine that Lily was adorable and should be kept on the ship.

Sabine: I'm not calling her Darkstar.
Esra: So call her Lily! She can stay with us.
Sabine: Why do we need a kid on board? There's no place for a kid.
Esra: Well, Reginar is with us because his parents sold him to be...well, dead, and Lily claims to be an orphan-- even if it's not true, I'm sure we can find a place for her.
Sabine: No, see, there was a reason to take on Reginar, that was different.
Esra: If we have two then Reginar won't get lonely! She'll be fine, you'll see.
Sabine: Hey.
Lily: H-huh?
Sabine: Kid, you like beef?
Lily: Um, yes, I do.
Sabine: [waver] All right, I'm gonna call you Beefcakes, then.
Esra: [shaking his head] What about fish?
Sabine: [makes a face]
Iris: Yes, when rations are low, all the beef would go to Sabine, first.
Lily: It's okay, I guess. Oh, could I have it in a plum marinade?
[Iris and Esra trade surprised looks. Our girl seems to have expensive, Libra-specific tastes; could she be from a noble house?]
Sabine: What's a marinade?

When the guards finally contacted us, they let us know that House Epsilon-- Iris's house-- had contracted the would-be assassins, and suggested we make sail rather than try to tangle with a noble house, as well as the fact that no one had reported the girl missing. We decided to add her to our crew as a helper, and everyone seemed to have something they wanted to teach her (which led to an exchange between Dustin and Bret: "She's going to grow up to be a Bard, you know." "Oh, god, we are raising her WRONG!")

We set sail after a brief run-in at the inn with a fat man in mish-mash armor named Kero Sene (a reference to one of Christian's characters back on a persistent world) who professed to be a huge fan of Iris's and possibly Sabine or Llewain's. He was a trifle creepy at Iris, but she gave him the magic comb she's been holding on to but not using for ever, and Llewain graciously parted with his spring. (We'll miss you, spring!)

We decided to set sail for Carina after all, after trying to set a location using the compass of Heart's Desire, which notably no longer worked for anyone. A curious flaw; it's hard to say whether the compass was engineered to have worked for the crown as part of Dinta's plot to get the crown, or if we've done something or been affected by something to make it lose its power. It notably may also have been stolen from us by one of the many people moving against us and replaced with a fake, given our track record. In any case, Carina did hold the potential to resolve the trouble with Dinta, as well as visit Denar's hometown, apparently, so we decided to head that way. The journey was uneventful, with the exception of a massive, dead sea serpent we ran into along the way. Seeing that it wasn't possible to harvest the meat for anything edible, we hacked it apart so we could pass (when I say 'we', I mean 'Sabine, and some of our twenty-some-odd faceless NPC guys). Something like eight days later we arrived in Nys once more, where the port authority was suspiciously friendly to us and seemed to have been informed of our impending arrival by someone of influence who wanted to ensure we were not obstructed when entering the city.

When we tried to leave and head for Lunel, however, as well as Denar's secret village or whatnot, we found the way blocked by four guards (possibly paladins of Sulafta) who informed us kindly that they'd been asked to meet us by Bishop Dinta, and that he was, in fact, in Nys and not Lunel, so they could take us to him now.

We debated whether we wished to meet him or not, but the answer was, more or less, not and so, we politely informed them that we were going to go to Lunel and he could meet us there if he really desired to speak with us. The crowd around us seemed to be taking notice of us, and it seemed as though possibly there might be trouble about to brew as heads turned, noticing our conversation. At our declaration that we would not meet with Dinta, the guards drew their swords. All around us, we heard the sounds of more swords being unsheathed, as many of Dinta's agents stepped forward.

Llewain drew his knife, shrugging, and Esra stepped forward, shouting "Do you not know who you are dealing with? We are the Hurdu Trading Company!" He meanwhile completed casting a spell to summon a massive illusion, and gestured at the sky, guiding their eyes up as what appeared to be a gold dragon flew up over the city from the sea, roaring, its wings seeming to beat great puffs of air as it circled, seemingly at Esra's command.

Instantly, the town went into a panic, and the many agents who'd surrounded us faded back into the fleeing crowd, running with it. This left only the four who'd first challenged us, who swore that they'd made oaths to take us to Dinta and would not renege on those oaths. They immediately started attacking Esra (wise choice!) while Llewain, Sabine and Denar set about stabbing, crushing, and slicing them up, in turn. Even Iris helped out, whacking them to try to draw their attention off.

They were not phased, however, and one cut a mighty blow to Esra right off the bat, briefly breaking his control over the illusion. It stilled before he could regain control, and they noticed. Their leader told the others, "Keep attacking the wizard! It's working, it's breaking his control over the dragon!"

Esra very nearly went down before Llewain, Sabine and Denar could finish the guards off. Having lost concentration again, he couldn't make the dragon seem to fly off realistically, and when it did fade away, it was still partially in view of the town, alas. The two remaining guards, once Llewain knocked out the second one, surrendered, asking to be spared so they might save their fallen friends at the nearest temple. The party agreed, though Denar seemed to be out for blood, and Esra chided him for the attitude; Llewain made a point to tell them to reconsider their vows to Bishop Dinta, and Iris agreed that they were on their way to Lunel to make known his heresy and that he might not be the best person to follow so blindly.

When Esra nearly fell, as the guards left, Sabine started teasing him. Denar caught him before he could collapse.

Denar: You don't look too well, friend.
Esra: Hey, are-- there two Sabines, or am I just hallucinating?
Denar: You're hallucinating.
Esra: Oh, good. I don't think I could handle two.
Sabine: Pushover!

Fortunately, Iris had some blessings of Sulafta on hand, so she healed Esra as best she could before they set out again towards Lunel, marching on till the middle of the night. By the time they reached the city of the Grand Cathedral, Esra was pretty weak, and asked if they could rest. Sabine told him to quit whining, and Llewain and Iris suggested that they'd best bring their evidence to the other bishops immediately, heading in to the Grand Cathedral to seek a midnight council with Bishop Barlowe, whom we believe to be a more honest man, and likely to take offense at Bishop Dinta's plan.

We'll find out what he thinks next week, it seems!

D&D tonight

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 11:55 am
dev_chieftain: (ColdHardCash)
Tonight is more AD&D! I'm looking forward to it. Last week we started to kinda-sorta maybe get our focus back. (We've been too silly to actually do much for several weeks). This week, who knows! Perhaps we shall continue. We had returned to our ship and were about to leave port, but I don't know what the rest of the party wants to do once we reach it. We have to decide whether we're going to let the anti-magic rod fall into Bishop Dinta's hands, and more or less we need to decide if we care enough about the Sulaftan religion to just go find the true Speaker of Sulafta or whatnot. If we bring that person to the capital and put the crown on him/her, I imagine that would at least put an end to this nonsense from the bishops.

We also need to figure out if we're going to go try to evict that gold dragon from our island. Having learned that that elf and her cleric have gone off to try to do so makes me leery of going there. Either we'll find elf and cleric corpses-- which would be okay, I suppose-- or they'll have bested the dragon, in which case there would be no living with them, and Llewain and Esra both would have to wear the most displeased of faces.

I posted an update at Tabletop about the recent announcement that Wizards is developing 5th edition. Maybe check it out if you're at all interested?

We have been watching more of DS9 season 7. and I have tons to say about it apparently! )

Edit: Going to add my personal thoughts about 5E here. I'd put 'em on the comm, but I really want that to be a place of discussion and not just me soapboxing at kindly strangers.

The thing about this announcement is, I just can't decide where I stand on it. On the one hand, I'm always happy to see new games and play tabletop in new ways, at least just to try it. I feel like WotC is just giving up on 4E, and for the most part, I don't feel like the people who determine the market understand the product. A big reason people are capable of playing and enjoying the previous versions of D&D even now without needing a new edition is that those versions have nostalgic value, on top of being totally viable games. I'd like to see WotC move towards a more friendly attitude with regards to their consumers.

Instead of treating us like these skittish cash cows they're trying to milk for every dollar, why can't they offer us a variety of D&D products in a way that doesn't bank on selling 40$ books? (40$ US-- I shudder to think how expensive that purchase is in, say, Australia, which I have on good authority suffers some pretty shitty markup). The thing is, having picked up AD&D, even though I liked 4E (which puts me in the minority, I know), I feel that D&D's biggest problem is that the industry is SO tight-knit, everybody assumes we all already know what they're talking about.

WotC's biggest problem with the game is that it's clearly not bringing in enough new players to make their acceptable profit margins. It's fair to assume they want to gain new players of D&D as much as possible, but I feel like nobody's going about it the right way. The attitude of D&D 3.5 and 4 was a bit more 'you know the deal, I don't need to explain what a fantasy world contains, pick dwarf elf or human, your class, okay let's go'.

The thing is, people who've never played D&D, and people who've never researched mideval history, do not know what the fantasy world is meant to contain. Children especially are not going to know what to expect, and giving them a streamlined set of rules (which I find are often stifling to the imagination of players, speaking as one who has definitely been stifled before) is destructive to the playing experience. It's one thing to add products to the D&D market. I could see WotC doing really well if they marketed D&D board games, were willing to print and sell D&D of every edition (which would be a much less aggressive stance, and encourage buyer loyalty because it does not try to erase the previous versions of the game from history), and sold the miniatures, models, dungeon tiles and so on as a supplementary thing to this hobby. I don't really understand what makes them choose not to do that, actually, because selling NO product is a lot worse than selling OLD product, isn't it?

One of the really big selling points of D&D for people is nostalgia, especially people who learned the game on an earlier edition. For me, I learned 3.5 and hated it-- HATED it!-- and when 4th Edition came out, I was really excited to have the chance to come into the game with exactly as much knowledge of the rules as everyone else. Later on, having learned more about AD&D and just plain old D&D, it's pretty hard to pick a favorite. Each edition has some things I like, and some I don't. The really tough thing about the tabletop experience is finding a group of people who want a similar experience to what I want out of it. That has absolutely no bearing on what books get bought, though, so in that sense WotC is out of luck. The product by definition depends on imagination and friendship to be worthwhile; in that sense, I feel a new edition is a waste of R&D that could be spent improving the old one.

If the old editions were reprinted and sold, however-- maybe even as Print on Demand books, who knows-- then the new edition would be wholly optional. People coming in to D&D for the first time would be able to try the newest one if they wanted, or look at the source if they preferred. (There are benefits to both approaches. Gygax's writing in the older books is whimsical and fun, but intentionally circuitous in a way that can be infuriating for a new player with a seemingly simple question to which there is ultimately no definite answer. 4th Edition books are great for being very straightforward, compared to their predecessors.) When the new edition is optional, it feels like the company is genuinely seeking to improve the product. When the new edition is the only edition, it feels like the company is being greedy, and just trying to capitalize on the control they have over the product by trying to force buyers to continue buying ONLY from them. That attitude, more than anything, is what makes me lean more towards Paizo than WotC.
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