#hes also the only other npc whos a former human which is insane to me tbh

[vaugarde]

Gengar strikes me as someone who knows he’s a piece of shit and is trying to embrace that. Emphasis on trying. Obviously there’s the fact that he called his group “Team Meanies” and bragged at people’s doorsteps that he was evil and gonna take over the world and stuff. He terrorizes Pokemon into joining his team and doesn’t even seem to respect his own teammates. The entire fugitive arc is him trying to scapegoat the hero for his crimes.

But two things stick out to me.

The first is that Gengar seems to think that being selfish and cruel is human nature.

In the dream eater sequence, Gengar talks about exposing hero and “showing what they’re like inside” purely on the grounds of them being human. I think that’s pretty self explanatory. He thinks that all humans are bad people. He’s speaking from experience, because if HE’S bad then surely all humans are, right?

The second is that Gengar… honestly comes across as self loathing to me, even if he tries to own how shitty he is. Just look at his dialogue during the crowd scene.

This dialogue combined with this expression come across as cracks of guilt to me. He knows what he did and he knows exactly what he’s doing now. And despite everything, I think he hates that. He hates what he did to Gardevoir. He knows it was horrible of him to abandon her after sacrificing herself for him. And he hates that. But he can’t admit it.

I think Gengar trying to take pride in his cruelty is deflection and denial. He couldn’t help what he did to Ninetales and Gardevoir, it was inevitable! He’s human, and all humans are selfish. He can’t change or control that. All he can do is double down over and over while trying (and failing) to escape the consequences. He can’t fathom the idea that a human can be a good person, so he’s not even gonna try to change.

And he hates hero because they are the antithesis to that statement. They want and try to do good wherever they can, and Gengar can’t believe that after learning that they’re human. He projects onto them, insisting that they have to be a bad person, because they’re human. Just like him. He can’t be good. They shouldn’t be good. Because if being good comes so easily to them, then what does that say about him?

And seeing Gardevoir in hero’s dreams talking about how much she cared for him, with sympathy leaking from hero’s heart, shatters that illusion he shrouded himself in.

[tigerdrop]

Cringe is dead, talk to me about the funny half-life men and their relationship

okay here is my essay. it is titled These Guys Actually Like Each Other, and Gordon Freeman Is Just Kind Of A Dick*

(disclaimer: these are just my 2 cents. dont take me too seriously! im just some guy online who has watched this shit too many times.)

first things first. these guys actually like each other. this is a key aspect of their relationship. benrey, obviously and textually, digs gordon freeman - you dont flirt that heavily with guys you arent into, and so much of what he says and does is geared around making gordon crack up. thats pretty gay.

but the counterpart to this is that gordon freemans pretty fucking gay for benrey, too. you may say, “oh, but word of god says its not requited!” and to you i will say: bull shit. gordon is uniquely obsessed with benrey compared to all the other characters. if gordon didnt like the fucking guy, he wouldnt giggle with him and share in-jokes with him and bring him up every 5 seconds when benreys not around. thats concern, bro. thats worry. thats real shit

but i cant blame people for thinking that gordon freeman genuinely doesnt like benrey. benreys partially responsible for some of the worst things that have happened to him, the Arm Thing among them. and gordons very insistent afterward that he doesnt like benrey. he even goes so far as to try to kill benrey a couple times. to this, i must argue that gordon freeman is just kind of a dick.

lets talk facts here. canon. Lore. from the moment we hop into gordons shoes, we can see that he is a jerk to every npc on his way into black mesa. this is his default: a dude who just runs his mouth and says rude shit. he calls tommy a freak within 5 minutes of meeting him. he infantilizes the guy and barely considers him a real scientist. he doubts that bubby is a real name for like no fuckin reason. in “real life”, this is because its funny, and wayne is trying to make a funny half-life stream. in a textual sense, this is because gordon “hlvrai” freeman is a dick. this is the way he acts, consistently, throughout the series.

(brief aside: this is why the whole “gordon is a nice guy and a great dad” characterization baffles me. the way he actually acts in canon is, in short, bitchy and lacking in self-awareness. and i love that for him, i really do. it makes the moments where he just tries to be a nice guy stand out. but thats the thing: his intermittent moments of decency and kindness are not the whole of his personality! this dude kind of sucks most of the time!)

the way that gordons general asshole attitude extends to benrey is complicated. in fairness, benrey makes it his job to annoy the shit out of gordon as much as possible, and that warrants a negative attitude, but gordons pretty paranoid and ends up blaming benrey for nearly everything that happens to him, regardless of if its warranted. this is a pattern he exhibits both before and after the Arm Thing. its a little bit of a dick move! especially considering that, prior to the whole “betrayal” subplot (which was not exactly planned very far in advance), benrey is no more malicious or annoying than anybody else gordons having to travel with.

(okay, this is kind of a subjective evaluation, but still. my point stands that benrey is not any more of a hindrance to his progress than anybody else in the science crew, and neither is he particularly more violent or murderous. hell, gordon freeman has probably killed more guys than benrey. benrey just tends to get.......special treatment.)

all that said, i am still convinced that gordon really fucking likes benrey. please consider with me the following: it would be remarkably easy for gordon to just ignore him and do what he has to do, but he doesnt. he could stop engaging. he could stop thinking about benrey. he could stop bringing benrey up to the rest of the crew every time benrey leaves to do his own thing for awhile. but he doesnt. and, again, yeah, the extra-textual reason for this is “two guys are doing an improv comedy thing and bouncing off of scorpy is kind of the point”, but within the text it reads to me as gordon not being about to get the dude off his mind.

and this is in addition to all the times we see gordon being genuinely nice and receptive toward benrey! its in the little things: laughing the hardest and longest at benreys jokes. only ever reciprocating that stupid underwater “BBBBB” thing with benrey. trying to catch benrey when he falls, despite his insistence moments earlier that benrey should hop in the wack ass crystal generator and get hypermurdered. fondly remarking that benreys sweet voice sounds beautiful. his sort of flustered responses to most of benreys overt flirting. none of this is the way normal people react to a guy they hate. this is all fuckin gay to me, man.

its this combination of the outward insistence that gordon hates benrey with his inner eagerness to be around him and think about him and engage with him that gives off strong “repression” vibes, to me. for whatever reason - pride, embarrassment, resentment - gordon maintains a front of hating the guy and wanting to kill him for a lot of the series, but it doesnt gel with the way he fucking giggles and plays along half the time that benrey starts fucking with him. its a game, and that game is one of the only ways gordon knows to manifest affection for him.

(remember “oh my god, hes got a knife!”? that was the gayest shit i ever seen in my life. tittering like a schoolgirl while benrey chases him around like “im gonna get you haha”. insanity.)

the cool thing about repression is that you can have it manifest in a lot of ways! and this is where things like “headcanons” and “my own personal affection for repressed bisexual men” come in. a lot of how i characterize their relationship is an extrapolation of a lot of things like gordons canonical insecurity issues/anxiety, gordons whole anti-bootboy thing screaming “internet wokeboy who means well but probably has a lot of repressed baggage” to me, etc.

how do you get massive amounts of sexual repression out of what you see in canon, you might ask? well. if wayne would stop having gordon talking about being jerked off by the suit, or talking about chugging a 40-gal drum of potion and having to hold his piss, or worrying about being eaten by benrey the moment he sees benrey at setscale 10, maybe i would have a higher opinion of gordon “hlvrai” freeman and whatever latent psychosexual issues hes got going on. but here we are

i havent even touched yet upon how benrey feels about gordon. this one is helpfully made a little more plain by the fact that benrey very much wants to suck his dick in canon. (i dont even have to go into details. we all know.) but IMO the best part about this ship isnt just that they dig each other, but how. benrey gets overtly flirtatious in the second half of the series, but IMO his preferred method of flirting is just fucking with gordon: chasing him with knives, shoving him around in a bathroom, trying to get scans of his feet. but all in like a slapstick, giggly, fun-and-games sense, you know? at least when it works.

a lot of the time, though, it doesnt work out that way. he clearly just likes doing it whether or not gordon responds positively. which is, you know, Weird. not very nice. but also in line with the way everybody else treats gordon freeman. gordons kind of the universes chew toy in any given universe, and the same holds true here. hes kind of helpless......subjected to 4 demons attempting to make his life as difficult as possible. in a way its cathartic.

sorry. i got sidetracked. anyway, benrey very much likes to mess with him and unnerve him and demean him and i will be perfectly frank with you: that is hot. i have problems and illnesses and one of them is that i am a masochist who goes crazy for that kind of thing. calling gordon a “dirty lil boy” and telling him to “look at the mess [he] made” is some straight up kink scene shit.

i like to imagine that a lot of this behavior isnt caused just by the guy who played him wanting to be funny and antagonistic, but by benrey as a character not really understanding what constitutes “pushing a joke too far”. hes not human, and whatever he is doesnt have a very normative way of understanding the world around him, full of people who actually get hurt for real and die for real. benrey expresses what seems to be genuine surprise and distress after the Arm Thing, as if he didnt know that his actions would have serious consequences. and it doesnt seem to fully sink in afterward, either.

it reads a lot to me like hes used to video game rules and treating people around him like NPCs. if they get hurt, its no big deal, because its not real. he likes jamming random buttons on gordons interface and seeing what comes out. its probably a lot of fun for him, the same way that seeing a streamer or a youtuber suffer for our amusement is fun. its like, you know, in my opinion, gordons very cute when hes frazzled. hes also cute when hes laughing. pushing gordons buttons has a 50/50 chance of either of these things. and this is how he ultimately flirts with gordon: by pulling his pigtails.

but at the same time, benrey does legit care about gordon and knows some boundaries. benreys the one most often shooting at enemies to protect gordon, and he spent most of the last act trying to convince gordon to turn around and not fight him because they were friends (best friends, to be specific). he just lacks a lot of the emotional intelligence it would take to express the feeling of “he digs gordon and likes seeing his face get all red and sweaty regardless of the cause”. and gordon lacks the emotional intelligence it would take to express the fact that he doesnt know if he likes or hates benrey and hes scared as hell that its the former

because, lets be real. unironic benrey-liking is a sign of problems disorder. just look at all these words ive written about it.

can you imagine? this bizarrely powerful, non-human entity that can shrug off gunfire and grow to the size of a building has decided that youre his new plaything. benreys the bored guy booting up skyrim and fucking around in the console, and gordons the hapless favorite follower that hes taken a liking to. its a really fun dynamic IMO

after all this, its safe to say my title is a little misleading. the asterisk stands for * and So Is Benrey, Actually. they are both kind of awful dudes who thrive off of teasing each other and they deserve each other. and i am crazy about it. thank u for coming to my TED talk

[irandrura]

The Elder Scrolls - a disclaimer and rant

I am going to make some posts about The Elder Scrolls, and in particular, its background, setting, and characters. That means that a disclaimer is probably necessary.

Here’s the tl;dr version: yes, I know about the lore. Please trust me when I say that I was really super into it about a decade and a half ago, and I’ve kept an eye on it since. I have read the Michael Kirkbride forum posts. I have read C0DA, The Seven Fights of the Aldudagga, Sermon Zero, the Loveletter from the Fifth Era, and so on. I know the forum roleplays like The Trial of Vivec. I know that Ayrenn is really a time-travelling mining robot from outer space. I think all the stuff I just referenced varies widely in quality, opinions quite reasonably differ on it, and it’s frequently at odds with what’s actually depicted in the games, but at any rate, I promise that I know it.

So when I go on and talk about Psijics – I know, all right? I know. I am choosing to engage with the setting on a level that focuses more on characters, human stories, and, well, the narratives of the games. The TES apocrypha is interesting, but of limited relevance to the things I’m interested in. There are many valid ways to enjoy TES. Okay?

Now, the longer part:

If you haven’t played TES, and… actually, scratch that, for like 90% of people who’ve played TES, none of the above needed to be said. The thing is, when you play a TES game, it is a fairly straightforward elves-and-wizards-and-dragons fantasy setting in the D&D mould. Indeed, the earliest versions of it, back in the 90s, were based on a D&D campaign. So there’s relatively little surprising about it, and “it’s like D&D” will carry you most of the way towards understanding it.

However, TES games are also renowned for containing lots of in-game books you can read, which are often some of the most striking and evocative parts of the games. These are supplemented by a large library of apocrypha: often unofficial material, posted by developers (and ex-developers) on the internet. The most infamous of these writers is Michael Kirkbride, who has some… very unusual tastes and interests, but there are a range of other names as well. In any case, the result is that TES has an ‘expanded universe’ composed of these non-canonical writings. Often canonical texts in-game hint at some of this vast, unofficial hinterland, and sometimes ideas invented in the apocrypha sneak back into the games themselves.

Further, the apocrypha often hints at what seems to be a very different setting to the one directly experienced in the games: one that’s less about warriors and wizards and adventure and more one about divine magic, transcendence, myth, and meaning. The descriptions often seem to be somewhat at odds. This can best be demonstrated with some examples.

For instance, here is Michael Kirkbride’s description of a High Elf warship, written before any game had depicted the High Elf homeland:

Made of crystal and solidified sunlight, with wings though they do not fly, and prows that elongate into swirling Sun-Birds, and gem-encrusted mini-trebuchets fit for sailing which fire pure aetheric fire, and banners, banners, banners, listing their ancestors all the way back to the Dawn.

This is Old Mary at Water.

 You will immediately notice two things. The first is that this sounds really cool. Some of it you need some context to parse (the old elven homeland is called ‘Aldmeris’, hence ‘Old Mary’ as a mocking nickname given by its foes; the High Elves believe that they are literally, genealogically descended from the spirits that created the world at the Dawn), but even so, man, that warship sounds awesome. This Kirkbride guy can write. The second thing, though, is that it is extremely unclear what any of this even means. Given that descriptions… what does this ship look like? Try to picture it! What the heck does ‘crystal and solidified sunlight’ look like? How exactly does a trebuchet throw fire? What?

You might then go on to play a video game where the High Elves are taking part in a war to conquer the continent. If you’re like me, you’re probably keen to see one of these fabled warships. But then it turns out that in-game, High Elf ships look… like this. Or like this.

(Indeed, the High Elves are often a good example of this. An earlier written text, in a pamphlet enclosed with the video game Redguard, described the elven capital of Alinor as “made from glass or insect wings” or “a hypnotic swirl of ramparts and impossibly high towers, designed to catch the light of the sun and break it into its component colours”. Needless to say, should you visit it in a game, it does not look like that.)

After a while, you start to notice that there is very little connection between the world implied by the apocrypha and the world experienced in the games. Kirkbride says that the “closest mythical model” for the ancient knight Pelinal “would be Gilgamesh, with a dash of T-800 thrown in, and a full-serving of brain-fracture slaughterhouse antinomial Kill(3) functions stuck in his hand or head”, and says “Pelinal was and is an insane collective swarmfoam war-fractal from the future”. Indeed in Kirkbride’s descriptions Pelinal seems to have been an ultraviolent schizophrenic who led a wild, genocidal band of anti-elven warriors, was very definitely gay, and who had only a red, gaping hole where his heart ought to be (which in turn is a reference to the missing heart of the creator-trickster deity Lorkhan, whom Pelinal was in part a mortal incarnation of). You might find that really cool or you might find it banal, but there’s no denying that it’s extremely different to the Pelinal whose ghost you can meet in-game. The apocryphal Pelinal is a mad butcher whose closest mythic model, contra Kirkbride, actually seems to be Achilles; the game Pelinal is a straightforwardly sympathetic chivalric knight. This is complicated somewhat by the in-game books being written by Kirkbride and therefore being gonzo bananas insane, so the ‘canon’, such as it is, is unclear – but at any rate it is impossible to deny that there’s an incongruity.

I could go on with examples for a long time. I haven’t even mentioned the most famous – the 1st edition PGE description of Cyrodiil compared to what it actually looks like in Oblivion – or more recent ones, like the gulf between Alduin the mythic dragon who will consume the world and indeed time itself in its terrible jaws and the frankly quite underwhelming beastie you fight in Skyrim. The point I’m making is that there are effectively two TES settings: one relatively down-to-earth, immersive, and depicted in great detail in the video games, and one that’s this absurd mash-up of magic and science fiction and whatever psychedelics Michael Kirkbride has been taking this week.

I write this long disclaimer because it has been my experience discussing TES in the past that people who are mostly interested in the former – in the relatively grounded setting experience in the games – sometimes run into an elitist attitude from people who are interested in the latter. Sometimes fans of the apocrypha can come on much too strong, or gatekeep the idea of being a fan of ‘TES lore’. Any sentence that starts with “actually, in the lore…” is practically guaranteed to go on to be awful.

My point is not that the apocryphal TES is bad. As I hinted above, in my opinion its quality varies extremely widely: there are things that Kirkbride has written that I think are pretty cool (I unironically love the Aldudagga) and there are things he’s written that I think are indulgent tripe (C0DA stands out). Ultimately it’s all about what you enjoy, and I would never try to tell anyone that they shouldn’t have fun reading or speculating about or debating the zaniness of some of these texts. Indeed, as far as online fandoms and video game fan fiction goes, TES probably has the most fruitful ‘expanded universe’ that I’ve ever seen, and I think that’s wonderful. Kirkbride himself has said that “it’s really all interactive fiction, and that should mean something to everyone” and “TES should be Open Source”, which is a position I wholeheartedly endorse – and does a lot to take the edges off some of the worse things he’s said.

Rather, my point is that everyone should enjoy what they feel most interested in, or most able to enjoy. Further, I argue that there is absolutely nothing wrong – and for that matter absolutely nothing less intelligent or less intellectual – about a person preferring to engage with the version of TES most clearly depicted in the video games. Part of this might be defensiveness on my part, because in my opinion what TES has always done best is a nuanced depiction of cultural conflict: this is particularly the case in Morrowind and Skyrim, and ESO’s better expansions tend to deal in this area as well. As such I take relatively little interest in the metaphysical content of much of the apocrypha. For me, Shor, say, is most interesting as the protagonist of several conflicting cultural narratives, rather than as a metaphysical essence.

I would also argue that the most recent game content has taken a good approach by going out of its way to legitimise a range of possible approaches to the setting. The latest chapter of ESO, Greymoor, includes a system where the player can dig up ancient artifacts, and a number of NPC scholars will comment on them for you. This allows the game to indicate in-character scholarly disagreement over issues fans have previously debated. One item shows disagreement over whether the mythical character Morihaus was literally a bull, or a minotaur, or whether he was a human allegorically referred to as a bull. Another one points to disagreement over the possibility of magical spaceships: apocryphal materials have referred to ‘Sunbirds of Alinor’, ‘Reman Mananauts’, etc., as sorts of magical astronauts, but that seems so ridiculous given what we’ve seen in the games as to be easily discounted. I like items like this in-game because they seem to say to players, “It’s okay to disagree over questions like this – no one is doing TES wrong.”

That said, I am reasonably positive that I’m in the minority here, because I am in the camp that usually says that legends exaggerate, and so Morihaus probably wasn’t a bull and magical spaceships don’t exist. This is not a popular position. My reason, of course, is that I think tales are more likely to grow in the telling rather than shrink, and I have a dozen of what I think are hard-to-deny examples of this happening in TES (e.g. heroic narratives of the War of Betony are very different to the grubby reality you uncover in Daggerfall, or Tiber Septim is almost certainly from Alcaire rather than Atmora). However, this means that I openly take an opposite methodology to Michael Kirkbride. Kirkbride was once asked by a forum poster whether some in-game writings are exaggerated. His reply was: “I prefer, "It is very possible, as is the case throughout this magical world, that some of the exaggerated claims made about some subjects pale in comparison to the Monkey Truth. ZOMGWTFGIANTFEATHEREDFLUTYRANTS."”

Needless to say, I find this implausible, and it means that, for example, I interpret the Remanada as an obvious piece of propaganda, inventing a story about Alessia’s ghost in order to retroactively explain why Reman, probably born the son of a hill chieftain with zero connection to the previous dynasty, really has imperial blood. This is a very different but in my opinion more historically plausible take than Kirkbride’s, who has a naked thirteen year old Reman standing atop his harem and slaughtering recalcitrant followers.

I’m not saying that my approach is objectively correct. It’s all fiction – and as Kirkbride said, TES is open source. The only thing that matters is what you the reader, player, or interpreter find the most interesting. For me, that means generally favouring what is seen in the games over the developer apocrypha, which I can take or leave.

At any rate.

I’m going to go on and make some more fannish posts about stuff in ESO that I liked.

Just… if it’s relevant, be aware that I am familiar with the zany stuff. Some of it I like, a lot of it I don’t like, and I feel no obligation to use it if I don’t like it.

There. Disclaimer over.

[serkonans]

i would legit love to know ur answer to all of those dnd questions tbh

so many gfsljgf thank you antonia i love ask memesputting #13 up here for the anon who requested it and the rest below the cut!13. Introduce your current party.I currently DM a few games! School is hectic and I don’t get to play very often but all the characters are GoodI have one group campaign titled “When the River Bleeds Red” (which is probably news to you, Antonia, and everyone else who plays, idt I ever mentioned that slkfjglfskj) that has a blacksmith (half-elven cleric, @the-idiot-who-stood-still​) named Brigitte Faestrum, a pumpkin farmer (halfling druid, @beesgnees​) named Cathal Headrig, a former stage performer (fire genasi sorcerer, @merrigold​) named Emelia Sparks, and a former mercenary (gnome fighter, @jacqmutiny​) named Nyx!I also DM one-on-one campaigns for @merrigold​ (who plays an aasimar druid named senua tasked with undertaking journeys on behalf of the gods in “The Glacial Erratic”) and @fictitiousbees​ (who plays a kenku wizard named scribbles called to the service of a high dragon in “Luck of the Draw”)Everything else below the cut!

1. A favorite character you have played.

I’ve only played two characters! One was Carran Warset, who is my Son and like the bulk of the reason I know I’m trans, and one was Chim from your one-on-one campaign. I rly like both of them tbh but Carran is my child gkjlsfgjs

2. Your favorite character that someone else has played.

Excluding anything I’ve DMed, Sivarna by @pluviance!

3. Your favorite side quest.

In the group campaign we played in together, there was one session that idr if you were able to be there for but we like,,, went into a forest and bought a really ugly belt from a stoner for zero plot reasons and I count it as a side quest in my heart

4. Your current campaign.

Well, you know everything about all my current campaigns that you’re allowed to know rn, but for anyone who might be reading who isn’t in them:

The group campaign is being used as scapegoats in the brutal murder of an ambassador’s daughter and is fleeing a city through secret tunnels -- we last left off at Cathal becoming a giant badger and burrowing upward

In the solo campaign with Senua, she’s attempting to deliver a large, magical object from the goddess of earth deep inside a mountain, and she’s facing down a basilisk with three NPCs

And in the solo campaign with Scribbles, he’s just played a card game that was really more of an interrogation, where he found out a high dragon has taken interest in him, and he is, in unrelated news, taking a package to the local apothecary

5. Favorite NPC.

Of someone else’s, I love Lucy from the Chim campaign!

Of mine, I will never stop loving Mr. Kretever Tatell. Kret is a goddamn idiot but he’s my goddamn idiot

6. Favorite death (monster, player character, NPC, etc).

Carran once killed an evil poison merchant by seducing her in an enemy king’s bedroom and stabbing her when he went in for the kiss gkfsljgfsj. Then he and Sivarna wound up hiding with her corpse under a bed discussing the concept of threesomes in whispers while the king wandered around his room. Not as like, a possibility. Just because the topic came up

7. Your favorite downtime activity.

S,,,hop,,,,,,, money tiem $

8. Your favorite fight/encounter.

I liked the fight where I balanced the combat correctly lkgsflkjskljg, the one with guards in the tunnels

9. Your favorite thing about D&D.

Storytelling!

10. Your favorite enemy and the enemy you hate the most.

Homebrew enemies are coolest imo but hard to balance; the giant gemstone ant I had you fight would’ve been my favorite if it’d been able to get more than like two attacks in gskjgksj

And insect swarms are very annoying to fight

11. How often do you play and how often would you ideally like to play?

How often I play is whenever every single one of the stars align and ideally I would play like every other day fksjglskfjg

12. Your in game inside jokes/memes/catchphrases and where they came from.

God the current ones haven’t gone long enough for those yet really and I’m blanking on most from the group player campaign

I do remember Carran was 1000% convinced basil was poison at one point and his pet rat killed an evil, powerful sorcerer by chewing his ear

14. Introduce any other parties you have played in or DM-ed.

Just the group player campaign with Carran, which didn’t get to the heavy plot stuff before it ended tbh, and then the solo one you ran with Chim in what was rly a Very cool world concept of like hellish Las Vegas that I’d like to steal at some point

And then you ofc know this but for anyone reading who doesn’t, I’m going DM a maybe-oneshot, maybe-a few more than oneshot post-apocalyptic campaign for you and @fictitiousbees​, set in a world that’s been destroyed by fast growing invasive fungi which is like. only The sexiest apocalypse scenario

15. Do you have snacks during game times?

Yes, religiously. Game time snack time

16. Do you play online or in person? Which do you prefer?

I’ve never played in person other than a single test game for new players! I prefer online tho; you can look things up and type if you’re shy

17. What are some house rules that your group has?

I have a rule about only two players being able to try the same sort of check, but that’s it for us so far that I can think of

18. Does your party keep any pets?

Not yet! Cathal has a way with animals though

19. Do you or your party have any dice superstitions?

I Do

20. How did you get into D&D? How long have you been playing?

I got into it bc Critical Role made it look super super fun, and I’ve been playing off and on for two years now

21. Have you ever regretted something your character has done?

I’ve regretted everything any character I’ve controlled has done I think that’s just dnd

Realistically tho, big yes for a lot of what Carran did, most notably snooping on another player character who had cast Alarm on her room

22. What color was your first dragon?

Haven’t had one yet!

23. Do you use premade modules or original campaigns?

100% original babey

24. How much planning/preparation do you do for a game?

3% planning 97% “oh fuck I need to have an idea Now” babey

For DMs

25. What have your players done that you never could have planned for?

Everything, it’s why I never know what I’m doing

I never expected Cathal to become a large badger and dig out of the underground, how do you prepare for someone to, in all seriousness, tell you they’re going to become a badger and scrabble to the surface

26. What was your favorite scene to write and show your characters.

I really tend to enjoy the one-on-one scenes; I think my favorite was having you roll that insane wild magic surge and detailing What Happened At The Theatre

27. Do you allow homebrew content?

Yes if it can go in DND Beyond

28. How often do you use NPCs in a party?

In group campaigns, not often, although we have two with us right now. In solo campaigns, if you want combat you’re getting an NPC party, at least for a bit

29. Do you prefer RP heavy sessions or combat sessions?

Personally I love RP heavy sessions; combat is fun but I crave Story

30. Are your players diplomatic or murder hobos?

I think mostly diplomatic with a dash of murder hobo

For Players

31. What is your favorite class? Favorite race?

I’m so so so boring but I love humans gksfjgsk

Humans, elves, and half-elves are my favorite

And then I Would Die For Every Rogue, it’s hands down my favorite class

32. What role do you like to play the most? (Tank/healer/etc?)

Rogue role

Lemme stealth and steal and stab

33. How do you write your backstory, or do you even write a backstory?

For Carran it was,, A Whole Process

I came up with a basic idea, then journaled as him several times and wrote and rewrote until I had what felt Right, and then I kept toying with it and adding more details throughout the campaign -- I love playing and would really like to again but the obsession with expanding upon his story made me realize I need the freedom of worldbuilding that goes along with DMing; I don’t think I could be a player without DMing a separate campaign bc I just try to take over

34. Do you tend pick weapons/spells for being useful or for flavor?

Both!

35. How much roleplay do you like to do?

So much, I usually use old acting techniques and get fully into character

thank you again antonia!!! these were fun

[fgodestinyawakenings]

Babylonia Section 21~Section 22(END)

Final day and final post of this Singularity before the impending doom at Solomon Singularity. Hope your Servants and sanity are ready because that’s some insane fight to be happened soon!

Section 21

At Uruk... The end of the world at last with Gilgamesh and 8 soldiers being the sole survivor against Tiamat... Time to destroy the demonic beast and Lahmus before we made way to find Gilgamesh!

Reaching to Gilgamesh at last... The end of the world in his eyes as he expected with Tiamat’s arrival getting closer... Our Chaldean Embassy swallowed in flames and in the Chaos Tide... Whether Tiamat hates humanity or not it’s another story if she even has a conscience in the first place after becoming Beast II

Arriving in Uruk at last... While Ishtar takes on Tiamat via the sky, we stand by with Gilgamesh against her on the ground. Yeah yeah you Tsundere king, we’re sticking with each other until the end of the Singularity!

Dingirs fired from the city wall all launched at Tiamat under Gilgamesh command by his own magical energy! He’s definitely not a half god without a reason--! GUDAS WATCH OUT THAT LIGHT!!!

.............. Gilgamesh... You..... You took the hit from Tiamat... Into your heart..... GOD DAMN IT, YOU’RE NOT MONTY PYTHON! THAT’S NOT JUST A MORTAL WOUND, THAT’S GOING TO KILL YOU DUMBASS!

Tch as Gilgamesh keeps on going... 3 more minutes before Tiamat arrives at where we are....! After we got knocked by the 8k Lahmus...  Before Ishtar could help us... That’s...!! KINGU!!!

Looks like Gilgamesh’s words finally reached his heart... Even if it’s a grail operating it... And... Enkidu... They came back... Even if it’s too far to reach, their words of wanting to talk to Gil will definitely reach! Kingu, Enkidu! It’s time to finish off Tiamat!!

As Kingu turned into the Chains of Heavens... We wake up to find Tiamat is being restrained by Kingu!! WHAT?! The Chain of Heavens broke!! And Eresh?!

Underworld is finally right below us. Ishtar and Gilgamesh discuss one last time about Enkidu’s passing before and now. Ishtar readies to launch a big blast for a big hole... One last talk with Gilgamesh and... KING GILGAMESH!!! THIS WAY--!!

KING GILGAMEEEEEESSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Falling into the underworld after that abrupt parting... Eresh gives us her powers to be able to deal in the underworld. Looks like Eresh’s security system at intruder is causing great pain to Tiamat thanks to Ishtar forcing her down inside

To fight on for King Gilgamesh... Eresh began her attack against Tiamat... Wait this blackness... THE CHAOS TIDE IS RETURNING BUT EVEN STRONGER THAN BEFORE?!!

Because of that fall... Beast II finally turns to her true form...! And Jaguar Warrior! So she turned out fine but... It’s now or never to defeat her-- Flowers... This voice, this voice of a fucking horny wizard... MERLIN!!!

So... Merlin you’re still alive? Tiamat didn’t kill you at all? You broke out of your prison for once to help us?! Okay forget happy reunion, seems like Merlin brought... Wait we brought him to repay his gratitude? But who--?!

That old man Ziusu-dra! No... KING HASSAN!!! With his NP... At the price of sacrificing his Grand title... Hassan granted death onto Tiamat! We can kill her now! As expected of Da Vinci-chan! Since we damaged her brain but recovered... Everything is to face her in the face!

With Merlin’s return... The buff is something against that fucking disgusting Chaos Tide. But still hurt a like bitch when they crit!

One wave down, next wave towards her head! Direct offsprings with class of Beast, King Hassan given us the temporary contract... Time for insta-kill on those things!!

I retried this because RNG luck and irritating taunt from the Lahmus are pissing me off :/

8 insta-death later, we’re finally at the head! As Romani said, time is running out with Tiamat reaching the surface soon in 300m.... Time for the first round against her!!

I’m frankly wondering if double Mash setup works here... Because this isn’t Gorgon with Chaos Tide bleeding the Servant’s life.. And additional curse buff that will outheal Merlin’s buff

Since NPC Merlin is here... Might as well have Ozzy being buff by him in Hero’s creation to kill her quickly... Considering he and Xuangzang are my current ST Buster NP

Oh come on! How the hell is Tiamat still standing?! Merlin you idiot, now you got kicked out by her! And... This..... No way..... KING GILGAMESH?!!!?!?! He’s back but in his Archer class?!

With Gilgamesh’s arrival... TIME TO FINISH THIS ONCE AND FOR ALL!

Okay, trying on double Mash.. Which is again hilarious because it worked for a while... Yeah until she removes them, so it’s a bit headache with her, along with the curse buff that stack

Ozzy and Herc-chan are main DPS with the former trying to dish out as damage as possible against her before the latter kicks in.

Martha for the buff and debuff remover... MVP actually since it’s ashamed I can’t rushed her skills finished to deal for Tiamat. But definitely helped a lot in dealing with her annoying debuffs

At last dealing a critical damage, Beast II finally destroyed! The grail from her finally retrieved at last!

Section 22

The final chapter arrived with us returning back to the surface. Singularity is repairing itself once Tiamat is gone. The grail in our hands thanks to Merlin getting his ass back to our side! And... Nope, we’re not helping you. It’s your fault in destroying Quetz’s divinity, Merlin!

Oh right, Quetz came back but how?! Ah, seems like Jaguar Warrior saved her! Oh... Guess Quetz and Jaguar Warrior are heading back to the Throne of Heroes first

Ishtar is alright too and looks like she’s staying in Uruk for a long while, hence her limited summoning. Eresh... For helping to destroy Tiamat... She’s fading... And disappeared.... Or to rest from what Ishtar said...

GILGAMESH!? YOU TURNED BACK TO YOUR NORMAL STUPID CASTER SELF! WAIT YOU’RE... He’s going off too?! And... For a souvenier... That’s why we got 2 Holy Grails this time! Along with food! Leaving to the Throne of Heroes to be summoned... He will spook again one way or another.

And we’re heading back to our own ways as we departed with bidding good bye to Merlin! So Merlin is a big fan of ours huh... I’m sure we’ll meet everyone again!

At home at last, WHAT?! Chaldeas turned red again?! Seems like King Solomon is giving an invitation to us to end things once and for all! To be continued until Solomon Singularity!

I’ll apologize for the observations since majority is already done up under the JP side. So I’m doing the ones which are the notable main bosses for this fight

Observations:

Quetzalcoatl:

The impossible: If you have two Herc-chan with you (one of them being borrowed), just bring more taunters and healers

The only possible option: To deal with her effectively only option is the Berserker class which is Lancelot and Herc-chan, but preferred the latter. Summer Servants worked but again, it depends on your preference. The only thing with those above as your main DPS, you’ll seriously want to have taunters especially you don’t know who her NP will hit. Also Herc-chan wise, at this point find the one with his Bond CE in ever the case he got killed repeatedly. Or other wise, just make sure he’s alive long enough to kill Quetz

Ereshkigal:

............. I learned my lesson in this fight a little. Never try to rely too much on your NP to deal with her

Anyway... If you’re having FFF rank luck for this fight, not being able to use NP through the whole fight. Have her to be crit rill death by your Sabers

Bring Servants who generates a good amount stars, Main DPS Saber that absorb good amount stars and crit hard, support that helps buffing damage/crit damage to kill her

Or otherwise, bring a debuff remover if you’d like to be able to use both NP and skill

Gorgon:

Laser shooting fest is amusing with double Mash + main DPS ST NP Servant

Any main DPS will do depend if you want to hit hard, get more stars to crit or to be able to spam more NP often.

I went with the last to be compatible for Mash to spam her NP often. So if you want double Mash way or there... Bring a good arts team like Robin, Medea, Chloe, George (unless you’re going for Sieg-George combo)

Otherwise, any team will do. Only problem is her stun debuff on your Servant when it happens, so it delays one turn to boost that said Servant NP or use their skills/NP

Another to watch out is her curse debuff after using her NP. I went with double Mash, and time is really ticking on me because the curse she dealt is really killing their HP each turn

Trait dealing there’s Scathach, Karna & Arjuna (for divine), Jack & Carmilla (for female) and the infamous King of Heroes

CEs not much of a comment but if you want to be not stun and curse... Debuff immunity CE?

Otherwise, CE that boosts damage should do

Kingu:

Your RNG luck comes into play a little but not as bad as Eresh, you’ll never know when he’s going to charge his NP full on the same or next turn

DEFINITELY DON’T BRING DIVINE SERVANTS AS THIS IS ENKIDU AND THEIR NP COMING AFTER THEM

Once again, taunters are needed if you don’t him to fire his NP at your main DPS/support

Trait wise... Nightingale as Enkidu’s body is still humanoid and at your own risk, AUO himself... Definitely don’t take the latter

I haven’t see it work but if Zouken’s CE in sealing his NP will helped delayed from it firing. But I’m not sure if it works because his permanent buff in charging NP randomly is there

Invincibility more recommended instead of evasion since he has a skill that removes evasion buff

Anything else, bring a good ST NP Servant for DPS and support with taunters/healers... Or even stallers to keep him at bay. But for stalling team, Gorgon Sister combo definitely don’t work.

Ushiwakamaru clones:

I’ll touch more on the ones which she’s neutral damage to all. Her Berserker-class version bring good AOE NP Servant will do

Considering her sole gimmick is to create copies of herself... Kill the original before more are being created

For this bring AOE NP... One fitting Servant for biggest damage by far again, AUO. Weak to Enuma Elish regardless corrupted or not

Or otherwise, bring your best AOE NP Servant...

With a really good healer in particular, because Chaos Tide against that class will kill you faster than you know it

Taunters for avoiding ST NP from her onto your main DPS Servant

Tiamat:

Martha my fucking saint saves my ass in most of these fight!

Practically debuffing her and removing those debuff from Tiamat is vital because she just keep stacking that curse debuff

There’s also her stun and NP seal that’s targeted onto Man-trait & Star-Attribute Servants... That kind of explained why Jeanne gets NP seal most of the time OTL

Double Mash works somewhat when she doesn’t remove your buffs and stack those fucking curse

Considering her laser and chaos tide charge your NP quickly.. It’s not that difficult to do spamming when needed

Skill seal definitely vital with Servant like David’s NP to stop Tiamat from buffing herself

Debuff immunity needed for the above debuff or even her NP when she buff block debuff on your whole front-line team

If you don’t have Angra Mainyu with his Bond CE in your friend list to deal bigger damage, balance between 3 DPS and 3 supports? Or at least estimated the amount of damage 1 main DPS Servant does before dying out.

Now that this is over... While grinding for SQs... Time for 3 to 4 days break from NA before the biggest hell right before Christmas!

[ciathyzareposts]

The Black Gate: Gunpowder Treason and Plot

Druxinusom asks me about Inamo. I love that the dialogue options allow you to say that Inamo was murdered or to say something like, “Uh, well, he’s not doing so hot.”

             I suppose it’s time for a recap before we move forward. The Avatar hasn’t been in Britannia for 200 years in Britannian time. He leaps through a red moongate when it appears in his back yard (it’s still a mystery how or why) and finds himself in Trinsic, former City of Honor, where a gruesome murder has just occurred. A local blacksmith named Christopher and a wingless gargoyle named Inamo have been killed in a ritualistic manner. The Avatar teams up with his old friend Iolo and Christopher’s son, Spark, to solve the mystery. He soon learns that the murders were committed by a gargoyle and a man with a hooked hand, and that they may have fled to Britain on a ship called The Crown Jewel. In Britain, the Avatar learns that a similar murder happened years ago in Britain.           

Spark seems to think we have the kind of relationship where he can talk to me like this.

           The victims of both the Trinsic and Britain murders had the misfortune of running afoul of a relatively recent fraternal/philosophical organization called The Fellowship, which seeks to replace the old Virtues of the Avatar with a simpler doctrine. They have maneuvered Fellowship members into positions of authority all over the land. The player should have some idea going into the game that the Fellowship is up to something suspicious, as the game manual–written by Fellowship founder Batlin of Britain–is a thinly-disguised revisionist history that undercuts both the Avatar and Lord British. As the game progresses, it becomes clear that the Fellowship (or at least its leaders) are taking orders from an otherworldly demon called the Guardian, and that they have a plan that involves a mysterious substance called blackrock. Someone has built a generator in the Dungeon Deceit, fueled by blackrock, that is affecting magic all over the world and driving mages insane.           

While this is all going on, a mysterious island–the very one on which the Avatar defeated Exodus in Ultima III–has risen out of the ocean, causing worldwide tremors, and is waiting to be explored.

Most players join the Fellowship in Britain, either because they haven’t been paying attention and believe it’s a worthwhile organization, or else to investigate it from the inside. If they want, players can follow a relatively linear path that chases leads from one city to another until the game comes to an end. My Avatar, Gideon, declined to join the Fellowship and decided to conduct his investigation in his own order, starting with visiting the cities in the classic order of virtues: honesty, compassion, valor, justice, honor, sacrifice, spirituality, and humility. I decided to visit each city’s associated dungeon at the same time, so I could engage in a little side exploration, wealth-building, and experience-earning. I also decided to take the opportunity to do a little “surplaying” (see the glossary) by following the virtues as in Ultima IV, visiting the associated shrines, and returning the Runes of Virtue to people in each town who deserve them.            

In Moonglow, I stick the Rune of Honesty in the desk drawer of the town healer.

                  I made some significant progress in Moonglow, where I awoke the sorceress Penumbra–who had put herself in an enchanted slumber 200 years ago in anticipation of these events–and told me about the anti-magic generator. She said that to destroy it, I would need the Ethereal Ring, currently in possession of the gargoyle king Draxinusom in the gargoyle city of Terfin.

In replaying these events, I mostly stuck to the script I related in my series of April and May entries, including visiting the Dungeon Despise (incorrectly called Shame) after Moonglow. I nabbed the magic carpet a little bit earlier. I found the switch that opened the room with the full set of plate armor in Lord British’s castle. I saved myself from a repeat visit to the mines near Vesper by purchasing “Unlock Magic” from Nystul before I left Britain the first time. I probably missed the odd NPC or two. And of course I didn’t repeat my Lock Lake clean-up efforts.             

Sigh.

          Despise ended up exhausting me with its numerous traps, teleporters, and locked doors; you find at least half a dozen keys in the dungeon and still not all the doors open. But I got far enough to serve my purpose, which was to make enough money to feel comfortable buying some spells and getting some training. I also got some nice equipment upgrades for my six characters. Before I gave up on the dungeon, a teleporter brought me to a little tower poking out above the mountain tops. There was a locked chest there. I’ve learned the hard way to open locked chests at a distance, as they can be trapped and explode. (In a weird subversion of reality, you can double-click on your lockpick and then have them open any accessible chest on the screen, no matter how far away from the characters. If it’s far enough, they don’t take any damage if the chest explodes, even though presumably one of them would have had to walk up to the chest with the lockpick in hand.) There wasn’t enough room to get away in the tower, so I had Shamino lug the entire chest out of the tower and back to the streets of Britain, where I opened it in safety. It contained a sword called Magebane, which I don’t remember from previous experiences with the game (admittedly, they were a long time ago). Magebane doesn’t appear in Vetron’s Guide to Weapons and Armor, so I don’t know how much damage it does or why it’s called “Magebane.”          

Finding a chest at the top of the world.

         What I can tell you is that if you keep it wielded, it hums insistently. This problem doesn’t just affect this one sword. If you equip a Wand of Fire, it cackles constantly until you run out of charges or put it away. Since there’s no easy way to have characters “sheathe” weapons, having them make continual noise was one of the more obnoxious design choices in the game.

I had previously explored Britain, City of Compassion, and I had given the Rune of Compassion to Nastassia in Cove. Next up is Jhelom, City of Valor. But as I prepare to board my magic carpet, I realize that for role-playing reasons, I really need to go to Terfin next. Mages–including friends of mine–are being actively assaulted by the anti-magic generator in Deceit, and I know how to stop it. That’s not something I can justify putting off.

      The party takes the magic carpet to the island that was formerly the site of Blackthorn’s castle. Shamino seems lost in thought as we arrive, and I recall that he was guillotined here back in my party’s experience with Ultima V. It occurs to me that I failed to note his miraculous resurrection when he appeared at the beginning of Ultima VI. It’s probably too late to ask him about it now. Terfin was settled by gargoyles fleeing the destruction of their homeworld after the events of Ultima VI.           

Even here I have to hear this nonsense?

              The first gargoyle we meet is a winged one, a trainer named Inforlem, who is capable of training in both strength/combat and intelligence/magic. Between him and Sentri in my party (dexterity/combat), I’m not sure we need anyone else. I suppose other trainers out there might be more efficient, requiring fewer slots to increase more attributes, but you can’t hold your slots open forever while you run around comparing trainers.

The gargoyles’ Shrines of the Principles–control, passion, and diligence–were relocated to Terfin, including the statues of Mondain, Minax, and Exodus. Exodus is again represented as a demon instead of the computer that he was in the game. You can’t talk to them anymore, so either their spirits didn’t make the trip or they just don’t have anything to say. In my winning entry for Ultima VI, I talked a bit about how odd it was that the gargoyles would hold up humans as exemplars of their virtues, particularly tyrannical humans. It’s as if some aliens came to Earth and told us their virtue system was exemplified by Pol Pot, Stalin, and Hitler. But the gargoyles seem to be using the triad more as examples of unbounded adherence to a single virtue–as in, Minax is an exemplar of passion unchecked by control and diligence. As such, I’m not sure they’re really “worshiping” the triad so much as using them as warnings.        

Someone bellyaching about food screws up this shot of Exodus.

         Of course, the Fellowship is trying to make their way into Terfin, too, despite being closely associated with the Britannia Purity Society. The chapter hall is run by a winged gargoyle named Quan who refuses to explain the self-selected name. He sees a lot of overlap between the Gargish system of virtues and the Fellowship’s Triad of Inner Strength. Runeb, a particularly rude winged gargoyle, is his assistant. I toss the building but don’t find anything incriminating.            Quaeven runs a kind-of community center, a combination between an athletic facility and a library. He’s also a Fellowship member, and currently working on converting Betra, the provisioner. He imparts some interesting information about the “voice” that Fellowship members supposedly hear after visiting the Meditation Retreat: it not only helps guide them in effective life choices but also helps them win at the gambling games at Buccaneer’s Den. That’s a bit worldly for a deity.

Anyway, Betra says he has no plans to join the Fellowship. Indeed, he’s heard rumors of a plot to destroy the gargoyles’ altars of virtue. He notes that only two gargoyles in town have the necessary supplies to pull this off: himself and Sarpling, a Fellowship member whose name, ominously, means “snake tongue.” Upon further investigation, Sarpling has a note in his chest from Runeb, the Fellowship clerk, talking about the forthcoming use of explosives on the shrines. When confronted with the note, Sarpling caves immediately not only to the plan to blow up the shrines but also to assassinate Quan so that Runeb could take over the Fellowship branch.             

This is why you don’t talk without a lawyer.

          Runeb attacks me when confronted with the evidence, and we’re forced to kill him. Upon reporting all of this to Teregus, who maintains the shrines, we all get 50 experience points. Quan, for his part, refuses to believe in the plot even after Runeb’s death.            

The 6-to-1 odds didn’t really work in his favor.

           The tavernkeeper also tells us of continued problems between winged and wingless gargoyles and suggests that we talk to them about it. A gardener, Silamo, is a wingless gargoyle and clearly bitter about it, but he doesn’t want to talk to us. I otherwise can’t find any dialogue options related to this supposed problem.

Lord Draxinusom lives in a small, one-room hut next to the community center. He fondly remembers the old days and notes that no one really seems to look up to him anymore. He’s suspicious of the Fellowship. When asked about his Ethereal Ring, he says he was forced to sell it, along with most of his other possessions, to the Sultan of Spektran to finance the gargoyle move to Terfin.

Before I can bring up the subject independently, Draxinusom happens to mention that Teregus’s son, Inamo, is in Trinsic. Inamo left Terfin because of the growing influence of the Fellowship, with which he had vocal and public disagreements. This suggests that either the Fellowship got lucky when they were able to kill Christopher and Inamo at the same time, or that perhaps Inamo was the main target after all. We then have to break the news to Teregus, who is understandably upset and asks for updates on our investigation.             

It was a waste of all life.

          I’m surprised that I don’t hear anything about the mines north of Terfin during our time in the village. I briefly pop in to check them out and find in the storeroom enough powder barrels to indeed destroy the shrines. We find lots of gargoyles working, but none of them will talk with us. I’m also surprised we didn’t find an NPC companion in Terfin. I could have sworn I remembered there was at least one.         

This guy has some issues.

         The island of Spektran is northwest of Terfin. I think it’s where we found the pirate treasure in Ultima VI. No longer a desert land crawling with giant ants (giant ants in general seem to have ceased being a problem in the last 200 years), Spektran is now lushly forested and dominated by a single large building. The door slides open as we approach, and the Sultan greets us from an armchair just a few feet into the hall. Wearing a Persian headwrap, he introduces himself as Martingo, the Sultan of Spektran. The man is clearly quite mad, hallucinating subjects–including a harem of 11 women–throughout his barren fortress. He repeatedly speaks to an invisible “advisor” during our conversation. I’d like to think that elsewhere in this game, you can find an interesting backstory on this person.

When we bring up the Ethereal Ring, he says that it’s in his vault, and he welcomes us–dares us, in fact–to test its defenses and to retrieve it. His “vault” is in fact just a large room behind him. We soon find that the Sultan’s vaunted “security system” consists primarily of a stone harpy that comes to life when we enter the room. The damned thing kills me repeatedly, and I hate waking up at that Fellowship shelter in Paws. I have never once kept playing from this situation, as I don’t trust what the Fellowship did while I was unconscious, and I don’t trust these doppelgangers of party members who are suddenly all full of praise for the Fellowship for finding and rescuing me.              

Kind of a dumb thing to yell at a creature made of stone.

           After dying a couple of times at the harpy’s stone claws, I have this idea that it can only be defeated with fists. I don’t know where I get this idea; I think maybe I’m muddling it with another game I played recently where that was true. It would make sense that conventional weapons wouldn’t be able to do much damage to living stone, but then again, neither would fists. Either way, it seems to work, although it takes me another couple of reloads before I’m able to kill the harpy with all of my characters left alive.       Martingo’s vaunted vault has nothing in it except three magic rings and the Ethereal Ring, which is the only one I take. We defeat some wolves before lifting off to the Dungeon Deceit.         

My one fourth-level spell is looking a bit lonely.

          Deceit is a man-made dungeon with brick walls. Its first challenge is a magically-locked door, but we take care of that with “Unlock Magic.” A few harpies attack us on the other side, but they’re regular harpies, not stone ones, and we don’t have any problem with them.          A switch lowers a door which leads into a room with a dragon! We actually manage to kill the thing, but not before losing three party members. Since that route only seems to mislead you into a dragon battle, I reload and go a different direction. I soon find that the dungeon is characterized by unavoidable traps: arrows shooting out of the walls, fire erupting, lightning bolts zapping–which I can only avoid through trial and error or finding whoever sells the “Detect Trap” and “Disarm Trap” spells, but I seem to remember from previous experiences that they don’t work very well.          

Despite the yells, no one is protecting anyone here.

        In the dungeon, I meet two warrior sisters named Eiko and Amanda. They are in pursuit of the cyclops who killed their father, a mage named Kalideth, and studied under a trainer named Karenna of Minoc specifically for the task. I find the cyclops in a clearing in the middle of the dungeon. He introduces himself as Iskander and admits he’s done some monstrous things in the past in defense of his clan. He complains that humans seem to think that cyclopes exist solely to be killed by adventurers, and thus Iskander has been wandering the world looking for some place that will serve as a homeland. Neither conversation gives me dialogue options to use with the other parties, and I ultimately decide that it’s none of my business and move on.           

To be fair, your kinsmen in Cove attacked us first. After we invaded their home with weapons drawn.

          Eventually, we make it to the tetrahedron generator. Exhausted and out of most spell reagents by the time we arrive, I am annoyed to find there’s nothing obvious to do. Pointing Rudyom’s wand at it doesn’t cause it to explode. Double-clicking on it does nothing. Trying to walk into or on top of it does nothing. Frustrated, I consult my screen shots and am reminded that Penumbra wanted me to bring the Ethereal Ring back to her before I tried to use it.       

Trying various things that don’t work on the tetrahedron.

         Rather than fight my way back out, I decide to reload from before I entered the dungeon. I take the carpet to Penumbra’s and get the ring enchanted. Afterwards, she asks me an odd question: how did I know to come to her in the first place? The answer is, I didn’t. I was exploring the towns in systematic order and followed the clues I found to wake her up. But that’s not one of the answers I get, which are Nicodemus and the Time Lord, neither of whom I’ve actually met this game. It’s a bit annoying that Origin didn’t anticipate a player simply stumbling upon the quest this way.            

Why is that even important?

            Some miscellaneous observations before the end:        

It’s kind of annoying that the bedroll, which you often need to find in the dark, is one of the darkest items in the backpack.

Either the “Light” spell has a bizarrely random duration or something else is going on. I cast it while the party was exploring the Vesper mines. After that, I did the MoonglowPenumbra segment and then flew to the Dungeon Despise. The spell was still active when I entered the dungeon and lasted for most of my exploration. Then, later, when I cast it in Deceit, it blinked out after about three minutes.

To land the magic carpet, you have to find a section of ground the size of the carpet that has no obstacles. A large plant, rock, or log is enough to stop the carpet from settling down. As I flew to Despise from Moonglow, I happened to pass over the ruins of Skara Brae, and I noted that the entire island seems designed to disallow using the magic carpet to get there. It is scattered with just enough rocks, logs, and other debris that there’s no clear place large enough to accommodate it. That’s just an impression, though; I didn’t search the whole island.

            They really want you to come in the long way.

             I took note of some experience point rewards for solving quests. Returning the signed bill from Cove gave everyone 10 experience points. Solving the gunpowder plot gave us 50. These are small numbers in comparison to combat.

If I start the game with the GOG settings, it frequently freezes in the middle of NPC dialogue and I have to wait about 30 seconds, clicking around occasionally, before I get it unstuck. If I just fire up DOSBox and open the game on my own from there, this never happens. But I worry that not using the GOG settings is what caused the corruption last time.

The Books of Britannia entry has been updated with Brommer’s Flora, The Book of Forgotten Mantras, and Book of Prophecy.

          I fight my way back to the tetrahedron, and this time it lets me enter the thing, although my party members are unable to accompany me. I am pitted against a monstrous, demonic defender, and nothing I can do allows me to defeat him. This is the consequence of following my own path and reaching this point before most other players, who probably have more advanced protection spells, better equipment, higher levels, more training, and so forth.            

Sorry it’s so dark, but I ran out of sulfurous ash for the “Light” spell.

         Thus returning to the outdoors, I reflect on my next move. The responsible thing to do would be to return to Britain and pick up the path the way the game was meant to be played. The second most responsible thing to do would be to continue my previous path, returning to the tetrahedron later when I’m more powerful. I thus board the magic carpet and aim it west, towards the Isle of Fire.

Time so far: 30 hours

  source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/the-black-gate-gunpowder-treason-and-plot/

[zippdementia]

Part 43 Alignment May Vary: Concluding Part 1 (and side quests)

This is the ongoing adventure in the 5e conversion of classic 3.5 adventure The Red Hand of Doom! Not only does this detail the adventures of my three players but it also give detailed suggestions on how to run a 5e conversion of this campaign.

Tools I reference a lot: The 3.5 Red Handbook of Doom, The beastiary Revenge of the Horde, secondary beastiary Tome of Beasts.

The Red Hand of Doom Campaign has a very good pace throughout its first part. The heroes are brought into town, they are given a quest, and several nice battle scenes within the Wytchwood keep them moving towards the end goal of Skull Gorge Bridge and, ultimately, retreating before the might of the Horde.

Things get a little tougher in the second Part. Read directly from the campaign module, heroes are given the option to either wander around and engage in random encounters with the horde or to pursue the quest line into the Blackfens and Rhest. In theory it is a nice attempt at open world gaming, with the idea being that if heroes choose to ignore the main plot line eventually they have a more difficult time fighting the final battle in Brindol. But in practice, it is a poor choice. Compare these options: run a series of skirmishes or engage in a full quest into the unexplored swamp lands which will ultimately involve an attempted alliance with a third party and an attack on an ancient stronghold.  Which of those two sounds more exciting?

Of course, it is great that the skirmishes and side scenarios are included in the campaign book. If your group decides they wish to attack the horde directly or wants to travel with the evacuees all the way to Brindol, then by all means use these skirmishes to build these scenarios. But at the same time, it should be made more clear than it already is where the main quest line is, so the players have that as an option, too, and aren’t guessing at where to go next.

The evacuation of Drellin’s Ferry marks the end of Part 1 of the Red Hand of Doom. This event could be simple, without much fanfare, or it could be a gigantic battle against the full might of the horde, one which is doomed to end in failure. In the case of the latter, transitioning to part two is easy and flows well. Decimated by the horde and having escaped (barely) with their lives, townspeaker Wiston decides that they need more help. They need a hero from the last great war, and that hero is Mortigan, an old Wizard who used to be Wiston’s mentor. He now lives as a recluse in the Blackfens, but if the adventurers would go and find him, Wiston is sure he would come help.

This mcguffin was first suggested on Giant in the Playground, and it is the most elegant solution I’ve seen to setting up Part 2. It’s a good hook, an appropriate response to Drellin’s Ferry getting sacked, and it gives the players a task which feels uniquely suited to them.

The tricky thing is if the players destroy Skull Gorge Bridge and evacuate the town early. Then there is no big battle against the horde and the evacuation will go more or less peacefully (getting the town evacuated peacefully is the reward for playing Part 1 smart, don’t take that away from your players just because you want to have a big finishing set piece). It is still fine for Wiston to bring up the wizard and task the players with the finding of him, but some of the urgency will be lacking as the horde is not yet nipping at their heels. In this case, I think it is good to flesh out the end of Part I with a couple of side quests. I’ve developed two for the scenario, based on materials in the campaign book, and they are presented below.

It’s also worth pointing out that at this point my party is split and will be for this entire session. We’ve been no stranger to split parties in these adventures (heck, the very first thing Karina did back in session one was to split from the party) and over time I’ve developed better systems for handling it. What I do now is whenever the party is split, I have them roll initiative and I treat everything essentially like combat, with players taking turns. If there isn’t actually a combat happening then turns can be longer, encompassing a series of skill checks or roleplaying moments each turn. As a general rule, players shouldn’t be taking more than a couple major actions before switching to the next player.

This keeps the game flowing and everyone engaged. In the instance I’ll describe below, it lets me run a combat on one hand while I run a roleplaying encounter at the same time!

Cabin in the Woods: Jorr Plotline

Traki could smell wine and apples and... something else. The darkness was heavy here. It was strange, but even without his vision he could sometimes still “see” darkness. It had a different... “feel” was maybe the word to describe it. Sound did different things in the dark. And things were colder.

The cellar he and Tyrion were in was definitely cold. And quiet. And there was that something else, too, a smell of something sour and old. 

Tyrion spotted the body at the end of the cellar, chained to the wall. It was emaciated, hanging limply, the chains almost too big for the shrunken wrists. There was something familiar about it, despite the mumification. Tyrion got close to examine.

“What is this doing in Jorr’s cellar?” he said, maybe to Traki, maybe just to hear the words out loud. To hear something in this dark place with the smell like old feces.

Then the corpse jerked to life and screamed. “NO! Don’t let her do it! Don’t let her come!” the body screamed. Tyrion jerked back, startled (though the curse on his axe kept him from being truly afraid). Traki was more shaken.

“That voice!” The elf said.

“I know,” Tyrion replied. The dessicated man in front of them was Xaviee, their former ally.

This side quest requires two pieces of set up and relies on mystery and the dark past of Vraath Keep to drive it. In this plot (inspired by Twyin’s backstory, one of our fallen characters) after Vraath Keep fell, one of its noble ladies fled into the woods, only to be found and brutally murdered by bandits. Her soul, unsettled in its demise, remained in the woods and became a Banshee-like creature known as “The Lady of the Woods.” She began to take power from the Fey who used to rule the Wytchwood and preyed on human men who wandered too deep into the woods. As long as she had access to human blood, she could retain her power and her spiritual form. To help her, she had her father, who remained in the woods and would occasionally bring her sacrifices.

Her father is Jorr Natherson.

Jorr does what he does not out of evil, but out of love and a hatred of what happened to his daughter. Desperate to keep her spirit alive, he occasionally kidnaps men who wander into the woods and keeps them alive for weeks in his basement, letting the Lady of the Wood come and feed on them until they expire. He still hates goblinoids and will assist in halting the horde’s progress towards civilization, but now he also hides this dark secret.

In our group, this plays out really interestingly, because our group also has Xaviee with them, the NPC who came from Vraath Keep and was there the day of the massacre. The group sent him off alone with Jorr when last we saw the two of them, so it makes sense as to what happened next: Jorr disabled Xaviee and brought him to his daughter, who began the cycle of feeding. Now he keeps him in his cellar, letting her come every so often to continue the feeding. Figuring the adventures are dead or have fled, Jorr doesn’t worry too much about them until he comes home to find his cellar door open. A smart, insightful man, he is quick to guess at just who has invaded his home and discovered his secret.

“Who is down there? Come on up now and let’s talk this out.”

“You would be wise to stay away!” The deep voice drifted out from the cellar like a rumble of thunder, but Jorr just laughed.

“That you, Tyrion? Yeah, what a lovely singing voice you must have. Clear your throat and get your halfling ass up here. I want to talk.”

The party does not come up though, and when Jorr finally descends into the cellar to talk to them, Tyrion unleashes a prepared Scroll of Fireball. Jorr is nimble, and dodges most of the damage. His hounds miraculously also roll well, though the fireball hits one directly in the chest and that one dies badly. Jorr retreats, calling the halfling insane and locks the cellar door behind him, leaving Tyrion and Traki to face off against two angry hounds and a fire that is quickly spreading through the cellar. And they still have to save Xaviee. 

This quickly becomes an “oh shit” scenario, as the fire continues to build. The way I handle the fire is I have them roll Con saves, where the DC and damage for failure gets higher each turn. The damage caps out at 4d6 and half damage on a success. By this time, the hounds have been killed by Tyrion, but Tyrion himself expires to smoke inhalation while trying to chop down the locked cellar door. Traki goes to work on the door with his magical monk fists, pounding at it for two rounds before finally bursting through. By this time he is at 2 hit points. Literally, we were 2 hitpoints from the death of both Traki and Tyrion. Because of a door. Well, and Tyrion going nuts and unleashing a fireball in a close quarters cellar filled with wooden casks of alcohol.

Traki pulls Xaviee and Tyrion’s unconscious bodies out of the cabin and collapses on the grass, breathing in the fresh air. And then he hears footsteps...

“You burned my home!” Jorr’s anger made his voice turn shrill and almost unintelligable. Traki, coughing and hacking on the grass, held up his hands in placation.

“You had our friend, you... did things to him.”

“I did nothing he didn’t deserve.”

“You gave him to the Witch of the Wood!”

“The witch is my daughter!”

The revelation hit Traki like a blow from a warhammer. He began to recall things they had heard, things the others had seen and told him, of Jorr’s strange behavior during their travels together, and his anger at everything related to Vraath Keep. Jorr had even told them the sad tale of the maiden who had fled the horrors of the Keep’s last war only to fall to rapists and bandits in the woods. How had they not put it together before?

“She has to feed,” Jorr went on. “She has to in order to survive.”

“Listen, you had a choice,” Traki said. “You did not have to tie our friend up. You do not have to kill us now. We all have choices.”

“Choice?” Jorr spat the word. “What choice did she have?”

“You have a choice,” Traki said again, lamely, believing them to be his last words.

Jorr’s voice dripped anger, frustration, and deep sadness. “I will make my choice,” he said, and Traki heard the soft creak of wood as the bowstring drew back.

Moments passed then, yet even Traki’s ears did not mark Jorr’s leaving. All he could hear was his beating heart, and all he knew was that he was still alive.

Meanwhile, Nysyries has washed up on the shores of the Elsir river. She is pulled up on land by an old forest giant, who comes straight from the Campaign book. I play Old Warklegnaw as pretty insane, kind’ve like Treebeard out of Lord of the Rings but less wise and more as if he has dementia (which, frankly, Warklegnaw does). He at first takes Nyseries for a fish, then decides she would be good eatin’, then finally decides she would make a good supper companion. He takes her back to her fire. I like in the campaign that astute players can seek out the giants of the forest and make them allies, but it really wasn’t something that got highlighted in our game. So instead, I give Nysyries the chance to ally with the Lady of the Wood (AKA Jorr’s daughter and Tywin’s wife). Warklegnaw is one of her allies and he summons her to speak with Nysyries.

The Lady of the Wood is a buffed up Banshee with some life draining touch attacks that heal her (thus the dessication on Xaviee and the bandits she attacked a few sessions ago). My original intention was for the players to get the chance to face her and lay her soul to rest, but seeing as Nysyries can’t do this on her own, weakened as she is, I come up with another plan.

First, I build a little tension by having the pixies from a couple sessions ago reappear and try to warn Nysyries right before the Lady appears, fleeing before her presence. Then I have the Lady offer Nysyries a deal... she needs the Dragonborn to suck the souls out of men to keep her spirit alive and ultimately needs her to murder a man with lord’s blood to “get the lady’s revenge” on the lord who caused her so much pain, Lord Amory (whose war with the giants ultimately cost her her life in a pretty horrible way). The one she needs killed is Lord Jamath of Brindol. While the act of doing this is undoubtedly evil, the goal is not--it will save the Lady’s soul and free her of her cursed need to drain men of their life in order to survive. In return, she (a) promises to make the woods a place of wonder after she is freed, (b) to harry the horde as they make their way through the wood, and (c) to lend Nysyries some of the power of the wood, allowing her to turn into two creatures normally off limits to Druids: the blink dog and the displacer beast (though the displacer beast, being so powerful, takes both uses of her transform ability). The downside is that if Nysyries fails to drain a man’s soul for her mistress every three days, she will lose her powers as a druid and replace all levels of druid with levels of “commoner.” 

It’s a classic trade off of power for character flaws, in this case made more complicated by the fact that the Lady is appealing to Nysyries’ love of nature, need to stop the horde, and that this is ultimately a good act (done by horrible horrible things). Nysyries struggles with the choice all session while we jump back and forth between her and Jorr’s cabin, but ultimately she decides to take the deal.

We’ll see how it plays out!

There is a second side quest I’ve come up with, based on the Lady Dagger scenario, but we will have to save it for next time as it actually ends up taking us a few sessions to play through!