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everyaccentthesame · 5 years ago

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BG:DIA. Some thoughts on how Chapter 1 could be improved.

Unconstructive criticism has its place, in helping consumers understand a product’s flaws, but more helpful to the artist and the DM is constructive advice, on how to improve a work of art. In this piece, I will be discussing my thoughts on how to improve the first chapter of Baldur’s gate: Descent into Avernus, as part of a series of posts on the topic of this module.

The fundamental issue with chapter 1, which I have tried to outline in my previous posts (bear with me if I expressed myself poorly, I’m new to this), is that chapter 1 fails to set up the rest of the adventure. It doesn’t provide emotional stakes, or a reason for the PC’s to pursue the plot beyond their metagame understanding that the DM is running a module, and that they are expected to play it. And perhaps I have been too harsh. In terms of providing interesting encounters, set-pieces, art-pieces and characters, the module is quite generous. So what we want to do is keep all the good work that has been done for us by the many, many authors of this adventure, but tie it together in a compelling narrative for our players.

In essence, there are three routes that I can see, that a prospective DM can take with the first chapter of this module, without causing the modules’ themes to be cheapened or without significant new material having to be written or improvised by the aforementioned DM.

1. The adventure can start in Elturel, and have Elturel descend into Avernus.

2. The adventure can start in Baldur’s gate, and have Baldur’s gate descend into avernus.

3. You can keep the original story-line of the module, and greatly increase the threat that Zariel and the forces of the Nine-Hells pose to Baldur’s gate, while tying the fate of Elturel to the fate of Baldur’s gate.

Each of the first two options involves getting rid of one of the cities described in the adventure, making the adventure a more thematically appropriate ‘tale of one city’. Each option involves similar work, where we have a description of Baldur’s gate as it is in it’s day to day life, we have none of what it might look like when it plunges into hell, and vice-versa for Elturel. Ultimately choosing between the two probably comes down to personal taste- if you and your players like the idea of Baldur’s Gate, perhaps from the video-games and fiction set there, run it there. If you find the idea of Elturel more compelling, due to the storyline of the Hellriders and Zariel’s connection to them, and the concept of a corrupt, supposedly ‘lawful good’ theocracy breaking down and crashing into hell, go with that city instead.

The last option takes the most work to create a cohesive and compelling narrative, while also remaining the most similar to the plot-line of the book. I personally don’t like this option, so I will only touch on it lightly, and don’t particularly recommend it, though I may write more on it at a later date.

Option 1: The Fall of Elturel, the brightest new star of the Sword Coast.

In this option we will be replacing all of the first chapter set in Baldur’s Gate, and instead setting it in Elturel. Instead of having characters create backstories in Baldur’s Gate, and creating a dark secret, I would instead have them create backstories and backgrounds for their characters that relate to Elturel. A good resource for this is Baldur’s Gate: Fall of Elturel which provides the Hellrider background. I’d also encourage backgrounds that relate to the city in other ways- acolytes of Torm, Helm or Lathander would be very appropriate, as would other city-related backgorunds. For those backgrounds that don’t make sense as being from Elturel, such as Hermit or Outlander, let them know that the dominion of Elturgard is watched over and purified by the light of the Companion, which keeps undead and monsters that fear the light at bay for a hundred miles around, and that the people of Elturgard owe Elturel their safety.

Next, we’ll want to familiarise ourselves with the city. The module gives you a large and detailed description of Baldur’s Gate and day to day life there. It’d be worthwhile reading up on the wiki page on Elturel. In addition, the Hellturel dmsguild product may be worthwhile inspiration (and will be useful in the next chapter as well!). Indeed the tavern, A Pair of Black Antlers, could stand in for Elfsong Tavern. It might also be worthwhile to look at the second chapter and include some of the locations from there in the first chapter, such as the high-hall. This means that when Elturel does descend into Avernus, you can bring the players back to familiar places, and have them be shocked by the deaths of those they knew there, or the destruction of these beloved sites. If you own the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide, it might be worthwhile reading up that section on Elturel, but honestly it’s not too worthwhile.

Depending on how you want to portray Elturel, you could describe it as a bastion of purity and good (now being corrupted from the inside, as a pure-of-intention but misguided theocracy (with a few bad apples), or as a totalitarian quasi-fascist state that hides behind a veneer of purity and religion. The streets are clean, people are well fed and happy, but it’s up to you how much secret crime goes on behind closed doors, or how dangerous it is to speak against the official religion. Questions like ‘Are other religions allowed in Elturel beyond the proscribed gods, Torm, Helm and Lathander?’, ‘How harsh are punishments for crimes committed?’, ‘How are people of races that are perceived as evil by many treated, are they even tolerated?’ and more are worth considering.

We’ll also want to consider what will precipitate the fall of Elturel- I imagine that the players will come close to revealing Thavius Kreeg’s corruption, which will force him to plunge Elturel into hell early (his original plan could have been to plunge all of Elturgard, or perhaps even other cities along the Sword Coast in simultaenously.). Since Thavius will become a major player in this version of the adventure, we should have him be spoken about by various NPC’s as well- usually singing his praises, but sometimes talking about him suspiciously.

The very first mission of the original module was to meet captain Zodge of the Flaming fist, where he will give them their. This works fine, and you could make the dear captain a member of the Hellriders, and use him to represent growing corruption in that organisation and the city as a whole. You could also replace him with Ontharr Frume of the Order of the Gauntlet, hiring the players as he no longer trusts the Hellriders to do their job properly. Obviously replace the mission with something related to cult activity, perhaps the quest-giver believes the cult of Malar that terrorized the city so long ago has returned?

You could use this point to introduce Reya Mantlemorn, though I’d advise against using her Veteran statblock just yet- she’d make a great 1st level fighter, or you could use the Adventure Sidekicks supplement to level her up with the party. This could be the mission that makes her (and any other characters with the Hellrider background) into a full Hellrider, or she could be there to watch the party as the mission-giver trusts her.

I would run the encounters at Elfsong as normal, but with the numbers filed off- rename the Tavern, perhaps to the ‘Pair of Black Antlers’, but the people that inhabit the tavern can remain the same, as should Tarina. This might also be a good time to introduce Reya Mantlemorn if the players are having trouble in the fight, and be certain to tell the players that the people in the Tavern could be persuaded to help out.

The next encounter, the ‘Dungeon of the dead three, I discuss in more detail below, in ‘What should be considered for change in all cases’. It might be worthwhile making the dungeon the old ‘Temple of the beast’, used by the cult of Malar to launch a ‘wild hunt’ from. At the end of the Dungeon, rather than the inclusion of Mortlock Vanthampur, you can insert a character of your own design- perhaps one of the Hellriders, perhaps Reya Mantlemorn if you’ve not introduced her yet. This individual should tell the players that they found out that someone in the Hellriders was funding the cult activity, and letting them into the city discreetly to perform dark rituals and rites. Someone high-ranking, with the power to authorise the funds and to get the Hellriders to look the other way from cult activity.

Run the dragon cultist encounter as normal, its good foreshadowing for Tiamats involvement in Avernus.

You should have the players be made aware of two options at this point- they can go to the one person they know who knows anything about the underworld of Elturel (literally, most criminal dealings would go on underground, away from the Companions light)- Amrik Vanthampur, or they can try to bring their findings to their Quest-giver. We’ll be reflavouring Amrik as an information broker, as well as a loanshark, and he can either be persuaded, negotiated with or threatened for the in for. If you want, he can send the players off on a side mission in exchange for the info, perhaps to smuggle goods past the Hellriders. If they choose to go back to the quest giver, have them give the PC’s their reward, and tell them to report back the next day- when they do, have Thavius Kreeg himself show up, and thank the PCs for their service personally, and inform them that he will take over the investigations personally. He will then tell any Hellrider PC’s or NPC’s that in the next Tenday they will be sent to act as guards of the High Hall, and removed from active duty. This in and of itself should be suspicious, and an insight check of 15 or above should confirm this.

Either way, the PC’s should be directed to investigate the High Overseers personal residence, the re-flavoured Vanthampur Manor. If the players investigate, it will come to light that he’s changed much of the normal security at the manor, and has refused the normal offer of Hellrider guards, preferring his own, personally chosen staff.

While in the manor, the basic dungeon serves as a perfectly good set-piece, but the Vanthampurs should be gone or replaced by Thavius’s servants- Hellriders who’ve lost their faith or paladin oaths but hidden it through infernal contract,or even Thavius himself. Falasker Fisk should be encountered at some point, and inform the players about the importance of the Infernal Lockbox, and send them to Sylvira Savikas, a mage who has long suspected Thavius of dark dealings. You may or may not choose to include the Shield of the Hidden Lord in the adventure. Instead of Thurstwell, have the Infernal Lockbox be found by the players on any serious investigation of Kreeg’s room, but protected by Imps that go to try to warn him what they found. It may also be fun to have the PC’s find a plan that indicates the Thavius has used his power and the cultist activity to create a Nonogram, a 9-pointed star, around the companion in Elturel. This is neat Foreshadowing for what will happen next.

Have the PC’s arrive in candlekeep, where you may wish to take inspiration from Elminister’s candlekeep companion. Have Sylvira meet them, replace her Quasit companion with Lulu, put her in a tower with a high balcony. When she opens the Lockbox (ooh art), have their attention be brought to a low rumble the moment they finish reading the contract. In the distance, have the sky turn red with Hellfire in the distance, and let them see a blinding flash of light and a terrible peal of thunder as the Companion (visible even from this distance), turns black then dissapears.

From here you can have the PC’s feel compelled via the power of the infernal contract to go to Elturel, and Lulu can tell them about Zariel, her Sword, and how she thinks that with the Sword, they can save Elturel. You could also tie their fate to the city, letting them know that if the city falls, so do they- if they swore an oath to defend Elturel, for example, they could suffer a point of exhaustion for every ten-day they stay away from it.

In addition, if the players choose not to go to Candlekeep, and instead try to expose the High Overseer, or even manage to kill him, have the city plunge into Avernus with them in it. That’d be pretty fun, but would require some improv and your players would have to meet Lulu (if they meet her at all), another way.

Option 2: This time, Baldur’s Gate actually descends, first into madness, then Avernus

In this option, Baldur’s gate will be the city that plunges into Avernus. This will keep the first chapter mostly the same, but will require a significant rework of the second chapter (which I will discuss at a later date).

What we will change in this chapter is make Thalmara Vanthampur a far more active villain- while the game goes forward, have her campaign to become Grand duke become far more vocal. She will be using the spat of murders the cult of Zariel has been commiting (on her orders) to justify a series of new laws that will reform the security of Baldur’s Gate, and she becomes highly popular amongst the nobles, who have been victimised by many of her attacks. One of these laws will involve every Baldurian citizen over the age of 16 swearing an oath to defend the city, similar to the one that Elturians swear.

In addition, the refugee crisis that threatens Baldur’s Gate will have to be re-flavoured or removed. I have suggestions about that below. Reya Mantlemorn and the Hellriders will have to go in their current incarnation, but re-flavouring Reya as a Flaming Fist recruit that stumbled on something they shouldn’t and refused to look the other way would be an interesting way to keep her character in the game.

Have them meet Mortlock as usual who tells them about his brothers and how they’re supporting his mothers plans for taking over the city, but that he suspects that her association with the Cult of Zariel goes deeper than just using them as a tool. After the players finish the ‘dungeon of the dead three’ (see the recommendations on that dungeon below), have them hear about Thalmara’s successful election to the position of Grand-Duke, and the new laws being enacted.

Remove Thavius Kreeg from Vanthampur Manor, and have Thalmara not be present- indeed, make it clear that the manor is light on guards due to her moving into the more secure High-hall. Have the Lockbox be experimented on by Thurstwell because he wants to know what deal his mother has made, exactly, so that he ensure he will be spared, or so he can take advantage.

As before, if the PC’s try to expose Thalmara, she will dump the city into Avernus with them in it, and if they go to Sylvira (as before), the city will be sent to Avernus the moment they open the lockbox.

It might be interesting to hint that the Flaming Fist are actually descended from the Hellriders- scrap the Hellriders Elturian origins, and have them be the predecessors of the Flaming Fist mercenary company. This would explain Zariel’s interest in the city and the mercenary company, and could be an interesting and fun revelation for the Players.

For further advice, you might want to check out Eventyr Game’s supplement on this chapter.

Option 3: Now this is actually going to be a tale of two cities

(I will discuss this point in the future, as writing it proved more challenging than I anticipated. I think this does prove my point that having two cities in this adventure does not make terribly much sense.)

What should be considered for change in all cases

There are a few things, that for the sake of thematic consistency could be changed in all of these options for chapter one.

First, the ‘dungeon of the dead three’, while a good dungeon and solid mini-adventure in its own right, should be changed to the ‘dungeon of the infernal cult’. There’s no reason for worshipers of the dead three to be in this adventure, so swap them with cultists of Zariel, and possibly other Archdevils. Have them be working on the Orders of Thavius Kreeg or Duke Vanthampur, but don’t reveal that right away- the cultists probably only know that they’re working through Mortlock or one of Kreeg’s corrupted Hellriders. You can even keep the stats of the cultists of the dead three, just reflavour them as worshipping different devils! Have the Bane-worshippers worship Zariel, have the Myrkulites worship Mephistopheles and have the Bhaalites be devotees of Bael (You don’t even have to change the name for that one much!). If you’re running the dungeon in Baldur’s gate, you could even say that the cult wiped out a local cell of dead three worshippers, and were pretending to be them, albeit sloppily.

In addition, the sojourn to Traxigor’s tower is just unnecessary in my eyes. If the players are in Candlekeep already, filled with Archmages, why not just do the ritual there? Personally, I find Traxigor much more compelling than Sylvira as a character, but his cuteness does distract from Lulu’s. If you want to replace her with him, do so, otherwise just remove him.

If your players are struggling to find a reason for why they should be the one’s to go to Avernus, rather than the other qualified adventurers of the Sword Coast, you may want to introduce a plot point relating the adventurers to the sword of Zariel, or a create a mysterious prophecytm for them to be part of the rescue of the fallen city. You could also tie their fate to the city, letting them know that if the city falls, so do they- if they swore an oath to defend Elturel or Baldur’s gate, for example, they could suffer a point of exhaustion for every ten-day they stay away from it.

If you want to introduce a Refugee-angle into the game, you could place the adventure in the middle of the events of another module, such as the Tyranny of Dragons or Elemental Evil. Whichever city the PC’s are in should be flooded with Refugees from the countryside or towns that have been attacked, desperate for the safety high walls and armies can give.

I’ll be responding to any thoughts or criticism anyone has on these ideas, and may be expanding on them, before I begin my critique and analysis of chapter 2!

#d&d #d&d 5e #dnd 5e campaign #dnd 5th edition #dnd 5e #baldurs gate: descent into avernus #descent into avernus #vanthampur

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yfere · 6 years ago

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Shipping Calculus! Live Updates from C2E61!

The week of…missed opportunities? Setup for future romance? It feels like some threads have been left dangling, hearts held suspended, and points do best with closure. We’ll see what happens in the following weeks. Masterpost here.

From Viewers Like You: Our fourth Battle Scene Intern has been guillotined for missing an additional +2 to Fjord/Caduceus for Fjord loving Bane (as do we all) and an additional +4 to Beau/Yasha for Yasha’s jaw dropping at Beau’s holy fists

But now for this week. Without further ado…

+2 (??????????????) to Beau/Yasha. The +2 is for Beau hearkening back to the Birth of Beauyasha and getting Yasha to very happily pick her up and use her as a stage (Body Contact!). The rest of the attempted point gains were rendered impotent—Beau begins a necessary dialogue about Yasha being a survivor which falls on unwilling ears, and there are point losses for Yasha brazenly lying to Beau (and the rest, but Beau was the one asking) about what she was up to the previous night. Just wanted to get a lay of the land? Just wanted to go outside and see some things? This girl is not ready to open up, poor thing.

+3 (???????????????) to Fjord/Caleb as Fjord also channels Yasha’s dream-lying energy at Caleb, who just wanted to know if he was okay. But perhaps it’s proof of compatibility that Caleb responds by also lying about totally being asleep. Point loss for Fjord and Caleb for separate reasons being very against Fjord accompanying him and Beau to the Marble Tomes Conservatory. Point gain for bothering Fjord with Frumpkin, because that cat is the avatar of Caleb’s affection—being in Frumpkin’s mere presence will gain you points if you’re careful with them. Caleb also generally being a worrywart in Fjord’s direction, all “Are you able to make the trip back?” and “Is your friend a god? IS UK’OTOA A GOD PLEASE ANSWER FJORD”

+6 (???????????????) to Jester/Fjord as Fjord channels his Magic Enthusiasm in her direction, complimenting her scrying all “that was impressive” and asking her a billion and one questions about how it all worked and also was she SAFE, was she SEEN while doing it? Jester giving Wursh the Stare of Doom because you will suffer if you aren’t nice to Fjord, and agreeing that Fjord has a very good heart. Fjord pretending he doesn’t know what’s going on with the Bodo skit which is a transparent lie, he absolutely does know, because he advocated for it in the first place before he was cast. And Fjord is all agreeable “I’ll follow your lead” until Caleb gets +5 to Cockblocking by making it a group thing, which all of a sudden seems “excessive” to Fjord, Mr. Pro Embarrassing Bodo In The Most Extreme Way Possible. Points not really gained for the performance itself, as in spite of Nott’s attempted Wingman, Jester does not kiss Fjord. He said he would follow her lead though. He said. Points taken away for Fjord point blank refusing to convert to the Traveler (I thought you LIKED religion now, Fjord) and calling the idea of following Jester instead a “pyramid scheme.” Fjord…

+10 to Beau/Avantika as Beau continues to gross and creep out absolutely everyone with her fixation on wearing this dead pirate woman’s clothing and being very grossly pleased that said clothing “still smells like her” like dear god, they should have just let Beau sleep with the woman from the beginning, this is unbearable and disturbing.

-50 to Fjord/Uk’otoa Which needs no explanation. Uk’otoa is a bitch.

+9 to Caleb/Jester as Caleb is perhaps an even bigger fan of the embarrassing pornographic show than Beau and Jester, going wayyy over the top in his spellwork and with his Announcer Voice and dancing around for this event. He did turn himself into one of the Bodos to match with Jester’s Lorna, and channels Beau Shipping Energy when he offers to not become a disciple to the Traveler, but a disciple to Jester. Is one of the people most willing to defend the Traveler in general and believes Jester’s account of him—though he’s also a worrywart in her direction about the upcoming TravelerCon. Jester and Caleb getting cute over how she could scry on him at any time (is Jester channeling Scanlan Shipping Energy? Gods forbid), and a lot of smiling at Jester’s new outfit. Jester, for her part, being extremely interested in Caleb’s measurements. “Good to know!” she sings, and if we’re lucky one of these days she is going to get a fancy dress tailor made for the wizard.

+9 to Beau/Jester as Beau pulls Jester aside specially to confess all her nerdy shenanigans to. Wanting to hold onto the fabric, but then trusting Jester with it, because she’s Jester. Being more effusive than Fjord even in her praise of Jester’s scrying. As usual being a perfect chaos causing partner and on Jester’s wavelength with comedic porn, also getting a +4 to Beau/Dramatic Reading as she narrates Bodo’s letter for all the mine workers to hear. Jester being distressed that Beau woke up after her massage, she was supposed to sleep and relax!! Fond reminiscing over how great that day was when Beau was nearly strangled to death by a rug (???) Point loss for Beau implying that the Traveler may have been manipulating Jester into friendship by “appearing” as a child to befriend.

+4 (??????????????) to Fjord/Self Acceptance as he pretty easily rolls with Nott’s “half a man” jibes (because he is literally half man) with a “that’s true” and also chilling out about Wursh’s earlier “runt” comment, saying it’s “apt,” considering the company he was in.

+6 (??????????????) to Caleb/Caduceus as Caleb aims a very specific kind of smile in Caduceus’ direction when Caduceus says “I thought I’d wait until evening to start bending the laws of reality and nature.” Now who else do we know that likes bending reality??? More smiles while suggesting Caduceus do the Thaumaturgy for Beau—and Caduceus was chosen to be one of the Lornas in the play, after all. Caleb also very emphatically getting the withering staff for Caduceus but more importantly going nuts for the blade (presumably also for Caduceus) despite the Attempted Cockblocking from Beau and Nott, who sort of thought gems might be a little better than a broken blade if they could get tats out of them.

-1 to the M9/Professor Waccoh (including Beau) Stop squeezing her balls, guys! Despite Caleb’s attempts at damage control, multiple failed attempts to negotiate additional favors and reading time from her left her in a bit of a mood by the time they left. Yet that mood could not possibly match the black pit of despair that was Caleb after another -5 to Caleb/Books.

+10 to Caleb/Cat Shaped Creatures for epic Cat Person animal handling to get Jannick back (and scritch him under the chin, of course)

+4 to Caleb/The Zemnian Struggle because “granularly” is really fucking hard to pronounce in Common. He must instead use some circumlocution, that mainstay of second language learner existence.

+5 to Jester/Yasha for HUGS and Jester pointing out that Yasha seems to have kind of an aggressive god down her throat. Immediately after Fjord suggests revenge, suggesting they murder Yasha’s entire tribe in retaliation for what happened to Zuala. Jester will throw hands with ANYONE who messes with Yasha, whether it be god or man.

+15 to Nott/Yeza she takes him on library dates and carries him across the threshold! Yeza’s perpetual worries over Luke and terror with their situation sort of puts a damper on things though, and Yeza himself gets +10 to Cockblocking because he’s always fucking asleep when Nott wants to bone.

+10 to Nott/Jester because up until Fjord entered the picture, Jester was all about simulating sex with Nott in public. And Nott is also all about that, until Straight Brain kicks in and she tries to get Fjord in as a replacement. But!! Nott is still crushed to Jester’s bosom in the play. Nott also saying she’s interested in meeting the Traveler!!! She and Beau are now neck and neck for Most Likely To Convert For Love, seems like.

+25 to Nott the Best Detective Agency/Detective Work for Jester’s clutch scrying spell and perception in finding out about the Crawling King (assisted by partners Beau and Caleb). Nott’s detectively instinct in following the case above to the exclusion of all else, wanting to “Figure out what the fuck is going on” before leaving the Dynasty, like the mystery addict she is. If you continue to dangle cases in front of her, she’ll never leave. Nott and Jester do not actually gain points for so quickly hopping on conspiracy trains about horses having Zadash accents and all of the memory gaps in half of the party being connected, but they are good at brainstorming together, nonetheless.

+2 to Fjord/Detective Work for finding the Overcrow, when Caduceus failed to lead another exploring session. Point loss for failing to convince the proprietor to divulge additional secrets, even though she had a very obvious crush on him. (+0 to Fjord/Moira also).

-5 to Caduceus/Every Single NPC as coming off of the high of the Giant Situation the man grows too complacent and is too distracted by the proper placement of his hands to properly sweet talk passerby into telling him the right direction to go.

+35 to Essik/Being Extra because when you’re a magical prodigy, apparently you are Too Awesome for rain to dare touch, and common ground is unworthy of being trod upon by your feet.

+2 to Jester/Essik for snagging a hug from the most Extra of the Dynasty’s wizards, with sheer force of personality.

+1 to Jester/Wursh for continuing to be LOUDLY appreciative of the man’s abs

-10 to Fjord/Splitting the Party as he tries half a billion separate times throughout the day to be alone, and is thwarted every time. Is not allowed to roam freely even after he dodges the library trip, is tailed by Yasha when he tries to leave the apothecary front gracefully, is watched over by Caduceus when the rest go into Wursh’s shop, preventing him from fleeing the scene.

+3 to Fjord/Caduceus as Caduceus is Fjord’s first instinct with Mask of Many Faces. Not many point gains from the epic stink eye of suspicion Caduceus aims in Fjord’s direction at his off kilter behavior and accent slippage. However, making use of the romantic force that is Fjord to acquire what turns out to be lube from an apothecary?

+10 to Yasha/Revenge “Well, I think about that every day” says this soft and gentle barbarian of theirs. “That sounds like a lot of fun,” she says, at the thought of butchering the entire tribe for what was done to her and Zuala.

+2 to Caduceus/Free Will as he’s apparently one of those compatibilists who believe in destiny/determinism and free will at the same time. Maybe. Who knows what goes on in his head.

+10 to Fjord/Visual Metaphor. What’s the saying? A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush? That’s sort of Fjord’s entire life, in that one illusion.

-30 to Caduceus/Clarity. When even your deity, the being that knows you better than most others in this world can’t understand what you’re saying, you have a problem.

#critical role #cr spoilers #beauyasha #beaujester #lavorregard #clayleb #widofjord #widojest #nott the best detective agency #fjorclay #jestasha #fjorester #shipping calculus #-100 to yfere/timeliness

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darkelfshadow · 7 years ago

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Session Summary - 47

AKA “The False Thane Arises”

Adventures in Taggeriell

Session 47 (Date: 16th June 2018)

Players Present:

- Rob (Known as “Oloma”) Human Female.

- Travis (Known as “Trenchant”) Human Male.

- Sean (Known as “Seanicus”) Elf Male.

- Bob (Known as “Sir Krondor) Dwarf Male.

- Clive (Known as “Ignaaz”) Half-elf Male.

Absent Players

- Arthur (Known as “Gim”) Dwarf Male. <Played by Bob>

- Paul (Known as “Labarett”) Elf Male. <Played by Paul>

NPC

- (Known as “Naillae”) Elf Female. <Controlled by DM>

- (Known as “Nac”) Half-elf Male. <Controlled by Rob>

Summary

- Starday, 6th Abadius in the year 815 (Second Era). Early Spring.

- The party begin this session, in the late morning, once again deep underground in an orc lair set in the Anum Mountains east of Dunfrun.

- The party are in a large cavern, with a small pool of red shallow water on one side, and with a raised platform of fashioned and hewn stone on the other side. Two metal brazier shine light around the room.

- Around the room are the dead bodies of the many slain orcs the party dispatched last session. The party set about various tasks. Ignaaz, Nac and Oloma begin searching the many dead bodies and Labarett begins searching the raised platform for hidden doors and buttons. Seanicus begins his Ritual of Detect Magic. Trenchant and Naillae stand in the middle of the cavern, weapons drawn, ready for approaching foes. Sir Krondor guards one exit, a narrow natural passageway, and Gim guards another exit, a hewn stone archway that leads off the platform. Gim can see that there is a light coming from the other end of the hewn passageway.

- After a short time, the bodies have all been searched and the only item of value is a solid gold medallion worn on the neck of the Orc Hand of Gruumsh.

- Seanicus has finished his ritual and tells the party he can sense magic coming from the red pool in the corner of the cavern. He and Ignaaz begin searching the pool but the water is so red that it is impossible to see through. They both take off their boots and use their bare feet to feel around the bottom of the pool. During this time Seanicus also takes a sample of the water with his herbalism kit for later study.

- Sir Krondor takes out his grapple and rope and starts to throw it into the pool and drag it back and forth trying to find something. After several throws, there is a clinking sound as the grapple hits something on the bottom of the pool. Seanicus moves over to the spot and uses his bare feet to feel around and then yells in pain as something sharp pierces his foot. He reaches down and feels around with his hand to find a pile of long objects and pulls one out. He removes an arrow which appears to be in pristine condition and has no damage or marks on it. Thanks to his enhanced senses, Seanicus can see the arrow is glowing with magic. He bends down and pulls out a total of twenty arrows. The Drow Warlock states he will need some time to identity what the properties are of the magic arrows and the party decide to wait here for ten minutes whilst he performs the ritual of Identification.

- The party wait around whilst the ritual is conducted. Trenchant tells the party he wants to go back alone to the secret chamber with the metal ladder the party previously discovered and take a look up the ladder whilst Seanicus performs the ritual.

- Sir Krondor moves in front of him, “You are not going alone to wander around an enemy encampment. That’s crazy!”

- Ignaaz moves to stand next to Trenchant, “He’s not going alone. I’m going with him, we Harpers have to stick together.”

- Trenchant smiles and nods, “Yeah, see I’m not going alone.”

- Sir Krondor doesn’t move out the way, “Let me tell you young one, the story of the time when I and three other Dwarf comrades went into the old abandoned castle of Lord Gheta in the Dramunz Mountains, and why you should never split your forces.”

- The smile on Trenchant’s face disappears, “Is this going to be another long story?”

- Sir Krondor nods, “Yes, very long. I’ll need to explain why we were there otherwise the story won’t have the dramatic impact it should. Plus I need to explain the family relationships between the group so you can see why the split happened. And I’ll need to explain about some of the history about Lord Gheta otherwise the story won’t make a lot of sense. Oh and I should really tell you about the Dramunz Mountains and the creatures that live around there, it’s not essential to the story mind you, but it will help to set the scene.”

- Trechant starts rubbing his head as if a sudden head ache has come on and with a sigh says, “If I agree not to wander off and just wait here with everyone else will you agree not to tell the tale?”

- Sir Krondor smiles, “Yes.”

- Trenchant leads Ignaaz back to the others, “Come on Ignaaz, Grand Father Time back there doesn’t want us youngins to get into any trouble.”

- Sir Krondor sits back down with a satisfied grin.

- A short time passes and Seanicus holds up the arrows and tells the party they are indeed enchanted (+1 attack and damage).

- As he moves over to hand them to Trenchant, who will use them with his enchanted bow Doigh Nadair, a small scream brings everyone attention over to the archway off the raised platform. An orc, small and slender with wide hips and small pair of breasts is standing in the archway. The female orc is only wearing a dirty rag that barely covers her torso. In her hands is a large sack and she doesn’t appear to have any weapons on her. Her face shows obvious fear as she sees the many dead bodies of the orcs around the cavern.

- Before she can do anything, Oloma and Trenchant sprint the short distance over to her as she is starting to back up.

- Oloma moves, still with her Soul Blades out, and at first her instinct is to strike out at the unarmed female orc but a flash of warmth from the cursed Ring of Pelor makes her change her mind and instead she dismisses her glowing Blades. Oloma grabs hold of the female orc whilst Trenchant places a hand over her mouth to stop her screaming again.

- The orc drops the sack onto the ground and struggles to get free but Oloma holds her as the rest of the party then approach and surround her.

- Trenchant, still covering the mouth of the small female orc, speaks in Orcish, “Do not fear. We not enemy. You safe.”

- As he says this the eyes of the female orc move over to look at all the dead bodies of her fellow orcs, about thirty, lying all about the cavern with various ghastly wounds. She ducks down, getting free from Oloma’s grasp and then begins to run back towards the hewn archway. Sir Krondor, standing near her, starts to swing his war hammer towards her.

- Trenchant yells, “No! She’s unarmed!”

- But the war hammer of Sir Krondor slams into her neck with a sickening crunch, easily killing her in a single blow, and sends her small frail body falling onto the ground with little sound. The look of terror is still on her face.

- Trenchant kneels down, “She was unarmed!”

- Sir Krondor replies back, “She is an orc. She was about to run and warn others of our presence. You need to harden the fuck up.”

- Trenchant stands up, “I do not kill unarmed fleeing innocents!”

- Sir Krondor, “There are no innocent orcs.”

- Gim moves to stand next to his cousin, “Yep, the only good orc is a dead orc.”

- Nac laughs, “I’ll agree with that! That’s the first intelligent thing you’ve ever said Gim.”

- The two Dwarven cousins move off together ignoring Nac’s comment.

- Oloma picks up the sack dropped by the female orc and opens it, “It’s just dried meat. She must have been bringing food for the orcs to eat.”

- The party decide to check if anyone or anything heard that scream. Seanicus sends his Shadow Hound into the hewn passageway and forward into the next cavern. Through the hound’s eyes the Warlock can see a large natural cavern with two other narrow exits, both of which have light coming from them. In the centre of the cavern the floor is hewn stone and has engraved Dwarvish markings visible. Large teeth, some bigger than an adult human, appear to be arranged like a large giant jaw in the centre. The size of the teeth and jaw would indicate that they are from a very large animal, like a Dragon. A small campfire is visible but no creatures can be seen.

- Seanicus tells the party what he saw and that the next cavern is clear. He can’t see any sign that the scream was heard. The Warlock adds, “Those teeth are huge. If that was from a dragon, it must have been huge.”

- The party move forward in marching order, with the Dwarven cousins leading the way. They pass through the hewn stone passageway, which has more of the small funeral alcoves along the walls. The party move to the opening of the large cavern and slowly and quietly begin to enter.

- Trenchant moves over towards some of the large teeth and takes out his enchanted bow, aiming it at the other two exits, providing cover, as the party move forward. Oloma also takes cover behind some of the large teeth too. The two Dwarven cousins move to the stand near the camp fire and start to quickly look over the large teeth. Labarett, Naillae and Ignaaz move towards the two other narrow exits, Labarett uses hand gestures to indicate he can hear a large number of orc voices from the south exit and a large number of female orcs from the east exit. Nac and Seanicus cautiously enter the room, remaining near the hewn stone entry way.

- Sir Krondor speaks in a low voice, “These aren’t real teeth, they’re stone carved to look like teeth. There are flecks of gold of them. I’d say they were covered in gold at one time but over the years the gold has been removed and stolen by grave robbers.”

- Naillae asks in a quiet voice, “But where’s the tomb?”

- In a low voice Oloma says, “I’ll start searching for secret doors.” She and Ignaaz start examining the north cavern wall.

- “Hurry up, we might have company soon,” adds Sir Krondor in a low voice as he moves to join Gim to guard the south exit, weapons drawn. Labarett, Trenchant and Naillae move behind the teeth and take aim at the south exit too.

- Nac moves over to guard the second narrow exit where the sound of female orcs can be heard.

- Whilst Oloma and Ignaaz continue searching the north wall for secret doors or levers, Seanicus moves around the cavern mumbling quietly, “The archway said something. What was it? Here lies Thane Karkun, Dragon Slayer, Master Of The Thunder, and true heir to Clan Moribek. Long may he rest, in the golden cavity of the beast’s maw he slew.”

- The Warlock’s eyes open wide, “Golden cavity! These teeth, are supposed to be dragon teeth and they were once covered in gold. The tomb must be under the teeth!” Seanicus moves to teeth and looks around. He stands just behind and near the two largest teeth, the floor engraved with Dwarvish markings, and takes out a small jar of glowing dust. He throws the dust into the air and the glittering dust begins to sparkle and shimmer as it falls down, illuminating the area.

- Seanicus kneels down to start examining the ground at his feet saying, “This Glow Dust should help reveal hidden things. I can’t see anything yet.”

- Naillae coughs, “Mmm, Seanicus. You might want to stand up and just look around you.”

- The Warlock stops looking intently at the ground at his feet and then stands up. He can now see all around him there is a thin glowing line, making a square 10’ by 10’, which he stands directly in the centre of. He smiles and says, “That must be the entrance into the tomb.”

- Oloma waves her hands and speaks from the north side of the cavern, “I have found the outline of a secret door here too!”

- Just then, two orcs begin to exit from the south, one speaking in Orcish, “Hungry. Where food gone to?”

- As the first one exits the cavern, Sir Krondor and Gim who were waiting on either side of the exit, swing their weapons into the orc, killing it instantly. The second orc lets out a shout but then is also killed as Naillae, Labarett and Trenchant let loose daggers, javelins, and arrows from the other side of the cavern.

- Many shouts and orcish barks of alarm can now be heard from the south.

- Sir Krondor shouts, “We’ve got company!” as dozens and dozens of orcs start to run into the cavern. He and Gim start swinging their weapons but there are too many to stop. The fast moving orcs soon cover the distance to the engage the party. Soon everyone in the cavern, except Oloma who stands in the far north corner in shadow, has numerous orcs surrounding them with great axes swinging.

- Still more orcs are trying to get into the room. The party is being overrun by orcs as nearly thirty orcs engage them. Some of the orc great axes cut wounds into the party. Oloma, Ignaaz and Seanicus don’t have any weapons out as they were searching. Labarett, Naillae and Trenchant begin to change weapons to engage the enemy at close range.

- One of the orcs swings his great axe at Nac and cuts one of the the straps holding his chainmail together. A portion of the chainmail opens exposing Nac’s vulnerable torso (Critical Hit, AC -4).

- Seanicus takes a battering from the orcs surrounding him, as he has no weapon or shield out. The Warlock is in dire straights and quickly summons a Darkness spell around him that covers a large portion of the cavern and now sees many of the orcs and Tenchant, Naillae and Labarett now blinded within the Darkness. The Warlock begins to stumble away, unable to see in the utter pitch black that is devoid of light. The orcs near him hear him move away and swing their great axes blindly but to no avail. Seanicus stumbles out of the sphere of Darkness and into the north section to see Oloma. It was not the direction he wanted to go but it will do (Failed Survival check to determine direction whilst blind). Oloma produces her Soul Blades and then moves to engage some orcs near Labarett. Seanicus begins to take out his war hammer and shield.

- The party are attacking back, killing orcs one by one, but the share numbers of the orcs are seeing the party struggle. Trenchant, still in the Darkness, speaks words of Eldritch power and one of the orcs nearest him drops to the ground in a deep magical Sleep. The Bard then moves through the Darkness and appears on the east side of the cavern (Failed Survival check to determine direction whilst blind).

- The orcs continue to flood into the cavern, replacing the orcs that the party have killed, and with them comes one large and powerfully built orc. Gim and Sir Krondor try to swing at the incoming horde but there are just too many to deal with. The face of this larger orc is hidden by a large golden mask, that resembles a Dwarven face with a long beard with a helmet.

- Gim looks at the large orc wearing the golden mask and shouts, “That stinking orc is a wearing a Dwarven Thane Mask!”

- Sir Krondor turns to look at the gold mask, “I swear that orc dies for that sacrilege!”

- The large orc wearing the Thane mask starts to shout an Orcish Battle Cry, “By Gruumsh, kill! Kill! Kill!” The other orcs start to chant in Orcish “Kill” over and over. (Battle Cry - all Orcs now have Advantage on attack rolls for one turn).

- Sir Krondor and Gim are in a frenzy now. Having seen the insult of an orc wearing one of the sacred Dwarven Thane Masks, normally only worn by a Thane of Dwarvish Clan, they are striking down orc after orc. Sir Krondor crushes the skull of one orc in a single blow (Critical Hit) and Gim swings his great axe in a wide arc killing two in a single blow (Feat Great Weapon Master - extra attack on kill).

- From the northern side of the cavern, the secret door swings open and two more orcs appear, having heard the Battle Cry of the Orc War Chief. These two new orcs, each have a black eye patch and wear a brass medallion, Orc Eyes of Gruumsh. Clerics of the Orc God! They each raise their hands and summon a pair of divine spectral weapons floating in the air and then send them forth. The Spiritual Weapons floats forward Oloma, Seanicus and Labarett and begin swinging to attack. The two Orc Eyes then move forward to engage with their own great axes.

- The orcs, in a battle frenzy after the Battle Cry, begin to attack the party. Their great axes are striking true and the party are being pushed back. Gim, Sir Krondor, Ignaaz and Trenchant now have large bloody and grave wounds.

- Nac steps aside to avoid one great axe but another two great axes slam into the Cleric. The Cleric of Takhisis looks around the room. He can see the two Dwarven cousins are badly wounded, so too is Seanicus and Trenchant. Even Labarett, who normally shrugs off attacks like a statue of stone, is getting injured. Nac thinks to himself, “This might be our last battle. Might as well go out in a blaze of glory!”

- The Cleric summons a spell around him, and spectral fiends of white light appear around him and begin to attack the closest orcs. The Spirit Guardians defend the Cleric and the three orcs around him quickly succumb. The Orc Chieftain sees the spell and begins to move over to Nac to stop the Cleric wiping out his orcs.

- Sir Krondor can see the party is failing and they will soon succumb. The Knight of the Anvil summons all his courage and shouts his own Rallying Cry. The shout bolsters his and some of the party’s resolve, urging them to find more reserves of courage. (Rally Cry - healing to himself and three others).

- Sir Krondor finishes the Rally Cry and then eyes the orcs around him as he pulls out a Healing Potion to close up of of his wounds. Gim sees his cousin downing the potion and gives him cover as he swings his great axe killing two of the orcs near them. Before any more orcs can move forward Gim too takes out a Healing Potion to close up some of his wounds too.

- Sir Krondor throws the empty vial away and readies his war hammer for more battle.

- Nac and the War Chief are in a mighty struggle now, each trying to get the upper hand on the other.

- Meanwhile on other side of the room, the battle between Oloma, Labarett and Seanicus and the two Orc Eyes of Gruumsh is a fierce and hard fought one. The combined attacks of the Orc Eyes and their Spirit Weapons is proving deadly. Likewise, Seanicus unleashes a bonfire under one Orc Eye, and as the fires leap up to engulf him, Oloma and Naillae finish him off. One of the Spirit Weapons winks out of existence. Seanicus, in a panic, misfires one of his spells that sees it backfire striking himself and blasting himself into a nearby cavern wall with a hard hit (Fumble - backfire).

- Oloma begins to move away to help take on the Orc War Chief and the last remaining Orc Eye sends his Spirit Weapon to attack her.

- Ignaaz too is nearly dead, he can’t see a way of his predicament when suddenly one of the orc great axes begins to come down. The Half-Elf Bard thinks that his time is now up but at the last second the great axe just misses and ploughs into the ground (Critical Hit that was forced a re-roll by Trenchant using his Inspiration).

- Ignaaz seeing his chance swings his short sword and kills the orc before he can recover for another attack.

- Seanicus dismisses the sphere of Darkness to reveal a small number of orcs still trapped within. Sir Krondor and Gim have killed all the orcs around them and now move over to help defend Seanicus and Ignaaz who are very badly injured and still in battling against foes.

- Labarett is now free and he runs to charge into the Orc War Chief but the nimble orc manages to side step and avoid the charge attack. Trenchant aims Doigh Nadair at the War Chief and releases an arrow at the orc. As he does so nine other glowing divine arrows appear, a Divine Rain, and all strike the War Chief in the torso. He bellows in rage but still stands.

- Ignaaz is brought down to one knee, nearly dead after a deadly strike by an orc (Critical Hit) but before the orc can finish him others in the party race forward and kill the orc

- Nac smashes his shield into the War Chief and forces him onto the ground. The Cleric then raises his Talon long sword which now glows with a purple energy, a manifestation of his Goddess’s power, and strikes the sword downwards but the War Chief rolls out the way. Before the War Chief can get up Labarett swings down twice with his battle axe Snaidh and kills the War Chief as the battle axe plunges deeply into the chest of the orc. The War Chief dies with one last gargling bloody cough.

- The remaining orcs are quickly dispatched with one orc trying to flee the lost battle but is killed by Sir Krondor as he tries to run away.

- The party are victories but it was a very close battle with Sir Krondor, Gim, Trenchant, Ignaaz and Seanicus nearly succumbing to a fatal blow.

- Sir Krondor and Gim move over to the Orc War Chief and they remove the gold Thane Mask. Gim kicks the dead orc, “That’s for wearing that mask you unworthy scum!”

- Labarett and Trenchant use some rope to tie up the last alive orc, who is still in a deep magical sleep. Gim and Sir Krondor then take up guard whilst the rest of the dead orcs are searched. Oloma once again begins to search the north wall for a secret button to open the secret door she found earlier. The sound of panicked and fearful female orcs can be heard coming from the other exit. Nac begins repairing the broken strap on his chainmail armour.

- Trenchant wakes the sleeping orc who looks around with a fearful face when he sees the scene around him. Dead orcs, including the dead War Chief, litter the cavern.

- The orc spits out in Common, “You win human. Kill me now!”

- Trenchant speaks back in Orcish, “We don’t have to kill you. We have not entered the cavern over there with all your women folk. You answer all my questions truthfully and agree to stop attacking travellers on the road and I will allow you to leave and take all the women with you to safety.”

- The orc looks doubtful and replies in Orcish, “You not kill me?”

- Trenchant nods, “If you swear to leave this lair, never return here and stop attacking travellers on the road.”

- The orc looks over to the exit where the sound of female voices can be heard, “I did not think humans would trust an orc. You are different than other humans I meet. I swear it. I swear on the name of Gruumsh that I will take the females far from here and make a new tribe. I will not attack here or any on the road again. I swear it!”

- They then ask the orc what he knows. The orc tells them about the pit trap and chest trap, which the party had already found, and also that the War Chief keeps his treasure in the room where he and the other orcs came from. He describes all the rooms that the orcs are aware of and the party have found all of them except one he calls the Priest Room, which he nods towards the secret door in the north indicating that it is beyond there. He has never been in that room or used the secret door, only the Clerics of Gruumsh are allowed in there.

- Trenchant and Labarett walk the tied orc over to the east exit and get the orc to yell out to occupants to not panic. Trenchant and Labarett lead the prisoner into the adjacent cavern that is just as large as the previous “Dragon Teeth” cavern but this cavern is sectioned into two smaller areas, with a narrow section in the middle. Lots of hay beds are positioned around a couple of small fires. There are few items in here, only some wooden toys and crude cooking and sewing materials.

- Standing before them is a group of ten female orcs and eight small orc children. Labarett and Trenchant walk them out to the exit of the cavern and untie the orc. The despondent group of orcs moves off. The pair watch the orcs walk away until they are no longer visible and then make their way to return to the party.

- Oloma has now spent a long time searching the north wall for a secret button to open the secret door the two Orc Eyes came from but she can’t find anything.

- Seanicus speaks, “You did try just pushing the door?”

- Oloma moves over to the secret door scoffing, “Of course I tried pushing it” and then places a hand on the door and pushes. The secret door swings open freely.

- Oloma sheepishly grins, “Maybe.”

- Whilst the party take a short rest, Oloma quickly looks through the north Priest Room. It is a small room that has some tidy hay beds and a camp fire. A wall hanging with a large painted eye is visible. Oloma searches the wall hanging and then searches a small dead end section of the room to discover another secret door that swings open to reveal the large Ogre cavern the party previously came through.

- Oloma returns to the party and they continue to rest. Nac performs the long Prayer Of Healing and gives some much need divine respite to the wounds of the party. During the rest Gim ties the gold Thane Mask to his backpack. The party feel at bit more refreshed after the rest and are now ready to press on (most of the party used Hit Dice to recover hit points, Seanicus recovered his Spells, the Dwarf cousins recovered their special Fighter abilities and the two Bards recovered their Inspiration Dice).

- Feeling more refreshed the party make their way into the south cavern to find another large cavern filled with numerous hay beds and a central camp fire. One of the beds, in the far corner, appears to be a proper wooden frame bed. When Trenchant moves over to examine the bed he sees that it is in very bad shape, the wood frame is slightly broken and has blood on it, and the sheets appear to be torn and very dirty. Looking under the bed Trenchant finds a medium sized metal chest which he opens up as it is not locked. Inside the chest are a couple thousand coins of different denominations. It will take some time to count all these coins.

- Trenchant places the chest into his Bag Of Sharing, which it just fits, and the bag is now straining but far too heavy to carry.

- Trenchant takes out his Stone of Sending and sends a message to Valthrun, “Incoming in bag. Please remove. Heavy.”

- A moment later he receives a message back from the remote Wizard, “Yes of course. One moment.”

- A minute later the bag suddenly collapses as the chest within vanishes. Then another message comes through the Stone Of Sending, “Have chest. Will count coins. Valthrun.”

- The party return to the large cavern with the stone “Dragon Teeth” and begin to try to work out how to open it. Naillae examines the 10 foot square area on the engraved stone floor and she thinks it is some type of movable stone door but can not work out how it moves. She can’t find any obvious traps.

- Gim and Sir Krondor begin to search the stone “Dragon Teeth” and Gim finds a small hidden button on one of the front large teeth. He presses it but nothing happens. Some of the party try pushing or jumping on the flat stone door whilst Gim presses the button but nothing happens.

- On a hunch Nac and Oloma search the other front large teeth and they too find a small hidden button. Oloma presses it but nothing happens, then she says, “Gim press the other button whilst I press this one. They’re two far apart for one person to press. We need to do it together at the same time.”

- Gim nods his understanding and then both he and Oloma press the buttons together. Immediately there is a loud click sound and then the stone floor between the teeth starts to drop down with a loud sound of stone moving on stone and metal gears and chains moving. The party watch as the thick stone slabs drops about two feet and then starts to move horizontally back into a recess in the side wall of a square pit which has been revealed. Slowly the stone slabs disappears into the side wall and the party look down into an angle pit, with a set of narrow stone stairs descending down into the depths of the earth.

- Trenchant hammers a small metal piton into the side wall, in order to prevent the stone slab moving back out, hopefully.

- Oloma focuses her mind and places a Teleport anchor point next to the “Dragon Teeth”.

- The party prepare to descend down, in single file, with Naillae leading to check for traps. The stairs descend about forty feet and then open into a small area in the shape of a “T” with an impressive looking door of Dwarvish design. Along the wall the door is placed, are engraved Dwarvish markings and design work.

- Above the door Dwarvish script is engraved into it. Gim reads it out, “Thane Karkun. May he find the peace in death he could not find in life.”

- The party enter the area cautiously and Naillae and Oloma begin searching the walls and door. They can’t find anything but there’s something about the door that isn’t quite right that Naillae can’t put her finger on.

- Seanicus performs the Ritual of Detect Magic after which he can not see anything magical in this area but can sense something magical forward in the direction that lays beyond the door. Seanicus then takes out Nedumlin his ancient Dwarvish war hammer and speaks to it in Dwarvish, “Do you see or sense anything? Do you know about this place?”

- He waves the war hammer around and then a voice from the war hammer replies in Dwarvish, “I sense nothing and know nothing of this place nor the name Thane Karkun. The right door lintel is slightly larger than the left, that is odd. Dwarvish architecture is normally very symmetrical.”

- The party move back whilst Seanicus and Ignaaz use a Mage Hand spell to open the door handle and push the door open. As the door opens there is a sound of a metal chain pulling and then a series of clicking sounds, like a flint striking repeatedly, and then from the beyond the door the room suddenly lights up from the flickering light of two lanterns that have burst into life. The metal chain and clicking sound stop.

- The party can see a long rectangular room before them with a stone coffin at the far end. The walls and floors are all engraved with Dwarvish markings. Slowly the party enter the room and fan out, Trenchant and Labarett in the front. Oloma, Ignaaz and Nac still are making their way down the narrow stairs.

- When all the party have entered Naillae and Oloma begin checking the coffin for traps. They can not find anything. The coffin has a engraved relief on it of an armoured Dwarf warrior holding a battle axe and wearing elaborate armour. A pair of lightning strikes are above his head and wrapped around the sides of the coffin is a long, scaly dragon.

- Gim and Sir Krondor put away their weapons and shield and begin to try and push the large stone lid off the coffin. Oloma covers her face with part of her cloak.

- Gim is not doing a lot but Sir Krondor manages to push his end aside. (Gim failed his Strength check twice in a row).

- Gim moves away puffing whilst Labarett puts away his weapon and shield and begins to use his strength to slowly push the lid off. With a loud bang the stone lid crashes to the floor. The party peer inside the coffin to see a figure the size of a Dwarf, dressed in elaborate black half plate armour with matching helmet and boots, a pair of red and gold braces with engraved symbols, and with a large black battle axe resting on his front.

- Suddenly black dust shoots upwards from the coffin, taking with it the armour and battle axe. It forms floating above the coffin into a figure of indistinct features except for a pair of red glowing eyes that turn a hateful stare at the party, a Ghost Knight. It screams in a loud wailing voice, “Rur nadak ïlul!” (Translation: Dwarvish “Rally to me!”)

- The room suddenly gets colder, ice forms on the stone walls and mist appears from the breath of the living party.

- Trenchant, Sir Krondor, Gim and Seanicus, who can all understand Dwarvish, get a real bad feeling of dread on hearing those words and seeing the room go cold.

- Oloma aims a psionic blast of Force energy at the dark sharp and it appears to send bits of black dust off it as the Force beam damages the Ghost Knight.

- The floating Ghost Knight swings his black battle axe towards Labarett in three quick and rapid strikes. The ghost blade swings into and cuts the Elf Barbarian with Necrotic damage. Labarett winces in pain and then steals his nerves as he takes out his enchanted battle axe, Snaidh. The Barbarian lets out a roar and enters into a blind Rage and then swings his weapon back into the Ghost Knight. Parts of the black mist brake off.

- Seanicus aims two Repealing Blasts at the Ghost Knight, both striking it and ripping off some black mist. The beams push the dark form into the adjacent stone wall but the blow from hitting the stone wall appears to have no effect on the dark apparition.

- Gim and Sir Krondor quickly take out their weapons and shield, as they had put them away before to push the lid off. Nac, standing in a far back corner, sends forth a spectral ghost hand to the Ghost Knight. The hand seems to have no effect and can not harm the Ghost Knight, it is immune to Necrotic damage. An evil cackling laughter erupts from the black form.

- Naillae looks terrified of the black figure floating before her and quickly moves back as far as possible and starts to pull out her enchanted dagger, Urramach.

- Trenchant sends a Vicious Mockery towards the dark form, “I’d like to leave you with one thought … but I’m not sure you have anywhere to put it!” The Psychic force shoots forwards towards the dark form but has no effect on it. It is immune! The Ghost Knight looks at Trenchant and wails, “Rít nol maton udos!” (Translation: Dwarvish “I shall cut your tongue out jester!”).

- Oloma again forces a beam of Force energy at the Ghost Knight ripping off large parts of the swirling black mist. The red eyes of the Ghost Knight turn to look at Oloma and the wailing voice speaks, “Uthar aral nukad” (Translation: Dwarvish “Deal with her first!”).

- The Ghost Knight continues to swing repeatedly at Labarett. The black ghost form of the battle axe smashes into the Barbarian and cuts him with black wounds. Labarett’s Rage is doing nothing to lessen the damage of the Necrotic attacks of the Ghost Knight. The Elf Barbarain growls in anger and pain.

- Suddenly from around the room, the transparent figures of three Dwarf Spirit Infantry appear. Dressed in ragged battle armour and each with a full helmet covering their face from view, they float in the air, holding a pair of hand axes in each hand. A pale blue light emanates from the three spectres and the air is bitterly cold around them.

- Following the command of the Ghost Knight, the three Spirit Infantry fly directly towards Oloma. Trenchant has to duck out of the way of one of the spirits as it flies past him.

- As the three spirits enter the area that Oloma stands in they begin to fly in small circles, in and out of her, she can not avoid them. Her face contorts in pain as her body is ripped apart internally with Force damage. Then all three of the spirits enter her body. She starts to convulse and shake, gritting her teeth with an unheard scream can not be released from her clamped lips. The Soul Blades from each of her hands start to flicker and then dies out. The shaking stops and two of the blue spirits appear on either side of her. Oloma looks up, her eyes glowing blue, and draws out her scimitar. She looks at the party with obvious hate and contempt. (Failed Charisma saves).

- Trenchant yells, “I think Oloma has been possessed! Watch yourselves!”

- Sir Krondor and Gim have taken out silver weapons and begin attacking the two Spirit Infantry, there weapons are striking the spirits but only doing some damage (Resistance to non-magical weapons).

- Nac casts a Guiding Bolt spell at the Ghost Knight which hits it, braking apart more of the black mist and now causing the Ghost Knight to glow (Advantage next attack against it). Labarett wastes no time and immediately swings Snaidh twice into the glowing Ghost Knight, ripping apart a large black chunk of the black mist (Critical Hit).

- Seanicus places a Hex Curse (Improved Critical Hit, increased damage) on the Ghost Knight and then fires two Agonising Blasts at the black form. The beams both hit and rip apart the creature sending some of the black armour crashing to the ground where is turns to dust.

- The red eyes turn to Seanicus and the wailing voice speaks, “Nob udos nukad!” (Translation: Dwarvish “Deal with him next!”)

- Seanicus, able to understand Dwarvish and seeing what happened to Oloma, prepares himself for the coming of the two Spirit Infantry.

- Sir Krondor, Gim, Trenchant and Naillae are all attacking the Spirit Infantry. Oloma, possessed now, begins to walk towards Labarett, her scimitar held high. Sir Krondor sees her and hesitates with his silver hand axe. He can not bring himself to attack her. She walks over to Labarett and with no emotion swings with scimitar into the Barbarian. The weapon strikes him but does little to the Barbarian whilst he is Raging.

- Again the Ghost Knight swings his deadly black blade at Labarett and more black wounds open up, weeping with Necrotic damage. Now the two Spirit Infantry begin to fly straight at Seanicus but he is ready for them. He ducks and dives, side stepping both of the swirling flying blue forms. He manages to keep out of the way of the two spirits and they can not enter his body (Successful Dexterity save).

- Nac once again fires a Guiding Bolt at the Ghost Knight, it hits and the black mist now is transparent. The floating pieces of armour are beginning to shake. A glow now surrounds the creature again, thanks to Nac’s spell (Advantage next attack).

- Nac yells, “Finish it off Labarett. It is nearly done for!”

- The red eyes of the Ghost Knight are flickering. The energy holding it together is nearly gone. It wails out, “Nåst atol kozoth lînem” (Translation: Dwarvish “Reveal your true faces!”)

- Labarett, badly wounded, raises his enchanted battle axe and looks at the faded Ghost Knight. The Barbarian swings his battle axe into the creature and with a flash of purple light the black mist dissolves completely, the armour and battle axe dropping and breaking into dust as it hits the floor. Except for the red and gold braces which fall back into the coffin with a clank and rest there.

- Now the party turn their attention to Spirit Infantry and the possessed Oloma. Nac tries to remember how to deal with the possession and shouts, “We can only break the possession by forcing the spirit out by Turning, killing the host, or using a Dispel Evil spell!” (Successful Intelligence Religion check).

- Before they can react or do anything, the entire party unleashes their full fury on the two floating Spirit Infantry, spells and magic weapons, and mundane weapons all strike at the pair and in an instant the two spectres are destroyed.

- The final remaining spirit within Oloma, answers the call of its master and flies out of Oloma, who stumbles as the possession ends. The Spirit Infantry lifts up the front of its full helmet and reveals its true face. The party all reel back from the Horrifying Visage but all except Trenchant and Sir Krondor manage to overcome the Eldritch power of the vision. Trenchant and Sir Krondor begin to succumb to the effect and begin to age rapidly. Sir Krondor ages 20 years, going from 58 years old to 78 years old. Most Dwarves live at least to 250 years old so, so the effect on Sir Krondor is not visible and he still is a young Dwarf. Trenchant ages 10 years, going from 23 years old to 33 years old. Most Humans are lucky to get past 70 years of age. Trenchant is now nearly middle aged. The effect on the Bard is striking. Age lines and wrinkles appear, and skin becomes blemished and some of his fair begins to thin out and lose colour.

- Naillae screams as she looks at the aged face of Trenchant, the one she loves. A tear of despair rolls down her Elvish check. Most Elves live past 550 years and as such she always knew that she would have limited time with Trenchant but to see him be aged in such a manner, to be robbed of those years that she could have spent with him, brings her to tears.

- Both Sir Krondor and Trenchant then begin to shake with fear, brought on by the Eldritch force of the Horrifying Visage, and they start to run away as fast as they can compelled by the magic effect.

- As Sir Krondor turns to flee, unable to control himself, the spirit slashes its two glowing hand axes and strikes towards the Dwarf Knight. The blade nearly slices into the Knight’s neck but at the last second just misses (Critical Hit that was forced re-roll with Inspiration used by Sir Krondor).

- The party begin to attack the last remaining spirit but the spirit is not yet done. The blue glowing hand axes it wields slashes back towards its attackers.

- Sir Krondor and Trenchant run out of the room and all the way up the long narrow stone steps until they are just at the square opening. Sir Krondor stops and grabs Trenchant, both now able to overcome the magical Fear effect affecting them. They turn to look back down the stairs. Sir Krondor speaks, “We need to go back and help our friends.”

- They both run back and arrive just in time to see the final spirit being dissolved into nothing by the attacks by the party.

- Trenchant and Sir Krondor walk back to the party. Naillae moves towards Trenchant and moves her hand gently across his aged face looking him over with both love and concern. They both look at each other unspeaking and then embrace silently.

- The party recover the red and gold braces from the coffin but there is nothing else that remains of either the Ghost Knight or Spirit Infantry. The party move back up the stairs and out into the “Dragon Teeth” cavern whilst Seanicus starts the Ritual to Identify the red and gold bracers. The rest of the party sit down and rest, tired and weary, and knowing they are all lucky to be alive.

- Sir Krondor moves over to Trenchant, “How you feeling?”

- Trenchant replies, “Old. Serves me right for calling you Grand Father Time before. I’m sorry.”

- Sir Krondor smiles, “No harm done. Besides, I like your new look, it’s distinguished.”

- After a short time Seanicus holds the bracers up and says, “These are Bracers Of The Thunderer. The wearer of these bracers is resistant to thunder and lightning damage and can use them to store that energy and expel it back towards enemies.”

XP Allocation

Group - Combined (This is equally divided by the number of players who were involved)

Quests (Only quests that are completed or rendered undoable, during this session, are shown here)

- Secure The Northern Trade Route (Remove Orc Raiders) = 250 XP

Creatures Overcome

- Female Orc = 10 XP

- Orcs = 2700 XP

- Orcs - Eye Of Gruumsh = 900 XP

- Orc War Chief = 1100 XP

- Ghost Knight (Infantry Commander) = 2300 XP

- Spirit Infantry = 900 XP

Individual (This is only given to that person and is not divided amongst all players)

Special Bonus (Outstanding Role Playing)

Nil

XP Levels and Player Allocations

Player : Start + Received = Total (Notes)

Rob : 43890 + 1066 = 44956

Arthur : 31680 + 799 = 32479

Travis : 31780 + 1332 = 33102

Paul : 27185 + 799 = 27984

Sean : 29031 + 1066 = 30097

Bob : 27811 + 1332 = 29133

Clive: 23889 + 23889 + 1066 = 24955

NPC (Naillae) : + (533)

NPC (Nac): + (533)

#D&D #DnD #5th #5e #RPG

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rpgsandbox · 7 years ago

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Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls! Gamers of all ages!

Going down?

Frog God Games is proud to present Rappan Athuk, THE DUNGEON OF GRAVES! The Granddaddy of all Megadungeons is back for Fifth Edition!

Mock-up hardcover with actual cover design.

Characters will test their mettle against puzzles, tricks, and traps a-plenty; test their grit and steel against monsters and foes lurking around every corner; and at the end of it all awaits the Big Daddy himself, Orcus. These are truly adventures worth winning.

— “I once killed a man, just to watch him die” – a Man in Black

— “Hold my goblet” – Orcus

Interior mockup with actual pages from Rappan Athuk for Fifth Edition.

Rappan Athuk is back for Fifth Edition. Not just back though, it is reloaded with all kinds of new extras including:

All new, full color artwork

Three new levels of the Dungeon itself

Three new Wilderness locations, including a three-level castle

A new three-level satellite dungeon

A sea-cave of terrible shark-men! A Kickstarter exclusive level released from the Vault of Tsathogga!

Updated color maps, available as separate PSD files for online play, are included for all levels

Scores of NPCs and Monsters, dozens of Magic Items and Spells, and the legendary Dung Monster await you!

Art comparison between 2012 and new edition.

Weighing in at over 500 pages, Rappan Athuk for Fifth Edition is an instant classic in the Mega-Dungeon genre, featuring 100+ keyed and color mapped areas with over 56 dungeon levels, several satellite dungeons (almost 20 additional levels!), the village of Zelkor's Ferry, 22 wilderness areas (ways to die before you ever reach the dungeon) and seemingly countless groups of bandits and monsters that prey on those fortunate enough to escape the halls and caves of Rappan Athuk with treasure in hand!

With decades of playtesting and use in campaigns across the globe, the Dungeon of Graves can be a foundation of any campaign or eviscerated into pieces and blended into any campaign!

Map comparison between the two editions.

Once upon a time, there was an idea—an idea formulated by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in 1974 and published in a little paperback book called Underworld Adventures. The idea was simple: it is a lot of fun to go into a dungeon and kill evil monsters. Why is the dungeon there? No one knows. Why do the monsters usually fight rather than talk? We aren’t really sure. Why are there 16 trolls in a cave with a jug of alchemy? No one cares. What do all the monsters eat? We don’t know that either (although “adventurer” probably tops the list). And we don’t have to know these things. This isn’t an ecology experiment, it’s a dungeon—the quintessential setting for pure swords and sorcery adventuring.

This adventure pays homage to that original idea. True, there are opportunities for role playing, but most of this module is dedicated to “roll playing.” Hopefully, while exploring the halls of Rappan Athuk, you will recall the thrill of discovery, the terror in your heart when you fought your first skeleton, the joy of rolling your first natural 20, and the despair you felt when that 1 came up for your poison save. This module, Rappan Athuk—The Dungeon of Graves, is nothing more and nothing less than a good, old–fashioned, First Edition dungeon crawl updated for the 5th Edition Roleplaying Game. Very difficult, it should strike fear into the hearts of the most stalwart adventurers. It offers an abundance of traps, tricks, and monsters. We hope that you find this module as fun and exciting as those thousands of players who have ventured into (and not as often out of) the endless caverns and mazes of Rappan Athuk—The Dungeon of Graves. Rappan Athuk is a difficult dungeon. Even the upper dungeon levels should not be attempted by a party of less than six mid-level characters.

Only truly veteran players should attempt this dungeon with lower level characters. In light of this, we added the satellite dungeons, including Bill's very first work (from 1977), Tunnels of Terror! This 9-area dungeon was used as the introduction to his campaign and led his players to Rappan Athuk through play.

All Frog God Games hardcovers are stitched into 16 page packets, the packets are sewn together, and then all the packets are sewn to a cloth backing, creating a book block that is glued to its cover. This is what we mean when we say "library binding." So, what does this mean to you? Well first, you will note that our books cost a little more than others. That being said, after a myriad of book-binding issues both recently and dating back to 2nd Edition, there is nothing we hate to see more than someone investing in an expensive game book and having it fall apart on them after only a short period of regular use.

We feel strongly that book production quality is king. After all, you guys spend a lot of money on your books! Second, if a Frog God hardcover book ever falls apart (we have tested this with baseball bats and very rough use, by the way), we will replace it at no cost assuming we still have one in stock. Yes, that means if you call me in ten years, and your book binding has failed you (failed us really) through regular use (please no bulldozer roll overs), just email me and if the book is still in stock, we will mail you a new copy for free. Nothing I can do for you if they are all sold out though (but email me anyway and I'll hook you up in some way).

It costs us a lot of money to do this, and our margins are somewhat lower than they could be as a result. Frog God Games stands behind our product (and sometimes on top of it when we need a ladder), and believe that the improved quality and durability of our work is well worth it.

Kickstarter campaign ends: Sat, March 31 2018 1:48 AM BST

Website: Frog God Games

#RPG #kickstarter #Rappan Athuk #megadungeon #Frog God Games

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startselectscreen · 6 years ago

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Fire Emblem Three Houses Video Game Review

FOUR STARS OUT OF FIVE Ever since the GBA version of Fire Emblem, I instantly became a fan of this franchise because it’s an anime RPG and tactics game done right. Granted there a number of other great tactics games out there like the X-COM franchise or Into the Breach but they never clicked on me, the fact that, within every Fire Emblem game, whether it’s the cast of characters that you S-Link with or trying to rather be rash on your decisions and kill off your characters in a fantasy-related setting is the reason why I love this series. The fact is that back in the GBA games, it autosaves every single time you move/attack the opponent or make one wrong move and one of your characters will receive a fatal blow just put me on the edge. I just love the meticulousness to it, it’s like a game of chess without the timer.

When I heard that Fire Emblem was coming to Switch, I was overjoyed, the previous 3DS games, Awakening, Fates and Echoes has been fantastic and never ceased to amaze me. It is a shame that Fates has multiple versions that you have to purchase (Birthright, Conquest and Revelation which is DLC) to play in new playthroughs much like the Pokemon games. However it does not fault the immense rich anime medieval fantasy story with a set of lovable characters with a support system, excellent music and sound and tactful situations in the battlefield where you have to think on your feet to counter your opponents utilizing the strengths and weaknesses of the weapon triangle (sword > axe > lance) and magic/others as well. These games just make great decisions on their tactics-based system, you have to really think before you act and mobilize your units carefully without the threat of getting flanked by wyverns/pegasus or have mages trying to pick off your units during their turn.

Now released to the Switch, Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the sixteenth main game to the FE franchise with a plethora of new features capable of the switch hardware. The story plays like the other games, as Byleth (which is the default name whether male/female) who comes off like the stereotypical amnesic but in a dream encounters a mysterious, green-haired girl, Sothis who has the ability to rewind time. This is caused by Byleth’s rash decision after defeating most of the bandits with the help of your mercenary father, Jeralt and three companions from the officer academy in Garreg Mach Monastery, Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude - by sacrificing yourself when the bandit leader almost strike down Edelgard which prompts Sothis to rewind time so that you can make a better decision (pretty much similar to the game play). Anyways, under a number of circumstances, the three persuades the player to become an instructor in this monastery academy where you have to teach students from three specific houses that of which you have to choose; whether it’s Edelgard’s Black Eagles, Dimitri’s Blue Lions or Claude’s Golden Deer, the choice is up to the player to decide. It has become apparent that this crucial choice will affect all of these ruling nations that surrounded this educational and religious institution where you have to instruct and level up your students against the impending enemies that terrorized it.

With that aside, it feels like an anime Game of Thrones in which “if you play GoT, you’ll either win or die” attitude going on with this game. It’s pretty much Lannister against Baratheon against Targaryen, all done with to political maneuvers and intrigue than differs from the fairy-tale, evil versus good, that the other games have. It starts off as innocent, you’re an instructor in this academy teaching your students to become nobles or join the ranks in the army and then fight off bandits but then slaps you with this and decides to take a dark turn. I mean, after beating the game, there are many questions that are left unsolved, questions that other FE games have answered with NPCs that “seems” to be the villain but then it feels like some sort of red herring to the actual part of the story that you decide to take. With the story involving crests, much like bloodlines from the previous games, it feels like only bad shit will happen with nobles in your house that you chose that transform people into monsters.. Well less bloodlines from the previous games, I have to admit. It’s just upsetting to me that the story doesn’t have their priorities straight and will have some main threat disappear within half of the game and never mentioned and crests are to blame for the stories’ decision to have fatal and nonsensical decisions in which that game have less of a recruit option but I guess that’s the result of the lack of befriending them in the first place in free roam.

It does not hinder the cast of characters that you decide to pick when you chose a specific house. The Black Eagles, as dark and evil looking as they are, has the most entertaining and wide arrange of characters that you can befriend with the support system whether in the battlefield or in this new free roaming feature where it plays like an JRPG in which you can travel around the monastery doing quests from NPCs, increase your skills’ stats from other instructors, motivating and increasing support, your students by gifting them items, eating together, sharing tea, participating in weapon tournaments, gardening, choir singing to increase your magic skills and so on. Although this is limited by a number of activity points that you will receive by professor level which is just like your other skills’ stats, gaining experience from some of these activities. Speaking of, roaming around the monastery feels like a boring thing to do, so they included fast travel to any parts of the map, provided that you discovered it or any quest givers that give out missions for you to do. After spending all your activity points, you can end the day

I also forget that like an RPG, there are dialogue choices which can affect the game in crucial moments during the main story. It’s like the Bioware games, where you can be locked out in this particular story thread losing potential characters. It can also affect character’s motivation based on the correct dialogue and other perks and downsides. It’s a nice touch to have these dialogue options but Byleth, the character that you are playing seems to be this toxic or less uplifting character that you really can’t have the freedom to make to desire choice and it’s frustrating to hear his/her responses to those moments.

As an instructor, you are tasked with teaching your students, every start of the week, in this new mode where you can increase your students’ grade skills ranging from weapons, magic, riding and so on. They gain XP based on their motivation meter (white, red, yellow and green) to learn that you can increase with activities and gifts within your free-roam in the monastery. When you and your students in the battlefield level up, you will gain seals that will change their unit class, which all of your students start off as commoners and nobles. There is a certification exam, alongside with the appropriate, minimal level that you get successfully upgrade your unit into a different, more powerful class. Now, each seal have four tiers (beginner, intermediate, advanced and master) that will unlock once you hit the appropriate level and the percentage is judged by the skill requirements of that specific class to unlock whether its upgrading from lance soldier to a cavalier or a mage to a warlock, it’s like the previous games but with some more requirements. In addition, there are seminars where you can increase you own skills by placing one of students or other recruitable NPCs, increasing your skills. Also, if one of your students increase a specific skill whether its in battle or during lecture, they will decide on a class-specific goal where they need your approval, through dialogue to either change and go back to the original goal of becoming a new class or not..

The game feels like a vision of real life fantasy featuring this somewhat Calendar feature where you attend class from Monday and Friday and then have a day off to free roam around the campus/monastery. Specific dates on the weekends (my guess is Saturday) have different events whether it’s a class-based tournament that will reward you items or any related activities that will greatly affect your student’s motivation and skills. And also there is activity points separate from free roam in Battle Mode where you can able to spend on paralogue missions or given by quest givers.

The battle system is fully 3D much like Radiant Dawn for the Gamecube where you can change camera perspectives from top down to third person as detailed as ever. The gameplay feels like the previous Fire Emblem games, at the start you can change and pick whatever characters fits for the mission and see your opponents are in the map. Each class your opponents has on the battlefield has its strengths and weaknesses and you have to combat them with the right class (for example; archers are effective against fliers and armored units are weak against magic). As it is a Fire Emblem game, there are not only class-based units that you fight against, there are monsters/demons that can prove to be a challenge. They are called crest monsters that range from giant wolves, birds to loathsome, towering golems that not only have multiple health bars to kill them but a barrier around them that will soften your attacks before damaging you very hard. It makes the gameplay more challenging even on normal mode where you have to pick what units that have strong stats (even though you can rely on your two main characters) and support units to break down those barriers before you go for the kill and even then, you have to do it two or three times.

It is also noted that during missions, the weapon triangle is less of an importance which was the “cream-crop” of these games and based it more towards the combat arts that can increase your damage against specific classes (rider classes or magic users), sacrificing your weapon’s degradation in return by a lot. However, after beating the game, the combat arts just feels useless to me as normal attacks do more damage when wielding better weapons, so that they don’t deteriorate and break down. This game removes the link together units to boost support link as well as stats in battle, they introduce a battalion feature where you can recruit a specific force that can also gain levels alongside stats to boost the effectiveness of your core units. Furthermore, each battalion has a specific gambit perk that will either damage and stun your enemies, breakdown the monster’s barriers or increase the number of steps. It feels like they remove this so that players can’t cheese around and combine weak with strong units that can devastate bosses with fatal blows. The rewinding time feature is back from Echoes as Sothis’ Divine Pulse in which you can rewind time during the gameplay. However, it seems like they made it easier for the player with perks from the four weapon-based statues that give me more charges as well as other benefits to boosting XP when Instruct your students. Even though I played in Normal/Classic mode, I only used a couple of those charges and they replenish after battle so it doesn’t matter.

Graphically speaking, it looks like a last-gen game. It just looks like a mix between Radiant Dawn and Final Fantasy 12 with its 3D environment when you’re free roaming or on a mission. Just roaming around the monastery just feels mundane with its large map design where a couple of activities separated in different parts of this main hub. It’s just spread out and just visually, it just looks kinda ugly-looking like PS2 graphics. There is also not really a wide arrange of map designs either, it feels like they only have a few set pieces specifically on any missions, unlike the previous games. However with the new battalions, you can zoom into your unit and you will see an army of units surrounding your core unit. It’s like Advance Wars but if they put in on consoles, it’s not much thoroughly detailed as you expect but it’s pretty nice, although you don’t really notice it that much when you focus on the tactical aspect of the game. From a sound and music standpoint, it just the opposite. I really love that the game is fully voiced, with hours of recorded dialogue from all of the NPCs and characters that you recruit. I mean, each of every student in all three houses are fully voiced with their own story to tell and the wide arrange of talent is impressive, at least for the Japanese cast. I specifically adore the voice of Bernie who is just as lovable and funny, constantly panicking during cutscenes whether its S-Links or throughout the main story. The music is orchestrated greatly as well, it is somewhat repetitive to hear the same score over and over but those moments are great with the music. Oh and I like the Fire Emblem theme when you start free roaming, a nice little tidbit.

Overall, despite its flaws, Three Houses is still a satisfying game to play, the tactical aspect of moving around the battlefield during turns is just rewarding if done right. It’s these games that I enjoy more than any other tactics game. The difficulty improve since the 3DS with the introduction of crest monsters and the removal of linking units together resulted in a calculated, tactical strategy component of the game that adds a new layer of intensity. It is just sad that the story isn’t that remarkable with its forgettable and clear objective that the game, mysteriously changing to the three houses waging war against one another. That and the game can be beaten multiple times by picking one of the three houses and branching paths throughout the later course of the game. Other than that, the gameplay promises to be one of the most exciting moments that I played this year.

#fire emblem three houses #switch #nintendo

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a-painintheneck · 8 years ago

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Malachi Thorn Task 02

Basics:

Full Name: Malachi Avery Thorn

Nickname/s: Mal, Thorn, bastard, asshole, leech, motherfucker, cocksucker, among others he doesn’t know about.

Age: 104

Date of Birth: April 30th, 1913

Gender: Male

Preferred Pronouns: He/Him

Species: Vampire

Birth place: London, England

Current living situation: Sharing a house with Henryk Barczak in Ashbourne, Nova Scotia

Occupation: resident villain, town drunk

Appearance:

Height: 5′11

Build: Slim but with good muscle definition

Skin Tone: fair

Hair Color: Dirty blond/brown with redish highlights

Eye Color: Blue

Glasses or Contacts: none

Birthmarks/Scars: A few scars running down his back from his time spent in concentration camps.

Tattoos/Piercings: I like Jomo’s tats so I’m using them as hc’s. He used to have a serial number on his forearm but it's gone now.

Left handed/Right handed: Right handed

Most Prominent Feature: Intense glare and malicious smile

Clothing Style: Casual style. He enjoys wearing modern slim fit sweaters or basic t-shirts, paired with jeans and boots. He often accessorizes with leather bracelet or necklaces. He also favors leather jackets.

Face Claim: Joseph Morgan

Relationships:

Parent’s Names: Claire and Derry Thorn

Relationship with Parents: Both are dead so non existent

Sibling’s Names: Adrian, Gabriel, James, Christopher, Leopold

Relationship with Siblings: None. The first three died of influenza when they were very young.

Pets: Does Chrissy count?

Best friends: Henryk Barczak, Mila Romanoff (npc)

Foes: Everyone else

Relationship Status: Being gross with Henryk Barczak

Sire: Elias ‘who gives a fuck about your last name’ (deceased)

Fledglings: Anne Levenski, Nicolette Gardner, Justin Anderson, Beatrice Marshall, Remington Wright, among others.

Personality:

What would be their Character Archetype: The Manipulator, The Corrupter

Strongest Character Trait/s: Cleverness, has a photographic memory, artistic, passionate, can read people easily, loyal to those he actually loves.

Weakest Character Trait/s: Jealousy, fear of abandonment, has deep trust issues and insecurities, prone to violence, reckless and impulsive, loud mouth, possessive and cruel

Phobias/Fear/s: abandonment, tight spaces (claustrophobic), isolation

Biggest Secret/s: He doesn’t tell people about his past and what he went through. There are a few people who know because they were either there, because he trusted them enough to tell them or they put two and two together somehow. Only two people know he has night terrors and what they are about.

Bad Habits: jumping to conclusions, acts before he thinks, tightening his jaw when angry, drinking far too much, smoking, pushing people away even when he wants them to be around, sabotaging his own happiness

Obsessions: Jasper Wells (formerly), Remy Wright (formerly), Henryk Barczak, painting, making fledglings, destroying people

Religion: Agnostic

Sexuality: Henryk Barczak, Pansexual

Zodiac Sign: Taurus

Hogwarts House: None. He would get kicked out on day one

Moral Alignment: Chaotic Neutral. Yes, neutral, I was shocked too

Opinion on Drug use: Good for spicing things up

Opinion on Alcohol use: He’s basically an alcoholic, what do you think?

Opinion on Swearing: A necessary evil

Quirks:

Hobbies: painting, reading, pushing people’s buttons

Language/s spoken: English, German and French.

Outdoors or Indoor Person: Depends on his mood

Instruments they play: Violin

Favorite Type of Music: Classical, 70′s rock and some alternative music. He went through a punk phase in the 80′s but it was short lived.

Favorite Color: Red, duh

Favorite Food: Blood, double duh. Although if we are talking human food, he does like his onion rings.

Favorite Animal: Butterflies, don’t judge. Well, moths to be more precise.

Favorite Book: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Favorite Scent: Leather, cigarettes, whiskey, aftershave, the way Henryk smells after sex, faeries smell pretty good too

Instagram: malthorn

What does their voicemail message sound like: "Please deposit 25 cents for the next three minutes”

Past /Future:

What were they like as a Child: Very inquisitive, always trying to figure things out. Was reckless from the start and a bit of a handful because he could never stay put. He was the youngest of five boys who liked to bully him a little, so he learned how to put walls up at a avery young age.

Did they grow up Rich or Poor: Poor

Did they grow up Nurtured or Neglected: Nurtured. His father wasn’t around much because he worked all the time but he was a mommas boy.

What did they want to be when they grew up: Before the war started, Malachi had plans on moving to Italy to learn more about art. He wanted to paint for a living.

Smell that Reminds them of their Childhood: The smell of rain on grass, freshly baked bread because his mother used to bake all the time.

Best Childhood Memory: His mother and him used to play in the rain, jumping on puddles. One time he got really sick and spent a whole day in bed. His mom brought him home made soup and spoiled him rotten by telling him all kinds of stories.

Worst Childhood Memory: When his father died.

Are they/do they want to get Married: Nope, but he’d like to spend his life with someone.

Will they ever settle down somewhere: If its worth it.

#cursedbloodtask #task 02

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offtheline · 8 years ago

Text

Off the Line: Chapter by Chapter 1-55

(Being a summary of the story to date) (Credit to Megpie71 for putting this together)

Chapter 1

Cloud Strife, rookie infantryman in the Shinra military, is assigned a VRDC headset by his doctor (Shinra Health and Medicine) as a treatment for insomnia and night terrors. During the character creation process, he is dissatisfied with the majority of options availble to him in creating a specialist Swordsman character, and winds up creating Rainstorm, a male Viera. However, he realises as the character creation process winds up he’s forgotten to ask one very important question: what does gear look like on a Viera?

Chapter 2

Nanaki (game name Red XIII, a level 48 shaman/black mage) unexpectedly encounters a male Viera character while gathering potion ingredients in the Allbrook starter zone. Unusually, the Viera doesn’t treat him as a mob or an NPC, but rather as another player. In the course of levelling Rainstorm up, they discover gear on Viera looks skimpy – Viera are the bikini armour race of Terra Online. The chapter ends with Rainstorm friending Red XIII.

Chapter 3

Rainstorm and Red XIII visit Allbrook Port (the main town of the beginner zone) where Rainstorm is repeatedly sexually harassed. Rainstorm resolves to work on levelling up by grinding mobs rather than having to go into town and do quests, since at least the mobs don’t pass remarks while they’re attacking him. During one of the battles, a mob drops a pair of shoes (which turn into stiletto sandals when Rainstorm puts them on) with an unexpected ATK score. There is some discussion of how skills are gained in Terra Online. The chapter ends with Rainstorm entering Aragu Cave, to take on the boss there.

Chapter 4

Yuffie (game name Treasure Princess) has been trapped on the roof of the Lizard’s chamber in Aragu cave for a number of hours now, with very little hope of rescue. When a stranger hies along and offers to draw off the lizard so she can get down, she accepts, but wasn’t expecting the stranger to be a male Viera. When Rainstorm demands she assist him in defeating the boss rather than kibitzing and passing remarks, she complies with the request of the “grouchy bunny”. She and Rainstorm form a party, and repeatedly battle the Lizard of Aragu Cave, until Rainstorm gets a notification he will be woken up soon. The chapter ends with Treasure Princess chasing after Rainstorm and Red XIII in order to join their group.

Chapter 5

Rainstorm, Red XIII and Treasure Princess return to Allbrook Port. The Port is crowded, due to it being almost morning-time in the Midgar region. Rainstorm delays going to the Inn, wanting to befriend Treasure Princess first, but starts being harassed by invitations to join various guilds, based purely on his appearance. When the leader of a particular guild crosses the line from invitation to outright groping, Rainstorm snaps, and kills her, leading her guild members to attempt to kill him in revenge. Rainstorm fights back, and buffed by Red XIII and Treasure Princess, winds up killing everyone in Allbrook Square as the battle gets out of hand. In the end, Rainstorm has seventy-nine murders to his credit when he winds up heading to the Inn.

Chapter 6

Reeve Tuesti is notified by Cait Sith of an unusual event within Terra Online. A massacre in the beginner zones, where fifty-nine players were killed, some of them several times. Reeve is surprised to learn the player who perpetrated the carnage was only level six. Curious how this happened, he’s surprised to see both Red XII and Treasure Princess buffing Rainstorm – Treasure Princess was using a Reflect crystal to throw ninja-specific buffs onto Rainstorm. Intrigued, Reeve suggests Rainstorm needs an Honour.

Chapter 7

Cloud has a few problems adjusting to the waking world after a night in Terra Online – Rainstorm is taller and stronger than he is, and it takes some getting used to being himself again. He spends the day thinking about Terra Online – on the differences between his experience in Terra Online and the waking world, on the various mechanics of the game, and what happened there. He doesn’t expect Red XII or Treasure Princess to be willing to continue playing alongside him. He’s pleasantly surprised when they do, and after they bust him out of the Inn (and Allbrook) to avoid the bounty hunters on his (virtual) tail, they explain the mechanics of fame, infamy, and bounty hunting to him. His honorific (“The Rabbit of Caerbannog”) is discovered and explained.

Chapter 8

Red and Princess suggest leaving the Allbrook zone (because bounty hunters), but Rainstorm objects on the grounds he’s still only level 6. There’s a debate about play styles (Rainstorm declines to be power-leveled because he wants to achieve things on his own merit, rather than having them handed to him), which leads to the group trying to get to Aragu Cave so they can try to level up Rainstorm there. Unfortunately, on the way they’re ambushed by bounty hunters. In the aftermath, a discussion about the subtle difference between self-defence and straight-up griefing takes place. Red XIII and Treasure Princess decide the honorific awarded to Rainstorm was appropriate.

Chapter 9

Word about Rainstorm is getting out. Loyal, of the Overseers Guild, notifies Sephiroth (who is busy decimating the monster population in the Wastes) that a record he set (back when he was level 7) for most player kills at the lowest level had just been broken by a player the Overseers don’t know. Sephiroth contacts Cait Sith and gets Rainstorm’s Duel Rankings created. There is musing about the nature of fun in an MMORPG when you’re the highest level player and there’s nothing left for you to do.

Chapter 10

Meanwhile, back in Allbrook, Rainstorm and his friends are being swarmed by bounty hunters. They’re holding their own, but they’re starting to get a bit fed up with it all. Rainstorm reluctantly agrees they’re going to have to change zone. Unfortunately, there’s one problem – the portal to the next zone is a bottleneck, and it’s going to be thronged with bounty hunters waiting for them to arrive. A deus ex machina (of a sort) arrives in the form of Naut, a high-level moogle Machinist, who offers to shelter them and escort them out of the zone, in exchange for some low-level gear for a friend who has just started playing.

Chapter 11

With assistance from Naut, passing through the portal from Allbrook to Mushroom Rock Road is relatively straightforward. Naut clears the way, escorts them through, and then barricades the way to give them time to get clear. He also hands Rainstorm a rare transformation item which he suggests might be the only way Rainstorm could enter towns in future, given his notoriety. Rainstorm’s duel rankings are discovered by the party, and become the cause of much hilarity.

Chapter 12

While guarding the portal between Allbrook and Mushroom Rock Road, Naut reflects on the difference of the game experience for newer players and more experienced ones.

Chapter 13

Rainstorm discovers the other side effect of having high levels of Infamy – he’s not getting XP as quickly as he should. The transformation item gifted to Rainstorm by Naut turns out to be a gender-bender item, making Rainstorm appear as a female Viera, which allows him to enter the Knight’s Camp without being immediately spotted, but the problem of sexually aggressive and persistent players remains. While Treasure Princess does her best to buffer away unwanted suitors, a repeat of the Allbrook killings is ultimately prevented by the timely intervention of the Ronso, Bigshot. Bigshot offers to party with Rainstorm and Treasure Princess along with his wife, Mena.

Chapter 14

With just over an hour to go before Rainstorm logs off, he discusses with RedXIII and Treasure Princess whether or not to party with Bigshot and Mena. The group decides in favour, and meets up with the two Ronso, who, while slightly surprised to be in a party with the perpetrator of the Allbrook Newbie Massacre, take the information in stride once they’ve had a moment to become accustomed – especially once they hear the reason the massacre started.

Chapter 15

Mena advises Rainstorm he should try using heavier swords, in an effort to obtain more skills – while Viera are suited to fencing, the player behind Rainstorm apparently isn’t. Rainstorm logs off, and the party breaks up, with RedXIII going off in search of potion ingredients, while Treasure Princess, Bigshot and Mena grind mobs. Cait Sith appears to RedXIII, and offers him a Guild Book, suggesting he give it to Rainstorm, but RedXIII demurs, saying Rainstorm probably wouldn’t take it – Rainstorm prefers to earn things on his own merit. Cait Sith suggests a guild led by Rainstorm could very well rise up to challenge the Overseers in terms of power.

Chapter 16

On his own at the beginning of his third night in Terra Online, Rainstorm decides to take Mena’s advice and experiment with heavy swords. In an effort to avoid another party, he flees through the nearest portal, which turns out to lead to a) the Wastes, and b) a cliff-edge. Nearly landing in a party at the bottom of the cliff, he flees again, into the nearest canyon, which turns out to be filled with level 45 mobs. Fleeing yet once more, this time by climbing up a friendly-looking rock formation to the nearest cave, he discovers the cave is occupied by a strange winged man who tries to kill him. Just another day in Terra Online!

Chapter 17

Genesis (BELOVED) and Angeal (Noble) discuss Rainstorm in the kitchen of Angeal’s house in Alexandria. While Noble isn’t all that interested, BELOVED thinks Rainstorm is the first interesting thing that’s happened in the game for a while. Noble points out to BELOVED that he’s acting like a fanboy. BELOVED mentions Sephiroth is still out in the Wastes, but Noble points out the Wastes are a very big place; what are the odds of the two of them meeting?

Chapter 18

Cait Sith contemplates the possibilities inherent in the Wastes zone, the nature of guild houses and private houses in-game, and the ability of Rainstorm to do the damnedest things. For example, the stranger Rainstorm had been attacked by in the cave was actually the Wastes Demon – a glitch in the programming of Terra Online. When Cait Sith materialises to delete the glitch, however, Rainstorm intervenes. When the AI compares the glitches’ code against Rainstorm, it becomes clear that the Wastes Demon is not, as previously thought, a rogue program, but rather a human being (Vincent) trapped in the world of Terra Online. When asked how he knew, Rainstorm points out Vincent has been afraid of Rainstorm practically since the moment they met – highly unusual behaviour for a mob or NPC.

Chapter 19

Cait Sith reveals the reason Vincent was mistaken for a glitch in the programming is because he’s literally been around longer than Terra Online has – which means he’s been “awake” in VR for at least ten years. Rainstorm and Cait Sith agree now they know Vincent is a sentient being, he doesn’t deserve an existence of being constantly attacked by players who think he’s a boss in the game. Since Vincent is interpreted by the game as a mob, Cait Sith chooses to turn him into a different type of mob – a pet mob. Rainstorm’s Level 99 pet Gunner, to be precise. Vincent agrees, sold on the prospect of sixteen hours a day of safety (inside Rainstorm’s tent or room at the Inn) and the prospect of leaving the Wastes.

Chapter 20

Having transformed Vincent’s mob type, Cait Sith exits to let the admin know. Before he leaves, he asks Rainstorm whether he’s ever considered the idea of starting a guild. In the process of attempting to head back to the Mushroom Rock Road portal, Rainstorm discovers he gains XP from whatever Vincent kills – Vincent can power-level him very easily indeed. Fortunately for all concerned, RedXIII has logged on by this time, and agrees to come to the rescue. Vincent discovers when Rainstorm touches him, he can feel warm.

Chapter 21

Vincent falls asleep in Rainstorm’s embrace, and Rainstorm decides to use the time while he waits for RedXIII to get there in familiarising himself further with the UI for Terra Online. Red arrives, and after things are explained to him suggests exiting through the portal to the Great Forest of Moore. Red, as a level 40 character, has wings of his own, and Vincent is able to carry Rainstorm while using his own wings, which will allow them all to avoid the wildlife.

Chapter 22

Zoto from the Overseers drops in (not literally) on Sephiroth to find out whether Sephiroth has seen Rainstorm. Sephiroth explains he’s nowhere near the Mushroom Rock Road portal, so, no, he hasn’t seen Rainstorm, and by the way the portal is over that-a-way. Zoto heads off that-a-way, and Sephiroth is left by himself, until Rainstorm drops in on him (literally). Vincent had fallen asleep while flying, and Rainstorm has to move fast to catch Vincent before he hits the ground. Sephiroth takes advantage of the moment to capture a shot of Rainstorm in the act of leaping. Rainstorm asks Sephiroth whether he’d be willing to kill him (as a way of dealing with the bounty and the duel rankings all in one go) but Sephiroth declines to do so. Rainstorm shrugs and heads off toward the Forest of Moore portal carrying Vincent, and Sephiroth decides to forward his shot of Rainstorm to BELOVED in the hope this will finally shut the other man up.

Chapter 23

Rainstorm, RedXIII, and the sleeping Vincent pass from the Wastes to the Great Forest of Moore. Once there, they find a place where Rainstorm can mine ore and battle some relatively low-level mobs, while they wait for Vincent to wake up, and for Bigshot and Mena to come meet them. They consult with Cait Sith regarding Vincent falling asleep so much – turns out that while the majority of players in Terra Online are experiencing the world as very lucid dreaming, Vincent is actually effectively ‘awake’ the whole time. Vincent is currently catching up on ten years of sleep deprivation. Cait Sith gifts Rainstorm with a special two-person tent, since he and Vincent are going to be out in the field more often than not. Rainstorm discovers that not only is Vincent gorgeous, he’s also adorable.

Chapter 24

Reeve has been pulled into the game in order to consult on the problems raised by Vincent’s presence. Cait Sith points out Rainstorm has some weird instincts for the game, and Reeve agrees. He asks Cait Sith to break confidentiality, and tell him who the player behind Rainstorm is. Cait Sith does so to an extent, providing certain salient details, but not the player’s name. There is musing on the origins of Terra Online – beneath the MMORPG trappings, it started and can still function as a learn-in-your-sleep training tool. Cait Sith and Reeve are both troubled by the fact they have to leave Vincent effectively in Rainstorm’s power – both are agreed that there must be no further abuse of the man.

Chapter 25

Bigshot muses on the nature of Terra Online, and his anxieties about the way Mena seems almost addicted to it (physically, she’s chronically ill with a painful condition – in Terra Online, nothing hurts). When they catch up with the rest of the party, Rainstorm tries out heavy armour, and is unsurprised when it basically transforms into belly dancer gear (complete with coin belt). Vincent wakes up and is introduced to everyone.

Chapter 26

Vincent, out of the Wastes for the first time in ever, “takes in the nature” as instructed. He and RedXIII share a discussion – mostly about Rainstorm, what Rainstorm might expect of him, and why Rainstorm does what he does. Rainstorm gets a message from Treasure Princess, and the party decides to go and meet her at the Elder Tree – which means Rainstorm has to put on the transformation necklace. Vincent is slightly embarassed by the degree to which he wants to touch Rainstorm – he’s curious about whether Rainstorm is warm everywhere. Rainstorm doesn’t seem to mind being touched by Vincent, either.

Chapter 27

In the Seventh Heaven guild house, Tifa Lockhart (game name Sonata) intervenes to prevent a brawl between members of two rival guilds – an intervention which results in her killing the participants. Zoto from the Overseers comes in bearing one of the new posters of Rainstorm which the LOVELESS guild is distributing. They share a few exchanges on the nature of social rules within Terra Online (it appears the Overseers have set themselves up as the group which creates and enforces same). Zoto leaves when he gets a message that Flower is missing. Sonata silently cheers Flower on in her escape.

Chapter 28

Rainstorm and party arrive within sight of the Elder Tree – a five-hundred-metre tall tree city in the middle of the Great Forest of Moore. Vincent and Rainstorm (after a brief discussion regarding modesty, touch and consent) fly up there and meet with Treasure Princess. The three of them witness a scene with a group of male players harassing a female player who looks to be a white mage. Rainstorm launches himself down (damaging a building as he lands) to intervene and back up the woman. One of the players threatens Rainstorm, and Vincent moves to protect his “owner” - by shooting the player dead. It appears another massacre is about to start.

Chapter 29

Rainstorm quickly dispatches the players who were harassing the female player. However, this has brought them to the attention of bounty hunters, who are even now swarming to their location. Rainstorm, however, has an idea. Using a combination of STR buffs and combat skills, he drops down onto a lower branch of the Elder Tree and cuts it, sending it dropping onto the people below. We discover the elven woman Rainstorm has rescued was the one Princess had robbed, which resulted in her being corpse-camped back to level one by the Overseers. But there’s no time for talking, since Rainstorm has just pissed off the entire Elder Tree zone, and they must all run like hell.

Chapter 30

Rainstorm, Vincent, Treasure Princess, and their new elven compatriot are trying to flee down the Elder Tree before all the people Rainstorm has pissed off this time catch up with them. Unfortunately, it isn’t working. Their elven associate suggests she can summon them a means of escape, but it will take a couple of minutes. While the elf works on summoning her creature, Rainstorm, Vincent and Treasure Princess hold off pretty much everyone. Things are getting tough, when Bigshot drops in, buffed and hasted to the max, and saves the day through the application of grenadier AOE attacks. Just in time for the elven summoner’s creature – Bahamut – to arrive, destroying about a quarter of the Elder Tree in the process. They fly out of the destroyed Elder Tree on the back of Bahamut. There is a brief explanation that this just shouldn’t be possible, which their new friend disagrees with – she’s seen buildings destroyed before in Allbrook and Alexandria. She introduces herself – her name is Flower.

Chapter 31

Mena and RedXIII catch up with the rest of their party. They’re introduced to Flower, who turns out to have more Infamy now than even Rainstorm, although she has the Fame to carry it off. The issue of Rainstorm’s Infamy is raised – it’s sufficiently high it’s causing him to lag significantly behind the others in levelling up – he needs to raise his Fame somehow. Flower mentions there are ways to achieve Fame other than by performing Fame quests or heroic deeds – charity (making things and giving them away for free) achieves this too. Also, guilds can mass-produce stuff. It’s decided to form a guild – and Rainstorm is elected guild master by popular disclaim (there is no way we’re taking responsibility for you!).

Chapter 32

While they wait for Mena to get to the Elder Tree and see whether she can purchase a Guild Book from the auction house there, Rainstorm contemplates the responsibility he’s effectively taken on by becoming guild master, as well as the responsibility he’s taken on by becoming Vincent’s “master”. They test the limits of master/pet rules (Vincent is able to disobey direct orders) and Vincent reveals that when Rainstorm touches him, he feels warm – prior to this, he’s always been cold.

Chapter 33

Tseng (Loyal) has an uncomfortable discussion with Cait Sith about the nature of Flower. The destruction of the Elder Tree wasn’t unprecedented – something similar had happened before, and at the time, the Overseers guildmaster had fobbed Cait Sith off with a lie about a hacked VRDC. But now things are clear: Flower’s player, whoever she is, isn’t human. Loyal has been hiding the effect Flower has on the game from everyone – including Flower. But Cait Sith, unlike a human moderator, isn’t overly bothered by the effect she has – instead he’s going to incorporate it into the game, and he’s quite happy with the idea of Flower and Rainstorm in the same group. Loyal, however, is not so happy – he declares a guild bounty on Rainstorm.

Chapter 34

Mena returns with the guild book. The guild OVERKILL is created, with a starting membership of Rainstorm (and Vincent), Treasure Princess, Bigshot, Mena, Flower, and RedXIII. Flower explains how guild production works – essentially, there would have to be a guild member remaining in Alexandria working the production in order to achieve anything. Rainstorm receives his wake-up reminder, and the party breaks up – Mena, Bigshot, Princess and Flower to grind up a few levels in order to deal with all the people who now want to kill them, and RedXIII to keep an eye on them. Rainstorm and Vincent retreat to their tent, and Rainstorm expresses the hope that firstly, his avatar will remain, and secondly, that Vincent will continue to feel warm from holding it while he’s in the waking world.

Chapter 35

Cloud wakes up and muses about the nature of people and the reasons why he’s glad Rainstorm isn’t anatomically correct. He’s summoned to a meeting with Reeve Tuesti, who goes into the differences between Cloud’s playstyle and the standard one – essentially, he’s playing as though he’s a much more experienced player. In order to use Cloud’s special way of looking at virtual envrironments to help find Vincent, Reeve wants to hire him to work for Shinra’s Urban Development Department as a developer for Terra Online.

Chapter 36

Reeve continues by explaining he also wants to hire Cloud because he’d feel better if someone from his department was keeping a bit of an eye on Flower in-game. Cloud balks a bit at the idea of spying on a party member, and is reluctant to move out of the Infantry, since he sees that as his best chance of getting another go at SOLDIER (which was always his goal when joining Shinra). Reeve counter-offers with the higher pay he’d get as a techie, and an assurance he’d still be allowed to take the SOLDIER exam. They head up to the 34th floor to get the contract printed, and Reeve gives Cloud his PHS number to contact if he decides to take up the offer.

Chapter 37

Zack Fair is half-asleep when he inadvertently meets the infantryman in the cafeteria by putting down his coffee cup on the contract the infantryman is reading. They discuss reasons for accepting job offers – the infantryman has been offered a techie position, and isn’t sure whether he should accept it or not. They discuss the pros (more money, more privacy, less chance of death in the line of duty, no more mess hall food) and cons (more expenses, no guaranteed place to live, cooking your own meals) of accepting the job offer. The infantryman introduces himself to Zack as Cloud Strife. Cloud accepts the job from Reeve.

Chapter 38

Reeve Tuesti explains (at length) the various forms of Virtual Reality technololgy Shinra has available and the history of the technology. Vincent is possibly jacked into a device which provides both mental and physical virtual reality. It’s likely he’s also been in there for anything up to twenty years. Reeve introduces Cloud to the VR developer’s suite, and dumps him down in the VR “Primordial Soup” - a flat, empty nothingness.

Chapter 39

Reeve waits for Cloud to create something, having given him no instructions whatsoever on how to do so. How Cloud does this is just as interesting to Reeve as what gets done. Reeve has hopes Cloud is going to be the Virtual Reality virtuoso he’s been looking for to lift the technology to the next level. When Cloud starts making changes to the Primordial Soup environment without so much as opening a menu or entering a command, Reeve feels vindicated in his choice. Reeve introduces Cloud to the concept of “mind over matter” - the idea that Cloud’s limitations are only what he thinks they are.

Chapter 40

Aerith Gast-Gainsborough (aka Flower) reflects on the previous night in Terra Online, and the people she met there. Tseng arrives to speak with her, very annoyed about what had happened the previous night. Tseng and Aerith talk about the reasons Tseng got her into the game, and their rather different styles of gameplay. Tseng disapproves of Aerith getting involved with OVERKILL.

Chapter 41

Reeve continues Cloud’s education in different types of VR settings and systems, with the aim of getting Cloud to the point where he thinks of Virtual Realities as malleable systems, rather than fixed systems. With the workday over, Cloud leaves to pick up his gear from the infantry barracks, where his bunk-mates are preparing to give him a working-over for having chosen to quit the infantry. Cloud decides to tackle this problem the way Rainstorm might (nothing to lose, after all) and manages to elude all his attackers. Shocked by his sudden success after so many years of failure, Cloud heads to the cafeteria to meet up with Reeve again.

Chapter 42

Vincent, inside the tent, is enjoying the novel sensation of sixteen hours of utter safety and rest. Vincent can sometimes see through a player’s avatar, to see the player beneath (an artifact of his lack of congruity with the VRDC technology of Terra Online). Rainstorm has remained warm all this time (his body, anyway – his ears, oddly enough, aren’t warm). Rainstorm wakes up, and brings him up to date with the events which have happened today for Cloud in Midgar, explaining he will be looking for Vincent in the waking world as well as trying to figure out how to get him out of Terra Online. Rainstorm tests some things about the battle system by attacking bounty hunters (friendly fire isn’t a thing, party members can’t kill each other; but they can take damage and feel pain from in-party attacks).

Chaper 43

Cait Sith reflects on the nature of Rainstorm/Cloud Strife’s incredible ability with virtual reality – and it appears at least part of the reason may be that Cloud physically thinks at the same speed as the VRDC systems can process instructions, so there isn’t any signal delay or decay to deal with. Cloud is also much more in tune with his avatar than most players – his control over Rainstorm is absolute. He gives Rainstorm some homework – looking at known glitches, and battling Magic Pots, and reporting back to the moderator.

Chapter 44

Flower logs in, and soon realises Rainstorm has a lot to recommend him as a guild master and adventuring partner. She asks Rainstorm whether anyone in the group is hacking, worried they might be banned. Rainstorm points out that isn’t likely to happen. She mentions the Guild Bounty the Overseers have put on him, but Rainstorm just points out it’s better if everyone blames the Elder Tree mess on him rather than on her anyway. They return to the vexed issue of Rainstorm’s Infamy, and how to get a guild production started. Flower has some ideas…

Chapter 45

Vincent and Rainstorm discuss whether or not to mention Rainstorm’s new job to the rest of the guild, and the likelihood Reeve has more than just having Rainstorm find Vincent on his agenda. They also talk about consent, touch, and relationships, with Rainstorm saying while he’d love to go further than just casual touching with Vincent, it’s not really either feasible or appropriate at present. Flower arrives, and explains the differences between gear (which shifts with job or race “looks”) and costumes, which remain static but are limited by gender and bind on first wearing. She sells Rainstorm a dancer costume (complete with scarf) which conceals not only a lot of skin, but also his race. She also has pet gear for Vincent…

Chapter 46

Vincent declines most of the available pet gear, but settles for a large black, hooded cape which makes him look like a black mage, and some feathers for his wings. Flower pulls out her Invisibility Cloak, which is how she’s going to conceal herself from the Overseers, and they start planning how to get to Alexandria, and how to afford a Guild House. Flower suggests Rainstorm kill her for her bounty – both to get the money, and also to remove the temptation she currently poses to bounty hunters. Vincent agrees with her, so Rainstorm reluctantly does so. Which is when Cait Sith decides to have a word with her about a few things…

Chapter 47

Naut muses about the things which can happen when a guild changes leadership, and decides to leave the MastersOfAir guild. He discusses leaving the guild with LongSuffering, who agrees with leaving (it bores her). They contemplate what could happen next, and Naut suggests joining OVERKILL (if only because it certainly wouldn’t be boring). Various Rainstorm fan guilds and fan clubs are mentioned, including the Vieravenger guild – an all-Viera revenge guild.

Chapter 48

Cait Sith finishes explaining to Flower her effect on the game, as well as Rainstorm’s effective role as a white hat hacker who is helping the game admins improve the game. There’s more discussion of how, although Terra Online is created and funded with Shinra funds, it isn’t really a Shinra product – the most significant marker of same being that Terra Online is a free product. They head to the Elder Tree, discussing the effect Flower has on Terra Online along the way – effectively, at present, Flower subconsciously projects a 100m diameter bubble of real-world physics into the world of Terra Online. If she took conscious control of the effect, she could be the Goddess of the game.

Chapter 49

Wolfhound and a couple of his guild-mates are busy investigating what’s happened at the Elder Tree (Wolfhound complains all the fun stuff happens when he’s not around to enjoy it – he missed the Fanpocalypse of Alexandria, too). At the foot of the tree, they meet a dancer (who re-enacts what happened the previous night in full drama, complete with sound effects) and a black mage. The dancer introduces herself as Rainy, and the mage is Vincent.

Chapter 50

Rainstorm (aka Rainy), Vincent and the invisible Flower let Wolfhound and his friends head through the portal to Alexandria first, before heading through themselves. Rainstorm is delighted by his first view of Alexandria, although Vincent dryly comments “it would be a shame if something were to happen to it”. They’re made aware of the various Rainstorm fan guilds and of the posters of Rainstorm which are selling like hot cakes (and Rainstorm immediately knows what their first guild production is going to be).

Chapter 51

Flower reflects on the speed at which Rainstorm is setting up the guild and getting a guild production established – these things normally take weeks. The plot Rainstorm has purchased is in the middle of vacant territory, however, which means the Overseers may well buy up every single plot around it to prevent their expansion. They decide to head over to Seventh Heaven to have some hot chocolate while the guild house is being built.

Chapter 52

Meanwhile, in the small town nearest the Wastes, Sephiroth is musing on the way that Terra Online is no longer fun for him. There’s nothing for him to do – he’s defeated every zone and every boss, and he doesn’t get enjoyment out of the social aspects of the game the way Noble and BELOVED do. Cait Sith appears to him, and offers a once-in-a-playtime opportunity: Sephiroth will be the only player who gets to start a second character, from the beginning.

Chapter 53

Back in Alexandria, Sonata is being offered huge amounts of in-game currency (and even genuine gil) to sell Seventh Heaven by Victoria, the guildmaster of the Vieravenger guild. She declines to sell, and moves to serve some new customers who have just come in – a dancer (who seems strangely reluctant to look at her) and a black mage, who order Deluxe Hot Chocolates. In quick succession she discovers the dancer is Rainstorm, and then (on finally seeing Rainstorm’s face) she realises she knows who Rainstorm is – the boy who used to live next door. The realisation knocks her into giggles over his name, just as a group of Overseers walk in the door.

Chapter 54

Three Overseers walk into the bar. Things get tense. Rainstorm discovers Zoto was the one who corpse-camped Treasure Princess (and Vincent reveals Treasure Princess is about nine or ten, rather than thirteen). Things get tenser. Loyal walks in, Vincent one-shot kills him, Sonata throws Zoto through a wall, Vincent one-shot kills Loyal again, and Rainstorm trips over his dancer costume. Flower apologises for the mess. Civil tries to grab Flower, Rainstorm kills Civil, Shuriken tries to keep everyone talking while backup arrives, and Rainstorm suggests Flower summon something to get them out of there, because the murder notices are pinpointing their location, and all hell is going to break loose any second now. Sonata comes back from retrieving Zoto from the hole he made in her wall, and orders the lot of them out of her bar (all hell has now broken loose). Then someone throws in a smoke grenade, and Vincent one-shot kills Loyal a final time.

Chapter 55

A multi-way brawl in the main square of Alexandria between members of the following guilds: LOVELESS, the Overseers, Vieravenger, WhenItRains. This brawl expands to encompass much of the surrounding area, particularly after BELOVED Shouts that Rainstorm is in Alexandria. (Essentially, if you know the brawl scene at the end of “Blazing Saddles”, this is the sort of thing you’re looking at). Seventh Heaven is set on fire; Sonata, Flower, Rainstorm and Vincent escape through the roof, and Naut applies to become a member of the OVERKILL guild by killing off BELOVED.

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