Crossroads

[archimage_a]

/Join #In_The_Forest tavern

/Join #Inn

/Join #Lightgate

[The_Mather1]

Specs:

 

Earth magic:

-Swallowing III

-Earth surfing III

-Crystal making I.

[archimage_a]

/Join #In_The_Forest tavern

/Join #Inn

/Join #Lightgate tavern

[Jehosaphat]

For intersession, John does some of the training stuff.

[archimage_a]

Cool

[The_Mather1]

For the intersession, Håkon returns the notes to the priest and helps around the village to earn some money.

[Earth]

I'll probably have to drop out as a player. I don't have much time on the computer anymore to do this.

[archimage_a]

Ok, fair enough Earth. If you do happen to be able to drop in while a session is running please do. :grin:

[archimage_a]

/join #grimmfell tavern

/join #Priestown tavern

/Join #inn

 

Hakon gathers 5 silver coins.

[Earth]

Ofc. Thanks Arch.

[Alg]

Intersession: Mask goes back to the house with Owl Cloak.

[Jehosaphat]

Intersession: John goes off to Lightgate.

[Icuownage]

I was wondering if, for tuesday sessions I could set some sort of auto task? Because I wont ever be able to make it.

[Nexaduro]

[spoiler=Transcript of End Session]<The_Eye_Of_Snarcon> Suddenly

<The_Eye_Of_Snarcon> You find a talking book

<Gerund> *rolleyes*

<Gerund> (Burn it.)

<Hakon> I agree after seeing the user name tied to it.

<The_Eye_Of_Snarcon> (Yes! Wyvern, you owe me a fiver)

<Libronomicon> (Thanks, I was getting cold)

<Gerund> (Glad to be of assistance)

<Libronomicon> (I thought it was a quatrain?)

<The_Eye_Of_Snarcon> So...anyway, your attempts at unravelling the plot

<Libronomicon> (my attempts?)

<Gerund> (Since the transaction to the Eye of Snarcon must pass into the Mana Plane, you obviously need me to make the transaction)

<Gerund> (My wire transfer rates are 80%)

<The_Eye_Of_Snarcon> Anyone's attempts

<Gerund> (Four dollars and 3.2 trains, please)

<Libronomicon> "Hello my dear readers, welcome to the Libronomicon's house of railroads and hard cider. may I take your order?

<Gerund> "I'd like a MacGuffin, I have a plot coupon for 10% off."

<Libronomicon> "I am sorry sir, but we are out of Big MacGuffins today"

<Gerund> I knew I should've learned temporal magicks.

<Gerund> Well then

<Libronomicon> "Well, we ran out of them next week"

<Gerund> Yesterday too?

<Hakon> The king is trying to expand his power but Owl Cloak is keeping him back, meanwhile behind his back, one of the king's demons is rampaging on the loose. We're also dealing with another mage, responsible for the wisps, who is working towards the same goal as us.

<Gerund> "Sir, I'm beginning to question whether you ever carried MacGuffins in the first place."

<Gerund> "What kind of plot device are you supposed to be, then?"

<Libronomicon> "We have carried them for 10 years straight starting this new year"

<Gerund> "Ah, well then, I just need to retcon and pick one up in my backstory, obviously"

<Libronomicon> "Let me see... Nope, not finding anything in my index on that"

<Gerund> "I'll just write it in then, come here a moment..."

<Gerund> *scribbles in the Libronomicon*

<Libronomicon> (is that honestly what your character would do in response to the book?)

<Gerund> "A-R-C-H-I I-S A W-A..."

<Gerund> "Why, of course."

<Gerund> *writes in family relation to Deadpool*

6* Libronomicon flings self into Gerund's face

5<The_Eye_Of_Snarcon> Gerund begins suffocating

<Gerund> "That's rather forwards of you my good sir"

<Gerund> "I'm afraid I must protest"

<Gerund> *puts face against burning tree*

<The_Eye_Of_Snarcon> The book seems hardy and invunerable to fire

<Libronomicon> (where is this burning tree coming from suddenly?)

<Gerund> (I lit a grove on fire a little while ago)

<Gerund> (I thought it might help the situation)

<Libronomicon> "Perhaps you Mr. Quiet would be more willing to work with this fine work of non-fiction*"

<Gerund> I cast 'Summon Myriad of Jens'

<Gerund> Who better to fight a book than a bunch of rules lawyers?

6* Libronomicon hops away from Gerund to Mask

<The_Eye_Of_Snarcon> The planet explodes when Jen's powergaming meets his vaccuous personality

<Gerund> "FACEHUGGER!"

<Gerund> I whip out a plasma rifle and fire at the book.

<The_Eye_Of_Snarcon> You don't have a plasma rifle

2*** Hakon has quit (Quit: Tip.It Java User)

<Gerund> Fine

6* Libronomicon hops back to Gerund

<Gerund> I summon the Eye of Snarcon and bombard it with the power of Sarcasm!

<Libronomicon> "Ah, so you are a friend of the pink one?"

<Gerund> "I assure you, I don't know anyone pink. If I did, I wouldn't for long."

<The_Eye_Of_Snarcon> Racist....

<Libronomicon> "You honestly have never met the Pink One, the Keeper of the 4th gate?"

<Gerund> Pink is not a color. It is a disease.

<Gerund> "Sorry, I only know the Keeper of Gate 562"

<Libronomicon> "But fine sir, there are only 4 Gates, perhaps he was the keeper of gate 562"

<Gerund> "I thought there were Nine gates, but the last one kills you."

<Libronomicon> "There are infinite gates in this realm and those that border them"

<Gerund> "Infinty equals 4? Good to know."

<Gerund> (I think this book is defective.)

<Libronomicon> "No, you are mixing up Gates and gates"

<Gerund> "There's only one gate though, don't you see?" *points at castle*

<Gerund> "And I don't see what Bill has to do with this."

<Gerund> Wait a moment

<Gerund> It all makes sense now!

<Libronomicon> "That is gate 5FFFF3 through Gate 1"

<Gerund> Archi must be running Windows Vista!

<Gerund> IT ALL MAKES SNES

<Gerund> No, wait, that's Nintendo

<Libronomicon> "This man is a maniac, perhaps I should stop wasting my time here and find a baker"

<Gerund> "I can bake!"

<The_Eye_Of_Snarcon> Book pies?

<Gerund> "Just look at this fine tree! Toasted to perfection!"

<Gerund> "Just scrape off the charcoal."

<Libronomicon> "That is more broiled than baked"

6* Libronomicon starts hopping off to find a baker

<Gerund> "I assure you, sir, I know what baked is."

<Gerund> "I've dealt with enough of those sorts in my time."

<Gerund> "And I must say, I'd prefer the trees not be baked."

<Gerund> "They're cantankerous, or is it cankerous? Enough without that sort of influence."

<Libronomicon> "If you are such a great baker, sing the fine song of the grandmaster baker?"

<Gerund> "Hot cross buns, hot cross buns"

<Gerund> "One a-penny, two a-penny, hot cross buns"

<Libronomicon> "That is the song of the Journeyman Bakery night attendant, not the Grandmaster baker"

<Libronomicon> "All you have to do is take a cup of flour"

<Libronomicon> "Add it to the mix "

<Libronomicon> "Now just take a little something sweet, not sour"

<Gerund> "Bring us our Figgy Pudding?"

<Libronomicon> "A bit of salt, just a pinch"

2*** Mask has quit (Client exited)

<Libronomicon> "Baking these treats is such a cinch "

<Libronomicon> ...

<Libronomicon> "Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes, CUPCAKES! "

6* Libronomicon continues hopping towards a baker

2*** The_Eye_Of_Snarcon has quit (Quit:)

 

[archimage_a]

Right, due to a general inability for people to make Tuesdays (as well as my time table being altered) I am gonna cancel the Tuesday sessions and just have Saturday sessions.

 

It is my hope that people (including myself) will make more out of these sessions than if they stretch themselves between two different sessions.

[Nexaduro]

:huh:

 

I don't think it works that way. Giving us less time to guess our way through the plot doesn't exactly help move it along.

[archimage_a]

I depends on if people decide the plot is unsolvable and then ignore the GMs attempts to go through the plot in a measure of goodwill.

So its a win win for me. Either people act more responsibly or I only have to face their abuse once a week instead of twice.

[The_Mather1]

Sometimes if people seem to think the plot is unsolvable, that is because of lack of information, either as a result of a key piece missing or because it is just too well hidden. Puzzles are fun, but cease to be so when you have to actively search for the pieces for more than a few minutes.

Also if a plot point is supposed to be found, an indicator for such and the general location it inhabits is a must, else the players will get bored of waiting for the plot to move forward.

 

An example:

Player: I engage the ship's autopilot.

Bad GM response: The ship slowly drifts forward.

Good GM response: An error message is displayed, there's something wrong in the machine room.

[archimage_a]

Mmmm, there are probably faults on both sides.

 

For instance:

Part 1

An owl appears and swoops at Gerund's head.

We attempt to soul drain the owl.

The owl flies off.

We set fire to the forest.

The forest catches fire and you all die

 

Part 2

We enter the tomb

You find a skeleton

We examine the skeleton for signs of death

You can't find anything specific, but you do notice that one of its fingers are missing

We use magic to find out if the skeleton is magical

You don't think the skeleton is magical

We get closer to the skeleton and try to discover if it is magical again/We try to raise the skeleton to tell us what happened

A spirit appears and seems hostile

We attempt to kill the spirit (You were actually doing a fairly good job up to this part)

The spirit appears immensely strong

We continue to attempt to kill the spirit

Some of you die

The surviours continue to attempt to kill the spirit

 

Part 3

After intervention we head off into the forest

You notice the forest is dying

We probably caused that so its irrelevant to the plot

You come to a river

We need to cross the river

You get across the river using a bridge after killing some walking suits of armour

YES we loot the bodies

You are directed into someone's basement

We question them about some of the things we have noticed

Meanwhile some of us head to the other village and attempt to collect information that is 200 years out of date.

You recieve some plot about how the King is evil and unkillable, and that the God of Owl's is an old God.

 

Part 4

Well, I guess thats all the plot, lets go kill the King

The King is immensely strong

We continue to attempt to kill/subdue the King

You all die

We respawn and attempt to destroy the castle

You all die

We respawn and attempt to kill the thing that killed us

You all die

We respawn and attempt to walk into the chamber with a crystal to kill/subdue the King (Partly my fault, giving people rewards for good roleplaying innevitably forces people to think things are relevant)

You all die

 

In short:

Something has happened which may be interesting, we should kill it at the expense of EVERYTHING ELSE. If that doesn't work, kill it at the expense of EVERYTHING ELSE. If that doesn't work kill it at the expense of EVERYTHING ELSE.

 

Part 1

 

More reasonable set of adventures:

An owl appears and swoops at Gerund's head.

I push Gerund to the ground and shoot/stab the owl.

The owl flies off and you hear a disembodied gurgling.

We look for the owl

You eventually see the owl, it seems to be making all manner of strange sounds, and turning its head round and round, as owls sometimes do.

Huh, I guess it is some sort of magic involved we attempt to kill it/watch what happens next.

After a while the owl takes flight.

We follow the owl(Skip to *)/We stay where we are

If anyone stands guard they detect a collection of dead mouse/vole/other small animal's bodies, if not when you wake up you discover the bodies and they seem to form a trail.

*You arrive outside of a strange tomb.

 

Part 2

We enter the tomb

You find a skeleton

We examine the skeleton

You can't tell why the skeleton died, but you can tell that it is missing a finger

We make a note of that and examine the rest of the room

You notice that flowers have been left here year in and year out

We make a note of that and examine the body again

A spirit appears that appears dangerous

We attack the spirit

The spirit does global damage

We begin to flee

The spirit only goes so far as the door and makes noises similar to the owl you encountered last night

Well, this seems strange, we should go to the village/villages to collect more information

 

Part 3

You notice that part of the forest is decaying

We make a note of that and wonder why we didn't notice that before

You notice that you don't really recognise anything

Do you mean we went the wrong way?

That seems likely

Ok we carry on after making a note of that(skip to **)/We attempt to go back the way we came

You go back the way you came, **but find yourself confronted by a river with some guards

This doesn't seem to be the right way either?

No, it does not.

Can we attempt to go around the river?

No

Hmmm, I think there is magic at work here, ok, we try to cross the river

You cross the river after defeating some guards

YES, we loot the bodies

You are directed into someone's basement

We question them about all the things we have noticed

You recieve some plot about how the king is unkillable, about how the God of Owl's is a God of Nature, who had a great battle with the Tyrant King, but was defeated because the Tyrant King used the finger bone of the White Lady to torture her after she died. The God of Nature was highly distraught and went gradually crazy, abandoning his responsibility of looking after the forest, causing things to die, but not regenerate.

We question them about the castle

You are told about the castle and recieve a general layout

We question them about how we might enter the castle

You are told that your suits of armour will allow you entrance to the castle, but the King will instantly know you aren't his if he sees you. Especially if he is sitting on his thone, which greatly enchances his powers. You are also told that the castle has numerous civilians in menial capacities, such as cooks, metal polishers, blacksmiths, servants, ect, ect, ect.

We ask if the village would be willing to help us

They are willing to offer some help, but are worried about getting killed if they are discovered.

Do people get killed often then?

Yes, well, in the beginning yes, now it is just that one or two people disappear each year

Interesting, we make a note of that and attempt to explore the castle without arousing too much suspition

You discover the general layout of the castle, with a throne room on the second floor and a large number of locked rooms on the third floor, and that there are many guards

Hmmm, we could assume that there was something behind those locked doors that might help us, given that the plot we have recieved so far indicates that the King cannot be killed by conventional means.

 

Part 4

???

 

 

Also if a plot point is supposed to be found, an indicator for such and the general location it inhabits is a must, else the players will get bored of waiting for the plot to move forward.

Sigh, if you want to play a game like that then I would suggest you play something like a rail shooter, or a side scroller. Not a roleplaying game, where the adventurer's task is to seek out the plot.

Your complaint is somewhat similar to 'I tried to play Runescape, but it was boring because the room I was in didn't have any quests, even though I waited like two hours.'

 

I mean, if you would prefer I can just stop responding to things that aren't in the game plan, or respond to them with the Point'n'Click 'You have no idea how that would work'.

Though I have tried that, it resulted in you telling me how you would build an EMP Gun, so I imagine if you were trying to set fire to the forest and I said 'you have no idea how that would work' you would spend the next half an hour telling me, in detail, how you rubbed two sticks together, then added kindling, then added more wood, then set fire to the forest.

Added to that me telling you it was a stupid idea to kill the King prompted to you attempt to kill the King, so I have to question how such a method would ever work.

 

 

 

I honestly have no sympathy for your trouble, you made no effort to expand your knowledge. You didn't bother asking more than one person the same question...in many cases you didn't even bother asking one person the question, you just blindly assumed you knew everything and then were annoyed that you didn't, but rather than admit that and go looking for more information, you just sat there and complained that the story didn't make sense.

 

You are doing it in your post, you don't ask questions or suggest courses of action, you just complain that you don't have enough information. You did the same thing last night, I give you a chance to do whatever the hell you want with no consequences, and you make one attempt and then continue sniping.

 

As to puzzles that take a few minutes to solve....These puzzles are supposed to last several hours...the length of a session or two.

[The_Mather1]

To be fair, the only thing I did that was not according to how you said things ought to have been done was to flee to remain in the tomb after the fight had begun. The rest of the time I just simply lacked the information, such as that about the white-clad woman's finger even missing. Also when I did strike the owl, you said it flew off into the canopy, which means up into what would usually be hiding.

 

And also I was searching, I kept walking and looking around, that usually means "come on, give me something to work with here".

 

But yeah, finger-bone, which that bullhead Zareph was to thick to take note of and the rest of us weren't informed of. That is the sort of keystone I'm talking about. Had I known it was missing, I would have asked the priest about it, but when I see a skeleton it really doesn't fall naturally to me to count the bones to make sure none are missing. I'm the brains and true moral center of the group, not the psychic.

 

 

As for what I will do, now that I know it's a castle-town and not actually a fortress, and that the king has a means to torture the white-clad woman, what to do seems a bit more obvious.

 

 

 

Oh yeah, and as for me stubbornly saying there was no solution, that was not a thing that happened. What I was saying was "we could do this" and "where the [bleep] are the rest of the puzzle pieces? It'd be good to know because we can't just simply search this whole [bleep]ing area". I did what I could with the pieces I had, but half the pieces of a puzzle don't make for a picture that can be extrapolated into what the other pieces are, it just makes for a mess that doesn't yet fit together.

[archimage_a]

Yeah, it is a group effort to come to the conclusion in many cases.

 

I guess my advice would be that, instead of searching for new information, you should go back over ground you have already covered to see if you had missed something.

And try to consider yourself as mere mortals (which is what this adventure is actually aimed at), rather than unstoppable killing machines. Sometimes shifting your perspective helps. =)

 

I am/was somewhat hopeful that when Mask returned to the house he would investigate the skeleton again and perhaps give me another chance to deliver the clue.

[Leiana]

Intersession: Arrina practices using her sword and shield as she keeps an ear out for any news of a tournament in Lightsgate.

 

^-^ gonna try and level up again before questing becomes a good idea for me.

[Earth]

I really wish I could do this more often, mostly because I get really REALLY worried when Mather says something like "I am the brains of the group". That tips me off.. Something is wrong with the world..

[The_Mather1]

I really wish I could do this more often, mostly because I get really REALLY worried when Mather says something like "I am the brains of the group". That tips me off.. Something is wrong with the world..

I convinced a priest to let a chunk of magical, living metal (Zareph) into town, I made a nuke using only earth magic and so far none of my guesses as to what is going on have really been that far off, only details such as who killed the white-clad woman. I think I deserve that title by now.

[Earth]

Persuading someone requires little brain power, making a nuke with barely trained magical skill is both retarded and unlikely, and as to your guesses.. Can't comment. It's the fact that you rarely use your brain for many a situation and/or crisis that makes me fear for the safety of the group.. And the game.Besides, Zareph deserves that title more. He got a new body that actually is a killing machine powered by magic for only half his soul, and has usually been the voice of logic and reason in the group as far as I have played. ... I was mostly ignored actually, so I can't be that.