General Discussion

If there is anything you want to talk about that doesn't relate to the rest of the game, please put it here.

Hello again Squadfather and Gene. Nice to see y'all once more.

Hello as well, it's good to be in the same group again.

So just found this, and the singer's voice made me want to share it:

Seriously this guy's voice is like if you took Christopher Lee's and lowered/deepened it! It's awesome!!!

EDIT: Since GP won't let me embed the video, here's a link

Things have gone pretty silent around here.

I know that Squadfather and I are working on finishing up the tie-ins between our characters and were going to submit soon. We're waiting on some information from the DM.

Sorry everyone. I had a sudden conference at work and I won't be back until Monday. Sorry yall.

Understood, I'm getting the framework for the IC start done tonight, and will get the actual start of the campaign Monday morning.

Having cleared it with Squad & Raddue, here's the basic layout for the campaign start:

The above two have been captured by Jahred & Faerin for the theft of a noble family's genealogy tome (magical item that self-updates when members die or are born), and are traveling alongside a merchant caravan through a wooded area that has had reports of bandit attacks. Among the hired guards, is the centaur scout Wahuhi. From there...

I would rather not start this way. It sounds like a great setup for a book, but not for a D&D party, especially with people I've never played with before. If there is a way to begin without players being directly opposed to each other, I'd rather start that way than with half the party the prisoner of the other half. There's just too many ways for that to go south.

Fair enough, I have another hook that I was originally going to use and this had seemed like an easy tie in with the backstories provided.

I understand, and I hope my reaction wasn't too strong.

I must agree with DMDoom. Starting with situation that has party members against other party members is only bound to lead to interparty conflict and generally a lesser game. Very contrary to party unity.

I brought up that issue, but I let Meribson know that as long as something happened where the other players were sympathetic or something that it could work out. I was willing to roll with it, but I'm also willing to have another start since others seem worried about it. :)

Yeah. It would require us to be STATED sympathetic so as not to be opposed to the rogue's previous action. So as not to cause a break in party unity. Then the previous start would work. That of course is dumping a forced issue on each party member to accept.

Absolutely agree.

I'm looking forward to starting the game. I'm fine with starting the game with either way.

Adventure 1 - Delving into Godsskull is live!

Do we already know each other?

I leave how long you guys have known each other to you, but the five of you are entering the cave as a single group.

Does that mean they did or did not kill the caster goblin? :P

Portent rolls.

Caster gobbo still lives

Ouch, that was a painful roll. :-P

Got real quiet around here

Got word from Squad that they've got to step away, so I extended an invite to someone else. Depending on the character they want to play, they'll either be a goblin prisoner or a member of the caravan. I'll figure out after work how to transition the goliath out.

Sounds good. I haven't been posting because I'm the one that posted last. It'll be neat to see us get moving again!

It'll be fun to have someone else who's tiny in the party, too. :D

I really want this campaign to keep going, I have so many ideas.

Regarding another little guy in the party, all that they've said so far is that they are thinking a melee type character.

On a separate note, the combination of the Blind Fighting style in the latest UA as well as Jason Momoa's latest role has given me the idea for an NPC guardsman.

I hope it keeps goin', too. I'm in it for the long haul. :D

My delay this morning was largely born out of trying to find a picture of the rock formation that I'd have sworn I had. In the end I had to look up the caves where I took the picture (Capricorn Caverns in Australia) to find another one.

Sorry for my own delay.

How do we want to handle the holidays? I've been under the assumption that it's one post per weekday, but with traveling and family stuff I don't know how others will be able to handle it. I'm hosting this year so I'm not going anywhere and I'll be able to post, but I don't want to force my ideas on post schedule on others during this time of year.

Whoa, those were some bad rolls. Hopefully we bring the beetle down before it’s next turn!

I'm thinking that the fight gets wrapped up, then next week do fluff stuff that doesn't require everyone until after the turkey-day weekend.

I will say that you guys have dropped it below half, and I'm going to take a guess that when GeneCortess catches up, there's going to be a rather...thunderous reaction. Should I feel bad for that pun?

On an unrelated note, I found a video yesterday that gave me soooooo many ideas for a D&D setting!

It asks the question: What if Antarctica stayed green?

Given edition differences, was the surprise round technically round 1, or did you decide to treat it as a surprise round in the older sense? A sort of round 0. Just want to know if I need to act in round 2, or if that would be jumping the gun.

AlternateHistoryHub is a fantastic channel.

I just treated it as a surprise round like in the older sense, I'm a follower of the adage of the rules being mere suggestions, and it seemed appropriate for the circumstances at the time. As for acting, go right ahead. I'm not going to expect everyone to be posting regularly this week, given the holiday.

Forewarning, depending on how much you guys investigate the goblins, this story can go into really dark and twisted places. Like Goblin Slayer type territory.

I'm down with a dark story line, doesn't bother me a bit.

My line of questioning in the OOC portion of the post is mostly my own notes to make sure I ask the questions. We can RP it all or we can use it as a basis of questions I want to ask if people wish to move along at a faster clip. I'm down for either. :)

I think this is getting darker than I care to go.

Don’t let me spoil your fun, but I’m not comfortable where this is going.

Peace out.

Anything darker will now go into spoilers.

So if the current material is too dark for anyone else, say so now. SJoyner backed out, and someone else asked to come on in. The bit about goblins is the darkest it should go for a while, but that is the sort of thing that I like doing in my fantasy settings (not exclusively, but my favorite game in the 2000s was Diablo II).

hadn't notice a problem yet.

I think this is fine. I like a dark storyline as long as there is a narrative reasoning for it and it isn't being done willy nilly. If this is as dark as it's going to get, I think we're good to go from my end of things.

There's more material that leans into the darker side of fantasy, but nothing else quite so visceral/violating. There's some lore elements that involve slavery, war crimes, and the twisted path of vengeance, but this is the last I currently have planned that deals with rape.

It didn't really come off as rape, not to me. I have a pretty hard line at rape but this felt like they're just using the kids as hosts, which one hundred and one different creatures in D&D and popculture do. If it was a legit rape, like we walked in on one, I would nope out pretty fast because that's just not what I want out of my D&D but dark themes like vengeance, war crimes and all of that are fine with me if they are used appropriately and well. Which I think, in fairness, you are doing.

With the last fight being more challenging than I had originally planned (damn RNG) everyone is now level 3.

I'm good, I like dark fantasy as long as people are on the same level, don't want anything that might end up on r/rpgnightmares. Also, sorry for my slow responses, holidays + holiday crud = blech. Now to see if Jahred is jumpy, or justified in his actions...

Completely unrelated to anything on the thread, but has anyone ever had jambalaya? I heard about it last night and upon seeing that I had all of the stuff for it figured I'd make a big batch for lunch/dinners this week.

I love jumbo and jambalaya.

Jambalaya is delicious. I prefer it without shrimp myself but it is very good.

So just wondering if anyone has any guesses about Creak's "Mistress". I won't be confirming or denying any guesses, but I am curious what ideas you guys have.

I'm not sure, we just don't have enough information to go off of yet, I don't think.

How would we like to do loot? Group loot, I assume, and piling gold into a group coffer? It's simper than trying to dole out shares to everyone but I know that some people have stronger feelings than I do.

New portent rolls, 'cause we long rested.

Suggestions as to what to inquire about?

I think that we have three locations to go check out, or we can ditch and follow the pendant to wherever it is leading.

Sorry I've been quiet, I'm adjusting to a new schedule at work as well as a night class that is eating up a fair amount of time. Should be in the swing of things this weekend

It happens.

As for the rest, I apologize, I make an information gatherer character and I'm having a hard time coming up with questions to ask or information to seek out. So any ideas on what to ask would be appreciated. I'll dig through the previous thread and see if anything punches through my thick skull.

I think the main problem I'm having here is how disjointed the information we're getting is. This is largely the fault of the medium of game, what would have been given to us in a session or two is spread out over months without any collation, with that in mind, I've gone through our previous adventure and pieced together what we know so far below. At least the things that stood out to myself and Jahred, as well as questions that pop into my head, which will be in italics.

Jahred noticed rashes on the people in the caravan, and that they were scratching quite a bit at their necks. He also noticed they were quite attentive to their belongings. He chalked that last part up to nerves given the weather and the environs, but the first part has been nagging at him. Is anyone in the town showing similar signs of ailment?

According to the Frosthorne Knight, Creak traveled with the caravan for five months and showed no sign of knowing magic, they thought he was just a homeless Kenku with a couple screws loose, talking to his amulet and calling it 'Mistress'. Clearly he was a spy, but might there have been another purpose he was traveling with them? He also overheard Creak muttering about the Rantar and the Goliath being the ones to take blame, and that he should flee, Creak also seemed surprised that his 'Mistress knew?'

Between questioning the goblin and the children we rescued, Leha and Lily, we learned that their village had been attacked by Drow, they were rescued by a Knight in bright green with a Gem emblazoned on their shield. I suspect the theft was separate, but given the handkerchief we found, I'm thinking the knight was Bedarim Tarados, heir to Count Ædrin Tarados. Either way, they were attacked by the goblins and the Knight was killed. The goblins took the children back to the cave and met with a green Dragonborn with a tail. Unfortunately the kids couldn't remember (or didn't hear) whether the Dragonborn was one "Ganzath Korth" or "Tazarzak Korth".

The book the knight had been carrying was a Blood Tome. It's extremely rare, expensive, and is used by nobles to keep track of their bloodlines. It will note when a member of the family is born, how they fit into the family tree, and then note their death. As far as we know, there are no means to fool the book. The green Dragonborn with a tail gave the goblins kegs of alchemical goo in exchange for the book. That's the stuff that turned the one goblin into a hideous monstrosity.

I don't think the green Dragonborn is the Mistress as Ranos and the children apparently referred to it as a "Green Man", not sure where the Green Lady the goblins had been talking about came from. Am I getting crossed wires of information here?
Is the Knight the one that massacred the Tarados family and stole the book, or was the massacre and the theft separate?

The Tarados family was founded by a hedge knight who was granted a small keep. After securing a number of trade deals with the Elves of Creakview, he was elevated to the title of Count. They've had ups and downs since then. As recently as 70 years back there was a scandal where the then Count and Countess had a seventh child, which for humans = sorcerers/sorceress' (which I'm guessing are frowned on by society then?) According to the Frosthorne Knight, some months ago Count Tarados and his family were butchered and their Blood Tome stolen, evidence had pointed to a certain Rantar and a certain Goliath.

This Gem crested knight, were they the perpetrator? I don't think so, they helped the kids out before getting killed, doesn't seem like someone who'd slaughter an entire noble family. So perhaps he meant the tome was stolen separately? Or perhaps the knight stole the Tome but the family was slaughtered separately. Is the knight Bedarim Tarados, or was that just a handkerchief kept as a bookmark or some such?

Countess Modwen is the sole surviving member and has been holed up in the capital of Rustcreek pressuring the Frosthorne Knights to investigate the massacre. Meanwhilte Seneschal Narkax, a Green Dragonborn, oversees the county in her absence. The Seneschal has hired the Green Scale Mercenary Company to help maintain law and order.

Does the Seneschal have a tail? What is the symbol of the Green Scale Company? What Knightly Order sports green and a gem?

Creak mentioned something about the 'prison Stone Bright' during our last fight with him. Was that the dungeon we were in? Was that even a name or was he referencing something else? Either way, before Creak could be properly questioned, we heard a woman's voice taunt him before apparently withdrawing his power from her and sending him into a still living, but unresponsive state.



Okay, so that's a rough gathering of everything we've got up that I could piece together. We had plenty of time to discuss matters after we left that place, I think Jahred would have tried piecing things together with the group, so does anyone want to fill in blanks you were privy to?

I absolutely love this synopsis, DMDoom. Thank you for taking the time to put everything together. Give me until the middle of tomorrow to respond with a coherent thought and hopefully we can start piecing this all together.

I think that DMDoom has summed things up very well and I think you've pointed out some stuff that I missed on the original read through of the threads. The one thing I would add is that we're now following the information given to us about a direction to follow from this amulet that Creak had.

Maybe answering some of the questions you have there would be a good place to start. There is a library we could hit up where we could ask about the Green Scale Company as well as which Knightly Order would sport green and a gem.

I think the party might be a good place for those of us who are socially-acclimated (in other words, not Ranos loooool) to dig up some dirt, too. Perhaps ply some low level functionaries with booze and a good time and see what shakes out?

That is a bit muddled. You and I had discussed Jahred and Faerlin meeting up on account of shared interests. Faerlin being a vigilante, Jahred something of a fledgling detective, he likely assisted you in bringing in a criminal. I figure we moved on to seek out more work/cases/bounties. There was a bit of disagreement in how we should all be traveling together, and Meribson decided to leave the 'why' of it to us, otherwise we might have spent forever discussing how to start game without ever actually doing so.
We also lost a player or two, if I recall correctly, the Goliath among them. I kind of just figure Godskull is our party's true origin story, perhaps we met earlier on the road and then sought shelter together, then got wrapped up in this conspiracy, but otherwise we haven't really known each other all that long. (That's just my suggestion as a way to keep things simple and avoid giving Meribson too many headaches :-P)
Ah, I think I left the amulet out because either a) I had written a lot already :-P b) it was fresh in my mind and viewed as a fall-back, since we know it gives us a direction to go, but not necessarily information. Or of course c) A and B.

A Library seems like a solid start, followed by the celebration, maybe finding off-duty guard or military could help as well.

Gods I hope that post wasn't too cheese. :-P

Not at all, I thought it was great.

I may have on and off access problems the next couple weeks. If it seems long, please play my character.

Hey everyone. I’m sorry to say but with real life come real issues. Due to medical issues with my wife and having a 15 month old and everything shutting down, I’m finding myself with very little time these days. With that being said, I can only maintain 4 games right now, a solo one I’m DMing, a solo one I’m playing, and two others that aren’t very demanding. I’m sorry guys. Hopefully in a few months life gets less hectic.

With two players calling hold and the whole overblown virus panic, I'm putting this game on pause until the end of April. By that point, the worst of the shut downs and whatnot should be over.

I'm around. :D

Sounds good.

Trying to be there now....:) Is this still alive???

You all do good. I'm exiting.