Whiteleaf OOC

[spiderwrangler]

Is the hopping on the back of his arachnid supposed to send Kast off in a paranoid direction? When the guy first arrived, he didn't seem to know who anyone was but Elieen, but has more than once indicated he knows much more about Kast than that would imply. If the party is well known enough to know or it be rumored that Elieen travels in the company of an elf with a penchant for spiders, I'm willing to drop it, but while his spells/etc are spider flavored, that wouldn't necessarily be the sort of thing that he would flaunt. He keeps Kzri's presence and his connection to the spider side of nature fairly private outside of those that he trusts enough not to judge him or her. Those that would see definitive proof that he travels with a spider companion would mostly be any opponents our merry little band of misfits has tangled with in the past.

I know Kast has been goading him, but it was for just such a betrayal of inside knowledge as this.

[willpell]

it be rumored that Elieen travels in the company of an elf with a penchant for spiders, I'm willing to drop it

That's all I was going for here.

I know Kast has been goading him, but it was for just such a betrayal of inside knowledge as this.

Remembering who knows or doesn't know what has never been my strong suit....

[spiderwrangler]

it be rumored that Elieen travels in the company of an elf with a penchant for spiders, I'm willing to drop it

That's all I was going for here.

Fair enough.

[Arch Lich Burns]

Could I at least attempt bardic knowledge? As a bard, I might already gathered info relating to it, even if it is not the ship itself. Bards have a tendency of learning from those around them.

[willpell]

Could I at least attempt bardic knowledge? As a bard, I might already gathered info relating to it, even if it is not the ship itself. Bards have a tendency of learning from those around them.

I will allow it eventually, but not yet; I'm too early in the planning stages to have anything to tell you so far. Hell, I'm still working on those background dossiers that I mentioned earlier - so far only Arcana and Psionics are completely done, and coming up with anything to say about Architecture or Religion is proving nigh-impossible.

[spiderwrangler]

Could I at least attempt bardic knowledge? As a bard, I might already gathered info relating to it, even if it is not the ship itself. Bards have a tendency of learning from those around them.

I will allow it eventually, but not yet; I'm too early in the planning stages to have anything to tell you so far. Hell, I'm still working on those background dossiers that I mentioned earlier - so far only Arcana and Psionics are completely done, and coming up with anything to say about Architecture or Religion is proving nigh-impossible.

Sure, make a Bardic Knowledge check... DC is 345.

[Arch Lich Burns]

Damnations! That is way over epic tier even! *shakes fist*

[Quarg]

I will roll for dwarves later but I will be out of touch most of tommorrow....so just have Eileen be in a complitive mood.


Also I very much doubt that the Commander wanted to impune Eileen's honor, so why did he?

[willpell]

Also I very much doubt that the Commander wanted to impune Eileen's honor, so why did he?

Because I don't know shit about honor? As a rule, don't read too much into my NPCs' dialogue; I've never been great with subtext. Either my characters say what they mean or they can Bluff better than even you can Sense Motive; there's no sense in trying to roleplay your way to a circumstance bonus in this arena, though it may well work in others.

EDIT - to clarify further, Varshyl was breaking the fourth wall a little there, not only talking to Eileen but to the other characters, and by proxy I was talking through him to the other players. Just a gentle reminder that "take the money and run" is not a strategem that would be without consequence, though it's likely that at least Zaks and possibly Cassien were tempted by that very thought. If you-as-a-group had tried it, you'd have Varshyl after your ass in-game, but you'd also have me slightly annoyed that you were running away from what little plot I'd managed to scrape together for you; I can't in good conscience say you're simply not allowed to even try such an action, but I wanted to make sure it was clear you couldn't just claim "PC privilege" and walk away scot-free. (Reading the entire archive of "DM of the Rings" repeatedly has left me with a firm idea of the depths to which gamers are capable of sinking. Present company excluded, of course...or at least I hope so.)

[willpell]

My apologies to whoever had taken Autohypnosis, listing it as WIS-based, and I "corrected" them and said it was INT. You had it right the first time; evidently I have been screwing this up for some time.

[Amara]

Cassien might still have distant ties if you want to work that in as a hook. It'd be very decidedly not safe for him, but it is in the realm of possibility.

[Synch]

Call me impatient, but what is supposed to be the update schedule for this? Is it a once weekly thing? I ask because in almost three weeks we have met two NPCS, still have yet to have a proper conversation with the main NPC questgiver and we haven't left the building we're in. Seems a bit slow. If its a weekly update then I apologise and our progress is understandable.

[BadgeAddict]

I may be incorrect here, but i believe the hesitation to updating is because Willpell is waiting for us...

If this is the case, I wonder if we might be able to come up with a system of some sort to inform our doneness.

[Quarg]

I posed a question...to everyone else and willpell so I'm waiting on a response. Not sure who/what is waiting on who...

[willpell]

Partly I'm waiting for you guys to come to a consensus, and partly I'm stalling while I wait for inspiration to strike, enabling me to provide the details that are currently slow in coming (such as the name of the castle and of the province it's locate in, which I didn't have when I started this thread; I still don't know things like the name of the largest city near said castle, even though such information could certainly be pertinent). If you need me to nudge things forward, I can make an attempt, but I strongly dislike being rushed into setting a precedent that I will then feel bound by. This campaign setting is 5 years in the making, and I'm a severe perfectionist about getting every detail of it just right; inconveniently, my method tends to involve painting broad strokes first, then filling in details later, and it's often hard for me to keep track of those details once they're established. So while I can provide all kinds of neat irrelevant factoids, I don't always have the answers that are actually useful for the current situation, and thus I spend a lot of time delaying, hoping that the players will do part of my job for me (such as by coming up with cool ideas I can use to flesh out the plot).

[Synch]

Partly I'm waiting for you guys to come to a consensus, and partly I'm stalling while I wait for inspiration to strike, enabling me to provide the details that are currently slow in coming (such as the name of the castle and of the province it's locate in, which I didn't have when I started this thread; I still don't know things like the name of the largest city near said castle, even though such information could certainly be pertinent). If you need me to nudge things forward, I can make an attempt, but I strongly dislike being rushed into setting a precedent that I will then feel bound by. This campaign setting is 5 years in the making, and I'm a severe perfectionist about getting every detail of it just right; inconveniently, my method tends to involve painting broad strokes first, then filling in details later, and it's often hard for me to keep track of those details once they're established. So while I can provide all kinds of neat irrelevant factoids, I don't always have the answers that are actually useful for the current situation, and thus I spend a lot of time delaying, hoping that the players will do part of my job for me (such as by coming up with cool ideas I can use to flesh out the plot).

Perfectly suitable explanation. I just wasn't sure if it was slow because of the update schedule, because you were waiting for us, because updates were lax or because you're still fleshing out your world. Take your time if you need it to do a proper job. Now that I know how much detail is going into this and that you are still formulating things, I can appreciate and deal with delays

[Amara]

Ay~
S'same as why I sometimes need a week off from my own weekend sessions to just flesh things out more. Nothing wrong with that. Better to take the time needed than to try and rush.

[willpell]

I want to make it clear at this point that while Varshyl certainly wants you to work on pursuing the mystery cabal, that's not meant to be the sum total of the plot of the game....it's part of it, to be sure, but that's in sort of the way that defeating Xykon is a goal for the Order of the Stick, without them immediately dropping everything to go after him directly. Besides being powerful enough to assassinate a Dragon Half-Dragon of Huge-to-Gargantuan size, the witches are also extremely good at covering their trail; you'll have to come up with some rather brilliant investigative tactics to have any chance of finding them, and that's IF I've actually managed to come up with the necessary information to have you discover it, which often is a matter of waiting for lightning to strike (or for me to find the lightning that struck months ago, which I dutifully bottled for future use, but didn't have time to get the bottle properly filed and indexed in my version of Warehouse 23). I'm certainly not prepared for you to confront them immediately; Varshyl's impatience is a character trait for descriptive purposes, not a stand-in for the GM's plot rails. He wants you to find the culprits within a month or two, and it's not strictly impossible that you might, but it's damn unlikely, and the plot will move on just fine regardless. There are plenty of other stories for you to interact with, not just this one. So I'd like to encourage you to regard the search for airships and dragon-haters as being the overarching plot, not the immediate and exclusive one...it is after all tied mostly to Eileen, while other plots of comparable importance will cohere to all of the other characters, of which only Quinton's has appeared onstage so far. There will be psiony stuff for Zaks, religious and naturey stuff for Dalsein and Kast, and arcane stuff for Cassien, to say nothing of things that pertain to multiple characters. And Whiteleaf is a living world, so you'll periodically run into other characters pursuing their arcs, which have nothing to do with you unless you choose to get involved with them.

[Quarg]

Wee....I think we're sort of stuck here so maybe I should just be letting Eileen sort of push things a bit...
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Eileen looks about at the various blank stares.  She was hoping someone would have had an idea of where to go for the kind of weapons dealers that they needed to find.  But no, everyone was looking at her to somehow know where to find shady weapons merchants in these parts.  As though the neice of the Count of Fyretor regularly was involved in dastardly plots to overthrow the Emperor and plunge the Empire into civil war or something.  Rather than be a family that had been handed a huge swath of wilderness with orders to keep out the damn raiding Orcs, keep the dragons happy, and generally left to either sink or swim on their own ability.

Eileen stands and looks around the room.  "Well folks I have a mission, I would prefer for you to asist me in it, but I'm not going to try and bend arms.  If you want to assist me please stand."

[Amara]

S'why I asked if Cassien should still have a (however tangential) contact that MIGHT know something, earlier.

[spiderwrangler]

Kast is of little use, not having underworld or craftmage contacts. I'm reliant on you guys to advance the plot at this point, all I can do is mess things up more.

[BadgeAddict]

Zaks has underworld contracts (I would think, as why else would he know undercommon)

[Quarg]

S'why I asked if Cassien should still have a (however tangential) contact that MIGHT know something, earlier.

And I sort of let the DM lead on that...personally I have no problem with knowing a guy who knows a guy from him.

Eileen has enough knowledge to try and go down that path but likely far more bumbiling than Cassien would...

[willpell]

S'why I asked if Cassien should still have a (however tangential) contact that MIGHT know something, earlier.

Um...maybe? I'm afraid I'm not being very good at staying on top of these details right now. I kinda just want to move the plot forward and not worry about loose ends, but I don't want you to feel like I'm denying you any agency....it's just that like I said before, immediately coming up with answers to the campaign's overarching mystery (or at least one of them) is not really on my short-term agenda.

[BadgeAddict]

but, we don't need to prove we have connections..at this point we simply need to tell the man that we'll take care of it and then leave town.