OOC Thread

[Breila]

I wasn't sure at first, maybe I should have let her scream in surprise first and only after a few seconds realise she was really feeling at home up there. Should I modify the post?

[JadedDM]

No, her reaction is up to you, of course. I was just surprised by it, that's all.

[Breila]

But I think I'll do it all the same, to make it more realistic.

[JadedDM]

Here are my notes for the session.

We have some level-ups! Jenara, roll 1d6 for Areilon’s new HP total and distribute your 30 thief skill points as you like (but no more than 15 points can be spent on any one skill and you can’t put any points into Read Languages just yet.) Nuke, from you I need 1d10+1 for Val’s new HP total.

I’ve updated the Places and People thread, as well as the Calendar thread.

First and foremost, the title of this chapter was a reference to three things, actually. First, the Heart of Kulak gemstone that the tribals worshiped; second, the evil in the hearts of the tribals; and third, Joseph Conrad’s novel of the same name (which I have never actually read, but I have been meaning to) which takes place in the Congo.

The very first thing Jocelyn did in this chapter was to pray for Detect Evil. Geez, I wish she had actually used it. I kept waiting and waiting, and she never did. Although in hindsight, now I wonder how much difference it would have made in things--Ouragana seems convinced the tribals’ evil was magic-induced anyway.

Ouragana also thought that Maua was high-ranking, it seemed. However, she was just an apprentice. All of the druids the party fought were; the high shaman was much more powerful (level 8) and guarding the heart. This is not why Maua was not useful as a hostage, though. The main reason for that was that the tribals were so fanatical in their hatred of non-humans, it was more important to them to kill the party than to save one of their own.

The other reason was that Maua told them to attack anyway. Whenever the party encountered more tribals, she would either warn them or tell them outright to slay the party.

There was a scene after the first battle where Maua started babbling at the party angrily. The only words Dalaim could translate were ‘Kulak,’ ‘souls,’ and ‘humans.’ Areilon suggested Maua said, "You kill us and our souls will go to Kulak.” She was close! Actually, she said that Kulak would devour the souls of the party. She tended to said that a lot. :D

At one point, Jocelyn suggested the strategy of sending the two humans alone to explore the ruins, on the idea that the tribals wouldn’t hurt them. This was actually an awful idea, and it's a very good thing the party didn’t take it. True, the tribals at that point hadn’t attacked either Ouragana or Jocelyn, but that was because their ire was being directed at the elf, dwarves and gnome. Without them, the tribals would have attacked the two casters with non-lethal attacks, taken them prisoner and…well…we got a glimpse of what their fate would have been from Andar.

When the party found the building with the partied out tribals in it, Areilon sniffed in one of the cups. I kept waiting to see if she would actually try to drink it. :p Good thing she didn’t, among other substances, there was peyote in there. If there was any doubt at all, yes, Maua was trying very hard to wake up the hung-over tribals when they brought her in there.

I worked pretty hard on my portrayal of Dalaim. I think he came off a bit evil to the party (Neutral always seems Evil to people who are Good, I notice), but I did my best to show he was just doing what he felt he had to. Nobody will fund his work, which was why he was so obsessed with money; not out of greed, but because it was the only way to continue his work. I tried to paint him as a little desperate, world-weary, and even a tad cynical. He’s an old man, after all--quite a contrast to the fresh-faced youngin’s of the party.

The drum was one of four artifacts to be found by the party, and also the easiest to acquire (which is why it was only worth 100 XP). There was a mask in a tomb to the southwest also worth that much; the party never got that far, though. In the village, which the party deliberately avoided, was an idol worth 200 XP. Ouragana was right, though; retrieving it would have probably required a massacre on the party’s part, assuming they survived at all. The best way would have been to send in scouts to sneak in, like Areilon or Grey; or cause a big distraction elsewhere to divert the tribals’ attention. The chieftain (level 5 fighter) was there, too.

Finally, there was the heart, which was worth 500 XP had the party retrieved it. Not to mention a ridiculous amount of gold. It would have been a very tough fight, though, as it was well-guarded. Well, don’t worry about not retrieving it. There will be other quests, other opportunities for gold and XP.

Rescuing Andar was worth another 100 XP. Here’s the story on Andar. When I created this quest, I was going for a jungle pulp adventure theme. And what’s jungle pulp adventure without the jungle princess trope? For those of you not familiar with it, the jungle princess is always a civilized woman, usually very beautiful, who lives among the tribals as one of them. Problem was, the party was entirely female when I first made this quest, so I was like…wouldn’t a jungle prince be more accurate? Hence Andar. Although in this case, the ‘prince’ was a prisoner, not someone who had been accepted into the tribe. (Originally, I had planned on Andar to be a sacrifice to Kulak; but I changed that when I realized he had been captured for over a month, and couldn’t come up with a good enough reason to explain the delay).

Something to note--one of the guards that was guarding Andar was carrying some magical +1 arrows of elven make. Always remember to loot the bodies!

Val’s killing of Maua came as big a shock to me as to anyone else, I’m sure. Funny thing about Val, she doesn’t say or really do much (outside of battle), but when she does…shit goes down, my friends. Unfortunately, it was this act that led to Ouragana’s ultimatum that forced Dalaim’s hand. Neither he nor I wanted to deal with a party split-up (if for no other reason than the fact that Ouragana is so danged far behind everyone else on XP as it is already).

What I thought was very interesting about the whole thing was Ouragana’s plan on what to do with Maua before Val intervened. I don’t know if it was intentional or not on Breila’s part, but the parallels it had with the original first contact with humans and elves was pretty close. For those of you who don’t know, first contact was when the elves first sailed to these islands and discovered humans, who were primitive. The elves took the humans from their homes, brought them back to ‘civilized’ lands as slaves (for their own good, of course). The elves taught them to speak their language, they taught them to follow their culture, their gods. All in the name of ‘helping’ them, of course!

Now think about Ouragana’s plan with Maua. She wanted to bring her back to Narin (take her from her home against her will as a prisoner), teach her to speak Common, teach her to follow ‘civilized’ culture and to turn away from her god. All in the name for her own good, of course! As a student of history, I’m actually surprised Ouragana herself never saw the parallels there, but I sure thought it was pretty interesting.

(Also, considering how well the elves’ actions toward the humans worked out for them, maybe it was for the best that Val killed Maua. As far as any of us know, the half-orc may have single-handedly and inadvertently stopped another Carnage War from happening hundreds of years from now!)

Anyway, the whole moral dilemma about this quest was really not intended and kind of threw me for a loop. I tend to like my morality grey and grey, of course. Take for instance the aarakocra quest, where the party was hired to kill them, but it turned out to be a misunderstanding and the birdfolk were actually peaceful. But I make it a point to never do any one thing all of the time. It keeps players on their toes. For instance, if they walk into a room full of skeletons or statues; sometimes the skeletons or statues will come to life and attack them. Sometimes, they won’t. If they meet a beautiful woman in the wild, asking for their help--sometimes she will be an evil hag in disguise, or whatever--and sometimes she will be just what she appears to be. If every statue comes to life, if every woman is a monster in disguise, if every scenario is not exactly what it appears to be, then the players start to expect that every time.

In this case, I intentionally made the quest as black and white as possible. The tribals were all chaotic evil. Not because they were cursed or enchanted, as Ouragana thought. That was just their culture, their religion, and thousands of years of inbreeding at work. They couldn’t be reasoned with, even without the language barrier. They were full of hate and malice and wanted nothing more than to kill all demihumans. It’s ironic, because I thought having a pure black and white scenario would be something of a relief to the players; instead, it had quite the opposite effect!

Anyway, back on the ship, I made the two other officers (the first mate and quartermaster) on the spot, as I didn’t have my notes with me at this point. I had rolled the sahuagin encounter before I lost my computer, but I hadn’t actually written it up yet, either. The quartermaster was based on an old NPC from another game I ran once and the first mate was supposed to be a reference to Storm from X-Men.

By the way, Jenara, I’m surprised you didn’t get the little joke I made with the quartermaster. When he was searching through the cargo, he found a giant slingshot (a hoopak, reference to Locky), a mace with a spider-shaped head (reference to Brax) and a breast plate with ‘Imperial’ sigils on it (a reference to Angel).

Unfortunately, the first mate wasn’t able to give Ouragana much in the way of good advice, because she was TN where as Ouragana is CG. Their worldviews were just too different.

The sahuagin encounter was rolled randomly, as I said. But I thought it would be a good way to earn some XP and treasure and make up for ending the last quest early. I wanted to have a magical trident in there for Val, but I didn’t roll for one; so I went with a fine one instead.

I guess that’s about it. I am currently working on the assumption that the party will pick up the murder quest as soon as they return to Narin. Here are some thoughts for you all individually:

Horizon
Jocelyn is pretty close to hitting level 3 and probably will after the next quest. She had terrible luck this session. Did she ever actually hit anything at all? I’ll have to double-check, too, but I’m fairly certain she fumbled at least once per battle, as well.

Breila
I have to admit, Ouragana's outburst had me nervous for awhile. I can never be sure when such a thing is purely IC or influenced by OOC factors. I know that makes me sound paranoid, but you'd be surprised how many times in the past people have taken my game way too seriously.

Hopefully you are still having fun and all that talk from Ouragana about leaving the party isn't an indication that you plan on walking out yourself.

Jenara
I have a feeling Areilon will hit level 4 by the time the arc ends, but that's just as well. She'll get her new proficiency slots then anyway.

Nuke
Val finally hit level 2! I told you she would. And now she has a fancy new trident, as well. Seems like she really came out on top this session.

Xelphyn and Noldoli
Well, it's been three months now, and still no sign from either of them. In all likelihood, we'll never hear from them again (or rather, that has been my experience in the past). It's odd that they both just vanished like that, right around the same time.

Maybe it was true love at first sight, and they ran away to Vegas together?

Or maybe they decided they'd go off and start their own game. With blackjack. And hookers.

In any case, Oren and Grey will be removed from the party now. They'll still be hanging around Narin until the arc ends, so the party can hire them for extra muscle, if they want (although that means less treasure and XP to go around). Once the first arc ends, they'll both vanish for good.

I'll get the next chapter up soon. As always, feedback, questions, and so forth are welcome!

[Jenara]

I got the first two references but not the last. Kind of forgot to mention it, and yep, bloody good job because she can't hit a barn door with that cross bow right now!

And Yes, Arei plans to look at the murders next.

Crappy rolls! Got a 1 on hp but can't link it...

She'll add 10 to move silently, hide in shadows and open locks.

So she has ThaC0 19 With all but sabres with she has 18? As per a third fighter?

[Nuke]

First, my wimpy roll.....

Level 2 HPs (1d10+1=2)

Where to start on the rest....

As I said when it happened, if Val didn't have her neck in her hands, it prolly wouldn't have happened. As the party had moved through the adventure, Maua was a problem at every turn. Given Val's alignment and Amazon background, I didn't see the act as a violation of either, seemed very appropriate at the time. There was never any intent on her part to commit genocide, just to move the mission forward. I surly didn't expect it to split the party.

I will repeat another point I had made then, if we want to continue a non-aggressive nature of adventures, we had better select our quests differently upfront.

And thanks for the trident, I almost thought there would be a moral check coming and they would retreat before we could fell the Chieftain.

Once again, well done, and looking forward to more.

[JadedDM]

Wow, those are some poor HP rolls. Hopefully you both can make up for them next time.

So she has ThaC0 19 With all but sabres with she has 18? As per a third fighter?

That's correct, her base THAC0 is 19, but she gets a +2 to hit with her sabre (one +1 is from being elven, the other because it is her weapon of choice). When she uses her crossbow, she suffers a -2 penalty to hit (+1 from being elven, -3 from not having proficiency in it).

Or to put it another way, her modified THAC0 scores for each weapon are sabre 17, light crossbow 21, and stiletto 19.

Maua was a problem at every turn. Given Val's alignment and Amazon background, I didn't see the act as a violation of either, seemed very appropriate at the time.

I agree; when you explained to me Val's motive in killing Maua, it seemed to fall quite nicely into both the 'chaotic' and 'neutral' spectrums as far as I was concerned. It was chaotic in the sense that Val acted unilaterally, without consulting the rest of the group, to do what she thought was best. And it was neutral in the sense that Val wasn't acting out of malice or anger, but simple self-preservation.

And thanks for the trident, I almost thought there would be a moral check coming and they would retreat before we could fell the Chieftain.

Nah. The sahuagin actually had another 5 troops waiting in the waters to be summoned as reinforcements. The lieutenant was actually on the verge of calling for them when the chieftain fell. The chieftain's defeat is what triggered the morale check, otherwise they would have likely kept going.

[Breila]

Now think about Ouragana’s plan with Maua. She wanted to bring her back to Narin (take her from her home against her will as a prisoner), teach her to speak Common, teach her to follow ‘civilized’ culture and to turn away from her god. All in the name for her own good, of course! As a student of history, I’m actually surprised Ouragana herself never saw the parallels there, but I sure thought it was pretty interesting.

You're correct here only up to "teach her to speak Common". The intention was to, in turn, learn her language and understand her culture. Ouragana's hope, in the beginning, was that it might thus become possible to let the tribals tolerate excavations and exploration of the ruins. Of course, it would have become clear soon enough that this was impossible.

I set up Ouragana as an ivory tower scholar, who thought that she would always sail on large vessels and be concerned mostly with navigation and sailing, protected from battle by the crew of the ships. She had a very hard landing in reality, first when she was fired after the ship she came into Narin to found a more experienced storm sorcerer there. The first quest went well for her, but this second one was a harsh experience that has unsettled her.

I must admit that when no one except Jen could understand why I had a problem with the events, I was wondering if I could continue to play with this group. But I realised I had made mistakes as well. For example, I had forgotten that in this game system, evil cultures truly exist! I was unprofessional, mixing up game worlds and our real world.

Ouragana has a lot to learn, she will probably continue to lag behind in XP also because I've never played mages before and am not yet as creative with spells as I would need to be. I hope to remember using more cantrips. Having just one spell per day is a serious limitation.

[JadedDM]

(Just got the title :p)

I'm glad someone did. I told Horizon about it last night, and she had no idea what I was talking about.

I must admit that when no one except Jen could understand why I had a problem with the events, I was wondering if I could continue to play with this group. But I realised I had made mistakes as well. For example, I had forgotten that in this game system, evil cultures truly exist! I was unprofessional, mixing up game worlds and our real world.

It's also important to remember that no matter what happens, it's just a game and in no way a reflection of reality. Even if the PCs were all evil and went around wantonly massacring innocents on purpose, that doesn't mean the players are bad people. It's all just imaginary playtime.

I once played an amoral True Neutral bard who tricked an old man (whose wife and son had died) out of his savings, just to line my own pockets with gold. But that's never something I would even dream of doing in real life.

Ouragana has a lot to learn, she will probably continue to lag behind in XP also because I've never played mages before and am not yet as creative with spells as I would need to be.

Spellcasting doesn't bring in all that much XP, really; only 50 per level per spell cast. Something that would really help bolster her XP would be if she interacted with others more, especially fellow PCs. A chat with an NPC is worth 25 XP, but a chat with a PC is worth 50 XP. So if Ouragana has a meaningful conversation with all three of her fellow PCs in each chapter, that's 150 XP right there.

Of course, there's not always time to sit and chat when you're crawling through a dungeon or escaping from a horde of monsters. But it's a great way to catch up during the downtime segments.

[Breila]

Strange, I didn't realise she was so much of a loner.

[JadedDM]

I noticed, especially in the last chapter, Ouragana would often opt out of interaction. When the party rescued Andar, for instance, Jocelyn and Arelion were keen on meeting him, questioning him, and so forth. Val and Ouragana both waited outside, though.

Then when we got back on the boat, you made it very clear that Ouragana wasn't going to talk to anyone or interact with anyone if she could help it. Areilon kept reaching out to her, to no avail.

It's not just her, though. There's not a whole lot of communication among the PCs themselves. Jocelyn seems to prefer the company of NPCs--Ouragana is actually the only PC she's really spoken to in any kind of meaningful way. (Likewise, Jocelyn is the only PC Ouragana has really spoken to on any serious level, either.) On the flip side, Areilon has had a meaningful conversation with everyone in the party except Ouragana. Even Val! Speaking of Val, she doesn't really seem to connect with anyone...unless you count Mist.

It's actually something I've been thinking about lately; how to get the PCs to actually connect with each other more. So far, I haven't come up with anything substantial.

[Jenara]

Arei has been trying, don't get me wrong! She is a very interactive Chr.

[JadedDM]

I'm not making accusations or anything, merely stating my observations.

And yes, Areilon has interacted at least once with everyone in the party except Ouragana--and she did try, back on the boat, but Ouragana wasn't in the mood.

[Jenara]

We can work on that

Like the way she tried to get Andar to come with them? Fits what we decided so well...

[JadedDM]

Yep, Andar will be available as a henchman in the second arc, but for now, the poor guy needs time to recuperate.