LSO OOC Thread II

[JadedDM]

Ah, okay. The D&D wiki is 3E stuff, so there will sometimes be things that were not yet invented when 2E was around. Which sometimes means I haven't ever heard of it.

[chese780]

Ye.

The materials don't seem to have much difficulty going back an edition though c:

[JadedDM]

Okay, I went ahead and closed the thread. Seems like everyone's done posting, so I'll begin work on calculating XP and all that jazz. I'll hopefully have the new chapter up by Monday.

[BishGada]

I hope Horizon gets well.

[Chris1234]

@ Jaded: Volo's guide to all things magical has stuff in it like that, although haven't looked at it for years.

@Bish: Is that PC unwell? or player unwell?

[BishGada]

I can see where the confusion can come from. It's OOC concern of course.

[Chris1234]

thx Bish
@Horizon: Get well soon!

[JadedDM]

Okay, that's the end of that chapter. No level ups, except the NPCs. Here are my notes for the last two chapters:

Chapter Titles
Resident Evil is a series of video games about zombies. Ironic there were no zombies at all in this game, but it was more of a reference to the mansion itself and all of the puzzles (see below). Beyond the Veil was a reference to the afterlife, as the party got a glimpse of denizens of both the Heavens and the Hells. This is their second encounter with the Outer Planes, the first being the Slaadi they fought back in Deimos.

Entering the Mansion
Rather ironically, Baeros noticed a breeze coming up from the well and deduced there was a passage down there that might lead inside the mansion. He was actually completely correct. It would have allowed the party to bypass the front door, meaning they could have slipped in and got the drop on the Oni and their hellhounds or avoided them altogether, not to mention not triggering that fireball trap on the front door. Ah, well.

Going through the downstairs windows wouldn't have done much good. The noise it would have made would have alerted the Oni and hellhounds and they would have been ready for you. Going through the upstairs windows would have been even more dangerous. The party could have set off traps or come face first with the horrors within without time to prepare.

I'd say the best option was using the well and the second best option was the front door, but only after disarming the trap. I'm glad to say that at least the three thieves in the party learned a valuable lesson about always checking for traps.

Helmed Horrors
The helmed horrors weren't quite as difficult as I thought they would be. But as the party was out of healing, they were still a threat in that they whittled down the party's resources.

Originally my idea was that they would be active, patrolling the halls and the rooms and the party would have to try and avoid them when they could. But stealth isn't really an option for such a large party, so I decided they were stationary unless activated.

Fun fact: Each horror carried 2 magical items on it (rolled up randomly). One was either a weapon or shield and the other was just a random item used as a battery to power it. Most of the items I rolled wouldn't have been useful to the party, but they could have sold/traded them later on. Sadly, nobody thought to search their remains, beyond investigating one of the helmets. The items were placed inside the chest cavities of the armors. Most of the items were cursed, though. I reasoned if you were going to use a magic item as a battery, you'd pick the most useless ones you could find, right?

Keys and Plugs
The keys (club, diamond, heart and spade) and the plugs (king, queen, bishop and rook) were all references to the previous chapter's title, Resident Evil. The original Resident Evil videogame took place in a big mansion, like the Wyvern's, which is why I chose the title. The RE games were also famous for their numerous puzzles, which usually involved collecting keys or other items. Specifically, the chess pieces and card keys were from RE2, my favorite of the series.

Magical Items
I thought it was pretty obvious the bracelet was meant for Gallath--he was the one who had fought a demon in the past and was hunting down his ex-lover, who was a summoner of demons. But strangely, he showed no interest in it while Ouragana was somehow 'charmed' by it. Go figure.

I'm still wondering how Gallath knew what the quiver did, especially since he didn't even bother reading the runes on it.

In the library were four suits of armors on stands, each one different from the other. They were all magical, of course. They were meant for Val, Gallath, Drav and Baeros.

There was also a room the party never looked in (ironic, since it wasn't locked), across from the bedroom. It was the prison where the Oni were held and inside the party could have found the Giantsbane sword the Wyvern mentioned in his recording. It works on ogres, too, so obviously it was meant for Baeros.

There were three magical items in the lab, the hammer being one. The other two were Bracers of Defense (for Dahn) and a Ring of Invisibility (also for Dahn).

Don't sweat missing out on stuff, though. There's plenty of swag to be had in the future, I'm sure. Especially if we continue on to the third arc.

Kyton Battle
I developed the whole idea of the kyton because I was hoping to encourage some creativity from the party. Most of the party couldn't hurt the devil without magical items of +2 value or better, so just rushing in and hitting it wouldn't work. This was completely intentional on my part, I wanted to see what kind of strategies you all would come up with when brute force wasn't a useful option.

The kyton was worth a lot of XP, but because there were 10 party members, it was spread really thin. Thankfully, the story rewards should help make up for it.

Finding the Can(n)on of Light
I guess some of you really thought it wasn't an actual cannon? Although many of you did wind up using the wrong spelling throughout the adventure, as Thaddeus pointed out just because the words 'canon'/'cannon' are similar in one language doesn't mean they are anything alike in another.

The Power is Yours
The main purpose for including the planetar was to (hopefully) provide some character growth. She pointed out the hypocrisy in Jocelyn's actions, and now she is left questioning whether she is doing the right thing or not. She also engaged with Ouragana, trying to get her to think about her life's direction and what to do about it. I don't know if her words had any effect, though.

Asking the planetar to send home the Oni was one option. Another was healing Brock's bad leg. A third was finding Gallath's missing sister. Really, there were lots of possibilities, but she would only grant altruistic wishes. Nuke's suggestion of water-breathing, for instance, would have been rejected as that was a selfish wish.

The Epilogue
Maybe it was weird having Javos call out Jocelyn on her Renosian behavior. He's always been pretty laid back so far. But I needed someone to do it, and didn't want to introduce a new character and couldn't imagine Sierra, Terra, or Thaddeus would care as none of them are Octhanians. So I went with Javos.

But the whole idea of 'tough love' is a very Renosian attitude. If someone keeps making mistakes, the Octhanian thing to do would be to sit down with them and talk it out, figure out what the root cause is and try to help make it better. Just calling them an idiot, even if it's with the intention of 'toughing them up' is the very opposite of what an Octhanian should do.

This has been the ongoing theme of Jocelyn's character arc, though. She only joined the Octhanians to hide from her enemies. So once they are dealt with, will she leave them? Does she actually care about her goddess or is it all just a means to an end? This is why I had the planetar address the fact that she was willing to go against her faith's dogma to accomplish her goals (kill the pirates) and had Javos call her out on her cruel behavior toward Ouragana.

As for Ouragana, I have a plan to get her curse lifted in Narin. It will involve them meeting the new kohen in that town, who coincidentally happens to be a new PC...

Thaddeus asking Drav about the original teleporter that sent him to the Wyvern's Island, of course, was the beginning of his own quest to try and find the lost continent.

Anyway, that's it. If you have any questions, feedback or thoughts you'd like to share, feel free. I'll get the new chapter up tomorrow, hopefully.

[Chris1234]

Hope one of you folks can do Identify!

[chese780]

I knew something else was waiting, but I was gone at the time. You know I would have suggested to search every room c:

Think we could get some insight into what the armors were?

I'd be -very- dissapointed if I missed out on some Armor of Dexterity or something. I mean, I want that 25.

[Breila]

Ouragana is certainly in a life crisis right now. She had been a drifter all along, without a home. She knows the planetar was right, but she has far too little confidence in herself to really do something about it. For example, she always thought Thaddeus was a higher-level mage than she was. Getting her curse lifted will probably not be enough to really help her.

[spyguy1503]

Gallath had no idea. He just guessed.

Also, I was AWOL at the wish time.

[JadedDM]

Think we could get some insight into what the armors were?

I'd be -very- dissapointed if I missed out on some Armor of Dexterity or something. I mean, I want that 25.

No, nothing like that. Most were standard +1 or +2 armors. Although the one for Val allowed for water breathing.

She had been a drifter all along, without a home.

Well, to be fair, that describes most of the party now.

Getting her curse lifted will probably not be enough to really help her.

What do you think it would take?

[chese780]

She had been a drifter all along, without a home.

Well, to be fair, that describes most of the party now.

Getting her curse lifted will probably not be enough to really help her.

What do you think it would take?

Drifters? Bruh, I'm a survivor.

I believe that Baeros in a tu-tu might help. Might even break the curse too.

Is.. Higher numbers in the party stats for food and stuff good?

[JadedDM]

The 'food' stat just shows how many pounds of food you have eaten today. I'm assuming everyone has already had their breakfast. 'Drink' is how many pints of drink you've had.

The 'sleep' stat is how many hours of sleep you've had today. Finally, the 'bath' stat shows how many days it's been since your last bath.