LSO OOC Thread III

[JadedDM]

Though she is curious why the girl is considered so valuable. What price would be considered normal for a slave? The PHB's price list for services (p. 68) gives a day earning of about 1 sp for moderately qualified service, so 500 gp would pay for 5 000 days of work, which uninterrupted would be more than 13 years. So why buy a slave who might not last that long and has to be provided with room, board and clothing?

Well, buying a slave and simply hiring someone to do a task are two entirely different things. For one thing, the hireling can always choose to quit or simply refuse you service. A slave is yours for life. Also, hirelings tend to be hired for a specific job and nothing else. If you hire a blacksmith to forge you horseshoes, you can't also make him cook your meals, clean your house and sexually please you. (I mean, you could ask...but your contract with them doesn't extend that far and they can turn you down.)

Slaves are also status symbols. It's like owning a painting from a famous artist. Even if it doesn't earn you any money in itself, the fact that you own it shows you are wealthy and therefore important. I know slaves were pretty pricey here in the States when that was legal. Some could cost up to (by today's standards) $100,000 or more.

As for this slave, she's young and fertile, so that drives up the price. But mostly because Raven's a jackass and wanted to bleed as much coin from you as he thought he could get away with. And Jocelyn did a pretty terrible job at negotiating with him (she talked him down to 700 GP...from his original offer of...700 GP). But she and Baeros offered to help in paying for her, and Ouragana might be able to get Gallath and Drav to pitch in, too. She could also try negotiating with him herself when they return (or get help from someone with a better CHA score).

[chese780]

I don't even know how to get involved here. Like, this is a part based around those that actually interacted with Sable and all these other things...

I should have made a better backstory.

[BishGada]

In my opinion you can just invent whatever you want and JadedDM will fix the gaps or conflicts between the two stories. It might be funny, accusing the fiend to mind control you to think things that didn't happen.

[JadedDM]

Yeah, this was why I initially tried to persuade you not to go with the 'shipwrecked' idea. Drav's entire character premise is that he was shipwrecked. Now he's not shipwrecked, and so...there's not much else for him to do. He presumably had a history before then. He was on that island for 35 years, but he spent nearly 80 years before that doing other stuff. But there is almost no data at all about his life before being shipwrecked. Does he have a family? Where did he grow up? What was his life like before?

Since none of this exists, he has just become a tag-along. He follows the party out of lack of anything else to do, with no investment in the other PCs, the current storyline, or even the world itself.

However, he's hardly alone in that. I'd say the exact same thing about most of the party. They have no reason to be on this journey, no reason to be traveling with this group. Hell, two of them even split and went off on their own thing, not even saying good-bye to the others.

This was a minor problem when the game first began, and now that the party size has doubled, it's become worse and worse. I try and forge my own connections between the PCs and what's going on when I can; like deciding that the pirate crew Jocelyn sailed with was the same pirate crew Areilon sailed with in her own backstory or deciding that the witch Gallath is hunting for happens to be the first mate of the ship the party is searching for. But a lot of the time there is so little information for me to work with, there's nothing I can really do.

It is something I intend to have a longer discussion about when the arc ends. I want to get the party into a more stable configuration and have everyone flesh out their PCs more. But at least for the rest of this chapter, there isn't a whole lot for me to do about it.

In future games, though, it is something I'm going to try and be more of a stickler on to help prevent such things from happening again.

[chese780]

Which means, I need to give him a real reason once the arc passes, that way I can at least break out of this.

[JadedDM]

Exactly. We all do, really, if for no other reason than to justify why the party will reunite in three years. When the first arc ended, I had to do a real asspull to get them back together (there were only four back then), by just having them all happen to show up in the same town on the same day by coincidence. I don't want to do that again, especially now that there are 7 of you now. I mean, I know it's a fantasy game, but some things just stretch the limits of belief too far.

[BishGada]

Baeros might want to see his kids that Jocelyn will give birth too. Naaaa... he will never leave her and their side if that would happen.

[JadedDM]

Jocelyn has an INT of 6 and Baeros has an INT of 5. If they ever did have kids...they would really dumb.

[Chris1234]

{OOC: What is the order. please?}

[JadedDM]

It's too far away (and sound is too distorted in the water) to be clear. It just sounded like her shouting something at someone.

[BishGada]

Jocelyn has an INT of 6 and Baeros has an INT of 5. If they ever did have kids...they would really dumb.

but they will be very wise... And they will have puppy to play with. One that can blink! What fun for the kids!!

[Chris1234]

{OOC: Is the SH potion in a different type of container than the giant strength potion?}

[JadedDM]

Val digs out the vial of liquid in her pack that will give her a giant's strength. When she pulls out the cork, though, the sea water all around her rushes in, destroying the potion. If only she had transferred the liquid into that empty bladder Serenna had given her for this explicit purpose. Thankfully, she still has the potion of superheroism that is kept in a bladder.

Yes.

[JadedDM]

OOC: Does "I prefer making sure things happen in the right way instead of hoping they will" meets follower of CRIZZA?)

I suppose so. Crizzites are like individualists or libertarians. They prefer to do things on their own, instead of relying on large hierarchies, organizations or governments.

But that's not what is happening here. Horizon can step in and correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe by 'keeping the faith,' Jocelyn doesn't mean she thinks Octhanus is going to shield her from any danger. Jocelyn knows very well that she is putting herself at grave risk and might die. By 'keeping the faith,' she means she is doing what she believes is right, not that she thinks everything is going to work out on its own.

Because Octhanus doesn't promote that idea, either. Blindly following orders or believing in some grand divine plan is more of Gonto's thing. Octhanus promotes non-violent solutions, which is what Jocelyn is trying to do. She is starting to finally understand what her faith means, which is something she has struggled with since the game began. She's taking a huge risk, but the only one who is in danger is herself. So even if she does get killed, she still 'wins' because she didn't take any lives herself, the rest of the party is safe, and the pirates stop hunting her since she's already dead.

So I think that's what she means by 'keeping the faith.' She'd rather risk dying while maintaining her beliefs than to live and be a hypocrite.

[BishGada]

I didn't question Horizon motives. As Baeros I was playing with the words "Have faith in HER". I just wanted to make sure I'm not going too far from my character.
Anyway, Jocelyn keeping her faith and Baeros actively trying to help doesn't have to collide.