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Okay, I've recorded the list of goals in my files and whenever a PC completes one, I'll give them some bonus XP (based on how difficult it was to accomplish).

Dear everyone. The short version is that I've had a fire in my apartment and am now staying between friends places. So I have to cancel everything DND wise with immediate effect. Sorry for the upset bit I hope you understand given the circumstances. All the best, Matt.

Well you've got to do what you've got to do. Good luck with getting back into your own place and maybe someday in the future you can crack open those D&D books once more.

It's been a pleasure playing with you.

Echoed. Best wished on getting the place sorted.

I'm sorry to hear that, mgbevan. Although since you are planning to go on a six month vacation in August, I assume then you won't be returning any time this year. I'll have to decide what to do about Gregeddin then.

In the meantime, one person has posted in the past four days, so I'm going to go ahead and end the chapter a bit early here. I'll get XP up soon (tonight or tomorrow), and we'll start the new chapter.

The next chapter will begin two days later, Autumn Twilight the 10th. That's the day of Haahqae's performance. Here is a rundown of what happens during the downtime. Feel free to add to it or correct it, if necessary.

Haahqae - He will spend the downtime preparing for his performance, which includes advertising, rehearsing, setting things up, and so forth. Since the performance isn't until Tenth Watch, which is in the afternoon, there will be time to take care of any last minute stuff before it starts.

Kendra - During the days she works for Tethys, helping him run the city. At night, she goes home and takes care of Sadron. He starts to recover a bit; not enough to be doing backflips, but at least enough he can move around on his own. However, as a result, she is too busy to sell that ring yet.

Gregeddin - I guess he rots in the dungeon, at least for now.

Tulbas - He spends the next couple of days drilling for his Test. To answer the question you asked earlier, BishGada, the Test can last a night or several days...it depends on the student. An entire week is not out of the question. Although he didn't level up this chapter, he likely will in the next one, which means he'll officially be ready for his Test (hopefully). I'm going to start going over the details of what to expect with you before then.

Arulia - Presumably, Arulia spends all day at her father's forge, and each night she goes home. This means she won't have time to meet with William or do much else. (She can take a day off, if you want, but it means she won't earn any coin that day).

Grubnick - Grubnick will meet regularly with Delharn to make plans about that scroll and their revolution.

Felran, Ne-Chanz and Shima - These three will all stay at home and rest up. If they do anything besides rest, they won't regain as many HP. But I'll leave that up to you. By the time the new chapter starts, they should hopefully be in better health and continue in the sewers.

Thx, that's fine for me.

That sounds about right, he was trying to hit 3 performances/advertisements per day at different inns (although he sort of failed miserably at this due to how slowly he travels). There's an idea that he was going to invite Ismene, but he's not entirely sure about that yet, 50/50 chance that he will feel up to it and ask her. There's a bit of question about if Tulbas has enough discipline to practice the performance with Haahqae or if Haahqae will have to figure that out/do the performance on his own. He was hoping to overhear/gather a good bag of baaz jokes for the performance through his advertisements.

However I see no reason why at this point he wouldn't try his plan from last night, the next night (during the timeskip)at the steel tankard (and getting there a half hour earlier like he needed to).

So, if you don't mind, I'll post the post that I wrote to this effect so that you can judge the merits/effects of his plan (or lack there of).
(I pre-write some of my posts while I wait for Haahqae to get into place to actually do them)

Post Haahqae saves the barmaid:
(Before this post, finish the performance then duck outside the bar and in a secluded alleyway cast change self on himself, to make him look like a baaz)

Haahqae the baaz enters the inn and gets a free drink from Cassandra, taking it to his table where he’ll nurse it while looking deep in thought. After about a minute of drinking with his own thoughts, he takes his drink back to the bar and addresses Cassandra “Hey barmaid, where’s the old geezer? Isn’t he supposed to be here?”

When he hears that the innkeeper’s not here, Haahqae will place a silver piece on the table. “This is for the drink.” And after a pause, he’ll continue. “You see, I’ve been drinkin’ and I’ve been thinkin’. And my drinkin’s honed my thinkin’ so I was thinkin’ about how my thinkin’ can hone my drinkin’. And while I was thinkin’ about drinkin’ I was thinkin’: What makes Baaz so much better than the other people? Well, it’s ‘cause we’re dead sexy. But that doesn’t mean we don’t need ta think about this stuff. You see, this establishment isn’t run by a big badass baaz who protects the city, so it’s gotta pay taxes, which means its gotta make some money. And if the geezer isn’t here to make money off the room rent, and we aren’t payin’ for our drinks, then this place ain’t makin’ money. So why do I care? Well I care because if this place isn’t makin’ money then this place ain’t gonna be open for that much longer, and I sort of like the piss swill they serve here so I wanna make sure this place stays open. So I’m going to pay fer my drinks from now on."

(After this post do whatever is necessary to get out of line of sight fast enough for the change self to wear off while no one's looking.)

Jaded, thx for the level up details.
Was the "can now put points into Read Lang" irony?
(It's currently -15% and with OL still at 35%, it doesn't seem too efficient to move RL up to 0%. Unless the Wayfinder Linguistics talent can help here ?)

I put up the XP and here are my notes for the chapter.

Level Ups
Chris, I'll need to know how you'll distribute those thief skill points.

I took the liberty of spreading Gregeddin's already.

Title and Theme
The title is 'Hard Choices.' And there were numerous hard choices in this chapter. Really, you could make an argument that this is the theme for this whole arc. Do you compromise yourself to make life easier now, or stick to your principals even if it costs you everything else?

Who's Keira?
Well, this is kind of embarrassing. Early in the chapter, Tulbas saw a young woman he met before and I said he remembered her as Keira. But looking back now, I realized she never told him what her name was. So he wouldn't have known that. Oops.

Gregeddin's Spontaneity
This was a big game changer, really. I had not foreseen it coming at all, but once it happened, I realized what a huge impact it would have on things. Originally, I was never planning on having the prefect arrest the entire trade guild. But after Gregeddin attempted to hypnotize the prefect, I saw it as a logical course of action. Tethys is a very paranoid man, and Gregeddin's actions helped spur him into full conspiracy mode. Grubnick's little fire didn't help matters any. Now Thoron, Norris, Karn and several others are locked up, making things much harder for their families.

Fortunately, Kendra has maneuvered herself into a position to influence the prefect and has managed to stay his hand from outright executing them all so far. It should be interesting to see what develops next, especially if there are future acts of rebellion.

But it is an excellent example of how connected everything is in the city. One character's spontaneous act can sweep across the city, having an affect on all of the other PCs, as well.

Clerical Mentors
Both Delharn and William were introduced in this chapter. This is because both of our clerics reached the first level of divine favor with their respective deities. So I thought I would bring in new clerics to help serve as mentors. Grubnick already had a mentor in his backstory, hence Delharn. I created William from whole cloth, deciding he was one of the first converts from Elistan after he read the Disks of Mishakal.

Both of them are here to push their own deity's agendas, but they have no personal connection to the city. Delharn, for instance, isn't concerned about possible civilian casualties like Grubnick. And William doesn't understand the delicate balance between family and god that Arulia must walk (starting a revolution may well destroy her family at this point).

Obligatory Spacious Sewer Level
The whole 'clear out the sewer' job was a left-over from the first arc. Kendra and Darga attempted it, but were wiped after the first encounter with horaxes (the latter being outright killed). Kendra had made it clear she had no interest in ever returning to finish the job, so I figured Crystal would start looking for new people instead.

Return of Sadron
I had promised Horizon a surprise in this chapter, and this was it. Sadron, her former lover, is not only alive, but now in her house. And what luck, her husband is locked up in the prefect's mansion, hmmm. So not only does she have to worry about being him being discovered by the government (she would be arrested for aiding and abetting a known enemy of the state), but she may be sorely tempted to cheat on her imprisoned husband, to boot! Such drama.

Faction Updates
Gregeddin suffers a -5 penalty of disapproval from the Trade Guild, since he got them all arrested. They are now cautious toward him.

Divine Favor Updates
Kendra receives a point in Shinare for taking Tethys' deal.

Gregeddin receives a point in Sirrion for trying to hypnotize the prefect.

Grubnick receives a point in Sirrion for burning down Belzor's hideout.

====================

Tomorrow, I'll put up the new chapter, including the timeskip.

And no, I wasn't being ironic, Chris. Thieves aren't allowed to put any points into Read Languages until 4th level. It's in the PHB.

Anyway, as always, any feedback, questions, opinions or whatever is appreciated.

I'd never, ever noticed that in all the years! Fair play to you..
Out of interest, would the Wayfinder's fluency with languages translate to the RL skill?

mgbevan - wow! sorry to hear about your house... I think it is the second time I hear about someone from here having his house burnt. I hope you recover shortly and that the insurance will be quick to compensate.

Keira - well... it was two years ago. I barely remember what happened in the last week... Sorry I get things mixed up. (I have terrible memory in real life as well). I hope it doesn't affect the spirit of the game.

Tulbas agreed helping Haaque in an afterthought. It doesn't take high importance in his to do list since it is in the background. But if Haaque will remind him about it he will take few hours in the following two days to practice with Haaque and coordinate his acrobatics and juggling with his own Cantrips for special effects. (sparks, little creations, crude telekinesis, changing colors of cloth-hair-eyes that might fit Haaques line of jokes and that stuff).
I guess Tulbas couldn't have killed Magnus in his off-time

Indeed Tulbas will mainly practice for his Test. He started to accept the fact he can learn a lot from Magnus even that he loath him.

Yet another chapter where haahqae was last place in terms of XP (and loot) (This time, by a lot). Is this still because you're letting the others catch up, or is Haahqae just not doing very much?

Will Haahqae be able to execute his plan that I detailed above for him before the next chapter starts, or will I have to wait and hope he doesn't get cut off by the curfew again in the next chapter to do it?

(In this chapter were his getting permission to perform the concert via performance at the barracks and convincing Cassandra to take over operations of the Steel tankard not XP worthy? Maybe I role-played them poorly?)

Chris1234 wrote:Out of interest, would the Wayfinder's fluency with languages translate to the RL skill?

The Wayfinder kit is actually the reason it's so low. He gets a -5% to Read Languages for being a dwarf and a -10% for being a Wayfinder. Hence -15%.

So I'd say not. It's one of the hindrances of the kit, so it stands to reason you can't negate it with one of the benefits of the kit. That would defeat the purpose.

Haahque wrote:Is this still because you're letting the others catch up, or is Haahqae just not doing very much?

He's just not doing much. I recall at least one instance where you just stopped posting for a week or more and I think that contributed to it. But really, XP gain has been pretty thin across the board for everyone. That's part of the reason I decided to start awarding XP for completing personal goals.

As for loot, well, nobody really earned any loot, either. But Haahqae is sitting on over 400 steel pieces from previous adventures, so at least he's not hurting as badly as some of the others.

Haahque wrote:Will Haahqae be able to execute his plan that I detailed above for him before the next chapter starts, or will I have to wait and hope he doesn't get cut off by the curfew again in the next chapter to do it?

No, I was planning on including it in the time skip recap. But if you really want to wait, you can. Just let me know.

Haahque wrote:In this chapter were his getting permission to perform the concert via performance at the barracks and convincing Cassandra to take over operations of the Steel tankard not XP worthy?

I didn't really consider worthy of any XP. I suppose they might be worth something now, retroactively, if they had been part of his personal goals. But not much, since they required so very little effort (neither getting permission or convincing Cassandra were very difficult at all).

Sorry if I come off as needy or whiny, it's just that it feels like chapter after chapter, month after month Haahqae's been getting the short end of the stick, so I tried to be proactive and have him actually form some of his own plans and actually accomplish something... I got less then half of the XP of nearly every other party member, including the person I spent more then half of the chapter with, the only XP I actually got was when I was with him.

Perhaps this month was just bad luck for Haahqae (again?). Early in the month, when I was posting every day I felt like he was being held back by waiting for others to post (when I was really active this month Tulbas went away for a few days), then later when I was busier he was alone. Then when I was ready to post frequently again -> cerfew hit and prevented him from doing anything.

I don't mind being last a few times, but it just feels like Haahqae's been the worst in the party for about year now. He hasn't made any headway on any of his goals and he's been constantly getting lowest or near lowest XP every time. It sort of feels like Haahqae's been on one big long year long losing streak.

JadedDM wrote:

Haahque wrote:Will Haahqae be able to execute his plan that I detailed above for him before the next chapter starts, or will I have to wait and hope he doesn't get cut off by the curfew again in the next chapter to do it?

No, I was planning on including it in the time skip recap. But if you really want to wait, you can. Just let me know.

No that's good, I was just wondering because you didn't write anything about it in the OOC thread, nor anywhere else that I saw.

While it's true that Haahqae came in last for CH 10, he hasn't consistently been last. Felran was last in CH 9, Tulbas was last in CH 8, and Felran was last in CH 7. The last time Haahqae came in last was CH 6. The current XP average of the party is 10.2k XP, and he has 10.8k, so he's actually ahead of the curve.

As for goals, this is part of the reason I had the players set up personal goals, so it's easier for me to track them and then reward XP for them. Although Haahqae has a bad habit of getting sidetracked with other people's quests (although I assumed that was intentional on your part due to his low WIS). He has made strides in putting the performance together, though. And if he can pull off that heist he's planning, he should make a ton of XP (both from thief skill use and treasure acquisition).

I can give a few tips, though, when it comes to earning roleplaying XP.

* Interaction with PCs is always worth more than the value of interaction with NPCs
* Discussing personal subjects is always worth more than small talk or broader topics
* Character development is always worth a lot (especially when it makes sense; abrupt changes in personality with no apparent catalyst is just confusing)
* Earning divine favor is worth a bit
* Sometimes I reward XP when characters act or react in a believable fashion
* Explaining your character's motivations and reasoning is sometimes worth some, even if it's only done in inner-monologue

And now completing personal goals is worth some, too.

Aside from all of that, though, if you have some ideas for personal goals or quests you'd like Haahqae to receive (aside from the ones he's already setting up), let me know. I might be able to set something up to accommodate you.