OOC Thread

[Breila]

Ouragana will throw her normal dagger into the air and make it land softly with Feather Fall, to replace the spell in the morning with Shield.
She doesn't need to buy anything.

[Jenara]

I liked this chapter, because of both the Andar element (although I do feel like I've trodden on Joyceln/horizons toes on that) and because of our new arrival, I like him, and he offers some great RP for the whole group.

I think Arei's inventory is fine, she'll get a main gauche at some point, she'll need to learn that next. And get Andar some armor.

[JadedDM]

Alright, time for my notes on the chapter.

First, I've updated the Calendar and People and Places threads, among other things. Everybody is out of encumbrance, except Val, who is moderately encumbered. This puts the party's movement rate at 8.

The title of this chapter was pretty simple. I'm having trouble coming up with any clever word play these days. (Even as I write this, I'm still trying to come up with a chapter title for the next one.)

So, yeah. It was a pretty big contrivance to get everyone back together again, I admit it. It's the sort of thing I can really only get away with once.

The assassin encounter was set to trigger as soon as the whole party was reunited. He was only a level 1 thief, but his dagger was coated in a very dangerous poison. Had Val not made that poison save, Nuke would be rolling up a new character for next chapter.

The story with him was, he wasn't supposed to make a hit at all. He was only sent as a spy, to confirm that the new pastor in Condletun named Jocelyn Blaine was the same Jocelyn Blaine that allegedly killed Ethan Beaumont. However, the spy--a young man who was a little too gung-ho--decided he would just take Jocelyn out and impress his crewmates. He might have succeeded, but he had the worst possible timing ever. Capturing him alive wouldn't have made much difference; he didn't know where the Poison Curse currently is (they dropped him off on another island, and he took a passenger ship (the Reef) to Condletun.

So what's the deal with the Poison Curse and Ethan Beaumont? Well, when we first started this game, everyone turned in backstories for their characters. I knew, even back then, that the second arc would focus on backstories. But as I read through them, I noticed a problem--Jenara and Horizon had turned in the same backstory!

Horizon's was more detailed; her character left home, joined the pirate crew of the Poison Curse, slept with Captain Ethan Beaumont, the captain died, she was blamed, so she fled and became a priestess.

Jenara's was remarkably similar, but lacking in detail. Her character left home, joined a nameless pirate crew, quit for unspecified reasons (although it was hinted to be moral ones), and then became a swashbuckler.

So when Jenara came to me during the first arc, wanting to flesh out those details, I figured--what the heck? And just plugged in the stuff from Horizon's backstory. The ship was the Poison Curse, the captain was Ethan Beaumont; and hey, maybe they were lovers?

The reasons I did this was A) it allowed me to condense two characters' plots into one B) it would make for a hell of a mindscrew when it was finally revealed (except not, because Jenara forgot those extra details, and when Jocelyn revealed them, she was like, "Do I know those names?" -_-) and C) I wanted to emphasize that despite how much they clash, Jocelyn and Areilon are actually a lot alike. Both ran away from home, both got involved with pirates, both made poor life choices when they were young, both are headstrong and reckless--and all of that was true before I decided they served on the same ship and slept with the same man.

Plus, I just liked the irony of it all. Areilon thinks Jocelyn is sheltered, naive, and a 'prissy-pants' but then she learns that she used to be a pirate of all things. Jocelyn thinks Areilon is short-sighted and foolish, but then learns that Areilon made the same 'foolish' mistakes that Jocelyn herself once did. Now both must face up to the fact that they are a lot more alike than either one probably wants to admit!

The other big event of this chapter was the introduction of Baeros into the party. Despite the rocky start, he seems to have integrated himself well enough into the party. Ouragana and Jocelyn seem distantly friendly toward him. Although Val and Areilon are running hot and cold there. Areilon kept switching between arguing with him and hitting on him. And Val kept yelling at him, but then at the end, let him ride Mist--something she's never done for anyone else, which made Ouragana rather jealous. Should be interesting to see how these things pan out.

Anyway, our party now has its first henchman. I actually had one potential henchman in every adventure last arc, except the last one (the Bullring one). Andar was the only one anyone seemed to take an interest in. I think this was the longest I've ever gone in a game without a regular NPC in the party.

Now a personal note to each of you.

Horizon
Remind me later, but we should talk about the path Jocelyn is going to take in terms of her faith.

Breila
Ouragana set out to make herself less useless when the first arc ended. Now she'll have an opportunity to discover whether she succeded in that or not.

Jenara
Areilon will probably level up next chapter. It should be interesting to see what she does with Andar. Her past methods have been less than successful. But subtlety isn't her strong point. Hopefully she doesn't scare him off.

Nuke
Val is really full of surprises. I didn't expect her to make such a 180 on her relationship with Baeros so soon.

BishGada
Well, you've completed your first chapter of this game. And Baeros will probably level up at the end of the next chapter, too. I hope you're having a good time so far.

As always, feedback is welcome. I'll get the new chapter up soon.

[Breila]

Ouragana is still the character I'm having the most trouble with. I guess the jealousy she just felt might help me get a clearer picture of her. She feels mistreated and abandoned (by the Academy as well who just dumped her off in the middle of nowhere). She'd definitely prefer to be somewhere else, but she doesn't really know where. Well, if she dared admit it, it would be at Thaddeus's side on the Bullring.

[BishGada]

Well, to put it shortly (opposite of Baeros way to express himself) it was fun. In fact much more than I had anticipated when signing to the forum. I forgot how much fun is role-playing and with you guys the atmosphere that was created was rich with details and really pulled me in. So thank you everyone for letting me in.
I'm curious about how things will develop and promise that Baeros will keep being in-harmful, clueless, naive, tactless pain as always.

[BishGada]

BTW, Baeros would suggest Val to carry some of her equipment on Thunder or himself if that would make us all move faster.

[JadedDM]

Sounds good. If we can get Val back to a movement rate of 12, it'll shave off over a week from their travel time.

I'll try and get the new chapter up later today. I'm glad everyone's having a good time!

[Jenara]

Areilon kept switching between arguing with him and hitting on him.

Hmmm not sure what part of that was hitting on him!

As for the Henchen, who were the others? Just curious.

[JadedDM]

When Areilon first met Baeros, you put emphasis on her cleavage in her description:

If Baeros looks her way, he sees a average height elf, with pale skin, her face marred by a small scar, her clothes are quite expensive, revealing a decent amount of cleavage, she holds the hilt of a black hilted sabre in her left hand.

You did the same thing with Andar, which we all know Areilon is attracted to, and to Hubert (who Areilon was not attracted to, but was attempting to seduce to get a discount). These three are the only instances you've mentioned her cleavage at all. But mostly, it was this line she delivered at Baeros:

"I'm sure I could teach you a few things." she suggests with a sly grin.

Seems pretty suggestive to me, especially with the 'sly grin.' Not sure how else that could have been interpreted. Plus, we all know she has a human fetish, so...

The potential henchmen were:

Aarakocra quest - Koh'kra
Tribal quest - Andar
Murder quest - Pearl

The Bullring quest was the only one I didn't have anyone I considered potentially a henchman.

[Jenara]

Just describing her honestly, and the teach him a few things was more a threat to kick his butt! lol

[Breila]

I liked Koh'kra a lot but honestly, I couldn't think of him as someone willing to leave his family and culture and come with us.

[JadedDM]

He was actually pretty fascinated with Ouragana. I half-expected her to return to their tribe during her downtime, because she also seemed pretty fascinating with their culture and language, but that didn't happen, so it never came up.

[Breila]

I guess that's something she'll do during the next downtime, then. This time, she wanted to learn more practical things and teach what she knew about navigation.

[Nuke]

Val's little adventure with Baeros was more an attempt to show off than any 'change' in her general attitude. Trying to show up that damn dog.

I am not sure how we want to do it, but I think Val wants Mist along as the party eventually takes to the water once again. An overland hike does not really allow for that to happen in any rational way, but I don't know what to do

[JadedDM]

Can she somehow send Mist on ahead, to meet up with the party in Tu'Valie?