Ameena's hidden OOC thread

[beowuuf]

Actually, when Haynuus drags the bodies out, Ameena might flash to the table...something to do with the table, and putting Soorec on it. IF any of you guys want to give the big huge slabby table you've been ignoring a better look over at that point, what's a DM to do

[Ameena]

Cool, well then I shall have her think of that right now .

[beowuuf]

Ok, so is Ameena just that scared/focused she is ingoring all the sensory stuff, or do you think 'first time around' Ameena had to harden herself to it by the end?

I must admit, I love the fact that it's the exact opposite reaction to previously, but I didn't want to subtly highlight it until I knew why Ameena was doing it!

[Ameena]

Kind of combination of everything, really - she's met Soorec before, and seen him die (by whatever means). Prior to even coming to the dungeon she will have seen dead bodies - usually wildlife that had been half-nommed by a local predator, that kind of thing - "natural" deaths rather than stuff that had been killed through murder or war or whatever. She's still the same murafu she always was and can't stand violence and stuff, but she understands, somehow, that something very very bad will happen involving Soorec, because he's died and that he's capable of coming back. I'm sure she encountered plenty of blood-and-guts during her first trip through the dungeon. If there was any violence which might have been avoidable (such as the nuking of Arbrut on the second trip - unexpected and, as far as she was concerned, entirely needless and unnecessary), she's presumably just forgotten about it for now in favour off retaining her sanity . One reason for having her so focused on Soorec was so she doesn't have to look round and see whatever's left of Westian and Farel - even though she'll remember from past (err, future? ) experiences that they can be brought back, it will still be a very nasty shock to her to see them like that. No murafu likes to see someone dead like that.
As for Soorec...well, she's trying to ignore his ickiness in favour of getting him onto the table thingy. She's basically trying to focus on moving the body and on absolutely nothing else - she's at that stage where she knows, deep down, that she will enter some kind of state of shock if she lets this get to her, so she's basically kind of avoiding it for now, pushing all those kinds of thoughts aside so she doesn't have to think about what's happening right now and all the death and violence that's going on around her. She knows that if she does let it get to her, she'll just fall apart and be of no use to anyone. So she's kind of doing a mental "lalala I can't hear you!" thing, for her own protection so that she can actually get stuff done. The adrenaline rush is helping too, I'm sure. Once things calm down enough (well, you know, if the group doesn't get entirely slaughtered by grak-graks), then it will probably sink in because she'll have nothing much else to distract her from it.
And that's when she'll need a big hug . Well alright, lots of big hugs .
Ohh, and that Will save you wanted...15 (13+2) .

[beowuuf]

Thoguht it was something liek that. Poor Ameena, hopefully she can get some hugs...probably on the run!

[Ameena]

She'll also be wanting to go back for Ardur - she hasn't forgotten about him. Like everything else, that thought has been pushed aside for now in favour of the only one she's letting through - "Get Soorec up on the stone table thingy!".

[beowuuf]

Lol, that's good, cause there's a bunch of nasties out there!

[Ameena]

One thing I was thinking about earlier this evening was how I'm gonna play the aftereffects of the Chaos encounter. About that thing where her right foreleg aches - I was thinking that the ache continues irrespective of any healing she receives, but fades over time until she can't feel it. However, it will return (more as a brief twinge than a prolonged ache) if anything reminds her of Lord Chaos or if she ends up thinking about him in some way. So for example, whenever she gets round to telling (well, reminding) the group about the "mage person in a grey...er...black...I think...robe, with blue...erm...red...I think...eyes", that will cause her to feel a twinge even if she doesn't directly link this with what she's thinking of at the time - she might just think her foreleg is continuing to hurt, not that the pain is caused by the thing she's thinking about. Same as when that shadow-fear kicks in - she sees a shadow, she feels a shiver of nervousness, and her foreleg very faintly protests. And for the scary-red-eyes-in-her-sleep thing...well, if she goes to sleep nervous then I figure it might bug her more severely (the vision thingy), and so when it wakes her up, her foreleg will hurt more than if she'd gone to sleep in a calm state in which case the vision and pain would be less.
Sound good?

[beowuuf]

Sounds about right to me - go for it!

Hmm, when its revealed Ameena is Ameena not 'Ameena', it kinda needs to be a cool thing not just 'yeah, well, it's Ameena'

So looking for a cool time that Ameena's internal monalogue would make people go 'oh shit'

Sound good to you?

Not worth planning, play it by ear - but you think that sounds ok? OR would you prefer to just join them oproperly (I'm assuming the former cause you are evil)

[Ameena]

You mean, you want us to keep leading them along, making them wonder whether it's really Ameena, then have the revelation that she is real be a big thing rather than just everyone automatically accepting that it's her, like seems to have been happening so far?
Well duhh, of course that sounds like a better idea . You have a plan for that, then?
Maybe someone (or even everyone) decides she's false and attacks her and just when she's about to go down, something happens/she says something (no clue what) which convinces them that it's her. And then there can be apologies and hugs all round.
And then Ameena gets to mess up their brains by telling them stuff from the other timeline . Or maybe that happens first, and Ameena does it in such a way that they think she's deliberately trying to mess with their heads to cause bad things to happen - to take over their minds, confuse them in order to attack them, that kind of thing .
We've gotta get some fun out of this! If she hadn't rejoined in the middle of a fight against some bloody grak-graks (or at least, so many of the bloody things, lol), maybe there'd have been more of an opportunity for that kind of thing rather than everyone being already distracted and stuff.
Maybe something needs to be done to stop Soorec from coming back to life/regaining control of the grak-graks/trying to kill everyone again, and Ameena only vaguely remembers what it is and does it wrong, or does it too late and Soorec comes back to life at that moment...and therefore everyone thinks she rezzed him. I wonder what his reaction to her would be, regardless of the whole back-from-the-dead thing. Maybe he'll twig (or someone will let on) that she's the "Ameena" the group has been mentioning, and do/say something to make them doubt her.
Ooh look I'm spamming theories again. Did you have any?

[beowuuf]

Lol, yeah, right, like I cna plan anything with you guys. I just wait for you all to slip up then kick you when you are down - best I can do

I mean yeah, if Falkor fireballs her, then definitely her last thoughts before dying. But I would hope for somethign a little less drastic that won't knock the point of constitution you just invested into your character!


And of course I have some... I'm still your DM aswell as the other guys's's...'s

What makes you think it won't be a fun surprise for you too :p

[Ameena]

Lol well yes...I just hope it doesn't result in Ameena doing a Westian and getting totally mashed . Heh, I don't think OB is too happy about that...

[beowuuf]

Aww. Well, his current brush with death might give hi ma few answers himself....you might have an ally in your madness. Or not. It depends on his choices.

If he's making any.

Maybe he's decided to have Westian die.... or stop playing after this section...you don't know....

[beowuuf]

Lol, so there we go, money's starting to get suspicious, but luckily asked such a specific question

[Ameena]

Ooh, well I shall head over to that thread and see then, lol...

[beowuuf]

Lol, glad you played the character instead of meta-gaming something nebulous Still, this should be very interesting... how will Falkor/money react? Will Seeroc get onto the altar...

[Ameena]

How do you mean, "played the character instead of meta-gaming something nebulous"?
I am still interested in how Falkor(/Money) will react though...and yes, hopefully we'll get the (literally) bloody gnome's corpse onto the big stone thing...and then, hopefully, someone will remember/realise exactly wtf they're supposed to do to stop him rezzing, or whatever. Or maybe they need to do something to trap him on the table so he can't move from there once he wakes up. That is, if his rez is automatic. Maybe nothing actually needs doing, and the table triggers something automatically, though I doubt that since I don't think Soorec would keep something harmful to himself in such a blatant location .
Oh, something else I was thinking - since Ameena knows so much more than everyone else right now, even if it becomes accepted that she is in fact herself, if she still has memories that aren't shared by the rest of the group (stuff about Gholst/Theron, the Grey Lord/Chaos, anything from the First Run, really), I'll still keep the "personal thought" posts to a minimum (but can still put "detailed" versions down here if you want), since she might privately think of stuff that may provoke an accidental meta-game reaction (as well as spoil the surprise of learning it for the other players ). Once Ameena's told everyone all she knows (which could take some time, given they have no real reason to believe what she says...at least till the Will saves start to kick in ), then I'm sure she'll be free to think of whatever she likes in the IC thread so I can go back to posting properly there. Stuff like the "evil eye dreams" she'll be having I can keep to vague/nonexistant descriptions till she gets round to telling someone about it. Hopefully there will be at least one person who doesn't mind her curling up to sleep with them . Ooh that could be good...something I'd thought of a while back is that during the First Run, they will have got to know each other better, of course, and I'm sure at least one person would have understood her enough to let her sleep next to them. Somehow I'm thinking that Haynuus probably wouldn't have minded too much (hey, his very own little ratty teddy bear thing, provided he didn't try to squeeze it in his sleep ). So that could prove...interesting...when she tries, out of habit, to snuggle up to someone the next time they settle down. Which had better be soon 'cause otherwise Ameena's probably just gonna pass out anyway .

[beowuuf]

Ie, you could have actively tried to have Ameena answer in a way to lead money on, as a meta-gaming trick. Instead, you had Ameena answer in her own voice to the very possible confusion given what she was thinking.

Heh, I wondered if Ameena would jsut start going on about cracks in the cealing and rats

And yes, I'll keep here open for IC chaos, etc thoughts if you need to have them. Thoguh like I said, Westan just died...I wonder how free his mind will be if you find a way to bring him back...

And lol, awww, poor stressed murafu! Attacked by a party member concerned this is all a trick and they are being hugged to death

[beowuuf]

Hmm...I'm starting to lean towards ending Ameena's third person/first person stuff with a whimper not a bang. If Ameena would react badly to realising Westian and Farel are dead on the altar, then switch to first person introspection so everyone can feel her pain (awwwww).

If she'd be a brave, driven murafu trying ot save her friends, then feel free to keep the third person a little longer, to see if there are any disbelief/etc....

[Ameena]

Hmm, I think I want to carry on the third-person thing a bit longer, at least - Money still referred to Ameena as "the Rat" in his last post, so there's hope yet . And, distressing though the sight may be to her, she has still seen someone dead before, hasn't she? In the First Run? She will know what Vi Altars do, and that this is one because it just rezzed Soorec. It seems she's dredged up as many memories as she can, for now, with regard to the matter, otherwise I'd have hoped she'd think of something a bit earlier.
Anyway, what with all the erm...inconsistencies in Ameena's memories (compated to those of the others), going back to "normal" posting would be a bit difficult right now since I'd still have to omit mentioning stuff that's happened before which she might think about.
We'll have to see how it goes, I suppose - I was hoping to wait until I get definite confirmation, one way or the other, that each of the other characters acknowledges she'e really Ameena, before I switch back to my normal post style.

[beowuuf]

Indeed she will She's a hardier little murafu than her second run counterpart, cause she relied more on her friends Well, if I had to guess.

She'll think one of them might have died before here, and was ressurected, so the altar should work...somehow. Fummily, Westian would probably know how

And me too about some reason to switch back, but there doens't seem to be a dymanic reason to - the players could easily just play it by ear for ages. Afetr all, barely anyone's acknowledging Soorec. They're just lucky I don't have a grak-grak run out to the switch that's unguarded, or even more funnily just have Soorec blow himself up with fireballs so his grak-graks go insane again.

Still, I don't wanna kick off the battle, and Soorec really doens't want to mess around. He wants to...heh, well, you'll have to see too, won't you

[Ameena]

Heh, well it seems pretty obvious that his little game of string is probably some kind of complex wizardy spell thingy which will shut down the forcefields or do something else otherwise intended to help him and/or hinder the party. But Ameena is clueless to this, so there's nothing I can do about it right now. Having looked at the map and noticed Aurek's current position, it means there is a new, semi-distraction there to further confuzzle Ameena's poor brain as she boggles at this weirdo in the blackskull armour who's strangely not attacking/being attacked by the group . If he hadn't been standing there, she would, of course, have reacted instead to the corpses on the altar. But he's there, so I can hardly ignore that .

[beowuuf]

Remember Aurek is an update behind you guys, so if he moves to the button or to the hazes you might need a little retcon edit

And I liked how in the third person, ameena moves fast, but to her she moves slowly!

[Ameena]

Lol well yes - a rat spinning round quickly on all-fours can do so considerably quicker than one standing upright. Attempting any kinds of quick or complicated movements whilst upright (irrespective of tiredness and/or injuries) is liable to make her fall over . Actually, my describing the turn-round differently in each post wasn't really deliberate. I think I just coul dbe arsed to go into more detail the second time or something. Anyway, it means it's slightly different for when you read it, isn't it?

[beowuuf]

Awwww, maybe Ameena is getting acceptace - he's worried about offending Ameena, and Haynuus is asking her for advice!

[Ameena]

Just a few questions on the thread made for my character details - at what point will they be made "public"? Do I get to decide? I would rather that Ameena's updated info wasn't revealed until everyone can be absolutely sure that she's her and not someone else. Especially with the probable contradictions that are gonna come up after what Soorec's been saying about her supposedly being a seer and stuff - someone in the party might actually believe him and think Ameena's gone all weird, which might stir up the distrust some more when Ameena speaks against it. Not that she noticed him calling her a "seer" and all that, though - she was kind of tuned out for that bit until he actually called her name.
Also, those questions you posted up in the "main" OOC thread (about the Grey Lord and all that) - do you want me to post my attempts at answers to them (if so, where? Here? Or in "my" character thread?), or were they just more kind of hypothetical things that you want us all to be thinking about. Either way, my thoughts on those will of course be for your eyes only, at least until everyone else('s characters) are brought up to speed on wtf has been going on (or at least, as much as Ameena knows). I'm saying nothing in the main threads about what actually happened (ie I'm not going into any details OOC regarding the Chaos encounter or anything). They can find all that out for themselves via cryptic clues from you or through their own encounters with Chaos through some other weird dark scary cold mystic portal-doorway thingys .

[beowuuf]

As I said, it might be an idea to have a separate thread still here fopr those sort of things, but all the general plot beats that your character should know should go in the general thread, that I'd stick into the main thread.

Three reasons - a) lets me know what you think your character knows. That way, I know if you have missed anything, or I've missed telling you something.
b) It lets everyone else know what Ameena knows, and therefore knows why she's acting the way she is
c) I forget the third one, it will come back to me.

It's a trick one about the answers - certainly, I want in the hidden forum the answers from you as a player so I know what you have forgotten, etc before I go summarising all the recent stuff again.
I think once it's known Ameena is Ameena, I do think I want those answers for the character at least.

The game's gone on long enough now that there is alot of information. One way or another, it now needs to streamline to some form of conclusion. Also, since recently there have been a few major twists, my goal i nthe next few weeks is to get to a clean baseline. People know Ameena is Ameena, and everyone is posting in the main thread, and I have no PM things going on.

I might even run an encounter soonish where all the stats, etc are explicitly stated - with a game reason for it, of course - just so people can get a feel for a transparent game. It might also be a good detox after a few twists and turns. We shall see.

[Ameena]

It may end up being a while before all Ameena's knowledge comes out - all the stuff about Gholst/Theron, about Grey/Chaos throwing them across the room (obviously she doesn't know about the time travel part, and doesn't remember details like her recent encounter with Lord Chaos where she got her foreleg injured), the fact that they have done all this before...none of the other players know about this yet, do they? I would rather it come out in character, and then can be put into an OOC thread. Otherwise I think it runs the risk of contaminating character knowledge with player knowledge and therefore some (accidental) metagaming may occur. Once Ameena's divulged all she currently remembers (which, admittedly, isn't gonna be very much right now but is still more than the other characters can remember), then I'll be willing to put it where others can see it. But she won't be doing any/much divulging while they're say in front of Soorec - he is a Bad Person, not to be trusted, so she doesn't want him to learn anything that might give him an advantage. Of course, her own knowledge of the situation has been messed up before she even got there because her memories are of something that hasn't even happened yet, so technically she has no need to worry about keeping things like that from Soorec. But she doesn't know that .
So...you do want me to answer that list of questions, then? The one you put up in the other OOC thread? I don't mind doing so...down here, of course .

[beowuuf]

Don't be too quick to go the other way from metagaming. You keep players in the dark 'for their own good' and you are dictating how players play. After all, the reason we always say player knowledge isn't character knowledge is so that players can have an informed, fun game playing characters who are less informed than themselves. Also, 'gotchas' are only fun if handled right. I would hope the Seeroc gotcha wasn't too evil, however OB and money decided to keep the other two in the dark as players. So although I had more than tipped my hand, those two players kept the secret for player/character knowledge reasons (and cause its fun) and therefore while the character reactiosn of Aurek and Haynuus were bang on, I'm not sure how much fun it was for Ian and LB to have that come out of nowhere. It might have been more fun for the plyaers to know Seeroc was acting oddly and plotting, even if they then have their charatcers innocently going into the maws of death, saying 'wow, Westian's acting weird, I wonder if he's tired'

Plus Ian might not have let OB make such a basic mistake as turning his back on the gnome!

Anyway, answer the questions in your character thread that you haven't had explicitly spoiled by me, or that Ameena has already said. Note you still don't know everything - like the ghost girl thing - so those can go out in the open.

Like I said, separate thread that will stay here for a while to do with all the future stuff - infact, while I am out today, could you summarise what you think you know about the future so I know where we are memory-wise?

[Ameena]

Erm, okay, I'll see what I can remember. So you want this done in "my" thread, not in this one? Okay then, I'll do that - can always move the posts about if they're in the wrong place. I'll also now paste my current character profile into "my" thread, but I don't want anyone else to see it for now. Personally I prefer keeping my own player knowledge as close to character knowledge as possible, so I don't risk getting confused about what my character might know/remember and end up accidentally metagming. I've done that before, once, in tabletop, where I (as a player) forgot something that my character would definitely not[p/i] have forgotten, so I had her say completely the wrong thing and got the group in trouble with an NPC. That's what I would call reverse metagming I suppose - rather than player knowledge affecting how I had my character act, something I'd forgotten affected it instead. Had someone pointed it out sooner, I wouldn't have said it, lol.