Dungeon Master Forum

Maybe if Falkor would like to hold the torch I could try with a two handed swing of the club, adding additional strength damage to Power Swing attacks.

It sounds like a good idea, but the way money is playing Falkor I think he is too pre-occupied. You can delicately place the torch on the floor close to you if you still want the two-handed swing. It would be a move action to recover it in combat that would provoke an AoO, but hey, you've got 22hp and a further reserve of 9 if you need it, so whose laughing!

Ok, sounds like I oculd post another update early as everyone is sort of set up, will try to do it at lunchtime.

So, that's Westian and Falkor at alcove number three, and Haynuus watching out.

Ameena, if Ameena is doing any different to standing behind Haynuus, could you, Ameena, tell me what Ameena is doing. OH, you have work today... umm, if you want to do something different and haven't posted it before lunch, I'll hold of the update until evening as normal

Right, work!

No, she's not really doing anything different - just standing behind him after he plonked himself 'tween her and the door, sort of peering nervously around wondering wtf it is she could have missed. Yes, I am back at work today (fun fun ), so after I go out |(in just over an hour's time), I won't be online till this evening, most likely later than 9pm.

@beowuff - should Westian and Falkor examine the alcoves they have not individually seen yet? Discovering runes and the background details is fun for me and Money, my only worry is that this will get a bit boring for Ameena and Ian, and will mean a few more days in real time in the room before we can go out and get ourselves killed by Trollins But then again I don't want to head out without getting as many runes as possible, and getting updated on the pretty cool history you have come up with.

Obviously as players you have seen the five alcoves, the third alove is the only one not seen. I'd say look at it first, and if, as characters, Falkor and Westian wish to swap over, we can gloss over that in an update.

You can also have a group session to talk about what you have individually seen later. No one will get any more runes than what they've seen already (lucky pick for the alcoves so far). You would need to talk to Haynuus to get the SAR rune, neither of you will remember the SAR rune from seeing a demon head, it is too obscure I'm afraid! Haynuus, being a non-mage, seems to have been neglected in his rune memory wipe!

Cool. So if Falkor and I discuss things you will make a summary of what we have seen in an update? As I said I would not want to miss out on the background. Also, can Falkor and Westian swap runes by talking?

Indeed you can, if you and money just say 'can we spend 5 minutes talking about runes' here then I'll gloss over that in an update. It would need to be the next update, as this update you have an interesting find...

Need to finish up, getting distracted right now

As long as everyone is on the the same posting ability to post (which you all seem to be), I think you all as players get a good sense of when to keep up a small RP section going and when to summarise and move on. The door section earlier was a good example (and I wasn't even here) and similarly with this alcove bit, I think you've all got a common sense of pacing.

Anyway, hopefully I've already constructed a dungeon then set in motion a plot that moves even as your characters move around, even if they are unaware of the plot and have not explored the dungeon yet. Or, to put it another way, the action isn't stopping even if the party are temporarily stopping to talk, rest, chat, or inspect something. I hope that means it won't ever get boring!

Anyway, if as a player you feel the pace has slowed down too much, feel free to mention it directly in the OOC thread. After all, it's your game (I'm just having fun hosting it)! As I said, you all seem to have a good feeling for the pace, so I shouldn't imagine it will be a huge issue. Remember you can always summarise a block of time's potential actions.


Right, more importantly, a question. As players who have played for a few weeks now - do you think your characters knew each other before this meeting? I know what I think, but your characters are your characters, and I think in this case I'd like to know your guy's thoughts and create a shared back history (if any) for the group. So, what are your private thoughts, speculations, hopes and opinions?

Of cours,e why you are where you are now, with no memory - that one I'm keeping as a fun aspect of the story for myself to reveal! Hehe.

Randomly throwing these guys together seems fine to me. At least we dont have any Azure bonds on our arms... Hey I've not checked Haynuus' ass. Could you?...

It's not necessary to be acquainted with the other characters beforehand.

I'm happy with the speed of things as I'm busy at work, busy at home.
I understand that we've done just two rooms up to now, but the alcove room has had a lot to it, and I think the next few days we'll push out to new areas anyway! I certainly don't anticipate obtaining level 11 or anything stupid, and I don't need an end date to be set in concrete.

Enjoying it.

Yes I think it is a really cool story, and it really feels like the DM world! It is naturally going to be a bit slower at the beginning, we had to meet each other, develp characters, etc. But I don't think the pace is too slow - we don't need to rush things.

As for knowing each other beforehand....I think I know where you are going with this and if I am right I like the idea! I am happy for Westian to have met and travelled with these people before, but the memory loss would have to have wiped out the memory of his companions and the memory of him ever planning an adventure since this feels like his first one.

I see no need to rush through this, or anything - I'm happy to go at whatever speed is enjoyable. If that means legging it through a whole room in five seconds because something's chasing us and then spending five hours (game time) catching our breath and talking about it, fine .
As for the shared backstory thing...I suppose that technically Ameena could easily have met any of them before (as long as they'd have ben in some random tavern or on the road somewhere, and would have been open and unaggressive toward her when first approached). If that were the case, since conversation and getting to know people is a big thing about murafu social interaction, at some point I'd need to know whatever details of that character's backstory they might have imparted to Ameena (probably quite a lot if they knew each other relatively well, likewise that character's player would need to know a lot about her) in order that she could remember it when her memory comes back. It's probably mechanically easier to just have her not know them at all. I pictured her as having been alone when "taken" (or whatever happened) to the dungeon - she'd probably curled up in a burrow or tree or someone's storehouse for a nap or something.

Good to know the answer to both questions

Ok, so with the resolution of the alcove searches, as you can see I just need to know if money takes a closer look at the cloak or not, then I can put a line under the alcove search with an official update.

After that, I guess group discussions or ever onwards, or both at once!

Oh, and @money - sorry, I realised I'd made a misleading mistake by writing melee: +1 not melee : -1 on your character sheet! You used to get -2 for poor strength, and +1 for small sizem kaing -1 overall. I've corrected your sheet, you now get +0 overall for the +1 bonus from 2nd level.

Oh, and I think my thoughts on the backstory or lack of backstory were in line with everyone. Ish. Will play it by ear, but hopefully it's the right track for the group.


@ian: I read the azure bonds book a while ago, really loved it at he time! Never realised there were more books, ooh. We need to check Falkor's eye colour!

I hope I don't get any more crap rolls when I'm trying to sniff out trouble, lol. Various physical factors are gonna be influencing Ameena more heavily soon too - hunger and thirst of course, but tiredness too, I expect - I don't imagine she sleeps the whole night through like other races - she probably takes a nap here and a nap there. I can't remember whether I ever actually stated as much in one of her thought trains, but that's probably the case. Ah no, it was eating I mentioned - the fact that murafu eat little and often while other races tend to have full meals at certain points of the day.

The napping might see Ameena becoming a watch or aid to a watch, where she grabs a few hours of sleep and then scouts around bored! And if she's becoming friends with Haynuus, she has someone to carry her when she wants to nap while the group travel I guess

Aaw, she'd never impose herself like that. And even a few hours might be too long. She might grab an hour here and an hour there. If there's nothing going on she'll sleep for longer, and if things are really tense she might stay awake for longer, but as long as it balances out, she should be okay. And she won't mind being a watch - she keeps mostly alert in her sleep anyway.

Woohoo, thanks to money's quick posting we have a morning update. If everyone gets an action in, there may even be an evening one aswell!

And thanks to Falkor's actions, the mystery of the doorframe is revealed!

Ok, so your exit to the left is apparently blocked, and your exit infront is slowly falling. If you want to rush blindly out of the room, feel free, if you want to risk cautious movement out of the door, feel free, if you want to try to do something to counteract the door, give details, and similarly if you want to rush out the door but do something to slow /stall the descent of the door please give details.

You can probably sneak in any knowledge checks you wish to make for free.


And yes, I am a bad man who has been wondering if this would be triggered for quite some time. Is the cloak worth it? Gotta keep it and examine it to find out!

I could have shoved the spare club in the rail of the doorframe, I suppose. However, there are more open doors on the way! MOVE

I was soo tempted to sit and watch everyone leave but felt this might limit my time in the game - or at least give me plenty of time to reflect on my actions!

Heh, an adrenaline-fuelled "Oh shit, door closing, I'm not getting stuck in here" moment for Ameena - you know when stuff's happening quickly but to you it seems to be taking ages? Well it was like that...she hardly needed telling to get through the door .

I feel slighted by money in his lack of belief that I had not thought of the possibility that someone is slow, and even more importantly someone would stay...

Both options were covered, have no fear! And as with everything so far, it would have had both a benefit if you tried something odd, but also a potneital cost. Anyway, busy at work, but sounds like I could already post an update when I take my lunch - cool!

Anyway, update up, some instructions for you all there.

Incase anyone feels worried, I believe you basically got everything you could have gotten out of the previous room. Plus you got a cloak. What that means, and what the cost is to have taken it, I'm sure will be revealed in due course

...roll me a perception roll... (1d20=5) Oh well. Looks like Haynuus is more concerned with his tongue!

If you play it up any more, I'm docking you 1hp!

Ok, I mis-remembered at work the distances of the corridor (I was recalling the four squares of the tactical 5ft map). So the corridor is only 20 foot long, and therefore Westian and Haynuus will see that the hand-sized recess is literally a hand-sized recess (the outline of five fingers visible).

Anyway, not to metagame, but you can assume an evil that can appear suddenly then disappear would not be attacking a door for you if it was a simple matter of appearing beside you instantly. So, for the moment, while your characters can be scared and do what they will, as players don't feel you can't tie up any loose ends because of the huge evil your DM is about to use to drive you onwards.

Then again, something does know where you are, and other things might have heard all the noise. So exercise normal caution and paranoia, but don't feel an overpowering foe is going to kill you if you don't roll 20s for perception and have weapons drawn

Hehehe...what you said about rolling 20s for Perception...hehehe...go check my IC post if you haven't already. And that is the first time I have ever rolled that particular die. I think we're going to get alone very well. Either that or it's just making me think it's nice when it's now gonna give me 1s and crap for the rest of eternity .
I mentioned this in my OOC note at the bottom of the IC post I just made, but I'll mention it again here - for now Ameena is concerned with Westian, because she can see he doesn't look so good and murafu get worried about that kind of thing, even though she hardly knows him. But she has noticed that Falkor is holding the cloak and she'll want to ask him about it and give it a good sniff over as soon as she gets back to it. I dunno what kind of roll that would be - Perception, maybe? Anyway, don't need to do it just yet. But just so you know, Wuffy, if there is any faint scent on that cloak, Ameena's nose will detect it. Well, unless I get a crap roll, I suppose .

Westian rolls a 2 for perception. Clearly he is not in a very observing mood after the shock and the dash for the club/doorway!
For his will save he rolls a 17 + 5 + 1 = 23. I don't know how saves work in 3rd or 4th edition, in 2nd you had a list of numbers for the various saves (which actually was a real pain) and in NWN the computer took care of saves for me. But even in case he has failed and succumbed to panic I should point out that he is at least wearing dark trousers.

@ameena: It's a good roll! It will all be in one, the basic perception I wanted to check for, and the scents from things like the cloak and the door.

It will depend on the circumstances if I need a perception roll for sniffing the cloak later. If you aren't in a hurry, I'd only need one because there would be a random chance that the scent is too old, or something else might disguise a vital element, or something is distracting Ameena. I won't spoil things by telling you if this is the case or not until it comes up

@oh_brother: Saves work as all other checks these days in 3rd edition. There is a target DC you are trying to get above (either a known DC, or something created from the opponent inflicting the effect). So as will all d20 rolls, the higher the better, and so your save makes it. Westian is shaken, but not stirred. I mean, he might be shaken, but he's not so shaken he can't shrug it off!

That 20 I rolled was a straight 20 on the die, btw, I didn't add in whatever my Perception bonus is now (I think it's 6 now). In case you didn't add that on.
Right now Ameena is doing her murafu thing. Even though Westian's several times her height. Even Falkor's probably about half a head taller than she is. Maybe at some point they'll all be sitting down so she won't have to keep craning her neck up to talk to Westian and Haynuus, lol.