Ameena's hidden OOC thread

[beowuuf]

DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT

I just realised I lead you astray with something to do with Helm because we were dealing with all that first run/second run knowledge when I was distracted with something else.

First Run, Ameena met Helm two weeks before, Helm went on his way, and then Ameena meandered around and came to Viborg anyway. She would not have met Helm again, and not spotted the man again, even if she did see a thief in a pit

Second Run, Ameena meets Helm, Helm leaves, Ameena settled down to sleep, and is teleported into Anaias with her weird memories. As both memories started to try and surface to fill in the gap, Ameena knitted the FR recollection of Helm and meeting him into her SR memories.

Remember, that was why Ameena was surprised to meet him (for her, for that set of memories, it was two weeks ago) while Helm was all 'I met you yesterday!'

Dammit, because that FR shard of memory was knitted into her SR memories, I forgot when we were summarising events that both FR and SR she met up with Helm ...


So yeah, sorry! Easy to retcon, because Ameena's brain recalled the FR memories in SR, she completely wiped out recollection of Helm until perhaps now. It has been two weeks to her this time, and alot happened.... so perhaps as Ameena hears exactly about a thief and she gets some emotional bits, she can be all 'Wait, you mean Mills? Why do you call him Helm? Why was he in your dream, I met him alone weeks ago!'

Edit: Note there is a previous post on the end of page 10

[Ameena]

Oooh shit, yeah, I totally forgot about the whole Helm thing too - whoops! But yeah, like you say - easy enough to retcon back in since from the First Run, he was someone she met quite a while before. I can't remember whether he introduced himself (when they first met on the road or in the woods or wherever it was) as Helm or Mills that time. I think when they met him in the dungeon and he introduced himself it was as something like "Mills, but call me Helm", because Ameena got confused about the whole nickname thing and asked him about it - I just can't remember which name she knew him under.
But I can avoid having to mention the name specifically as she caves in under the rather notable fail of her Will save - I read the main threads first and rolled my save (and posted it in that OOC thread) before I read your posts down here, but I'll just leave that as-is so the others know what I got. Meanwhile I'll post according to what you said down here that Ameena will experience. Aawww...so that will put her on 7/23hp and with a bloody bad headache and mental images of Chaos and stuff to go with everything else. Aaawww .

[beowuuf]

Mills, cause I think AMeena had the confusion over his second name (which was his nick name and 'working' name, really)

And aww, poor murafu! Still, a healer on hand should sooth the aches...if he's doing his job right. Especially with a will save of 25!

[beowuuf]

Actually, Westian got a load of images and clues when dead abotu the plot...kinda...so interesting to see how he shares those. Anyway, as I mentioned to you, any of you guys (let alone two of you) trying to bridge the gap between two memories isn't good.

I figured if Westian slugged Ameena hard enough, then Ameena herself can trigger a flash of the crack she came through. And the quake of that along with the current discussion is enough to trigger stuff in the rest of ther guys... which in turn really aggrevates the crack

Fun times! Maybe I can blow up the universe, unless you guys can find some undead statues to toss into it.

[Ameena]

Lol. Are the Weeping Angels undead? It's never been said so. Anyway...yeah, let's not get any of those into the story, shall we? I mean, I think Ameena is freaked out enough as it is without having to cope with a bunch of living statue-creatures who only move when you're not looking at them. I don't think she'd last long, somehow .
Meanwhile, I wonder how Westy will react to Ameena's umm...reaction. And Haynuus. If Ameena can manage to recover herself, she'll eventually get round to telling them about finding herself below the Scary Scary Crack before she met Small-Small. But for now, I think, she is in Proper Freaked Out mode and will need to be treated with a prolonged course of hugs and snuggles and completely-non-related-to-anything-scary words before she can come out of it enough to attempt to pursue a normal conversation. Plus there's this new headache and her various other injuries to deal with. Aaww, poor murafu .

[Ameena]

One thing I can't remember - how much (if anything) does Ameena remember about the Soul Stone? I couldn't remember when I wrote that IC post last night, and remembered it about the same time as Ameena did (ie as a little "ooh, by the way..." bit at the end). But since I couldn't remember exactly how much she'd recall about it, I just had to give a few vague details. If she'd remember more than that (or if her little speech has triggered anything with anyone else who was listening), then I can just have her belatedly remember it later in the conversation or when she wakes up or something. I wasn't too sure exactly how much she'd remember about the Gholst/Theron "partnership" either, so that's why that bit was vague too.
And don't worry, I haven't forgotten about what will happen when Ameena goes to sleep. That was why I asked about whether sleep interruptions would affect heal rate. I'll let her get some sleep before the scary-scary Dark One pops up though. I'm guessing she won't really remember much about this scary figure, just that...well, that he's scary. And makes her foreleg hurt. Well, makes it hurt more, since I won't have the ache fully wear off for a while yet. It's a good job she's sleeping with someone at the moment, so she has someone to curl up closer to when she wakes up all scared. Aaawww...murafu do dream sometimes, but they don't have nightmares - this will be a new experience for her entirely and I don't expect she'll know how to deal with it. I hope she doesn't end up becoming scared to go to sleep. Hopefully being among her friends will counterbalance the nightmare-vision somewhat, so the effect is lessened.

[beowuuf]

She can start to remember it, as it's been mentioned in both timelines, and Soorec name dropped it later on to the rest of the group.

Anyway, no healing possible with this rest, so feel free to have her have interrupted sleep and freak out the rest more

Poor murafu, but at least she's back with friends who are looking out for her and stuff!

[Ameena]

Yeah, provided Westy ever actually gives her a bloody healing potion, lol. Well, he might have done since I posted this morning - i'll have to check since I've come to this thread first so haven't checked the others yet.

[beowuuf]

Remember WEstian did do a general healing check, AND stated OOC people could heal, AND I stated that everyone heals all damage when you guys rest (to show Westian healing)

I know you like to do alot of thins IC, but things liek this you will really have to take as read or else it will trip you or someone else up, plus can slow the pace. For example, Westian's healed you, or OB said you can assume being healed, yet if he doens't say it IC you are goign to confuse issues by grabbing what could ptentially be a powerful healing potion otherwise!

[Ameena]

Just wanted to check something regarding Aurek. Specifically, Ameena's knowledge of him (or lack thereof). Due to sticking with the First Run memories, she naturally forgot about him and had no clue who the hell he was when she arrived in Soorec's room. Then Westy went and basically told her everything about the Second Run, including how they met Aurek and who he is, etc, and almost made her head cave in with the whole conflicting-memories thing. Since returning to her prior state of keeping the First Run memories in order to avoid any more such headaches, does this mean she's once again forgotten the details of the Second Run? That's more of a general question, I suppose, but for now how does it specifically apply to Aurek? Will she have completely blanked him out and it's as if Westian didn't tell her anything? Or will he seem somehow familiar to her and she can't quite figure out how/why? Or will she just know him and remember he's a paladin and a member of the party and all that, even if she can't remember specifically how he ended up travelling with them? Or will it be something else?

[beowuuf]

Ameena's been told the SR details, but is free to fudge them and think perhaps the things that don't make sense are to do with what Westian and co have done after Ameena was split from them. So she can acknowledge that Aurek is known by the rest, acknowledge she thinks she knows things about him (cause Westian said, or someone said) and just ignore that she's supposed to have met him too.

If someone is nasty enough to press that she must know Aurek, then we can have another fun round of mental cave-ins


Note meta-game wise, you should just have Ameena ignore Aurek for now while LB is out. And if LB is permenantly out, then Aurek will kinda just be faded out and not referenced, It's weird narratively, but is cleanest for playing wise.

So yeah, for now you'll need to table any Aurek curiosity, but hopefully Ameena's memories will sort of knit some narrative answers from the SR without her realising it!

[Ameena]

Yeah, I know about LB not being around - that's why Ameena's not been doing much regarding Aurek so far. If LB returns then she can start achnowledging him a bit more. I was gonna do it that she's sort of auto-blocked the Second-Run info (as given to her by Westian a couple of game-minutes ago) to prevent any more mental trauma, but has some vague idea that she knows this human dude. I figure that she sort of decides he's not really a soldier, or that he is and that he's decided to help the group, and that he seems vaguely familiar in some way but she can't quite remember how. The familiarity, she supposes, will come from some time the group met him before, as with Farel and Ardur, only in this case she can't remember any of the details. The fact that the group acknowledge Aurek as one of them will just go further in convincing her that yes, he is someone the group know, but she just happens to be missing those memories as other members of the group don't know stuff that she can remember.
So basically, she will treat him as more or less a stranger, but one whom she's pretty sure can be trusted because of the way the group act around him. But she won't recall any specific dealings she (or anyone else) may have had with him in the past.
Sound good?
I suppose it doesn't matter, for now...not till LB comes back (which hopefully he will).

[beowuuf]

Sounds indeed good

[Ameena]

Seemingly random note on something I was just thinking about recently...
When we were discussing murafu magic-users, and the fact that they tend to only stick to healing magics, it was a bit of a problem as to how do they cast healing potions (which in this world seem to need glass to stick to or something) when they don't tend to carry flasks (or even necessarily know of their use)? Well, I had a thought - maybe they do use glass. [/i] Volcanic[/i] glass. Does that count? Because, wide-ranging as they are, there would be murafu who found/lived near volcanic craters/slopes/remains or if not near an actual volcano, then near where the flow of one once passed - volcanic rocks can spread pretty far, I would imagine. So they might think the shiny rocks look interesting but not all that fantastic. Until one day when a magic-using murafu serendipitously discovered that casting a healing spell whilst holding some of this shiny rock made strange watery-looking stuff appear on it (chances are the murafu wouldn't, up till that point, have been aware that he/she had any mgical ability), which, when touched, made said murafu feel better. Or some other murafu. Or whatever. So they started carrying around pieces of this stuff in case they needed to use it again. Maybe that was a long time ago, and that was the first ever magic-using murafu who discovered they could use magic because they'd finally combined casting a potion (something they probably never consciously did) with holding one of those shiny stones that they could find in various places. So nowadays, a lot of murafu (any murafu, not just the magic-users) tend to make sure they have a small piece of volcanic glass on them somewhere, in case they come across a magic-using murafu who might need it. And the reason Ameena's not mentioned this before (apart from the fact I just recently came up with the idea) is that her knowledge of magic isn't huge anyway (yet), and she maybe hadn't yet been told about the shiny rocks or something, or maybe she does sort of know about it, but it's not yet come up in conversation with the group.
Anyway, that's probably all a bit vague 'cause I know what I'm like when I try going into proper detail. And none of it is probably gonna come up during the course of the game anyway. But does it sound okay? It's nice to know I have this info on call should it ever come up in-game.

[beowuuf]

I forget where we came to with all this. Dm Nexus had a party heal and a personal heal (the second is, of course, just like the wand power). The effect has to be minimal (or else why use potions, and potions are already powerful) hence the reason for having the odd mechnaics still tied to VI - healing moisture in the air, and it not being anywhere near as effective as capturing VI in a flask.

The reason for glass - in my take on the mechanics - is that you need a material that is very good for getting very magically hot then cold for condensing air, without having properties that would quickly transfer the heat to theuser. Hence stonewear is too pourous to condense things, and metal would conduct the magic too well to the user. Or something.

Volcanic glass sounds interesting, go with that

[Ameena]

Cool . And just to be clear...can we maybe say that there is something about the way the caster focuses the energy that makes the potion form inside the flask - it's just because that's what you do when forming a potion, duhhh, so it forms inside the flask, and it's not some automatic property of whatever mixture it is you're conjuring up. Therefore the murafu, when they magic up potions whilst holding a basic chunk of volcanic rock, have the potion just form around the outer surface of it. I don't know too much about the physical structure of various types of volcanic glass ('cause there's several, I'm pretty sure), but hopefully there's at least one type that can be carved without a huge amount of difficulty, and therefore the murafu might make small bowls out of it and guide their potions to form inside. Obviously a bowl is a better shape for murafu anyway - should they need to drink from it, it's rather easier to do so. Their mouths are still rattish in shape, so can't sip the way other species do, hence why Ameena has so far had to drink by tipping up the container and basically lapped at the water as it's come out - she can't get her mouth around it the way, say, a human can.
But anyway, yeah, I suppose this probably isn't too important to our story since murafu spellcasting hasn't come into it yet, and unless Ameena somehow manages to take a level in the Priest class, I don't suppose it will. It would be cool to have her capable of magically healing injuries, but she's not going to spontaneously start doing so. She might not even have any kind of erm, what's the word...thingy for magic. Potential? Hmm not quite the word. You know, she might not have any kind of innate charge, as it were, to be able to tap into, assuming she ever thought to actually try. I suppose if she found any of the DM items which give you mana points, that might do it (;)), but then she'd still have to actually make the attempt. I wonder if she did that, if she held something that gives mana to the wielder, whether she would feel it inside her somehow since she hasn't ever really had much contact with magic (at least, not as far as we know...).
Gah, anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. Ameena casting magic isn't something she'd naturally try to do, so it would be down to someone else to suggest it or something, or for her to somehow accidentally acquire some mana, and use it. So I'll stop there .

[beowuuf]

Sounds fine to me

By the way, I imagine Falkor would have used a message spell (voice in your head) at some point during the FR, so therefore Ameena should know about the message spell, or at least vaguely recall it. Hence why I said she could replu Westian got messages from Falkor previously, only Haynuus is adrift...and, of course, he's possibly just the sort of person to answer it in his head cause he wouldn't think not to!

[Ameena]

Ahh it was an actual spell like that, was it...okay...yeah, now you mention it, I remember Falkor using it on the Blue Trolls way back at the beginning of the Second Run. But still, even if she'd remembered about it (which I imagine she would have, if I had, lol), I think her decision would have been the same - not having much clue what Soorec is on about (since presumably his intended meaning was "Do you see what a nasty piece of work this halfling really is?" or something to that effect), she didn't want to reply and risk offending him or demonstrating that she doesn't know wtf he's talking about and therefore give him some kind of knowledge-based advantage.

[beowuuf]

Well, 'do you see how insane/shifty he really is? He stole my stuff, claimed it was his, laughed in the face of death, didn't care you guys could have died from that, was cheeky when you guys tried to step in on his behalf, and obviously sneakily has a way out cause he was just really eager to push things...'

Ameena actually has a reason to trust Falkor, but Haynuus and Westian...I might have to point out that they don't

[Ameena]

Well, yes, I suppose, since they still don't remember much of the First Run, so they're still going by what's happened so far on the Second Run. Maybe we'll have an interesting confrontation later on, then, if those guys become suspicious of Falkor and think he's actually a bad guy or something. Of course, how Falkor himself turns out (ie how Money plays him) is likely to affect how things go. I suppose we shall just have to wait and see .

[beowuuf]

Well, I don't wanna screw money over as a player (right now), so wanna make it clear to the players he's fine. So much more fun to get you guys IC to play up stuff together, insteadof in competition

[Ameena]

Of course, Falkor might end up getting himself (or some of the rest of us) killed if he keeps taking the piss out of Soorec the way he did . I think Ameena sort of mostly missed that little...incident...so hopefully it might look to Soorec as though she's sort of ignored it or something - by not saying anything, she doesn't show how she feels. I suppose if their agreed-upon deal goes ahead, Soorec will have plenty of time to question Ameena about her feelings and motives and stuff while they wait for the others to get back from dealing with the priest.

[beowuuf]

You have no idea how close it was...

No wait, you know exactly how close it was, since you almost lost Ameena the character to Lord Chaos. I swear you guys are going to run out of luck one of these days!

And yeah, I imagine Ameena is probably blissfully ignorant enough to not notice the tension.

[Ameena]

Oh yes, that little encounter...hehe...I wonder whether Ameena will ever recall that properly at some point, though I'd imagine not since it was a bit...intense. I suppose technically she can't stop remembering it (at least subconsciously), hence the psychological and physiological side-effects she's been experiencing since then.
As for Falkor and Soorec...well, I suppose it depends on whether either of them (or, comes to that, Westian and/or Haynuus) say or do anything to arouse further antagonism between the two of them. I think Ameena could probably do without seeing Falkor impaled on a set of grak-grak claws . But if she picks up on it, she'll most likely try to strike up a conversation with Soorec, having picked up on his apparently easily-distractable nature (I say "apparently" since it may well be an act, something Ameena has taken into consideration as well), and attempt to divert his attention elsewhere by talking/asking about whatever happens to come to mind.

[Ameena]

Thought I'd post this here rather than in the main OOC thread 'cause it refers to some stuff that we've discussed here.
Going by the DM-mechanic of things, do our characters get free mana points whilst holding the Snake Staff (assuming it actually gives mana points - like I said, I never use any kind of staff when I play DM but I recall that the plain "Staff" gives a couple of mana points), and if so does that mean we can technically attempt to cast a spell? I just wondered whether it would mean Ameena could, in theory, cast something if she happened to be in contact with the staff at the time. Bear in mind how murafu casters generally discover their magical abilities by accident and don't use runes (at least, not knowingly - they must have something else that comes into mind and which the magic shapes itself around/into so they can use it, or something).
Usually when a murafu finds out they're a caster, it's when someone (usually another murafu but not always) has been injured and the murafu is frantically trying to help them and suddenly accidentally heals them or something. Well, I suppose that's how it used to happen. Nowadays most of them probably know how magic healing water can be formed on the surface of those shiny rocks that can be found near smoky-rumble-thunder-angry-fiery mountain thingys, or that other shiny substance that humans and other races seem to like using to carry liquids. Then it's just a matter of a piece of the stuff being passed round a murafu community and everyone having a go at trying to make some healing water with it, though it probably only really happens when the murafu really needs it to happen - maybe some kind of emotional trigger is what sets it off, better than simple curiosity.
Hrmm I think I'm waffling again. I think mainly what I'm wondering is whether Ameena gets mana points when in contact with the staff (or errm, however it works in this version of the game - not being a magic-using class...at the moment...I haven't really read the magic rules yet), and whether she could then use that mana to, say, heal someone. I just get this image of one of the party members being hurt quite badly and her wanting to help and, based on what Westy's told her about the staff, holding onto it whilst trying to will a healing potion into existance from somewhere, or something.

[beowuuf]

Look back over my update two posts ago! I told you guys exactly what non-spellcasters get to try with the staff! :p

The snake staff does have a 'heal' option if you look (though its self heal) so it is possible that with a very luck roll Ameena might feel a twinge of something if she's trying to use it to help someone. Otherwise, the mana and staff combination lets you attempt a minor prayer or will effect like a mage or cleric each encounter. But with a high DC, and you guys don't have knowledge. So the chances to success are slim. It will more be an RP opening for the person to perhaps angle to start being a mage or priest, though I will expect a decent amoutn of RP lipservice to the attempt before you level up. Gone are the hazy early days where I offered you guys levels just for yelling at things

[beowuuf]

Also, I imagine that in practice a murafu's natural healing magic would be along the lines of discovering the more complex VI BRO NETA and VI BRO RA party heal / self heal spells, that require no physical components, and then perhaps retroactively discovering perhaps the anti-venom serum and healing potions using whatever glass substitutes they can find

[Ameena]

Yeah...I didn't know there was gonna be a non-component healing spell before - that is probably what a murafu would accidentally end up using. So far I haven't thought of any spells murafu might use other than healing - they're happy to do stuff for themselves (ie using their natural, physical skills and abilities and stuff) and of course never desire to hurt anyone so nukes and poisons and stuff are out. Healing a fellow murafu who's just been gored by a predator so far seems like the most obvious opportunity at which they'd get to use magic - running over and touching them and basically wishing that they really really wouldn't die, then being very surprised when the injury suddenly heals (if not completely, at least enough to no longer be lethal). After that, it would probably be a matter of attempting to "reconnect" with the "funny feeling" they got inside when the healing happened, in order to summon it up at will the next time someone needs it.
I suppose the way it would work using the DM-type rules we have, someone with no magic obviously can't ever cast a spell, because there's nothing inside them to use in order to do so. But when handling a magic-granting item (DM stuff like one of the wands or staves), they can connect with the magic inside that item (which replenishes or something, so the item has a constant store...maybe the item itself conatsntly draws in faint traces of magic from within the air or something). Using it enough eventually causes some of the item's magic to "rub off" on the user, as their body starts to become attuned to it and gains the ability to store magic which some people (ie wizzies and priests) are born with. And at that point, of course, "So-and-so has gained a Wizard/Priest level!" .

[beowuuf]

Yeha, that's those wacky Japanese and their Nexus game. L:et's have a petrification spell and some non-potion healing spells, shall we!

So yeah, while there exist, I'm not sure how close to nature they are. They seem very much in keeping with the staves, etc that let you heal yourself, so it could be an option. I personally would ignore them, but since you were keen on murafu with spontaneous healing discovered, I thought I'd highlight it as a possibility. A little odd to know complex magic before easy, but again that might be why murafu spellcasters are rare - it's very rare to get a component free easy non destructive spell!

I imagien that there miht be many natural things - like plants and trees - that have mana runnign through them in certain places. Iliek to think that's why staves abnd wabnds as so effective and desireable. So yeah, perhaps a murafu holding a special stick gets just enough magic to spontaneously at least try healing stuff, get encouraging sensations and very minor effects, and keeps at it.

I liked OBs staff description and linked it much better to nature too. So yeah, it does sound like that's how it goes

[Ameena]

Oh, my thing about people permanently gaining mana wasn't specific to murafu - I was just theorising that in the DM universe, that's how it works with everyone who isn't a naturally-born caster. Presumably those who already have mana in them don't notice the tiny bit extra they get from using, say, a wand or staff, but it still has the same effect.
And yeah, could be another reason why murafu spellcasters are rare - not only do they seldom attempt to deliberately use magic in the first place, an individual would need to be born with a sizeable quantity within them in order to cast the higher-level, non-component healing spells .