Dungeon Master Forum

So rather than need to properly defeat Lolth, you could be looking for ways to distract or delay her until you can deal with the Gholst/Theron situaiton, and then allow the Grey Lord to kick ass? It mgiht work

To tackle Gholst, you would needto get him to manifest in to the real world, or grab Falkor's cloak (I think the hivemind means Haynuus would know how to activate it) and go after Gholst himself. In a fight, indeed Haynuus is probably outclassed. However, Gholst is obviously wickedly intelligence and respected Dargat enoguh to make that orc his second. So I wonder if Hyanuus could leverage his half-orcness and stupidity to make Gholst mad? Who knows!

Keeping Gholst busy is certainly a priority at the moment, if we can't get Theron to deal with his guilt over Karnadee. If we can get him to do that, then hopefully he'll kick Gholst's arse himself. We need to find out what's going on with Theron right now, though, so maybe I could sneak around the back (darting between pillars) while everyone else is looking at the whole Lolth thing and try to speak to him. Though those two Blackskulls up the back might see me...

If only you were a small rogue with high stealth and there was lots of cover. If only... :p

Lol I know, hence why I said about darting between the pillars - problem is, if everyone is looking in the direction of those mummies right now, that means the two Blackskulls at the back are having to look past Theron, and so might notice someone approaching across the well-lit, open space that he's currently standing in .

I say go for it, Ameena. I like your plan, better than the soulstone gathering task. We really need to know what Theron is about!

Petal could make you invisible on top. That'd make you quite hard to detect, although Theron might freak out a bit when he hears a voice coming from no-where

Now, shouldn't this whole "hivemind" thing mean that ALL of us know how to cast spells? We all share knowledge, so it only goes to reason.

Yes, yes she could. Not more than that most likely without Raixel, but invisiblilty is most definitely an option Methinks a solid plan is starting to form here...

What about Gholst? Can anyone get an idea of where he is, exactly? I presume he's in some kind of spirit-form floating around the room somewhere, since Theron seems to be currently in control of himself. We need to find out how far Falkor got with persuading Theron to speak with Karnadee (or vice-versa), and I also wonder what happened to the ghosts or whatever they were who followed Falkor when he entered the main chamber.
About the spellcasting thing, LB, you might know the principle behind casting a spell, but if you have no mana/innate ability to access magic, you won't be any better off Plus some people's power sources are divine whilst others are arcane. And those of us like Ameena and Haynuus have none.
Can I just clarify how much Ameena knows about the Theron/Karnadee situation? Does she know that the two are family? Murafu have very different views on family to humans, so she wouldn't really understand the whole brother-sister thing in the way humans do. Does Ameena know that Theron thinks he's guilty of something bad that happened to Karnadee (her death, I presume), even if she herself doesn't understand the reasons for it? I presume with the hivemind thing I can pick up enough to know what to tell Theron - that Karnadee says it's not his fault and that she wants him to let her go, and also that if he does then Gholst can be dealt with, etc.

@LB: Weird, dunno how I missed your second paragraph. As Ameena says, just because you have heard what others think doens;t mean you can replicate what they do. In a way, your DM characters in a game have the hivemind of all having access to the same runes, and spells, yet they don't all suddenly become the same wizard/priest level.

So yeah, he now has a better understanding of the FUL rune, say, but he's not likely to master even that spell to invoke it by the end of this contest I might change my mind if Raixel or money cannot come back before the very end of the game, but it would be some other risky gestalt thing using their own mana and abilities.

Anyway, what I will say is that looking to your character's epilogue, of course having explosure to this knowledge (and Westian's plans to invite Falkor back to the guild) and also meeting Petal, who balances the wizard and priest paths, you can certainly decide that Aurek would perhaps take the opportunity and his fast tracked hivemind knowledge to become a wizard/paladin under Petal and Falkor's tutelege after the game finishes. Might be a nice echo to your original character concept.


@Ameena: Remember Ghiolst doens't have to be in the material plane. The fact no one can see the activity of any ghosts around might indicate thigns are happening in the ethereal plane ,as I mentioned the Haynuus. I did actually indicate in the main post that Westian seemed to detect Gholst was somewhere between Theron and the soul stone plinth, so if you can't actually see him there....

As to the hivemind knowledge, indeed, you can assume 0- even if Ameena doens't understand it - she knows roughly what everyone else knows now. For exactly this reason, so you guys don't have to worry about IC and OOC knowledge and being uninformed at the end here. Lol, imagine how it would have gone if you'd chosen differently! Confusing!

Well I've just perused that fantastic map again and all I can think of is.... Trap!

I wonder if it's worth someone trying to take a good look up at the central ceiling. People such as Conan the Barbarian would always get jumped on from entering the central area!

I think it was described as just being a big dome. There have been no other bad guys mentioned that might be waiting to leap out at us and I'm not sure if Theron would allow some kind of deathtrap thingy in that room. Besides, I think we've got enough to keep us busy as-is!

Indeed, it's just a big dome. If you want to be the one to try and destroy part of it, you could try, though it might take a lot of resources to target the pillars and break the sapphire itself. Speaking of the pillars, remmeber they aren't smooth and round, but are weirdly carved. It might not be easy, but they could be climbable. The gap between pillars is only 10feet to jump (standing start through), however the inner ones are wider spaced to keep moving.

Oh yeah, the pillars were carved like some kind of rainbow of creation or something weren't they, all different creatures and colours and stuff. I have no plans on climbing them but will most likely be using them for cover to try and sneak round - pity Gholst is in an invisible state so I can't tell whether or not he's looking in my direction.
So if everyone else kicks up a fuss down the south end of the room to try and pull attention, maybe I can sneak around the back (wary of those two lurking Blackskulls and of course Gholst, wherever he is) and have a word with Theron about Karnadee. If that works then I can start on the Soulstone.

Will let OB catch up tonight/tomorrow with the OOC and IC stuff (I'm assuming he's busy today) and move us onwards no matter what tomorrow

It's been difficult for you to move people on - we're so conservative with our approach with no screaming wildly into rooms with swords waving in the air type stuff.

Lol, it's pretty easy to mvoe you guys on - just have stuff attack you. To change the subject completely, things are very likely to attack you soon

Actually, they really are, hence a good idea to form a plan and act on it.

Unfortunately, forming a plan is turning out a bit tricky when there only seems to be two of us about right now in order to do so . I don't wanna just go charging off to try and do something if one of the absent people could have come up with a better idea.

Only two of us? I thought that there were three

I thought there were 4. Or six. But I think she meant that Ian and Ameena were the only ones who had posted in the last few days.

On that point - sorry for the delay, especially coming right at the finale! I got back late on Sunday and yesterday was hectic, so did not have a chance. But that should be it for missing days for me, back for good now!

Now that I read the OOC fully, I am not sure that I should have posted my actions without mentioning them in this thread first. But beo had threatened to move us forward today anyway, so maybe it is best. But if we have time you could assume that the IC post is Westian's plan, telegraphed to the whole group, so any counter plans could be taken into account and my post changed accordingly. As I said though this does not affect Ameena's actions, in fact it gives her a distraction that she can exploit.

Yep, I wreckon Ameena is free to be sneaky and clever

Yeah, I was just in to work so couldn't type, but way to ignore LB's contributions Ameena! He posts IC and OOC over theFriday/weekend!

And after a sufficient pause, there's no point in suffering paralysis from analysis either. I might punish you for doing insane instinctive stuff, but with a well reasoned plan I won't penalise you for acting on it if some people aren't around.


Anyway, I can leave you alone for a day if you want to agree any details, but it does seem that the Ameena tries to sneak around and Westin takes the expendi...I mean, NPCs and draws focus while Haynuus/Aurek deal with the mummies and Dolo might work. Maybe. Obviously, some issues with each part, but there always were going ot be issues or it wouldn't be a finale.

beowuuf wrote:Westin takes the expendi...I mean, NPCs and draws focus

Hey hey hey, I am not biased against NPCs! I have also sent Aurek and Haynuus to their certain deaths.

But seriously, Westian is ahead of the Trolins and all other PCs except Petal were taken up. The PCs still have the main tasks, the Trolins were just so Westian would not be standing on his tod.

Was about to update, but then realised I didn't have Ameena's post, just her intentions. Go ahead and write an IC post regarding your plan of attack, and some rolls!

Yup yup, I shall do that now - looks like a reasonably-sized distraction there from Westy. I hope Helm doesn't decide to do anything too silly, however...

Damn, I fell asleep just before (I blame the storms) and had rubbish sleep since. Gunna try to get more, if I fail I'll do a morning post, otherwise it will be tonight and you have the chance to tweak and react. Plus need some rolls from LB if he agrees to the Haynuus charge, right?

Haynuus isn't exactly charging with his sword drawn though is he? Maybe he should

He's letting Westian go in first as I'm still not sure if we need to resort to violence with some of these guys...

note. Map has been updated OB!

If you lot can keep the whole bunch of bastards* occupied and confused by yelling all sorts of crazy shit at them so they don't know who's on whose side any more (or whatever), maybe that distraction will last long enough for Theron to come to his senses. Though Ameena might get ganked by Gholst first in the meantime .


*Except posisbly Passin, of whom I'm not entirely sure about but maybe he can be persuaded to help us out a bit.

Well, Westian was manging that fine until Haynuus decided to stand and throw weapons around instead of attacking :p We shall see how that goes! And yeah. Gholst .... we shall see what happens with Gholst...

Many different types of enemies and problems. Your original plan was sound, as was the areas you decided to concentrate on. We'll see what complifactions come up as they always would, what relief might come, and also what happens if you go off the plan or get some bad rolls.


Fun fun fun! One way or the other, this is the last room your characters will ever see ...umm, in a game setting

<gulp> That last sentance sounded rather like a last act