OOC- Shadow's Dawn: Diving into the past Options

[Aria]

Image of Ryl in ED form (I've forgotten to add the blood pebbles so you'll have to imagine those (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) ):

<Ryl>

[Sephiroth]

• Just a note about the world: 5th circle people are pretty rare. I know Harliquin is stated as being 14+, but to all intents and purposes he is a God (just like Dragons). Most adepts are 1st and 2nd level, less than 1 in 1000 get to 5th. A group of 5th circle adepts like yourselves is a serious force in the world. There are some people that are 8th circle, but not many and everyone in the (known) world knows them by name and deed

Second Question:
I was initially going to say a straight 'no'. Other World breaks one of the limits of sorcery, and I am playing this game RAW. As it says in Street Magic this spell is the holy grail of R&D departments the world around. However canon-wise the Immortal Elves have "previous" for knowing things before the R&D departments. Now this spell doesn't break one of the limits of magic: If you want a similar effect you can do it by binding a great form with Astral Gateway. Nip onto the astral plane. Wander around a bit. Astral Gateway back. (That works out at 1000mph, and is faster and cheaper than your own personal Jet, but not as fast as some military aircraft). I would be happy for an Astral Gateway type spell that (at the 2070 magic level) can only be cast by ritual to get from real world to Astral, but can be cast as a normal spell to get back to the mundane world. That doesn't quite give you Other Worlds, as the Other World's warps astral space as well, but it would be pretty useful.

Really? That surprises me, since it seems like there's so much of an emphasis on magic in Earthdawn (it even encourages all PC's to be adepts, even). I can roll with that, I guess.

Astral Gateway doesn't technically let a person move around the world like that through astral space, it only turns you dual-natured so even mundanes can project, but I get what you're saying. I'm even pretty sure that the teleportation-y thing that Ehran and Harlequin do at the end of Harlequin is Astral Shift from the Lightbearers, which basically works out exactly as what you're describing, so there is canonical precedent there too. I would also be happy with a ritual spell-regular spell deal. One of the reasons why I asked about Other Place at all is that IIRC the two doors you use Other Place on can't be farther than a mile apart, which seemed reasonable enough.

Sorry to hear about Zadaine. This'll be a little hard doing the whole operation against our air defense by myself, but oh well. It'll give a bit more flexibility to practice my Phantasm use. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Street Legends is out now, and it includes stats and writeups of Lofwyr, Hestaby, and Lugh Surehand. I'll message you the stats for Lugh, since I understand you're tight on money at the moment (I probably will be again too once college starts again in a month... although I REALLY want Conspiracy THeories for Jovan (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif) ). I can also include the stats for Hestaby if you like, and since they didn't include anything specific to IE magic or draconic magic, feel free to add stuff in to surprise us. In the meantime, here's the updated version of Fearghas for this flashback:


Illusionist 10 Pts
Silent Walk (1)
Spell Matrix 1 (2)
Steel Thought (1)
Slough Blame (3)

Warrior 5 pts + 10 pts for second Discipline
Air Dance (2)
Melee Weapons (2)
Anticipate Blow (1)

Lightbearer 5 pts + 10 pts + the remainder of my resources
Edge Transfer (1)
Radiant Circle (2)
Steel Believer (1)
Power of Light (3)
Repel Horror (2)
Breath of Life (2)

Light Symbol (light spell out of something with the LB symbol)
Shimmer (makes face unidentifiable and obscured with shimmering light, I guess treat it as a disguise spell of Willpower + Lightbearer rank)
Light Sprite
Heal Believer
Ease Wounds
Edge of Light

Equipment 24pts? or maybe 22
Spell Sword (5)
Elemental Long Spear (3)
Talisman (3)
Hardened Leather Armor 5/0

Attributes
Body 3 (4)
Agility 5
Reaction 3
Strength 2
Mentals unchanged
Magic 10 (6/4)

Skills
Spellcasting 6 (+2 Illusion)
Counterspelling 4
Blades 4 (5) (+2 Spears)
Summoning 2 (+2 Light Sprites)
Dodge 3
Infiltration 1
Con 3
Shadowing 2
Perception 4 (karmaspec: +2 Hearing)
Artisan (Acting) 1
Negotiation 2 (karmaspec: +2 Sense Motive)

Qualities:
Got rid of the two Restricted Gears, since it seems that the sustaining foci wouldn't have existed in Earthdawn

Martial Arts (I forgot to add these to my current timeline sheet originally; I'll do that presently):
Carromeleg (+1 Surprise attack)
- Finishing Move, Watchful Guard

Spells:
Several of his spells are gone, as they edge into other disciplines than Illusionism. He still has his Increase X spells, plus Levitate (duh), Phantasm, and Physical Camouflage

Adept Powers:
As present, but add Kinesics 1 and Magic Sense 1

Quickened Spells:
Keep Levitate and Increase Charisma, removed Increase Intuition for this flashback

[Seth]

That all looks very in character Sephiroth. I have no idea how it will work out, but it should be interesting. White Rose will probably change the plans, but I need to think about it.

@General
We'll move to 10th hour over the weekend.

[Alyena]

Here is ED Alyena

[ Spoiler ]

Nethermancer

Silent Walk 3
Spell Matrix 3
Spell Matrix 3
Spell Matrix 2
Abate Curse 3
Enhanced Matrix 3
Steel Thought 3

Light Bearer

Edge Transfer 3
Radiant Circle 3
Steel Believer 3
Power of Light 3
Repel Horror 3
Breath of Life 3

Equipment

Counterspell Staff 4
Blood Elf Spear 6
Orichalcum Shield 5

Blood Charms

Blood Pebble Armour
Absorb Blow
Horror Fend
Desperate Spell
Death Cheat

[pbangarth]

It would seem logical that the 'Troubadour' would have a few of the languages of the time under his belt. Silly of me that this didn't dawn on me earlier. Rather than rewrite Mandala's description HERE, let's just assume he has the languages he needs for the IC posts in the ED aside, OK?

[Seth]

That will be fine. I'll make it so that everyone speaks Theran (even of just pidgen) andThroal (i.e. Dwarven).

[sabs]

Seth, you used the V word.. you are never to be forgiven.

EVER..


(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Seth]

@Aria
No Aria said it not me! It took me a long time to spell it... Mr Google wasn't my friend chasing it up.

By the way Alyena and I looked through your art work: we liked it a lot

[Aria]

I said what? Or was that my alter ego in game that is responsible? Now I'm confused (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Seth]

It was NPC called Aria that said the V word as part of her prophecy. I was trying for a word play, but failed

[Sephiroth]

Minor FYI: Fearghas wasn't a Blood Elf, he wouldn't have been present in the Blood Wood for the Ritual of Thorns. I like the idea of him disguising himself as one of the people he thinks of as monsters, though, to throw off any people who might still think that he's an "evil treacherous Denairastas elf working to mastermind the takeover of Barsaive by the Denairastas."

I'm a little confused. Is there more than one person messing with this flashback?

[pbangarth]

I'm a little confused.

Welcome to my world.

[Seth]

I take your point about Blood elfiness..I will edit the IC

As for who is messing with the flashback: I'll let you work it out as we go. I'm sorry if it's confusing, I hope it becomes clear soon.

I'll post the start of the 10th hour on tuesday evening.

[pbangarth]

My confusion comes as much from my own ignorance as anything else. And it's kind of fun to be in the dark. Don't know the rules, or the rules of behaviour. Don't know who is an enemy. Don't know who is talking in my head. This is a great state to be in!

[Seth]

And so it begins. No surprise rolls needed, just some initiatives and action declarations. Feel free to invent room descriptions.

@Aria:
you can talk with Aria (I had to read that sentence twice...) until the first mark on the stick (a few minutes). No initiative needed for you: unless you really want to talk first

@Fearghas and Alyena:
It got messy quick. Dannrhil is morphing into a drake, the singer is a spell caster, the four guards are charging you, and the guests are reaching for you in a Zombie like fashion (most were wearing robes not trousers, so its not as Keystone Kops as it might be)

Snake faced Dannrhil: 13
Snake faced Singer: 10
Harliquin Guards - 4: 10
Snake faced guests - 12: 8


@Marduk and Mandala:
The reading room is quite big, and is normal in low tech societies it has few seats (you stand to read in this culture). There is a doorway further into the building, you suspect there are guards on the other side of it.
Harliquin Guests - 6: 8

@Boris and Immortal Li
Guards - 3: 10

[Aria]

And so it begins. No surprise rolls needed, just some initiatives and action declarations. Feel free to invent room descriptions.

@Aria:
you can talk with Aria (I had to read that sentence twice...) until the first mark on the stick (a few minutes). No initiative needed for you: unless you really want to talk first

Well I had been intending to collar Marduk before he goes and does his thing but the situation is degenerating too quickly...I'll get ready to fly back to the Storm Swift so that I'm ready when all hell really breaks loose (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Seth]

I'm looking forward to Marduk being beaten to death by his beloved books...

[pbangarth]

OK, Mandala has two matrices, one that is a device at rating 2, and one Power with max rating 3. I think I have to have a spell attuned to a matrix in order to use the matrix, so at the start of things, the Power matrix will be attuned to Stunball and the device matrix will be attuned to Detect Enemies (extended).

I assume that in this alternate time our Edge is refreshed?

The two of us, Marduk and Mandala, are covered by Mandala's Counterspelling+Shielding, his Guard Spirit Power and his Movement Spirit Power (this last gives us a walking rate of 90 meters per turn and a running rate of 225 meters per turn).

Initiative: 12 dice ==> 6 HITS ==> 18

I'm not sure where the reading rooms are in relation to the Throne Room and the Hall of the Double Axes. I don't see them on the mapshowingkeyplaces. I trust they are on the way from the former to the latter.

There is no point wasting time with these people being used to block us. If Marduk doesn't do something first, Mandala will Stunball the lot of them through the Power Matrix. As I understand it, a spell cast through a matrix does not have a chance of attracting a Horror. I'm feeling my way through the Earthdawn stuff, so I will use the Power at level 2, allowing a maximum of Force 8, but doing an Earthdawn Drain of 4.

Does Centering benefit Drain Resistance for this Earthdawn Drain?

If Marduk goes first and casts a spell, Mandala will Aid Sorcery for 9 extra dice.

If needed: Force 8 Stunball at the Harlequin guests ==> MAG 9 + Spellcasting 3 + Talisman 1 = 13 dice
==> 1 HIT ... shit. I don't want to waste time here.

OK, Edge to reroll misses = 12 dice ==> 6 HITS (IMG:style_emoticons/default/silly.gif)

So, base 8S DV and 7 hits total.

Spell Drain 5S
Resist Drain WIL 7 + INT 8 + Centering 4 = 19 dice ==> 7 HITS ...no drain from the spell

Power Matrix Drain 4S
Resist Drain WIL 7 + BOD 3 = 10 dice ==> 1 HIT
If Centering counts, add 4 more dice ==> 3 HITS (IMG:style_emoticons/default/silly.gif)

So Drain is either 3 Earthdawn quickies, or none.

[pbangarth]

So, with the Oratory Necklace, at Rank 4 it says,

Crowds of 20+ are treated as one step more aligned to character (hostile-> neutral, neutral -> friendly...)

Does that mean a crowd of 19 or fewer is unaffected?

[Sephiroth]

I assume that in this alternate time our Edge is refreshed?

If you recall, we were all supposed to make a Ritual Spellcasting roll for the flashback ritual, with the hits that we got giving us our Edge for the flashback, that we can use like normal Edge or to influence things on an ad hoc basis. That was the point of having the Saintly Golden Beauty domain, to boost our dice for that very purpose. Not everyone has remembered to do it yet.

By the way pbangarth, do you still need any help figuring out wtf things mean in this Earthdawn-ish flashback setting? I'm happy to help out if you need anything explained.



@Seth: Speaking of that ritual spellcasting roll, ritual spellcasting is always done with a teamwork test, right? Including for this "spell?" Good Ghost, if Marduk is the leader for this, he's going to end up with so much Edge...! ...That seems kind of appropriate, actually.
Fearghas got an Initiative Score of 11. Dannrhil will go before me. I'm not sure how I feel about that, since Dannrhil was designed as a PC and not an NPC.... Where's Alyena at?

Also, to what degree are we becoming aware that we are in a memory being messed with? This is kind of in response to you saying before that we couldn't reply IC to the gray-colored "not how it originally happened" text. To use a dream metaphor, is this like a lucid dream, where we all KNOW that we're dreaming but want to go with the flow of the dream, with the ability to influence the events in the dream as we need to, or is it more like we believe the dream is real and that we are all still living in the 4th age? If the former, Fearghas would I imagine recognize the snake things from his chat with Ysrthgrathe, but not if he isn't aware that he's only in a flashback.

[pbangarth]

If you recall, we were all supposed to make a Ritual Spellcasting roll for the flashback ritual, with the hits that we got giving us our Edge for the flashback, that we can use like normal Edge or to influence things on an ad hoc basis. That was the point of having the Saintly Golden Beauty domain, to boost our dice for that very purpose. Not everyone has remembered to do it yet.

By the way pbangarth, do you still need any help figuring out wtf things mean in this Earthdawn-ish flashback setting? I'm happy to help out if you need anything explained.

I walk in fog ....

Thanks Sephiroth. As questions come to mind, I might just PM you if that's alright.

So, here's Mandala's Ritual Spellcasting roll: (If this is supposed to be a teamwork test let's figure it out based on this roll)

Magic 9 + Ritual Spellcasting 1 + Golden Aura 4(?) = 14 dice

Hmmm.... the Earthdawn thing may get troublesome for me. Mandala will spend one of his two remaining Edge points in the present to aid this ritual spellcasting roll.

So, 14 + 8 = 22 dice, exploding 6s ==> 10 HITS

So, Edge 10, one of which may be used up in the Stunball in the Reading Rooms.

EDIT: I assume this is just Edge rolls, not actual Edge, which would give Mandala more Spirit Powers. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

[Aria]

Defaulted ritual sorcery on magic 8 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) +4D for the aura...6 hits!!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) (I forgot the -1D for default on the roll so knocked the last one off)

[Seth]

I'm away for the rest of the weekend guys (double xp weekend on City of Heros! the coffee has been ordered and the wake up pills are ready)

The Ritual spell casting isn't a team work thing: each of you gets your own roll. I cannot find my earlier post (if only google worked properly on dumpshock) so you get your result points as "dream manipulation points" (I'll call them that not Edge) to be spent in the past. Marduk adds his dream manipulation rolls to everyone (including himself) as he has great ritual.

Dream manipulation points can be used to :

• Do anything a point of edge can do
• Change the dream in a minor way (cost is up to me: 1 point usually. Big changes many points)
• React to gray text (for example Alyena is responding to Harliquin saying 'stay with Fearghas...')
• Provide temporary (one shot) access to any spell (to cast it safely you need two complex actions: one to attune the spell matrix to it, and one to cast it)

Examples of minor changes:

• You can make an NPC say something
• You can control what a room looks like
• You could control what the guards are wearing / how they behave

Pretty obviously Ysrthgrathe and Harliquin are spending 10s of dream manipulation points. But they probably have cooler magics (maybe lots of people with great ritual, or maybe they have greater ritual).

Also, to what degree are we becoming aware that we are in a memory being messed with? This is kind of in response to you saying before that we couldn't reply IC to the gray-colored "not how it originally happened" text. To use a dream metaphor, is this like a lucid dream, where we all KNOW that we're dreaming but want to go with the flow of the dream, with the ability to influence the events in the dream as we need to, or is it more like we believe the dream is real and that we are all still living in the 4th age? If the former, Fearghas would I imagine recognize the snake things from his chat with Ysrthgrathe, but not if he isn't aware that he's only in a flashback.

Currently you believe the dream is real. The stuff in lightning flashes is mostly to build up atmosphere. To react to a gray message, you need to spend a dream manipulation point. Alyena will have (when she reads this) spent a point.

I hope this all makes sense.

Could you all start sticking a spoiler at the end of your OOC posts with your current totals, as I suspect otherwise we will get lost!

Note:
I am trying to keep interesting posts available in the first three posts of this thread. If you want to find this, or the briefings again, that's a good place to start

Does that mean a crowd of 19 or fewer is unaffected?

I was just checking I was up to date: I am sure I have answered this earlier with a snide comment ("It works on large crowds not small ones") but I cannot find it. Anti smug points to me.
My todo list is pretty low at the moment I think:

• I have to sort out Fearghas's spear (history etc, the stats are as now + some cool stuff if/when he awakens it)
• I have to respond to Mandalas spell post
• If anything else needed: remind me

[Seth]

• "I assume in this alternative time our edge is refreshed" Yes
• "I'm not sure where the reading rooms are, I assume they are on the way..." Yes. I haven't a full map, so I am making it up. There are probably 3 rooms/scenes to get to the halls. Some of those may be empty, although there are people spending dream manipulation points like confetti to ensure you have an interesting time. You could try and counter that...
• "Does centering benefit drain resistance" For spells yes, for Adept powers no.

The response to your stunball:

• They are all guests at the Embassy Ball, and are fairly warded against magic 1, 4, 1, 3, 2, 2
• Most of them are rocked back, and shriek in shock, one of them sneers at your pathetic magics and wielding a large book comes stamping towards you.

@Sephiroth
Dannrhil is going before you: and spending his complex action to turn into a Drake. (which is a pretty stupid thing to do...but he is fighting Ysrthgrathe and that was part of the fighting manifesting itself)


Summary of where we are in IP 1 (mostly for my benefit)

Snake faced Dannrhil: 13 <--- gone
Alyena <-----Still to roll
Fearghas: 11
Snake faced Singer: 10
Harliquin Guards - 4: 10
Snake faced guests - 12: 8


@Marduk and Mandala:
The reading room is quite big, and is normal in low tech societies it has few seats (you stand to read in this culture). There is a doorway further into the building, you suspect there are guards on the other side of it.
Mandala <--- gone
Marduk <--- still to roll
Harliquin Guests - 6: 8 <--- most now going even later, all but 1 badly hurt

@Boris and Immortal Li
Boris <--- NPCing him so he is being ineffectual this IP
Immortal Li <-- Still to roll
Guards - 3: 10

[Alyena]

@ Mandala

I walk in fog ....

Careful in there you might bump into me! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Alyena's Dream Points roll: 8

[ Spoiler ]

Magic 9 + Golden Beauty 4 + Focus 4 no Ritual Magic - 1 = 16 dice
7 successes

Using Edge to re-roll
2 successes

9 Dream Points - 1 to follow Fearghas = 8

Initiative
3 successes
Go on 10

Will summon a Force 7 Spirit of Man 3 nett successes

[ Spoiler ]

5 successes

Spirit's resistance
1 success

2 drain soaked with 4:1 rule.

Set spirit to possess Dannrhil 9 in total

[ Spoiler ]

5 successes
Using a Dream Point to get Spirit to roll edge
4 successes

Give Dannrhil Stunball and Mob Mind