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

[pbangarth]

So.... is there any way we can salvage something from this campaign? I've been having fun.

[sabs]

I have 0 idea of where Seth was heading.
I mean, I know Earthdawn like the back of my hand... but I honestly am not sure where he was heading.

[pbangarth]

So is there a way this group could be redirected by a new GM?

[Seth]

Hi People.

Well that was an unpleasant few months, but hopefully it is behind me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

If you are up for it, I would be happy to start GMing it again.

I don't have enough time to play, but if you are happy with around 2 posts per week I can run it.

[Aria]

Yeehaaarrrr! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Welcome back, hope things are looking up!

[sabs]

yay seth!

[pbangarth]

Fine by me, big guy! Welcome back, and I hope the worst of the ordeal in RL is past.

[Seth]

Thank you all. Yes the worst of the RL stuff is over.

My plan is to do 2 posts a week: Saturday and Wednesday. Alyena is back in as well, so we should have enough people.

I'll do the first post this Saturday: I'm just reading the backlog at the moment, and going over my notes to check that I understand everything.

My intention is to do a recap of everything so far, so that we can all remember things, then I'll post you all meeting outside the Hall of Twin Axes.

[Seth]

OK here is the summary of where we are. The last summaries I found were:

Round 18: http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...p;#entry1077868
Round 20: http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...t&p=1084001

Two other relevant posts are:
http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...t&p=1086503
http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...t&p=1087032

Ysrthegarthe revealed his plans in a monologue to Fearghas (got to love villains that monologue). I urge you to reread this:
http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...t&p=1078959
http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...t&p=1082485

The story so far

[ Spoiler ]

Approximate timeline of events as you now understand them
* Year 700 TH: The first horrors appear
* Year 1000 TH: The scourge begins
* Year 1262 TH: The wooden kaer of Wyrm Wood collapses. Blood Wood created by Alachia with Ritual of the Thorns.
* Year 1415 TH: The magic level in the world stabilises. You now remember that this is because the Therans had a magical effect that stabilized it
* Year 1420 TH: This is the time (plus or minus 50 years) that most Kaers opened.
* Year 1700 TH: You recovered a box (the cause of the magical stability) from the Hall of Two Axes from Great Thera, and triggered a revolution that meant the end of Thera as a power
* Year 1701 TH: You returned the box to Queen Alachia, who used it to gradually release the magical effect. Despite best efforts this unleashed devastation across the global: tidal waves, storms, rains of hellfire and brimstone. This was (and still is by those who know) believed to be much better than waiting for the effect to "snap".
* Year 2500 TH: The Ritual of Hiding was undertaken which hid elves / dwarves etc as humans to allow them to hide as humans for the period of magical famine
* The years of magical famine were unnaturally long, and it has been 10,000 years.
* Somehow Ysyrthegarthe hid in the box during the time of magical famine, you have anecdotal evidence (he revealed it in a dream) that this was a result of a deal between Alachia and Ysrthegarthe.

Approximate summary of events in the pyramid:
* You started underneath the reactor, and tunneled up through a weak point in the pyramid's defenses.
* Your mission was simple: kill warder to remove the magical wards around the temple, guard room 27a ensuring that no one got in it. Once Warder is killed, and the magical defenses are down, then the outside forces will assault the pyramid, and you can go home.
* You dealt with Warder, and discovered that he had been building up his own plan to deal with Ysrthegarthe.
* Unfortunately you dealt with warder, but the blood ward around the temple appears to have been constructed
* The blood ward had three pumps. You have destroyed one of them. You think that you probably need two destroyed to allow the external forces entrance. (It's called redundancy). The other two are in the temple, and in the room above the temple.
* You had a run in with the head of security: A cyberzombie who I like to call Major Nemesis, as he managed to escape you.
** As a side note, I expected you to run away from him: I intended that he would be too powerful to overcome, but ... hey ...
* During the fight with Major Nemesis, Fearghas was knocked unconsious, and conversed with the horror.
* You found about an NPC, who Ysrthegarthe regarded as "a perfect sacrifice": Angel the technomancer
* Angel is a child, and very naive. However her "friends" ZERO, MR CHIPS and GREMLIN had a plan to get her out
** The spirtes overhead Ysrthegarthe's plans, and realised you were coming. They put in place a plan to convert Jonathan to their side (rescuing his family). They planned to contact you and persuade you to help Angel. The "what's in it for you", is that Ysrthegarthe wants to sacrifice her to generate the power to open the box. If the box is opened...it's not going to be good for you.
* You have rescued Angel, defeating Spirit Bane (who lived up to his name). Marduk stabbed Spirit Bane with the dagger, and thousands of screaming enraged souls raced out. Marduk managed with an act of will to close down the outpouring of spirits.
* You rescued one of Alachia's Paladins who was being used by Ysrthegarthe to relive a memory in the past. Ysrthegarthe appears to be worried that you have studied "his" box in the past: enough to have enough of his true name to cause him problems.
You are currently heading into the past to recover this true name

Approximate summary of events in your current "memory quest"
* You are assaulting the Invisible Palace in Great Thera
* You were invited in to attend a ball.
* You have split into four groups.
** One to take care of air defence 1
** Another to take care of air defence 2
** A third to transport the White Rose to the Hall of two Axes
** A fourth to move to the Hall of Two Axes, and ensure that there are no unpleasant surprises waiting for the air ship
* You were opposed by both Ysrthegarthe and Harliquin
* Fearghas told Harlequin that "you were the good guys" and he has ceased to oppose you.

My understanding of the position is roughly:

[ Spoiler ]

In the pyramid
* There is a spirit apocalypse taking place in the pyramid: crazed spirits released from the dagger
* The apocalypse is ignoring you, as you are masking as crazed spirits, and they seem not to be attacking each other, and are now trying to break out
* Outside the pyramid is a full assault squad of "the good guys". Well when I say good guys, I mean "there's them and us, and they are part of 'us'".
* You mostly have free access to the basement (clear of spirits), and the first two floors (think poltergeist and chaos)
* The horror is currently ranting, and killing his minions in fury, as he has lost control of communications, and has no visibility of the basement.
* Your NPCs include:
** Angel: a technomancer who radiates an aura of golden beauty
** ZERO, GREMLIN, MR CHIPS who appear to be sprites that are working with/loyal to Angel
** Jonathan: a hacker whose family is held in an Aztech enclave. (Zero appears to have set a shadow team to free his family)

You have recovered your own personal Horror slaying kit created by Warder
* A skull: this is the skull of a body that Ysrthgarthe "wore" for a thousand years. The runes carved into are thaumaturgical "that which was once joined shall always be joined"
* A dagger which held many spirits, and provides invisibility to the horrors senses. It may be that striking with the dagger allows you to partially control the target of the spirits that are released.
* A book which is a magical tacnet detailing what is going on the pyramid

Your first trip to the past:
* You met the bird of hope
* you were responsible for the Valkerie briefcase bombing of Hitler
* you remembered the key to opening the demon door "27a"

In the present day you have now accessed room 27a in the basement
* It has an aura of golden beauty similar (if not identical to) Angel's aura
* It is full of magical loot: chests, scrolls, wands... treasure beyond imagining
** While in room 27a this was buffing you, while with Angel it currently isn't

Opening position in the past
* I am going to start were you have fought your way to the Hall of the Two Axes, and are meeting on the roof
* The door is ajar
* With you is the White Rose

[pbangarth]

Great help. Seth. Thanks.

We left Mandala waiting to see the effects of his second attempt to break the ward around the one rooftop weapon. By your notes just now, are we to assume the weapon has been dealt with, and we are congregating at the landing point?

[Aria]

Incoming!!! Brace for Impact...all hands to the guns... etc (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Sephiroth]

I'm back in as well. Good to see you again, Seth.

[sabs]

I am in, though ack, I'm trying to load that part of my brain and having issues (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
hopefully I can sit down and read all those summaries soon.

[Seth]

Well that took me a time to sort out what is happening, and who is doing what. Thank you all for registering an interest again. I'm not going to repeat an earlier mistake and do more recruitment, so here we go.

I have posted the IC opener, having gathered you all together. As you will see in the IC Post, the guard know something is up, but haven't seen you yet. Feel free to either plan, or just charge.

I think our active characters are:

• Alyena
• Fearghas
• Marduk
• Mandala

The Storm Swift is at hovering above the Hall with the wounded, and a reasonable number of NPC marines if you want to drag them down.

[Aria]

I think our active characters are:

• Alyena
• Fearghas
• Marduk
• Mandala

and me! and me! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Seth]

And Ryl!

[Aria]

Want some initiative? 15D6 = 8hits! = 23 with 3 IPs (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ork.gif) This version of Ryl is nasty!!!

[Seth]

OK Banzai works. No subtlety. No stealth. Banzai!!!!

As you move into the golden aura the magic background is 6 points. The impact on your adept powers is enough, no need to reduce the Earth dawn effects.

I suspect you get all to go first as the guards won't be going until 15.

The twin elementals with you leap in, but shrink to a shadow of their former self, they go on 6.

[pbangarth]

OK, Seth, do you subscribe to the reading many on DS give to BC that an instantaneous combat spell fired from outside into a BC is not reduced in Force, as are sustained spells? I'm not arguing either way, I just want to know how you are doing it.

[Seth]

Hard questions!

Yes the rating is reduced. I followed the threads that argued the other way and to be honest I think that RAW and RAI the spells should work. As a GM here though I want the background count to be effectively be an "anti-magic shell", so I'll treat cyberzombies and golden auras as special.

Seth

[Alyena]

Hi all

Nice to be back after a tough few months. Looking forward to playing with you again.

I'm happy to back Ryl up if she's decided just to charge!
Will post more tonight (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Aria]

Hi all

Nice to be back after a tough few months. Looking forward to playing with you again.

I'm happy to back Ryl up if she's decided just to charge!
Will post more tonight (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) It seemed the swash and buckle thing to do! And I'm a great big (mini) dragon so sneaking isn't her forte!

[sabs]

I love this game, btu right now, I barely have time to think at work, much less try and post.
Sigh, I'm sorry. I love Marduk.

[Seth]

Sad to hear it sabs. Hope things go well with you. Best of luck.

Feel free to join back in at any time.

[Aria]

Have we hit another speed bump? CHAAAARGE!!!!

etc... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)