Deep love of what I was studying. If you don't have this, forget it.

Incredible support from family and friends.

The Universe bent over backwards to make things happen for me. (Look up Joseph Campbell and "follow your bliss")

Being around young people with boundless energy and enthusiasm.

Talent.

... in that order of importance.

I went back to school when I was 42. The first month or so I didn't even know what to write down in my notes. I worked. I figured things out. I fought a few personal demons. Undergraduate, then Masters. I got to the third year of my doctorate and those demons kicked back, hard. On and off the wagon for years. Finally this year, on my birthday, I made the choice. This time, if I don't make it, I can't say, "Well, if I had tried, I would have made it." I'm trying.

It's success or failure.

We'll know soon.

Whew, I'm feeling younger and younger with each passing moment. I don't even have my bachelor's. Hopefully you make it. It sounds like you have your head in the right place.

A last-minute opportunity to go to a cottage has come up. I'll be away from computer till Monday. Carry on, and try not to kill my PC!

Hmm, last time Pbangarth left town he asked that we keep Jake alive. This time he asks us not to kill Stogie, but no mention of Jake. I wonder what changed.

Maybe his dog bit him.

My latest opus is up! Read it and weep, suckers!

Nice post! Two quotes come to mind:

"You've taken the first step into a larger world"

and my own, I feel like Smohalla should say "Pancakes? I need a cigarette!", but I guess that'd be out of character...


During the ritual (or before or after or whenever), could Smohalla get a sense of their tradition? It seems close to his own (druidic), what with the things you described and the shapes formed and so on...

Smohalla's knowledge of Ritual Spellcasting was largely gleaned from what he read off of bathroom walls at truck stops, but luckily his Magical Theory knowledge is a bit better. It's not as fitting as Magic Traditions might have been, but it's close enough to try.

Smohalla's Magical Theory: 3 HITS

Smohalla knows that participants in the same ritual usually have the same magical tradition. That said, it's not unheard of for similar traditions to be able to participate in the same ritual. Off the top of his head, these might include:

- Druidic
- Traditional Witchcraft
- Hedge Witchcraft (which, as Stogie pointed out, is a Possession tradition)
- Wiccan
- possibly even Shamanic

Dodging the jibe smartly, pbangarth replies, "Hey, my PC is both Stogie and Jake!"

As a followup, THIS thread defines the term "Jake" as an NPC/PC that breaks the rules. Anybody else heard of this before? I hadn't when I chose the name.

No, that's a first for me too.

Hmmm, interesting. So a "Jake" is a PC/NPC that breaks the rules. Seems like a similar idea to a "Mary Sue".

Any more name-related gaming tropes?

Up to this point the game has been progressing hour by hour, more or less. Depending on the party's plan for day(s) ahead, that granularity might not be needed. We can accelerate to skip ahead as the team decides. If the general idea is to kick around for a while to see what the women are up to, we can do that. There will be plenty of opportunities for you to be by yourselves in case you wanted to discuss the job at hand or nose about the area. Let me know.

I would be fine with some progression if everyone else is.

Yeah, I think it'd be good at the moment for this to slip into a day by day kind of thing, rather than an hour by hour affair.

Let's open things up then. Feel free to post what you would like your character to do for the day. I'll say that the women leave you around 9am. Sunset will be about 5:45pm, although you'll start to lose light at least an hour before that due to the sun falling behind mountains and trees. Weather will be mostly sunny with the occasional white fluffy cloud. Highs around 57F / 14C, pretty nice for the mountains in early November.

Let's get one post from everyone then I'll jump back in.

Anyone else? I'm out of town tonight but I'm back tomorrow evening. Give me something I can post about!

Thank you for the posts, everyone. I will get player-specific replies up over the next day or so.

Personalized posts are up. Please respond whenever you're able. The group isn't together so don't bother to wait for everyone to respond before posting something yourself. There might be more back-and-forth on some threads than others. Don't think that just because you've posted and the others haven't that you shouldn't post again. Is that all completely unclear? Good.

Tecumseh, how much time has passed till the point where Stogie sees the spirits? He wouldn't want to go so far out as to be late getting back to the rest of the team.

Not very far. He's only gone about two kilometers. It's steep and therefore slow-going, but it's probably not even lunchtime yet, or just barely.

OK, thanks. Time to risk ... again.

risk it! risk it!

</rocky horror>

Damn. Stogie doesn't have any kind of skill to fill in the quote. Oh well.

Sorry, I'm still on a business trip and finding it hard to write meaningful posts. I'll try to have one up by this weekend.

Thanks for sticking around for this game pbangarth

Cut where it hurts least.

F5 Translate: 2 hits

Drain resist: no drain

Woah, seven posts in one day.

Phlapjack, what exactly are you translating? Are you just trying to communicate with the sasquatch? I don't have my books with me at the moment and I can't recall the exact mechanics of the spell. I know how it worked in 3rd edition but I don't if anything changed for 4th edition.

Just trying to talk to the Sasquatch

It says it sets up a "low level telepathic connection...allowing them to understand each others speech", it can be used with any sapient creature (specifically mentions Sasquatches)

Another banner day! Very impressive.

Where can I sign up to get Ellie as a live-in maid?

I don't know what effect the location has, Tecumseh, but here's a start point.

Stogie boosting his STR:

Attribute Boost 1 + Magic 7 = 8 dice ==> 4 HITS

Well, looks like the mana here is damn fine!

Pb, the site gives you the last two hits to bring Stogie to his augmented maximum for strength. I'm going to keep the dice/mechanics of it hidden. You can buy the hit to offset the drain.

Ellesar's etiquette roll to avoid a gaffe: 4 HITS

With rolls like that Ellesar may be able to con/sweet-talk Ellie into doing all his laundry. Sounds like she's single now, after all. Ellie + Ellesar = the two Ells.

'Ell of a team, that.

give 'em 'ell, Atropos

Smohalla's rolls:

Ouch! I looked at the rolls...probably shouldn't have! At least they weren....Ok, not gonna say it

Smohalla is summoning a beast spirit this time.

What Force for the spirit?

Concealment and Guard are optional powers for a Beast spirit. If you want both, it will need to be F6, although Smohalla's been noticing a distinct pattern of receiving more than he asks for when it comes to magic in these mountains.

If you want both but don't want to risk oversummoning, try a Plant spirit instead. If by "protection" you just meant "act tough and scare things away" (instead of the Guard power), then a Beast spirit at F3 or higher would work.

I'm away from my books right now, but I wasn't sure if the druidic tradition got plant spirits. I thought I remembered it was the 4 elements + beast. Although the more I think about it, plant spirits would make more sense for a druid...hmmm, wonder if I cheated earlier by having Smohalla summon a beast spirit...

If the tradition gets plant spirits, then F5 plant spirit with guard / concealment if possible. Guard would be a priority over concealment, even if the effect of the guard power doesn't exactly match up with his intentions.

If no plant spirits, F5 beast spirit with guard.

Druids don't get fire; they get the other 3 elements + plant + beast.


Net result: 5 services, no drain.

I don't have time to post at the moment. Phlapjack, if you want to post about a successful summoning, feel free to do so.

What the 'ell have I brought upon myself?

Smohalla is squared away for now. Let me know what Stogie, Jack, and Ellesar want to do with the rest of their evening. Ellie is cooking dinner. Looks like you're having goat.

Anyone else? *prod* *prod*

Yes, sorry. 'Twas a rough weekend without internet. Back and ready for some fun now though.

I'll get a post up on Sunday.

Stogie and Ellesar are free to talk before closing down camp for the evening. At this point I'll presume that you'll keep watch by having Ellesar take the first shift, then Stogie can take over after he gets his three hours of sleep. It's only 6pm-ish now, so there should be plenty of time for Ellesar to sleep. Let me know what time you think you'd get up to start walking in Smohalla's direction (if that is the plan).

I'd say once we get out sleep we should leave at first light. We wouldn't want to leave him all alone out there. Who knows what might get to him.

Good IC post, Atropos.

Why thank you.

I read the post and got Jake and Stogie confused in my head and thought "that's a strange thing for him to do..."

So...yeah