Yeah, hope everything's ok.

I'm not in the hospital so I guess I can't complain too much, but I'm squished between work on one side and a troublesome mortgage application on the other. I worked over the weekend, plus late each evening this week, and when I get home I get to deal with loan paperwork for an obstinate lender.

I probably won't get a post up before Friday or Saturday. Phlapjack, can you do the dice rolling for your spirit please? Double your base dice pool and I'll pull out the relevant hits.

No worries - I just didn't want to hold things up while I was away last weekend. Hope things slow down to a less stressful pace!

Summoning F5 Air spirit: 24d6.hits(5) → [5,1,3,3,3,6,4,3,5,3,6,4,5,2,4,1,4,5,3,3,1,3,1,3] = (6) hits
Spirit resists: 5d6.hits(5) → [3,5,2,1,1] = (1) hit (should I have doubled that?) Rolling another 5d6: 5d6.hits(5) → [5,5,2,3,2] = (2) hits
Drain resist: 24d6.hits(5) → [2,4,1,6,5,5,3,1,2,5,2,4,3,1,5,2,3,3,5,6,1,4,1,1] = (7) hits

I just slept for far too long, but it sure felt great.

Ellesar is going to reload and take another shot at the drone while he explains the situation.

Ellesar's shot: AGI (4) + Longarms (3) + Specialization in Sporting Rifles (2) = 9 Dice >>> 3 Hits

Here I am! This coming week might be hard on me so I wanted to make sure I got a post up before I plunge back into the thickets. I believe I mentioned that I was having some fun jumping through hoops trying to get a mortgage. It seems that I'm not done with that game quite yet; the lender rejected my loan not based off my profile but rather because they felt the condo building was too risky. So I'm back to square one with trying to find a loan, which is delightful.

Phlapjack, your summoning roll was mostly front-loaded with hits - you only had 1 hit in your last 11 dice. You have 4 net success = 4 services. No drain.

Atropos, you lose a hit due to distance but the drone fails to dodge. Damage is 8P, drone soaks 4 boxes, leaving it with 10 boxes of damage.

I'll post ICly now.

Best of luck! Ah, for the good old days of subprime-mortgage lending, where they were able to give me a house loan even though I had recently been laid off...

Smohalla's also summoning 3 watcher spirits to help with watching. I'm finding it a little "one-trick pony" to always have 1 main spirit + 3 watchers, but darn if it isn't the most effective tactic for a mage 99% of the time...

Stogie will pass his Enhanced Perception on to Jake, I think a complex action, and then Boost his REA and AGI, each a simple action..

Boost REA:
MAG 7 + Boost (REA) 1 = 8 dice ==> 1 HIT Woohoo! ==> REA 4 for 2 whole Combat rounds!

Boost AGI:
MAG 7 + Boost (AGI) 1 = 8 dice ==> 0 HITS Oh, yeah! We're rockin' now! ==> AGI stays at 3.

Drain Resistance for REA when it drops:
BOD 4 + WIL 4 = 8 dice ==> 4 HITS Of course! No drain.

Drain Resistance for AGI right away:
Bod 4 + WIL 4 = 8 dice ==> 2 HITS No drain.

EDIT: OH, shit. I forgot the mana flow here. OK, here are some more dice:

Boost(REA) : 8 more dice ==> 3 HITS So, up to 3 more REA? For 6 more Combat rounds if so. Still no drain.

Boost(AGI) : 8 more dice ==> 3 HITS So, up to 3 more AGI? For 6 Combat rounds and Drain of 1S if so.

The last time I got a home loan was in 2005. It was alarmingly easy, but I also worked for a bank so I simply presumed that they already knew most of the things about me that a lender would ask. Still, it wasn't much more than, "Oh, you want a loan? Just tell us how much and where to send the money." This time has been the polar opposite of that.

Phlapjack, I'll need you doing your own rolls for the next week or two. Roll out the watchers when you have a chance with the doubled dice pools.

An interesting philosophical question: Spirits must remain within Magic * 100 meters of the summoner or it counts as a remote service. In this case, is that within 500 meters of Smohalla's inert body, or within 500 meters of his projecting spirit? I'm going to go with Smohalla's astral form, since that seems closest to the spirit of the law. Eh, eh?!

Pbangarth, 3 net hits for both Reaction and Agility, plus your 1 box of stun.

Jake's tracking roll: 6 HITS

P.S. Pbangarth, I just noticed that your karma spending log on your original sheet needs updating.

Changed it. Did it on my file at home long ago. Surprised the GM doesn't have access to that!

Everyone posted today! Good posts too! +1 karma for everyone!

Woot!

About the rolls for the watchers, I think the only thing that needs to be rolled is drain, with drain = how many hours I want the watchers to stick around (the watcher has unlimited services for as long as it's around). Is it ok if I say something like 3 hours, and just buy the hits for the drain?

There's a summoning roll to determine how long the watcher sticks around. I'll let you have 1-hour watchers without the summoning roll but multi-hour watchers will require a roll for nefarious reasons I'll leave unstated until certain sequences of events occur.

No hit-buying in this case. Smohalla doesn't quite have a full grasp on the mana of the place yet and all the benefits and consequences of tapping into it.

(Summoning + Magic + Power Focus) * 2 for the summoning
(WIL + INT) * 2 for the drain resist

I'll add and subtract hits as needed.

Better than a gold star!

EDIT: Wow. Sure entered that in the first page post a lot faster than the last expenditure.

Hmmm...does this mean many of our posts AREN'T "good posts" ? :P


Cool. Sorry about that, I seem to constantly be mis-remembering the rules for summoning Watchers.

3 Watchers, I'll limit the hits to 3 hits (so 3 hours of service):
16d6.hits(5)
[6,6,2,6,6,2,3,6,5,3,3,2,5,5,5,6] = (10) hits
[3,6,3,2,3,4,6,6,6,4,3,3,6,1,4,2] = (5) hits
[5,6,6,5,2,4,2,1,1,6,2,2,3,6,3,3] = (6) hits

Drain resist:
20d6.hits(5)
[1,6,3,1,3,2,3,6,5,3,5,6,2,6,6,4,2,2,3,2] = (7) hits
[1,6,5,2,4,5,2,4,6,6,6,5,5,2,2,1,4,2,3,4] = (8) hits
[5,4,5,6,2,6,1,4,4,2,6,3,4,6,5,6,4,5,2,3] = (9) hits

Ohhhhhhh boy...

Looks like there's some penitence / purfication rituals in Smohalla's future...

Just so noone is waiting on me, I'm waiting to see what happens when the messenger spirit returns to Smohalla. Totally not rushing anybody (work here has exploded in busy-ness, I'm drowning...)

Pbangarth lives in Toronto and is likely caught up in a most un-Canadian scandal:

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/11/05/yes-i...-mayor-rob-ford

ZOMG guess what today is... The Sun Never Sets turns 2 years old!

+2 karma for everyone!

We started this back in the tender year of 2011, and since then we've all had two birthdays, two tax returns, and 0.33 IC posts per day.

Seriously though, not that it hasn't been great but let's not go for 3.

I love this city.

And I am so, so embarrassed.

Thanks for the karma.

And, fortunately enough, we've only lost one person along the way. What an amazing journey it has been.

But he was drunk at the time, so it's ok right? Think the Premier will remove him?


I agree! Hopefully the journey continues for a long time

I'm approaching this as much as a storyteller as a GM running a game. Lately I've been reflecting on what it means when the story lasts 2+ years and is only parceled out at 1.33 posts per day. Does the slow drip make the story more enduring, or do the details of the narrative get lost in the distant memory of what happened two birthdays ago? I feel like I have a reasonable grasp on things because the plotline and many characters are of my choosing, but I'd be curious what the experience is like from the other side of the table. Does anyone recall the major cruxes of the plot, or does modern life erase the memory of anything that occurred before the current page of posts, especially when it takes 2-3 weeks to fill up a single page?

That's an interesting point, and one that I've thought about a fair amount being as I'm currently only in PbP games. What normally would be a one-or-two month, 1 session a week adventure gets pulled out over a year or more. It does get hard to remember specifics of plot, NPCs, settings, etc. It's tough when advancing the story relies on remembering some (small?) detail that happened perhaps 6 months or more ago.

Like texting vs. talking on the phone, I guess each has their own distinct advantages and disadvantages. Back when I was able to play in-person PnP games, many times the games would stop because one or more players (or the GM) wouldn't be able to make the weekly commitment for one reason or another. So PbP has the advantage that it's more forgiving of "service interruptions". But man do I miss me some weekly gaming sessions where stuff happens all at once!

And sometimes I too wish that these PbP games would have a faster post-rate than 1.33 a day or whatever...but justa-justa, currently I'm hella busy at work, and I'm drowning in some PbP games where there are like 8-10 posts a day (many of them while I'm asleep) so I just feel overwhelmed when I review the new posts. So I currently appreciate our slow-but-steady posting

As for this game, I think I remember a fair bit of the plot, but it seems we've gone faaaaaaaaar afield from the original job Gunny hired us for. Which is cool, I think it's really interesting to see where it takes us.

This is interesting. The Muckleshoot Tribe just purchased a large swath of forest, including the area around Greenwater. For those of you who don't want to cross-reference maps, Greenwater is where Highway 410 turns from east to south. So that means our PCs have been tromping in and out of Muckleshoot territory. Take that, Sinsearach!

http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechn...urchasexml.html

I confess I have to look things up on occasion, but this medium serves our convoluted lives. And, while we could do the whole story in one night, I think we would miss some of the rich narrative.

True, there is something nice about being able to think a little while before deciding on a course of action. It's definitely a phone call vs email kinda thing

Maybe in the morning the team can confer with the Sisters and decide whether splitting up to investigate the drone is worth it. The wolves would be a handy ally force, if we could work it. Not much chance of that though, I think.

Everyone still here? I know it's the holiday season so things are getting busier on my end but I haven't forgotten about the forum. Just wanted to check in and make sure all was well.

I agree, it would be nice to have the wolves around as either guards or surprise/shock troops. Wolfy didn't seem too friendly though, you're right. He seemingly is all about the Sisters though, we could try to work that angle...


All's well here!

A quick update: I'll be traveling Wed/Thu/Fri for Thanksgiving. My goal is to put up a post tomorrow that will give people enough to work with for a few days while I'm gone. Atropos, if you have time to post something before tomorrow, go for it, even if it's just to say "holding steady".

New post is up. Knock out some replies and I'll try to get another up this weekend.

If this keeps up Ellesar might have to use some of that long haul he's packing.

No post from Phlapjack? How unusual. I'll move things along soon.

I wrote to Phlapjack a couple days back but haven't heard from him. Dumpshock indicates that he hasn't been online in two weeks. As we all know, this is unusual, especially for someone who averages 2.7 posts per day on the site.

I'll try to incorporate this into the IC proceedings. Hopefully he's fine and well and returns to action soon. I recently had a player disappear on me for six weeks before resuming just as suddenly. With luck Phlapjack will resume after a shorter interval, but for now we'll push things along slowly.

Another what-it-is-like-to-be-Smohalla flyby:

http://photosynth.net/preview/view/d9f87d8...43-80f15edc8550

That is certainly a high-res image. I hope that we do hear back from Phlap soon; it would be a shame to lose him without word otherwise.

Happy Holidays everyone.

And to all of you. Hope Phlapjack is OK.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Best wishes to all, including phlapjack, wherever he may roam. I'll try to move things along in the next day or two.

Got caught up in the holidays and didn't have a chance to post. I'm flying to California in a few hours for New Year's. I believe I'll have Internet access there and, if so, will try to get a post up. Either way, I'll see you in 2014!

I'm celebrating New Year's in Atlantic City. Earlier, my wife and I decided we wouldn't do so in a casino. So, you may ask, what the hell are we doing in Atlantic City?


Getting sleep. Walking on the beach.


Whodathunkit?

Happy New Year everyone

I'm back in the office for the first time in a couple weeks, which means I have more time at the keyboard to compose. A new post is up.

According to Dumpshock, Phlapjack was last seen five-and-a-half weeks ago. I've had players re-emerge after unexplained absences of up to six weeks so I remain hopeful, but at this point things are getting worrisome. I wanted to gauge how you two are feeling. It would feel odd to proceed without him after two years, but similarly it would be a shame if things fell apart after a thousand posts without a resolution. Let me know what you think.

Happy Epiphany, for any who recognize it.

If a friend falls during the struggle, surely it honours him more to carry on than to give up.

Atropos, you have any opinions on the matter?

I'm off to Idaho for a week. I'll be up in the mountains, generating inspiration for what winter is like in the forested wilderness.

Damn. A GM who knows what an angry winter can really do. Damn.

An opinion on continuing without Phlapjack? It's a shame to be without him especially after so long but I'm not one to give up on something.

I'm not sure if I've informed you all but in March I'll be undergoing two months of on the job training for a position up in North Dakota so I'll be pretty busy March through most of May. Once I get settled things should be much smoother but until then I'll be playing it by ear. Either way, posting shouldn't be terribly hindered.

So, let's carry on.

Someone post something ICly and we'll continue on.