[Fugu]

Chapter Four will start in a few days. There will be one or two "interlude" updates before then. If there are any changes that need to be made to the end of Chapter Three, let me know.

This post has been edited by Fugu: 26 June 2007 - 03:59 PM

[Lynx Cat]

Sounds great. Glad to be back in action!

[Benevolance]

I notice that you didn't mention the self-inflating Corellian Frigate, complete with Hyperdrive™ that He Who Watches found in the storage bin.

[Barak]

It's a secret.

[Fugu]

So I just sent experience point PMs to each of you. I am working on the introduction to chapter 4 and want to have it up by Friday.

So yeah, the five-month hiatus thing happened. I guess I just don't have the need for PBPing when I'm playing face to face with my friends. But I've gone over my notes, and I'm psyched about moving forward. Just let me know whether you can or want to continue playing. I am comfortable introducing new PCs, if need be, in order to continue having 3.

[Lynx Cat]

One word: sweeet :P

[Benevolance]

I'm good to continue.

This post has been edited by Benevolance: 27 September 2007 - 10:59 AM

[Fugu]

So, I was going to skip ahead a week or so of game time, and just narrate how you got away from Nobodaddy, but the more I worked on that interlude, the cooler and more exciting it got. And if there's excitement to be had, you really ought to have the opportunity to role-play it, rather than just read about it. Therefore, Chapter 4 begins right where Chapter 3 left off. That might sound like bad news, but with a little cleverness, escaping from Nobodaddy should be a snap.

As a reminder, your current hit points are:

Glasgow: 39/55
He-Who-Watches: 62/88
Morgan: 9/74

[Fugu]

Also, I am glad to answer questions about the story so far. I know it's been a while. Here's a quick recap:

You awoke inside a frozen castle that was overrun with aliens and their strange technology. They claimed to have raised you from the dead with a machine of theirs, and asked you many questions about the fate of your civilization, and about why there was a room ringed with tiny cells, each containing on of your fellow Jalans. You had no answer for these mysteries, and could not even explain how you came to be in the castle.

The scientists found a skeleton holding a wand and a bowl at a dig site nearby. A monster burst out of the mountain and destroyed the site; you slew it and returned to the castle to study the artifacts. The scientists found several documents that offered clues: a journal describing the last days of someone called Thel, the lab notes of a team of gnomes, and a scroll bearing the images of the wand and bowl, and other objects. The scroll declared, "This world fades as evil grows. They are dreary barricades that we flee to, but safe. When our children breathe again, the world will be ready for our return." Thel's Journal tells of a magical Winter, and the desperate efforts of Thel and her allies to escape by creating mystical refuges, which could only be unlocked with five enchanted keys. Certain people, identified as "the Beloved", would stay behind, preserved magically during the eons-long winter, and awake to find the keys and open the refuges. The lab notes detailed the daily operations of not only casting the resurrection magic, but also implanting "Life Segments" into the subjects.

The scientists were startled that you knew no more than they about these persons and events. Meanwhile, you received from an unknown source some kind of warning in the form of a poem. This made the scientists fear sabotage, and they tightened security unpleasantly. Dezra McCale acted before you could, stealing the bowl and wand and hiding them aboard a transport ship. Before you could join him and escape, however, the transport ship took off ahead of schedule, forcing you to hijack another ship and pursue it. With the scientists hot on your heels, you fought the ship's crew for control of the vessel. The struggle was interrupted by the arrival of a new party, a Qua 'Bvu warship. Their attack beasts slew McCale and one of the wariti crew members, while you and three wariti escaped by tessering in an escape pod at the same time that the ship made its own jump, making the pod impossible to track.

You were made prisoners again in the transport ship that rescued you, but not for long. Guessing that this was the same ship that bore the hidden artifacts, you searched the ship, found them, and fought your way to another escape craft. Now, you have just tessered to the nearest human supply station to Jalah: Nobodaddy.

[Fugu]

I'm waiting for you guys at this point, so don't wait on me.

[Lynx Cat]

Yes, let's get going, it doesn't do any good to get back if the players ourselves dawdle :P

[Fugu]

Uh oh. It appears that rpgwebprofiler, the website that hosted Morgan's and HWW's characters sheets, is kapoof. Do you guys have another copy of those sheets somewhere? Don't think I do. If not, go ahead and try to remake them.

I would roll Morgan's Knowledge, but I don't know what it is. You rolled 17, so I'll assume you've seen the tree symbol.

Morgan recalls that human Astral governments use the tree as a symbol of their home planet (trees are a relatively unique class of organism in the known universe). Different agencies are traditionally represented by differently colored trees, for example, silver for police, gold for the legislature, and red for hospitals.

This post has been edited by Fugu: 28 September 2007 - 09:53 PM

[Lynx Cat]

Sure, no problemo. Knowledge: Astran is a measly +2, because I got it only when I leveled up (i.e. didn't have it in character creation), and my Int bonus is +0. I'll PM you the sheet anyway.

[Lynx Cat]

Whew. A critical file on my computer somehow went kablooey (I suspect dumbassery by my family members who were over last weekend, but who knows), preventing my home computer from even starting up under any mode or option or hypothesis whatsoever. And Pimptania got banned from my work earlier this year, as I've said. So I was afraid I'd be unable to post in the PBP for a long time... but today, after fidgeting a bunch with a borrowed Windows installation CD (from work) (yes, I don't have one of my own) the corrupted file miraculously got better. I didn't even replace it or anything. Well, I'll switch to Linux on the first opportunity to be safe, been meaning to do that anyway... but just letting ya'll know that, if I abruptly stop posting, it's not that I'm sick of the PBP or anything, I may be just itching but unable to get here.

[Fugu]

Glasgow and HWW may act before the unbesotted medic. His action will complete the round.

Medic 1 Will saving throw: 9 + 3 = 12. Failed.
Medic 1 Will saving throw: 2 + 2 = 4. Failed.
Medic 1 Will saving throw: 20 + 2 = 22. Success.

[Fugu]

Glasgow's Bluff: 15 + 13 = 28.
Human's Sense Motive: 9 + 2 = 11.

[Fugu]

Glasgow: 2 + 13 = 15. Hit.
1d3 + 6d6 = 28 nonlethal damage.

[Benevolance]

The DM is psychic! He anticipated what Glasgow was going to do to the third intern! :o

This post has been edited by Benevolance: 05 October 2007 - 06:26 PM

[Fugu]

So now what, Mr. Smarty-Pantaloons?

[Benevolance]

I'm off for the weekend. I was hoping to finish an IC post, but you'll have to settle for a OOC suggestion. Glasgow would size up the unconscious interns to see if the uniforms would fit, and check for any security clearance cards. His suggestion will be to sneak into the facility, locate the object using the wand and bowl, and then steal a ship and leave.

[Barak]

Alright, officially back. Not sure on the status of my sheet, but at worse it should be easy to recreate.

[Benevolance]

I'm back. My suggestions still stand, but before I do an IC post I have a question: did we have reason to believe that one of the artifacts we are seeking was located at this place? We know how to use the bowl now to locate the other objects, yes?

Okay, that was two questions.

[Fugu]

All you know is that four of the five beams (not the sliver one matching the wand) all got ever so slightly brighter as you approached Nobodaddy, and they all pointed roughly in this direction. You haven't had a look at them since before you began your escape from the ship, though.

[Benevolance]

Good. That is precisely what I wanted to know. Post in progress!

[Lynx Cat]

...so?

[Fugu]

Either Glasgow made the shortest post ever, or he's still writing the longest post ever.

[Lynx Cat]

:lol: I just HAD to post this. It's just priceless.

Unbeknownst to our heroes, the cargo ship's security camera snapped a picture of Morgan fighting while transformed...

http://i.somethingawful.com/inserts/articlepics/photoshop/10-12-07-monsters/Wayback2.jpg

[Fugu]

So... what are we waiting for?

[Lynx Cat]

I... don't know for sure. A while ago I was waiting to see if Lance and Barak were really posting, because I wanted to make sure I wasn't going one-on-one with you behind their backs while they were away or something. By now, I may have kind of forgotten about the game :P I'll look over the IC thread again and see if anything comes out of Morgan.

[Barak]

I'm sorta waiting on those two ding-dongs to move.

[Lynx Cat]

The ding-dongs already moved, you flim-flam!

[Barak]

Well actually you -posted- about moving. To be more accurate, I'm waiting on the DM resolving that action. :)

[Fugu]

Glasgow's Open Lock: 3 + 14 = 17. Failure.
Policeman's spot: 5 + 6 = 11.
Glasgow's hide: 15 + 5 = 20. Success.

[Benevolance]

Just to be clear on our options here:

-The doors are sealed, without apparent means to open.
-The grate is a no-go.
-The buildings do not appear climbable? There are no second story open windows to gain entry?

How closely are the policy watching the docking stations? Could Morgan and Glasgow attempt to steal across to an open portal and slip inside? Or - on the basis of observable facts - does that appear too obviously risky to the pair?

[Fugu]

- Most building doors are operated electronically, and so they could be forced open with a sufficiently high Security check.

- The grate failed to open on your first try. You could probably get it open with a bit of wrangling, maybe if you picked around for a better tool (i.e. take 20), but you'd have to stay out in the open for a minute.

- The buildings have a climb DC of 25.

- There are ample spots around the dock area to place cameras. It's unlikely that the place is free of surveillance.

Lynx, you have some illusion spells left, yes? In fact, could you PM me your spell list/character sheet, since I no longer have it? I'm still missing HWW's, too, Barak.

[Barak]

My character sheet? dang.. I hope I have it. Well, I could most likely reconstruct it pretty easily if I don't.

Edit: Alright, looks like I'll have to re-do my sheet. Like I said, shouldn't be much of an issue. My main thing is to remember how we did stats. I know we had to have the racial stat that got a bonus as the highest, and the one that got a penalty as the lowest.. But that's it. where we using the elite array? I seem to think so.

This post has been edited by Barak: 21 October 2007 - 03:12 PM

[Fugu]

Barak: I checked the old OOC threads for checks of different skills to find your modifiers. Your strength mod was 1, your Dex mod was 4, and your Wis mod was 2. Based on your HP of 88 (which were maxed through level 10), your Con mod must be 0. I think most of your stats were even, and that your Charisma and Intelligence scores were 10.

I wish I had written down the customized racial modifiers I gave. I tried to reverse engineer the elf modifiers out of Glasgow's sheet with no luck. Glasgow's stats would have been impossible to achieve with elite array, though, so I think I must have rolled for you guys. Anyone remember?

Unless someone can clarify exactly what we did, I would prefer to declare that HWW's stats are

STR 13
DEX 18
CON 10
INT 10
WIS 14
CHA 10

This post has been edited by Fugu: 21 October 2007 - 10:06 PM

[Barak]

Note: I'm fine with working of the stats you posted, the following is just for argument's sake.

I know for a fact that we all had the same set of stats to work with to begin with.. Also you are right, you -had- modified the racial modifier.. I think you had made the original bonus bigger, and gave a second stat a boost? Something like that.

My intelligence.. I know I had all my skills maxed out.. I also know I had tumble, move silently, hide and spot.. But I seem to remember having "climb" as well, although that I'm not sure of. If it's the case, my modifier would have been +1 to Int. But whatever. :)

Alright, all I really have to do now is go back and figure out what feats I had. Obviously Weapon Finesse was one.. And maybe Improved Initiative? I'll go back and try to figure out the other.

[Lynx Cat]

Tsk, tsk. Fugu came up with those stats rules and I'm the one who has to remind him of what they were for the second time :rolleyes:

Elves had +4 to Dex and -1 to Con. All races had more powerful stat modifiers and an odd net modifier. We had 70 ability score points, not counting the +2 for being at least 8th level, but needed at least a 10 in each stat leaving us with basically 12 points to work with. Final stats had to be in the same order as modifiers. So, HWW, being an elf, would have Dex as his highest stat and Con as his lowest.

And I'm quite sure I PM'd you my sheet, which has my spells... in fact, I've got it saved in my Sent Items PM folder :) So, if you need it again, I can just re-send it.

This post has been edited by Lynx Cat: 22 October 2007 - 06:35 PM

[Barak]

Lynx Cat, on Oct 22 2007, 08:32 PM, said:

Tsk, tsk. Fugu came up with those stats rules and I'm the one who has to remind him of what they were for the second time :rolleyes:

Elves had +4 to Dex and -1 to Con. All races had more powerful stat modifiers and an odd net modifier. We had 70 ability score points, not counting the +2 for being at least 8th level, but needed at least a 10 in each stat leaving us with basically 12 points to work with. Final stats had to be in the same order as modifiers. So, HWW, being an elf, would have Dex as his highest stat and Con as his lowest.

And I'm quite sure I PM'd you my sheet, which has my spells... in fact, I've got it saved in my Sent Items PM folder :) So, if you need it again, I can just re-send it.

That was no help at all!

[Fugu]

Thanks, Lynx. And you're right, I have your sheet in my PMs. Barak, you can use the stats I gave or make new ones with the parameters Lynx remembered.

I'm about to update. Lance: when I was going through the old threads to find HWW's stats, I noticed the part where Glasgow swiped a toolkit from one of the transport's techies. You still have that, and can use it on security checks to avoid the -2 penalty for improvised tools.

This post has been edited by Fugu: 22 October 2007 - 08:34 PM

[Benevolance]

Cool!

[Fugu]

Did you leave HWW outside? He has 8 minutes of invisibility left.

[Lynx Cat]

I guess he's too cool for us visible folks.

[Benevolance]

I assume by Barak's post that HWW came inside the building.

[Barak]

That is correct.. I was somewhat vague on purpose, though, not just sloppy. :)

[Benevolance]

I also assume that we closed the door once HWW announced he was inside. We are trying to be discrete, after all.

[Lynx Cat]

Well, that being the case, Morgan would just get on with it and follow Glasgow downstairs rather than tell them to close a door they've already closed. Though you probably know that already.

[Fugu]

Hey, guys. School is really intense for me right now, and I'm in a screenwriting class that is draining most of my creative energy. I don't expect to post an update for at least a few weeks. I will definitely request that it be transferred to the new board.

[Barak]

BTW.. I'll hold off on redoing HWW's sheet.. Apparently Xeno wasn't aware that his character sheet thingie was messed up, and will look into it, so it might not turn out to be necessary.

[Lynx Cat]

Is there any sort of backup, at least of the IC threads here? I understand that stuff on this board won't be directly ported to the new one.

[Fugu]

I thought that it was going to be. If it turns out we can't, I'll copy it all onto my hard drive.

[Lynx Cat]

Well it's not like I was going to read what they posted in that thread today before talking about it here :P

[Benevolance]

I sincerely hope that we can move all the files without losing anything. I've already lost PBPs on the three previous incarnations of Pimptania! That's some sort of record, I think.