DM Nagging: It's pretty much my job

[Anastasia]

Spoiler blocks? Where?

Each person's node. Everyone but yours is done - being the last one on the board list does that sometimes, since I often go in order of boards for simplicity's sake. I'm on Kascha's now, so those should go up tomorrow. Also, as you're not in a combat situation yours are being further stalled by various other bits of DM work.

Here's Donald's for a preview.

Donald
HP: 768/768
Negative Conditions:
Aura:
Bonuses: Attack+0, Damage+0 AC+0, Saves+0, Skills+0, Checks+0
Resources: Quick Cast 6/6 Protection Devotion 1/1 +5 One Attack On FA 1/1 (rnd) Take 10 On One Attack (rnd) 1/1 Armor Haste 15/15 Breath Weapon Boost 3/3 Weapon Damage Dice Boost 3/3
Spells Used:
SLAs Used:
Spells Active:
Notes: Two quickened spells/round when under armor's haste, unkillable allows Con saves to not be reduced below 1 HP

[Anastasia]

Syala is going to choose extra domain as her new SDA, because she wants to use that to further define herself as a deity. She has the following domains as prospective domains. Which one do you think fits her the best, Eb? This is as much a roleplaying choice as a mechanical choice.

Animal, Celestial, Community, Healing, Lust, Patience, Pleasure, Protection, Retribution, Strength, Weather.

Animal: Part and parcel of the druid package, a natural fit with plant already taken.
Celestial: A weak association, but Syala is a celestial who oversees many other celestials. It's certainly one you could argue for.
Community: Syala focuses on family and the home, focusing on the communities that arise between families is certainly possible.
Healing: A supportive role, but Syala's role is that of a supporter.
Lust: She's a Sharessian. This is always an aspect she can choose to emphasize.
Patience: Syala is nothing if not patient, as her long guardianship of the Tree of Idun suggests. This takes that a step further.
Pleasure: Again, Sharessian. This is a BoED domain anyway, so it's hardly that salacious.
Protection: Syala is a protector of families. This is a natural fit to that.
Retribution: Syala is also an avenger, a figure of wrath. This doubles down on that, makes her extra smashy.
Strength: Syala smash! Syala is also fairly strong and can wrestle, so this is a bit weak but a possible angle to develop.
Weather: Druidy. The weakest of all of them for her, but you could frame it so it makes sense.

[Ebiris]

I'd go with plant, community, or protection I suppose.

Community feels the strongest link with how she's presented herself as a deity so far.

[Iron Dragoon]

Weekly Roundup
Alyssa

This week was about wrapping up the hoard adventure as well as starting something new. That chat with Jarem was nice, really getting into his head a bit and some of his deeper motivations. A mortal character of his level has to has one hell of a backstory, something that's slowly coming into more and more focus. Neither Jarem, Emily or Alyssa is terribly interested in just laying it out, so more and more of it gets hinted and shown as we go along.

Yeah, a lot of what I'm doing is establishing character relationships. Lots to do. Not much beyond that, really.

[Anastasia]

Weekly Roundup
Alyssa

This week was about wrapping up the hoard adventure as well as starting something new. That chat with Jarem was nice, really getting into his head a bit and some of his deeper motivations. A mortal character of his level has to has one hell of a backstory, something that's slowly coming into more and more focus. Neither Jarem, Emily or Alyssa is terribly interested in just laying it out, so more and more of it gets hinted and shown as we go along.

Yeah, a lot of what I'm doing is establishing character relationships. Lots to do. Not much beyond that, really.

Pretty much.

[Anastasia]

I'd go with plant, community, or protection I suppose.

Community feels the strongest link with how she's presented herself as a deity so far.

I'm going to make an executive decision and go with animal. That last post I made in response to yours? Animal felt tremendously right there to solidify part of her role in Sylica.

[Anastasia]

The divine text emporium is up. If I'm missing any that have been seen in topics so far, let me know, would you? I'm sure I'm missing one or two.

[Anastasia]

Eblis added to the divine text emporium.

Syala's DvR2 upgrade is complete. Sulia's will be over the weekend.

[Corwin]

I have a question about the following SDA:

INSTANT COUNTERSPELL
The deity can counterspell as a free action.
Benefit: The deity gains Epic Counterspell as a bonus feat. She can use her spell-like abilities as counterspells in addition to her normal spells.
Suggested Portfolio Elements: Magic.

Am I eligible for it? I don't have the Magic domain, only the Knowledge domain. No Magic portfolio either, although mages are listed under my worshippers. I'd like to free my Divine Defiance feat, and having the ability to counter infinite spells per round with my SLAs would be nice.

[Anastasia]

I have a question about the following SDA:

INSTANT COUNTERSPELL
The deity can counterspell as a free action.
Benefit: The deity gains Epic Counterspell as a bonus feat. She can use her spell-like abilities as counterspells in addition to her normal spells.
Suggested Portfolio Elements: Magic.

Am I eligible for it? I don't have the Magic domain, only the Knowledge domain. No Magic portfolio either, although mages are listed under my worshippers. I'd like to free my Divine Defiance feat, and having the ability to counter infinite spells per round with my SLAs would be nice.

RAW you're eligible. There's no prerequisites to it. Suggested portfolio elements is just that - suggestions for what sort of deity that SDA fits. Remember, a deity's SDAs should generally reinforce what they are and what they do. Those suggestions are meant to guide towards typical roles that would fit the SDA.

I've been informally considering adding a prereq of DvR6+ to it, though as of yet I've taken no action towards it.

[Anastasia]

Making headway in todos. If anyone has some to add, post them here.

[Anastasia]

Chauntea added to the divine text emporium.

[Anastasia]

Weekly Roundup (Aug 20th-26th)

As much as I don't want to always put you all in the same order, I tend to have a certain laziness and go by board order in things. I did it in doing spoiler block upgrades for example, it's just a bit of mental laziness that makes me work a little faster. One less variable, y'know?

Alicia

Lots of text this week, as this was a big week for you.

This was a good week. First of all, I felt the Zariel situation resolved as well as it could have. There were all sorts of ways that could have gone, but ultimately both you and Seira found the right words and deeds to get through to her. That was a goal accomplished, even if like Antenora, much remains to be done after that initial breakthrough. I think by now one can begin to see a trend with the Fallen (and those of evil disposition who are sufficiently wise and self aware), the sheer sorrow that they labor under. While from a cosmological standpoint good and evil are balanced, otherwise the entire point of Creation would be answered, morally and emotionally they are not.

The expansion of Sylica was excellent. I was happy with that description you dropped, it was well done and showed Sylica's apotheosis into a true divine realm of Ysgard. There was a sense of gravitas to it, the sort of raw power and divinity that you're supposed to have in those sort of scenes. I was going to give you a nudge in that direction if needed, but you worked it out by yourself and knocked it out. It's a nice sense of progression to match your ascension to DvR2.

Anyway, Zariel chat afterwards was okay, but it was becoming more and more obvious she needed some personal time.

Finally, the beach scene has been nice. It's been pure character work and character work that I've felt was needed, along with a splash of highly relevant introspection and discussion over the ongoing plot. Sometimes you need those scenes where everyone's being themselves and bouncing off one another. The plot relevant stuff merely helps keep it interesting and progress the story a little bit on the side.

As an aside less to you and more in general, it's always interesting to see deities when they show their human side. B6 lets that happen, which is both new and interesting. There were a few tiny hints of this in B1 and B3, but by and large it's been out of bounds.

Moore

This was also a good week.

First of all, the trip up to the Bridge of Al-Sihal was solid. It wasn't a lot - I don't try to overdo it all the time there, since that sort of transcendence is beyond any words to portray. The DM can try, but ultimately we aren't equipped with words to adequately describe something as absolute and miraculous as Chronias. Now destroying the wand was surprisingly easy and that was on purpose. You all are epic characters and not just barely epic characters. At this point you have deep resources and access to things lesser characters don't. Likewise, some trials they have shouldn't apply to you or sometimes be easily solved. So thus the wand was consumed by the light of Chronias, never to be seen again.

Before going on, one quote of Xerona's is worth mentioning: "You'll meet her again before the end." As you may recall, Sylvie's last words before leaving in B3 were the following: "We'll see each other again before the end, Moore. Be strong." Oftentimes, important comments or sentiments are echoed repeatedly in Balmuria - it's one of the way things work. This can vary from general ideas to exact quotations. One current example is hope, that's come up quite a bit from the end of B3 onward. Generally, the more precisely a comment is repeated, the more important it is. One example from B3: '21 is the key to everything. 21 can destroy the Child of Lifasa, Abigor and even Bel. 21 is a battle for a soul.' This one repeated a few times, including when the Child of Lifasa arrived at Aurora. When you see this sort of thing, it's usually a sign to pay attention.

The rest of the business around Mount Celestia was enjoyable but not dreadfully remarkable. As mentioned in chat (and I think you missed this one, Moore), those sort of characters like Pactpeace mean something. There's so many stories going in Creation, and while the PCs have important ones, they're never the only ones. Sometimes you brush against stories that have nothing to do with you. It's always worth keeping that in mind and it also helps give things more depth and feeling of being alive.

Finally, Villisa will drop in and be Villisa. Poor Cresiel.

Tryll

Okay, this week has pretty much covered the start of this dungeon adventure. It's a good week and lemme get into why.

First off, the first encounter was purely a 'do you suck' check. If you struggled with that one or otherwise had to use meaningful resources to get through it, it's a sign your node isn't ready for this adventure yet. Fortunately between new members of the node and Debonah being along as a guest, you all made quick work of it. As mentioned in chat, it's nice that Tryll has more support now. Dana's solid but she's not an offensive juggernaut. So Miranda for ranged support and Benyen to crush people in melee both really help expand your versatility.

Beyond that, hitting the no fly zone was about was I expected. It's a nasty little trap but one I laughed out loud at with the solution you came up with. That's 10/10 amusing and awesome, gladly enjoyed and hope you keep that sort of thinking around. It's a good a way as any to deal with that trap considering none of you had super-solid wall spells like wall of stone or wall of iron. That wasn't intentional, just a quirk of how the party worked out. It also highlights you all could use a full caster to round out the node, maybe a jack of all trades to take some pressure of Tryll there.

The water trap's amusing but yeah, in the future just let me know outright if I'm making a mistake. I'm running 4-5 nodes a day and a small thing like that can completely slip through the wickets. Be interesting to see how you approach the encounter coming up, it's a pretty nasty one that uses terrain to put the PCs on the back foot. I'm hoping Rocket Squid continues, thank you very much.

Alyssa

A solid week all around.

Getting the teleport rod done was nice and set things up well. That'll be an asset for sure, so use it wisely. Anyway, that being said, the assassin's strike was rough but at least fatalities were prevented. That was an almost impossible situation, he's essentially a nearly unstoppable force that's hard to guard against. That sort of epic level, elite threat can be a nightmare to deal with, let alone with possible support from Shar or Sharrans. Here's hoping you find a chink in his armor and take him down.

I did like how Alyssa's trying to track down more about him and analyze clues. It's a good effort and I think it makes possibly finding him out more likely. It's good effort, y'know, like running hard to first base even on a routine ground out. You have to respect the hustle regardless of results. Anyway, hopefully something here bears fruit for you.

Past that it's all about Seira and Alyssa chatting with a side of Emily. I can't say a lot here - and both yours and Seira's roundup are gonna be shorter on account of that - since it's ongoing and spoilers, but I've mostly given you two a chance to talk. PCs (Seira and Alicia aside since past history) don't meet often in this game, so I'm letting you two be center stage here as I have when other PCs meet (this also doesn't apply to Seira and Alicia since past history as well). I've made a point to have Amaryl had some comments here, but by and large Agathiel and Vayley have been on the quiet side for this reason. That's a deliberate DM choice for the sake of letting PCs have the spotlight.

Seira

A strong week.

First of all, I felt the Zariel situation resolved as well as it could have. There were all sorts of ways that could have gone, but ultimately both you and Seira found the right words and deeds to get through to her. That was a goal accomplished, even if like Antenora, much remains to be done after that initial breakthrough. I think by now one can begin to see a trend with the Fallen (and those of evil disposition who are sufficiently wise and self aware), the sheer sorrow that they labor under. While from a cosmological standpoint good and evil are balanced, otherwise the entire point of Creation would be answered, morally and emotionally they are not.

Yes, it's a paste. The peril of crossing nodes over.

A bit of miscommunication aside, I liked how you expanded the Cauldron. Taking notes from Aurora makes sense for Seira, she's always been big on synthesizing what she's seen and putting her own spin on it. Incidentally, Waukeen's due for congratulations, this got delayed due to the looming meet up with Alyssa. Don't hold this one against her, it was a DM decision for the sake of making times work. She'll be sending you warm fuzzies once that's done, as I didn't want to make it a one off line when Sharess and Mystra were dropping in for appearances.

The bit with Mystra was really enjoyable. I liked how you two interacted, just talking about things and seeing what could be done. The fact that the Initiate of Mystra feat (I think that's it, not checking books at the moment) was mentioned and noted as being rare is intentional. That feat's very much a sign of Mystra's favor as the benefit it gives is a huge deal in setting. I liked the idea of showing Mystra some of Calley's notes, though that one was considered ahead of time. Still, I thought it made sense to try and you got something out of it.

Dropping into Alicia's party was fun and I think you spent just the right amount of time there. I don't have much to say here - I enjoyed it, it was fun but ultimately it did exactly what it needed to.

Finally, I'm still not saying much about Seira and Alyssa due to spoiler reasons. I will say this about Emily - sometimes, for all a teenager kicks and has issues, they still want a mother's affection and love. Emily's story is very much a story of a teenager searching for adulthood through insecurities and the struggles there, mixed with the simple reality that she'll never be a normal teenager. She's far too much and far too powerful for that.

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DM Notes

I'm holding up pretty well right now, though I'm still targeting a week off in September. I'm not sure when yet, probably mid month pending work getting even worse. I need some DM time as well as some time to legitimately hit the job hunt. I'd also like to get a booster out for epic spells, but we'll see how that goes.

Please remember to be wary of the secret slaad.

[Anastasia]

Also, a general question for everyone. How much of other people's nodes do you read and keep up with? There's no right or wrong answer, I'm merely curious.

[Nephrite]

I'll reply more fully in the morning, but for now I'll say I generally keep abreast of the other ones but don't read every post.