DM Nagging: It's pretty much my job

[Ebiris]

Since Ebony can't take the Silver Fire SDA due to lacking the magic domain, and none of Alicia's other SDAs really fit, she'll be given a custom ability.

Spellfire Grace (Di)
If you make a successful fortitude save that would normally reduce the effect of a spell or supernatural ability against you, it is instead negated entirely, and the power infused into you as temporary hp equal to 2 x the spell's caster level (or hit dice of the creature responsible in the case of supernatural abilities). Temporary hp gained in this manner does not stack, and the ability has no effect on spells or supernatural abilities that are negated by a successful fortitude save.

Basically fort only mettle just for magic stuff but with an extra buff thrown in. Alicia used to have spellfire so it's thematic, and it should keep Ebony alive if she has to eat a half dozen horrible fort effects in a row like that one time in Castle Crumbling.

[Anastasia]

Two new SDAs added the divine rules, Dragon Ascension and Silver Fire. Just updating things and changelogs there, nothing groundbreaking.

[Corwin]

This reminded me! Donald didn't get a divine power when I proxified him so now he is DRAGON.

DRAGON ASCENSION
Prerequisite: Must have nurtured and awakened a draconic spark within your soul.
Benefit: Seira has nurtured the draconic nature within her, gaining the power of a true dragon. Her type changes to dragon and she gains all the benefits and drawbacks of that type. She also gains the fire subtype and all the traits of it. The main benefit of this ability is that Seira now has a draconic form - that of a red dragon. She may transform as a swift action and may stay in either form indefinitely. This transformation follows the rules of the polymorph subschool except as follows. She transforms into a red dragon of an age category matching her hit dice. For example, at 34 hit dice, her transformation is that of an ancient red dragon. Seira may cast spells freely in this form and gains the benefit of the eschew materials feat while in it. Seira retains all of her class abilities, only limited by abilities that would not work in dragon form. In all respects, this transformation is treated as being Seira's natural form. A true seeing spell shows both her normal and dragon forms.

Dune, don't forget to post it to the SDAs.

[Anastasia]

Very minor adjustments but looks good, Eb. This replaces salient divine ability on the proxy template, as discussed in the customizing proxies section of that article.

Spellfire Grace (Su)

If you make a successful fortitude save that would normally reduce the effect of a spell or supernatural ability against you, it is instead negated entirely, and the power infused into you as temporary hp equal to 2 x the spell's caster level (or hit dice of the creature responsible in the case of supernatural abilities). Temporary hp gained in this manner does not stack, and the ability has no effect on spells or supernatural abilities that are negated by a successful fortitude save.

[Anastasia]

Crossposting some good IRC discussion from yesterday before getting into things with the weekly analysis.

<Ebiris> He is a bitch, he has to have gotten daddy to make his avatar for him somehow.
<Seira> Yeah it's bullshit
<Seira> Maybe he ate Bel for that
<Seira> And I bet he has more than the one, too
<Ebiris> He probably has a higher divine rank than us, just having Lord of the First status would jumpstart you like how the padisha of the marid starts at a decently high status right after seizing the throne.
<Ebiris> Still, skipping the avatar creation time is cheating.
<Seira> Of course it is
<Seira> Tell him he's lame
<Ebiris> I will assuming I survive him and his liches focus firing me down.
<Ebiris> Maybe I should use mirror image!!!
<Seira> Do it!
<Seira> I know I will
<Seira> Also I will use invis
<Seira> In fact, am using invis
* Kotono laughs at avatar Alicia.
> Nice thing to catch that though, that is unusual that he has one.
<Seira> WWZ could've been an awesome movie
<Seira> If, you know, it were made
<Ebiris> Smooshing a partially formed avatar while we were raiding the place would've been a good consolation prize, too.
<Seira> It's a good point, maybe I'll come across another avatar in a vat of goo and kill it
> Seirapost.
<Ebiris> I need to figure out where to grow my next avatar when we hit DvR 2.
<Seira> And how she'll look
> It is a good point, he really shouldn't have an avatar yet. Someone's up to no good.
> But let's be honest, we know it's almost certainly Asmodeus being a prick.
> He's good at that.
<Ebiris> Even he'd take a week to make his avatar. If we'd gone yesterday it might not have been finished yet!
> Assuming he didn't somehow have one made before Bel even fell because fuck you, he's Asmodeus.
> But yeah, that's a fair question to wonder.

1. Lixer is higher than DvR1, though I'll refrain from saying anything more than that on his status. More saliently, Eb was on the ball about how a pre-set planar lord role comes with more DvR than just managing to become a demipower. Most have lower caps as well - for example, as long as Asmodeus's current order endures, no other Lord of the Nine can get past DvR18, and that's only in the case of Mephistopheles. Archomentals are usually capped at DvR10 as well due to how the elemental powers set up that playing field.

2. Noting that Lixer has skipped avatar creation time is also a good observation. This isn't something inbuilt to his station, it's most probably Asmodeus pulling strings. How he did that is left to your imagination. By any time demarcation, he simply shouldn't have had the time to make avatars yet. It takes them time to set up and form.

<Ebiris> So glad I remembered anticipate teleportation. I was just pasting in all my spells and I saw it there and was like ohshit.
> Good catch.
> It's the sorta thing that has counter-counter measures in a lot of cases in divine realms and attempts to mitigate it (or simply teleporting outside of its range) but Lixer is new. A rookie mistake, basically, one he wouldn't even make often before it.
<Ebiris> He has a disposable avatar he can actually send out to fight people with instead of hiding and trusting minions, it must be novel and exciting.
<Ebiris> But yeah teleporting at a distance is only prudent at this level. That's why we gated in a ways from the outer line ourselves.

It's worth noting that Lixer is new at this. Having an avatar to fight nearly risk free lead to a simple, rookie mistake he'd unlikely make if he wasn't a power. Generally, most deities simply teleport outside of anticipate teleport shenanigans if they're facing foes who can do that, and some have more specific counter measures developed.

[Anastasia]

Okay, weekly analysis time.

Alicia: A decent week, albeit one mostly in setup and shortened due to RL. I thought the bit with discussing spell names was good, as well as her first combat starting well. I also think she was the one who got the least time to grow this week, just a consequence of where the plot was and how things went. That should fix itself in time, preferably after having giving Lixer a good ass beating. It's nice for Latha to get some time, even if it's in a role she has to be serious in rather than letting her hair down a little bit. That's really the downside to going right after Liixer, I admit.

Seira: A solid enough week. I felt the early bits dragged - and sorry about a mild letdown with that mercane report, but Eligaas isn't that flagrantly stupid and careless to let that ever get out beyond his victim. But anyway, it was solid over all and I felt the tension of the infiltration is going just fine. But like Alicia, I am craving character moments for them more, chances to connect and reconnect with other characters. So once Lixer is over, both of you can expect some focus on the homefront. Also, I like how firmly Donald's coming into view. He's always had a strong voice, plus Elle also got a chance to have some time and fun at his expense. That was good stuff.

Moore: Overall, the week was solid progress towards your goal of dealing with Shar's intrusion into Mineral. The charades bits were genuinely hilarious to me, especially in the cases where the meaning wasn't immediately obvious, as well as giving chances to fill in more work with your two companions. Cresiel is very focused and serious as has been seen before. He's not cruel or cold, as you can see a glimpse of with his treatment of your rescued hostage, but simply not a person given lightly to frivolity. He'd rather hit evil with a giant hammer, isn't that enough?

Side note: I tend to vaguely quote and allude to biblical verses with Mount Celestia, and Cresiel's comment about the hostage's race being nearly over is an allusion to 2 Timothy 4:7. In a general sense, Mount Celestia tends to key reasonably close to Christianity and that moral set while Arborea tends to be a more person-centric and modern morality of 'whatever, as long as you're doing what's right'. One of the ways LG and CG stand apart is essentially a contrast between Christian based morality (believing in something above you, that all that is good and right comes from it, that what is here is only temporary and one must strive to reach something infinitely superior) versus a more modern morality (do good, be a good person, have the freedom to do what you want as long as you're not a dick). In the context of Balmuria it doesn't mean one is right and the other wrong, it's just another way to define the sides and add flavor.

If you really want to be reductionist, you can boil the two down to Mount Celestia being a Christian's hope for Heaven and the glories of God there, while Arborea can be a humanist's hope for a happy world where everything finally works for the better. I think that over emphasizes those aspects and misses a lot of the nuance of the two sides, but you could see it like that.

PS. If you ever want an extra clarifying insight into that, consider how Queen Morwel's defining aspect is her dream. Emphasis on HER dream. Her vision, her desire. That's extremely person-centric.

Tryll: Poor Miranda.

Okay, more seriously, I had fun this week. Word of advice for Tryll, though: Just wandering in infinitely large planes isn't really an on the ball plan to find a particular person, barring someone like Lathander who will find you anyway if they wanna talk to you. That all being said, I did enjoy the wandering in Elysium. The gossipy woman was enjoyable, especially her distorted view of Aurora. Gossip does tend to distort things, does it not? Also, plot begins to loom for Tryll and friends, can't wait to get to that next week. Also, I like Miranda and I hope she grows more soon.

Alyssa: Progress, progress. The meeting with the Red Knight was solid and overall you're taking moves to fix the Sharran problem. You have a possible first node companion lined up, as well as making contacts across the planes. Alyssa being hardened definitely shows, extremely cautious as well. I like it, I want to see more, but she's still new enough it's hard to say much beyond how much I enjoyed that discussion with the Red Knight. The Red Knight called out exactly why Alyssa needed her help, pointed out how it would benefit both of them and why she should say yes. I felt it was a powerful appearance.

[Ebiris]

Alicia: A decent week, albeit one mostly in setup and shortened due to RL. I thought the bit with discussing spell names was good, as well as her first combat starting well. I also think she was the one who got the least time to grow this week, just a consequence of where the plot was and how things went. That should fix itself in time, preferably after having giving Lixer a good ass beating. It's nice for Latha to get some time, even if it's in a role she has to be serious in rather than letting her hair down a little bit. That's really the downside to going right after Liixer, I admit.

Yeah, but it's good that Alicia and Seira are working together right off the bat, and it lets us open with a splash. It's like when B3 opened by killing a bunch of devils in a bar, just with higher stakes! Also this is totally fulfilling Latha's node goal.

The little spell name discussion was neat. I'm kinda finding my feet with running her in combat, not sure where I might've been able to push more or less. Spell slots are okay for now but I don't want to run out the tank on mooks, though at the same time I don't want those mooks to keep gathering in numbers. I may have to learn contagious fireburst soon.

Hopefully momentum will be preserved and I can play up Alicia schooling Lixer on godly combat, I think that'd be neat and play well to her portfolio.

[Anastasia]

Alicia: A decent week, albeit one mostly in setup and shortened due to RL. I thought the bit with discussing spell names was good, as well as her first combat starting well. I also think she was the one who got the least time to grow this week, just a consequence of where the plot was and how things went. That should fix itself in time, preferably after having giving Lixer a good ass beating. It's nice for Latha to get some time, even if it's in a role she has to be serious in rather than letting her hair down a little bit. That's really the downside to going right after Liixer, I admit.

Yeah, but it's good that Alicia and Seira are working together right off the bat, and it lets us open with a splash. It's like when B3 opened by killing a bunch of devils in a bar, just with higher stakes! Also this is totally fulfilling Latha's node goal.

Oh yes, this should qualify nicely for it.

The little spell name discussion was neat. I'm kinda finding my feet with running her in combat, not sure where I might've been able to push more or less. Spell slots are okay for now but I don't want to run out the tank on mooks, though at the same time I don't want those mooks to keep gathering in numbers. I may have to learn contagious fireburst soon.

The spell discussion was nice and I liked how it flowed. It was just one of those things that puts you into the world, you know?

I'm probably going to soft ban contagious fireburst soon and let that just be Afina's thing. It at least needs a serious re-examination because seriously. So if you're thinking about it, please hold off. I let it finish B3 and meant to do this in downtime, but I forgot.

Hopefully momentum will be preserved and I can play up Alicia schooling Lixer on godly combat, I think that'd be neat and play well to her portfolio.

It would and going in and beating up Lixer is worth quite a lot. That's the sort of thing that reinforces your portfolio neatly and is a good part of divine growth.

[Anastasia]

Todo list updated and streamlined, just FYI.

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa: Progress, progress. The meeting with the Red Knight was solid and overall you're taking moves to fix the Sharran problem. You have a possible first node companion lined up, as well as making contacts across the planes. Alyssa being hardened definitely shows, extremely cautious as well. I like it, I want to see more, but she's still new enough it's hard to say much beyond how much I enjoyed that discussion with the Red Knight. The Red Knight called out exactly why Alyssa needed her help, pointed out how it would benefit both of them and why she should say yes. I felt it was a powerful appearance.

I've been trying to be very cautious about dealing with things, in this case, Gods. Alyssa will have read enough lore to know that Gods, even good ones, always get more out of a deal than they give. I'm playing on her age and newness to the arena to keep her from catching on some things, but she knows when to be cautious.

She's also keeping a mental tally of who and how many times people are dodging her questions.

She doesn't quite trust the Red Knight yet, though she doesn't feel she's against her. She just thinks the Red Knight is doing something like positioning Alyssa to gain more attention and try to lure Shar or Malcanthet into making a more overt and personal effort that the Red Knight can capitalize on.

The fact that she so readily hit all the points Alyssa wanted to improve on without touching on any of her strengths much at all made her think of the Red Knight as an over eager salesman.

Add to the, that she semi-avoided going into details about how to do any of it, and the fact that she was pretty blase about finding a commander didn't help much either. OOC I know this was a combo of DM hasn't planned that out and it being a bit below a God's real concern, but IC those were Alyssa's primary reasons for being there, so it didn't fully sit well.

She's starting to get annoyed at not finding Shaundakul, but knows it's chance/a God's will. So she's trying to push through the random stuff as quickly as she can, but is watching for opportunities. Albert, for example, could be a powerful Ally if she can make an item that gives him control. She could even use it as a recruiting tool for more weres if she can.

All in all, I feel she's shaping up into a headstrong but cautious leader, which is what I wanted.

[Ebiris]

Oh, also forgot to mention about the Hell Striker quest hook. While I was initially quite thrown off by it happening like that, it was nice being able to dig a little then go, 'Oh, I have someone who can handle that!'. Ebony would've been good to bring back to be in my node, having a high tier bard on demand is always super useful, but having her at Aurora offers more long term rewards. Maybe that'll change in the future. Assuming she doesn't die again, the place is bad for her health.

Also proxying her was basically necessary because I can't send her to the prime without causing spiritual wounds, and fits with Alicia just rotating proxy-ness around based on need, but she's a very useful and thematic pick there so once I hit DvR 2 it'll be made official and permanent for her.

[Corwin]

Let's see, general thoughts.

Obviously, hiding that you brainwashed a mercane is sensible. I don't really get why hiding the actual outcome of the Bel/Lixer battle was a thing, but whatever.

I was really hoping for a B3-equivalent opening, and I think we're getting it. Also, speaking of portfolios and matching them, I got thinking about it the other day and I figured that being known for sneakiness is the opposite of being sneaky. If that makes sense? But yeah, while Seira could take to the battlefield, this is the sort of mission that plays to her strengths and I hope she gets to shine there.

Nice to interact with Alicia, and I hope to do it more. It was even nicer to interact with my friends. I'm definitely happy to do more of that later.

Not sure how the Node thing works, but I did, on reflection, follow up on the Kascha thing and nothing really happened there. Did I take it too literally? I did talk to her about her experiences with Aurora.

You mustn't have looked at my spell list, because I do have the contagious fireburst. Aside from an obvious tie to Simmer and other Aurora persons, fire is kind of my thing and it's a very good fire spell. In fact, there are no other good epic fire spells for wizards, at least up to lvl13. It's mostly anti-mook anyway, and unlike Afina we actually have other ways of clearing a battlefield, so I'm not sure what the problem is? It was only effective with retarded devils placing themselves every ten feet.

Finally, not even sure what I'd like to see more: Seira meeting Lixer (his avatar?) for a climatic duel inside his fortress of angst, or Seira accomplishing the mission competently and avoiding notice.

[Anastasia]

She doesn't quite trust the Red Knight yet, though she doesn't feel she's against her. She just thinks the Red Knight is doing something like positioning Alyssa to gain more attention and try to lure Shar or Malcanthet into making a more overt and personal effort that the Red Knight can capitalize on.

The fact that she so readily hit all the points Alyssa wanted to improve on without touching on any of her strengths much at all made her think of the Red Knight as an over eager salesman.

Add to the, that she semi-avoided going into details about how to do any of it, and the fact that she was pretty blase about finding a commander didn't help much either. OOC I know this was a combo of DM hasn't planned that out and it being a bit below a God's real concern, but IC those were Alyssa's primary reasons for being there, so it didn't fully sit well.

That's an interesting take there. I'd personally interpret it - and I'm not saying it what the Red Knight did or her thoughts - of pointing out weaknesses to fix as a strategy, as focusing on strengths in this situation wasn't useful. Show what can be done to help, not embellish what's already sufficient. That, and she already has planned exactly who she wanted to send and who would be there and how suitable they would be.

She's starting to get annoyed at not finding Shaundakul, but knows it's chance/a God's will. So she's trying to push through the random stuff as quickly as she can, but is watching for opportunities. Albert, for example, could be a powerful Ally if she can make an item that gives him control. She could even use it as a recruiting tool for more weres if she can.

Trying to find Shaundakul is basically a luck check unless he wants to find you or you have the deific means to cut past the crap and contact him directly. It's his nature as a traveler.

All in all, I feel she's shaping up into a headstrong but cautious leader, which is what I wanted.

It's a good start, but I think she needs a tad more seasoning, which fits her character.

[Iron Dragoon]

Yeah, I got what you mean with the Red Knight, but remember I said she's new to leadership and I'm playing off the assumption that she's been questioned alot and probably not given a ton of solid actual feed back,so she's a bit sensitive about having weakness poked at, even if it's something she knows about. She's also not used to dealing with soldiers and generals, so blunt and straight forward isn't something she really fits with. I'm also sorta running with the idea of factionalism and politics being rampant in the order, so the Red Knight's attitude is kind of new territory.

Also, she was honestly expecting some kind of stop-gap type thing until those proper solution were able to be put into place, so the total lack of that kind of put her off. That's sorta what I meant by mentioning strengths. Something like, "You lack physical combat power. Have your summoners focus on Earth elementals and you necromancers on debuff and fewer but more powerful undead mixed with the elementals."

More OOC-wise, I'm trying to decide if I want to play off of the Order's strengths or or go the long route and do more traditional things. Something like conjured soldiers or the like, or phantasmal soldiers. Probably some sort of mix is where I'll end up, I think. I'm also considering doing an expanded version of Evacuation Rune that will move a larger group and using it for a sort of oh shit I need reinforcement button for a QRF team to jump to. Probably have team leaders carry them, and then something to sudden summon a group of phantasmal soldiers or undead fighters or something. Sudden explosive numbers and instant reinforcement seems like a tactic that would work well with a smaller force like the order has.

[Anastasia]

Oh, also forgot to mention about the Hell Striker quest hook. While I was initially quite thrown off by it happening like that, it was nice being able to dig a little then go, 'Oh, I have someone who can handle that!'. Ebony would've been good to bring back to be in my node, having a high tier bard on demand is always super useful, but having her at Aurora offers more long term rewards. Maybe that'll change in the future. Assuming she doesn't die again, the place is bad for her health.

Also proxying her was basically necessary because I can't send her to the prime without causing spiritual wounds, and fits with Alicia just rotating proxy-ness around based on need, but she's a very useful and thematic pick there so once I hit DvR 2 it'll be made official and permanent for her.

That was really the point of it. You have tons of resources and I'd like them to be used. All nodes have varying resources I'm putting into play - yours and Seiras have the most as a conceit of the setup, but y'all should be using what you have.

There's tons of ways to give y'all hooks and keep things moving while not muddying things down. I intend to use those, give you a sense of scale and scope.