Random DM nagging.

[Anastasia]

Ithea, how are you going to research Zalmoch?

[Merc]

Library first. See if I find anything there. Otherwise, ask Tannin, and if that fails...I dunno, figure out how to get in touch with Lady Sunnis? But first the library!

[Anastasia]

Okay, roll an K:P check with the library bonus.

[Merc]

[22:07] <Ithea> roll d20+32+15 K:P (Add +7 if I can get inspiration in)
[22:07] * Hatbot --> "Ithea rolls d20+32+15 K:P (Add +7 if I can get inspiration in) and gets 59." [d20=12]

[Anastasia]

The lore is exceedingly old - but Zalmoch appears to have been either an Archomental of Earth or a demon. Lore varies considerably, with a few stating he was both a demon and an archomental. Further, fragments hint at his defeat at the hands of either Ogremoch or Entemoch and Sunnis. The lore again doesn't agree with itself.

[Merc]

Tannin probably has enough on his plate, I guess I'd try to find out if there's any way to meet with Lady Sunnis? How easy/hard is it? Ebony mentioned a minor diplomatic relation already?

[Anastasia]

Ebony can call in a favor, but this is getting into the realm of things that need to be done IC.

[Anastasia]

Todo: Some sort of combat chart for Stille. He has enough options to where narrowing it down is needed.

[Anastasia]

Logs are current as of this moment.

[Yuthirin]

Huge thanks. Things have been crazier than I had expected.

[Anastasia]

That's fine. Just try'n'get the Planar logs up.

[Merc]

Ithea'd like to leave a note on Tannin's door asking him to look for what info he can dig up on that one mage (with hostages) as well.

[Anastasia]

Ithea'd like to leave a note on Tannin's door asking him to look for what info he can dig up on that one mage (with hostages) as well.

He's on it.

[Anastasia]

Ithea's recent trials on the sapphire sea were quite the adventure, weren't they? It was also a long shot to happen and an interesting case of when PC choices and luck conspire together. I find it interesting on how everything worked out so I'm going to outline how things went down on my side of the screen.

First of all, merely reaching the sapphire sea wasn't assured. I had multiple paths sketched out, depending on how Ithea decided to explore the Groundswells. Between choosing a different path, digging in different spots or getting different interactions or directions, the odds of seeing the crystal sea were approximately 1 in 3. I didn't have a single planned route to be taken, but instead several ways to reach the serenes. On reaching the crystal sea, Ithea and company came on a crystalline skiff. This skiff - provided by the sapphire dragon for safe passage, as it prefers things not being shredded or coming poking into the sea - was the most obvious means across. It also wasn't the only way. Obviously, it could have been flown across or more exotic means could have come into play. Flying or otherwise avoiding the surface of the crystal sea would have bypassed the chance for the sapphire dragon encounter. Frankly, I figured it would have been avoided that way.

At that point I rolled random encounter dice. The results are below:

> roll 1d100
* Hatbot --> "Kotono rolls 1d100 and gets 86."12 [1d100=86]
> roll 1d100 subtables
* Hatbot --> "Kotono rolls 1d100 subtables and gets 94."12 [1d100=94]

The first roll was to determine if an encounter occurred. The range was 80-100 and Ithea nailed it. The second category was possible encounters. This was a fairly simple table, as there weren't too many encounters that could happen here. 1-20 was a flying wizard hunting for Radia, 21-40 was a minor sea-quake due to the dragon moving below but no other encounter, 41-60 was some elementals on another skiff and 61-80 was xorns doing the same. 81+ was the dragon. Now my notes for the dragon were pretty simple. "Sapphire dragon. Neutral to anything barring considerable provocation. Prefers not to draw attention to the crystalline sea or its presence." This shouldn't have lead to an encount-oh wait Ithea's mark. Now I generally design random encounters without considering the PCs, as by nature they're random. They are what they are and what both sides make of them, you know?

Instead we get a consequence for your choice regarding Baleruk. It isn't a nice consequence, but it's still the game world reacting to something the PCs did. In general I approve of this and want it to happen whenever possible. I feel it validates what you guys are doing, rather than making it a passive, uncaring setting. I find that more interesting than running into something nasty and fighting it for the sake of it being evil. At this point we're in a low odds situation, with several long shots having come home to put Ithea in a spot. Anyway, combat ensues. Ithea chooses not to retreat and the party engages. I don't mean to blame her for it, self defense is self defense. Anyhow, the party wounds the dragon enough for it to retreat and they continue on. A retreat here could've avoided round two, as could scurrying away ASAP. Unfortunately, Ithea ran into the problem of Sending's casting time and chose to cast it there anyway. This gave the dragon time to catch up, heal, buff up and start to create crude crystalline golems. I think this was the only mistake Ithea made in the entire chain of events, and another choice that lead deeper into this clusterfuck.

From there we get another fight. There isn't much to say about it. Ithea and company beat up golems, dragon comes out, Tiamat is a bitch. Only the reaction seems unusual - at this point you have a known force and an unknown force smacking right into each other. The odds of this happening were markedly low, surely less than 1%. But it happened and all Hell broke loose with the fivefold breath of Tiamat. Unfortunate and ultimately Ithea and Stille retreated. From there Ithea made the choice to heal up and return. Had she not, the rest of this wouldn't have occurred. Oh, Zalmoch would have escaped, but Ithea wouldn't have been involved any more, which would have had its own consequences. Yet she chose to return and all Hell broke loose again. By the time you had reached the valeoloth, you were down the rabbit hole of unlikely odds. Also from there things were more or less set. You were racing against the clock with a dangerous foe engaging you, all under a destructive time limit. This may seem rough - but every choice Ithea did lead to it, both obvious and subtle.

At heart I thought this felt a little railroady at first glance. Oh, Ithea just happens to stumble on the lair of a powerful entity and Tiamat's fuckery just happens to threaten those bonds. But really, I want to emphasize how this happened and how when you look at it, I don't feel it's railroady at all. Is it a longshot? Absolutely. Is it respectful and responsive to the choices Ithea made? Indeed it is. What happens to you guys can turn on the smallest seeming choices, no matter if you realize it or not. You made the first choice enabling this path when you chose to support Baleruk's ascension, and in the choices that lead you to the crystalline sea and finally the choices you made there.

Incidentally, from inviting Hanna along onward, I think Ithea made the best choices she could under the circumstances. Perhaps breaking away from the valeoloth a round or two earlier would have been possible, but easy to say that in retrospect. If there's a lesson to be picked up here, it's that fighting, even when justified in self defense, can have huge consequences. Discretion would have been the better part of valor here; a retreat when the dragon first appeared would have saved Ithea a lot of trouble. Would've saved 27 from getting gibbed and from Stille and Ebony coming to death's door. While you made out decently overall, you now have an unaccounted for enemy (the valeoloth) and this could have various political repercussions with Lady Sunnis.

As a final note, you were lucky Lady Sunnis is long-thinking and wise. While I do find this a refreshing change from someone who seals something and takes minimal precautions to keep it sealed, it is a factor that saved you a lot of grief.

[Corwin]

Did Afina ever read the epic crafting book?