Miscellaneous stuff

[Anastasia]

This isn't quite a flavor post, but it may be refined into one at a later date. Cor and I had an interesting discussion in PM.

<Annerose> How do you think the golden flame would have roots in the world?
<Annerose> Obviously it wasn't like time travel and what not
> That's an interesting one.
> Seira's coming was predicted, that came up in B1 once or twice and has been alluded to elsewhere.
> Prophecy's a funny thing like that. It's not always accurate in Balmuria due to the nature of the future, but it does exist. That provides a reasonable enough premise right there, though one could certainly get more exotic.
<Annerose> So Waukeen sent dudes over to stealthily seed relics and knowledge?
> Entirely possible, yes.
> Prophecy in Balmuria is is about influencing the future. It's saying things are going to happen in a certain way. It's not certain, but it provides a logical framework and support for the idea. The extreme of this is what Taelfagn abused with Lifasa.
> Waukeen seeding Seira's possible rise? Entirely plausible and makes sense based on those examples.
<Annerose> Cool
<Annerose> It'd be neat to come across someone
<Annerose> Or something
* Kotono nods.
> I've mostly stayed away from support networks for y'all so far. Mostly to emphasize the odds and the situation of the world. That sort of thing is more down the line.
* Annerose nods
> Yeah, that sort of long game is what a lot of powers play. I've always figured a fair few ruins and lost magical items are seeded for some future plan or plot by someone or another. Doesn't always work out as they want, but it makes background planning more interesting for me.

---

To understand prophecy in Balmuria, one has to understand how time works. First of all, time travel is possible, but only backwards relative to the point you time traveled or to return whence you came. The Temporal Compact prevents time travel from happening in practice, though it was common enough before for the mechanics of it to be known. In other words, the only way to reach the future is the hard way.

You see, the future is in flux until it happens. While it's possible to make likely predictions about the future, the future isn't said and done until it is in the past. Prophecy is a tool to predict the future, to guide the future down a path the source of the prophecy desires. The phrase self fulfilling prophecy is extremely apt for Balmuria. This is one of the reasons that the prophecy of Primus is so dangerous and unsettling - it adds a great deal of legitimacy to the idea that Shar will win.

A properly prepared prophecy is a thing of power, something able to influence the future. Taelfagn's use of it in B3 resulted in Lifasa's fall to Hell, as he managed to make this event inevitable. Selune's use of prophecy set up Athux's fall in B3's Coda. Seira's coming was foretold and she lived up to the potential. So did Alicia, both in Mystra's tasked and becoming the one to finally overcome Triel's Furnace.

But not every prophecy works. For example, 27 issued prophecies that were defied. Jaela did not die against Abigor and Afina did not die against Gathgorian. A particularly subversive use of the concept is to make a prophecy that will angle a situation towards not fulfilling it. With the fact that prophecy is primarily a tool of law, the fact that 27 took this tack should surprise no one.

As much as law would like it, destiny and prophecy are not iron-clad. As much as chaos would like it, destiny and prophecy are not impotent. As law and chaos have not yet found settlement in Creation, it is only natural for the concept to rest in an uneasy middle ground. Free will is the ultimate determination.

[Anastasia]

Another IRC conversation I want to save. Right now I find it easier to go on in chat than write up official flavor posts.

<Nephrite> Random Balmuria deity question: Is there any one singular entity that has a higher divine rank than others?
> Of the regular deities, no.
> Some cap at 20 but none go higher.
> However.
> It's known that Three Incarnations - the Incarnation of Law, Balance and Chaos, respectively - created the multiverse and likely the majority of the deities.
> In D&D parlance, they're probably DvR 21+, which puts you at overdeity status.
> What little is known suggests they come from beyond the multiverse (logical, as they created it) and are the source law vs chaos. Good and evil, notably, is something that came from Creation.
> It's known the Incarnation of Chaos is Ao, who is noted as being a tremendous dick.
> The other two Incarnations are MIA.
> Anyway, the Incarnations are as close to pantheon leaders as anything in Balmuria.
> In full honesty, from what's been seen, they probably aren't deities in a mechanical sense as much as entities beyond even that. As they can create infinite things, they're likely infinite in some sense as well or otherwise transcendent.
<Nephrite> Gotcha.
<Nephrite> Or they may even just be parts of the same incomprehensible thing.
> Anything's possible. They're something from outside of Creation, and anything outside of Creation is incomprehensible to mortals unless the Incarnations take action to integrate and shape it (such as the Guardian of 21).
<Nephrite> There does seem to be a numbers theme going on in certain places, is 77+7 from something specific?
> Well, that's from the 77+7 archangels. Numerologically in Balmuria, 7 is associated with the heavens. 3 is also a number of great power - in B3, the fact that it recurs and has power was explained by the Guardian of 21. It's a simple echo of the fact of the Three Incarnations. In this case 3 7s.
> 7*3 is 21, which is also the name of the Incarnation's tool to explore and destroy evil.
> Generally, taking a base number from 1-9 (excluding 3) and adding 3 to it somehow can signify power.
> Usually as multiplication, some sort of symbological word play or other such.
<Nephrite> I take it 6 is associated with Hell, then?
<ZombieGate> Abyss.
> 9 is with Hell. The Nine Hell of Baator. The Abyss uses 6.
<ZombieGate> 9 is Hell.
> A 9 and a 6 are interchangable if you merely flip them upside down, which is also telling.
<Nephrite> Ahh.
> Which is a direct statement on the Blood War and ultimately the relative futility of the entire law vs chaos struggle in evil. Conversely, the heavens share 7, which says a lot about how they operate.
> 8 is loosely associated with chaos and Limbo, but chaos is too inconsistent for serious numerology.
> 8's also an infinity symbol if you flip it 90 degrees, which is a direct commentary on how chaos tends to be  portrayed as infinite and teeming. Especially in the Abyss.
<Nephrite> Let's never go to the Abyss.
> A wise idea.
> http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php/topic,103074.msg1050645.html#msg1050645 You can get some ideas here, as this PrC deals with it directly.
> It's not really required to understand anything that's going on, but tends to be subtly referenced and occurs naturally in the game world.
<Nephrite> That makes sense.
<Nephrite> Well, insofar as cosmic and planar stuff makes sense.
> Yes.
> http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php/topic,103088.msg1052383.html#msg1052383 - Said discussion with the Guardian of 21. Touches on a lot of fascinating things about this and related concepts.
<Nephrite> That was enjoyable if just because it's obvious that the Guardian has had a long time to develop a sense of humor.

[Anastasia]

This week's been ultra-stressful for a variety of reasons, so there hasn't been any posts to make up for the lack of sessions. I'll try and remedy it over the coming week, though I still have some RL problems going on.

[Anastasia]

First thing up is a new prestige class (as well as an epic progression for it). This was in the works for awhile, as I'm working on Glasya's stat block. No class quite fit her, so I ended up making something from scratch. She probably won't be ready anytime soon, as I've struggled with her.

Next up should be something flavor-y. Hopefully it'll be done today or tonight, but it might stretch to tomorrow.

[Anastasia]

Flavor post over on the rules and setting board. It's something from B3, a reason to consolidate information scattered across several sources.

Assuming Eb gets a tablet this weekend (let us know how that's going, by the way), I'm hoping to game starting on Monday or Tuesday. Eb mentioned an MRI on Monday, so that might scuttle that day even if he has a tablet by then.

[Anastasia]

Today's agenda:

1. Finish that item set Cor sent me. I'll be PMing this to you in a bit so you can take a look at any edits I made.

2. Work on dragon horde(s). This is a side project I do since they're a lot of prep to make. Having some prepared makes my life easier, especially with a dragonborn in the party.

3. A flavor post. May be for R&S, may be for here. Depends on where my muse is.

Tonight's agenda:

1. Finish anything not finished during the afternoon.

2. A flavor post, hopefully whichever one I didn't cover in the afternoon.

3. If everything goes really well, a special surprise. May not get to this.

[Anastasia]

Okay, since it looks like Eb is going to be awhile longer, do you two want to do some side things? Like little RP scenes that could have happened over the past few days, a way to keep rust away and our heads in the game.

[Nephrite]

That would be fine.

[Anastasia]

This happened and was a nice little chat. Logs should be up in a day or two.

[Anastasia]

We gamed again today. Mostly just little odds and ends, keeping things going.

---

On another note? Neph, are you going to use dragonborn paragon for Erad? I think it was for Athear, if I recall right?

[Nephrite]

It was originally for Athear, yes. I don't know if I'll fit it in or not.

[Anastasia]

Fair enough, was just curious.

[Anastasia]

Posted a new class + epic progression. Compare and contrast it to celestial mystic from BoED. This class is really meant for paladin/sorcerer crossbreeds, hence the 10/10 casting progression. It's a class that presumes you'll have lost a CL or 2 going in, as well as being on the slower sorcerer casting progression.

More fluff on the class will happen when I work out a character who uses this prestige class. The basics are only touched on briefly for now.

[Anastasia]

Today's material is a material from B3, death's metal. It was found deep in Castle Crumbling and is a rare, powerful material to forge equipment with. Undead in particular benefit from material made of it.

Now that Eb's back and normality has resumed, I hope to post more material of all sorts. This entire month has been a mess between Eb and my eye, so I'm hoping that August is better. Fingers crossed.

[Anastasia]

The bulette today had a variant special ability. Normally, a bulette can leap up and make four claw attacks at the expense of its bite attack. It's not a bad option when it needs quantity over quality, but I felt it lacked a bit of zip. So I upgraded it to this:

Leap (Ex)

One round after making an ambush attack from below, a bulette may leap up from its hole and make claw attacks at anyone within reach. Treat this as a single attack against all targets with a +15 to hit modifier and damage equal to two successful claw attacks. As it is making this attack with its claws as a primary natural weapon, it adds its full Strength bonus to damage instead of half.

I felt this was a better way to make the bulette dynamic and interesting. In this case, it was boosted by a crit and the party swarming the bulette. I gave y'all a hint at this with Annerose's K:A result, but the party swarmed it anyway. Do y'all feel it worked? Feel free and post to let me know.

This isn't really worth a bestiary post, since it would be the bulette with its single special attack changed.