Game over

[Ebiris]

Well, you probably all already knew this was coming, but I might as well make it official and end the game here.

Nothing on any of you, it's been a fun ride and I don't regret running this game, it's just tended to be a bit more work than I anticipated and the various timing issues haven't really helped.

Anyway, if anyone wants to discuss any aspects of the game, either giving feedback on something or satisfying your curiousity about just what was really going on behind the scenes in Dharport, now's the time.

[Anastasia]

Condolences, but yeah, things got crazy. My run in DC wasn't the best, between bad luck, bad circumstances and the like, but I had fun. Questions incoming!

---

What were you planning for our big showdown if we'd gamed a little more?

What do you think of how all of us played? MVP? LVP?

How hard was it going to be to sell that Black Lotus Extract when I got around to it, and how many options would I have had to spend the money?

Were there any other oddities or threats we missed? Anything that didn't ping our radar?

How hard was designing for this game? Were you challenged in making coherent encounters for us?

[Ebiris]

What were you planning for our big showdown if we'd gamed a little more?

Had Iddy been around last Sunday, the group of Nihasa, Demara, and Inuga would all have been attacked by the church of Boccob at the Beef Hatchet (there may have been some snide comments made about you guys being stupid for staying in the same place, since they'd known you were there the night before Nihasa got captured). When you did the sensible thing and teleported away, that'd be when Eris and Celenu would teleport on top of you for the finisher (Eris having been tracking Nihasa or Demara via scrying at that point).

There might have been some folks from the Church of St. Cuthbert chasing you down as well once they figured out Inuga's scam.

Of course, there's any number of potential final showdowns that could have occured afterwards if you survived depending on whether you guys took the initiative or not.

What do you think of how all of us played? MVP? LVP?

Eh, I don't particularly care for ranking people.

How hard was it going to be to sell that Black Lotus Extract when I got around to it, and how many options would I have had to spend the money?

Thanks to your connections with the thieve's guild, selling it wouldn't be too hard. You might struggle to get full price for it, though. As for what you could've spent the money on... not much.

I was very careful to avoid any sort of 'magic item shop' situation in this game, because there were so many ways for you guys to accumulate massive wealth at little effort - I'd rather that wealth would be spent on influencing people instead of getting another + on your back scratcher of doom.

Were there any other oddities or threats we missed? Anything that didn't ping our radar?

There was a group of drow scheming in the sewers and plotting their own attack on Dharport. No one pursued the few hints I gave towards this, but they could've equally been friend or foe to you guys depending on how it was handled.

Teresa's bard friend was actually already chaotic evil, and pretty much lied to her at every opportunity in an effort to make himself look good and get into her pants. He might have been useful, but more likely he'd have been a liability due to general cowardice and selfishness. The play that he was acting in, however, was actually a devil front (not that he knew this) - basically it was a small scale bit of hearts and minds stuff run by Eris on the side to act as 'muse' to a playwright and get him to put out performances that encourage the lawful evil mindset in the general population.

The brothels were red herrings. Although they'd been hit pretty hard to wipe out the existing cult of Malcanthet, Eris had no real interest in running them herself. A few enterprising whores took over and it was basically business as usual. The devils did start keeping an eye on them once you guys showed up, but they weren't directly running any.

How hard was designing for this game? Were you challenged in making coherent encounters for us?

I think the main problem was when we first started I was stuck a bit in the idea of 'everyone who's not an adventurer is a 1hd commoner', which resulted in you guys beating the utter shit out of everyone for the first few sessions. I started correcting that as it went along, and I don't think any of the mortal population were grossly out of line after that.

The devils seemed to give you a ton more trouble, but considering all the special abilities you guys had at your disposal, I don't think anything short of having the bad guys kill you with save or dies in the surprise round would be unfair. There was always an out of some sort available, with the sole exception of Nihasa's fight against Eris thanks to the anti-magic field (which I truthfully expected would be a cakewalk considering Nihasa was a melee beast and Eris relied entirely on magic).

[Anastasia]

One more question I forgot about entirely: Was that soul I got on the summoning going to be worth anything in game?

[Ebiris]

One more question I forgot about entirely: Was that soul I got on the summoning going to be worth anything in game?

Likely not. Had you guys been a bit more successful on the corruption front it would've counted towards your souls damned, but it'd really just be a postgame curiousity.

Had you died and respawned back in the Abyss, you could've traded it to another demon for assistance of some sort.

[Corwin]

I guess I do have a few things I'm curious about. Let's see....

Would the trip to that mountain hamlet asking about Eris have provided me with anything, or would that have been a wild goose chase? What was my earl going to do the following morning? Was anyone going to revive our two friends (one of them for the second time)? What was the deal with all the paladins (Caerys and the other two we've met)? Was my friendly cleric going to backstab me in the end once the devils were gone, no matter what happened?

[Ebiris]

Would the trip to that mountain hamlet asking about Eris have provided me with anything, or would that have been a wild goose chase?

The trip would've given you some backstory on Eris and Caerys (and confirmed that Eris was not from around that area). Would've mostly been fluff, but you'd have got the confirmation you were looking for.

What was my earl going to do the following morning?

He was going to have Teresa and some of his other dudes kidnap Kitami's husband and torture him for a bit before killing him as a bit of misdirected revenge for poor Rika.

Was anyone going to revive our two friends (one of them for the second time)?

No. Grom had to sell most of his gear to pay for Arisa being raised. After Teresa killed them both none of their remaining friends had the money or the inclination to raise them, never mind pay for the resurrection that would be required thanks to the mangling they both received.

What was the deal with all the paladins (Caerys and the other two we've met)?

Caerys was actually a Blackguard. However, she did wield a holy sword and every day she cast Misdirection on herself so that any attempts to divine her alignment would actually get the sword's alignment. While she was evil, she wasn't out and out psychopathic - she'd just been corrupted by Eris into taking more pragmatic choices while still believing that she was upholding justice in an ends justify the means way.

Proust was a regular paladin and all around good guy. Unfortunately, Eris had her sights on him, and the whole debacle with him attacking Demara was actually triggered by Eris casting Morality Undone on him to temporarily switch his alignment to evil - the plan was that he'd ignore the mugging of the woman passing by (also set up by Eris) and then angst about it once the spell wore off, giving her an opening to sink her claws in. After shit hit the fan so badly, the church of Pelor decided to get rid of him since his credibility was utterly shot, so he was sent off on a long term atonement quest and out of the game.

Balter was an honest paladin as well, and part of a fairly high level group of adventurers drawn to Dharport by all the talk of demons and devils - not to mention the party rogue needed to get resurrected, which is why he was in Pelor's temple that time. They could have equally helped or hindered either side in all of this.

Was my friendly cleric going to backstab me in the end once the devils were gone, no matter what happened?

That was by no means certain. She was keeping an eye on you, and at the first sign of misbehaving she would've banished you, but if you kept your nose clean she'd let you be (while still keeping an eye on you for the moment you slip up).

[Sierra]

I kept thinking we should've moved somewhere else, but never got around to mentioning it in-game. Looks like I was right! (And would've paid for my laziness, but that's nothing new).

I presume us massacring Kitami's servants and burning her house was not exactly in the cards when you set up the game. >.> It does look odd in light of us staying at the Beef Hatchet for days on end, but it totally made sense at the time. (Really!) For the record, I dragged Albany along just for shits 'n giggles. I didn't expect her to be useful at all, it's just amusing to have mortal cannon fodder.

[Corwin]

So what was the Eris/Caerys backstory?

[Ebiris]

So what was the Eris/Caerys backstory?

Basically Caerys found Eris when she went to slay the white dragon near Wintvale. Eris at the time was using the wyrm for her own ends, but when she saw Caerys tearing her way through its lair she decided that the human would make a better pawn. Playing the part of the distressed damsel, she let herself be 'rescued' by the paladin and then set to seducing/corrupting her.

Once she had Caerys on the path to Blackguard-ness, she revealed her true nature and the two returned to Dharport to spread the word.

[Anastasia]

Oh!

Eb, since we were gonna get ambushed, what were the enemy abilities/plans to deal with each of us?

[Ebiris]

Eb, since we were gonna get ambushed, what were the enemy abilities/plans to deal with each of us?

The plan was for Helena to go invisible and sneak into the inn beforehand, and then Caerys would lead a squad of warriors/clerics to raid the place. Caerys' group would blitz your room and start attacking you guys while Helena would pick one of you to size up for Death Attack (not the one that Eris was scrying on, though) and basically sit out the combat until you guys retreated, at which point she'd hit her chosen target and hopefully kill them before they teleported away.

After you arrived at wherever you were teleporting to, after however many rounds it would take for the scrying sensor to catch up, Eris would teleport in along with Celenu and the remaining Orthon. Depending on where you were they might have been polymorphed into less evil looking forms, and they'd do their best to finish you off.