DM Nagging: It's pretty much my job

[Anastasia]

General Status Update

1. My energy level feels better than last week. We'll see how it goes, but as next week is vacation and tomorrow is a down day it's a bit of a short week anyway.

2. Oraga's a relatively short todo that I'll likely get done this week or over the vacation.

3. I'll be cleaning out todos in nagging for any I missed over the vacation.

4. I'm playing around with a prismatic/elemental harmony template but it isn't coming together yet. I didn't get past a few abilities and a general outline this weekend, inspiration wasn't fond of it and I found my mind on other projects. This naturally didn't help anything get done.

5. I have a few projects in the works DM side. Expect to see the following over the next month or so: Oraga, Prismatic Template, Mazana the Authority of Hope, Aribyn (A minor Seira worshiper), Gond.

6. Finally, I'm thinking of some sort of overall game feedback thus far post. Something verbose, that's likely a vacation todo.

[Corwin]

Dune, please list the Donald and Elle SDAs (they each got one from me via the proxy template, I believe?) on their sheets.

Which ones did you give them?

I can't recall. Let's go with Dragon Ascension for Donald, and Automatic Metamagic for Elle.
Golden Mind is not the best fit, Battle Metamagic is useless for anyone below DvR1. That leaves Instant Counterspell and Golden Flames, which might work but I think they'd be subpar for Donald and Elle.

Fresh reminder.

[Anastasia]

Okay, a few notes.

Tomorrow's evening session is going to begin an hour early.

Friday's afternoon session will ideally be long.

[Anastasia]

So yeah, slept 10 hours and feel lots better than I did yesterday. Must've needed it.

[Anastasia]

Dune, please list the Donald and Elle SDAs (they each got one from me via the proxy template, I believe?) on their sheets.

Which ones did you give them?

I can't recall. Let's go with Dragon Ascension for Donald, and Automatic Metamagic for Elle.
Golden Mind is not the best fit, Battle Metamagic is useless for anyone below DvR1. That leaves Instant Counterspell and Golden Flames, which might work but I think they'd be subpar for Donald and Elle.

Fresh reminder.

Dune, please list the Donald and Elle SDAs (they each got one from me via the proxy template, I believe?) on their sheets.

Which ones did you give them?

I can't recall. Let's go with Dragon Ascension for Donald, and Automatic Metamagic for Elle.
Golden Mind is not the best fit, Battle Metamagic is useless for anyone below DvR1. That leaves Instant Counterspell and Golden Flames, which might work but I think they'd be subpar for Donald and Elle.

Fresh reminder.

Done.

[Anastasia]

This week's content is up with three more knight ACFs. That should about be the end of knight content for awhile.

[Anastasia]

The weekend's content is up with 3 spells.

Sulnor's Show Fate is a direct and potent divination tool to see the most likely future of a target. While not foolproof in epic play, it still provides a direct way of seeing what may happen in the immediate future. A diviner will do well to add it to their spellbook, as will any mage who anticipates that sort of divinations being required.

Swept Into Immolation allows the caster to cast a target into Fire, give them vulnerability to fire that overwrites resistance and immunity and finally make it extremely difficult to leave Fire. It's a great option for those who want to get rid of an opponent and put them in a tough spot. It's not immediately fatal, but it can easily go that way. It includes a way for the curse to be lifted without mechanics being involved, for those who prefer more interesting ways of removing curses.

Finally, Body Sculpting is an excellent tool in any transmuter's spellbook. It offers instant body adjustments that corrections that are permanent - no dispels, it's an instantaneous spell. While expensive, the spell offers unmatched and speedy ability to adjust a creature's body.

[Anastasia]

There's a new spell added to the Spell Collection.

Lixer's Decree is a fine spell for a dread necromancer or wizard who wishes for his foes to cower and offer their life to him. An excellent spell to tame masses of lesser creatures and keep them cowering before you, all while bolstering your life force. While not evil, this spell is right on the absolute edge for it, so good aligned spellcasters should tread carefully with it. (It's possible I add the evil descriptor soon, I'm going back and forth on it.)

[Anastasia]

On second though yeah, evil descriptor added along with evil and fear.

[Corwin]

Lixer's Decree is discount Glasya ally drain, right? That must burn.

[Anastasia]

Oraga's up. The main point to note is the old versus the new, to show how he's recovering.

Old:

Recovering (Ex)

Oraga is recovering from centuries of being weakened and used as a magic item and joining with a mere mortal body. It has the following effects on him:

- His type changes to humanoid(Elf). He does not gain the normal elf benefits.
- -6 to all ability scores.
- Loss of miracle as an SLA. As an outsider on the outs with almost everyone, he lacks a patron to grant it. The Abyss certainly won't and Seira's not far enough along the path to divinity to do so. Commune is lost using the same logic. Aid is lost as well, though less for this and more because it just doesn't fit a Fallen but isn't explicitly removed by the template.
- Full loss of spellcasting ability. His powers were first damaged and changed by his Fall, then the transference to a mortal vessel has severed them entirely. It is quite possible they may return in time.
- Loss of maximum HP per HD. Confined in an entirely mortal vessel, Oraga suffers the weaknesses of flesh.
- Loss of immunity to poison.
- Land speed reduced to human normal speed, fly speed reduced to two times base land speed.
- Oraga determines skills using his final intelligence modifier here. This technically doesn't make sense, but I'm not going to try and tangle up his skills with his int changing around between incarnations. If he gains his intelligence back down the line, I'll retroactively award him the skill points for it then.

New:

Limited (Ex)

Oraga is imprisoned with a mortal body and thus limited by it, as well as from centuries of being weakened and used as a magic item. It has deleterious effects on him.

Oraga's type is outsider with the native subtype. While the body he resides in is that of a female elf, he does not gain any racial qualifies of an elf. He does not possess his spellcasting ability, though he is close to regaining some form of it. Finally, he loses his immunity to poison, though he gains a +4 racial bonus against poisons.

[Anastasia]

Lixer's Decree is discount Glasya ally drain, right? That must burn.

I honestly didn't have that in mind when I made it, but that makes a lot of sense.

* Anastasia laughs.

[Anastasia]

Hasn't been much DM work, but at least the family rush is finally done. I may try and get some done in the next few days, that was pretty bad for inspiration and effort.

[Anastasia]

What I meant to write up this vacation was a series of little interludes, of little PoV pieces to show what's going on in other parts of the game world. Turns out the family crunch killed my writing energy. Only a few fragments came of this, and I'll post them here. I may come back to this over the weekend.

I'm honestly not happy with any of these. They're fragments of drafts, little more than starters or bits that went nowhere. If they're ever continued, it'll be with some revision and some reworking.

0.

If you got past the wards to read this, rot under Garagos's festering asshole.

1.

Today was the monthly strategy tournament. This month's game was without limits, so everything from spells to magical artifacts are within the rules to enhance your natural talent and learned skills. I earned second place. My sole loss was to K in the finals. A closely fought match, my raiders got pinned by his screeners and I was never able to make up the difference.

I got some gold as a prize, but the real prize was impressing Lal. She is gorgeous, a warrior's body clothed only in moonlight as she approaches the bed.

2.

I'm being deployed. In particular, I'm being deployed to a Prime. Not my Prime, but a Prime. I haven't gotten details yet, but it's to a female wizard. She should be something to meet, as I've heard she's advanced rapidly. I'm to go there, help her magic guild and help defend against Sharran problems. Fuck Shar.

More another time, I'm going to go spend time with Lal while we're both here.

3.


---

Oh, how high! How high and higher yet I have risen! I cannot put my wonder into words, for I fear there are no words in Creation to express what has happened to me. It is something I never dreamed of, a chance and a duty together that is equally wonderful and imposing. Let it be said: I am not worthy of this. I will never be worthy of this. It is an honor beyond and all I could ever imagine.

I have reached divinity.

I write here with the utmost care, but let it be said again. I have shed the mortal and obtained the eternal, and even now I can hear the whispering of prayer in the back of my mind. I stand with Alicia and Syala as an eternal guardian and shepherd of souls, a symbol and a beacon to draw those lost in the darkness to the sweetness of the light.

There are things I cannot and will not write of in these pages. Yet this is not one of them, for we have found something incredible and yet simple in its simplicity. To escape the system and its laws, you must go outside of the system. One must go to the Far Realm.

---

Once, I worried about the Commander. He has long labored under sleepless nights and nightmares unspeakable. I dare not think of what horrors would disturb a man of his valor and resolve. Such things are best kept to the deepest shadows of the infernos below, cursed things to drown and die in the hatred of a thousand slain evils. They are the shadow craft of the Lady of Loss, the ruby gleam of the King of Hell's rod, the trade of the Veiled Lady.

Now the Commander has overcome his nightmares. He is young in body and mind, restored with a vigor that eclipses the hardiest archon of the Throne and Tome. I offer prayers, sweet incense and treasures to the Ever-Vigilant and the Crying God, for only Helm's sense of duty and Ilmater's endurance could have seen him through that ordeal. What's more, he has returned with a new sword, one that is him as much as the shining, bejeweled blade of the Gnomish God-King is not. He wields them in tandem, training to switch between his shield and one as the needs of combat demand.

Yet all of this dwarfs to the dreams I now have. I dream of the Holy Mountain our texts speak of, the sacred peaks that I have seen and that Latha so resolutely speaks of. I dream of light everlasting, light from the peak of Chronias sweeping away all the wicked. It is as how a mighty flood washes away even the greatest of human designs, or how a child's moments of pique can dash asunder a sandcastle; I am convinced we stand before a time of miracles and this is but one of them. I dream of Helm's Books of the Dutiful, where I believe my name is written to grant me passage to the House of the Triad when my time in this world is done. I dream of the light that shines down on that realm, the light of Chronias that makes all else seem like a child's mud pies before a grand feast worthy of an Emperor.

Blessed and joyous are we who serve at a time of such miracles, where nightmares ends and the sweetest dreams replace them. This light shall sweep away evil, shall burn away the wicked, and shall illuminate even the shadows of Shar's cursed realm. I believe I may yet live to see the day when Sharrans no more blight this world or any world at all. I record these words today as a prayer for hope, a prayer for my longing for our final victory. Helm, grant your loyal servants the blessing to one day where children do not cry at the mention of Shar.

- Eudard, paladin of Helm.

[Anastasia]

We're baaaaaaaaack.

Posting to begin at the normal time, but have early posts to get rolling and the dust off.