DM Nagging: It's pretty much my job

[Corwin]

New spell! This one takes inspiration from Legion's Gates, and uses the Gate aesthetic over Teleportation Circle since it's more convenient for multiple portals surrounding you. Since epic Paladins could use Legion's Gates, I wonder if maybe epic Duskblades could do this due to their teleportation options?

Seira's Portal Network
Conjuration (Teleportation)
Level: Sor/Wiz 12

This spell functions as Teleportation Circle, except as follows. Instead of only one destination, you can designate one more destination target per three caster levels you possess. They must all must go to the same plane (and layer of that plane, if appropriate) as the point of origin.

The portals themselves are circular hoops or disks from 5 to 20 feet in diameter (caster's choice), oriented in the direction you desire when they come into existence (typically vertical and facing you). Each is a two-dimensional window looking into the destination you specified when casting the spell, and anyone or anything that moves through is shunted instantly to the other side. A portal has a front and a back. Creatures moving through the portal from the front are transported to the other plane; creatures moving through it from the back are not.

Clerics and paladins with the Initiate of Seira feat can select this spell as if it were on the cleric spell list.

Material Component
Amber dust to draw the portals (cost 1,000 gp per destination).

[Ebiris]

The talk with Mystra was neat, clarified a few things and actually prompted me to go back and re-read that section from B1 where Eladi laid it all out on behalf of the Arbiter, which served to refocus things a bit in my head. Gotten a bit distracted with Shar in B6's plot that I'd lost sight of her really being the symptom more than the real threat herself. Finding the third will be the main priority! Of course not being able to talk to anyone about it makes things a bit tricky, and what feelers she was able to sneak into conversation with Mystra didn't really help confirm any of her going theories.

Giving Emmaline more screen-time was good, for all that it was a pretty depressing scenario. I had fun inventing some sort of slaad-based mishap for Marie and Antenora based on the prompt we got when we arrived though.

Gathgorian's a shit who desperately needs a pixie to pop up and shiv him. Except now Afina explicitly can never kill him unless she either ascends or borrows the Mask-god-slaying-sword. Giving up the horrible far realm sword continues to cause regrets, since I bet that would make it stick. Maybe she can steal 21 or Arondaaq or one of those other 'kill everything' weapons, there have to be a few of them laying around.

But those are pixie problems, not Alicia ones. She's just dismissing Gathgorian as beneath her for the most part. We'll see how Antenora putting her on the spot with Eblis like that pans out next week and if it opens any avenues.

[Anastasia]

I realized partway through the giant battle that it could've been handled much differently insofar as you could probably easily bait them into hurting each other and won that way.

Possible, yes. They weren't meant to be the hardest fight, more of a decent rumble to set the tone. They over preformed, which added a lot of danger to them and shadowed that, I think.

As to the efreet, yeah, Moore realizes he isn't just going to change someone's very core personality by talking to them. At the same time, he's seen examples like Ebony and he's heard of Antenora, so any time he has an opportunity to try and put someone on the right path, he's going to take it. This somewhat explains his (rather badly thought out) plan with Makim, too. He still has hope there!

It can be done, but changing someone is hard and rarely done in a few words. Especially an outsider with an alignment subtype. Changing Antenora was a full on long term quest, and she was only a 9 hit dice erinyes. Still, shining a torch into the dark may reveal the path for someone in the future.

I don't intend to have Moore go diving into melee very often because I don't feel it fits his character to do it -- but in this case he has a cause and a purpose and something to try and defend, so it made sense. It isn't like he has a vow of nonviolence or anything anyway. Honestly, the problem is that if he gets all his songs going there isn't a lot else for him -to- do, since all his spells are utility.

A few direct damage options wouldn't hurt - you can swing them with cleric and bard casting. I mean, they don't need to be great, but it's a nice base to cover. Same reason I'd like to pick up a reasonable long range option for Kaja one day.

I admit, I would've liked to have seen Kaja just straight up send one of the giants packing since I'm pretty sure he would've hit them something like 12 times.

Was Kaja's node goal "kill x number of bad dudes"?

Kaja's node goal wasn't based on kills, despite his personal zest for violence. I think it's worth digging into the fact that in another life, Kaja could have been a nightmare. Instead he realized where his talents lay and found a way to fight the good fight with them. It's about the best possible outcome for someone with his particular personality quirks. He's also a decent person removed from his particular talent for violence, which helps.

EDIT: This was also Moore's first major campaign as a leader on his own that was of his own volition that involved others that didn't end in some sort of horrible failure, so a lot of his decisions were based around how previous outings went.

I noticed that a few times - it's a good thing to learn, after all. The comment at the end about not pushing his luck was particularly illuminating.

[Anastasia]

I've decided that Alyssa's response to upset people is going to be sort of like the Emporer of Rome being yelled at by Senators. Basically, she's going to be dead calm and scathing/riposte in a calm, slightly dismissive tone. I feel it sort of fits with having a council of Regents; they're likely to be shouting at each other and Alyssa more than rarely. It goes hand in hand with Jarem's 'don't let them see you sweat' deal.

It fits her pretty well and comes through. She manages a certain haughtiness that fits that very well, I feel. There's a reason Jarem calls her Queen. Let them be upset and then carefully dismantle as needed.

I actually think it fits the slightly immature sheltered princess vibe she's got/developing. She enthusastic and sorta childishly bright/clumsy about things because she hasn't really gotten mud on her face just yet.

Yep, pretty much. Even the thing with Waukeen was 1. Not her fault in any reasonable way and 2. With someone she knows and can talk to as a long time family friend. She hasn't sincerely and truly fucked up yet, so all of her personality makes sense there.

I meant to push Waukeen there. So far all the deities she's met have treated her as an equal because they're invested in her, and she sort of abused that and forgot that her association with them wasn't exactly acceptance across the board. She's in deep waters and is in over her head, so she's going with what she knows, and what she knew of dealing with deities was from the Red Knight and Shaundakul. Both of them expressed approval of her behavior, so she went with it. Think of it as a feeling out the boundaries deal.

Yeah, and Waukeen pointed out how incredibly fortunate you are and gave you a little reminder of how it normally is for mortals. I thought that part came across well.

I actually do have a cheat sheet made, but it needed updating. It wound up only being about four spells that needed to be messed with, but from work and heat, I was kinda drained and just couldn't work up the effort to get it done.

Fair enough. Summer sucks, heat gets us all.

[Anastasia]

To be fair, Mystra's chat with Alicia took place before mine with Waukeen, and given we'll be swapping info I didn't want to insist on getting the very same specific information I've see there. I did try to steer conversation with both Waukeen and Lathander into some of those areas out of hope they'll show me a neat flashback, but alas, that didn't happen to me. Would've been cool.

I thought about it, but I decided not to go back to the well on flashbacks. It also came down to how I wanted to present them. Lathander's very personable while Waukeen treats you like a favored daughter, both very human approaches. Mystra, even though she thinks well of Alicia and likes her, is still more primal. That sort of flashback fits her personality and profile more than Lathander or Waukeen dropping it, after all.

Also, the right line/situation for it didn't come up, which wasn't really your fault anyway.

Chalk this one up to flavor and the vagaries of plotting.

When that failed, I focused on my goals (which are both current events and Shar). As the Shar side got shut down, I doubled down on the present. I've also been hopeful that some of the negotiations could be shifted aside, since it probably will be long and repetitive to convince various trading companies to support me on emancipation. A real shame Waukeen didn't want to work behind the scene on one of them, but I'll get her to G one day. Sanzha is my only real candidate from the NPC pool, so I hope she finds her answer to her Node goal once I'm back home. If she chooses to handle diplomacy, I only need to talk to one key party (like the Mercane) to set the tone and rely on her to follow through for the remainder.

Makes sense all around here, and I think that quest looks good. It's just one I want you to do the right amount for, rather than having Waukeen throw weight around.

This also leads to an OOC question. I'm 100% certain from past experience and the merchant powers writeup that Celestia will support emancipation efforts across the Inner Planes, but it does feel wrong to not at least coordinate with them. At the same time, it feels boring to go and talk IC to someone when it's a foregone conclusion. Is this something where I send an NPC to handle it? Settle this in OOC notes with you in-thread? How would you prefer to deal with this so we could skip to the good stuff of actual bartering and follow-up attacks on terrible people that deserve it? I like coordination, but there is so much legitimate coordination to be done here we might never get to the actual action if we were to act it all out.

Send an NPC to do it or contact someone you know. Honestly, this sort of thing can come down to 'Hey Romiel, I wanna fuck up the genie's slave trade. Can you pass it up so we can coordinate this shit? Thanks.' Then wait for things to move along quickly enough. As a general rule they'll agree to it, but there may still be some in person diplomacy. After all, people may want to meet you and get your measure in person. But regardless, you're a known hero who has fought the good fight and helped Celestia before. Another goodly venture is something they're unlikely to pass on, unless they see fatal flaws in it or parts that are genuinely against what Celestia stands for (somehow). You've established your rep with them, after all.

Returning to Node goals for a sec, I'd appreciate the means to clear up Elle's. I just don't get them, and your advice before was to spend time with NPCs with unclear goals. Which I've tried on several occasion, and even asked other NPCs for advice directly. Nothing really budged, so I'm down to asking Elle 'what do you want'. Since I didn't have such troubles with others, I'm asking for OOC guidance on this.

Simply put, a long talk with Elle and Donald about dragons. Elle's transformation is new to B6, so talking about that in depth was meant to be a framing thing, as well as establishing the relationship there. Bits and pieces of that have happened, but that one may change now anyway. I think enough has been shown that it's not strictly needed now, anyway.

Vayley is fun, clearing that goal made me so happy!

Glad to hear it. For all that she hasn't gotten a lot of discussion here, it was good to get done and get that sort of goal finished.

Chatting with Waukeen and Lathander was also pretty neat, and I was pleasantly surprised by Brothander's insights.

Lathander may be exactly what he is, but it's good to remember that also includes being really fucking bright (I'm not sorry) and insightful. It's good for him to remind everyone of that on occasion. He gets a bit of a reputation in setting for his ideas getting out of hand, so it's good to show the other side of it. FYI, Donald's flavor block in C&M was essentially working through the same reveals with Donald, just in a more indirect way.

You'll find a lot of the flavor blocks there are essentially presenting flavor in various games in different ways. In the same conversation, things from Queen Morwel's flavor block were mentioned. It's one of the ways I world build and keep my hand in various games.

With Amaryl, having things she finds important does work to show off her personality, but I was just thinking about this. Her goal is about a nice vacation, and you know something, that's perfectly okay. She can be overt about taking the time to stop in between crusades and smelling the flowers, that sort of thing. Donald complains about it a lot, and she is insistent upon it in interactions with him, but she could pull in that direction IC while with me as well. On reflection, there's really no need for me to act up on her Node goal, since she can pretty much drag me off on said vacation herself.

Agreed all around. I may change it anyway, as that hook hasn't really been baited and the underlying parts of it are time sensitive.

Since Emily is avoiding us I'll wait until she does something cool or initiates contact herself, however sad it makes me.

Funnily enough, I wanted to establish Emily before having her deal with you. Not out of anything malicious, just simply wanting to have her stand on her own before that. Find her independence, as it were. This naturally echoed in her desire to strike out on her own. That's in the cards some point fairly soon.

Mmm, that's fair, but I'd also like to point out that we've also sought all this out. While the other PCs can't exactly ask about strictly meta stuff like 'hey can you tell me if mythology is a lie', they do have their multiple ins with the deities of the setting. Investigating their bonds, Shar and what not is always an option. Alicia is investigating Eblis as part of the overarching plot, for example, but the same plot infodump included 'investigate Io sightings' and that's something Alyssa could follow up better than anyone. She could always contact her god, Waukeen or the Red Knight (or even myself) and go 'so hey I'm actually curious about this shit, do you know something? we could trade info here'. Or if she really doesn't have a clue why it's such a huge deal, try to get to the bottom of that.

Moore, for example, could contact Cresiel's dad or higher authorities in Celestia and ask for clarifications about Celestia's instructions and mandates to him. Tryll knows Renbuu and Morwel? Waukeen might've come to me, but I was going to see her as it is so she just beat me to it, and I'm seeking out Lathander and Mystra on my own initiative. In fact, I prefer hooks and openings to follow up on!

Oh, certainly so. I'm just saying, as the DM, I try and keep things balanced and all PCs involved in various plots and the like. It's one of those DMy things I keep in mind, rather than an indictment against anyone. Besides, the mere perception of the DM being like that can be helpful, the feeling that he's trying to keep things balanced for everyone, you know?

[Anastasia]

Seira, I'll deal with that spell later. In fact, do me a favor and repaste it a little later, once the back and forth of the weekly discussion is passed?  I'm mostly focusing on these right now and I don't want that lost in the shuffle.

[Anastasia]

The talk with Mystra was neat, clarified a few things and actually prompted me to go back and re-read that section from B1 where Eladi laid it all out on behalf of the Arbiter, which served to refocus things a bit in my head. Gotten a bit distracted with Shar in B6's plot that I'd lost sight of her really being the symptom more than the real threat herself. Finding the third will be the main priority! Of course not being able to talk to anyone about it makes things a bit tricky, and what feelers she was able to sneak into conversation with Mystra didn't really help confirm any of her going theories.

Indeed, that's part of the fun and the challenge. The real lion's work you two have to do here isn't something you can share. But anyway, agreed and it was a good way to refocus everything and get into a lot of the nitty-gritty of the setting. There's just one point you didn't make about the numerology there that I thought you might. Namely, if the Arbiter is an outside entity and not the Incarnation of Balance, then he would be a fourth.

Four is death, though one of the least represented numbers since death is ultimately transitory in the setting. Possibly ominous, possibly interesting and likely worth thinking about.

Giving Emmaline more screen-time was good, for all that it was a pretty depressing scenario. I had fun inventing some sort of slaad-based mishap for Marie and Antenora based on the prompt we got when we arrived though.

It really was, no argument there. Gotta establish Shar's bona fides for a new game, I think that covered it quite well.

Also Marie and Antenora's various adventures really tend to write themselves.

Gathgorian's a shit who desperately needs a pixie to pop up and shiv him. Except now Afina explicitly can never kill him unless she either ascends or borrows the Mask-god-slaying-sword. Giving up the horrible far realm sword continues to cause regrets, since I bet that would make it stick. Maybe she can steal 21 or Arondaaq or one of those other 'kill everything' weapons, there have to be a few of them laying around.

But those are pixie problems, not Alicia ones. She's just dismissing Gathgorian as beneath her for the most part. We'll see how Antenora putting her on the spot with Eblis like that pans out next week and if it opens any avenues.

Indeed. I personally was hoping Afina would rise up and finish Gathgorian, since the hints were abundantly clear that bad shit would happen if Gathgorian survived. Well, less hints and more divine word saying 'kill this motherfucker or you may regret this shit on the for real'. Not that I blame the party at all, just one of those choices that was entirely reasonable in context but had appreciable blowback.

[Nephrite]

For whatever it's worth, OOC I don't feel like I'm being left out of any specific conversations -- IC Moore understands that generally speaking, Celestia is going to give you a path to follow rather than put you at the end of it. He could press more for information on the vagaries he's getting, he just sees it as opportunities to learn and understand more by going through whatever the experience is rather than just the answer.

[Ebiris]

Indeed. I personally was hoping Afina would rise up and finish Gathgorian, since the hints were abundantly clear that bad shit would happen if Gathgorian survived. Well, less hints and more divine word saying 'kill this motherfucker or you may regret this shit on the for real'. Not that I blame the party at all, just one of those choices that was entirely reasonable in context but had appreciable blowback.

It feels a bit like being punished for success, or even worse being punished for having had an unbelievably truncated conclusion to the game.

Like I was very clear, Afina was going to kill the dude but she'd do it on her terms. She's an assassin, she'd go find him and gank him when he least expects it. Fronting up to the dude who's all about facerolling chaotics and shouting "1v1 me IRL dude!" isn't an approach likely to succeed in the best of circumstances.

And if we'd had a proper battle for Lifasa with different fronts and strategic choices and garrisons and fortifications and claiming ground over a prolonged period, she totally could've taken some time to go assassinate a dude when he least expects it.

Instead the entire thing takes place over 20 minutes during which Gathgorian can cheerfully sit in his pre-prepared killing ground waiting for Destiny to drag Afina onto his sword, knowing his presence is immaterial anywhere else on Lifasa and the Hell campaign won't suffer one jot for his absence from the overall conflict.

That Afina was running on fumes from being stupid enough to fight seriously during the Tiamat cutscene and then blowing all her high level slots trying to dispel Lixer's piece of shit spell just makes it worse. That she was able to to resist Destiny's pull and focus on getting the actual important job of freeing Lifasa done should be a triumph. It's like that time we blew up Lixer's fortress on vacuum, and instead of being able to enjoy our success we get told, "Ah, now there's evil ghosts all over vacuum, you fucked up!"

[Anastasia]

For whatever it's worth, OOC I don't feel like I'm being left out of any specific conversations -- IC Moore understands that generally speaking, Celestia is going to give you a path to follow rather than put you at the end of it. He could press more for information on the vagaries he's getting, he just sees it as opportunities to learn and understand more by going through whatever the experience is rather than just the answer.

Fair enough.

[Anastasia]

Indeed. I personally was hoping Afina would rise up and finish Gathgorian, since the hints were abundantly clear that bad shit would happen if Gathgorian survived. Well, less hints and more divine word saying 'kill this motherfucker or you may regret this shit on the for real'. Not that I blame the party at all, just one of those choices that was entirely reasonable in context but had appreciable blowback.

It feels a bit like being punished for success, or even worse being punished for having had an unbelievably truncated conclusion to the game.

Like I was very clear, Afina was going to kill the dude but she'd do it on her terms. She's an assassin, she'd go find him and gank him when he least expects it. Fronting up to the dude who's all about facerolling chaotics and shouting "1v1 me IRL dude!" isn't an approach likely to succeed in the best of circumstances.

And if we'd had a proper battle for Lifasa with different fronts and strategic choices and garrisons and fortifications and claiming ground over a prolonged period, she totally could've taken some time to go assassinate a dude when he least expects it.

Instead the entire thing takes place over 20 minutes during which Gathgorian can cheerfully sit in his pre-prepared killing ground waiting for Destiny to drag Afina onto his sword, knowing his presence is immaterial anywhere else on Lifasa and the Hell campaign won't suffer one jot for his absence from the overall conflict.

That Afina was running on fumes from being stupid enough to fight seriously during the Tiamat cutscene and then blowing all her high level slots trying to dispel Lixer's piece of shit spell just makes it worse. That she was able to to resist Destiny's pull and focus on getting the actual important job of freeing Lifasa done should be a triumph. It's like that time we blew up Lixer's fortress on vacuum, and instead of being able to enjoy our success we get told, "Ah, now there's evil ghosts all over vacuum, you fucked up!"

Pretty much. Look, I don't disagree with your critique there, I just don't have anything meaningful to add beyond lessons learned, y'know?

[Yuthirin]

Tryll

This week was basically a transitory week. Get info, talk to people, network and set up finding more on the grimoire. All entirely fair game and reasonable, just dragged ab it long due to the realities of Yuth and I's posting times. I really want to get a long posting streak with Yuth sometime, maybe a weekend thing if I feel rested one weekend. I want more of Tryll.

That would be nice.

That aside, I thought it was a good week for letting the characters just speak and bounce off each other. Bits like Benyen cheerfully going along with things or Dana and Miranda admiring Makaril without a shirt on? Those all felt like solid character work. Miranda, despite being an outsider, is fairly normal. She's relatable, not as devoted or dedicated as someone like Cresiel or Xandra. She's bouncing off Dana well, though in general the group's still finding its mojo for the combined party. That's fine, I think it's going well.

My concerns about Benyen's meshing aside, I like that Dana and Miranda aren't at each other's throats anymore. Disagreements I can tolerate, bbut infighting I have no patience for.

That 100 was pure bullshit. Geez. I mean it happened and Limbo is Limbo so whatever, but that's crazy luck. Congrats on a shortcut, Tryll. It's appropriate for randomness to bless or curse in Limbo, after all.

Limbo likes us! I warned you!

Also yeah, you really need someone who can cast greater plane shift or gate. Dana and Miranda can't, their builds just aren't right for it, but Benyen might be able to depending on how I set him up. Having to rely on reality revision for it is harsh on you without a doubt.

I'll be putting up a bunch of powers later today.

[Yuthirin]

Greater Dispel Psionics
Psychokinesis
Level: Psion/wilder 6
Display: Visual
Manifesting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Target or Area:   One manifester, creature, or object; or 20-ft.-radius burst
Duration: Instantaneous or 1d4 rounds; see text
Saving Throw: None
Power Resistance: No
Power Points: 11

This power functions like dispel psionics, except as shown in the augment below.

Augment
For every additional power point you spend, the bonus on your dispel check increases by 2 (to a maximum bonus of +40 for a 10-point expenditure).

Additionally, if 10 or more power points are spent, greater dispel psionics can dispel any effect that remove curse can remove.

[Yuthirin]

Echoing Implosion
Psychokinesis
Level: Psion/wilder 10, Kineticist 10
Display: Auditory and material
Mainfesting time: 1 standard round
Range: Medium :100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Area: One explosion in a 20 ft. radius.
Duration: Instantaneous.
Saving Throw: Reflex half; see text
Power Resistance: No
Power Points: 19

Upon manifesting this power, you choose cold, electricity, fire, or sonic. You create a single implosion, pulling said energy out of the surrounding area toward the power's epicenter. This implosion deals 10d10 damage to every creature and object in the specified area. The implosion creates a strong inward pressure, pulling loose objects and even creatures into the epicenter from up to 40 ft. away from the epicenter. Any creature or object that fails a reflex save to grab onto something to anchor it is pulled into the center of the implosion.

Augment
For every 4 additional power points you spend, the implosion occurs again. Any creature or object that has failed its Reflex save or was caught at the epicenter is expelled violently from the epicenter in a random direction, only to be immediately pulled back inside. The violent motion causes any creatures to become nauseated. Additionally, the power's DC increases by 1 for every echo caused.

[Yuthirin]

Temporal Stabilization
Psychoportation
Level: Psion/wilder 11
Display: Olfactory
Manifesting Time: 1 standard action
Range: 100 ft. radius centered on you
Target: Self
Duration: 5 rounds
Saving Throw: None
Power Resistance: None, see text
Power Points: 21

This power creates a field centered on you that prevents all forms of temporal manipulation. Powers like time hop, temporal acceleration, and spells like time stop fail to function. Any spell-like abilities or the abilities of creatures like quaruts are similarly suppressed by this field. This can be overcome by an opposed caster level check against that of the manifestor.

Augment
For every 4 additional power points you spend, the duration of this power is extended by 1 round.