DM Nagging: It's pretty much my job

[Anastasia]

I'll reply more fully in the morning, but for now I'll say I generally keep abreast of the other ones but don't read every post.

Fair enough, I'll reserve comment for more complete commentary in the morning.

[Corwin]

Weekly Roundup (Aug 20th-26th)

Seira

A strong week.

First of all, I felt the Zariel situation resolved as well as it could have. There were all sorts of ways that could have gone, but ultimately both you and Seira found the right words and deeds to get through to her. That was a goal accomplished, even if like Antenora, much remains to be done after that initial breakthrough. I think by now one can begin to see a trend with the Fallen (and those of evil disposition who are sufficiently wise and self aware), the sheer sorrow that they labor under. While from a cosmological standpoint good and evil are balanced, otherwise the entire point of Creation would be answered, morally and emotionally they are not.

Yes, it's a paste. The peril of crossing nodes over.

You could've at least swapped the names in the paste so it read 'you and Alicia' instead of 'you and Seira'.  >_>

Aside from that, I enjoyed the Zariel scenes. A shame she decided to go to Alicia first, but hey, Alicia actually had forests at the time and she did take my idea for the first trip. I was pleasantly surprised at how well things went, but that can happen. We'll keep at it!

A bit of miscommunication aside, I liked how you expanded the Cauldron. Taking notes from Aurora makes sense for Seira, she's always been big on synthesizing what she's seen and putting her own spin on it. Incidentally, Waukeen's due for congratulations, this got delayed due to the looming meet up with Alyssa. Don't hold this one against her, it was a DM decision for the sake of making times work. She'll be sending you warm fuzzies once that's done, as I didn't want to make it a one off line when Sharess and Mystra were dropping in for appearances.

Yeah. I was somewhat annoyed that I had to keep describing the same thing several times in slightly different words, and some of the disconnect was because I asked you a few weeks ago about whether I could expand the Cauldron and you said sure, it's your divine realm. So it didn't feel like this huge thematic once in a lifetime PC opportunity, you know? That said! I was really amused that I took the opposite stance from Alicia. I'll aim for a 'more real' divine realm eventually, but for now I decided to seal things up and make it more wondrous as preparation with folded space and mini-realms that might or might not have holodecks and helpful AI.

So much mileage out of that shitty wizard from the end of B1!

Anyways, I have plans here, whether they pan out is something to check back on circa DvR 6.

The bit with Mystra was really enjoyable. I liked how you two interacted, just talking about things and seeing what could be done. The fact that the Initiate of Mystra feat (I think that's it, not checking books at the moment) was mentioned and noted as being rare is intentional. That feat's very much a sign of Mystra's favor as the benefit it gives is a huge deal in setting. I liked the idea of showing Mystra some of Calley's notes, though that one was considered ahead of time. Still, I thought it made sense to try and you got something out of it.

Mmm, I'd actually like to see what I got from the notes. Do I need to look IC?

I had fun chatting Mystra up, and felt welcome enough to return. I've been wondering whether I could for a while, and it's nice to see confirmation. We haven't really interacted much before, and that's a shame since I'm all about the magic and its manipulation.

Dropping into Alicia's party was fun and I think you spent just the right amount of time there. I don't have much to say here - I enjoyed it, it was fun but ultimately it did exactly what it needed to.

Syala invited me for a visit so I visited! We'll have some proper party together another time.

Finally, I'm still not saying much about Seira and Alyssa due to spoiler reasons. I will say this about Emily - sometimes, for all a teenager kicks and has issues, they still want a mother's affection and love. Emily's story is very much a story of a teenager searching for adulthood through insecurities and the struggles there, mixed with the simple reality that she'll never be a normal teenager. She's far too much and far too powerful for that.

If she's still uncertain of ours we must've done something wrong.

DM Notes

I'm holding up pretty well right now, though I'm still targeting a week off in September. I'm not sure when yet, probably mid month pending work getting even worse. I need some DM time as well as some time to legitimately hit the job hunt. I'd also like to get a booster out for epic spells, but we'll see how that goes.

Please remember to be wary of the secret slaad.

-Vayley isn't secret.
-I've got a lot of holidays in September, the start of it is actually better since the second half I'll be home a lot. If that matters for when you plan time off, Dune, of course.

Alyssa

Past that it's all about Seira and Alyssa chatting with a side of Emily. I can't say a lot here - and both yours and Seira's roundup are gonna be shorter on account of that - since it's ongoing and spoilers, but I've mostly given you two a chance to talk. PCs (Seira and Alicia aside since past history) don't meet often in this game, so I'm letting you two be center stage here as I have when other PCs meet (this also doesn't apply to Seira and Alicia since past history as well). I've made a point to have Amaryl had some comments here, but by and large Agathiel and Vayley have been on the quiet side for this reason. That's a deliberate DM choice for the sake of letting PCs have the spotlight.

Just one comment there. I felt the opposite for much of the scene thus far.
Interacting with Alyssa worked very well pretty much from the start, and the Emily chat is still ongoing but I think might be on the right track. In any case, Emily could stay a bit after Alyssa leaves so they don't even need to be in sync, and I like having the opportunity.

On the downside, and the reason I felt opposite is that it's all taking in a white room with cardboard extras. I set up the scene, but it wasn't really commented on. Incidentally, it hit upon what Emily, Alyssa and Jeram were talking about recently (I agree that it's a luxury with Jeram!) but it really slid by quietly. There were no real descriptions from the GM, and other than Vayley bringing in soup once and Agatha speaking up when I urged this directly, we were largely left alone in that white room.

I really thought that a special scene of two PCs meeting outside regular gaming hours could've had more GM attention to it, and if the problem was split attention from running other Nodes concurrently, well... there's an easy fix for that, isn't there? I wouldn't have begrudged it had the situation been reversed.

General thoughts: Very good week, enjoyed most of what happened. Got plans upon plans, will do more! Please let me follow through on 'research' stuff more, be it via studying Mystra's notes or having Sanzha and Syala involved IC in cool behemoth stuff.

[Corwin]

Also, a general question for everyone. How much of other people's nodes do you read and keep up with? There's no right or wrong answer, I'm merely curious.

I usually read with a considerable delay. There are exceptions, like when I'm interacting with someone.

[Ebiris]

Lots of text this week, as this was a big week for you.

This was a good week. First of all, I felt the Zariel situation resolved as well as it could have. There were all sorts of ways that could have gone, but ultimately both you and Seira found the right words and deeds to get through to her. That was a goal accomplished, even if like Antenora, much remains to be done after that initial breakthrough. I think by now one can begin to see a trend with the Fallen (and those of evil disposition who are sufficiently wise and self aware), the sheer sorrow that they labor under. While from a cosmological standpoint good and evil are balanced, otherwise the entire point of Creation would be answered, morally and emotionally they are not.

The expansion of Sylica was excellent. I was happy with that description you dropped, it was well done and showed Sylica's apotheosis into a true divine realm of Ysgard. There was a sense of gravitas to it, the sort of raw power and divinity that you're supposed to have in those sort of scenes. I was going to give you a nudge in that direction if needed, but you worked it out by yourself and knocked it out. It's a nice sense of progression to match your ascension to DvR2.

Anyway, Zariel chat afterwards was okay, but it was becoming more and more obvious she needed some personal time.

Finally, the beach scene has been nice. It's been pure character work and character work that I've felt was needed, along with a splash of highly relevant introspection and discussion over the ongoing plot. Sometimes you need those scenes where everyone's being themselves and bouncing off one another. The plot relevant stuff merely helps keep it interesting and progress the story a little bit on the side.

As an aside less to you and more in general, it's always interesting to see deities when they show their human side. B6 lets that happen, which is both new and interesting. There were a few tiny hints of this in B1 and B3, but by and large it's been out of bounds.

I was quite pleased with the Sylica expansion stuff. It wasn't super-detailed but it covered what it needed to in a nicely majestic fashion. Also nice that it happened now after Antenora's ascension so she got to take part in it, which solidifies her role in the triumverate. And yeah, got some interesting stuff out of Zariel after but it was pretty clear she'd be best off having some time to herself to decompress for a while.

The beach stuff was nice, it probably would've been pretty boring if Mystra and Sharess hadn't shown up since there's not much new ground to cover with that group. Was mostly thinking it'd just be a quiet little bit of celebrating and relaxing, but we got more mileage from having the other deities show.

Also, a general question for everyone. How much of other people's nodes do you read and keep up with? There's no right or wrong answer, I'm merely curious.

I usually read new posts for all of them as they come in.

[Nephrite]

Moore

This was also a good week.

First of all, the trip up to the Bridge of Al-Sihal was solid. It wasn't a lot - I don't try to overdo it all the time there, since that sort of transcendence is beyond any words to portray. The DM can try, but ultimately we aren't equipped with words to adequately describe something as absolute and miraculous as Chronias. Now destroying the wand was surprisingly easy and that was on purpose. You all are epic characters and not just barely epic characters. At this point you have deep resources and access to things lesser characters don't. Likewise, some trials they have shouldn't apply to you or sometimes be easily solved. So thus the wand was consumed by the light of Chronias, never to be seen again.

Before going on, one quote of Xerona's is worth mentioning: "You'll meet her again before the end." As you may recall, Sylvie's last words before leaving in B3 were the following: "We'll see each other again before the end, Moore. Be strong." Oftentimes, important comments or sentiments are echoed repeatedly in Balmuria - it's one of the way things work. This can vary from general ideas to exact quotations. One current example is hope, that's come up quite a bit from the end of B3 onward. Generally, the more precisely a comment is repeated, the more important it is. One example from B3: '21 is the key to everything. 21 can destroy the Child of Lifasa, Abigor and even Bel. 21 is a battle for a soul.' This one repeated a few times, including when the Child of Lifasa arrived at Aurora. When you see this sort of thing, it's usually a sign to pay attention.

The rest of the business around Mount Celestia was enjoyable but not dreadfully remarkable. As mentioned in chat (and I think you missed this one, Moore), those sort of characters like Pactpeace mean something. There's so many stories going in Creation, and while the PCs have important ones, they're never the only ones. Sometimes you brush against stories that have nothing to do with you. It's always worth keeping that in mind and it also helps give things more depth and feeling of being alive.

Finally, Villisa will drop in and be Villisa. Poor Cresiel.

I enjoyed going back and paying homage to everyone who helped Moore before he really had any sense of himself. I doubt he's going to be recruiting an Authority or anything, but this is helping him kind of set groundwork for himself. He feels like he does still need to get stronger and pursuing the path of an Authority may be one way to do it.

Curious as to what happened to Iris, but if he really wants to find out he can try and track her down, unless she passed over to Chronias, of course.

I do want to take the team out for another spin at more evil bad dudes, but doing so right this second may not be the wisest idea since we know there's an Elite Team of Evildoers ready to pounce on us when we go somewhere.

[Anastasia]

The Spell Collection has been further improved. There is now a list of epic domain spells in this post, as well as the beginnings of an updated epic spell lists for bards, paladins and rangers.

http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php/topic,103075.msg1050497.html#msg1050497

[Anastasia]

You could've at least swapped the names in the paste so it read 'you and Alicia' instead of 'you and Seira'.  >_>

I thought I caught all those. Alas.

Aside from that, I enjoyed the Zariel scenes. A shame she decided to go to Alicia first, but hey, Alicia actually had forests at the time and she did take my idea for the first trip. I was pleasantly surprised at how well things went, but that can happen. We'll keep at it!

It was a nice surprise all around. Dealing with that sort of creature can easily go wrong, but fortunately you do found the right words and the right strategies.

Yeah. I was somewhat annoyed that I had to keep describing the same thing several times in slightly different words, and some of the disconnect was because I asked you a few weeks ago about whether I could expand the Cauldron and you said sure, it's your divine realm. So it didn't feel like this huge thematic once in a lifetime PC opportunity, you know? That said! I was really amused that I took the opposite stance from Alicia. I'll aim for a 'more real' divine realm eventually, but for now I decided to seal things up and make it more wondrous as preparation with folded space and mini-realms that might or might not have holodecks and helpful AI.

Well, the entire point of that was 'you went up in divine rank, have a special chance to improve things with prodding and a thematic reason to do so', which is more important than getting up one morning, scratching yourself and changing how things work there.

That aside, I think both approaches are entirely valid. It is your divine realm, you can do whatever you want with it as long as it doesn't break the few rules those have. I like the contrast the realms have, as I was expecting you to expand for lands outside of the actual volcano rather than expanding that.

Anyways, I have plans here, whether they pan out is something to check back on circa DvR 6.

What plans do you have, anyway?

Mmm, I'd actually like to see what I got from the notes. Do I need to look IC?

Go ahead and do so at some point, yes. I did some clarification for Moore and he has a quest out of it, you have a hunk of the 777 parts needed.

I had fun chatting Mystra up, and felt welcome enough to return. I've been wondering whether I could for a while, and it's nice to see confirmation. We haven't really interacted much before, and that's a shame since I'm all about the magic and its manipulation.

It's like Alicia and Waukeen. I'd like them to interact some, I think there's potential there, but I try to keep them more focused on their respective protege. It's mostly a conservation of time, details and DMing effort there. Also, there's a sense of keeping every node their own selection of characters that focus on them. They cross over occasionally, but by and large it's meant to have certain characters orbiting certain nodes.

Syala invited me for a visit so I visited! We'll have some proper party together another time.

Sounds good.

If she's still uncertain of ours we must've done something wrong.

Nah.

Emily's finding her way and part of that is blundering around. It's entirely normal for her age. Being a teenager does strange things to your mental state, she'll sort it out in time.

-Vayley isn't secret.

Vayley also isn't the secret slaad.

-I've got a lot of holidays in September, the start of it is actually better since the second half I'll be home a lot. If that matters for when you plan time off, Dune, of course.

What extra days off do you have? Lemme know, planning better never hurts.

Just one comment there. I felt the opposite for much of the scene thus far.
Interacting with Alyssa worked very well pretty much from the start, and the Emily chat is still ongoing but I think might be on the right track. In any case, Emily could stay a bit after Alyssa leaves so they don't even need to be in sync, and I like having the opportunity.

Fair enough, Emily might linger a bit then depending on how things go, hash that out. I'll see how that conversation works out, but that's a solid plan.

On the downside, and the reason I felt opposite is that it's all taking in a white room with cardboard extras. I set up the scene, but it wasn't really commented on. Incidentally, it hit upon what Emily, Alyssa and Jeram were talking about recently (I agree that it's a luxury with Jeram!) but it really slid by quietly. There were no real descriptions from the GM, and other than Vayley bringing in soup once and Agatha speaking up when I urged this directly, we were largely left alone in that white room.

In my defense, I was away for a chunk of it and y'all went back and forth. I can't interject and add things if I'm not there. That's just RL being RL though, but fair enough.

I really thought that a special scene of two PCs meeting outside regular gaming hours could've had more GM attention to it, and if the problem was split attention from running other Nodes concurrently, well... there's an easy fix for that, isn't there? I wouldn't have begrudged it had the situation been reversed.

Well, the thing is when that happens, I mostly let the PCs have the posting and the focus. I'll see about adding more the next time it happens, though, and for whatever's left of this one.

General thoughts: Very good week, enjoyed most of what happened. Got plans upon plans, will do more! Please let me follow through on 'research' stuff more, be it via studying Mystra's notes or having Sanzha and Syala involved IC in cool behemoth stuff.

Sure. The best thing you can do there is poke me about it when I ask you for next move. That makes my job easier and reminds me of all the things going on, those need focus right now.

[Anastasia]

Also, a general question for everyone. How much of other people's nodes do you read and keep up with? There's no right or wrong answer, I'm merely curious.

I usually read with a considerable delay. There are exceptions, like when I'm interacting with someone.

Good to know, thanks.

[Anastasia]

I was quite pleased with the Sylica expansion stuff. It wasn't super-detailed but it covered what it needed to in a nicely majestic fashion. Also nice that it happened now after Antenora's ascension so she got to take part in it, which solidifies her role in the triumvirate. And yeah, got some interesting stuff out of Zariel after but it was pretty clear she'd be best off having some time to herself to decompress for a while.

I like the idea of making Sylica a triumvirate. It's always three.

You didn't need that much detail, you just needed the intent and in the way you presented it. So that worked nicely. That aside, Zariel needs some time to sort her head out by herself, that's expected and normal. If she was on Celestia, she'd probably end up spending a good while wandering Solania by herself. Same basic idea there.

The beach stuff was nice, it probably would've been pretty boring if Mystra and Sharess hadn't shown up since there's not much new ground to cover with that group. Was mostly thinking it'd just be a quiet little bit of celebrating and relaxing, but we got more mileage from having the other deities show.

That was the intent, yeah. Like anyone, deities have things only other deities understand. They talk about these things when they're by themselves, like with oblivious mortals asking for aid and completely missing that aid.

I usually read new posts for all of them as they come in.

Good to know x2.

[Anastasia]

I enjoyed going back and paying homage to everyone who helped Moore before he really had any sense of himself. I doubt he's going to be recruiting an Authority or anything, but this is helping him kind of set groundwork for himself. He feels like he does still need to get stronger and pursuing the path of an Authority may be one way to do it.

Well, becoming an Authority is a bit of a trick. Would you like to know more?

I do want to take the team out for another spin at more evil bad dudes, but doing so right this second may not be the wisest idea since we know there's an Elite Team of Evildoers ready to pounce on us when we go somewhere.

Good luck with them. More importantly, have plans ready to go.

[Anastasia]

Going over everyone's to do lists.

Alicia.

Why is this space blank? What are you even doing with your life Alicia?!

Ahahahahhahahahaha.

Find Io. This is probably more Seira's thing, since dragon.

Indeed. At least there's a hint of progress there.

Find 21. Keep an eye on Syvlie's son, maybe that'll spring a lead?

So he did. Are you doing anything else with him right now?

Look into that behemoth research Seira got. Syala's probably good for that, and she'd love giant cats.

Syala'll be dropping in for that in a little while.

Keep an eye on that super-competent child in Balmuria. Someone will probably want to use/corrupt/recruit him!

You could fold this into the other Calley one.

[Anastasia]

Moore doesn't have one, though he's also pretty on the ball with things so it hasn't been a huge deal.

[Anastasia]

Tryll

Makaril has information on a psionic grimoire! What the heck!? Someone help me decode this thing. It's got a mind of its own and is terrible at naming things!

It really is. It's a willful grimoire on top of it, there may be a reason it was forgotten. Grumble, grumble.

It's time to make our own Medicant. With blackjack and lasers! Also, it needs to be made out of crystal, shoot lightning, and look like a giant flying brain. Because REASONS.

So what you're saying is you want Medicant with Canderella attached, right?

Baby psychic squids are happening! Yay!

Those could use a dropin once you have some free time.

We're gonna need a team! Let's start with a dedicated scout! The planes are an ever-changing place and we need to keep our finger on the pulse! This'll be a non-combat role, so we should get plenty of takers! Someone like Tannin!

Miranda can cover some scouty things, though not the things you're thinking of, I think.

[Anastasia]

Alyssa

Gith diplo.

At some point, yes.

Ooze. Get the ship. Want it.

Done, should be crossed out or removed, since you cleared that out.

Delaize blinded/cursed.

Likewise, I think this topic's due for a freshening up.

[Nephrite]

Well, becoming an Authority is a bit of a trick. Would you like to know more?

Sure. i imagine it isn't just a "wave your hand a boom there it is" but it's definitely on his mind.