[Hourglass of Zihaja D&D 4e] Heroes on a Sea of Swords OOC II

[Chambers]

I'll vote for option 1 or 2. They're special missons. Jalil didn't sign up to fight in the war like regular sailors.

[Chambers]

Double post to fix the error.

[Shadow_Elf]

Well, the war-related option is specifically headhunting, not front-line soldier-sailing.

[Chambers]

True, but hunting the Named Powers sounds more exotic, and thus more interesting to her. She also wants to learn more about the Powers.

[Scylfing]

Medinah would want to vote for door number 1, since she views the Thematically Named Pirates as the most direct and immediate threat to the Captain and the ship; however, since Rahman knows the location for door number 2, it makes a lot of sense to go for that one first.

[Shadow_Elf]

Alright, here are the three options. If I can get everyone's OOC preference, I will narrate an IC justification for that choice and then speed things along to the next important scene.

1: Hunt down the Pirate Lord of Fear.
2: Look for the cipher component in Ilud.
3: Hunt for your She-Da-Zhong targets.
4: Some fourth option we haven't fully considered.

[Reverent-One]

Originally Posted by Shadow_Elf

Alright, here are the three options. If I can get everyone's OOC preference, I will narrate an IC justification for that choice and then speed things along to the next important scene.

1: Hunt down the Pirate Lord of Fear.
2: Look for the cipher component in Ilud.
3: Hunt for your She-Da-Zhong targets.
4: Some fourth option we haven't fully considered.

Option 2 for me.

[Dekkah]

I am up for anything, but my vote is for number 2 :).

[ninja_penguin]

Hey everybody. Just letting people know that I should be back to normal on Monday for all things.

(cue my new router exploding, or something, on Sunday night)

[Shadow_Elf]

Alright, the general trend appears to be towards option 2, looking back through everyone's previous posts. I will push the game forward to that end tomorrow night; if you'd like to post an idea to the contrary, try to do so before then.

[Shadow_Elf]

Alright, once we have wrapped up this scene, which will just take a few responses to the captain for character consistency's sake, I'll do a sweeping narration and a cutscene or two in a big megapost sometime this weekend.

Does anyone want to do anything specific in the City of God, or can I skip it during the narration in favour of ending on the first decision point?

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Originally Posted by Shadow_Elf

Does anyone want to do anything specific in the City of God, or can I skip it during the narration in favour of ending on the first decision point?

I'm fine with skipping the touristy part in the City of God.

GW

[Reverent-One]

Same here.

[ninja_penguin]

Drive by posting just to let people know that my real life insanity has finally calmed down, and I should be back Sunday night or Monday to some semblance or normalcy.

[Scylfing]

Cool, welcome back. I was starting to wonder if you'd been Tang-ified like your avatar.

Shadow_Elf, when you do your sweeping narration if you could add a small bit in there where Medinah talks privately with Shaur and Kalam about what she learned from Vertasi, that'd be helpful. Otherwise I'm fine with skipping the touristy bits.

[Shadow_Elf]

Perhaps that'd be better handled via PMs, Scyl. Feel free to fire me one at any time and we'll run that scene that way.

[Scylfing]

Sure, that'll be fine. It'll give me an excuse to clean out my PM box.

[Shadow_Elf]

Alright everyone, roll initiative! Something fun's about to happen .

I hope you enjoy the cutscene, and that you don't use the metaknowledge to your advantage too much. If I feel that the game is being steered away from certain decisions based on information gained from such cutscenes, I'll stop writing them or make them less plot-relevant. But I really enjoyed writing this post, and I know you're all great players, so I hope we can separate player and character knowledge and I'll get to keep enjoying writing little scenes like this in the future. Enjoy!

[Chambers]

Nice execution.

Init (1d20+7)[8]

[Scylfing]

Clearly a sign that Medinah needs to be more ruthless.

Initiative: (1d20+8)[19]

[Dekkah]

Sorry for my lack of reply, I had no time this week end.

Alvah would had probably kicked back and listen to everyone to discern their personnality.



Initiative : (1D20+8)[17]

[Chambers]

Interested to see what's going to happen. This is my first time seeing an Elementalist in play so I'm curious to see how the class performs. I feel that she'll do well; she's a striker with a splash of control, useful in pretty much any combat.

As an aside, I enjoyed reading the time skip.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Originally Posted by Chambers

she's a striker with a splash of control, useful in pretty much any combat.

Amirah is a controller with a splash of striking, so this could be amusing.

Initiative Amirah - (1d20+8)[28]
And another high initiative roll. Well, it goes with Amirah being the one with, literally, a thousand eyes out for trouble. And that's not even counting the compound ones as more than one.

Grey Wolf

[Shadow_Elf]

Alright, here's our initiative order. I am going to try doing the real initiative model; since I've found combat slow even with group initiative, I figure it can't really slow it down much more. If it doesn't work well, we'll go back to group initiative next combat.

Kihtsah Initiative: (1d20+12)[16]
Rahman Initiative: (1d20+9)[21]

Order:

Spoiler

????: 35
????: 28+
Amirah: 28-
Rahman: 21
????: 19+
Medinah: 19-
Alvah: 17
Kihtsah: 16
Jalil: 9

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Originally Posted by Shadow_Elf

Alright, here's our initiative order. I am going to try doing the real initiative model; since I've found combat slow even with group initiative, I figure it can't really slow it down much more. If it doesn't work well, we'll go back to group initiative next combat.

I have to say that I wasn't a great believer in individual initiative for PbP, but the last few games I joined have been using it and, indeed, it does not noticeably slow down combat more than using group initiative. In fact, I thought we had been using individual initiative in the last combat...

Besides, given how fast these guys are, it is practically a group initiative battle. Are you working on the first battle post right now? Or will it take a few days to set up?

Thanks,

Grey Wolf

[Shadow_Elf]

Originally Posted by Grey_Wolf_c

I have to say that I wasn't a great believer in individual initiative for PbP, but the last few games I joined have been using it and, indeed, it does not noticeably slow down combat more than using group initiative. In fact, I thought we had been using individual initiative in the last combat...

Besides, given how fast these guys are, it is practically a group initiative battle. Are you working on the first battle post right now? Or will it take a few days to set up?

Thanks,

Grey Wolf

Working on the first post, but I am still setting it up and making rolls and whatnot. Expect the start of combat post tomorrow evening.

[Shadow_Elf]

IC Post is up! Amirah's turn is now, followed by Rahman.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Good grief. Poor Figment. My action will come in a second; first I need to see how many spoilers I can open:

Nature - (1d20+18)[27]

Grey Wolf

[Shadow_Elf]

I forgot to mention it in the IC post (since I made that post in several chunks, and forgot some things in between edits), but the dragon who used its breath weapon (#2) is 3 squares up in the air. This will be reflected in status and map in future. Sorry for the mix-up, Grey.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Originally Posted by Shadow_Elf

I forgot to mention it in the IC post (since I made that post in several chunks, and forgot some things in between edits), but the dragon who used its breath weapon (#2) is 3 squares up in the air. This will be reflected in status and map in future. Sorry for the mix-up, Grey.

I'll need to rewrite my turn, then. It'll have to wait until morning. My actions instead are:

Standard: Swarming Locusts (area, targeted one square above us so it doesn't hit any of us, southwards so it hits dragon 3). I assume I reuse the roll I did, so 26 vs. Reflex. Damage is 1d8+10, so 15. Creates a zone UEMNT: all enemies in the zone grant CA.

Let me know if it hits so I can at least work that into the new post.

Free: Wild shape into humanoid, shift to H15, +1AC +1Ref (and still next to Figment, so I get her bonus as well)

Grey Wolf