Forgotten Realms: Skyfire Saga - Discussion (what do the players wishto do next)

[Arnu]

You last bond to your slave past has been broken.

You are in Juudace's Earth Node home.

What would you like to do next?

Please let me know what your characters would like to do and like to achieve.

[Snakes in the Tiki Lounge]

In general I love the idea of having and developing a base. But to be quite honest, I don't think we really have the strength, resources, or abilities to make proper use of the sky-mote right now. It would be an idea high-heroic, paragon tier base, and is possibly something we should just kind of keep track of. Touch base with now and then, you know?

Especially because having a vaguely friendly dragon aquaintance can't be a bad thing.

Otherwise, I'm quite happy to go with the obvious route and give the Cult of Tiamat a bit of a kicking. They crossed our paths, we should beat them up, convince them that their plans are going to come to nothing, and disperse them.

They seem quite fanatical, but at the end of the day any such cult is no-where near entirely 100% true believers. If we can thwart/negate the main leader types, then the rest would likely lose the impetus to do anything pretty quickly. Tiamat tends to advocate rule-by-strength, so it seems the appropriate tact to take.

But I'm more than open to discussion on this, and we do explictely have the entire realms as our plaything, so what do the rest of you think?

[Dat]

i mostly agree, but would like a list of the problems we would have making the floating island ours. Because i want a floating island and i want to know what problems we may have to overcome. Also, what did the cult of tiamat do to us? I have a hard time hearing things sometimes cos people have other conversations at the table and i cant concentrate.

[Snakes in the Tiki Lounge]

Cult of Tiamat? Well, they offended several of us with their clearly wicked ways!   And shoddy animal welfare standards, too.

Seriously though, they did little directly to us, this would very much be us pro-actively taking an iniative. They are wicked and dedicated enough that they fought to the last man, and are clearly planning something in the region.

Especially if we wish to eventually consider the floaty-rock home, they will be a problem eventually, the choice is whether we deal with it now, before they've really got a chance to learn of our involvement or seriously prepare for resistance, or later, at a time and place of their choosing?

Speaking of defences, that's also one of the main issues with the Mote.

- We have no way of getting their on our own. At best, we might be able to use the portal network via keystones.
- The Mote is linked to a large network of portals. This would allow us to travel widely, BUT it also means that there are basically more ways into the Mote than we could possibly investigate or secure, and so we must rely on defences inside the Mote. Andy has kindly given us a Stargate style defensive wall, that rises infront of the Gate itself, however the sheer number of ways that could in theory be defeated is truly mind boggling. Ranging from phasing creatures, to any one of several rituals. Any time that the gate is NOT barred, it is vulnerable. It's entirely possible that not only enemies, but even simply random creatures or unscrupulous murdering-hobos(adventurers) could just wander through.

- No one even knows how many of the portals in the network possibly remain intact and working. Likewise, if you have the right rituals, you don't even need to use a portal linked to the network. Effectively, all you'd need is to know about it, and you could get there from anywhere in the world, or possibly in the entire plane-scape. 

- If the wizard didn't build it, who did? Might they want it back?

- There is a huuuuge drop. At our level and with our resources, the best we can hope to do if we fall or get dropped off is that the energy-net works, and wait for the dragon to notice that we need fetching. If the net doesn't work, it's new-character time, basically, because there's flat out nothing that most of us could do about that.

- Over-reliance on the dragon. We'd be dependant on her for anything other than going in and out of the portal, from actual defence to simple transport.

- We'd draw attention to the Dragon, possibly exasperating the existing defence issues and putting her and coppertooth at risk.

- We'd only be able to return by standing underneath the mote and shouting really loudly, or using another portal. So unless we are near an undefended, safe portal, we can't go home to change our socks.

- We completely lack the resources to actually add to, modify, or significantly improve the Mote's security in any meaningful way.

I'd say, basically, the resources available to a paragon tier character would easily make securing the mote possible, and further, allow us to genuinely use it as a base. We could possibly begin outfitting and securing it from any time after level 4, providing at least one of us picks up the relevant magic item enchanting and transfering rituals. This would become genuinely workable from about level 6, when we can pick up disenchant (to turn unwanted magic items into fuel for creating things for the lair, rather than purely relying on our own gold).

By high heroic, we've a shot at having flying mounts. (Camel or otherwise), which would allow us to actually journey to and from it without waking Mommy Dragon somehow or managing to find the correct portal.

If we go out into the world under our own steam, we're so much more likely to learn to stand on our own two feat than if we take the opportunity to have a hidey hole and powerful ally at our constant beck and call. by the time we've done a few things, we'll be much closer to the point where we can genuinely make use of the location, rather than risk it making use of us.

Well, that's my 2cents, and what springs to mind. I've enough ranks in Spot DM Hint to know that Andy very much has given us a base, and is unlikely to actively use it just to screw us over while our characters are in the magi-bath, but that doesn't mean we should proceed without honest caution.

[Dat]

Ok, the island is a long term goal. Giving cult of tiamat followers a thick ear and some animal welfare lectures in the mean time.

[Arnu]

So does anyone else have anything to add to the discussion or have anything they want to ask me?

On another note, just to remind Simon, Chris, Stacey, Vince, Bob & Michelle that their characters are now Level 2.

Everyone has 520 gp to spend on equipment or magical items (any money left over can be kept as coins or gems).

Also you may want to choose an item of legacy for your character (this is a signature magical item that increases in level with your chartacter). 

Those who do choose an item of legacy please let me know

[Slatie]

Ok, the island is a long term goal. Giving cult of tiamat followers a thick ear and some animal welfare lectures in the mean time.

You missed of 'A Harsh Leaflet Campain' and sending them to bed without their tea!

I'm guessing the 'Cult of Tiamt' will take some time to clear up so that would be my choice.  With the intention of returning to the Island when we're done.

[morgalahan]

Okay, well, for my part, messing with the cult doesnt really appeal to me, since there's not much about it that makes any impact on my characters. Unless we go off and kill Tiamat herself, there's always GOING to be a cult of tiamat wandering around doing nasty things. We may as well go tangle with the cult of Bane, or the priesthood of Shar for all the difference its going to make. We have the entirety of the Realms to explore, why stick around here?

My other problem, and something I usually have a problem with, is the reason for us to be together at all. Lets face it, it's not like we've done much roleplaying with our characters together to make us feel more like a cohesive group at all. You all may be used to the sort of playing where there's not as much roleplaying and more 'get-thru-the-dungeon-alive' sort of things, but I'm not. Our characters are people in a world, not simply game mechanics. They need reasons for what they do. We've all been through a traumatic experience, but I wouldnt say 'together' since there hasnt been much roleplaying to indicate the 'together' part. We just happened to all be in the same situation and needed to work together to get out of it. Now we're out of that situation, we have no real reason to stick together. There arent any relationships between our characters, of any kind. Where we are now is the end of the story, where all the characters go their separate ways, since the main quest is over.

I'm not really concerned with the mote, portals, or cults. What I want is something from the players who're playing this game with me, a reason for being a group.

[Arnu]

You all get to choose what your characters wish to do.

I suggest that the next session be a planning and in character conversations.

There are options for the characters to split up (this is difficult to run but not impossible).

Remember your characters are free.  What do they want to do?

[Snakes in the Tiki Lounge]

I have no difficulty personally with justifying why my character would want to stay with the group, and feel that he has indeed made some (Albeit cautious) links with the others. I won't go into it, though.
As for targeting this particular cult of tiamat, and the usefulness of doing so, well, he has his own private thoughts on that, too.

It relates to his long-term goals, as well as to his general ethos and to his past.

I think, insomuch as I have a point at all, it is to say that I understand your position, but it cuts both ways, and a lot of the responsability for making such a grouping work falls on the Players themselves, both in and out of character, and in relation to the type of characters they want to play.

For example, the scoundrel who prefers to work alone, or the reluctant hero who just wants to settle down and start a pig-farm are both interesting archetypes to explore, but can prove disruptive in certain groups and certain campaigns. In those cases, the players should be sure to work out ahead of time ways that the Character can be encouraged to stick about and actually contribute to the game, rather than merely rely on forcing the other players to cajole, bully and force them to not wander off. etc.

So... Why WOULD your character choose a life of adventure, then?

[morgalahan]

EDIT: This was written before Tiki's post and was posted after.

Bad idea, bad bad.

Let me put it to you this way.

(taken from my characters knowledge)

We are a rough group of utterly random people who were slaves together. There is a human spellcaster with us called Apollyon, whos a bit quiet and keeps to himself. There's a large human farmer called Grim, who's jovial and seems good natured. There's a fire genasi along who seems to have a slave-freeing agrenda. Theres a strange human woman with us who seems a bit 'outgoing', there's a completely simple minded elf with us and lastly, the man we met on the side of the road, oh sorry, in the desert.

None of us have really spoken to eachother much, or so much as swapped stories, aside from Grim. We havent bonded at all really, were all snatched from out normal lives and now have the chance to go back to them. Explain to me why these characters wouldnt?

From my side, the main story hook my character's been given is that she's now a druid, and doesnt know the first thing about it. How has she suddenly gained the ability to turn into animals? What does it MEAN to be a druid? These are the questions she theoretically wants answers to the most, and how would she find those answers by fighting the cult of Tiamat or staying on a big floating rock?

I have a problem with the reason for Tim's character being with us. If you went down to Sainsburys, and met a man on the way who said hello to you, and you said hello back...would you now be best friends with this man and want him along with you everywhere you go?

I know a certain someone would say to me, think of a reason for your character to be here, or roll a character who does have one...but I disagree with this point of view completely. Thats not the point. Characters are people, and even if I made a new character with a 'kill the cult of Tiamat' agenda, then eventually that characters goal would no longer be in line with the groups goal. What is needed now is, yes, I'll say it, a mcguffin..thingy. A plot reason. If a god suddenly appeared to all of us in our dreams, and told us that we had epic destineys to fulfill and that we needed to 'find the Platinum Coffee Mug of Infinite Coco' in order to save the universe...my character would be a bit 'wtf' but still would investigate this, and even if it turned out to be a false vision sent by the Demon who Destroys Coco who wants the Mug only to shatter it forever....fine, we have a story and something to get the ball rolling. We pissed off the angles who guard the Mug by stealing it, and now the only way to make reparation is to kill the Demon and return the Mug to its rightful resting place... And we have a campaign (Admittedly one tailored for Chris) but still.

[EvilGinger]

If a god suddenly appeared to all of us in our dreams, and told us that we had epic destineys to fulfill and that we needed to 'find the Platinum Coffee Mug of Infinite Coco' in order to save the universe...my character would be a bit 'wtf' but still would investigate this, and even if it turned out to be a false vision sent by the Demon who Destroys Coco who wants the Mug only to shatter it forever....fine, we have a story and something to get the ball rolling. We pissed off the angles who guard the Mug by stealing it, and now the only way to make reparation is to kill the Demon and return the Mug to its rightful resting place..

Well that the plot for the next few Dark deeds sessions sorted then. TX M

Now to interfere
Annu you have a rep for being a really evil gm even by my standards but this looks like you have wimped out, leave it to the players really. You expect them to come up with something they can all agree do and is a coherent story  what are players & attached characters more than playthings for a capricious and easily bored god. Just because you have been polymorphed into a duck is no reason to lose your edge. Get stuck in and be the boss.

 Ginger

[Slatie]

As a group of escaped slaves you have a common ground.  Not knowing that background I wouldn't know if you had chance to talk together while slaves.  As for me... my character joined you cus you were going the same way.  Then we came across the dragon and the cult.  As for following hunting down the cult... well he's a Ranger from around these parts and not overly happy in seeing Dragons being hunted down and killed.  I have sort of said that I was going to hunt down the Cult BUT as a new member of the group my word's worth very little so don't feel I dictate terms  .

We are only 1st / 2nd level characters and does not a lot of the 'filling out' happen as we play as a group.  My Characters only 19 so he's really not done a great deal.  All he wants to do is 'Adventure' and as yet very little idea he could actally die!

[Arnu]

I guess you are all together at the moment because of the safety in number princible (considering most of you were alone when you were caught by the slavers)

Travelling together as a group to get where you are each going (for those who have somewhere to go)

[Dat]

Hmm... if staceys' char wants to learn about being a druid, then maybe a certain druid should appear conviently to show her the ropes. Maybe the druid has a score to settle with the cult of tiamat and will teach her char about druidism as we hunt them down. Hmm, maybe, maybe. Maybe before we leave, the druid will arrange a tea party and we can all sit and play 'getting to know you' games. Maybe these games will be played out over a whole session with questions written down by the DM for players to ask whoever they chose in turn. Mmmaybe. Maybe something prophetic or important will land in our hands that makes dealing with the COT in all our interests. ..I always wondered why there are so many 'the universe will be destroyed' plots. Goats.