Post Journals / Story / Notes / adventure talk here (February 2016) Winter Sessions

Winter Sessions theme song is playing in-game today I would recommend entering the game table early today, with your speakers / Roll20 Audio turned ON. Listen to the theme song playlist that's playing. It is relevant to the game, and contains hints and secrets in the lyrics. Game time coming in a few hours from now! Getting close to the resolution of the "Winter Sessions" chapter and the 3 bridges! Last game session of February, could be the last session on Winter maps for this year! The party heads to Portlandio next (next week?).

Larry D. said: Sigma was named by the legendary Ota Sura, after a symbol that means "The Answer" or "Solution." Yeah no big guy... Where I'm from that's an "E" (spoof on the Man of Steel movie)

Morgan Freeman reads: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXSYybCVxVM" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXSYybCVxVM</a> with the mashup at the end. Oh yes.

If Amp was a Bard: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q</a>

Hey Gold, I have a question, for us all. This next session we're to encounter the Swanmays and then return to Portlandio, if I read things right last time. What preparations would you like the players to have for Portlandio?&nbsp; Summaries of what their alternate PCs have been doing, their plans for when they get there etc.? Horukh's will be quite something.... Sigma and Furnace will be something else...&nbsp; like, "Yes. Back now. Going to work." (tromps off with +3 maul to demolish stome and timber ruins to reuse materials, then build shelters, coordinating with new monsters.&nbsp; Showing massive featsh of strength splitting threes lengthwise and so on.&nbsp; Creating "work squads" (akin to "fire teams") with volunteers of any species or gender, training them to operate in sets of 5)

Good thinking, Larry . Let's plan to revive the 1 or 2 other threads about Portlandio for pre-discussion and play-by-post, The tread about "world-building" Portlandio&nbsp; where each Player will be asked to add 1 new "town location" onto the map, from your imagination : probably a new tenant,&nbsp; immigrant,&nbsp; or post-typhoon rebuild, Or some service suiting your PC, that would be conceivably found in this fantasy boom-town;&nbsp; By the way also I would like us to collaborate on building & drawing a Wall for Portlandio, to be built around the town & drawn on a map layer that I can copy to other future remakes of Portlandio map. Secondly the "Swarg-Inn / Giant's Beard / Money Pit" thread about the Inn, for dual purposes.&nbsp; The Inn should be checked for profits-and-losses, income vs expenses over the past couple months;&nbsp; also the Inn should be described and imagined as a setting and base (in-game, in-thread, or just in everyone's minds).&nbsp; Envision the physical location of the party meeting and reconvening with most of the Challengers Of Destiny.&nbsp; Picture that in mind. It's your first fort or home-base together as a party. I'll plan to go PC-by-PC to see if any of the others also need a personal update. I would say most PC's like Torvald and Airen are considered to be proceeding according to usual personality in the town, and probably won't need a lot of adjustments before we see them in-game. I want to work with Larry a bit more on-the-side for Horukh specifically.&nbsp;&nbsp; Horukh is the one who is enduring a transformation (that we've been discussing intermittently off-camera these past weeks). Let's revisit the Horukh side chat, I'll contribute some new stats & clarify the timeline events that've happened to him, and you will naturally add the narration to describe it to the other players and decide how Horukh responds to the new status. Portlandio Map is ready for you, mainly working on timeline events, townie locations, PC's and NPC's now Working on organizing my notes-thoughts and handouts for the above. Portlandio "muddy spring 2016" map is already prepared, in-game. I finished that a week ago. I'll post more as DM soon,&nbsp; to update some of our threads,&nbsp; March scheduling for Mondays,&nbsp; new Journal thread window,&nbsp; and so on.

Closed window for Journals of Feb 22. Bonus Journal XP was awarded and approved in-chat. Let me know if yours wasn't. Thank you Players!&nbsp; Opening window: Journals of Feb 29 LEAP DAY session, Leap Year 2016 Penultimate Continuation of the "Winter Sessions". Bridge 1 (Suburbarbarian Hearth Home) and Bridge 2 (Fey Swiss Chalet) are completed. Bridge 3 has been crossed, there are only the Swanmays and the Stone Church left to visit on this corner of the map. Each present party member met some flying horse-like creatures of the air-element-and-spirit world, thought to be Lawful Good legendary NPC's of interplanar travel called Ki-Rin. They communicated telepathically and made honorary offerings to each PC, presenting dilemma, choices, decision point. Oddly the 3rd "Ki Rin" had hooves of fire, flames for a mane, and was ridden by a sky-riding fire elementalist Asian woman. (DM clue). The party cleaned out a cave of dangerous Grell --- tentacle beasts like floating brains with a beak --- after one grell pirate silently abducted and briefly paralyzed the PC elf witch Cylara . Best Leaping move-of-the-day Award went to SIGMA by party vote -- in celebration of playing D&D on LEAP YEAR -- for leaping with his Maul to mash a Grell out of the air. Come back to this map later for the Medusa cave, Gorgon herder, unexplored areas Note some DM clues and summarizing some of your boss-level adversaries in the homebrew: A large swath of unexplored black Fog-Of-War still hides the Southwest quadrant of the Winter map. &nbsp;As well the Medusa and Gorgon and Grimlock cave remains uncleared, left behind with party plans to return and revisit later. &nbsp; (This is fine, to leave behind, *for now*,&nbsp; it's good to remember this medusa hook and plan to come back later, because it sounded like they may have the "Bell of Law" that was stolen from Portlandio's Greek Church steeple during the typhoon attack.)&nbsp; Also note (DM clue) the medusa and the male gorgon-herder are associated with several other known recurring-enemies:&nbsp; a Kenku Gang (who posed as monks to get into the steeple),&nbsp; the Orcish Ulma clan (who was racing against you to gain Alkarg from Awa Avignon),&nbsp; and Yi Bang a famous General from the Koryon regional military&nbsp; (who was a known lover of Mubia the Pan-Lung dragon slain by the party,&nbsp; who was herself an ally of the Evil Airbender lady who has stalked the party for years, and who could be one of the masterminds of all this evil networking).&nbsp; Remember these ties for later, in the long-game.&nbsp; Homebrew mashup, epic scale.&nbsp; Got it? Bell of Law, Medusa, Gorgon Herder, Orcish Earthbenders, oriental dragons, Airbender lady, Kenku gang-members, Koryon Generals who are infighting. &nbsp;These all relate. There are more players in the puzzle too. These are the ones you have evidence so far. Some of these lead into the Ota Sura adventures, and involve Lord Harlepin too. Others have different resolution paths, options and possibilities. The main 3 Koryon Generals who are infighting with criss-crossing motives are named Yi Bang, Yi Ko, and Che Won. These guys are big time. Che Won is the fellow who brought the Bullywug army and Koryon archers to your aide at the Battle Of The Shark Fort. The Gorgon-herdsman (who lives with a medusa) said that he is loyal to Yi-Bang, this is one of the key clues Solid obtained on the Winter Sessions map in the past month of gameplay. Next Session which is set for Monday March 7 Most likely the party will meet the Swanmays,&nbsp; visit the Stone church (concluding the adventure with Avalyne Lifegiver and Avol Winterhoss),&nbsp; and at last: arrive back in your home base town of Portlandio: Winter is lifting! Spring is coming to the Canadian continent! Will the party go to Ota Sura's next, after Portlandio?

Baradin's Journal - Late Winter Grells! ... How can such creatures exist? They are no more that a beak, a brain, and a mass of tentacles... Sigma & Cylara told us they saw several of their corpses earlier... However I'd hope to never encounter such monstrosities in the flesh.&nbsp;Before I knew it, one of these foul beasts had ambushed us! It's barbed tentacles quickly snatched up poor Cylara; paralyzing the elf. With prey in hand, the fiend floated high into the sky becoming unassailable. It then drifted eastward... heading towards a nearby cave mouth. Thanks to Javen's speed, I reached the entrance and followed the grell inside. The cave was pitch dark... I could hear several of the beasts deeper inside... With precious time wasting I lit my lantern and delved forward. Progress was slow and arduous. Before long I emerged into a vast grotto... Occupied by three larger and more dominant grell... The beasts&nbsp;screeched&nbsp;and hooted at each other. Displeased with my intrusion they wasted no time in attacking. I was immediately beset with dozen of&nbsp;rapacious tentacles... Each cruelly barbed... And poisonous...&nbsp;

Swargen has caught me up on what has happened in Portlandio. I am troubled by it. One of the Challengers killed Mubia, lover of Yi Bang, a general of troops. Yi Bang has spent much time with his troops in areas that Orcs occupy. I doubt Yi Bang can be trusted to defend Portlandio now. The remains of the city is the home to the Challengers, who killed his lover, and his army can not be paid by the city, in any case. Half the population is gone, and all money goes to rebuilding. One of the Challengers, the bird Horukh, is missing. The architect, inventor and wealthiest nobleman of Portlandio is gone at the time he is needed most. This can not be coincidental. I am told that the Challengers have used magic to find him but he is unfindable. A prisoner? From what I have been told, Portlandio is not only defenseless, it is undefendable. Its location would make it a major foothold for the orcs. Orcish Earthbenders can easily lay the remainder of the city flat and its survivors can be just as easily enslaved. Pirates can take the bay, and invaders of any kind can land north and south on the coastline. The destructive force known as the Tempest Dragon is still out there and can return to Portlandio to simply erase the city. The enchanted Bell from the city, which was once in the Greek temple that was flattened to the last stone, is in the possession of the gorgon-herder and the Medusa that was associated with the Orcish Ulma Clan. Portlandio can put up feeble defenses at best: ramparts, palisades, and watchtowers, all of which would use resources needed to house its survivors, and all of which can be flicked over by the Tempest Dragon, Orcish Earthbenders, or the evil Airbender I was told of. Portlandio’s defense must be unconventional. What good is a castle wall when the enemy can simply tunnel under it, or use the castle’s own stones against the defenders? What use are a dozen cutters against an armada of pirates, especially when the pirates can be bought as escorts for an invasion fleet? How can a city half made of mud be defended at all? I know some possibilities, but Portlandio will become something very different than it was before. I will need to go hunting... for allies.

SolidHybrid said: With prey in hand, the fiend floated high into the sky becoming unassailable. It then drifted eastward... heading towards a nearby cave mouth.&nbsp; Thanks to Javen's speed, I reached the entrance and followed the grell inside. The cave was pitch dark... I could hear several of the beasts deeper inside... With precious time wasting I lit my lantern and delved forward. Progress was slow and arduous. Before long I emerged into a vast grotto...&nbsp; That really made the map come to life for me, Solid , that section of your journal quoted above. Very evocative of the physical space. The flying, the cave mouth, the grotto, the movement and darkness. Larry's journal was also great this week, turning to some overview and Homebrew-Plot-Level analysis, and laying the ground for return to Portlandio and some bits of worldbuilding, and mystery investigation. CLOSED window for Journals of Feb 29 Leap Day. Bonus Journal XP was mentioned in-game, Solid and Larry make sure you got that XP recorded for Feb 29 (+550 each). Closing this February Journal Thread I will open a fresh new thread for Journals about March game sessions. Look for the new link. These Journal threads are a great campaign history to look back and scroll through! We need to somehow print all this as a hardback for the participants. Maybe.