Post Journals / Story / Notes / adventure talk here (June 2015)

New thread for Journal entries for JUNE sessions! Outside of Journals, we have a Party Discussion thread this week, called "So... What happened?" asked by Hans, <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/2031896/so-dot-d" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/2031896/so-dot-d</a>... A review of current Henchmen (NPC allies in the party) and information about PC's directing-controlling their closely affiliated henchmen, <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1952181/scheduli" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1952181/scheduli</a>... Ship terminology related to pirate / sea-going adventures, <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/301132/ship-term" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/301132/ship-term</a>... We'll use this thread for all sessions taking place in the month of JUNE 2015. Link to Journals / Story / Notes / adventure talk (March 2015) Link to Journals / Story / Notes / adventures talk (April 2015) Link to Journals / Story / Notes / adventures talk (May 2015) Link to Journals / Story / Notes / adventures talk (June 2015) Opening the Window for June 2 session Journals. Aboard The Sea Ghost pirate-ship, subdued the Pirate Captain. Sandoval climbed to the Crow's Nest. The party tried to sort out some lizardman politicsss. Attendance June 2 was: Hans, Brendan, Star Gazer, Gray Chris Airen could not attend. He will be reading the Journals to hear what happened this week. Chris Beartram is MIA, for now Kaz is running the Druid as an ally-henchman. Useful information revealed At this time I want to move forward on the politics and mystery by revealing this bit of new information. I just want to dangle this quiz, to give you all something to think about, and ponder between game sessions. Lizardmen always have a King, who can be called "The Lizard King" of course. Which faction is the Lizard King in? You don't know yet. You might be able to guess based upon the factions-identities of the various lizardmen you have encountered so far. Feel free to speculate. Some are loyal to the crown. Others are trying to influence the lizard politicsssss for various motives. Airen Bullywug has limited (and sometimes backwards, disingenuous) native swamp knowledge about lizardman behavior. Sandoval is particularly keen at determining factions and relationships of domestic power. This is something that I would like the party to gradually figure out & talk through it. If you ask the lizards directly, some of them might answer, but it's hard to tell whose information can be trusted, and their hissing speech about internal lizard politics is confusing to outsiders. (I want to let the party figure out parts of this, rather than revealing everything, I'm giving clues gradually and breadcrumbs as we go along, and listening to what the Players say, so that hopefully I can pick up on your guesses / impressions / conclusions. When you're on the right track, I'll confirm it honestly, on most occasions. If you are mixed up then I'll know to leak additional clues as we go along.) Some of the various mysteries for the party to think about include: Sharkmen? Are they a real threat? Whom do they threaten? Lizardmen, 6 factions. Who are their leaders? Who is rising/falling in power? How can the party influence the lizard population? Pirates, now that you apprehended the Pirate Captain, have you squashed their organization? Are the pirates out of business? What to do with the Pirate ship once you have it fully under party control and steerage? What about the airbender?? Lady / relative of Thoma from the Portlandio Council?? And apparently another Kenku goes with her?? You found footprints as evidence and other minor clues so far. Philosopher's Stone.... safe and sound? Orc troops marching from the North West? What is your PC thinking about, concerned about, focused on? Kaz: I am just wondering about Sanabel's sister or relative and that other kenku Gold-DM (GM): yes! everyone will be wondering about them Kaz: hehehehehe Gold-DM (GM): We shall see Kaz: maybe I should add that in my journal

Kaz blessed some pirate corpses with holy water & threw 3 of the bodies overboard. Torvald stopped the minotaur from tossing more bodies over. They splashed down on the Starboard side, near the rowboat occupied by Stoutly Smith and Freda Smith. Stoutly said "Whoooo hooo! Throw more! Alright!" And Freda said, "Oh stop it, Stoutly" And then these 2 sharks swam alongside the ship (pictured). The 2 shark fins seem to look a little different from each other. You're not sure why, yet. Shark "yellowfin" with a yellow token is (?) ____________ Shark "bluefin" with a blue token is (?) ____________ Discuss, ponder, research and find out in future sessions of "Adventures In A Homebrew World"!

When Morning comes Kas prays to Lathander Morninglord: With the sun comes a new day With the sun comes new strength With new strength comes new sight. (Kaz) I ask the for new sight and strength and wisdom I ask the for divine strength to share your hope May your light prevail in the deepest of night May the suns warmth you grant never fade to darkness. Amen Questions to ponder 1. What are these different groups of Lizard men? 2. Why are they so afraid of the shark men and are the Sharks mutated from a spell gone wrong from a Lizard men or some 1 else? 3. What was plan of the pirates involvement and who was their employer/boss ? 4. what is the involvement of the Kenku and that girl?

STOP-GAP JOURNAL NOTES we seem to have taken over the pirate ship, though we haven't cleared below-decks yet -- captain emerged from aft and tried to summon up help from below -- i cast a magical web to block their way up and also trapped the captain -- lizardmen emerged and we despatched them, though it caused some confusion among our 'allies' (we know so little about these lizardmen factions, we had better learn quickly) -- i put one lizardman archer to sleep -- the captain fought his way free and suggested we work for him -- i suggested he do as we say if he wanted to live -- he asked me my name, i told him, 'he who flies through lightning'

I forgot to charge my IPad... So no journal from me this week. I do have several questions about how we should "dispose" of our newly acquired pirate ship. 1.) We keep it for further adventures. 2.) Sell it for PROFIT. 3.) Choose some hybrid of the two. Maybe out fit our own privateer or trading ship... Either way I advise caution. Our victories will have greatly upset the balance of power. We don't even know who the true threat is; suspicions aside.

Side note: I don't trust the pirate captain. He surrendered to easily. If we didn't need his skills to pilot the ship he would have been killed. Regardless, I think he's a dangerous asset to keep around too long. Best dispose of him & crew quickly once in port. Or hand them in... For PROFIT!

Sandoval's Tales Episode 8 - Lunar guidance It seems I have made a friend on my path of redemption. While I was working on my bow, I was approached by Mitel. Hesistantly, he started talking. At first he didn't make any sense, as he started explaining how he was to 'make alliances with non-Elves in order to do his duty and help fulfill the Elven missions'. I decided not to respond and just let him talk. He seemed to want this off his chest, and although I wasn't sure why he came to me about it, it couldn't hurt to learn what is going on in the head of a fellow traveler. It turns out this was a good decision. Mitel went on to explain how he is a worshipper of the moon goddess Sehanine Moonbow; Elven Goddess of Mysteries, Lady of Dreams. and powerful member of the Seldarine. He told me she speaks to him in his dreams and his state of reverie. As Mitel went on some of my memories started coming back. I realized that many of what Mitel said I already knew, but had forgotten. It felt to me as if not Mitel, but Sehanine herself was speaking to me, telling me to let her guide me towards the path I seek. Mitel ended up offering to craft a symbol of Sehanine for me to put on my new bow. He says this will make me an agent in Sehanine's cause, and as long as I worship her she will bless my bow with special powers. I told him I was honored, but had to think about it. I decided to not tell Mitel that Sehanine used to speak to me too. As long as so much of my past is still unknown to me, it will be safer to keep it to myself. Yet, I accept this hand that Mitel, or rather Sehanine, Daughter of the Night Skies is offering me, and will see where it may lead me. I will keep Mitel close to me, as he is now the closest thing I have to a friend of my own race. Another post will be done by me about the rest of the things that happened last week. But consider this my journal. I focused on this part since it is currently the most important aspect of what's going on with Sandoval. Meanwhile I am trying to make sense of some of the politics going on around Portlandio. Meta - funny moments and other epic quotes Gold describing the pseudo-dragon in the lizardmen-room on the ship: A dragon you can carry in your purse... A nice discussion about the Total Swamp Party of the Lizardmen: Torvald: what is their platform? Swamp rights? Kaz: Unix! When NPC Jaxon is confronted with the Lizardmen on deck: Now the DM can go play with himself!

Pirates, Lizardmen, Bullywug, Orcs. Such a mess. The Lizardmen are divided amongst themselves. The pirates have no morals whatsoever. Orcs must be killed, or they will kill. The humans are hard to read as ever, but no doubt ready to force their will on to all the others, if they get the chance. So why are all eyes suddenly on the Portlandio area? There is even talk of Shark Men. Some powerful forces are at work here. There must be a reason for all that's happening. It seems to me I am not the only trickster. Someone else is instigating unrest and doing a good job at it. Never mind the aggressiveness that according to Airen is nothing unusual to both Lizardmen and Bullywug, but some of them Lizardmen seem genuinely fearful for their fate and looking to protect their families. My best bet for now is Thoma. Not only is he human, and of course this can be expected of any human, but he seems to have the most to gain from war. With his ties to the pirate network, there is a lot of money for him to be made from war. And no doubt his plans reach further than just money - no better time to grab the power than during a crisis. I will try to uncover the truth. And if Thoma is indeed behind this, I will make that trickster dig his own grave. I will have to approach Mort and see if he can help me gain some allies. The trading companies surely won't want war, it's bad for business. And Mort could also be my way in with the Portlandio council and the one that opposes Thoma.

Journal Notes 6/2 Session: Kriykh can keep his damned charm magic! As we were headed to regroup with Kriykh I attempted to replicate his charm magic on these lizardmen as a precaution. I believed them.... but I wanted to be 100% certain they would be no threat. The damn spell backfired on me and caused some sort of amnesia! The last thing I remember was exiting on to the main deck and then.... I was sitting next to the wheel which was being piloted by what I can only imagine being a pirate captain, due to his appearance, yelling out "dead ahead". I looked down and no bindings... am I dreaming? Was there perhaps another illusionist on this ship? I see Sandoval straight ahead... Airen: So Sandoval... I am conducting a study on short term memory in stressful situations. Would you be so kind as to partake in my study? Imagine that I knew nothing of what happened since boarding the ship. Describe to me the events that occurred leading up to this very moment.... ***thinks to self... hope he falls for it***

Chris - Sandoval will fall for it. I'm filling in this post but not sure I can do it before the session.

Catching up past Journal XP. +420 XP (June 2 Kaz Journal about morning prayer and pondering game questions) +200 XP (Torvald Journal for June 2, just a mini-journal with thoughts about pirate captain mistrust) +420 XP (Sandoval Journal for June 2, Lunar Guidance, plus additional thoughts on lizardmen, pirates) +200 XP (Kryikh Journal for June 2 stop-gap Journal Notes) +400 XP (Airen Journal Notes for June 2 with short-term memory study) Kaz , I think you already added this line in your Edit Bio as we talked about it in-chat today. Torvald , I opted to award you the minimum Journal XP bonus. You said it was not a Journal, but you actually provided a few sentences of worthy participation, helping to move the mysteries forward in the game, so you get the 200 XP (but not the 550 or more you could have earned with the whole Dwarf Runes journal style). This was not discussed in-game today, so SolidHybrid please go back and copy-paste this small xp bump on your Edit Bio. Gray , same as Torvald, thank you for providing the Stop-Gap Journal Notes, and I am giving the minimal Journal Xp to cover you for that. We'll save the reply to "He who flies through lightning" til next game, when you can play again, I'll give a response to that. Essentially the word gets out and your reputation spreads, because pirates are good at passing legends. Hans , be sure to copy your Journal XP into Edit Bio. I meant to go over this with you in-game today but must have gotten ahead of myself and skimmed past it. The idea is the Player will take some book-keeping responsibility for reminding me & writing your own Journal XP line in-game, in-chat, as a way to prompt me to stay orderly on Journal XP's. As far as the "Dreams" side, the narrative response, YES. I have rolled that this week you got a dream that might seem to come from Sehanine, so I will write more about what the dream is this week, or cover it with you next game session if I don't type it out sooner. Airen , be sure to copy your latest Journal XP onto Edit Bio and Save. I think you should get this XP just for doing it as a Play-By-Post anyway, even if you missed part of the session that the Journal is regarding. I looked at everyone's EDIT BIO and XP charts, and it looks awesome. Starting to look established as your Timeline. You are starting to look formidable with your tally of victories. Opening Window for Journals of June 9 session

Hans , that's great about Mitel re-connecting you with Sehanine (the elven Moonbow goddess) and her powers of dream communication. I did a d100 roll and you've gotten a Sehanine dream this week (rare chance but got a low roll), so I will work on the message-appearance of the dream to tell you soon, for your interpretation. Also, good thinking about using Mort to infiltrate the Portlandio local politics and find out about Thoma. I will work on some Notes to tell you what he's finding out. Papa Smith will be finishing the bow handle work, so you can get the handle next time you get back to town. ------------------ Everyone --- I think we are caught-up on Journal XP now. If anything is missing, miscalculated, or accidentally duplicated, let me know and we will fix it.

Gold -- I think you still need to assign me XP for three journals -- I think the dates were May 12, 19 and 26. Unless I missed it somewhere.

Translation: Disarmed prisoners - Started searching Captain's cabin - Looting interrupted Ambushed! - Lurking lizardman pirate - Attempted to free prisoners Fierce battle ensues - Enemies quickly crushed - No more holdouts should remain Found Captain's hidden stash - Gold coinage... (All events so far point to something major happening in the swamps outside Portlandio. Torvald is sure the various Lizardmen know something... War is brewing.)

A Note to Gold for all that he has done. I would like to thank you for all that you have done for me and for the Campaign. You have bent over backwards for all of us to playing and getting our back stories together. You have made this an interesting campaign for us and I thank you for that. The Maps you have provided us with are awesome and thanks for the links you have giving me for buying them ( and I will one day) Let us all give gold a piece of gratitude for all the stuff a DM/GM/MENTOR/MODERATOR does behind the scenes. T HANKS SO MUCH GOLD

Absolutely -- thank you Gold for the incredible amount of work you put in to this campaign--helping us make such rich characters, building the world, all the multimedia prep, and integrating everything so that our characters really feel like part of the world. And not only thank you, but congratulations too. The campaign is now a great success, so it's hard to believe that a few months ago you and I were seriously talking about running it as a solo campaign, after several players had dropped out after detailed char gen. It kind of seemed like it was never going to happen - but thanks to your patience and hard work, here we are at 3rd/4th level! Now let's go kick some lizard-arse! (Except for the ones who are our friends, of course …)

I concur. This is something that I want to mention more often, but usually I am too absorbed by the game and I forget. I really appreciate all the work you are doing. I have a bit of an idea how much work this all must be for you, and it is really appreciated so much that you are willing to carry that burden. As a player with no previous experience, I never dreamed I'd get invited into such a great campaign. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to play a character in your game and for all the work you do to make it fun for all of us. Don't worry if you can't put in all the work you would want at times, I'm sure we all understand. Also thanks a lot to all the players, just like Gold you've all taken the time and commitment to make this work and I really enjoy playing with you all. Now I'm going to go on with my journal and back story so I can post both before today's session. Looking forward to it as usual!

Sandoval's Tales Episode 9 - Exactly which side are you on? The crew on this ship is the most disorganised bunch I've ever seen. The captain is full of it. After hearing him talk and scoff and laugh for five minutes, I decided I might as well knock him out. Unfortunately I had underestimated him, and he didn't go out from the first punch like I had planned. No point in beating up a man that is tied down so that was that. Anyway, the captain has his uses. Not only can he steer the ship, but when we encountered a locked door he made it obvious where to look for the key. I decided to be efficient, and instead of asking him to surrender the key, I just searched him and took all the keys he had on him. Torvald then seemed to have a fit of madness as he proceeded to undress the captain (much to the captain's dismay, who had to be held by three of us) and tied him up. I wonder what he's planning? I'm not sure that I'll like the answer. I think I liked Torvald better when he was smashing things with his axe... I tried finding a better picture but the search results were too disturbing... After all that, we proceeded through the door into what turned out to be the captain's private quarters. It was ridiculously decadent, so we took his treasure and everything else of interest. Even though I was mesmerized by the painted glass window, I decided not to try and take that with me. While we were looting the place, Airen's familiar notified us that a Lizardman had appeared on deck. We caught him trying to untie the captain, and killed him. However, two pirates had been set free and now jumped on Torvald. The Lizardmen on deck started to move in, and I feared we'd end up fighting the whole lot of them. I resisted the urge to once again climb the crow's nest. Interestingly enough, the Lizardmen decided to turn on the pirates. It seems many of these Lizardmen do not love the pirates, yet a few seem to have strong ties to them. If I can find out more about their motives, it might bring me closer to the brain behind this whole operation. Some documents we found seem to suggest this goes as high up as the Lizard King himself. But my gut tells me he is not the one I'm after. Someone else is responsible for the unrest in this area. I have made it my personal goal to identify and reveal the true nature of this person, and make sure he goes down. Knowing it was someone just like this person that was responsible for the disappearance of my parents, I just can't ignore what is happening here. If I can't get my revenge, at least I can prevent others from ending up like I did...

Journal XP squared away +420 XP (Kryikh Journal of May 12, summoned Strix the owl familiar) +420 XP (Krikyh Journal of May 19, about downtime in town, stored Philosopher's Egg with Archaj at the magic school) +420 XP (Kryikh Journal of May 26, party sneak attack on Sea Ghost, cast sleep on lookout, brawl on deck ) I also copied the Kryikh XP into the May Journal thread for the record of last month. +420 XP (Sandoval: Journal of June 9 session, about the pirate captain, Torvald's pirate fetish, combat and thoughts for the future) +400 XP (Kaz Journal of June 9, DM appreciation write-up no pics) +550 (Torval Journal June 9th session - Captain's cabin & Melee battle. Used Dwarf runes & two graphics) Opening Window for Journals of June 16 session Completing "Book 1" (AKA the first module in a classic series). Where we finished clearing The Sea Ghost pirate ship... Raided the airbender-lady's locked cabin where Kryikh found some interesting magic books and papers and a cauldron... Sandoval had a shocking dream sequence... Kaz Beartram and Jaxon saw ghost battles play out on the main deck... Airen swam with the sharks and the bullywug even rode a shark in a failed risk, you could say he jumped the shark on that one... The mutinous returning pirates were recruited to the party's service... Oceanus an aquatic-elf Warrior-Rogue prisoner was discovered chained in a hidden cell, brought to freedom and allied with the party... and Torvald opened a secret cache of higher quality weapons (along with a few chests).

Capt. Dan & The Scurvy Pirates - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYE17aWU4i4" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYE17aWU4i4</a>

JOURNAL FOR JUNE 16 SESSION – ON THE SEA GHOST Kryikh’s current mindset: overjoyed to be able to fly again, albeit pretty clumsily; delighted to have Strix as a familiar; really just wants to fly with Strix as much as he can. Otherwise, thinking a lot about airbenders and kenku: fascinated by the idea of the former, very disturbed by the presence of the latter, which he wants to avoid as much as possible We recruited some more crew for the ship: the ones who had gone to shore, and who now returned in their boat. When we caught sight of them, Airen immediately jumped into the water – I took the excuse to fly, and swooped over them, trying to intimidate them. Then I noticed Airen actually riding one of the sharks which has been following us! It looked like he was trying to ram the pirates’ boat, but he just seemed to bounce off its hull a couple of times. Nor did my intimidation seem to work. I flew back to warn the others on the ship. Eventually we ended up bringing the new pirates on board and agreeing to let them go before we reach Portlandio, if they help us get the ship back there. Then we explored the remainder of the ship, and made several interesting discoveries. I picked the lock to the cabin beside the Captain’s. It seems to have been occupied by the female airbender. When I opened the door I saw something like a little cyclone blowing in the middle of the room, then out the window – it reminded me of something I read about the airbenders – further exploration of the room we discovered some clothes which seemed to be a woman’s clothes – also a cauldron of some kind which seems to be magical. We also found a spell book belonging to a sea mage called Punketah (it seems to contain a command word -- but for what? and is it hidden somewhere on the ship?)—and a scroll like the one I stole from the Gray Claws, showing airbender maneuvers. In another cabin I found two other interesting books, about navigation and privateering laws, which I wandered off to read while the others were busy dealing with a rather boring cache of weapons. A more interesting discovery was made in the back of another cabin: we found a locked compartment where a sea-elf was chained up. Sandoval seemed shocked by the sight, and couldn’t understand the sea-elf at first. Torvald came through and started to help the sea-elf. Torvald smashed the shackle and freed him from the planks. I picked the lock on his handcuffs. We managed to talk to him through Sandoval. His name is Oceanus, and he was imprisoned by an evil cabal including the air elemental woman, a “bird man” and sharkmen. He had been captured while tracking the source of conflict between shark men and lizard men. Shark men are on the rise and harassing the lizard men, which seems to be bringing lizard men in to the sea which is unnerving the sea elves. This led Oceanus to the Sea Ghost pirates, and their weapon smuggling. He was caught, sucked up onto the deck and taken prisoner. He thinks he’s been on board for a few days. He has seen the tattooed lizard man, who was cruel to him. He has decided to join us as we are also trying to stop the conflict.

Also, following Solid's last post, I couldn't resist linking to my own favourite pirate song. I used to watch it a lot with my kids when they were younger, but it's actually really funny: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exads7KV-Y0" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exads7KV-Y0</a>

Translation: The ship is ours - Pirate longboat returned - Convinced crew - Service better option Captain betrayed - Loyalty bought with coin - Must watch carefully Survivors not trusted - Searched various cabins - Found prisoner! - Aquatic elf! Freed from bondage - Restored equipment - Very grateful Useful ally - War looms ahead - Either in sea or swamp Searched lower cabin - Found hidden stash! - Weapons - Quality make - Few magical Stoutly & Freda - Collected together - Prepared to sail - Portlandio harbor ahead What awaits us - Gains will not be unnoticed - Petty politics? - Taxes? - First the bilge... (Torvald is apprehensive about the future. The party has been extremely successful. Wealth has been won; spoils of battle divided. The harbor of Portlandio awaits... Nobiles, petty bureaucrats, and officials will all be watching. Waiting for "their" just cut of our boon. We should try to outfox them all... Bargain for favors... Or leverage for land; to build a stronghold. Choices await. We must grasp opportunity for it waits for no one.)

This one is for you Airen. Torvald's exaggerated impression of what happened.

Haha

Journal Notes 6/16 Session: The pirates which had originally headed towards the mansion were returning. When I noticed them I had another "bright" idea to sink their ship with the aid of a shark which had been circling us. Clearly it was a bad idea as I failed at several attempts before being thrown from the shark only to swim back to the ship. Intimidated enough though at the site of their ship being taken over and having seen their comrades at the mansion hacked to pieces they agreed to sail the ship back to Portlandio if we allowed them to leave freely before we arrived. Seeing as how none of us had knowledge of how to operate such a vessel we agreed. We continued searching throughout the rest of the ship where we found several mention-able artifacts - a spellbook and a magic cauldron. We also found a few books that might hold some valuable knowledge for some of our future adventures and for SOME reason Sandoval kept trying on women's clothes. I am not sure this counts as being a "master of disguise." To each their own I suppose. As we were rummaging through the ship we discovered a false door where Oceanus, a sea elf, was being held captive. Apparently he was trying to investigate the operations of these pirates as his people thought the supplying of weapons tot he wrong people could cause imbalance to the ocean's "ecosystem."

@Chris: You should get negative XP for that image! (I still think I look good though)

Haha

Catching up on last week's Journal XP Journal XP is owed to: Gray , Torvald , and Chris for June 19. Editing this. Window open for Journals of June 23 session: 15 Men on a Dead Man's Chest Full party attendance save for Kaz who is away from the game for now. I will make a new thread this week to send Kaz a group note of kindness and extend the welcome if he should ever like to rejoin the campaign. Kryikh , Sandoval , Airen , Torvald , and a whole host of NPC's, Henchmen, Allies, and enemies, played today! The major encounter gameplay today was: "15 Men on a Dead Man's Chest" featuring 15 Drowned Ones, like cursed pirate water-zombies in the bilge guarding a Merchant Captain's mis-interred coffin-chest remains. The Late-game Set-piece episode was: when the Airbender lady swooped in & seemingly "rescued" the Pirate Captain from the main deck of the ship. Controlling the form of a cyclone or sea spout, she attacked the main mast of the ship, then picked up the Pirate Captain. She damaged the main-sail and the rigging, violently ejecting both Familiars from the Crow's Nest. There was more! I'll let the Players' Journals tell the story of this encounter, each in their own words and perspective, for the benefit of Kryikh and Sandoval who had to leave before I narrated this event into the story line, and Saving Throws were made & failed for those on-deck Familiars and NPC's. 2 New Players: Jennifer and Larry , each played NPC-Henchmen (Bear-Tram and Oceanus respectively) this session for their introduction to the game world. If they contribute a Journal it can be Out Of Character perspective, or Introduction Thoughts about their upcoming new characters.

Journal Notes 6/23 Session With most of the ship cleared out and the top deck seemingly under control we headed down to clear out the bilge. Dark, damp, and foul is how I would describe it. Unable to see I lit a torch. I was surprised to see sand, water, and mounds of what seemed to be trash. Oceanus explained that the sand / water was used for ballast in order to keep the boat afloat. Of course the dwarf noticed the chest at the other end of the room – blitzing over – opening it which disturbed the 15 or so “drowned undead” that were scattered around the bilge. Kryikh and I inched towards each other, meeting back to back, blasting the ones closest to us with spells while the others seemed to be able to entrap the majority of them on the other end. Jaxon, Kaz, and Beartram joined in after hearing Kryikh’s call for help. We were able to take the foes easy enough, but the stench was unsettling. I vomited, just a little bit, and Torvald was lucky enough to be the recipient of some “beard sauce.” We re-visited the chest which of course was locked. Kryikh failed at picking it – *what kind of mage picks locks? It would be nice to have someone around who could help with such things – perhaps we could find someone who would like to accompany us when we return to Portlandio* Torvald then proceeded to bash in the lock until it gave in. Inside the chest were the remains of what seemed to be a Merchant captain – perhaps the previous owner of this ship. Additionally we found a Brooch of Protection which contained a picture of what would seem to be his family, a finely crafted cutlass, the title to the ship, and a map which plotted areas where this “merchant captain” stored his wealth. Meanwhile on the top deck one of the pirates seems to have signaled someone off in to the distance while the captain wiggled himself free from his binds. Rhubarb didn’t notice this at first, but it was apparent after an unusually strong buffet of wind hit the ship knocking himself and Strix out of the crows nest. It seems to have been the air bender we have been unintentionally following returning to rescue the captain. The air bender and the captain took off on what seemed to be some sort of whirlwind / waterspout. As they were almost out of site and seemingly ascending in to the clouds Rhubarb noticed something fall from the sky. Curious as to what it was I immediately hopped in to the ocean and once again mounted a shark which swam out to what ended up being the corpse of the pirate captain. It seems he was of no further use to the air bender. I directed the shark to swim back to the ghost ship – dragging the captain’s corpse along with his arm between its jaws – attracting other predators as we swam by.

@ Chris that is a hilarious picture. LOL. Now we just need a picture of Torvald imagining himself riding the bear riding a shark. @ Gold Oh man, I can't believe I missed the first actual appearance of the airbender. Nice twist.

"Beard sauce" !?! Frog you are in such big trouble! (Love the Photoshop pictures as always.)

I must say, I really enjoyed last session. I thought the atmosphere was really good and there was a good amount of getting to know eachother, laughter and gaming. As Kryikh said, great plot twist with the Airbender coming in and swooping up the captain. It seems like a lot of trouble if she was just going to kill him off, Sandoval's not sure what to think about that... Anyway I must say I didn't see it coming that the strong winds were related to the Airbender! I should have! Chris, those images crack me up. I love the one with Beartram in it. I'm really looking forward to next week. I sure hope the ship can still sail with the mast damaged and what not... I want those new characters in the party!

Hans said: I'm really looking forward to next week. I sure hope the ship can still sail with the mast damaged and what not... I want those new characters in the party! With maximum help you can muster from any leftover pirate crewmen, lizards, henchmen & PC's for Navigation and ship-sailing tasks... You will be able to limp her into Portlandio harbor, at the start of next session. Envision the ship looking all a-shambles by the time she docks: broken rails, torn sails, tangled rigging. Worse for the wear. From there, we will proceed with the Adventure Agenda as described by Torvald from last week's conclusions: " What awaits us - Gains will not be unnoticed - Petty politics? - Taxes? - First the bilge... (Torvald is apprehensive about the future. The party has been extremely successful. Wealth has been won; spoils of battle divided. The harbor of Portlandio awaits... Nobiles, petty bureaucrats, and officials will all be watching. Waiting for "their" just cut of our boon. We should try to outfox them all... Bargain for favors... Or leverage for land; to build a stronghold. Choices await. We must grasp opportunity for it waits for no one.)" * Bolding added by me. This serves as a perfect Lead-in to next week's Townie adventures.

15 Men On A Dead Man's Chest... We heard 2 versions of the song this week, back-to-back, when the Drowned Ones attacked. This song slays me, particularly this a-cappella version by Billy's Band, just 2 Minutes 38 seconds, using only voices (Quartet or Qunintet I think). So good! I had to transcribe the words, when I could not find the full lyrics of this written down online. Finally got it down. I know some words are wrong, but it's the general idea, good enough to sing-along if you are able. <a href="https://soundcloud.com/jollyr-1/billys-band-15-men" rel="nofollow">https://soundcloud.com/jollyr-1/billys-band-15-men</a>... 15 men on a dead man's chest, (( Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! )) Drink & the devil had done for the rest... (( Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! )) The mate was fixed by the bosun's pike The bosun brained with a mod-and-spike! And Cookie's throat was marked be-like It had been gripped by fingers-ten And there they lay, all good dead men Like break-of-day, in a booze n can, (( Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! )) 15 men on a whole ship's list - (( Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! )) Dead and be damned and the rest gone with - (( Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! )) The skipper lay with _____his knob and gore with a Scallion's axe, his cheek it shore and Scallion he was stabbed times-four There they lay while soggy skies Dripped all day long in up-staring eyes At ____March sunset on a foul sunrise - (( Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! )) 15 men on a _____ siff & stock - (( Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! )) And 10 of the crew had the murder mark - (( Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! )) Twas a cutlass swipe, or an ounce of lead, or a yawing hole in a battered head And the skupper's clogged with a rotting red And there they lay, I damn me eyes, all lookouts clapped on paradise, All souls bound just contrary-wise - (( Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! )) 15 men, of them good & true, - (( Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! )) Every man Jack good set with old Pugh - (( Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! )) There was chest-on-chest full of Spanish gold, with a ton of Plate in the middle hold and the cabin's ride of loot untold And there they lay that had took the plumb with sightless glare, and their lips struck dumb, while we shared all by the rule-of-thumb (( Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! )) All was seen through the stern-like screen - (( Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! )) Johnny no-doubt where a woman had been - (( Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! )) A flimsy shift on a bunker-cot, with a fingered slot, through the bosom's spot, And a lace that tried in a purplish plot Who was she? Whence some shuddering maid who dared the knife and took the blade By-God she was stuffed for a plucky jade - (( Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! )) 15 men on a dead man's chest, (( Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! )) Drink & the devil had done for the rest... (( Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! )) We wrapped em all in a main-sail tight With twice ten-turns of a house's bite Then we heaved them over and out-of-sight with a Yo-Heave-Ho! and a fare-the-well and a sullen plunge in a Southern swell 10 Fathoms Deep on the Road To Hell - (( Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! )) Top 4 songs played so far in the game: 1. My Jolly Sailor Bold, Vivian Leong version. .... "My heart is pierced by Cupid.. I disdain all glittering gold.. .... There is nothing can console me.. Like my jolly sailor bold" 2. Billy's band - 15 men on Dead Man's Chest, Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. 3. Pink Floyd vs Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive In The Wall (mashup by Wax Audio) 4. Disco Dungeon (Dr Hahn)

MC Gold

I'm a DJ in real life, so I'll take it. :) I hope every other opponent has as good of songs as the pirates had, because we are almost done with pirates for a while. Are liches known for their songs? Dragons? Do Beholders sing? Hark, I hear the Tune of the Tarrasque coming closer now. Kidding, kind of. I'm on the hunt for organizing new game music, for the upcoming sessions, depending on where you guys go & which NPC's you meet in-game. I want to change-it-up and have, preferably, Pre-Game Music, and Background Music that doesn't disrupt talking, and then occasionally set-piece Feature Songs and On-Break songs, and finally a library of Sound Effects for environmental conditions, moods, and audible actions. Presently my limitation is, the sounds must come from <a href="http://www.Soundcloud.com" rel="nofollow">www.Soundcloud.com</a> to work in Roll20 Jukebox; so not everything is available, and I can't find a lot of the songs I've wanted our group to hear. If I can set up splitter hardware to pipe songs over my Skype connection, I'll start using an even better library of audio from my personal collection. That's in my future upgrade plans. I plan to set up something this (DIAGRAM following): @ Chris Those digital pictures are hilarious as-ever. You've earned some Journal XP. You're owed for June 19 and 26, so let's collaborate where you post your draft of the XP in the game-chat, and I'll give the actual XP Number and approve it before you add to your Edit Bio tab. @ Gray There is one more bit about the Airbender attack from this week, that I'm hoping comes out in the Journals... a harrowing and humorous incident happened with Strikx , your owl familiar. Airen mentioned that the 2 familiars were blown out of the crow's nest and Rhubarb hit the water. I think Larry will write up the description of the owl in the ocean, or tell you about it next week. He knows how his owl reacted IRL when it was unwittingly in a pond.

..and a DJ too? I have some things at the studio you may want. BTW one way to DJ clearly through Skype and/or Roll20 is to have a second Skype account that you just feed your music mixes through, after switching their output to mono. You just treat it as another voice feed.

Oh no, I did already tell you all how much owls hate water ... I believe the special characteristics of their feathers that allow them to fly silently also make them particularly vulnerable to getting wet ... Now Larry can tell me how much they *really* hate water ... I have been a DJ from time to time myself, so that's cool to know about you Gold. I also make music, and when I get back to Berkeley next month I'm planning on a major new project. (Maybe I can make you some custom background music some day). Having said that though, I personally wouldn't want to hear background music coming through the same skype call as your voice. Personally, I find in-game music really distracting (OK IRL, but not online) so I usually turn the music volume in Roll20 right down. Maybe I am misreading your diagram, but If you have the music coming through the same feed as your voice, then you can mix the relative levels, but we can't on our end.

While I too like to control the volume of the Roll20 audio (sometimes I just want it a tad lower), I absolutely dig the music tracks and sound effects. I even like background music during downtime, and pre- or post-game. The fact that you a library filled with even more is great to hear. That being said, so long as the volume for the music on your Mix/Minus setup is at an agreeable level, I have no problems with relinquishing my volume control. Also, that Mix/Minus graphic is great—I did a lot of research recently on creating that exact set up for a podcasting project. I love gear... Also, I'll be posting a journal soon!

Sound Notes: I am definitely going to take into consideration what Gray said, volume levels, and preserving the ability for Players to adjust on-your-end by keeping the Music stream on a different channel than my DM Voice. He's right. I agree. I prefer the current options for the Players to mute the Music/Sounds and hear talking, and don't want a situation where Players have to frequently ask for Music to be paused. In the current set-up, I do want you guys to tell me if the sound gets annoying for looping too much, and I try to Stop the sounds when the talking/roleplaying picks up. A drawback of Roll20 is there is not a "Stop All" button, so I have to hunt through my sound list to start/stop each individual layer. Meanwhile, you have the ability to Mute the Roll20 sound and continue hearing Skype voices, which is good. Just don't keep it Muted when I start playing key sound-effects that affect the gameplay/story. Have you un-mute key at the ready. Also FYI under Settings Icon at the top-right, you can adjust Master Music Volume, this is a way to reduce the volume of Roll20 background sounds without necessarily hitting MUTE entirely on it. There is a workaround I have in mind! Slight change to the pictorial diagram I posted above & Larry's response for using a second Skype account. What if I enable the Roll20 built-in Voice option, and send the sound through that? Importantly, we would instruct each Player to disable Roll20 Voice and Video broadcasting, so that your voice is not doubled, but ACCEPT Roll20 voice coming-in from me, the DM. I would then send my non-Soundcloud, custom music and sound effects through the Roll20 "mic", and would continue to send my DM Voice through the Skype mic. I would direct the Roll20 Voice feed so that it does not double my mic, but only pipes my music-mixer. This is an untested, new idea for me, and I don't expect to even attempt it until maybe August or September anyway. I'll order a mixer, test and experiment first. DJ'ing: I'm actually a DJ more in the sense of being a Radio Producer and on-air personality (host and curator), rather than a remixing DJ, turntablist or music-maker like Gray.

Sounds like a great workaround. Let me also say that, like Jennifer, I do really enjoy your music--pre-game, in downtime, the special effects and scene-specific songs too. It's only background music while people are talking that my brain can't handle, and that's just me, nothing to do with your particular choices, which I think are great ... ; ) Radio DJ -- even more interesting, very cool.

Hey Jennifer... Horukh is going to be *spectacularly* frail physically. Considering we're both from Alta, and you're all thiefity, and Horukh's parents are city councillor crime bosses, do you think I could have hired you as a bodyguard? No matter what, I'll need an NPC muscle/scribe/bodyguard, because Horukh can't even lift all of the tools of his own trades. Then again there may be some awesome NPC hireling that Gold has in mind. FWIW, everybody expects Horukh to have an enforcer with him all the time anyway, same as young Bruce Wayne's expected to have Alfred Pennyworth nearby. In this world's case, I could have a big hulking but scholarly lizardman in formalwear nearby all the time.

BTW Gold, when I said come over to the studio, what I mean is, I think I have a spare mixer, mic & some other things here, useful for podcasting & so forth. We'll need to dig a bit for them but I am pretty sure I have'm. Everyone else... as of right now Horukh is shaping up to be a wiry and tall Nobleman Priest/IBard Rogue kenku, with an uncanny gift for architecture, engineering, truthfinding, and the ability to move as easily as a shark through bureaucracy, high courts and nobility. Hopefully he will be the "get out of jail" card for the group, but he'll need to be protected, and he has a destiny he is just now becoming aware of that he knows will involve an awful lot of pain.

Sorry Jennifer, my bad, I just realized you're based out of Portlandio, not Alta.

OK, the Veranthea Codex playtest online went all right earlier. Now I can get back to work on Horukh. I'm stuck in bed with ice packs anyway, since the kidney symptoms have returned rather viciously, so I may as well finish this latest cover painting and work on character generation while I'm horizontal. I am awfully rusty on my 2nd-ed. Looks like I'll ditch the Bard side of the Force, instead going with performance NWPs and being single-class. With the famed Kaz away I think the group needs a PC cleric anyway, right? Honestly, so far Horukh is all about unusual but sympathetic background, some disadvantages, and social/performing/admin/high court NWPs, without much consideration for combat/self-defense at all. I can't even come up with much in the way of weapon proficiencies that fit the character yet, though it may come to me. Heavens knows, whatever weapons he uses will need to be precision based, because he sure isn't doing any melee damage with a strength of 6.

We don't use weapon proficiencies :-) that should make it easier.

Everyone , I'm actually out of town from now until nearly game-time on Tuesday. I'll be trying to pop-in and answer questions, working w Larry on Character creation, but I am a little slower to respond this week because I'm not at my computer/wifi as much as usual. This applies this week & next week too actually. @ Larry Correct, the party is without a Priest/Cleric right now, save for Henchman/NPC's. For a suggestion-idea you could consider being a Priest of the Egyptian Pantheon and, not pick just 1 god, but follow the whole pantheon. God of Death for death-related issues, God of Wine/Song/Debauchery for singing occasions, certainly some of the Egyptian bird-related figures, and so on. It could be an ancestral inheritance and not necessarily the main religion of the Kenku roost and high court, but a private internal feeling or suspicion that the Egyptian gods are still watching you, based on possibly your Grandparents or Great Grandparents flew from the Egypt island of the homebrew world, over to Alta on the Canadian continent. I'm open to change this, just an idea, as a Priest you need to pick some deity or pantheon from either Forgotten Realms (1e version, or "before the Time Of Troubles" of 2E FR), or pick any deity or pantheon that fits from: 1. Monster Mythology (this book has the Kenku deity, as well as a Bird-Demon-God who tricked the Kenku deity in their history) 2. Demihuman Deities, Powers & Pantheons, Faiths & Avatars --- 3 books of FR deities. 3. Deities & Demigods (1e) or Legends & Lore (1e or 2e), this has the Egyptian pantheon. I can get you any of these books if they are not in your Mediafire collection. In Portlandio they have temples of some FR and some Greek gods. Could be interesting to explore the relation of Greek & Egyptian pantheons. @ Larry , Hans is correct we don't use Weapon Proficiency rules, but, Larry still needs to select his favored weapons. There's just no penalty for going outside WP's in this. You can pick up any weapon and start to use it. Note that 2E does not have any finesse weapons in the Melee / hand-to-hand battle category. The only DEX based weapons are Missile / throwing weapons. You could consider using Staff-Sling, this seems like a good missile weapon for a kenku possibly, and is allowed for Priests.

Gray F. said: Oh no, I did already tell you all how much owls hate water ... I believe the special characteristics of their feathers that allow them to fly silently also make them particularly vulnerable to getting wet ... Now Larry can tell me how much they *really* hate water ... Larry can describe it best. I thought it was a sad little riot of funny and opted to apply it to your owl's incident. The owl floats with its wings out on the water surface, but has trouble getting out of the water, so it looks at you with pitiful eyes, waiting for a hand.

The story came from one of the barred owls I rehabbed in the early 2000s. It had a wing sprain so it was not a difficult fix. A part of getting a bird back to the wild is called "hacking out," and fortunately that can be combined with physical therapy. In this case I had the owl out on a creance (a long sturdy lightweight leash, which is attached to jesses). We flew a few circles and the owl responded very well, though it stayed low on every flight. So I let out some more creance for a longer flight, and that went well. Let out some more creance for the third time, and the owl took a beeline across a pond. There was a little "give" in the creance, so upon reaching the end, instead of turning back, the owl boiiiinged and then landed. Or rather, splashed, wings wide open. There is a lot of air trapped between feathers on an owl---an owl just out of a bath looks like a tennis ball on chopsticks---so the owl didn't sink. In fact... The USS Owl bobbed around, drifting in the breeze, with an exasperated "Well, GREAT. Now what?" expression. No thrashing about, just everything but an audible sigh. I reeled the owl in steadily and just picked it up, and it gave me a thoroughly disgruntled look of "Yeah, we're done for the day. Dick."