State of the Campaign

Honesty is how I usually prefer things so... honesty, ho!

First, I just want to make it clear that I'm encouraging you guys to do your own thing. I don't want to dissuade you from attempting a coup against Aluvia... or even just Holtburg. Or something else entirely, I dunno. I keep mentioning consequences because I want you guys to be aware that I'm not just going to handwave you towards success, you'll have to earn it, and if you fail, well... the dice lie where they fell.

Second, I just wanted to say, out of character, that the players have been doing a good job of improving their roleplaying and presentation and striving forward to conquer a chunk of the continent. Rory's stuff has been great, Zeiss has been slowly nestling into the role of antagonist, Javan is wonderfully playing along as the 'decent guy in evil society' thing, Kolson has been stepping up to the plate, and Higaide is keeping perspective.

Third, stuff's been happening under the hood and just to ensure that you guys feel the impact thereof I'm going to bullet point a few things that I wanted to make sure you were aware of.
The Human refugees of Vesayen Lassel have a chance at actually surviving as a species thanks to the efforts of the party. This is not an exaggeration; after the loss of Vesayen and the return of the Tumerok, Humanity as a species is... not doing so hot. With the general attitude in the area of Aluvia in general and the Holtburg Region in specific being very anti-refugee thanks to the Stoneholders situation, what would have happened with no player intervention is the Humans would be distributed amongst the military and military industrial complex to feed the war, died out from things they've never had to deal with before (criminal violence, military conflict, disease, starvation, dehydration, and despair). While there would be survivors, there wouldn't be enough to sustain a genepool so without help from any OTHER Humans... the species would literally have gone extinct. So uh... yeah you guys are doing pretty good there.

Similarly, thanks to the party's actions there's been the beginning stirrings of political upheaval which, well, I don't want to give away too much but the party will most likely actually be the ones to light the spark. Which is awesome.

Finally, the party's interactions both before and after the Sho excursion has successfully led to some interesting changes in the Aluvian military officials left behind in Holtburg who aren't currently fighting the war... which will have some very long range consequences.

First, thank you. That means a lot to me.

I'm glad you gave us clues at how they were doing. The fact that, after a time, they would be labeled vagrants and kicked out on their asses was the final straw for me. It helped that you warmed the seat by having them all taking shelter in the Veil by the time we returned to the city.

Yes, I originally suspected the Vyeotians after our failed attempt to rescue Sareth when he was kidnapped, but after seeing that letter kept by the lefftenant, I wondered if the military stationed in Holtburg might be the majority constitution of our enemies.

Keeping perspective, well, thank you. Honestly, i'm just glad to have something in front of me that i can tackle.

If i didn't say it before, as a player, i'm much more in my element when there's something tangible in front of me that i must solve. All the politics and economics and long game in general that we've had to play lately had been throwing me off rather severely, and i was practically begging to be taken along whenever something happened that required immediate attention.

The way i extracted Sareth was reckless as all frell, and once again i feel like i'm in over my head by a mile, but at least now i have a direction, which makes all the difference in my case.

As an aside, though this is more for my sake than anything, I was hoping I could get something along the lines of mid and long term goals of the characters since the only one I feel I have a bead on is Zeiss. And I have no idea what Higaide wants.

Thank you for that post. Until now, I figured we didn't affect much of anything, expect maybe the humans we helped. It's nice to see our mere presence is doing something.

Thanks for the post, Arch. It's nice to know things are moving behind the scenes. Let's hope us stirring things up will end up being a positive for Aluvia at the end.

So yeah, Javan's mid term goal right now would be getting in terms with his new condition as a demi-elemental thingy, which includes understanding it and making good use of it. Lately, he has been not trying to think about it at all, although those around him remind him constantly he's not 'just' a fairy anymore.

Deep down, he's afraid he might have become some kind of monster inside without himself knowing it, just like when he first came out crazy on elemental juices from the cocoon thing and hurt Higaide and have been ignoring it because it only happened once but... He knows he'll need to look into it after all, and if it ends up being something he doesn't like, he'll need to find a way to direct it for good, or end it should the worst possible outcome be the truth. He's planning on doing it after things settle down once again. He'll be looking for stories and rumors about wild elementals and meet the caretakers at the Pool, they really looked like they might have a hint or two last time we were there.

Javan's long-term goal is basically making a home for himself and doing his damnest to keep it. While he considers the rest of the party 'family' independent of what they think back (mainly due to being a fairy, he has no family of his own and his character background made him unable to create one in the fairy society), he's aware that they are doing their own thing and it might turn out something he'll not agree being part of at the end. This is also why Javan never formally joined the Exchange IC, even tho he's been helping them all this time along.

Since the only thing he's really good at is fighting, might as well direct it in a less destructive way and maybe help as many people as he can along the way, and thus his attempt to recreate the White Scarves in the 'real world' instead of just keeping them a memory from one of the elemental trials is his attempt at starting making a place he can call home.

Don't worry, Javan. Higaide practically dared you to do it. The prick...


What Higaide wants.... Ok, this is my fault. Well, i don't know if fault is the word, but it's definitely my doing.

I made Higaide with the simple principle in mind that this character would be defined by what he did from that point on. I made a very simple backstory, that i never intended to rely on, because i felt that would be dishonest. I mean, anyone can write something up, in complete isolation from the other acting forces around them (the other players and GM), make it as perfect as they want and then stand on it and say "my character is a good character because this".

I didn't want that. Whatever worth my character acquired would be earned, not fabricated. It would be through my actions, in the actual conditions and adversity that the game provided.

The drawback, of course, as i came to find, is that this made him essentially an avatar. Yes, i did form his personality throughout the campaign's events, as i intended to, but this lacked him any goals or motivations outside what the game provided.

There was a particularly traumatic event a few months back, when he learned just what the extent of Fierneceal's power over humanity could do, which horrified him down to his bones.

I mean, the concept of everything you are being erased and reformatted to something you would be sickened by is probably the worst form of violation i can possibly think of. And the fact that it can be done by potentially any moron that has the inborn power to do so is just unspeakable levels of wrong. You could have the wisest human on the planet be effortlessly mind-raped by the stupidest Scion on the planet and be at his total command and whim. That thought is just horrivolting (and yes, i just coined that one).

And for a while there, Higaide was very much interested in trying to do something about it, but everywhere he turned was brick wall after brick wall after brick wall. So eventually, i just had to give up and focus my attention on things that more immediately required it.

As for what he can want below that (because it will always be below that)... i just don't know. I mean, it's well and good to help that posse i was put in charge of to thrive and prosper (even if they keep giving me a hard time for wanting to help them), but there's a war going on, that he knows for a fact was manipulated into being by people he can only surmise are total utter scum and should burn. There's Gaerlan and his plan to destroy the planet to kill the Shadows, and then there are the Shadows. So obviously, he cares about all that and wants to do something about it, just like i want to heal the ozone layer, stop global warming and bring about at least a week of world peace, but Higaide seems only marginally closer to being able to tackle his objectives than i am.

Thank you for the OP Arch. The feedback, both player-wise and context-wise, means a lot. Please keep doing it in the future.

You know when I started this game I wanted to keep our first timers alive, so they'd have a good game. I chose a versatile build, and was content to take the back seat and occasionally give advice while seeing the sites and getting to know the people of the continent. I've always appreciated that you humored me in my little business venture from afar.

Speaking of which, Kolson still sees himself as that guy. He isn't a hero in his eyes, he just does what anyone with the training and experience that he has would do in the same situation (not true of course). You may laugh, but his long term goal is still to co-own that furniture store with Van and to take care of his family. It's just that that dream has gotten terribly complicated hasn't it?

<Kolson starts marking them off on his fingers>Just need to fix the economy, the government of Aluvia and anyone who won't live in peace with her, stop a war or three, save ALL of the refugees--and that's not even including the world scale threats like Gaerlan and the Pinnacle (good luck to Xahn and Gwydo is all I can say on that front).

Midterm goals are to survive this little adventure we are cooking up. To that end Zeiss is feeling out allies and resources for us. Since neither one of us are interested in ruling Aluvia, we are hoping to find someone we can hitch our figurative wagon to, who hopefully sees the wisdom in what we are trying to accomplish. I'd like to make a lasting and sustainable change to Aluvia for the good, not start a civil war for no good reason.

That said I've had civil war on my mind a lot lately when I think about this game. I wouldn't be surprised if one starts up as a direct consequence of our actions, whether we accomplish our goals or not. I guess I just want to put it out there for everyone so don't be surprised if we end up the warlords of Holtburg and Greta's lands yo.

I don't know which would be worse in that situation--the fact we started a civil war or the fact I'll have to be the face of our revolution and all the crap that comes with it. Speeches, glad handing, assassination attempts, being a general or finding someone who can do it for me, etc. -_-

Anyway, I hope that at least answers most, if not all, of your questions.

What do I know...
After some explanation in the stream, I will explain what Rory wants. Here is what he understands, and what I understand: there are some big bad Aluvian military people staging a coup. He doesn't know who for, or if they're acting on their own, but he doesn't like them and whoever their friends are. He thinks that they are going to be a threat, and assumes that the people staging the coup are corrupt and don't deserve what they want. Now that I think of it, he'd prefer to let them fight it out and then take on the winner if he determines that they are a threat to us or the people we're looking out for...unless we can simply move said people out of the city. At that point, the only thing he stands to gain is helping the party members who are committed to this succeed and live to tell about it.

What do I want...
What matters to him is making sure his people are safe. Second to that is saving Holtburg from some short-term threat of destruction. Afterwards, he would like to take the fight to the Vyeotians. Once that's done, he'd like to get straight back to finding a way to defeat Gaerlan, who as I understand it, is just hanging on one rung higher than mister Red Cloak, and that there is someone or more someones in charge and plotting evil plots on the next tier up, which could even be the final tier, who knows. And then there's the Pinnacle, who appears to be the type to take their time. Who knows, they may even all be working together, but he'd rather deal with one threat at a time.

What about Zeisss...
As for Zeiss ambitions, I dunno. I wouldn't call it evil, just maybe shortsighted. If the aim is to come out of this coup on top and in charge, he'd better aim to be a great and just lord. He's going to have to aspire to have a parliament or council more efficient and more benevolent than the former, and to be part of that council than ruling over it. That seems to be how it's run right now. If he's going the route of being decadent or selfish, let it be known that how he governs may effect a party split with Rory on the other side. We all know Zeiss could possibly turn evil, great. Now the real question is if Zeiss is prepared for that split if he plans on being evil.

Little precision: for Zeiss to achieve his main goal, he has to act as a benevolent figure. So you can rest assured Rory.

Okay guys, leveling time. With my move concluded and everyone settled in to the new house, its about time for the live campaign to get restarted. We are aiming to do that by a week from Thursday, July 9th. This puts me as a GM in an awkward position because I need to know what has happened in Aluvia over the time displacement between the forum groups and the live groups and I need to know that before the live campaign resumes. This means that regardless of how we get there before July 9th the forum group needs to be caught up to (or within a week or so) of the date that the live campaign is on. I am posting today to offer you guys a couple of options on how we do this.

Option 1:
You give me a general idea of the direction you, as a group, are wanting to go over the next 44 days in game time and I tell you how your plans work. This will allow for very little role playing over that time period, but will also likely ensure that your plans generally 'succeed.'

Option 2:
You give me a general idea of the direction you, as a group, are wanting to go over the next week or two in game time and I tell you how your plans work. We rinse and repeat every other day until the forum group is caught up to the live one. This allows for more flexibility in your actions and more role playing, but means that if players aren't available to post during a couple of day time period I will push the plot forward a week regardless.

Option 3:
We continue as is until a predetermined deadline, lets say July 5th, and then I q-snap the forum campaign forward to the time period of the live group with no additional input from the players. This allows for the most role playing, but could mean that you, as a group, are unable to complete all of your plans.

You will notice that I did not give you the option of continuing as is indefinitely. Being pushed forward to the live group's time line is no longer an option; it will happen. Right now I am seeking input from you, the forum group's players, to see how you would feel this could best be accomplished. Now I am not so full of myself to believe that the three options I have listed above are the only ones out there, so if you feel there is a better option then please respond and let me know so that I may consider it.

Regardless of your input (or lack there of) I will make a decision on this matter on June 30th. As always I appreciate your understanding and assistance in this matter.

If that's how it is then I'm okay with option 1 or 2 but prefer 2. I'd rather we get more input as we find out the results of our actions.

1 or 2, i'd say. Since Higaide will miss the big event anyway, i guess i could go with 1, but that's my own selfish point of view. I'm available for 2, in any case.

I'd say since I'm one of the people here that want to go back to action ASAP but not want to give up some finer control, option 2 is a no-brainer for me.

But I'd also like to remind everyone that, as Zeiss pointed out before, doing a (condensed) session or two over ventrilo or some other chat program before the July 9th could speed up things immensely, simply because of the nature of spoken language. Heck, even an IRC chat would make it go faster, plus we'd have an actual log of everything. Then we could return to the slower but RP-rich format of forums of yore.

I know Zeiss is incommunicado right now, so waiting on Rory to weigh in. Looks like option 2 so far, so feel free to be thinking about your goals for the coming week in-game.

2

Well even without Zeiss that's officially majority. I'm wiping the board clean so to speak; what I want from all of you is what your characters want to accomplish within the next week of game time.

We taking a break?

I think so. It certainly feels like one.

Computer is back in working condition. Going to beat my brain into submission to do the monster post I owe you guys. No ETA. Sorry about the delay.

Okay cool.

Time to cook up new schemes.

Probably gonna be a slow start, but I'm ready for action. I've been waiting for an chance to transform.