Ephesos

Originally Posted By: waterplant Not being able to verify a theory doesn't automatically disprove it. Many ideas existed for centuries before they were verified by scientific method. Some of the arguments against Lovelock's ideas are pretty weak. Yes, you're right, I should've clarified. Accepting an idea like the Gaia Hypothesis requires not as much proof as it requires a belief, a viewpoint. Specifically, a very loose definition of "organism". To me, such an argument is inelegant because it rests on that one initial assumption which cannot be proven or disproven, because it is simply a defining of terms.

Originally Posted By: eCool I wasn't talking about his views on science, since I have no way of knowing whether they're right or not. Technically, nobody can verify any of Lovelock's theories... not enough data, and the causality is pretty weak in most cases.

Hm. Er, I can probably look for some of them, but my IM logs don't extend forever. I should start keeping better track of that stuff. Also, a new interlude! Click to reveal.. (Boregloaf's epilogue) One evening, about three months after the death of Chak-Tha, Lanrezac was just leaving the mansion when he heard a yell. He turned around to see Boregloaf, Captain of the Mansion Guard, running towards him. "Wait!" "Yes, Boregloaf?" "You're a smart lacewing. Do you--" Boregloaf's voice dropped to a whisper. "--happen to know where the temple for Kyrophius is located in this town?" "I'm afraid not. Why?" "I've been searching for it, but I haven't had any luck." Lanrezac looked strangely at Boregloaf. "I must admit, I can't see you worshipping Kyrophius." "No, no, it's not that. It's... never mind. Just a thought." "Wait a minute. You still aren't worried about more assassins, are you?" "Just wanted to keep an eye out for things, that's all." "Well, don't wear yourself out worrying. Their leader is dead and we haven't seen or heard of any new assassination attempts for three months. Most worshippers of Kyrophius are probably as in the dark about it as you are." Lanrezac thought for a moment. "More in the dark than you are, actually." Boregloaf stared off into the distance. "Yes, I suppose. Still, I'll probably keep searching. Even if I haven't found the temple, I've had good luck so far." "What do you mean?" "Sometimes I see someone and think, 'well, they look furtive. Maybe they'll lead me to Kyrophius' temple,' so I follow them. They never do, of course, but a surprising number of them will try to pick someone's pocket." Boregloaf smiled.

Originally Posted By: Unattributed "Yep, we got a bad case of mroe spiders back when we lived at the edge of the woods. The poor dog never saw it coming." Those were the things that tried to eat Amadan in the second Blood Marsh session.

Daaaaang. Love it. Absolutely love it.

So, here's my two cents, since I'm working through iPhoto (or rather, around). First, get an account at Flickr. Much free storage, reasonable rates for unlimited photo hosting. Second, get the uploader thingy from this page. You can just upload things through the web client, but I find the uploader to be simpler. (It's pretty self-explanatory) Third, when you have photos in iPhoto, right-click one of them, and select Show File. That'll navigate you in the Finder to the exact location of the photo, and you can copy it to the desktop for easy uploading. I hope that helps.

Well, seeing as all of these will be posted on my site eventually, I might as well start posting the ones I've received. First, because it was the first submitted... Click to reveal.. (Lanrezac's Epilogue) After returning to Quera, Lanrezac initially struggled with a sense of disappointment; the journey to Sarden had not achieved all that he had hoped, despite slaying Chak-Tha and avenging the death of Lord Hakkel and the other Querans who perished. However, he soon put aside his disappointment to pursue other matters. First, following the mission to Sarden, he recorded his experiences, and sent them off to the University of Oossfa. His far away colleagues all found his tales of boom squirrels, magically hallucinated boar, Khielek’s people, the canopy drake, and wretched hive of scum and villainy that is Sarden quite interesting. When Zarusa offered Lanrezac a job as her assistant, he eagerly accepted the chance to pursue several of his goals at once. Lanrezac’s close encounter of the divine kind continued to impact him powerfully; a position of influence with Zarusa enabled him to keep working to uphold justice and honor Sliros. Zarusa was of course quite powerful, but even she benefited from Lanrezac’s words of wisdom at times. When not advising her, he served as a sort of ambassador, roving emissary, or courier. As he traveled on errands for Zarusa, he seized every chance he got to visit ruins and other sites of historical interest, taking notes as always. Lanrezac also cultivated his friendships with the interesting and friendly people he encountered on his journey across Selos. He visited Khielek and his tribe several times, and from them, and Nixak, learned their language, eventually writing a grammar explaining it and getting the university to publish it. Rebuilding Quera and restoring peace took much work, and while in Quera, Lanrezac would work with Boregloaf as she worked kept order. The exception was Vitze; if ever Lanrezac knew she was around, he would try to be somewhat respectful (though he didn’t always succeed), but would never, ever, trust her. Next, promptly submitted after the BM finale... Click to reveal.. (Amadan's Epilogue) That day, as the group bid its farewells, Amadan couldn't help but feel pride. He had faced an evil of old, and even gone mind-to-mind with Chamulsep himself... and came out intact. And he knew there was only one person to thank for it. Liea had chosen him, for whatever reason, and he could only hope that, one day, she called upon him again. He decided to stay in Risis, finally getting around to what he meant to do when he first arrived: Alchemical Hunting. He ventured deeper into the marsh to retrieve herbs out of reach of the normal alchemists, while also keeping an eye on the crypts of the marsh. He had to retrain himself to use his bow left-handed. He never did manage to find his finger, but it was a small price to pay, overall. He managed to make a decent living, and in his downtime, continued to research Liea and Chamulsep. But something was off. Something during the encounter with Yunelias had caused a small part within to break. Every day that passed, he felt more uncomfortable. The marsh was making him feel paranoid for reasons he couldn't understand. Occasional phantom pains in his missing finger made him jumpy. His dreams were plagued with nightmares, and on the quietest of nights, he could almost swear he heard Chamulsep still whispering evil nothings into his mind. Then on one unremarkable summer morning, he vanished without a trace. Finally, far better than its author is willing to admit... Click to reveal.. (Nixak's Epilogue) The weeks following the party's return to Quera went faster then the weeks before. Within a week Zarusa called on Nixak to meet with her and she discussed at length what she wanted him to do. To his great surprise she informed him that she wanted him to be her liaison working with the humans in the near by jungle and establish communication and a good relation between Quera and them. Two days later he found himself and two of the local city guards back in the jungle trudging towards where he remembered Khielik and his people lived. After several days wandering Nixak and the guards managed to find one of the many human villages. They were promptly taken captive and almost killed. The only reason they lived was because of Nixak and his ability to speak with the humans in their own language thanks to Khielik's amulet that he still wore. Nixak and the city guards spent several days under heavy human guard in a small hut. The humans had taken their weapons and supplies but provided them with food and water. At dusk on the second day Nixak and the guards where pulled out of the small hut and brought to another hut where they met Khielik. Khielik recognized Nixak immediately. The following conversation between them went very well. After Nixak explained why he had come seeking Khielik and his people they were sent back to the small hut. The following day Khielik came to their hut and told Nixak that he had accepted Zarusa's wish of communication between their people. Nixak sent the two guards back to Quera with this report but stayed behind with Khielik. After several months of living with Khielik's people he was able to garner some trust amongst them. He was not one of them but he quickly learned and adapted to their ways. With Khielik's permission he returned to Quera along with two human guards. After being debriefed by Zarusa and harshly rebuked for having taken so long in returning, Nixak presented the idea that trade should be established between the humans and Quera. Zarusa agreed that it would be beneficial and Nixak returned to the jungle to make that idea become a reality. Khielik rejected the idea of open trade flat out. If it had not been for the persistence of two human trades men that Nixak had met earlier, that expressed desires to sell in Quera, Khielik would have sent Nixak back to Quera immediately. After a few days an agreement was reached to send these two tradesmen to Quera with an escort to sell their goods and see how the city's people responded to them. Nixak left ahead of the tradesmen and returned to Quera. He explained how the two trades men were coming to sell their wares and to see how they would be received. Zarusa gave Nixak the resources to make sure that the humans were tended to and helped them set up a place in the city's market to sell their goods. The city's reaction was one of wonder, fear, and distrust. Despite the mixed reaction the humans quickly sold their goods and within four days time had returned to the jungle. Nixak also returned to the jungle and then back to Quera a dozen more times before it was agreed that those same two human trades men would be allowed to sell their goods in Quera once every month. During the time that Nixak was not trying to bring Quera and the humans closer together he spent it in refection of his life and also in study of the silver scepter and its purpose. While he was not able to garner a full understanding of the scepters powers he did learn that it allowed him to focus his mind and enhance his mental abilities. He used the scepter to place powerful wards on his own mind to keep others from getting into it. He remembered what happened in Sarden and how easily his mind's defenses were overcome. He could still feel that presence that had invaded his mind out there somewhere and he knew that he would have to face it again someday. Until then, he continued as the liaison that Zarusa had made him.

Pardon the bumpage, but two things: 1. Epilogues... please submit them, even if it's something fairly mundane. Character continuity is awesome. 2. Expect a post in the next few days about the next thing I plan to run.

FINAL EPIC LOG OF AWESOMENESS! That's right, the Blood Marsh campaign is complete, and that does it for both of my active campaigns. I would like to remind everyone that 1) everyone gets a post-campaign level up, and 2) I'm waiting for epilogues, send 'em. But first, quotes! Click to reveal.. (The Ultimate Quote-Down of Ultimate Destiny) Amadan: "...What in the name of Liea are we supposed to do about this?" Esstra: "Why did I agree to save the world with such idiots?!" Kurex: "We need to be very careful here. For instance, let's not head towards the screams." Sawbones: "And the fortress is probably some sort of landmark. Maybe there's a museum!" Alexander: "The ring! It's bad! Or something!" Yunelias: "You cannot stop me! You cannot stop Chamulsep!" So with that, the storyteller must bow, and the thread must end. I now direct you all to the postmortem thread, where we can continue the discussion of the games, and what comes next. Thank you all for playing.

Originally Posted By: Lilith what you actually do with the character during the RP is more important than having pages of backstory that most people will just skim through anyway. besides, keeping things basic lets you fill in the details later as you get a feel for the character Very, very true. I can't wait to watch a session of this!

Originally Posted By: Dantius the Bloodmarsh players made short work of a Dream Plane version of the second most powerful necromancer in all of history FYT. Real thing would've smoked you all.

Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba Dikiyoba will send in Boregloaf's interlude soon after Ephesos asks for character intros for the next Kyrophius conspiracy campaign. Please don't wait that long.

Yes... at this point, I feel pretty embarrassed by my attempt at a conclusion to Selos. I tried to do too many things at once. Thank you for the breakdown nonetheless, Triumph.

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!! Thank you Dintiradan, I'm off to go soak my brain in ice water to cool it down. Thanks for playing folks! Epilogues/interludes are awesome, and so is the postmortem thread. I recommend them both. *splash*

Originally Posted By: Master1 I'm sitting here on a Powerbook G4. Must be hard to type like that.

What I loved about it was that nobody else even seemed to react.

I am psyched for this. Also not too crazy for the name, but I'm prepared for it to grow on me.

Originally Posted By: eCool Must. . . resist. . . urge to. . . call. . . bluff. . . It's your funeral. Er, Sawbones's funeral. Also, I would still appreciate epilogue/interlude pieces from the Selos crew. I have all of one so far. Originally Posted By: Keoshor, Sorceress of Fates "If there are in fact worlds beyond our own, I wonder. Do they all possess parallel planes such as our world's Nether? Or are there even stranger configurations of planar bodies?"

To second Nioca, HEY! Blood Marsh Finale on Friday! 6:30pm CDT! BE THERE! ...or your character might just get outright killed. Originally Posted By: Lerasti, historian "One of Chamulsep's more gruesome tactics was to forcibly reanimate his fallen foes, binding their tortured souls to his service. This alone nearly doomed the Alliance, until the spellweavers of Selos found a way to guard against it. Mercifully, such abominable spells as those Chamulsep used have been lost to the mists of time."

That... is unusual. The store data should be in the scenario's main script (for Valley of the Dying Things, pretty sure it's valleydie.txt), and all of that should be loaded upon first entering the scenario. Check to make sure that file isn't corrupted, but otherwise that's a new problem to me. Re-downloading can never hurt.

Just fyi, I'm not going to be able to participate... pretty much no matter what.

Originally Posted By: Micawber Currently reading many books by Jack McDevitt. This guy's books are addictive. Sort of like a series of sci-fi disaster movies. Yes. Win. McDevitt is made of win. Read Eternity Road if you get the chance, too.

Bowie wins. Try not to look at his pants. The movie is also much much better after having run the Labyrinth campaign.

Yes, character creation is definitely up for revision as well, particularly if I'm going to try and run higher-level campaigns later on. Creating a character up to level 10 would be a pain, and it would be even worse for the DM who had to verify it.

Pretty much what Nioca said.