AIMhack Postmortem: Rumors of My Death

Magnificent Ornk · February 7, 2011

Originally Posted By: Rikkla the Sage

"Some things are better forgotten."

That's right everyone, it's time for the postmortem thread for Rumors of My Death. While we're still ironing out the conclusion, I figured it's better to start the thread before everybody forgets what happened. After all, we're not all like Rikkla... these are events that we want to remember.

There are many things to take care of now that the final die has been rolled. First and perhaps most importantly, it's time to think about character epilogues. I welcome any and all players to submit an epilogue for their character, one which can be posted to the my site. However, you might want to bear in mind the fact that future campaigns might call for higher-level characters, such as the ones you have now. Don't write up your happily-ever-after retirement if you want to join in the next campaign... or be ready to have your vacation interrupted.

Second, I welcome any and all questions and comments about the finished campaigns. Pretty much everything is fair game. I want to know what you liked, what you hated, what could be better, what intrigued you, any and all opinions. And remember that I have huge piles of .txt files crammed with campaign info, so fire away. (I reserve the right to give cryptic/unhelpful answers if you ask about things that influence future/current campaigns)

Third, there are some things I intend to do for the next campaign(s) I run. These are just going to be procedural changes, but they bear mentioning:

HP totals are coming down.
I'll be updating the spell compendium, and linking it somewhere so people can actually see it.
The skill list will be revised.
Leveling might change.

Finally, and this one is kind of important, it's time to start thinking about future campaigns. I'm open to any suggestions, and while I have thoughts as to where the plots of previous campaigns can go in the future, I am not bound to continuing them. But, there are a few specific factors to consider with new campaigns:

Character Level (affects whether past characters can join)
Setting (obviously somewhere on Mote... for now)
Theme (horror, gritty, survival, exploration, dungeoncrawl, intrigue, etc)
Plot Requests ("Imaunte's disciples", "Land Shark hunting", "Gaunik-Da's sanctuary", "that rock over there", etc)

...so, yeah. That's it for now, so let the discussion begin. As always, I'm happy to have DM-ed for you all, and here's to many more successful campaigns ahead!

Well-Actually War Trall · February 7, 2011

An idea for the HP bloat is to cap hp at a total of 10. Not having an HP level that raises can make the campaign feel diffrent and more 'real' in the sense that you are as easy to kill as anything else. Of course you can skill up in skills to not get yourself killed as easy but no more blood tanking.

As for future ideas, (months maybe years down the road) would be to have a coming together campaign. There seems to be a connecting thread of your campaigns that is building up to something. I think it would be fun to have a campaign or many campaigns take place all at once and all end in the same place.

Easygoing Eyebeast · February 8, 2011

I've always loved epic level gaming. I know that in many senses of the word, "epic" is simply a synonym for "bigger numbers", but you must it admit that hitting a arch-lich with a Meteor is way, way more satisfying than tossing a Force Bolt at a goblin, even if both only do 10% HP damage. And, of course, the feeling that the decisions made by your characters will affect not only this campaign and the epilogue, but also all campaigns run by all other DM's in the setting is certainly one that raises the stakes quite a bit, and things way more fun with higher stakes.

I second Rowen's idea about a "coming together" campaign x years from now. It certainly does seem like there are definitely conflicting plot threads that will start to intersect in fascinating ways.

Understated Ur-Drakon · February 8, 2011

An HP cap would, I think, go a long way towards homogenizing character builds, which is probably not what we're looking for.

Ineffable Wingbolt · February 8, 2011

Originally Posted By: Rowen

As for future ideas, (months maybe years down the road) would be to have a coming together campaign. There seems to be a connecting thread of your campaigns that is building up to something. I think it would be fun to have a campaign or many campaigns take place all at once and all end in the same place.

I may not be a DM, but while this sounds awesome there are a lot of problems with it. First off is the problem of who would DM all of these campaigns, and who would tie it all together. Second would be that you could'nt have a character in more than one of these campaigns without ending up controlling several in the end. Third would be the timing, I can just see half of the players not being able to make it to the final sessions. And I could think of plenty more problems with such a series of campaigns given more time.

As amazing as this idea is, I think it would end up being torture for the DM/'s involved. Do we really want them to suffer that much?

Unflappable Drayk · February 8, 2011

I don't have much of a stake in this, but for what it's worth I don't think these problems are all that difficult to solve.

The issue of too many characters is one that many long-running video game series (Resident Evil comes immediately to mind) have dealt with: retire most of the player characters, or make them NPCs. It would be even easier for characters in "pen & paper" campaign world, since the GM(s) could just ask the players which of their characters they want to play. The GM could even kill off some former player characters between campaigns for story reasons, presumably with the consent of their players.

I can see the issue of who GMs the final campaign being contentious, but I could also see it being resolved without much trouble. It depends on the circumstances and the people who want to participate. Likewise, presumably this wouldn't need to include everyone who'd played an AIMHack campaign, just the core group who were most involved in the story.

It's not as if this type of idea is without its difficulties, but I've known groups who play basically this type of campaign series, and they can work.

Hatchling Cockatrice · February 8, 2011

Originally Posted By: Dantius

I've always loved epic level gaming. I know that in many senses of the word, "epic" is simply a synonym for "bigger numbers", but you must it admit that hitting a arch-lich with a Meteor is way, way more satisfying than tossing a Force Bolt at a goblin, even if both only do 10% HP damage.

i must admit no such thing

aaanyway, comments on the campaign. i'm kind of worried that this is all going to come across as Way Harsh, so sorry if any of the below sounds too negative or nitpicky. i'm not trying to crush your spirit, i'm just trying to throw around some ideas on how to improve the quality of play. if it seems like i'm hating on you it's because i'm a huge jerk, not because the campaign was bad (it wasn't, it was very good almost all of the time)

* overall campaign structure = solid. we get paid to retrieve artifact from villain, we track down and beat up villain but she gets away, we find lead on villain's location and track her down again while gradually working out that villain was actually under control of evil artifact, we stop villain's evil plan, save villain's life and decide what to do with artifact. okay, the "we save villain's life" part probably wasn't your original plan, but letting us attempt to do so was the Right Thing To Do, so good job on how you handled that!

pacing was generally good too. there were two arcs of rising and falling tension over the course of the campaign: we started out slow, trying to get to sarden and find out where rikkla was. then things built up a bit until we finally confronted her. then she got away and things slowed down a bit while we got out of town and found out where she was escaping to. then things really started to build up again after we confronted her in the mountains, and pretty much kept building up right until the final confrontation in S-T's stronghold. 90% of the time the level of tension I was feeling was appropriate to where we were in the campaign, so good job on that in general. a couple of pacing issues:

- the fight-a-delver-to-get-climbing-gear thing felt a little disconnected from the rest of the campaign, although the battle itself was fun enough while we were actually playing through it. still, putting a sidequest like that so close to the climax of the campaign sort of risks doing weird things to momentum.

- i felt like everything after the escape from the stronghold at the end of the last session fell a little flat. at that point the players were exhausted in real life and wanted an ending, and then you spring the ring thing on us, which not only makes us run off to deal with something largely unrelated to the rest of the campaign, it sets us arguing about what to do with the ring (and the Knot).

i guess you probably didn't predict in advance that we'd get into a big argument over what to do, but in hindsight i think we'd probably have been less frustrated if you'd just wrapped it up with a few paragraphs about how we get back to the mining camp and are offered an escort back to Selaneus, and take the entire argument over the Knot to PMs, since at that point there wasn't really any time pressure or any need for rolling (if there were a serious chance of the party coming to blows over it, that might be different, but i think there was a social expectation that that wouldn't happen). i'm not sure what should have been done with the ring, because i'm not sure what purpose it served in the campaign that wasn't already served by the Knot.

* a comment on rolling. by the book, a 20 means "very good things happen", and a 1 means "very bad things happen". however, there were times when bad things happened after we rolled a 20, seemingly because we rolled a 20. i'm thinking in particular of the two altar explosions, and of the dagger of healing activation in the last session. likewise, kurex rolled a 20 on composure in the jungle village while wearing that cursed sword and still got a very bad outcome, which suggests that the roll was meaningless -- in which case, why make him roll? it's possible that we'd benefit from more clarity on what sorts of things we can expect to happen if we roll a 20, and if we roll a 1. this kind of issue is why i'm into RPG theory concepts like stake-setting, where it's clear what a successful or a failed roll will mean before the roll is made. we can discuss this in more detail in the metathread if you want.

* you've said before that you're hurt by accusations of railroading. but there have been times when i felt like you were giving us a pretty firm shove to keep us going in the direction you wanted us to be going. i'm thinking in particular of two instances: firstly, the conveniently-timed cave-in of the passage just as it looked like we were going to run through it to go after the minotaur in sarden, and secondly, at the border of Fury territory when you all-but-outright-told-us OOC (and actually did outright tell us, after the session) that trying to find another way around the jungle would mean we'd lose rikkla's trail and end the campaign in failure. possibly you weren't conceptualising these events as attempts to keep us following the plot, but from the player's end that's what it looked like.

in general i felt like you were allowing us to make decisions on small-scale events like "whether to search this room" or "whether to keep or throw away the evil artifact" but generally trying to guide us to go the way you wanted us to go on large-scale events like "what place to go next", where you couldn't just write the consequences of our decision into what you'd already planned out.

and man, that's cool, that's a valid way to run a campaign. i mean, city of hope has been pretty much entirely linear from session 3 onwards and i'm not even pretending that it isn't: players can decide how to deal with individual challenges and NPCs, but it'd be a problem if they suddenly wanted to backtrack out of the temple and bum around in the city for a day, because i don't have the maps prepared to deal with that. but you don't get to say "hey, you can do whatever you want" out of one side of your mouth while you're nudging us in the direction where the real plot is with the other -- hell, the very fact that there is a "direction where the real plot is" means that it's basically a linear campaign, even if there are branches and fuzzy bits here and there.

basically my advice on this point is that you should decide how much influence you're actually willing to let players have, and on what scale, and then clearly tell your players at the start: "this is the scope of how much influence i feel you can have over the course of events while still making it possible for me to run an interesting campaign". and then stick to that. this is one of the things that the same page tool from the metathread is good for.

ok that's me done for now i think. i might have more to say if anybody brings up an interesting point that hadn't come to mind. peace out.

Magnificent Ornk · February 8, 2011

Harsh? Nah. Legitimate criticism? Most definitely.

Originally Posted By: Lilith

- the fight-a-delver-to-get-climbing-gear thing felt a little disconnected from the rest of the campaign, although the battle itself was fun enough while we were actually playing through it. still, putting a sidequest like that so close to the climax of the campaign sort of risks doing weird things to momentum.

You have no idea how happy I am that I scrapped another mini-dungeon before the fortress. Like a day before the session, too.

Quote:

- i felt like everything after the escape from the stronghold at the end of the last session fell a little flat. at that point the players were exhausted in real life and wanted an ending, and then you spring the ring thing on us, which not only makes us run off to deal with something largely unrelated to the rest of the campaign, it sets us arguing about what to do with the ring (and the Knot).

I agree, and I apologize. I did not expect Adira to put on the ring as you all were crossing the bridge on the way out, but yes that could've been handled better.

Re: Rolling 20s. I totally agree, and this is what I almost always aim to do. In order:

Kurex's sword was the Sword of the Buffoon (+1 in melee, -10 composure, with the additional detriment that lies tend to backfire spectacularly). Cursed item.
The Dagger of Healing* activation was luck. I'd been asking spectators odd-or-even to determine if it activated. On an activation, it healed 10 hp to whatever it stabbed. Aurora could not deal enough damage, even on a crit. Cursed item.
Exploding altars are better than altars that finish casting Rikkla's ritual.

Re: Railroading... yeah. This campaign was not the best example of that, and I went a bit overboard in the metathread. Though in those two instances, going after the minotaur would have very likely resulted in a TPK. Very very very likely. In terms of going around the jungle, it would have just been boring fluff in a section of campaign that was already dangerously close to fluff.

You're right, I sorta need to make peace with the amount of linearity I'm aiming for early on. But then that means I need to plan campaigns out in more detail earlier on.

* - Sidenote on the Dagger of Healing. It effectively arose from my Pathfinder games with friends, where we had come to refer to our wands of Cure Light Wounds as the Dagger of Healing, since we spent so much time stabbing one another with them.

Hatchling Cockatrice · February 8, 2011

like i said, don't feel bad about wanting to run linear campaigns. if you want to produce a coherent ongoing story that lasts for more than a few sessions, a certain amount of rigidity is probably necessary (although so is a certain amount of flexibility). in my experience, games where all players have greater narrative input tend to encourage short and episodic adventures: for example, dogs in the vineyard explicitly encourages the group to keep to a schedule of one session per town the PCs visit, so while the players have near-total freedom in what the PCs do in any given town, anything that happens doesn't have to carry over into the next session except insofar as it changes the PCs themselves, because the PCs have moved on to the next town. episodic play is one way of preventing the combinatorial explosion that comes with a bunch of different people making choices about what happens next. GM control to keep the players more-or-less on track is another way. is there a third way? maybe.

the issue isn't linearity, the issue is shared expectations. if you like i'll take further discussion on this point to the metathread to avoid derailing.

Easygoing Eyebeast · February 9, 2011

Random suggestions for future campaigns

Character level: any, perhaps levels similar to those that began the Rumors campaign; start out feeling competent; however…it’s fun to make new characters, and it’s fun to continue established characters, so either way works

Settings: mountains (loved the little taste of mountains in Rumors); mysterious ancient ruins; grand (or as grand Mote gets), established, impressive, populated cities (Eolith, perhaps, rather than wacko fringe places like Sarden or hamlets like Risis); cameos from previous PCs as NPCs (a la Nixak in Rumors) as neat details; autumn weather (my favorite season)

Themes: exploration, investigation

Plot requests: investigate a mystery (sort of like Brigandage started out); explore an interesting place; meet / work for / help some of the people quoted or talked about in your forum blurbs (e.g. great pyromancer Plaram or historian Lerasti); continue plot threads from previous Mote campaigns; learn more about one or more of the gods (perhaps by working for / with a disciple of that deity?) and their role within Mote; a siege (attacking or defending)

I don’t expect you to include anywhere near all these suggestions in one campaign; I’m just throwing out random ideas that interest me for you to use as you please.

Understated Ur-Drakon · February 9, 2011

Originally Posted By: Triumph

perhaps levels similar to those that began the Rumors campaign; start out feeling competent;

What campaign were you watching?

Magnificent Ornk · February 9, 2011

Responding to some earlier things I forgot about:

Originally Posted By: Rowen

As for future ideas, (months maybe years down the road) would be to have a coming together campaign. There seems to be a connecting thread of your campaigns that is building up to something. I think it would be fun to have a campaign or many campaigns take place all at once and all end in the same place.

For the record, I would never want to do the coming together idea using other people's storylines without an extensive briefing at the beginning, and would likely only feel comfortable doing this with my own campaigns. And I certainly wouldn't do it with a party larger than the ones we've had so far... that just gets unmanageable quickly.

Now, a campaign where we wound up with, say, 2 Selos PCs, 1 Blood Marsh PC, 1 Rumors PC, and a Labyrinth PC? That could potentially be awesome. Or just stupid. There are certainly enough threads to connect the plots, but I for one don't think it's at a point yet where a meta-campaign is possible.

As for the idea of multiple DMs running campaigns that occur on the same island or something... I'm intrigued. It would take twice as much effort as usual, but it could indeed be awesome. Or, we could get the Head of Vecna. Which would still be awesome.

Originally Posted By: Dantius

I've always loved epic level gaming. I know that in many senses of the word, "epic" is simply a synonym for "bigger numbers", but you must it admit that hitting a arch-lich with a Meteor is way, way more satisfying than tossing a Force Bolt at a goblin, even if both only do 10% HP damage. And, of course, the feeling that the decisions made by your characters will affect not only this campaign and the epilogue, but also all campaigns run by all other DM's in the setting is certainly one that raises the stakes quite a bit, and things way more fun with higher stakes.

See... I like epic level stories. But in terms of making it a meaningful play experience, I'm not sure I agree that it's more satisfying. Epic level gaming suffers from one major hindrance in my mind, and it's outlined by your example.

So throwing meteors around should deal a lot of damage, correct? But unless everything just becomes trivially easy or a coinflip for survival (do I get to cast Meteor Swarm before the lich uses Finger of Death?), then you have to scale it similarly to throwing a force bolt at a goblin. To me, that cheapens the epic-level experience. Now, when I finally get around to doing some of the Far Expedition stuff, I'll see if I can work around this problem (mechanically, it'll be totally different from AIMhack at present).

I think the far more interesting challenge is devising campaigns and adventures that are low-level, but will have far-reaching implications for future stories. And that's how I roll.

Originally Posted By: Neon God

An HP cap would, I think, go a long way towards homogenizing character builds, which is probably not what we're looking for.

This is essentially why I'm against a hard cap, though I do want builds to become a bit less extreme... so I will likely give the HP=10+(2*STR) formula a chance in the next thing I do, along with a damage re-scaling.

Originally Posted By: Triumph

Character level: any, perhaps levels similar to those that began the Rumors campaign; start out feeling competent; however…it’s fun to make new characters, and it’s fun to continue established characters, so either way works

See, if I re-work skills/leveling a bit, then level 1 characters will still be competent. But yeah, I'm feeling better and better about running higher-level stuff after Rumors.

Magnificent Ornk · February 9, 2011

For what it's worth, I did once get a campaign hiked up to pretty high level, a point at which a demon lord, a legendary castle-sized dragon, a world-creating artifact, a dread archmage returned to life, and a living saint ascending to heaven all turned up in one last session.

It worked great. It was amazing.

It was easy. It was like everything was already there, and it needed only one tap of my hammer for all the loose chips of stone to fall away. Just pull out every stop, answer, Yes! to every question, and it was all there.

It was the climax to a campaign that had lasted about five years. One of the players, my best friend, was dying of cancer. Two of the players were my brothers. It was treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt: a small thing, just a game, but one of the things in my life that just went right, and the fact that it did is indestructible.

Even luck played along. The 20's were rolled when they had to be. So were the 1's. The thief stole a million worth of gems under the sleeping dragon's giant eye, digging through diamonds for the soul-venomed knife that carved planes, and pulled off the necessary string of lucky rolls. The players twigged to everything that was going on, but only just in time to be astonished. The Care Bear I put in for comic relief half way, and to heal the party, died under a panicky blast of everything the party could throw at it, just because it didn't attack them first.

It happened that way because of all that had gone before, because the time was right. I can imagine things might go that way here, maybe more than once. Why not? This AIMHack thing is something. But you can't force it. Just be ready to let it happen when it can.

Kyshakk Koan · February 9, 2011

Originally Posted By: Ephesos

This is essentially why I'm against a hard cap, though I do want builds to become a bit less extreme... so I will likely give the HP=10+(2*STR) formula a chance in the next thing I do, along with a damage re-scaling.

I personally would be more in favor of a HP=10+1/2(level*str) or similar formula; that way you don't totally stop when you don't increase your strength, levels have more meaning, but it also doesn't make when you get your strength important.

Just a thought. :-)

Understated Ur-Drakon · February 9, 2011

Originally Posted By: Ephesos

This is essentially why I'm against a hard cap, though I do want builds to become a bit less extreme... so I will likely give the HP=10+(2*STR) formula a chance in the next thing I do, along with a damage re-scaling.

If I may make a suggestion? Make it 3*STR. Otherwise, you devalue STR so badly that any sane character would be better off putting points in DEX for the miss chance or INT for extra spell/technique slots.

To give you an idea, 2*STR would give Mal (the main tank with plenty of STR) 24 HP. Which is fine, until you compare it to the squishy Aurora, who'd have 16 HP. Which would, in a deadly fight, likely amount to 1, maybe 2 hits.

In comparison, 3*STR would give Mal 31 HP (which is strong, but not ridiculous; it still cuts his current HP almost in half), but would give a lighter character like Aurora 19 HP. It'd also cut 107 HP off the party total, making the numbers considerably less ridiculous to keep track of (It'd be 134 HP total, compared to the original 241).

-----

Anyway, it was definitely fun playing the non-magic tank, but... well, I probably won't do it again any time soon. Even with the battle techniques, I felt constrained in what I could do. One thing I've always strived for in a character is versatility. Etris could choose between force blasts and attacking with a blade, and could use his talents for war and for peace. Amadan had a variety of magical arrows to choose from, and a spell on hand in case he ran into skeletons. Eva had three different spell schools to choose from, and could act as either a glass cannon, a healer, or a support character, AND could swap between the roles at will.

Yet with Mal, my options were limited, and I really started feeling it. I'm not saying the simplicity of a non-magic tank is a bad thing. I just really don't think it's for me.

Magnificent Ornk · February 9, 2011

Bear in mind that the HP re-scaling would be accompanied by totally ripping out how I currently do damage. You wouldn't be getting hit for 15 anymore unless you really, really screwed up.

Tanking isn't for everyone. I really, really enjoyed playing Granius in Theressa Expedition, and I've enjoyed playing a monk in my Pathfinder games here, but I'm generally more of a ranged kind of player.

Understated Ur-Drakon · February 9, 2011

Originally Posted By: Ephesos

Bear in mind that the HP re-scaling would be accompanied by totally ripping out how I currently do damage. You wouldn't be getting hit for 15 anymore unless you really, really screwed up.

I'm aware, but I'm talking more about the overall low returns of STR at a 2x rate. Dexterity's evasion chance offers more defensive power point-for-point than Strength's HP gain, and improving HP is one of the main reasons to invest in STR at all. At a 3x rate, however, STR and DEX relatively balance out.

In short, why drop 4 points in STR to get only 8 HP when you can drop those same 4 points in DEX and get a 20% chance to avoid damage altogether?

Magnificent Ornk · February 9, 2011

A fair point. Basically, all I wanted to do was avoid the absurdly high numbers and bookkeeping we've been dealing with in Rumors, and tweaking the modifier won't run counter to that.

Well-Actually War Trall · February 9, 2011

Originally Posted By: Ephesos

A fair point. Basically, all I wanted to do was avoid the absurdly high numbers and bookkeeping we've been dealing with in Rumors, and tweaking the modifier won't run counter to that.

You should have seen the numbers I had in Theressa. It was outlandish.

Easygoing Eyebeast · February 28, 2011

Any word on the epilogues / other explanatory or background material?

Understated Ur-Drakon · February 28, 2011

Well, I just submitted mine. So now we're just waiting on the others who haven't.

As for what I'd like to see in a future campaign: I think I'd like to see a dungeon crawl. Not as in, "Here's a minidungeon to explore for 1 or 2 sessions", I mean an actual full dungeon crawl that takes up a good portion of the campaign.

Failing that, other thoughts for settings include: Abandoned mysterious island (Think LOST), High Seas (Pirates, Krakens, and Pirate Krakens!), Desert (Could go well with a dungeon crawl), Cursed Arctic (I've actually thought about this one a bit).

As for character level: I'd like to see something on par with where we ended this one, but that's personally because I'd really like to play Amadan or Eva again at some point. Definitely not low-level, because we've got enough low-level campaigns already.

Rotghroth Rhapsody · February 28, 2011

An actual dungeon crawl does sound fun, and I think would be something for a higher level party due to basic survival ability, and they would need to be pretty well stocked starting out.

Understated Ur-Drakon · February 28, 2011

Quote:

Cursed Arctic

Mountains of Madness!

Easygoing Eyebeast · February 28, 2011

Originally Posted By: Neon God

Quote:

Cursed Arctic

Mountains of Madness!

now im just confused. what about a mountains of madness

Hatchling Cockatrice · February 28, 2011

At the Mountains of Madness is a Cthulhu mythos novella by H.P. Lovecraft, and it describes an ill-fated expedition to Antarctica.

—Alorael, who thinks this is the sort of thing you can Google yourself to avoid cluttering the topic.

Magnificent Ornk · February 28, 2011

FYI, we currently have 3 of 5 epilogues submitted and approved. Once those are all in, I can post them, the letters from Gotay, the full artifact list, etc etc etc.

Easygoing Eyebeast · February 28, 2011

Quote:

Cursed Arctic

Mountains of Madness!

Mountain of Shadows!

Click to reveal.. (BLACKRUNE WAS MY SON!)

Click to reveal.. (AND MILKSHAKE WAS LIKE MY DAUGHTER!)

Click to reveal.. (YOU KILLED THEM BOTH AND ENSLAVED BLACKRUNE!)

MILKSHAKE WAS A CAT!

Easygoing Eyebeast · March 1, 2011

what does milkshake is my cat have ANYTHING to do with this?

Easygoing Eyebeast · March 2, 2011

Mountain of Shadows was a massive forum RP that went on for like 50 pages in three threads about five years back. Read it through sometime, it's pretty cool.

Magnificent Ornk · March 2, 2011

More importantly, we actually finished it. After a 3-month hiatus that would've killed most RPs.

Also, the Milkshake thing was the consequence of a character who insisted on being involved in all plot. All of it. Every. Last. Drop.

Magnificent Ornk · March 7, 2011

Ka-BUMP.

The concluding scenes and compiled epilogues are now available for your collective perusal.

Now that everything's over and the campaign can officially be called concluded, pretty much everything from the campaign is fair game. That includes the party's letters from Gotay, the exact functions of artifacts, tidbits missed from the stronghold... yep, if you can name it and it appeared in this campaign, I probably have a .txt file containing it somewhere.

Easygoing Eyebeast · March 7, 2011

Wow. I am totally impressed by the conclusion and epilogues...I think this may be the best yet for an AIMHack campaign. Well done to all involved!

I would like to see all the letters Gotay sent, as well as any previously unreleased character background stuff. Artifact functions would be good too. Any cool stuff the party missed out on. From you, Eph, I'd be curious: in the campaign as a whole, did the party do any thing that really threw you off?

Very nicely done.

Hatchling Cockatrice · March 7, 2011

and here i was worrying that my epilogue was too long

for those who were curious, here's gotay's letter to aurora:

Click to reveal..

and her backstory, although you probably worked out most of it already from the hints i was dropping throughout the campaign:

Click to reveal..

Understated Ur-Drakon · March 7, 2011

Heh. Yeah, some pretty epic epilogues this time around.

Anyway, since Lilith posted hers, I might as well post mine. First, backstory:

Click to reveal.. (Mal's Backstory)

Mal wasn't what you would call the sharpest knife in the drawer. Nevertheless, once the self-fancied hero set his sights on a goal, only the gods themselves could stop him. Which is how a generally nice person like him wound up in such a cesspit as Sarden.

Raised in the northern Selosian mountains in the small village of Kero, Mal had an odd upbringing, to say the least; He was found by a goblin traveler named Worak and brought to the village as an infant, the only survivor of an apparent attack on a waylaid caravan. Adopted by a dragonborn couple, Mal was brought up in the light of Phol-Phoram and the stability of a village shielded from the darkness otherwise engulfing Mote.

He also nurtured a growing feeling of restlessness. He had grown up on tales of adventure and heroics, and wanted to pave a way for himself in the world. He was trained in swordsmenship from a young age by Kero's finest, and proved his mettle against some troublesome brigands.

Unfortunately, upon returning from dealing with the brigands, Mal soon found that his village was in upset. A sword, known as the EveningStar, was stolen from the village. It was known quite well as a magical blade, and protected by the village for generations. Mal went to sleep that night with a troubled mind.

The next morning, he declared he was going to Sarden, to try and track down the EveningStar. After all, what better place to look then a den of thieves? And despite the pleas of pretty much every person he was close to, he gathered up his equipment for the trip and prepared to leave.

He was then approached by Worak, the goblin traveler. He stated that he had a contact in Selaneus who was considering assembling a team for an expedition into Sarden, named Gotay. Worak suggested that Mal might not want to undertake this task alone, and to take a detour to Selaneus. Mal agreed to go with Worak to Selaneus, and the duo soon set off.

Their timing couldn't be better; they arrived in the city and bumped into the dragonborn Gotay inside a local tavern. And after hearing the rumors of artifacts inside Rikkla's abandoned lair, Mal eagerly agreed to hunt for the artifact Gotay wished to find.

Second, Gotay's letter to Mal:

Click to reveal.. (To the stalwart Mal Travers...)

Sir Mal Travers -

My colleague Worak has informed me that you are a competent blade in need of work. I have employed many swordsmen in the past, but Worak assures me of your loyalty. It is this quality which leads me to request your assistance in this task.

One of the bandit lords of Sarden, a Rikkla the Cold, possesses an artifact which I would enjoy for my own collection. It is known as the Glacial Knot, and resembles a knot of string wrought from ice. You are to retrieve it and return it to me in Selaneus.

This is your primary goal, and fulfilling it will earn your full payment. However, I have two additional tasks for you, the completion of which will leave me in your debt. First, I have heard that Rikkla has recently acquired a blade of no small reputation, one blessed with the power of an extraordinary magical entity. It is commonly referred to as the Evening Star, and I would have it for my collection.

Second, a human travels with you by the name of Kurex. Watch him closely. I fear he cannot be trusted, but his abilities are required for this mission's success. You must assure that he does not step out of line.

- Gotay Zeshas

Also, I'd sorta like to know the exact details of the following artifacts:

-Agonized Panpipes

-Rat Panpipes

-The Pellets

Easygoing Eyebeast · March 7, 2011

Quote:

Second, a human travels with you by the name of Kurex. Watch him closely. I fear he cannot be trusted, but his abilities are required for this mission's success. You must assure that he does not step out of line.

Ahahaha! Wow. Keeping Kurex in line is an epic request all on its own!

Easygoing Eyebeast · March 7, 2011

I knew I was being watched, but I presumed it was Aurora, not Mal.

Well done, Nioca!

Magnificent Ornk · March 7, 2011

The other letters, then:

Click to reveal.. (Sir Kurex)

Click to reveal.. (Sir Josun)

Click to reveal.. (Sir Adon Zek)

...man, it is nice to finally get this stuff out into the light of day.

Easygoing Eyebeast · March 7, 2011

Cool stuff. It's interesting to see how you've grown as a DM, Eph, from Selos and Bloodmarsh to some of the Rumors stuff. Good job!

Easygoing Eyebeast · March 7, 2011

Man, I don't know how I'd react if a prospective employer told me I had an 'interesting backstory'. ;-)

Kyshakk Koan · March 18, 2011

I finally finished the expanded version of Adira's epilogue!

(It's only been, what, six weeks?)

Also, I would be very curious to see that Artifact List you mentioned, especially as regards those cymbals I forgot to grab.

Easygoing Eyebeast · March 18, 2011

Originally Posted By: Mistb0rn

I finally finished the expanded version of Adira's epilogue!
(It's only been, what, six weeks?)

Also, I would be very curious to see that Artifact List you mentioned, especially as regards those cymbals I forgot to grab.

Nice! I enjoyed reading it!

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AIMhack Postmortem: Rumors of My Death

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