Zepher

Been wanting to post for a while, but wanted to give enough time for Merei to have "waited" aboard the ship! Excited to be back in it. Also HOPEFUL that over the summer with a lighter schedule and having finished my Master's I'll have a chance to run something (gotta familiarize myself with digital building!!)

Merei returns to Heroica with a new amount of reserve energy, her understanding of the universe and her own powers amplified by her run-in with the Hydra and a brief sojourn on her home planets. 6 Character points: -2 to bump Religion from 1 to 2, -4 to bump spirit from 3 to 5.

Merei paces up and down the halls of the abandoned Valencia. The captain's complexion hasn't gotten much better as the days have gone on, but he is sound of mind. The same may not be true of Greenlaw, though Merei finds her conversation and company enjoyable. Both woman are clearly drawn to the Hydra, but Merei approaches it the same way other mortals may approach an open flame. The fascination is primal, but the danger is clear. Touching it openly is dangerous. Yet it still fascinates and tantalizes. Many times over. Merei is careful while drawing details about the linked minds out of Greenlaw, afraid if she is told too much her resolve will falter and she will stop burning back the small sprouts they find from time to time. A week passes before rescue arrives... Merei spends a full week aboard Charon Station, a self-imposed quarantine. She does not believe the Hydra has come with her or her companions. She wonders idly, now that the tantalization and threat have passed, if her previous caution was truly warranted. Could it meld with her in the same way it could with others? Or would she again be left on the outside, without a partner. Varen, Kirwin, and Zaria had all fallen under its sway at one point in the battle. Never her. Never connected... but now, that is for the best. She cannot bring it where she is going. She passes some of her time with Viper, at the bar, hearing his account of what happened aboard hte ship once more, and then hearing about his life aboard the station. Eventually she books passage... Home. For a while. The beautiful twin planets. She needs to recenter herself. But home for not too long. She has already scoured these planets for the answers to many questions, and found they either could not provide answers, or she was not yet equipped to unlock and understand them. That's why she'd left to begin with. And so, finally, after a long time gone, Merei returns to the hallowed Halls of Heroica. She takes up a position in the corner and begins to log notes.

I've been saying I'll do it, so I think it's time to comment on other characters! I'll keep it brief, though, since I mentioned a lot in my wrap up! One final note I didn't mention that others have: Legonator, the sets were, indeed, incredible. Very cool, very atmospheric. Zaria - A very fun character. You're making big choices, which definitely helps define her quickly. I liked how decisive she was when anyone succumbed to the Hydra. Her religion is an interesting one too - I really like the idea of a religion of a wanderer, and a wanderer who requires said bloody action when it's necessary. I do fear we're doomed to play out our same dynamic again hahaha, in that I think Zaria has some big trouble with the way Merei sees the world, and Merei is, if not oblivious to this, just not accepting of the fact that the two may have trouble between them. It was the same with Karie and Boomingham - Karie had some legitimate complaints, and Boomingham was just constantly "I don't get why you don't want to get along!" That being said, I think the quest was great for these two. They respected each other's competency in battle, and I think that's a real cool dynamic: trusting each other with their lives, but not sure of their individual intentions. There's this very cool push and pull to it. Kirwin - Kirwin is a very sweet character, and I'm always happy to go on the same quest with people twice. Merei and he really grew to like and trust each other in the first quest. I was afraid that I was frankly sometimes overbearing. I kept asking Kirwin to do this and that, and I hope it came across as Merei suggesting a course of action to a friend, or asking a friend for a favor, and not a "Zepher dictating what karmajay should be doing right now." Like I said above, learning his backstory was very cool. I'm sad you fell off a bit near the end there: I would have liked another voice in the debate! If you're having trouble connecting with moments, I'd suggest using Kinto as an example. Be bold! Take an action! What does Kirwin prioritize in the moment? I think they're a strong character, and I wouldn't have given that note unless you yourself said that you had a bit of trouble there at the end. Merei - She's not really announcing her deal as much as some other characters I've played. She's quieter. I think I'm dropping hints, over both quests, kind of what she's about. But, like I said at the end of 4, she's here for a reason. She has a mission. She's doing other stuff in the meantime, but she's working towards something. I think I let a bit of that drop out here and there. But, following my own advice to Karma, I do think her actions are speaking loudly for her character, if not her backstory yet, which is what I'm aiming for. So, you know, always nice to end of post by just patting myself on the back. And since I'm already there, I'm happy I chose to ignore meditate. It made the quest MUCH tougher for me. Which I love.

I think this is actually something interesting about the difference between a live-action RPG, and a text-based one. In a live-action, it's totally cool for someone to pull someone else aside for a quick private conversation, since it'll take like 10-15 minutes and, if you're playing with a respectful group, everyone just cools their heels and respects the moment and intention. In a text-based adventure, however, since everything takes longer, pulling an NPC aside might mean other players have nothing to do for the next 2-3 days, which is a tougher pill to swallow. I'm personally cool with it, since I prefer dynamism over speed, but I definitely understand how it can be tough to be taken out of the action for that long.

Legonator, I think you should be VERY PROUD of this quest! I think I was pretty vocal throughout that I really enjoyed both the quest and the party! I feel like the last few days I've been pushing for "I'm okay to wrap up" but that is NOT indicative of how much fun I had, just that I thought you drove us to a very nice conclusion. I think I'll probably do a fellow character breakdown tomorrow (or, who knows, today, depending how much steam I have at the end of this post) but I want to first break down the quest. It's been a while, and I don't want to go reread it all before giving you your kudos, so my memory may only be so-so at moments, but here are my general feelings. Act 1 was definitely exploring Charon. I think you did a nice job giving us an in to Hart with Jace and Alexa, who were a really fun pair and gave a good face to this company that, as you said, turned out to be both good and bad. They were unique personalities, but also clearly both straight shooters, and with a quest with so many other difficult elements to parse, I think it was a really good idea to give us someone dependable within the company right off the bat. It was nice to fly with them, and sort of get a chance to open up to the NPCs and fellow PCs before anything kicked off. @karmajay Kirwin's backstory, which I don't think we got in Quest 4, really colored in the character a lot. It's pretty tragic, but I love the idea of being abandoned for reasons unknown and falling in love with adventure serials. Port Charon was really fun too, and I enjoyed the Starblazers (who were the NPCs, out of many options, I ended up interacting with). It gave us a distaste for Hart, but it also felt they weren't trustworthy either. I'll talk about Viper later, but I really enjoyed them, and was invested in my promise to them to save their leader, even if, again, they seemed like a rough bunch. This would actually be one of my only complaints in the quest - I wish we were given a CP for negotiating with them. It felt like a fight was possible, but Merei didn't want one, and we diffused. I felt badly afterwards, thinking I maybe robbed us of a chance to advance. I don't know if they were a potential fight, but if they were, avoiding a fight feels like it should be awarded as well. Triangulating the ship was a fun mini-game, and as we talked about at the time, clearly structured after Forbidden Desert/Island. I appreciated that you gave us each a unique ability that was mapped onto our character's strengths. Aboard the ship, your inspiration became immediately apparent. Alien!! And why not? It's so good. Funnily enough, RIGHT before we got to this reveal I hosted a D&D one-shot that was also 100% based on Alien. And again, why not! Crawling through the ship was fun and TOUGH. You're right in saying we (or at least I) wanted to get access to each of the recordings, and uncovering what happened was a lot of fun. I'd say it ran just a TAD too long, but we were also in charge of that! I think this section was very nicely balanced too between loss and gains. There were some people who were just already dead who we couldn't save. That hurt as a character and player, but of course was fair and logical and really raised the stakes. Then there were people who we COULD save. I don't know what the idea behind the Captain was, but I really appreciated you allowing me to use my race to try to drive out Hydra. I think you and I worked out well behind the scenes that I should have to spend resources to make it happen, and I was really consistent about that, and purposefully so. You were incredibly permissive in letting me bend that rule (make up that rule?) and I hope it felt to you, my fellow players, and the community at large that I sacrificed resources to make it still cost me something. Anyway, were we meant to be able to save the Captain? And if so, how? I came up with a solution on the fly, was there another one? The arrival of the police was interesting too - I was not expecting them to follow up, and was immediately suspicious of them! That might be myself and Boomingham bleeding through - I don't know if I've ever played a character who believe authorities (companies or police) have the best of intentions. I think it was a nice and tragic twist that they were both actually there to help, and in over their heads. I don't know how the others felt about their arrival, but their actual character surprised me, which is always great. After that we saved the people trapped, and you again allowed me to use a gravity sink in tandem with Zaria to free the one trapped on the ceiling. I think you did a really nice job of balancing creative use of spells with what is allowed, and it allowed for nice synergy. I'll, again, talk move about Merei and Zaria later, but @Kintobor, we've played together for... a decade? With a brief break? I think the characters were getting along well at this point because we hadn't encountered the true nature of the Hydra yet, but I also think throughout we did a really nice balancing act of people who are both working together and counter towards each other. I don't know how you felt about it, but to me it felt quite elegantly done. AND, now we talk about Viper, which I'll do all at once. This was ANOTHER awesome twist, I thought. On Charon the Starblazers felt like a real power and threat, and I expected their leader to be the same. The fact that he was a pretty solid guy who was also a bit of an idiot, and was aware of that...? Wonderful. So good. It was just the right amount of twist, and when the whole story of how the Hydra got loose unfolded, it felt fantastic. He snuck aboard for pretty legitimate reasons (Hart sucks) but without a lick of the plan, and that landed him and the fire-at-will crew in an immense amount of danger because of Hart's directives. I thought it was really clever and fun. The puzzle to avoid Hydras was good fun. Zaria just straight up killing Duncan was a great character moment. The airlock fight was... pretty tough. I wanted to fight that Hydra hand thing for longer, though - part of me does wish you'd made us go one-by-one into the airlock, but I understand in a post-based RPG setting that would have really dragged out the fight. Still, it would have led to some TOUGH choices. I was waiting for the Hydra hand monster to show up in the final fight too, but it never did! And then the end! I said I wanted a tough fight, and we got a tough fight! I feel really really stupid for letting Luce die - I totally forgot three rounds of unstable could do that. That's my, by far, largest regret of this quest. I wasn't healing her because she was under the Hydra's control, but I thought I was playing it smart by leaving her down until I could deal with her. I think it's a testament to you building the characters well (in the holorecordings) that I feel genuinely bad for saving Greenlaw over her. I tried to save the characters in the order that Merei thought they deserved saving, but Luce dropped early so I ignored her for strategical reasons - I think she'd be my second save otherwise. So, I felt bad. Overall, final fight was really good, and a real nailbiter. The denouement was nice as well. @Kintobor, one final thing I was uncertain about was if you or Zaria were the one mistrusting my reason for staying. I tried to play it as two things, so that Zaria COULD pick which one she wanted to believe. Merei both is genuinely interested in the Hydra, but we also couldn't all fit aboard the ships. It felt right that one of the heroes should be left behind. I honestly was almost expecting Zaria to insist Greenlaw go, with Zaria remaining to defend the survivors left aboard. But it didn't play out. My question is: was that a character focusing on one of the two motivations? Or the player? Overall, an absolute blast! I do think I'll do my fellow PCs tomorrow, probably, especially because this is probably already too long. But it was a long and good quest, so I want to give it what it deserves in reflection!

Naw, wasn’t fishing so much. I don’t know why I thought everyone else had more than we did. It does look like thats been about the pace of other quests though, except for the lucky bunch who took a Slay Ride! Good to know, seems like a good pace.

Superb quest, Legonator! Will write up my thoughts this evening. But really fun throughout! Do we get any character points for quest completion?

Appreciate it! I think Merei would want to pick Greenlaw's brain for sure, but we can do a fade to black and maybe a summery version. Not that I don't want to know what Greenlaw knows about Hydra, and what Ilbery knows about Hart! I absolutely do, and would want to revisit the characters, but don't want to drag out the denouement.

"You're not wrong," Merei says to Greenlaw. "I am not faulting you, Doctor. Only your employer. I'm sure you took precautions, but this was not the ship for that mission." Merei's flames dim. "As for my inner flame, you're correct in your assessment. It gave me a unique advantage against this creature. And no, I didn't come here planning to or hoping to kill. If anything, I am of your persuasion - I would be intrigued to experience this melding you describe. The difference being I would rather do it of my own volition. It wasn't right to take the others against their will. Especially Luce. That is too high a price, especially for the unwilling." "Captain. I think flares would be for the best. Whatever mysteries the Hydra holds, it won't be visited upon us. These are matters best left for safer, better days."

@The Legonater just a heads up, I’m happy to leave the wait for rescue up to the imagination! Don’t want to make everyone else see me waiting things out! But also if you want to do any rolls to see if the Hydra nabs us, I’m okay with that too. Even if it’s just in private and you message me the results . I put myself in danger!! Fine with consequences, fine without them.

Merei watches the rest of the party leave before turning to the captain. "It seems that you didn't know it would come to this. But I believe there are those who knew the risk. Greenlaw, perhaps?" she says loudly enough for the doctor to overhear her, "and certainly Hart. I don't know what sort of loyalty you hold to your employers, but they hold very little, it seems, to you." She claps her hands together. "For now, we must concern ourselves with the business of surviving. We will patrol the ship constantly, in pairs, and burn any Hydra that appears before it has a chance to sincerely develop. Greenlaw, you know more about this than I. Advise us how we can best avoid infection. I assume the Hydra grows slowly, and is only dangerous if given some time to develop. So we can't let it reach that stage." Merei spends her time waiting for rescue by patrolling the ship, talking to the other three aboard, and especially asking Greenlaw questions about the connection the Hydra made her feel with the others.

Merei nods with approval as the crew jumps into action. "Thank you, McSorley. What came upon you was a surprise, and I am impressed by the crew's professionalism. I'm very, very glad we saved those we did, and," she looks at Luce, "apologize that we didn't do more. I won't say couldn't, but didn't." She begins to head back to the cargo ship. "Would there be anyway to decouple these pods from the main ship, or cut power and air from them? The Hydra infestation was clearly strongest here, and though I'm sure it'll reconstitute aboard everywhere it reached, it would give us a smaller area to be actively worried about, if we were all up there, patrolling, burning out Hydra as it began to grow. I don't think we can kill it, but it would give us more time to wait for rescue."

“I’d rather we don’t do that until the second team returns,” Merei says gently. “While I am of the stars, I will not be evacuating at the same time as you, and do not think I would survive being thrust into one.”

Feel better!! @The Legonater, sorry if Merei’s stubbornness is blowing up the moral dilemma a bit - don’t be afraid to hold our feet to the fire with consequences!! I suggested the plan knowing it was a risk!

“I’m well aware of the gamble those left aboard would be taking. The Doctor does not mind joining the Hydra. The Captain should, of anyone, go down with the ship. I do not feel good asking Mr. Tyne to stay, but feel they are the best option out of those remaining. As for myself, I can hardly volunteer others before myself.” “The trouble, Zaria, is we cannot take everyone off all at once. I agree with the sentiment, in both the priority of the people and the need to leave the Hydra here. The question is only how best to accomplish that.” “I am, as always, dealing with the facts presented, not flights of fancy.” Merei turns to the three men. “I sense you aren’t pleased with the plan. I have admitted the significant risk to those left behind, and to others as well, should the Hydra reconstitute and infect us. But it is the best option I see, and so it has my vote. Tell me if you see another.”

Sorry @The Legonater, just want to give others a chance to respond. If no one does I’ll update tomorrow!

"So it was Hart that found and brought this thing aboard. That is a good thing to know for sure," Merei says, aiming her gaze pointedly at Zaria. "It seems you have a great understanding of this creature, Doctor, and I will admit freely that dissolving barriers between things is of a particular interest to me." She takes out her old aether terminal, and flashes her holy symbol to Greenlaw. "I am all for unlocking the mysteries of this beautiful universe, but I would not put others in danger to do so. The risks I assume I do with my own knowledge, and I would be the one to suffer the consequences. I don't like when others are left in the dark, and made to suffer for it. Is this just a sampling of the Hydra you found elsewhere? Does it still exist there?" Merei cannot smile, as she has no mouth, but her flames grow a both stronger and somehow softer, or more gently. She is greatly concerned that Greenlaw is verging on madness, but she answered Zaria's questions exactly as Merei would have. "Greenlaw states her case near perfectly. She is imparting knowledge - killing her or not will not change the facts she shares. I think she is right, and it is best we assume this Hydra will reconstitute itself. The question, however, is just how long that takes." "As I understand it, we have a total of 12 seats to ferry people off this ship." "There are still three members of the crew unaccounted for. Unless any of you know their fate, we must indeed sweep the ship for them. But, with Dean and Viper and our own number, and with those already aboard the Actaeon, and those we saved, we are sitting at sixteen members who must be ferried off. My suggestion is this. Everyone depart this ship save for myself, Dr. Greenlaw, Captain Ilbery, and perhaps Mr. Tyne Jr., as he is security. We should remain here with the signal booster. Once the first group makes it back to Charon, they can return here for us, hopefully, and we can destroy this ship as we depart."

OoC: Between the two ships do we have enough space for those we rescued? “An astounding creature indeed, and it’s ability to grow and infect is unique and interesting. What was it like to be under its control?” Merei asks as she approaches the Doctor. “And perhaps you can help me understand better and do some accounting. What happened here? Who was shipping it, and why, and how did it infect the ship so thoroughly? You are curious the same as I am, I imagine you have the same questions, and have had more time and resources to pursue the answers.” “We’re Heroica.”

Merei staggers to her feet, looking at the party standing victorious, at the one body they didn't save, at those they did, especially the doctor attempting to collect samples. "You and I will talk," she says to Greenlaw. "But first, we need to leave this ship." She walks over to Viper and lays a hand on his shoulder. "I am glad your friends asked us to find you." She casts a healing light on him. "Dean. I'm sorry for the way the day has gone, and sorry to admit I mistook you as an enemy when you first arrived. I am not sure how many of those we've recovered we can take off this ship with us. Can you use your ship to ferry the rest?" She turns finally to Zaria. "I hate to assume, but given that you're covered in the bits of the creature, I assume you are the one who finished things. I'm pleased you got your wish." Merei glances over at the device Kirwin is holding. "Do you still intend to destroy this ship upon our departure?" OoC: I assume we pop back up if we end a fight stable? I'm pretty sure that's the rule. Also, since we keep forgetting to do this, here is my proposed loot distribution (who things are best for, how many resources were used in combat, etc. but let me know if you think it doesn't work!) I feel like Kirwin gets the worse draw the way I arranged it, but not sure there's anything GREAT for them in there? Kirwin: 20 CreditsPlasma Potion Hart Rifle (Calibrated Long Range Energy Weapon) Varen: Acid Sack (Apply to weapon, weapon causes poisoned 1 for the duration of one battle) Essence of Precaution Zaria: Bulking StimHydra Goo (Apply to a weapon, weapon can cause restrained once per quest) Merei: 1 Plasma Potion Hart Containment Gear (Standard Kinetic Armor, +1 Survival)

OoC: Kirwin is under the Root’s thrall, any damage done to it is redirected to him this round.

Thank you both for your input! So, if I'm reading this correctly (and please correct me if I'm not) you both ARE interested in the melee ability to lock an opponent into a spot, so they can't run away from you. Kinto, you ended up supporting what I wrote about, that dash can work to effectively disengage and dash all at once, meaning that the following turn (unless the attacker also burns a dash) the person will be safe, but they still have to burn a turn doing it. I think this is probably the most effective solution, since it only takes one turn. If you want to really harry and shut someone down, you can (you referring to both enemies and heroes) but if, as Duvors is pointing out, you want to move who you're targeting, that's still an option, it just takes a few rounds. An analogy would be spellcasters: they're good at what they do, but every few rounds (with revised rules) they're going to have to burn a round to re-up their spellcasting ability with a brew. I think it's okay to have some re-up rounds, as long as it's not more than one every few rounds. My ideal solution is opportunity attacks if someone moves away, but not if they take a ranged attack or cast a spell next to a melee fighter. The reason for this is it'd be a double punishment if we kept both: you're unsafe moving away, and unsafe staying. This way you're still able to do what you want to do, but you're likely to get whacked if you stay and take your normal action. Additionally, @Yzalirk, I think you'll see improvements as you bump your primary proficiency with melee, but would being able to lock someone down into a spot while others take a pot-shot at them (or they burn a full round to get away from you) mitigate your concern with melee? Or do you just want to hit harder? Seriously, appreciate the melee characters weighing in, that is THE huge benefit of a small community developing a game together. Finally, I have no horse in this race. I'm realizing now that I do have a melee weapon equipped, technically, and it'd be nice to be able to take swings, not matter how ineffectual, should someone leave me. But this truly started with @karmajay submitting, what I thought, a legitimate complaint with the current ranged system. I'm really trying to fix that, but also feel if we fix that, melee has to get a boost. Since no one has argued against the need to fix ranged, and no one has argued against the fact that melee needs a boost if we do, I'm just looking for the best solution to what we all agree could use an upgrade.

Totally unrelated, but I'm planning out character progression: can someone remind me when we get bonuses from smarts/skill/strength? It's on the even numbers, right? Can we add that to the FAQ?

I'm with Duvors on this - I think 2-3 and 4-5 are appropriate ranges, especially given the size of the boards. 2-3 still puts you in danger, but you've got to move less to get into a good position. 4-5 is much safer, but yeah, takes a little more movement. As for Duvors other point, that's fair to me. I'm not advocating WHAT boost melee gets, just saying they'd need some boost. I like the locking people down thing because it, again, means they can keep people in place, but Duvors is right in that it also keeps you in place. If we do implement the attack of opportunity I think it'd be wise to say if you take a dash you don't get opportunity attacks - that benefits everyone, including ranged fighters and enemies. It'd also mean that melee enemies and heroes can get out of a sticky situation if they want, while burning an action. That's only, however, if we do the opportunity attacks as suggested by me. But maybe making melee fighters heavier hitters is a better solution? Or granting them some extra defense? Duvors, you're raising good points all around. I'm just trying to simplify for ranged, since I think that's a good point as well, and trying to think of synergy. Ranged and melee should be doing different things, and ideally should be supporting each other in doing those things. That's why I like the melee locking people down - it grants ranged fighters safety, and is likely to keep enemies within the area we want them. But you're right in saying that it means the melee fighter gets locked in, so we need some sort of solution for that if we don't want that to be the case. I can see a particular issue with the fact that each side acts all at once too: a melee fighter may be pitted against someone who is at 1 HP. The ranged fighter goes first. The melee fighter wants to move. If the ranged fighter takes out this enemy, then the melee can move without a swipe, but if the ranged doesn't, they are still forced to move (due to actions all being submitted and run at once) but now all of a sudden they DO get hit by an attack. Like I said, I'm very flexible on the fix. But I feel like this is a good fix for ranged, so now we just have to think of a fair change to melee. I'd love to hear from a melee fighter what they think a good boost would be. @Dutch Thriceman or @Kintobor or @Yzalirk, any thoughts?

OoC: I should be down one spirit and Varen down on Plasma Potion. Merei moves to C4 and rallie Viper as Varen takes a shot on the Root.