Heroica RPG - Quest Masters' Lounge

Scubacarrot · July 1, 2015

I enjoyed myself a lot, and I thought the sets were very beautiful and the story interesting. You kept up at great pace which really helped as well. I thought the battles were perhaps slightly too hard for our level of equipment. The battle we fled from was almost impossible. Getting Aristune helped, I thought that was done really well. I think the loot was fine, as well, you didn't drop anything too outrageous. I must say that some of the items you dropped at the end there were completely useless though. :wink: At some points I was very unsure what you expected us to do, especially in the lava room after we got the key. One thing I found a bit random, you handed out a level for essentially spending a grand tonic. Unless there were opportunities like that for all characters that we missed, I think that's a bit iffy, and could have gone differently. The descriptive roleplaying that deserved that level came from you! I find it too bad we did not get to explore the rest of the rooms of the Parlor, the ending, that we had to go back felt a bit rushed, although I can understand that as we weren't always that active as a party. I'd love to come back for another quest involving the Queen and Aristune and the Red Court, it's a very, very interesting place. :thumbup:

Asphalt · July 2, 2015

I guess I will respond to each as it comes it.

1. The Battles

These gave me a lot of trouble. I have really started to understand how much a good or bad series of rolls can sway a battle. There were battles I thought would be very difficult that got really good rolls and ended quickly and there were some that I thought would be a challenge that became nearly impossible because of a series of bad rolls. I did my best to balance them as much as I could. I thought I did a fairly good job and had an appropriate chance of KO without being ridiculous. Another point that I think led to the battles being harder was the strategy learning curve of the party leader. But without more input from players he did as best he could. More on that later.

2. Useless end drops, can you elaborate? I tried to put a variety of items in the armory that would help with different builds.

3. Terry's level up. There were several planned areas where character could have gained a level individually or in small groups depending on how they played out. Since with the exception of the key being held by the scavenger beetle, all of the keys could have been obtained without fighting a single battle I was prepared to make each of them a level up possibility depending on how they were handled, and what the characters did in them.

4. Being rushed at the end.

Sorry about that. It seemed that most of you had lost a great deal of interest in the quest. I was afraid that if I allowed it to continue to flesh out the rest of the rooms it would end up being very drawn out and far too one sided.

5. The lava room

The blob of stone on the wall held another gem that was drawing the magma up. IF it was shattered you would have gotten the gem.

6. Character interaction.

This was the hardest part for me. With only one NPC the majority of the interaction needed to be player to player. I had hoped that there would be more ideas being bounced back and forth. The amount of quiet was off-putting for me because I didn't know if it was because of the time of year or because I wasn't putting forth enough input. I got the feeling that I wasn't making things interesting enough, but I wasn't sure how to add more within the confines of the quest I built.

Characters

Keliim, was the most active and the most fleshed out character. I think he did a good job as the party leader. He ran into some troubles with battles, because of his inexperience with strategy. But he got better with that as he went along, getting used to the benefits of fighting from the rear and how to assign free hits. He was my favorite character from the group, mostly because he was the most active, but he also had a fairly well defined personality. Some of his speech patterns I had to read twice to understand, but it gave his writing more flavor and a sense of voice. I look forward to seeing more of him in the future.

Calamity and Terry came next as far as activity went. They came into the hall with good backstories and developed personalities. Throughout the quest each of them had some great one liners, but I wish they had been more talkative. I do look forward to seeing more of them in the future.

Muradin and Rethinal, I really don't have much I can say about either of them. They both interacted very infrequently. I think starting the quest at the beginning of vacation season was most detrimental to these two characters.

On the whole I hope that I had more successes than failures on my first quest. I learned a great deal that I think will help me if I ever get enough sets built to pitch another quest. I look forward to more critiques. I liked QMing and I want to do more in the future, so any input anyone can give me will be appreciated.

samurai-turtle · July 2, 2015

Muradin and Rethinal, I really don't have much I can say about either of them. They both interacted very infrequently. I think starting the quest at the beginning of vacation season was most detrimental to these two characters.

I got a question about "Rethinal" did he get any thing from the armory? I do not remember if he did, because he was not that active, caused him to missed out on that part of the quest. :shrug_confused:

Asphalt · July 2, 2015

He is currently on vacation. I assume he will post a decision when he comes back.

Mencot · July 3, 2015

Quest 133:

First of really liked this quest and you (asphalt) did a great job hosting your first quest here.

The story was good. It wasn´t too hard to follow and it held some surprises, that you thought wasn't there.

It didn´t have too many characters or NPC but I think that it was good for a quest this size and length.

Really liked the dungeon rpg like play style, it was fun. Altough one negative thing about it was, that at one point we were running back an forth through the parlor, wasting a bit time. That maybe would had been fixed with that some of the door would had been locked for the time being or similar.

Bigger NPCs, Aristune: Really liked him, he really felt like he had personality. Like I said that, he felt like an really arrogant and black and white person with his own thoughts about everything and the party of heroes. This stood him out and I will look forwards seeing him again and what has happened to him when he followed the Spider queen. I would had liked him to interact more but I understand that at sometimes it was very quiet and nobody didn´t comment much and RP.

Spider Queen: Not much to say, other than really liked what turned up in the end. And will also look forwards seeing her again, especially when and what will happen with the oath between her and Keliim.

Other NPCs, Commander Hizari: I don´t know if you have any plans for him but this is a guy I would like to see later in some quest. I could be an really intresting character.

The puzzles and keychallanges, Nothing too complex (altough one quest, the topaz challange was hard to understand at first, what it was that we should do) and they fit the story, so good job there.

Maybe there should been more of them, maybe some kind of dungeon styled trap puzzles and so on.

But there was somethings we missed and missed out on, because they weren´t that good explained.

Exemple, when searching the barrellroom, we had to tell right on, specially say what we wanted to search or then we missed it, like Aristune in one of the chests. Or the rubykey room, with the pulsating gem, I understood that wrong. I thought it so that if it was shattered the magma would pour out again and we had to stop it somehow... or destroy the parlor. :blush:

So in my opinion maybe more explaining when searching things, that would help. Or then we were just too stupied to understand :classic:

The battles and loot. They were fair, some of them maybe were a bit hard for our characters levels and we had some bad luck with rolls but I don't think things were too impossible. Even the bore beetles would been winnable with better strategy and good luck. Loot was fair and there was some nice customized loot.

Fellow Players:

I would had liked too see some more interaction from all of you but I understand that life is busy and this quest maybe was in a time when a lot of people are more busy then usually.

Calamity and Terry

Really like both of them, they had some fun dialogs and comments about others and themselves. But would liked to see some more of it. I understand both of these are your 2nd characters, so there maybe isn´t too much time to commite to them.

Calamity, I think she will become and intresting character to follow. Really like her black personality, ain´t too sure about if she is really that black, moody and "demon worshipping" or is it just for show. Hopefuly you will continue playing with your 2nd character and build her up more.

And Keliim would quest with her again.

Terry, I like his backstory. He is a total novice in the magesection and has much to learn and one could see he came from a simple farmers life.

Maybe not the sharpest tool in the shed but that makes him stand out as an character. Hope to see more of him and would play with him again.

Muradin and Rethinal

Can´t really say so much about them because they were the ones that were the least online and interacting with the quest. But something:

Muradin, An intresting character you have made and it would be really intresting to see what he could be if you (Cryos) would have more time to play him out. He is one even more grumpy dwarf then what usually we see fantasy dwarfs and he seems really aggresive but maybe that is just because of that he seems to drink all the time :grin: . He doesn´t take orders that good :sweet: .

Rethinal, What I got out of him was, he is an quiet fighter type of a cleric. I knows how to fight. I would like to see more of him and how you flesh him out.

That was some words about the quest. Asphalt you did a great job for a first quest, so thank you that I could be apart of it.

And I would definitely play in one of your quest again and also I would like to see more of the Caliph, his court, men and parlor.

Edited July 3, 2015 by Mencot

Cryos · July 5, 2015

I'll keep this short, sweet and funky.

Asphalt.

How you did it I don't know. But thank you for being patient and tolerating my sparce activity. I was really thrilled by the questing experience as a whole, which is a big green check on my list. However, the dungeon crawl style didn't really resonate with me if I'm being honest but it's just a critique. The non player characters did their job as NPCs. Give the heroes a purpose to do what they're doing, guide them and reward! Though as far as personas go none really left a mark except for the Spider Queen. (or as Kelim says, 'queen bitch' :grin: )

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

++ The Overall Experience Crafted for the Players

+ NPCs Weren't Dysfunctional

+ Enjoyable Writing Style

-NPCs may have done their job too well.

-Dungeon Crawl Style might not have been the most effective for storytelling.

You could have easily booted me from this quest, but I'm glad you didn't because I thoroughly enjoyed myself. As far as first quests go, this one was a groovy~

::I'll update this post to include the rest of the cast, including Muradin::

Edited July 5, 2015 by Cryos

samurai-turtle · July 10, 2015

I got a question about "Rethinal" did he get any thing from the armory? I do not remember if he did, because he was not that active, caused him to missed out on that part of the quest.

He is currently on vacation. I assume he will post a decision when he comes back.

OOC: I'm back, and thanks for a great quest.

RETHINAL HOPS INTO THE PORTAL BACK TO EUBRIC.

I feel I should point this out he still did not get any thing from the "armory" yet.

(If he does not want any thing I am sure "Germ" would be willing to get some thing out of the "armory". :wink: :laugh: )

Asphalt · July 10, 2015

I am sure he appreciates your concern, and No.

Flipz · July 12, 2015

Ha ha ha...I just realized that I created Etheria, and had completely forgotten doing so. :blush: Looking forward to seeing Zepher flesh it out--and it's especially interesting to me that we'll soon have four simultaneous Quests exploring PC-created regions. :thumbup:

Emjajoas · July 20, 2015

So, Quest 129. What can I say? It was a four-month quest that felt like it breezed by. It was fun. The battles were really fun; we had a bit of an overpowered party, but the battles still felt dangerous-- at least to me. It was great seeing familiar faces and meeting a few new NPCs; I have to say that I really liked... well, all of them, really. I especially like Knife-tongue, even though I sometimes had trouble discerning what he was saying. :grin: Giuliana and Volmuniix were great, too.

It was an incredibly enjoyable quest, and I'm almost sad to see it end. I wish I had something more concrete to say, but I'll have to stick with point-form highlights for now:

- The puzzles were fun and not too challenging. I liked ours; I'm interested to see the other one.

- I mean I mentioned it before but I'll mention it again-- all the NPCs were great, both ally and enemy.

- The quest flowed very well? It was very well-structured, and the visions added a lot of depth to it. It felt good.

- That last battle felt really epic.

Four months is a long time and I'm sure there's more I could say, but those four things are what really stuck with me and things I wanted to point out that I think you did great with. :thumbup:

As far as player analysis, I enjoyed playing with you all. I always love questing with Hybros-- I see Hybros as one of Em's friends, someone he can trust and enjoys questing with-- and I think you're a great PL.

Of course, I'm always happy to have Guts on my team, too, as it usually means we're going to win-- especially when coupled with Hoke. You guys are too strong.

It was great questing with Dyric, Erik, and Thalion, too. I didn't interact with you guys as much, and maybe I should have, but you were great to have along.

It's a real shame Mizuki disappeared, because they missed an honestly great quest.

So, all things considered: Thank you all for the amazing quest, and an especially big thank-you to you, too, CMP. It was a great time, and I'm glad you brought me along.

CMP · July 21, 2015

Well that was fun. :grin:

I hope everyone had fun on Quest #129. :thumbup: I know things kind of faltered in the middle both quality-wise and update-wise but I think in the end it was exactly what I wanted it to be, a lot of action on a large but still personal scale that kind tied the main threads of my quests together into a semi-cohesive whole going forward.

CMP · July 21, 2015

Alright, so, I'm looking at my Word Document MagpieWriteup, and it says "Created: 12/11/2013", and that's actually even later than I suspected. :laugh: :laugh: This quest has been in the planning process for a longass time.

It started out roughly the same, but Omen would've been the main guide, not the captain, and it involved collected all the crew members from around Eubric, followed by a heist-like scenario of planning on how to steal the Magpie back. Which was great, but I guess it lacked a sense of urgency, and I couldn't find a decent balance between "here's what the plan SHOULD be" and "let the heroes make the plan." The first one would just be lame and the second one I don't have the capacity to plan for. :tongue: Things didn't really come together, and between getting the crew members and then this huge scheme, it would've been very long and very complex. So I just kind of dropped the idea for a while: I knew I wanted to wait a long time before doing a quest that ends with the Magpie's harrowing escape from Eubric (an enormously dramatic sea battle was always part of the plan. :grin: ) In this original idea Melville had nothing to do with the Cold Circle.

So, a year or so later, I ironed out the Marauder expert class and officially pitched it along with Quest 89 I think. And I immediately knew which quest it had to go with, except I'd been rolling the idea around in my head for months and gotten nowhere with it. So I boiled it down to its basic concept and came up with what is now Quest #129.

And at this point I want to explain how I come up with references to quests that are ancient history at this point. I do a quest...and leave as many loose ends as possible, doing absolutely nothing with them until I do a later quest and figure out some aspect even remotely related to it, and do something else with it, probably leaving another loose end in the process. :sweet: It's a fun game...it's awesome when somebody spots something that either I know will come up later or that has come up in the past.

When nobody notice though, I consider it a personal victory. :grin:

Quest 51:

Quest 82:

Quest 89:

Quest 114:

Unlike many of these threads I leave lying around, Omen/McCafferey/Soonavask/Cold Circle has existed since Quest 51, and it could've been figured out during that quest as well. :laugh: Just talking to one of them would've immediately tipped someone off that this isn't some random animal. I even coincided one of McCafferey's departures with her appearance in Quest 82. They're having a meeting. And it's slipped by four group of heroes over I think two years now. There's a million of these threads and it amuses me whenever I pick one up and I advise every QM to leave a lot of questions unanswered so they can do the same thing. :thumbup:

Anyway....I'll actually write stuff about the real quest in a bit. :tongue:

Edited July 21, 2015 by CallMePie

Palathadric · July 21, 2015

Awesome! Time to go back and look for clues to I don't know what in every picture CMP has ever had in a quest.

CMP · July 21, 2015

As I said, I'm happy with how this quest turned out. It was rough around the edges at times, and updates became pretty choppy around the middle, which I apologize for. :blush: It was about as long as I predicted, pretty lengthy but not excessively so, I don't think.

The beginning was pretty straightforward. That first battle dragged a bit, but that's kind of what first battles are for, trying to figure out a formula that works. You were typically given ample time to prepare for the other two big battles, so that, combined with Illdria's raw damage output probably helped move things along in battle later. :thumbup: It didn't occur to me how often your former most powerful party members, now Alchemists, would be churning out mixtures and gold instead of dealing damage. :laugh: I was worried about how much you were just kind of shuffled along from NPC to NPC for a bit, but then at the grotto things picked up a bit more.

At some point I realized there would be a LOT going on in battles with like ten characters, so I cut a couple of them out and divided your first one inside the grotto to two. That's why you got one fairly significant battle and one that was fairly random. I thought the Earthwyrms had a cool mechanic but it got completely used when I again failed to realize that, for once, there were almost no heroes that dealt raw AoE damage...something I was used to in other quests.

There wasn't a lot of choice or I guess creative applications in the quest, but from the start I figured it wouldn't hurt if Melvin got out early rather than having to go all the way to the end of the grotto to get his key. :tongue: So you had him around for most of the quest, rather than relatively little of it.

I liked the interactions with Paul. The concept of just having fairly ordinary people in sprawling morally dubious organizations like the Wolfgang or the Crimson Crown was half of the impetus behind my next quest. I was surprised/pleased he didn't get executed, but then not every party member had fought with the Crown - I think Em's (who I believe was the first to actually help him) only exposure was in fact allying with them at the end of Quest 98. Anyway, they got fleshed out a bit, but the Crimson Crown's role was very minimal here. Minus all the dead ones. :grin:

The minesweeper puzzle was pretty straightforward...there was good loot to be had if you would risk it. I scaled it down a lot after seeing the ginormous one in Sandy's Ziegfried quest. I should point out that I love solving puzzles but coming up with them and then having to translate it to LEGO is just the worst. :laugh: I'll never understand how WBD can churn those out like nothing. How I ended up with so many of them in this quest is a mystery.

Trying to tie up Veken's escape/Melville's office/the torture chamber got fuzzy when I really started thinking about it as we approached that point. I suppose it turned out okay - info>office>Veken>last memory trigger>lab. Kind of hard to push the sense of urgency because of Veken's escape but it seems like it worked out. Melville's office was originally intended to be just disturbingly in order considering the things he was doing to Jules, but I think Despair driving him nearly insane seemed more appropriate. :tongue: Putting those memoirs into an image that was readable and conformed to Eurobricks' max picture size was difficult, but it worked out in the end. I typically try and avoid the "villain's journal entries" thing, but I couldn't imagine putting all of that in dialog, so I poked at it a bit in that it's in his life memoirs.

So, the crazy vision subplot...here they are in their entirety.

Even as Hoke turns to examine Torc's wounds, the room darkens and melts before his eyes. His armor is stripped away, and he loses feeling in his left leg and arm. The taut ropes cut into his skin as the light filters in from the moist grates and chains hanging from the ceiling. But he can only see, his vision distorted and warped, as his eyelids flicker open in response to the unforgiving, icy water that suddenly crashes down on his face. The table shudders underneath him.

"Wake. Up."

Hoke's head moves involuntarily. Melville. He knew this man. A biting presence tested the fringes of his thoughts as if examining his mind. Also familiar...but less forgiving than it was. Not Omen.

"I have no interest in drawing this out longer than needed, nor should you."

Hoke's mouth moves, forming words.

"Captain."

"It is Rear Admiral now. Captain...you act as though nothing has changed. A useless gesture of defiance in the face of truth. A word you fail to understand the meaning of, clearly." Melville sets the bucket down and motions towards Hoke's staff leaning against the wall. Hoke does not respond.

"The truth of it is that all of this is your doing. You set this in motion, and now you will pay the price. Unfortunate. It would've been an accomplishment had you not faltered from your path....but I digress. You made your choice, and if you failed to realize the eventual consequences, that is your own doing. I will become part of the Cold Circle, and you will help me do it."

Hoke's mind boils and stirs. Guilt, anger. Emotions long expunged, re-emerging in the back of his head. But even as they did, the light stopped shifting, as did Melville. The room hung motionless for a moment, and then an unbidden letter sprung to his lips.

"M."

Just as suddenly, the real world returns to Hoke with a jolt as he takes in the aftermath of the battle in the barracks.

Hybros lowers his scythe as the final earthwyrm collapses. He turns to face his party, only to find the face of Melville - contorted, impatient, frustrated. A face he has come to know well over the past few hours. His own body wracked with pain even as the Rear Admiral pulled away the knife, blood spilling down the table and his binds freely.

"There is no need for this to be difficult."

Hybros' words come involuntarily.

"You show your hand early."

The admiral half-throws his dagger down upon the table, stained with an hour's worth of blood.

"Is that so?"

Despite everything, mild amusement came to the forefront of Hybros' mind.

"Killing is simple. Clearly...there is a reason we all yet live. Yet you spend all your time here with me. The reason must lie within me. My mind. What is it?"

There was a brief silence, Melville's face shadowed by the darkness.

"Perhaps...we will begin with the serum, this time."

The needle sank deep into Hybros' arm, and lingered there painfully for a while. All of his and Melville's movements seized as one letter slipped from his lips.

"A."

The serum spidered into his bloodstream, and darkness overtook him. Moments passed, and then Hybros found himself staring at his party once more, as if not a fraction of a second had passed.

As Thalion's fingers flew between the bars of Melvin's cell, the nuts and screws that arrayed themselves before him seemed to melt. His fingers became numb and icy, his wrists bound yet again by the tight wires that dug into his flesh and muscle and bone. New injuries layered on old ones, the serum burning in his veins as Melvin walked away from the latest session in disgust, throwing his bloodied knife down upon the ground with a metallic clang.

"Useless. You are useless."

Thalion shuddered with the table beneath him, drenched a dark, crimson red. Twenty nine hours. His mouth moved without provocation to form words, his throat dry and cracked.

"Implying....I could have use to you."

"I tire of your games. More than a day you sit here, denying me answers, prolonging this pointless exercise. You know the methods I now use. You know it is hopeless, yet you resist. Your death will be swift once I have what I need."

Thalion pulled his torn lips apart to reply again.

"You are a child....in matters of the mind. Cut me, torture me as you like, I have done far worse to myself. Tell me one thing. What is so important that you find, that only I could know?"

Another long silence. There were many of those.

"Your captain is a smuggler. She shipped something, and I must know what it is. And you are going to tell me."

Thalion's quiet laugh came like a dying breath, harsh and short.

"You have learned. You know subtlety is not always best. When did you learn? After your 'Guardian Sentinel' ploy? If heroes were so easily manipulated.....Eubric would have fallen long ago. You had the thing put on our ship for a reason. You told the Ji Pei the Bonapartes might be responsible. For.....what? Vain hopes that we would be implicated enough for the heroes to imprison us? Sloppy work......too many things to go wrong, though I will say I was fooled at first. I thought it was all a cover you gave them....I was certain, they had been sent only to deal with me-"

Pain exploded in the side of Thalion's head as Melville brought his hand across it.

"Test me and you will find my patience wears quickly. This is not a discussion. You will answer my questions, or you will die here."

The world jolted to pause as Thalion coughed, blood trickling down his chin, and responded.

"L."

As soon as the word was said, reality rushed to meet the elven artisan, his surroundings returning to normal as Melvin stepped out of his dismantled prison. Not a moment had passed.

Erik walks the last few tiles to the exit of the kitchens. His foot catches on the edge of one, and he stumbles slightly. He tries to flail, but can't. The ropes only cut deeper into his flesh as he struggles. Hope of escape left him many hours ago, but he would not give Melville the satisfaction of submission. The admiral approaches him with a new wicked-looking instrument in hand.

A familiar feeling brushes the edge of Erik's mind, and his mouth moves to deliver words that aren't his own.

"You reek of...magic."

Melville pauses.

"Your point being?"

Erik closes his eyes. He's been sensing this magic all afternoon...or perhaps morning. There was no telling in this place.

"You have affected the minds of your men. Do they not trust...their master?"

Melville's face soured.

"You know they would not understand. Nobody understands my struggle. Our struggle. They must remain complacent, even if it means dulling their minds. They will not be wasted. I do not hold myself above putting my tools to use."

Erik grits his teeth as blood trickles down his forehead...as it has for hours now.

"Poor use. Did you really believe boarding the Magpie all those years ago would accomplish anything? Did you know the heroes were aboard.....or were you truly that overconfident? They sought answers as much as you-"

Melville slams the clamp in his hand over Erik's fingers, slowly tightening it against the board he was tied against, nearly splintering the bones.

"My methods were not the most efficient, but it matters not. You are here now. You have the answers I require. You will tell me of this package, or never again see the light of day."

The clamp suddenly stopped, as did Melville and the slow flickering of the torchlight above Erik. He slowly spat out another letter, along with a few droplets of blood.

"P."

The world then jolted. Erik's brief stumble had gone completely unnoticed by the other heroes exiting the kitchen, and his fingers were no worse for wear than they had been moments ago.

As Em stepped between the crates of the storage room, the room became darker. Something in the back of his mind began to throb. He walked three more steps, and very nearly tripped on the fourth, but as he tried to drag one foot ahead of the other, he found it was no longer there - the splintered wood of his artificial doing little but chafing against the tight black ropes that bound him to the table. The unwelcome, black presence in his mind didn't seem to appreciate his struggling, and tendrils of pain seem to spider their way into his very thoughts. He bit into his already bleeding lip, struggling to look away from the eyes bored their way into his head. And for once, they were not Melville's.

Its existence wavered in front of him. Was it there? He could not say, for every thought only invited another probing dig into his mind. Days now he had endured the torture, but this was different.

Then something happened....something seemed to disconnect. Em was no longer on the table. He was standing to the side, but could taste the blood and torment in the air. Everything in the room froze - save the thing perched on Jules' chest. Its head turned slowly, staring Em down with impossibly black, beady eyes. If this was a vision, something had gone awry. He was not supposed to be here. The unpleasant sensation of falling backward occured to Em although he was sure he did not move - and then, if passing through a sheet of cold water, he jerked upright, still in the storage room with the party, as if not a second had passed. A letter sat unwelcome in his thoughts, though he did not know how or why he knew it.

H.

Insert Mizuki's conversation in which Jules figures out Melville's plot leading to Quest 114, which was summoning Kjorfalneire, telling the distracted Admiral Nemo that it was actually just pirate attacks that he swears to stamp out to get his promotion that gets him put in charge of the grotto.

Every step on the dock brought Guts closer to the Magpie looming out of the darkness. The next board he put his weight on creaked in defiance - he tried pulling back, but there was no escape. Surely he would die this time. But Melville snapped, his hand slipping and cutting through his side as he threw the blade down in frustration and walked away. One more hour of agony. This time, the silence sat heavy. Few free minds remained in the confines of the fort.

"You waste my time, traitor," spat the rear admiral, his sweating fingers tearing the epaulets off his neck and flinging them onto the table before him. "You are going to die here. Every one of your friends is going to die here. Unless you give me what I seek."

Guts was too smart for this, blood trickling out of his mouth as he responded.

"I don't believe that. Not after all this."

"You refuse to see this, don't you? You deny that it is your past that has led all this to happen. If it weren't for you, we would not even know where to start to get what we wanted. This ship, it could've been one more failed chance to find what we need. It could've slipped our notice entirely, were it not for you, our....unfortunate coincidence. You knew what past you were going to drag onto that vessel when you first set foot on it, yet you did it anyway. It is not I, but you who have doomed them all. "

Guts remained silent for a while. Melville seemed....satisfied, yet no more closer to his goal.

"It is why you left the Circle, is it not? Risking the lives off innocents to pursue your goals. The only different is, this time you deny it."

The phrase Guts uttered next may have sealed his fate, but one of the few means he had of true resistance.

"The captain will drag Heroica into this. You know it. You have one day."

The admiral looked sideways at Guts, his face lined with frustration, silent for a few long moments.

"Then that is all I need."

The next thing Guts said confused Melville, but there was little choice. His mind had been crippled. It was the only chance.

"E."

The next thing the alchemist knew, he was back in his own thoughts stepping down the pier.

The way back up to the gunport is oddly quiet for Dyric, perhaps subconsciously expecting the same sort of vision the other heroes recieve. He's still unprepared for the experience, however, and he finds himself rapidly overcome with pain and grief at his failure, the taste of blood sitting heavy in his mouth as it had for days as he glared a tthe wall. Melville merely re-buttoned his sleeves, having thoroughly washed them of Dyric's blood, placing his wig back on intently.

"That was not so difficult, was it?"

Dyric closed his eyes and gave no response. He already knew the weight of his weakness.

"Three days. Perhaps I overestimated your will. I would've thought one of the Cold Circle, one of us, would be more attuned to pain, yet you broke so easily. Nevertheless, I am glad. This will save much time."

Dyric gathered just enough of his strength to spit blood near Melville's feet. The admiral nearly smirked. Nearly.

"Such a wretch of a man. You should be glad - this is everything you once strived for, mentor." The biting irony practically dripped from the word. "I should kill you. I truly should. I may even regret not doing so...but you are nothing, a shell. The weight of your failure now rests solely on you. These is no escaping it this time, not like you once did. When your allies find you here, in this place of anguish, they will find only a broken man. And I? I will be gone."

The admiral's hand glowed, a magic Dyric had seen before. Countless dead, all trapped underneath the grotto, some corpses sunk under his rule, some from the battle that reclaimed the place years ago. Melville drew from their power, and the name - the one scrap of information Melville had extracted from him - became lost to him. He grit his teeth. Now there truly was no chance of redemption. He had this opportunity, once, long ago...and had just lost any chance of another.

Melville turned, and left the room, the seagull, Soonavask, eyeing Dyric for a moment longer before following. The door locked behind them as they exited.

But it could not be over. He had endured worse pain...had inflicted it on himself. His mind had broken, yet ironically the tenants of the Circle - agony, despair, anguish - they gave him focus in this place, where he could feel nothing else.

Agony. Despair. Anguish...

Would Melville have left such an obvious hint? But then, he did want the heroes and the crew to find him alive...

He would have to divide it. Scatter his thoughts and memories that they may find them, and the vampires did not. When they did...perhaps they could find him here. He could tell them, somehow. He would have to think of a way. They must know, for now that the Circle does, they would never stop pursuing...his mind froze, the curse keeping his thoughts from even brushing against the name. He resisted, in reflex, before relaxing again. No. He would have to be patient. Scatter the memories. Give them a key. He had to tell them. They had to know.

Dyric closed his eyes, drawing on what little ether he had left, diving back into his thoughts.

He could not give them the name. But he could give them the key. And in this memory was the last.

"N."

Dyric's next step behind the party stumbled slightly, but otherwise, not a moment had passed during his odd vision. He quickly caught up to the other heroes.

I'm proud of using it to relay just how completely corrupt Melville/the Circle is and I guess sending off Jules, as well as the extent to which Melville's plans went. I think it really worked out. I knew it was pretty predictable that the letters within them were to that combination lock, but there was nothing wrong with it. Mizuki's disappearance threw things off a bit. I actually tried to have the focus of each vision kind of conform to the hero's experience. I don't know how clear this was. So Thalion's conversation was regarding Quest 51 - which he was on, Erik's regarded Quest 69, Mizuki's would've referenced 114. I had fun building this set and quickly determined that it'd be fastest to just do it all in one shoot to show the passage of time. I actually used a ceiling in this set - one of those 8x8 grid plates with just swords hanging through it. :laugh: Anyway, I really liked this part of the quest, and I think it cemented that the Cold Circle is just irredeemably evil and they really don't care. :tongue:

So, there were originally going to be only two heroes going to the Apocalypse and then some sort of battle for each side, but I never really worked out the details and eventually I just cut it, evenly divided the party, and gave them each a puzzle. The puzzle I designed on the spot turned out to be better than the one I had planned beforehand. :blush: I'm sorry you had to deal with that, Boarding Party. It seemed fairly straightforward when I put it together, but it was total garbage when I sent it to you guys.

The final battle was pretty awesome. It wasn't even intended to be challenging in itself, it was designed for maximum awesome. :laugh: :laugh: An endless stream of enemy and temporarily unkillable enemies combined with the raw destructive power of ten heroes souped up on a huge volume of consumables was everything I could've hoped for. :grin: It was originally five rounds longer, with Giuliana only arriving after the ten rounds, but I wanted to help get you guys out in time for Zepher's quest, plus I didn't want it to be unnecessarily long, so you got a giant cutscene in the middle.

Those final pictures took a long time to figure out but it was totally worth it. :tongue:

Anyway, I'd love to hear you guys' thoughts on things, I might get a character analysis up but there was a lot going on to pay attention to each of you individually :blush: so I will just say you were all a pleasure to host. :thumbup:

**JimBee** · July 22, 2015

I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head for me, Pie. Overall an extremely enjoyable quest with a few small bumps along the way.

I guess I'll get the negative out of the way first, I definitely it drag in the middle. The quest could've maybe been a month shorter with consistent daily updates. I also didn't really get the point of us splitting up for the two puzzles, but seeing your comments that was a result of veering from a different plan for the quest. I did enjoy the lock puzzle, even though I spent hours on something that should've taken ten minutes because I copy/pasted a piece twice. :facepalm: I was questioning my sanity and basic geometry skills for a long time. :laugh:

I liked the story and characters. Hybros had never been on a Magpie quest before, but he had met Knife-Tongue and Melvin. This is definitely your most epic quest, and one of my favorites. #84 still holds first place for me because of the characters and short-and-sweetness of that one, but this was great in its own way. Illdria made me laugh a lot and I really love her character. Reminds me a bit of Nathan Fillion's character on Firefly. Melvin was of course Hybros' old friend, and Knife-Tongue and Zaises were unique. I wish we had found out more about Giuliana/Volmuniix, but both were awesome. The three vampires never really felt threatening at all, and I still don't quite understand their purpose. To help Melville and the Cold Circle, yes, but other than that they just seemed like any other lackey. Melville was a little bland, but unlike the vampires was a threat and definitely evil. It felt good to kill him. In all honesty though, Soonavask seemed like the real villain because she manipulates Melville and, er, did the most damage to Jules.

The visions worked well, and reading them all side by side was cool. I did not get that mine was supposed to be tailored to Hybros, to answer your concern. I agree that it didn't matter that the letter puzzle was obvious, it still served both story and mechanics purposes, and in an effective way. The gruesome scenes of torture were actually kind of scary, and the fact that the PCs got to see it was the main driving force behind the lust for justice/vengeance.

I could definitely see that you tied all your storylines together for this one (not that I got the hints in previous quests :blush: ). Things will be more interesting than ever before with your quests.

Of course, returning to Jolly Roger's Grotto was a significant plot point for Hybros. I think that was the most that I got out of roleplaying for this quest, which I'll touch on later. The freedom to move around the grotto in almost any order we liked was nice, and it seemed that we went in an order that spaced out puzzles and battles nicely. The puzzles were good and varied. I can't say I put too much effort into the kitchen maze because that was during exams. Sorry about that.

The battles were the highlight for me. We had a kickass party to begin with, and the battles truly satisfied. The first battle was a bit difficult, like you said, but after that I think you did an excellent job with balancing. I'd say it's one of your best strengths as a QM. No battle felt too hard or too easy. Am I glad I imbued my diamond into Justice. :tongue: There were a lot of undead, but it never felt too unmanageable thanks to the party's access to gems and artifacts. The final battle was spectacular, and embodied the whole quest in an epic finale. Although I think I had a foolproof plan after Round 5 even if we rolled Special Damage on Melville. I thought the Earthwyrm battle was cool, with an interesting mechanic and a story purpose (indicating the ruin that the grotto had become and maybe a hint at Melville's power). The battle aboard the docked Magpie was also really enjoyable. Great job on this. :thumbup:

I guess I should also mention again how kickass our party was. :grin: Despite only having a 1/3 chance to hit something, Guts was still our powerhouse. Playing as Alchemist was awesome; easily my favorite class that I've played as. The traits and rolls just seem to complement each other so well, and it doesn't seem OP with the Chrysopeia nerf. I really liked having the role of healer especially with the Kjorfelnaire Tongue (I was a little disappointed you gave that back to Mizuki, but it's fair :grin: ). Alchemist is a better healing class than any cleric variation BY FAR. That's kind of a problem I think, and I hope we come up with a good solution to make Clerics a desirable class.

Hoke, Dyric and Illdria also had significant roles in battle, and Erik helped a lot with crowd control. Battle Mage is the perfect class for him with all of those effect weapons. Thalion and Em felt rather useless. :sad: I talked to obelix about Artisan, and it seems to be a class that is extremely dependent on your build. I guess Pala is enjoying it a bit more but it's the weirdest class ever and sometimes fails in battle. Em was the weakest (level-wise) in the group, and Aura would've just hurt instead of helped. I think he saved the party with it once in the first battle, and then needlessly KO'd himself in the last battle. :blush: His defense wasn't high enough for such a large and strong party, and thus numerous and powerful enemies led to his downfall.

One thing I was disappointed with on our end was the lack of PC-to-PC interaction. Sometimes it seemed like we acted as if none of the rest of the PCs existed, but there were rarely times when we needed to. I don't know, maybe it was just the result of a dungeon-crawler quest and the straightforwardness of it, or the epic narrative. I felt it was a low point for Hybros RP as well, partly because of what I just mentioned and partly because I've gotten a little bored with him. Part of me wishes I hadn't wrapped up his storyline too soon. I was to see him to the conclusion of Sandy's story, but in the meantime there isn't anywhere for him to develop. There are still loose ends with his story, but I'm not sure how I want to tie them up yet. As a result of this standstill, he was kind of flat in this quest. Meh. Although having Jinnipher now has invigorated my roleplaying and maybe the third Guffington quest will push Hybros in a new direction (should he be accepted, of course).

I feel like I had a few more things to say, but I can't think of them right now. I also feel like this posted sounded less enthused than I really am about the quest, so let me say that I found it to be one of the most enjoyable of all that I've had so far. :sweet: I loved the battles because strategy is my favorite part of this game and they pushed me to really think about them. Being PL for such a huge party wasn't stressful at all, and I'm glad I got to control the BO and NPC actions. Myrddyn was also a vocal strategist in our PM conversation, he gets my nomination for PL in his next quest. :tongue:

The quest was fun, epic, and not dragged out too much. :sweet: Thank you so much for hosting, Pie!

Myrddyn · July 22, 2015

Quest 129:

I said I'd have a quest analysis up yesterday, and I didn't, so I'm putting up what I've got, even though I don't really say anything here that hasn't been said.

All the battles were great - especially the final battle. Lots of high level enemies, but we did win, so it can't have been too hard.

The puzzles were all fun, except the letter puzzle - waiting for more letters and trying to solve it must have been the most stressful experience of my life. :laugh: So it was very effective in giving a sense of urgency. The visions and storytelling and pictures were all fun and felt dramatic.

Yeah there was a slow spot in the middle somewhere, but it wasn't major.

NPCs:

Yay Magpie, :wub: and I demand to see Giuliana and Volumniix make a future appearance. Paul, if he was the crimson crown fellow under the rubble, was a neat way to get the PCs to talk to each other for once - except we didn't. :laugh:

One thing I was disappointed with on our end was the lack of PC-to-PC interaction.

Yeah reading back through what Erik had, there was his bickering with Hoke, but nothing much.

I had a lot of fun throughout the quest.

UsernameMDM · July 22, 2015

Thanks for the quest CMP. My only complaint is the vampires: not sure what their roles were or why they should have been important. Everything else was good.

CMP · July 22, 2015

I wish we had found out more about Giuliana/Volmuniix, but both were awesome. The three vampires never really felt threatening at all, and I still don't quite understand their purpose. To help Melville and the Cold Circle, yes, but other than that they just seemed like any other lackey. Melville was a little bland, but unlike the vampires was a threat and definitely evil. It felt good to kill him. In all honesty though, Soonavask seemed like the real villain because she manipulates Melville and, er, did the most damage to Jules.

Giuliana and Volmuniix are one more thread I have to pick up at some point later. No idea when or how. :tongue:

The three vampires were never meant to have much development beyond being minibosses, but they would've talked a bit with Melville in Mizuki's conversation. It was sort of just to push the idea that vampires are a part of the Circle - for being undead and for the nordic fascination with them. I almost thought near the end Veken was going to end up living so I could use him somewhere else later, but it seems it wasn't meant to be. :laugh:

Melville had a lot of ambition but in the end you are exactly right, he was just another tool of the Circle. And yes, most of his development was cementing the idea that you should really want to kill him. Seems to have worked. :grin: Soonavask, and to a greater extent Malphien, are going to be the big threats moving forward.

The visions worked well, and reading them all side by side was cool. I did not get that mine was supposed to be tailored to Hybros, to answer your concern. I agree that it didn't matter that the letter puzzle was obvious, it still served both story and mechanics purposes, and in an effective way. The gruesome scenes of torture were actually kind of scary, and the fact that the PCs got to see it was the main driving force behind the lust for justice/vengeance.

Not all of them were tailored to the heroes, just wherever was possible. Mostly just the examples I mentioned, really. :blush: I'm super glad I came up with the vision idea because I feel like the entire why of the quest would've been lost without them.

The battles were the highlight for me. We had a kickass party to begin with, and the battles truly satisfied. The first battle was a bit difficult, like you said, but after that I think you did an excellent job with balancing. I'd say it's one of your best strengths as a QM. No battle felt too hard or too easy. Am I glad I imbued my diamond into Justice. There were a lot of undead, but it never felt too unmanageable thanks to the party's access to gems and artifacts. The final battle was spectacular, and embodied the whole quest in an epic finale. Although I think I had a foolproof plan after Round 5 even if we rolled Special Damage on Melville. I thought the Earthwyrm battle was cool, with an interesting mechanic and a story purpose (indicating the ruin that the grotto had become and maybe a hint at Melville's power). The battle aboard the docked Magpie was also really enjoyable. Great job on this.

Glad you enjoyed the battles. It's kind of the meat of nearly every quest and it's nice to hear they're still fun. :sweet:

I guess I should also mention again how kickass our party was. Despite only having a 1/3 chance to hit something, Guts was still our powerhouse. Playing as Alchemist was awesome; easily my favorite class that I've played as. The traits and rolls just seem to complement each other so well, and it doesn't seem OP with the Chrysopeia nerf. I really liked having the role of healer especially with the Kjorfelnaire Tongue (I was a little disappointed you gave that back to Mizuki, but it's fair ). Alchemist is a better healing class than any cleric variation BY FAR. That's kind of a problem I think, and I hope we come up with a good solution to make Clerics a desirable class.

Hoke, Dyric and Illdria also had significant roles in battle, and Erik helped a lot with crowd control. Battle Mage is the perfect class for him with all of those effect weapons. Thalion and Em felt rather useless. I talked to obelix about Artisan, and it seems to be a class that is extremely dependent on your build. I guess Pala is enjoying it a bit more but it's the weirdest class ever and sometimes fails in battle. Em was the weakest (level-wise) in the group, and Aura would've just hurt instead of helped. I think he saved the party with it once in the first battle, and then needlessly KO'd himself in the last battle. His defense wasn't high enough for such a large and strong party, and thus numerous and powerful enemies led to his downfall.

One thing I worry about, being such an NPC-centric QM, is having NPCs overshadow the PCs constantly. There are times when they have important characters but I feel like the heroes have to be doing most of the heavy lifting*, and that extends to battles too. I was worried about giving Illdria such an arsenal but it balanced out that damage you guys lacked in the first battle, so it resolved itself. :tongue:

* = Except for Giuliana and Volmuniix. They were the Cavalry and had to be OP. :tongue:

One thing I was disappointed with on our end was the lack of PC-to-PC interaction. Sometimes it seemed like we acted as if none of the rest of the PCs existed, but there were rarely times when we needed to. I don't know, maybe it was just the result of a dungeon-crawler quest and the straightforwardness of it, or the epic narrative. I felt it was a low point for Hybros RP as well, partly because of what I just mentioned and partly because I've gotten a little bored with him. Part of me wishes I hadn't wrapped up his storyline too soon. I was to see him to the conclusion of Sandy's story, but in the meantime there isn't anywhere for him to develop. There are still loose ends with his story, but I'm not sure how I want to tie them up yet. As a result of this standstill, he was kind of flat in this quest. Meh. Although having Jinnipher now has invigorated my roleplaying and maybe the third Guffington quest will push Hybros in a new direction (should he be accepted, of course).

I noticed that too and I have no idea why that happened. :wacko: I kind of thought in the middle when the updates slowed inter-party banter would actually pick up, but it seems to have killed what little there was. Perhaps the urgency of the narrative kind of did it in. Oh well. Not much character development in what amounts to an action movie in quest form. :laugh:

All the battles were great - especially the final battle. Lots of high level enemies, but we did win, so it can't have been too hard.

The puzzles were all fun, except the letter puzzle - waiting for more letters and trying to solve it must have been the most stressful experience of my life. So it was very effective in giving a sense of urgency. The visions and storytelling and pictures were all fun and felt dramatic.

NPCs:

Yay Magpie, and I demand to see Giuliana and Volumniix make a future appearance. Paul, if he was the crimson crown fellow under the rubble, was a neat way to get the PCs to talk to each other for once - except we didn't.

I had a lot of fun throughout the quest.

Thanks, it was awesome to host you all. :sweet: I was kind of concerned when you guys assumed the words were all in a jumble, actually. One, because it wasn't a name anyone has heard of. I couldn't have you guys hijack half the quest by guessing the word early. :laugh: Two, because it meant the passage of time I had oh-so-paintstakingly created in the visions was going unnoticed. :tongue: Three, because I thought you guys would be disappointed when it turned out the password wasn't Nephilim, because that would've been an entirely unexpected and completely amazing plot twist. :head_back:

Thanks for the quest CMP. My only complaint is the vampires: not sure what their roles were or why they should have been important. Everything else was good.

They weren't. Their roles were "get killed by Heroica". They performed exactly to my expectations. :grin:

Scubacarrot · July 22, 2015

I thought Quest 129 was a great Quest CMP, I had a lot of fun and I agree a lot with things my questmates have already said.

I really enjoyed the minesweeper puzzle and the pathfinding puzzle. You said we missed some things at the minesweeper one though? huh. The battles were great. They were almost all challenging but not so challenging that you end up with the party leader stating 99% of the party's actions. That's difficult to do and I think you did great. The 'hordes' of enemies are a really good idea. The Numbers puzzle was a bit weird, as we had never heard of Malphien before. That made the end result just guessing even with all the letters

Something I thought could have been done differently perhaps is that I thought there perhaps was not enough choice or roleplaying or whatever you want to call it, it was pretty railroaded. The only 'choice' we had was wether or not we killed the Crimson Crown Agent, but that seemed to have no repercussions either way so that doesn't really count either. It seemed a lot like: Captain Illidria is along to tell us what to do and the heroes just do it. If we hadn't had her along, perhaps we could have figured things out by ourselves, I don't know. It wasn't a very big problem anyway. The splitting up the party I think helped with that, as well.

I think you set up Melville in a really good way. The vampires were almost silly distractions, but I think they worked to ramp up to something bigger than them. The final battle was great, and I think you did a very good job of setting up for your next quests, CMP. I also really enjoyed you showing off Rook more at the end there, he's always obviously been way more than he seems, but no clue as to what exactly.

Thank you again for hosting me. :thumbup:

The Legonater · July 22, 2015

Really fun quest. The crew was great and the atmosphere was great, and although it dragged a little - especially during battles - the overall experience was a lot of fun. Melville was a very cool character and a cooler villain, especially seeing him chiefly through these horrific visions. The mystery unfolded really nicely - I went into the first battle feeling it was irrelevant but it wound up setting the tone for the whole thing. Another quest well done!

Also if you have the time, I would appreciate PC analysis but it's not necessary.

Endgame · August 15, 2015

Quest 138

Figured I'd at least do part of this right now (party analysis I'll do in a bit)

Self Criticisms:

-Some story bits/transitions were definitely wonky - this is, unfortunately, a bad byproduct of clawing through 40 pages in about as many days. :blush: The part with Vorpalis in the Cathedral was a wonky, mostly because I planned on the entire party going in at once, and not just Lind. Granted, it segued into one of my favorite bits of the quest (Eschaton), but it still doesn't excuse how disjointed that bit was. Also very weird was the party reuniting in Mermont. The Pm party stepped out of a crematorium, the Thread party were escorting Eloen and Rydel , they bumped into each other, Gabriel railroaded you, and suddenly you were in a safe house? :wacko: My italics narration kind of tried to mend a few of those issues, but I would forgive any player for not reading it. Ultimately, it would've been best to just slow down and let it progress naturally.

-Some choices were uninformed. I stand by the first decision of whether or not you'd get yourself fogged to go to whoever was crying for help - Sandman basically said it was a fool's errand, and I think some choices need to have consequences. Fair warning was given. A really pointless choice was whether you pass through Algon or the Forest, since you were uninformed about what was in each. If you went to Algon, you would've fought the rest of the Zodiac - along with its leaders, the twins Gemini. That should've been established, as should of the bounty hunters in the forest. There was subtle hints (Zodiac attack the defenseless, and Algon would be easy pickings... the last group had a bounty put on them) but still not enough.

-Puffy puzzle. :wall: :wall: :wall:

-Lots of NPCs, none of them really stood out save for a handful. I liked Gabriel, I liked Charon, I liked Vorpalis, I liked Immortalis, I liked Faust, the Zodaic was fun conceptually I think, Eloen and Rydel served the purpose they needed to (albeit they really only talked to one character :blush: ), Melody and Bulk were decent foils... Also, even though he was only there for a bit, I liked Morrison the mortician, for no other reason that I think he portrayed the toll Vorpalis's rule took on people well. The rest might as well had been cardboard cut-outs. Especially glaring for Sputnik and Merlay, because they were talked up. Aeolus was killed pretty quick before he could be characterized - same with Marlow. I guess 6-7 NPCs is enough to carry a month and a half of questing, but when you throw out so many, the ratio of good characters to bad/bland was poor.

-Gabriel was meant to be a foil to Masson, as they had similar mental illnesses and pasts, but they ended up pretty differently. This was kinda defeated when Gabriel started sounding like Masson. :blush: Granted, he was buzzed at the time, and I think it was only bad in the safe house, but he was way too close to being like Mr. Purple during that time. I think I distinguished them well enough later on, though. Gabriel has no higher cause/drive to have one, is pretty much morally bankrupt, and is not afraid of embracing more bodily pleasures.

As a general note about Gabriel: There was a chance he was going to revert back to the way he was at the start, pre-excessive fog exposure. It was a 5/6 chance of reverting - Jinnipher going below deck with him (and doing whatever they did :poke: ) flipped the odds to 1/6 chance of reverting. Much like Faust, Sandman was hardly guaranteed a happy ending.

-After getting fogged, Karie had a side quest where The Apprentice would appear in places to mock her. Looking back, it was way too much - for most of the quest, it was just The Apprentice mocking Karie, and while it put Karie under mental strain, I think it was kind of pointless. In the safe house, when the Apprentice actually started manipulating her it actually become meaningful, and it reached a satisfying conclusion in the Throne Room. Pretty much everything between the fogging and the safe house was basically intrusive prattle.

-Immortalis's vision about the international conflict may have come out of left field, but I think it works better that way. Immortalis knew that would happen before anyone else involved even had an inkling. There was deliberately very little clues to that possibility, because I wanted to show how prophetic Immortalis was.

What Worked

If it isn't above, I think the rest of it was fine. :laugh: Gonna look through the quest for moments I liked.

Vorpalis

Vorpalis was the first overtly villainous character I've played since The Regret. Lethauros opposed the heroes, sure, but his actions weren't really villainous - he didn't ravage the forest for anything other than food. The Regret monologued too much, and his reasons were too implausible, and his goal of extermination was pretty much out of reach.

I think Vorpalis was more effective. Vorpalis didn't really monologue - he did twice. Once, during a public speech, which makes sense. :tongue: And second when he was delirious from pain and about to die. He was pretty much no nonsense otherwise, and I designed him to be like that. He didn't really toy around. Lind jumped in and started speaking without getting a feel for the situation, gave him the information he was trying to get... Boom, Marlow dead. There was no reason for him not to kill Marlow at that point. After that, he immediately sets to chasing down and killing the heroes. When that fails because of Charon (if you rejected his offer, Vorpalis would have caught you, and it would've been a hopeless boss fight.) When they elude him, he orders a bounty, and tracks down Faust. Come the execution, he calls out the disguises, and immediately jumps in the fray to end the heroes. When he sees too many of his followers die, he can't stand the bloodshed, and challenges them to a duel in an isolated location.

I think there was enough talking about his motives in the quest itself, though the fact that there was that whole conflict at the execution meant I did that part right. :grin:

More coming later...

Edited August 15, 2015 by Endgame

Endgame · August 15, 2015

The rest of my analysis, coming at you live!

Here's a bit of a blooper reel for you: Vorpalis's old design.

Yuck. :sad:

The "finalized" Vorpalis shown at the end of 134 is also not the real final one, as well. In that shot, he has a tan underbelly and purple claws.

Battles:

Battles 1 and 2 were pretty easy by design. There were originally going to be four Octoraiders, but Skrall's usage of the lightning bomb completed removed one of them from battle. Battle 3 went by quickly, but it was the first battle where anyone had a risk of getting knocked out/got close to it. Battle four got pretty dire near the end, but I failed to take into account how strong Warlen was, so it ended a bit sooner than expected.

The Vorpalis battle was a huge difficulty spike. This was by design. Over the course of the battle, he knocked out half of the party members - he did, after all, coquer much of the continent for the Kingdom of Mercution. If Skrall didn't pop the Fenghuang Incense, I imagine things would've gone poorly. :tongue:

Loot:

I thought I struck a good balance overall, but pretty much everything worthwhile was dumped on you at the end. Everything else was basically gold or consumables, with 3 weapon and 2 artifact drops, minus the Vorpalis stuff.

Also, Jinnipher running around with The Beheader. Yikes. :wacko:

Player Analysis:

Skrall: I think a lot of Skrall's qualities came out during 138, because of his role as party leader, his conflicts with the other members of the party, and his differences with Vorpalis. I have to thank you, because without Skrall on this quest, Vorpalis would've been a lot less defined - some of my favorite interactions he had with the party came from Skrall's actions/words. Likewise, he was the source of some intra-party conflict, which generated a lot of good conversation/RP as a result. Skrall will always be one of my favorite characters, and it was great to host you again. :thumbup:

Jinnipher: Pretty big quest for a character's first... Going to their destroyed hometown, reunting with their parents, slaying an ancient dragon, and finding a lover. :tongue: A lot happened to Jinnpher in those one in a half months that really kick-started her development, but I have to say, I really like how you're playing her. The calm, collected image of an elf is always fun to read (e.g. Nerwen) but to see a more barbaric one, as well as a starkly patriotic one and stubborn one, is interesting. I went back to C.A.T to see how you originally played her, just for comparison, and you remained true the entire time. I'm excited to see where you go with her. :thumbup:

Warlen: This is a quest that had a lot of impact on Warlen, I think. It was kind of a natural "start of darkness" for him, as evidenced by his last conversation on the boat - he finally slayed the greatest opponent that ever defeated him and got away, but the price on his psyche was obvious. I'm unsure what Eulalia embodies (I loved the conversation you had with Charon about faith, by the way), but if she really is a peaceful goddess, I think the internal struggle between his faith and the bloodlust he's feeling can lead to some interesting developments.

Oh, and if you were worried about you level of activity: Don't be. Sometimes life gets in the way, but even then, you participated more than well enough. :thumbup:

Karie: I once again apologize for how intrusive the Apprentice sidequest was, but hopefully it gave a good closure to part of her character (her insecurities, and the scars she had from the Locunon) Hosting Karie was a pleasure as usual. Not only did she finally go minstrel from this quest, but she also dissolved her friendship with Skrall, which I think is interesting - I think Skrall was one of the people that Karie trusted, and him falling off the list is a "good" development.

Also, I could tell Karie was right at home with the disguising bit. :grin:

Lind: I was cautious about hosting you, because part of me was afraid you'd say "I know exactly what Vorpalis is going to do/what the fog oes because Munchkin knowledge." The base character of Lind is pretty good: a wacky, rebelliously devoted blabbermouth. Unfortunately, some of Lind's antics got on the other player's nerves - you should recognize when it goes too far. And I would encourage you from distancing yourself from a "planned" route. Establish Lind's religion and what the Dodekube is. That's fine. But don't set his route in stone so much Lind can no longer be affected by the events around him. For the first half of the quest, Lind seemed more interested in undercutting everything the rest of his party members said.

However, the dose of humility he recieved near the end of the quest was good, and the theological debates actually were somehwat fitting, considering the nature of Charon/Immortalis's operation.

This is all criticism so Lind can grow. Although this may seem mostly negative, I will say that I enjoyed much of your RP, I think you have a lot of elements already in place for a great character - you just need to put them together right. But Lind was pretty consistently spotlight stealing in certain parts of the quest. If i had to sum up my reaction, it'd be "tone it down". Again, this mostly applies to the first half of the quest - I felt your RP during some of the later bits was pretty solid. :thumbup:

------------------------------------

That's all I got for now. Any comments, criticisms, etc. Please share. :classic:

Edited August 15, 2015 by Endgame

**JimBee** · August 15, 2015

Thanks for a fantastic quest, Endgame. I'm glad I finally got to be on one of yours. I'll admit, I've always been a little skeptical because of the LDD images and huge story arcs, but neither of those bothered me at all on this one. You're an experienced QM and it shows when you go out of your way to interact with your players and have a relatable and readable quest. Like you said, we went through 40 pages in about as many days, which was sometimes hard to keep up with on a busy schedule but I enjoyed the fast pace overall. It could've easily been a 3 month quest but I'm glad it wasn't.

I think your self-criticisms are pretty spot on. I'll reply to each individually because I've had similar thoughts.

Self Criticisms:

-Some story bits/transitions were definitely wonky - this is, unfortunately, a bad byproduct of clawing through 40 pages in about as many days. The part with Vorpalis in the Cathedral was a wonky, mostly because I planned on the entire party going in at once, and not just Lind. Granted, it segued into one of my favorite bits of the quest (Eschaton), but it still doesn't excuse how disjointed that bit was. Also very weird was the party reuniting in Mermont. The Pm party stepped out of a crematorium, the Thread party were escorting Eloen and Rydel , they bumped into each other, Gabriel railroaded you, and suddenly you were in a safe house? My italics narration kind of tried to mend a few of those issues, but I would forgive any player for not reading it. Ultimately, it would've been best to just slow down and let it progress naturally.

I think this was the main consequence of a fast pace. Not everyone got to post and really decide what to do. But then, would we really have known what to do/where to go? Going to the safehouse comes to mind; if we weren't railroaded then we'd just sit there arguing. Gabriel played an important role of guiding us, among other things which I'll touch on in a bit.

-Some choices were uninformed. I stand by the first decision of whether or not you'd get yourself fogged to go to whoever was crying for help - Sandman basically said it was a fool's errand, and I think some choices need to have consequences. Fair warning was given. A really pointless choice was whether you pass through Algon or the Forest, since you were uninformed about what was in each. If you went to Algon, you would've fought the rest of the Zodiac - along with its leaders, the twins Gemini. That should've been established, as should of the bounty hunters in the forest. There was subtle hints (Zodiac attack the defenseless, and Algon would be easy pickings... the last group had a bounty put on them) but still not enough.

I'm glad Karie and Jinnipher went into the fog - it offered some connection between them and gave us insight to what the fog actually did, firsthand. I was pleased that you included Jinnipher's parents in the hallucination - I had only had her mention it because it made sense and it was something to say to Faust, I suppose, but you took it to another level which was great. :thumbup:

The Zodiac felt a bit random, but did add to the apocalyptic feel of Moone.

-Puffy puzzle. :wall:

Don't worry about it. I personally liked the result (if for selfish RP reasons :tongue: ). The puzzle wouldn't have been terribly hard, either.

-Lots of NPCs, none of them really stood out save for a handful. I liked Gabriel, I liked Charon, I liked Vorpalis, I liked Immortalis, I liked Faust, the Zodaic was fun conceptually I think, Eloen and Rydel served the purpose they needed to (albeit they really only talked to one character ), Melody and Bulk were decent foils... Also, even though he was only there for a bit, I liked Morrison the mortician, for no other reason that I think he portrayed the toll Vorpalis's rule took on people well. The rest might as well had been cardboard cut-outs. Especially glaring for Sputnik and Merlay, because they were talked up. Aeolus was killed pretty quick before he could be characterized - same with Marlow. I guess 6-7 NPCs is enough to carry a month and a half of questing, but when you throw out so many, the ratio of good characters to bad/bland was poor.

This was going to be my main criticism. A lot of characters felt flat and like they were just added fluff. I especially think Sputnik could've used some more development or just screen time. I also think the elves could've been characterized as wiser. Faust was decent, but Eloen and Rydel were very human-like. Maybe my fault since I didn't offer any suggestions when you asked for them.

Also, weird that none of the Moon Elves actually looked like it. :tongue: This is me nitpicking, but I think that was a missed opportunity to create some unique minifigs.

I'm also a little confused about just how limited the Moone Elves are. There has got to be more than a dozen of them, right? :laugh: They're endangered but not on the brink of extinction. I dunno. Maybe they are. It just seemed like there weren't enough in the quest for taking place in Moone. Even if you say Vorpalis killed some of them.

-Gabriel was meant to be a foil to Masson, as they had similar mental illnesses and pasts, but they ended up pretty differently. This was kinda defeated when Gabriel started sounding like Masson. Granted, he was buzzed at the time, and I think it was only bad in the safe house, but he was way too close to being like Mr. Purple during that time. I think I distinguished them well enough later on, though. Gabriel has no higher cause/drive to have one, is pretty much morally bankrupt, and is not afraid of embracing more bodily pleasures.

Gabriel was good, probably my favorite NPC on the quest. Cool and collected, but developed into something more. Some of the times when were supposed to notice something changing with him were a little forced, but other than that a really memorable character. :thumbup:

-Immortalis's vision about the international conflict may have come out of left field, but I think it works better that way. Immortalis knew that would happen before anyone else involved even had an inkling. There was deliberately very little clues to that possibility, because I wanted to show how prophetic Immortalis was.

The whole Charon side story was a little confusing, but I suppose you'll expand on that in future quests. I like to think that Immortalis is as prophetic as you make him out to be, but not a god. A, because Sandy has forbidden embodiment of gods in this game and B because the question of "is our fate really in our own hands?" is not answered. Be careful of how you characterize Immortalis, both in the quest and beyond the fourth wall.

I do like the backstory behind the reason for Vorpalis coming to Moone in the first place, though. There was more to it than revenge, which was unique.

Vorpalis
Vorpalis was the first overtly villainous character I've played since The Regret. Lethauros opposed the heroes, sure, but his actions weren't really villainous - he didn't ravage the forest for anything other than food. The Regret monologued too much, and his reasons were too implausible, and his goal of extermination was pretty much out of reach.

I think Vorpalis was more effective. Vorpalis didn't really monologue - he did twice. Once, during a public speech, which makes sense. And second when he was delirious from pain and about to die. He was pretty much no nonsense otherwise, and I designed him to be like that. He didn't really toy around. Lind jumped in and started speaking without getting a feel for the situation, gave him the information he was trying to get... Boom, Marlow dead. There was no reason for him not to kill Marlow at that point. After that, he immediately sets to chasing down and killing the heroes. When that fails because of Charon (if you rejected his offer, Vorpalis would have caught you, and it would've been a hopeless boss fight.) When they elude him, he orders a bounty, and tracks down Faust. Come the execution, he calls out the disguises, and immediately jumps in the fray to end the heroes. When he sees too many of his followers die, he can't stand the bloodshed, and challenges them to a duel in an isolated location.

Vorpalis was good villain for sure. Not completely unreasonable but there was definitely substance for Jinnipher to stand her ground against him as well as for Skrall to see reason to let him rule.

I feel like I say this every time I analyze a quest, but there's more I want to say and I just don't remember it right now. :wacko: The battles were fun. I realize that it must have been hard to strike a balance for a level-40 character and a level-1 character, but I think you did a really good job with that. Jinnipher felt rather useless when she was dealing tiny amounts of damage and basically just holding off the weaker enemies until one of the stronger characters could one-shot them. But the poison damage multipliers were a huge help, especially in the last battle.

Loot was heavy. Jinnipher got two really good weapons and a decent artifact on her first quest (and first month of playing). I'm not complaining, but it's not bad to throw in even more consumables than you already did. If you didn't include the seven Vorpalis artifacts it would've been very balanced, but they're also very cool and some better than others.

I had a lot of fun with PC-PC interaction. I think each of the five PCs had their moments with each other. I hope Jinnipher didn't steal the spotlight too much on account of well, almost everything that took place. I tried to take a step back when there wasn't a really good reason for her to be at the forefront, such as with the Zodiac or Charon.

Like you said, Endgame, it was a lot for her first quest. I was glad for that but I hope it didn't seem overdone to outside observers. I'm interested in hearing other opinions on Jinnipher so far.

Lind: I was cautious about hosting you, because part of me was afraid you'd say "I know exactly what Vorpalis is going to do/what the fog oes because Munchkin knowledge." The base character of Lind is pretty good: a wacky, rebelliously devoted blabbermouth. Unfortunately, some of Lind's antics got on the other player's nerves - you should recognize when it goes too far. And I would encourage you from distancing yourself from a "planned" route. Establish Lind's religion and what the Dodekube is. That's fine. But don't set his route in stone so much Lind can no longer be affected by the events around him. For the first half of the quest, Lind seemed more interested in undercutting everything the rest of his party members said.

However, the dose of humility he recieved near the end of the quest was good, and the theological debates actually were somehwat fitting, considering the nature of Charon/Immortalis's operation.

This is all criticism so Lind can grow. Although this may seem mostly negative, I will say that I enjoyed much of your RP, I think you have a lot of elements already in place for a great character - you just need to put them together right. But Lind was pretty consistently spotlight stealing in certain parts of the quest. If i had to sum up my reaction, it'd be "tone it down". Again, this mostly applies to the first half of the quest - I felt your RP during some of the later bits was pretty solid.

Well said. It was fun to interact with Lind - to a certain extent. He was the perfect character to bring out the worst in Jinnipher but sometimes it was over the top and I had to just ignore Lind, which was out of character for Jinn. I'd say cut down on replying to everything, and like Endgame said don't constantly cut down what other players say. Seriously, it's a 21-year-old human. I'm not sure what your perception of a "real" adult is but that's not it. :laugh: His backstory is good and maybe he knows a lot based on the culture/religion/scientology you made up for him, but when you can simply go "oh QM plot device or hidden piece of knowledge? Munchkin knows all!" it's pretty lame. That and the fact that he says things like "dibsies" and you don't differentiate him from your own posting makes him hard to believe and buy as a real character. Docken was kind of like this, but it wasn't over the top and didn't disrupt quests. It was comical because it was subtle, and if you really want to play Lind as a fourth wall-breaking character then I suggest you take a leaf from that book.

That being said he did have some good moments with Charon and Immortalis that actually reinforced his backstory in a believable way.

Skrall, Karie and Warlen were all good. Like I said before I think they each got a turn in the spotlight and I had fun interacting with each of them. I think Kint said something like this not too long ago, but it is kind of weird having both of one's PCs interact with the same PC of another player. Hybros sees Skrall as wise, cool and collected, and a good friend for helping him on 107, while Jinnipher will find it hard to forgive him for almost siding with Vorpalis. Yet, it's surprisingly easy to differentiate my own (player) view of Skrall from either of my PCs' and from each other's.

Again, I feel like there's more to be said, but maybe other commentary will jog my memory. Suffice to say for now, I had a blast on 138. Thank you Endgame for hosting such a wonderful quest and thanks to the other players for making it enjoyable! :sweet:

Endgame · August 15, 2015

Jinnipher is fairly human, so I figured she'd take after heer parents in some ways. Rydel is pretty abrasive, a bit like Jinnipher.

Also, yeah, figure design is a weakness of mine. Brick built monsters? Great. Using a template and just picking whatever looks interesting? Horrible at. :tongue:

**JimBee** · August 15, 2015

The editor was acting up and cut up my post, luckily I copied my work beforehand. I seem to be having the same problem as Flipz with that... but my full post should now be up above!

Jinnipher is fairly human, so I figured she'd take after heer parents in some ways. Rydel is pretty abrasive, a bit like Jinnipher.

Also, yeah, figure design is a weakness of mine. Brick built monsters? Great. Using a template and just picking whatever looks interesting? Horrible at.

That's a fair point. :thumbup:

That's probably one thing that's pretty limited in LDD as well.

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