I : There is a place we're coming to. (Campaign Thread)

[phaedrusxy]

Loptr looks confused for a moment, then says "Ah, you have some magic, do you?" and leans down to touch fingers with the little... creature.

[MetroMagic]

(click to show/hide)

Of course all of the following, both magic and description details, are subject to Quill’s approval.

Blisss’ outstretched hand and Loptr’s massive fingers touch, and a sensation washes across Loptr, delicious and warm like stepping into a heated bath at an expensive inn. It settles into him; he can almost see it clinging on his skin like the vapors of the tub. Loptr’s skin doesn’t feel slippery, but it looks as if it ought to be, ever so slightly. The small boy’s faith in Loptr as a friend fills the big man with a feeling as if he could withstand any enemy to help the child.

(click to show/hide)

Mage Armor 6 hr +4 Force armor bonus; note, may not stack with Loptr’s current Armor bonus if already better, but Force applies vs. Incorporeal

Shield of Faith +3 deflection bonus to AC, 6 mins.

Blisss’ voice is as soft as his touch. The slippery warmth lasts only a little while, then it passes. If you like it, we’ll touch hands again in five minutes or so. I’m used to keeping track, so you don’t have to think about it. I can feel it when my own starts to go away.

(click to show/hide)

Blisss will arrange the timing of his own Shield of Faith renewal and Loptr’s, so that he can squeeze in a renewal of Blisss’ own Mage Armor and Loptr’s once every 6 hours, which uses the same spell slot. With careful, practiced timing he can minimize the gap this introduces into the coverage with Shield of Faith, missing only about 4 minutes once every 6 hours at most. Blisss can renew the Mage Armor early too; if it seems safe, he will do it at a convenient time sooner than 6 hours to lessen the risk of needing to do it at a time not as safe.

As an afterthought, Blisss touches Loptr’s trouser knee as he steps away, and Loptr’s clothes take on the same muted woodland dappled hues Bliss is wearing, that match the colors of the day: harder to spot in the dim wet sunlight. Loptr does feel a momentary tlckle run across his skin at this, a tiny jolt of odd energy.

(click to show/hide)

Prestidigitation, 1 hour. Blisss will track and renew this effect too, to keep it going all day and evening, and change it to match the environment as needed, on himself, Loptr, and anyone else who asks.

it’s Quill’s call on what Circumstance bonus this might give to avoid being spotted at a distance… I suggest +2, it seems standard for camo equipment in its environment. See:

Foliage Camouflage: Green-Dapple-Brown
Dark Camouflage: Gray-Shadow-Black
Arctic Camouflage: White-Ice-Gray

Then Blisss turns in a circle, smiling at his new friends in the clearing, with his arms wide as if embracing them all. The friendship and confidence Blisss has in his new friends washes over them, like the delight in life at the faint, damp scent of morning dew that welcomes a summer day.

(click to show/hide)

Legion’s Conviction all allies in 20ft get Conviction, +3 morale to all saves, 6 mins. Blisss will renew this throughout the day and evening on all who are in range at the time.

Blisss says Are any of you keeping hurt left over from some other time? I’d like to wash it away for you. It’s dangerous to walk around hurt, in places where someone bad might suddenly hurt you more. I love wandering on the land, it’s so interesting… but not everyone I meet is as nice as you are. And I’ll help keep you safe from getting hurt, too, if you don’t mind getting tickled. Blisss walks around the clearing from friend to friend, offering a touch of his hand.

(click to show/hide)

Cure, anyone?

Or forest camo? He’ll camo-color everyone’s clothes if they want it – except Mystery, who clearly wants to be the color she is already.

And Blisss will give Mage Armor to everyone as well, working in their renewal with his and Loptr’s, every 6 hours or probably sooner for safety. If you don’t have Force armor already, it may help if we meet Incorporeal creatures.

[Quillwraith]

(click to show/hide)

it’s Quill’s call on what Circumstance bonus this might give to avoid being spotted at a distance… I suggest +2, it seems standard for camo equipment in its environment. See:

+3, methinks. I'm using larger circumstance modifiers than normal. Normally doubling small ones, but prestidigitation isn't that sophisticated.

[MetroMagic]

(click to show/hide)

+3 camo! Even better; thanks, Quill!

All the more reason to ask Blisss to paint you…

In watercolors  :-)

[MetroMagic]

When Blisss comes to Ádhúil and Mystery, they seem to him to be particularly interested in what happens when he touches them, and Blisss becomes a bit shy about it – still open, and willing, but diffident; doubting himself a bit, but mostly unsure of how he is being perceived in their closer scrutiny.

Blisss says I… am I doing it right? It seems you know something about how these things are done. It looks to me like it’s working… I can see the, the tickles, they’re flowing where they’re supposed to, and settling in the way they should look, in the places they’re supposed to. The bright spots and colors are covering you like usual… aren’t they?

Oh. Colors. Mystery, I didn’t mess up your pretty red, did I, it looks the same to me as it did before I touched you, and I didn’t put in any of my own watercolors like I did for me and Loptr. I just put in the bright see-through one that’s sort of hard like very clear ice except it’s not there, so it keeps out the creatures who aren’t there… oh, that sounded mixed up didn’t it, but it’s not…

Can you see it too, or, or, I don’t know, it looks just right, but... Blisss trails off, uncertain of their reaction, and struggling to interpret their apparent interest in what he was doing.

[FireInTheSky]

Personally, I'm not too fond of being tickled, Ádhúil tells Bliss with a smile.  But I will certainly accept any helpful magic you're willing to share.  As far as I can tell, you seem to be doing it right.  Not that I can claim to be an expert in the way your magic is manifested.

All of my magic deals with light, and playing around with what other people see.  Yours is mostly... protective?

[sirpercival]

Fwisp blinks in the morning sun.  "To unknown where is going all?  Krenshar unknown being of nearby?"

[MetroMagic]

(click to show/hide)

what does Blisss know about Krenshar? Probably at least something…

Knowledge Nature or Unnatural, about a creature, with Font of Knowledge and Collector of Stories

Rolled 1d20+25 : 6 + 25, total 31

[MetroMagic]

(click to show/hide)

what does Blisss realize he knows about Ádhúil’s “casting”?

Knowledge Arcana

Rolled 1d20+20 : 5 + 20, total 25

[MetroMagic]

At Fwisp’s question, Blisss looks off in the direction the Krenshar went, acknowledging it but shrugging with no answer handy as to what to do about the cat creatures, if anything. Fwisp, the Krenshar are... I mean, not unwise they are, unless very hungry they be…

Or if scare we them, they us scare back. Large group as are we they attack not likely.

Hmmm. That last bit wasn’t quite right. I don’t have your language yet. Blisss chuckles at his efforts.

Then Blisss smiles at Ádhúil and answers his question. I like helping people, and I’d rather not hurt them, even though sometimes it can’t be helped, if they’re trying to hurt someone.

Even then, if I can leave them in the dark, sometimes they just run away if they can’t see… Ooh. If I make it dark, then you can’t play with light and what people see. Or maybe I couldn’t make it dark then. I don’t know, I never had a friend who played with light…

Maybe I could play with light too!

…but when you played with what we saw when we were looking at you standing everywhere last night, I didn’t notice any magic casting I could learn; I was watching for it. I always do.

You didn’t chant or wiggle your fingers or… or much of anything I could tell. It just… sort of … flowed out of you. Blisss purses his lips in concentration, as if he is replaying last night’s “Where is Ádhúil” game to dredge up something he could duplicate. He shakes his head as if in confirmation of the negative.

But then Blisss brightens. Oh! I know... it wasn’t casting at all, was it. It’s a different way of doing, sort of concentrating on yourself to flow magic out the way you want it! I have to pay attention differently next time. I was watching for the wrong thing.

(click to show/hide)

Knowledge Arcana 25, maybe not enough to figure it out thoroughly, I would think, but enough to realize it wasn’t casting as he expected and he needs to change course in what he’s looking for. Quill, your call to amend as you see fit. Some people play 25 as better, but I took it conservatively.

Blisss gets an “aha”! Magic by a Holomancer: It’s not casting, it’s something else that seems familiar, especially since he has some magic SLAs himself: As he may well discover the next time he watches, it’s an SLA – he knows how to learn those too, as long as there is an observable effect. But to learn something from Ádhúil, Blisss will have to give up something... unlike spells from Mystery that he can try to swap out and back in later, there are no scrolls to preserve SLAs! One of Blisss’ three learned SLAs would have to go permanently, probably Earthglide, so the one from Ádhúil has to be a good replacement…

[Quillwraith]

(click to show/hide)

what does Blisss know about Krenshar? Probably at least something…

Knowledge Nature or Unnatural, about a creature, with Font of Knowledge and Collector of Stories This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d20+25 : 6 + 25, total 31

(click to show/hide)

Their description in the Monster Manual is probably fair game with a 31, seeing as krenshar aren't especially obscure.

(click to show/hide)

what does Blisss realize he knows about Ádhúil’s “casting”?

Knowledge Arcana This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d20+20 : 5 + 20, total 25

(click to show/hide)

You haven't seen enough to guess that he's using holomancer invocations, but know about illusions in  general.

Incidentally, where's Blisss's spot check?

[MetroMagic]

(click to show/hide)

Incidentally, where's Blisss's spot check?

Two places in the Blisss post on the Character Sheet thread:

Outside spoilers in plain text:

Senses: Darkvision 60 ft; Low light vision; Detect Magic continuous; Comprehend Languages; Listen +9, Spot +9

Inside the Skills spoiler, first skill listed:

Spot 11 ranks -2 Wis = +9

You haven't seen enough to guess that he's using holomancer invocations, but know about illusions in general.

Absolutely; he’s got no clue about Ádhúil being a holomancer at this point; though a 25 could get him recognition of illusion magic.

His moment of inspiration was only that he had been looking for casting and hadn’t seen it, but the spread of magic from Ádhúil that Blisss did see (since he has Detect Magic running all the time) was sorta like an SLA (he wouldn’t call it that term). So he’s decided next time Ádhúil does magic, Blisss will look for that type of magic instead, not looking for Ádhúil to cast like a mage does. And looking at Blue Mage RAW, Blisss can’t learn a lot of what Ádhúil does anyway, only certain things that are SLAs. So it makes sense that he may or may not pick up on what Ádhúil is doing at any given time.

[Quillwraith]

That seems to make sense.

[MetroMagic]

(click to show/hide)

Perparing to go into town…what has Blisss heard about Kord?

Knowledge Religion, with Font of Knowledge

Rolled 1d20+20 : 3 + 20, total 23

What has Blisss heard about the weather here; especially, has it been cloudy here, or mostly raining here, almost all the time for a very long time and if so when did it start doing that? …which would be weird and interesting, and if that’s true, no wonder the town was abandoned! …or has the weather been pretty much normal?

Watertell: Concentration check; the DC he makes determines how far back he can hear about, in what the local water in the pond can tell him: 25  – 1 month, 30  – 1 year, 35  – 10 years, 40  – 100 years

Rolled 1d20+24 : 7 + 24, total 31

[MetroMagic]

Ádhúil, Artur, Blisss, Fwisp, Illurien, Loptr, Misae, Mystery. Eight in the party.

It takes Blisss about half an hour, moving from one to the next, touching each of the party who wants it, and then back to Loptr and himself to renew what has lapsed quickly in the meanwhile. He then continues to renew everyone’s protection periodically on a staggered schedule so that he doesn’t have to spend a half hour at it, just a touch here and there, every few minutes or hours.

If you are all willing, I’d like to just keep doing this every day we travel together. I’ll use third watch to renew everyone’s protections by the time you all are awake so that each day starts fresh. And I’ll wake up every four hours or so for a half hour to renew most of them overnight too, since I don’t need to sleep for eight hours all in a row to get my magic back, like wizards do.

(click to show/hide)

Quill, if no one objects and it’s ok with you, assume these protections are always running on the party during the day, and most of them overnight if necessary, as a regular routine, so I don’t need to fill up our posting about it.

(click to show/hide)

If Mystery is interested in working together with Blisss to share scrolls, but you’d rather not roleplay it all out, then Blisss and Mystery have time during this half hour (while Blisss waits his 5 minutes intervals to recharge), to compare notes, decide what they’d like to do, and if Quill is ok with the time and the WBL, we can work on the scrolls each evening. More or less three days from now in game time, the first two would be done, assuming our evenings are not spent in battle or something else pressing:

Scroll of Dispel Magic, from Mystery to Blisss
Scroll of Mystery’s choice of spells from Blisss to Mystery

(click to show/hide)

23, meh. That was guidance for me to write the post. Enough to recognize the spire I guess, and for the basics about Kord. No deep secrets with a 23. If I’d gotten a 40, I would have waited to post, to find out if Quill had some startling Kord info for Blisss, but… not even over 35. Quill, amend my post if needed; I’m just moving us along.

Look, there’s a church of Kord in the village, over the pointy rooftops, I can see the kind of spire they have. Loptr, I haven’t heard a lot of stories about Kord but I think they would like you, they like strong people and champions and your muscles are just so… big!

But I guess maybe no one is there. We could find out! And even if there isn’t, maybe… maybe just going into the church would give you some blessing, Loptr… I’ve heard stories like that. Not about Kord, but just… sort of like that, something some churches do.

(click to show/hide)

Watertell=31, so… Quill, did the pond tell Blisss that the weather has been pretty much normal here for the past year, or has it been raining (or cloudy) the entire time? Maybe that has something to do with why they left…

[Quillwraith]

(click to show/hide)

Watertell=31, so… Quill, did the pond tell Blisss that the weather has been pretty much normal here for the past year, or has it been raining (or cloudy) the entire time? Maybe that has something to do with why they left…

(click to show/hide)

The rain only started a week ago. The water does remember when people left, most of a year ago, but didn't observe why.

[FireInTheSky]

So, shall we have a look around?  I wonder why this little village in the middle of nowhere exists in the first place...  And what made the people leave?  Perhaps some exploration will give us a clue.

Ádhúil makes a gesture to Artur, who takes off and starts flying in a large spiral, slowly circling towards the center of town.  Ádhúil starts walking around the town himself, working in a spiral going the opposite direction as Artur.

[VennDygrem]

<<I don't suppose there is anything wrong with that. I, too, will help investigate.>>

[MetroMagic]

Blisss responds to the leprechaun’s question: Ádhúil, I don’t know the whole story of why they left, but I heard when... most of a year ago. The pond says.

The weather here has been wonderful, it’s been raining for a whole week! …he adds as an afterthought.

Blisss goes over to Loptr, reaches up, and takes his hand, pulling toward the town to follow Ádhúil, or perhaps a straighter path to the center. Let’s go find out if the temple likes you!

[phaedrusxy]

Loptr laughs and says "Sure! Let's go."