Min/Max Boards

I'd like to start this new year off with something new: a campaign journal of my current 5E game, set in the Primeval Thule campaign setting. My character, Mangus Mangusson, is a dwarf exile from the Bearslayer's tribe, and I decided that he was exiled for being a little too interested in forbidden knowledge of magic and city life. (The Bearslayers are the only dwarf tribe in Thule, as they were swindled out of their clan castle by other dwarves and renounced civilization ever since.)

The following is the actual in-game journal my character has been keeping, starting from the first adventure.

Entry #142

I took a job with a few other mercenaries in Quodeth, City of Merchants (Thieves): Go to the jungle, find the lost janni civilization of Kal-Ne-Moz, because they had a mummy that cried gold. Well, we sank deep into the mire, but we did manage to slaughter our way through beast-men and skeletons to some of ancient cave temple of the janni. The place was crawling with cultists, but they were no match for a foot of iron through the gut. We managed to get a series of hidden scrolls with the forgotten knowledge of their civilization, and the mummy.

It was rather disappointing. A few grams of gold a month, perhaps, wept out through tears. You would get better yield from panning in a river. I could sense that it was powered by a foul source, that of a tormented soul bound to the preserved body.

We were hired to find the mummy, but the contract said nothing about getting it back.

Entry #151

Well, my acquaintances took part in a raid on a sorcerer's tower for an astrologer's guild, because they want a stone of some sort. One of them got killed for his troubles. Never liked him anyways. Blasphemous human. The survivors roped me into helping again, and I figured I might as well. They apparently were up to all manner of mischief while I was away; Kicked slavers out of the manor of some scholar, got a slave boat (I think they freed some slaves at one point), angered a gang, and who knows what else? Helped them clear out the sorcerer's tower to use as a base of operations, which they'd share with the gang as compensation for causing them casualties earlier.

Clearing up the tower meant going through it searching for dangerous experiments or creatures. We found some creatures made of slime, eyes, and mouths in a summoning chamber. Fortunately, it turns out that anything can be killed if you hit it hard enough. The servants are more than happy at the new direction the place is taken, as it does not involve dangerous experiments or sacrifices.

Entry # 155

It looks like Raegar the Skald (a solid fellow), Miridon Topps (halfling druid), Kotan Impalum (I make fun of his name as well), and I will be working together from now on. They appreciate my knowledge of war, survival, and lore. What's more, they are excellent cover for my personal mission, the study of city-state civilization.

So far, they do indeed suck as much as the stories fortold. But there is something more here; I think that, despite my exile, I am in a better position to help my tribe than I ever was as a member.

Entry #159

We are going on a boat to the sunken city of Anibburaal to poke forgotten things with a stick and hope treasure comes out. Fantastic.
Also, I had a thought upon reflecting on city life: because everything is owned by nobles, who are greedy and contemptible, people who live there must become property of someone else if they wish to live there, or else take up with the wilderness as our ancestors did. While we made the honorable choice, may our tribe become the same if we allow the few to own all the land, reducing the many to the status of supplicants, beggars, or outcasts?

Entry #160
​
Well, we're here. No one died along the way, so that's good. The crew remained behind, and we are going to climb up into a tower to make our way down.


The tower is a maze with lots of controls for adjusting the water level in the tower itself. Apparently, the lower levels can be flooded to secure them against intruders. Thin spindly humanoids lurked in the cracks of the walls and tried to choke us, but we drove them off with a few fierce blows. Statues of Cthulhu abounded. I got swallowed by an eel, as did Raegar. It was a tense moment, but then I realized that the situation was to my advantage, for though I was constricted and bathed in acid, my foe had nowhere else to run. Thus, I stabbed it through the roof of the mouth and burst out like a bear caught in rotten netting. Raegar got out too, but in a much less dramatic fashion.

I made it a point to eat eel while we rested after that fight.

Entry #161

We found a hole to the lower stories and I lowered a rope into them. Lots of statues of tentacled monsters, and statues they made of mortal races. It's not bad as far as stonework goes, though they were unable to carve well. I suspect the tentacles made chiseling difficult. They may have worn away at the rock with digestive juices or something. Either way, not very flattering. They also erred greatly in their depiction of the size and shape of the genitalia for various races when carving these statues.


The chamber of statues led into a Atlantean tomb to an ancient general. We opened the sarcophagus and saw that it was the entrance to a frigid room below, filled with pillars caved with the likeness of Cthulhu. We went in and found a foul, rotting, ancient betentacled horror in a suit of armor made of sea metal. We defeated it after a hard fight, and split the armor among ourselves. I took the helm for myself, as I had no need of armor. It frames my beard nicely.

Entry #173

Sevros III, the scholar with the manor from earlier, says that Kang will overwhelm the Lands of the Long Shadow. I was particularly interested in this, for it played upon my greatest fear: That in the end, the wilderness will claim our tribe. He says that there is an artifact, the Eternal Flame, which might ward off the cold. It is dangerous, but still a better idea than the one which involves digging up all of Thule's coal and using it to boil water in a large moving tea kettle.

He pointed us in the direction of Rime, but didn't give us much to go on beyond that. It came off as a fool's errand to me, but it gave me a chance to go closer to home, so I took it.

Entry #174

A Sahuagin and her pet Chuul tried to kill us. I don't know what they were thinking, we're a pretty big boat. Miridon, two crewmen, and myself were above deck at the time, so we killed them. The Chuul got one of the crew, though.
This trip better be worth it.

Entry #175

So, Miridon and I set out of Rime towards Kang, to do a bit of scouting for the rest of the group. The glacier was kind enough to welcome us with a small army of zombies. Taking full advantage of my spry limbs, martial training, and tactical genius, I initiated a tactical withdrawal across a frozen river. I threw myself on my shield, in imitation of an ancient elvish battle tactic.

Thus, we forced the zombies to contend with the ice as they shuffled towards us, enabling us to cut them down with ease. A frostveil blew towards us, but our sudden movement meant it had to contend with the wind. All was going according to plan when a zombie with glowing runes came out from some bushes and spoke to me in an infernal tongue. Miridon tells me that it was the spirit of Kang itself mocking us for being hapless fools that would only add to Kang's collection of poor unfortunate souls, but Kang for all its malevolent intelligence failed to realize that I was not hapless!

I swiftly assessed the situation and decided that my best option was to continue hitting my enemies with my sword, but but with more effort. Thus, I tore through the remaining zombies and started smacking the avatar of Kang while Miridon blasted it with ice. Miridon is a nice kid, but I don't know what he was thinking when he started using ice magic in a glacier. (He wizened up immediately after this battle and began using fire, so there is hope for him yet.)

The frostveil tried to save the avatar of Kang by enveloping me and spraying me with hallucinogens, but it failed to realize that I eat fungus for breakfast! I saw through the psychedelic haze of its spores and smashed through the avatar, then tore it to shreds. As I stood there in the snow, with my own hot blood running down my skin and the bodies of my enemies around me in various states of dismemberment, I saw in amazement that pale blue energy would shoot out of these animated corpses and streak off into the sky, headed deep into the heart of Kang.

Naturally, I performed m the traditional Bearslayer's farewell ritual for fleeing enemies, with both middle fingers extended and generous pelvic thrusting. (However, I judged the climate inappropriate for the ceremonial mooning.)

We sought shelter in a cave, only to be greeted by another avatar after a short rest. I readied my sword, but the avatar motioned for me to stay my hand, and spoke to Miridon. He later relayed to me that it asked what our intentions were, and raged at our plan to halt the growth of the glaciers. However, Miridon managed to convince it to give us the location of the Eternal Flame, as a host's hospitality to his guests.

For the record, I was immediately suspicious of this. That being said, we had little to go on, so we decided to chance it.

Entry #176

I am so sick of eating Miridon's goodberries as we trek to Gyar Gun Vodd. It isn't anywhere close to Rime: What was Sevros thinking in sending us there?

Entry #177

We found buried entrance to Gyar Gun Vodd, lost city of giants. Abandoned before Kang swallowed it up. There was an iron gate barring entrance, but fortunately I always paid attention to leg day and was able to open it quickly to reveal an ancient servant's quarters for human sized creatures. I was careful to rig a quick-release mechanism for the gate in case we were forced to make a tactical withdrawal, and slowly explored the inside.

Surprisingly, we found an altar to an Herum, the ape god of beastmen, with lit braziers. There was one boar beastman there when we arrived: he holed himself up in a room to the left, but charged out to meet us. We returned the greeting in kind and turned him into pork chops. After his death, his corpse changed shape to that of an elderly man, which is not what normally happens to beastmen, at least not from my previous encounters with them.

As best we could tell, the servants worshiped Herum, who changed them into beasts. Then they drove out their masters, but were in no condition to make use of their new forms, and lived as animals ever since. There must be others out there, deeper in these ruins.

I erected a number of barricades and tripwires so that we could safely rest after that, as the beastman inflicted a sizeable number of injuries on me. The sound of thumping was heard from above, which made me fear of more beastmen or worse things, but nothing came of it.

We then carefully explored the three chambers beyond the servant's quarters. The chamber on the right held a room of furniture on fire. I quickly shut this door and to the leftmost chamber. This contained a fierce gorilla chained to a statue of Herum. I did not know what to make of this, so I shut the door and moved onto the middle chamber, which contained a small hallway with two rooms: one of intense cold, and another with a fiery skull floating about, This was the source of the fire I saw earlier.

I decided to employ my tactical genius again, and had Miridon stand in front of the cold room while I went to taunt the fiery skull into chasing me. Using the most vigorous of pelvic thrusts, I provoked it into shooting me with jets of flame and flew towards me. I promptly withdrew around a corner so that Miridon could taunt it in turn as it passed by the cold room.

The skull took the bait and charged him, whereupon he changed into a winter hare and the skull overshot into the cold room. It shrieked in rage at the deception, and conjured up a ball of fire to engulf Miridon. I quickly shut the door in its non-existent face, and we ran out to let the cold magic sap the skull's energy. This worked marvelously, up until the point where the skull blasted the door off its hinges and straight across the hallway, racing out in its wake.

At this point, I became fed up with it and stepped up to the skull with my greatsword in hand. I gave it two mighty blows which connected with something inside of the skull, and the flames disappeared, leaving behind a glowing red ruby. This, we surmised, was the Eternal Flame.

This battle had left me much worse for the wear, so we rested again. More noises were heard from above, so I immediately fortified our position by barricading the gate with everything that was not nailed down and on fire. As I write this, we are tending to our wounds, feeding the gorilla, and awaiting the inevitable battle with whatever is above us.

If I survive this, I shall make a point of telling Sevros exactly what I think of his research. (I suppose I would also like to know what a gorilla is doing here so far from its natural habitat and appropriate food sources, but that's a rather trivial concern at this point.)

Entry #178

It appears that my suspicions about Kang's intentions were justified. There is an army of the walking dead beyond the iron gate, lead by another avatar of Kang. Kang is surprised that we made it this far, and now wants us to give the Eternal Flame to him, in exchange for sparing us when eternal winter comes over all of Thule. Miridon shot him in the face with a bolt of fire, augmented by the Eternal Flame. This did not improve our bargaining position, but I felt that it was a pithy and accurate summary of our stance.

We now wait for our friends to come to our aid. In the meantime, MIridon is exchanging pot shots with the avatar, the barricade holds, and I am writing for lack of anything to do since I forgot to bring a ranged weapon with me.

The gorilla is watching this battle tensely. I do not trust it; it may be more than just a gorilla. Perhaps it is paranoia, but that would not surprise me, especially not in this sort of place. I am resolved to keep an eye on it.

Dragonfire adept

I thought The Donald could defeat nukes just by his awesomeness alone.

The_Donald would suck in the nukes because it is a raging cesspool devoid of hope or sanity.

Good thing he won't appoint a yes man, that Donald.

Quote from: Solo on December 04, 2016, 01:56:12 AM

Luchador

Sorry, masked fighters never took off culturally, and fighting in general is demonized. Next!

Monk.

Heroism
Greater Heroism
Divine Insight
Guidance of the Avatar
Master's Touch (PHBII version)

Knowledge: History might be useful as well, then.

The one where you go into a frenzy while wielding a blunt object.

In context, do you refer to this?

Johnson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Madam Secretary. I'd like to join my colleagues in thanking you for your service sincerely, and also appreciate the fact that you’re here testifying and glad that you’re looking in good health.

Clinton: Thank you.

Johnson: Were you fully aware in real time -- and again, I realize how big your job is and everything is erupting in the Middle East at this time -- were you fully aware of these 20 incidents that were reported in the ARB[State Department Accountability Review Board] in real time?

Clinton: I was aware of the ones that were brought to my attention. They were part of our ongoing discussion about the deteriorating threat environment in eastern Libya. We certainly were very conscious of them. I was assured by our security professionals that repairs were under way, additional security upgrades had taken place.

Johnson: Thank you. Did you see personally the cable on -- I believe it was August 12th -- specifically asking for, basically, reinforcements for the security detail that was going to be evacuating or leaving in August? Did you see that personally?

Clinton: No, sir.

Johnson: OK. When you read the ARB, it strikes me as how certain the people were that the attacks started at 9:40 Benghazi time. When was the first time you spoke to -- or have you ever spoken to -- the returnees, the evacuees? Did you personally speak to those folks?

Clinton: I‘ve spoken to one of them, but I waited until after the ARB had done its investigation because I did not want there to be anybody raising any issue that I had spoken to anyone before the ARB conducted its investigation.

Johnson: How many people were evacuated from Libya?

Clinton: Well, the numbers are a little bit hard to pin down because of our other friends --

Johnson: Approximately?

Clinton: Approximately, 25 to 30.

Johnson: Did anybody in the State Department talk to those folks very shortly afterwards?

Clinton: There was discussion going on afterwards, but once the investigation started, the FBI spoke to them before we spoke to them, and so other than our people in Tripoli -- which, I think you’re talking about Washington, right?

Johnson: The point I’m making is, a very simple phone call to these individuals, I think, would’ve ascertained immediately that there was no protest prior to this. This attack started at 9:40 p.m. Benghazi time and it was an assault. I appreciate the fact that you called it an assault. But I’m going back to then-Ambassador [Susan] Rice five days later going on the Sunday shows and, what I would say, is purposefully misleading the American public. Why wasn’t that known? And again, I appreciate the fact that the transparency of this hearing, but why weren’t we transparent to that point in time?

Clinton: Well, first of all, Senator, I would say that once the assault happened, and once we got our people rescued and out, our most immediate concern was, number one, taking care of their injuries. As I said, I still have a DS [Diplomatic Security] agent at Walter Reed seriously injured -- getting them into Frankfurt, Ramstein to get taken care of, the FBI going over immediately to start talking to them. We did not think it was appropriate for us to talk to them before the FBI conducted their interviews. And we did not -- I think this is accurate, sir -- I certainly did not know of any reports that contradicted the IC [Intelligence Community] talking points at the time that Ambassador Rice went on the TV shows. And you know I just want to say that people have accused Ambassador Rice and the administration of misleading Americans. I can say trying to be in the middle of this and understanding what was going on, nothing could be further from the truth. Was information developing? Was the situation fluid? Would we reach conclusions later that weren’t reached initially? And I appreciate the --

Johnson: But, Madame Secretary, do you disagree with me that a simple phone call to those evacuees to determine what happened wouldn’t have ascertained immediately that there was no protest? That was a piece of information that could have been easily, easily obtained?

Clinton: But, Senator, again—

Johnson: Within hours, if not days?

Clinton: Senator, you know, when you’re in these positions, the last thing you want to do is interfere with any other process going on, number one—

Johnson: I realize that’s a good excuse.

Clinton: Well, no, it’s the fact. Number two, I would recommend highly you read both what the ARB said about it and the classified ARB because, even today, there are questions being raised. Now, we have no doubt they were terrorists, they were militants, they attacked us, they killed our people. But what was going on and why they were doing what they were doing is still unknown --

Johnson: No, again, we were misled that there were supposedly protests and that something sprang out of that -- an assault sprang out of that -- and that was easily ascertained that that was not the fact, and the American people could have known that within days and they didn’t know that.

Clinton: With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided that they’d they go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator. Now, honestly, I will do my best to answer your questions about this, but the fact is that people were trying in real time to get to the best information. The IC has a process, I understand, going with the other committees to explain how these talking points came out. But you know, to be clear, it is, from my perspective, less important today looking backwards as to why these militants decided they did it than to find them and bring them to justice, and then maybe we’ll figure out what was going on in the meantime.

Johnson: OK. Thank you, Madame Secretary.

Here is the study

Here is an NYT article on it, if you don't want to deal with the original paper.

My reading of the actual study leaves me with the understanding that while police are less likely to shoot blacks, they are more likely to use force for the purpose of compliance compared to whites, controlling for other variables. So the main problem is how police treat minorities routinely, as opposed to the relatively rare situations where a shooting occurs.

Study has limitations since not all police departments compile or release data, but this does indicate that there may be a real disparity in the use of force in the most common forms of police encounters.

I link this to you because, like with the global warming discussion earlier, you are the kind of person who makes fact based decisions. But, and please do not take this the wrong way, you don't have the time to investigate some issues deeply. The article debunking global warming, for instance, had massive flaws in the first section that are not apparent on casual inspection. So to with the issue of police use of force.