/vx/ - Videogames and Paranormal

>>194618 →
This is good geographic context, but I still don't know what languages would be available to Posey specifically.
Posey has capacity to learn her base racial languages (I would assume unicorns near Farbrook speak the same languages as Equestrians?), plus three additional languages for her Int score (I guess picking from the languages you mentioned in that post?).
I was originally going with Shadow Scholar or Student as a starting occupation to pick up a couple more languages, but maybe Hedge Wizard would be more appropriate, which means no extra languages.

What languages did everyone else take? I don't think very many others have positive Int scores, so did some of you get bonus languages for your race or skill ranks, or some other source?

>>194626
Silver knows Ponish and Severyanan (Pony-Russian) fluently from his origins, and knows a bit of Wechselbalg (Changeling) from his time as a soldier in the Great War. Meanwhile, Kira knows her native Lamia language (still working on a name for it), knows Ponish as the vast majority of literature her tribe managed to acquire through trade in recent years is written in Ponish (plus not knowing Ponish would make this game infinitely harder), and because of her aristocratic background she knows the old language the lamias once spoke a long time ago (no spoilers on what that language is yet because it would give away the mystery of their origins). Neither of them know any of the more "exotic" languages that D&D has like Abyssal or Infernal as they don't have enough experience with them to know anything about them.

For Posey, my assumption is that for the "common" languages she would know Ponish due to it being the dominant speaking language of the League, and Imperial should her masters have ever thought of sending her in against the Arcturian Order. Assuming that Farbrook, Firtrees, and Watertown would have their own language (as their cities and ponies typically have common, Ponish names), it's also likely she would know Hillpony as well. Snowpony is in a similar boat, though Snowpony characters GM Pone has made have had Swedish names and spoke Swedish so I'm assuming the Snowpony language would use Swedish as it's base. Other than that I imagine Posey would know multiple of the more exotic D&D languages from her studies and training in the League.

>>194627
Were those automatic languages for you, bonus languages, or ones you took with skill points?

For Posey's baseline automatic language, I think she would speak Equestrian (Riverpony dialect), which I think is that they would be speaking in Farbrook. This would be an eloquent-but-archaic high-unicorn tongue, with the subtle slavic accent I like imagining her with. She might speak Riverpony too.
For her military career, I think she would speak Imperial Griffonian, given that she has spent decades on the Arcturian front. I had "Griffon" on her character sheet, but I guess I should specify that it's imperial.
That leaves me with two languages to fill from my intelligence score. Looking for something appropriate languages for her as a scholar. I was considering something Zebrican or Somnambulan, for her studies of necromancy in the Society Of Bones. Something similar to Golarion Nekril would be nice to communicate with the dead.
I had her speaking Abyssal and Infernal for harlot-contracting purposes, but idk if I will ever get those spells anyway. Most friends have telepathy too.
Posey was brought up as a slave within the Coven Of Blood as a filly, so maybe she would speak Deytsch (a phonetic, distorted variation of German where words are transcribed into Cyrillic and then back to English)? Some of the Coven's terms use German names, such as Einhornische Schwesternshaft. A German accent would make her a lot hotter... Posey resents vampires, but that's mostly because her mother murdered her and denied her that opportunity to become a proper vampire herself, she she would probably speak their language, holding out that she might still become one.

Now that I think of it, the Dread League mentions the ghoul caste of undead mostly communicating through telepathy. Maybe I should pick that up through mutation.

>>194629
So maybe:

Racial languages (Magic-blooded, half-vampire unicorn):
>Farbrook Equestrian (High-unicorn, Riverponian Dialect)
>Deystch (distorted German vampire tongue)
Bonus languages:
>Imperial Griffonian (Griffon lands lingua franka)
>???
>???
Maybe some Zebrican language, to read voodoo texts, Somnambulant glyphs, or communicate with gnolls. Idk though.
I guess learning Changeling could be useful too.

>>194631
I'm Posey should definitely speak Riverpony and Wittenlander, since that's what they speak in Barrad (a faction Posey would favor were she not already dead). Those would be Slaves-esque and Old English-Germanic respectively.
Knowing Old-Unicon (Latin-ish?) would fit her in with the university, and I would imagine it is the language spoken by arcane scientists.
Somnambulan (Coptic) could be fitting, although idk if trips to pseudo-egypt are going to be part of future adventures.

If GM ever has the time to weigh in on what would be appropriate/useful in this game, that would be appreciated.

This image made me think of Posey.

>>194635
Posey has much higher hygiene standards than that. She washes regularly and applies a lot of perfume. She smells like roses.
It's even in her name. "A pocket full of posies", as in masking the scent of plague and decay. I based jer nickname on the nursery rhyme because it was my idea to make an undead spy-like character who took great efforts to disguise herself as one of the living and to keep her body attractive.

Strong aura though.

>>194635
>lvl 46
>https://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/feats.htm#zoneOfAnimation
Oh wait, this is an epic character. I kneel.

>>194636
>>194637
I like stuff like that. It reminds me of the background lore to Brie's name. Not trying to make some sort of subtle point here. Just genuinely what came to mind.
It's intricate like that. Good job. c:
Also, nice catch on the power level of the oc's ability. Honestly, impressive that you found it so fast.

>>194638
I am an expert in 3.5e d&d mechanics that I will never get to actually use.
I'm still huffing hopium that I could get to lvl 8 with this character and do some actual Necromancy, somehow...

>>194639
>real necro
Like, that skellington whale you wanted?

>>194640
Yes, although that wasn't my spell. It was a scroll I bought with my starting equipment, now used-up. I can't do it again.
Reanimating the whale bones was peak necro experience though.

>>194634
Basically, Hill Pony would cover Farbrook, Firtrees, and Water Town. Witteland and Barrad speak a similar language that maybe is mutually intelligible? Then a slavic-type dialect in Lake City, Bakara, and the River Republic, and linguistic isolates for Vartai and Nimbusia. "Snow Pony" would cover Cubria and Everfrost. The existence of a latin-esque language in Equestria would make sense, as Equestrian Ponish isn't a real language but is more likely a bizarre eclectic syncretism of multiple languages spoken by the various unicorn, earth pony, and pegasus tribes that confederated to make up modern Equestria. Whether this language is also recognized by academics in the Riverlands I am not sure. I would be surprised if it were not recognized in Magehold.

I do not know what languages are most spoken in the lands of the Dread League. Rosa Maledicta is explicitly Equestrian and the text and generals imply that Ponies are a majority, griffins are most of the rest, and zebras round out the remainder, but that's about it. I wouldn't put too much faith in generals being named after Franco-Prussian War generals, I think those are just cutsie names and easter eggs. The mod kind of suggests that ponies originated in the north of Equus in areas that are now frozen wastelands when the world was different than it is now. Ponies crossed over to griffonia, going along the north, and settling in the eastern part of the continent. I think originally the ponies held a swath of territory from the Straits of Vedina going east and then south until the Forgotten Coast, and it was the Black Crusade that first disrupted the pony settlement by killing off the native ponies in the area that is now the Arturian Order, and also encouraging Griffins to settle up there, thus breaking off the Cubrians from the Hill Ponies. Perhaps many of the ponies of the Dread League are from the first ponies to settle in that area, maybe even from when the dread peninsula wasn't a frozen hellscape but a temperate climate. Or maybe all of them migrated from elsewhere, drawn by sharing the same predilection for a specific variety of dark magic. Maybe they have their own language, maybe they have adopted one as a dominate language, and maybe it's polyglot, I don't really know.

The world of Equestria at War doesn't have a true lingua franca, I think. It's not like in modern times how if you speak english, you can call a taxi or order food whether you're in Varna, Liepaja, or Osaka. Equestrian Ponish dominates its corner of the continent, and likely a few places around it, but Equestria doesn't have the economic and political might to force Ponish to dominate as English does in our world. Herzladish was the language of the Griffonian Empire, which did dominate over every Griffin nation and several non-griffin nations in Griffonia and Equus. Zebrica has no equivalent of Ponish or Imperial/Herzlandish; it is much more divided. Colthage is probably the most influential of the Zebra nations outside of its own borders, however, because of its maritime culture.

Certainly you can redo your character's languages if you like. As for which languages she should know, my philosophy is always that it should be what makes sense within the internal logic of the world. For Posey, I think this would be Hill Pony (or possibly Snow Pony) because I think this is her native language, since she was captured or sold from one of those countries. Also, because her cover story is that she is from Farbrook, I think it would make sense that she can speak that language. Posey must know Equestrian Ponish, because otherwise the game can't really work. Also if she's being sent as a spy there she needs to know the language. Equestrian i probably prestigious in the Dread Lands because Rosa Maledicta speaks it natively, but who knows. Imperial is the most obvious "foreign" language for Posey to know because it's the most widespread among griffins (the most commonly encountered non-pony race and the most numerous race in all of EAW) and the most prestigious. I'm not sure what her fourth language would be, though I think it being an academic language makes sense. Snow Pony (if that isn't her native) may also make sense as it's probably a common pony language in Magehold and it's probably Gloomy's native language. The language of the River Republic/Bakara/Lake City would make sense as well.

Basically my opinion is Posey speaks Hill Pony (or Snow Pony, which ever is native), Equestrian Ponish, Imperial, and her fourth language is probably either something that is written in in books and spoken aloud in incantations or rituals, or it's a useful foreign language.

I don't have plans for using Sonambula and its secrets any time soon except maybe in a possible quest for Amber. At the risk of spoilers, my most highly anticipated next project involves bat ponies and Chiropterra.

>>194644
Very helpful lore dump. Thank you. This makes things a lot clearer.
>makes sense within the internal logic of the world. For Posey, I think this would be Hill Pony (or possibly Snow Pony) because I think this is her native language, since she was captured or sold from one of those countries.
Posey wasn't captured or sold from any pony country. Posey is a dhampir/katane (half-vampire) who was born into slavery to the Coven Of Blood, created by a Vampire Lord who went through a tedious process of birthing her to spawn a minion with unprecedented power (or perhaps just an excuse to drink indulgently every day for a year); she was groomed as one of the "flowers of the coven" and served the degenerate vampires as a source of food and pleasure, with the (empty) promise that she would become one of them when she was mature. Her first life ended when she was discarded and slain at the beginning of her adolescence by her mother after it was discovered that she could not be directly controlled as a thrall like all the others, turning her into a Slaymate (undead child who died from betrayal by a parent) who was later sold to Necromancers by the Society Of Bones (slaymates are highly-coveted by necromancers because of their rarity and unique aura). The Society implanted her corpse with necrotic tissues from an Atropal Scion (fragment of a stillborn god) and resurrected her in hopes that the rotten godling would take her body as a host and grow into a god of destruction, but that failed and so she was reenslaved before she was Crucimmigrated and joined the ghoul caste. She became an apprentice mage to earn her freedom, but has been trying to reach a threshold of power to break her bindings for nearly a century because her master would prefer to keep her in service forever than to see her succeed at their impossible missions.
Posey never knew her father, and I did not write him. He was presumably slain after her mother was finished with him, although his corpse could still be shambling around somewhere. He likely would have been a hillpony or snowpony slave, or perhaps a Necromancer who traveled from Equestria.
What makes her different from the rest of the Dread League is that she could be one of the few "native born" mages there. She has only ever known servitude to the League and had never been free.
>OW THE EDGE!
Yeah, in hindsight, this is a garbage backstory full of pointless retarded edge, and I kind of regret writing it that way, but I already mentioned it before so whatever.

Point being is that Posey would have no native language of her own aside what is spoken by the higher-ups in the Coven Of Blood. This is probably either some variation of equestrian, or some obscure vampire tongue.

Gloomy is a snowpony, descended from a savage tribe of wendigo-worshipping cannibals. Due to his especially young age when Posey acquired him, he would not know very much about his previous culture.

>Basically my opinion is Posey speaks Hill Pony (or Snow Pony, which ever is native), Equestrian Ponish, Imperial, and her fourth language is probably either something that is written in in books and spoken aloud in incantations or, or it's a useful foreign language.
Good to know. I think I would take a latin-esque "Old Unicorn" as a language spoken by magical scholars in the university.

>>194644
>my most highly anticipated next project involves bat ponies and Chiropterra
I think I have a hunch what that might be about.
Unrelated, do batponies bear any relation to or association with vampires, even superficially?

>>194647
I'm going to say tentatively no, bat ponies don't have an association with vampires, even in the psychology of xenophobic Equestrians. The vampire fruit bat we see in the show is aesthetically distinct from the bat pony guards we see earlier and later in the series In fairness, I think that bat ponies don't actually exist in the show cannon, and all we are seeing are magic charms or detachables for Luna's royal guard. The comics I don't believe have any association, and in EAW lore, there is no association, even in black legends against bat ponies.

I'm curious as to what you think it is

>>194648
>In fairness, I think that bat ponies don't actually exist in the show cannon, and all we are seeing are magic charms or detachables for Luna's royal guard
Yeah, Fluttershy is a lycanthrope, and the guards are just wearing tacky armor.
In my homebrew mileau, I considered bats an underdark drow-like niche, maybe as Pegasus nightmare moon loyalists who were driven underground after nightmare moon's banishment.
I never finished writing it though.
>curious
Well, I used to be in a discord server with some artists who were EaW devs, and I picked up some info about the plotlines with native bat rebellions and whatnot. I think you mentioned a journey south too, so I thought it was related to that.
That's pretty much the extent of my hunch.
Looking forward to it.

>>194645
>>194648
I should mention that Brie really wanted there to be a bat pony based on a vampire bat. White, and also Japanese for some reason

>>194649
>Cursed and banished descendants of Nightmare Moon loyalists
That makes sense, I suppose

EAW lore seems to be that the bat ponies are the indigenous inhabitants of parts of what is now southeastern Equestria

>>194650
Yeah, I am aware.
The pseudo-colonial trope felt a bit slightly forced to me, but it is what it is.

Iirc, Nightmare Moon has some routes to rally bat pony natives against Equestria, which is actually what I got the idea from.

Any connection between vampires and bats would probably just be superficial; Desmodu bear no relation to vampires in D&D, so no reason for thestrals to be. Vampires have as much in common with wolves and rats as they do with bats (all spreaders of pestilence) too.

Fun fact, the closest genetic relative to bats are camels.

>>188149
How is she supposed to operate a Vickers without fingers or a horn???

>>194652
Good question. We've mostly been glossing over the details of how horses use guns. Presumably, triggers would be adapted so that trained earth ponies can use them.

>>194654
See, how can you go talking about nations and politics of ponies when you dont even rectify how a horse uses a gun

What would a pony version of a fixed squad based MG operate if they lack any dexterous appendages or a horn that can use magic??
Maybe its like.... hoof pedals on the floor?

Earth ponies bite with splendid dexterity.

>>194656
Why dont they give them metal teeth like Jaws for close combat situations?

>>194652
I was going to answer "the same way they operate a mosin nagant and other guns." But heavy machine guns like Vickers literally have buttons in the open you can just press with a hoof, much more easily than a trigger.

>>194651
>The pseudo-colonial trope felt a bit slightly forced to me
In an earlier version of EAW, the ponies came in and oppressed the bat ponies and hate them because... ponies are just like that I guess. And for a thousand years not a single bat pony among the millions of them was able or willing to liberate them. So fortunately a rich white girl, I mean, alicorn princess, was able to come along and free them all from pony oppression and racism, achieving complete societal change in about a year and a half or so. However the developers realized that this plotline was cliche and unintentionally racist, so it was completely rewritten. Now, the bat pony tribes are a completely separate culture from Equestrian society. They do not integrate because they have no desire to. This makes much more sense to me than ponies hating bat ponies for no real reason, and bat ponies being too stupid, lazy, or complacent to liberate themselves.

In Occupied lore, bat ponies have historically lived separately from Equestrian society, but recently, large corporations have realized that they can import bat ponies into the cities and exploit their nocturnal behavior by having them work the nightshift, thus easily operating two shifts out of the same factory or warehouse. Bat ponies don't really participate in collective bargaining, are often brought in as scabs, and are seen as undermining wages and the labor market. This besides a theory that they commit crimes at night.

>>194657
Give this man a medal

>>194658
Alright but, in the picture how is she supposed to operate it? You could use your hoof but another problem arises, how is she supposed to stabilize the gun and aim it while firing with the aiming mechanism? Is there any way she could even swivel the gun?? I would love to see what a domestic pony usable MG would look like

Earth ponies lack hands so easy metal implants giving them super lethal strong biting would be a cheap way to give your Earth Ponies an extra weapon that isnt just horseshoes and kicks

>>194659
I think it's a button between the handles? Just sit or lay down, place both hooves on the handles, then angle the end of the hoof in to press the button to fire. Use hooves to move the gun left and right. The gun is stabilized by its tripod.

>>194660
Yeah those machineguns have have the firing switches right between the two handles. You press it with your thumbs while holding the two handles giving you stability, control and firing it without using a usual trigger

but the issue is that those were made for thumbs and are meant to be used in *conjunction* with the handles so you have control.
Youd have to modify the gun to be able to be pressed by a hoof on those.... but no fingers to hold the handles

What if its a hoof peddle thats below the normal handles and they use their mouth to actually swivel and aim the machinegun?

>>194655
I am a relatively new player, and my character is a unicorn who does not even use a gun, so I cannot say. I am not even completely sure which firearms rules this game uses.
Maybe look at EaW lore for reference. There's been plenty of discussion on that matter.
>>194657
I have considered doing that with my zombies (if I ever freaking get any...), using the Craft (body modifications skill), just for flavor and the illusion of innovation. Thing is, it mechanically does very little that holding a weapon does not already do unless you use specialized magic and rare materials. In most cases, you are better off holding a sword.
The same Dragon Magazine article that craft skill was printed in said that weapon grafts and other visible combat body modifications tend to be frowned upon or even reviled in non-evil societies. By modifying your body with weapons, you objectify yourself as an engine of war at the expense of your dignity as a person, which is the reason why people wouldn't do it. That was the point of augmented characters like Jaws, to show how sinister and depraved the villains were that they would disfigure themselves for combat.
Of course, Posey as an evil necromancer does not value things such as "sanctity of life" or "dignity", so she would have few reservations against doing this to her thralls. Her own body was modified by her masters, originally meant to become a temple for a dead godling, and later for combat and pleasure. What holds Posey back from that however is her extreme sense of vanity, wanting to keep herself beautiful while many other psychopathic necromancers would be satisfied with monstrous rotting bodies, or at least for now. If she were to graft herself, she would do so while trying to maintain her natural beauty.
Ponies are gentle creatures, and as a result bodily combat mods would be few and far between.
>>194658
>first paragraph
Yeah, that's why I said it felt forced.
It's also not a secret that a large portion of EaW devs are openly commies and like those sorts of colonial plotlines. Can't blame them for it entirely; commies like map-painter power fantasies as much as the rest of us do.
I haven't actually looked into it for over half a decade though. I wasn't aware of the rewrite.
>second paragraph.
Interesting take on nocturnal creatures in industrial society. I like this kind of world-building.
Labor conditions in America got a lot worse when electric lighting made late-night shifts plausible.

I still think my underdark/Drow ripoff is cooler, but alas feverishly daydreaming for hours on end does not spawn a lore document into existence, so I kneel to the guys who actually write down their lore.

Btw, any chance we could advance the plot Soon™?
>>194659
>Alright but, in the picture how is she supposed to operate it?
I call it rule of cool, tbh. The show is full of instances that don't logically fit into horse anatomy, especially in the later seasons. You could jump through hoops and come up with things like battle saddles in FOE, but imo that's more trouble than it is worth and the end result is still nonsensical.
But again, check the EaW world-building forums. People have been arguing about this for the past decade.
>Earth ponies lack hands so easy metal implants giving them super lethal strong biting would be a cheap way to give your Earth Ponies an extra weapon that isnt just horseshoes and kicks
As the only character with a bite attack (mutant zombie) I don't think it would really be helpful as a balancing measure, because characters who wanted to be modern combat characters aren't going to want to bite in melee anyway. Posey has one because Posey is a literal monster, and also because she is defiantly archaic within the setting, coming from a faction which is frozen in medieval tech (also pretty weak too).
A slam attack or two would be appropriate though, especially since it would qualify them for the Beast Strike feat.
Even then, it's nothing compared to the power of flight. If Earth ponies actually needed a buff, I would probably give them Powerful Build and dwarven stability, possibly even access to magic resistance or damage at higher levels through feats or other progressions.

There's plenty of 3.5e homebrew, and also ponyfinder to reference.

I bumped into this thread just because I thought the opening picture was silly but now I have a burning hunger to know more

>>194661
Maybe? A pedal seems a little unwieldy. I would be terrified to let the end of the gun be placed in the mouth because if any of the recoil goes into the mouth you could have broken teeth or busted lips.

>a large portion of EaW devs are openly commies and like those sorts of colonial plotlines
I don't really think that's what's behind it. I think that the original plotline was "bat ponies are negroes" because it's a cliche plotline that we all grew up with, and when you start out writing, you're probably going to start by repeating plotlines you've already heard 6000 times. These same "commie devs" realized that this is sausage actually, and went out of their way to completely rewrite that part of the game. And that's because they recognized that the plotline was sausage. People who are committed leftists don't understand that their early attempts at writing are sausage, they just become more sausage, and that is not what happened here. Also in an open dev diary, they explicitly refused to do colonial plotlines for Zebrica, because "There's so much more you can do with a fantasy world than a Heart of Darkness plot."

>I still think my underdark/Drow ripoff is cooler
shrugs
In fairness, the Chiropterra story is sort of like that. Although what you described sounds more like Vampires: The Masquerade, with being a bat pony being a curse.

Also, for what it's worth, the Gnolls of Baltimare are there for fairly similar reasons. Or at least, their presence is tolerated for similar reasons. The Kaftar gnolls are nocturnal, and they work specifically in the warehouses and especially oil refineries and chemical plants of Red Heart in the night shift.

>Btw, any chance we could advance the plot Soon™
I'm out of town now and have fairly little time. I'll be back late Sunday

>>194663
Desire to Know More Intensifies

>>194664
I didnt even consider the risk to their teeth, youre right with the gun recoil would shake them around
youd have to put the aiming mechanism somewhere it wouldnt be throttling you when you shoot.... maybe some sorta recoil mechanism to stop that like suspension springs

*desire to rip into interesting lore intensifies*
How long as this been worked on anywho?

>>194665
The RP game? Since the very end of 2018, although at a fairly slow pace. As for exactly how you hold a gun with hooves... not so long

>>194666
Aye the RP game. Since 2018? Nearly 10 years now damn
There must be enough events in there to fill a history text book

>>194667
There's a decent number, but there's also been hiatuses and what have you, so not as many as you may think.

>>194668
Fair, nearly 8 years is a long time to be doing something on the regular without breaks
Is there custom artwork for it?

>>194669
There's some. It's after midnight here, let me post it later. Also hopefully some other players can chime in

>>194669
There is indeed some. Amber commissioned a pretty large scale and detailed scene, and some of us have gotten art made of our characters. Give me a minute to get something done first and I'll see about posting a couple.

>>194670
>>194671
NICE!
I appreciate the hospitality despite me being a newfag tourist here

Any chance we could get the results of Posey's listen check soon?

>>194672
If you would like to play, I would be more than glad to help you make a character.

>>194675
I have too many irons in the fire these days. Maybe one day but not atm
But I would love to learn more about it

>>194676
I mean, we get to play once a month at best these days. It's actually minimal investment.

>>194672
Here we are. The first one is the art commissioned by Amber Sunset of her date with Mustard Trim. The second one is the very noodly and friendly lamia Kubana Kirafiki (also known as Kira). The third one is some really old art of Silver Sword, made pretty shortly after I initially joined the game. I'm hoping to get some newer art commissioned of him, I'm just waiting for a good reference to get finished.

>>194677
Its a lotta stuff going on atm, prepping for college, running a weekly D&D game, prepping for another one

>>194678
Oh fuck this is lovely <3

>>194616
Can't, sadly, due to weight limitations.
>>194626
>What languages did everyone else take?
Cavaliere has a couple but I can't remember what they were aside from Feathesian, and to my chagrin I lost my character sheet so I can't simply check. I think the others were Wingbardian and Aquilean, but I'm not sure. >tfw I picked the most useless languages
>>194658
>However the developers realized that this plotline was cliche and unintentionally racist, so it was completely rewritten.
Thank goodness
>>194672
Always happy to see a guest! This remains my favorite DnD setting of all time and it's great to see new frens see it too. Hopefully things get less busy for you.

>>194681
Eventually~
However there is something I can offer y'all. I really love making maps and I really like making them for others. I can make or donate a few for y'all if you want

>>194682
That'd be stupendous. I've been asking GM Pony to make a map of Baltimare for the longest time. He has a good sense of where everything is and has described it verbally, but a map is worth a thousand words. Also we've been turned around a couple of times on our current quest for want of a map, to the point that GM Pony eventually had to oblige and draw something.

>>194681
>I lost my character sheet
You should probably rewrite it now then, at least as a temporary measure to finish this adventure.

>>194681
>weight limitations
It's like 1 pound, isn't it?
Posey takes both grenades then.

>>194683
I can make some maps for y'all easy peasy if I have a list of details, landmarks and a style and whatnot that you would want in it

>>194686
Based cartographer. I wish I had those skills.

>>194684
I'll have to. I think there's a scan of it floating around somewhere.
>>194685
Yes but Cavaliere is right at the limit of medium encumbrance. If he takes anything more he'd get pretty bad maluses.
>>194686
There have been some posts outlining both the general layout of the city as well as key landmarks. They're from a while ago so I'll wait and see if GM Pony wants to write a full, fresh description.

>>194687
>>194688
Alright, just have him ping me here with the details and Ill make some maps.

I generated some slop in a sad attempt to to illustrate Posey, although the more that I look at the least-terrible results the more realize how emo-tier and unoriginal my edgy anime-ripoff red-and-black vampire OC really is...

>>194693
These would be great as refferences for actual draws.
Whys she got swirls for eyes.

>>194694
Well, she was originally inspired in part by Makima from chainsaw man, who was also based off of the white horse if Conquest.
The ring eyes were supposed to represent her hypnotic vampire gaze. In hindsight, I probably should have gone for something more original. Maybe simple yellow eyes would be good enough.
I once flirted with making her mane pale pink (was going for a blood-Sakura theme that I ended up nixing) or white and her eyes red instead of yellow, but it's a bit late for that.Then again, she has that cosmetic mutation to make her mane and eyes change with her mood, so maybe the color might drain from her as she levels up. *inhales copium*

>>194693
Awwww, I still like her.

>>194695
Why not test those ideas and see if they look nice

Whats the campaign setting's technology level?

>>194698
Similar to base EaW, the technology level is quite broad. At the high end in places like Equestria we have WWII-era technology, including automobiles, radio and early television, and enemies capable of wielding firearms of the era. However, some like Silver like to stick to tradition, where he uses a greatsword in combat in addition to firearms such as rifles. Others like Kira simply come from places that haven't developed the technology yet, as she uses a recurve bow and spear in combat.

>>194698
WWII-inspired tech era. Low-magic, despite being in Equestria.
Posey is from the Dress League, which is high-magic but medieval tech..
>>194697
I did. I just posted the pics that illustrate how I have described her so far in game.

>>194699
>>194700
I like it, transitional times for ponies

>>194700
Falr enough Posey

>>194693
Would.

>>194702
Would you?

>>194690
flicks tongue

>>194689
I've found a few descriptive paragraphs of Balimare, particularly along the water line, but I haven't really described the city in full evidently. See >>127290 →
>>146490 → >>157618 → >>171483 →

>>194693
What's wrong with her eyes?

>>194698
World War 2ish. The date is supposed to correspond, more or less, with January 29th, 1943. However the actual shown technology is closer to early WW2 or interwar than it is to "secret weapons of WW2."

>>194700
Shush. Starlight Glimmer in season 7 is not representative of the magical abilities of your typical unicorn. Or of the earlier show as a whole for that matter

>>194704
I can easily make a few maps if im given specifics~
I like making maps that have purpose to em, like to have a store for the players, or a tavern for them to hang out, a quest giver place

Gimmie some specific details you want for function and I can whip something up

Interestingggg, so kinda a generic early-mid atomic age?
Alright alright

Lemme... throw y'all a little freebie here
just threw this together. See if this is the sorta style that works

>>194704
>>194705
I managed to find Amber's initial tour of the city which has some history and placement: >>129901 → >>130231 → >>130246 → >>130535 → >>130690 → >>131519 → >>131933 → >>132350 → >>132888 → >>132977 → >>133188 →
And one from a later quest: >>144705 →

There's one bar that Silver likes to frequent but I don't know where it is exactly. I did find this though >>132317 →

>>194706
Also, is that Illwinter's map tool? I've been asking GM Pony to use it for years.

>>194707
I use the Dungeon Painter Studio tool along with adding in as many custom assets as I need

>>194704
>What's wrong with her eyes?
She has vampire eyes. This was the bot's attempt at generating the concentric rings that make up her hypnotic gaze.

>>194709
She should get some contact lenses for that Posey. Itd be a dead giveaway if someone could just casually see swirls

Girl needs some shades to look cool AND hide her medical disorder

If this next encounter shows signs of being too hard, Posey could open the door, cast Summon Swarm into the boiler room, and then Silver and the rest of the party could hold the door shut while Posey concentrates on the spell.
A bat swarm is impervious to weapon attacks, so without a mage or AoE weapon the enemies will eventually all die of bleed damage from the bat Swarm 's wounding effect.

Just an idea, since the rest of you guys are low on HP and healing rn. Otherwise, I will save my slots for the Intruder.
>>194710
I guess her eyes should be more subtle.

>>194711
Give her some sick early 1900s sunglasses.

>>194712
Her eyes are supposed to look mostly normal by default.
She would wear shades anyway due to light sensitivity.

>>194713
Make her look like a 1940's beatnik please

>>194714
That's how she would dress casually. The pics were how she dresses for battle.

>>194707
I would like to know the approximate location of Curwhinny's catacombs, because I intend to build my lair there.

I have now acquired a full suite of Kira emotes. This is but a small selection.

>>194693
I didn't mention this earlier, but Posey's design is really cool.
>>194717
And these are cute! Where did you get them?

>>194718
They're an artist on Ko-fi. You get 17 emotes for $85, and for an extra $15 you can get a custom made emote making it 18 for $100.

https://ko-fi.com/mar241218

>>194693
Fuckin' weeaboos

But if you want to have a character that's a white unicorn with a red or pink mane, sure, do it. There's two other white unicorns with pink-red manes in the game, the snow pony Keskoo, and the Changeling Zwolf who takes Keskoo's form and adds sexual appeal. Neither have been seen in a while and are not close to the action. White is basically the default color of a unicorn in literature and culture, and red or pink are colors of sexual desire, so it makes sense as a color scheme. Admittedly Posey wouldn't be the only red maned, red eyed, fanged pony in the immediate party, given that Kira has the same.

I will say that fangs would kind of stand out and be hard to explain, since only Bat Ponies and Kirin have fangs. In Equestria, fangs on a unicorn are easy to explain. "My grandmother was raped by a bat pony." But Farbrook is very far from either bat ponies or Kirin, and neither have any reason to go there. What Farbook is close to are vampires. Farbrook is also infamous for being not only proximate to changelings, but very tolerant of changeling infiltrators. If a pony is from Farbrook and has fangs, that pony is... well obviously not actually a pony, but something much more malign than a bat pony or kirin hybrid.

>>194705
reeee it's not generic atomic age, it's pre-atomic age (called the "Machine Age" in Stellaris, and just the late industrial age in Civilizaton). Also magic plays a role in some technological devices, so there's still fantasy elements.

>>194706
Hmmm... It looks like it may work best on smaller scales

Maybe the ship for the current quest? Silver's beach house? Baltimare is a metropolis, and a bit large

>>194715
Are you sure? She's always described as wearing large numbers of bones and she seems to carry random tools on her back. I imagine she'd look more like Pinkie Pie in Cupcakes with random body parts on her

A shame, because the black cloaks and the pig tails look great
>>194716
Northwest of the town center in an area only now being built up and brought into the city.

>>194717
Oh my...

>>194720
Those were experimental pics.
The fangs are supposed to be subtle when not in use, if not entirely invisible. She only looks like a bat or a wolf when she loses her composure (which is also when she starts to rot).
I thought of red or pink hair because Posey is in part a variation of a Suel Necromancer I wanted to play years ago, and that Grayhawk ethnicity often has red or even pink hair. Also because she was partly inspired by Rosa Maledicta (Rosa's alluring design is 80% of why anyone cares about her mechanically mediocre faction). The yellow eyes were meant to look "golden", but also convey a hidden meaning of pestilence and illness, while also depicting the eyes of a predator at night. Red could probably work too.
>She's always described as wearing large numbers of bones and she seems to carry random tools on her back.
The bot wasn't able to put bones/armor/bags in without the entire pic being distorted. It doesn't even properly show the dagger and throwing needles woven into her mane (Posey is armed to the teeth).
Posey's defining feature is that she's a white unicorn with red eclipse cutie mark (a ring of fire eclipse to be precise, which is where "Rosey Ring" comes from; also looks like a plague bubo). Being a mage, she has an astrological sign as her mark. The red ring of fire is the "crown" of the eclipse, but Posey actually earned it by weaving a wreath of roses for her mother during her time as a slave to the Coven (a thing that Gloomy still does for her): it was part of the theme of faux-nobility, and also a bastardization of the crown of thorns symbolism, adding to the antichrist motif she was supposed to have.
She's supposed to be striking and appear beautiful, inspiring even, even though she's completely rotten on the inside. Her vampire heritage allowed her to maintain her appearance post-mortem (vampiric corpses don't rot), and because of her boundless vanity she wears heavy makeup and takes great efforts to maintain her mane and fur.
I just had second thoughts about the mane and eye colors. Not sure about the mane style either

Original description:
>Rosey Ring appears as a youthful mare with soft and elegant features. Her coat is a pristine snow white, and exceptionally fluffy. Her mane is a sanguine red-pink, and is soft, fine and silky, almost glowing with its vibrant color. Her mane is exceptionally long, and usually done up in a braid or a war bun. Her body is slender and dainty, with generous feminine endowments. She has a calm and professional demeanor, and she comes off as mature, despite her apparent youth. When she moves, she seems to glide over the ground, with grace that seems almost supernatural. The spring in her step betrays a deceptively strong body. She trots with a regal confidence, puffing her fluffy chest out and holding her head high, and making eye contact with anyone within eyesight. Her elegant and courtly demeanor betrays an aura of absolute menace, a predatory supernatural hunger conveyed in her hypnotic gaze. She always seems alert and engaged, her ears swiveling like tiny satellite dishes. Overall, she is strikingly beautiful. She seems to radiate youth and vitality, but something about her supernatural appearance is... Unsettling. She seems almost more like an exquisite painting of a mare than a living thing, uncanny in her supernatural beauty.
>Rosey Ring's eyes are like pools of gold, with hypnotic radial concentric rings. They glow with authority and give off a mesmerizing aura that demands submission. Staring into them too long gives feelings of unease and terror, but their commanding presence makes it difficult for any unfortunate souls who've caught her attention to look away.
>Posey's Cutie Mark is a black sun surrounded by a red flare. It also resemble a buboe from the black plague. It fills out her soft and rotund flank very well. The Dark Sun above a white sky is Posey's mark of destiny.
>Posey's appearance is unnatural and supernatural, her vampiric heritage allowing her to appear closer to life despite being dead. Her appearance greatly depends on her mood: when cheery, her fur appears pristine and fluffy white; when less-cheery, her skin appears rotten and blotched, and her eyes glass over. When she's feeling especially nasty, she may briefly show bat-like or wolf-like traits as her monstrous nature makes itself known. Posey's appearance is a reflection of her own vanity and sense of of self (proportional to her charisma score): when she's confident, she's beautiful; when she's distressed, she appears more corpse-like. Her fangs are retractable.

I would like to rewrite my sheet when I level up, so I maybe will wait to decide on final details for her appearance then. Unless of course you would prefer it now.

Whats the character lineup? Have you guys managed to earn a rogues gallery yet?

>>194721
Silver would also have some pretty neat suggestions for Posey's cover story IC after the Traveler is defeated and everyone's sailing off to safety, if she'd like to hear it.

>>194722
Well, we currently lack a Rogue PC, so I'm not sure we can call it a rogues gallery.

>>194723
Oh sorry. dont mean to use jargon
So a rogues gallery means a lineup of antagonists or villans.
Like has the party delt with or made enough enemies for there to be an actual group of them and I dont mean like thugs or mooks

>>194723
>Well, we currently lack a Rogue PC
What we actually lack is a mage. I'm a Dread Necromancer, so I can't really do blastin' or utility.
A Beguiler would easily fit the Rogue niche too though. It's also a Fixed-list caster, so it's very easy to play.

Clerics and Druids are always useful.

>>194725
Warmages are also good blasters, albeit only good as blasters. Similarly easy to play.

Oh, a Factotum is also useful in the Rogue niche, or any niche for that matter. Also functions as a utility mage, blaster, and healer.
Aside from skill point allocation, it's easy to build because the only feat you'll ever want is font of inspiration.

>>194724
>>194725
I know, I was making a pun based off the shared terminology of the phrase and the D&D class

Are there any plans to continue the game soon?

>>194729
I'm back now. Hoping to start again tomorrow

What do the square boxes to the right of "Ammunition" under "Attacks" on the character sheet represent? How many shots does each box represent?

Should I swap out Wingbardian for Herzlander? Current known languages are Ponish, Wingbardian, Aquilean and Feathesian. I can't get rid of Feathesian now since I used it in a plot-relevant way (and it's still useful here), and I want to be able to speak the equivalent of French because it's fancy. Wingbardian seems much less useful than Herzlander, but Cavaliere is supposed to be of Wingbardian descent. Should I get rid of Aquilean?

>>194866
Nova Griffonia seems to be inhabited by a mixture of Fetahesians, Aquellians, Herzlanders, indigenous Pony, Yak, and Penguin minorities, and presumably other Equestrian and Griffonian migrants. Nova Griffonia seems to have its own language, which is represented by a mixture of English, Dutch, and German words, and seems to be a kind of west-germanic colonial language, presumably kind of like Afrikaans. Judging by his name I would assume that Garv Cavaliere is of Wingbardian heritage, which is presumably a significant minority in Nova Griffonia

I feel like I should stop playing Posey as a bootleg Barbarian and actually cast my spells now.

Can I get an interpretation on how Chill Touch is actually supposed to work? I have been avoiding using it because I wanted to avoid rules debates.

My reading was that with the instantaneous duration, the spell gives you a number of "charges" based on CL, and those touch attacks stay within you indefinitely to be discharged on subsequent rounds.

Thing is, the rules compendium contradicts this and says that if an instantaneous spell gives multiple attacks, all of the attacks are made at once. Problem with that is that would mean the spell gives a number of attacks based on caster level, which is a lot. Seems dysfunctional.

The other interpretation is that all of the attacks are made at once, but they can only be targeted at different opponents. This is pretty weak, and not necessarily supported by text, but idk.

>>194871
Is Chill touch a spell that uses a spell slot, or a supernatural ability?

>>194892
A spell slot

It's a core spell
https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/chillTouch.htm

I'm holding out for monk to be useful in an urban civilian setting, but I can see why people hate the class when it comes to dungeon crawling. 1d6 damage, melee range, mediocre attack bonus, and strict limitations on armor and weight do not work well on a modern battlefield.

>>194970
Monk isn't exactly powerful, but some of my favorite builds include monk levels.
Thing about unarmed combat is that you need to specialize into it to get return on investment, or you need to have an alternative universal damage source. Unarmed combat is generally stronger than most one-handed weapon builds though.

>>194970
Monk builds can be good with prestige classes and Multiclass feats (like Tashlatora), but they require some careful building.

You might want to consider Unarmed Swordsage or even Shadow Sun Ninja too. The Setting Sun martial discipline might be most suitable for the nonlethal style you want. Problem with that is it does little for ranged combat (although ballista throw and shadow garrote are pretty good ranged attacks).
I think Virgin Flame would make an excellent Shadow Sun Ninja, both in lore and to suit the mechanics she talked about.

Ranger / Mystic Ranger × Scout with Swift Hunter could be good for both melee and ranged combat, albeit as a skirmisher. I think it would be good for a flying character too.

If you want to do Monk/Ranger, you should probably consider an Ascetic Hunter build. Rangers can also be good with natural weapons, which is good with Monk ala Beast Strike.

There's actually a lot of unarmed combat material in d20 modern, probably because contemporary action movies value it so much. Since this is a modern setting, the DMG does suggest that you should have access to d20 Modern material.

If this were PF2e, I would tell you to play Bullet Dancer.

Does anypony have plans/tactics they want to share for the next room?

>>195071
I wrote this >>195057 →
The idea is to maximize the firepower we have there, to avoid getting caught in a chokepoint, and to stay behind cover as we proceed through the room methodically. We should probably get combatants in teams of two, Marines style, so they can support each other.

>>195072
Posey can tank hits from humanoids, so the ranged fighters in the party could support her with cover fire immediately after she goes in. It would minimize casualties on our part.
If I get dogpiled, I could try my Negative Energy Burst, and then try to escape under the door with gaseous form.

>>195073
She can't consume healing potions. Why do you want your character to blow her cover by doing things living ponies shouldn't (already everything she's done should make an intelligent character suspicious)?

Also let's avoid relying on tanking. Firstly we ought to conserve health for as long as possible. Secondly, enemies do a lot of damage and if you do get dogpiled a bunch of gunshots might kill you in one turn. Thirdly, the enemies have been able to split their focus so far which means it might not even work to keep them from our ranged fighters.

>>195075
So what do you want to do then?

>>195076
Whittle down the enemy, shoot serious threats, and disarm weaker threats. We've got lots of ammo, so let's use that instead of HP.

>>195077
I mean how fo you want to enter?
I offered to enter first.

>>195078
Yes, let's have you, Silver, Mala and Stained Sand breach and take point on either side of the door. Cavaliere and Kira can follow next, and the rest of the party will enter last once we have cover to shelter them.

>>195081
You should consider the possibility of the party being attacked by conjured tentacles from the rear again.

>>195082
That's why we're not taking every combatant in the initial wave, and why we're taking the rest into the room afterwards.

>>195084
Okay then. I guess we'll progress as soon as we know the results of that healing roll.

>>195111 →
The Warhead is being carried/guarded by Monstro on the main deck. It weighs thousands of pounds. I intend to use it to sink the GRU ship. Retreating to go back and get it, deconstruct it, carefully divide its contents, and remake those contents into a new bomb would take much longer than everyone taking 20 to hack down the door. Also, any door so strong that we couldn't hack it down would only be opened with explosives too strong to safely detonate on the ship without sinking it.
We have the explosive harpoon, but I would prefer to save that for the Intruder (because it has been repeatedly compared to a dead whale, so a weapon designed to kill a whale-sized organism seems like a MacGuffin to me).
>>195104 →
Wait, is this door watertight? Aw rats, nevermind. My trick was going to be Gaseous Form.
>The boiler room door on a 1940s Soviet warship was a heavily armored, watertight, circular or oval-shaped pressure door made of thick steel. These access points often featured heavy dogging mechanisms (manual locking levers) to maintain a seal against fire, steam, and water, crucial for survival during combat damage, as seen in examples from the era.
I don't see any way we could reasonably open this without the key.

>Key Storage Methods: Similar to other Soviet secure facilities and hotels of the era, important keys were often attached to large, heavy, or brightly marked objects to prevent theft or accidental removal from the area.
>Engineering Officer's Station: A secure, locked key locker inside the main engine room or engineering office.
>Central Control Station/Bridge: A master key locker for the machinery spaces, accessible only to the officer of the watch or the chief engineer.
We passed by both of these locations. Maybe we might have seen the key on our way?

>>195117 →
Aside from what we just found in this room, I think we're out of potions entirely. This has been a long adventure, and the loot has been slim, so our resources are stretched thin. Also two thirds of the party have decided to risk extra personal injury to save enthralled NPCs.
Tbh, if I didn't have my self-healing gimmick I would have died ten times over by now.

Next adventure, if we anticipate to fight this many encounters without rest/restock again, we should ditch the potions and collectively pool for some fully-charged wands of healing spells instead. A fully charged wand of cure light wounds costs 750 gp, which is equivalent to 50 potions of cure light wounds for the price of 15 potions. It's also the same price as a healing belt, which I recommend that every non-undead party member buys at the earliest opportunity.

Potions are notoriously overpriced in 3.5e, with their one redeeming quality being that anyone can use them (healing belt is good for that) and that the user is considered to be both the caster and the recipient (gimmicks). I only recommend spending on them for gimmicky Truenamer Potion-chugger builds that exploit
Spell Rebirth and Repair Item (and even then, Skull Talismans are better), or for martials who need multiple buff spells cast at once on them with Dwarven Ready-Drink Helms. Wands are usually the cheaper option, and more important wands can be spend all at once in long missions where you need a lot of healing.

Here, I'm gonna share some homebrew spells and my idea for a doe healer that could join the rest of the party. She has a child of her own and a buck in her homeland, but got separated from them when she got shipwrecked. Now she is trying to get back to them. However, she is nurturing enough that she can't let anyone suffer if she can stop it and will help out... Or, I could simply say that she is kind.

Homebrew
These are my ideas, I only had ChatGPT summarize it because... I'm lazy.
>Pic related of doe getting sexed inspired the doe character somehow. ^^
>Attached is homebrew doc

>>195119
You claim to not know the rules, and yet you are confident enough to make your own homebrew spells. I think you are more suited for DMing than you think.

>>195120
>I think you are more suited for DMing than you think.
Thank you <3
>yet you are confident enough
Dunning-Kruger syndrome. ^^

>>195119
Cute! I get the sense she would get along well with Kira and Amber not sure about Neela, who is a doe but of different temperament.

>>195119
Oh nice!

Is the idea for a potential ally to join on the ship, or in Baltimare/Trottingham? If it is on the ship, presumably she'd be part of the Haulkland Pirate boarding party.

It's not hard to imagine how. Say she was abducted by pirates and taken as their doctor. Or she was, like Zara Zama the Zebra, abducted by Chiropterrans who sold her to Haukland. Or she was rescued by fishergriffs and then taken by pirates. Or she was stranded outside of the country when war were declared and she got bored, so she joined a pirate crew. There are actually a number of ways.

In Equestria at War, there are two to four areas of deer settlement. One is on the continent of Equus and shares a slim border with Equestria to Equestria's east, and a longer border with the Changeling hives to its north. It gets invaded and occupied by the Changelings early, a couple years before Equestria. This nation is wealthy, well developed, and generally Nordic coded. Specifically, it is mostly Finnish coded, using the Finnish pantheon, but it also uses Icelandic and other nordic sources. The deer are supposed to be based on reindeer, though of course white tail are also an influence.

The next great nation(s) of deer are in Hindia, a set of at least four deer nations in northwestern Zebrica above and slightly east of the Kirin lands. These deer are Indian coded. They are based on Chital and asian deer. There are also two smaller deer nations. Uusi Cervitae is an island nation off the coast of Hindia and near Macawia. Austuria is located in sourthern Griffonia, and is basically outright a viking settler colony like Vinland.

The Breezie acting as a familiar is actually a really cute idea. The visuals are interesting, and it's intriguing that several of them seem to imperil the breezie.

A character who is already a mother would be interesting, especially as it implies that she is somewhat older, possibly middle aged or near it. Of course there is a lot you can do with a deer.

I have a whole list of other characters, but I want to focus on getting Posey to a respectable level first.

>>195119
Deer! Also, damn that's a lewd image.

>>195123
>The Breezie acting as a familiar is actually a really cute idea.
https://srd.dndtools.org/srd/classes/baseMh/healer.html
The Healer class normally comes with a Unicorn Mount (arguably the strongest part of the class, which is only played at tables where DMs ban Clerics). Since this is not appropriate in a pony game, substituting it with an improved familiar might be appropriate.

>>195126
Actually, I really shouldn't disrespect the Healer class like that. It's solidly good at its job, and then some.
Every class looks bad when you compare it to Cleric.
>t. still regrets playing a Dread Necromancer instead of a Cleric

>>195127
How would Posey be different behaviorally or in her personality if she were a cleric instead of a dread necromancer?

>>195128
Well, Posey's prototype was originally written as a Cleric of Atropus ("Doom Faust") with the Deathbound and Undeath domains, specializing into Dreadmaster or Master Of Shrouds, possibly picking up Domination through Warpriest; I also considered her as a Rogue/Cleric Sacred Outlaw cultist infiltrator. If I played her as a Cleric, I would probably make her more idealistic and zealous in her white horse conquest antichrist apocalypse prophecy, and less as a seductive and Charismatic infiltrator. Since her main stat would be Wisdom instead of Charisma, her behavior would be more abrasive and idealistic, although I considered giving her Madness Domain and play her as a functionally negative-wisdom zealot who was completely insane.
Tbh, in hindsight, that would probably just be even more annoying, and I wasn't sure about playing a godless ideal Cleric even though they evidently exist within the setting. Also, I picked Dread Necromancer not just because it has the word "dread" in it, but also because you might notice that I am a compulsive powergamer so I decided to play a tier 3 Fixed-list caster instead of a tier 1 open-list caster like a Cleric or Wizard as method of self restraint at a table that seemed relatively low-op. I am just frustrated that a Dread Necromancer doesn't get access to Animate Dead until lvl 8, when a Cleric gets it at lvl 5.

Oh, and she wouldn't have Charnel Touch, which means her combat tactics would be drastically different due to lack of unlimited out-of-combat healing, and she would be far more averse to taking damage. Clerics are full of surprises though. Posey would be one to leave most of her slots open during the day and wait until she finds an obstacle for which she wants to prepare the right spell for the job. She would have heavy armor and Cleric BAB, making her better as a combatant, but only marginally. I probably would have been less tempted to spend two and a half levels worth of XP making her a half vampire and buying off that LA (because the DR was nerfed and the charm gaze has had diminishing returns); I mainly did that because I wanted an excuse to make her sexy post mortem.

The other class I considered playing was Deathmaster, arguably a stronger version of Dread Necromancer. It's a prepared caster with a spellbook, Cleric BAB, and an undead companion. They notably get animate Dead as a lvl 2 spell, as well as access to a lot of stronger Wizard spells, and are more robust as casters overall. Her behavior would be pretty much the same, except that she would probably be more evil due to the theme of the class.
https://srd.dndtools.org/srd/classes/baseDc/deathMaster.html

Posey's current theme is supposed to be a hybrid of Sorcerer, Wizard and Cleric, with a bit of a Van Hellsing/Richten style hardboiled exorcist and occult expert. That's arguably doable as a Cleric though, because it describes Van Richten.

Aside from not having any minions right now, I am satisfied with Posey's class choice. It makes her different, being a Dread Necromancer from the Dread League. Her lack of access to conventional Wizard spells also speaks to her background as a specialist and as a slave, since her masters forbid her from practicing other magic. I also wanted to play Posey as a Charismatic leader who would inspire armies of intelligent followers instead of just undead minions, so I wanted to play a Charisma-based class.

The Society Of Bones is pretty strongly Arcane themed, so Clerics would really only be vampire Ex-Clerics (who retain their Cleric powers through newfound belief in evil and undeath, despite being self-centered and hubristic), a bit like Baka. I figured her mother White Rose might have been a self-serving vampire ex-Cleric of Nightmare Moon, since I already mentioned that the Coven would repeatedly heal her after tormenting her and and feeding off of her as a filly, and also an apostate Ex-cleric vampire would have ironically fit the sort of hubristic and shallow mare she was. It might even be why Posey has tried to fuck every priest she meets so far.

>>195126
I think a good substitute for the Healer's Unicorn Companion would be to give the Healer a Coure Eladrin as a familiar familiar, plus maybe Wedded To Light as a bonus feat (although maybe they could also just take it normally).
A coure Eladrin is a tiny-sized celestial similar to a sprite, and could fit the niche of a "celestial breezie" (the kind that a mage would make a pact with). Like the Celestial Unicorn, it has a constant Magic Circle Against Evil, as well as detect evil/good, and some other minor nifty spells. Unlike the Celestial Unicorn, it cannot teleport or carry/defend the Healer in combat, but it could offer the Healer Other useful abilities as a familiar. It's 60 ft fly speed and and ability to take on the form of an incorporeal ball of light (think of Tinker Bell) would make it very, very useful for delivering touch spells, something that the Healer can greatly benefit from tactically. It lacks any of the celestial unicorn's innate healing abilities, but the Wedded To Light feat can help with that.
The loss of mount is a bit painful, but an improved familiar would be useful to the Healer in many ways. It also creates the possibility for the Healer to enter healing-friendly prestige classes that require/advance familiars, such as Mystic Wanderer (great Charisma synergy, good for potions) or even Fleshwarper (for those going for a Saint Cosmas and Damian theme).

>>195129
>If I played her as a Cleric, I would probably make her more idealistic and zealous in her white horse conquest antichrist apocalypse prophecy, and less as a seductive and Charismatic infiltrator.
I prefer the charismatic infiltrator personally. Femme fatales make compelling characters in fiction for a reason.
>Also, I picked Dread Necromancer not just because it has the word "dread" in it, but also because you might notice that I am a compulsive powergamer so I decided to play a tier 3 Fixed-list caster instead of a tier 1 open-list caster like a Cleric or Wizard as method of self restraint
Thank you for that!
>low-op
What does that mean?
>I mainly did that because I wanted an excuse to make her sexy post mortem.
And we're all grateful for that
>The other class I considered playing was Deathmaster, arguably a stronger version of Dread Necromancer.
Maybe her mysterious master is that? That's an interesting class, though a much louder option for the Dread League. In terms of real-life parallels probably like the GRU to the Dread Necromancer's FSB
>It might even be why Posey has tried to fuck every priest she meets so far.
I really like that aspect of her, that she tries to corrupt good-aligned creatures she encounters like a true femme fatale. She might've even started making inroads with party members if she hadn't gotten so...excited.
>>195130
>A coure Eladrin is a tiny-sized celestial similar to a sprite, and could fit the niche of a "celestial breezie" (the kind that a mage would make a pact with).
This is classic fae and sounds perfect. Clerics are good but this quest has shown just how useful a specialized Healer would be. You can't go wrong with that.

GM, could you answer if that search check was successful and/or we have any leads towards finding the key to the boiler? Because if not we need to think of another way forward, and that will take its own series of questions/checks.

Posey asked Blackheel if the boiler could be opened from the inside. Does he respond?
Posey could plausibly try to use Dimensional Rift to teleport through and open the door from the inside, but that's very resource costly for her and has a chance of instantly destroying her. If we could drill a tiny hole through, Posey could use Gaseous Form to enter the room. Neither of those plans work if the door cannot be opened from the inside though, and my research is telling me that Soviet boiler room doors are locked from the outside.

Blackheel and the sailors surely knew that the boiler room door would be locked when they arrived: did they come with anything to bypass the lock, or to locate the key? Blackheel said "explosives", but all we have is the torpedo (with Monstro on the top deck), the explosive harpoon (dubiously strong enough), and two frag grenades. Do the sailors have any explosives of their own, or any in the artillery section we just passed? Do they know where the key is? Does anypony say anything on the matter?

Mare ass for faster reply.

>>195122
>>195123
>>195125
Thank you, guys for the nice reception. I might get back to some of it. Knowing myself taht's just wishful thinking.^^
Don't worry too much about this character. I might never get to finish her or get around to her so don't pondeer her implications of the game or whatever, she might never be.

>>195133
What's your opinion on the Wedded-To-Light Coure Eladrin Familiar replacing the Healer's Celestial Unicorn Companion feature?

>>195132
>Mare ass for faster reply.
Good thinking ^^
>>195133
I want you in the game. I want you in the game ASAP!

To the other players: would anypony have any objective if I took three skill points away from Arcane Knowledge (currently 5) and put one in Sense Motive (currently 4), one in Use Rope (currently 4), and one to know the Yak language? I shouldn't have put any points in Arcane Knowledge but 5 was an especially stupid decision.

>>195135
>healer familiar change
I don't really have any. When I said that she was a healer, I referred to the archetype. I didn't know there existed a class called "healer" in 3.5.
I guess that's one way to do it while not straying too far from the rules, so maybe.
>>195136
>asap
Thanks. ^^
I'll try.

>>195136
Use Rope is not a good use of skillpoints. It's a trash skill, and you can take 10 for most things anyway.
You need two skill points to learn a language, unless you are a class with the Speak Language Skill, like a Bard.
Arcana is a useful skill, as it covers the most creatures and being knowledgeable about magical effects and traditions is just good to have. 5 ranks also gives you synergy bonus. 5 ranks is better than 4 ranks for any skill with synergy, because it's basically free ranks.
>>195137
If you want help playing a Healer, I could help you.
Healer is actually a relatively easy class to play, like all of the classes in the Minis Handbook. It's less powerful than Cleric, but much easier to play overall.
>I'll try
Wait, are you not the same one who is playing the monk?

>>195138
>Use Rope is not a good use of skillpoints. It's a trash skill, and you can take 10 for most things anyway.
I beg to differ, since we've been using it a lot this quest, and 5 ranks gives a +2 synergy to escape artist which will definitely also be useful. Sense motive is a better pick nonetheless.
>You need two skill points to learn a language, unless you are a class with the Speak Language Skill, like a Bard.
The section wasn't too clear, but after consulting the chart it makes sense.
>Arcana is a useful skill, as it covers the most creatures and being knowledgeable about magical effects and traditions is just good to have. 5 ranks also gives you synergy bonus. 5 ranks is better than 4 ranks for any skill with synergy, because it's basically free ranks.
It's been of no use at all this quest and the +2 to spellcraft seems even more useless. I don't see myself ever having to pass these skill checks. Even with the tiara it wasn't that useful. Still, I'll think about your advice, and this is why I've been bouncing this question off you guys.

>>195139
>we've been using it a lot this quest
When was the last time you rolled the skill?
In most cases, just knocking someone out with nonlethal damage is easier than tying them up.
>+2 synergy to escape artist which will definitely also be useful
That synergy only applies to escaping rope bindings.
Ask yourself, how many situations do you expect to be capture and tied up but not outright killed?

It's your character, but I wouldn't bother with that skill.

>>195139
>I don't see myself ever having to pass these skill checks. Even with the tiara it wasn't that useful.
Tbh, idk about knowledge skills for this game. I rolled all my knowledge skills multiple times trying to see if Posey, an undead expert, could correctly identify that colt as a ghost, but I never got a confirmation. I tried again with Arcana to identify a possible illusion, but I got unclear results, and I resorted to trying to grab/touch him to confirm that he wasn't an illusion, and in the process I spoiled the entire encounter...
I think I might just avoid ranking up my Religion skill going forward. Waiting for level up to revise my sheet though.

>>195140
I've been taking 10 with a +9 bonus. I believe that means the check for enemies to escape is 29. Sometimes you want to leave an enemy lucid as well. Well, not in this situation, but I'm thinking ahead to when Cavaliere will be dealing with ruffians in the city.
>Ask yourself, how many situations do you expect to be capture and tied up but not outright killed?
I know we roleplay realistically but it's still a work of fiction and it's likely to happen, so long as one doesn't try a hopeless last stand against a group of enemies. I already have a +8 to escape artist so it's not critical to boost that any further. I would rather put a point in sense motive and gain +2 to diplomacy which is far more useful.
>I think I might just avoid ranking up my Religion skill going forward. Waiting for level up to revise my sheet though.
From experience, knowledge checks in local, geography, history, and maybe dungeoneering tend to be more useful in this campaign than the others. Arcana is vague but its applications, whether it's studying a magical artifact or hunting magical big game, isn't terribly relevant to my plans for Cavaliere. It could be useful, sure, but I put 5 ranks only because I thought it was an interesting random skill that was also a class skill totally not to dissuade Posey from practicing barely veiled necromancy around him. After I lost my character sheet I had to recalculate Cavaliere's skill points and found out I had miscalculated by four points over previously. Combine this with not knowing how many points I'll get at level 6 (I might even lose some depending on the classes I pick) and the skill point economy is a little strict. Now that I say that, I should probably forget about speaking Yak since it would be a waste.

>>195142
You can't take 10 on use rope. You only roll it when someone tries to escape.
Again, your character. If you intent to use a lot of rope, go ahead.
Escape artist is good if your grapple mod is bad.
Sense Motive is an opposed skill. You might want to max it out.
>local, geography, history, and maybe dungeoneering
I don't have any of those skills. I have Religion and Arcana.
>Language
If you're that concerned with language, you should find a way to cast Tongues. Getting it cast on you permanently could be beneficial. I was planning to do that later.
Hmmm, Coure Eladrins have Tongues. A Ranger could access one through Urban Companion and Improved Familiar.

.
>ban evader is still seething

>>194720
>reeee it's not generic atomic age, it's pre-atomic age (called the "Machine Age" in Stellaris, and just the late industrial age in Civilizaton). Also magic plays a role in some technological devices, so there's still fantasy elements.
Question, do stores still sell radium makeup, or does Posey have to hoard canisters a decade ago?

>>195173
>radium makeup
>radioactive makeup
Nopony can make this shit up.

>>195174
It was a thing in real life.
>Radium makeup was a dangerous 1930s beauty fad, primarily sold by brands like Tho-Radia, which claimed radioactive isotopes (radium and thorium) offered a "radiant" glow, tightened skin, and cured wrinkles.
This was like 10-15 years after the Radium Girls incident too.

Hmmm, if we're around that era now, and the show takes place before the game, Rarity might have used this stuff in the past.

>>195174
>Nopony can make this shit up.
Only God can.

>>195175
>>195173
Looking into this, I think that the fad would have probably been more or less over by 10 years before the setting, possibly 15 years before, and that selling products like that with radium in it would have been actually illegal for about four years

>>195177
Alas, I will have to search for the forbidden makeup myself. All the more reason to go treasure hunting.
At least Gloomy can still enjoy his Oat Softener.
G: coughs blood

I wonder what other household substances future generations are going to be horrified that we used? My guess is something related to microplastics.

>>195178
Kek, saved
In case you haven't read the blurb yet, it's fake
Still there were real-life unhealthy fads aplenty

>>195180
I already know it's satire.

Where did we determine that Light Water was hiding again?

I think I might want to try to rush down Light Water by slipping through the gaps in the deck with Gaseous Form. I could distract him by having Monstro ram the control tower. Once I can get line of sight with him, I could incapacitate him with some of my debuff spells.
Alternatively, I could try Dimensional Rifting to his location to catch him off guard. That has a 1% chance of destroying me though, and furthermore it subjects Posey to unforseen interactions since we are dealing with an aberrant entity with a lot of summons in the works, so sundering special geometry and getting nibbled on by nameless horrors might carry extra risks.....

>>195138
It would be funny to have a unicorn horse as the familiar for a pony, or in this case doe. ^^
>>195138
>Wait, are you not the same one who is playing the monk?
I am indeed him. ^^

I generated some goyslop as concept art for Posey's familiar (if I ever get to lvl 7...)

A Ghostly Visage is a minor undead spirit symbiont uniquely available to Dread Necromancers. As a symbiont, it can serve as a helper or as a parasite, with a unique ability to meld itself with its victims through a touch attack.
Alone, ghostly visage looks like just a puff of smoke with subtle dark spots for eyes, but it can manifest a face on its host; the face is a horrific visage of pure horror and menace contorted in the agony of undeath. This one has distinct dimples and rosey cheeks, inspired by Dimple from Mob Psycho. The lolling tongue is inspired by Boo from Mario and Ghastly from Pokemon.

Its Gaze Of Terror is supposed to compliment Posey's fearmonger/debuffer style of combat, and its incorporeal nature makes it excellent as a scout. I was thinking of giving it a cute, playful and mischievous demeanor, always giggling and curiously examining the world around it, and very fond of surprises and nose-to-nose boops. Ghostly visages relish in causing terror to the living, so I was thinking of a name like "Peekaboo".

>>195253
The aislop was better than I thought it would be, but Ig it wasn't something complex and intricate like a hand and such.
>(if I ever get to lvl 7...)
It feels like you keep mentioning this. Idk, if it's an insight joke, like friendly bantz, but I can't help but wonder if the GM takes this as criticism. I could be wrong, but just a heads up on how it may be interpreted on his part. Idk.

Anyway, your familiar could be fun and cute.

>>195254
It's not really criticism, just me poking fun at myself for daydreaming about higher level adventure ambitions. I have a tendency to put the cart before the horse.

Yeah, familiars are fun. One perk of the Dread Necromancer it's the only class that can get a ghostly visage familiar, although it only gets it a lvl 7. Other options include an Imp, Quasit, or Vargouille. The Imp/Quasit is probably better as a familiar overall due to their useful spells and the ability to take the form of a bat/rat/wolf, but I never actually got to play with a ghostly visage familiar before, so I wanted to try it.

>>195253
Those images look like if there were a "the gang goes to Japan" episode/special, that would be mascot of a Japan funeral home service.

>>195256
Well, I did reference three Japanese sources in the design, so I guess that was the result..... The long tongue is pretty iconic among Nintendo ghost monsters, probably based on some yokai folklore.

Last pic that the official Ghostly Visage illustration on the Fiend Folio. Its description reads:
>A minor undead spirit similar to a ghost, a ghostly visage inhabits corporeal bodies. Its name comes from its ability to manifest a transparent face on its host’s body.
>When not attached to a host, a ghostly visage looks like little more than a puff of smoke about 1 foot in diameter. Only by looking carefully can a character discern its eyes, which appear simply as dark spots within the smoke. When attached to a host, the visage normally lurks inside the host’s body. It can, however, manifest a face on the host’s body, including covering the host’s own face. This face has a horrible appearance, contorted in the agony of undeath.
>Visage (Ex): At will, a ghostly visage can manifest a face anywhere on its host’s body, including over the host’s own face (the host’s vision is unaffected). This face looks corporeal and fleshy, but it is actually the visage’s incorporeal form.
There isn't any actual specifics of what a ghostly visage looks like while manifested other than being "horrible". Being a creature that was once alive in a pony setting, it must look like a pony of some kind, which is challenging to make horrible, although I think a pallid white face, a tongue dripping with ectoplasm, and a void-black eyes perpetually bleeding tears of black icor would be a good start. It can suppress its gaze, so it could also be that the visage has no true form and is only manifesting a projection of pure suffering and fear on the face of its host.

>>195256
Were we able to succeed in repairing the boiler?

>>195253
>>195257
Any inspiration from Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion? This reminds me of that game.

Where did we determine that Light Water was again?

>>195292
He's a hippogriff from Hippogriffia, if I remember correctly.

pic unrelated

>>195294
I meant his physical location.

>>195295
He is somewhere in the conning tower near the bridge. He might be holed up in the radio room and not in sight of any windows.
Also, found this pic especially relevant.

>>195413
I do want to say, this idea for a petroleum monster: sick as hell, I love it. I'm just sorry that me falling asleep derailed things and caused all of this frustration. I do really, really apologize for my part in it.

After the petroleum monster is dealt with (and presumably they find some way to wipe off all of the oil they're now covered in, Kira especially must be feeling gross), is it alright if we can revisit Cargo Hold 4? Maybe it was because I was worried about a time limit with the boiler, or maybe I was just extremely unobservant (if I'm missing something, it's usually right in front of my face), but I still want to experience this ship, quest, and everything you had planned originally as you intended. Please don't change things just because my schedule's too unreliable...

>>195413
>>195412
>Why are the supernatural things, the only things in the entire campaign that must have some mystery, the only things in the entire world you care to even remember, let alone ask questions about?
Because those are the only things my character is equipped to be knowledgeable of. Posey is a student at the University Of Arcane Sciences and an occultist. Supernatural effects and creatures are her portfolio of expertise. Posey doesn't know anything about modern military tactics, economics, ships or really anything else mundane because she does not have those skills; she knows about magic and magical creatures. Posey is adventuring to train and expand her own powers by facing and conquering supernatural threats, and as an exorcist and alienist she has a stoic analytical demeanor because she knows on a personal level that showing fear in the face of Eldritch horrors means failure. She analyzes supernatural effects because that is her job in the party as an occultist, especially in situations where her actual spellcasting ability isn't particularly useful. It's her job to identify supernatural phenomena, point out their weaknesses, and especially to tell the party if they can actually face the threats before them or if they should all just run in the other direction: an animated object is manageable, a clay golem in close quarters is a TPK; knowing the difference is Posey's job. When we face a new kind of enemy, of course her first priority is to identify what the threat is, because she needs to give the party tactical information on how to defeat it.
>Okay fine, sure, we'll move along, Instead of the days between encounters being filled with dialogue or exploration it can just be waiting, whatever you want.
GM, the reason why we just wait between posts is because we all assume you are not available between post, and asking too many unnecessary questions is distracting.
>He's very obviously balanced for the whole damn party to attack at once and it's insulting that you would even momentarily think otherwise.
Well, PC classed characters have CR equal to their HD, so I figured if he were balanced as a main threat he would be lvl 6-8 Wizard before considering monster allies in the encounter, maybe even lvl 9, but I guess that's still 4-5 levels above me. I still thought I should risk it anyway and try to tap him with a Spectral Hand + Ghoul Touch.
>At least it will be fun for me because I'd love to see how many outsider summons I can give him as supporting allies all at the same time in the same fight.
See, the fact that this enemy has seemingly unlimited summons is the reason why I thought making a beeline towards him is tactical, because he's just slowly chipping away at us otherwise. The longer we wait to attack him, the more opportunities he has to harass and damage us while expending our resources with remote summons. I have so far been avoiding expending my spell slots in combat just because as far as I can tell the enemy is trying to force us to expend our limited resources with his unlimited resources. As far as I can observe, the summons don't seem to have any resource cost on his side, and apparently he's going to outnumber us no matter how many approach, so I think a rush-down/assassination approach is the safest way.

>>195418
Posey would also like to wash herself off at the next opportunity. She doesn't want to face the intruder while looking horrible.

>>195412
Heroes Of Horror is a good supplement for integrating horror aspects into D&D. It has lots of horror tropes, mechanics, and ideas. It also gives insight on how to integrate horror in ways that make the party take it more seriously, and advises when and when not to use horror aspects to avoid oversaturation or frustrating players. I think you might find it useful.

It also happens to be the book that the Dread Necromancer was printed in. Maybe give it a read. File related.

I may as well post Heroes Of Battle too, the supplement for military campaigns and mass combat.
Also Lords Of Madness, which has insights into how to use classic aberrations in D&D while still preserving their trope as unknowable Eldritch monstrosities.

I can understand the frustration with fantasy ttrpg mechanics detracting from horror fluff in games. However, as a crunch enthusiast, I believe that mechanics are a tool to enable great roleplaying experiences, not an obstacle to them. Maybe that's just my taste though.

I can see why you would be frustrated. In my own campaign, the lvl 7 Druid recently got possessed by a CR 12 incorporeal nature demon (formerly the goddess of pumpkins) which has been whispering in his ear and silently compelling him to commit evil, making his character wander the area while he is asleep and commit unknown acts, and often knocks him out and prepares his spells instead of him. I thought that this would create drama and character development about the dangers of worshipping demons, except... It just didn't? The Druid say no urgency in exorcising the demon or horror in his loss of autonomy; he didn't even try to get rid of it or appease the spirit for mercy, nor did he try to ask it for power or Eldritch secrets. He just passively accepted demonic possession as a plot device, and was perhaps slightly frustrated by being inconvenienced by it. I thought of trying to scare him by making it commit random acts of violence or forcing him to kill one of the cute NPCs I keep by the party for character development, but that would have just further derailed my plot.
I'm the next couple sessions I am going to reveal that the demon simply abandoned him when it discovered a more suitable host, possibly reintroducing that demon-possessed host as a villain later.
Point is, it can be frustrating when players don't take horror aspects the way you expect them to, but that's just what happens in D&D. It happens to all DMs.

I can try to engage with your game a bit more seriously, but please be aware that all this time I have only been doing what I thought made sense in character and responding to situations with the information I had.

Maybe my character is a bit too analytical, but I thought that was the only thing I was really good for in this party besides a self-healing pincushion. I thought that being an expert in the occult would be Posey's main contribution to the group, identifying threats and proposing ways to overcome obstacles. I guess I failed on that front.
But really, if you don't want me to use the knowledge skill, just tell me, because being indirect just leads to frustration.
An example would be the ghost in that abandoned village. I had Posey roll Religion to identify the ghost, because she is an expert in the undead and had seen a ghost as recently as yesterday so I thought she would easily know a ghost if she saw one. When that check result came out unclear, Posey believed it to be an illusion created by the Intruder, so she tried touching it to interact with it to tell if it was an illusion, and then the encounter just ended when GM got frustrated. I now know that you were just trying to keep some mystery in the game and didn't want me to reveal the nature of the encounter with a simple skill check. In hindsight, I should have just used Rebuke Undead as soon as I saw it to check it it was undead...

Idk, I'm trying to be helpful, but maybe I should just shut up...

>>195412
>Cavaliere's player has already said that the horror elements in the campaign are oversaturated and overplayed.
It's more of a "too much of a good thing" angle. I can like a dessert and think it's delicious, but if it's the entire meal rather than just the dessert then I'll grow critical of how sweet it is. This particular quest is all about horror and it's very well done, but I miss Amber's adventures because they are wonderfully mundane in comparison. But I'm also someone who craves variety in entertainment in general, so don't take this as dour criticism.
>>195413
>And of course no further questions were asked, no further exploration done by any party member. Okay fine, sure, we'll move along, Instead of the days between encounters being filled with dialogue or exploration it can just be waiting, whatever you want.
I do believe we surmised that the hold had been repurposed into a shelter for some of the crew. However we weren't given any leads to investigate further. No notes left out in the open nor comments by the crew tagging along who should know something considering they were here. I don't like how the scientists, and Blackheel to a lesser extent, have been so quiet. I understand it's not easy to write dialogue for so many characters but their silence implies there's nothing interesting for them to say, so why should the players linger? And yes, there are questions in my head that have gone unspoken, like why the Hauklander boarding party is missing, but I haven't had an interesting time to bring it up yet.
I don't know if you have ever played Half Life 2, but in the sections where Alyx follows you, she'll occasionally comment about the surroundings. Not in a constant, annoying way like millennial writing tends to do, but she'll drop occasional hints and give small bits of exposition about the ruined world she inhabits. That's the sort of thing I want. Since we boarded the Kostroma, it's felt like the NPCs are just followers with a name and face, but without much to offer aside from fighting and occasionally helping with skill checks the party isn't cut out for.

I can understand your frustration and I hope my critique doesn't tick you off further. Take this as encouragement to keep doing what you're good at, because we the players will respond more to it, and you'll feel satisfaction in return. A big flaw of play-by-post is that we have no idea when you are genuinely unavailable and when you're waiting for dialogue before we move on.
Also considering >>195420 I wonder how Call of Cthulu handles occultist backgrounds. Obviously that sort of background provides an advantage but I doubt it completely nullifies the horror aspect of the game. Posey's motivations make sense but I still think she may want to capture him alive, unless if she has an undeclared ulterior motive.

>>195420
>>195422
>>195423
>>195425
Nah, these are pretty helpful, I think. Also, I have no idea why that druid character just went along with it, even for me that's a bit crazy.

>>195420
A second post, I know, but I just thought of it: Posey should definitely be interested in learning more about the mundane aspects of this "modern" world. She's been sent to Equestria as a spy to learn its strengths and weaknesses, right? Among other things, of course. If Posey knows all about the supernatural and the mysterious, then she should be trying to learn whatever she can about the more "normal" parts of Equestria and how to either counter them or turn them to her purpose. Like, what if she stole the schematics to a tank, and then tried to use necromancy to animate a giant pile of bones as a tank?

>>195426
>I don't like how the scientists, and Blackheel to a lesser extent, have been so quiet.
>their silence implies there's nothing interesting for them to say, so why should the players linger?
Tbh, I have to echo this. It is their ship, and they are far more familiar with it than us. I figured they would be guiding us and/or telling us the fastest route to the boiler and what seems out of the ordinary.
>I wonder how Call of Cthulu handles occultist backgrounds. Obviously that sort of background provides an advantage but I doubt it completely nullifies the horror aspect of the game.
It depends on the edition, but iirc in OG CoC backgrounds were rolled randomly.
>>195428
>Posey should definitely be interested in learning more about the mundane aspects of this "modern" world.
She can't do that here.
>If Posey knows all about the supernatural and the mysterious, then she should be trying to learn whatever she can about the more "normal" parts of Equestria and how to either counter them or turn them to her purpose.
She's been doing that. I tried to illustrate that with her passive commentary about the abandoned buildings and sewers between Baltimare being ideal hiding spots for forces.
>Like, what if she stole the schematics to a tank, and then tried to use necromancy to animate a giant pile of bones as a tank?
I already mentioned that idea.
She needs to level up before she can consider that.
>>195429
What even is the appropriate "horror" response to this situation anyway? To run away screaming instead of facing the encounters?
>This is very limiting for the character and it means that she's not fit to be in as many supernatural situations as non-occultists.
I mean, I said that I was interested in taking jobs as an exorcist and supernatural detective. Idk how that is limiting. Posey said that there is always work for a Necrologist where there is war, because the tragedy and bloodshed always attracts evil (including herself).
>This is what has to be done with the Posey character to challenge her, there is no other way. The challenge must be either of a mundane nature that's she's not suited to face, or it must be of such a great degree that she's still not suited to face it even with her specialization
GM, in my experience over the past couple years, ALL if the challenges we have faced have been resolved by shooting the enemies in the face or hacking them to pieces.
Why is it even necessary to tailor challenges to her? All of our enemies so far have already been immune to fear (half of her offensive ability). Her specialization has barely been relevant except for her self-healing gimmick they let her tank some shots so that the rest of the party didn't die.
>Because Posey is not impressed in the same way that Silver or Cavaliere is, there is not as much reason to put her in that circumstance. The second biggest reason to use the supernatural is for tragedy. Ghosts and hauntings usually come about because of great suffering or tragedy. Curses are the same.
Posey is impressed by supernatural tragedy. She sees it as romantic. She's also a scholar who is specifically interested in sporadic reanimation through tragic events, because that's relevant to her backstory, because she was a Slaymate before her masters remade her. Anypony who pursues necromancy has some sort of romantic fascination with tragedy and pain, and Posey is no different. Have I not expressed that at every opportunity?
Why do you think she kissed that suicided unicorn and encouraged him to get up from the grave to take revenge on life? Why do you think she wanted to take the ghost child home with her? Why do you think she reanimated Agire as a ghoul and told him it was his destiny to lead his people even in death? Or how she told Agire's family/temple that "My masters believe that the bonds of friendship need not end in death". It's all romantic to her.
>Posey is less fit for supernatural plots than other characters
Posey specifically trained for this situation. She's a Cerebrant. She had all that monologue about how her masters through her into the Cerebrotic Mire and didn't let her come back to reality until she learned to claw her way back. She described the torturous training she went through to achieve Cerebrosis and gain dreadful fear-based necromantic and summoning magic. She described how monsters from the far realm invade this world with her "beachgoer" metaphor, and why the aberrant incursion was a threat to the world, so that the party could be resolved in their efforts to fight.
She even talked about how she believed that fate had led her here, because she trained for this moment and it is finally paying off. It was part of her theme that all the torture she endured was so that she could achieve greater heights.
Idk how I could have possibly roleplayed her in a way that fit the theme more.
>the best way to challenge her is to place her in modernity. I know that this quest has not been satisfying.
I would be satisfied with any level-appropriate encounters with adequate treasure and XP. I am not that picky. You can roll them randomly off of a table if you want.
>What would be the point of an occultist character?
Did you read the PDFs I sent?
>Their ideology would not be challenged.
Posey's ideology was directly challenged multiple times. Furthermore, the places where her ideology was reinforced made her even more livid, because the Intruder's grand plan to remake the world without death and limits and whatnot was her own dream, and she is not about to let some freak from beyond the firmament take it from her: Equestria isn't his to conquer.

.

.

You know, I really have been trying to engage with this content. I have been trying to face the encounters in a way I believed was thematic and fun while also being helpful to the party. I knew there would be some challenges when I made a character from the Dread League, but this isn't really the challenge expected...

>>195429
>>195430
It seems your goals, themes and "feel" for the campaign are orthogonal to one another and I don't know how they can be resolved without one giving way. It's like a campaign intended to be a gritty noir film but one character is a comedic buffoon, or vice versa with a serious character in a circus. Can you make it work? Maybe; Shakespeare was able to put comedic relief into most of his tragedies. It's never easy to do however and it's worth noting the comedic relief in Shakespeare's works appears only in select scenes and never is a main character. Also he was the sole writer whereas this is a collaborative project, and each of you as co-writers seem to struggle to understand the other's goals.
It's pretty clear that the horror aspect of cosmic horror was bound to fail as soon as Posey revealed she wasn't merely a mundane necromancer but had actually been to the Cerebrotic Mire and had "been there; done that." It's like trying to film a scene where a character is supposed to avoid crocodiles with tense framing, but Steve Irwin is also there and he's cheerfully tackling them and showing them off to the camera.

Abraham Van Helsing, Harry Dresden, Thomas Carnacki, etc. How is there not room for occultist characters in supernatural stories? How am I even supposed to roleplay a mage at all if not as an occultist?
You know, when I came in to this game, I think was thinking of having more of a romantic and esoteric approach to magic, but then I was introduced to the College Of Arcane Sciences, who treat magic itself as a science, and I thought they that was the approach I was expected to adopt too even though I was slightly apprehensive about it.
How am I actually supposed to roleplay this character without feeling that the way I roleplay is on trial every three weeks?
>>195431
Just because Posey is vaguely familiar with some of the horrors of far realm entities does not invalidate her role in the story. She described a torturous experience that she only barely survived and said that nothing is certain or logical in the realms beyond the firmament. Only confirmed what little she actually knew, and how horrible things could become if the problem was allowed to spread.
>It's like trying to film a scene where a character is supposed to avoid crocodiles with tense framing, but Steve Irwin is also there and he's cheerfully tackling them and showing them off to the camera.
Tbh, this is more of Posey's approach to rare undead creatures. Gotta catch 'em all.
>>195432
>But that’s not true at all.
Maybe I was exaggerating a bit. I meant within this particular island adventure, but even then it wasn't that simple. I should not have said that.
>>195433
GM, Posey is a Cerebrant, but that doesn't make her an expert the far realm. She's still only a lvl 4 necromancer with zero ranks in Dungeoneering. Her Cerebrant Meditation training only makes her slightly more resistant to the spells of far realm entities, and only gives her a hoof-full of fear-based necromancy and summoning spells. That's it.
The reason why she brought up the Cerebrotic Mire was to express to the party that reality could shift around them at any moment, about how the void beyond the firmament was like an ocean and our reality was just a tiny island with water crashing over the beach. I thought it was important for her to bring that up because she has also gained Aberrant magic at the cost of her sanity, which made her a character foil for the villain, and I thought it was appropriate to acknowledge that the quest was relevant to my backstory because I thought that was intentional. That doesn't mean she knows what will happen or how things work, only that it is bad. She does not have all the answers. She told the story of an alienist sorceress (Zceryll) who lost her mind entirely and became a monster (in a bad way) by trotting down that horrible path, and how she swore that that fate would not be her own. She said all of that in-character so that the party could be resolved to fight, because that's what a good mage would do. Or maybe not, idk.
She acted confident in spite of that because that's what she always does. Posey is one to roll the dice and go on offensive even when she knows she's not cut out for something, because she fears failure more than death; that's the mindset that makes her 1 v 1 a hydra underwater, or fight a higher-level paladin alone. She's hubristic; it's part of her character.

How do you even want her to behave? This conversation was triggered by me rolling Arcana to identify a construct that I was afraid would be similar to a golem. Do you just want me to stop making knowledge checks? Is there an expected pattern of behavior I should adopt? Any lines I should say? What do you want me to do?
>>195429
>Posey doesn't really emotionally connect with anyone or anything.
She has Gloomy.
She was even willing to give up access to her Ghast minion just to make sure that he was protected.
But really, if you want my character to emotionally connect to things, why maybe just give her some more things to connect to?

Dragon #330 has more insights for the Far Realm and how to integrate cosmic horror in D&D. It also happens to be where Cerebrosis was printed:
https://dn721605.ca.archive.org/0/items/DragonMagazine260_201801/DragonMagazine330.pdf

Why is it that between every encounter and room description we have to have another ooc discussion about how a party member's in-character reaction to a description or encounter was taken personally? It's getting in the way of a adventure that already struggles with pacing.
Is my own dogshit opinion really so valuable that we have to stop the game every other week to talk about it? Are my casual, poorly-expressed thoughts really that important? I didn't think the perception of my taste would be so important here. I'm just a shitposter roleplaying a dead horse.
It feels like every time I say something, do something, or fail to say/do something, there has to be an ooc discussion on how it doesn't fit into the mileau and/or was taken as an antagonistic attack. Why is it like that? It's only been getting worse over time, to the point where it feels like I am walking on eggshells for what to say, when I should be focused on roleplaying and advancing the plot.

It's all so tiresome.

>>195443
I already know that.
That wasn't really the point of the post.

I should be off Sunday and Monday this week, if that works with anyone else for continuing.

It's just been stressful...

I'm off today and Wednesday if anyone's interested

So apparently that faggot who told us we were “playing call of Cthulhu at best,” “dating sims are dumb,” “if you’re playing furred humans I want out,” and “every game I’m a part of becoming murder hoboing” has finally taken Cavaliere’s advice and actually started lurking. He’s pointed out a few legitimate issues that have not been addressed, but honestly I think they probably should be.

So first and foremost, let’s start off with something that should have been said two weeks ago: I am sorry Posey’s player. I was frustrated when the flow of combat was interrupted by a player leaving combat, and when I saw the insight rules I misinterpreted them for something else. Of course the more serious issue here is why is misinterpret those rolls, but unfortunately I don’t have an answer for that.

The second issue major issue is scheduling. Silver’s player in particular usually works night shifts, Possy and I both work day shift and spend more time on our phones at work than we should, and Cavaliere seems mostly available. But then I travel a decent amount and sometimes work takes more time. I think that going forward we should try to communicate what we anticipate our availability to be for the coming week or two.

The other thing is that I’d like to know how players wish to approach the end of the questline. I also have about three different endings and I’d sort of like to know where people think it is going or wish it is going to get an idea of which I should use. Then there’s also the plans for immediately after the conclusion. I have some ideas for follow up in Trottingham, but I do want to know what players want.

Also Sven I just need to find my last few posts, because I know what I had planned after Thad

>>195605
>I am sorry Posey’s player
Alright, I can accept that. I was pretty frustrated at the time too.
Let's just try not to get heated over minor miscommunications again.
>I think that going forward we should try to communicate what we anticipate our availability to be for the coming week or two.
Good idea.
>I’d like to know how players wish to approach the end of the questline
I would like to defeat the Intruder, which probably means either killing Light Water and/or destroying the Intruder directly; this is either an assassination of a humanoid, or some kind of monster boss fight. Light Water sounds easier to kill, so I would like to kill him at the earliest convenience.
Then I would like to use Monstro to drop the torpedo on the GRU ship to sink them. I have researched the rules for sinking ships, and I believe that torpedo should be enough. Total destruction with maximum casualties is my goal. I do intend to rank up my Destruction affiliation by razing an enemy stronghold this way.
After that, I would like to commandeer the Kostroma and sail back to Baltmare, towing the Torpedo ship alongside us. I intend to use my social skills (Intimidate, Bluff, Diplomacy, Charm) to seize control of the vessel, combined with the sailors having nowhere else to go. I already placed my Mark inside of Blackheel's nose to make him easier to control later.
>Then there’s also the plans for immediately after the conclusion.
At some point in this process, I would like to level up. I have been counting the approximate XP throughout the adventure, and according to my estimates we should have leveled up possibly several times, particularly Posey who is lvl 4 with bought-off LA and I would hope gets to approach the actual party level.

After we sail back to Baltimare, I would like to sell both ships and their cargo to the military. I intend to use the profits from it to find my research lab, my army and my other expenses.
Then I would like to extract additional payment from Captain Waters with the Airponies testifying that we performed above and beyond the call of duty, because fighting an Eldritch demigod with unlimited summons. As payment, I would like to negotiate for Level-appropriate equipment for adventurers of our level (per Magic Item Compendium Guidelines), to solve this party's problem with being under-equipped.

After all of this, I would like to take some downtime, possibly several months, to open my research lab and establish a proper base of operations and do various errands. Posey has only been in this country for one week, and she would like some time to get settled in if that adventure schedule allows.

>>195606
I typed all of that poorly, and it sounds like shit. It's midnight for me. I might try to articulate it better later.
Goodnight

>>195605
>Also Sven I just need to find my last few posts, because I know what I had planned after Thad
I am on.
Let's do some roleplaying if that's okay with you. I will go cereal mode. No fr fr. I'm sensing this will be difficult for me ^^, but I actually prefer to play Vir's story seriously, despite stuff I did.
Anyway, the reason for no roll-play is that I completely lost Vir's sheet. And no matter how many times I read through the rules and character creation, it just doesn't stick. idk what it is at this point ^^
So for now let's just play character stuff, I will try to use my words to get around things. I will eventually get back to re-learning the rules, just not up for it right now, sry.

Anyway, thanks for the post c:

When we attack Light Water, I would appreciate it if the martials stayed away from him for the first couple rounds and instead focused on keeping summoned monsters away from me, or shot him with ranged weapons. The reason is that I want to try to debuff him with some ranged AoE spells like Summoned Swarm (bats, for bleed damage, and to distract unintelligent momsters) or Kelgore's Grave Mist, but that could cripple anypony within 5 feat of him. Posey isn't affected by Grave Mist or Summon Swarm (it only targets living creatures), so she and monstro could take on the Frontline, but she will need help from the rear to neutralize summoned monsters that could disrupt her Concentration.

I somehow doubt it will be easy to rush him down and engage him in melee anyway. I at least want to render him exhausted or force him to waste actions trying to end the bleed condition with some ranged attacks.

>>195683 →
We got meta information the other week that suggests Light Water is the actual boss fight.
Blackheel agrees with me in-character.

If the Intruder itself turns out to be animate and capable of fighting on its own, it is at the very least relying on Light Water to do its decision making and perception at this point, so killing Light Water would weaken it and remove its ability to think tactically.

Why do you even want to attack the Intruder first anyway?

>>195686 →
By that, you are assuming that the Intruder itself is easier to defeat than Light Water and/or will not fight back, when it has been demonstrated to be all-but indestructible and capable of melting objects near it.
I do not envision any scenario where this whale-sized alien that has been foreshadowed for more than a year does not wake up and attack us directly as soon as we try to destroy it, so I want to get rid of its mage ally first.

We know that Light Water is "balanced for the entire party to fight", which means we can infer his level range. NPCs have CR equal to their HD, so he would be around lvl ~8 on the higher level end (if we are effectively a lvl 5 party and his fight is an "overwhelming" encounter) before considering monster allies or extra special powers. Creatures he summons during combat aren't calculated in the encounter level, but ones he summons before combat are.
Chances are that he will be a very difficult fight, but still a beatable fight with our party composition (some of us might die though).

You plan also has a flaw: although the Intruder isn't capable of moving on its own, Light Water is. If we attack the Intruder first, there would be nothing stopping Light Water from teleporting into the room so that we have to fight them both at once.

Sorry about the delayed response. Kira wants to gather up as many of the possessed creatures as possible into the cargo hold furthest away from the Traveler, seal up any open airways using the chromium the ship was carrying, and then call upon her god Ouroboros to use her as a conduit for His power to purge the Traveler's influence from the minds of the possessed creatures.

>>195684
>>195687
I have no illusions that the Intruder is going to be a difficult fight. However, I think it's going to be a hard fight regardless and "blinding" it will not help us much, or will merely exchange one challenge for another. The way I see it, fighting Light Water first and then the "weakened" Intruder alone will not be any easier than fighting a full-strength Intruder and a helpless Light Water. Going after Light Water separately means we will be fighting ponies with blades and guns as well as whatever he can do. That will use up all our healing supplies and might take several NPCs out of action, and then we have to go back down, fight more summons, and still deal with the Intruder somehow.

It's far more advantageous tactically to attack the Fellow Traveler at full strength. Then, so long as we win, it doesn't matter if we're weakened as we can subdue Light Water anyway. Our reward is also potentially greater because we have a better chance of capturing him alive.
>If we attack the Intruder first, there would be nothing stopping Light Water from teleporting into the room so that we have to fight them both at once.
Do we know if he can teleport? That's a specific spell not all unicorns know. And I don't think the Fellow Traveler's abilities it can bestow include teleportation.

>>195690
That's a third option....

>>195692
>Do we know if he can teleport?
Considering his profession, he has to be a spellcaster if some kind. If he is capable of lvl 3 spells he could use Dimensional Rift to teleport anywhere in this ship.

>>195692
>Our reward is also potentially greater
We already have the airponies to testify and confirm all of the shit we've been through.
>we have a better chance of capturing him alive.
I wasn't intending to keep him alive. I want his head. I'm going to hang it on my mantle in my new lair.
>Do we know if he can teleport? That's a specific spell not all unicorns know. And I don't think the Fellow Traveler's abilities it can bestow include teleportation
If he is a mage, you should assume that he has teleportation spells until proven otherwise.
Summoning isn't that different from teleportation either.

I really do want to rearrange my feats once I level you so that I can swap Magical Aptitude for Magical Heritage and be able to cast Prestidigitation, mostly for mane care.

>>195693
It's possible but we can't assume either way. My point still stands.
>>195694
>We already have the airponies to testify and confirm all of the shit we've been through.
Yes but they are observers whereas only Light Water has clear knowledge of what the Fellow Traveler is. His live knowledge is infinitely more valuable. Also from a lawful standpoint he needs to be brought back to be judged for his crimes.

>>195697
I can cast speak with dead and force his severed head to confess his crimes.

Light Water can move.
The Intruder cannot.
We should eliminate the one that can move.

>>195684
>>195687
As per the current way the quest line has been structured, yes, Light Water is to be taken first, but that's because the assumption is Light Water would be taken first. The main reason I wanted it that way was so that the structure of the ship could be used and explored. But that might just be tedious without that much reward.

>>195698
You'd be revealing your necromancer nature....
>>195699
Okay....
I really wanted to capture him alive but it won't be easy and I don't think anyone will seriously try

>>195701
You can definitely try to take him alive. This should be relatively easy if his health doesn't go below -9 or if he is Kira'd. You'd just need to keep Posey and Blackheel from delivering a killing blow. Assuming he is not at any risk of being eaten by Our Fellow Traveler