Calendar (Summer 2016)

[Mike]

You're a good friend.

We're still using Illian as dragon-fodder though.

[Eliahad]

Well, other than dragons don't eat carrots, I'm fine with that.

[DMDarcs]

[Eliahad]

I now know my schedule for the tour I'm headed out on and I will be late on Thursday. I'll be in CST, so my show being at 7:30 makes it possible I'll get there on time. But I don't know what sort of after show things will be taking place. I also don't know what the hotel connection will be like...but given past experience it should be okay. So...I should be able to get there eventually is what I'm saying.

[Zen]

[Mike]

[Zen]

[Eliahad]

[Elle]

Given what happened last night I just want to make clear to y'all: there will be times later this fall when I might not make it to the game, and you DO have my permission to use Dwyn sensibly as an NPC and if she dies, she dies. I will make another character and it will be okay. I realize this is just a game and all, but I just about peed myself when it became clear we were letting Illian be used for bean-bag games on death's door. I don't want any of you to worry if that happens to Dwyn someday.

[Tahlvin]

I wouldn't say we were LETTING him get used that way. I'm not saying the NPC Illian was played the same way his player would have played him, but everyone else's reaction to his danger certainly wasn't callous. And heck, when there was a critical hit and probably a couple near-critical hits on Eldthor, I was pretty sure I was going to end up having to roll up a new character myself.

As long as he isn't played recklessly, like sort of plot-line from Knights of the Dinner Table, Eldthor can certainly be played as an NPC any time I am unavailable. And if he dies, I won't hold it against anyone.

[Mike]

Dothan can also be used as an NPC any time I'm unavailable if the need arises. And if she gets hurt in any way, then I will seek righteous retribution upon all your houses! You will all rue the day you allowed harm to come to my precious Dothan. Whatever works.

[Elle]

You are right, we weren't really letting that happen (and any of us could have been damaged the same way, like Eldthor was - Dwyn took huge damage but just has a lot of HP to spare!) but I do feel bad for not saying something or sticking closer to him, which might have helped a bit. We also kind of charged in there stupidly without e.g. setting up traps or doing anything else tricky or strategic, which was a bit lazy on our part.

[Bluedevyl]

I don't think Illian was played that differently from the way he normally engages. I think we had a couple unfortunate crits on him that did more damage than we were prepared for, but Illian does frequently wade into combat a little... recklessly... at times with the intent to protect his party members. Anna was on her own against at least 2 stone giants, and I just saw it as though Illian was coming to her rescue or to try to take some of the heat off. I, like Eldthor, was pretty sure that 2 swings from those giants were going to end Anna, and I'd be rolling up a new character in these two weeks.

I'm totally fine with anyone playing Anna as an NPC or what have you if I can't make it to a session, as long as it seems to be in keeping with how she generally behaves. If I end up reading the transcript and she died like jumping onto a passing dragon with a dagger in her teeth, I might be mildly annoyed, but other than that, it's totally fine by me.

I also agree that I think we were a little overconfident going into the encounter and just figured we could handle it, which I was pretty sure we could. I rather enjoyed having my personal sense of invulnerability cracked. I mean, we took out a dragon last time, and it didnt do anywhere NEAR the damage that the giants did.

Very much looking forward to next time.

[Elle]

Now, if you want Dwyn to leap upon a dragon with a dagger in her teeth and she dies, that's ok, but make sure the description is AWESOME.

[Bluedevyl]

I was going to say, if any one of us was going to be doing any dragon-jumping, it would DEFINITELY be Dwyn.

[Zen]

Kay is overconfidence personified. The fact that she didn't get hit in the combat while watching others, including her husband, get hurt badly, shook her pretty badly. (A little bit of guilt about her fighting style... This flitting in and out of combat thing is handy for not getting hurt, but she really wants to be able to do more damage, like with Storm Step...)

[Mrs.Darcs]

Pat knows to do what he must with Samaidriel. He also has to live with me if he does something with her that I wouldn't approve of so there's that.

[Eliahad]

So I haven't really responded to any of this stuff yet. I really wish I could have been there! The internet connection at the hotel was lame and unreliable.

I'm glad Illian is alive! And I trust that he was played well and close to how I would have handled things. It's challenging when someone can't be there and you needed him to be there for this particular encounter. I haven't read the transcript yet. I might not get the opportunity, but it sounds like we were over-confident after thwarting the dragon (and several of our last major encounters) so easily and bit off more than we could chew. It's good for us to know that we aren't invulnerable, and I hope that there are group lessons to be learned here and not just Illian lessons.

I will be there next Thursday. It's going to be awesome.

[Mike]

If the giants hadn't doubled our team's number of crits, you guys would have won by a fair margin. Unfortunately, they had good dice.

Which still means that we went in with a little too much confidence. If the odds are in our favor at 70%, that still means almost a 1 in 3 chance of something going terribly wrong. That's a game of Russian Roulette that we shouldn't have gotten in on.

[Elle]

True... hindsight says we should have laid some traps for them so that they were tangled up or otherwise thwarted somehow upon waking. We also should have hidden our ranged folks in the trees and let only the ground forces reveal themselves, and we should have stayed in formation. I can understand it because maybe we thought that flying would create maneuverability and obviate the need for other forms of preparation. Still, I'm glad we tried it and I still want to hunt these giants down, because my guess is that the raiding party is going to be followed by an even bigger war party, and I'd rather risk it with small numbers of giants than see the whole town overrun by large numbers of them. This might be the only way we can raise real doubt in "M"s mind about how to proceed. Or maybe it buys us time to figure out what he was looking for, find it ourselves, and thus divert him from concern about the innocent people in Sandpoint.

The important thing is that - hopefully! - Illian is saved and his leg is going to be mended! Dave I hope we didn't do too many stupid things to put you at risk! But yes, it's going to be awesome next time.