Session 93.5

Chancel_Amyra
Chapter 11

BethE: Hi Knock. *HUG*
Knockwood: Hiya Beth
Random_Nerd: So, hmm. Do we try to have a short session, or just discuss the game a bit and call it a night?
lazarus: well, what do we want to do in terms of players?
Knockwood: who'd have to leave first?
BethE: Possibly me. Because of work tomorrow.
Random_Nerd: I'm moderately tired, but not enough that I can't run a game if you guys prefer.
Random_Nerd: Not sure which I prefer myself.
Knockwood: ...hm ... discuss, then?
Random_Nerd: Hmm. Okay. What do you guys think of the way the game's been going of late?
BethE: Discuss works. I have a question: What do you think Dante would feel if he found out that his past self (as Blades) was responsible for all this at the moment?
lazarus: I'm enjoying things, I think, still. I'm not sure where we get this whole "Past Self = instigators" business from
Knockwood: hm...
Knockwood: probably try to fix things. (For varying values of 'fix'.)
Knockwood: I mentioned last time the Pascal's Wager aspect of this...
BethE: I think it might have come from one of the times you missed due to sick, Laz. When we just did discussing.
Knockwood: ...which, it occurs to me, is what Barakiel was doing
BethE: I'm having fun with it.
Random_Nerd: I think Barakiel was more doing the "Well, if it goes wrong, odds are there won't be anyone left alive to complain." thing.
lazarus: (aside: I never noticed that Dwarf Fortress's world generation includes total number of dead people before)
lazarus: My impression of the timing of the whole thing is that it is /after/ the previous Blades.
Random_Nerd: How satisfied are you, Knock, with the way the "previous Blades" thing worked out?
Knockwood: it's still in the process of working out, isn't it?
Random_Nerd: Yeah.
Knockwood: so, is pre-Blades the guy who started the Cult?
Random_Nerd: But about 60% of the core details have been laid out.
Random_Nerd: Maybe!
Knockwood: did Blades get split off Azazel?
Random_Nerd: Well, what do you mean by "split off"?
Knockwood: you're right, let me clarify...
BethE: Rescued in a nonrescue way>
BethE: ?
Knockwood: was Blades as a separate Estate Azazel's idea, or was it a forced split or steal?
Random_Nerd: It was not his idea.
Random_Nerd: The shift from "weapons and armor" to "blades and courage" was a side effect of the transition between Imperators, which was not Azazel's idea.
Random_Nerd: Well, I guess it's possible that he tricked Kudzu into it as part of a mssively complex centuries-spanning plan, but that's a bit nutty.
Knockwood: so's Kudzu. :)
BethE: (Is the loathing of the weapons used on the giant due to Cult or something special?)
Random_Nerd: (Due to the cult. Since the Gift is based on a miracle of what's now Dante's estate, it works wrong around the cult in a manner similar to how your miracles would.)
lazarus: (Figured that's what was going on :p)
Knockwood: hm... the Cult 'worshiping' Kudzu was helped by the son of Azazel...
Random_Nerd: So it appears.
Knockwood: and it is specific to Kudzu since it's messing up all our miracles
BethE: Being chained up and bled = help?
Random_Nerd: That, plus they thought you were going to eat him.
Random_Nerd: Weren't quite clear on why, but it seemed to make sense when "you" told them it.
Knockwood: which fits Kudzu's Consumption thing
Random_Nerd: True. He likes to eat things, including himself at times.
BethE: What I don't get is why, if this is connected to Blades Mk 1...why were 'we' in the dream?
Random_Nerd: True, that is odd.
lazarus: i don't think it was ever previousBlades. Besides, cults are (by RN's statement) generally about the Imperator, and not any one Noble
Knockwood: unless they're somehow going through the Estates themselves
Knockwood: i.e., it's not that it sounds like us but rather they both sound like, say, Blades
BethE: Or if the cult ever met the Nobles of our Estates after we die, they might have seen 'them'. That they're seeing the embodiment of our Estates and not _us_.
lazarus: ?
Knockwood: the giant said he was taken from Babylon, tho...
Knockwood: was he speaking Babylonian?
Random_Nerd: No. He was speaking English. Weird accent, but English.
BethE: Wouldn't matter anyway, since we understand all languages.
Random_Nerd: True, but you would be able to tell at least that it wasn't one that you were familiar with.
Knockwood: yes it would... if he's actually Babylonian, then the Cult is several millennia old
BethE: Laz - in that...okay, so Theresa is both Theresa and Plants. If you saw Plants in a dream, would you see Theresa, the concept of Plants or whoever is Plants at that point in time.
Random_Nerd: I don't know if you can /recognize/ all language, but you can at least speak them.
Random_Nerd: What makes you think the cult is as old as him?
Random_Nerd: He thought he'd been there less than a year.
BethE: It could be that he's been knocked out for longer than he knew.
Random_Nerd: True.
lazarus: I think that there's definite overthinking that's going on right now
lazarus: Excrucians are the "Occam" answer.
Knockwood: OK, I'll grab our handy-dandy howiutzer
Random_Nerd: A corrupted cult means that the Excrucians were involved at some point, at least.
Random_Nerd: And you know that at least a shard of a Deceiver was actively working with some of them in this town.
lazarus: like, say, giving them the impression that they're us, that we need a giant, and all kinds of other things Deceivers do.
Random_Nerd: Although, of course, one odd thing is that a while back, you /did/ need a giant.
Random_Nerd: You just got a different kind of one.
lazarus: yep
lazarus: and the giant /was/ to be consumed.
lazarus: so, well.
BethE: True, last time we were in town, we needed one. Uhh...can the Cult pick up on our wants and needs when we're nearby?
BethE: We didn't know if he was to be consumed. We guessed.
Random_Nerd: But that was your theory at the time, I believe.
lazarus: *thinks* oh, right.
Random_Nerd: Not that you would eat him, of course.
lazarus: they got the orders before we showed up, though, they claim, right?
BethE: Not _this_ one. I'd be afraid I'd pick up his attitude.
Random_Nerd: Yes, they do claim that.
Knockwood: (Mental note: we should start next session by shaking down the cultists for info)
Random_Nerd: So, either it's unconnected, or there's timewonkery, or someone knew you were going to be asked for a giant before you did.
BethE: (What's left of them.)
lazarus: Kudzu perhaps did.
BethE: Or someone who knows Kudzu well.
lazarus: on the other hand, he seems like the kind to just go "oh, you want a task. Um. Uh. Fetch me ... a GIANT!"
Knockwood: a-ha! This is another test from Kudzu!
Random_Nerd: What isn't?
Knockwood: There never was a Cult, it's just Kudzu when he's pissed off from losing at tennis.
Random_Nerd: In fact, the whole reason the Excrucians came to Creation was to test you guys.
BethE: He kidnapped the son of a fellow Imperator, whom he had already ticked off by filching an Estate from, just to test us?
Random_Nerd: Kudzu asked them to.
Random_Nerd: The whole Valde Bellum is just a smokescreen.
lazarus: That would make an intriguing plot :p
BethE: ... Where' my crutch...
Knockwood: that's it, we were never enNobled, this is all some goofy Japanese game show!
lazarus: battletoads!
Random_Nerd: That's right! Now, tell him what he's won!
Knockwood: any minute now we're going to get a year's supply of miso soup
lazarus: mmm... miso
BethE: Theresa would like to go back to her kiddy class then, please. Oh, reminds me. I'm pondering about getting John a heir as a Theresa pet-project.
Random_Nerd: ...how?
Knockwood: doesn't he have kids?
Random_Nerd: No. He has a nephew, who's currently his heir.
lazarus: "You see, Random_Nerd, when a man and a woman love each other very much ..." *trails off* :p
Random_Nerd: He doesn't really do well in long-lasting relationships. He's fairly well-liked, but he's also a quiet and private guy with a job that takes up most of his time and attention, and the king thing just makes it awkward.
BethE: Various ways! *ticks them off* Get John a girl, they have the sex, they have an heir. Or we could grow John one. Or sperm bank him.... See, the problem in all of this is the Treasures and whether they would approve of any of this, but then again, do they want a son or a nephew.
Knockwood: (Careful, Beth, we never resolved the plot point started when I picked up the spear...)
BethE: (True.)
Random_Nerd: Hmm. What do you think of John as a character? My goal was to make someone who was an interesting character, but wouldn't really challenge you guys for rulership of Amyra.
BethE: Oh and by grow one, I mean grow one. Plant/human hybrid. Or photosynthesizing royalty!
BethE: I like him. He's interesting. And he freaks out in cool ways.
Knockwood: He's... full of surprises. :)
Random_Nerd: Oh? How so?
lazarus: i like him. (i also seem to be abou 3/4 asleep x_x)
Random_Nerd: (We can stop if you're too tired.)
BethE: He turned down being a Noble and _lived_. Without being cursed anymore than having to deal with us.
Random_Nerd: And may that be a lesson unto him!
BethE: ^^
Random_Nerd: At least the Egyptians only had to deal with plagues of locusts and frogs and death of the firstborn and so on. He got a plague of /PCs/.
lazarus: :p
Knockwood: goofy ones. too. :)
lazarus: no "should I?" filters
Knockwood: name one Noble with such a filter
lazarus: true
BethE: Plus we're Wild.
Knockwood: and so's our Imperator. :)
lazarus: but not fishmalks. yet.
Knockwood: give it time
Random_Nerd: So, any questions or comments before we call it a night?
lazarus: what do we want to do about players?
BethE: I can't think of anything at the moment.
Knockwood: yeah, any leads on new guys?
Random_Nerd: I do have one, actually.
Random_Nerd: He's not sure if the schedule will work for him, but was interested.
lazarus: RPGnet guy or someone else?
Random_Nerd: Yeah. I forget his handle there, though, as I actually talked to him through WoW. But I know he's from the forum.
lazarus: wow have global ids?
Random_Nerd: The topic of Nobilis came up and he mentioned he had it but hadn't had a chance to use it, and since I knew he was a sane and articulate guy, I thought he would make a good contrast^H^H^H^H addition to the group.
lazarus: :p
Random_Nerd: Well, he was on the server that most rpg.netters use.
lazarus: I mean, like in CoX, you talk based on @globalid rather than character name. Most RPGnet CoXers have globals relating to their RPGnet ids.
Random_Nerd: I don't think you have account-wide IDs on it.
BethE: We sometimes talk there about the irc games RN and I am in (mostly getting the response of '4 different games, when do you have time/wah, wish I could play that much!.)
Random_Nerd: None of the functions I can think of that one would expect to use them actually do.
lazarus: *nod*
lazarus: one of the things I miss about CoX in Guild Wars is the globals. The other is the custom channels.
lazarus: ...
Random_Nerd: But on the other hand, the guild records list people by rpg.net name.
Knockwood: laz: you're on CoH/V?
lazarus: I think I'm very looking forward to Champions Online
lazarus: kwd: I used to be. Decided I wasn't really having fun anymore. Stopped.
lazarus: Champions looks, based on what they're saying, to be more like what I was expecting
Knockwood: ...was that Hero Games' other big annnouncement?
lazarus: yah.
lazarus: They sold Champions and Dark Champions to Cryptic (who made CoX, and who seem to be using their Marvel MMO stuff to build Champions) and licensed it back for RPG purposes
lazarus: I'll definitely be taking a look at both Hero 6 and COMO.
lazarus: (sorry, COMMO)
Knockwood: how long before the Big Event Attaris mentioned?
Random_Nerd: I'd have to look back in the notes, but... seven months or so, I think?
Knockwood: uhhhhhh... yeah!
Random_Nerd: Oh, until it started.
Random_Nerd: Mmm...
Random_Nerd: I are tired. Brain am not make good thinky?
Knockwood: In that case, could you add up our XP? :)
Knockwood: I don't remember if I had 40 or 50.
lazarus: (google Image search for keetom, and rpgnet avatars, and Guild Wars pop up.)
lazarus: (no actual keetoms :()
Knockwood: (Oddly enough, I don't see my sunglasses-keetom RPG.net avatar)\
Random_Nerd: Okay, anyone mind if I head out now?
Knockwood: vas-y
lazarus: DF Core52 = mouse mode!
BethE: Night, guys. *HUGS*

Chancel_Amyra
Chapter 11