resuming here...

Enjoy your Easter.  And the egg salad.  :)

In reply to Ardenas Barehand (msg # 2):

Happy Easter all.

Thank you. And same to all!

Anita corrected her gender pronouns in an edit!

might be onboarding a mage

In reply to Narrator (msg # 6):

Cool. Which group?

In reply to Christine Bjorn (msg # 7):

not sure, maybe one in or around town

happy eclipse day to those in the Western hemisphere!

may be adding a cleric to Tavern group!

In reply to Narrator (msg # 10):

62 pt cleric! On the cultist template?

I think we started with 75, didn't we?

Add clerical investment and power investiture and a slew of disads and it is 75 points.

Darius Wyrmley will be joining tavern in a little bit as soon as I have the sheet.

Devereaux might be converted to a PC and or we get someone else on the pilgrimage to autumn.

In reply to Narrator (msg # 14):

I also have this spare character if a guild member is needed anywhere.

Moving this here, I erroneously posted it in OCC 11, when I realized that some of our players in the Black Tower 3 had never been part of the original expedition.:

several years ago a group formed to find the mysterious black tower in the mountains between Valdassya and Aral.
They guarded a caravan through the mountain, spent a too brief time in Al-Menir, and unfortunately
lost half of the players involved along the way; Sorsha and Mischa, Gorgath, Burke, Shroud and Haveron all were lost in media res,
although Sorsha (and Mischa) waeredropped off in Al-Menir and Shroud changed hands three times, and Haveron twice.

The initial consultation with a sage led them to believe that the area was warded with magical tablets that cause peuople to avoid it, and even not look directly at it, and that there was either a trapped celestial bound with chains of silver or a powerful wizard known for collecting magical items.  In either case, it seemed that the defenses were failing.

When the group managed to get in, another player (Safwan the golem) joined in, and despite them telling everyone they had only a limited familiarity with portions of the tower, the group insisted on a tour led by the golem intro areas it did not know.  Treasure was repeated destroyed by fire,a nd searches abandoned due to attack and a desire to hunt fleeing foes.

That is the history of the Black Tower at this point.  No treasure rooms have been found, and a lot of loot ignored or allowed for the enemies to retreat with it.

I am not sure if we have Berry or Safwan at this point

Can Benito get a shipment of Gnomish Army Knives in?

Gnomish Army Knife          $100, neg weight, DF16, P17, replaces personal Basics

no discount; theyrolled 6 under.

In reply to Narrator (msg # 18):

What would it take to find the manufacturers? Gnomes, of course...

In reply to Narrator (msg # 16):

That's most enlightening, TY!

In reply to Benito Drake (msg # 17):

at list cost

by the way , I  was looking into Mystic Bolt, which several of you have- it has a minimum damage of 1 point, when the entry level of the power is 1d-3 damage

Yes, it always does at least one point of damage.

Alastrine, just to be sure you know, in this world (DFRPG, mostly) Earth to Stone only lasts 24 hours before reverting unless you spend a bunch of extra energy to actually make it permanent.  Shaping either one will last as long as the material can last (i.e. Earth, possibly only until the next hard rain, but shaped stone will stay for lifetimes, most likely), but transformed or created material is only good for 24 hours without significant extra effort.

I didn't know that so TY!

In reply to Alastrine (msg # 25):

So that will revert back to earth after 24 hrs. What effort, for example, would be needed to make that actually permanent?

Asking for a friend...
This message was last edited by the player at 05:34, Sun 21 Apr.

I don't have the DFRPG books, but I believe it's the same as GURPS:DF.  DF1 page 20 (right column, about halfway down the page) has Create spells only lasting a day, but doesn't give any information about spending extra energy to make them last longer.  The latter may have been a house rule or something added in DFRPG (or might be in Power Ups, which I don't have), but I'm sure I recall it from when Chou-Zhen was going to make gravestones by Shaping Earth then transforming Earth to Stone (after the battle with Pequenaud's troops) -- but wound up spending the energy to Shape Earth on natural stones at the higher energy cost because that effect would be permanent.

In reply to Chou-Zhen Mou (msg # 27):

Can Shape Earth on natural stones later be dispeled?

In reply to Alastrine (msg # 28):

Kromm had an article wherein it was stated that create spells need 10x energy to be permanent; this was to put a damper on the action economy of essential earth-earth to stone (metal) to create orichalcum - as those spells both take a 10x energy cost, the minimum cost for an unshaped urichalcum ingot is 100 FP and shaping it is even more, thus the +29 cf.

Shaping worked stone is more expensive than natural stone (2x cost), so shape stone would be otherwise permanant if the shape is natural- a column or wall will collapse after 1 minute; a large and lumpy slab would hold, but the cost of moving the cut stones of an iter would be double

Cool, will try to remember that!

maybe 3 new onboarding  a cleric for Autumn, a mage for double damned and msybe a junior clergyman for tavern.

We could certainly use a little healing or some undead repellent...

A healer would be welcome among us, too.

In reply to Shawn Nyseth (msg # 33):

So Devereaux is leaving for a custom mage? Nice...

In reply to Aoife (msg # 34):

yes Devereaux is an npc.

Well it makes sense. We do need a stronger magic user, especially since we need to find out who is ultimately behind the tiles.

In reply to Mancini (msg # 36):

be back on in a day or so

Hello fellow kids.  I hope to be joining you soon.  I don't want to give anything extra away, but I hope to add to your cohort as a member of the followers of the Dark Mother.

Welcome, Vexxara.  Hope you enjoy the game.  :)

Yep, he said it well! Welcome!!

In reply to Hannatti (msg # 40):

Yes, welcome. I hope you fit right in!

In reply to Christine Bjorn (msg # 41):

Vexxara, you can join in "The road to Autumn" as you hear a tremendous triple howl from further up the procession,
Just paste in a character sheet
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:32, Fri 26 Apr.

FWIW, candles were used in mines from the 13th century at least to detect bad air (flame would gutter or even go out if there wasn't enough oxygen) or dangerous gases (it would take on a blue mantle with high levels of carbon monoxide or methane).  After its invention in 1815, a Davey lamp, with the flame enclosed in a fine metal mesh, would give the same indications without the risk of igniting high concentrations of methane and causing an explosion.

Hello gentlemen. I wonder if the demon hunters would mind having a traveling mage join them?

This demon hunter, at least, would welcome the company of a capable mage with similar goals and values to our own.

In reply to Ardenas Barehand (msg # 45):

No objection here either. Just watch the short jokes...

In reply to Ardenas Barehand (msg # 45):

Very little Margery to compete here. Maybe I can learn a thing or two...

In reply to Sederic (msg # 47):

more folks onboarding, be back Tuesday.

No objections here. Hell, maybe I'll learn a new trick or two....

In reply to Vexxara (msg # 38):

Vexxara you can join the fight in On the Road to Autumn

Hello world.  Pleased to meet you.

Hi Che

In reply to Hannatti (msg # 52):

Hey Che. What can you do and where are you headed?

I'm a spy more than anything else Christine, but I'm not sure yet where I'm going

In reply to Che Beethoven (msg # 54):

A spy? We are murder hobos...who needs to gather intelligence?

In reply to Che Beethoven (msg # 54):

I am going to start Che off with some in-city intrigue once I check in with another applicant, I may throw them in together.

Speak for yourself, Christine.  Holy Sister and I may have lived as wanderers, but we're not murderers -- we're healers, in fact.

In reply to Evelina Grattan (msg # 57):

I was speaking for Gareth. Reanna would seem well suited if you are starting another thread...

I am going for a slightly different point scale-125 to 187ish

In reply to Narrator (msg # 59):

Oh, that is henchmen territory...Tonkin, Benny, Anita or Benito territory...but all of them are pretty busy right now. Reanna is only 266...

And there we have it. Seems I'm staying right here in Northport.

In reply to Ardenas Barehand (msg # 45):

Thank you. If anyone were so kind to make an effort and compile a very short story about what had been going on in the "Double Damned" thread, in order to save some time for GM (and for me, as I just don't have that much energy and time to read the whole lot of the posts here), I would be very grateful.

Devereaux the Merchant's guild liason contacted you by dreamsending to notify you that there is something going on in Northport involving mystic marked roof tiles that look like they were going to be used for some kind of massive planar summons.  This group, which has a ranking Adventurer's guild operative named Mancini and some kind of flaming haired celestial, along with a priestess of Minerva, a  monk, a leprechaun druid and a couple other operators, seems to have found plans of something big and magical and possibly demonic that probably needs  Mageguild intervention.
They meet at an inn called the Shady Lady.

Of course, you have just joined us and may not be aware of much of this.

I hope we're using Croatian for Orcish.  I'll edit if it's something else.

In reply to Che Beethoven (msg # 65):

that works. I was using Slovakian but that works.

Looks like a little "good cop, bad cop" in Ambush.  Hope it works out well; the sisters really don't want to be murder hobos...

In reply to Evelina Grattan (msg # 67):

Totally, but unless we are willing to follow through on bad cop, that may work against us.

Christine is...

The sisters won't be happy about it, and would like to be sure we've exhausted the "good cop" options, but if that's needful...

Ginger definitely sides with his newfound best friend.

In reply to Ginger (msg # 70):

Masugatan may not care either way, but he is under slight compulsion from his sword to make an end of them.

This message was deleted by the player at 20:17, Mon 06 May.

Okay boss, I added a player sheet and avatar, I'll start trying to figure things out in the morning! ;-) Thanks for the add, I think! ;-)

lets go for around 187-195 points

In reply to Narrator (msg # 71):

!87-195 points to construct, okay. Do we wish to use a private thread so we don't annoy others?

In reply to Yngvar Yragerne (msg # 75):

use the rtj thread we already have

In reply to Narrator (msg # 76):

Speaking of Character sheets, should my Ally Crispin have his own?

In the Village has been pretty quiet for a while.  Are you waiting for us GM?

In reply to Kichiro (msg # 78):

I am sorry will get on that directly.

OMG, I just had to edit a post when I realised that predictive text thinks my name is Cheryl.

Fun with AI!

Or AS in the case of what's on my phone. S being the opposite of I

There's an entire subReddit (or is it a sub-site on Cheezburger?) for "Damn you, autocorrect!"

I've never been to Reddit, it pains me to admit.

You may be better off for it.

be back on tomorrow

In reply to Narrator (msg # 86):

Is Reddit a town in the US somewhere? Pretty sure it is not a state...

No, none of those... some sort of open posting site.

Nah, it's in England.  It's where Harry Styles was born.  I'm told he's quite famous.

In reply to Che Beethoven (msg # 89):

Lol, they lied. Not sure what Harry's style was, but I have never heard of it!

I just googled him.  Apparently he was in a pop group by the name of Wand Erection.  Hmm, sounds like something to do with Harry Potter.

be back on tomorrow, was visiting my mother and aunt.

back tomorrow.

First time I read this, I read it as Ithanalin's Restoration -- which is a novel by Lawrence Watt-Evans, one of his Ethshar stories.

currently reading those! where I got the idea

And apparently there have been several additional novels since that one, which is the last I have in paperback.  Paperbacks are so expensive now, though...

Up to $18 for a trade paperback!

And that's the other thing -- what happened to mass market paperbacks?  My shelves are built for (several hundred of) those; a trade book just messes up my shelving system.  And those were already high when mass market books were still only starting up the slope.

And now, even Kindle format is up, for books that come through a traditional publisher; I see new work for $16.99 for a book I wouldn't even actually own (Amazon can pull a Kindle book right off your reader any time it's connected to wifi -- use software like Libre to make backups of anything the least bit controversial you read on Kindle and learn how to side-load).  My partner is an author on Kindle Direct Publishing, and sells for no more than $6.99 for books up to 100,000 words or so (less for shorter work), and puts everything on Kindle Unlimited (and for 100,000 words, makes more on KU than if you bought the book).

The other problem is that Watt-Evans (or his publisher) doesn't seem to put his books on KU at all, demonstrating that they still don't understand how this stuff works.  No, of course you can't make $16.99 when someone reads a 60,000 barely-a-novel, but you get MANY more reads, which means more readers will look for your next book, or your backlist that they haven't seen already, and some few will buy the book after reading it on KU.  Gatekeeping stuff like this is like pricing eggs at $15 a dozen.  Your margin is huge, but you don't sell many eggs...

I don't sell many 'eggs' either and mine are sold at £0.99

In reply to Ardenas Barehand (msg # 98):

His current publisher, Wildside Press seems to be (to me) almost a PoD vanity joint which would explain their prices.

That would explain their cover design (pretty garish, albeit representational, at least for Ithanalin).

On the other hand, there are a bunch of new publishers who've popped up over the last decade or so who publish mainly in ebook format, though, sometimes with a sideline in POD dead-tree (which are almost always trade format).  Searching his name on Amazon shows his books for sale at mostly reasonable prices ($5 to $7 each for Kindle format), albeit without a KU option.  Looks like I'm going to have to find a series list and start catching up on my Ethshar -- and look at some of his other works, since it seems like he's been busy since I last bought paperbacks on any regular basis.

My other big-volume author, Barbara Hambly, has a publisher who thinks $16.99 for a Kindle book is reasonable, which makes it really hard to read her stuff (at least one more Benjamin January novel -- 1840s New Orleans as lived by a free black man -- one or two more each Darwath and Ferryth stories after what I have on the shelf, one more vampire novel that I know of).  I was paying $6.99 to $8.95 for mass market paperbacks when I got broke for a while (and then all the local bookstores closed)...

Restoration, canonically by Magic, requires Major Healing, which requires Magery and Minor Healing, which requires Lend Vitality, which requires Lend Energy, which requires either Magery or Empathy.  DFRPG, by making those Clerical spells requiring only Power Investment (Clerical), removes the prerequisite chain, but also bars them from wizards...

Indeed. Gareth has a number of points spent in non-useable spells that are part of the prerequisite chains for necromancy; effectively being just alternate path perks.  This book is an artifact and one needs to retain possession of it in order to spend the remaining points in order to access an otherise clerical spell.  It effectively is power investiture useable on a single spell, hence, a perk.

In reply to Ardenas Barehand (msg # 101):

Look into borrowing ebooks from you local library system.  Although lesser known authors are hit and miss, you might get lucky and be able to read a book for free instead of having to pay for it.

I already pay $10 a month or so for Kindle Unlimited, all the books I can read as long as the author or publisher has made it available (they get paid by the page when the book is read).  The local library in my town/county is pretty country, but I'll admit the only time I've visited is to vote (early voting for my area is there).  Perhaps I should drop in and see what they have in circulating ebooks.

Sadly, few of my preferred authors are best sellers (I found most of them through short-term promotions on Book Bub), so they're less likely to land on the local library's lending list if they even have ebooks.

I'm not that fast a reader (or don't have that many reading hours), so I'm not sure KU is an actual bargain for me, but it lets me try authors I probably wouldn't have taken a chance on if I had to pay full price for a book (I'm also not one to take full advantage of Amazon's return policies -- because my partner publishes on Amazon, I know returns come directly out of the self-published author's pocket).

If you were anywhere in new york state you could get NYPL and BPL cards free and borrow ebooks.

Unfortunately, North Carolina is largely overrun with barbarians.  Folks who intentionally drive the biggest truck they can afford, even if they never put anything in the bed, and if it's a diesel will buy illegal "rolling coal" kits for them and then park them in front of an electric car charger.  I wouldn't be surprised to find the library system in my county doesn't have ebooks at all, though I hope they do.  The state library system, I know nothing about; I've done almost nothing with libraries since I moved here (got out of the habit when I lived in Seattle, and the libraries were annoying to get to and I didn't have time to read a book in a two week checkout).

shaking my head at that.

I am not sure Suleiman is still with us.

anyway, 83k!

Just stop by a library when you get a chance and get a card.  Once you are in the system, there is a big bunch of resources that you can access online.   No need to go back to the brick and mortar location.

In reply to Narrator (msg # 103):

Just two, Lend Vitality and Minor Healing. The book would require two more, Major Healing and Restoration, making a total of 5 points for the single spell. Of possibly more concern is the weight of the book, given Gareth is a bit of a wimp, physically.

In reply to Ardenas Barehand (msg # 107):

One of the things (maybe the only thing) I'm really grateful for in England is the large number of public libraries.  Back in the late seventies there was a suurvey of public libraries worldwide in terms of libraries per thousand people.  I can't remember the exact number but the top three were the UK, Switzerland and USA in that order.  The UK had ten times as many books per thousand as Switzerland, Switzerland had ten times as many as the USA and the USA had ten times as many as the 180-something other countries in the world combined.

I think our numbers have decreased massively since then but closing libraries is an even bigger election loser than closing hospitals so there's always an increase just before the general elections - our next being 4th July this year so I daresay our numbers will be going up temporarily over the next six weeks.

whelp. Wife and I just got Paper Mario.
I will be away from computer for a few days.

Have fun.  Enjoy the long weekend.