Café de Nuit

Thanks to an Area Code Overlay in my area my DSL service is becoming more and more unreliable. Updates will be delayed until the service is stabilized (estimated by July).

Ew. Tragic.

Here's hoping it's fixed soon.

High Priest Mikhal wrote: This is gonna be good reading. And it fits with the story; I don't want to reveal it all, but needless to say Thakok-An, as DL, detects Alexander all too easily and he ends up leading the templars away from Rudolph so he can do what he needs to do. I had already planned on a trip to an obsidian mine (for obsidian priest's bullets; unlike the ones in LM, these don't have an Attack penalty 'cause they're lighter and stronger). The Deadlands will be a nice little twist. Thanks, Tykus!

Not a problem. I also checked my files and I don't have anything else on the Deadlands beyond a few unofficial and official maps. I did put in a post on Wizard's other worlds board to flip (athas.org moderator) concerning Secrets of the Deadlands. Here's to hoping and good luck.

Since my thinkgeek.com T-shirt arrived I'm more able to predict when the WiFi bandwith is good (just go there and see ) I can update somewhat regularly. My signal integrity is still a game of roulette and gets worse the later in the day I go (not so good when you're nocturnal).

I've also picked up a copy of Persona 3 (how the hell did that one get by me? I've been a die hard fan since the first Persona game!) while I was reserving a copy of Alone in the Dark (I actually still have the original. Yes, I'm that old). So I may be off the boards for a while regardless of my new detection system.

And as for the Deadlands, I haven't been able to find anything more on them. The file Tykus referred me to did remind me an awful lot about the unique undead of Athas so I'm definitely working them in to a few encounters in the middle of the wastes.

EDIT: Never mind the delays. I had a "quiet talk" with my DSL provider after several aggravating experiences and my service has been fixed up to avoid...repercussions. Also Persona 3 is a game I'm going to wait to play; like wine, some games get better with age.

High Priest Mikhal wrote:And as for the Deadlands, I haven't been able to find anything more on them. The file Tykus referred me to did remind me an awful lot about the unique undead of Athas so I'm definitely working them in to a few encounters in the middle of the wastes.

From what I've been able to find out, Secrets of the Deadlands is "on hold indefinitely" until the 4th ed. system is secure (to paraphrase the response I got on the WOTC board.

High Priest Mikhal wrote: EDIT: Never mind the delays. I had a "quiet talk" with my DSL provider after several aggravating experiences and my service has been fixed up to avoid...repercussions. Also Persona 3 is a game I'm going to wait to play; like wine, some games get better with age.

Like Congo Bongo?

Ah, to have been a fly on the wall (or is it bug in a wiretap?) for that "quiet talk."

4e? I like the mechanics, but not really the fluff--especially this new universe. I liked the old Ring Cosmology of 2e. I have other issues with the new system (Con only modifies HP at 1st level? No extra skills for a high Int?) but I'm house ruling those out if I ever find another group. And as for the fiction, that will remain 3e until WotC puts out more (and I mean a LOT more) fluff and something akin to a ninja core class and Hunter of the Dead paragon path (I've seen beepaladin's Knight of the Raven paragon path on the Gleemax forums and I like it, so I might use that).

That "quiet word" was just one of thousands they'd received, actually. An awful lot of other people and businesses with Qwest are not happy about the performance as of late. They've agreed to keep the disruptions down during the day, but it gets real bad after six in the afternoon. Just when a lot of people are getting home and getting online no less. Coincidence?

I am curious on how Alex and Rudolph are getting to Kalidnay. In my campaign, Kalidnay has a number of Mistways but the other end is not necessarily any better: G'Henna (this is based on a location in G'Henna that had faels in it); Bluetspur, and Pharazia (I came up with this as the nomads are indicated as being psychic warriors and I needed a way for Kalidnay to get a hold of some iron beyond the occasional visitor andthey trade for Athasian silk). Don't forget, there are no horses on Athas.

Actually there are countless Mistways besides those listed, including more than a few temporary ones. I'm leaning towards a temporary, one-way Mistway in the forests of eastern Mordent that spits them out in Kalidnay (since how Van Richten got there is never established officially). And yes, I remember that horses don't exist on Athas. I'm also having a third NPC go with them, a wizard of some sort who can really showcase how magic and psionics are wholly different--and how Athasian magic is very different from traditional forms. Plus wizards can use magic to translate and without Alex around that's going to be necessary (the Polyglot epic feat is worth it in worlds like Ravenloft).

Alex is epic? I figured him for high-level.

Nice trick with the coppers.

It's sort of ironic that for such an isolated Isle of Terror (from an isolated world, no less) that it has surprising number of Mistways.

And just a random thought, I hate to think about what type of bogeyman would show up there. Athas' fey (what's left of them anyway) are just as unique as its undead.

If you go and look for the Shining Force entry in the Other Worlds part of the Gleemax forums you can find out his level and classes; not that such matters in fiction. He's as powerful as I choose to write him, which really isn't if he's unwilling to use his full abilities.

Kalidnay is one of those odd domains thrown in for color more than any real point. Ravenloft in 2e had domains from almost all the published worlds except Dark Sun, and so Kalidnay was born (I've still got the boxed set it was in). In fact it was from said boxed set that I learned of the full importance pertaining to water in a dry, dry world like Athas. As you'll read, simple acts can take on profound meaning when water is so precious.

High Priest Mikhal wrote:If you go and look for the Shining Force entry in the Other Worlds part of the Gleemax forums you can find out his level and classes; not that such matters in fiction. He's as powerful as I choose to write him, which really isn't if he's unwilling to use his full abilities.

Kalidnay is one of those odd domains thrown in for color more than any real point. Ravenloft in 2e had domains from almost all the published worlds except Dark Sun, and so Kalidnay was born (I've still got the boxed set it was in). In fact it was from said boxed set that I learned of the full importance pertaining to water in a dry, dry world like Athas. As you'll read, simple acts can take on profound meaning when water is so precious.

I know all about the reasoning behind Kalidnay (I've been playing since 1st ed.) and the curious sex change of Thakok-An when DoD came out. Personally, I love it. Kalidnay is a domain I have always loved but never had many opportunities to use. Hopefully, I should be able to work my current campaign into a trip to Kalidnay, after a visit to a few pockets.

At least the designers at the time came up with something original instead retconning Vorostokov to Birthright (Aebrynis? It's been so long.).

Birthright? I know the setting exists, but nothing else. How could Vorostokov be connected to it? Ah, never mind. I've never used the domain. Never was too interested in it. Now if I had details--especially the history and maps--of Nidala, the Phantasmal Forest, and Shadowborn Manor I'd love to do a few entries there. With the twisting of time when a person goes from plane to plane it's entirely possible Alex was in the first Heretic Wars and servered under Kateri Shadowborn against Ebonbane, that he knew Elena Faith-hold before she fell from grace, something to enrich his history pre-Abyssal enslavement.

High Priest Mikhal wrote:Birthright? I know the setting exists, but nothing else. How could Vorostokov be connected to it? Ah, never mind. I've never used the domain. Never was too interested in it. Now if I had details--especially the history and maps--of Nidala, the Phantasmal Forest, and Shadowborn Manor I'd love to do a few entries there. With the twisting of time when a person goes from plane to plane it's entirely possible Alex was in the first Heretic Wars and servered under Kateri Shadowborn against Ebonbane, that he knew Elena Faith-hold before she fell from grace, something to enrich his history pre-Abyssal enslavement.

As far as the Black Wolf's concerned, when DoD came out the designers gave a him a blood ability (only tainted, that is, very weak). Blood abilities in BR came from an old pantheon of gods that had died to stop their own evil brother. While the campaign world struck me as Charlemagne-era, the dead gods to which the blood abilities were tied, while having very unique names, their respective portfolios and symbols were very much Egyptian at it's core (which made me think that the initial designs for BR was to be an Egyptian-flavored world) [not to hard to imagine the pharaohs having the partial powers of a god].

I know I've got some maps of the domains in question for the Shadowlands, I'll just have to keep an eye out for them.

So that's what that bloodline power entry was about. I never figured that one out. Thanks.

Nuts. I thought I could find material on the Shadowborn on Paizo. Guess not. I wonder what the Mordentish Cartographic Society has?

The Lost Journals Compilation has been started, including massive spelling errors corrected (okay, so my skills have atrophied!) and format changes, as well as a huge chunk that got lost in the transfer from Gleemax over to here (the part after the Falkovnian woman is brought to Mordent up to the beginning of the Ashmond Manor). Well, it's late and my meds are finally beginning to kick in after four hours. So g'nite and may your dreams be as gruesome as a good game of Ravenloft.