An agreement is reached, HP status and healing
Subject Opinions are voiced
Salix stands as Harp and the renegade Elf return to the main chamber. He listens as Harp speaks about his conversation with Kal, glad that he knew Harp from their previous adventure. Otherwise, he might think the 1/2 Orc had been duped by Kal's twisted logic. As it is, he knew Harp was caught in a hard place. He had a mission to accomplish and this dissention would not make that easier. He was trying to make peace. It must be the 1/2 Orc side of him that blinded him to the seriousness of Kal's offense. So Salix holds his tongue until Harp is finished.
Surprisingly, before Salix can respond, Harp steps toward him and with a massive hand firmly on Salix's shoulder, turns him and moves him a bit from the others, clearly wanting their words to be private. This must be where Harp will tell Salix that Kal's days are numbered, he thinks.
"Salix, my friend, I don't know what to say. I see this whole place as one big test. I don't know if the creatures we are going to meet are good, bad, devious, lonely, whatever. All I know is that I have to finish this mission or the possible evil to the world is one hell of a lot greater than a few dead bodies here. Who even knows what happens to these creatures when they die. Maybe they are sent to where ever there god resides, all happy in his presence. I dont care about the plunder, though if we were to find a potion of healing or two in this place, that I would take. I cannot force you to continue with us, but I would just ask you one thing - what would Storm Father Acer counsel you to do?"
Salix is dumbfounded. If Harp really didn't know the seriousness of Kal's actions, was he fit to lead this group? Hadn't he just told Harp what Kal had done? The conversation while the others were back in the 2nd test room had been quick, maybe he hadn't appropriately conveyed the nature of Kal's recklessness.
"Harp, before I go further I must know whom you serve. Is it a god of mindless slaughter? It is a god of expediency? If it is, I might as well be helping the god of the Orcs." He pauses wondering from the look on Harp's face if he had gone too far. He takes a step back before continuing, but raising his voice so the others can hear. If he was going to make Harp mad enough to strike him, he wanted witnesses as to what it was he had said.
"You want to pass the test of this place. Remember the poem on the wall there. 'But if you succeed, be on your knees, when you meet The Master, He that sees.' If this were a test of kill, get key, kill, get key, kill, get key, why should we care if the Master "sees" us? Why be on our knees? Why even meet the master at all? We would have proof by simply having the keys that we were worthy of them. Why the further judgment? It can only be *because it matters to The Master HOW we get these keys*. What would Stormfather Acer counsel me to do? He would counsel me to lend all my resources to this endeavor not all of which have been honed for drawing blood. He would tell me that *my* skills were needed or I would not be here. If all you need is another killing machine, your order could have sent any number of their own on this quest.
"I'm afraid, Harp. I'm very afraid that we have failed this test already. No just god could look kindly on blind slaughter perpetrated under the guise of parley. I want to lay the murders of those creatures solely on Kal's feet, but I don't know that we can. We are here as a group. My actions, your actions, Kal's actions, they all speak of who we are as a group. Kal has declared us agents of chaos and deceit. By his actions, we are here to exterminate and plunder, not to show our skills at solving a divine puzzle. I know the creatures he brought down have a reputation for "evil" among many, and I suspect we would have come to blows and probably had to kill them at some point, but the point is we didn't even try."
Salix pauses a moment, then continues more quietly, "I will continue to the end of this test with you, Harp. Maybe the God of this place will see things differently or maybe one failure isn't enough to fail us completely, I don't know. I am here to lend my skills to complete the test as a servant of Obad Hai. Stormfather Acer would not counsel me to abandon the teachings of my Order to serve the whims of this place, if they are indeed the whims Kal seem to think they are. So if I pass my part in this test, it will be as a servant of Obad Hai pledged to help you where your needs do not conflict with the tenets of His Order. If you are to pass this test, you will have to understand what is required of one in your role in this. I am willing to continue with you, with or without the murderer, but I will not have him with me to ruin my attempts to avoid needless slaughter if you see fit to ask that of me again. I cannot trust him. What he did was evil. It is not made right by 'I'm sorry' "
From: Mark
Subject agreement
Ok guys does it seem like most eveyone is back on the same page? Kal's fate will be held off until after this quest is over? I will not be able to do a turn until late this after noon or early this evening, so any other RP you want to do to get things tied up is fine.
From: Porter
Subject agreement
We are certainly not at a resolution. Mund just challenged the truthfulness of what Harp said, asking if Kal will admit his mistake and apologize to Mund. Things could go in very different directions depending on Kal's reaction.
Also, Salix said that he's not willing to have Kal as a companion anymore.
It seems pretty obvious that we cannot just go on to the next door yet.
From: Kevin
Subject Agreement
OOC: Much as it pains me, I have to agree with Porter. Kal's response to Mund will be key.
I am also going to try and write up a response from Harp to Salix. It probably will not be until early evening though. I do not see us getting to the next door before the weekend.
From: Randy
Subject Agreement
OOC: I hope you will also write up a response to Ranthir as well. His issues may have been sparked by Salix but they may not be resolved in the same way.
I have to say that I feel like we could spend days on this conflict and that wouldn't bother me at all. This is by far my favorite part of the game and I think we are seeing some great role playing, though I can see why Alistair, Ragnar, and Surin might not be having quite as much fun.
From: Karl
Subject Agreement
Show of hands, is this boring anyone? I'm enjoying the "events" of the game very much (thank you Mark), but I'm enjoying the character development as much, if not more. I've enjoyed the storylines of all three games I've played, but the real jewels of the game, (and I suspect the reason the DMs like PBEM) are the character turns. Anyway, that's just IMHO. If people want to speed up the action. . .'
What do you guys think?
From: Porter
Subjec: Agreement
I think they are both important. Too much character development without action and events to progress that development is boring, but I don't think we're in danger of that here. We've got the action that happened, and now we're dealing with the fallout from that. Either this fallout will lead to more action, or it will die down to the point where we can continue with the previously scheduled adventure. Either is great. :)
From: Randy
Subject Agreement
I agree with Karl. I am really enjoying the inner conflict here at least as much as the outer action. I am intrigued to find out where Mark is leading us, but I don't want to skip out on the great turns that are being written all around. I don't think we have been moving too slowly though I acknowledge that there is a possibility that some of the players less involved in the current conflict my feel otherwise.
From: Jason
Subject Agreement
I'm agree. Clearly there will be plenty of action by the time we collect all the keys, so taking a break to do some RP in the middle of the dungeon sounds great. Ragnar's not too worked up, just a bit disappointed, but I think the rest of the reactions are very interesting. We're just lucky all the doors apparently lock from our side :)
From: Mark
Subject Agreement
Ok I bow to the desires of the players. :)
Like I said this is not really a problem for me. You guys write all this great stuff and I sit back and relax for a while.
Just a note. Kevin has an idea of how big this place is. For those of you who are thinking that in real life terms we will be here for several weeks, think again.
This place is about 120,000 square feet. You have explored only 4-5,000 square feet of it. Just the tip of the iceberg. I can see this taking months of real life time to get through.
Not that that bothers me, but you guys are going to be here for a while.
So Kevin, Randy, Porter, Josh and Karl can go ahead and work this out.
I figure that if/when you all get bored by the RP you can let me know and I can start back up.
From: Karl
Subject Agreement
Well, technically, Salix felt that he was "in charge" of the little parley event back there and that Kal ruined it. He was expressing to Harp that he would not be in such a position in the future if it included Kal. In other words, if the same thing plays out at the next door, either Kal stays back with Harp, or Salix stays back.
But I agree that we don't seem ready to move on to the next door.
From: Kevin
Subject Agreement
Karl, how dare you steal my idea. You must have snuck into my litte brain and picked up where I was going to try and go with this. I will still probably do this.
I have no problem RP this a few more times. I would like to try to get back to exploring by early next week real time - maybe try to wrap up these issues, if the resolutions make sense, and then move on.
I will work on my response to Salix and Ran early this evening when I get home.
From: Derek
Subject Agreement
OOC: I'm pretty much fine either way you guys want to go with this, but I'd prefer if we avoid actual inter-party combat at all costs. /highhorse = on/ To me at least, the basic paradigm of a party in an RPG is that they work together towards a common goal. That also means reigning in your characters enough so that they can basically get along and work together most of the time. I've been in several campaigns that started out fun, but ended up very unenjoyable with several people leaving or the whole thing collapsing into a disaster because of conflict in the party that got out of control. I don't see that happening here, but as such I always avoid party conflict and almost always play characters that try to mediate. /highhorse = off/
IC: Allistair looks between Kal and Mund, hoping that at least a truce can be found for the time being. He also occasionally glances over at Salix, wondering if he will contribute more to the already heated situation or not. Allistair has some sympathy for Salix's feelings, but at this point the hypothetical innocence of whatever it was they just killed is more or less moot now.
At least Mund seems to have calmed down, and looks like he will let it go for now if Kal is willing to apologize. Allistair bites his lower lip in expectation of Kal's response, hoping he apologizes.
From: Kevin
Subject Agreement
Harp sees the pain in Ran eyes as he says what he does. Harp knows him to be a very honorable person, and knows the hurt and frustration the previous encounted had dealt to his friend.
"Ran, I agree with your assessment, and Kal has said that he was mistaken in the actions he took. I am not sure how the Order will see it, or how the Elven Nations will see his actions. I will leave that to Ragnar and you when this mission is over. For the mean time, I will propose the following - and propose it to the whole group. Let me talk with Salix again, and then we will see if we can come to an agreement."
OOC: See my post responding to Salix for the rest. Same bat time, different bat channel.
From: Kevin
Subject Agreement
Harp walks over to Salix after talking to Ran. He sees a defiance there he had rarely seen in his friend. But to question the battle Lord!!. How to respond to convey his feeling, not piss off his friend, and try to keep the group somewhat together. Harp's head started to pound harder - this leadership stuff was a lot harder than he had thought it would be.
"Salix, Hieroniuos values courage, strength of arms, and the fight against evil. What happened a while ago was not neccessarily to his liking - I grant you that. But we all make mistakes. I know I have made enough mistakes to last a life time. But the Battle Lord encourages us to learn from our mistakes and to try and do better next time.
Did I want those creatures dead? No. Am I sorry they are dead? No. Am I happy that our actions seemed devious? No. Do I know what other challenges this place may present us? NO! For all I know, these first 11 doors are just physical challenges. The riddle mentioned something about a maze after getting the keys. If we can find a way to get the creatures on the other sides of these doors out of this place with no harm to us, I am all for that. But, if needed, I have no problem with kill, get key, kill, get key. Part of my military training was when encountering an enemy, there was no such thing as a fair fight. However, I agree - if we are going to parley, we need to keep our end of the bargin. The problem is, Kal did not intend to enter the room, merely to open the door. When Mund tackled him, and then they got stuck in the room, that was when things went to Hell in a rucksack.
This is not a natural place. It was built to test us, but I do now know what type of testing. Since my Lord was the one it was built for, it wouldn't surprise me if a part of it was test of skill of arms. So far, that is what this has seemed to be. However, I know that I may very well be wrong on that. Here is my proposal.
Until and unless we see something that leads us to change, I will propose that from now on, as we encounter these rooms (there seems to be a pattern developing of a short hall way with a room at the end) you, Ran, Surin and Mund will go to the door and try to determine if we can parlay with those on the other side. The three of you seem to try this the most. Brother Ragnar and I will do what is needed to accomplish this task, even if it means killing every creature we encounter (OOC: If Jason objects to this statement, please edit accordingly). But I respect you enough to give you the chance to try to work it out with out violence. I only ask that you not open any doors without letting me know so that we can take the appropriate measures to prepare for what might follow.
OOC: Again, assuming that Kal actually does apologize to Mund, and they at least come to an understanding and do not try to kill each other right here and now, Harp's basic plan is a modification of the earlier one - Surin, Ran, Salix and Mund will do the basic exploring down the hallways, the trying to communicate with what they encounter on the other side, etc. Mund and Ran should provide sufficient physical backup and Surin should be able to keep them from tripping over anything unseen. Allistair, Harp, Ragnar, and Kal will hang back a safe distance (we can wait until we have a mad to work with to decide where) so they can run up like last time if needed but can also stay out of the way if needed. Harp will reiterate that he does not want any doors opened without prior knowledge.
Also, feelings on healing up the damage we just suffered - Kal, Mund, Ragnar are hurt. My guess is that we will end up having to sleep at some point in time, but ony an hour or so has progressed since we entered this place.
Guys, I hope the actions above do not skip around too much. There is so much I want Harp to say, but I don't want to overload (which is my tendency).
From: Porter
Subject Agreement
OOC: Is Tall Twin mistaken about what happened here, or is Harp mistaken, or is Harp just lying (naughty, naughty Harp)? Because Kal *definitely* went in there to do some killing.
From: Josh
Subject Agreement
Kal responds instantly: "Absolutely. I made a mistake in deciding to enter the room without the support of the rest of the group. The entire party has my appologies for that."
From: Jason
Subject Agreement
Ragnar hesitates to interject himself in the charged atmosphere, but finally feels that he should speak up. "You're right, I will do what is necessary to pass the Battle Lord's test. And I do expect that in most cases, we will be forced to, well, battle. But if these creatures truly are being brought here for the express purpose of testing us, nothing would please me more than finding even one that would prefer to return to the natural world without malice. I believe that your plan is excellent, and even if the first 12 doors lead to violence, I hope that we will approach the thirteenth without prejudice. Salix, (if he agrees) you have my admiration, and also my sympathy, for I expect that any the Battle Lord brings to test his servants will deal faithlessly and mercilessly with you- but let it not be so with us."
ooc:You know, one of my pet peeves is when people do exactly what Ragnar just did. Someone addresses one part of their stated opinion, and they feel like they have to defend everything they've said throughout the whole conversation.
About the healing: Ragnar is missing 11 hps. What is the status of Mund/Kal? Kal seems to be missing 6 from his character sheet but Mund's doesn't show him missing any. Once we get an hp check from Kal and Mund Harp and I can figure out the healing situation
From: Josh
Subject Agreement
OOC: I said in the same email "Unless we're not facing goblins or orcs or some other evil race, in which case I'll do something else.".
I'm paraphrasing because I'm too lazy to go dig.
From: Josh
Subject Agreement
OOC: But to any character in the game, it seemed very much like Kal intended to kill whatever was in the room. Kal has only explained his side to Harp.
From: Mark
Subject HP
Mund is actually down 10. He gained 10 when he raged but then got hit for 10. That 10 stays after the additional HP from the rage go away.
It is possible for a barbarian who is raging to die after the rage stops.
From: Jason
Subject HP
Then I guess the next question is does Harp want us healed up to full for the next fight? If he says nothing, Ragnar will cast a cure light on all three. That's probably not the best way but Ragnar isn't very military minded. In fact, he probably would have healed himself already
From: Jason
Subject HP
I may have changed my mind. If I remember correctly, and I may not, I believe my old character sheet had several scrolls of cure moderate wounds on it given to us by the order? They don't seem to be there now.
From: Porter
Subject HP
Mund's only response to that is "Good."
Mund stands up and turns toward the magick users and asks "So, anybody wanna magick up my wounds? Those critters knew how to bite."
OOC: Once we decide on the healing, Mund's ready to go and kick some more butt.
From: Kevin
Subject Healing and HP
Harp responds to Ragnars questioning look. "Go ahead and tend to the wounds, but save your most powerful blessings until we truly need them. Just basic healing at this point"
OOC: CLW only now - if everyone is within 5 point of the max, that will be fine for now.
Let see how Salix and Ran respond.
From: Porter
Subject Healing and HP
OOC: I'm kinda dissapointed that Kal didn't call Mund out for a duel right now. I had something special planned that might not work later. ;)
But on the other hand, it's exciting to get back to the regularly scheduled hack-n-slash.