Current events

This page is for discussion of stuff related to the game coming up this week, no matter when that actually is. For instance, we can all assume Nate isnt coming for some lame reason and that Ed is sick of pizza and is bringing teriyaki or some other crap. They can post something here if that happens to be untrue.

Schedule

Date...........game................Location..........(Advanced attendance)

11/28/08.....Likely CANCELLED (Thanksgiving):
12/05/08.....OAAAA...........Ben's Condo............Ed maybe gone, Matt gone
12/12/08.....OAAAA...........Ben's Condo............Ed maybe gone
12/19/08.....likely nada.......................Ed, Matt, Ben Gone
12/26/08.....likely nada.......................Ed, Ben Gone
1/2/09.....TBD...........Ben's Condo............
1/9/09.....TBD...........Ben's Condo............
1/16/09.....TBD...........Ben's Condo............Ed gone
1/23/09.....TBD...........Ben's Condo............
1/30/09.....TBD...........Ben's Condo............

BEN: do people want to play on the 2nd? I'm trying to decide when I want to come back from california. I will likely come back on the 4th, but the 2nd is also an option, particularly if we'd actually be having a session.

Edmiao is possible i will be down for the 2nd. but not sure.

Attendance and Food Preference

12/12/08

--Brandon 16:21, 8 December 2008 (MST) I might have to miss this Friday, or at least miss part of it. I am hosting guests this weekend, and I thought that they were coming in late Friday, but it turns out that they are coming in late Thursday. But, they may be going to see the Nutcracker on Friday, which would mean I would still be able to make it to most of gaming. I'll let you know as I know.

Gabe: Shit foo', they want to see some nuts being cracked? Just let them come watch me duel you in magic, its like back to back nut crack'in action boy.

--Brandon 15:42, 9 December 2008 (MST)It's hard to no how to respond to that, Gabe . . . . Anyways, they are going to the Nutcracker on Friday, so I'm almost positive I'll be there for at least 3 hours of gaming, likely from 7 o'clock on. I'll keep you posted if things change.

Gabe: Well, I may as well say "Yes I'm coming on Friday." Since nobody else has surely confirmed. That said I have to leave a little early, maybe around 11 or 12.

Weekly Magic Whining/Complaining/Smack Talking

Shards of Alara

Elder Dragon Highlander Rules

JASON: Magic rules question: Since I was big into magic back in the day the rules for trample and protection from colors have changed. This means damage is applied differently. So, what happens in the following case:

I attack with my Darksteel Colossus. You block with a pristine Phantom Nishoba. How much damage do you take? It is either 4 or 0. Also, if a Phantom Nishoba has 0 counters and an Armadillo Cloak, is it immune to all damage?

Edmiao my understanding: It's all about when damage is assigned and when it is prevented. Now there are two damage steps, first strike and regular strike. before it kind of worked as three damage steps, first strike, regular strike and then what's left over is assigned as trample damage. Now, trample damage is assigned during the first or regular strike steps assuming that the creature will take it's toughness in damage.

Darksteel assigns combat damage. Phantom is a 7/7 creature, so 7 damage is assigned towards Phantom and 4 damage is assigned to the player as trample damage. these go into the stack. Phantom removes a token after the damage is on it's way, takes no damage and you take 4.

The effect that prevents damage on phantom nishoba has two parts: prevent the damage, and remove a counter. if there are no counters, i think the effect fizzles.

--Brandon 17:42, 10 December 2008 (MST) Ed is a Wiki Blocker! We dealt with the first question recently, and as Ed says, in the first case (blocking with just the Nishoba), you take 4 damage. The trampler has to deal damage equal to the blocker's toughness, and then the rest goes through. But Ed is wrong in the second case. With the Armadillo Cloak, the Nishoba IS immune to all damage (you can find this information in the Oracle ruling for the Nishoba).

Next step in Of Amor, Armor, and Alchemy

Current OAAAA XP: 75 base + 107 XP

Stuff we want to buy:

Horses for all plus one or two as pack animals
Winter clothing and sleeping rolls
climbing gear and rope
torches and lanterns
rations
dragon repellent
picks, shovel, other digging equipment to clear cave ins? dynamite?
Ketchup (if you can't beat 'em . . .)
carrier pigeons

Edmiao let me guess, big grandfather flame wants us to find Ixymion

--Brandon 16:20, 8 December 2008 (MST) Um, basically, yes, if by "find" you mean "find and free from entrapment". Basically, we had a choice between that and fetching the Ruby Shield for grandfather flame. We - again by Gabe's prompting - decided on dealing with the dragon. I guess that he thought we should mess with an even more powerful dragon ; ). I'm still not sure of the wisdom of the decision, but, then again, I'm not sure that wisdom is possible in choosing between two essentially impossible tasks.

BEN: there was a third option that was suggested: finding the thing Oryxys "most desires". That was too vague and therefore risky for the characters.

Edmiao oh, jeez. sorry i wasn't there. cus the thing Oryxys "most desires" is Aefra. zoing.

BEN: unfortunately, what a dragon "most desires" and "wants to eat" are often the same thing. He actually almost ate brandon.

--Brandon 17:07, 8 December 2008 (MST) Lucky for him he didn't try. He totally would've gotten a spear stuck in his ass, from the *inside*.

--Matts - It's obvious that what he most desires is a high-quality bridge.

BEN: too bad you weren't there to suggest it...*maybe* that would be correct. The problem really was that the dragon indicated he himself wasn't sure what that thing might be.

Edmiao maybe we should work on this "most desires" angle. seems like unleashing the most powerful dragon ever that will likely topple countries and start wars might be in the category of "bad". what's the deal with the ruby shield?

BEN: If you guys feel like the Ixymion details are things your character(s) would have known (some of it certainly qualifies as "common knowledge", like the story of tom the fool), and you think it would have changed your decision, we can trade out this choice for another if y'all think that is what you would have done...it won't really affect what has happened since, although the sooner I know what the plan is, the better.

--Matts 13:18, 9 December 2008 (MST) What about jerkface mchonkyson merchant (Zabulon) who has some evil plan to bring the faerie queen back from the dead? How would Iximyon fit into his plans, because maybe that's what he wants?

My notes say he wants to forge an iron circle? But he can't use his magic to summon somebody dead? Can Ixymion?

--Brandon 14:36, 9 December 2008 (MST) I doubt that Oryxys is in league with Zabulon, and freeing Ixymion was Oryxys' idea. It seems like the schemes of dragons operate on levels above that of stupid mortals, even powerful mortals like Zabulon. The deal with the Ruby shield is that it is in the possession of an Orc Warlord in some far away place, and likely impossible to obtain. From what I remember, Ixymion was chosen because it was perceived as less impossible and closer (mostly the latter, I think). The "unleashing of the most powerful dragon ever" point is well taken, and is kind of why I was against the idea. But, I didn't really press that point. Maybe I should've (shrug). But, anyway, like I said before, I'm not sure there are any good reasons in favor of pursuing one seemingly impossible task rather than another.

Maybe the Order of Peace can offer some insight on how bad it would be if Ixymion is realized. Tithe is sort of on the fence about whether Ixymion is an aspect of nature that deserves to be unleashed, or an appropriate amount of control exerted upon nature by us mortals.

GABE: Actually... we DID need a bridge. I even said "Man... we need a bridge..." Anyway, if the dragon gets outta hand we kill it. I said very specicically what I can do in the deals but as Ol'Grand Father Flame said YOU people are not bound by MY word. Perhaps he will be so greatful that we can persude him to move elsewhere. I also like making possible dragon allies.

By the way, my character is serious about declaring war on Eborron, anyone interested?

--Brandon 15:42, 9 December 2008 (MST)This is awesome! I never knew that Fantus had a secret army that could be easily marshaled for both dragon-killing AND war-declaring purposes! Sweet! Oh, wait, what? He doesn't have an army? Just a little purple-glowing claw, a talking book, and crow?

Edmiao I wasn't there, so we can do whatever quest y'll are up for. plus then i get to say: told you so. why not the shield, we've already shown we can kick orc butt after getting ours handed to us.

GABE: The only way someone got it before is some famous thief got it. We have next to zero thiefing ability. Waking up a dragon I think is easier. Plus nobody has to know we woke up the dragon, stealing the shield is much risker, and with a possible war with another country on the burner I believe we may need allies. So yeah, dragon.

--Brandon 20:47, 9 December 2008 (MST)There are two problems with this analysis. One is that said "sleeping" dragon is in a diabolical clockwork tower filled with intricate and fiendish traps. So, our next to zero thiefing ability (which I agree about) is also relevant in the dragon case. Second, everyone will know that the dragon is awake, and I don't foresee it being much of a problem for someone to track that awakening to us. If there is one thing that we are not, it is discreet. But, for all my whining, I'm as much down with the Ixymion plan as I am with the ruby shield plan (although Tithe REALLY wants that ruby shield). I mean, there's impossible, and there's impossible, and they're both impossible.  : )

--Matts 10:13, 10 December 2008 (MST)What's this about a war?

GABE: You know... a war. Eborron tried to use our Priestess of the High Forge. I am certainly not going to sit around and be like "Oh golly, everything is a-okay now!" We have to make them pay... Besides he is about to start a war ON our island. Its time to allie with the fairies.... ugh, and combine our forces to fight this evil power of evilness. In the words of Hulk...

"Never stop making them pay."

--ED: hum. we killed the knight of flowers, then release the dragon he imprisoned. knight of flowers = great fairy hero. release evil dragon on the world, hope none of our family back home will think badly of it, and sucks to be the poor fools who get eaten by said dragon. this really challenges Aefra's moral compass. Am she the only one in the group with a sense of morality? isn't Tithe like a paladin or something?

GABE: Actually it was Tom The Fool who imprisoned the dragon I think, we are just undoing all the shit he fucked up. Dragon's are not evil, or good, they just are what they are. We can't be responsible for the entire world anyway. Plus maybe the dragon would like to maybe just sit in his tower and make stuff. If the dragon gets outta order we can always kill him too. Heck maybe we could even get him on our side, who knows. Point is, is that if we don't free him someone else most likely will.

If you guys DON'T want to free the dragon, we can always do something else, I'm cool with that but consider this...

If you truely want to save the world from more random dragon attacks, we should crush Grand Father Flame's egg... Oh what if we set up his baby as a future ruler of a state? That'd be pretty cool.

Edmiao wow. none of what you said makes sense in a logical world. Good thing this is rpg.

How is imprisoning a dragon that causes war a "fuck up" by Tom the Fool (name not withstanding).

can't be responsible if Jeffrey Dahmer eats a bunch of homosexual adolescents just because we broke him out of jail. Maybe Dahmer would just knit socks, he's getting on in age. and maybe he would make a good friend too. why not?

All that said, Ed the player is totally down with freeing the dragon and watching the mayhem, should be more fun than fighting orcs for some shield or psychoanalyzing a dragon. and Aefra the character will just have to deal with that. heck, she already married a half elemental underground demon king or whatever he was.

Reviewing the schedule recently, since I'm turning into the occasional attendee lately, probably shouldn't get too much of a say in the whole dealy-o. Dragon HO!

GABE: I know, its great to make points about what to do in a fantasy game, and how waking a dragon makes sense.

That said we should use Aefra's husband's army to help us out. That'd be tight.

Edmiao i was thinking about that. what if the dragon's true desire is to have 2000 goblins give him a back rub? or worship him? or 'insert favorite mom joke here'

--Brandon 18:07, 10 December 2008 (MST) Ok, so maybe we do have the possibility of access to an army of rowdy, disorganized goblins. I'll keep that in mind. As for Tithe's moral compass, there are a few things to consider. First of all, we didn't all that lore about Ixymion that is now on the wiki, so we didn't have any reason to believe that Ixymion was an especially dangerous dragon or whatever. Secondly, Tithe is no do-goody paladin who's overall aim in life is to ensure that no poor, innocent child has to suffer. He's a Templar primarily dedicated to protecting the interests of the Goddess of the Forge, and who is interested in ensuring that there is an appropriate balance in the affairs of mortals between the synthetic and the natural. Ixymion is no mortal, and Tithe pretty much considers him a force of nature. So, he's kind of on the fence about what to think of Ixymion's imprisonment, but is currently focusing his attention on saving Daenerys, pretty much come what may.

--Matts 12:49, 11 December 2008 (MST)Just to point out - Zabulon isn't necessarily representative of Eburon's political stance. My reading is that he's just a big-time dick, not a state-sponsored dick. So we should make HIM pay (and never stop doing it) and if in the course of that it turns out he's the hezbollah to eburon's Iran then we can take the battle to those jerks.

Re: dragon versus alternatives: I maintain that all Grandfather Flame really needs is a nice bridge. Maybe it's a bridge from Iximyon to the destruction of all that is holy; who cares. If it frees Daenerys, the specifics aren't important to Aetan.