The Gaming Den

So I think we can start hammering down a timeslot amongst the confirmed players.

Also, here is a map - you generally can't buy maps of the whole world, but you can get chunks of it based on "what that cartographer happened to cover".


See the Ruins of Last Resort? That's where your final* battle was.

A circle with a dot is a town.
A single tower is a fortress/keep.
A castle thing is a fortified city.

I'll let you guys choose whether you want your restart to be in Argent Vale or Cathedral's Outgrowth. It's not like you won't be travelling and possibly visit/control/raze every place eventually.

*At least everyone thought it was final

I vote Cathedral's Outgrowth. I think cities would be more fun once we've got some phat lootz to spend.

As for timing (all timings below are in Adelaide time, i.e. GMT + 9:30):

Any time between 4:30 PM (though sometimes class ends a bit earlier but I can't count on that) and 8:00 PM (another class starts) on Tuesdays would be ideal for me, though I suppose I could do Mondays or Wednesdays any time between 1:00 PM and 8:00 PM. Thursdays are kinda weird as they're sometimes completely free and sometimes not at all. Can't do Fridays. In any case I'd prefer to know a day or two in advance so I procrastinate less on other stuff before gamedays, but I don't think I've got any pressing school stuff this week at least.

I can do about any time that isn't...Oh, between 1 and 9, Central standard time.

But from what I saw back in first post, Koumei's aiming for something reasonable for Australia. So it's be...late. one or two in the morning for me starting (not that I'm not up then, evening shift being what it is.)

Yeah, my restrictions are based on the fact that I work during the day (school hours).

Also, I actually will provide information on the places given you've been to many of them before. Anything listed as being a dangerous location is basically full of monsters that are above your capacity, or are innately harmful to people, such as being perpetually on fire. You might want to think about avoiding them for a bit.

Eternal Might: quite some time ago, this fortress was established to provide shelter against Yet Another Demon Invasion (YADI). The people then sort of decided to stay there, as it didn't require so much rebuilding as to make it more effort than moving away. Although there's kind of a cramped feeling, and there are only a few people (nonhuman) remaining who were alive during YADI, they get that being standoffish with others means "being stuck in a box with no trade, and dying". The military there has recently been kicked up a notch, due to your war, however they ended up not being involved, merely receiving a few refugees. Their proximity to Zalandar Woods means they provide a fair amount of wood, including Bane Oak (though it's still quite rare).
Ruler: Lord Troyle. He was a knight-captain of the militia during YADI. Nobody is quite sure what his original race was - a nasty spell relieved him of his skin, so he skinned a babau and stitched it to his flesh, and it bonded. No evil influence seems to have occurred.

Zalandar Woods: it's full of trees. Some of these trees are the Bane Oak, which are hard to cut down, given the wood is as strong as forged, worked steel. However one you do manage to make items out of it, you learn how awesome it is: any weapon made from Bane Oak has the Mage Bane quality, and attempts to dispel any Summoned creature it hits. Armour and shields provide a constant Protection Against Chaos effect. The main risks of the area are giant bugs, including more magical varieties (which have learned not to chew on Bane Oak, because yes, that kills them). Also, owlbears.

Argent Vale: it's one of the few fishing communities to really make it past "a couple of houses". It's a proper town, and basically has a well-defended coastline - the town guard are focused on aquatic warfare. Sahuagin still occasionally make a raiding attempt, but tend to come off worse for it. It's a good place to go if you want to eat a shark or wear sharkskin armour or make a stingray whip or something. They pay a bit more for metal (or indeed, crafted metal works), and for land-meat and dairy products.
Ruler: Greyver, the Mayor. He's middle-aged, but still likes to dive into the water and spear critters. Given this town has actual elections, he accepts he's not in a position for life.

Cathedral Outgrowth: it started as just being one massive cathedral to Kord, which means the main central area of the first floor is actually a fighting arena. But enough people started to move to the area for protection over the last century and a half that houses and inns were built, then a smithy, then... it's a pretty big town, to be honest. Worship of Kord is still quite prevalent, but that doesn't mean Kord particularly chooses people from here as his Favoured Souls (Barbarians). Still, its militia is pretty... enthusiastic. Not for police brutality, but in running out to smash nearby manticores and such. Unfortunately, Kord shows his favour by regularly sending manticores and stuff. The outreaches become farmland.
Unworked materials (wood, stone, metal, leather) fetches a good price here.
Ruler: this is a theocracy, with the head of state being The Fist. Gaining this title is basically a meritocracy: you challenge The Fist to a one-on-one match, no interference, with a Greater Dispel on both participants, surrounded by a steel cage that is on fire. Victory by knockout (or indeed death), submission or disqualification. If you ever lose such a match, it is ten years before you may again make the challenge. The current winner is Hayley Paige, known better as "The Harridan".

Jotun Seas: the main access to the seas of the Northern hemisphere. Surprisingly warm. Every now and then, Fire Giants are seen riding massive sea monsters, but out in the distance. Largely this means people try not to sail North - there have been no Jotun raids yet, although Sahuagin are a fucking nuisance, as anyone can tell you.

Aewythwyrn: this is home to the elf-only legion. Humans are second-class citizens at best, and they never tolerate the green-skinned races. They eat pretty much anything that won't run away, and given nearly half of them are rangers with good aim and powerful composite bows... few things can run away. There are probably great riches there for the plundering, and they recently suffered quite a few losses, having been involved in a war (against you).
Ruler: the elven council. Particulars unknown.

Feywood Circle: the forest circle that surrounds Aewythwyrn. Nobody is sure how many small communities reside in there, especially given their tendency to wander. But there are also many fey (Dryads, Pixies, Trixies, Nixies, Gricks, Redcaps, Joystealers) and giant animals (Worgs, Shadow Mastiffs, Bearhounds, Dire Animals). This is a dangerous location.

Ruins of Last Resort: it was on a hilltop, and it was a decent fortress. But it wasn't good enough. Although it is very likely that plenty of your old gear remains there, various undead still crawl through the area, along with constructs and creatures that have fed upon the residual magic and become altered - chimerae, gorgons, oozes, umber hulks... This is a dangerous location.

Garden of Graves: the site of a great battle, this scorched field has been marked with hundreds of graves - and hundreds of swords have been planted, blade-down, to mark the passing of unknown soldiers. Then the place became a battlefield for the second time when you fought there, so much of that was destroyed, but already more graves are being built, more swords planted. There is very little here, other than scavenger animals and occasional ghouls.

Tower of Gareema the Mad: the mad wizard Gareema probably isn't alive any more. But given nobody has managed to enter the place still, what with the lack of doors and the tendency of the gargoyles to spit fire at flyers, nobody can be quite sure. This is a dangerous location.

Keep of Nightmares: this place used to be a fortress for Necromancers and Illusionists, designed to terrify their enemies and crush all who would oppose them. But it's been some time since then, what with a group of heroes going through and personally killing every single thing in the fortress. Since then, it's just a keep where people live, but the library is pretty fantastic - if you can get permission to enter it. Also, the dungeon has been sealed off, because there are wandering phantasms, creatures that seem to blur the line between "incorporeal undead" and "illusion spell".
Ruler: Council of Three. It's an electoral thing, where every two years, there is an election for one of the three (cycling through, for six-year terms), and for any major issue regarding the keep and the people, it comes down to a majority vote between the three, with no abstaining allowed.

Stormrune Forest: this is a very thick forest, known for having a lot of venomous critters and plant monsters, but also for having really delicious fruits growing there. A stormlord once fought a great battle there and died, leaving a scar on the land, hence the name.

City of Palaces: a massive city that extends some way into the mountains, it would take a massive force or a powerful monster to successfully lay siege to this place. Great expense went into the building of the place, and there is a high percentage of djinn there - in an awkward situation where some are great nobles who keep human slaves, and other djinn are bound and enslaved for wishes by powerful human casters.
Ruler: Prince Khevic, an efreeti who makes other efreeti feel small in the pants. He is known for taking a shine to adventurers and offering wishes in exchange for pissing people off for him or "going adventuring places". Some posit that this is an effort to keep the movers and shakers away from him rather than loitering and getting ready to take over.

Or maybe we could stay on the less dangerous left side of the map for a while, so I'll change my vote to Argent's Vale.

Koumei wrote:an awkward situation where some are great nobles who keep human slaves, and other djinn are bound and enslaved for wishes by powerful human casters.

What chat client are we using? Don't want to show up, only to need to download something huge that the crappy university internet can't handle doing in time.

I'm assuming that we are more concerned with the day than with the time, in which case I'm available any day. The time is late enough for me that pretty much nobody else schedules anything else at that time. Although on Fridays I do have something that's kinda close, and which might make me late if it runs longer than normal, so not-Fridays would be nice. Even if it is Fridays, though, I can probably make it.

I'll also vote for Argent's Vale, and would also like to suggest that we go wreck the Elves at some point. They sound like jerks. Granted, we already tried to do that once and it didn't work out so well...

I could definitely do 4:30 (7 hours from now) later today. And if class ends early 4. Otherwise, tomorrow at 4:00 would work fine. Don't know if this Thursday's free for me or not yet.

What are we going to be using? I'd prefer to have any necessary software downloaded and installed before I head out to University a few hours from now.

Argent Vale, I think.

Since Lars was raised by Owlbears, would he have grown up in Zalandar Woods? Would he still have family there?

We'll be playing via IRC, so you'll just need to use any IRC client - I'm pretty sure there are some browser-based ones using Java.

Yes, Zalandar Woods would be where he grew up if raised by owlbears. While owlbears don't have tremendous lifespans, those that grew up seeing him as a "brother" would still be alive. Yes, they can be a handy source of info regarding that area.

Is this likely to happen this week?

Yes, how does 22 and a half hours from now sound?

If it's for serious...then yeah, I can do it. I'd prefer it to be a few hours earlier but, again, I can deal.

Works for me (might be 5-10 minutes late if class drags on, but it almost always ends early).

Maxus wrote:If it's for serious...then yeah, I can do it. I'd prefer it to be a few hours earlier but, again, I can deal.

Unfortunately, that's about half an hour after I get back from work, so I can't pull it back any earlier.

I can probably make it, but with notice this short I can't make promises.

Would 24 hours after that be any easier? It also sounds like there might be a dinner thing for the family, I don't know because fuck telling Koumei what's going on, right?

It's mostly just a matter of clearing the schedule, so every day later will make it more likely that things will shake out good for me, but you can't really count on it unless it's at least three days from now.

Chamomile wrote:I can probably make it, but with notice this short I can't make promises.

Can you confirm whether or not you can make it later on? Tuesday would be awesome for me.

I suppose I could do Wednesday, but I'd really rather not what with having a midterm a few hours after game time. Thursday could still happen, but I can't confirm that yet. I'll post here once I find out whether or not Thursday is open for me this week.

Nah, I can't do Thursday and probably not any Thursdays in the near future due to part time job. Friday's almost never an option an either. I suppose it'll have to be 23 hours and 35 minutes from now if Chamomile can make it, if I'm going to play this week.

I don't have any problems with particular days of the week. All I have problems with is short notice.

Also, did anyone ever say which IRC room we would actually be using? Gonna be hard to show up without that information.

I understand if there is no game this week due to short notice, but in around 20 hours or whatever, I'll be there on the off chance. Then in future, it's locked in as a weekly thing.

server is irc.nightstar.net

room is #souledout

I have no dicebot so I'll just use the honour system

irc.nightstar.net gives me a blank screen

webchat.nightstar.net tells me to enter a nickname and channel, and after doing that gives me this:

An error occured: Invalid session, this most likely means the server has restarted; close this dialog and then try refreshing the page.

Refreshing the page just tells me to enter a nickname and channel again, followed by the same thing. I've tried both '#souledout' and 'souledout

I'm not sure what you're doing. Are you using an IRC client to connect to the server of irc.nightstar.net or are you just typing that into your web browser's address bar? Because I can assure you the latter is not going to work.

Using mIRC for instance, it's dead easy. You can either select the server from a massive list (nightstar is listed), or just type the above into a bar and hit connect. Then you just type /join #souledout

(I should make note that currently I am not connected - if you went there now, you would be creating the room and be the only person there. Unless someone else actually already created a #souledout room.)

I can't run tech support for web clients and such, as I have no idea with them. Usually they're just made using Java, and thus the whole thing runs on voodoo magic.

I connected just fine.