Reckonings: The Overlook

[MatthiasStormcrow]

I'm sure the Nightwalkers probably have some delightful substance with only minor side-effects they could fix you up with....

As for the Wish, yeah, I can definitely see the wish working out poorly for them in the long run, but how is that a surprise? It's a Wish, in Ravenloft no less. Look at how well Tessius's wish worked out, after all...and that was just the first one of what looks to be a chain of disastrous wishes.

Seriously, I've got Malign Paradigm Shifts for everyone

That's so much of a scarier thing to say than simply saying, "I've got a malign paradigm shift lined up for someone else." ....everyone? Uh oh.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Why can I never find the rule I need? Is unmanifesting an action? Manifesting is a standard action, but dropping it isn't covered.

Too bad Harrin wasn't using his domination gaze; that bad save was a natural 1, and between the sinkhole and Anders' negative levels, he can't take 2 on the save. Boy would this fight be different.

[Nathan of the FoS]

Hey, Rafael--check out your kineticist options. If you do something like sonic energy current or maybe energy bolt you could rip up the mainmast something fierce and have a little left over for Harrin.

BTW, DeepShadow, I was looking at Ander's character sheet over on MSD's board and realized he still has a couple of powers to choose. I don't know if this is kosher mid-combat, but, boy, it sure would be nice to have psionic disintegrate available.

"Hide behind the mainmast, will ya?" *CRASH*

[Le Noir Faineant]

The funyn thing is, I have read SOME descriptions of those powers Anders has, but really, really no idea about what they cause IN DETAIL.

Basically, I am oversized, ill-tempered baby that has just discovered that it can launch lightning bolts...

[Le Noir Faineant]

What else could I have done...



I've already come to like Anders a lot...

Give's me that certain Super-Sayajin feeling...

[Nathan of the FoS]

So, any guesses on what the other malign paradigm shifts are? From the question Ciera just asked, I'm wondering if hers is going to be the realization that y'all may well be stuck in Ravenloft forever.

Either that, or that coming to Ravenloft really, really messes with whatever spell/effect it is that makes her young. (I'm not quite sure what form that would take, because I don't know how the effect was produced in the first place. She gets old very quickly? She'll never age again at all? Both of those seem rather pedestrian for a fellow of DeepShadow's imagination, though, so I'm plumping for something subtler and more horrible.)

For Cortez--er, he hasn't had enough trouble already? Will his decision not to sell the ships lead to some kind of massive die-off of the crew? Will it be revealed that the doppelganger has been managing events to its own benefit in some gobsmackingly horrible way? Will it be revealed that Duke Arbrun (sp?) ate his wife, or something similarly grotesque? Is Arbrun, Toby, or Angus a mole who is about to betray him?

(See what I mean about trouble? )

For Anders--gosh, I dunno. The God-Brain is about to eat him? That he really is the doppelganger after all?

For Balin and Tessius--are they included in this little game? Maybe all of their actions will become irrelevant as destroying Pieter van Riese erases the Sea of Sorrows and all its inhabitants and ejects them in (heaven only knows where--Saragoss? Darkon? Vorostokov?). They just killed, or at least erased, thousands of people they meant to save! ("...er, woops...sorry 'bout that...")

It's Epic Ravenloft, baby. You gotta expect a few thousand deaths, here and there.

[MatthiasStormcrow]

Why can I never find the rule I need? Is unmanifesting an action? Manifesting is a standard action, but dropping it isn't covered.

Too bad Harrin wasn't using his domination gaze; that bad save was a natural 1, and between the sinkhole and Anders' negative levels, he can't take 2 on the save. Boy would this fight be different.

Yeah, but then Anders can use Autohypnosis to get himself a second save, and he's not that likely to fail two in a row. Go go epic skill usages!

Also, Rafael, if you want, I can give you a brief rundown on what your powers are (assuming I know what they all are).

Anyways, based on the powers he had when I retooled him, here's some good mast-destroying options (i.e., not Psychic Crush, which is for crushing people's minds ) - basically, you've got a variety of different shapes of energy damage: basically, you've got energy missile (think magic missile, except some kind of energy instead of force damage), energy cone (like cone of cold, for instance, except again, you can pick what type of energy), energy bolt (same thing, but like a lightning bolt) or energy current (think chain lightning, basically) so, just pick one of those shapes that you like, and hit the mast with it (and probably some other stuff, depending on the shape you use!). You also get to choose between cold, fire, electricity or sonic damage - you probably want to pick sonic, because that's the best at damaging objects. Even though it's not quite as showy as some of the other kinds. Also, you can always use Chain Power or Quicken Power for extra fun.

Or else you can use Telekinetic Thrust to throw something up to 475 pounds at the mast (does the ghost ship have an anchor?), which might do some damage...

[Le Noir Faineant]

For Anders--gosh, I dunno. The God-Brain is about to eat him? That he really is the doppelganger after all?

Couldn't you have told me this little detail BEFORE I took him over?!

I mean, could Anders not be the reincarnation of Strahd's tragic bride, or Tristan Hiregaard's other self?

Also, Rafael, if you want, I can give you a brief rundown on what your powers are (assuming I know what they all are).

Anyways, based on the powers he had when I retooled him, here's some good mast-destroying options (i.e., not Psychic Crush, which is for crushing people's minds ) - basically, you've got a variety of different shapes of energy damage: basically, you've got energy missile (think magic missile, except some kind of energy instead of force damage), energy cone (like cone of cold, for instance, except again, you can pick what type of energy), energy bolt (same thing, but like a lightning bolt) or energy current (think chain lightning, basically) so, just pick one of those shapes that you like, and hit the mast with it (and probably some other stuff, depending on the shape you use!). You also get to choose between cold, fire, electricity or sonic damage - you probably want to pick sonic, because that's the best at damaging objects. Even though it's not quite as showy as some of the other kinds. Also, you can always use Chain Power or Quicken Power for extra fun.

Or else you can use Telekinetic Thrust to throw something up to 475 pounds at the mast (does the ghost ship have an anchor?), which might do some damage...

Thank you so much! - Thing is, I didn't find a copy of the psionic handbook yet, though I keep looking for it... And the info I found so far is really sparse. There are some hints in the peic levle handbook, but I am not sure if they apply...

I'll indeed use a sonic blast then!

In our home campaigns, somic waves could harm ghosts and incorporeal creatures as well... [PLEAZZE!]

[Le Noir Faineant]

...*Thinks* But won't a sonic blast deafen all my friends that stand near?

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Thank you so much! - Thing is, I didn't find a copy of the psionic handbook yet, though I keep looking for it... And the info I found so far is really sparse. There are some hints in the peic levle handbook, but I am not sure if they apply...

Gah! So that's the problem! Geez, I've been using the SRD psionicsrules. They're free and they cover almost anything you'd need.

EDIT: At the bottom of the linked page, they have the SRD info bundled by category. Just pick the "psionics" bundle.

[MatthiasStormcrow]

So, any guesses on what the other malign paradigm shifts are? From the question Ciera just asked, I'm wondering if hers is going to be the realization that y'all may well be stuck in Ravenloft forever.

Either that, or that coming to Ravenloft really, really messes with whatever spell/effect it is that makes her young. (I'm not quite sure what form that would take, because I don't know how the effect was produced in the first place. She gets old very quickly? She'll never age again at all? Both of those seem rather pedestrian for a fellow of DeepShadow's imagination, though, so I'm plumping for something subtler and more horrible.)

For Cortez--er, he hasn't had enough trouble already? Will his decision not to sell the ships lead to some kind of massive die-off of the crew? Will it be revealed that the doppelganger has been managing events to its own benefit in some gobsmackingly horrible way? Will it be revealed that Duke Arbrun (sp?) ate his wife, or something similarly grotesque? Is Arbrun, Toby, or Angus a mole who is about to betray him?

(See what I mean about trouble? )

For Anders--gosh, I dunno. The God-Brain is about to eat him? That he really is the doppelganger after all?

For Balin and Tessius--are they included in this little game? Maybe all of their actions will become irrelevant as destroying Pieter van Riese erases the Sea of Sorrows and all its inhabitants and ejects them in (heaven only knows where--Saragoss? Darkon? Vorostokov?). They just killed, or at least erased, thousands of people they meant to save! ("...er, woops...sorry 'bout that...")

It's Epic Ravenloft, baby. You gotta expect a few thousand deaths, here and there.

Heh heh heh. Well, yeah, I dunno. I'm guessing Ciera's will be finding out something that she foresaw with her visions/spells/foresight was completely wrong - being able to leave the plane might be it; on its own I don't think it warrants a malign paradigm shift, but if she used all of her epic-spellcaster power to determine that we could leave, and then finds out we can't...

Cortez, well, I dunno, though, I can imagine going to great lengths to save the Brinewine Runner only to have all three of the other ships sink due to some other thing no one was paying any attention to (Sahuagin drilling holes? I dunno.) Or that one were Arbrund ate his wife - that would be a madness check probably, not sure it'd be specifically a Malign Paradigm Shift, though. Ratling leading a mutiny maybe?

Anders...hmm. The God-Brain has to figure in somehow.

Tessius and Balin, I dunno, yours seems like a good guess to me. Though they're due up to settle some scores with the Nightmare Court - maybe all the inhabitants of both domains whose lords they just offed will get shunted to the Nightmare Lands, permanently. Or maybe Balin will get to watch as the next-most-evil person in the Sea of Sorrows becomes its new Darklord - and it turns out to be Tessius! Bwahahaha!

[Nathan of the FoS]

Tessius and Balin, I dunno, yours seems like a good guess to me. Though they're due up to settle some scores with the Nightmare Court - maybe all the inhabitants of both domains whose lords they just offed will get shunted to the Nightmare Lands, permanently. Or maybe Balin will get to watch as the next-most-evil person in the Sea of Sorrows becomes its new Darklord - and it turns out to be Tessius! Bwahahaha!

"Your Honor, my client destroyed Blaustein and participated in the destruction of the Sea of Sorrows while suffering from a fit of temporary insanity. Not only is this a mitigating circumstance, but it resulted in the fact that, at the time of destruction, my client wasn't evil. How, then, could he be the most powerful evil being in the collapsing domain?

"Obviously the threat of eternal imprisonment is not appropriate here, Your Honor. I move that the nomination of Tessius as Darklord be stricken from the record, as potentially libelous to his good name. We are prepared to accept, if necessary, a sentence of two hundred hours of community service on misdemeanor charges of destruction of public property."

[MatthiasStormcrow]

"Your Honor, I would refer you to the precedent set in the case The Dark Powers vs. Easan the Mad. Clearly the insanity plea is not an acceptable defense against crimes potentially leading to the sentence of Darklordship of a domain. Furthermore, as illustrated in that case and further shown in the case of The Dark Powers vs. Tristen Hiregaard, allegedly madness-related alignment shifts do not necessarily disqualify one from darklordship."

[DeepShadow of FoS]

So noted. Hizzoner will now accept bribes.

[Le Noir Faineant]

Finally got some psionic documentation! Now things should work better, I think...