The Eye of Anubis: OOC Thread

[Isabella]

Guy is at -3 and stable.

[Kaitou Kage]

We've lost Ed. He's still alive, but he's going to be out of touch indefinitely.

[Isabella]

Back to soundtrack related matters, this was totally the theme for chasing after Shadow Otto.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

I am now taking bets that this is not prof. Devereux, but Cavendish ...

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

50gp on another virtual construct of the tomb...

[NeoTiamat]

And I return from Italy! Lightly sun-tanned, and filled with much historical and artistic appreciation. I heart Botticelli.

Well, I'll be taking over the reins now, and going over to write up a post. Hope everyone's enjoyed their little break from me.

[NeoTiamat]

And that's that! If the Moderators would be so kind as to close up Book Eleven.

A few posts now to get everyone caught up on housekeeping. First, XP.

For getting the Eye, and for making a difficult choice, 5,000 XP across the board. Which is enough to level Charles, I believe.

Also, 2000 XP to Charles for the Cutscene (if you haven't seen it yet, check it out, it is worth it). Further 2000 XP to Charles for going posting his Epiphany. Another 2000 XP to Kuzan for good posting during Edmund's final scene. And a final 1600 XP to Kuzan for the Shadow-Andre Comic.

Any other posting-XP nominations?

[NeoTiamat]

Now, treasure!

The way I'm going to handle treasure from Menetnashte's Tomb in a slightly non-standard fashion. Basically, Vedarrak collects most of the stuff to hand over to the FoS/University, but if you choose to follow Samael's advice (and don't mind a bit of moderately immoral thievery), you can hold some back for yourselves.

BUT, because of time-constraints and the watchful eye of Marcos Vedarrak, and because the treasure is in old coinages and non-standard formats, you are not able to convert it into usable GP prior to the completion of the campaign.

Why is this so? Two reasons.

• -Balance. Not every PC can or will steal treasure from the Tomb, so if this works out to actual major benefits, it unbalances the game some.
  
  -D&D Mechanics. The treasure of Menetnashte is meant to be a massive treasure trove, the lost treasures of an empire. If you steal even a portion of it, via Bags of Holding or what-not, it should be enough to make you rich for the rest of your lives.
  
  But PCs in D&D gain wealth exponentially. So by this point, if looking strictly at the SRD, you're already capable of buying a ton of stuff. So if I make the Treasure of Menetnashte insanely huge, it's going to unbalance the game, but if I make it manageable, it becomes "just another loot."

So! You can get treasure, and for the purposes of story, feel free to consider your PCs as having considerable wealth, or the potential for considerable wealth at any rate. But it won't happen soon enough to have a mechanical effect on the game.

Never fear, you guys will be getting some goodies soon enough, so I don't aim to cheat you of any deserved GP. Just be patient a little longer.

Any major objections?

[NeoTiamat]

And lastly, Feedback! Four questions, 500 XP each, so 2000 XP total.

1. What did you think of the Tomb from the point of view of the rooms you played through? The PC rooms, if you will.

2. What did you think of the Tomb and the Conspiracy as seen via the cutscenes?

3. What did you think of the Combats? (Grousing about Wild Magic will get you snarky responses, fair warning).

4. What did you think of the conclusion? Basically, everything that happened in the Treasure Room, particularly the Profound PC Choice (tm), and to a lesser extent the way various PCs and NPCs snapped under pressure.

[The Whistler]

Gotta get up super-early tomorrow for a focus group, but here're 1 and 2!

1) You are aware that my two favorite video games are “Psychonauts” and “Persona 4?” Seriously, I have a possibly irrational *thing* for psychology as level design, so this was easily my favorite chapter for that reason alone. From a more micro-level standpoint…it *also* worked very well. There was a really well-balanced mix of “plot challenges” and more hands-on affairs, and I really don’t feel as if any one of our characters got short shrift, as far as Big Moments went. Very minor quibble: Where were Devereux and Harris’ rooms? I could see why you could cut them for time, but c’mon! NPCs are people too.

2) A great counterpoint to our own bits: Samael’s was a high point, of course, but I thought Guy’s was plenty heart-wrenching as well. I am entirely unsurprised that the two of them are moderately unhinged, now. Does Ravenloft *have* non-cerebral-vampire therapists?
If we’re doing the criticism thing, though, I would’ve liked a closer look at Lily’s room; she’s the only really psychologically complex conspiracy member that we didn’t get a direct rundown for. (Jervis doesn’t really count, as I am aware that he basically just likes to kill things) I’m cool, though.

[Isabella]

Where were Devereux and Harris’ rooms? I could see why you could cut them for time, but c’mon! NPCs are people too.

Ah, but Harris did have a room. As did the one conspiracy member that didn't show up in the cutscenes.

[Nathan of the FoS]

In general: It was pretty interesting to see how the Tomb tied into/related back to Kamarn-Quse, and the serial psychodrama thing was pretty interesting and let us show the character histories that might otherwise never have seen the light of day (Charles, Tomas and Sascha in particular). Also, it was amusing to actually get a dungeon crawl Book, except a weird inverted Ravenloft dungeon crawl (essentially all character development, instead of the standard no character development). (I suppose you could say something fairly similar about Book 9, actually.)

Individual rooms: I liked the combat rooms the best (and Tomas'), I suppose because I am a straightforward monster-basher at heart. I rather lost the plot in Kuzan's room and didn't really understand that we were supposed to be figuring out the implied puzzle until that bit had been figured out. Andre's and Otto's rooms were admirably tailored to their characters and gave YV and the Whistler a chance to spread themselves a bit; I felt like part of the audience for those, rather than part of the cast. Sascha's was a good idea that suffered somewhat from the skill challenge mechanic generally, imho; it might have been better not to let us know the DC thresholds beforehand, to encourage more risk-taking and heighten the stakes a bit?

Tomas' was my favorite, overall, largely because it revealed so much about him that had been mysterious (or at least unremarked). And there's just nothing like discovering "that guy is actually the incarnation of a god!" to enliven a party. Of the D&D sort or any other.

Charles' room I thought did a very good job of communicating his inner fears and evil deeds; (and now everyone understands why! Hooray mid-book "cutscenes!") I'm just lucky dimension door has no somatic component, or that could have gotten ugly quickly.

The combats themselves were pretty good. Charles' was pretty short, sweet and to the point; I recall being a bit miffed that fireballing an explosive-laden marionette lets it run up to you before exploding, but! All's well that ends well! And I'm just glad things went better than they had in the playtest.

I kinda liked that scorpion.

The Last Fight was a nice use of the old standard "Yourselves, but evil!" Frankly, I am surprised we didn't have more people killed, considering that it was, by definition, a near-even fight. Our tactics seemed...um...non-ideal, but I guess fighting the good fight, going first, and having a ravening were-jackal on our side put us over the top.

The Conspiracy's rooms I thought quite interesting, especially Guy's and Sam's (we don't see much of the others, really, except for Khalil, and I would be interested to know more about Lily's experience.) Charles had already been informed of much of Guy's story (since, obviously, the Dementlieuse government knows it), so it wasn't a surprise. It was, however, very moving. And creates all kinds of Count-of-Monte-Cristo possibilities with the treasure and what-not.

Sam has an interesting set of hang-ups, to be sure. It's interesting that he sweats the "killing people" angle so much when so much of his other conduct is essentially amoral. Also, he had better watch out or Lily is going to wrap him around the axle.

Lily's a bit harder to get a bead on, largely because we aren't privy to her thoughts about her room, or even much on what happened in her room--just her reactions after the fact, in which she is presumably displaying mostly what she wants to display, emotions-wise. Let's just say I (by which I mostly, but not entirely mean, "I-as-Charles") have never liked her, never trusted her, and consider myself to be amply justified in these opinions by what we learn here.

[lostboy]

Feedback!

1.

Yes it was an interesting idea and I think it worked because of the mix of stuff l with some being personal expereinces for the individual pc's whereas others needed everyone involved. We also had combat and non-combat segments which meant it wasnt predictable, personally I would have like to see puzzles thrown in so everything wasnt quite so metaphsyical but overall it worked well.

As Nathan points out it really lifted the lid on some character histories that up until now have been only hinted at or left unsaid, which really illustated to me how little I probabley know about each of the other characters, as usually there is too much story for sit down group therapy on thei backgrounds. Saying that there are still quite a few unanswered questions (for me at least, but maybe IM being thick).

Otherwise Im spot on with Nathsn observations, Kuzans room threw me for a fair bit as well as I didnt get what we were supposed to do, the more descriptive ones were great to be a spcatator of though as the writing standard was excellent on all parts. And yes I still dont like Skill Challenges, it still seems too overtly mechanical.

2.
Again this was great for more character development on the part of (most) of the npc's. Guy's and Samaels were excelelnt and really gave an insight into them. Some of the others were less clear cut, although Michels and Jervis' were entertainign to read, in compariosn to the others they were a bit one-dimensional. And as others have noted it would have been interestign to know more about what went on for Lily.

As for Khalils room well it gave me the chance to pull out some of the things I dint really get to grips with, with him as a character. In hindsight as a character I played him with his cards too close to his chest (for various reasons) which meant no-one else really got him, ah well we live and learn.

Finally the big question.......how come Loup didnt get a room?

3.
Combats -awesome! Id give an A+ on this one. They were brutal, felt really threatening and I was prety much sweating over our survival at several points.
The level of the encounters was defintly racked up a notch or two for the last but one book, and I thnk with a few less lucky rolls it could have all gone very pear-shaped.
I actually thought the wild magic was a nice touch, as it took away some of the comfort zone that D&D magic always gives. I actualy backed off form having Sascha cast a spell, just in case of a 50ft pit, which would have put a big damper on hsi damage potential against the scorpion.
Highlights were defintley the scorpion, and the moment we all realised that the shadows had a healer as well - quality!

4.
And finally, yes it was a good ending. Fighting the conspiracy would have been a bit too predicatble (although probabley still fun if Jervis wasnt playing). Of course after facing our own inner demons so often in books 9 and 11 it makes sense we would get a chance to take them on directly.

Feelign we had to give up the gem also brought a movie feel to it, liek no matter how hard you fight the bad guys look like they are goign to win adn the heroes have one last chance to save the day. Its going to be interesting to see how the final book plays out.

[Nathan of the FoS]

Feelign we had to give up the gem also brought a movie feel to it, liek no matter how hard you fight the bad guys look like they are goign to win adn the heroes have one last chance to save the day. Its going to be interesting to see how the final book plays out.

This is an excellent point and one I forgot to mention--the "options narrowing to one high unpleasant choice" feel of the book was very dramatic. Not very pleasant, but very dramatic. As lostboy says, it was quite cinematic and sets up the last book in style.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

And lastly, Feedback! Four questions, 500 XP each, so 2000 XP total.

1. What did you think of the Tomb from the point of view of the rooms you played through? The PC rooms, if you will.

In order:
Kuzan's room: Deceptive. I had no idea we were in a special environment until we entered the next room. Well done on surprising me! ^^; The tulpa annoyed me, though ...
Charles' room: This one really spooked me. I wasn't really sure what was going on at first, and being turned into a giant marionette freaked me out. More implications of Charles' undisclosed past, with ramifications for our present. It left me curious about the details of that past, and I hope to one day hear them. I see you are continuing to learn ways of using the environment against us, NT ... ^^* Well done; it was tricky, but ultimately interesting.
Andre's room: Mildly offputting. I didn't really get a feel for this room as I did for the others. The challenge wasn't really there for me, but I suppose it is only proper that it was there for Andre. Though his solution to the problem may not have seemed ideal, it was certainly better than some of the alternatives.
My room: Well, what can I say? I think this particular challenge was very appropriate. The wild magic strikes at the main weapon Lia has to bring to bear, and the fire spiders reflect her main elemental focus. ^^ Adding in dad Mourneswaithe as the door she had to pass to get on with things is just delightfully symbolic. My compliments!
Otto's room: Delightfully detailed, and with lots of flavour and atmosphere. I'm just sorry I wasn't able to contribute anything, but again, as with Andre, it is entirely approriate that Otto got to make his decisions and act solo. I still can't believe I eulogized him prematurely! ^^; Eh heh ...
Sascha's room: Intriguing. And I must say I enjoyed the opportunity to resolve such a fraught situation without resorting to combat. There have been other non-combat challenges before, but this one had a lot of atmosphere, and the clear implication of bad consequences if we didn't manage to pull it off -- very bad consequences, in that it might cost one of us his chance at redemption. I'm not too sure how I feel about the ancient Akiri deities claiming us as their mouthpieces. ^^;
I also wish I knew what the consequences would have been for each possible level of 'accomplishment' we could've attained by talking in Sascha's defense ... but perhaps I'm better off not knowing, hmm?
Tomas' room: Well, secrets have been revealed. It was good to see Tomas receive such universal acceptance; he's one of the nicest characters in the entire campaign. All in all, this room provided one of those rare 'feel good'-moments that make the game worth playing. A victory which is not in any way Pyrrhic.

2. What did you think of the Tomb and the Conspiracy as seen via the cutscenes?

I'm amazed we made it through the tomb, all in all. As for the Conspiracy ... I was startled to see their more human traits making an appearance now, at the eleenth hour. That is, the more human traits of the members of the Conspiracy that are at all redeemable. Sam really surprised me, I have to say. I wonder whether this change of heart will stick, or that it'll just drive him crazy. Shame we probably won't be seeing Khalil again -- I'm cruious how he would have turned out after this. Lily and Jervis ... Forget about it. Guy and Michel bear watching. I have to say I liked the challenges placed before the Conspiracy, especially the ones that pertained to Sam, Jervis, Guy and Michel; deeply appropriate, and it's a shame that Jervis completely failed to learn anything from it at all ... But such is life, and such is Jervis, I suppose.

3. What did you think of the Combats? (Grousing about Wild Magic will get you snarky responses, fair warning).

I found them challenging, to say the least. You really found some ways to hit us where it hurt. You turned the environment agaist us, you turned our own powers against us (especially during the last battle, which had me worried for a bit, though not as much as the previous rooms' battles, for some reason), and I am not complaining. The ways you did it were not inappropriate in any sense of the word; all perfectly logical within the setting. You're getting better at making things hard for us, chief, and no mistake. I keep thinking we're not going to make it through another time ... ^^; And then the really nice thing is that we still manage to do so.

4. What did you think of the conclusion? Basically, everything that happened in the Treasure Room, particularly the Profound PC Choice (tm), and to a lesser extent the way various PCs and NPCs snapped under pressure.

I wish I'd known about the extent of Harris' troubles sooner. I would've tried to help him somehow, if only I could have done. The way things stand, that little surprise came out of nowhere for me, and left me vaguely dissatisfied.
I'm a bit annoyed that we had to make that profound choice, though I do agree it had to be made. We just can't trust Menetnashte. I'm sorry I didn't look into an analysis of that bloody ritual sooner. Should've known better, didn''t, now we need to somehow move on.
The profound choice itself is a sterling example of right and pleasant not being the same at all. In this case, they're not even sharing a zip code. *sigh* We've got our work cut out for us in the final Book, and I only hope we manage to pull it all off.
The way some people snapped is ... appropriate, now we know their background a little better, and know what they were subjected to during their crawl through the tomb. I'm curious as to how these psychological responses will cause the 'snapped' to act in time to come.
As to the battle in the final room -- excellent stuff, and as I mentioned before, a clever way of turning our own abilities against us. I wasn't as worried about this battle as I was about the previous ones, though. Maybe because I had to distance myself from it a bit, when I was unable to get online? ^^; Who can say. Maybe I'm learning to put a bit more trust in the abilities of the complete Expedition/Conspiracy team.

One more note I'd like to add: this whole book gave me a really strong 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'-vibe: we were brought here by Ravenloft's Nazis, who sent us in to collect an artifact while they losered around outside, and in the end we have to hand it over ... It amused me, in the abstract sense. In the concrete sense, I'm worried. ^^; Again.