Dark Jack, your turn with the Guards if you please.

My first post is up. If I violated anything, let me know and I will make changes. Since this roleplay is sort of an open world, could I choose for my character to learn information about the monster in Nemhim and find out if anyone is trying to kill it? The idea is for my character to tag along with any players (or NPCs) who want to kill the monster. So far, that's the only thing that I can push my character towards since he doesn't know too much of the withering. If this was an RPG video game or tabletop, the guy Kaedan just helped would have been the quest giver of (hopefully) an epic quest chain. I think that's funny.

I didn't notice anything wrong with your post, no. (If anything, could you use single line breaks in dialogue, rather than leaving all that empty space between lines? I find it rather hard to keep track of the text and tend to skip over lines if people do that. But I suppose that it's mostly a matter of preference, if anything.) I suppose you could have Kaedan go investigate the monster, though I think it would be preferable if we didn't spawn even more branches to the story? (Jack's word will overrule mine in this regard. He's been allowing quite a bit of freedom to the players indeed, though.) I must also warn you that this is no ordinary monster you'd be dealing with, but one about which it isn't even known whether it can be killed at all. As for the pre-existing characters, then those who're heading to Zerul City have actually briefly met it (and might or might not have a slightly better overview of it than anyone else). It remains unknown whether they'd continue to pursue to end the Withering or take a detour to try and eliminate the allegedly unkillable "monster", though. As for the Withering, then it's existence is pretty much universally known ... any other details they've learned on the way would probably be spared by them. I suppose you could have Kaedan meet them somewhere along the way, perhaps in Zerul City (if we can ever get ourselves over there) and decide then. Or go hunt the monster and encounter the main group afterwards or somewhere on the way...

Jack, any comments about anything (Veridis' or TNY's character's introduction to somewhere, PM)? Also, if you hadn't noticed, then editing old posts - those from before the migration - (and BBCode, obviously) are back. So there is that. (Should be you in borderhouse collab, ASTA in the other, Asghan with Jillian and Yoshua with I'on, by my track-keeping. Your last post had apparently gone unnoticed until yesterday due to being right before Veridis's...)

Apologies on my end for missing the post. I'll try to get something up tonight since I have some stuff to do today ^^;

posted

Still not sure where I should come in... and no one's really reached out to me about it.

Made s short little post in the collab, too ... mainly just Aemoten asking Thaler what it is that bothers her. @The New Yorker: I sort of poked Jack about it in the last OoC post. As for me, then I don't really know what to suggest other than what I noted before - if you're going to make him join the group he briefly met before, then I suppose you could have him be in Zerul like almost everyone else who is pending on joining them. (Perhaps he returned there after he left Olan's service to look for a new job...)

Made s short little post in the collab, too ... mainly just Aemoten asking Thaler what it is that bothers her. @The New Yorker: I sort of poked Jack about it in the last OoC post. As for me, then I don't really know what to suggest other than what I noted before - if you're going to make him join the group he briefly met before, then I suppose you could have him be in Zerul like almost everyone else who is pending on joining them. (Perhaps he returned there after he left Olan's service to look for a new job...)

Honestly, I'd really rather hear something back from Jack before I think about posting. I'm feeling a little ignored.

Chances are he's been a bit busy with university, hence he's not replying as frequently as he'd like. (It's mostly me trying to answer people's questions to the best of my abilities until then.) @Jack: I noticed that the Crusaders' entry doesn't really speak of how they can be identified (other that they are humans and sometimes ride belagons or wyverns)? I know from their descriptions elsewhere, but when it came up, I really had nothing much to link... Still in need of an introduction, probably. (Until I am not actively working on something else and actually get to finding a working session storage for you, you can just send things to me and I'll run them up. It doesn't take any significant amount of time or effort to do so, even less so since I actually have working siteside solution (even if your computer doesn't like the session key for some reason). Use BBCode with < and > instead or square brackets if you need to format something; chances are that it is the HTML equivalent; if it isn't, I'll fix it.)

Chances are he's been a bit busy with university, hence he's not replying as frequently as he'd like. (It's mostly me trying to answer people's questions to the best of my abilities until then.) @Jack: I noticed that the Crusaders' entry doesn't really speak of how they can be identified (other that they are humans and sometimes ride belagons or wyverns)? I know from their descriptions elsewhere, but when it came up, I really had nothing much to link... Still in need of an introduction, probably. (Until I am not actively working on something else and actually get to finding a working session storage for you, you can just send things to me and I'll run them up. It doesn't take any significant amount of time or effort to do so, even less so since I actually have working siteside solution (even if your computer doesn't like the session key for some reason). Use BBCode with < and > instead or square brackets if you need to format something; chances are that it is the HTML equivalent; if it isn't, I'll fix it.)

Yeah, and I don't want to make you feel bad or anything, you're doing quite well, and I really appreciate your efforts. I'm sure you understand my perspective, but it's hard to be confident and write something meaningful when I'm sort of in the dark.

Groan What a freakin' week... Sorry about not being as visibly (or actively, regrettably) present for you guys as I would have liked to be - and indeed am duty-bound to be through my role as GM - but this past week has done its best to take as much of a toll on me as it could. I've been pretty fatigued mentally and emotionally, and while I have read what has been going on here, I really haven't been able to assume the state of mind necessary to deal with the things that have come up here. (Additionally my PC was actually unavailable altogether almost the entirety of yesterday, so there is that.) But I'm here now, ready to get back to work.

So where should I start? After you guys get into the city? I imagine I'll be meeting with the group which Gregory already has some level of familiarity.

Considering that Gregory has already been inserted into the world in the past and thus faces a purely geographical limitation if nothing else, I actually don't think Gregory could meet up with the other group at the place and time they occupy at the moment, realistically; not only are they significantly farther away from the forest where Gregory left them the first time around, but their action also lags behind in time a day or so compared to the rest. As for how to introduce him to Aemoten's group... I could maybe suggest meeting up with Kaedan, first, and if finding the other group is to be the objective then probably meet them in Zerul City? They could even get acquainted with the trio already waiting there (I'on, Ixion and Morgan) if worst comes to worst and the companions turn out to take their sweet time to show up in the city still, even though I thought they'd arrive imminently. And no, I don't have any problem with Kaedan's introductory post, though it does still pose the question of where he should go from there. Like Gregory, placing Kaedan (why does that name sound familiar? It's been bothering me for a while now...) where he was put, geographically and chronologically, makes it highly unrealistic for him to be able to join up with Jillian's group. He has freedom to do just about whatever he wants, obviously, so if he does want to investigate the monster that attacked Nemhim City, that's his decision (and his funeral; as Shien mentioned, that particular creature is very dangerous (it routed the Nemhimian Army and Guard, numbering a total in the neighborhood of six thousand armed troops), and ironically a direct result of a player's past decision). But the same suggestion goes for you as with TNY; maybe have Kaedan meet Gregory if you so desire, and then have them meet the rest of the lot over in Zerul City. (It'll be quite a band once everyone's been recruited, that one; Jaelnec, Aemoten, Thaler, Olan, I'on, Ixion, Morgan, Kaedan, Gregory, Iridiel and Claw makes eleven people, not counting whatever other characters they may or may not recruit from my near-infinite supply of them. EDIT: Realized immediately after posting that I'd forgotten about Domhnall; that'd make twelve, not counting Etakar and the mounts.) (One last parenthesis in relation to Veridis' first post: while it doesn't require to be corrected because it is completely feasible, and even realistically probable, that the NPC would say something along those lines, I feel that it is necessary to point out that the Nemhimian refugees actually did have other places than Zerul City to go to. A lot more went to Seclyr City and Wenal City than to Zerul, actually, due to them being closer (and in possession of larger armed forces), and another part of the routed population also went to Anaxim City. Again, not a problem, just something I wanted to clarify in case anyone was confused about it.) What else have I missed... Oh.

@Jack: I noticed that the Crusaders' entry doesn't really speak of how they can be identified (other that they are humans and sometimes ride belagons or wyverns)? I know from their descriptions elsewhere, but when it came up, I really had nothing much to link...

Is that so? Huh. Well, the main way to recognize the crusaders would be by their red tabards with the emblem of the Guild on it (Guild priests and Goldheart Templars do not wear the tabards, but have the emblem on their priest-gowns and armor, respectively, instead). If I missed anything else that needed to be paid attention, please let me know.

Good to see you back jack and don't worry everyone understands that real life can be trying. :) @Shien Thought i'd let you know i posted in the collab since I just noticed the message counts gone.

@Nessa: It actually shows the number of new PMs, in case there are any ... although only until you refresh the page, and not until you actually read the message, it seems. Also made a quick post in reply. @Jack: I have a vague recollection of a character in a video game by this name (albeit one I haven't played myself). Could be something like that?

Kaedan does sound like a common name, doesn't it? I'm proud of it, best name I've come up with thus far. I can have my character run into The New Yorker's character on my way to Zerul, or at Zerul. Important Edit: By the time my character gets to Zerul, it should be late at night. As for what happens when I get to Zerul, I'm planning on running into the guys who are trying to stop the withering, or someone associated with them. Hearing their quest to stop the withering, it'd make sense for Kaedan to want to join up since he's on a religious pilgrimage to prove himself right now. I just hope that the monster in Nemhim will come into play at some point. It feels wrong to just forget about it for now.

Both groups are trying to end the Withering, actually, though they're going about doing so differently. But I know which one you mean. As for the monster that sacked Nemhim City... well, that's for the characters to decide. They are free to make whichever choice they feel that they need to in a rather literal sense, and turning their focus to a new threat such as the creature or ignoring it are both possibilities. Every decision in The Prophecy has consequences, however, and I don't think I'm spoiling anything that people haven't figured out already when I say that this menace isn't very likely to stop at Nemhim. The longer it exists the more it will kill, and the stronger it will become. The problem is that I don't actually think that the characters would be able to face it as they are now; not without help, at least.