The Grey Dust

The 7 Sins: GREED

SALIGIA: The 7 Sins

Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven

Paradise Lost, Lines 258-63.

The first of the new writing competition series begins.
For those of us new to the RPG writing competitions and have no idea what they are, take a peek at an Introduction.

For those of you who participated in the Twelve Labours before or RPGC, you may be interested to know that this series will have a distinctively different thematic orientation. There are seven in total, and each one will hopefully amuse both reader and writer, inviting each to contemplate on each dreadful Sin.

Let the Second Sin Begin. Submission ends at 11:06 AM GMT, Monday July 17th 2017.

Entry Rules:

1. Follow the standard guild rules and these rules and also these rules.
2. Follow all T7S Official Rules.
3. Send your entry to @The Grey Dust by July 17th 2017 by 11:06 AM GMT, and state if you wish to submit anonymously.
4. No explicit/mature material, no exceptions.
5. Judges cannot submit entries, they must remain anonymous until after the final tally.
6. Judges reserve the right to simply toss out any story if it does not possess a basic modicum of good sense and taste.
7. You must use your own characters, and give credit to any franchises due if any are used.

Prizes:

For now, all winning entries will be given recognition for success. In the future, winning participants may receive a forum trophy as well as a unique, custom forum title which they can activate and deactivate at their leisure.

All winning entries will also be saved to a public archive. As a reminder, unless you specifically give me permission to include authorship of an entry, every posted story will remain anonymous.

Tales of Maoria: A 5E D&D Adventure

@The Mighty Hero

Well its a matter of how and when you add the details. Having someone suddenly show up at the Cliffside Manor with a convenient map of the Mayor's private estate seems a bit off.

On one hand, you have the argument that the guy wants to help, but isn't a combat person and has family in distress too. Which all seems nice, and I'm fine with that, I mean given the circumstances it might have taken the guys down at the pub to spread the word or something or drudge out this map.

On the other hand, how does a village just happen to have a complete layout of the Mayor's map? Was he the guy who built it or something? was he a servant prior? I assume from the line "I work here" meaning he works at the manor, but that's vague either suggesting he works 'here' being the village, or 'here' being the estate. So if this is true however...

We run into another issue, can we IC trust a man working for the Mayor? Thus opening up another round of do the characters trust the players involved? There's no build of rapport since we missed out on the whole introductions at the bar thing to learn everyone's credentials. So beyond Kethan and Tessa, no character actually has a relationship with each other, and have no reason beyond their own personal judgment to trust anyone else. We've already had one character come to this conclusion and thus up and leave.

And it is sort of railroading since you tell us there's a map, but only mentioned the Servant's Entrance. There's no actual description of the layout of the manor on the map, so there's absolutely no choice we as players can make since the DM failed to actually produce a map for us to view IC/OOC and roleplay out our options which thus far are Warded Frontdoor, Vs Servant's Entrance. There's no description of how many stories the building is, No basement, no balcony, no chimney or rooftop access? The topiary garden has been described, but the manor itself to me right now appears to be a blank-vaguely house-shaped box with distinctive lack of features that a map could and probably would illuminate.

Tales of Maoria: A 5E D&D Adventure

@VKAllen

And playing as Cleric, I think I'm the only one allowed Divine Interventions.
And that's only at the character level which I haven't achieved yet...

Deux Ex Machina if done right, can work in a story, but I don't think this was executed in a way that adds to the story rather than just... Feels like a Cop Out to further railroad us :X

Tales of Maoria: A 5E D&D Adventure

@The Mighty Hero

That's a bit of a Deus Ex isn't it?

🦄 Duplicity - D&D Style Fantasy Rp Adventure (Completed)

@Lady Amalthea

Someone's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious...

If Kyra/Sana start whistling... I'm going to assume a magic arrow's headed my way a la Yondu.

I'm Mary Poppins Y'all

Tales of Maoria: A 5E D&D Adventure

@Cardamonelaw

So your character would be willing to go to the bar and sit idly knowing there's a group of rabble rousers heading to the Mayor's house?
He wouldn't try to alarm the local authorities or anything of that nature? He wouldn't even have an inkling of attempting to uphold the law?

I mean Kethan's also Lawful Neutral, but he's going to investigate the claims, then if they are false, it would be great to have your character as a sword to stop anyone unwilling to listen to reason and incarcerate the lying warrior. Also you're assuming the Mayor is undefended without local guards...

That said it would have been at least 3 v 5, or something of those numbers.

Tales of Maoria: A 5E D&D Adventure

@Cardamonelaw

Wouldn't it be better then to go with this stranger?
I mean turning around and going to the bar knowing there's a coup happening...
That doesn't seem like something a law-upholding citizen would do.

One of the reasons why Kethan's half bothered as well is to see if there's any truth in the allegation.
Sort of a middle-man and voice of reason, seeking to understand the entire story as if the case these folks are looters...

Then the Mayor will need every bit of help he can get...

Tales of Maoria: A 5E D&D Adventure

@Cardamonelaw

There's a reason why I advertised hankypanky...
I mean, uh... Then do it for the Women!
A damsel's in distress and utterly needs a valiant knight in shining armor!
She needs a hero!
He's got to be strong and he's gotta be fast and he's...
No? A man maybe? Whatever floats your boat...

@JBRam2002

Actually I sort of side on the IC logic here. I mean yes, the DM did work hard and whatnot, but honestly, we are being railroaded a bit. There's not much information given and the characters are thrown into the adventure without too much motive. I'd understand if we were say advertising our services as adventurers, but in this case it was just like "Hey guys, I'm going to storm the Mayor's office, who's with me?"

Rebellion for rebellion's sake, without any actual information or intrigue. You'd think someone at the bar might have actually have said something about an uprising, like how it would result in WORSE things by the Mayor since those guys will fail or filled the rest of the nonnatives with more information. Or at least the DM could have added some more flavor or information about the setting, the unrest and really paint a good picture for the characters to immerse themselves with. I tried to do a bit of it with my posts, but I'm not sure what sort of town the DM's constructed myself, so I just went with generic misery town.

Plotwise, it's a rather silly quest. IC Kethan's not really into it, he's just watching out for Tessa, and finding out if there's any truth to this loudmouth's claim that his daughter's been captured. Kethan will seek diplomacy over violence.

Tales of Maoria: A 5E D&D Adventure

@Cardamonelaw

But you'll be missing out on Exp and Loots D:!
Not to mention hanky-panky with the obviously swooning Daughter (who has thus far been unnamed and unaged...) who will clearly develop an infatuation for one of her saviors.

Tales of Maoria: A 5E D&D Adventure

I believe we are waiting on the GM.
What's beyond the gate? Is it an Epic battle?
Throngs of orcs in a reverse siege of Helm's deep?