I see a fun game with lots of interesting ideas. What I don't see is an explanation for dropping this. A shame, I have to say. I'm very attached to Dairon. He's my first ever RPG character.

Might have to find a reason to bring him into another game then Felbatista. I know I'm probably going to save Leskyn for an NPC for when I take my first shot at DMing a play by post game. Maybe we'll see him in another game as well.

That said I was kind of hoping to take a little time between jobs to interact with the characters in the town of your game True Believer. But given the time it takes to get through a single objective it just didn't seem to come around again. I'll keep that in mind when I try running a game out. Also on the subject of town interactions wonder how friendships built within the town would have com into play in the later part of the game.

I would like to talk story planning and I'll start with a couple of questions.

One, what involvement did the mages in the tower have with The White Tower?

Two, if we had explored more of the natural cavern in the mine what story differences would that have taken place?

Actually I was getting bored with PBP and losing my enthusiasm, not exactly with my game, but the mode itself. The fact that this game would need 5 or 6 years to conclude (possibly more) also was very depressing, that was the thing against my game. I needed a time off, maybe a month or two, but that would only delay it even more.



1 - The town mage was actually being manipulated by the exarch to do his bidding. Players would not be supposed to know this until very late in the story, since he was supposed to be the main suspect earlier and a villain later. The apprentice noticed this and tried to thwart the mage's plan, thinking he was the main villain, but without knowing the full extent of his plans. He hidden himself at the place he found at the cave, fearing for his life.

Players would have to fight against the town mage many times at the White Tower until the culmination with the last fight against him where they would have to decide upon letting him live or be killed. This was planned, not in details, but not created.

2 - At the body of the hero, you would find a +1 armor and a Lifedrinker Lantern (custom item). It would render the encounter with the ghost more meaningful later.

Just a few things to conclude that were planned or not commented before.

- The real amulet conferred no benefit, unless taken to the White Tower, then it would act as +2 Amulet that could allow teleportation, but the real benefit was its two other abilities. First, the wearer would be immune to hunger and thirst while inside the White Tower dimension (but he could nor remove the amulet); second and more important, the player would be allowed once per day to check a teleporter destination. The White Tower was a dimension in itself, and really a very difficult labyrinth of portals, many portals would teleport the PCs many miles outside the tower, making them lose 2 or 3 days with a wrong choice.

- The last fight was against the Exarch (Level 10 solo artillery), the town mage and his minions. But some factors would influence this fight, if players defeated the mage before and allowed him to live, he would attack the PCs at the first turn, but after that 70% of turns he would attack the PCs enemies. He would be absent if killed and if not found before (which could be very possible since the place was a labyrinth), he would be fully against the PCs, making the fight harder. The other factor would be the destruction of the tower core, that would make the tower collapse, if they destroyed it, they would fight in a crumbling scenario, but the Exarch would have his power diminished. Destroying the tower core would be against the interest of the PC that received the boon commented earlier, since he would lost his new powers and suffer a permanent setback that was specified by the conditions to receive the power.

And something that did not go exactly as planned. At the mine, players were supposed to find the small hole to the underworld. The perception check was a hard one on purpose, to allow for the PCs to find at least one other encounter before, but if they found it at the first time, theoretically they could bypass Xilvans encounter entirely. There were mining tools at the chamber, that could be used to enlarge the hole, that was what was planned (I created Hit points for the hole), but trying to enlarge the hole could draw enemies from the other chambers if they were not cleared before.

And I kept wanting to go back that way and find out too, completely forgetting the tools! The armor would have been nice too.

Oh well.

Do have to ask about the exarch's motivations, if you planned any, for releasing this god?

And for my fellow adventurers, did you guys have any idea how your characters were going to develope, either in skills or personality?

The plan for Dairon was to keep taking skills and powers that I could flavor as magic tricks. For example, next level I was going to take the Arcane Familiar feat. Dairon would turn his handkerchief into a pigeon.

Yes, I planned it, even if not the most creative motivation. The exarch was actually a piece of the god, so their goal was the same. This was a different god, unnamed, called only the thing that eats or the devourer. He didn't care for souls like other gods, only matter. At his dimension, he devoured everything possible, even other gods. With nothing else to consume at his dimension, he was trying to reach new ones, or he would slowly die, but requiring eons for that to happen. The White Tower was being used by the exarch to power the huge portal that would be required to bring the god to the PCs world.

That would have been an interesting twist to come across. Yet another reason why it is sad it didn't continue.

@Felbatista: Sounds fun. I'll be honest I felt the magical crossbows in the room finally gave me a reason to have Leskyn train in some rogue skills. Collect a busted crossbow, take it to the tower, have the mage's explain how that works so I can better learn to break it!