Thread #136415

Tilde will probably be here any time now.
ToN will probably not be here until 7:30.

At least I'm here!

>>136419
what's going on in this image

>>136422
that's a great question

I'm probably going to be a lot later than I expected.
My mother didn't start dinner until a fair bit later than I thought she would.
And we changed meals because she accidentally left a fair bit of meat out of the freezer that she didn't intend to use.
We're not even eating yet.

What time do you think you'll be done with dinner?

19:45 the earliest, and that's if I tear through the food.

If we said 20:00, do you think that would be reasonable and comfortable for you?

Probably, yeah.

>>136443
Look at the timestamp on your post.

what time is 20:00 in normal people time?

8:00.

So we're only going to play for two hours?

Unless you want to stay up later.
It doesn't seem like there's much we can do about it.
We can try to make up for it with a longer session next weekend, maybe.

I expected dinner to be on the table by 18:00-18:30.
Because that's when we usually eat.

Well, sometimes these things happen.
I think it's kind of out of our hands this time.

Okay I'm alive again.

Then we just need ToN.
Last I heard, Blind was running late.
That was 20 minutes ago, though.

TUTURU

Okay!
I'm gonna go get some water and then I'll be good to go.


There's gonna be some hard combat today

oh fuck

hello

Looks like we're all here!

So do you all want to stop at 10 or 11?
11 may be pushing it for Rika since she likes to nap at 9.

Let sleeping rikas lie
10 would be fine with me

11 is fine.

Are you sure?

Is 11 okay with the others?

I'm good with going as long as is feasible for anyone else.
Don't need any sleep for a long while.

Yeah, I'm sure. 11 is fine.
I'm going to be inattentive for 10-15 minutes but I'll be caught up and just assume VV is following along nicely if I'm quiet.
Gotta finish something up real fast.

Okay. So that'll be for the first 10-15 minutes, as in, starting now?

If 11 is fine with ToN, we can start.

>>136514
Alright.

yeah.

So when you reach some hard combat, I'll let you know that it's going to be hard combat.
Usually I don't talk about the behind-the-scenes stuff for combat like hit thresholds and we usually skip damage rolls and stuff to make it quick and easy.

Hard battles are going to use hit thresholds of 5 which means your attacks will have to beat a difficulty of 5 when you roll to attack it.
If you succeed with that attack, you get to roll for damage, and then there will be a damage modifier for it depending on your weapon.
Some hard battles will also have enemies that can reduce some damage with armor.

I guess you can think of them as boss battles.
They're not going to happen often, though, so don't worry.
And ask if you have a question about it during combat of course.

oh yeah 11 is fine.

>>136515
Can we use skills to boost both hit and damage rolls?

You can use them to boost hit, but not damage.
You probably won't need to boost damage since everything will have relatively small HP pools.

All right, that's more or less what I expected.

there's something making really weird noises outside my door, i'll be back in a second

And then he was never heard from again.

it's a zoog

It was cats fighting.

or something

Or some Thing.

Thomas had a revolver, right?

yeah

alright thought so

okay

I'm ready now!

good because there's an evil bark bark

Welcome back Rika.

Is it even evil?
Is it even making any indications of wanting to chew our legs off?

If it wants to bite us it's inherently evil.

I wonder what that greater threat could be.

nobody has any outdoorsman, right?

Dire Wolves

>>136552
Victoria is the probable only bet.

Why would a lady have outdoorsman?

Because she seems like the kind of lady who enjoys the outdoors.
Being all athletic and riding horses.

i can't believe ton just capped that wolf

But yeah I guess it's irrelevant anyway.

Horseback riding is completely different from being in the untamed wilds.
You do that in arenas and whatnot.

I'll make a little stretch here since nobody has outdoorsman

If someone wants to spend a point of library use to remember something they once read about wolves, they can

Aw man that's rika's jam and my own I suppose.

Oh I see.

My time to shine! I will of course spend one point of library use.

VV suddenly remembers a book she once read about wolf behavior - it's extremely unusual for them to travel alone

To be fair literally anyone could have known that but at least VV remembered something trivial.

Yup that's what I expected.

>>136568
is it trivial

Everyone and their mother knows that wolves normally do that!

I dunno about that

I wouldn't blink at someone not knowing that information.
It's the kind of thing that seems sensible to someone who knows it since you'll probably subconsciously notice the information's prevalence everywhere.
But someone who's never had to deal with wolves or a part of the world without wolves might not know that.

Here come the DIRE WOLVES

Thomas is now the WOLF WHISTLER.

That or some real bad shit's about to go down.

yeah

This one is going to be a hard battle

A safe assumption.

Y'know though, three metres, while tall for a wolf, isn't really actually -that- big.

That's true.

This wolf gets a little scarier though

It's going to sprout tentacles with teeth on them.

a little more banal than that

It's going to inflict poison damage with its biting attack.

confusion

i kid i kid

But serious, the legs or the head?

You guys have guns so get going!

Could you imagine if I let the warped skeletons confuse you with teleports.

Oh yeah, hard battles have a turn order too

The turn order here is ToN, Tilde, Rika, then the wolf.

welp
works.

4 would be good were it not this particular fight haha

Fucking RIP.

In the case it -does- lunge at one of us, what can we use to evade/block/otherwise reduce or avoid incoming damage?

If it attacks you, you'll have an opportunity to defend
It'll roll for your hit threshhold and then it'll roll for damage
And then I'll give you an opportunity to try and reduce the damage

VV gon trip

VV hits but she needs to roll for damage now

just a d6

well i'll just roll the damage i guess
#d6 (2)

oh no

Wow I have to roll for damage too huh.

Wow that wolf didn't do great?
How should I defend myself

>>136617
Yeah, for hard battles. See >>136515

>>136618
It reached your hit threshold at least!

It's going to bite your arm. Do you have anything you can try to defend with?

I can try to pistol whip it as it's lunging at me?

More of a blocking type thing is what you can do
e.g. try to block with your bag
Or you can just not block and take 5 damage

If I block with my bag are you going to attack my bag's contents

your bag would be a bit damaged yeah

you'd reduce damage by 1 though

Well there's only one clear way to do this situation.

no blocking then?

No, my bag is kind of important.

roger

Also sharp teeth biting down on and cracking chemical containers may cause some leakage.
Which might be a problem of its own, considering Thomas is carrying a backpack full of explosives.

Could be a problem for actually everyone.

thomas' turn
same turn order

Also how much health does Thomas have again?

I seem to have 11 in this notepad but I don't necessarily trust it since it was used when I was making the sheet and isn't my sheet.
Okay, so I allocated 11 is what this means, so I have 7 hp left

Thomas has 12 HP, Felicity and VV have 10 HP.

You also don't die at 0 HP.

Well at least he can take a bit of a beating then.

roll for kaboom damage?

yes

can you or can you not bolster those as well?
You did say "just a d6" earlier.

You cannot bolster damage rolls

hai hai

If I was to run up and stick a spear in it, what would that fall under.

Sounds like scuffling or athletics to me?

That'd be a weapons roll

oh there are weapons.
Whoops

Well I guess it's that or a firearm roll, which I don't know if I want to spend on of my two points on anyway.

Since its down right now, I'll say HT of 4 instead of 5 for this turn if you use melee

Oh my, how generous.

imagine being the zoog in the bag for this

He's probably got the zoog equivalent of a hard-on, really.

Whenever I don't use the handgun, I always get really good rolls.

Wow.

>>136657
He's evil so he's probably keikaku doori in that bag.

gogo vv gogo

Indeed, it is VV's turn.

I don't know if stabbing with an axe is really feasible.
But I guess Vane can do what she wants.

stabbing with an axe is possible if it's a pointy one.

like a halberd tip

I'm pretty sure this is just something like a woodaxe or a fireaxe.

You did it

OR DID YOU???

Could always hack off the head to make sure.

Someone can spend first aid to help Thomas
1 first aid point spent on him increases his HP by 2
you can spend up to 3 to heal him 6 but his max hp is still 12

Goes to grip him with one arm pretty well mauled.

Thomas is mad

I'll spend three points on him!

I've only got two points so it's probably best if Vane burns through her pile of them.

Yay

And here's Thomas all mad and huffing and puffing at this little abomination.

He presumably left a doo doo in Thomas' bag he is not going to stand for htis.

Can I shoot accurately outside of combat?

Grumble grumble.

With a roll

Oh.

I'm not sure if this is banal compared to teethtacles.

Yo is this the watchdog of the ancients or whatever

Well damn.

>>136698
No Thomas, you are the watchdog of the ancients or whatever.

If Thomas can become a fiery wolf in addition to chucking explosives than this is the best magic ever.

Looks like you might be getting a persona.

A fursona.

haha
It's his spirit animal!

wolves represent shared knowledge and sharing of knowledge in many cultures

So was this to be Thomas' spirit animal even if one of us had gunned it from the get-go?

Aw shucks, you personalized it.

>>136714
Yeah, it wouldn't have let you guys get away.

If you'd tried to escape, the wolves in the brush would have stopped you.

Well it's just also a fortunate coincidence that he was the one it wanted to chew up since he shot at it first.

I shot // oh I did huh.

also it comes with a special power!

once per session you can spend 1 stability to get a clue about something from your spirit animal

NEAT.

Consult the firedog learn the secrets of the universe.

Are there actually creatures in Native American folklore called Zoog?

Haha, nope
There stuff like the zoog, but the name zoog is the name Lovecraft gave these things

if you kill the zoog you can have that cthulhu mythos back

THAT is an interesting offer.

Yeah that's pretty much what I figured it was.
I mean we got the stuff that the firewolf was talking about; so I don't think Victoria or Felicity hold it in high regard.

Can I tell that that's all of them?

yeah it is

Okay.

oh yeah
It was really funny that Rika thought they were natives
the small guys
They're actually cannibal dwarves from Arapaho legend
sworn enemies of the arapaho

So I wasn't really all that far out having Felicity call them pygmy people.
Neato.

While I'd like to have that cthulu mythos back, it's not something I'm going to do when I can negotiate what I want. At least not here.

Had he run away I would have hunted him down like the rat he is though.

They were totally pygmys.

Vampire pygmys but pygmys nonetheless.

This wolf talks like an accountant or some one else you expect to talk dryly or stiffly.
It's kind of funny.

he represents knowledge!
all about that information
and even though he's a wolf he's not good socially since thomas is his master

>>136766
name him whatever you want

Thomas was going to ask what to call him but then that RAVEN interrupted.
s

>Thomas naming something
Oh what have you done

hey man its your spirit animal

can't wait for you guys to meet a familiar face and old friend in the city

Oh no.

You guys thinking tunnels?
Unless you want to mountain it up

Reunited with Popper, huh?

>>136777
Yeah kind of.
Thomas aside, our party is well-geared towards stealth.

>>136778
I think you'll enjoy it more than you would meeting Popper again.

So tunnels it is?

I'm assuming Rika is going to be indecisive as usual so probably.

Tunnels is fine.

>>136787
>>136788
wow rekt

She would have said "Mountains are fine" if Tony and I had indicated towards the mountains though.

There's nothing wrong with being an agreeable person.

Yeah but if neither of us had indicated anything you would have just said "I'm fine with whatever the group wants!"

What's wrong with that?
If you were both indecisive I would have chosen for you.

Your lack of initiative is annoying at times.

Trail of Cthulhu doesn't have initiative...

Kirara please.

ba dum tish

>>136797
My zen is just more refined than other people's.
I have eliminated my desires.

Do you actually have a good reason or is it just bullshit.

Zen isn't bullshit!
Although in the context of the game I try to let you guys make the decisions where you are willing to make them because I am a more experienced player.
It's just basic etiquette.

So it is pretty much "I'm just too lazy and want everyone to do all the work".
As usual.

I don't think it's work.
I made a lot of the decisions early in the game when you guys were still getting your sea legs.
Don't be mean to me.

haha, rika does try to avoid making decisions because she's afraid of being too pushy
i don't think it's laziness

>>136808
Then don't give me reasons to be mean.
Take initiative and don't give lame-ass excuses like "it's my zen"

I bet you guys can't wait to see what your spirit animals are

I would wager that mine is a bird or a cat.

Probably for Rika but do you think that's what it is for VV?

It would be something different if you take that into account.
We'll see what you come up with.
I think all my characters have had similar essences to me though.

My money's on a gorilla for her.

pfft

How would trying to sneak past them ideally work here?

Just basic stealth rolls.
Single roll each to make it to the other side.

Wow

wow thomas did it

I'm totally gonna fumble this roll.

Oh okay.

I hate it when that happens though.
I've only got two points of Stealth.

Nice, we didn't fuck it up!

Better safe than sorry though!

Wow, I thought for sure someone would mess it up.
I even had a plan for it.

Oh I was expecting multiple rolls.

Is that you hinting at stability rolls?

That's me saying you got lucky and did not have to take stability rolls

That's what I meant

Yeah figured.

It's a burr.

Is it at all possible to wiggle around this thing?

>>136844
Stupid stability rolls.

>>136855
Probably not without waking it up

Dang

How much noise can we make without attracting the ghouls from the near-ish-by cavern?

You're far enough away by now that only a gunshot is really going to attract them.

everyone can roll sense danger if they want to

We're clueless!

Does Rika want to sense danger too

Did rika fall asleep after >>136857

no

if we had a fourth party member!

A one, a two, and a three.
Poetry.

How exactly do you go about waking up a giant bear anyway.

Probably just pushing on it or something

Could always light a fire under it

Are we trying to wake it up?

All our player characters didn't get a single indication of danger from it.
And we -do- need to get around it. Probably.
All that remains is the common sense that waking up something big and furry probably means encountering something big and furry and grumpy.

Well it's up to you guys how you wanna wake it up

On the bare butt.

How bad do you have to be to confuse a bear for a deer.

To be fair, you could only see its ass and it's dark.

We never knew it was a bear anyway.
I just called it that here in the OOC thread.

Oh that was one question mark too many.

>thomas telling someone not to take someone seriously

A truly bizarre time.

maybe there are some abilities that might help

Should I start blowing at it.

if you want to

I think I'll pass

I could use flattery, but I wonder if I should deign to flatter such a stubborn deer.

I'm not too sure if the abilities I have on hand would help with this deer.

I think VV is currently doing the opposite of flattery for the time being.

i think that was gestalt therapy

oh man

"She's just as haughty and brash as me! I have to let her pass!"

basc

oh no is this VV's spirit animal

yeah

Are you surprised.

Not now.

Wasn't that really obvious?

Super really obvious.

I'm tired and didn't think about it!
I just thought it was an obstacle!

Deer are spirits that represent nobility and selflessness

I had a hunch this was her animal from the moment we encountered it.

speaking of tired I'm surprised Rika's still kicking.

Didn't even have to flatter it.

Many stories of deer involve them sacrificing themselves so that their people can live (by becoming food)

Don't flatter yourself.

Ba dum tish

>>136980
Yeah, I'm pretty sure stories like that exist all throughout Native American tribes.
I'm fairly certain I've heard similar tales from local tribes here too.

They also help with fertility.

>>136983
Yeah, it's a pretty common legend.

What if felicity's is just the raven that spooped her earlier

Already a consideration.

This is probably a good place to stop

prob

We got way farther than I expected

Not having to punch ghouls helped I bet.

We were lucky and no one flubbed the stealth roll.

But yeah, good stopping point.

Next time will have some really exciting characters
People even!

Anyway, if we're all good, I think I'm going to go to bed.

Wow, real people!

night everybody