DMs Only: DM notes for Kim

Dear Kim,

Here are my ideas.

The catacombs delivery was clever! That'll keep them busy for a day or two.

Then we need to accomplish the following: 1) Ease Altemia out, 2) Hint that they are on the right track with the scroll and the sneaking ideas and the use of the Chaos power, 3) get them to a place from which they can make choices.

Let me elaborate on the last point. In general, I like to try to end each DM post at a point at which the players need to make a decision. If you imagine the game as a flow chart, each DM post should be a fork with at least two choices. That give the players something to do. Otherwise you aren't giving anything to do.

Sometimes I don;t follow this rule, as when i think they are deep into some good role play or need to talk about things. And often I fall short of the mark.

And I have learned that giving too much exposition (my biggest flaw -- too wordy) is a problem. If you give out more description than the group can digest, they will not read deeply and will miss crucial details.

Anyway, on with the turn.

My first suggestion: post as DM for Altemia. Something like ...

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Altemia (DM Kim)

Altemia has been very quiet lately, and it is clear that recent events have hit her hard. She says at much at one point, when the group is talking about the machine. "It's too much," she shudders, "too unnatural, to evil, too much ..." she trails off.

When the talk turns to Ilsidur sacrificing himself, she seems to get angry. "Hey! this isn't right! This spell drains your life, but maybe there's a loophole! I like Jurgen's idea of the potion, except you can't drink and read a scroll at the same time.I won't see you kill yourself," she tells the dwarf.

When the group prepares to leave, Altemia begins to tremble and shake. "I can't do it," she whispers. "I can't go back out there. I can't go back to that place. Let me just stay here for now."

"I can be chaotic right here!" And the group sees that Altemia's spiral is gone -- although sometimes it has faded entirely from others of you as well, so who knows what that means?

Faced with no other choice, the group lets Altemia stay behind.

[OOC Note from DM: It may be not in character for Altemia, but Aleyna is now on an extended sabbatical, so this is how I'll ease her out of the game, at least for now.]

==

So what's next? We know that the group is going back to the defiled temple of Alemi. They'll find that the plaza is deserted, and the temple unattended. There's no guard or watch because the machine is its own best guard (really, nothing but a the Chaos Power or countering the scroll will do any real harm to the thing, so in fact the lack of vigilence is not unreasonable.) The party's first branch point will be in the Concourse. Who will go up to the Balcony? Will they explore the otherr ways off the Concourse? What will their plan be, anyway?

I feel a little bad about putting the group in a position where they have to sacrifice Ilsidur, but in fact, they really don't. Maybe they need clearer hints, though. Maybe once they are in sight of the machine, their tatoos can start tingling again.

How will they activate the Chaos Power? What is the ritual they need, the trigger? Like Isaid before, it is their NEED that matters. Assuming they have need, any reasonable attempt to trigger it will work.

Kim, I don't know about you, but when I have played D&D face to face, and you get your hands on something you don't understand, you experiment! You put on the magic ring, and you jump up and down flapping your arms. You cut yourself and see if it heals. You put your hand over a flame and see if it hurts. You try stuff. But the gosh-darned Southern Lights have been totally lame! They haven't played with the Cards (which are really neat! And which could also be useful agianst the machine, maybe!). They have a wand they never identified! And they never fiddled with this chaos power at all!

Frankly, I'm tempted to e-mail the entire preceeding paragraph to all of them! If *I* were a Southern Lights player, I try stuff like using Mending and Arcane Mark to fix the broken spiral. I'd cast an Identify on it. How about Legend Lore or Commune?

As DM, if they fiddled with it, I'd have minor need produce minor effects, and great need make great effects. Say one person touched a tattoo to another person's tattoo. That should do something. Or if you kissed the mark. Or pinched it. Or colored it in with ink. Or cast Protection from Chaos on it. Anything!

And different things would happen every time. It's *Chaotic*! It shoudl be random. Think Wand of Wonder.

And with the machine, they could try lots of things. Hold hands in a Circle and say, "Please help us." Reach out with the tattoo and shake hands with the thing! High five each other with the tattooed hands! ANYTHING!

Oh well.

I hope this loong letter helps. Let me know if I can offer any ideas, or if you want to bounce your own off me.

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One more caveat. Long ago Jerry offered me the guidelines on how this should go -- you've read his words by now. But the details I've tended to invent as I went along. Like the fact that using his Detect Evil ability will make Thomas sick. Like the way that people in Abandon use the archaic forms of second person pronouns (let me know if you want more info on that). Liek what exactly will happen with the machine.

So at some point, when we know better what's going on, we should send some notes to Jerry.