I discussed the plan of battle and the layout of the village with the other before we got there. I talk to the Mage about what spells she had and what would be of the most use. I gave previous instrutions to the the guards, I told the guards to fire the inn with their first bottles of oils and reserve the others for other possible targets. The Mage I left to choose what spells to use when she thought would do the best damage or, to aid myself or the guards.

If it was not clear for the Mage then I will give her a signal to do what she can.

Is the enraged goblin shaken enough to be still off balance if I try to break away to give myself enough time to use my wand on me? In other words, not giving him a chance to do an AoO.

you can take a 5 foot step and use your wand on yourself. I don't think that's legal, but it's not really a problem. My goal is not to kill of characters anyway The goblin will not get an attack of opportunity, though I believe he's next with initiative.

Perhaps I just misread, but I though you sent one guard with fiery bottles at the inn, and told the other guard and the mage to wait. In my next update things will change as you had planned them then. The mage is attacking, and the two guards ride together.

One more note: I had already sent one of the guards at the inn, but so far, Elessar is not aware of whether or not he made it to it with his oil.

Glad that's all cleared up

As for the guards, one was to hit the inn and the other was to through his oil at the stables from the other side of the barn from Elessarae.

HRUMPH. D&D There is a lot of things D&D does not allow that common sense says happens all the time. Like running and drawing or swinging a weapon at the same time, or holding a cure wounds wand in one hand and healing yourself while engaged in a fight.

I DM Common Sense D&D and I enjoy the same from other DMs.

I've got internet...stealing it from somewhere... will post asap!... never thought this would happen.

I suppose Kaelyn's connection wasn't as strong as he hoped... as WE hoped.

Dragon M, from your post, I think you assume that you're fighting the Goblin Captain? That is not the case. You've seen him on your earlier visit, and he looks different and wears more armor than this guy.

I think we might face ourselves a problem here:

I haven't heard or seen activity from several of our players lately. We're missing Valimar, Jozan, Kaelyn and Brianna. That basically means that I'm running only two of the three story-lines right now.

Which sucks, because soon the story line of Dragon Mistress was going to merge with the main group's. If I can't update for the main group, the time-tables are going to be messed up. But perhaps that also gives opportunities.

I'm having two thoughts right now:

1: I know that the inactivity is most likely due to Real Life issues, so I'm having difficulty killing people off for not posting. I could put them on pause right now, and recruit replacements.... or

2: We continue the game, and I NPC the non-active players, which could mean that some of them die. And since Dragon Mistress will soon be added to the main group there won't be THAT big of a problem with inactivity because the main group has grown than, and she's the most consistent poster on this game.

I would like to know you guy's opinion, since we're in this together after all. What shall we do: continue without players, or find replacements?

Ok call me cold hearted but this is how I handle such situations in Trilogy.
I wait about 2 weeks then I try emailing the person not posting and ask what’s up.
If I get an explanation as to why they are not posting be it real life or other issues and that they wish to continue I NPC them till they return.
If I get no word at all about what’s going on I wait another week then if still no word from them I drop them. If dropped I find either a new player to take over said character or kill the character off and let a new player bring in a new character.

When people join a game like this that has a 1 week posting rule that is clearly what is wanted by the DM so then if they cannot post that week or for a few weeks at least give notice of such and maybe an explanation.
That’s all I have ever asked of my players, if they can’t post for that week let me know as soon as they can and we can work it out. Like myself with my leg I told all my players and DM’s that posting for me right now is hard and depends on my pain level but that I would yet try to post. That to me as a DM would have been more then ok for not posting.

But Al your game, your rules.....

that's pretty much what is happening right now. I messaged Jozan and Valimar about their intentions. I know Kaelyn has a hard time finding an internet connection, and Brianna is around, and I hope Dragon Mistress will pull her sleeve for us

but yeah, if I don't get a notice, I'll have to take action. But I'm not doing so right now because I hope there are other ways. Also, I don't have time to update today, so you guys will have to wait a few days perhaps. I am very sorry, and appologize to both Skari and Dragon Mistress for not continuing their lines on the time-schedule that I set myself.

I appreciate the input, Tann.

I'll beat on her, Brianna, my twin sister, for you--and for me.

As for me, my heart dropped when there was no post Saturday morning for me. The one thing that gets me out of bed early, on a day I can sleep in.

I do think it is polite to contact the DM if you can not make a deadline

She pulled more than my sleeve. My apologies. Bad Geim

I updated for Dragon Mistress and Skari already. Other update for the main group will follow. Most likely today. I am sorry for all the delay, but things have been slightly hectic here. But hopefully this will get thing rolling again.

For now: Here are updates of the maps for the two updates. They might come in handy, though they are only to be used as guidelines.

Sylvari Village:


Vidar's cave:

I've had word from Valimar and Kaelyn. They are both still interested in playing, though Kaelyn can not say when he'll be able to start again. It will be quite a while, so I promised that I would keep Thondrek 'in the freezer'. Valimar has some behind-the-door roleplaying to do, so you probably won't see any actual posting action from him until the doors are opened again.

I haven't heard from Jozan, but I gave him a week to react. If I haven't heard from him soon, Loda will find her end eventually (be it in this battle or another).

I hope everybody can start posting again, updates are waiting!

whoa whoa there, please dont kill off Loda just yet. Sorry my leave of absense, but A lot of ' end of the quarter' projects sprang up for psychology and english, and college regristration and open houses are all one after the other so I have been really busy. Also my Government teacher enrolled us into some stupid debate/questionier thing that we need to study for. But now that the first weeks or so of these things have gone by, I can get back to posting. I really dont wanna see this game die, Loda still has a few things to iron out! I will post either tommorrow or later on today.

Good to hear from you! And just in time too

next time just let us know if you're unable to post, so that we all know who to wait for or not.

I'm gonna make a concerted effort to head to the library at least once a week to get in whatever it is that needs to get done. I posted what I thought was a post a week ago at home while I briefly caught a signal, but it would seem it never went through.

I'll get home tonight and need to rest, but perhaps tomorrow I can get out long enough to get everything done.
My apologies for the sudden disappearance. Hope to be able to keep this going.