Emjajoas

Yeah, it'd be great getting out in time to sign up for something good (especially if I don't have to PL it ).

"Be free. Rest well, Erdathcath. You earned it," Mortimer replies, frowning.

"A chain reaction that kills all his minions, I think," Mortimer mutters, still sounding confused.

"Aye, the Regret's dead," Mortimer mutters. He crosses his arms, unable to glance at her spirit, an apology forming on his lips but unable to escape into the air. "You didn't die in vain," he manages. "You're... a true hero."

"Who's got the glass?" Mortimers asks, glancing at the spirit. "Let's hear what it has to say."

Mortimer nods, looking away from their comrade's corpse. "We have what we came for," he mutters, hefting the Regret's Heart, sneaking wincing glances at the pyre. "Let's... Let's go."

Em nods, gathering what flammable substances he can in the immediate area, bunching them around Erdy's body. "Anyone have a light?" he asks quietly.

Em nods quietly. "You're... right." Sighing, he puts her back down gingerly. "Burning is the best... solution, yeah?"

OOC: Hate to ask a weird question, but do we get the spirits' inventories as loot? "Aye. You all did well," Mortimer nods, partially agreeing with Boomingham. Victory was hard to taste when it was this bitter. He draws Doppelganger, handing the sword back to Karie with a nod and a forced smile. "Thank you," he states. Crouching next to their fallen comrade's body, his facade breaks. "I'll take Erdy back. I'm... not sure what we do with deceased heroes." Mortimer scowls,, quickly doing the gruesome job of sharing her loot amongst the party: Boomingham: Amulet of Optimism (Adds the confused-effect to all attacks; accessory, suitable to Erdathcath only), Shovel, Pickaxe, Potion, Mead, Saber Teeth, Grand Tonic, Jinxy Juice, Grating Stone, Elixir, Silver Ore, 114 Gold, Mythril Shard (1) Jeaux: Longbow (WP:7), Quick bow (WP: 6, bow, provides hastened effect for one round each battle), Machine's Heart (The hollowed out heart of Monolith, after being defeated, halves all damage from Earth, Electrical, and Mechanical type enemies; bodywear, suitable for anyone), Potion, Grand Potion, Mead(2), Grand tonic (2), Elixir, Silver Ore, Remedy, 114 Gold Johon: Satchel of Awesomeness (Permanent Lucky-effect; bodywear, suitable for anyone), Qlice (WP: 8, club, permanent Poison 4), Grand Potion, Potion (2), Mead, Bone, Skeleton Decoy, Blind Fury, Neutralizer, Equilibrium Tonic, Oculoid Miasma , 117 Gold Karie: Mage's muffler (protects from sealing; accessory, suitable for anyone), Scroll of Weakening, Helmet (+1 max. health; headwear, suitable for anyone), Snake Eye Charm (protects from petrified; accessory, suitable for anyone), Helmet (+1 max. health), Potion, Mead, 15 Venoms, 2 Deadly Venoms, Grand tonic, Jinxy Juice, Love Potion, Elixir, Sushi (restores 5HP and 5 Ether), Remedy, 114 Gold Mortimer: Tritech Handcannon (WP:16, Fire-elemental, permanent poisoned 7 + 10, cursed), 2 Floral Bombs, 2 Ice Bombs, 2 Lightning Bombs, 1 Fire Bomb, 3 Smoke Bombs, 2 Water Bombs, 2 Holy Bomb, 2 Dirt Bombs, 2 Air Bombs, Chaotic Bomb (100 random elemental damage to all opponents), Smoke Bomb, Bedroll, Telescope, Potion, Mead, Silver Ore, 114 Gold, Reaper's Heart, Mythril Shard (1) (If anyone has any qualms about how I divvied this up, please speak up) If we get the Spirits' inventories as loot (and some of the stuff from the NPCs): Consumables in Red, Equipment in Blue, Gems in Green: Boomingham: Grand Tonic (3), Grand Potion, Phoenix Incense, Topaz, Sapphire Jeaux: Grand Tonic, Grand Potion (2), Remedy, Smelling Salts, Ether Core, Garnet, Aquamarine, Speed Reading contacts (2/3 chance of becoming hastened for the next round at the end of every round) Johon: Grand Tonic, Grand Potion (3), Remedy, Health Core, Purging Water (Removes all positive effects from enemies), Ruby, Emerald Karie: Grand Tonic, Grand Potion, Phoenix Essence, Ether Core, Diamond, Amethyst, Opal, Speed Reading contacts (2/3 chance of becoming hastened for the next round at the end of every round) Mortimer: Grand Tonic, Grand Potion (2), Phoenix Essence, Bravado Brew, Smoke Bomb (2), Spectral Cape (SP: 5, backwear) Mortimer gingerly lifts her body, his broken smile now a frown. "Let's go. I'm eager to see the end of this place."

"A melodramatic end for a melodramatic villain. I thought it would be fitting," Mortimer mutters, a grin creasing the corner of his lips. He fought to keep the grin from turning into a frown, fought to keep his knees from buckling.

Mortimer draws his bow, slowly aiming at the Regret. "Sorry to leave you waiting, then. Here comes judgement."

"You found the best damn heroes this side of the world," Mortimer states, bloody, bruised, worn. "You'll earn no sympathy from me, Regret. May you and your dogs find your way into the deepest level of Hell. If you see Erdy on your way there..." Mortimer glanced at the corpse of their comrade, frowning. It was his fault. He lead her to her untimely demise. He ran a hand along the eyepatch covering his empty socket. This wouldn't be a quest he could forget. "Tell her she won't be alone long." Stuff to Divide: (will do soontm) Tritech Handcannon (WP:16, Fire-elemental, permanent poisoned 7 + 10, cursed), Satchel of Awesomeness (Permanent Lucky-effect; bodywear, suitable for anyone), Amulet of Optimism (Adds the confused-effect to all attacks; accessory, suitable to Erdathcath only) *Qlice (WP: 8, club, permanent Poison 4), Longbow (WP:7), Quick bow (WP: 6, bow, provides hastened effect for one round each battle) Machine's Heart (The hollowed out heart of Monolith, after being defeated, halves all damage from Earth, Electrical, and Mechanical type enemies; bodywear, suitable for anyone) *Mage's muffler (protects from sealing; accessory, suitable for anyone), Helmet (+1 max. health; headwear, suitable for anyone), Snake Eye Charm (protects from petrified; accessory, suitable for anyone), Helmet (+1 max. health), *Bedroll, Shovel, Pickaxe, Telescope, *Scroll of Weakening *6 Potions, Grand Potion x2, 6 Mead 15 Venoms, 2 Deadly Venoms, 2 Floral Bombs, 2 Ice Bombs, 2 Lightning Bombs, 1 Fire Bomb, 3 Smoke Bombs, 2 Water Bombs, 2 Holy Bomb, 2 Dirt Bombs, 2 Air Bombs, Bone, Skeleton Decoy, Saber teeth, Jinxy Juice x2, Grand Tonic x4, Love Potion, Blind Fury, Grating Stone, Mythril Shard x2, Silver Ore, 3 Elixirs, 2 Phoenix Essences, Sushi (restores 5 HP and 5 Ether), Neutralizer, Chaotic Bomb (Causes 100 random elemental damage to all opponents), Equilibrium Tonic,Remedy x2, Silver Ore, Smoke Bomb, Oculoid Miasma Other Loot: 573 gold OOC: Endgame, was does the Reaper's Heart do? Was it a battle mechanic or a drop? If it's a drop, what does it do?

Praise the heavens, the prodigal son returns. Or, I suppose, the QM, in this case. Welcome back, Endgame! Good to have you back. And good to hear you're okay. That's important too.

Thanks for running the rounds, Flipz and Scuba! It's nice to have a bit of progress, at least. Hopefully Endgame'll be back to wrap things up within the next day or two.

I agree. We've been on this quest for the better part of, what, 7 months? 8 months? For it to cancel and for us to not get a reward or a proper ending would be incredibly frustrating. I'd rather wait it out than cancel; there's not way Endgame's going to be gone for much longer. Worst-case scenario, we write something off and then come together and discuss it afterwards (With Endgame when he comes back). There's no "perfect" solution, but cancelling and us Questees getting nothing for all of our effort is the worst possible one, I feel. Although I appreciate the offer, I feel like the questees should write out the ending of them taking down the Regret-- and then leaving. Anything Regret-related should basically be left alone. Endgame can flesh that out when he gets back. We can just kill him off and the retcon his final moments (or something to that effect). And based on the lack of loot and the only thing left in the battle being the Regret's Heart, I imagine Endgame had a final boss phase planned-- probably story-based. And although I don't want to take that from him (and the final battle has next to no other loot to speak of so I imagine it's all to do with the heart), I do want to get this quest over with. But I also feel like without whatever Endgame has planned for loot for this battle, we're missing out on something big. I'd really like a nice something-or-other to commemorate the final battle/finale (and make it all worth it), but I also feel like that can wait until Endgame gets back to fix the mess. To be honest, I'd just like to get back to the Hall and get on a good story-based quest, because I'd like to develop my character more after introducing his "Big Trait" and PLing against all these Endgame bosses for this long in 105 has left my "game-brain" a little muddled.

Mortimer grits his teeth, firing another arrow, and bites down hard on his lip. They had almost won. "Keep up the assault!" he orders, sweat dripping from the end of his nose. "We've almost won." Battle Order: Mortimer VS Apex Tail with Blazing Bow from Back Row Masson VS Apex Tail with Darksteel Zandatsu from Back Row Alice VS Apex Tail with Ivory Hammer from Front Row Octus VS Apex Tail with Spectral Claws from Front Row Punii VS Apex Tail with Tiny Tail from Front Row. Daranza the Fifty Third casts a Lightning spell with his Topaz at Apex Tail from Back Row Boomingham VS Apex Tail with Frozen Saber from Front Row Boomingham VS Apex Tail with Frozen Saber from Front Row Karie VS Apex Tail with Oculoid Palm from Front Row Johon VS Apex Tail with Muckracker from Front Row Johon VS Apex Tail with Muckracker from Front Row Jeaux VS Open Wound C with Light Spell from Back Row Note: As soon as the Apex Tail goes down, all targeting changes to the Eternal Reaper/Open Wound F.

Worst-case scenario is that instead of going back and implementing all those mechanics, Endgame can write up a paragraph or something detailing them all in battle-- or something to that effect. It's just not very fun to be in the same battle for an extended period of time when there were ways to avoid it. I can definitely understand Endgame wanting to do the final battle himself, but...

Mortimer takes a moment to catch his breath, shield raised, and fits another arrow on his bow. OOC: It shouldn't take too long to clear once Endgame gets his power back, we're almost done as it is so long as rolls don't screw us over; it's a shame we've gotta wait, though. I'm sure it's no fun without any power, either.

Most of the time that gets Bolded, and to make it clearer you can use "intimidation" as a descriptive word in the sentence, for future reference.

I just really liked the way Garrett's figure turned out, so I wanted to use it as my avatar. There wasn't much of a reason other than that. And to answer the meatier question, he was supposed to have a bigger part in the quest before I made a bunch of cuts and decided to end things quickly. He was never meant to be the Ironwill Prince; just a wandering NPC that I wanted to introduce and start plugging now. He got really dumbed down with his appearance at the end because I was running out of steam, and I'm sad that his character suffered for it. I hope to make him shine better in future appearances, flesh him out more. I appreciate your apology, and I'd be happy to host you again.

The fact that it only counts as one artifact means it only takes up one artifact slot. Meaning a lower-leveled player, such as myself, can wear that and other artifacts and still benefit from a strong piece of equipment.

Barus' armour was designed to be like the armour I have on my PC right now. I liked the idea behind it and figured it fit thematically. "Iron Knuckle Armour (Body, foot, and hand wear. Counts as one artefact. Usable by knights and dragoons. SP: 10. Cannot be removed by enemies)" And although I do appreciate all the feedback I'm getting, I feel like this is turning into a bigger deal than it has to be. I really am ashamed that I ended up trying to run this quest without being entirely ready for it, and I know there is no reason I could make to excuse that. I appreciate everyone's input and insight, and I appreciate some of the fellow QMs for sticking up for me in a way, but I dug my own grave with this quest and I have nobody to blame but myself. Any other questions/comments/concerns/criticism is 100% welcome in PM (and would be appreciated), but at this point I feel like we're mostly pointing fingers. Whether or not the players were right in how they handled their anger and disappointment doesn't change the fact that they were right to be angry and disappointed. They had and have every right to be-- the quest was a mess, and I am owning up to that. And in the future, I will do my best to improve and not have another trainwreck like this one. Thank you to everyone who has already posted feedback; it's greatly appreciated and I'll be sure to come to you for advice when and if I host my next quest.

You're completely right, it did feel clunky and cluttered. And I'm sorry it did. I put a lot of work into planning it, but I didn't streamline it enough. Because of all the work I put into it, I thought it was ready, but looking back now I know I wasn't. And I can see how that's a really frustrating experience. It was a frustrating experience for me, too. I felt like I should've been doing a lot better, but I wasn't. I definitely don't blame you players for being frustrated and realize that I'm to blame for that. Which is why the best way I thought to make it right was to end the quest as soon as possible. End it and move on; end it and get in a new, fresh state of mind. Slowly plan my next one. Slowly work on all the sets. Slowly work hard and streamline everything and plan everything and then when it's ready, have it entirely ready. Have it solid. I don't think I was wrong in ending it when and where I did. All my unused planning can be put to use in future quests. This one didn't work out; I see it as saving some potentially cool things for later, because I felt that now wasn't a good time to flesh them out.

I had all of it planned out, actually, aside from the drops in the sewer and what battle I was going to have in the sewer. I didn't have solid sets (rough ones, yes, but nothing detailed) built for the rest of the places (they would've been overwhelming, I'm not a huge fan of LDD but don't have an alternative), but I had all the possible battles planned and even bits of dialogue/interaction between certain NPCs. My planning sheet for this quest was something like a 15-20 page google doc that was supposed to have everything I thought I needed. The only thing I "winged" (aside from the early ending) was the smith-- he was always part of the plan, but the custom weapons thing and all that was something I thought of on a whim.