Waterbrick Down

"Well, from the looks of that compass then it appears we shall head into the forest. Though what that compass could be sensing is beyond my comprehension. Does it always point North, or does it objectively point in the right direction, or does it point in the direction of one's deepest desires "

Though the alchemical telepathic ink was incappable of speaking aloud, it metaphysically reminded the inhabitants of the hall that those signed up for Quest 11 currently include: Quest 11: A Matter of Principle 1. Ellaria Arbour, Level 6 Cleric (Sandy) 2. Elgar Gligen, Level 1 Ranger (Jedi Master Brick) 3. Sir Glorfindel, Level 1 Knight (Soccerkid6) 4. Atramor Gibbin, Level 7 Rogue (CallMePieORDie) 5. Hoke Ablesword, Level 6 Knight (UsernameMDM) 6. Alexis Fenral, Level 11.5 Ranger (Masked Builder) 7. Tarn Valco, Level 6 Barbarian (Rumble Strike) 8. Haldor Skovgaard, Level 4 Cleric (Scorpiox) 9. Dak Nikolus, Level 1 Rogue (darthnihilius) 10. William Harkenshire, Level 1 Ranger (volcanicpanik) 11. Alexandre le Chevalier, Level 1 Knight (Capt.JohnPaul) OOC: Let me know if I've missed anyone.

Skrall listened to the opinions of the other party members, even though he felt a slight discomfort around the Fenarian, he had to agree with her. "Point taken Lady Uq. If we should split up I believe we should send the most experienced mage in the group with the rogue and the areomancer, while the elf, or house-elf, or whatever he be... [Shouting over at Bob] You there, what be yer name mage[]... should accompany yarself and me." Skrall noticed the mage who he had heard referred to as Althior mumble something about a compass. "Ah, Althior is it? I see you had the foresight to bring along one of those compasses from the marketplace, will it do us any good out here do you think? And what's this blue fellow doin' here? I thought this was a quest for heroes and adventurers not butlers."

"Alright chaps, I haven't had the chance to meet ya all yet, but I'm sure we'll get to know each other just fine by the end of this. Now I know most of you specialize in the magical arts, and I'll let it be known out front that I don't know much about such things and I don't much care more than necessary. With that said, I'll respect yer abilities and your opinions as far as spell flingin' goes and let me know if I'm ever askin' for the impossible to be done." Turning to Grogan, Skrall addressed him, "I thank ya fer the kind advice, but I have a few questions I want to clear. First how do you know that these trespassers aren't some wild predators killin' yer game at random? Have you on any occasion ever seen these so called trespassers? If so, how many were there and how would ya describe them?" Turning aside to his fellow questers, "If it comes to it, what do ya all think of sendin' half our party round the other side to look fer tracks, and if they find any, have them meet us at the halfway point in the forest?" OOC: Not that it would make much of a difference but I sold my bow, prior to arriving, I just forgot to adjust my signature, also I should have 0 Gold.

Skrall trudged into the hall glancing at the quest board on his way in. He did a double take at his name listed under Quest 9 as the party leader, he grinned and then grimaced at the number of mages that were to accompany him. It had taken some time for him to come around to Nur and their common upbringing had helped, but now he was really going to be starting from scratch. "Well, we'd best make the most of it," Skrall muttered to himself and then started to chuckle as he noticed the party that his friend Nur was going to be questing in, "Well if Nur can deal with that social barbarian, I guess I can stand a few spell slingin' stammerin' wizards for a while. Who knows this may actually be a good change of pace for a little bit." Assuming the group of mages that were congregating around a new individual were his party he strode over to the man, who appeared to be a warden of sorts. Doffing his cap to the group Skrall introduced himself, "Good day to ya all, the name's Skrall and I believe we're to be questing together soon huntin' after probably some hungry peasant or other. Arasmyth, we've met before, but what be the rest of yer names?"

Having decided to take a walk before the next round of quest participants were chosen, Skrall entered the bustling market place. Sorry to part with his trusted bow, Skrall sells the weapon for 15 Gold. Heading over to Portia's he purchased 2 potions, a tonic, and a remedy (145Gold-35Gold=110Gold). Afterwords he made his way to the dwarf Anwyl's shop where he upgraded his Hunter's Crossbow from WP4 to WP6 (110Gold-50Gold-60Gold=0Gold). With his new possessions in tow, Skrall lumbered back to the hall to await the news of the day.

Thanks, I've pretty much got the photo's down, they're not that bad if I do say so myself, they're just not magazine or frontpage quality I am envious though, of the Heroica banners you and Sandy have for your quests. When the next round starts up with its specific color (i.e. the first were blue, the current ones are red, etc.), would you mind making one up for mine.

That's what I was thinking, don't feel guilty. I'm just a poor college student who can't afford such frivolities, so it's MS paint and Picasa for me, sorry those who've signed up for quest 11, no top-notch cinematic scenes for you. Maybe one day... Another thought, since Quest 4's path has once again intersected at Eubric, would it be feasible to have two parties' paths cross mid-quest? I believe the next 3 quests are all set in Eubric and mine will have questers traveling all across the city. It could make for some interesting interactions, if for example, one party being chased by bandits meets up with another party and they both fight along side one another to ward off the thugs. Maybe it's more confusing than it's worth

Gold can be regulated through market/vendor prices and XP is just the nature of the game, though the possibility of over a dozen battles in one quest means some serious leveling up for players. On an off related note, Brickdoctor, are you using decals or software for all your signage and symbols in quest 4?

While the extra gold or benefits might be plausible, I think the real benefit is getting hired in the first place. With that said, I think leaving it up to the QM's to decide whether the character would realistically have a chance of being hired or not by a certain house is best, less numbers and more role-playing that way . As Sandy has stressed simple is generally better.

That's not to say you wouldn't be accepted, but your chances would be less than someone who had a neutral stance or a favored stance, unless of course you currently have the kill-on-sight reputation with one of the houses than I would avoid even walking anywhere close to their places of residence:tongue:

That's sort of my point, I'm aiming more for a novel/interesting/intriguing questing experience not just loot, experience, and glory. "If everybody had super-powers no one would be super" to roughly paraphrase a certain movie, I believe the same could somewhat be said about loot, not that not having a super-duper weapon doesn't make you special, but it heightens the significance and wow factor of when such an item actually falls within your possession.

Don't forget worshiped and kill-on-site

You're telling me, but mine should still be fun. To all those signed-up thus far, prepare for some interesting visits to some of the local Eubric businesses, which should compensate for my not doing to much storytelling involving the alchemists themselves Just a random thought about balance as I've been planning: Not to be too nit-picky, but it seems to me that there's been an increasing influx of gems and elemental weapons as of late. I know that swinging around a sword that crackles with lightning is cool and all, but to me, these types of weapons and opportunities should be rarer than they are currently occurring, hence I believe the absence of gems being directly sold in the Marketplace. However, just because you can't buy them in the market place doesn't mean they should abound as loot in all the quests, balance is the key I think sometimes less or rather "common" is more. Remember that elemental weapons/gems have in Essenes double their regular attack power against some foes at almost less the price of a regular weapons upgrade. I know that in other RPG games and the like, finding unique items makes you stand out as more "heroic" than the next guy, but in reality at the rate we're going, in another 7 quests or so, everybody will probably have an elemental/special weapon. Am I being to realistic for a fantasy style game? I guess planning out a real quest, has made me take a look at the individuals who have signed-up and how I could create plausible monsters for them to fight, that won't be killed in one round just because 2/3 of the party have elemental imbued weapons. I'm learning the temptation QM's can feel to give their upcoming party awesome loot, but I need to remember how much the party will over-shadow other characters when they get back from the quest. So maybe as a suggestion, from a QM's perspective we could cut down on the common occurrence of all these rare items Great now I need to go and eliminate all the gems and fire imbued demon daggers from my upcoming quest Maybe

On the first page of the Heroica Hall topic where all the players are listed, every individual with reputation has it listed in their description. Alternatively some people choose to list their status in their signature. Some Quest Masters, may choose to ban individuals who have recognition with one house or another from participating in their quest altogether, or inversely they may only accept heroes who already have a reputation with them. For other quests, your status may just lower or raise your chances of being accepted, or for some QM's it may not even care what your status is. As of the moment it's not a make or break issue, some people would prefer however to garner closer relationships with certain houses. It's up to you, what you make of it.

Same here, if it's preventing anyone from joining up, I'd be glad to make up your minifig. I took all my castle themed Lego to college with me, so I've got a pretty diverse collection in the medieval theme, though I don't have a ton of the female head or hair pieces.

"I agree his stealin' may be wrong, but have you gotten a look at the town watch as of late? I hear they've even been lettin' local gangs run protection rackets among the local businesses as long as they get a piece of the pie. At least Dozenhands is honest about his trade."

"We had him pinned down, but after a most [cought...cough] curious turn of events he made his escape."

"Ah huntin' down trespassers, probably just some poor peasant trying to stave off hunger."

"They perish just fine upon my arrows," Skrall pulled one of the 4' long oaken shafts and inspected its grey goose fletchings and iron arrow tip. "Have you had the chance to sign up for any of the quests yet?"

"Personally I'd be up fer givin' them a shot, however after looking at the smith's weapons in the marketplace, I don't think they make anything in my size. We ogre's don't have throwin' knives ya know," Skrall chuckled, "we have throwin' swords! " Skrall nodded at the individual who from his choice of conversation seemed to be a mage of sorts. "My name's Skrall, Nur and I had the pleasure of huntin' down a pick-pocket fer the townwatch when I believe you arrived. We had another cleric with us as well, perhaps you've met him, Haldor? He's hard to miss, tall nordic chap, always goin' on about his female elven lover." "Afternoon to you sir, bein' big ain't the problem, it's everything else's being so small. Like I was just tellin' my friend Nur here {Skrall indicates the dark magician} I can't even find a decent sized throwin' weapon around here. It seems not to many people are too keen on chuckin' scimitars at your enemies. But what of yerself, I've traveled far and wide but I don't think I've ever met anyone of yer complexion?"

Skrall got up from his table and took a seat next to Nur at the bar. "Morning, friend Nur. Ya look like ya've just had a meetin' with Zoot himself. Ya all right?" "Scheherazade, bring me two tankards of that Boar Tusk Ale, you were servin' the barbarian earlier and a bowl of that stew."

A single tear formed in Skrall's eye, but he quickly brushed it away. "I'm sorry fer yer loss ma'am, I too have know the loss of loved ones due to hate and bigotry. Yer a testament fer doin' things the honest and hard way and fer that ya have my respect. All my years I thought bein' an ogre gave me the right to strike back at others fer the wrong they'd done my people. Now that I've actually met some decent folks, things don't seem as bad as I first thought. But like yerself, I've seen many a terrible sight and little joy in my years, but if things continue the way they are, there may be hope yet, who knows, maybe one of these days one of my crackpot siblin's will land himself on one of those political ballots on the mainland." Noticing the glint in the bar maid's eyes, Skrall decided not to push further into to Sham's patronage and simply left it as was, "Well, if I ever should run into yer lad, I'll bid him hello for ya and tell him his mother loves him. Speakin' of love, got any thing to keep ol' Amadea and Melodion at bay, all the barbarians and elves seem to be droppin' like flies 'round here. Anyways, thank ya fer yer tale, now if you don't mind I'll take a braised duck over at the far table with a tankard of whatever that one-eyed barbarian called for a little bit ago." With that Skrall returned to his table and pondered upon Scheherazade's story while he waited for his meal.

Skrall walked over to the bar, now was as good a time as any to satisfy his curiosity. "Tell me my good Scheherazade, that is your name no? How did ya come to be the manager of this fine establishment? I'm sure ya probably faced quite some opposition from the local business owners. Bye the way, ya mentioned yer lad Sham was the travelin' sort, does he come home much? And if it ain't to touchy a subject, what's become of the lad's father?"

Quite lovely Etzel, the coloration is perfect and the architecture fitting. I'm curious as to the figures on the parameter, are they part of the Order or just passersby? Eubric Community build anyone?