Monthly Archives: April 2016

Magestry’s Best of Newgreen 126

By | | ,
1 Comment

Here are our picks for the “Best of ” the April 1st-3rd event:

This is what Francis might look like. Pictures of this rare mongrellian are hard to come by!

This is what Francis might look like. Pictures of this rare mongrelian are hard to come by!

 

 

This month’s Best PC is a veteran player who brought a new character into game this event. Though we usually associate Steve Pulaski with his first character, Cael, we saw a whole new side of him with his portrayal of Francis! We have always known Steve to be a good role-player, but we were really impressed with the big changes that were made from Cael to Francis! Everything about the character was different and fun to react to. Steve was also a wonderful help before and after game, staying until the end to help clean up! We are very grateful for all his work. Thanks, Steve! Great job!

 

“The fella who was a badger mongrelian rocked his role-playing, even progressing/growing his character before our very eyes.”

“Francis was alternately terrifying and hilarious, not that it would be nice to laugh at him.”

“Francis – It was so cool to see Stephen play this role and he did so well keeping in character and continuously questioning words and phrases and talking about hunting and such.”

“Francis (Steve Pulaski) when phenomenal, A clear departure for Cael, he was great to see in character, had great costume and props, including a plush skunk stuffed with jerky. He did a great job role-playing learning words from a small vocabulary.”

“Francis was my favorite PC. He was so different than any other character in town, his personality and attitude were refreshing, and he was great to interact with.”

“I really liked Francis the Honey Badger. Steve brought some amazing role-play abilities that we don’t always see with Cael and it was interesting seeing all of the people in town react to him.”

“Felix the honey badger was an awesome PC to interact with, very entertaining.”

Nick D - Lots of fun to fight, dude has a huge heart. Great cook too!

Nick D – Lots of fun to fight, dude has a huge heart. Great cook too!

 

 

This month’s Best NPC is not new to the title, but he has certainly been a person who has raised the bar for Best NPC to high heights.  Nick Donoghue has proven himself to be consistently one of our best NPCs whether it is through his wonderful role-playing, extreme helpfulness, cheerful and positive attitude, incredible cooking skills, or his eagerness to help grow our game. We are so lucky to have Nick on staff here and we know that you feel the same way! Thank you, Nick, for everything you do!

 

“Nick- role-played amazingly also did a great job being a grave golem.”

“Nick is a superstar. Always.”

“I really enjoyed fighting Nick.”

The Start of an Organized Crime War in Elmerton?

By | | ,
1 Comment

Common folk and nobles alike are starting to talk about the seedy underbelly of Irvanshire after a rash of quick and violent crimes over the past few days:

–Last evening in Elmerton four bodies where discovered by the water’s edge covered in crossbow bolts. All four men were known associates of the notorious Cavella crime family.
–Three nights before that, two men known to be affiliated with the Steel Boot street gang where found with their throats cuts just outside of a boarding house near the area of the Go-Betweens.
–In addition to the other killings four men with ties to the Motlow crime family were found hanging from a cluster of trees near a stable in Tradegate not even a week ago.
With so many people with criminal ties being found dead as of late, many are starting to wonder if a sort of organized crime war is starting to happen. I attempted to contact the Royal Intelligence Service for comments on this, but I was refused a statement.
At any rate something terrible is going on. Hopefully no innocents get caught in the crossfire of what this scribe believes to be the start of an underground war.
Stay safe Friends!!!

 

Player Submission: Common Man’s Guide to Dream Creatures

By | | ,
1 Comment

Dream creatures of all sorts are becoming more and more common these days, and thus the common man needs to know how to interact with them and how to defend oneself if necessary.

smigget

An artist’s rendition of a Smigget serving his favorite beverage: Tea.

As you may know, Magesta has it’s own dream realm, conveniently called “the Dream Realm”. When someone from Magestra dreams, the Dream Realm is where they go. Brimm is a different dream realm, a shared realm where people from a number of dimensions that don’t have their own dream realms go to dream. Brimm is home to a number of creatures that you may have heard of, such as Smiggets, Dozers, Jabberwockeys, and Jub-Jub birds. Many of these creatures are Tane.

Tane are dream creatures from Brimm that are shapechangers: they can change their form and mimic others. However, if a normally flighty and changeable Tane gets it in its head to be a specific thing, it is possible for it to — with dedication and effort — actually fundamentally change to become that other thing.

In part because of the influence of the Gatekeeper and his Dreamweaver, Hearkin, many of the dream creatures one encounters these days on Magesta are actually from Brimm.

You see, in order to usurp the natural order of things on Magesta and become the Incarnation of Death, the Gatekeeper must also usurp the mantle of the Incarnation of Dream, since Death and Dream together are what is known as a liminal (one being with two forms). The Gatekeeper is using the changeable nature of Tane to convince a pair of Tane to become the Incarnations of Death and Dream. If successful, he plans to take the Incarnationhood from the Death Tane. Thus, the Gatekeeper and his allies are shaping Tane and other inhabitants of Brimm to suit their own goals.

Tane are not inherently hostile, and most are intensely curious about whatever it is that they are choosing to be. Once they have chosen to become something else, they are not easily discouraged, but can sometimes be sidetracked by convincing them that a certain course of action is necessary in order to reach their desired goal.

Unlike other shapechangers, or undercover agents of the Portal Authority for that matter, a Tane has to identify itself as a Tane if asked directly. “Are you a Tane?” works wonders. How is this useful you might ask? Being dream creatures, Tane have some inherent weaknesses.

The most common and easily exploitable is that Tane are vulnerable to an Awaken spell, as such a spell causes a pain reaction in them. Remember that an Awaken spell can be cast at range with a thrown spell component, but psionicists should also keep in mind that within close range, Awaken can be cast with sufficient power to overcome spell resistance. It is possible to even dismiss Tane back to Brimm in some cases with repeated castings, although this does not always work.

I also have secondhand reports that dream creatures in general are vulnerable if you “bring their own tricks to bear upon them.” This requires more evidence to determine the exact effects, but psionicists are encouraged to use sleep, delusions, and other psychic spells when defending themselves against hostile dream creatures.

Which brings us to the tricks that Tane and other dream creatures have. Be alert and on your guard. Watch for your companions to suddenly fall asleep or act strangely from delusions. If you have ways to grant yourself or others psychic resistances, use them. Also, calling out to friends to let them know what is going on is extremely helpful.

For further information on dream creatures and Brimm, the best contact would be Minister Tellah Forgedheart in Hatchport. Unfortunately, there are no current Dreamweavers in town, but Tellah has been in Elmerton on a semi-regular basis lately.

 

Yours in Knowledge,

 

Rybin vanHoltRybinvanHoltseal

Historian and Scholar

Player Submission: Court Minutes 126 AoF 2nd of Newgreen

By | | ,
Leave a comment

Elmerton’s first court session of the year 126 of the Age of Arrival  was held in the amphitheater on Wakingday, the 2nd of Newgreen. Court was held in order to bring two townsmembers up on charges. Magistrate Solun presided.

First, the charges against Galanthas DuMentharen – commonly known as Galynn – was charged with the murder of a man known as Jack.

Sebastian Dark brought the charges against Galynn. Sebastian charged that Galynn murdered Jack, that Jack was a townsmember, and that Galynn acted without regard to the law. Galynn made several counterpoints, claiming that during the fight against the Vampire Queen Amphalise, Jack was robbing unconscious and dead townsfolk, that Jack then fled and confessed to the theft after the fact. These points were not disputed.

<There was a brief recess in court proceedings as we were attacked by War King troops>

Galynn continued, stating that he conferred with Kai, asking permission to “dealt with” Jack.Further Gaynn claims that Kai – Commander of the Elmerton Watch – deputized him. Galynn confronted Jack, received a confession to the crimes, and executed Jack.

The deputization of Galynn by Kai was disputed. Since Kai was the only witness to this and not being present for the proceedings, Magistrate Solun decided to postpone judgement until Commander Kia was present. A retainer of 5 gold was asked to be paid by Galynn until the judgement was rendered.

 

Second, Arville was charged by Felix with the murder of a child. The child in question was one of the “Mini’s”: a group of children raised by the Sugar Plum Fae who come to Elmerton every fall seeking candy while costumed as members of town. The Mini killed by Arville was a Mini representing Felix.

Felix claimed that Arville killed this child, and then took the candy he had collected from the corpse. No one disputed these facts.

Arville claimed self defense, saying that he felt threatened and felt that his life was in danger. Witnesses agree that Mini Felix made contact with Arville’s back, but statements disagreed as to whether the contact was violent or a simple ‘tag’. Felix asked if Arville was injured by the child, and no one was able to give a definite answer.

In Arville’s case, Solun ruled that Arville not receive punishment at this time, but if Arville ever be brought up on charges again, punishment would be doled out for this charge as well.

Solun also advised Arville to cease all efforts to actively and aggressively solicit business from townsfolk. For the record, Arville’s profession is that of an undertaker.

With trial concluded, Solun turned the floor over to Majento and Rybin to discuss current events.

The town was briefed on the ongoing conflict with the Gatekeeper and Hearkin.

We advised the town to be on the lookout for fungus infested wood trolls that have been fleeing from the south and spreading disease.

 

Rybin vanHoltRybinvanHoltseal

Historian and Scribe

A Cheesy Opportunity

By | | , ,
1 Comment

Dearest Elmerton,

Pleasant tidings! This is Baratraxar Humbodlt, or as most of you fine people know me, Baxter. Thanks to the town’s help and Rybin’s expert tutelage, my fluency with reading and writing is coming along nicely; even though I still believe the letter C is silly and superfluous. Regardless, I’ll likely have someone read this over and check for any errors before sending this correspondence out to you.

CheesemakerI had mentioned that, as way of saying thank you, I would offer any interested townsfolk lessons of my own: an introduction to cheese-making and the gathering of various rarities of components for all manners of usage (including making cheese!).

Anyone interested in learning the basics of cheese-making should meet me at Aces at five bells past noon on Wakingday. Don’t expect to be making and finishing any cheeses during this lesson; a decent cheese takes a good amount of time to ripen and meet my own personal standard of consumption. What you CAN expect, however, is a lesson on how milk, cultures, coagulants, and a few other ingredients turn into the greatest food ever, as well as some recipes for some basic cheeses that you can try and make on your own. Of course, while we wont be able to eat any cheese that we made that day, I will be bringing my family’s specialty, from the Humbodlt estate in the Archipelacoast, to the lesson for all interested parties to enjoy.

As for the component gathering lesson, for beginners, the lesson will start bright and early at promptly at three bells before noon on Fortuneday in the tourney field near the Smithy. Come prepared with a willingness to learn, good eyes to spot what we need, and a decent pair of walking shoes, as we’ll be traipsing all over the town in search of what we’re looking for. For those seeking more advanced knowledge on more uncommon ingredients, our group will depart, promptly, at one and one half bells before noon, from the same location as the beginner’s lesson.

For those seeking out knowledge of the most difficult ingredients to harvest and rarest of components, aloeones that you would generally consider of Master rank, our lesson will take far longer. In actuality, we will likely only be able to discuss various examples of components, due to their rarity, but, you never know what you may find out in the untouched parts of town! We will likely need to travel over a good amount of Irvanshire (and maybe beyond!) to locate enough components for me to feel comfortable saying the lesson is complete, and honestly, I can forsee that lasting, off and on, from now until the end of the summer season. For the beginning, meet me at the Wining Spirit at noon, and be prepared to have a few drinks during our discussion.

In closing, I look forward to seeing all of you in a couple weeks. Try not to bring any more snow, will you?

 

Sincerely,
 Baratraxar “Baxter” Humboldt