They can for sure refuse to offer hospitality but I doubt they can evict us from the city without risking a charge of interfering with the mundanes. It's not as if we need to sue them at Tribunal to enter... its up to them to sue us at the Grand Tribunal if they care. Claiming a capital city as a covenant, sure... I'm sure they made an Aegis arround it too. And the King of France agrees I'm sure. LOL. Their claim is about as ridiculous as it gets. Not that I'll really stay if they refuse to talk but that's a different story. Up to you what you do, Lee.
I'll be honest, I've kind of lost track of what our plan of exploration is here. I feel like every single one of our leads is turning out to be more of a problem than a solution.
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The purpose was to find a Cathar perfectus willing to return to lead that faction.
If remember correctly, you came to Paris following a lead about a Cathar who left Al Kufra. I'm not sure that person is still around.
You got a clue about the "sign of the Goat and Eels" which might be an inn (per Aetherius).
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Ask around about that location.
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Ask the local covenant if they know of remaining Cathar enclaves.
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Check to see if there are any Inquisitorial rumors floating around about Cathars. Maybe they're about to interrogate or burn some of the remaining ones.
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Cut your losses and head back to Al Kufra.
I'm just a gadfly, but that's what seems to me to be possible paths given the situation and the clues I've been able to remember or notice.
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I am going to be slow to respond for about a week (starting yesterday). Apologies.
Do you want to get started on the Summer adventure for Argentius while we wait for the neverending adventure to wrap up?
Just a thought.
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I would also add - can we get to the point where the rest of the party gets involved, or do you really need several posts about interacting with the front desk with Lee?
Interacting with teh frint desk? He's interacting with a maga who has projected her image and voice into the room he has gotten for the night,
I thought the scene had wrapped up and you were waiting for him to go at the front desk.
You can simply indicate that you drop something off at the front desk before going to do whatever you are doing that day.
I think it's time to face the truth. I've really enjoyed the storyline premise but the pacing and style of story hasn't worked for me for a while, and I don't see it changing. I'm out. Feel free to NPC me long enough to introduce the new characters. Best of luck.
Right now we seem to be at the tail end of a downward spiral- people aren't checking in on the game because it is running slow and it is running slow because people are not checking in on the game, and simply speaking nobody can fix that single handedly. In addition we have the problem that everyone wanted to jump onto a single adventure which means that adventure has to wait on everyone.
I think it may be time to shut the game down.
Sadly, it is at a tough spot.
I'm a big fan of the story concept and would like to try to salvage the game, but I think the only way to really do that is a kind of restart that wraps up the current adventure and tries to make sure we're focusing adventures around the active players.
At one point we had an active core: @raccoonmask @temprobe @Seon and myself were a solid core and could likely sustain the pacing but the current adventure didn't include half our active core players. @dzoonooqua and @Lothindil hopped in but it was certainly challenging for them to carry the adventure midstream. But in theory that gives us 5 or 6 players with active interest... or who had active interest in the last year.
One possibility:
Deus Ex Machina: Narratively wrap-up the current adventure to completion: the group finds the perfectus (or not) and returns. Adventure over. Start Summer back at Al Kufra.
Limit the game to at most 2 concurrent adventures. Or, frankly, 1 adventure + "back at the ranch" lab work and roleplaying until we rebuild momentum in the game.
OR
We say farewell to a great story concept and really interesting characters. I, for one, will for sure try to play another Argentius at some point down the road should this go belly up.
Just a couple thoughts.
I had expected this to be near the end, but Aetherius publicly mentioning the Cathars in a public bistro is going to add some new plot elements, and probably painful ones, if we continue. I mean the reason the covenant didn't want a large group of foreign magi in the city was because they were afraid it would draw attention from the inquisition.
I will back whatever you decide. And I am interested in continuing to play.
I would still be interested in continuing once we wrap the current story up - there hasn't been that much for Aban to do.
In other words, I would prefer that no Cathars were mentioned and we get the current story wrapped up ASAP.
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I admit I've fallen off a lot on checking and posting. I realized at some point that most of my posts turned into 'Plasmi's thoughts and artistic musings' during a plot progression, because my character was not the driving cause of any of the conversation going on.
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I'm really on the fence at the moment about continuing if I'm being honest.
It's been over a year since I had a character active in the game even though I'm checking the game daily for updates.
If nothing substantive in the approach to the storytelling is changing, I don't know that it makes sense for me to keep pushing this stone up the hill.
But I'll be very sad to see this end. Argentius has grown on me as a character as has Al Kufra. And I thoroughly enjoy the joint storytelling of the other players. @Seon is always refreshing in his character development and @raccoonmask makes me smile and often laugh. @temprobe is my ArM mentor and I just haven't had enough time to get to know the others.
I'd really like to understand better the plan/intention for the game going forward.
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Fundamentally the game at this point has two sides- exploring what has changed about Mythic Europe and getting the covenant into a better working condition and improving it.
There are some key points it would do well to remember along these lines:
- adventures involving large numbers of magi will almost inevitably get bogged down by the personal lives of some of the players.
- going off the beaten path to save time in game will take more time for the game as it will result in adventures and challenges that don't occur when you stick to the regular routes.
The current adventure is victim to both of these problems- had you simply sailed from Alexandria to Sicily months of in game activity would have been reduced to "you're on board a ship for a couple of weeks before you disembark in Sicilly" On the other hand if you had done that Malachi would have never introduced you to Tastheus' "fiancé" either. Whether that would have been for better or worse is something you might have to weigh for yourself.
I will add that, as has always been the case in my games seeking adventure for the sake of adventure will generally be successful and wind up slowing down the plot.
At this point my greatest issues are as follows:
- tempprobe threw a major plot grenade into the story and then announced he was leaving when I asked him to confirm that was what he was doing
- the majority of the people playing seem to be frustrated with how the game is going. At the same time I feel the majority of the issues they are frustrated by are of their own devising (collectively) but that many are blaming the SG rather than changing their approach. While this may have some similarities to real life in real life people don't just quit and walk away from their lives.
I don't have a problem with any of the people involved in the game, you're all a lot of fun. There is something in the alchemy of this saga that hasn't worked out correctly, and I think some of it is because of misunderstandings and differing expectations. I've definitely been in at least one situation in an online game where I have had a fundamental different opinion on the 'default' than someone else, though we were able to talk out the difference and figure out what we wanted to do with a little rewriting.
I agree with @silveroak at what the two greatest issues are - I expected a lot more of the "on board a ship for a while" scenes than we ended up with, and I felt that we kept taking actions to avoid problems and then just running into different problems. There is some frustration on my part with how things have played out because of this, but if we can get running again, I can get back into the drive of things I think. The other, first, issue.. that I don't know what to do about. I was definitely hoping to avoid Hermetic Politics with the game, and that's just not going to work unfortunately. The cause being gone is a bit troubling as well.
Honestly, I'll be happy if we get back on track, and happy if we stop. I'd happily grab each person in this saga and jump right into another one. Stopping is definitely the easier choice compared to re-sparking it, but if we respark it we'll need to fast-track some of the story to get back to what I consider the actual main drive: Figuring out things back at home.
I think I'm going to have to call this game. Some revelations regarding individual characters:
Silas Ex Verditius: began to build a reputation as an enchanter and an artist, earning an artistic reputation of 7 and realizing his patron was infernal, who found that Silas rage and pride spoke to him. Horrified Silas fled the Roman tribunal for the middle of the Egyptian desert, where his muse continues to plague him. After the reset the muse will pretend to be magical for as long as he can get away with it, encouraging Silas to rebuild his artistic reputation as well as to take on hermetic projects that build hubris.
Argentius Ex Verditius: following rumors that Saracens of Spain had taken Verditius rings from Corsica he followed rumors to Africa- copious notes following rumors as to where they went and he has based his searches from the covenant. Notes indicate that the rings were given as gifts many times before being interred in a grave or tomb in the early 12th century, or possibly divided between 5 tombs.
Has gained Item Attunement initiation
Okeannetis de Tytalus: Sought Birna in the north, eventually made many enemies in house Bjorner, fled south and began pursuing legends of new legendary beasts and shapeshifting traditions (has written notice of a wizard war)
Has acquired enemies of house bjorner
Lares ex Miscellanea : came to establish a family with his Moorish wife, Barshako, Though he has no children except those he has adopted. He has contributed greatly to the prosperity of the community with native resources. His wife is a Bouda faerie-aligned mortal witch.
Plasmatoris of Jerbiton: Developed a reputation as an artist, the fact that his religious artwork tended to shape or call faeries playing the roles of religious figures caused friction, especially as his gallery of his own artwork grew. He developed uncertain faith trying to explore religious mysteries while plagued with faeries playing religious roles and wound up traveling the levant and eventually Egypt, moving to the now lost covenant in order to isolate himself from the religious conflicts.
Aetherius ex Mercere: Allied with Bjorner he was considering heading for Egypt to seek the Great library until he broke with the hawthorn Gild over their repeated wizard wars against Okeannetis de Tytalus, and joined with her as she fled south. He joined the covenant of Cairo but transferred to the deep desert covenant at the request of his house since delivering messages there was so difficult for redcaps, he picks up the covenant’s mail when he heads to Cairo to search for the library and perform the occasional longevity ritual for a redcap.
Tastheus of Tytalus: 1 boy, 3 girls, none of them Gifted, raised in a covenant He became a hoplite, then quaesitor after initiate the personae mystery which proved highly useful in investigations. He moved to this covenant to be central in the tribunal as the first quaesitor of the tribunal (also serving as his own hoplite). He provided a longevity ritual for his wife (lab text is still in his notes) but with no magical abilities of her own she still died years ago. He has his letters indicating his quaesitor status from 1222 to 1285, as well as correspondence with his children: his son is a retired Turb captain in Lotharginia, nearing the end of his life despite his longevity ritual one daughter is a deceased wife of a Spanish nobleman, and her oldest son, now baron of Beniparrell, writes regularly. The second daughter married a Bonisagus and the third a Jerbiton in the French tribunal, whose life she saved from inquisition by bearing what is supposed to be his son after he had taken his longevity ritual, dispelling rumors that he was infertile due to an infernal pact for immortality.
Zarkut ex Miscellanea: seeker of the cult of Mercury, he practically leapt at the chance to join this covenant, from which he explores looking for ancient and lost treasures, especially amongst old Roman Ruins. He has taken to consulting with djinn, and while not yet having the location of the base has 2 pieces of the triumphal arc of the Fallen Temple of Mercury. He also has a djinn (Al Zahut) bound to 6 more months of service who has no memory of making the bargain, it only knows that it is bound to the deal. It also knows that its native location is south of Cairo along the Nile, and believes returning there may restore its memory. It is currently Might:20, but will be restored to might:40 if it returns.
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