Sorry to do this, but I think we’ve been heading for this eventuality for awhile. The game has been limping along for a few months or more now, and seems to have just stopped. Not laying blame, because obviously the responsibility lies with me. We’ve covered 3 seasons during the year + length of the game. I needed to push the pace more and not make it so much of an exercise of my writing skills (such as they are). I needed to encourage more contributions from the players, both IC and OOC and not post so much of my own content I feel.
We’re down to three players, one who may have some serious real life issues going on right now, and we’ve more or less hit a lull that I can’t get by. I’ve been trying to come up with an alternate Summer story since Kerry might not be able to play for a bit, and have come up empty.
Like I said I hate to do it, but I feel the game has slowed to the point of not being able to continue, the other players I was contacting have dropped off as well. Thank you very much for sticking with me as long as you have and I hope you enjoyed what we accomplished. I’ll be sticking around the forums, and may try to get involved as a player on one of the games here.
I had great fun. Acacius where a bit different from the magi that I usually play (Aelianus from Novus Mane is more my usual style). Please if you have the time just give me a few hints on things that never where concluded.
What where the thing about the lions surrounding Acacius (or at least haunting his dreams)?
Where Acacius and Tessa ever meant to be? I where in Acacius dreams.
Where there a special reason for the sagas title?
I had a feeling that we would come to this end so thanks all for this time and I am going to miss Acacius and his friends.
There is a monster in the Covenant, in this case it's an Angel. One o fthe Angel's forms is as a lion which has often been looked upon as a member of each of the Mythic Realms. He can act as a man also, and sensing that a Covenant or Wizards were forming in an area he protected, he decided to try and influence the wizards' behavior. He sent dreams of a lion and the roar, which was terrifying, but his actual intent was to frighten away the demons that were set to tempt the wizards. While his roar was frightening to Acacius, it was terrifying to the demons. During the adventure after helping birth the child and clearing the stones of bandits, Acacius had a dream where he realizd that the roar of the lion was actually the only thing keeping the wolves at the periphery away. If Acacius had chosen to use magic to help birth the child (rejecting faith in God's providence) the dream would have been different. He would have fled the lion's roar until he couldn't hear it any more only to realize he was surrounded by wolves who were now able to attack with ease because the lion couldn't protect him.
Later, once the Covenant was made Acacius heard the lion's roar on occasion when others heard what might have been thunder. This was a message that he was still there. At the creation of your lab, Maxximianus botched, but it was only a single botch result, the Angel intervened to help make the spell succeed, and in so doing became a semi-permanent resident within it, and he could come and go as he pleased (even if the Aegis were cast he'd be a part of it). He was residing in the lion statuary that you couldn't recall how it got in your lab.
For Acacius and Tessa, that was certainly a possibility. The original creator was saying how Tessa had basically fallen for him, and considering the often lonely lives of Magi, it was likely he would have responded.
For the title, I just thought it's a cool phrase, and was planning on tying it in with ancient enemies of Agitatus who were inevitably going to come for revenge. Whether or not Aggie would have still been there is another story. Also, I kept plans in mind of a possible return of Diedne, truly a slow horse, but a decent story.
I'm glad you liked it, but it just doesn't seem we can continue with our few players and the drop in momentum.
I think my initial and biggest mistake was to keep too close to the Tribunal rules which said that newbie wizards couldn't participate in the first half of the Tribunal. Even though it's accurate, I should have just worked around it or ignored it. I basically told three or four players they could look but not participate. Then was the length of the Tribunal itself. I love Tribunals, but it was too long and I did too much writing. I liked the slow pace of the creation of it, but that pace is better for table top (and is a lot faster).
I learned a lot about what not to do in an online game like this, glad you were a part of it!