Community Game: Long Live the Queen VI

The players finally agree to Flattery and Reflexes.

Result: Flattery +10, Reflexes +15.5 (I think).

Event: Alice your maid approaches for your attention.
Alice says, "My lady, couriers have arrived from the Duke of Sedna."
Fatal: "We have a Duke of Sedna. LOL" (You fail Foreign Intelligence and Foreign Affairs skill checks."
Alice: "...No, my lady. The duchy of Sedna is in Talassee. They have brought you a letter and a gift."
Fatal: "'Condolences...' 'Regret....' etc...etc... Ooo! What a beautiful necklace! Something sparkly will make me feel better." (You fail a Court Manners skill check and put on the necklace. You gain Cheerful +1.)

Your mood is AFRAID (Afraid 3, Depressed 2, Willful 2, Lonely 1)

Your weekend choices:
1. Talk to your father (?)
2. Attend court (+2 Yielding, +1 Depressed + 1 Pressured)
3. Explore Castle (+1 Lonely, +1 Afraid)
4. Visit Tomb (+1 Depressed, +1 Afraid)
5. Attend Service (-1 Afraid)
6. Walk in Garden (+1 Lonely, +1 Cheerful)
7. Visit Julianna (?)
8. Sneak out (+2 Willful, +1 Lonely)
9. Play with toys (+1 Yielding, +1 Lonely, +1 Cheerful)
10. Visit Dungeon (+1 Willful, +1 Angry)
11. Play Sports (+1 Angry, - 1 Lonely) (There was a message that this would be a permanent choice. Perhaps because of your Reflexes score???) 

A player suggests, "I say we sneak out."

Princess Fatal's Diary

Here's the plan. If no one knows where I am, they can't try to kill me, right? It just stands to reason. Wish me luck, diary...

"You sneak out of the castle to have a little fun. You enjoy your freedom, but your father won't like it if he finds out."

Princess Fatal's Stats (Start of Week 5)
Mood: WILLFUL (Afraid 3, Depressed 2, Willful 4, Lonely 1)
Outfit: School Uniform
Skill List:
Agility 31 (Reflexes 31)
Animal Handling 15 (Falcons 15)
Conversation 10 (Flattery 10)
Faith 30.8 (Divination 15, Lore 15.8)
Intrigue 10 (Internal Affairs 10)
Medicine 10 (Poison 10)
Military 5.1 (Strategy 5.1)
Weapons 5.2 (Swords 5.2)

Community Game: Long Live the Queen V

Dear Diary,

It's been difficult to concentrate on my lessons lately since I am so afraid. There was a maybe, yes, probably, an assassination attempt over the weekend. I can understand if you hire an assassin for someone you hate, like Laurilee did that time (no big, but I still think she deserved it), but people are trying to kill me I don't even know about. I probably haven't even heard of them! I can at least be fairly sure it wasn't Julianna who did it since she rescued me...

This week, I did learn that our country is not really that small; it's called a "map." Also, the pointy end of the sword goes in the other person. I'm sure this will come in handy one day. I surprised my Lore teacher by already knowing about Lumen crystals. I didn't tell her how I knew. Magic is apparently a touchy subject in the kingdom right now if good ol' dad is any indication. I mean, ugh, he should let me make up my own mind! I am not thirteen anymore after all.

Event! You think, "The castle seems quieter with Charlotte, Emry, Zahra, and their parents gone. It's certainly not empty, though. It seems like we get more servants every day. (You fail a Poisons skill check.) I was so worried about Charlotte, after that snake bit her...but her mother said she's okay so I guess it turned out all right. Maybe she has a guardian angel! grin emoticon"

What will you do for the weekend?

Mood: AFRAID (Afraid 4, Depressed 3, Willful 2, Lonely 1)

1. Talk to Your Father (Has an unknown effect)
2. Attend Court (Gives known bonuses +2 Yielding, +1 Depressed, +1 Pressured)
3. Explore Castle (+1 Lonely, +1 Afraid)
4. Visit Gardens (+1 Lonely +1 Cheerful)
5. Sneak Out (+2 Willful + 1 Lonely)
6. Play With Toys (+1 Lonely, +1 Cheerful, +1 Yielding)
7. Attend Church (-1 Afraid)
8. Visit Your Mother's Tomb (+1 Depressed; +1 Afraid)
9. Visit Dungeons (+1 Willful, +1 Angry)
10. Visit Julianna, Duchess Ursul (unknown effect) 

The players argue over how to get past the father.  They suggest Presence, Flattery, and Voice.  There is no consensus, so I wait for more input.  Meanwhile, they decide to Attend Church to reduce Afraid.  (I think they were going for improving chances to influence the father here also.)
Player:  ok, I think we definitely need more social skills because we want to p

"You attend services in the castle grove, letting the peace of the ritual calm your heart." Your mood is now AFRAID (Afraid 3, Depressed 3, Willful 2, Lonely 1).
 

Community Game: Long Live the Queen IV

Dear Diary,
This week I learned that drinking bleach is bad for you. I wish I'd known that before the frat party incident back at school! In fact, in hindsight, I should have done something, anything, aside from watching daytime television for the first fourteen years of my life. I only have a few short months to prepare for being queen now! I'll try to work hard from now on, Diary, even though that means I will never find out whether Veronica's Baby Daddy is Sean, Sean's Evil Twin, the Shape-Changing Alien that Impersonated Sean, or the Shape-Changing Alien that Impersonated Sean's Evil Twin. Alas!

I also practiced Reflexes this week. I hope to never see a dodge ball again, Diary.

Julianna, Duchess Ursul arrived at court. My father claims she is a traitor! But I wanted to hear what she has to say. She claims my mother was a magician with a hereditary magic crystal that is now mine. Who is lying? My father or her?

Your choice:

Please select two classes for Princess Fatal to take this week. 

The players are very excited about the visiting mage.  They end up taking Divination as it is the closest thing to magic that is available.  They also take swords, despite the skill penalty.

Result: You now have Swords 5.1 and Divination 15.

Event: You come across Charlotte playing He Loves Me He Loves Me Not. "Lottie, do you have a boyfriend?" you ask. Charlotte replies that she just likes to play with flowers. Suddenly, the Duchess of Ursul runs into the garden, points a sword at you, and says, "Don't move!" (Composure Skill Check failed.) You try not to move, but you can't help but glance around. You see a snake at your feet! (Afraid +1) (Agility Skill Check passed.) You leap out of the way as the snake prepares to strike. "No!" says Charlotte. She runs between you and the snake, and the snake bites her leg! Too late, Julianna cuts off the snake's head. Just then, Lucille, Countess of Nix arrives. Julianna tells her that Charlotte should be taken to the court herbalist immediately as that is a deadly snake, but Lucille refuses. She will treat Charlotte herself since she doesn't trust anyone in the court! Furthermore, her family will leave immediately. "I'm sorry," you say. "I don't feel good," replies Charlotte. (Sorry--the game dialog is so awful.) "This snake is not native to the area," says Julianna. "It is possible this was an assassination attempt." "Will Charlotte be okay?" you ask. "I don't know," replies Julianna.

You now are AFRAID (Afraid 4, Depressed 3, Willful 1, Lonely 1)

Choose your weekend activity.

1. Talk to Your Father (Has an unknown effect)
2. Attend Court (Gives known bonuses +2 Yielding, +1 Depressed, +1 Pressured)
3. Explore Castle (+1 Lonely, +1 Afraid)
4. Visit Gardens (+1 Lonely +1 Cheerful)
5. Sneak Out (+2 Willful + 1 Lonely)
6. Play With Toys (+1 Lonely, +1 Cheerful, +1 Yielding)
7. Attend Church (-1 Afraid)
8. Visit Your Mother's Tomb (+1 Depressed; +1 Afraid)
9. Visit Dungeons (+1 Willful, +1 Angry)
10. Visit Julianna, Duchess Ursul (unknown effect)

Choose your two classes for Week 2. 

The players decide it is time to visit Dad.  They are very anxious to start magic training.

You get right to the point. "Dad, what happened to Mom's Lumen crystal?" The king replies, "It's in a safe place." "Can I have it?" you ask. "No." "But it's mine!" (Gain Willful +1) "Meddling with magic killed your mother. I don't want that to happen to you. Once you're crowned Queen I can't stop you from doing anything you want, but for now you are still a child."

Princess Fatal's Stats (End of Week 3)

Mood: AFRAID (Afraid 4, Depressed 3, Willful 2, Lonely 1)
Outfit: School Uniform
Skill List:
Agility 15.1 (Reflexes 15.1)
Animal Handling 15 (Falcons 15)
Faith 30.82 (Divination 15, Lore 15.82)
Intrigue 10 (Internal Affairs 10)
Medicine 10 (Poison 10)
Military 5.10 (Strategy 5.10)
Weapons 5.2 (Swords 5.2) 

Community Game: Long Live the Queen III

Result: Reflexes 15.08, Poison 10.05 (the non-dominant moods do not influence the results).

Event! Julianna, Duchess of Ursul has arrived to, "pay respects in honor of your mother."

Joslyn, King Dowager, Duke of Caloris replies, "You have no respect or honor! It's because of you and your powers that my wife is dead!"

Julianna tells you, "I am a Lumen, as was she, and like every Lumen I am willing to give my life if necessary to protect our domain."

Joslyn says, "Your line has been traitors for 200 years. I won't have you corrupting my daughter."

Julianna says, "Let the Crown Princess decide! Your mother trusted me, and I have much to teach you."

Princess Fatal, will you

1. Send her away?
2. Arrest her?
3. Let her stay?

Just as a side note, in case it becomes important, Julianna has blue hair.

They decide to let her stay.


Your command as Crown Princess overrides your father's wishes. Duchess Ursul is allowed to stay.

Result: + 1 Willful

Princess Fatal's mood is now Afraid (Afraid 3, Depressed 3, Willful 1, Lonely 1).

What do you want to do over the weekend?

1. Talk to Your Father (Has an unknown effect)
2. Attend Court (Gives known bonuses +2 Yielding, +1 Depressed, +1 Pressured)
3. Explore Castle (+1 Lonely, +1 Afraid)
4. Visit Gardens (+1 Lonely +1 Cheerful)
5. Sneak Out (+2 Willful + 1 Lonely)
6. Play With Toys (+1 Lonely, +1 Cheerful, +1 Yielding)
7. Attend Church (-1 Afraid)
8. Visit Charlotte, Lady Merva (your cousin; unknown effect)
9. Visit Your Mother's Tomb (+1 Depressed; +1 Afraid)
10. Visit Dungeons (+1 Willful, +1 Angry)
11. Visit Julianna, Duchess Ursul (unknown effect)

Weekend events may slightly change your mood, as shown. You can go ahead and pick classes for the week if you want, but keep the mood changes in mind. I'll put up another Diary Entry for the princess after the weekend events have been chosen. 

 The players decide to visit the mysterious visitor.

Princess Fatal asks Julianna, "What is it you want to teach me?"
Julianna: First, I need to know if you have your mother's crystal.
Fatal: What crystal?
Julianna: The source of power for any Lumen is a particular magical crystal. Once you've bonded with it, it becomes a part of you as long as you live. The Royal Crystal has been passed down from ruler to ruler for generations. It belongs to you now--except the King may be keeping it from you.
Fatal: Do you have a crystal?
Julianna: Of course.
She holds out her hands. Light flickers above her bosom, and then, with a shower of sparkles, something takes shape. (Spoiler: It is a crystal.) You reach out to touch it, and it dissolves away into nothing.
Fatal: Oh.
Julianna: It belongs to me. No one can take it from me until I die. You need to find the crystal that belongs to you.

Week 2

Princess Fatal's Stats
Mood: AFRAID (Afraid 3, Depressed 3, Willful 1, Lonely 1)
Outfit: School Uniform
Skill List:
Agility 15.1 (Dance 15.1)
Animal Handling 15 (from Falcons 15)
Intrigue 10 (Internal Affairs 10)
Medicine 10 (Poison 10)

Training Bonuses, from Best to Okay
Agility
Faith
Animal Handling
Medicine

Training Penalties, from Worst to Least
Royal Demeanor
Military
Weapons
Intrigue 

Community Game: Long Live the Queen II

I decided to wrap up the debate by taking the most popular skill (Falcons) and giving them a random Intrigue skill.

Okay, it looks like Princess Fatal will be studying Falcons and *RNG* Internal Affairs. (Magic is not available at the start of the game. I forgot to mention that. Also, the game gives you no idea what skills are useful, so I won't either (actually, I haven't beaten the game, so it's anyone's guess).)

Current Stats

Princess Fatal
Mood: Depressed (Depressed 3, Afraid 2) 
Outfit: School Uniform
Skills:
Animal Handling 15 (Falconry 15 learned more due to Depression bonus)
Intrigue 10 (Internal Affairs 10)
After the weekly classes, the game usually has some sort of event, and then it lets you pick a weekend activity.

Event:

Your Aunt (Lucille, Countess of Nix), Uncle (Laurent, Duke of Merva), and cousin (Charlotte, Lady Merva) are visiting. (+1 to Cheerful) You are friends with the cousin. The aunt and uncle seem cold.

What will you do over the weekend? For some reason, you can only do exactly one thing. You can try to maneuver your mood towards a bonus you want to get in a class next week or trigger story events.

1. Talk to Your Father (Has an unknown effect)
2. Attend Court (Gives known bonuses +2 Yielding, +1 Depressed, +1 Pressured)
3. Explore Castle (+1 Lonely, +1 Afraid)
4. Visit Gardens (+1 Lonely +1 Cheerful)
5. Sneak Out (+2 Willful + 1 Lonely)
6. Play With Toys (+1 Lonely, +1 Cheerful, +1 Yielding)
7. Attend Church (-1 Depressed)
8. Visit Charlotte, Lady Merva (your cousin; unknown effect)

The players want to explore the castle.  They also discuss focusing Fatal on either Physical skills or Political skills.  They do eventually pick specific skills this week.

Community Game: Driftmoon IV

The party has now avoided/not avoided Combat 1 using a Schrodinger's cat approach.

Scenario A:

Walter decides to take a flying leap over the ooz. It has been a long night, and it is beneath him to handle someone else's pest problem.

Walter is "Fluffy," so he is rolling against a 9, but the rock did distract the ooz, so it is hunkered down instead of reaching for him for +4. Walter rolls: 6, a success! He has made it to someone's basement! (Note, in general you want to roll below the target number, and I am rolling 3 6-sided (cube) dice. If you want to roll some dice and report the results, go ahead!)

Scenario B:

Walter shouts, "For Dignity and Beyond!" and stabs the ooz. He rolls an 8, a success. He rolls 2 damage. The ooz is too slow to sense the dagger in time to dodge, so it now has 1 health. The ooz surges up the dagger towards Walter (7 to hit). Walter attempts to shake it off his dagger but fails (14 to parry, far above the 6 you need). The ooz stings his hand a bit (1 dmg). Walter stabs again (8 to hit) and rolls a one for damage. The ooz is now less squirmy and more goopy. It is probably dead. Walter steps into the basement.

Either way:

Walter feels a bit silly having outwitted/had an epic battle with a common household pest. Walter makes a note that there are 14 steel arrows here and some food. He climbs a sturdy ladder against the wall, finally gaining daylight. For mysterious reasons, the secret door in the dry well apparently leads to the tavern in the outskirts of town. He was in the root cellar, which was not as clean as one hopes for a public establishment, and now he stands in the kitchen. There is a pot on the stove that seems to have boiled itself dry. Walter can see through a beaded doorway the dining room with the familiar two long tables, but they seem to have added a weird gaudy statue of a man done in obsidian since he was last here. There are two doorways leading to the owner's private rooms to the left, one open and one closed, and a doorway to the outside. Through the windows, Walter can see the cliff face that shades the tavern and nothing else. No one seems to be around.

Well?

Community Game: Driftmoon III

You have a large-brimmed hat and a do-rag, normal clothes, and walking shoes. Your shoes are pretty dirty at this point. Your do-rag was pretty rank yesterday, but it seems to have dried to a crusty finish overnight. You have 3 sets of dirty socks and unmentionables in your backpack. You have a canteen with water, and a handful of berries. You were really hoping your mother would do your laundry and make you dinner instead of pushing you down a well. You put the feather in your backpack. It might bring you good luck.

You look around. You think you are probably too fluffy to make it to the top of the well. Surprisingly, there is some graffiti down here. You see "George Wuz Here," "Call Oli for a good time," and some tally marks in the wall then, "THAT MAKES THREE DAYS BEFORE I FOUND THE SECRET DOOR!" says some shaky writing. This is followed by a big arrow pointing to an almost invisible button. Aha!

You push open a door that leads to a dark hall. On the floor is a dagger almost entirely consisting of rust. You pick it up. You find another door at the end of the hall. Inside you can see a small amount of food and some arrows on a shelf, but by opening the door you have disturbed a Tiny Yellow Ooz [sic] that was growing in the door sill!

You are facing 1 Tiny Yellow Ooz [sic].
Tiny Yellow Ooz
3 Health
Armor: None
Weapon: Acidic Pseudopod for 1-2 health damage
Intelligence: Tropisms Only
Goal: Absorb Unusually Large Meal
Movement: Rooted

You
10 Health
10 Magic
10 Fatigue (you are currently not tired; you can use fatigue as magic at the risk of passing out)
Armor: Normal Clothes reduce health damage by 1
Weapon: Rusty Soldier's Dagger for 1-3 health damage.
Weapon Skills: You have a Knife skill of 10, so you hit 50% of the time.
You can try to parry, but your knife is very small and cheap. You have a parry score of 6, so you succeed 9.3% of the time.
Magic:
Focused Blow. Costs 7 magic. Multiplies the damage of your next attack with a melee weapon by 1.5.

You can try attacking with your dagger or something more creative if you wish. Your health, magic, etc, will refresh after the fight.

Player A says, "It looks like all you have to do is hit the tiny yellow ooz 1 to 3 times, and you win. It doesn't look very dire."

Player B says, ""As the Tiny Yellow Ooz is rooted, can't Walter just walk past it, in effect ignoring it? It seems silly to fight a Tiny Yellow Ooz.

"If Walter does not have the option of ignoring the TYO, then he should look around for some rocks at the bottom of the well, and stone the TYO, perhaps from a distance from its acidic psuedopod. His war cry is 'For Dignity and Beyond!'"

Me:  Walter experimentally gets near the ooze. It seems to react to his heat or something and reaches for his foot. Walter goes back and finds some little shards of flint in the well. He tosses one at the TYO. It lands in the middle of the mass. Little pseudopods form around the rock, and the ooz begins feeling at it. It seems distracted. Walter can try jumping over it or attacking it. Either option makes him feel a bit silly.