Late Evening, Day One

[First, apologies for no update on Tuesday; I had far too much work due this week.]

[Second, no problems noblelyon, Mephis let me know something was going on with you.]

[Third, regarding the warning spell: remember that every character has Danger Sense skills which depends on Coordination, therefore a Buff spell cast on Coordination (or at the same price, directly into the Danger Sense skills), would probably work as intended, and you would get at least a one-room warning. If Gauronne, Leremy and/or anyone else wants to cast this spell on party members prior to sleep, that would work. I'll then alter the encounter below, so that it happens during a different watch and change who gets the warning (depending on how much buffing you want to do to each person, and what actions they can take. Note that aside from Kit (1 room warning due to the cat ears) everybody has both Danger Senses at 0.]

Sarah easily unlocks the door with her skeleton key, before the party decides to settle down for their first night within the dungeon. Mephis stays awake in case of danger while the rest of the party drifts off to sleep.

With his watch passing uneventfully, Mephis wakes up Leremy at the prearranged time. His watch, to, seems to pass peacefully, and is about to go to wake up Kit when he catches sight of some kind of slime oozing underneath the door rather quickly. The bottom of the wooden door begins to buckle as the pressure of this slime, apparently sentient as its dark green mass begins to twist up into six tentacles that reach out towards the warm bodies of our heroes.

Leremy's knowledge of the arcane is screaming that this ooze is very powerful and magical, and so a great deal of caution is advised: it seems to be a semi-liquid version of the Transmutation Beam spell, and handling its gooey nature will take a rather more careful approach than any monster encountered thus far.

Evening, Day One - Part 3

[I'm not sure why the map is so blurry today. Also, the party obtains 30 XP for defeating the haunted potatoes.]

The party troops along the next right-most corridor until they come to a halt in front of a locked, wooden door. The lock is a little rusty, but still functional, so the proper key or some kind of lock-picking will work.

Along the way (at position 2), Gauronne and Leremy notice some Arcana writing. It is rather basic, but the message is rather cryptic: Don't Turn On The Light! has been written with a feeling of earnestness.

[Also, decide if you're going to rest, and if so, where, as fatigue penalties will be kicking in on the next update if you don't.]

[The best time for the "live" RP is I think 3 PM PST/6 PM EST; if anyone wants to know what time that is where they are and are unsure, I can probably tell you if you give me your time zone. It won't be happening for week or so, however, and probably on a Thursday.]

Evening, Day One - Part 2

After the successful vanquishing of yet another foe, Gauronne dutifully performs his examinations of the surrounding area.

From the disturbed dirt on the floor, it would suggest that the haunted potatoes had pulled themselves out of the ground. It also appears that the ground is a little less rocky here, which may explain why the potatoes could emerge from the ground here rather than in other spots previously encountered. Since the potatoes do not seem to have any sensory organs apart from touch - potato eyes nonwithstanding - it seems reasonable to assume that they have responded to vibrations, either through Sarah's earlier mapping of this tunnel, or perhaps to the party's multi-footed approach along the corridor.

[Sarah obtains 2 Pieces of Haunted Potato]

Sarah and Kit head off a small way down the western corridor, to give a brief glimpse as to the opportunities ahead.

[Just to be clear, there are actually two separate paths going northwards: one immediately to the west, and one a little further to the west. Unless otherwise instructed, the party will be going along the first of these paths in the next update.]

[Also, I will be adding numbers to the map for places of interest, like the magic wall, in the next update. This is to allow you to say something like "Let's head back to 1 and have another look.", which I think might be a good idea.]

[Also, if I was to run a live session of this RP via IM, what are people's preferences for that, in terms of IM service, day and time?]

Combat Resolution: Do You Want Fries With That?

[Sorry for the late entry. Could God make a spreadsheet file so monstrously large he could not open it in OpenOffice? Well, I don't know about him, but I certainly did, and it managed a lovely cascade of failure for me resulting in having to do a lot of things with my computer.]

[Note to Self: Weird monsters inspire interesting responses.]

[Gauronne casts Probe at a cost of 1 MP]
Through a combination of naturally- and arcanely-acquired lore, Gauronne learn that these phantomized members of Solanum tuberosum are descendants of plants grown in a garden of one Mr. McGregor, who cursed the rabbits who would enter his garden and nibble at his vegetables, particularly that annoying one with the little blue jacket. The stress caused by the constant rabbit attacks drove the man insane, as he tried every last thing to stop the invasion of these long-eared vermin. Eventually, his anger snapped his resolve, and he called down a curse and raised his hoe in the air, unfortunately during a thunderstorm; he was hit by lightning and killed instantly. His curse, however, was granted: Mr. McGregor's twisted soul has passed into the bodies of the plants he wished to protect, and travels along their family line. They will attack any intruders it deems may be hungry enough to cause them damage. Unsurprisingly, these spectral spuds attempt to attack the party after Mephis prods at them, flailing their green trendils at the party menacingly.

[Kit fires a bolt]
[Sarah uses 1 Oil, and 1 Lighter]

Sarah creates a sort-of Molotov Cocktail, which she flings towards the potatoes, after everyone has retreated a safe distance. The bottle swirls through the air, only to land on the soft dirt dig up by the haunted potatoes.

Fortunately, although Kit's bolt misses the potatoes, it does manage to shatter the glass of the bottle, causing it to explode and flash-fry the potatoes. They emit a hideous death scream (don't ask me how, but I made a sound effect for it), and they flail about as the are cooked. They eventually hover and fall, the vines motion slowing and eventually stopping as the potatoes achieve their final rest.

Evening, Day One

Leaving the magicked wall behind them, the party continue down the corridor that Sarah has already mapped out. The trip is uneventful, and the party rounds the corner rather peacefully.

At the next intersection, however, things have apparently become a little... weird. The ground appears to have been dug up - possibly from underneath - and there are several potatoes, emitting a strange green glow and some kind of ethereal whistling as they hover around. Small clumps of dry dirt occasionally fall away from their brown skin. Green tentacle-like vines emerge from each of the haunted potatoes, and thrash about as the party approaches.

[Thank Year_of_the_Fox for the idea of a haunted potato. There are 10 Haunted Potatoes currently.]

Resolution

Thanks for your responses, and I feel pretty silly and embarrassed now. So, sorry for that.

Cubist: I see what you mean. I was probably too used to how things worked with the RRQI stories, which I should have probably realized were not analogous. I've also come to expect that people lose interest in things after a few months, and I was worried it was the case here as well.

I don't expect everyone to post with every update, and don't feel the need to do so now, since that wasn't my intention. I was just a little worried people were avoiding posting because they weren't enjoying themselves, and if that was the case then I should probably be doing something different with it, or moving on to other projects.

Anyway, this is what I've decided to do:

• Quit being silly.
  
• I'll only do two updates a week, probably around Tuesday and Friday. That should give more time for responses and will free me up a little.
  
• I'll assume the party will continue down the corridor and turn right at each intersection, which I suppose is what I should have done before. That will begin with the next update which will be tomorrow.
  
• If there's sufficient interest, I might try to have a fortnightly "live" RP session via IM. Most people seem to have AIM, so we should probably use that, unless there's any objections or alternative suggestions. I'll then post the results up here.
  
• Every couple of months I'll probably ask how everyone thinks it's going; a bit like the previous post, but less attention-whorish.

Anyway, that's it until tomorrow.

Umm, Are People Having Fun?

I really hate to do this.

I'm wondering whether continuing TFDC is actually worthwhile, given the number of different responders to the few latest updates.

If there's something here that's stopping you from having fun, then please let me know and I'll try to come up with something. I've taken a lot of suggestions and implemented them, and have at least considered the rest. Feel free to IM me or PM me with your suggestions. I've sunk a fair amount of time into preparing this game, and I'd rather change stuff than have to scrap it completely.

If you aren't able to play (either temporarily or permanently), or no longer want to play, then just please let me know so that I'm not waiting for replies and wasting my time any more.

It's only really worthwhile me running this game if there's 4 or more people actively playing it; otherwise, I could work on smaller groups in some other, more private, arrangement (probably on some other project). And I really don't want to have to chase up people after every update; it's just more time away from actually doing stuff for the game or something else.

I'm going to message everyone involved, and I'll decide what to do when - or perhaps it's better to say if? - I hear back from you.

Late Afternoon, Day One - Part 3

[I'm going to assume that any knowledge obtained by a party member is known to the remainder of the party, unless specifically stated otherwise.]

Sarah moves away from the group to explore down the corridor, until she finds the next intersection and turns back; luckily for her, nothing seems to happen on her journey.

Kit takes aim and fires a bolt through the grating, but other than a couple of thuds, nothing happens.

Mephis' surveillance doesn't spot anything hazardous approaching the party. For now, at least.

Late Afternoon, Day One - Part 2

Kit reads his book.

Sarah patrols towards the next corner, not too far from the remainder of the party, and takes a quick look around the corner. She doesn't notice anything, except that it appears the corridor continues around the corner for a reasonable distance into the darkness.

[Gauronne casts Probe for 5 MP]

The magic of the wall doesn't seem to want to relinquish the secrets of the area beyond very easily; though Gauronne is able to get one small glimmer before the force of the wall repels his efforts: there is some kind of button on the other side of the wall that would seem to open the wall like a door.

[UPDATE: I know this update is probably later than expected, but I was waiting for some more people to take a more active role.]

Late Afternoon, Day One

[First, handle yesterday's stuff, which given the misunderstanding is now quite short! XD]

[Gauronne casts Siphon; no Vampiric Effect]

Gauronne absorbs the magic from the lycanthropic blood, and he feels a sort of arcane vitality course through him.

[Cubist: Ah, OK.]

Gauronne - and let's face it, everyone - would probably know that dancing around, writhing in the blood is probably a good way to catch lycanthropy and possibly other assorted nastiness. Contact with the blood, particularly for the wounded, should be kept to a minimum. Care should be taken with any blood exposed to weaponry, as accidental cutting could lead to becoming a wererat.

On a more arcane level, burning or boiling the blood or zapping it with electricity would be bad; in a similar way that aerosolization is bad. Freezing may be a good idea, but care will have to be taken that it doesn't shatter. Standard medical procedure - rubber gloves, face masks, etc. - may also be a good idea. Handling it with magic should be okay, at least with the lower level spells.

Kit and Sarah have a conversation about the former's amnesia and the latter's brother. Mephis plays with his sword in the disenchanted blood; the red discoloration at the point slowly gives way to silvery-gray as tiny ruby droplets fall to the ground, causing ripples in the blood pool, which slowly grows as the blood continues to drain from the body.

[As for grate-prodding, the grate is too high up the wall to reach. Also, the extra blood draining from the body is included in the Siphon spell, so everything in the pools of blood is non-lycanthropic now.]

Afternoon, Day One - Part 3

[Sorry for the massive delay, but as I'm home again everything should be back on track. You'll also have to forgive me if today's update is short; little sleep and a rather long day have taken its toll.]

[Xandre: Year_of_the_Fox was wondering if you wanted that RP published, but I haven't seen you online for a while so I thought I'd ask. Also, you can start sending me your RRQI updates again. Or are you waiting for me?]

[Cubist: If I recall correctly (which is quite unlikely given how exhausted I am), that kind of effect should be covered under one of the other spells, but I don't have access to the files at the moment so I'll have to check later.]

[Kit has a Lycanthropic Wood Arrow[1]]

[Sarah uses one Water Bottle.]

[William uses one Water Bottle.]

Sarah hands William a water bottle to use to clean his equipment of the blood, before the former, along with Kit, goes to inspect the magic wall. It seems as though this door has been magicked to be "raised" or "lowered", or somehow "opened", though the mechanism for performing that is not apparent on the wall or in the surrounding area, from either a mundane or magical search; the magic emanating from the wall is so overwhelming that it precludes searching into the unknown rooms beyond by magic probing.

Gauronne racks his brain: if sufficient amounts of the lycanthropic blood were aerosolized and breathed in, they may confer lycanthropy, though the probability is rather small, nowhere near the amount that a bite or direct blood contact would. Nevertheless, the close quarters would give William a higher chance of infection; but everyone - including Gauronne - may have been infected, and who knows what kind of devious clandestine mental effects this strain of lycanthropy has?

[I will have to deal with the niceties of prose for Gauronne's blood-spells in the next update, as I simply can't think at the moment. However, the summary is this: Siphon works, and replenishes Gauronne's MP to maximum. He continues to make notes. Aside from the comments above, Gauronne knows of one possible way of making the lycanthropic blood more potent, and that is by freezing it into the form of a jewel, which can be added to a piece of jewelery to give the wearer voluntary lycanthropic powers (into a rat, of course)]

[Next update will be tomorrow, and there may be one more, as "tomorrow" for me is rather soon!]