Sea of Stars - OOC III

[PotatoGolem]

Sounds good!

[PotatoGolem]

Sorry for the delay, it's been a busy week (and more to come! yay...). Macharius is trying his best to look nice and murderable.

On a related note, is there any indication anywhere how the Imperial Creed/Imperium feel about same-sex relationships? Could have had Almagor pretend to be his lover and be in the bed as well rather than lurking underneath, but that might be scandalous. And Macharius would clearly rather risk a greater chance of stabbity death rather than bring shame to the House, naturally.

[Blarghy]

Should some/all of the rest of the command staff be nearby for this plan? At least in the same building, so that we can run in if alerted. That would be safer, and we could all participate too.

[Leon]

By the night cycle prob, but for the rest of the day people are out and about

[PotatoGolem]

Yeah, probably makes sense to be nearby at night- I'd assume we're renting a pretty large place, since the point is to be ostentatious. During the day it seems like things are pretty safe.

[Destro_Yersul]

Sorry for the delay, it's been a busy week (and more to come! yay...). Macharius is trying his best to look nice and murderable.

On a related note, is there any indication anywhere how the Imperial Creed/Imperium feel about same-sex relationships? Could have had Almagor pretend to be his lover and be in the bed as well rather than lurking underneath, but that might be scandalous. And Macharius would clearly rather risk a greater chance of stabbity death rather than bring shame to the House, naturally.

I believe the general consensus is that the Imperium doesn't care. Do you venerate the Emperor? Hate the mutant, the alien, and the heretic? We good. That's how I run it, in any case.

[Destro_Yersul]

That one got away from me, thanks to a very busy weekend, but it's up now. I'll try not to write things so enormous in future.

[PotatoGolem]

That one got away from me, thanks to a very busy weekend, but it's up now. I'll try not to write things so enormous in future.

The timing for Morwenna responding on Valentine's Day works out perfectly though. Astropathic messages about investment opportunities is basically sexting for Rogue Traders, after all. And she's adding a referral to her really good financial advisor? That's about the sexiest thing she could do for Macharius.

[Blarghy]

When Macharius meets with the advisor from House Krin, remember to cash in those banking shares we found!

He got a look at some of those while Anika was digging through them, and identified them as bank drafts and shares, issued by House Krin a century ago. The banking house was still in operation, and the shares would still be good if redeemed.

[Destro_Yersul]

Is it the 21st already? An entire week? Heresy! Sorry about the continuing delays guys, life has been a bit crazy around here. Work is taking more out of me than expected, I think, and the last couple weekends have been packed.

[rax]

No worries. Slow and steady works for me.

[Haval]

Yeah, don't worry about it.

[rax]

I'm a tad busy at work and I'll be off on an overnight hotel stay tomorrow. It's likely I won't be able to post until Saturday afternoon or Sunday.

[Leon]

Coming up on IC3, so cool.

[Haval]

Coming up on IC3, so cool.

I think we're past four years as well. I wonder if there's anything longer besides Bloody Crown.

Spoiler: Destro and Rax

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Just seen Rax's post and registered the name.

I wasn't expecting it to matter but I think Anika's conversation with Hannabel needs to be before the party.

[Destro_Yersul]

I think we're past four years as well. I wonder if there's anything longer besides Bloody Crown.

Spoiler: Destro and Rax

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Just seen Rax's post and registered the name.

I wasn't expecting it to matter but I think Anika's conversation with Hannabel needs to be before the party.

I'm not sure. Bloody Crown is setting records for sure, and I've been in other games with LCP that went for a while, but we've been chugging along quite well here.

Spoiler

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Haha, at last the depths of my evil becomes clear!

Yeah, this conversation is probably pre-party.

[PotatoGolem]

Wow, has it really been four years? That's pretty incredible.

[rax]

Spoiler

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Haha, at last the depths of my evil becomes clear!

Yeah, this conversation is probably pre-party.

Spoiler: Destro and Haval

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The conversation may be pre-party, but it's possible that it occurs after Macharius gets his invite to the Countess' shindig.

And just to be clear, whatever happens there is all on Destro. All I've done is provide some more details on Hannabel's background and my ideas for her nemesis. He's taking it from there.

[Haval]

Spoiler: Rax and Destro

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As long as Anika's parts sync up properly. I'll probably edit Anika's last post so Hannabel is aware of the invite.

[Haval]

Spoiler: Destro and Rax

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Edited the last post

[Destro_Yersul]

Spoiler: Rax and Destro

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As long as Anika's parts sync up properly. I'll probably edit Anika's last post so Hannabel is aware of the invite.

Spoiler

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All good by me. Intended sequence is that the invite showed up in the morning. Anika went to see Hannabel afterwards, so this all tracks.

[Destro_Yersul]

So, it has now been six days, and the only person to respond to my last update is Haval. On one level, I know it's a bit hypocritical of me to complain about this when I myself have frequently been slow to update, but part of that is time spent waiting for responses, and it does mean this adventure has dropped to a crawl. I'm at least curious about why. What is it that seems to have bogged us all down so hard?

Now, life is one thing. I've had a lot going on myself, things have been hard over here for reasons I won't go too deeply into, and sometimes I just forget to check, or lose track of time. That's fine, life happens.

But, is it something else? This game has been running a long time now. Are you all still interested, and engaged? Is it just that this adventure is causing issues? It's not intended to be overly long, there are certainly ways I could speed it up, but it's been.. well, a little frustrating, to say the least. This is a big backstory tie in for Hannabel, but she's staying on the ship, and I'm having a hard time figuring out ways to include her in her own story. Echo's got very little to do, because his skillset doesn't apply so well to what's going on - I've sent Blarghy a PM and not yet heard back, so I don't know if he's still around. Ravia is always a little hard to engage with, and I'm trying, but there have very much been times when I try to give her something and the thread just gets missed. I know you all have lives outside of this, and I know things have been crazy. I respect that, I'm not trying to call anyone out in particular, I know I miss things as well.

So, I'm asking for some input once again. How do you feel is the best way to proceed? Where do you, the players, want to go from here? I think we've still got stories to tell, and I've still got ideas, but I'm just one of the people involved. Let's have a conversation.

[rax]

I'm perfectly happy with how things are progressing for Hannabel. The fact that I'm having her stay on the ship shouldn't be taken as a sign that I'm not engaged or that this story arc is in some way a failure. Hannabel's interaction with Anika and Galimina has been very rewarding for my part and I'm curious to see where it will lead them (or at least Anika) next.

I'm keeping a close eye on the thread to see if an opportunity will pop up where it feels right for Hannabel to engage more directly, but I suspect that the party needs to play out first. If you have a particular sequence of events in mind that I've missed where you're envisioning Hannabel being front and centre, pop me a PM and we can work something out. Ultimately, it's not even necessary for this particular story arc to have a definitive "end" with regards to Hannabel's backstory. The fact that it's coming to light is a big step in and of itself.

From my ringside seat, I expected there to be more engagement from the group as a whole in tracking down the mystery killer. OOC, I'm certainly interested in what that's all about. It certainly seems like an excellent opportunity for House Absalom to become local heroes on Scintilla, with all the advantages that an enterprising crew could gain from that.

[PotatoGolem]

Sorry dude, it's just been a really hectic month or so. I've been super busy at work and working late, then pretty burned out when I get home, so it's hard to post other than on weekends. As an extra bit of fun, it's also given me nasty tendonitis in my wrists and thumbs, which makes typing more of an issue. I'm hoping things die down after next week (and I'm starting PT later this month), so I'll try to be better about posting.

[Haval]

Still engaged. Just tired. Admittedly I accidently made things harder for myself but it should be fine.

I think I brought it up earlier but I don't have a better idea for a lead then investigating the possible tech heresy angle on the Stalker, which might need some more concrete evidence first if we try taking it to someone from the Mechanicus. If I get to that point I'll bring Ravia or possibly Macharius (can his Fel work on Tech Priests?). I agree with Ravia's point about how unlikely it is that the Mechanicus would want to talk to anyone about this though.

I suppose talking to criminals is the other alternative. If it's not a person who built the equipment they use to murder people then they might have brought it somewhere and someone knows something. Someone tell me if that seems worth trying because ideally I don't want to monopolise things. Otherwise I had a far fetched plan about flooding the area with as many servo skulls as we can find.

Oh, and Thracian Primaris getting mentioned is very interesting. Penitent was going cheap on Amazon and I'm all caught up finally.

[Blarghy]

Echo's got very little to do, because his skillset doesn't apply so well to what's going on - I've sent Blarghy a PM and not yet heard back, so I don't know if he's still around.

I usually don't bother signing in unless I'm going to post, but I check these threads pretty regularly. Although, some policies have changed at work that have made it more difficult for me to post from there. So that's a factor. But mostly, as you say, this current scene doesn't play that well to Echo's strengths. You suggested in your PM that he could still be at the party and just talk to people. That is true, but it really does seem more like Macharius and Anika's show right now. Between Echo's total lack of social Skills and the fluff concerning Navigators and their isolationist policies, I do think he'd logically skip the party and keep watch on our rented apartments. I've thought about having him get the Rings to search the building and determine how they would infiltrate it, if they were assigned to do so. That's a possibility. But it would mostly just be to keep busy, really.

I'm perfectly fine with him being off-screen for the moment. He's already done some fun stuff in Scintilla so far, and I assume he'll be back in the spotlight when we get to the Maw and check out that waystation for the Astropaths. I'm content to just read along and enjoy Hannabel's stuff. Her absence up on the ship strikes me as a bigger issue here, but if Rax is happy, then that's between the two of you.

I think I brought it up earlier but I don't have a better idea for a lead then investigating the possible tech heresy angle on the Stalker, which might need some more concrete evidence first if we try taking it to someone from the Mechanicus.

There's also this. I'm at a bit of a loss as to how we can track down the Stalker, besides Anika's idea, and just waiting to see if the killer comes after her or Macharius. There don't seem to be a lot of leads to follow. Which makes sense; the case was clearly described as a mystery that baffled law enforcement, so if there were leads, people would already be following them. Maybe Etula can nudge us toward some new clues, once Macharius charms his way through her suspicion.

So yeah, I'm still here and interested. Just keeping an eye out for circumstances to evolve to the point that Echo has something to contribute.

[Leon]

Still here, still interested. Just this party/noble hijinks arc isn't very interesting for me and i cant really think of anything else to do while we are here that i haven't that wont possibly cause trouble. I can cause all sorts of trouble tho so i may have to :)

[Destro_Yersul]

I'm perfectly happy with how things are progressing for Hannabel. The fact that I'm having her stay on the ship shouldn't be taken as a sign that I'm not engaged or that this story arc is in some way a failure. Hannabel's interaction with Anika and Galimina has been very rewarding for my part and I'm curious to see where it will lead them (or at least Anika) next.

I'm keeping a close eye on the thread to see if an opportunity will pop up where it feels right for Hannabel to engage more directly, but I suspect that the party needs to play out first. If you have a particular sequence of events in mind that I've missed where you're envisioning Hannabel being front and centre, pop me a PM and we can work something out. Ultimately, it's not even necessary for this particular story arc to have a definitive "end" with regards to Hannabel's backstory. The fact that it's coming to light is a big step in and of itself.

From my ringside seat, I expected there to be more engagement from the group as a whole in tracking down the mystery killer. OOC, I'm certainly interested in what that's all about. It certainly seems like an excellent opportunity for House Absalom to become local heroes on Scintilla, with all the advantages that an enterprising crew could gain from that.

As long as you're happy, I'm good with that. I had a couple ideas, so I might send something else Hannabel's way shortly. In regards to endings.. well, all I'm going to say is that I'm not sure when you might ever get back to Scintilla after this. Pace of PbP being what it is, these things do take a very long time.

Sorry dude, it's just been a really hectic month or so. I've been super busy at work and working late, then pretty burned out when I get home, so it's hard to post other than on weekends. As an extra bit of fun, it's also given me nasty tendonitis in my wrists and thumbs, which makes typing more of an issue. I'm hoping things die down after next week (and I'm starting PT later this month), so I'll try to be better about posting.

I had the notion that work was being difficult for you in particular, which is a big part of the reason I mentioned it above. Unfortunately, Macharius is a big driving force behind current events, and I really don't want to leave you out if I can help it. Do take care of yourself first.

Still engaged. Just tired. Admittedly I accidently made things harder for myself but it should be fine.

I think I brought it up earlier but I don't have a better idea for a lead then investigating the possible tech heresy angle on the Stalker, which might need some more concrete evidence first if we try taking it to someone from the Mechanicus. If I get to that point I'll bring Ravia or possibly Macharius (can his Fel work on Tech Priests?). I agree with Ravia's point about how unlikely it is that the Mechanicus would want to talk to anyone about this though.

I suppose talking to criminals is the other alternative. If it's not a person who built the equipment they use to murder people then they might have brought it somewhere and someone knows something. Someone tell me if that seems worth trying because ideally I don't want to monopolise things. Otherwise I had a far fetched plan about flooding the area with as many servo skulls as we can find.

Oh, and Thracian Primaris getting mentioned is very interesting. Penitent was going cheap on Amazon and I'm all caught up finally.

Another of my cheeky references.

In regards to leads, it's possible that's on me. I don't want this to be too easy to solve, obviously, but I've been on the other end of just not knowing what to do next in an investigation type adventure. This sort of thing also shifts a great deal of burden onto players to think of ideas, when their skillsets are not necessarily the same as that of their characters. There's a mechanic in Inquisitors Handbook that lets characters roll Logic at -30 to get a hint, and Lathe Worlds adds the Logis Prophesying skill, which I don't think Ravia has but is something she could theoretically take. Drone Surveillance using servo skulls is also an option. Monitoring during the night using those would allow a test using either Security or Awareness.

I usually don't bother signing in unless I'm going to post, but I check these threads pretty regularly. Although, some policies have changed at work that have made it more difficult for me to post from there. So that's a factor. But mostly, as you say, this current scene doesn't play that well to Echo's strengths. You suggested in your PM that he could still be at the party and just talk to people. That is true, but it really does seem more like Macharius and Anika's show right now. Between Echo's total lack of social Skills and the fluff concerning Navigators and their isolationist policies, I do think he'd logically skip the party and keep watch on our rented apartments. I've thought about having him get the Rings to search the building and determine how they would infiltrate it, if they were assigned to do so. That's a possibility. But it would mostly just be to keep busy, really.

I'm perfectly fine with him being off-screen for the moment. He's already done some fun stuff in Scintilla so far, and I assume he'll be back in the spotlight when we get to the Maw and check out that waystation for the Astropaths. I'm content to just read along and enjoy Hannabel's stuff. Her absence up on the ship strikes me as a bigger issue here, but if Rax is happy, then that's between the two of you.

There's also this. I'm at a bit of a loss as to how we can track down the Stalker, besides Anika's idea, and just waiting to see if the killer comes after her or Macharius. There don't seem to be a lot of leads to follow. Which makes sense; the case was clearly described as a mystery that baffled law enforcement, so if there were leads, people would already be following them. Maybe Etula can nudge us toward some new clues, once Macharius charms his way through her suspicion.

So yeah, I'm still here and interested. Just keeping an eye out for circumstances to evolve to the point that Echo has something to contribute.

Fair. Mostly wanted to be sure we hadn't lost you somehow.

Still here, still interested. Just this party/noble hijinks arc isn't very interesting for me and i cant really think of anything else to do while we are here that i haven't that wont possibly cause trouble. I can cause all sorts of trouble tho so i may have to :)

Spoiler: Leon Only

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I'd intended for some of your time here to be able to go towards Ravia's projects. You've acquired numerous test subjects, and despite lacking a proper lab aboard the Sting, you DO have a fully equipped Medicae deck, if you wanted to roll a few tests and have a stab at making some sort of start. Give me a bit of direction, and I can describe your progress. Ravia still wants to build some supersoldiers, right?

[Haval]

I do have the prophecy device from the auction. I'll try and work out a specific question for it.

[rax]

It seems to me that the main difficulty in catching the Stalker is in working out what will actually draw him/her/it out. IIRC, there's been no obvious pattern to his targets other than their noble status, which isn't enough to either work out who his next target will be or to guarantee that the Stalker will have a go at Macharius. Therefore, it seems that the most important thing to try and work out is the Stalker's motive. If we can get a handle on that, there's a chance we can work out where he/she/it will strike next.

Failing that, it seems the next best thing would be to try and get a closer look at the Stalker's methodology. How is it that the Stalker is able to bypass the security of all these nobles and kill with seeming impunity? Does he/she/it shut down their security measures - indicating a high level of skill and knowledge of the systems in use - or does he/she/it just bypass it, i.e. walk through walls or something?

If the Stalker is a normal human and just a really good planner, he/she obviously needs to gather information before attacking. Perhaps there's a connection to be drawn there? Have all the victims attended the same social gatherings or been meeting with the same people? Perhaps they've all recently hired some new help - servants or guards who've later disappeared?

Edit: Unless Destro insists on us constantly rolling Inquiry or Charm to get hold of this sort of information, I figure everyone that wants to could chip in on tracking down leads like this.