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This is an in-character liveblog of a Dungeons and Dragons chaacter, from the game started by the posters in the Jammies thread in Yackfest.

Here is a link to the discussion page for the game itself.

The liveblog is taking the form of reports, as my character, Seren (A Level 1 Paladin) is writing up reports to her superiors and sending them in when she can.

If the game is being slow, I may instead post something else relevant to the game- a story from Seren's Order, perhaps, or I may write up a scene between the characters.

Regardless... Enjoy.

Comments:

As you may have gathered, I rolled a Gather Information check here. I was searching for general information on the island we are travelling towards, currently.

I rolled a 14, against a DC of 10, making it a success. However, it wasn't perfect, and as such, she didn't get a whole lot of information.

What you also didn't see were the Sense Motive checks several Elves rolled against her. Two succeeded, but as Seren is a Paladin, her moral code prevents her from using Bluff Checks. As such, they noted nothing unusual.

I know nothing of DND, so I shall judge without that knowledge, OK?

Fairly expositiony and mechanical, but that's prolly the point of a report though, so I shall let that slide.

No worries about that part of it. It can be used as a purely narrative story; the D&D references are ignorable.

It's going to start off mechanical and stuff. That's kinda the whole purpose of a report, yeah. However, as it moves on, it will become less mechanical, and more personal. It'll always be expositiony, however, seeing as it is a report.

Is this a private journal, or is Seren expecting to show this to her superiors when she completes her mission?

Seren is sending in each of these reports individually, after she writes it. The next post, for example, is the reply to this report by her superior.

Laying out some facts for you about Seren's background- evidently, her Church was attacked, and several other people were involved.

I am also using this as an opportunity to show other people doing quests and such in the background of the world. Seren and her party are not the only adventurers in the world, nor are they the only people on important quests.

I am also providing possible plot points for the GM, and establishing possible resources for use by the characters, without obligating the GM to give us anything.

Hopefully, I'll be able to do more like this- focusing on the world at large, more than just Seren's localized view.

Those familiar with D&D game mechanics may also notice something odd here-

Namely, don't Clerics and Paladins have access to Cure Diseases?

Yes, they do.

The disease affecting Roant and Heriuste was not an infection caused by Seren not bandaging their wounds and cleaning them properly.

Rather, it was a Poison Curse-type deal, intentionally designed to look like infection. It's a rather tricksy mechanic, but it works for these purposes.

Well, it's a set up. Nothing tugging yet, I think that you need to find a way to have a personality to find relatable, whether it's the reporter or someone she is reporting on, a stronger voice. I know you want the report to be formal. Which makes sense, but I would try and find a balance.

I'm hoping to do that in the post roughly... two posts after the next one. Post 5.

It's really difficult to work in a personality in a report-style format ^_^;

This is a good experiment for me :P

Hopefully you'll stick around long enough to see if it works ^_^

Not too sure about this one. It's not too polished, but I need to get it out quickly for gameplay-related reasons.

The Paladins that attacked the Drow ranged from Level 3-9. As they continued, this rose to anywhere between 8-14. The twelve that went in to the palace rose to about 18 each, fromm 13-14, from the EXP in there.

They used +4 Dancing Swords- a whole stash of them had been found in a Drow Village.

And, um, yeah. As you can imagine, those Paladins fell hard. It took a lot for the two that repented to do so, and it took even more for Ferral to atone.

Well, it's exposition. I think it might have been better if you had a break in some of the exposition from time to time, maybe to have the person elaborate on what they were doing (perhaps some books told different accounts, the story teller only knew part of the story, etc. etc.)

Hmmm...

The storyteller was going on what he knew from history books.

Maybe next time, I should include small in-character Author's Notes after a certain amount of words? Maybe, say, every 250 words, or the closest paragraph break therein?

*_*

I'm rather partial to expositionary writing so this sort of set up is fine with me but I will concede that AHR may have a point. I also think your proposed solution will prbably work.

Okay.

Next time, I think I'll include little things, too, like notes scribbled i the margin and everything.

Seren got pwned by a Druid.

Okay, to be fair to her, she did almost wrestle a freakin' wolf into submission. But yeah, then Llayra was all like, POW with her sling and Seren was all D: ~tumbles over~ and the wolf was all GROWL ~tackle~ and Llayra was all ~pick up and hold out the window~ SURRENDER MOTHERFUCKER

Okay, it was more detailed than even that, but that's the awesome version.

Yes. Anyway. So, here's how the party met in my mind, with Llayra kicking Seren's ass (With Seren putting up decent opposition).

The fight went something like this-

Llayra shoots Seren from behind, dealing 3 damage to Seren.

Seren gets up and attacks Llayra unarmed, dealing 3 nonlethal damage.

Haisa ttempts to Sunder Seren's Lonsword. Seren fails the Ao O, and Haisa successfully deala 6 damage to it, breaking it.

Llaayra drops her sling and moves back five feet, drawing her scimitar and attacking Seren, dealing 4 damage.

Seren attacks her again, dealing a further 3 nonlethal damage.

Haisa bites her, dealing 3 more damage.

Llayra attempts to Grapple her. Seren struggles out of it.

Seren deals 1 more nonlethal damage.

Haisa attempts to Grapple Seren in turn. This time, she fails to escape.

Well, this is the first one to actually keep my attention. You're developing nicely.

I don't know if this was intentional or not, but our main character seems a bit spacey, or at least, formally spacey. With the wolf thing and all. Was that intentional?

Thanks ^_^

Yes. She's a bit spacey like that.

See, what's happened is, as a Paladin, she's had her capacity to feel fear dulled. As she grows stronger, this dulls until she can't feel fear at all.

This tends to result in some... odd thoughts.

This is the first time I've commented on your live blog. Pretty interesting stuff so far.

Goes double for me.....

I'm glad to see there's another one of these.

This one seems very, hmm, condensed? A lot more seems to happen in it than in the others. I'd like to hear more about this Heriuste guy.