Who wants to play D&D online again?

Cool - thanks!  I think I still have to add the non-Taldorian  background trait, too. The extra +1 might have come from the Noble Scion trait - I took that + child of oppara and really doubled down on being a good-for-nothing noble. I'll find something for my masterwork item. An instrument would probably be good, or maybe some small-ish weapon.   I picture him mostly 'living' at the theater and having a lot of costumey stuff, but not much by way of adventuring gear. I went with 'studded' leather for armor, but I picture it as being heavy/reinforced leather that makes him look like he has abs, and also takes some of the blow from stage combat.

I think that your suggestion is probably the most logical explanation for Made Arrangements.

Re: the buckler, yeah no point in keeping that. And yeah, I think I will change to the hand crossbow; probably best to not be totally useless in combat.

You mean use a whip Indiana Jones/Zorro style? Sure, it's a neat change from standard swords and axes. Go ahead and take that trait. And a whip is definitely a rope-like item so if you've got the prerequisites then use those rope tricks.

Cool - I'll add the trait before we start.  it won't affect anything currently on my sheet, anyway.  I think there are a bunch of whip feats that you can build through, but whips are pretty low damage items. At some point you can get feats which let you disarm and entangle people, which may be what I end up moving towards, but this trait just lets you use it climb and swing and stuff.

August 3rd would work for me.

The 3rd looks good for me too.

Thankfully, August 3rd should be a-go for me.

It was one of those Player Companion things titled Martial Arts Handbook. It literally has luchadors in it. Peep this official artwork!

They probably all knew Sinanju, the 'sun source' of all martial arts, on account of being around at the beginning of time. It just looks like taekwondo because other Koreans created the first imitation.

Nudeviking Oh yeah, I skimmed through that when you were asking about the Fastball Special. I see which section you're talking about, it's got exactly that move in there.

Anyway I'm organizing my notes chronologically and I've almost reached 3 pages but still haven't even reached the part where you enter the gala. I guess you accomplished a lot even when you were just standing around yakking. Also I realize now why you weren't able to zoom in on the NPC tokens so here are a couple of people you met in session 2:


 
Kathann Zalar, the guard officer who let you cut in line.



Gengethlia, former wrestling champ, current gold album rapper, senator-for-life, and the baddest mofo out of Oppara town.

At some point, I saw the token for Zalar at 'large' size, but zooming in and out on the map was a bit jumpy and after a while, I stopped messing with the tokens altogether. With luck, I'll find the token pack at one of the used book stores before I leave.

More NPC avatars.



Here's High Strategos Maxillar Pythareus, whose hair and chest you were making fun of like a catty bunch of middle school girls.


And here's Baron Nicolaus Okerra, who you were calling Idris Elba.



And this was the leader of the pickpockets from session 1 who were sent to prison camp.

Also I found Kathann Zalar's full-length pic.

Roy Batty's Pet Dove I know you're still writing up the session but Murray the Demonic Skull has been bugging me about reading them already. In consideration of the fact that he successfully added another French person to the world I'm going to let him have some of my notes. Don't worry, I think I've only managed to cover a portion of the beginning of the session.

Anyway, session 2 begins with the aftermath of the party’s epic battle with a gang of pickpockets from which they were rescued by the police. The group was sent on their way except for Aloysius, who was brought to the guard house to make an official statement, but unofficially was brought in for additional questioning because of DWO (Driving While Orc). Racial profiling – keeping Taldor safe since -1295 AR!

As the gala is starting in an hour, Peak Dartbox suggests going to his theatre to get the gang further prettified and less scruffy. Also to do some strategizing about the coming party. Luckily the Entertainment District is within walking distance of the gala’s site. Once backstage at the theatre, a Pretty Woman montage ensues of the group getting makeovers from some of the theatre’s makeup crew. The party makes clear that their makeup is tastefully done and does not make them look like Dolly Parton. Goha, being an old hand at this, applies her makeup herself, while Cosgrove waxes his mustache.

It’s around 4 pm and the theatre folk have just finished the matinee for the Bridge and Tunnel crowd (New York reference!) and are mostly winding down a bit, though some others are rehearsing. As actors they’re mostly high-functioning alcoholics so there’s wine and a bottle of rum making their way around, to which the party members also help themselves.

Goha offers to help the others in their own missions, perhaps serving as a distraction by telling a rambling story about Cheliax a la Grandpa Simpson’s onion on the belt story while using her Mage Hand spell to invisibly grab stuff. The others offer their own aid, and it’s all along the lines of serving as distractions. Sterrance suggests that he dress up as a servant and spill a drink on Maxillar Pythareus, thus causing a commotion while Goha poisons the wine, while Cosgrove suggests he and Goha drunkenly argue politics with Maxillar while the others do whatever it is they need to do. After talking some more, the group decides that Sterrance should have the invisibility potion since it’s probably most useful to his spying mission.

At this point everyone realizes that they’ve been operating on the assumption that the gala will take place in one large ballroom. They realize that the Senate building is probably pretty big and maybe has different wings. They ask Peak’s actor buddies if they know anything but just get a useless rumour about Duke Leonard Centimus being somewhat pissy to others. After asking further they discover Duke Centimus is in a wheelchair because he lost the use of his legs in a riding accident.

Peak remembers that the deceased prince who was the original heir to the throne died in a riding accident and wonders if it was the one Duke Centimus was crippled in. The party spends some time mulling over the dangers of horse riding (perhaps the prince and the duke were out joyriding their horses and crashed head-on in a game of chicken?) but before their imaginations get too far it’s clarified for them that the timelines don’t match up.

The gang then realizes that they’re not really sure what the gala is about. It’s clarified for them that the Senate will be taking a historic vote on amending the inheritance law to allow Princess Eutropia to become heir to the throne, as currently male primogeniture is the law of the land (a.k.a. the “no cooties” rule).

Anyway, this entire time the party has been pre-drinking before the gala like a bunch of broke university students about to go to a nightclub. They decide that they’re as ready as they’re going to be and head off to the gala at the Taldoran Senate.

Upon arrival, they discover that the gala is exactly like a nightclub and they have to stand in line before they can get in. VIPs breeze right through but our heroes have no juice with the doormen. Trying to show off their senate aide badges gets them nothing since everyone in the loser line has them. In fact, their badges are the crappy ones since they’re the kind for hangers-on and entourage members, not for celebs and movers and shakers.

The party has now been standing in line for an hour and are starting to cook up stupid ideas about how to cut in line. They also note that the Senate building looks exactly like the US Senate and also that one of the guys in line looks like, and may be, Jared Leto from My So-Called Life. Bomo points and laughs at the guy for not having his invitation in order.





Boy, that cavalier really does look a lot like Jordan Catalano.

At this point a commotion starts at the back of the line. The crowd is whooping and hollering a name: “Gengethlia, Gengethlia!” Bomo starts losing her shit as the masses part before a group of bodyguards with a female dwarf in the centre. It’s Gengethlia, the baddest mofo out of Oppara town - former wrestler, current rapper, and senator-for-life. Her guards clear some space for her before she starts spitting rhymes. It’s a pity none of you could have heard her rap but it was at least Kanye-level in quality.

Bomo excitedly explains that Gengethlia was Oppara’s wrestling champ and in her most famous match broke the back of her opponent in the dreaded camel clutch. The gang decides to leech off the single celebrity they’ve come across and start shouting to get Gengethlia’s attention. Goha mouths off about Gengethlia not being all that, mofo, and Bomo could totally kick her ass.

This catches Gengethlia’s attention and she starts screaming, “Yeah? Bring it!” But game recognize game and Bomo stands down out of respect. Goha’s ill-advised attempt at being Bomo’s hype man has at least made Gengethlia notice Bomo. She recognizes Bomo as being the current pit wrestling champ who beat some orc or other.

Goha and Peak Dartbox craftily conspire to spring some charm spells on Gengethlia. But you don’t become champ by falling for some weak-ass level 1 shit and Gengethlia doesn’t even notice as she shrugs off the spells. She tells Bomo to stay in school and signs a few autographs for her fans before moving on and entering the Senate.

And that was the party’s brief brush with the high life. They stand in line some longer and start sobering up. A guard woman then comes up to them and draws them aside for a random inspection. Bomo says this is bullshit and she knows it since she’s from the projects, a.k.a. The Narrows, the poorest and most murderful of Oppara’s neighbourhoods. Peak’s keen powers of observation leads him to agree with the assertion that this inspection is indeed bullshit.

However, the part the lady is lying about is actually good news for our heroes. The guard officer introduces herself as Kathann Zalar and says that they have a “common friend”. She looks the party over for any contraband and advises them on how to hide it better. They actually already got rid of most of their problematic stuff except for a joint Bomo was hiding and the deadly explosives Cosgrove was keeping under his clothes.

The gang’s new cop friend ushers them to the front of the line and tells the doormen to piss off and let them through. Hooray, our heroes have finally gotten into the nightclub – err, Senate building!



While escorting them through the Senate entrance, Kathann Zalar reminds them that she’s only doing this as a favour to their common friend who she is carefully not naming. Sterrance asks if that common friend is Gengethlia, to which she replies no, then asks if the name they’re not supposed to mention is Martella Lotheed. Kathann Zalar indicates that this is who they owe for jumping the queue but everyone else tells Sterrance he sucks at spying since he immediately blurted out the thing that he was supposed to keep quiet.

And speak of the devil but our gang gets a telepathic message from Martella through their senate aide badges. She asks them what took them so long and says she’s been at the party for hours. She also tells them that she’s not paying them to stand around and gawk so get to their missions, chop chop.

Hundreds of people are at the gala but only a handful are important enough to notice. Taldor’s rich and powerful are here in this temple to the empire’s power and it’s the party’s job to suck up to these 1 percenters and maybe screw over one or two.

The entryway of the Senate is taken up by the Arcade of Triumphs (A1), which is essentially a museum showing artifacts of Taldor’s past glories. It’s also where the items from the Theft mission are stored. Or rather, it’s where they were stored before Martella stole them as the party immediately notices that the various historical artifacts are missing. No one appears to have noticed the missing stuff yet so Peak Dartbox uses his Whisper spell to remind everyone to keep cool and pretend that nothing is amiss.

The VIPs are all busy with their canapes and their hangers-ons so the party can’t approach them yet. However, the gang can still work on their secondary mission of making names for themselves in high society, as well as getting on with their various primary missions. Goha decides to impress the crowd in the museum by using her above average knowledge of magical arcana to bullshit convincingly about the old crap lying around. Cosgrove uses his education as a future titan of industry to more accurately expound on the museum’s holdings. In response, another guest pulls a “well actually” on Goha and Cosgrove and drops some learning about Dignity’s Barb, a replica of a famous crossbow that killed a raving Kellid warlord ages ago. Recognizing they have been out-nerded, Goha and Cosgrove stand around in embarrassed silence.

Meanwhile, Peak Dartbox gets on with his mission and sings a song accompanied by his guitar about great female leaders in Taldoran history. He uses this song about Taldan Mulan to ferret out who might be opposed to changing the inheritance law to allow women (specifically Princess Eutropia) to inherit. Two in particular seem to be especially disliking the song: High Strategos Maxillar Pythareus and Earl Calhadion Vernisant.



For her part, Bomo has moved on to the garden courtyard (A2) and straight to the makeshift zoo. She loudly discusses at length which of the animals she’s eaten before, which mildly interests some of the other guests. Sterrance has followed Bomo into the courtyard, and not to be outdone, starts holding forth on the various flowers in the garden. Unfortunately, the flowers are of species Sterrance isn’t familiar with and he comes off looking like a jackass to the crowd. Sterrance’s naturalist mentor would be so disappointed with him if she were there. This failure would be excusable if Sterrance were drunk but he actually didn’t partake earlier and is stone cold sober, so apparently mouthing off about stuff he doesn’t know shit about just comes naturally to him.

Here the general mingling portion of the evening ends as one of the elegant ladies in the courtyard clinks her glass and announces that Princess Eutropia has something to say. The crowd gathers round and the princess mentions that the gala is actually to raise up the master artisan Kalbio of Breezy Creek to the nobility. Bomo snidely makes fun of the guy’s name but then is astounded as she has now heard for the first time that you can actually get promoted to aristocrat. It’s pointed out to her that Gengethlia also started out as a common wrestler before becoming a senator. She started from the bottom and now she’s here, as one of Gengethlia's rapper colleagues observed. Bomo carefully notes this fact for future reference.

Princess Eutropia continues her speech and mentions that the other purpose of the gala is for the Senate to vote on whether to change the law of primogeniture which governs the rules of inheritance in Taldor. She finishes things off with some trite hokum about patriotism.

It’s a mostly okay speech, not Churchillian but not George W. Bush level either. However, during this yakking Bomo notices one of the servants acting suspiciously. The guy just walks away from the princess and heads straight for the beehives at one end of the garden. The servant is a halfling and Bomo knows you can’t trust those filthy thieving little shits. I mean, look at the guy!



Clearly untrustworthy from the get-go. But what was this weird little hobbit up to? Stay tuned for the remainder of the story! Seriously, I think this covers only like a third (maybe at most half) of session 2 so far.

Reminder that we're playing again next Saturday Aug 3 at 9 pm Eastern Daylight time.

Also, Roy Batty's Pet Dove how's the write-up of the last session going? I feel like it would be helpful to have this before game 3 so that everyone knows what happened, especially since @wearytraveler wasn't there. I can just post the rest of my notes if yours aren't ready yet.