Thanks. Hopefully we will be able to join you next weekend.

@jonathan-meadows Good idea.

As Brother Caleb studies The Book of Shadows, he learns the following: The Shadow-Desert is a bleak parallel version of our world, a sort of “pocket universe” where the sun shines dimly at best, where shadows are long and indistinct and sometimes appear where no shadow should be. The book states that in many ways, the Shadow-Desert resembles something called the Dreamlands, as it is accessible both physically and via dreams. The book also references a pharmaceutical method of entering the eerie desert world and you learn the spell Create Shadow-Drug (see below). Many real-world roads exist as faint trails in the Shadow-Desert. Familiar cities and towns may appear as mirages or shadows, and in other cases the settlements (or slightly different versions of them) may actually exist as ghost towns inhabited only by specters and more shadows. The only supplies to be found in the Shadow-Desert are those that can be gathered (like firewood), hunted (animals), or taken from other inhabitants (e.g. ammunition or gear taken from a fellow traveler); in the ghost towns of Shadow only the buildings exist, not the whiskey, food, guns, or horses. Anyone physically present in the Shadow-Desert who dies is actually dead, though he or she may stalk the Shadows as a specter thereafter; dreamers slain there lose 1D8 Sanity points and awaken in the real world when the spell or drug that sent them there wears off. Create Shadow-Drug • Cost: 5 POW and 1D3 Sanity points • Casting time: 5 minutes of singing and chanting This rare recipe is known to a few southwestern American Indian medicine men. It requires a variety of ingredients, mostly animal bones and herbs (some of which can only be obtained in the Shadow-Desert itself ). Each casting creates 1D6+6 individual doses of the drug. The drug can either be ingested or smoked, and costs 1D6 magic points and 1D4 Sanity points to use. The effects appear 15 to 20 minutes after the drug has been taken. The drug makes the user sleepy, and when it takes effect he or she falls into a deep sleep from which they will not rise until the dose has worn off. Each dose lasts 2D6+2 hours; additional doses add the same amount of time again. Additional doses are dangerous, however, as each dose after the first requires a successful CON roll, otherwise the user’s body enters a coma, leaving his or her mind trapped in the Shadow-Desert. For up to two doses, the CON roll is Regular, for three to four doses it is Hard, and for any more the roll is Extreme.

@partymarty99 said in Sea of Thieves - Xbox?: @mike Party Marty 99 I’ll add you.

Whoa! Sweet! Battletech game comes out in like five days. Maybe by the time I’m burned out on that Scythe will be out.

@reuben

If anyone wants to run, I still need another game for this Sunday. @CAWilliams, send some of those GMs my way!

If you're interested, please private message me your email addresses, and I will try to coordinate a time and a day. Also, I will provide some information regarding character generation. Thanks!

@andyb the best

Sign posts in San Rafael advertise that Dr. Albert’s Astounding Medicine Show is coming to town in the next few weeks and everyone seems to be excited. The posters promise music, dancing girls, feats of strength, and a real wild man, but the real attraction is Dr. Albert's Astounding Restorative Elixir that promises to cure everything from Gout to Small Pox in 17 days or less. You have heard that Mrs. Allie Garrett plans to buy a crate of the elixir for her daughter, Polly, who is prone to fits, and that the Dalton Boys (ages 9 and 7) are going to try to sneak a peek inside the medicine wagon during the show and see what kind of strange things are in there. Judd Luckey, the town drunk has been telling his drinking buddies that he's going to buy some of the Elixir too, hoping it will cure his desire to drink.

They say that the desert surrounds your every step and you walk forever a thirsty man. It’s supposed to mean something like, we, as humans, are never satisfied. It means that we are always searching for something. You know, we all have different wants and needs, but the satisfaction derived from the fleeting things of life is not lasting; our wants remain unfulfilled. There is a general sense of dissatisfaction accompanied by all kinds of worries.

The Search for Dok, part 1 Back at the Martyr & Corpse, Reese Kincaid called for meeting in a private room with returning Cog recruits Charion ('dwarf' i.e. gnome with hat of disguise, wizard), Adric (dwarf cleric), Elros (elf rogue), Nyx (elf sorcerer), and Coalden (gnome wizard), as well as new recruits Baliel (half-elf ranger), Druuk (half-orc barbarian), and Jared (dragonborn paladin). Kincaid announced that he was up for a promotion within the Guild, and presented the returning recruits with a choice: they could become full-fledged members of the Cog, and take over some of his duties (the details of which, beyond evaluating new recruits, he did not provide); or, if they did not want to officially join, but wanted to more or less continue their current arrangement, they could become affiliated contractors for the guild. However, if they wished to contract with the guild without becoming official members, they would need to come up with a name for themselves and their group. After all, if the potential recruits continue to gain attention and reputation in the city, the Cog will need someone to take the credit and provide the secret criminal organization plausible deniability of its very existence. The group decided to table a final decision for later, though Adric and Charion were hesitant to join up, while Nyx and Elros showed some interest. Kincaid left the room and returned with the main reason for the evening's meeting, a wriggling squawking bag he threw onto the middle of the meeting room's table. Inside was a kobold cult member of the Hand of Nakresh. The Hand is not to be trusted, Kincaid explained. Demon worshippers. Willing to risk corrupting and tainting the whole city for their insane god-thing’s chaotic whims and deranged pleasure. Plus, they’re foreign competitors. The Cog is perfectly fine dealing and manipulating locals with criminal aspirations, and even dealing with other groups for power or trade outside Moonthrone, but foreign interference within their very city will not be tolerated. Per Kincaid The Hand of Nakresh had infiltrated and spread cells across the city. He asked the players to interrogate the kobold to obtain their plans and any leads or information that could prove useful to root out and purge the cult from the city. Nobody mentioned to Kincaid that they had already met a roachling faction of the Hand, or that they were on good terms and even working with them. After a zone of truth spell was used, Kincaid left the room, and allowed the interrogation to continue without him. The kobold revealed that he, along with an unknown amount of other kobolds, had been smuggled into the city hidden in caravan crates, and currently had cells throughout the sewers hunting for the roachlings. The kobold and roachling (and possibly other?) factions are in a competition to curry favor with their demon-god of thievery and assume control of the Hand of Nakresh cult. They do not know what the roaches plans are, but know it has something to do with the upcoming House Zrrkun wedding in the City Above. The kobold offered gold and rewards for his freedom, including a lead to find the notorious Oemarrian refugee Dokeppel Ironbones, who would fetch a high bounty with several powerful Oemarrian criminal organizations (including a notorious group called the Godless). At the end of the interrogation, a smoke bomb was thrown, and Jared the blue dragonborn managed to take off the kobold's head after everyone else floundered in the dark. Afterward, everyone agreed to finally get around to establishing contact with the Withered Goats bandit gang operating along the swamp road east of Moonthrone. Along the way, they swung by Dokeppel's tannery at the edge of the Gnarloch District to see if the bag of holding he was working on (for the roachlings' big heist) was complete. Also, Jared passed out blue pamphlets for his god, Azul, and the group managed to gain, then lose, the attention of some dogmen guards. However, Dokeppel wasn't at the tannery. The urchins previously seen collecting chamber pots throughout the area for tannery use were missing as well. They did find an unfinished mechanical arm in Ironbones' workshop, and a hiding urchin (the same one thrown into a vat of piss and tanning chemicals last visit), who revealed that Dokeppel had gone into hiding, afraid that the Godless or The Hand of Nakresh, were close to finding him. Also Adric boomed out a call for "the Funk!" using thaumaturgy, attracting the attention of a large contingent of Gnarloch District guards. Unfortunately, Gnarloch District guards aren't as susceptible to persuasion or bribery as the guards in other districts might be. After attempts to talk them away at the tannery's front gate drew his suspicions, the lead guard ordered the tannery torched. As city guards converged with torches and burning oil, everyone escaped via a hole in the back wall of the tannery before the compound was surrounded. The urchin led the group to a halfing named Smig, who knew where Dokeppel could be found. In Smig's second floor alley-facing apartment, they learned that Dokeppel had gone into hiding in an old secret safehouse used to hide Oemarrian refugees who escaped into Moonthrone. They followed Smig's directions and found the entrance to the safehouse, hidden under a sewer grate in an alley near the docks. Jared the dragonborn paladin fell while overcoming a pit-trap involving 30 feet of pivoting floor spinning on a central axle. Jared only survived by calling out to his until that moment questionable and theoretical god, Azul. Charion, Baliel, and Druuk also invoked Azul's name to help their falling companion; thanks to the combined power of their belief (and the weird boundaries of reality in Moonthrone) the spikes lining the bottom of the pit were vaporized in a flash of blue light. Jared, though injured from the fall, survived. And all who invoked Azul's name were corrupted by the Celestial energy they unleashed. Baliel's right arm shriveled, then hardened, into stone-tough blue paper (giving him a 1d6 slashing damage, unarmed papercut/claw attack). Druuk grew a blue eye on the back of his head (giving him a bonus to initiative and passive perception checks). Charion's eyes became solid-blue and pupil-less (but he's always using that hat of disguise, so who would notice?). And, likely the most difficult of all to hide, Jared's head is now covered in ever-burning blue flame, making lying down on a pillow at night (among other things, like hiding corruption from the city guard) problematic. Further, in a bunk room full of empty cots, the group came across three kobolds with clockwork and alchemical weapons. After defeating the kobolds, they decided to take a long rest before exploring further.

That right.

Have you ever wanted to travel the Inner Solar System and get paid to do it? Are you interested in a High Paid, High Action career in the security field? Then Martingale Security is your answer. We are currently hiring qualified security agents to provide High Level Security for our many clients. Apply today! Looking for 2-3 players for a bi-weekly (could become weekly) Transhuman Space game. Planning on noon every other Saturday at Heroes Comics & Gaming.