I will post in the game thread but want to hear from Legion about what he wants to do.  Didn't think I should take action until then.  

If you are vacating the caves then I assume you are headed back to Botkinburg.  Anything else on the to-do list?  

Post coming this weekend.

I'm still here and happy to post, but was sort of waiting on others.  

I'm good with a bump.

Well, that is three.  We can keep going with that and maybe other will come back.  I will try to get a post up soon - but do need to know what you want to do.  Feel free to ask questions if you have them.

Make him whatever you want him to be.  

But . . . while we don't have a mage and that would be a perfect fit for the party, mages are really powerful by level 8.  Not in an unbalanced game way, but their spells will often determine what the group can and can not do.  They throw fireballs around.  A mage's abilities often set the tone for things - do you want to do that with an non-player character?  

A ranger would be a good fit for how you have played him so far.  He would be mostly a fighter - an easy class to play without pushing the decision making on the party but also able to cast limited healing spells.  A cleric is similar but would have better spell selection.  By providing healing both would be a good fit.  

When looking at the options above - you probably don't want us deciding what spells the lizardman would cast besides maybe asking for a heal.  So how many decisions do you want to have to make?  Just saying he attacks with his bow or sword is simple and doesn't require you to make tactical decisions.  

In general I am inclined to avoid the bandits and move on.  As much as they deserve smacking it isn't our mission.  However, I am curious about "him."  But again, even that element isn't actually the mission we were hired to do, even if it is related.  I suspect Legion will want to follow the exact mission, but what say you?

I like the idea.  I have put festivals in campaigns before - sounds cool.  And it would be hard to argue with a good Hoarfrost festival.  Maybe we can even catch some bandit or orcs drunk from a hoarfrost festival like Washington at Trenton . . .   or just have a nice Christmas!

Sorry it took so long.  

Camp here.  There is no reason not to camp before getting into bandit lands.  But remain vigilant and have a guard always.

dragon-soul - The whole party needs to know what to do.  The naga has disappeared for now.  You are in a deadend tunnel.  There are no secret doors at the end of the tunnel.  The whole group needs to figure out what to do and where to do it.  You have as much voice at this point as anyone.  You are with everyone else now.   The dust has settled.

I hate to do this, but posts have gotten to be slower and slower.  Fewer and fewer.  I love play by post - it has been an amazing way to play fantastic game for me.  Honestly, to say I love it is an understatement.  I enjoy this game a lot and have ideas about where it can go from here.  I want this game to keep going.  But for it to keep going we need to have players who want to keep it going, not just a DM who does.  

So, if you are still in the game and want to keep plugging along please post here.  If we have even a small group I will hapily keep posting.  Feel free to post in the game thread as well.  

Soledad took some time and cast detect magic.  It was slow to do as a ritual, but didn't waste any spell slots she might need if the naga reappeared.  So far it hadn't and things of a magical nature also did not appear.  As far as her spell could tell, there was nothing in the tunnel that was magical. 

Gerdar moved to the end of the tunnel and looked for a secret door.  He took his time but all he could find was natural cave wall and none of it seemed likely to move - whether to open as a door or fall upon them.  There was nothing.  As he finished his search Fenris noted that the place still seemed as much of a dead end as when he had huddled here 10 minutes earlier.  

Gerdar checked the last 20' or so of the tunnel and now looked back up the dust filled tunnel as it curved back towards the site of the battle and ceiling collapse. 

Note:  The spell takes 10 minutes to cast as a ritual so people have time to do something if they wish.  Also, by that time the vast majority of the dust will have settled to the ground and visibility will have returned to cave-normal.

Stardate 2365.05.16
USS Peregrine, Bridge

               As the door to the ready room slid shut behind him Ferrero very slightly shook his head.  Encouraging the ship to take an action that could get them in trouble?  It wasn’t usually his way, but somehow this situation had the feeling of a no-win spot.  But while there might not be a win, there was a clear losing option – at least for the planet.  And he didn’t need his abuela to tell him about that one.  And the idea of a theocracy setting up on the planet made his stomach twist just a little bit.  

               He quickly turned and moved to the ops station on the bridge.  He set about scanning the planet looking for any further messages.  Was there another request for help?  Could he make out any other messages from the planet?  Or could he even intercept any planet-side communications?  Perhaps learn something about what was going on down there?  It must be chaos.  The longer this mission took to pull off the more chaos there would before they could be saved.  That asteroid was a doomsday device whether it struck or not.  But perhaps he could learn something of what was going on down there. 

               As he started to work, he turned to Miahaya Amai, the communications specialist.  “I assume you have been listening for any further messages from the planet.  Keep scans going for that, but I also want more information about what is happening on the planet.  Typically, in a civilization of this level, a lot of signals will leak into space.  It may be a random bunch of stuff, but something might be there.  It will give us some information about what they are saying about that stone.  I want to know what they know and what they are saying if it is at all possible to know.  Get me anything that seems at all connected to that rock.  If not that, get me anything.”  Turning back to his own station he added.  “And don’t forget about another plea for help.” 

               With Amai put to work monitoring the planet Ferraro put the sensors back on the asteroid itself.  It seemed this rock had an odd magnetic field.  Ok, that seemed odd.  He did a scan for some other asteroids in the other area.  Did they also seem to have an unusual magnetic field?  Asteroids tended to flock together, was there a group giving off weird field readings?  He started looking for abnormal readings in mass, direction or movement, spin, reflectivity, density and any other thing he could come up with.  He looked at their target rock and also any others he could find.  If one was weird, maybe others were as well. 

I have a couple of posts.  I need some more.  You have a little time to figur eout what to do.  You are in a dead end passage.  Feel free to post more than just the "glad you are alive" step.  What's next?

Will try to get a post up soon but the holiday may make that impossible.  Also, if any of you have ideas on how Ferrero cn contribute to this science mission to the asteroid let me know.

Since in you rmain post you aid post them in either place I hadn't been going to post in the other thread.  I will try to do so, but with Thanksgiving and travel that may not happen.  Post when you can and if I get one in there before you do . . . cool.  If not, you know the basic idea.

A bit of muscle as an npc might be a good idea.  It would probably be easier just to have him with us the whole time.

But as the ubject line of this post indicates, it does kind of sound like a bad joke.

An owl, a robot and a lizard walk into a bar . . .

Azax is happy not to fight.  He would tell them that they are on a mission for the King and would be willing to say that they seek information on the orcs.  He would ask about increased activity recently.  Also, these are the wyvern woods, right?  He would ask about avoiding an attack by those creatures.  He would be very polite to the leader.

Wow.  Holy Crap!  Do what you can and hang in there.  Everyone here is rooting for you.

What's up in the game?  A certain owl wants to lizard snacks.

Come on folk we need some posts.  Next one up.  

Thaoran continued to move forward across the rocks and reached the far edge.

Gerdar moved forward a bit to see if the naga reappeared.  

Meanwhile Fenris continued to hide at the far end of the tunnel and Soledad and Uthal waited to see what happened the next.

The answer to what happened next was . . . nothing. 

As the group stood there the dust slowly settled to the ground but nothing appeared out of the dust.  Eventually visibility improved and the group moved a bit forward as did Fenris.  They met in the middle.  It seemed the tunnel was a bit over 60' long with a bit of a curve in it but it eventually came to a deadend at the spot where Fenris had stopped running.  It was a 60' long, curving, rough stone tunnel about 10-15' wide that went nowhere.  And it was empty.  Except for the party and some bits of rock and dust.  There was no naga to be seen.  

*A couple of minutes have passed and all is quiet.  There is no need for a map at this point as there isn't much to see - a curving tunnel that hits a deadend.  

Stardate 2365.05.16
USS Peregrine, Ferrero's Quarters and Captain's Ready Room 

Like everyone else on the Peregrine Ander Ferrero had been sitting around contemplating the situation with the asteroid ever since the situation had arisen.  His original conviction had been to avoid breaking the prime directive – the directive was clear and the one sure way to steer clear of putting everyone in the crew in danger of violating it was to simply do nothing.  Morally speaking, one was guilty of the sins one committed, not the things left uncommitted.  So, do nothing, and they were in the clear. 

               But he could practically hear his abuela even as those thoughts came to him.  “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world was for good men to do nothing.”  Ok, so that was really Edmund Burke, but it was exactly the kind of thing his grandmother would have said as she dragged him off to mass.  Doing nothing, in the face of wrong, might be just as wrong.  He hadn’t really been paying much attention to her at the time seeing as he’d been the one generally doing the wrong, but the words had apparently sunk in at some point. 

               But the problem was, there was no way to act in this situation and avoid breaking the prime directive.  One either did nothing and watched 7 billion people die or one took an action which could ruin them.  There was no middle ground.  It was one or the other.  He listened to the audio of the planet’s plea for help again.  It had only come in recently, but it was his department, of course, that picked it up and so he had been one of the first to hear it.  Why did the voice that begged for help somehow sound so much like his abuela? 

               He knew why.

               Slowly, he got up and went to see the captain. 

Ferrero pushed the comm button on the door frame of the ready room.  “Commander Drake,  Lieutenant  Ferrero here, may I have some of your time?”

OOC:  Assuming a positive response.

“Commander, I know that I have previously voiced skepticism about interfering in this situation.  I know you have a lot to do – but I have a couple of thoughts I felt I needed to share.  The first is that, I don’t think there is any way out of this situation without violating the Prime Directive.  Literally nothing you do can avoid it.”

               He took a deep breath and continued to explain.  “Any action this ship takes to alter the course of that asteroid WILL impact those people.  From the start the crew has been searching for a way to do this without being seen by those on the planet because if we are seen then we are effectively introducing advanced technology into their world.  Yes, obviously, of course.  But even if we do it unseen by those on the planet, we will be unavoidably changing their world in significant ways.  Consider commander, what the people on the planet are saying right now.  Science has told them that a doomsday asteroid is heading their way.  People are people of whatever race Sir., and I can guarantee you that at this moment attendance is skyrocketing in whatever passes for a Church on that planet. If that asteroid suddenly explodes or diverts its course, people on that planet WILL give credit to something or someone.  If they see us, it will be us.  But if they don’t see us, then it will be to something else.  Does taking an action to encourage the development of a giant theocracy sound like following the Prime Directive?   Even if we could somehow shoot it with another asteroid to knock it off course by what would appear to those on the planet to be natural means, it would almost certainly have this effect.  Either way, seen or unseen, a doomsday rock that changes its mind and the bell stops tolling?  We will have changed that planet.”   It was impossible as he gave this little speech to not hear his abuela giving credit for everything good in the world to God.  Somehow God never got the blame when someone got shot, got sick or he was arrested.  Or when giant asteroids doomed whole planets.  Just the good things.  But he knew what she would have done with a doomsday asteroid that didn’t doom anyone.

               But that wasn’t the only option.  “The other option is you could choose to do nothing, and technically that is not interfering, but as many have pointed out, the result is the loss of 7 billion people and an entire habitable world.  And, Sir., while I would really prefer to avoid breaking the Prime Directive, I think that does so also.  An entire planet will have its future changed . . . destroyed . . . obliterated.  Changed.  And while some would point out that WE didn’t do it, the equal truth is that ONLY WE could stop it.  The result, whatever it is for that planet, will be a result of the choice made by this ship.  Our choice, your choice, will change the future of that planet.  It seems the Universe has not given you the option of following the Prime Directive.  By the choice to act or the choice to not act, the Peregrine will determine a planet’s fate.”

OOC:  Pausing a moment for reaction, if any.

Ferrero could hear his abuela in his head.  He really hated that voice; sanctimonious and judgmental at the best of times as she dragged her grandchildren off to mass.  But it was also a voice that had been echoing in his head throughout his life.  He usually ignored it, but sometimes the little grandmother on his shoulder seemed to outweigh the little devil.  He sighed.

               “Commander, if we had a way to stick with the Prime Directive I might well continue to argue for that line.  But I don’t think we do.  And in the absence of a way to avoid breaking the Directive, there really only seems to be one choice.  We need to stop it.”

OOC:  Waiting for any response from the captain.

“Thank you for your time commander.  I guess I will go see if there is anything I can do to assist with the scientific mission to the asteroid.”

               As he turned to walk out of the room he looked back at the commander.  “Commander, if the people on that planet have to give credit to either a scientific space-faring race or a deity, I’d rather science got the credit.  Accidently being seen might not be a bad thing.”

               Ferrero left the room and went back to his post on the bridge to see what communications from the planet had been picked up. 

Still at two.  New post going up very shortly.

I guess in this reboot I am going to be taking over Ferraro - the Chief Operations officer, Second officer.  I am familiar with the Trek shows but not the game and so have a lot to learn.  But hope to do so.  I am in the process of reading a lot of backstory but should be posting fairly soon.  

Glad to join the crew.

Azax looked at the lizardfolk and groaned a bit inwardly.  Lizardmen were not necessarily evil, but they lived by their own rules which generally seemed to amount to "whatever is good for lizardfolk is good and whatever gets in their way is bad."  He understood it as a species directive but as a non-lizardfolk it did make getting along difficult.  

His first move was to take to the air and put distance between him and the lizardfolk.  He quiickly moved upwards 30' (Assuming this is possible inthe trees.) As he moved up he started of attempting peaceful neogtiations.  "We mean you no harm . . . oh, damn."  When the lizardy kind attacked he responded in kind.  In quick succession he sent two arrows down at his enemies, all while still saying "We don't have to fight!"  

Two arrows:  targets are determined as follows 1.  Any that have ranged weapons.  2.  Those in the front and closest to Legion.  

As usual, I would like to make my post on Sunday, so I need some more posts.