Thoughts About the Ill Companions

[Howlando]

Imagine two alternative story-lines:

1) A group of hard-bitten mercenaries, suffering from a terrible curse of Undeath, arrive to a suspicious town and perform various tasks on behalf of the town, slowly seeking cures and a measured return to normalcy.... They meet various good aligned priests (and others) who insist upon various tasks that promote their deity in exchange for the incredibly taxing temporary cures they are able to bestow upon them. Over time, a suspicious town gradually accepts these withered mercenaries into their ranks and co-operation against the rising tide of undead horrors is achieved.

2) This same group arrives, they are greeted by a group of clerics who immediately get to offering them the cures free of charge which they can do as wordlessly crushing Well or Gnolls at low levels will get them all the XP they need and within about two or three days the Ill Companions are just as normal as anyone else.

Which story is more interesting?

The lesson I'm trying to impart is not that players shouldn't play selflessly devoted characters who are dedicated towards alleviating horrible plagues of undeath, but rather that... I don't know, the DM team is trying to make fun stories and cool atmosphere but we really need the playerbase's help with that. So perhaps drawing things out a little bit, incorporating a little distrust, and roleplaying characters that are careful custodians of their God's powers rather than stumbling all over themselves to solve a problem in a day might just make the server more entertaining for everyone.

Sure, I guess we could crank up the Withering more or make Remove Curse XP deduction even higher but it just seems kind of pointless.

I think what I'm really getting at is that the DM team are not full time professionals and that we really need players to almost think like DMs sometimes in their attitudes and how they play their characters and consider what can be done to improve the atmosphere of the server.

[The Old Hack]

So in other words, my concept of Briar fighting the Withering directly by offering aid to any and all who need it regardless of faction and without demanding payment is detrimental to the server's health. Good to know.

I am retiring her with immediate effect. My apologies for ruining your plot.

[Gotham]

But what if thats the atmosphere people want?

[Paha]

This is not about providing cures.

It is about acting and roleplaying the situation and environment. Nobody is being punished or mocked here.

Especially you Hack. This was not meant for any one person, nor was it said that it's wrong to do that. We are offering you options and different chances to make it a bit more exciting.

If some priests offer healing or cure, there's great RP opportunity to offer something so much more than cure right off the bat. Green, withered men (That many also see in desert and kill without asking if they want a cure) walk into the village. Unkown, suspicious.. Could there not be interesting ways to get yourself reputation or more RP than just casting few spells and walking away?

Could you not discuss, understand their origin and intentions, send them to take few tasks or help you... Then offer them aid as a reward for the tithe they paid to your -deity-. This is just one opportunity.

I think in general, what I would like to see, is having a bit more pride in being a God's messenger, and medium in their "will". Nothing has been done badly, but there's always room to do it in other ways as well, and sometimes they are maybe more fitting.

[Howlando]

Well, guys, I'm not trying to offend anyone and I'm happy to speak with you privately TOH, your character was only one of many that inspired this post. For what it's worth in general I like Briar a lot and in no way intended to be calling you out and definitely do not think you ruined the plot. I'm trying to respectfully propose adopting a perspective that might help the server and everyone, rather than disparage. Truly.

As for your point, Gotham, fair enough. But why not just add a NPC who will cure all problems? Why have monsters or curses or evil things at all?

There's a fine line between making a problem a giant OOC pain in the ass (withering everywhere, deducting withering costs huge XP, etc.) vs. having a problem that can be meaningfully addressed over time and be fun to do. And I was suggesting that perhaps it's more fun if we as players savor these problems a little bit more in the interests of good stories. And part of this means that maybe clerics should be - offering withering cures to allies and converts, to those who do a noble deed, to those who tithe, to those who attend sermons... and you can certainly RP the selfless-helping to NPCs (who are unrepresented in much larger numbers).

But honestly, I'm not trying to offend anyone. This isn't even a plot I'm particularly focused on, I just wanted to make an observation. You can certainly disagree with me.

[Gotham]

I observed plenty of mixed response. Everyone played their characters to a T. It just happened at a time when good aligned, selfless pc's are in higher numbers than evil aligned, selfish, or devisive pc's. These things swing back and forth in cycles.

[Elrenduil]

Sure, I guess we could crank up the Withering more or make Remove Curse XP
deduction even higher but it just seems kind of pointless.

I don't get it. Why would it be pointless? To me it doesn't sound pointless at all.

[The Man In The Mist]

I was always of the opinion that no faith should reduce withering for free. Not even the Ilmateri in Old Port do that apparently. <.<

[Howlando]

Well, there's a number of different points here. One is that priests should be careful custodians of their god's powers and generally/usually offer major blessings only in exchange for something major, especially when it's a competent and skilled adventurer asking for it. Selflessly tending to the NPC children and women is definitely something I can get behind. But seeing a whole faction of PCs cured in like... two days... is not ideal, I guess.

As for making the Withering more difficult, I'm of the opinion that there is a fine line between making an IC challenge fun and challenging vs. something that is just irritating OOC. Priests should be able to tend to their flock and themselves without having to spam quests so often that they get boring.

I'll repeat myself, though, that I genuinely intended no offense. All I'm trying to do is nudge players towards... thinking like a DM at times, in terms of how they can roleplay their character well in such a way that meshes well.

I am happy to discuss this further with people individually, but as I'm anxious not to step on people's toes more than I already have I'll leave it at that.

[Teeth in a Bowl]

I get that you want clerics to want people to do something major. But when you say 'think like a DM', that's all well and good, but what exactly can we do?

I'm sort of clueless as to what I'm supposed to ask in order to offer treatment in return. We can do ceremonies and stuff like that, but you can't really send people on undertakings, because what are they supposed to find?

A few examples would be incredibly helpful.

[Weaverific]

You could outline specific tasks that would please your g od that they must do before or after treatment, for example.

[Vlaid]

I can see where the DM's are coming from on this. They aren't saying don't treat the withered, but let's take it in perspective.

• It's outright against the law to be in town past a certain withering stage
• In the past (maybe still to this day?) withered people were thrown into Old Stones and out of Mistlocke
• The heavily withered are often seen resorting to highway robbery to get by, living a ruthless, shallow existence in the wilds until the Witch finally takes them.
• When withering gets to a certain point you are enthralled under the influence of the maiden (think Shaun of the Dead, zombie bites, it's pretty crazy...just slower)

That should all carry a certain outcastian aura with it. I know it may be at times hard to keep the fear of the withering alive after so long, but it's still a very "icky" curse.

Some ideas for people wanting to offer withering treatments:

Make a ritual out of it and ask those who want to be cured to offer spoken, individual prayers to your god during the ritual. Throw some magic light-shows into it with some creative flaire (for example, a cleric of Lathandar using searing light on the PC's to represent "searing" the withering from their flesh). Basically just turn what may be 10 seconds of spell casting into an hour or two of RP instead, if they can't be bothered with that, well they don't deserve the divine touch of your god!

You could also make the PC's sit through a sermon, and ask them to come back once each day for future sermons for future treatments and try to actually convert the PC's with the continuous treatments and sermons.

I think all the DM's really want is for PC's in a situation like this, with a PC faction very obviously created by the DM's for the withering to be a "big deal", to try not to solve it all over night and use some creativity in how to keep from simply snapping the fingers to remove that problem over a single day. I suppose they could have just put some hard to script restrictions or done something heavy handed to make sure it wasn't solved instantly...but hindsight is 20/20.

It may just be that the Ill companions just happened to show up when the forces of light and goodness are extremely well represented in Mistlocke.

[The Man In The Mist]

Donate to the faith, patrol X area in the woods, go into Old Stones and apprehend Bitterlips, seek out a dozen wither roots for the clerics to research ways to develop spells to destroy withered plants, gather X amount of food to feed the village, investigate X individual on suspicions of necromancy/crime, so on and so forth.

It's endless, really.

[Howlando]

Another thing to consider, instead of casting... 20+ Remove Curse in one RL day, just cast it a few times, and then (think like a DM!) and say that you're exhausted. So you can selflessly be helping a group, but not solve a problem in one day because mechanically if you play long enough and stay at a low enough level you'll easily get as much XP as you want.

As for tasks... there are countless examples that really depend on the character's personality and the dogma of the deity. If you'd like to brain-storm for your own character feel free to speak with me privately.

I'm not saying a cleric needs to demand huge complicated things for every spell, but at least something might be nice.

As for the Ill Companions, everything will work out fine. The plot is still ongoing and they're definitely not cured yet!

But I apologize again, TOH, I sincerely did and do not want you to retire your character.

[Gippy]

Two points I'll make -

1.) The Ill Companions were never -that- cured. They may have lost the FLIES but they still are quite withered and no doubt role play this in some way...

2.) The freebieness of withering treatments sort of masks a number of new ways to alleviate the curse that are in the module currently... some remaining undiscovered.