A Reckoning in Redridge: Part I

[CappnRob]

Spoiler:

The great Cataclysm has ravaged our world, my fellow citizens of the Alliance. Our great capital of Stormwind City, the last true bastion of safety for humanity in the Alliance, was attacked directly by the Dragon himself, and all of our outlying townships and counties have fallen into dark times once again.

However, we will not let this stand! Months have passed, and now with our city being rebuilt, our resolve stronger, and our wills hardened, we will direct the sword of justice against all threats which encroach on our homes and endanger our families, our friends, and our kinsmen! Sound the Lion Horn, for soon we march! For the Alliance! For the Light! For our People!

Redridge

Things have been quiet in Redridge compared to the troubles that plague the rest of the Stormwind kingdom's counties. The rustic foothills sit silently, unscathed by the devastation the Cataclysm wrought while Lakeshire experiences a much beloved lull in raids from the neighboring Blackrock orcs.

That is all about to change. The local gnoll tribes have started acting boldly and violently, no longer content to simply steal supplies from foodstores and the like. Something has empowered them, and their savage guerrilla tactics are about to take Redridge by storm.

EVENT I: THE HILLS HAVE GNOLLS
In response to the ever-increasing gnoll raids on Alliance interests in the Redridge mountains, a supply caravan is being arranged to restock and aid the beleaguered guardsmen in the region to give them the edge. However, the caravan is in need of protectors to get it to its destination safely so all able-bodied citizens of the Alliance are encouraged to give their support for the region! For Light and honor!

After an uneventful escort across the Redridge border, the hired protectors of Three Corners' watchtower were taken by surprise by an unnaturally large gnoll ambush from the various nearby hillsides. After a grueling battle, the beasts were bested and the supplies safely delivered to the tower. Afterwards a small party set out to search the nearby hills and recovered whatever leftovers the gnolls had left, and secured what seemed like maps encrypted in Blackrock Orcish.


MINI-EVENT! ON THE TRAIL
A month has passed since the Battle of Three Corners, and the gnolls have fallen eerily silent. Efforts to decode their secret maps have proven difficult, as they are patchy and unfinished, as well as perhaps just too stupid to comprehend. Nonetheless, Cristovao di Silvio organized a modest group of fellows in Lakeshire under the authority of Magistrate Solomon to inspect the backgrouds of Redridge for any more evidence.

After a quick and rather easy battle which routed a small gnoll force, more evidence was obtained. A scroll, pristinely preserved, was discovered. Also found was another map, as well as a cryptic runestone. Do these items hold the secrets of discovering the truth? Time will tell...


EVENT II: THE MIDNIGHT RAID
SATURDAY, AUGUST 16 AUGUST 23 @ 1PM SERVER TIME (PST).


EVENT III: RETAKING WHAT'S OURS
LOCKED...

Restoring Stormwind is back!

[CappnRob]

Important update: Event has been postponed due to my having a dental appointment the 13th and forgot! Yay me!

New date TBA.

[CappnRob]

Event will be this week! Friday is the main occurrence, Saturday is a repeat for people who missed out.

[Psychyn]

Maaay be able to join the Saturday one. Been ages since I joined one of your events but the last one was fun, so I'll cook something up. Rebecca may be interested, or I'll roll another priestess; You'll probably need one. But yush. Not sure yet.

[CappnRob]

The FIRST event showing is TOMORROW!

1PM! Server Time! That's Pacific Standard!

[Magikox]

My warlock would need something to burn so I might stop by

[Hawk]

Fortunately, I was given today off work! I should be able to attend this.

[CappnRob]

Four hours! Event in four hours!

[CappnRob]

The first event was a success! Feel free to post your thoughts and feedback here!

The repeat is SATURDAY THE 21 at 1pm PST! That's tomorrow!

[Grogloki]

Borvin approves!

[Psychyn]

Event feedback. Let's see then. The problem with event feedback is that I'm never too sure what to actually look at and comment upon. The event as a whole so far? I liked it; It was enjoyable to me on Scarlett and I got the feeling I portrayed her in a pretty alright job through out it all. I got the feeling I could play my character in a sense that was fitting to her and it made sense for her to be there.

Initial little trip there, from Eastvale to the Redridge tower wasn't too special (but nice nonetheless!). I lost sight of where the cart was fairly quickly but I think that was due to the big group and its movements as a whole. I guess I expected that cart to ride along with the group but it was spawned further down the road instead. It went from that, to off-loading the cart at which point, I admittedly had no clue what I was actually carrying and how much was in the cart, to take to the tower. I don't think it mattered in the end and perhaps specifics weren't really needed on it, but it did make my emotes a bit simple and vague. ( /e picks up stuff from the cart. /e drops it at the tower. Rinse repeat.)

Onto the Gnolls; I believe I got struck from a boulder behind some trees at first but mechanical-wise, I was sorta in the wrong place at the wrong time as I was meant to be at the other side. I appreciated the ability to OOCly rearrange myself else it would have probably gotten confusing as to when and what to attack.

Gnoll-wise: Nice big amount of numbers, I lost track of how many that died. Though wearing a shield and full plate armor made the thresholds for me personally feel a little too high. I am not sure how strong the beasties are compared to a trained military girl but the plate felt a bit like scrap at the end. I am happy I only got hit three times admittedly, luck of the dice and all, but all in all, she could have been hurt rather badly. I've been musing over this, and while I like the thresholds as system, it can end up making no sense with the diverse amount of characters.

So how about!

Defense thresholds in combat: (Adjust as you see fit, its just an idea!)
Cloth - No bonus
Leather + 2-4
Mail + 5-7
Plate + 8-10
Shield + 1-2

Against generic mob-weaponry? I think they had claws, little make-shift maces and such in the event. I haven't tested it but I think it may make plate users feel a little bit tougher compared to mail, mail to leather, leather to cloth and encourages people to take on the tanky-role depending on what armor they wear. (Not counting for arrows, crossbows bolts, magical/divine spells and all that stuff. Simple weaponry + nature weaponry such as rocks, boulders, twigs, sand or.. whatever.) There's always weak spots and mistakes in one's defense, so getting hit shouldn't be uncommon, but taking serious wounds should be a bit less frequent. Looking back at my own rolls being 24-26 as I took two major wounds, if a bonus for plate would have been there, it would have been absorbed by the armor and turned into minor wounds; Still a wound, just protected by the armor you wear just for that reason; Protection!

It'd be a bonus people would keep track of themselves I reckon unless you work with an actual HP system in which case it may be best to keep track of it as DM. With that, I'm really running out of things to write and suggest so I'll wrap it up.

I'm just going to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the event, I liked the amount of enemies to face and hadn't expected the second wave with a larger amount of Gnolls to follow suit after the first. I liked the little NPC interaction afterwards which really added to the immersion and world around you (Mark. <3); And in a nutshell, I'm very happy I joined and I'll try to make the next. Power usage felt good all around, I recall reading wands being used IC which was awesome, hadn't seen that before. I didn't mind that you had to run back and forth to make sure everything was in order before continuing (It didn't break my immersion really), and though we had a lot of D/C's and moments of AFK; The slight chaos it added didn't make the event worse in any way, shape or form.

I hope this helps!

[Grogloki]

Borvin needs no armor. He is "The Destroyer". ;P

[CappnRob]

Like whoooa, in depth feedback!

I'm never too sure what to actually look at and comment upon.

The whole experience! Was it enjoyable, was it too long, was the combat varied, so on and so forth... anyway!

I lost sight of where the cart was fairly quickly but I think that was due to the big group and its movements as a whole. I guess I expected that cart to ride along with the group but it was spawned further down the road instead.

Yeah, unfortunately the cart can't actually move (its a gameobject, not an NPC), so we just had one spawned at the start and another at the end :P

I admittedly had no clue what I was actually carrying and how much was in the cart, to take to the tower. I don't think it mattered in the end and perhaps specifics weren't really needed on it, but it did make my emotes a bit simple and vague. ( /e picks up stuff from the cart. /e drops it at the tower. Rinse repeat.)

The intention was simply just top get people to move around and act like they're part of a group effort; I apologize if more direction was desired, though you could've emoted carrying anything reasonable off the cart! But all's fair and well.

Defense thresholds in combat: (Adjust as you see fit, its just an idea!)
Cloth - No bonus
Leather + 2-4
Mail + 5-7
Plate + 8-10
Shield + 1-2

This... hmmm.

I like this idea! I could perhaps dink with it myself; one of the things I try to do with Threshold Rolls is to spice it up in some way or another so it just isn't 2 hours of rolling over X to win; hence the varying degrees of wounds and the ability to multi-kill, etc. Defense was always trickier for more, but small bonuses to accommodate for armor might prove nicely. I'll consider it!

I liked the little NPC interaction afterwards which really added to the immersion and world around you (Mark. <3)

Thank @Mathias for that, he puppets the NPCs like that without my prompting. ALL THE CREDIT.

Thanks for the input C:

[Psychyn]

@Mathias <3 Do it more often, I can't help but adore NPC interaction; To talk with people like that. I don't know why, but I love it so much. Thank you!

I expect to see a Mark The Guard profile pretty soon. Maybe he rises the Braxton ranks and becomes a personal guard, dun dun dunn.. (@Vladdy by the way Vladdy, I hired a new guard. He was cute I mean. Heroic.)

Jokes. (Doit)

And that explains the cart! Unfortunate but hey, it was still a pretty cart. Avelynne my merchant *cough* would have killed for such a cart, to spawn it around and go places. More direction wasn't really required, it all worked out and didn't drag on for too long or such! But yeah. Looking forward to the next!

[Mathias]

No Mark the Guard for you. You will have to deal with an invisible guard who stutters and blushes around Scarlett.