Lucius

24 minutes ago, dsatow said:

There is an argument for ending in an "ee" sound as well as ending in a "n".  But in a lot of samples from science fiction, it's hard to tell whether it the name denoting location of the species or the species name.  For instance,  Klingons come from Q'onos, so it's much more likely that the term Klingon is a species designation much like Human is not related to a location on Earth. 

 

Of course, I started down the wrong road when I used the term Ratling, so I apologize for that.  

 

But say for example, you come from a colony on Uranus.  If the colonists from Mars are called Martians and Earth, Earthings, what are people from Jupiter or Uranus called?

 

(And yes, I know the obvious joke about people coming from Uranus being s#!t, but lets not digress there)

Jovians and Uranians.

Lucius Alexander

And palindromedaries

31 minutes ago, dmjalund said:

to reflect, you'd need two enemies within melee range

Given that you can reflect an attack right back at the one who attacked you, I don't see why.

Lucius Alexander

The palindromedary suggests we reflect upon that fact.

14 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

I'm sorry, but a predator with fangs and claws that's my body weight and pounces on prey from hiding above, is NOT as afraid of me as I am of it.

I would be surprised if the number of people killed by leopards is greater than the number of leopards killed by people.

Lucius Alexander

I know of no palindromedaries killed by leopards. Or vice versa.

22 hours ago, Cygnia said:

 

22 hours ago, Cygnia said:

 

The leopards should be more afraid of you than you of them.

Lucius Alexander

But don't poke the palindromedary

11 hours ago, assault said:

In fairness, my character builds lean heavily towards simplicity and short skill lists. A more generic sheet might need to be longer - but that splits information across pages, which is a pain.

 

I also don't include combat maneuvers, aside from those from Martial Arts. That information is easily derived, but it might be easier to do it up front for new players. On the other hand, the more derived information on the sheet, the more cluttered it becomes.

On the other hand, the less derived information on the sheet, the more you're forcing the player to stop and derive information in the middle of play.

Lucius Alexander

The palindromedary says too much of that will derive them crazy

9 hours ago, Cygnia said:

It looks like a purple squirrel with an extraordinary long tail.

What is it?

Lucius Alexander

Inquiring palindromedaries want to know

19 hours ago, steriaca said:

Prince A. Pal's Happy Court menu:

 

Churky Nuggets ("churky" is Chicken, named the way it is because when you think midevil times, you think Turkey, not chicken)

No I don't, unless I'm thinking of medieval MesoAmerica, or of Turkey as in Anatolia.

And if you DO think like that, you need to stop. Medieval Europe had chickens and did not have turkeys.

Lucius Alexander

The palindromedary doesn't think of Turkeys when thinking of Medieval times.

For it is I, Arepo, Who became the Goddess of Beginning and Ending.

For the Deathless met in council to consider the making of a world.

For We were agreed that a world should be made, but alas, also agreed that there seemed no way make a world that would long endure.

"From the Void I can forge the most powerful and intricate of implements" claimed Concinnant of the Forge, "But they do not last."

"All that is made from the Void dissolves like foam" agreed Rebastia of the Sea.

"Things we make seem to be but fleeting illusions" complained Academy the Trickster.

Grorar the Wild revealed "Far have I wandered in the Void, and nowhere in it is anything that endures."

"Such is the way of things, such is the Law" proclaimed Doomsyer the Judge, Who had striven to set the Void itself to Order, "All We form from the Void returns to the Void and passes away; only We Ourselves pass not away."

And the God of Madness told Us what We should do with the "Law" and it was a most uncomfortable and impractical suggestion.

And after council I, Arepo, spoke with Rebastia who was Deity of Time and asked of Her, "Make for Me two moments: A Moment of Becoming, and a Moment of Ceasing to Be." And I went to the Doomsayer and gave over the Moment of Becoming and said "You will know how to use this when the time comes. Trust Me."

And when next the Deathless met in council, I held the Moment of Ceasing to Be in My right hand. And to Tziruu the Unmaker I said "I have a gift for You!"

"Show Me" He said, but I answered "Nay, it is closed up here in My hand: open My hand and You shall have it." And mighty is Tziruu beyond reckoning, but what I hold in My hand is held in the Grip of Death, and He could not force open My hand. "Take Your sword" I urged, "And cut Me in pieces, and My hand will open; You will have a gift, and too, Each of the Deathless will be given a gift." And Tziruu drew and cut, and so it is that Moment of Ceasing to Be rests both in My hand , and on the edge of the Sword of Unmaking. Doomsayer came forward to help divide and share Me out, giving each what was required for the work of Creation:

To Rebastoa My blood, for the seas and all waters of the world.

To Graroo My liver, which causes all wild things to live.

To Har'ak My breasts, flowing with milk.

To Dagna My bones, from which come stones.

To Olos My eyes, which see from one end of Creation to the other, and are thus vast enough to encompass the sky.

To Academy My right hand, which knows not what the left hand does.

To Pandemonium My left hand, which also knows not what the left hand does.

None but I and Dee-Ell know what portion was for Dee-Ell.

And at last Doomsayer pronounced upon Me the Sentence of Life, and used the Moment of Becoming. And I Became again Arepo, and stood among the Deathless as before,  but renewed.

And so it is that the World which was made, is such that all that dies shall be reborn; all that falls shall rise again.

So say I, and I am Arepo, and what I say is said with the certainty of Death.

And this is my gift to the world: Mythology itself, the tradition of preserving Lore in Tales of the Gods.

Lucius Alexander

I am a palindromedary, and what I say is usually said in a tagline.

.

7 hours ago, Cancer said:

Tziruü proclaims ... Its Gift to all races: the Restful Peace.

 

Within Our primary Domain of Decay and Unmaking, we offer to all sophonts a painless, certain, and irrevocable end to existence.  The end to suffering, with assurance that one will not become one of the restless undead, or have their shade summoned and forced to serve some master, or will pass onto an afterlife loaded with torment, regret, or remorse.  Yes, one's survivors may revere the memory (or curse it), but if one chooses, by drawing the Sign of the Worm on one's self, one can escape all travail, eternally.

My second interference:

Those who draw the Sign of the Worm with intent to invoke the Restful Peace, must at the same time surrender their Essence to Arepo to be recast as a new soul. Otherwise those choosing this path would carry a fragment of Creation itself with them into oblivion, and the world would be diminished.

Lucius Alexander

The palindromedary suspects the God of Decay and Unmaking of plotting to slowly unmake the created world.

On 7/21/2019 at 6:46 AM, death tribble said:

I am already thinking about next year and one rule that will be implemented is that you cannot use the same primary domain two years in a row.

20 hours ago, Sociotard said:

Ouch. I hope Lucius still plays. He always does death and rebirth 

I might not. I'll have to give it some thought.

Meanwhile, I need a mythical beast. What could be more appropriate than:

The Phoenix!

Lucius Alexander

The palindromedary suggests "The Palindromedary" but it's biased

Her name was Yohanna.

She was a child of a pragmatic sort of family and had not been raised with the Myths of the Deathless. Nonetheless, she Dreamed.

And she was a quiet girl who watched and listened much. One day as she watched a chrysalis that earlier in the cycle she had watched being woven, and listened to the water and the wind, she heard a Voice.

"I am here."
 

She shook her head and changed her gaze to look at a great tree, and again the Voice came. "I am here."

A little afraid that it may be some trick, she rose and headed to a small bridge across the stream. And the Voice was in the water. "I am here too. I am with you, My child. I am always with you."

She stopped on the bridge and looked into the water. "How can that be? Are you in the cocoon, in the tree, and in the water as well?"

"I am in all things. It can be so, for all things were made from Me in the Beginning. "

"Who are you?" asked the girl, and the Goddess replied with her Secret Name and bid her keep it a close secret, and taught her much she was free to share, how all things arise and pass away because there was no other way the Enduring World could have been created, that all things of the mortal world are part of one Being, but not of that Being alone, for She was Herself part of the Council of the Deathless Ones.  And she learned how to teach others to listen, to really LISTEN and hear the Voices of the Gods, which are in all things. sometimes fainter and sometimes all but shouting. There was a Voice in the chrysalis singing of death and rebirth, a Voice in the bridge speaking of how the bridge and the path and the Royal Road and all ways trod by mortals were all connected in an infinite pattern of travel over the world. a Voice in the Wormlight, a Voice Divine in even the lowest of worms....and many other Voices we will speak of in time.

And because you are to be Initiated, I may tell you of the Secret Name of She we usually call Arepo. It is ____ - that almost silent intake of air, as of an infant's first breathing in before the birth cry, or a dying person's last breath taken before the death rattle.

Yohanna was perhaps not the first, but is among the first we know of, who are called Mystics. And among other gifts, we thank Arepo for this, the Gift of Mysticism: The ability of mortals to directly apprehend Divine Reality, to sense the Immanent Presence of the Gods in the world.

My Option: Mysticism.

O God! I cried,  no dark disguise

Can e'er hereafter hide from me

Thy radiant Identity.

Thou can'st not move across the grass

But my quick eyes shall see Thee pass

Nor speak, however silently

But my hushed voice will answer Thee.

God, I can push the grass apart

And lay my finger on Thy heart!

Edna St Vincent Millay

Lucius Alexander

Palindromedary Enterprises

7 hours ago, Old Man said:

 

Interference: All beings can eat meat

 

 

Be careful out there!

Interference: Food that Talks is not Food.

If anything gifted with speech and reason consumes the flesh of another so gifted, they run the risk of becoming a Ghoul. Bestial in aspect, Ghouls suffer the curse of Undead Slowness, and are widely regarded with fear and horror.

Lucius Alexander

The palindromedary asks how far behind we are now?

Flames of the Hammer:  (Total: 12 Active Cost, 5 Real Cost) +4/+4d6 Striking Appearance (vs. all characters) (12 Active Points); OAF (-1), Conditional Power Must strike a target and the target's PD must stop some damage; (intensity of flame proportional to damage st a topped by PD; -1/4) (Real Cost: 5)

edit:

Okay, now you've clarified....

If you can't beat 'em, burn 'em.:  (Total: 80 Active Cost, 40 Real Cost) Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 3d6-1 (3d6 w/STR), Attack Versus Alternate Defense (Either PD or ED whichever is lower; +1/2), +2 Increased STUN Multiplier (+1/2) (80 Active Points); OAF (-1) (Real Cost: 40)

The more resistant a target is to being clobberred, the hotter the fire burns. The more fireproof someting is, the harder it brings on the blunt trauma. The upshot: target defends with either PD or ED, whichever is LOWER.

Lucius Alexander

Hammering it out with a palindromedary

I think this falls under "Set Effect" making it -1.

Lucius Alexander

Images, only to show a palindromedary

9 hours ago, death tribble said:

Eaters of the dead is valid however Cancer has Worms as a domain so all other eaters of the dead are yours.

 

Can I have your sentient creatures clarified please. Are you saying that you are selecting the Undead as your sentient creatures or the Undead and Necromancers/Anyone doing anything with the undead ?

The Undead are valid but not Necromancers and Undead. An Undead Necromancer is valid for you.

claiming undead.

Lucius Alexander

And palindromedary taglines

On 7/10/2019 at 12:57 PM, death tribble said:

 

Lucius Arepo, Goddess of Death and Rebirth!

• Geography. Jurmunganger, the Long Land, a single continent.

• Sentient Life: 

• Gift to Civilization. Priestcraft

• Flora, Fauna, or Ore. 

• Interference. 

• Mythic Monster or Guardian. 

• Secondary Domain / Option. 

• Secondary Domain: Interference: 

• Secondary Domain / Option. 

 

Fauna:

From the worm that creeps into the grave to the vulture that haunts the desert sky to the jackal that gnaws upon bones, all who scavenge the dead are Mine. They are the cleansers, the purifiers, the Eaters of the Dead. Every mortal's last gift is the gift of their flesh to these, My creatures.

Sentient Creatures:

All, all must die and pass through the Dark Gate and be reborn. For it is only by this cycle that an enduring world can be sustained. But there are those who would fight the cycle: necromancers who bind a spirit to its body and force it to remain there, or who seek to retain their own consciousness and exercise their will beyond the span of their own lives. Such undead abominations and those who truck with them, as well as the Righteous Undead, the haunters seeking justice, are Mine - not necessarily as a monarch claims sovereignty over subjects, but as a magistrate may have jurisdiction over the criminals or petitionors who come before her.

Lucius Alexander

The palindromedary says that's a start

Further afield, you can probably do a lot more with African and Native American settings than Robert E. Howard did....

Lucius Alexander

The palindromedary recommends looking into the Maya.

I've always thought Classical Greece was underutilized as a setting.

Not an empire or great kingdoms, but many relatively small city states. A common language and a degree of common culture, but the laws, form of government, customs, and mythology can change if you so much as cross a river from one city state to the next.

Lucius Alexander

A palindromedary is honored in one city, but across those hills will be regarded with suspicion....

4 minutes ago, Pariah said:

Um, we have a thread for creepy pics....

You mean this isn't "Foods for those who just don't SCARE anymore?"
 

Lucius Alexander

The palindromedary notes that it's past midnight now

On 7/10/2019 at 7:37 PM, Steve said:

 

One of the things I've been pondering is how the price of extra MA Damage Classes might be adjusted based on the numbers of maneuvers you have that can do damage.

 

If I take a Martial Strike, a Martial Block and a Martial Dodge, I'm paying the same price for extra Damage classes that only applies to a single maneuver as someone who buys Martial Strike, Offensive Strike and Legsweep.which is three maneuvers that can do damage. Using Weaponmaster as an example, why not adjust the price of extra MA Damage Classes depending on the number of damaging maneuvers you can do?

 

Just a thought I've been playing with.

If you're going to do that, drop the concept of buying "Martial Arts Damage Classes" entirely and just allow people to buy more damage for specific individual maneuvers.

Lucius Alexander

Skill Level with All Palindromedaries

One thing that strikes me about adaptations of Alice in Wonderland -

No matter how faithful or otherwise to the original, every one of them seems to have felt compelled to drag something in from Through the Looking Glass - not the same thing in each case, but always there was something.

Lucius Alexander

House of the Palindromedary

On 7/6/2019 at 10:55 AM, Lucius said:

The Amamaun were the first people to live in this new world and thus the first to die.

 

They found many ways to the Dark Gate: some lingered too long in a pool that became cut off by the endless cycles of inundation and rising, and thus left high and dry when the pool at last drained; some fell to the predators of the deep; some learned too late that certain bright patterns proclaimed "Touch me not, I am poison."

 

And sometimes corpses were left to bloat and become unrecognizable vectors of disease, or the departed's companions would tow the corpse about with them and speak to it, hoping for a response. And sometimes there would come a response.

 

And the spirits were restless and haunted the dreams of the Amamaun, until all feared to close their eyes for the horror of the terrifying visions that may ensue. For it is the way of mortals that the living shall fear the dead, who remind them that they too must in time come to the Dark Gate.

 

And I, Arepo, the Lady of Death and Rebirth, came upon a band of the Amamaun whose fear and grief were so heavy they could not swim about but only follow the seafloor; and they were besieged by an army of corpses, for the dead, unable to pass the Gate, had returned to their flesh to encircle their kin and gaze at them with blank dead eyes demanding to be put to rest.

And the Amamaun recognized Me and cast down their eyes, save one, who gazed at Me pleading, and I saw that her compassion for the dead was greater than her fear of them. To her I said "The people suffer, living as well as dead. To end that suffering, would you give your own life?" And despite her fear she said "I would" and then I knew that I had found the First Priestess.

 

To be continued....

And the dead parted as I led her forth to a place where a rift in the seabed led into the Riddledark. The rift was guarded by Deathribbons, a species of seaweed so poisonous the Amamaun dared not even touch it, and she said "Lady, I will of course follow where You lead, but know that this is Deathribbon and it will kill me if i touch it." I said "Fear not" and taught her the password that allowed her to pass without danger. And to this day in a Temple of Arepo the Sanctum is set apart by a doorway hung with ribbons and the pious or superstitious regard that barrier with dread and whisper that the ribbons bear death within their rippling lengths.

And in the Riddledark I taught that woman of the Amamaun much, how to sing a prayer, how to set up an altar and the ways to honor each of us who are of the Council of the Deathless, above all how to sing away the restless dead and how to treat a corpse so that it will not become a font either of physical nor of spiritual corruption, and how to guide the bereaved through the processes of grief. And too I taught the rituals of initiation and how best to choose those to initiate, so that there would be priests and priestesses to come after her who would know and use the Lore.

This is My gift to the civilizations of the world: Priestcraft, including the secrets of funerary rites and of initiation.

Lucius Alexander

The palindromedary is my gift to taglines

The Amamaun were the first people to live in this new world and thus the first to die.

They found many ways to the Dark Gate: some lingered too long in a pool that became cut off by the endless cycles of inundation and rising, and thus left high and dry when the pool at last drained; some fell to the predators of the deep; some learned too late that certain bright patterns proclaimed "Touch me not, I am poison."

And sometimes corpses were left to bloat and become unrecognizable vectors of disease, or the departed's companions would tow the corpse about with them and speak to it, hoping for a response. And sometimes there would come a response.

And the spirits were restless and haunted the dreams of the Amamaun, until all feared to close their eyes for the horror of the terrifying visions that may ensue. For it is the way of mortals that the living shall fear the dead, who remind them that they too must in time come to the Dark Gate.

And I, Arepo, the Lady of Death and Rebirth, came upon a band of the Amamaun whose fear and grief were so heavy they could not swim about but only follow the seafloor; and they were besieged by an army of corpses, for the dead, unable to pass the Gate, had returned to their flesh to encircle their kin and gaze at them with blank dead eyes demanding to be put to rest.

And the Amamaun recognized Me and cast down their eyes, save one, who gazed at Me pleading, and I saw that her compassion for the dead was greater than her fear of them. To her I said "The people suffer, living as well as dead. To end that suffering, would you give your own life?" And despite her fear she said "I would" and then I knew that I had found the First Priestess.

To be continued....

Lucius Alexander

The palindromedary and I have places to go, people to siege.

I've used it to let a player know a given plan might not work, or give a clue what the opposition might try.

Lucius Alexander

Remember, a palindromedary can reverse direction instantly....

5 hours ago, Khas said:

Extra time is quite perfect if you ignore that if used for an attack you can't attack until it is ready for use: "Attacks are an exception: if a character takes this Limitation for a power that requires an Attack Roll, he cannot make another attack until the power’s been used (unless the GM gives permission otherwise)." 

 

I too think that a limitation that takes in account the cooldown time and a time limit together should be required and very useful in this kind of situations as ghost-angel said

I should have kept reading- instead I found a line I liked and quit reading at that point. Okay, Extra Time doesn't work as written either.

Looks like it does come down to a custom Limitation.

Lucius Alexander

The palindromedary says all these tools in the kit and still somehow you need to craft a new one to get the job done.