To Everybody that Once Stepped Foot(or claw or tentacle) on Skal (and the DMs) - Ultra Mastered Edition

[Iceborn]

I took forever to write this thread!

I could use the other thread, but this stretched to involve far more people than the population of Skal, which is still fantastic, and I wanted to properly write and thank the people that participated in this adventure.

In all my years roleplaying, I grew averse to PvP since I've had way too many situations that were up-and-stab. That never made either a fun story, nor a compelling fight. It just showed me that the other player wanted to get rid of me, or they thought that they needed to OOCly prove a point via mechanics, that point being "my epen is larger than yours".

While I'm not going to drop names all around, I am going to talk about one in special:
So meeting Jhaamdath as a character - a guy that is utterly allergic to writing in asterisks, mind! - was the most unexpected blessing I had. Utterly glad, when I found that our characters had achieved the Underdark version of friendship, and to get roped in his wild manic plans. The guy is a machine that is always thinking on the narrative level, always.

So it was by simple drive of a player that so many people got the invitation to the weird, and very amusing experience that was playing Sims to build a camp at all speed, spin up crappy cover-up stories, set up reasons IC and OOC to keep a large group of people from just rolfstomping everything in sight, and generally play the extreme survival game that is Skal with the constant fear that any second we could have another party and we'd have to test the people that they have brought to see if they would go according to plan and spin interesting tales and creating good villain scenes instead of devolving to the inner beast of up-walking and smashing the KD button until pulverized.

It never happened. And that lifted a lot of my hope for Arelith's playerbase.
I cackled way louder than I should when we had a literal UD party of epics hugging walls in invisibility, waiting for a random group of lowbies pass us by. Terrified~ that they'd be like "wait, imma get some copper lad", when we had drow, orog and kobolds hiding behind the deposit as solitary lamp post.

As the days went, as situations appeared, situations where I was elated when I found my own character with the pants down, and I wasn't immediately rolfstomped (again!) - When you have around 15 players in the room and they are all one spell away from just coming down on you. And in that situation, I wouldn't have minded it one bit to get rolfstomped, I was even -curious- as to what would happen and I was more than willing to see where that would lead my character (which was very much biting her own tongue to not show the shakes!). I was glad, when I found that I was intrigued to roleplay with these people, with or without boot to the face. Though that time my character was given a free pass.

Of course, it would mean that two hours later I'd be back on Skal. Again.
And I'd be part of probably the largest high-end PvP battle I've been in Arelith that I found simply fascinating.
So we ended this situation - 12 underdarkers in a dark room, vs 12~ surface characters in a dark hallway. Only kept apart by a haphazard barricade.
We spent... an hour? Two hours? Just pecking at each other over the corner while shooting quips and taunts. In A situation that could have turned on us at any second. As far as PvP goes, that was among one of my most interesting experiences in Arelith.

So sorry about what happened to Amadeo (hope you got your items dude!), but other than that, a big shout-out to all the people that got involved with us, whether it was in diplomacy, in angry snarlings, in swords to the face and daggers to the kidneys. In our side and the other side. The RP I've seen all around was amazing, and these are stories that I know I won't forget any time soon.

[Dedman1234]

Ahhhh damn it. It would seem I have missed the second big encounter. Still, the first one I had with the underdarkers was very fun.
It was suprising, full of twists, tension, great RP and also difficulty in coming up with ideas on what to do.

It was both hard and enjoyable to think what would a pacifist druid do when suddenly finding a camp full of underdarkers just... being in a random cave. Great kudos to a certain hungry ogre, who just decided to go on a walk and accidentally led my char into the camp (also sorry for being a bit mean to him IC D:), to Alesium for tagging along with Dent, despite knowing OOC, that his elf would most likely fall in battle if one has started, the vile underdarkers for both great RP and not just rolfstomping our unlucky duo when you had the chance and of course, to the entirety of Skal, for suddenly bursting in, fully warded in the middle of the dialogue with the Andunorians.

I understand why most of you guys lensed out, since the encounter did not look favorable in the slightest, but special props to the one, that stayed behind and let the conflict continue.

[Dagonlives]

I always wanted to try doing an 'expeditionary event' and the Palladium plotline was a perfect reason.

It's likely I'll plan another one soon, with a more nautical theme. This isn't really possible without the other players who say 'Okay, let's do what this angry drow says'. So I appreciate that people are willing to go along with it.

With such a large company, errors or faux pas are to be expected on occasion (Amadeo was a good example, that sucked) yet generally I was impressed with how this went. Both sides were pretty clean, fairly reasonable and didn't immediately move for the murder-kill buttons.

It can be hard playing an antagonistic in your face character, and it has occasionally resulted in OOC harassment or dramatics that have in the past, dulled my desire to login. I've sort of accepted that's part and parcel of a shared universe setting with many players occupying the same place. However, this particular event was fantastic and largely without a hitch.

[DM Axis]

So we ended this situation - 12 underdarkers in a dark room, vs 12~ surface characters in a dark hallway. Only kept apart by a haphazard barricade.

Good that you had fun.

As a PSA on behalf of the DM Team, using bashed fixtures as a barricade going forward will be a bannable offense for exploiting.
Do not use this tactic going forward.

[BattleDrake]

I really liked your inventive use of fixtures as a barricade. I had no idea fixtures became indestructible for 24h after bashing, it made for a whole different challenge in engaging you.

We didn't either, actually! We all thought it was going to get destroyed and we were going to get rushed in the moments following. We certainly felt it cheesy afterwards, but it undoubtedly gave us an advantage we were not expecting. Every one of us were expecting the worst, wondering why we let the mad drow lure us into a final stand. Spells were prepared to allow fleeing once the inevitable happened. It just.. never went the way that was expected.

I loved the trip though and hoped it would have gone on longer. From setting up the camp, to faking a faithful presence, to OMG who created this troglodyte lair; you are a monster! All of it was a lot of fun. Only bummer was it ended so soon, before we could get out there and try to convince the locals to aid us in secret .

[Pindrop]

Reminder: Kudos threads are for exactly that - giving props to the efforts of other players (or staff members) that made your roleplaying experience enjoyable.

This is not a place to discuss exploits, mechanics or forum etiquette. Use the appropriate channels for that.

As always, be civil.

[Nikko]

Thanks for the fun, however things worked out it was a very good and rewarding interaction-- a nice to get to have a standoff and talk a bunch before things went violent. Good to see some new faces along with the old and get to know you all better. I think it was a good introduction (for a lot of us) to Andunor joining the fun on Skal.

I had serious misgivings about stepping out in front of you all a little light on wards and no weapon out but everyone was super cool. Thanks for playing along and making this a fun time.

The plotline as a whole is shaping up nicely and involving all sorts of people in new and interesting ways. The alliances, the DM run NPCs and factions and all the mess it's creating is very high level intriguing and fun. I'd wished some of our friends local to Skal had been around to come see things so we could get them familiar with some of the characters involved, but it didn't work out this time. You're all pretty easy to describe to the locals anyway.

[Zaravella]

Well seems I missed yet another grand event in Skal... Of all my days spent there, I must also add to the kudos to everyone I've encountered in the frozen isle, thus far - I've had some very interesting RP. My rogue-girl is always having such fun when I login. Thank you.

[DM Chatsworth]

Glad you guys had fun!

Keep up the good work, bad guys, good guys, all guys!

Kudos!

[hmm]

This was the Funniest, most Humorous pvp encounter i've ever had.
-Axe

[Aellowyn]

I really enjoyed the whole Skal interaction; From happenstance that led to finding myself on Skal, to the slow culmination of events that proceeded one of the most unexpected, hilarious and enjoyable standoffs and engagements of PVP I've encountered on Arelith so far.

I'm glad for the amount of RP on both sides, the quips and comments, all the pelting back and forth. I can only hope that other encounters are as engaging.

[l33tfragiletings]

It was incredible!

[Vatheril]

Thank you for the content! the banter was hilarious as I stood there hugging a wall attempting to cast my meagre healing spells in that hallway on a bunch of heavy weights praying a stray fireball/vampire doesn't one-shot me.

[Vrass]

Dammit i was at Skal just before... Group leader said the threat was over and to return to the island as nothing was going to happen. That's it, from now on i'm trusting my gut in these situations. Damnit lol.

[LichBait]

Was a good time all around!

[KT28]

I'm late to the party, but I just wanted to chime in to echo everything that's been said. My character wasn't involved in the PvP, but he got the chance to spend several RL-days hanging out in Skal uh, "sightseeing" and getting to know the locals.

I had never set foot in Skal before (IC or OOC), so this was a completely new experience for me, and one that I was pleasantly surprised with. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it was tons of fun just jumping in, chatting people up, and having a front row seat to all the chaos and developments that were happening by the hour, especially as more and more people started to get involved.

Huge kudos to DM Titania for putting this plot together, the Underdarkers for putting pressure on everybody all around, and to all the Skaljardians who interacted with Nicholas Hatch and made his snowy "vacation" a lot of fun for me!