Azure Vortex was a hermit obsessed with a magic item. That isn’t a life of giving up worldliness. Also she was hella attached to Berg, which again, desire. She was reincarnated as a Genasi peasant but she’s damn lucky. Also, there are vagaries of Heaven’s intent we can’t know or understand when it comes to the cycle of life.
1 Like
You’re literally describing any random encounter ever. “It seems forced” that they slept in a random building in a hellish known-to-be-populated by mara worshippers neighbourhood and encountered said worshippers? In the middle of the day, when people are usually up and doing stuff?
Besides all that, they could have avoided the encounter but fucked up their rolls. They wanted to rest when it wasn’t safe, I put a challenge in their way and they screwed up. Simple as that.
3 Likes
Do you already know how each of the arcana (tower, sun, star etc) are aligned in the current war between the city, the tower, and the farang? You don’t have to give spoilers on who each is working for I’m more curious on if that’s the sort of thing you plan in advance or wing it if the players happen to meet members of another group. Thanks to you and this show I’ve tried to learn more about the tarot and what they mean. Would I be entirely off in guessing the wheel of fortune would be likely to be working with the tower to destroy the city?
I know that the Tower is on one side and the Devil is on the other, otherwise I’m not sure yet!
Do the Mara operate similarly to the Fountain in terms of magic? Because if that’s so won’t the farang just consume or control their side as well?
Adam, this isn’t exactly a episode specific question. But my question is if ramus currently only has the poe part of his soul and hazan only has the hun part, Theoretically could there be a situation where they both inhabit the same bag of flesh?
2 Likes
As I understand it, the Fountain is like a generator or power grid, whereas the Mara are like (rechargeable) batteries.
The thing is, do Mara operate on the same power as the fountain or are they totally different like the farang, since the farang can use magic but it’s obviously something totally different from the fountain. So if the farang try to consume the fountain’s power they would probably also go after the Mara.
[spoiler]Parvat, along with gods of forest and river, are just three of many nature “gods” that filled this world before the forming of Heaven. Then they split into three groups: first became the Celestial Bureaucracy, the gods and divine beings that reside in Heaven and keep the Wheel spinning; second said “Fuck that noise” and stayed as they were, the spirits of the land(Agni’s family serve as a modern example); third said “Fuck that noise, but also fuck y’all in particular” and decided to not just ignore the Wheel, but try to undermine Heaven and break it, those are the Mara.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]I don’t think that trio of gods of the land(or, rather, of three landmarks, because they were nowhere close to representing all the forests/rivers/mountains) in the Primordial Arc were of any major consequence by themselves, although that whole event may have served as motivation(or one of) for the eventual creation of Heaven, some gods deciding that their purpose is not to rule, but to serve mortals and guide them.[/spoiler]
3 Likes
You could probably reunited the hun and po and bring Ramus back into the cycle. Alternately, the could be reincarnated, leaving us with two Ramus’ which would be super weird.
2 Likes
This is an interesting theory about the source of the mara.
1 Like
Something that I found a bit strange was Ramus having 2 third level slots available but not using either of them on Prayer of Healing. If He’d used both for example at third level, he could have healed the group 6D8 + twice his wisdom Mod and the entire episode would have changed so much.
While the double fireball was amusing, and I get that Ramus wanted to unleash some destruction, he should know by now that having his friends alive and well is far more effective.
Tension in an episode is great, but with them all so vulnerable the chance of some or all of them dying was so high.
1 Like
I’m sure he would have used Prayer of Healing if they had taken a short rest but they went for a long rest which got interrupted.
2 Likes
This is also running with the assumption that he has that spell prepared.
Ramus isn’t your typical Cleric, and I feel like he’s on multiple occasions expressed distaste for using healing of any type.
That plus the fact that the spell takes 10 Minutes to cast, combined with the idea that they were getting the long rest.
Ideally casting that spell before a long rest in case of a interruption of the long rest. But that’s a lot of things lining up.
That actually makes me pose the question, how far away from completing the long rest were they? This might not be covered in the rules but if your long rest gets interrupted, but you still rested for an hour or more, it makes sense you would get the benefits from a short rest. Not saying that’s the case here for I don’t remember if Adam established how long it took for them to be woken by the noise but it’s how I see a situation like that should be handled.
You do not get a short rest from an interrupted long rest. However if they continue the long rest within, I think, an hour they can still get their health back.
Yeah, that sounds like someone at Wizards overlooked a pretty basic overlap of rules or made a complete nonsensical decision about it and how time works. Anyway this pretty easily ends up on the spectrum of how different GMs will rule the same situation differently, or even on the spectrum of home-brewing, so it ends up not being entirely pertinent for the debate of the episode.
1 Like
They got interrupted first hour to begin with I think.
When I play as a Cleric, I’ve been trained not to prepare that one due to competing spells at that level and the fact that a 10 minute casting time renders it unusable for combat. It would have been superbly handy in the knock-down drag-out couple episodes they’ve had, however; as was mentioned. Using prayer of healing before attempting the long rest in the Mara district would have absolutely changed things.
Really, though, this is perhaps the first time that it would have come in handy. Otherwise, in the Rock Gnome King’s dungeon, but he might not have been high enough level to know that spell yet. Like most highly potent spells, it’s almost always useless.
There was also discussion at one point about avoiding the use of spells, the tiny hut for example.
There was concern about the Farang being alerted because of magic. This may have been, or would have possibly influenced the cast from doing anything that would draw enemies to the abandoned building.
Though they did cast the light cantrip in the inn earlier when scouting the place out.
Oh well, the joys of looking at things after they’re done.