[OOC] Heart of Darkness (Part II)

[Mindsiege]

Originally Posted by secretID

Oh...so there's some suggestion that she was hoping to get info earlier because of a closer relationship? Or maybe just some suggestion that she was generally looking to speak with him privately?

I was envisioning it with the original prompt of separating from the group so that Jimmy could hear about the infestation without Boanagh and the darklings immediately overhearing and panicking. Sashaya would have used that opportunity to dig for Jimmy's personal insights. She's definitely playing some kind of relationship card, but Ilala would be present at the time, overlooking the interaction. In case you were wondering, right now Ilala seems to have different worries than being angry at Jimmy.

Originally Posted by secretID

I just lumped together her question and Loch's with the "Jimmy tells them to wait a bit," though I know there was a lag between the two. This relates a little to the march speed. Jimmy's priorities in order are:
1) try to create distance from Glynn before explaining more about etherealness, his thoughts on Glynn, and next steps;
2) getting private info about the darklings without being to suspicious; and
3) answering questions quickly.

I figured that Jimmy pulled aside the dryads after creating distance from Glynn and before getting into those things that Loch wanted to hear from him. Then he would have gotten the private response from the dryads, but if he wanted to delay responding to Sashaya in the instance where she took him by the arm, I think that would deserve a line of dialogue at least. I need to figure out how she takes it.

Originally Posted by secretID

I thought that if Jimmy waited until everyone was stopping before talking to the dryads, that might be too awkward, so I thought the sequence was:
1) postpone Loch's answers;
2) get info from dryads and postpone Sashaya's answers;
3) stop after enough distance from Glynn and have longer conversations.

Same as before, the postponing of giving Sashaya's answers is fine and will play out like that. But I need to know how Jimmy deflected when she was trying to get an answer from him right then.

Originally Posted by secretID

Phew. I guess the easiest fix is for Jimmy to take private time with Sashaya alone before talking to the group, if Jimmy thinks she might want that for some reason. Does he?

I think blowing Sashaya off until later would be enough of a fix, narratively, but if Jimmy wants to separate her from Ilala and talk even more privately, that's something he could try to arrange as well. I think it would be fairly obvious to him though that Ilala is blatantly hovering over them. She clearly does not want to give Jimmy and her sister full privacy. If you'd like to make that a scene, I think we could run it in parallel with the group discussion. But if we wanted to be perfectly chronological, we could also play out that scene first. I think to recall that you don't like jumping in the timeline or telling the story at two points in time too much, so we can go with your preference.

Originally Posted by secretID

BTW, I'm not blind to some of the hints about Sashaya's emotional condition. I've been thinking that Jimmy is a) under a lot of pressure; b) there have been pressing matters; and c) he's a little dense in this area. Maybe we should try to find an appropriate calm moment for him to check in on her, since it has now been days with her acting funny.

In terms of time, I made sure to check, but it's been ca. 40h since they reconvened. Jimmy isn't sure how long exactly, but in all likelihood less than 48 hours. As mentioned above, if you want to tackle that topic, we can play it out. In terms of Jimmy being preoccupied with his quest, that's perfectly expected. With his current circumstances, there's not much room for distractions. This is certainly a bit tricky.

[secretID]

Originally Posted by Mindsiege

In case you were wondering, right now Ilala seems to have different worries than being angry at Jimmy.

I should hope so!

Originally Posted by Mindsiege

I figured that Jimmy pulled aside the dryads after creating distance from Glynn and before getting into those things that Loch wanted to hear from him.

That works; I'll tweak for that. I guess we'll see what happens with running two timelines simultaneously.

[Mindsiege]

Originally Posted by secretID

That works; I'll tweak for that. I guess we'll see what happens with running two timelines simultaneously.

I'll try to make it easy on us. If there's a complication, we can also focus on completing the flashback scene before proceeding with the group discussion.

[secretID]

Cool. Edited.

[secretID]

I've been working on this on and off; I'll be posting pretty soon.

Re Boanagh saying, “His sway is greater in the eastern section of the colony than it is in the south,” is "the south" the camp under the Great Heart Tree?

[secretID]

Re-reading some stuff, I just realized something very funny: I've been so focused on Glynn that it hadn't occurred to me that gas spores would also explain the darkling deaths pretty well. One might expect them to have found enough on their own that they would eventually figure it out, but it is possible.

Edit: They dryads didn't mention the growth of new spores, though, so I guess that idea will have to wait IC.

[secretID]

Strange that Jimmy and the others never found the last spider when they were looking for Glynn. I forgot about that until the re-read.

[Mindsiege]

Originally Posted by secretID

Re Boanagh saying, “His sway is greater in the eastern section of the colony than it is in the south,” is "the south" the camp under the Great Heart Tree?

This is correct.

Originally Posted by secretID

Re-reading some stuff, I just realized something very funny: I've been so focused on Glynn that it hadn't occurred to me that gas spores would also explain the darkling deaths pretty well. One might expect them to have found enough on their own that they would eventually figure it out, but it is possible.

Edit: They dryads didn't mention the growth of new spores, though, so I guess that idea will have to wait IC.

What an interesting train of thought. Sashaya mentioned "growing themselves further by feeding on the life of others". You could have Jimmy inquire about that during the rest after some further contemplation.

Originally Posted by secretID

Strange that Jimmy and the others never found the last spider when they were looking for Glynn. I forgot about that until the re-read.

At the time, I figured that the spider was very much an afterthought to the search for Glynn. The spider was scared and hid in the darkest corner of the ceiling behind a stalactite. If you had been searching for it specifically I probably would have had to mention it, but as is I resolved it with a contested Stealth check and the spider rolled very high. Given how the scene was progressing, I thought it better not to have any of the NPCs worry about it. The spider would have made for a neat red herring if you had decided to camp in that cavern, but since you left, I think we're good to say that it won't come up again. I hope you don't mind that I'm giving your closure on that particular mystery.

[secretID]

Cool. I think I'll wait on more questions about the spores until Jimmy sees exactly what happens to the darklings. I'm curious too; I would think that they're explosive deaths will prevent the spore births...

[Mindsiege]

I'll still respond to it with my next update, but Loch was actually referring to a literal poem. He knows that he can't charm the dubh sidhe.

[secretID]

I was actually referring to Boanagh's reference to Zone of Truth, which I believe does work against elves, etc.

[Mindsiege]

Originally Posted by secretID

I was actually referring to Boanagh's reference to Zone of Truth, which I believe does work against elves, etc.

Ah, okay. I figured the comment about the charm and the Zone of Truth are separate. Your understanding is correct. Boanagh is not fully aware how the Zone of Truth works, but the spell itself wouldn't put any pressure on Darce to answer.

[Mindsiege]

HoD has finally made it to the top of my stack. I feel bad that I didn't get to it earlier. It just didn't work out for me. I hope you'll forgive the lag. I'll still be aiming to make my updates more frequent again.

For now, expect me to post tomorrow.

[secretID]

No problem!

[secretID]

Originally Posted by Mindsiege

I'm unsure whether the NPCs have any idea what to do besides keeping a watch rotation. But I'm looking forward to learning what Jimmy is going to prepare.

Yeah...you may want to curb those expectations. Pursuit from an enemy with Etherealness is a very big problem. I don't know what to do without major magic; it seems the best to hope for is to keep harm minimal or to temporarily escape. If the enemy has a vendetta, it seems nearly hopeless to survive. I've thought much the same about imp familiars.