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Hi everyone! Wanted to quickly plug my friend Cucy's youtube and twitch where they played through the first two Zero Escape games which is my all time favorite video game series!

I should have a blog out tomorrow, things have been a little hectic.

started uploading VODs onto youtube :V the whole 999 playthru is on my twitch :3 (twitch.tv/pointandcucy)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfadTcKPA7pTytBih00RrMQ

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Alright, that was some nice mostly-combat which is not very interesting to liveblog and mostly just an excuse for me to blog about D&D being maybe not the best balanced game.  Next blog probably either Saturday or Wednesday.

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Griffin: Uh, no, just any, any physical damage, this purple worm is, uh, is gonna be resistant to.

*GLANCES HARDER AT PREVIOUS CHALKBOARD*

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Griffin: Anyway, uh, you’ve destroyed the shark tank. Hey, how long do you get to stay a fuckin’ T-Rex, ‘cause I’m worried these balance issues might pop up!

Justin: Yeah that’s what, I was kinda thinkin’ about it, I mean I’m concentrating.

*glances back at earlier chalkboard*

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Justin: I’m casting Polymorph on myself. Griffin: Oh fuckin’ wowww. Justin: Griffin, I’m texting you.

Oh hell yes, please tell me this is going where I think it is going.

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Clint: What were those three things again?

Griffin: I promise it’s not important.

Then why are you saying them!!!  Not everything in a story has to be important, but if you call up a series of objects multiple times in your story, in such a way that provides no additional details or feel for the world, then you shouldn’t do it!

[20 minutes]

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Griffin: [in a high-pitched, hysterical voice] Okay but think about a fire, and you have 6 seconds— have you watched Survivor when they do the fire-making challenge??? It takes wicked longer than six seconds!

In fairness, they don’t have a tinderbox on survivor.  

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Travis: 11 plus… what? 8? That’s my standard attack bonus. For uh, arms.

So is this a call to arms?

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Griffin: And it’s not like, it’s not, you can tell, it’s not like you’re getting bad reception on your prayer. You feel it going through, he’s just not— he's just not pickin’ up.

I can’t remember if I wrote this out or just thought it, but it seems pretty clear that this is Wonderland Junk messing up any sort of outside communication.  The fact that this is divine communication is a bit worrying since that should be, you know, exceptionally powerful.  I do think it still not great mechanically since it only serves to disadvantage the person who relies on their spells most narratively, though not mechanically.  I guess what it gets down to is I feel like if I was in Merle's shoes I would feel like I was being unfairly targeted.  That being said this could lead to a neat power upgrade after the fact so who knows.  

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Merle: What is going on with my holy powers? Griffin: Here is the truthful response—this is Griffin, not Pan speaking. [“Pan” plays quietly] Here is the truthful response to your question, Merle: Pan’s not answering. And it’s not… it’s, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt, he’s just not… he’s just not there! And he’s not, he’s… he’s not there supporting you with a holy power, he’s not... He’s just— he’s just gone! And this is fuckin’ terrifying. Like you, this spell that you’re casting is essentially like a telephone call of a prayer, and Pan has always answered… but not this time. He is not there.Griffin: And it’s not like, it’s not, you can tell, it’s not like you’re getting bad reception on your prayer. You feel it going through, he’s just not— he's just not pickin’ up.

Are you there Pan?  Its me, Merle.

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Clint: All right! Here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to cast Divination. Clint: This puts me in touch with a god or god’s servant, so in this case: Pan. I get to ask a single question— Griffin: [gleefully] Oho this is perfect, thank you. This is a gift.

I agree with Griffin here, this is one of those spells that can be a lot of fun for the GM.

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Griffin: You feel like you’ve recovered, which is weird, you haven’t felt that in Wonderland very much, and you have in fact recovered your spell slots.

Like, all of them?  Because thats a pretty major deal.  Compared to Merle having been nerfed with his spells that is a lot.   And I can’t even think of a comparable thing for Magnus.  Really its just another example of-

*I get dragged over to the board to write “I will not blog about martial/caster disparity” on the board 10 times*

[10 minute marker]

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Griffin: All three of you notice, at the far edge of the room just behind the mannequin body pile, and sort of adjacent to the door—the exit door to this room—all three of you see—I won’t make you roll a perception check because it’s pretty clear as day—you see a dresser just appear out of nowhere. And then it quickly disappears, and it’s replaced by a bookshelf. And then that bookshelf disappears, and then it’s a fireplace, and then it’s a lamp, and then it’s nothing. Griffin: And Magnus with your True Sight, you see the Red Robe channelling the black smoke to create those objects over there on the far end of the room.

Hmm.  It doesn’t sound like any sort of code, at least not one I can make out.  But clearly there is a purpose so what?  Is it just a distraction?  I am perplexed.  

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Griffin: But you’ve never seen anything like this. In fact, all these hiccups that your holy powers have been going through all day, you haven’t experienced anything quite like it in all your days of cleric-dom.

Still not a fan of this, but I will await the end of this and make judgments then.

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Travis: Okay, cool. D4 [rolls dice] 3. Plus 4, so that’s 7 damage! And then I’m gonna push him back into that sphere of tentacles and Della Reeses.

Teamwork! Finally!

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Alright so its been a bit, pretty much because I just haven’t been in great headspace.  But I’m feeling better now and I’ve been watching a friend play through the Zero Escape games so really theres no better time.  Its the adventure zone!

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TAZ 55 Closing Thoughts

That was a good!  I still really like the Wheel of Suffering as a concept and while I’m not super sold on some the decisions about how the games work, overall they’re fun.  So far this has seemed like a fairly standard fight, just with all enemies having 1 HP, so I’m curious how Griffin is going to change things up.  Sorry this is short but thats just how the episode was split up.  I took the whole week after Christmas off so I’m hoping to get some good blogging in then but we all know how that goes.