KhorasForum

I definitely understand that there would be discrepencies in the records and legends, as the events in question took place --2,700 years ago--  In that sense, the fact that there are discrepencies is actually pretty cool. However, my players will almost definitely make it a point to release Rexilar from his prison, as they really need to talk to him. So, I want to have the hard facts on hand, just in case.

Of course, they might just figure that hunting around for the Stone Phellysian will be too hard, and so go up to Avar, instead. Ah well :-)

My Khoras campaign is starting back up next weekend, and so I'm back in the boards :-) My players are headed into Kalimura/Talis/Bathynia, specifically to "find Rexilar", so I'm trying to pin down the history of the place.

Do you have an explicit timeline of the events that took place in that area? I think I've figured out the general order of events, but obviously some of what's written are untrue legends, not what actually happened. From what I can find, there's an issue of Rexilar living a -long- time, the legend of Threll being incorrect, and/or the phellysian creation myth being a little off. Here's what I have:

1. Rexilar created the phellysians immediately around the time of the Sundering ("The two suns began their endless dance...")
    -The phellysians may have overthrown Rexilar ("Tanluris, the lands and estates own by    that wizard, fell to the feline race... all of its land and resources.")
2. the phellysians fought with the Bathyn, and took some prisoners (including Threll)
3. Threll leads the prisoners out of Talis, and is on his way to becoming the leader of the Bathyn.
4. Threll becomes a sorceror
5. Threll dies during the Age of Chaos (1CY - 88CY) of "sickness" (Mage's Madness or Miradic Syndrome? It would make sense for Threll to be a wild mage)
6. Rexilar hid away in the Stone Phellysian during the Great Way (starting 89 CY -340 CY)
7. Threll (or some other rival to Rexilar, I'm assuming Threll because of no other named possibilities) finds the Stone Phellysian and traps him within it.
8. Rexilar's rival is slain, and the Stone Phellysian wanders out of the record books.

(Yes, I am an academic. Sorting through large quantities of source texts to produce a conclusion is a big part of what I do ;-) Normally it's better presented and cited than this, though. My apologies.) So...there is some considerable ambiguity. David, would you mind shedding some light on what actually happened? Or have you not made it up, yet? :-D

In my campaign, the activities of many long-dead wizards, including Rexilar, are having big effects on the PCs now, so they're trying to dig up as much information as possible.

On a related note, I see you're doing ruins for this month! Well...last month! Do you have any notes on Rexilar and Threll's ruins you're planning on putting up?

Thanks!

"What software are you using to edit the raw footage?"

Software? What software? :-D There really isn't any. A camera in the room ran straight to a DVD recorder, which burned to the DVD (10 of them, each with 2 hours of footage). The tracking program we use to get data out of the video is called Ethovision, and it has next to no video editing capabilitis, since it has a very specific use (tracking animals), and nothing else. I can change the brightness and contrast of the total video, but not individual sections like I'm describing.

This by no means needs to be done professionally, just selectively adjust the video enough so that Ethovision can track the animals, no matter where in the room they go. I'm going to call Noldus, the company that makes the program, within the next day or two to see if they know some other way to fix the problem. I'm doubtful, though.

I have a pressing video editing issue, and I can't seem to find anyone that specializes in the area. Luckily for me, I remembered that several of the people on Khoras make, you know, -movies-, so one of them might have a suggestion for me.

Basically, the issue is I have 20 hours worth of film (data for an experiment in my lab) where one section of the feed is too bright. It's one room for the whole 20 hours, and the lighting puts too much glare on an area, meaning our tracking software can't do it's job. Is there any software out there that can selectively manipulate the brighteness and/or contrast of just a specific section of the viedo feed?

Thanks!

Nah, I'm around. The person who was writing the summaries in my group has been a bum and not written the last few, plus we're taking a break from the Khoras campaign until mid June. Thus, not much Khorasing for me. :-)

A player in my campaign is becoming something of a poison connoisseur, so this information would be useful to me, too. I suspect David is pretty busy these days, and I've already stolen so many of his ideas, so I'll see if I can't whip this one up myself :-) Sometime within the next week or two I'll try to post my hypothesis.

Do you have sites that I could use as a reference?

If you've loked at my players' character log on the Gaming Tales forum, the group has just arrived at Asylum. Aside from tracking down their target (Ray Bresslar), and the possibility of Maloren having a tangle with The Company, does anyone have suggestions for what sorts of things ought to happen in this gigantinourmohuge city?

Tracking down Ray will lead them through several places, including the Ring of Flesh, which I just love from a story-telling standpoint. His bodyguard will have been killed by Phendar, so that brings that character into the mix.

How about influence of The Company in this city? I suspect it would be huge, but since the area is so chaotic, maybe Maloren can slip around without being noticed, if she's careful.

Friday, March 31



And so the group decides to board the barge and head off to Drakkel.  The trip is uneventful, with only two stops: one in Barter and one in Price.  There the group goes shopping in book stores and ends up picking up a book on teleportation for Kaya and explosions for Calloway.

When they arrive in Drakkel, Calloway and Cassius head to the Guild House to research on their lead in Drakkel, Sorov Zolode, a war mage of the Irennian League who lived 2500 years ago.  By perusing the guild families' records, the brothers discover that Zolode married into the Bresslar family.  Furthermore, Zolode left his possessions .  They get the address of the family's manor.

Golrath buys a cart and some horses.  Golrath, you crazy son of a bitch.

Malloren and Kaya stop at Malloren's mother's flat.  While entering the apartment, they notice an ogre watching them.  Malloren's mother is definitively not home, so the pair exit the apartment.  The ogre is standing across the street, trying to look nonchalant.  Malloren crosses the street and begins to question the ogre and his motives.  Once he lets slip that he does in fact know her name, he bolts down an alley.  Malloren throws a shuriken into his leg.  He begs to have the shuriken removes, and tells Malloren that he was hired by the Company.  Malloren leads the ogre to the conclusion that Kaya is the one who can transform.  Kaya heals the ogre, and he runs away.

The group meets up at the docks, relates their respective adventures, then separates into two groups.  Golrath leaves to meet up with his client, William Ramsey.  There, Mr. Ramsey expresses dismay that the artifacts from Iquro were lost in the Trackless Mire.  He pays Golrath, then offers him another chance to go retrieve the artifacts.

Meanwhile, the other four head to the Bresslar's house.  There, they meet with a butler, a son, and the father, the head of the house.  All of them are a bit off kilter.  The father is willing to let the four see the artifacts, except that his youngest son has eloped with his bodyguard to Asylum, taking those particular artifacts with him.  The group makes a deal with the head of the Bresslar family that if they protect and possibly persuade the son to return home, they will be allowed to keep the artifacts.

The group meets up again at the inn, a ship anchored at the dock.  Everyone relays their respective information.  When Golrath relays his bit about William Ramsey, Malloren tells everyone that she heard a rumor he was dead.  Kaya scries for Mr. Ramsey, and the person that Golrath talked to was in fact he.

The group then decides to go to Asylum, a week-long journey.  They enter the town.

Sunday, March 26

While Kaya researches in the Lore Masters Library and Calloway and Cassius research in the Ithell University Library, Malloren is accosted by a dark figure in an alleyway.  He asks for the whereabouts of the amulet, which of course, is way back in the Trackless Mire.  She is released, and the group reconvenes at Kaya's house.

The three have found nothing of note in their research.  Professor Winters, Kaya's father, asks for details of their proposed journey, which he is considering financing through the university.  During this conversation, a dark figure in leather armor is spied spying outside the window.

Kaya, Malloren, and the Brothers Cassades run outside to apprehend this shadowy figure.  Oh, and I suppose Golrath was there too.  Anyway, following a chase on rooftop and by horse on the ground, Prof. Winters shoots the shadowy figure mid-leap, and she tumbles through the second story window of a neighbor's house.

Kaya and Calloway enter the house through the main house, while Malloren climbs in through the second story window.  She enters a master bedroom, where blood is smattered all over the sheets.  She then enters the bathroom and is promptly knocked unconscious.

Calloway and Kaya make their way upstairs to the bathroom.  There, two figures are spotted.  A battered woman huddled scared in the corner, and a leather-clad figure sailing through the window.  Kaya heals the woman in the corner, and Calloway shoots a fireball at the figure flying out the window, while Cassius simultaneously lassos it.

A bullet pops out of the newly healed flesh of the woman.  She punches Kaya in the face, then jumps out the window herself.  On the ground, it is quickly ascertained that the fireballed, lassoed figure on the ground is not the person that was spying on them, but rather Malloren in armor.  Cassius promptly chases after the de-armored enemy on horseback (yes they leave Malloren there, even though she was clubbed over the head, thrown out a window, and fireballed), his dagger infused with fire thanks to his brother.  He throws it into the spy, the spy throws it back, then Cassius throws it back yet again.  Then Prof. Winters shoots the bitch again.

The spy makes her way to a well and jumps down there.  They decide they might need Malloren to climb there since she's the most adept at those sorts of things, so they revive her.  After swimming in the well for twenty minutes, she conclusively finds no trace of the spy.

Without any more leads on this spy, the adventurers split into two groups: one group goes back to the libraries, to do more researching, while the other group buys tickets to the barge that will carry them to Drakkel.  Yes, they are indeed brave, daring, and exciting folks.

The next morning, the group heads out early to catch their boat.  Calloway has one of his transfiguration attacks and manages to catch in his tentacled arm a crossbow bolt intended for Malloren's head.  Staying where they are in the middle of the street where there was an assassination attempt on one of their members, the wise brothers Cassades loudly berate Malloren for having things shot at her, and demand that she tell them all her secrets.  She refuses.  Another crossbow bolt is fired at her head, and again Calloway transforms and catches it with his tentacle.  This time his transformation doesn't stop, and his body is deformed in gruesome seizures.  His allies decide now is a good time to leave the crowded street where onlookers are gawking and would-be assassins have plenty of opportunity to take aim.

They take Calloway to the Lore Masters Library, where the head lore master there gives Calloway some hunter's herb, a preservative, which calms his attack.  The lore master informs Calloway that the effects of the herb are temporary, and if he wants a permanent solution he might try an old woman that resides in the Trackless Mire.  The same Trackless Mire where the group was robbed.

So to Drakkel, to follow the leads on the mystery of the amulet?  Or to the Trackless Mire, to find a cure for Calloway?  Tune in to the next installment for these answers and more!

Right now it's nothing too amazing, just a functional Excel (OpenOffice) file.  I'm working on making it a little more aesthetically pleasing

Hey, I'm making a calendar for my campaign, which I can use to make notes for what happened where and when. I'm trying to automate the moon phases, but I may be finding a little trouble. That 11-year "in line" that creates the big storms. When was the last one?

I've initially placed the World Storm as one of them (year 0), because it was convenient and made sense. Maybe moons' gravity acting on the magical energy helped cause the Sundering, blah blah. I sort of assumed that these 11-year conjunctions were when all three moons were full (or new) together. That's not so, as my spreadsheet math tells me. This may have just been a bad assumption on my part.

And when you say that a moon's cycle is 27 days, do you mean that it takes 27 days to return to the same point, or just to the point right before it? If it's the point right before it, then two of the moons can fit nicely in line with the weeks and months. If not, then then it's not so pretty.

Thanks!

Ah. Just figured it out. You can set the scale, so you read directly in miles.

So, recently I was trying to find a digital solution to measuring distances on the Khoras world map. Lacking any other alternative, I decided to resort to a piece of string. No longer!

ImageJ is a powerful, and free, image manipulation program, which you can find here: http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/

Using ImageJ, all you have to do is download one of the maps, open it, and then draw a squiggly line on it that represents the path you want to take. Hit Ctrl+M, and it measures the length of the line (I think in pixels, but I'm still playing with that). I used Strathon to Ithell as my base case to establish a conversion rate, and now I can easily and accurately measure and distance I want.

This sucker can do a ton more things, as well. Like measure areas of countries, if you wanted. Just outline the figure and go to Analyze->Measure. Voila! Now you can see if all the Land Area estimates we have on the nation pages are close 

Just thought I would let people know about this. My group is traveling great distances every other session, so it's certainly useful for me.

Awesome. Sounds good. 

Alrighty, I think I'm good for now. Hopefully we'll play this Sunday, and then you can see what I'm cooking up in the story hour.