jaistlyn

Twistling are great to make everyone suspect each other in a story, lol. Totally have DMed players and asked them to play twistlings for a bit. It was awesome.

The twistlings can and will attempt to copy abilities, but it will be a weaker form of the abilities. Someone could use their abilities to differentiate themselves if they are side by side with the twistling, yes, but usually Twistlings don't just appear at the same time as the person they are copying. They incapacitate or capture the originals first (at least, that's how I've seen them used, and do so myself too). As such, it will be hard to tell unless you know the original person really well.

Also @Delicious Steak since you're newer to Val, if I were to give a bit of a tip of how things work, the original poster usually (but there are always exceptions) takes on the task of organizing players, making the decision of when to skip people, and sometimes to push the plot forward a little if it's starting to stagnate. It can be something as simple as being the first to step out of the gate, etc. You're doing a great job so far though!

I'll just point out that you don't necessarily need a storyteller for this quest, everyone can contribute to move the thread along. For threads in Yh'mi specifically, when a Storyteller is required, it means I have specific checkpoints in mind for the quest that I don't want to reveal to all participants, that's why I ask for a storyteller for me to pass these secrets to 😄 This quest is fairly straightforward, so a storyteller is not necessary!

@Delicious Steak Yh'mi's soil is really poor for plant growth, multiple people have failed to transmutate arable soil in Inns'th. I wouldn't say the nearest green would be very fertile, but it can support hardy plants, and it would be located here at Dycaslarin Harbor (map by Csl). This harbor connects to Ursa Madeum for supplies because they entered a treaty with the Yh'mi paladins. It's about a day and a half's (horse) ride from Inns'th.

You write it in a summary post at the end of a thread, I review it, yes, and edit the lore to include the new bits, linking back to your summary as necessary so anyone looking for more info can find your thread, that's how it works. Take this entry on Lun'silth as an example of how it's integrated.

Enter the canonization guide!

Yeah correct, Yh'mi (the person) has no direct connection with the Yh'mi land lore yet, at least not until @Nobilis submits a canonization piece 🙂

These are the two relevant posts - I've never thought of that detail, but you can take it that anything natural from Yh'mi or its surroundings is of poor quality. Feel free to go ahead and elaborate on why in your posts!

I got it at a much lower price than that.. On amazon.ca it's going for CA$95.46 (~USD 72) right now, but I think I got it for $10-15 lower than that! $180 is definitely too high.

I like this one - Mage Knight https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/96848/mage-knight-board-game I love long board games that takes 8-10 hours to complete, and also games with a lot of replayability value. Mage Knight fits the bill, with a very interesting combat system.

The chamber turned into a confusing mess when flames alternately lit and went off, leaving afterimages in Fidelitas' vision. He continued to struggle against Ilene's copy, relying on his strength rather than his sight to keep her lethal claws away from him. "GET DOWN!" The voice came from behind him, directed at him. He wished to comply, but letting go wasn't an option. Instead, he suddenly pulled the mutant Xer in closer in an almost hug, then pivoted around her. This spun both of them around so that the Xer's back faced Vlad. Fidelitas used her body for cover for his head and torso as much as possible as Vlad pulled the trigger on the flame thrower. The flame splashed over the Xer, as well as Fidelitas' bare forearms. The intense burn was a shock of agony for the paladin, but he forced himself to withstand it for another second, until the Xer started to fall away. He pushed off and fell backwards, grunting. His entire body shook with the adrenalin pumping through it. He probably should have blacked out from the pain of the deep burns across both arms, but luckily his body decided that survival came first. "By Gaia, am I glad to see you!" Fidelitas exclaimed as he allowed Vlad to help him to his feet, then gave the engineer space as he wielded the flamethrower. "Look out!" he shouted, but it was too late when one of the Xers knocked Vlad down. Luckily, the engineer's reflexes were refined enough to block his doppelgänger's attack. The brief break in momentum of the Xer was enough for Fidelitas to deliver a swift kick to his face. It wasn't a refined kick, but if the mutated Xer had copied the anatomy of humans, then it stood to reason that their head was particularly sensitive. This hopefully drove the Xer back enough for Vlad to regain control over his borrowed weapon. With Vlad keeping the creatures at bay, Fidelitas started to move to the entrance of the back room, where Ilene was. Over the Inanis' shoulder, he saw Ed disappear, then the queen in the center exploded. It was a terrifying power, his shadow magic, that burst open the queen, sending her innards flying in all directions. This would have killed any other creature, instantly, but unfortunately that was not how a Sri Maash worked - it was a creature that was capable of manifesting illusions as reality, and it existed across both the physical and illusional realms. To kill one, they needed to attack it from both realms. Somehow, the queen had fused herself with one of the foul creatures, and had gained its abilities. The queen that Ed had attacked was an illusion. Ed's attack was not futile, however. It may not have been the queen's real body that he had phased through, but he had damaged some part of the Sri Maash's body. A low, garbled cry emerged from within the chamber, and the room changed in subtle ways - the tentacles came from different directions, and the remains of the queen's body were erased. Fidelitas saw Ilene hold her hand up, and felt the power that she was amassing. Then he saw her release it in a devastating attack that engulfed the room. His eyes widened. Ed was still inside the chamber! "No!" He cursed at both at her madness, and his own inability to stop it. Even if the whole chamber was decimated, the Maash-Queen hybrid would not be completely destroyed, only injured, until they managed to weed it out in the illusory realm. Even so, he held his breath. The chamber echoed with the cries of the Maash-Queen, as its tentacles and body were burned in the dark flame. A blackened and withered tentacle fell off the wall and onto the ground. A lump took shape into something with wings, and from it spewed a haze that enveloped them. Figures started to form in the haze, and resolved into the ethereal silhouettes of their comrades, as if two dimensions had overlapped with each other. They could see, but not touch them. Their comrades were standing in a snow-blanketed space, surrounded by wriggling pale larvae with sharp rending teeth. The larvae were breaking through a barrier around them, though large swaths of them had been killed by infighting and laser. In the air was an unexpected sight - the war elephant brought by the Aligorians was flying, armour and all, its ears flapping like wings. On the ground, looking mighty pissed, was the Hive-Queen, minus the tentacles of the Sri Maash. So it seemed the rest of their party had been fighting as well. Ed's and Ilene's attacks had weakened the creature and caused reality and illusion to blend into each other. An orb of dark power grew and glowed in the corner of the illusion, fuelled by the commander of the Subversors, Frederick. A notion passed through all of their minds - Ilene's, Ed's, Vlad's and Fidelitas'.. that this was the one chance they had, the final blow through both dimensions that would end this nightmare. But still an emptiness gnawed at Fidelitas. He fell to his knees, overcome by crushing exhaustion. The absence of his goddess meant an absence of power, and in his current state, he was nothing more than a simple man incapable of the feats his comrades were showing. They would do this. They didn't need him. No. A voice whispered at him, almost a gentle caress. We need you, Fidelitas. Videntia? His fellow White Hand paladin had the gift of Farsight, but he hadn't known her to be able to communicate psychically. Or was that just in his head? Fidelitas grasped at the final strands that could stop him from falling into despair. He thought of the brothers and sisters of the White Hand, how they had stood by each other through numerous battles. How young Volentia had weeped in his arms, privately, after they buried Diligence. How much strength and confidence Chastity had showed when he gripped his arm and told him to take the Furthest Point. Gaia was his goddess, but she wasn't his all. Fidelitas fought against the fatigue and rose to his feet yet again. He reached out to join his ruined, burnt hands with Frederick's, closely overlapping with the Subversor's own. Feeling the power in the orb, he poured his own desires and hopes into it. A twin orb of white flames and light swelled between his palms, manifested in the physical realm. "Join your powers to ours!" He called out to Ed, Ilene and Vlad.

"Some of the greatest battles will be fought within the silent chambers of your own soul." - Ezra Taft Benson The larvae had overcome the snow. Frederick's barrier had slowed their advance, but was starting to wear down under the weight of their onslaught. Hundreds of tiny mouths tore holes at the barrier, and the maggots wriggled through, flopping onto the ground like pale, fat rain. The larvae swarmed towards the most vulnerable prey - Charlie - until his blue flame engulfed them. Time paused and stretched, as if both parties were trying to figure out what had happened. Then movement started again, but this time, it became chaotic. The larvae turned against their own brethren, sharp teeth sinking into tender flesh. The writhing creatures bit and tore at each other, leaving swaths of maggot juice in their wake. At the same time, Dan's laser beams cut lines of death through the swarm. If the sight of the creatures had drawn disgust before, it was downright revolting now. - Soryn's deep meditative state bore fruit when he found himself being gradually aware of his physical self. His body was folded into a fetal position and restrained within the egg-like structure. He wasn't able to move, but his consciousness straddled the line between illusion and reality. Sensing her operator's will, Celene beeped to life in the dark chamber and moved toward the egg that held Soryn, awaiting instructions. Perhaps the device could be used to facilitate communications between Soryn and those who had awoken in the caverns. Light from a fire a short distance away reflected and danced around the exit to this chamber. However, the price to pay for establishing a connection with his physical self was that Soryn was immobile in this state, exposed to the advancing larvae swarm. If no one protected him to keep them away, their bite would jolt the journalist back into the illusion - if they did not devour him whole first. - Each of Dan's laser line that killed the larvae was like a knife carving a wound into the Hive-Queen's chest. She could sense the confusion of her young, and the struggle of those who had turned against themselves; for their minds were connected to hers. She focused to wrest control of them back. The blue fireballs Charlie shot were dissipated by the barrier that protected her. A disturbance against her barrier. The Hive-Queen's attention shot towards Sheryl, who was holding her hand outstretched towards her. The Majeure knight was attempting to manipulate the fabric of this realm. The knight had made a breakthrough in her mental state, but crushing her would not be as easy as restoring some pieces of clothing. After all, she had sacrificed her self to fuse with a more powerful being. Reciprocating the gesture, the Hive-Queen raised an arm in Sheryl's direction, intending to crush her windpipes. There would be one less prey to be eaten, but it would not matter much. In a battle of mental will, the Hive-Queen had the upper hand. A darting shadow at the corner of her eye, then an impact that knocked off her focus. Again, and again. The dark knight on the wyvern was nothing more than a mere annoyance, but it was like a buzzing fly around her face, causing her to lose concentration. She switched targets from Sheryl to Gormaric. She made a downward slamming motion, using her control over this realm to force the airborne Eri to the ground. RI... IIIIP The queen's action would have succeeded, had there not been a sudden tearing sound that everyone felt in the depths of their souls. One of the queen's arms ripped from her body, with a force that threw it across the space. She shrieked in pain, and both Eri and Gormaric suddenly found themselves free. The ripping sound was more than that, however. From the open wound of where the Queen's arm was, the very fabric of reality leaked through like a haze, enveloping the area around them. It was as if a hologram had wrapped around them, projecting figures that they could see but not feel. Both familiar and foreign figures surrounded them - it was the vision they had seen earlier, but now they saw that Vlad had joined Ed, Ilene and Fidelitas. The engineer was wielding a flamethrower against the mutants wearing their faces. The four were standing in a cavern chamber that was charred by dark magic. Long, burned tentacles crawled along the chamber's walls, and on the ground lay a burned creature with wings that resembled the Queen. For now, they could do nothing to touch or communicate with the rest. The sight of the flying war elephant added to the list of impossibilities. Just as Jorge's magically enhanced arrow had been effective before, the Queen was unable to withstand the sheer force of Suru charging into her from above. The impact slammed her into the ground, though it was softened by a blanket of snow. With Sheryl's continued pressure to crush her, the queen was surrounded on many fronts. Despite it, the queen clawed her way upright again, her eyes glowing an intense yellow. The larvae around became frenzied, and clamoured over each other to launch themselves at their enemies, aiming for their eyes, throats, faces. If they were to secure a victory against the queen, now was their best and only chance. The image of Fidelitas stood, and joined his hands with Frederick's. Between his hands, a corresponding orb that glowed with light grew to match Frederick's. To completely destroy the queen and free themselves from this nightmare, they had to kill her from both sides of this divide at the same time.

One more thing to check, if you have Followed your writing partner(s), make sure the setting for "Someone I am following makes a post" is not turned off.