Ilmatari Artifacts
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[Sister Hope, of the temple of Ilmater, spends a great deal of time searching both in the library and in the temple among her fellow sisters for records and legends of Ilmatari artifacts capable of removing or slowing the effects of powerful curses in texts on both history and folklore. Specifically she is looking for an artifact capable of undoing a soul-stealing curse that has been placed upon someone by a lich in the service of Orcus known as Harthoon. She also checks at the Library and mages' guild, to which she owns a guest pass, for information on human to demon transformation curses, and how they might be interrupted once begun]
(( Int 14, Lore 8 ))
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Please review point 1 and 6, and do a search before looking through the forums.
You'ld have saved yourself time with these:
/forum/viewtopic.php?p=590622#590622
/forum/viewtopic.php?p=702200#702200 -
//Edited my post to be more specific, and spoilerish.
//I am the only Ilmatari that typically plays during my timezone, and possibly the only one with direct knowledge of the specific plot in question. I have asked the PC sources I know in game, and they've no information on how to pursue the plot. Honestly, if we're not allowed to research things to advance or solve plots (point 4), and we're not allowed to research things that don't have significant bearing on the game world (point 2), then there's almost nothing left to be researched, and the exact type of information that might fit into whatever's left is so vacuous that I've really no idea what it might be.
//I do typically search before I research, but usually I find previous research with:
// a) "You find nothing."
// b) Links to the rules page
// c) Unanswered threads//Honestly, I'm sorry for the cheeky tone, but I've been playing here on and off for almost 6 years, and I don't think I've ever managed to find anything here. Why does it exist if not to find information we can't in game? It makes no sense. It could have no other conceivable purpose.
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A brief look over the Library Forum can find hundreds of examples of acceptable attempts at research in the library, but seriously, if everyone who went into the library asking "Hey, anyone know of a powerful artifact that can solve our problems?" got themselves an artifact, there'd be nothing left.
How many ancient powerful Ilmateri artifacts should the library be able to point people toward? Because I'm sure dozens of people have made posts almost identicle to yours.
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That's a fair point, but I think you shouldn't underestimate your players.
Surely each character is going to set out looking for the type of information, artifact, or what have you which would give them their desired outcome, but that's not to say that the players are expecting you to come spawn an artifact on them because they posted a thread in the library research forum. Maybe a trail started here could lead a group somewhere cool in game. Maybe at the end of less boring, forum based searching the trail goes cold. Maybe you find the artifact, but there's something horribly wrong with it. Or maybe the tales of its effect were exaggerated over time. Heck, maybe they start looking for one thing and end up finding something completely different, but still of interest.
But, really, what this forum could do is give DMs an unparalleled opportunity to make some of your events more relevant to the parties involved in them. That's not to say that I think you should always go, "Here is a quest just for you!" via the library research forum, but it gives you a great opportunity to figure out which PCs are aware of what events, and how each individual character is hoping to try and influence those events. As someone with some DM experience, I think those are things that DMs should be interested in paying attention to.
Hell- it doesn't even need to start here. You could just as easily post a "You find nothing." and then have something vaguely relevant come around in a more interesting way in game at a later date.
Many events that I've been involved in, although themselves great fun, I've felt vaguely alienated from (with a few notable exceptions), as if I were playing a role in some political drama of which only a tiny proportion of the server population was really aware of the underpinnings of, and that my roles in them could just as easily have been filled by anyone else, had they put in the effort to find out about them.
I think that by responding to most player inquires with a stern warning and a link to the rules page there's a great deal of opportunity being squandered. But hey, that's just me.
And even if I'm just totally wrong (maybe I am) it doesn't leave the purpose of this forum any less vague. If you don't want a place for players to go when they need to look for information or leads on to deal with their problems when they're having trouble finding it in game, then the forum just shouldn't exist.
Anyway, this is way off topic. I'll just assume that there's nothing to be found, and you can feel free to move/get rid of the thread.
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We take care to try and reward players with DM events, plots and story archs when we see that they play a character that's not only entertaining for us to DM for, but also provides entertainment to the player-base of the server; Someone who's character is interesting, tries to involve others in memorable adventures and events of their own making and keeps up the interest and entertainment of other players.
Never has it been, or will it be, that we decide to create a story arch for people because they expressed an interest in having one via the library.
If you're looking to get something done, work toward it IG in a way that's interesting and entertaining and gives you a chance for your character to interact with others. If you're looking to learn about curses; Contact the Mage's Guild, arrange adventures into the Vast Swamps seeking out knowledgeable Swamp-Shamen, Find yourself an extra-planar hedge wizard to trade information with, but asking the Librarian won't typically get you much ancient and powerful arcane lore nor will it effortlessly involve you in/solve plots.
If you'd like to continue this discussion I invite you to find me on IRC.
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// Its not cheeky.
We just say that if you want to research something, tell us exactly what it is that you want to research. You just asked for Ilmateri artifacts. We simply can't know what you're trying to figure out if you're not specific, what you have up there now is much more helpful and the DM behind this plot will reply or not as his plot requires.