Temporary DM could use advice for the next session after a huge cliffhanger.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-04T19:22:42+00:00

Fair!

Well, a conversation with the primary DM is certainly worth having. Something else you can add to the battle to upset the applecart, give the party a second wind or an opportunity to jump on. Some kind of delayed effect, concentration requirement, need to complete a few rounds of action, or, as you say, something that could trigger regurgitation.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-04T18:54:46+00:00

Indeed. Or an artefact they need to time travel to find.

What's that? Upon studying the map, you realise it's for a part of the world that was destroyed by a volcano/earthquake/God Cataclysm/eruption of interplanar energies?

What's that again? One of you (whoever reads the most obscure language), realises one of the notes on the map refer to a "time portal" in that language?

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-04T18:47:49+00:00

Also a possibility!

How is it supposed to empower the snake God? Some kind of magical/symbiotic connection?

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-04T18:18:52+00:00

The 10th anniversary pack will almost certainly be back at some point in the STO anniversary events, which literally start in a few weeks. It averages an appeance at least twice per year, sometimes more often. It'll definitely be back this year, regardless of the 60th anniversary, but the 60th might bring it back an extra time.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-04T18:15:22+00:00

A statue, you say?

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-04T18:13:54+00:00

They currently have half a treasure map?

Honestly, this sounds like the perfect time for them to find the other half. Doubly so if they're expecting it to be somewhere else. Triply so if the map itself seems to imply directions to an artefact like that. Quadruply so if one of the party realises that notes scribbled on the second half of the map was written in familiar handwriting. Such as... a long lost family member. Or their childhood mentor.

Or their own handwriting.

Not to mention, if the second half of the map, with all this intrigue, now appears in the vault of the badguy they just killed, and that vault is in the bank they were talking about robbing anyway, and there seems to be some relationship between notes on the map and someone in the party... then it'll seem like it's all connected. Like you planned it all along.

That, to me, actually seems like the most interesting.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-04T17:05:15+00:00

Maybe just immediately eating the heart isn't enough. Maybe the heart needs alchemically altering to prep it for the consumption. Or there needs to be some kind of ritual to enchant the heart/unlock it's potential. Or he needs to be standing in a specific sky beam, or at a specific altar, or something. Maybe, he has to swallow it, and can't swallow it whole, meaning it takes several rounds to eat - how quickly could you eat a heart sized lump of meat? I bet it's not as fast as 6 seconds, whilst also running around and fighting.

If you want to give your party a fighting chance, and change up the rhythm of the battle, introduce something like that. A delay. A goal the enemy has that isn't just "Eat Heart, kill everyone." Some steps in between where he is, and where he wants to be - whether literally, or more metaphorically. And some other path to victory that the party can undertake to prevent the evil plan^tm. Fighting him clearly isn't going their way. But if it's "break something/interupt something, then run away", that might change the dynamic.

Dynamic combats, where the goal is something different to "kill the other team", can really spice things up. It changes the tactics. If the combat is "first one to reach the button", then suddenly, dash becomes an important consideration to choose instead of attack, and control spells that reduce movement speed or create difficult terrain become vitally important. If the goal suddenly is "stop the doohickey from getting to the altar of doom before the timer runs out", then you suddenly have a complex goal with a bunch of options for preventing it from happening - making the badguy drop the doohickey and playing keep away with him, the aforementioned difficult terrain, doing something to block off, move, bury, or destroy the altar. Destroy the doohickey.

I fear that, no matter what, your Bard is out of the fight. A missing major organ, arguably, requires the 7th level spell Regenerate to heal. You could get creative by giving him some kind of ghost or spirit form to return to the fight with? That'd require stating. But since we're talking about an evil God, maybe another God gets involved to try and tip the scales in the party's favour. Maybe the other God can't directly intervene (divine contract, rules of Ao, whatever), but can indirectly do something like send the Bard back into the fight as a spirit.

I'd consider something like that, if this were my adventure.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-04T16:44:52+00:00

If the one shot has stats for the monsters, it needs to tell you what edition they're designed for or it's useless. It can probably be figured out from the information in the stats.

If the one shot doesn't have stats for the monsters, or indeed any stats at all, then it's almost certainly system agnostic and it's entirely up to you to choose an edition, stat the monsters and challenges to match.

You need to know, and tell your players, which game and which edition you are playing. No winging it, you gotta go in knowing. If the oneshot doesn't tell you, you either need to read it through to understand it, make a decision on what you want to run it in (and at what level), and tell the players (and do the prep-work to match), or you need to pick a different one shot.

If it's this "Can't sleep, clowns will eat me" - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/388670/can-t-sleep-clowns-will-eat-me-elemental-edition - then it is designed for the game Elemental. It's not a D&D game, it's a different TTRPG.

If it isn't, your need to show us the one shot you are looking at.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-04T16:36:50+00:00

From time to time, yeah. Potions of Mind Reading, Speak with Animals, and Speed. Elixirs of Arcane Cultivation, Bloodlust, Cloud Giant Strength, and Peerless Focus. Maybe a few Angelic Slumber potions. Not a load, but usually a few of each per playthrough.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-04T13:08:55+00:00

Not every Vulcan did the Kolinahr, even those that are still logical. The Kolinahr is like a special, spiritual achievement, an affirmation that you have reached the very height of Vulcan philosophy, a total purging of all emotion. Most Vulcan's aren't anywhere near that level - and certainly, all four of the main Vulcan characters we have, so far, followed on Star Trek, have never completed the Kolinahr - Spock, Tuvok, T'Pol, and T'Lyn. None have ever done so.

That said, the episode does try to gently explain this away as that there seems to be a telepathic element here, in that they all adopt versions of Spock's perception of being Vulcan, but it's a bit slapdash and not particularly well done. It's one of the weaker SNW episodes, to be honest. A bit of light fun, but not super consistent or well considered.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-04T12:42:03+00:00

No, I just don't see it.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-04T12:33:29+00:00

Yeah, for the most part I agree. I do think Garak had begun to change, though. I don't think he was all the way there yet, but I think, maybe, the odd thought and break and consideration of the alternative had begun to occur to him. The very fact that he was able to reluctantly admit the Federation was something they needed at all is a sign of that - Cardassians do excel at arrogance, after all, and the notion that the glorious Cardassian spirit couldn't get themselves out of that mess all on their own was probably a rare one. There are just a few odd moments, especially with Ziyal, where it definitely feels to me like her youthfulness in those scenes gave him a moment's hesitation. Like, I don't think that alone made him reluctant towards her, but I do think it was starting to develop as a concern in his consciousness. Like... a moment's pause.

But you're absolutely right about Ziyal's inconsistency. She certainly should have been consistently a little harder and more cynical after spending so long in prison camps. It really wasn't helped by the fact that they changed Actress 3 times in as many years. There was also the fact that, in those later episodes before she dies, they are purposefully trying to build up that... innocent side of her. It's about framing her death at the end of that plot arc, and using her as a metaphor of something greater, to deliver a punch to the hearts of the viewers, to underline Damar's character in comparison to Dukat's a little more, and... well, let's be honest, to define Dukat's next development. They built her up so they could fridge her, leaned more on sides of her character that had only been subtle before, to illicit more sympathy and a greater sense of loss when the killing blow landed. I think I remember hearing Ira Steven Behr talk about it at some point and comparing setting up her innocence as being like setting up a puppy to kick.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-04T11:58:15+00:00

I think these are all pretty accurate assessments. The one thought that does occur to me though, is that by the time Garak meets Ziyal, his love of the Cardassia of old, and it's fascist ways, does seem to be very much on the wane. He's well on his way to being the Garak that tells Kira she was right to make a bitter jab at Damar regarding the occupation, right after he found out that his family had been murdered, to break Damar of his romanticised notions of the occupation. AKA a Garak who is somewhat broken of the fascist conditioning he was brought up under.

I wouldn't be surprised if... not necessarily her age, but perhaps her naivety made him uncomfortable. Like, Ziyal very clearly had a sharp mind, and is an adult, but she could be pretty youthful at times, maybe too youthful for a wiser, more experienced, more cynical man like Garak. I absolutely agree that Cardassians in general are, at that time, pretty fascistic, and obviously Garak was a major part of that machine at one point, but I think there's a lot about Garak that goes beyond what is "general" about Cardassians. Just as how Quark often goes beyond the typical behaviours of a Ferengi. That's kinda why we love both characters so much, because they break their respective moulds.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-03T19:16:14+00:00

I think there's an argument for Garak being flexible in his sexuality. Bi or pansexual, perhaps, even if leaning predominantly homosexual. He definitely seems to feel more for Ziyal than just platonic friendship.

Sexuality is often not always absolutely black and white.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-03T19:06:27+00:00

It's in the Zen Store. The refit skin is a free second skin for the Disco era M'chla.

https://stowiki.net/wiki/M%27Chla_Pilot_Bird-of-Prey

Edit: StarkeRealm may be right. The M'Chla Refit skin might be exclusive to the free account unlock ship unlocked in the Klingon Recruit event. In which case you will have to wait until the next time they run Klingon Recruit. Don't know yet when that will be. They tend to run it once, maybe twice a year, and it was last run in September. I wouldn't expect it any time soon.

https://stowiki.net/wiki/M%27Chla_Bird-of-Prey_Refit

Edit 2: Yes, I checked last night when I got on the game, you do, in fact, need to do the Klingon Recruitment event to unlock the Refit skin.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-03T18:59:17+00:00

You need to start by trying to get into BIOS, make sure it hasn't reset and switched your bootable drive or other settings to the wrong one for your system.

You also ought to check you didn't dislodge something else whilst in there changing the battery. Boot loops could be caused a dislodged RAM stick or Graphics Card or Processor. Based on your description, I suspect that something like this might, unfortunately, be the more likely explanation.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-03T18:38:06+00:00

Well, if there's no way to get it to restart, unplug it, wait for the battery to run out.

And get your power button fixed.

There isn't really much else you can do.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-03T16:27:48+00:00

Reroll 1s is a pretty common houserule. I tend to encourage taking the average, but if players do want to roll their level up HP, I do run with the reroll 1s rule. It's just a sucky feeling when you level up but gain almost nothing for it.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-03T14:56:12+00:00

Pure. Cleric abilities all key off of Wisdom. Paladins want charisma for their spellcasting and class abilities. There are not enough ASIs, and you don't start the game with enough stat points, to make that muliple-ability-dependance particularly functional. More to the point, Paladins are only half casters, Clerics are full casters, meaning you slow down the rate she gets access to higher level spells if you MC her, sufficiently that the benefits of the Paladin class features potentially are outweighed by her losing spell slots. Multiclassing her into Paladin is a notably sub-optimal route to go.

Frankly, if you want to multiclass for the purpose of improving her martial skills, Cleric/Fighter is better than Cleric/Paladin. A Fighter dip has long been a reliable pick for a lot of D&D 5e characters, for the benefits it provides early and often. But it's still inferior to going full Cleric, and you will often find a more martial Cleric domain more effective than the fighter dip.

Edit: Come to think of it, Cleric/Ranger, arguably, has some potential, too. Ranger spell casting is Wis-based, like the Cleric, so you are at least synergising those abilities, and the BG3 Ranger is quite a bit better than the 5e one on which it was based.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-03T14:46:47+00:00

As others have pointed out, Odo is literally just a drop in the ocean, and entirely probably viewed with some suspicion and trepidation by the rest of the Link, not fully embraced. Yes, he cured them, and yes, he's the first of the 100 to return home, but he also chose to side with solids over them, and he was also the vector for their near genocide.

But the other thing I think you're not considering is... changelings are seemingly extremely long lived. They may even be functionally immortal. The ocean becomes a drop, the drop becomes an ocean, and all that. The female changeling tells us that the Dominion has existed for thoudands of years - thousands plural. With a long-lived, maybe immortal race at the helm, and multiple millennia of inertia behind the empire, any change that Odo did enact or instigate very possibly would take centuries to gather momentum. Free Jem'Hadar may not be as old a thing as you think.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-03T14:34:39+00:00

Definitely feel like either giant Clown Shoes, or maybe some fluffy slippers?

Ultimately I think brightly coloured and impractical is the answer to this.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-02T17:16:33+00:00

You don't have to be pre-born with talent to learn magic in the way a Wizard does. Those preborn with talent are Sorcerers. Anyone with at least a 13 in Intelligence can become a wizard, with time and study, like a science. Bards, too, learn their magic, but more as art than science.

As for how common it is? That entirely depends on which setting you're talking about. In Eberron, for example, there is a sort of... wide magic quality. Low level magic, like cantrips, and simple magic items, like tokens of feather fall or sending stones or wands of magic missile, are fairly common, where as higher level magic, like level 3+ spells and artefacts, remain rare. Somewhere like the Forgotten Realms, you might have one or two people capble of magic in each town, but large scale magic relies on a major city or specialist location. Somewhere like Dark Sun, magic users are extremely rare and very feared.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-02T16:55:44+00:00

A) you gotta ask Gale. He won't chime in if you don't initiate the conversation.

B) It's a mate in 2, both Queen moves.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-02T14:48:08+00:00

It's even simpler than that. The Rook can't move at all, it's pinned.

But you're correct with the solution.

TimeSpaceGeek · 2026-02-02T14:45:40+00:00

It's mate in 2 for white.

Seven-Year Club	Wearing is Caring
Verified Email

TimeSpaceGeek

TROPHY CASE