Oake () - one of two orcs whose names became associated with a failed colony
on Vyrica when it somehow came to be known as Roanoake. Friend of Phillipe
Du Nord.
Obah Temple Mission - see the Mock Turtle Mission to the Obah Ziggurat.
Obelisk - ship captained by Josiah Wedgewood, former first mate on the
Albatross under Robin Obelisk. Used by the Second Bridge Mission in May
10043.
Obelisk, Robin, Captain (NPC). The formidable female human captain
of The Albatross. She provided transportation for a SOAK mission to
Blendon Island and the Omnico Ilmenite Mine and Ilum Alpha missions.
On 5/11/43 the Second Bridge Mission left on the Obelisk, captained by
Robin's former first mate, Josiah Wedgewood. This seems to support the
fears that Robin was killed on the previous mission with SOAK.
Octagon - in the Mac Duff tomb, see Forsythia Cemetery Exploration.
Oda, Prir (Lisa) - human naturalist and member of OMNICo. Killed in
combat with egyebrech on Bald Mountain on Ilum Gamma. Missions: Sprinal
Tap (team leader), Ilum Gamma.
Ole, Olive () - associated with Copper Hull and Cyprius Shedd.
Ombarov, Caspar (Ben) Human male. Sailor, thug, and self-acclaimed pirate. Ugly. Vornish. Captured by enemy with Randim, late 3202..
OMNICo. An adventuring group created to compete in Omniventure 10037 which then stayed together spreading murder and mayhem as they ostensibly tried to save the world.
Known or suspected members: Grey Armstrong, Chorn Aya, Bernardo
Broadmoor, Brigg, Bob the Great, Simmian Calveras, Isabella Cardinoff,
Angellene Correllion, Bartholemew Cubbins, Dilvish, Sparrow Falcon, Gungdin
Gambain, Keyzar Giradoux, Gail Gladiolus, Hawthorne, Felissa Hayes-Hunter,
Grey Holland, Ajax T. Huge, Mirabella LeFevre-DuJours, Jean-Paul Marat,
Thom Merrilin, Miles Millstone, Moonshadow, Prir Oda, Martgass T.
Philosopher, Delvin Rover, Thor Samson, Soleme, George Straun, Abner
Strumpet, Dextro Stunkfellow, Lantelle Svorak, Min Terra, Adso
Thitherbrain, Thumbelina, Izanami Tzukumo, Sargenta Welch, Ed "Wussbuster"
Xing.
Point of Contact: Box 496 Mail Mall One, KDP West Republic or Box
12321 / Dun Cess / Confederacy.
- Castle Vaheran - 10037? - same as Glacial Wall missions? - Hired by
Jubal Tokenfall of SETCo to go to Castle Vaheran. Found the body of Jubal
Tokenfall in a pit there with some maigc items and ended up getting doomed
by the druids. See Castle Vaheran. [GA?, LS]
- Sprinal Tap for SETCo - April 4 10038 to . A party left Carthage and
traveled to the southwestern end of the Sprinal Tap. They investigated the
mountainous regions from both the east and the west sides in order.
Captain Michael Ferroln of The Clockwork Orange provided the transportation
for the party. The leader of the mission party was Isabella Cardinoff with
Lieutenants Gray Armstrong and Jean-Paul Marat. [Team: AC, MP, PO]
- Ayer's Rock for SETCo - cancelled.
- Ilum Gamma - .The primary goal of the mission was to determine what,
if any, ties the shell puzzle has to Ilum Gamma. Omnico's first
independent mission. (Team - AC, MM, S.)
- Diplomat Transport Mission for SETCO - July 10039. The party collected
various representatives and transported them to a secluded spot where
negotations ensued for a period of not less than one week, then they were
returned to their homes. Two representatives were picked up from: (1)
Urantia (2) Muonutil on Botnia (3) Tavarnicorum (4) the northwest end of
the western Vyrican range. (Team: CA, )
- Persand - Nov 10039 - Accepted a job from the Ilico Trading Co., headed
by Katie Thrax. She wished to destroy two portals, one on the southeastern
side of Vyrica and the other on Persand. Of course we chose Persand, and
set sail. We were joined by Katie, Folger, and a couple of people from past
Pike adventures who are buddies of Folger. We got to the Island and could
not decide on the best way to approach the island. (Details? Used black box
to portal out?) [Team: AC, ]
- Ilmenite Mine Mission for Anthraco - Feb 26, 10040-March 22 (?), 10040.
The group left KDPW on the Albatross with Robin Obelisk, then infiltrated a
small cave complex that had undergone renovation and a great increase in
security with an enormous increase in production of ilmenite and other
minerals. They were to obtain rock samples, complete maps and analyze the
work. No mines were found - only an Abraxian Shrine. There a drow doomed
the party to find Marduk Uranti. (Team: CA, H, ML-D, TS)
- Abraxian Shrine for Anthraco - A group was hired to go back and
destroy the chandelier-portal thing, accompanied by some Anthraco
operatives. The local undead and the resident drow asshole made it clear
that they could and would easily destroy the party if they tried to mess
with the portal. Finally, the party was led out through a separate exit
and left with their tails between their legs.
- Ilum Alpha with SOAK - Aug 12 to 19, 10040(?). The successful mission
to retrieve The Captain based on the turtle message. Levitate-jumping
invented. Robin Obelisk provided transportation to the enemy-held island
and suffered major damage to her ship and crew. (Team: CA, DS, MT)
- Sword Quest with Order of the Ring - see Sword Group.
Omniventure - a contest for adventurer-types that takes place in a
different location every five years. The set-up is an underground maze
with color-keyed doors leading to puzzles, games, physical obstacles and
the all-important colored keys. There are penalties for killing living
creatures encountered, damaging objects, failing to exit in time, and, of
course, cheating. Each team has 100 "points" of equipment to bring in,
where a normal item is 1 pt, a spell component is 3 pts, and a magic item
is 3 points plus one point per charge. Thus a potion would be worth 4
points because it has one "charge." (Special magic items such as
"chainmail cloth" cloaks or The Captain are evaluated individually.) So,
the fewer people taken in, the more efficiently those points can be used.
It appears that the advanced and novice divisions are not any different in
content or scoring procedures, the competitors are simply of different
calibers.
Omniventure V, 10042. SOAK competed with nine people. They could have
brought more cool stuff if they had brought fewer people, but there were
puzzles in which having more people could potentially earn the team more
points (eg, the scattergories game is better with more if most people can
think of obscure stuff).
Layout -- The maze was entered from the top center. We came into a
large room with a swirling whirlpool in it and 4 exits on the sides. It
took us a long time to get past this and without an acrobat we would have
been screwed. There were also two keys here that were really hard to get.
Each of the four exits lead to two colored doors and a place to buy keys.
The first key cost 1 point, the second 2, the third three, etc. We bought
4 immediately. Any fewer would have screwed us later. The eight colored
doors in the inner ring lead to 4 areas at the corners of the maze. Each
of these lead to another corner area, farther out. BUT getting to these
outer corners required going through two colored doors. Of course you
couldn't see the color of the second until you opened the first. The inner
ring seemed to have easier puzzles worth fewer points and the outer had
harder ones worth more. It seemed like maybe the inner ring didn't have
keys available, either. The outer ring areas seemed to have 2-4 keys in
them. These observations may have just been coincidental in the areas we
saw. There was an area on each side that connected the corner sections.
Again, there were colored doors to get in and out of this section.
Don't skimp on weapons and armor. The archer was not particularly
useful, but it would still be a good idea to bring one with at least a few
arrows and a place to keep the arrows that they won't fall out of if the
archer does a somersault. Ideally, everyone should be able to fight.
Components -- Think long and hard about these. If you don't cast well
enough to be as good as a potion or scroll, bring the potion or scroll
instead. Don't spend points on tons of healing. SOAK used three of their
four healing magics. Four still seems like a good number.
Potions and scrolls, &c -- SOAK brought viscosity, healing, paralysis,
and levitate. If you can afford 3 or 4 levitates, take them.
Normal Items -- Large tarp - (not used), dingy (used), leatherman tool
(used), pocketwatch (used - very, VERY important), 6 backpacks (used), 500'
rope (used, bring more), chalk (not used), pencil (used), pad of paper (not
used ?), lockpicks (used), good gloves (not used), grappling hooks (used),
champagne (used), lucky ears (used), Encyclopedia with map (used - VERY
handy), goggles (used), 2 full lanterns (used), 2 strike anywhere torches
(used), 1 normal torch (used), flint (used, weapons were steel), glowstick
(not used). Might have wanted to bring a dictionary.
Skills and abilities that were extremely handy: Lockpicking (not for
the colored doors, though), Find Traps (We never actually found any, but
they must be there), Climbing (Everyone should have a little), Acrobatics
(Gonathon had 8th level, this was invaluable), Agility (Everyone should be
competent), Strength (Having one STR in the 90s helped a lot)
Tricks and tips SOAK learned: Be quiet when being given instructions
for games. When traveling over horizontal ropes, tie a loop around the
rope and the user's body so that they are much less likely to fall. This
loop can be shuttled back and forth with a string. This is also a good way
to get equipment across. SOAK left the maze area 10 minutes early to be
certain to avoid the 20 point penalty.
Puzzles and obstacles - It looks as if they recycle many if not all of
the puzzles, and that the map is roughly similar each year.
Keys/Doors -- Getting around the maze requires going through colored
doors. The doors are red, blue or yellow. Colored keys are spread around
the maze in hard-to-reach places. A door of color X can be opened with
keys Y or Z. The door will raise up, and then close in 30 seconds or so.
It will then turn Y if key Z was used or Z if key Y was used. Pay very
careful attention to this and don't skimp on buying keys for points when
you can.
Taboo -- This has been seen twice. It is just like the commercially
available game. Watch out for cards whose no-no words are "umm", "Okay",
"ahh", etc.
Non Musical Chairs -- Skeleton sat down and told team to pick a number.
We sat in a circle in chairs. We then picked who would go out first and
the skeleton counted over eight from that person (we had chosen 8 as our
number) and the person it landed on was out. 8 more and that next person
was out. The object was to have the skeleton be the last one in the
circle. [The simplest strategy would be to pick "one" and start with the
skeleton - if that's allowed.]
Object-Words -- You get twenty six tiles, one with each letter of the
alphabet, to use to spell words that name objects. Then you take the
letter _and_ an actual example of that object to the slot and put it in. We
used trilk, sum, bone, jaw. One point per letter used. Another suggestion
was worked out later: lymph (?), dwarf (?), zinc, box, jug, vest (24
points, no k or q)
Towers of Hanoi -- Just like you would expect. However, you get to
choose how many pieces you use 1-9. You get the same number of points as
pieces. Do a practice run with paper pieces. It's not recommended to do
more than 6 pieces - takes too long.
Locked chest -- Good lock. VII or better to pick it. Acidic black goo
inside and hands to strip off rings and poke up noses of overly inquisitive
players. Contained a score plaque.
Future Anticipation -- stack of cards with points written on them. The
first one is turned up so it is visibile. In our case it was a 6. You can
then either take 6 points or flip the next card. You can't go back. We
flipped once. The next was a 14. We stopped.
Qualitative Impressions -- Each person gets a card that reads, for
example: A:1, B:4, C:-2, D:-4. The numbers we saw ranged from -12 to
positive 8. You can't show or tell what is on your card. You must
describe your cards to each other without using any quantitative words.
You can say things like A is more than B or I really, really, really don't
like C, etc. When all information has been gathered, you must select as a
team whether or not to accept each letter. Either everybody accepts it, or
no one does. Then, you add up the total number of points in the accepted
letters. It seems likely that the way to do best is find the best letter
and only use one letter. To complicate matters, the character whose card
yields the lowest number of points is stricken unconcious for 30 minutes.
Hex puzzle -- a simple hexagonal tangram, 1 point
Scattergories -- Just like the commercially available game, but with EOW
stuff. No doubles. Might designate one person beforehand to write the
most obvious thing they can think of to help prevent cancelling each other
out.
Next in sequence -- there were three number sequences to be completed.
Sequence one was differences of primes. Sequence two was 42 written in
base 10, base 9, base 8, base 6, etc. Sequence three was the beginning
dates of reigns of orcish emperors. (Encyclopedia!) They were worth 4, ?,
and 14 points respectively.
Gelatinous Cube -- Be prepared to deal with one. We lost our viscosity
scroll before we found it and we had to fireball it. This sucked. Lightning
is better than fire.
Floppy X -- Just like the ones Beigebeard uses. It is sticky and very
fast. It walks around on hands and feet, jumps, sticks to ceiling, attacks
with hands or feet. It takes quite a bit of damage to kill it. Traps
weapons.
Under the wall -- the challenge is to get from one end to the other
over a pit and under a suspended wall (some hooks are provided.) Quick and
dirty with a levitate and lots of rope.
Braille corner -- corner of a passage where the floor is missing -.in
the ceiling at the corner a key and a point shield are hidden in a nook.
Down inside a plaque written in "Braille" explains something we never
figured out. A levitate and some rope got us the key and shield. Rob
wouldn't give us a copy of the brail to decode as a cryptogram. Next time
use our paper to do a rubbing.
Water room with jellyfish -- Room full of water with a jellyfish in it.
SOAK fished the thing out and viscositied its innards, while "Shadow" swam
across.
Giant Firefly -- It was found as time was running out. Perhaps it was
supposed to be riden or something.
Undead -- Wussy skeletons were everywhere. It was nice to have Rupert
Strelsau there. He dispatched all 20 or so without gettining hit and only
missed once.
Physics puzzle -- Had to calculate fairly complex interactions of balls
and sloping tracks and drop-offs and then try to position little baskets to
catch the balls. There was no margin of error. We messed up by about 25%
somewhere.
The Team - Juliette Naturas (Gooch), Abner Strumpet (Scott), Jonathon
"Shadow" Gilette (Chad), Rupert Strelsau (NPC), Rand Widowmaker (Monty,
played by Lisa), Daedalus Danson (Ben), Gerontius Flistersinger (Geoff),
Bobbi Kekkonen (Chris), Gonathon Gore (MattW).
Internet - we had Scott there electronically via IRC, and he turned out
to be indispensible - the utility of ascii art and math grad students.
The Outcome -- Third place in the Advanced Division earns 50,000sc.
SOAK tied for 6th place in the Advanced division and broke even on the
10000 sc entry fee. We got 2000 sc for being the 2nd best at taboo. Our
score was 99, which was way better than our previous finish of 56. The
top score in the novice division was 98 (by the Riders of Marn), so had we
entered there we would have won (and walked away with 50,000 sc) To place
in the top 4 or so of the Advanced Division would have required roughly 115
points. We also got 2500 sc.from our EO contact, "Red," who said she had
made a lot betting on us and thought we should have some of the proceeds.
Corrections? Additions? lkies@jumpgate.net
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