RPG Addicts | We Know You're Hooked

About Torin's explanation on the circle. The "Lord" DM doesn't have any more to add... but if you all agree on "purchasing" a clue then the armorer may add his arcane insights.

Chapter 1: Sea of Hate will end soon (depending on how eagerly you post ) and following your next rest, it is very likely that all of you will gain a level. Note that this is not a generic "all gain a level" thing; I made painful efforts to keep track of everyone's XP individually, solo adventures included.

If you would like your PC to part from the party this would be the perfect opportunity since a new character could be added seamlessly into the weave of the story. Therefore, please inform me about such plans ahead of time and you'll retain your level with your new character.
If you would like to participate in this epic adventure with more than one characters, that's also fine. Half of your XP earned by the active character is earned by your "retained" character in the background (distributed to your liking among them if you have more than one on retention) and you can start the third chapter with a retained character, etc.

A spoilerous hint on your character plans...

Normally I will keep with Torin, but if everything will change then ...

Oh by the way. There's still one more opening for a new player if you happen to know someone.

We could use a wizard. Maybe Lugar should retire??? Just kidding, but I do regret the level adjustment. Is there a way I could buy that off that would be fair to everyone?

Gather more xp than the others and stay one level ahead of them. Simple as it is

Seriously though you can bring a brand new character at the cost of your excess xp above lvl8. I would recommend against this sacrifice, though. Lugar made really good use of that LA like poison immunity (against dealt cloud!), enlarge (the key to get upstairs!) and invisibility (against other pcs ) I'd say it's worth a level of sorcery in the hands of a clever player, isn't it?

There is a variant rule to reducing LA.

Interesting and maybe I'd consider it in a future game but not in this one. I'm sure many players would've been eager to start with 16k XP instead of 21k by choosing a race with LA1. On the other hand, a good character can earn the excess XP (in a duergar's case, 1000xp between every two levels) needed for his advancement by utilising the race's advanced abilities (see my previous comments).

I'm sorry for being absent.  Work and RL has been hectic.  I will post something either tonight from work or when I get home from work tomorrow morning.

No worries. I'm just soooo eager to get to the end of chapter 1-- you are soooo close for suuuch a long time