GM Eddv's CORE Living God Series (Inactive)

Game Master eddv

Deluge starts by looking around to see if the others take off their stupid masks to eat, then gets right to the salient point.

"Say, I noticed that different members wear different robes. Are there different masks too? Is there, say, a special mask for the leader to war? What's it like?"

P.S. What is dinner like? Rotund druids want to know.

"Yeah, and who are our esteemed leaders anyway? What are they like?" Capone inquires to get as much info as he can.

Seoni holds in any complaints about the food.

"When does the fortune part kick in? I don't see any of you wearing fancy jewelry."

Hugo simply listens to any conversation nearby.

Meran takes a seat and starts peppering the others with questions. "Why did you join the Church? What skills do we need to help with panhandling er gathering donations? Who's in charge of this particular branch? When do we get to meet them? How long will it take us to move up? Can you make it up all 27 steps at this location or will we need to be transferred?" She takes a few breaths and waits expectantly for the answers.

They nod and answer your question Don't you worry about the fortune - we do get to take a cut of what we bring in, though our bosses do get a decent sized cut too.

In regards to the questions about rank: Oh yes of course - the higher you go the better you get to wear. Whites are new acolytes like you who are on probation. Gray cloaks like us are full members at the lowest level. Black cloaks are like leaders of whole squads - there are Ithink two or three stationed here right now. And then the highest you can get in the church without living in Razmir is blue - there's just one of us that works here - she is pretty mysterious and runs this whole branch. I've actually never seen her in person! The Black Cloaks are pretty cool though - they have this whole thing down to a science. Your gray cloak is pretty much the best at shaek downs. You should learn a lot from him!

The beef and gravy is actually of pretty good quality - but no seconds. Seconds are for people who make sales.

Capone withholds further comment until the party is out of earshot of dinner.

Deluge wolfs hid down and is sorely disappointed when no more is forthcoming.

"Well, then, what next? Classes of some sort on the art? Perhaps some reading? Or time to retire?"

Deluge quickly realizes there is curfew coming up and that it is SUGGESTED that you observe it.

The next day arrives and you are awoken at the crack of dawn and treated to some simple bread and week old fruit and then made to do scut work of cleaning floors and things but are left otherwise unsupervised .

If you wish to do any poking around looking for information or clues let me know how and with what methods and some general idea of what you're looking for.

The building has 3 floors. The bottom two you basically have free run of but the top floor is kept heavily secured and seems to be upper management only.

After the disappointing breakfast, Deluge does not feel up to any hard labor.

This looks like the job for me!

Duluge grab a duster and dust everything he can in every room he can on the two floors open to him.

"I'm guessing we should just start exploring around and see what we can find?"

Hugo, still a little unclear on the whole thing, is happy enough to work hard on the chores he is given. He does as good of a job as he can, and tries to be friendly to others, but doesn't ask too many investigative questions. Still, sometimes people just talk...

Diplomacy, gather info: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (20) - 1 = 19

Wow - not really where a barbarian wants his nat 20 to come up! But maybe it will be handy?

Busy day yesterday and the nature of the upcoming post is that its a little involved, I'll try to get an update up tonight sometime

Meran spends her morning doing chores and exploring the bottom floor as much as possible. She keeps an eye out for Black Cloak's movements, and any areas she's steered away from. I wonder what we can find. It's too much to ask for notes to be left lying around.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9
At least it's on a perception check and not on an attack roll, but that's my second 1 in a row on the boards today.

Deluge begins to poke around trying to get a feel for the layout of the building. On the bottom floor where you start off he finds the barracks where you slept last night, a kitchen and dining area, a hallway which leads to the cells you were kept in the first night, and next to that the store room where you saw them put all of your belongings once you shed them in favor of the robe and mask last night.

As he makes his way up the steps, continuing to do some light cleaning, he passes two sets of giant gilded statues of Razmir on his way to what is a massive courtyard.

He finds that all of the obvious exits have Acolytes posted at them and sees them not allowing Envar to leave. He looks a little discouraged as he passes you.

He sees stairwells that have giant padlocks on them that probably lead up, as well as Acolytes sort of milling about those doors. Deluge then passes an armory where he spies another lone acolyte polishing weapons and armor, before turning into the main worship hall where some sort of routine "service" is being held with a priest applying leeches to someone and trying to sell her powdered bullette horn.

It is at this point that a gray cloak walks over to Deluge and Capone 'reminds' them with a swift club to the ribs that they should restrict his cleaning to the courtyard and basement and escorted back downstairs. They are then swiftly tied to the statue of Razmir and has a whip applied to his flesh a few times for disobedience - just five lashes.

Capone
Whip Damage non lethal: 1d3 ⇒ 1
Whip Damage non lethal: 1d3 ⇒ 2
Whip Damage non lethal: 1d3 ⇒ 2
Whip Damage non lethal: 1d3 ⇒ 2
Whip Damage non lethal: 1d3 ⇒ 2

Deluge
Whip Damage non lethal: 1d3 ⇒ 2
Whip Damage non lethal: 1d3 ⇒ 3
Whip Damage non lethal: 1d3 ⇒ 1
Whip Damage non lethal: 1d3 ⇒ 3
Whip Damage non lethal: 1d3 ⇒ 1

Hugo meanwhile makes nice and chats with some Acoyltes and finds out some of the rules and rumors, while Meran 'keeps a look out' for black cloak!

He finds that:

Master Egarthis - that black cloak - is the one in charge while the terrifying High Priestess has confined herself to the upstairs chamber for some kind of study. Everyone has been whipped by him at one time or another and everyone hates him.

They also spill that Krant - your 'teacher' - is a really foolish and incompetent guy and that you would do well to be careful around him. Apparently he once choked an acolyte to death who dared to call him fat.

The acolytes believe the temple has a number of secret torture chambers - you can sometimes hear moans of main coming from the hallway in the basement, but they haven't looked into it because they suspect finding the secret torture chambers is how you end up IN the secret torture chambers.

They also warn Hugo - who seems a bit mystified by having to wear a mask all the time - that the mask of the Living God is a divine vessel. Behind its protective embrace, His followers can speak the will of Razmir without fear of rebuke. His followers must wear the mask whenever they deal with nonbelievers, so that they might come to fear His image.

The slideshow has been updated with a map just to give you a feel for the layout.

At around this time, the girth gray cloak walks up to you and Envar and hands each of you a hand sized sandbag.

Come on newbies - its first day tradition time - Blood Sport! And begins walking you up to the court yard.

"I don't really like watching gladiatorial combat. Could we see a play instead?"

Seoni isn't stupid, Sarcasm is her way of relieving pressure. Though I doubt Envar will realize that.
bluff: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (6) + 11 = 17

Deluge limps his way to the court yard, not bothering to heal his wounds yet, figuring that would just encourage them to make more.

Capone recoils at the lashes. Not as bad as they could have been, but bad enough for him. After receiving them, he tries to say as few words as possible such as "Yes sir" and "Of course ma'am" to get back to the safety of the lower chambers.

Into the courtyard, Capone is shoved a sandbag into his hand. He gulps and hopes he doesn't get paired with Hugo.

Capone doesn't like the whole situation but tries to make the best of it as he knows disobeying may result in more punishment than the sparring itself. "Who would like to spar?"

Hugo does his best to convey the information he has collected to the others, and keeps his mask on while doing so.

"What is Blood Sport?"

He follows the others outside.

Meran follows everyone outside. "Thank you for the information Hugo." She carefully pats Deluge and Capone on the shoulder in commiseration of their pain. She looks around and hopes that no one decides to attack her first.

Secret doors. That's interesting.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23

Meran does in fact notice that a little alcove holding a candle at the end of the basement hallway is sitting on a button...perhaps if she had an opportunity to press down on it....

WELCOME TO BLOODSPORT! The fat priest says with glee.

Right now, I want the 6 of you to beat each other senseless. The faith of Razmir is based around just two principles: Get Money and Power at any cost. No one here is your friend!

The group is brought to the courtyard and he pushes the 5 of you and envar to be equal distance apart in a circle and then with a toothy grin on his face, tosses a heavy flail at Capone's feet in reaction to his enthusiasm.

The winner of this fight is tonight excepted from evening chores...and I will even toss in a bottle of wine from my private collection if I think you were particularly ruthless.

Sense Motive: 1d20 ⇒ 17

Envar gives a sort of understanding nod at Seoni

Yeah ok...let's uhhh lets guh...I know I dont want to evening chores! And begins brandishing his sap while obviously looking to Seoni for some sort of guidance.

So this is a little....strange for pbp so feel free to treat the initiative order as more of a 'suggestion' than something set in stone

Meran
Hugo
Capone
Seoni
Deluge
Envar

Meran sighs, and moves to Deluge. She swings sap at him. Connecting, but not doing much damage. She gives him a look that says sorry, and waits for him to retaliate.

Sap: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20
Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Deluge tosses the bag aside and rushes in to grapple her,

Grapple: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

arms stretched out stiffly before him looking like some kind of zombie and he is easily avoided (and provokes an AoO to boot).

Capone heads in to Seoni and tries to grapple her.

CMB: 1d20 ⇒ 7

His arms whiff as Seoni easily moves out of the way.

Disgusted that Capone left the lethal weapon at his feet, Krant walks over and picks it back up and this time tosses it at Meran's feet.

Go on then, a little blood for the bloodsport come on now!

Capone responds, "Very well." He begins to head for the weapon when he can.

"Oh I see... Well I suppose a little bit of theater couldn't hurt. Much."

Seoni is courageous and goes after the clear threat.

She charges Hugo with the sap "Have at you!"
sap inc charge, untrained: 1d20 + 2 + 2 - 4 ⇒ (5) + 2 + 2 - 4 = 5
non lethal demg: 1d6 ⇒ 4

And misses horribly. Clearly she is not used to fighting with bags full of sand.

Envar follows Seoni's lead and also charges hugo!

Sap: 1d20 + 5 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 5 + 2 = 181d6 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

The boy lands a pretty solid blow on Hugo!

Everyone but Hugo has gone, so everyone is free to act again just to move things along, Hugo can take two attacks on his turn

I'm a bit confused. Is there a lethal weapon at my feet or just the saps?

Meran swings her sap at Capone again. She begins a battle chant while she does he attack.

Sap: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21
Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 2
Peform Sing: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17

The razmiri had tossed a flail at Cappnes feet and when he didnt take it he tossed it to Mera.

Deluge simply states, "I do not see the point of this. I refuse to beat someone for no reason. This is unnatural."

Since Seoni is standing near Deluge she will say in a very low voice.

"Only the faithful will remain. If they kick you out who will protect us if things go poorly. A little pain now to avoid real damage later."

Out loud "The reason is power. And power is very natural. Now stop spoiling the fun and fight!"

This has gotten a little slow, do you guys want to describe for me some kind of gameplan for how you want this to go?

I was basically waiting for the torture part to be over and for us to get more freedom, at which point we would start poking our noses into things. My character, for one, has no stealth to speak of so until they are not watching us like hawks there is not much he can do until then except get beat up.

Kind-of recuperated from jet lag... soo...

Capone goes for any weapon he can find. He'll use his turn for that. If nothing else, it's passive.

Hugo just watches the others, quite baffled. Why are my friends attacking each other? And why so poorly?"

"Come on guys we need to do what our team leader told us to do. We're practicing." She moves up to Hugo and hits him with the sap. "Hugo I would appreciate it if you would hit me back."

Sap: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22
Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 3

I am going to fast forward this since PvP really doesn't seem to work PbP, go figure. Sorry if anyone was really wanting to do more with this scene.

At the end, the bard Meran ends up being the last standing person as the others go get knocked silly but including Envar in the plan to go easy on each other seems to have brightened his spirits some. Krant rewards her with wine from his private collection.

You allowed to rest and recover and are given some magical aid in doing so so you can spend time copying out religious tracts like Get rich, or die trying and 42 easy steps towards success

The next morning you are once more given some free reign while doing chores, but are told at breakfast by Krant that Black-robes is going to take you out on the town at lunch time to learn some basic grift.

If anyone has anything they want to do here let me know. If not, also let me know so I know I have your permission to move on

"Hrm, I wonder how long we will have to endure this..."

Ready to move on

"Until we get the best mask maybe? Let's just learn as much as we can."

Ready to move on.

So, Deluge was already at 12 points of NL damage and he got knocked unconscious after this battle. Does that mean we are all at 1 HP with lots of non-lethal damage or we all unconscious still or and I just being to into numbers and it really doesn't matter?"

"Ugh! Who's idea was this anyway? Give me an orc or two to fight instead!"

Deluge wolfs down breakfast and looks for more. If anyone leaves some food in the room he tries to sneak the leftovers.

they would have brought you back up to consciousness at least so you could keep working. So probably handing out at 2 or 3 HP a piece plus 2-3 more from sleeping

they would have brought you back up to consciousness at least so you could keep working. So probably handing out at 2 or 3 HP a piece plus 2-3 more from sleeping. Also possible Capone used up his channels to top everyone off

Definitely would have used channels! ;)

Channel: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 2) = 6
Channel: 2d6 ⇒ (5, 6) = 11

”Thank you. It odd that men want Hugo and friends to beat each other. What reason, do I think? “

Yep, ready to move on.

Before noon Meran tries to sneak to the doorway with the button to push. She doesn't get far, and is sent off to do chores probably with a beating.

Stealth: 1d20 ⇒ 1

Failing to sneak off to the hidden door she saw earlier, the group is unable to make much progress investigating this place's secrets.

Black-Robes comes to collect everyone. It is time today for one of the all time great schemes - Evanglism! he proclaims.

He proceeds to explain - as you, he and a group of Gray robed acolytes gather together in the lobby to leave.

What we are going to do is a very basic scam. I am going to preach the Holy Word of Razmir in town, doing my best to gather a crowd with some pretty incendiary language. He explains In the meantime, the more seasoned acolytes will try to pass out pamphlets - and lighten some purposes. Your purpose? You are to try and keep people from noticing what the gray cloaks are up to. A little charm and some persuasion to keep the people from even noticing what has happened. Think you can handle that?

By the time he finishes explaining, the Gray cloaks have managed to gather a decent crowd and it is time for black cloak to go on stge and begin his preaching.

this whole obsession with gold is silly.

Feeling much better after the channeling, Deluge seemingly enthusiastically barks out, "Yes, boss. Will do boss! A simple distraction? Sounds easy enough."

Actually I hope the nobs get caught. Now looking like I'm helping while I actually spotlight them, that would be a challenge.

Oh, Capone has a lot of problems with this exercise.

Capone will intermix with the crowd but not actually help. He hopes he can steathfully avoid sight while doing so.

Stealth: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3
Nothing was going to save that roll... lol

Go ahead and give me a Bluff check Deluge unless you have an alternative idea