GM Kiora's Wrath of the Righteous

Game Master Kiora Atua

"Yup. Just a few demons and a magic rock. Now, let's get what we can, double check everywhere we've been... I know there was a box. Any idea what the source of evil spell is now? I wasn't down there with everyone when you may have been looking things over." Ary says, "Or did you already check the box?" she looks to Isilme, then realizes that checking boxes was a very 'Li'an' thing.

"I can check it, yes, if that's what is desired," Isilme replies. She walks over to inspect the chest, giving it a once over.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13

Isilme walks into the ominous room and inspects the chest.

Quednys stays quiet while they talk. "This seems... dire. Is Prelate Hulrun directing the Crusades?"

After inspecting the chest, she digs out her set of Thieves' tools and begins working on the lock. It's clear she's not an expert, as she spends time laying them out and looking them over before beginning to work on the lock.

Disable Device: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

Val glances over at the aasimar working on the lock. "Errr, I have two more keys from Faxon that we haven't checked," she says. "You know, if you can't get it."

"Prelate Hulrun is dead," Ehren says grimly, "The Storm King killed him when the attack first began."

"Prelate Hulrun is dead." Markus says, getting ready to go by grabbing a few containers and beginning to load them with books. "I watched him die, struck down by Khorramzadeh."

"A half-orc woman named Chevalier Irabeth, a human Guardian named Holton Albright and an Inquisitor named Liotr seem to be in charge back at base. Most of the higher-ranking Crusaders in Kenabres are dead or missing."

Isilme finds that it is beyond her means to unlock. The mechanism is bronze - matching one of the keys Valaria found on Faxon.

So Valaria opens it. She finds it is filled with money. The chest itself is heavy, but not too unwieldy for a single person to carry.... it weighs 162 lbs in total.

• 2,310 cp, 759 sp, 3,122 gp, 11 pp
  
• Five silver holy symbols of Iomedae (5 lbs)
  
• A masterwork longsword (4 lbs)
  
• 2 masterwork scimitars (8 lbs)
  
• Fine silverware and table settings weighing 5 lbs
  
• A tiny box containing religious scripture of Iomedae. The box is affixed to a leather cord and tied around the forehead, worn so that the box sits upon the wearer's brow. The leather cord is broken.
  

Isilme turns noticably red when Valaria mentions she probably has the keys after she fails to open the lock. Wordlessly, she gets up and moves out of the way, wrapping up the kit as she goes.

Identification Stuff

Okay so... tell me who is carrying what. :)

Gonna change scenes in a second either way. Anything not immediately claimed is going to go on Hrut, since he volunteered. I don't believe he can carry all of it, though.

Spellcraft (wand): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14

Spellcraft (box): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10

I'll take the wand and the phylactery, and I can help carry the box full of money (which we should bring).

"Quednys... Can you help identify these? I have no idea what they are."

Val's eyes go wide at the contents, but a grin spreads across her face. "Hello lovely," she said softly. "We've got weapons and coin here," she calls out to the group. "Look like we're going to need to divide it up and carry it back in pieces, or let at least two of us carry it back together. Which may be a little tough if we're bringing prisoners with us." She quickly begins scoping up coins and pouring them into her backpack and shared money pouch starting with the platinum and gold, leaving the bulkier items for later.

I'll carry as much of the coinage as possible. It's still party money of course.

"I... see." Quednys frowns. "It seems we don't have time to waste, though. Once you are ready, we should return to the crusaders. I am familiar with Chevalier Irabeth. She has a good heart." He turns to Markus. "I have a few cantrips left in me. I will have to re-create my spellbook anew, I'm afraid."

He heads upstairs and looks at all of the prisoners. "How do you intend to transport these people?" he asks.

Ary also begins moving around, collecting the books (is there anything like bags for us to carry things in?).

She eyes the holy symbols warily, as she looks at the box. "Be careful... they had some of those poisoned in an alchemist's shop we raided." Ary said with a frown.

For ease of reference

Post One
Post Two
Post Three

Val nods. "You have a point. I think this was a personal stash, not a trap, but you're right." She gives the items a once over before continuing to pack the coins to make sure she's not touching anything dangerous.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26

Quednys glances over the items.

Quednys Spellcraft (wand): 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (4) + 13 = 17

"Well, it's iron, so I bet it was made by a paladin," he remarks on the wand.

Quednys Spellcraft (box): 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (18) + 13 = 31

"It's a religious phylactery. It is used to help the faithful understand the teachings of their gods."

So you are tying up everyone except for the half-orc, who is in manacles, correct? Will you carry them along or will you wake them up and march them?

So wand/phylactery on Markus.

A potion of CLW on Valaria, as well as pamphlets about Baphomet

Valaria can carry the money/silverware alone through her muleback cords, but it would be a heavy load (though of course you can just drop it if you needed :P)

Mollified, Val quickly finishes packing the coins and grabs the holy symbols too while she's at it. "Alright, so who feels like carrying some actually rather top notch weaponry? Or some fine silver. They must have looted quite a bit, but I wonder where the rest of the thing they took are. Probably other places, or moved from the city."

I think I have the coins, the holy symbols, and one potion and that's it. That's more than enough for me. My backpack is going to jungle so much.

Haha, I don't think it'd all fit in your backpack, I figured you'd just carry the chest, she-hulk! ;)

Isilme's got about as much free space as Li'an did, which is to say none. :P

Works for me.

Ehren has the CMW wand and will take any unclaimed scrolls/potions.

Ary also begins moving around, collecting the books (is there anything like bags for us to carry things in?).

Hrut has 2 big burlap sacks that he carries around rolled up. You could carry them around that way, though it's a bit unwieldy. Ary can carry like... 1,040 lbs. So she could carry all the books at a heavy load.

Thinking about the situation as they pack, Isilme speaks up again. "In regards to the prisoners, perhaps we could leave all but Faxon here bound and request that the crusaders send a group over here to claim the remaining three?" she asks. "Certainly there's a chance they'll wake and escape, but if we're quick about the trip back they can probably send some crusaders over to bring them back before they wake up."

Val reluctantly realizes that it's easier to carry the chest rather than trying to fit the coins into her backpack. She pours the coins back in, along with her small purse holding the rest of their reclaimed wealth.

She hurries over to the unconscious tiefling and quickly gets the rope from Ary.

Escape Artist: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15

She ties him up as best she can. "It's a risk, but Faxon's the one who's likely to know the most. Risky, but we need to get him back before anything else."

"That would speed things up quite a bit. But... it feels... wrong to do something like that. Because then they could go off and warn others... which is very much something everyone else was less willing to do before, and I was outvoted... odd." she says, thoughtfully.

"But... yeah. Besides, you have the keys, Val... and there's a desk and several bookshelves to make it harder to get out if we barricade them in their room of evil."

"There is risk involved no matter what we do," Ehren says with a sigh, shaking his head. "But leaving them in there would be the fastest way of getting things done. The sooner we get back to Defender's Heart, the sooner we can send the others here."

Supporting taking Faxon and leaving the others locked, tied up, and barricaded in the unhallowed room.

"Yeah. And I think the least risk is bringing them all down here and barricading them in the room, then heading back to the Crusades." she nods, beginning to prepare to shove bookshelves and the desk in the way of the door, once they'd moved the people in, by moving them closer to said door.

She'd just have to hope the front wouldn't fall off.

I agree with that course of action. They have wagons and shit back at Defender's Heart - much better for living prisoners.

Markus moves to help with moving and carrying whatever it is that he can.

Satisfied, Isilme does what she can to help Ary move things into position, although like Li'an she's got little upper body strength to speak of.

Scooting y'all along.

The group opts to bring only Faxon - who is actually rather small and light-weight - while barricading the other unconscious prisoners inside of the shrine to Baphomet.

With their new information in hand, they make haste to return back to Defender's Heart with Quednys Orlun, as well as a large amount of valuables, books, and weaponry.

The group arrives back at Defender's Heart. It is still night time, though it has become cloudy, obscuring the stars. They are greeted warmly by Anevia and the Eagle Knights - who immediately send out a small cavalry contingent to gather the remaining prisoners. After each person in the group is scanned for any obvious signs of possession - they are ushered into the war room with Commander Irabeth and Inquisitor Liotr.

Liotr smirks, his intense stare flicking over Faxon with interest. "Interesting, you've succeeded. Congratulations, you have performed an utmost adequate job."

Commander Irabeth in contrast, is genuinely pleased to see the heroes again. "It seems that you've had a successful night. What is your report?"

Not wasting any time, Isilme recounts the sum total of what she'd heard the others discussing in the tower. "There are apparently papers detailing a plot to corrupt the wardstones. The plot revolves around Areelu Vorlesh, who apparently was originally responsible for opening the world wound, bringing a Nahyndrian crystal here from the Abyss to turn them against us. She'll be here by the 25th to complete the ritual it seems."

Val simply rolls her eyes at Liotr, not even bothering to acknowledge his jab. "Things went off more or less without a hitch," she says, setting the chest aside for the moment and sitting on top of it. "I have something here you'll want to get a look at." She pulls out the documents they took from Faxon's desk. "Troop movements, lists of names, that kind of thing. I think you'll need these. Oh, and the message describing the plan. It's... extremely worrying."

"Also you should send a squad to retrieve three more prisoners from the tower as soon as possible. They're unconscious, bound, and barricaded downstairs as we couldn't afford to risk bringing them with us," she adds after Valaria finishes.

Isilme's succinct tale gives Irabeth, Anevia, and Liotr a reason to pause and think. A moment passes by in silence, and Irabeth and Liotr flip through Valaria's papers with interest.

"Now this is something interesting... most of these people aren't accounted for but I see a few names stationed here!" His eyes light up. "There are also people stationed in Nerosyan? Most interesting..."

Commander Irabeth nods. "Useful, but finding cultists is not what is important now. The contingent from Nerosyan will not be here in time for Vorlesh's arrival. We need to act now."

Inquisitor Liotr scowls. "What are you talking about? They've already destroyed the Kenabres wardstone, along with the entirety of the Kite."

Irabeth corrects him, glancing at Ehren. "Apparently not. Seems the young druid had the right of it."

Commander Irabeth looks at Quednys. "And your name is Quednys, correct? From Blackwing? How do you fit into all of this?"

Quednys gives a respectful nod. "Yes, Commander. These soldiers rescued me. I was captured a few days ago. I... think I can offer my help, if you'd have it."

Commander Irabeth motions to Anevia. "Anevia, please go retrieve Aravashnial from his room. It is urgent." Anevia nods and heads off on her crutch.

Liotr grabs Faxon roughly. "No need to ask. The pleasure is all mine. I'll be back shortly with whatever this foul creature knows." The Inquisitor leaves for the cellars.

Val shivers as Liotr leaves. "He enjoys his work entirely too much."

She turns to Anevia. "We still down for drinks tonight?" she asks, trying to lighten the mood a bit. "I think that we have more than enough to pay for us to get blackout drunk." She pats the chest with a grin.

Ary looks to Irabeth, "May I have permission to follow after Liotr and observe? It's been pointed out that... I don't really know what I'm doing when I turn people over to an inquisitor... and that doesn't sit well with me."

Anevia returns with Aravashnial and grins at Valaria.

"You've got it - I'll buy every single one of you a round on the evening of the 25th. When we're all celebrating wrecking this Vorlesh b$@+~'s foul plans!"

Quednys immediately moves to Aravashnial's side. He is disheveled, having been awoken from sleep. "Aravashnial! I am so glad you're al right."

Commander Irabeth shakes her head at Ary. "No, Bishop, I need you here, with your squad right now. We don't have much time, and we need to make some decisions quickly. I'd rather you be here for that, right now."

A lot of exposition incoming. Brace yourself!

Val grins wider. "Damn right. We'll drag the b*tches plans through the mud and kick her entire army out of Kenabres head first."

She sits back, letting her grin fade as the seriousness of the situation creeps back in. "What are we dealing with then?"

Isilme walks over to Aravashnial and places a hand on his shoulder, her hand trembling slightly. She whispers in his ear "Amin sana lle anna en' lasta iire lye, Ai'sintar, caela coiasira leitha"

Quednys Orlun is an aged and angular human with an eagle's talon tattoo on his cheek.

"My name is Quednys Orlun and I am the founder and head librarian of Blackwing. I am also a riftwarden - I have pledged my life to protect the planes. I was captured by Xanthir Vang, a member of the Blackfire Adepts - an arcane group that exists in opposition to the Riftwardens. Xanthir Vang attacked Blackwing, and I believe he stole a number of our most important books and scrolls and fled immediately. I was then transferred to that cultist, Faxon, who intended to send me to the Grey Garrison - which appears to be the cultist's seat of power in Kenabres."

"That makes sense," says Irabeth. "The Grey Garrison is a resilient structure - and it is in Old Kenabres. We already know that there are still large numbers of both demons and cultists on the highest rise."

Commander Irabeth takes a moment to fill Aravashnial in on the newest developments - the information in the letter from Minagho, most crucially.

Aravashnial looks... exasperated. "So if the entire purpose of this is to corrupt a wardstone - why not go after one of less secure stones along the western border of the Worldwound? Demons..."

Aravashnial continues - "Nahyndrian Crystals are the essences of slain demon lords," he explains. "Within the Abyss the various demon lords are at constant war - one with many casualties. When a demon lord dies in the Abyss, its life essence can be harnessed and crystalized to prevent regeneration....though if demon lord's faithful servant has a crystal, they could possibly resurrect a demon lord. That is powerful magic, and also portable! But I imagine it is hard to procure. That explains why the demons haven't already acted."

Commander Irabeth sighs, slowly beginning to formulate a plan. She steps to each of the heroes in turn. "I just wanted to let you know that I am thankful for all you've done so far. You brought my wife safely back to me. You've saved a number of lives already. So let me preface this - there is no dishonor if you want to step back now. But if you want to help Kenabres some more, then we could use your help."

Knowledge Local: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23

"Alright, so we have demons and cultists holed up in one of the most secure buildings still standing in the city, ready to use the essence of a fallen demon lord to corrupt a captured wardstone and possibly take over the entire field. Alright. If you think I'm leaving now, you've gone mad. So what's our angle?"

"Given the stakes, there is no stepping back. If we hesitate now, there may be nothing left to defend. Not Kenabres, not Nerosyan, not anything." Isilme looks more certain as she continues to speak, as if she'd found something she'd lost. "There are too many stories yet untold, paths yet unwalked here to let that happen," she says with conviction. "That's right, it's been so long since I'd been alone I'd almost forgotten why I wandered to begin with."

While the heroes talk, Aravashnial and Quednys are mostly silent. Finally, Aravashnial speaks up. His voice is grim, but he never loses his penchant for the dramatic.

"Well, as horrific as these past few days have been, it seems that we've all come to the realization that they were, in fact, just a prelude. The razing of the Kite, Terendelev's murder, and the assault and countless deaths from the city of Kenabres are nothing more than opening gambits. The Worldwound is on the march in a more concentrated assault than has been observed since the fall of Drezen. It is fair to say that the Lord of the Locust Host is finally making his move. The end of this hundred-year war is upon us."

"So, it falls on us to ensure victory," Commander Irabeth cuts off his dire premonitions. "I've kept eyes all throughout this city. The Templars of the Ivory Labyrinth have been scattered in pockets throughout the city - we've found that the cultists of Deskari have sequestered themselves in Old Kenabres. What we've managed to gather is ominous - the cultists have been waiting for something, and based on what you're saying, it sounds like they were referring to that vile witch Areelu Vorlesh's arrival in Kenabres. So, explain what she is intending to do?"

Quednys explains, "When the wardstone was destroyed in the initial attack by the Storm King, it exploded and destroyed the Kite. But... you're saying that the wardstone is not destroyed?"

Aravashnial nods. "The druid described it as still faintly calling out to him. A significant fragment must still exist, still tethered to the ley line. I assume the Grey Garrison is where they have sequestered it. It is not far from the ruins of the Kite. It appears that they are essentially using our greatest defenses against us as a devastating weapon. Perhaps they intend to reverse the wardstone field? Regardless - I think I understand now."

"The attack on Kenabres had a predictable result: causing the crusade to gather at the border to defend it. So why haven't the demons attacked in stronger numbers? I believe that the enemy has been counting on the Crusades massing along the border, and that once they corrupt the wardstone field, they can strike a devastating blow against the entire army at once. In effect, we are all lambs lined up for the slaughter," he adds, darkly.

Commander Irabeth looks distant. "We do not have the time or resources to evacuate everyone from the border. In any case, a true crusader would not give up the defensive line even if they knew what the demons were planning. But... we can still stop this from happening. Old Kenabres is infested - there is no way you could walk through it on foot. But if I assembled what forces we have left and march on Old Kenabres - we could hopefully absorb the brunt of their own. That would give a small team enough time to infiltrate the Grey Garrison, locate the wardstone fragment, and destroy it." Her eyes fix on the heroes'. "I hope you can follow where my line of thought is going, yes?"

"You launch the assault and give us enough time to infiltrate the Grey Garrison," Val finishes, knowing exactly where this is going. "But it's going to be tricky. You don't have a lot of people here and the fighting will be brutal. We may have to capture the entire building in one shot on our own if we want this plan to work. Otherwise the prolonged battle will cost your men far too much to stand and fight anymore."

"It is risky, without a doubt Valaria, and we'll certainly have to take it in one go. But what choice do we have?" Isilme says. "It is, very likely, the best plan of action we can hope for. They will give their all, and we'll give ours, and The Great Dreamer willing, we'll somehow pull out ahead."

"I wasn't saying I thought it was a bad plan. But we're going to have to put every drop of sweat and blood we can spare into it if we're going to win. And we're going to need every speck of luck the Lady of Spheres is willing to part with."

"It would be a suicide mission. You have two hundred soldiers, Commander," Aravashnial says.

Commander Irabeth frowns. "We'll make it seem like we're moving to retake the city. Distract them from guarding the wardstone" She looks at Valaria. "Yes, I believe we'd only have one shot."

"And how do you expect to destroy the wardstone? Do you understand how powerful a wizard you'd need to dispel even a fragment-" Aravashnial continues.

"We have a rod of cancellation. It will probably take all of the power in the rod, I'd assume. The loss of the Kenabres wardstone will create a weak link along the border....but that should be better than whatever this is they have planned." says Irabeth.

Quednys brightens up. "That... that could do the trick!"

Aravashnial does not seem convinced. "It is the only option."

Commander Irabeth, now having fully explained her plan, turns to the heroes. "So are you with us? You will need your rest. We will march once you are ready. Remember, we don't have much time."

The road before the group is clear. But after all they've been through, this past week, they are ready.

Congrats! You are all level 4 :)

Please choose a weapon and piece of armor to attune! You will be considered level 4 once you get eight hours of rest.

Throwing knife builds without Two-weapon Fighting aren't terribly effective. They rely on getting a lot of attacks to make up for a small damage die and lower damage bonuses. Actually, I'm getting 1d4 damage no bonus at all until 3rd level right now. With two attacks, at least I can get 2d4 a round. Flying Blade is a big step up for throwing weapons actually. Precise Throw is wonderful for extra damage.

As for spherewalker... haven't looked at that before now. Interesting.

I guess that's true, but I've always thought that thrown weapon builds should have good Strength. Without that, you should indeed have the extra attacks. Well, another solution is sneak attack, but that's another thing you aren't getting.

Yeah, high strength really helpful. I was honestly tempted to have higher strength, but it would have meant either giving up a lot of skills (which is something that Valaria would logically have) or tanking my Will Save (which is both dangerous and a little nonsensical for someone who I intend to play as a strong-willed character). I'll probably make strength my second physical prowess stat (after Dex) for advancement so that will help a little, but not for quite a while.

The precision damage from Precise Throw and automatic progression weapon attunement will do a lot of good for damage. It just doesn't become really effective until high levels. Fortunately, we're running all the way to 20.

I'm personally just happy to see such an unusual character in our champion spot. :)

We have a lot of 'unusual' in our party. Like, I've seen flying blades in the Trickster portion, rangers in the champion portion, I've never even played with a Warder (but that seems to almost always get the guardian spot, from what I've seen, if allowed). I've also never seen a necromancer of any sort even apply for WotR.

Regardless, I'm liking all of the really colorful interactions so far, as well. :)

Can't argue with that.

*hugs Valaria*

gettin' them low rolls out of your system I hope ;)

I hope so.

*prays to Desna that she gets some luck*

I'm definitely loving the atmosphere of Armasse and seeing everyone's interactions!

If you manage to get some luck from Desna, be sure to send some Li'an's way :p

I pulled out my harrow deck and performed an actual harrowing for Ary, if you're curious ;)

It's nice to get some practice with the actual rules, haha. So far in face to face, I don't know the cards well enough, so I just make stuff up based on the pictures. :P It's way more in depth doing it as you're supposed to though.

*toots own horn*

I'll certainly try.

I've done harrowings too but I don't own a deck - I just use the diceroller.

A little late for it, but I'm wondering, would I be better off swapping my Strength and Constitution scores? Between maximized hit die and the favored class bonus, the extra +1 isn't strictly necessary... and with carrying capacity being a factor, dealing with eventual additional gear might not be feasible at the moment. Heck, Ehren's armor and clothing alone almost put him over capacity... Or maybe in combat, it just won't matter as much?

A little late for it, but I'm wondering, would I be better off swapping my Strength and Constitution scores? Between maximized hit die and the favored class bonus, the extra +1 isn't strictly necessary... and with carrying capacity being a factor, dealing with eventual additional gear might not be feasible at the moment. Heck, Ehren's armor and clothing alone almost put him over capacity... Or maybe in combat, it just won't matter as much?

I'm fine with that. Make sure you finalize a decision before we finish our first combat :) (Probably tomorrow, but possibly later today.)

Actually, speaking of that, I've been contemplating switching my Wisdom and Intelligence scores, and I'm gonna go ahead and do that.

On second third fourth thought, I think if I just buy a masterwork backpack later on, and maybe switch to lighter armor, I'll be just fine. I like me my hit points too much.

Man, I'm really overthinking this.

I definitely appreciate The Harrowing. I thought you'd chosen cards intentionally to fulfill what you wanted. It's very nice, and I think Ary liked the answer, overall... you know, aside from all the screaming. :P

The only time I've ever used Harrow cards was with a specific fortune teller character who performed Harrows for the party as payment for jobs they did for him. He returned in a later campaign as a demigod of fate to pass out inherent bonuses ala Manual/Tome of [stat]... giving out cards that fit the character.

Went ahead and looked everything up, to see what was going on with everything. I think Verseda was being really nice to Ary about her future. :p

Good: 2, Neutral: 5, Evil: 3
Law: 5, Neutral: 3, Chaos: 2
Str: 1, Dex: 2, Con: 2, Int: 1, Wis: 3, Cha: 1

Her: Duality.
Past: Cooperation, Humor and Trickery, Harsh Truths
Present: Invulnerability, Doubt, Panic and Destruction
Future: False Dreams/Illusions, Corruption and Decay, Strength through Diversity(inverted?).

Went ahead and looked everything up, to see what was going on with everything. I think Verseda was being really nice to Ary about her future. :p

Good: 2, Neutral: 5, Evil: 3
Law: 5, Neutral: 3, Chaos: 2
Str: 1, Dex: 2, Con: 2, Int: 1, Wis: 3, Cha: 1

Her: Duality.
Past: Cooperation, Humor and Trickery, Harsh Truths
Present: Invulnerability, Doubt, Panic and Destruction
Future: False Dreams/Illusions, Corruption and Decay, Strength through Adversity(inverted?).

Haha, I use the instructions that come with the deluxe harrow deck- I'm not sure if they've been modified from the past? In those rules you select only a few cards to interpret, though you MUST interpret a role card that is revealed (such as Markus' recurring Trumpet), a card that matches its alignment in the spread (Markus' the Forge), or a card that is inverted (The Forge was the only one). Barring that, you pick partial matches, then in lieu of those, you just wing it.

You can interpret all of them but the GM is supposed to try and pick what makes sense. For Ary, I was actually referring to something very specific in your future, which warrants the negative interpretation that comes from the inverted Forge.

The positive spin on the end was meant to come from the Dance, anywho, and the idea that knowing your place in the greater good can lead to good things, but you have to stick to it. :)

That, and I messed up on that strength through adversity. It's actually -diversity-. So it's kind of the 'many are the ways, but straight is the gate', when it's inverted. So... in more manageable terms: 'Just keep swimming'. :)

I also don't know the real rules as I don't own a harrow deck. I just rolled like the other person, or picked out what sounded most fitting. :)

Reading mine optimistically: Presently, I'm immune to doubt and panic. In the future, I'll face temptations and slow destruction, but temperance will guide me through.

I'll copy over Markus's stuff for the same type of thing, because I love seeing stuff like that. (Specifically, the statistics and turnout. If i weren't eating them, I'd count my gummi bear colors.)

As an aside: Markus got a -ton- of chaotic evil, and a lot of constitution, just glancing.

Markus:

Good: 3 Neutral: 4 Evil: 3
Law: 3 Neutral: 4 Chaos: 3
(Special note: All of Markus's evils -were- chaotic, and vice versa)

Str: 2, Dex: 1, Con: 4, Int: 1, Wis: 1, Cha: 1
Him: Diving into Danger
Past: Harsh Truths/Life/Death, Scholars(Spies and Merchants), Strength through Diversity
Present: Untameable Power, Diving into Danger, Unrequited Desire or Treacherous Love
Future: Torture, Imprisonment, Helplessness, Impossible Situations, Traps, Mind Tricks... and eventual Survival of a terrible ordeal beyond hope.

Sounds right up his alley.

The trumpet was about as apt as a card as he could have drawn :P

Is there a particular language you guys have in mind for elven? I'm thinking Ary would probably choose an elven word for Li'an's nickname. :)

I use tolkien elvish (using this translator and this cypher program for any other words I need that aren't in the first translator.

But I don't care much about fantasy language consistency haha.

Elven words for 'sword' and similar things are pretty darn ugly. :(

I could go with Wen for 'maiden'... and the other option gives 'Fen' for Sword.

Or... portmanteau! Fenwen it is! Swordmaiden get!

(Doing the same with Shield, ironically, gives 'fanwen')

Using Tolkien elvish with the cypher program is a clever solution. I'd not have thought of that. :)

Fen'wen ('cause everyone knows apostrophes are elvish :p ) sounds like a great nickname!

Speaking of languages, Li'an's sword, Lleuad-a'r-Sêr, is named in Welsh. In game it's meant to be the pronunciation of a Celestial name, and those who speak Celestial understand it as Moon-and-Stars.

Then what should I use for Abyssal? :p

You guys are shaming me with your posting rates. I'll have to play some serious catch up once things hit the fan. Because I mean, they kinda have to, right? :P

I have no life right now :P My posting rate is as often as appropriate for Valaria to do something, and will probably stay that way for a while.

Stuff grinds to a halt during combat, even with fast posters. If you have slow(er) posting rate, and are jealous that you aren't getting to RP as much, take advantage of some combat banter ;)

You guys are shaming me with your posting rates. I'll have to play some serious catch up once things hit the fan. Because I mean, they kinda have to, right? :P

Paizo festivals are kinda like Shakespearean weddings...you can count on something interesting happening

Um. I think that has the Swallowtail Festival beat. O_O;

Goblins aren't mythic enough, duh ;D

The bigger the festival, the nastier the foes? Better make sure no one schedules anything bigger than Armasse ever, or that might be the end of Golarion then and there :p

Ary's pretty sure your blasphemy is not going unnoticed. Her birthday -and- a day to celebrate Aroden being overshadowed by anything? Only Cayden could manage such a feat.

Demonology 101

All of your characters are at the Worldwound to kill demons. It was a requirement of the recruitment process. Even Markus, who has the least experience in the region, was educated in a highly selective and prestigious arcane Order, and would have likely taken at least a class on the creatures.

So, it stands to reason that they would know the basic demon types. We will be going by the assumption that your characters can identify on sight the following common demons and know the following information sans skill checks:

• Babau - Blood demons, born from the souls of murderers, excellent assassins. Their blood is a potent acid that can eat away at metal and flesh. They use magical darkness to disorient.
  
• Balor - Fire demons, often wield whips of flame and massive swords. Incredibly powerful, combat is to be avoided. Khorrmazadeh is not just a balor, but a Lord among balors. Balors are born from the cruelest souls, unlike other demons, it takes an army of evil souls to form a balor.
  
• Dretch - Sloth demons, the lowest demons of the Abyss, favored by cultists as they are easy to control.
  
• Glabrezu - Treachery demons, born of traitors and liars, they are both physically and intellectually daunting foes. A glabrezu lives to deceive, often offering twisted wishes to make mortals the agents of their schemes.
  
• Hezrou - Toad demons, born from the souls of poisoners, evil alchemists, and polluters. Magical silence can be employed to counter their ability to utter dangerous blasphemies. There are alchemical solutions to counter its nauseating stench.
  
• Invidiak - Shadow demons, born from the souls of envious sinners, invidiaks lack bodies and seek to possess others. Once freed from a mortal prisoner, they are weak to bright light and ghost touch weapons or force effects.
  
• Marilith - Serpent demons, always female, formed from arrogant and proud evil souls. They can project illusionary images through which they create barriers of whirling blades, manipulate objects and creatures telekinetically, and their multiple arms make them devastating at melee as well as range.
  
• Nabasu - Gargoyle demons whose death-stealing gaze can transform the slain into ghoul slaves. Nabasu vary wildly in power, as the older and more prolific they are, the more deadly they become.
  
• Nalfeshnee - Nalfeshnee are pig demons, and are rarely found in the Worldwound, as they do not serve Demon Lords. They consider themselves above such petty scheming.
  
• Quasit - Quasit are unusual in that they are not formed from dead souls, but from a living soul sacrificed by a spellcaster seeking a familiar. When encountering a Quasit, the real question is - who does it serve?
  
• Succubus - Lust demons, risen from souls who were slaves to the sins of the flesh in life. The problem with facing off against a succubus is realizing that you are fighting a succubus in the first place. They employ mind control and their kisses drain their foes' lives from them.
  
• Vrock - Wrath demons, these are violent, vulture-headed winged creatures. The exude virulent spores that take root in the flesh -- holy water can cleanse these painful growths. Vrocks can work together to unleash devastating storms of electricity. Vrocks use telekinesis to disarm their foes.
  

General Demon Information

• Demons come from the Abyss, where they spawn from the souls of sinful souls. The sins of the soul influence the demon it becomes.
  
• Demons are always chaotic evil - they are evil made manifest.
  
• Some demons can possess mortals, especially Invidiaks.
  
• Some demons can walk among mortals in disguise, especially Succubi, Glabrezu and Mariliths.
  
• Most demons are weak to cold iron...but not all of them.
  
• Most demons are weak to holy, good and axiomatic weapons.
  
• Demons are immune to electricity, and are resistant to acid, cold, and fire. This is because demons are accustomed the chaotic elemental energies than manifest wildly in the Abyss.
  
• Demons are immune to poison, and are fond of using it against their enemies.
  
• Advanced demons can summon more demons.
  
• Demons are telepathic. They can move in unison and alert nearby allies inaudibly.
  

I'll be copy/pasting this onto the campaign tab shortly under a spoiler.

....This is only a small sampling of demons in this campaign. There will be plenty that you will still need K.Planes to identify, I assure you.

Yay, first combat! Getting a feel for what you guys are capable of. The battlemap and initiative order are in the campaign description. I try to keep it updated with whose turn it is, but obviously if I'm not online I can't keep it 100% up to date so don't view it as infallible or anything haha.

I intend to keep combat moving in initiative order. While this slows things down, I want you guys to be able to make tactical decisions (like readying/delaying actions). I want you guys to react to something that happened earlier in the round. I want the power to introduce more enemies in the middle of a round. Stuff like that. So it is worth taking a moment to talk about post rates.

On Post Rates

You have 24 hours after the last combat action to get your action in. If you do not, I'll bot you, using your previous actions as a guide as for what you should do.

If I am forced to bot you 3 times in this manner, you will be replaced. (Within reason. If the campaign goes on for 3 years and you are botted 4 times spread out amongst those 3 years, you are fine.)

If you vanish and do not post anything for a week, regardless of if we are in combat or not, you will be replaced.

If something is going to keep you from posting, then please let us know. Vacations, illness, exams, whatever! PM me or post something in discussion, with a hard date of when we can expect you back. If you do this, you are safe from getting da boot. However, do not expect for the game to wait on you. This just gives me the ok to bot you and keep chugging along.

If something happens to me that causes me to not meet my 1 post/day I will let you know. For example, I have a 1 week vacation planned in August. I don't know when (because my leave hasn't been approved yet) but once that is ironed out I will let you guys know.

Sorry if this seems harsh, but even with fast posting, this whole adventure will take several years. So we need to keep moving forwards.

On experience points

I totally forgot to include this on the houserules during recruitment, but I will not be using experience points. You will level up when the AP says it is appropriate.

The wonky power levels that we will be dealing with due to using a 6 member party,3pp stuff, mythic rules, and just having a group of players with high system mastery in general means I need to be given the freedom to adjust encounters to keep things challenging. I also want the freedom to add in my own encounters and adventures without needing to scale the whole rest of the adventure up due to you guys leveling up early.

It is not my intention to make this a meat grinder by any means. I just don't want you to run up and one-shot Khorramzadeh when you get to him, which is what would have happened if I don't adjust the AP at all.

On Pre-rolling actions

Let's say you log on at noon to check on how a combat is going. It doesn't look like it'll come around to your turn til later in the evening, and you won't be able to post an action until tomorrow at noon. While still well within the 24 hour window you have to post, this still slows combat down. In this case, you may pre-roll an action in discussion. Do this under spoilers, please. If/then styled commands are fine.

In general, try to post in initiative order so that you can react to things as they happen. But this will not always be possible, so pre-rolling accommodates that.

On Immediate Actions

Try to come up with some if/then statements in your alias if you have a lot of immediate actions you want to employ. Check out Ary's alias for a good example of this.

I imagine Hrut will eventually have a lot of this going on too.

I'm pretty laidback if something unforeseen happens and you want to retroactively use an immediate action (ESPECIALLY if this is a life or death scenario) - but try to come up with some general protocol for these things to make life easier.

I just thought i should let you know, given your botting rule, that from 2pm on Saturday to 2pm Sunday I'll be at a Humans vs. Zombies LARP event and will have no internet access. If my turn comes during that time, that'll suck and there'll be nothing I can do about it until about 5pm on Sunday.

Also, you were right about my initiative - it is -1. It's right on my alias but it was wrong on my header. It's been corrected.

I just thought i should let you know, given your botting rule, that from 2pm on Saturday to 2pm Sunday I'll be at a Humans vs. Zombies LARP event and will have no internet access. If my turn comes during that time, that'll suck and there'll be nothing I can do about it until about 5pm on Sunday.

Consider pre-rolling an action under spoilers, as added to the above post, sometime before you leave. :)

That sounds crazy awesome by the way, have fun!

I'll actually be heading out to do face-to-face RP in about an hour and will be back in about 6-7 hours. I'll -generally- do this every friday.

Also, @map: Li'an and Valaria are not allowed to move. Their pictures in that position looks far too epic.

I know I'll meet the posting speeds, but I don't want to hold up anyone so:

@Markus

Go ahead and move your token as you wish. I don't think there is a way to get to Nestrin's side without triggering an AoO.

I guess I'll wait until next round, then.

Then what should I use for Abyssal? :p

I use the aforementioned cypher program with the following model text:

Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,

ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.
agh ash at bagronk búbhosh búrz dug durb ghâsh gimb glob gûl
hai ishi krimp lug Lug-búrz nazg Nazgûl oghor-hai olog pushduh ronk skai sha sharkû snaga thrak u ûk ul um uruk Gu kibum kelkum-ishi, burzum-ishi. Akha-gum-ishi ashi gurum.

Yields a bunch of nonsense that is nice and harsh and throaty.

For example

"And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor, shall be lifted—nevermore!" transforms into

"Ank ra shârz birb azg bozg boghil bozg pul burzak ush bi bum, bot di pashug—glukhushishi!"

I love the pace of fresh games!

@Hrut

You can only utilize Broken Blade Maneuvers using broken blade discipline weapons (close/unarmed/monk). However, they do get an extra +2 damage to the attack (which it looks like you factored in).

Furthermore, the mythic nerfs listed out in the original post state that as a house rule, for this campaign, you cannot make more than 1 extra attack at full BAB for any reason, regardless of what stacking abilities are going on. The mythic nerfs DO apply to non-mythic abilities (so, for example, rapid shot + haste would no longer stack as well)

So the net effect is that Hrut could use Flurry Strike for one extra full BAB attack with his shield (or an unarmed attack, or his gauntlet).

If this changes the way you value Flurry Strike you may retrain it out for a different maneuever.

I'm gonna be adding the nerf list to the campaign tab in a second.

I think the only other mythic nerf that really applies to non-mythic abilities is that it is impossible to just fully ignore DR, spell resistance, immunities, etc using an ability or buff (using the right tool for the right DR still works - for example cold iron will ignore all DR). Instead, it only ignores a portion of DR/Immunity/whatever that scales with mythic tiers. This is mostly relevant to smite which no one has.

Also, all enemies on my side of the screen are subject to all those nerfs also, with the sole exception that the mythic Agile template works as normal on them. There are actually a few buffs to enemies on the list, but they are all ONLY for mythic enemies and ONLY defensive (nothing that lets them hit harder).

Weapon group adaptation feat added axes to all of the discipline groups I can use.
Here

Weapon group adaptation feat added axes to all of the maneuver groups I can use.

Here

Oh, nice! I missed that, thanks.

Still, the nerf is still in effect. Do you want to flurry with axe or shield?

And, are you going to keep the maneuver or retrain?

Well I get 2 attacks, which is 1 more then I normally get, which is 1 more at fully BAB, isn't that already what I am allowed?

Well I get 2 attacks, which is 1 more then I normally get, which is 1 more at fully BAB, isn't that already what I am allowed?

Oh, man you're right. I've played it as 2 extra attacks in the past. Then no big deal =)

I have someone at my table who is a cheaty face!!!! (I kid, but still.)

No biggie, call me out I'm not trying to be malicious and you are quite meticulous which is a breath of fresh air ;)