GM R0B0GEISHA Presents: The Dragon's Demand

Game Master R0B0GEISHA

Welcome all and congratulations on making it!

A couple of things we should cover before we begin the game in earnest:

1. I noticed that a few of you have Belhaim in your background. I failed to mention this in character creation, but a significant portion of the adventure involves getting acquainted to the area and its population, so it would be best if your past with the town is changed or left out entirely.

2. We should talk about how you all know one another. I have a pretty basic "you were all hired by a caravan to act as guards" story to begin, but we should establish if you all came by the job as individuals or not.

Marcus was basically wandering the world, living either by his sword or music.

He easily can have caught on to any caravan either as a guard or as entertainment.

Either way works for me. Grargath could have been travelling with some or all of the other party members, or by himself when he was hired.

Welcome all and congratulations on making it!

Thanks for having me, man. Appreciated.

1. I noticed that a few of you have Belhaim in your background. I failed to mention this in character creation, but a significant portion of the adventure involves getting acquainted to the area and its population, so it would be best if your past with the town is changed or left out entirely.

Oh boy. Am I about to be difficult. Considering that I tailored the character to Belhaim and made sure to have a connection with the place, I'm struggling to see why I was accepted. I'm hoping that you can elaborate, because if you are asking me to rewrite character motivations and whatnot I'm afraid that I'm out. Best to lay that bare immediately.

Is this an issue of not having the PCs knowing anything about the town, or that the setup requires all PCs to be caravan guards arriving at Belhaim? Because if it is the former I also wrote in the whole "decade since he's been in town" thing to justify that my character doesn't have the lay of the place anymore. If it's the latter then I wish you all a good game and apologize for wasting your time.

Working as a caravan guard would be fine with me. Since he is a traveling cleric, Francis probably wouldn't recieve much, if any, of a stipend to live off of and would have to be "bivocational" so to speak.

@Arthur G: No need for anybody to drop out. If you honestly don't see a way around it, then I will make it work.

And Kade was selected because he seemed to work best with the party I chose and I appreciated the level of detail in his profile.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Prior to this Cira had been traveling with her fellow adventurers, but she could have decided that it was time for her to part ways with them for awhile to see and experience new things, and so she became a caravan guard.

Whatever works for you works for me. I didn't really have anything specific in mind for her in this regard.

Marcus could have also been part of some "rag-tag adventurers" who took in a half elven sorceresses who happened to have been wandering in the woods for some reason ;P

Perhaps Francis, Marcus and Grargath had already met up, then took in Cira? Prior to wandering to Belhaim for whatever reason to meet up with Kade somewhere on the way, or when reaching the town.

I assume a wandering warrior, traveling cleric and penniless bard could have met up somewhere and decided to travel together, likely in a bar.

Wait, isn't that a joke... A Dwarf, a Priest and a Bard walk into a bar...

Perhaps Francis, Marcus and Grargath had already met up, then took in Cira? Prior to wandering to Belhaim for whatever reason to meet up with Kade somewhere on the way, or when reaching the town.

I assume a wandering warrior, traveling cleric and penniless bard could have met up somewhere and decided to travel together, likely in a bar.

That sounds like a solid idea to me. Easy and simple way to get the party together.

Marcus Eld wrote:

Perhaps Francis, Marcus and Grargath had already met up, then took in Cira? Prior to wandering to Belhaim for whatever reason to meet up with Kade somewhere on the way, or when reaching the town.

I assume a wandering warrior, traveling cleric and penniless bard could have met up somewhere and decided to travel together, likely in a bar.

That sounds like a solid idea to me. Easy and simple way to get the party together.

That works for me!

@GM ROBOGEISHA: in the interest of expediency, could we say that Kade was another guard sent from Belhaim to meet the caravan at the halfway point? Makes some sense as a precautionary measure against whatever could lie ahead on the road. That would also mean that all the characters are already familiar with each other. Would that work?

@Arthur G: Sure.

Two things:

1. Kade, I'll start adding spoilers for you when you encounter something about Belhaim or its people that you might know. For instance:

I'll try to avoid adding too much detail, to maintain the mystery of the adventure and as you said, 10 years is a long time for somebody to be away and have nothing change, but you will be generally better informed than the rest of the party.

2. Due to the nature of the module, you will gain XP quickly if you hope to survive. Part of this growth will be in the finding and finishing of quests. I'll include any active quests in the Campaign Info tab.

Neat! Thanks, man. Don't overexert yourself though. I wrote the guy with a decade long gap in his life and as a willful social outcast for this reason. I'd hate to make too much extra work for you. You can assume that Kade is fairly ignorant about the goings-on of the place, even 10 years back. All the same, I'm sure everyone appreciates the background knowledge.

Oh, and good posts from everyone involved so far. Liking the crew.

Oh, and good posts from everyone involved so far. Liking the crew.

Agreed! It doesn't seem like you guys are new to PbP at all.

Thanks for the quest info! I agree as well, this has been a lot of fun so far. I can't wait to start solving some mysteries.

Agreed! It doesn't seem like you guys are new to PbP at all.

First time I've done any RP'ing since the mid 90's.

Yeah, this has been really fun so far. Definitely the most in-depth RP'ing I've ever been involved in. I'm looking forward to the rest of it. It's a good group. :)

If I'm doing too many rolls, let me know. I'm still working my process with the messageboards and learning the various rules for Pathfinder (my last AD&D experience was 2nd edition).

If it bothers people, I can stop.

There's no such thing as too many Perception rolls.

If there is something to see, I will generally include a Perception DC in a spoiler. Unless you are specifically looking for something, don't worry about rolling Perception in every room you come across.

NO SUCH THING.

Guessing our standard marching order will be Grargath, Kade, Marcus, Francis, Cira?

I know Marcus is more melee oriented, not sure how much face bashing Francis is looking to do.

Yeah, that's a good plan. Put the punch absorbers up front for any surprises and keep the squishy magic users in the back.

Isn't absorbing punches what Dwarves are for? :P

That said, one thing I like about Bards is that they can both take a punch (well, once I get some defensive spells) and cast magic!

Guessing our standard marching order will be Grargath, Kade, Marcus, Francis, Cira?

I know Marcus is more melee oriented, not sure how much face bashing Francis is looking to do.

Francis can dish out some ok damage, and take a hit or two. He's better with his morningstar than his crossbow.

That's fine with me. I would have wanted to be in the middle or at the end for now, since I don't have a whole lot of spells.

Definitely Grargath and Kade up front though!

You may be giving Kade more than his fair due. While he can do some damage his AC is less than impressive. Still, it's absolutely in his personality to go right into the fray, so I'm all for that marching order.

Yeah, I don't really know monks all that well, I just assumed they get enough bonuses to be viable front liners.

If you'd prefer to be more of a flanker, Marcus can certainly face hug as he has decent AC, HPs, and (I think) the highest strength score in the group. He's gonna be in combat anyhow, but I had figured more of a round 2 kinda thing as the Inspire Courage is a Standard action.

I was also assuming that Marcus has been around Kade long enough to realize (they were working together prior) to know he's more than just some guy in peasant clothing.

Oh I'm sure he does. The whole "I'm just a dude in his pajamas" remark was supposed to reflect how Kade sees himself. He hasn't caught onto the fact that he's anything special. Within the party he sees himself as the NPC sidekick to a quartet of PCs. Was not at all meant as a jibe against Marcus.

And I really don't know the monk very well myself. First time I'm playing one, so I guess we'll find out what role they're best suited for together.

Awesome. I love Kades inner monologue. Extremely well don thus far

I agree with Marcus. I'm incredibly interested to see how Kade develops throughout the campaign.

Awesome. I love Kades inner monologue. Extremely well don thus far

Agreed, the detail in your posts is a lot of fun to read.

Invite to Roll20 found here.

The link to the adventure map is now located above the campaign info tab.

Is there supposed to be an actual map on there yet? All I see is a black screen when I join.

Are you on a desktop or phone? I'm on my phone right now and had to hide the chat and, I think, zoom out, but I was able to view it that way.

Yes, try zooming out to find the room you guys start in. I'm fiddling with a Dynamic Lighting tool to better emulate the darkness of the dungeon and it's being finnicky.

What are your usernames on Roll20 so I can assign your tokens to you.

Username should just be Marcus, since I've never used this particular site before.

EDIT: Got it, just needed to zoom out. All hunky-dory now.

Mine is Charlie J

-Posted with Wayfinder

Getting a better look at the map, I'm guessing that the chamber and where the door is located are one and the same, and not seperate as I first thought?

Correct.

How big are the squares on the map? 5'?

Yes.

Thanks

@GM R0B0GEISHA Now that Marcus, Kade, and Francis have gone, are Cira and I free to go? Or do we wait for a post from you?

Wait for a post from me to establish what their actions did. I'll have a post up some time today, but I'm working through my other games at the moment. :)

Okay, that's what I thought, I just wanted to be sure.

I just realized that I never gave Marcus any traits (I was waiting to see if there were campaign specific ones).

Is it to late to assign some? I was thinking Reactionary and Focused Mind.

If not, no a big deal. Just curious.

Not too late at all. And those traits are fine.