Shattered Star

Game Master Zesdead

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I went ahead and fixed it. Shadlah should be able t waltz right on up and pound the bug.

Just short of 5,000 posts and 2 years but we made it… thoughts on the adventure path so far? From my perspective, I think ‘Shards of Sin’ worked rather well for us… the ‘dungeon’ parts of the adventure (the Vancaskerkin house, the Tower Girls in the Crow and then two levels of the dungeon below the Crow) felt quite balanced against the City based activities where you could have real RP fun… I did rather enjoy dropping Ravenmoor in there as well – I think the tone of the adventure was rather different for that part of our story (I wonder whether anything from Horror Adventures would have augmented that) but, as far as I am concerned, it gave your characters some room to develop!!!

Even if I came in late, I enjoyed the adventure, and the characters relationships.

I had great thrills with Ravenmoor, more than with the dungeon crawl, because it was very spooky!

I've loved it. :D

Ravenmoor was fun, and I can't wait to see what you spring on us in Book 2. Also can't wait until we hit Kaer Maga. That's going to eb an eye opener for Joanna.

It's been a fantastic ride so far! I can't wait to see what's in store for us in Book 2 :D

Soooooo, I've been wanting to GM another game recently, and decided on Jade Regent. If you want to be in a game with me on the other side of the screen, just mosey on over here: DM Salsa Presents: The Jade Regent

I'd be more than happy to have any of y'all playing through that with me. :)

Hrngh...I'm already in a Jade Regent game...

We'll see if inspiration strikes I suppose :3

Hrngh...I'm already in a Jade Regent game...

We'll see if inspiration strikes I suppose :3

Don't worry. I"m in three different RotRL games so I'm not going to make a decision based on that unless it's really close between characters, maybe not even then.

And on another note. I hope Jo's internal monologue is funny and not off-putting. I'm not the best at reading people, and it is notoriously difficult to get a good read of someone over text on the internet. I thought it was funny, but I'm aware that my sense of humor is odd, so...

Hey, I think it's funny and I'd call my own sense of humor as being a bit odd so... :)

And we are definitely going to have some interesting times whenever we get to said Lust shard, no matter who ends up with it!

Folks, I am enjoying just sitting on the sidelines during this exchange... IRL, I am travelling to / from France today and tomorrow so my posting rate may be a bit low until tomorrow evening (UK)...

...ultimately, when you are done with your fun...I think you need to be heading back towards the Heidmarch manor (sewers or boat, either is fine...) so that we can draw a line under Shards of Sin.

Roger that, Zed.

@Briana: Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the others think. I hope Haladir comes back soon. I want to get Zee's reaction to Joanna's personality change. Though I'm sure that Teldon's is also going to be pretty good.

I don't know how Shadlah's going to act, though knowing Ronnie, it should be pretty good.

Jo, I'd be happy to join your game, but I need to create a new character first..

Come on people, lets have fun!

Great to see you getting back on the GM wagon Joanna/Adam/Salsa and I have just dropped one game I was playing in (an Iron Gods campaign that stalled badly at the start of Book 2)... but, for some reason, Jade Regent really doesn't float my boat... I will follow along with interest though.

I think I'm the only person here who doesn't run a game in addition to playing...maybe I'll look into changing that at some point.

Yes! Do a game, Briana! ^^

I think I'm the only person here who doesn't run a game in addition to playing...maybe I'll look into changing that at some point.

If you do, you'll have at least one applicant. :D

Aw, thanks for the vote of confidence! I've never actually GMed anything before so I'd probably start with something small and easy like a PFS scenario or maybe a module :)

If you're taking suggestions, We Be Goblins is always a favorite here it seems. I'm also more than happy to help if you want.

Jo, I put a character in your recrutment thread.

And added to the list. :)

Sorry for not reading it right this minute. I'm trying not to get attached to characters before the recruitment ends.

If you're taking suggestions, We Be Goblins is always a favorite here it seems. I'm also more than happy to help if you want.

Forgot to respond to this, but I appreciate the suggestion and the offer to help! I'll probably need to cut down on my active games a bit before I do anything, but I'll definite be picking people's brains once I'm ready to do something :)

And I don't envy you having 30+ submissions to sort through :\

How long is your recruitment open Jo/Tera/Adam? I might be interested in applying but I'm not sure how fast I can put together a good submission only working during my occasional moments of clarity...

You've got a little more than 30 hours to post a dot. After that, you'll have a week.

It's a little weird but I am going to be swamped getting to everybody as is and if I had left it open the next week, I'm not sure how many I'd have wanting a spot.

If anyone (Briana?^^) does a recruitment for Giantslayer, I got a character ready! ^^

Congratulations to Briana on reaching 1,000 posts!!! In recognition of shaping your own fate, she receives (and Teldon retrospectively receives) a blessing from Pharasma

Moment of Pause (Sp) – Once only, as a melee touch attack, you can stop time for one creature, briefly freezing them in place. For one round only, the creature can take no action and experiences time as if that round never took place. The creature may make a Will Save (DC = 10 plus Character’s HD plus Character’s CHA modifier) to negate this effect.

Oh wow, thanks Zed! I didn't even notice that I broke 1k posts until you mentioned it, hehe. She's definitely leading the pack on my aliases, though I've got a few others that are 500+ :3

Nice. With my Cha I'll have to be careful who/what I use it on (and also lucky), but it's pretty cool nonetheless.

Congrats to both of you!

Zed I'll try to get a post up soon, but I'm working late tonight so if I don't get a post up, just assume that Joanna shows Lady Heidmarch the shard, though she won't let her touch it.

Folks, I have compiled a list of those things which the group anticipate doing whilst back in Magnimar proper… I’m not sure if there was anything that Ziomarra, Arsith or Shadlah anticipated doing that was specific to their character? Some items here we will deal with quickly – letters can just be written at an appropriate time… whereas some will probably lead the story along a little…

• Delivering Captain Brast's brooch to his wife, along with news of his fate and letting Captain Brast know they've done what they set out to do.

• Writing a letter to Brother/Uncle Titus asking if there's a way to turn a ghoul back.

• Writing a letter to the Korzhas and seeing how they are doing.

• Following up at the Arvensoar re: the Derro and the folk that you rescued from the Crow.
  
• See how Shel is holding up.

• See how Natalya is doing… obviously we have started that with this first meeting with Lady Heidmarch.

• Joanna will look to find out if the Golden Key has set sail. She may ask Lady Heidmarch to check on this for her since the less she contacts Mr. Donovan for now, the better.

• Teldon wants to perform some experiments on the derro’s fungus – until he has confirmed otherwise, he is going to be unable to let go of the whole swampseer poison thing.

• Catching up with Agent Sylvain of the Aspis Consortium. Upon your return from Ravenmoor, he was unavailable (more due to me wanting to push the group straight back into adventuring within the Crow rather than any other fiendish plans tbh) but Teldon – in his guise as Pellius – will want to make contact again.

• Also Teldon, again as Pellius, will look to enter the antiquities business…

• On top of that, we still need to work in an Animal Companion / Mount for Joanna… I have some ideas as to how we do that…

…and, of course, we will start working our way properly into Book 2!!!!

Re: Things to do in Magnimar... Zee wants to go to Cynosure Tower to worship and chat with other Desnan priests, but otherwise doesn't have any loose ends to tie up.

Rather than writing a bunch of blue text in the Gameplay thread, I think we should have an out-of-character discussion about which PC should bear the Shard of Pride.

To be honest, the benefits granted by the Shard of Pride would best go to a front-line fighter: haste 1/day and +1 Insight bonus to attack rolls.

From a mechanical perspective, I think that Joanna would be the most logical PC to carry it... of course, she's also got very good RP reasons not to want it. Still... I could see her decide that she's got experience with it and would be the best one to carry it forward.

I think that Arsith would be the other logical choice to bear the Shard of Pride... and I can think of a few RP justifications for her choosing to accept it.

Looking ahead to Curse of the Lady's Light... I have a few ideas how to role-play Zee if she ends up with the Shard of Lust... and I'm pretty sure I can keep it PG-13...

It would be a shame to keep it PG-13.Just kidding. ^^

Slight correction to Ziomarra's post, note it is the Shard of Greed that you folks just got!!! (with the Haste / +1 to attack rolls)... Teldon (and previously, Nalathi) have been carrying the Shard of Pride (Maor Image / +2 to Skill Checks) through most of the adventure...

Yes, I knew that...

yikes- just saw that I missed all this before sort of already handing out the greed shard... glad to see Zee had the same idea, lol. (I actually think it makes more sense for Arsith than Jo, because they're both front-liners but Arsith only has medium BAB and so needs the +1 more; plus in a big fight she can afford the round to cast haste instead of wasting a round of smite attacks from Jo)

edit: @GM- am I remembering correctly that the two shards we have seem as though they would/will fit together?

No arguments from me on who'd be best to carry the Shard of Greed!

Regarding wrapping up loose ends, I think the two most pressing once we're done here at Heidmarch Manor would be following up on the derro and taking care of Captain Brast's wishes. After that, a lot of the smaller things like writing letters, fungus research, etc. can take place over downtime between now and we when set out to look for the next shard.

That being said, I'm aware that Briana is already sorta latching on to a couple of the other things on the list (Natalya & Shel) but there's nothing saying that we all have to be present or have a hand in every single item on the to-do list :)

No complaints here. :)

I was thinking about going ahead and posting some of the less interactive stuff (like the letters) but I think I'll wait.

I'm honestly not sure on what to do. Shadlah's been sort of following along at this point with no real goal in mind. A lot of this is irrelevant to her, being threads from before she joined. >.>

Well, if you're looking for something to do... My alter ego could always use a bodyguard that the Aspis Consortium knows nothing about.

I'm honestly not sure on what to do. Shadlah's been sort of following along at this point with no real goal in mind. A lot of this is irrelevant to her, being threads from before she joined.

We, I think, think will only be in this Heidmarch Manor interlude for a v. short while... it pretty much wraps up the Shards of Sin book and opens up the next phase of the adventure... I have no doubt that Shadlah will be fully involved from that point onwards...

Also I anticipate that Lady Heidmarch is going to be asking Shadlah as to whether she is willing to join the Pathfinder Society... that may well open a conversation or two!!!

So... Happy birthday to us!!! Our second anniversary since starting this game... and just as we close out Book 1 and head bravely into 'The Curse of the Lady's Light'...

Oh my gosh that's right! Happy Birthday SS!

*throws confetti*

Hopefully as we move forward Shadlah will feel a little more in-place with the rest of the group and develop some plot threads/interests of her own. I believe Zed said parts of this book take place outside the city, right? Will be nice to get on the road again, hehe...

(Or not?)

Also my suggestions above weren't meant to prevent or discourage anyone from pursuing whatever loose ends or new leads they want, hope it didn't come across that way!

*edit* Psst...I think you meant 'Lady' and not 'Lasy' in the adventure link, hehe.

Wootwoot!

Also, I wouldn't worry Shadlah, Joanna's about to drag you into some of her things. :)

Folks, I wonder whether it is worth having the conversation about ‘boundaries’ again… as Curse of the Lady’s Light introduces the Shard of Lust, we may well move into slightly adult themes... as written, the AP is far from overt so I am fairly confident I can steer the adventure according to people’s comfort levels. I guess it is more just how far you folks take it… and, importantly, what people are actually comfortable with. I am fairly sure we have had this conversation before – but it was probably a more generic chat and may well have predated Arsith and Shadlah joining the group.

Hmm...for me it varies somewhat depending on the general 'feel' of the group and the overall tone of the game. Occasional bawdy, in-character jokes don't bother me though I prefer things not get too crude. For sexual activities I find that implied/fade-to-black works best. I'd rather avoid in-depth and/or gratuitous descriptions of sexual violence (as would most people so I'm pretty sure that's a moot point for this group anyway) but it doesn't hit any personal trigger issues for me if such things are implied to have happened or if it's a plot point for an NPC, as long as it's handled tastefully.

Thanks for bringing this up.

Honestly, I'm pretty much okay with edgy/graphic content, as long as we stay within Paizo's online community guidelines. And the guidelines do forbid graphic sexual content. Likewise, I prefer to avoid scenes of sexual violence... it's usually lazy writing, to be honest.

When I GM, assuming I have my players' consent, I will occasionally push the boundaries of good taste.

I'm fine with pretty much what Haladir posted. I think I may have gone beyond those guidelines in the RotRL game when the players invaded the Thistletop dungeon. I made a few missteps there, but I think it was mainly about giving the PCs a chance to have some control of their actions in their nightmares. Anything really bad I got explicit permission on first.

So, yeah. I don't think I'll be having any issues with whatever you have in mind GM Zed.

oops, sorry, didn't think I was going too far with my joke.I apologise

That's fine... I thought it was pretty funny, and so did Zee!

@Arsith.... No, I think everyone thought - especially with the context of Arsith telling the joke - that it was fine... it's more a recognition of the themes of this part of the AP... although, just a little, Arsith's joke did remind me that now was a good time to confirm what folks' comfort level actually was...

Yeah. Joanna is rather naive and you caught her off guard. I thought it was pretty funny myself.