Steel Wolves - A Mercenary Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master Mark Sweetman

The forward plot will roughly follow Serpent Skull from the second book onwards (and has been since you left Kalabuto).

I'll be re-skinning things as appropriate to suit you remaining a mercenary company and tying back to some of the story elements used so far - but will be pretty close.

from the mining supplies Doc is taking as much oil as he can, some extra rope and any spare pots and pans he can find.

Being that he's in an ore refining camp (where they break away as much stone as possible before shipping the ore), can Doc find a large working grinder here?

Doc - that's all fine.

There would a a crusher of some kind, what fine-ness of grind were you looking for?

I wanted to make some powders. There's all kinds of uses for rock dust.

Gotcha - table mounted crusher is available and a few smaller grinders for various powder grades. The smaller grinders are of the size where you could take one with if you wished.

Sweet!

Super advance Holiday warning post:

I will be going on a pretty long trip down to Australia between 14th December and 10th January to visit relatives, celebrate Christmas, that sort of thing.

Whilst I will have net access, my available time will be restricted to alot less than I can currently swing; so ability to DM will be virtually nil through that time.

So my initial long range thoughts is to essentially park the PbP over my vacation time, and then pick it back up in the new year.

Anyone have any concerns / issues with that approach?

For clarity - the PbP will keep running as usual right up to December 14 before going on temporary hiatus.

That is cool with me I figure most of my PbP will be like that. Lucky enough for me I will have skyrim and both mass effects to keep me busy.

Sounds like a nice trip Voice, Enjoy yourself and safe travels.

No worries here. I kinda prefer the idea of a stop and start day vs intermittent posting.

Im in the same boat as Kaavel. Picking up Skyrim tonight at the midnight release.

The prof. in my one class was debating if class should be canceled so they could play Skyrim lol. However there are things do tomorrow so no go but my group is not going until Monday so guess what I am doing all weekend.......

Right on. I have a 3 day weekend ahead of me too.

So exactly how big I's the orb?

As per the map I put up, roughly 20ft diameter, and is about half to two thirds above ground.

Rent in the side is roughly 10 ft wide.

Can we get a link to the map here so it doesn't get buried in the IC tide?

Blue Orb Map

Y'know, I really like the idea of the mortar, but in practice it's turning out to be both a Nerf and a pain.

All I really wanted was an alchemist who fired his bombs instead of throwing them. I picked rapid shot/reload because it seemed like the logical analogue to Two Weapon Fighting, but it's not working the way I want it to, and it's a feat tax.

Without the mortar I'd have precise shot by now.

With your permission I'd like to change my feat list and use the mortar as a rarely-used piece of equipment that let's me trade rate of fire for increased distance.

Also, why in the world wouldn't you be able to use two different ranged weapons in one round?

Doc / Doomed - yeah, no problem swapping out if you like. Make the changes after the combat is finished (which unless you guys roll junk will probably be in less than a round).

You could still use the mortar specifically for bombs, and then use the Fast Bomb discovery to up the RoF.

The feat text for Rapid Shot is When making a full-attack action with a ranged weapon - which depending on which side of the bed you got out of can be read to imply that the weapon used for the two shots has to be the same. That's all I was implying.

Though with thrown weapons - it probably should be a move action to retrieve the item being thrown as well as per Retrieve a stored item action (at least without Quick Draw). So you wouldn't be able to rapid shot unless you also had Quick Draw.

So yeah, thrown items get a bit of feat tax involved there to be sure.

It is a lot harder than I thought it would be to chuck things around willy nilly.

So I'm going to need TWF, precise shot, and quick draw before I'm going to be fully combat effective. Sheesh. No wonder the vivisectionist is the prefered alchemist build. To play an effective bomber is just about impossible.

Yeah - does seem a bit of overkill in terms of all the feats / etc required.

The ruleset does a really good job of making any ranged attacks other than spells, bows, or crossbows, and if you're a halfling, a sling, all but useless in most circumstances. I would love to play with the alchemical items more myself on some character, but they just don't work with the existing rules.

FYI - I'll be out of town tomorrow, so probably won't get a chance to put in an update until Sunday evening my time (in roughly 48ish hours from this post).

So feel free to take the weekend off, and sorry for the delay in the game.

No need to apologize Voiceless. Im still impressed with how well this game is moving along.

Safe travels and enjoy the weekend.

I can't believe ur leavin me in a lurch on two games!! Horror!, outrage!, utter and complete lies!!

Ok, in all seriousness, its totally ok. Enjoy ur travels and stay safe.

Any chance you can us(in both this game and Envoy) somtin to do while gone...ya know, some treasue to distupte, or a level to gain? :-) lol

Horror!, outrage!, utter and complete lies!!

GM's are all monsters who feed on the suffering of PCs. You're only giving him what he wants. :)

Also, Doc - now would be a good time to venture what chems and rocks you think Doc would be able to find with a sizable halite deposit ;)[/ooc]

Well, there's a million uses for a sizable amount of raw rock salt.

In terms of more impressive stuff, I think Doc could definitely make some salt acid, itching powder, and rocksalt rounds and depending on the chemicals and things they have laying around for processing the Halite I might be able to make some kind of coking/smoke bombs.

Just tell me what rolls I need to make and how much time I have/need.

Shrugging - no rolls needed in this instance, just some wiki research as to what you quote that you can find.

The rock salt here is mined purely mechanically, so there aren't any processing chemicals or the like onsite. However there are some patches of other evaporite mineral deposits. They are present either as gangue accumulations or some raw crystals.

As far as quantity, as long as you don't go overboard I'm fine with it. So you can find enough of the associated minerals to make maybe 3-6 of something; whereas you have all the rock salt your heart could desire.

Let's also say that they had a reasonable collection of burnt wood leavings from the oven in the camp - which means you just need visit a guano merchant when you get back to town to get your third constituent for your expensive powder. It won't be smokeless... but will work the same.

ok, here's the list of things I can think to make from a large amount of salt-

With electricity I can make Chlorine and Lye. (I can generate all the electricity I need with copper wire, an iron rod and a loadstone, I can describe the process if you're curious)

Chlorine is highly toxic and would make an impressive inhaled or injected poison.

Lye would make one nasty powder bomb. (Just imagine an eggshell grenade full of lye hitting you in the face. Ick.)

By adding electricity to a heated solution of Halite and water I can make Sodium Chlorate which is one of the most potent defoliants on the planet (screw you, Plant creature type!)

Hypersaturation and heat (vaccum) sealing a halite/water solution creates a powerful salt-based de-icer, which may prove useful against Cold based creatures or creatures with semi-permeable membranes (like giant slugs, jellyfish, some oozes, and anything of that nature). The vaccum seal prevents the salts from reforming into a solid when the water it's dissolved in cools.

With ground up dried potatoes, sand and salt I can make a potent anti-fire compound that would extinguish most flames on contact.

Subdual damage bullets could easily be made from Rock Salt.

Do you want any links to any of these chemical processes?

With electricity to separate Halite into Sodium, Chlorine and Hydrogen, I can capture Chlorine and Hydrogen (the two gasses released by the process) together and make Hydrogen Chloride (a gas). That gas mixed with water is hydrochloric acid.

From Hydrochloric Acid I can make a lot of things (not just the obvious acid bombs).

These are just the military uses I can think of. Preservatives, pigments, cleaning solvents and a lot of more complex chemicals use salt as a foundation.

Do you need me to link any of these chemical processes for you?

Oh, and with a cow and some sugar I can make ice cream.

If you can tinker a Golarion tech level IC description of how you make it - then go for it. This doesn't mean that I necessarily want a detailed step by step with chemical products, etc. Just an indication of how you'd actually achieve the process using IC specific kit in gross level steps.

With one disclaimer - what you make needs to be of a similar power level (though slightly above to reward the effort taken) to what is available at either a mundane level or through your Alchemist abilities. After all this should be a 'Doc makes cool stuff that does new and interesting things' - rather than a 'Doc makes stuff that can destroy the planet's core' :P (tongue firmly in cheek)

So for something like a lye powder eggshell - I'd suggest sneezing powder as a starting point - then look at higher DCs, different effects (such as blindness), etc.

For a bomb - things like changing d6s to d8 vs susceptible targets, using acid damage instead of fire, those sorts of changes are cool.

DM Voiceless I would change the Golarion tech level part. That varies a lot from country to country and race to race. On the electricity part I found out some ancient culture around the middle east found out how to make it the way Doc just said and seemed to use it as a light source if I remembering it right. I could be wrong on the area and the use but I know they had it.

Kaavel - while I can appreciate the point, I'm firm on that one.

It isn't as limiting as you think - as things like alchemist's fire, and flasks of alkali, etc, are already able to be fabricated.

Using two sealed electrodes and generating electricity to perform electrolysis on a salt solution is easily doable. Glass beakers and flexible rubber piping is fine.

Supersaturation followed by effective vacuum sealing is something that I'd need a bit more convincing on how it was actually able to be practically achieved. Similar with generation techniques that require precise heating windows to be obeyed or effective gas scrubbing, etc.

Lastly - I'd like to think I'm being pretty open and accommodating on this one. Remember I'm letting a 3rd level Alchemist apply 21st century chemistry knowledge in a medieval / renaissance situation.

All I'm asking is that it be setting appropriate in generation and not be too extreme in application.

I was disagreeing with the use of Golarion tech level wording since as I said it varies. The other part was a fun fact I had and thought it would be cool to say. As for the rest you said lost me never was that good with science.

Aah - sorry for the slight mis-read.

Doc has an array of personal size apparatus on his person that could be used for generating small quantities of chemicals and gas over time. (The sort of quantities suitable for personal useage)

However larger industrial size equipment would be subject to what is available in Kalabuto / Eleder in the short term - then Alkenstar in the medium term (given that it's just over the Shattered Range). Alkenstar would be one of the most scientifically advanced groups in Golarion as that is the centre of gunpowder research. If not, then Nex has extensive golemworks, etc.

If we go to Nex I am getting Kaavel golem armor. Yes I know he will lose some stuff but sorry turning him into a boxing mech just sounds to much fun. Yes this is a joke but I would do it if I had the time and cash.

If we go to Nex I am getting Kaavel golem armor. Yes I know he will lose some stuff but sorry turning him into a boxing mech just sounds to much fun. Yes this is a joke but I would do it if I had the time and cash.

Do it. Seriously. Do it.

All I'm asking is that it be setting appropriate in generation and not be too extreme in application.

Don't worry, I'm not going to break your game. I'm pretty good with my mechanics-fu. I won't submit anything to you that is outside the level-based performance parameters.

And of course, you can feel free to veto anything you'd like.

Kaavel - if it's something that you really want to target... then we can do so.

Doc - no problems. Looking forward to see what you come up with :)

As a general rule of thumb for a DC starting point - how about applying the same formula as most other things get - 10 + 1/2 level + Int mod?

I've always thought the mundane alchemical creations get a bit of a bum steer as you level - as saves quickly outstrip the static DCs.

Kaavel - one other thought... there's always the ghost in the shell approach where we actually turn you into a golem over time?

Hmmm - Golem Monk... sounds intriguing...

Will read through all of this morrow, but 3.5 had the Green Star Adept PrC. Look to that for inspiration maybe? Not sure if Kaavel would want to actually take a PrC, even if we converted it to PF, but perhaps as a guideline in which to handle the transformation?

Green Star Adept was a really cool idea with an absolutely abysmal execution. So sad.

I was joking but if everyone up for this lets do this. Well while a golem body does sound fun I would just rather go with the mech suit. Reasons for this a golem body does not get stronger, second while being a golem is cool a lot of spells will not work on me so do not want people to have to learn odd spells to effect me. I now shall be off to find out more about golem armor and how much it costs. *goes off to read that section in Ultimate Magic*

*comes back for a second* I checked out the Green Star Adept I agree with Doc on this one. Really cool idea just done very badly. +1 to str and -1 to dex what kind of crap is that?

Kaavel - take a look at Construct Armor - but it is quite expensive as written.

The main thing I need to know to start pondering how to achieve it is what you most like about the concept - ie. what are the key mechanics you're after. We can then start framing a generic plan of how to achieve that piecemeal over time.

Also - what material golem do you which to be encased with? Iron, Wood, Glass, Alchemical, etc...

I read the preview of Green Star and I think it tried to do a bit much in one Prestige - but yes, cool idea. I found Living Monolith pretty good for a Pathfinder close equivalent.

Nice! Had to fight a mummy monk in our home game once. He was tough.

The reason I said we could the Green Star Adept as a guide is because it grants you te golem abilities over levels which could be what Kaavel wants.

Of course, the more I think about, the more I think he should check out the Aegis, from Dreamscarred Press. Its kind of like a Soulknife, but for armor. Only downside is 1) Its Psionics, which many hate and 2) its 3rd Party, which means it probably won't be allowed, but damnit, I think it could be awesome for Kaavel lol

In order:

@DM Voiceless I was thinking iron, yes I know I will lose my armor bonus, fast movement and flurry of blows. I was thinking of taking a few levels of the Brawler archetype once I hit level 5 if that is alright. I was going to go with unarmed fighter but well a lot of stuff overlaps. I was thinking of a suit of armor that was a golem be like if I got a tank to be like battle armor no I do not mean that just giving an example. All I would really want for the suit to do is make Kaavel little tougher and stronger. So I was thinking maybe DR and +str that is about it.

@Sentis sounds tough.

@Monkeygod I do not own any Dreamscarred Press things but this Aegis class sounds interesting mind tell me where I can find information on it?

Alright now back to DM Voiceless
So I really did not want to turn into a golem but might be a good idea to do a change slowly to be more golem like so suit works better with him. As for the cost I think the 35,000 sounds about right but might need to increase the cost for Kaavel some since he is not the creator he is just using the suit.

Can you enchant Golem Armor? Because Called Golem Armor would be awesome...

I think so Building Golems

Well it is enchanting the golem itself first.

Let me have a ponder on it for a while more - I mean essentially what you're after is a mini Battlemech type feel?

You'll still be running around pounding guys with your fists, just doing it from within a big ol' golem suit.

Also, Brawler archetype is fine if you want to multi into it.

Aegis is a psionic class that basically allows you to 'summon' an astral suit of armor around you as it's main class ability. You can then customise the suit how you would like - either big and beefy, or a slinky nimble one, etc.

Pretty much DM Voiceless, did not really want to go crazy with it. Might upgrade stuff for it later but meh that would most likely be 15+ which if we get that high not like it matters what I add, Sentis will be doing crazier things. Oh I see Aegis seems like a cool class idea.

Here is a FAQ, on construct armor which might be important.