Some things to note for chapter 2 and on:
I'll be more proactive with rolls in my posts on your behalf. I had already shifted to rolling your initiative rolls 100% of the time, so I'll continue to do that, but will also do so for attacks of opportunity and perhaps even saving throws just to streamline things more.
As we talked about before, I'll be implementing 'flex' initiative...so all PCs who act before the enemies will go in a block as will those who go after, and actions will be resolved in post order rather than strict initiative order. This will help with getting things a bit more concise and not having to worry much about someone posting before someone else that actually goes before them and the resulting actions affecting things that have already been posted and so on.
I'm going to work on writing a bit more in my posts and what not to paint a better picture, providing I have the time and such to do so. Sometimes it will just be a quicker post to move things along of course but on the whole I'm going to commit more time to it.
Once we get a hold of the treasure and such from Chapter I I'll keep a log on the campaign tab from here on out with all unclaimed but collected items. I'll also work on a dramatis personae for the campaign as well.
Anyone else have any suggestions, ideas, complaints, or comments?
I am currently out of town a few counties over on a 2 day training thing for work..I have my laptop here with the next post written and ready but the wifi at the hotel is absolutely dreadful and I cant load a website to save my life. Posting this from my phone. Ill check when i can to see if i can get the post up, but otherwise it wont be until friday evening. Sorry about the delay.
Posted a recruitment thread for a replacement PC here
Follow along if you'd like and give me any feedback you have on what anyone puts up.
Sounds good to me, I'll keep an eye on the thread.
Posted a recruitment thread for a replacement PC here
Follow along if you'd like and give me any feedback you have on what anyone puts up.
I spoke to my pal recently, we seem to be having trouble getting emails through to each other but when I saw him last week he seemed keen. I'll keep looking out.
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Having returned up the stairs to the welcome chamber and thoroughly explored the adjoining rooms, you turn your attention to the secret door you discovered in one corner of the room. It opens onto a narrow tunnel that gently curves to the right. Following on, you soon come to a stone barrier, however this too swings out to reveal a chamber beyond. This must also have been a concealed door, as you can see that the seam of the doorway is well hidden by the carvings on the wall.
Exiting the passageway, you find this long, new chamber is awash in sickly yellow light shining up from the glowing surface of a large pool of mustard-colored water. Some sort of large shape is floating inside the pool. The pool's rim is made out of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of lion's skulls that have been fused together with gray mortar. Shadowy alcoves line the north and south walls, and to the west of the sickly pool stands a fifteen foot tall statue of a rotting lion. The morbidly majestic figure's head reaches nearly to the ceiling.
Suddenly movement erupts around the chamber. From the alcoves to either side slither six emaciated, rotted forms. Each looks like the mouldered remains of a bugbear, but with pallid grey skin and their teeth look filed to needle-sharp points. Strange, questing tentacles sprout from their stomachs - reaching for you!
Initiative
27 - Leonar
23 - Aleste
19 - Helaku
15 - Bonedrinkers (6)
12 - Shaylar
12 - Harek
4 - Ambrose
========
Aleste init
Ambrose init
Harek init
Helaku init
Leonar init
Shaylar init
init
Ahh, there's my missing post! That's what happens when you try to roleplay late at night. Just go ahead and ignore the above. ;)
Haha, oh well. Things happen.
Going to post tomorrow after work. Been getting one together to kind of bring a proper close to your time in Heldren with some familiar faces and some other rewards for a job well done.
If you've been checking out the recruitment thread, go ahead and PM me with your thoughts or any "votes" for your new comrade. Asgrid gave me some thoughts already and I was thinking if there's 2 standouts maybe we can pull a group of 5 together if you want.
Hi everyone - thanks for picking my pitch in Skäne Ingvârssonn - honoured to have made the cut in a very strong recruitment.
As mentioned he was a character I played in a previous RoW game that alas died, so I welcome the chance to play him again.
Will need to rework the character crunch to an 18 point build, but should have him ready to roll by the weekend latest if that works for everyone? (will allow me to read o'er the game thread in greater detail and get a grasp of the characters and events in your tale)
Regardless looking forward to playing my part in your great Saga :)
Skal
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Welcome, Skane!
Cheers :)
Happy to be aboard. Am working on some crunch changes as we speak...
I'm in Bonnie Scotland so on GMT regards posting etc.
Hello! Once again, I'm Trinam, and I'm bringing Katie Rosten--local love freak, arteest, and stabber of bad guys--to the party.
I'll work on recrunching her to 18 pb and stuff at level 4 now--is it standard WBL or should I give her a different amount? Also are background skills a thing in this campaign, or not? I'll assume not until I hear back.
Welcome, Katie!
Echoing my fellow newbie Katie - have a few wee questions for Woodsmoke;
Same on the WBL and background skills (don't think these are being used based on the current groups profiles)
Is Additional Traits a feat option? I'm a big fan of traits... :)
Posting from my phone right now so sorry for the brevity, will be more detailed when I get home. We arent using background skills. 4th level WBL should be ok...i just awarded the group some stuff for finishing book 1 amounting to about 4000 gp each that wasnt called for in the book so the 6000 wbl should be okay, with no single item exceding 3000 gp.
Additional traits is fine.
18 pt buy but you get a +2 to any one ability score after the fact for having the mantle of the red rider
Welcome Katie and Skäne! Happy to have you both aboard!
H'okay, I got my gear together, and also showed my work on the stats that I went with. I also accounted for different-colored ink being worth twice as much as standard ink, not including the ounce with the bard's kit she's literally spent 136 gp on doodling supplies. 146 if you count the second journal. Maybe she should have sprung for a +1 or 2 strength pull on that bow instead, but art.
With that, I think I'm all ready to figure out how she winds up figuring in to the immediate story, outside of being given the mantle of the Red Rider alongside Skane. I imagine they were probably traveling together for a while.
Okay, home now, so properly now: Welcome to the Reign of Winter campaign!
We have been at this game for a while and, as stated, have just wrapped up Book 1 and are heading into Book 2 where the characters will be headed to the city of Whitethrone in search of Baba Yaga's dancing hut.
As far as timing goes, I am EST (GMT -5). I usually post after work between 7-9 PM my time. I believe Asgrid is in Scotland as well. We tend to move forwards a few times per week but I don't really have a posting schedule to hold you to - I'm probably the worst offender of frequency here, but as of late, despite some unfortunate life issues, I'm getting better into the tempo.
We will be using block initiative, so PCs will act in blocks based around the enemies and their actions will resolve in the order they are posted.
As for Katie and Skäne's journey thus far, with both of you being Ulfen, you can simply be from Irrisen or Land of the Linnorm Kings. Either way, we will say you have been with one another for at least a short time, and would have come across the Red Rider together. He was mortally wounded and you were the first people he came across, so he told you this brief story:
Baba Yaga (a name that invokes detestation and disgust in any Ulfen) was recently due for her centennial return to Irrisen to whisk away her daughter and current ruler, Elvanna, and place a new daughter on the throne, as has been her custom for centuries on end. She did not appear, however, and the three riders who herald her return found out that Elvanna has either subdued or imprisoned Baba Yaga. How she achieved such an unthinkable feat is unknown, but she has broken the order of things and now styles herself the eternal queen of Irrisen. As the focal point of her reign, she seeks to open portals across GOlarion and cover the whole of the world with an endless, supernatural winter. The Red Rider swears that the only way to stop Elvanna is to find Baba Yaga, for only she can undo what her daughter has begin. This is a job for the Riders, but they were immediately hunted by Elvanna and her forces after Baba Yaga's disappearance. The Red Rider himself had just escaped her forces, but know he will not live long from his wounds. He asks you to take up his name and his purpose and find and free Baba Yaga so she can set things right - even though Baba Yaga is a hated being among Ulfen, it is either help her or watch the world be made as the Ulfen's homeland was, subjugated by the jadwiga and their magical winter. Agreeing to the Red Rider's proposal, he energizes you with the last remnants of his power, passing the mantle of the Red Rider onto you two. He tells you in his last final breaths to seek out Whitethrone and Baba Yaga's Dancing Hut that is being held there, for the Hut knows the way and will take you. He also tells you that the others Riders are out there and if they would meet you, they will sense the Mantle you now wear and you must work together.
If you wish to be from the Land of the Linnorm Kings, with his final act, he slits his own throat to open up a temporary portal to Irrisen. If you are in Irrisen, he simply points north in the direction of Whitethrone before expiring.
How you met and why you were together and where you're from is all up to you guys.
My original plan for Katie was that she was a smith's daughter in Kalsgard, and then she tried holing herself up doing art after she happened upon a witch ritual at the wrong time and it sort of left her traumatized. Her family kicked her out, she turned to murderhoboing to pay the bills. They literally could have met in a bar to go do adventures.
I don't know what Skane's original plan was, but they could have been adventuring together as a party and happened upon the Red Rider, meaning we'd go with the temporary portal option.
Getting my warrior nailed down folks - bear with me :)
@Katie: Skäne hails from Bildt, and is a dour traditionalist in the mould of that wild Linnorm kingdom. Part of that was a strong tradition in both reaving and reclaiming lands lost to the Witches. He would easily have fallen in with you in an adventuring band who come across the dying rider.
@Woodsmoke: What does/did the Red Rider represent? Know the original group gained the mantle of the Black Rider - just so we have an notion on the differences/expectations (if any).
The Red Rider is one of Baba Yaga's Three Riders who come to Golarion every 100 years to herald her return to install a new daughter on the throne of Irrisen. There is the White Rider, called My Bright Morning, the Red Rider, called My Red Sun, and the Black Rider, called My Black Midnight. The Riders are typically powerful fey creatures given great powers by Baba Yaga and the metaphysical "mantle" bestowed upon them gives them special interactions with all things Baba Yaga. Further, the Riders are given special instructions in the event of her disappearance, for Baba Yaga is always prepared. With her current disappearance, Baba Yaga had already been suspicious of Elvanna, and set into action the contingency plans with her Riders, more or less leaving a trail accessed via her Dancing Hut that would lead the Riders to her in a roundabout way only the Riders would understand.
Further (and this could serve as a decent refresher for the existing group as it has been a while since they encountered the Black Rider), the Hut is controlled by magical keys that are put into a cauldron within. It is said that only Baba Yaga can control the hut at will, but you as Riders would be able to use the keys to follow the trail. They keys are magical items left by Baba Yaga and could be anything (the group has 2 given to them by the Black Rider - a clump of frost giant beard hair and a plague doctor's mask), and each key is coded with a specific destination by Baba Yaga.
This information could have been relayed to you by the Red Rider if you press with such inquiries, otherwise it is conveyed to you as a sort of innate sense upon taking on the Mantle.
So as for what being the Red Rider means for Skäne and Katie, it comes with the ability to interact with Baba Yaga's breadcrumbs and trail; locating keys, accessing the hut, and so on. You are bound by supernatural pact to commit yourselves to finding Baba Yaga and pit yourselves against Elvanna and her forces. Should the jadwiga or other minions of Elvanna discover the mantle somehow, you'll likely be hunted.
The Red Rider was not aware of the fates of the other two riders, just as the Black Rider was unaware. You will be able to sense one another as fellow Riders, but you don't know that the Black Rider is also dead and has passed on his mantle to the other PCs.
Cheers Woodsmoke - I've also went with +2 STR for the bonus bestowed by the Red Rider's Mantle. (was a toss up betwixt that and CON) - figured since both Katie and myself benefited in the same way it provides a nice thematic quality to the boon.
And I also went with STR because I'm an unapologetically dirty minmaxer! :D
...wait let me try that again.
@Skane so basically they heard about witch troubles, teamed up, went, did some vague handwavey stuff that amounted to an adventure, met the Red Rider, popped through a portal to Irrisen, and now we know the rest of the backstory.
And I also went with STR because I'm an unapologetically dirty minmaxer! :D
...wait let me try that again.
@Skane so basically they heard about witch troubles, teamed up, went, did some vague handwavey stuff that amounted to an adventure, met the Red Rider, popped through a portal to Irrisen, and now we know the rest of the backstory.
Aye pretty much that's it (loosely). Skäne's done a fair bit of reaving and mercenary work in the North and down as far as Riddleport. He's not a fan of witches having putting his father Invar Sharptunga's infamy down to beguilement by a Winter Witch.
@Katie: Remember that I'm pretty sure stats have to be betwixt 8 and 18 (prior to Black/Red Rider's boon). Think Woodsmoke outlined that right at the start of this OOC. Means your 21 STR and 7 WIS might need to be reworked? Best leave Woodsmoke or one of the originals to confirm that though :)
@Woodsmoke: Think Skäne is pretty much there...
Oh snap, I missed that in my first read of the starter post. I'll rework things real quick.
edit: In the interest of 'changing as little math as possible' I just moved str down a point and wisdom up to 9.
Welcome Katie and Skane! Great to have you along for the game.
Thanks, Asgrid! Happy to be here.
Also, I made one more stat tweak (wis-1>8, dex+1>13) so with that I think I'm done.
All right. I will look over everything after work today and we should be good. I'll have the groups meet up on the way to Whitethrone but I'll do stuff for the original group and the new two separately simultaneously so you guys arent waiting in the wind to link up.
Cheers Asgrid. Looking forward to joining your saga :)
@Katie: Can't wait to explore the dynamic of our characters - your freedom loving awkward artist and my red handed dour-monger will make for a very bizarre duo methinks (but given the makeup of the original group think we'll fit right in lol).
I see that Kronek has the Cloak of the Yeti and the Spear of Manhunting. Any chance we can keep those items since they are AP specific?
Certainly, that's fine to keep those items.
Skäne and Katie I've posted a little intro for your characters just to get you placed and on your way, so I can move you guys along with the other group until you meet up.
Huzzah!
@Skane Looking forward to it, tbh. Katie is someone who is at her most enjoyable to play around people who can keep her a little bit grounded.
Took a bit longer than expected, but I've compiled a treasure list of loot obtained thus far. If you want to check the link here, let me know if you can see the list okay, it's my first time using Google Docs.
The first half shows items that were claimed by particular members of the party. The rest was liquidated and shared out amongst the party at the time. Not sure what you want to do with Kronek's items, if he keeps them or if someone else is claiming them.
The second half (after the red line) lists what we've hoarded since. Items highlighted in bold are those specifically claimed by members of the party, items highlighted in blue are those purchased along the way or traded away in Waldby. The rest is up for grabs or to be divided up when we have the opportunity.
Skane or Katie, would either of you have an interest in being party treasurer? I'll fill the role, but I'm not a very organised or efficient treasure meister.
@Astrid: I can't access the list - I've requested permission (under dmblackdow@gmail.com)
Re: Party treasurer - I'm already one for an Age of Worms game I'm in and was the quartermaster for a Shackled City until one of the other players with waaaaay more excel-fu than me took over. I'll do it if no one else fancies the job, but will most likely be managing (and updating) the sheet you've created.
Fair warning - if I become treasurer I do tend to badger fellow players about unclaimed loot (pet bugbear of mine)... in the nicest possible way of course :)
I need permission to check the list as well. As discussed above, Woodsmoke has allowed us to keep Kronek's Yeti Cloak and Spear of Manhunting since they are AP specific items.
I also just requested under m dot prather at gmail. I can do party treasurer without any real problems as well, since I always seem to wind up being the guy in charge of accounting stuff and numbers are my thing.
@Katie: If you're happy to run with it that would be superb.
Katie and Skane, I was at work at the time but I think you should both have access now. Let me know if you continue to have trouble. Anyone else I'll look out for your requests and try to get you added promptly.
Alternatively, I've tried transferring a copy of the list to DropBox which I've been using lately. Can everyone see that? If that works better we can use it instead, or failing that I'll just post it all here in a spoiler. I think with DropBox you can comment but might not be able to edit the list.
Cara I'll get the spear and cloak added back to the list.
Asgrid, I can access the list from Dropbox.
I can as well.
And I can get into it in both places now.
Access granted :)
Super! Let me know if you think anything is inaccurate. Katie if you are wanting to take over that's fine with me, it's not really my forte.
I'm out of town now for about ten days, so please NPC Asgrid and Grugkt as needed.
No worries.
Boards have been really intermittent for me as of late; getting a lot of down fore maintenance redirects. Will move things along tomorrow evening after work!
Folks - just a wee heads up that I’ll be out of town this weekend. Helping out as pit-crew for a mate of mine whose racing bikes, am heading shortly and we’ll not be back until late Sunday. Will most likely be Monday morning before I’ll get back into the posting swing.
Soooo... half way to the circuit our van's water pump went kaput. Back home pending a possible re-run tomorrow... Best laid plans and all that!
Got home waaaaaay later than I wanted to tonight (yesterday? whatever, Sunday I mean). Update tomorrow (today? Monday, I mean).
Nae worries chief. As and when :)
Quick one for everyone - As part of his campaign trait (and background) Skäne carries 4 Hex Nails
Would Geedra's Fortune Hex activate one of the nails? (given his stance on witches and their magicks)
(for the record I'll likely rp that Skäne will not want to benefit from a Hex cast upon him - but we'll let that unfold down the line ;)
Since it didn't prompt a saving throw, I guess it wouldn't activate since the item denotes that it automatically grants the bonus when subject to such a thing.