Goblin Squad Member. Organized Play Member. 1,112 posts (6,788 including aliases). 1 review. No lists. No wishlists. 9 Organized Play characters. 14 aliases.
Welcome! I'm sure there's plenty of people here I haven't played with before, so nice to meet you! Just thought I'd get some ground rules down here for games at my table.
1) Please make sure you're familiar with the rules of your character and the rules of Organised Play. If you're new to Pathfinder Society (or Pathfinder in general), welcome! Let me know and I'll double-check to make sure everything's in order or answer any questions you have.
2) I like games to progress at a pretty steady clop, so please aim for a post every 24 hours (if not more). In combat, if you're missing for too long, you will either delay or use full defense for the round. Out of combat, I'll simply move on without you. If you disappear for a long time, you will not receive credit for the scenario.
3) Please make sure you have your PFS Number on your character's profile. Just so I don't have to go hunting for it when I'm writing up Chronicles.
4) I would really appreciate if you had your vital stats on your character's class line thing. Saves me digging through your profile every time I need to roll for initiative. I will endeavour to allow you to roll as many checks and saves as possible, but I will roll some for you in the interests of brevity and moving the game along.
5) Have fun!! Please let me know if you have any questions, complaints, criticism, compliments, cash donations, etc. :P
Welcome! I'm sure there's plenty of people here I haven't played with before, so nice to meet you! Just thought I'd get some ground rules down here for games at my table.
1) Please make sure you're familiar with the rules of your character and the rules of Organised Play. If you're new to Pathfinder Society (or Pathfinder in general), welcome! Let me know and I'll double-check to make sure everything's in order or answer any questions you have.
2) I like games to progress at a pretty steady clop, so please aim for a post every 24 hours (if not more). In combat, if you're missing for too long, you will either delay or use full defense for the round. Out of combat, I'll simply move on without you. If you disappear for a long time, you will not receive credit for the scenario.
3) Please make sure you have your PFS Number on your character's profile. Just so I don't have to go hunting for it when I'm writing up Chronicles.
4) I would really appreciate if you had your vital stats on your character's class line thing. Saves me digging through your profile every time I need to roll for initiative. I will endeavour to allow you to roll as many checks and saves as possible, but I will roll some for you in the interests of brevity and moving the game along.
5) Have fun!! Please let me know if you have any questions, complaints, criticism, compliments, cash donations, etc. :P
Excitement has been building for several weeks in the city of Kenabres, northern border city of Mendev, as the festival of Armasse approaches. Smiles on faces normally marred by downcast eyes and furrowed brows have done wonders for city morale in the past month, and recent days have seen a flurry of activity all across town. Billboards, stalls, and stages are raised and decorated to the backdrop of marching bands, cavalcades and military units put the final polish on their upcoming performances.
Armasse, an old holiday from the Arodenite faith, was traditionally an opportunity for scholars and priests to come together to study the lessons of history from wars past. Since Aroden's death, this holy day has been co-opted by the Iomedaean church, and modern celebrations typically focus on training commoners in weaponry, choosing squires, and ordaining new priests. Over time, Armasse has grown to encompass jousting competitions, mock duels, battle re-enactments, and other exciting festival events. In Kenabres, the festival is eagerly anticipated, for it provides a much-needed distraction from the horrors of being on the front line of war.
Today is Arodus 16th, and the festival day is blessed with perfect autumnal weather. The festival officially begins at noon, but the day is nevertheless a filled timetable with events scheduled from dawn until dusk. Locals know to arrive at Clydwell Plaza, the centre of the event, well in advance if they want to get a good spot to observe the opening ceremonies. The Plaza is overlooked by the Cathedral of Saint Clydwell, a massive stone church with a green copper steeple and stained-glass windows portraying the imprisonment of various horrific demons. The priests here typically involve themselves in healing wounded crusaders and performing blessings on those that head out into the 'Wound. On the opposite side of the district stands the Temple of Iomedae, a far less visually outstanding building that handles the more everyday and mundane duties of the church.
You're here in Clydwell Plaza somewhere, losing yourselves in the crowds of townsfolk and crusaders alike enjoying the festival. Perhaps half an hour remains before Lord Hulrun Shappok, Kenabres' famed prelate, is due to take centre stage before the Grand Temple, and excitement is beginning to build—and not to mention viewing spots are starting to dwindle. The minor attractions lined up through the Plaza are running a busy business—the area is filled to the brim with everything from apple bobbing and shooting galleries to caricature booths and Harrow readings. Further afield you can still see the temporary arenas set up for jousting and archery, and the discordant sound of at least two different musicians mixes with the wafting scents of fresh-baked food.
Welcome to Kenabres! Please introduce your character and let us know what you're doing here at the festival today!
Aurica:
The festival is finally here! You're lucky enough to have the day off from patrol duty today, and your father grunted something about it being 'too damn noisy to do any work' and shooed you out of the forge. There's almost too much to see and do: lots of free food and booze (although mostly watered-down trough-water that human foreigners seem to like), of course, but there's also an archery competition scheduled that might have caught your eye as well.
Flynn:
A holy day of your church! No doubt you're excited to be here, out and about helping with the event where you can. Commander Ciar Cobelen, de facto (although not official) head of the Everbright Crusaders now that Tensler is gone, is surprisingly good-natured towards you despite the dark rumours some of the others of the Order still spread. He may join you on your rounds, or you may be watching as he ordains a couple of new paladins from the Church of Saint Clydwell into your ranks.
Jens:
As a man who trains crusaders and members of Kenabres' army, this is a day of mixed feelings for you no doubt. Today, many of your 'kids' are going to graduate; you know from past experience that this happy day will be the last time you see many of them ever again, for the Worldwound dearly loves fresh recruits to corrupt and dismember. But perhaps there's something good at this festival you're looking forward to besides; perhaps the chance to judge the horses brought to trade from Valas' Gift to the north, or maybe just an opportunity to avail yourself of the copious amounts of free alcohol on offer today.
Osric:
As a man of the church, you're no doubt heavily involved in the more 'official' events going on at Armasse. Some of the young recruits being trained as scouts and inquisitors are due to get their advancement from cadet to full crusaders today, and you might be helping with that in some way. Your family is likely out here too, using their carpentry skills to set up a stage or fix up a broken barrier that some drunken reveller has run into.
Reknar:
You haven't been in Kenabres for long. Maybe a week or two—enough to see the festival blossom before your eyes and get your bearings of the area, but little else. You've been staying at Defender's Heart, the largest inn in the city, a business that caters to mercs and crusaders (so... your kind of place, really). Today, for whatever reason, you've ventured out to see what all the fuss is about. Maybe you're just sick of hearing people talk about it, or maybe your stomach got the better of you (and the rumours of free food up in Old Kenabres, the central district, wouldn't have helped with that.)
Voren:
You've arrived very recently, perhaps only a day or two ago. You heard on the road that Kenabres was not the most welcoming place for people with your... taint, but with the city distracted by the festival you've had an easier time of it than you would've expected. You would've liked to have explored the Librarian of the Broken Black Wing, the premier library for demonology and planar travel research in Mendev, but the librarians there (upon seeing your demonic visage) shunned you and made up some excuse about needing a "member's card" before they would allow you entry. While you figure out how to obtain one of those, you might as well check out the stalls and performances going on around here...
A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1–5.
Few societies have so vaunted a tradition of leading crusades as Taldor, yet the constant revisions to its history by scheming factions leaves the truth obscured by countless acts of political modifications. Even the lauded Kitharodian Academy’s texts are riddled with these changes, so when a secretive ally approaches the Pathfinder Society with information about a hidden archive that contains the unaltered histories, the Pathfinders plan a daring infiltration to recover the secrets of Taldor’s past victories so that Mendev might benefit from the discovery.
Content in "Library of the Lion" also contributes directly to the ongoing storylines of the Cheliax, Grand Lodge, and Taldor factions.
*************************
This game is part of the Official Pathfinder Society PbP Game Day. For more information please visit: PbPGameDay.com
This game will commence play on April 5th, 2014. It will end (hopefully well before) July 5th, 2014.
Looking for 3-5 people to go on a simple and easy (haha!) exploration of a beautiful and perfectly safe (yeah right) library in Oppara. (Note: One player slot in this game is already reserved.) All I need from applicants is a profile set up with your stat block or a link to a character sheet. Please make sure you have your PFS Number on your profile.
I expect players to post on a daily basis. I will endeavor to do the same.
Bonus cookies go to those people who post their character's race, class, and level here in this thread for easy access. Thanks muchly!
A Pathfinder Society Scenario for characters of 1st to 5th level (Tier 1–5).
A Pathfinder leading a diplomatic envoy from the dwarven holds of the Five Kings Mountains has gone missing, and the balance of power in a time of war hangs on her rescue. The Pathfinder Society's divinations indicate the agent was waylaid in the theocratic nation of Razmiran, when one of her escorted diplomats failed to pay a requested tithe. Now it falls to the party to enter Razmiran, locate the missing Pathfinder and the dwarven diplomats, and escape with their lives.
Content in "The Glass River Rescue" also contributes directly to the ongoing storylines of the Osirion and Qadira factions. Despite the fact that the product page doesn't tell you that.
*************************
This game is part of the Official Pathfinder Society PbP Game Day. For more information please visit: PbPGameDay.com
This game will commence play on April 5th, 2014. It will end (hopefully well before) July 5th, 2014.
Looking for 4-6 people to go on a relaxing cruise (ha) down the idyllic rivers of beautiful Razmiran (snrk). All I need from applicants is a profile set up with your stat block or a link to a character sheet. Please make sure you have your PFS Number on your profile.
I expect players to post on a daily basis. I will endeavor to do the same.
Bonus cookies go to those people who post their character's race, class, and level here in this thread for easy access. Thanks muchly!
Hi! This is a semi-private recruitment for a Wrath of the Righteous play-by-post campaign. If you were not invited, but you still want to chuck your hat in the ring (particularly if I've gamed with you before!), send me a PM before you apply, thanks.
******
The Worldwound tore reality apart at the dawn of the Age of Lost Omens, murdering the nation of Sarkoris and unleashing a ravenous demonic horde upon the world. Only the quick action of several other nations of knights, barbarians, and heroes stemmed the demon army and contained it within lost Sarkoris, and for the next century, crusade after crusade tried to defeat the demons only to fail time and time again.
Their greatest success, the line of magical artifacts known as wardstones that stand sentinel along the Worldwound's border, barely manages to contain the demons. So when one of the wardstones is sabotaged, a city falls and the demons within surge out in a massive assault like none before.
Even before the Fifth Crusade has begun a city has fallen and some of the crusaders' greatest defenders and heroes are slain. Can anyone rise up against the demon host to prevent the armies of Deskari, the demon lord of the Locust Host, from swallowing the world?
******
A few things to note
* I'm looking for 4-6 players for this campaign. Please have a read through the Player's Guide before applying; it’s quite essential knowledge!
* I'm aiming for at least a daily posting rate. Even more sometimes would be nice! I'm also hoping to not have to replace players much (if at all); the relative continuity of this AP is incredibly important. So... basically, I’m looking for dedication and reasonable pacing, in other words.
* I really don't like powergaming. Mythic can get incredibly dumb very quickly, particularly if you’re already playing a cheesey, tricked-out build... but that also allows for characters that maybe normally would be "sub-optimal" to come into their own.
* Story > Mechanics, always. If you want something, I'm happy to work together to fit it in somehow, if possible.
******
What do I want from you?
I’m a fan of long and ponderous character vignettes, but really, all I want to see is an interesting and well thought out concept. It doesn't have to be long (although it can be); it just has to let me see some spark that fascinates me. Interesting characters that break the mould are fine and dandy, but so too is the quintessential stereotype done in a particularly nice way.
Characters will begin in Kenabres, a city in Mendev along the border of the Worldwound. You don't have to be from the city, but you need some reason to be there. Luckily, the beginning of the campaign starts with a festival--Armasse!
Traditionally an opportunity for scholars and priests to come together to study the lessons of history from wars past, since Aroden's death, this holy day has become more about training commoners in weaponry, choosing squires, and ordaining new priests. Over time, Armasse has grown to encompass jousting competitions, mock duels, battle re-enactments, and other festival events. In Kenabres, the festival is eagerly anticipated, for it provides distractions from the horrors of being on the front line of war.
******
Character creation rules
* Ability score generation will be 20 point buy with a maximum score of 17 and a minimum score of 8 AFTER racial modifiers. This is meant to encourage a more balanced spread of modifiers and unique (but not necessarily “optimal”) characters while discouraging min-maxing.
* All core races (dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling, half-elf, half-orc, human), aasimar, and tieflings (including variants) are allowed by default. Alternate races may or may not be allowed on a case-by-case basis. (Ask me first!)
* All Paizo-official classes and archtypes are allowed except for gunslingers (and gun-related archetypes). The playtest classes from the Advanced Class Guide are also acceptable, with the caveat that certain aspects may be modified or disallowed. Non-Paizo classes (e.g., 3PP or 3e) may be considered on a case-by-case basis, but don’t count on it.
* Good alignment ONLY. C'mon, this is the best excuse to be a hero ever!
* All characters can select one trait of their choosing. In addition, all characters must select one of the Wrath of the Righteous Campaign Traits (as listed in the WotR Player’s Guide). Rich Parents (as well as any other trait that modifies starting gold) and Reactionary (as well as any other trait that improves initiative by more than +1) are banned. I'll consider disadvantages, but run it by me first.
* All characters receive a free skill rank per level. This rank may only be placed into Craft, Profession, or Perform skills, as befits the character’s background.
* All characters receive maximum HP at 1st level. Average hit points (rounded up) gained thereafter (i.e., 4 for d6, 5 for d8, 6 for d10, 7 for d12).
* All characters receive average gold for their class.
* Lastly, no, you're not locked in to the Mythic Path associated with the Campaign Trait you select.
Following are some write-ups of the local area I did for the players of my live WotR game. You may find them handy. I strongly suggest you don’t dig around the site too deeply unless you want spoilers. ;)
I recently received this boon, and I'm starting to regret picking it now. :P
The text is as follows:
The boon! wrote:
Even if your formal education in creature lore is limited, you have a good memory and can quickly recall experimental trivia about common creatures when you encounter them a second time. Whenever you encounter one of the creature types listed below, and either you or an ally identifies the creature, you may check the box next to that creature's name below. When you do so, record the name of one of the creature's special abilities (breath weapon, damage reduction, resistances, etc.) next to the name. Whenever you encounter and positively identify this creature type in the future, you automatically recall this piece of information; remembering this fact is in addition to any other facts you may remember with a successful Knowledge check.
Following is a list of monsters ranging from the common (zombies, skeletons, elementals) to the rather less common (dark naga, otyugh, grey ooze).
As far as I can tell, this boon does... nothing. If you have already faced a monster in a scenario, and either you or another player has identified it, wouldn't that mean you would subsequently know that information about the monster?
I certainly wouldn't think that a seasoned adventurer would be required to make a Knowledge (religion) check every time they face a zombie to know to use their swords, not their arrows; or that they wouldn't know basic facts about basilisks (don't look them in the eye!) or ghosts (they're incorporeal!) that are basically common knowledge. I also certainly wouldn't think that a character somehow forgets things about the monsters they've already fought. "Hey guys, those are harpies; I fought some back in Osirion a year ago, be careful for their song!"
So... What does this boon do, actually? Are the expectations I listed just now actually wrong, and my characters shouldn't know to attack demons with cold iron unless they make a Knowledge (planes) check every time?
Most of the roads leading into my area have been closed off; the only one open requires you to drive basically to the complete other side of the area down the highway. I expect traffic to be at a crawl by now. My mother got evacuated from work, and my father came home early because he worried the roads would be closed - thank god he did.
Just last week the only road into my town was closed and we had a number of power outages because of a pretty big fire. A couple of houses got destroyed, but the fire brigade did a great job of protecting most of them. It's pretty crazy driving down there every day now seeing how close the fires came to homes.
There's been a tonne down in Sydney area as well, I've heard on the news.
Hope everyone's OK. Please make sure you have a fire emergency plan and don't stick around for longer than you should.
I think it's going to be a hell of a bushfire season this year...
Welcome to the game! Here are a few things to note before we begin.
- I tend to post at least once daily. Those who do not post in time (particularly during combat) will be botted at my whim. I'm Australian, mind you, so my posting times are a bit strange!
- I consider myself up to scratch with the rules, but if I make a mistake please do tell me.
- I enjoy long-winded descriptive posts and lots of roleplay. This scenario in particular really rewards those who throw themselves into staying in character and thinking laterally. Ham it up, people!
- Lastly, this game is all about fun! If I'm doing something you don't like or you have any constructive criticism please shoot it my way.
As a side note, faction missions are no longer in play. However, you can optionally choose to do them for no reward if you like. If you want to get your faction mission, please let me know in your first post. Thanks!
Starting early next month is the first official PbP game "day", where a bunch of groups are starting PFS PbPs at the same time, there will be boons given out, and all sorts of fun things.
I will be running The Blakros Matrimony, one of my favourites. Taken from the product description:
Quote:
The eldest daughter of the prominent Blakros family is set to wed an influential Hellknight, and the Pathfinder Society is invited to the festivities. Dressed for a wedding befitting royalty, a team of Pathfinders attend the ceremony on behalf of the Decemvirate, but will their presence ultimately strengthen the Society's relationship with the influential Blakroses, or will events at the wedding bring the already tenuous alliance to a breaking point?
Come prepared for social interaction, but don't forget your blade either! Put your roleplaying caps on and you'll have a great time! This module is the perfect scenario for high Charisma sorts, as well as anyone who loves to get thoroughly in character.
You'll need to sign up on the Warhorn page here, but you can ask me any questions here as well. Look for the one run by Shimapanda :)
After a rather up-and-down start to your career as Pathfinders, you've found yourself with a little bit of downtime on your hands. Some of you may be quite pleased to have obtained the first inklings of fame and notoriety, while others of you are beginning to see what some consider the true face of the Society—the ugly side, twisted by political manoeuvrings and people using the Society for their own gain.
For some reason or another, you find yourself in a cushy lounge suite in the Grand Lodge of Absalom with your companions, reminiscing back on the good old days during your period as trainee field agents under the watchful eye of Ambrus Valsin...
----------
"The Three Duties: Explore. Report. Cooperate. If nothing else gets through your thick skulls during your time here, just remember those three duties of yours! If you can't do that, you're no better than the mud on my boot to the Pathfinder Society!"
Ambrus was always a gruff and no-nonsense man. He had little tolerance for laziness and talking back, and he was the one who beat wannabe field agents into line about what they were expected to do as official members of the Society. Tall and meticulously groomed, he took his job running the daily operations of the Grand Lodge incredibly seriously.
On this certain day, you found yourselves in Ambrus Valsin's office, summoned by a brief missive earlier that morning...
----------
The efficient and straightforward chamberlain greets you curtly and motions for you to sit before jumping straight into your assignment.
"All right, rookie Pathfinders! Shut your gobs and listen up!" Ambrus stands as he speaks, pacing around his office and occasionally looking back at you over his shoulder. "Now, I've been watching your progress so far, and I think you're just about ready to be considered real field agents out there. I know you're eager to do so, too. But first things first—we've gotta make sure you're up to snuff and won't get yourself killed out there."
"Every day we get some doe-eyed hopeful or some snivelling bootlicker willing to do whatever it takes to join up with the Pathfinders. Most of them are good kids, to be sure, but not all of them have the salt to make it in a world like this. It's rough out there—and I'm not just talking about the ruins, tombs, and wilderness we Pathfinders find ourselves in on missions. We've got people who look down their noses at us, folks who think we squander our resources, and agents who want to take everything we've collected. For every friend of the Society, there are two enemies." Ambrus shakes his head sadly.
"As you well know, the wealth of knowledge and the items of lore we possess make us the most powerful organisation on the planet. That said, since we're fractured and widespread, it's difficult for that power to light on anything for two long. And thank the gods for that."
Ambrus moves to his desk drawer and rustles around in it for a few seconds. Those with the right angle notice that it's as meticulously organised as everything else in his office. Withdrawing a plain envelope, he passes it to the group.
"I've got a number of small assignments for you and your team, and it'd be best if you could finish them before the day's end. This mission is two-fold—it'll test your loyalties to us, the Pathfinder Society, and it'll also get you to meet a couple of rather important people while you're at it. These are other venture-captains or close allies of our organisation, so follow their orders as you would mine." Ambrus pauses for emphasis at this point, looking sharply at you all.
"Those jobs aren't arranged in any particular order of importance, but I want them completed as quickly as possible. I don't want to see you until you've got 'em all worked out for me. But once you do? Well, I'll be strongly thinking of escalating you to full membership right off the bat."
Looking inside the envelope, it appears that there is a list of jobs, as well as an attachment of the names of your contact and the directions to the meeting location.
In the envelope:
Assignment #7:
* A man named Guaril Karela runs a curio shop in the Docks called the Pickled Imp. Go to him and fill his request as a favour to the Society. I believe it has something to do with a set of rare books.
* Ollysta Zadrian requested aid and is expecting you at the Temple of the Shining Star in the
Ascendant Court. She needs someone to deliver a parcel of medicine and curatives to a needy orphanage and verify the character of the recipient.
* Visit the offices of Osirian nobleman Dremdhet Salhar in the Wise Quarter. The Pathfinder Society needs to obtain permission to delve the Salhar ancestral vaults beneath Sothis. He has made a verbal agreement, and your visit makes it official. You will receive an official charter and detailed maps. Do not embarrass the Society in this matter.
* Chelish Paracountess Zarta Dralneen possesses an item loaned from the Vaults. Meet with her in her estate in the Ivy District and retrieve the item in her possession.
After a rather up-and-down start to your career as Pathfinders, you've found yourself with a little bit of downtime on your hands. Some of you may be quite pleased to have obtained the first inklings of fame and notoriety, while others of you are beginning to see what some consider the true face of the Society—the ugly side, twisted by political manoeuvrings and people using the Society for their own gain.
For some reason or another, you find yourself in a cushy lounge suite in the Grand Lodge of Absalom with your companions, reminiscing back on the good old days during your period as trainee field agents under the watchful eye of Ambrus Valsin...
----------
"The Three Duties: Explore. Report. Cooperate. If nothing else gets through your thick skulls during your time here, just remember those three duties of yours! If you can't do that, you're no better than the mud on my boot to the Pathfinder Society!"
Ambrus was always a gruff and no-nonsense man. He had little tolerance for laziness and talking back, and he was the one who beat wannabe field agents into line about what they were expected to do as official members of the Society. Tall and meticulously groomed, he took his job running the daily operations of the Grand Lodge incredibly seriously.
On this certain day, you found yourselves in Ambrus Valsin's office, summoned by a brief missive earlier that morning...
----------
The efficient and straightforward chamberlain greets you curtly and motions for you to sit before jumping straight into your assignment.
"All right, rookie Pathfinders! Shut your gobs and listen up!" Ambrus stands as he speaks, pacing around his office and occasionally looking back at you over his shoulder. "Now, I've been watching your progress so far, and I think you're just about ready to be considered real field agents out there. I know you're eager to do so, too. But first things first—we've gotta make sure you're up to snuff and won't get yourself killed out there."
"Every day we get some doe-eyed hopeful or some snivelling bootlicker willing to do whatever it takes to join up with the Pathfinders. Most of them are good kids, to be sure, but not all of them have the salt to make it in a world like this. It's rough out there—and I'm not just talking about the ruins, tombs, and wilderness we Pathfinders find ourselves in on missions. We've got people who look down their noses at us, folks who think we squander our resources, and agents who want to take everything we've collected. For every friend of the Society, there are two enemies." Ambrus shakes his head sadly.
"As you well know, the wealth of knowledge and the items of lore we possess make us the most powerful organisation on the planet. That said, since we're fractured and widespread, it's difficult for that power to light on anything for two long. And thank the gods for that."
Ambrus moves to his desk drawer and rustles around in it for a few seconds. Those with the right angle notice that it's as meticulously organised as everything else in his office. Withdrawing a plain envelope, he passes it to the group.
"I've got a number of small assignments for you and your team, and it'd be best if you could finish them before the day's end. This mission is two-fold—it'll test your loyalties to us, the Pathfinder Society, and it'll also get you to meet a couple of rather important people while you're at it. These are other venture-captains or close allies of our organisation, so follow their orders as you would mine." Ambrus pauses for emphasis at this point, looking sharply at you all.
"Those jobs aren't arranged in any particular order of importance, but I want them completed as quickly as possible. I don't want to see you until you've got 'em all worked out for me. But once you do? Well, I'll be strongly thinking of escalating you to full membership right off the bat."
Looking inside the envelope, it appears that there is a list of jobs, as well as an attachment of the names of your contact and the directions to the meeting location.
In the envelope:
Assignment #7:
* A man named Guaril Karela runs a curio shop in the Docks called the Pickled Imp. Go to him and fill his request as a favour to the Society. I believe it has something to do with a set of rare books.
* Ollysta Zadrian requested aid and is expecting you at the Temple of the Shining Star in the
Ascendant Court. She needs someone to deliver a parcel of medicine and curatives to a needy orphanage and verify the character of the recipient.
* Visit the offices of Osirian nobleman Dremdhet Salhar in the Wise Quarter. The Pathfinder Society needs to obtain permission to delve the Salhar ancestral vaults beneath Sothis. He has made a verbal agreement, and your visit makes it official. You will receive an official charter and detailed maps. Do not embarrass the Society in this matter.
* Chelish Paracountess Zarta Dralneen possesses an item loaned from the Vaults. Meet with her in her estate in the Ivy District and retrieve the item in her possession.
The Blakros Museum rises into the night sky, its single black spire severing the full moon in twain. The black iron gates surrounding the exhibition hall grind in protest against the wind, their creaking shattering the silence of the night. Beyond, the museum's large oaken doors stand wide open, a silver-grey mist belching forth from the cavernous darkness within. The mists writhe like snakes, seeming almost to beckon you forward one moment before dissipating, leaving you to wonder if it's a trick of the mind or perhaps something more...
You wonder how you ended up here, standing at the precipice of unknown terrors, and instantly Venture-Captain Adril Hestram's wide looming face is conjured into your mind's eye. His booming words ring out from memory as clearly as he spoke them only one hour ago:
"The Blakros Museum is cursed." The bear of a man, usually beset with a nearly-toothless grin, was shockingly serious this evening. You'd been summoned to the Grand Lodge in the middle of the night, no doubt woken from peaceful slumber and dragged, half-asleep, to the VC's offices. He had explained in greeting that you were the only capable Pathfinders around Absalom that he could grab on short notice, luckily having only returned from your last mission the afternoon before. "Luckily". "Some terrible darkness has descended upon the place. Those who enter are blasted with evil and left raving through its halls, more beast than men."
"The curator, Nigel Aldain, is an old associate of the Society, although he chose to leave our organisation some years back after a... disagreement." Adril looked sheepish then, as if remembering some distasteful incident from his youth.
"Nigel has long denied the Society access to the Blakros Museum's considerable collection of relics and scrolls, using his extensive contacts to nab several excellent finds right out from under us... he always had a nose for the hunt. Whatever is past between Nigel and the Society, he needs our help now. Perhaps if we can come to his aid, he may think on rejoining the Pathfinder Society, or at least offering to share his discoveries with us."
"Apparently, the trouble at the Blakros Museum began this morning, shortly after a wayward Pathfinder named Lugizar Trantos returned to Absalom after months spent in the Mwangi Expanse. Supposedly, instead of coming straight to the Lodge to report in, he went to Blakros, sold his finds to Nigel, and then disappeared with a heft sum of gold." Adril scowls, his hammy hands squeezed into fists. "The few who glimpsed Lugizar claimed he was much change by his time in the Mwangi... gaunt, his eyes yellowed and unfocused, a strange rasping cough that seemed to wrack his now wasted frame. Whatever he brought back with him, we believe it is the cause of the Blakros Museum's ills. Root it out."
Before you left, Adril handed you a folded map of the museum, a flashy piece of card that looks like it's meant to be given to patrons. He also suggested you head to the offices first to find Nigel as he may have some insight into whatever foul curse vexes the place.
Root it out. Your final order from Adril. All that's left is for you to proceed...
You've had an hour to prepare before coming to the Blakros Museum, meaning you've had time to go shopping or do some research...
Knowledge (History) DC 10:
Much of Mwangi's darkest interior worships a demon lord named Angazhan, who is described in the Book of the Damned as a thing of primordial darkness, a foul-breathed demon who grunts prophecies of blood to apes and madmen. The jungle is his beating heart.
Knowledge (History) DC 15:
The Gorilla King's dread city was founded hundreds of years past by cultists who bowed to Angazhan. It is said they captured the souls of monkeys in the wood-grains of strange idols called Tik Taan. The monkeys' tormented spirits became the slaves and playthings of Angazhan, who murdered their playful whims and replaced them with a deep-seated hate and wild madness. These Tik Taan are rumoured to shred the sanity of anyone who spends too long in their presence.
Knowledge (History) DC 20:
The cultists who created the Tik Taan were hunted by a brave tribe of the Mwangi called the Jambala Jaeg. The Jambala Jaeg created ritual knives, crafted out of bone handles and obsidian blades, to slay the demons inside the Tik Taan. Legends speak of the deadly mists of the Tik Taan, ill humours that invade men's hearts by seeping into their mouths. Anyone wearing a scarf or other protection against the airborn menace is immune to its effects.
Knowledge (Local) or Diplomacy (Gather Information) DC 10:
Lugizar Trantos spent the better part of a year in the Mwangi Expanse. At first he wrote letters to his brother and wife, but after a few months these stopped coming and most gave him up for dead.
Knowledge (Local) or Diplomacy (Gather Information) DC 15:
His letters spoke of a lucrative find at one point, three idols of dark wood carved in the shape of bearded monkeys.
Knowledge (Local) or Diplomacy (Gather Information) DC 20:
The last of his letters evidenced an unhinged mind, and was covered in strange sketches of monkey paws. He described dark eyes glaring out from the mists. Shortly after his return to Absalom, many of the monkeys and apes in the city’s menageries attacked their keepers and fled into greater Absalom.
It's been a couple of weeks since you returned from your rather unfortunate trip across the Isle of Kortos to Escadar. Luckily, with the Aspis agent Ulionestia's plot unravelled, you are able to take the luxury of a ship back to Absalom to report to your superiors (all charges forwarded to the Society, of course).
Venture-Captain Dreng commended you highly for uncovering the ruse and preventing the Society's enemies from gaining control of an Azlanti artifact, although in private he apologises quite profusely for sending you on a fool's errand. "The Aspis Consortium is the greatest threat to our organisation. We should always be ever vigilant against them. If you remember nothing else for the rest of your careers, remember that!"
Just the other day, a messenger arrived at your residences (or trekked through the wilderness to find your current abode) bearing an envelope stamped with a fancy, gilded seal depicting a Tian glyph.
The Letter:
Most Esteemed Pathfinders,
My name is Amara Li. You may have heard of my reputation as a great ally of the Pathfinder Society from the far east, or as the head of the Lantern Lodge. I assist in managing Tian Xia's interests here in the Inner Sea.
Though Absalom is far from my wonderful home city of Goka, I endeavour to bring just a touch of the East with me to ease the pains of nostalgic homesickness. Three days from now, the skies of Goka will be lit up with fireworks and the bellies of its people filled with delicious plum wine as they celebrate the Snapdragon Festival. I hope to put on a party at my estate that same night that may evoke the same joyousness as the Gokan people are experiencing. Though we are far away, we are connected; such is the purest message of the Lantern Lodge.
I do hope to see you at the event so that we may enjoy some light refreshments and watch the fireworks together.
For the east and all it holds,
Venture-Captain Amara Li
P.S., I have heard of your expedition to Escadar from Drandle Dreng. Your competence is clear to me, and I have a favour to ask of you. Seek me out upon your arrival so that we may discuss it in more detail.
---------------
For the new trio (Yarg, Chasik, and Nicolae):
It's been about a month since your last missive from the Pathfinder Society, whether that is your graduation from introductory training or perhaps your first mission beyond the borders of Absalom. The more paranoid sorts about you might have even been worried the venture-captains were so displeased with your efforts thus far that they were never going to call you up for a second shift!
However, just the other day, a messenger arrived at your residences (or trekked through the wilderness to find your current abode) bearing an envelope stamped with a fancy, gilded seal depicting a Tian glyph.
The Letter:
Most Esteemed Pathfinders,
My name is Amara Li. You may have heard of my reputation as a great ally of the Pathfinder Society from the far east, or as the head of the Lantern Lodge. I assist in managing Tian Xia's interests here in the Inner Sea.
Though Absalom is far from my wonderful home city of Goka, I endeavour to bring just a touch of the East with me to ease the pains of nostalgic homesickness. Three days from now, the skies of Goka will be lit up with fireworks and the bellies of its people filled with delicious plum wine as they celebrate the Snapdragon Festival. I hope to put on a party at my estate that same night that may evoke the same joyousness as the Gokan people are experiencing. Though we are far away, we are connected; such is the purest message of the Lantern Lodge.
I do hope to see you at the event so that we may enjoy some light refreshments and watch the fireworks together.
For the east and all it holds,
Venture-Captain Amara Li
P.S., I have heard that you are trying to establish yourselves within the Pathfinder Society. I may be able to offer my assistance in the matter - and put in good word for you about the Grand Lodge - if you can help me with a small favour.
---------------
For those with some knowledge of the social strata of Absalom or of the goings-on of the Lantern Lodge, you know that only the luckiest or most influential Pathfinders receive invitations to Amara Li's annual Snapdragon Festival celebration, and wise recipients take advantage of them. The promise of a mission from the Society is enough of an allure for the rest; and so, tonight, you set out for the Petal District where the beautiful and exotic estate of the Tian venture-captain is located.
The guards at the door examine your invitations before letting you enter the grounds of Amara Li's home. It seems that the party is well under way. The aroma of blooming orchids and flowing wine mixes with the acrid tang of recently exploded fireworks, and the sound of strangely discordant music comes from a duo of Tian women playing an unusual stringed instrument and a reed flute. Numerous large koi swim in a stone-ringed pond, and a shishi-odoshi occasionally clunks as it overfills from water poured from the mouth of a statue of a leaping fish.
The crowd mingles calmly, most guests clearly hoping to be seen more than actually paying attention with whom they converse. The plum wine seems to have affected many who now move about the lodge's grounds waving sparkling wands of fire and shooting whirring, whizzing fireworks into the sky above the koi wand, and you notice more than a couple of people stumbling a little or slurring their speech. Any of you that arrive in simple adventuring gear or armour, or carrying excessive weaponry, receive scoffs and laughs from many of the attendees who simply cannot believe your social faux pas.
After several minutes of perusing the party, a guard approaches you with a polite bow and informs you that Amara Li is ready to see you. You follow him into a Tian-style building and into the VC's private study, where you find the Tian woman seated on a reed mat before a low table set with an exquisite porcelain tea set. She motions for you to sit with her around the table, and begins pouring hot green tea for all. Once the door is slid shut by the departing guard, she begins speaking in a low, hushed voice without even the hint of a Tian accent.
"Well met, Pathfinders, and welcome to the Lantern Lodge. I hope you find the Snapdragon Festival and my hospitality worthy of your time and energy. Please do take your time to enjoy the event this evening."
Amara takes a slow sip of her own mug of tea as she looks into the eyes of each one of you appraisingly. She carefully returns it to its dainty plate before speaking further. "As you may have realised, I have not brought you here for mere pleasantries. I wish to ask you to partake a dangerous mission on my behalf."
"Long ago, one of my most esteemed ancestors, who was rich in power but poor in sense, gave a gift to a foreign prince--a gift that prince did not deserve and my foolish ancestor had no right to give: a ceremonial jade katana." Her tone of voice is surprisingly harsh at this indictment. "At the time the gift was sent, its recipient was invading this island. He laid siege to Absalom from his fortress in the foothills of the Kortos Mounts. Like those who came before him, the warlord failed to take Absalom and perished in the attempt. On the very day of his defeat, his castle crumbled to dust in a violent earthquake and has been lost to the centuries ever since. My family's heirloom was lost with it. It is a terrible, terrible shame, both for the loss of the katana and on my family as a whole."
Amara takes another long sip of her tea before continuing her briefing. "A recent report by a group of Pathfinders give me hope, however. They appear to have finally found the ruins of the warlord's castle--and that means that I might finally recover my family's treasure."
"I'm looking for an intrepid group to retrieve it for me as a personal favour, and I'm hoping that is you. The fame and wealth you will doubtlessly recover will bring you much honour within the Society, and if you deliver the katana to me, you will have my utmost favour as you begin your careers as full agents of the Pathfinder Society. I will certainly make it worth your time." She gives you a pleasant smile. "What do you think?"
Sense Motive DC 20:
You get the impression that Amara Li knows more about the circumstances of this mission than she is letting on.
Kind of zooming through the introduction, but you might want to describe/introduce yourselves, since we have some new faces this time :)
It's been a couple of weeks since you returned from your rather unfortunate trip across the Isle of Kortos to Escadar. Luckily, with the Aspis agent Ulionestia's plot unravelled, you are able to take the luxury of a ship back to Absalom to report to your superiors (all charges forwarded to the Society, of course).
Venture-Captain Dreng commended you highly for uncovering the ruse and preventing the Society's enemies from gaining control of an Azlanti artifact, although in private he apologises quite profusely for sending you on a fool's errand. "The Aspis Consortium is the greatest threat to our organisation. We should always be ever vigilant against them. If you remember nothing else for the rest of your careers, remember that!"
Just the other day, a messenger arrived at your residences (or trekked through the wilderness to find your current abode) bearing an envelope stamped with a fancy, gilded seal depicting a Tian glyph.
The Letter:
Most Esteemed Pathfinders,
My name is Amara Li. You may have heard of my reputation as a great ally of the Pathfinder Society from the far east, or as the head of the Lantern Lodge. I assist in managing Tian Xia's interests here in the Inner Sea.
Though Absalom is far from my wonderful home city of Goka, I endeavour to bring just a touch of the East with me to ease the pains of nostalgic homesickness. Three days from now, the skies of Goka will be lit up with fireworks and the bellies of its people filled with delicious plum wine as they celebrate the Snapdragon Festival. I hope to put on a party at my estate that same night that may evoke the same joyousness as the Gokan people are experiencing. Though we are far away, we are connected; such is the purest message of the Lantern Lodge.
I do hope to see you at the event so that we may enjoy some light refreshments and watch the fireworks together.
For the east and all it holds,
Venture-Captain Amara Li
P.S., I have heard of your expedition to Escadar from Drandle Dreng. Your competence is clear to me, and I have a favour to ask of you. Seek me out upon your arrival so that we may discuss it in more detail.
For those with some knowledge of the social strata of Absalom or of the goings-on of the Lantern Lodge, you know that only the luckiest or most influential Pathfinders receive invitations to Amara Li's annual Snapdragon Festival celebration, and wise recipients take advantage of them. The promise of a mission from the Society is enough of an allure for the rest; and so, tonight, you set out for the Petal District where the beautiful and exotic estate of the Tian venture-captain is located.
The guards at the door examine your invitations before letting you enter the grounds of Amara Li's home. It seems that the party is well under way. The aroma of blooming orchids and flowing wine mixes with the acrid tang of recently exploded fireworks, and the sound of strangely discordant music comes from a duo of Tian women playing an unusual stringed instrument and a reed flute. Numerous large koi swim in a stone-ringed pond, and a shishi-odoshi occasionally clunks as it overfills from water poured from the mouth of a statue of a leaping fish.
The crowd mingles calmly, most guests clearly hoping to be seen more than actually paying attention with whom they converse. The plum wine seems to have affected many who now move about the lodge's grounds waving sparkling wands of fire and shooting whirring, whizzing fireworks into the sky above the koi wand, and you notice more than a couple of people stumbling a little or slurring their speech. Any of you that arrive in simple adventuring gear or armour, or carrying excessive weaponry, receive scoffs and laughs from many of the attendees who simply cannot believe your social faux pas.
After several minutes of perusing the party, a guard approaches you with a polite bow and informs you that Amara Li is ready to see you. You follow him into a Tian-style building and into the VC's private study, where you find the Tian woman seated on a reed mat before a low table set with an exquisite porcelain tea set. She motions for you to sit with her around the table, and begins pouring hot green tea for all. Once the door is slid shut by the departing guard, she begins speaking in a low, hushed voice without even the hint of a Tian accent.
"Well met, Pathfinders, and welcome to the Lantern Lodge. I hope you find the Snapdragon Festival and my hospitality worthy of your time and energy. Please do take your time to enjoy the event this evening."
Amara takes a slow sip of her own mug of tea as she looks into the eyes of each one of you appraisingly. She carefully returns it to its dainty plate before speaking further. "As you may have realised, I have not brought you here for mere pleasantries. I wish to ask you to partake a dangerous mission on my behalf."
"Long ago, one of my most esteemed ancestors, who was rich in power but poor in sense, gave a gift to a foreign prince--a gift that prince did not deserve and my foolish ancestor had no right to give: a ceremonial jade katana." Her tone of voice is surprisingly harsh at this indictment. "At the time the gift was sent, its recipient was invading this island. He laid siege to Absalom from his fortress in the foothills of the Kortos Mounts. Like those who came before him, the warlord failed to take Absalom and perished in the attempt. On the very day of his defeat, his castle crumbled to dust in a violent earthquake and has been lost to the centuries ever since. My family's heirloom was lost with it. It is a terrible, terrible shame, both for the loss of the katana and on my family as a whole."
Amara takes another long sip of her tea before continuing her briefing. "A recent report by a group of Pathfinders give me hope, however. They appear to have finally found the ruins of the warlord's castle--and that means that I might finally recover my family's treasure."
"I'm looking for an intrepid group to retrieve it for me as a personal favour, and I'm hoping that is you. The fame and wealth you will doubtlessly recover will bring you much honour within the Society, and if you deliver the katana to me, you will have my utmost favour as you begin your careers as full agents of the Pathfinder Society. I will certainly make it worth your time." She gives you a pleasant smile. "What do you think?"
Sense Motive DC 20:
You get the impression that Amara Li knows more about the circumstances of this mission than she is letting on.
Absalom awakens to a clear and breezy Erastus morning this Wealday, and the City at the Centre of the World is a hub of activity--business as usual, in other words. None are perhaps as excited as a small group of fledgling Pathfinders, however, who have arrived bright and early on summons to Skyreach to begin their first mission for the Society. You pass through the great stone gate that guards the Grand Lodge and make your way across the grounds to the largest stone fortress in the complex; the enormous, white, five-towered palace stands out amongst all the others, and indeed, amongst all the other buildings in the surrounding city.
Directed by a chamberlain through the many halls and rooms of Skyreach, you enter a surprisingly fancy reading room decorated with exquisite paintings of the city. A worn oak bookshelf full to bursting with old Pathfinder Chronicles sits against the far wall, and there are enough scattered hardwood chairs around the room to seat six people. Sitting on a large, plush bench is a wiry old man with a wild grey beard and a finely-dressed, full-figured Taldan woman whose displeased expression belies her boredom and annoyance.
"Ah, the new recruits! So good to see you all," the old man says chirpily, waving you inside. "Please, take a seat."
The grizzled old man peers around at you all with milky, half-closed eyes and a half-smile. "Ah, yes, I definitely see some familiar faces from the training process. If you weren't aware, my name is Venture-Captain Declan Dreng, and I do hope you are prepared for the mission I have for you today."
"But first, may I introduce you to our marvellous guest here--the Lady Gloriana Morilla?" The Taldan woman tilts her head slightly in acknowledgement of the introduction, but otherwise makes no move to greet anyone. Apparently oblivious to any social slight on the lady's part, Dreng continues with a smile.
"I don't suppose you've heard of Escadar, have you?" he asks, before answering the question before anyone has a chance to display their knowledge of local geography. "It's a city on the Isle of Erran, the smaller of the two islands that make up the nation of Absalom. It houses much of Absalom's war fleet... but much more interesting to us is that it was built around one of the only surviving Azlanti ruins we know of."
"Recently, a contact from the Low Azlanti embassy in Escadar approached us with an offer. It seems they have discovered a unique relic of Azlanti origin on the Inner Sea's floor! Fascinating, I must say; we had assumed the place would be picked to the bones by now." The old man chuckles to himself. "We have the unique opportunity to add it to our collection for study, and the Decemvirate is very excited to see it come into our possession."
"Of course," Dreng feigns an exaggerated sigh, "nothing in life ever comes for free, and in return we must deliver one of our catalogued items to Escador in exchange. The Low Azlanti drive a hard bargain, so we need you to escort a relics broker to Escadar so that he can authenticate the Azlanti item and mediate a fair deal on the Ten's behalf."
"Seems simple, right? Wrong." Dreng raises one gnarled finger in the air, looking all the part of an elderly lecturer. "First rule of the Pathfinder Society, recruits, is that it is never as simple as it appears."
"The Aspis Consortium, those sneaky, conniving, moral-less bastards, have also tendered an offer for the relic. If we cannot finalise the agreement with the gillmen of Escadar within 30 days, they'll go to the next best offer. And we simply cannot have that. To make matters worse, those Aspis cretins have funded a warship to patrol the waters just beyond Absalom's harbour which has been preventing Pathfinder agents from sailing to Escadar unmolested. Our last batch of operatives went missing off the coast just a few days ago."
"Luckily," Dreng says with a sparkle in his half-closed eyes, "the beautiful lady and I have come up with a solution. Do tell them, m'lady?"
Lady Morilla stirs from her silence and speaks in a strong, demanding voice. "I have used some of the Empire of Taldor's most skilled operatives to plant a false crew manifest and course plans with the harbourmaster, ensuring that the Aspis Consortium spies who certainly keep an eye on such matters believe we are moving our relic to Escadar on a ship tomorrow morning. This decoy should occupy the Consortium sufficiently for you to travel overland to Escadar with plenty of time to make the final agreement with the gillmen before the Society's Window of opportunity runs out." A faint smile crosses her face for just a moment. "The Taldane always try to support our friends in the Pathfinder Society... as I would hope they would do to us."
Dreng laughs to himself absently, but deigns not to comment further. He then turns his attention back to the Pathfinders. "Go to the Siphons in the Puddles," he says, quickly explaining that the Siphons are an underground and often flooded emergency tunnel system where many... questionable elements reside. "We have a contact there--one Grandmaster Torch--who will be able to give you a map for a smuggler's trail through the Isle of Kortos' centre that should allow for relatively easy and secret overland travel to Escadar."
"After you meet with Grandmaster Torch, you will meet up with the Society-hired appraiser and relics broker named Nester Rees. He'll come with you to Escadar to verify the authenticity of the gillmen's relic." Dreng pauses a moment, a surprising look of seriousness replacing his formerly jovial appearance. "You are all responsible for Rees' safety and for the success of his negotiations through this mission. Do not fail in this duty."
Almost as quickly as the seriousness appears, it passes, and an easy smile returns to Dreng's face. "I've arranged lodgings for you at an Escadar tavern called the Grindylow's Goblet. That's where the gillmen will meet with you. Once you arrive, send word to the Low Azlanti embassy, and have Master Rees conduct the negotiations at the tavern on the Society's behalf. And then, of course, return with the relic in tow."
Absalom awakens to a clear and breezy Erastus morning this Wealday, and the City at the Centre of the World is a hub of activity--business as usual, in other words. None are perhaps as excited as a small group of fledgling Pathfinders, however, who have arrived bright and early on summons to Skyreach to begin their first mission for the Society. You pass through the great stone gate that guards the Grand Lodge and make your way across the grounds to the largest stone fortress in the complex; the enormous, white, five-towered palace stands out amongst all the others, and indeed, amongst all the other buildings in the surrounding city.
Directed by a chamberlain through the many halls and rooms of Skyreach, you enter a surprisingly fancy reading room decorated with exquisite paintings of the city. A worn oak bookshelf full to bursting with old Pathfinder Chronicles sits against the far wall, and there are enough scattered hardwood chairs around the room to seat six people. Sitting on a large, plush bench is a wiry old man with a wild grey beard and a finely-dressed, full-figured Taldan woman whose displeased expression belies her boredom and annoyance.
"Ah, the new recruits! So good to see you all," the old man says chirpily, waving you inside. "Please, take a seat."
The grizzled old man peers around at you all with milky, half-closed eyes and a half-smile. "Ah, yes, I definitely see some familiar faces from the training process. If you weren't aware, my name is Venture-Captain Declan Dreng, and I do hope you are prepared for the mission I have for you today."
"But first, may I introduce you to our marvellous guest here--the Lady Gloriana Morilla?" The Taldan woman tilts her head slightly in acknowledgement of the introduction, but otherwise makes no move to greet anyone. Apparently oblivious to any social slight on the lady's part, Dreng continues with a smile.
"I don't suppose you've heard of Escadar, have you?" he asks, before answering the question before anyone has a chance to display their knowledge of local geography. "It's a city on the Isle of Erran, the smaller of the two islands that make up the nation of Absalom. It houses much of Absalom's war fleet... but much more interesting to us is that it was built around one of the only surviving Azlanti ruins we know of."
"Recently, a contact from the Low Azlanti embassy in Escadar approached us with an offer. It seems they have discovered a unique relic of Azlanti origin on the Inner Sea's floor! Fascinating, I must say; we had assumed the place would be picked to the bones by now." The old man chuckles to himself. "We have the unique opportunity to add it to our collection for study, and the Decemvirate is very excited to see it come into our possession."
"Of course," Dreng feigns an exaggerated sigh, "nothing in life ever comes for free, and in return we must deliver one of our catalogued items to Escador in exchange. The Low Azlanti drive a hard bargain, so we need you to escort a relics broker to Escadar so that he can authenticate the Azlanti item and mediate a fair deal on the Ten's behalf."
"Seems simple, right? Wrong." Dreng raises one gnarled finger in the air, looking all the part of an elderly lecturer. "First rule of the Pathfinder Society, recruits, is that it is never as simple as it appears."
"The Aspis Consortium, those sneaky, conniving, moral-less bastards, have also tendered an offer for the relic. If we cannot finalise the agreement with the gillmen of Escadar within 30 days, they'll go to the next best offer. And we simply cannot have that. To make matters worse, those Aspis cretins have funded a warship to patrol the waters just beyond Absalom's harbour which has been preventing Pathfinder agents from sailing to Escadar unmolested. Our last batch of operatives went missing off the coast just a few days ago."
"Luckily," Dreng says with a sparkle in his half-closed eyes, "the beautiful lady and I have come up with a solution. Do tell them, m'lady?"
Lady Morilla stirs from her silence and speaks in a strong, demanding voice. "I have used some of the Empire of Taldor's most skilled operatives to plant a false crew manifest and course plans with the harbourmaster, ensuring that the Aspis Consortium spies who certainly keep an eye on such matters believe we are moving our relic to Escadar on a ship tomorrow morning. This decoy should occupy the Consortium sufficiently for you to travel overland to Escadar with plenty of time to make the final agreement with the gillmen before the Society's Window of opportunity runs out." A faint smile crosses her face for just a moment. "The Taldane always try to support our friends in the Pathfinder Society... as I would hope they would do to us."
Dreng laughs to himself absently, but deigns not to comment further. He then turns his attention back to the Pathfinders. "Go to the Siphons in the Puddles," he says, quickly explaining that the Siphons are an underground and often flooded emergency tunnel system where many... questionable elements reside. "We have a contact there--one Grandmaster Torch--who will be able to give you a map for a smuggler's trail through the Isle of Kortos' centre that should allow for relatively easy and secret overland travel to Escadar."
"After you meet with Grandmaster Torch, you will meet up with the Society-hired appraiser and relics broker named Nester Rees. He'll come with you to Escadar to verify the authenticity of the gillmen's relic." Dreng pauses a moment, a surprising look of seriousness replacing his formerly jovial appearance. "You are all responsible for Rees' safety and for the success of his negotiations through this mission. Do not fail in this duty."
Almost as quickly as the seriousness appears, it passes, and an easy smile returns to Dreng's face. "I've arranged lodgings for you at an Escadar tavern called the Grindylow's Goblet. That's where the gillmen will meet with you. Once you arrive, send word to the Low Azlanti embassy, and have Master Rees conduct the negotiations at the tavern on the Society's behalf. And then, of course, return with the relic in tow."
I'm in the middle of musing up a new PbP game, but still itching to run something, so I figured I'd throw up a PFS game. I'm a reasonably experienced GM, both online and off. I'm currently running a Rappan Athuk campaign here on the Paizo boards that you can check out to see if you enjoy my style of posting.
As you may or may not know, First Steps II and III are being retired at the end of this season. This means two things:
1. You must post at least one a day. At least. I want to get through II and III as fast as possible. If you can't keep up a rapid posting rate, please don't put your name down for this scenario.
2. I intend on working backwards through the series so we have as much of an opportunity to play them as possible!
A couple of notes:
1. If it wasn't clear, this is Pathfinder Society. If you're unfamiliar with PFS, read up about it here. Feel free to ask me questions, too!
2. I will roll certain saves and checks as appropriate in order to speed up posting.
3. I will do block initiative, as explained below:
Block Initiative:
I'll roll everyone's initiative, as well as the enemies' (most enemies will act on the same initiative, except for separate groups and some bosses, etc).
For round 1, all players whose turns occur before the enemies' will take their actions in any order. I will then make a summary of their actions, and move for the enemies. Subsequently, we will alternate between all players making their actions in any order and the wrap-up/enemy actions post from me.
Now, what do I need from you?
Please give me a character alias with your stats and background information, as well as your PFS number. I'd also like to know your race, class, and, if you've decided on it, your choice of faction (if you don't know yet, no worries).
Players will be selected on a largely first-come, first-serve basis, although in the case that I get a large amount of interest I will pick players more or less arbitrarily based on whatever characters interest me most. In the case that there is enough interest to run two groups, I may do so... or I may not. Depends on what I feel like.
Firstly - I love this a whole lot. Thaaank you. <3
However, is there a reason why you have to login to your account every single time you access it? It's a little annoying, although bearably so with how useful I'll find this.
So, when I click the X to stop following threads tonight, I've been getting a pop-up that looks something like this.
Sometimes the thread becomes un-followed when I click okay, sometimes it doesn't. But mostly that is a very scary looking error message. :P
Potentially relevant specs:
- Browser: Chrome, latest update
- OS: Windows 7 x64
- No too many Chrome add-ons, and none that should do anything strange like this (i.e. no Greasemonkey or whatever).
EDIT: After testing on a couple of random other threads, it looks like it's happening every time I try to stop following a thread, and it un-follows as normal (with the usual quirks when in 'Focus' mode and viewing multiple threads in separate tabs, etc.)
I played this character (a Human Paladin of Shelyn) way back in 2009 at GenConOz, where I got enough XP to level up to 3 and, according to the sessions attached to her, something like 8 PP. I haven't paid ANY attention to PFS since, though, since I haven't had an opportunity to play PFS for quite some time...
So I have a few questions.
1. Is this character still valid for play, even though I haven't even looked at her for over 3 years? To give some context, this was shortly after the Pathfinder RPG released, and before the Bestiary 1 had released. I fondly remember Jason showing us a printer's copy of Bestiary 1 and a bunch of us Aussies ogling the art :)
2. I THINK I know where my chronicles and character sheets are, but I'm not 100% sure on this. If I can't find my sheets, would it be 'kosher' to attempt to recreate her character stats? I remember a few things about her, but not a lot.
3. So I made this character to be in the Andoran faction because that was the only one that really suited a Paladin at the time, but I think she'd do better as part of the Tian Xia faction as she's from Minkai in her backstory. How do I go about changing factions... can I, even?
4. After all this time, would it be better for me to simply recreate the character from scratch instead? Glancing through the PFS guide, it looks like there's been a WHOOOOLE lot of changes since I last played, after all. Even if I find my old character sheets I suspect I'll have some work updating her...
For one reason or another, you've all made the mistake of travelling from far and wide to brave the depths of legend. Perhaps it will be the most fortuitous mistake of your life, leading you to unimaginable riches and power—or perhaps it will be the last mistake you ever make this side of Pharasma's Boneyard.
Ninivic and Varnos have both been hand selected from their individual units to investigate the long-standing rumours of demonic forces building behind the frontlines of the Crusade, a threat that has lingered like a bad smell for years. They travelled east across Mendev with a small guard patrol led by one Captain Nym Miromenthos; the gnome's unit was on a coincidental mission requiring their presence in Egede. The long journey from the battle lines led the group to the small rural town of Zelkor's Ferry, and they avidly took up the opportunity to sleep in real beds and eat better than travel rations.
Molasbar and Olofire, companions from the distant metropolis of Absalom, made the decision to investigate the ancient mausoleum, both independently seeking the knowledge held within. Their journey began many months previous, having followed the rivers through Andoran and Druma and scouting around Lake Encarthan before even coming close to their final destination. In Nerosyan, their travelling company was joined by another half-elf, Bryce; he had been desperately asking around about a place called Rappan Athuk, a name the two mages knew a surprising amount about.
The three half-breeds travelled together along the border of Numeria and Mendev before reaching the Lake Road that followed the Lake of Mists and Veils up towards Egede. They knew that this was the general location of the dungeon they sought, but the dangerous hillsides and menacing forests were enough to keep them on the main road for the most part. At a suggestion from one of the merchant caravans they travelled with, they headed off the beaten track, following the Old Road (as it was called) to one Zelkor's Ferry. There, they were assured, they would find plenty of people with expert knowledge of the area. Considering the miniscule population of the hamlet, the trio decided to begin their investigations with the Inn.
Reginald, meanwhile, on his apparent world-wide pub crawl, had decided to follow his "borrowed" map right to the source—which meant Zelkor's Ferry. Taking a ferryboat down the Canyon River from Egede, he spent a long and frustratingly boring journey with one of the most monotonous and droning old coots he'd ever had the misfortune of meeting. It was no wonder that the moment the vessel docked at Zelkor's Ferry, Reginald was already off running towards the first bit of booze he could find.
Zelkor's Ferry is a small cluster of buildings surrounded by an ancient and crumbling stone wall, evidence that it once served as a border fort. Nowadays it is little more than an inn, a smithy, a merchant trader, and a ferryboat, a run-down rural hamlet known largely for its proximity to Rappan Athuk. Nevertheless, the Ferry is a place of comfort and safety compared to the hungry wilderness that surrounds it on all sides.
Bristleback's Inn is the sort of place one would expect to find in a remote settlement. A cracked and peeling wooden sign creaks from its iron bracket by the door, showing a picture of a wild boar in badly-faded paint. It is an old building, small for an inn, and is in dire need of some repairs, with signs of peeling paint and dangerously creaking floorboards. Though the room and board is rather high for a place of such disrepair, you are left with little choice but to pay the fee for the night. The innkeeper is a brute of a man named Odo Bristleback, a massive man with a ruddy complexion and scraggly black hair.
Morning calls, beams of light filtering through the windows of the inn to awaken your rested bodies. The ill-formed plans made the night before still linger in your mind, urging you onwards. What would your future bring, tempting fate in the depths of Rappan Athuk?
It's morning of the 26th of Pharast, and a light and warm spring wind greets you this day. Your characters have only been in town for a day or two, and last night agreed to work together to delve Rappan Athuk. You have a very general idea of how to get there, but that's about it. Feel free to do whatever you need in town now, or you can set off right away if you desire.
- I'll be keeping track of things on this page for ease of access because the Paizo forums don't do as good a job at doing so.
- You don't necessarily need to make an account on Obsidian Portal, but you might find it handy to have your own character page or update the wiki it with things you want to keep track of. If you'd like to join the campaign, please post here or PM me your OP username or email.
- It's currently pretty bare bones. Expect more updates over the next couple of days and beyond!
- There isn't much here yet. Most of the actual house rules are for classes nobody in the campaign is playing (yet). :P I will add more to this page as things come up.
- This page also details some posting guidelines, so I'd appreciate it if you looked things over.
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Characters / Opening Scene
- If you haven't finished your character sheet, please do so now! When you've completed it, please tell me so I can check it over for errors. (Although I notice a lot of you used Hero Lab... it might not be necessary in that case.)
- I would really like if you could create some connections between your fellow adventurers. I will begin the game assuming that you are all already an adventuring group with the mission to enter Rappan Athuk and have recently arrived at Zelkor's Ferry, a small hamlet near the mausoleum.
- How you met is up to you. You may have met in another city and traveled to Zelkor's Ferry together. You may have known each other in the past. You may have simply gotten drunk together last night in Bristleback's Inn and decided it then. Or perhaps a mix. Some might know each other, some might have agreed to join up through convenience, etcetera.
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I think that's it for now... please feel free to ask me if you have any questions! I'll get the opening post up as soon as everyone is here and ready to go.
Hello, and welcome! I've decided that I want to run a PbP campaign, and that I want to do something completely different to the sorts of games I usually run. Which clearly means some crazy gonzo dungeon crawl megadungeon… :)
Rappan Athuk is a dungeon of legendary size—and deadliness. I'm setting it in Mendev of Golarion, specifically the area around the Estrovian Forest. All characters know of the Legend of Rappan Athuk, as below.
The Legend of Rappan Athuk:
One hundred years ago, the barbarian kingdom of Sarkoris was lost to the Abyss with the opening of the Worldwound upon the face of Golarion. In response, the Iomedaean church gathered the forces of good to fight back against the demonic incursion; this was the First Mendevian Crusade. Among other victories, the crusaders destroyed the ancient temple-city of Tsar and the great citadel-temple dedicated to the demon lord Orcus within.
With their temple in ruins, the surviving high priests of this accursed demon lord fled the city with an army of enemies on their trail—an army of heroic crusaders—led by Zelkor, a powerful archmage. The exact fate of these evil priests was then unknown, for not only did the remnants of the followers of Orcus disappear from all human reckoning, but so did the First Crusade that followed after them disappear as well. Some said that the eternal scales the loss of so many good men, and with them the fortress-city of Drezen, was a fair price to pay to rid the world of so much evil.
The evil cult, however, had not been destroyed. The surviving priests and their followers instead settled on a hill near the Estrovian Forest, a sylvan woodland near the Lake Road. There they found a vast underground complex of caverns and mazes, carving out a volcanic intrusion beneath the hill. There, the priests of Orcus found the perfect lair to continue their vile rituals. For many years, they carried on in secret, hidden from the light and from the knowledge of men.
Many years later, their underground delving completed, the evil priests erected a hideous mausoleum and a sunken graveyard atop the hill. It is believed that these graves are in fact the final resting place of the pursuing First Crusade that had been destroyed to a man. Soon after the mausoleum was erected the peaceful creatures of the wood began to disappear. Though many rangers and druids investigated these happenings, the cause of the creatures’ disappearance was not immediately determined. Some years later a powerful group of adventurers, led by Bofred, a high priest of Iomedae, investigated the evil happenings and found the sunken graveyard leading to a labyrinthine complex. Bofred and his companions found great hordes of evil creatures in the complex. Though some of his companions returned from their expedition, telling tales of fantastic treasure and ferocious monsters, Bofred was never seen again—lost in the catacombs beneath the cursed mausoleum.
For the last one hundred years, ranks of adventurers have ventured to the newfound dungeon. Many fell prey to bandits and monsters in the surrounding wilderness. Rumors suggest that of those who survived to reach the mausoleum and sunken graveyard, most were slain by guardians of green stone or perished on the very first level. Those rare few who return from deeper treks speak of horrible undead and creatures that cannot be slain. All who have explored Rappan Athuk offer this one universal piece of advice: "Don’t go down the well!"
Characters:
* 20 point buy.
* 1st level.
* Maximum starting gold.
* Max HP at 1st level, roll every level thereafter (minimum HP gain equal to 1/2 HD).
* Any race that is 15 RP and below. Go wild! You can even make up your own, provided you additionally give me some general information about the race (what they are like, where they live, what they do, etc.) Lower RP cost races may get additional benefits (e.g., feats, increased point buy, additional racial traits) according to GM whimsy. NOTE: No races that can fly at 1st level, please.
* Any class (and any archetypes).
* All Paizo material is fine. If you can link me any 3PP material you want, I'll check it out and see if it's okay. 3E material is a maaaaaybe-but-probably-not, but ask if you really want it.
* Any non-evil alignment.
* Every character starts with an extra skill point to put into any Craft, Profession, Perform, or Knowledge skill of their choice, as befits their background.
* Golarion deities, with the minor change that Erastil doesn't think that women should defer to their husbands and doesn't think that men are the centre of their household. (No arguments about this, please.)
* This is a dungeon crawl. Certain skills and class abilities may be more or less useful in this regard. Fair warning.
* No house rules as of this moment, but there may be some later on? Who knows!
Applications:
The usual stuff.
* Name
* Gender
* Race
* Class
* Appearance/Personality
* Backstory – doesn't need to be too in-depth, a couple of paragraphs is fine. You just need a reason to be in Mendev and looking to tackle Rappan Athuk with a group of other suckers-- er, intrepid adventurers.
* Crunch – you don't need to have a whole sheet worked out, but I'd like enough details to figure out what you're going to be doing.
* How often you can post
* Anything else. Bribery? A back-up character for when your first gets killed?
About me... I consider myself a reasonably experienced Pathfinder GM. I've run a number of PbPs on different sites in the past, and I'm also currently running two "live" games over Roll20. Very occasionally I even get the chance to play in some games! This is my first PbP run on these forums. Should be fun.
I'll accept applications for around a week, depending on interest.
I'll be taking 6 players in the end. I'm looking for players that can post one a day at minimum. This is a dungeon crawl and thus is quite combat heavy, so a fast posting rate is better.
Fair warning: I'm not a big fan of power-gaming and cookie cutter builds lifted from some forum post. I like cool and awesome characters, not super duper game-breaking walking stat blocks.
Not only did this take a lot longer than usual to arrive here, it seems like someone in the postal service accidently dropped the books in the ocean while they were en route down under...
Andoran Spirit of Liberty and Mother of Flies have some water damage along the right side of all the pages of the book including covers, making it all wrinkly and causing some of the pages to stick together. Somehow, Classic Horrors Revisited managed to avoid this though.
On top of that, the corners have been banged up pretty badly on Mother of Flies and COH. The top right corner of MoF looks like it's been completely bent over at least an inch, while somehow COH's bottom left corner looks to have the same damage, though not nearly as bad.
Everything is perfectly readable and usable, so I feel a little bad about requesting a replacement copy, but at least for Andoran Spirit of Liberty and Mother of Flies, the damage is pretty noticable. Classic Horrors Revisited is pretty fine though, so I wouldn't expect anything there.
I'm just glad this is my first problem with any of my shipments so far. Keep up the good work. :)
Hello, I sent an email... two in fact, about this, but got no response (and instead got ANOTHER email shipment email...) So I thought I'd try asking here.
What *is* going on with this order? Why is it being split into 3 separate packages? Isn't this ridiculously inefficient? When I received my shipment for the Core Rulebook there was a lot of mix-up as well, but I got 2 Core Rulebooks, a bunch of dice and some other books in the one package. So I'm sure that they could fit most of it in the one box... probably all of it even.
3-
1x PF Chronicles: Princes of Darkness (subscription copy)
I also got an email about the phone number, which I've added. I really hope it held up my order, because this is a HUGE pain. I would rather pay extra money to put it all into one box than split it up like this. It'll reduce the chance of getting lost internationally, and I will also get it all at once, at that!
This is the second time I've added things to my subscription order and the second time that it's caused really bizarre shipments and errors. I'm thinking that it might not be worth the hassle this produces.
Sorry for the wording here, it's just a little frustrating.
Okay, so I'm recently back from playing up a storm at GenConOz. At the con, Stephen (DarkWhite) gave me a small card with a Pathfinder # 10321 on it, as well as a confirmation code. I used this to play in 6 games as the character Saki Kanazawa.
However, when I came to update my profile... turns out that I had ALREADY made Pathfinder # on this account. I didn't realise this at all (probably just a result of curious clicking...). That is Pathfinder # 9685.
Is there some way that I can have # 9685 removed from my account and replaced with # 10321? Or will I have to go through and hassle DarkWhite to change all my details?
I did bring this up in a general thread ages ago, but go not replies whatsoever. So I figure this is as good a time as any to return to it...
For the record, I love the new Polymorph/(x) Shape spells. It's been argued to death already as whether they need to be changed, so please don't bring that up. This thread is to make sure the Polymorph rules get clarified!
From what I understand (though this is not actually explicitly stated...) the Polymorph rules do not change anything about your base stats, abilities and so forth. All they do is add to what you currently possess.
Does this mean:
- A sorcerer with a draconic bloodline can now use Beast Shape I to turn into a boar with claws and the ability to sprout dragon wings and breathe fire?
- A draconic bloodlined sorcerer retains his natural armor bonus and resistance to energy?
- A dragon disciple / sorcerer with blindsense retains this ability?
This applies to all sorcerer bloodline abilities which specifically relate to physical form, really. Long limbs, unusual anatomy, elemental movement, just about all the capstones... I'm sure it'd affect a lot of Prestige Classes and other class abilities, too.
Also, what happens if you already possess a certain ability 'gained' by a polymorph spell? For example, if you are an abyssal sorcerer whose claws do increased damage, are magic-aligned and also do extra fire damage who polymorphs into a leopard... logic would state that you simply get better damage and so forth (but again we don't know). Okay, so what about air elemental bloodline's movement, 60ft. fly (average). If you used a Beast Shape III spell to turn into a darkmantle, with 30ft. fly (poor); does your fly speed take precedence? How about using Beast Shape IV to turn into a Heiracosphinx, with fly 90ft. (poor)? Do you get 90ft. (average)?
Many, many confusing things with polymorph here, and I'd love some clarification... and I'm sure the final rulebook would appreciate it too.
Just casually bumping this in the hopes that someone can offer some input here...
To make this post less useless, my thoughts are just to make the ability types of the dragon disciple match the draconic sorcerer's, but I'm still not sure about the Polymorph weirdness. Anyone?
