As the Jenivere approached the last leg of her journey, an infectious good cheer was spreading through crew and passengers alike. The prospect of a speedy arrival had send spirits soaring, and unlike most meals, this evening was filled with song, good-hearted boasts and the sound of rolling dice. While the fare was meagre, the company made up for it. Even captain Kovak had joined them this night, unlike most recent meals. While quiet stories had wormed their way through the crew, linking this habit with a new acquaintance (the beautiful Varisian enchantress Ieana, the man did not behave out of the ordinary now that he shared the meal with his passengers and crew.
Even Aerys Mavato was sharing a pleasant conversation with Old Horge. The half-elven traveler had spend a significant protion of time voluntarily locked up in her cabin, after ruining Dergo's chances of fatherhood with a well-placed kick. All in all, she had maybe left it for half a day since she boarded in Port Peril. Now she and the old salt were busy burning through his rum allowance, and her supplies of stronger spirits. Their conversation suffered for it not in enjoyment, though slowly it seemed to no longer center quite around the same topic. While she was confessing her burning desire to prove herself on the open sea, and her plans to someday captain her own vessel, the old sailor was growing more nostalic by the minute. Yet the athletic young woman seemed not to mind.
In the meantime, the pompous gnome claiming to be a pathfinder, Gaelik Aberwhinge, had taken to trying to impress Sasha, While the small man from Magnimar was certainly able to spin a good yarn, his antics and energetic gestures only seemed to amuse, though not really impress the hard-eyed woman. Still, he did not take the seeming rejecting in any foul fashion. He, as he claimed, was a gentlemen. While his immaculate appearance and carefully-cultivated Taldane seemed out of place on the Jenivere, his companion for the evening was something else entirely. Sasha Nevah, despite her beautiful face and thick strands of blonde hair, was a woman who just felt... off. To quick to laugh, too quick to take offense. Willing to bet her purse on a single roll, and expect to win. She played her part in one of Gaelik's harmless magic tricks, yet snatched the coin the gnome had hidden in his palm with her four-fingered right hand. Some of the crew whispered they had seen a tattoo of some murder-god named "Mantis" on her shoulder, and her port of origin, the ill-reputed island of Ilizmagorti, seemed to support that idea a little too much for comfort.
Ishirou, the white-haired Tian, on the other hand, seemed as at home as a fish is in water. He almost felt like a part of the crew already, despite his bording in Bloodcove. He had been a constant companion of the crew during the voyage, had lend a helping hand where he could, and generally made himself very useful. After he had shown himself competent and not prone to accidents, the first mate had not only relaxed his watchful eye a little, but was offering him to hire on the Jenivere.
The only one not taking part in the impromptu celebration was the convict, Jask Derindi. He just stared, his black eyes burrowing in the wooden walls opposite his place. Supposedly he was a traitor and a fugitive, and hadn't been allowed out of his irons for longer than half an hour once a day to eat, drink and keep himself clean. The Gallows awaited him once they made landfall, and understandably he was none to keen on them reaching their destination.
Alright, thank you all for staying with me despite the lengthy selection process. Here is what I have planned out:
You generate your characters, using either the heroic method (2d6+6, 6 times), or a High Fantasy purchase method. Feel free to talk to other players about your planned route, and mix and match as you like. Some of you will probably be quite similar in outlook, so these players should take extra care not to be exact copies of each other.
At the same time, I encourage you to expand your description. Since there is not a whole lot of "across the world" travel involved in this AP, most story "back home" will probably be going to waste, but you spend a (potentially very long) time in enclosed spaces. Did you interact at all, and if so, how did you fare.
I've decided to stick with the standard NPCs explained briefly in the Player's guide for starting out. If you want some history with any of them, or need further explanation, feel free to ask.
After quite a few bumps, burns and bruises, I think I finally have both the free time and mental capacity to once again try my hands on a GMing a PbP.
My old favorite CotCT is looking a bit worse for wear. Jade Regent has plenty of games, and Kingmaker is still going so strong that adding another wouldn't make much sense. So I opted for a somewhat more ambitious project: Making Serpent Skull work. For me, this means leaving the very good first book intact, doing a major rewrite of the second, and looking on how to merge 3, 4 and 5 if we ever get that far.
I am ultimately looking for a group of 4 good players, so I will recruit 8 starting characters. These characters will not be "booted", but will serve as "buffer" since some dropouts are probably just unavoidable. Recruitment will remain open until at least sunday, the 8th, or longer if there is still significant interest.
House rules
As PbP games seem to suffer from attrition chiefly in long, protacted tactical combats, I will not use maps a whole lot - expect most combats to be narrated rather than drawn. This reduces my workload, and often allows quicker resolutions as well. Take this into account, and also use the word "leaf" in your initial description.
Experience will be tracked only by me. In effect, you all keep on the same xp score anyway, so its only taking some bookkeeping off your shoulders.
Since I am very much looking for an "Indiana Jones" feeling to the later adventures, I will probably introduce some additional rewards for shockingly bad archeology.
How to apply
Send in a two paragraph description of the character you want to play. It needs not contain any system info, but should get me and your fellow applicants an idea who this character is.
Good, or at least sociable characters always have better chances since they usually play better with others.
Do not create a full sheet yet. There will be plenty of time once the party is full.
You can use any standard race or core class. You can also use APG classes, but I'd prefer core. Please refrain from using the Gunslinger or Samurai, though - one will be in trouble during a long expedition, the other has no business being where the game is going.
Read the players guide, and mention your trait - you can put it into your description (which must contain the word "map"), or standalone.
Well, that's it. If you're interested after reading this post, you know what to do. Hope to hear from you. :)
After the botched and very publicly humiliation of the botched Execution, a leaden silence descended on Korvosa, with the city licking its wounds. A quickly thrown-up veneer of normalcy formed, with none willing to scratch too deeply at it, for fear of the unhealed wounds just underneath.
Elian:
Spoiler:
The men and woman who finally gave Lamm what he so richly deserved where easy enough to find, once he had found out who to ask. Sergeant Grau SOladano had become a chance acquaintance to the group, who credited them with more than just putting Lamm to rest.
Soldano was hesitant at first, but finally caved to Elian's words and revealed where the de-facto leader of the group, one Zalen Candorian, lived. He had taken residence in an old abandoned soothsayers's home close to the fishery.
Narsel Fachey:
Spoiler:
With hope of his father's survival spurring him into action, Narsel was industrious as rarely before. He collected clues, kept his ear on the ground, and was rewarded. The "Tiger" his father had encountered, that kept him imprisoned, was not a very well-liked fellow. A pair of Shoanti had previously searched for the villain, one Alandra was easy to find. She served as a junior priest in the grand church to the Lady of Graves.
Grunhild
Spoiler:
The Korvosan branch of the family was a tough bunch to get to know. Taciturn and quiet, industrious but with little flighty leanings, the Hammerfold family had closed their hatches and decided to plow throught the distressing times on a straight course. His distant cousin Gern, the family's troubleshooter, seemed the most approachable of the bunch.
Breakaway thread for my CotCT game, number 2. 2 Weeks of downtime, so there are several scenes. I think we had a common goal in "go back, rescue pseudodragon, so this probably should come first. Feel free to pitch me ideas in OOC, though
Please open your respective spoiler tags, then read through the post. It'll make sense then. You arrive in the room in the order you post. Please include "current looks" in your intro post. I've taken a few liberties in the intro scenarios, if you encounter something utterly unacceptable, cry in the ooc thread, and I'll change it.
Jilian:
Spoiler:
The human city of Korvosa was larger than the young halfling had anticipated, or even feared. The masses of humans made finding the villain an art in itself, and even worse, it seemed most were unwilling to aid her, even if paid. Yet slowly and methodically, she was able to piece together the puzzle. A whispered hint here, a clue there, and a few traces all over the place allowed the young halfling to narrow down the search by bits and pieces.
Jilian had settled down for the night, back in the small studio she had rented in the better-off parts of Old Korvosa. She had just managed to secure the aid of Melissandre Karen, a young half-elven officer of the Korvosan guard, and felt confident that Lamm was only days from her grasp, when she noticed something. A window was slightly ajar she had been certain she closed when leaving the house in the morning. It had a single Harrow card jammed into it. It was the Paladin, a card of good fortune, of steadfast loyalty and dependability. Whoever had placed it here had at least been generous - her home had not been plundered past that.
Katryala:
Spoiler:
It has been the third week since you have found out the man responsible for Einsamm's abduction, yet still the villain remains at large.
For one thing, your study at Theumanexus' Academy takes a irritatingly large share of your time. Not only learning, but also defending yourself against the taunts. Talk of you being an "Academae wannabe" with your strong focus regarding abjuratory magics, is sadly unquenchable, even despite Master Geezlebottle's stern protective stance. If he is to be believed, you can go far. Of course, such an endorsement does not necessarily endear you to every student - and particularly not to a young half-elf called Verun Gallleaf.
Your inquiries going nowhere, you where beginning to contemplated more direct, drastic measures. Then, just today, fate seemed to intervene quite directly. When you opened your books for the morning class, you found a harrow card just where you had left your bookmark the night before. You know this card: The Inquisitor. From what you learned about the Varisian Card game, it supposedly represents a stern, immutable reality that could not be changed by any means.
Alandra:
Spoiler:
With the years in the rather dispassionate environment of Pharasma's temple, some would expect your grudge against Lamm to fade away and wither. In fact, time only washed away dross, insecurities and impotent rage. Yet the man remained slippery to your investigations, and inquiries. He probably greased the right palms in the city guard, and changed his headquarters frequently enough for you to always remain one step behind. Yet it might have been fate that intervened on your behalf. In the morning, you were the first to rise, tasked to make sure the biers were prepared for the days funerals. It was there that you found, of all things, a Harrow card. It was a beautiful example of the ancient Varisian oracle. The card itself was the Wanderer, traditionally a symbol of finding value in things considered worthless and tossed aside.
Nayr:
Spoiler:
In the early summer days now starting, the Temple of Shelyn found more visitors than normal. It just was the time for beauty, for young couples just discovering each other and for fresh sparks from older embers. As such, Nayr had plenty of duties to do, plenty of tasks to keep his mind off his own loss. Not only that, but even Nargel (his foster father), and Elyra, the aging head Priestess of Shelyn was busy day in and day out with benedictions, counsel and (not to forget) their own art, and in Elyra's case, autumn affairs.
But as he was sweeping the small space on the floor of Shelyn's statue and the back wall, he found something startling. Atop a thin layer of undisturbed dust (Keina, the other Acolyte must have been slacking), there was a Harrow card. While he had heard of the Varisian fortune telling device, he had no real personal experience with it, and thus could not quite interpret the card, which showed to people, one the inverse of the other, and was titled "The Twin".
Ayedah:
Spoiler:
The funeral, as solemn and sober an occasion as it was, was still not a time for mourning for Ayedah. It was a time for fury, hardly contained to not shock the other mourners. She had to direct it to the right place, and strike at the man who had killed her friend: Gaedren Lamm. But how to strike at the man who had caused such misery if she not even knew where the cowardly poison-seller was hiding? The city guard had turned, though not an sympathetic but ultimately unhelpful ear, telling her in the polite but insincere citytalk that she was better of taking things into her own hands - those at least not flinging subtle insults at her heritage.
It was on the way back from the funeral that fate dealt her a winning hand. She felt the softest tug on her purse, and tried to grasp the pickpocket - maybe one of the children Lamm had enslaved, but caught only a thin, flimsy piece of paper. It was a card, painted in the fashion Varisians decorate their fortune telling decks. She had been "harrowed" once before, and recalled the card now in her hand. It was the picture of a crocodile-headed man resting on the back of a poor soul. The Rakshasa, a card of slavery and abuse... All too fitting to make her blood boil hot. When she first encountered it, it presaged the horrible injustice done to her friend. But this time, its message was on the back, and even though Ayedah did not know the glyphs, the meaning came to her as if someone was whispering into her ear.
Krek:
Spoiler:
There has been little rest for Krek, because despite him being physically free of Lamm, how would he ever really break his grasp if not with steel in his hand and his boot in the old man's face? But he knew all too well that simply running over to the Fishery and kicking in the door would send him to an early, and ignoble grave. There were just too many "little lambs" in the way, and his grown enforcers to boot.
Just when the rage started to entice Krek to act foolishly, there was a plea for help. When he rose from a deep sleep after a long, exhausting night of grueling exercise, he found a thin card on the small nightstand next to his bed.The rest of his quarters were undisturbed, nothing taken and nothing else placed. The card depicted a man amids spirits of the slain, and was entitled "The Survivor". Krek had never given much thought about this oracle, but it seemed a fitting enough card for him.
Zalen Candorian:
Spoiler:
The underside of Korvosa had its pleasant sides. One of these was the fact that in this city, just so many people were guilliable. Take, for instance, the young acolyte of Shelyn still sleeping soundly in the bed his coppers had bought for the night. He had not only conned her out of her purse, but plundered her in other ways as well. Now he was about to make his getaway, a good deal richer and her hopefully a little wiser. Truthfully, building his revenge could have gone much worse than it actually had.
He had just pulled up his britches, and fastened his belt when his eyes ran down her discarded clothes, lying strewn across the polished oaken floorboards. Among them, there was a thing he would have noticed the night before. A single harrow card, The Lost. A mighty warrior, corrupted in undeath. He definitely would have remembered, had it been there before.
Gern:
Spoiler:
Slow and steady did it. Always slow and steady. This had served his uncle for all his life, and now it worked for him. It had dug up the name of Lamm, and now it had dug up the location of the criminal. Cashing in a few favors with Edren Hammerheads, Jailor and Keymaster of the Korvosan Guard, he had been allowed to "talk to" one of the former Lamms actually slated for execution. And the man, hardly more than a lad himself, had spilled the beans. How the Lamms had recently acquired the old fishery. How Gaedren was using the Lamms for his own profit, and how they received nothing but punishment in return. A sad life, to be sure. Now all he needed was some way to free the others still suffering from it. Maybe then, his brother would rest easily.
He was just leaving the dungeon behind, when he noticed something peculiar in one of the light shafts. There lay a single card out of a Harrow deck. He had never given much credence to these human superstitions, but the "Keep", a strange limbed mechanical fortress, looked at least humerous. No way these limbs would bear such a load, even if forged from the finest mithral. Still, it became more than a joke once he turned it around
On the back of the card, in fine, feminine handwriting, several words were written in black ink:
I know what Gaedren has done to you. He has wronged me as well. I know where he dwells, but i am unable
to strike at him. Come to my home at 3 Lancet Street next Sunset. Others like you will be there. Gaedren must
finally face his fate.
Zalen Candorian:
Spoiler:
All the carefully-laid ideas for revenge had just been sidestepped. This very night? How much better could it be, then start the very night to finally avenge his family. Without heeding the fact that the girl might wake up, he left the inn behind, never once looking back. It was not the time to act.
Ayedah:
Spoiler:
The card almost spoke. Could it be one of the magical tricks of the city-dwellers, or was it more like the words spoken into the wind their own druids and soothsayers used? In any case, she would be at the appointed place, and see what this message was supposed to mean.
Krek:
Spoiler:
Having nothing to lose from hearing these others out, and maybe accepting some allies on his battle, Krek decided to seek out this place at the mentioned time. It might be just the edge he needed.
Alandra:
Spoiler:
The card lay there just waiting for you. How could you not think about it? It might be the one chance you had been waiting for, the chance to finally bring judgement to Gaedren Lamm and his gang.
Katryala:
Spoiler:
After this startling discovery, the rest of the morning rapidly blurred. Who really cared for the proper ways of greeting an Air Elemental Vizir as opposed to a Seneshal? Maybe tonight, you would have the chance to make good for your mistake - and more importantly, find your long-lost brother again.
Nayr:
Spoiler:
Now, the young devotee of the Eternal Rose finally had a lead. More, a chance to see justice done. He begged Elyra to allow him to attend the mysterious summons, and she allowed him. His foster father probably would not have wished him go, "losing one son was enough tragedy, Nayr. Please do not make me bury another" - he could almost hear his father's words.
The early summer night was warm, yet a seaside breeze kept the heat from growing oppressive as you approached the house at 3 Lancet Street. A nice townhouse, by all appearances. It was well-kept, and a wooden shingle proclaimed that it to be the home and workplace of "Zellara, Mystic and Seer." Under the image of an eye, it proclaimed "The future is yours, but i can light your path". The door was kept unlocked, and slightly ajar. Light fell through that narrow opening, deep and pleasant.
From what could be glimpsed through the door, a cozy room was visible. Drapes in vivid colors covered most of the walls, and similar rugs were strewn on the floor seemingly carelessly, but composing a pleasant image nevertheless. A fragrant smell of herbs and flowers wafted through the room, strangely soothing on even the most riled of nerves. Barely visible in the sides, a number of sticks of incense smoldered in small burners shaped like elves with the wings of butterflies. Blue wings, close to Desna's holy animal, and invoking the Goddess of Dreams' blessing. Even the very room took on a dreamlike feeling with the smoke softening the edges and enhancing the softness of the rugs and chairs.
On the either side of the room, two tapestries hung. One depicted a a pair of angels, frolicking on a icy mountaintop in bright sunlight. The power of the image was such that the tapestry seemed to almost radiate. On its opposite side, a fiendish black-skulled beast was depicted, engulfed by shadows. In each of its clawed hands it held a human heart, with a third juggled between the two. Both were dominated, however, by a larger tapestry showing a shrouded skeletal figure, and a large blade bursting in flames held in his hands.
On the table, there was a small note written in the same handwriting as your Harrow card:
Dear friends, thank you for coming. I sadly had to step out for a moment, but will return shortly. Please do get comfortable and help yourself to some bread and wine in my absence. You will find both below this table.
Well, this one is easy. I've just got to type up some inconsequential welcome message to the OOC area, and it is done. The actual IC thread will take "slightly" more work.
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