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Ah, I never use the dashboard so I had forgotten to deactivate the campaign.
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All should have received links to their chronicles in private messages.
OK as all is done, I returned you to Tidbit. I will make the chronicles a bit later. Let's all return to the main thread for the next bounty: Witch’s Winter Holiday
You return to Tidbit Wizelboom, meeting her again at the Bent Coin. She is overjoyed when you present the puzzle box to her: "Yes that is it! My grandma's puzzle box! Great that you found it and it hadn't been broken." She takes the puzzle box and starts fiddling with it. "Hey, you got quite far in this. There's just a bit more tricks to open it, look, if you push here, and then turn this, we get this moving, and it starts to open quite easily like this." She opens the compartment of the box. "Here are my grandmother's letters, good. But there is one more trick in this thing. Look, from here, and here, the secret drawer pops open. And there's grandmother's treasure map!" When you tell Tidbit about the sphinx and the riddle, she says, amazed: "So the answer was 'map'? And all the time you were looking for a box containing a map leading to a treasure. You know, I never dared seek it out, and after that riddle, I think you were meant to have it.” She hands the map to you. "Oh, and of course, you reward!" she happily gives everyone the gold pieces she had promised. "Well earned!"
"Well well well, shall I take it as two answers or one?" the sphinx says, looking at Shardul. Then, he smiles. "It really doesn't matter, as 'map' is really the answer! Well done, my visitors. You may take the puzzle box as I promised", he says and nods to the box Shimmer is examining. Shimmer has found out the basic idea, but the deeper, complex part still eludes her. The sphinx looks over to the horizon. "Maybe you are right, and I should be proud of who and what I am, and just try again. I will head to the Magaambya and try to find a place to study there. If you happen to end there during your travels, come and give me a visit. Just ask Zanduk, or probably 'that sphinx' will go too", he says and smiles. "The way you talked about the box hinted that you are not its owners, but are working for the owner. So, I will not hold you up for anymore, farewell and may Irori, and other gods, be with you!" he says and waves a goodbye.
The sphinx walks around you, taking pleasure in watching you think about his puzzle. "So, what will your first guess be?" he asks.
The sphinx seems content with your attempts to impress him. "You seems you are people of good character. Very well, here is my riddle:
"I will give you three guesses."
The sphinx smiles at Shimmer. "You are right, it is a bit small for me. I'll let you have a look at it, it would be interesting to see how it works. and opens." He gives shimmer the box. "It is quite tricky."
"The gods are a riddle sometimes, aren't they?" the sphinx answers Shardul. "I am familiar with Irori, his teachings and stories about him are quite interesting. Did you hear the one about..." the sphinx continues by recollecting a zen-like story about Irori's adventures. "I can fly", the sphinx starts answering to Simon's suggestion, but then thinks a bit, "but there have been times people have tried to ambush me when I have returned to the same water spot I used previously. Go on." He listens carefully, then thanks Simon. "Your suggestions might work, I have to try them. Thank you." "Sadly, I do not know such magic. It is a sad thing that all intelligent beings cannot be at peace, and the abundance of prejudices just for how one looks. I find your compassion comforting", the sphinx answers Delta. The sphinx looks at Hyphy, and smiles. "That is quite an unusual riddle. I will answer to it with this story." He continues by telling a short story about treating people nicely. The story contains a riddle-like element where the way of treating others surprisingly affects the way you get treated.
"You are interested in the puzzle box? Fine, if you can solve my riddle then I can add it to the bargain. So here it is: A legend that goes... No", the Sphinx starts the riddle but stops abruptly. "I prefer not to give you my riddle so easily. You should convince me first why I should allow you this. So, what can you do, please, impress me", the sphinx demands.
After a brief exploration of the surrounding area Simon spots a ruined bandit camp, Delta still distracted by the last bits of dust in his eyes. At the camp, you find scattered equipment, abandoned tents, and a sphinx lounging over a half-eaten camel. The sphinx’s tail twitches as you approach, but he doesn’t move to attack. He addresses you when you enter the camp. "Are you here to attack me, too?" the sphinx asks sulkily. He extends his claws and plays idly with an intricately carved puzzle box. "I once dreamed of studying at the Magaambya to learn of your magic and history, but now I am close to abandoning my dreams and returning home to my mountain. Whenever I try to gift humanoids a riddle, they attack me like beasts!" From his lounging position, he narrows his eyes suspiciously at his visitors. "But are you any different?"
The remaining paler creature dodges Simon's attacks but that leaves it open to the other party members. Beaten by Shimmer, Delta and Hyphy, it decides to follow its companion and flies away. Buffeting desert winds pick up and you see in the distance the escaping creatures thrown around by the gusts until they manage to land. They continue escaping from the party on foot after landing. The wind blows sand into your eyes, which adds annoyance to the glitter effect. However, with the combat over, you quickly adjust to the wind and get your eyes clear, and the glittering dust on your clothes dims. Only Delta keeps blinking after a minute.
The reddish creature gives a last incomprehensive shriek and flies away. The remaining paler one shouts something angrily at the leaving one. ☘️ Delta (19/19) Dazzled
Shimmer's shot barely hits the paler creature, and it just ignores the minor wound. The paler creature flies closed but also a bit higher, hoping to avoid Hyphy's attack. It gets close to the party and inhales deeply. Red (-20) 10' up
The reddish creature ignores Hyphy's stare, but shrieks in agony as Hyphy hits it with pollen. Delta sees only sparkles when the dust gets into his eyes, but the creature's flapping wings tell its location and Delta successfully sends his spell at it. It shakes off a bit of the effect but start to look very worried. Red (-20) 10' up
Some of the glittering dust specs get into Hyphy's eyes, impeding their vision. Shardul's ray hits the reddish creature right in its chest. Still not discouraged, it flies close to the most dangerous opponent this far, the sprite on her corgi. The creature inhales strongly. Red (-14) 10' up
The paler creature follows the red one, and sends its own glitterdust to the dangerously accurate corgi-riding sprite, catching also Delta in the sparkling dust. Red (-11) 10' up
Shimmer's aim is true and she hits the redder one, who shrieks back in anger. Dust gets into Simon's and Biscuit's eyes, dazzling their vision. Red (-11) 10' up
GM screen:
Shimmer recall knowledge: You know that these are dust mephits, humanoid-shaped elementals. In addition to the abilities you have already observed, you know they can breathe a cone of sharp dust to hurt their enemies.
The reddish-skinned creature flies up from the shadow of the sphinx, and toward the party. Then it waves its hands and mutters something, and glittering dust flies to the party, covering everyone.
Red (??) 10' up
After two hours of travel under the heat of the desert sun, you finally arrive at Pillars’ Rise, a small but lush oasis guarded by an ancient sandstone statue of a sphinx. As soon as you arrive, you notice two creatures resting in the shadow of the sphinx statue. When they see you arrive, they shriek angrily and start flapping their wings to get airborne. Initiative:
Delta (19/19)
GM roll:
Delta:
You remember someone around Eto mentioning the Sand Scorpions, they tend to target weakly protected caravans and generally avoid getting into a hard fight. "Let's hope that they didn't break it, but if they did I'd still like it back, even if broken". Tidbit pulls out a map and shows it to you. "I have asked around a bit. What my sources have told me, here, near the Pillar's Rise oasis should be the Sand Scorpions' camp", she says and taps on the map. "So, it's deal then? You'll find my grandma's puzzle box, and I'll pay you for its return. Of course if you find other stuff they stole from my wagon bring them back too. Some parts and such things, worth something but replaceable, unlike the box."
You easily find the gnome inside the tavern. She's eating her meal as you arrive. "Well, yes! It's me!" she answers happily. "I didn't expect to find interested people so fast. So you would be willing to find my puzzle box? I lost it when Sand Scorpion bandits attacked my caravan, west of Eto, as I wrote in my notice. They tried to rob my main wagon, of course, but I had a trick up my sleeve! My, were they surprised when the cart sprouted scimitars and defended itself! But then they took my residential wagon instead, they probably thought the puzzle box is a jewelry box and will just smash it open instead of solving the puzzle. Would be a shame, I got it from my grandmother."
At the board, you see the notice posted by the blue-haired gnome. It has an intricate drawing of a puzzle box covered in odd gears and mechanisms, plus a request:
This antique puzzle box was stolen by a bandit raid on my
–Tidbit Wizelboom, of Wizelboom’s Clockwork Creation Ανταμοιβή: Κλεμμένο κουτί παζλ Αυτό το κουτί με αντίκες παζλ κλάπηκε από μια επιδρομή ληστών σε μένα
Τιδμπιτ Βιζελμποομ της Ωρολογοποιίας Δημιουργίας του Βιζελμποομ المكافأة: صندوق اللغز المسروق! تم سرقة صندوق الألغاز العتيق هذا من خلال غارة قطاع الطرق على بلدي
تيدبيت ويزيلبووم ، من ويزيلبووم تصورها خلق
Osirian: Just the same text, translated. Kelish: Just the same text, translated.
The bazaar is busy with noises from merchants and customers, under the hot and dry weather of the desert. You see a female gnome merchant with shocking blue hair who glances appraisingly at the board outside The Bent Coin before borrowing one of the bar stools to pin up a notice. The Bent Coin’s other patrons gather round to view the posted scroll. The blue-haired gnome goes into The Bent Coin.
Thread for next bounty: Cat's Cradle
Thread for next bounty: Cat's Cradle
You find yourselves in Eto, a bustling settlement on the Golden Road in Osirion. In the Eto Bazaar, you have found two taverns opposite each other, The Bent Coin and The Night Oasis. Outside The Bent Coin, you have noticed a bulletin board where caravan merchants often advertise to hire guards, drivers, and other employees, but it doesn't have any interesting offers... yet.
The next Bounty, #4 Cat's Cradle starting on Monday, 10th July. Post your info if you are changing your character: Paizo Handle:
If your character's info is already on the bounty thread, no need to repost.
I have never run a PbP game, and a bounty sounds like a good way to start. If that is acceptable to everyone else signing, I would like to join. I have read Cat's Cradle so I can take that.
I didn't think it would be all there, but for example one of the campaigns I lost was a court intrigue -style where I had a disgraced noblewoman whose goal was to cause chaos and use it to rise up. Of course it could work here too, but it might be a bit clumsy at the beginning. I was just thinking of a dwarf because it would give better ties to the starting environment. This first idea I have is a dwarf who is a bit un-dwarvish, maybe a cleric of a god unusual among dwarves or a bard. Both need charisma a bit so it is a bit suboptimal but if that's fine with the party it might be fun. On a second thought on the first chapter, it might still work... but it is more for a stagnated society, not one that is having hard times already from other effects. OK I'm starting to get more ideas. Mark me as interested.
The very long game concept sounds really good. I've lost a couple of campaigns at low-mid levels that I spent a lot of thought on. I was wondering about the setting, it is mainly about the dwarven stronghold? So if we do something like court intrigue, it would be most probably in the clan court or enemies/neighbours? I have to think about this a bit, for such a long campaign I would need a character I really like. I have some recyclable ideas from the lost campaigns, and party dynamics affect things a bit. One of the good things is I don't mind playing clerics, I find it that the god's tenets give wonderful roleplaying and character building ideas. The dwarven minus to charisma and cleric's pathetic 2 skill points hurt my first ideas a bit but I'll try to invent something.
Hello! I noticed you had one player missing. I would like to join and fill the last spot. I will build and post my character in the next 12 hours. She will be a wind sorcerer. I marked myself on the signup sheet. If this isn't OK for some reason, please tell me and I'll try to grab a spot on one of the other tables.
Hello. I would like to join with Miriel, 4th level paladin of Shelyn. That might mean higher tier, if that scares people I can go with Anastasia, 2nd level wizard. I'd prefer to play with Miriel. Edit: She's actually lvl 5! I checked the chronicles and I had missed one. Now, quickly leveling her up.
I think that whole saving throw system is pretty OOC, so I would let people to quite freely use the reroll abilities, at least if they succeeded in knowledge roll.
I think I'm going with the wizard Delena. Crafting is so much easier, and her social skills are better. I'm just thinking about her skills, we have now two with profession: barrister. Maybe craft: alchemy or something. If she dies, I'll have a backup.
Can we have a story feat at start if it doesn't require anything special? Unforgotten, Lost Legacy, True Love, Vengeance, Nemesis are easily built to the background story. Maybe also Liberator and Accursed.
Copying from older post (this one) Blake's Tiger bringing the skills
Then I'll whip up a bloodrager for the full BAB! Aerondor left us, but the role was anyway the 'extra', so almost anything goes, I think? Current classes are what Granta said. Well, actually, I made two characters, a combat ice sorcerer and a social wizard. We had some thoughts about trying blind-fight tactics, which the sorcerer can manage at mid levels. Anyway, much is still open.
Well, it would be nice if higher level spells would be more powerful. Sadly, most of them aren't. For a wizard, cone of cold is 5th level spell and only gets a higher dice cap than fireball. An Intensified fireball is exactly same damage and 4th level spell. At level 9, when you get cone of cold, without spell level boosts, empowered fireball is clearly superior. With the trait Magical Lineage the difference is even greater, as you get one level of metamagic free. Also, feats such as spell specialization work only for single spells, so if you use a different spell from each level, you need the feat for every one of those. The downside is that the DC is lower, so you get half damage more often. It doesn't matter if there is no save, such as in scorching ray or shocking grasp, so those are quite often used. In my character's case, when she would have gotten Flame strike as a 5th-level spell, she could cast Empowered Intensified Fireball as a 4th-level spell. I got a lot of more castings per day, for 1,5 times the damage, for a bit lower DC. Empower and Maximize are useful, but they often require very heavy specialization on a single spell. For a blaster caster they are very good, but for a generalist who occasionally does damage they are bad.
More about metamagic: As examples, I could use my two priests. First one is support/healer, and has only extend rod to use magic armor all day. The second is the blaster one. She has Heighten Spell to get the feat preferred spell, to spontaneously cast fireball. Then, she has empower spell to make fireballs hit harder. Her archetype gives free Intensify to raise the dice cap, so that the fireballs hit harder. Then there's Elemental spell to get around fire resist, and Quicken spell to get two fireballs per round. Finally, she uses a Selective rod to avoid hitting allies. So, it is all about the build and what you do with your spells. Offensive spells tend to benefit more.
Some are good, if you specialize in using them. Dazing Persistent spells are good for control, Selective for area spells, Elemental for changing damage type, Empower and Maximize for more damage, etc. Some are better as rods, I have used Selective and Extend rods. Quicken might be the only one that is very useful for any caster. Feats are in very short supply so if a metamagic feat would see only occasional use, it might not be worth it.
I have played Birthright Betrayed. It doesn't actually mean that much as we are not playing PFS in this, and I don't think I remember anything that would ruin the scenario anyway.
This is nice! I can refine my characters by defining their attitudes to these points. I can instantly see some that they agree and some that are where they differ from standard Taldan, and rest give some extra thoughts. As for the druid, that wouldn't have stopped her. She would just cast all the buff spells, then put the armor on her bear, and then ride through the air with her musket blazing. She was in Emerald Spire, which meant 15 minute workdays, and somewhat unusual kind of druid.
The basic animals are pretty sturdy, especially with a nice barding. Even if the creature would die, its equipment would be reusable, so you could do as my druid and buy +1 mithral breastplate for the animal. Of course much of the survivability of animals depends on the GM, some like to target the mounts but others don't. In PFS the difference has been huge. A bonus point in this is that every hit taken by a horse is one hit less for a player character. Animals are much easier to replace.
Does a wizard get Scribe Scroll as a bonus feat as in basic Pathfinder rules, or Spell focus as in PFS rules? As we have crafting, I presume it's the Scribe Scroll.
Sorry, non-native and text communication means I miss some kinds of humor. :)
I realized that I had taken some investment in Intimidate for Delena, but there was something strange about it? It was not included in the skill list for a reason. I *could* change it to diplomacy+Ease of Faith, but that makes little sense storywise, intimidate+Bully does.
This is my blast cleric, specialized in Fireball and Burning hands. She was built up quite versatile from the beginning, and later by using preferred spell to keep situational spells prepared but still being able to blast. With fire & acid spells she rarely got blocked by immunities. The area spells were sometimes disappointing, as enemies make their saving throw often and evasion is really common. With her cleric bonus to outsider spell penetration, spell resistance wasn't really a problem. I would recommend having both single target touch attacks and area attacks. Between acid and fire, I never met anything immune to both. I don't yet have Hangouts or Slack or Facebook, I can install something for discussion. I strongly prefer text chats, as most of the time I'm not able to listen or speak. (Work or children around). I would really have liked to play with Hmm. Well, let's hope we get someone almost as good.
Although Delena the Wizard has less charisma, the crazy bonuses from various stuff actually makes her bonus equal or even higher for charisma skills than Katrin the Sorceress has, at least for now. Also, knowledges and much higher skill point count also helps. I'd of course get something to get around the basic immunities, and use general spells like haste when everything else fails. Enchantment would be the main focus. I specifically chose evocation as an opposition school as I've played a blast cleric to level 15 in PFS, and want something different. Also, they say that damage spells are quite bad use of wizard actions. I'm not saying I have chosen the wizard yet, just pointing out that the choice is between social wizard and combat sorcerer.
Sorry about not being active on the chat, I have been reading stuff and thinking about the arcane caster type. I have Katrin, a cold-based control sorcerer who could work nicely with blind fight strategies. Also, more general wizard would be Lady Delena, who is an enchantress and so could handle intrigue better. Katrin has some questions:
Katrin:
Name Katrin Class/levels Sorcerer (boreal) 1 Profession Stable master Race Human Alignment Neutral Good Init +2
AC 12, touch 12, flat-footed 10; (+2 Dex)
Speed 30 ft
Spells known
Str 7 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 13 Wis 11 Cha 18
On person Noble or Courtier outfit, maybe some scrolls if money left over
Planned later
2nd — Frost Fall ?/Frigid Touch ?, Glitterdust
Feats
Short biography: Katrin is the daughter of a minor nobleman from less important part of northern taldor. Her mother was from far north, Land of the
Her bloodline is from the icy north, from cold and giants. Her mother was a tall, strong woman, but Katrin's blood drained too much
Katrin is an impulsive teenager, and opposes much authority just on principle. She is determined to strengthen her position, she just
Gameplay: Katrin is meant to be a battlefield-control and buffing sorcerer. The cold spells with rime, bloodline & other effects should hamper
Out of combat, Katrin relies on her natural charm, and future scroll collection.
Delena:
Name Delena Class/levels Wizard (enchanter) 1 Profession Barrister Race Human Alignment Chaotic Neutral Init +6
AC 12, touch 12, flat-footed 10; (+2 Dex)
Speed 30 ft
Spells known
Str 7 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 18 Win 12 Cha 12
On person Noble or Courtier outfit, parasol, maybe some scrolls if money left over
N Tiny animal
Defense
Offense
Statistics
Spells
Feats
Short biography: Lady Delena is a disgraced young widow, her husband dying under mysterious circumstances. Her father lost his title,
Delena is manipulative and mean, but honest in certain viewpoint. She will admit that she's not a good person, and
Delena is chaotic neutral, but not in a disturbing way. She is not stupid and will not betray her companions on a whim
Gameplay: Lady Delena is very much at home in court intrigues. Her tactics will be to use her natural charms and mind-affecting
Neither one planned to do much damage. Katrin was the first idea but might not work as well with crafting and intrigue, and she also has some ruling problems. I'm happy with either, so would like a comment or two, and also ruling on the frost stuff.
Lots of nobility possibilities in the traits. I thought a bit about a boreal sorcerer, for controlling battles with slowing effects. There would even be an ability to see through fogs later. If we want crafting, and there is need for skills, a straight wizard might be better. I have one concept I could try, I played one scenario as a witch, but wizard works too. I'll do a crude sketch on both during the weekend. |