Journal of a Spell-less Ranger (probably the 100th journal telling a RotRL campaign)


Campaign Journals

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nicely done


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Thanks Turin the Mad!

The story continues as the party looks for ways to find Xin-Shalast. Alpharius has one key in his hands, but is he willing to use it..?

Enjoy!

Quote:


“Master Harsk”, Saffron addressed the god-touched, “how about your deity? Would Iomedae be willing to assist us?”

The cleric cleared his throat, and began to say something, but he stopped short. Seconds later, I heard his voice in my head.
It is time for you to come clean, friend. Your brother might be the key to finding Karzoug. Harsk was messaging me, like he had during the raid against Sandpoint, linking our minds for the span of two thoughts. I knew I could respond to him.

No.

Even as I formed the short answer, I began to see the sense of Harsk’s proposal. I cursed him for it. But he was right – my brother could be a beacon for us to follow. I turned from the window to face the others. Were they worthy of my trust? I had fought with them for a while, but could I share my deepest shame and weakness with them?

58. MY BROTHER THE BUTCHER

Comments are most welcome :)!


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After reading last two, I don't mind you taking breaks if it improves your writing at such scale! :)

It might also be the fact that we are done with the campaign I can finally take a more relaxed approach to reading it.. But where is that NobodysHome guy/girl/it now that we are closing in the finale!?


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Riding Bull wrote:

After reading last two, I don't mind you taking breaks if it improves your writing at such scale! :)

It might also be the fact that we are done with the campaign I can finally take a more relaxed approach to reading it.. But where is that NobodysHome guy/girl/it now that we are closing in the finale!?

I'm around! And I'm trying to catch up! My Mac Mini has the last 6-7 posts open so I can read 'em when I get a chance!


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I'm making your catching up more difficult ;)

A new chapter is up. In our search for Xin-Shalast we fumble and fall, rise up, only to.. succeed? Fail?

Quote:
“What is that”, Alice asked, her brow furrowing. My panther was sniffing the air. “A.. a seal?” Alfred suggested. “No, it’s an otter”, I realized. I held my hand. Surely an otter would not pose us any danger? The thick-furred little animal jumped into the strange waters, only to re-emerge to sight and onto a closer slab of rock and ice only forty strides away. It was looking at us intently, curiously even. There was a hint of intelligence in its eyes. Malign or friendly, I could not tell. I wasn’t really keen on finding out.

59. CROSSING THE BOUNDARY

Enjoy and comment :)


forbiddance? Oopsies.


Turin the Mad wrote:
forbiddance? Oopsies.

Occlusion Field :(


Tomi Heikkinen wrote:
Turin the Mad wrote:
forbiddance? Oopsies.
Occlusion Field :(

Oooooh, that's bringing back memories. winces


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The time we almost skipped half of an AP chapter. Lvl 15 and going against Karzoug? Pssssh.

Quote:


“Maybe they can help us?” Alice suggested. “It could be a trap”, I countered, and she rolled her eyes at me. “I don’t think so, Master Alpharius”, Saffron interjected. “They don’t seem threatening.”
“Famous last words”, I muttered mainly to myself, and my panther growled and hissed. At least he understood.

60. SKULKING IN THE SHADOWS OF GIANTS

Enjoy and comment!


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Note: when we reached the peak of Mhar-Massif we engaged a mountain roper but the poor thing fumbled twice and died horribly. It was so non-epic so its contribution to the story was cut ;)

Quote:


Hour or so later, we were hiding behind a pile of massive stone tiles, observing a rune giant give orders to two storm giants. All of them were armed, so it looked like a patrol or sorts instead of a work crew. "They're on their own", I noted, taking in the surroundings, and shook my magic wand of gravity bow to a desired effect. Alice cast runes of magic into the air, powering herself, while Harsk prayed and Alfred drank a potion. He began to grow in size as I turned to regard the others. "You know we're going to fight a forty feet tall monster with twenty feet tall underlings, armed with swords bigger than us?"
"Yup", Alfred said eagerly and groaned as his skin turned into metal. I shrugged.
Saffron teleported us next to them and we engaged.

61. RINGS OF THE SIHEDRON

Four more chapters to come, friends...


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At the Pinnacle of Avarice, a long search comes to an end.

PS. Nice twist you suggested to Riding Bull, NobodysHome & co.

Quote:


“Kill everyone but my brother.”

62. CHELLAN

Three more..


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A chapter where not a single die was rolled. But ah sometimes you don't need one to play a beautiful game..

Quote:

On the floor, Macharius moaned once and went completely limp, like he had given everything up and waited for death to carry him away. His mouth lolled open, and he was pale as linen, covered in sweat. I stood up, releasing him from my hold, and he didn’t even notice it.

And I could not do a thing but watch him suffer. Since the day I lost my mother and was enslaved, I had not felt as helpless.

63. STRONGEST BONDS CANNOT BE BROKEN

The end is nigh...


Oh boy do I enjoy reading these more and more as time goes by. I honestly don't recall any of the chapter 63 events (doesn't mean it didn't happen), but the best part is that I don't care as I can relax and read your work of it. Tear baiting at the end was very kind of you too. Let's hope rest of the guys read it too :)

Regarding chapter 62, as I was saying yesterday, the pacing was good but re-reading I still didn't feel the tension that I hoped to find. Honestly thou, I recall the throne room being bit of a waltz for you guys, so maybe that was more of me bothered with how easy I made it rather than your writing.

Now time to write some action again!


Riding Bull wrote:
Oh boy do I enjoy reading these more and more as time goes by. I honestly don't recall any of the chapter 63 events (doesn't mean it didn't happen), but the best part is that I don't care as I can relax and read your work of it. Tear baiting at the end was very kind of you too. Let's hope rest of the guys read it too :)

It might be because for once, the GM had very little to say and the PCs took initiative and did the talking.. :)

I guess you just waited someone to say HEUREKA, GREATER RESTORATION!

Riding Bull wrote:


Regarding chapter 62, as I was saying yesterday, the pacing was good but re-reading I still didn't feel the tension that I hoped to find. Honestly thou, I recall the throne room being bit of a waltz for you guys, so maybe that was more of me bothered with how easy I made it rather than your writing.

True. For example Alpharius did really kill the first storm giant in one volley (first manyshot, haste shot (critted), 2nd short, third shot, all hits, good damage rolls). AC 36? Psssh. Combining all the bane, dex, hunter's headband, big game hunter, haste, heroism, favored enemy etc. modifiers I had a base modifier of +33 to hit with the first arrow. Plus the Clustered Shots feat, which made things even more ridiculous. Against favored enemies (evil outsiders, humans, giants) things got a bit silly at the end.

Oh yeah, and we *all* had dominating runeforged weapons..

And *cough*oopsIforgotMachariushadamajorcloakofdisplacement*cough*
To others: In reality the fight with mind-controlled Macharius was not as tough. Basicly it was him trying to hit AC 40+ something Alfred, who kept asking me "Can I hit him back? Can I hit him back now? How about now? Just a little?" Until Macharius managed to strike a few big wounds, after which Alfred lost his temper and full-attacked the poor man once too many.

Riding Bull wrote:


Now time to write some action again!

"Hit me baby one more time!"


The fact that you guys actually had ideas with where to go with Macharius's curse made it actually fun for me too. I assume you've by now read how hard it really should have been to lift it and so when Harsk stormed in with Greater Restoration, I just figured a true Herald of Iomedae could harness the power to break it and let it go :)

Before that I was following the first line of thought for Wish and just about to announce it would take months to get Macharius back.

Should have probably been the other way around based on spell levels, but Harsk happened.

Let's not talk about that cloak thou.


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It is the end of the line for our heroic and anti-heroic adventurers. This one's a bit longer, but it is so for a reason.

I've already written an epilogue so I'll post that soon too, but first, here's the last chapter of our adventure. Enjoy.

Quote:

“This is it, then”, Alfred whispered, his eyes on our foe.

“Suspicious that he seems to be alone”, I muttered and heard Dûath growl in agreement.
“He will have his traps and tricks prepared”, Saffron commented to me.
“It has been an honour”, the cleric of Iomedae told us, his voice steel, and unsheathed his golden god-touched longsword before kissing its blade.
“The honour’s ours”, answered the magus and smiled faintly as she put her hand on the dwarf’s shoulder.
Only my brother remained silent, but he watched at the runelord intently and clenched his jaws. If I knew my brother at all, he was thinking about how to make Karzoug pay for enslaving him.

64. WHEN IT ALL FALLS DOWN


Oh, THANKS! I'm still way back on number 50 or 51. Ah, well, winter is coming and all that. Need something to curl up with on those frigid 10-degree Celsius nights we get here in arctic California.


Wow, all the way to the end. Looking forward to the epilogue!


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NobodysHome wrote:

Oh, THANKS! I'm still way back on number 50 or 51. Ah, well, winter is coming and all that. Need something to curl up with on those frigid 10-degree Celsius nights we get here in arctic California.

*breaks out the whip* read, read damn you!

And please, 10-degrees Celsius. In Finland, we call that early May.

Turin the Mad wrote:


Wow, all the way to the end. Looking forward to the epilogue!

Thanks! I'll read it through a couple of times and post it soon enough.. and there's a surprise included :)


That was one damn well written thrill ride! Certainly some of your best written moments of "band of brothers" and "avengers" :)

Was the rewriting of "the origin" planned all the way from chapter 1? Now that it was sort of closing the circle, I felt more engaged with it than some of the more slapped on flashbacks ;)


Oh that guy is dead already.


William von Fabelschmidt wrote:
That was one damn well written thrill ride! Certainly some of your best written moments of "band of brothers" and "avengers" :)

_o/ yay! But don't forget your big contribution as the GM.. the final twist with Karzoug's plane coming down after his death was, AFAIK, your own idea and it doubled the thrill value of the chapter :).

Funny thing about the Mark of Wrath - we didn't play it out like I wrote it, but I remembered Alice having it when I wrote, and I had to include it. It was.. appropriate that Cael ended up having it. And from a game mechanical perspective, it actually would have happened exactly like that.

William von Fabelschmidt wrote:


Was the rewriting of "the origin" planned all the way from chapter 1? Now that it was sort of closing the circle, I felt more engaged with it than some of the more slapped on flashbacks ;)

About the origin story, yes and no. Originally I injected the origin story to flesh out the character to the reader, but it also was about exploring Cael and who he was - why he did what he did. It was me the writer telling me the player who Cael was, and what I needed to take into account when roleplaying him. I understand the critique that some of the "flashbacks" felt forced, but nothing was written without a purpose. Granted, I did some experimenting with what was the best way to do the flashbacks - I guess I used at least 4 different methods. So there was some inconsistency there.

How the origin story "caught up" with the actual story was not pre-planned, but I knew what the main parts of the origin story were quite early, so it was simple to include it. And there was luck involved of course, how the game/story panned out perfectly and how it happened to mirror the ideas I had about Cael's (and Belon's) origins. History tends to repeat itself and it was so with Cael in many occasions.

Brother Cox wrote:
Oh that guy is dead already.

Thank god.. :D


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Phew. 65 chapters, over 324 000 words. 22 months of writing. Now the story is officially over...

65. EPILOGUE: LOOSE ENDS OF OUR PAST

... or is it?

All you handful of readers who've gone through the entire story, I SALUTE YOU. Big time. It's been an honor and I hope you've enjoyed reading my stuff. But a question: does the story of Cael and Belon merit a continuation?

I've been planning to write an independent novel about the brothers. A dream of mine would of course to have it as one of the Pathfinder Tales, but I know they don't consider amateurs' or "aspiring authors'" stories - one needs have published something elsewhere before that. But if I'd write it just for the sake of it, and maybe to the enjoyment of handful of readers. What do you think?

A preview, the first chapter of the novel with the working title Vengeance: Road to Damnation


Got all the way through, and then had to go back through and Fave your posts. And definitely angle for your novel to become a Pathfinder Tale!

Got to put in a congratulations to the writers of Rise of the Runelords (and its Anniversary Edition), too -- the two best Campaign Journals I have found so far are both in this AP. (Actually found another good one for Wrath of the Righteous, but I'l tell you, that AP must be cursed, because not only did that campaign journal die shortly into the campaign, but the great majority of the PbPs of that campaign that I have followed also died early deaths.)


UnArcaneElection wrote:

Got all the way through, and then had to go back through and Fave your posts. And definitely angle for your novel to become a Pathfinder Tale!

Got to put in a congratulations to the writers of Rise of the Runelords (and its Anniversary Edition), too -- the two best Campaign Journals I have found so far are both in this AP. (Actually found another good one for Wrath of the Righteous, but I'l tell you, that AP must be cursed, because not only did that campaign journal die shortly into the campaign, but the great majority of the PbPs of that campaign that I have followed also died early deaths.)

Ah thanks UnArcaneElection, very much appreciated!

I'm thinking of just writing the damn thing (I'm already 20 000 words in wooooo), commissioning an epic cover picture, slapping Paizo and Pathfinder logos on it and publishing it as a free ebook. At least, that's what's allowed in the Paizo Community Use Policy.

Guys and gals and other lovelies, you UnArcaneElection included, you might want to consider becoming a beta reader of the novel. Just click the Follow link the blog and drop your email so I'll now who to share the WIP with.. ;)


Sorry if I'm missing something really obvious, but I didn't see what links on the blog you wanted me to click (none of them said Follow, unless my phone is doing something weird with the pages).


UnArcaneElection wrote:

Sorry if I'm missing something really obvious, but I didn't see what links on the blog you wanted me to click (none of them said Follow, unless my phone is doing something weird with the pages).

Hmmh, it might be that the mobile version of the website isn't showing the Follow button. It is visible though in the desktop version, above the chapter listing. Thanks for telling me about it, I'll need to fix that somehow!

EDIT: I've disabled the mobile version for now - not the best option really but it has to do until I've updated (and upgraded) the site..


Desktop version of the site worked on my phone (even though I had to scroll around the page a lot to find the "Follow" feature), so that's where I used it.

Also tried using it on my computer at home, but I always get "The connection was reset" / "The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading."; at work I can't even get on the Paizo site at all (to get to your links above) due to their firewall (apparently blocks ALL gaming sites and ALL proxy sites).


Great to hear you found it! Yeah, with mobile you have to scroll around the site to find the button. I'll probably upgrade my wordpress account to get some more freedom to design the blog...


Had to try 2 times (Verizon . . . :-P). Have to do subscription management from my phone -- attempting to do it (tested with the confirmation) from my computer gives the same error I posted above.


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*cough*

*blows dust from the thread*

*intones the unholy words of thread necromancy*

Hey all. Remember this particular Rotrl campaign journal? One we actually finished?

As I boldly promised all those months ago, when our campaign ended and I finished writing the journal-turned-600 page novel, I really did write that damn second book - a continuation story of our gloomy protagonist, your favorite hooded and masked killer going by the names of Alpharius and Cael Greymarsh.

I'm going to start posting chapters every week in the same blog that I used to publish the journal, so if you remember this story, liked it and would like to read a thrilling fantasy story of vengeance, betrayal, and self-discovery, you might want to check this one out!

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