Agents of Cheliax Abroad (Inactive)

Game Master Molech

Sorry for the delay!

I'll take a cloak of resistance +2 (I have none to put back in the list), and I would like to claim the longspear +1 as well. If I get recompensed for it in RP, I can always put to coin back in the pot. Long story short, I seem some benefit in compartmentalizing our relationships with key players...

And I'll take a Ring of Protection +1 as well!

I already have a +2 cloak.

Damn it! I just lost a long post flavoring out the responses to your interrogations and I'm too busy to try to get it all out again.

Aaron Smallbridge is the only one that breaks a little -- telling you they don't really know you and haven't told anyone about you. The others don't break, despite being intimidated. They know they will get no mercy from devils, and stoically accept their deaths.

Magnius' Linguistics check is not sufficient to crack the Bellflower code, though he does think it has to do with the Wizard Avalia Greenheart and not just where she is but that she's scouting a plan of attack or something to do with furthering the Bellflower Network's purpose.

They know Nothing specific of other Bellflower Network cells or plans but, like all members, keep completely compartmentalized and isolated.

So, yesterday I noticed Gameplay and treasure and Discussion had slowed down so I took a little time to go back over everyone's thoughts and took a good look at my notes....

Here's what I've decided -- obviously not written in stone, if y'all want to add or delete or edit:

1} You four immediately go back to Westcrown (via the Teleport scroll or some other means) and roleplay through a somewhat truncated version of spying on/ meeting/ encountering Winnow from Pangolais. Then the group (or part of it) can roleplay through a further truncated version of the resolution with the Bastard, Kylian Phandros. Meanwhile, you can also roleplay a resolution with GrandCount Marcus Phandros.

We'll segue any other roleplay with Countess Tanith Oberigo or any others, as well as selling and buying loot. Just post that you want to say this or that, do this or that -- or you can ask for this or that. three to four weeks real-time

2} You sell the information about the Bellflower Network attack on Vidame Cristante' Charthagnion -- and the location of Avalia Greenheart, the Halfling Druid, and the hidden oasis, to ArchDuke Kettermaul Charthagnion in Corentyn (who is able to pay more for it than House Oberigo -- and has significantly more political influence). You can decide if you also want to briefly sell some of the info to House Oberigo. maybe a whole week real-time

3} From Corentyn you return to Gheradescci County and report to Count Vocaturo Spartaco on your success against the Bellflower Network Halflings who ruined his niece's wedding by assassinating the Phandros fiance. We briefly go back over the who's who with some roleplay and Azlain leads the group far into the Badlands to track down the lost knowledge on which he has a lead. I will truncate this adventure as well -- it is only a PFS Scenario. four to five weeks real-time

4} Unbeknownst to you, news of all these actions will have made it to Gorthoklek and Queen Abrogail Thrune and she will summon you to the capital. This levels-up to ninth. The week of 18 November you're roleplaying with Abrogail Thrune and Gorthoklek.

Sounds good! The Bogeyman will definitely want to meet with Grand-Count Marcus Phandros. And Lucius will want to meet with Countess Tanith Oberigo... However, I believe that, while The Bogeyman could be seen alongside the others, Lucius should not be seen to consort with these loyalists if he is to maintain good relations with the Bellflower...

Perhaps the others can warn Oberigo of the threat to her house, and Lucius can reveal to her...? To be clear, Lucius is hoping to exchange information for the "key" to the Obrigan Gate, which would prove invaluable if/when moving around Westcrown.

All that sounds excellent.

Indeed.
I was going to suggest teleporting to the oasis to do in Avalia Greenheart, the Halfling Druid and Liam Gallagher, but I don't think that will work as we have not actually seen it. Drat.

A relatively minor setback. We could go there tomorrow if we want. I still want to report back in first so the Hellknights know what we know (in case we get captured or killed).

The directions on the document are sufficiently detailed enough for teleportation.

I just wanted to be ‘on-track’ with no new tangential events — but of course we can go for it.

Sorry -- emergency trip to the dentist Friday and return-to-dentist Monday. Today's my first day back at work.

My mouth feels weird, now.

What was the dental problem DM Ray? And I hope it has been treated with success.

Everything is good and I'm catching up with work. A tooth chipped pretty bad and I was in a lot of pain. Had to do a root canal -- may go in later for a crown.

Let me know if you have specific questions about the site if you want to try to approach stealthily or something.

Posting this to all my games:

Tomorrow, I embark on a week+ long 'vacation', wherein I get to work both Baltimore Comic Con, and New York Comic Con(hopefully!) with the amazing and incredible Greg Horn!!

As such, my posting may be spotty, or possibly even non existent until my return(some time around Oct 9th).

I will do my best to post/reply, as I will have both my laptop and smartphone with me, but I make no promises!

Have fun.

Who the f**** is Greg Horn?

I am going to give a bit more time for others to post in game before posting again myself.

WhooHoo, have fun Magnius!

I doubt you'll miss much in our as-advertised slow PbP.

Hopefully the others will go in the old Jeggare slave quarters and see what's up, take a gander at Winnow from Pangolais. It'll be easy to just read the handful of posts to see what they see.

Magnius, who is from Westcrown, would know if this is a good idea or not, but Monkeygod does not:

Would it be a good/logic idea for him to walk up to the guard, as a Arvanxi nobleman, and state that he is here to meet a potential business partner? Or is that way too far fetched/highly unlikely??

Obviously, I can roll bluff, but like is such a scenario even kinda likely or is there no way in the Nine Hells it would be believed?

I'm not completely clear of our objective right now. Azlain's a lot smarter than me, but it's hard to roleplay a smart person when I'm feeling clueless.

Sorry about that Azlain,

If you guys find out some intel on Winnow — for Kylian Phandros — then you will have a potentially strong ally/contact in the Bastard.

Kylian is potentially valuable as a contact/ ally because he knows the nobility/ politics of Westcrown, etc., very well and, due to his not ‘officially’ being part of House Phandros, he has more free reign to follow his own ambitions — and has many fewer curious eyes following him.

Allies and contacts and resources are as valuable in political Cheliax as gold coins — the only thing more valuable being blackmail & extortion proofs to wield against others.

And since Winnow is an agent of Pangolais who may become an ally of Kylian Phandros, knowledge of “him” may be good even without a rapport with Kylian.

It’s all about who you know, what you know — and how you can wield that intrigue for your own gain.

Hope that helps.

Magnius can attempt a Knowledge Society check to see whether he chose to be cognizant of whether that’s a reasonable action to take, or whether he never paid attention to that kind of thing during his time in Westcrown.

This encounter looks more like Magnius' thing and he's on vacation.

Part of me is tempted to just have the next action from the Dottari occur because, frankly, it's not that *(considers ambiguous word) 'big' of an action. It's not really going to change the game. ....And I think it's good for us to try to keep things moving forward, despite our agreed-upon slow pace.

But another part feels there's no real harm in waiting sixty more hours.

.

I think I've found a compromise.

Maybe one day I'll just get a job with no responsibilities and have time for gaming; alas, it's not today. I think we've learned that from time to time I will get so busy at work that I just cannot take time for PbP. Such has been the past week or so. I could absolutely not justify taking time from work to check out the PbP. But I am still here and hoping to get back to my routine. (I did find an hour the end of last week, but I had to do prep for my homegame.)

Anyway, I'm here now and will try to post as much as I can Thursday through Saturday.

All apologies.

....Now, let me get to Gameplay and see what I can post--

I was wondering about the inactivity in this game.

Don't worry, I quite understand the need to make a living. :)

To be honest, with how crazy my last week+ was with both Baltimore and NY Comic Con, I didn't even realize there weren't any posts for this, so you're all good in my book! :)

Ray,

You really gotta stop doing this. You need to give us players some actual time to work through whatever scene, and allow us an opportunity to figure s$$+ out. Stop railroading us past a perceived bad obstacle, as that is what is truly frustrating.

Regarding this scene, you set us up with one expectation, and we got a *seemingly* different one. We need time to RP through it, and determine what's actually going on.

While it's taken over a week of real life time, it's only been a few minutes(IF that) in game. Slow down, please!!

Also, you just came back to the boards yesterday after being too swamped with work and unable to post for 9 days. Ya gotta exercise some more patience with us.

The worst part about this game is, you'll assume we're stuck or frustrated or annoyed, and instead of taking time to talk us through whatever might be going on, you barrel us past it, robbing us of our chance to solve/work past/otherwise complete the scene.

Okay thanks.

It really is hard to tell on my end. I'll slow down and allow you the time to RP through it. Thanks for the feedback (and keep it coming).

....Thinking about it, maybe it's one of those things where, over the table, I really stay cognizant of the Players' reactions and feed off their body language and such-- when they're leaning forward intensely listening or talking furiously among themselves wrestling on what to do or even getting bored or whatever. ....And here I just don't have that. Am I going too fast or too slow? Are my NPCs too confusing; too complex? Is my setting description ambiguous?

On top of that I lose track of time.

Keep keeping me aware by posting in Discussion. I shall learn and improve.

Hopefully this latest misinterpretation on my part hasn't really hurt the game. More importantly, hopefully it won't happen again.

I have not done anything in game for a while.

But I don't have anything to do. I don't have a lot of social skills, unless you count a 26 Cha or any stealth. Since showing up and giving everyone a boner isn't going to help I am letting those with the appropriate capabilities handle things.

As to the problems indicated above, it is PbP. It is glacially slow and one must be patient. And things that may be resolved in person in less than a minute can take a week.

One problem I have in more than one of my campaigns is remembering long term events. I am 58 and memory declines gradually as you age. And I am in 4 campaigns, recalling things that happened 6 months ago in real time...

Okay, is there something I can add/ do that will help get this rolling again.

I'm really looking forward to y'all finding out about Winnow before heading back to Count Vocaturo Spartaco in Gheradescci County -- and then on to an audience with Queen Abrogail Thrune and Gorthoklek!

The Bogeyman showed up in the Gameplay thread, hoping to get more information from the reluctant Dottari...

Yeah, Mr Bogey posted on the 12th, been waiting for the resolution of his spectacular intimidate check.

I suppose I could have replied/aided him, but I had gotten caught up with a few other games, and didn't think it was all that necessary.

I was/ am letting the others handle it for the moment.

I was/ am letting the others handle it for the moment.

Same here. I might be able to step in and pull rank with the Dottari, but I wanted Azlain's Hellknight status to be one of those things that doesn't come into play often.

Besides, Boogie really should have this handled with that check.

I think we are still waiting for your response to the Bogeyman's last post DM Ray.

I'm coming, I'm coming,....

Yesterday got so busy! I apologize.

Two things:

1) I realized awhile ago that I shorted myself some skill ranks. When I had initially made Magnius, I forgot that Ray combined various skills together(ones that I would want ranks in). So, I spent them like normal, then remembered after game play began(I don't actually know when, months ago, at least) that my skills should be all different since Ray did combine some of them.

Unfortunately, for one reason or another, I forgot to mention this, but also never fully adjusted my ranks, as I didn't wanna be accused of cheating.

Anyway, I want to put ranks in Local, which was one of the ones I had initially planned on giving Magnius, but ran out when I was doing his skills wrong.

Should I just take a couple ranks out of some of my other skills?

2) I would also like to actually go and see the Lord Mayor before we fully leave the city. Not only is he Magnius' uncle, and thus would be a good RP scene for him, but Westcrown is a pretty important city overall, and having the whole group in a scene with the Mayor could be beneficial for everyone else as well.

1) Absolutely, go ahead and fix your character sheet. Knowledge: Local may be important to a PC because it grants information on Class Levels and Playable Races. This is my declaration of interpretation of RAW, that says Knowledge: Local is for Humanoids -- and since Humanoids are built with Class Levels, it's the Knowledge check to determine whether my NPC has Evasion or can enter a Rage, can cast medium Arcane spells or Wild Shape into a Large Animal or Elemental, can wield sword-and-spell like a two-weapon-fighter or has an Eidolon.

As such, Knowledge: Local is a Class Skill for every PC that has Class Levels.

My personal take on skills in Pathfinder is that Knowledge Skill, Local should be applicable to anything that occurs in the local area. That is certainly what the phrase means.

Despite this impeccable logic, I am yet to convince a single GM that this is the way the rules should work. Odd.

Durzagon are essentially Tiefling Dwarves or Tiefling Duergars. But maybe more like Half-Fiend Dwarves or Duergars. A Durzagon in Cheliax would be nearly as common as a Tiefling in Cheliax, (Dwarves being less common than Humans as progenitors of Hellspawn). Being a Native Outsider built with Class Levels, a Knowledge: Local check (DC: 12) is sufficient for this information.

I am confused.

I thought Cheliax was mostly human, with some Halflings and Tieflings. Which would make Durgazon much less common than Tieflings in Cheliax, even though they may be a decent % of the local Dwarves.

Yeah, Cheliax is mostly Humans. Dwarves are more rare (here) so Durzagon are more rare. I guess I was thinking more along the lines of Inner Sea-wide, rather than just Cheliax. But you're right, I should just have my head in Cheliax.

.

Regarding the Skills, my consideration has always been for game balance -- one of those, 'let's-use-game-balance-instead-of-logic' arguments. In the Core, as a result of poor design by Jonathan Tweet in 3.0, the Skills, especially the Knowledge Skills, are unbalanced. When 3.5, and then Pathfinder, fixed many of the Skill problems, Knowledges still needed work. Pathfinder eventually went a great deal forward to fix them in Unchained but alas, my own Home-Fix was years and years in play already, so, go figure.

Cosmology, Arcane (w/ Undead), Nature (w/ dungeoneering), Society, and Local (when Local = Class Level stuff) are much more balanced. That left out Engineering, which I always ignored -- until one of you guys brilliantly mentioned it could be a Profession Skill.

But yeah, I don't like calling it "Local" either; still waiting on an alternative I think every gamer can make immediate sense of.

My issue with Local as a GM is it's supposed to allow you to make checks in whatever town you wander into, which just doesn't make any logical sense.

If your PC is originally from say, Sandpoint, and over the course of the adventure, you end up in a small town in Qadira, there's no way you should know anything about said town, even if you have a +25 in Local.

I agree in principle, Magnius, but it can be difficult in Gameplay sometimes. When you build a PC you don't necessarily know where the DM is going to take you (As DM I go out of my way to inform my players, but still, it only goes so far before Spoilers.), so it can be hard to choose how to build your PC.

I rather think of it like this, if you put Ranks into Knowledge: Society, then you've studied, or found information about, people and places and societies and cultures in The Inner Sea (and a bit beyond). So if you're from, for example, Korvosa, but you don't have any Ranks in Society, then you obviously don't pay attention to the goings-on in Korvosa. If you Do have Ranks in Society then you certainly have a chance to have heard about so-and-so in Korvosa -- or Magnimar, Kaer Maga, Riddleport, Janderhof, Ilsurian, etc.

It's not a perfect solution, but without going back to the days of gaming with no Skills, where stuff like this was done with Metagame knowledge or DM fiat, it works.

Regarding The Midnight Lord, one can certainly check out the Pathfinder Wiki, but beyond that it gets tricky.

Todd Stewart, who I think invented Zon-Kuthon, or at least Dou-Bral, has his own Homebrew of how Dou-Bral fell and became The Midnight Lord. And I really like it (after gaming with him in The Maelstrom a bit). And if you guys get into this line later down the road, I'll use it. But for now I'd just check out the basic entry on the Wiki linked to earlier.

If you want to go farther, check out the wickedly excellent Pathfinder novel Nightglass by Liane Mercial. I strongly recommend it for a gaming novel. And it has defined how I see the Uskwood, Pangolais, and a little bit The Midnight Lord. I'm not saying Winnow is based off of Isiem, but, you know, that's just because I'm not actually saying it.

If not then, for Zon Kuthon, just think CENOBITE, Cenobite, Cenobite!

My issue with Local as a GM is it's supposed to allow you to make checks in whatever town you wander into, which just doesn't make any logical sense.

Is that true? I always thought that you had to pick a region that your Knowledge Local was specific to.

I may have been doing things wrong for years. I'm going to have to look this up.

The Monkeygod is right and I agree it is hopelessly illogical. Pathfinder consistently chooses that which makes the game work over logic.

Zon Kuthon worshipers do sound a lot like Cenobites as DM Ray says.

I'm under the assumption that the party dialog is occurring as you guys are heading to the Pleatra -- but I don't want to jump the gun if there's any more dialog you want to pursue with Eco Drumanis.

....If nothing else pops up in Gameplay I'll go ahead and get you to the Pleatra.

Off to the Pleatra!

@ Yaos,

Don't fret too much on remembering all the NPCs from the past. I'll post here in Discussion (or Gameplay when appropriate) recaps and reminders of the NPCs.

Additionally, there's always the stuff in the 'Capmaign Info' tab and I can certainly add to it.

Moreover, I've wanted (from Day 1) to get this campaign up on Obsidian Portal so you can use it as a reference. My problem is that putting up the info on Obsidian Portal is a massive time-eat and, three years in, I still haven't started. Indeed, my homegame, which uses Obsidian Portal, is months behind. (And when you look at my older campaigns there they're incomplete or stop right in the middle -- it's just so hard to find the time to get it all up there.

(Maybe one day I'll just get a nine-to-five job and be able to have off time to dedicate to gaming!)

9 to 5 jobs are rather more rare than they once were. Especially if the job is skilled and relatively highly paid.

I am ready to head to the Pleatra. I am just a bit curious to see the Bogeyman's reaction to Yaos taking his arm.