Andoran, Spirit of Liberty (Inactive)

Game Master Kiora Atua

Hopefully French Wolf can stick around until then.

Sorry, everyone!

I swear, ever since we've decided to start looking for new internet providers, the connection has been slowing to a crawl when it hasn't been outright offline. Like Time Warner has become aware of our efforts and said "Oh, no, it could be MUCH worse with us. Wouldn't it be a shame if this became a constant problem? Would absolutely HATE to see something happen to your connection..."

Time Warner is the devil

Say hi to Zahir ibn Mahmoud ibn Jothan/Lieutenant Jansen Naran everybody! He's your new paladin of Abadar come to take on the Lumber Consortium on behalf of the Andoren Navy. :)

Hi Lieutenant Jansen! My name is Paula aka GM of Liberty aka Kiora D: IRL I am a clinical pharmacist in the southeastern US. I enjoy sushi, superhero comic books, and tormenting my players with evil snake dragons and giant bugs. I'm obsessed with eagle knights and if Jansen doesn't join the Steel Falcons one day I shall be sorely disappointed! (Especially since I have an excellent slave ship busting naval adventure already written for you guys that was intended for Herral)

Jansen - I need you to PM me your e-mail address so that I can invite you to our obsidian portal wiki. As this game is a long-term sandbox campaign, there can be...an overwhelming number of plot threads, NPCs, and locations to keep track of. The wiki exists to help keep track of that, and is especially good for helping new players get up to speed :)

The wiki link can be found on the campaign tab once you get access. Once you get to the wiki, I want you to create a character page for Jansen, as well as two additional NPC character pages for his supporting cast - this gives me some people unique to Jansen to work with in the future. I would also like for you to write on his character page his short-term and long-term goals for the campaign.

The wiki is pretty big at this point so I don't expect you to read all of it, but you should at least check out the "Objectives and Plot Hooks" page (found on the main page) that gives an idea of what the heroes have done and are doing right now. Personal quests are not included on that page, as I expect the players to be self-motivated enough to pursue their own PC's goals without me reminding them.

I pretty much maintain the wiki on my own but players are welcome to edit everything and anything they want to - including adding your own pages. You are by no means required to, though.

Finally, on the tab is also an inventory page. This exists to track encumbrance. Please check that out, I've added a tab for you to put in your own inventory. The gold columns are editable, the white columns contain formulae. If you are unfamiliar with excel spreadsheets and need help with this, let me know.

You start the game with 2 potions of CLW to help out with the lack of healing in the group. They are already on the spreadsheet but I thought you should know. Consider them a gift from Colson Maldris.

I'll be auditing your character sheet shortly and probably asking some more questions about your background.

@ Jansen Naran

Fluff Questions

1. Where was Jansen born? Varisia or Andoran? If in Andoran, where in Andoran? (The big trade cities in Andoran are Augustana and Almas. If he is from Augustana, then his family has probably dealt with the Accerlas family, as Davi is also a noblewoman.)
2. Could you put the Abadar Paladin oath on your alias page so its easy for me to get to if I need to check on it?
3. Can you add some notes on Jansen's personality to his alias page?
4. How does Jansen further the goals and teachings of Abadar?

Crunch Questions

1. You have a shortbow but no arrows! Is this intentional? Speaking of, I think it's a bit strange that a paladin of Abadar would go with the shortbow over the light crossbow, no? ;)
2. We are using the background skill system from pathfinder unchained. That means you get 2 background skills. You already have 2 background skills (K. Nobility and Profession Sailor) so you can just get 2 skills of whatever you want.

Welcome Jansen! We're going to crush the Consortium have a great time! :D

I PM'd you my email address. I have an OP account, have had for years. Ran a home campaign for a while and used that as our data repository.

Problem: Cannot access OP from my work computer. Might be able to figure something out using iPad. OP has changed a lot, the interface seems not completely self explanatory these days.

Fluff answers:

1) I'll get answers for all of that posted
2) Absolutely
3) You bet
4) Easy one, he's a huge advocate for trade. Trade brings civilization. Trade requires laws. Laws that are enforced. Agreements that are kept, etc.

Crunch answers:

1) I just think the crossbows are completely inferior weapons in the ruleset, which I suppose reeks of min-maxing, but it is what it is. I'll switch him to the light crossbow. I don't intend him to be an archer, so crossbowing is at most a part time job. The lack of arrows is a bit of an oversight. Many campaigns don't track such. It would seem then that yours will, so I'll buy some.

2) No problem, I'll turn that option on in Hero Lab and give myself a couple more skill points!

@ Jansen Naran

Fluff Questions

1. Where was Jansen born? Varisia or Andoran? If in Andoran, where in Andoran? (The big trade cities in Andoran are Augustana and Almas. If he is from Augustana, then his family has probably dealt with the Accerlas family, as Davi is also a noblewoman.)
2. Could you put the Abadar Paladin oath on your alias page so its easy for me to get to if I need to check on it?
3. Can you add some notes on Jansen's personality to his alias page?
4. How does Jansen further the goals and teachings of Abadar?

1) Jansen Naran was born and raised in Augustana, the base of power for House Naran. To clarify, I did not invent the Narans, they are a canon family within Andoran, and can be found in Andoran: Spirit of Liberty.

Thanks!

I'll look up the Narans soon. Probably... this weekend? I'm exhausted, lol.

As for min/maxing - no need to worry to that degree. Majority of pre-made adventures in this campaign are 3.5 stuff and even after conversion they are significantly less threatening than newer adventures

I just e-mailed you your obsidian portal invite. Sorry, had a 12 hour shift today that mostly consisted of driving around interviewing people, so I wasn't able to really check on pbp stuff like usual.

I typically post around 6:00 AM, 12:00 PM and 6:00 PM-11:00PM EST....sometimes intermittently through the day, depending on if I have downtime at work. But that's reeeeeally variable.

Tomorrow is my face-to-face tabletop day so I'll be preoccupied all evening. Just giving you a heads up.

A Calistrian and an Abadaran adventuring together!?!? *~*~wacky sitcom sound effects~*~*

Hahaha, this should be fun!

I am at Image Expo today, being distracted by shiny new comic announcements. (So much good stuff!) I'll be hobnobbing with comic folks the rest of the evening, so if you need to bot a disable device roll or somesuch please do not hesitate!

Have fun!!!!!!!

And yeah, you'll probably butt heads haha

GM - a couple rules interpretations if you would please.

1) how do you interpret the action economy for a Paladin's detect evil ability?
2) how "noticeable" is it for a Paladin to use his detect evil ability?

Crunch Questions

1. You have a shortbow but no arrows! Is this intentional? Speaking of, I think it's a bit strange that a paladin of Abadar would go with the shortbow over the light crossbow, no? ;)
2. We are using the background skill system from pathfinder unchained. That means you get 2 background skills. You already have 2 background skills (K. Nobility and Profession Sailor) so you can just get 2 skills of whatever you want.

Fixed

thanks for asking :)

1) It's a move action for paladins when focusing on one target or object (for all 3 rounds of the equivalent spell) - I was not aware there was controversy over that? Otherwise, it is 3 rounds to do the "radar" thing as a 60 ft cone.

2) per rules for SLA:

A spell-like ability has no verbal, somatic, or material component, nor does it require a focus. The user activates it mentally.

So, they could notice you concentrating, but I'd allow a bluff check to make it look a little less obvious if you're really trying to be discreet in a tense social situation.

Paladins aren't super rare, so someone who is educated will know that if the paladin with the ~aura of paladin-ness~ they're talking to is staring really hard at them that is what they're doing. But you could also easily sit in the tavern in the dark corner and scan the room unnoticed assuming no one is really paying you any heed.

If any of that is unclear just let me know - if you want to run a scenario by me so you can reasonably predict the outcome of it - just go ahead and say it.

EDIT: it does provoke AoOs but I've always interpreted that as the enemy taking advantage of you pausing for a moment to concentrate really hard, therefore letting your guard down.

....I don't think I've ever witnessed a paladin taking an AoO for detect evil though so whatever

I guess its worth mentioning that I don't much understand the hullabaloo around detect evil because I don't view it as a particularly useful tool.

Just because someone is evil doesn't mean they run around killing and stealing. For example, I'd consider Cinderella's step-mother and sisters evil people - they are devoid of compassion and willing to play dirty to meet their ends. But that doesn't mean they deserve to go to jail or get smited, lol.

As another example, I once had a boss who was a horrible human being. One day she was going around being a jerk to everyone, and I asked her what her problem was. She said: "I'm having a horrible day so I am trying to make sure everyone else has a horrible day too." She was an evil person. Doesn't mean she stole cash out of the safe.

Likewise, if a paladin detects someone as evil, their brain shouldn't immediately jump to "SECRET SERIAL KILLER!" or something. You've found someone devoid of compassion and ethics. You probably don't like them now. That's it.

Furthermore, if you really are dealing with someone who is trying to masquerade as good when they are actually evil for whatever diabolical scheme, they are probably already taking measures so that something as lowly as detect evil doesn't automatically ruin their charade :P Golarion is a pretty high fantasy/high magic world after all.

Many people fail to review the rules for aura strengths for detect evil. A room full of level 3 thugs won't detect evil, unless one of them is a cleric.

Detect evil is intended to find the really evil types, but simply finding an evil creature doesn't give a paladin carte blanche to kill them, that's not very lawful.

Now, explain this aura of paladin-ness please? I have an aura of good the same as a cleric does, for sure, but the average person doesn't detect this. If I walk around exuding paladin-ness, that may put a crimp in my style.

Many people fail to review the rules for aura strengths for detect evil. A room full of level 3 thugs won't detect evil, unless one of them is a cleric.

This is true. A group of level 5 thugs is a different story though.

Detect evil is intended to find the really evil types, but simply finding an evil creature doesn't give a paladin carte blanche to kill them, that's not very lawful.

I think it's pretty useful at, for example, finding a necromancer's den of skeletons that hes got hidden behind the false wall in his alchemy shop. But not particularly useful at a "who dunnit?" investigation.

Now, explain this aura of paladin-ness please? I have an aura of good the same as a cleric does, for sure, but the average person doesn't detect this. If I walk around exuding paladin-ness, that may put a crimp in my style.

I've always interpreted the aura of good as being something perceptible to even commoners - maybe they wouldn't put it as such, but more of a subconscious "hey this guy seems good and trustworthy" kind of thing.

Someone who is more of a cognoscente of that kind of thing would be able to put two and two together and say "this guy is probably favored by a deity". Which would be bad if you were trying to infiltrate the bad guy lair posing as a bad guy. But I dunno if the paladin (or cleric) is the right tool for that situation.

If you don't like - you can always convert to your bard build :)

Are the auras for law, chaos, and evil similarly palpable?

I'll stick with the Paladin, Abadar commands it!

Don't take my questions as complaints, they are simply my wanting to understand how things work in your game world., so I'm not caught unawares.

Are the auras for law, chaos, and evil similarly palpable?.

Yep. Evil clerics/antipaladins aren't sneaky types in my gameworld.

But also, worship of evil gods in totally legal in Andoran. As long as you aren't sacrificing people/doing evil things, freedom of religion is a core Andoren value. So bumping into a cleric of Asmodeus or Urgathoa shouldn't be that strange, just a little unsettling.

Indeed, the group has already met a cleric of Urgathoa and she is totally creepy :p

Ok, thanks!

Which works great for me. As discussed, I view a Paladin of Abadar as a bit more lawfully than goody

Sorry for lack of posting today. Gotten swamped with holiday stuffs. I'll post Sunday for sure. Happy 4th to the Americans!

Happy 4th of July! :D

Happy 4th everyone!

Tomorrow might be a bit difficult for me to post. My daughter is having her first birthday party and we've invited a lot of guests.

Congrats, Anthony! Have fun :)

Congrats! My little man is 5! First are wonderful, and you'll have plenty of first to experience with her over the years.

Congrats Anthony! All of my kids are the furry kind but I had a great time yesterday with my younger cousins. I managed to burn myself to a crisp but it was still fun!

Aloe is my friend.

Happy 4th and 5th of July to all. I trust you watched a sufficient amount of stuff blowing up?

Also, big ups, Anthony! As a fictional grandfather, I applaud your real life father efforts! Fighting monsters and saving lives in epic adventures is easy. You want a challenge? Go be a family man.

Now all you need is one in game. Get on that!

I did some quick research to make sure I wasn't creating a setting anachronism with Soroza's last comment and it turns out Calistrians actually distribute penny dreadfuls and Tijuana bibles (though I'm sure they don't call them "Tijuana" bibles...).

Also, that last post put me one post ahead of my total posts on my default message board handle... Which I take as a mark of this excellent campaign's success!

Thanks everyone for the best wishes! The party went great, everyone had a good time. Though everyone had quite a few other BBQs they went to as well.

...you know, I feel like there should be some hubris or something to consider, but I'm too irritated by the fact this is the second flippin' time I've been knocked out inside roughly 24. I think he's gonna insist Dalton and family come home because this place is just as dangerous to HIM as it is to THEM.

Screw it, that kobold sorcerer I'm building is gonna take Burning Hands for his Gifted Adept trait. Yeah, it may not be optimal, but I think this campaign is proving that I need every advantage to my survivability that I can get.

It is currently dimly lit outside, so unless you up the illumination level, enemies have 20% concealment from you (wolves have low-light vision)

Low-light vision doesn't normally eliminate the 20% miss chance for dim light, so I'm guessing this is a house rule. Are there other modifications to the light rules I should know about?

Well darn. Poor Adrac's gonna have a serious headache.

Davi's got Darkvision so I'm assuming the lighting doesn't affect her rolls.

GM of Liberty wrote:

It is currently dimly lit outside, so unless you up the illumination level, enemies have 20% concealment from you (wolves have low-light vision)

Low-light vision doesn't normally eliminate the 20% miss chance for dim light, so I'm guessing this is a house rule. Are there other modifications to the light rules I should know about?

Don't think so - but I'm sure you'll let me know!

I just don't want to get killed for not knowing the local rules is all.

Haha, if you think light effects are gonna kill you, you're incredibly paranoid D:

One doesn't survive on the seas of Golarion for as long as I have without having a healthy dose of paranoia!

Well usually low-light vision doubles the radius in which a creature can gain the benefits of normal lighting, usually granting the benefit of seeing twice as far underground with a torch. I think its a reasonable house rule to say that their eyes are receiving enough light to not be effected by the partial lack of sunlight.

As a general rule of thumb -

If it's a combat rule, especially if it has to do with a class feature or something you've invested in as a player, I try to run RAW - otherwise how could you know your character will play the way you intend them to?

However, even in combat, if RAW is clashing with someone's ability to do something cool, or something that makes sense, then I'll still ignore it. Otherwise I don't see the point of the function of a GM - I own much better tactical skirmish board games that automate the enemies just fine.

If it has to do with the environment or skills or "social combat"- I really could care less about PF's RAW, and you will ultimately be wasting time to ask if something is a houserule or not constantly. Just assume everything is a houserule, if it makes you feel better. I won't be using recommended skill DCs/skill check durations. I will be doing whatever I damn well please to add environmental challenges to combats, otherwise they'll all be the same. If I want a perception check to last 5 minutes because its a huge messy room, it will. If I think it only lasts a round because the room is barren, it will. If I don't think its possible for you to diplomancer your way out of a situation, then your diplomacy attempt will fail, I don't care about your +30 to roll. If I think rolling diplomacy mid-combat to talk the bad guy out of fighting makes sense, it will, and no you won't die from the 10 rounds its supposed to take to do such a thing.

I think most people agree that that's the way we want our home games to be played.

Also, for strategy this fight. I'm very concerned about being sandwiched by whatever was in that next room. So my plan with Anthony was to sit there and block the doorway so we only have to deal with one of them at a time when they come to investigate the noises coming from the front of the fort. Hopefully you guys can take care of the wolves with the new addition of our paladin.

Anthony-

hehehe... dog piled.

EDIT: way to edit out the phrase dog piled from your post >:O

Jansen -

This is kind of random - but as a setting note, this game takes place a few years in the past compared to current Golarion canon, so Colson Maldris has not defected from the Andoren navy.

Whether or not the stuff about corruption within the Andoren government will come up kinda depends on where you guys take the sandbox. I kind of expect the game to stay localized to Falcon's Hollow for several levels, though.

Whaaaat? Me editing my posts? Pshhh. You must be imagining it.

I don't know that he ever "defected" he is always loyal to Andoran

Yeah - he is still loyal to Andoran, and its values, just not to its government - he no longer works out of Andoran and has his own little PFS faction.

Spoilers!! ;)

:P It's all stuff in PFS faction handouts so I don't feel bad about talking about it haha!

Sorry for posting so late in the day during combat. Work was a mess today and I've been wrapped up with store personnel issues on top of the regular shipment.

I've still got a mountain of work in front of me, so if my turn comes around again before tomorrow please bot me.

It's okay! Hope stuff goes okay with the personnel. Managing people sucks - I've been dealing with something similar sounding :(

There is literally nothing I hate more than having to deal with people when they mess up. It makes me feel like such a tool. :-/

we're dealing with a thief :X

I hope yours are just screw ups, and not traitors/criminals for your sake D: