Arcanium ~ A New World (Inactive)

Game Master BloodWolven

"So Excalibur. Nice. I was given Thor's belt. Megingjörð the belt of power. I feel stronger then I was before dying. Hunting and fighting. Yeah, I grew up in West Virginia. I hunted from and early age but honestly I liked shooting the guns more than stalking down stuff so I'm not great at looking for signs and tracking and stuff. Fighting I train all the time with swords and other weapons. They are blunted and padded so no real danger, but the principles should hold true. Kill the thing before it kills you. Will take the glaive here. Just use it kind of like you would your Fire Ax. Just think of the boar as a burning door you need to get through."

Impressed, Joe nods, "Well, sounds like you should be our huntmaster, seeing how you have the most experience. I'll follow you lead..until we come across a druid or something."

"I appreciate the offer and I can help instruct on fighting and tactics but honestly I don't really even know which way north is. I mean does the sun rise int he east set in the west here?"

I have a 10 wis and no ranks in survival. Anyone with a bonus or ranks will do better in helping find a boar :)

Work was uncharacteristically busy so no crunch yet, will try again tomorrow, but will be putting a few ranks in survival, my theory is pretty good and I have a little experience of animal spotting and military movement rather than actual hunting. However my Wis is rubbish.

"Well Excalibur and Megingjörð, wow. And Excalibur you can talk, well we have geography in common it would seem, I grew up very close to Avalon or Glastonbury as it is now known.
I haven't tried out my gift yet, it grants me a power to move people with water like the Undine from pathfinder and possibly to even turn into one. Some poor unsuspecting cow might be getting tested on!"
Also taking notice of the approaching girl, Will politely introduces himself, his mind feeling guilt to his wife for his appraising glance.
Waiting for the newest addition's reply, Will then carries on with a wink. "Don't worry, I can manage the polearm, as long as the target stays still! I know a fair bit of theory of hunting, I read 'The SAS Handbook' cover to cover a few times as a kid and young adult and a lot of time on the hills gives a bit of a clue. I say we check with Roland that the sun is the same, although I would guess so, I need to see if I can store my BA set and my ceiling hook for now anyway, so I can go. Otherwise I guess we just crack on. with that Will props in to see Roland. " Hi again Roland, just a quick couple of questions, firstly can I leave a couple of things here? If I don't return, then make of them what you can. Secondly and this will probably sound very odd, but after my day, I need to ask it. Does the sun rises in the east and set in the west here?

"Well Excalibur and Megingjörð, wow. And Excalibur you can talk, well we have geography in common it would seem, I grew up very close to Avalon or Glastonbury as it is now known."

Joe blinks as he finally hears Will's english accent. With a slight sigh, the paladin breathes, "Oh, England! I've always wanted to go! I'm such an anglophile! Are You Being Served! Doctor Who! The Last Summer Wine! 8 out of 9 Cats Does Countdown!" Joe sighed again. "I've always wanted to eat at an english fish-and-chips place, newspaper and all!"

Jeez! Cha 20!

Joe sheaths Excalibur behind his back to address the newcomer.
"Um..judging by your clothes, I take it you just came from Earth and had a strange conversation with a goddess. So have we."

Sorry that was a previous character's stat, updated.

"Interesting..." She simply says as she nods to Joe. "Hi Frank, I am Jellena." She takes the short sword from Frank hefting it and shaking her head in a low voice she says, "Well I guess we work with what we have..."

With that Will pops in to see Roland. " Hi again Roland, just a quick couple of questions, firstly can I leave a couple of things here? If I don't return, then make of them what you can. Secondly and this will probably sound very odd, but after my day, I need to ask it. Does the sun rises in the east and set in the west here?

Roland nods in agreement merrily accepting, "Sure, here I can keep it behind the bar. Yes it rises in the East and sets in the West. You are such an odd folk."

As Will comes back a very large man walks back into town with a man over his shoulder, apparently heading for the tavern. Sven this is you...

Replying to Joe, Will laughs "Ha, well I always wanted to come the other way across the pond! Although we do or did, I'm not sure which now, have some good comedy series. We also have some cracking curries these days, I hope they have something comparable on this world somewhere. "

Back inside the pub, speaking to Roland, Will cracks a smile, "Believe me, we are having just as weird a day! Thanks though, I will leave my bits here then.". Leaving his ceiling hook propped against the door, he takes off his BA set,removing the cylinder, facemask and battery, before padding the connector with his flash hood. The BA set stripped to essentially a harness, Will puts it back on. "It isn't perfect, but it might come in handy. Cheers Roland, Northwest or North east and hopefully see in a day or two. "

"Nice to have you with us Jellena. So it does seem we all have powers and a class like from Pathfinder. Joe has Excalibur so, I would assume he is a Paladin, Do you guys know what you are or what you can do? Seems I'm a Warlord from Path of War. Martial magic if you will. Just thought it would be good to know what we can do before we head out there."

Frank smiles at the scene of the men heading toward the tavern.

"Seems your friend there has had too much already." He jokes as they approach the tavern.

"Everything alright?" He calls out again.

They were paying attention to him. Good. They even looked capable of defending themselves. That meant that they had to be outsiders as well. Sven walked over with Delman on his shoulder.

”He is hurt. Can any of you help him?”

"We were just discussing abilities. Joe what about Excalibur? It is intelligent, intelligent items have abilities. Excalibur do you have any healing abilities?"

He says while leaning toward Joe's back. He then looks back to the new guy.

"I'm Frank. This is Joe, Will, Jellena. Whats your name friend?"

He extends a hand.

Staring at the hand, the northerner grunted ”Sven. This man is injured. Can you help him?”

"How you doing Sven. Not sure if we can help. Unless Joe's magic sword can. Just waiting on it to speak again. I assume he is stable? Is there a church or temple in this town. Maybe there is a healer there. We should ask the barkeep."

"I don't think so", Joe said, scrambling for his black lunch bag. "And I can't Lay on Hands until I reach a couple levels. Lay hims down. Let's look at his wounds."
Heal: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24

"Unless that other big building is one. We do some pretty in depth first aid in the fire brigade, let me see if I can help."
Aid another Heal: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8

”Levels?” Sven said, with some confusion. ”Gods this is proving to be more trouble than it’s worth. If he didn’t owe me a drink I’d leave him and go find those...dark...souls. Whatever. Any of you lot heard of those before? Apparently I’m supposed to kill them.”

"Ah so you too huh? You died and now are in this world of fantasy. Yeah levels like in video games and pathfinder and well any RPG game. Didn't the little god lady explain things to you. You have abilities here you didn't have in our world. Though seems none of us are healers. Kind of like playing a table top RPG, no one wants to be the cleric."

Frank has a chuckle while the others look the man over.

Sven just stared. A long, blank, stare. ”All-father’s hairy buttocks, you are a strange one. I...think...we are from different worlds. Your words are in the tongue, but some make no sense. Very strange.”

"So you were born here then? I mean your from this world? We are not. Um think of it like another plane of existence."

Frank doesn't go into too much more detail.

”No, I was not. I don’t think so?” Sven’s face scrunched up in confusion. Why couldn’t this place make any sense? What was a level? And what kind of game was a video game? Old Rolf used to roll carved bones when he gambled. Was it like that? He missed his woods, his fjord, his drinking hall. Sure, the draugr were a pain, but if you avoided the barrows they weren’t so bad. The gods, he figured, played very strange games indeed.

”Doesn’t matter. The goddess says that we must destroy the souls. Obviously we are meant to work together. So come with me as I take this man to the temple. He-“

Sven wanted to say that the man owed him a drink, but instead said

”-might know something about the souls.”

Frank nods.

"Sounds good. We may need to leave him for some care. We were going to go hunt a boar for the barkeep to earn some coin so that we can start to equip ourselves. The souls are powerful and we will need better equipment."

Sven just stared. A long, blank, stare. ”All-father’s hairy buttocks, you are a strange one. I...think...we are from different worlds. Your words are in the tongue, but some make no sense. Very strange.”

"Pray tell, Sven, what was the name of your world?..'Pray tell'? I can't believe I said pray tell?

"We were just discussing abilities. Joe what about Excalibur? It is intelligent, intelligent items have abilities. Excalibur do you have any healing abilities?"

Excalibur hums to life and in his good natured deep voicesays, ”Yes, I can heal him but it looks like he needs some rest. Exhaustion, if someone had lesser restoration he would be right as rain.”

"Miðgarðr" Sven said, with some hesitation. Then, more forcefully, he said "If we are to work together, then we must know each other. I am Sven Olaffson. I am ulfhéðinn.* Is this a problem for you?"

* ulfhéðinn has several meanings, all of which are apparent when spoken. It literally means 'wolf-warrior', though also carries the connotation of 'berserker' and 'shape-changer.'

"Midgard, brilliant, our world had a point in its history where a region of it had the same name for our world. I wonder if you are from our world only it's history? I bet this is not the Valhalla or Folkvangr you were expecting or even Hel's cold place. I do not know the word ulfhéðinn, wolf something, I think. I am Will Bradley, pleased to know you. To give you an idea as several of us come from the same sort of time period and world. Our world makes use of a lot of technology, and so we have lost many of the skills, training and physical training you probably have. Technology would be the sort of work a blacksmith might do, only taken even further. We have carts that move under their own own power with no horses, weapons that can kill from miles away, water pumped to our own houses and warmed for is by a type of technology. As such we thought we would start slowly with a boar hunt to get used to our weapons before we hunt the dark things.

Sven stared at the man as he spoke, taking in all of the information. So...this man was from the future? After Ragnarok, perhaps? This technology he spoke of almost sounded magical, but the man spoke of it as if though it were common. At length he said ”I would like to see it. Have you any of these weapons? It will make our task much easier.”

”Getting back to our abilities, I am a Ninja. A stealthy monk with rogue skills.” She says still checking the balance of the short sword unimpressed. Then looking at Sven approvingly, ”A ulfhéðinn... how interesting! We don’t have any of the weapons Will speaks of, just this scrap we collected.” She indicates to the short sword and pointing to the glaive, and other weapons not including the sword on Joe’s back.

Delman begins to stir, likely on the ground, he looks up at all the different faces with no glow to his eyes. He turns on his side to see Sven moaning out, "Wow... that took a lot more out of me... than I thought it would."

"Miðgarðr" Sven said, with some hesitation. Then, more forcefully, he said "If we are to work together, then we must know each other. I am Sven Olaffson. I am ulfhéðinn.* Is this a problem for you?"

Joe frowns, unsure what ulfhéðinn, decides to concentrate, close his eyes for a moment, then open them again to detect evil. Concentrating for 3 rounds.

"No problems Sven. Seems we were all sent here to help combat those dark souls. Thank you Excalibur. It seems your legends hold true. We don't have any such magic so he will need to rest. We can wait for him to recover, but we have no coin for food or lodging."

Tough situation here. He needs to rest but we can't just wait around and I don't want to leave a person behind as a boar hunt and combat and things could take days on PBP.

Sven Olaffson wrote:

"Miðgarðr" Sven said, with some hesitation. Then, more forcefully, he said "If we are to work together, then we must know each other. I am Sven Olaffson. I am ulfhéðinn.* Is this a problem for you?"

Joe frowns, unsure what ulfhéðinn, decides to concentrate, close his eyes for a moment, then open them again to detect evil. Concentrating for 3 rounds.

Not “evil” per se. His alignment is “Viking Honorable.” To him it is wrong to break into a man’s house and steal his sword. It is perfectly right to gather your friends, surround his house, challenge him to a duel, and then take the sword off of his still warm corpse.

Seeing that the man Sven was carrying, Delman, is awake the decision to venture after boars can more easily be made. Delman does not know you are going to hunt boars. He still looks exhausted but can walk.

After Delman rests a few minutes and gets his bearings he blurts out, "WAIT A SECOND! I thought we were heading North, I don't want to come back to this wretched hole! No I don't need rest, I need to get out of this village. Sven we had an agreement you get me safely to another town and you get your reward."

She looks at Delman a bit like he is crazy and then at the group stating, "So are we heading out, it seems like he would like to leave." She lightly tosses the short sword again to her other hand still unimpressed. She then begins walking down the path, leading North.

Survive DC 10 to know North: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22

With eyes still perceiving the unperceivable, Joe advances upon the exhausted warlock, quickly drawing Excalibur.
In an even but deliberate tone, the paladin ask, "Delman, was it? You have something on your person that is radiating evil. I can see it is weakening you. Hand it over and you shall not be hurt."
Diplomacy: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26

"Well that escalated quickly." Frank watches on not wanting to see anyone get hurt herre.

”Evil? How can an item be evil?.” Sven said with confusion. ”And how can you tell?”

"As a paladin, I have the ability to detect evil through concentration", Joe stated. "Delman is not evil, but something on his person is."

Delman’s eyes begin to glow purple again as he simply says, ”no” in a monotone voice staring up a Joe with defiance.

Joe sighs, "Damn it."
The paladin brings the butt of Excalibur down on Delman's head, trying to knock him out.
Excalibur (non-lethal): 1d10 + 7 - 4 ⇒ (9) + 7 - 4 = 12

"What the f~@~ Joe. Crazy zealot come standard with the paladin package. Use your words. We come from a very grey world. Suddenly we enter into a fairy tale black and white and your ready to attack a possible ally. What if your trying to take his item given him by the goddess. Calm down and let him explain."

It is a bit hard to believe you would act that way. Your playing yourself not a paladin that has been raised to destroy evil.

In our world we debate endlessly over what is good and evil. He just got the power to know, as a fact, what is evil and what is not. A power that would reshape everything about our belief structure. I can think of many people who would react to having this civilization changing ability by becoming even more zealous than this.

Roll for initiative boys... it is up to you if you participate. If you get a perception check of 15 or are Joe you get to act in surprise round.

Sven: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14
Frank: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
Joe: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (4) + 0 = 4
Delman: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18
Jellena: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 1 = 10
Will: 1d20 ⇒ 1

Both Frank and Sven have good points. You do have your memories from your past life but you have the training of your class. Some of you even know NPCs from this world based on your background/trait choices. It is up to the player to make choices.

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 1 = 18

Delman sees Joe coming and stands up before he gets within striking distance surprise round action. After he dodges the strike he goes for a full withdraw moving 60 feet away shouting, ”Sven we had an agreement I need to safely get to another town or you dont get your reward. And you,” pointing at Joe, ”stay away if you know what’s good for you. It can’t be evil... can it?” you do see doubt in his eyes as he says his last statement, he also holds a curved dagger in his right hand now as well.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22

Surprise Round Action: grow claws as Swift action

With a snarl Sven raised his hands. His fingers elongated and hardened, turning into viscously sharp claws. His hair lengthened and grew more wild, while his eyes gleamed with a feral light. In a deep voice he said

”Stop! Everyone!”

All he knew was that one man owed him mead, and he had said that he would escort him out of town for a horn of said nectar that never emptied. On the other hand was a stranger who claimed to be able to see evil. Neither of them made any sense...so the simplest action was to maul whomever attacked first.

Surprise Round
Damn he's fast! thinks Joe as the purple-eyed stranger quickly retreats out of his grasp.
Then out of the corner of his eye, the paladin sees Sven fingers become claws while the wildman's countenance becomes feral.
Jesus Christ! A f@<king werewolf! This is all I need!
Focusing back to the original problem, Joe calls out to Delman in a calm, even voice.
Delman. I did not strike to kill. Only incapacitate. Look at this sword. You know it could have done far worse with it. I do not seek your destruction."
"If I had something that radiated evil on my person, I would want someone who knew to tell me. Delman, please hand over the item. It's not good for you to hold it. Whatever you think it is, it's lying to you."
Diplomacy: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24 Whew! High rolls on Diplomacy!

With detect evil, can I get an idea of it's shape and where it is on Delman's body?

Social skills do nothing on Player Characters. They are for NPC only.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

"Sven's right, everyone needs to stop. Look everyone just died right? Either accident or what have you. Now we are all here together. Look Joe Delman isn't even sure. I bet it's his gift and it carries a curse or maybe a voice like Excalibur. If the goddess thought he should have it well I'm going with her judgment. You got to look at the big picture."

Delman stays where he is obviously conflicted he sighs before letting more being known, ”It is not an object but my familiar, my connection to my eldritch power. Ouch! Don’t scratch me!” The last bit obviously directed at the thing squirming under his tunic. ”She may be evil but I won’t let you hurt her.”

Delman is actually a NPC. ;) Detect evil only lets you know of the presence of evil, also which person it is on or in.

"Ah even better a pet, he is in control. See you don't even have to consort with evil. Now can we all relax and maybe go kill a boar, get some money. Then we can help Sven get Delman to the next town and collect his reward."