Aubrey's Eberron campaign. (Inactive)

Game Master Aubrey the Malformed

A tip for excel rollers:

put the die size in cell A1 (4,6,8,10,12,20,100)

then use "=RandBetween(1,A1)"

If you add the "Calculate Now" button to a toolbar, all you need to do is click once for a new roll, or change A1 for a new die size.

Thanks, a good tip.

In case you guys go on a marathon posting spree while I'm asleep today, I wanted to note that should the watch get too close in pursuit of us I'll use my scroll of obscuring mist at an intersection. So now Aubrey knows if it comes to that. I generally sleep exactly during normal 9-5 hours in the us, so I was surprised to see something like 20 posts yesterday when I woke up. A happy surprise compared to the rate of most pbp, but it made me a bit jealous of office jobs for the first time ever. :)

On the one hand, this does seem to be tripping along at a good pace - nothing like a good bit of carnage to get the players interested, I find. The timing is slightly odd for me. In the UK timezone, most of you don't come online until the relatively later afternoon, so I get a bit of a posting desert while I'm at work (maybe for the best, but a little dull). So I find I'm posting a lot at home on this - not a problem, it's probably more fun than WoW. But I can set the scene nicely in the morning and see how things have gone in the afternoon/evening.

Just a heads-up guys. My computer is crapping out, and won't connect to the internet currently. (I'm posting this from the public library.)
I'm scrambling to get back online, but I may be MIA for a few days.
Please feel free to NPC me as necessary until I get this problem figured out.

I noticed your absence. Thanks for letting us know.

Actually, just to give you warning, I am getting married and going on honeymoon (in New England) from the 20th of this month for just under 2 weeks. There will therefore be a bit of a hiatus in my posting (I will try to sneak into internet cafes as much a I can, but probaly won't manage it very often) during this period. I'll be back at the beginning of June.

I noticed your absence. Thanks for letting us know.

Actually, just to give you warning, I am getting married and going on honeymoon (in New England) from the 20th of this month for just under 2 weeks. There will therefore be a bit of a hiatus in my posting (I will try to sneak into internet cafes as much a I can, but probaly won't manage it very often) during this period. I'll be back at the beginning of June.

Hey man, congratulations, all the best with the wedding and such. Man, everyone on these boards be gettin' hitched...

Hey man, congratulations, all the best with the wedding and such. Man, everyone on these boards be gettin' hitched...

Ditto on the congratulations, Aubrey. As for everyone getting hitched, I took care of that before I really became a regular poster here. :)

Hmmm, House intrigue and subtrefuge ... not to try to act the stick in the arse paladin, and certainly not wanting to buy out of this caper ... but Im not sure it sounds like the moral highground a paladin is used to keeping.

What's your take Aubrey? Can a paladin justify taking on a job perhaps a little below level if it seems to oppose the ambitions of an obviously evil lot (ie, Daask?). Would a warforged perhaps feel some sort of lingering debt to House Cannith which may justify a slightly less than virtous deal to take place?

Another question, on alignment in Eberron. My understanding has always been that the alignment rules can be played a little fast and loose in Eberron - it's more a tendency than an absolute. IS this your take? And how does that mesh with paladins, LG, code of conduct all that?

Personally, my take on paladins has always been small "l" lawful Good as opposed to Lawful Stupid...

One last question, a paladin's Detect Good ability - assuming I have the required time, is it obvious that it's being used?

I love playing paladins, and have never had to courage to play one in Ebberon. The setting seems too morally ambiguous.
Still, to help with the justification, I think we can look at this as at least partly a rescue mission. Bad guys are obviously involved, and she hasn't asked us to do anything illegal or immoral.
Could we use illegal and immoral tactics to get this job done? yep.
Do we have to? nope.
You get to be the moral compass of the group. Better you than me. lol
Just my take, and it's really up to you how you play and to Aubrey how he DMs paladins.

Thanks for the insight Trose.

I haven't actually played a v3.* paladin before ... let alone one in Eberron ... let alone a warforged paladin in Eberron...

Well I'm not going to do myself the disservice of missing out on the rest of the game by taking the hardnosed moral highground. Just want some advice in finding a way to justify / roleplay things so that everyone else can beleive it in context of the world and situation.

I think what Trose says applies here. You haven't actually been asked to break the law (yet) but you are being asked to fight Daask (an evil organisation) and find someone (which could be construed as a rescue). Also, to some extent, you would be the law - the Watch are notoriously corrupt, and very few are genuine defenders of the people, so you could act against the wishes of authority and still technically be acting lawfully, and certainly in a good fashion.

In terms of alignment, the fast and lose stuff applies mainly to clerics. I think paladins still need to be effectively LG. However, I interpret the Code as being concerned with the greater good, and laws are valid where they are fair and applied fairly, but it is justifiable to open up a can of whup-ass where they are not.

Detect Evil is a spell-like ability and as such simply requires concentration. You can Detect away surreptitiously, at least sitting in room and following the conversation.

Thanks Aubrey, pretty much along the lines I was thinking.

I'll make my in character post shortly...

I have been running and or playing Eberron since a few days after the book came out, so I hope I can offer some incite.

The Alignment Ambiguity people often talk about isn't that a good person can be evil some times, it is that you are just as likely to meet a LG Red Dragon as a CE one. The traditional, all <blank> are <blank><blank> stuff is gone.

All priests of the silver flame are not LG
All goblins are not evil
All kings are not lawful
etc etc etc

There are some specific cases, like a Mind-Flayer Mayor of a town (in Droam), philosopher beholders, evil priests of good gods, good priests of evil gods.

And be careful, granted powers are based on the God's alignment, not the Priest's... Just becuase they can spontaneously heal does not make them good.

---

In regards to paladins being lawful good, remember alignments are cosmic philosophies.

It is not, I am lawful so I support the laws of this nation.

It is, I am lawful, and support the creation of an ordered lifestyle. Laws are an important part of this, however those laws must be equitably applied. Also, my actions as an individual will reflect my natural tendency towards patterned thinking.

So lawful personalities tend to plan, chaotic personalties fly by the seat of their pants.

Same can be said of good vs evil. It isn't just good guys do good deeds, and evil guys do bad ones. Nor is it a blind obedience/disobedience of local laws. On a cosmic level good is self sacrifice, altruism, compassion, etc etc etc.

SIDENOTE: The religion of the silver flame is firmly entrenched in the battle against evil in the world. For normal followers this means to live a good life, and to lead by example. For the paladins and other templars this means go out their and poke evil with a sword, and oh yeah, live a good life and lead by example.

So for this particualr scenario, and this is my opinion not any stone carving, there is nothing for you to fret over. As follows:

You were approached by the representative of a extra-national organization, and offered a job

That job is not inherently evil, and in the form of a rescue could be considered good

The job presents the opportunity to fight evil

As a job, you will get paid

It is distasteful that the subject of the job involves subterfuge; however, subterfuge itself is neither evil nor chaotic.

---

Just my 2 coppers, hope no one minds the input

Very clear and nicely put.

It helps that one of the PCs in my Eberron campaign was a warforged paladin of the silver flame.

In my real life campaign I have also have a paladin of the Silver Flame (no one ever seems to want to be a paladin of Dol Arrah, for some reason - or even heard of her, actually) though he is a changeling.

Funny how that works out.

Nice one Dragonmann, thanks! Sound reasoning.

In my real life campaign I have also have a paladin of the Silver Flame (no one ever seems to want to be a paladin of Dol Arrah, for some reason - or even heard of her, actually) though he is a changeling.

Well, the Silver Flame has that whole Inquisition / Crusade type feel going for it, the young girl high priest, high ranking priests of evil alignment in a LG religion, henious acts in the name of good, etc.

Dol Arrah seems a little more vanilla...

Absolutely - the Silver Flame has much more fluff associated. As you say, Dol Arrah is sort of..... Dull Arrah. She's LG and that's about all we really know.

Dol Arrah is sort of..... Dull Arrah. She's LG and that's about all we really know.

Well, there was this one paladin of Dol Arrah, who helped a Coatl, and killed a demon, and ... oh, wait.... ;-)

Hmmm ... I havent noticed Fatespinner around the boards since Monday. He's normally much more prolific than that during the week.

No, he has been quiet. Maybe he's on holiday.

Funnily enough, reading Bound by Iron by Edward Bolme, and one of the main protagonists is a paladin of..... Dol Dorn.

I didn't know the guy who use to play Worf was popular enough to have paladins.

Ouch, that was bad even by my low standards...

You know how those trekkies can get - it's a religion to them.

How are people finding the campaign so far? This is my first PBM, so I would welcome any comments. Personally, I am enjoying this quite a lot: while the pace can be a little slow at times, we seem to be making good progress given the time differences, and I am having lots of fun spinning out the tale and providing descriptions. While there have been a few continuity errors and mild departures from canon (Rattlebones actually = Rattlestone and is really in Middle Dura, but hey, who cares?) and some people got a little excitable in the combat (you know who you are) I've read through the posts to date and most people seem fairly engaged and enjoying playing their characters.

Anyway, those are my views - how about you guys?

No, he has been quiet. Maybe he's on holiday.

Actually, I've been sick the last couple of days and haven't been at work. I'm back now, so you can expect more from me. :)

How are people finding the campaign so far? This is my first PBM, so I would welcome any comments.

I think you're doing a fine job, Aubrey. I don't even notice the deviations from canon because I don't know the setting well enough myself, so it's a non-issue for me. The slow pace is just part of being a PbP game, so that's not an issue either. I think we've got a good group here, though I find it amusing that we've gone this long without character introductions yet. Only a couple of the characters even know each other's names!

I'm just glad I finally found an Eberron campaign where I can play this concept that I've had for years. I'm digging everyone else's characters, especially Lightbringer and Ezreal. I like being able to see the thought processes that each character goes through (one of the advantages of PbP versus face-to-face tabletop gaming). Hopefully as time goes on, we'll get to see more of the character's personalities and attitudes come out. I hope I'm doing a decent job of showing that Chaotic Neutral does not have to mean 'Chaotic Stupid,' even if Runzyl is a bit on the slow side.

Oh, also, a question regarding money: These are PLATINUM coins you're giving us. Aren't platinum pieces worth 10gp each? Or is platinum the new standard for Eberron? I'm just curious because, if this d'Cannith chick just handed me 200gp, I'm gonna go get new armor...

Yes, platinum pieces = 10gp, I am aware of that. Giving out pp saves ruining the line of your trousers with too much change. :-P

Yes, platinum pieces = 10gp, I am aware of that. Giving out pp saves ruining the line of your trousers with too much change. :-P

I figured as much, I was just wondering whether you MEANT to give us the equivalent of 200gp or not. Yeah, definitely going to look into improving my AC a bit soon. :D

How are people finding the campaign so far? This is my first PBM, so I would welcome any comments. Personally, I am enjoying this quite a lot: while the pace can be a little slow at times, we seem to be making good progress given the time differences, and I am having lots of fun spinning out the tale and providing descriptions. While there have been a few continuity errors and mild departures from canon (Rattlebones actually = Rattlestone and is really in Middle Dura, but hey, who cares?) and some people got a little excitable in the combat (you know who you are) I've read through the posts to date and most people seem fairly engaged and enjoying playing their characters.

Anyway, those are my views - how about you guys?

Yes, I'm really enjoying it too, and I think Aubrey you're doing an excellent job of setting the scene and keeping the action moving about as fast as can be expected in a PbP (without it going to anarchy in the combats).

Yeah, Rattlebones was my fault (going from memory rather than books), but I think I corrected it in a subsequent post... and my initial intention had been to catch the lift down to Castellan (??) or somewhere in Lower Dura, ask around for a healer and then head back up to Rattlestone - I didnt know that a shrine of the Flame would actually be the best place to find an off the record healer... but as it was it was condensed, and probably worked out better.

Good to hear you're feeling better Fatespinner.

while the pace can be a little slow at times, we seem to be making good progress given the time differences,

I wonder if it should be assumed that Nox has agreed to the current proposal though....

Yes, I concur.

I figured as much, I was just wondering whether you MEANT to give us the equivalent of 200gp or not. Yeah, definitely going to look into improving my AC a bit soon. :D

It'll get a bit better too, when she gives you a signing-on sweetener. The reason for this apparent doling out of money is that, in an urban campaign, it is a lot trickier to get treasure through looting - you can't just kill bad guys and take their stuff, as it is stealing even if they are nasty. So most of the treasure, at least in this phase, will be reward money rather than random drops from monsters. Enjoy the cash - the other lot I play with in the flesh moan like crazy that they never get any treasure.

I'm not sure whether we'll have a chance to go shopping pre quest, but in a city the size of Sharn, would it be reasonable to assume that you could buy, for example, masterwork weapons or potions "off the shelf"?

Your characters are currently sitting in the biggest equipment emporium in the city, so I think you can probably have a quick shop before heading off. House d'Cannith is the place to go to get masterwork and low power magic items, like scrolls and potions.

Huh. Yeah, I should have known that actually! (Fails Intelligence check...)

Calling King of the Jakers, calling King of the Jakers.....

Jakers, how are you finding this campaign? The reason I ask is that you post far less frequently than the others, and also at far less length. I am aware that you are probably in a different time zone, and possibly you schedule doesn't allow you to post that often. However, you appear to have been around for the last few days, but have failed to post anything much even while being specifically asked, and you also don't seem to be reading the posts in much detail (you failed to respond to an explicit in-game "What is your response?" request from Karile, for example).

I am very happy to have you in the game, and I would like you to enjoy yourself. But your relative inattention possibly suggests that this may not be the case (you are posting much more enthusiastically on the Shattered Gates pbm, I have noticed). Ordinarily I wouldn't really be bothered - maybe you just don't want to post elaborate messages about how Nox is feeling. But I don't want to plough ahead if you are interested, as I may assume things about what Nox wants that are incorrect. On the other hand, if your interest is flagging, please let me know so we can either address the issue in game, or maybe you might want to concentrate on your other games and drop out of this one. For this to work effectively over the net, we need to post regularly. Nothing is more likely to kill off the campaign than if things slow down to a snail's pace, decisions don't get made and agreed, and so on.

On that basis, please let me know if there is a problem, so we can try and find a resolution.

Im definately enjoying the camp, and sry bout the not posting often, but its just that im usually not a cleric, so im still working on getting in the mind set other than that im just sort of sitting there nodding, which i should post,sry bout that, and with that noted i will try to put myself more into the camp. and agian sry bout this....

No probs, I just needed to know - it is impossible to know otherwise from a messageboard.

stamped with the chimera emblem of House Cannith

Uh oh... Cannith's emblem is the Gorgon's Head, Denneith is the manticore.

shame shame

A question regarding magical and masterwork items:

If I buy a masterwork item NOW, can I have it upgraded with enchantments at a later time or do I have to sell the current armor and buy all-new magical armor when I want a better enchantment on it?

My reason for asking is simple mathematics. A masterwork chain shirt costs 250gp. A +1 chain shirt costs 1250gp. It costs 1000gp to do the magical enhancement and the other 250gp for the masterwork item to begin with. Since I already HAVE the masterwork item, can I just pay 1000gp later to add '+1' to it? Or do I have to sell my current armor (and items never sell for full market price - in fact, I think 50% or 75% of market price is the guideline in the DMG) and then buy all-new '+1 armor' for 1250gp?

According to the DMG you can add magic later, and even enhance existing magic later still.

However, i think the cost to master work armor is 250gp + the cost of the armor. Either of us could be wrong, so double check.

However, i think the cost to master work armor is 250gp + the cost of the armor. Either of us could be wrong, so double check.

I remember armor being substantially cheaper than weapons for masterworking and weapons are either 300gp or 350gp. 250gp seems high to me. If that's the case, though, I'm screwed for now but I would still like to hear an official ruling from the DM so I can plan for later.

I'll be honest, I thought one of the interesting things about playing in this campaign was going to be seeing the differences between 'English-English' and 'American-English' but, besides the way Aubrey spells 'programme,' I haven't noticed any significant differences. I don't know if British English is really THAT similar to American English or if Aubrey is intentionally 'Americanizing' his posts to make it easier for us folks west of the Atlantic.

Oh well, it's still a great game! ;)

Something else of note, in the city of Sharn there are two adventuring guilds. Clifftop guild, located in clifftop, and Death's gate, located, oh come on, gues, that is right, death's gate.

Clifftop is generally the "good" adventurers amd death's gate is generally the "bad" adventurers. Not necessarily good vs evil, more altruism and explorers versus mercenaries and cutthroats.

Membership in either is listed as 5gp per year in the Sharn book, this is rediculously cheap. Aubrey I recommend changing it to at least 500 gp. There are some fringe benefits to each, mostly being able to be put in touch with known hirelings and buying more escoteric adventuring equipment.

Clifftop also rolls in a 5% deduction on wonderous items bought from the magic store also located in clifftop. not a big or wealthy store, fairly minor items only, but still a worth while discount.

There are also 2 magic guilds, the escoteric order of aureon, and... um... um... the other one. EOA is mostly for wizards and lawful casters, the other mostly for sorcerors and chaotic casters. Both have membership costs of 1000gp per year, but give access to spells and spell training as appropriate.

Dragonmann wrote:

However, i think the cost to master work armor is 250gp + the cost of the armor. Either of us could be wrong, so double check.

I remember armor being substantially cheaper than weapons for masterworking and weapons are either 300gp or 350gp. 250gp seems high to me. If that's the case, though, I'm screwed for now but I would still like to hear an official ruling from the DM so I can plan for later.

I know this is true for magic, where the formula for armor is bonus^2 x 1000, and for weapons it is (2 x bonus)^2 x 1000.

The Player's Handbook states that masterwork weapons are standard cost +300 gp, and masterwork armour is standard cost +150 gp.

Uh oh... Cannith's emblem is the Gorgon's Head, Denneith is the manticore.

shame shame

OK, you - you are now banned. :-)

I looked it up too, just must have had a mental aberration. But Deneith is definately a chimera.