Beyond Fort Horizon (Inactive)

Game Master Terquem

I have never played Iron Gods and in fact am not familiar with any of the APs or material like it. I usually GM and mostly run homebrew stuff. So I may need some filling in on pertinent details.

This will be the first time in decades that I have run a pre-generated adventure myself Unboloth, so it will be a learning experience for both of us

Here are some of my concerns

I am not as familiar with the setting of Numeria as a lot of other players (Numeria, here will be a setting located on Gericadia, and how it works will be discussed in the recruitment thread, which is here

Beyond the Eyes of the Iron Gods

I am not familiar with how Adventure Paths are written, and used, so I will be studying the little book I bought closely.

My hope is that with a consistent AP plot to follow, even if players come and go, I will be able to put new players in easily, and keep the story on track

I am going to draft a post where Hughes explains as much as possible about what happened to her, and the others, and what they know, it might be long, but I will edit it at least two times to make sure it isn't too long, and sets up what will happen next.

How much are we expected to re-engineer our characters? IE we are currently level 2 with the better part of a year or more under our belts and I am not sure we leveled at all in that time. Are we reverting back to level 1 characters?

No, you will remain Level 2, and I will try to make the encounters in the first book a little harder.

Sorry about the level freeze that you had to suffer for over a year, that sucks, I know. I am still learning how to manage PbP games, even though I've been doing it for a couple of years now.

We will level according to the guide in the adventure path, so I hope that works out better for everyone.

Having run Rise of the runelord and Carrion Crown (Face to Face) I'll say this on the topic of Paizo AP's.
They represent a skeleton for one to hang their own creations onto, there are cavernous spaces provided in the AP's for one to toss in their own content, NPC's and dangers.
If you chose not to use those options it is entirely fine and the AP provides a good guard rail for the path to follow. Its just those smaller tweaks that make it interesting.

if Iron Gods follows anything like the two I've run you would do yourself a massive favor by giving the AP specific forum a trawl. Lots of people pointing out the sticking points of the books and producing extra stuff.

Thanks, Ritmush

I will be sticking our already established "sci fi" themes to this AP

Ritmush isn't going to be happy to leave people in the cells at this point. Kethinna died in one of those cells and he thought that rat-person was nice. Plus it sets a bad prescident if he lets people get stolen from town, he'd never be able to live were someone to drag the butcher off to this place.
Who'd make the bacon then?

So assuming that we want to wrap this by the time Terquem has to get his surgery done I think it might be best to montage the fight.

That is assuming we can keep them from calling for reinforcements. But then Ritmush is arrogant enough to assume his plan is going to work because he thought of it.

Fighting from in the cell row does give us some advantage of a choke point, but also keeps us trapped if they just want to block us in and call for reinforcements.

I understand the urgency to move us along to the new campaign, so maybe a long drawn out battle is not likely to happen because of Stuff and Things, but Unbolath would not likely ignore various tactical details. I am willing to hand wave over details if it gets us where we need to go though :)

That wasn't exactly what Ritmush suggested.
Arm those prisoners willing to fight.
Use Calliope to give the Lizardfolk a semblance of normalcy
(I'm going to hope that at will mind reading will let her bluff them into thinking she is the guard.)
We crouch in the hole you dug in the floor up here. Yes the one with the dead lizardmen
(Ritmush can illusion the thing and barring someone finding reason to investigate the floor there will be no concern.)

Then the guards move into the cells.
Prisoners (in cells that only look closed) come out and engage in a riot. Engage but fight defensively.
We jump out of the hole on the area above, kill any guards in the way of the door and close it.

Effectively we are drawing them into a point where we can do to them exactly what you describe of them doing to us.
Well minus the reinforcements part. I do think that between your sword, Ritmush trapping the stairs, Portia's bow and the more capable prisoners providing a lure for the guards we ought to be fine.

Yeah, Ritmush has this thing for overcomplicated plans.

This also puts the prisoners in danger. Ritmush is rather pragmatic about other peoples lives and he has a bone to pick with these folks for that whole 'No-bold' thing. So he'd want to cause some carnage but if the events show that running is a better/ more likely plan then Ritmush will cower and live.

Sounds fine, hopefully the crawlspace is large enough.

So any objections to the plan Portia?

Also, how many new players do you plan to take on Terquem? Assuming we retire the NPC's in the two combining groups to a less significant role that still means we have 4 players.

I am recruiting 4. That will mean 8 player characters. Hopefully I can handle that

I can use my sling and sword for extra fire power or a retreat if needed.

I'm normally against using Silent Image to create an "I'm invisible" game effect, but here I think we can assume the image is of the ground, only placed high enough that people could pass below it, so that they would be out of sight from those above them, but still might be spotted by someone on the same elevation as they are. Don't you think?

Alrighty just wanted to know the number.

Looks like the best option is to just flee. for the best really, as the captured lizard folk just revealed that Despor tricked the lizardfolk into taking this deal in the first place.
While Ritmush would likely feel better killing some lizardfolk it actually serves little point and only serves to make an enemy for the town down the road.

No, I think I said in this situation the Silent Image, hiding those below a "false ground in the dark" would work here. As long as we are only worried about eyes looking down from the wall - so I think your spell is a good idea, and provides a way for everyone to get to the stables, now you just have to deal with that in articulate Stable Master (did you already tie him up?)

Parsing through the thread we do not appear to have done so.

I'd say we take advantage of Calliopes doppleganger-ness and just have her walk in as a fake of someone. Then knocks him over the back of the head with a table leg or something.

Ritmush would also take the time to pour caltrops into the riding lizard stables so the lizardfolk can't use them to chase us.
Well unless we could somehow get them through that hole in the back we are about to use.
It would be great to ride off into the sunset on giant lizard mounts.

Minor set back, tried to sit up for a while, had some bleeding, need a day or two more I guess

Very sorry

I am feeling well enough to start getting back to updating games. It will be slow at first, maybe two or three games today, and then the rest will follow through the weekend.

I appreciate everyone’s patience.

I’ll start each game post with a review, to try and bring everyone back to where we were when we left off, and a prompt to getting us moving again.

I imagine it will take some time for everyone to realize the games are going to get moving again.

Again, thank you.

For this game I need to know how much information you are all willing to take in, in order to get an idea of how to proceed with the transition. Is there anything you are frustrated by that I can fix now?

Each of three different NPCs has some information that might be helpful to the party in tracking down Drespor, and finding out more about this world. Do you want to be troubled with trying to figure out what questions to ask, or should I just dump information on you as you escape the prison?

Unless others had a different plan I'm fine with rolling forward and getting on with the prison break.

I'd been thinking that Ritmush could do something clever with an illusion to make the lizardfolk go charging into the woods after a fake trail but as we are already about to escape with no one seeing us its likely unnecessary.

Still think stealing their lizard mounts and riding off into the sunset would be an excellent method to resolve the concern of the jailers realizing we had escaped and rising us down.

As we do have fellow players in the other game that will be waiting to start the adventures actual path until we are present I feel taking some shortcuts might be wise.
At the very least montaging our escape assuming you don't have anything else planned for us on that.

I can't say to the amount of information I can absorb but i'll likely end up writing a note with the pertinent parts if it gets too terribly long.
I really do appreciate the amount of work you put into your world, as a player I only get to see a few facets of that world but I very much enjoy it so far.
Having run some games of my own I'm always astounded by the intricacies of homebrew worlds. I have enough of a struggle running a game when its already got much of the setting baked in like Adventure paths.

I am ready to move forward. As Ritmush said, I am happy with a montage or summary of what transpires. I am hoping our plans are reasonable enough that we can make the escape transpire without a hitch, otherwise bashing a few heads works too.

I am happy with any amount of information as long as I can refer back to it. With the number of campaigns I play in and run myself,as well as my advancing age, I cannot remember a lot of the smaller details over time, so referring back is nice.

I had hoped for a Drespor showdown, but if that is not to be or if he is to be a recurring villain in the future, its all good.

Will we have problems translating our Fort dollars into whatever currency is used elsewhere? I guess Torch is not that far away overall.

Yes, your currency will be unrecognized by the merchants in Torch.

The people of Torch (generally speaking, it will be a mystery at the beginning) are unaware of the settlement of the west coast of the continent that has been going on. They are always suspicious of strangers coming into Torch from "the west" (you can read the introductory post of the new game for a little more about that).

However, K'vin will inform you that he has heard rumors that Torch has a complicated "Barter Town" like economy as well as the currency of the Numerian kingdom, and strange materials are often traded simply for their inherent value, so their is a good chance that the right merchant will buy out your gold, silver, and copper coins, with no questions, for a slightly less amount of local currency (assume a 5% loss on your part, after all, the local has to make some profit somewhere after melting down your coins).

The more you talk to people in Torch about where you came from, the more the dynamic of the adventure will probably change, but it won't change enough to upset the Adventure path as it is written.

I am working to finish Jeannine's story this morning and get it added to the campaign tab here. When everyone is ready to move to the new game all of those stories will be transferred, and placed in Spoiler tags to the new campaign tab.

I know your group does not have a lot of spending money right now, but due to your revelations about the crimes of Karl Drespor to the captain at the Fort, all WEAC goods will be made available for you to purchase at 50% of standard prices - assume you can buy practically any normal adventuring gear listed in the PRD.

Hrmm...
interesting.

If you felt like inflating the money total a bit we could have something come of a conversation I half remember happening.
Ritmush got most of his starting gear off a dead guy in the forest, he had a pair of goggles and a sack full of a really odd currency.

Obviously we know what the goggles do, I recall ritmush leaving a few pieces of the currency with the Agents so they could tell him what exactly it is. (and if it is actually worth any more than the gold it is made out of.)

Good point, Ritmush

Let's say the sack contains, 200 gp (in combined gold, silver and copper coins) which can be used in Torch (the hapless victim who once possessed the goggles tried to reach the west coast alone, and perished in the wilderness).

So, what is the conversion rate of 'dollars' again to gold/goods? Unbolath will probably just stock up on useful things for travel and adventuring with the money. I know I asked the conversion thing before, I should have just made a note of it. Sorry.

originally, a "Dollar" was a silver coin in the town of Fort Horizon, and spent like a gold piece. So, if you have 20 dollars, you basically have 20 gold pieces (only they are silver coins). A single gold coin (rare) in this setting would be like a twenty dollar gold piece (in the parlance of the American old west).

Ok so I just convert my dollars into GP at a scale of 20:1 in terms of purchase power, and then take a 50% discount because the people are loving them some Unbolath.

Cant resist that smooth rocky finish. Like gazing into a perfectly waxed floor that can flex.

hehe

I'm sorry for this being more confusing than it should be. I never should have mentioned the 20 dollar gold piece thing. I think that just made it harder to understand.

You have dollars, 1200 or so of them

They are silver coins (not gold coins)

they have the buying power (in Fort Horizon) as if they were a Gold Piece mentioned in the rules (so an item that cost 5 gold pieces in the rule book, cost 5 dollars in Fort Horizon, which is five silver coins)

So you have 1200 some-odd "gold pieces" (dollars, silver coins, whatever) to spend on equipment in Fort Horizon, and all prices are 50% of what is listed in the rules (no magic items are available, but all mundane items are)

Is that clear now? (don't multiply your 1200 dollars by 20, that would give you an amount of money that would exceed the wealth of the entire fort)

Ahh ok got it. I thought I would be dividing by 20. its just 1:1. Got it now.

I've just introduced Stella (from the Eyes of the Beholders game that is now closed) to the new Iron Gods campaign.

Please let me know when you are all ready and I will make a post in this game that swiftly delivers your group to the west of Torch, it will be night time, and you will be dropped off within sight of the town, but a good walking distance away. I assume you will all want to review gear choices and stock up on any things in Fort Horizon you think you will need before we shift to the new game.

I am still working out Jeannine's Story, sorry for the delay

When I get the chance I will do an intro. Late hallows eve party and drinking games. So far im still coherant but no computer so no detailed typing.

You are correct terquem. Once I get a moment to myself ill write up what ritmush buys.
Soul I correct to assume that the 1200 is what we have as a group?

Also, Gah! Magic new person!

The 1200 is what Unbolath got for his work. There was a post where everyone was given a share of the reward. Unbolath had a separate charter for some additional work.

Please let me know when you are ready to be dropped off to the west of Torch.

I am ready. Is Unbolath able to obtain any arcane scrolls or spells. I don't recall if there were any casters in town.

Any remaining money left over he will just buy gems, jewelry, ore or small portable trade goods.

No, there are no scrolls available.

However, in the interest of getting this out of the way now, before it becomes an issue

I am going to hand wave away any language barrier that might seem like it should come up in a transition such as this, and state for the record that when you get to torch, you will understand the language spoken there.

Sounds good :)

Hrmm... I'll have to look and see if Ritmush actually got any money from that.
I recall that Calliope and Droka got a not-insignificant pay-out entertaining miners that ritmush helped with. However he didn't ask for a share of the gold So I think its just the gold he started with.

So it looks like I have about 200-dollars or gold piece equivalent buying power in town.

Good enough for a masterwork crossbow, which is pretty much the only think I can think of the buy off the top of my head. Ritmush is well stocked for survival.

As to the language barrier I agree, I'm garbage at charades so I'd prefer to avoid needing to play that game with the others. Thanks.

I am closing this game

Please visit the Discussion thread of the Beyond the Eyes of the Iron Gods Game, among my list of campaigns, and check in there to introduce yourself as a player and as a character. You can begin posting to the game thread as soon as you are ready.

You are in a group, and there are four of you. Portia, Unbolath, Ritmush, and Calliope.