Clebsch GM Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path

Game Master Clebsch73

The new Inner Sea Races came out and has a ton of awesome stuff. Good-aligned tieflings can now get Anarya's "incorruptible" racial trait, and evil aasimars can get tiefling claws/fangs. Tieflings (and the geniekin races) can also be "mostly human" like Scion of Humanity aasimars can too now.

I'm with Karas. I simply can't contribute the time for any sit down sessions. That's why I enjoy PBP so much, as I can check in for several short bursts throughout the day. With work and family, I don't have those large blocks of time anymore unfortunately.

No problem with not being able to sit-down all at once. I didn't expect that. What I can use the d20Pro for is to play test scenarios to get a sense of whether a particular encounter will be too easy or too hard. I can use the same procedure to play through and summarize encounters that don't involve much role play and mostly involve beating on something until it stops.

I will be doing a bicycle ride with my wife this morning and then I'll work on the opening post of the Gameplay. I'm assuming most of the interactive role playing won't start until Monday, but I hope things can go full speed from there.

Gameplay thread is open. Let the story begin!

Have fun and enjoy the weekend!

It is nice to be able to see the game in my current campaign tab. I fear it'll be a week before I break the reflex of typing "wrath" in my searchbar and clicking the autofilled link to the recruitment thread to check for updates.

Happy Armasse, everyone.

I just kept the tab open constantly :P

Happy Armasse!

PS: Since I saw that Franti shared his theme song, I thought I might share Avelina's (small) playlist.

When I'm stalking a recruitment slot, I click on my "Posts" tab for my prospective character. Then I click on one of the posts and I'm in the recruitment thread.

I like the idea of having various ways of understanding a character. The idea of a theme song is great and has created some interesting posts in Goldstool's Roland Campaign. I also like to post a link to a picture that better fits my conception of the character's picture than the icons available in Paizo sometimes can do.

For reference, Anarya's holy symbol is the one she gained from her Touched by Divinity trait, and is an ancient design, not used in any modern Iomedean theology. It combines the sword-cross of Iomedae emblazoned over a winged eye instead of a sunburst. Scholars might recognize it as the symbol used in the early days of Iomedae's service as Aroden's herald, before her own church took prominence.

As far as Anarya's picture, the one I chose for her avatar is almost completely perfect. It even has the correct hairstyle.

Nice lore, Anarya :D

Avelina looks more-or-less like this, one of the Fire Emblem characters that inspired her (and the one that she draws the most from). Her mantlet would be red though.

I happened to come up with a coat of arms for Avelina's branch of the family, if that's okay with you, GM. The formal blazon would be: cendrée, two lions rampant adorsed proper crowned argent, bordure sanguine.

That's two lions colored like the real animal (proper) in the most common heraldric pose (rampant) facing away from each other (adorsed) wearing silver (argent) crowns on a steel-grey (cendrée) background with a blood-red (sanguine) border.

White and gold, along with steel-grey and red, are the important symbolic colors to Iomedae, the former pair representing peace and the latter being her war colors, so I tried to get them all represented in the shield. Gold and silver on the lions represents how the family fights for peace, and them facing the sanguine border, rearing to fight, represents standing against the fiends of the Worldwound.

Very nice! I've always been interested in heraldry but never knew much about it. That's so cool! I really like Avelina's character - especially the absurdly long series of titles on your PFS bio page! I had to look up what "Heir Presumptive" meant when I looked at it a few days ago, and got a whole history lesson on monarchy as I started looking for more. :)

I decided to throw a picture together of what Anarya's holy symbol looks like. What do you think?

Sidenote: I'm very much a fan of class-based honorifics, especially knighthoods. I definitely plan for Anarya to use them whenever possible. In this instance she's just assuming that Ellena is a knight, and is going to address her as such. I betcha Avelina knows more about this than I do, but I believe it's right for Anarya, as someone who was raised as a lowborn member of society, to say 'milady' rather than the formal 'my lady.'

It's worth deciding, on that note, what to call a female knight in Golarion (or Mendev, specifically). I'm a huge fan of using "Sir" for both male and female knights, (or "Ser," which is the made-up spelling used in Game of Thrones/ASOIAF for knights of either gender). With that in mind, until Clebsch tells us otherwise, I'm gonna go with "Sir" for knights of either gender. I'm definitely up for discussion if other people want to weigh in on this!

Hehe, thank you for the compliments! Avelina is my favorite character, so I've put a lot of time into her :D

I like Heir Presumptive because it's also a good description of her character :P

The picture of the holy symbol looks good. I like that the center of the crossguard does double-duty as the center of the eye.

As for titles and forms of address, I'm just going off the English system, but "Milord" and "Milady" can even be used to refer to non-nobility as a method of indicating that you consider them of higher standing to you, so they are the safest to use. "My Lady" or "My Lord" imply a bit more that the referent actually has the title or style of Lady or Lord.

I agree that using "Sir" for knights of either gender is best. It gets really awkward applying real world title systems to a fantasy setting with much more gender-equality and even acceptance of same-sex couples, so I generally don't worry about holding to real-world rules.

One thing that's pretty much always consistent is that you always refer to knights as "Sir [Firstname]" and "Sir [Lastname]" is always wrong, so I stick with that rule.

That matches up with how I view the "modern/progressive values + medieval nobility" setting of Golarion too.

I think it was Game of Thrones which had a character pretending to be a commoner slip up and say "my lord" instead of "milord" or "m'lord," which almost led to the discovery of her deception.

Also, I believe "lord" and "lady" are only capitalized when used as part of a name, like "Lady Avelina," but not as part of "my lady." As for knights, that's right - as long as it includes the first name, you're good. "Sir John Smith" or "Sir John" are fine, but never "Sir Smith."

Fascinating stuff. I have no preference regarding anything proposed by Anarya and Avelina. I will try to keep these ideas in mind as I render NPCs in role play. As you will soon see, I will employ NPC aliases for prominent NPCs rather than post as the GM to describe what the do and say. The depth of thought about such details is exactly the kind of players I was looking for in recruitment. Looking forward to the role play side of things.

By the way, if players want to employ spoilers with DC values for things like sense motive when interacting with each other, I'm fine with players making their own rolls and role playing accordingly. I'll only do these kind of rolls when they involve NPCs or the environment.

Anarya: You have indicated lip reading as a language. It would be more appropriate to list the language as sign, since that is more of a language than a skill. I would encompass lip reading under the linguistics skill. If there is any question as to whether you understand someone based on lip reading, I will roll a linguistics check. I will generally give Anarya a +5 bonus on such rolls, since she has been practicing it all her life.

Other characters can attempt to read lips, but without the linguistics skill, it will be unlikely to succeed.

Other characters can gain the sign language by taking a rank in linguistics or counting it as a language in your initial list of languages based on Intelligence modifier.

Until such time as a second character (besides Anarya) has sign language to act as an interpreter, players should try to keep in mind that unless Anarya is able to see her/his lips, she won't be able to understand.

The most recent two episodes of Doctor Who have a deaf character who communicates through sign, with the help of an interpreter.

Regarding Knowledge Skill checks. If a character has ranks in a needed knowledge area and if taking 10 will result in a success, then the character will know what is in question without a roll.

Just as a reminder, the RAW states that a character without ranks in a particular knowledge skill cannot roll the skill unless the DC is 10 or less.

For what it's worth, I would consider it a DC 20 vs. Knowledge (Nobility) or Knowledge (Local) to recognize Avelina as the niece of the Queen.

I'm working up some documents to help me keep track of rolls that I may need/want to make for characters, so I will be posting some notes on skill related issues as they occur to me.

In your profile, review your listed skills for the following:
*As mentioned before, do not list any skills in your skills section of the PF formatted stats area that you don't have ranks in.
*If your character's normal armor or encumbrance would result in an Armor Check Penalty (ACP), please make your listed bonus for any Str and Dex based skills reflect the ACP. Place an asterisk after each such ability to indicate the ACP has been applied, and at the end of the skills list, add (ACP -x included). There may be some situations where the ACP will not be applied, such as when attempting a disable device skill to pick a lock. As long as the character is not wearing gauntlets, the armor should not affect such a use of the skill.

I forgot to mention earlier that I want to give everyone one point per level to add to either a profession or a craft skill, so long as the skill relates to the character's background.

Avelina could take this bonus point in Knowledge (Nobility) since she is nobility.

If there was a skill you thought your character would have some reason to have a rank in due to your background but could not afford to add it to your initial skill ranks, let me know and I'll consider granting an extra point for such things.

In double checking some skills and other details, I noticed a few anomalies. Let me know if I'm failing to take something into account.

Tauni: I calculate your perception at +6, not +8. That based on 1 from rank, 3 from class skill, 1 from wisdom, and 1 from a trait.

Avelina: I calculate your initiative as +3. That is based on 1 from dexterity, 4 from Scion of war and Charisma modifier, and -2 from Lovesick drawback.

Karas: I calculate your perception as +6, not +4. I think you are failing to add the bonus from Pitborn Tiefling for the alternate skill bonuses.

The hard decision to take Craft(Props) or Profession(Fool).

I think I'll take the former, as Perform(Comedy) is already what I will use for the latter.

A few other knowledge skill tidbits:

If there is a knowledge (Local) roll that pertains to specific information about a location, such as Kenabres or Ustalav, if a PC has lived in the area for a significant amount of time, that PC can make a knowledge roll without having any ranks and still has a chance of getting a success where the DC is above 10.

The same goes for Knowledge (Planes) rolls when the object is to know something about a particular type of demon, provided a PC has spent at least a year in the Worldwound area. It's hard to spend much time in the Worldwound vicinity without picking up some knowledge of demons.

I've noticed a few distinct gaps in the group's overall skill expertise.
Climb, Knowledge (Dungeoneering), Knowledge (Geography), Knowledge (History), Knowledge (Nature), Knowledge (Planes), Sense Motive, and Survival--no one in the group is particularly prepared for higher DC rolls in these areas. This is not a fatal issue, particularly in the knowledge areas. There are some NPCs that can potentially contribute knowledge in some of these areas. Just something to think about as you get closer to a new level.

It might be good if someone in the group has a climbing kit and rope will generally help with climb checks when you have time to organize.

Ellena will take Profession (Soldier). I never pictured her as a crafter of anything in particular, so profession it is.

I can pick up a handful of those skills at second level (Dungeoneering, in particular, most of those are WIS skills which I suffer in). I have already took a grappling hook as gear, with the rope in the Crusader's Kit, it'll at least help our Climb situation.

Someone definitely needs to max out Know. Planes when we level. That'll be really important in this AP, I'd wager.

Elena plans on taking Climb at 2nd. And a rank in Swim at 2nd or 3rd as well. She'll put a rank into all Strength based skills to take advantage of her monster Strength.

Also I noticed we are quite a Charismatic crew! All six of us have positive
Modifiers at least to our Charisma checks.

Avelina will be getting Knowledge (planes) and history covered eventually, history sooner than later.

I went with this ruling for lip reading: Paizo FAQ. Is that okay? It will help greatly to allow basic communication between players if I don't need to make a skill check any time I want to roleplay.

At later levels, I am sure someone in the party can spare a skill point to learn sign language to help Anarya communicate when visibility is an issue. And at much later levels (and mythic tiers), Anarya's deafness will be flat-out cured with a mythic path ability.

The FAQ is consistent with how I'm viewing it. There should be no need for perception rolls in most cases. During melee, however, it may becomes harder to read lips, particularly if Anarya is behind the others and the others are engaged in fighting and can't turn to face her when they speak. If she can't see lips I might allow a Sense Motive check to see if she can get some inkling from body language.

Edit: I'd also allow the party to work out some basic hand signals for situations where they are in melee or when it is important to keep quiet. These would be very simple one or two word signals, such as stay where you are, move right, attack on my signal, etc.

@GM

My initiative would actually be +2, as Noble Scion makes me use my charisma instead of my dex for initiative.

Tauni: I calculate your perception at +6, not +8. That based on 1 from rank, 3 from class skill, 1 from wisdom, and 1 from a trait.

I was counting +2 for the alertness feat she gets when Cobblepaw is within arm's reach of her. For early levels, my intention is that the familiar will stay in Tauni's bag, providing the bonus (and an extra set of eyes). I can back that off if it is your preference.

I've noticed a few distinct gaps in the group's overall skill expertise.

Climb, Knowledge (Dungeoneering), Knowledge (Geography), Knowledge (History), Knowledge (Nature), Knowledge (Planes), Sense Motive, and Survival--no one in the group is particularly prepared for higher DC rolls in these areas. This is not a fatal issue, particularly in the knowledge areas. There are some NPCs that can potentially contribute knowledge in some of these areas. Just something to think about as you get closer to a new level.

Tauni will have all of the knowledge skills at +8 by third level. If there is one or more that you think will stall the progression of the storyline, I can gladly switch out.

I am also planning on taking Linguistics every level, so at second level I can Sign Language once Tauni knows Anarya.

Phew, a lot to catch up on. Also Hangovers suck. Just saying lol

@GM: I think you're right in my perception.

As to what craft or profession Karas would have? I'm unsure but I'll think up a likely craft that would fit with 20 years of imprisonment lol.

I will have a post up tomorrow in the gameplay thread and get involved. Sorry to cause a holdup.

I hope you had a good time!

I would imagine a craft or profession skill that makes you more self-sufficient would be in-character. Being imprisoned by evil cultists for most of your life would probably give you trust issues, so not having to rely on others for essentials like weapon and armor maintenance or even decent shoes would be preferable.

I'm thinking that either Profession (Herbalist) or Craft (Alchemy) would be excellent choices for Anarya's background as a temple healer. The former would be useful for identifying potentially harmful/useful plants in the Worldwound and elsewhere, and the latter would give her familiarity with the healing potions she might have used to help treat the injured in her care.

Karas: No need to pick something just now. But since being freed you may well have taken up a craft perhaps as therapy or something you were preparing to pursue before your imprisonment. But you can save the skill and apply to to something as experience suggests from the game play. The point is to take something that expands your character without necessarilly having a strong impact on the game mechanics, for role playing purposes. Also note, I sent you a PM last night. No rush on getting your first gameplay post up.

Everyone: once everyone is in the plaza and more or less in sight of each other, the main events will proceed. Have fun with the RP in the meantime. I'm enjoying it immensely.

FYI, I am struggling a bit with Ellena's speech pattern right now. She has negative to Intelligence and Wisdom, so I am trying to use smaller, less syllable words although talking about battle, knights, etc. is in her wheelhouse, so to speak. Other topics, she'll know less about.

And I don't think she has picked up on Anarya being deaf just yet, lol. Slow on the uptake!

I have had some challenges with role playing a character who is low Int and/or low Wis. I've spent half my life in schools and universities and so it takes me some effort to play a character who does not rely on intellect to analyze everything. I've done a fair amount of writing and when I write dialog for a less well educated character, I mostly start with sticking to shorter sentences and simple words. For low wisdom, if it is a young character, I tend to just fall back on the tendency for younger people to sometimes do things that an older wiser person would know better than to try. This could play out either as naivete or acting on first impulses, speaking without thinking through the possible ways other might interpret the sentences, letting emotions show without filtering, etc. Have fun with Ellena.

When I play a character of low intelligence (which is rare, I love characters with high intelligence), I usually go one of two ways. Either they tend to be a bit quieter, having been embarrassed by saying stupid things in the past and a little reluctant to speak up. Or they may try to speak up more and overcompensate, sometimes using big words, but using them slightly wrong. Or suggesting courses of action that are clearly sub-optimal.

When I play characters of low wisdom, I tend to use the low perception as the basis. So they may not see or hear things that others do. If there is a conversation going on, they may not catch what one person said and make similar statements or suggestions without realizing someone else just did. If someone else in the group is highly perceptive, I have the character gravitate towards them, enjoying what the perceptive person can point out to them that they might otherwise miss in the world. Just my 2 cp.

Edit: And I just look for ways to do it that aren't disruptive to the game. For example, for that overcompensating character, I might say something like: Dumah points to the bell town at the top of the church. He says "We should acceleration up there where we can see everything!" Despite his misuse of the word, everyone knows he's saying they should go there.

I often joke that I try to make sure that the average wisdom of all my characters remains below ten, and I would like to second what everyone else has said.

Naivete, lack of attention to the world around, misreading cues, minor psychological issues, etc...are all ways to show a low wisdom. I say psychological issues because insanity effects tend to target wisdom.

I only have one character with a sub-10 int, so I dont have much practical experience there; I can mosty just speak from writing/reading experience. Int appears to mechanically represent raw brain power, so simply not remembering small data well or taking a bit longer to draw mental connections. Sentences can be long, but shouldnt be grammatically complex with fancy subordinate clauses and semicolons, etc.... You can use more complicated words, but only maybe a couple of well-used ones at most that relate specifically to your area of expertise.

Or they may try to speak up more and overcompensate, sometimes using big words, but using them slightly wrong.

Like this?

Inconceivable!"

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Wrong words, I need to use wrong words. That'll add even more to this growing joke.

Usually I play low WIS characters as being too headstrong, naive, easy to follow orders, too romantic, too trusting. Easy way to tell if a spell might work on an NPC, Clebsh, look for these attributes. It'll generally give you a better chance of success.

See Franti, sans headstrong and following orders.

Avelina is all of those except being a follower :)

It usually requires convincing herself that it was her idea/the Inheritor's plan to for her to follow someone else's lead. Luckily, she's very good at deceiving herself.

Ok I'm caught up. I will have my intro post in shortly. Karas is going to be such a contrast to you guys I can't wait :)

I do seriously apologize for my delay, especially with such awesome posts.

With three Iomedae worshipers, I am going to have a hell of a time convincing people to not kill Evil Witches when we find them. I need to find some fallacy in the Second Act of Iomedae, as I don't think a joke would work here.

Looking forward to it, Karas! CG buddies need to stick together, I already have a rhyme ready for when we become pals.

"When in doubt, I may force my enemies to surrender, but I am responsible for their lives." --Paladin Code of Iomedae

We can totally take prisoners, but it's a serious responsibility that cannot be taken lightly. Now, if we worshipped Torag, then that might be awkward.....

And I've posted! Hopefully to other's liking.

We can totally take prisoners

Let us hope there is doubt then. True for the party, maybe. Are there figures for Witches burned in the Third Crusade? While I understand that (according to the player guide) Witch Hunters are just hiding behind Iomedae, I think Franti's general attitude for Iomedae's followers may start a bit tainted.

And I've posted! Hopefully to other's liking.

And I thought I was the fool ;)

Oh, I was just talking about the party.

I fully expect some LN d-bag Iomedaeans to show up.

Lol Franti. Ya Karas is pretty stunted due to long incarceration. comes out by being a bit childlike and naive.

The gang's all here. No worries, Karas. Real Life will force all of us to miss some days, but so long as everyone is warned about these gaps if possible before they happen, I will not complain. Such is PBP.

I will make one more general post prior to the start of the opening ceremony, describing the weather. Everyone will have a few more opportunities to post preliminary interactions before ... well, spoilers.

Karas and his companion arrive just as Lord Hulrun is making his way toward the platform for his speech, but it will be a few minutes until he gets there, such is the crowd he has to negotiate. They end up standing quite near the other five who arrived earlier.

I realize some of you already know the general nature of the initial event of the AP, but I may alter things in small ways to keep it fresh.

I have no idea what is going to happen but you make it sound like something bad is going to happen. And not like, a-single-person-dies-in-front-of-you bad. Luckily I have a signal whistle to blow over and over when Franti needs saving.

Just call me Jon Snow because I know nothing.

I, unfortunately, know some but I will not spoil anything for the rest :)