[AP] Curse of the Crimson Throne by GMs Rutseg, Zek and Snowheart (Inactive)

Game Master Balacertar

Cool, thanks for the info. Seems like a cool little system; just wanted to make sure big stuff wouldn't be lost.

RE: Psychic Significance:

If we can take hints from fictional psychic depictions in other media, I think if there are no extreme thoughts or emotions involved, it wouldn't have any type of psychic significance... but if there were, then the spell would pick up on those, and perhaps give you a glimpse of the moment of the dramatic thought/emotion involved? Typically it has to be the thought of the wearer or owner of the object, or someone that came into contact with it.

For the wish-list...pretty simple. Glamered weapon and armor. Because there is great value to being able to walk around looking unarmored and unarmed. You can go anywhere without being seen as a threat. You can surprise the heck out of people if violence is needed.

Also, one thing that I feel like I *need* to get, because I just found out about it: Cloak of the Hedge Wizard. Ok, I don't *need* it, but I really want it:

It's only 2,500 gold. That's pretty cheap. What does it do?

* Prestidigitation at will (!)

And either
* Illusion: at will—ghost sound; 1/day—color spray, silent image, or;
* Transmutation: at will—mage hand; 1/day—enlarge person, expeditious retreat

2k gold for 2 useful cantrips, and once a day casting of a useful spell? I've now got something to save for. :)

If nothing else, if you are going to walk around with Cha18, you should have clean clothes and shouldn't smell like crap. That's gold well spent.

You know enlarge won't work on you, right?

Huh. Right...ok, so he'll have to go with the illusion one. Thank you.

RE: Psychic Significance:

If we can take hints from fictional psychic depictions in other media, I think if there are no extreme thoughts or emotions involved, it wouldn't have any type of psychic significance... but if there were, then the spell would pick up on those, and perhaps give you a glimpse of the moment of the dramatic thought/emotion involved? Typically it has to be the thought of the wearer or owner of the object, or someone that came into contact with it.

I like this idea a lot.

Kalem, the hedge wizard cloak is amazing, but the downside is that it fights for slots with the resistance cloak. The one time I bought it in another game I ended up selling it later to pick up a +2 resistance cloak and shore up some saves.

Pretty frustrating.

Glamered weapons sound sweet though! Shame its so expensive :<
I'm already wishing I could port the Glamered property from Starfinder, where it costs the equivalent of about 30 gold for a low level weapon.

Echoing everyone else, thank you for your efforts with the loot, Bashiel. Having experience with it in another game, I know it can get tedious and time-consuming.

I'll work up some items I would be interested in and add them to the list. That's a great idea, by the way.

Well, who says that you need to wear the cloak of the hedge wizard all the time? When you need prestidigitation, ghost sound, or silent image, you put it on. Then you put your cloak of resistance back on after you are done.

Aren't there rules for making magic items for a different slot? Like a vest of resistance, for example?

It increases the cost, but then you can use it for a different slot.

Plus, some of these items are cheap because they're useful at low level, but you can replace them later.

Definitely was in 3.5 -- milked it in an epic level campaign. But don't know about PF.

There's no rule against it other than the GM's say so. There are plenty of unspoken rules and theories as to why and why not however, I've heard the idea that the magic items that are sold in the particular slots, and why they can't be read calculated to other pieces of equipment, is because those items are supposed to be the simplest way to make them. I've heard other arguments that they just don't work unless it's this way. each one has its pros and cons but there really is no explanation.

I'm LOLing at Zamanda's internal thoughts as I'm kind of equally shocked... as is, it would seem, pretty much everyone (including Kalem).

Hmm... Bashiel might have some interesting experiences next time he does a Detect Evil. >_>

Got to say, did enjoy that. And the wtf moment from the party should be good as well. But as far as Kalem is concerned, there is an incredibly evil cult that is in the process of kidnapping people. Including the family of one of his friends. Maybe some of the victims are still alive. Maybe some haven't been kidnapped yet. If he has to torture someone who is an admitted murderer (and torturer...and feeder of giant spiders) then he'll do it. Greater good and all that.

But yeah. In a world where good and evil are not just concepts, but something concrete. What he did there was without a doubt an evil act.

Oh my yes! I'm thoroughly enjoying it, but I'm a sick, twisted ****.

We might have a CN ally on our hands before too long...

Listen, Zamanda didn't do that in front of everyone. If you guys weren't all in the room, and were out in the hall down where we went to get out of earshot, that's great, but she was scared of all of you and trying to get Pel to trust her so that they could get out of a situation involving all of you. No way did she plead with him and do any of that with you watching. I can roleplay the whole Pel obviously not getting it or trusting or helping her, but I can't roleplay you standing there watching while I try to get his help to save us FROM you. So... can we retcon that I either didn't even talk, or that our scene was over before you left the room? Hard enough trying to recover from just him... can't do a whole audience.

I didn't see anything...

If we do, I'm fine with just saying that everything I said to Bashiel didn't happen. My response would still be pretty much the same, just without anyone to confide in.

Saw and heard nothing.

@Zamanda: I was assuming you and Pel had your conversation while we were in there, but once we exited the effects would be obvious: ie. dishevelment/blood/etc. If you have more you want to fit in before we've exited, go for it.

I'll just say Bashiel is last to exit and therefore misses both Zamanda/Pel interactions and the Quin/Ilsa/Kalem interactions down the hall.

I don't have anything to add. I was just getting ready for you to have the guards throw us in there. Much clearer-headed this morning, so can probably react as though I turned around and saw Quinlan and whoever else there watching if you want. ... The reaction will likely not be helping you get information, but maybe we don't need that. Varor might be getting it already. :)

So, either way. Shall we just say storyline as written in gameplay to make it easier on everyone, and not have to wait for retcon? Harder on my character, but I think that's okay. The core relationship she had is already possibly destroyed, so she needs a fundamental rewrite anyway. She will adapt. Change her ways. :) ... I'll go with zero retcon in my next post unless I hear otherwise. And apologize for asking in the first place. I think I was trying to hold on to a character concept that was already lost.

Aw, a tiefling heart to heart. Cue some soap opera music!

lol

@Zamanda: Things have gotten pretty muddled, so I think you can forge ahead however you would most like to and I assume the rest of us will roll with it. Shame about the switch away from the cultist cover story, that could have been pretty fun :>

Thank you for the pep talk, Bashiel. No pressure, right? :S

Ha ha... she doesn't really have a plan anymore, or back up, and after that rejection of trust, she's going to wait and see what Pellius does before taking any initiative. She thinks she's doomed at this point.

I'm hoping Varor asks a few more questions, myself. [Edit: Apparently Varor wrote a post while I had this window open already, so that's moot now.] But I'm ready for the guard to throw us in anytime. I'm sure she'll still try something. I just have no idea what yet.

I'm ready as well, but it may be a short stay if I'm the first one to talk, haha. As much as it will inhibit our spell casting, to make it realistic, it's probably best for us to be shackled before going in.

So, I know your characters mostly hate Spiderman and want to bring him to justice, but my PM proposal leaves open a possibility for his escape.

So, before Snowheart addresses it, I wanted to run that by you as players to make sure that isn't an unforgivable sin. :)

I also know that some of you hate knowing what will happen before it does, so I am spoilering the rest of it for you guys... but if you are concerned about the possibility of an escape, spoiler below of the basic idea.

If Kalem finds out he'd likely kill Spider-Man. Devargo has a real reason to hate the party. He was only betrayed by a single underling, so there is a very real possibility that he'd retake his organization. He's proven himself to be utterly ruthless, murderous, and cruel (feeding people to giant spiders). The only way any of our PCs (or their families) are safe is with his death.

I remember speaking IRL to a former prosecutor from Newark, NJ. He told me one of their biggest problems in dealing with the gangs there was keeping the families of witnesses safe. Devargo is worse than these RL gang memebers.

Kalem, who has lived on the streets long enough to know Devargo's type, would *really* not want to live under that man's shadow. If we are going to such length to save Ilsa's niece, what happens when Devargo kidnaps Bashiel's mother, or Zamanda's father? What'll we do if any of the PCs' loved ones ends up being spider food? And I guarantee that if we attack him again he'll be much better prepared.

It'd make for a nice recurring villain. But IC it's safest to have him dead.

----

All that said Kalem has no IC knowledge of any of this, and won't act on anything he can't know about.

Two short things from my view:

1. I don't like spoilers.

2. The fun of RP is seeing what others do and responding to it. Let's see what you do. :)

I asked Zamanda to run this by everyone to avoid a repetition of the Gaedren kerfuffle. I think the question/scenario should be considered primarily with respect to what folks think would make for some interesting RP opportunities. I think it could be interesting but I misjudged that on Gaedren's death so...

I know you don't Ilsa. I'm sorry. Had to make a call between making sure everyone knew about something that might cause player angst and spoilering the whole thing. I really am trying not to ruin the game for you, promise. :)

There’s always Pel’s plan, too. : ) We’ll have to see how Devargo responds.

I enjoy good stories. Even if IC my character gets angry, that doesn't mean that I will. :)

^

Precisely. Personally, I found the entire Gaedren episode incredibly satisfying.

I basically 100% agree with Kalem's explanation above. Our characters have no good IC reason to let him go free, from our agreement with his ex-guards, to personal retribution, to just letting another evil guy out on the streets.

OOC, I think its fine to cut a deal with him, but I'm not excited for it. Mostly because we've had quite a bit of inter-character tension already and I'm a bit worn out by it. I feel obligated to have Bashiel try to address these things, but I don't really enjoy RP when the party constantly has to be wary of each other.

If people are OK with it, I think I'm probably alright, but eh.

I'm really kinda laid back about most stuff... like Bash, I'm not thrilled about inter-character tension... or even worse, inter-player tension.

That said, I don't want to see devargo free, but Quin isn't there right now, so I'll go along with whatever happens because I have no control over it ic.

To avoid a long tangent I'm just going to say do whatever you want. And to Kalem I say, this isn't the real world, this is fantasy world, and in the real world torture doesn't work, and gangs go after family and friends.

Also Varor lived on the streets to, longer than Kalem has been alive.

(1) Agreed on torture. But that is a very modern view, Kalem hasn't ever thought about it, and when you are a hammer everything is a nail. Notice that while he did torture (which of course is just as likely as not to produce innacurats information), my plan was to follow up with rapport/trickery? Which does in fact, work.

(2) Yes this is fantasy. But people tend to act like people. Right? Otherwise what do we base anything on? I'm not sure of your point there. Anyways, my point was Kalem wouldn't want to let Devargo go because of the worry of family and friends. That is, Devargo acting like a gangster.

(3) Is this a measuring contest of who knows the streets better? Because pulling "I'm an elf and have lived longer than you isn't fair." Unless you have the breath of experience feat, I suppose...

And finally, (4) saying "do whatever you want" isn't very helpful. We have a discussion thread here and are using it. If you have a problem, please share so we can work it through.

Alright. Thanks all. This is fairly helpful. I have an idea as to what I want to do but may take a little bit of time to write. I also have a project starting today at work so I need to get that team trained and started, and they always have a ton of Day One questions, so... hopefully soon but bear with me.

And thanks again for the input.

We got some information! Looking forward to busting some cultist heads.

I just thought I'd put something out there sooner than later.

I don't have any problem with intra-party romance, but hope that it remains of the PG-13 variety, please.

I don't know where anything is headed, but just wanted to make sure we're not going to be CotCT, NSFW edition. :)

Yup yup. Agreed. I think that might even be a rule on here. Seems to be the norm in every campaign I've been in, anyway.

Aye...PG 13 is the rule of the day. Is certainly an interesting and unexpected change of tone. Should make for an interesting tale though.

don't worry - if it looks like it might go beyond pg 13, we'll just fade to black and say 'yeah, that happened' I don't intend to break with the code or the board rules.

Next time, I'll be sure to link the youtube video for Careless Whisper before the fade to black. I've got you covered :>

BTW... some bookkeeping since we picked up some extra gold that isn't being split evenly.

EXTRA EXTRA Bonus Gold for not mucking up Eel's End:
Ilsa, Bashiel, Kalem, Quinlan, Varor: +100.00 gp each

:>

Gold!

Can we get a map note with which direction Trinia's house is?