DM Alexander Kilcoyne's Sargavan Saga

Game Master Alexander Kilcoyne

RE New Guy: Suspended man would likely be swept back to civilization for extensive dissection debriefing. So a no go there.

Yeah, I think this is my thing with the suspended-animation idea. We're not just an adventuring group; we're an adventuring group working for a desperate government in the middle of a Double-Super-Secret project. If it were just us, sure, we might be okay with a little extra muscle we picked up along the road between us and the bad guys, but I can't imagine that the Grand Custodian would just shrug at adding a random non-vetted, non-background-checked person to the team. And if it's some sort of Unfrozen Cave-Man Lawyer/Proto-Elf Geased Android, I agree with Jakob: They'd ship him back to the capital for interrogation, examination, and any possible angle they could use to generate money, power, and/or privileged information and then store him in one of those Indiana Jones warehouses. The more unique he is, the less likely they are to send him on what's likely to be a suicide mission.

Someway, somehow he's got both to have security clearance and to be expendable.

RE New Guy: Suspended man would likely be swept back to civilization for extensive dissection debriefing. So a no go there.

Having Morvius add a soldier (you were planning a martial type right?) to the team after N'bellocq vanishes seems logical.

We would trust Morvius's ringer no more or less than anyone else but I do not see a huge problem there. We have to work together to survive, liking each other is optional. (insert metaphor for Sagrava here)

Oh and Welcome to the fun-house oKOya

{EDIT: Family friend to the Mulle clan! Oh yeah real trustworthy mob they are. Bad idea. A marriage prospect sent by Lady Madrona Daugustana would get a better reception.}

You would turn him in right away? Rather than exploit use him to help the party to fulfill the mission? :P

Fun-house indeed! ;)

Fine, not suspended. Newly summoned (created) or summoned (called) with a geas placed upon him to serve the one, or ones, activating the magic item for a specified time or to the completion of a specified task.

Think something like a semi-permanent (one time use), intelligent figurine of wondrous power.

I am essentially proposing a totally neutral being with no allegiance or agendas to question. A sentient magical creation in the form of an elf ranger. Who happens to function like a PC. :)

The more I think about the more I'm excited by the interesting role-playing possibilities. :)

You would turn him in right away? Rather than exploit use him to help the party to fulfill the mission? :P

My impression (which could be wrong) is that we'll be returning to camp at regular intervals during the course of the mission, since AK enforces downtime for leveling. It's not like we could keep him a secret for long.

And thanks for the feedback on the combat, was considering scrapping it in favor of narration but it was not my preferred option.

I'm waiting to see you fighting it out amongst yourself to the bitter end when the PCs are all down for the count. ;)

Yeah, I think this is my thing with the suspended-animation idea. We're not just an adventuring group; we're an adventuring group working for a desperate government in the middle of a Double-Super-Secret project. If it were just us, sure, we might be okay with a little extra muscle we picked up along the road between us and the bad guys, but I can't imagine that the Grand Custodian would just shrug at adding a random non-vetted, non-background-checked person to the team. And if it's some sort of Unfrozen Cave-Man Lawyer/Proto-Elf Geased Android, I agree with Jakob: They'd ship him back to the capital for interrogation, examination, and any possible angle they could use to generate money, power, and/or privileged information and then store him in one of those Indiana Jones warehouses. The more unique he is, the less likely they are to send him on what's likely to be a suicide mission.

Someway, somehow he's got both to have security clearance and to be expendable.

Would they be interested in doing this to every summoned creature you employ? :)

He would have no information to glean or exploit. He would just be. No memories, knowledge, etc outside his skills.

I think Alex can handle the vetting. Magical investigation confirms his nature and they leave you to utilize it in the interests of the mission. *shrugs*

Having no memory dovetails nicely with me coming into the game with less than complete knowledge of previous events. :)

My impression (which could be wrong) is that we'll be returning to camp at regular intervals during the course of the mission, since AK enforces downtime for leveling. It's not like we could keep him a secret for long.

We could take the figurine a step further then. Make it function similarly, allowing you to return him to figurine form when you need to. Either to keep it a secret or to illustrate its true nature. As a magical construct of sorts.

Ansha likes constructs. She likes experimenting on, and deconstructing, said constructs, but still....

He would be flesh and blood.. and would defend himself. :)

Would they be interested in doing this to every summoned creature you employ? :)

If they were unique magical creatures with open-ended durations, absolutely. Heck, the whole reason we're at the pyramid in the first place is to discover ancient magics for Sargava to exploit. Your PC would certainly qualify.

Otoh, if you're going to find previously unknown magic that breaks all the rules, it would be in an ancient Azlanti ruin. He ought to be Azlanti, however, which raises the specter of +2 to all ability scores ... although one could say that the magic has slowly degraded over time, leaving him with Elven stat modifiers.

It'd be cool if he were like one of those wax golems that achieved sentience. Ooh, no, wait, he's an archer! Make him look like the Mwangi archer statues on either side of the Arioch statue in the entrance room! :)

He would have no information to glean or exploit. He would just be. No memories, knowledge, etc outside his skills.

You know that. He knows that. We might know that (or we might still suspect him of being in league with the Ariochites and programmed to turn on us at a pivotal moment, even without his conscious knowledge of it, like the Manchurian Candidate). But the Grand Custodian would not know that without extensive arcane investigation. He's not a trusting fellow.

Forgive me while I come out of lurking to offer a suggestion:

Perhaps the Grand Custodian and Morvius already know about this ancient item with a trapped elf (or whatever) inside, and Arturus has studied it extensively. The attack on the camp and the loss of N'bellocq (however it happens) may be enough to convince them to play their "trump card" and release the elf for his aid. Perhaps they think he is more powerful than he truly turns out to be.

That would partially solve the problem of why they don't send him away to be studied.

I'll just go back to lurking now :)

Well, I guess the problem I am seeing right now is that my choices seem to boil down to three options (as put forth so far).

One, I am a generic hired sword or soldier whose only reason for being here is that he was ordered to be. Likely having little to no information to contribute as realistically that would likely be above my pay grade. Otherwise I would have been noted earlier no? (And would require me to be privy to information only Alex can provide, making me the previously mentioned Info-Dump guy and essentially an NPC) My character would be highly lacking in personal motivation and seemingly instantly distrusted and reviled by many, or all, of the other party members.

Two, I am a friend/family member/etc to one of the existing party members who just happens to show up at the Super Secret Temple exploration (?!) and asks to join in the fun for reasons currently unknown. Other than that slight change, I am exactly like option one with the additional issue of being distrusted and un-vetted and likely realistically unwelcome by General Morvius et al.

Three, something else. :)

I'm sure you can see why the first two aren't all that appealing to me. :)

A possible solution.

:)

And yes... he comes out weaker than they expect, but that is a side effect of prolonged... dis-use. The longer he is free of the confines of the McGuffin, the more powerful he becomes. ;)

Going up against Ansha? Remember to bump that will save.

Seriously though, read Qhude's reaction to Ansha's wax golem for our resident head breaker's likely response to a sudden magic person. He is also the one of us most loyal to the general. So there is that.

I think the best way into this group is not to have no loyalites, but to have obvious ones.

Now thinking of elves... Threre were some local tribes we were trying to contact. That would be an understandable background. As an emisary of a local power you could force the general to add you to the group. Could work.

The emissary they send is a guy who likes to shoot pointy sticks into things? ;)

At best I would be the adjunct to said emissary, basically making me a mashup of options one and two. :P

Sentient magical being/construct/magic item wasn't my first choice. :P

Entirely and unquestionably trustworthy, summoned (called), and magically compelled to render services, elf ranger was. ;)

It looks like you have enough tension/drama to go around without adding more. And enough captains to steer this tug adequately, I'm just trying to be a good little sailor. :)

I was actually just coming back to post a suggestion similar to DukeRuckley's: Perhaps the "item" he's trapped in was found in the rubble when the soldiers went in to clear it out soon after the party left the pyramid and has already been studied in Eleder during our downtime. If oKOyA's PC pops out beholden to whoever frees him, the Grand Custodian could direct him to help us complete the pyramid exploration. That would also allow him to "go free" after we complete the dungeon, if AK is still planning on continuing the campaign in a Kingmaker-style vein.

if AK is still planning on continuing the campaign in a Kingmaker-style vein.

Depends heavily on how the plot progresses. I have a very defined meta-plot but its not completely set in stone and will depend on the extent of your successes (or failures).

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Lots of good thoughts here :).

Only things i'm sure about are the following-

1. Too much of a stretch of verisimilitude for us to ignore N'bellocq. I'll likely write him out with a duty from Morvius for a time but he'll not be too far from sight and mind.

2. Completely agree that an old friend of the group happening across them at this site is also too much of a stretch.

If that soldier still on the ramp survives the ridiculous odds he is up against, maybe that can be Okoya's PC :P.

That's a lot of OOC to wade through :) - but I've gone over the pertinents and have a few additional tidbits (and retreading of existing ground):

1. N'bellocq needs to be taken care of in a meaningful way - and I'd think a fade into the near background slightly out of focus might be best. Even something as simple as how unnatural it is to be beneath the ground with no sight of the sky and how he would rather stay above - would be respected I would think.

2. I really don't like the idea of Okoya's character being summoned or in stasis or tied to the party via a geas, etc. The figurine of elfin ranger power is similarly disinteresting to me.

I still think that there are suitable more conventional reasons that could be plumbed to both give Okoya freedom to define his own character, as well as finagling a way for him to get onto the team.

3. No issues from Qhude's player about it being an elf - just remember that Qhude's sum total of elvish experience has been Ansha and Zezaste (or however he spelled it :P). However Qhude is also quite a literal beast - so it wouldn't take too much for you to establish yourself however you wish.

Qhude is actually pretty quick to trust... but he's also very quick to take offense :P At this point he'd expect an elf to behave like Ansha... but when said elf didn't, he'd modify his expectations. (Morvius being a case in point)

4. Braindump Possible Options:

Member of the Sargavan Military - that isn't part of the initial group sent. We are getting semi-regular resupply, perhaps your character just came back from another mission / assignment / thingy and only just became available to come.

A wealthy benefactor - you have money, Sargava needs money, you give money on condition of being allowed to join the expedition. Grand Custodian sends you to here, Morvius assigns you to us so that we keep an eye on you...

At the top of round 6, there were three gorillas standing in front of the tent. You narrated Morvius killing one (presumably the one at BL 2) at init 6 and Jakob's charmed gorilla downing the one on Qhude on init 4. If Jakob just killed one in the top of round 7 (I believe Tebati's should have been the only one left), isn't that all of them? And shouldn't Qhude have not taken that last blow? Or did another one come out of the tent that I missed?

I was confused by that too, unless AK made a mistake in saying the hit from the charmed ape downed Qhude's foe.

Of course, if Jakob's gorilla and Qhude's foe were both going on init 4, it would come down to a roll-off as to which of them got to attack first. Still, even if Qhude got hit, if 8 damage was enough to finish the enemy gorilla, we still ought to be gorilla-less (save Jakob's simian friend) outside the tentflaps.

I was going purely off DM AK's statement that the simian was accidentally removed...

As Joana said, either way, the only ape left outside the tent now is Jakob's friend. The only difference is whether Qhude is conscious at the top of round 7. ;P

I'm wondering if he noticed that Qhude hadn't killed it, forgot that he'd rolled for Jakob's gorilla to attack it in with all the dozens of NPC rolls he'd made, and thought he'd taken it off the map in error. Because he definitely stated the gorilla went poof ("Another ape fell to the onslaught of Jakob's over-protective monkey").

My assumption was that he had narrated the ape's death, then realized that he was mistaken about how many hit points it had left. Either is a viable possibility...Guess we'll just have to wait until AK enlightens us.

Ah... so I didn't delete the gorilla by accident after all :). Was going back through PC actions to check myself but I forgot to audit my own.

Qhude has an action to take then. No harm no foul.

Yay, we're not down one raging barbarian!

If that soldier still on the ramp survives the ridiculous odds he is up against, maybe that can be Okoya's PC :P.

If you make him my character now, he might have a better chance at survival. ;)

Being CG I didn't see him as the soldier type, but maybe he signed up on a lark and is now just one good showing from a major battlefield promotion. :)

Work in progress...

I saw the alternate racial traits for Dræven and had to look them up on d20pfsrd. I was amused to note that it is possible to have the Darkvision alternate trait, which makes you susceptible to light-based dazzle effects...and also to be immune to light-based dazzle effects with the Lightbringer trait, since they replace different of the standard racial traits.

For full clarity, Qhude retcon your action in and then the others can act.

No time to post till tonight... two kids birthday parties today!
However am happy for Qhude to delay until after the attackers.

Also, sorry if I stole the narrative thunder there. I am bored at the library today. Looking forward to Memorial Day...the library is closed on Sundays through the summer.

Do you work in an academic library or a public one?

Public, though I'd rather be in an academic one. The library I work at has a really bad problem with juvenile delinquents, too--we used to have a contract with a security company that staffed us with a lot of off-duty police officers, and now our in-house security is a reserve sheriff's deputy/chaplain, and we're still trying to hire a replacement for the second one, who joined the Army as a combat engineer.

Speaking of delinquents, I just caught a woman sneaking into the staff lounge again. Shame security wasn't here to deal with it today, after he saw her do it on camera yesterday.

Ah the joys of working with the public.

In other news I just completed my Masters in Library science.

I am now officially after Ansha's job.

Congrats, Jakob! I forget whether I asked it before, but were you more interested in public or academic librarianship? Or special libraries? I'd love to work at a seminary's library.

Perfect position would be something public facing. I do not have the extra chops needed for academic <not that that will stop me from applying> so my current searching is public/gov/special focused.

Early days and I have the freedom that come from already having a decent job. If you like I'll keep you posted.

Btw, any openings with your Lib system?
:7)

Sure. You're out in what, the Seattle area? I imagine the job market is a lot better for librarians out there than here in Indiana, where we have one of the top LIS schools in the country (Indiana University) servicing a slowly declining population.

And no, no openings for a librarian at the library I'm at.

Yup Seattle.
Job market is meh, UWash tends to flood the local market but Microsoft hires and burns out a good number of grads every year so there is hope.

So did Qhude's hit drop the ape? Does it still need to make a saving throw or do I need to retcon my action?

I was still making posts. You need another action though as Morvius finished it off.

Ah, okay.

As both a heads up and an FYI - I shall be wending my way on holiday starting Monday, and will be out of the country from roughly 2-3 weeks give or take (through to about 10th April).

During such time my online time shall be curtailed from what I'm usually capable - which should engender a reduction in verbosity and potentially some unreliability when it comes to posting rates and speed.

I'm more that happy to be DMPC'd whenever it's appropriate, but am hopefuly that I should be able to keep up with all the PbPs that I'm currently playing in during the time down-under.

I should tell you that this week has been... tiring and will most probably continue to be so until about Tuesday with the next three or four days being spent away from my computer. I am not entirely certain whether I will be able to post until then, but I shall at the very least try.

Sorry, illness followed by my birthday. Catching up soon.

Happy (belated?) Birthday Alex!

Birthday, illness..... man that must have been some party.

on the other hand free re-roll for the DM!

Happy Birthday AK!

on the other hand free re-roll for the DM!

Oh, hell, no. He rolls high enough as it is. ;P

I was wondering if it was your birthday yet, AK; I knew it was sometime in late March. Hope it was illness, then birthday, not illness on birthday.

Many happy returns of the day!

It's like a weapon supermarket - everybody wants to give Qhude their steel :)

For clarity - Qhude can't see any threats in the tent can he?

Happy Birthday AK.