Posting on behalf of Aron (overfiend/krolmnite); hes quite ill at the moment and unlikely to post for a day or two.
I'm struggling a bit as the new boy to understand what is going on with the new characters and background to some of the adventure.
Would it be possible to have a quick update on what I should know/understand?
Sure. Apologies if I repeat anything you already know.
Your Golarion is plagued by rifts into other versions of Golarion where history developed differently (I assume you got that part :-).) It is not clear what is causing the rifts, but Prester Gallowsmith has recruited a number of adventurers in an effort to repair them. His research has shown that in each of the alternate Golarions that can be accessed there is a key...something about that world that, if changed, will work to restore the balance and close the rifts. He has no idea how many worlds must be entered and changed before this will occur. It could be one; it could be ten; it could be "many."
The world you are in was apparently identical to yours up until about sixty years previous, when a falling star wiped out a fair chunk of the lands north of the Inner Sea. No one you've spoken with there knows how or why it happened, but according to an old druid the party met in the ruins of Almas the point of impact was Kyonin. Odd things came with the falling star: Versey's ship was out in the Diaspora and wound up being pulled along with the star, crash-landing after Starfall and releasing a lot of weird plants. Akata also came, and spread across much of the land devastated by Starfall. And then there was something else....
A being of peculiar capabilities also fell with the star and survived. From the impact crater, it has created something that Gallowsmith described as the Dark Road, leading off into the heavens. Other things have come along the Road. In this particular Golarion, the Dark Road is the key. What you've been sent to do is journey to the Golarion terminus of the Road and kill its maker, which should destroy it. However, the clock is ticking. When the next conjunction with Aucturn begins (in a few weeks, of course), the Road will be strengthened, and will become much harder to destroy.
The party has made its way north from Almas along the Sellen River, fighting akata, hostile beetles, things that looked like wolves but weren't, a creature of the Darklands that left a couple of party members mentally scarred, and now feral flora. The reason you're fighting the feral flora is that 1) they're in your way, and 2) Versey's ship has a device that can call them back to the ship and pacify them. Once, that is, the device has been repowered by the odd little metal cylinder that you're pulling well behind you wrapped in armor. At the moment, you're resting before heading for Versey's ship.
Any questions?
Awesome it's like a fantasy version of the Exiles! (Which in turn was inspired by another fav of mine the TV series Quantum Leap) this instantly makes it the campaign with the best premise I've ever been in. I'd shake your hand if I could!
Yeah, I love the idea of hopping alternate dimensions and exploring strange new worlds where really weird stuff happened, like this one and the possible destruction of Kyronin. I only wish I had this idea.
Honesty compels me to disclaim credit for the idea; it was originally James Martin's (see HERE for the particulars). I'm the only GM who stuck with the concept, though, and I've been tweaking it in my head as we go. Among other things, the party just discovered that there may be something working against them. Or maybe Prester Gallowsmith has an overdue library book in the back of his closet. Who knows? Always in motion, the future is.
That is awesome! Thank you.
Sorry, DM Carbide. I had some significant work issues that kept me unavailable of late...think I'm good now, and will get caught up this week.
No problem. Good to have you back; it's not like I was pushing things along.
Getting the next fight set up has taken more time than I anticipated (and no, I don't think I can skip it); it doesn't help that work has been taking up a lot of attention as well.
I understand. Do you have herolab? That can help with getting creature's set up.
Not yet. I've thought about getting it, but haven't decided to plunk down the money. Maybe if we get enough of a (US) income tax refund this year....
It's decent to make NPCs or Heroic NPCs. It's now 100% Perfect, but speeds up building characters and monsterous NPCs too.
Done, finally. (It's been hard to find the time to sit down and focus on this for more than a few minutes at a time.)
heh, I know the feeling. Reason I had to drop a few games in the past because I hit burn out.
I sent Sami a PM, but haven't yet gotten a reply. I'll bot the character if I haven't heard back tomorrow.
Still nothing from Sami, and I believe that Elesandira's player (who's running a game I'm in) has been temporarily swamped by teaching duties. I'm not giving up on this yet, but I hadn't wanted to follow one of my posts or have the NPCs push things along on their own.
Well teaching is hard. I wouldn't be caught dead doing it, but that's just me personally.
Understood. Now I'm feeling kind of stupid, though; it wasn't until you mentioned burning from a distance that I remembered Besmarial has a d6 fire or cold breath weapon, and the angel doesn't need to breathe.
I'm having to cut back on the pbp games I'm playing in for a little while, whilst I GM a couple of games. As I'm not getting enough out of Darc as I want, I think it only fair to let you all know that I'd like to leave the game in the next few weeks, permanently or temporarily. So I thought i give you notice to let Darc leave in the next couple of weeks or sooner.
Sorry about this, especially as I've been here since the beginning, but I hope you understand.
I understand, Deevor. I know I haven't been pushing this as much as I probably should have; I overcommitted myself, and the overflow from my wife dealing with the end of the semester (and our son getting set to graduate from high school, and our daughter about to go through some surgery) have left me without a lot of spare time. Unfortunately, the next month or so is also going to be rough for me--graduation is next weekend, the weekend after that I'll be at an SF convention, and then my wife and I will be on vacation for a couple of weeks. After that, though, I'll have more time.
I'll put together a transition for Darc and Sami. If anyone knows someone who'd be interested in joining us, let me know via PM or posting here.
I'll ask around to see who might be interested.
If we haven't picked up a couple of replacements by the time I get back from vacation I'll put up a recruitment post. Right now I think we still have Eretria (Sorc5), Krolmnite (Summ5), and Elesandira (Rgr5). Sounds like you could definitely use some healing; between Elesandira, Selveshanae, and Ava you don't really need another combat monster, and you're a little short in the usual rogue functions. Maybe an archer ranger/rogue.
Strictly speaking, it hasn't started yet; with son graduating/daughter undergoing surgery/incipient vacation driving a lot of franticity at work, I haven't had a lot of spare time over the past couple of weeks. I did post earlier today about the openings in a couple of the other games I play in on the boards, though, and I have one definite interest so far. I'll try to get him in play ASAP.
With only one person interested so far, I've put up a new post in the old recruitment thread. We'll see if we can get restarted as soon as I'm back.
|
Hey folks! Looking forward to gaming with y'all! Bringing Berbas Huber a Half-Orc Archeologist to the table. Wanted to move away as far as I could from the Indy stereotype despite using a whip so he's rather the shady character being a former crook and all.
Mechanically Berbas is more of Rogue with some nice spells than anything else. I envision him as a support character, he has some good skills and can handle traps and scouting pretty well. In combat he relies on his whip or sword and a bit of luck as well as intimidation via enforcer and blistering invective.
Duncan is primary a self buffing Melee'r.
I tweaked his spellist and will base future selections on party need.
He is most certainly NOT a healing battery. But he can use wands and heal ability damage.
Saves vs Magic are crazy high. Not repeats of the Seugathi fight.
Let's do it.
Today is my first day back at work after almost two weeks away, and it also happens to be my division's safety day. Since I'm the safety coordinator for the division, I won't have a lot of time to spare. So my posting may be kind of sparse. At best.
High saves vs. magic might come in handy, Duncan. Especially after...oops, spoilers. *whistles innocently*
DMC, could I make a suggestion?
I think round about now would be a good time to lose the GM-PCs. As long as we've got long-distance-larry feeding us the odd clue we'll probably get better RP going and be a bit more involved in the game.
I found them really confusing and I think that will be the same for other new guys.
Obviously, you know more about the longer-term plot and what they bring to the adventure, but it's worth a thought.
That was the plan, in fact--once the power supply is repaired, Versey is going to stay with the ship (after one minor departure), and Lum is going back to Bellis. What with six adventurers, two animal companions, and an eidolon, there are enough of you now that you won't need the help (and I won't need the grief of handling two more characters).
Checkin' in.
Yay!
Looking forward to getting to the ship, and resting long enough to recover all this ability damage. And interested to see how Carbide's going to get the new folks on board.
Virtual high-fives to Duncan, Berbas and Imizael.
Chest bump!
I was waiting on the PCs on the other side following Lum, or otherwise reacting to the last in-game post about events there. Eretria, Elesandira, Krolmnite--over to you.
That wasn't how I'd meant it, but I can see how it'd be easy to read that way. OK, will fix it and get everyone together.
So is my Pseudragon permanently unable to fly?
Was hoping with my alignment and being friendly and giving it a mini hoard it would be happy to stick around and be a extra set of eyes.
A cure light wounds will take care of the pseudodragon; the clipped wings were atmosphere to establish that you were buying a slave and freeing it.
sweet.
working on his avatar.
(of course he is not a companion or familiar so I need to work hard to keep him alive.)
I'll get some maps up. Sorry about that; even after going through the Inner Sea World Guide to make sure I had the geography right it didn't occur to me to post some pictures.
OK, the rough map is up HERE.
Key: Party #1 started out from Absalom in Golarion Prime and sailed (in Golarion Prime) to Cassomir, on the north coast of the Inner Sea. Their route is the thin red line from Absalom to Cassomir. They got into trouble (and had 3/4 of the PCs disappear), so Party #2 set out from Absalom to assist them. Their route is the thin blue line from Absalom to Cassomir.
Next to Cassomir is a small rift, which both parties took to the Golarion in which you are currently adventuring. After some minor excitement, the remaining member of Party #1 joined Party #2 and sailed up the Sellen River. Their route is the black line up the river. After some slightly more than minor excitement, they were joined by reinforcements and made their way to the sky ship (purple star). There they were joined by still more reinforcements before being carried north (that's the purple line). The black star is the party's current position.
I haven't edited the map to show the changes brought about by the second Starfall. The short version is that the Verduran Forest is largely gone; the climax forest has been replaced by grasslands and patches of second-growth forest. Also, the nation of Kyonin is now a smaller lake subsidiary to Lake Encarthan. The terminus of the Dark Road is in an island in that lake.
I'll try to get some better maps up, now that I've extracted the country-level images from the Inner Sea World Guide. I won't have to crop out the part with the scale, which may help give you an idea of how far you have to go.
Does that help clarify things?
There is probably some clever way to keep the scale bar and the place names in the Inner Sea World Guide images, but so far I haven't found it. Anyone have any pointers?
In training and working late most of this week. Imizael and Eritrea, are you still with us?
Imizael responded to a PM, but Eretria didn't. I'm going to hold her out of the fight, and if she comes back I'll get her back with the party.
Cool. I was getting worried.
Well me and Berbarus are buffers, a flank and trip from the cat would be sweet.