DM Destrina's Adventures in Alahn (Inactive)

Game Master Destrina

For some reason I thought only three of you had posted. I are idiot.

Droskar drives his blade into the minotaur's chest, shoving him to the ground. Grotts convulses on the floor before going mostly still, a pool of blood spreading as only his chest heaves accompanied by wet, sucking sounds with each breath. Aurica's arrow strikes off a horn as the minotaur falls, as Austru manages to claw the frightened human thief. Maleghk and Lailani move forward, the dwarf blocking the man into the cage, just after a shard of ice whips through, narrowly missing the thief.

In response to all these events, the man drops his blade, pulls his other dagger and throws it to the ground and drops to his knees, hands up in front of him, then says "Don't kill me! I give up, I GIVE UP!"

You're out of initiative.

"Arrest this man. We will hold him for questioning," Lailani commands, pointing at the bandit. She moves to the back of the car, and looks around to make sure there are no more bandits on the train. What were they after? Do they know why we're here? Is this involved with our mission somehow?

Aurica nods at Lailani's orders, moving in to help secure the bandit-- and to check on her bird. Austru is worked up from the fighting and shrieks at the proximity of Maleghk and the others, but Aurica rushes to calm the bird and get him to relax, with the aid of some strips of dried meat from her pack.

"I think they were goin' for what's in the strongbox-- did he say gold?" she says, getting rope out of her pack to securely tie the surviving thief. "Is everyone okay? Nobody's bad hurt?"

Maleghk nods approvingly at Austru and says something in Celestial as he binds the thief after checking him for weapons. As his battle rage fades he reverts to common. "Aurica, I believe I'm going to enjoy having your friend on our side." Maleghk says with a grin.

Droskar glares out of the side of the car after the escaping bandit. He scowls and returns to the group, sheathing his blade as he does so.

"One got away."

As Aurica ties the thief, she notices the yellowish glint of gold through the very slightly ajar top of one of the chests in the small, cage-like room. What remains of the bandit ranks has fled, their mission a failure.

A small number of other bandits were captured by others on the train, including a few near the front of the train captured by Phaerine and Octavius.

Aurica Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28

"A couple of us should keep an eye on these chests until order is restored and new guards are available."

"I will stay," Lailani replies. She looks to the centaur, "Droskar, will you stay with me?"

Droskar looks first to Aurica, then back to Lailani and nods.

"Aurica, would you and Austru like to come with me? We should check to see if the rest of the train is clear."

The bandits dealt with, Phaerine leads the group back to the luxury car, which is still in a pristine state, a jarring transition from the blood soaked, singed, and otherwise ransacked cars behind it. She puts on a pot of tea and sits in the same chair she occupied before the bandits so rudely interrupted you.

"You handled yourselves well," she says, smiling. "I'll have to mention this to Markaas. Now rest up, we'll pull into the GMT station in Zephyria in the morning."

Sorry to leave you hanging there, Malegh! Retcon that yes, Aurica would have helped Maleghk clear the car, and Austru would have done an aerial circuit of the train to make sure the rooftop clingers were gone, etc.

Aurica reluctantly follows back to the luxury car, once more leaving Austru behind-- though this time, Austru insists on perching on the rooftop of one of the cars. Aurica tells him to go inside if he is in trouble of getting blown off the roof by the train's velocity.

She ducks her head at Phaerine's compliment. "Thank you ma'am. Glad to be of service."

-9 arrows used in combat

Lailani maintains her composure as always. She sits back down as well, her back ramrod straight. She waits for the tea to brew, and then begins quietly sipping it with formal motions. Indeed, the contractors fight well. Perhaps I was too hasty to judge them earlier. Where we're going I may very well have need of a few rough hands.

The next morning dawns in much the same way as the last few have: the klack-klack of wheels on rails, and a well made breakfast delivered by the staff of the rail line. A few hours after dawn, the grey cliffs appear on the horizon and the group spots their first airship, zooming past them, heading westward. Phaerine points out the floating disc that is Upper Zephyria, still barely more than a speck in the sky at this distance.

Another hour later, the train is running alongside the cliffs, and airship sightings are becoming more and more common by the minute. The train makes stops at a few smaller cities and towns, on its path to Zephyria, at one point stopping a half hour to exchange the half-burnt, hole-riddled cargo car for another of the same model, this one also bearing the blue-on-bronze KAESCo logo on the side. As you continue on the towns and cities grow closer and closer together until, excepting signs posted alongside the railway, there is no longer any way to tell when you've left the boundaries of one and entered another. Dwellings and other buildings begin to appear on top of and built directly into the cliffs, growing more frequent as you continue east, until they too seem to have no end.

Shortly before noon, the train rounds a long curve and the cliffs sweep back to the south revealing Zephyria in all its soot-stained splendor. Your position on a rise descending into the city gives you an excellent view. The three miles between the cliffs and Lake Zephyr are completely covered by the city. To the south, innumerable circular platforms jut out from the top of the cliffs, connected by long steel walkways and supported by massive steel girders that reach a quarter of the way down the cliffside. Airships of varying sizes, shapes, and purpose take off and land on these platforms continually, a carefully coordinated chaos. The entire cliffside is covered in openings to businesses and houses, a latticework of ramps and platforms connecting them to one another. One can even spot a train moving into the cliff near the railyard ahead of you.

Further ahead of you to the east, the River Castrium bisects the city, spanned by only three bridges. A dizzying array of watercraft, from small barges and ferries transporting people and goods across the river, to luxury yachts, to larger merchant vessels transporting goods to other cities on the shores of the lake. Five islands sit in the widest part of river near the opening in the cliff that the river comes from.

To the north lies the warm waters of Lake Zephyr, technically a giant hot spring, and the reason behind the warm climate this far north. On its shores stands the old city, covering just over a square mile. It's walls still stand to this day, though the gates are never closed anymore, and the outside of the walls seem to be stained with soot. Much of the western half of the old city seems to have been converted to warehouses to service the nearly endless array of docks that cover the coast.

Smoke rises into the air from factories across the city, the only notable exceptions being the old city and Riverside Park, on the eastern bank of the Castrium. The smoke is most densely concentrated outside the western and southwestern walls of the old city, the entire district a haze. Strangely, you can spot only two lines of rail inside the city proper, one crossing through the middle of city and over the Castrium on one of the three bridges, and another leading to a large dockyard outside the western walls.

For all that the lower city of the valley and middle city of the cliffs draw the eye, neither holds a candle to the burnished steel disc that floats above the city, nearly twice as large as the walled old city. Jets of steam erupt from the disc, and a half dozen cables connect the floating city with the cliffs, other cables, or perhaps pipes, hang loosely from the nearly taut main cables. The fact that you can see the cables from this distance speaks to their thickness. Airships of various shapes and sizes land and take off from platforms much like those on cliff, and all the while the upper city hangs motionless.

Shortly thereafter, the train pulls into a large railyard and train station. GMT logos (brown letters on a green elipse, within a red elipse) decorate most of the large surfaces, and many of the smaller ones. You disembark from the train onto a private section of the platform, led by Octavius and Phaerine. The woman turns, and after you're all on the platform she says, "Feel free to explore the city today, Lailani will be accompanying you to make sure you don't get yourselves lost or killed. We'll need you to be at the KAESCo skydock tomorrow by noon. Good day." She gives you all a nod, then makes a gesture to Octavius and strides away, the rangan man following.

Droskar covers his mouth with the bend of his arm as he leaves the accursed train. His legs were shaky from the transition to normal land again, but he was relieved to be off of the damned thing.

"This place," he says, "it is an abomination. The air is stale and thick with poison. I can feel it burning my lungs. How do people survive here?"

He looks around with a disgusted expression as he takes in the vast, unnatural landscape he finds himself surrounded by.

"Yes, I'm sure it must be alarming for one such as yourself. Perhaps you would like to visit a park?" Lailani asks Droskar in her cold way.

Are there any parks around?

There is a very large park by the river, think Central Park, but a bit smaller.

Maleghk asks, "Are there any healers of note in this city? I would like to visit them if possible.

Aurica openly gawks and gapes. She hadn't known the world HAD so many people in one place-- or so many buildings, or roads. She's not as horrified as Droskar is, but she does feel overwhelmed, and stares up at the numerous airships like a little child, her face pressed to the window's glass.

Aurica's still looking around her, every inch the tourist, when she follows after the others onto the platform. Austru shrieks and settles beside her, clearly unnerved by all the noises, smells, and other unusual things. Aurica pats at the bird's feathered flank, trying to calm him down.

"Are there... are there maps of the city?" she asks a little weakly. Otherwise she will get lost so quickly. "How do we get to the KAES sky-dock?"

(OOCly, I'm not actually asking for a city map, unless of course you happen to have one. ;) Just trying to give Aurica a way she could get a grasp of the city.)

Lailani leads the group onto one of the passenger cars at another platform, bypassing any fees by flashing her KAESCo identification card to the security staff. After a very brief ride, the group makes their way off the train after passing over the Castrium. The bridge over the Castrium here is called the 'Rail Bridge' as it is the only crossing point of the Castrium for trains. Here on the eastern bank, a large yard is used to transfer goods between Arcadian Rail and GMT cars, since the two companies use different gauges of track. A few entire cars are lifted by crane between the tracks, specially designed to fit into an undercarriage that bears the wheels of the car.

Passengers, like the group, can reach the river bank by going down long ramps that stretch to the north and south. Lailani leads the group to the south, along the riverbank, toward a long belt of green visible from the top of the ramp. It seems to be mostly free of the smoke that pervades the rest of the city. Small bridges lead out to a pair of small islands, that also seem to be part of the park.

The air in the park is much fresher. Groves of many kinds of trees dot the rolling plain of the park, and a cool breeze blows off the river. In the distance to the south you can see a enormous hollow in the rock over half a mile deep, carved by the river over millenia, and resulting in the huge waterfall known as Castrium falls.

I'll give you guys a day or so IRL to RP here, then I'll move us on. I'm going to try a lot harder to update consistently.

Aurica continues to gawk and stare around the city. The massive crane makes her goggle for a good thirty seconds before jogging to catch up with Lailani.

The sight of the green swath of park makes her breath out in unconscious relaxation. Good ol' natural green... well, it's awful trimmed and tamed, not like a real forest or anything, but... it's more familiar than the ground being made of little stones laid together, anyway.

She whistles at the sight of that mighty waterfall. "Would you look at that! Don't know as my ma and pa ever knew there was that big a fall in the whole wide world. Makes me wonder what sorta things we're gonna see on a whole new land."

"It is a beautiful thing. I had hoped you two would enjoy this place. It is the most natural I could think of in the city, though it is a far cry from any real wilds."

Lailani takes a moment to enjoy the falls herself. She can feel all the water's power through her aquakineticism, and the effect is staggering. If only I could channel such flows, I would be queen of everything I see.

"It's all-- neat," Aurica says with a laugh that makes her sound quite young. "Like someone laid it out as clean as sewing. Trees don't wanna be in rows, they just wanna reach up high for the sky. But it's still pretty. I think I'd get awful sick of gray, I had to live in a place like this all the time. Least there's that waterfall, though-- I'd never get tired of lookin' at that."

Austru is obviously eager to take to the sky above the city, but Aurica keeps a firm hand clutched at his pinfeathers. Last thing she needs is for someone to figure her bird is wild and a threat, and start taking potshots at the baby roc.

Droskar looks at this "park" with nearly as much disgust as the initial train stop. "This isn't nature. It is a mockery of it. Broken, bent to the will of others. The only thing that makes it more comfortable than the rest of this place is that the air is at least a bit cleaner here. How long must we wait in this...this place?"

"It is a truly magnificent waterfall!", Maleghk says. I would comment on the power available if it could be harnessed but Droskar is offended enough by the changes wrought here.

"Well, if you've seen all you'd like of the park, we can continue on to our lodgings?" Lailani asks the group. If they are ready, she will lead them to wherever KAESco is putting them up.

Lailani leads the group back across the river, this time walking across one of the broad pathways on either side of the Rail Bridge. Another three-quarters of an hour later they come upon a six story building in one of the nicer districts in town. Inside, wide hallways contain a series of doors on each side, and a stairway at the end of the hall.

As you enter the building, a gemmil woman approaches you and says, "'Ey dere queenie," she looks over the group and continues, "Must be tha provincials ya takin' ta Vashalle wit' ya." She walks to a small counter against the wall and grabs a list, looking over it. After perusing it for a few moments, she says, "Ponyboy gets 13, n' the shorties got 26 n' 29."

Aurica shoots Droskar a sympathetic look at his disgust with the park-- for herself, it's a novelty, a strange one, but not fundamentally offensive-- but she can understand how strange it seems to him, anyway. She nods to Lailani's question of their being ready to move on, and devotes her attention to trying to coax the skittish and restless Austru along.

**

At the building, it's more of the same-- the bird hates hallways and anywhere enclosed, and Aurica knows it will only get worse as the roc continues to grow. But for now Austru consents to hop along the stairs after them at her leading. Soon they stand before a gemmil woman; Aurica stands respectfully, one hand on the bird's wing soothingly.

"...twenty-nine what?" she blurts, curiously, not seeming too offended at being called a shortie.

"Guess that means I'll take room 26 if you want 29 Aurica."

"That is correct, Mrs. Kregas," Lailani says. She takes the keys from the genmil woman. "29 is your room number, Aurica. Every room in this building has a number, it helps to find people when delivering messages and visiting." Lailani hands the keys to 26 and 29 to the dwarves to sort out, and gives Droskar the key to room 13. "I'm going to have some rest after the journey. If you need me, I'll be in room 7."

Droskar takes the key and walks toward his designated cell. He detested how his hooves echoed in this confined place. It was very much like a cave, but entirely unnatural.

When he reached the door numbered 13, he slides the key into the lock and opens the door, taking in the site of his "quarters."

Aurica blinks in bemusement as the reason for the odd numbers is explained.

"Hang on, there's... twenty-nine rooms in this place? How do they have room for them all?" she asks naively. Shaking her head in wonder at how there's so MUCH of everything in the city, Aurica simply agrees with Maleghk's proposal of who takes what room. She takes the key, turning it over in her hands, and then goes to see "her room". What a strange thing!

Now will they let Austru stay with her, or force him into a stable, the way the train had insisted he stay in the cargo car, she wonders...

"Don' get lost dwarfies." Kregas says as you depart, her tone mocking. "Just waddle on up tha stairs ta fine ya room." She smirks and returns to sitting at the small desk beside the entrance.

No one stops Aurica from taking Austru into her room, which happens to be up two flights of spiraling stairs, the first more like ascending platforms, intended to accomodate gemmil who are bunking on the first floor up, the second much more narrow. Each floor has ten apartments, save the gemmil floor which has only six, and the ground floor which has only eight. A stairwell rests at one end of the long hallway that runs through each floor, and doors to each apartment sit along the hall at regular intervals. At the far end of each hall an open doorway leads into a communal latrine, complete with small curtained stalls. The latrines lack any gendered segmentation. The ground floor has a bathing pool, open to all inhabitants of the apartment building. KAESCo has installed running water in the building, for both waste disposal and bathing purposes.

The small, spartan apartments consist of three rooms each, a bedroom, sitting room, and kitchen. The kitchen is stocked with a small amount of non-perishable foods, such as vegetables and fruits sealed in glass jars with metal tops. (Think Ball brand glass jars for example) The sitting room has a couch and a pair of wooden chairs arranged around a low rectangular table, a small bookcase with a selection of popular books rests in the corner of each. The bedroom consists of a single bed and a chest of drawers. The things in Aurica and Maleghk's rooms are slightly too large for them, sized for humans and elves, but workable. The things in Droskar's room are larger, sized for gemmil and generally at the proper size for him, though the bed is esentially useless to him, as it is designed for one that is humanoid in shape. Lailani's room is like the others, though it has been decorated as she sees fit. Feel free to describe it if you like, think late 1800s/early 1900s era.

I'll let you guys do as you will here, then move on either tomorrow or after you're done with this area if you're still doing things here.

Lailani's room is totally spartan. She hasn't altered a single thing since she moved into it, other than to keep it spotlessly clean and stocked with non perishable food.

Ready to move on. More combat!

Droskar ambled about the room slowly, taking in the chamber with an equal amount of disdain as he has everything else in the city so far. He tinkers with the strange contraptions that spout water, and scowls at it.

They even bind the water. These city dwellers may not enslave people, but they enslave the world around them happily. It is just as disgusting as any other kind of slavery...

He then moves a thin out from beneath a table and into the middle of the room, as well as the blanket from the bed. He carefully descends to his side as he curls his legs beneath him and pulls the blanket up and around his shoulders, and he tries to get some sleep to prepare himself for whatever horrors he would bear witness to with the dawn.

Maleghk enters his rooms and makes a quick inspection. He goes to the stable to check that Strider has been properly taken care of and then returns to his room for some much needed sleep. After setting his longhammer to brace against the door he retires, taking his waraxe with him. He mutters a prayer for Alaya and falls asleep.

Aurica, meanwhile, can't stop fiddling with the faucet. Imagine if you didn't have to go to the well or the stream every time you wanted a sip of somethin'! Or you didn't need to haul buckets for the tub! She spends a good hour or so poking around the room, marveling at the contraptions whose purpose she can figure out, and being bemused by those she can't.

"Austru, I don't reckon we're in the forest anymore," she says, shaking her head.

Eventually Aurica strips off her armor and traveling gear. She washes up with handfuls of the water from the spout, and then approaches the bed with a bit of glee: this ain't like the bed her father and mother built, with stuffed straw sacking for a mattress; this is a city bed. Like what a high-born lady uses. (Aurica is entirely ignorant just how far the utilitarian KAESCO bed is from a 'high-born lady's bed.)

She sleeps soundly and well, Austru resting on the floor nearby, occasionally giving a plaintive chirp through the night.

The next morning dawns and Lailani, an early riser, rounds up the rest of the group. You leave the apartment building in the predawn light, columns of smoke still perpetually rising over the city. After a brisk hour's walk, the five of you (counting Austru) reach an opening in the cliffs, and Lailani expertly leads you up a series of tunnels, spiraling ever upward, eventually emerging atop the cliffs. From here the entire city is laid out before you, a sea of stone, wood, metal, and people extending from the cliffs to Lake Zephyr. Lailani leads you on, heading toward one of the compounds on the top of the cliff, one of KAESCo's airship foundries, this one specializing in custom work.

The sun is fully above the horizon as Lailani flashes her identification to the guards, who then allow you pass through the gates and into the yard. The pearl elf leads the group across the yard, avoiding areas where airships are being assembled, to a small (compared to the hangars around the yard) building marked 'Main Office'. The inside of the building is well appointed in a utilitarian manner, all the wood a fine grain, the floors umblemished granite tiles. A young copper elf man nods to Lailani and says "Lady de Celeste will see you in her office." He gestures down the hallway, an action of habit, as he is quite aware that Lailani knows where Phaerine's office is. Lailani leads you to the room, an unassuming and unmarked door in the middle of a long hallway bearing many such doors. The kineticist knocks which is immediately followed by a feminine voice calling "Enter," from within the room behind the door.

Upon stepping through the doorway you see that unlike the rest of the building, the furniture in Phaerine's office is lavish. Deep brown upholstery, with touches of golden thread, and gold threaded buttons covers the two chairs and the short couch arranged in front of her desk. The desk itself is reddish stained cherry wood, its top covered in carefully arranged papers, trays, and a large crystal pedestal bowl holding chocolates that sits in one corner. A number of paintings decorate the walls, some are landscapes, depicting Lake Zephyr, Zephyria, and the last a place unfamiliar to all of you. Another is a hunting scene, two men on horseback follwing a group of dogs chasing a strange looking stag-like creature. The final two are portraits, one of a middle aged man and woman in noble finery, the other of a young boy playing with a child's toy on a lawn. All the other accoutrements in the office are as fine as the rest, from the heavy drapes on the window, down to the gold pen in Phaerine's hand.

The woman herself fits the office she sits in. She wears a crimson dress slashed with white, a bit of golden embroidery decorating the neckline and sleeves. Her short-cropped brown hair bears a golden barrette and she wears a bit of makeup to enhance her natural beauty. As the four of you enter the room she rises, bringing her golden hilted sword and ivory handled revolver into view. What appeared to be a dress while she sat is not really a dress at all, but instead she wears close fitting crimson trousers and a gold-embroidered white half-skirt that covers only her right leg. The white slashing of the top seamlessly transitions into the half-skirt, and is altogether a rather dashing look.

"Prompt as always, Lailani," the human woman says in her strange accent, smiling. "We were going to send you over to Vashalle tomorrow, but an issue's come up, and I want you all to handle it." A frown crosses her face, followed by a look of deep concern. "While the city has a government that nominally rules it, in reality the major corporations pull all the strings via bribes, or straight out intimidation. Obviously, different corporations have different goals, and each is vying for the power of the city government. Markaas doesn't like this shadow war, but is forced to play along in self defense, since he nearly lost the company when he tried to stay out of it. Anyhow, the point at hand is that a couple of members of the security force under Octavius' command have been captured and are being held in one of ARAL's warehouses in the warehouse district of the old city. They're probably being tortured for information that ARAL can use against us. We want you to get them out." Phaerine retrieves a folder from the top-left drawer of her desk and hands it to Lailani. "That folder contains dossiers on the two captured agents as well as the location of the warehouse and a sketch of the inside of the building. Don't ask how I got the sketch. Read it all, memorize it, and burn it. There's simply too many people around the warehouse district both day and night to do this quietly, though I still recommend night time, so this will be a smash and grab type of operation. Do it quickly and get out. The last piece of paper in the file is where you need to take the operatives once you've freed them. Any questions?"

Aurica stands at stiff attention in the office, trying not to look as out of place as she feels in all the finery.

"Yes'm," she says dutifully, and takes out her cheap tourist's map she bought the day before assuming she could find one. She stares at the maze of streets, trying to get a sense in the city of where they are; when Lailani eventually hands over the documents in the folder to be seen by the others, she'll dutifully mentally mark those places as well, the warehouse and the rescue spot.

Looking at Droskar, her lips twitch a bit. "You don't exactly sneak in places, Dros," she says with her eyes dancing. "Maybe we ought to throw the fellas on your back from a window and have you run off with 'em..."

Droskar scoffs at Aurica's suggestion. "As if I were one of these common horses, with broken spirit and lack of free will! I am no beast of burden!"

Looking over the others, he quickly relaxes somewhat as he realizes that he is likely to be the only one fit enough to carry them away should the captives be unable to move of their own volition. He sighs and adds, "However, if, AND ONLY IF, they are unable to flee on their own, I suppose I can carry them away."

"If the opportunity presents itself would you like a hostage from their faction?", Maleghk asks.

"That seems straight forward, m'am. We can handle it," Lailani responds cooly. She takes the information, reading and memorizing it. Then she hands it to Aurica.

"I am trained in the arts of stealth, but my night vision is not as good as that of you dwarves. Are any of you particularly quiet and agile? If so perhaps one of you could case the place, and locate the best window or door for us to breach. Then we "smash and grab" as Phaerine says."

Aurica tries to hide her grin at Droskar's indignance, instead nodding quasi-solemnly along with his earnest words.

She dutifully starts looking through the dossier when Lailani hands it over, tongue peeping out her lips in concentration. Aurica is not one of the world's great readers, and some of these words are like ten or eleven letters, okay.

"I'm kinda quiet," she says carefully. She looks over at Maleghk and Droskar. "....'m probably more quiet than them, anyhow."

Stealth +4 here

"Would you feel comfortable checking it out with the rest of us at a distance?" Lailani asks the dwarf. The pearl elf looks at Aurica with and expressionless face while awaiting her answer.

Aurica's eyes widen. "Uuhm... I can try," she says with a throat clearing. "I mean. Yes, ma'am."

"Excellent," Lailani says, as if that settles it. "Do the rest of you need to make any preparations?"

Droskar shakes his head no.

After listening to your conversation a while, Phaerine speaks up again, "If you can accomplish this with stealth, it would certainly impress me, however, if that fails, speed will be of the essence. It will be easy to bribe the Zephyrian Guard to stop investigating as long as you aren't in their custody." A grimace comes over her face as she continues, "If you fall into ARAL's hands, however, they will likely kill you and the other operatives, as their location has been compromised."

"One last thing," she says, drawing a small bag from one of her desk drawers, "this is 500 zephyrs, use it to get anything you need for this mission. Now, may the gods be with you, good luck, and all speed."

Zephyrian currency: Zephyrs = GP, Marks = SP, Pens (short for pennies) = CP (It's actually more complicated than this, but we only need those three for Pathfinder)

That 500 gp is a potion of invisibility and a potion of enlarge person for Droskar, and then some, iirc.

True, re: potions. Invisibility is great for trying the stealthy route. Well, if getting close to the building and then Aurica slipping in via invis/stealth is the plan, I'm game.

Aurica's eyes widen at the sight of all that coin in one place at one time. She nods dutifully to Phaerine and salutes.

Not sure if we need to play out any reading/examining of the dossiers while we still have the chance to ask Phaerine questions. If not, then maybe we can try and surreptitiously case the area during daylight, since it's morning now? Get to a neighboring building rooftop, look it over and see if they have visible guards posted, that sort of thing.

Posted to get campaign info started.

Eyo!

Anywho...if'n we do a Sandbox style game...what sorts of ambitions would you guys perhaps like to undertake?

Form a kingdom?
Serve a kingdom?
Destroy a kingdom?
Random exploration?
Non-random exploration?

Just curious so as to know what sorts of things to build.

Hello!

I need to know much more about the setting. I can work with a wide variety of character concepts, so I'd prefer to build something that's going to fit the game.

If we're corporate representatives, I think getting our hands on some kind of resource would be fun. Oil, gold, some kind of mana crystal or whatever powers magitek, etc. Maybe another rival corporation is going for the same resource. Then it'd be like a race.

I've been itching to play something akin to a voodoo witch doctor.

Not bound to the idea, but it's on the table. Race is optional at this point.

I sent a PM to Dien, inviting them to check out the thread.

Okay, I'm just going to start typing about the part of the setting that your characters will be from and see where it takes us. Feel free to ask any questions you want, or ask me to explain any particular point better.

________________________________________________________________________

Tarsus

Tarsus is the northernmost continent of the eastern hemisphere of Alahn. It is a land of rugged mountain ranges, harsh tundra, evergreen forests, and numerous fjords. Most of it is anyway. Sheltered within the mountains the central high plains teem with greenery. Numerous thermal vents, geysers, semi-active volcanoes, hot springs, and warm caldera lakes combined with the mountainous shelter provided by the Bronzevein Range have combined to free the north-central and northeastern regions of Tarsus from the snow common to the rest of the continent.

Tarsus is distant from the other continents of the world, and its harsh winters often result in icebergs floating offshore when the summer heat breaks them free from the glacial shelves on the eastern and western coasts. These factors have led to the people of Tarsus being largely isolated from those of other continents until recently.

While the study of many forms of magic developed rapidly on other continents, most notably Maileeka, Bregande, the Sea of Silk, and North Alzemar (formerly known as Atasha), Tarsus was essentially unacqauinted with all but the most rudimentary magic. Instead, its people became inventors of the mundane sort, far outstripping other continents in technology. Just over 300 years ago, the first firearms were manufactured by Tumas Arcadia, in Bentros. At the time Bentros was a rather insignificant port city, where coal was shipped from the coal mines in the east across Lake Arcades west to Besaltra and north through the Great Eastern Mountain Pass, more commonly referred to as the East Pass, to Borsos and frostbitten Okiros.

The creation of the first firearms led to an industrial revolution in the city, quickly elevating it among the greater powers of the region as more and more gunworks, foundries, and other supporting industries took root in the city and Bentros was renamed Arcadia in the inventor's honor. A short war decades later brought the other major city in what is now called the Arcadian Valley, Besaltra, under Arcadia's control, and only the mountains kept the city from total dominance of the region. The East Pass was too long a chokepoint for any army, even with guns, to conquer. The guns themselves, however, spread among the people living in the Great Valleys, and eventually beyond the valleys to the nomadic Czeran people who lived in the tundra and taigas south of the Bronzeveins. The Czerans achieved a great empire with those Arcadian guns, but that is the story of another continent.

Approximately 200 years ago the first rail line was built, designed by partners Glann Geldling, a dwarven engineer, and Aleksundar Moranties, a human architect and inventor. The Geldling-Moranties line linked the human city Grantia with the gold dwarf citadel Albern, carrying freight and passengers between the two cities. Within a decade, Luvotra, a human city, and the copper elf cities Oltash and Faliria were also linked to the line. In that same decade rail lines were built in the other two Great Valleys, linking their major cities, but it took 25 more years for tunnels to be blasted through the Bronzeveins and connect all three valleys together by rail. This development led to the rise of, to this day, the newest of the great cities of the region, Zephyria. Originally a fishing and farming community on the southwestern shore of Lake Zephyr, it stood in the natural junction of the three rail lines, and became the region's metropolitan and multicultural center of trade and shipping.

Already marvelling at what they had accomplished, the people of the Great Valleys strove ever further, this time reaching out to touch the skies themselves. Around 150 years ago, the first airship, named the Westwind, was built by Alixandrus Zephyr, grand-grandson of Temothus Zephyr, the founder of Zephyria. Already an important city, Zephyria's control of airship design brought it to equal Arcadia in power and influence over the region. Over the next 58 years most innovation were improvements of existing technology, until Alixandrus Zephyr discovered aethermancy.

Aethermancy is the ability to create and work with Aether, a type of volatile magical energy. The energy itself is too volatile to use in most standard magical practices, and because of this was basically ignored after discovery on other continents. In Tarsus, it was different. Alixandrus invented a storage device and a converter that allowed the energy to be used to power Tarsian machinery. Soon the steam engines of old were relegated to backups, replaced by aetheric drives and aethermancers. With the energy in such demand, people across the continent were tested for ability to become an aethermancer, and those who succeeded became a rare commodity. Wealth flowed, and the lucky rose into the upper echelons of society.

The discovery of Aethermancy sparked a magical renaissance in the Great Valleys, leading to the discovery of other types of arcane magic and with Elementalism. With knowledge of Elementalism, there came a necessary knowledge of the Elemental Lords, a pantheon of deities that one must enter a pact with to gain the ability to use most elemental magic. The pacts with and reverence for the Elemental Lords sparked some controversy with followers of the Old Gods (Not the Cthulhu kind, just an older human/gemmil pantheon), the Elven deities worshipped in the region, and the dwarven deity Obreggun of the Deep Places. This in turn led to a more refined knowledge of the rudimentary divine magic that had existed on Tarsus for millenia.

Elementalism soon provdied a more stable, though less intense, form of power through Elementalism. Elemental magic is performed by drawing extremely specific shapes which act as gateways to specific portions of the evershifting elemental plane. These shapes then have marks added to them that signify how the element being connected to them will be used. These shapes and marks must be perfect or the magic will have unpredictable and sometimes catastrophic results. Finally a command word is spoke releasing the magic. The shapes and marks can be drawn in the air (though all but the most basic spells are staggeringly hard to perform in this fashion), drawn on a surface, etched, carved, or burned. Metal may even be cast into the appropriate shape, and many items enchanted with elemental magic are made precisely this way.

The steamgate is onesuch device, it is a permanently open portal that shunts steam through it at a specific rate determined by the markings on the octogram that represents steam on the elemental plane. The steamgates are inserted into steam turbines that produce power for the various machines used by the people of Tarsus. An odd ball of silvery metal that had rested in a museum in Zephyr for the better part of three decades was seen in a new light the discovery of elementalism. Covered in intricately marked octograms, it was discovered that the ball could generate amounts of steam that far surpassed even the most effecient steamgates made to date. They named this device the Steamfont. After great amounts of testing, it was found that the device, when harnessed properly with thousands of turbines, could produce more energy than several hundred aetheric generators.

In what some call 'We Mortals' Greatest Hubris', it was decided that a flying city would be built, and the Steamfont would be its heart. The creativity and ingenuity of the entirety of the Great Valleys and especially Zephyria, where the city would be located, was harnessed. Exceedingly efficient turbines were manufactured, along with extremely durable and powerful propellers and engines. Eventually the new city, called Upper Zephyria was complete. A hollow disc, two miles in circumference, was the ground upon which the buidlings of the city stood. Within the disc was a labyrinth of steam pipes and turbines, eletric cables and engines. 20 years ago, the city took to the sky, and there it still hangs, tethered to the cliffs that have become Middle Zephyria, and floating over the original city, Lower Zephyria. It may just be the greatest achievement mortal hands have ever crafted.

In time, weapons using the aether and elementalism were developed, but conflicts still didn't take to the skies. Airships still needed their huge baloons to provide lift, as the amount of aether or steam required to provide lift for all but the tiniest unarmed aircraft was untenable. The baloons were easily destroyed by weapons both conventional and magical, and any armor strong enough to stand up to such weapons was too heavy to carry. This remained the case until 4 years ago, when the brilliant inventor Markaas Kelbrine invented solid aetheric field generators. Originally to be used for windows, doors, temporary bridges, and other pedestrian use, Kelbrine quickly learned to strengthen the weightless fields to the point that they could withstand cannon fire and elemental attacks, while merely absorbing aetheric blasts. Kelbrine earned a massive fortune selling the generators to cities through the Great Valleys, eventually starting the Kelbrine Aeronautical Engineering and Shipping Co. Through this business, Kelbrine, only 25 years old, has become the richest man on the continent.

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That's all for the moment, I'll write more later, possibly tonight. I'll also dig up my document on the religions and philosophies of the world. Some of those pertain to Tarsus, though many only pertain to Maileeka. There's obviously a lot more setting material, but I do have to do SOME work at work today.

Hello *waves* As the screen says, I'm Dien, and I've played with Jelani before. I'm... tentatively interested, tentatively because I'm already in ten play by post games, and I was just thinking to myself the other day that I should probably cut down. Ahem. And yet here I am. >__<

Anyway, not absolutely promising I'll join in, but I'll read the stuff you've got and see if anything sparks stuff in my brain.

Not a problem. I'll be adding more and more to the setting as I have time to type it out. Most of it is already in my head or on paper, but sadly paper means I have to type it all out, which takes time.

I'm making a gameplay thread so you guys can dot if you want to see it in your my campaigns tab. Also, it'll probably be at least a few weeks before we start, or even at the start of the year, both to give me time to hammer out enough content to stay ahead of you and so you guys can take as much time as you need to to make characters you like once I've got enough campaign info for you.

So far I know this much about character creation:

Level 3

20 point buy

I have no problem with dump stats

Races: Human, Elf (sapphire, bronze, copper, or granite), Dwarf (gold, red, or black), Gnome, Halfling, Gemmil, Orc, Ifrit, Sylph, Undine, Oread, Tiefling, Aasimar, Ranga, Malamn, Kakazi (ravenfeather or dovewing), Umbral, Lucent, and Halfbreeds of the following list (Human, Elf, Orc, Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling, Gemmil, Kakazi). Being any planetouched race (Aasimar, Tiefling, Ifrit, Oread, Undine, Sylph, Umbral, Lucent) overwrites being a halfbreed. These races are all common enough in the region to have no need of approval. If you want to play something not listed we can hammer out the stats for it, assuming I can see it making sense (should be ok on most things). Any race listed here that is not standard Paizo will receive a write up in the 'Campaign Info' tab, though feel free to ask me about any of them.

Classes and Archetypes: Anything goes. Even the most evil bad munchkin archetype: THE SYNTHESIST!!!!!! Archetypes will be unbound from their races unless it would be physiologically impossible to use the archetype as another race, such as needing wings on a wingless race or something like that. The playtest classes are fine too, and will need to be updated when the book comes out. If you want to do anything custom, just ask. I will adjust the difficulty of the combat encounters to the power level of the party (though I'm a bit rusty at that, but it should work out).

Full WBL for level 3.

Two traits, you may take a drawback for a third. Ignore region restrictions for regional traits, just make it work.

Alignment is stupid, but, sadly, tied to mechanical aspects of the game. Play whatever alignment you want, just don't be a jerk to fellow party members. (That means both evil characters not being a jerk on general principle, and good ones not being a super jerk because of every little think the not-good guys do.)

Backstories are super!!!!!!! Descriptions and personalities are even more super!!!!! Feel free to ask me any questions that need answers for your background.

I kinda want to try a kineticist from the Occult playtest. I heard it was really interesting. Can you tell me more about the dwarves? What about elves? They seem pretty different from Golarion versions. What's a Malamn, Kakazi, or Ranga?

I second Jelani in that it'd be good to know more about the races and also the cultures, like... what does being an elf in this world entail, that sort of thing. How close to the standard fantasy tropes do they hew, or not?

Also, the one thing I'm always leery about in gun-heavy settings is that I usually wonder if it's worth playing any martial other than a gunslinger or gun-using class. Obviously casters are still useful, regardless, but if everybody and their cousin that we'll run into (in terms of humanoid opponents, at least) has access to firearms, and from the world description it seems that might be a feasible assumption, then playing a good ol' fighter in plate starts to seem like a way less fun thing, if most enemies have the option to target my touch AC. So... I hear what you're saying about adjusting combat encounters to the party's level, but does it even make sense in this world for people to still care about things like 'shields and armor' if so many combatants have guns?

From some stuff he said to me, I got the impression that we have guns but the natives won't. If guns are simple weapons, it makes them accessible to everyone. Then your fighter in plate can have an axe-rifle or something.

Now, while you have access to this technology in your homeland, you're going on an expedition to a foreign continent that, in all likelihood, will not have the refined versions of the raw materials required to reload your guns and magical tech items. They will certainly not have weapons like yours. So playing a fighter in plate will be a completely viable choice.

Basically the idea is that one of the corporations in the area is sending you to explore a recently discovered (at least to the people of Tarsus) continent. Airship technology has only very recently gotten to a level where people can reliably fly all the way to another continent, and travelers from other lands are very rare on Tarsus.

Races: I forgot I only sent the short explanations of the to Thron in a PM.

While there are, of course, racists and other stupid people about, these races are all generally accepted in modern society.

Gemmil, genetically, Gemmil are the racial cousins of humanity. They both come from a common ancestor species. Gemmil have evolved to be larger and stronger, though somewhat less agile, than their human cousins. Gemmil typically stand from 8 1/2 to 10 feet tall, with the extremely short standing 7 feet tall and the extremely tall reaching as much as 11 1/2 feet tall. Their cultures vary as much as human culture. Within Tarsus, gemmil are basically treated exactly the same as humans. Halfbreeds are common, and there is very little racism toward them.

Ranga, A group of lizardmen with prehensile tails. Some groups are tribal, while others have fully integrated into modern societies. Exceedingly rare outside of the Great Valleys, at least on Tarsus, because they don't deal well with the cold, they are't cold blooded, however.

Malamn, a group of mole like people, they tend to get along well with dwarves and gnomes, and can usually be found living with/near them. They have a more nature-based focus than the martial/tech dwarves or arcane/tech gnomes. They are short in stature, and their natural proclivity leaves them stronger, rounded out by a natural wisdom.

Kakazi, they essentially look like humans with wings. They are as varied as humans as far as custom and personality go, with different groups have vastly different cultures.

Alahn's elementalism magic has 6 elements as the base and another 15 demi-elements, combined from the base 6. The primary 6 are Water, Earth, Air, Heat, Light, and Darkness. The secondaries include such things as Fire (Air+Heat), Lightning (Air+Light), Mud (Water+Earth), Ice (Water+Air), Steam (Water+Heat), Shadow (Light+Darkness), Void (Air+Darkness), Magma/Lava(Heat+Earth), etc. I don't know how I'm going to model this system in PF, but it'll probably be just reflavoring things and adjusting damage types. The Kineticist makes a great elementalist.

As to why I threw that in the middle of races: I mentioned in the planetouched races Lucents and Umbrals. Lucents are touched by the light portion of the elemental plane, and Umbrals by the dark portion. Note that light and dark, within the context of Elementalism, have no association with good and evil. They are simply one of six basic building blocks of the universe according to Elementalists.

Elves. Elves are as populous around the world of Alahn as humans. They each make up about 20% of world population, 40% together. (Dwarves and Gemmil make up another ~10% each.)

One of the oldest tales told by elves is of a time when all elves were the same, and all their gods still lived. Before the two Godswars, the land was one, and no oceans separated it. The people were one, and nothing separated them. The gods were together, and nothing separated them. The Eternal Dark came, releasing demons upon the land, warring with the gods across the face of Alahn. Demons were slain, mortals were slain, even gods were slain. In the end, the Dark was pushed back, but at great cost. Where once the land had been one, it was now eleven. The elves had been one, and now were dozens. The gods had been together, but now they spread out, keeping watch over their children. This brought on the Change. Each group of elves, now having the attention of only one god, saw their forms, and even their personalities, shift within a generation.

This section goes on for a really long time, I'm going to just put in the sections pertaining to the types of elves commonly found in Tarsus, but there are over two dozen subraces/ethnicities of elves all told. I can explain other subraces if you want, and I'll at least put the entire subraces list in the campaign info.

The scions of Tanieth, the Copper Goddess, found their children shorter, their colorations turning progressively more brown with each generation. Their hair soon took on the glossy luminosity of burnished copper, and their eyes did the same. Their personalities shifted toward the creativity, ingenuity, and industriousness of their matron. They gained an ever deeper love of art, especially sculpture. They became the Copper Elves.

Those children of Anfaltur, the Lord in Bronze, bore children of regal bearing. Their skin lightened, near to the color of the human northerners. Their hair turning from black to light brown and blonde. Their eyes shone yellow and green. They embraced their Lord's regal demeanor, his love of order, his strength of arm, his ability to lead others, and his brash courage. The became the Bronze Elves.

Balisey's grandchildren became as pragmatic as the Granite Father himself. They worked the fields and forests, and danced beneath the starry skies. Their skin turned ashen, the color of stone, their hair in blacks, greys, and whites. Their eyes became chips of onyx and opal, their bodies hale and hearty. They became the Granite Elves.

On Kiliviesta's heart, her offspring thrived, and their children loved the sea even more than they. Their skin ranged from the color of ivory to the blue of the sky, their hair deep ocean hues, from blue to black. They traveled all the oceans of the world, and only they know all the other elves. Quick and charming like the Heart of the Sea, the became the Sapphire Elves.

Dwarves- Dwarves are, in many cases, like dwarves in most fantasy settings, though they have no dislike of elves (most of the time).

Gold Dwarves tend to live almost exclusively underground, and as such their skin is more pale and their hair lighter than other dwarves. Their culture is most like standard fantasy dwarves.

Red dwarves tend to live in a mixture of underground and aboveground locations, generally in forests, especially mountain and hilly forests. They are adept woodsmen, free spirited and independent. Red dwarf communities tend to be small, and only lightly regulated. Ranching, especially goats and mountain sheep, is a common profession among them, as is leatherwork. Their hair tends to be reds and ruddy browns, their skin tanned from a life in the outdoors. Their eye color tends to be brown and black, with the occasional green eyed dwarf appearing.

Black dwarves have lived on the surface for millenia, having abandoned caves completely. They live much as humans do, in sprawling cities, with stone castles. Their culture has become metropolitan, and each individual is free (well, as free as anyone is) to choose their own vocation, whether that be art, architecture, farming, merchantry, politics, or dung shoveling. Black dwarves tend to have black or dark brown hair, and darker skin than other dwarves, though with large variation is actual shade (think anywhere from mediterranean to sub-Saharan African).

Granite Elf Kinetecist so far.

So we won't be able to manufacture ammunition on the new continent? If so, it seems like using firearms as our main weapon would be stupid.

I'm also interested in things like racial abilities and stat modifiers, beyond just fluff.

When you first land, in the wilderness, you'll have what you carry. Once you find a place where they have decent quality refined metals, aka not ore, as well as saltpeter and sulfur (charcoal is easily available anywhere there are trees), you'll be able to craft more. So carry some kind of backup weapon. There will be a huge benefit to knowing the abundant ammunition spell too. I won't give you access to guns and then never let you use them, that'd make me a grade A a&~~@+!*, you'll just have to watch resources a little bit at the start.

Are they going to be simple weapons? Martial? How expensive will they be?

As per 'Guns Everywhere'. I'll also be making a limited number of tech items powered by Aether available. I have to go through the book to decide which ones though.

Once I see stats for the races (mainly interested in Granite elves and dwarves for the moment. Or anything else with a racial con bonus), I'll create my character's crunch.

I'm going to try to base them off Bolin from The Legend of Korra ability/personality wise.

Granite elves will be +Con +Cha -Wis, +2 to all craft checks to create items from wood or stone, elven immunities, those with at least 11 charisma may cast goodberry, detect poison, and purify food and drink 1/day each, DC 10 + spell level + cha, +2 saves vs. poison, spells and SLAs, ans +2 to one profession skill of your choice, and proficiency with bows, battle axes, and short swords.

Are there any other earth themed races with a con bonus?

Malamn will be +Str +Con -Cha, small size, burrow speed, not sure on the rest.

Gemmil can certainly be earth based, and will have +Str -Dex +Con

Ranga will be +Dex +Wis -Cha they will have prehensile tail and access to kobold tail weapons

Kakazi are +Dex +Int -Con and have flight

Lucents are +Wis +Cha -Str

Umbrals are +Dex +Cha -Con

Copper Elves are +Int +Cha -Con

Bronze Elves are +Str +Cha -Wis

Sapphire Elves are +Dex +Wis -Con

Gold dwarves are standard dwarf traits

Red Dwarves are +Str +Wis -Cha

Black Dwarves are +Con +Cha -Dex

Tell me more about black dwarves.

Black Dwarves

Medium Humanoid (Dwarf)

Move Speed 20 ft. (Not reduced by loads/armor)

Languages: Albernian, Dwarven, Zephyrian May choose from Arcadian, Aledaran, Breckti, Falirian, Grantian, Malamni, or Orcish with high intelligence.

+2 Cha, +2 Con, -2 Dex

Darkvision 60'
Greed +2 appraise to determine value of precious metals and gemstones
Hardy +2 saves against spells, SLAs and poison
Stonecunning
Weapon Familiarity with Dwarven Weapons + the Glaive
Silver Tongued - +2 Diplomacy and Bluff, can adjust the attitude of a creature by 3 steps rather than 2 with Diplomacy.

I'll write stuff about their background tomorrow if you'd like. Need to sleep for work.

Note on these languages:

Albernian, the language of Black Dwarves, named after their citadel and largest city Albern.

Dwarven, spoken primarily by Gold Dwarves, but known to red and black dwarves.

Zephyrian, the primary language spoken in the central valley, and one of the two lingua francas of the Great Valleys.

Arcadian, the primary language of the eastern valley, and the other lingua franca of the Great Valleys.

Breckti, the language spoken in the southern reaches of Tarsus, past the Bronzevein Mountain Range. Primary speakers are the Granite Elves, Red Dwarves, and the Brecktan humans.

Falirian, the language of the Copper Elves, named after their city Faliria, an dialect of this language called Oltashi is spoken in and around Oltash, but though there are some differences, both languages are understandable by one who knows either.

Grantian, the primary language of the humans who live in the western valley (the black dwarves and copper elves live here as well).

Aledaran, the language of the Bronze Elves. It shares many similarities with Falirian, but the languages are only partially understandable, much like French and Portuguese in the real world.

Malamni, the language of the Malamn

Orcish, the language of Orcs

Could we do some half breed with +con, +dex? Don't much care where the penalty goes.

Hmmmmm, alrighty. *ponders* I'm loosely considering trying out the Hunter class, since I have yet to give the ACG classes a run in earnest, and thinking possibly a red dwarf with a bird companion, an eagle, or a roc if permitted. Because reasons.

Mechanically, this should provide us with the necessary skills to get by in a frontier environment, and useful aerial scouting (though I'd get better scouting out of an actual familiar, I suppose), and, if roc is allowed, even some limited aerial transport down the line.

Storywise, I can get into a young woman who loves the out-of-doors and has been climbing trees since she was a wee thing. The growing industrialization of Tarsus has made her yearn for wide-open new lands and the chance to live on the edge. This is just a rough idea of personality right now, but I can flesh it out and nail things down more as we work things out. ...Jelani can probably testify that I write overly-long backstories.

So far, I'm thinking along the lines of the following:

Ranga Voodoo Witch Doctor (actual class to represent this yet to be determined).

Bronze Elf Arcane Duelist

If allowed to do a custom race...

Centaur Paladin

Imp Sorcerer (defected from the Ranks of Devil kind and now roams the Material Plane just trying to live his own life after the wizard he served as a familiar died)

Ha, the imp backstory sounds admittedly fun.

I may be jumping the gun a bit with this, but may I suggest that when purchasing starting gear, everyone withhold 187.5 GP from their starting wealth to contribute towards a communal wand, either CLW or IH? I've made the mistake of not budgeting for that before in big exploration type games, and it's painful.

If you start at level 0, and we start at level 3, that would be approximately equal power level. Then whenever we get XP you do too. Whenever you get 1000 you get your first class level.

What do you think about that Destrina?

Being an imp would generally get you killed in most places by most people. Having an imp for a familiar would get you killed in most countries by most people. However, being a centaur is 100% doable.

Taking a centaur directly from MM would leave you at level 0, just a centaur. We can work together to make a weaker version (as in not +4 +4 +4 +0 +4 +2 to stats) that will allow you to have class levels as well.

Jelani, you were open to being an elf, yes? Let me look at other elf subraces for a minute, I'm sure I can find one that makes sense for Dex/Con.

Also, my dad's going to play some sort of healer/divine caster build it seems.

I'd be willing to go with either option that suits you. Also...I'm lurking on the RotR roll20 if you wanna chat.

Also...depending on the way religion works...I may just go fighter or ranger...either way...

Yeah. I don't care what the race is that much, I just want the build to fun to play. Whatever race I settle on I'd like to see a full writeup for though. Just so I can make the character fluff better/more relevant.

Same here. The draw of playing a centaur or imp is not for any mechanical benefit but for the flavor and theme. So if the base centaur is too powerful for your tastes, I'm totally fine to build it with you.

Pearl Elf

Medium Humanoid (Elf)

Speed 30 ft. Swim 30ft. and +8 to swim checks (2RP)

Languages: Silktongue, Amihanan

Bonus Languages from int: Any (1RP)

+2 Dex +2 Con -2 Wis (1RP)

Weapon Familiarity: Elven + Trident (1RP)

Elven Immunities (2RP)

Darkvision 60' (2RP)

Cast Water Breathing 1/day as an SLA (3RP)

Alternate Racial Trait:

You may trade the water breathing SLA for Stonecunning and Stonesinger (Which I will allow to be used for Kineticest Abilities)

The progeny of Asinaya had children with skin pale as pearls, ranging from pink to white to blue. Their hair black and green like the plants beneath the waves, their eyes dark as the blue-black depths. They swept across the seas like the Pearl Wind, their patron, and planted themselves in the soil of Amihan. They became the Pearl Elves.

Pearl Elves live on the islands called Amihan in the Sea of Silk. Like their Sapphire cousins, they have great respect for the sea, and many of them spend their lives as sailors. Unlike their Sapphire cousins, they also have a great reverence of the earth, for the Pearl Wind touches both land and sea. Most Pearl Elves have a wanderlust that strikes them at least once in life, causing them to venture to other lands, even other continents. Most Pearl Elf ships are vessels made for fishing or travel between the closeby islands of Amihan, so Pearl Elves will often act as crew aboard a Sapphire Elf vessel in order to sate their wanderlust. As a result, a Pearl Elf might be found anywhere in the world, though usually singly or in a very small group.

Have to do work things for a bit, should be back in around an hour.

Nah it's okay, I can be a waterbender water kineticist. I'll get to work.

Also for the record, I'm totally fine with Centaur being rarely seen or interacted with by most civilized folk. Adds to the "oooo wow a horse man" theme of it.

Pearl Elf Kineticist
Pearl elf kineticist 3
N Medium humanoid (elf)
Init +4; Senses low-light vision; Perception +5
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Defense
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AC 20, touch 14, flat-footed 16 (+6 armor, +4 Dex)
hp 33 (3d8+15) (2 Burn NL damage)

Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +0; +2 vs. enchantments
Defensive Abilities elemental defense (shroud of water), elven immunities; Immune sleep

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Offense
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Speed 30 ft., swim 30 ft.

Ranged water blast +6 touch (2d6+2)

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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 18, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 10
Base Atk +2; CMB +2; CMD 16

Feats Point-blank Shot, Precise Shot

Skills Perception +5, Stealth +10, Swim +8

Languages Common, Elven

SQ burn, elemental focus (water), feel the burn, kinetic blast, wild talents (pressurized blast infusion, slick)

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Special Abilities
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Burn 1/round (3 nonlethal/burn, 7/day) Burn HP to gain greater effects on your wild talents.
Water Blast (Sp) You slam a single foe with a stream of water as a ranged attack. If you hit, the target suffers an amount of bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6+1 + your Constitution modifier. This damage increases by 1d6+1 for every 2 kineticist levels you possess
Elven Immunities (Ex) +2 save bonus vs Enchantments.
Feel the Burn +1 (Ex) Gain a bonus to hit and damage with your blast when you use burn.
Immunity to Magic Sleep You are immune to magic sleep effects.
Kinetic Blast (Sp) The kineticist can unleash her kinetic blast at a range of 30 feet at will.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.
Point-Blank Shot +1 to attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at up to 30 feet.
Precise Shot You don't get -4 to hit when shooting or throwing into melee.
Pressurized Blast Infusion Your kinetic blasts makes Bull Rush CMB using Con.
Shroud of Water (+4 armor or +2 shield, + 1/burn) (Su) As an immediate action, you surround yourself with a shroud of water, ice, or both that protects you from harm. The shroud can either cover your body, functioning as armor, or float around you and block attacks, functioning as a shield. It grants eit
Slick (DC 15) (Sp) Use your slick for any of the effects of the grease spell for 1r
Swimming (30 feet) You have a Swim speed.
Water Hydrokineticists.

Appearance

Needs gear, and fluff, and traits, and...stuff. Must sleep.

The centaurs will be from Breck's Woods, a simple name for a staggeringly large forested area. (I named it after one of the guys I played WoW with for like 3 years) This is also where the Granite Elves and the Red Dwarves live, along with humans, elves, halflings, and some fey creatures. That said, they are extremely rare within the Great Valleys, so in the first little part before you board the airship to another continent, you'll definitely get that mystique. You'll also get it on the other continent.

This table is how you would level up as a base game centaur.

HD/Class; Total Level
4 / 00; 3
4 / 01; 4
4 / 02; 5
4 / 04; 6
4 / 05; 7
4 / 06; 8
4 / 07; 9
4 / 08; 10
4 / 09; 11
4 / 10; 12
4 / 11; 13
4 / 12; 14
4 / 13; 15
4 / 14; 16
4 / 15; 17
4 / 16; 18
4 / 17; 19
4 / 18; 20

Note that you would gain two class levels going from 5 to 6 to make up for inferior racial HD.

Ability Modifiers: +2 Str, +6 Dex, +4 Con, +4 Wis, +2 Cha (as well as +1 to any one ability score for your 4th racial HD) (also keep in mind you need to adjust for size after this giving you a net +4 str and +4 dex)
Size: Large (10 x 10 ft.)
Type: Monstrous Humanoid (4 HD)
Speed: 50 ft.
Reach: 5 ft.
Armor Class: +1 natural armor bonus
Natural Attacks: 2 hooves (secondary attacks, base 1d6 damage)
Skills: No racial bonuses, but you get a +8 bonus to Acrobatics checks made to jump due to high speed.
Special Attacks: none
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., Undersized weapons (can only use medium weapons)
Starting Languages: Common, Elven, Sylvan

HP: 10 + 3d10 + (con x 4)
Base saves: +1 Fort, +4 Ref, +4 Will
Base Attack: +4
Bonus Armor/Weapon Proficiencies: All light and medium armors, shields (except the tower shield), and all simple weapons plus the longsword
Feats: 2 general feats (one at your first HD, and one at your 3rd)
Skills: You have 16 ranks to assign (modified for intelligence) and you can have up to 4 ranks in any given skill. Your class skills are Climb, Craft, Fly, Intimidate, Perception, Ride, Stealth, Survival, and Swim.

With that option you'll have no class levels to begin with.

On to the other option:

Centaur

Large (7RP) Monstrous Humanoid (2RP)

Speed 40ft.

Languages: Breckti, Centaur, Sylvan

Bonus Languages: Arcadian, Dwarven, Zephyrian, Falirian, Albernan, Malamni, Kiliviestan (Sapphire Elf language)

+2 Str +2 Dex +2 Con +4 Wis -2 Int (4RP) (Note that you need to adjust for large size as well)

Natural Armor: +1 Natural Armor Bonus to AC (2RP)

Darkvision 60' (granted by type)

Quadruped: Members of this race possess four legs and two arms, granting them a +4 racial bonus to CMD against trip attempts and a +10 foot bonus to their base speed (already reflected in the speed above). In addition, members of this race use weapons and armor as if they were Medium (instead of Large). (2RP)

Total RP: 17

This is only 2 RP more than Aasimar, and only 1 more than Suli. It's the same cost as Fetchlings and none of those adjust your level. I think you should be ok to take full class levels.

Here's an older, but mostly correct version of my religion document. It doesn't have as much detail as the current one. That file, however is on an external hard drive buried in a box somewhere in my room. I just moved a few weeks ago and I'm on the heavy part of my schedule, so I haven't unpacked everything yet.

This is lacking some of the newer religions I've worked on. It mostly covers a continent called Maileeka, the first continent I created for the world.

A map would be useful. Hard to put so many names together without something visual.

LOL, well, I guess if one of us is playing a centaur than a roc animal companion is probably fine and dandy.

Still trying to decide right now if I'm going to be more melee focused or ranged focused, but other than that, the bulk of the character is done in my head. Do red dwarves have any mechanical changes from core Golarion dwarves that I should know about?

I have to scan the map, all I have is hand drawn ones. So, that shall happen soon, likely Saturday since I'm at work today and tomorrow. 12 hour shifts ftl.

Tell me about it.

This will be the alias I use. It's still a work in progress, but getting there.

What are elven naming conventions like?

Working Alias

Right now I essentially have two abilties, blasting+bull rush, or casting an unlimited number of grease spells. Other than that, I can't do much. Just FYI when you guys are building your characters.

<--dien, probably appropriating this old alias for my dwarf hunter, but have to change the sheet

No worries. Grease and positioning is always useful.

I think I'm going to commit the cardinal sin of creating a hunter that switches between ranged and close as needed. Ranged will be better long run, especially when I can ride my roc, but blah, feat investments.

Okay, Aurica's sheet is done, I think. Might tweak bits and pieces, but all the fluff and the crunch are there.

In my humble opinion, melee works just as well for a hunter, not getting improved precise shot till 11 puts them a good bit behind archer rangers/monks/slayers.

Pearl Elves can be named using Tagalog names if you'd like, as the Islands they live on are inspired by the Phillipines.

In other news, the old man is making a half elf or human or aasimar Oradin.

Missing improved precise shot doesn't bother me, and it's not a feat I really prioritize taking.

Honestly, and meaning no offense with this at all, I'll be really surprised if our game lasts enough for it to be an option regardless. Most PBPs I've been in have been lucky to have 2-4 level-ups over the course of a year or more of gameplay, and most PBPs don't survive a year. /possibly a bitter old cynic here

Yay for Oradin, though. Means I can be safely a backup/assistant healer rather than the only divine. :P

I've been in quite a few that have died. This should work out better as I have fewer obligations than most, and I can post from work except on the rare day that we have training all day, like today.