DM Orranis' Dragon's Demand (Inactive)

Game Master Orannis

I believe I prefer to characterize the rest of the world as being abnormally large.

No pressure or anything, just looking forward to the exposition and stuff. I'll go over my sheet tomorrow as well.

Here we go, folks!

Belhaim At a Glance

Belhaim is a sleepy Taldan backwater located on a lesser trade route between Dunholme and Wispil within the Verduran Forest near a region of the woods known as Dragonfen. A lesser tributary of the Verduran Fork runs along the southern side of the town, connected to the main road by a covered wooden bridge. Belhaim was founded in 3672 AR by Tula Belhaim, a famed dragonslayer who was awarded stewardship over the Verduran Fork and Dragonfen region for her exemplary service during the Dragon Plauge. Over the centuries, as a result of tragedy and failed rebellion, stewardship of the area eventually ended up in the hands of the Devy family, who rule to this day. A handful of human generations past, an earthquake flooded the town's limestone quarry and eliminated much of Belhaim's economic relevance.

Factions

Nearly all of Belhaim's residents belong to one of the three dominant religions in the town, which more or less define the town's political lines.

Worshipers of Abadar want to see Belhaim prosper as a trade center once again and, deprived of the limestone quarry, seek to drain the Dragonfen and use the land for agricultural prospects. They regard the Shelynites as layabouts.

Followers of Shelyn essentially prefer the town as it is: cozy, a bit remote, and far away from any real action. They view the Abadarans as greedy, overly traditional, and unable to enjoy the simple pleasures of life.

Adherents to the Green Faith are largely patient and even-handed, and find the town's political squabbling tiresome.

Character Hooks: Notable NPCs

Lady Origena Devy and Aarnholde Devy:
Lady Origena is the region's Baroness, and is a pragmatic woman who likes to see things running smoothly. She's also eager to see Belhaim "put back on the map". She could potentially be a useful resource or connection for PCs seeking dealings with Taldor's nobility. Arnholde is her adult son, next in line for stewardship of the region.

Balthus Hunclay:
A reclusive, sour old Wizard who moved to Belhaim a few years ago. His name is not particularly well-known in arcane circles, but he could be a useful resource for PCs seeking answers to mysteries of a magical nature.

Bassy:
The oldest resident of Belhaim, she is a gnome in her 414th year who's managed to avoid The Bleaching. She is belhaim's primary historian, and could serve as a family or social connection for gnomish PCs or player characters interested in the history of the Dragonfen, Tula Belhaim, and/or the Dragon Plague.

Character Hooks: Events and Environs

Kobolds in the Woods: A tribe of green-scaled kobolds has lived somewhere between Belhaim and the Dragonfen for some time. A peace built on mutual disinterest between the town and the tribe has been the norm for generations, but with reports of some townsfolk and travelers going missing, perhaps that has changed?

The Monastery: A long forgotten, and presumably abandoned, monastery to Irori was established in the Dragonfen not long after Belhaim was founded. The monks there vanished around 4500 AR under mysterious circumstances, but rumors the monks were researching knowledge heretical to Irori surface from time to time.

Trade Caravan: Not much trade stops through Belhaim these days, but a man named Silas Gribb offered you 50 gold just to sign on as a caravan guard on a trip to Faldamont. A princely sum for such simple work! Though you do note that Silas comes off a bit shady...

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If you have any other questions about Belhaim that would fall under "something pretty much anyone could find out by asking someone on the street" please ask! Also ask if you'd like some additional information on any of the character hooks I suggested (and feel free to combine, mix, and match those hooks!). Ideally, I'd like one of your two Traits to reflect/tie in to whatever hook you choose/create.

Feth and CaptainFord, I'll have a little extra background info to send you. And Ford, if you wan to work out some connection with the Kobold tribe in the area I'd be happy to hash that out with you.

Please chime in when you've got your characters 100% done so that I may audit them!

I think Adagan would know Lady Origena. Especially if she's the kind of noble whose good to their subjects and doesn't play the rank games the other nobles do.

Sasha: Adagan does have a younger sister. His older brother would have an apoplexy if she was being courted by a non-noble, which means Adagan would be behind it 100%.

Haha, that's great. I'd love to hear all about it.

In other news I've got a sheet up. Take a look around, or tear it to pieces. Either way works.

I did the random backstory thing and after playing around with it a bit I decided to use it to roll the majority of my backstory, only rerolling one thing that didn't seem to make any sensek and picking a couple of other bits that I wanted.
Long story short, I got "The War" and, funnily enough, the conflict I rolled was betraying a soldier or warrior.
Also zarz is a traveling gnome.
I thought, maybe for both of those reasons, that maybe knowing Silas Gribb or someone who knows him might make sense; did he travel around any warzones recently?... or not-so-recently?

I'll get something figured out. Might be next week though. finishing out October at work is a bear!

Quick update:

Looking over your characters and reading the last few bits of the module. Also, still waiting for Ford to check in.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

DM Orannis, I think I've finally got something reasonable pulled together; feel free to pick it apart when you have time.

Also, I've been wondering how you thought versatile performance should behave.
Specifically, should I just take whatever number I get for the performance and ignore size/trait/circumstance/armor-check/etc. bonuses/penalties to the skill it's replacing?
Should I ignore some types of bonuses/penalties but keep others (for example, only replacing the source ability score, ranks, and class-skill bonus)?
Also, assuming some things are counted and other things aren't, should I get a -2 from meticulous if I don't have any ranks in a skill that I'm using versatile performance to roll for?

I hope you don't mind so many questions, but I've tried to look around and the only thing I could find that seemed helpful was that James Jacobs thought you should get a free retrain of now redundant skill points.
BTW, if I invest in a skill that becomes obsolete due to versatile performance, would you let me get a free retrain of skill points?

Happy Halloween everyone!

(Zarz, I'll have a ruling for you tomorrow.)

yeah, happy halloween! ^^

also, thx Orannis

Hey everyone! Sorry, I'm getting avalanched with personal life nonsense at the moment.

I also apologize for the general slow pace in getting this going. I decided to do it off the cuff, with little prep, so I probably should have expected it to take longer than I wanted it to.

Watch this space, and I'll be trying to have us up and going as soon as possible.

Thanks again for your patience.

No rush. Heck, I don't even have my character done ;)

Hey DM Orannis,

I guess you've been too busy IRL and wanted to dig through the zillion or so threads about how to deal with versatile performance before delivering that ruling, (which reminds me, I also spent a lot of time looking for stuff, so I totally understand if that's the case)

but I kinda wanted to remind you and also throw a couple of ideas out there:
1) maybe total bonus means the ranks, class skill bonus, and associated ability mod so just swapping those three parts is what was intended.
2) maybe total bonus means just take the number from the perform check, forgetting about armor check penalty, circumstance that applies to the skill directly (but keeping any bonuses that would help you perform) etc.

Also, as a side note, I kinda liked my backstory involving a nearby war and vagabond child went well with that, so I'll be getting disable device :3

*pokes head in*

How's everyone doing?

Zarzuket speaks up while taking a break from Twiddling his thumbs.
"I'm just hanging around and hoping that the GM hasn't forgotten us... I'm not so sure about the rest" he shrugs.

I haven't!

I'm just having a real time of it balancing getting adequately prepped for this with my meatspace obligations.

Feel free to poke in here periodically, but I'll also send each of you a PM when I intend to get this started.

Thank you everyone who is still interested, and I apologize for having to backburner this for the time being.

Zarzuket says "Hooray! I was starting to worry a little bit"

He then thinks to himself and we can practice roleplaying while we wait