Rise of the Runelords by DM Doctor Evil (again)

Game Master DM DoctorEvil

I accept all prayers gratefully. But it's not an exclusive name. A lot of bad naming happened in the sixties. I know a poor young lady named 'Rainbow'. Only her mother calls her that. The rest of us use her middle name, 'Elizabeth'.

A gamer friend of mine (Tim) named his son River and daughter Sky. River is around 7 or 8 and Sky is younger. So both are well removed from the 60's. Oh and one of my best friends named his first son (now 16) Terran. I actually like the Terran.

Below is posted from one of my ROTRL Group C players who just finished skeletons in the tomb and are meeting with Shalelu. Thought you might find the notes entertaining anyway:

I got slightly bored between cases at work. Cribbed together something.

Originally this started as this player's own idle notes, but then I had the idea to express this in-character.

If you want an idea of how Alek's somewhat fractured mind functions... this would be a pretty good place to start.

And for the record. It's been extremely cathartic being the crazy guy for a change.

-----------------------------

The Unpleasantness: (5 Years Prior)
Ameiko's mother commits suicide
The Chopper murders 25 people including the local sheriff
Cathedral burns down killing local priest

Connections: Tenuous - Temporal Proximity - see cult activity suspicions.

Current:
Inside job suspected of contributing to success of goblin attack. (Pre-placed Ladders? Guard distraction?)
Goblins led by unknown half-elf.
Goblins attack town and steal body of local priest.
Attack takes place on reconsecration of cathedral.

Connections: Strong Relations: Obvious military raid abetted by insider

Connection (Unpleasantness to Current):
Local Priest - Tobyn. Central case fulcrum.
Cathedral Reconsecration - Central Target? Target of Opportunity? Sending a Message?

Radial Connections: (Tobyn)
Nualia - Aasimar Daughter - Poor Relationship. Pregnant. NO BODY FOUND. (SUSPICIOUS)
Delek Viskanta - Lover of Aasimar daughter (Need More Information).
Eamon and Vosk - Friends of Tobyn. Character references.

Radial Connections: (The Unpleasantness)
Ameiko - Daughter of deceased. Poor relationship with father.
Lonjuku - Husband of deceased. Poor relationship with daughter. Absent during festival. (SUSPICIOUS)
Sheriff Hemlock - Promoted following murder of previous sheriff (Casp).
Chopper's Isle - Site of Chopper's residence. Confirmed Site of Demon Worship.

Possible Connection: Cult Activity?
Demon Worship? Possible Central Trigger. Chopper may only be most visible of the worshipers.
Leader: Unknown. Suspected Half-Elf?
Motive: Fits Situation: Disruption of Sandpoint - Use of local goblins as a tool - Consistent with previous aims of disruption, killings.
Possible Targets: Those with previous connections to the Unpleasantness.
- Physical Building Itself (May have been a target of the goblin raid. Maybe we stopped something while unaware of their motivation. Must interrogate goblin prisoners: Possible Lead. Need Shalelu in on this - Don't Speak Goblin.)
- Ameiko?
- Lonjiku? (Target? Suspect? Murdered wife? - Unlikely but needs more research.)
- Current Clergy? Eamon? Vosk? (Killing Vosk, possibly consistent with assumed motives - Skeletons may have been left behind for him to 'discover' as he does his rounds - all friends with connection to Tobyn)
Suspicions regarding status of Delek and Nualia.
- Delek? (Need Status Update)
- Nualia? (Possibly alive? Body never found.)

-----------------------------

DM DoctorEvil: I swear, I will crack this case. *SHAKES FIST AT THE HEAVENS*

Haha, this guy's pretty good! He's dead on about Nualia being SUSPICIOUS.

I Hope its a function of the slow play you get in php, but I do not recognize a third of those names. :/

That is my least favorite part about php. I have trouble following the intricacies of the plot over months of pay in what is a day or two for characters, even in an active PBP like this one. Likely it does not help that I am playing in a dozen games at one time. :)

If I disappear for a few days, my wife's due date for our 3rd child is today. She is having contractions too. So here's hoping.

Major congrats! Hoping for you!

good luck sir, now you'll have to play zone, instead of man-to-man. give my regards to the missus.

Best of luck to you both!

Good luck!

I will be traveling starting tomorrow and for the weekend, and may not be available to post. Please bot me as needed!

Have a good weekend, and thanks for checking out. Let us know when you're back, and maybe this fight will be over...

likely not. We cannot damage it enough to kill it quick and it fast heals and flies and goes invisible at will. Its likely already healed back all the damage we have done to it, and if not it can stay flying and invisible until it has... tough fight for our level, especially with the few resources we have had access to. I mean we do not even have silver or cold iron weapons.

Rightly or wrongly, you are correct. This is a tough get at second level without preparation. It doesn't appear she's getting much traction against you either, and has decided to flee and re-group for now.

When we meet again I hope to be able to purge invisibility. :)

Now we can better examine the room .

Cathedral Post Combat Summary

Cadas - 15/15hp; 4 enlarge rounds remain, 4 channels? remain, 3 storm bursts, and 1 spell (obsuring mist) remain.

Robin - 20/20 hp; 15 arrows left, 7 bardic perform rds left, zero spells remain

Rogar - 22/22hp; 1 javelin left;

Smoke - 18/27 hp; 3 rage rounds? left;

Tinuviel - 11/11hp; still has mage armor and 2 summon monster spells.

You guys entered this room on Sep 17th in real time, so let me take a moment and re-set the story:

- Goblins attacked the Butterfly Festival
- You got promoted to the law when the Sherriff left town to get help
- You learned about the local goblins from Shalelu
- Ameiko was captured by her brother and his goblin minions and held in the family glassworks; you rescued her capturing the brother.
- The Brother Tsuto had a journal describing many things (linked on the Campaign tab) including the quasit, and a girl with a demon hand.
- The Glassworks has tunnels under it, the tunnels led to these catacombs
- This room is a monstrous cathedral. There is an orange glowing pool that one of the those monster things emerged from after the quasit bled into it.

There are lots of other details and side stories but this summarizes where we are pretty well. Perhaps read the journal stuff again if you have a hard time remembering...

She's having my baby be on in a day or two

Back! That was indeed tough. We should get in the market for some cold iron weapons!

I am doing a poor job of tracking resources I guess. Not everything we have found shows up on the loot tracker, right? Havn't we found potions? I know we found gold dust but have no record of selling it.

Cadas showed 62 gold before the CI weapon purchase. Now she has 35 gold. Have we split up some loot that I did not record?

I am doing a poor job of tracking resources I guess. Not everything we have found shows up on the loot tracker, right? Havn't we found potions? I know we found gold dust but have no record of selling it.

Cadas showed 62 gold before the CI weapon purchase. Now she has 35 gold. Have we split up some loot that I did not record?

I have been tracking this quite carefully so you don't have to.

Everything you found (and still have) shows on the Loot Tracker, you were able to accurately appraise the gold dust and therefore sold it a while back (sometime in August...). You once had 2 potions of CLW, but Smoke used one on the wounded elven cleric of Gozreh right after the goblin fight, and someone gave the other to wounded Ameiko when you found her. You still ahve an unidentified leather flask full of a magic liquid.

If you look at the second tab on the Loot Tracker it shows cash gained and spent once you've actually sold the items on the first page. Cadas should be at 112.59gp after her purchase of the CI trident.

I think we're traveling straight back toward the door the quasit went to.

I think so too. :)

Cadas wrote:

I am doing a poor job of tracking resources I guess. Not everything we have found shows up on the loot tracker, right? Havn't we found potions? I know we found gold dust but have no record of selling it.

Cadas showed 62 gold before the CI weapon purchase. Now she has 35 gold. Have we split up some loot that I did not record?

I have been tracking this quite carefully so you don't have to.

Everything you found (and still have) shows on the Loot Tracker, you were able to accurately appraise the gold dust and therefore sold it a while back (sometime in August...). You once had 2 potions of CLW, but Smoke used one on the wounded elven cleric of Gozreh right after the goblin fight, and someone gave the other to wounded Ameiko when you found her. You still ahve an unidentified leather flask full of a magic liquid.

If you look at the second tab on the Loot Tracker it shows cash gained and spent once you've actually sold the items on the first page. Cadas should be at 112.59gp after her purchase of the CI trident.

Perfect! Thanks. ;)

Don't care if we backtrack or not. But here are some standing orders!

Turn right when given the choice. (Just to mix things up.) Check for traps at all doors, disable/unlock, then open. Detect magic in all rooms and at all objects of interest.

Marching order: Rogar, Smoke, Cadas, Tinuviel, Robin. 2x2 marching if wide enough.

Robin stomps around impatiently as the party deliberates on a plan.

Robin's plan looks sufficient. I say we go with it.

Sure. If 5' wide Cadas would like to go before smoke once he is wounded.

D'oh! Our heavy hitters have Vanished.

Is anyone out there? Hallloooooo?"

I'm here sorry parenthood of 3 is a bit more than I expected lol.

I do think we have lost Smoke. He was spotty for a bit and he hasn't posted since 10/9, just as in another game I have him in. Unfortunate, I don't know how long you go before replacing someone, a month? I don't mind DM-PCing for a while until we clear the catacombs and see what happens next.

I know Rogar had a new addition and assuming that's keeping him busy. Sounds like playing zone is tougher than man-to-man...that's where i stopped.

I'll fill those roles (and rolls) until we get the dungeon clear, then we can make the decision to replace, fold, or continue on w/o.

Hopefully we can continue with the original group.

I'm going to give you at least a post a day, you have my word on it. But if you need to keep moving with additional posts you have permission to DMPC me Doc.

Smoke was actually GMing a game I was in, but he bailed on that a while ago.

I have pm'ed him.

No offense meant towards the GM, but the fun for me is interacting with other players and seeing what they do. Just my $.02.

Rogar, you are going to be groggy for at least a year, probably more like eighteen. :D

ok, Rogar, thanks for the commitment, but I know family comes first. We'll continue with me running the barbarian for now, and see what comes of it after we clear the dungeon.

BTW, the interaction of the players is the fun of it for me too. I'm sad to lose one, if in fact that's what happened.

A sore point for me - Do not bail on a game without telling the players you are leaving. Sorry, but if you do this you are being extremely rude, to the point that I am basically done with you. Life happens and players sometimes need to drop. But its never ok to break a commitment of a game without at least a quick good by and hopefully an explanation. Its akin to standing up a friend and then not calling to explain it ever. It expresses that you do not care about other people. Its a major dick move.

This pisses me off as a player. But if and when I actually run, it will piss me off to the point that, well, its the main reason I have not run yet. Commitment to past games will be my number 1 criteria for recruitment.

<Rant mode off>

I should be able to post this afternoon. I got the flu on Thursday and have been sick all weekend.

ugh! Hope you feel better soon.

Good point - selling the returning dagger is a must. I didn't even think about how much that thing costs! We can figure out what to do with the longsword if/when we reopen recruitment.

I hope that when we recruit a 3rd level character he will come in with 3rd level loot, which could easily include a +1 weapon. If so, I do not feel the need to give him/her the sword. :)

How do you get the price level for the cold iron returning dagger +1 at 8300 gp? I get it at about half that. 1) 4 gp for cold iron dagger 2) 2,000gp bonus for a +1 any weapon, 3) returning function worth another +1 in value (2,000gp). This totals 4004 or about half of your number, what did I miss?

Robin's going to carry/use said returning dagger for now? Who took the other loot?

1. Tiara
2. Silk Gown
3. obsidian holy symbol
4. longsword +1
5. MW handaxe
6. silver dagger

Question: Do you want to recruit a 3rd level (or so) to continue in Smoke's place? Are you fine if he leaves, and it's just you? Do you think it needs to be another melee type, if not, what else?

I think the idea is that the effective value of the dagger is a +2 weapon. But I've never been one to really track such numbers so I'm not sure.

I'm fine either recruiting or not. I think it could be any role if we recruit really. Up to the rest of you.

A Note on Leveling
I haven't GM'ed a leveling before (Group A is 15 XP short as some goblins escaped them). Go ahead and discuss your changes here. I have relaxed my stance on non-core etc, to now just require it be in PRD (not 3rd party or source book stuff please) so I can track in Hero Lab.

You can choose to take mid-point HP (rounded down, ie 1d6 =3)or roll new HP, but re-roll any 1's, subtracting 1 from the new result, but you must choose in advance of rolling...make sense?

Once you think you've got your build, prompt me and I'll review and update my file on you.

Congrats again!

Reminder to self of the leveling rules before I make this roll!

I think we need another melee type.

I have updated Tinuviel to level 3.

I hope that when we recruit a 3rd level character he will come in with 3rd level loot, which could easily include a +1 weapon. If so, I do not feel the need to give him/her the sword. :)

Yikes. I actually forgot the 2000 for the cold iron enchantment cost. A returning weapon is a +1 enhancement added to a +1. This makes it a +2 equivalent weapon. So you have:

Cold Iron Dagger - 4 gold
Masterwork cost - 300 gold
Enchantment cost for cold iron - 2000 gold
Enchantment cost to +1 - 2000 gold
Enchantment cost to for returning - 6000 gold

Total = 10304 gold. A pricy little piece of cold iron. Sells for half, plus the good will bonus we get.

Question: Do you want to recruit a 3rd level (or so) to continue in Smoke's place? Are you fine if he leaves, and it's just you? Do you think it needs to be another melee type, if not, what else?

I would like to give someone else a chance to join us. Person needs melee shock ability for sure, but does not have to be a tank. We have a great tank. If I were to build a 5th for us I think I;d go with a combat rogue. Someone that could scout and handle traps. but who could act as a striker too. Maybe fighter rogue with 18 str, or urban ranger with trap finding or the like. Even another flavor bard could work - Sandman or Archaeologist or the like, but they would be less melee I fear.

I hope to re-emphasise role playing with my leveling up. You will see why as I level and begin to play. :) So, I would like to make sure who we get is willing to at least put some role playing effort. I am capable of falling into full tactical mode if I am around others of that bent and need the rp support. :)

Leveling:

Hit Points: 1d8 ⇒ 5 Meh, I'll take it. :)

BAB +1
+1Reflex Saves
2d6 channeling now and 1 more per day for a total of 7.
2 second level spells plus domain spell

4 skill points go to

Knowledge Planes
Heal
Appraise
Perception

Feat: Versatile Channeler - this is the role playing hook and could be dangerous as Cadas can only exclude 2 people currently from her channels. >:)

Basically, I get really good at Melee once I hit Level Six (Shield Master). I'm going to be taking a Wolverine as an Animal Companion at Level 4 which gives us a Raging Companion.

Level 3

I'll take Half, which is 5 + 2 + 1 Favored Class for a total of +8 new Hit Points

I gain Endurance, so I'm never taking my armor off again lol.

Favorite Terrain will be Underground.

New Skills, Know History, Know Dugeoneering, Know Nature, Sense Motive, Perception, Survival

Feat: Steel Soul +2 to my Saves vs Spells, SLAs and Poisons?

Unless you guys have a better feat. I don't qualify or Double Slice due to the 15 DEX required. I could take power Attack, opening Volley is actually pretty awesome too, Throw my javelin and then move in to attack on the next round for a +4 bonus to attack.

Any suggestions?

Robin's going to carry/use said returning dagger for now? Who took the other loot?

1. Tiara
2. Silk Gown
3. obsidian holy symbol
4. longsword +1
5. MW handaxe
6. silver dagger

Cadas will carry the dagger. Smoke will carry the sword and handaxe for as long as you are playing him for us. I think the rest of the stuff, (which is non-magical, right? ) goes into a loot bag to be further appraised before selling. Note that Cadas now has an appraise skill. :)

I think all we really need is damage. We are lacking in that department in good part to Robin. I think any sort of damage dealer would be fine, whether it is full BAB, 3/4 BAB, or even a Blasty sorcerer. Trying to be more flexible because I'm interested more in character concept and roleplay.

-Posted with Wayfinder