800 xp each from the mirror escapade.
What's our current XP total? Since we're using it, I may as well track it in Hero Lab.
35622. Listed under the XP link.
Returned from traveling, catching up now
Just a bit of brainstorming on questions to ask Hal.
- Please state your name for the record.
- You mentioned you have a wife and daughter. What are there names, and where should we look for them?
- How did you become involved with the Reapers?
- What did they have you do?
- What did they use the mirror hideaway for?
- Why did they decide to maroon you in the mirror?
- How did you survive all that time in there?
- What can you tell us about the long-term goals of the Reapers?
- Do they favor any particular codes?
- How do Reapers recognize one another?
- Are there any specific people you know to be Reaper agents?
- What questions should we ask you that we haven't?
I'm mildly surprised to be conducting this interrogation as a scene. It makes me wonder if there's some sort of connection to current affairs that we're missing.
You're welcome to ask Hal all of those questions. Once you get him comfortable, he's inclined to answer. And you can list them all at once, if you like.
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All: Big maps has been updated. The second slide finally contains an upgraded world map purchased by Mel. If you are curious about a feature, make a K geo or K hist check or ask someone who can! Also, I'd like some input from you as to features which might exist on the map. You're not constrained to my suggestions. But there are certain constraints to what can be where on the map so I'll field ideas as they come.
Kazador, care to put an indicator where your settlement was? I'll add it to the map.
Brolin, any islands or straits you wish to name? Or perhaps an Iustian feature?
Perrin, any features near Brookside?
Mel, you'll note I've added Avinoax to the map. Care to name its capital and add any more features elsewhere?
I'm going to keep fleshing out these details in my spare moments but this is your chance to provide input.
I've updated my stat block on the Melira profile, and my summary stats on both Mel and Melira. I've also discovered you can use bbcode in the Classes/Levels box, so my skills are now behind a spoiler. It's limited to 250 characters, so I've had to shorten a bunch of the names and omit a few less commonly used ones.
The capitol of Avinoax is Lanere, a city which takes its name from the falcons that wheel about its skies. It's located in a long, narrow mountain valley, broad enough to accommodate some limited agriculture, but sufficiently narrow that one can hike across its narrowest point from one side to the other in a morning. Traversing the length of it, though, takes three days afoot, or one long day on horseback.
Most of the valley is given over to agriculture. The city of Lanere proper lies at the southernmost end of the valley, surrounding Castle Shirra, a staggeringly enormous fortification made by hollowing out an enormous batholith. Fortifications ring its base and its top alike, and the layers upon layers of rooms within are said to be able to accommodate as many as 10,000 people for a siege of up to three months. It's definitely the largest fortification in the land by a factor of at least 10, and possibly the largest in the world -- all made possible by the dedicated stone-shaping of generations of elven druids.
Other features:
The Troscari Wilds once lay to the west of the mountain range in central Iustia, surrounding Lake Troscar. They were once a dense temperate rainforest inhabited by stand-offish serpentfolk; now they are a desert, and no one has seen or heard from the serpentfolk in centuries.
Old Feldnost lay along the west coast of the world, around the bay south of the city at the top left. It was a human nation characterized by devotion to a rather dreary religion centered around a pantheon consisting of Alseta, Lissala, and Anubis (all LN). They spent a lot of time preparing for transition to the afterlife, excavating elaborate tombs in the sea-cliffs, and carving intricate runes into every surface bearing gloomy reminders of how short life is. When Iustia began expanding, they were one of the first conquered. They're now the province of Feldnost, and their old pantheon has been largely superseded by deities favored in Iustia.
Revan was a small kingdom on the eastern side of the central mountain range in Iustia, across from the Troscari Wilds. It had a peculiar dual-species monarchy. The Queen Under Stone was always a dwarf, chosen by the dwarven clans who lived under the mountains. The King Over Stone was always a human, selected from among the human towns scattered about the dry central plains. They were ceremonially "married" and ruled jointly, although both were expected to take more normal spouses from among their own kinds. Due to the relative lifespans of the two, one Queen Under Stone might live through the reigns of three or sometimes four human "husbands" before she was replaced. The dwarves gave the place stability and the long view; the humans brought continually new and fresh ideas. The place was noted for its achievements in artistic stonework and engineering, including a network of what was undoubtedly the finest roads of their age. Revan was conquered by Iustia not long after Old Feldnost, and the old ways broken; there may yet be a Queen Under Stone deep in the tunnels beneath the mountains, but the humans above now look to Iustia for leadership.
The big map is beautiful! And such a great story for Revan. A question: are the dwarves there independent? If so do they trade with Iustria?
—-
As for Kazador’s clan hope...are there mountains in the barbaric lands? I’m on my phone but will do a write up...
I'd say that's up to the GM, but I was envisioning the dwarves of Revan as having retreated to live almost entirely underground after their human allies were conquered by Iustia. The Iustians weren't interested in a whole lot of fighting in cramped tunnels against people who were way better suited to it (shorter, darkvision, not claustrophobic, etc). So if they're still there, they're probably independent.
I don't see any mountains in the barbaric lands -- but that's not to say there aren't any. The GM could always add some mountains in there.
Kazad Gravr was once located in the Barbaric Lands. Surrounded as it was by orcs and other barbaric threats, the dwarven clanhold remained safe due to it staying hidden. No great gates adorned it’s entrance, rather the only ways in and out were carefully hiddden tunnels. Tunnels defended by the Rune Wardens. A group of elite soldiers, each armed with magical artifacts of power. Outnumbered as they were, the dwarves relied on the hidden nature of their home and the armaments of their champions to keep them safe.
The dwarves never did know what riled the orcs up, but they came in numbers greater than seen in a generation. Heading for the Bishoric of Helm. The dwarves thought themselves secure, as they had every other time the orcs came. When orcish warbands were found in their tunnels the Rune Wardens were shocked. Never had such numbers been seen before. What followed was an invasion. The first war band that came in was easily repulsed, as was the second. When the dwarves collapsed the tunnel, they though that they were done with the threat. Little did they know that an orc chieftain had become obsessed with rooting the dwarves out and taking their treasure. The dwarves soon realized that the orcs would not give up their search until the chieftain was killed.
The Thane of the Clan led his Rune Wardens into battle. It was supposed to be a decisive victory. Kill the leader of the orcs, and the driving force behind the invasion. Of the battle, there was but one dwarven survivor.
Few people knew of Kazad Gravr. With the exception of a few trusted elven merchants, nobody outside of the clan knew of the location of the hold, and few humans even knew of it’s existence.
Whether Kazad Gravr still exists or not is unknown to any except perhaps the orcs. What is known, however, is that the weapons of the Rune Wardens, the prized heirlooms of the hold which had never been sold or gifted before, were all lost. Now, the only place to find them are in the hands of orcish champions, and oddly enough, within the resourceful hands of the elves.
That’s awesome!
If players could award GMs hero points, I’d give you one.
I mentioned earlier that my posting would be fairly limited until, well, today, but in retrospect I was too optimistic; I won’t be spending a ton of time doing things online until after Wednesday. Good news (for y’all, less so for me) is that that’s a hard deadline; won’t be delaying past that point. (Though I might just sleep for a few days straight.)
Thanks for the awesome input! Yes I'm happy to add mountains in barbaric lands. As for the internal politics of Iustia and the status of the dear es there, that's a K Hist check. Kazador gets a +4 bonus on that check and may attempt it untrained. The map is going to get more detailed as I work on it and you discover things.
Sounds good, Brolin. We all look forward to your official entrance!
GM, Mel needs a little time to craft her spare bow. I kind of thought we were going to have several days of down time while enchantments happen and such, so I bought the materials rather than a premade bow.
I know you use accelerated crafting rules, but a proper masterwork longbow with a STR rating of 2 is probably still going to take at least a full day's work. And without a bow, Mel is completely useless in combat.
If there's not going to be an opportunity for crafting, can we retcon that she bought a finished bow? I'll happily pay the rest of the price for one. It just seemed to me that Mel would probably prefer to craft her own bows.
Mel can feel free to finish the bow today and you don't have to follow the Bishop's leads today. We can fastforward through most of the day. Kazador and Perrin might have things they want to say or do but anyone who is ready to fastforward the day should say so.
I wasn't planning to throw any combats at you. The whole mirror encounter was designed as an interesting little sidequest that still fits within the theme of everyday folk getting unfortunately caught up in affairs a lot bigger than them.
Okay, great. Thanks! I'll post soon.
Triggered off the appearance of Laurel McHenry in today's posting, I'm going to go off on a tangentially related rant which doesn't really have much to do with the campaign at all.
It is so freaking hard to find character art for middle-aged women! The internet is positively awash in pictures of sexy young women, usually with highly improbably physiques. Finding pictures of children isn't too hard; and it's not all that difficult to find pictures of ancient haggard crones with one foot in the grave.
But middle-aged? Good luck! If you want a plump matronly type with her hair up in a net, or a sallow middle-aged harpy, or really anyone who's not young-and-pretty or old-and-ugly, you're going to be digging for hours and still probably find nothing.
It's like the entire culture of Internet artists collectively has a blind spot for an entire third of the female life cycle.
I completely agree. This image wasn't exactly what I had in mind but it's definitely in the top 1% of most appropriate paizo avatars for what I intended...
Kazador, we'd love to hear from you a bit more regularly. I thought I left you a plot hook you would be interested in at least commenting on in my most recent spoiler for you. Would you like to talk to any of the PCs or NPCs or go look for something in the city? If any player ever feels like it's been a little bit too long since I've dangled some hooks their way, just let me know that you're unsure what options you might go for right now and I'll clarify/correct an error or omission I've made.
At National Guard drill for the week. Spent last two days being tested on job skills (field artillery, make sure rounds land where they should) and spent today shooting rifle. When I get back I will certainly be posting more
On the topic of good character art for middle-aged female characters, here are the best I've found:
Real life certainly takes priority! Especially career stuff. Sounds awesome. I have another pbp friend who was in artillery.
Cool, Mel!
Okay, I think I'll go back and read those Perrin spoilers now. The cat's out of the ... I mean the bat's out of the ... no, she's in the ...
Okay.
flees
Captain Brolin Muse is done!
The six other character sheets can be filled in as they’re needed, if, in fact, they’re needed, which I don’t think they will be; ditching Spirit Dancer made many things a great deal simpler.
Earlier the DM said that Leadership was on the table, so I went ahead and took it. I’m not trying to double my character’s power! It’s just that I felt really awkward about having a boatload (heh) of NPCs under my command without having roleplayed my way to that position or invested anything of the character in it.
With Leadership I can staff the Sonder with eleven followers and a cohort; according to Wikipedia a windjammer like the Sonder could be crewed by as few as fourteen, Muse & co. make thirteen. Darn pirates. I’ll have to rustle up some hires help.
I don’t have any ideas for a cohort, and I’d understand any DM trepidation at letting a player build their own. Should I start off without a cohort (perhaps the Sonder’s first mate got pirate-ed to death?), or are their any rules I should follow when making one?
You have a ship? Neat. I haven't read anything in any of the Brolin Muse spoilers, so I don't know anything about him yet beyond the name.
Yeah you guys have some stuff coming up. Going to be fun.
Brolin, I'm open to you building your cohort and followers with some restrictions: No more than 1 item creation feat among all your followers per every three of your levels. No more total spellcasting levels than your level. And don't throw them into combat much.
Brolin, I'm open to you building your cohort and followers with some restrictions: No more than 1 item creation feat among all your followers per every three of your levels. No more total spellcasting levels than your level. And don't throw them into combat much.
That's a much more generous deal than I was expecting!
I wasn't planning on taking any item creation feats (seemed kind of cheesy, trading one feat for however many), and I was thinking that my followers would be NPC classes. In the end, most of them winded up experts anyway, since that's what I already had in mind and since that made the most sense, verisimilitude-wise. (Also rolled 3d6 for the follower's stats; it was fun creating a host of normal, not adventure-y people.)
Yeah sometimes I'm too generous then learn to regret it. XD But it hasn't happened enough yet for me to really learn a lesson!
Sounds like the perfect crew for this story.
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Just as a reminder, here's a list of languages Mel currently knows, with equivalents for use in Google Translate:
Common = English (obviously)
Celestial = Sinhala, picked for its pretty script
Dwarven = Lithuanian, picked for having lots of guttural consonants
Elven = Finnish, because that's what Tolkien based Sindarin on
Sylvan = Irish, because fey
I believe I made a mistake when describing Alric's bloody skeleton to you. Since he loses all hd associated with class, he would not have the improved unarmed damage or flurry of blows of a monk. This isn't explicitly explained in the skeleton template but the fact that he loses the associated hit die seems to indicate he loses the associated class features. My mistake.
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Just a heads-up -- I'm probably not going to be able to post much today. It's election day, and I volunteered to help get out the vote for a candidate in my area, so I'm going to be out knocking on doors pretty much until the polls close or my feet give out, whichever comes first.
Damn Kazador's low Cha! This interaction is the first time that I've ever been tempted to take the Leadership feat.
Damn Kazador's low Cha! This interaction is the first time that I've ever been tempted to take the Leadership feat.
I don't speak Dwarven; would you mind if I opened the spoilers?
Not at all! IC and OOC knowledge are different :)
Ah Brolin I realize you're not aware of something that we do. Spoilers normally can be opened as long as you remember to keep IC and OOC knowledge separate. Sometimes, however, there will be a ! in a spoiler. This means that you can only open it if you're qualified to open it. Some things just need to be surprises! XD
Brolin, I know you're friends with Perrin from before this game. Do you have any idea if he's ok, likely to come back, etc? We're sure missing him a lot...
Yes! We miss him -- Perrin is at least half the life in this game, all by himself.
Kazador, I'm going to let you take a temporary, limited follower. You get a level 6 dwarven warrior. Care to stat him up? I'll RP him but you're welcome to take actions for him in combat as long as they're in keeping with his character. He has the wealth of a basic npc of his level.
Interesting.
Str (14) Dex (18) Con (16) Int (11) Wis (14) Cha (11) HP (64) Saves (8/6/4, +2 Hardy, +2 Bravery) AC (21/14/17)
Feats
Lvl 1: Point Blank Shot
Lvl 2: Precise Shot
Lvl 3: Rapid Shot
Lvl 4: Weapon Focus Bow
Lvl 5: Weapon Specialization Bow
Lvl 6: Many Shot
Traits
* Armor Expert (-1 ACB)
* Seeker (+1 Perception and Class Skill)
Skills
* Perception: 6 SP (+12)
* Craft Boyer: 6 SP (+9)
Fighter
* Bravery +2
* Armor Training +1
* Weapon Training +1 (Bows)
Gear: 3450 gold
* Masterwork Breastplate
* Masterwork Buckler
* Masterwork Composite Longbow +2
* Masterwork Dwarven Waraxe
* Fighter’s Kit with Masterwork backpack
* Masterwork Artisan atolls
* Durable arrows x lots
* Mithril Dagger
Can do the full math later.
———
Very lucky stat rolls! But a Dwarven guardsman, trained to defend the clanhold. By profession he is a Boyer who is an expert marksman as that is the only way to test his craft.
He has the eyes of a hawk, which has allowed him to escape from the elves hunting him.
Brolin, I know you're friends with Perrin from before this game. Do you have any idea if he's ok, likely to come back, etc? We're sure missing him a lot...
I don’t know them particularly well - we were just in another game together. I’ll copypasta what they put in the discussion thread there in the second of the month:
Hello I exist! Life obligations have just been pretty crazy the last couple weeks and I haven't been able to keep up regular posting. I'll get something up when I can, but expect the poor responsiveness to continue for another week or so.
Looks cool, Kazador. I suppose Algric and Mel will probably have some interesting conversations about bowyering.
Thanks, Brolin. Sounds like the poor fella's still pretty swamped.
Todo list for the upcoming montage:
- Get everyone's equipment sorted out.
- Get Kazador to tell us where Kazad Gravr is so Mel can say "Oh, let's take the river"
- Get Brolin officially approved to know about the events in Brookside. I figure the Bishopric can hire him and his ship to run us up said river, and that it would make sense for the captain of the hired ship to know what's on the line even if the crew has to take it on faith that their captain knows what he's doing. I think I'd like to do the scene where we tell Brolin what's happening "on camera" (briefly).
- GM, do you want us to worry about buying food and such? It hasn't really been an issue to date, as we've always been in settlements where food and drink were readily available. Personally I'm not a huge fan of the bookkeeping involved in tracking food and water, but if you want to do it, we can. It's somewhat easier in a PbP where we always have plenty of time for bookkeeping.
No need for food and water book-keeping. I only enforce that in campaigns where that is part of the point and challenge, e.g. low-level desert exploration.
Thank god!
I tend to say gold fractions are rounded down, to explain food and water buying
Okay, I just spent ages going through posts and working out timelines. Starting from now, we have six days until everyone's ready to go, with completion times for various projects as follows:
Kazador's +1 comfort armor: done tomorrow (day 1 of the montage)
Perrin's headband: done day after tomorrow (day 2 of the montage)
Mel's copy of A Treasury of Tales: being a compilation of folk lore from Old Feldnost, Revan, and the Troscari Wilds: done either tomorrow (if Regina Thrushmoor makes the 4 day completion time for her 5 gold bonus) or the day after that if she doesn't. (Day 1 or 2 of montage)
Mel's copy of "A Geography of the World": Copy 1 done on day 8 after commissioning (5 days from now). Copy 2 done three days after that, but Mel's just going to arrange to have it mailed to her university in the Concordance once it's finished, so she doesn't have to be around for that. (Day 5 of montage)
Mel's bow: done on day 9 after commissioning (6 days from now). (Day 6 of montage)
So basically we have six days to prep.
Mel, standard spellcasting services charges for those two spells. You can assume Brother Thomas helped you find a spellcaster of the lowest level to cast both spells.
So many plot hooks!
Competing interests with a ticking clock!
Different enemies, all tied together, but striking at different places.
Hard choices...
...really enjoying your campaign Brookside!
Thanks, Kazador! It's fun to hook into characters' backstories to make things more interesting.
Sadly, I think we should assume Perrin is done until further notice. I'm going to look for a fourth player but I'm not in a hurry as you guys are doing great.
Sadly, I think we should assume Perrin is done until further notice.
It's not like him at all. I wish we knew what was going on. It's tearing me up that he's just up and vanished like this. He's such a richly developed character!
It's going to be hard to deal with in terms of keeping a reasonably coherent story. Out of character, I don't want to make any serious choices for his PC -- that would trample all over his agency.
But at the same time, from an in character perspective, Mel is super invested in Perrin's fate. She wants to save him from his own folly -- and there've been indications that that could reasonably happen. But I don't think she'd be okay with him just wandering off. He's a demon worshiper. Mel's been keeping his secret in the hopes of redeeming him -- but she's also been keeping an eye on him, to hopefully prevent him from doing anything seriously evil. She wouldn't want to let him walk away for fear that he might give in to the corrupting influences of Haagenti and become a villain -- which would then be partially her fault.
So, how about this? Perrin continues to participate in the preparations for the Sonder's departure. He remains withdrawn and says little beyond basic things like "hello", "goodbye" and "please pass the salt". Mel continues trying to bring the Immonhiel angle to his attention by surreptitiously shoving the Enchiridion Pan Caelestes at him with the appropriate page marked. But she receives no confirmation as to whether he's ever actually looked at it.
Then, on the morning of the scheduled departure, he just vanishes. Completely. The others find his room empty, his stuff gone, no note, no indication of where he went or when; no magical traces; no way to follow him. He's just ... gone. Mel would be distressed, but time and tide wait for no man, they say.
That way we haven't made any significant decisions for Perrin, and he's out of the story for the moment. If the player returns at some point and wants to rejoin the game, we can work out a way to explain his absence at that point, and it could be good or bad or anything in between. Or if he returns but wants to let it lie, perhaps Perrin could become an NPC -- leaving his fate up to the GM. I really hope we get to finish Perrin's story, one way or another.
Yeah I'm very torn in the same ways. I don't want to make decisions for him, especially since they are completely character-defining decisions. But I also don't want to leave these things hanging. Regarding how to handle his current involvement, hey! Don't read my mind! ^_^
Full disclosure time - the Sonder's crew suck at combat. I wasn't planning on throwing them at the enemy, so I didn't bother optimizing them for it. There's a couple of level one NPC classers with full BAB, a few PC classers with lackluster combat statistics, and one level five monk cohort. But I wouldn't rely overmuch on the monk's help; since my being able to take Leadership was contingent on not throwing the cohort into battle I took the opportunity to try out the Sensei archetype that looks so cool but is so bad. She's a catfolk monk with eight strength who fights with nunchucks, is how little I cared about being able to take on level appropriate threats.
Captain Muse would very much like to avoid a Brookside-esque scenario where the level one experts have to fight and die against enemies with PC classes.