DougFungus' Rise of the RuneLords

Game Master pinvendor

New keyboard tomorrow. Will resume posting then.

Just making sure I wanted to continue with Cleric... there was an interesting Scarf-dancer Magus option. Plus the stat increase for Zara is a bit weird, her stats are so similar.

I already updated Nicea with a second level of barb (more for the hp than anything; you seem to think we'll need it).

Checking in...anyone need help or have questions about the level up?

Nah, just getting herolab all set up again on the new computer, and finding Davben's old portfolio was kind of a pain. It should be all good now.

Sorry Pin I'm working on mine now.

No worries; just wanting to make sure. :)

Ok this is what I've got so far. I'm not sure I got everything.

I'm going to try and get everyone's character sheet checked out here soon, and then we'll get rolling with Samara's last stand rescue.

I'm a bit behind on this, sorry. I forgot that Davben said he had everything ready to go. I will try and get another post up soon.

I'll take average HP too. :)

S'okay on the lateness; things have been nutso.

We're ready! Let's start posting! Save Samara!

Bad news:

Alright gang...I know I've mentioned it a couple of times in mafia chat, but I want to make sure I include Finwa since she has been active. :)

Since Treppa has either chosen to distance herself or just does not have the time to be active on the boards, it doesn't seem like we're going to be able to keep going at the moment. I honestly don't have the foggiest notion of how Nicea thinks so I find myself very hesitant to try and take over botting her and I think she will be pretty integral to your group's survival in Thistletop.

Unless you have different suggestions on what to do from here, I was assuming I would leave the game as 'Active,' but we will be placing it back into pause mode until Treppa has more time, or we have decided how we would like to proceed in the game.

Good news?:

I am still interested in running a game but I'm thinking I would like to try a non-PF game. Meows and Leoian have expressed interest in a modern day superhero campaign. I'm still trying to settle on the non-PF game system to use, and I'm open to suggestions—on the system or hear alternate votes for game genre.

I personally own a swathe of systems and settings and can easily adapt many, so don't be shy.

@Finwa: We would really like to see you stay active with us and keep you involved, so please consider joining our new game or possibly even accept an invitation to my other Pathfinder game which is a Kingmaker AP campaign with some houserules. You can find that here.

Anyone have thoughts or suggestions or concerns? I am always open to your ideas.

I'd be interested in a superhero game as well. Roll20.net has some like Basic Role Play and such that we could use or we could just create a page on something like Discord. I'm sure there are quite a few different ways we could go forward with something like that very easily.

So yes I am interested.

I have Villains and Vigilantes, Superworld and BRP.

I haven't played super hero in a while so it could be pretty good.

Unless you're saying you are having difficulty or would prefer not to use Paizo's PbP forums, I think the assumption is we would remain here rather than move to Roll20 or Discord for the actual gameplay. I'm not opposed to another location, but everyone is pretty comfortable with the structure here, I believe.

As far as systems, I'm pretty unfamiliar with most of the superhero based rule sets, so I will definitely be willing to look into any of the proposed ideas. Which editions of Villains & Vigilantes do you have, Finwa? Same question for Superworld.

Also, if anyone is interested, Champions 4E is available for a limited time on Bundle of Holding. I have already purchased both bundles with all books unlocked, so if everyone is willing to chip in the minimum (14.95) on the Essential bundle, you'll at least get the main ruleset & setting for Champions. I will say that if you upgrade to the expanded selection it includes Dark Champions which may be a good alternate depending on what kind of hero exploration in which everyone is interested. I think it explores the grittier side of heroing like Batman and "heroes" who are much more questionable in nature.

Regardless, it would be great if we could choose a ruleset that everyone has access to obviously, but if it doesn't work out that way, I will do my best to get everyone all the info they need for any rules we decide on.

One of the other possible rulesets is the Valiant Universe which is a much more freeform friendly ruleset. The problem I foresee is that while the narrative portion is PbP friendly, the actual conflict mechanics may slow it down. It definitely feels like it's more designed for face-to-face gaming since several nuances would require the GM to make snap decisions and decide in the moment qualifiers which would definitely hamper gameplay since you would almost always be relying on me to make rulings when you wanted to do something outside the "norm." The possibility of having to retcon actions would probably happen a lot unless everyone makes 1/2 post, waits for me, then makes the other 1/2 post. This would slow things down quite a bit since everyone else would have to/possibly wait each time before posting in order to ensure their own actions would stay relevant.

I'm still working on it though. We may be able to use a modified version of that if we can't find any other ruleset that works for us. I will probably create a thread and a campaign for further discussion later today, so we can continue the discussion there instead of cluttering up the RotR thread since we're all hoping it resurrects one day.

EDIT: I managed to get it ready before editing on this post closed!

Here's our new campaign.

Answer in new thread for new campaign.

I am not dead (yet), but drowning.

Updating pbps is on my schedule for Thursday, 21 september. I will post at least something in all active pbps, and schedule an hour 4x/week to do pbps after that (sat/sun/tue/thu).

To my players: sorry for the delay, and thank you for your patience.

To gms and other players: feel free to bot me if I am holding up the game.

Hello everyone! As discussed in the online chat, we are planning a live game on Dec 30 most likely using the same Discord channel we used for Thornwood.

Looking forward to hearing all your beautiful voices!

What sort of time are we looking at?

What works for you? I want to maximize your ability to be awake and present!

I will most likely need to be the one getting up the earliest since I'm the latest in the time zones. @_@

I can do anytime, heck I can even stay upto 4am.... cos I've totally not be doing that the last few days.

Alright! It sounds like we've chatted an agreed upon login time of approximately 10am MST with an anticipation of an 11am MST start of game. I look forward to the gaming!

Phew! Burnt Offerings complete!

I do apologize for being a little less than prepared on the enemy abilities for our final game, but I will be much more ready for the next round.

Two questions:

• Do you want me to create a new campaign for the Skinsaw Murders separate from this thread, or do you prefer to keep going with this one?
  
• My plan is retire Damieka from the party. Do you want to replace the character and player with someone new? Someone we know would obviously be preferable.

Any suggestions/feedback for me as GM? I would like to know what you are enjoying and what I can do to improve.

A new thread might be helpful for wiping the slate clean and giving us a bit of a fresh start, but I'd understand the appeal of keeping this one.

Personally, I do not think we need to add anyone else to the party. The Thistletop dungeon got a little cramped, and I don't think poor Nualia stood much of a chance against so many of us.

Thank you for your response, Mahorfeus. Your votes have been tallied. :D

I don't believe we need anyone new, especially with a potential discord/pbp dual format. Obviously if there's anyone we know, then we could include them, like an Oladon, kindral, ODV-type. But obviously my judgement isn't great, especially with AWWE & Peebs.

As for a new thread I like this one and unless we actually commit some some rapid posts, a new one could seem anaemic. However a new start could prompt a flurry of posts.

I'm fine as we are, unless we have somebody we particularly want to recruit.

I'd prefer to stay in this thread. We can always build an index like I did here: https://paizo.com/people/AdrianaSalSalazar I've found it very handy for jumping around.

Why is Mahorfeus a rat now?

Gear from the gear channel - not sure where we need to start or where we left off:

Link to Loot Sheet (Google Sheet)

We have a lot to identify and magical stuff I don't think we're using! :o

[5:08 PM] Treppa: 2 elixirs of hiding, a scroll of knock, hold portal
[5:18 PM] Treppa: Given to us by General Moustache prior to departing for the fort, along with necessary riding gear, a set of regular manacle for Vos, and a set of thorn manacles for Vos's advisor, a mage of some sort.
[6:07 PM] Treppa: Three horses (one vacant) and a pony.
[8:41 PM] DSXMachina: Magical Ring.
[8:53 PM] DSXMachina: 2 CLW potions (1 for Gwyndel)
[8:53 PM] DSXMachina: (1 to Luara)
*** January 1, 2016
[7:26 PM] DSXMachina: 6 potions of CLW, 4 hobbo wardraughts
[7:28 PM] DSXMachina: Vos' has....
[7:28 PM] DSXMachina: +1 Bastard Sword, Cure Moderate Wounds, 400gp
[7:28 PM] DSXMachina: Silk bed sheets & a nice oil painting.
[8:50 PM] DSXMachina: 270gp skull for holding a potion.
[8:52 PM] DSXMachina: Oil of Magic Weapon.
[8:55 PM] DSXMachina: Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds
[8:56 PM] DSXMachina: Darkwood MW Club
*** December 30, 2017
[1:23 PM] Treppa: Goblin throne room/king/warchanter:
[1:24 PM] Treppa: 2 potions of cure mod
[1:24 PM] Treppa: 23 gp
[1:24 PM] Treppa: assorted small crappy goblin weapons
[1:25 PM] Treppa: 2 potions
[1:25 PM] Treppa: dented crown
[1:25 PM] Treppa: mw breastplate (small)
[1:25 PM] Treppa: keyring with a lot of keys
[1:26 PM] Treppa: detect magic: shiny short sword (magical)
[1:39 PM] Mahorfeus: masterwork dog slicer?
[1:42 PM] Treppa: Silver holy symbol with jackal-headed female/distended belly/two daggers - Lamashtu - gems for eyes.
[1:44 PM] Treppa: large iron key (Samara)
[2:12 PM] Meowselsworth: Ridiculously large amount of coins, like whoa
[2:13 PM] Treppa: All copper? No, lots of types.
[2:14 PM] Meowselsworth: Medium chain shirt, medium masterwork scimitar, manacles (high quality), symbol of Sarenrae in gold (95gp?), jade necklace (100gp?), a fine blue sick gown with silver trim (100gp?)
[2:14 PM] Treppa: leather pouch with 34 malachite lumps ~ 1 gp @Treppa
[3:57 PM] Treppa: The horse! Missing horse from Sandpoint.
[4:02 PM] DSXMachina: Small Hide Armour from Hero
[4:02 PM] Treppa: When an article of magic clothing or jewelry is discovered, most of the time size shouldn't be an issue. Many magic garments are made to be easily adjustable, or they adjust themselves magically to the wearer. Size should not keep characters of various kinds from using magic items.
There may be rare exceptions, especially with race-specific items.

*** December 29, 2018

[10:41 AM] DSXMachina: Masterwork Shortbow-Tentamort lair
[10:44 AM] Treppa: Ooh, can anyone use the shortbow?
[10:46 AM] DSXMachina: Not me.
[10:59 AM] Treppa: takes the shortbow
[10:59 AM] Treppa: BOW OF RAGE
[11:00 AM] Treppa: YES

[11:04 AM] DSXMachina: 3 store items: Pry bar, small sledgehammer, 2 lots of rope.
[11:25 AM] Treppa: Bedroom: everburning torch
[11:32 AM] DSXMachina: Tsuto Room: 4gp, 8sp & ring
[11:33 AM] DSXMachina: (Ring is Emerald) & a black piece of Obsidian valued by Samara at 8sp
[11:37 AM] Meowselsworth: Emerald ring is appraised at 50 gold
[11:38 AM] Meowselsworth: In woman's room: Bracelets at 15 gold each (2ea), necklace has a red stone appraised at 80 gold.
[12:44 PM] DSXMachina: Tsuto's Emerald ring has significance - like a promise or engagement ring.
[3:35 PM] DSXMachina: Torture Room 2: Tool room. Silver 7 pointed star - Samara (This is a key, not a weapon)
[3:35 PM] DSXMachina: 100gp of fine tools.

Hey! You up there! GM! Do we level up now, or did you have us level up early to survive Thistletop?

I think that the loot from 2016 belongs to DSXMas game which was a different set of characters, I think Kaliri was mine for that one. We'll only want to count loot after 2017.

I will take it off the sheet.

EDIT: Done. We sure are poor!

Whoops, I thought we were going to go back and unlock the merc (and recover the good manacles) and let him go with us if he wants. Wasn't that what we discussed?

Yeah just sort of confirming in game.

Did you guys want to take him back with us, or let him go his own way? Do we need him to testify against the bad guys?

How much between module RPing are you wanting to do?

I can summarize and get us on the way. If you prefer to summariz your own activities, I can initiate the segue between modules and then allow you to indicate what your own characters were doing during the period.

If you want more freeformy transition, that's certainly fine. You all seemed to enjoy the unusual banter and situations that you were getting into just after the Festival.

Regardless, is everyone ok with me fast forwarding to Sandpoint? It seems a bit silly to have you guys "argue" over what to do with everyone, but if you prefer to RP it out, that's fine I suppose...

:P

I was just trying to confirm what we did with the merc, but nobody seems to even want to discuss it. Also need loot info. If nobody wants anything, we can just sell it all.

If you feel there are questions that need to be resolved, then please continue. I had some default assumptions regarding the whole bit that just make it easy (for me :P), but I have no interest in stealing from what you consider important!

Sorry! I think Samara would have been indifferent to what we did with the merc unless someone would have suggested that they might get extra reward for bringing him back. But she definitely would have gone to retrieve the manacles, they are high quality!

As for most of the treasure, unless I specifically called something out that Samara wanted because it is 'treasure' (like the silver 7-pointed star), it's worth selling. Because of her rogue weapon specialization, it's not really worth it for me to use the magic short sword due to not getting the unchained rogue finesse bonus damage on it.

I missed a good chunk of the game, but I believe it was mentioned that the merc wasn't really involved with any of the creepy cult stuff, so Silva would have been fine with letting him off easy.

Yeah, sorry. Unsurprisingly Zara would be for letting the man go. Maybe he writes a testimony, which we don't have to pass on. But we do give him a lecture and hope he changes his ways.

That's good by me.

OK, we need two potions identified, then we can sell the rest.

We don't have enough to get any decent equipment. Should we just pool the gold we get and buy cure potions or a wand instead of splitting the gold?

Zara still has a wand of CLW with 19 charges in it. With her level and her channeling, we 'might' have enough healing.... *touch wood*

So we could use the money to buy an item for someone who needs it?

Oh, we do have one magical weapon, a short sword. Does somebody want to take it? It doesn't work with Samara's weapon finesse, but might be a good one for someone else.

Holy moly, I've just used Caryatid Column as it's meant to be used at work.

But regarding the short sword, Zara can use it - in fact it's about as good as her scarves - but would not be the ideal. Saying that it seems everyone has other preferred weapons.

My worry is that we're going to hit baddies where we need magical weapons, and I think this is the only one we have seen. Does anyone have one? Does our monk have some magical powers? We're kind of in a tough spot - maybe some oil of magic weapon or fang? Or adamantine so we can bypass hardness?

Am I worrying too much?

Nope, you are worrying the correct amount. We should definitely keep it, but it seems whomever uses it - it'll be a back up weapon for this situation. Thus it might be best for Nicea/Samara/Zara - Nicea might be able to do damage without it? Zara/Samara both have finesse, of course Zara does pathetic damage even if it wasn't me rolling.

Thus ideally I'd guess Samara, who could do sneak attack with it???

Zara could also learn Bless or one of those 'Magic Weapon' style spells, to help overcome stuff like that.

*Work related: And I did write a Room Data Sheet for a 'Dungeon' today**