Dungeon of Dread (Inactive)

Game Master Grimmy

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I'm here.

Talric treks over the grassy hill, the sky above him overcast with the promise of rain. Looking around him, Talric sees that there aren't any good campsites. Dark was falling, and this was as good as a place to make camp as any other.

Setting up didn't take any real work. Before he went to bed, Talric ran through a few combat exercises. Looking at the sky, Talric sighs. My Journey continues, he thinks, and settles down for the night.

From the journals of Erich Kaine:

"Saecaroth! At the time, all I knew about it were rumors and tall tales, and none of them were good. It was a dark, damned, dangerous place, but I was young and stupid and mostly in desperate need of some money.

And not all of us would make it out alive..."

Checking in! Excited to get started.

Talric didn't walk into the tavern unnoticed. After all, a Northlander was an uncommon sight in the small hamlet he had decided to bed down in.
Ordering strong mead, Talric sits at the bar. All of the locals had backed away from him, except one. A man of (almost) equal stature as Talric, he snarls. "That. Is. My. Seat."

Talric simply replies "Was. You mean was."

The other man gives him a glare for about five seconds, and then lets out a big, booming laugh. "Ha! Anybody else would've scampered away like a rat! You have courage, my friend. Tell me, what is a Northlander doing here?"

Looking at the man, Talric judges that if anybody knows of any suitable challenges, he would. "I am on my Journey to prove myself worthy. If you know of any challenging foes, then please inform me of them."

The man's face darkens. "Well, there 'ave been whispers going around in fighter's guilds and such of great treasures in a nearby dungeon. Dun't know where it is, exactly, but if anybody does, it is Xaecaroth, the local mage. And if he doesn't, he can probably direct you to someone who does. He lives in an imposing tower just north of town."

Talric thanks him, telling him that he can have his drink. Heading out of the bar, he thinks Ah. A suitable challenge. Hopefully this "Xaecaroth" can speed me upon my journey. It sounds like that this dungeon may be hard to find without help.

Talric strides toward the tower, hoping that the sage can give him advice.

Reporting in.

I'm here.

Pharnox reporting for assassinations. Who do you want me to kill?

As Talric approached the tower, he hears a faint chuckling from behind him. Whirling around, he sees an old, grey man, calmly puffing upon a pipe. "You aren't ready for Rappan Athuk," he says simply. "If you're looking for fame and great challenge, however, I believe I can point you in the right direction. Animals have been stricken with a supernatural disease, and I am certain that somebody is orchestrating it. Even if they aren't that impressive, they certainly have some imposing minions." Fumbling around in his bag, the old man pulls out a map with varying shades of red on it. "The darker the red, the more the disease is apparent. I would investigate those places first. Some friends of mine have already put forth their champions. I'm afraid if you aren't partial to half-breeds and elves, you aren't going to have a very good time." Chuckling, the old man disappears.

Bewildered, Talric takes a look at the map. The closest red region was only a few miles away. Shrugging, the Northlander starts trekking towards it.

Rocks fall, Talric dies!

Wow. A Character is dead and we're not even halfway through the first page. This campaign really is lethal.

What did I do wrong?

Wow! Just like AD&D! Good thing Talric was a DM strawman and not a PC. Wait, what? He wasn't? *Gulp*

Just kidding Tal!

You can cut loose with those descriptive narrative posts all you want in this thread, and I love your writing style. When we get to actual gameplay obviously you will have to be sure not to make any posts that dictate how the NPC's, PC's, and environment respond.

I'm excited that you have a strong vision of your character and the world though, it will serve this campaign well!

Yeah, I've played enough oldskool AD&D and video games that have strong Role-Play elements to know not to god-mod. And, thanks. As I have said numerous times before, writing's a hobby of mine.

Ah ok, you know the deal. Forgive me, I literally just learned that phrase god-mod today.

Christoff stares at map in the middle of an empty clearing as the sun begins to set. He looks up from the map at the setting sun, then around at the clearing.

It would seem that this map is utter sh$#. He sighs. This is why I plan my own field research. I am surprised they suggested it at all though. Those old, stuffy, ba$#%rds love just studying their books, rather than do anything pratical.

"HELLO! I'M SUPPOSED TO BE MEETING A CONTACT ABOUT SOME MAGICAL ANOMALIES!"

Christoff continues on in a random direction as twilight begins to settle around him.

If it isn't obvious, this would be a nice time for a ninja to come take out his target.

As Christoff walks a darkness seems to roll in out of nowhere engulfing him in a blinding night to which he can see no way out. Suddenly he feels a hard bang on the back of his and he falls to the ground. The darkness clears and where there once was one man now there are two. The body of Christoff lay unconscious on the ground as a man dressed in black with dark purple skin stands over him.
Pharnox looks down at his latest victim and says to himself in his native elven language That's the problem with these no kill jobs, now I have to figure out how I'm going to remove the body. Kills are easy arrow to the throat or rapier through the heart and then you just retrieve your weapon and go home leaving the body where it lays. Pharnox leans over and grabs Christoff by his armpits and hoists him up and struggles to drag him away. "But no... oof... those stupid wizards... ruff... want him gone not dead. He then drops the body "God this guy is heavy. I really should have thought this through better before I started, but who would have thought he would be so damb heavy."
Enter Grimmy with plot getting both of us stuck in a dungeon fighting for our lives.

EDIT: ""But no... oof... that stupid old man... ruff... want him gone not dead... RAAA!

Talric looks over the valley, then looks at his map. He had been hiking for three days toward the red area, and now he could see what the old man meant. Diseased and malformed animals were everywhere, and this valley was one of the focal points. Suddenly, he sees a slight humanoid, clad in black, carrying a human across his back.

Some friends of mine have already put forth their champions. Perhaps... Talric clambers down from the hill and strides toward the humanoid. "Hail! I am Talric Dtunson. What may you be doing here?"

Shocked at hearing Talric's hail this far from any town Pharnox quickly summons another large cloud of darkness around the newcomer. Pharnox then continues to pull his unconscious victim away, but the mental strain of keeping the spell up and the physical strain of dragging Christoff is just to much for his body to take and Pharnox falls unconscious on the ground as his darkness fades away.

Talric coughs for a moment, and then as the cloud dissipates, he sees that now both men are unconscious. Sighing, Talric started setting up camp for three. It was only right, after all.

Dot-dash-dot

Cairenn didn't know that nature would be so.... naturey. This path, for instance: it would be so much easier to walk on it if it were, say, a road. A paved road. A nice boulevard.

Why had he let his supposed half-sister drag him out here, again? Sigh.

Ah well, he can use this as Inspiration. Yes. A story of how, seeking his father, the young hero suffered mile after mile of brutal, terrible terrain, and all manner of agony, such as that which comes from sleeping on something other than a bed...

My apologies for the lateness! Uni was really blegh this week.

There it was again. Those slightly narrowed eyes, the crooked frown, the hint of a sigh from lips that seemed weirdly familiar despite how short a time she had known their owner. Lyrasael holds back her immediate urge to latch onto Cairenn's ear and pull him along; maybe yanking on it would force it to stretch out to the proper length...

"What is it this time?" the red-haired elf demands of her poor half-human brother with a roll of her eyes. Lyr had, of course, been taking him along a rather placid route, past young-growth trees without too many snaking roots and down through gentle valleys filled with wildflowers. It was quite a roundabout path--cutting right through these woods would've been the quicker option to reach their destination, but she had suspected Cairenn would not appreciate having to cut through brambles and undergrowth followed by a day of wading through marshy terrain.

"I swear to Darach-Albith, if you're going to wax on about how hard this is again..." Lyr lets the idle threat hang suspended in the air, words that have been no doubt said numerous times on their journey thus far to very little effect. Not even Ruan's piercing stare from the comfort of his mistress' leather-armoured shoulder assists in this regard.

In the end, the hawk-druid heaves a resigned sigh. There was not much point trying to motivate the city-raised boy. He was almost too ignorant to be saved. "We're nearly there. Stick it out for a while longer, yeah?"

Watery-blue eyes drift on over to Cairenn's ears once more. Maybe if I pulled at just the right angle... maybe then he'd learn how to be a real elf...

dotting

Welcome all, on vacation, will get up to speed early next week.

Hello Ghaelja,
I'll give you the short version of our group coming together as we have it so far:
Christoff: Sent into the wilderness by the wizards at his academy on their instructions from his father.
Pharnox: Hired by a man, Christoff's father but we really don't know this right now, to remove a man, Christoff, without killing him.
Talric: On a personal quest to prove himself, finds a man in black, Pharnox, dragging an unconscious man, Christoff, through the plains. Hails the man in black only to be engulfed in darkness which quickly dissipates and he now finds both men are knocked out so he builds a fire and settles in with them for the night.
Grokar: Has not yet connected with the group.
Some how Killian captures us all and puts us in the dungeon.

Where does the name Pharnox come from? You're the second drow I've seen use that name, can't be a coincidence.

I'm sure it's not. It's one of the common drow names from the Advanced Race Guide. If you look up Drow stats for Pathfinder under Male Names you'll find it. I've always been horrible at naming so I usually start there.

Thanks for the update. I am hanging out with Killian at present. He just absconded with my animal (plant) companion, although I will probably have a new one before we get together. I left the other party, MoD, because my understanding is that DoD is causing some type of a blight upon the local forest.

I am out of town this weekend, so light posting at best. Will get caught up again tomorrow night or Tuesday.

Dien is at a Con too. I'll make two threads tomorow, now that we have the teams sorted, and render this one inactive, and we'll start when she gets back.

We can do a sort of soft start in the new gameplay threads if you guys want to RP with each other a little before the dungeon bashing fires up.

Thanks for doing that summary Pharnox, I'm glad you persisted and we made a spot for you.

If you want, put that summary up on the Obsidian Portal as a first entry in an OOC journal, or as a wiki page.

May not matter much for a short dungeon crawl, but in the sandbox part of the campaign these little notes can majorly help parties set goals, figure out clues, and not be led on wild-goose chases.

The Thighmaster - it is neither a thigh, nor a master. Discuss.

?!?!?!

Anyway, anything that needs finalizing?

Also PM me if you need plot advice.

*Cairenn enters the thread performing: rap music*

YO YO YO

Sup guys?

As far as teams go, Alice/Lyrasael and I would preferably be in the same one, but that's my only real 'hey can this happen'.

I've left the big dangling plot hook of where Cai and Lyr's father is/what happened to him wide open for that being a hook into the tournament, if needed-- if they have something that suggests their father went to this dungeon, I believe they'd both be motivated to head that-away.

Cai's a bard, with all that entails, probably with an enchantment focus down the line. For now he is, unfortunately, a lowish level caster... with all that that also entails. Sorta squishy. He will likely try and hang back a bit from the front line when that is possible.

Does everyone know how to do the mini-stats line thing, like this ^^

If you can format it exactly like this pretty please?

Edit: Cairenne's already on the ball. Cairenne if you can just add HP, and Saves.

Cai + Lyr are a package deal everybody, there's no way I'm missing out on that banter and shenanigans (^_-)

The Thighmaster - it is neither a thigh, nor a master. Discuss.

Eh. I would discuss that, but I'm feeling a little verklempt at the moment. Talk amongst yourselves!

Anyway, just popping into the discussion thread to check in. I'm happy to be a part of any group that will have me. It might be interesting to be in the same party as Lyrasael and Cairenn--we could be the 'father issues' group...

Have a lovely evening!

Mmmmm...thigh master. A master of cooking thighs? I think I'm hungry.

?!?!?!

Anyway, anything that needs finalizing?

Also PM me if you need plot advice.

Well your sheet doesn't seem done. Is there supposed to be something in the spoiler "Stat Block with archetype"? It's empty for me when I click it.

I don't see anything about gear.

Check out Cairenn's sheet, that's the formatting I am most familiar with. You don't have to make it exactly like that, but close enough that I don't get a head ache finding things if I have to bot you or anything like that.

The plot device idea I need help with was that there's a foul corrupting influence in the dungeon and it's messing up the nearby wildlife, so this druid wants it removed. So she sticks you guys at the entrances and says you can keep what you find but don't come out til it's done.

Ok, so far a little uninspired but it gets the job done. She's an NPC from one of the hardcovers, this is something she would do. My problem is, how did she round you guys up? Wouldn't that be more trouble than just going in the dungeon herself?

Any ideas?

Cai + Lyr are a package deal everybody, there's no way I'm missing out on that banter and shenanigans (^_-)

A druid and a bard could use a meat shield and someone to trigger traps for them. I could do the latter.

I'll fill out Lueck's stat bar above his image and format his stats better. I'll think about how to hook him in with the storyline as well.

It's a little hoary as an old trope, but then again, we ARE playing old-school-- maybe the NPC druid recruits us at the nearby tavern. ;)

Frankly, I'm not too bothered over the 'how did we get there'-- Lyrasael and Cairenn are traveling together, and our vague idea is that she was like "dude, if you really want to go find Dad, then do it, don't sit on your ass" -- so they are wandering, and can be appropriately waylaid or shanghaied or just invited depending on whatever works best for you.

The Thighmaster is clearly a reference to Gaston.

I've left the big dangling plot hook of where Cai and Lyr's father is/what happened to him wide open for that being a hook into the tournament, if needed-- if they have something that suggests their father went to this dungeon, I believe they'd both be motivated to head that-away.

If you guys can all come up with hooks of your own like this we don't need to use my little "druid wants the dungeon cleansed" thing, I just pulled that out of my butt.

G'day all! Still updating Lyr to 3rd level, will do that shortly.

If a druid came and said "there's bad sh*t in this dungeon", as a fellow druid, Lyr is likely to be interested in cleaning it out. Heck, she might even be somehow connected to this other druid somehow? (Unless it's that one super-crazy druidess who lives in the Forest of Hope, because, uh, yeahhh, her and her wolves are a bit too much for me I think. :P)

The double pull of "Hey, maybe that good-for-nothing father of mine has been around here" is even more impetus for her to drag Cai with her into a dangerous place.

Things:
- Lyr is nominally an archer (think of her as being a ranger with more spells), although I could easily morph her into a more "spellcastery" type (perhaps a summons focused character?)... a wild shape focused character might also be interesting (weapon finesse bear...? Hmm.)

- Druids aren't exactly known for their amazing healing skills, so if we have anyone else able to chuck down a cure light or two that would be super handy.

- I am likely to be focusing on buffs and control more than direct damage, which I hope the rest of you can handle adequately. ^_^

It's her.

Kára here. Status bar should be good.

As for teams I'll have to run through stat blocks first before forming an opinion, but I believe their was another polearm user around somewhere less he wandered off somewhere? Might be interesting to have a phalanx going on.

The fluffy bits will be done by tomorrow, promise. I've got a good start still working on the cleric training part. I only see 1 cleric of Freya in the wiki and no formal church to speak of. Not unexpected of a lesser deity.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

So on the note of AVENGERS, ASSEMBLE-- I mean, on the note of what teams we're talking about here-- maybe everyone can chime in with what they see their party role being, and whether front-line fighter or ranged? Might help us sort out a little bit of a balance. And yes, we've all got our sheets, but just having the data in one quick line format is nice and simple.

(Lueck and Erich, not trying to blow either of you off! I'd be happy with either of you in my party, I just hope at least one of our group can be a bit of a tank. :P)

So, for example:
Cairenn: caster, lowish AC, preferably ranged, buffs/control, some healing (he has CLW on his list), all the skills~ (okay, a lot of them, anyway)
Lyrasael: caster/archer, lowish AC, definitely ranged for now, some healing, buffs/control

So we could clearly use someone to stand in front of us and get hit. ;) With a bard and druid in our party who both have CLW, we don't have the same healing power as an actual cleric, but we should be able to keep people on their feet in a pinch. I suggest that the legit cleric go with the other team, not because I don't want a cleric (we loves clerics, my precious), but because they may need it more....

Also, these are just suggestions from me! I'm not trying to tell anybody where to play. :)

Talric should probably go with Cai and Lyr he's a versatile frontliner. Then probably Erick so you don't double up on archers.

I'm thinking Grokar should be with Kára. He's a frontliner that's going to be stuck with MED armor at best with only 12 dex. he's going to need lot's of heals. That leaves Lueck with us 2. And the Alchemist, assuming he's in, as our only arcane user.

We seem to be short on mages eh?

What do you guys think?

I'm glad you thought of it. I could use the support if I'm to have a chance to survive this.

Some notes on Kaine's role in (a potential) party:

Out of combat: Kaine's got a broad bunch of skills, but I tried to focus him in Perception, for trap-spotting. I'm anticipating that Saecaroth will be pretty packed with traps, given the source.

In combat: Kaine is at his best when he has a dependable flanker to work with; either another player, or a summoned monster. With his Ranger levels, he's got pretty good hit points, and he has a decent armor class. He's no tank, but he won't shy away from the front line when he's needed.

Alright, I thonk I fixed it, I'll get the archetype if I survive the tournament as one of my tournament groups.

And, I second Kara's choices. Cai and Lyr need a straight man, after all.

@Talric

-I see Rage (21) in one spot and Rage (18) in another.
-The DM might have waved the Alignment restrictions on Barbarians? but they need to be Non-Lawful standardly.

+ Trap sense?

must resist... urge to.. change avatar

What's the final word on my character? are we good, or should i just be a fighter? or do i need to move on...

edit: i will clean it up if i'm in so don't think that'll be an issue

? Oh, derp. Forgot to change Rage with my levels.

And yes, he did waive alignment restrictions for my barbarian.

Also, quekas. I have never heard a more annoying percussive instrument ever. My roommate just got it and he won't stop playing it.

@dm I been looking into the rules for animate object and I can't seem to find the info you gave. Mind posting a link to where you got it? The pages I found in the prd, don't seem to list damage. Just trying to determine what makes sense for it.

This Probably

Scroll down to the Damage Chart by size

I have no objection to being on either team. I think it does make sense to have Erich and I on opposing teams since we both bring the support element for dealing with traps.

Alright, I thonk I fixed it, I'll get the archetype if I survive the tournament as one of my tournament groups.

And, I second Kara's choices. Cai and Lyr need a straight man, after all.

Keep tweaking it ok, it's not quite there yet. The kind of stat-block hero-lab outputs is the bare minimum, but check out the other PC's in this thread for even better examples. Off the top of my head, you have no weights listed for items, you have no flat-footed or touch AC listed, you have no CMB or CMD. It looks like you only listed the skills you put ranks in, which is ok I guess, as long as nothing else but relevant ability mod effects any of the other skills (stuff like armor check penalties for example).

You could fill out something like this and link to it if it helps.

Don't forget mini-stats.

Lueck and Christoff still need mini-stats too.

Lueck and Christoff still need mini-stats too.

Thank you for the reminder.

Mini-stats up.

@Christoff Clockwork Familiar

Love the resources spoiler Kara, very helpful to me.

Me too.

Love the resources spoiler Kara, very helpful to me.

Yup! That is brilliant! And... stolen. ;)

D are you making sure the bonus feats are ones that would have been qualified for at 1st I don't know how to reverse engineer like that without hero lab, it makes my brain hurt.

Also, I just realized, maybe we should take this to discussion thread so this doesn't keep bumping in the recruitment forum and attracting hopefuls?

Done and done.

And yeah, I kept an eye out. Looks like everyone is good. Lot fewer martially focused 3/4 BAB characters here than some of our other groups.

You should make some kind of Lost Lands Department of Internal Hero Specifications audit bot alias (*-*)

Alright, I've taken a look at the submissions and I'm loving what I see, can't wait to find out which of you make it out of the dungeon in one piece? I'll post any notes/thoughts I have below :

Erich Kaine - Very nice. Should list your armor in your gear though.

Done! I listed Chain Shirt in the Gear section, also added notes on current encumbrance (Light Load) and noted with asterisk which skills are affected by Armor Check Penalty.

DM Grimmy wrote:

Love the resources spoiler Kara, very helpful to me.

Yup! That is brilliant! And... stolen. ;)

I knew I should have patented that!

@Christoff, You have Acid Splash listed twice under your spells. Because of your acid dart ability you might want to trade Acid Splash for Ray of Frost, just to have varied energy types available should it come up.

I'll have to take a look at that thanks. The sheet still needs some tweaking and adding of pertinent info.

Is everyone OK with the teams I suggested?

No counter points or suggestions?

Sounds good to me. Anyone planning to be from Endhome or Reme?

Nope. Kára grew up in Bard's gate. It's all she knows.

BIG IMPORTANT TOPIC!

Simple Initiative.

For PbP, I do super simple initiative. Compare team good guys high roll to team bad guys high roll. Turns resolve in the order posted, no waiting for your individual initiative count to come up. Everyone cool with that?

We've had long debates in the other groups about whether this is good or bad for rogues getting sneak attacks, and whether it made investments in high initiative more or less valuable. I'm not good enough with theory-craft and statistics to say for sure with confidence either way, I just know I like how smooth the game goes this way.

We good?

Sorry to intrude on this thread since I know I dropped the ball on getting into this game, but I would like to continue following it. Is there any way I can get this in my campaign menu without being part of the game?

Oh yeah I was meaning to PM you, Iron Killer.

I don't think anyone has this in their campaign menu yet, until I connect a gameplay thread.

Glad you're still following along, you were among the first three accepted, grandfathered in from the other thread. I waited a week before I filled your seat.

TiredDude/Leshanda went AWOL as well. Tsiron/Talric is here still, but just has to finish up his alias/character sheet.

I see you fixed the scimitar/weapon finesse issue. Just keep eyes on the game for now. You can still post in the bench too.

We're probably a couple weeks out from starting the tournament gameplay still, there's always a chance something could change but I think we have pretty dedicated players on board.

It's definitely worth watching the campaign in general though, things could change any time. 2 out of 3 groups came scarily close to TPK last week 0_o but they both pulled through with clever skillful play.

I believe I got it!

I used Lueck's compartmentalization system so you can check stats without looking at a massive wall of text :]

Mini-stats are done as well.

EDIT: A quick heads up, I delayed my original build plan to levels 5-6, so when I actually start it, I will be able to use it effectively.

Basically, the idea is to make opponents take falling damage and AoOs by shunting them up in the air, doing AoOs, knock them backwards, rinse and repeat.

Yes, I did figure out how to launch people 10 feet in the air 8>)

I have played with the initiative several ways in PbP, and simple initiative is one of the better ones I've seen. It helps keep the momentum of the game going, which is crucial to success. I am completely good with it. If players metagame, they can certainly take advantage of it, but I doubt that would be an issue.

I believe I got it!

I used Lueck's compartmentalization system so you can check stats without looking at a massive wall of text :]

Mini-stats are done as well.

EDIT: A quick heads up, I delayed my original build plan to levels 5-6, so when I actually start it, I will be able to use it effectively.

Basically, the idea is to make opponents take falling damage and AoOs by shunting them up in the air, doing AoOs, knock them backwards, rinse and repeat.

Yes, I did figure out how to launch people 10 feet in the air 8>)

Profile looks good now Talric. Nice new avatar too.

Question, how are you getting 21 con during rage?