Epic Among the Shadows (Inactive)

Game Master Raventhorn

All right congratulations on all of you for being selected I will be bringing up the In character thread soon.

here is the IC thread

IC thread

Awh, good thing I previewed before I posted. I thought we were slated to keep going until this evening.

Hello all. I'll apparently be your healy-buffer in this adventure. Pleased to meet'cha.

So excited to get started. I'm pleased to bring you ranged combat and much squinting.

So if I'm reading the roster correctly, we have:

Barbarian
Ranger
Cleric
and two (2) sorcerers (both of whom are divinely inspired?)

Sounds like a good party build to me.

This is going to be fun!

By the way, you mentioned being new to DMing so I hope you don't mind suggestions. One thing I've seen done in another PbP, is using the DM's 'profile page' as a Notebook to keep information for the party. Names and information about NPCs and places, Current goals on quests, Links to maps, and such. When I first saw that I totally wanted to remember it for if I ever ran a game. It really kept the players from needing to sift back through previous pages to look up the name of a tavern or it's owner. Just thought it was a neat idea and would pass it along.

Many thanks GM, looking forwards to the Adventure lolz. also devin i don't think we have a barbarian at all. just my observations. Checking in on my end.

I also see no mention of a fighty type, which means that I will have to play my intelligent cleric as such. And you your intelligent ranger the same...

Looking forward to the challenges.

Edit Devin, that is a wicked awesome idea. I'm setting up a kingmaker game, thanks for passing that along!

What barbarion are you talking about lol

I have a question for our GM. The fey foundling feat requires the character has a mark denoting her fey heritage. Because this character isn't new to me, I made it for the bad kingmaker group, I had that mark be a sort of living tattoo on her back. It conferred no magical mystical powers other than that it seemed to have a life of its own, and... kinda cool in my opinion. I was thinking it could grow/spread as her communion with nature/the community/her power does, but not be anything more than "oh look, the cleric has something interesting going on under her skin." Would you like me to restrict that in any way?

Actually Hermia with how I have Gaeron set up, he can cover the martial end very well, as he's going to be taking paladin levels for quite a while. :)

Did i misread the list? Isn't Alaric a Barbarian? [Shrug]

I didnt take Alaric I thought about it but thought might be fun for the group to struggle a lil bit on how to cope cause in life you dont always have everyone you need at the exact time you need it

I kinda dug his concept, but... I see your point in that way. It forces us to have to think out our responses, at least for a little while, which is a challenge in its own right.

But then, some character named Vulf would know my particular preference for burly warriors when I am playing squishy casters :P

Ok...I leave for an hour and all heck breaks loose...Firstly thank you GM Raventhorn for selecting me....I am sure this will be an exciting adventure.
Welcome all...look forward to playing with all of you...so what is the list of races and character classes...]
I am a 1/2 elf sorcerer

Hermia is a human, fey-foundling Cloistered Cleric, which means that I will be your go-to knowledge gal. :P

I also see no mention of a fighty type, which means that I will have to play my intelligent cleric as such. And you your intelligent ranger the same...

Looking forward to the challenges.

Edit Devin, that is a wicked awesome idea. I'm setting up a kingmaker game, thanks for passing that along!

Looking for players for kingmaker??? lol...

Sorry, slots are filled by folk I know from the boards, and my husband. I am also a newbie GM and played it safe with people I knew would be active and not try to hump me over, as it's a very... difficult AP to run to begin with.

OK, that's crazy. I swear i reloaded that page three times and his name was there. But now I come back from lunch and don't see it.

As for the party I am more worried about having only 4 people than I am losing a martial class.

So I'm a Human Ranger(Urban) so I'm more at home in a dark alley than a forest clearing.

Until the goodly cleric casts Light on your armor. Try sneaking now! :P

*giggles*

Nah, I would never do that. As I mentioned in RP, she's a lot bit toned down from her original peacenik self to recognize that threats to the community need to be solved with violence sometimes. But if everyone in the party were as quick to jump off and start smashing things right away, I foresee the defecation hitting the oscillation quite quickly.

I agree...we will need a more "thinking" approch, rather than and "thumping" one!!!

Id allow you to switch Devin if you needed I will tell you I put more stock in the wilds pulling from ideas from warhammer and kingmaker as base idea. But yea I prefer smart ideas then "I kill everything, can we fight it? Ok we kill it"

I'm all for smarter, not slashier. That was one of the ideas of this character.

As for changing my class archetype, if you are saying "we are going to be outside a lot [wink][wink]" then yes, I think I will change. The only real effect of the urban ranger archetype was different class skills at 1st lvl. While Knowledge(local) and Disable Device might be handy, I can go back to Knowledge(nature) and Handle Animal. But understand that means that no one is going to be picking any locks, OK. Let me know if you approve and I'll update my character block.

The other archetype I was thinking about for this character was the "Skirmisher" (apg 128) as it replaces the 'nature magic' part for some teammate buffs and combat tactics at later levels.

Devin, just as a bit of meta, Hermia has the community domain, and thus is always going to have the standard buffs covered like bless at first level, and prayer at third. Unless you think that you guys will need more magics... Well...hrm... now that I think on it, we probably won't be getting haste very soon, as that is a wiz/sorc 3 spell and if Kynneth is going for Theurge that is going to take a while...

Hmmm...

Ultimately, your decision though.

Oh, I'm sure you have the buffing covered. I was mostly interested because the spell casting just never seemed to fit this character. He doesn't exactly spend any time communing with nature and hasn't any interest in the gods. If I do switch to Skirmisher it will be to fit the concept, not for the buffing powers. As for other spell casting, it sounds like both of our sorcerers are looking to multiclass ASAP.

Yes my brother (Gaeron) is multiclassing as a paladin actually sorcerer and paladin go well together

OK, I updated my character to a "Skirmisher" archetype. swapped the Know(local) for Know(nature). I kept the Disable Device, and just made it a non-class skill (-3). The rest of the skirmisher parts don't come in till 5th lvl.

Thanks for the heads up on this.

Np yeah wilderness is just lil more the setting of my campaign think the black forest in germany only now without the autobon lol

Yeah, three levels in each class...so it could take awhile...but he will be watching Hermia very closely.....lol

Well, it would be an improvement on her last group, that much is for certain.

Devin, is changing your archetype going to change your character any? I figured since we got the real heavy hitting talk about religion out of the way in the preview RP, unless it comes up in the course of our actual introduction, it might be a bit jarring if he suddenly has completely different views about things.

Oh not to worry, same guy with the same background and same views. I felt, when initially creating him, that both archetypes could fit for different reasons. I just have learned that when the GM leans over and says "You want to buy 30 torches, DON'T YOU?" that the correct answer it "Of course i do." and you right them down.

Speaking of which, would you, GM-R, mind some other adjustments? Specifically, as I look back I see all kinds of equipment that I didn't think to put down.

If it's a "done deal", or you would prefer I shopped in Grunshire, just let me know. Here is what I would like to pick up.

Ah, yes, I read that loud and clear. I just liked the direction Devin pushed Hermia in in conversation, to prove that she's not just some idealistic tree hugger who wants everyone to get along. Yes, her ideal is to establish a government founded on the basis for good communities, but, that's all she's got right now.

Don't want to spoil too much, but the reason she is NG is because in terms of personal behavior, such as why she left the temple, she's more towards CG, but she respects order and seeks to establish one that will provide for the peace and prosperity of all, the higher N good vs. the painfully restrictive Lawful good.

Concerning shopping, Hermia doesn't actually need to spend all of her average gold to get what she needs to adventure, so I can spend more once we get to Grunshire if you fine gentlemen with positive strength modifiers need to add something to your inventory but do not have the money for it. Cloistered Cleric is restricted to light armor only, unfortunately.

@ devin list is fine except you probably wont find a whistle in grunshire as only market that would sell that is more of a city roll a percentile 50 50[above 50 you did buy before] if you wouldve bought that in the city before you left other than that all could be justified to be able to be found in grunshire still iff yon wrist sheath but hey lol dont over use it on me and its cool

Hermia: I'm always interested in how players see the different alignments and how they apply to character backgrounds. I don't know how much we will get into this but if you had met this character several months ago, he would have been Lawful Evil and is trying to change his actions and start a new life with this campaign.

GM: This is stuff he would have brought with him if I was just thinking when I put the character together. 1d100 ⇒ 7 Looks like I didn't buy it. I'll forgo the wrist sheath. The only thing I really should add for "before I left" stuff is the Crossbow bolts and the metal flask. If that's ok? I'll deal with the rest after we start the game.

Yeah, I am somewhat interested in what other GMs think of alignment, too. Especially playing a cleric, if I swing too much towards chaos, I lose my connection to Erastil, my cleric powers, etc. I just become a squishy with a nice heal check.

I'm really excited to play this game. I actually like that it is a smaller group and at least three of us are actively religious. Granted, our religion isn't the same, but that will be fun too. I don't anticipate many debates going on, as it seemed at least in the social RP that was presented that we all seem to have about the samish goal of setting things to rights and helping people prosper, just... different flavors. It seemed to me at least that Hermia was a healthy medium between Gaeron's idealism and Kynneth's somewhat uncertain sheltered state and wanting to become... other.

Way i do it is I add up what goes against your alignment my brother knows what i mean I aint harsh but go too many times against your alignment and suddenly you feel your powers slip away maybe at the crucial time you need them ^.^"

Yeah, is why I am trying to keep it to isolated incidents, and have good reason for them. Like it was chaotic to leave the temple, but she was thinking of the good of the community of Grunshire, and that they would need her help, that she could help provide a buffer between them and the mercenaries.

I don't believe that a lawful act balances a chaotic one, either, lest I gave that impression.

Nah I mean paladin is forced to steal out of being blackmailed while paladin expresses anger ne never ever takes time to pray for forgiveness

STRIKE ONE!

stuff like that I dont have the book that is only about the gods but I get the general drift of them so ill keep it general and about alignments i aint too picky just dont overdo it this is a grisly world and as such you wont keep clean but because i made it that way I aint going to penalize you for it

if that made any sense let me know lol

Ah, but if he is forced to steal, is he really breaking his code?

Those types of situations are total poop, I think. You're already playing a paladin, the most restrictive class in the game, and everyone and their uncle has an opinion on how a paladin should act. Throwing in moral grays to tempt him to fall is no fun.

the exapmple is really off the wall and was from a diff game i ran in rl for practice in retrospect i did warn him not to play a paladin for the test lol anyways....yeah i wont be doing that often or ever if I can help it. no promises Im trying to run an open world where you as players determine the fate of the place though sometimes you can't help it but hey thats life lol

Lolz in my defense bro, we were just teaching our cousin to play, but yeah my brother isn't such a hardass about the alignment morality choices thing. we both played fable and it's the little things piling up that make the alignment. i made sure w my paladin i tried to repent everything i did wrong in his mini-venture. anyways rly looking forward to the story and the game. also i think u'llall be surprised with how Gaeron is planning on progressing as a character when i hit lvl 6 ;)

Mister GM sir, if you would like me to post, might you give me a prompt? Are we still in the caravan, or are we in the city, yet? I cannot make posts from nusshing, lebowshki!

Vas ist das?

if you look at intro you have been just dropped off at the gates of grunshire

OK, I decided not to put this in the main post because you wanted RP not a bunch of questions. I have a bunch of things I'm looking for and want some feeling of before we talk to our new employer. I'm looking for information about the town and defenses. If you would rather I post them in RP just let me know.

How far is the wall from the outermost buildings?
How many guards do I estimate?
How many buildings can i see total?
Are there places where the forest is closer to the town or wall?
What arms and armor do the guards have?
How close to the wall did the caravan get before it was stopped?
Do we see lots of other townfolk that aren't guarding the wall?

Ha, just noticed GM wanted us to roleplay together first, before we went talking to NPCs, and we all went straight for the NPCs like... the average PC.

I'm not feeling all that hot at the moment, will probably go back to bed in a few and when I am more awake try to give us all a reason to talk to each other while the GM is at college, and hopefully come up with some more questions to ask.

OK, I decided not to put this in the main post because you wanted RP not a bunch of questions. I have a bunch of things I'm looking for and want some feeling of before we talk to our new employer. I'm looking for information about the town and defenses. If you would rather I post them in RP just let me know.

How far is the wall from the outermost buildings?
How many guards do I estimate?
How many buildings can i see total?
Are there places where the forest is closer to the town or wall?
What arms and armor do the guards have?
How close to the wall did the caravan get before it was stopped?
Do we see lots of other townfolk that aren't guarding the wall?

1. around 10ft

Great, thanks. That's exactly what i was looking for.

Just let us know when you are ready for us to break off the conversation and head inside to get things started.

What time of day did we arrive in town?

hmmmmm RANDOM TIME! 1d12 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12

You arrived at noon :)