GM Euan's Mummy's Mask (Inactive)

Game Master Euan

OK everyone, I’ve grown tired of complaining and being that guy. But at the same time, I cannot continue on as if this is normal. I want to play my games, and Paizo is making that increasingly difficult - not to mention the lack of options within the platform when it is actually up and somewhat stable.

So I’ve been hunting for a new home to game, and I think I may have found an exceptional one.

www.myth-weavers.com

I’ve looked at several alternatives. Myth Weavers won hands down. I particularly like their system of dice rolling compared to the others I examined - a very big deal when it comes to PbP. I also checked out their bug reports, and the site looks very stable. One commenter wrote to me (when I asked what people liked about Myth-Weavers), “A site specifically made for PbP games produces superior tools for running PbP games.” Another wrote, ”MW is more robust and mature of an environment that allows you more freedom in your PbPost-ing.”

I’d like the group to consider moving to Myth Weavers. I’ll not make a unilateral decision here however. We’re a gaming group, and while I may have reached the end of my rope with Paizo, the new platform will (I’m sure) have things we don’t like (for example they don’t use Aliases, so you have to be more specific in your posts about who you are though there seem to be tools to do so). And there will be a learning curve of course. So let’s discuss it and come to a consensus.

Kosei Sharif-El-Sadad, though you have yet to really join the campaign (in large part due to Paizo’s outages), I’d really like your input on this as well.

A few links to help learn something of the platform:
General BB Codes
More sophisticated BB Codes
Dice Roller Options (I like the idea of pulling some rolls automatically from my character sheet as a player)
A place to test posts (there’s an extra menu when you’re logged in to make it even easier)
Site Guidelines (see also a link to the Global Rules within this page)
War of the Crowns gameplay thread

I have an account over there (efernsler) and have joined their group on the Discord servers (to ask questions in a chat environment). Seems a somewhat lively group, particularly for a Sunday (when I did most of my detailed research on this option).

So, what do you think? If there’s enough interest, and I hope there is, I will spin up a game over there so we can poke around a bit more before committing.

Ooooo, this is interesting. Don't mind me, but I'm dotting this for interest, to listen at the campfire, as brave players discuss a possible pilgrimmage...

While I'm salty at the idea of piling learning a new website on top of everything else going on (PbP Gameday + Playtest + life in general) I obviously enjoy this game enough that I don't want to give it up. So if folks want to move, I'm on board.

I'm willing to move to Myth Weavers until Paizo sorts itself out. I already have an account. (Ventiine)

Now that I've got a tad bit more time to comment, I *will* say that I do already have an account on MW (Lady Ladile) as some other buds decided to start a playtest game of Doomsday Dawn over there while the forums were down. I'm sure playing there will be fine, once I get used to the differences. I will say that while I *really* dislike not having aliases I *really* like being able to subscribe to games/threads for update notifications.

Oh man. I dunno yet.

I’ll look at MythWeavers again. I’d prefer to not move and have Paizo work, but Zilchus would also love being in a Calistrian-priestess-triple-love sammich and we can’t always get what we want. Meh.

I’ll look tonight.

I agree Zilchus. That said, I think you're more likely to get your love sandwich than a stable Paizo with features.

It's not just the instability of the last two weeks, although that has been impressive by any standard (and frankly unheard of in all my years on the web and as an owner of web development company). It's also that we're still living in 1990 on these boards. BB code support is a joke. New features are not forthcoming. There is simply no support for new things, or existing things for that matter.

I'm tired of fighting my environment to play. The environment should support play, not inhibit it.

But I'll wait for your further thoughts.

Stelle? Kosei?

Also, please feel free to play on. This discussion, and a possible move, shouldn't stop our role play. If the boards are up, however flaky, let's use 'em.

Also, a warning from Paizo staff.

Be extra careful with your posts people...

Yesterday was the last of a 5-day work stretch so I decided to take the rest of the evening off from official posting and get a clean start today. Sooo...jumping back into Gameplay now.

Also....

*waves at the Snoopy Poodle*

I think I recognize that face! ;)

I'm feeling hopeful that Paizo site might be up for good. I'd prefer to stay on Paizo too

Hi all! It seems I am joining you in this campaign from now on. It is going to be impossible to fill the miss of Benedictus but I do hope Kosei and myself we can make good company nevertheless :)

I have played already with most of you here or there, so I think it will go good. Let me warn you my native language is Spanish (I am from Barcelona - EU), so you might find weird constructions and words from time to time. Also cultural shock is a real thing. Just let me know if something comes up too often to annoy you so I can try to correct, but I am confident it will be mostly bearable.

I am completely new to the AP. Before Euan approached me all I knew was it happened in Osirion and at some point there was an attack of undead over the city. I have followed the great GM briefings he has made for you and thanks to them I have a general idea of what you have been doing. I hope that will be enough for portraying Kosei.

As for the forums, I can understand your call Euan, it also bothers me that Paizo does not seem to find a final solution for one of their most valuable resources.

That said, there are good points for going one way or another (Myth weavers also had a technical break down one year ago and all data was reverted to a backup copy some months outdated and most player sheets were lost).

But overall I am also pro-sticking with Paizo unless the web continues to crash (which Paizo cannot afford themselves). My main reason is all my campaigns are here and although initially it might seem simple to check that other campaign, I am sure it will ultimately require much more effort than expected to daily keep track of both websites.

Gusto en conocerlo. My Spanish is pretty elementary. It's awesome that you're fluent enough in English to do play-by-post. Do you still live in Spain?

Hi all! It seems I am joining you in this campaign from now on. It is going to be impossible to fill the miss of Benedictus but I do hope Kosei and myself we can make good company nevertheless :)

Welcome Eidi!

I’m not surprised you’ve come to join this game, but be warned that this group is a bit different than the other one: we are laden with drunks, debauchers, yahoos, & Ruby-Prince-zealots...and that’s just Zilch, let alone the rest. Just wait until you meet Nidhi.... ;)

I look forward to seeing what Mr. Salad offers the party.

Uh-oh, sorry for the dearth of posting.

Welcome Kosei!

I'm always willing to try new things, but this campaign seems well entrenched here, so, I opine that it should finish here.

GM Rutseeeeeeg~! Happy to have you join us :D

Do you still live in Spain?

That is controversial to answer depending on the day, but I think yes. Despite some short stays and a two years life in The Netherlands, I have lived my entire life in Spain :)

Depending in your life grounding it is pretty easy you end up having to learn some extra languages here in Europe, and English has become some kind of lingua franca for working and traveling. It takes some effort but I find it stimulating and interesting to discover a new culture and its people.

I am trying to find Kosei's tone still, trying to avoid his quackery being overtly annoying.

Though Zilchus is planning to visit Myth-Weavers to check it out, I think the votes are pretty clear. If I insist on a move, you will move with me - but folks generally don’t want to move.

That’s fine for now. We’ll stay here.

I have no faith in Paizo’s ability to maintain the presence we have here, but we’ll muddle through as always. :D

We can revisit this after their next outage - may Desna grant that it’s far away…

Okay, I'll cry uncle. If you want to move after these latest smaller outages, you'll not hear any complaint from me.

How do I upload Kosei's token to the Roll20?

Florence, I feel your pain. I consider this all part of the same unprecedented and unexplained outage.

Kosei, you don't, I do. I have it in there, and will make it visible now...

There are also one or two black dots in the upper right corner that anyone can move. They're there for spell radii. Move them where you want to center the spell, and give them an aura the radius of the spell.

I celebrated my birthday earlier tonight with friends. That's why I wasn't posting

Happy Birthday!

My official birthday is Sept 3rd! But thanks! XD

Happy Birthday a day early! :)

Happy Early Birthday! :)

Btw, I'm 100% sure The Good Place is the best show on TV Netflix. Damn, I love me that show.

I'm not wrong. Fight me.

Yeah, I watched it when the 1st season came out. Second season was good too. I don't have cable so most my my TV watching is Netflix or HBO

We also don't have cable (and I absolutely don't miss it at all) so Netflix and YouTube are our go-tos for entertainment. I remember someone showing me a preview for The Good Place some time back; I'll have to give it a try sometime :)

Also will catch up with Gameplay shortly; I did some PF2 playtesting with the local lodge yesterday and it was fun - but by the time I got home it was getting late and I absolutely did not feel like doing any additional posting for the day.

We also don't have cable (and I absolutely don't miss it at all) so Netflix and YouTube are our go-tos for entertainment. I remember someone showing me a preview for The Good Place some time back; I'll have to give it a try sometime :)

I await your review. But only watch if you like fun things and laughing and stuff.

I'm scared y'all

~Test~

I think they might have just fixed the preview formatting weirdness that was?

Could be, I couldn't see the post before last that I'd made in Gameplay at all, even though I could see it by pulling up Florence's individual posts. Then, once I posted it *again*, I could finally see *both* posts - so I obviously deleted the duplicate. Also noticed some other small site weirdness tonight with number of posts (the # shown under my main account keeps fluctuating by 4-5) so I don't know if they're doing more tinkering under the hood or what.

I've been watching Hurricane Florence but it looks like it's going South and is going to miss Virginia :D

Me too. I'm hoping it'll fizzle out. Are you in Virginia?

Yes! Richmond area

I'm glad Virginia is no longer in its sites! I'm hoping the thing will just stall before it ever makes landfall.

I'll try to post tonight. Sorry for delay. Bot as needed

Sorry, it's been a long week for me.

Level up!
I do believe you should now be level 12. It's been a very long day - and would have been longer had you not make diplomatic deals with the mercenaries.

First Synopsis - 1 Sarenith, 4714 AR
Second Synopsis - 5 Sarenith, 4714 AR
Third Synopsis - 6 Sarenith, 4714 AR
Fourth Synopsis - 9 Sarentith, 4714 AR
Fifth Synopsis - 14 Sarenith, 4714
Sixth Synopsis - 14 Sarenith, 4714
Seventh Synopsis - 15 Sarenith, 4714
Eighth Synopsis - 5 Erastus, 4714
Ninth Synopsis - 6 Erastus, 4714
Tenth Synopsis - 14 Erastus, 4714

Starday night, Erastus 18, 4714
- The party carefully opens the doors to the Sphinx. The silently open on a pair of guards playing dice to pass the slow evening watch.
- Finishing off the guards in short order, they attempt to bed down for the night. Unfortunately two hours later they are interrupted by a scout!
- Having enough time to prepare, they proceed forward a little and trigger a trap, combined with more cultists!
- Finishing off the cultists, they stop and chat a moment with the girtabililu leader Rubila. Discovering it was her son they found in the desert, they forge another pact and the last of the girtabililus leave the Sphinx.
- Checking the door first, they find a series of traps, likely inhabited by bodak.
- They continue on into a poorly conceived trap set by the cultists, who utterly fail to overcome the party dying quickly.
- A bathhouse reveals a little circlet, but little else.
- Benedictus can take it no longer, and makes his departure from the party. (Yes, he really did have the Teleport scroll! I didn’t make that up. He was planning ahead.)
- Shortly thereafter, though it seems a long time, the party is introduced to the bat… Kosei Sharif-El-Sadad.
- They move forward, tentatively, and examine the pyramid. Finding a cache of wealth and magic, they press on eventually.
- Bypassing the flickering images of the goddess Sekhmet, they open the next door to a strange dust filled room with one corpse.
- Unable to resist the lure they enter, only to face an Akhana Aeon who does its best to kill Zilchus for disturbing it’s watch.
- They overcome the entity and try, again, to rest for the night and regain some strength. However, the Forgotten Pharaoh will not permit it!
- A pitched battle ensues, with many area spells effecting the battlefield. Nidhi even provides the mask to her!
- It is not sufficient however, and the Forgotten Pharaoh stumbles, falls, and, eventually, dies to the onslaught of the party.
- The party finds another chamber to rest in, this one being filled with blood, exploded bodies, and death.

Huzzah! Lots of nice stuff to be had this time around but since Flo just got something nice I'm going to hold off a bit on claiming anything else until everyone else has a chance to pick up what they'd like :)

I'll try and get Flo leveled up later tonight or tomorrow!

Whaaaaa?! I feel so greedy wanting things when others don't take loot! I mean, what if there is a MAGIC CARPET in the future? I want Nidhi to fly around so bad - but not like a flying spell. A Forgotten Pharaoh mask trade might have to be made. Ahahaha!

I feel like the bard should have the most utility bolstering and controlling the battlefield but it doesn't always feel that way. *shakes fist at low-rolling dice* Buuuuut, if Zilchus had been mind-controlled, multiple people would have been killed. I'm callin' it like I see it!

Also, is the party's dragon friend gone? D:

Well, I mean there's plenty of smaller stuff like cloaks that everyone who wants one should be able to just take one but the bigger stuff, well...Florence will let someone else make the suggestions this time :)

And Ptolemy? Yeah, he was Ben's familiar so he left when Ben left :\

Last level July 24, 2018.

Zilchus would love the belt, but also it would sell well and pay for many toys for lots of us. Failing that, the Falcon Crown would look nice on him, I think.

Also, he would like one of the cloaks to upgrade his +1, but doesn't need the +3.

Let's keep that diamond dust on hand. It's good for restorations and raise deads.

Someone needs to track the diamond dust - just let me know who (but it's a party item).

Zilchus, I assigned you a +2 cloak and returned your +1 cloak to the party to sell on the treasure sheet.

Nidhi, I assigned you the +3 cloak.

At this level, the 90,000gp value of the belt is very nearly all the wealth for a single character (108k). As such, I recommend you sell it or someone is going to be quite unbalanced. Zilchus, if you end up with the belt, I don't think you should get the cloak upgrade for example. It's just too much wealth centered on one character to the detriment of the others.

Not quite sure why the AP has such a beefy single item at this point, but there you are. :) Still, it's entirely up to you folks to decide what you want to do. Certainly for now, someone should wear the belt however, if only until you get back to civilization.

Will the belt fit Anubis? ;-)

Though I still think you should sell it, that's actually a really good question for future reference. :)

I agree with the PFS FAQ (link) on this topic. They suggest armor and neck slots as available automatically to animal companions. Anubis can take the feat Extra Item Slot, and pick one off the following list: belt [saddle], chest, eyes, head, headband, or shoulders.

So yes, you could modify the belt into your existing saddle with the expenditure of a feat and maybe 50gp worth of crafting. I believe Anubis is eligible for a feat at 13th level.

People should totally wear gear at least until the party vendors. No sense it letting it go to waste.

People should totally wear gear at least until the party vendors. No sense it letting it go to waste.

Totes. I think Flo should wear the belt for now, getting +3 to her bow attacks and init would be keen.