No problem GM, my daughter is quite the handful herself. "Why did you tear apart your my little pony castle? Why are you on the table? Yes we can spend the next 4 hours coloring while watching Wall-E."
I'm here (was out of town all day, just got home, good things worked out after an emergency trip three hours away, but enough nonsense)
Ready to go! What do you expect of me?
Bella, profile looks good. Thank you for that, makes my life easier and anything that makes my life easier makes your lives easier. If you have any suggestions or questions for me about Bella, feel free to PM me, or you can post here.
I will do what I can to help you with PbP. Once we get everyone checked in I'm going to go through a list of expectations and ideas I have to keep things moving along smoothly.
Also, Bella, is there a certain time of day that you will be more available to post? If so, during those crucial scout missions, I will try to keep myself active and available to push the game along.
Thanks GM! So far I'm good. As for times of day, well after Monday I'm free all day everyday until January, so I'll be around more often than you'll want =P. Afterwards, it's all over the map due to university, so I might post more in the morning during that time.
How often do you think I should be posting?Since you'll be our scout, what we'll need from you is to keep a high posting rate during exploration and combat scenes. The momentum of the game will be based on the pace you set.
Essentially, you need to always be trying to push us forward to the next event.
This seems straightforward, but it is actually the most crucial player role in a PbP game. The rate at which the scout and GM can bounce back and forth to reveal and set up events is seriously important. I've seen slow scouts kill games, and fast scouts save games I thought were in danger of petering out.
No pressure. ;)
Thanks bud =P No pressure at all. I hope it all works out.
Fixed my default alias so I don't accidentally post as Archus
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So Zirren, GM Faelyn and I have already established that the Venture Captain of Northern Andoran, based in Oregent (Zilka's hometown), is named Alorec Saymos and has sent Zilka on this mission looking for Azlanti artifacts. Shall we assume that Zirren was assigned to this lodge after confirmation and this is his first mission?
Zilka, yes Zirren just finished training in Albasom and this would be his first Pathfinder mission. Aleorec probably assigned him because he is from Falcon's Hollow (he is unusually skilled in summoning and pretty good talking with people which might be useful).
Excellent! Looks like you guys have already worked things out. Zilka, I will send Zirren the same info I sent you and then you guys can discuss things further if you'd like.
Nathaniel, glad to see you here. I will be sending you a PM shortly with some background information and questions for you.
Got it! I'm excited =D
Do the Kreed's use the truck system and debit bondage sung about in "I owe my soul to the company store"? Basically you are paid in company scrip and have to buy everything from the company (gambling and prostitution helped too) but they charge you for every little thing keeping you a virtual slave paying off your debit. It was relatively common in corrupt frontier towns.
Even if they didn't, it isn't always easy to just move your family away if you are barely scraping by.
Mostly I was curious before he talked about debit slavery and being trapped. He became objective as a survival mechanism rather than falling to the NE tendency the town has (or is falling toward).
I might get the book of villages to know more about the town.
Grrr, I had a really long post up about Falcon's Hollow and lost it due to maintenance.
Zirren, the Towns of the Inner Sea is full of amazingness, even if you just get if for Falcon's Hollow info. The rest of the towns are actually very well written up!
Yes, the Lumber Consortium is essentially run like that. The lumberyards run non-stop everyday, all day. The lumberjacks are paid 2sp a week for all their work... which consists of five 12 hour shifts plus one 6 hour shift per week, they are given 1 day of rest per week. The Consortium provides lodging free of charge to their lumberjacks which is more often then not 4 simple walls of rough-hewn logs, a simple roof (which probably leaks), a dirt floor (or if you're lucky a planked floor). The Consortium also charges an "axe tax" to the lumberjacks to use the Consortium's axes; there is word they even charge the tax to those lumberjacks who provide their own axes. Most folks just pay the tax, though there have been a few to resist such non-sense; Sheriff Baleson is one of them. Which is why Baleson was elected to the position of Sheriff, and incidentally also why Pay-Day has a flattened nose...
Okay, so here are a few expectations I have for you guys as my players (don't worry there's not many... :)).
During combat I want you guys to keep track of your current HP in your stat headings. Also each combat round should be prefaced with which round you're posting (i.e. Round 2) and please use the bold text as shown in the example. When making attack/damage rolls, I would like you to breakdown the bonuses as opposed to one giant bonus/penalty (this makes it easier for me to keep track of what bonuses are coming from where). Your standard attack bonus does not need to be broken-down (I consider this your BAB+Attrib bonus+Feat bonuses+Weapon Enhancement). Lastly, if you guys could also paraphrase your round in a little OOC blurb at the end. For example [ooc]Moving # feet into position, attacking enemy #, Swift Action to activate Arcane Strike[/ ooc] Something along those lines! Any questions, please ask and I will clarify.
An example to explain better... Nathaniel has +2 BAB, +2 Str Bonus, Weapon Focus, and a +1 weapon, so his standard attack bonus would be +6. Now, Nathaniel is flanking so he has a +2 Attack. Therefore his attack roll would look like this [d ice=Attack]1d20+6+2[/dice].
All speech should be bolded and placed within quotation marks. Any thoughts or internal dialogue should be written in italics. I would like to keep most out of character talk to the Discussion thread, but any OOC text please put within [ooc] tags.
Umm... that's all I can think of right now. Also, if you guys have any suggestions or questions, feel free!
Mr. GM, Nathaniel is a halfling. He's got a size bonus to hit =P
Other than that, I got it =D
Zirren, the Towns of the Inner Sea is full of amazingness, even if you just get if for Falcon's Hollow info. The rest of the towns are actually very well written up!
The book is in my cart for purchase wednesday. Have a holiday coupon and another book I want comes out then.
Wage slavery is a subject I find exceptionally vile. I'm going to really enjoy this game. I'm reading up on the historic roots of workers rights and early Labor Unions in preparation. :)
Andoran is a good place to start labor unions being maybe the only democracy in the planet's history. But just being a democracy doesn't remove corruption (plenty of wage slavery and local government corruption to be had).
It does sound like fun to add to the regular adventuring menu. One of the reasons I wanted to come from the town was to have some tie to the locale even though I preferred the pathfinder trait.
lets start talking character ties-
Zirren has clearly been to the Sitting Duck before, so he's probably seen the big glum looking drunk who tends to sit near the pass-through to the Sitting Duck's sister-establishment the Ugly Duck (which is the brothel next door).
Belladonna... that's exactly why what I would like to see you guys do! Feel free to correct me if I ever make a mistake. I promise, it will happen lol!
I am loving the fact that you guys are eager to get into the Falcon's Hollow issues! I want to fit some of that into the game in between the modules to keep things fresh and interesting, so it does not seem like we are just dungeon crawling. One of the things that drew me to use Falcon's Hollow was the corruption going on with the Consortium and the hypocritical views that Adamas has taken to their dealings with the Consortium.
"We do not like that the laborers are being abused, but hey, we're getting the darkwood we need for our fleet at a reduced rate... So, maybe we can just turn a blind-eye as long as the lumber keeps coming. We'll send some Eagle Knights through there occasionally to ensure it's nothing violent."
I am enjoying your guys' roleplay so far, I think this will be an amazing group. Also, first GM post up and coming!
You all know people like Ruhk, a fun loving guy who's charm is good enough to get him into trouble since his mind is not sharp enough to keep him out of it.
Ruhk is another one who is refusing the axe tax, claiming that he's "Never paid for a girl and never will" lovingly referring to his axe as Bethany and "his best girl".
And as a notorious troublemaker (but never malicious), some people are taking bets on when Ruhk will finally go TOO far and find his employment "terminated".
Zirren has clearly been to the Sitting Duck before, so he's probably seen the big glum looking drunk who tends to sit near the pass-through to the Sitting Duck's sister-establishment the Ugly Duck (which is the brothel next door).
Zirren was born and raised in Falcon's Hollow. His mother was (and is) a barmaid at The Sitting Duck and when he was younger he worked there washing dishes, taking out trash, cleaning, etc. Last few years he was in Absalom for pathfinder and arcane training (he just finished and this is his first mission). I recall it was 4 years of training at the Grand Lodge; but that is fudgable he could have done it faster or maybe come back to visit. We could have crossed paths or maybe you know his mother
Other possible relationships.
Belladonna We lived in the same (relatively) small village. Zirren was one of the few (if not only half-elves) of his generation and occasionally strange animals came to his defense when bullied (unconscious summons).
Nathaniel Couldn't think of one since his background wasn't in Falcons Hollow that I recall. Is his village on the same river as Falcon's Hollow?
Zilka Pathfinders assigned to same mission.
Ruhk Maybe met in Oldfen. That is Zilka's home town....
I am doing my best to read up on the Darkmoon Vale, and Falcon's Hollow now. I am not familiar with the Golarion campaign setting.
I would imagine that Nathaniel's village lies somewhere along the Athrosh river, to the south, probably near Oregent. it would be a small village of halflings living in a semi-tranquil sort of ignorant bliss. The patron saint of the community would be the Lady of Mittonwir* a long ago Halfling woman of remarkable strength of character and compassion. Her tomb is a sacred place to the small community, and has been guarded for generations by an order of Halfling "Knights" calling themselves the Knights of the Silver Sash, Keepers of the Rosy Star. The Lady of Mittonwir possessed a Golden Horn, a relic of magic power not well understood. The horn was removed from the tomb many years ago, and some of the halflings of the community feel that the need to guard the tomb no longer exists, however, some, well at least one Halfling believes that being a Tomb Guard is a noble calling.
Nathaniel is not a Paladin who follows a particular deity, though he is loyal to the beliefs of the religion of his people (and this I assume would be the standard Good deities of the Halfling people) but is instead a paladin dedicated to the following of a Saint.
*The Lady of Mittonwir's name has been lost to antiquity. What is believed is that she was a Cleric, of lawful Good nature and that she founded a following of like minded individuals dedicated to honesty, and perseverance in the face of hardships. The word "Mittonwir" is an old Halfling word that means, "the promise of a blessed day manifested in the coming of dawn."
Oh! A note guys... the map is inverted the way it was put into the book... So the river on the map is actually to the south. So the entrances are on the north, northwest, and west side of Falcon's Hollow. Sorry, I meant to tell you guys that earlier.
Belladonna We lived in the same (relatively) small village. Zirren was one of the few (if not only half-elves) of his generation and occasionally strange animals came to his defense when bullied (unconscious summons).
Yeah it's quite likely we at least know of each other's families. I think it might work that the bar maid I gave the coins to would be your mother. Congrats! Your family earned 2 gp! You might even know of Belladonna's work and destitute family through your mother.
In order of eldest-youngest
- Elder Ossire (Died 8 days ago from plague)
- Verna, the mother (Currently in mourning)
- Eldest child Grace (Sick with plague, works as a maid for a noble family)
- Only son Kojin (works as an assistant in the lumberyard)
- Eina (works with Grace)
- Rosanne (works in the Sitting Duck as a bar maid)
- Belladonna (looks after her father[now deceased], mother, and baby sister)
- Baby Kayla (10 months old)
So, I travel from the south, along the Andoshen River, then turn west, following the River Foam until I pass Falcon's Hollow, then cross the River Foam (ferry, bridge?), to reach the north bank, and then come back eastward to enter Falcon's Hollow from the west.
That is pretty similar to the path that Zirren and Zilka would take coming form Oregent.
This is a personal taste thing, and doesn't really relate to me, so feel free to ignore it-
I find the "we meet on the road" and "we meet in a tavern" tropes to be a little lazy in terms of storytelling, especially when more than two people are involved. It strains disbeleif to think that a bunch of people who are about to be instrumental in important events were all traveling the same road at the same time.
I've always found that having deeper community ties makes for stronger and more interesting bonds between characters. They take a little more time to flesh out, but are really worth it in the long run.
Here's some suggestions based on the things that have come up in discussion so far-
Bella and Nathaniel could have originated from the same nearby halfling village. They might not have seen each other for a while, but its likely they know each other from their youth.
Zilka, being new to the area, would need a local guide to help her in her hunt for artifacts. Bella or Zirren would be good choices.
Zirren's mother works at the tavern where Caine lives. Its likely that Zirren has known Caine for nearly ten years (half the employees think Caine is a disgraceful drunken troublemaker, the other half seems to think he's a decent guy who's down on his luck. Up to you which side you believe)
Feel free to use these, or ignore them. I'm just spitballing.
Are there regular caravans that travel from Oregent to Falcon's Hollow?
Well, I'm hoping to establish Zirren's family, and my family as friends. I will also know of Caine through my sister. I don't think I've got anything for Nathaniel or Zilka though, but I definitely know about Ruhk. The defiant lumberjack that my elder brother admires... also fears. Mostly fears.
Okay, so there are two fords along the River Foam, which runs right along Falcon's Hollow. One ford is just upriver from where the Foam joins with the Andoshen River, the other is upriver from the Gold Falls (which is marked as "Waterfall" on the map), and the ferry crosses at Falcon's Hollow.
There likely are not many caravans that travel up to Falcon's Hollow due to the difficult in crossing the river, but there are the occasional small merchant caravans from Olfden to Falcon's Hollow. The trip from Olfden requires less water crossing and have a straight shot road.
So I'm guessing Zilka and Zirren would have made for Olfden, then taken the trade road north from Olfden to the ferry. The road then runs along the River Foam up northwest to the Gold Falls Inn. This is where the ruins of a dwarven bridge lay, which is where the road would had turned east to head towards Droskar's Crag.
I expect Nathaniel will be able to recall a good deal of "Book" knowledge about the village and the Darkmoon Vale, but he has zero practical experience with the place
A question: Can I write something that includes a bit of dialog from another PC? I want to set up a quick encounter with Nathaniel as he makes his way to the Sitting Duck, just to introduce the two. I just don't want to infringe on a PC's character.
Sorry if it takes me a little bit to respond to some of your guys' questions. There isn't a lot of information about that type of things in the guides that I have so I am trying to examine the maps, gather the info at hand, and extrapolate what I believe would be the logical patterns given the backwater area that the Vale is considered by the rest of Andoran.
Also I won't be available much the rest of the evening. It's my one night off with my wife this week, so we are going to go out to dinner. I will try to check in if possible.
You can pm me with any questions you might have, Belladonna, I'd be happy to help with whatever you are trying to put together.
Oh, and GM - I imagine lumberfolk ride logs down river, to market, then have to trek back on a semi regular basis. Just a thought, I mean I really don't know how a magic bearing world gets logs from point "A" to point "B" but I am familiar with Brian Regan
I find the "we meet on the road" and "we meet in a tavern" tropes to be a little lazy in terms of storytelling, especially when more than two people are involved. It strains disbeleif to think that a bunch of people who are about to be instrumental in important events were all traveling the same road at the same time.
Tend to agree if it is used too often, but sometimes people do meet on the road and it can be useful if hard pressed for connections and need to get the team together. Sometimes I do like the cliches :)
Zilka, being new to the area, would need a local guide to help her in her hunt for artifacts. Bella or Zirren would be good choices.
As Zilka mentioned, we are both recently anointed pathfinders. She known and trusted by the local venture captain while Zirren just returned from training in Absalom but is from Falcon's Hollow so was a logical choice to send with Zilka.
Zirren's mother works at the tavern where Caine lives. Its likely that Zirren has known Caine for nearly ten years (half the employees think Caine is a disgraceful drunken troublemaker, the other half seems to think he's a decent guy who's down on his luck. Up to you which side you believe)
Since you have been there a while, you would have met Zirren and his mother. He left for training about 5 years ago after someone saw potential in the young man (probably noticed his gift for language and realized he had a gift for magic as well). Before that he helped around the Inn or generally lurked around. Zirren didn't quite fit in (too bookish and some otherworldy tie that made him an occultist once trained), if Caine treats people generally well (especially Zirren) other than the fighting Valeria would have had no problem with him.
Well, I'm hoping to establish Zirren's family, and my family as friends. I will also know of Caine through my sister. I don't think I've got anything for Nathaniel or Zilka though, but I definitely know about Ruhk. The defiant lumberjack that my elder brother admires... also fears. Mostly fears.
That sounds good. Zirren's family are some of the good folks around. Grandpa is a carpenter but not too well off because he never toed the line, especially after they tried to get mom to work as a doxy (she was quite the looker). Zirren's uncle was going to be grandpa's sucessor but died when Zirren was a wee lad. Now grandpa just does a little work here and there, Valeria works at the inn, and the family scrapes by.
Naaaah, fear Ruhk? Just because sometimes the pale blue ices takes on an intense stare, like a smouldering blue fire, hinting that perhaps there is more behind the handsome face than an incorrigible rake and scoundrel?
Surely there is nothing to admire or fear about a man that seems to have been born with an axe in his hand, and who seems like he would be just as adept at cleaving skulls as logs?
And just because he has managed to snark into Paydens face and got away with it (mostly because the implied insult went over the recipients head) one should not think him special.
You can pm me with any questions you might have, Belladonna, I'd be happy to help with whatever you are trying to put together.
Oh, and GM - I imagine lumberfolk ride logs down river, to market, then have to trek back on a semi regular basis. Just a thought, I mean I really don't know how a magic bearing world gets logs from point "A" to point "B" but I am familiar with Brian Regan
From the way the guide reads, it seems like they just send the logs down the Foam until it reaches the Andoshen, which flows down to Almas... Which I sort of don't get, but it does say there are very very nasty rapids in the Wolfrun Hills and those rapids make the Foam unusable as a waterway for traffic.
I will have to think on that some more and come up with something...
Bella, who's your sister? How would Caine know her?
Rosanne, Belladonna's older sister, has been working in the Sitting Duck for several years. Being a frequent customer, I'm sure you've met her, although probably haven't talked much. She might have some gossip from Jalene.
Naaaah, fear Ruhk? Just because sometimes the pale blue ices takes on an intense stare, like a smouldering blue fire, hinting that perhaps there is more behind the handsome face than an incorrigible rake and scoundrel?
Surely there is nothing to admire or fear about a man that seems to have been born with an axe in his hand, and who seems like he would be just as adept at cleaving skulls as logs?
And just because he has managed to snark into Paydens face and got away with it (mostly because the implied insult went over the recipients head) one should not think him special.
Yup, mostly fear
As a note on the sitting duck and the ugly duck, they are the same building, but the two establishments are separated by a wall. There is a pass-through in the wall that staff uses to go back and forth (that's Caine's spot)
.
.
It looks something like this-
--------------------------------------|
d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .|
| . . . . . . . .UD. . . . . . . . . . .. . .|
| s . . . . . . . . . . . bbbbb . . >>>>|
| s s . . . . . . . . . .|-----------------|
| s s s . . . . . . . ..d . . . . . . . . . . |
|------------C. . . .| . . . . K . . .. . |
| s s s . . . . . . . .d. . . . . . . . . .. .|
| s s . . . . . . . . . .|-- -------------- |
| s . . . . . . . . . . . bbbbbbbbbbb |
| . . . . . . . . SD . . . .. . . . . .. . . .|
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
------------------------------------- |
UD = Ugly Duck side
SD = Sitting Duck side
d = Door
b = Bar
s = Stage area
> = stairs up
K = Kitchen
C = Caine's spot in the passthrough.
Rosanne, Belladonna's older sister, has been working in the Sitting Duck for several years. Being a frequent customer, I'm sure you've met her, although probably haven't talked much. She might have some gossip from Jalene.
Cool, thanks. :)
Does the Town guide have a list of the people who own, run, and work at The Sitting Duck? Curious so I don't have to make up a name for the owner.
We are building quite the list of staff there :)
Of course when you make an Inn advertised as "the place adventurers go" you are bound to get adventurers.
Been trying to keep my character description up to date with the family members I'm making up.
Egrin Tock is the current owner of the Sitting Duck; however, Zirren you would recall it being owned and operated by a different fellow, Larden "Ferret" Kried.
The only two listed as working at the Duck are Tock and Jalene.
Also, you guys are on a roll with the RP. I'll let you guys keep going for a while if you'd like, there's no rush right now so feel free to continue!
Just a silly little note, as a way of apology. I use a few (well, more than one let's say) computer in my daily activities, including a tablet (installed with Wayfinder, I highly recommend it, it was built by a playing in my "Its "A" Dungeon" game) and some of the time I cannot access those google doc links, so I might be slow to "understand" some things now and again.
No problem, Nathaniel, but you do have a way to view them on a different computer? If not, I can find a different avenue.
What is this Wayfinder, you speak of?
It's an Android app. I think it costs $.99, and it makes posting to your games from a phone or tablet a bit easier.