GM Tarondor's Ptolus Campaign

Game Master Tarondor

Ok, I've put up the profile page here: http://paizo.com/people/FriholysAurelian

Not sure how to link him on the characters/players parts of the board, though? Or is that something the GM has to do? And do I have to upload the full character sheet somewhere?

Click on my "GM Tarondor" handle. Go to my alias tab and select one of my characters (I recommend Sir Terramor or Fletch as good examples). See how to format your character sheet. You don't have to use the spoiler tags, but I find it lends a neater appearance.

Since I know you use Hero Lab, in that program Click on File -> Output Hero Statblock -> BB Code tab -> Copy. Then go to your character's page at Paizo, click on "Edit My Profile" and paste it in. You can use spoiler tags after that to make everything neat, if you like.

You will appear in the Characters tab after you post in the Gameplay thread. I recommend you read my post on that upthread a ways first.

SESSION ZERO

A quick note of explanation. Both Patrick and Gabe also wanted to play, but I'm simply not going to run a 7-player game. The action economy would ruin play, to say nothing of the extra length every turn would take.

I've offered to run a different, slower game for the two of them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, we have the following characters:

• Silas Silvermane - litorian Bloodrager scion of House Dallimothan
  
• Velika Wondercraft - gnome Bard
  
• Dain Slumsaint - human Oracle of the Streets
  
• Tilver Arnholm - half-elf Fighter/Investigator
  
• Holys Aurelian - human sorcerer scion of House Dallimothan
  

THE ANSWERS

Question #1: Native or Outsider

• Silas - A native
  
• Velika - A native
  
• Tilver - A native
  
• Dain - A native
  
• Holys - A native
  

Question #2: Where did you meet?

• Silas - At the Gates
  
• Velika - old friends
  
• Tilver - old friends
  
• Dain - Hired for a mission together
  
• Holys - Different answers for each
  

Question #2: Linele Cran's fate?

• Silas - Destroy
  
• Velika - Destroy
  
• Tilver - Destroy
  
• Dain - Destroy
  
• Holys - Destroy
  You bloodthirsty bastards...
  

Question #4: Deity?

• Silas - Navashtrom, God of Strength and Harmony
  
• Velika - Twenty-Four Gods of the Hours
  
• Tilver - Lothian
  
• Dain - Asche and The Lady
  
• Holys - Locharit (Goddess of the Written Word), Ynchabolos (God of Numbers) and Ni-Gorth (mostly forgotten dragon god)
  

Question #5: Politics?

• Silas - Empress Addares - I trust the old blood!
  
• Velika - No Interest
  
• Tilver - Helmut Itelstein - Ptolus for Ptolusites!
  
• Dain - Helmut Itelstein - Ptolus for Ptolusites!
  
• Holys - Helmut Itelstein - Ptolus for Ptolusites!
  

Question #6: Shilukar?

• Silas - Bring him to Castle Shard
  
• Velika - Bring him to Castle Shard
  
• Tilver - Thwart! Death to Dark Elves!
  
• Dain - Bring him to Castle Shard
  
• Holys - Bring him to Castle Shard
  

Question #7: Where do you Live?

• Silas - The Ghostly Minstrel
  
• Velika - small, overpriced apartment in Oldtown - occasionally rents in Midtown.
  
• Tilver - small flat in North Market across the street from Harding's butcher shop.
  
• Dain - ???
  
• Holys - small townhouse in Rivergate
  

Question #8: Relationship Status?

• Silas - Single. Looking for the right litorian lass.
  
• Velika - Single. Lots of flings. Tells conflicting tales of her "true love" Imeleth
  
• Tilver - Recently engaged to Evelyn "Evie" Littleton, a clerk for the City Guard.
  
• Dain - ???
  
• Holys - Single. Looking for advantageous marriage.
  

Question #9: What Gives you the Willies?

• Silas - The Covenant of Blood
  
• Velika - Mahdoth's Asylum
  
• Tilver - Chaos Cults
  
• Dain - ???
  
• Holys - The Covenant of Blood, Fallen, and Forsaken
  

SESSION ZERO

Now I want each of you to say a true fact about two other PCs that only you know. It doesn't need to be bad, but should be a complicating factor in that person's story. Put the true fact in spoiler tags, like this:

Silas, you tell me a fact about Velika and Tilver.
Velika, you tell me a fact about Tilver and Dain.
Tilver, you tell me a fact about Dain and Holys.
Dain, you tell me a fact about Holys and Silas.
Holys, you tell me a fact about Silas and Velika.

Each of you can read the two secrets proposed for you by the others but don't read anyone else's. Each of you can choose to accept or reject either or both of the "facts" as true. The person who wrote them still believes its true, but it's up to you whether they're really true or not.

For each "fact" you accept as true, you may have one free re-roll of a d20 at any time.

Question #7: Dain continues to live in the Warrens, as he has his entire life. He spent his adolescent years living on the streets and finding shelter where he could. Since he has been adventuring with the others, he has made enough money to buy a permanent spot in the Warrens where it's needy denizens can find him. He occasionally will take an extended rental at the Ghostly Minstrel

Question #8: Dain has never had a romantic involvement. From time to time he has had crushes on women from the Warrens, but - due to his lonely social status and offputting social skills - these have been thoroughly unrequited.

Question #9: Dain is used to feeling the presence of the city's spirits around him at all times. They may not always manifest themselves audibly or visually, but even so he can feel them as they move about the streets around him. It was only a few years ago that Dain first found himself in the Temple District, as he walked along the streets, marveling at the sights, he approached St. Valien's Cathedral. As he approached, a strange feeling overcame him, giving him goosebumps. It took only a moment for him to realize that he couldn't feel any spirits nearby. The odd feeling of disconnection made him turn around retreat. It made him feel so uncomfortable that he has never returned to the Temple district.

Holys Aurelian wrote:

(Slight name change after being informed of an unfortunate foreign-language near-homonym.)

Too late. From now on, I'm callin' ya "Chimichanga."

It shall be my life's goal to convince Holys to become a monk. There's no reason he shouldn't be Friar Holys.

SESSION ZERO

Now I want each of you to say a true fact about two other PCs that only you know. It doesn't need to be bad, but should be a complicating factor in that person's story. Put the true fact in spoiler tags, like this:

** spoiler omitted **

Silas, you tell me a fact about Velika and Tilver.
Velika, you tell me a fact about Tilver and Dain.
Tilver, you tell me a fact about Dain and Holys.
Dain, you tell me a fact about Holys and Silas.
Holys, you tell me a fact about Silas and Velika.

Each of you can read the two secrets proposed for you by the others but don't read anyone else's. Each of you can choose to accept or reject either or both of the "facts" as true. The person who wrote them still believes its true, but it's up to you whether they're really true or not.

For each "fact" you accept as true, you may have one free re-roll of a d20 at any time.

This is the last part of Session Zero. I'd like to wrap this up and get started on Chapter One by tomorrow if possible.

Something I know about Silas:

Something I know about Velika:

Click on my "GM Tarondor" handle. Go to my alias tab and select one of my characters (I recommend Sir Terramor or Fletch as good examples). See how to format your character sheet. You don't have to use the spoiler tags, but I find it lends a neater appearance.

Since I know you use Hero Lab, in that program Click on File -> Output Hero Statblock -> BB Code tab -> Copy. Then go to your character's page at Paizo, click on "Edit My Profile" and paste it in. You can use spoiler tags after that to make everything neat, if you like.

Thanks! I've done so now.

Note that, unless he knows he's going on a jaunt, Holys typically wears his noble's gear and fancy jewelry when at business or walking around town. (I used some of my starting wealth to buy that.) Thought I'd mention it now in case it causes a reaction from NPCs or other party members.

I fully accept both facts about Tilver

Ha, I'll accept both facts about Holys as true!

They both kind of work together so I will go with both.

Velika prefers her past to remain as mysterious as possible.

Regarding the vicious rumors about Dain:

I want to revisit the question of what to do with Linele, the little girl who is a vampire.

Would your answer change if you could deliver her to the Brotherhood of Redemption?

You may join the Gameplay thread now.

Would your answer change if you could deliver her to the Brotherhood of Redemption?

Yes, Velika would change her answer. Although the finds the Brotherhood of Redemption mildly distasteful, this particular case would be one of the exceptions.

I would probably still say Destroy. Vampires have to many abilities and the need to kill sentient races to let her live and hope the Brotherhood succeeds in the long term of keeping her good. And locking her up in some cell for eternity to keep her from eating people doesn't seem better.

I agree, still destroy.

Well, turns out you only have so much narrative control of the story before you start playing. Go see the Gameplay thread. And start playing!

Dain is uncomfortable with the idea of magical brainwashing as a means to an end, but the fact that this was a child turned into a monster (presumably not by choice) significantly weakens that objection. Dain would be able to be swayed to the idea of giving her to the Brotherhood of Redemption.

Ok, I'm an idiot. I saw the post about how we should format our text, but I don't see the board dice roller. Am I missing something? Or is there not one, and we just use any dice roller online? (In which case: I recommend http://dice.kenware.com/ and would use that.)

Look below the box where you type in a message, and click the "Show" button next to "How to format your text". That will bring up examples of what to use for various formatting, including the dice (the last example).

Check out "how to format your text" below the text box.

Yeah, I had the same question. The [dice= ...] tags actually "roll" dice and if you preview your post you'll see your roll (which can be useful if you, say, notice that you fail your know (history) roll and need to make an additional know(local) roll.)

I have not used these forums in years. Does editing alter your dice roll? It shouldn't but I thought I would ask before I edit something and go from great to terrible or terrible to awesome on a roll.

I have not used these forums in years. Does editing alter your dice roll? It shouldn't but I thought I would ask before I edit something and go from great to terrible or terrible to awesome on a roll.

As far as we could tell, it doesn't change your roll, which is awesome. you can preview and edit and preview and edit and post and edit and your number stays the same.

Correct.

Nope, editing does not change the roll unless you're changing the die (ie changing from a d6 to d10).

I'm away for thanksgiving, so I wont be posting regularly. I'll try to get an opening post later tonight.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Thanks! I see it now.

Happy Thanksgiving, all.

I will be away shortly, until Sunday. I probably won't be able to post but will try if I can.

RECRUITMENT OPEN

Hey folks! I'd like to recruit ONE more player for my 2e Ptolus game. We're running Monte Cooks The Banewarrens interleaved with his The Night of Dissolution. If you're interested, drop me a line here!

I will bite. What we looking for in a submission?

Hi there! Well, my suggestion is pop over to the Discussion board and ask the current players what they think the team need. Then write something up!

RECRUITMENT OPEN

Hey folks! I'm once again recruiting 1-2 players for my 2e Ptolus game. We're running Monte Cooks The Banewarrens interleaved with his The Night of Dissolution. If you're interested, drop me a line here!

You can find out about the story so far HERE and the Ptolus-specific archetypes HERE.

Our current PCS are: An oracle, barbarian and investigator.

I'm interested in this game. I need to read more about Ptolus. What level should the character be? I thought having my PC be a relative of a missing person. He tracked his relative to an apartment building a few minutes after the current party entered. (#9 "Night of Dissolution - The Temple of Deep Chaos" from your campaign notes).

tomtesserae: That's very interesting.

The characters are 8th level.

Interest!

Looks like you have most of the major food groups already, except maybe an Arcanist. Is that what the group needs now?

Our arcanists are like the drummer in "This is Spinal Tap." Something keeps happening to them so we need a new one!

But yeah, that'd be a good choice.

The PC I am creating is middle-aged sailor. While Kraurethad (possible surname) considers Ptolus his home, he hasn't spent more than two or three weeks at a time in the city for many years. When he was sixteen his father died, and he dropped out of Wowerit's School of Magic (academy drop-out background) to earn money for his family. He found employment on a merchant ship. He was part of the cannon crew. In time he was trained in using firearms and during his rest periods developed a method of combing his arcane studies with the pistol (Way of the Spellshot).

Arriving back in Ptolus was a happy occasion because he would see his siblings and mother. This time he was despondent by discovering his youngest sister had recently disappeared. The authorities didn't appear to be doing anything to find her. Her husband had looked and hired a detective, but nothing came of it. Kraurethad gave notice to the ship's owners and captain that he was staying in Ptolus to find his sister.

So that's my PC in a few sentences. I'll post the character sheet tomorrow. This will be my first gunslinger in 2E. The class seems very appropriate to the setting of Ptolus. I'm not quite sure what I'm doing, but the sample build at Archives of Nethys helps.

Camris, if my PC's dabble in Arcana disrupts your plans, let me know. I could reconfigure him to a Way of the Drifter...or even Sniper.

You folks don't need to use my Ptolus Archetypes, but you should know they exist.

tomtesserae: Not a problem. My concept is... different than a artillery support wizard.

Here's the character sheet. I'm still deciding on a name and some minor gear, but I think all the information here is correct. Thanks for looking it over and telling me if anything is wrong.

I'm looking forward to what you make, Camris.

hello! is this recruitment still open?

Yep! 'Til Sunday night.

i’ll start drafting up a character. what amount of gold/ wealth level should i aim for?

I'd prefer applicants not spend a lot of time on making up characters, so I don't feel so awful when I can only take so many players. Just tell me what you want to play and why, please.

OK, I am creating a LN Human Sorcerer (Imperial bloodline) with the Oracle of Bones Archetype.

"You see a man wearing an ornate mask of the royal Kem style. Linen wraps scented with aromatic resins around his hands, arms and neck--all of which resemble those used to bury the mummified remains of the ancient pharaohs of Kem. He uses these things to hide the peeling skin of his affliction, desperate to remove the shame of the curse he bears. Beneath the mask, his dark eyes remain hard and attentive, and a wig covers his head, having lost his hair several years ago.
He stands 6'2" and weighs an emaciated 130lbs. He's 44 years old."

Despite the mask, he has a compelling personality. He bears the weight of his ravaging disease with quiet dignity, setting it aside to engage others with thoughtful discourse and even optimism.
He is compelled to seek ever deeper and more dangerous arcane secrets, as the very pharonic bloodline that gave him his powers also came with the curse that afflicts the families of those that destroyed ancient Kem with those very powers. He seeks some way to break his curse and so spare his family the same wasting curse that he bears."

So what do you think?