GMT's Carrion Crown - The Deathly Symphony

Game Master GM_ToddPBC

Hello, everyone! Congratulations for being selected for this adventure. If you haven't already, please complete your character sheets using the character creation criteria below. Please complete this by end of day Thursday, so we can start the adventure. Or sooner, if possible.

Character Creation
1) 20-Point Buy, 1st Level
2) Core races only

3) Three traits. It is required that you pick one from the campaign traits.

4) No evil characters. 

5) Max HP at first level (roll or average thereafter).
6) Max starting gold
7) Archetype stacking is allowed, assuming the bonuses don't overlap.

I'll wait to set up the game thread, so you can all have time to flesh out and finish your characters. Please let me know when you've got those ready.

The More You Know
I like to have fun and err on the side of fun over rules. This is usually in your favor, so if you show creativity, we may be able to avoid a dreaded dice roll (the dice roller on this board often hates my players).

I am going to be using the in-fashion "Step Advancement System" that was sweeping the boards like wildfire. However, in the first level, you won't be able to take the HP bonus as a step reward. That totally throws the balance off of the early game and you already have a large party as it is. Once you actually reach level 2, you make take any of the four rewards whenever you like.

I will roll initiative and use your passive perception for you when necessary. This speeds up the game considerably (so please include your initiative and perception scores high on your character sheet). If you wish to make an active perception check, please state so and roll the dice. If I don't want to use your roll (or if it's stupidly low) I will simply reject it. Your group initiative will be averaged and then you or the enemy will move first, depending upon whose is highest. This may inspire you to change feats or traits, as individual initiative is less important than in a normal game.

When doing a skill check, go ahead and state what skill you're using and roll the dice. Again, I might reject your roll if it is unnecessary, but it speeds thing up if I don't have to ask for it.

Let me know if you have any questions and when your character sheet is ready for review.

I'm looking forward to getting started!

Wow - thanks for picking me! Really looking forward to my first PbP... playing in person is great, but it seems like this is a better format for telling a story.

Barring any suggestions or recommendations, my character sheet should be ready. Let me know if there are any format changes to make things easier as well. (I do need to type up an appearance section...)

Does a happy frolicking "I'm in the game" dance...then recalls he's a somber half-orc

I threw my Perception and Initiative up top on my profile. I've also updated the "advancement" box with my lack thereof. Me and my three mighty skill points are, I believe, ready to go.

A quick look at the Ustalav map shows me that Tamrivena is not that far from the county of Vieland. As mutual acquaintances of the Professor, worshipers of Pharasma, and haters of dead things that won't lie still, it is possible that Reusten and Dmitri may have run across one another. If the professor did a study of Canter House in Southern Vieland (Big Manor House that was apparently hiding a Cthulhu Egg), they could have both been there for that - Reusten as a fellow scholar, Dmitri on guard duty.

I love creating character connections. Reusten, do you have any thoughts?

I was definitely intrigued with Dmitri's character concept... Reusten would probably view him with mixed emotions. On one hand, Reusten was steeped in the Ustalavan distrust of outsiders and would view any half-orc with extreme suspicion. But on the other hand, his faith in Pharasma defines him, and who is he to second guess someone who was accepted into the church?

Serious case of cognitive dissonance, that's for sure!

For Dmitri's part, his reaction to Reusten is one of quiet respect and a little envy: Chosen by the Lady of Graves, handsome, and knowledgeable. If Reusten clearly reacts with distrust and distance, Dmitri will likely sulk about it a little but accept it as part of his lot.

If they both accompanied Lorrimor to the Canter house (which is ok by me!), Reusten would probably have been distrustful at first, but his attitude toward Dmitri would have cooled over time. Probably not to the point of friendship, but enough to recognize him as an equal and potential ally in his quest to rid Ustalav of undead.

If they both accompanied Lorrimor to the Canter house (which is ok by me!), Reusten would probably have been distrustful at first, but his attitude toward Dmitri would have cooled over time. Probably not to the point of friendship, but enough to recognize him as an equal and potential ally in his quest to rid Ustalav of undead.

That would be far more than Darkeye's used to, to be certain. It would also give him an opportunity to take a step back himself. He's a dedicated foe of undead and devoted to Pharasma, but there's an itch in the back of his brain that won't go away every time Ruesten brings up "eradicating all of their filth from the face do Golarion.". He's heard those sort of speeches before, only they used "Orc" for "undead.". He understands Reusten's viewpoint and even approves on a rational level - he took extra training from the church on how to bring undead enemies down - but at a purely gut level, the proposition gives him pause.

Old Ustalavan Saying: "I against my brother, my brother and I against our cousin, my brother, my cousin, and I against the neighbor. All off us against the stranger.". I think Reusten and Dmitri may have reached the "neighbor" stage.

Does a chance escapade at Canter House, home of the world's largest Evil Easter Egg, work as a thread to tie us together, Mr. GM, sir?

I love it. I think we can assume you went your separate ways after that and haven't seen one another since.

The final party has been selected. It is as follows:
Reusten van der Zicht - Inquisitor
Soval Eieros - Monk
Dmitri "Darkeye" Kuznetsov - Fighter
Walthus Harrow - Not Sure (some type of skill monkey)
Lomar Sildrake - Warlock/Sorcerer
Nadiya - Witch

Hopefully the others will check in and post soon. Please finish up your character sheets, let me know when they're done and head over to the gameplay post under the tab above to get started fleshing out character's voice and personality and meet the rest of the team in-character.

Whoo-hoo! Thanks so much for selecting us Mr GM sir! Oh! Ah, us? No, no, I mean me, of course, Lomar is just a character after all and has no real say in matters...um, ah-heh. Oh wow! Look, over there! A not terribly un-attractive harpy!

He wasn't really supposed to but since our good DM has spilled the beans, yes, Lomar is a Warlock. But none of you know that. Lomar, well aware of the sentiments and superstitions of his fellow Ustalavians, goes out of his way to pretend to be a Wizard, even pretending to study a spell book every morning. So please let's keep his Warlockishness to ourselves and not tell our characters. K?

Thank you very much for the acceptance! I'm looking forward to playing with everyone, the adventure will be spectacular.

As far as team playing goes, is there a specific skill related role that would be most important for Walthus to fill? Walthus is most definitely a bard, and I'd set him up as as a Dawnflower Dervish archetype, but I could change his archetype to an archaeologist if we needed more of a trap-finder. I'd prefer to leave him as the Dervish though. I'll have an alias up tomorrow morning!

Hm... without someone with trapfinding, we're kinda screwed when it comes to magical traps. It looks like the archaeologist can disable magic traps at level 6, but if you prefer the dervish we could always try/hope to avoid them. I think my/our Perception is decent enough that they won't all surprise us at least. Granted, I usually play a rogue, so I'm a bit biased when it comes to roguish types!

My character sheet should be all set to go... do our characters know they've been named in the will (I think that's what it said in the Player's Guide), or have we just been summoned to Ravengro for the funeral?

And Lomar just about all set!

Just need to port the personality to re-type the background and such in readable form.

Also need to finish buying gear, but wanted to know first GM_T, what is the time of year and climate like? Would we be needing warm weather gear, tents, sleeping rolls etc stuff like that? Also, will this campaign be indoors, outdoors or 'we have no idea yet so prepare as best we can'?

As for no trap-finder, it's a little tough, but Lomar or perhaps Walthus can take the open/close Cantrip, and/or mage hand & unseen servant, all of which could help.

GM_T, if you, (or anyone else!) notices any mistakes or has any suggestions please do let me know. Thanks!

Sorry for spoiling that, Lomar. I didn't think about that. I'm sure, though, our players can separate player and character knowledge.

Walthus, the team needs a trap finder and disabler. And, maybe, a locksmith. That said, this isn't the most optimized party ever (which I like and picked intentionally) so if you don't have those skills represented, that's not unreasonable.

Your characters do not know they've been named in the will. They are simply attending the funeral of their dear friend. Along these lines, it's likely that you wouldn't have a ton of adventuring gear if you're character isn't an adventurer by trade. Your character doesn't know they're participating in an Adventure Path - he/she simply thinks they're traveling to pay their respects. But, you don't need tents/bedrolls. You're traveling to a village and you're staying indoors. Unless your character prefers sleeping outdoors.

As for the weather, It is towards the end of Pharast - early spring - in Ustalav. It rains almost constantly and the chill of winter is still gripping the region, making the weather unseasonably cool. The residents of Ravengro don't seem to notice or mind the weather - much like the rest of their lives, they approach it with a shrug and quiet determinism.

Your characters do not know they've been named in the will. They are simply attending the funeral of their dear friend. Along these lines, it's likely that you wouldn't have a ton of adventuring gear if you're character isn't an adventurer by trade. Your character doesn't know they're participating in an Adventure Path - he/she simply thinks they're traveling to pay their respects. But, you don't need tents/bedrolls. You're traveling to a village and you're staying indoors. Unless your character prefers sleeping outdoors.

As for the weather, It is towards the end of Pharast - early spring - in Ustalav. It rains almost constantly and the chill of winter is still gripping the region, making the weather unseasonably cool. The residents of Ravengro don't seem to notice or mind the weather - much like the rest of their lives, they approach it with a shrug and quiet determinism.

Darkeye would bring his gear; however, if he can get a place to stay, most of it (save armor and sword) would stay in that place. He's moved from watch-monster to adventurer since it pays a little better. Nevertheless, he's used to, when going to inns, being invited to stay somewhere where he won't scare the children, such as the stables or the bottom of Lake Encarthan.

Good point Darkeye. Lomar too would only have his dagger on him during the funeral, the rest of his gear stored back in his room (of course, our Warlock boy is never truly 'unarmed' heh heh ; )

And speaking of Warlock's, no worries at all GM_T, I know it was a completely unintentional slip. And I have no doubt we can all separate player/character knowledge, we have to do it all the time really. And thanks for the info.

Next question, would you be able to suggest an area/region where Lomar might be from? (And here the, now suddenly quite larger in the past couple of years) Baronry might be? Basically the idea is that since he lost and got kicked out of his home, he's been wandering the country, gaining in experience and power until...

@Walthus: I agree with our GM, play what you will be most happy playing. A rogue would be great for the party, yes, but we have three arcance casters so between the 3 of us we should be able to optimize our spell selection enough to make do if you choose not to go the rogue route (that is if our good GM doesn't mind just a tiny bit of metagaming ; )

Hi, wow, this is an unexpected but pleasant surprise, but Nadiya (DQ) reporting for duty. You folks tend to post past my bedtime, I hope that will not be a problem. :)

My character is mostly done but let me review and make sure there's nothing obvious I missed. Any suggestions/corrections are welcome.

ETA:
What languages are commonly spoken in the area? Need to fill my 3rd language slot.

Regarding character connections, Nadiya is basically nomadic, so she could have run into any of you in the past, or joined you on the road when she learned you were heading to the same place.

Checking in :)

Soval has been on a journey of discovery for a couple of weeks. He's left the comfort of the library in his village and is in search of knowledge, skills and conversation. I haven't come up with any connections to anyone yet, any suggestions? :)

I could see journeying a bit with Nadiya, but unless someone may have visited the library (although it it a considerable library of arcane and world knowledge so it's possible) not sure how they may connect for Soval.

Walthus, i agree all around. Play what you'll enjoy. I was considering taking a level or two of rogue along th way, so may be covered for the Trapfinding before long :)

Ok... Reusten's ditching the bedroll and trail rations. Only adventuring he might be used to are quick scouting trips to old crypts to make sure all the corpses are still resting. Still need the sunrods for that. And the garlic, of course.

@Walthus: If you want to stick with the dervish, I could always grab some levels of rogue. It would fit pretty well with my character concept... especially the investigator archetype, but too bad that drops trapfinding.

As far as posting times goes, I should be able to post weekdays morning to night (EST), especially during the day *cough* at work *cough*. Weekends aren't as consistent, but I can check periodically.

Not everyone needs to be connected. If it's not natural, we don't need to force it.

It appears that Common, Skald and Varisian are the prevalent languages spoken in Ustalav. I don't want to ruin the AP by suggesting any others.

@Lomar: I think your barony could be in or near Ardis or in the county of Caliphas. For more information on these areas you should check out the Rule of Fear supplement - it has some great info on Ustalav.

I'll be checking your character sheets and will let you know if I find anything questionable.

You can all go ahead and post in the in-game thread even before your sheets are approved. No rolls are necessary until requested.

Alright! Thank you everyone for the encouragement! This should be a great game. I've finished Walthus, as a Dawnflower Dervish. I'll still probably look through items a travelling halfing might think to pick up, and flesh out his appearance and personality, though truth be told, the later will come out more as I get to play him! Picking up a trait that gave disable device for the cheery and faithful halfling didn't make much sense to me, and his perception check isn't anything special, so I think we'll have to make due to cover the rogue's role as a group. This actually sounds like fun!

As far as character connections go, Walthus would likely run into Soval at the library in his village if it were a good place to study the arcane. Perhaps it's even where he studied with the late professor.

Oh... any posting conventions you'd like for the gameplay thread? Bolded speech, italicized thoughts, etc.?

I prefer bold for speech and italics for thoughts. If you need to out-of-character, use the [ooc] tag, but try to keep most of that in this thread.

I've reviewed every character sheet excluding Walthus'. I only have one question for Nadiya:
Which spell are you boosting with "Inspired by Greatness"?

I'll review Walthus' sheet after lunch.

All right. I've reviewed your sheet, Walthus. I have a couple of questions:

You've definitely dumped a couple of stats. The 6 strength gives me some pause - I'm not a stickler for encumbrance, but you're not going to be able to move with the gear you have listed. Can you balance things out a bit?

I know you're still finishing things up, but it looks as if you've spent more money than you should have - did you take the rich parents trait?

Are you taking the weapon finesse feat?

All right. I've reviewed your sheet, Walthus. I have a couple of questions:

You've definitely dumped a couple of stats. The 6 strength gives me some pause - I'm not a stickler for encumbrance, but you're not going to be able to move with the gear you have listed. Can you balance things out a bit?

I know you're still finishing things up, but it looks as if you've spent more money than you should have - did you take the rich parents trait?

Are you taking the weapon finesse feat?

I could move the 12 con to 10 to bring the str up to 8. (dumping a racial low score can be rough T_T)

No worries at all. It looks like it's still a work in progress. I'd prefer strength at 8, as that's still a dump stat, but not as bad.

I didn't know the archetype added that feat - where do you see that? I haven't studied Ultimate Combat too closely, so it's entirely possible that I'm missing it.

And your gold is correct. I had you started out at 80 gold by accident. My bad.

Here's the Dawnflower Dervish! And yes, I'd wanted him at an 6 str so he was weaker than your average halfling, but maybe that is a little extreme. *grins*

Ah, I was looking at the Dervish Dancer in Ultimate Combat. I think that's fine - just bump up your strength to 8 so it doesn't feel like you're min-maxing and we'll be good.

GM_Todd, I'm going to go with ray of enfeeblement. Since Professor Lorrimor inspired her to adventure a bit more, she got a lot of practice with de-buffing her enemies.

Also, I am thinking I may take the hedge witch archetype (from Ultimate Magic), as it very much suits her concept. That actually doesn't affect the build any, as it doesn't alter any abilities until 4th level. Please let me know if that's alright.

The spell and the archetype sound good to me.

I think we're squared away and ready to go on everyone's character sheets now. Head over to the gameplay thread and let's get this thing going!

GM_T< I really like the flavor of the Chance Savior trait and how it fits in Lomar's story. The only reason I changed it to Teacher's Pet was because you mentioned that initiative bonus' would be rather useless in this campaign. Is there any way we could keep the trait but give it a different benefit? Perhaps a bonus to Perception or a luck bonus of some sort, or whatever else you feel most appropriate?

Just had the thought that another option would be to make it a cash bonus, similar to the On The Payroll trait? To be honest, the bonus is not that important, I just like how the trait story works in with Lomar's so I'm going retake the trait anyway, even if it stays as the Init bonus

Also, on a separate note, do we have any idea how the professor died? Are the any details on the matter whatsoever? What happened, who found him, the state of the body etc...

I'd rather not mess with the trait bonuses. There may still be times when having a higher init will come in handy, so the bonus isn't completely wasted.

And you all know nothing of the nature of his death. You simply know that he died while on one of his academic excursions.

Question -- GM_Todd would you prefer I play my familiar or have you do it? I'm used to players controlling their familiars but I realize that differs from group to group so just let me know. I'm fine either way.

For the record, at the moment Mishka is sleeping on her shoulders, underneath her shawl.

You go for it. I'll forget otherwise.

Will do, thanks.

I'm going away for the day today so I may not be able to post today till very late or until tomorrow. Just FYI.

Hey everyone. Sorry for the lack of posts - it's been a crazy weekend. I'll get the game updated today.

No problem! With the holiday season, folks are bound to run into all sorts of chaos here and then.

Do we know what God the professor worshiped as his patron deity?

I don't think the professor was a religious man.

Should we be keeping track of our XP total or will you just let us know when we've reached the next step?

Well, both actually. I will keep track and announce when advancement is available, but it would be helpful if you tracked XP in your profile, too.

My apologies. I've been out of touch for a bit and will be for rest of the week due to being at family's for Christmas. Time for the net is really limited. :(

Please NPC Soval as needed. :)

Looks like other people are in the same boat, but just wanted to let you all know I'll have limited access through Tuesday. Inquisitor-ing will pick up after the holiday!

Hey if there's anyone interested in a Fallout style PbP there's just starting up over here. It's meant to be a BIG game looks like so it will need lots and lots of players. Hope ta see ya there!

And so Re: Our Game, we all back from holiday madness and ready to rock and roll?

Yes - I am back. We will have at least one game progressing post pe day once again! Thanks for your patience, everyone.

Are you back, Soval, or do you still need to be NPC'd?

Hey Reusten, what's a 'Wanderer's Card'?

Good question. You know as much as I do. :P

Maybe not. (Fredrik pipes up from the peanut gallery, revealing that you have an audience. He smiles and waves.) Lomar's question prompted me to look back, and I don't see any response to when he and Soval chose cards.

Whoops. I'll retcon that in a bit. Thanks for the catch, Fred.