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Go ahead and give me the following info
Player Name:
Character Name:
PFS #:
Faction:
Day Job roll:
Since this is higher level play, I would also appreciate if you could let me know of any special abilities or gear you may have that I should know about. A short description of how you normally play the character would also help me, as well as the others.
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Player Name: Aaron
Character Name: Milo
PFS# 84637-3
Faction: Grand Lodge
Day Job:
Has exactly 24 XP, so will be able to do all 3 (leveling on the last!).
Milo just kind of blows stuff up, angrily... and is a little over-optimized in that direction to be honest. (He actually started out as a backstory exercise stemming from a casual conversation with a friend... that I decide to actually make)
It's all usually fire, but can switch it to other elements when he thinks to, using his 1st level specialty school power.
The 8th level specialty school power, Elemental Manipulation might be of interest, but only just got it, so haven't gotten to use it.
Mostly he just tries to stay out of sight (using stealth) otherwise.
I do have the emergency force sphere spell as I don't have many other evocation spells at that level... (scribed it from someone else) though I've never had occasion to use it.
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Player Name: Dien
Character Name: Guang the Enlightened (probably)
PFS #: 30341-10
Faction: Silver Crusade
Day Job roll: --
Weird things about Guang: he also has Deflect Arrows (but not Snatch Arrows). He's primarily a grappler and has way too many swift or immediate actions, sigh. The one most likely to come up is that while in Snapping Turtle Style (which he will be any time I had a swift action free to make it happen), he can potentially use an immediate action to start a grapple on someone who missed him with a melee attack. ...if he has the immediate action free to use, anyway. Aheh.
He's Paladin 2/Monk 4/Champion of Irori 1, which makes him basically a paladin of law as well as a paladin of goodness (i.e., can smite chaos, detect chaos, etc).
For the party: His damage output's not great, but for single big bads that can be grappled, he's usually useful, and he's reasonably tanky. He also can help keep people on their feet with some healing, wands, and scrolls in his repertoire.
As mentioned in recruitment, I'm going to try to get him to level 8 before gameday actually starts, which, since I'm GMing or playing PFS locally every week, shouldn't be that hard to do (he's only 2 XP off).
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Player Name: Michael Hallet
Character Name: Lurgh
PFS #: 2608-5
Faction: Grand Lodge
Day Job roll:
Lurgh is rumored to be the son of a half-red dragon orc warlord that is rumored to be the descendant of Daralathyxl, The Sixth King of the Five Kings Mountains. He was hidden away in a monastery on the island nation of Minata by his mother in hopes that they could train him how to overcome the nature of the dragon's blood which runs through his veins. But he quickly left the monastery, determined to learn more about his origins. He joined the Society to help in his search for clues and to channel his energy toward useful ends.
Like Milo, Lurgh will also tend to blow stuff up with fire, but has some ability to hurt things with his fists or even claws and teeth if he calls upon his draconic nature.
Lurgh has a robe of arcane heritage, so his bloodline abilities function as if he were 12th level.
The only other thing I can think of is last adventure he worked with a PC that had continual flame and heighten spell, so he paid for what is effectively an ioun torch, but the spell has been heightened to 5th level.
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Player Name: Larry Smith (Paizo Username: Lawrence Smith 2)
Character Name: Glen Fiddich
PFS #: 67083-5
Faction: Liberty's Edge
Day Job roll:
Glen Fiddich is a pretty standard inquisitor of Cayden Cailean with the travel domain. He enjoys visiting local temples and shrines to his deity; otherwise pretty much any bar will do. He blesses the establishment and offers to create simple ale or wine, as much as time and the situation permit. He also lets it be known that he is available to offer healing to those in need.
He cannot abide slavery and offers any escaped slave refuge and employment on his estate in Andoran.
In a fight, Glen prefers to open combat with blistering invective then enter melee with his two-handed elven curve blade, seeking opportunities to flank foes with his companions.
He's been saving up to purchase a bane baldric, planning to purchase it after his next adventure (scheduled for next week, which will also make him level 8).
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FIELD REPORT
From Agent Glen Fiddich
To HQ, PFS, Absalom, ATTN: GM Turmoil, Reports Officer
After investigating, clearing, and extracting Muckmouth lizardfolk allies and high-value items of interest from the Dog Pharaoh's tomb within the Hao Jin Tapestry (cf. #3-12: Wonders in the Weave—Part I: The Dog Pharaoh's Tomb), my handler promoted me to Inquisitor, Level 8.
My personnel file and curriculum vitae have been updated to reflect my current status and capabilities.
Request cleaner to recover Aspis Agent Gerban LANIER, aka Geric, KIA.
gf
END TRANSMISSION
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Are we running with 5 or 6 PC's for this, GM?
Was just checking the various threads I signed up for for Gameday, and noticed that we had just 5 =) With a man waiting in the wings.
Now I have to get back into Milo mode.
Usually takes me a bit... I decided way back when I started, to have him speak in nothing but semi-incomprehensible slang... and it can be quite taxing for the first few posts after a break. =)
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I just wanted to let you know that my computer is dead, and so far everywhere Ive taken it has not been able to help. I still have at least my phone, which will allow me to play, but I might have less opportunity to post than I had expected until I can get it running again.
-Posted with Wayfinder
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Player Name: DM Beckett
Character Name: Salubri, the Prophet of the Purifying Flame
PFS #: 5,274-13
Faction: Scarrab Sages
Day Job roll:
I have the Braid of a Hundred Masters, which gives me a few Monk abilities as if I where a few level higher, and Crusaders Flurry, which allows me to Flurry with the Scimitar.
As noted earlier, I also have both Deflect and Snatch Arrows.
All of my Burning Hands Spells are automatically Intensified (adding 5 to the level cap), so deal 9d4 instead of the normal max of 5d4.
I can cast See Invisibility 1/Day.
I'm not too tough or strong, but I can tend to do well against most things.
I'm not that great at healing, and my Channels heal only half.
I'm currently still without a computer as well. :(
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Glen Fiddich finds a likely tavern, scene of a raucous brawl. He begins triaging the wounded, deep cuts and broken bones to one side and hurt feelings and wounded pride to the other. He sets and splints the fractures, sutures the bloody gashes, and offers stern admonitions against mindless, purposeless intoxication. His eyes twinkle at the futility of such advice.
Services rendered, Glen finds an open seat at the bar. He places his order with a comely barmaid and excuses himself, asking her to point out where a man might find an empty chamber pot.
On his way to the back alley, Glene ducks down the stairs and into the empty wine cellar. He utters a silent prayer to The Lucky Drunk, and casts create alcohol, filling an empty keg with ale and an empty cask with wine. More than a few Rahadoumi will be toasting Cayden Cailean for a while.
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Hello, everyone, I just wanted to say that I've been hit with a lot of work this last week, and have not really been able to get online. I just got off work again, having been called in both weekend days, and I will try to get a post in today.
I don't believe after this point that I will be as slammed, and things should be back to normal. If I am a player in your game, please feel free to bot me, and I apologize for vanishing. I just have not been able to get online much.
If I am running the game, I'll make an effort to get things going asap, and I likewise apologize for vanishing.
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We are close to the end of this one so I'm going to roll for the GameDay boons, win on 19 or 20.
Congrats to Guang, you win the Hang in There boon! While I'm not 100% sure if this is correct, someone won the same boon in another game of mine and had this to say about it.
For the record, it lets someone cast Breath of Life on you in the last 3 rounds instead of 1 round once. In addition, if two people have it at the same table, they can both use it to just give someone the ability to cast Breath of Life once, regardless of class or character level.
My plan is to get the chronicles done tomorrow so I can post them right away and we can roll right into the next scenario.
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Yup, PbP Gameday VI PFS Player Boon #3 is Hang in There.
Hang in There: Your soul tenaciously clings to life in the most dire of circumstances. You may cross off this boon to allow yourself to be targeted by breath of life as long as you died within the last 3 rounds, rather than in the last round as typical for this spell. Alternatively, if two PCs at the table possess this boon, they may both cross off this boon to allow one of the PCs at the table to cast breath of life once as a standard action in the next 24 hours; this is a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to the casting PC’s character level. This ability functions even if her character level is less than the normal minimum caster level to cast the spell.
I'll get an email from Hmm with the GM's session report, prep and email the winners their GM and player boons, and report the session to Paizo. It's a pretty smooth process. I knock them out as soon as I get the email from Hmm.
Larry,
aka Glen Fiddich
aka GM Lorenzo
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That's it for the first scenario, I'll get this reported and have the chronicles up in a bit. Unless there are any objections, we are going to roll right into the next scenario.
As far as they killing of the Legion, I do not consider it to be an evil act. Though you managed to avoid the first combat with them, the scenario has two total combats where you take them on. They wouldn't be there if killing them were to be considered evil. There are plenty of Pathfinder missions where it seems the combats could be considered questionable from a moral perspective, but it's not the players fault they're expected to be murder hobos. On top of that, the Pure Legion is certainly a divisive group, and I think they draw several parallels with a few of the Hellknight orders. They may not be entirely evil, but they are certainly despised enough that many would not question the killings. They are just a group with very different morals compared to the rest of society.
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Part of it is that they have changed significantly since their early days. The original intent of Rahadoum was that it was a very dark and unenlightened nation that was designed to be somewhere right in the middle of Nazi Germany and Puritan Era New England (The Scarlet Letter). Quit literally, much like Cheliax and Hellknights, they where there to be Evil, but not the type of Evil that a Paladin could just come in and Smite and fix. It also leads to some very odd flavor vs mechanics issues, (like are Witches, because they are "beholden" to a Patron executable on site or not because they are not "divine" casters).
Somewhat more recently, WeS Snider sort of adopted it as his baby, and effectively rewrote it to make the nation somewhat heroic and sympathetic, (from a certain point of view), but from the PFS perspective scenarios like this one and the God's Market Gamble still revolve around the Nation and the Legion being the original form, (which is why I tried to play it with the original tone in mind, as far as I recall). I do not remember a great deal about this one, so it wasn't metagaming, (or metagaming by trying to avoid metagaming) as much as trying to keep the original tone in mind to avoid going off the rails.
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HERE are the chronicles, let me know if they are any issues.
Your characters have plenty of time between scenarios for purchases.
Really? I'm looking at my 2008 copy of the Campaign Setting, which was the first year Paizo started publishing any amount of truly Golarion worldbuilding to the best of my knowledge, and the Rahadoumi entry for it doesn't really sound much to me like an amalgam of Nazi Germany and Scarlet Letter New England.
It does say there's harsh punishments for preaching, yes-- 'imprisonment or worse'- but also calls out the nation's "lively appreciation of philosophy" and thriving universities and observatories, and says that civic participation, education, and philosophy and politics are common pursuits. "Self-disciplined behavior is the rule" but morality is left to the individual or family's discretion. It says Rahadoumi are best characterized as 'grim optimists,' solemn but with a back-handed positivity, serious about their responsibilities, and that Rahadoum is experiencing an artistic revival in their capital. And, in my copy of the book, Rahadoum is called out as LN, not LE (unlike Cheliax).
As far as I know, all of that stuff's been 'canon' for nine years now, predating when Heresy of Man was written, so I don't know if there's a 'recent' sea change regarding Rahadoum creative control or Wes Schneider stepping in. (As far as I know he wasn't an author credit on the book.) (Correction there, I see his name now!)
Also, God's Market Gamble takes place in Absalom. I think you're probably thinking of Port Godless, the other major scenario I know of to take place in Rahadoum. (Published in season 5, so not really ancient. And I don't really recall the Rahadoumi in it being characterized as especially fascistic/given to torturing people with branding irons.)
*shrugs* It doesn't particularly matter, and I wouldn't care one way or another honestly other than I remember reading my copy of the Campaign Setting when it was new and shiny, and being intrigued by the many nations and view points (Hermea!) and thinking at the time that Rahadoum was definitely an interesting answer to the question of how do people justify not having faith in a setting where the gods are demonstrably real. My takeaway from reading the original Rahadoum entry all those years ago was that this was a nuanced, enjoyable take on a philosphical position, not a "THESE GUYS ARE SO EVIL."
So I'm sort of curious as to where this worldbuilding exists that you're drawing from to assert that Rahadoum originally was meant to be a backwater witch hunt country?
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Ya, I've never got the impression that they were evil either.
Just fed up with all the horrors and death religious fanatics have perpetrated in their country, so banned 'em all.
Quite refreshing actually =)
And ya, Port Godless is the other Rahadoum one I've played... and you are encouraged to talk your way past/avoid the Legion encounter in that (by Eando Kline himself!)
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It was largely from Jason Bhulman and James Jacobs when they where talking about the intents of different nations and where the inspiration had come from. Sadly, I am pretty sure they do not exist any more, as I had tried to find the quotes a few years ago the last time this came up, and couldn't. It was before the Core Book came out, but the comparison to Nazi was a quote, and the idea that they where technically LN on paper was so that a Paladin-type could not come in and just fix things. Again, almost a direct quote, but I don't believe it exists anymore or I'd link it. But, if you search for Wes Snider's comments on the nation back around the time that his first novel was published, it's pretty clear that he intentionally rewrote the nation to be more appealing to his real world point of view. That also changed the way that "atheist" souls are treated in the afterlife around this, so you may notice a huge difference between things like the Campaign Setting and The Great Beyond and later products.
It had been more of a read between the lines thing, where the Pure Legion are where similar to the Inquisition, ruling by fear in a way that turn families against each other and point fingers at others in order to get scrutiny off of them. It is not a place where people just let others believe what they want with sort of separation of church and state, but one that simply having a holy symbol will get you disappeared and never heard from again, and your friends and family will be very harshly questioned, (if they are lucky) to make sure. The idea that the nation blames bloodshed, war, and basically any evil they can on religion is also extremely hypocritical, as the very first thing that they did was literally murder, molest, defile, enslave, rob, and exiled every single person of faith, burned temples down, broke up families, and destroyed lives, and left those in different temple's care to rot to prove a point.
I meant the God's Market Gamble, but it's a really big spoiler. I highly suggest not reading it if you have not played it, and it is one of my favorite scenarios in PFS.
Well, it's interesting to know that was the 'original' take, but if all this stuff was happening before the Core book was even published, then it does seem that anything that's actually been formally published as Golarion lore has-- for the last nine years and pretty much contiguous with the PFS OP campaign-- not included the 'Rahadoum is a totally actually evil will-disappear-ya type of place' stuff.
So, yeah, from where I'm sitting to say that's not so much a 'recent' change so much as a 'in the steps from brainstorming to actual publication, the concept underwent some revision.'
I've played and GMd God's Market Gamble.
Parani, the Rahadoumi you're speaking of, IS evil, but according to scenario it's not that the Pure Legion explicitly sent her after him or tortured his family. Rather, she was caught for abusing her power as a Pure Legionnaire ("Eventually, she was caught and would have been convicted of being a traitor to the Laws of Man, but she managed to escape and quickly fled Rahadoum"), and then in the course of similarly enriching herself as a Graycloak, she realized she could blackmail a Rahadoumi exile living in Absalom by threatening to call the Pure Legion in on his remaining family back in Rahadoum. It's not made clear whether this is actually a credible threat (i.e., whether she, as a person who would have been convicted as a traitor had she not fled Rahadoum justice, actually could get other Pure Legion to come down on the family members), but as an evil character she certainly was okay as using it as a threat.
But this simply proves that there's bad apples among the Pure Legion, like there are anywhere else-- and that their behavior is NOT okay with the Rahadoum government nor congruent with their ethics, since she had to flee the country herself for her extortions and blackmail. So it's sort of a point in favor of "Rahadoum is strict and rigid and dogmatic, but does not tolerate evil behavior among their own officers" and not a point in favor of "The Pure Legion fanatically hunted a guy to the ends of the earth and tortured his family."
I get having a personal preference for the 'original' flavor interpretation of Rahadoum, but it's potentially coloring your understanding of what Rahadoum actually is canonically like (and has been like ever since the first actual setting publications)?
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Not really. I think you are misunderstanding. The change in focus happened around the time of the Inner Sea World Guide. After it I believe, but I honestly do not remember. It really just depends on how you look at it. It's still very much a "bad guy" nation, (one that would rather have it's citizens suffer or die than seek aid, because of arrogance and pride. They are evil without it being on the character sheet, so to speak.
For me, the original version was the one I was introduced to years before PFS. Obviously others have different preferences, and that's fine. I'm not sure either is more "canonical" than the other. The one I've experienced has been one where saying a simple prayer can get you killed, sold into slavery, or if they are feeling "nice", maybe just exiled.
But, regardless, I really do not understand exactly what the issue seems to be. It seems clear that sneaking out was not an option, and negotiation was not either, unless someone had a way to turn the camels invisible without anyone noticing them vanish from plane view, and then opening the gates without anyone suspecting us.
Turns out we had been sold out, (which I honestly did not recall, but I was suspecting as soon as our contact was not there at the start). Our mission was to get the priest to the other city. And if you believe them to be rigidly devoted to law and order, then bribery was not an option either.
I was accused of starting a fight or blowing our cover for the third time, which I do not recall at all. What I recall is moving into a position to help others get an advantage, lifting a lid (with no intention of attacking unless we where attacked, which is how I read everyone else's actions as well), REFRAINING from attacking while guards walked right passed us, and then seeing the exit and that we had been set up. Yes, I told the sole survivor I was a Pathfinder, after we had just slaughtered his friends, because my intent was to RP and maybe set up a convert.
...I'm saying that the first published material I know of, predating the ISWG-- the stuff that was published for at least season 1 on, and possibly during Season 0 (Campaign Setting was published in August 2008, the same year Organized Play started in, and three years before ISWG)-- does not support your position that prior to ISWG, Rahadoum was depicted as a 'bad guy nation.'
The 2008 Campaign Setting entry on Rahadoum is one that I personally would characterize as "neutral, but with considerably more emphasis on the positive aspects of the country, than the VERY brief discussion of the negative aspects, like punishments of individuals who are actively proselytizing."
If you want to call that a 'softening up' of the original position, well, that original position seems to only exist in designer statements that predate the Core Rulebook, and have not been preserved by Paizo (by your own admission), whereas the official lore on Rahadoum from 2008 onward is that it's a Lawful Neutral country that really doesn't scream 'terrible fascism' by most people's standards.
Your assertion that God's Market Gamble was reinforcing the image of Rahadoum as an extremely merciless-and-kill type of witch hunt 'justice,' I've already pointed out was not necessarily as you're remembering it.
My position is just that you seem to be attached to the image of Rahadoum as this extraordinarily repressive, evil-in-all-but-mechanical-alignment tyranny, and that this opinion doesn't really seem to be upheld by any of the campaign setting info, whether ISWG or earlier publications, nor does it seem to be upheld by the PFS scenarios set in Rahadoum.
And since we're going to have a second scenario working together as PCs in Rahadoum, and, again by your own admission, you were 'trying to keep the original tone in mind' when you wrote the Prophet's response to the situation at hand, so... I think it's good to sort of be on the same page as to whether this is an IC or an OOC thing?
Because I would sort of be fine with the idea that the Prophet's faith is so fervent and intense that he does indeed view the Rahadoumi approach as pure evil, as an IC roleplaying choice, but when you in turn follow that up with an OOC disclaimer of "by the way, Rahadoum really IS supposed to be totally evil, as bad as Nazi Germany" and don't seem inclined to accept that that is not the official depiction of Rahadoum any longer, and hasn't been since campaign setting material started being published, etc.-- well, then, it implies to me as a fellow player that I'd like to be sure we're not setting ourselves up for further trouble in Rahadoum in part 2.
As a group, we were still in active discussion of non-combat options to get around the guards, when Salubri took it on himself to act independently and start a fight. I'm not at all convinced that sneaking or negotiation weren't options-- they probably would not have accepted bribes, but we might have been able to bluff our way out.
So, yeah, Salubri kind of blindsided the rest of the group by his solo action, and given our orders were specifically to operate as covertly as possible, I think it's reasonable for there to be in-character pushback to him on this front, and in-character discussion of whether this is going to happen again.
Where it bleeds over into OOC is just that you seem to have strong opinions on Rahadoum that don't necessarily jibe with the canon representation of Rahadoum, that's all. *shrugs*
(FWIW, I've got zero issues with the smuggler situation OOCly; as far as I'm concerned that was just bad OOC luck as to how we stumbled into that one, and I personally am not blaming Salubri nor am aware that anyone else is. Guang is not blaming Salubri for that, and I'm sorry if his words gave that impression; Guang is saying that we collectively accidentally killed the smugglers.)
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I thought we where just having a discussion. It is not my intent to cause player or party conflict, and from my perspective, the impression I had gotten was that the party as a whole was more interested in fighting in general. I was seeing things as the one that was opposed to it from the start, which is why when we where invisible, I went to Flank with Glen, but didn't attack myself. Likewise, in the room with the barrels, I only opened the lid, but did not ready an attack myself, and only, once attack, dealt non-lethal damage.
I'm not angry, and I'm perfectly willing to do as the DM suggests and water under the bridge.
My plan for downtime was to try to track down that survivor of the group that had been smuggling in relics and medicine and offer myself (time) and resources to try to make amends.
Yes, works for me, and I'm happy to get on with the playing. Sorry if this was disruptive to anyone else.
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Heads-Up:
I'll be in Ireland on business (Blue-Job Chrome Polish--check it out) and pleasure (34th wedding anniversary October 15) over the next couple of weeks.
I have my wife's blessing to post every day, but it'll usually be in the evenings over there.
I love my wife, so I'll probably not post at all on October 15.
Larry
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Wow 34 year? That's crazy. My wife and I are about to have our 5 year next month.
I thought you guys were going back to the same base you were at last time?
I'll be driving out to NY for two days worth of interviews later this week, and I'm not sure if the hotel they have me at has free internet or not. So I may be quiet Wed-Fri.
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We're in the middle of what's left of Hurricane Ophelia. We might lose power shortly, and no one knows for how long. I will continue to post as long as it's possible. If I lose connectivity, I'll post again as soon as we get it back.
We're in The G Hotel in Galway. There are worse places to be in a hurricane.
We're scheduled to leave Ireland and return to Seattle on Thursday.
Larry
