Hell's Rebels Adventure Path (Inactive)

Game Master TreasureFox

Ok, so our agenda seems to be,

Find our missing alchemist
Try to get more info on stuff we can do round the city

Well there was that gang that Pylos learned about. That's one thing we can take of.

Just posted about it, as well as the theory that they have our lovely tiefling healer.

Cool. Hopefully we can decide on what to do first.

Btw are we starting the new week? Just trying to make sure I don't forget to make a Linguistics check.

Find the tiefling I guess.

Hey guys, I'm off to another zombie slaying weekend. Jules will go with the group tailing far behind if fox wants or can wait for your return. I'll be back late sunday!

Have a good trip, Jules. I'll have your character follow behind, just in case the group needs saving ;)

Have a safe trip Jules! Take care and have fun!

Btw GM, are we still on the same week or are we starting a new week? Just wanting to make sure I don't forget to do a Linguistics roll that's all.

I fully admit that I'm terrible at remembering (or documenting) what day of the week it is, but I'll double check. I'm fairly certain that you have a few more days left, but perhaps you're right.

It's cool. I'm not complaining at all. And we probably do have a few days left.

And I'm bad at remembering that too. Not to mention I still keep forgetting to adjust the among of money my character has! So don't worry about. I was just wondering that's all.

Well, I just scoured the posts since the week began... and you're on day 2 of 7. That's right, everything we've done since Dec19 has been in one day. We started with the trip to Aerodus (and to the church of Shelyn), then two fights broke out (one with Phillip and Tarnagius, the other with Jules, Kethaera, and Pylos), then we met up at the tavern, and after that picked up Vendalfek.

So perhaps to help remedy this, I'll move time along a bit faster. Also, perhaps it would be worthwhile to either:
- Do only one thing in a day
Or
- Take a few days off, which you're allowed to do and in most situations are not penalized for

Hm...I think maybe take a few days off and try to interact with the NPCs some more but whatever the rest of the group decides to do is okay with me.

I was just thinking we were going to stagnate waiting for the translation to happen.

A couple days off would probably be good. Not to mention that, as a Thrune, I should probably make some kind of appearance at court.

There's actually a ton of stuff you can do before the translation, especially with Jules and Kethaera helping

I'm back from the apocalypse!

Welcome back!

A Dm's favorite time, SPLIT PARTY!

Maybe it's best we try to stick together. Chasing after fleeing enemies might not always be a good idea. Just saying.

If there's anyone in this group I trust to be able to hide out of a bad situation. It's me ;)

Okay y'all I'm just going to come out and say it: I have completely lost count of how much wealth my character has. I'm real bad at keeping up with stuff like that and I do apologize about it. So, if anyone can help me out I would appreciate it greatly. Again, I'm sorry about this.

Starts eying the tiefling scalps

Okay....

Anyone knows what has become of our gm?

I'm here T-T

Sorry about the lack of posts the last few days. Just got a PS4 and I've been playing Elder Scrolls Online a lot. It is really hard to build up gold in the beginning...

Been doing taxes. Well finished now thankfully.

Glad I got my taxes done. That's how I got my PS4 lol

Cool.

Did we get XP from sparing the tiefling thugs and getting them to follow the path of redemption? I couldn't think of anything that might prove to the church of Shelyn of our party's good intentions other than to spread the teachings of Shelyn as well as to show mercy to our enemies and get them to follow the path of good. Trying to have her follow the Code of Paladins of Shelyn a bit if that helps. Kethaera isn't lawful good but I thought the paladin code would be useful in achieving that goal.

And what do y'all think about sparing the thugs and redeeming them?

And thanks Phillip for the assists!

If they want to open a soup kitchen or something and they don't know about the rebellion, Tarnagius doesn't give a crap.

If we're going to pick up every random stray we come across, he'll have a problem.

First of all I use EXP really, really loosely. I'm more interested in leveling at specific milestones in the campaign, with a few considerations for side adventures.

If you've been given a challenge and you overcome it, I would count that as "awarding XP". To me, it doesn't really matter if you overcome the challenge through combat, diplomacy, stealth, trickery, or something else entirely.

I'm sure the other party members may get annoyed at all the sparing. You'll have to figure that all out together in game, as I won't be putting any system limits on it. Note that sparing them and redeeming them are very different things. There's no guarantee that a thug or thief will actually be redeemed, even if they actually go to the church like they say they will.

Oh and I did notice that you're sparing them, and letting them keep their weapons, armor, and other items. Not that I'd stop you, I just thought you might not have noticed.

That's true but still going around killing helpless enemies is a good way to go to the dark side. Then again, if an enemy is killed in combat that's a different story. However, certain enemies surrendering might be iffy because would you spare a goblin knowing that the goblin might do future harm? I guess what I'm saying is some enemies its okay to spare and show mercy while others you can't do it.

Not to mention I'm still unsure of what the Church of Shelyn wants us to do in order to gain their support. Because the only thing I'm coming up is following the paladin's code of Shelyn

So yeah that's all I got. :(

Any suggestions y'all?

If they want to open a soup kitchen or something and they don't know about the rebellion, Tarnagius doesn't give a crap.

If we're going to pick up every random stray we come across, he'll have a problem.

Good point. maybe we could recruit them or something but I'm open to any ideas.

Not to mention, Tarnagius your character could get us supplied specifically guard uniforms, maybe of your family. And since Pylos most likely has a Thrune signet ring...light bulb just came on!

If Jules can forge some documents, we could use Pylos's signet ring to get us some Dottari uniforms as well as info on important government stuff like troop movements!

Out of game knowledge: The church wants to see if your growing rebellion will be safe enough for them to associate with you. They want to make sure you're making a difference, yet without being on the verge of disaster.

I'd like to ask what you thought of our chase scene? Did the rules work for you, and was it enjoyable?

Also, it's time I roll for notoriety.
The dead Tiefling (Notoriety +1)
Public Combat: 1d4 ⇒ 1

I liked it.

Btw concerning public fights, I can understand getting in a fight with thugs or guards but what about monsters like goblins or an escaped owlbear? Would that increase our notoriety?

And concerning the church, I see. Well hopefully we are doing just that....I hope. I think we're making a difference but it will probably be good to do a few more missions and such.

I would probably say yes, but I would be tempted to lower the die (1d2). It's a little less about who you're fighting, and more about making a scene. That being said, attacking dottari should be far bigger of a deal than a swarm of rats. Notoriety isn't just a penalty, it can also be a great boon. It all depends on the situation.

A boon? Hm...never thought of it that way. To me and this is probably my misinterpretation of how notoriety works from the guide, but I was under the impression that as our notoriety goes up the chances of Thrune attacking us and our allies and the rest of the city goes up as well. I didn't realize that notoriety could be a good thing depending on the situation like you said.

I'm going to go off on a limb and guess that there will be times when we are going to need a high notoriety correct?

And no Phillip, that doesn't mean you get to torch the city or go on a noble killing spree!

Essentially, every time you meet someone, I roll for Notoriety to see if they recognize you. Sometimes this is bad, such as walking over the Bleakbridge or passing a citizen group checkpoint. Other times, it's good, such as influencing crowds, asking for help from people, and receiving discounts or other forms of aid.

Some times specific events will occur once you have reached a certain Notoriety score, and it's not always bad. There are many factions within Kintargo, and some of them are keeping their ears to the group to pick up on allies and supporters.

But you are right about one thing: The more notoriety you have, the more Barzillai wants to silence you.

Well I guess that's good. Seems I misjudged the notoriety then.

Btw for anyone wondering, Kethaera's hairstyle is similar to the one with the blond hair and purple eyeshadow

Pardon my lateness, I decided I wasn't satisfied with the Humbright map and am making my own (or I might steal someone else's). I'll have something up in the near future.

Time to leave it looks like.

I agree. Maybe we should try a stealthier approach. Kicking in the door isn't always a good idea.

I think I'm going to make use of team big loud distraction.

Does that involve using a lot of TNT?

Now no one take this the wrong way, but apparently, it seems only GM has been willing to discuss important things with me concerning with how we do things.

While that's good and very important, I have noticed that lately my fellow players don't seem...too keen on discussing important matters like sparing enemies, how we can prove ourselves to the Church of Shelyn, and how to keep better track of our group's finances (as I completely am bad at keeping track with my characters' wealth which is ironic given that I'm really good at keeping track with my own money). I'm not trying to be rude or bashing anyone but I just want to know if we are willing to work together as a group. I'm having fun but lately I noticed that everyone doesn't seem to want to work as a group anymore. I don't know why and I suspect that it is me.

And if it is, then I'll leave the group if that's the case. I'm not trying to ruin anyone's fun but I do apologize if I have in some way done something to ruin it for everyone.

If Kethaera wants to spare enemies, Phillip won't stop he rbut will be rolling his eyes a bunch. He is the one that goes in and hits people upside the head.

Well that's good and all, but what do you think we should about other things? Like our party's wealth? Does anyone know how much we all have together? I haven't kept up with it, so I don't know. We need to figure out these things if we are going to work as a team. It isn't our gm's job to keep track of it. It's our job to do it and unfortunately I haven't done a very good job of keeping up with my character's.

So we need to figure out a plan on what to do about our party's wealth: do we combine all of our characters' wealth together or keep it separate like usual?

Nah, you're right, Kethaera. We really should talk about this stuff. My opinions will be giving in order.

1) For redemption, I think it's fairly obvious that Pylos is all for turning his opponents to good when able as he's literally the only one who wanted to keep Blosodriette. However, he won't do it willy-nilly, and will be quick to silence those he feels is beyond redemption.

2) For party wealth, I think that, other than the goods and gold we choose for our characters, such as with Kyda's Nine Lashes we found, it should probably go into a party pool to either be picked over later or added to the rebellion's coffers. One of my groups is using an excel document to keep track of any and all loot we find that is easily editable on a mobile device, and I ask them how to set it up for us to modify.

3) For the Church of Shelyn, both as a character and a player I admit that I don't know much about them and what would be acceptable. As a player, I haven't read much on her worship as I haven't designed a character that worshiped her, and as a character, Pylos only really knows about the worship of Asmodeus and Cayden, as the first he was raised in and the second he chose himself. As our resident worshiper, perhaps you could, in character, teach us a little about what it means to work with/for the church?

I'm sorry you ended up feeling that way, and I admit that I've been really distracted with my shiny new PS4 and Fallout 4 the last couple weeks.

1. Redemption can be a tricky business, but I really enjoy seeing characters play out sparing people. I find the whole idea of "kill all those who oppose us" to be... a little less than good. I'll try to give you opportunities to spare, and possibly even redeem people, but I'm sure I've said before that not everyone will be redeemable. Some may develop a hatred of you and pursue you. And of course, just sending them to the temple doesn't automatically redeem them. Though, probably more efficient than spending each day taking care of these people yourself.

2. Even I have no idea what your total party wealth is at this point. The game goes a little beyond the regular amount in order to compensate for spending for the rebellion. That and my generosity (I'm not kidding, believe it or not, I usually sweeten the pot) usually adds up to a very nice wealth. That being said, I hate babying loot (cough, Rise of the Runelords, cough hack splutter). It doesn't matter to me whether you divide the loot or make a large coffer, as long as everyone is on the same page.

3. I have studied Shelyn a fair bit through the Inner Sea Gods book and I'm always happy to add some more religion to the mix if anyone is interested. You'll see more of Shelyn and other good deities as the game progresses (though, some of these occur in book 3 and later).

I really want you guys to work as a team, though it's hard for me to force that... and really I don't want to force it. I'm so proud of those who really delve into the story to figure out not only how everything works, but also taking in stride the modifications and style that I bring as DM. Still, this isn't a one-man show, and we'll need to work together to really accomplish anything substantial. Right now you're just little guys beating up little gangs. One day you're all expected to rise up against Barzillai, and all of Cheliax. Teamwork is essential.

I designed Jules to be shady, underhanded, and most of all Jaded. He has a good amount of trouble believing anyone can change stripes and takes a good amount of time to trust anyone.

I've tried to monitor my gold as distributed but excess can certainly go to the coffers. I'm afraid I don't have the bandwidth to maintain a running spreadsheet for us all but it's a good idea.

As for shelyn, I figure a few things. A: it'll take time and we seem to be rushing a lot of things right now. We aren't planning well and calling off to resources we don't have. (Kethaera I'll be honest this is my only gripe for you since we hear about the rich influential and powerful family of yours a lot).

Jules is an agnostic character insofar as he doesn't care about the gods since they don't seem to care about him.

Otherwise we are running afoul of the dice roller a lot in the game and I'll admit it's disheartening but it's not really in our hands.

INITIATE WALL OF TEXT

I've seen a lot of your posts, Kethaera and I've mostly been reading and not responding because I thought you were getting a ways ahead of where we actually are. Things like "let's steal some dottari uniforms" and stuff feel a little divorced from the translation efforts and the gang war we just started and the Blosodriette question, and I don't feel like I have much of a comment on it until we actually have a narrative reason to go into that. Like "oh we need to break into the jailhouse. Ok, let's get dottari uniforms."

I was concerned about pointing that out without sounding like a prick, so I left it alone. Thumper's rule and all. It's not like I'm refusing to participate in that conversation I just didn't know how to say "I don't particularly think that's important right now" without sounding like a jerk, and if you guys want to plan out a bunch of potential plans, that's ok, I just don't have time when I post in the mornings to sit and conjure up plans for every conceivable scenario we could find, so I stick to the "here and now" so to speak.

In-character, yeah, Tarnagius isn't really being a team player right now. He's kind of still pissed at the whole situation. He went looking for a way to kick Thrune (his former employer and confidant in the city of devils, mind) out of his home city, and he ended up finding a singer/lush, an old friend who's a total macaroni, a not-totally-sane axman from Cheliax's worst enemy nation, and a halfling, and now they're enlisting the help of a bunch of random little flying things, one of which is a devil - the very thing he's trying to kick out of his town right now. He's just kind of throwing his hands in the air like "screw it! I don't even care! The only ones with professional standards are the halfling and the nutcase? And now instead of trying to sabotage Thrune we're going to pick up another fiend? Fine, whatever. Let's just do it. You're in charge."

1) Sparing enemies - if you want his actual opinion, Tarnagius lived and did wetwork in literally Hell on Earth. He only trusts other people's selfishness and self-interest. He knows that Kethaera wants Thrune gone because she wants to dance. He "knows" Jules wants Thrune gone because he's a dirty-footed halfling and they're always causing trouble if there are no humans to keep them in line (right?). He knows Pylos wants Thrune gone because he's known him forever, and he knows Phil wants Thrune gone because that's how he gets paid and because he's a psychotic chaos-and-anarchy-and-other-not-orderly-words-loving Andoran.

As far as actual enemies go, Tarnagius trusts a corpse more than anybody's word that they won't stick an arrow in his back, but he's not making a stink out of it because last time he did nobody seemed to care about bringing in a devil into the party as they fight an enemy with a literal hotline to hell. Like I already said, he's just kind of going "whatever. You're in charge. Nobody listens to me anyway."

2) Shelyn - Tarnagius' knowledge of Shelyn is "I think I kicked one of her paladins out a window once. Or maybe that was Sarenrae. One of those 'live the light' goody-two-shoes types that the artists always seem to love. Out of character, like I said, I'm a "cross that bridge when we come to it" type. Since we're on the topic though, we could try to find Shensen. Yeah, she's a Sarenrae worshiper, but she was both a very good person and an artist.

3) Money - I think we need to have some before that becomes an issue. This might be the first campaign I've ever been in where I had to buy a redundant mundane melee weapon that didn't involve a rust monster.

Most campaigns I've been in people have run their own wealth and when we needed a party purchase (wands'n'things) we split it X ways where X is the number of party members.

Also, it's been finals week here (Japanese school terms are April-July, September-Christmas, January-March) and I have been BUSY. Sorry, but Spring Break is next week so I get a week off.

Hmm is there a way I might be able to help Tarnagius feel more like his desires are/will be met? Perhaps an NPC ally, or a specific task to be completed? There's two allies in book 2 that COULD appeal to Tarnagius, but then again, they have a few traits that Tarnagius would not enjoy.

Is there a deity or two that Tarnagius prefers? Perhaps Abadar?

Yeah I don't plan on making you buy anymore basic weapons XD just don't break any more.