Iron Gods: Forged into Legends

Game Master polyfrequencies

Y'all are welcome to declare your next destination. Checking in with Dinvaya, the Steel Falcons, or denying Keldor time with his crush and just scooting back to Torch?

obviously Keldor hasn't had that litter yet ;P

I like to provide a sense of continuity!

Thawm, I just remembered. Did you keep the Grapple-hook gun the Troll used on you in the arena? That's pretty cool.

Iirc, that autograpnel needs to have its grappling hook reattached. We also have a timeworn one.

Apologies for not posting - weekends are often slow for me, AND I wanted to check back on something.
I know at some point we received a foreshadowing clue on some location, and I had Basil decide to pick up on that, that it sounded familiar to her or triggered some memory.
I don't know the exact wording used and was so far unable to pinpoint the post -_-
But I wanted to pick up on that regarding the "where to next" - obviously after we are done here and return to Torch to report.

I distinctly remember that moment because I took notes on it! It was in Discord. I'll copy and paste it here.

Keldor looks over journal. A few big points come to his attention:

1. Hellion hopes to use the reactivated excavator as its body and can transform it into a mobile stronghold that may even be capable of burrowing into the heart of Silver Mount. Unfortunately, the structure still requires vast amounts of power, and Meyanda's failure to gather that power has resulted in an unwelcome delay to this plan. Hellion hopes that this is but a temporary setback, but knows that every day that passes before it can strike against Unity, the greater AI will continue to grow in power-if Unity can find a way to extend its influence beyond Silver Mount in a significant way, it will be too late to oppose it.
2. With the excavation and repowering of the excavator delayed, Hellion recently revealed to Kulgara an interesting secret: Hellion was not the first of the Iron Gods spawned by the entity it calls "Unity." Another came before him-a "prophet of Unity" named Casandalee. Hellion regards Casandalee as a sister, and notes that just as it escaped Unity, Casandalee betrayed Unity and escaped as well. According to the fragments of memories Hellion inherited from its creator, when Casandalee fled Unity, she took with her a device called a neurocam, onto which had been recorded many of Unity's secrets and, Hellion hopes, Unity's weaknesses. Fortunately, Unity's robotic minions were never able to track down and capture Casandalee, so Hellion believes that this neurocam still exists, hidden away wherever Casandalee ended up. He notes that she was an android, not an artificial intelligence, and that she has certainly been dead for these many centuries, but that if the site of her death could be discovered, it might be possible to retrieve the stolen neurocam and extract key information about Unity and its defenses.
3. Working with information supplied by memories stolen from Unity before Hellion fled Silver Mount and independent research done first by Meyanda and more recently by Kulgara, Hellion has discovered that Unity's robots finally caught up with Casandalee in southern Numeria, in an area now settled by worshipers of Erastil: the town of Iadenveigh. Kulgara has been working up a plan to mount an invasion of Iadenveigh to search the site for clues or, perhaps, the location of Casandalee's last stand and the neurocam, but it's obvious from Kulgara's notes that she's not yet sure exactly where in Iadenveigh to start the search.

As she scans the journal after Keldor is done with it, Basils eyes suddenly roll back until only white is visible, and she starts softly shaking for a moment. Before either of her companions can react, whatever had happened is already over. Basil puts the Journal on the closest elevated surface, then steadies herself. "As I told you, I do not remember who I was. I was not a fresh mind generated in this body, but the injuries I sustained fragmented my past beyond recovery. So the Smithy in Torch became the closest thing to a home. But I know Casandalee'. This name exists in several memory fragments, albeit I can not extrapolate meaningful context. Once Hellion is dealt with, I will head to Ladenveigh Iadenveigh. I would appreciate if either of you would accompany me, but I understand if you will prefer to raise a litter with a preferred mating unit instead."

To clarify, it's Iadenveigh, not Ladenveigh. (AYE-den-vay according to James Jacobs, although YAH-den-vay makes more sense to me. For those fluent with the International Phonetic Alphabet, I imagine this as [ˈjaˌdənˌve͡ɪ], possibly with an extra /i/ (ee) at the front, or an /æ/ (as in "at") instead of the /a/ depending on the pronunciation, shibboleths being what they are and all.)

Ah, that is exactly what I meant! Thanks, I was only digging through the forum so far, and would have hit discord next - but you saved me from needing to do that! :D

(I also like a sense of continuity).

So yeah, Iadenveigh.
For the protocol, my first instinct would match with your initial phonetic variant.
Will add it into a post soon after our departure.

Official welcome back to Harg!

My hope is to have Harg, or perhaps his sword, be the giver of the next Quest after you all have returned to Torch.

I don't know if it was mentioned earlier, but the Torch town council offered the party an additional 8,000 gp if they can be made confident that the threat to Torch has been neutralized. That would be primarily the destruction of the Receiving Array, but the death of Hellion is another indication that Torch is safe, at least from attempts to drain the eponymous torch of its energy.

Y'all are also going to get a lesser rod of extend metamagic from Joram for bringing Dinvaya back.

Back in Torch, you'll be able to find most magic items with a base value of 2,400 gp or less and will be able to sell things up to 5,000 gp in value. If you're looking for a specific magic item, please roll a 1d100 here in the Discussion. High is good for the PCs, so if you roll a 26-100, then you can find and purchase the item. A 1-25 means that it's not in stock.

There are also several other items available in Torch, assuming that you didn't purchase them the first time around.

So if you haven't already, start thinking about what you might want to buy and sell.

Are the Tech items time-worn? Or fully functional?

Happy to relay the quest. Feel free to Post as my sword any time you wish. Otherwise I might make him mumble to me often, but any bigger thing can totally be you driving it.

As far as I can tell, they're fully functional! That is, the book ain't saying anything about them being timeworn, so I assume that they're normal.

I want to give Basil a chance to chime in before the sword pipes up. But oh, the Black Blade has some things to say.

Aye, I thought I DID chime in. Sorry :)
Alas, I will be visiting family a few days and am not sure if I'll have time to post, so I tried to not take an active role in the exchange :)
Basil will happily listen.

Also, that shopping list is Torch, right? Are we supposedly getting there any time soon or will this sidequest take a while? I mean, can we expect to shop soon or will our situation possibly have changed by the time we get there?

No worries! I figured if it took too long I would message you. Enjoy the holiday!

Yes, the shopping list is what is available in Torch. You'll get there before embarking on the Side Quest. I'm going to move the location of it from the Sellen Hills to the Numerian Plains.

My, I like that Blade already. So nice. Aye. Follow the Android. To Iadenveigh!

All my Magus ever got was an Elf Supremacist Blade that wants to cleanse Telvurin(The "Stolen Lands" plus some). Which is...complicated in a mixed-race Kingmaker group :)
Alas, it's not been very vocal until now

Castrovel called! They want their blade back ^_^

I'll try to find some time to sort out the loot again xD

Feel free to label everything for selling and/or the sell price (half buy price unless it's art/trade goods/currency/etc)

Geez, I haven't looked at the loot sheet in a while! Have you gone over it yet? (It appears we may have pre-spent some of out 8K gps before we left Torch!)

Did we really pick up a Ring of the Ram?
OH Lordy I could have used that a couple of times!

So are we OK to take what is listed by our names? Maybe some more?
Should we delete the items we want from the loot sheet or just inform Thawm?

With the +1 Chainsaw now, I wouldn't mind taking some more charged batteries, just in case I need them. It is only 1 charge to start it and keep it going for 10 minutes, but that could add up if I have to start it and stop it multiple times for various reasons.

Now that I can fly with Guantlet, taking a couple of grenades (not all) might also be useful when I need to dive bomb something...

Anything beyond what we don't take or share communally should be sold of course.

Also, I don't think we have written down what we got from defeating Hellion that we found. I'm so terrible about writing this stuff down, and that was while we were playing on Discord...

Nex can chime in about loot, but there was probably very little gear to pick up from Hellion. Most of what you got was likely from defeating the demigod's priests and servants.

I don't want to interfere with Loot division from before I joined, so I'll just let you all take care of that however you figure is best for you.

That sheet looks pretty up to date. It includes things pretty late into the AP, including Zag's stuff she gave you.

As for what money items where given by Poly for end of the book I am not sure. I think most of that was the reward for the job. The lootsheet did remind me you talked me into giving you 1500 gp of the reward ahead of time.

My time with them, did I learn anything about The Blood Ghost?

Harg has likely heard the story of the Blood Ghost, told more or less the way that Thawm found it, as follows:

Long ago, the Ghost Wolf tribe of the Sellen Hills were preyed upon by a blood-red ghost with four arms. This ghost would appear suddenly and attack the tribe members, who would fall still. Before anyone could respond, the ghost would disappear. Sometimes the victims disappeared with the ghost, but sometimes they were left behind. Every victim appeared to recover initially. But within a day they would fall into sheer agony. The tribe's shamans were vexed--none knew why the tribesmen in their care suffered. But within hours they were dead, their bodies appearing to have been consumed from the inside out.

This went on for generations. The legend of the Blood Ghost was passed down from father to son, from mother to daughter, with the warning to always be prepared. Some thought it was a witch tale meant to frighten them, until the Blood Ghost struck again. The warning eventually passed on to a young woman who grew to unite the Ghost Wolves. This young woman, Xol-Nalur, worked for years to lay a trap for the Blood Ghost. In her late years, her hair grayed and her skin weathered, she finally succeeded. After a long battle, she was unable to kill the Blood Ghost, but she cursed its flesh, binding the ghost to always be seen.

I've put Keldor's name on the stuff I would like to take, and if I don't hear anything in a couple of days then I am going to add it all to to Keldor's character sheet.

After that we need to start looking into selling everything else we each don't want to take.

I had a thought: Do we have 2 Autograpnels? We seem to have 1x Timeworn Autograpnel from way back when, and 1x +1 Autograpnel? Is that correct? Maybe we should replace the balistae-in-the-cart with an autogrpanel? That could be pretty cool.

Still have to look through loot, please have patience with me :)

And maybe not "replace" the ballistae, but we could consider attaching one to the cart in addition. I mean, it's regular-sized, not like it needs a weapons platform - but anchoring it to the roof of our Hilux could allow us to grapple and pull something easily.

Y'all gonna Mad Max your way across Numeria?

Patience amply provided ^_^

For the record, I did hope for an assist, but I guess Keldor was busy and Thawm may not have been sufficient(as that would push to 20, which would not suffice if there are other penalties for being an outsider or something).

That said, I was more trying to query if there was something alternative, or in addition, which she could offer. Trade goods, hunted meat delivered to scrapwall, or scrap metal delivered to forge - establishment of a permanent trade route with either locale, maybe for simple medicine or well-made non-technological weaponry or armors.
Not sure what if anything they would have to offer.

Just speaking cleartext in OOC that my intent was to find some setup to long-term strenghten our "bases of operation" in case we may need to call on support from someone later in the AP.

I do understand "smuggling out" would be an option, but Keldor would probably not be able to bring himself to do that, and while Basil has "okeish" slight of hand, her bluff is simply bad.
That leaves only Thawm to really do that. And I think Secret Chest would be awesome for that, but beyond our means, for now :)
So yeah...I am open to suggestions from both Keldor and Thawm, here.

I do understand Keldor will see it as his duty to do something about the Xill after we granted it freedom, but it DID fulfill it's promise and remained true to it's word. No guilt-tripping into working for free on that one :)

That said, yeah, encharm the towns folk. Basil is not very good at doing that, leaving that one to Keldor who seems to do better :)

Good news: You don't need to roll Diplomacy to encharm. When you entered the camp, I gave a brief description:

Kellids of all ages and genders wrestle and spar, while others mend weapons and armor. Nearby a large group is in the middle of butchering an immense boar to a lively, energetic work song. Children run throughout the camp, some playing and others shadowing the adults. A broad tent near the center of the encampment houses at least a dozen people poring over books or sitting with animals that show a spark of intelligence lacking in most of their species.

Thawm, for instance, has ingratiated herself among the spellcasting folks by sharing spells. Harg is a known entity. But Keldor and Basil have mostly interacted with Harg and Xol-Nomag so far.

So I'll quote from the module I'm using at the moment, just to be more explicit:

While the PCs wait for an audience with the chieftain, they can ingratiate themselves with the other Kellids. The Ghost Wolves don’t mind a bit of distraction so long as it doesn’t detract from their main tasks, and visitors who can share in the work earn the tribe’s appreciation...In each case, let the PC demonstrate her value to the tribe with a check or clever use of an ability...

Overall, something long-lasting will definitely require more than a single check. I appreciate what you're going for, though! Consider this a good first step.

All good. Also I don't expect to sway her with one check. Just maybe get her to think. We will also solve two sets of trouble for her.

She'll know herself, without me pointing it out, that collapsing an entrance will NOT deter explorers if they have reason to believe there is something to be found.

Regarding the ingratiating part, thats what I meant with Basil not being good at that, too :)
Sure she can join the butchering, and would likely work with an almost perfect rhythm and clean mechanical cuts. Scholars or intelligent animals may figure out she is not entirely...biological.
Shes afraid by interacting she may give away being an android and get her skull bashed in.

She does like children, because they are refreshingly simple(in terms of needs/wants compared to more complex societal aspects being considered in adults). May try and play with them a bit.

Go ahead and write up what you're doing to interact with the tribes' kiddos, and give me a roll at a skill that makes sense to you for whatever you're trying to do.

I've put Keldor's name on the stuff I would like to take, and if I don't hear anything in a couple of days then I am going to add it all to to Keldor's character sheet.

I'm assuming this is good now?

If neither Basil nor Thawm (nor Harg) object, then presumably yes!

Small point:

Gauntlet looks VERY tech-inspired. WIth cogs and all that technology-stuff.

Maybe wait until we are sufficiently far away from others of the tribe and stay way up so they can't see details?

Otherwise they may decide that it's fishy and we should get penalized in terms of tribe acceptance...

Sorry all. I tend to have a hard time with walls of text. Its come to my attention that my whole friend group thinks I have some form dyslexia. Even the people who would know.

I will try better at keeping up.

To keep up this time, I had to skip some of the posts. Honestly this explains a lot. I think I am on the right track with what is happening in the story though.

But I am here, and I am trying :)

When I have gotten behind in some of my other campaigns, I have also skipped posts. There's no need to apologize--I for one am glad that you're with us!

We'll just wait for Thawm's action and then see what comes next!

Small point:

Gauntlet looks VERY tech-inspired. WIth cogs and all that technology-stuff.
Maybe wait until we are sufficiently far away from others of the tribe and stay way up so they can't see details?
Otherwise they may decide that it's fishy and we should get penalized in terms of tribe acceptance...

Agreed, but it is a VERY obviously a Summoning ritual, which can be confirmed by any of the casters at the meeting, and I'm sure they know about clockwork-type Inevitables, which are very magical beings. They should not be afraid of it truthfully, especially if I explain it to them in advance.

Now...if I pull out the Chainsaw and fire it up?

Yeah. I'm going to avoid using that at any time around them if I can help it at all.

So I think I'm good, unless the GM thinks I need a sanity check on this.

Aye, but summoning may not make it better.

Kyonin Elves will KNOW what a Devil is. They will understand it is different from Demons(Treerazor says hi). That does not translate to "it's totally ok to summon Devils on Main Street", or "shift into a form clearly inspired by a Devil".

Barbarians still have the alignment restriction "any non-lawful". Inevitables are basically their anathema, so even if they are magical beings or you decide to have a chat beforehand, I heavily doubt they will be thrilled to have clockwork-based stuff summoned nearby.

I am not saying "don't use it", just suggesting, respectfully, that you try and not do it right next to them.
Even if they might tolerate it, I heavily doubt it scores us any points with them.

I don't think it's that they hate those outsiders per say, just that they'd never be able to get along if they had to negotiate with them in some sort of long term working arrangement.
I'm sure they'd be fine with summoning things that have no choice but to do things their way xD

They are hunting down tech and smashing it rather than allow someone to take it.
I think they do hate clockwork-based outsiders.
At least in my opinion it would be advisable to keep anything that MAY be offensive to their tastes to a minimum.

But I'll happily accept that I seem to be in the minority there, and submit to the majority opinion.

I'd just like us to be consistent on that, then.
That is, we'll assume anything summoned is perfectly fine wherever we go.
(plus Keldor won't object if Thawm summons evil outsiders and bargains with them).

There might be stinking clouds, but no bargening :P

Also, we already bargained with an evil outsider xD
To defeat a greater evil, so Keldor is still hanging on to LG by the skin of his teeth xD

Also I still think battery powered tech is different enough from steampunk to not confuse them :P
I could see the barbarians disagreeing, but probably not if they know enough to know about axiomites xD

But you bring up a good point, and I think that the bargening with the enemy is what would push it into dangerous territory...

I know we did, which is why i brought it up.
It should not be a problem if we repeat it, if alignment and origin don't really matter for summoned creatures unless they are left free-willed.

That said, I already conceded the point to you.
But in my view, if someone is making it their lifes mission to go and smash tech, they won't care if it's battery-powered, steampunk, or else. You could probably give them some solarpunk stuff and explain it's working magically via the sun and wind, and they'd still get suspicious and smash it the moment any part of it looks like it might be tech.

Hence my paranoia. But if both of you are sufficiently confident that they understand that what is happening is summoning and that despite the look it has nothing to do with technology, then by all means no additional precautiouns are needed.

As said, I may be a bit paranoid because I think they consider androids as tech, and would likely club me to death if they figure out I'm not really a human based on being highly advanced technology.
And then it's difficult to draw a line where suddenly the distinction between magic and tech is clearly separated. I mean, I do have a soul. I am real beyond just an artificial shell. But at the same time, the shell exists independently from me, and may have housed others before me or might house others after me - so it can be considered something distinct and technological. Beyond anything that can be made on Golarion, but that's not stopping them from smashing anything else they find in the derelicts.
So yeah, kinda considering a personal stake, there, which is why I might be a tad bit emotional or paranoid :)
But as said, I do concede to the majority AND brought it up and thus trust that GM will not use it against us out of the blue.

Oh noes! Don't get lynched, Basil! XD

I don't mind summoning Gauntlet out of view, but I think things should be fine. There is a big line between technology and magic IMHO, even if they often imitate each other at times.

Like I said, I will leave it up to the GM to provide a sanity check if he feels I'm not in the right head space on this.

These guys seem super cool with magics. Teaching me magics. I have had time with them as well. I could totally have communicated about what exactly Gauntlet is.

I would have said its a magical entity that merges with Keldor. A powerful magic.

If that helps provide any relief. Since I went there to learn, I likely spoke a bit about my own knowledge.

I yielded already :) No need to keep kicking.

Merely wanted to explain where I was coming from.
I know there is a distinction, I'm just not sure they'd care.
("If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck...")
If some average clan member sees some mechanical gears running around, I'm not sure if he'll first go check with a shaman to verify it's not a "summoned" magical gear thingie rather than a "smash now"-tech-gear thingie in service to the technic league.

But yeah, it may all be in my head and paranoia, which is perfectly fine - and why i brought it to attention in Discussion. But I think we can move on there...

No kicking intended. Just had not chimed in on the discussion at all.

I hear you. Never want a surprise GM decision that messes up the group. Good thinking.

Moving on is fine. I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in. :)

It's been a busy couple of days on my end (e.g., my partner left on a two-plus week-long trip earlier today), but I'm working on an update to get the party to the point of dealing with Zagmaander.

I wanted to address a few of the points here in the discussion.

Gauntlet is quite tech-inspired. Do the ghost Wolves discriminate between the Inevitables, the living machine aeons created by the axiomites, and Constructs, those constructed rather than born and given a semblance of life using means other than necromancy? One is an outsider and their quintessence is bound upon body and soul, while the other is a construct that generally lacks souls. Perhaps more useful a question is whether they discriminate between different types of constructs, from the clockwork creations to golems to robots to androids.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

The Ghost Wolves are unique among the Numerian Kellid tribes in that they embrace magic. One might see certain contradictions in their beliefs and practices, and with good reason. But as we know from our own history, technology-critical stances (e.g., Luddism, going off-the-grid, and current fears about the rise of artificial intelligence) are neither uniform nor baseless. Some people go the route of Mark Boyle, while others go more the way of Ted Kaczynski. The Ghost Wolves are somewhere in the middle, though they're admittedly closer to the Unabomber than the Moneyless Man.

---

All that to say--there will definitely be questions and concerns, possibly even magical checks, but they're not suspicious/sparkthirstyu to the point of flying into a destructive rage, especially if the party has made efforts to show that they care about the tribe's plight and customs (which you have).

I do personally want to lean into the different reactions that groups around Numeria have to these sorts of things. The Ghost Wolves are certainly not the only group (in the formal AP nor the supplemental materials) that will have different reactions to Gauntlet, or to visible summonings of celestials, aeons, and fiends. No consistency required in my book ^_^

I think that this AP really gives some fantastic opportunities to delve into some of these philosophical conversations. I'd like to semi-canonically say that the four PCs had a modified in-character version of the above conversation.

Also, Basil is not going to get lynched. I do promise that much.

---

As for the paladin of it all, I'm not keen to push a fall on a paladin. Erastil looks for the following:

And then, to the Greater Evil component, there's this:

While she may adventure with good or neutral allies, a paladin avoids working with evil characters or with anyone who consistently offends her moral code. Under exceptional circumstances, a paladin can ally with evil associates, but only to defeat what she believes to be a greater evil. A paladin should seek an atonement spell periodically during such an unusual alliance, and should end the alliance immediately should she feel it is doing more harm than good. A paladin may accept only henchmen, followers, or cohorts who are lawful good.

That seems like what was done with Zagmaander when fighting against Hellion. It's not entirely unlike a paladin of Iomedae becoming a Hellknight of the Godclaw and working with fellow hellknights who follow Asmodeus. It's not ideal, but in the face of overwhelming chaos, sometimes you have to take the allies you can get.

Busy hobby week! Partially with setting myself up as the GM for Keldor and Basil's Rise of the Runelords campaign. I should have a chance tomorrow to move us along here.

Zagmaander approaches.

Could you help me out with a rough description of our situation?

If I was sitting on top of a rocky hill I expect I still have some way to go. But would they be within shouting distance?
HOW far away am I?
Are there many options for Zagmaander to hide in the terrain?

(If I shout out too early, I'm afraid I would simply warn the Xill that we are aware of it. It may have figured that much out from the flare, but still I'd like to understand our situation a bit better to make an informed decision in gameplay.)

Without getting too deep into the mechanics for Perception, assume that Gauntlet, the outriders, and Zagmaander are about a mile/1.6 km away across a relatively open landscape. There aren't many hiding places here in the Sellen Hills. A group setting out now from the main encampment would meet up with the incoming group in about five minutes, while otherwise unimpeded the incoming group will arrive in ten minutes.

Thank you.
And the mechanics for Perception as written are hot garbage anyway unless we're in a video game world with fog limiting the render distance. :)

Either way, that is too far for verbal communication, and slightly out of my range increment limit. :)
So I guess I'll just run. I'll give it a little more time to see if anything comes to mind, otherwise I'll simply keep moving and will post such a bit later.

Hot garbage is a good way to describe it!

I'll just wait a bit longer to see if Thawm and Harg have anything to contribute before assuming that a confrontation happens outside of the camp.