Kingmaker. The shadows behind the throne.

Game Master DBH

Sorry all. I"m too busy to update today.

My mother is leaving tomorrow to take a nice cruise around New Zealand for two or so weeks. I'm heading to my parents house to care for my Father while she's away. So I've spent most of the day getting my stuff ready and preparing things while I'm away.

Once I'm there tomorrow I should be able to resume posting properly, thankfully my mother has stayed up to date with technology and has a PC of her own.

Real life comes first, take all the time you need.

Yeah, thanks for letting us know. We'll be here when you're ready.

Things have been more hectic than I expected, I've been very busy the last few days but it's settling down now. Updates will resume tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.

Sorry all, no update tonight. Too tired.

Taking a stubborn senior citizen shopping for groceries is an exercise in tact and patience. :)

No worries GM_DBH - hang in there as best as possible. I have an idea of how taxing it can be.

Again with an apology. The last few days have been hectic to say the least! My Mothers cruise ship docked in Wellington on Sunday, so we had a family meal at a waterfront restaurant.

Then my brother has gone in to hospital for treatment of his irregular heartbeat. Incurred during the coughing epidemic we had a couple of months ago.

Which has left me caring for his dog as well as my father, an insane German shepherd with too much energy. (The dog, not my father.)

Thankfully his treatment worked and he's fine again, so tomorrow I will be back to having some free time and will return to the updating.

Thanks for your patience.

Thanks for letting us know, but no apologies are necessary. Family comes first.

Ok, sorry for the gap. Tech problems with my Mothers computer, and being busy running around in extremely hot weather has left me unable to update anything I'm GMing.

Good news is tomorrow I'm home again and things will return to normal.

My Mothers PC doesn't have anywhere to plug in flash drives? Why?

Whaaaat? No USB ports at all?

T'is the season to be busy. No time to update today. And it will probably be spotty until boxing day thanks to it being a stinking hot summer down here. Summer and Christmas at the same time!

I'm also on Christmas craze, traveling, visiting family, shopping, etc. Should still manage to post regularly up to the weekend though.

In any case, Merry Christmas!

I have a moment to myself so I'm dropping in to wish everyone a very merry Christmas!

Have a wonderful (and safe) holiday people.

Merry Christmas, all!

Only fair to stick with the 14 perception, he's sticking close to the front to keep an eye out for traps.

I'e checked and the last post by Elena's player is 22/11/18. Looks like we've lost her.

What do the rest of you wish to do, get another character, or stick with the current party?

She was the healer and that's the main gap she leaves.

I'm on board with recruiting another party member who can heal.

Since the healer is an important role, I would support recruiting a new player.

Same here.

Yeah, every kingdom needs spiritual guidance ;)

I agree with recruiting.

I'm in favour of it, things will get dicey if not.

Sorry for going quiet, my health is very bad at the moment. I will update everyone as to how things are after Monday and the Doctors appointment.

Sorry to hear that, DBH. I hope you feel better soon.

I hope all goes well, DBH. We'll all be wishing you the best.

All the best DBH, and a speedy recovery!

I hope you're feeling better soon.

Health wise I'm waiting on getting an appointment as my problems seem to be a bad tooth that's triggering other problems, once that's gone things should improve.

So while I wait I'll try to get things moving. Again. (Finally).

Ok team, we have some applicants on the recruitment thread. Look them over and tell me if one gets your nod please?

Will do DBH.

The two that look most promising to me are Arvydas, the Oracle/Shaman submitted by Jereru, or Garen Williamson the Hospitaler Paladin.

Arvydas has a compelling background, suggesting that he'd be willing to work with us "civilizing forces" as long as he can preserve his beliefs. He also provides the magic we would need.

I like the simplicity and straightforwardness of Garen's character, and it especially helps that he's a paladin of Erastil - in character, Colwyn would be fond of that. My only concern is that he might provide more muscle rather than magic, although that does have a benefit all its own.

Zelera is also an intriguing character, but I'm not sure that a cleric of the Lantern King would work out well for nation building.

Mechanically, the cleric of Sarenrae proposed by @scottg0 also provides the type of magic we need and would be useful. Without a backstory or personality, though, it's harder to say how well he would fit in with our group or nation.

Colwyn makes good points on all. Arvydas and Garen are the best options for our group with Arvydas's more magical focus giving an edge.

So I really like Zelera, the cleric of the Lantern King. Okay, the part where the god "bedded her repeatedly" wasn't something I'd put on a public character sheet, but looking past that, we're all pretty much lawful, lawful-trending, or (in Reknar's case) CG-but-hasn't-seen-anything-authoritarian-enough-to-speak-out-against. A more chaotic character would be a good foil to enable some interesting roleplaying, and someone who has ties and affection for the fey could be fun for Kingmaker.

I also like the shaman of the Green Faith, conceptually. Does he have stats somewhere that I'm not seeing?

Are hospitaler paladins capable healers? I feel like we have enough melee, although we don't have any heavy armor guys, so I'd be fine with an additional meleer since they'll have less overlap with found armor.

So far Zelera is my top pick, but there's a chance others will squeeze in before the recruitment ends.

Hmmmm, we don't have an archer, do we?

Elena was an archer, and someday NK will have enough spell slots that his crossbow stops being a good option, but we don't have someone who's primarily an archer.

We were doing alright just half-assing it between Xan, Colwyn and Richard, though.

That's two for Zelera and Garen, Arvyda's hasn't given me a build.

So Xantria, you have the decider. Any favorites?

Kind of leaning towards Zelera; she could add an interesting dynamic to the party.

Ok, I was a bit unsure regarding her at first. Then using my GM awareness of the game I realized that someone with such a strong connection to the Fey would be a big help to the party.

Thank you for accepting me into the game. Can't post much just now as I am at work but I figured I could manage this much at least (things are fairly slow today).

Welcome aboard, Zelera.

Admittedly, I was at first skeptical about recruiting a cleric of the Lantern King, but after discussing it, I am quite intrigued to see what story and RP opportunities it will present.

Humorously enough, I am also posting during a very slow period at work.

Welcome, Zelera!

Then using my GM awareness of the game

Is that like a spider-sense? Did it tingle?

Welcome to the game Zelera - I think you managed to get us all intrigued about your character :)

A few thing came up this weekend which was set to be quite busy as it was (including my car breaking down) so free time for PBP hasn't been in abundance. I will be posting tomorrow in all my games. Sorry for the delay.

Welcome Zelera!

It's about now that you notice the lack of Elena and wonder about who is going to handle the business of healing people.

Zelera, now would be a good time for you to introduce yourself to the party in game. Since they will be looking for someone to handle divine magic.

Got my stat line added in. I also added to the profile a section about the adoration priority, that way you don't have to rely on me to tell you when I use unless something strange comes up to help streamline combat a smidge.

Sorry for going missing yesterday. Turns out it was a public holiday down here. One I'd forgotten about.

I was dragged away to be sociable for the day.

Sorry about going quiet yesterday, I was run off my feet and ran out of time.

So what's the plan team?

Okay, here's what I propose. Referencing the "troll party" map linked above.

(I can't place or move shapes on the map today, for some reason. Apologies for any vague descriptions.)

We have the crossroads northwest of where the two traps are. NK greases those crossroads. Xantria acts as bait in the narrow passage just east of those crossroads. The party waits just southwest of the two traps on the main path. I'm assuming this is where the party is now. Xantria can withdraw and circle back around to the party if necessary.

One option is for Zelera to wait out of sight on the trail behind Xantria so that she could come out as the trolls approach and get line of sight on them to cast murderous command or whatever spells she was thinking to cast.

I was thinking that maybe one or two meleers could wait out of sight in the trail north of the crossroads, but I worry about splitting the party too much. Have some missile weapons ready and stay with the main group, I think.

NK has flaming sphere prepared. He can cast it twice. That's his primary tactic for this fight, although he'll pre-load a crossbow bolt.

What are we getting from our knowledge local rolls? This plan needs some hot sauce if we know the vulnerabilities.

Agreed.