MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - The Korvosa Files (Inactive)

Game Master Corsario

Ashimar is one coherent background timeline/summary away from being done. I did that by handwaving 180k in assets away, as I am not sure that much in assets is necessary in helping define who Ashimar is. So, Elina has control over it, and we can unveil it little by little as time passes.

That left 20k in assets, which I spent as follows:

Ah! Perhaps Arthur is acquainted with both then! Arthur could easily have done business with the two! Damiano for his skills and Vayne for his assets. Perhaps he's even contracted Damiano for an assignment while using Vayne's business to transport the stolen goods, none the wiser that the two were one in the same! Pardon my excitement but this is the sort of intrigue that I live for.

I will be going on a trip this weekend so I'm really pushing to finish Arthur before I leave but the chips aren't falling in my favor with work. I will try to get as much done by Friday as possible. A tiny bit of fine tuning and crunch will be done. Background is currently being worked on and then assets and contacts and I'll be done.

I know we as players wanted to go with low magic, but is the setting overall pretty standard with magic? As the cleric, am I expected to be well versed in religion? Flavor wise, Cannon was chosen to serve by his goddess, so religion and arcane knowledge aren't natural things to him. Though he is a competent caster, and divine strategist, he isn't quite well read in the realms of magic.

The setting will have the "normal" amount of magic. That means the party that will contact you is looking for people able to perform the assigned missions in novel and unexpected ways: Without magic, or using very little of it,
Favor-wise: It is not required for you to be a scholar in religion. But you should be trained in it (put a couple ranks, at least).

@Arthur,
Could very well be that you have indeed transported goods through Vayne's company. As long as you used "secured" crates to transport your stolen goods in. Vayne normally doesn't deal with stolen goods and wouldn't mind given all information he has to the authorities if he was found to be transporting stolen goods.

Doesn't mean he might not start doing such things himself in the future, if it would prove to be necessary.

And with Damiano it would depend what you want to hire him for.
- if it would be for his skills that would make him very good at breaking & entering, you would get a resounding no.
- if it would be to perform somewhere, doing tricks (which might distract someone from what you or others are doing), you might get a yes. Depending on how you go about asking it (and how much you pay of course ;))

Up to now, his "hobby" has been nothing more than that. Breaking into secure places and steal art or other valuable objects. Mostly for the thrill and knowledge that he was capable of doing it. Again, this will change due to him being recruited.

I really have some things that I have to sure up. There's some grammar issues in the back story and I have to spend the rest of this money. I might invest in the pathfinder pouch thing that was posted earlier and look into some other flavor related things for her.

We should be starting next week!
So far I haven't seen a character concept I didn't like, but let me review and start accepting players.

Sounds good to me, I'm trying to go through and make all the employees and things like that and make sure I got them paid for. I might need to find a spread sheet to keep track of things.

Busy week at work and at home, so it took me a while, but I think I'm finished.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I tried to be as thorough as possible.

Info can be found in this alias, not certain how I will do it going into the game. Might make a new alias with only the character sheet and equipment in it and leave this one as my "assets" page :)

Because I really want to have a character called "Damiano, Duke of Deception" amongst my aliases ^_^ (and the name of this one can't be altered anymore due to having been used to much already :))

Feedback is appreciated. (Could be that there might be some mistakes in the story as written as it was done in 2 big writing sprees ...)

Does anyone have a link to some kind of inventory tracking excel sheet?

Nope, I just try to keep track of everything by hand ... might make a google spreadsheet for tracking my own things as that's something I can easily access at most locations. If I come up with a nice layout I'll share an empty version of it with you :)

Concerning employee pay, I assume that the businesses we have will at least bring enough income to pay for our employees & our lifestyle (but that they don't bring any real income into the game) I did incorporate an arbitrary amount of money from my total assets as "manager expenses" (as my business has several of the manager types from the downtime rules). I did not know how much I would have to attribute to that, so I just made it that my total assets (buildings, crews, managers) came out in a nice round sum.

I also noticed you put Chelish up as a language, but from what I know about the languages of golarion is that the people of Cheliax all just speak Common (Taldane) and have no ethnicity based language.

@GM, I came across the Human Lanuages of Golarion section on the pathfinder wiki. At the bottom it states that some places also have regional dialects, for example Korvosan(Common) (which is a blend of varisian, shoanti & common).
Do we get our ethnicity based language (Kelish, Varisian, ...) or perhaps our regional dialect for free as a bonus language? Similarly as in Pathfinder Society? Just to know how I need to divide the few languages I have, as I think it would be nice to have both Common and Korvosan (Common).

@Irene, I noticed you have 5 ranks in linguistics & a +2 bonus on int, so that would mean you should have common + 7 others (+possibly regional/ethnicity based language, depending on GM's ruling), but you only seem to have 7 languages listed.

Also something I wanted to mention, I made certain my character is quite low on magical items, as requested :
+1 merciful rapier
pathfinder pouch
muleback cords (mostly in pathfinder pouch until needed to lift heavy objects)
bag of holding type I (only used to transport items between 2 of his houses)
The Amulet of proof against detection and location.

And some magical consumables :
5 Potion of Cure Serious Wounds, 2 Potion of Water Breathing, 1 Potion of Invisibility, 2 Potion of Disguise Other, 1 Wand of Comprehend Languages, 4 Keys of lock jamming, 2 Snapleaf, 2 Universal Solvent

And a storage closet filled with alchemical consumables.

Regarding pay, From what I can gather in the downtime stuff, there are two ways of hiring employees. You can have employees, who are net plus producers once you pay the purchase fee. Then there are managers who can run your business for you, but they don't produce, and instead you pay them a daily rate (a few golds a day). The managers allow you to be absent longer (I think it's 14 days vs 7 days without a manager) before your buildings suffer from lack of your presence. In theory, you can probably buy a producer, and then have them double as a manager with a daily fee. I didn't do that with my setup, but I read that's an option worth discussing with the GM.

Well I have several NPC's set up in exactly the way you describe. Buying a specific person from the rooms/teams section and also having him/her as a manager. As I didn't know how to calculate the per day fee into how much it would cost as part of our assets. It's not like we can say they have worked for us for x years, here is how much that has cost us, as then we would have to calculate how much the businesses brought in in the same time, etc .... That's why I just put an arbitrary number on it that also doubled as a way to have a nice round sum for my assets.
There's also no rules in downtime to state how much a trade vessel or a merchant caravan could earn in any given time, so that would have been an issue as well :)

I also stated that I worked from the assumption that what my business generates will be enough to keep up my living standard & pay for manager/work force expenses from this point forward, but not give me any "actual" gold to use in the game, unless the GM makes it happen through something he comes up with.

It's been one hell of a week. I planned on finishing up the character today, my only day off before I leave for vacation, but there's been a death in the family. I'll try to get up as much as possible and at least finalize the character sheet and throw up a background at some point today.

That's a good point. I just assumed all retro stuff balances, and we'll calculate on a forward going basis.

I did run some calculations, and it looks like I'm at +280gp from the buildings except house and +20gp from the labor. So, if I understand this right, at take 10 I'd get +31gp (280+20+10 / 10) a day? My upkeep is 25/day, so I'm at +6gp per day. HOWEVER, if I do my calculations on a charity basis (for ease, I did full gain on dojo and no gain on my house, and half gain on everything else; full gain on labor), that comes out to -18.25gp (152.5+20+10 / 10), bleeding me for less than 20gp a day. All things considered, it's about break even either way.

Of course, there's the 180k in investments in Elina Enterprises. Based on a look at the table, I think I can put together a portfolio, and it's probably at 3% a year, with fluctuations. That's roughly 15gp a day. So, I'd say Elina's accountants send the investment returns over to Sarenae Row's accountants to balance the books on a weekly or monthly basis. Excesses goes to his daughter, leaving Ashimar blissfully unaware and poor (for a level 16 retired operative).

Well depends how deeply you're going to look at the downtime system.

For example if you have several places of business, all lead by a different manager, that manager would get to make a roll for that building in your stead, and most managers are assumed to have a +7/+8 in certain class skills which normally should be relevant for the roll they're making ...

Going with that assumption and even without accounting for several other factors in my businesses (the fact that caravans and ships don't have a +GP equivalent/day, the fact that I created 2 high cost managers [10 GP/day] and not counting my characters performances) I would get a total of around 34.3 GP/day (divided in 31.1 GP & 3.2 GP/day spread over his 2 guises/personas/whatever you want to call it)

Like I said before, I build the assets figuring they would be there for having an established background and resources at our disposal when necessary (in my case for example, exporting some goods out of korvosa, ...) Not to actual earn an ingame income from them ...

Another part of the downtime rules is that there is capital attrition if you don't "visit" often enough, events that might affect things, etc etc...

I think we ended up at the same place...a self sufficient background of stuff for the GM to play with :)

Plenty!
Ok, the last day for submissions has arrived. I doubt we will get any others, as doing a level 16 character is not something you can do quickly.
Tanner Nielsen and Tim Woodhams showed interest, but haven't heard from them in a while. I sent them PM's just in case.
But I am happy to say this, we have 4 characters already accepted:

Can't wait, I should be able to sure up my item list by that time.

Me too Irene! I can't wait to see what Monday brings!

Hello, everyone! This is Tanner Nielsen.

I am still very interested in playing in this game, but real-life has been frustratingly busy lately. I have the basics of my character down, but still need to flesh out minor things like equipment, traits, etc. If I can submit this as a placeholder while I fill in the rest of the character, I would really appreciate it. Thank you.

Glad to see you are still interested... Hurry up!
We will start on Monday,but you don't need everything ready that day. But hurry up never less.

Update. Crunch is finished. I just need to flesh out his background and assets.

Virgil, love the grappler build. A couple of things for your consideration:

1) Not sure how essential the shadowdancer's hide in plain sight is to your concept, but you may want to consider swapping it out if it's not necessary (don't forget combat reflexes, dodge, mobility, plus the minor skill tax of performance(dance) 2). It's part of Aldras's shtick, too, which is worth considering if it's an incidental nice-to-have for you.

2) I had trouble trying to understand the Ranger 1 dip concept-wise. Mechanically, I assume it's for the favored enemy. Perhaps take it to ranger 2 and grab a feat for it? Or maybe a more focused build and shore up to monk 10 / rogue 6?

Just some observations from the peanut gallery, so take them for what they're worth. Looking forward to having you on the team!

Ohhh... you are right. I completely neglected the entrance requirements for shadowdancer. Let me noodle it for a bit and see what I can come up with.

Hey! Glad to see I made the cut despite not being finished. I'm back from vacation and I've got the day off to recuperate, so I'm gonna complete Arthur today.

Was pretty sick for the last few days, but I am back.

Welcome back Irene. Hope you're feeling better!

Glad to have you back. Sorry for the delay, I have been busy this last weekend, and tomorrow. Thanks for your patience, as I haven't been able to post. I will continue Wednesday.

Thanks for the update :)

I assume the observations you would be sending over the weekend will also come in on Wednesday?

I'm very curious how everything will go :)

Are we to include our mythic ranks right now, or are we doing that later?

After looking over my character, I feel like I'm going for a jack of all trades type thing that could probably benefit from a more concise build. Originally, I wanted to go for a savvy, almost detective type character who would be ready for a scrap at the drop of a hat (Snake Style feat tree, Improvised Weapon feat tree) who could cast spells when need be. When it comes to the getaway scene, he could drop a veil over his comrades to aid in escape (Trickery Domain). Can someone give it a look over and help me piece together just how this guy is going to work out mechanically with the rest of the group so that he's not stepping on any toes?

Here are the things I'd like to keep.
Liberator Rogue Archetype

Trickery Domain

Divine Strategist Cleric Archetype

Snake Style Feat Tree

There are some synergies I really liked but I could part with them.
Divine Strategists can always act in surprise rounds. Arthur is a very unassuming combatant, often using improvised weapons to catch people off guard. With the Underhanded Rogue Talent, he deals max Sneak Attack damage when he attacks in a surprise round. I don't know how viable that idea is, or if I should even be focusing on combat, but it's something I really liked initially.

Again, give it a look over if you can and let me know what could go and what should stay.

Arthur Cannon Char Sheet

No biggie, I got sick and just now got around to posting.

Ok, sorry again for the delay. I am here, not going anywhere...
Thanks for your patience.
Tanner, I think Virgil Longstreet need a little more work and he will be ready.
Starting on the rest.

Irene:
Abilities:
I don't find where you get 2 extra points. How did you get them?

HP: I got 132 (even with the +4 of Mythic Tier 1), but you have 144. How?

Feats: I think you got 9 feats (8 by level and 1 by human), but you have 11

Thief Talents: Officially you cannot take Combat Trick twice (So no Betraying blow), but I don't see why not, so it's ok.

Skills:
I count 168 ranks (64 as Rogue, 48 as Master Spy, 16 as human, 32 Int, 8 Favored Class (Rogue)) but you have 176. Where did you get those extra 8?
Which Craft?
Which Profession?
Chelish is "Common", you can pick anotherlanguage.

For Feats, you'll probably run into this a few more times:

Focused Study All humans are skillful, but some, rather than being generalists, tend to specialize in a handful of skills. At 1st, 8th, and 16th level, such humans gain Skill Focus in a skill of their choice as a bonus feat. This racial trait replaces the bonus feat trait.

Ohhh, got it! Thanks

I think most of us will have taken that, seeing the focus on skills for this campaign :) I know I did.

I had not added the Mythic part to my character sheet as I was uncertain whether something would still happen before we got mythic. I have added it as a separate part of my character sheet. This also means that the extra HP & bonuses from the mythic feat aren't added in yet. Just mentioning for when you check my character sheet.

I had also posted this a few posts back concerning languages.
Would like to know your opinion on the matter if you have the time :)

I also noticed you put Chelish up as a language, but from what I know about the languages of golarion is that the people of Cheliax all just speak Common (Taldane) and have no ethnicity based language.

@GM, I came across the Human Lanuages of Golarion section on the pathfinder wiki. At the bottom it states that some places also have regional dialects, for example Korvosan(Common) (which is a blend of varisian, shoanti & common).
Do we get our ethnicity based language (Kelish, Varisian, ...) or perhaps our regional dialect for free as a bonus language? Similarly as in Pathfinder Society? Just to know how I need to divide the few languages I have, as I think it would be nice to have both Common and Korvosan (Common).

@Irene, I noticed you have 5 ranks in linguistics & a +2 bonus on int, so that would mean you should have common + 7 others (+possibly regional/ethnicity based language, depending on GM's ruling), but you only seem to have 7 languages listed.

You have one "free" "ethnicity based language". It can be Taldan (Common) or Korvosan (Common), or Varisian, for example.
But only one of them.
What is the difference between Taldan (Common) and Korvosan (Common)... they are like accents / dialects, or if you ask a Taldan, between talking "right" and talking "slang".
Checking, sorry for the delay.

From what I know, Taldan (Common) is what is generally meant with Common, as it is the language spoken by most people in the world.

Korvosan (Common) is in this sense a specific dialect/slang of Common as it is a combination of Common, Varisian & Shoanti.

As I stated, it would be nice for those of us native to the region (or having lived there long enough) to have Korvosan (Common) as one of our languages. So we could for example start with Common, Korvosan (Common) + whatever we can fill up due to high int or linguistics ranks.

Not with both "free", you will need to purchase it with the bonus language for Int or with Ranks of Linguistics.

Changed one of my languages so I could get it, wasn't that set on Elven anyway :). I think they introduced the regional human languages in pathfinder at one point to sort of offset the fact that most non-human races get a racial language for free together with common.

Still looking forward to the game. Hope I was clear enough in most of my character's abilities & assets.

Yes, I need to get this on track..

No problem on my end. I don't speak for the others, but I am a very patient person ^_^

I will be finished tomorrow.

Sorry I've been away, I'm back now.

Irene:

Abilities:
I don't find where you get 2 extra points. How did you get them?

The ability points were the two assigned to all humans, then the ones applied from leveling and then the point buy. I'm pretty sure it was done right, but I can re-calculate it.

HP: I got 132 (even with the +4 of Mythic Tier 1), but you have 144. How?

Probably favored class HP calculated in at all levels. It can really only apply to the rogue levels, though.

Feats: I think you got 9 feats (8 by level and 1 by human), but you have 11

What was said about the skill trait trade off. Someone mentioned it here in thread and that option seemed to be best.

Thief Talents: Officially you cannot take Combat Trick twice (So no Betraying blow), but I don't see why not, so it's ok.

I didn't really know about the no Combat Trick twice thing. Wow, that seems to really gimp that ability.

Skills:

I count 168 ranks (64 as Rogue, 48 as Master Spy, 16 as human, 32 Int, 8 Favored Class (Rogue)) but you have 176. Where did you get those extra 8?
Which Craft?
Which Profession?
Chelish is "Common", you can pick anotherlanguage.

Probably got the other eight for the eight levels of rogue as a favored class.

The Craft and Profession should have said Wine and the Profession is something to do with wine making. I wasn't sure what to call that.

Sorry, I am swamped with stuff, but I am still here.

I thought for sure I had missed the start of this game. I am still making corrections to the character sheet, though I don't know what to do with this huge amount of money I have left.

Keep it... Clothes, gems, business, loans. No need to be detailed. Just say is it "around"

Keep it... Clothes, gems, business, loans. No need to be detailed. Just say is it "around"

Oh, alright then, well that pretty much means I'm ready. Let me double check that I changed the things you said before.

Just strolling by to say hi. I'm still here too :).

Getting my stuff in order...