Masque of the Strange Aeons

Game Master Mar Nakrum

Reserved for players and observers to discuss various and sundry.

Francis G. Warwick reporting for duty.

Sanity levels: at a maximum.
Main weapons: broken.
Our Mission: not to get total crazy before dying.

Yeaaah!

Some of us might already be a little crazy...

Thanks for the pick! Super excited for this game. I'll get to work on gear today.

I'm spooked, er stoked to begin!

I'll just leave this here .

@Amaria: I've been tracking without result a picture like that for years. It complements quite well my copy of the Necronomicon hahahah

Thank you very much!

@Malachi I noticed in your background that he has materials for spells. Do psychics need material components? It was my understanding that they didn't.

@Malachi I noticed in your background that he has materials for spells. Do psychics need material components? It was my understanding that they didn't.

No, you're right, they don't - it's just for flavour. I'll probably play him as having things simply as a roleplaying device.

Okay good because I wrote Samuel as not knowing really what he is beyond "not a normal mage" and part of that is not needing spell components. What does Malachi know of his powers?

So, since this is reasonably homebrew to start, I'm not super sure what "normal mage" will entail. I'm planning on playing the Mesmerist parts as largely just "Con Man", and having the more magic parts as being largely driven by knowledge / materials at hand. Malachi is largely based on John Constantine, because I dig the idea of this guy who mostly just talks his way out of things, but has the ability to do rituals and things when he needs to. I'm also very enamoured by the way that he just sacrifices the people around him / his friends in the spur of the moment, yet the decisions haunt him.

I'm imagining that Malachi will actually have some kind of spell book, even though Mesmerist's don't typically have one, and that he'll look at it when he goes to cast, even though no caster does. And the idea is that he can do rituals and cause problems, but mostly only when he's like, backed into a corner. As far as knowing what he can do, I'm not sure that he would know, but I also don't think he'd lose much sleep wondering. It's the case of "I know I can do just enough to keep myself alive." sort of thing.

To deal with the double investigator and mesmerist thing, I picked your characters because they met my criteria the best: compelling stories that fit the setting. If we run into something when the AP comes out that you guys can't handle, I'll modify it, because I'm not a fan of TPKOs. I'm excited for everyone to be here, and I'm looking forward to exploring Strange Aeons with you.

Thanks GM, this promises to be a really fun game.

I suppose it's a given that I'll use the Cure spells. This could work fine, I think. Amaria is neutral, and there's plenty of the "dark side" built into her mechanically, so healing can help to balance that out.

Her personality? She's only vaguely described in her bio. Her alignment is flexible. That's for the best, I think. I like her being mysterious. Even I don't know what she's thinking. All I know is that she's weird. But it will be fun to see where that takes her.

@Malachi I think occultist may be closer to that concept. They draw power from objects and rituals rather than having inborn power.

A "normal mage" is, in this setting, a non-psychic caster. Psychics are common in Vudra but not in Avistan which is where Ustalav and Lepidstadt are. "Normal" to them is a wizard, sorcerer, witch, or adept.

The reason I asked really is that, as I said before, I wrote Samuel as not knowing what he is. Meeting another psychic, especially another mesmerist, would be a key character development for him. He seeks to understand his power better so he can grow stronger.

@Malachi I think occultist may be closer to that concept. They draw power from objects and rituals rather than having inborn power.

A "normal mage" is, in this setting, a non-psychic caster. Psychics are common in Vudra but not in Avistan which is where Ustalav and Lepidstadt are. "Normal" to them is a wizard, sorcerer, witch, or adept.

The reason I asked really is that, as I said before, I wrote Samuel as not knowing what he is. Meeting another psychic, especially another mesmerist, would be a key character development for him. He seeks to understand his power better so he can grow stronger.

Occultist is another reasonable way to go with it, it just isn't the direction that I wanted to take.

But like, what I mean about questioning "normal" is that most branches of magic already don't necessarily work the same way, at least in the fiction. Wizard's get spells from their tomes, Alchemist's from their formulae books. Sorcerer's from an innate understanding of how reality works and can be altered. Druid's and Cleric's from meditation - one with nature itself and one with a deity. Bard's from "We just do it". And then add in the idea different spells have different components (Verbal, Somatic, Material), and that it can be learned to cast spells without these things (Silent Spell, Eschew Materials, or Still Spell).

My point being that "not a normal mage" is kind of a vague and broad statement, because I am not sure what "normal" would be, when there are so many different approaches or different manifestations. We don't need materials, but there are lots of other casters who presumably wouldn't, as well.

I think that we're on the same page with our Stare / Lying abilities, that we'd recognise them as things we can innately do that most others can't (though obviously some Sorcerer's / Bard's / Inquisitor's have some similar powers). We don't necessarily know what we are or aren't, but we know we have some abilities.

Where I was differing was about how we cast the actual spells we have - While there are a lot that make sense as far as things we can do by just the nature of being psychic, there are others that I have issue seeing that way. Things like Obscuring Mist or Grease or Cat's Grace or several others I have more trouble rectifying as simply "I make it happen". That's the kind of thing that I was more thinking of fluffing up with materials, if that makes sense?

I understand what you are saying but the rules say that the usual verbal and somantic components that even sorcerers and bards must have are replaced for psychics. The power source is from the Astral plane so that is what allows for obscuring mists to suddenly appear if the psychic wills it without the need for components.

When you get down to it, wizards and arcanists are the only ones who really need material components because they draw the power out of them just like occultists do from their implements. The rest of the arcanes have themselves as the source and the divine casters have the Gods/Nature/faith as their power source.

The fact that there aren't those verbal and somantic components is the "not normal" to me. Wizards, sorcerers, bards, even bloodragers are understood and classified in a certain way but psychics break those rules. They have their own rules that aren't known in Avistan (aka the entire continent we're on.) Vudra has psychics as the norm.

Hmmm. Just a couple of things that occur to me about the psychics and spell components discussion.

You could have a psychic who thinks she needs her 'lucky stone' to manifest her powers. Or a flim-flam man who wants people to think that he is just a typical sorcerer/wizard.

Hmmm. Just a couple of things that occur to me about the psychics and spell components discussion.

You could have a psychic who thinks she needs her 'lucky stone' to manifest her powers. Or a flim-flam man who wants people to think that he is just a typical sorcerer/wizard.

Both are excellent suggestions. The first ties into the meaningful item being used for expensive material components.

The second can be the basis of an entire character. It's like the counterfeit mage rogue archetype but with something more backing it up.

Hmmm. Just a couple of things that occur to me about the psychics and spell components discussion.

You could have a psychic who thinks she needs her 'lucky stone' to manifest her powers. Or a flim-flam man who wants people to think that he is just a typical sorcerer/wizard.

Jhanek's right. And the second option is a good classic, like the sorcerer who carried a spellbook or the wizard with a fake plate armor.

You can never be paranoic enough!

Or a flim-flam man who wants people to think that he is just a typical sorcerer/wizard.

Ooh I like that. I'll go with that if it'll alleviate the issues.

I'm not telling you how to play your character. I just wanted to make sure I don't say one thing about how psychic magic works and you say another.

When your crunch is finished (including starting gear), let me know so I can look over your characters.

Ready for review!

I believe I am as well.

I'm ready. Let me know if you have problems with myth-weavers.

I'm ready. Let me know if you have problems with myth-weavers.

Wait, are we supposed to have max starting gold? I thought it was average.

Francis is lock and loaded!

Samuel Hutchinson wrote:

I'm ready. Let me know if you have problems with myth-weavers.

Wait, are we supposed to have max starting gold? I thought it was average.

Damn, you're right. I'll fix that now.

Edit: Fixed. 2 less AC for me :(

Hmm. Done save for the wealth. I see Oscyk as having his room and board provided by the school, as a kind of scholarship; otherwise he's pretty much impoverished.

Otherwise, I guess he has 105 GP.

56 minus the cost of dagger, crossbow, 20 bolts, and armor.

Let's make it an even 50, and assume he's bought some good wine, to drink while poring over his books.

Sorry for the delay, my wife received a concussion and I've been looking after her, I'll get check your characters soon.

No biggie, DM, family and health always go first!

Hope she gets well soon!

Also hoping all is well. We're in this game for the long haul. There's no rush.

Bad news, I need to postpone another two weeks because our current housemates (who own the house) would very much like us to move out, so that's what we'll be doing. I'm sorry for the continued delay. If you like, you can start role playing the festival in the gameplay thread.

Even with your wife's concussion? Sucks man. Hope everything is resolved soon. Good luck.

I'm down to start RPing though.

That really sucks, sorry to hear. :( Hopefully things improve soon. No worries on the delay, family comes first.

Jhanek Osyck : "Well it will give me a little more time to read, or suffer through, this preposterous treatise on Deskari demonism among the Sarkorisian shamans that Rehagalhen of Taldan has inflicted on us. This is what passes as scholarship these days! It is the worse kind of drivel! The fly specks on an unwashed wall make up a more coherent reading!"

Do you want to do the pre-story RP in this thread to keep gameplay clear?

I can but I'd also like to do it in the gameplay if only so this campaign will show up in the "My Campaigns" tab.

Hope things calm down for you after the move.

As an aside, this festival reminds me of the Swallowtail festival in Rise of the Runelords. A dark, twisted version of it. I wonder if there's cotton candy?

Thanks for the support. Thankfully my wife is doing much better, though she has forgotten a few recent events.

As far as the pregame roleplaying goes, use your best judgement, tell a good story. Don't worry about how it might effect the campaign, unless you plan to fall on your sword, don't do that.

Don't always expect such a wall of text. I did this because it's the first post.

Also he didn't really make 12 sp if that means anything. It's just for RP.

I think we should meet and converse. We don't have to start off in the same place if that doesn't make sense but talking in-character is something to do while the GM gets everything sorted.

Ok. I'm going to play with my backstory a bit; as a reluctant intermediary in the forbidden book trade, if you want to riff along.

I give you Mistress Winter, mysterious and shadowy benefactor to the city's many occult cliques.

Responded. I suppose you'll want to play this Mistress winter, Jhanek?

We could 'round-robin' gaming her; if you have any direction you want to take her in...She's enigmatic, dangerous, and stirring things up in Lepidstadt's occult circles.

I'm not super comfortable with that. I had someone use my character once in a PbP and it was so horrible even they admitted it and deleted it. I don't want to mess with your character even if they are just an NPC.

So if anybody would like to create some occult 'seeker' NPCs for the circle; go ahead. Think of your typical horror movie fodder; young, conceited, thrill-seekers playing with forces that they cannot understand. All we need is a name, and perhaps a line or two of descriptive text.

Have we lost our Ref?

Well he said two weeks a month ago and we're the only two who have posted recently. That said, it is tough to have to suddenly move so I'm willing to wait. My other PbP with this character is also stalled.

Apparently the stars were not right for this game. Sigh.

You did great, Jhanek. Meanwhile I'm still stoked for the AP!