Of Kings and Commoners - Kingmaker AP

Game Master RPGGGM

Victoria, I hate to see you (and Arris) go.

We will keep a plot of land for your Magistra's Tower should life allow you to rejoin us.

Aye. Eldiocesan may have urgent business elsewhere that forces him to lay down his duties, if you ever find time to return.

My fellow gamers/adventurers: I hate to have to say this, but I think I’m gonna have to bow out of my PBP games. We all know how real life can rear its ugly head, and I’m just not finding the time to work on my online hobby these days. I can barely keep up with reading posts, let alone posting any actions on my own, and I’d rather not limp along in some half-ass fashion without being able to give the time and energy that these games and our characters deserve. I wish you all the best and thank you for including me in your stories. -Rob

Oh, NOOOOO!

That's two games we're in that you're leaving. Curses! Now I'm gonna have to post more in that other game. I hope you like your parting gift. They should all be in the mail now (I sent Zokon's a few days early because Australia).

@Role: Since it seems Kesten will want to be General, and I would be a temporary solution, and you specifically pointed out using people from our backgrounds...AND this all still takes place at the trading post - I will ask Maethadis and Andril to inform my brother, and ask him to come and present himself to Zokon.

He would make a wonderful Warden - and have excellent loyalty.

Andril just stares dubiously.

Psst. You'll need a magister too.

Or if you can find her....

Also what skill is it that i'll need to be all leaderlike?

As Alia said knowledge (nobility).

I've also been toying with getting Spell Focus Conjuration -> Augmented Summoning.

Sure Illthir will only ever summon a bunch of really weak chaff - but her song + Spirit Totem scales so well with really weak chaff!

Plus I could pick up one of the Linnorm death curse powers eventually and get some mileage out of it without hoping for you guys to faint :P

Thoughts on that idea?

So basically you'd be your own Horn of Valhalla. That could be kinda cool.

I'm sorry everyone. Past couple of weeks I've been suffering with a really nasty illness. Not certain what it is, but online it's suggested to either be a cold (only I have trouble breathing), bronchitis (which I had as a kid, so possible) or pneumonia.

Get well soon.

PS And I need your mailing address.

Durgan sees the young man getting angry.

"Kesten, if you gain a prominent role, then an accusation could appear, true or not. Spread by our enemies, or your relatives resentful of your rise, or just the distortion of whispered stories over time.

Unlike some militaries, we will not give our soldiers leeway to rape, so there cannot be a whisper that an officer had done that. I do not believe it to be the case. I believe the 'scandal' was only that she was a commoner. And I would like that assurance from you directly. I use no magic here. I trust you to be honest. Tell me the truth, and if a false accusation ever does arise, I will hunt down those responsible and demand a public retraction and apology.

And you loved her, perhaps we can help."

Just to be clear, it sounds like Durgan is inferring that Kesten might be the sort of man who one might suspect of rape.

Kesten draws himself up to parade-ground attention. "No, sir. There was no force involved." He says stiffly, trembling with barely contained anger.

I did not see a more delicate way to do it and felt we had to know for certain. There is a range from "Totally sketchy" to "100% absolutely above suspicion" and a LOT of area in between. But I am very glad I got a nat 20 on Diplomacy.

Kesten draws himself up to parade-ground attention. "No, sir. There was no force involved." He says stiffly, trembling with barely contained anger.

"I did not think there was. Thank you for answering. I sincerely apologize for having to ask and I thank you for your composure.

I did not see a more delicate way to do it and felt we had to know for certain. There is a range from "Totally sketchy" to "100% absolutely above suspicion" and a LOT of area in between. But I am very glad I got a nat 20 on Diplomacy.

Granted it's a Lawful Dwarf thing to do. As for the 20 it is very probable that he will not be listening at the point where Durgan would be making that roll to smooth things over (a full minute+ later). And now: To work!

There's not per chance a weasel handler marketstand selling trained attack weasels across the street, is there?

We probably need another player?

So basically you'd be your own Horn of Valhalla. That could be kinda cool.

Kinda. There's actually an Skald archetype for doing exactly that (Savage Skald) but it didn't look that cool :D

---

Victoria Velasco - I'm sorry to hear that. Though thanks for the time we could play even if it was brief. Good luck out there : )

Just for the record - while a reward would be nice, Alia's utmost concern here is safety - ours and that of the locals. If catching them alive turns out impractical, she'd be good with switching to lethal and waiving any potential bonus discount/payment.

So try and subdue them, and if things don't work out, put them down(can still try and stabilize them).
If someone is heavily opposed to that approach, do tell now :)

Yeah no.. i'm not, getting turned to stone is not high on my list of priorities, so if it comes to it, chicken roast is better.

Also - can I get a

Strap for head and metal concave stone holder - for holding continual flame stone that will project light forward of Zokons head like a torach and he doesn't have to hold it or be blinded by it. What would it cost?

Fighter: Weapon Master: Composite Bow +1 lvl

hp: 1d10 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

+1 BAB
+1 Fort
+2 Feats

Skills 2+2

Kn Nobility 1 rank

Perception +1 Rank
Survival +1 Rank
Sense Motive +1 Rank

Background skills

Kn Nobility(int) 2 ranks

Feats
Combat Reflexes
Extra traits
Trait Traditionalist - Sarenrae - Kn Nobility class skill +1
Trait Keen Ear - can always take 10 for Perception even if distractions

+1 Rapier (2300gp)
+1 Darkwood Composite bow (+3 Str) (2730gp)
Mw Chain Shirt (250gp)
Mw Buckler (155gp)

Handy Haversack (20/20/80) 2000gp

Continual flame stone *3 (300gp)
Strap for head and metal concave stone holder -

(7735 spent)

Fighter Ability - Weapon Master

Weapon Guard (Ex)
At 2nd level, a weapon master gains a +1 bonus to CMD against disarm and sunder attempts while wielding his chosen weapon. This bonus also applies on saves against any effect that targets his chosen weapon (for example, grease, heat metal, shatter, warp wood). The bonus increases by +1 for every four levels beyond 2nd.

@Zokon: Durgan can cast Continual Flame, since it is on his spell list (as a 3rd-level spell). It will only cost 50 gp for the components, so that saves you some money.

Is there a reason you want 3 such lights?

Also - can I get a

Strap for head and metal concave stone holder - for holding continual flame stone that will project light forward of Zokons head like a torach and he doesn't have to hold it or be blinded by it. What would it cost?

Sure you have a cleric and a fiancee who is 'crafty'. And by 'torch' I take it you mean 'flashlight'. Sort of the way when you say 'football' I know you mean 'soccer'. ;) You can actually buy a miner's lantern for 15 gp. The cost to just buy one (from Gwen's Relics for example) with a continual light spell would be the cost of the spell, plus that (125 gp full price).

Durgan - Why.. because you can never have enough light.. plus darkness spells, allow them to be spread out and backup... no light for humans = badness.

Sounds good.. I like my headband idea as it goes with his whole less is good theme armour wise and 2 more backup stones.

I would never call that cursed game football (English call it Football)This is real football

I'm tossing up whether to get an efficient quiver or something else useful?

Why insist on calling something that doesn't seem to use much feet nor ball 'football' :P

---

On that topic I should fix my gear and so ...

What about a non-magical Glove with a compartment for a continual light stone? For the hand holding the bow - so you got like, a flashlight attached to your weapon. :)

Also, it may be worthwhile to see if someone has access to heighten Spell and is able to overcast it - so it defeats more Darkness Spells.

I also forgot an Ioun torch...

Zokon will get at least one of those with heightened spell .. if it doesn't cost a ridiculous amount

Remember that Continual Flame is already a 3rd-level spell for Durgan, so it overpowers a normal Darkness (2nd-level). Sort of heightened by default.

Continual Flame from a wizard is a 2nd-level spell.

I am not sure what happens if the two spell effects are of the same spell level (like a cleric's Continual Flame vs Deeper Darkness, both being 3rd-level spells).

I think on equal effects, natural environment prevails as the magic cancels each other.

And yeah, having Durgan cast it would have been my second suggestion if we find nobody able to overcast higher - deeper darkness was exactly my concern.

Anything higher than 4th level it could be more economical to eventually get darkvision permanencied, which has the added bonus of not giving away one's own position.

Let's just bribe GM to let us find a Sphere of Power user. If I recall correctly Light is an actual sphere and when they get advanced talents (level 10?) there's one for illuminating a 3 mile radius or something silly like that :D

Oh, Spheres of Power is fun.
But would probably take a significant bribe.
I even went there a year or so ago and asked if Runic Knight was available(Spheres of Might, I know) - it was not :)

It's especially awesome that partial casters can - basically - still excel in chosen areas of expertise, where full casters have excellence and versatility.
But admittedly balance is...player-dependent.

It's pretty fun yeah. Especially the Conjuration sphere since you get to make even more characters with it :P

Nyah, nyah, nayh, nayh, I'm not listening. Nyah, nyah, nayh, nayh.

Slowly getting Illthir up to standard!

As of last time I counted she had 3600gp worth of stuff.

So I can add 6900gp more:

100g - Masterwork Violin (from the fiddler in the forest)
2313 - Bardiche +1 (the fishy polearm from our spooky friend)
1000 - Minor Bag of Holding
2000 - Ring of Protection +1
1000 - Writing supplies!

This means that I think Illthir will be *slightly* above the % for weaponry since she has another mwk weapon already. I hope that's okay!

Her defensive buffs will also be out of bounds (cloak + ring + armour). Since I only remembered just now that she does indeed have the cloak I might have to think of something else then the Ring. Hmhmhmmhmmhm.

Additionally she will acquire 487 gold in pocket change.

@Conjuration: Aye, they did close that loophole where your conjured creatures could gain spheres in conjuration and conjure more...
But I think there was something about getting a Cohort who was a Unchained Summoner and getting Conjuration on both him and his Eidolon, and another leadership on him for another Unchained Summoner with even more Conjuration and then just win by default as the DM slams the book with notes on the table to go weep in a corner.
Lets not go there.

The Noble Scion PrC is 1st party and still have a similar loop available. At level 15th they can have a cohort that is also level 15th that happens to be a Noble Scion that has a cohort that is also level 15th that happens to be a Noble Scion that has a cohort that is also level 15th that happens to be a Noble Scion ...

One day, if I dare to dwell in the silliness that is high level pathfinder, I'd love to play that build. "So what does your character do? Not much - but there's a *lot* of them and we're rich. Really really rich."

Ah, right, it was noble scion - I couldn't remember right, but it's what I was thinking about :)

I think the scenario I saw was earlier entry, using the Level 2 ability for a Cohort of one Level Lower, to end up with half a dozen Unchained Summoners, half a dozen Eidolons, and a dozen Conjured thingies from Spheres(with the potential for the infinite loop at a later time.)

Then again, don't forget that technically, Cohorts are not PC's. The GM can take control over them and ursurp you, as only one of them is technically your follower, and the others may have their own agendas thinking your cohort is the better noble scion. Some backstabbing later and you're rolling a new PC and the party has to deal with the coalition of nobles as antagonist organization.

Every dumb thing can be countered with "but what if your dm is reasonable" so that doesn't count as a flaw :P

(Besides - why even send out any of the Noble Scions? They all get NPC classed servitors that can do their dirty job without risking broken loyalty chains. Plus a little infighting is always fun *cough*)

---

Interview - I remember seeing Illthir being asked to take over the interview with our general prospect. Was there anything specific we wanted to go over or should Illthir just try and sweet talk him into accepting the offer?

Just the latter, mostly.
Durgan did some necessary dirty work poking into Kesten's questionably sordid past. Tried to be clear it was nothing personal, just due diligence, seem to have failed.
See if you can patch things up. Make Durgan the fall guy if you need to, though I'd want to have good relations with his family in the long run.
Also see if he wants us to bring a letter to the young woman, or invite her to Avalon.

Will post a little later tonight. Snow is a time sink.

Snow... wow... we don't get that here .. ever.... it apparently snowed here about 80 years ago .. once..

We get nice hot Christmas and looks to be a hot summer this year.

Aye. Starts to get into freezing temperatures here, now...and I still got to get new winter tires -_-

The temps are hitting us hard in the deep south, but still no snow expected... sadly.

I (in case you didn't know it) live in the metropolitan Detroit area. If you look at any broad regional map you will see that I am waving to you all from the mitten (that looks like it is waving at you) that I carved out with glaciers over the course of thousands of years just for you guys. It's super meta.

The mitten I see on google maps seems to be Michigan.

Looking at that map, tells me there are alot of people in the Detroit area... looking it up.. 4.5 million.. i'd get so sick of having people around me all the time.

I live in the most isolated capital city in the world, the capital city of Indonesia is closer to Perth than Canberra (The capital city of Australia).

In a state that is one third the size of USA and Australia. Which has a total population in the state of 2.5 million.

You can fly from Perth to Kununurra (still within W.A.) and that will take 3 hours.

@Maps - I'll make sure to take a look at this mitten then :)

Speaking of them though - I'm currently on a trip and I can't seem to wrangle the map successfully on my phone ... Could some kind soul move Illthir about 4 squares to the east?

(The above also prevents me from b#$$~ing about the cold, so not all bad. Will be back on Monday! I'll pick up the interview then as well!)

I moved illthir 4 squares to the right

Thanks :)

Zokon should totally run out the front door and scream "COOKADOODLEDOO!" at the top of his lungs before informing the assembly that the danger is over... :)

That sounds like an excellent idea that in no way can backfire :P

I never said it was a GOOD idea, I just think it would be amusing.

Umm... Not married yet, you don't get anything if I die....

Oh, if interposting myself between you and the guy earlier was not an indication: I would keep you safe, darling.
Not send you off to die :)
This guy was doing a full were-chicken impression even as armed guys walked up and started questioning, and nobody did as much as throw a rock at him. I doubt it would be dangerous - but then I also doubt it is a good idea to tempt the GM. So...

So apparently a package arrived via postal services today. Looking at the shipping info it seems that it actually went surprisingly quick! Though I can't tell you what's inside - that'd ruin the fun - but I must say: THANKS! It's really really neat! :D

I hope it's the right size. ;)

Got mine! Very cool!