Old Guy's Wrath of the Righteous Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master Jeff Przybylo

Seren watches her comrades intently. Slowly, she takes her starknife in hand. "Hopefully it is something manageable. Like other survivors..."

Bollwerk lets a quick smile touch his lips:"Hopefully its a way out!"

"There's a small building inside a cave, with a symbol like a hammer on it. I think we should check it out." Kazul leads the party toward it.

"A hammer? I doubt it is a placard advertising a smithy. It isn't exactly a prime spot for customers. Perhaps dwarves or duergar." Dieter grimaces slightly. "I really, really hope it's not duergar."

"Perhaps the sneakier party members can exercise subterfuge to see what we can see." He follows behind Kazul.

Stealth: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19

More to come, lost map and had to redo...stupid technology...

A single sizable 20-foot-tall building remains in the center of this 30-foot-high cave, a bunkerlike structure with no windows and walls of worked stone blocks. A 10-foot-long carving of a hammer decorates the building’s facade. The ruins of collapsed outbuildings stand to either side.

Knowledge: Religion if you have it.
Perception everyone, and general actions

MAP

Fabian looks at the hammer symbol and wonders whether he recognizes it. Having been raised by a Paladin of Iomedae, he learned a thing or two about religion....

Looking around Bollwerk notices the symbol. Deep inside of his mind there is something, but...
Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5. On the first look it seems defensible so he will move further in. Talking for the blind elfs benefit
"We have been walking quite long now. We need a place to rest. It is an odd building, strongly built, with the symbol of a hammer carved on the surface. We will clear it and use it to sleep. I would like to be on the sruface now, of course, but the exhausted mind does make mistakes my father used to say."

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11
Kazul walks carefully toward building.

Lucille moves up to the opening of the side passage, musket in hand, and waits for everyone else to file into the area. She keeps a close eye on the entrance to the building, wary for trouble.

"If that's the hammer," she remarks to Bollwerk, "I wonder if we're the anvil, or the nail."

She wants to station herself at N10, so that she's got a decent shot from several directions. Unless something happens, she is not planning on entering the cavern until everyone else has entered it.

Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

Nothing else seems out of the ordinary...except that the sickly green light seems to be emanating from this building. There is an old stone door, also with a hammer symbol, next to where Kazul stands.

Fabian shakes his head. "This place is... or was... consecrated to Torag. Torag is a righteous god. If the place has not been desecrated, we may be able to find some friends here. However, the sickly green light makes me fear that things may not all be well."

Bollwerk shrugs:"Only one way to find out! HELLO, ANYBODY IN THERE?"

"Sometimes the uncomplicated approach is the best." He shrugs. "HELLO! ARE YOU HOME?!"

Kazul follows suit and bangs on the door. "Dwarves, come out, if yer living. If not, never mind."

If no one is answering, Bollwerk will help the 3NCs to enter the cave and then lead the others into the Tempel.
"Iomedea, Lady of Virtue, your servants knock on Torags Tempel in need of shelter and safety. If you can have a good word for us!"
To the others:"Please, we should honor this place. Please treat carefully and with respect."

There is no sound but the echoes of your voices down the long hallways...

The door is stuck.

Fabian's brow furrows. "That is not a good sign," he says. "Shall we investigate? I fear that, to the same of my mother, I don't have the physique to push open a stuck door...."

Dieter nods to Bollwerk and makes an inviting gesture with his hands toward the door. "Would you mind?"

Looking around... Bollwerk nods."We need a place to sleep. Just be gentle!"

Going to need some good 'ol fashion muscle here. STR roll.

If I can take 20 I take 20 for a 24, if not Strength: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

"It looks like you slipped in some loose gravel. Why not try again?"

Seren steps up behind Bollwerk. Sure, he looks a little off, but he's been helpful, so she places a hand on him. "Maybe this will help some." A warm and calming sensation emanates from her hand and into Bollwerks' shoulder.

No map, off at the lake on vacation (hoilday for you UK types) until Monday night, so a little old-school gaming...

Bollwerk studies the door for a moment before applying some effort. With a rasping grind of stone on stone, the door slides open. The light reveals a short hall, approximately 5' wide and 20' long. There is a font of water at the far end, the now-familiar hammer symbol above it. There is a small bench along the right-hand wall, and another stone door on the left at the end of the hall.

As she enters the cave and looks around at the temple, Anevia becomes despondent. "I...I need to rest," she says, sitting on some rubble,"my leg...".

"Hrmmph." grunts Horgus. "Typical. You know, I've been thinking...we should split up. He says to the PCs. You know, to make better time and go get help. Then we can come back and rescue those pea...the others."

"Peasants!? PEASANTS!? Those 'peasants' saved you from the noose! You, of all people, afraid to acknowledge your own faith! You should ashamed of yourself in this holy place!" Anevia screams at him.

As if you could have saved me," the noble sniffs contemptuously, "you, thief and gutter rat!"

Anevia gives Horgus a dark look at this, then turns to face the wall, arms wrapped around her legs as she begins to sob. Horgus for his part, gives her a haughty look, then storms out of the cave.

"SILENCE. We walk together, we sleep together, we stay together. I do not care if you love each other, or hate each other. I care that upstairs, there is war, and our side just got massivly hammered. So by Iomedea you Horgus, will remember that dutys of nobility, as I remember the responsibility towards nobility. And you Anevia, will calm down. We are all hurt, our hope is lessened. Our food is limited and we are unsure of our way. But I do not CARE. We WILL find a way out, we will survive, and we all will learn that we have to trust each other, that no matter how you are born, we all have to do our DUTY! Am I crystal clear? If you need a private explanation, I will do so!" With an outburst, that is very atypical to the otherwise diplomatic Paladin, Bollwerk turns around.
At the very worst... they will now make me the focus of their anger. No matter, I have to stay strong! I have to!

Dieter takes a knee beside Anevia and lightly puts a hand on her shoulder. He speaks softly and soothingly. "Hey, hey... it's alright. The mean man is gone. What was he talking about? What's this about a noose and a thief?"

I'm back. You have an open door to a glowing green temple of Torag and two irate NPCs. Anyone else want to jump in before I move it along?

Kazul lets the other more social companions deal with the NPCs and leads the party inside the temple, his eyes scanning his surroundings with his darkvision.

Lucille follows as everyone moves into the cavern. She listens to the outburst, and then Bollwerk's dressing down. Afterwards, she leans over to Horgus and says,

"Mr. Gwerm, sir, I'm afraid I'm a bit mystified as to your attitude towards peasants. I'd probably understand it if I was a fancy woman, such as yourself, but in Alkenstar we're all peasants, even our nobles. Land's too poor for it to be any ways else. You can't pitch in and help your neighbors in a pinch, well sir, no one's gonna much miss you when you're gone.

"Now, I offered you a weapon earlier and you didn't take it. So you ain't a fighter. Which sets me to wondering how you were planning on helping us out. Perhaps guiding a blind warrior, or helping to support a woman walking with a bum leg? Those both sound neighborly to me. What do you think, sir? How are you going to help get us all home in one piece?"

Then she looks at him expectantly, waiting for an answer.

Anyone speaking to Anevia or Horgus, make Diplomacy checks. Kazul, Bollwerk, you see the hall I described above.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Eyup. Probably spat a few times while I was talking, too.

Kazul goes investigate the stone door down the hall, looking for traps, locks on the stone door, secret doors, etc.
Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26

Lets see how much they hate me!
If I can´t I will in a quite minute talk to each one separatly.

Horgus looks contemptuously at Lucille. "Hrmph. Typical." He starts to turn away when Bollwerk approaches and speaks. As he does, the noble's face softens a bit, then he relents. "I'm not a bad person, despite what they say. I'm no demon-worshipper!" Looking at Lucille, he says: "I apologize. You were right. I'm no fighter, nor a spell user, but if we make it out of this alive, I promise I will help as I can."

To Dieter and Bollwerk (who arrives some minutes later) Anevia speaks softly through her wrapped arms. "It's just that...I miss my wife, Irabeth. This place reminds me of her, and can't bear to think of what may have happened to her...up there..." She looks up at you, face streaked with dust and tears. " They thought he was a demon worshipper, you know...Horgus, that is. Irabeth sent me to check it out. I have...some skill at that sort of thing. He isn't one after all. He has a secret shrine to Abadar in his home. He doesn't know I know. He doesn't know my report kept him off of the block. He is a bit...difficult, you see..." With that, she sets her legs down on the cave floor. "Let's see what this is, and rest if we must. The sooner to get back up there."

(OOC: Does Fabian overhear what Anevia says?)

A few questions:
First something about religion. How familiar are we about other religions? Like Torag is the god of the dwarves, Abadar the god of cities and laws, Rovag and Lamashtu are the gods you only need to know to kill their followers on site...etc?
Second how long have we been down here. I guess a few hours at least.
Third how fast are we? I guess the limiting factor is Anevia, but some, like Bollwerk are also not that fast (20 movement).
Fourth we are 10 people iirc. How much water do we have?
5. Isn´t Avenea female? Just curious. I just love paizo!

Bollwerk would ask Kazul, Fabian and Dieter to check the building a bit,Skills, Knowledge and our best handtohand and encourage the others to get a breath and prepare food and a place to rest, maybe check bandages, distribute water, in any case distract them.

@Fabian: you can hear Anevia, sure.

@Bollwerk:
1: You would know the very basics, much like you described. That's where DCs of 5-10-15 start to add to the mix. The hammer symbol for instance, easy Kn: Religion check to recognize that.
2: Hard to say how long, you have no point of reference, i.e. the sun. Unless one of you has any experience underground...no dwarves??? You can make a Survival check to cross-reference how far you feel you've feel you've walked to time. Based on...
3: Anevia is the limiting factor at a speed of 15', helping a blind elf walk also isn't easy.
4: The water question is for the group. I wouldn't think you would have much, considering you were going to a festival, not a journey. One water skin each, AT MOST. The NPCs have none.
5:Anevia

Other than the hallway, the temple is still unexplored.

You posted her before and I thought she was female. Ni Ice

Fabian sits down near Dieter, Bollwerk, and Anevia. "I heard what you said," he says to Anevia. "I know you were doing this investigation confidentially, and that normally you wouldn't want him to know that it was you who cleared his name. But the whole situation changed when the attack we saw. Perhaps it might be worth telling him what you told us? Not as a threat, not as a way of showing that you had power over him, but as a way of saying that you know he's a good citizen of Kenbares, and helping him realize that working together with all of us will be the best for everybody."

Listening to Fabians words, Bollwerk only nods.

Anevia sighs. "You are probably right. But it won't be now. I need time to calm down and think. There will be a time, everything has changed, and we need to work together."

Seren happens to overhear, and looks between Anevia and Horgus. They thought he was a demon worshiper? Why would anyone want to worship them? It just makes no sense... But it's the comment about her wife that makes her truly saddened.

She slowly approaches Anevia, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure your wife is fine. I mean, if we were able to survive our... Descent, then surely she is fine where she is, right?" She pulls out her water skin and hands it to Anevia. "Drink up, and let's rest for a bit. I'll make sure we have enough water in a few hours, but for now we all need to stay well watered to keep our strength."

Anevia looks at Seren and smiles wanly. "You don't know Irabeth..." At that moment Horgus re-enters the cave. For a moment, he looks as if he is going to say something to Anevia, but rethinks it and moves to the opposite side of the small cavern. Anevia looks after him, then looks away.

Aravashnial, silent until now, clears his throat. "Ahem. This is all good, but we seem to have a...what did I hear you say? A glowing green temple of Torag? Methinks that may be higher on our priorities right now..."

Granted. Bollwerk will enter boldly into the next room.

Dieter does not comment, but continues to rub Anevia's shoulder in a comforting manner. At Aravashnial's suggestion, he draws his rapier and follows behind Bollwerk, ready for danger.

Lucille wonders for the millionth time since falling down this hole where Rusty might have ended up. The fool of a horse.

"I understand, Anevia. I think we've all got someone we care about lost in that chaos upstairs." Lucille checks her musket and files in behind the others. "So let's get this done. Time's awastin'."

Fabian stands and nods in the direction of Aravashnial. "Our elven friend is correct. We should investigate this temple, to see if it's secure and if it is a place we might rest."

He will follow Bollwerk.

Seren hangs back some for a moment. After all of the things that had been happening, she felt her priority was to make sure the two wounded (and Horgus, she guessed) weren't harmed further. But with the whole group advancing forward it seemed, she sighs some and follows them in.

Flashback: Bollwerk studies the door for a moment before applying some effort. With a rasping grind of stone on stone, the door slides open. The light reveals a short hall, approximately 5' wide and 20' long. There is a font of water at the far end, the now-familiar hammer symbol above it. There is a small bench along the right-hand wall, and another stone door on the left at the end of the hall.

Kazul has cleared the door of traps.

Now what?

Ah, OK. I read post on Jan 15 as a "bird's eye" summary of our conversations, and took it to mean that we were "on hold" until the interactions with the new characters caught up and merged all of us. I would be interested in interacting on a more micro level with some of the NPCs as well; I just misread that this was a good time to do that.

I see the confusion. Because there are so many of them, and so many of you, I wanted to make it an open forum where you could ask and answer questions. The thought was to get some of the characters personalities built up for the story going ahead. No worries, still time after this battle.

Because this our first battle, I will post up how this works: Each battle has several phases:

• Tactics Phase
• Ranged Phase
• Melee Phase

In the Tactics Phase, the commander chooses a Tactic that can modify your OM or DV. Your army has 4: standard (no mods), withdrawal (-2 to OM and DV), expert flanker (+2 OM, -2 DV), spellbreaker (+4 DV vs spellcasting armies). At the start of each Ranged or Melee phase, the commander may try to change tactics by attempting a DC 15 Morale check. Success means the army uses the new tactic for that phase (and the modifiers from the old tactic cease); failure means the army continues to use its current tactic. The effects of tactics end when the battle does.

Irabeth chose Standard as the starting Tactic. Going forward, I'd like one of you to select the Tactic, based on discussion (or not). I will let you know when that is appropriate.

The Ranged Phase occurs only if one or more of the armies has ranged weapons. You fight a battle round. A battle round consists of both sides rolling a d20 plus their Offensive Modifier (OM). That is compared against the army's Defensive Value (DV). If the modified roll is greater than the DV, the remainder is the damage to the army's hp.

If both armies have Ranged capability, they may chose to stay at range and shoot.

The Melee Phase occurs when one or more armies closes to melee range. At the start of the phase, the commander chooses a Strategy:

• Defensive +4 DV -4 OM -6 Damage
• Cautious +2 DV -2 OM -3 Damage
• Standard no mods
• Aggressive -2 DV +2 OM +3 Damage
• Reckless -4 DV +4 OM +6 Damage

Once each Melee phase after the first, the commander can alter the army’s strategy. Adjusting the strategy 1 step up or down does is automatically successful and doesn’t require a check. If the commander wants to adjust strategy more than 1 step, the army attempts a DC 20 Morale check. Success means the strategy changes to the desired level. Otherwise, the army’s current strategy doesn’t change.

Obviously, a battle round is fought during the Melee Phase.

Victory, Rout, or Defeat
An army is victorious if all of its enemies are either dead or have fled the battlefield. If you make a Will save DC 16, the army learns a new tactic, and its Morale goes up by 1.

An army is Routed if its hp are reduced to equal or less to its ACR and it fails a DC 15 Morale check. If it fails, it is scattered and retreats from the battle. If the army routs, reduce its Morale by 1. If the army’s current hp are lower than the army’s ACR, increase its hit points to its ACR. A routed army refuses to fight until you succeed at a Will save DC 16.

If an army’s hit points are reduced to 0, it is defeated. A defeated army may have a few survivors, but they are so demoralized and wounded (and probably captured by the enemy) that the army no longer exists as a cohesive unit and can’t be used again in mass combat.

Any chance of a map/description of visible places we might want to check out?

If you mean as you step out, then no, not yet, because the chaos of the battle is all you can see for now. I really want to get Arlena's post because - if it isn't obvious - she's a tiefling in the midst of battle against a tiefling army. Should be interesting.

EDIT: And in case you are wondering, this does not apply to Bollwerk for several reasons: One, he's been introduced to the army as one of the Heroes of Kenabres. Two, he's been decorated for his deeds by Queen Galfrey herself. And three, he's carrying the sword Radiance, one of the artifacts of the Crusades.

EDIT the EDIT: Plus there's some good RP opportunities coming up here, should be fun.

Thanks for the explanation, that's condensed quite a bit of reading for me :D

rknop wrote:

Could you give me a link? I'm not seeing that in the CRB.

It does say 1 day per 1000gp base price, not 1 day per level; I was wrong earlier. It does say, however, "each spell must be scribed as a separate effort, meaning that no more than 1 spell can be scribed in a day."

Hi sorry missed this! The text is from the feat 'Scribe Scroll'

Ah! Thank you, didn't think to look there. Ideally, everything you need to know would be in the "Magic Item Creation" section, but... well, we know RPG rulebooks. :)

Kazul made his Perception roll. It's a bit important to hear what he does with the information before I move on. All I will add right now is to pay attention to what Arlena said about knowing you were coming.

GM, 'brimorak' isn't ringing any bells with me, was there anything I shiould've been told about being captured? Anything I'm supposed to bring to the plot to help out?

GM, 'brimorak' isn't ringing any bells with me, was there anything I should've been told about being captured? Anything I'm supposed to bring to the plot to help out?

Well, you heard the same comments from Umestil (the brimorak demon) that Arlena did. She just brought those comments up first. One hint: I didn't write that piece for color only. There's a real issue in there.

This probably doesn't answer your question, but I don't want to give away too much.

I read a good Paizo novel set in the Worldwound, so my guess is going to be demon blood.

Their description got me thinking of something a bit less fantastic :) But I guess we'll know soon enough.

Erin's reaction made me think something like drugs or contraband.

Yup my thoughts too Kazul!

But I think they were planted by our missing halfling!

But I'm joining the dots with a magic marker instead of a finepoint as I don;t know all the facts :p

GM, hope you're cool with Irra not being too interested in the current side-plots; it's partially because she just arrived and isn't too personally invested, partially because her personality/job doesn't make her too interested in it all.

The only thing I would say to that: while I understand that Irra is new, I would think that as a military person, she would be concerned that there may be an informant in the ranks. Such a person would jeopardize military operations.

Up to you of course, those are just my thoughts.

It's a big force, and it seems like there's enough good people dealing with it; time to take care of the rank-and-file.

A good point was just brought up that I can clarify: For things like Sense Motive, if you roll and fail to get through a Bluff (or similar), I will not post anything out of the ordinary. In other words, I won't say anything about your roll.

If you do beat a Bluff check, then I will post some indication that things aren't what they seem.

Trust me, you'll know.

Good to know. Thanks.

Gah, sorry to drop that thread. Fabian would have said more about the shadowblood, if it weren't for the talk I was giving to the rest of the faculty yesterday that I spent the weekend and beginning of the week crunching to get ready for!

Sorry this scene is taking so long. I think I've found a way to move it quicker. The problem as always is that it works great on the table, and horribly in PbP. Hopefully have fixed it here if Kazul and/or Fabian get the others involved.

All, I have to leave the country.

For work, no worries! But I will be gone until this weekend. A little unexpected, and because I don't think I'll have time for my games while away, I'm posting this before I head to the airport.

I'm back! Just got in late last night, so will get back to everything tomorrow.

Hey all -- I'm about 6 messages behind right now. Will try to catch up shortly. I'm on the road at the minute; an unexpected family issue came up two days ago, and my wife and I quickly make travel plans. I'll be travelling for the rest of the week. I think I can keep up with the game, but in case I'm slow to respond, that's what's going on.

Hah; poor timing. Just assume I use my spell to back yours up.

Sorry, guys, abut the long silence. After I was away for the week, when I got back the routine kept me more busy than I was expecting, and I fell behind in all games. I'm catching up now.

Struggling with 'secure.Paizo' timeouts last night.

At 7:15 am today, they walked me out of my place of employment. My new job is finding another job, and until then, I don't have time for all my side projects. I'm sorry to say I have to drop this game. Good luck, and it's been fun.

Sorry to hear that. Good luck.

Yikes, OGGM! I'm so sorry to hear that. Good luck.

I'm sorry to hear that, and I hope you can get it sorted out as quickly as possible. Good luck, and thank you for the great game!