Pariahs in the Age of Serpents (Inactive)

Game Master Dave Young 992

"This your cave, or what?" Kraull asks, getting straight to the point.

Oh, no. It was Michak and Andala's. I was in the area, so I came by to see how they were. Not so good, it turns out...

He looks sad. They just wanted to be alone, pretty much. I was going to invite them to Pariah-con.

Pariah-con is an annual spring event, a sort of trading post event for people in the Pariah mountains. It's held around the first full moon of the spring- about a week away.

Are you going?

What trade goods there?

Mourntel approaches from inside the cave, listening to talk of the trade event. "Very interesting, perhaps we could find better clothes. I could trade some arrows..."

Lotsa stuff there. Lotsa people. Seeds, furs, weapons, even potions. You bring good stuff, you find good stuff. Good trades for good traders.

"Yeah, we'll go, where is it?"

It's at the fork of the rivers to the north, just past the Serpent Woods.

Knowledge local or geography.

If you let me stay and eat with you tonight, I can help you with your injuries, he says hopefully.

"The healing better be good to share our tasty meat!" Kraull growls, licking his chops at the thought of breakfast, "Hey, how do we know we can trust you, anyway?"

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 1 = 18

K local: 10 + 6 = 16

I agree with the young one. I say you heal him first, than if he's okay you come in and stay?

dip: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20

He seems sincere.

I can do that. Who needs it?

R'kellor steps forward when the shaman asks about healing presenting his roughly bandaged wounds.

clw: 1d8 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10

Another one for Kraull. clw: 1d8 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11

How do you two feel? as he watches as the wounds close.

He extends a hand to the other shaman.

Come in, rest and eat. You have more than proven to myself, and I presume Kraull and R'kellor you speak true he moves to allow the man inside and away from the elements.

"Feels good to me," Kraull replies between yawns, "I'm going to get more rest now. Shaman talk is all nonsense to me anyway." With that, he lays down, but keeps his ax with him.

Gordo is grateful for the shelter, and will assist in any heal checks to help with the strength damage. Anyone who lost strength gets 2 back with 8 hours of rest.

Kraull wakes in the morning feeling refreshed and, as always, hungry. "Thanks, Gordo, I feel back to my old self again. We got to keep you around! What's your story anyway?"

I'm just an old shaman. Did a bit of adventuring in my younger days, but now, I stay mostly to myself. I get around pretty good around the treelines. Folks don't usually notice me when I'm passin' through, if I don't want them to.

He seems pretty content to be a loner, and manages to get by. His familiar eventually comes in, but doesn't have much to say. Knowledge (planes).

I like to keep an eye on things, know what's going on around here. Truth is, there's not much going on, though I expect Pariahcon will be the usual chaos. A lot of bartering. A lot of everything, really.

He seems friendly enough. He casts Create Water into a collapsible thing and you can all eat and talk.

Blask, eats the roasted bird meat and drinks, while listening to the fellow old man talk.

I know what you mean. The younger of my old tribe forced me out, say I was a liability. I found a new tribe in these strong... he stops mid sentence as another creature comes into the cave unannounced.

planes: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26

The creature checks you all out, but doesn't seem hostile.

Gordo will rest, prep some spells, and bid you adieu in the morning, if you have no questions.

We'll see you there, if we see you. Be wary in the woods!

You can go down into the spooky cave, or go to the party. You're gonna ding 4th soon, either way. :)

Any ideers?

Blask, will eat a light breakfast, some meat from whatever is left, with a handful of berries. He looks around to the others, and wishes their new acquaintance a speedy travel.

K nature: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (7) + 10 = 17 to know what may or may not lurk in the woods?

After quickly consuming his share of meat in the morning, Kraull tries his hand at making another fine dagger out of the hard shell material.

Craft (Weapon): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16

"Eh, not terrible." He gauges of his work afterwards.

"Yeah, we going to this market thing? The cave will still be here later. I want something to look at other than dead lickers and you ugly guys."

That'll work, Kraull. It's masterwork and sized for Gurk.

You've got some unique stuff you can trade.

Have we a consensus? You can do whatever you want.

Blask, will eat a light breakfast, some meat from whatever is left, with a handful of berries. He looks around to the others, and wishes their new acquaintance a speedy travel.

[dice=K nature]1d20+10 to know what may or may not lurk in the woods?

Did you miss my post ?

But yes, we will go to pariah-con. How though I am unsure, woods or no woods?

The gathering is fine with me. Do we need to recruit more players?

Did you miss my post ?

But yes, we will go to pariah-con. How though I am unsure, woods or no woods?

Oops! Ok, then. You can go through the woods, or a more northern route along the riverbank. Neither is particularly safe.

The woods are full of wild things, and possibly feral tribes of various humanoids. The river has plenty of critters that like to snatch people off the banks, either from above or below. I anticipate an interesting time either way.

No one's stopped playing, AFAIK. Check in, guys!

Either route, whether woods or river bank. I vote river, at least water is prevalent.

"It depends, can any of the rest of you swim?" Kraull asks, looking over his other tribe members with a doubtful expression, "I don't care really, R'Kellor and me will have to kill a bunch of stuff either way."

I could swim when I was younger but not so well anymore. We could go forest, I can create a lot of water if need be. Let's go via the woods, more chance to find more supplies for goods to make.

Blask, will chant a few words, and fill up his dried animal bladder with fresh water, as if it were raining outside. He then heads towards the woods.

R'kellor grins at kraull. "Ha, and kill them we shall." He slams his forearm against the half-orc's in a warrior's handshake.

Mourntel? Gurk?

Sorry guys! No excuse.... just inattentiveness.

Mourntel ponders a moment as to their path to the gathering. "I, of course, am more comfortable in the woods. Yet I will follow you whichever path you choose. Following the river may be more beneficial as we have ready access to water for drinking and fish should we get hungry along our journey."

You could pack meat and take it with you, or go along the river and spend time catching fish. The river route is longer, but faster movement, too. Usually.

The woods is a straight line, but you're bound to go through some thick spots. Since you haven't been there in awhile, if at all, it's hard to guess what's in there right now.

About a week, either way. 2 days off the mountains, 5-6 days in the valleys, if all goes well.

"Let's go through the woods, should be more exciting." Kraull suggests with a decisive nod, "There's bound to be delicious animals in the forest, but let's pack some meat just in case."

The woods it is, then. No word from Gurk. Should I find another one? A good expert is nice to have.

You might want to consider sending Gurk a private message first if you haven't already. He might just be busy. If that doesn't work or he isn't interested in playing anymore, then recruiting more would be cool by me. Another warrior might be useful too.

PM'd. We'll get started.

You descend, slowly getting down the mountain face, and move east. Other than some pteranodons flying around, you see nothing of interest the first day. You get into foothills when it starts to get dark.

You find a decent place to camp. It's warmer here than in the mountains, and the sky is clear. You cook, eat and clean up with no issues.

I need 2 perception checks from whoever has the first watch.

Perception 1: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18
Perception 2: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14

At the limit of his darkvision, Kraull notices some toothy, canine-looking predators approaching from the trees to the east. They're hideously ugly, and look ready to attack. No surprise.

init: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13
Kraull init: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14

You first! Click on the map. I placed you all, but you can be somewhere else, if you like.

Arcana to identify them.

1: Kraull gets a full turn, then the creatures.

Round 2:

Blask: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (1) + 0 = 1
Gurk: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22
Mourntel: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11
R'kellor: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15

You get a move and a standard on your turn, unless you're being eaten. I assume Kraull will shout a warning to wake you up. Charging, growling monsters will be the next thing you hear.

Gurk's not here. Kraull gets to start the party.

"Everyone wake up, we've got unwanted visitors!" Kraull bellows as he moves swiftly towards one of the creatures and launches a javelin at it.

Javelin-range: 1d20 + 5 - 2 ⇒ (19) + 5 - 2 = 22
Damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

Up close, the creatures appear to have weeping sores and scaly skin. They are quite repugnant.

The one Kraull hurt runs up and attacks him!

bite: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14

The other one attacks the prone warrior R'kellor!

bite: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24

confirm: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21

The poor human is savagely mauled by the hideous beast.

2d10 + 12 ⇒ (2, 10) + 12 = 24

This could be curtains for the brave adventurer!

Blask knows what these things are.

Init, round 2:

R'kellor
Kraull
me
Mourntel
Blask

Mourntel wakes with a start at Kraull's shouting, he stumbles to his feet just in time to see R'kellor being viciously mauled. He takes a moment to try and identify Knowledge: Arcana: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7 the strange dog-like creatures. The shaman quickly conjures a ball of hissing acid and flings it at the creature attacking his warrior friend!

Ranged Touch Attack: 1d20 + 3 - 4 ⇒ (4) + 3 - 4 = 3
Acid Splash: 1d3 ⇒ 1

Due to his rush to get to his feet, the attack goes very wide and misses!

Can you take a 5 ft. step from prone?

Discussion thread is open.

Reporting for duty.

Characters, as of now.

Blask- Old human shaman 3
Gurk- halfling expert 3
Mourntel- Half elf shaman 3
R'kellor- Human warrior 3
Kraull- Half orc warrior 3
Krejka- Half orc tamer warrior 3

Having quite the crazy night at work, haven't had a chance to wrap up Mourntel yet, sorry guys.

Game thread is open.

I made this portrait of R'kellor using Hero machine. I would be happy to give it a shot for other people's character as well if you would like.

That's pretty cool. Too bad we can't use them as avatars.

Sorry for taking so long. I somehow didn't notice your post about the thread being open.

Also, one question: what kind of language (in terms of verbosity) would these characters use when speaking? Are we assuming that we're translating their language to a more modern version or should we write in "caveman-speak"?

I'll leave that to you. When we did the Goblin campaign, they all fell into their own linguistic things. It was pretty funny at times. You can talk normally or say "Gurk no like monkey people. Gurk kill!"

That's 4 people. I'll get started.

My awful attempt at making Gurk in Hero Machine.

The cat is for scale.

I'm here! Sorry, I had some computer issues the past few days. I will work on getting caught up this afternoon/evening.

Are we rolling for initiative?

I will. If the pteranodon doesn't spot Gurk, he'll have surprise.

I can't edit the map for some reason.

I moved him. Click his square. It should get a blue border. Hit delete, then go to the square you want, click it, then type your name. Hit your spacebar.

My apologies, folks. Life got busy, I didn't post that it got busy because I kept thinking 'tomorrow, tomorrow I'll find time to post and get IC and catch up,' but realistically it isn't letting up and I am not sure when it will let up. I am afraid it's most realistic for me to bow out at this point.

Have fun, all of you!

OK.

Krekja seemed like a great addition, but so be it. Doo doo occurs.

Sorry for my inactivity in the past two days, it got busy all of a sudden. Should be fine now.

Sorry about my absence guys. I was involved with a vehicle pursuit on Sunday, which led into a foot pursuit during which I injured my knee. We caught the suspect and no one else was injured, so a good day! I was cleared for duty today, so I should be back to normal posting.

Good deal!

I am going to be gone for a week starting this monday. I don't believe I will be able to post at all but if I can I will.

Hello, everyone! I've just been recruited to join this game. It looks like a lot of fun and I'm very interested; I look forward to gaming with you all!

My character, as is probably already evident, is a hunter, skilled with a bow. He's lived in the mountains all his life, so hopefully he'll be a help with survival and all that.

Leveled up, ready to go, got max ranks in handle animal just in case :)

Hello!

I'll one of the new recruits and I'll be joining with you guys shortly. Hopefully we'll have a bunch of fun : )

Leila is an expert/adept and she is good at sneaking around, and got a decent tab on social skills. She does lack Blasks all-compassing knowledge or the deadly strikes of Kraull and Maqli, which she tries to make up for with guile.

Welcome, it's good to have you join us! I hope you'll enjoy the game.

Same here - Fuhr is an adept/warrior who focuses on fire magic. Well, mostly fire in general. He can frontline as needed, and can use a longspear + combat reflexes to deadly effect!

Thank you for the welcome Kraull : )

Edit: And I ninja-dotted the gameplaythread now too : )

Yes, a warm welcome to the fresh blood meat faces! It'll be nice having some intelligent conversation for once, hehe.

Let's see if we can survive in the wilderness together :)

Welcome y'all :)

@Blask, GM, Fuhr - The low number of spells is a little nusiance we'll have to deal with I think. But on that topic - how have you handled/plan to handle things like Craft Wand or Scribe Scroll ?

They could extend our magical endurance a bit... : ) But numberless wands of X could also take the 'magic' out of magic I suppose.

What are your thoughts on staves? They are one way (in the future!) to diversify ones magic AND get some more stamina! Perhaps lesser staves with only 5 or 3 charges ?

You get Brew Potion at 1st, and metamagic or item creation feats every 5 levels like a wizard. You can make magic items for no real cost (just time and the right feat,) since money doesn't exist, per se.

You might find some goodies at Pariahcon, if you ever get there.

Hmm...

@Blask - seeing as you are the Goodberry guy, a single berry heals one damage which should be enough to remove the non-lethal damage (1p) from anyone that fails :)

If you want, I can prepare it, but I wouldn't want to steal your thunder

No worries, feel free to prepare whatever your PC would want. Ooc I am cool, IC blask is a bitter old man so he is easy to upset anyways lol

Hey everybody,

This is a message I'm putting up in most of the games I'm in here on the forums. I feel bad about having to do this, but I'm dropping many of the games I'm in on here--pretty much everything that's been moving at a good clip. Life's become very hectic lately, and I don't see things calming down any time soon. Between everything that's been happening, my focus has been spent elsewhere, and I'm just not able to put in the time and effort to keep up with play-by-post right now.

I've enjoyed all the games I've been in here, and it's a lot of fun. You all put it in a ton of effort and excitement, and I'd love to do the same, but right now I'm not able to do that on a regular basis. It would be unfair of me to keep going dark for days or weeks at a time, but I don't think I'll be able to avoid that for a while, and I need to focus on other things right now. I'm really sorry about having to do this, but life has reared its ugly head, and I hope you all understand.

Again, I've enjoyed my time with you all, and hope that you continue to have great gaming in the future. I look forward to the day when I can return to these boards and join new games, and maybe even play with some of you again. But for now, I have to part ways from you all.

--Loup Blanc

Aww, it is harsh to hear even tough we haven't had much interaction. I hope your life works out!

OK. Too bad, since Maqli is such a fun character. I hope you find the time to rejoin us eventually.

I, for one, wouldn't mind continuing. But three are a bit short...

How do you "originals" feel? I haven't invested that much yet into this pbp : )

Don't care. I am easy going and good with whatever.

Sorry to say, but I'm a little ambivalent. I'm getting tired of not having a solid group here, but I won't just leave unless there's a consensus.

We haven't been able to keep it together. 3 is ok, but kinda tricky.

GM, if this game is over could you set it as inactive? Thanks.

OK.

Can't figure it out. Just block it.