Rappan Athuk [Pf]

Game Master Chris Manos

Glad you made it! Welcome to the OOC.

First order of business would be to figure out a marching order, so I know in which order to kill you.

In other news, there's rumors about the dungeon availible to your characters, if they roll good.

One can be earned with a DC 13 gather information check, or a charisma check if you don't have ranks in Diplomacy.

Another is either a DC 13 knowledge(local), Knowledge(dungeoneering), (religion) or (history) check, or just an intelligence check for characters that don't have any of the four skills. Even if you have ranks in more than one knowledge skill, you may only make one check.

Finally, bards may roll their Bardic Knowledge to earn a third rumor. As always, DC 13.

I see now that my meticulously crafted opening ingame post has several typos. How embarrassing.

Still, feel free to check it out and post there.

Checking for rumors for you all;

Magnus Tate
Knowledge: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (20) + 12 = 32
Gather Info: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (4) - 1 = 3

Gareth Gudrum
Knowledge: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7
Gather Info: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

Tessai
Knowledge: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (4) + 9 = 13
Gather Info: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22

Belle
Knowledge: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22
Gather Info: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 14

Reynaud La Croix
Knowledge: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (9) - 1 = 8
Gather Info: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (20) - 2 = 18

Agyen the Eternal
Knowledge: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29
Gather Info: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14

Dotting! Thanks for the invite, happy to be here. Probably not to survive for long, since I had the bright idea of doing trapfinding. Can we assume that other than when I'm just waking up, I'm fused with the eidolon? Much easier this way :)

I assume we should roll for the rumors on the gameplay thread?

I've edited the rolls into the last post. I'll put some spoilers with info in here once I know who hears what.

As for your eidolon, keeping it on outside of sleep seems fine.

Whether you trust these rumors is entirely up to you.

Dotted ;)

I would say marching order... Would have Gareth scouting somewhere up ahead (I would suggest a casting of 'Message' while he does so), and Tessai leading the bulk of the group. Apart from that, I will let the others pipe in.

I'm curious - who commands healing power in our team? :P

I'm stoked!

Belle is a White Mage. She can convert any spell into a cure spell. I'm also betting a few of us took some healing wands. It it OK if I peruse the other character sheets or should I let it be found out by role-playing?

I'm not against you looking at each others' sheets. In fact, I'm fairly lenient when it comes to metagaming, short of actively going out and looking for information on the dungeon on the internet.

But if say, you all died, a bit of the replay value goes off, so I'd allow for a good bit of metagaming coming back into the dungeon with fresh characters.

Belle has about 350 GP left. I would like to have spend 300gp on scroll scribing/illustration materials. I don't even care if she gets to use them to create actual scrolls, but it would be nice to have them there just to be in character.

Awesome, happy to be here, guys. One minor thing: I live in Japan so my posting times will probably be a little strange, but I will definitely be posting 1/day still.

And EDIT: In re: marching order, Reynaud as the caboose makes sense to me. Sticking in the back so his clanking about doesn't wake every monster within a mile, and so if someone gets the idea to attack one of the squishies he can Bodyguard/In Harm's Way.

Magnus would definitely be more comfortable in the middle, where the minions big strong fighters can protect him from riffraff and other undesirables.

One question; what is the climate like? I forgot to ask, since I have a bedroll but no tent. If someone has a spare spot in their tent, I would be grateful, although I am prepared to sleep in the open if the climate is amenable.

I didn't roll my hp...

1d8 + 1d10 + 1d10 ⇒ (5) + (9) + (7) = 21

The climate is late spring, with mild winters and relatively warm summers.

Sometimes it rains a bit, but the hills around the dungeon is littered with caves,so shelter shouldn't be a problem.

The climate is late spring, with mild winters and relatively warm summers.

Sometimes it rains a bit, but the hills around the dungeon is littered with caves,so shelter shouldn't be a problem.

Ok, thanks.

Looking over the characters, Tessai is a shoo-in for frontliner, so she should be at the front as she suggests.

Reynaud, I don't think being in Armor is a consideration unless we are trying to be stealthy; however I would feel more comfortable with someone who can fight in the back in case we get attacked from behind. That said you may have a problem maneuvering into a melee if you are stuck at the back. If we have a BSF who can also use a ranged weapon (i.e. a switch hitter) that would be ideal, or someone who can move fast in a pinch to rush to the front. Any takers?

Yeah, I guess if we're trying to sneak, Gareth's going miles ahead of everybody anyways.

Also, Reynaud's Priest-Blessed trait says

You were guided to maturity by a trusted priest of an ecclesiastical tradition, who inspired you and made you understand that the authority exerted by a religious hierarchy is a blessing rather than a restriction, allowing the faithful to always feel confident in their direction and the righteousness of the guided actions. Now, your faith wells up whenever you are aided by divine magic, and you find it easy to open up to the magic and succor of any faith, seeing the similarities between all such traditions. Three times per day when you are the target of a harmless divine spell, you may increase its caster level by 1 for purposes of its effect on you alone.

So for this effect does Belle casting a cure spell count as divine?

Okay, so as best I can tell, we're doing

Tessai-Gareth
Agyen-Magnus
Belle-Reynaud

In broad spaces, and

Gareth
Tessai
Magnus
Agyen
Belle
Reynaud

in 5ft. hallways.

As for the Priest-blessed traits, none of the casters except for Tessai are considered Divine, even though they cast spells that are usually reserved for divine casters.

Yeah, that's how I'd rule it too. Good to know.

So, a couple different courses of action has been proposed:

1) Investigate the (southern? all three) mausoleum.
2) Investigate the well.
3) Party hides a little bit away while Gareth scouts the graveyard.

Thoughts?

As for the marching order, when we are in a 10' corridor, and Gareth scouting ahead, I would suggest:

Gareth
Tessai
Agyen-Magnus
Belle-Reynaud

What do you think?

Also, I would vote on option 3) but with Gareth scouting the whole area on the surface, and without us hiding away, so we can react fast if needed :D

Gareth can just fly over the place, right? I vote we let him check it out from a safe distance while we have the option.

I vote we hear his opinion on it? ;)

I like the word "safe" :) I can scout a little ahead but like you said, having you nearby to react in case something happens. I'm not invisible, you know :)

As long as the Paladin in your group stands, your back is covered ;)

dot. Sorry for being a bit late, I had terrible timing, and checked the thread less than 30 minutes before you posted. Anyway, stuff proposed looks good so far, and thanks for choosing me. :)
edit: will post in gameplay later today, but right now I'm a bit busy.

@Belle, I think you've carried your gear with you. The wilderness really isn't safe to hang out in. You should probably find somewhere to hide your stuff somewhere a troll won't trip over it by accident if you want to leave it while you go adventuring.

@Agyen, good you're here!

Belle has a mule to carry all the food, the tent, etc. If I take the gear I take the mule. Not a problem but I suspect once we descend I'll need a safe place to keep it or that same troll will have a nice snack. For now, assume the mule is with us at the end of a long rope.

Oo-kay. I'd missed that.

Magnus, I was looking over your spellbook and salivating but I noticed that your DC looks off. For a 1st level spell you should have a DC of 16, and an additional +1 for any evocation spells. That prompted me to put the DCs for my spells into my alias stats too :)

Yeah, your right. Not sure what happened - I'm guessing a Typo as I thought I had DC16 (17 for Evocation) for 1st level spells. I will fix it.

I'm happy to be within support distance for Gareth while he scouts, though if it helps I could be persuaded to cast Vanish on him. It doesn't last long though (4 rounds), so use it sparingly.

Next level, if I survive until then, I should be better for scouting and hiding overall. I hope! :)

Anyone want to do anything more with the well? Otherwise, someone should probably tell Belle to get a move on. Or stand watch while she sketches; it's probably going to take half an hour or so, to do the whole thing.

Talking of spells, we need to coordinate so that we don't all get the same sorts of spells. I am aiming to be a blaster-type, so Burning hands and burst of radiance, possibly enhanced by potent magic and (when I get it) Spell specialization. I added Enlarge as my only buff, but am quite happy to let others provide that if they can. I have some battlefield control with a wand of silent image which will be used to create illusions of pits - simple but (hopefully) effective.

Belle I see you have glitterdust, so we should be well covered for blindness effects.

Agyen has Bless, so will he be acting as the party buffer?

I will eventually have some buffs, like haste, but still a couple levels to get there. I will focus my spells on summoning and conjuration... I'm not that useful in combat, so I might as well bring some heavy hitters and do crowd control.

My best potential casting stat is a 13, followed by a 9 and a 7, so I will be leaving that to you guys.

Yeah, I'll be mostly focused on buffs (maybe a few debuffs too) and divinations, but I have a few attack spells if the need arises, and am also to do some healing.

Yeah, it makes sense to have something you can use in a pinch. I was mainly thinking about coordinating our actions in combat. Theres no point me concentrating on attacks if the party needs buffing, and no point buffing when battlefield control will buy more time; but if you are happy to buff I am happy to concentrate on attacking, Belle and Gareth can provide Battlefield control. Is that agreeable?

I will eventually have some buffs, like haste, but still a couple levels to get there. I will focus my spells on summoning and conjuration... I'm not that useful in combat, so I might as well bring some heavy hitters and do crowd control.

I disagree. You may not do much damage in combat but your AC is impressive. At the very least you can set up flanks, block others from flanking, draw attacks that would otherwise have hit someone else, and make a general nuisance of yourself. And summoning an expendable dog every round is useful too.

Yes, Belle is going for stuff that has to do with color, light, etc. like vanish, color spray, and glitterdust. Trying to keep to a theme without being totally useless. Scribe Scroll was probably a waste of a feat power-gaming wise, but you never know. I think most of her stuff will fit under control type spells but there are spells like dazzling blade and prismatic spray OK, so maybe not that one for a while) that will do damage.

Beware of the mind affecting tag. I know color spray has it, at least. I once got burned trying to CS a giant spider myself.

Beware of the mind affecting tag. I know color spray has it, at least. I once got burned trying to CS a giant spider myself.

Thanks for the warning. I had issues with a giant scorpion myself once, though the two barbarians my character was with didn't seem to mind :)

Frankly I suspect my role will be mostly to vanish and cast cure spells, with a smattering of wand assisted monster summonings - at least at first.

Oooh, that reminds me; 1d10 ⇒ 10

hrrrmph. 1d20 ⇒ 15

1d20 ⇒ 15

Someone PMd me and asked, and it occurs to me to say that if you want to make some changes to your characters, you can.

It'd be good if you could do it before we get too deep into the dungeon, if you can.Once some time has passed, we'll probably start to use retraining instead.

I think I'll start keeping a rough clock up in the campaign tab. We'll see if I bother to keep it updated.

I think that is a great idea.

By the way, once we get into the dungeon proper, does anyone feel like drawing a map? I think it'll help you visualise it better, and not get lost.

Plus, it's nice for you to know what you've already explored, once you leave and return again for a later delve. And once we've done this for a few months, you can look at it and remember all the cool stuff you discovered at various places.

I'd do it if I knew how to put something like that up on line.

This can host images.

There's also google docs if you want something that can be edited online.

OK. I'll do it. I wanted to learn how to do that anyway and eventually run a PBP myself.

I have a language left to select. I was hoping to learn the local human dialect here, but if there is none I need to pick something else. Is there?

Not really. Common is the native language of Scorland, and is also spoken in all the lawless lands you'll realistically travel to.

I mean, you could commandeer a pirate ship restocking on the beach, and use that to travel across the sea. I'm not going to rule anything out, but TBH, I haven't developed the campaign world much beyond the fact that there's a lawful aligned town north of you, and a chaotic aligned town to the south.