This is for OOC talking. Please keep that out of the actual gameplay thread, even if you thought to use OOC tags.
Anyway, glad to have you here! Welcome!
On a practical note, the AP kind of assumes you're already working together, but has a continget hack job idea for how to start it off if you aren't. Do you think any of your characters know each other, and have been travelling together or just met up before? Something to think about and decide before we get started.
Human (Ulfen) Inquisitor (witch hunter) 1 | HP -6/9 | AC 18, Tch 14, FF 14 | CMD 16 | Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +4 | Init +4 | Perception +6 | Cold resistance 2
Kandar checking in. As far as my character knowing the others, I like the idea. I came on a ship from Riddleport to Oppara so I'm sure it would've made stops along the way. Or I could've met some of you on the short overland trip to Heldren. I'm open to any ideas.
Am I right that we have two snowcaster elves? That should be quite interesting!
While being around others is kinda worrisome for her, Ahti isn't apposed to having others around for protection purposes. Safety in numbers beats out potential danger.
Human (Ulfen) Inquisitor (witch hunter) 1 | HP -6/9 | AC 18, Tch 14, FF 14 | CMD 16 | Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +4 | Init +4 | Perception +6 | Cold resistance 2
Oh yeah, I'm all for it, I'm not sure how Kandar would feel about travelling with companions, haha.
I guess he'd feel similar to Ahti. Hes trying to find out more about what happened to him and his caravan and the strange rune burned into his hand and he probably wouldn't have any problem with people tagging along on the condition that they don't get in his way.
Although I'd originally set Soliana as having lived close to Heldren for most of her life, I can adjust her background to have her and her father settle nearly anywhere and she could have met up with the others from there :)
Human (Ulfen) Inquisitor (witch hunter) 1 | HP -6/9 | AC 18, Tch 14, FF 14 | CMD 16 | Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +4 | Init +4 | Perception +6 | Cold resistance 2
I'm not quite familiar with how the game starts. Do we already know about the strange weather around Heldren or is that something we learn through the course of play? That could be a reason we'd be travelling together. Otherwise, we would need to fabricate something. Heldren isn't the most exciting dot on the map, after all.
Thanata and I could've met on the ship. Maybe we meet Soliana in Oppara and go with her back to her village for some reason. Ahti, how do you see yourself fitting in?
Meeting Kandar and Thanata in Oppara works; settling in the boondocks is one way to hide from people but trying to blend in with the masses is another perfectly viable way to do it as well, hehe.
Human (Ulfen) Inquisitor (witch hunter) 1 | HP -6/9 | AC 18, Tch 14, FF 14 | CMD 16 | Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +4 | Init +4 | Perception +6 | Cold resistance 2
Here is the final version of my background. If we are unaware of the strange weather plaguing the lands in southern Taldor, I guess I'll have to come up with a new reason for Kandar travelling to Oppara. Maybe he experienced some sort of vision or premonition?
Background (final):
“Ah Hells, I’ll make the run.” Da said. A wiry Varisian man piped in, ”Yeah, Dines, don’t you have roots up there? You’d probably do a lot better in the cold than the rest of us.” Father looked over at the man with a grimace, ”Aye, s’pose I do.” And with that, the trades meeting was adjourned. Da led us back out to wagons, going over the trip with Ma and me, ”Up through the Nolands, to Jol. We’ll be heading into cold unlike ye ne’er felt, boy. We’ll need furs, oil, and an extra wagon fer wood.” The thought of travelling north excited me, I’d never seen snow before. If only I’d known how naive I was…
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We were making good time. We’d just finished drying our gear after having forded the Steam River and according to Da we had another day’s travel before heading into the Nolands, home to warring bands of criminals and vagabonds. It was at dusk that night when I saw the first snowflake. One turned to many, and before we knew it, everything was dusted with frost. We weren’t expecting weather like this for a tenday, but didn’t think it anything of it as we donned our furs and wool cloaks. I didn’t hesitate to range out ahead of our train and before I knew it, the wagons were lost in a sheet of white. The winds picked up and the flakes got larger, and heavier. I heard Da yelling for me, but his voice was distant and it was hard to tell what direction he was calling from. I turned round and round trying to follow his voice and that was when I noticed the blue glow. It was obscured by snowfall, but without thinking my steps lead me towards it. It was coming from a solid white column, about waist high, which lie at the heart of the storm. I heard whispers, their tone was warm and inviting, but I didn’t recognize the language. The urge to reach out and grasp it was too great to bear. As I bent down I noticed arcane markings flowing across the smooth stone, the source of the glow. They pulsed and slid across it’s surface in an entrancing dance of soothing light. I reached out and laid my hand upon it’s cool surface... Snap! ...The world went dark.
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When I opened my eyes, nothing greeted me but the blazing sun floating lazily in a clear blue sky. My head throbbed and I could still hear that old crone’s maniacal cackling. She has haunted my dreams every night since. Always pointing and laughing, rambling hysterics in a language I don’t understand. But somehow I know that she is condemning me to death. It’s only a matter of time… But those sensations paled in comparison to the burning agony of my right hand. I looked down in horror at some sort of arcane symbol seared into the back of my hand. It was blistered and raw and whenever I moved pain radiated up my arm and across my chest. It was many months before I would be able to draw a bow again. I scanned the blinding horizon and noticed some forms off in the distance. The caravan. I steadily made my way towards it, trudging through the snow as my mind slowly pieced itself back together. As I got closer, I wondered why I didn’t see any smoke from cooking fires or hear Da barking orders. And then I saw them. Some bodies were frozen solid, some were shattered, others were cracked and broken. All were dead. My next memory is of wiping the sweat from my brow after having buried the remains in the dark soil of a nearby hillock. I wasn’t crying because I had no tears left to shed.
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I don’t remember the exact moment I decided to head south. I simply travelled because there was nothing else I could do. I rode but never got sore, I slept but never felt rested, I ate but never tasted. It was only many months later, while “existing” (for that was truly all that I was doing) in Riddleport that I finally found a sense of purpose. Using my father’s influence within the council, I gained temporary access to the Cypher Lodge. I immediately began researching what I had seen. Odd occurrences of weather, witches of the frigid north, arcane practices, rituals, and customs. Much of what I found pointed to the reign of terror of Baba Yaga in Irrisen. I found a crude sketch of the hag and immediately recognized her as the crone from my dreams. What does the Queen of Witches want with me? When I wasn’t studying, I was drowning my misery in the flesh of the fairer sex. The ladies of the House of the Silken Veil were very accommodating. They were eager to share information, among other things, and while they lusted for sex, I found that I lusted for revenge. I recognized the parallels with their goddess, Calistria. I vowed to exact revenge in her name and in return she granted me the divine power to do so.
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Rumors began to circle the Lodge of summer snows coating the land in southern Taldor. Much like the bizarre storm that had killed my family. I bought passage on the next ship to Oppara. It is here that I sit and write, swaying with the seas, hoping to take the first steps on my path to vengeance once this ship docks in The Gilded City...
Looks like the first Gameplay post is up; if people want the campaign to show up for them but aren't ready to do a 'proper' in-game post yet, you can always dot and then delete your post so the game shows up but there's not a bunch of nothing posts in Gameplay :)
And yeah, one thing that I've seen a lot of people have trouble with when making characters for RoW is that you're initially not supposed to have any idea that you'll be dealing with snowy conditions in the very near future.
I cleaned up a few minor errors on Thanata's character sheet. PCGen does not react well to things like extra feats and skill ranks, and I somehow missed the problem earlier. I added the extra skill rank and also fixed the rapier attack bonus to use weapon finesse.
Regarding how/why we're all at Heldren, any of the characters receiving a vision would work or perhaps it's simply a stopover on the party's way to somewhere else? I'm not sure where in Taldor it's located but if it's in the southern portion maybe we were headed down to Qadira? If northern, perhaps we were headed to Galt or the River Kingdoms.
Looks good from a fellow player's perspective! In the interests of not letting things die before they've even really begun, I'd gently suggest that we can probably start posting and doing some initial RP. We can work out a rough timeline of who knows who and why we're here as we go or here in the Discussion thread :)
And to put my money where my mouth is, I'll work on a post once I've caught up with some of my other games!
Human (Ulfen) Inquisitor (witch hunter) 1 | HP -6/9 | AC 18, Tch 14, FF 14 | CMD 16 | Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +4 | Init +4 | Perception +6 | Cold resistance 2
I'm 3 gp short of buying some cold iron weapon blanch (I think it's only worth the cost for ammo, not for weapons). Are we going to role-play shopping? If not, could someone lend me the difference?
Or maybe Soliana is old friends with the town blacksmith and could get us a deal on some cold iron gear? :)
Alas, Soli has all of a few silvers and coppers to her name though she'll gladly kick it in towards weapon blanch! Or like you say, we could try to haggle a little and get the price lowered :)
Also it's always a little awkward in the first few pages of a new game while I try to find/settle on a good 'voice' for my character...
Introducing characters is difficult. If you have any defining charateristics, those basically become your character's identity until you get some character developement under her belt.
As for shopping, you can buy most anything non-magic, non-special materials in heldren. Besides, the smith has a silver heavy mace, a cold iron battleaxe, ten cold iron arrows, an alchemically silvered longsword, and an adamantite dagger in a display case.
Oops, it sounds like you care more about the details of what's available than most GMs I have played with. Is is a problem that with starting wealth I crafted two scrolls of spells I know (first level, of course)?
Nah, it's fine. I just figured that since the book does explain what's availible where in Heldren, we might as well use that.
Your starting equipment can be whatever though, and I don't foresee shopping for what you want being a problem, outside of the very start of the story.
As for components for crafting specifically, so long as it doesn't go above the base value of the town, (500gp in Heldren's case), you can buy whatever. They won't have the materials for magic magic weapons, for example, as that's above the town's base value, but there'd be enough incense and what have you around to make a shield magical, and scrolls, potions, or first-level wands are no problem at all.
Incidentally, all the magical gear you can buy in Heldren:
10*+1 cold iron sling bullets
Potion of Resist Energy(cold, CL 3)
Scroll of Aid
Scroll of Sleep
Wand of Magic Weapon(24 charges)
Wand of Scorching Ray (13 charges)
Masterwork Full Plate (yes, not magical, but expensive nonetheless.)
Arrow Magnet
Ring of Force Shield
If you do go shopping, please post what you buy here.
Otherwise, it seems we're just about ready to meet up with the boy who wants to become a hero, and get this adventure on the road!
Also, I'm a bit confused as to why you'd buy cold iron weapon blanch; the cost of actual cold iron is just double standard weapon cost. Those 10 arrows would be 1 gp., while the battle-axe costs 20 GP. Enchantment gets more expensive, but Dr/cold iron & magic is rare, especially at low levels.
Hey folks, as a heads-up I wanted to let you all know that pending a clean preemployment check (which I don't anticipate being an issue since I don't do drugs and I'm good at hiding bodies) I should be finally rejoining the workforce within the next couple of weeks. As of now I'm not sure what this will mean for my posting rate but I'll be sure to keep you updated as I learn more! :D
Feel free to post your actions out of turn order: I'll resolve in initiative order at the end of the round.
I'm contemplating doing away with initiative entirely, and having you act in blocks of npcs and pcs, instead of discrete character turns, but we'll see how it turns out.
Can you move your tokens around on the map I linked? It should allow people to do that, but you never know.
Zombie actions are pending. Please wait a few minutes.
Thank you! I'm still good to go for the moment and I certainly hope that I won't need to bow out. As I said, I'll be sure to let you all know ASAP if it looks like that will need to change :)
*edit* Moved my icon with no issues also! Maps for the win!
Whoops you're right, I always forget that for some reason. If you'll allow a retcon she'll just take the 5 foot step, if not then she'll drop after taking the swing.
That's too nitpicky for me, I'm afraid. It's a line of fire, that, unlike burning hands and the like, actually sets fire to stuff. It sets fire to wood.
fire jet is SU, not a spell, so I don't think it is supposed to provoke an AoO. And yes, the description specifically says that creatures might catch on fire, but nothing about objects catching on fire.
Here is a link to a description of the supernatural ability.
If you want to house rule that fire jet does work on objects, I will accept this, but you should know that this will actually increase Thanata's power, because she can then use fire supremacy to draw the fire around herself if she gets close to it. I'm still feeling out this character's abilities, but I'm afraid they may be overpowered in this AP.
but burning hands and fireball work differently too. Why can a first level ability set creatures on fire, but a third level spell can't? Because magic is weird and doesn't have to be the same.
If you need to think of it as a houserule, that's fine. Nevertheless, AoE fire stuff(especially the sort that makes creatures catch on fire, such as the effect in question) will set fire to things that can reasonably be expected to catch on fire, unless it specifically mentions that it does not, regardless of whether its a spell, alchemical item, SU ability etc. etc.
Rule of thumb: If it can make creatures catch on fire, it can make objects catch on fire. If it's an instantaneous effect, such as fireball, it might not set things on fire. If it's a lasting fire effect, such as wall of fire, it will probably set things on fire.
So, I kind of need to know what Thanata does. Our talk kind of devolved into rules instead, but I do need to know.
As I see it, your options are:
1) Risk setting fire to the carriage.
2) Delay until after Amel and hope he gets out of the way, so you can five-foot step into the space below the one he's currently occiopying.
3) Do the same thing without delaying, and include Amel in the line of fire.
4) 5'step south and tag only the two northmost zombies.
