Reign of Winter - DM Twilight (Inactive)

Game Master DM Twilight

My original idea was to have been tracking the bandits for a while, but I'm fine with however you'd like to introduce me.

By the way Theora, beautiful backstory.

Delilah, I think that it would be less confusing to have you either already be a part of the group or to be held captive in the building. Which would you prefer?

Alright, everyone else: I added the new icons for the group I'm bringing over to the current map. Old group got moved inside. I removed both Grimkell and Yeva's icons. As soon as I know where to put Delilah I'll add her to the mix. I've also contacted our witch doctor from the other group to see if he's still with us.

To fill things in: The original group from this thread let loose some horses, and killed some bandits outside and inside. They are now inside. The second group deliberately triggered the trap outside. Sounds of clanging metal can be heard by the indoors group. Have at it, guys.

Sure, I can be part of the group.

Okie dokie, got your icon added to the map.

By the way Theora, beautiful backstory.

Thank you! It was harder than I expected to walk the line between subtlety and heavy-handedness, so I erred on the side of subtlety. I'm glad you liked it!

Time to get this show moving again!

OK, sorry guys. I'm going to 'try' to update today but I've got a million things to do. I'm going out of town tomorrow for a school thing and will be gone all weekend. In the past, the motel's never had internet worth a damn, so you may not see anything from me until Sunday night/Monday.

Greetings!

Newcomers! Anyone a Heldren native, or has been in town for long?

Not I. From the frozen north come to find the source of winter mysteriously spreading south. Annalisa is though.At least she's lived there a while.

Negative. I'm from the not-so-frozzen slightly-more-north of Taldor.

Not here either, I'm afraid. Machaera's kind of an elven Dr. Livingstone (without the colonialism), originally from Varisia, and has just stumbled out of the far south of Garund as part of a Grand Tour around the Inner Sea gone horribly, horribly wrong. Let's not talk about Geb, shall we? *Shudders.* :)

Nope - I am originally from Belkzen ;-)

Sorry guys, dealing with a sick kid the last couple of days and trying to keep up with homework while she's home from school with congestion and a fever.

Wanted to give you guys a heads up that I have to go out of town again tomorrow and posting will be dicey until I'm back Sunday.

Ok, have fun in class.

Hi. I won't be able to post today, on account of massive layoffs at my job at the end of the school year. I'll either be depressed or drinking, not sure which.

I'm really sorry to hear that. I know how that feels and it sucks. Take the time, wallow a little bit, yell, scream , punch a wall. But it'll be ok in the long run. You'll find something better.

I feel for you, Delilah.

First up, I'd like to apologize for my silence. I've been working up to moving house, and the big day was today. We don't have an internet connection yet, and probably won't for several days (though we're working on it). I have a smartphone with a data plan, but 500MB doesn't go far when I'm using it for job-searching as well. However, my mother lives 5 minutes away and I'm welcome there any time, and there's a library within walking distance, so I'll be around.

Please don't write me out of the campaign, as this is temporary. I'll be here, but sporadic. If I'm holding things up, bot me. If there's something Theora would reasonably do that would help the party out of combat, have her do it if I don't get to it first. In combat, she's a pretty standard archer build;out of combat, remember that she's a mother and a midwife, and she's rather clucky and nurturing. She's got the whole "team mum" thing going on, despite the fact that two other PCs are elves over twice her age.

Can I get a sound off on Snjórinn, and Mirri?

Also, I'm giving you guys a little bump in XP just for being patient with all the crazy changes. Level up!

I'm still here, there just hasn't been a lot going on that required her interaction. And Yay! Level UP!

How do you want us doing HP? And if it's roll, here's my roll.

HP: 1d8 ⇒ 4

Hey all, DM Twilight's got quite a bit going on at the moment and may not update for a few days. She wanted to give a heads up and ask that you bear with her but the forum was down...again.

Meanwhile: leveling

1d8 ⇒ 6
+1 BAB
+1 Will
Hex (Thunder Foot (Ex) The shaman's body thickens and becomes more muscular. For the purpose of the overrun combat maneuver, she treats her shaman level as her base attack bonus when calculating her CMB and CMD. At 7th level, the shaman gains Improved Overrun as a bonus feat. At 11th level, the shaman gains Greater Overrun as a bonus feat. The shaman doesn't need to meet the prerequisites of these feats.)
1 1st level spell per day
+1 Heal,Handle Animal, Knowledge Religion, Sense Motive, Survival, Spellcraft

My brain is utterly fried. I've finally finished everything for my presentation. Studying for the midterm. Will be out of town over the weekend for school. Will try, emphasis on try, to update after class tomorrow. May not update at all until Sunday, sorry guys.

I hear you; sometimes a project just won't die quietly. I spent last weekend writing more about seven lines of poetry than I ever have before, and that was off the top of my head. My midterms are over now, just (*laughs nervously*) a question of papers and presentations... So good luck, and don't worry about us! You take care of you. :)

Also, since I'm posting anyway, I thought I'd ask all you fine folks for ideas about leveling up. Like I said when we were doing introductions, I was planning on taking one wizard level (with the primalist archetype) for backstory purposes, and because I like wild/primal magic. That should keep me more than happy until when and if Machaera can find a rod of wonder. So far I'm thinking of transmutation as her specialization school, but I'm open to other ideas, and certainly any suggestions for spell selection, if anyone wants to weigh in.

(Goddesses help us, I can't help but think that if Theora is the "team mum," Machaera might be the team's hormonal teenaged older sister. She's really quite nice, if shy and moody, honest! :) And if she ever does get a rod of wonder, I promise she won't be too much of a menace. She's a responsible young woman. ;) )

Well you might want to pick a spell or two that you'll want to cast more than once in a day to make use of the Primalist benefit of keeping a spell using primal magic.

Thanks! I hadn't quite thought about it like that, but it's something to bear in mind. The idea is really just to have a way to blow off steam, since with only the one level in wizard, Machaera is almost never actually going to be able to pull it off, as opposed to watching the pretty colours for a while! :)

Still, I think it fits my vision of the character, and there are a few utility spells that wizards get that magi don't that might be useful, like endure elements, given the current situation, and even a first-level protection against evil at the right moment might come in handy. A bit of primal silliness is just icing on the cake.

Levelling:

1d8 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2 hit points. Ouch. Any chance of a reroll? :/
New spells known - detect magic (0), hex ward (1st).
Cunning Initiative - add Wisdom modifier to initiative (+3; new total +6)
Knowledgeable Defense - if Theora identifies a spell with Spellcraft, she gains a +1 bonus on saving throws or a +1 dodge bonus to AC against the spell, as appropriate.
7 skill points - Diplomacy, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (religion), Perception, Survival.

Hmm, leveling: I'll finalize things later tonight, but I suppose I might as well roll for hit points now. Come on, lucky threes!: 1d6 ⇒ 4

Incidentally, DM, thinking for the long-term, how do you feel about the Ritual Hex and Sacred Geometry feats? I figure they're less annoying to adjudicate in a play-by-post, but they are quite powerful. Also, are wishlists for our characters still on the table?

Theora, go ahead and reroll.

Machaera, I make it a point to not look into stuff if I don't have to :P I have no real knowledge of the ritual hex or sacred geometry feats and so have no feelings on either. So long as they are something your character could feasibly have, and no one yells at me about how horrible it would be for you to have them, then I don't care.

If I could make my opinion known, PbP is the perfect environment for Sacred Geometry. Plenty of time to do all the math...

Sacred Geometry

Theora, go ahead and reroll.

Machaera, I make it a point to not look into stuff if I don't have to :P I have no real knowledge of the ritual hex or sacred geometry feats and so have no feelings on either. So long as they are something your character could feasibly have, and no one yells at me about how horrible it would be for you to have them, then I don't care.

Thanks, I can work with that. I guess worrying about it shows I spend way too much time on these boards. :) We can wait and see if anyone here is inclined to be vocal about the feats; even if not, it will be a while before I qualify for them, so I just thought I would ask before I started to worry about prerequisites.

Having the ability to amp up your spells with metamagic or pull off a higher level hex could be pretty useful and I'd say the chance of failure makes it fair.

Sorry, yeah, wishlists are still on the table!

I'm thinking we've lost Snjórinn.

Looks like it.

I’m...a bit lost in this game, but not because the action’s difficult to follow. I’ll try to explain it without sounding too whiny, and without trying to alienate a fellow player.

I’m running a Kingmaker game on the boards, and in it, the ranger and paladin ended up taking a swim in a meltwater-fueled river. Almost the exact same scene Mirri is proposing followed, with a couple of key exceptions. First, the two characters had been adventuring together for nearly a month, which was a lot of time for the bonds of friendship to grow. Second, there was no forcing of the issue.

So far, Delilah’s entire experience with Mirri is that she’s tried to get in bed with her, naked, during an unstable combat situation. This doesn’t lend itself to a lot of trust.

I’m just not sure how to approach this game because, frankly, I’m not comfortable with the speed with which this happened. I want to be clear. I am not uncomfortable with non-standard sexuality. I am not uncomfortable with PC on PC romance. I’m not uncomfortable with nudity. However, this has been forceful, quick, and hasn’t really given Delilah a lot of options. If I’m reading it wrong, please let me know.

I could definitely see that. I'm assuming that Mirri's point is that of somone who's seen people die of hypothermia before and knows how dire it is and at an apprentice to a winter witch she's probably used to being listened to.

That being said a "who the hell do you think you are lady?" would be a completely normal and reasonable reaction as well.

@ Delilah

I believe this is very much a misunderstanding due to the context of message board posts and my own fault for not getting more detailed about her tone of voice. Mirri's trying to follow what she understands to be the best way to warm a person who has been affected by the cold, namely skin to skin contact and bundling up inside of blankets, etc. The way her tone of voice would be is neutral and business like, not sexual by any means. I understand if Delilah still wouldn't do this, and I don't want you to feel pressured into it, as Mirri won't force her to do this.

@ Aðvinr

Mirri isn't a winter witch apprentice, she's a boreal bloodline sorceress.

Ah ok.

Delilah, thanks for bringing it up. I wasn't entirely comfortable with the exchange either, but I thought that since it wasn't my character, it wasn't my place to bring it up first, if everyone else, and especially the people whose characters were involved, didn't think it was too weird. But please, certainly do speak up if anything makes you uncomfortable, as I think everyone should.

On a more or less general note, maybe it would help everyone to remember that as Pathfinder PCs, our characters are extraordinarily resilient in a world that is a lot more forgiving than our own. We're not quite at the level that martial types might decide that it's worth wading through lava or taking a hundred-foot fall to get to an enemy, but darn it, it might take a bit of hypothermia in the meantime, but we'll plunge through an icy river and shake it off when we're good and ready, and each player should decide how they want to go about it. As PCs, we're tough as nails (or delicate as apple blossoms but possessed of remarkable inner strength or whatever), and it will take more than a bit of cold to stop us! ;)

(Trying to introduce a lighter note, not meaning to belittle anyone's feelings.)

Thanks for clarifying, Mirri. As a person who does things outside in the Colorado winter, I understand that it's an excellent way to handle hypothermia. It's just that the scene made me feel uncomfortable for whatever reason.

Let's move on and let bygones be bygones here. Just as soon as I figure out what to do with Delilah now...

As the DM all I really have to say about the subject is that it would be unwise to put yourselves in a compromised position until you know the place has been cleared of enemy activity. That being said, I don't know that Delilah actually has made any rolls for the cold yet and so isn't suffering any of the effects that you guys have been rolling for. If I'm not mistaken, she's just adding flavor to her rp.

Yeah, I'm just being flavorful. However, if you'd like, I can make some rolls. Up to you, GM.

I'm not worried about it, really. Especially since you're not on the trail right now and will soon be able to rest and warm up anyway.

Didn't realize we hadn't cleared the place (should look at the map more it seems) nor that Delilah wasn't suffering from a failed save. That certainly makes a huge difference in everything.

Not all of the enemies are on the map. It helps keep people from metagaming, and this place has a second floor.

Hey guys, I just got the internet connected. Might take me a while to get into the swing of things again, but I'm back!

(Also, might be beating a dead horse since it's all resolved, but for what it's worth, I was uncomfortable and kinda creeped out as well.)