Ruins of Pathfinder: The Quest for Arcadia (Inactive)

Game Master Robert Brookes

@Rogath: Rapping spirits communicate through knocks. If you can work out a means of communication, like "one knock for yes, two knocks for no" you can question them. Other creative uses for the knocks can also be made if you can come up with them.

While these knockings are still potentially frightening, communication with these feeble spirits can be established by working out a series of codes (such as one rap for “yes” and two for “no”) or by calling out words, numbers, and letters for selection by the spirits.

Such messages can be formed at the rate of 1d10 words for each minute a character makes a successful Linguistics check, with a DC equal to 15 + the original haunt’s CR. Such communications are typically unreliable and cryptic, never conveying knowledge beyond what the spirit knew in life.

The Linguistics check DC in this event would be 17 to create a cipher of knocks for more than yes/no communication.

I'm glad to hear you're feeling better. And I, for one, didn't mind the long gap. It gave me time to post, amidst the rest of a very hectic week.

The knocking spirits sound fun! Is language a barrier, or can I assume they speak understand Common and/or are beyond language?

Good Afternoon,

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still here, I have just had no time to be able to really post anything this week. I've already clocked in a full work week and it's only Wednesday. I hope to post something soon, but I don't want to promise tomorrow and then not be able to deliver.

You mean....you mean...

MINNIE-CHAN!! NOOOOO!!!!

to answer the inevtiable questions:

Yes, I just thought of that.

No, I could not resist.

Hmm, that post seems familiar... did anyone else from here make it into Logem's Mythic game? :) (I'm Gi'chak if you're not aware).

No worries Rob, happens to all of us, my other RPs, driving lessons and WoW are keeping more plenty busy :p

That sucks about Mineko. Guess I'll have to stretch myself and find someone else for Quint to harrass. I could actually see Quint and Logem getting along relatively well, since he's another 'intellectual'--at least up until the inevitable betrayal.

Hmm, that post seems familiar... did anyone else from here make it into Logem's Mythic game? :) (I'm Gi'chak if you're not aware).

Dakun is Ardeshir - Vulgarbeard (aka Kagehiro) is Thorgrim, and.. those are the only other two that joined my campaign from here. Though Nexander is in Rob's Ruins of Pathfinder: Reign of Winter as well as Dakun, Vulgarbeard, and myself. Mineko is also in that Reign of Winter one.

Small post-apocalyptic campaign world. :D

Must be. I can only imagine one character or another making a cameo in one of the other campaigns now. I know we're earlier than the Reign of Winter one... Are we earlier than your Mythic one, Logem?

I'm glad to hear you're feeling better. And I, for one, didn't mind the long gap. It gave me time to post, amidst the rest of a very hectic week.

The knocking spirits sound fun! Is language a barrier, or can I assume they speak understand Common and/or are beyond language?

The spirits understand Common, yeah.

Gameplay for the beach team is up, the big ol' crab is almost defeated!

Might I suggest a central location for current battle maps? A link on campaign info would be practical, I imagine.

Ah, thanks for reminding me to do that!

Encounter maps should show up at the top of the page now.

*cough*

Hey just a heads up guys, I'm having some internet issues, and will have trouble posting until I can secure myself a new router. Won't stop me from posting completely, as I can get on sometimes, but.. yeah.

Sharing the internet with no router means only one person can be plugged in at once, so I have to wait till the other person's asleep so I can get on >.>

Even though I've copy-pasted this message a few times, I just wanted to make sure it was in all of my campaigns. XD

Going to be out of town until Tuesday, and won't be able to post during that time. Feel free to DMPC my character as needed. As it stands, I believe Dwunderbran is just running like a little girl from the spooky noises in the well.

Quint Bonechisel wrote:

Hmm, that post seems familiar... did anyone else from here make it into Logem's Mythic game? :) (I'm Gi'chak if you're not aware).

Dakun is Ardeshir - Vulgarbeard (aka Kagehiro) is Thorgrim, and.. those are the only other two that joined my campaign from here. Though Nexander is in Rob's Ruins of Pathfinder: Reign of Winter as well as Dakun, Vulgarbeard, and myself. Mineko is also in that Reign of Winter one.

Small post-apocalyptic campaign world. :D

Aww, I missed the recruitment thread? Sad. Not entirely unexpected, but sad. Have fun over there!

To anyone looking down from above the well, it would likely look like Rogath had hit his head when the rope dropped, since he's pointing at a wall and reciting the alphabet over and over with odd skips. Rogath is entirely unaware of the impression this may give, though.

^ Laughed really hard at that!

Angrin's probably going to pull him up soon. :P He seems the worse for wear.

Just realized I was waiting on Mineko for the beach combat >_>;;

I'm at the office right now and I'll update that when I get home later tonight, I left my notebook of stats and other info at home like a bonehead.

heh, no problem. I was going to post again but internet was screwy yesterday. I'll wait now then :)

For the expedition team (Dakun, Rogath, Dwun and Angrin) what is your plan with the well and your discoveries there? (The sword, the shield, the corpses.) Are you going to further investigate the spirits plight (that seems to be the case.)

For the expedition team (Dakun, Rogath, Dwun and Angrin) what is your plan with the well and your discoveries there? (The sword, the shield, the corpses.) Are you going to further investigate the spirits plight (that seems to be the case.)

My plan is to talk to the spirits for a while, then properly lay the bodies to rest somewhere in the area. At some point (no later than the laying to rest), I'll have the moment of inspiration Rogath needs to translate the runes on the sword and I'll share the translation. We'll probably spend the night in the quasi-shelter of the ruins, too. After that, I don't know, but I expect to take both the sword and shield with unless the spirits object.

Given that the spirits communicate very slowly (1d10 words per minute), do I need to roll checks for each question? Or does the one check just cover the whole conversation?

------

All this assumes that Rogath manages to convince the others that he isn't crazy, and that the spirits don't start screaming again any time soon.

One check for the whole conversation is fine, yeah.

Dakún would want to lay the spirits to rest as well. We may want to explore further, as it seems odd that there would be a single mill. We may yet find additional ruins of these centuries old Ulfen settlers.

I thought about making a character for your summoner school game, but I decided it would be better to let others get a chance to play in your games and focus on the games I am currently in.

That being said, my idea for a gillman future summoner with innsmouth change/lovecraftian inspired background is still rattling around in my head.

Angrin would be happy with the idea of helping out the spirits.

sounds awesome dakun! I on the other hand will be trying to steal one of the spots again :p

Too many games, not enough time for such things. I really have only had time between query load-ups in showcase to catch up on the forums. I think my summoner character would have been very interesting and tragic, with tie ins to aboleth and Skum, but there is always a future game.

I haven't even finished my backstory crusty's ruins game. :(

Hey all, I've been silent on the internet front for a couple days. College, moving, establishing myself in Houston, and all that. Apartment office has net, so I may be able to keep up, but I may have to keep my posting light. Hopefully I'll get a more permanent internet solution up before next week is out.

And yes, I still intend to make a summoner kid for you other game, Rob. Assuming I get it done before you close recruitment.

Got a job interview today, but updates will be forthcoming over the course of late-tonight and early-tomorrow.

Sorry about the vast delay in posts, real life has been eating me. I shall attempt to get one up today.

Hey guys, working on updating the beach and exploration teams. I was pretty busy the last few days with a project. You should see an update shortly.

Don't feel bad about slow pacing. Take all the time you need.

Please.

Just letting you all know you can catch a glimpse of the cover art for my next Pathfinder project at the fans of Paizo Facebook page :)

Nice! When can we expect to see this book out? I might be able to find use for it in Road to Damnation.. ;)

Ideally by December. It was supposed to be out in October but some scheduling conflicts with the artists caused me to have to push things back.

Oof. Sorry about my increasingly belated posts - I will most certainly get one up this weekend.

@Quint: I'll let the tinker's cap work with this use of Linguistics, that makes good sense based on its description.

@Rogath: Do you have further questions for the spirits?

@Dwunderbran, Angrin: Anything from you two?

@Logem: Yeah, you can make appraise checks on the rings back at the camp. I'll give you more detailed descriptions then, they're caked with blood and sand right now at any rate.

At this point I can also transition the beach team back to the main camp, when you're done RPing there and ready to move on.

Awesome, so he just need to find another +1 linguistics and he can take 10 on the DC 20 rolls at least :s Guess he'll need an assistant.

And alas, I don't have any.. substances.. that would help in the matter, even for a short time.

I'll get another post up tonight with some more questions to ask of them, Rob. Sorry for my own absences, but it's been an absolutely crazy week.

it's been an absolutely crazy week.

I sympathize!

I am going to get the beach team back to the camp on my next post for them (probably tomorrow during the day sometime, while I'm at work.) After that post you'll be free to pursue downtime activities (such as investigating the journal, appraising items, and the like.)

With Mineko's player gone for a little while longer, she is going to fade into the background helping with administrative tasks. What will the beach team's plan be going forward?

Bury Halsiig first off.. then probably continue to have the peons slaves settlers continue salvaging what we can from the beach. We should leave nothing unturned!

Organize the collection of the goods from the beach, give Halsiig a proper funeral; thinking Quint will probably try to make a speech to make sure morale doesn't take too much of a hit, then get to work on the journal tomorrow.

Oh, looks like you missed one of my questions Rob.

Will Quint be able to take normal downtime actions and still devote an hour or two to the book in the evenings, or does he have to choose? He'll likely be focusing on the diary, but I like to know my options.

HAHA!!! INTERNET ACCESS!!!

I am once again WHOLE!

time to get this Dwarven gravy train rollin' again. Let's get the beach team home and get us a seafood feast cookin'.

Organize the collection of the goods from the beach, give Halsiig a proper funeral; thinking Quint will probably try to make a speech to make sure morale doesn't take too much of a hit, then get to work on the journal tomorrow.

Oh, looks like you missed one of my questions Rob.

Quote:

Will Quint be able to take normal downtime actions and still devote an hour or two to the book in the evenings, or does he have to choose? He'll likely be focusing on the diary, but I like to know my options.

I did miss it!

It depends on how many hours you devote to the book. If you're spending 8 hours deciphering the blurry text than you won't be able to take downtime actions. But if you're only spending an hour or so a day you should be fine. Treat it like mundane crafting, basically.

Cool, that was more or less what I was thinking. So he'll finish up his current day's action by continuing to smooze up to the useful/more influential dwarves (whoever has taken charge of leading the craftdwarves, the explorer/surveyor dwarves, the scavenger dwarves etc. Anyone who seems like they have leadership or organizational abilities) around as he helps get things ready for the funeral, and then spend a couple hours before bed trying to decipher the last couple pages (Lost). Once he's figured that out (he will be recreating the journal as he goes on fresh paper assuming the expedition has enough) I think he will start on Mysteries of Arcadia I still in his off-time.

If someone with linguistics offers to help him however, then he will dedicate some full days and take 10 on all the 'easy' pages, which should take 14 hours and get him Humble Beginnings, The Skuldafn Gambit, Mysteries of Arcadia I, and The Voyage to Arcadia. The other ones are going to be a bit more challenging unless a whole bunch of people are willing and able to help...

For my own reference: Skill Challenge Post

Dr. Logem is busy doing other things, and has no linguistic skills :X Though, if me attempting to detect invisible ink signatures would help at all.. he could devote a small amount of time for it.