The Beginning of All Things (Inactive)

Game Master Terquem

Pleasure to meet you all.

I'll be joining you guys fairly quick here. Leto is one of the Gymnaga captured by the Orcs and the snake people you are currently fighting.

For those raised in or having lived in wood bridge for more than five years you would know that Leto is the twin brother of Alinda Colinaria (Carpenter). There was a bit of an issue years back as the young man took it upon himself to question both his birth mother and his fathers wife in their decisions in several instances. Leto had no interest in being a carpenter and had no issue with saying so. His desire for books of lore being well known. He left the village five years ago in the middle of the night and stayed gone. apparently all he left was a note saying he was fine and he would find his own path regardless of his Matriarch disagreeing.

At least until now.

Marcus - Robert will be an Urandoman living Lakeside with his family, you know him, but not terribly well (you can pm him with your questions, but I still cannot send you a PM) – Leto is a Gymnagaopthian who was born in MacNorra House, but who left his family a few years ago to get away from the rigid class structure of his people, you do not know him at all, and he is currently with his family being rescued by Poseus and the others. Marwan is a hermit, an Alodoan, living about three miles to the west northwest of Woodbridge in the Marshes. And finally, if Alfred replies to us, he is an Urandoman fellow who left Woodbridge many years ago, you are probably too young to remember him, and I have not completely nailed down how many of his family are still in the community.

Alfred, Anima, and Cullen have not yet responded to my messages

A game post (describing Patricia’s efforts in Castletown) was made, and it should be where Marwan, Alfred, Anima , and Cullen could join the game now if they wanted to. Another post, describing the work activity in Woodbridge will be made, and then I will return to the Tafganor Camp battle

I am supposed to have a minor surgery on my jaw on Friday, so I may be quiet for a day or two, but I am fully committed to this campaign.

I am probably biting off more than I can chew, but I intend to have a small force attack Woodbridge, and all of these characters will be called upon to defend the village (maybe even sneak out at night and conduct raids on the attacker’s camps).

Sounds good, especially since my character's damage output scares linearly with the number of allies. o.O

I am putting another informative post at this thread

Alodoan Campaign Setting, Journal

with brief information about three countries of Alodoa, which were developed by players recruited for the Castle Caldwell and beyond game

I'm up and feeling pretty good this morning, surgery went real well, doctor says the healing should go great.

Okay, so I think I am getting better at using CC3+ (the secret is to just not be in a hurry) I copied and pasted into a new map, the area of Alodoa, Baylor and Urandoma (the world is getting bigger!) I'll start adding national boarders, features and other details soon. I placed an "X" on the map where Vayangurr would be. This link is to a bit map file, if you can't see it, I'll try a png file instead (I'm not the smartest computer person in the world so I really don't know which one is easier to use).

The Known World_02

I'll also take a shot at editing over Alodoa to show more of Iaresia, and the southern part of the continent - maybe even whats on the other side of Rodney Bay?

So—how fleshed out are languages and pantheons for this world? I've got six bonus languages and a deity to pick out.

In the very early days of this campaign, we had a few Urandoman, Maetur, and Gymnaga deities created by some of the players, I'll hunt them down and put them in the journal. Also, if you can find the time, check out the last couple of pages of the game play thread at the Castle Caldwell game, where we have created at least 2 Alodoan deities.

Languages haven't been talked about. Should we have different languages for Urandoma, Aladoe, Vayangurr, Iarishea (elf), and Baylor (dwarf)?

I can see different languages being assigned to those- Aladoe & Urandoma for sure at least since it has been barely a generation since the Empire took over Urandoma and their influence is largely been limited to the more coastal and political important locations. As a real-world analog, I see it kind of like the situation in North America when New France was turned over to the British. The colony had its own culture, language, customs, religion and legal traditions, completely distinct from the British, and the Brits had to find some way to deal with this without inciting a population that vastly outnumbered them to rebel.
Huh.
I just thought of something. This analogy matches pretty well, actually, if you take it a step further and replace the native tribes with the Gymnaga and Maetaur (not a cultural match perhaps, but the political details are close.)
Anyway, as for the other languages I think it would depend upon how long they have been under the influence of the the Alodoans. Has it been long enough for the Empire's culture to dominate the area? Has Alodoan become the de facto trade language, like Latin did in much of Europe, or English today?
Just some things to consider.

At some point when i have time I plan on fleshing out Riku's religion more. He doesn't actually worship a specific deity. if any of you have ideas id love to hear them

I mean, I can easily also create a Vayangurr deity for Arvid to follow, which might be fine. But I also see him as probably the party linguist, which means time to pile on all the current world languages.

Has anything been brought up about languages of non-humanoids? Draconic, outsider languages?

Calex - I agree, and keeping with my original idea, it's also a lot like the British trying to come to terms with the original Gaelic speaking people of Ireland.

Riku - I'd also really appreciate it if you would take a moment to consider if Riku is from Baravkovia (see the Castle Caldwell game). His mannerisms, and his unusual religion would fit in with that country well, I think (Baravkovia, while technically part of the Alodoan Empire, is a boarder-less nation on the western Alodoan frontier, known for dark foreboding mountains, mist shrouded valleys, and deep alpine lakes - it is sort of the "Ravenloft-esque" part of this setting

Arvid - Magnus, a player in the Castle Caldwell game, created the "Crow God" of the Vayangurr people, who is the chief deity in the pantheon, while Kiril, a player in the Palace of the Vampire Queen, the 5e version game, created the lion headed god of war in the same pantheon (this would be a more "mountain lion like deity, not a plains ;lion - the Vayangurr islands would certainly have a cave/mountain lion creature for the basis of the god, but plains lion, would probably be unknown to all the people in these latitudes.

Marwan - I've always had a lot of heartache with Player Characters knowing obscure languages of creatures that practically no one has ever had real contact with (though this applies more to my regular campaign settings than to this one). What we would have to establish is how much contact do these people (The Alodoans and others ) have with other plane creatures, dragons, or intelligent creatures of the Underdark. In the Baylor setting for the Palace of the Vampire Queen, the 5e version, we have established that the dwarves, who now occupy the island and live in surface towns and cities have a dark history and were once slaves to a "grey-dwarf" race of the underdark - so there is a secret language there that we could introduce for sure (most likely this is similar to the language of the tafganor, right?). The other languages, demonic, draconic, elemental, could change the whole make up of the campaign, not that we shouldn't have them, we just need to think about why we have them and where they came from. I could also see the Sashi-Anhain speaking a different language that is close to Draconic

Here is a question - We introduced the Sashi-Anhain as mortal, ancient enemies of the Gymnagaopthians, and hinted that the Gymnaga escaped oppression from the Sashi-Anhain in the distant past, we've also (in the Castle Caldwell game) created the "City States of Tarulle) a hostile land at the south of the Alodoan continent - Should there be Sashi-Anhain, Gymnaga, and Tafganor (orcs) in the Marshes and bad-lands of Tarulle? Should this be the country of origin of some of these races, or should we maybe move this origin to further south, off the map?

This is a newer version of the map, I've traced over Alodoa, expanded it, set the northern coastline of Iarishea (which is well into the 50+ degree northern latitudes) - AND hinted at another continent south of the Vayungurr islands (I still need to trace over Baylor and Urandoma, and start putting in details).

The Known World_02

Fair enough. I'll probably have him worship a new god of smiths, if that's alright, and add it to the Vaangurr pantheon.

@Arvid: When I said 'bloody', that was autocorrected from 'broody'. I've honestly -never- seen you play a character that wasn't a brooder. :P I've only kind of been keeping up with recruitment, so I didn't see the response.

Oh! Hmm. At some point I need to tell you stories of Tanglemon Swordhawk, the Worst Elf, who Spider Climbs up his enemies for sport AND sings the Batman theme song in battle with his name inserted.

Am I correct in assuming that removing this stake means Leto can move as he desires for the next round? (Round 6)

Yes, but let's say that he is "tethered" to four other individuals, so suffers a penalty to his movement (limited to moving at regular speed each round, no running, double moves, or charges)

There's a typhoon where I live right now so internet is spotty as hell. Bot Marwan as you need to.

Just a heads up, gang: I'll be away up country visiting the family homestead for my grandmother's birthday next weekend. No internet up there so I'll be out of contact until we get back on Sunday. Sorry for the hassle.

@Lito/Movin: The way I run surprise rounds is that they typically interrupt an action that is currently occurring. Thus why halfway through your turn, you happen upon something that is occurring and you pause. That's why, I think, they make it half turns around the board. Some people are aware and have changed what they're doing, others are just 'doing', as it were. :)

Make sense, I was mostly asking to see if the Snake men had expended their action getting weapons and moving.

Also makes me sad I don't have my actual weapons out, Reach and combat reflexes is always a fun combination. Though beating snake people with a over sized rail spike has its charms.

Sorry I haven't posted, I've been ill.

For what it's worth, and I know I've said before how I do not like talking about real life problems of mine in the threads, I am up, and improving (on the sixth round of anti-biotics this summer). With the doctor treating me now saying, "hmmm, maybe it isn't an infection, hey I know let's schedule a cat scan" so, even though I am up, I am not at my best but I am trying to update games.

I'd appreciate it if the other new players who are in Castletown who are still following the game would check in, please.

Still here; I just don't know what Arvid has to contribute until the group moves out.

To be honest, I don't really know what to say. I've been waiting until some action happens.

I'll be updating tomorrow.

@GM, how long's the march? I can use Song of Marching to double our travel speed, but it's 1 round/hour, and I've got a total of 11 rounds/day.

Song of Marching is like the reason I like Skald. so much overland travel. <3

Song of Marching is like the reason I like Skald. so much overland travel. <3

Sure, but... you haven't seen Arvid's Spirit Totem in action yet.

The distance is 24 miles (that is what everyone in Woodbridge believes, as best as they can determine). If you are experienced with the fens (Patricia is) you can make it in a day on foot, walking from sun up to sunrise (you do not want to be in the fens at night, getting lost in the dark there is dangerous).

So, now this is honestly kind of weird to consider, but if you chanted (or sang, something like, "There she was just a walking down the street, singing do wa diddy diddy dum diddy do...") for a whole hour, you could increase the movement through the fens to 6 miles per hour, rather than 3 miles per hour. I think it is reasonable to do this for four hours, with breaks in between, such that in something like 6 hours you could make the journey.

But, we also have wagons to consider, as two Player Characters in this group have a small wagon (and Patricia can lead these small wagons through the fens, keeping to the highest ground, maybe needing a hand in some wet/recently rained on patches o ground where they might get bogged down) so we have that to consider.

And finally, if it rains it becomes hard to keep track of what direction you are going while in the fens, so I will roll for a chance for rain, and then a chance to become lost if that happens.

Well... song of marching also gives strength to the horses pulling the wagon, though. It's crazy like that.

Oh, I love spirit totem as well. I was making a Skald a bit ago, but due to my rolls (and the fact that Skald is really hard to get a party for on play by post), I opted for a different character entirely; I hadn't played a rogue in forever anyway. :) I was totally going Mouse Totemic Skald at the time. :)

Its either highly useful or entirely ignored depending on the game you happen to be playing. Could be amazing for Jade regent though.

I've yet to play a Skald but they certainly do look interesting.

So total armor novice here but it seems somewhat weird to me that chain shirts take a full minute to don hastily.
Would I be correct in assuming that there is slightly more complexity in donning such an object than just sticking your limbs through the holes?

Hotaru, I thought Skald was the one class you used to hate, though?

@Leto: have you ever worn chainmail? You can't just put it on like a shirt; the fabric doesn't stretch at all, which means that you have to slide your arms through slowly (it's easier with assistance), and rearrange the shirt part as you put it on to keep it from bunching up; it's also really easy to get your hair (or arm hair) painfully caught between the links.

I hate how -situational- skald is. You have to have the right party, or a lot of what you do is going to be wasted. People having to opt into your song to get access to the other neat things you're providing is also sort of a bummer. Oddly, their music is slightly more flexible than a bard in some ways. It's... really complicated.

I hate that they give up skills, and that their baseline buff is commonly less useful for combat situations. I love Spirit totem, though. I loved it -before- skald. Likewise, I love the Totemic Archetype, because I love totems as a whole. You can build -so much flavor- just by tying a character to a specific totem animal. :)

@Leto: It's also reasonable to assume that there's -going- to be a leather jerkin underneathe, just because of the aforementioned pinching and such. Pretty much all armor will have padding of some kind, so it's more like putting on football pads in a way. (though I guess that's closer to breastplate)

@Avrid
Nope, is why I asked.

And yeah, the Skald is really situation but can be hilarious in the right group. Though Spirit totem is a surprisingly potent option to give to a whole party.
Or a horde of housecats.

XD. I hadn't even thought of that. Spirit Totem Skald fails the bag of puppies test so bad it doesn't even have to kill the puppies. You just throw the bag at your enemy and sing; the spirits will take care of the rest.

I can see it now: Skald casts Beguiling Gift and hands someone a bag of puppies as a standard action. Then begins humming as a move action. *Kersplode*

Introducing a Skald into this campaign has really opened up a whole new world of ideas to be fleshed out. This character, Magnus from the Castle Caldwell game, and Kiril from the Palace of the Vampire Queen 5e game, introduce an entirely new culture to our setting.

I'd argue the skald baseline buff can be more useful; the extra Con helps everyone, and with lingering song, casters can take the buff just every few rounds to keep the morale bonuses. And rage powers get insane.

I'm flavoring spirit totem, in Arvid's case, as "calling forth the craft spirits of steel," so it probably only applies to anyone with an actual weapon (and not a literal puppy); plus, it uses their bab, not mine. It's really just a x2 force multiplier.

Thanks Terquem, info about whats going on is nice to have.

@Avrid
does it still use your CHA stat for damage?
also thanks for the info on chainmail. (you too mina)

Since I'm in another game with someone else (who is a Skald, mostly caster party), can you link where you get the idea that Lingering Performance lets them accept the song one of every three rounds and still gain the benefits and cast?

Skald is also ridiculous in a wound threshold game, because you can game the wound thresholds by changing your HP around, thus gaining additional to-hit and losing less AC. :) And that is -also- very thematically appropriate, the skald inspiring people to overcome their weakness.

Sorry; I was thinking of Community-Minded. It's a very useful trait for skalds.

Community minded

Benefit(s): Any morale bonuses you confer upon your allies through your own abilities or spells last 2 additional rounds

As Paizo has repeatedly stated you count as your own ally that is quite the trait.

Admittedly that also sounds really interesting in the hands of a Barbarian who can rage cycle.
An urban barbarian could juggle three different stat boosts at the same time.

I'm behind in all my map updates (which are done on another computer). I'm sorry. I don't want to use this forum as a place to talk about myself, so just know that I am okay, little trouble seeing, and with balance, but I am okay, and when I can get to the right computer I will update all my game maps.

Again, so sorry.

No problems Terq! With all the hectic, crazy things everyday life throws at us, I really don't mind the relaxed play we have here. I can see how maybe the slower pace of this game might frustrate some -everyone has a different play expectation after all- but my personal feelings are OK with it. My shift rotation runs a 4 days on, 4 off, 12-hour 2 day 2 night schedule so I can be a bit erratic checking things myself.

Sorry I have been so absent. I'm trying to figure out how to do all my work, apply for college, and play pathfinder. Unfortunately pathfinder comes last.

No worries Riku, just glad you didn't disappear completely.

Meanwhile I am updating the map and doing a game update for the battle right now, only I have a dilemma. There is the matter of a surviving Sashi-Anhain who was too cowardly to attack Poseus - I'll mention it in game, But Leto, Poseus and Tanasinda need to think of how they are going to deal with this guy.

I'd vote chaining him to the center post of the tent we just got the key from.

That will take time and delay you leaving the camp proper. Let's see what Poseus has to say about it

There is only one encounter map now, and it is updated. I hope everyone can see it