The Beginning of All Things (Inactive)

Game Master Terquem

I have sent a few messages to Riku, and there has been no response. Arvid has not posted since February 2.

When we finish this battle – I will be making a suggestion for all the remaining players to consider.

I've really let you guys down. I can tell. My slow posting rate has taken away from any possible way for this to seem like anything is urgent.

Can we fix this?

If we can - here's what I'd like to do.

First - I realize that many players on the boards have a less than easy time of adapting to sandbox style adventures and most prefer programmed adventures like the Pathfinder Adventure Paths.

While I had some keen ideas in the beginning, the change in Player Characters kept throwing me for a loop and making me rethink where I wanted to go with encounters and plots.

If we can get through this battle I propose doing something drastic

I have purchased the "Battle of Bloodmarch Hill"

I will review it in great detail and find a way to bend it to this setting. The battle of Woodbridge will stand as the introduction to the adventure path, and we can start into this adventure path as soon as I have made the necessary adjustments to the module.

What do you think?

I could have Marucs do a bunch of things, but was unsure if I was "allowed" in terms on initiative sequence or whatnot.

Marcus understands that time is few right now, seeing as the initial attacks has started. What should I do, do I have "free reign" so to speak to react how Marcus would or should I be more "traditional" if that makes sense?

Marcus, Marwan, and Calex have been told that an attack on the bridge has begun

[Edit]Marcus can do whatever you want him to do at this moment. As no Player Character has actually come face to face with any attackers, I have not asked for any Initiative rolls to control Player character actions.

Leto and Robert have become aware that a crossing of the river near the Goodwell farm is underway

Arvid and Patricia are seeing flaming arrows land near the bread and Board (but it should be pointed out that the lake north of the Bread and Board is at its widest in this location and as of yet no one has investigated if a crossing is underway there).

I realize I was too ambitious in this story line. it would be better for PbP if we could somehow just bounce ahead in time and put all the player characters in one location and have them battle the forces attacking the bridge.

Even though I had no prior knowledge about the theme or plot of the Giant Slayer Adventure path, when I picked up Battle of Bloodmarch Hill I did see the similarities in what was presented. While Our adventure lacks any sort of murder and investigation, it does have a concentrated attack by "orcs" on a small village. There is also a coincidental plot point that our Woodbridge campaign has danced around the idea of "Giants" (Giant monsters, Giant Bullywugs, and magical underground places where something turns regular creatures into Giants) which sort of could easily be directed into the Giant Slayer Campaign.

I actually didn't see the most recent gameplay post somehow.
I'll be posting Leto's actions shortly.

And I'd argue that splitting the action like this keeps it fresh so long as we all keep our posts labeled so everyone knows who is posting where.
It makes total sense that the warriors in question wouldn't be dense enough to attack in one big mass.

As to the story of woodbridge, I'd been interested to see how it played out between the Empirical halflings, rebellious elves and the disturbingly well organized hordes to the south.
I'd been hoping to establish Leto as an associate of Calex and become more of a fixture to the town that way.

My advice would be that borrowing chunks from the adventure to serve as easy set pieces and monsters would likely work far better than trying to shoehorn pathfinders setting flavor into your own game.

Yeah... I figure Arvid and Patricia will probably get involved a bit later in the fight.

I'm still here. Just waiting on a map.

though I suppose the desire I had was to wait for them to clump up and set my impromptu fire trap off then.
So if you want to just say theres an opportunity thats fine. Leto will likely be retreating once he does that anyway. I don't much fancy his chances against a horde of orcs with axes even with all his fancy buffs.

Don't worry Leto, if I can see them I'll throw a stone or two at them before they cut you down. :)

I am going to have to remove myself from this game, I think. My Father passed away from a sudden heart attack this morning. I'm going to have alot of things to deal with. Thanks for your understanding and good luck everyone. It's been fun.

Oh. Uh wow. My sincerest condolences.

That just made me wince reflexively and think about it happening to my own father. Ow.

I'm very sorry Calex, good luck with taking care of the things that you need to take care of.

Well, I know its been hard, and I know I've been struggling with this game, but I'm not convinced that I need to put it down, yet.

However, with Calex gone I have a serious problem.

See the adventure is supposed to be about the "People of Woodbridge" as they come to terms with the changes going on in their world.

Now we have one, and only one, Player Character who is actually a "Person of Woodbridge"

Marcus

I am not happy about that.

OK Terquem, right now I'm not firing on all cylinders, and my quitting was a gut reaction. The coroner just left with my father a few hours ago, and I still have'nt been able to contact my mom, who is out of town this week. If you are willing to give me the time i need i'll try to return when things are less hard. Right now i'm in no shape to focus on anything else. So. If you want, we can change my status to absent instead and I'll let you know via pm when I can return. In the meantime you can run Cal as an NPC. Does that help?

Well I had been hoping to make that transition with Leto as he has more time to speak with the people of woodbridge and become invested in them.
The manner he left and his reasons don't exactly make for an easy reconciliation in a class driven society like the Gymnaga.
So he's likely to have to find a place to settle down for a while and gradually attempt to heal that wound.
Living with his family is unlikely to cause anything but friction anyway.

I can't speak for our other players but there is nothing to say they can't gradually transition to setting roots in woodbridge as well if the interest is there.

Its a pleasant little place when orcs are not attempting to set it on fire.

I can understand the frustration though. This game has been around for a long time and its saddening to see it change so drastically. It's unfortunate when that sort of stuff happens.

Hey! I'm born and breed Woodbridge, just not from the start of the game. :)

I know you had some storylines around those that started the game, not knowing what they are I can't suggest any changes to them, but I'm enjoying this so far and Robert has a lot to live for! :)

I'm willing to help any way I can with suggestions or ideas, or just as a sponge to soak up beer. Or is that another game?

I am sorry for forgetting you Robert! That's like three or four times now. sheesh

Calex, no worries, and I am sorry for putting pressure on you. Take all the time you need.

Perhaps Terquem would remember you if that ghostly scent of bacon would stop wafting by. So distracting.

Though if could prepare yourself to bean some orcs in the head with rocks that would be lovely.
Assuming the lantern doesn't already give you a target I'm betting Leto's next action will attract your attention.

Perhaps Terquem would remember you if that ghostly scent of bacon would stop wafting by. So distracting.

Though if could prepare yourself to bean some orcs in the head with rocks that would be lovely.
Assuming the lantern doesn't already give you a target I'm betting Leto's next action will attract your attention.

Already locked and loaded but being distracted by a bacon cheeseburger.

It occurs to me that Leto being a Beastmorph alchemist could have had dark vision the whole time due to getting it as an option when he made his mutagen.

Going to need to remember I can do that in future.
For now I think i'll just say Leto didn't have what he needed to be able to do that.

As to cheeseburgers, well thats what you get for making it out of leprechauns. Magically delicious.

Sorry to hear about your father, Cal.

Maps are now posted for the two battles

Arvid has joiuned Marwan, Calex, and Marcus at the bridge, there are 8 Sashi-Anhain, and 14 Tafganor attempting to cross the bridge

Leto and Robert are facing 14 Tafganor at the other end (the east) of the island)

Initiative will go in groups

The Player Characters have initiative as a group each round (you can use the Discussion thread to talk among yourselves to plan your actions if you need to determine who among your group will act first in each round

The Sashi-Anhain will act second in each round (including those firing flaming arrows at the buildings at the north end of the island

The Tafganor will act third in each round

The Owl Bear will act last (unless the Tafganor handlers are stopped)

Round one starts now

Thanks Terquem.
This ought to be some fun.

Did we have a few local NPCs with us. Someone we can send running to let others know of the crossing here?

Leto never bothered to tell anyone. did you?

I'd guess that when people hear the sounds of battle and all the fire they'll take notice.

Orc warriors are going to be a pain in the ass to fight anyway.
Ferocity is a supremely dangerous ability at lower levels.
I'm hoping to deal enough damage to put a majority of them into Ferocity HP so we can out run them.
As they are staggered when that happens and at the moment they don't have any ranged weapons.

Hrmmm.. I suppose that also bring up another question.
What happens to a creature who is interrupted in the middle of a full round action with something that renders them staggered?
Do they complete their action, stop in the middle?

Dad's funeral was yesterday. I'm still feeling a little shell-shocked. This whole thing has happened so fast and unexpectedly. The coroner said it was a "massive coronary event", or in other words a sudden heart attack. I'm gonna take some time to deal with this and its aftermath. I should be back to functionality on Monday. Thanks again everyone for your well wishes and support.

Take your time, dude.

Flu, sorry, be back soon I hope

Hello everyone. It seems like we've weathered the first week and I'm starting to come back out of my fog. It's still been rather crazy (lawyers, bankers, insurance people, canceling passports, I.D., credit cards, closing accounts, talking to accountants, going through his effects, GAHH!) but it's time for me to step back and take a breath from it. Get a break from real life and slip into Woodbridge for a visit. So I'll read up on what I missed and resume posting tomorrow. Thanks again for your understanding.

I'm just glad you'll still be joining us Calex.

Most of our work was battle prep.
I think pretty much everyone is defending the towns bridge from a force of warrior and archers with an owlbear. Leto and Robert spoiled an ambush and are attempting to deal with a large number of angry and wet warriors who just crawled out of the river carrying axes.

There is a force of warriors firing flaming arrows at us from the north as well. Its my personal opinion that its a distraction to keep attention away from the ambush. As they don't seem to be close enough to reliably hit a building, much less a person.

Last I recall Calex was with the group at the bridge. Got any fancy arcane magiks prepared today?

Welcome back Calex

Hello everyone. My head is clearing up and I will begin updating all games today and tomorrow.

Thank you for being patient. Seems a lot harder to deal with a simple head cold at my age than it was when I was younger, *sheesh*

I'm just glad you'll still be joining us Calex.

Most of our work was battle prep.
I think pretty much everyone is defending the towns bridge from a force of warrior and archers with an owlbear. Leto and Robert spoiled an ambush and are attempting to deal with a large number of angry and wet warriors who just crawled out of the river carrying axes.

There is a force of warriors firing flaming arrows at us from the north as well. Its my personal opinion that its a distraction to keep attention away from the ambush. As they don't seem to be close enough to reliably hit a building, much less a person.

Last I recall Calex was with the group at the bridge. Got any fancy arcane magiks prepared today?

As a matter of fact, I earlier mentioned I was changing out my Minor image spell for Web...which should block the bridge quite nicely.

Robert and Leto have defeated all the Tafganor attempting to sneak onto the island from the east.

Leto - What light are you seeing, the bridge or fire at the Bread and Board?

The bread and board

With several volleys of flaming arrows streaking through the air I figure the connection of a new light sticking around in the northern direction being fire is simple to draw.

Also hooray. Now me and Robert can high five like a duo in a buddy cop film and run off to do more great stuff.

High Five!

Arrow Attack Randomizer for round 3 attacks
1-Calex
2-Marcus
3-Marwan
4-NPC
Arrows: 4d4 ⇒ (3, 4, 3, 3) = 13

Calex - No I did not, and I apologize again for taking on such a huge PbP battle, I will try harder to pay attention to all the player character current effects

Blur Miss Chance 20 or less = Miss: 1d100 ⇒ 12

After several attempts to reach Riku, I have had no replies to private messages and feel we must consider him gone from the game. I will remove him from the character roster.

A surprise Mother's Day get-a-way has taken me away from computers until Tuesday, sorry for the delay.

Hrmm.. then I'll just huck it over the bridge. AC of a square is 5 and with 20ft range im looking at a -8 for that sort of distance.
Secondly Leto is capable of generating roiling masses of plant matter with his specialized tanglefoot bomb. It creates difficult terrain, what would your opinion be on it slowing down the fire on the bridge?

The Bramble brewer's briar bomb is what I speak of currently it current radius is a 10ft splash from target square. Lotta plants there.

I'm not sure what has happened to Marcus and Arvid, but there is still plenty to deal with this night on the island. The bridge is going to burn and collapse into the lake in a ruin.

The Bread and Board is on fire

Houses in Lakeside are being set ablaze

I'd been thinking I could put Leto's tricks to use and sunder a big hunk of the bridge's roof off so we could huck the burning bit into the river. Use plant bombs to slow the fire on the actual bridge until we can put it out.

Though that is theoretical at best so I'm fine with just saying that the bridge burns down to avoid the complication.

Well here I am apologizing again. I am headed to Boise again, a four hour drive, and will be back Sunday. I had wanted to get all the games updated today, but couldn't get the time. Sorry everyone.

I hope to be back with some updates Sunday Night.

Some new information has been added to the campaign tab. it is the current list of all the Urandoman people who have been named in this adventure so far, who are residents of Woodbridge. here is the list again (this list does not include the 4 Alodoan human families who live Lakeside)

1) The Ballinig Family – Lakeside: (5) Anna Ballinig, eldest daughter
2) The Barrow Family – Riverside: (1)
3) The Dale Family – Riverside: (3) Marcus, and his parents
4) The Dooley Family – Lakeside: (6) Eghan, married to Lynne (Flaherty) and four children, three sons and one daughter(Eghan’s sister is Rebecca Flynn)
5) The Flaherty Family – Riverside: (2) Old Sean (his sister is the widow Ginny MacNorra), (Lynne Dooley) and Patricia
6) The Flynn Families (2) – Lakeside: (4) Michael, married to Corrine (O’lehig) and (2) Mitchell married to Becky (Dooley)
7) The Foregan Family – Lakeside: (5) Sean, carpenter
8) The Galihan Family – Riverside (4) Geoffrey, Fiona, and two children, they keep Chickens
9) The Goodwell Family – Riverside: (5) Ulan and Charlotte, Elizabeth is their oldest daughter, and they have two small children
10) The Gresham Family – Lakeside: (2) Wiscara, and her Mother
11) The Holman Family – Lakeside: (4) Lorre Holman, 14
12) The Macintyre Family – Lakeside: (5) Robert age 17, parents are John and Melanie, brother Benjamin 15, and sister Margaret 12
13) The MacNorra Family – Lakeside: (2) Ginny MacNorra (Flaherty) the second wife and widow of Duffy MacNorra, youngest Son is Corky
14) The Mitterson Family – Lakeside: (6) Logan, he is the mason, his son is Tram Mitterson, 14
15) The Oakley Family – Lakeside: (5) Chance
16) The Oghan Families (2) – Riverside: (4) Oscar and Lulu (Molu Woolorly) sons are Sean and Roan, and the other Oghan Family, (6) Thomas the potter, Oscar’s older brother
17) The O’Lehig Family – Riverside: (5) Connor and L’sbirr, their children; Donald, (Corrine), Young Connor, and Willow
18) The O’Narro Family – Lakeside: (4)
19) The Panforey Families (2) – Lakeside: (5) Corlew Panforey, married to Rowelliwyn (Woolorly) they have three children, Rebecca, 18, Tabitha 13, and Thomas 11, (1) Auria is Panforey’s sister
20) The Roarke Family – Lakeside: (4) Brother Phineas, Samuel
21) The Sharety Family – Lakeside: (6)
22) The Toolwoad Family – Lakeside: (2) Margie and her daughter, Tammy
23) The Woolorly Family – Riverside: (2) Martin and Jeanine Woolorly, (daughter is Molu (Lulu) O’ghan)
24) The Onahugh Family – Riverside: (9) Torrey, mentioned in opening

Number of individuals mentioned by name above – 52, total count so far – 107 (of a total of 210)

If I have missed anyone that you know of, please let me know so I can add it to this list. I will finish up the list of Maetaur and Gymnaga folk who have been named soon.

I have a touch of Bronchitis, but I am trying to update games today, since I stayed home from work.

Since it is technically tissue damage would a CLW heal some small amount of neurological damage caused by stroke especially if it's an aneurysm? (That's just stitching tissue together and stopping blood loss right?) Not lookin' to minmax here, or even trying to help the situation so much as just thinking.

Well, I feel that CLW would probably prevent Mister Panforey from dying from a heart attack immediately (but would not alleviate the overall condition of heart disease he is suffering from).

It is magic, after all,and magic should be powerful

At the same time it makes me think about deeper, broader ramifications of something as readily accessible as a CLW spell preventing a lot of untimely deaths - but on the other hand, this is a story, and we won't get caught up too much in metaphysical problems that magic would introduce to a world if you think about it too much.

I'll let the spell stop the heart attack's progress at the moment, but he will need some recuperation.

A world where the crutch of magic prevents people from having the social pressures needed to advance their science, tools and medicine due to having easy fixes on hand?

It certainly does impart some fridge logic to how life would be different if magic truly existed in the world.

It could certainly be an interesting theme to explore in a setting where dimension hopping occurs.

Parsing over his stat block Marwan has the healing hex.

My oldest son and his wife brought another wonderful little girl into the world on Friday, making us grandparents for the second time now. We are taking mom home from the hospital today. Mom and baby are doing great. Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there.

I should be back to posting game updates tomorrow,

Congrats. I initially read "my oldest son and wife..." and was concerned, but false alarm.