The Beginning of All Things (Inactive)

Game Master Terquem

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.

Congrats!

I'm struggling a bit with the next transition, but I should have something up soon. I am sorry for the delay.

Hey, guys. Sorry about posting irregularly—my schedule has been hell and this is the game I keep forgetting about.

Overall, I've been trouble just sort of... wrapping my head around what's happening in the game, and why. I don't know what's up with that, it's just caused me to lose some energy. If people want me to stick around and try to be more active, I can, but I get the feeling that this game already has enough players and I'm not contributing much to the world.

I disagree, Arvid. I've enjoyed interacting with you so far, and think you were really instrumental in the last fight.

As for what is happening in the game- simply put- a bunch of Orcs have been raiding the area, and kidnapped a bunch of locals for slaves. The village mounted a rescue, found out the orcs and naga allies were amassing a larger force, hastily hot-footed it back to home to warn them. They sent a request for help to the local seat of Imperial authority, who sent a force to their aid but via the slower public road vs the quicker trail used by the locals. In the meantime, the rangers known as "The Groundsmen", along with the heroes from the rescue expedition, had detected an imminent large raid about to happen. The more prominent residents of Woodbridge (IE we the players) organized a hasty defense. They now are trying to keep everyone safe after the raiders have been driven off, although perhaps only temporarily. The village now contends with a possible siege, awaiting the arrival of the Imperial force to relieve them.

And as for posting irregularly - we've been pretty flexible for posting around here. Your posts have not had any adverse effect to how things have been happening that I can tell. Plus, it's summer time: a time when people are often away on vacation or visiting family. I would fully expect an irregular post schedule.

I'm struggling right now, the details are boring. I'll be back real soon.

Oh, and thank you Calex, that is an excellent synopsis

Happy Canada Day everyone!

Okay, so here I am with my first full day off trying to explain my absence. Basically, the company I worked for was dissolved, and we merged into a larger company owned by the mega corporation Fluor. All of June was a nightmare, and July we began revising our procedures and finally got new org charts. I am still, sort of, doing the same job, but my immediate manager, well he got a new boss and he really doesn’t like his new boss and I think he is taking out his frustrations on us. We’ve been having stupid long meetings every day. Three employees were fired for time card fraud (which is sort of the catch all excuse for firing people who work on government projects). I know I shouldn’t post from work, but I often do during the week, but with all the changes and scrutiny I was being very cautious. Things are still pretty chaotic at work, but I think things will settle down by the end of July.

On top of that we had a new granddaughter born at the end of June, baby was fine, but mom had a small set back from the c-section she had, and my wife and I were spending a lot of time helping our son and his little family.

I know that’s a lot of silly personal real life stuff to put on the forum but I wanted everyone to know where I’ve been. I have this whole day to try to get all my games caught up and I know some of you have been waiting a very long time. I hope you can find interest in the games again and come back to play when you can.

Thanks, everyone

Thanks for the update, Terquem.

Here is an update for every one of my wonderful patient players

I have not been able to do updates during the week from the computer I normally use due to the recent changes in my employment (working under a new contractor). I won’t go into details, because the truth is I allowed myself to get spoiled by the previous contractor’s more or less indifference to how much time we spent messing around on the internet (as long as we got our work done, they didn’t seem to care much). The new boss is watching us, and has installed something called iPrism, to track our online activity.

What this means, first I am not shutting down any games. I love the games here, and I have great players. What it does mean is that I will try to do more updates on week nights and on the weekends, but it also means that my already slow games will probably get slower.

If any of you find this is something you just don’t have time for and want to drop out I will not hold that against you. I understand that players want to spend their time doing something that they feel is worth their effort, so I will do my best to give you the best game I can, but understand it might be slower than it has been in the past.

Thank you

Still here!

I appreciate everyone’s participation and patience. A large post was just made. Hopefully it clears up some confusion there might be about the current situation

I know it has been slow, and I have not been able to get a response from Movin (Leto) to private messages I have sent. There hasn’t been a post from Marcus either, but I will assume, for now, that both of them are still participating in the game.

If the current players want to take on one of the mysterious quests that present themselves at this time

The Fulough Barghnora
The whereabouts of Cicily and Auria
The Tafganor warlord

They would have a party of four adventurers, Calex, Marwan, Robert, and Leto, a fighter, a wizard, and two witches.

If you have a friend on these boards who you suspect would not mind the slow pace of this game who is looking for something to join, that might not be a bad idea.

At this time it is my intention to remove Arvid and Riku from the character roster. I understand that Poseus might still be lurking in the shadows following the game.

Still here and ready to go. Movin hasn't posted on the boards in over a month. I had a PM out to him as well. He may have had something come up. We'll only know if he shows back up. I hate to lose him.

I don't know we're ready for the warlord yet. So I'd vote for Fulough (no idea what that is) or the missing ones.

Still lurking indeed, love the story as it goes.

Got my first set of stitches out today and the lab report says the cancer was fully excised so I am going to have a great recovery. I hope to be updating games tomorrow. I've been a little weak, and work is still a bit rough, but I have no intention of quitting my games, so

Thank you for being patient with this old man

Cancer?!

O.O

To quote Scooby-doo: "Rolly Rit!"

Glad to hear you'll be OK. That's something to be concerned about. You take it easy Terq.

You do you old timer.

yes, turned out to be moderate to severe dysplastic compound nevus,but completely excised, so no worries. However, the stitches itch like crazy, and I did not get to the game updates like I wanted to (sort of being babied a bit by the family for the passed couple of days)

With Leto being absent from the game, you have a small group of humans, three actually, who can set out on a quest to determine if Cicily and Auria made it safely to Gowen’s Crossing. It is a small group, and if you would like to think about it, I would not be opposed to you hiring NPCs to join your expedition. You might convince a Maetaur Druid to join you, or perhaps a Bard. They could be Alodoans in Woodbridge who have first level PC classes (elves or halflings) and if you thought it was worth your effort any of you or all three of you could create a simple NPC henchmen that you could be in control of to join the party. You would not have to create an alias profile, I would take care of that, but you could do the work up of the character in the discussion thread, and then I will create the alias. I would expect you to give instructions to the NPCs, and I will have them respond accordingly. This is merely a suggestion.

Could I use my diolomacy skill to attempt to find a bard or druid to join them?

We might be best off with a druid, but a bard will work.

Have you considered asking if anyone from one of your other games would like to join this one too? Asking before I run off and ask any evil teammates to join :)

Please post here if you intend to join Calex in his search for Auria (the village witch) and Cicily (leader of the Maetaur at Mingary bend)

I'm in.

If I don't get updates done today it might not happen until Monday. I am so sorry for this recent slow down and I am trying to recover from some things that I was not expecting. Please hang in there

I apologize to everyone. I got dragged off by my family for a surprise trip this week and haven't had one free moment since last Friday. I will be back this weekend.

It looks as if Robert, Calex, and Marwan will start out on an overland adventure north toward the Hill of the Cairns, the Fox Wood, and eventually, the Green Wood

Are you all ready?

Yeppers. Are we going to recruit a druid or something of the sort for this or just head out?

I would love to recruit a new player, willing to join this game (haha) who can take the role of a Gymnaga Druid, but it will probably turn out that I will need to create an npc for the role

Here we go.

I am going to try something here, and if I can, keep it short.

First, before I get into the details – there might be two new player characters joining this adventure, a Maetaur Cleric and a Gymnagaopthian Druid – we’ll see how soon this gets figured out

Second – Marcus Dale as long as he is still willing to participate in this adventure I will continue to post actively about his work in rebuilding Woodbridge and his interactions with the rest of the non-adventuring characters, while the other player characters are away from Woodbridge

Now this is what I want everyone to know.

We will be doing the Pathfinder Adventure “Giantslayer,” beginning with part 3 of “Battle of Bloodmarch Hill.” There will be significant modifications to the AP to adapt it to this setting but the basic premise will remain the same.

There will be no “Half-Orcs,” in the lands around Woodbridge (southern Orimar/Urandoma)

The actual battle at Bloodmarch Hill does not occur, and the attack on Woodbridge will stand in for that event (by proxy).

There is not a place called Trunau

The cultures/settings of the Giantslayer Adventure path will not be used. I will be adapting the events of the Adventure Path to match what was already established in our setting

Tafganor are Orcs in our campaign setting. While Tafganor use the monster profile of Orcs, they should not to be thought of as strictly conforming to the description of Orcs as they occur in most Pathfinder settings. We have tried to create a monster antagonist for this campaign that has some uniqueness that is specific to the setting while adapting a basic monster profile everyone should be familiar with.

Arvid and Marwan, being from other parts of this world would know the Tafganor by other names, and I’m sorry we haven’t talked about this very much. Where Arvid’s character comes from, Tafganor (Called by another name by the Vayangurr, perhaps it is simply “orcs” there) are regular antagonists as well as sometimes peaceful co-inhabitants of the Vayangurr Archipelago. Half-Orcs are common in the Vayangurr Archipelago (Look up the characters Kiril, in the game Palace of the Vampire Queen 5e edition, and Magnus, in the game Castle Caldwell and beyond, if you want to know more about the Vayangurr). While, Marwan, being from the mainland (Alodoa, Vurespania) is equally likely to have knowledge about these kinds of monsters or not (maybe his travels brought him into contact with mainland Tafganor/Orcs, who are from a place south of Alodoa, called the City States of Tarule, maybe he has never seen them before).

Sashi-Anhain are Yaun-ti (D&D) Serpentfolk (Pathfinder), and the same thing that has been said about the Tafganor applies to these creatures as well.

The current party has decided to search for and verify the wellbeing of Auria the One-Handed (who is Mister Panforey’s sister, the local healer/witch of Woodbridge) and Cicily Fautinbino (A leader of the Maetaur of Mingary Bend). The search will lead them to investigate a place near Woodbridge that is sacred to the Maetaur/Lyph people
Looming in everyone’s mind, still, is the overall issue of why the sudden attacks on the communities of Woodbridge and its neighbors by the Tafganor (and their Sashi-Anhain allies). Some of the answers for these questions will be answered in the coming adventure.

Keep in mind that to the people of Woodbridge, Tafganor, as a threat, have not been seen in this part of the world for generations, while the Gymnagaopthians still deal with raids on their communities by the Serpentfolk, the Sashi-Anhain, but even these raids have not been as frequent in the past few years.

Hello everyone,
Apostolos Murandea here, eldest son of the Murandea family. Most know me as Stolos. You may not have heard of me much from my younger brother, Poseus, due to my unorthodox beliefs. I am working to bring the theocratic hierarchy of the Gymnaga to a union of female and male representatives of deity, a council that would mirror the druid councils of the Maetaur. It's uncertain at this time how well my teachings are being received at this time, but that is not discouraging me from contributing to the community at Woodbridge.
I am a member of the Artisan class of the Gymnaga, and have recently discovered powers similar again to those wielded by the druids of the Maetaur, leading to more speculation on my part on the relationships of deity, between each other and between mortals.

Ok, all sounds good to me!

Sure, I can certainly stick arrow d if you will still have me :)

I figure I could help rebuild the shops, homes, etc. I could also craft new weapons for the group since finding what they want may be hit/miss. I could try to use my social skills to gather helpful/useful NPCs to join or assist.

Think Suikoden games of gathering the 108 stars idea

If you want a challenge, Marcus, I do have permission from Castletown to construct a fortified manor as part of the Woodbridge demesne. A walled keep is NOT authorized, but with the island as a natural moat, a manor could still serve as a future safe gathering point for the villagers if another attack like the last happens. How does the position of Steward of Woodbridge sound?

In a related idea- I was thinking of Patricia for the village sheriff. Anyone have any opinions?

You know I was sort of thinking about how fantasy games are "presented" these days and it may me think of something weird.

So, if I applied a little skewed historical perspective to a place like Woodbridge, a conquering army that moved a company of men into a village, would probably cause resentment given the sudden large male population influx

Now, here in our fantasy world, the small group of soldiers (probably numbering around 30 after loses from the encounter with the tafganor) is assumed to include a mix of humans, elves, and halflings, of both male and female gender - if the whole company settled in Woodbridge, there would be a different dynamic. Obviously at least a few in the company might already be romantically involved (in probably mixed race/sex and same race/sex couples), but would there be resentment from the village if there were suddenly both male and female eligible partners available?

And as another side - I sure hope we start managing to bring in some loot, Terquem. Expanding the village will be expensive, and I don't relish the idea of trying to convince my fiercely independent yeomen of the idea of going into debt to Castletown to pay for this. Taxes have already been postponed with a 1 year grace period with permission from the Empire to allow for the cost of reorganizing things under Imperial standards. Hopefully the troops that arrived will re-assure everyone and help convince the doubters that Imperial rule will be a net benefit (since, let's be honest- the Empire is here to stay and it's either jump on the wagon or get run over). As for bringing in more income to the village, a river ferry crossing controlled by me (in the position of Lord of Woodbridge) might get some regular hard income coming in to the village to help with some of this. It could be lucrative- I don't believe there is any other crossing available, and if we recruit the gymnaga rivermen to help, it would also aid in uniting the races in the area even more. We already have good relations with everyone, so anything that improves things from good to fantastic is a goal worth chasing. The maetaur also should be brought in closer with some sort of local recognition or deal with Woodbridge, but I don't know what. Anyone have suggestions?

would there be resentment from the village if there were suddenly both male and female eligible partners available?

No I don't believe there would- fear of strangers, maybe, or curiosity and excitement from the younger villagers. Alot of the people will see it as an advantage to be taken- a way to get out from under the staid established order, without the effort of running off to start someplace new. A fresh start, if you will.

Also- you called them a "conquering army". Considering the warlords that used to be in charge before the Empire ran them off, I think "liberating army" is closer to the real situation. The locals are just worried that, having chased off the one set of tyrants, the new ones might not be any better. The history you've given us of the Alodoans puts things as looking to the better, however.

Hmm. Another thought. Those soldiers, if established as a permanent garrison, will all be being paid by Castletown, but will be SPENDING that pay in Woodbridge. So much like any town in our modern world with a military base, we should see an influx into the local economy of alot of (relatively) hard currency. If Woodbridge survives the trafganor attacks, we could be in for a bit of a boom.

Also- Welcome to Urandoma, Apostolos Murandea! It's nice to see you!

Perhaps a joint council could be formed of human, maetaur, and Gymnaga religious and civic leaders could be formed to shore up funds and make plans for future expansions and defenses? Hopefully that would also lead to closer communities as well

Apostolos, please feel free to copy the race creation details for the Gymnaga, into your alias profile, for reference.

Hello everyone! I am looking to join this Campaign, and have made the start of what will be the Maetaur Cleric (female, thinking archery, unsure until the Council Lore gets worked out).

My idea for the Maetaur was originally to base them off of Shintoism, but direct translations would be a little bland, and it wouldn't give much wiggle room for them to accept / join with other cultures, or have a change of heart champion come about.

Instead, I altered it to be the following- Four Pillars of the Druid Council, each one a Astrological based Deity with it's own Constellation in the skies of this world, seen clearly from their homeland's position;

Next Project: Work on filling out the following:

1) What parts of the Maetaur Orthodoxy causes them to not really go out of their way to participate or feel the need to participate with other cities

2) How Calamity would bring about peaceful, but direct change in order to further progress relations with Maetaur and all others.

Tabei, is a great name. I will add it to the list of Family names for the Maetaur of Mingary Bend, bringing to total these family names we have so far identified

Fauntinbino (Cicily and Henri)
Tabrello (Dominic)
McKecknee (Fiona, Paulina, and Cantor)
MacCarthy (Michelin)
Maowan (Tambre, Darlene, and Tabitha)

Tabei, makes for the sixth family name, so there is only one family name we haven’t identified. Also, we original said there were a total of 43 Maetaur in seven families, and we have only named 10, plus our new player character, Calamity. So Calamity can fill in the ranks of her family with a father and mother and siblings as the player chooses. There are no Orphan Maetaur.

Also, just want to clear up something I PM’d Calamity about earlier. Most Maetaur are willing to share a community with Urandoman Humans (and se Alodoan Humans as just more Urandomans, Alodoan Elves and Halflings are looked at with a sort of wonder and suspicion), and are a little less happy about sharing the same community with Gymnagaopthians, but on the whole they will coexist, though they tend to stay isolated, as is Mingary Bend. However, there is a large percentage of the Mingary Bend population that feels that it is time to integrate more directly (hence the recent road building effort). Less than 25 percent of the population of Mingary Bend is against this “coming together of different peoples” but none of you really know how this sort of thing is treated in other Maetaur communities.

Excellent. I have a test to pass for getting certified today, but tomorrow morning I'm going to re-read all the things, and then rework the Maetaur through more spoilers on here.

If there is any defined actions, Maetaur family and / or characteristics, aside from what is already listed, please let me know!

Highlights are probably easier than reading all that's happened so far in the PbP haha.

Finally caught up on all the things-

What level should I be, GM? 2 or 3?

Calamity - halfway between 2 and 3, using the fast track, thanks

We have two (maybe three or four) new player characters who might be joining this game

A Maetaur Cleric, and a Gymnagaopthian Druid, are being finalized now. I hope the rest of you can be patient while I sort this out. Still want to make sure that Robert, Calex, and Marwan are ready to go (Marwan has stated, more than once, that he is!)

Meanwhile, here is something I found from my notes that was sent to me in a PM by a previous player who was thinking of adding a Maetaur character to this game, it is a suggested framework for the Maetaur Pantheon

Maetaur gods

Father (Older) - air/Wisdom - Patyn - CG
Causes things to grow, controls the circle and order of things, cycle of nature

Mother (Older) - earth/Strength - Matura - NG
Guides the weather, watches over all from above, druids focusing on her usually have bird companion

Second Mother (Younger) - water/Charisma - Sophia - CG
The Shaper, is shown in the determination of the Maetaur to persevere, is the Mother of Diplomacy

Second father (Younger) - fire/Intelligence - Dynamis - NG
He is the sun, giver of insight and intellect, but impatient and sometimes accidentally destructive, not realizing all consequences

Son - crafting/skill - Teknus - LN
Combining Strength and Wisdom to craft out of nature what is not nature. The Builder and seeker of advancement

Daughter – living well/celebrations - Palata - CG
Combining Water and Fire, she is a Goddess of foods that are prepared or created, the harvest, wine, drinking, and song

There can be a large family of Maetaur demi-gods and or saints/spirits which would not have to be in the form of Maetaur but could be all manner of natural things, which combine the attributes and or the elements

Re-introducing Apostolos and Zelotes (Stolos & Zelo), artisan Druid and friendly giant otter. Looking forward to getting to know everyone.

[makes otter noises]

If we keep the theme that they are Shinto based, those gods could simply just be added to the list I made, or we could build off of that one, since I actually like both!

Calamity's design will change a little bit, and I could also make it that the pantheons I added would be the lesser gods, and those listed are the mains of the Maetaur society.

She will be done in a few hours for sure, and then she too will be ready!

Calamity is ready to rock.

Once I remember to add +1 to attack and damage from her point-blank shot xD xD xD If I forget that one more time I swear xD