
Flare Brent |

It is kind of ironic how good everyone but Tormod is with knowledges, and yet the entire party is perpetually clueless.
Lore Shaman, Mindchemist, partial Bard with good int, Arcanist with good int, and an Empiricist on top of that. Yet we're still just wandering around, hoping to find breadcrumbs, and not die, because none of us really understand much of anything.
Even the big movers and shakers that we've talked to seem not to understand!
Magic marks are magical, and people want them enough to kill. As a matter of fact, someone hired assassin's to kill the people with the magic marks, despite their value. Kind of a mess, eh?

Janus Alistair Eden |

Ah, since you bring that up: I have no magic mark.
As I believe you would want to keep that "hidden", and my previous investigation was focused on the princess, I just played it to know some "basics" about your movements in public areas, but have no real clue about you guys. Including the marks. So unless you feel like sharing at some time, Janus will remain clueless regarding those.

Flare Brent |

Flare keeps hers covered with a glove. She's shown it to the ciphers as payment for information and as a gesture of good will. It actually worked pretty well. Otherwise, she knows they're being hunted because of their Maks, and keeps hers carefully hidden. It's not something she'd have shared.

Janus Alistair Eden |

Aye, thats what I mean/figured, that you're not showcasing them around, meaning I know nothing about them.
As I don't have one myself, neither will I have any clue about them or what makes them special, unless in the future someone will share the story behind them.
(I'm not running investigations on group members...basic politeness *smile*)

Flare Brent |

'did not exist prior to getting off of a boat in the shackles' is probably how it'd turn out if he tried, anyway. :)
Though you may have learned about why we were important to someone if you had. :p

Janus Alistair Eden |

<- Perfect Human.
I may not be a kid, nor have a mark, but I'd quite assume to have some kind of direct or indirect association with Hermea. I have no idea what I know or don't know about your origins...but considering you first met Andrianna in Hope, and I've been tracking her from her parents home, I may or may not have learned about you earlier and make or not make the proper logical conclusions.
As all of that happened off-screen in my story prior to joining, I would guess it's up to GM when, how and how much I learned about you...
I just assume I'm clueless as I think most of you would prefer that over me magically knowing stuff. If I do know anything in a situation where it's relevant, I expect GM will point that out.

-Tormod Hopson |

It is kind of ironic how good everyone but Tormod is with knowledges, and yet the entire party is perpetually clueless.
Hey now, not everyone has be smart. Besides I have a big sword and ummm... a charming personality?
And I do have decent knowledge nature, not nearly as good as the rest of you but a little.

Cynthia, Shaman of Hope |

*Throws some guesses out*
>He's standing super-close when we get out own powers, and it sort of flows into him
>Even he didn't know all about his history
>Our... target's... symbol transfers to Janus somehow
I want to see if I can guess it before it happens. XD *Is totally just messing around*

Flare Brent |

Thalion is sacrificed to an old one. And as it is slurped nommily, the rune goes to the nearest perfect human.
:3

Janus Alistair Eden |

Uhm, yep, Tormod. While I would contest the part about the charming personality, I would definitely not do so to your face.
And I'd even less want to compare the size of our...swords. You'd win, no competition.
@how do _I_ get to be mythic, made me curious- because thats all fine ideas ^_^ Wonder which one ends up being the one happening.

Flare Brent |

Also, if you're curious as to why all the distrust... it's cause the last person to join our motley crew turned out to be a really dumb assassin. :P

Janus Alistair Eden |

oh, I'm all fine with the distrust. If it's for those reasons ;)
I am afraid I've been hogging the spotlight a bit though, first during introduction, and now trying to move things forward...so as said, in character, all fine, if I do mess up as player, do let me know(not specifically now, just in general) ;)

Flare Brent |

You're fine. Someone has to move it along, and it's nice to have the 'burden shared' as it were. :)
Flare is actually a lot less likely to take on the leadership role with you around, though. You seem adept at guiding us, and she's focused on keeping an eye on you, just now. :P So don't stop on my account.
Around third to fourth level, an Investigator -does- become a one-man show, though. :) From 1-2 he -really- needs his friends to be successful.

Flare Brent |

Does anyone else have an opinion, or should Flare head for the front door?

Janus Alistair Eden |

Same. I think I showed intent clearly by trying to enter via the backdoor. Unless that is some weird architecture, I'd assume that basement to connected to the church somehow, but it's no better if they barricaded that connection so if we should not go in from there...well yeah, lets go for the front door.

Flare Brent |

Slumber is definitely the cleanest, if it works. Assuming it doesn't, then we'd just move into initiative, I think.

Flare Brent |

Alrighty, so... I've been depressed for a while now, and lately anxiety has been getting the better of me. For some of my games, this has had little impact, for others, a lot. One of the main things is that I'm easily frustrated. This is one of those games that has been fairly frustrating. I just... haven't felt up to trying to push it forward. That's my bad. At the moment, I also don't know.what to do. We want to go into the castle, but I'm loathe to use the only money we've gotten since the start to enter. If we don't do it that way, we have to go in through the front, from my understanding. A terrible idea.
It just seems lose-lose. Especially since our princess may be in another castle.
In this particular campaign, I just don't know what I'm doing anymore, and I feel like Flare is exceedingly difficult to properly portray with my current state of mind. And... this is one of the campaigns that is growing frustrating for me.
Edit: To make that less of a soliloquy:
Is there anything that we as players could be doing to make it so that we are stomping around less blindly, in your eyes?

Flare Brent |

Trying again. I would like a way to know the 'direction' you wish us to go in, without handwaving combats, or just telling us what to do. I feel like my extremely knowledgeable character is perpetually blind. It is exceedingly difficult to play them when I do not know pretty much anything of what is going on. We've been following our instincts for pretty much ever since we left the island. We made one informed friend and went 'okay. Somewhere in that place over there.'. It's really hard to provide much when I am basically just going 'what now?'
Is there something I as a player should be doing to improve that experience within the game?

Flare Brent |

At the moment, Flare's only motivation for being on an island being attacked by pirates is that there's a guy somewhere (apparently, in this room that we fast forwarded to) that killed our only lead. I'm glad we magically chose the right place, but I have no idea why precisely they did choose this. We just selected 'main building' seemingly at random. And got lucky. It just feels very much like we're moving blindly from place to place.

DireMerc |

For example in the next playtrought I will be removing the whole the mark glows when danger is near cause that was dumd in this your always in danger really.
Instead I will have the mark glow when a specific mineral is near.
The assassin who joins the group in the beginning will be carting some of it and his job will be to approach each person and check for marks. If he notices one I will have him drink a potion of darkvision and attack in the dark room. Maybe make him level 2 instead of 1 also and make the room stay dark for 3-4 rounds instead of just 1.

Janus Alistair Eden |

I think a main problem is, as Flare put it, that we are kind of left "guessing" what directions we should aim towards.
Janus, having arrived back on scene to see the unconscious man being bound, will take the opportunity to check the inside of the church for anything else they may have had there. Not so much hoping to find more valuables, but possibly orders or papers that may detail what was going on here.
That passage, for example, was meant as a setup for you to let us find SOME kind of information about this place. As in, explain to us WHY we need to get into the main building.
Honestly, for me, that was a player decision rather then a character one, because it was the only construction that "stood out" except the church, which we already checked.You did, for example, mention the balcony on the second floor, but I saw no way to work with that, since we had limitations on how many people we could make invisible and or fly in, and with battle ongoing I expected that a group of people scaling the walls would be spotted.
(Hence the only idea that 2 people could get in and open a door from the inside)
In other words, here you provided a hook, but I had no idea how to possibly use it in a meaningful way to get all of us inside stealthy.(except having all but 2 members climb and stealth our way up, during a time of high alert and active perception rolls)
All in all, it would probably be great if we could reason for our actions with actual knowledge our characters have, rather than picking out options that we as players believe to be "correct".
Knowing that the captain will keep malcolm close to him, and knowing that the captain's headquarter will be in the fortress, rather than assuming both...that sort of thing - know what i mean?
If we have a clear goal, we can decide how to work towards it via considering options in-character.
If we have a vague goal, it is hard to do so.
My 2 cents, offered as a friendly insight from what experience I managed to gain during my admittedly short time on these boards.

Flare Brent |

Thank you for expanding upon my mini-rants and transforming them into some semblence of coherent :P
My brain no good talk lately. :)

Cynthia, Shaman of Hope |

Is content from the Mythic Hero's Handbook available? ^^ I'm not sure whether or not I actually want to grab something from it - I'm just checking. XD

Cynthia, Shaman of Hope |

Levelup Summary:
Level: Shaman 5
HP: 1d8 ⇒ 5 +1 Con +4 Mythic
Feat: Extra Hex (Fetish)
FCB: +1 Skill Point
Acquired 3rd Level spells. Preparing Dispel Magic and Stone Shape, and Locate Object is available as her Spirit Magic spell.
Mythic:
Path: Hierophant
Divine Surge: Inspired Spell
Path Ability: Legendary Item (Will hammer out the details when you're available to talk about it. ^^)
Mythic Feat: Extra Mythic Power (Heh... she doesn't have many options right now. XD;)

Flare Brent |

Level 3 Paladin/2 Bard
1d10 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 3 + 1 = 10 (Con, FCB)
+1 Reflexes
+4 Skills
Craft(Stoneworking)
Perception
Perform (Dance)
Perform (Oratory; Sense Motive and Diplomacy)
+Aura of Courage, Divine Health, and Fatigue Mercy.
Feat and Mythic Stuff to be determined.

Janus Alistair Eden |

Was away for a job interview, will post a reaction later today
Level up: Investigator 5
HP: 1d8 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 2 + 1 = 9(Con, FCB).
Skills: 6+4(Int)=10
Feat: Two-Weapon Fighting (Combat)
Investigator Talent: Expanded Inspiration (Ex)
Mythic:
Path: Trickster
Trickster Attack: Fleet Charge(Ex)
Path Ability: Legendary Item
Mythic Feat: Weapon Finesse(Mythic)
Retrain request: L3 Feat Weapon Focus(Rapier) into (Two-weapon Fighting), instead picking up Two-Weapon Defense at level 5.
Reasoning: I intended to focus only on rapier, but a.: fencing grace is obsoleted by Weapon Finesse, and I am unable to wear shields or take advantage of fighting one-handed(no canny defense, deflect arrows or other fun stuff), so I would prefer to mix, using a Rapier in main hand, and a dagger in off-hand.(in other words: sticking with rapier in main and adding a light weapon in off-hand)

Cynthia, Shaman of Hope |

Oh, yeah, I can certainly post things up for you to review. And others can ask about stuff like class abilities and feats, too - I'm happy to share. XD
Also...
I need some advice on how you're expecting Cynthia to react. The characters' homeland is rather infamously not-religious, so I feel like the characters might be hesitant to simply do as someone claiming to be divine says. On the other hand, if we're MEANT to move forward and seize this opportunity... XD I can work with either kind of reaction, I just want to be sure I'm reacting correctly and not accidentally derailing your plans.

-Tormod Hopson |

Invulnerable rager 5
HP: 1d12 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13
BaB: +1
Skills: +5
Feat: raging vitality
Mythic Champion
HP: +5
Feat: mythic power attack
Champion's strike: Fleet Charge
Path ability: impossible speed

Flare Brent |

Feats: Combat Reflexes
Mythic Combat Reflexes
Path: Guardian (+5 HP)
Absorb Blow
Retributive Reach
All of that together gives Flare a 15 foot range for Attacks of Opportunity, which she no longer has a limit on.