The Dark is Rising - WotW Part I (COMPLETED) (Inactive)

Game Master Darkness Rising

Seated in one of the easy chairs, Hecate blinks; the distraction of the paper had lost her completely. For one moment she could have been back in the library. "Oh... Yes. Right. We should check. And Felrin, did you find where that noise came from? I can read these while you do other things, just don't go too far, hey?"

Felrin eyes the mace enviously as Tkaara answers his request. After a pause, he nods and replies, with just a hint of truculence in his voice, ”Very well. I will fight with my hands and wait for the mace to come to me. Once we are out of this place, or we find a better weapon for you, or you die – then it will be mine.”

He then moves toward the door at the far end of the room, collecting the keys from Hecate as he passes her, and attempts to open it.

Etna awkwardly handles the shiv, trying to figure out how to wield it.
Maybe like a pen? Or a kitchen knife?
"I will gladly exchange it for that more traditional dagger. Maybe it will be easier for me to use." she says to Hecate when she asks for the shiv-comb.

---------------

Hoping to speed up the process, Etna joins Hecate in searching the papers, moving around the table: searching trough piles of document was a skill required in her trade, if a bit boring.
She searches for anything that can help: reports on the number of guards stationed at the prison, the whereabouts of the building itself, recent even that could be exploited by them...

The Doctor regrets not having the time to brew a batch of medicine, but quickly gets to work concocting a few extracts that might be useful during a prison break. Once he is finished, he dons a chain shirt with the bandolier over it, carefully tucks the formula book into the sack the peasant clothes, secures the dagger in his belt, and hefts the quarterstaff. Feeling more prepared, he goes to the next room to see what the others are up to.

The following events happen about three minutes into the current actions, so the doctor is still in the room brewing extracts everyone else is in the office going through the desk or thereabouts. And our story continues......

As the good doctor begins mixing extracts for the first time since his capture, he brews blend, cure light wounds and has just finished disguise self but has not had a chance yet to place them in the bandolier or adorn the bandolier, chainmail or other things he had planned yet.

The rest of the group save for Felrin were searching through the papers and just beginning to get a grasp of what everything was when they noticed a map of the prison below the papers. Before they could even react to get it out something happened that was unexpected.

Moments before Felrin had come through the room and retrieved the keys from Hecate, he had then moved across the room to the far door to use them but found the door unlocked and the keys were unnecessary. Opening the door he was surprised, he had not seen by what but a flat iron blade had hit him directly in the face and his world faded to black.

The rest of the forsaken that was in the room saw Felrin go flying back to the ground just as he opened the door. In the doorway stood Seargent Blackerly with his scaly reptilian looking skin holding a longsword in his hand and licking Felrin's blood off the blade, looking down at the now unconscious, bleeding Felrin with his face all busted in laying on the floor and he snarls "You ain't going nowhere!"

COMBAT HAS BEGUN
Round 1 Group 1 is up.

Inintiative
Group 1
Etna
Doctor
Erevan
Tkaara
Felrin (Stabalize CON check needed DC 16)
Grumblejack
Group 2
Blackerly
Hecate

Picture of the veil.

Map of lower floor.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current Location: Branderscar Prison: Stairwell, Date: Oathday, Erastus 25th,(Summer) 4714 Time: 2:43 am (Day:One)

The Doctor just finishes putting the wax stopper on the vial of extract, pleased with his efforts, when his head jerks up at the sound of combat. He pauses just long enough to scoop up the quarterstaff from the table, then hurries to see what caused the commotion.

"Then by all means, my... good man," Erevan retorts with a pleasant enough smile as he steps forward, putting himself between Blackerly and Hecate and assuming a more defensive stance. "Do your best to stop us vile criminals, Sergeant," he adds as he brandishes his newly found spear.

Suddenly hearing the sickening thud as first the blade strikes Felrin's skull, and then Felrin's motionless body slumps to the ground, Tkaara groans.

This is not good.

With that, she quickly moves across the room as far as she can. However, before she reaches the new swordsman, her body suddenly stiffens, and once more and she again speaks strange whispering words.

As she speaks these word, a sparkly pale mist seeps forth from her mouth quickly coalescing around her companions making them slightly more confident in their ability to strike this foe.

Felrin opens the door and has sufficient time to blink before he is struck brutally by the flat of Blackerly's blade. His body crumples bonelessly to the floor.

Etna throws a defiant glare at Blackerly "Why? Do you think there is a way for you to stop us?"
He knocked out Felrin with one hit...This man means troubles. I have to get him to fight in the open.
Etna moves closer to the sergeant and then starts chanting loudly, adding a last part in Common "Oh, swarms of Hell, heed my call! Crawl from the deepest darkness and feast upon our enemies!".
As she concludes her false incantation, a myriad of worms and spiders starts to crawl from under the bed in the other room, moving quickly toward the slit-eyed man.

Not sure of what to do since he was told to stay and guard the door he yells at the doctor as he moves down the hall toward the sound of combat.

"Grumblejack stay? or Grumblejack follow?"

He will pass this turn waiting on a response as he is unsure of what he should do.

ROUND 1 RESULTS (Partial)
This covers Group 1 and Blackerly of Group 2!

Etna draws forth her incantation and the illusion of worms and spiders and all manner of nightmarish insects appear behind Blackerly creeping up on his position. Other than sound the illusion is perfectly pulled off as the creatures seem to come from the ground itself burrowing up to join their companions.

The Doctor just finishes putting the wax stopper on the vial of extract, pleased with his efforts, when his head jerks up at the sound of combat. He pauses just long enough to scoop up the quarterstaff from the table, then hurries to see what caused the commotion.

Erevan steps forward, putting himself between Blackerly and Hecate and assuming a more defensive stance as he brandishes his newly found spear.

Tkaara quickly moves across the room as far as she can. However, before she reaches the new swordsman, her body suddenly stiffens, and once more and she again speaks strange whispering words. As she speaks these word, a sparkly pale mist seeps forth from her mouth quickly coalescing around her companions making them slightly more confident in their ability to strike this foe.

Felrin's blood runs freely from his wounds.

Startled by Etna's display of evil magic and not having a clue about the workings of such things, he sees the insects as they come into the dim light. With his fear of the magically appearing bugs and his cowardliness of taking on the entire group in the open he remains where he is. Using the doorway to keep from being completely surrounded. Looking down at the bleeding unconscious creature at his feet the thought of running him through passes over his mind but he tells himself that even as corrupt as he is that would be a level he could not stoop to. With the bugs now approaching from behind and the Forsaken in the front he now prepares himself and his years of training. He was a sergeant and he would hold his ground, for now. He goes full defensive with his shield held high waiting for one of the forsaken or the bugs to bring their worst.

"You send insects to do your bidding, while one of you already lies at my feet dying. COWARDS! Bring your worst and I shall prevail victorious" he says as his words quiver with uncertainties.

Round 1 Group 2 is up. Round 2 Group 1 is up. Everyone can go.

Initiative
Group 1
Etna
Doctor
Erevan
Tkaara
Felrin (Dying, DC 17 CON Save required to stabalize this round.)
Grumblejack
Group 2
Blackerly
Hecate

Picture of the veil.

Map of lower floor.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current Location: Branderscar Prison: Stairwell, Date: Oathday, Erastus 25th,(Summer) 4714 Time: 2:43 am (Day:One)

Tkaara looks at Erevan:
If the coward wants to stand there, turn him into a pincushion.

She then looks back to Etna and Hecate:
Same for you, cast away.

With that, she looks at the the sergeant while she draws her mace. She stares the man down and as she begins to speak, wisps of mist continue to seep from her mouth like fog rolling through a dark cemetery on a cold night.

You choose to be eaten by vermin rather than fight a girl. Pretty sad.

With a startled "meep!" Hecate disappears from sight, before coalescing again behind Erevan. Peering around him, she gazes at Blackerly, her eyes glittering with malevolence. This is the man who branded her, this is the man who made her suffer. Time for some revenge - best served (infernally) hot.
 
Pulling the necessary trappings from her component pouch, she focuses, her eyes glazing over as she stares through into the void. Beyond the Ethereal, beyond the Shadow Planes, there is another existence entirely. She reaches out towards it with her mind, her soul; her eyes roll back in her head as she chants in a blasphemous language; her whole body starts to shake.
 

Trembling, sweating, Hecate nevertheless maintains her concentration. Through the gap she has torn between the dimensions (a tiny, minuscule gap, but let's not criticise too much), something hears her call and begins to respond.
 

ROUND 1 RESULTS (Final)
This covers Group 2 (Hecate) only.!

Hecate disappears from sight, before coalescing again behind Erevan. Peering around him, she gazes at Blackerly, her eyes glittering with malevolence. Pulling the necessary trappings from her component pouch, she focuses, her eyes glazing over as she stares through into the void. Beyond the Ethereal, beyond the Shadow Planes, there is another existence entirely. She reaches out towards it with her mind, her soul; her eyes roll back in her head as she chants in a blasphemous language; her whole body starts to shake.

Trembling, sweating, Hecate nevertheless maintains her concentration. Through the gap she has torn between the dimensions (a tiny, minuscule gap, but let's not criticize too much), something hears her call and begins to respond.

Round 2 Group 1 is up.
Tkaara I have your action posted above, just waiting on the rest of the group.

Initiative
Group 1
Etna
Doctor
Erevan
Tkaara
Felrin (Dying, DC 17 CON Save required to stabalize this round.)
Grumblejack
Group 2
Blackerly
Hecate

Picture of the veil.

Map of lower floor.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current Location: Branderscar Prison: Stairwell, Date: Oathday, Erastus 25th,(Summer) 4714 Time: 2:43 am (Day:One)

"Follow," he instructs the ogre as he stalks past, not bothering to even look at the creature. He enters the door and continues into the room, along the north wall, as he takes in the tense situation. "Ah, the sergeant with the skin condition. I was so hoping we would get the opportunity to discuss your earlier artwork."

When the doctor tells Grumblejack to follow he gives his normal toothy smile "Grumblejack not like guarding stupid old door anyway." as he moves behind the doctor taking up a place behind Hecate in the room.

Upon seeing her shaking and trembling and speaking in a infernal tongue and then seeing Felrin on the ground bleeding out he then looks up at Blackerly.

"You make little girl shake and be scared. You kill the bony finger man. Now Grumblejack smash you like insect!"

Grumblejack raises his bone club and his shield.

Hearing Grumblejack enter the room, Tkaara smiles.

Grumblejack. I think that the good sergeant would like to meet your new club. Make sure he knows it is made of his guards' legs.

As Blackerly shifts his feet defensively, one of them brushes Felrin's shoulder enough to shift the man's inert body, and he rolls from his side onto his face. Blood begins to pool below his head as it pours from his nose, the new position causing it to well up and drain out rapidly.

Letting the spear fall to the floor next to his feet, Erevan draws his bow and fires at the Sergeant, the arrow flying unerringly to its target. If the man will not come to him, so be it.

"Are you really sure you want to stay there?" Etna asks softly to the sergeant, as the illusory insects closes in.

Seeing the arrow strike the Sergeant unerringly in the throat, Tkaara smiles, and not a pretty smile. She then turns and glances at Etna briefly.
Good thing you chose bugs, I doubt anything else would eat that repulsive creature.

ROUND 2 RESULTS (Partial)
This covers Group 1 and Blackerly.!

Etna continues the advancement and the spread of the insects as they creep out from every nook and cranny in the room filling more of the space behind the sergeant. They multiply and crawl over each other, worms, centepedes, spiders and all manner of insects closing in on the lone man. Etna keeps them just out of reach of the sergeants blade as to keep the illusion from interacting with him directly and keeping his fear of them at a maximum.

The good doctor now enters the room moving in a position toward Blackerly, further preying upon his fears with both words and actions.

Letting the spear fall to the floor next to his feet, Erevan draws his bow and fires at the Sergeant, the arrow flying unerringly to its target. The precision of the bow may have been compared to that of a hunter stalking his prey in the forest, waiting on the perfect shot but this was more fluid as if Erevan's hands were guided by something else. The arrow hissed toward its intended target almost as if in slow motion as it cut through the air. The arrow went straight for Blackerly piercing completely through a couple of fingers that were clinching the longsword before imbedding deeply into Blackerly's chest with a spray of blood from the wound.

Tkaara looks at the the sergeant while she draws her mace. She stares the man down and as she begins to speak, wisps of mist continue to seep from her mouth like fog rolling through a dark cemetery on a cold night. The sergeant looks pale and distraught at Tkaara's comments and posture.

As Blackerly shifts his feet defensively, one of them brushes Felrin's shoulder enough to shift the man's inert body, and he rolls from his side onto his face. Blood begins to pool below his head as it pours from his nose, the new position causing it to well up and drain out rapidly. Felrin begins to choke on his own blood as gurgling sounds can now be heard as his body starts to convulse.

Grumblejack now follows the doctor into the room taking up a position behind Hecate and shaking his bone club at the sergeant. The sergeant goes completely pale at the sight.

Having taken an arrow to the chest, his weapon hand now injured and one of the forsaken now in some kind of spell induced fit, the looming ogre with a human bone club in hand, the red haired woman looking like she was going to eat him at any moment and the insects behind him there was only one thing he could do at the second and that was apparent as a pool of liquid collected at his feet and a wet stain shown on his uniform as the sergeant pissed himself knowing that his life would end at any moment.

Then the sergeant's instincts and training took over in a disheveled panic. Blackerly's injured hand fumbled at his belt pouch retrieving a small vial of clear liquid, raising the vial to his lips he quickly drank the liquid down as some of his wounds began to heal up especially around his injured hand. He then five foot shifts to the south using the doorway itself for cover.

He nervously then spits "It don't have to be like this, you know you can still surrender and be taken back to your cell peacefully." but the words were said in such a way that it was apparent that even Blackerly knew they were futile.

Round 2 Hecate and Round 3 Group 1 is up.

Initiative
Group 1
Etna
Doctor
Erevan
Tkaara
Felrin (Dying, DC 18 CON Save required to stabalize this round.)
Grumblejack
Group 2
Blackerly
Hecate

Picture of the veil.

Map of lower floor.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current Location: Branderscar Prison: Stairwell, Date: Oathday, Erastus 25th,(Summer) 4714 Time: 2:43 am (Day:One)

Tkaara looks to Grumblejack.
Time to smash the 'lil un. Make sure he feels all the pain that he caused you.

She then steps forward and grabs Felrin's body and pulls it back from the doorway and the expected approach of the ogre.

"It is funny, Blackerly" Etna chuckles as the illusory insects writhes in the shadow "I was about to say the same thing to you. That is, if you didn't almost kill one of my associates here."

"No." Hecate grates at the sergeant, her spell slowly completing. "It didn't have to be like this. I would have happily studied in peace; but that didn't happen, did it? Now you face the consequences."

Pointing, the young wizard gestures at Blackerly. Behind him, a shape of fiend and fire slowly comes into being: four-legged, and muzzled, it bites at his hamstrings.

"Even an unevolved cretin such as you must know that the time for diplomacy passed the moment you branded us, Sergeant,"[b] the Doctor taunts as he advances. [b]"You probably should have tried begging for your life and offering us anything we wanted. Not that that would have helped, it simply would have been more..." He grunts as the staff in his hands connects solidly with the man. "Amusing.

Grumblejack will move to behind the doctor and take a swing at the sergeant if possible. If not available due to space he will double move into the room to get right up on the sergeant to box him in and prepare for the next round.

"Time to go night night little man."

He will provoke if he has to double move to get into position because of squeezing through the doorway but he don't care.

Round 3 or 4
Seeing Grumblejack and the Doctor advance toward the sergeant, Tkaara looks down at the bloody mess on the ground before her. Before she is able to say anything, her body goes stiff and she once more speaks in the strange whispering tongue.

As she speaks, a pale grey fog wafts forth from her mouth settling about the fallen inquisitor. Suddenly tiny sparkles appear within the fog. These flash for a moment before sinking into Felrin. As they do, some of his wounds seem to stitch together leaving thin scars the color of the night sky. These to slowly fade over the next few minutes.

ROUND 2 RESULTS (Final)
This covers Group 2 Hecate Only.!

Pointing, the young wizard gestures at Blackerly. Behind him, a shape of fiend and fire slowly comes into being: four-legged, and muzzled, it bites at his hamstrings. The dogs bite penetrates the armor but does not make it through the tough scaly hide of Blackerly.

ROUND 3 RESULTS (Partial)
This covers Group 1.!

Etna keeps the illusion churning behind Blackerly even intensifying the illusion even closer.

The doctor taunts the sergeant as he advances and then when he is within reach he grunts as the staff in his hands scraps the floor as he brings the bottom of the wooden shaft up and into Blackerly's groin, connecting solidly as the sergeant instinctively doubles over and throws up his dinner before falling face first into the floor and ramming the arrow that Erevan stuck in his chest earlier the rest of the way through his body. His form twitched momentarily and then was completely still.

Seeing the guard down, Tkaara dropped the illusion and sprung into action, moving over to the fallen Felrin and spinning him over out of his own blood and clearing his windpipe., her body goes stiff and she once more speaks in the strange whispering tongue. As she speaks, a pale grey fog wafts forth from her mouth settling about the fallen inquisitor. Suddenly tiny sparkles appear within the fog. These flash for a moment before sinking into Felrin. As they do, some of his wounds seem to stitch together leaving thin scars the color of the night sky. These to slowly fade over the next few seconds.

The wounds on Felrin had stopped bleeding for the moment but they were still severe, however he was no longer in danger of dying from them.

Seeing the sergeant fall angered Grumblejack immensely, he had not yet had a good fight and was severly looking for one. He advanced toward the door behind the doctor and looking in he saw the body of the sergeant laying face down on the floor and he raised his club over his head and whacked it down upon Blackerly's lifeless head as it splattered like a melon across the stone floor. He then looked at the good doctor and grinned.

"See Grumblejack just in time to save your from bad lil' man. It ok, Grumblejack killed him. Next time best to wait for Grumbljack before risking life. Lil 'un could have killed you."

COMBAT IS NOW OVER

Picture of the veil.

Map of lower floor.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current Location: Branderscar Prison: Stairwell, Date: Oathday, Erastus 25th,(Summer) 4714 Time: 2:44 am (Day:One)

"Well it appears we've dealt with him-" the sorceress starts to say as she dispels the illusion. When she hears Grumblejack crushing the sergeant's head, she cringes, her hair taking a deeper red hue for a moment, as she concentrates not to imagine the grisly scene in the other room.

----------------

"Felrin, can you hear me? In the veil I gave you before there was a patch of a potion. Where did you put it?" Etna asks to the Oni-spawn, waiting for a response.
He's not on the verge of death anymore, but he still isn't able to meaningfully contribute like this.

---------------

When everything settles, Etna resumes her search of useful information on the desk, trying to find the map she and Hecate noticed before the battle started.

The fiendish hound tears a strip of flesh off the still-warm corpse. Wolfing it down, its yellow eyes meet Hecate's own, acknowledging the service performed, before it disappears whence it came.

Trembling slightly (she's never summoned something for that purpose before), Hecate doesn't at first register Etna's remarks.

"Oh! Um, I've got the veil, I'm still trying to study it." Tearing the flask patch off, she passes the vial to Ottakar. "What do you think? Healing potion?"

Ottakar watches the hound with fascination, having never had the chance to study an extraplanar being before. It smelled wrong to him somehow. Seconds later, when it disappears in a cloud of brimstone, he shrugs and eyes the much-maligned corpse. When Hecate proffers the flask to him, he takes it, flips the stopper, and takes a deep whiff. After a few moments of concentration, he shakes his head and hands it back. "I have no idea, Fraulein. All I smell right now is the stench of that hound you summoned."

Tkaara simply stands, wavering slightly, as the ghostly fog sinks into Felrin's body. The others had mentioned this, but she had not seen it before. She still did not understand what had happened, but the end result was clear.

When she finally regains her senses, her head snaps up.
No time for talking. Lets see what the sleazy sergeant has in his room. Hopefully more healing, as we are clearly going to need it the way we are going.

With that, she leaves the now breathing inquisitor on the ground and moves into the sergeant's room to see what it holds.

Slinging the bow across his back, Erevan picks his spear from the ground and moves to Blackerly's ruined headless corpse, rolling his eyes ever so slightly at the orge's overenthusiasm at disposing of the corrupt officer. "Yes, quite dead indeed," he concludes, his tone dry and his expression deadpan as he gives the Sergeant's side a poke with the blunt end of the wooden haft, the dead body predicably failing to react. He takes but a moment to see if his attempt at introducing a bit of levity to their circumstances is at all successful before entering their fallen foe's room alongside Tkaara, joining her in a search of it.

As Hecate tears the flask off the vial a vial of clear watery liquid appears in her hands as she hands it to the doctor.

As the doctor receives the vial and opens the stopper and takes a whiff, even over the stench it could tell it was mildly flowery smelling. He then tasted it and it tasted mildly sweet but he could not determine exactly what it was.

Tkaara meanwhile moved into the sergeant's quarters to look for anything useful.

At first glance this appears to simply be the slovenly kept bed chamber of the sergeant of the guard. There is a bed, a small table and wardrobe which contain Blackerly’s personal effects which are by in large worthless. However, under Blackerly’s bed is an iron strong box with a good lock. Also in his wardrobe there appears to be a flask. It is not a vial so it doesn't look to be a potion.

Etna goes back to searching the desk and arranging the papers. She pulls out the map that the group had spotted earlier. As she continues to look through the papers she realizes that there is ample proof here that Sergeant Blackerly was stealing from the prison.

Erevan enters to help Tkaara search the sergeant's quarters but finds nothing she has not already uncovered.

Picture of the veil.

Prison Map from Blackerly's Ofice

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current Location: Branderscar Prison: Stairwell, Date: Oathday, Erastus 25th,(Summer) 4714 Time: 2:45 am (Day:One)

After searching the room, Tkaara returns to the others dragging the strongbox and carrying the flask.
What a slob. Not much of value in there. Although, this locked strongbox may have something. And, I do not know what is in this flask, but it does not smell good.

Hecate examines the map carefully. "Hmmm... Looks like we've, um, eliminated 2 guard points; the others are on the wall, the gatehouse and the other end of the causeway. If we assume that each post has no more than 4 guards (I'd guess 2), then if we take each point in turn we can clear the prison, ensure no one will pursue us."

She looks at the map, trying to work out the best way of getting on to the wall. "Looks like, um, the tower would be our best bet, once we've checked the other rooms on this floor."

Seeing the rest of the party confusedly looking at the potion, Tkaara takes it, looks carefully at it and then smells it to determine what it might be.

Grumblejack moves into the room with the sergeants deceased body and roughly begins to search it.

Suddenly noticing what Grumblejack is doing, Tkaara calls over:
Grumblejack, that might look like a sausage, but its not.

Felrin inhales sharply, then lets out a long, shuddering breath before falling silent again.

The Doctor glances at Felrin. "Do try to get him back on his feet. It would be a shame to have to leave him behind. Also, disgusting as it may be, someone may want to search that," he gestures at Blackerly's corpse, "for anything useful. I have preparations to complete in the armoury."

Tkaara returns from the room dragging the strongbox and sits it along with a flask with a dark brown murky liquid in it on the desk.

Hecate takes the clear watery potion back from the doctor and examines it, she then determines that it is indeed a cure light wounds potion.

Seeing Hecate determining what the potion was Tkaara turns her attention to the flask she brought back, opening the stopper and stiffing it she almost gags. It smells like rotgut whiskey. About two shots of the stuff remaining. She then sits it back down on the desk next to the strongbox.

Grumblejack begins to search the deceased sergeant, the first thing he does is throw his longsword and heavy steel shield to the side. Then he unhooks a set of keys from his belt and tosses them into the room next to Felrin, then he begins to search the dead mans pockets and begins to pull out some gold coins which he quickly stuffs into his prison issue pockets. Upon completing the task Grumblejack stands up.

The good doctor then returns to the armory to gather up his work and items and adorn his new chain shirt.

Current Map

Prison Map from Blackerly's Ofice

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current Location: Branderscar Prison: Sergeant's Office, Date: Oathday, Erastus 25th,(Summer) 4714 Time: 2:46 am (Day:One)

Grumblejack looks at Tkaara when she makes her sausage comment and then looks down at the fallen sergeant.

"Grumblejack no like scaly snake."

Having determined the nature of the potion, Hecate carefully administers it to Felrin. Her hands shake a couple of times, but she gets most of it into the half-fiend without choking him.

"Welcome back. Feeling better?"

Etna looks attentively at the map "So, what do we do? If we intend to take out all of the guards before leaving, know that I'm about to run out of useful spells. It's been so long since I've used magic so much in such a little time, it's exhausting. I propose that we create some kind of diversion, and then make a run for the exit, possibly finding some swift mean of transport." She studies the map once again "As I said before, maybe we could start a fire? This garden here looks flammable enough, and if we manage to make it look like enough of an accident, we could reenter the building by the nearby door, wait for the guards to come near the fire, and sneak in the other direction."

Discussion thread for the first chapter of our saga...

Might want to keep the old thread active until everyone has dotted here. Some of the new players might not know where to find this.

Done

Here!

Ready and Wicked!

Here as well.

Except for Felrin's character I believe we are ready to go. I know he is at a con all weekend so it may be a minute before we get his information squared away. Meanwhile does Tkaara or Erevan have a portrait or do you want to just use your avatar picture?

The gameplay thread is now open... all characters can participate except for Felrin. Once Felrin is done with his character sheet and has been approved I will let him join in.

Just didn't want to hold up everyone that wanted to jump in and start chatting.

Please make sure you read the posting guidelines in the campaign info tab. Lets keep OOC here as much as possible, if you have to add something ooc in the gameplay thread then please make sure you spoiler it.

Have fun...... and good luck to everyone.

Lol - this is about the closest I can find. Unfortunately, she is already a main character in the campaign I believe.

Tkaara - close image

I really cannot find someone who fits the appearance I want. I think that the avatar I am using is pretty close, and seems to have that "I don't give a damn about you" look.

If I see another, I will email it to you, but have spent quite a bit of time and just do not see what I am looking for - probably because I have no clue how to do the search I need to.

Here you go.... lol

Very Soon

Looks pretty close. Has the more pale whitish blonde that I was looking for.

Wasn't quite sure how to start the IC. I assume that we were already individually branded. Not sure if one was put in the cell first, or all at the same time. Since it is a common chain, it could be either.

Are this chains able to block magic like the ones in the Royal Court, or are just mundane shackles?

They do not have any anti-spell properties, however they do restrict movement enough that you can not use any spell that has a somatic component, so you are limited to verbal spells only.

Spell like abilities that require no components can be used. You just don't want to attract the guards that are nearby.

Sorry about my silence, ladies and gentlemen. Yesterday was the second busiest day of the year at my work, and then some friends just HAD to get together for drinks and Cards Against Humanity. :P Back now, though, let's get our game on.

Erevan Cale and Tkaara Fiakben have been added to the campaign website as well as Erevan's token has been updated on the map to reflect his new portrait.

Hi all - recovering from a weekend at a local con, I'm mostly done with Felrin but need to take another look at a couple of things as well as catch up on PbP's. Hope to have him final this evening or tomorrow.

Hello again - working on Felrin, most of the way there. I'm wondering how many of us have taken the option to boost our race builds a bit. In looking at some of the alternate tiefling abilities, which seem to be the most logical things that he might add, there are several that make some sense: +1 natural armor due to his weird bony body (this could also be DR 2/piercing or some such); appear human (because it's what he does); barb dagger, again from the bones; claws, and a few others.

Before I go down that road, I'm trying to get a sense how much others have done so.

TL/DR: did you spend Race Points? If so, how many?

Leaving Erevan's Racial Qualities intact, I added the following Racial Traits: Advanced Strength (4 rp), Darkvision 60 Feet (2 rp), Low-Light Vision (1 rp). The additions bring him up to a total of 16 rp, seeing as how humans are a 9 rp race. Keep in mind though that I am not going to be taking any of the feat chains, thus I had a limit of 18 total rp; otherwise the total is 13.

I took the Focussed Study racial ability, but dropped the bonus into Profession(barrister), so, not a lot of benefit there. I get additional a Skill Focus at levels 8 and 16. It is worth 4 RP, but did not affect her humanness much.

I am going the Path of the Vampre, so was limited to 13 RP.

I took the Curiosity racial ability: it has some nice bonuses, but was mainly for flavour. Keeps me at 13 RP, so I can take a feat path if I want to later on.

Beginning to wish I'd taken Darkvision, though... :)

I added the Flexible stat modifiers, and the traits Gregarious, Emissary and Skill Training(Diplomacy only), bringing me to 12 RP.

It's good to have rerolls on social skills with 2 digits at first level. :D (Okay, Diplomacy is still at +9, but that will change as soon as I scrounge up the money to summon back Winston :P ).

Pah, amateur - I already get +12 on Cha 17 (for information gathering, anyway)... A smile, a kind word and the occasional forged signature gets you a lot of information ;)

The re-roll, I will concede, is a nice thing to have :p

Hi everyone, this is the new thread - post thoughts, comments, queries here. Per my PMs, the game is scheduled to restart on 1 March; I will have ploughed through the books by then and be ready to move forward with taking over Talingarde. You're welcome to come too, of course.

In the meantime, I've put some information about myself in my profile so you know what to expect; if you have any questions please ask. I've put some of the house rules that I follow there as well so they shouldn't come as a surprise later on (obviously the 'no third party materials' rule is waived to the extent that we're playing a Fire Mountain Games AP).

I'm also going to be putting some information into the Campaign tab; please do take time to read it since (i) it helps with player character immersion in the gaming world; and (ii) this is an Asmodean campaign - failing to read the print can have ... consequences. (AKA: read the flavour text, b!tches!)

Ready to burn down a couple of LG nations!

By the way, are we keeping the Victorian flavor and the homebrewed feats?

Homebrewed feats: yes, yes and yes - you need change nothing from what was previously arranged with DMA.

Victorian flavour: I've had some thoughts in that direction. As you will know from reading the mountain of text in the Campaign tab (it's ok, you have until the end of the month), Talingarde has basically two strands of nobility: House Barca, of elven blood, the ancient rulers; and the more recent House Darius, human and Mitra-worshippers.

The pious Darians haven't been in power that long, and so they were keen from the very beginning to disguise this fact and to adopt the trappings of nobility and courtliness. They therefore affect a great refinement; since they're the ones in power, anyone who is anyone (or who wants to be anyone) has adopted their manners of dress and speech. Everything is modesty and circumlocution, from table manners to clothing. They are in effect the Victorians.

By contrast, the Barcans know that they're noble: they don't have to pretend, they have ancestors they can trace back over a dozen generations! Elven generations, at that! These come-lately Darians are just another trial to be endured. Barcans do as they please, they speak as they please and they dress as they please. The only thing they can't do right now is worship as they please, since the Darians have outlawed all the other gods but Mitra. Who knows (oh, that would be me! I know!), maybe one or two Barcans haven't even given up their Asmodean practices.

Barcans especially enjoy swearing and cursing in front of Darians, in the knowledge that their Barcan noble blood will basically give them special status. And it seems to work; the Darians do their best to pretend that they didn't hear or see anything offensive.

This accomplishes two things: it creates genuine tension between the two Houses; and it subverts that "oh-aren't-elves-so-sparkly-and-refined" mentality that I despise (and which Shadowrun lampshaded so mercilessly).

Thoughts?

Thanks for taking over. If you could start the gameplay thread, that would be great so that we can dot it to make it show up on the Campaign's tab.

FYI - in case people do not know this. You can "dot" a thread, and then immediately delete the post, and the thread will still show up on your campaign thread. Doing it this way avoids having multiple "dots" clogging up the start of the gameplay thread.

I really dig the Darian-Barcan thing! It also fits with Golarion Elves being usually Chaotic aligned.

I like the write up. Will try to get through more of your background later. Have to go back outside before too long. Someone has decided that it would be fun, looks up at the sky, to dump several feet of snow on us. About 3-4 feet on the ground around here right now, deeper where it has drifted.

The Darian-Barcan animosity seems sort of like and old money vs. new money struggle you see in the US. The old money (Rockefeller, Carnegie, Kennedy, etc.) sort of looks down at the new money as a bit of an annoyance that will run its course and go back to being poor and in worn out shoes before too long. Until then, the Jobs and Gates of the world will have to be politely dealt with.

Yeah, that's pretty much it, if you imagine the additional annoyance of Jobs and Gates as zealous puritanical kill-joys...

Good luck digging yourself out of the snow; if we get more than a couple inches the whole place round here shuts down; can't even imagine a few feet of it!

Etna: I wouldn't rely on the 'usually Chaotic aligned' bit - or the 'Good' for that matter. Just a word to the wise wicked ;)

EDIT: Regarding the gameplay tab, I'm hoping to get the current thread transferred in so we can literally pick up where we left off, with our Doctor's critical fumble!

3-4 feet? I've seen snow four times in my whole life! D:

And I skimmed trough the campaign info: if it's the one that's in the books, I've already gone trough it when I applied in DMA's game and when I looked trough a recruitment for another WotW game here. I'll still read it again to refresh my memory. :D

Well and good. Everything seems to be in order. Now for the universe to decide to have a grand joke on us by having DMA return on March 2nd...

@AU: yes, that would be fairly typical...

A few more thoughts

===========================
MAJORING IN SOCIOLOGY
===========================

The victory of House Darius over House Barca was nearly 100 years ago, which is about the same distance as the First World War is to us. All the humans who remember it first-hand are long dead, as are most of their children. The Barcans of course are elven/half-elven (>95% half-elf: the line occasionally breeds true elves but not often). There are elderly Barcans still living who fought in that war, and almost every one of the current generation lost a parent or uncle.

In other words, the humans who are now running things are the 3rd or even 4th generation removed: they regard the war as ancient history. So the Darians are pretty much unaware of any animosity the Barcans might have for them and would be astonished to know the reasons for it.

===========================
CHRONICLES OF THE FORSAKEN
===========================

I need some help from you guys in keeping this campaign going and making sure that we keep track of stuff (there's a huge cast of characters here and they all matter - for a given value of 'matter').

What I would really appreciate is if you could (either individually or collectively) run a document (ideally a Google docs so I can then link to it in the Campaign thread) that lists all of the named NPCs you encounter. This can be as detailed or as sparse as you like. A sample could be as follows:

Tomas Blackerly (DECEASED): Sergeant in charge of Branderscar prison. Cruel and cowardly, he held the Forsaken down and laughed as he branded them. Kept the prison in bad order - we heard rumours of gambling and at least one guard was drunk on duty. Etna's review of the paperwork revealed that he was committing fraud on a significant scale. Attempted to ambush the Forsaken as they searched his quarters and almost killed Felrin. Died fighting to the last to prevent their escape.

How many details you include and how you order the list (deceased vs living; or by where they were first encountered; or by whose side they're on(!); endless possibilities) is completely up to you but if you can keep it up to date that would be really appreciated.

As a sweetener, for each named NPC you list, I will add 50 XP to the group's total; I will add a further 50 XP each time there is a significant update to an NPC already listed. So for example, I would have awarded 50 XP for initially listing Blackerly, and a further 50 XP when you updated to include his death and how he died.

So far, in addition to Blackerly, you have encountered the Warden (Matthias Richter), Grumblejack, and Sir Balin of Karfeld; and the Doctor has encountered Tiadora. Additionally, each of you (including Hecate) has a number of named NPC's in your backstory. That's a lot of XP waiting to be awarded!

This creates further immersion in the game world and allows us to remember who is whom later down the line: "The tall, angelic warrior glares at you sternly and snarls: 'now you face justice, you killers of Blackerly!'"* "Wait, who's Blackerly again?" "Dude, you remember, that guy who branded us back at the beginning." "Uh... Oh. Right. Him."

*This is not a thing that is going to happen, FYI

===========================
LOOT OF THE FORSAKEN
===========================

DMA did a great job of listing who had what, but that isn't something I can see myself being able to keep track of.

if one or all or indeed any of you can put a document together that lists who has what, I will add 250 XP to the group's total for its initial creation - and a further 50 XP each time there is a significant update.

Your cooperation is appreciated. Have an Infernal day.

A question: What about DMA's house rules? You know, the ones about Hero Points and natural 1 and 20.

Oh, and a second one about your own house rules: Are natural 1 a failure even on skill and ability checks? And if yes, what about natural 20 if that is the case?

Villain points - yes, definitely; in fact as play re-starts you are about to earn the first ones!

House rules - my rules on nat 1 replace those of DMA: i.e. no critical fumbles (life is complicated enough) in combat, but for skill/ability checks there is always the possibility of failure, no matter how many bonuses you have. Natural 20 is always a success (assuming that what you were attempting is actually possible!) - I didn't make that clear in my house rules and will amend them. Thanks for spotting that.

However, a nat 20 in combat is not going to be an automatic critical - we will be reverting to the RAW on that (i.e. if you roll a nat 20, roll again to confirm the critical).

Hope this isn't too complicated; I realise I'm posting a lot right now, but I wanted to give enough time for everyone to read it before play re-starts.

I'm still around to answer questions, but the 'info-dump' is now (I think) completed.

Finally, if anyone's not happy, please let me know asap - we're here to have fun, after all!

What I would really appreciate is if you could run a document that lists all of the named NPC you encountered.

Like this?

Apparently one must request access to your doc.

Now? It should be possible to edit it, too.

Hi gang - glad we'll be able to keep this going, whatever happens come March 1.

A question/comment for our brave new DM, related to your profile info - as we've discussed before in this group, we have a number of us who benefit from flanking, and who will benefit from it even more over time. If it's possible to to have maps for the combats, it will make a big difference. Sometimes a fight is quick or simple (one combatant in an open space) and the map doesn't matter so much - but it's funny how rare such fights are.

And one more comment about your profile info, while I'm at it - sounds like this will be fun!

Etna, that is brilliant. Thank you. Adding 200 XP to the group now.

Everyone, don't forget the NPC's from your ten-hour background; I'd hate for all that work to go to waste...

Felrin: understood and yes, flanking can make a huge difference - the difficulty is running such maps from my phone. Can we trial a narrative system? In other words, you say "I move to flank so-and-so" and I will then play it that they are flanked. Of course, if there is a fight with a number of good guys, then you may take an AoO as you move to a flanking position; but I will warn you if that is the case.

If that doesn't work, I will reconsider and look at possible alternatives.

Glad you like it! I'll update it later/tomorrow with one of Etna's important NPCs: we have 2 weeks before we restart, so we have time. :)

By the way, someone wants to do the loot list? I really wouldn't even know how to start in formatting that (maybe Excel?).

Here is a question for you all: do we continue as is, or do we invite one of the alternates who did not originally make the cut?

Can we continue as-is for the time being? Taking over the campaign is going to be tricky enough without adding more variables.

Later on, we can see.

Well enough. Okay, Asmodeus demands order regarding the character list. Do we want them listed in chronological order (and then do we put all the characters from backgrounds first?), or would it be more convenient to list them alphabetically? Also, will need a color to represent those who are not necessarily allies, nor enemies, but, as far as we know, are still alive...

I say we put all of the background characters before the one we listed, maybe with something to separate the two.
What about green as a color for the other characters?

There. I have added NPCs from Ottakar's background.

More XP added to the group.

I'm still around BTW, if you have any questions, despite not posting frequently - I'm alternately reading, thinking and laughing maniacally: whoever wrote this AP is a genius! So many opportunities for TPK - erm, I mean, character development...

List adjourned with Etna's three important NPCs!

I will go trough the gameplay thread and start compiling the loot list.