Ruins of Azlant (Inactive)

Game Master Nathan Goodrich

Get well soon!

As a bit of housekeeping for the GM:

We haven't heard in a while about the status of Talmandor's Bounty itself. With the new colonists coming in, is the settlement getting bigger/more populous? Did the palisade ever get completed? It's been a bit handwave-y on those points for a while.

Also, did we ever (or can we now) formally pick up our last equipment order from the ship and/or make a new one?

Just wanted to note that I've just changed back to a second shift at my job; if anything, I think it means I'll likely be a little bit more consistent in posting, though my time of posts will probably switch to most often in the late mornings/early afternoons. I'm not sure how often yet I'll be able to post in the evenings with the new job.

@Sarine: I'll do some reading this weekend to give you a good update on the state of the colony. Admittedly the start of book 3 gets right to the investigation bit so I hadn't thought to make an update of that kind. Additionally, feel free to pick up your last order. As for making another one, let me look into the options that we have for that and get back to you. I might change things up on that front a bit.

@Everyone: I should be posting with some regularity here now, though I will say the actual days of Christmas Eve and Christmas will likely not be included in that. I have two families to bounce between and will likely be too busy.

Alright, so I'll have to get it as an in character thing in a few but I asked Zay if we could have Jenner as a group crafter to stay in the colony and work on items for you and we have the green light. So, if there are any magic items that you would like made we'll have Jenner handle it.

I'm still here. I just can't think of anything witty to say about rowing a boat right now.

So we still make item orders as before, but Jenner can do Craft Magic Arms & Armor for us?

Perhaps we handwave it that Jenner also takes Craft Wondrous Item and can do some of that crafting as well?

Yeah, we're gonna be pretty handwavey about it, for sure. Jenner can do anything that you would be able to afford, and as you level up we're just gonna say that continues to stand. He's just going to become the colony's premier source of magical item creation.

OH GOD I HATE CHAOS BEASTS SO MUCH OOCLY

Had a rogue I was quite fond of basically get turned to jell-o by one. We got it fixed but UGH

FYI, I got asked to help out on a late project, so I may be a little slow to post in my PBPs until I get it done. Will still try to post daily, though.

I've been occupied with other games, but still checking in here. Are you OK, GM?

Life kinda went into a tailspin the last couple weeks, sorry. I'll do my best to get something substantive posted today when I've got some time.

How you doing, GM? I know things are crazy everywhere right now, but wondering about the game.

+1

I'm home twiddling my thumbs, but of course depending on circumstances, GM, you may not have time, just let us know if you can.

Hey all,

I've reached out Tuesday to GM Watery Grave to check in and make sure he's still interested in running the game. I know we're in the midst of the pandemic, but we've been pretty slow for a while now, so I'm not sure if it's coronavirus related or not.

I haven't heard anything yet. If he doesn't weigh in, do we want to try to find another GM? I know Dak had offered to step in at the same time GM WG did.

I was planning to be patient for a while longer, but otherwise was thinking along the same lines. I think it's easiest to say that I'm still here and not going anywhere.

Found a Warhammer Fantasy campaign that's been super active to keep me active on the site. We had over 600 gameplay thread posts in our first real-world month and are probably holding pace.

Games certainly have different posting rates. My Skull & Shackles game has averaged about 18 posts per day over about four months and the players are about half-way through Book 2.

On the other hand, The Carrion Crown game I'm in has averaged 2 posts per day over its 5 year run and we're just beginning Book 3.

I much prefer the faster paced games, but shrug everyone has their preferences.

I prefer everyone posts basically daily (5-10 posts per week). I think I would have trouble keeping up with 18/day, but too slow and I lose the thread of the game.

I was clear in the recruitment. And in spite of one naysayer in the recruitment who was adamant that it wasn't possible, we've kept up the pace pretty well. But I'll be the first to admit that not everyone can do that.

Another game I am/was in was War For the Crown which just finished the complete AP. It lasted almost exactly two years and averaged about 9 posts per day. That was my first AP that I've seen the completion of. Sad to see it end, but that's the eventual goal, right?

Was that Brainiac's WotC campaign? I'm in the other table and we're still in just Book 3. You guys went through that super quickly.

I'm typically capable of posting as fast as the game requires me to.

If the GM doesn't respond from a week of the point at which you reached out to them, then I'd say move on. I think it's fair to give them some extra time given what is going on in the world.

Was that Brainiac's WotC campaign? I'm in the other table and we're still in just Book 3. You guys went through that super quickly.

Yes, it was. And it was a blast. :)

In fact, two of the characters ended up married and one of them was pregnant by the time the story ended. Their child is now one of the PCs in my Skull & Shackles game. :)

Yeah, a little extra time can be allowed. I'm actually sitting at home now. Where I work is still open (critical business), but I've caught something and with the current climate, I'm not subjecting my coworkers to anything that can be avoided.

I agree that under the circumstances we can give Arrannai a little more time, but it'd be nice to hear from them. Maybe a ping on Discord?

Failing that, I'm okay with trying to recruit a new GM. Probably lots of people have suddenly more free time...

Summary & Timing Notes for Book Two: there's a lot of guesswork going on in here, and I'm not sure that travel times required to get around were very consistent. But it is what I could come up with.

I think we kind of handwaved a lot of the travel time, Sarine. I don't know if it really would have taken weeks, but I don't think it was really meant that we wandered around the whole island over the course of a few days. I don't know how much it matters...

I'm just going to pick up with Book 3; let me know if you want Book 1 stuff, GM, but there were also some handwaves weeks in there.

Wow. We did a lot on 1 Lamashan. It's 9 p.m. and we really should rest soon, I think.

When I was working on the post above for Book Two events, I noticed a few things that seemed important that were treasure-relevant. I'd completely forgotten about a weapon that Sarine picked up, for instance. So here is a treasure map for Book Two:

In case people are being TLDR with this, the most important part I think is in the Sahaugin Hunt spoiler. We have purchasing access through the locanth that I'd completely forgotten about. There may be gold limits on it, but even that is a ton better than the occasional access we've had to the markets in Almas.

I've been fine in prior cases with just letting characters that leave take their gear with them. That ioun gauntlet is really cool though. Do we think Sarine could get it from Jenner as he's retiring?
Assuming that this is a question for both Zay and our GM.

Good call, Sarine. Thanks.

Also, we should make sure our new GM is aware we've got these relics, since I think those were added in (or my rapier was at least, maybe?), not part of the campaign (though could be wrong).

That's my understanding as well. Especially so since two of our party members will need relics if we're going to continue using that system. Three actually? Tettia doesn't have one I think...

I'm more than fine with letting the gauntlet move on from Jenner, if the GM is etc.

To note, I’m reading through everything and getting prepped so we can dive back in soon.

Do you need anything else from my book 2 summary?

No, I haven't gotten that far just yet, still looking through everything that happened from before at this point.

About half-way through the thread. Hope to get finished up tomorrow.

Bit of a slower day on reading, but got through book 1 and started on book two. For reference here is what I have for book one if anyone wants to make sure I didn't miss anything major.

Just saw note of the relics in game play for the first time can anyone give me more details on them since they seem to be something additional from the previous GM?

I'm not super familiar with the details, but I understand that they were using rules from War for the Crown. They are magic items that improve when we gain triumphs...usually doing something cool.

Sarine's sword was introduced as a +1 greatsword that glowed when near abberations I think. When it became a relic it upgraded to +2. After two more upgrades, it is a +3 Seabourne weapon.

I'll check in with Nikolaus de'Shade - the original GM - and see if he still has the information on them.

Cool. Does everyone have something or just a few people? I saw Sarine and Aurelian but didn't notice anyone else with one.

Another note, @Primrose I saw you mention something about coming to the colony for your brother but didn't see more details in a background, can you provide any more details about what brought her here?

Also, I know several of you have played with me as a player and/or GM but please take a look at my GM profile that details generally how I run things just to make sure you don't see any glaring issues with your expectations.

Finally, I wanted to get your thoughts on the feat tax rules. Personally, I'm not a big fan of using them, not because they don't have merit, but more so because to play them right it puts extra work on the GM to balance fights properly. With that said, you've had 7 levels to play with them so if anyone's build is particularly tied to having them then we can keep it as is. If not, would people be opposed to rebuilding to remove them? Honestly not a big deal either way, but if we keep them I will be sure to use them on the monsters, which from what I saw reading through things did not seem to be the case so far.

Thanks again for taking on the game, Dak. Your rules look fine to me.

I do use the freebie Weapon Finesse for Zay's build, but if you wanted to kill the free feats, I'd just give up my Perception focus in order to keep it. So I could live with a rebuild.

I think that gauntlet thing for Jenner was meant to be an item that became a relic in the vein of Aurelian or Sarine's, but since I'm no longer playing Jenner in the game, it makes no real difference to me one way or the other.

Tettia doesn't have a relic ... yet. :) :)

Regarding feat tax rules, Tettia doesn't utilize anything that would be affected by either using or not using them, so I'll let the others' opinions over mine be the deciding factor.

Feat taxes have been nice, but if it is putting more work than n the GM I don't feel that big of a need to have them. A chance to rebuild would be nice if we're doing that though. No major changes like class or anything are intended. I may do some cleanup of ability scores if allowed.

I'd likely dump Cornugon Smash since feats will be needed in places they are not.

I'm fine if you'd rather not do feat taxes. I think the only thing it would change for me is Power Attack. (And the light blades focus/specialization would change to rapier, but that's almost all I use, so no biggie.)

This doesn't affect Prim.

While I am doing some housekeeping. I put up a link to our new combat maps which will be on Roll20. Please log in when you have a chance and let me know your name there (if it is different from your character name) and I will set you up with a token.

I'm on Roll20 as Itzi.

I'm Jacob M.

I'm Primrose ;)

To address Sarine's questions, I'm still waiting on more details on the relics. As for the rebuild since it seemed like it only had a minor effect on two people and they didn't have issues with it let's go ahead and do that. This way all the monsters aren't using Power attack, combat expertise, etc on you by default :P

After looking at Sarine's rebuild some more, I've decided not to change very much. Luckily, Power Attack is on the list of bloodline feats she can take, and so swapping out the Blind-Fight feat I took instead is a pretty easy switch.

One other thing I forgot to mention is that I made an arrangement with our first GM to have Sarine's rage be unchained style. If they'd rather I stay with the normal style rage, we can do that. Honestly, now that we're using hero points the normal rage is a lot less scary. It would tend to eat up healing resources faster, but we might be able to manage that.

You can keep the unchained variant for rage.