Treasurefox's Rise of the Runelords (Inactive)

Game Master TreasureFox

Looked it up and lily pads symbolize "pleasure and peace" so that is quite possible.

If we do this, I may have to retire Janis. A long time plan of mine that I've wanted to do in a city based campaign was to start my own thieves guild using a hidden room in an orphanage as a training room. Note, I'm not saying I will, but I will definitely be sorely tempted.

Cleo's eyes narrow suspiciously at Janis. :)

Yeah, Andreste wouldn't turn down a chance to improve the lot of children in a terrible situation. Someone did it for her once and she would feel bound to do it for the Gullkin.

Weighing the choice between that and saving a bunch of greedy people in some far off town.....

Water lilies can symbolize innocence as well as love. Swamps places of danger, but bubbling could mean an active busy place of danger. Janis's suggestion of the red light district is a good one. The last line still seems like the sewer to me, so maybe the lead into the sewer from a brothel, Chelish brothel.

Possibly. We should read up on magnimar. It might provide some context

Last idea for the night before bed. Janis's potential harem includes one...

"Lilia Minia, who looks young and tiny. She's a Chelish girl with dirty blond hair, which is styled in pig tails. She's very smiley and excited. When she does a little hop, she might reach five feet tall. The silk scarf that she wears nearly touches the floor, and spins with her dress as she twirls. She welcomes the two eagerly, and has a smile that's not nearly as sharp, but just as mischievous as Aggah."

Hmm. Could be.

I'm in if somebody comes and gets me. You keep forgetting I live in Magnimar and don't stay with Seiko.

Who's Seiko? ;)

A watchmaker, I think :P

No idea. Was auto-corrected from Ameiko.

There's something important I want to put out here in the discussion tab.
I want you guys to be aware that we are doing this little adventure to save abused children. It may seem obvious, but I want to make it crystal clear that we will encounter abused children. This is a very difficult subject for people, and I want to remain sensitive to that.

I will not be going into the details of abuse, but players will be able to put clues together to get a general picture of what's going on. I realize that I have the luxury of studying these things in the comfort of my own room, with no previous trauma. I understand that that may not be the case for everyone here. The research I've done is limited, and although I've tried to account for common misconceptions in the real world, I can definitely have overlooked things.

So my goal here is not to traumatize anyone. I'm trying to give you an opportunity to make some good of a terrible situation, and for that to work, I need to at least allude to the terribleness.

If during this adventure (or any part of this game) you encounter something that is really sensitive for you, please message me. We will figure out a solution, even if it's just to sit out of the game for a few days.
Thanks for listening/reading

I appreciate this as I am the victim of minor abuse. Nothing major, I'm fine, and I doubt anything will be remotely like what I experienced. But it's good to know you're aware of what might happen to

Please, nobody ask or say you're sorry. It's stupid little stuff by an angry drunk and I'm over it.

Likewise, I appreciate your sensitivity in this area. While I don't anticipate any "triggers", I will let you know if anything causes trouble for me.

I am a sappy mess when it comes to kids, much like Cleo, but I'll be good.

I'll be good

Thanks for your trust, guys

Are you waiting on me to set up the trial? I'm currently waiting for Andreste's response, and I'd like to hear what the rest of you are doing. I know Janis has decided/recommended that you all meet up at the trial.

What time is the trial? Do we have time to do more searching?

Cleo doesn't care about the trial, with shops, kids, and cults on her mind. But she doesn't mind meeting up there.

Working on her daily spells now.

The trial is all day. Visitors are welcome to come and go as they please.

I think it's best if we're there as his executioners and as duly appointed law officers at the time.

It wastes an entire day though. If you want to attend, Cleo can meet you there, express disinterest in attending and go back hunting for the shop. Then meet back up with you at a designated time.

Daily spells...

. . 4th—divination, summon nature's ally IV (animals only)[D]
. . 3rd—dominate animal[D] (DC 16), invisibility purge, prayer, See Beyond
. . 2nd—barkskin[D], burst of radiance (2, DC 15), greater detect magic[UI], hold person (DC 15)
. . 1st—bless, calm animals[D] (DC 14), ears of the city (2), protection from evil, remove fear
. . 0 (at will)—create water, detect magic, guidance, light
. . D Domain spell; Domains Animal, Plant

Now, I've never ever Ever used augury or divination before, but Cleo is going to do so to hunt down more information on the shop and/or the riddle, which I am still stumped on.

So does anyone have any advice on casting it?

Sounds good.

Augury is rather useless IMO, it usually ends with big annoyance when you are limited to weal/woe and blow money on the components.

Augury is rather useless IMO, it usually ends with big annoyance when you are limited to weal/woe and blow money on the components.

She's a cleric. She would use a focus which doesn't get used up. One time expense.

As for how to use it, my best suggestion is ask if searching for it today would be good or bad. Specifically use the word today or finding/searching for it could be bad period.

Divination says it offers advice, not just good or bad like augury would. Short advice, usually cryptic. And potentially we could use it to help cut out an area like is there information about the portal in X, or is the portal in Y, though I'd imagine there are protections in place to stop some of that.

Ahh, I thought you meant the school of magic. I wasn't aware there was a spell by that game. I'd ask it where we can find more clues. I feel like like he'll have defenses from basic divination spell if he plays hide and seek every year.

Since that will be the first use of any true divination magic used in this game, I would like you to know that as a cleric of Erastil, your question will be directed to Erastil or one of his clergy. It is assumed that the one answering is fully aware of the situation, and can either look into the most likely futures, or make a highly educated guess. Just know that their responses are guided by their specific ethics.

Divination is the best school of magic because it allows one to communicate directly with their God.

Fun fact: Thassilonians rarely ever practiced divination magic, thinking it was beneath them. Then earthfall happened. No one saw that coming.

In the future Andreste, you don't need to write out your entire spell description in your profile if you don't want to. I will usually just look it up myself if I don't know it. Thanks for putting in the extra work, but I don't expect it of you.

Furnok is rather appalled at literal devils being summoned. Did we suddenly get teleported to Thrune?

The Hells in Magnimar is written as a demi-plane connecting the city to Hell itself. It's a prison that's located directly beneath the court.

Personally, I think it would fit Magnimar better to just have a giant prison/sweatshop for free labour, which is definitely not the same as slavery, like what that horrible country of Cheliax does. Here we're a champion of the free, except for the people that we consider scum. And we definitely don't have any corruption or backwards laws, oh no.

I'm sure if Barzillai Thrune could have a court overtop of a demi-plane similar to hell itself, he'd absolutely go for it. 100%

Well. Guess daddy is going to see through my lies that this is one giant Machiavellian plan.

Have you decided how you're going to decide if we are actually the first to find him or not?

Yep. I've rolled in secret how many days it takes until someone else finds the portal. If you beat that time, you win.

cool. Hope we do.

Kinda wishing I'd built Janis as a vigilante

We could all be vigilantes! I'll be 'The Chef'! He wields the frying pan of justice!

Vigilante would be a regrettable decision after Magnimar, but I take this as a compliment. It means I've added enough social intrigue to make the city feel real.

I'm currently trying to learn Dungeonfog so I can make better maps.

Ugh, I started learning more about how to make maps on roll20 for my Xcrawl game (which unfortunately has died) used fog of war and it went horribly because of it. I will never pair a maze and fog of war again. I will let people see the maze, and make no markings indicating exits, secret doors or points of interest.

And yes, you did a magnificent job with this.

I played in a pbp with maps on Roll20 where the gm used fog of war. It was HORRIBLE! He wanted me to be in charge keeping maps for the entire dungeon. As in copying down each section of the map revealed and placing it in a dropbox for other players to have access to. Needless to say I opted out of that task and no other player stepped up. Fog of War was turned off shortly thereafter.

Fog of War is a neat concept that does not work in pbp.

Yeah I'm in a game where the DM uses fog of war on roll20. I'm always at a loss of how to make it work, so I just tell him what my character does and more or less ignore the map. We don't have to copy it like we're making a map though. That's a lot to expect on a player. I played at a table game where a player was our map-copier. She loved it though, so it worked out pretty well.

Maps are my least favourite DM thing because I can't transfer my thoughts onto the map.

I could potentially use black shapes in google drawings for fog of war (which I do), and replace them once the characters walk through (which I don't do). Mainly because I'm lazy, also because it's rarely important in the games I run. There are other game styles that I can picture it being important, like a megadungeon where you can't really afford to check everything, and need to remember how to get back out.

No issues with hiring mercs, whether Order of the Nail or not.
I think a pretty fair price would be 20% of the NPC (heroic) wealth level for their total hit dice. So a level 6 fighter (human) would cost 930gp. This price would then be negotiated using Bluff/Diplomacy/Intimidate, depending on the amount of risk vs reward. Finally, I'd add a chance to influence the NPC, using a simplified version of the ultimate intrigue rules. That influence check would help determine their loyalty.

So let's say you want to hire a non-descript Hellknight. Human, LN alignment, level 5 Fighter (armiger) / level 1 Hellknight. You describe the job and he figures it would have some risk to it, but nothing he couldn't handle while working with a team. You make a check vs a DC to haggle for a price. If you succeed, you pay a fair price of 930gp. If you beat the DC by a lot, it might be reduced further. If you fail, the price goes up. Then you get a single sense motive check to figure out something about him, followed by an influence check. This determines his starting loyalty. Many factors play into loyalty, including his ethics during the adventure, the way you treat him, additional influence checks, the risk level, etc. If his loyalty falters, depending on various circumstances, he could bail during an important fight, stab you in the back, steal your stuff, or something else. If his loyalty is very high, he might take higher risks to protect you, defend your honour, or sing your praises.

I'm okay with this because while it's extra work, it allows the players a chance to develop strong bonds with an NPC, which helps keep them invested in the game. I also think sacrificing loot for temporary power is a reasonable thing to do.

I feel like that's a bit much. Maybe for a long term contract like if they were coming with is to Turtle, which is something we could talk about doing, but for a day contract? That's a couple decades worth of the average person's income

Sure, it is a ton if compared to the average worker, but it's calculated to be closer to a share of a dungeon's treasure for that character level.

Yeah, but a dragon is serious business. And the danger level isn't near that. Not that it matters since it appears we won't be going to get them, but that much per person for a q day job, maybe for a team.

before we go against the Creepers Wabbit would like to claim the Blue Swordmasters flair from Xaneshas lair loot. It's only usable by a swashbuckler.

I thought the orphanage was in a bad area of town, so little to no guard presence. Cleo wouldn't think like that though so that's why I aks in here.

yup...bad area of town. Doesn't mean they haven't bought off some local watch if there are any. Don't know, Wabbits definitely not a local. Just seems like it might be best to launch a raid when the fewest number of people are on the streets

Makes sense. Tonight we will be heroes!!!