Volcano's Land - Forged in Blood (Inactive)

Game Master Miner Cotren

Just for a friendly reminder as you are discussing Bree's passing:

Sylph death rites typically include treating a body then leaving it in a high place for vultures or other birds. Oreads get buried, ifrits are burned. Bree was not particularly pious, but she definitely did not follow Volcano, River, or Forest, so 'scattering' would be the cultural norm here.

As you eventually discuss where you want to go, here is a lay of the land, since we've never really talked distances before:

--Forge is close by, (just over a day's travel)

--Straight north, it quickly goes from steep hills to the Horned Mountains. (you can make the Horned Mountains in about two days)

--Due east, you cross a little of the Charcoal Desert (probably by rock camel caravan) and you'll be in the south central part of Forest. (just getting through the desert would be a week)

--Take the temple road south to Hearth (more than a week)

--Due west there is a big war.

Planning on updating tonight.

Hey all.

Apologies for the delays on my part. A busy week or so on my end.

Fingers crossed those kind of joining up delays are behind me.

No worries - as always, thanks for the update.

Hope the botting is ok - as far as I know Marianne was still anticipating spotty availability. It was also something she knew, so I wanted to do a quick update. Hope this is ok, but please let me know if it isn't.

Samoon- random question of the night.

As I think you were aware, you came pretty close to death from the air elemental's cursed breath. If the rolls had been slightly different, Samoon might have died, and Albreane might have lived. Would you have been interested in trying to make Bree a PC at that point? Just curious.

Well, that sounds like a Philip K. Dick switcheroo! Sure, yes I would do so.

Just for context, this is another NPC that has a few useful features, but is not fully fleshed out. Bertude's skills would include:

--High heal skill, maybe 1 or 2 other hedge witch skills
--Probably stealth too, because she will be hiding during combat
--Produce 1 'potion' of cure light wounds for each of you each day
--A few other low level hedge witch type spells

Also, I enjoyed the PDK reference. I just re-read A Scanner Darkly (among other short stories) over the summer.

A spell of not even getting to look campaign threads is thankfully coming to a close. Apologies for the delays on my part.

Glad to hear you are back, and thanks for the update.

Refresher on the directions of your surroundings:

ELIMINATE
--Forge is close by, (just over a day's travel)
--Take the temple road south to Hearth (more than a week)
--Due west there is a big war

Unless there is going to be a huge change in the campaign, I doubt anyone is going to go to any of these places.

REMAINING
--Straight north, it quickly goes from steep hills to the Horned Mountains. (you can make the Horned Mountains in about two days)

--Due east, you cross a little of the Charcoal Desert (probably by rock camel caravan) and you'll be in the south central part of Forest. (just getting through the desert would be a week)

So vote East or North please!

Samoon would like to go North, and then to Light.

Wamblee likes mountains. He votes North for now.

Samen would rather get to the breathless valley as soon as possible, so he votes East.

One other thing to mention - you will be likely be resting after a bit of travel out of town (regardless of the direction you ultimately go), so now is a good time to say you are all level 4!

I will plan on updating tonight.

Level updates:

BAB +1
Fort/Will +1
Arcane pool +1
Strength +1

spell recall: I can spend arcane pool to remember previously cast spells. (aka: "We heard you like limited resources, so we put limited resources in your limited resources so you can be limited while you resource.")

spells learned:
Bladed Dash
Rock Whip

skills:
+1 to eveything I already know

Monk Level 4

HP 34 (26+8)

+1 Str

+1 BAB
+1 to Fort, Ref, Will saves

Flurry of Blows AB: +2/+2

Unarmed Damage d8

Unarmoured AC Bonus +1

Skills Improved: Perception, Stealth

Skills Gained: Knowledge Nature, Knowledge Planes

Feats:
None

Class Features:

Ki Pool (Su)

At 4th level, a monk gains a pool of ki points, supernatural energy he can use to accomplish amazing feats. The number of points in a monk’s ki pool is equal to 1/2 his monk level + his Wisdom modifier. As long as he has at least 1 point in his ki pool, he can make a ki strike.

At 4th level, ki strike allows his unarmed attacks to be treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
At 7th level, his unarmed attacks are also treated as cold iron and silver for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
At 10th level, his unarmed attacks are also treated as lawful weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
At 16th level, his unarmed attacks are treated as adamantine weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction and bypassing hardness.

By spending 1 point from his ki pool, a monk can do one of the following:

Make one additional attack at his highest attack bonus when making a flurry of blows attack, or
Increase his speed by 20 feet for 1 round, or
Give himself a +4 dodge bonus to AC for 1 round.

Each of these powers is activated as a swift action.

The ki pool is replenished each morning after 8 hours of rest or meditation; these hours do not need to be consecutive.

Slow Fall (Ex)

At 4th level or higher, a monk within arm’s reach of a wall can use it to slow his descent. When first gaining this ability, he takes damage as if the fall were 20 feet shorter than it actually is. The monk’s ability to slow his fall (that is, to reduce the effective distance of the fall when next to a wall) improves with his monk level until at 20th level he can use a nearby wall to slow his descent and fall any distance without harm.

Moving update to tonight - family stayed for a bit longer than I predicted yesterday.

Samoon is gonna get a little stickier and darker. Is he being influenced by the Dark, or has he learned how to control it?

Level 4 - in Alchemist

HP, currently: 13/27
+1 to Int

Discovery: Tanglefoot Bomb (2d4 rds) (DC 17)

Level 2 extract (only 1, but he can use it twice a day):

Slither

Unless not allowed!

Skills:

+1 Kn Arcana
+1 Kn Nature
+1 Craft Alchemy
+1 Craft Glass
+1 Perception
+1 Stealth
+1 Survival

We'll go with north for now, and Samen can feel free to RP the debate if he wishes to convince the family to go east instead.

Samen would just roll his eyes and go along with everyone else. He made his suggestion and isn't surprised at being overruled.

As for the Slither extract, I'm a little wary of 3PP, and that seems to be more powerful than core alchemist formulas (air step, levitation, etc are pretty clumsy and limited, which seems more normal for 2nd level alchemist spells granting new types of movement), so I'm going to respectfully say no on that one.

If you ever decide to make a deal with Erret and get dark-corrupt for real, then we'll make you into a goop-alchemist.

ok, I'll find something else. It just appeared on my Hero Lab as Midgard spells came in for free.

Re: powerful wise rulers.

Here's a breakdown of what you would collectively know as a family about the rough structure of the world:

--Everyone knows Hearth is the capital of the ifrits and the Temple, and the dominant power in the world. However, if the rumors are to be believed, it's possible you would have your heirlooms confiscated and sent to the dungeons as heretics. Marianne would refuse to do this.

--Forge is really an army-based manufacturing and mining town, so no knowledge centers there.

--Samoon, of course, knows of Light. I imagine you mainly stuck to the university and the surrounding pubs; most students don't have any reason to visit the seat of power known as the Council of Reflection, but you know it is composed of the deans of the schools and other such elder figures of power.

--Wamblee would be familiar with the resources of his monastery, part of the Root. There is uncertainty here though, because Wamblee only has knowledge of one monastery, not the entire knowledge base of Root.

--You would all know somewhat of the major tribes of Forest, but none of you have ever visited them. Wamblee was close to the West Tribe during his time at the Root. You recall Hotah's journal mentioning that his tribe, the Cedar Smoke, lived near the domain of the East Tribe.

--None of you know much about the undines to the south, save that IceFall is the seat of power. It is thousands of miles downRiver from here.

Quick vote - just post 'full rest' if you want to regain HP, spells, etc. This includes the HP from leveling up. I assume that is what's happening.

full rest

Full rest

For expedience, let's just say it's full rest then. All level benefits are in effect now, you are at ful HP, spells, etc.

Good to hear! Wamblee now has a ki pool.

Hmmm...Cedar Smoke sounds like an intriguing destination.

Marianne hasn't posted in over 2 weeks, and I also haven't heard back from PMs. Whatever is going on, I hope everything is ok, and I stand by the offer to welcome her back to the group any time.

If she is gone for a while, however, I thought it would be easier to set up an NPC (Marianne Faithless) since she is a major contributor to the party. She will still have her say in conversations, and she will still be a skilled archer in combat, but I don't think a DM controlled (PC on hiatus) should drive the story, except where things have already been set in motion.

I see a post from Mar, huzzah!

And I'm thinking that Wamblee is in quite a lot of pain that he's willing to take advice like "rest when he could help".

(sorry, that was my NPC. Maybe choosing the same avatar was a bad idea.)

Ah. Fair.

Marianne's player is good and I hope they'll be able to return at a later date.

Same thinking here.

Agreed!

I changed the NPC avatar to something else, so hopefully there won't be any more confusion on that front.

Also, because it's always better to be clear in PbP: Marianne is a great and faithful poster. I picked the "new" Marianne name based on how I think the character might be feeling after having such a disastrous meeting with an air elemental, supposedly an emissary of Sky.

Re: Wamblee's shoulder. This isn't necessarily about hit point damage. Wamblee intentionally pushed himself, both by dislocating his shoulder in the first place and then proceeding to: engage in combat; nearly get poisoned; deliver a quaking blow to restart Samoon's heart ; try repeatedly to administer strenuous first aid to Bree.

With Wamblee's permission, we're making this a longer term injury, where the only mechanical consequence is he cannot use two handed weapons or two weapons at the same time (flurry of blows still ok)

And here is a narrative consequence, where Wamblee is unable to attend Bree's sky burial, as he is following Bertrude's advice about his arm.

Consequences are fine by me!

Wamblee - regarding gaining knowledge nature and planes:

--What inspired Wamblee to look at these new skills?

--Did you talk with Marianne about nature and Samen about planes? (this doesn't have to be explicitly RPd, that could get tedious, but I'm just curious)

Perhaps I should have explained those.

My thinking is that Wamblee has gotten up close and personal with bizarre entities such as the Dark and whatever possessed Bree. So a few things he may have taken as allegory are clicking into place for him.

Does that work out?

Sounds reasonable to me!

Also, Wamblee, how does this sound? Instead of Slow Fall, you get:

Impervious Feet: Although your rate of falling does not slow, your tough bones are simply less affected by falling damage. You also do not require a nearby wall to use this.
---
Slightly changed text:
"When first gaining this ability, he takes damage as if the fall were 20 feet shorter than it actually is. The monk’s ability to slow his fall improves with his monk level until at 20th level he can fall any distance without harm."

I like it. Much more characterful!

Samen, re: Geni or Eleme

You would either need to find a teacher who knows the language (you know of none) or a very good library (like in Light). Access to Geni very likely restricted.

In regard to the scroll, I'm thinking sort of like the relationship between Spanish and Portugese, right? An untrained observer would think they were basically the same, whereas native speakers could understand one, but not the other.

Yes, that's a good way of putting it. I don't know the exact differences between those two, but this language has a few minor differences (an extra vowel and a very strange consonant) plus one bigger mystery: certain phrases that seem to be spelled the same give different meanings on different lines of the scroll. You are sure your translations are correct, but you are missing context or a shade of meaning. It will require more study on subsequent nights.