Volcano's Land - Forged in Blood (Inactive)

Game Master Miner Cotren

One of several aspects of your GM style that I appreciate: you seriously consider and address feedback and concerns.

The fire hasn't quite spread to engulf you Samoon :)

And I swear I had the idea for Albreane's action this morning before you posted the second time :p

Is healing breath actually a spell someone came up with, or just reflavored cure light wounds?

Reflavored cure light wounds. I came up with a few minor abilities for Albreane that don't correspond 100% to any one class, since I honestly don't want her to be on par with a PC (saves me book keeping and keeps the real PCs the heroes)

I’m a Rule of Cool GM myself. Thanks, Overlord!

Speaking of things we appreciate, I really appreciate all of you using idioms, and remembering things like the words "el" and "ele".

It's a unique game and deserves treatment as such. :)

As Marianne passes them out:

1) These are cloaks of +1 resistance, so please note that on your saves

2) The feathers change color to suit your character as you put them on (gray tones to blend in, black for a dark mood, or white to stand out, etc). Just a one time thing, not a chameleon cloak that is constantly shifting. Feel free to RP this.

Oooh nice!

Sounds like we need a decision:

--Stay in the stables to heal up (so eight more hours of rest). It's early morning right now, so you wouldn't be hitting the road until later afternoon, and you wouldn't make it to Rokerenge until well after dark.

--Or head out right away to avoid traveling at night. Albreane would be able to give 1d4 first aid back from her heal skill (normal Heal absolutely sucks, so that's a minor house rule ; only works once per day per character) and whatever potions are left over.

If I see a proposal and a second to the motion, then that will carry unless there are strenuous objections.

How much rest did we get overnight? If we need to sleep, I say we do, and also...Samoon wants to go comb through the ashes for Pug's body. He doesn't trust that the ifrit's really dead.

Depending on how long you spent on daggers and fraternizing, you might be yawning a bit on the road, but not so extreme that you didn't regain HP/abilities. Everyone who went to bed right away (Samen Wamblee) got a full eight. Mari and Bree might be more like seven, seven and a half.

You can just take 20 and trivially find his corpse, complete with the upturned scar on one side of his face (the other half is bone, ripped away by the ceiling beam half-covering him)

You manage to find:

--A handful of coins (20 gp)
--His sword
--A brownish-red potion that constantly fizzes

Craft Alch: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 10 = 11

"Hmmm...no clue off hand." Samoon checks to see if he has a container for the possibly volatile substance.

"Hey, does anyone want to cut this fellow's head off? Just to be sure," he calls to the rest from the smoldering ruins.

Oh, Marianne was that low assuming full health, no extra healing from sleep last night to he had here.

Gotcha. I thought I saw everyone at full when the fight began, so I think we're good on book keeping at the moment.

Awesome. I posted in Discussion. :( Can I somehow blame Paizo for this? :D

I've a bad cold so Wamblee may be quiet for a day or three.

Cheers, I appreciate it.

Understood - thanks for the update. Feel better soon - my household has gotten a few bouts of nasty viruses too.

I'll update tonight on the assumption that you all are heading back toward town, but let me know if there is a specific place you are heading (Samen's shack, the Firenze home, the Rentwyrth estate, the mine, etc etc) Otherwise I will just set the scene as you enter town in general.

Is her question as strange as I think it is, or am I missing something? It seems completely random to me.

It is strange.

Let's go with a vote:

Mine
Rentwyrth's
Tavern (following strange ele)

(you can also indicate if you want to split up - I have no problem with split parties in a format like this, so it is entirely up to you)

Samoon, random request - would you mind putting your 10 minute back story in your profile (spoilered)? That way I know where it is.

Here it is in the recruitment thread.

Hmm, we have two votes for Rentwyrth (Wamblee and Samen) and Samoon brings up the interesting idea of looking for an ally slightly out of town (say a half candle's walk into the hills)

If Marianne agrees with Samoon, we'll have a tie, which I'll interpret as splitting the party between Rentwyrth and the hills. (the idea of only some of you going into town to prevent everyone getting "attacked" was mentioned as well).

Bree would go with the Rentwyrth group, as she has a key to get in and knows the layout.

Let me clarify: I'd like to go to Rentwyrth first. :)

Gotcha, thanks for the clarification. I'll be updating to Rent's tonight.

Hurrah! The party remains unsplit.

And I like what you did there Mar.

That's all I could have possibly hoped for from our beloved Samen.

I do what I can. :)

State of the Game, December 2018

In all my PbP games, I try to do an "official" update every 6 months or so. The three main things I cover are: a) feedback, b) loose ends, and c) goals.

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Feedback
We discussed feedback a little while ago, and the only "action item" was a little more combat and a little more leveling, which I am keeping in mind as we go along. If there's anything else (or I'm not doing an adequate job keeping the rate of combat up) I'm all ears.

I will take the opportunity to say again that I enjoy all of your posting styles, all of your characters, and the fact you take the time to post so often.

Anything to add here?

------------------
Loose Ends

In a format like this with hundreds or thousands of posts to comb through, details sometimes get lost. I strive to note loose ends as we go, and bring them all here to make it a little easier to keep track of the various plot threads. One important note: just because I put it here does not necessarily mean it is a vital thing, or even an "important" thing, simply something that was mentioned along the way.

--What were Hotah's true intentions with the heirlooms?
--Why did he move to Rokerenge?
--Why did he start attending Volcano services and elect to be burned?

--How much does tricky Uncle really know?
--What happened to him at Bertrude's hut?
--What is his mysterious magic?

--What happened to Chaska, your eldest Uncle?
--How does the Cedarsmoke tribe feel about Hotah and Uncle?
--How much does Cedarsmoke know about the heirlooms, and Sky?
--Who else knows about the heirlooms, for that matter?

--Who/what is Ereet?
--How did he know about the heirlooms? Why does he want them?
--How will Samoon analyze the goo that Ereet left behind?

--Is the v'Borio family still hold a grudge against Bree or your family?
--Did the Watch or the Auream eventually sort what 'really' happened in the vaults and what 'really' happened at Rentwyrth's estate?
--Will the innkeep go cause trouble for the dotis in Forge?

--What are the powers of the heirlooms? What is the source of their power?
--See next post for brief summary of what you each have discovered so far
--What is contained within Hotah's journal? (you will be getting a writeup for this soon, once you get a quiet moment)

--Why brass animals in the mine?
--What's with this 'dragon'?

--What is the true 'price' Bree will pay?
--Is she possessed? Will it get worse?
--So far, she can disarm with a gust, and give healing through her breath

Anything I'm missing?

----------------
Goals

1) Samen wishes to prove his theory of one elen original race and language. (Player wants Samen to learn how to stand up for himself)

2) Marianne wishes to find out more about Sky and the heirlooms (Player wants Mari to evolve as a person)

3) Samoon wishes to climb Volcano and pierce the Dark (No current Player goal for Samoon?)

4) Wamblee wishes to find peace, and a true path for oreads to live, if such a thing exists (No current Player goal for Wamblee?)

Anything I'm missing or that you would like to add? Anything that you would like to see emphasized more, or that you would like to be given a narrative opportunity to do?

Heirlooms:

Marianne
Magic attacks with bow
Personal wind seems stronger
Understands birds (only sometimes? you are unsure)
Major revelation so far: Learned three aspects of Sky

Wamblee:
Hard skin DR 2/ adamantine
Sensitive to slag cave; occasionally other hints of increased awareness felt through stone/dirt while walking
Hotah's journal mentions using your root stances and forms

Samen
Sporadic flight (more stable than it was at first)
Glowing purple spots = Breathless Valleys

Samoon
Revealed others’ power in darkness
Immensely strong spun light moved a boulder
So far, only works in darkness (no peaklight) like a mine or cave
Increasing mastery allowed electric bomb discovery (flavor is the light looks identical to that from your cross staff)

I forgot about the other two powers to be completely honest... Scatterbrained player aside, I like the update, thanks for doing that! Don’t think you really missed anything either. One suggestion from my own meager GMing experience though is to try and avoid coloring what you say. It never occurred to me that the dragon could be some other sort of elemental until you brought it up as a suspicion we had. That might not be doable over pbp just because it is already hard enough to get a point across sometimes even without worrying about that, but it’s something to think about.

A valuable piece of advice, which I always appreciate :)

Spell check--it's Erret. :)

Samoon's immediate goal is to protect his little band of family and solve the immediate mystery of the brass situation, etc. He also wants to figure out what's going on with Albreane--hasn't lost hope in the fact that she's possessed, and doesn't want to lose her again. He's rather single minded--one alchemical experiment at the place, and then a way to destroy the rest of the brass.

Tonnes in that summary, and I'm likely a little too tired right now to do it justice!

But I can think of a player goal for Wamblee. I want him to survive to get to the bottom of this mess, regardless of his opinion on the rights and wrongs of the people involved. He is not impressed with what he sees as corrupt ifrit and urban living. Even the village he saw as too overly influenced by it.

Another goal: find whether his notions of a non-industrial path are even feasible for more than a handful of els.

As always, thanks for the additions! I'll add the notes to the "Campaign Diary" version of the summary. (link is at the top of the page, along with the current map link)

One other thing that was on my mind:

Is there anything setting-wise you would like more information on, especially for your character?

--For example, Marianne and I have been PMing about Sky here and there as her scroll becomes more complete, which is a natural part of the narrative.

--Samoon's old stomping grounds, Light, is my next big project, but unless you find a way to teleport there, I don't have to worry about it being "done" for some time.

--I think it would also be good to get into more details about the three orean monasteries - Root, Branch, and Leaf.

--Anything for Samen? He is very language-based, and I'm no Tolkien so you won't be seeing home-made languages any time soon, but if you have anything else on your mind let me know.

I definitely would like more detail on the monastaries and the monastic schools. And whether there are non-oread schools and how those interact. How are monks seen in general?

I can give you the second answer right away - the orean monks are respected by the West Tribe (which is mostly where the schools are located), mostly ignored by the North Tribe (the most powerful tribe), and, to put it mildly, disliked by the East Tribe (the strict and religious Tribe, which tends to gather the assorted minor tribes to its cause)

Outside of Forest, it would really depend on who you are talking to. You might have some undine Traders who are genuinely interested in orean philosphy ; ifrits who care as little for monks as they do for priests of Forest (and might not even see a difference) ; or a sylph scholar who studies different cultures but cares little for the real, living elens within them.

And really, as I'm typing this out, it makes sense to me that monks (the ascetic lifestyle, the physical demands, and the philosophical study) is a uniquely orean pursuit. That's not to say the monasteries are 100% oreads, but the schools themselves are located within Forest, and that's where you have to go to study these disciplines under the masters. For undines, where physical demand and intense study meet is with their water dancers, which are bards.

Ifrits are so taken up with Volcano, there are really no major philosophies that aren't centered around the gods.

Sylphs certainly have alchemy, science, and the arcane, but they have universities instead of monasteries.

Undines are the closest to oreads in their introspective nature, but they take different forms. There are small shrines dotted all over the south, which are used for ancestral contemplation and elemental contemplation (water elementals are somewhat common), but this is highly individualistic as opposed to the communal nature of the orean tribes and schools.

I thought this was going to be a short answer, and it was not!

Cheers for the explanation!

You are welcome! I edited in a few details, because it wasn't long enough the first time!

There may be more soon. ;)

How old are the monasteries? Or the philosophies? Because of their isolated location and self-sufficiency, monasteries are a good candidate for surviving major social upheaval or even collapse. E.g. Christian monasteries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

So perhaps the oread monks have old, old knowledge tucked away, maybe even unknowingly.

The way of the Root is, by far, the oldest philosophy of the oreads. It originated very close to Sky's fall, so over 4000 years old. There are several very old (again, thousands of years old) monasteries of the Root. In Root monasteries, the tradition of passing down knowledge is entirely oral - rather than spending their days copying books, these monks recite tales and histories. As one can imagine, these are found close to the ground, or even in canyons, carved from rock and stone.

example one
example 2

The Way of the Branch eventually split from Root around the time the ifrits were getting aggressive against the other races after Sky's Fall. This was 2000-3000 years ago. The Branch sect was an intellectual response to what was seen as complacency and unwillingness to change in the face of the obvious threat of the ifrits and other world-changing events. Ironically, they are now the most tradition-bound of the three orders, focusing much of their studies on a set collection of ancient books. They have built monasteries on the plateaus found throughout Forest, as well as on the cliffs of the mountain ranges in south Forest.

example 1

example 2

Finally, the Way of the Leaf is relatively new - they have only come about since the "VS" era (Volcano's Supremacy) so only 500 years old or so. There are no monasteries dedicated to the Leaf - they are a purely nomadic sect, traveling alone or in small groups. When they come across a place where it "seems" they could do good, they build temporary houses up in the trees.

example

I'm letting the scene sit for now - in the meantime, make sure you heal up, grab spell/abilities for the day, update your tagline etc and I'll update Sunday night.

It will be evening.

For now, I'm assuming you will be heading to the mine unless I hear otherwise.

How much healing do we get from rest?

The mine is fine. :)

I think he said we heal up to full each night.

I'm fine with going into the mine too, pending any bombshells from Krissa.

As for setting lore, are there magi traditions and institutions, or do most just come from people who have their noses stuck in books, like Samen?

Yep, full HP. Anything that reduces unnecessary paperwork and makes the game more fun is a-ok with me. I reserve the right to change this if you sleep badly due to hunger, bad conditions, sickness, etc, but for this definitely just full HP.