War for the Crown with DM Vayelan

Game Master vayelan

When I travel to the Duke, can I have Damrak aid me in my cmb check?

@Photinè - since the mission involves tampering with a bottle of wine rather than fiddling with complex mechanisms, I will say that Disable Device can be attempted untrained for the Sabotage mission. Alternatively, you can use a social skill check to try and get someone else, like a servant, to do the deed for you.

@Olivia - since it is very reasonably to imagine Damrak helping Olivia elbow her way through the crowd, he can aid your CMB check on his way to speak with Duke Centimus.

Thanks DM! I'm travelling today so I'll post when I get home tonight.

Present

Present again

Welcome back, everyone, as we begin to trickle back in from this unexpected hiatus.

I'm here! I think we should get "I Survived the Great PbP Drought of 2018" stickers. Or maybe a commemorative T-shirt.

Hi all, I've been holding off from doing this, but following the website crashes and my attempts to keep the games I'm running from going under, I don't have time or headspace for this game.

I'm really sorry to do this to you, it's been a great game. I will continue to GM and I hope to see you on these boards at some future stage.

I'm really sad to see you go Damrak. I was really hoping Olivia and Damrak would become bros.

Shame to see you go Damrak!

I have to admit that I'm also considering stepping back from this one. I find that it's pretty difficult to keep a strong interest level going if the pace of the game flags, and our pace was on the slow side even before the heavy forum issues. I expect its probably the same for the rest of you guys?
I'm absolutely still in if we are able to pick things up again, but if we end up at a one-update-cycle/week pace I'd probably step back.

BTW, this is entirely on us players. Vayelan, you've been amazing and consistent since you volunteered to take us on, and I'm ashamed we haven't been able to provide a high level of energy in response to yours.

Well, if you find yourselves looking for a replacement, Amandine could come back. The alternate WftC campaign I left for collapsed even faster than the first time around in this one.

If those artifacts haven't yet been stolen, she's the one with sleight of hand who was going to take care of that mission.

Agreed, Vayelan is fantastic.

It's definitely been tough to be consistent what with the site issues and slower pace of this game, but I'm glad to have been welcomed into it and I for one am willing to put in the effort to post more often and get it moving again.

I know I'd be happy to have you back Amandine! :>

Having Amandine back would give me so much relief. She was a great character and Olivia is so not cut out for this line of work.

The game is slow, and that's coming from someone (me) who is notoriously slow at posting. Most of my games are only just picking up again now that the forums are stable. I've been very bored staring at the empty forum games, but I fully admit that my schedule is more open than most.

Those artefacts have not been stolen, Amandine. Olivia has been trying to build up the balls to do it herself.

Damrak, I'll be sorry to see you go, and the same would certainly go for Chana if you should decide to leave, too. However, if you guys feel this is the right move for you, than it's important to do what you feel is best.

Once again, I thank you all for the strong praise. I am definitely willing to keep the game going for everyone who would like to continue playing - and I will actually get around to contacting Paizo about officially taking over the campaign.

Lastly, I would also gladly welcome Amandine back into the game. Having completed a side task for Martella, she returns in time to show everyone how to properly abscond with a few artifacts.

Fantastic! Thanks everyone! I've been peeking in occasionally to scan through and see how things were going, but I'll give what I've missed a closer reading to see exactly where we're at.

I'll get a post up in gameplay tomorrow and get to work on those artifacts.

Those artefacts have not been stolen, Amandine. Olivia has been trying to build up the balls to do it herself.

I'm tempted to think this is a case of Olivia leaving the dangerous and seedy work for the commoner. But I know the truth. Olivia wants Amandine back because she's hot. :p

Hm, so reading through the intervening posts, I see Olivia sprung a diversion bonus for stealing the items with Copernia Vau, who I believe was the person staked out at the relics display. I'm assuming Amandine must make 3 sleight of hand checks, one for each item taken? She has a +6, but unless the DC is quite low getting three straight successes is going to be very difficult.

Vayelan, would you be okay with me writing the post to occur at that point so I can use those bonuses? It would really help. It was actually sort of the situation Amandine and Olivia were working on setting up when the campaign crashed with the first DM.

For the Theft mission, each attempt to steal one of the items does require a DC 17 Sleight of Hand check. However, keeping Copernia Vau distracted grants a +5 circumstance bonus on those checks. Therefore, Amandine would get a total of +11.

Amandine can use the prior round when Olivia was talking with Vau to make her first check. For other checks, Amandine and Olivia can work together to keep Vau distracted while trying to steal two more items.

@Vayelan: Sounds good. I took the liberty of creating a small extra mission to explain Amandine's absence. Hope you don't mind.

I'm planning on using Amandine's Campaign Trait for one of the rolls. She "made arrangements" for a distraction before the gala, so she can substitute Knowledge Local for one of the sleight of hand rolls.

Talking to the contact who has the cousin post

Has anyone heard from Tanglefoot or Khalil? It seems it's been quite a while since they've posted.

Also, looking at the Gala tracking sheet, it lists the sabotage/wine mission as completed. I was reading fast, but I don't remember seeing it in the game posts. It is completed right?

Yes I could swear that we did complete the sabotage mission. I don't remember the details off-hand. I can look them up a bit later.

I'm in one WftC game already but if a spot opens up, I would love to put forth a character. Been following since recruitment, y'all're a very creative and talented bunch; shame to see Damrak go, hope Khalil and Tanglefoot make it back.

Yes, the sabotage mission was completed!

I'm in one WftC game already but if a spot opens up, I would love to put forth a character. Been following since recruitment, y'all're a very creative and talented bunch; shame to see Damrak go, hope Khalil and Tanglefoot make it back.

Hey! You're Sara Burke from Brainiac's WftC campaign! I read along a little at the beginning. You guys are great, and often hilarious!

Yes, the sabotage mission was completed!

Cool!

While I am dismayed by the prospect of losing two more players in Khalil and Tanglefoot, I would be open to welcoming a replacement from The Lobster.

Of course, I hope that Khalil and Tanglefoot return, and I would want to hear everyone else's thoughts on the matter.

I trust both Amandine's and DM Vayelan's judgement. If they'd like to bring in The Lobster, I'm happy to welcome her.

Driving from FL to VT today and tomorrow, but will post when I have a moment!

Okay, I'm back.

So, long story short I have been homeless the last 10 days. The house my housemate and I had previously rented was purchased and we had to leave with little notice, but we were able to find a place where we were supposed to be able to move in on August 23rd. However, as it got close to the end of the month I was informed that we wouldn't be able to move in until September 10, today. To make it worse we had some internet issues the last few days of the month, so I wasn't really even able to give the warning I'd hoped I could to my players and GMs.

It isn't as bad as it sounds, I was able to find friends and family that would let me crash on couches and spare rooms during that time, but I have not had the opportunity to post. That said, today I was able to get moved in to the new place and I finally have an office again. So, barring any other disasters (which, based on the way this year is going for me, are likely), I should be back to normal.

I'm sorry for any issues I caused. I'm still interested in playing Tanglefoot, if you'll have him.

Dude we were just talking about how we'd love to have you back, and then poof you show up. I'd say you're right on time. I hope you have a speedy recovery (emotionally speaking) because that would devastate me. Suddenly being kicked out of your home...

No worries Tangle-foot. If anything your absence came at a good time, since a lot of games were still recovering from the forums collapsing for two weeks. Glad to hear that you now have a place to stay! I'm hoping things normalize for you soon!

Whoa, sorry to hear that! I’ve been in a similar situation and it’s such a hard thing to go through. Happy to hear that things are stabilizing in your life!

I'm very glad to hear from you, Tanglefoot. I'm also very sorry to hear about the troubles (to put it mildly) that you've been dealing with.

As Olivia said, nothing would please us more than to have you back with us. Welcome back, and we'll be rooting for you.

Glad to see you back Tanglefoot! I hope things stay calm and steady for you from here on out.

I'm super busy at work for few days. I'll try to squeeze in a post sometime today, but it will probably be later tonight before I can get one up.

I totally forgot to meet you, sorry Amandine.

One problem: I don't have anything to carry the artefacts in, and I don't think it'll be a good idea to just carry them openly.

Alright I’ll keep them until later.

To keep everyone updated, I've been communicating with The Lobster as they develop their character. The premise is an Ulfen Guard hopeful who is currently working as mercenary for the Trant family.

Given that the character, named Greenly Baerdóttir, is a barbarian with a "valley girl" personality (as The Lobster described her), I find the character concept very unique and fascinating. Since the character is not utterly finalized yet, I invite you all to speak up if you have concerns.

I also invite The Lobster to join the discussion and get to know the other players.

Sounds great. The character could be very enjoyable to roleplay with, and tactically has a unique role in combat. My only thought is that the Ulfen guard are the Prince's personal guards, so does that mean she's more interested in serving the Princess?

@Olvia: maybe ulfen guard archetype rather than “the” ulfen guard since she works for the Trants?

Sounds like a fun character. My Jade Regent character is kind of similar. An ulfen warpriest of Cayden who is sort of a personality combo of Scooby-Doo’s Daphne and Firefly’s Kaylee in Kara Thrace’s body. She’s a blast to play.

Greenly loves Taldor, and though several generations of her ancestors have served the Grand Prince, she is only a quarter Ulfen, and would be unable to do so in an official capacity (i.e., she would have to enroll as a leidang or foreign member instead of a huscarl, which is the honorable title).

While idk if she will take the prestige class (I intend to now, but we'll see how it goes), it is a major part of her motivations and her family history. In brief, the position and the reward (as much of the royal treasury as you can carry) was stolen from her mother, so now she feels compelled to restore the huscarl honor to her family line.

She's not presently an agent of Martella Lotheed and has no real political stance on the issue of primogeniture (other than "wow that sucks" but to her, that's just the way it is), but I have an opinion that everything is about to change.

Sounds like a great (interesting, well-thought-out) character and I'm definitely excited to have @The Lobster on board ;^)

Okay I gotcha. Welcome!

On a separate note, do we have any tasks that still need completing? Areas that still need influencing?

By my count, all tasks are complete except the spy mission which is unable to be finished (although you could steal the remaining two artifacts from the Vernisant display).

Tanglefoot has said he is going to attempt influencing Pace, and aside from her no AP critical NPC's are available for influence. However, you could try to influence/RP with a Senator such as Starborne, Trant or your father.

If Chana's roll to influence the servant's area succeeded, the Courtyard and Archives are the only areas remaining to influence, but I think Photine has the Archives readily in hand. Getting drunk and talking about yourself in the library works, apparently.

So, the Courtyards.

Ha! Thanks Lobster! My absence from the game has left me a little lost in following how things were going with influence.

Since Amandine was out of the scene for most of the Gala, maybe I should say just a little about her "sketchiness" (I think that's the term Olivia used). :p

Amandine is a Milani worshipper, and at her core she's probably more radical in her reformist ideals than anyone else in the group. However she's a victim of a common trap for smart idealists: cynicism. She's never known politics that weren't by and for people in politics. She'd like to believe that could change, but how can she dare to believe it really would?

For example, her read on repealing primogeniture is "Great! And so what? In order to benefit from that change, you have to actually have to have some property to inherit. It's yet another example of a supposedly universal good that in practice is only good for the what, top 10%?"

I get that, my character in Brainiac's game is a noble-groupie turned radical anarchist who got arrested organizing a class protest during downtime. This AP is perhaps my favorite ever, due to the sheer amount of fluidity allowed with characters, while also encouraging them to be mostly socially focused. Love political intrigue.

Photinè isn’t really religious at all, but a lot of her family members back in Galt follow Milani, and so she might fancy herself a Milanite if prompted. She has yet to put much thought into what that means though; for example, the part where she belongs to a class of oppressors, and that if she stepped foot in her country of origin, she would probably be beheaded.

Similarly, her opinions on politics and primogeniture don’t currently go much beyond ‘this has directly affected me in a negative way’, but the plan is for all that to evolve and become deeper and more nuanced over time; whether she becomes more of less disillusioned with Taldan politics and patriotism will determine how it plays out.

Yeah, I'm loving what I've seen of this AP so far. It's what I hoped Hell's Rebels would be. That's not to say Hell's Rebels was disappointing, I just initially misunderstood how much of a role intrigue would play in it.

Well Amandine doesn't want Photine's head in a basket, but she does't have a lot of faith in your good intentions either. :)