Wrath of the Runelords

Game Master Nanatsusaya

Welcome to Wrath of the Runelords! It is my sincere hope that we're all going to have a really fun time here, so please, if you have any additional questions now that you've been selected, need to make any last minute tweaks to your character, or anything else, just let me know! And of course, we're hopefully all in for the long haul, so get to know each other and mingle! I'll be putting up the first IC post tomorrow. (Or 'today' if you live anywhere significantly east of me.)

Thanks for the selection Nanatsusaya! Really looking forward to this. Big fan of Magnimar and Varisia. When we get there, this will be my second campaign using Mythic, so that will be fun too!

As for a little more on me in RL and Pathfinder. I live in Chicago, work in advertising (run the Chicago office for a global ad agency), and play a lot of Pathfinder. I'm one of those long, long time D&Ders who made the leap with the beta. I run a large Pathfinder Society group in the Chicago west suburbs and also play a lot of PbP. My sons (17 and 14) both play (and GM) and I will be GMing at both Origins and GenCon this summer if anyone plans to make either.

I think Lissa is close to ready. Might look at a couple more small purchases, but unless we have a skills shortage someplace, the rest of the crunch is probably set and pallys are pretty weak in the skills department anyway...especially when their player puts a point into Perform (oratory) for story purposes :)

Hello all! My real name is william, this will be my pseudo-first try in PbP. I've been playing pathfinder for 6 months (and TRPGs for about the same time). I spend way too much time on the pathfinderrpg messageboard proposing unusual builds. This will be my second try with mythic, though I have also just joined a PbP WotR, so I'll get to mess around with mythic a lot.

As for RL, I'm a graduate student in optical engineering in the magical northern land of Canada! I'm currently running an all-dwarf game on sundays, I play a warhammer fantasy roleplay game on saturday nights, and another pathfinder game (through roll20) on friday nights.

As for Selena, she is ready. I might convert some of her GP to CP (the obedience to her empyreal lord, black butterfly, is to perform charity) so the CP will be useful.

Note: despite my current fascination with Golarion, this is my first time outside PFS actually ON Golarion (my other game's GM has us on castrovel at the moment) so it will be nice to learn more on Golarion.

Woo! Thanks for sending me in, coach!

I'm a computer programmer and martial arts instructor in Ann Arbor Michigan. I've been trying to join up with a face-to-face Pathfinder group, but all the ones in the area are full up. Starting to ask around about starting up a new one, but in the meantime I've turned to Play by Post.

Before all this, I've played a little D&D (mostly 3.5, earlier versions a couple times) and dabbled in other systems. Also done a lot of rules-free forum roleplay on various messageboards throughout the years.

I do have one question for you, Nanatsusaya. My character has 2 more language choices (+2 from int, +2 from feat) and I'm trying to decide what is the most background appropriate (I don't know much about the Pathfinder world, cultures and such). He spent his life working in Dockyard, inspecting cargoes and talking with sailors and the like. Would Varisian be a language he would have picked up, perhaps? Is there a major trade language other than common? Any other suggestions?

Well, I'm off to finish creating this alias. Looking forward to beginning the journey with you folks!

Thanks for picking me, I think Serik is ready to go but I will give him another look over to make sure everything is right.

As for me, long time pbp guy due to living in rural areas and moving. Currently in FL where it is strangely cold at the moment. Coming up to a decade sense I started in 3E dnd and jumped over to PF when 4E came out. Looking forward to PFO as I was a kickstarter for it. Despite my time in pbp my writing has not improved much so bare with it. ; )

As for Serik, making him out to be a sort of spy type as he grows in level. His strong points in combat will be range and support. Out of combat he will have good social skills and knowledge as he levels.

As for selena's development... she's probably gonna go straight wizard, if mythic archmage (dual path hierophant because Enduring Blessing is the bomb). Might make her go loremaster (she will easily qualify) but I'm unsure if it's worth it yet.

She will also have a lot of focus on knowledge, crafting (both mundane & magical (though not for free)) & stealth . Might try to convince the GM to allow me to take celestial obedience for my empyreal lord (might) but it's probably not worth it.

Donovan, there aren't really any other major trade languages other than Common (which is the Taldan language, but still called Common). I'd say if you've been in Magnimar, Varisian is a pretty natural choice. Magnimar was founded by people who had left Korvosa, but it was a long-time site of Varisian camps so there is a quite heavy Varisian population and I would imagine Dockyard would be a natural for Varisians who have abandoned the wandering ways. You might also consider Shoanti which is the other major language besides Common and Varisian in Varisia. I don't think the Shoanti population is as large in Magnimar as Korvosa and beyond the Storval Rise but there would definitely be more Shoanti spoken than say Kelish, Osiriani or other human tongues from Garund. Skald (the Ulfen tongue) would be the other one you might consider. Probably a fair amount of trade with the Linnorm Kingdoms when they aren't raiding.

Looks like we're all here except Reckless/Milva. Curious how the combat side of things will play out for the five of us. Lissa is principally ranged. Looks like Serik is going for switch hitting, decent ranged and weapon finesse for up close (but not a primary combatant). Longspear so reach for Donovan. Milva looks like another switch hitter with both ranged and close up ability.

I'll be gunning for battlefield control, then eventually summons. Not 100% sure yet. Definitly some buffing as well.

Thanks for the tips, Lissa.

I don't like to plan out development too far cuz I have so much fun letting the campaign shape the character. To begin with, though, Donovan is a young, newly-minted cleric fired up with passion for his cause. Abadar has set him to spreading organization, civilization, and the rule of sensible law throughout the world.

For combat, he carries the spear due to the thought process of civic virtue -> militia -> spear, and yeah I wanted to play around with the possibilities of having reach. :) He does also carry a morningstar and shield, though, so he'll hopefully be battle-ready in most situations.

Too, my Inevitable domain will eventually help me summon up some help when needed. If you go for some summoning, Selena, we could potentially have a decent sized reinforcement contingent.

I'm even considering construct crafting... but that wont really come into play for a while.

BTW, I was curious to know your stance on retraining Nanatsusaya. I havent even got a build set (I originally did, but the hardcover limti forced me to reconsider) so I'm wondering if I might be able to "reajust" eventually.

If you guys both bring on the summoning, I have no worries about Lissa's role :) Plink, plink, plink.

I'm also looking into utility summons; lantern archons to heal, dire bats to detect invisible and others (if I can think up a good role). It would be really fun once to summon enough lantern archons for the to take their "fusion form".

Edit: I love halfling paladins. I dont know why, by I just find them cool. I've got my own halfling cavalier that once charged a door, critted, and blew it off it's hinges.

Me too. I think its that unexpected umph in the tiny package! The bad guy sniggering and then bam! smite evil laid down all over your bad self :)

The only mythic I have looked into a lot is archmage. So if your going archmage and want to summon regularly I remember they have a mythic power to cut summoning time down to a standard action. So may want to look into that.

Which reminds me I need to look into mythic myself for Serik.

There a re BUTTLOAD of good mythic archmage. I'm definitly taking harmonious mage (no opposition schools), the mythic summons one, crafting mastery (ALL CRAFTING FEATS FOR FREE). If I dual-path hierophant (possible, but not definite) it would be for enduring blessing (which would allow me to cast greater heroism to last the entire day...). So many choices.

In any case, we'll see what happens.

Edit: Aliases is going to take some getting used to...

Looks like I slept in a bit.

Hi everyone! Since we're all giving some background, I'm a Portland, Oregon native who's been playing RPGs since 1992. I got interested in Pathfinder rather late in the beta, and decided to make the switch over from D&D once the Core Rulebook came out, though I still play other RPGs on occasion. (Exalted & Mutants and Masterminds) I'm a programmer working for a small company out here, so my schedule sometimes gets a bit hectic and erratic, so PbP is a bit of a safer medium than trying to block off 4+ hours.

Lissa: My sister's actually out in Chicago for the next year on a job, so I was just out that way helping her get settled into her apartment! Never been able to get her interested in roleplaying games though.

Donovan: As Lissa said, Shoanti and Varisian are both common languages in the area, and Varisian would be particularly useful to traders, as the Varisians handle most of the overland trade routes in the area. Though the Ulfen of the Land of the Linnorm Kings to the north speak Skald, there's not any real trade with them via water right now, so most trade is done via Varisian intermediaries. To the south lies Cheliax, and they all speak Taldane (Common), so you'd be going pretty far afield to find another human language. There are major communities of elves and dwarves in Varisia though, so those are both reasonable choices too.

Selena: My copy of Chronicle of the Righteous is actually sitting on my desk right now, and it's not like you picked Arshea. I wanted to keep everyone restricted to the hardcovers initially just because there's so VERY many books and I have fewer than half of the softcovers, but I will allow stuff from them on a permission basis once everyone starts leveling up. Also, retraining will be an available option during downtime, using all the rules from Ultimate Campaign.

Looks like we're just missing Milva at this point, and I just sent them a PM.

Looks like I slept in a bit.

Selena: My copy of Chronicle of the Righteous is actually sitting on my desk right now, and it's not like you picked Arshea. I wanted to keep everyone restricted to the hardcovers initially just because there's so VERY many books and I have fewer than half of the softcovers, but I will allow stuff from them on a permission basis once everyone starts leveling up. Also, retraining will be an available option during downtime, using all the rules from Ultimate Campaign.

I can understand the initial restrictions. And oh yeah, Arshea is just silly (fun silly, but the power is high)( i tried to write a little guide on the subject, and I would say only about 10 % (not including black butterfly) are great). In any case, i'll stick to black butterfly, but I think my character might look into the other mystery cults of Magnimar (since according to the wiki, BB isnt worshipped there much).

Good for the retraining! I'm really unsure on my build for the moment, so it will be useful.

Glad to hear retraining will be an option. Always seems like a handy way to use downtime if you have a glaring weakness.

Decided to go with Varisian and Dwarven for my languages. I figure dwarves are always a pretty powerhouse player in mercantile interests, right?

Glad to hear retraining will be an option. Always seems like a handy way to use downtime if you have a glaring weakness.

Decided to go with Varisian and Dwarven for my languages. I figure dwarves are always a pretty powerhouse player in mercantile interests, right?

There are five 'cities' in Varisia, although whether Riddleport really counts is contested. The remaining four are Kaer Maga, Korvosa, Magnimar... and the dwarven sky-citadel of Janderhoff. As such, the dwarves are most certainly a major powerhouse in mercantile interests in the region, though most of their trading is done with Kaer Maga and Korvosa, due to the proximity of each compared to Magnimar.

I will have to get comprehend languages & a bunch of points in linguistics!

We have an IC thread now! You're all welcome to go ahead and post your initial reactions before receiving your official assignment.

Hi, everyone. Looks like I'm late to the party!

My name is Stratton, and I've been gaming for some 30+ years now. My first gaming experience involved my younger brother and I hearing about D&D from my older brother, me grabbing Batman's rogues gallery and the entries from the original Contests of Champions from Marvel, and creating races, stealing some inspiration from Thundarr the Barbarian and other cartoons of my age for weaponry, and making up a game we called Imperials and Rebels (ok, Star Wars was an influence too) utilizing a pinochle deck for a randomizer.

I cut my teeth on D&D and ran that for my family for quite a bit of my adolescence, eventually adding Gamma World and a few forays into Star Frontiers. Moved on to a VAST number of different games over the years, and returned to D&D just before 3.0.

PbP wise, I ran some games on the old dial-up BBSs before the internet was mainstream, from my own homebrew Geeks & Goodguys supers games to Amber Diceless-based games. Left play by post for quite a few years, and am now getting back into on Paizo since my daughter is all grown up and her friends have moved away (got her & them into D&D then Pathfinder.)

I currently run one PbP and play in two others. I am also currently running Shattered Star via maptools and Skype on Saturday nights with a group I had previously run a homebrew "After Rise of the Runelords" Magnimar-based campaign (started prior to the release of Shattered Star) that eventually involved the Mythic Playtest rules.

Heh. I guess since I'm "the Foreigner" any Magnimar advice I give should be OOC.

My profession is in Retail Management, which involves long and sometimes odd hours, which is part of why I'm the late poster here. Worked till late last night and had to be back at work at 6 this morning.

I am really happy to be accepted into this game, as Magnimar feels like a second home to me.

Milva does have some switch hitting capabilities and will apply herself where needed. She'll be eager to prove her worth. Additionally, as an urban ranger, she will develop trapfinding and provide that aspect of "rogueness" for the group. In fact, I see her as kind of a Ranger-as-the-Rogue. It's likely she'll be dual Pathing with Champion and Trickster.

EDIT(2): I have updated her equipment. She should be good to go as is now.

Hi there! Glad to see everyone's here now. With regards to Magnimar, don't worry too much that you're leaving immediately, there will be plenty of opportunities to return, and even if you found a new little settlement of your own, Magnimar will keep playing a major role in the campaign. (Unless, of course, you all decide to go do something crazy and build a ship to set sail for Arcadia.)

Hi there! Glad to see everyone's here now. With regards to Magnimar, don't worry too much that you're leaving immediately, there will be plenty of opportunities to return, and even if you found a new little settlement of your own, Magnimar will keep playing a major role in the campaign. (Unless, of course, you all decide to go do something crazy and build a ship to set sail for Arcadia.)

Even better: We'll capture a space-whale and fly to another planet, just for giggles. But seriously, we'll see how it goes.

Can I take over Riddleport, cause it's prime real-estate that just needs better management. Just saying. xP

Can I take over Riddleport, cause it's prime real-estate that just needs better management. Just saying. xP

Not sure if you're serious or not, but that certainly would be an option, though I wouldn't recommend attempting it at level 1.

Going to give Milva a chance to react before moving along to the ship, but I posted to give everyone a bit more time for Q&A before heading out.

Sigh. First roll, not fantastic. Can't wait for level 2 when Donovan can dump a few more skill points into knowledge.

At level two Serik will be way better in his chosen role. That's when versatile performance starts to kick in. ;)

Selena, I love the alias for your familiar. Definitely stealing that idea at some point in the future.

I felt it was a good idea. I like giving a familiar some character. It's easy for a cat, might be harder for, let's say, a dodo.

It was a good idea. Especially for most of the Improved Familiars, which I'm always fond of, since there's not as many bbcodes here for making it clear who is talking at any given moment. (Such as representing your PC's speech in red and your familiar's speech in blue. Was going to say 'green', but that wouldn't be fair to those with red/green color-blindness.)

Well, I got the original idea from a PbP guide that said that summons/companions could be easier to run in PbP by using multiple aliases. Seemed like a good idea at the time. When I do start summoning, that will likely be how I work.

Edit: Nevermind, it's been fixed!

Maybe the spoiler thing is fixed, but I'm getting some pretty massive response wait times. Hope that goes away...

Same here. I think they are going through some maintenance on the site.

Yeah, sorry I'm dragging. Its been really slow updating tonight.

Sorry about yesterday, had a terrible allergy-headache when I got home and just didn't feel up to posting. Will put up a post when in a couple hours or so after dinner.

Sorry about yesterday, had a terrible allergy-headache when I got home and just didn't feel up to posting. Will put up a post when in a couple hours or so after dinner.

I understand. I've had a bacground migraine for the last 4 days. Not enough to be non-functional, but just enough to make it hard to focus.

I'll be GMing 6 slots at a con this weekend so if needed GMPC me. Will try to check in, but you might not hear from me until Sun night/Monday.

Well Serik's little side quest is done. Now I just wait for the set sail post. Sorry for the delay but fighting is a last resort for Serik, not that he is a push over. ;)

Sorry everyone, spent almost the whole weekend working on a project to demo on Monday. (And oh hey, look, it's already Monday, technically!) Exhausted and mentally drained right now, but at least I'm not expected to show up at work in the morning. (My boss is handling the demo.) I'll get a post up today, but expect it to include the Wandering Star finally setting sail, so if anyone has any last minute details to attend to before the only way back to Magnimar is swimming or mutiny, now is the time for it.

Mutiny you say? Hmmmnn... nah. XD

No worries Nanatsusaya. Think Lissa is all set. Of course we'll have forgotten the proverbial rope, but it wouldn't be a proper story without something important forgotten.

I'm good. I'll take what happens.

Mutiny you say? Hmmmnn... nah. XD

Technically there's always mind control, teleportation, etc, but since none of you have access to that stuff, I figured I had all my bases covered in case any of you decided to go off track before arriving at the designated sandbox.

Nope Serik does not have anything planned until we land. Then he intends for peaceful interactions where he can get them. ;)

Nana (yes, I'm going to start calling you that for short) - Donovan has worked on the docks his whole life. Could he make an unskilled Know(Local) check for the Aureusa info?

Also, I'll just ask now: Donovan is going to try and approach the Shoanti guides about learning their language (or at least start to learn it). Mechanics-wise, Nana: Is putting a skill point into linguistics the only way you will allow a character to learn another language? I thought there were rules for learning them over time, but I can't seem to locate them again.

Nana (yes, I'm going to start calling you that for short) - Donovan has worked on the docks his whole life. Could he make an unskilled Know(Local) check for the Aureusa info?

Also, I'll just ask now: Donovan is going to try and approach the Shoanti guides about learning their language (or at least start to learn it). Mechanics-wise, Nana: Is putting a skill point into linguistics the only way you will allow a character to learn another language? I thought there were rules for learning them over time, but I can't seem to locate them again.

In order:

Nanatsusaya = Seven-bladed sword. Nana = Seven. Therefore, it's a perfectly reasonable nickname.

Yes, that would actually be reasonable for people who would have been in Magnimar during the events in question, or who work in the shipping business there, although she's still rather mysterious to most, and there's a lot of false information out there, and I don't really feel like feeding you all a bunch of red herrings based on false information just yet. (Suffice to say that there's plenty of people who believe Sorshen intends to use Aureusa to conquer Magnimar, or that the scylla is secretly preying on drunk sailors, or that she's eating all the fish. In truth, she'd rather eat sharks, which ought to lead to more fish, not fewer.)

The following is an excerpt from the retraining rules in Ultimate Campaign:

You can spend time to learn an additional language. It takes 20 days of training to gain a bonus language, and these days need not be consecutive. Each language requires a trainer who shares a language with you and knows the language you want to learn, or a book written in a language you know that explains the basics of the language you want to learn.

The new language does not count toward your maximum number of languages (racial languages + bonus languages from Intelligence + Linguistics ranks). You can train this way only a number of times equal to 1 + your Intelligence bonus.

I interpret this to mean that, if you have an Int score of 12, you can spend 40 days of training to gain 2 bonus languages above and beyond those you received for your race, high Int, and Linguistics score. It may be a little while before there's a full 20 days of downtime, but hopefully not more than 2-3 months of ingame time before that's a realistic option. We'll see though!