Lloyd Jackson's Untitled Campaign

Game Master Lloyd Jackson

A paladin does not panic. A paladin strikes decisively.

Paralyzed and disabled. Great...

It is an excellent time to ponder which afterlife is your likely destination.

Elysium. Staveon's pretty satisfied. :D

Just so everyone is aware, a paralyzed character is vulnerable to coup-de-graces. Some foes will stop attacking a helpless target, others will focus on it exclusively.

Understood. We're cool.

*edit. All of the guys are now paralyzed and pretty banged up. Saranie is the only thing standing between them and chow town. There is a time to panic. That time is now!

I was just about to post something like, "Nah, Staveon's got a bonus against fear." but then Saranie's all like, "Paladins have no fear. Also, I'm beyond awesome." and so now I don't have to. :D

Paralyzed and disabled. Great...

Isn't it, though?! Staveon's so buzzed right now, man! :D

Sadly I can think of no way to get up to the top even if I knew how urgent it was. Climbing is not a strong point and would take too long anyway

*Reads/Watches in.*

Is so nerve wrackin' an excitin'!

(^_^)

Much cheers ta' all!

I especially like the part where the paladin's arrow misses, and this abruptly becomes a one elf survival/horror campaign.

Congratulations to everyone on our first battle! What happens from here on out is up to you. I'll respond to describe things, answer skill checks and questions, etc, but really. It's your show.

Paralyzed and disabled. Great...

It could be worse. You could be paralyzed, disabled, and diseased...

You could be dead. That would be worse too.

You could be dead. That would be worse too.

Or a ghoul!

Curious: when am I no longer hung-over? :)

I especially like the part where the paladin's arrow misses, and this abruptly becomes a one elf survival/horror campaign.

I was getting a little bit worried about that. Who would have thought falling off a 30 foot tall drop was a survival aid

Staveon, when you decide you aren't. You're the one who wrote this part of the story, so I leave it in your capable, and slightly blurry, hands. In regards to the traveling, assume that for biological purposes, like being hungover, no time passed between the chamber and arrival here.

Athene, indeed. ^_^

Aside rant, falling is one of my peeves. I don't like it. 30ft drop and most 3rd level characters can shake it off even if I roll max damage. No. And it only gets worse the higher you go! Spherical fireball, sure. Flying dragons the size of planes, groovy. But, falling is my arbitrary and irrational line in the sand.

I were all ready ta' race in an' be savin' folks. Honest I were.

Aside rant, falling is one of my peeves. I don't like it. 30ft drop and most 3rd level characters can shake it off even if I roll max damage. No. And it only gets worse the higher you go! Spherical fireball, sure. Flying dragons the size of planes, groovy. But, falling is my arbitrary and irrational line in the sand.

Then there are the systems were falling 6 feet is more dangerous than being shot by a pistol. Like Grappling it is one of the great mysteries of RPG systems

Thanks, Sunny! :D
Also: uh... actually, GM, Athene brings up a pretty good point. How... do I handle my stuff? Hypothetically, I had a bunch of stuff on* my mules with my guard dogs. I... don't know what, exactly, because I didn't detail it that precisely; I just kind of figured that (since they were battle trained) the mules and dogs would, where viable, hang out near us, only being left behind in particularly narrow spaces - I didn't really think of losing them, except maybe to death by attacking beasts or something. Whoops. So... what would be a fair way to get the idea of what I do and don't have?

* And money invested in! ... though that loss is probably to be expected, really. :D

Hop...skip...jump

Until otherwise noted, I'm going to just guess about what I actually have.

In response to Therins question about detect magic. I beleive at the moment no one can cast any spells, at 4th level Sarenie will become our mighty caster with 1 1st level spell

just checking....i get spells next level too....

craft weapons: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22 to check the sword's quality/make

Yeah, magic is not this party's forte.

I adjusted our positions on the map to make more sense of how we have stated we acted.

whoops, posted my dice roll in wrong thread...didnt realize until now....

Potential retcon: if it's made better than a kukri, I'll alter my statement, but, from what I understand, machetes are, I'm guessing, like less potent/less versatile kukris. Am I correct in understanding that the mace just looks kludged together and welded from various parts? Kind of cheaply?

just checking....i get spells next level too....

Indeed you do, I forgot because I opted out of ranger spells for this character

Pavo: Athene brought the weapons up with her.

Gotcha.

Advance warning from the 29th of May to the 1st of June I will be away from home at a games convention , there is a good chance I will not be able to post on the Friday or Saturday and the Thursday evening and Sunday evening will be limited as I will be on trains, and the Internet connectivity of British trains even if they have some is rubbish

Thanks, Athene. Keep us posted!

I'm really enjoying the flow we've established here, guys. I think we have a solid core of players and I'm glad to be a part of it. Can't wait to see what happens next.

Agreed, Pavo!

EDIT: Hey, guys, feel free to alter your position on the map while we rest for the night. Staveon is pacing.

I recommend that Saranie spend her remaining healing attempts on either Athene or Pavo - I've got more hp at present than either of those two, and I'll regain three more by sleeping - sounds like a decent plan of action to me to ensure the majority of us are in over-all better fighting shape. Also, Athene, I'm curious where you were about six months ago, and am presuming the southernmost place you could be in the River Kingdoms, of Riverton...

Oh, hey, also, I'm presuming your holy symbol is tattooed somewhere noticeable. We'll retcon things if it's not.

* six months prior *

Staveon guided his mules with the bridles, dogs panting at his feat. Despite the uncharacteristic warmth of the season, the five of them were doing fairly well - recently stopped to feed and drink from the shore of Kallas Lake (after traveling along the East Sellen), and he'd fed his creatures at the time, dogs being characteristically loving, while the mules were characteristically gentle (if dangerous).

Riverton was his destination - he needed to fill up on some Khave and maybe a bit more godsbrew before he planned on heading up north towards Sevenarches, and maybe eventually seeing some of his friends at Daggermark or Tymon. Perhaps he could even get employment!

... of course, he realized, he could always get employment from those horrid Black Eagles up in Lambreth. He... hated them. About the only thing they were good for was for not being the Razmirans. But whatever - he would consider it, if they were hiring.

But that was a few months off - first, he needed to get to Riverton and resupply, get some people to finish training his mules (as they'd started before) - he needed them to be less skittish and more battle-worthy -, and then head up north along the Sellen and stop by the old Bloodstone Swords headquarters. It had been... too long, really. He missed his brothers in arms. He could never go back - not really, and not after the way he'd left.

He felt the fool. "Hey guys, I'll totally go and make, like, a bajillion gold, and everything! Woo!" which, of course, wasn't even close to resembling the truth (nor, to be fair, what he'd said, exactly, but...). Nobles... well, they were untrustworthy and spoiled, to be sure. And he was now one of them - one of the very despots that he generally felt uncomfortable around. Ah, well. Shiny titles are nice, he supposed. But... he could never rejoin the Bloodstone Swords. How would that work? He'd automatically outrank the Captain. And no one outranked Captain Ricasso. He wouldn't dare even attempt to do that. No, it's best just to travel through, greeting his brothers, and heading out again.

He immediately halted when saw the situation forming.

"Ah, s***." he swore.

He didn't have to hear the words. He knew them very well. The small, wiry priest was describing, in detail, the importance of traveling in groups to minimize risk. Sounds good, of course, and, of course, he meant it. And what better way to minimize risk than to travel with a priest of the rivers?

No, that - really tall - woman in obviously-foreign gear was showing all the signs of being his next ally/victim. He felt guilty for just letting it happen - she should at least know, you know? - but simultaneously, he wasn't entirely sure he could just stop a holy man from doing his business. He didn't want others to suffer the wrath of the river god.

Then he spotted her tattoo. Arshea. Nope. River god or not, a fellow worshiper was not on the menu. It wasn't happening on his watch.

"Sorry!" he called out, trotting as fast as he could, trying to get their attention. "Oh, - *phew* - whoa, Nelly - *huff* - I'm sorry! I meant to meet you sooner!" he said to the elf.

"Sorry, 'bout that!" he turned to the priest. "I was supposed to meet her here - oh, I don't know... a bit ago now, I guess. I'm just late." he pulls his shirtsleeve down to show his shoulder tattoo. "I'm her traveling companion - we're part of the 'Swords up north." he displays the brand on his chest. "No need to walk the rivers with this one, eh? Perhaps, I could offer a sacrifice of coin for your trouble?" he asks, attempting to be oblique.

Intimidate: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15 for impressing the idea that they're associated with the Bloodstone Swords - not exactly a group of people you want to cross. He also doesn't hide his dueling saber or the nearby symbol of the Daggermark Assassin's guild, or his guard dogs.
Bluff: 1d20 ⇒ 1 for convincing him that she was with him all along, and that he's tired from hurrying to get to her, as he's so late. He's pretty obviously lying, and pretty clearly lying, and it's pretty clear it's for a reason: although natural 1s aren't automatic failures for skills, given that everyone here has a +1 wisdom or higher, he's not going to be fooling anyone right now. He's also trying to not be obvious about the fact that the priest is probably going to drown her, a fact that living in the River Kingdoms one is either very familiar with or is likely dead.
Diplomacy: 1d20 ⇒ 15 for convincing him to let the elf go and convincing her - whoever she is - to follow him. Staveon clearly means her no harm, and just as clearly believes this is very important, for her sake.

Staveon gently takes the elf by the elbow, dropping a few silvers in the priest's hand. "Well, now that all that confusion is settled, let's go, friend." he emphasizes the last word to help her catch on. He manages with all the subtlety and finesse of a bear in a honey noodle stand.

A map of the Riverkingdoms, for the curious. We're not there anymore, but it could be fun to know for just "how we met" story purposes.

EDIT: My plan at present, for the curious, is for Staveon to get his mules trained (a couple week's worth of time), then go north from Riverton, following the Sellen Rivern (that's the middle one - East Sellen goes east, while West Sellen goes west, and Sellen just goes upwards), stopping at the Bloodstone Swords headquarters (that's about half-way up the Wilewood to the west of the Sellen River) to tarry for a time, before slowly heading further north, either to Daggermark or Lambreth. I imagine he'll go slowly with Athene looking around everywhere, while we run into everyone else along the way. Although Athene would normally be shunned from Sevenarches (something I'd forgotten), I'd imagine that his connections with Daggermark, the Bloodstone Swords, his intimidate check (and others' diplomacy) as well as a <story-exclusive> hand-waived writ-of-rights (probably granted at some point in service to the Bloodstone Swords in the River Kingdoms) could get Athene there. Why go there? Because of ancient ruins (the most well known being the arches that are in the town itself, but implied to be part of a larger set of structures). This feeds the GMs sources of story as well. Also, they're probably not in Sevenarches itself, but a minor village or thorp near to Sevenarches at the start of this adventure. In that way, we'll take up about six months, with, potentially, some wandering in between, and thus will align our back-stories loosely together. Feel free to inject your character into the mix at some point.

Starting to get a bit worried since DM hadn't made an appearance since Saturday morning...

Starting to get a bit worried since DM hadn't made an appearance since Saturday morning...

I PM'd him - we'll see. In the meantime: backstory! (Feel free to note that you'd run into me prior to me running into Athene - since she noted that we'd been acquaintances for six months, I started with her. I imagine that I'll meet Saranie comparatively later on; Therin is likely to run into us at the Bloodstone Swords' headquarters, if not before. I... figure Riverton is actually a pretty decent time to place you, too, now that it occurs to me, Pavo, unless you want to have joined me near Liberthane or, heaven help us both, Mivon. :D

EDIT: You can, of course, not have run into me, but instead run into someone else. I'd be interested in seeing if you guys would be with each other first, to. It doesn't all have to revolve around Staveon, you know! :D

Saranie, now you have me confused. I was at 0, healed 8 with my wand, then added in the 9 from your LoH, bringing me to 17. I acknowledged it and thanked you in character. So now you're doling out that healing to others?

Edit: I'm not trying to hog all of the healing, I just want to know what my current HP total should be.

Pavo, your hp should be 17+4 = 21
Athene's should be 17+3 = 20
Mine should be 20+4 = 24
Saranie, your healing was noted earlier - you've now expended all of your Lay on Hands abilities. If your intent was to save one, "just in case," simply drop mine, and I'll have 20 hp and you'll have one use left.

And now, in the spirit of healing more hp... *wanders to other thread*

EDIT: Hey, second shift: don't forget to roll Perception checks! :D

EDIT 2: Hm... something went very wrong with the map. Interesting. We'll see if it comes back up or not.

Oh, sorry, Pavo. I miscalculated, thinking my first lay on hands had been on you.

Current HP totals should be:

Pavo: 17
Athene: 17
Staveon: 20

My apologies for the confusion.

No problem. My hp are now corrected.

Welp, having been just about 16 hours since last post, everyone can presume that they've healed 3 hit points by way of sleep! My hit points are now corrected.

I'm going to hold off posting until we hear something from the DM. If this campaign fizzles, I think we should offer up our group as a whole to potential DMs on the recruitment boards.

I'm with Pavo on waiting for the DM, not so much on offering up the campaign.

If we're out a DM, I'd rather move on to another game, rather than ask a DM to pick up on one that's not theirs. If we were further along, then maybe, but as it stands, I'd rather play a game where the DM came up with the world involved.

On the off-chance that the game fizzles (I'm hoping it's an off-chance) I am, in fact, doing some research on the basis for this world (warning: potential quasi-spoilers, though spoilers we were given from the first post, so... not really much of 'em, I suppose). I've also PM'd the GM, offering to help with some of the duties, if things are suddenly too busy. There are a number of options for me to run things for him that don't include me knowing the plot in advance.

That said, I'm actually a bit worried about him. The fact that the map is simply gone is strange, to say the least. I hope Lloyd is doing okay. Something could have happened to his computer as well - also a possibility, unfortunately. :/

Finally, as an alternative, if we don't want to continue with Lloyd's game as co-run by me, I may be willing to start up a new game, and maybe take a larger crew, too, though I'm leery about my ability to run a PbP, as, so far, every one I've been a part of has fizzled. I would likely heavily base it off of this one, too. Hopefully it would work out okay. I'd also pretty much just drop things for Lloyd to take over if he wished, or bring him in as a player instead, at his option.

Yeah, I didn't mean look for another gm for this game, I meant offer us up as a whole package for another game (maybe seeking an arcane character to round us out a bit.)

I wouldn't want to force this game upon another gm when we've just gotten started, it wouldn't make much sense since we haven't really established anything.

I applaud your efforts Staveon, hopefully we hear from him soon.

Ahhh. I see.

Well... Hm.

I've gotten a little busier as of late, with university resuming. I can handle the games I have, but I think I'd probably take the opportunity to "lower the load", as it were.

Still going to keep going if our DM turns up, though.

Still around , just a busy few days. Off work next week and I have several projects to wrap up so busy until the end of Friday

So, Athene, what'ya think, story-wise?

Are we to assume this game is Deadsville?

It's... possible, unfortunately. I'm about 4/5ths of the way through the book I mentioned before - I've subsequently learned that (naturally) I chose the wrong book - it's part of the same meta-series, but not the same primary series as Lloyd's base idea was built off of. Still, it's... inspirational.

It's too bad, but that's how it goes, I suppose.

I mostly just hope Lloyd is okay. It's likely that he is, but I'd love to have confirmation of that.

I'll probably keep Staveon for use in another campaign at some point. He was fun to design. That said, if Lloyd comes back, I'd be all over this game restarting.

I may run one myself (or at least try) later, actually. If Lloyd never picks this up again, it may be based on this basic idea (or even a direct continuation, more-or-less, of this one - I'd probably make a few subtle changes, and likely open a few things up more); alternatively it may be based on another idea I've been tinkering with lately, or something else - I've got a lot of pots simmering in the kitchen for gaming ideas.

If anyone is interested, let me know - it's unlikely that I'll be ready to start one up right away, but this is as decent a place as any to gauge some amount of interest with fellow players.

EDIT: I'm still keeping these windows open for a little while. Also, we can continue the kind of pre-game meetings and similar, at least for a little time, should we wish, which could be fun.

I too hope everything is ok with Lloyd...life has a nasty habit of kicking you in the face unexpectedly

Alrighty, first to apologize. When things go crazy I focus on the crisis, it may be a teacup tempest but to us mites in the teacup it's still a pretty big deal, to the exclusion of things like PbP, birthdays, sky falling, etc. That's just how my brain works. If you'd rather not game together anymore, I understand. I'd much rather continue to do so though. I will not promise that this won't happen again in the future. I'll endevor to ensure it doesn't, but when the next crisis inevitably comes, I'll probably disappear until things are reasonable-ish again. I've tried to do otherwise in the past, and it just hasn't worked. Once this is up I'll be working on the gameplay post.

Now, explanation time. Feel free to avoid. Some people want/like explanations, others hate them. I feel obligated to provide one however.