Dotting in
1. Since i am first to the post. Simply being together seems a bit... "pick and match" we can come up with a more solid way i think to why we are here
2. No idea... that brings me to
3. I have no idea. This AP is very new to me. I think I played a small part of book 1... but not sure
That would be very much appreciated =^^=
Ps. Did you get my pm reply?
Hi MathPro!
Thanks for the opportunity. Let's start trying to answer some questions with my suggestions and take!
1) My suggestion is that our dynamic grew as we adventured together, and now we have a sense of bond/loyalty towards one another. At least in the case of my character, it'd be a pleasure to be in a quest with the companions.
2) I will let the players respond as to who was the target of such advances. I don't know this part of the module, but if his advances were aggressive or inappropriate and the character in question didn't want such advances, Andulian would be incredibly uncomfortable with it. He wouldn't "take a stand to defend a female" because that's just ridiculous, they can probably defend themselves as well as himself, but he'd definitely be on her side if she wanted so.
3) Again I'll probably need a rundown of the books.
I played only the very beginning of RotRL before my live table switched to a different AP (because everybody was excited about it and it was just out - a certain Skulls and Shackles ;)). Anything you could give about the happenings would be great.
Alternatively, maybe my character worked with the rest of the party in other adventures and was now retired, but was called by them at this point in the module to help with something (which he'd love to, since he hate being retired). At least it'd explain why I don't know much about everything else that happened.
Cheers
Andulian Vogh / Archlich / adsapiens
By the way :
Will try to get my alias ready with all the crunchy bits tomorrow
Yes I did get your PM yesterday.That would be very much appreciated =^^=
Ps. Did you get my pm reply?
Just checking =^^=
Checking in. Be home from funeral soon and catch up.
Horp, aka Cuan, reporting
I'm still working on the crunch, as is quite obvious. One thing I'm still a bit torn on is weapon choice as I'll need to present my tome when casting spells, which takes up a hand, and while using the tome as an improvised weapon would be fun the thing is way to precious to Horp to hit people with it.
Cuan would you be able to give us the cliff notes of what an occultist does as well? I'll be in the mountains for a few days but should be able to check in to workshop a shared backstory.
I'm pretty familiar with the path, having GMd burnt offerings for more than one table and briefly ran a pbp. Erasmes is intentionally ignorant on all things Varisian to stop me meta gaming too heavily.
My suggestion is that we don't follow the events of the AP bit by bit and feign knowledge of events we haven't played through that we come up with a shared backstory that loosely follows the events of the path and pick up with the events of volume four (which should be enough to get us swept up in the events of the path). Fast and loose.
Something along the lines of linking several monster attacks across the countryside with a lamia death cult, harvesting (greedy) souls for a long dead wizard. We've fought with goblins, ghouls, doppelgängers and ogres along the way. Have I missed any big plot critical reveals in volume 3?
I think if we all post our characters appearance, personality and the like in the discussion that would be a lot of help. As well as a rough idea of their party role. I've also got to finish my gear. I've made note of the expensive purchases but wish to fill my bags of holding with exotic goods and various oddities.
I'll check back in with Erasmes' cliff notes shortly.
1) What events have solidified you guys as an unbreakable team? Or has no such event happened(working together because it "works" for now but if something better comes along so be it)
2) Which of our two female characters(sorry I was wrong when I said there was only one yesterday) would have been the target of Alderns advances and how would the party have reacted/intervened?
3) Any other events that have happened that have bonded the party together beyond what happened in the first 3 books? Relationships with eachother, intimate moments, family crisis, ect.
4) Are you all pretty familiar with the AP or do you need one of the DM's(me or Megan) to post up summaries of all 3 books as to what major events have happened?
1) For those who were present, I feel the initial defense of Sandpoint during the Swallowtail Festival is a good initial "group bonding" experience. Granted, not every one of the PC's may not have been present at such time, and I honestly think that some folks joining later would make the story more organic feeling. For my part, Valeria is a lifelong resident of Sandpoint.
2) I am perfectly fine as being the target of his creepy creepy. Valeria has dealt with being on the receiving end of people's attractions ever since she matured, but Aldern's would be the most creepy. As the true depth of his obsession become evident (by the random objects, hair, blood, etc. found in his lair, as well as the notes and such), she would grow to be more introverted during this time, as opposed to her naturally friendly/flirtatious self, and grow very dependent on her friends for protection.
3) Having been an orphan as well, raised in the Sandpoint Cathedral, Nualia's transformation and fall would have struck Valeria hard. It was likely another difficult time for her in the campaign. Regarding relationships and such, I am open to work out some background connections with anyone who is also a native of Sandpoint. If the relationships are of a romantic nature, they also could have developed after the events of the campaign started, so others can be included there too (NOTICE: I am, in fact, a male player here, and would prefer to keep such RP limited to a *wink wink nudge nudge* sort of "behind the curtain" referencing. Not interested in trying to generate some weird fanfic here, but if such connections help build the RP and story, I'm fine with it as long as we keep it at that level).
Regarding my opinion on the summaries, I think that would be a good idea, to let us have a confirmed, agreed upon series of events that would serve as canon for our particular group, including how we handled them, and who was badly hurt/emotionally scarred/killed at each part. I am very familiar with the first two books of the campaign, as I am currently GM for a PBP of this here as well. In my campaign, a PC's father was killed during the goblin raid, another PC bought the Glassworks, 2 PC's died in Thistletop to Nualia and Malfeshnakor (spelling?). We also had a very dramatic, near multi-death scene to a haunt in the Misgivings, where half the group jumped out the window towards the cliff, and a couple others dove out trying to save them. It was very cinematic. All these hardships helped mold the personalities of the group, turning what were once happy adventurers into somber, grounded warriors, with their own specific war stories to reference. So I think this would be an excellent idea for us to have as well.
I invite you all to scope out my current background, and let me know if you want to come up with connections!
Still working on Cerenity. I have something so far, but nothing concrete yet.
The girls could meet up, maybe Cerenity needed to make a contact in the city, just someone she could "hang out" with to maintain a resemblance of a social life.
So during the days she would hang out at the Rusty Dragon and just talk and be friendly with the locals and the two struck up a friendship of some sort?
Cuan would you be able to give us the cliff notes of what an occultist does as well?
It's rather difficult to give a short run down of the occultist as it highly depends on choices made.
Basically an Occultist gets implements and based on those implements he gets access to different schools of magic and different class abilities. In my case, as a Tome Eater, I only have a single implement that can have schools of magic added to it.
How that works is that if I pick a school I get 1 spell of every spell level on my list of known spells as soon as I'm high enough level to cast it. I can pick a school again to get one extra spell at each level. I also get the base power, resonant(scaling) power and some other focus powers of the schools I selected, if I pick a school a second time I only get an extra focus power of that school. At this point I have 4 school choices, of which I already know Transmutation will be one.
I also have a resource called Mental Focus, which is used to power the implement powers. Basically I put point of mental focus into a specific school at the start of the day and use those points to power the various abilities associated with that school. The resonant power scales with the amount of points invested at the start of the day and does not decrease as points are spent. In addition, as a Tome Eater, I can spend points 3/day to increase either the caster level or the DC of a spell by 1 by expending a point of MF from the matching school. I can also choose to not invest points but those are spent at double cost and can't be invested later.
As a Tome Eater, I can once per day eat scrolls and books to regain points of MF, which I can instantly invest.The amounts of points I get depends on what is consumed. In addition I can ready an action to consume a spell someone casts from a scroll, dispelling it, and, if I haven't eaten writing yet that day, the scroll with it. Sadly this won't be an immediate action until 16th level. Next level I'll also be able to spell turn the spell to the caster instead of eating the scroll.
Lastly, I'm also a master of the UMD skill and of any writing, being under the effect of a constant read magic and able to look at a book or other writing and figure out what's written inside and whether or not it contains magic. I'm also able to figure out what a magic item does, what it's command words are and who last used it by simply turning it over in my hands for a minute.
As for the meeting of the group, like I mentioned Horp would have joined during the raid on Sandpoint as that is when he found the first tome he ate as well as his current implement (which just so happens to be a priceless ledger used to keep inventory in Karzoug's home. Formerly priceless at least, it's now damaged beyond repair to it's historic value). He'd have gladly joined in the attacks on the goblins in order to take vengeance for the bullying he had to endure.
So should rather invest the skills in UMD into something else?
It never hurts to double up on skills in a group our size, especially one as useful as UMD
Still working on Cerenity. I have something so far, but nothing concrete yet.
The girls could meet up, maybe Cerenity needed to make a contact in the city, just someone she could "hang out" with to maintain a resemblance of a social life.
So during the days she would hang out at the Rusty Dragon and just talk and be friendly with the locals and the two struck up a friendship of some sort?
Possibly. Do you or ally roam around in the mantis gear, though?
Typed that previous post on my ipad while still in bed. Should read:
"Possibly. Do you always roam around in the mantis gear, though?"
Typed that previous post on my ipad while still in bed. Should read:
"Possibly. Do you always roam around in the mantis gear, though?"
Oh no. That's for jobs only. Heck, if she had her way, you guys won't even know she has the gear. =^^=
Okay. What i feel, she would have entered onto the scene round about book 3. Going after the leader of the ogres. So she helps the team to achieve that. Though. During the mission and infront of people's eyes, she would ware her "uniform" to hide who she is and not freak out potential people she has met at/in the town
That's my idea...
I assumed as much. I also figure you've let the depths you are willing to take things remain unknown? Otherwise, it would be difficult for a LE to befriend a LG.
In any regard, I'm willing to play the part of a sucker for the sake of RP. :-P
If you are not from the town of Sandpoint itself, and had been staying in the Rusty Dragon, you would definitely have had plenty of opportunities to converse with and befriend Valeria. Once we had underwent the trials of the first book, she'd likely have even invited you to save your coin and stay in her spare bedroom, no sense in BOTH of us suffering the lame pick-up lines of the boys in the tavern!
I've not found many physical descriptions of characters so far, so I'm going to copy and paste mine from my Alias here. It also includes a generated sketch of the character I made using heromachine (can't draw for the life of me), looks very cartoonish but I hope it gets the idea of her across.
Wt: 105 lbs
Age: 19
Hair: Red
Eyes: Green
Skin: White
Reference Image
Valeria has long, red hair that hangs to the middle of her shoulder blades. She is about 5'9" tall and has an athletic build. Her skin is tan, her eyes green. She is aware of the affects her looks has on others around her, and as such uses that to her advantage both socially and in combat. She wears clothes that are tasteful yet shows off her figure and probably more skin than the priests would prefer.
Edit: Just saw the edit you made to your post. So, if you didn't show up until just recently, and seem to be going for a "secret identity" vibe...
If you are just now showing up, then based on how Book 2 flows straight from Magnimar to the activity of Book 3, we have been away from Sandpoint for at least a week or so now, maybe more. So our lives in Sandpoint wouldn't have interacted with you until now. So the only way we WOULD know you is as a random Red Mantis Assassin who showed up and gave us a hand for a while.
Still a work in progress.
The other thing is, she could have met you, and then from there started to learn and gather information on the ogre leader, and when the time was right, she went to find it. Surprised to meet you on the way there?
LE doesn't mean she is a bad person, she does things a bit differently. Like Dexter for instance.
The way i see her personality, and this i have in her story all ready: she was raised and trained. Assassination is merely a job. Like cooking or baking. It will not interfere with your way of life. You do your job, you go back home, hang out with friends, have drink, laugh and giggle over the silliness of the young boys etc
I get ya on the alignment thing. It's more of a guide than anything. But it is also a sign of how far you are willing to go to get the job done. At least that's how I look at it.
Edit: So, I guess what I'm getting at, is when exactly we were introduced to your character and their various personas?
That could work, so the first was an alliance of convenience, the second is more of a "mind if i tag along, i enjoyed our last bout and would like to get to know you better"?
Did we just both delete out posts? :P
Haha. Well. This is why we have pre game discussion
Okay. Lets see if i have the correct stuff
She needs to learn and get information. So she camps in town.
Then when she has all the info she needed she headed out and then was a bit surprised to find you guys on the same mission as her. Even if it was because of seperate reasons
Ha. I was so confused until I realized you were talking to Mathpro. :-P
I think having lost some NPC member of the "Group" during the early trials definitely adds something to the RP. Just a matter of when and to who. Maybe someone died at the hands of Nualia, further spotlighting the depths she had fallen? Or maybe someone died trying to protect Valeria from Aldern's attacks during the trials of the Misgivings? Or, was someone eaten by Malfeshnekor!? There are plenty of places where an NPC could have went to the Boneyard in the early books, so whatever you think feels most suspenseful is fine by me!
My background can be altered if it fits the group better. Besides...I could have a home in Sandpoint and still hang around Magnimar for extended periods. The world doesn't revolve around Valeria (though she may think so herself! lol).
I still have 1,000 gold to spend, so I could see about purchasing an "Apartment" in Magnimar to make that more viable. :-P
Or, I am willing to donate said gold towards a "group item" like another healing wand or some such.
This is a fun part though. Working on how we know each other and how we met. Lvl11 is a high number. Soooo many things could have happened
Posting some random thoughts about each character so far, and how Valeria might view them, or questions to try to get a better feel for them to begin such talks.
I haven't seen Redshirt's character check in here yet at all...
Yeah.
His last post was on monday...?
If we lost a group member if we could turn him or her into a Wizard or Arcanist Horp would use that person's spellbook as his tome implement instead of the Thassilonian ledger.
As far as appearance goes, Horp would have started out more or less a typical goblin, just a lot scrawnier. He also has a very large mouth, even by goblin standards.
Later on he would have changed quite a bit. He'd generally look a lot healthier and actually have a bit of a belly now. He'd also is incredibly clean and has very high standards for personal hygiene. These high standards don't extend to his diet though and while he prefers high quality meals (or a good book) he'd just as easily eat an ogre-made stew.
Appart from very acrobatic, no. Dont want to tip my hand in what she can do. She is well built and looks like some form of athlete though.
I know she doesnt have a very high bluff. Didnt have the money for a +2/+2 headband... so in her RMA garb, she will talk through the mask. So i hope that will muffle her voice a bit. Along with a bit of tone difference.
Sorry to cut and run... haha...
Its almost 1030pm here. Terrible headache. And i have a feeling tomorrow might be very busy.
Good night to all. Will catch up in the morning
Reception out on the slopes is a little worse than I thought. My current backstory is a legacy of my previous game. My current thinking is that Erasmes was rescued by the group in magnimar, a greedy merchant and victim to the skinsaw cult. Perhaps he could replace the party wizard there? Although I'd like to share in the loss it seeks an organic place for our meeting. In the interim Erasmes could have invested in Sandpoints glassworks, ran afoul of the Sherrif over his pesh habit, and tithed heavily to tante churchg of Sarenrae.
As it stands my familiar is geared to use UMD, so that makes three of us.
Erasmes is of Kelish descent, smelling strongly of cumin, cardamom and pesh. Both he and his familiar are dressed in garish silks, sitting perched on his enchanted carpet, golden rods in each hand making him seem the very image of the Mage lords of Osirion.
Erasmes is primarily a blaster, with a pool of summoning and utility magic to fall back on when his dazing spells don't do the job. Anybody who can clean up groups of wounded does is going to make a good pair with him. His familiar can use wands, an option I've previously shied from buy utilised here, as I wanted a familiar that was both mechanically and through role play integral to my characters persona.
Sajjad can also be the party trapfinder the way I've distributed my skill points.
Out of curiosity, how does your familiar use UMD if it can't speak?
Oh yeah! A question I asked in my previous game. We essentially decided the command words were some variation of "ook" as there isn't anything stating that one needs to speak a language in the RAW. Essentially I'm grabbing evolved familiar in place of improved familiar as a monkey felt like the more stylistic choice and the feat investment is still a factor. (What with animals class skill list and naturally low charisma scores.) a ruling on that would be super.
We're very arcane caster heavy as is, if anybody has any input on his current spell load out i can adjust accordingly.
Valeria's spell list is as follows:
0: Prestidigitation, Dancing Lights, Detect Magic, Mage Hand, Message, Mending
1 (7/7): Feather Fall, Cure Light Wounds, Alarm, Grease, Unseen Servant, Ear-Piercing Scream
2 (5/5): Cure Moderate Wounds, Mirror Image, Tongues, Sonic Scream, Gallant Inspiration
3 (5/5): Haste, See Invisibility, Major Image, Dispel Magic
4 (3/3): Greater Invisibility, Hold Monster, Dimension Door
She is designed to be support focused, playing the role of buffer and healer, with a smidge of combat support spells like hold monster, dispel magic, major image, and ear-piercing scream.
She also is more in tune with being a second-tier combatant, providing a flank buddy, caster harassment, and protector of our own casters if need be.
Cerenity is a melee character. But low AC. She is a opportunist. So flank is important. 3 attacks around. Each with sneak attack. And extra bleed and to reduce AC etc. And MINOR arcane spells. Will mostly be self buffs
Not to mention being invisible most of the time
I'm still trying to figure out how I'll play Horp. On the one hand I like the idea of going Catch Off-Guard and Improvised Weapon Mastery, hitting people with his book (what kind of damage dice would that be anyway? No idea whether it's 1h or 2h). The main reason for this is that while his spells don't require verbal or somatic components he does need to "display" his tome to cast them and he can't really hang it from a chain on his belt, considering the size of a goblin.
Another combat option would be going rapier and Fencing Grace so I can stab things while holding the book in my off hand (mostly because Slashing Grace doesn't allow that any more).
Ranged isn't really an option as that would require me to do something fancy with the tome as well as all ranged weapon that are actually worth it require 2 hands to use.
Beyond that, Horp will have quite a bit of knowledge, be sneaky, speak a ton of languages and a few other things. Not entirely sold on spell list.