Taliesin's Way of the Wicked

Game Master Merddyn

That is pretty much what Brice did for his. I figured that he could reasonably learn about 3 spells every 2 weeks, so I took a 10 on the checks made considering he was taking that extra time to decipher, understand, and copy them.

Besides, I also figure that Brice and Florian were probably giving each other the benefit of the "Aid other" action through their montaged spell conversations when things got tricky.

Obviously, GM may rule otherwise but my wife runs a witch in PFS and she will typically take 10 on learning new spells from scrolls with no issue. She is a bit of a min-maxer though so I think her Spellcraft skill was plus 8 or 9 at first level.

I've always seen it as something that people can take ten on. Everywhere I've played seems to have assumed so as well. As Silarsha pointed out though, we will see what our GM has to say about it :)

Yeah, no problem there. Taking 10 is just for that.

I will be on vacation with limited to no internet access. I'll post if I can, but otherwise will need to be botted. Regular posting will resume on July 2nd.

Have a great vacation!

Have a great time.

Have fun!

Just letting everyone know I'm still around, just had some stuff come up this week. I hope to resume normal posting in the next day or two.

Heh, no worries.

Separate metagame topic: Do you think that Florian could later raise the captain and his crew from the dead? I am thinking we kill the crew, bury the boat with the bodies, then later raise them all and have our own undead crewed boat to ferry us/unleash terror along the coastline. (insert evil laugh here)

Charmaine is all up for having an undead horde do undead horde things (once it is explained to her that they are harmless to us)!

So much for the "Halfling dangling on a stick" method to motivate our undead minions idea.

Hahahaha... though, I also could see Charmaine riding an undead pirate like a mount...

Will post in the main thread after I get to work.

Charmaine, just so you are aware, it is expected to be a very long time before you return to the mansion, and you know that Tiadora is very hostile towards him. It's very hard to say in what condition he'll be in (if he's even around by then) when you get to see him again. Or you could bring him along and attempt to find places to hide him (I have some suggestions and possibilities if you come to a point where you need them).

Charmaine, just so you are aware, it is expected to be a very long time before you return to the mansion, and you know that Tiadora is very hostile towards him. It's very hard to say in what condition he'll be in (if he's even around by then) when you get to see him again. Or you could bring him along and attempt to find places to hide him (I have some suggestions and possibilities if you come to a point where you need them). ALternatively, someone with a better disguise skill might be able to give him their iron circlet and depend on their own skill.

Hrm... Charmaine <3's Grumbs, but she wouldn't want to risk his life by staying here or the mission by bringing him along. Could she let him go on his own? He is an ogre and they do live independently. Could be her first sacrifice of faith. Then when she returns and is better able to take him under her wing, she could go out looking for him. Idk where the story takes us, but if we start massing our own forces, he would be the first one she would try to collect.

That absolutely works.

Also, I should let you know I am out of town starting today, but should still be able to post (but maybe not). Just don't worry if I'm a little slower.

Put him in the circlet, and bring him along.
He'll pass for a really large human goon type.
:)

... Maybe have him as my apprentice? "Now Grum... you hit the metal... no no, the hot metal... no, not with your hand, with your hammer."

This post was inspired by Silarsha's comment about her relatively low disguise check. Figured it was worth discussing among ourselves so we are all on the same page since we intend on leaning on this strategy heavily.

Here is part of the Disguise information on the PFSRD:

"Your Disguise check result determines how good the disguise is, and it is opposed by others’ Perception check results. If you don’t draw any attention to yourself, others do not get to make Perception checks. If you come to the attention of people who are suspicious (such as a guard who is watching commoners walking through a city gate), it can be assumed that such observers are taking 10 on their Perception checks."

It depends on how the GM falls on this, but I think our disguise rolls are only going to matter if people start getting suspicious about us (ie. are you really a merchant? are you really a human child?) In our relatively mundane roles, having a disguise is more to change our appearance so people don't know who we are, rather than to impersonate someone or to exert influence over people (like pretending to be a noble or something). It basically keeps us anonymous.

Am I correct in this interpretation?

If so, what might be more important than our disguises is our ability to keep up the ruse when pressed about it or when people honestly engage us as the role we are playing. To me, this is where bluff or act would come into play.

Relevant rules text for bluff seems to be the "Deceive or Lie" portion of the skill. Here is the relevant section from the PFSRD:

"If you use Bluff to fool someone, with a successful check you convince your opponent that what you are saying is true. Bluff checks are modified depending upon the believability of the lie. The following modifiers are applied to the roll of the creature attempting to tell the lie. Note that some lies are so improbable that it is impossible to convince anyone that they are true (subject to GM discretion)."

Based on this, we only need to roll bluff if we are actually lying. Depending on the situation, we may not need to roll bluff at all. Frankly, I don't know how "going through the motions" of being a merchant (for example) would be expressed in terms of a skill check, but bluff, act, or profession merchant seem applicable to me. This would be another area where the GM would have to make a ruling.

Comments, questions, suggestions? Like I said above, I figure we might as well get on the same page now, rather than when we are in the thick of it and have already begun operating on different assumptions of how the rules will be applied.

This is more for me now: GM, would it be too late to buy two spring loaded wrist sheathes? They aren't directly relevant to the current mission and would have been something Charmaine purchased over our training montage. They would be 5gp each.

Even while disguised, Charmaine will be keeping both sheathes equipped and filled with one dagger each. Dagger gives a +2, the sheath gives a +2, and a cloak gives a +2 to sleight of hand to conceal a weapon. Taking 10, that gives me a 27 check to prevent people from noticing Charmaine is armed.

Sleight of Hand from AoN:

"You can hide a small object (including a light weapon or an easily concealed ranged weapon, such as a dart, sling, or hand crossbow) on your body. Your Sleight of Hand check is opposed by the Perception check of anyone observing you or of anyone frisking you."

Would this 27 then be opposed by a rolled perception check, or would we be assuming that people are taking 10 when giving someone a once over? Won't change her actions, but is good to know either way! It would make sense for someone frisking her to actually roll, but I can't imagine a small child would be frisked for weaponry on a normal basis!

Oh yeah, sorry. That is correct. Also, I don't believe you can take 20 on a disguise roll. Even if you could, it would take something like 10 hours. You definitely don't have that.

@Charmaine: Re:wrist sheaths; Anybody who watches for it from the general populace (such as guards) will be taking 10. Anybody who is watching you because of suspicion of you will get a perception roll. Anyone frisking you will get a perception roll with a small bonus. Just like disguise though, the general populace will not worry about it at all. And yes, you can grab those.

@All: How's the strategy planning, are we ready to move on to the boat?

Think we are coming along so far... Florian has been busy I think, so his input is (I think) the only we need outright.

I think we're just waiting for the last two to provide input, but IMHO we can also finalize the plan in here without rp'ing it all out just to move things ahead.

Agreed!

So Heverly is going by Genevieve, and Brice is going by Aiden. Is anyone else going by an alias? I assume we would know it by now, hence asking here. ;)

Silarsha will ask to go by Sylvia.
"Sil is fine."
She'll use what ever last name that the "brothers" Brice and Florian settle on.
She'd also take Florian's hand gently and say "I'd say until death do us part, but given your history, I think not even burial would separate us for long." (or something along those lines.)

Urgathoa is a proponent of eternal love, after all.

Never did show off that doll, though. Lol maybe when Florian isn't completely trashed.

Florian is going to go by Martin in this particular guise. It's probably a common enough name as to be utterly unremarkable. If Brice is changing up his appearance as well, then Florian is going to tailor his own disguised appearance to resemble a slightly younger and thinner brother. Vocal Alteration is going to provide some interesting options for disguises later on, I must say.

And yeah, apologies again for the absence. Been getting some personal stuff squared away, so hopefully this week I'll be getting back into the swing of things.

Also, here's a list of the spells Florian got. It should leave him 50gp total, I think.

If we are all going by fake names, should we put them in the front of our tagline so we don't muddle it up?

As for Charmaine's pseudonym... *googles obscure names for women* Fontaine.

That is a surprisingly reasonable request. I say surprising because it is surprising that I didn't think to do that on my own...

I like that idea. If only for a point of reference for our "speaking out loud" posts.

Everyone here still?

I am... been a busy week for me though.

I'm here.

I'm here as well. I'm sorry, I know you are all waiting on me. I'll get us a post up soon.

I'm still here.

Still here. Tumultuous few weeks, but still here.

You guys really need to work on your perception. XD

But we like giving all our enemies the surprise round! Gives them a fighting chance!

Heh... somehow, when I think of your character Charmaine, this theme comes to mind....

Haha I've never seen/heard that before! Is the anime worth watching?

Kill la Kill? Personally, I found it to be enjoyable... but it is over the top ludicrous ... and it progressively gets more so... then it suddenly amps what was over 11 by a factor of 12. Best way to see is to watch it I suppose. Here is the opening scene of episode one... Link

So THIS was the inspiration for that voice. Rest in peace, John...

I'm sorry guys. Dealing with a bunch of stuff at home (a programming project due tomorrow and a broken swamp cooler). I should be able to post again Thurs.

I feel for you.
My AC went out this past weekend. The same day it was hitting the hundred degree mark outside, I was running my Carrion Crown group at the house, and at the same time, our dishwasher broke.
And I had to pause our game to help my wife teach a woman from a local pet rescue to use our traps to catch a couple of kittens hiding in a gap behind a kitchen cabinet at the foster mom's house.

When it rains, it pours! Good luck y'all, hang in there!

Sorry to hear your troubles (both of you) and hope that things go better soon!

Service plan took care of the house stuff pretty quickly, my players are very forgiving, and the kittens were safely recovered that same afternoon.
Honestly, I can't complain.

Everything all fixed now, but I've got to go to bed. I'll post first thing in the morning

Hooray! :D