Talanor, the Last Haven (Table #1)

Game Master Valjoen_KC

If you are thinking of retiring the character because of the zombie dangers, but don't want to choose a new character, (There is no shame in wanting to play someone else.) then I would definitely recommend the Deathless ability it would negate the explosion damage and might even help with the disease rider.

I'd rather Muraisa didn't retire, myself. I like the blunt, stop-f$$+ing-around-and-let's-chop-some-enemies mentality she displays. The rigged door leading here is a great example. Kayin was annoyed by just opening the door like that, I thought it was perfectly in-character for her.

If I have to burn off my daily allotment of curative spells, and spend every "night" cooking anti-plague to keep Muraisa on her feet, until we hit mid-levels and Muraisa can bring more survivability online via class features, essences drops, and the like, I'm game.

I think people should be free to do whatever, but if it's a mechanical concern, then there are always reach arounds (heh) if one does the reading.

These zombies are scary, but what makes them super scary is something that their loot-drop solves. Don't want to get diseased or negative energy, then don't.

I think I suggested using one of the Death thingies that got dropped to make Muraisa's axe absorb the plague of the zombies she killed, yeah. It didn't happen, as it was around the time the tables got merged.

The otherside of the issue is the constantly being grappled, but I'm not seeing how to deal with that without loosing my action until I can simply avoid being hit. I'll see how things are at the end of this section and make more decisions then.

It's also probably worth mentioning that the GM's dice have been pretty hot lately. You won't be grappled every encounter. Just by virtue of having full BAB and high strength you have a good chance of avoiding a grapple when you do get hit.

As a mechanic, grapple is generally a net-loss for the grappler. Muraisa just happens to be the one character build that's hit especially hard by it.

As far as I understand it, everyone from both groups has one Primal Death Essence.

What these essences can do depends on what you imbue it into and your creativity.

Table: Compounding Essences
Number of Essences Enhancement Bonus Minimum Level
1-3 +1 1st
4-9 +2 4th
10-21 +3 8th
22-35 +4 13th
36+ +5 18th

Imbuing it into your axe, will at minimum make it a +1 axe. Maybe the GM will come up with a disease absorption ability. That would be cool and on brand.

Imbuing it in your armor, will at minimum it a +1 Breastplate. The base, no-creativity required Death ability granted to armors is:

Prerequisites:
1 Death Essence; an Armor Bond

Benefit:
This armor protects its wearer from harmful negative and positive energy, including channeled energy. The armor absorbs the first 10 points of positive or negative energy damage per attack that the wearer would normally take. The wearer has a 25% chance to ignore negative levels from any attack and has a 50% chance to ignore any other detrimental effects from any attack. Deathless armor does not block healing of any kind and does not protect against positive or negative energy effects that do not deal damage or bestow negative levels.

That would solve the negative energy issue, 50% of the disease blow back, and increase your armor class.

That seems pretty cool.

Though a disease absorbing axe is also cool. (Arguably cooler, if less solving all your zombie issues.)

Read about essences here.

Death can be aspected in the following ways: Vacuum, Dust, Ash, Entropy, Disease, Undeath, and (pure) Death.

Read about cosmology here.

From the other campaign, I know it takes about a minute for an essence to fully be invested in a person or object.

To first invest your axe or your armor, you need to make a will save of 5 (Don't roll a 1 or a 2.)

We could do either between combat encounters.

Yeah, unfortunately, a big part of the problem is Muraisa's just built badly for this. She's too focused on offence and tanking out hits. The apoc zombies are anathema to that plan, and since they're our main villain I'm not sure how viable the build is. Unfortunately, while I probably won't be grappled every fight, I think I have been in almost all of them, and I don't see a way to change that beyond simply not fighting in melee - which is the opposite of what I'm good at. Hence why I'm thinking a new character might be a better bet.

Those are definitely good options to take on armour. I'm somewhat loathe to do it, since I'm very good at rolling 1's and 2's, and I'll definitely hold off until we're outta this scenario before doing so, but they would help a lot.

If you plan to do it, I would highly recommend doing it between this combat and the next. There is no reason you should keep taking the explosions to the face.

Depending on how one interprets the "50% chance to ignore any other detrimental effects from any attack" that might protect you from being grabbed when struck. I definitely find being groped by zombies to be detrimental.

Another reason to do it now-ish is the failing to bond an item means you cannot try with that item until the next level.

So, One could try to bond with the armor, if you fail try the axe, if you fail at both you can try again next level. If this scenario takes us to level 4, there is no reason not to chance it in the interim. We need healing anyways. Whats another few rounds after that?

After this encounter, Titan will imbue his death essence into his bow for bane (undead).

"Bonding with a Legendary Item

Bonding with a Legendary Item is a standard action.

Bonding with a Legendary Item occurs when the mortal infuses an essence into that item and beats the DC with a Will save. If the Will save fails, the essence also fails to imbue the item and is discharged. To bond with any item, it must be held or worn in the appropriate manner.

Bonding with a specific Legendary Item can only be attempted once per character level.

Bonding with a Masterwork is a DC5.

Bonding with a Curio is a DC10.

Bonding with a Wonder is a DC15.

Bonding with a Relic is a DC25.

If a Wonder or Relic is currently bonded to another Being, the DC increases by the other Being’s Will Save Bonus.

If the patron spirit of a Relic opposes the bonding, the DC is increased by 15.

If the patron spirit of a Relic blesses the bonding, the DC is decreased by 10."

Wow! Bonding and investing are even faster in this campaign! It doesn't even require a minute. Just a standard action!

But it does require a check, which the other campaign doesn't.

I'll go ahead and offer a cast of guidance to anyone who wants one for their bonding check, a +1 is a +1 and no roll was ever hurt by even that little of an increase :D.

Relics and pre-existing wonders require a check in the other campaign, though it's not clear on that campaign's Essence wiki page.

Mal had to make a check to attune to his staff.

Indeed, +1 one is useful. It decreases the failure chance for Muraisa from 10% to 5%. It has no effect on Titan's math, though it is the thought that counts. :-)

Who gets the Death Essence?

1d4 ⇒ 3

Kayin
Muraisa
Titan
Ysildaë

Congrats, Titan.

What will I do with all these death essences?

Guess we should probably upgrade armour, to deal with the bugs, and then weapons. To make more disease go pop.

What will I do with all these death essences?

Butt stuff?

I would save it until you have a good idea.

@GM: Do Self Imbueed Primal Essences have unique compounding secondaries in this campaign? I really like that about Primal Essences in the other campaign. I love the variety and particularity.

I was only planning on giving Life Essences a secondary ability in this campaign. I may on occasion grant a random secondary bonus when the situation calls for it. I'd like to keep the power curve a little lower for this campaign.

I'll find ways to provide some unique perks, but they will be random and thematic.

As for Death Essences, your choices can be found here: Ethereal Essences Rules

Self-imbued - Primal Aura of Death or Negative Energy Resistance 5.

Weapon - Bane: Undead or Ruination.

Armor - Deathless

Casting - Anemic

Keep in mind, to imbue an essence to an item, it must be of masterwork quality, and the first essence imbued to a weapon or armor will make it a +1 item.

Also, sundry items can be imbued and the effect will be thematic, although I don't think anyone has those items yet.

My three goddess charm is a masterwork piece of jewelry.

Can Death Essences be used for other thematically "death-y" weapon abilities: vampiric, cruel, ghost-touch, vicious, virulent, etc?

It would make sense that they could be.

Oh, Deathless changed. The 50% ability got removed.

Also, sundry items can be imbued and the effect will be thematic, although I don't think anyone has those items yet.

Kayin's ring, actually. It's been awhile since it's come up, but that's I went with for my starter item. Have it tied (in some as-yet unexplained manner) to his particular character detail.

Yeah, looks like we're not gonna get much protection from the disease. It's a bit of a hiccup, but whatcha going to do? It certainly makes this a little less certain as to what I'm gonna do. +1 Armour and Dodge might help, but maybe Weapon Focus and Bane would end fights faster?

@GM: Can you create custom weapon abilities? Like Muraisa's idea for a disease absorbing axe?

My three goddess charm is a masterwork piece of jewelry.

Can Death Essences be used for other thematically "death-y" weapon abilities: vampiric, cruel, ghost-touch, vicious, virulent, etc?

It would make sense that they could be.

Oh, Deathless changed. The 50% ability got removed.

Deathless needs to be updated with the 50% clarified. It should only be affects caused by the negative energy, not any determental effect. That is OP.

Some of the weapon/armor attributes you listed will come from other primal elements. Other custom ones will require pure ethereal essences in combination with the death essences.

Also, reading back through the thread, I thought I'd communicate the outlook going forward regarding what to expect in the campaign.

Obviously, undead will always be a theme as the vale is, hopefully, cleared and repopulated.

However, many of the plot threads for characters arcs have very much alive NPC's or monsters as the BBEG. Some of these may have ties to undead; many others will not. In those cases, the undead are just incidental to the story line.

Muraisa's concern over the zombie encounters should be solved for, by the characters. But, there will be plenty of encounters that her big, two hander will come in handy.

Val

Valjoen, if I imbue my primal death essence into Kayin's ring--which is a sundry bond, though I'd like to discuss that with you in detail at some point soon--what would I get out of it? Because, of the options presented for other imbues, only the negative energy resistance is (currently) of any real use to me.

Valjoen, if I imbue my primal death essence into Kayin's ring--which is a sundry bond, though I'd like to discuss that with you in detail at some point soon--what would I get out of it? Because, of the options presented for other imbues, only the negative energy resistance is (currently) of any real use to me.

Imbue Sundry Bond (unlimited)

Those are for ethereal essences, remember? Primals get different results, it's why they're listed out in a table of their own and not just "primal/ethereal" in one table.

Primal Essences are a subtypes of Ethereal Essence.

"Ethereal Essences may be attuned to an element, a para-element or a pseudo-element."

This means that Death Essences can only be used to add death aspect (view cosmology for these aspects.) For example, dust based effects could come from Earth, Death, or a combination of the two.

Untyped Ethereal Essences can be used in any way specified. Primal Essences can be used in the same manners according to their type.

The Essence system is most intriguing for the ability to be flexible and imaginative. An essence can be used any number of ways, including the base ways on the table.

Other enemies will be lovely, but since Apoc Zombies are the theme of the game, and that grapple is haunting my nightmares, I need to work out how to deal with it. We might fight other stuff, but that problem isn't going away.

...hmmm, but I do have one idea for how Muraisa could work without becoming the world's worst archer. Would it be possible to get Muraisa's axe modified into some kind of reach weapon? I'd really like to keep Teinntean, as part of her character, even if it's damage is toned down to something else (perhaps the stats for the Dwarvern Longaxe?). If not, I can buy a new one. It'll just be sad.

If I can combine that with Pushing Assault and a couple of level of High Guardian fighter I can simply keep batting Zombies backwards until they die. Away from me. Far, far away. Little sods can't grapple what they can't reach, right? Perhaps re-training levels 2 and 3 once we're finished here, if that would be allowed, and go back to my Barbarian Ways afterwards?

Sorry for the delay. When it rains... well, you know the rest.

My wife has been feeling lousy the past 10 days and was diagnosed with COVID over the weekend. My daughter and I feel terrible as well. I have an appointment to get tested tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll be back to the land of the living asap.

Val

Yikes. Please take good care of yourself and your family, and hopefully you don't have that nasty crud.

Ack, that's not ideal. Good luck to everyone.

Hey everyone. Back from the land of the ill. Thanks for the well wishes.

I'll get a post up soon.

I've been thinking about the Essence system and how I've laid out the options while I've been down. I have a lot of thoughts and will be posting them to the wiki soon.

Titan asked for Bane on his bow from the Death Essence. That is perfectly acceptable. My intent is to make basic ethereal essences as the base building blocks. Essences that are specific to elements like the Death ones, can act life basic essences or can offer additional options for abilities... Like Anemic. This ability, only available on casting bonds, requires the Death essence. That is, a basic essence can't grant that ability. Hope that makes sense.

Glad you're feeling a bit better. No rush about posting, we can wait.

I'll be sending you a PM about my ideas for getting Muraisa more functional in a bit.

Hey all. Sorry, been an up and down last week with illness rampant. I'm doing well and trying to get the game back going. Lot's of things to get altered and set for the next stage.

Next week is busy for me as my company's Board is meeting for 3 days. I'll post today, and then should be back with a vengeance come the 26th or so.

Updated rules on finding and imbuing essences for this campaign can be found HERE. I'm still filling out the possible magical abilities that result from imbuing essences which can be found HERE. These are just a few of the abilities. You will have a lot of flexibility to request different abilities. If you have something in mind, just ask.

Val

Need a ruling here, Valjoen.

As per Kayin's Tainted Spirit Drawback, I need to make a fatigue check for this fight. But I'm not sure if just standing around and being twitchy about a hole in a wall constitutes "acting" in a round; it feels Kayin actually has to exert himself, but that's not stated one way or another in the text.

And if it doesn't count as "acting," then would the duration of the drawback's effect default to 10 minutes on a failed save?

@Kayin - I'd say you moving into position was your one act, IIRC. So DC 11 and 10 minutes on a fail.

@Titan - Titan's Bow on the wiki. It is a +1 Longbow with Undead Bane: The zombie’s essence of death bonds with the bow turning it black as midnight. It excels against undead. Against an undead foe, the weapon’s enhancement bonus is +2 better than its actual bonus. It also deals an extra 2d6 points of damage against such foes. (Death1: Zombie)

Hi Everyone.

The past year has been a challenging one for me. My job change has come with a massive amount of added responsibilities owed to myself and my family, but also my responsibilities for the employees and shareholders I serve.

As you've felt, this has really taken away from my time to GM a game to the level I demand of myself.

On top of that, during this summer/fall, my wife's health has taken a substantial hit with her second heart attack in 3 years and the increased activity of her lupus. When I'm not working, my heart is with her and my three daughters.

Unfortunately, my gaming is not getting the priority or time it deserves or requires, and I don't see that changing for the better any time soon.

I have enjoyed playing with all of you very much. I will never be able to express what it meant to me to have you invest so much time, energy, creativity and thought into an insignificant fantasy world that I created.

So, it is with a heavy heart that I tell you that I have decided to put the campaign on indefinite hold. I say "indefinite hold" as I hope to revisit it in the future. When that time comes, I will reach out to each of you and ask you to return to the world of Æustëra with me.

In the meantime, I plan to continue to develop the world with the little free time I can dedicate to my favorite hobby. So, don't be surprised if you see some changes to the wiki... if you happen to check it.

You have my email, ValjoenTheGM@gmail.com. Never hesitate to reach out with questions, thoughts or ideas about the world we explored together or just to say hi. If you have questions or want spoilers about what was happening or where my thoughts on the game were going, feel free to post here or shoot me an email/pm.

Your friend and GM,

Val

That's completely understandable, and while I'm sorry to hear that I hope the best for your wife and family. If you ever get more time I'll probably still be around.

As I said in the other Talanor campaign thread, I'll still be knocking about whenever you manage to get back.

Absolutely no hard feelings on tabling the campaign. Thanks for sticking with us as long as you did.

Best of luck with your work and family life, these are challenging time for everyone.

I'm rarely on the boards, but I do visit, it's to spy on this campaign... I'm sorry to hear about your woes, Valjoen. I wish you and your family a better year than this one, with health and time to rest and rejoice.

Bon courage. To all of us. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.