Welcome to the new thread! First post is up in Gameplay, so feel free to jump in.
Couple points:
1) I'm leaving most of the information in the old campaign tab; I've put a link to it in the new one. There's a lot of new information I will need to add and I don't want to over-clutter it.
2) Themes.
The theme of the first part of the AP was reasonably similar to stuff you've done before, but just seen from a different angle: the dungeon was crewed with humans instead of monsters, and the townsfolk were your enemies to be hidden from, rather than gratefully waiting for you to rescue them.
This module is different. Without wanting to give too much away, it involves you running (and crewing) your own dungeon. This means that you will have minions to do stuff, and a place of your own to call home that needs fortifying. This obviously involves a bit of paperwork and some mechanics, most of which I can run/keep track of on your behalf, but your input will still be required for this to work.
There are two ways of doing this. The first is, well, not to: you simply hold the bit of the dungeon that you need to and fortify it yourselves, dispensing with the need to manage and run minions. You might even succeed.
In my view, though, if you do that then you'll miss out on the fun of becoming 'proper' villains; every villain needs a lair and minions to do stuff for them.
The second is to embrace it, even if you have reservations; hopefully, you'll see the fun that can be had in doing it this way.
Welcome to part II of WotW. The darkness has been rising for some time: now it's time to call it forth.
...This means that you will have minions to do stuff, and a place of your own to call home that needs fortifying...
YES
I suppose we're going to have some downtime, then? Everyone still on board with the "Resurrect Hecate" project? She died an inglorious plot death, and we could use someone for devil binding and dealing, as I really don't have the spell slots for that.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
As I said yesterday, the NPC list has been Updated!
There's everything I said I'd add last night, just with father Donnagin exchanged for something more interesting: I had some fun with that and the bard's description.
Love your editorial remarks, although Tkaara might not appreciate your snort of derision... ;-)
Once everyone's checked in (just waiting on Felrin and Ottakar) I'll mark the other thread as inactive so it won't clog up your screen.
I'm not the one that's going to tell Tiadora that Tkaara is a vampire. D:
By the way, DMD et all, any comments on the things I said in my first post in this thread?
Yes, it's clear that we need to look over those feats and make some sense of them - it's on my to do list.
By the way, I have added the various money and assorted loot, mundane and magical, in the Loot List.
Good stuff.
Thus, if you had asked an imprecise question, Thorn or Tiadora would (and have!) give imprecise answers. This is not arbitrary cruelty: the way they see it, they are teaching you to ask more precise questions; if you turn out to be incapable of learning, then you are unworthy.
The duty of the underling, however, is to obey all demands; including those which are unstated (again, if you prove incapable of learning to anticipate unstated demands, you are unworthy).
So, by giving the 'correct' answer to an imprecise question, Erevan was in effect asserting that he is Tiadora's superior. She is in the process of correcting this assertion (and it's only because he's just killed a mighty paladin and is wearing a suit of armour marked with Asmodeus' clear favour that his punishment was as light as it was).
One final point: Tiadora is not your superior because she is physically stronger; she is superior as that is how Thorn has appointed it. Being physically superior simply means that she gets to punish you herself.
Here endeth the lesson.
Any questions?
No, no questions. Just lots of pain.
Yes, it's clear that we need to look over those feats and make some sense of them - it's on my to do list.
Ok, got it!
And wow, am I the only one that hasn't still been Tiadora-smacked? I guess she will probably take it as a personal affront when she finds about Etna's future devilness. <.<
|
Level up to 6:
+1 level of Alchemist (beastmorph, vivisectionist)
hp +9 (5 from d8, 3 from Con, 1 from FC)
Skills +11: +1 Acrobatics, +1 Craft (alchemy), +1 Disable Device, +1 Intimidate, +2 Knowledge (engineering), +1 Knowledge (nature), +1 Perception, +1 Sense Motive, +1 Sleight of Hand, +1 Stealth
Extracts Made a mistake last level, forgot alchemists only get 1 new extract at level up instead of 2 like a wizard. So no new extracts this level. However, do want to scribe the following from Tacitus' spellbook: Expeditious Retreat, Bull's Strength, Protection from Arrows, Fire Shield, Stone Skin
Auto-Bonus +2 Int (Does this work like a headband, with a specific keyed skill that counts as if I have max ranks in it?)
I think I have already asked something about that. I believe that the answer was that, being a permanent bonus, it acts as if your Intelligence is increased, thus granting bonus skill ranks both from this point forward as well as retroactively. It also grants a bonus language.
Auto-Bonus +2 Int (Does this work like a headband, with a specific keyed skill that counts as if I have max ranks in it?)
Good to have you with us, AU! And yes, it's a permanent bonus, so it acts as F.Castor has said.
EDIT: Now that you're all here (and hopefully on board with doing the whole minions thing), maybe you can give some thought as to what you want your organisation to be named, once you've formed it (which won't be long now). Every minion wants to know the name of the group they've joined...
It sounds like someone really wanted it to spell Hecate. ;-P
It seems like that. :P
Speaking of which...
I suppose we're going to have some downtime, then? Everyone still on board with the "Resurrect Hecate" project? She died an inglorious plot death, and we could use someone for devil binding and dealing, as I really don't have the spell slots for that.
I don't remember if there's a spell to contact a dead person in particular, but there's a ritual in OA that does just that. I guess that first asking her if she wants to come back is a good idea.
The Undead Hecate plan has the problem that we don't have her body, and we can't retrieve it at this time: more than half a year passed IC since we escaped Brandescar.
I was thinking more something along the lines of a permanent possession effect of a new body, but I think we'd have to make the rules for that: I think there was some high level power/ spell that did something like that, but now I can't remember. :/
EDIT: Here they are! Soul Transfer and Parasitic Soul!
I'm flattered - and puzzled. I was only around for 6 months of RL time (for some of which the campaign was on hold anyway, both before and after Christmas); what exactly are you hoping I'll come back and do?
But help us torch those bigoted, ignorant Mitrans, of course!
...
Actually, we mostly want to hug you. You even managed to slightly warm up the cold, cold hearth of the doctor.
But...it never did, it got cut short by outside circumstances.
I've only been playing PbP for an year and an half, but it already happened to both my characters and others': you're in a campaign, you're thinking "Ah, the hijinks these two characters will make" and then someone drops out, disappears, or the game flat out dies, and you can only think of cool things that are never going to be. What shenanigans the crow-witch and batman-halfling will come up with? Will Grimdarkus Paynblade get his sh!t together and become less angsty? How will the Asura-demon-qlippoth spawn tiefling love triangle end up?
But, this time, as Hecate it's your character, it's different: if you and everyone else is on board with that, we could give her another chance!
Ah, my ravings were longer than I expected: I've been typing for 30 minutes <.<
Felrin - you missed all the fun irritating Tiadora.
And how sorry I am about that. I think Felrin might actually learn a lesson from this, and be a bit more indirect in his efforts to do harm Ms. Bad-Ass McCruel.
A few contributions to the discussion while I have a moment:
I'm not typically a big fan of minions, but I can definitely see making and exception in this setting. And I'm quite sure DMD will make it fun.
Thank you, Etna, for updating the NPC list - and in such style!
As much as Felrin wants to be the one to kill Tiadora, I'm glad we're all coming around to the view that she must die, and die badly.
|
|
The "Punish Talingarde Association".
"And for the next meeting of the PTA..." :P
As I've mentioned before DMD, we all loved Hecate and would love to roleplay with her again. I know you mentioned not liking DMPCing, so we're not really asking for her to run around on missions with us. More like she would hang out at homebase, taking item creation and outsider binding feats. Can't recall if anyone was planning on taking Leadership... :D
And boo hoo, guys, Tiadora gave you a spanking. That b@&*@ mocked the Doctor about his wife, probably the only possible way to hurt him emotionally. He long ago called dibs on "Dearest". :P
Respect the Dibs.
Oh, and I agree about Hecate. After all, Erevan rather liked her.
The "Punish Talingarde Association".
"And for the next meeting of the PTA..." :P
Ha! Love it.
That b&!&~ mocked the Doctor about his wife, probably the only possible way to hurt him emotionally.
I know, I was rather proud of working that little scene out (though I says it as shouldn't)...
Oh, and I agree about Hecate. After all, Erevan rather liked her.
*raises eyebrow*
Apologies for the wall of text, but you do now at least know what your mission is!
Oh, and I agree about Hecate. After all, Erevan rather liked her.*raises eyebrow*
What? I thought that was fairly obvious. He was -relatively- nice to her, or that is how I remember it at least. :-)
I know you mentioned not liking DMPCing, so we're not really asking for her to run around on missions with us. More like she would hang out at homebase, taking item creation and outsider binding feats.
Oh, of course, I too meant that she would hang around at base and don't force DMD to do double the work to DMPC a character around!
Speaking of what happened IC, though...
It doesn't bother me that much, though I've come around a spoiler about a thing we're forced to do in a later book (don't know when, precisely :/ ) that doesn't really make that much sense to me. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, I hope. <.<
We got there sooner than I thought. D:
I had already heard about the plague thing in the AP, and I can't wrap my head around it: it seems a very CE thing to do, not LE. :/I mean, breaking the watch wall and letting the Bugbears in makes sense in that Talingrade's forces will be busy fighting them, leaving the nation undefended et cetera; unleashing a plague on the populace, on the other hand, sounds more like a for the evulz thing. I can't see the point. :/
Etna: feel free to make that point to Thorn, I'm sure he'd put aside his burning hatred and desire for revenge on the basis that it makes you feel icky...[/sarcasm]
In all seriousness, this AP is called Way of the Wicked, not Way of the Basically Lovable Scoundrels (recruitment for that one was over-subscribed). From here on in, the Evil only escalates: from sabotage (AP 1) to bioterrorism (AP 2) to genocide (AP 3) to [spoilers deleted].
This entire Adventure Path is about doing the things you NEVER get to do as a PC; as such, it gets pretty dark. I do my best to season that with a bit of humour, but ultimately it is you who have to decide to walk the way of the wicked.
If your character is going to balk at that, I suggest you find a reason for them not to. Fast.
EDIT: tl;dr - what Tkaara said!
Yeah, I know that: I can be an airhead sometimes, but I noticed that I signed up for a lawful evil campaign. :P
The fact is, it's a lawful evil campaign: you do evil stuff because it gives you benefits and helps you reach your objectives objectives. I mean, it's not even the plague thing in itself the problem, it's that I don't see how that helps the Asmodean cause et cetera.
Like, if the plague worked something like "Mitrans priest can't heal it", we can start spreading rumors about Mitra has forsaken us! and all that stuff: that helps us, because we want to discredit the Mitrans and get them out of the way.
But spreading a plague just simply kills people, and I don't see how that benefits us. :/
When I think about LE, I think about what Tiadora has been doing the last IC week: disguising as a Paladin to make the people fear and hate them, she's been going around murdering and torturing harmless peasants in front of whole villages and enjoying it. That's pretty evil, and that's something that helps us and Etna would be up for doing! (...minus the enjoying part. That's gross and that's why we hate the blonde. Show some professionalism!)
Is the difference only in my head? :/
PS: Ah, first alignment debate!
|
Think of it like biological warfare. It is unlikely to kill everyone, but will overwhelm their ability to cure so that when the bugbears arrive, there are minimal defenses.
Also, it will likely affect the bugbears so that their numbers are reduced when we assume control. Remember we want a nice undead lawful evil society of Asmodean adherents, not a chaotic land of goblinoids.
|
|
Going to bed here, but will chime in that the Doctor, too, hates this plan. It just seems really sloppy, and directly contradicts what tiny bit of professional integrity he has. That said, he's a pragmatist, and knows that there is no choice in the matter. If it ends up being a giant disaster, though, that's on the Cardinal.
The Beast, on the other hand, is all for it. The only thing it doesn't like about the scheme is that every Talirean that falls to disease is one less screaming victim it gets to kill personally. :D
Also, another paladin, eh? These guys are like cockroaches; for every one you kill, another handful scuttle out from under the fridge!
The fact is, it's a lawful evil campaign: you do evil stuff because it gives you benefits and helps you reach your objectives objectives. I mean, it's not even the plague thing in itself the problem, it's that I don't see how that helps the Asmodean cause et cetera.
Right now, you face an entire island of LG do-gooders united against the invasion. The resources, logistics, morale, military might are all in their favour. You've won a few victories in the borders, but that's nothing - the major cities haven't even noticed. You need a game-changer, before they gang up and squash Fire-Axe like a bug(bear).
This is it.
Like, if the plague worked something like "Mitrans priest can't heal it", we can start spreading rumors about Mitra has forsaken us! and all that stuff: that helps us, because we want to discredit the Mitrans and get them out of the way.
Watch this space! But remember, too, that most Mitran priests aren't Clerics - they don't have healing powers. They're carers, motivators, administrators (LG types) - not casters, for the most part.
When I think about LE, I think about what Tiadora has been doing the last IC week: disguising as a Paladin to make the people fear and hate them, she's been going around murdering and torturing harmless peasants in front of whole villages and enjoying it. That's pretty evil, and that's something that helps us and Etna would be up for doing! (...minus the enjoying part. That's gross and that's why we hate the blonde. Show some professionalism!)
Enjoying committing Evil acts is Evil. It's practically quintessence of Evil.
Going to bed here, but will chime in that the Doctor, too, hates this plan. It just seems really sloppy, and directly contradicts what tiny bit of professional integrity he has.
True, but on the other hand, it means there's going to be a fascinating new disease in the wild that he gets to study at all its stages, without anyone whinging about consent forms and medical ethics... :-)
Interestingly enough, you aren't alone in this: there's another character you're about to meet who strongly dislikes the plan, although for slightly different reasons!
I'm waiting on introducing them until someone posts something, before I inflict another wall of text on my unfortunate players.
I think you put an un- by mistake there in that last sentence. And I am not referring to "until".
Well, this conversation largely played out before I was able to weigh in, but I'd agree with Etna and Ottakar - I'm not wild about the plague plan, and it doesn't seem terribly in keeping with the Asmodean model or the nature of Lawful Evil.
That said, I get DMD's point about the use of the plague as a tool of war, and that us bad guys are vastly outnumbered at the moment - so I'm plenty willing to run with it (and Felrin is certainly going to do what Thorn and his senior minions tell him to do), and I'm beginning to imagine coming to savor it just a bit, given how much Felrin hates the Mitrans.
On reflection, I think I've been hanging on to the lovable scoundrel aspect a bit (or at least the not-so-totally-evil-as-evil-can-be thang). It's helpful to have the very broad outlines of the next book or two laid out, so I can really grasp just how bad we're going to be, and begin limbering up for the dive into true evil.
Yeah, AP 1 was just a warm-up. From here on in, it's pretty much one moral event horizon after another...
Eh, I'm still not convinced, but it's not like Etna has a choice beside playing along. <.<
It's that I'm trying to balance being irredeemably evil without being an emotionless monster that eats puppies alive for s&++ and giggles: I thought that "I really think that Talingrade would be better under Asmodean Satanazi rule. For the people!" would be a reasonable approach, and more interesting than burning orphanages because I can.
PS:The "enjoying" was about "enjoying torturing": you know what kind of people do that?
Also, another paladin, eh? These guys are like cockroaches; for every one you kill, another handful scuttle out from under the fridge!
Oops, missed this one earlier. That's not just 'another' paladin - that is the paladin (or, as you will most likely come to call him, 'that [expletive] paladin'). He's your nemesis. Just a quick heads-up.
Not that your characters know that yet, of course...
Yeah, AP 1 was just a warm-up. From here on in, it's pretty much one moral event horizon after another...
Wow, DMD, did this take me trope-surfing, as that site often does. I got off to a quick start, breezing through various villain tropes before getting mired in a list of assassination attempts on Hitler and ending up at the Shirt of Nessus. I hadn't heard of this before, but I assume it's the source of the name Nessus, Asmodeus' home and the Nessian Knot. I love that it represents, metaphorically, "a source of misfortune from which there is no escape; a fatal present."
Let's give out some shirts!
Oops, got slightly ahead of myself there; just realised you're going to have questions, and there I had the Cardinal vanish!
I'll retcon things slightly. Clumsy, but it works.
Just an heads up: I'll have to post from my phone for a couple of days, so I won't be able to make long posts.
And I like skull-necklace guy already. :D
Right, in the absence of further questions, I'll move things along tomorrow morning.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
*Looks around thread*
*Sees no one*
"Uhmm..."
*Walks up to a chair an picks up a microphone*
"Okay, Villain jokes time.
What do you do if a Mitran peasant comes to you and says he's cold?
If you offer him a fire, he'll be warm for a night.
But if you set him on fire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life!"
OK, OK, enough already. New post is up - and it's nicely open ended.
Hi guys/gals, sorry; work is giving me a kicking right now. I'll have a post up Monday - in the meantime, feel free to chat/RP/plot amongst yourselves... Farholde won't fall under your grasp by itself, you know?
Tkaara wants to go shopping; anyone else have plans?