Everyone who made it, congratulations! Welcome to the Discussion thread. Let's try to keep most OOC conversation here so we don't clutter up the Gameplay thread. A few housekeeping things to take care of before we get started:
1) The Circle Market is a weekly market that occurs in the town center, in a plaza known as the Circle. Each of you should roll a d20 and choose an item from the category. There is a typo on the table - it should be 10% OFF its normal price, or 90% of the total price, per James Jacobs. The item you roll will remain available at the Circle Market until after you or another PC buys it. Once the item is bought, you can roll for another item.
2) Please create your alias and make sure your Stat Line is available for me to easily reference. It should look something like this: Race Class | HP | AC | Saves | CMD | Init | Perception | Limited Use abilites (e.g. bardic performance or school powers). If you have them, you can also include spells. Some variety is allowed, but it should include that specific information.
3) I will take care of rolling Initiative to start combats, as well as passive Perception checks (e.g. to spot ambush or spot something as you walk by). If you have Immediate actions or think you'll have the opportunity to make an attack of opportunity, please include the action in a spoiler when you make an in-combat post, and I'll resolve the action accordingly.
4) It doesn't have to be done before the game start, but I'd like you guys to discuss both a standard marching order and a standard door opening procedure. There are enough dungeon-like environs in this AP that having that worked out in advance would be highly beneficial.
I'll open Gameplay tomorrow so everyone can dot in. I look forward to gaming with all of you!
Thanks for having me. I feel greatly honored to be here.
Here's to a great adventure with even better camaraderie.
Here's my roll for the Market.
Marching order - Henric is a bit of an oddball. He's more of a magic, as far as abilities go, but he can wear medium armor and do okay in melee. I could see him be near the front (2nd or 3rd in line) without too much trouble.
Hi! Thanks GM! This is a pleasant surprise. I'm glad to see Adam Warnock and look forward to playing with the rest of you for the first time. I still need to review everyone's backstory. Hopefully we can work out some connections before gameplay begins.
As to marching order, etc., Kera's archetype loses medium armor, so she's slipping around in light armor and won't be as melee oriented as your typical cleric. I would expect her to be in the middle or near the rear in most cases.
Again, I'm very excited to be playing with all of you!
Hello everyone. Certainly a pleasant surprise to be selected! I'm quite glad to be here and I'll work towards a positive role play experience for all. I'd be glad to work with anyone who would like to collaborate on backstory/current circumstances.
Georgi has his initial feats invested in archery and is very weak in melee so I'd expect him to be in back.
I'll have to add his starting equipment this evening. Shopping is always my least favorite part.
Now that I'm at home, I'm just looking through the options for the discounted items. I'm at a bit of a loss as to what we might need/want for alchemical items, so the basics are probably best, for now.
Thinking either a Sunrod (obvious reasons) Thunderstone (best against casters) or Acid/Alchemist fire. Thoughts?
Awesome! Really looking forward to this one and glad I was accepted.
I will work on my alias tonight/tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I would be happy to work in backgrounds with someone or at least tie in to some recent events.
I saw either two options for Stryn after a ship wreck where he washed up near Roderic cove. He either connected with someone on the road and possibly helped them out and journeyed with them to Roderic Cove which would keep him on a Close Ally campaign trait or he just found his way there on his own and has been scraping by trying to remain undetected in which case he would go Scion of Legend for the campaign trait.
In terms of marching order and standard door procedures. Once/if the group comes to trust Stryn he would offer to scout ahead and look for traps. Any door he would search for traps/locks, attempt to disable them, then listen for anything that might be on the other side before letting who ever our main damage soaker is open the door. He would prefer to be given at least a 20-30ft of space to scout ahead and 'do his thing'
Thanks so much for including me in this, Phntm888! It's very much appreciated, and I hope that my presence adds to a fun gaming experience for everyone here.
Anyhow, on to the Market!
Alas, I was hoping for a scroll or potion, but I suppose a compass will also do nicely. Will add to Renae's sheet.
In regard to the marching order, Renae is a squishy wizard that prefers spellslinging to melee, so being in the back would probably be best for her.
@Henric Drake
My vote's for the Thunderstone. As you said, it could really ruin a spellcasters day.
@Stryn, Georgi did spend some time in a bad spot in wilderness, having become separated from his group and possibly lost without food or water.
In terms of marching order and standard door procedures. Once/if the group comes to trust Stryn he would offer to scout ahead and look for traps. Any door he would search for traps/locks, attempt to disable them, then listen for anything that might be on the other side before letting who ever our main damage soaker is open the door. He would prefer to be given at least a 20-30ft of space to scout ahead and 'do his thing'
I'm personally okay with all of this, but it would definitely need to be RP'd some to basically show why we're putting our lives in the hand of a goblin. :p
Thank you for picking Kiley. I know that was not an easy recruitment. I hope that you'll find my little blade-dancer entertaining through this. She's mostly ready. I just need to see if there's a more appropriate avatar, then I'll catch up with what's going on here.
EDIT: There are times I really wish Paizo included more variety among the expressions that wind up as avatar art. I mean, is it so much to ask for a redhead with a cheeky expression? The current one will do, for now, I guess.
Hmm, interesting. What would be good for Kiley?
As for marching order, Kiley's pretty sneaky (not goblin rogue levels of sneaky, but still pretty good.) She's also a skirmisher who's going to be good flank buddies with Stryn since they'll both be getting Sneak Attack. She'll be first or second in line and next to or behind Stryn while scouting. It seems like Henric is going to be our damage sponge since he has the highest HP, but to be honest, none of us are exceptionally tanky.
The good news is, if we can get the drop on them, anyone we ambush is going to be hurtin' after the surprise round. :D
@Georgi Cool! Will be reading through backgrounds and such tomorrow and will prioritize yours to see what we can work out.
@Henric Yup :) Should be interesting.
With our composition, I don't think that there is going to be any one particular 'tank'. But between the two of us, and Stryn to a lesser degree, I'm sure that we can manage.
I may just have to invest in Combat Expertise to beef up my AC some, but we'll see how it goes.
We've also got a fair amount of damage output, so that should help offset the defensive side of things.
Stryn and Georgi, Kera's caravan has just spent about 6 months roaming the woods around the cove. It's completely plausible that we've all crossed paths. That goes for anyone, really. Just let me know if you're interested.
Technically, I never stated how long ago Henric came to Roderic's Cove. It could conceivably be that he came along with said caravan (safety in numbers and all that), and thus got to at least know some faces, if not getting directly familiar with people (he's not the most social of peoples).
Kiley's only been in Roderic's Cove for a few weeks, a month at most. It's possible that Kera's caravan was visited by a strange young woman with silky auburn hair that loved to dance and sing one night.
I'm not sure if she would have run into Stryn. She might have seen him around, but I'm not sure if they'd have actually met.
I can picture her running into Henric at some point. He'd have probably seen her around town earning some coin with her dancing and singing.
For some reason, I'm imagining Kiley meeting Georgi while he's lying on his back on the ground somewhere and bemoaning his fate. She'd probably tease him a bit and try to cheer him up.
I'm not sure when Renae would be in town, but as with Henric, it's probable you've seen her around performing for coin.
She knows of Audrahni, but she doesn't really know much more than she's an elf that works at the cemetery.
I'm more than happy to work out any details y'all want. Kiley's an outgoing sort and loves to show off just a bit.
Lots of good ideas going back and forth for how we could have meet each before the adventure. I especially like idea of some of us arriving into town with Kera's caravan, or at the very least having contacting with it recently. Perhaps that could be our common tether?
I believe Renae's the only PC's that's native of Roderic Cove's, but she's just recently returned to the town to see her family after a long hiatus. Renae coming back home on a caravan and meeting Kera seems quite possible. Renae is half-Varisian (well, used to be) and I could see the two talking about the culture's history.
The same can apply for Henric if he does come along on the caravan. They're both scholars with an interest for history and magic, so maybe they passed their time on the trip comparing notes and nerding out.
Renae studied at the Cypher Lodge in Riddleport for a few years learning wizardry and history. Mayhaps she (he backed than) saw one of Kiley's performances and recognizes her in Roderic's Cove? Depending whether or not she got robbed, it could be a good memory or a bad one, depending on what's more interesting.
With Georgi I'm thinking Renae saw him at a tavern in Roderic's Cove drinking his sorrows away and bemoaning the horror of ancient Thassilon. Renae had her own brush with death and the trauma's still there, and she knows quite a bit about Thassilon and how awful it was. Maybe they became disillusioned and traumatized drinking buddies? :)
Stryr is a bit tricky. Renae's been away from Roderic's Cove for awhile, so she probably doesn't know the Goblin that's come to live in her hometown.
So reading through backgrounds I noticed two potential major links for Stryn aside from just meeting on the caravan into Roderic's Cove.
First, with Georgi, it would obviously work well to have Stryn having helped you after your horrible event. He wouldn't have been anywhere near the Storval Stairs, but since you were only a few days out from town, perhaps as Stryn was making his way their from the south through the Churlwood (I don't know why but to the south of Roderic's Cove is where I saw him washing up even though he was coming down from Riddleport) he would have ran into Georgi wandering in the woods also trying to find his way back to Roderic's Cove.
Second, with Kera, since you grew up in Sandpoint and your mother was part of the 'Heroes' you would have likely come to at least know of Stryn since he was friends with one of the other 'Heroes'. He made a little bit of a life for himself in Sandpoint until after the giant attack when his friend and the 'Heroes' left Sandpoint and he eventually got press ganged. Could be as little as a passing familiarity or more than that depending on what you think.
Connecting on the caravan to at least give us all a passing familiarity with each other could work if we wanted to avoid the awkward stage of meeting new people, but I'm ok with only some of us having met on the caravan and others not so we still have to do some team jelling at some point. If we go the route of only some people on the caravan then I think it would make sense for possibly, at least, Georgi and I not being on there, since Kera and I may have a link that could tie those two separate groups together.
Kiley, if you have been in town for a little while, as Georgi and I have also been there, it would be reasonable that we ran into each other. With Georgi drinking his sorrows away and you doing performances I could see a meetup potential there. Also, Stryn loves to dance so maybe he joined in with you at some point.
Just throwing out some ideas, let me know what you all think. I know the GM mentioned starting up the gameplay today, and not sure if we have some time for prelude RP, but I would be happy to do any with the above considerations.
I think that works. Kiley met Renae, Kera, and Henric on the way in from Riddleport. It's a passing acquaintance, but they would know each other.
She met Georgi in a tavern while she was performing and he was drowning his sorrows. She would tried to cheer him up, but how successful she was is up to him.
She met Stryn while dancing for some coin on the streets. A dancing goblin would have been strange enough that she would have tracked him down afterwards and tried to figure him out. Maybe she even helped him out of a tight spot. I don't know if we both need the same trait, but Kiley could be the PC that helped him out. She has her own reasons for looking out for the outcasts.
It does look like we would both have to have the same traits, but perhaps that could work anyway. As I mentioned, I have an alternate background in mind that covers the difference between having Close Alleys or Scion of Legend. Even if I went the Scion of Legend route, no reason we couldn't play up the helping each other out angle. Maybe he got in trouble with some local racist or something and Kiley stepped in to help him out.
Henric could certainly have at least noticed most, if not all, of you in passing. Henric comes across as outgoing and probably a little brash when forced to be, but he generally a bit anti-social, so doesn't interact well with others.
That said, I can see him spending some time chatting with Renae if approached, and especially if they get to talking about historic things.
Also, that's not to say that he will be aloof during the game. Only that it will take him some time to adjust and get used to the idea of having people around.
Second, with Kera, since you grew up in Sandpoint and your mother was part of the 'Heroes' you would have likely come to at least know of Stryn since he was friends with one of the other 'Heroes'. He made a little bit of a life for himself in Sandpoint until after the giant attack when his friend and the 'Heroes' left Sandpoint and he eventually got press ganged. Could be as little as a passing familiarity or more than that depending on what you think.
Connecting on the caravan to at least give us all a passing familiarity with each other could work if we wanted to avoid the awkward stage of meeting new people, but I'm ok with only some of us having met on the caravan and others not so we still have to do some team jelling at some point. If we go the route of only some people on the caravan then I think it would make sense for possibly, at least, Georgi and I not being on there, since Kera and I may have a link that could tie those two separate groups together.
I would LOVE to have a goblin buddy! You'd have met Kera's mom, Arya. How old is Stryn? Kera was only ten years old at the time, but a friendship between a goblin rogue and a little human girl would be amazing. Also, I actually prefer the scenario you've described in which Kera and Stryn haven't seen each other for a while. As you say, this would allow us to link the two groups together.
Kiley, as a lover of song and dance, you'd hit it right off with the Varisians, including Kera.
Renae, if Kera and Renae are close friends, that would be an easy way to connect you with Stryn as well.
Henric, you might be a bit of a loner, but you're smart enough to realize there's safety in numbers when traveling the wilds.
Georgi, your story has you beyond the range of the caravan, which is fine.
So here's a possibility:
Traveling with the Caravan (as least temporarily): Renae, Henric, Kiley, and Kera
Roaming the Woods: Georgi and Stryn
Henric, you might be a bit of a loner, but you're smart enough to realize there's safety in numbers when traveling the wilds.
Not so much of a loner as socially awkward. But I agree. He is definitely not stupid enough to forgo safety in numbers. It'll just take him some time to get used to that fact.
He's basically that nerd who's only friends growing up (other than his mentor) was books and ancient artifacts. The rare time that he's spent any significant time socializing, he tends to act out to hide his insecurities.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Wow, you guys have been busy working out previous background ties. There are a lot of good ideas in here.
Here are the discussed connections I've got so far.
Stryn - After Stryn's shipwreck, he found Georgi wandering the wilderness and helped him get to Roderick's Cove. While in town at one point he met Kiley, who helped him out of some trouble with someone who didn't particularly like goblins.
Georgi - Met Stryn while wandering the wilderness after a traumatic event that challenged his entire worldview of Thassilon, and the goblin helped him get to Roderic's Cove. He's been drinking his sorrows since then, and he met Renae, who had her own traumatic event involving Thassilonian Ruins. They now both drink their misery away.
Kiley - After fleeing Riddleport, Kiley spent one night with Kera's caravan, during which time she met Kera, Henric, and Renae. She then went to Roderic's Cove, where she's been making a living dancing. She learned about Stryn, because a dancing goblin is simply too interesting to pass up, and helped him out with someone who wasn't particularly friendly to goblins.
Renae - After her traumatic accident in a Thassilonian tomb, Renae made her way back to Roderic's Cove, traveling with Kera's caravan. While traveling, she met Kera, Henric, and, briefly, Kiley. After returning and explaining what is a very confusing situation to her parents, she met Georgi, who had his own traumatic brush with Thassilonian history, and gained a drinking buddy. She also may have seen Kiley dance in Riddleport back when she was with the Cyphermages, and male.
Henric - Henric traveled with Kera's caravan, meeting Kera, Renae, and Kiley briefly. Upon arrival in Roderic's Cove, he has managed to strike up a slight friendship with a Forlorn elf named Audrahni, who handles the grave digging duties for the town.
Kera - Renae and Henric both traveled with her caravan, and Kiley spent a night with them.
RE: Circle Market Items - If you cannot afford the item you roll currently, don't worry about it. The item will remain available until bought by one of the PCs. If you can't come up with an item that you want, you may be able to come up with something another PC could use - the discount isn't exclusive to your PC.
RE: Tanking - I know there isn't necessarily a "traditional" tank, but I considered that while making the group. I have an Occultist in one of my Way of the Wicked campaigns, and when she has time to buff, she can fill that role very well. The same goes for a Slayer, especially one wielding a greatsword. You guys might need to be a little more cautious than a typical group and try to make sure you have time to buff before combat, but I think you can handle it.
If you want to include a moment where Audrahni opened up to you about the answer to your question in your backstory, that would be good.
Gameplay will be open shortly. I'll set it up to allow for some RP before we get things properly rolling.
Sounds good to me!
RE: Circle Market Items - If you cannot afford the item you roll currently, don't worry about it. The item will remain available until bought by one of the PCs. If you can't come up with an item that you want, you may be able to come up with something another PC could use - the discount isn't exclusive to your PC.
Renae, feel free to make use of Kera's market roll and get that potion or scroll. Kera is currently low on funds!
So do we pick the item we want or does the GM select it based off our roll? If it is a pick, if someone wants to use Stryn's potion/scroll feel free.
@Kera I would imagine he is in his late 20s now so based off the AP release dates that was about 11 years ago. So let's say he was 15 then and 26 now.
It's your choice of item. There isn't anything in the adventure about a limited selection, just in Ultimate Equipment, and coming up with random magic items without pre-generated tables is one of my least favorite aspects of GMing, so I'd say you can choose.
I'm liking everything I see here. :)
Can't wait to get rolling.
FYI guys the gameplay is open. Let's roll!
@Kera Mvashti
Thanks for the offer, but I'm good. Save up for something nice! I'm sure we'll be drowning in gold soon enough.
@Phntm888
FYI before we start gameplay, I noticed that Renae had a Medium Load and so I swapped out a few of her items to get Light. She's dropped her wizard kit and bought back most of the stuff in it separately, and swapped out her quarterstaff for a dagger. Hope that's alright.
That's fine. I wasn't calculating how much gold you had in starting equipment unless there was a suspiciously expensive item. I also don't bother with carrying capacity unless you're trying to carry an unreasonable amount of things, or particularly unwieldy things. I find it to be far too much minutiae for my enjoyment.
Think I'm going to go with some Bottled Lightning for my Circle Market item.
I think what we have sounds good as far as shared backgrounds go. I'm not sure if Stryn and Kiley would know each other well enough for the Close Allies trait to make sense, but she would definitely help Stryn if he was in trouble after he had joined her in a dance or two.
I think I'm gonna stick with the Thunderstone idea for my Market item.
Updated Stryn for Scion of Legend instead of Close Allies, no major change really just wanted to make GM aware. I think Stryn's item will be a potion of restoration just because those often come in handy.
I'm starting to get the ball rolling on the plot, but you can still RP a bit as I do.
One change from Recruitment to now: In the recruitment thread I said the fight that resulted in several dead members of the Horned Fangs was one month ago. It was actually 1 week ago, and I did not remember correctly. So, we're just going to gloss it over and go back to what it was supposed to be.
Subject to GM approval, a holy symbol tattoo will be one of my very first purchases!
Just a quick note I am posting to all my games. It is Spring Break week so I get the week off. As such, I won't be around the PC as often as I am usually. Posting may be slowed a bit, but will do my best to get in at least one post a day.
I'm in the same boat, haha. I'll be working on things around the house so should be able to check in daily.
Apologies. I just realized that I probably should have made that last post with the spoiler tag. Didn't get much sleep last night... or all weekend. :(
That's okay. I mostly did spoiler tags to help me partition off each person's location and if they encountered anyone. There's nothing technically secret, and anything that's the result of knowledge checks will likely be shared with the group.
Someone in one of my other games brought this to my attention and it is a huge help, so I thought I would spread the word to any interested.
For those of you utilizing Chrome on a PC to check the boards and keep up with your games there is an extension to Chrome that adds a lot of great functionality. Some of the key things I like are better organization of your campaign page, highlighting of new posts, setting different pictures for people's avatars, and most importantly setting an alias per each campaign to avoid the constant issue of posting under the wrong alias.
This is the extension Paizo Campaign Tools. Hope it helps someone else like it has for me!
Totally missed the OOC comment about Henric and Renae meeting up. I'm totally down for it, if you want to write something up, Renae. :p
I'm game for that as well. I'll have something down in Gameplay in a bit.
@ Renae/GM - I may be wrong in this, but I think Audrahni has only been in Roderic's Cove for 1 year.
It may not matter, so forgive me if I'm out of line.
You are correct it has only been a year, but I don't think it makes a huge difference in the timeline overall. She was NOT in Roderic's Cove the last time the ghost showed up, but she would have heard about the events.
Crud. That's my bad than. Just forget the whole "I remember you thing" said Renae if that's case.
Family emergency may delay posting for a day to two. You can assume Georgi is playing along with the team.
Going to give Kiley a little more time to post. Georgi, if you're able to get back into it yet, feel free to make a post as well.
Sorry, completely forgot to post this weekend. Give me a few hours and I'll have one up.
Edit: Okay, post is up.
Heh.. sorry about that. I wasn't sure, so I took a chance.
On another note, I hope Georgi's doing ok.
No worries. We're still getting to know each others' posting styles. When it's an either/or situation, I'll write "Or" in the spoiler. If you need both, I'll write "And". Thank you for erring on the side of caution, though. I do appreciate it.