... Ou la Mort

Game Master The Wyrm Ouroboros

As the players will often be running around doing things entirely seperately from each other, we will (sometimes / often) be having seperate threads for extended periods of time. While I do by all means permit players to read each other's threads, I insist that knowledge gained in that manner remain out of your own thread -- in other words, a firm seperation of OOC vs IC knowledge. It will be something I keep a close eye on, and if something seems hinky (a great word), I will be certain to figure out what it is and smack you across the nose for doing it.

However, this thread will remain the sole clearing-house get-together page. Y'all can comment on each other's threads, remind each other of something previous in a thread (or in a previous thread) for whcih their character was present, and if/when you ICly meet again -- after asking permission, because sometimes I will insist on 'no, you tell them what you know in your own words' and deny you the famous spell "Power Word: Blah" which conveys all details of what everyone else just watched -- you can just go with a 'Henri tells you of his adventure in the catacombs' and let it go at that.

So. Welcome to the game, thank you for your tweaks and modifications, thank you to everyone for applying and particularly to Gamer X for pushing Garson Grey over to the legal side of the street (from Criminal to Merchant).

I will not be creating a game thread as of yet; there are still a few specifics to be hammered out, but I figured I would inform y'all of my selections, since I'd already made them. Thank you Nikolaus for coming back and for taking a nose-smack like a champ; and again, thank you to Gamer X for being willing to modify what role Garson Grey is here for.

A note I should make now: spend your money. Y'all started with 10,500; you should probably have at least a baseline magic weapon as well as magic armor of some sort, in whatever manner that appears. You should also have lots of other mundane stuff, because there is a metric tonne of entirely mundane items that are mind-bogglingly useful in a campaign like this. Many are alchemical, but many are not; get together with your favorite kibbitzers and pick up a thousand or so GP worth of mundane gear, from crafting tools to just plain 'stuff that's thematic for me'.

Example: Androk smokes, so he has cigarillos and tindertwigs and a small wooden 'thermidor' case to keep the cigarillos in.

Remember that what you buy is pretty much everything you have. The only thing I will not be keeping an eye on with you is your basic living situation.

The Abettors -- Lemaitre, Popescu, and Grey -- have a default of a rented 9' x 10' room with a bad bed, a ramshackle non-magical-portal-to-a-land-with-talking-animals wardrobe, a one-step-from-broken table, and a wobbly chair -- maybe two. I will also not be tracking subsistence-level food for the day (which food would amount to 1sp daily, i.e. 'meal, poor (per day). If you want more than this, you need to buy it, however that's worked out -- buying a Room or five from the Rooms and Teams info, or asking me what rentals are valued at and going ahead to pay a monthly sum, whatever you like. I won't put you on the streets or starve you, but extensive time in uncomfortable circumstances and with a lowered nutritional value for your meals will have an effect on your appearance, energy level (e.g. waking up fatigued until your living conditions change), and the like.

The Agents -- Fesch and Durante -- have a default of an issued 10' x 12' private cell with a simple bed, a basic wardrobe, a sturdy table, and a couple of simple chairs. They will eat the equivalent of 'meal, common', valued at 3sp/day. In the future, Durante can arrange for better quarters and meals if she wishes.

For Fesch, renting rooms near the barracks of your men is somewhat traditional for an officer of this sort of time period, as is eating a better (sometimes much better) quality of meal; arranging for your men to receive a better level of food and housing is ... rare. In your case, you will be able to 'buy' Buildings at your assigned locations. I do not agree with the costs assigned with moving an organization; IMO 1/4 the cost of the group is more than sufficient for relocation expenses, etc. etc. For your men, i.e. your Organization, you in particular will not need to pay moving costs; they are willing to move, they are ready to move, moving is what they do. Since Buildings cannot expressly be moved, however, I've taken a few moments to consider this. By the rules, selling gets you only 50% of its value returned to you; that sucks. I have decided that the State or nearby 'individuals of influence' will likely purchase from you anything you've constructed or upgraded; some of this will be in cash, some will simply be a matter of 'we take along the combat dummies and targets that let us do that stuff'. As a result, you can either fully sell (for 75% of the value) a location, or 'move' it (essentially meaning you locate a suitable building at the new location) for 25% of its value; either way it's the same. I do not intend on reassigning you from one city to another all that often, so you can relax. ;)

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Fesch:

Dolorès Durante:
rutaskadis, I know I didn't get to Dolorès in my background-analysis thing; I did, however, read and analyze it, and I have to say that for all intents and purposes, it fits perfectly. I am not yet certain how the timing is (or should) work with her 'awakening' into her mesmerist abilities; I will note that this position is just about the only one that could be a mesmerist and get away with it, because although Citizen Goss is a malevolent CE Mesmerist 13 himself, he likely has a very tough time with the Gray Gardeners -- because he can never be certain of them, at least not to his satisfaction, so fvcking with them is something he probably takes very seriously -- and probably doesn't do much of, if at all.

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I cannot offhand think of any other questions that need to be answered. I am considering the timeline, who was recruited first, etc. etc.; I am currently toying with the idea that it was actually Dolorès's event that catalyzed all this -- that she didn't manage to hurry from the square on her own, that she broke down (at least partially) there, but that a fifty- or sixty-something tiefling helped her out of the crowd and back to her home -- and was in turn awoken to the notion that the blades could be dismantled or destroyed, that the Revolution needed to end.

Anyhow.

Converse!!

First of all thank you for the selection.

It's probably worth pointing out what I lose by not having a normal bonded item - an extra spell per day for anything I want, that's pretty damn useful, but I agree probably not as good as the Black Blade. Assuming that the mesmerist problem stands I'll roll straight over to an Arcane Duelist and just bond to the glaive as my arcane bond - being able to upgrade it will help. :)

Also - if Dolores is having a break down in a square it could well be in Woodsedge at about the time of a certain doomed riot? Would put a few of our characters in the same place for interesting links later? Haven't read Dolores yet so I can't be specific.

Unfortunately it is school sports day today so I won't be able to do crunch and alias until later, but I look forward to gaming with you all! :D

Good day everyone. I'm looking forward to working with you all. I do have about 1k gold left to spend so I'll take a look at what fun and exciting things I would like to add to my inventory.

Speaking of useful items, are you allowing such things as a Blue Book to be purchased and used? It's a pretty useful item but some GMs are not fond of giving bonuses for so little cost. There's also a couple similar items on the equipment list. Secondly, what about purchasing kits instead of individual items? For example the Cat Burglar's Kit can be quite useful, but the common issue with such things is that for 15g you get over 80g worth of items. Lastly, how would you like us to track our inventory? Shall we simply list all of the items we've purchased or would you like an itemized list of what is contained in which bag and what items are commonly left at our residence as opposed to carried?

Also - I know we are not ready to start gameplay yet, but would you mind opening the thread just so that we can dot and delete? That would get this onto our current campaigns page for easy tracking of new discussion posts.

Hello, looking forward to start!

I'm still juggling a bit of work/school business, so I haven't changed much of my background However, I think I'll keep the Asmodeus-worshipping being previous to the Revolutions: that way I have a very personal interest in the career as a lawyer, and I feel that it ties in nicely with my being a tiefling.

I'll read up on my colleagues and print what Jerome's personal thoughts about each other would be. And then I'll see to adjust mundane spending.

Finally, I second Lily's suggestion to open the gameplay thread.

Here we go, all alias'd up. :)

Hi all, very much looking forward to this! I'm in the process of deciding what to spend my remaining 1k on.

I am currently toying with the idea that it was actually Dolorès's event that catalyzed all this -- that she didn't manage to hurry from the square on her own, that she broke down (at least partially) there, but that a fifty- or sixty-something tiefling helped her out of the crowd and back to her home -- and was in turn awoken to the notion that the blades could be dismantled or destroyed, that the Revolution needed to end.

I agree that this would be reasonable; maybe Jeggare used his Detect Thoughts ability on or around her at the opportune moment and got an earful as her Oracle curse was bestowed.

@Lucien, the event does pretty much hinge on happening in Isarn in the presence of the city's Final Blade, but it might make sense for some of the other characters to be there. It's a public execution, after all, so maybe one or two of y'all recall seeing Dolorès faint in the square that day.

Just a thought since I had a notable incident in a town square too. :) Going to read your background now and learn a little more about my fellow conspirators.

@GM: looking at rooms etc. Do I need to 'purchase' rooms now or is it assumed that my default room is in/near the barracks where my men are? If so then I assume that purchasing a place in future would be a matter of buying 3 bunk rooms (1200gp), a bedroom (300gp) and anything else I'd want added (like an armoury)?

Did some shopping. Held on to about 350g for expenses but spent all the rest. Pretty busy tonight but over the next 24 hours I'll read through everyone's descriptions and give you some notes as to Lilli's thoughts and ideas of what kind of potential relationship we might have had.

Also, if anyone is bored and looking at my profile and you see something important that I missed (even if it's just a gear recommendation) please let me know.

@GM: Do we have a deadline for last minute tweaks? I still want to take the time to carefully go over things like her skills now that selection has been made.

Also - I don't have the details of it in my profile yet but I'm leaning towards using Lilli's artistry(literature) and her printer to publish a local anonymous newsletter. As she's based in the Theater District I'm thinking of titling it The Playbill and up until now it's been used to keep local residents aware of important neighborhood information, social updates, and short news stories. Obviously it has additional potential; it has been used to spread rumors and critiques that help her interests and could easily be used for the conspiracy's interests as well.

Not to overload the thread with continuous posting, but I've taken a look through everyone's backgrounds to identify possible pre-existing connections:

Jerome: I'm curious in which district of Isarn your practice is located. I like the idea of Mama assisting with the "renovation" of your offices, and knowing where they are helps me get it straight in my head how that would have happened. If you are in the Theater District then you might have been able to directly reach out, but if you're elsewhere in the city we would have had to be introduced to each other through a third party.

Lucien: We probably would have had no contact at all before the conspiracy was formed, but there is a chance that in the three years prior to you enlisting you might have come into contact with other street children who now are members of my Boys and Girls. I see that you were aged 14-17 during that period but not knowing your current age I don't know if the timeline fits.

Dolores: I don't see any way that we would have had a connection before the conspiracy was formed, and she doesn't have a habit of attending executions so she wouldn't have been there for your turning point. Your character's past and her "breakdown" both would make Lilli feel very sympathetic towards her though, so I could see us becoming close as time goes on.

Garson: I'm not sure how much your backstory is going to change now that you are the merchant instead of the criminal, so I'll wait to go through yours until I know you're finished with it.

@Lily: Lucien probably knows what its like to be them, since he will have lived a similar life until he enlisted in the army. He's about 19-20 now, his promotion has been fairly quick. 6 months as a private, four to five as corporal and then a year or more as sargeant before his big break. So probably commissioned about 19 and therefore will be 20 (just) by this point I think. Might be a bit longer depending on what the GM says, but either way he's on a quick rise through the ranks.

So I doubt we know each other but Lucien will know what its like to be in Lily's orbit. He might have known some of the Boys and Girls when they were younger (10 or thereabouts if I'm reading the timeline right). Not sure he'd necessarily remember them though. Whether that's a good thing or not... :)

The only one I imagine Lucien is likely to have met will be Jerome, if he attends the same parties as the military set. Lucien was briefly the social star of Isarn so for a couple of weeks he was at all the parties and everyone wanted to meet him (flavour of the month type thing). So they may have met in passing there - if we know each other better than that it will probably have to be at your instigation. Lucien is too much on the military side to have tried hobnobbing with politicians of his own accord.

I realized I haven't broken down my background in terms of a timeline.
Birth to age 17 - Upbringing and Education in La Lumiere Rouge
Ages 17-22 - Working as Courtesan in Theater District; associated with Starving Artists
Ages 22-25 - Still working as courtesan; separated from Starving Artists and started up own gang.
Age 25 - Madame of brothel executed; Lilli takes over business and changes it to tea house
Ages 25-34 - Changed name to Lily, proprietress of The Gilded Lily, acts anonymously as Mama, the leader of the Boys and Girls, established control over immediate neighborhood (approx. 4 block area)

@Lucien
Lily's been leading a gang for about 12 years and they have had an area of control for about 8-9 years now, so since before you were even in Isarn the first time. As she recruits from street kids and orphans as much as possible in order to try provide stability to the destitute while she increases her forces, there's a chance that you do have acquaintances in the gang. You could have even potentially been recruited and turned it down to join the army instead.

For all:
Mama acts in accordance with the CG alignment I gave her. It's HER neighborhood and she tries to keep it clean and safe. Inside her area of control she provides protection to the residents and street people as a free service. She does take "protection money" from businesses in the area but prefers them to provide food, clothing, and services to the neighborhood instead of paying her directly, and if they do pay her she just funnels the money into the neighborhood for them. She also makes sure to only ask the businesses to provide what they can actually spare and won't bankrupt anyone who is willing to work with her. Any thievery or intimidation is targeted only at outsiders and/or people who do not work at improving the area. Most of the pickpocketing and robberies are done outside the neighborhood itself. This not only allows her to improve her area, but provides her a level of security as well since she enjoys the good will of most of the people in the area who will be less apt to work against her or betray her. Most of her interaction with the neighborhood is done through her scofflaws. She rarely shows her face as Mama and hopefully very few people suspect that she is the same person that runs The Gilded Lily. It's up to GM opinion on whether or not the conspirators even know about that connection. We could always run it as if you want to reach Mama leave a message at the tea house, or we could start with everyone already being in the small circle of people who know her in both roles.

@Lily, I agree there’s probably very little chance our characters had contact before this, though there is a vague possibility that Dolorès tried to proselytize to Lily once or twice over the last ten years. Really, anyone with a permanent residence in Isarn might have had a young acolyte knock on their door and try to convert them to the Iomedaen faith.

I’m in the process of going over everyone’s backstories a little more thoroughly and considering Dolorès’ opinions on her fellow conspirators. :)

Linked Backgrounds:
I do not mind people linking backgrounds to this to some extent, but I would prefer that be minimized; the primary 'linked background' is the Conspiracy itself. Certainly character A, once in the group, might propose someone they know, but consider your own group of friends, how much you know of their sociopolitical leanings, that sort of thing. While it's possible they would pledge to overthrow the government with you ... it's equally possible they'd want to keep the hell out of it. ;)

As I said, though, I don't mind it -- just don't try to shift anything, especially not in someone else's background. If it means that Mama Lily is the criminal that Jerome contacted for that 'building contract', that's cool, because they're both in Isarn, but don't pressure anyone to move their event to your place; if nothing else, word came about one person to another person's contacts, thence to that person, who brought it to the still-assembling group. Jerome saying, "I heard something in the grapevine about a young man given a field commission at a riot in Woodsedge; you should sound him out."

Lilli:
Circumstance Bonus Items:
Generally, the items are priced appropriately; you typically pay 40-100gp, take a few moments, and there's a +2 circumstance bonus in it for you for one roll, or maybe for an hour. Take an hour to study, you get the bonus for the rest of the day. From what I've seen, kits tend to be priced appropriately too -- you might get a 5-10% discount, but the stuff is all appropriate, and it makes it quick and easy to buy. You have, however, highlighted two items which violate those; I'll take them one at a time.

IMO, the Blue Book's cost of 5gp is a typo, and should be 50gp; if you review all the other similar items, you'll see that that's the only one that a) costs so little yet whose bonus b) is for so much and extends for so long. In addition, the text says 'major city', which is a bit of a pain in the ass, because PF doesn't have 'major cities', it has 'small city', 'large city', and 'metropolis' -- 5k-10k, 10k-25k, and 25k+ in size. (See 'Table: Settlement Size and Base Value'.) Because of the way Isarn (a metropolis of almost 43k) is set up, and because of the use of 'major' in the original description, I'm going to make it easy on myself (and you) and instead of saying you need one per District, I'll say you need one for the portion of the city on the North Bank of the Kantele River, one for the portion on the South Bank. There are no such locations on the two islands in the Kantele, the main one upon which the Monolith (V1) and Le Temple Creux (V2) sit, nor on the island to the north-west of that -- but each book is 50gp.

Kits:
The kit items give some discount, it's true, but in general it tends to be a small amount; for example, the items in an alchemist's kit (40gp) would total 41.81gp if bought seperately. The items in the Cat Burglar's Kit would normally cost 66.5 gp; I have no idea where they got 15gp from, but I'll let it go for 60gp. (What a discount!! ;) )

I appreciate you asking about these things, since they are clearly ... out-of-range.

The Playbill:
The Playbill's functions as you've laid them out are relatively fine; actual reliable news can be difficult to get out, though, and you run a risk by doing so -- that means 'doing something that Citizen Goss doesn't like'. If that doesn't concern you too much, or if your information is purely local and, well, innocuous, you won't have to worry too much about it. Note that at current no PC has either criticism or philosophy.

Lucien:
Tiefling Age:
So this applies to Jerome Lemaître as well -- I am reminded, specifically, about tiefling aging. PF's official errata says that tiefling age categories are based on humans, but makes no mention of changing their random starting dice, which meant you could (if you rolled poorly) have tiefling starting ages of 'middle aged and almost old'. I've house-ruled that in all my games into 'you use the half-elf aging rules and dice'. As a consequence for Lucien -- Jerome somewhere around 70 -- that puts his baseline at 20, with +2d6 for each of his classes. My recommendation about averages from this post is pretty firm, and would put him at (20 + 4d6 = 20 + (24/2) = 20 + 12 = 32 base, and 4 more levels would add on (12 * 4 = 4 years), making him 36 -- still a long way from the half-elf's middle-age benchmark of 62. Fortunately, 3 of those years are effectively as part of the group, and I am willing to lop that baseline 12 in half anyhow, so starting from 26, and now 30.

In general, and for everyone, I'd recommend thinking of your background as being 'through 3rd level', with the last 3 years being 4th and 5th -- or at least 5th. You know what you can do, you're comfortable with your abilities and knowledges, and the people in the Conspiracy have actively assisted you in gaining that level of ability and knowledge.

Buildings / Rooms:
*thinks* Hm. It would be assumed that your default room is a private room, one of several occupied by other officers with equal rank and prospects (i.e. very little cash-in-hand to spend on a better one). Your men would be nearby, and everyone (men and officers) would be in the same complex -- essentially a military base, even if rather ill-conceived, and delineated only by a (crappy) fence. A barracks (which is one of the standard buildings available for purchase) includes 2 armories, a bedroom, 2 bunks, a common room, a dojo, guard post, infirmary, kitchen, lavatory, office, and storage -- for 80 Goods, 18 Influence, 73 Labor, 1 Magic ... or 3700 gp at game start. Note that if you have an armory for each bunkroom (1 per 2 military teams of the same type), the armory takes care of their gear; otherwise it's apparently assumed that after game start, you need to supply the gear for any team you recruit.

Jerome:

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Gameplay Thread and Finalizations Deadline:
Since 60m after you create it you can neither alter nor (I believe) delete it, and since I do not want the first post in the game to be 'Dot', I will be holding off on creating the gameplay thread until I have finished putting together a real post; I expect the first gameplay post to go up on Sunday night. Sorry if this puts anyone out, but 'tis part of my philosophy of 'make it a good read'.

Not-coincidentally, Sunday night is the soft deadline for character tweaks and final decisions; the hard deadline is the start of your individual gameplay threads, which will happen ... not entirely sure. But the interaction between now and then will give everyone time to make last tweaks -- skills, spell selection, whatever.

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Backgrounds Again:
I think I'm going to suggest this:

Jeggare helps Dolorès at her 'awakening' several years ago (at least 3, up to 6, possibly more); they develop a rapport, and conceive of the Conspiracy -- which might start out only with destroying the Final Blades and the Gray Gardeners, but eventually evolves out of recognized necessity into overthrowing Goss and permanently ending the cycle of Revolutions.

Lemaître and Jeggare, being two older tieflings in a city that holds some amount of distaste for them, know each other of old; Lemaître (once Mancinna) is 'new money', Jeggare is 'old money', but the two at least used to interact, so they might actually know each other from their youth. It'd be clearly apparent that while Mancinna-now-Lemaître has flourished under his new name, Jeggare has remained under the heel of the Second Decree, living in a room in a boarding house and 'barely getting by'. Jeggare visits Lemaître somewhat more often, extracting over a period of weeks or months the truth of the prosecutor's deep-seated dissatisfaction with the Revolution; he brings him into the Conspiracy.

Lemaître is key to two others; Lilli Popescu, who he had perhaps come close to prosecuting once, but decided to drop the charges likely due to it having skirted too close to the agreements made with the Court of Bees, but through whom he had arranged for certain construction work to be done; and Lucien Fesch, word of whom has circulated through the Monolith, not only amongst the Revolutionary Council, but in back-hallway conversations and rumors about various happenings.

Bringing Lilli in is probably comparatively quick; this is not to say her thoughts are easy to discern, but she is essentially primed for being a revolutionary. Fesch is a more ticklish subject, in part because of his promotion by Goss himself, but they'd eventually be able to bring him in.

The only one 'missing', then, is the Merchant, the one who will get the money-making folk on their side. Who finds him is anyone's guess; I would think not Dolorès, but any of the others -- Jeggare and Popescu could have interacted with him and/or his people on the 'street' side of things, Lemaître could have run across him in court (perhaps as a witness) or at one get-together or another, or Fesch might have impressed him during some 'minor' peacekeeping at one of the city's markets, and made a point to talk to the 'young' officer. Whomever runs into him passes the name on to Jeggare, who gets a line on Garson's feelings ...

... and so we have a conspiracy.

Thoughts? Comments? Ideas?

Your suggestions as to how the characters were recruited flow well. I don't think that I really have any suggestions for improvement.

In terms of the Merchant, last time I checked Garson still hadn't made any sweeping changes to his background, so I need to ask: is he still running the smugglers on top of his legal enterprise? If so, then it would be easy for Lilli to bring him in, as there is a good chance that she would have had dealings with him as Mama in order to obtain supplies for either her tea house or for her neighborhood. That could actually be the supply connection that she found which enabled her to so easily take over the business when her former madame was executed.

I agree that bringing Lilli in would be easy. While 'Mama' was assisting Lemaître in his construction work, he may have noticed how she tries to run her neighborhood as a violence-free zone. I agree her thoughts may be concealed, but her actions in anti-mob peacekeeping would have shown them that at least some of her ideals are in line with their goals.

@GM: On a side note, I put my equipment list twice in my profile. The first one is merely itemizing the initial cost of all of the items, buildings, and organizations (which has just been updated with the two price changes you listed above). The second one is the actual load-out of what items are stored where including weight and encumbrance. Once you've approved my math I'm going to delete the first list to save on space and reduce confusion.
I also added a quick list of the teams in my organizations with their skills, feats, and basic gear just for general ambiance and to pacify my OCD tendencies. If you would prefer that I not make those decisions myself just let me know and I'll delete that as well.

Right then!

Age: I think I've read this right and so Lucien's age is now 30. That expands his personal timeline to something like: 17 - joins army. 22 - promoted to corporal. 23 - assigned to Alix Dubois. 24 - promoted sargeant. 26 - Woodsedge riots, field promotion. 27 - joins conspiracy.

Building: That's fine. So I'll wait, buy a barracks at some point in the future and presumably at that point I have enough men that my 'buying' it is just arranging for all my men to be housed in the same immediate area. Cool.

Regarding teams and gear: the description of the teams outlines what gear they have so I assumed it would be covered by the cost of hiring them in the first place? Hmm - seems like a bit of fuzziness there.

General Background: Sounds fine to me. Lucien will have looked quite an easy recruit at first (since he's good at saying what people want him to say) but I imagine Jeggare/Mancinna will soon realise that and (eventually) decided it was worth putting in the time to really recruit him!

@Lily: Interesting thoughts. With the age-up Lucien has just received I don't think we cross any more, but he may have known some of your tea ladies when they were younger. I say leave it loose for now and if an opportunity arises in future we can hash it out then? Memories fade and so forth so discrepancies can be explained!

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SLA: Assuming that I read the initial post right, here are 7 possible options, and therefore I have to provide 3 deformities that Lucien can/does possess. Obviously he already has a tail!

2 You possess some type of extrasensory organ, granting you all-around vision.
9 You gain an additional +2 racial bonus to your Charisma score.
36 You can communicate telepathically with any sentient creature with which you are in contact. (Presumably physical contact?)
67 Your eyes glow fiendishly and you possess the see in darkness ability as if you were a devil.
70 You are aware of and can choose the result of any attempt to detect your alignment.
84 You are immune to magic sleep and paralysis effects.
90 You gain an additional +2 racial bonus to your Wisdom score.

Deformity 31: Backwards bending hands. (Rakshasa famously have backwards hands, so this is another thing he picked up from birth dad).
Deformity 36: animalistic head. (Presumably not full rakshasa but I'm thinking fur rather than hair ['I keep it cut short!'], very round ears nearer top of head than normal etc)
Deformity 53: skin patterned. (Stripes, as per rakshasa parent).

I don't think that Garson's mechanics will change much more than adding a few equipment items. And possibly adding a bedroom onto his luxury shop. All that work and still living near squalor. Shameful! Shameless! Some type of damn shame anyway.

But perhaps he should not have better digs than the Conspiracy leader. In any case, his little group of smugglers shall remain intact. Should have any background tweaks done in time.

Viva La Rev...Conspiration!

@Lilli: I think I'd be in Vieille Ville. I'm very ok with you overseeing the renovations, as well as me dropping charges on you because of political deals with the Court of Bees.

One thing I'd like to remark on is that I don't plan on Jerome's race being widely known: that's why I took the Pass for Human trait.

Background Modifications:
I don't have a deep knowledge of the exact road to priesthood in a devil-worshipping lawyers' cult, so I'll go with what you think is best. I'm changing his original surname to Mezinas so that he's covered by the Second Degree. I've also changed the age to 76, if I followed your calculations correctly.
I don't think that it would be wise to take the name of someone who got executed for the exact same crime he's avoiding attention from, so I'm going for a "trust no one" situation where he made his own initiation. That's also because I don't want to follow the "they killed my master" trope myself: Jerome's motivation comes from the cold need for a stable society, not personal hatred.

EDIT: I lost my changes and I don't have time to rewrite them, I will later.

@GM: Doing my final spell selection before tonight, and noticed that sow thought, one of the spells on my potential list is annotated as a "racial spell for changeling" but I was a bit confused as Hero Lab allows me to select it. Looking up what racial spells are, it seems that they are not fully restricted. They are automatically available for selection by members of that race, but they are still able to be learned by anyone with GM permission.

I was wondering what your thoughts were on the issue. As soon as I have your decision on this, I'll make my spell choices and be ready for gameplay.

Agreed that that lineup of recruitments makes sense. I think 6 years is a reasonable timeline for Dolorès to be the first recruited and spend a while developing a rapport with Jeggare/learning to live with her curse and powers/conceiving of the conspiracy and then putting it into motion, making her about 25 and expanding her background slightly.

I'm just about finished making adjustments and correcting some of my math, also finalizing Mesmerist tricks and spell selection, all of which should be completed by this afternoon/evening. :)

Please disregard my last question about Sow Thoughts. I found another spell that I prefer to have instead. Lilli is all set now. Skills/spells/gear/etc all finalized and ready to go.

I actually happen to have the same question that Lily previously asked about Sow Thoughts. Other than that, everything should be ready.

Is it possible to get a 'masterwork instrument' for Perform Oratory? A small book of famous phrases/speeches for example?

Game Starting Post:
... yeah, sorry, that's not happening tonight -- spent plenty of good quality time over at the SO's today, getting some work done and watching 'Crimes of Grindelwald'. Getting out early tomorrow will get me to posting, however, so only a day late. :P :)

FURTHER MODIFICATIONS:
I apologize ahead of time for doing this, but I only really considered this the past few days. I have decided that since this is going to be a very individual game, and since everyone is going to be (if you haven't already) spending a big bunch of your money on organizations and buildings, and because y'all are going to be almost always outnumbered (though rarely outgunned outright), you need another additional boost. So I am granting Automatic Bonus Progression. For 5th level, that means Resistance +1 (to all saving throws), Armor and Weapon Attunement of +1, and Deflection +1 (bonus to AC). This should get you some money back, which you can spend on more gear and/or more organizational teams &c.

For those of you who have already purchased a 4k item to boost an attribute by +2, if you like you can keep it for now; when you hit 6th (for mental attributes) or 7th (for physical attributes), you will get the 'boost you bought' automatically, and be refunded the 4k you spent. If you like, you can also dump it now and get that money back immediately; your choice.

Lilli:
Thanks for the notice ref: your duplicated equipment lists; nice idea, thanks. I do the load-out-and-location thing myself. :)

Lilli / Dolorès:
Sow Thought is entirely suitable for this campaign; it is available.

Jerome:
Thank you for reminding me of Jerome's 'Pass for Human' -- do me a favor and for at least the first few months, any time you refer to Jerome as a tiefling in a post, add in 'human-looking' in front of it, just until I get used to it.

Ref: name, etc -- that works. You might, for the same reasons that I proposed for Lemaître himself, initially be a 'secretly-trained' Asmodean advocate: trained as such to be the family law-hound and leverage things to your advantage, but when the Revolution came ...

Just as a reminder, the Second Decree didn't take effect until the Galtan Unity Council took power, six years in -- the Revolution in 4667, the GU in 4673, so both Jerome and Androk would still have had significant wealth and comfort up until then ...

Lucien:
Re: age -- remember your baseline age is 20 + dice, with the dice roll in this case being a minimum of 6. I'm not adverse to Lucien joining 'early', but this will be the equivalent of a boy joining the army in the Napoleonic / Civil War era at age 12 or 14 -- he becomes a mascot, a drummer boy, works in the cook tent, whatever. So your age points would be something along these lines:

17 - Joins army early, does scutwork.
20 - Moved up to actual military training.
26 - Promoted to corporal (i.e. 1st level non-NPC-class).
. . . -- Assigned to Alix Dubois
27 - Promoted sergeant. (That's 'sErgeant', not 'sArgeant'.)
. . . -- Assigned to other officer.
28 - Woodsedge riots, field promotion and transfer.
29 - Recruited into conspiracy.
32 - Game start.

Spreading out anything after age 26 is fine; the timeline between 26-28 can be adjusted as well, though not compressed. Expanding the time between his field promotion/transfer and his recruitment is welcome as well.

Speaking of which, his recruitment. Lucien 'saying what people want him to say' would have put him up as an atrocious recruit, and exactly the sort of individual they would pass by as being unreliable and untrustworthy. It's the fact that he's been really and seriously instilling discipline and order into his men. (With the extra gold, I expect that'll also mean you expand your forces; you have 30 men now, so note that if/when you reach 90 or thereabouts -- three platoons, or a company -- you'll hit Captain. ;) After that, you can expand with 'specialist' platoons / companies, i.e. archers and cavalry.)

Re: team gear &c -- I agree that teams get recruited with their gear; the armory is what keeps them in working order, i.e. the teams get to repair gear, replenish arrows, etc. once they return to their armory. The men would also always be housed together, it's just a question of how close you are to them, and how good of housing etc. they have. ;)

Re: your alternate tiefling ability: Congratulations, you can communicate telepathically with any sentient creature with which you are in contact. (Yes, this means physical contact.) While I strongly considered the animalistic head -- and yes, this would have been full tiger-animalistic, muzzle and all, not the 'cute catboi' you appear to have been imagining -- I have decided that your accompanying deformity is the tiger-patterned skin. Your hands will have pawlike coloration (i.e. dark areas on the fingertips and palms), etc. etc. While this may give you a +2 circumstance bonus to Stealth in some very limited situations (i.e. you're virtually naked and in an appropriate environment), it will generally ... not. ;)

Please also, for the first few months of posting, include 'tiefling' amongst your self-descriptions, including references to his tail / skin patterning; again, this will help me remember while I'm posting that you aren't the average bear.

Re: 'masterwork instrument' for Pf: Oratory -- see 'book of war prayers' and 'tome of epics'.

Garson Grey:
It is important that 'his little group of smugglers' be rebranded -- not necessarily purchased differently, note, but rebranded, redefined, stylized-differently -- as generally-normal caravan/river barge team(s). Functionally, they all need to be considered 'legal' sorts of fellows. This doesn't mean they can't have the skills necessary to smuggle things; many transport folk working in/around Galt would have learned such. And it doesn't mean they don't use those skills regularly; they probably do. But 98+% of what they transport should be, to put you into the 'influential merchant' category, entirely legal goods.

Also, don't worry about how 'the Conspiracy leader' lives. ;)

General Recruitment:
Just as an FYI/reminder -- the deep-reliability-scan (as it were) would have been performed by Jeggare, whether you were aware of it or not; the majority recruitment could have been done by anyone you like, whether that's the person who 'fingered' you or someone else.

Comments, questions, ideas?

@GM: Just to verify I did this right with the ABP:
-I had originally bought a MW Bladed Scarf (312g). In order to attune with it using ABP, I now only need a Bladed Scarf, so I save 300g
-I had originally bought +1 Glamered Lamellar Leather Armor for 3910g (60g + 150 MW + 1k for +1 enhancement + 2700 for Glamered). I am probably now swapping to an armor with a better max dex bonus since there will eventually be an automatic physical stat upgrade at level 7.
-The way I just read it, in terms of the Glamered effect...that is a set cost price of 2700 now, and can be put on anything. It will not function, however, unless you are currently attuned to that suit of armor as it needs a base +1 on an item in order to work.

My big question is: with the ABP attunement, does a weapon or armor need to be Masterwork quality to attune? As I redo my purchases I'm unsure whether I need to buy MW or just normal items. Hero Lab lets me do it either way with no difference to the end item.

Never mind. After much searching I found the answer. If you want to put an additional effect on a weapon or armor (like Glamered or Keen or something) it does need to be masterwork quality. To just get the enhancement bonus it is not needed. So that means I need to pay for MW armor to have the Glamered bonus, but I'm ok with a non-MW weapon.

EDIT: Also noted that I do not get the +1 enhancement bonus to AC as it is "taken up" by the Glamered effect.

Ok, the concept formerly known as The Copper Ring smuggling outfit has been changed to The Trade and Transport Team to reflect that Garson is a (mostly) legitimate merchant specializing in a clientele of middle and slightly upper class customers. New and improved! Now with elite guards!

I have also added a bedroom to the luxury store. This will help keep up appearances and allow for a place for guests, whether of the voluntary or involuntary nature. There is a cell available in the black market aspect if the guest is too unruly.

No promises on the condition of the furniture at either location. Garson is rarely "home." Background has been updated accordingly.

As an overview, while Garson is connected with the somewhat lower ring of society, honest workers, a few who put pragmatism above law, and those rough and rowdy members of the entertainment community, he is considered a notch above by most residents of Isarn.

Looked upon fairly by the middle class and those who have managed to touch the base level of the upper class, Garson will be using his merchant (Empire? No, vampire.) business to help keep the "center" of society stable as the Revolution Council is toppled and a better government is established. He will do this by garnering the proper resources from these exact people to fund needed aspects of the Conspiracy.

And smuggle, steal, and do other chaotic things as needed. All the while continuing his little foray as an entertainer.

He is an exceptional actor. Able to portray that he has absolutely no fear of Lucien nearly 80% of the time. Magnificent!

Re: your alternate tiefling ability: Congratulations, you can communicate telepathically with any sentient creature with which you are in contact. (Yes, this means physical contact.) While I strongly considered the animalistic head -- and yes, this would have been full tiger-animalistic, muzzle and all, not the 'cute catboi' you appear to have been imagining -- I have decided that your accompanying deformity is the tiger-patterned skin. Your hands will have pawlike coloration (i.e. dark areas on the fingertips and palms), etc. etc. While this may give you a +2 circumstance bonus to Stealth in some very limited situations (i.e. you're virtually naked and in an appropriate environment), it will generally ... not. ;)

Not a catboi - dear god not a catboi! I shied away from full animal head simply because I thought that would have gotten him executed rather than recruited into the army, so I tried to work out how it could manifest 'a bit'.

I don't intend to take advantage of the maybe stealth bonus - if it does happen then... well... 'oh er missus!'

Troops have doubled up to 55 combat +5 non-combat. Bought a book of epics, I think that covers everything.

@Garson: I do like Garson's attitude to Lucien! Magnificent indeed. :D

Updated Dolorès' sheet to reflect the ABP system, and decided to wait until the 6th level mental stat boost to refund her +2 charisma boosting item.

@GM, with the little over 1k that's been freed up, and given the nature of the Distressed Prelate role, would it be a good idea to set Dolorès up with a small team of acolytes at game start? Given her association with the Iomedaen church, it makes sense that she might have a few people loyal to her.

I'm having a similar problem. With what was freed up I bought even more stuff and still have almost 1k remaining. I'm fluctuating between holding onto it for expenses/expansions once we start or just buying a crapload more teams for my organizations.

I could literally double the size of my gang and add a bureaucrat team, but that seems like it might be overkill for right out the gate. I think I'm just going to hold onto it as 'petty cash' for now.

@GM: Related question: Would there be a benefit to purchasing a bunch of circumstantial bonus items for training the guild? If I was to buy things like Belled Catsuits, and Billy Ten-Bells in sets of five would it have any mechanical advantage to the organization? It seems like something she would provide but don't really want to end up spending many hundreds of gold on pure RP items (just those two would be 400g and there's others I would consider too).

Working on Game-Start post; it'll go up before I go into work.

Map:
Please put in your business / hideout locations; neither Lucien nor Dolorès need to, as Lucien's men are established outside of the city, and I don't believe Dolorès has any buildings or an organization. Speaking of which ...

Dolorès Durante:
As someone applying to the original game pointed out ...

... pretty much every Gray Gardener that's been written up as an NPC is an Inquisitor of Norgorber; it's not to say the entire organization is connected to them, but it seems to be something that's hinted at. Also, a lot of his archetypes seem perfectly tailored for a Gray Gardener character.

I intend on running with this; as an NG Iomedean, you are definitely a Daniel walking into the lion's den.

This is not to say that you cannot have an organization; out from behind their masks, the Gray Gardeners very likely do have small organizations, whether together or seperate, whether groups of thugs, individual informants, or actual spies. I am therefore very willing for Dolorès to have a few people she trusts -- at least to an extent.

Organizations vs. Followers:
As a reminder, remember that members of an organization are not Followers gained via Leadership; those in an organization may be assigned to you (such as Lucien's soldiers), in it for protection (like Lilli's people), or just out for a paycheck (as Garçon's are). In your case, they may simply be those lower in the church hierarchy, obedient to you because you are a superior.

Technically an organization's Teams are loyal as long as the money holds out -- and sometimes not even then, if they get offered a better deal by someone else. This is absolutely something all of you will be challenged by from time to time.

Followers, on the other hand, are actually loyal -- they'll turn down better wages, decline bribes, and stick next to you through bad times, because they believe in you and what you're doing. Typically this means they know more about your aims than the average person in your organization, but some may follow you just because you're the kind of person they want to follow. This doesn't mean they can't be bribed or turned against you, it's just more difficult -- a DC 30 Diplomacy check instead of a DC 20, as it were.

Lucien:
55 soldiers (plus your HQ group of bureaucrats) is perfect. Nice blend of 'elites vs. standards'; nicely done.

Lilli:
Remember that you've been working specifically on your own gang for more than a decade now; expanding your teams is absolutely something in your wheelhouse.

For you, however, something that I am going to make a note of, then offer an ... advancement for: the Printer room. A standard printing press, such as the one in the Printer, is as the link describes -- a plate-printer, the plate creation of which probably takes up a considerable amount of time. Printers of this type are 250gp; the rest of the room is 130gp, for the drying racks, shelves for ink and other materials, the space itself, yadda yadda.

A moveable-type press, however, is more expensive for the initial outlay, and though the book doesn't have any specifics, I'm going to benchmark it as a x4 expense. Your standard moveable-type printer is therefore 1000gp. Printing at a higher rate, an Advanced Printer room will require a bit more for the other stuff, but not a lot. The space for the room is also going to increase from 5-16 to 8-20. This is, however, going to increase your Earnings -- so your Moveable-Type Printer room will look like this:

Moveable-Type Printer
Earnings gp, Goods, Influence, or Labor +12
Benefit counts as masterwork artisan's tools for writing and printing skills as well as for propaganda-type tests (granting a +2 circumstance bonus).
Create 30 Goods, 7 Influence, 16 Labor (1130 gp); Time 30 days; Size 8-20 squares
Upgrades From Printer

The circumstantial bonus items are going to do nothing for the guild itself; while theoretically a team could practice with such items before going out and working (and perhaps thus earn those +2 bonuses to their earnings roll), I'd rather not have that amount of overlap. For actual training, you'd want a Dojo (counts as a training facility for training or retraining) as appropriate to the type of place you've got, in your case a thieves' guild.

Building - LUXURY STORE "The Refiner's Request", Located in Nord Riviere near V6 (The Ward) and R1 (The House of Joy).

Building - Black Market, Located in the Foreign Quarter at F6 (The Warehouse District).

I hope these locations are acceptable.

I added my map location. As The Gilded Lily and the safe house underneath would show as colocated on a map, but are actually two distinct locations with different entrances, I put them as T7 and T8 but added them in as one location and comment.

While at work today I'm going to consider whether to upgrade the printer room or add some teams to the organization. I'll make the final purchase of one or the other before any initial posting on my part.

Garson, if you can stick labels on the map itself, it'd be appreciated -- and of course it can wait until later on, if you need to.

Thanks, Lilli -- doing your PM now. Also, take your time -- as I said, final hashing-out won't be until your private thread goes up.

re. Troops: I was thinking perhaps the 15 elites are veterans, soldiers Lucien himself trained and fought with and knows well. They'll be the ones who can be a bit overly familiar with him at times since they knew him as a 'wet behind the ears lad', but will put the fear of god and him into the other soldiers on his behalf.

The rest would be standard soldiers, assigned to Lucien's new command once he arrived in Isarn. That ok?

Looking forward to the gameplay starting!

The Gameplay Thread is active!

@All - The excitement begins! Will be posting later today, but I do want to make one request of all of you:

Although as co-conspirators you all know Lilli as Lilli Popescu and can feel free to address her as such when in the Haven, she would prefer that you refer to her differently whenever outside of that location.

- She is 'Lily' if you ever grace The Gilded Lily with your presence, or if she is out and about in that role (which happens extremely rarely outside of her immediate neighborhood). Yes that is pronounced the same as Lilli but officially spelled differently.
- If you are dealing with her criminal side outside of the Haven, whether referring to her or meeting her in person, she prefers the title 'Mama'.
- Lastly, if you ever need to reach her, simply stop by the teahouse or send a messenger there and if she is unavailable leave a note for her with any of the courtesans (not any of the other staff).

Although we don't have full fledged masked personas created at the moment, she still wants to keep the two sides of her business separated. She will be more than happy to remind you of any of this if needed, but I figured it was a good idea to get the 'rules of engagement' stated at the outset.

See you in gameplay!

Also - as a side note for anyone interested: There is a Sitting Room in The Gilded Lily. It is often in use, but if one of you wanted to reserve it for a meeting with someone, then it provides a benefit:
- Spend one hour conversing in sitting room and get +1 on Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Knowledge(local), and Perform checks to influence or learn about the other guests for 24 hours.

Obviously Lily uses this a lot, and it's a public room where NPCs might have it in use, but it's open to the other PCs as well if you were to schedule a reservation and wanted to travel up to the Theater District to utilize it.

@GM: I went with guild expansion. Mama now has 3 teams of cutpurses, 2 teams each of robbers and soldiers, a team of scofflaws, and a team of bureaucrats in the guild. She also has a team of lackeys/courtesans in the tea house, and 2 teams of craftspeople plus a team of guards in the safe house.
That gives her a "guild" of 45, a staff of 5, and a safe house staff of 11. All details are in the profile and/or the slideshow linked in the profile.

I did note down what the upgrade cost for the printer->moveable-type printer upgrade is, as that is probably the first improvement I'll be doing in downtime.

Ok, I had missed the ABP addition: I love it. For the moment I'll keep my Headband of Wisdom, though, instead I'm buying some useful tools to carry around now that my workload is thinning and I have some more free time. Also, I'll pick some spells and stat up my familiar.

I've added my office, in the center of Vieille Ville: I think it's realistic that the tribunal is not far from the Senate.

If you need law services, I have a couple of Bureaucrats teams working under me, but realistically they will only be useful for things that are above-board: they are city servants, paralegals and such, not criminal bookkeepers. As well, if you need to use my Book Repository or Sitting Room (working like Lilli's) you are welcome to.

@Lili: I'm sure I will forget to call you properly at some point, but I'll do my best to remember that.

I'm afraid I have much less to offer than the rest of you apart from very reliable message carrying (via touch telepathy) or dealing with any illegal issues gone wrong. I am after-all part of the long arm of the law. If some of your less savoury friends give you trouble I can remind them that that's a bad idea - with clubs! :D

In terms of the map, I noticed that if anyone accidentally dragged it on the page, our locations would get messed up. I've been "grouping" the image as people add their locations so that will no longer happen. I sincerely hope that's ok with GM as I don't want to take any liberties with his documents.

Alright, I did decide to give Dolorès a small team of 2 acolytes and 2 sages, which will be flavored as other Iomedaens below her the church. That leaves me with ~200gp of petty cash.

I also added her birthday for fun/flavor. Time to get started on a gameplay post!

Oh Dolorès...

You can't be wandering around like that without Lilli mentioning it. Her guild didn't start calling her 'Mama' for no reason. The woman has a maternal side and you're hitting all her concern buttons right now.

Dolorès isn't opposed to Lilli’s offer of rest and relaxation, but her idea of relaxing is kind of just... this; being able to let her guard down and show a little weakness.

(and did you actually mean for it to be 'Garçon'?)

That was the inspiration to begin with, yes. But I thought the Normanized version of Garson was probably a better fit for Galt. And if he were to have a true second persona, his nom de guerre would likely be something like Gargoyle. ;)

Garson entered the room in a pressing manner, stepping in sideways rather than walking in directly. His movements were brusque, his boots striding heavily like a soldier on the march, but his feet made not a sound as they touched the floor.

... wait, what??

While I like flavor text, try not to mix it in quite this chaotic and oppository of a manner.

If you're entering 'in a pressing manner', it means you're hurrying or that your mission is urgent or critical; however, 'stepping in sideways rather than walking in directly' is pretty much the definition of 'sidling', 'walk in a furtive, unobtrusive, or timid manner, especially sideways or obliquely' -- pretty much the direct opposite of 'pressing'.

Likewise, if your 'movements (are) brusque, his boots striding heavily', it would imply that you're acting without care for the noise you make, and 'heavily' here directly connotates the amount of noise you're making; conversely, you're stating that 'his feet made not a sound as they touched the floor' -- without any way (at least, any magical way) to make that happen. And almost everyone's Perception bonus at least matches your Stealth bonus. :/

Like I've said -- I like flavor. Use flavor. It makes for interesting reading. Just make sure it's a) internally consistent, and, like I said about backgrounds, b) is something your character can do.

1d20 + 12 ⇒ (8) + 12 = 20 Acting

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12 Stealth

Apologies. I will try to make sure that all future posts are mechanically sound and do not rely on undo prediction, even for the sake of flavor.

Brusque may indeed be the wrong modifier as it can indicate a rate of speed that may not be appropriate for such movements. The intention was to be a combination of performance and practicality without forsaking plausibility.

While Garson was indeed sidling, it was with more deliberation and force than may be generally expected. This was in emulation of the movements of a shield bearing person sparring or engaging in combat. But with a more focused attempt at stealth as well.