GM Elberion's To Seal The Shadow (Inactive)

Game Master GeraintElberion

Introduce your characters here.

I have been having hectic times with COVID-19 affecting my work.
We might be a little slow to start as I get on top of things, apologies.

Please introduce yourselves and post your character information here:
Player Name
Character Name
Society Number
Fast/Slow Track
Day Job roll

Please have your initiative, saves, perception and AC showing beside your avatar.

Player Name Michael Hallet
Character Name Miseria Extasis
Society Number 2608-25
Fast/Slow Track Fast
Day Job roll None

Player Name Agent Eclipse
Character Name Ozake Mystoc
Society Number 54329-16
Fast/Slow Track Fast
Day Job roll None

Okaze is a Wayang so he definitely wanted to take the job even it if takes him far from Kaer Maga where he usually resides.

Player Name Gerald
Character Name Yulau
Society Number 12445-24
Fast/Slow Track Fast
Day Job roll None

Player Name Chapel Ty'El
Character Name Khoda Isaad
Society Number 66576-5
Fast/Slow Track Fast
Day Job roll None

Player Name: Warah
Character Name: Eka
Society Number: 289224-5
Fast/Slow Track: Normal/Fast
Day Job roll: Profession (hired guard): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9
Faction: Grand Lodge

I have been having hectic times with COVID-19 affecting my work.

We might be a little slow to start as I get on top of things, apologies.

No worries. A lot of people are in the same boat. :)

I was up late last night preparing things because I can't be in work today.
I am a teacher and currently need to prepare a load of new resources, teach my students remotely, home-school my 6-year old daughter, look after my 3-year old son...
I will try and sort out the maps and slides tonight. We should start in a couple of days.

Feel free to start the chit-chat in gameplay. You are all together on a junk sailing toward Iniyahi. There is a light sea mist.

This is part of Outpost III is it not?

You have to wait until the 30th to start. Just one more week, but character intros are fine for now.

Ha! Really?

For some reason, I thought it was today.

Well, that's a relief.

No worries. Real life comes first.

Note, this feeling of power about Miseria makes the rest of the PCs uneasy with the exception of Eka. This is due to her hellbound oracle curse which gives her a -4 to Diplomacy checks with creatures of good or chaotic alignments.

Correction: Eka is NG. I accidentally left off a letter in the tag line (now corrected), but it was correct in the character sheet.

I have PMed our sixth player (should have got my act together and done it earlier, apologies) so I am going to give them a little time to get in touch.
We will start sometime this month!

Tier 1-2, huh? This calls for a change of plans:

Player Name: I'm Hiding In Your Closet
Character Name: Lydia Schwarz Stillbourne (and Fomalhaut!)
Society Number: 40025-20
Fast/Slow Track: Normal/Fast
Day Job roll: Profession (Librarian), Faction pin: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (18) + 12 = 30
Faction: Dark Archive

@Miseria, I looked at your sheet, and I noticed you appear to have Shackleborn Tiefling modifiers wrong; their penalty is to Wisdom, not Intelligence.

I just copied it down wrong, but the modifiers were applied correctly. 10 Int, 8 Wis has the same cost no matter which one is getting the -2.

I am considering pulling out of this game.

I had no idea it was so Wayang-centric (and I have always adored the very idea of Indonesian shadow-puppets as their own PC character race), otherwise I would've wanted to field one of my several Wayang characters...the trouble being they're all too high for a 1-2 adventure.

I don't suppose a 5th-level character could be admitted into this game?

Closet, I'm not sure. APL would then be 2.3 so you would be playing out of tier.
That's okay but I'm not sure about switching characters after the adventure has already begun.
I mean, whichever character you play, it's still going to be wayang-tastic.
TO be honest, it's not really designed for wayang PCs. We are okay because Okaze is an unconventional wayang but you will note that the PCs are playing the part of the non-wayangs at the ceremony. The whole point is that the pathfinders do not fit in.

That's okay but I'm not sure about switching characters after the adventure has already begun.

I've definitely seen it done before; it works so long as one isn't very far in, which we're not.

TO be honest, it's not really designed for wayang PCs. We are okay because Okaze is an unconventional wayang but you will note that the PCs are playing the part of the non-wayangs at the ceremony. The whole point is that the pathfinders do not fit in.

Good point. I'll try to stay in.

I'd suggest, regardless of our typical weapon preferences, picking weapons with wide threat ranges rather than big multipliers for this - less risk of anything going horribly wrong that way.

Yes, perhaps do without the scythe for this one!

I just realised that Khoda hasn't posted for a week.

I'll bot for now. I hope they're okay.

FYI, I've got a LONG plane trip tomorrow, so please pardon my absence for the next ~48 hours.

Still not clear on the debate rules. Do each of us assign a skill to the 10 tactics ahead of time?

Sorry, I should also have shared the full rules:

APPENDIX #2: VERBAL DUELS
Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can crush your spirit. Verbal duels are battles of words rather than swords, in which skilled duelists use facts, wordplay, and rhetorical flourishes against each other to win arguments or sway crowds. This kind of duel typically takes place in front of an audience, but the rules presented below can also be used for private discussions, or even large debates where multiple viewpoints conflict in an arena of opinion. Many of the following rules assume the duel is between two chief opponents and is conducted in front of onlookers the duelists are attempting to sway—indeed, sometimes a duelist and her allies can improve their odds by discerning the crowd’s biases and playing to them. A verbal duel’s audience might be an angry mob, the members of a ruling council or senate, the jury during a court proceeding, or socialites at a party—anywhere two characters might best each other with wit and cutting remarks.
Assessing an Audience
A duelist and any of her allies who have at least 10 minutes to interact with the crowd before a verbal duel begins can attempt a check to determine an audience bias (see below). Succeeding at a DC 15 Sense Motive check allows a duelist or one of her allies to learn one of the crowd’s biases. Sometimes assessing an audience can have a higher DC if the GM feels the crowd is particularly tight-lipped or their biases are otherwise obscured. Once a character attempts a Sense Motive check to assess an audience’ biases, she can’t retry that check, even if she has more time to study the audience.
Audience Biases
When a verbal duel features an audience that can be swayed, the GM determines any types of dueling tactics that the audience either favors or disfavors. If a crowd has a negative bias against a particular tactic, duelists take a –2 penalty on the associated skill check when using that tactic. If the audience has a positive bias toward a tactic, duelists gain a +2 bonus on the associated skill check when using that tactic. Some audiences may have even stronger biases, imparting penalties and bonuses that range from –5 to +5.
Seeding an Audience
Once she knows one or more of the crowd’s biases, a character can attempt to seed the crowd and gain benefits for her side of the verbal duel. A GM may rule that seeding a crowd is impossible or very difficult. For example, seeding a jury in a lawful society may be very difficult, and is probably illegal or even practically impossible.
Audiences that can be seeded allow allies of each duelist to urge the argument in other directions. To attempt to seed an audience, a character must spend at least 10 minutes with members of the crowd before the verbal duel begins, choose one of the audience’s biases she knows, and succeed at a Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate check with a DC of at least 15. The GM may rule that the DC is higher due to the ally’s lack of familiarity with the crowd or other factors—as high as the duelist’s level + 15 or 20 for especially challenging situations.
If the character chose to seed a positive bias and succeeds at the check, the duelist of her choice gains an edge that can be spent when that duelist uses the tactic associated with the positive bias during the verbal duel. If the character fails the check, she can’t attempt to seed the same audience again. If the character fails the check by 5 or more, no one can attempt to seed that positive bias again in her duelist’s favor. If the character chose to seed a negative bias and succeeds at the check, the duelist of her choice gains an edge that can be spent when that duelist counters the tactic associated with the negative bias. If the character fails the check, she can’t attempt to seed the same audience again. If the character fails the check by 5 or more, no one can attempt to seed that negative bias again in her duelist’s favor. Both sides can attempt to seed the audience before the duel begins and can even seed the same biases, but a given duelist can only benefit from a single successful seeding of a particular bias.
Edges
Edges are gained either by seeding a bias, using some trick of a verbal dueling tactic, when an opponent decides to end an exchange, or due to some other effect. A duelist can spend an edge to reroll an associated skill check for a verbal duel tactic. Sometimes you are limited as to when you can spend an edge. For instance, edges gained by seeding positive biases can only be spent when using the tactic associated
with that bias.
Gaining Edges From Skill-Modifying Abilities: Only effects and abilities that modify an ability score, modify ranks, or specifically affect a tactic apply directly to the associated skill check in verbal duels. However, effects that increase the modifier of an entire associated skill (not just circumstantial uses of the skill) grant edges instead. For instance, the spell glibness neither adds to the associated skill check nor grants edges because it only grants a bonus to some cases in which Bluff can be used, and does not increase the skill’s general modifier. For spells and effects that do apply to a verbal duel, such as a circlet of persuasion or Skill Focus, instead of the normal modifiers to skill rolls, they grant a number of edges equal to 1/3 of the total bonus they would otherwise grant. For example, a character with Skill Focus (Diplomacy) and 10 ranks in that skill would gain two edges instead of a +6 bonus. Total up all such bonuses before dividing by 3.
All edges gained in this way are limited to the particular tactic associated with the skill. In many cases, using magic to enhance one’s verbal dueling skills is often considered gauche or even illegal. The more official the verbal duel, the more likely the chance magic will be restricted or even banned. This is often particularly true during the course of duels in a legal setting. Dueling With Words Often, how a duel starts and which duelist goes first is determined by the particulars of the scene. For instance, if the dueling PC is the defendant in a court case, she may be on the defensive, being forced to counter in the first exchange after the prosecution opens the duel. A PC trying to elicit the duke’s help may open the duel, asking for favor and presenting the case for why granting aid is in the duchy’s best interest. A playful battle of wits during a dinner party might start when the party’s host chooses a guest to begin the first exchange. At the start of a verbal duel, each duelist gains a pool of determination. Determination is a mix of personal magnetism, native intelligence, the ability to gauge and react to an opponent’s tactics, and any other mitigating factors pertinent to the duel. As the verbal duel progresses, exchanges take place and the stakes increase. A duelist loses determination equal to the exchange’s ante each time she either concedes or loses an exchange. Other factors may also decrease a duelist’s determination. When a duelist’s determination is reduced to 0 or lower, the verbal duel ends with her defeat. Determination: A duelist’s base determination is the average (rounded down) of her Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma modifiers (minimum 0) + her total Hit Dice.
Adjusting Determination: Circumstances and effects might increase this pool of determination points, at the GM’s discretion. For instance, for a particular type of verbal duel, it might make sense to use a single ability modifier rather than the average. For a longer verbal duel, especially at low levels, it might make sense to use the highest of a character’s three mental ability modifiers or even add two or all three together. One of the main ways to adjust determination is to consider if one of the characters has a social advantage or disadvantage. While the GM is free to determine the articulars of a character’s social dvantage or disadvantage in a situation, the four default categories are extreme advantage, significant advantage, significant disadvantage, and extreme disadvantage. A character at an extreme advantage multiplies her determination by 2 and gains 5 edges. A character with a significant advantage multiplies her determination by 1.5 and gains 3 edges. A character at a significant disadvantage multiplies her determination by 3/4. Finally, a character at an extreme disadvantage multiplies her determination by 1/2 and loses 3 of her starting edges (minimum 0).
Tactics
Tactics are the weapons of verbal dueling. At the start of each duel, each duelist can assign her skills to tactics that have those skills associated with them. A duelist can only assign a given skill to a single tactic, so if a duelist assigned Perform (oratory) to allegory, she couldn’t also assign it to emotional appeal. For the purpose of a verbal duel, a character calculates her associated skill bonus by adding her ranks in the skill (including the +3 bonus for having ranks in the skill if it is a class skill) and her Charisma modifier (regardless of which skill she chooses, unless she has the Ironclad Logic feat). If she has other modifiers to the skill, they grant her edges (see page 18). The bard’s versatile performance ability allows two skills to use the bonus from a Perform skill, and a character with that ability can assign all three of those skills to different tactics, even though he technically might only have ranks in the Perform skill. A duelist might apply bonuses or penalties to a tactic’s associated skill check due to the audience’s bias, as well as from the following considerations.
Last Tactic: It’s often considered bad form and awkward to counter with the last tactic used against you. When you do so, you’ll take a –2 penalty on the associated skill check for the tactic. For instance, if your opponent uses mockery against you, countering with a mockery tactic is possible, but you take the –2 penalty on your associated skill check when you do.
Repetition of Tactics: Using the same tactic over and over again is not an effective way to win verbal duels. Over the course of a duel, each time you win an exchange with a particular tactic, you take a cumulative –2 penalty on all associated skill checks when you use the tactic again.
At that point, the audience and your opponent have both seen some of the best you had to offer with that tactic. Tactic Interaction: Some tactics are not as effective at countering other tactics. Others are more effective at countering specific tactics. For instance, it is harder to counter a logical argument with mockery, and most tactics have a hard time foiling a verbal trap set by baiting. Most tactic descriptions feature an “Interaction” entry detailing that tactic’s conflicts and synergies. The tactics are listed in full for your players in Player Handout #1.
Verbal Exchanges
Verbal duels are fought in a series of exchanges. Each exchange is an argumentative back-and-forth in which each duelist attempts to gain the upper hand over her opponent and decrease the opponent’s determination to continue the debate. The end of an exchange might signal the end of the verbal duel or mark a change in the flow of the debate’s conversation. At the start of each exchange, one of the duelists chooses
a tactic as an opening, makes his associated skill check for that tactic, increases the ante of the exchange from 0 to 1, and sets the current exchange DC to the result of his check. The ante of the exchange is an ever-changing (usually increasing) value within an exchange; the duelist who either loses the exchange or decides to end the exchange reduces his determination by an amount equal to the exchange’s ante.
At this point, the opponent must decide whether to counter the opening or end the exchange. If she still has 1 or more determination remaining, she can then choose to open a new exchange or concede the duel. If she decides to counter the opening, she first increases the ante by 1, then chooses a tactic, and attempts the associated skill check. If that skill check exceeds the current DC of the exchange, the exchange continues. That roll sets the new exchange DC for the original duelist to counter if he decides not to end the exchange. If the countering duelist’s check does not exceed the current DC of the exchange, she loses the exchange (reducing her determination as appropriate), though she can spend one or more of her edges to reroll the associated skill check, potentially multiple times. If she decides to end the exchange, she reduces her determination by the exchange’s ante, and her opponent gains 1 edge.
Duelists repeat this cycle until one decides to end an exchange, a duelist fails to counter her opponent’s tactic, or the duel otherwise ends. When a duelist decides to end an exchange or fails to counter her opponent’s tactic, her determination is reduced by an amount equal to the current ante of the exchange. Whichever duelist ends an exchange or fails to counter her opponent’s tactic can either open a new exchange or concede the verbal duel if she still has determination remaining.
Ending a Duel
At the end of any exchange, either duelist can call to end the duel, and set the terms for ending the duel. When they do this, it can be considered a tie if both sides agree, or one side can call for the other to concede. A verbal duel ends immediately if one duelist’s determination is reduced to 0 or lower. In these cases, the other duelist wins. In either case where there is a victor, the victorious duelist achieves some social advantage from his success, usually defined by the scene of the verbal duel. A victory or a defeat in a verbal duel might also lead to unexpected complications.

A nice simple subsystem that anyone can pick up and use during a 4-hour session...

Fortunately, we have a bit more time to understand.

Eka has +7 to Intimidation and +4 on Knowledge (religion), but everything else pertinent is +3 or lower. Her CHA modifier is +3.

Whoa that is crazy to be played in a con slot or even a LGS game. Looking over it all now. Okaze is also a Intimidate heavy char.

Yulau is +8 on Bluff and Intimidate.

Is anyone strong at Sense Motive?

-1 here. Big nope.

+10 Bluff (+15 if telling a lie)
+11 Diplomacy (+7 if the target is chaotic or good)
+11 Intimidate
Knowledge (history, planes, religion) +4
Sense Motive -1

I've got a natural +4 to Sense Motive; I noticed when I joined this party could use some Wisdom. ;)

I've got Linguistics +9, several Knowledge skills +6, and Profession (Librarian) +11, for what that's worth.

I also intend to procure us some outside help in a bit here...and I do mean Outside.

Oooh! Nice!

I've got a natural +4 to Sense Motive; I noticed when I joined this party could use some Wisdom. ;)

I've got Linguistics +9, several Knowledge skills +6, and Profession (Librarian) +11, for what that's worth.

I also intend to procure us some outside help in a bit here...and I do mean Outside.

Definite good news. We will need all the help we can get!

So, I just realised that this is supposed to end in three days time...

We have gone much slower than the online con.

Is everyone happy to carry on meandering and doing lots of RP stuff?

Or do people want to quickly get to the end as they have other things lined up?

I’m in no rush, but I’d like to get things moving again.

<Online VO Hat>Most of my games haven't completed yet. You just have to report the game by Monday. You can continue after that. Just assume the PCs are going to succeed. If you need to change the reporting later you can contact us to correct it.</Online VO Hat>

If we can get up to one post per weekday I'd be happy. We don't have to go faster than that.

I think right now we're waiting on GM Elberion to give us a little intro to the local watering hole before we all roll our checks to gather info. Eka in particular would be happy to use Intimidation if the situation calls for it, which is why I haven't preemptively posted a roll for her. Also, what applicable knowledge checks are there?

Yeah, don't have to be a big rush if we just get up to normal posting. I have no games Okaze planned to be in.

I'm in no rush.

Okay, great!

Yes, apologies, I am the one slowing this down. Lockdown has turned out to be super busy for me.

So, please would everyone roll a d20 to see if they get a boon!

Is it Boon yet?: 1d20 ⇒ 17...Probably not.

Boooooooon: 1d20 ⇒ 16

No worries. It has impacted a lot of us. Some days are rough for me posting as well. I have two games running over due to complications of lockdown atm.

Boon! 1d20 ⇒ 11

Boon?: 1d20 ⇒ 8
Big nope.

boon: 1d20 ⇒ 20
?: 1d3 ⇒ 3

Congratulations, Miseria.

Pat Boon!: 1d20 ⇒ 13

Miseria, I need an e-mail address to report your boon. Message me.

So, is everyone at paizocon?

I am.

I...uhh...are they holding it digitally or something???