Elsewhere in the Shackles (Inactive)

Game Master Giant Halfling

Like her role and what I was thinking for her as well.

Looks good to me. My character should be complete by Sunday night.

As always, since I have time, I am considering more changes. You mentioned gunpowder in your post, so I assume guns are allowed? Considering dropping the rogue level for swashbuckler (musketeer).

Yes, we will be using the emerging guns rules (which are the default setting for Golarion). That means the gunslinger class, the Amateur Gunslinger feat, and archetypes that use the firearm rules are all available, but adventurers who want to use guns must take the Gunsmithing feat just to make them feasible weapons.

Although, if you don't mind my asking, why multiclass at all? Are you just looking to get finesse as a bonus feat? Don't get me wrong, I like the alchemist/gunslinger combo (a lot), I'm just trying to figure out what you're trying to accomplish in case I can suggest an easier/better way to do it.

Still a work in progress, but here's the alias for Augustus Murillo "the Queensman," inquisitor of Besmara.

Class skills. Alchemist is better than wizard, but there are several I'd like her to have that it doesn't. Finesse/Sneak Attack/Guns are secondary but make her more versatile than throw a bomb in combat. Anyway just playing around with options and such while we have the time.

Hey, on the campaign traits, could she take gentleman of leisure but treat the back story as her courtesan training instead of as a member of the nobility. She might go full alchemist then.

Nevermind...

Lol.

Sure, although it seems not to matter now?

Choices are difficult.

I hear that.

I am done, again... :)

I played around with gun chemist(alchemist archetype) for a bit, which is where the question came from, but in the end I think I like the versatility of the homunculist alchemist and musketeer swashbuckler.

Only big loss was stealth, she doesn't have it at all anymore. She did pick up a rank in appraise since she'll have been quartermaster.

"You’re not wrong, Murillo; you’re just an @#$%^*!”

Lol! That is great, Goodwicki.

Thanks John :)

I'm pretty much done, just need to pick that last feat. I'm imagining him as front line support, so will probably just go with power attack to up his damage output a bit. Might tweak skills a little once we're all settled, and left myself some gold to buy sundries. I'll be editing the alias to make it cleaner and easier to read, add links for things, etc. as I have the time over the next couple days.

@ Giant Halfling Let me know if there's any glaring errors; I might still have some derived stats unfilled, but should catch those in the aforementioned editing.

Took longer than I wanted it to but here is the debut of Vadoma Ondine:

Any mistakes or anything I missed let me know. Almost finished with her background, as soon as I am it will go up as well meantime let the gaming begin!

Excellent work Mutt!

Seeing where our knowledge skills fell, I'm going shift Hedy's points from nature to local.

Most night hags arise from the souls of powerful hags upon their deaths, but the process is unpredictable. On rare occasions, a night hag has need of a true daughter, and can warp the daughter of one of her pregnant coven-mates with the aid of ancient magic. This process creates a night-born changeling, a vile child whose soul is born ready to assume the hideous existence as a night hag in the afterlife, after the inequities of mortal life have crushed any compassion or goodness from her heart.

Dreamthief hags arise from similar rituals, though the night hag must devour the soul of the unborn child and pour her own spirit into the developing form, slaying herself to be reborn as a blank slate with the potential to eventually evolve into the most powerful of hags. Such a process leaves the night hag’s soul incredibly vulnerable for decades, and is undertaken only with extraordinary protections and guardians in place to watch and corrupt the newborn changeling.

Jordanna Carver is a dreamthief-born changeling--a waker may. She was corrupted and wicked from birth, having strong instincts to do harm to others that were fostered by her mother's coven-mates who hoped to groom the young girl into a worthy replacement for her predecessor. She grew up on a small island in the Shackles, with only the two hags as her caretakers, and would likely have fulfilled her destiny and become a hag in her own right if not for the arrival of a pirate vessel.

The pirates knew not of the hags' purpose here, simply slaughtering them to plunder their treasure. But the captain took pity on the young Jordanna and took her under his wing, adopting her as his daughter. His influence tempered some of her crueler instincts, but the hags' grooming rituals had already left their mark, ensuring that the changeling would always bear the stain of their influence.

As she grew into her teenage years, Jordanna was able to harness the anger and fury that constantly boiled beneath the surface, channeling into a bloodrage. And so she served as the captain's master at arms, teaching the other pirates to use their anger as a weapon against their victims. Surely, it would have been a fine life of looting and plunder had not the captain died in the previous battle.

Now, the other crewmates can only hope to keep Jordanna's rage in check before she turns her anger on them!

***

Jordanna is a relatively short woman, standing 5'5" and weighing 115 pounds. Despite her slight stature, she is incredibly strong, her natural strength supernaturaly augmented by her changeling heritage. She has tanned skin and curly brown hair with a streak of white among it. A restless sleeper, Jordanna has heavy bags under her mismatched eyes and always looks tired. Lumps on her forehead foretell the growth of horns in her future...

Basically done now. Just have to get gear and find an appropriate portrait, which I will try to do tomorrow.

The Icy Death is the ship you've been sailing on. It was just starting to make a name for itself and it's captain when Chelaxian troops set upon it.

Captain Rais loved the open sea and had a mystical connection with it (he was a waves oracle). A charismatic leader, the ship got its name from the snow and ice he used in battle. He died in yesterday's battle and has not yet been laid to rest/returned to the sea.

Esther Blythe was the firstmate and the captain's lover. She had the power to blast enemies with ice and use magic to affect the weather (a havoker witch). When the captain fell, she went mad with rage and unleashed a burst of cold so intense it killed a dozen enemy soldiers, and froze her solid. She has since melted away to nothing.

Azadi Freeman has been the master gunner (he's also a skilled shipwright). He tries to conceal his tiefling heritage and the other officers are all fairly sure that's not his real/original name. He does not talk about his past before arriving in the shackles.

Lief Stoutspear has been the ship's Bosun and often helmsman or navigator (when the firstmate wasn't doing the latter). He looks to be of Ulfen descent, but has strange, birdlike eyes which have earned him the nickname 'Eagle Eyes'.

They're not done yet but I've started profiles for Azadi and Lief if anyone is curious to look at them. NPCs are on a 15 point buy with only one (non-campaign) trait, and NPC wealth (which I think is half PC wealth, maybe). There are 8 crew members (besides the six officers) left alive and relatively healthy (after some healing). I'll name them, but haven't gotten that far yet.

Nice beginning GH, I know there's a lot you are working on but what level plunder and fame do we have? Don't rush these answers as I don't have any big plans right now, just curious.

Your starting fame will depend on how you choose to start your new adventures... if you keep sailing Icy Death you’ll get some carryover reputation, but there will always be whispers of the original captain and his fate connected with your legend. If you start your new adventures with a refit you’ll be starting from scratch with no reputation.

As for plunder... your carpenter wasn’t kidding about the ship being in rough shape. This will come out it gameplay but you basically have three options for getting underway. Your cheapest option starting off would be to cannibalize the Chelaxian ship to repair yours and leave it the Icy Death. If you did that you’d have 5 points of plunder. You could also fix your ship and then get it refitted; that would leave you with 2 points of plunder. Lastly, you could cannibalize your own ship to get the Chelaxian ship seaworthy-ish, and then put in for refit and repairs. That would leave you with 0 plunder, but the other ship is actually the next class up so you’d have more room for growth.

Stuck with only my phone until after work :(
Will join in the fun as soon as I'm able!

The more I think on it, the more I think it'll be a more fun dynamic with Hedwig in charge. So while in character he's up for the captaincy, out of character I'm conceding to Hedwig.

I tell ya, even I'm wary of what's gonna happen if Murillo runs this outfit.

Lol! It will be a blast either way. With Murillo in charge, Hedy would be constantly trying to steer him where her own mind thinks they should be going. Gentle manipulations to quite vocal screaming ones, one would never know what she'd try next.

So still happy no matter how it turns out.

Okay, character sheet should be finalized now. Found an image that's pretty close to how I picture Jordanna, too. Just lacking a white streak in her hair.

I will be on vacation from 6/13-6/21. During this time, my posting will be limited. Some days I will probably not be able to post at all. I'll catch up on everything again when I return.

GM, please bot me as necessary.

Will do. I’m going to advance us to the start of the funeral as soon as I have time, so feel free to post whatever eulogy you want to before you leave.

I’ll post something for Doma’s reading later, just wanted to kickoff the funeral while Jordanna (hopefully) still has time to post.

Enjoy your vacation Brainiac!

Wow, Jordanna, that was not what I was expecting.

Doma- I'm going to post something for your reading now... I've seen GMs do pretty big things with real Tarot cards for stuff like that, but I don't have tarot cards or the time to do something like that, so I'm just going to give you a simple post. In the future, if you're feeling ambitious, feel free to do something like that on your own if you like. Also, I know you're busy but it would be helpful if you could please get your profile set up soon (and I wouldn't complain about having some basic info in your banner like Jordanna and Hedy do). Thanks.

I will get that set up today. Actually thought I already did the profile page so...red face emoji here.

lol- no problem. I just looked at it to get you profession bonus and I did notice a couple things... it lists "custom trait" for your campaign trait but doesn't mention anywhere (that I could see) which custom trait you took? Also, for languages- Azlanti is a dead language from an ancient empire that has more or less passed into legend (sort of like the Minoans, maybe); you're welcome to take it but I just wanted you to be aware that unless you guys seek out ancient ruins to explore (or happen upon a very old ghost ship) it's unlikely to really come up much in this game. You also took Triaxian which is the language of an alien race that I think might have crashed in Numeria or something; we're not going to be using any of that at all and you should switch that one for something else. Polyglot (the language of the Mwangi) is common in the Shackles. Aquan (the language of water elementals and some aquatic races) could obviously come up. Aklo (the language of some evil fey) is spoken by some creatures of the deep, that could be an option. Varisian is the language of the people/land where Harrow decks originated, so that could be a good fit too?

Jordanna is always angry. She even mourns angrily.:D

I thought the first mate melted into a puddle?

Right, thank you, she did melt into a puddle, yes, so you can say something about her if you want but she left no body to dispose of.

Also, I like how Doma just lowkey dropped that she was getting a little Rais on the side... I wonder if Esther knew?

I did like the subtle misadventures between the captain and our mage. Tis good to be the king. :)

So where do you want to go from here? I'd assume we patch up the ship under the direction of Freeman. Or do you want us to roll/rp it out?

I was leaving some room for any RP anyone might want to have (plus I’m out playing disc golf). I’ll drop a getting to work post from Azadi later today and leave it to you all how much you want to RP through that time or if you want to jump straight to sailing towards your refit.

Sorry, had a weekend full of home repairs (not entirely unlike our boat repairs!), will post tonight.

I can't believe I posted as Donomsail again! Is there an easy way to stop that from happening or am I supposed to make my 50+ year old brain remember to make that change every time?

Paizo Campaign Tools are what I use. It's a chrome extension that lets you set your character for each game. IT IS AWESOME!!!!!

I do it the old fashioned way (remembering to change it every time), after a little while it becomes second nature. Plus, the forum will put the alias you post from most often within a given thread as the first option in the drop down menu, so that helps.

I've compiled a list of officers and crew and added it to my banner. I think most of it's fairly self-explanatory, but feel free to ask questions if anything's unclear.

A few notes on the crew:
- Peter Five-toes used to be called 'Pegleg Pete' but when Peter Nine-toes came aboard Handsome Sally thought it was hilarious to call him Peter Five-toes and it stuck.
- Stoneskull was friendly towards the officers until the battle. Although they technically won, her attitude has been sour since losing so many of her friends.
- Mouse stays in her 'bestial' (wererat) form all the time, except when in port.
- Gentleman Jim is a distant relation to the ruling house of Cheliax. All of the (current) officers know this but very few of the crew. It is never talked about.

Behind the curtain, and future recruiting:
- As previously mentioned, current NPC officers are on a 15 point buy, (PC class) at your level, with 1 (non-campaign) trait. They will likely stay near, or at, your level, depending on how often you bring them along to stuff (vs how often you leave them in charge of the ship while you do other things). Future officers will generally be 1-2 levels behind the current NPC officers, but built the same way (though I'm not going to create profiles for them or anything).
- The crew are 15 point buy with no traits, and have NPC classes. I'm not doing individual stat blocks for them but have 2 (technically 3, with Jim) generic stat blocks for them (which I'll try to remember to apply racial adjustments too if/when it comes up). I'll level them up periodically (to make sure they don't all become single-hit-kills in the event of AoEs and the like), and they'll probably generally be around half your level.
- Although it violates verisimilitude some (and I'm a big fan of verisimilitude), I want you to feel free to promote crew members as officers (especially if there end up being some you've been RPing with already), so if you choose to promote a crew member to an officer position (while in port, this won't be a means of creating endless officers at sea) I'll rebuild them with the officer stats. They are highly unlikely to develop magic this way (a rigger would likely be a rogue or slayer, a raider would most likely be a fighter, brawler, or swashbuckler); if you want to add more magic amongst your officers you should look to recruit a new caster.
- New recruits will generally start off indifferent, although those who were rescued from something might be friendly or those who were coerced could (likely) be unfriendly.
- You can recruit in groups (following the rules in the AP) or you can attempt to directly recruit individuals you meet along the way (provided they're available and you have good enough RP/skill checks).

My last post mentioned the option to recruit in groups or individually; here's a little more info on that.

If you want to recruit in groups here are the base rules: PCs can acquiring more sailors for their crew at any port or settlement, or upon the successful capture of another ship, by making a DC 20 Bluff (to trick sailors on board), Diplomacy (to convince people to join the crew), or Intimidate (to press-gang new crew) check; each such check takes 1 full day, and a successful check results in 1d4+2 new crew members. I might have just missed it, but I don't see any limitations on how often you can do that, which seems dumb to me (otherwise someone could clear out an entire hamlet in a few days) so, I'm going to restrict this for smaller settlements. I've scattered in some non-residents to pad how many you can recruit here, but don't expect to be able get 1d4+2 everyday for the 1d4 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8 days you'll be here (there are only 77 actual residents, after all).

Recruiting individually will be handled through RP and relevant skill checks in a manner similar to recruiting an NPC for something in any other game. The base DC will be 20 and that will be modified by their interactions with the PCs and their current situation (someone desperate to leave their current home/job/etc could be as low as DC 5, someone deeply connected to where there are might be DC 30, 40, or completely unavailable). Officers will generally only be available by individual recruitment (or promoting crew).

**As per the roster, you currently have 2 open officer positions. If you want to change what they are feel free, but it'll still be 2 positions (I'll let you open up more if you get a bigger ship, add features like a second gun/ballista station that would merit something like a gunner's mate, or when you have enough crew to merit separating bosun and sailing master or eventually adding a bosun's mate).**

I had overlooked the roster - you mean I could've named another 6 dead pirates?!

The roster is pretty new although I believe I did mention that there were about 20 crew originally and only 8 remaining (so, yes, you could have named six more).

What options are available? Hedwig is most concerned with speed, but anything else but I figured I should move things here to discuss since it will be an every player kind of choice and not just me. Also colors?

Well, your immediate options are to assist Murillo, engage the drunk or the workers, or eat quietly for half an hour or so until Rickety shows up (the last of which will be the default when I have time to post after the kids go to bed). I suspect you meant options for the ship though, lol. Here’s the list of ship modifications. You currently have about a 500g/5% surplus but might be able to find ways to increase that if you want to...

To clarify what Kamshi said, Hedy's 32 diplomacy was more than enough to recruit her, so she's officially part of the crew now (and I'll add her to the roster as crew, though you could still promote her). With her joining up, and the captain's interest in going after the dangerous treasure, the rest of her group is functionally at a DC 0 recruiting check now, so all you have to do is accept them if you're interested. If you try to split them up the DC will go back up some (but Kamshi is with you either way).

That does bring up an interesting point... and a potential stumbling block with the system I've proposed... Hedy mentioned getting to know her more before deciding whether to have her as crew or an officer, and in purely RP terms that's great (I honestly love that idea), but as soon as you start asking her about what she can do I would quickly have to paint myself into a corner (because, obviously, being 4th level in a PC class would bring drastically different abilities than being 2nd level in an NPC class). So, I'd like to suggest that when it comes to getting to know new potential crew/officers you limit IC questions to basically rigger vs raider (and fluff), and if you're curious about someone's potential as an officer ask here in discussion. If you make Kamshi an officer she would be a Ranger [shapeshifter/wild stalker], and well-suited to the Master of Arms position. Any actual spellcasters you run across would only be available as officers, so if you see someone casting a spell or are relatively sure they have (or that they have a familiar/animal companion/etc) you can ask them about that IC since either you're wrong or they're already locked in as officer only.

Also, Murillo, Jordanna, and Vadoma, I believe your captain is waiting/hoping for you to chime in here with OOC thoughts on boat improvements and what not. (And fixing Rickety's math will pretty much just involve either calling him out or a DC 15 diplomacy to sweet talk him).

Oh, another thought on officers too... if any of you want to do RL recruiting, I'm willing to take on 1-2 more players as long as they're people you're willing to vouch for as dependable posters. They would, obviously, fill up the last 2 officer spots (as full PCs) and we could redefine those roles or shift the NPCs around if needed.

On a different note, I know the immediate concern is getting things set up with Rickety (and Jordanna is extra angry/brooding because her father died, and Murillo is a bit out of sorts after losing his bid for captain), but if anyone has any ideas for their characters, in general, about things they'd like to RP or goals/interests that I could use to help foster things for you to do (or use for hooks), please let me know. We agreed this game would be player driven, but I'll do whatever I can to offer interesting possibilities for things to do wherever you are. Even in a player driven game, I don't want to leave you sitting around doing nothing if I can help avoid it. But, also don't be afraid to take the initiative... You wanna yell at someone or do some brawling? Pick an NPC and get to it. You wanna go explore the jungle? I'll make up what's in the jungle. You wanna make an expedition up river? Who knows, maybe there's some freshwater grindylows you can take care of, or some indigenous creatures you could befriend or pillage. I'm not going to do a lot of pushing, and if everyone is happy with the current pace that's fine with me, but I'll try to do whatever I can to keep us moving when I can.

@Murillo- on a somewhat related note, the rest of us are in another game with Vadoma's player and he apologized for being awol but has been busy with work. He thought he'd be back to posting this weekend.

Hedy likes the Broad Rudder, mechanically it is a +1 to sailing, but in gameplay it would make the ship more nimble, turning faster which would be awesome!