GM Netherpongo's Warhammer Fantasy

Game Master Nathan Goodrich

For Calph, yes hanging with elves. Now while Calph and Zarine are from very separate backgrounds I do eventually want to work up to ship captain. So moving upward in social circles isn't a bad thing.

For now i'm not changing his career. There are a bunch of skills I want to level up. From what I remember of our conversations. As long as I train something, once I leave that career I can continue to put advances in it. However, if I do not train something and then leave the career I lose access to it. Or did I misunderstand?

So as far as trappings and stuff goes. According to the book. Mop and such. He is a simple man with simple needs.

Calph being a riverfolk is no stranger to physical labor. Setting up shop here would not be the worst thing. As for his goals. He would love to chase down the pirates and finish what the ghosts started. They caused him much trauma. (again sorry to zarine for all that). He wants a ship eventually.

I worry about land ownership though. Sure this island was 'gone' from existence for a while but some barron somewhere owns it. What exactly do Land taxes look like in this game? Or would Zarine be able to lay claim as "conquered/Liberated"?

Now, for the out of character nonsense. I work for Amazon, we are coming into the holidays. I will make the greatest effort to post on fridays. That being said, I have been assigned mandatory overtime from now till feb 15th. What this in reality means is five 12 hour days. sunday through thurs. I will put a reminder in my google calendar to make sure I remember to post and not get lost in mundania.

Need a day all… fried out after a monster weekend

Answer for Calph's question: for Characteristics & Skills, look in your current career tier and you can buy anything in your current tier and lower (above) at normal rate. For Talents, you can buy within your current Career tier only. Previous careers do nothing to provide access in either case.

Some more miscellany:

Zarine & I were talking about getting some Quality leather armor to represent noble wood elf-appropriate attire while still providing some protection. The solution I used with my Noble was to buy some Fine leather armor to wear in places that might be dangerous, while he changed into courtly attire in more social locations. It's what made sense to me. Even fancy armor isn't appropriate at a ball.

Way back here, you got an offer for a reward about information for river disappearances. That was back in Ubersreik, which is the other way from where you are headed, but you might keep it in mind. You could maybe contact a different riverwarden department about it.

Thanks

Thanks for doing this. :) I'll update my loot list with this, but probably this weekend... in a rush just now. :)

Also thanks for the Noble armor idea.

I lost patience with the last bit of experience I was trying to sort out. So we'll do the reward now and reseve that last bit for later. Calph wasn't here for all of this, but he gets the full amount of experience anyhow:

75 xp for playing the game
30 for defeating beastmen attacking the Flatbottom
20 for keeping the Flatbottom crew alive
10 for successfully negotiating with the crew of the Flatbottom after Axel revealed himself to be a witch
10 for activities in Stormdorf
20 for negotiating successfully with the spirits of the river and gaining Deadsight
10 for gathering information from the Oberhauser farmstead and finding the pirate island
25 for finding and destroying the Skull of Bloody Klaas
10 for the 'defeat' of the pirates
10 for rescuing Wolfhard and Margarite and keeping them alive
10 for rescuing Konrad Links
50 for completing a short-term party ambition
10 for recovering the diary of Meinard Links
Total: 290 experience

We'll also hit a Fortune refresh here, so fill up any Fortune you haven't used!

When we first encountered Deadsight while meeting the trapped river spirits the first time, I said that Deadsight was a 'for this scenario only' feature and didn't need to cost any experience. That's how the scenario reads, but it's also lame. So, for those who successfully received Deadsight during the adventure, you now have access to buy a new talent if you wish to keep a remnant of the power.

Faded Deadsight

Max: 1
Tests: Any Test to detect the Wind of Shyish
Though the sight granted to you by the ghosts of the Teufel has largely faded, you can faintly discern the wind of Shyish and are especially sensitive to its attachment to the undead. With a Difficult (-10) Sight Test, you are able to see the hidden paths of the departed and to sense boundaries that might be hidden from others: even those that have the Sight.

Explanation of Sight test: this is relying on page 233 of the Core book that explains how Second Sight works. The skill in question depends on the task at hand. Perception, Intuition & Track are called out.

For Axel: it probably makes sense to find some amount of Downtime when you switch careers to Wizard. I don't want to enforce it though because I don't have a Downtime segment planned immediately. Are you hoping to leave Witch with this experience drop?

A quick note on the Faded Deadsight talent: I initially had a clause in there to try to make it more attractive to those that already had Second Sight. The effect was identical to the Tests: entry effect though and so I moved it up there. So +1 SL to see Shyish specifically as well as a specific test to see the paths & boundaries of the dead for those with Second Sight. Those without Second Sight get all of that, plus the ability to see Shyish at all.

The scenario version of Deadsight sees Dhar as well, but I'm dropping that with this more permanent version.

So, question about whether the "faded" deadsight... if I take it (since I already have second sight, night vision, and acute senses (sight)), will it make a difference in being able to see the "invisible" pirate ship if we come across it?

I think that is the primary reason that I would want to retain it, but I don't know what the difference is with dropping Dhar and if that would make any difference. I like the idea of keeping it, but talents are costly, so just checking that it would actually be useful.

In other news, I don't have the evaluate skill... it isn't available to me. Looks like it is available to humans, dwarfs, and high elves, and in several careers, but not mine. Anyone else who can "evaluate" our stuff?

Can't do either!

290 XP+15 XP left from previous adv =305 XP

Buying Field Dressing Talent 100 XP
need +5 to Bribery and Drive (50 xp each) to get +5 on every skill from Career
100 xp for becoming a Physician

5 XP left

Oppps, my mistake, and can't edit anymore, I need more stats to buy first to become a Physician!

Can't do either!

290 XP+15 XP left from previous adv =305 XP

Buying Field Dressing Talent 100 XP
need +5 to Bribery and Drive (50 xp each) to get +5 on every skill from Career
25 XP for +1 Willpower (5/5)
75 XP for +3 Dexterity(3/5)

5 XP left and still not a full Physician

So, question about whether the "faded" deadsight... if I take it (since I already have second sight, night vision, and acute senses (sight)), will it make a difference in being able to see the "invisible" pirate ship if we come across it?

I think that is the primary reason that I would want to retain it, but I don't know what the difference is with dropping Dhar and if that would make any difference. I like the idea of keeping it, but talents are costly, so just checking that it would actually be useful.

I'd say that tracking the pirate ship would fall under the 'hidden boundaries of the dead' part of the Faded Deadsight talent. Normally, this would refer to the boundaries and paths of the undead, but the skull's powers are close enough to that & are related to why you got Deadsight in the first place.

If the goal was to see the ship from any meaningful distance, you'd need a lot of Success Levels on a Perception test, but with all of your eyesight-related talents you'd have more of a shot at it than I'm probably thinking of right now. Talent-based Success Level stacking can be scary.

It would be far easier up close or to examine the scene of an attack by the pirate ship after the fact. Track is an Advanced skill, but if you get an advance in that you could use it to track down the pirate ship once you come across its trail...that sort of thing. (Reminder: Track isn't in the Noble Career until tier 4 but you could always pay double rate for it or use the Training Endeavour during Downtime to buy many advances all at once to be good at it)

Had a very BIG weekend with a work all day then DM at night (with looong drives to and from) followed by a day of drinking… and I’m not young like I used to be. Will post tomorrow.

290 + 60 unspent. That’s a fair bit.

Will probably spent 50xp. 200 for career change and 100xp for a new career talent.

For Axel: it probably makes sense to find some amount of Downtime when you switch careers to Wizard. I don't want to enforce it though because I don't have a Downtime segment planned immediately. Are you hoping to leave Witch with this experience drop?

It sounds like I at least have most of my answer, but I'd still like to get your thoughts on the subject, Axel.

Do you have any ideas which college of magic you will have Axel join?

Oh, actually I just thought of a good way we could RP Axel's current situation. Maybe he's learning from the book he got (it'd help the explanation if he picked up Read/Write) and is using that to train as a Wizard. Socially, he'll still currently have all the downsides of being a Witch since he hasn't registered with the Colleges of Magic at all. But when he finally does approach the Colleges (likely with the book as a warming gift) then he'll be ahead of a the curve and already on his way toward using the Winds properly.

If we go with this explanation, don't feel like you have to commit to the Jade Wind that the book is on. We'll just say that Axel is extrapolating from the 'Jade Wind for Newbies' section to whatever Wind Axel wants to interact with.

--100 to move up from Noble:Scion to Noble:Noble in my career track (only 100, since the Scion one is complete, correct?)

--100 to buy Suave (+5 Fellowship)

--50 +5 Charm
--10 +1 Gossip
--10 +1 Language (Classical)
--10 +1 Lore (Local)
--10 +1 Melee (Parry)
--10 +1 Ride (Horse)

(just so I can use them all, but don't have enough to raise them up higher)

And that soaks up all but 15 points, so that's the end. :)

... but if we need to wait to do my stuff till we have downtime, we can. She can't really advance in the elven nobility without some word of favor from her parents/noble house I don't think.

EDIT: I do want to keep deadsight, but just can't afford it yet, and don't think we will be going after the pirates anytime soon, so I assume it will just sit there untriggered until some storyline thing where she realizes that she retains some of the ability.

Also,

What do you guys want to do with the boy? They don't want to foster him here, and I don't think that Zarine would stick him in a orphanage... and she doesn't want to return him to his pirate possibly-father who abandoned him to be killed. Maybe she could pay for him to go to school, and take care of him, kind of an informal adoption (a formal one might cause an incident)? ... or maybe it would be a brilliant political move, if she can spin it the right way... hmm.

Other thoughts/options?

--100 to move up from Noble:Scion to Noble:Noble in my career track (only 100, since the Scion one is complete, correct?)

--100 to buy Suave (+5 Fellowship)

--50 +5 Charm
--10 +1 Gossip
--10 +1 Language (Classical)
--10 +1 Lore (Local)
--10 +1 Melee (Parry)
--10 +1 Ride (Horse)

(just so I can use them all, but don't have enough to raise them up higher)

And that soaks up all but 15 points, so that's the end. :)

... but if we need to wait to do my stuff till we have downtime, we can. She can't really advance in the elven nobility without some word of favor from her parents/noble house I don't think.

EDIT: I do want to keep deadsight, but just can't afford it yet, and don't think we will be going after the pirates anytime soon, so I assume it will just sit there untriggered until some storyline thing where she realizes that she retains some of the ability.

Yes, for those with access to it, Faded Deadsight can be purchased later--it doesn't have to be now.

* Gossip & Ride are both basic skills, and so you don't need an advance in the skill at all to use them. You're only 1 skill point better.

* Melee isn't an advanced skill but it has a weird rider that you don't get the benefits of weapon features (like defensive) if you don't have an advance, so buying one advance there is doing something. See page 296.

* Language (Classical) & Lore (Local) are both advanced skills, so the one advance makes sense there. I'll note that Lore (Local) needs to have a locality chosen. Something like (Reikland) or (Ubersreik) or (Laurelorn Forests) or (The Empire). The narrower the scope is the less it will apply to but the more specific information you can get. Nothing in the book actually says this, but it also doesn't explain where things like Lore (Reikland) come from, otherwise.

* As a reminder, you don't necessarily have to take any advances in any of those skills to advance to your next career tier later. The rule is eight skills advanced up to the tier number (10 now), not all of them.

* I don't think we need to wait for Zarine to advance to the second tier of Noble without word from her family. Just like I was proposing with Axel above, she could be in the new career mechanically without formally having the social station. Kind of like lacking the trappings for her new career tier. It should be something she's working on getting accomplished though--not a bad plan for a Personal Ambition.

Oh, actually I just thought of a good way we could RP Axel's current situation. Maybe he's learning from the book he got (it'd help the explanation if he picked up Read/Write) and is using that to train as a Wizard. Socially, he'll still currently have all the downsides of being a Witch since he hasn't registered with the Colleges of Magic at all. But when he finally does approach the Colleges (likely with the book as a warming gift) then he'll be ahead of a the curve and already on his way toward using the Winds properly.

If we go with this explanation, don't feel like you have to commit to the Jade Wind that the book is on. We'll just say that Axel is extrapolating from the 'Jade Wind for Newbies' section to whatever Wind Axel wants to interact with.

I love this idea. Gimme a few hours!

Apologies on the delay.

Okay, let’s assume I spend 200xp to go wizards apprentice here if possible.

BUT pg48…

Changing to a New Career If you have completed your current Career level, you can enter the first level of any Career from your Class for 100 XP, or for 200 XP if you have not completed your current Career level. If you want to enter the first level of a Career from a different Class, this cost an extra 100 XP. Note: your GM may require in-game justification for such Career changes; after all, not just anyone can enter Noble, even if you are in the Courtier Class.

So that’s 300xp… which I have BUT not enough XP left over for buying the read and write talent.

Forgive me if I’m wrong, you don’t get a talent when you change to the new careeer, correct?

Lastly, between adventures, you can also change Career using the Change Career Endeavour (see page 196).

However, page 196…

Changing Career In a society as rigidly hierarchical as the Empire, changing Careers may require grit and perseverance. Taking time to forge the right connections, and learn what is expected of you, can help, significantly. Assuming you GM agrees, and you have completed you current Career, you can move to any Career Level that fits the story of your Character for free.

Sooooo. It might be cheaper IF I complete my character minimum requirements, the career and class change could be free if the GM agrees.

Let me know. I’ll do the math… which might leave me with enough xp to get the r/w talent.

It can be done this way.

Aaaaand, reading further…

If you have not completed your current Career, the change costs 100 XP. The time spent on this Endeavour represents making the appropriate introductions, doling out bribes, acquiring permits and licences, advertising, and similar activities.

If this is the case, I can just skip for a 100xp.

Leaving me enough for read write and another talent like arcane spell learning or aethric channeling…

After thinking about a lifetime of hiding? The grey wind and stealth seems the most fitting.

The lowest cost to change career is 100 xp. You add 100 xp if you are moving to a career in a different Class. You add 100 xp if you haven't completed your current career tier. So 300 xp is the worst-case scenario.

I'm assuming that Axel has finished Witch tier I. If he hasn't, then the cost would be 300. If he has, it should be 200.

I banned the Career Change Endeavour for Downtime because I'm not a fan of how it distorts player incentives (hoping for a Downtime to come around to save xp). Instead, I give everyone 50 xp instead.

Edit: above, it sounds as though you don't think you've completed your career tier. That would be a bit surprising at this point. What you need:

5 advances in Weapon Skill
5 advances in Toughness
5 advances in Willpower
5 advances in eight different Witch tier I skills
At least one Witch tier I talent

Most of that except the characteristic advances are obtainable at character creation. Axel should be close to finishing the career tier if not fully done.

I looked at it more and it does look like you are short of completing Witch I. Not by a TON though.

If I'm reading your character sheet right, you'd need 2 Toughness (50 xp) and 3 Willpower (75 xp). So it would cost more than the xp penalty for leaving your career tier early. (But you would get the advances)

I'm not sure how to sort out the skills on your character sheet. It looks like you weren't counting the advances from your species as counting toward career completion the way you made your notation. They do count if that makes a difference.

I think you would need to buy some skill ranks to finish Witch I. I'm just not sure how many.

--------

It's probably best to figure out how much xp finishing Witch would take, then subtract 100 & decide whether you want the advances more or would rather just ditch on the career.

225xp to close out careerwith skills and attributes and another 100 to change careers and 100 more to new class. It would give me a few more skill and attributes. It would be 425xp.

OR 300 to just jump now and still leave me 60xp in the bank to go to read write etc… OR I could throw money at it next downtime and pray the dice gods love me (that could get be pricey).

It’s cheaper to jump out now… and cross fingers against earning some XP between now and my backside getting to that college.

Once you confirm it’s okay I’ll update the character sheet with all the bits.

Yes, I just wanted to clarify options. You can do it.

Thanks. A MAJOR milestone for me… or close to it.

I have not decided yet where im going to skill up but im just going to dump the points into my current carreer. possibly that silly perception i keep failing lol

as for the boy Calph will keep him busy for at least the boat trip. However the tale im spinning is Id like to see where he wants to be.

putting him in an orphanage or finishing school is the same as putting him in a prison if he doesn't want to go to any of those places. Cabin boys start about his age. So lets see what the RP brings in.

Good idea.

Sailor isn’t a bad class to grow in either

I had purchased at char gen 3 advances in evaluate. It made sense to do so for his background and having seen many a merchant deal go down.

Let me know what I need to roll. I will be popping off and on this week as it seems that while the hours havent changed the work load seems like there is something going on "upstairs"... so still long hours but long hours of doing nothing

Calph, you rolled for everything, but we were only supposed to roll for one thing, so I think you probably need to pick one of those spoilers to know and forget that you read the others.

What is your agenda in Grunberg? I'd imagine (not an ordered list):

* report in to the Greater Reikland Trading Company (your partner in the salvage plan) - note that some of your other tasks are merchant-related and so you could get help with a lot of this from the Company and/or from Wolfhard Rothenstein
* sell the coal
* look for the owner of the ammunition & grain (the Kemperbad Grain Exchange was the owner of the grain and the shipping partner for the ammunition)
* figure out what to do about Konrad Links
* look into who the island belongs to
* get some lockpicks for the strongbox, or professional help opening it
* make a report to the riverwardens about the pirates

There are probably some other things I'm forgetting.

Probably need to do some supplies shopping as well. My clothes are basic and WERE neat. Probably need a slight upgrade and switch to grey coloured clothes, though that could probably wait until I am apprenticed.

Downtime activity to actually SAVE money this time round (I played fast and loose without realising how dangerous that could have been in terms of not having a safety net beyond M’lady’s joint purse). That will happen after the sales.

Spending some money on training might not be a bad idea for those who want to improve and have some XP to spare.

I have 50xp left.

Spending 10 to buy 1 pt Lore Magic… I’ve seen enough and the Lady has read me enough that I have SOME inkling now.

So 40xp in bank.

Hopefully I will earn a bit leading up to the end of the year and be able to buy R/W sooner rather than later. I already have Polearms +5 thanks to spending that money for training earlier, so one less thing I need to worry about.

Once I have that I will buy channeling (Grey Wind) and presumably will be an official apprentice then.

Hmm... can we divide and conquer on some of this?

--Wolfhard and Axel go to sell the coal and find the owners of the ammunition and grain? (Maybe also pick up some lockpicks/sell all of the unneeded?)

--Calph can either go with Wolfhard and Axel, or he and Konrad can hole up in the Inn for now?

--Magda & Zarine (and Hans as bodyguard) to report in to the Trading Company, report to the Riverwardens about the pirates, and ask about the ownership of the island, or if Magda has other plans, Zarine and Hans can go.

Zarine also needs to send off a letter to her mother about what has transpired since they last communicated.

... if they find any clues about the pirates, like who owned the wedding dress, if a boy went missing, etc.... maybe that will help with the Konrad question. He might have other family still alive somewhere. If we can't find anything out about him, then we can consider other options.

Hmm... thoughts?

Hmm... can we divide and conquer on some of this?

--Wolfhard and Axel go to sell the coal and find the owners of the ammunition and grain? (Maybe also pick up some lockpicks/sell all of the unneeded?)

--Calph can either go with Wolfhard and Axel, or he and Konrad can hole up in the Inn for now?

--Magda & Zarine (and Hans as bodyguard) to report in to the Trading Company, report to the Riverwardens about the pirates, and ask about the ownership of the island, or if Magda has other plans, Zarine and Hans can go.

Zarine also needs to send off a letter to her mother about what has transpired since they last communicated.

... if they find any clues about the pirates, like who owned the wedding dress, if a boy went missing, etc.... maybe that will help with the Konrad question. He might have other family still alive somewhere. If we can't find anything out about him, then we can consider other options.

Hmm... thoughts?

Yeah, I can do that, would appreciate Calph being along. As an ex dockhand and river-ish people, we are not incompatible background wise

Madga has no real plans except searching for info about how much would cost for a physician's licence, something that can be done quick I guess.

@Zarine OH! Thank you for catching that! I missed where he said pick one. (even though it was mentioned 2x).

As for reading the spoilers. I had only read the ones I passed. So That's what I had responded to.

Well, At the time of rolling I would not have trusted my dice rolls. I would have defaulted for the NO CHECK.

so @netherpongo. Let's Drop the bit about the actress.

I do have evaluate as a skill. I could have Calph stay and do merchant/dock things also. (this may save us on needing to pay for dockhands. I have strong back so Calph can do this all day)

However I would like to find some lock picks and perhaps do some research on our friend. Sure he thinks he is the son of some pirate... there have to be some sort of civil records.

If nothing else. I would like to take Konrad about the town and see what sort of work catches his eye. Seeing if he wants to apprentice or if he prefers to go to a school. Having him travel with us with all the danger is probably not a great option. So, finding family. Short of that see if he is interested in picking up a trade or going to school.

@all, So, IF im reading this correctly

I need 5 advancements in each of the characteristics associated with my 1st level of my career.

I ALSO need 5 advances in the 8 listed skills for the first level of my career.

I need one Talent from my career level.

(the things i had advanced and purchased during char gen counts towards this amount)

Then I can rank up in the SAME career for 100xp.?

if this is the case. I would like to spend 100 xp to promote to the next career level.

then IMMEDIATELY spend 100 xp to purchase the Talent Seasoned Traveler to put a local lore in career for me. (I would like the local lore of where we are currently. However since im from pathfinder and they do "knowlege local" a bit different.. this seems like i pick a region?)

that leaves me with 95xp..

I will buy 2 ranks in each of

athletics
dodge
endurance

for 60

I will buy 1 rank in

Melee basic

for 10

I will then have 25 xp left

I will spend 20 xp to pay double to put another +1 advancement into my pick lock.

leaving me with 5xp.

(if that is ok..)

Cool decision

Sorry I've been absent for so long. I'll try to get something up by tomorrow morning.

I don’t 100 trust Wolfhard

Yeah, I get that... that's why Axel should stick to him like glue.

Mission accomplished :)

still on 12 hour days 5 days a week at work.

seems it will be that way till after christmas....

I will do my best to keep up.

also the exp and skill changes that we want to do. does that take place now or during a declared down time? I want to make sure of which it is before i change anything

Away for 2 days on last min business trip and family stuff. Apologies.

Apologies all for my prolonged absence. It’s that time of year when overtime beckons (else how else could I afford to pay for the season), and shifts are at weird hours of the “OMG, THAT early!?”. Sprinkled with some interstate travel, pet and personal health issues, and that is a recipe for stepping away for what I believe has been a week or so.

I’m happy to play on if you’ll have me but posting is gonna be a bit spotty (ie may miss a day or two here and there) until after the NY. If it doesn’t fit, let me know and I’m happy to yield the spot to another.

I'm cool with that. I am taking time off work from now until the new year, so taking a break seems like a good idea to me.

Okay then that DEFINITELY works for me. Awesome.

No problem with that