GM Khouri's Murder's Mark (PfS 1e module) (Inactive)

Game Master Khouri P.

Discussion thread. Please give a brief OOC description of your character for your allies' benefit. IC descriptions can go on the Gameplay tab.

I have entered (most of) your info into the google slides already, but also I prefer doing day job and boon rolls closer to the end of the adventure, but if you want to do that now before you forget, feel free.

Rules questions or clarifications can go here as well. I recognize some of my players as my former GMs so feel free to add info or correct me if I am unsure about something.

Finally updated Salmok. Occultists are hard to understand at first but I think I got everything down. Let me know if it looks good.

Magdelina is a petite, pretty woman. She is quick on her feet, but her mind is even quicker, usually thinking about half a dozen things at once. She wears a nice warm dress and carries a handbag over her shoulder. Her hair is interlaced with fragrant herbs and twine. Tucked in her handbag her pet skunk Daysie usually sleeps, but does not produce the strong odor one would expect of such an animal. She grooms her constantly, and in fact, the rosy, sweet smell of flowers seem to surround Magdalina and her small animal friend. She walks barefoot. A slender dagger is tucked in the folds of her dress at her back.

Occultists ARE weird, but yes, your sheet looks good.

I know we don't have any actual humans, but any half-humans or people disguised to look like humans, etc. - what ethnicity do you look like you are? It is important.

Salmok's human heritage is Kelish, but his stony features make it hard to tell.

Magdelina looks like she could be either Varisian, Shoanti or Taldan. She has tanned skin and her right eye is dark brown while her left is pale brown. If asked she'll answer, "I was born and raised in Varisia, how about you?"

Please give me another day and I will make my first post!

Thanks

I said we weren't going to actually start til the weekend, so you have time. :)

There are kinda a LOT of slides and handouts and maps and stuff, so for simplicity's sake I will try to keep the current most relevant ones near the front. (Unless changing the order causes more problems than it solves.)

Standard for PbP is 1 post a weekend, I feel like most people have MORE time on weekends, so if we want to change it to 1 a day that's up to you, I will adjust to your speed either way.

Feel free to change your token if you have a picture you like more, I just copied your forum pictures.

Just saw slides were on view only - updated it so y'all should have edit permissions now.

Anyone who will want to get a harrow reading, please pick a role card to represent yourself.

Noral/GM Nowruz here.

Character is ready.

Noral - Mostly looks good - The only thing I don't see are your traits?

Oops. Forgot traits.

Will include ASAP.

Posted now. :-)

@Magdelina: The Professor doesn't intend to be mean. I'm still figuring out her personality. It tends to be harsh at first, but I'm aiming for a smoother finish. The idea is that she is so used to dealing with irritating students that she treats everyone that way until she realizes she's being a jerk. Next time she sees Magdelina, she'll probably notice and realize she needs to make amends.

Ejtehah it looks like you copied the same trait twice, oops! Don't forget to include that bonus in your diplomacy skill section as well.

@Professor: cool! no worries even if you keep her mean permanently! it's all in-character and Mag is a no-good Chaotic witch! :P I try to emulate the chaos by her going against certain norms of society and have her fly in the face of some taboos... :P Probably very annoying to Professor and Ra'geh, as she is a weathervane of emotions and could be a magnet for trouble due to her naiveté and sensual demeanor.

One thing to remember about her (well, not in-character as your PCs don't know this yet) is that she follows the path of the empath, and she "cannot help but feel the despair, pain, and other negative emotions in those around her"

(i.e. in game she takes a –5 penalty on saving throws against emotion effects.)

Also, uh, I'm accidentally too good at Harrow readings, apparently. I did not do that connection (@Nilah) on purpose. Sure let your character read in to it, but don't read too much into it as the player.

No fun spoiled. It's even more interesting is wasn't on purpose, but yeah the character is going to continue to let it get to her :)

Oh man, now I want to know!

Also if Salmok & Ejtehah want to pick a role card and question, I can get started on your harrow readings while we finish this 'combat'

Thanks

If magdelina and salmok don't post today I'm going to delay them and move on. (Since neither have botting instructions and this isn't your usual combat anyway)

Sorry I had a busy weekend. Posted - though not successful :(

it happens occasionally, it's fine I just don't want to hold everyone else up for too long is all :)

For some reason I haven't got any notifications from this campaign since my last post. Apologies: I will try to catch up!

Weird!

This is an FYI that I'm going to be away and without access to internet this coming Saturday and Sunday. I will return Sunday evening, when I will catch up on weekend posts.

thanks for the heads up :)

The Uncaged Baby Dragon encounter is a weird 'combat' situation, and why every character I make now has nonlethal options, lol. Very creative gaming folks! I hope I carried it out in a way that made sense and was as close to the rules as I could get it.

(I know some of you also GM, so I'm curious how you would have ruled some of those? I am not sure how big of a bonus is up to GM fiat without breaking the scenario, for example.)

I think you did great also with the creative solutions! ;-)

You did a good job handling that. It's always refreshing when there is a solution that doesn't involve us being murder hobos.

You did great in my opinion. Other characters with Handle Animal or Charm Animal spell or Wild Empathy could have done better than a witch here, but in the absence of such options, the rules clearly state that untrained Handle Animal is a Cha check, just like you ruled it.

Plus, it's a Midway... you can't go 5 feet without tripping over a food stand, so great GMing there too. Thanks for being flexible and rolling with this: situations like this would end up poorly if one would draw weapons and just kill the creature I think. Think of a real-life zoo exhibit: you wouldn't pull out a gun or knife and try to kill an escaped bear or gorilla... that would be extremely despicable and unlawful. You let the people with lassos, handlers with food, or park rangers with tranquilizer darts do their thing.

Okay cool, thanks for the feedback.

I was honestly worried how a group of spellcasters would handle it, so I'm glad you all got creative!

It was fun even though I rolled terribly on the grapple checks. :). The dice seem to hate me lately. But makes for good story

I shall always remember Salmok, Wrestling Gators at the Midway, His Arms Wide Opened!

It seriously took me like two weeks to stop typing Darmok first every time, lol

Ah, Star Trek!

Just googled Darmok. It's a Star Trek thing? Sadly I never got into Star Trek..

And the k is silent in Salmok if that helps!

No way. It's not silent. It's great! :)

And Darmok is here to stay! watch the episode, it's awesome!

"This episode had the longest gestation period of any episode of TNG during Michael Piller's tenure, taking around two years to make it to the screen. Rick Berman hated the premise, but Piller thought it was interesting and was determined to make it work. Piller gave it to Joe Menosky, who completed the script and focused the story on the idea of two leaders attempting to communicate, as well as using the Epic of Gilgamesh as a plot device."

--> All world leaders should watch that show.

FYI I'm horrible at riddles, so if they seem too easy or too hard it's cause I have no clue, they are all too hard for me, lol

I've had to come up with riddles for PBP before. Or rather, Google had to come up with them for me. Left to my own devices, I really only know the ones in that iconic Gollum and Bilbo scene from "The Hobbit".

I shamelessly use Google for these, which is why I'm letting the others go first. I don't deserve to yield thy answer! :P

So now that the harrow readings are over - Hajeck just kept rolling really high for her Bluff, and I kept rolling really low for your sense motives. Ejtehah was the only one who saw through it.

Formatting question that I am probably way overthinking - what do you folk prefer as headers to separate information? Spoilers? Larger text? Bolded? I'm still figuring out my text style, but I want to make sure it's in the best format for whatever technology you use to access the adventure.

I am totally fine with the way you do it! Seems very structured to me. I actually do not like too many spoilers.

Works for me. It's generally assumed that characters share their information with each other, and your method here makes that process smoother in PBP. Spoilers say "Stay out unless you're invited", which isn't always the case.