Mr Clint's Duchy of Ashlar

Game Master Mr Clint

Sure, I can keep going until there is an exit.

Since we are losing some of the members of the party I think we should talk about what to do with loot. Anything that characters specifically said they were interested in, I would say they could have. The rest of the items could be sold or traded. The large sum of gold should still be split between the 6 and not just the two remaining.

There will be ample times for loot and gold to be had.

Completely agreed on that. Just because a PC is moving on doesn't mean that they don't get paid for what they did.

Here is the loot list that was on Zalona’s character sheet. You guys can decide what you want to keep and what you’d like to sell/trade.

So we will need totals on all those marked above with "?" marks to know the exact worth we could get from these to know worth in order to split this fairly. Also, if you see the value of any items lower or higher than you feel they are worth, feel free to correct them. I just went based on what the d20pfsrd stated.

Rhaedlaf will take 10 for a 13 with assistance from the group for +10 on appraise for a 23 total. If we can get the retail value of the items, that would be great. Then we can roll diplomacy and see how much we can sell for percentage-wise. Then we can know how much gold we can distribute.

Well if there is anything people want or that the party wants I’d say just hang onto them, but I’ll calculate prices.

Here is the list of the items that had ? next to them. There are two items that I need to do a little more work on out of game while you all find the proper buyers in game.

Thank you for that. :)

Hey all, just dropping in to thank Mr Clint for inviting me to the game. I will keep working on Ivar's background. Still watching the game thread to see what the best way to meet Nempura and Helgar. I believe Ivar would have seen Nempura entertaining in town. But don't know if there is any contact other than that.

Thinking that he may have sailed with the Sea Sprite at some point in time and wanted to ask what happened.

Zanbabe, I"m sad to see Zalona leaving the party, are you considering bringing in another character?

Hey Ivar. :) I'm not going to bring in another character. I'm kind of swamped right now and am having trouble keeping up with all of the level-ups I have with other characters this weekend already, and I just don't have the time to build something new right now. Appreciate the thought though. Hopefully we'll play together in another game soon. :)

I've gotten Ivar's backstory to being located in Languard.

As for how he met the group, I'm thinking Ivar had been one the crew members of the Valerr’ who Captain Knut Untamo hired. When Ivar saw the 'team' head onto the Sea Sprite he thought that some of the crew should go with them. When Eevi Lotta, refused to let him, Ivar took it to the captain. The captain explained that he hired the team to go aboard the Sea Sprite so he wouldn't loose any of his crew. Ivar thought his actions were cowardly, but obeyed orders. Seeing the condition of the team and the way they were treated by the captain once they returned, Ivar decided to leave the ships crew and join the team.

So a couple of question, had the captain only hired the crew and ship for that particular voyage? Or had they been together for a while?
The reason I ask, I was a little confused:

There is a hint of ‘whatever happens to them, happens’ in that statement. “I have hired a crew to sail, all I need now is a small band to go aboard, collect the items, and possibly discover what happened to the ship along the way.”

Eevi takes offense and stands up as she answers, hand on a hilt; “No one picked me up, I earned my spot on that ship.”

So I couldn't tell if it was a one time thing, or if the Valerr had sailed under Untamo and Eevi for a while.

Hah, I had just clicked on the discussion forum to post and saw your post Ivar and I was whining that it had never warned me that you had posted here and then I saw it was literally 30 seconds ago lol. Fine then! :)

Here is what I was going to post: I am going to try to sum up that RP and get to a part where we can meet up as a group asap since the recruitment is almost done!

For the lack of better terms and knowledge about a crew on a ship...
Under Captain Knut's command is his first mate, key "team leaders," followed by the grunts.

The grunts are replaceable from voyage to voyage. Those who want to stay do, grunt sailors are easy to replace at a port.
The key "team leaders" are people who have shown some kind of knowledge or skill that is critical aboard a ship and the Captain retains that handful regardless.
The first mate, well that's his right hand man. If he were to die, the first mate would take over. Eevi has worked her way up the ranks from being a grunt to where she sits now.

That being said, if Ivar falls under the "grunt" kind of sailor it would be easily possible that this trip was his first or even tenth and there would be no hard feelings if he walked away. Not to offend or talk down on Ivar, but grunts are replaceable.

Very cool, no offense taken :)

I probably will have it be his first journey with them, that way he is still fairly new to town and the characters. Also I'm trying to keep his age low and too much 'history' will age him.

I'm figuring he had saved money sailing with Tavar and first thing in port ordered the breastplate.

Have to decide if signing on with Knut was his first job in town, or if he had already had several. I'll chew on it a little, and get something up probably tomorrow.

Leaving for Columbus to see the grandbabies early this afternoon, so will not be on most of the day :)

Thanks GM for picking us all ^^

Hi everyone, glad to join your game. Had to give Ewan a last name, because the nickname Ewan was already taken here on the boards.

Ewan has had some experience on a ship as well, perhaps he's been with Knut's crew for their last voyage before the group went to the Sea Sprite, taking time off to visit his parents so that's why has not seen the group yet.
I'm not sure though if Knut and Eevi would have had much need for a purser (keeper of books/records/inventory) aboard the Valerr.

I've seen the earlier comments about needing to train in linguistics to able to fluently speak a language.
I've got 2 ranks in Linguistics and a +2 Int modifier, does that mean I can speak 1 other language fluently and have a rudimentary grasp of another (or perhaps a better understanding of two additional languages, but can't speak them fluently yet).

Welcome Ewan!

I personally like a 6 person party size and that is exactly what signed up!

I will let you know that in the child in the game is speaking a language that I am not going to allow people to pick as a language that they could automatically know. The ranks and higher modifier in Linguistics will aid in learning and understanding what the child is saying though.

There are tons of ships in Languard, being the capital of Ashlar, so don't feel the need to be tied to the current captain and ship. Lore of the Sea Sprite is known around town because it has been missing for so long.

The party currently has a running stay at the Orc's Head Tavern in Low City, and Nempura has been performing there for a short bit, so it would be possible that they would be recognizable from there. This goes for all three of our new members if you are staying at the Orc's Head Tavern then you would have heard by now the rumors of a party hired from this establishment went out a to explore the wreckage of the Sea Sprite. Those darn tavern drunks always have loose lips.

Any sailor would find welcome at the Fane of the Waves Eternal to receive a blessing from Serat before embarking on a sea voyage or giving thanks to the Mistress of Storms when returning from one.

There are many other inns & taverns that you may call home if you are looking for something different, we can always talk via PM if anyone would prefer.

Thanks GM, I didn't intend to pick up the child's language, Ewan hasn't even met him. I was thinking I might have picked up Elven in a decent level and perhaps Orcish at a decent level if that's okay. Picked it up from other sailors along the way.

Giving thanks to Serat, would be something Ewan does at the end of every voyage, so people could find him there. Perhaps Ewan would have heard stories of the group from Arn and Aris as they are brought into the Fane of the Waves Eternal to be healed.

Hello! Also super excited to be here! Arren is no sailor, but is looking for a place to stay cheaply, so a place where sailors are seems like a fine fit. She's looking for work, either as a "wizard" or a leather worker, so that seems completely reasonable. However, I still have a leftover 500ish gp, that I'd rather not have so that I can be actively searching for work, but would also rather not have disappear into the ether. Is there a party fund or something I can donate it to? Thanks again!

Is there a party fund or something I can donate it to? Thanks again!

I can add it to the party fund if you wish, but I would suggest saving it for later, as there will be many items you may wish to purchase (rods, wands, runestones of power, etc).

Make it into jewelry. Something valuable, but not easily spent in small amounts. So you can make it part of a big purchase later, but won’t be using it to pay for meals or the like.

Welcome Arren and Ewan!

Arren, how visible are your tattoos? Ivar may ask to see them, he has one too :)

"An abstracted representation of his people’s totem, the Sea Wolf. This monster looks like a combination of: Wolf, Orca and Linnorm Dragon. The tattoo of blue wode begins with its wolf-like head on his left breast and snakes over his left shoulder onto his shoulder blades, under his right arm, wrapping around across his abdomen, past his left kidney and ending above his right hip."

The engraving on his enameled breastplate is a copy of the tattoo.

That's a really good idea, making it into jewelry, I'll add it to my character sheet tomorrow, with a blurb about why it's important!

Arren has a variety of tattoos, but the ones on her arms are visible to be seen, and the scorpion on the palm of her left hand changes positions sometimes!

Thanks for the invite.

DM, I will PM you with some ideas on how I might join. In any event, I think a personage with interest in the party's next mission would have found a way to volunteer me to join, and I'd have found my way to the Orc's Head to observe the existing party. With the Mage of the Veil power, I'd have quietly done so unobserved by them until I wanted/had to introduce myself.

Very busy past few days, should have enough time tomorrow to finish up making the story for the rest of my gold, and the tattoos, but other than that does anyone have any recommendations on how to be part of the group without being having been spying on them? Perhaps rumors of their necromantic incident have spread, and Arren was curious?

@Arren: The group of sailors when arriving back in port could have mentioned something like that, though actual confirmation about what kind of undead they've faced would come from the party members themselves.

I'd reckon the sailors could have mentioned the group coming back to the Orc's Head Tavern, so if Arren is curious she could be there to ask a few questions.

I have the same problem with Ewan about that. How he would know that the group faced the undead or would be in need of more help would be for him to meet Arn and Aris at the Fane of Eternal Waves. Easy enough to overhear the group faced undead, but also to hear that the group was offered a new assignment, but needed some new additional members.

I think Ewan's long-term personal goal would be to lose his stutter. As it is worsened by a lack of confidence in himself it would be worthwhile to travel and experience more. Especially as Lyria taught him that training his swordplay can overcome his stutter, this would be why he needs something more than a job on merchant vessels to gain that confidence.
I think Ewan seeks out the party, just because he knows they might be hired for a bigger adventure than a trading vessel.

If he ever loses his stutter, he might pick up a level or two in wizard to prove to himself that he can cast magic, or just let it slip completely and prove his worth in a different way. Not decided yet.

Arren - If you were to wait a few days in game the rumors would spread of what was found on the Sea Sprite, but since they just got back to port the rumors would not have spread enough. Now at the Orc's Head Tavern there will be the beginnings of rumors about a team being hired out by a sea captain to go on a mission to do work. "Heard they each got 10 gold" "10? No I heard it was 50!" "You both are wrong, they were given 2000 unmarked crowns! It was a secret mission from a foreign king!" etc...

The sailors that were on the Valerr knew that there was some kind of major threat on the Sea Sprite since the captain ordered the crew to continue firing their ballista at the Sea Sprite as soon as the party's rowboat hit the water. The rumors among those sailers are wide speculation, but they do know there was some kind of threat.

The simplest of ways to join is to either be at the Fane of the Waves Eternal, the Orc's Head Tavern, or even have been brought on by lady Pakkanen. One last option is to jump into a scene where they are at a storefront or somewhere else. They are currently on the way to the Fane of the Waves Eternal, unless they stop off at a shop along the way to unload some of the extra gear from the Sea Sprite.

If you have anything that jumps out that you want to discuss feel free to PM me.

I'll be staying at the Orc's Head then, and try and find a good place to jump in when they return! Also finished some additional fluff.

To the three new comers. Based on what we have discussed on here or via PM, please feel free to jump into the gameplay thread where it feels most natural for your character to come in.

If you character is not where the party currently is, please feel free to type it up and put a it in a spoiler box and I would love to run the scene with you while we are waiting for the other PCs to join where you are, or for you to join them.

Let's have some fun!

I just realized I haven't added my hp for level 2. Do we roll hp or is it just half your HD +1?

It's Average+1. Also, don't forget to add your Favored Class bonus to all three of your Skill, HP, and Racial bonus

Though there is something magically fun about rolling, we will do the average. 1/2 HD +1.

Hey everyone! I want to apologize. This weekend was extremely busy for me. I am a next gen pastor and had several things happening this weekend and did not have time to even open my laptop for personal fun stuff. I think that moving forward on the weekends I will commit to one post, instead of the daily post like I was trying to do.

But lets get back to the show!

That's cool, one a weekend is fairly common, and things crop up for folks. But now you have me curious as to what a 'next gen pastor' is :)

I'm on staff at a decent sized church and I oversee your student ministry program and the transition into our college/young adult program, which is currently non-existent. Doing some group up work with that one.

In all honesty "next gen pastor" is just a dressed up name for youth pastor and college pastor.

lol, cool, that's what I thought it may be, but figured it couldn't hurt to ask :)

Hey, if you never ask you never know. We are gearing up for our fall kickoff so that really tied me up this weekend.

Cool, early last month we had our 'children's pastor/ administrator' of 40 + years retire and move. So sort of starting from scratch. I haven't done Children's ministry for twenty five years, but was asked to oversee development of some folks to get things up and running again. Still have a ways to go. I'm hoping it's not as difficult to get volunteers as everyone acts.

oh man... volunteers.... I will say that if you have been connected with that church for sometime that you have pull among the congregation that can and will help pull in volunteers. The biggest thing that I have seen burn volunteers out is last minute changes and not equipping them properly. People also no longer really want a long term commitment, so invite people to do a semester at a time. It is long enough to help you recruit and equip more volunteers, and short enough that people don't feel like they are being tied down. If you ever want to talk more hit me up with a PM.

I can only wonder at the difference in child ministry between 40+ years ago and now lol.

LOL, True, When I was in high school and College I did 'Kids Crusades' with my mom (The organizations my parents were with ordained men and women) that was in the mid 70's to early 80.' I learned puppets, magic tricks, twisty balloon tying, object lessens, skits, how to tell a story, that sort of thing. For 10 years (87-97) my wife and I did the children's church services at our church, then transitioned to adult small groups. So yeah, 25-45 years ago.

the good news is my oldest daughter has her masters in teaching English as a second language and is a head teacher/curriculum writer for a large community center in Columbus. So I'm relying on her to help me figure out what translates and what doesn't. The best thing is, more than doing it ourselves, were trying to invest in and help others. So it will be more supporting them and helping them tweak what they want to do, than actually do it ourselves.

I can only wonder at the difference in child ministry between 40+ years ago and now lol.

I'm sorry, I'm such a freaking narcissist. I was outside cutting the lawn when I realized you weren't referring to what I was doing 40 years ago, but my friends experience when she retired...

So she came to our town to go to college in the early 70's, was studying be an elementary school teacher. Started helping at the church while she was in school. She married a local guy and was a early elementary school teacher, Kindergarten and first grade. she finished her Masters degree in education while teaching. So yeah lots of years in child education, but stayed real current with techniques and changes. She was widowed while her daughters were in high school, So all the retirement plans she and her husband made were gone, so she kept teaching. When she finally retired from teaching she also stopped at the church because she moved to the east coast to be with her daughter.

So yeah she spent over forty years, my wife and I met her back in 85, our daughters were the same age and we were super close. We worked with her for ten years, but stayed friends the whole time. Just one of the best people I know.

And for everyone else not in the conversation, please forgive my ramblings. It's obviously been on my mind.

I will shut up about it now and get back to the gaming :)

Nope, you had it right the first time lol

Hey Mr. Clint, If I remember right when they tried to speak to the boy, you mentioned several versions or dialects of common. Obviously I'm playing Ivar as not a native speaker of what ever language they speak here in the Duchy of Ashlar, would it be a completely different language, or just related enough to be able to speak both, one with a heavy accent. (I'm trying to use a Nordic accent) Just wanted your thoughts on it. And would Ivar be able to read this version of 'common' I normally play him as a little illiterate, just wanted to make sure that was ok :)

The language the boy spoke in was the same language each time, fully unknown to the party. The time in Nempura's vision that the boy spoke it was in the language he had previously spoken in and in common, at the same time. But, that was more of a vision/dream state kind of thing. Nothing the boy has proven to do before.

As far as "common" goes, there is a general common tongue spoken across the lands of Ashlar but they have their own dialects and certain terms mean different things. Think English in America and English in the UK.

I hope I understand what your question was and that the above helps.

It was about the different dialects, how different they were. So if I understand right, where Ivar is from they just speak "common" with a heavy accent but not a totally different language? Or would he speak two languages? This one being his second and not as good with it.

It's your Continent, so I'm just asking how you want me to play it :)

A bit late to ask this now, but what's your opinion on VMC? I realize now that perhaps I should have grabbed an oracle curse of some kind, and would like to remedy that without changing up too much of the build, but if you'd rather avoid all that messiness, I totally get it!

That goodness for Google! I had no idea what VMC was. Variant Multiclassing is something that was asked about in the first round of recruiting for this game. I think it is neat, something that I would like to use in the future, but something that I didn't initially include. Because of that I don't exactly want to move and use it now.

But for the sake of conversation, what were you thinking?

Oh, I totally get that! Sorry, I didn't realize it had been asked about before.

Honestly, I have no idea what mystery I'd go. Probably bones for the command undead feature? Then I could tell them to destroy themselves, which would be pretty cool. I was mostly in it for getting a half progression oracle curse, something like either accursed, ghoul/hunger, lich/vampire, but the one that I think fits best is the wasting curse.

Nempura Babblebrook wrote:

(Marion, I'm taking the liberty here of assuming that since your Charisma is a 7, and we were asked to play our stat, your character is either quite ugly or not charismatic, this may affect her response when she actually gets a good look or listen to your character. Correct me if I'm wrong please. In any case, she's not in her right state of mind, so the reaction might not be normal regardless.)

I'm not one for tying charisma to physical attractiveness. Merion is just...ordinary. He is smart enough to construct plausible lies (Cunning Liar) and good arguments (Clever Wordplay), but unless he's exercising his specific skills he's not someone one would listen to or pay mind to....

Charisma measures a character’s personality, personal magnetism, ability to lead, and appearance.

Definition for a 7: Uninteresting, rude, boorish, and generally unpleasant to be around.

But I do like your explanation.

I dumped Charisma on Ivar, he's an 8 Something of a bore or makes people mildly uncomfortable. He never was 'pretty' but the scar makes it worse and he's blunt and a little self-absorbed.

My idea is leaning on “uninteresting.” No personal magnetism or ability to lead. Also there will be some ignorance of social cues, but the instinctive reaction most people would have would be “whatever. Anyway...” vs “Ugh, ick.” Especially as traits are creating a distance between the raw stat and some of its common skill checks.