Might and magic, Lords of the Contested Lands

Game Master Chyrone

I've forgotten why we are in this town and how it relates to our current quest. It seems like we've done our bit here and more.

Not sure either. Something about trying to protect people from the overall goblin threat, and we heard of an imminent attack, and we wanted to help.

Current quest though... getting back home? Was there something else, non-gobliny?

... and edit after reading gameplay:

I don't think we can face a dragon any more than we could face those other quests in the dwarven city we had to wait for, so really not sure next. We still don't have money to rebuild, and we can't protect against the goblins either apparently, so not sure what next?

Yeah, it's not our town. We helped them repel an attack and got them a good threat assessment. They can decide what to do with that information. Some coin for our effort would be appropriate.

To refresh,

Your court historian, Wendel Tweed, suggested helping Fairbrooke and Fairhaven to open up good will for future cooperation in joint efforts in improving Harmondale.

The king in Stone City too, said that an unified Harmondale is important.

You needn't tackle the goblins solo, it's what allied towns could help with. It just needs a plan. After this, a signal's given that an aware and organized Fairbrooke can punch back against the goblin intruders.

Your worries about the wyvern, i'm not at all saying i'm pitting them against you at current level.

I'll have a post up tonight.

yeah, I was about to say, we are here hoping to eventually unify the "town-states"

apologies on low post rate, Been getting hammered with 12-14 hour days recently and I doubt its going to get better this coming week sadly.

"A day's walk?! And it's in the clear open upon a low hill, with visibility for miles around." Strom is incredulous. He looks at the town leaders but holds his sharpened tongue. Did you do nothing while an army of goblins occupied a fortification at your doorstep?

"It being so close," he says instead, addressing the ranger and others nearby, "Ah expect you've already done some scouting, such as is possible. Are there any good approaches for our stealth-minded crew, or is every avenue exposed?"

I'll have to give details, before the image of the towns and the lands becomes wrong altogether.

The townsfolk are not as inactive as the usual Golarion townies. But after the war, much of their supplies and combat trained forces, had been depleted. Massive armies tearing through the lands during the last wars (The Restoration War as well as Sandro's ravaging the living), it leaves these towns recovering, yet again.

That their numbers don't match any of the surrounding countries' provinces, is common knowledge.
It leaves to reason, that any force sizeable enough, outmatches them in combat capacity. And if such a force comes force marching into the lands during the night, there was even less one could do about it.

The central fort does not see a 360 on all of its surroundings. The Contested lands are lightly forested, and are a mix of hills (both low and high), some flatlands, and cliffs/low mountains to the north.
The fort's view does not show any of the towns nor all the lands for miles around. What it does show, is sections of the roads, and even then only from far away. The fort was built to spot moving armies, not to observe the entirety of the Contested Lands.

That's good context, and I think underscores the importance of a ranger or druid to be monitoring the nearby countryside for threats.

Strom's concern is that the Party members who are making the stealth run will be exposed near the fort. Strom has no points in Stealth so I assume he'll be doing the distraction, and I'm not clear on that part of the plan yet, and to be fair, I have offered no ideas.

Metagaming a little, we're putting a lot of faith in the story of this goblin. I'm not sure what I think about goblins having this much humanity, although the leader riding a wyvern does sound terrifying. A Sense Motive roll may be appropriate, especially considering our diplomacy efforts were resisted and IC we have no idea if they were really successful. Looking at it another way, this goblin is very cleverly leading us into a trap - it's intelligent enough to speak more than one language - and we have not entertained that possibility at all. I am personally guilty of this.

That's good context, and I think underscores the importance of a ranger or druid to be monitoring the nearby countryside for threats.

Strom's concern is that the Party members who are making the stealth run will be exposed near the fort. Strom has no points in Stealth so I assume he'll be doing the distraction, and I'm not clear on that part of the plan yet, and to be fair, I have offered no ideas.

Metagaming a little, we're putting a lot of faith in the story of this goblin. I'm not sure what I think about goblins having this much humanity, although the leader riding a wyvern does sound terrifying. A Sense Motive roll may be appropriate, especially considering our diplomacy efforts were resisted and IC we have no idea if they were really successful. Looking at it another way, this goblin is very cleverly leading us into a trap - it's intelligent enough to speak more than one language - and we have not entertained that possibility at all. I am personally guilty of this.

Earlier on, i did mention that creatures can appear by the same name, but be different from Golarion namesake counterparts.

Goblins' appearance vary per continent, to a degree, and are savage and low intelligent on all continents. Except these ones' looks and intelligence are as your average humanoid, they're just green and of rough features. Severa, for example, could attest such goblins are among citizenry in Deyja, much like a town in Avlee could be.
But there are this kind of goblins not at all affiliated with Deyja, but they are usually more employed by people needing hired arms, such as merchants or the mercenaries guild. The interesting part is the why they are this way. But i can't go spoilering that now.

I'll look up a picture to show their depictions later.

Savage Krewlod goblins: below average intelligence, about the height of a dwarf, savages.

Freeborn goblins, speak common and their racial language by default, like dwarves and elves do. Of average human/elven height, a capable people like any other humanoids in the nations.

Goblin player portraits from Might & Magic 7

Severa and Strom not yet know of them yet IC, but the party is already casually acquainted with a fellow party that has a jovial freeborn goblin as their muscle.

A heads up, from coming saturday, i'll be on a 3 weeks holiday to Japan, so checking in will be sporadic.

Hey all. I'm back, let's get this back on the road.

Tell us about Japan!

Tell us about Japan!

I went through the more known cities. Tokio (start & end), Osaka, Kyoto, Hirashimo, Nagasaki, and a few less known ones. Matsumoto, Takayama, Koyasan (town, i think, only 2600 people living there), Kumamoto.

The weather was generally very warm and humid, with an average of 32 celcius. I walked around a lot, looking to fill pages for my Goshuin book, by visiting the indiginous Shinto shrines and some Buddhist temples. Goshuin are calligraphy and stamps to form a seal that proves you have visited a place of worship.

The big cities have what you'd expect, at when first thinking of them. Lots of people, especially in the evening. Neon lights, plenty of places you can eat at. Imo, you can eat as well in a little shop as you can in a restaurant, and at prices we westerners can't compete with, at the current USD/Euro vs Yen rates.

Public transport takes a little getting used to in the big cities, but it is fairly straightforward and so very cheap. Google maps, when connected to wifi, gives you info on which public transport to take to your destinations.

I did the hike up the Fushimi-Inari mountain trail. That goes quieter the higher you get, of course. Reaching the top (only 233 directly vertical, but goes sloped and in its humid and warm climate, calls for stopping couple of times) was not what i had expected. I can't spoiler that, in case you ever wanted to make that hike yourself. But it gives a great view of Kyoto, on a below the top clearing.

I got damaged shoe soles, and my tourguide ordered new shoes through her japanese Amazon account, and i got new hiking shoes. Such a great woman.

While it's true that the Japanese people are very polite, be warned some businesses (a pub in my case) discriminate against foreign tourists in their prices. A simple drink gets charged 150% instead of 100%. Supposedly because our western currency currently stands stronger, compared to the Yen, but they won't admit it, instead giving a BS excuse. Other than that, no unfair treatment.

One other fellow traveler was a single booker, who paid to get his own room. Which led to me getting a room for my own as well, neat.
In Koyasan, we spent the night at a small Buddhist temple's guest quarters, which was open to tourists.

And we did karaoke with 7 on our final night in Nagasaki, the 2nd to last night of the trip.

All in all, it was a great 3 weeks.

Man I would love to visit Japan! Glad you had a great time.

Yeah, Japan has been near the top of my list for a long time too. Great account and sounds amazing!