Protectors of Golarion (Wrath of the Righteous AP)

Game Master Sensen

P'md you my thoughts on the applicants, GM.

I PM'd you my thoughts on the potential new characters too, GM. A lot of strong submissions! Thanks for putting up the recruitment so quickly.

Ugh, why? Just why?

In other news, I PM'd you my thoughts on the many applicants. Everybody loves Wrath of the Righteous, it seems!

At least this one doesn't carry any risk of accidentally killing them or something!

The inquisitorial hook is meant to help write Elyda out of the story, just so it's clear.

Hello, all! Thanks for picking me.

I don’t want to get ahead of myself but I’m really excited to join you so I’m just going to jump right into asking questions. I’m guessing you’ve mostly probably at least glanced at my background but I’m from Kenabres with a lot of connections to the crusades (my parents served in two of them, and I was friends with some of the people who served in the last one, maybe some of your parents, lol), and to the church of Iomedae. Did any of you see anything in any of that you thought might make for a good reason for us to know each other already? If so, what kind of relationship did you see is having? I don’t want to force any foreknowledge if it’s not a good fit but it’s not that big of a city, depend on the circles you traveled in we may have run into each other before?

Edit: oh, and on a more personal note, I’m a long time RPer (like 3 decades at this point) and I’ve been doing PbP for about 20 years now (since I moved away from my long term TT group). I’ve played pretty much every version of d&d before 4th and switched over to Pathfinder while it was still in Beta. I’ve played a bunch of other stuff too (white wolf/storyteller, gurps, palladium, to name a few) and lately I’ve gotten even nerdier and started really getting into axis and allies (mostly global 1940).

Welcome aboard! I'll see if I can't write Azira in within the next week. Might be able to do something solo with her if I get the chance, but it'll take some consideration.

I just realized my last point says I’ve been doing PbP for 20 years… that’s a typo, it’s been about 10 years.

@GM- Cool, I’m ready whenever you are. Just let me know.

Hey Azira, welcome and nice to have you here with us!

Quick answer in regards to your question: Elliot is a peri-blooded aasimar, so he has fallen angel blood somewhere in his lineage. With strong connections to the crusade and being from Kenabres, what you might know of him is that during his youth, he got in trouble with the Witch Hunters of the inquisiton under Hulrun. He had magic he couldn't control yet and was (he would claim overzealously) branded a heretic, though his execution was called off for unknown reasons. After that, he seemingly disappeared for a long time.

After rejoining public life, he recently joined a theatre group as a stage magician as a hobby of sorts.

From my side, if we know eachother, you might have seen one of his performances, one of your friends might be in the same troup, or you might have some connection to his foster family. His foster father is a smith who fought in the previous crusade and still practices his craft, his mother is a merchant/peddler and his sister is also in the theatre group as more of an upcoming center star.

I've ah, read a lot of backgrounds for this selection so I'd have to reread yours again when I have more time tomorrow, to look for hooks on your end. Sorry for now, yet I have to sleep :) For now, welcome again!

Welcome to the team Azira.

Strongest potential ties to Thesius would have been meeting him through a tavern or a location that stores knowledge. He tended to spend most of his time gathering information through books or word of mouth.

Welcome, Giant Halfling/Azira! Glad to have you, and excited to get to know Azira in-game. Sounds like you have a wide breadth of experience to bring to the virtual table. :)

As far as pre-existing relationships, the likeliest scenario to me is that Azira and Verene knew each other a long time ago, but fell out of touch. Verene is also a native of Kenabres, and her mother Alma is a human cleric of Iomedae who was probably a contemporary of Azira's parents during the interim between the Third and Fourth Crusades and then the Fourth Crusade itself. So Azira and Verene might have known each other/been friends as children/adolescents, and Verene might have trained under Azira's mother in those first few years of the Fourth Crusade, when she was a teenager and aspiring servant of Iomedae.

However, it would have been common knowledge for any of her peers in training, or those who knew the family socially, that Verene was not ordained into the Church on schedule, and instead left Kenabres on a religious pilgrimage about fifteen years ago. She was gone for over twelve years. She wrote to her parents occasionally to let them know she was still alive, but would not have kept in touch with other people - letters being too expensive. In the 2-3 years since her return to the city, she has also not sought out old friends or training buddies who are now Iomedae's servants, and has generally avoided the church as much as possible, while still doing things that ultimately help the war effort. She has buried herself in books, history, artifacts and ancient texts, done translation and language-instruction work for visitors and would-be crusaders from the far side of the world, and made new acquaintances and a few friends among the city's civilian scholars. One of them is Thesius, and one is Elliot, with the latter's matching birthmark prompting the discovery that they were blood siblings adopted out to different families as babies when the Worldwound took their parents.

In all, this might be a case of longer-lived (or just apparently-slower-aging?) races' friends outgrowing them and becoming adults, then old, in the blink of an eye, while they stay the same. Verene's mother is in her mid to late sixties now, and was reassigned by the Church to Nerosyan about six months ago in the kind of promotion that is actually a retirement, meaning that her parents both live in the capital at this point rather than in Kenabres. While Verene isn't actually as decrepit as she sometimes feels, she is and looks to be in her mid-thirties, and presumably Azira still looks like she is in late adolescence or early adulthood. That, plus the fact that Azira is now fully and comfortably ensconced as a paladin in the church of Iomedae, would probably make things awkward between them (from Verene's perspective anyway - possibly just bewildering for Azira.) It seems likely that pre-attack, the two of them would have been at most nodding acquaintances; or Azira might not even be aware before meeting up with our group in the aftermath that Verene is still alive and living in Kenabres again. Up to you!

@Elliot- wow, several potential connections there. I'm a musetouched aasimar (azata blood) and my parents were bred (in the slave pits of Katapesh) to have especially strong celestial blood, so we're the long-lived type of aasimar (Paizo actually released two different lifespans for aasimar in two different books, and Azira's background assumes she's on the longer one); pretty much all of my original childhood friends fought in the last crusade but I was deemed unready, so the first possible connection would be that I was friends with your foster father back in the day. I didn't really stay very close with those friends when they got back (because by then our life experience was very different, and they were a lot more mature than me) but I very well could have met you a few times over the years through him. Another possible connection would be the inquisition. My parents were critics of the inquisition (which they thought was distracting from the real war) so its possible that they could have been somehow involved in getting your execution commuted. If that's the case, I don't know how much I would know about it/you (I'd leave that up to you to decide) but you might know me, or at least my family, from that.

@Thesius- Not so many possible connections there, lol. Azira doesn't really spend any time in libraries or places of book learning. She and her friend group did (pre-attack) have dinner and a few drinks out pretty much every night but, being with her close friends, she wouldn't necessarily really be getting to know anyone else. Of course, she would remember you if you had made either a really good or really not-good pass at her, lol.

@Verene- The difference in aging speeds is already a component of my background (see my comment to Elliot for a little more detail), so us having an element of that too sounds great! And I really like the idea of not knowing you're back until we meet amidst the chaos. Fifteen years ago when you left I probably looked 14-15 and now I look around 18-19, so you would definitely recognize me, though I may not recognize you right away. That would probably mean an awkward conversation when we first meet but if you're open to that I'm really into it?

Despite being the bard, Thesius does not actually tend to go out of his way to flirt with people. He appreciates enjoying life where he can, but has goals that tend to take up plenty of his time.

I'm sure they can find things in common after they meet though.

Welcome, Azira! Merixia is the only foreigner currently in the group, having been born a slave in Cheliax and later freed along with her parents by the Gray Corsairs of Andoran. She spent her late childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood in Almas and now considers herself an Andoren. So she probably wouldn’t know Azira, since she arrived in Kenabres shortly before the game began.

It will be interesting to see how Azira reacts to Merixia being a tiefling, and whether or not she’s familiar with Ragathiel. He is one of the most martial empyreal lords, so it’s entirely possible that Azira learned about him in the church of Iomedae. Something along the lines of “these are some of the more obscure faiths that fight alongside us, so if you see these holy symbols they’re allies”. Merixia is a hellspawn rather the pitborn one usually finds near the Worldwound; most people can’t tell the difference just by looking, but her Chelaxian accent is a clue.

Plus most people aren't educated enough to know the differences that are there, at least among the folks you've met so far.

Aravashnial is, as is Horgus, but... that's about it.

@Merixia- I like your background! My parents were slaves in Katapesh who were sold to someone in Cheliax and freed by Gray Corsairs while en route. Obviously that doesn't provide us any pre-existing relationship but it could be an interesting connection to bond over once we realize it in game. I do have ranks in knowledge [religion] and was guessing/assuming I would have some familiarity with Ragathiel since he has a fair few followers involved with the Crusades. (Perhaps even enough familiarity to recognize the significance of a tiefling choosing to follow that path?)

Thesius, that reminds me of something I had been meaning to bring up. Even though I had not gotten the impression that he is much inclined to flirtation at all, Thesius is described as dashing and lucky, and has 15 Charisma etc. So in thinking about their past interactions, I had wondered if perhaps Verene might have observed with contained amusement how many younger, impressionable female scholars/magic students clearly had (unreciprocated?) crushes on him, or even gently teased him about said fans, in the same way an affectionate aunt or older female relative might 'innocently' ask a young man about how the girl who clearly likes him is doing. Does that fit with your mental image of him and/or their friendship, or do you think they wouldn't know each other well enough for that?

@Merixia- I like your background! My parents were slaves in Katapesh who were sold to someone in Cheliax and freed by Gray Corsairs while en route. Obviously that doesn't provide us any pre-existing relationship but it could be an interesting connection to bond over once we realize it in game. I do have ranks in knowledge [religion] and was guessing/assuming I would have some familiarity with Ragathiel since he has a fair few followers involved with the Crusades. (Perhaps even enough familiarity to recognize the significance of a tiefling choosing to follow that path?)

Haha, I thought that was an interesting coincidence when I read your character bio!

It's my personal headcanon that there are a fair number of tieflings among Ragathiel's worshipers. The story of a half-fiend who rose against all odds to become not just an angel, but an empyreal lord and a general of Heaven, would be quite compelling to a tiefling who wants to do good in the world. Plus his faithful are familiar with anger issues and how to turn them toward a constructive purpose, rather than try to deny or suppress them.

I could see them having playful banter about it.

Verene slides Thesius a piece of paper asking for him to translate it.

Thesius agrees and then gives Verene a glare upon realizing it’s calling him out on being ignorant to the advances he’s been receiving.

Both laugh.

@Merixia- I've always thought the same. I actually once built a tiefling paladin around that, though I never really got to play him. He was a sacred servant paladin (with an oath of vengeance iirc), and that archetype gains a domain from their deity- he took destruction [rage], so his (now zealous) anger could drive him into a real rage in his battle against evil. This was before the bloodrager (which can actually be lawful, unlike a barbarian) so a raging paladin was a real rarity. All that is to say, I like Ragathiel, and I like your concept.

@Azira: Thank you! I'm having a lot of fun with Merixia. She definitely has her own version of righteous wrath going on, but so far she's managed not to take it to extremes. And let's face it, automatic bastard sword proficiency is a pretty sweet deal for a cleric.

@Thesius - yes, something exactly like that! :)

My posts will be a bit later today than usual. Sorry, stuff comes up, you know how it goes.

Alright, Azira, do you have any specific thoughts as to where she'd be headed in the city, or what she'd be doing specifically? One-woman crusade against demons and cultists alike? Finding survivors and trying to find a safe place for them to stay? Just focusing on survival?

Merixia's anger does tend to burn brighter. It's unfortunate Elyda's going to go deal with the inquisitors, because I did have a bit of an idea as to what might emerge when Merixia encountered them. Oh well. Some plot points change with time.

And, oh, the places we'll go with interpersonal relationships. I still need to figure out who's where. Verene's foster parents are in Nerosyan, Thesius' father is dead, Merixia's family is in Almas, safe from the Worldwound's demons, so it's just Azira's mother and friends, and Elliot's lost foster family, who could be anyone or anywhere in the city.

Azira isn't afraid to fight demons or cultists on her own (being immune to fear and all), but she's not accustomed to fighting alone so her first priority would probably be to find other survivors to fight alongside. I was intentionally vague about where she got dropped so you could have her wherever in the city was convenient, and unless/until something more pressing presents itself she'd be headed back towards where she was taken from.

Okay, I spent a bit of time tonight updating the loot sheet. I marked off some things as traded, claimed/assigned others, put value/weight markers on everything that seemed to still need them, added some purchased goods from Seer Opoli in Neathholm that had never been added, added the new clothes from Fine Fittings and remaining ex-crusader items, and created some formulas for the tabs. Probably the most important change is that everyone can now look at just the loot pertaining to their own character by clicking on the tab labeled with their name.

As you said here, GM, we traded away much of the stuff from the cultist lair when we returned to Neathholm to rest and recover spells. I've now marked the following things as traded: masterwork glaive x3 (Leona, Hosilla, Karr); masterwork chain shirt x4 (Turon, Leona, Lavrik, Karr); masterwork scythe x1 (Turon); masterwork longbow x1 (Wenduag); scythe x1 (swarm druid); shortsword x1 (Uziel); light crossbow x1 (Uziel); studded leather x1 (Uziel), silver unholy symbol of Baphomet, silver unholy symbol of Deskari, unholy water x2.

The value of these things, assuming a 50% rate since we're asking for coinage or fungible trade goods (preferred) instead of barter: 1557.5 gp.

Value of all coinage found so far: 540 gp (460 gp, 8 pp).

I'm sure I've made a mistake or two somewhere in there, so everyone please feel free to make your own corrections in the loot sheet!

Small note re: the cold-weather clothes. According to the date and weather that Worldwound GM has kindly been tracking for us up top, I think it is summer (the eighth month/Arodus/August) right now, and so the temperatures are probably about as warm in Kenabres as they ever get. And because it's so far north, that's still only 43 degrees in the mid-morning. (A temperature that, to me, is more like the cold of a January midnight, no joke.) So that's why I thought they might be a good idea.

Thanks for all the bookkeeping, Verene. I'll take a look at Elliot's sheet later too. I think I still need to transfer his common items from the old one to the new one. I don't think Elliot ever used a lesser restoration potion. He did however give a CLW potion to Elyda.

And because it's so far north, that's still only 43 degrees in the mid-morning. (A temperature that, to me, is more like the cold of a January midnight, no joke.)

Wow, you must be much closer to the equator than I am. It got close to -10 degrees (F) here last night.

Wow, thank you so much, Verene! I really appreciate the work you put into this. I have a mild case of dyscalculia, which makes keeping track of gold difficult and prone to math errors. (This is why I make my character sheets on Myth Weavers, it does a bunch of the math for me!)

Go ahead and load Merixia up with all the heavy things. She's already moving at 20 ft due to her armor, so there's no point trying to stick to light encumbrance.

43 degrees is great weather as far as I'm concerned! I love the cold and wilt in the heat, though.

Don't forget that you're working at 15 ft. on a larger scale because of Anevia and Aravashnial. If that's informing any of your decisions, anyways.

And yes, it is summer, albeit late summer. That said, it's only going to get colder, and come winter it will likely be frostbite inducing levels of cold.

Of course! Glad to be of service. I'd like to keep Verene in light encumbrance when possible so that she can continue to have a move speed of 30 in tactical combat, and as of right now I think I've accomplished that. But if we need more carrying capacity, because we're moving at 15 feet overland speed anyway, I have no problem with her carrying things in her hands that she can drop as a free action if combat begins.

@Azira and Merixia: -10 F! My god, I would wither instantly. I live in the kind of place where people spend all summer saying to each other, "At least it's a dry heat." I wrote that late last night because I checked the temperature outside and indeed, it was 42 out. If it freezes at all overnight here, which it usually does a handful of times each winter, the weather forecast warns people specially so they can cover their frost-sensitive plants.

It hasn't gone above freezing all day. Closest it got was about -11° C or 12° F. Everything else was colder.

So when I say the wind rips heat from your bones, I write what I know.

@Azira I thought about things a bit on whether we know eachother and I like the hook that your parents interefered in his trial on some way.

One question for my mental imagery: how old was Azira compared to Elliot then? I based Elliot's current age around 22, a recent adult aasimar through the normal timescale ( I can't find the 'slower' aasimar age growth, only the roughly human one, so I have no idea atm). The third crusade was around 25 to 30 years before his birth, I believe, since he's have to be born somewhere early during or just before the fourth crusade. His trouble with the inquisition would have been around 12 years ago from now, when he was a young teenager/infant. Was Azira an adult then? A child? A teenager somewhere on their spectrum?

I could see something like, if your parents were anti-inquisition, that they might have spoken out during this trial, perhaps driven out of compassion for a fellow aasimar. If they met there, perhaps there was a moment comfort/support of sorts from Azira to Elliot as well, when he was at his absolute low? I guess they might have played together as kids, too, if they were roughly at the same point of development.

Personally I imagined the real reason his execution was called off was somehow related to the disappearance of his and Verene's parents, who were canonically Riftwardens, and that it was done in light of their apparent sacrifices to the crusade, whatever that was. But nothing about what they did was ever made public AFAIK, and Elliot himself doesn't know either.

Does something like that work for you? If so, you can fill in your role in it in whatever way you choose and I'll adapt.

The slower (and non-canon) aasimar aging tables are in Advanced Race Guide. Canonically, planestouched age as their non-outsider ancestors.

@Verene- I can't handle the heat; anything above like 70° F and I'm just constantly uncomfortable. On the flipside though, this morning when I left for work it was 0° F so I put on my heavier sweatshirt (but no coat) when I went out to scrape the ice of my car.

@Elliot- I intentionally left the years in my background a little bit vague because I wasn't sure how the GM would want to handle that. In my mind, she was born shortly after the third crusade, which would make her around 44 right now. I think that's actually a little young for the original/non-canonical aasimar (60 was when they reached maturity iirc), but it made for a cleaner background than if she had to sit out the 3rd crusade also.

If that's alright with our GM, she would have actually been 23 when the 4th crusade started, which I'm picturing as being the equivalent of 12 or so (old enough to be mad that her friends are going and she can't, but young enough to still think she should be allowed to go despite her immaturity, lol). At the end of the crusade she would have been 38, which I was thinking would be roughly the equivalent of 17-18. So when you were 10 I would have seemed maybe 15? My dad wouldn't have been in the city at that point but my mom could have spoken out against your trial, and there certainly could have been a moment of support/comfort from one aasimar adolescent to another. Though, again, that all depends on our GM being comfortable with that timetable.

@WorldwoundGM- how does the timeline I laid out for Elliot sound? If you feel strongly about sticking with the lifespan/maturation rate of aasimar matching their non-outsider heritage I can look through the race options and pick something other than human so that things still line up without major rewrites. A dwarf wouldn't fit her aesthetic at all, but maybe a half-elf might make the math workable?

Personally, I don't mind overmuch. Planestouched can be weird, and there can be exceptions. I'd say that they still don't live much longer than their non-outsider ancestors, but that's not likely to come up in-game. So... go for it!

It drives me crazy that Paizo put out two sourcebooks that conflicted with each other on aasimar/tiefling aging within the same year, waited four years until they reprinted the book to errata the disfavored one, and still got it wrong. They changed only the base starting age number and age category numbers (setting base adulthood slightly older than the human default for reasons never explained), never fixed the rest of the random starting age by class table for aasimar/tieflings/dhampir to match the human default, and left elemental planestouched completely alone. So according to their own PRD, oreads/sylphs/etc. still don't reach adulthood until 60. And if you do starting ages randomly, you're very likely to start with a 'middle-aged' and could easily get an 'old' aasimar wizard/monk/etc.: 20 + 8d6 years, where middle age is officially 35. Maybe fine for a wizard... not so much for a monk. Dhampir are even worse: your average dhampir inquisitor or cleric who rolls for starting age is going to be 55 (20 + 10d6), which is officially 'old,' with all the associated penalties. Come on now, guys.

I think it's very reasonable as a solution that to say that apparent age for planestouched usually slows down dramatically in early adulthood, while their actual lifespans are usually normal for the type of creature they are; but that there are exceptions to that as well, with some planestouched in whom the extraplanar blood is particularly strong actually staying juveniles for longer and having longer lifespans, as it was in 3.5 and the original Advanced Race Guide.

If I were forced to take a stronger position, I'd say that they just use the aging tables of their non-outsider ancestors. Dhampir, I'd keep as longer-lived, because their supernatural ancestor is much closer (a parent) than most planestouched.

But yeah, I don't have that strong an opinion on their actual maturation rates or such - I just think the idea of having human-born planestouched from centuries before Aroden died possibly still be around is kind of silly. Not sure why, when I'm okay with it for other ancestries, but there ya go.

I agree that Paizo could have done a better job on that one. Age very rarely has any impact on game mechanics so when I'm GMing I usually let players of planetouched races pick pretty much any lifespan/maturation between orcs and elves, as long as they're consistent in its application and it makes sense for their character/story. An aasimar whose who family are all a base race and have just barely enough celestial blood to have unexpectedly birthed a angel-baby should probably be on the base race's timeline, or just slightly longer, but one from a long line of aasimar or whose family tree is lousy with celestial sorcerers and things like that should (imo) live a bit longer.

Azira's family was bred for the purest possible celestial bloodline on both sides, so it seemed to me like she should be longer lived.

Sure. I don't see why not.

I hope that didn't come across as me arguing a point, I meant as just musing on the whole idea of planetouched lifespans. Either way, thank you for the go ahead!

@Elliot- I think that makes my timeline official, so let me know if/how that works for you.

@Elliot- I think that makes my timeline official, so let me know if/how that works for you.

Sure, that works for me!

Would you want to flesh out this moment of support now? Since Elliot was in custody, what manner Azira used to show support would have been purely her choice. I suppose Elliot could also just remember an older girl visiting him in prison in an attempt to cheer him up, and keep it more vague or such, but that's perhaps slightly less flavorful?

Thanks for the book keeping Verene. I was actually recently thinking about how I could incorporate tabs in to help clarify what an individual was holding onto.

@Merixia - Feel free to choose what weapon you wish to wield. Thesius knows your character can use a bastard sword, but he does not know if you are able to use a longsword. He would be willing to part with the +1 Morningstar as well should it be determined Radiance should be wielded by him for the time being.

Well, you can try wielding Radiance. Note that a non-paladin or LG worshipper of Iomedae doesn't actually get any benefits from the sword. It's just a masterwork longsword - not even cold iron.

Merixia is a cleric, so the only reason she can wield a bastard sword is because that's Ragathiel's favored weapon. (Very on brand for him, haha!) She has no idea how to wield a longsword.'

As far as planetouched lifespan goes, I went with normal human maturation and lifespan for Merixia. Tieflings in Cheliax mostly come about by accident due to the residual energies from so many diabolists summoning devils. Sometimes a particularly stupid diabolist will let a patraavex (sire devil) taint their bloodline in exchange for power or sexy times with a shapeshifter, but since Merixia was born a slave to a tiefling father, I'm going with 'accidental exposure that bred true'.

If Thesius can tell just from holding it like this that Radiance isn't responding to him the way it did to Elyda, would it make sense for him to know it will just be a masterwork longsword to him? Using the +1 morningstar with the align good scale would definitely be mechanically better for him, then.

Yes, he would be able to tell that it's not functioning magically for him.

The cold iron effect it has is from its remnants of holy power, rather than any materials it is made up of. Hence why it wouldn't function as a cold iron longsword.

@Elliot- My thought was some thing like this: My mother, who was already opposed to the inquisition (though, arguably, naively so), heard that a 10 year old kid was on trial and was like 'oh, hells no' and immediately went to wherever he/you were being held to protest the entire affair, and remind everyone involved of Iomedae's ideals and who the real enemy is. I was with her so I got brought along, but I wasn't allowed into whatever chamber her meeting with the senior inquisitors was in, so I ended up sitting on the floor outside your cell waiting for her. It likely would have been awkward at first but once we got talking I would have said all the cliched things that a 15 year old might say to cheer up a younger kid (Iomedae won't let something like this happen, my mom won't let something like this happen, they'll realize this is a mistake and you'll learn to control your powers, etc). How's that sound, and is that enough detail?

Thankfully Thesius can swap between the weapons that he has currently. If Elliot is without a way to overcome cold iron weapons, I would suggest the scale go to him first. If he has one, then Thesius would accept the scale. Regardless, he is willing to part with the Alter Self scale. He and Verene were originally using it to help with the Darkvision problem I believe.