GM Pudding's Night of the Gray Death (Inactive)

Game Master Tom G

Welcome Adventurers! Our final party looks like this:

Errestan playing a Warpriest of Pharasma
Hawthwile playing a Spirit Barbarian
Watery Soup playing a Forensic Investigator
KingTreyIII playing a Linkle inspired Crossbowslinger
Gyrfalcon playing a Turrey Butterhill, a famous Shelynite Bard.

Firstly let me say that if anyone wants to change anything about their character or switch it up entirely that's fine. In particular Watery Soup I thought either of your characters would be a good fit (and I sort of want to see a 16th level alchemist!)

Mechanically speaking I think the group as-is is a good mix of melee, ranged and support. I've gone for 5 players rather than 4 as the adventure is written for mainly to give us a cushion in case we lose anyone. I'll be adjusting the encounters in-line with the GM guidelines, hopefully it will all work out!

Builds

Backstory
I know that some of you have started or even finished your character builds, but I wanted to give everyone a little time from now to get all the mechanical details finalised, and to get your backstories in place. The adventure will begin with you receiving an urgent invitation from Camilia Drannoch, leader of Galt’s Revolutionary Council. Rumours have been circulating that she is gravely ill and desparately seeking aid. For some reason she has heard of you and sent a personal invitation to attend her at home in Isarn. Where are you when you receive this? Do any of you know each other already? Are you already in Galt, or has she sought you out elsewhere in the world for your specific abilities? Whatever the answers, those are just a few things to think about, discuss between you and hopefully inspire you to tweak your backstories.

@Watery Soup; if your loved one lost to a Final Blade might have been in Litran, it could potentially give you some personal connection to the story.

Gear
As I said in recruitment, we'll be using default character creation rules. Anything uncommon needs approval (except for Gunslinger), but I'd expect to say yes to most things, particularly spells.

Starting gear is:
* 1 15th level item
* 2 14th level items
* 1 13th level item
* 2 12th level items
* 3250GP

Please make clear on your character sheets which things you took in which slots, and which were purchased. Regarding the magic carpet I'm not sure if it has been made yet or not, but I did do a homebrew one when I converted Feast of Dust. That was before the Gamemastery Guide came out and I more or less just copied the Broom of Flying, but I'd be happy if you wanted to use it Turrey, especially if anyone experienced in converting items to 2E wants to give it a once-over and help get it into shape.

Character Sheets

I've made a few test 16th level characters to get a feel for it, and I think the most challenging part for me will be remembering your reactive abilities. To that end I'd love it if you could highlight anything near the top of your character sheet I need to remember. For example if you have an attack of opportunity (or more than one!). If you cast Mind of Menace every day and wish to use it as soon as you can, etc.

I'd also like to be able to see which feats you've taken at which levels and when you increased which skills. Otherwise feel free to format your sheets however you prefer.

We can get started as soon as all the characters are ready, but please don't feel rushed. Ideally we'd be ready to start in about a week, but we can go sooner if everyone is ready.

Running the Game

Inspired by another PF2 game I'm in, I intend to record the state of your current hero points in the campaign header to avoid confusion, and to reset hero points to 1 on the first of every month. I'll be making some slides for maps and images, and I'll also throw up a spreadsheet to record what your usual exploration mode activities are.

I have been trying move house for about a year. I had originally planned to delay starting this game until after the move, but after another delay I got impatient and posted the recruitment. Naturally we finally got a move date this week, we'll be moving on November 12th. I expect to be able to post with a somewhat reduced frequency in the week or so leading up to that date, and for some time afterward. Especially right afterwards when we may not have internet. Apologies in advance, hopefully it won't last too long.

And with that, over to you! I'll keep an eye on here for any questions and kick us off when everything is ready

Sweet! Thanks for taking a chance on us.

I appreciate the Carpet writeup as well. I'll keep working on my crunch, and I'm sure I'll have Qs as I go. In the meantime, do you mind opening gameplay for dot-and-delete? It helps me track posts to discussion here from my campaigns tab.

Fellow players, if anyone wants to interweave backstory, please feel free to make suggestions! I'd love to hear from the rest of yall when you get a chance about your characters as well. (All I know so far about Turrey is in this post in recruitment, and my draft character sheet.)

...And lastly, this'll be my first 2e Bard, and my first non-low-level game. I welcome both suggestions/ideas and corrections from any and all. It's how I learn!

Cheers,

Hello everyone! I felt really inspired this week and got most of Gregoth's character sheet filled out already. It does a decent job of tracking which feat was taken when, but unfortunately it doesn't track skill increases very well (of which Gregoth has the most confusing setup I think I've ever designed XD). You can check my spreadsheet for his build here, or I can add a "Level-up" section to the profile for tracking those things.

The spreadsheet also shows which items were obtained "for free" and which were paid for. There's one uncommon item I'd love to use - a keen weapon rune (lvl 13 item) - but I understand if that's not available and have a backup item picked out already.

As far as weaving backstories, feel free to read through Gregoth's (located at the bottom of his profile) and let me know if you see a thread that hooks you. I will be the first to admit that it focuses much more on his early adventuring life rather than the career that followed, so it could be fairly easy to pull him into things if wanted.

Regarding the campaign hook/start/letter/invitation - Gregoth has been feeling a pull from the spirits surrounding him towards Galt, so he would probably be in the country already. As for why Camilia Drannoch was looking for him? Perhaps she had heard of the man who could not die, no matter how he reached for death, and perhaps she thought he might be useful.

@GM - of course you'd get the moving notice this week. XD Best of luck with everything, and of course we'll be fine when you need to step away for a bit. How far are you moving?

Checking in, thanks for having me!

My character is an investigator, originally from Galt, who lost a loved one in the revolution many years ago. They've spent years trying to find a way to resurrect them, but have recently given up and succumbed to revenge. They'll start off Neutral in alignment and kind of angry, and hopefully become Neutral Good over the course of the adventure and find a better capstone to what will have been a lifetime of despair.

They'll be a forensic investigator with a medic archetype to reflect the years of research they've been doing. Mechanically, they will be using a shortbow in combat and have 2 Legendary (Medicine and Occultism or Religion) and 4 Master-level skills (Occultism or Religion, Society, Arcana, and probably one martial one [tentatively Acrobatics]) with all the others Trained. They will likely be human, and older than most adventurers (40-50 years old).

I'm okay with the alchemist as well, but I think the investigator has a better reason for being there, and I have concerns about how combat-effective alchemists are at higher levels (bomb expertise only goes up to expert - by my rough calculations they're -3 to hit relative to the investigator). If there's a significant preference for that character, I've worked on it a bit and I've tried to mechanically improve it with a little cheese - making the alchemist a gnome and taking the Razzle Dazzle ancestry feat to extend dazzle times. I'll move forward with the investigator unless someone has a strong preference.

I'm out of town this weekend (like starting 15 minutes from now), but I'm looking forward to the game and may jump in here and there this weekend if I can get decent cell phone reception.

Watery Soup, I like that you have a path in mind for your character's personal development!

Gregoth, I loved reading your background. Do you have a sense of what some highlights are of what he did between then and being 16th level, with an epic flaming sword?

DM, as Gregoth says, no rush on my end. I'm excited to dive in, but I'll need some time to finish Turrey's build up anyway...and in any event, Life Happens for all of us.

- - - -

EDIT: Not mechanically important, but my backstory includes some Snow-White-like conversation with animals. Looking now, I don't think that's a thing Bards can get in 2e. (Speak with Animals is a Primal spell.) If I'm missing something that's not costly, I like it as a bit of flavor...but if not I'll just say that's part of Turrey's legend, not something that happened, strictly speaking.

Took all day, but I FINALLY made my character!

Only really have three things to note to the GM: Bellaluna has Lie to Me, so if someone attempts to Lie to her they have to succeed against her Deception DC instead of her Perception DC; she can attack as a reaction when a creature critically fails to hit her; and unless there’s a dang good reason not to, I’m always using Ten Paces whenever possible, meaning I get a +2 circumstance bonus to initiative (regardless of what skill I roll).

Also, yes I do roll d8s for my hand crossbows, because of Crossbow Terror (which is awesome and the main reason I went into the archer archetype). And if something tries to give me the controlled condition, things get wacky (I have weird stuff against being controlled).

Awesome, a couple of builds already. I'll go over them in the next few days.

The spreadsheet looks great thanks Gregoth! I asked for the choices at each level mainly as I think it will help me ingest the characters and their abilities if I think of their progression rather than trying to take them in all at once. Keen rune is fine by me.

Errestan has told me that he's away for this weekend so we can expect his character next week.

@Gyrfalcon As far as I can tell it looks somewhat difficult for a Halfling. Humans, Gnomes, Strix and Beastkin all have options to get speak with animals, but for other ancestries 2 class feats for a primal spellcaster dedication, or animal trainer dedication appears to be the cheapest way to get it reliably. There's also trick magic item. Perhaps as yo say it's just part of his legend (unless someone else knows an easier way)

@Bellaluna Looks good!

Ooh interesting. How does a human so it? I've gone back and forth a bit about human versus halfling. Could go either way.

BTW, my build is still pretty rough, feel free to review more settled ones first...but feedback welcome on my draft if welcome too.

This is my rough build. Some of the feats are out of order narratively, but that shouldn't matter.

She was a young, aristocratic, concert pianist, whose husband was taken by the Gray Gardeners. She took the body and tried to have it reincarnated/resurrected, but by the time she figured out how to do it, the time limitations had elapsed. 20 years later, she's ready to move on with her life, and returns to her native Litran to lay his body in his family's plot.

Her name currently has two special characters, let me know if this is annoying. She will likely go by Félicité, but I can make it Felicity if that makes things easier.

Humans can take two ancestry feats: Adaptive Cantrip followed by Adptive Adept, that gives them a cantrip and a 1st level spell from another tradition. I don't know that I'd recommend it, but maybe you've also got your eye on a primal cantrip?

Inevitably I'm going to forget some of your many abilities while we're playing, just shout and we can retcon as necessary.

Updated. With everyone's (players and GM) permission, Félicité will begin the adventure formally Neutral Evil (she's consorted with and made bargains with some very evil beings in her past), and will find reasons to move to NG throughout the Adventure. I can start her as Neutral, otherwise, she'll just start a little further into her journey.

Félicité, no concerns on my end, if it works for the DM.

New build iteration of Turrey (and some more Qs for our esteemed DM) coming soon. End of my day, I hope.

Oh yeah, I should also state this: unless otherwise noted (or if it would make zero sense), Bellaluna is only wielding one of her crossbows (the one that’s ACTUALLY etched with the weapon runes, to be more specific) while in exploration mode, so she has a free hand while exploring. This’ll be mostly negligible as Ten Paces will allow her to draw her other crossbow as she rolls initiative.

@Bellaluna Noted. I counted your skills wrong, sorry about that. All looks good.

@Félicité I'm a little nervous about starting you as evil honestly. But the redemption arc is appealing, so lets do it. Be warned though, if this were a book there's no chance at all she'd survive to see the end with a story like that; you're tempting the dice-gods to smite her!

Errestan tells me he's hard at work on a character and hopes to have it done by the end of the week, he's switched from a warpriest to a champion as he was worried that only having expert strikes would be too limiting in melee.

If you're nervous about the designation, I can make her formally neutral. But I want to make sure I address any concerns to make sure there's nothing we're sweeping under the rug.

The concept is that she's spent a decent amount of time making deals with evil creatures. She's not sympathetic towards them - as a matter of fact, I've selected her item-based resistances (fire, acid, negative) around the assumption she's been fighting them (per the end of her background narrative, my assumption is that deals with daemons and demons are not straightforward). She's far more sympathetic when it comes to humans, probably borderline neutral good (I tend to drift towards NG naturally, personality-wise) - she's got a lot of nonmagical healing and the ability/willingness to help PCs. From the PC-facing side, she'll probably be indistiguishable from a N/NG character.

I hope she does wrestle with a very bad decision she's made in the past. :)

If anyone else has concerns, I'm totally willing to put an N in her tagline - and more importantly, willing to change some of the concept if that's a concern as well.

Hey DM Pudding, thanks for your notes (corrections and suggestions).

1) It seems that at 20 Dex, no base armor is really better than Explorer's Clothes. For Turrey, a Harmonic Tunic (same item but subbing explorer's clothes for the chain shirt) would be amazing. Is there a chance that Turrey could've had one made for him over the course of his career? If not, I'll stick with the Hauberk. (Aside, I'm missing some advantage of the armor over the clothes, please let me know.)

2) While I'm talking custom magic items, what do you think of a hat or broach that allows Speak with Animals? If that seems like a reasonable item, I see that a Hat of Disguise (Greater) gives a 2nd level Illusory Disguise At Will and costs 340 GP. Does that seem like a good price equivalent? (If you're reluctant, no worries on my end. It's really more of a flavor thing...and as discussed can just be part of Turrey's legend...I'm sure he embellishes generously for the benefit of a good story.) ;-)

3) Just FYI, I realized that Helpful Halfing doesn't really do much, now that I can auto-crit on Aid anytime I can Inspire Competence. While I'm sure there'll come a time when I can't manage to sing or dance when I want to aid, I've traded out that, and a few other feats.

I still haven't picked spells, but wanted to share the latest build so DM Pudding (or any of yall) can comment/suggest/correct. Here's the latest sheet, and here are's my draft gear

BTW, Félicité, you mentioned earlier that you were deciding between going Legendary in Occult or Religion. If it matters to your decision, I plan to go Legendary in Occult next level (and will never get near that at any other knowledge skill). Of course, if Occult fits your image or build better, it'll be fine for two of us to be Legendary Occultists.

@Félicité That clarification makes me feel much better; I was just concerned that she was going to start off being actively evil toward other party members or NPCs. As you've described it is totally OK

@Turrey I'll have a look over that tonight thanks. As far as I'm aware if you have 20 Dex there's no difference between armour and explorer's clothing (provided that you meet the strength requirement to avoid the check penalty). I don't want to homebrew any additional items, so we can stick with the Hauberk and the animal speaking just being embellishment.

As a self-identified rules lawyer, I do have a few things to weigh in on:

At 20 Dex, all armor is effectively the same. The “armor bonus” (I’m aware it’s actually an item bonus) plus the Dex cap of almost all armor equals +5 (not accounting for potency runes). The exceptions being padded armor (which totals to +4), and all heavy armors (which total to +6). If one isn’t proficient in heavy armor and has a decently-high Str, then which armor you actually choose to wear is primarily up to: the total Dex you have (since medium armor is more keyed for use by those with lower Dex to reach that +5 as easily as possible), and the traits on the armor itself (and obviously which armors they are actually proficient in).

TL; DR: at 20 Dex it doesn’t really matter which armor you pick; you might as well go with explorer’s clothing for the comfort trait in the fringe case that we get attacked in the middle of the night.

I personally chose an invisible chain shirt (upgraded with a greater resilient rune, because I am allowed to do that with specific magic armors) because I like the flavor of appearing to be unarmored, and because it gives the armor the comfort trait.

Side note: harmonic hauberk is…real clunky by RAW. It requires ALL auditory effects to attempt to counteract it in order to affect the wearer, and (as defined in the composition trait) all composition spells with a verbal component (which is most of them) are auditory effects. Thus, Turrey must roll to counteract his (assuming gender) own armor every time he casts inspire courage or it just won’t affect him (the same is true of the armor’s own Activation). To be perfectly fair, though, this just seemed like an oversight from the person who wrote the armor, and it would be a fair house rule to say that only hostile auditory effects need to counteract the armor; just thought I’d bring it up.

@Turrey: A few notes looking over your character sheet: 1) How do you have a class DC? Spellcasters don’t (or at least shouldn’t) normally have class DCs. 2) Do you have a feat that lets you add your level to untrained skills? I’m not seeing any of the usual ones that grant that. 3) I would put “polymath” in parentheses next to Multifarious Muse to avoid confusion.

A reason that you might want armor even with +5 DEX is in case you get Clumsied. If you have, say, leather armor, you still have full AC at Clumsy 1.

Watery Soup, that's interesting to know, thanks!

Bellaluna, thanks for the review and notes! 1) I used pathbuilder2e.com to build Turrey (who uses he/him, yes!) an it just added the Class DC. I assume it means my spellcasting DC. 2) That's from Eclectic Skill. 3) Good call. I think I can edit the PDF it outputs, so I'll do that next time around.

GM Puddling, take your time looking over the latest build. No worries about not homebrewing anything else. I'll stick with noncustom gear (other than my awesome Carpet of Flying). When you get a chance, can you clarify how you play the Hauberk? Does Bellaluna's "non-hostile" clarification make sense to you?

Any other suggestions are welcome. Yall are helping me bone up on my proficiency with 2e.

Cheers,

A reason that you might want armor even with +5 DEX is in case you get Clumsied. If you have, say, leather armor, you still have full AC at Clumsy 1.

You…you are aware that clumsy doesn’t actually lower your modifier, right? It just imposes a penalty to stuff that includes Dex.

A reason that you might want armor even with +5 DEX is in case you get Clumsied. If you have, say, leather armor, you still have full AC at Clumsy 1.

I'm not certain that that's how it would work - Clumsy doesn't reduce your Dexterity modifier, it applies a penalty to the things you add your Dexterity modifier to.

Your movements become clumsy and inexact. Clumsy always includes a value. You take a status penalty equal to the condition value to Dexterity-based checks and DCs, including AC, Reflex saves, ranged attack rolls, and skill checks using Acrobatics, Stealth, and Thievery.

@Turrey - what spells are you looking at?

Wait, so your AC is not lowered when Clusmy, or having a +1 item bonus wouldn't help it?

Wait, so your AC is not lowered when Clusmy, or having a +1 item bonus wouldn't help it?

You're AC IS lowered, but having an item bonus to AC doesn't do anything to clumsy; you take a penalty to dex-based stuff (including AC) equal to your clumsy value, period.

Huh, I've always thought that you took the penalty to DEX, but I just re-read the Clumsy rules, it's a penalty to Dexterity ... based checks.

Welp, good thing I didn't take leather armor for Félicité on the assumption that it would work.

My read on the Hauberk is that the author almost certainly didn't intend for it to be incredibly punishing for a bard to wear, so I'd say you can choose to forgo that particular "protection" whenever you wish.

For our PF2 experts, counteracting is one area I struggle to get my head around. Would you use the level-based DC for the Hauberk's counteract DC (Level 13 = 31)? This came up during a game a few weeks ago where a creature's constant true-seeing needed to attempt to counteract the invisibility from a cloak of elvenkind, and I couldn't find concrete rules on the DC, just:

...The GM can also calculate a DC based on the target effect’s level...

And then for the counteract bonus, it's not always clear to me what to use. For example if a Harpy's song targeted Turrey, would you use the DC of the effect -10? Or the the Harpy's performance skill? Something else?

My read on the Hauberk is that the author almost certainly didn't intend for it to be incredibly punishing for a bard to wear, so I'd say you can choose to forgo that particular "protection" whenever you wish.

For our PF2 experts, counteracting is one area I struggle to get my head around. Would you use the level-based DC for the Hauberk's counteract DC (Level 13 = 31)? This came up during a game a few weeks ago where a creature's constant true-seeing needed to attempt to counteract the invisibility from a cloak of elvenkind, and I couldn't find concrete rules on the DC, just:

Core Rulebook wrote:

...The GM can also calculate a DC based on the target effect’s level...

And then for the counteract bonus, it's not always clear to me what to use. For example if a Harpy's song targeted Turrey, would you use the DC of the effect -10? Or the the Harpy's performance skill? Something else?

It's pretty subjective, but this is the general steps I go through:

If the effect lists a counteract level/bonus, then obviously use that.

If neither of those are listed, then the counteract level is equal to the level of the spell (if it is a spell) or half the creature's level rounded up (in the case of the harpy's song, it would be a counteract level of 3). For the counteract bonus/DC, if it's a spell then just use the spell DC (or 10 - the DC for a bonus). If it's not a spell, then use the DC of the effect (or 10 - the DC for a bonus; for the harpy's song that would be +11). If a DC isn't listed, then use the level of the effect alongside this table to determine the DC (for a bonus it would be 10 - this DC).

So for the hauberk, it would be a counteract level of 7 (13/2 = 6.5, rounded up to 7) and a counteract DC of 31* (since the table shows the standard DC for a level 13 thing is 31).

TL; DR: It's honestly kinda subjective and a case-by-case basis, but there is a bit of a process to determining the counteract stuff.

*Though an argument could be made that the counteract DC would be 30, since later on in the item it talks about counteracting silence and lists a counteract bonus of +20.

That's great thanks for the help.

@Turrey I've looked at your character sheet and your gear and everything looks great to me. The crystal ball is uncommon, however it's a great item and I don't think this module will be ruined by throwing in some scrying, so I'm good with it.

@Félicité I've looked over your sheet and it looks great, however I think you might have too many items? Could you break them down by which ones are the free ones (1x15th, 2x14th etc), and which ones are paid for? For example looking at what you've listed, the ring of resistance and one of the +2 greater striking weapons would be 2 14th, the winged rune is a 13th, the greater fire resistant rune is a 12th, grim sandglass the other 12th, which leaves another +2 greater striking weapon as the 15th level item, but then there isn't enough money for the remaining gear.

Errestan tells me he's hoping to have his character ready for Sunday, and since everyone else is ready or nearly ready I'll get to work on opening gameplay up for character and adventure intros

Spreadsheet

Because I've revised my items quite a few times, it's possible that I forgot to delete some items on my character sheet from past iterations. I'll do an audit this weekend, but the spreadsheet is what I've been working on, so if there's a mismatch between the character sheet and the spreadsheet, please favor the spreadsheet.

I just noticed that Felicite (my laptop can't do special characters easily) and I both have Incredible Scout, which is, well, redundant to have two people with it. I think it would be best if Bellaluna kept it (and made Scouting her exploration activity) while Felicite switched to Searching (legendary in Perception lets you see a lot!).

I can switch out the feat. Any suggestions? I think my second choice was either Thorough Search or Expeditious Search. I could take them both, and drop, say, Fleet.

Félicité's name with the accents is in her tagline, you should be able to double-click it and copy-paste. I've tried to keep from making 10 posts so I can change her name if people find it annoying.

Copy-pasta works for me, Félicité. (I reserve the right to sometimes just type it without the accents from my phone, but I like that you used them.)

Also, while we're optimizing our builds in context of each other, did you see my Q to you upstream:

Félicité, you mentioned earlier that you were deciding between going Legendary in Occult or Religion. If it matters to your decision, I plan to go Legendary in Occult next level (and will never get near that at any other knowledge skill). Of course, if Occult fits your image or build better, it'll be fine for two of us to be Legendary Occultists.

...

And Gregoth asked about spells. I hope to pick those this weekend, but I'd love suggestions. I'm still reading through them all, and this'll be the first caster I play in 2e. (I've been looking at the three guides listed on Zenith's Guide to the Guides as well.)

Félicité, I think the problem is with your property runes. A +2 Greater Striking weapon is a level 12 item, but a Greater Fearsome rune is itself a level 12 item. So you'd either have to use two slots for both of those things, or pay for one of them with cash. Similarly with greater acid resistant, thundering, winged, returning and brilliant; they all need paying for separately.

Turrey choosing spells will be a challenge for sure. I've not played a high level spellcaster either so the only advice I'd really give is try to find good spells to put your low level slots to work. Low-level damaging spells are unlikely to be effective against anything you'll face, as well as anything with the incapacitation trait or that relies on spell level like dispel magic. They're still good candidates for heightening though. I don't want to recommend any in particular because I know what you're going to face, but I will say that I think inner radiance torrent has been marked for errata because it scales too fast; if anyone picks that I'll probably have to look at addressing it as we're at the level where it will affect us. (I think it's 56d4 damage for the 2 round version heightened to level 8!)

@GM: Oh, I see. I'll need some pretty dramatic revision in my items, then.

For clarity, shouldn't the +2 greater striking weapon counts as a Level 12 item (greater striking rune) plus a Level 10 item (+2 rune) plus a Level 0 item (shortbow)? Or do the fundamental runes count as a unit?

---

@Turrey: I'll do Legendary in Religion, instead.

Yeah the magic weapons are a little weird; they're in the treasure table both as the rune itself, and as the magic weapon. I suppose the idea is by the time you get magical weapons the price of the weapon is negligible.

Félicité's name with the accents is in her tagline, you should be able to double-click it and copy-paste. I've tried to keep from making 10 posts so I can change her name if people find it annoying.

*Facepalm* Why didn’t I think of that?

Yeah the magic weapons are a little weird; they're in the treasure table both as the rune itself, and as the magic weapon. I suppose the idea is by the time you get magical weapons the price of the weapon is negligible.

From this area: “If the player wants armor or a weapon with property runes, they must buy the property runes separately, and for armor or a weapon made of a precious material, they must pay for the precious material separately as well.”

So from the sounds of it, the fundamental runes and the item they’re attached to count as a unit, so a +2 greater striking shortbow would be a single level 12 item (rather than a level 12 rune, a level 10 rune, and a level 0 weapon), but a +2 greater striking brilliant shortbow would be two level 12 items (“one” level 12 weapon with fundamental runes, and one level 12 property rune).

This brings up something interesting: GM, do you want me to treat my invisible chain shirt with a greater resilient rune as a single level 14 item, or as a level 13 item (the invisible chain shirt) and a level 14 rune (the greater resilient rune)? Basically, it's a question of if I get an extra level 13 item or not.

A few rules-lawyer-y things to throw around the table (gonna organize it a bit strangely to keep each talking-point contained within a paragraph):

@GM: So, uh, this hasn’t been addressed, but Night of the Gray Death is sanctioned for PFS. Are we doing this for PFS credit? (All PFS2e stuff is run in Campaign Mode, so it shouldn’t be a huge bother to add credit to this)

@GM: Some weird rules ambiguity with Grim Swagger that I want to get your input on. Do I roll a single check and compare that to the Will DCs of applicable targets (technically not a “target” effect, but beside the point), or do I roll separately for each such target? By RAW, it’s the latter, since it doesn’t specifically state that I only roll a single check (like how it says it in Showstopper), but I could definitely see some table variation and would like to see how you read it.

@Félicité: Completely unrelated to everything, but you are aware that Chopin’s first name is actually spelled “Frédéric,” right (as in more special characters)?

@Félicité: Not sure how the GM wants to handle this, but you do speak 6 different uncommon languages; you usually gain access to one such language based on the region you grew up (Hallit in this case). Not sure if the GM wants to heavily enforce that whole thing, but I thought I’d bring it up.

@Félicité: This is just me nit-picking, but the adjective form of Galt is “Galtan,” not “Galtian”; there isn’t an i.

@Turrey: You might wanna swap out Incredible Initiative; with me Scouting I already grant a +2 circumstance bonus to initiative.

@Turrey: My only real note with regards to spells is to remember that signature spells exist, and that they work both ways (you can freely heighten and un-heighten signature spells). i.e. if you put magic missile in your repertoire as a 5th-level spell and made it your signature spell for that level, then you could still be able to freely cast it as a 1st-level spell.

@Gregoth: Your class DC is off by 10.

Apologies for backseat-GMing; it’s difficult for me to turn it off at times.

Turrey with spells

As always, comments welcome!

Barring any corrections or suggested improvements, I *think* I'm done. (Nope, just remembered languages. Prolly other a few small things. Can't do more now though.)

EDIT: Just saw the suggestion to swap Incredible Initiative. I'll do that too. Thx.

From this area: “If the player wants armor or a weapon with property runes, they must buy the property runes separately, and for armor or a weapon made of a precious material, they must pay for the precious material separately as well.”

Ah thanks I knew I had read that but I couldn't find it in the book.

This brings up something interesting: GM, do you want me to treat my invisible chain shirt with a greater resilient rune as a single level 14 item, or as a level 13 item (the invisible chain shirt) and a level 14 rune (the greater resilient rune)? Basically, it's a question of if I get an extra level 13 item or not.

I would say that since it's a special level 13 magic item that is permitted to have its fundamental runes upgraded, that we should call it a level 13 item for the invisible shirt and then a level 14 item for the greater resilient rune. Sorry!

@GM: So, uh, this hasn’t been addressed, but Night of the Gray Death is sanctioned for PFS. Are we doing this for PFS credit? (All PFS2e stuff is run in Campaign Mode, so it shouldn’t be a huge bother to add credit to this)]

I addressed it in the initial recruitment post, but yes I'll be offering chronicles for PFS credit.

@GM: Some weird rules ambiguity with Grim Swagger that I want to get your input on. Do I roll a single check and compare that to the Will DCs of applicable targets (technically not a “target” effect, but beside the point), or do I roll separately for each such target? By RAW, it’s the latter, since it doesn’t specifically state that I only roll a single check (like how it says it in Showstopper), but I could definitely see some table variation and would like to see how you read it.

The text to me suggests that you only make one check, and compare it against multiple DCs, and that seems like it would be the easiest to run at the table so let's do that.

On the topic of languages I actually ignored everyone's languages when going over character sheets (shame on me), but I would prefer it if we followed the rules as much as possible, so if you want to access an uncommon language not available in your home region (or a region your character has lived for some time), then you might consider the multilingual feat to access those. Without wanting to spoil anything I will say that the language barrier is not going to be a focus of this adventure, but that if you wanted to invest in a language you'd probably have the most opportunities to use infernal.

Apologies for backseat-GMing; it’s difficult for me to turn it off at times.

No problem! It's a great help. Don't be afraid to let me know when I'm getting things wrong during gameplay either.

Finally a question for you all for no particular reason. You've settled on your starting gear and are ready to adventure. Is there a single common item of 16th level or lower that your character would be especially happy to find on a monster or receive as a gift? No worries if not, just an idle question ;)

I suspect many folks would be happy to find a +3 weapon potency rune - or at least the folks who use weapons. XD

Bellaluna wrote:

@GM: So, uh, this hasn’t been addressed, but Night of the Gray Death is sanctioned for PFS. Are we doing this for PFS credit? (All PFS2e stuff is run in Campaign Mode, so it shouldn’t be a huge bother to add credit to this)]

I addressed it in the initial recruitment post, but yes I'll be offering chronicles for PFS credit.

I’m completely blind, apparently.

@Turrey: I would recommend having at least one damage-dealing cantrip, just in case. Otherwise, it’s a very interesting spread for a support bard.

Hmmmm. Right now I used a L14 item (Singing Shortbow) to get a 3d6+2 (piercing) + 1d6 (sonic) shortbow attack.

Should I have a damage dealing cantrip (e.g. Telekinetic Projectile: 2 actions for 30' range 8d6 spell attack via throwing random objects at people) in addition? Instead?

My thought was that 2 actions might be too much to spend on 8d6 damage, when I could do 4d6+2 with one action...but perhaps that's silly. I could imagine that maybe I should trade in the bow (getting some other L14 item) and rely on my cantrip, when I don't need "bigger guns". Or maybe I want to keep both, and have some rounds where I shoot an arrow AND fire a telekinetic projectile?

Whadda yall think?

Follow up: Wondering how useful Shield will be for me, and whether I should trade that for TK projectile, to keep that option open?

I know Bullhorn will probably rarely be practical, and Prestidigitation may not be crucial either...but both feel like they fit Turrey really well.

(And hey, if I can manage to make great use of Bullhorn, how cool will THAT be??)

As far as languages, my default are Common and Halfling, and I've added Sylvan and Elven. (The former to talk to my summons--and because there must be some great songs written in it--the latter because how else could he have been "a rare invited non-elven guest musician in Kyonin performing The Starfall Sonnets on an outdoor stage in the enchanted Fierani Forest"?

...And I hope to intro Turrey in gameplay by end of day!

@Bellaluna: Félicité's languages on her sheet are wrong, although I think she still has too many Uncommon languages. I could not figure what language daemons spoke and what the local language in Galt was, so I put in a bunch of placeholders. Turns out a lot of extraplanars speak Draconic so she currently has (Galtan local = Hallit?), (mummification local = Osirion?), (daemon local = Draconic), and the rest are TBD.

@GM: Can I have both Osirion and whatever the Galtan local is? I've been meaning to look it Galtan in LOWG but I've been working on items. They'd be Uncommon but regional human languages. Never mind, I'll pick up Multilingual somewhere along the way, I have lots of skill feats.

@Bellaluna: The familiar is a placeholder right now, I will spell his name appropriately in the final version, although I am not 100% sure it would have the two é's. I think there's a Polish spelling and a French spelling. Edit: Polish is Fryderyck, French is Frédéric. Félicité is likely to go with the French spelling.

@Turrey: The nice thing about TKP is that it can deal B, P, or S. Bows only deal P.

Hi everyone, sorry for not posting much yet. It's been a really hectic couple of weeks. I'm nearly done with my character now, just a few more items of gear to sort out.

I will be playing Kaldren Aster, a human Redeemer of Pharasma with a few Cleric dedication feats thrown in. I'll post some back story and some more details soon. Buf for now, here are my item choices for the free items.

If I've made any mistakes or anyone has suggestions, please let me know. I am still unsure about the elemental damage type, resistance element and the fortification rune (as it puts me right on the edge of being encumbered).

Good to meet you, Errestan. Looking forward to learning more about Kaldren Aster.

Nice to meet you, Errestan.

Félicité's revised sheet is up, she took Multilingual and went Legendary in Society. This will give her four Uncommon languages, mummification = Osiriani, reincarnation = Vudrani, resurrection = Celestial, Daemonic. I know the GM said Infernal would be more useful, but it's way more in character to have gone pleading to Urgathoa's daemons; Félicité has no interest in selling her own soul.

If the items are okay, I think Félicité is good to go.

I always forget to mention this until it comes up, but I avoid posting on Sundays for a combination of religious and mental health reasons.

Also (and I’m aware that I’m being excruciatingly nit-picky when I say this), but…

The manor of the Camilia Drannoch is a short walk from the Monolith, the blackened fortress and prison that serves as the seat of government in Galt. Those of you who know the city may choose to take a longer path around the monolith, because the Final Blade "Madame Margery" that stands in front of it never fails to provoke dread in those that witness it.

Galt’s infamous guillotines are (as far as I can find) always referred to as “final blades” (meaning italicized and non-capitalized). And I believe that the final blade in Isarn is “Madame Margaery”; you were missing a second “a.” (I only mention this because Madame Margaery is part of Bellaluna’s backstory.)

Side note: I believe Madame Margaery was actually named after the inventor of the final blades: Margaery San Trayne.

I’ll try to have something up in Gameplay later today.

In Galt's short history the small nation has undergone a series of unending rebellions, each one violent but ultimately inneffective at achieving real change. The only constants have been the Gray Gardeners; ruthless masked enforcers who act without accountability, and the Final Blades, the magical guillotines they use that take souls as well as lives. Now after so long there are whispers of events that might change the cycle of destruction, and of the legendary heroes that might change the destiny of a nation.

I'm looking for 4 players for a game of Night of the Gray Death, a module for level 16 characters, and you will level up to 18 during the course of the adventure. It hasn't been sanctioned for PFS yet, but if it gets sanctioned while we're playing I will give out chronicles for it as well. Recruitment will be open for a week, so until around 20:00 BST 29th October. We'll be playing here on the Paizo forums, using Google Slides for maps.

I'm not looking for builds at this stage, creating level 16 characters is a fair amount of work so a character concept that you'd be interested in playing will be sufficient. Ancestry, Backstory, Class will do, perhaps with a thought to where your build will go, or which archetypes you'll be dipping into. I'll make a selection based on the player / character / team dynamics.

About me
I've been playing and running PF2 since launch, though the highest level I've run so far is a conversion of Feast of Dust which ended at 14th level; this will be the highest level content I've run for PF2 yet. It's also the first time I'll be running PF2 play-by-post, which is decision of questionable wisdom but one I've nevertheless made! I like to run fairly quick games that aim for a post rate of about one post per day. When I have time I also like to make reasonably length posts. You can see some examples of my most recent modules here:

- The House on Hook Street
- Carrion Hill

About the Adventure
“Night of the Gray Death” is a Gothic horror adventure in the vein of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories. The adventure includes a notice that a higher-than-usual amount of XP comes from investigation rather than combat. That said it is still a Paizo adventure so there is plenty of combat. It also sees a chance for your characters to have a significant effect on the state of Golarion, and anyone who enjoyed the spooky setting of PFS adventures set in Galt (especially 9-20 Fury of the Final Blade) will enjoy the setting and plot. There are no adventure specific backgrounds.

Character Creation Guidelines

We'll be using the default rules for character creation, with no variant rules like Free Archetype. Anything uncommon or rare will need approval. I think it's likely I'd allow most options, but I'd like to have the chance to confirm that. Gunslingers and Inventors are common (because they're new and I'd be excited to see one), and adopted ancestry is uncommon (I'm not ruling it out, but I have a weird aversion to adopted characters and I'd prefer it if the whole party wasn't adopted by gnomes). I'd also allow playtest Psychics and Thaumaturges if anyone wanted to try one of those. There's no need to build an actual character at this stage, but if you can't help yourself, Starting gear is 1 15th level item, 2 14th level items, 1 13th level item, 2 12th level items, and 3250GP

What I'll be looking for

- A 16th level adventurer has likely had a storied career. How did your character become so powerful? The adventure presumes that you are somewhat famous (you will receive an invite at the start based on your reknown), so why is that?
- A background that gives you motivation to help Galt would be great. Perhaps you are from Galt, perhaps a loved one met their fate at a final blade, etc. Having a strong reason to pursue the adventure will help the narrative
- I'm a sucker for righteous characters, and the story of this module is dark so they would fit well. Non-good characters would need a very compelling backstory.
- Having an establised record on the forums here would be helpful, I especially favour posters with a record of expressive posts. If we've played together before, even better!
- Some experience with PF2 is a must. A 16th level adventure is probably not a good choice for your first time.
- This is a brand new adventure so is unlikely to be an issue, but I prefer to run for players who have neither read, run or played the module before so we can keep some of the surprises. If you're planning to run this one yourself in a few weeks, or read it as soon as your subscription arrived, this isn't the game for you.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Oh awesome! I love Galt and would love to try this. I have an idea for a gunslinger I’ve been wanting to play. I’ll type it up later with some more information.

Definitely interested. With the GM’s permission, I would like to adapt an existing NPC from Hell’s Rebels and Age of Ashes as a PC—Mialari Docur. I would build her as a laughing shadow magus, potentially with the rogue archetype. She would be renowned for her role in the rebellion against Barzillai Thrune, which is why she would receive an invitation.

If not, I can come up with my own background for an original character. Maybe an inventor of some sort. :)

Posting my idea for my character. I’ll give my background and a little bit of idea for what I would like to do.

I want to make a horror character to really fit the theme. Changeling Fleshwarp Sorcerer okay?

I'm interested ... Here's my info:

Thanks for the interest everyone!

@Braniac I like the idea of adapting an existing NPC

@Mythicman19 That looks good thanks!

@Doublegold I'd have no problem with a Changeling. A fleshwarp is more unusual. I won't say no, but they'd need a compelling background to overcome my hesitation. It may also make some of the investigation difficult

@azjauthor That sounds good as well thanks.

The adventure got sanctioned for PFS after I made the post (or I didn't notice it) so I will definitely be able to give out chronicles. I don't have a good feel for how long PF2 takes in PbP yet but I'd guess this one will take us 6-12 months

Hello! I'm very interested in this and would love to play it. I've only been on the boards since June/July but I've squeezed in quite a few PbPs since then. Outside of PbP, I'm running the Age of Ashes for my old uni rpg group on Foundry. Galt is a great setting and I probably won't get the chance to play this face to face. If anything, I'll run it after playing a PbP.

I have two character ideas for this and I'd love to develop either.

@Braniac I like the idea of adapting an existing NPC

Excellent! I'll work on creating Mialari as a level 16 magus, then. I'll likely have her done by Monday. The hard part of coming up with a backstory has already been taken care of. :D

About Me: I've been very active on the forums here for several years. I mostly GM games, but I enjoy playing in my fair share, as well. I'm currently running numerous PF2E games and am familiar with the rules, including high-level play.

Posting to indicate my interest.

About Me: I used to play D&D in the 80s with my friends, but dropped RPGs for 25-ish years. I began playing again with some people from work in a lunchtime game. We found each other one day when I was describing a adenoviral capsid as "icosahedral," and the person in the next cube overheard and asked, "like a d20?"

I've been playing PF1 since about 2017, PFS1 since early 2019, and PF2/PFS2 since it came out in late 2019. I'm one of the few that prefers to play PbP (4-hour blocks of time are hard to come by!) and - brace yourself - prefers the low tech, late 90s quality of the Paizo site (it works well on my low tech phone). I also play a considerable amount of PF2 with my kids (and a little PFS), we ran multiple home campaigns through the quarantine months, and a few PFS scenarios, but they prefer less structure, and more recently we've gone through the Slithering, and are about to start Fists of the Ruby Phoenix.

I've not GMed, played, or read Night of the Grey Death. I don't own it.

About my characters: 16th level will be the highest I've played - the highest I've played/GMed is 10th right now, so my characters aren't actually conceptually complex. The characters I'm applying with are based on the two highest level characters I've played, my level 9 PFS alchemist (Quinoline Silicate) and a level 10 investigator I play in my home games (literally trained in every skill because my kids are skill-eschewing murderhobos).

1. The first character is a bomber alchemist with a dual-wielding thrower archetype, searching for the formula to the sun orchid elixir. One of the Galtian nobles being held by the Gray Gardeners has previously bid on the elixir, and has a connection to Artorius Kirran. The Gray Gardeners know that this person is part of the aristocracy/bougeoisie, but unaware how important they are.

2. The second is a forensic investigator with a medic or marshal archetypes, both if I can squeeze them in (I'm not very familiar with investigator feats 12-16). Long ago, the Gray Gardeners beheaded someone close to them, and they spent years unsuccessfully trying to find a way to bring their loved one back to life. They've moved past the denial stage of grief and have moved on to anger. They'll begin with a LN/N alignment but move towards NG during the adventure. I'm likely to pick up an extra Lore or two about necromancy.

Both are likely to be human. The only other ancestries that interest me (lore-wise) are kayal and azarketi, but neither fits very well with the concepts presented.

Don Jurri is a Human Swashbuckler / Dandy / Gunslinger, stumbled into the profession of "adventurism" after his estate was seized, serving some time as a pathfinder (before being expelled dishonorably) to build back up his fortune "appreciating" (fencing) ancient treasures, and spent recent years weaseling his way back into high society through fabricated connections and party crashing - a reputation for which he has become quite infamous - and somehow managing to survive every duel his antics have incidentally provoked with uncanny pluck. If accepted into the game, I will flesh out the final details of his build and equipment. Good luck folks!

Dotting for interest! I'm interested in playing a Thaumaturge - I'll put something together in a day or two when I get back in town from vacation.

Thanks for the interest everyone! I've started recording submissions in a spreadsheet, if I've missed you shout!

Note that I've got a couple of reserved spots that I promised to players from my previous game, so it looks like I'll be taking three victims adventurers from here.

I'm thinking about a hobgoblin, either a bard or an investigator, taking the Marshal dedication feats. A very supportive character. The Marshal dedication is by far my favorite, this looks like a good opportunity to play one.

Hey, thinking of creating a dwarven abjuration wizard from Azurestone with the vigilante dedication and a cleric dedication via social purview. A dwarf who has studies the unusual and unique monuments like the Azurestone. But travels the world as a cleric of Torag, rooting out the evil he sees in the anarchy of Galt.

Doth we knoweth what party rolls your already-players are looking to fill, or does it not matter?

Neither have decided yet, however I've pointed them both at this thread so they're free to post if they have thoughts. Otherwise I'm not going to be too worried if they end up having some crossover in class; at level 16 I think there should be plenty of room within the builds to cover any class overlaps.

Well, well, well. I thought I'd be the one running this, but look what we have here.

I'll throw my hat into the ring for this. The idea I've been tossing around in my head is a build similar to Linkle from Hyrule Warriors, meaning dual-wielding hand crossbows! It's a build I've wanted to make for a while, but I REALLY couldn't achieve it in 1e. I'd probably be going for gunslinger with a few feat dips into the archer archetype *Looks at Crossbow Terror earnestly* It'll also allow me to play a "gun"slinger without needing to answer the weird question of "Where'd you get a gun in Galt?!"

EDIT: Just a note, it's probably wise to set the sharing on the spreadsheet to "Anyone with link can edit," so you don't get flooded with editing requests.

Since it looks like my SotDL game might be coming to an end I'll throw my hat in the ring.

Me: I have been playing TTRPGs since D&D 3e first came out. So far I have really enjoyed PF2e, especially in play by post form. Most of my 2e experience has been at lower levels and would really like to see it at higher levels.

Character Ideas: My main idea is an older Human Champion who has been wandering about in Galt trying to keep things from falling into utter chaos. The other idea is an Automaton, not sure on class yet.

EDIT: Just a note, it's probably wise to set the sharing on the spreadsheet to "Anyone with link can edit," so you don't get flooded with editing requests.

While it certainly wouldn't be the first (or the tenth) time I've forgotten to make a sheet editable, in this case it was intentional; I'm just using this one for myself to keep track of submissions and I posted it publicly so folks can confirm that I haven't missed them.

My main idea is an older Human Champion who has been wandering about in Galt trying to keep things from falling into utter chaos. The other idea is an Automaton, not sure on class yet.

I think a human champion sounds great. Galt is a place where evil flourishes and there's little hope of change among the populace, it's a perfect place to a Champion to try to make a difference! While I don't think a gun for a gunslinger is a particularly hard sell in Galt (especially if the character originates from a region where they are more common), an automaton would be a most unusual sight indeed, so I think that one's not a good fit for this module.

Thanks again for the interest everyone, I'm very much looking forward to meeting some of these legendary heroes and getting started!

I'm definitely interested in this game.

About my character He would be a half-elf druid from Galt. He was involved in the first Revolution (so is about 90 years old), helping to form the Revolutionary Council. (Maybe wanting to join the Gray Gardners too?) After nearly meeting his end as the revolutionaries turned on themselves (background: Final Blade Survivor), he escaped into the wilderness. While in the Verduran forest he met a druid and began to study nature; finding peace away from the plotting and disappointments of society. They traveled the Golden Road and into the Mwangi Expanse as he learned the secrets of primal magic and the complexities and connections of the various ecosystems. When he was ready he journeyed to Casmaron by himself. He wandered for thirty years. There, he found people of all ancestries to be as complicated as the residents of Galt and other denizens of the Inner Sea Region. He often suspected while visiting a town that the residents were just as likely to behave like the Galtans if they found themselves in similar circumstances.

Six years ago he returned to Galt, but stayed away from the cities. He wanders the land, helping where he can when people need help. I'm still thinking of what level-appropriate adventures he could have while wandering around Galt, say as level 15 and 16. I'm not sure about any archetypes...maybe herbalist. He'd be a wild order druid, using wild shape often in combat.

About me: I've been playing on these boards for a number of years. This would be my second character accepted into a Pathfinder 2E game. My first PC (Cardren, a monk) reached third level. In general, no matter the rpg, I don't have much experience in high-level play. Cardren is a good representation of how I generally have been playing over the last two or three years. Looking at the posts from Septimilius for a Savage Worlds Conan game seven years ago, I'd say my style has been more consistent (in terms of word count) than I realized.

About Me: I've been playing Pathfinder for years now, and 2e since just about the moment it came out. Most of my experience has either been in organized play or via roll20, which is to say I'm not exactly a veteran of PbP specifically. I actually came up with this character idea days ago, but ended up agonizing over the exact details so much that I'm now forcing myself to just post something and get it over with.

About My Character: The existence of the Gray Gardeners and their abominable instruments is of particular interest to the forces of the Boneyard. When the Boneyard requires agents to intervene in mortal affairs, they allow for the creation of a duskwalker, a reborn mortal soul who walks the material plane once more for some enigmatic, rarely understood purpose. Gilles Ourdir, a duskwalker born on the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Red Revolution, knows better than any other what his purpose is, as he is guided by the spirit of a powerful psychopomp in the form of his eidolon, who he calls Epitaph. For a decade and a half now, Gilles and Epitaph have stalked the streets of Isarn, rooting out conspirators and allies of the secretive Gray Gardeners, in the hopes of finally tracking them down and sending both them, and the souls they hoard, to face judgement.

(For the sake of clarification, in case it wasn't clear, I would be making a human duskwalker summoner with a psychopomp eidolon.)

Thinking a slowly maddening famous composer returning home to his country of birth.

Introducing Jack the Sorcerer, Demon Slayer background
Theme, A sorcerer with movement spells(like expeditious retreat or jump or fly,including forced movement spells like gravity well), evocation damaging (magic missile, burning hands, etc) and defensive spells(like walls or invisible forcefields.) He is also an Athlete and Diplomat both.

Jack is a Human Changeling Sorcerer worshipper of Desna
On Jacks first adventure, he fought some kobolds, plenty of kobolds, Otari and other areas where crawling with them. Darn kobolds, they think they are Dragon gods at times. Not to mention spiders in those darn caves. Once he got the reputation and the experience, he moved onto Trolls and the like. Yes, the place has plenty of them (not to mention season 2 loves Trolls). He learned he had to burn them to the ground and kill them quickly. He fought in large battles, defending castles and other areas along with many other comrades. He even remember the Breaking the Storm, he had to fight Trolls, Dragons and finally even Demons. Demons was his favorite to fight. They put up a good fight and usually had good tricks up their sleeves. More Demons he had to fight and not just those petty Brimoraks, he needed more of a challenge. Jack came close to death in that Breaking the Storm series, but that Demon hand went back to where it came from. He continued on his journey fighting more Demons and Trolls, undead, you name it, monsters of horror and monsters of fright. Jack has not dealt with many Tyrants though or plants or oozes if he has dealth any at all. Elementals, maybe a handful, but it was mostly monsters and dragons for him. Jack sees this next adventure as a means of a challenge.

Jacks Personality: Jack likes to make friends and he is a true believer. He believes all these Demons is a punishment for mans sins, they weren't good enough enough in this life, so they were turned into Demons. He believes not only do you have to be good to get into Heaven, but believe in Desna and all her angles and her saints(other good aligned deties) and love each other unconditionally. Jack loves to preach the word of Desna (the same way a hardcore Christian preaches the word of Jesus). Jack will go out of his way for anyone, and always does what is right, but don't take that as a weakness. Though he is a nice guy, he will not stand or be subject to someone being scammed. Nor will he stand for it, when someone tries to make a bad name for good deity worshippers. When he is on a mission, regardless if he is killing Trolls or Kobolds or Demons, or just plain setting up a Truths between two cities, he believes he is doing Desna's work.

Hi, this sounds like a ton of fun, and I'm inspired to play a high level Bard (and devotee of Shelyn) that I've wanted to get to play for a while. Here's my submission:

Background
Turrey Butterhill is renowned across all of Avistan, and into the vast Padishah Empire of Kelesh as a musician who can inspire armies to glory, melt the hearts of women and men, converse with songbirds, and (they say) make a stony sphinx weep with joy. Turrey is known as well for his great devotion to Shelyn, and as a man of deep passions and big appetites.

To this day, in Qadira the Satrap himself will tell that--when feuding efreet and shaitans were engaged in a sprawling battle that was ravaging his kingdom--this lone wandering minstrel succeeded at brokering a truce between the warring factions. As a reward for making peace and ending the devastation (the Satrap will tell you) Turrey was given a flying carpet out of the Satrap’s own stores.

In Lastwall, when an encroaching horde of frigid corpses with bloody claws marched out of the Hungry Mountains toward Vigil, the faith of the stalwart defenders started to falter and fall beneath the undead army’s frozen fists. Fortunately, word came via songbirds to Turrey, who was a rare invited non-elven guest musician in Kyonin performing The Starfall Sonnets on an outdoor stage in the enchanted Fierani Forest. He begged forgiveness of Queen Telandia for delaying the next week’s performances (for the Sonnets are written to be sung under the moon for six hours each evening for a fortnight) and--with the Queen’s blessings--flew through the night on the Satrap’s magic carpet. Turrey arrived, concertina in hand, and with a rousing hymn to Shelyn he lead the vanguard to beat back the Whispering Tyrant’s servants.

There are less grand tales as well: tales that he’s quick to fall head over heels in love, tales of his legendary devotion to the Eternal Rose, who is his greatest muse, and even (if you ask for them) tales of his childhood in Varisia.

You see, Turrey was born to a Varisian family that had put down roots in Korvosa. His mother Zora was a Cleric at the Sanctuary of Shelyn and his father Jerome was a local woodworker. Together they raised Turrey in the city’s North Point district and taught their son to love the arts and beauty in all forms. With the blessing of the Eternal Rose, young Turrey proved quite gifted at song, dance, and at playing the concertina. He can tell of his early dreams of a place in the grand Marbledome opera...and of his bitter rows with it’s director Touran Palastus (who found Turrey as intolerable as Turrey found him). Before his first season was over, Turrey stormed off, bid his parents a teary farewell, and took to the road to pursue his dream elsewhere. He made his way to Taldor where he studied at the Kitharodian Academy in Oppara for many years, eventually achieving the distinguished title of Grand Master. Of course, he left and returned many times before achieving that highest honor: often traveling across the Inner Sea sharing the music he so loved, other times joining up with an adventuring band off to stop raiding ogres or--much later--an ancient black dragon that was terrorizing the Shackles.

Wherever he’s gone he’s worked to praise love in all forms, to bring beauty to the towns and villages he passes through, and to help those in need as he’s able. As he’s traveled, performing at venues both small and grand, his fame as a musician has grown...and he enjoys the fame and adoration he often receives from those who appreciate the arts.

Recently, he’s received a letter from an old college flame of his--a soft-spoken potter from Isarn, named Thibeault. Thibeault wrote to Turrey full of grief, because Thibeaut’s husband of many years has just been executed by the Grey Gardeners. While Turrey and Thibeault’s flames cooled more than a decade ago, Turrey remembers his old friend fondly and has decided to go offer him what solace he may.

Personality
* loves fame, great food, great drink, and great beauty in all of its forms,
* devoted to Shelyn,
* generous and big hearted,
* quick to fall in love

Drawback
His heroic flaw is his great appetite: for fame, great food, great drink, and great beauty in all of its forms

Appearance
Height: 3' 1"
Weight: 34 lbs
Eyes: Brown
Skin: Olive
Hair: Black, long, free flowing

Turrey has a loose, easy demeanor and a warm smile that draws people in...and often melts hearts. He wears his hair long and flowing. With his dweomerweave robe he is able to change his attire at will--and does so frequently--but he generally chooses colorful, flowing outfits. His cloak has a beautifully embroidered songbird-and-rose motif in honor of Shelyn.

Mechanics Turrey is a Bard (Maestro), and a consummate skill monkey (aided by Multifarious Muse for Polymath (Versatile Performance + at L8 Eclectic Skill). I've got a rough draft build that folks are welcome to check out.

About me
I've been a consistent player on these boards since 2013. Almost all of that so far has been 1e (where a highlight was completing Rise of the Runelords from start-to-finish, a more recently I'm playing in a very roleplay heavy Wrath of the Righteous). I did play a 2e game on Discord was short-lived (due to an overcommitted DM) but it was enough to whet my appetite (and inspire me to learn the rules)...and as someone who's played since AD&D 1e (plus a dozen other systems) I'm confident that I can quickly overcome any 2e gaps.

Thanks for your consideration, and please let me know if you have any questions or concerns!

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* BTW, my backstory-as-written has a flying carpet in it...but I can't find them in 2e. Am I missing them? If they don't exist I'll just modify the story. I expect it might be fun to weave together backstories with at least some of the other party members anyway, if selected.

Thanks once again to everyone for their excellent submissions. I've had a difficult time choosing just one party of legendary adventurers to face off against Galt's supernatural oppressors! However without further ado, please could the following join us in the discussion thread:

* Watery Soup's investigator with a grudge against the Gray Gardeners
* KingTreyIII's dual-wielding crossbow-slinger
* Gyrfalcon's lover-and-a-fighter Turrey Butterhill

Good luck to the rest of the heroes in finding another game of Night of the Gray Death, and happy gaming!

Congratulations to the selected players. Have fun!

Congratulations and good luck!

Thanks for the opportunity. Congratulations and have fun to the players and GM.