|
1) I am based in Southeast Asia (UTC +8) so my posting hours may be unusual (especially for those in North America). I usually update at least one or twice per day. Just to keep the game moving, please post at least once every day and at least once during the weekend. If you disappear for more than 24 hours, especially during combat, I will simply place your character on infinite delay just to keep things moving.
2) Please label all three of your actions. Even if you think what you are doing is obvious.
3) If I am unavailable for longer than 24 hours, I will let you know in the Discussion Tab. Out of respect for your fellow players and myself, I ask that you do the same. Real life happens, and real life will always take priority over the game, but out of fairness for your fellow players, please let us know if you will be unavailable for an extended period of time.
4) Please complete the Macros and Slides linked above. The Macros will be used for Initiative and Secret Rolls. Posting your tokens to the slides will make setting up combat/exploration easier.
5) Questions, concerns? Feel free to share them in the Discussion tab.
6) Let's have some fun and tell a great story together! After all, that's what we are here for.
|
Deepening the color of his red hooded cloak to a wet crimson, a humanoid figure darts between stalls on this rainy afternoon taking momentary refuge from the rainfall, splashing over and through puddles here and there, carelessly spraying other passerbys who curse or shake fists at him, otherwise minding his own business, and keeping up a strong enough pace so as to discourage onlookers from doing more than just that.
Something catches his attention... a Bounty Poster!
Feeling into his coin purse, our irreverent hero pinches fabric against fabric, the heft and clink of coin ostensibly absent. Pushing forward on his inverted ankle, Axel Zeldo frolics towards the small cluster of people also reading the curiously nailed document, standing just outside of the circle, and crouching to all fours - an awkward metal protrusion foisting out at a perpendicular angle, unable to bend - the white-furred gnoll shakes furiously, sending a sprinkling spout of water flecks onto the rd person to make their post after him!
Seemingly forgetting to apologize, and grinning as with a pleasant mania.
|
|
A bald man, with a sour expression, wanders through the rain. It's not the rain that aggravating him though, as he seems to enjoy it. He wears studded leather sharkskin armour, and carries a trident. A shield rests on his back.
He waits until the white furred gnoll steps out of the way before having a look at the bounty.
Hmmm ... he says to himself. Opportunity
|
|
Your adventure begins in the Docks district of Absalom. You are in a local inn, the Rabbled Rouser. The Rabbled Rouser is located on a busy waterfront near Absalom’s harbor. The streets are crowded with legions of taverns and warehouses; each full and echoing with sounds of sailors, travelers, and dockworkers. There are hundreds of ships scattered along the dock just waiting to set sail on their next journey. The inn is crowded full of travelers from all over Golarion, but it doesn’t stand out much from other taverns nearby. You are relaxing and enjoying your time off from adventuring when you notice a distraught man wandering from table to table and making his plea for help. It doesn't take long before he makes his way over to your table.
The troubled man speaks quickly, "Please, please! I need help! I could tell from across the room that you’re a group of honorable adventurers and I have been desperately searching for such folk to help me in my quest for justice! I beg you, help my poor elderly parents. A dishonorable Taldan nobleman has tricked my poor, naive parents out of everything they have! Their coin and any items of value were swindled from them, but their pride won’t allow them to ask for help."
"So, I must ask. My parents are good people who didn’t deserve this treatment. They’re kind and try to help others, and this is the thanks they get for trying to help someone they thought was in need. Please, won’t you help me retrieve what was taken? I know it doesn’t look like I have much of a reward to offer, but I promise you will have one from me and my parents at the end of this."
|
the white-furred gnoll shakes furiously, sending a sprinkling spout of water flecks.
Seemingly forgetting to apologize, and grinning as with a pleasant mania.
From beneath his rain cloak, the Varisian man reveals a gloved hand at the end of a bare arm covered in a series of intricate tattoos. He wipes the smatter of water from a seven-pointed star tattooed to his cheek.
Deterred by the smell of "wet dog", the man makes his way past the gnoll and into the Rabbled Rouser. He takes a seat and orders a drink, before beginning to scan the inn for potential marks.
The troubled man speaks quickly, "Please, please! I need help! I could tell from across the room that you’re a group of honorable adventurers and I have been desperately searching for such folk to help me in my quest for justice!"
Upon hearing "honorable adventurers", Costolian concludes the man is not speaking to him, but instead to the bald man with the dour expression and the furry one. He begins looking for another target, stopping when he overhears something that peaks his interest.
"Please, won’t you help me retrieve what was taken? I know it doesn’t look like I have much of a reward to offer, but I promise you will have one from me and my parents at the end of this."
"A reward, you say?" Costolian leans over from the nearby table. He is unable to hide a smile. "Sounds like you're parents have fallen prey to a thief. And the best way to catch a thief, so they say, is to be one."
Costolian eyes the bald man, gnoll, and others being addressed by the desperate man. "Alas, sir, those 'honorable' folks you're making an offer look capable in a fight, but I suspect they lack the proper insight to nab a swindler. Fortunately for you, I happen to have just what you are looking for."
|
|
My name is Tempest Storm says the bald man with the trident, frowning more when he hears about the poor people that were swindled. ... and this cannot be allowed to stand.
He then glances over as Costolian speaks. You may be surprised however I agree with what you say. Shall we team up?
He holds out a hand.
|
|
Dryer now, and a couple pints in, having thought he was sitting alone in this crowded pub, suddenly accosted by this random person calling out "honorable adventurers" - our irreverent hero looks first at the tattooed scoundrel from earlier on his left ("nope") then at the bald seaman from earlier on his right ("!?!") before realizing this man is referring to the lot of them, and he rolls his eyes.
"Okay I'll go"
Slamming the last of his nd drink, he rises - standing very tall now as his slouch disappears in the transition - and looks back over at the tattooed scoundrel at left ("okay") then the bald seaman at right ("fine") making an amendment to his mental notes, and storms quickly towards the door with no idea where he is even going yet, imagining it'll all work out somehow...
|
|
He then glances over as Costolian speaks. You may be surprised however I agree with what you say. Shall we team up?
He holds out a hand.
Costolian eyes the man for a moment. "And why not?" he asks rhetorically extending a gloved hand to return the gesture. "The more is the merrier, is it not?"
I will have a word with this Taldan and tell him, stealing is a sin. Put the fear of Erastil in him.
"A sin, it is, My Good Man," Costolian repeats with a smile. "And, so, if that peaks your interest, then you are welcome to join us as well, if you'd so desire."
"But, then, I would never ask anyone to settle for but a single vice, when there are simply so many tantalizing ones from which to choose."
|
|
While the rest of the bounty hunters socialize with a customary normalcy, our irreverent hero quickly discovers that he had gone in an opposite direction than the automaton with the funny name.
He rolls his eyes and strides across the bar - shoving, without a care, drunkerd out of his way - arriving just in front of his quarry, wordlessly insisting that he be in the "front" of the pack, and looking back with a toothy grin "Wanderlust, Goldy" completely unprompted, Axel substitutes an answer to it's question, assigning a nickname of his choosing, displaying a naive and rudely immature curiosity generally.
|
|
A man with shoulder-length greasy black hair wearing an all-black flowing robes joins the group with a smirk.
"Severus Snape. I am the man that you need for your pathetic request," he introduces himself with arrogance. He looks at the others as though judging them from head to toes. "Not bad, but if you want them to do the job just make sure they won't make further trouble as I handle this puny thing you want us to do," he warns the troubled man.
|
|
All this talking and talking and Axel expresses his impatience with the following gradients of escalation.
First, he paces back and forth furiously, probably confined to a small space given the overpacked capacity of the pub. Second, having dizzied himself somewhat, by leaning back against the wall, crossing his arms, and huffing with overdrama, rolling his eyes like a man half his age. Third, having "given up" and now resigning himself to extended tardiness and lost daylight, he squats down on all fours and pulls out a satchel of powder, casings, fuse rope, odd vials, and blackened toothbrushes, and commences assembling what turns out to be... two fire grenades!
He hands one to the closest PC to him and explains "Don't drop it"
|
|
As you agree to Wiston's request, he leads you out of the tavern.
The Coins District is home to the Grand Bazaar market, which, in the daytime, is full of people from across Golarion looking to buy goods. Wiston leads you further into the district, beyond the Grand
Bazaar. It becomes dark as evening descends over the city.
|
|
The narrow tunnel of Axel's attention easily blocks out the annoyed protestations of the bookish human. When he rises to meet his sour face - and quickly stashing his own grenade onto his utility belt - his own lips unfurl into a devious grin, and he let's out a chuckle, having, through transference, expelled the mood his impatience at his partymates perceived inaction (small talk) had created at the pub.
But now the party was combing the block, and our irreverent hero's snarled lip divided the expression on his face into two parts; the second half conveying the unmistakable joy of a man walking around with something to do!
He keeps an eye out for strangers he didn't meet at that pub...
|
|
With half a mind to shoot the bait leading them headlong into a "trap" (and believing the Automaton over the Human...), Axel thinks the better of it, and instead plays the other half of the good cop bad cop schtick.
"You setting us up, bub?" whirling around flipping his cloak into the air, gritting his gnoll teeth, with purpose and ill intent he reveals his long-barreled gun, hoping to scare this "Winston" into giving up his own game!
|
|
"Robot don't trust you" Axel answers in response.
Lacking any social normalcy, our irreverent hero's face slithers from bearing his teeth menacingly into a displaying a deranged grin, the veneer of which might forebode a keener intelligence beneath it's surface, which, sadly, is thoroughly lacking underneath; for the gnoll has no secret knowledge nor ulterior motive for smiling so strangely.
"Answer the question" he demands, referring to Snape's query but having forgotten to make that abundantly evident with additional context.
|
|
Although Wiston answers your questions, you can't help but feel there's something 'off' with his answers.
Wiston turns to Axel. "What would you have me tell you?! You agreed to help me but now you're questioning whether I'm telling you the truth or not?!"
Turning to Severus, "We're near. They're on the next street from where we are. Trust me for a moment longer and everything will be made clear."