DM Voomer's Age of Ashes

Game Master Voomer

So I did the math today.

A Swashbuckler using the free archetype variant rule and the ancestral paragaon variant rule will, on their journey from level 1 to 20, gather up a total of 53 feats.

Yes, some of these are class-related feats that would be class features in 1st edition. Still - hot damn, that's a lot of feet.

Shuriken are fine, and remember, you can totally retrieve daggers after your throw them unless they end up somewhere like the bottom of a cliff you don't wanna climb down =)

That is true too AND it doesn't mess up the flavor of the character.

(and walk around looking like the guy-version of Merisiel)

I have another character progresion question but I will DM you

K, legit question ... 97 pages.
Hyperbole or reality?

That boggles my mind ...

Managing to catch Oren and Yasamina on his way home(work with me here) ;), he manages to catch the end of their conversation. "Lamond's Lament is a solid place to go. Renatta is a super great gal, she will take care of you."

By the way of this line in the player's guide: Lamond’s Lament is a soup kitchen and place for the downtrodden to rest.
I would gather that it is also a place for rooms. Don't know that for sure though. Also don't know if she has baths either.

Sooooooo totally just a question and the issue could just be perspective, but why would a bunch of sassy young adventurers who just made a BUNCH of money go to a homeless shelter to bathe and take rooms?

Wouldn't it make more sense for them to go back to the Wizard's Grace, joke around with Joran's grilfriend about how "the stew really works" and stuff like that, and then ask for bath water and rooms there?

I mean in the Universe, these guys made some good money. They can afford real armor now, heck, if they had saved a little money (Cev did) they could afford Half-Plate mail ... maybe I just am not connecting the dots quite right.

K, legit question ... 97 pages.

Hyperbole or reality?

That boggles my mind ...

I didn't count mine, but it sounds closer to an accurate count than hyperbole. Especially for a first time home buyer.

I've no idea which of these taverns have rooms/baths or don't. Per the player's guide, it says nothing of "rooms" within the Wizard's Grace.

I mentioned LL because of the quote I quoted. And I only mentioned that one because Yasamina didn't want to go to the roughhouse tavern that I can't remember the name currently.

I'm just going by the player's guide.

And there you go! Just got through reading Fern's description on the inns in town in the gameplay.

That solves that one.

2nd Level Update:

Wanted to clue the party in to what changed for Cev so that it can be planned around and aligned with.
Sorcerer Dedication: Cevdendyl decided to tap in to his inner Nymph

Offensive Cantrips:
Ray of Frost (120' range)
Produce Flame (30')
Disrupt Undead (30')
Divine Lance (30')
TKP (30')

6x Heal @ Lvl1

There has been talk of both leaving later this same day that we arrived as well as leaving the following morning. I am not sure that we have actually decided which we are doing.

I have no real preference to one or the other.

Also, what do we plan to tackle first? Tracking down what killed the Warg, or heading back to the Citadel? Perhaps attempt the tracking first and if that fails, then head to the Citadel?

There has been talk of both leaving later this same day that we arrived as well as leaving the following morning. I am not sure that we have actually decided which we are doing.

I have no real preference to one or the other.

Also, what do we plan to tackle first? Tracking down what killed the Warg, or heading back to the Citadel? Perhaps attempt the tracking first and if that fails, then head to the Citadel?

I had thought there was agreement/consensus that those of us who need to refresh spell slots would do so.

Ok, I updated Lisi' Pathbuilder page.

Only 39 posts since last night? Lolz. Hi from a cabin in the woods!

Signing everything official like today so might not get another post in today, we will see how my day goes. Should be back to my crazy post rate soon enough, haha. You guys are excellent at keeping things moving on your own so I'm not too worried ;D

Sounds good, Fern. Be sure to stretch your fingers every dozen pages or so.

Yasami, quick question: When you came back to the group, was it to the Wizard's Grace or the couple of us meeting outside and down the road a way? It will make a slight difference in how I describe my response.

Oh, also Fern: quick question for you if you happen to see this. Was Yasami able to tell how long the momma Warg had been dead for? Was it only a few hours, or was it a day or two, or over a week?

Sounds good, Fern. Be sure to stretch your fingers every dozen pages or so.

Yasami, quick question: When you came back to the group, was it to the Wizard's Grace or the couple of us meeting outside and down the road a way? It will make a slight difference in how I describe my response.

Wizard's Grace, I guess. I'm not sure whether I would know where to look for people outside.

The warg had been dead for a day or less. =)

That's actually a very good question. What time of day is it currently?

So far today, if my memory serves correctly, we have:
* fought off a few rats and a giant bat.
* tromped through the back rooms of the Citadel.
* took down a huge lizard.
* Had a stand-off with Calmont
* Decided what to do with the goblins.
* Walked the hour trip back to Breachill.
* Stopped along the way to pay respects to the dead momma Warg.
* Dropped off Calmont with the town council.
* Run around town for about 2-3 hours.

Also, how should we run two or more people doing the same task during exploration? Do we all roll separately (with enough people can almost guarantee that someone succeeds)? Use a variation of Aid?

It's early evening by this point, been quite a day.

I would say we should establish a sort of default plan, if possible, like this person will be the primary scout with so-and-so aiding, etc.

Linking the options for convenience.

Joran will always be Scout. Like I've mentioned before, he'll definitely be up front. At least close to it.

Joran lifting ... anvils?

HA! Yeah I couldn't resist. But for the record, he was actually at his own house, not the Wizard's Grace.

I say his house. It was his parents house until they packed up and moved away, leaving the house to him. So technically I guess it is now.

I think Dario will be Searching anytime we are inside of a place and working together. Otherwise, he will be up at the front trying to Avoid Notice for that sweet, sweet, flat-footed bonus for using Stealth.

For searching the archives, that is a gather information activity, yes? Or something like that. Maybe a recall knowledge. I don't remember exactly off-hand and I am settling down for bed. It is harder to look things up on my phone.

Anyway, what skills are Yasami and I using? Society generally? Breachill Lore for Breachill specific stuff? Elf lore maybe? And there is more than one way of running this type of thing. Are we running with one doing Aid and the other making the final skill check, Or do we both roll separately?

I will most likely be doing either investigate or Detect Magic.

"I'll have what he's having, but with less vehemence," he says to Trini.

Hah. That's great.

Caiten wrote:

"Joran at least should know where we are."

Sulee chuckles a bit and mentions quietly, but loud enough for Yasami to hear, "Only as long as he was paying attention to anything other than the owner of the Wizard's Grace."

Lol! Ah the poppet is far too perceptive for her own good. ;)

I assume some information on hellknights is general knowledge? Not sure how much I can share without being metagemey

The thing is that I, IRL, am not very familiar with the Golarian setting. I never played PF1 at all (I played quite a bit of D&D 3.5 back in the day, but then went to college and missed noticing both D&D 4 and Pathfinder). And I have quite a bit of experience with PF2, but only with homebrew settings and adventures. So this is my first PF2 (or PF1) published adventure.

But playing Caiten as quite naive about such things seems completely in character :D

I assume some information on hellknights is general knowledge? Not sure how much I can share without being metagemey

There is a lot about Hellknights which is well known across Avistan, certainly their part in "keeping order" in Cheliax in spite of the devil worshipping rulers.

Each of its Orders though, like the Order of the Nail which we know owned & occupied the keep here in Breachill is another thing. They aren't all world reknowned or anything.

The thing is that I, IRL, am not very familiar with the Golarian setting. I never played PF1 at all (I played quite a bit of D&D 3.5 back in the day, but then went to college and missed noticing both D&D 4 and Pathfinder). And I have quite a bit of experience with PF2, but only with homebrew settings and adventures. So this is my first PF2 (or PF1) published adventure.

But playing Caiten as quite naive about such things seems completely in character :D

Oh? You seem like you are fairly familiar with the game system. Did you play a lot of homebrew campaigns?

Oh? You seem like you are fairly familiar with the game system. Did you play a lot of homebrew campaigns?

Yeah. Both playing and GM'ing PF2 since the CRB playtest. But all of it - including my D&D 3.5 experience - has been homebrew settings. I have read through most of the setting material in the CRB, but it doesn't have a ton of detail. Most of that has been presented in the world guides and the adventure paths.

Essentially, in first edtion, Cheliax was a nation very akin to ancient Rome in terms of expansion, and had many elements of 1930's Germany zeitgeist in terms of nationalism. Read - authoritarian colonialists with a lot of demon worship involved - slavery, secret police, heavily imposed religion, etc. Hellknights were their major lawkeeping force. There are many orders, each with their own little area of interest. Like the Order of the Nail here, were assigned to bring law to "savage" regions of the nation, and beyond.

Hellknights ,in general, would use heavy-handed tactics to reach the goals of their individual orders. For example, if there was a series of murders in town, they would mercilessly interrogate citizens - often crippling the 'witness' for life, or outright killing them in the process.

Obviously, Yasamina being CG, she doesn't really see eye-to-eye with their approach. Hence the concern.

Essentially, in first edtion, Cheliax was a nation very akin to ancient Rome in terms of expansion, and had many elements of 1930's Germany zeitgeist in terms of nationalism. Read - authoritarian colonialists with a lot of demon worship involved - slavery, secret police, heavily imposed religion, etc. Hellknights were their major lawkeeping force. There are many orders, each with their own little area of interest. Like the Order of the Nail here, were assigned to bring law to "savage" regions of the nation, and beyond.

Hellknights ,in general, would use heavy-handed tactics to reach the goals of their individual orders. For example, if there was a series of murders in town, they would mercilessly interrogate citizens - often crippling the 'witness' for life, or outright killing them in the process.

Obviously, Yasamina being CG, she doesn't really see eye-to-eye with their approach. Hence the concern.

With full FULL love to Yas ... she meant DEVIL worship, as I said above ;)

This is a cornerstone of Wrath of the Righteous and the demonic invasion of Mendev/Golarion: the difference between Law and Chaos in the approach to Evil is a pretty big deal, and thankfully, one of the reasons that the demons didn't succeed more than they did was their lack of organization & structure.

As a counterpoint, Law without regard to Evil or Good is a Hellknight. It isn't a matter of anyone's well being, or the greater good, or even selfishness or personal gain. There is only the Law, without much of a moral compass. Which is why they can accomplish a lot but it isn't all that meaningful.

My brain went on a long tangent about eudemonia and Greek house 'daemons' leading to Roman Lares and Penates, and speculation as to whether Communists and anarchists are aligned along the Lawful and Chaotic axis.

Ahem, carry on.

Normally when I think of daemons, I am thinking of the long running services that run on Unix and Linux computer systems. lol.

So I also did some math today. Different math though.

I'm also completely new to PBP games. And some people have mentioned that the rate that we post at is rather high. So I did some analysis. Because that is the type of person that I am.

Looking at a snapshot of the gameplay threads that have had a post either yesterday or today:

Total number of threads: 371
Average (susceptible to outliers, such as the one 22K post thread): 2040 posts
Median: 875 posts

So yeah. At almost 1000 posts in less than two months, we are a pretty chatty group. And I am liking it.

Yasami wrote:

Essentially, in first edtion, Cheliax was a nation very akin to ancient Rome in terms of expansion, and had many elements of 1930's Germany zeitgeist in terms of nationalism. Read - authoritarian colonialists with a lot of demon worship involved - slavery, secret police, heavily imposed religion, etc. Hellknights were their major lawkeeping force. There are many orders, each with their own little area of interest. Like the Order of the Nail here, were assigned to bring law to "savage" regions of the nation, and beyond.

Hellknights ,in general, would use heavy-handed tactics to reach the goals of their individual orders. For example, if there was a series of murders in town, they would mercilessly interrogate citizens - often crippling the 'witness' for life, or outright killing them in the process.

Obviously, Yasamina being CG, she doesn't really see eye-to-eye with their approach. Hence the concern.

With full FULL love to Yas ... she meant DEVIL worship, as I said above ;)

The importance of that being, LAW vs CHAOS, DEVIL vs DEMON specifically

This is a cornerstone of Wrath of the Righteous and the demonic invasion of Mendev/Golarion: the difference between Law and Chaos in the approach to Evil is a pretty big deal, and thankfully, one of the reasons that the demons didn't succeed more than they did was their lack of organization & structure.

As a counterpoint, Law without regard to Evil or Good is a Hellknight. It isn't a matter of anyone's well being, or the greater good, or even selfishness or personal gain. There is only the Law, without much of a moral compass. Which is why they can accomplish a lot but it isn't all that meaningful.

Yes, devils (most prominently, Asmodeus). It was super late when I wrote that. Thanks for correcting.

It was super late

So it is probably early morning for you now, yes? I'll still be stalking the threads for an hour or two still. But it is getting late for me currently.

I will admit, I am no longer sure what is 'late' or 'early'
I worked in nightlife long enough; I thought getting home at 4am was 'early'

It is just about midnight here now, which to me, is not quite sleepytime

Just past 11:00 at night for me. UTC -6 if I am thinking and looking things up correctly.

Yasami wrote:

It was super late

So it is probably early morning for you now, yes? I'll still be stalking the threads for an hour or two still. But it is getting late for me currently.

It is 8:10 now. Just sat down in the office.

Sorry for lack of posting yesterday. Swamped in the office. Prep for Easter. I will be able to post later today. In some 6 hrs or so.

Sorry for lack of posting yesterday. Swamped in the office. Prep for Easter. I will be able to post later today. In some 6 hrs or so.

Not a problem. Mostly we are just doing character stuff with Oren.

Lisi is probably taking a vacation from his vacation.

Haven't seen Dario for a bit either. Not too concerned yet though.

It is probably about time to wrap up this in-game day, gather the group again in the morning and head back to the adventuring, yes?

Def time to go to bed, schedule the wake up call, and head back to the castle.

It is probably about time to wrap up this in-game day, gather the group again in the morning and head back to the adventuring, yes?

Nearly... ;)

Gonna give some of the others a chance to chime in. Odds are they won't because it's Friday and Friday's are typically slow. It's the nature of the beast. But will give them a chance anyway because I'm nice like that. :)

If nothing in a couple of hours then will move Joran along and take a few liberties with this crazy thing that's been HIGHLY intelligently described as: "...big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff." ;)

Yup. No rush. We are scattered across different time zones even.

The pattern of our days is also clearly different; I tend to be a total night owl, and absolutely no one is awake when I am on fire and ready to go ... then I get up around 1030-11am Central, and there are 15 posts.

"Oren, if you and 'Chuck' will be going to the Temple, let me know? I have only been once and I would like to praise all of the gods who are watching over Breachill. I should like to be in touch with the Head Priest as well."

Yeah he accidentally used the wrong avatar. It happens. It happen to me once. I fixed it but it still slapped "Javell" under the player's tab. Man that was annoying. I always preview what I type before I submit it because I don't always like what I got going. Sometimes I still don't like it even after I submit it. :P

Anyway, when I saw it he actually had a few more minutes to fix it but I figured he was probably done for today based on his posting habits.

Cevendyll wrote:

"Oren, if you and 'Chuck' will be going to the Temple, let me know? I have only been once and I would like to praise all of the gods who are watching over Breachill. I should like to be in touch with the Head Priest as well."

Yeah he accidentally used the wrong avatar. It happens. It happen to me once. I fixed it but it still slapped "Javell" under the player's tab. Man that was annoying. I always preview what I type before I submit it because I don't always like what I got going. Sometimes I still don't like it even after I submit it. :P

Anyway, when I saw it he actually had a few more minutes to fix it but I figured he was probably done for today based on his posting habits.

and I was pretty much teasing because it made me smile, although I will also admit, it's one of the reasons I loving hosting PbP on Discord: the joy of editing or deleting even hours later

Yeah he accidentally used the wrong avatar. It happens. It happen to me once. I fixed it but it still slapped "Javell" under the player's tab.

Same.