Welcome to Crown of the Kobold King Plus!
For organizational purposes, this will be my GM Avatar for this campaign. You may refer to me as GM or NABU for short.
You've already introduced yourselves in the recruitment thread, but feel free to make further introductions here. Feel free to take a look at party makeup and make adjustments to your PCs as you deem necessary. Minor adjustments, no going changing your class or ancestry or anything like that.
If you have not yet, please create an Alias for your PC.
Also feel free to start developing some backstory ideas. But here's the caveat: You are from the city of Darkwater Crossing. And when I say 'from' I mean, born and raised. More than likely, you've never left the city for any extended length of time. Darkwater Crossing is the 'it' city for the region, so there's no real reason to go anywhere anyways. You are also a newly formed adventuring party, and as such, have newly registered with the local chapter of The Compass Rose, which is the somewhat global Adventurer's Guild (akin to The Pathfinder Society on Golarion).
All I'm looking for in terms of backstory is a paragraph or two. Describe your Background as per your character sheet, and how you came to gain the skills, feats, and abilities that puts you as a 1st Level (your Class here). If you'd like, you can create an important NPC that has had an impact on your life thus far; a teacher, mentor, family member, best friend, lover, ex-lover, nemesis, etc. If you have any pertinent questions regarding the setting, please ask.
Once everyone has checked in, we will do a little group activity that will help to create interpersonal bonds between the characters. So hold off on that for now.
Hello, everyone!
Thanks so much to the GM for selecting Elry to be a member of this company. I'm excited to be joining you all.
For the present time, I'll hold off with a deeper introduction until all the players have had a chance to see the discussion thread and check in.
Looking forward to this. :)
Thank you for choosing me for this game! I am looking forward to learning more about PF2E and having fun creating a new exciting story!
Hello All!
This is exciting! I absolutely love the Kobold series! I technically have not played it, but read the wiki on it many times (PF1e version). I was excited to learn it was being converted to PF2e. Classic adventure!
Thank you, GM, for allowing me the opportunity. I assume that you already know what you are in store for, so hehe!
Hello Elry! Great to play in another game with you! Halfling power!
I really need to decide on scarf color....
Question? We're you considering either Free Archetype (@2nd) or Ancestral Paragon rules for this game?
Asking for a friend....
Oh my gosh, you really did pick all the halflings!
I will need to change my concept given that all of our characters are from Darkwater Crossing. Currently with the in-laws but will find time to make a proper alias with a real name!
Question? We're you considering either Free Archetype (@2nd) or Ancestral Paragon rules for this game?
No, I don't think I'm ready for any Variant Rules. However, starting at higher levels I'll open up options to include Uncommon. Not sure at which point I'll do that though.
I will need to change my concept given that all of our characters are from Darkwater Crossing.
I was thinking that a simple change would be to make one or both your parents an escaped slave from neighboring Zethinian Empire. Would still explain you background, but root you in Darkwater Crossing.
Cool. I was just trying to figure out his direction, other than Poet, story-teller and part-time adventurer.
Bardic College ain't cheap!
@party I am probably staying away from melee...lol.
EDIT
Although, if needed, he can be ready for melee by 5thish....
Elry was certainly born and raised in Darkwater Crossing. I was thinking of making Elry become an orphan (her halfling parents were killed) as a small child (around 5) and being adopted by two humans (husband and wife, friends of the family). Since then her adopted mother has passed away, however her adopted father is still living and could be her important NPC in game? She kept her halfling name as she was old enough to choose when she was adopted and her human parents were happy for her to keep her name and stay connected to her birth parents.
For Elry's lore skill she needs to choose a city she's visited often outside of Darkwater (as part of being an emissary). GM, do you have any suggestions in regard to this? Thanks! :)
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For Elry's lore skill she needs to choose a city she's visited often outside of Darkwater (as part of being an emissary). GM, do you have any suggestions in regard to this? Thanks! :)
Hearth will be our stand-in for Falcon's Hollow once we get into Crown for the Kobold King. Having Lore for that location would prove mighty useful.
That reminds me, I need to share the campaign map with y'all. I'll have to do that when I get home.
Hearth will be our stand-in for Falcon's Hollow once we get into Crown for the Kobold King. Having Lore for that location would prove mighty useful.
That reminds me, I need to share the campaign map with y'all. I'll have to do that when I get home.
Excellent! I've updated her sheet to incorporate Lore regarding Hearth. Thanks!
===
So far in our party we have:
Female Halfling Cleric (Cloistered Cleric)
Male Human Ranger
Male Halfling Bard (Maestro)
Male Halfling Rogue
with two others yet to join our cheery band of heroes!
Thanks for the invite. Nice to see all the halflings made it. I’ll get to work on Valkor’s background.
Yay! Valkor’s here, too. This will be fun.
Sebastien and Tazo’s halfling, would you like the halflings to have some prior acquaintance?
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Sebastien and Tazo’s halfling, would you like the halflings to have some prior acquaintance?
Yes! I think that would be very logical for my basic character concept, since he likes halflings and is suspicious of others.
Sebastien and Tazo’s halfling, would you like the halflings to have some prior acquaintance?
Hold off on the prior acquaintances for now, we'll get to that. When it's all said and done, each PC will have some sort of connection with two other PCs.
Not a problem, GM. I'll work on the rest of her background in the meanwhile.
Yea, we have our Tank!
I was worried that our cleric had to tank...lol.
Yea, we have our Tank!
I was worried that our cleric had to tank...lol.
She can do wonders with that sickle and sling . ;) lol
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We would get CRIT! every strike...lol.
Have a great day!
I'm here, I'm here! Last day of teaching before break yesterday, and it was busy. Actually played 5e with my d&d club for the last hour and 15 minutes.
I'm excited for this. Let's see...Shemar; I'd say his backstory starts with his great grandfather, who was an important political figure in some sort of desert region. That's where the family legends say that the draconic bloodline comes from. Something drove out family out of the area. Far far out, until they settled in Darkwater Crossing. We've been living off of the riches brought from that time, until now. It is all but gone now. My uncle, who had been my sorcerous teacher, has encouraged me to become an adventure. For the family.
Shemar is more of a master blaster in combat. Personality wise, he's going to start off seeming full of himself. This is a defensive trait protecting himself from the reality of his family's crumbling economic status. He's a bit uppity and guarded with room for growth.
Let me know what doesn't work from above. I'll work on finishing out his alias page today.
Danus has always been drawn to the wilderness. His father was a lumberjack and use to take the boy out with him and his crew whenever they were going to the woods for work. His mother was an herbalist and ventured to the wilderness occasionally to gather the plants needed for her trade.
One day, while out with his father and some of the other lumberjacks, the group came across a sounder of wild pigs. Most scattered, but one seemed to take offense to the group and stood his ground. While young, the boar was still dangerous and it rushed anyone who came near. The foreman was ready to slay the beast with arrows, but Danus felt a strange and strong connection to the beast and much to the surprise of the group, walked out and laid his hands on the creature. The boar immediately calmed down and by the end of the day, the young beast was following Danus around like a puppy. His father attempted to shoo the boar off, but it would not be separated from the boy.
From that day forward, Danus and Tor have been together.
Yay! we're all here! Before moving forward, Tazo, does your halfling have a name yet?
Let me know what doesn't work from above. I'll work on finishing out his alias page today.
That works! Let's say the desert region your family is from is the heart of the Zethinian Empire. I kinda picture Asternia being akin to southeastern europe (Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria-ish) and the Zethinian Empire being analogous to the Ottoman Empire. Also, Emperor Zethys himself was a red dragon, so maybe your brass bloodline is why your family was driven from those lands.
So we have
*buffer
*healer
*Trapper
*tank
*blaster
*switch hitter
Well played, GM!
Although, that is only our surface qualities...lol.
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Ok, I set up a google drive folder with player resources for you all. Within, you will find a regional map, a map of Darkwater Crossing, and the Setting and Deities guides.
Coming soon will be an inventory tracker and other resources as the game progresses.
Note that on the Regional Map, Darkwater Crossing is listed as Blackwater Bridge. In the Fall of Silverpine Watch module, it vacillates between using the two names, and I prefer Darkwater Crossing, so that's what we're going with.
Here's the player resources link.
I'll add it to the campaign info tab as well.
Also, Emperor Zethys himself was a red dragon, so maybe your brass bloodline is why your family was driven from those lands.
Yeah. I hate red dragons. The mention of even the color red breaks my guarded shell.
Better cancel that red scarf! Knew that should of went with blue!
Sébastien nods at Shemar innocently....
EDIT
I am considering altering his Dex to 16 and pick up a shortbow. Probably lower Wis down to 12 though....
@party do we think we need Sébastien to actually do damage? I plan his Actions to buff the party.
@Danus cool Backstory. I like that you are going with a pig. I get images of hog rider from CoC...lol.
@Tazo were you planning on raising Thievery for Traps as we go? I currently plan on it also, but having limited skill increases may deter me from that path.
Danus and his family probably live just outside the city in the Farmer's Village.
this is how I imagine the party build to play out, PF2e may prove me wrong though:
Valkor frontliner, Danus and Shemar laying out damage from range. Circumstantial damage spikes from the rogue.
Sebastien and Elry buffs, support, damage control.
Rogue skill monkey and trap finder. Danus and Sebastien can help.
We have all four magic types covered: Shemar- Arcane, Elry- Divine, Sebastien- occult, and Danus- Primal
It's easy to cover the bases with a party of 6!
Alright folks, here's Tazo's thief--Boros the Snake! I changed his background to be Criminal because that's what happened when I actually wrote a background. Happy to specialize in Thievery and let our bard specialize in other things.
Perhaps, we may be underestimating our Rogues damage capacity...lol. Nice!
Better cancel that red scarf! Knew that should of went with blue!
Lol. I think that this looks good. Sebastien, I think you are clear to concentrate on buffing.
I might look at a different background. Not sure barkeep fits with what I wrote.
It seems like everyone, apart from Sebastien, has the Medicine skill. Can I respectfully make a suggestion that perhaps just two characters invest in the trained Medicine skill (Elry, as a cleric and Danus - being he's a herbalist) and the others can take that one skill point (they had put into Medicine) and invest it elsewhere that may give their character an edge in another skill?
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great idea Elry! I made Danus as a support healer from the get-go..hence the herbalism and healing focus. I should hope between the two of us we can care for the party's ills (knock on wood!!)
We've been living off of the riches brought from that time, until now. It is all but gone now. My uncle, who had been my sorcerous teacher, has encouraged me to become an adventure. For the family.
Shemar is more of a master blaster in combat. Personality wise, he's going to start off seeming full of himself. This is a defensive trait protecting himself from the reality of his family's crumbling economic status. He's a bit uppity and guarded with room for growth.
@Shemar: Barkeep suggests your guy is personable being it gives trained Diplomacy, however by the way you've described his personality it doesn't seem he'd be all that pleasant or hospitable with his arrogant defensive walls or his snobby demeanour being from an old money family (even with his very high charisma) until he's grown/matured in game.
Guard (str, cha ability) or Bandit (dex, cha ability) background might be something to look at. Since the old family money is gone, he needs to find a way to make quick coin, right, that doesn't undermine his station in life? Unless you think he'd be into gambling to make money, then Gambler (dex, cha ability) might be an alternative background?
Danus and his family probably live just outside the city in the Farmer's Village.
Elry lives in the South Valley, in the Farmer's Village, as well. Perhaps, they will know one another from there? Local kids, both into healing : one through divine and the other through primal? Maybe something to consider when we're looking at character connections in the near future. :)
I considered Gambler myself, but figured not to go too crazy for our GM...
I am thinking Sébastien is newly graduated from a Bardic College and he decides to join the The Compass Road for stories to tell.
I am in agreement that damage is covered by this group. I see him as not using actual weapons, but relying on magic as if raised that way.
His family could be wealthy actors/performers. They may be disappointed in his choosing to join the Compass Road instead of their troupe.
He may be running away....
I am viewing him as flamboyant to a flaw, as his mouth may not be censored...
Swashbuckler panache in style, but a bit lacking in the combat ability, or even desire.
He uses his mouth to both cause and solve his issues, problems, bullies.
He will most certainly be proud hanging out with our monk!
EDIT
@Elry. He is a prodigy...lol.
EDIT! EDIT!
Changed Background to fit.
Musical Prodigy
@Sebastien: Halflings are adults at 20 years of age. Being Seb is a newly graduated bard, is that why you made him 18? I have Elry at 24 being she is an adult and trained to boot. I was just wondering at their age difference. lol
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Hey y'all!
I'm glad we're all here and I'm happy to see you're working backstories and builds out.
Here's the little activity that hopefully will develop connections between characters and add to group cohesion:
1) First, write a short paragraph (3-5 sentences) that describes a significant event in the course of your characters development, something that describes the 'why' they become an adventurer. Add this event to your character's backstory.
2) 'Give' this event to the next player. We'll go in alphabetical order by PC name, so Boros->Elry, Elry->Danus, Danus->Sebastien, Sebastien->Shemar, Shemar->Valkor, Valkor->Boros
3) That player will then write a short paragraph (3-5 sentences) explaining how their PC became involved in the significant event in a way that it formed a bond between the two characters. They then add this event to their character backstory.
In the end, each PC will have a backstory connection with two other PCs.
Afterwards, if you want to continue making further connections with other PCs, feel free.
Her maternal great-grandmother's family had once been slaves and managed to escape and run for their lives. Moving around as much as they did, trying to outrun the law and any bounty hunters on their trail, they performed "secret" good acts in the concealing cover of dusk so they would not be discovered and enslaved again. This enabled them to develop the ability to see in twilight beyond the usual keen sight of other halflings. They (these 'Twilight Halflings') passed this ability down the family tree - through to Elry's mam Coran and then onto Elry.
When Elry was 5 years old, her Halfling parents were killed (they had visited the halfling owned Marigold Pub in Duskgate and some foreign traveller (from The Sunderlands) picked a fight with her father and ended up killing both her parents and leaving the pub before he could be put in cuffs/gaol.
Her Halfling parents had two Human friends, Dafni & Grays Barrow, who adopted Elry and raised her as their own (they were a childless couple before Elry came to join their family). The Barrows were also farmsteaders in the South Valley. Dafni was a cleric of Aleria and had influenced (through subtle means) the young Halfling's desire to become a healer. (Also, losing both her bio parents and then losing her adopted mother gave Elry the desire to 'save' others.) Dafni died from Scarlet Fever. Elry became very close to her adopted dad, Grays, and together they venerated Aleria and worked the farm (and this is where she 'cultivated' her affinity with the earth). Many said she was wise beyond her years.
Working beside people of different races and being so convivial (helping her make friends easily) refined Elry's ear for languages and she found it easy to learn new tongues. Her open disposition was a blessing to her father and community. It wasn't a surprise to her dad, Grays, when the young Halfling asked to go study/learn in the chapel to Aleria found in the Farmer's District. During the course of her study, Elry was sent, from time to time, as an emissary to the city of Hearth and it quickly became known to her as Darkwater Crossing. She enjoyed these divine sojourns and they triggered a small sense of wanderlust, which helped propel her into a life of adventuring. She was not the strongest of fighters, yet she could use a sickle and sling and at times her fist if she needed to physically extricate herself from a threat/dangerous situation. The divine magic granted to her by Aleria was something she learned to wield to aid others and herself. That's where her true strength lay - in her ability to help people with her magic, healer's skill, easy disposition and ear for tongues.
Fate is a curious thing how does the son of a magistrate and a known thief come to adventure together?
Valkor had just interred his fathers corpse in the family mausoleum and sat stunned as he read his father final instructions. One question kept going through his head who is Boros the Snake?
I'm not following the rules 100% here--using Valkor as a potential adventuring hook rather than Elry as instructed. Still, hoping these ideas are in the same spirit of trying to build some relationships between characters.
This is my WIP backstory.
One of the most enchanting places inside the gardens of Villa d’Este, here in Miller's Ford, is the straight alley which connects the Oval Fountain with the Fountain of Rometta, where you’ll find the Hundred Fountains.
The tour guide proceeds to allow those present to walk the alley at their leisure after his speech. Sébastien d’Este smiles at the tourists. The handsomely dressed halfling seems quite amused and proud of his family compound. The d’Este patrons (his mother and father) were well known play actors in Darkwater Crossing. Having been raised here in The City of a Hundred Fountains , as his family villa was known, Sébastien was well educated, well respected and well connected in the city. His charming smile and wit opened many doors for the young halfling. Having just recently graduated from Bardic College with every opportunity to join any of the famous troupes in Miller's Ford, his most prestigious invitation came just this morning from the Voyant Cathedral of Neria!
The smiling halfling chuckles.
If my parents found out my true plans, they would probably have me drowned in everyone of these Hundred Fountains!
Sébastien d’Este seems amused by that prospect....
Unseal the city fountains,
And let the waters flow
In coolness from the mountains
Unto the plains below.
My brain is parched and erring,
The pavement hot and dry,
And not a breath is stirring
Beneath the burning sky.
Sébastien reads from the poetry book for the hundredth time in his short life. Having accidently found this old, dusty and forgotten volume among his parents' deeply stored items in the attic, the impressionable halfling held unto the poem's mysteries over the years.
Sébastien has exhausted every avenue of investigation into the poem's origins in Darkwater Crossing. Libraries, city offices, map-makers and surveyors, old timers and gossip mongers: Nothing!
The ever-persistent halfling felt a kinship with the poem. He suspected that it related a real place, but he couldn't find the answers here. Hence, the newly graduated bard sought out Magyola Olvrehe, Proprietor of The Compass Rose for assignment outside the city.
It had to be the winter right after I found Tig. It was a cold one for sure, and I was out with the other men gathering deadfall to sell to the townfolk. It helped in the lean times to get a little money in our pockets to make it through the winter. Anyways, I was with Tig a little deeper in the woods, when we came across a number of bootprints. They were fresh and led from the road back deeper into the forest. I pointed them out, and the other men suddenly got very quiet.
"Bandits, more than likely" one of the men said.
"Feel sorry for whoever they grabbed!" said another.
I was confused until my father took me aside and explained that seeing such prints moving deeper into the forest during such a cold time usually meant that the local bandits were becoming desperate and moving in closer to the city to find what they needed... and they would not take no for an answer.
Sure enough just a few short moments later one of the men called out. We all rushed to see what he had discovered and were horrified to see 3 bodies frozen and partially buried in the snow. It looked to be a family...Father, Mother, and a boy about the same age I was. I could not stop staring at the boy's frozen features, nor the ragged, frozen slash across his throat.
The men started to pack the bodies onto the sleds we were using to gather brush.
"Are we going after the bandits?", I asked with frozen tears in my eyes.
The men looked around and shuffled their feet, but no one would answer me. It was not until we got home that my father told me that this was the job of the town guard, but they would most likely do nothing as it was "too inconvenient" to search the woods in the winter, and besides from their dress, they were people of no importance.
That night, while in bed with Tig, I promised him that I would grow up and hunt down these evil men and make the roads safe, regardless of the season or the wealth of the people!
@Elry be aware that the Status bonus from Bless will not stack with my Inspire Courage.
You may consider choosing another spell?
It had to be the winter right after you found Tig . It was a cold one for sure, and you were out with the other men gathering deadfall to sell to the townfolk.
Sébastien then looks up at his friend. The halfling's familiarity apparent as he is currently feeding Tor his apple.
I was having a bit of a date when you came trudging into the stables. You were mumbling angrily about bandits, bodies and spouting enough bravado to make even myself seem quite dour by comparison.
The halfling smiles at Danus.
After I dressed and spooked the pants off you, we decided to have a bit of the sauce to plan your revenge!
Sébastien absently patted the sated boar on its head.
And now, we have our means to take part in your promise to Tor that you would grow up and hunt down thosee evil men and make the roads safe, regardless of the season or the wealth of the people!
The wealthy halfling grins.
For which I will be grateful while on our trek!
Y'all have a happy holidays!
Merry Christmas Eve to all!