Council of Thieves: Dragoncat Edition (Inactive)

Game Master Dragoncat

Paladins of Shelyn are not exactly common, fortunately there is a published code which is helpful.

When push comes to shove he'd emphasise good over law, but he's more likely to try and work within the system than bypass it. He may not like people he views as evil, but the law is the law and you can't go around killing people just because you don't like them. This doesn't mean he won't intervene, far from it. If innocents are threatened he'll try to defuse the situation.

Combat is never Everett's first choice, but sometimes (especially in a AP) it is inevitable. Fencing itself is an art form so naturally it's one of the (many) things Everett feels obliged to perfected. I wanted Everett to be a dancer, and to approach combat like a dance but skill points are at a premium on a Paladin. A visual reference would be Basil Rathbone, Errol Flynn or perhaps River Tam.

Killing itself is ugly and to be avoided if possible, and usually he'd accept a foe's surrender unless they're insincere. One of the problems of pathfinder paladins is mechanically they suck at sense motive checks, which surely contributes to the lawful stupid meme.

What it means to be a Paladin of Shelyn?

Everett is a romantic and he sees and does everything through the lens of art. Take his relationship with Westcrown, I don't know if you've ever visited any old european cities like Venice, they have a certain faded grandeur to them. In my mind beneath all the grime Westcrown is like that. As a Paladin of Shelyn, Everett would see this and have fallen in love with the place. He's keen to restore faded civic glory, meaning the buildings AND the people / institutions. In his mind a harmonious city is a beautiful city, and Westcorwn's downtrodden residents sure could do with a little social justice.

Followers of Shelyn are allowed openly practice in Cheliax which has allowed Everett to put down roots in Westcrown. Like his parents he aspires to a patron of the arts as well as a artist.

Also, is there a specific NPC that sent you to the art shop of Jacopo di Carni that I ought to make sure reappears in the campaign?

Dragoncat didn't set any specific NPC, although it would be easy to retcon one. Everett's initial motivation is from his backstory where a big art heist bankrupted his parents. Clutching at straws and because he's a romantic he's convinced this theft (like many others) was ordered by the fabled Council of Thieves. There isn't a single shred of evidence to back this up, but he'll go to hell and back to prove it.

Sanchia's aunt and uncle aren't bad people. They do want what's best for her. But, they are also used to deciding what they think to be best and sticking to it, regardless of evidence to the contrary. Sanchia is clearly not like her actor parents, but surely she can be, and would want to be, with the proper prodding and opportunities.

Sanchia isn't a forceful personality; she tries to avoid conflict. Her strategy is to try to find reasons to avoid discussions about her future and when she can't, use minimal compliance to fail out of the chances to act presented to her. She figures she'll eventually be able to wriggle out of her current situation enough to go her own way.

I don't know what's up with Baroness Delour Aulamaxa and Calseinica aside from what's present in gameplay. Dragoncat and I never discussed them. If they're trying to get her into something involving theater, Sanchia would probably flub everything until they give up in frustration. Despite the situation though, Sanchia is starting to take a liking to Calseinica since she also seems like someone who gets steamrolled by others.

I haven't given the mirror much thought beyond a vibe I want for it, which is vaguely ominous. It seems to fit a mirror better than a pet familiar. Sanchia doesn't feel that way about it though. The mirror coos over her, encouraging and flattering her as it teaches her things. Sanchia sometimes gets the feeling that the mirror is withholding information from her, but otherwise she considers it a good, maybe her best friend. She suspects the mirror is either inhabited by her mother's spirit, or channels her mother's spirit. Mostly this is because it was her mother's possession and it's a comforting notion.

Beyond that I don't have any ideas for what the true nature of Sanchia's patron might be, or what it's designs are. Feel free to run with whatever you like if you want to explore that angle. It could also just remain a mystery.

Just give me a brief rundown of your interpretation of Lawful Good of Iomedae, for a Monk, especially for use in an urban campaign of Cheliax -- so I don't accidentally step on your toes and so that I can adjust what I may need to adjust accordingly. Pretty Please.

Cassynder may not be a paladin like Everett, but he uses Iomedae's paladin code as a guide, especially that last one about temperance. He knows that he walks a fine line in infernal Cheliax, and has to pick his battles carefully, using ironically devilish cunning to work around some of the code's more aggressive edicts.

His fighting style, melekatha, specifically works kind of like aikido, in that it's about redirecting an opponent's aggressiveness back at them, though as he's still only 1st level at this point, he's still got some aggression issues to work through (see his intro where he lost his composure at Nikrus' taunts and broke the poor ganster's jaw with a single punch), but as the plot reveals itself and he realizes how deep he's in, he'll have to continue to temper his anger and master the way of melekatha.

Surrendering enemies are to be treated with honor, but if an enemy dares him to kill them, he will somberly honor that request. Some enemies, evils, are too dangerous to allow to persist and must be smote, but where and how that smiting takes place must be approached with care. And it is important to recognize what evils are symptoms and what the root cause is, and go for the root cause. That's why, even though he had a moment of weakness and attacked Nikrus, he let Nikrus go even though he's probably gonna warn Palaveen. Palaveen is the true evil that must be cut down, Nikrus was just a toadie.

As corny as it sounds, one of the biggest inspirations for Cassynder was Batman. Make of that what you will.

Also, in Quirri's first post, she seems like a prostitute working under Nikrus. (And in turn under Palaveen.) Are Quirri and Nikrus NPCs that Cassynder is really interested in?

I don't think DragonCat was roleplaying Quirri as a sex worker, just a gangster lady using flirty language to get a guy's attention. As far as I'm aware, she and Nikrus are relatively equal in Palaveen's gang, it's just that Quirri wants out while Nikrus enjoys a small bit of favor because he's a butt-kisser. Unless Nikrus shows up later and Palaveen hasn't just had him killed for embarrassing the gang like that, I doubt we'll see him again. As for Quirri, I'm not sure: she seems to believe in Janiven's cause, and I know part of Council of Thieves' plot is building that organization, so she may stick around in the background provided nothing horrible happens to her, but I wouldn't go so far as to say Cassynder regards her as anything but an old friend. I hadn't planned on a romantic subplot with her, if that's what you're asking.

Is there any information that you and DM-Dragon Cat shared via PM that you'd like me to know?

Nope. Cassynder doesn't really have much in the way of secrets to keep, and after confronting Palaveen, he's meant to kind of pick up the thread of the AP's generalized plot and try to figure out how he fits into Westcrown now that his personal grudges are settled.

Are you expecting Cassander's far-away monastery to be reintroduced in some fashion in the future? Or anything else?

No, Cassynder is the only member of his Order in Westcrown. While he may be able to develop contacts among Westcrown's local Iomedaeans, he's still very new in town, so that kind of network would have to develop as the AP progresses. Should he encounter any members of the Sisters of the Golden Erinyes, he'll want to confront them in an honorable duel to prove the melekatha style superior to their hamatulatsu style, since his Order specifically developed melekatha as a counter to it. One distant goal he has is to establish a branch of his Order in Westcrown, so while I don't expect any of his brothers/sisters to come down from the mountains and trek halfway across the Empire to help him, he is interested in finding people in Westcrown who'd be receptive to Iomedae's teachings and melekatha's physical training to take under his wing as disciples.

One big thing to note is that Cassynder was created specifically to be a foil to the many tiefling antagonists in Council of Thieves. Cassynder will wanna argue with other tieflings (besides Whisper, since she's his ally and from what I've seen of her she's shaping up to be the Han Solo kind of character who starts out self-interested and cynical and eventually becomes a hero in spite of themselves) about the paths they've taken in life "You gave in to your inner darkness, *I* chose to defy it!" and whether or not there actually IS an inner darkness in tieflings or whether it's being sh!t on by the world for being born the way they are, that kind of thing.