Sky King's Tomb (Inactive)

Game Master Lia Wynn

Yes. People can see you. It's the middle of the day in a major city :).

Is anyone specifically focused on you? No. Not as far as you can tell.

Walking around the building shows no other doors. The building to the south has a double door, but you are uncertain what that building even is.

The Broch is a collection of five shoddy towers, built when the Church of Droskar ruled Highhelm. About 50 years ago, the towers were bought and turned into a for-profit prison by a dwarf named Baelim, who is now the Warden.

With manpower pulled away to Torag's Shield, prisons like this have become more prevalent in the last 10 years, but The Broch had a four-decade head start and is the most well known.

You get there. And you wait. And wait.

Eventually, you are taken to the Warden's office, where he sits behind his desk on a chair that resembles a throne.

Once you are seated, he slowly, almost agonizingly so, pages through notes.

"Yes. We do have a prisoner named Jirelga. Smuggling and manufacturing fraud." The latter is a very significant crime in Highhelm. "It will be a while before she sees trial. There are more significant cases before hers."

"Well, I'm glad to see it should be no trouble to see her then, as she won't too busy with her case preparation at this time. Thank you, Warden. Where do we go to talk to her?" It is not that Dyrm is clueless, but utilizing the bureaucratic mindset of trying to create barriers only to have their barrier turned to an access ramp seems to be a possible avenue.

"You don't.. The warden glares at Dyrm. "As far as I can tell, you are both wasting my time. Unless you can show me that you are not, this meeting is over."

"Warden, she has information that could be of benefit not just to us, but to Highhelm" He says as he is glared at. He glances to Korox, perhaps the good priest will have a better impression.

"My good man. I can assure you we don't wish to tarry, but it's important to Highhelm that we try to find information that we believe this young woman might have. I'm sure Warden that you would like your cooperation to be revered when we are able to provide answers to things that threaten the safety and security of all the citizens of this fine town. Perhaps you could just give us a guard to accompany us to her cell, then we'll be out of your hair, and we can be done with this whole matter in meer moments".

Oh Well. I'll try.

1d20 ⇒ 18 Diplomacy (Don't know if Korox's fine clothes and prominantly displayed holy symbol help or hurt this).

"If it was important to Highhelm, someone important would be here. As no one important is, I doubt that there is any crisis." he says to Korox. He then repeats "Unless you can show me that you are not waiting my time, there is nothing more to say."

"Would I have this if I wasn't important enough for your precious time"?

Korox displays the armor shard he was presented.

I've updated the Campaign Info spoiler with what you know so far.

"So you have a shard of Skymetal. Half the city does. Quite a few of my prisoners are here because they smuggled Skymetal from the Shield project.

There is nothing visual about Adamantine Echo to set it apart from any other fragment of adamantine. You know what it is, but there's nothing special about it that makes it stand out.

"... Welp, nothing else to do!"

She'd just walk up and knock on the front door of the bakery. If there was no response, after a minute or so, she'd just try the handle to see if she could go in. It probably wasn't going to be an option, but it was better safe than sorry in her opinion!

"Warden, that piece of skymetal was once worn by Taargick himself..." Dyrm says, offended on Korox's behalf. "Now, we are here in part on behalf of Clan Tolorr...a house of historians, and we have reason to believe a clue is to befound by talking to the prisoner. How do you wish to be known in history? As the man who assisted a quest of great import on behalf of Dwarven history ? Or will you be seen as the one who stood in its way?"

Dyrm, are you sure that you want to say that? Clan Tolorr asked you to keep things quiet so that every potential criminal and thug in the city wouldn't be on the hunt for you and/or the tomb. You're dealing with a man who has been running a shady private prison for 50 years. Do you /really/ want to tempt him with a close to priceless treasure?

Jaxi knocks on the door. There is no answer, so she opens the door and strides into the building.

The room you walked into clearly used to be the public room of a bakery! There is an L-shaped front counter, still with a cash register, and the counter has a glass display that would have let people see baked goods. There are also shelves on the walls that would have held loaves of bread and other products.

However, it does not seem to be a bakery anymore. There are no smells of baked goods, and adorning the walls are drawings of what seem to be drafts of architectural plans. In the area behind the counter are a trio of drafting tables.

A dwarf is sitting at each of the three tables, seemingly working on drafting plans. One of them rises as Jaxi comes in, and he walks over to her, bowing politely when he gets close.

"Welcome to our office, Miss." he says politely. "Are you looking to have a business or home remodeled?"

He wears a short sword, but given the Depths' closeness to the Darklands that is not unusual. There are three other doors that lead out of the room.

I DID forget. Forget he mentioned Clan Tolorr. Let me change things up.

"Warden, I'm going to trust you don't MEAN to insult the honor of a priest of Dranngvit, or a warrior of the Stonefist," He bristles, "I do think that perhaps, in your effort to block us, you're not considering thinking of how word of your behavior might spread. It won't sound good. You might even get more visitors, more attention." Yes, he's suggesting the man can let them see the prisoner once and be done, or deny them and get a lot more spot light.

Intimidation?: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18

At the bakery

Since the dwarf addressed Jaxi, Zothan hangs back for a moment and looks carefully at the architectural plans on the wall, seeing if he recognizes any of the buildings.

Highhelm Lore: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9

At the bakery

Zothan does not, but they could be plans for new construction. Highhelm rarely gets rid of a building, there's a limited amount of expansion space. They repurpose them, sometimes with significant changes. They do seem to be proper plans.

At the Broch

The Warden laughs a little. "Someone has an over-inflated sense of self-worth. I'm not trying to block you at all. You don't have any legal standing to see any of my prisoners. You're not from the government, you're not family. For all I know, you are her cohorts here to silence her. Go ahead, report me."

He does seem to have a grudging respect for Dyrm from the tone that he uses.

The two of you could also file a complaint with Highhelm authorities if you want.

Halanestra silently notes the dwarf's choice of colors, nods in an approving way.

"You could say that. You'd never believe it, but we're a bit of an eclectic group." Pausing for a moment, she continues regardless of the small joke's reception. "Do I understand you've brought a young kobold into your employ recently?"

Honestly a little confused about how that subplot wrapped up--I'm not finding a post about whether Fazil actually joined the thieves guild or not but I thought he did? If he didn't I'll just keep quiet.

The group doesn't know if he did or not. They never checked back with him or Yssa to find out.

The dwarf looks to Halenestra. "Kobold's do come by sometimes. I don't know if any of them have commissioned any work."

"Just as well. We thought our kobold friend might be a mutual acquaintance. Jaxi here helped him out with a bit of a tricky task a while back - the kind that pays in wooden coin, if you catch my drift." Zothan says, keeping a perfectly straight face as he hints to the thieves guild's initiation ritual.

"However, old friends aside, the main reason reason for our visit is a drathnelar named Jirelga. She has unfortunately been temporarily detained, but she left a card bearing the mark of this fine establishment. Our associates are attempting to disentangle her from her current predicament as we speak, but meanwhile we came to ensure that her inconvenient incarceration does not interfere with her business here."

Zothan presents the dwarf with the card found amoung Jirelga's things.

Diplomacy (Make an Impression): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (17) + 10 = 27

"I don't know what you are talking about." the dwarf replies to Zothan. After looking at the card, he adds "Yeah, that's the card of the bakery that used to be here. That's not us."

Zothan believes that he is telling the truth. There's no deception in his words.

Halanestra nods at the dwarf. "Right. Sorry to bother you, seems we've got the wrong shop. Say, friends, how about we double check that information we got from our companions?"

Agree that the “bakery” seems to be a dead end right now. Let’s see if we can get Ussa to track down Fazzil and check up on the tools. And perhaps our prison buddies can get the warden to cooperate by jingling some coins and offering to compensate him for his obviously valuable time? More than happy to pitch in if it works.

”Indeed, there seems to have been some misunderstanding here. We’ll get that cleared up, good day to you, gentlemen.” Zothan agrees and prepares to leave.

I'm waiting on the prison group to see if they depart or try anything else. Then I can push the group forward once more.

At the bakery

Zothan does not, but they could be plans for new construction. Highhelm rarely gets rid of a building, there's a limited amount of expansion space. They repurpose them, sometimes with significant changes. They do seem to be proper plans.

At the Broch

The Warden laughs a little. "Someone has an over-inflated sense of self-worth. I'm not trying to block you at all. You don't have any legal standing to see any of my prisoners. You're not from the government, you're not family. For all I know, you are her cohorts here to silence her. Go ahead, report me."

He does seem to have a grudging respect for Dyrm from the tone that he uses.

The two of you could also file a complaint with Highhelm authorities if you want.

"mmmph." The idea that they are with her 'cohorts' and out to 'silence' her is both insulting, and, and annoyingly, makes SOME sense, "Your concern for your charges , if you're sincere, is commendable, but I still find it very suspicious that you seem worried of what they might say to anyone outside the prison. I'll try to err on the more trusting side and assume it IS their protection you seek." He looks to Korox "I think we should go."

Unless the priest disagrees, they head out. Perhaps to try another avenue or let others try.

Dyrm and Korox leave the prison and link up with the rest of the group back at the Inn. The bakery group had gone back to Ussa and asked her to get in touch with Fazzil. She tells them it will take time.

10 Lamashtu, 4723

Late the next afternoon, you meet with Fazzil. When you show him the bakery card, and tell him what you can about your goals, focusing solely on talking with Jirelga, and what she is in the Broch for, he says "Yeah, that's Tuom's operation. Tuom Molgrade. I don't exactly know what is going on there. I worked there a couple of days, drawing things, and I made a delivery or two. I know that it's not a bakery anymore, but I don't know what the actual operation is about. New members get cycled through operations to see what we are good at, but we're not given details. We can't tell what we don't know."

Halanestra would be aware that it is not unusual for thieves' guilds as large as Blacknoon.

"I'd guess that on any given day, the people out front would be like me, temps with no knowledge of the operation. But, if you think there's manufacturing fraud happening, dwarves take that too seriously. You might want to talk to Blacknoon's higher-ups, and see if they'd share anything with you, especially if you have evidence." With that, he departs, having told you all that he knows.

Unlike many such guilds in other places, Blacknoon has enough legitimate businesses that they actually have places people can go to try and arrange business meetings, so you could try to follow Fazzil's advice, when or if you think you have something you could actually present to the guild.

AFK until Friday. Feel free to DMPC.

"Before we go knocking on any more doors, we need a solid idea of what's were dealing with here. Seems to me that we may want to have someone with a knowledge of tools and metalworking take a closer look at the tools bearing Clan Molgrade's stamp. Why don't I bring them to Elga up in Burntown, she would know if something's odd about them." Zothan says, then looks at Korox and Jaxi.

"Is there anything in the realm of magic that might aid our investigation? Some spell or ritual that can grant us insights?"

GM hint, please - I'm nowhere near as familiar with the 2e spell list as I am with 1e

Requested hint - I'd start with cantrips. I'll let others weigh in before resolving the trip to see Elga, so that if other people want to do things, I can resolve them all at once.

Requested hint - I'd start with cantrips. I'll let others weigh in before resolving the trip to see Elga, so that if other people want to do things, I can resolve them all at once.

Beside Detect Magic/Read Aura, I'm not really seeing any cantrips that might be useful?

As Zothan found an avenue of exploration, and Korox has both said to GMPC him this week and has Read Aura on his prepared list. we can explore that.

Korox takes a few minutes to look over all of Jirelga's possessions with the aid of his magic. It does not take long for him to determine that the cooking tools have a magical aura.

Korox Religion: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (11) + 9 = 20

It seems to him that the knives of the set are enchanted to cut vegetables faster.

Any of you who also want to roll can roll your choice of Arcana, Nature, Occultism, or Religion to Identify Magic.

"The problem is evidence, it SEEMS suspicious, but the man had a good point about 'defending his prisoners' though I have my doubts that was his real concern." He looks at the knives, not sure what else he can offer, but he has been forced to learn a myriad of minor interests and to his betterment. Maybe the druids in the city can help too

Let's try nature re magic , though his chance is limited: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21

"Anyway, the fellow was insulting to both Korox and myself. I suppose I COULD have tried to pay him coin for his time but after his slurs, I didn't want him to make him feel he was right."

Halanestra nods at both Zothan and Dyrm. "You're right. We've been a bit random about this and need to figure out a plan, with evidence, to move forward." She takes a look at the knives from a couple of perspectives, first using her magical training.

Arcana: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11
Occult: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20

She then starts to examine them as one trained in their use. She talks to herself as she tests them. "How are they weighted? Are they, in fact, actually suited to chopping vegetables? Is 'vegetables' a euphemism for something else, say, sentient plant- or fungal-based lifeforms? How sharp are they? Any hidden compartments in the pommels? Are the edges themselves particularly suited to a certain kind of combat?"

Not sure how to represent this in the rules but I'm trying out that player intuition thing :)

Both Dyrm and Halanestra agree with Korox about the intention of the enchantment on the knives. There is nothing unusual about the knives otherwise, as far as either of them can tell.

Is the plan to go see Essa at lunch, or will you be splitting up again? Also, Jaxi and roll Occultism, and Zothan can roll Esoteric Lore, on the cookware if they want.

Well, alrighty then! Zothan never misses an opportunity to flex his Esoteric Lore. Also, I think you're mixing up NPC names again, Lia. Do you mean Elga (the smith in Burntown) or Ussa (the yoshi fixer)?

Lore: Esoteric: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (15) + 11 = 26

I did mean Elga.

As Zothan examines the cookware, he finds that it is not what the others thought. While to most examinations, the cookware will appear to be enchanted to help cut vegetables faster, the spell is actually a curse that will guide a knife to the users' fingers instead of what they want to cut.

This is not something that Clan Molgarde would approve of on goods they made. It's not something that even Blacknoon would approve of if it did come from an operation that they were aware of.

I'll be updating the Campaign tab shortly.

Gotta say I'm surprised I didn't notice that myself when I was examining them, given that's literally what I'm trained to do.

Halanestra's face lights up as Zothan makes his discovery. "Aha, I knew there was something weird about them! So what do we do? We can report this to Clan Molgarde immediately? Or perhaps Elga would know more about who forged them or at least could point us in another useful direction. We could split up again?"

Is this Tuom Molgrade separate from Clan Molgrade? The typos on names are making things hard for me to follow.

Curses are hard to detect. Zothan rolled high enough to detect that there was one. As for Tuom's connection to Clan (or sometimes House) Molgrade, you don't know. You'll have to find that out. A dwarven House (which is used interchangeably with Clan) is made up of many smaller clans. From the name, you can assume there is some connection, but you don't know what it is yet.

What do you all want to do?

"Falsified items are a serious matter and cursed ones even worse. I still think we should ask Elga in Burntown to take a closer look at these, perhaps she can tell us if they are of dwarven make or come from outside Highhelm. After that, we may want to talk to Clan Molgrade and the Blackmoon guild."

You head to Burntown, timing it for around lunchtime when you know that she will be free.

Elga takes a few minutes to look over the cookware.

"This is terrible work. Well, to be more precise, terrible smithing work. Whoever made this did a good job at making it look high quality. However, it's very low quality. I think most Molgrade apprentices would be ashamed of sending something like this out in public. It's the level of work a new smith might make as practice, to hone skills before melting it down and trying again. I hope you didn't pay much for these."

Dyrm is happy to defer to the others and joins them in Burntown, and listens to Elga's evaluation, "I didn't see a maker's mark or anything obvious on it. Anyway of narrowing the source down further? I fear I am no smith myself."

You are aware of a maker's mark. The cookware and other tools that Jirelga had remarked with Clan Molgrade's mark. Elga referenced that. It's also in the tab in Campaign Info.

"So someone are trying to circulate cursed tools that would make Clan Molgrade look bad. But to what end? And have there been any other cases of sub-par tools popping up?"

"It might not be deliberate. It could be gremlins and sloppy storage. It could be someone with a grudge. I don't know. I haven't heard of anything like this, but I don't get out of Burntown much.

"Why don't we just... go ask Clan Molgrade themselves about it? I've brought up going to them a couple different times. Halanestra brought it up. They might be able to point us to who these were supposed to be forged by. Surely they've got a way to identify individual Smith's works, right?"

Jaxi had been quiet for a while because she just couldn't think of anything to do. The situation was outside of her wheelhouse, and her magic wasn't suited for this sort of thing. All she could do was give what limited advice or ideas she could think up. Which, wasn't much.

"It's not like we've got anything to lose."

Each Clan has its own Clanhold, which in Molgrade's case is the oldest and largest in Highhelm. In an emergency, it has the room to house and feed every member of the Clan. It is a series of interconnected buildings made of iron and steel. On the surface, it might be too hot to live in, but underground, there is no sun to beat down on it.

Like all Clanholds, it has offices for the public to meet with clan representatives, and you fill out some paperwork that lists your basic concern and are shown to a table to sit at until someone is free to address the concern.

After a short wait, you are approached by a member of Clan Molgrade. He is a smith, which you can tell because of the metal plates that are threaded into his beard, and the intricate tattoos that run and up and down his arms.

"My name is Yiri Molgrade." He looks down at your filled-out form. "I understand that you are concerned with the rumors of low-quality tools stamped with our mark. I want to assure you that you are not the only people who have recently informed us of such concerns, and we are taking the complaints very seriously indeed. Even with a lot of our manpower being devoted to Torag's Shield, we have teams of auditors going over shipments and checking markets for fraudulent goods. If you can share the name of the person that you purchased your goods from, it will help us immensely. If you have any other information to share, I could pass that along to our investigators.

Zothan greets Yiri Molgrade graciously.

"Well met, Master Smith. Thank you for taking the time to meeting with us. We found these tools among the belongings of a drathnelar we are trying to locate as part of an investigation of our own. Presently, we do not know how the tools came into their possession, so we are reluctant to jump to any conclusions. For all we know, they could have purchased the tool legally, unaware of their true nature. Unfortunately, the individual in question has been taken into custody in a private prison and the warden there refuses our requests for a visit to get to the bottom of this matter."

He pauses to let the Molgrade smith digest the information then proceeds.

"It seems our interests may align on this. And if your clan is pressed for time, we humbly offer our assistance in trying to find the source of these counterfeit tools. If we can show the warden that we are acting on behalf of Clan Molgrade, perhaps he will be more willing to cooperate. We will of course share any information relevant to this case."

Diplomacy (Make an Impression): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (7) + 10 = 17

"I don't have the authority to hire anyone from the outside, and I do not think my superiors would want me to do so. I can say that we do not have any drathlenar as authorized sales representatives. However, if there is anything else that you can tell me that will help us out, should we come across any information on your drathlenar, I'll make sure that it gets passed back to you."

If the basic concern about the knives didn't mention the curse, Halanestra goes into some detail about that--as much as she can given her limited understanding. She can apparently lead a ritual (!) but dealing with curses is still beyond her, so she relies on her trained companions to fill in the details there.

Yes, the curse had been mentioned, perhaps obliquely by me when I mentioned that you filled in paperwork with your complaint. I would point out that you do have information that a rep of Clan Molgrade would very likely be interested in. It's both in the clue summary and mentioned by Zothan in the discussion thread.

Korox continues to add names to his list of people who don't seem to want to help.

"I beg your pardon esteemed smith. Are you familiar with the name Tuom Molgrade? I believe he might have information that might prove helpful".

"Tuom? Of course, Tuom would be involved." Yiri lowers his voice.

"Tuom is my second cousin. She is an accomplished arcane smith, but she often clashed with Clan leadership, spouted rhetoric about Dranngvit, and then would vanish for weeks at a time to work on her own projects."

"I can say that if you were to recover any of our property in her possession, you could bring it to me, and I could compensate you with a finder's fee.

Clues updated.

Welcome to the Discussion thread.

I'm going to do a quick mechanical and expectations post, and please feel free to ask questions any time.

Posting: The goal is daily. I know that might not always happen, life gets in the way of that, but that's the goal. I'll let you all know if I happen to have anything that will limit my posting.

Agency: I want to keep as much of the dice rolling in your hands as possible. While I will roll initiatives for all combatants and an occasional secret check, most secret checks will be rolled by you. Yes, that may lead to meta-gaming, and I'm willing to risk that.

Recall Knowledge: Recall Knowledge is one of the normally secret rolls that I will not be making. When you encounter a creature, I'll do something like:

Wolf (Nature).

This will let you know what skill you can use to roll RK. There may be times when other skills can also be used.

Now, what information will you get with RK? I prioritize telling you about Immunities, Resistances, and Weaknesses. I think this gives the best chances for players to not waste actions and to make better plans. Special abilities and the like are also high on my list of things to reveal with RK.

Sky Kings Tomb uses most of the subsystems in PF2E, and when we hit one, I'll go over the base rules and any special rules for that use of the subsystem.

Free Archetype: As I said in the recruitment thread, I am open to discussing this now that I've chosen a group. If people have opinions on if they'd like it or not, please post them.

Shopping: Once you have more resources, it's not hard to spend them. When in Highhelm, you have access to all common items of level 14 and below, all Uncommon Dwarf items of level 14 and below, and all common weapons and armor of up to 17th level.

Lastly, Chapter 1 of Book One, is called Highhelm Heroes. The goal of the chapter is for your group to establish itself, and earn a reputation. It's a very sandbox-style chapter, with a number of events that you'll get the chance to learn about and explore.

Sounds good to me!

As for Free Archetype, overall I'm a huge proponent. It opens a lot of build possibilities without adding a lot of power. That being said, we are using Paragon Ancestry, which I feel does add some potency; it allows you to get things like additional movement types, resistances, all kinds of stuff. Again, I think the extra power comes in the form of versatility and survivability as opposed to, say, huge debuffs or damage output, so it's not enormous. However, I've never used the two variant rules together so I don't know how they'd interact.

All in all, I'm willing to find out, but I definitely suggest we leave that decision in your hands. You're the one who has to do the extra work to power up combats if we end up being too beefy, after all!

If we do go FA, I know exactly what I'll be taking with Batsu: vigilante! I've never played the archetype in 2e and I'm curious how it plays. The Startling Appearance feat is a nice opening debuff. I'd go for Shadowdancer at 8th, but I don't see Batsu as a performer and you need Expert Performance to qualify. Might just grab all Vigilante feats, who knows. I usually try to plan builds out but I feel like since this is a playtest class, maybe I'll just play it by ear level to level. Do what feels appropriate to his experiences.

Also, a big fan of the Free Archtype rule. We use it in the tabletop game I run, and it just gives more flexibility of choice. I also like the Paragon Ancestery as it better identifies / differentiates the ancestries.

As far as I know, the Free Archetype wouldn't/shouldn't make us too powerful alongside the Paragon Ancestry. It gives us all a fair few more options, but nothing that really makes us more powerful. If anything Paragon Ancestry is what'll make us more powerful overall. Some Ancestry feats can be rather strong.

I dont mind using free archetype but I am also happy not to. I see you have taken 6 players. Most APs are written assuming 4, free archetype on top of that likely means a fair bit of extra work for you in amending things so there is a decent challenge.

Thank you for allowing me on the game GM. As for FA or not. To me it's a coin flip. I can see it being good and I can see it being bad when meshed with PA and the number of players.

So your choice.

D'oh. That's what I get for not paying attention. Vigilante requires Trained in Deception. Well, I can probably find an interesting archetype to tack on. There are plenty to choose from!

And of course, this is even assuming we use FA. Could be a moot point.

You all can start to RP if you'd like. I'll get us going Monday or Tuesday, but it's fine to start to IC getting to know you process.

Jeez, I am a class A jerk. I didn't even thank you for inviting me into the game! I really am grateful, I've been excited to play Sky King's Tomb ever since it was announced. Thank you!

As chapter one is very sandboxy and yet rather important to creating the groups' cohesion, and establishing them in Highhelm, I wanted to explain a little more in order to lessen the chance of 'we don't know what to do' settling in.

The core of the chapter is the group of PCs creating a group identity and reputation in the city. This is done through up to 13 events. Some of them are very simple, and some of them are rather involved. You will learn of events as time goes by, or by your own efforts to learn of things happening in Highhelm.

You'll start off aware of three of the events. The party, especially at six people, may choose to split up and investigate varied events or do other things, or they can stay together. That's up to you.

Each of these events will reward you with at least one of new character options, loot, or reputation, and they do not all need to be explored.

Each day, each player can choose one activity they are pursuing for the day. These can be:

1. Investigate one of the rumors that you are aware of.
2. Gathering information to learn of more opportunities.
3. Earn Income.
4. Crafting. You are in a city after all. Materials and time are both plentiful.
5. You can pitch ideas to me for things you want to do.

I'll keep the group aware of what in game day it is, and the group's current overall reputation as it grows.

Feel free to ask any questions that you may have.

Since Angar used a hero point, I've been debating how I'll handle them in this chapter. As it's very sandboxy, I've decided to do it this way.

For the chapter, each character has 3 hero points. So, Angar now has 2/3, and the rest of you have 3/3. When we get to Chapter 2, which has a very different feel, the way I do it may well change, and I'll let you all know when we get there.

To all my GM's,

My stepdad passed away this morning. I will not be able to post for a few days. I will check in when I can but my posting, if any, will be spotty. I hope you understand.

I've been called away on a family emergency. Probably out of touch till Saturday so feel free to move things along.

Sorry to hear that for both of you. Thanks for letting us know.

Until at least one of Batsu or Borox is back, I won't advance us to the next game day. However, Kilian may still make tryout rolls if he wants to, people can RP, and if there are other things you'd like to do, bring them up, and I'll see if it's possible.

I am afraid that I am going to have to drop out of this game, time has become too tight.

Sorry to hear that, and thanks for letting us know.

We'll be replacing Angar with Zothan. I'll work him in as soon as I can, which may be a few days.

HA! So we'll be getting the Cat and Mouse dynamic in this game after all! XD

Sorry to see you go, Angar! Best of luck on your next game(s)! Though our interactions were brief, I enjoyed them very much.

HA! So we'll be getting the Cat and Mouse dynamic in this game after all! XD

”Indeed! And allow me to express how much I’m looking forward to our imminent cooperation. I can assure you that any reservations you might have about working with someone of a feline heritage are entirely unwarranted.

This whole “cat and mouse” dynamic is merely the result of old stereotypes and a few unfortunate misunderstandings long past. Now, if you would kindly stop looking so appetizing, it is rather distracting.”

Joking aside, I really am looking forward to joining the game. I’ve been lurking from the beginning and like what I see so far. I’n ready to jump in as soon as the opportunity arises.

I've decided to let Zothan join in the Burnside group at the forge. He can join in starting this phase, which is phase two so that he's not sitting on the sidelines for what could be a while.

Welcome to the Quest, Zothan!

Understood and appreciated. I have some urgent work tonight, but will try to find time to drop a quick post.

Ok, before posting, let me just make absolutely certain I understand how the Burntown tasks work.

I'm a bit fussy on the destinction between "phase", "stage" and "step". In the description, I suspect that Phase and Step are used as synonyms. Is this correct?

So, for phase 2, what exactly are Zothan's options?

Is it one of these:
1) Either Hammering Iron or Quality Control on the Fence.
2) Reassembling the crossbow

Or starting at Step one for one of the projects? Or something third?

Double-check with GM, but I believe QC on the fence was already successful, so your options would be:

- Step 2a on the fence;
- (Assuming Korox was just successful) step 2 of the crossbow; or
- Step 1 (a OR b) of the shield.

Good questions.

Phases are terms for unspecified lengths of time. The are three morning phases, then lunch, then two afternoon phases.

Each of the three projects has multiple steps that must be completed in order. So, step 1 (or 1a and 1b) need to be done before step 2, etc.

The Burntown group is going into Phase 2. So, you have the hammering iron on the fence and all of the crossbow and shield. Note that I am answering this before looking at Korox's post, so part 2 of the crossbow may be ready.

In addition, now that we are in Phase 2, there is a Fortitude save as part of every phase in order to deal with heat exhaustion.

Batsu is correct that the fence QC is done.

I hope that clears it up. If not, let me know.

Thanks, I think I got it. Posting now.

Can we retry the same task? Or do we need to either try again with a different skill or pick a new project?

Yes, you can try the same task or a different one. There's no limitations in that regard.

I promise most of Batsu's posts won't be that long, but I did say this guy will be doing dramatic inner monologues! :P

Hello everyone. Player of Dyrm Stonefist here. I'll be joining you when the time is convenient for the story.

Dyrm is a classic dwarven fighter type, easier for me as I'm still newish to 2nd Ed compared to some. His personal story? He's doing this for love, because when you think romance in fantasy, you think dwarf!

;)

To nutshell it. He and a lady of Tolorr are in love and plan to get married, but said lady wants her grandfather's blessing before they do. Dyrm is going to earn that blessing by assisting Clan Tolorr.

Hello everyone. Player of Dyrm Stonefist here. I'll be joining you when the time is convenient for the story.

Dyrm is a classic dwarven fighter type, easier for me as I'm still newish to 2nd Ed compared to some. His personal story? He's doing this for love, because when you think romance in fantasy, you think dwarf!

;)

To nutshell it. He and a lady of Tolorr are in love and plan to get married, but said lady wants her grandfather's blessing before they do. Dyrm is going to earn that blessing by assisting Clan Tolorr.

Huzzah! Welcome to the game. I think you'll find that 2e fighters are a lot of fun to play. I play Gnome fighter in my RL 2e game, and find that I have a lot of cool options available, while still being able to dish out plenty of damage.

Huzzah! Welcome to the game. I think you'll find that 2e fighters are a lot of fun to play. I play Gnome fighter in my RL 2e game, and find that I have a lot of cool options available, while still being able to dish out plenty of damage.

Thanks for the kind welcome! I've been hearing only nice things about the 2nd Edition fighter so far. I'll be open to suggestions on tactics and the like if you feel so inclined.

Dyrm will be replacing Kilain and will be ICly introduced once both groups are finished with their current events.

As for the Recall Knowledge Zothan brought up earlier, we'll play around and see the best way to do it. I fully support heavy use of RK, and we'll just have to find the most effective way to run it as we go.

Dyrm, if you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to ask. That goes for anyone, of course!

Stepnik will investigate.

Dyrm will be replacing Kilain and will be ICly introduced once both groups are finished with their current events.

As for the Recall Knowledge Zothan brought up earlier, we'll play around and see the best way to do it. I fully support heavy use of RK, and we'll just have to find the most effective way to run it as we go.

Dyrm, if you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to ask. That goes for anyone, of course!

I suppose my first question regards more his backstory and bride to be. Ularrka Tolorr and her grandfather are rather vague now, and that's fine with me, but did you want me to name them both? or change the names to fit any other NPCs of the Clan that may already exist? etc.

If I can keep the imagination going, I'll have Dyrm writing letters/journal entries to his bride to be reminiscent of civil war soldiers to their beloveds while they were in the field but that's more for my own amusement.

Welcome, welcome!

I love the idea of letters and journal entries. I'm hamming it up with the inner monologues so you'll get no judgment from me! I can't wait to read 'em! ^_^

The Iron Lagoon seems like as good a place as any to introduce Dyrm. I’m thinking that if we announce that we are guests of Clan Tolorr, he’ll jump at the chance to aid us.

I don't need them named, no. You can name and detail them if you want, but I have no need of that from the GM side of things, That said, any of you can flesh out backstories as you see fit. Letters, Batsu's inner musings, all kinds of fleshing out are more than welcome! They're fun to read.

As for the intro, I'll do that after both groups are finished with their current tasks. One, because it's just a little easier on me, and second to combine Kilain's leaving with Dyrm's arrival.

Don't mean to be a backseat driver, but just wanted to give group 1 a gentle reminder that everyone started the game with 3 hero points, if you want to retry those skill checks. But they are our only hero points for quite a while (all of chapter 1, I believe?) so understandable if you want to save them. Just an FYI. :)

Thank you, Batsu! I had completly forgotten about Hero Points, and the current situation certainly calls for some extra heroics.

GM Lia still needs to roll for Kilain, but if he fails as well, I would strongly consider spending my point. So, don’t resolve anything too soon.

And don’t hesitate to point out this kind of thing in the future. I’m still a fairly new 2e player and appreciate when others point out rules options or implications I might be missing.

I would agree that backseat driving, when used the way you did Batsu, is very good. Reminding people about things like Hero Points, or other things, without saying 'You should do this' or 'You should play like that', is a very good thing.

On a side note, when you refer to me in a post, just Lia is fine. You don't need to add the GM part :)

Well, D’oh! The asyncronous nature of PbP strikes again. While I was busy composing my heroic novella, Korox ninja’d me with a much more sensible and straight forward solution.

Guess we’re double heroic. At least it should be enough to get the fire fully under control.

Hey, wanted to apologize for vanishing for a bit. Some stuff happened IRL and I wound up being really distracted. I'm back now though!

I'm glad you're back.

I want to hit a couple of GM things, as both groups are bringing in some treasure.

Money: How do you guys want to handle it? Even split between the party members or a group pool? When it comes to mundane equipment, once you're in some fights, I'll assume you leave it behind unless someone says they take something, with magical gear being auto taken.

As for gems, jewels, paintings, etc (like the soapstone goat, for example), I'll assume they are sold and treated like money, unless, again, someone says 'I want to keep that.'

Magical Items: When you're in an active adventure area and find an item you learn is magic, via Read Aura, Detect Magic, etc, you'll need to make a roll to ID it. However, when in Highhelm or other large settlements, those rolls will be handwaved, as you have effectively as much time as you need, and having to do a series of rolls could be tedious in PbP.

When you are exploring the Darklands, you will need the rolls.

A couple more GM things.

The Remaaster: I know I'm excited about it, and I want to touch on how I plan to bring it in. Once I read the new Player Core, I'll let you all know, and anyone playing a class covered by it, will have a week to swap features out for free. So, if a new class feat or subclass fits your concept better, you could swap to it without retraining.

The same goes for Skill and General feats. They can be swapped, but backgrounds will stay the same.

Things like rogues gaining all Martial weapons will just go into effect. Spell names we'll probably all need adjustment time for, so using either version is fine. :)

RK: I have seen some previews that indicate the direction of RK will be to let the player ask gamey questions like 'Which save is lowest.' I will not be using that. Instead, I'll be sticking to what I do with my physical table, and that is emphasizing Immunities, Resistances, and Weaknesses for monsters with RK. Now, you can still ask for specific information, in case you already know, or they have none of, the above, but by default, you'll get what I see are the most important bits of information. You'll also get a little flavor blurb about something the first time you encounter it, and this could also give tactical information.

As an example, pretend you've been fighting goblins with swords, and some with spears, and then you encounter a group that has some slingers, and Zothan RKs on the slingers. I could say "Goblin Slingers are known to use Alchemists' Fire as ammunition", and that would give you tactical information.

Free Archetype: I've decided to use it. There will have to be a narrative reason that your character takes an archetype. Uncommons or Rates will have to be run by me first, and it's not mandatory at all. If you don't want to take one, don't. You can also save the slots in case the AP introduces any down the road, or later books add them.

As always, questions and comments are welcome.

I'm good with sharing the loot as group treasure myself. Though it takes more bookkeeping in my tabletop games we also award an equal share to "Party Treasure" to be used as all agree. I agree that if someone wants to keep an art/bauble item they should just take the resell value as part of their loot share. ie... if the resale value of an item is 5gp you get 5gp less of the party treasure.

I've been struggling with the whole RK thing since I started GM'ing PF2. I've got a new campaign starting this Saturday and am going to try the following... at least till I see what the Remaster rules offer.

Monster Rarity:
(If trained*)
Difficulty to know what it is... No other information.
*Common; DC10
*Uncommon: DC12
*Rare: DC 15
*Unique: DC 20-30 depending upon familiarity with generality.

*If not trained DC is 5 higher.

If you hit a number equal to this +5 GM will provide additional pertinent information. If you hit +10 you can ask a question, and if you roll a nat 20 you get to ask two questions.

I'm considering having the expertise level of the character adjust the DC downward, but since that is partially offset by the proficiency going up by 2 I'm still considering.

Definitely in favor of the free archtype rule. I find it doesn't really affect the DC of things just allows you to fill out your characters role.

Archives of Nethys gives DCs for RK, and uncommon and rare go up, and you can also DC by level to figure out typical ranges. You don't want to make it too low, especially for uncommon and rare creatures, or they don't feel uncommon or rare.

Just as an example, in the two challenges, you guys have been facing, there have been quite a few 18s for DC when you use Perception (lower for using other skills), and you've beat them quite easily at level 1. So, a 15 DC for a rare creature becomes trivial pretty quickly.

DC by level also works for basically anything that you're not sure what to set a DC for GMing. But, in the end, use whatever works for your table.

Group Pool sounds good to me as well.

I'm a bit nervous about the Remaster as I'm still getting used to 2nd but I understand fighter is one of the least changed? So that may not be anything to worry about for me. I'll probably stick with the 2nd.

Free Archetype.. mmm, I think I need to play Dyrm a bit to see which way he leans personality wise