I think the spear is the best choice at this point. There are only a couple of feats involved, Phalanx Formation and Combat Reflexes that I'd really need. If I decide I don't like it so much, I can always switch to ECB when get a martial level.
I've actually been super busy the last week or so and haven't done much at all about anything here. I have some highlights for Ausra's backstory figured out, but haven't put it in narrative form yet. I'll bullet point them here:
1. Ausra lived in Daggermark as far back as she can remember, but can't say for certain if she was born there.
2. She knows her father's name and that he is/was from Kyonin. Her mother was forlorn. They had parted ways well before Ausra formed any memories of her father.
3. Her mother was a member of the Poisoner's Guild. Ausra learned the basics of chymistry from her.
4. Ausra was not at home when her mother was murdered, perhaps that was by design because it was an assassination. While she was in her early to mid-teens (human equivalent) at the time, one doesn't live in Daggermark without learning a few things and she could read the signs.
5. Ausra didn't know how safe she was in the aftermath and abandoned her home, going into hiding.
6. Although she never fund out anything specific, what Ausra heard was that her mother's killing was initiated internally. Maybe she botched a batch of poison, or she said something to someone that she shouldn't have.
7. Ausra left Daggermark, considering it too hazardous, and began her long period of itineracy. She began working on the river, eventually finding a permanent place on the crew of a barge. The barge was independently owned and operated, carrying cargoes along the West Sellen and Sellen rivers.
8. After more than a decade the barge owner died of old age and Ausra moved on. For a while she traveled, or lived rough in the forest.
9. Ausra's second extended residence was with a witch who lived in the Cordelon forest about halfway between Bacul Gruii and Novoboro. She stayed until the witch died of old age some twenty years later. Now Ausra has moved on again, but she likes Cordelon because she's treated well there. She considers the area to be her home more or less.
10. Places Ausra has been, at least in passing, and has a poor opinion of: Razmiron (very creepy and cult controlled), Protectorate of the Black Marquis (dodgy situation up there, easy place to get killed or disappear, best avoided but if one can't stay on your boat), Sevenarches (they bastards won't let her in, so screw them), Hymbria (the bastards won't let her in, so screw them too) Riverton (completely insane pack of fanatics, super bad vibes, stay away).
11. Between Ausra's experiences and and the stories she's heard about all the little cities and towns where entire populations suddenly vanish (Heibarr anyone?), and there are quite a few of those places in the River Kingdoms, she has concluded that it's best to not live in settlements. One can't get by without any outside contact at all, but it's better if one sleeps about a day away from them.
Oh, the story feat. I don't have any one of them in particular that I'm most attached to. I mentioned three: Town Tamer, Vengeance, and Explorer that I could see working. Feel free to surprise me, any of them are fine. I listed more than one because I didn't want to create a bunch of work for you in having to try to fit a specific one in. Choose the easiest of the three for you and go with it.
Pathfinders... I'd kept the idea of Sayrin Firewyne in Uringen from before sort of by default. That could be Ausra's connection. But, Daggermark does make sense as well. I'f forgotten there was a Lodge there actually. I could see Ausra coming back to Daggermark a couple of times over the years to try solving the question of who murdered her mother. She could easily have joined up then, especially if she thought it might help her own investigation. Istivil Bosk could be her boss if that's better for your plans.
No worries! Well, apart from hoping that it’s been a good busy for you. Thanks for the bullet points!
Trying not to get myself too deep a rabbit hole of plots only to find out that you’d find one of the other stories more interesting.
Based on how both Town Tamer and Vengeance work, and your sketch of where your background’s headed (especially that Ausra isn’t much of a city girl), why don’t we split the difference like this? Since the one feat applies to undesirables/criminals/ruffians in a particular settlement and the other to a specific foe and minions, why don’t we tweak Vengeance so that for Ausra, on completion, it applies to assassins generally? So, cold-blooded contract killers more broadly, but not your common-or-garden goon/thug/gang member? I’m brainstorming ideas to strike a balance that includes some narrative closure and doesn’t entail something that might feel like an ongoing shadow war with the entirety of the Daggermark Assassins’ Guild™. (Though some other time a Godmother type of campaign sounds like it could be a lot of fun!)
Keeping the Uringen connection is fine, and we can have a nodding acquaintance with Bosk in Daggermark that developed from Ausra’s visits there as part of her ongoing investigation. (Also, don’t you hate it when trivia takes up uninvited residence in your head? There’s a part of me that thinks it was a missed opportunity that Bosk isn’t an iruxi/lizardfolk, but that’s the sort of joke that I know gets lawyers worried.)
Rules lawyer! We got a rules lawyer here!
Sigh. It's a lonely road, is the path of righteousness. ;)
Serendipitously, today's installment of The Handbook of Heroes sagely observes, "...players are creatures of chaos. It doesn’t matter what alignments their PCs happen to have. If you give players an organized structure like a church, they will instinctively add disorder. Give ’em a kingdom and they’ll start a revolution. Give ’em a ship and they’ll stage a mutiny. Roll out a Heavenly Bureaucracy and they’ll steal the Peaches of Immortality. It’s like showing your domino setup to a pyromaniac. S@@+’s going to wind up knocked over and on fire."
Thanks for your patience, you two!
Would you like me to try to get a preliminary scene-setting post up by the end of the weekend? I figure there will be a bit of plotting and planning before things really take off and we need to worry at all about tactical-scale maps and suchlike, and in the meantime our characters can bounce off each other and Helikia first.
But if you want to pin down backgrounds a bit more firmly first, or if life's still busy, I can absolutely maintain the holding pattern while circling on my broom (to channel a bit more of Lina). :)
Sorry, I thought I responded to this. Yes, let's get to it! I don't need to nail down my background in precise text.
I'm ready. Still a little busy but I'll manage just fine.
Hi, you two! Frustratingly, because I created the discussion thread first, it seems that I can't post in gameplay. I'm about to see if the Customer Service goblins can help.
That happened when I made my first thread. They might be able to fix it, but it took long enough for me that I just made a new gameplay thread and reassociated the discussion thread with it.
Agh, so you don't have to hold your breath, let's say we'll give them a couple of days, and if that doesn't work out, I'll see if I can do that. Maybe around Friday afternoonish? That will be after this next busy bit at work this week, and next week things will definitely be slower, so I'll have more time, I hope, to set the mood.
I do have the first post drafted and ready to go, once the technology behaves
Since it's shenanigans with threads, I blame Tabitha's norn mom. ;)
I blame her, too!
Can we agree that moving forward everything bad is Tabitha's mom's fault?
She has at least two moms, possibly three depending on how you count it, so there's ample blame to go around.
Her dad, too, I guess, though my current headcanon regarding him is that he's tremendously unperceptive and has no idea what his wife and daughter are.
Can we agree that moving forward everything bad is Tabitha's mom's fault?
Seconded! All in favour?
Also, I decided to decided to take your advice and just start a new gameplay thread, in which I've just posted a first thing to get started. Have at it, if you'd like! :)
The old thread completely disappeared on me until I went into your profile, Qunnessaa! It might help to ping rdknight separately to find this again, just in case.
I'll get an introductory Tabs post up ASAP.
I eventually suspected that might be the case, and I've sent off a quick PM. Thought I would let everyone have the rest of the weekend, especially with Hallowe'en to get ready for.
Wait, really? Some people don't make it a whole production that requires days of planning? Weird. :)
Actually, it's been fine, just a bit of tweaking my usual schedule, not least because I also need to rescue some plants from my community garden plot before the end of the season, and since it's the first year that I had one, that means tracking down pots and planters and such.
Ugh! I'll try to get a gameplay post up today. Thanks for getting things rolling Qunnessaa.
Have you heard from Poly recently? I haven't seen any posts from him anywhere in quite a few days, which seems out of character for him...
Gah, sorry folks, I'm not helping to make sure we're all in the same place at the same time. :/
I just sent a PM.
Things should be smoother now, I hope! My kid brother's visit for Hallowe'en is over, fingers crossed that my plants will settle in after being transplanted indoors, and so forth.
All wings check in?
*Starfighter noises.* "Pynk leader, standing by."
(Or we can just get started if everyone feels up to it, without dorky Star Wars references. :) )
Well, it's getting worrisome I think. Poly typically posts quickly and enthusiastically. I'm in more than one game with him and he's completely disappeared from the boards for about 2 weeks now.
Oh, that is worrying. Like I said, I reached out, but I don't think we hang out in the same spaces outside of our shared campaigns, on the boards.
Hopefully we'll hear back soon, and in the meantime I'll see if I can find another way of getting into contact.
Hi Qunnessaa, have you heard back from Poly at all?
If not, what should we do?
Unfortunately not. :(
It's been a rough week, here, so I only just started reaching out to other shared contacts yesterday afternoon, and since that game is also on hiatus... I suppose it might be a few days before I hear back. I did hear that sometimes Poly needs a break and will hopefully bounce back, but I'll keep trying to see if I can reach him without being too pushy about it.
Trying to give everyone space and not freak out, I figure I'll give it through this weekend before deciding that I'm just calling into the void, for now.
I'm sorry that you're rather stranded, given the circumstances. We could reach out to Sensen again, see if they're feeling like they have a bit more time to flesh out a character for another game? I did end up reaching out to Ventiine a while ago, and they're not looking for another campaign at the moment. If we want to reach out to others, I trust your judgement, and/or we could open up recruitment and I'd absolutely give your thoughts equal weight in selecting new players/characters.
I'd hate it if things have to fizzle out here - and like I said, I think I'll give it through the weekend for a couple of leads (hopefully), but at this point maybe it's for the best to let things go, though I'm certainly willing to do that and send up a Batsignal if I hear back with good news from Poly and/or Sensen. :/ *Fingers crossed.*
Oh, don't worry about me. I don't mind waiting at all. I'm just concerned about Poly since his absence was so sudden and without notice. I hope he's alright.
Likewise. Unfortunately, I've had no luck reaching out by way of other connections. :(
I hope everything's alright, and in the meantime let's put this on hold, and if Poly surfaces, I'll try to herd the cats.