GM Silbeg's "Murder on the Throaty Mermaid" (Inactive)

Game Master Silbeg

Youngster! Man, my youngest was only 1 when I was 30. Ah for the days of only 1 kid again... ;-)

And now the REAL story begins!

Yeah, I figured the ambassador would be the one to die. I really wanted to jump in to the ambassador's quarters and protect him when I saw that Thanzeril wasn't there. But then I realized I was using metagame knowledge based on the name of the adventure. Also...

He doesn't give it a second thought, though, for the sounds of battle are above him!

I know when there's a railroad track that I need to follow. If for nothing else, you can rely on Lort to charge headlong down whichever path you steer him towards, having enormous fun as he blithely does so!

No problem.

This portion of the scenario probably would be a little smoother in a 4-5 hour slot, where I could push things a little harder (and railroad a little bit more). :D

Hey there Silbeg, did you mark this campaign as inactive for some reason? It's no longer on my active campaigns listing.

Sorry... fixed. Accidently unchecked you.

Hey guys, sorry to hijack this discussion thread again...

... but I just wanted to point out that my initial deadline for a character name and concept (no complete sheets needed yet) is tomorrow. Jaender and Strong Brute are mostly good to go, we have a pending life Oracle for TheBobJones and a gunslinger/paladin from Not Amaranti, but Silbeg's GM baby is unborn and Acre's class is still undecided upon.

I'd really like to get the initial gameplay post out on Friday night and run through the introductions and quest-giving over the weekend to start in earnest (first combat?) on Monday. Happy to start earlier if we're ready, but all I need for tomorrow is a character name (and alias), with a class and a quick tie-in to the town.

Post it here when you're ready!

H

... but I just wanted to point out that my initial deadline for a character name and concept (no complete sheets needed yet) is tomorrow. Jaender and Strong Brute are mostly good to go, we have a pending life Oracle for TheBobJones and a gunslinger/paladin from Not Amaranti, but Silbeg's GM baby is unborn and Acre's class is still undecided upon.

Homework sucks! But at least making new characters is fun. 85% done and working on a background story. It all started when my friends and I rode the new Dungeons & Dragons roller coaster ...

I have friends coming over on weekend, so not much posting from my side. But I'll get the character done tomorrow.

No problems at all. Only starting in earnest on Monday. I know weekends can be a little sporadic. ;-)

Just by the way, I'm loving the difference between Lort and Miro's approaches. I'm definitely going to take a more Miro-like approach to my skill monkey in Thornkeep... balance things out so you don't think I'm a complete díck.

Oh, which brings me to my next point: how does everyone feel about me bypassing the prôfånītÿ filter like that? Okay? Not okay? Happy to go back to cursing like this if you don't like the other f**king way.

The cursing doesn't bother me at all. And to me there's no difference between the filtered version and the real thing, anyway.

:-) I wouldn't bother at all, except the filtered replacement is so f%$+ing pathetic-looking.

Doesn't bother me either way

-Posted with Wayfinder

Again, we are all adults,and one elderly person (Gunari), so as long as its purposeful, and Lort's cussing is purposeful, no big thing.

I sort of feel bad because I am forcing Lort around a lot. But, it should be worth it in the end.

This might have been more ambitious as a PbP than I thought at first :D

But I am having fun... I hope you are!

Sure are! No problems about the forcing. Lort needs adjustment. ;-)

Just let me know when those elves wake up...

They can wake up as soon as you guys want them to (well, you'll need to apply some healing, they've been hit pretty hard).

Just want to have you all settle in, and start with the investigation in the AM...so you'll also get to reset your dailies, and re-memorize spells!

Miro: Int: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2
Cyrus: Int: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21

Cyrus realizes that no one is watching the bow right now, and the loss of the pipe could be blamed on the elves!

This is great, I'm all ready excited to do this investigation! I'm working on Ibid's journal entry right now to help keep track of things, I'll have it posted tonight.

Again, we are all adults,and one elderly person (Gunari), so as long as its purposeful, and Lort's cussing is purposeful, no big thing.

I'll get you for that, you gol durned whippersnapper!

Now GET OFF MY LAWN!

They can wake up as soon as you guys want them to (well, you'll need to apply some healing, they've been hit pretty hard).

You perhaps missed this in the middle of all that posting...

Once downstairs, Lort takes the unconscious elves into Sephriel's cabin. Making sure they are secure, Lort makes sure Amaranti and Kaishgara are close and then channels positive energy and heals them with his wand until they wake up.

[dice=CM to tie up]1d20+5

[dice=Channel 1]1d6
[dice=Channel 2, only if needed]1d6
[dice=Cure light wounds (wand), only if needed]1d8+1
[dice=Cure light wounds (wand) 2, only if needed]1d8+1

Sorry for the long post everyone! I got excited by all the clues and trying to solve the mystery. I probably got a little ahead of myself :)

Not at all, I was thinking this morning as I was getting ready, "would be nice for Ibid to organize all those loose threads". PERFECT

Do we want to go sequentially about questioning GM? i.e. start with elves, then move to morale officer, then to captain, then to crew? Railroady but it will easy multiple posts ....

Erm... I already started. Took me almost 40 minutes to craft that one... seems in line with your suggestion, Finarin.

As for the long post, Ibid... it was awesome. I certainly can't complain either. Lort's post rivals Ibid's to be sure! :-)

Bravo, Cyrus! While the GM is busy, we can come up with some extremely long posts to entertain each other. I love it.

I think I'm probably not alone in saying: Best. Intimidate. Check. Ever.

Thanks! I was worried some of the detail would get lost as I typed it cuz it was so long. I am happy with how it turned out in the end, I probably could have added some more picture/scene painting, but that's probably just being nit picky

That was well done!

Amazingly done, Cyrus! That's incredible! I'd tell you whatever you wanted to know if I were in their shoes :)

Agreed, great job!

Mental note: Do not mess with Cyrus... Bravo!

Just to let you know that I am probably getting drunk tonight while playing poker. Any post from me before 7am CDT tomorrow should be ignored. :-)

I plan on falling in love with a mediocre flush on a paired board and taking it all the way to the felt.

Have a good Saturday night, y'all! Damn, Texas Hold 'Em in Texas... does it get any better?

Great summary, Silbeg! I know it was tricky with all the questions we bombarded you with.

Is there some reason we shouldn't be questioning these guys separately and one at a time? I'm of the thinking that we should put our best diplomacy and intimidate forward first, not to mention our sense motives.

If it makes things better for you, I'm happy to meta-game the suggestion and split it up.

Doesn't matter to me. I know when I played it and GMed it before, players split up. But, however you wanna do it is fine by me. I think we did it when I was playing so that they couldn't talk about what we asked them, or something. But, I am not sure, 'cause that was about 2 years ago!

And I didn't really realize the wall of text I was creating!

There was a game I played in with a different character, "The Merchant's Wake" that had a "social combat" style encounter. We would all try various (yet specific to the target) skill checks to improve their attitude towards us. I wondered if that was how this part of the scenario was intended, for us to split up and "question" different people, and get them to give us different bits of information we could later put together like a puzzle piece.

I don't have any problem with each of us taking a different person and asking a few questions, and then making a check (or having Silbeg make the check for us). I am pretty sure we are going to continue to bombard you though, GM :)

I'll work it out as need be. Do as you see fit.

FYI - please don't make any rolls unless called for. In general, I'd prefer you describe what you are going to do, and say what you are going to say. From that, I'll figure out the primary and assisters, and make rolls as needed.

For the most part, rolls are not going to be needed, but there will be cases.

on another note... I'll probably not be using all the NPC aliases I created... you cannot delete them once you use them!

The other thing is that, especially just for a Pathfinder Scenario, you're cluttering up your message board profile with a lot of aliases that likely won't see the light of day again (unless you run this over and over). I've seen it before, but it was for a Pathfinder Adventure Path, where you're getting a lot more bang for your buck out of the aliases. Even a module is more worth it.

I don't like to say I told you so (who am I kidding?), but I really am sad that it didn't work out. It was genuinely cool and engaging interacting with the various aliases instead of just the GM alias.

I know you can't delete them but, unless you've posted 10 or more times, you can repurpose them (new avatar and new name). Probably best to do that after the adventure, when we won't need to reread the previous posts again.

Yeah, I am going to hold off... already made Captain Veane "NPC1", but will hold off on the others.

I know, but what is done is done.

To bad they can't create "GM Aliases" that you can change as often as you like...

Moving this to discussion. I concur with Lort that the First Mate should be next. He was the one who 'discovered' the murder.

Although the girl with the osprey...doesn't she have ties to the PFS? She would know what was going on...

Man, sorry about all that posting confusion. Lort wasn't sure if the man was hostile or not (he is potentially the murderer to boot). He was going to approach warily, but it all happened so fast! Now I know how people feel during my combats. ;-)

Genuinely okay if you rule that he didn't have his sword drawn. Sorry Cyrus for potentially ruining your chance at diplomacy!

Also, how quickly can Lort dump out of his broken armor (by slicing straps, whatever is needed)?

You didn't do anything to ruin it, I was just hoping to soften him up, I didn't think he would release his hounds! He isn't going to be to happy when we kill his profits!

Your armor isn't broken yet... it has to be at half hit points before it gets to that, even then it will still be repairable...

Oh, I didn't mean broken as in broken condition. Lort has mending, too... ah well, maybe I'll hold off on the rerolled reflex save for just one more hit... but after that... reroll! 1,650 GP at 2nd Level is no laughing matter. ;-)

FYI - a little retcon needed... I messed up the result of the Rust Monster's hit... the armor is Broken, having taking 1/2 of its hp. The damage roll is only for metal creatures. If Lort would prefer to run, that is acceptable and understandable.

As far as I know, you don't get out of full plate fast. 1d4+1 minutes.

Also, it will become apparent that the keeper didn't release the hounds... they hounds released themselves (more on that later).

Holy shít, they're both out?!?! I thought we were just fighting the one... this may be a flee situation after all. What are the chances that quadrupeds are slower than a heavily armored half-orc? ;-)

Ooh, that last roll of mine could have been a critical hit instead! Here's hoping our gentle consideration for the most feared creatures in the entire bestiary goes rewarded by the beast master... ;-)

No, just the one. Was using the plural 'cause Cyrus did!

Waiting to hear from Finarin and Ibid! As for Miro and Amaranti, are you planning on talking to the First Mate next (he's on the main deck), or perhaps Ulamon (at the wheel)?

Honestly I thought we were on a time crunch, with the pending storm.

Let's go to the First Mate, Amaranti!

Really regretting having not taken my intimidate skill ranks yet. I was saving them for my next fighter level - would have been so much more appropriate here! Intimidating prowess, 1 rank in the skill... and I would have had a +10 intimidate roll. Even taking it instead of the heal skill and I would have had a +5! But I just had to take heal to keep my promise to Finarin... sigh.

But I just had to take heal to keep my promise to Finarin... sigh.

I believe a wise man once said:

I prefer players to channel their own wishes into what their characters do... but to keep it within the bounds of in character