Nah Triune is just having outage. Remember to turn off wait 10 seconds and turn it on again
That's what happens when you sub-contract your transit overhead with Spectrum Interstellar! Nothing but outages and relentless subscription calls from here on out.
That's why you should always go with Interstellar Spectrum. They are SO much more reliable and only cost twice as much.
Don't worry folks, Triune will be temporarily shut down for scheduled maintenance between 322 A.G. and 422 A.G. Please ensure that all Drift transits have been completed before this window to ensure no cargo or personnel is lost to the void. Apologies for any convenience this may cause!
I really hope archaic weapons will also get a little love. The choices for level 1 characters have seemed lackluster from the beginning, compared to the wealth of options for level 1's in Pathfinder.
For my part, whatever they decide to do with this book, I'm putting the Pact Worlds setting in the Large Magellanic Cloud for campaigns I'll be running.
It's a really cozy but lively place down there in Nubecula Major, bustling with evolving races and civilizations.
It's also the first destination of choice for countless starfarers from the "mainland" of our galaxy wanting to explore beyond the outer rim.
The Milk Spiral dominates the night sky of every world in the Cloud, whether in Near Space or the Vast. It's the one cultural artifact nearly every civilization has in common, but the names and mythologies dreamed up about the Pageant of Heaven are as varied as the races themselves. "They say life here, began out there..."
Why do Hobgoblin characters lose their racial +2 Con bonus from Pathfinder 1E? This seems like it should be an errata point since every other PF1E race conversion to Starfinder carries over all racial ability modifiers as-written.
I am not terribly impressed with the choices of Investigator and Swashbuckler for 2E conversion. Is 2E intended to consolidate classes so that Investigator subsumes Inquisitor, and Swashbuckler takes over the Brawler niche?
Any ETA for content from the Character Operations Manual? I am starting a new Starfinder campaign soon (first for that system) and have been wanting players to have access to the new classes for making their characters without having to juggle the one hardcopy we have.
My main opposition to Players Roll Everything is that, as GM, I'm also playing the game, and I like rolling dice too.
I totally get that, and I have to admit it is the biggest obstacle to implementation. I have a box of twelve sets of dice organized by color for use when I GM, plus eight more of everything so I can roll twenty of any given size. I would have to give that up for GMing if I implemented my own suggestion.
I agree that players would want to feel like they could have stopped their character from being flesh-to-stoned or hit with a kill-trap because it feels too much like a GM fiat when an enemy caster throws a spell and there was nothing the player could do but hope the GM rolls badly.
But the same thing happens, all the time, whenever an enemy martial character shoots an arrow or swings a melee weapon. Granted, few weapons are as powerful or decisive as a spell once you start getting into middle-level or high-level monsters and NPCs. But only if the GM is playing with kid gloves can a player expect there to be no risk at all of having their PC be felled by a series of unfortunate events.
Perhaps some kind of mitigation mechanic could also be implemented, similar to action points or hero points, which would be available for defensive purposes. A "karma point" could be spent to negate a critical hit confirmation, or turn an enemy's successful weapon attack or spell attack into a miss. Karma could be earned for good deeds, acts of kindness or justice, accomplishing story goals, or just whenever the PC gains a level.
The fairest idea would be to have opposed rolls for everything, but doing that would REALLY bog down actual play.
Also you'd be doubling the randomness of the game. Randomness hurts players more than it helps since those characters make more rolls over a life-time.
So that's a double whammy.
That is also the best argument against the use of fumble rolls and fumble decks.
It is not essential that Pathfinder 2E, if it really does hold no cows sacred, to have the same people always rolling the dice for a given game effect. Examples in 1E:
Attack rolls: attacker rolls against defender's AC (a DC).
Combat maneuvers: Maneuveror rolls against maneuveree's CMD.
In mmost cases, whoever's turn it is, is the player rolling.
But not with saving throws.
To "unchain" the dice, we can consider any of several approaches:
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Traditional Rolls: How 1E does it.
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The Actor Rolls: Whosever turn it is will always be the one rolling the dice. Saving Throws get turned into Spell Attack rolls. Whatever your caster's "Spell Save DCs" used to be, that's how they calculate the Spell Attack: d20 + key ability modifier + spell level, plus anything else they can add. On the flip side, saving throws get calculated as Save DCs for the _spell targets_. For example, Fortitude DC = 10 + defender's Fort bonus + defender's Con bonus. (Coincidentally this also means poisons and diseases (or their makers) also make "fortitude attacks" against their victims; the higher the roll, the deadlier or more potent. The same for traps and "Reflex attacks".) As well, spells that must be "aimed" or require a touch attack of some kind will still work as written, using those rules.
That, IMO, would make 2E better, giving spellcasters a stronger feeling of agency. They would get to roll dice as much as the martial players do.
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The other two main methods I'll just mention for the sake of completion:
Players Roll Everything: Monsters and NPCs stats get boiled down to DCs for everything. Armor Class for a PC becomes an Armor Defense Roll (d20 + Dex mod + armor bonus + shield bonus + size mod, etc). Fort/Ref/Will for PCs are rolled like the Traditional method. GMs are disadvantaged in having less ability to fudge rolls up or down, and may telegraph actions to the players whenever they make a concealed or secret skill roll for the PCs.
GMs Roll Everything aka The Storyteller method: the opposite of the aforegoing, basically. GMs can fudge basically anything he wants. The players have only their stats, no dice. Useful for play by email or online campaigns, and possibly games where there is very little table space (road trip, etc).
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Most of the tangible modifications would appear as differences in design on the character sheet. Each method would have its differences shown visibly in how the calculations are broken down.
I believe Paizo should take down this website. It hasn't been updated in 2 years, and is now out of date and chocked full of errors. In addition, Paizo is focused on moving PF 2.0 forward (as they should since it's their next BIG thing). I'm sure they no longer have the time and resources for this project that it's probably no longer on the "To Do" list. To further support this, they haven't released a new FAQ in months.
I haven't personally visited the PathfinderPRG site in almost a year, using other sites that have the time and resources to keep their content current and (mostly) error free.
A better solution would be to open up the 1E SRD editing to the community to directly edit it as a wiki. Consensus verification of edits and corrections should be enough for most of the errors remaining outstanding, while someone on Paizo staff might drop in once in a while to put the final stamp on a correction once it has been crosschecked against the original manuscript.
Let's say I cast a Wish that undoes a recent misfortune (bullet #10 in the PRD description of Wish). Could my enemy then counter my Wish with a Wish of their own to turn reality back to its original course? What if I then try another Wish to undo that one? And so on until one of us runs out of Wishes, or the situation makes it impossible or irrevelent to continue the Wish duel.
Can I bolster the effect of one Wish by casting another on top of it? For example Wishing for an important NPC to be brought back to life, then a second Wish worded to prevent another being's hostile Wish from undoing the resurrection of the previous Wish? Precautions would need to be taken to prevent assassination by more conventional means, but short of this, can a Wish be used in this way?
Speaking of which, why did the U.S. fail to introduce metric properly? I've heard rumors about bin Laden's attack on New York invoking fervent patriotism nationwide having to do with its last straw, but surely that alone can't be the whole story...
Because people weren’t comfortable using it in day to day business and life.
To be more precise, no single American generation since we started taking metric seriously has wanted to be the one to actually bite the bullet of trying to learn two systems from scratch.
If the WW2 Generation had volunteered to do it, all the Baby Boomers and younger would have grown up with metric and it would be second-nature to everyone younger than them. But they decided to pass the buck to the Baby Boomers, and they passed it off to the Generation-X'ers.
Then Generation X said "why us??" so now it's up to the Millennialists.
So I had the idea of doing crossbreeds by allowing a certain amount of traits to be swapped over.
The crossbreed chooses one parent to be the 'dominant' heritage, and gets all their traits by default. If there's ever a game effect that affects or does not affect by race, then for purposes of game rules the crossbreed will register as humanoid type of the dominant-parent subtype if it's a positive thing, but the crossbreed will also register as belonging to both racial subtypes if the effect is a net negative. (GM's discretion)
Further, the crossbreed can decide to give up a certain number of traits from their 'dominant' side that add up to a certain number of RP, which they can then spend on traits from their recessive parentage, no more than the listed number of RP.
Traits with a zero or negative value can't be given up nor can they be bought. If either parent has a 'weakness' then you have it regardless, but it doesn't let you buy extra traits from your recessive parent anyway. (example: light sensitivity)
You can't buy a trait from the recessive parent that will 'overlap' with a built-in trait from your dominant parent. Example: you can't get Skill Focus (Perception) from both heritages and expect to double your bonus.
I'm just brainstorming here and I'm sure there's lots of loopholes and things that need more clarification... what's your thoughts?
Keep the bioweapon idea but make sure it is a secondary consequence, and something that happens not right away. Leave it be as a plot escalation that only happens after a few hours or days. Till then, warn the PCs. Warn them right and left: nasty-bad things are trying to escape, testing their cages, and the cages are slowly powering down.
Anyway, for the beginning: make it so the station fails because some idiot started implementing new maintenance protocols with the power plant (stealing from Chernobyl real life here), which have not been tested enough in the simulators. He felt like he needed to move to the Real Thing quickly. (He was also bucking for a quick promotion come next quarter). So his maintenance experiments went a little long.
Now these experiments overlapped with a shift change, during which time some raw green trainees got put into critical positions they really were not qualified to handle. But hey, understaffing sometimes means no one to supervise and there's nothing wrong with a little "on the job training," is there? (As long as everything is run 'by the book', at least, which it most certainly is not in this case.) So when their boards start displaying weird data, they try to improvise solutions at their end that should have worked but didn't. End result, a few nasty explosions, power goes down all over the station except for backup generators.
The backup generators are also keyed to containment facilities for the bioweapons you speak of. Only they are now stuck on battery power. And when they fail, containment fails, and a lot of bad things get loose.
Once per year, for about a week (plus or minus 12 hours), Absalom Station vanishes and a planet called Earth pops out of nowhere in its orbit and position. Earth people are as human as anyone can tell, but they and their cultures, languages, nations, and planet's geography are completely unfamiliar. Their technology level and civilization is just on the verge of switching over to modern energy sources from fossil fuels. The few things they have in common with our humans is Baba Naga mythology and a few other legends. (Including St. Cuthbert)
When Absalom Station comes back and Earth disappears again, anyone on Earth goes with it; anyone outside a certain distance from Earth stays over here.
From Earth's perspective this always happens right around October 31st of the common calendar, as early as October 24th but no later than October 30th. They seem as baffled about the exchange as anyone else (Absalom Station reports transitioning to a vaguely similar, but utterly inhabited solar system other than themselves and any ships that were in the vicinity of the station during the changeover).
Many crews and explorers from both sides have been lost when caught away from Shared Space at the end of the "witching week".
Yes. Where are all the aboleths?! Why does no one think of the aboleths??
Personally, I think the Aboleths have been really busy building themselves an empire called the Universal Union in another dimension/timeline, so we shouldn't concern ourselves about them anymore.
In the Aliens universe it is strongly implied that the legal-political system of nation-state sovereignty has been overrun and destroyed by the rule of megacorporations, which have few limits on their activities within their territories. It is a world dominated by corporatocracies instead of traditional national governments; even superstates like the EU no longer wield effective power within their borders. So for example Weyland-Yutani could do whatever it wanted on LV-426. There was no political entity with any teeth that could have held Weyland-Yutani liable for the actions of its managerial staff in their exploration and handling of the xenoforms and artifacts recovered from the derelict Space Jockey starship. Even though the entire colony and its population were lost in the disaster, any disciplinary actions taken or justice rendered would have been entirely in-house. Whoever was the lowest-ranking manager that could be saddled with the blame might have gotten reprimanded, demoted, fired, etc by upper management at the pleasure of the shareholders, but that would be all. That's corporatocracy in action.
If the civilization of Starfinder operates under a similar paradigm, it will be a civilization divided into corporate republics, perhaps punctuated by revolutionary syndicalist "buffer states", self-governing socialist communes, and anarchy zones in continuous (but irrelevant) conflict with the megacorporations in areas that no megacorporation thinks is profitable to expand into (neutral zones).
In reality it's the megacorporations who hold the real power. It'll be whichever megacorp has prevailing or majority jurisdiction over a certain space station, surface colony, planetside city-state, or geographical region that decides the gun laws, or who hands down the orders to the commissioner of police to enforce (or not enforce), that decides what happens if some gang of well-armed folks is spotted packing heat in public.
I'm a firm believer in the tech tree philosophy of worldbuilding.
All rocket research leading to ships that can escape the atmosphere of your homeworld eventually leads to:
Tech 1: Ion drives, which open up the rest of your solar system to colonization and interplanetary nationbuilding. Ion drives still limit travel time between planets to days or weeks instead of months or years, but eventually someone invents the:
Tech 2: Gravity drive, which allows "gravships" to reach the outer planets and the very fringes of the solar system from the inner worlds in mere minutes or hours, instead of days or weeks. Gravship technology builds on the unity of the moons of each outer planet far better than radio comms ever could, and the outer colonies invariably seek more autonomy or outright independence from the homeworld, whom they have broken away from culturally a long time ago. There follows political tension, outright civil war, or a longing for more breathing room which provokes technological innovations such as:
Tech 3: The generation I spacefolding drive, which allows expeditions to other star system far more reasonably than even the most advanced gravity drives (which are still constrained by the light barrier). The first expeditions may require travel times of a few years to reach all but the nearest stars, but these expeditions will be followed by colony ships of people just trying to "get away from it all". Spacefolding drives will eventually get faster and more energy-efficient, such as:
Tech 4: Generation II spacefolding drives, allowing star-to-star travel in months instead of years...
Tech 5: Generation III spacefolding drives, linking the interstellar community and shrinking the universe still further. Even the most distant colonies can conduct trade over hundreds of light-years in just a few weeks' worth of travel. Then the next great leap:
Tech 6: Near Teleportation: Now a person can commute to jobs on the other side of the planet. Intraplanetary vehicular transportation will eventually become obsolete due to teleportation. Only the military and ultra-secure courier services will have need of aircraft, land vehicles, or seagoing vessels anymore. If ion driven spacecraft weren't obsolete before, they are now.
Tech 7: Far Teleportation: Planet-to-planet teleportation within a single solar system becomes a reality. No one needs to use gravships to travel around the core solar systems anymore, unless they really really want to, or they're expanding the teleportation network a little bit farther out.
Tech 8: Extreme Teleportation: When the first star-to-star teleporters are invented, the civilization is likely well on its way to colonizing a large portion of the galaxy, and the rest of the habitable worlds in the galaxy will belong to them...it's just a matter of time.
Tech 9: Personal Teleportation: The steady evolution of consciousness will by this stage allow guided evolution into beings of energy and thought, allowing the most advanced members of the civilization to lead the way into ascending to incorporeality.
These are kind of harder to pin down, so I had to get creative here. As a side not, it's my opinion that no race listed as a playable race is either intrinsically evil nor even predisposed to evil. Duergar aren't evil, nor drow, nor goblins, even if they are seen as such by narrow-minded fearful humans. If they are regarded as evil by the other races (like orcs and goblins often are), it's purely the result of racism, prejudice, and xenophobic attitudes toward minority races that have been marginalized, ostracized, forced to live in the least plentiful or arable lands, and continually hunted and persecuted by the dominant races for generation after generation.
Fetchling common: probably sounds similar to Wayang, since both races have ties to the Shadow plane.
Strix common: in mythology they seem to be related to vampires and other blood-sucking creatures (probably the same source that inspired the stirges). There is nothing predatory or vile in the reimagined version, however. Drawing solely upon the "Suspicious" trait of the Strix who live in a state of paranoia, that the older generations from the former Warsaw Pact nations will still remember, we may say that Strix might sound like something vaguely Slavic. They are a proud race who own the skies but have had a long-running feud with the human race (as represented by the races whose accents mimic those of the Western European languages), who have oppressed their kind with imperialist methods for ages.
Svirfneblin common: follow the Welsh of their gnomish cousins but are probably harder to understand since their accents will be thicker.
Suli common: Probably vaguely Middle-Eastern, since they are related to the jann of Arabian lore.
Nagaji, Vanara, and Vishkanyan common: Lore concerning the mythological bases of these races come from the Indian subcontinent, so their accents may well sound vaguely related to the Samsaran common accents to the untrained ear. The subcontinent is hugely diverse linguistically, so there are plenty of possibilities. My ear is just not attuned enough to pick up on variances (just like I can't tell any difference between German accents beyond the most superficial level). Someone else will have to do the work here.
Gillmen, Gripplis, and Merfolk: I really have no idea what to do about these races.
Catfolk common: From their native lands in Garund near Holomog, their accent is likely near to Tanzanian or Ugandan English (just to make a geographical analogy here).
Duergar common: will sound hauntingly like some lost or strange Dwarven (northern British Isles) accent, but there is a harsh 'otherness' to it. Not unlike the differences in pronunciation between the R.P. English used reciting most Shakespeare today, and the revived Shakespearean accent as explained by Ben Crystal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi-rejaoP7U
Drow common: Most likely their accents will have a faint ring of the old elven tongue, but long years of separation will have ensured that Drow-accented common is easily distinguished from the elided and "H-less" accents of the elves.
Tengu common: Virtually nonexistent. Crows and ravens are found almost everywhere on Earth, and it seems Tengus are just as widespread on Golarion. They are linguistic and cultural scavengers as well as materialistic ones. Therefore there is no one consistent "Tengu common" accent, since Tengus are quite good at adapting their speech to fit into the wider world. http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-tengu/
Aasimars, Changelings, Dhampirs, Fetchlings, Ifrits, Oreads, Sylphs, Tieflings, and Undines will usually take after their human parent's or relative's accent.
We can easily imagine the native languages of each alien race creates an accent in Common that leads to some recognizable real-world accent. For instance, this may be an actual sentence in Yoski Native:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPC-u5fP6GA
In my games I'm just gonna run with this! Just because. Note: am Southern American
Human common: sounds like Received Pronounciation among the high nobility, while the middle and lower classes will sound more Londony or East Anglian or some shades of Birmingham.
Elf common: When elf nobility speaks common as a second language, it takes on a Dublin quality, but most elves have some kind of northern Irish island accent; others may have a highlander Scots who've criss-crossed cultural and linguistic influences with the dwarven clans. There's an elf-dwarf pidgin out there somewhere too, probably, but if so, it's likely endangered.
Halfling common: Their original native tongues have been dead for generations, but they've held on to their accents even after having adopted the languages of the 'daikini'. Dorset, Somerset, Cornwall...halfling pirates? heh.
Dwarf common: Glasgow, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Geordie; the upper classes of dwarves have stuck to their Edinburgh
Gnome common: Southern and Northern Welsh, maybe some Liverpool too.
Orcish common: Deep Southern American (Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, upper and middle Florida). The ruling families of the Orc nation invariably have a more 'genteel' accent, sort of dripping like molasses off the tongue (non-rhotic), while low-born orcs will have more of a crusty drawl like some rural rednecks. (definitely rhotic)
Half-elf & half-orc common: will follow whoever put in the most time raising them, or if their parents stayed together, they'll have an exotic mishmash of the parents' accents. Some half-Orcs may favor more 'watered-down' Southern dialects like Missourian, Tennesseean, Kentuckian, Virginian. There is a distinct half-orc "exile" accent that evolved from a colony of mixed-race and human self-exiles that gives their common speech an Appalachian twinge and a set of loanwords that may seem rather confusing to other Common speakers.
Hobgoblin common: New England accents (NYC, Boston)
Goblin common: The range of Canadian accents, because goblins are such a diverse bunch.
Bugbear common: Texan and Southwestern.
Kobold common: Californian, so-called "Valley Girl" parody is a stereotype. (So what does pure Draconic sound like, hmm?)
Lashunta common: French. Parisian-style spoken by the upper classes, everyone else favors different accents from the rest of Francophonia. A small portion of Lashuntan speech will have a distinctive Quebecois or maybe a "Cajun" twang to it, which the other races tend to parody the most.
Ysoki common: Australian as per this thread (although Australian has its own shades of different regions)
Vesk common: The ruling classes favor the Hochdeutsch or High German speech. The Vesk military families have evolved their own accent (Berliner) which have been influenced in part by the languages of the vassal races within the Veskarium. Vesk who come from colony worlds conquered by the Veskarium will often exhibit regional dialects of Vesk diluted with the characteristics of the conquered races; these Vesk will often be bilingual as well. The Vesk "colonial speech" is often lampooned, frowned upon, or outright ridiculed by the "pure" Vesk speakers.
Shirren common: Swedish! and maybe some other Scandinavian accents too. While the free Shirren only represent a small portion of the Swarm's genetic diversity, all regional variation in Shirren-speech was stamped out by the hivemind a long time ago. What variations that exist in the variation of Shirren familiar to the Pact World today is the result of very deliberate alterations in speech patterns as more and more Shirren consciously seek to innovate their own distinct accents. While all Shirren speech is mutually intelligible today, one should expect that over time, the free Shirren have created many divergent and mutually unintelligible languages.
The uncommon races drawn from Eastern and Asian mythologies will probably have accents resembling their native culture, such as Samsaran common resembling the range of Indian subcontinental English accents, or the Kitsune will have a Japanese accent in their common, and so on.
Well, there is a wide spectrum between 100% human and 100% machine.
Type I: True humans conceived from unaltered gametes; also humans cloned from other standard humans are also standard humans.
Type II: A sperm or egg with genetically-modified chromosomes makes a GMO-human, which could lead to speciation. Examples: _Star Trek II_, _GATTACA_.
Type III: Synthetics. They are not true GMOs; they are not genetic copy-pasta. They are built from scratch using natural genomes as a guide, or spliced together from known genes. Examples: _Blade Runner_, _Battlestar Galactica 2004_, _Splice_.
Type IV: Cyborgs, beings with organic brains or intact nervous systems, but with machine body parts. (_RoboCop_ series, _Star Wars_, _Star Trek: First Contact_)
Type V: true Androids, mechanical brains with organic parts, like the Android race from Pathfinder/Starfinder. See also _Bicentennial Man_, _Terminator_ (T-800s with organic camouflage only). It could be argued that the synthetics from the Aliens series (Ash, Bishop, Call) are also Type V's, since they 'bleed'.
Type VI: Fully mechanical beings, Data, all of Asimov's other robots, the toaster-cylons, Terminator T-1000 & T-X, etc.
How I would do it, I'd give them four languages for different functions:
Datagram: For informal, everyday communication. Being robust and permissive of redundancy, this suboptimal protocol is remarkable for its ability to convey essential meanings despite some amount of signal degradation or packet loss.
Transmit: A more formal language which requires error-checking and handshaking. All legal code, blueprints, work orders, and other important data are written using Transmit. Transmit's only drawback is that all streams usually fail over less than a reliable wireless connection.
Encrypt: An auto-ciphering machine language whose ability to obfuscate its contents against unauthorized access is considered just about unbreakable by organics' standards. Encrypt is used for commercial and private data transactions. Encrypt is also known to be used by rogue AIs, deserters, the malware-possessed, and botnet hives.
Assembly: The sacred tongue of Triune, Assembly endows Aballonians with the capability of philosophical thought (technotheology). All worshipers of Triune are encouraged to pray in Assembly, although the deity will accept a divine connection using nearly any other communication protocol.
Earlier today I thought about how one could mashup Starfinder in the same universe as Warhammer 40K.
First we say that time formerly passed at different rates around Golarion/Pact World space relative to Earth/Milk Spiral space. This was caused by the proximity of the Rough Beast, so time passes more slowly. (up to 1/25 ratio in the Golarion star system and surrounding light-years). If anyone crossed over from Golarion in 4717 A.R. they would discover Earth in the present year of 2017 A.D.
Whereas the events of Reign of Winter might have happened only 4 Earth years ago by Golarion subjective time, 100 years have passed on Earth since then (the Great War is long over and it's closer to 2022 A.D. than 1922).
While dismissed as tall tales in its time, archaeologists have since uncovered Pathfinder Society records describing the personal and official records of a second expedition to Baba Yaga's homeworld describing a planet filled with strange technologies and a xenophobic organization called "The Foundation" which quarantined and interned the travelers for several years, during which time many experiments were performed on them and their equipment, variously referred to with strange terminology such as "SCPs", "euclids", and "keters".
Sometime in the 63th century A.R., an attempt was made to try to correct the time flow problem for Golarion and its home galaxy. The source of the time flow problem was narrowed down to Rovagug's Cage, and steps were taken to experiment with different methodologies until the least destructive one was isolated.
The experiment would last for approximately 300 years. The events of the Gap and its experiments would have an effect throughout the Laniakea Galactic Supercluster, including both the Home Galaxy and Milk Spiral. In the end, the time problem on and around Golarion and its local spacetime was "fixed", or reintegrated with the rest of the universe, but to make this a permanent solution, Golarion had to disappear. Unfortunately it also created lots of weirdness with the individual memories of people who were "stuck in slow time" as well as just about anything and everything that got written down, taped, saved on magnetic platters or data crystals, etc. etc. Those memories (wetware and otherwise) were caused to cease to exist as a result of the time correction.
The events of The Gap would also create problems with the Drift, at least for the worlds of the Milk Spiral. Knowledge of the Drift was lost to the Milk Spiral for several millennia. After it was rediscovered as The Warp, its corrupting influences would eventually overwhelm many and turn them into minions of the nascent Chaos Gods who trouble that galaxy.
Like the Starstone, the Emperor of Man serves as a galactic navigational beacon for his home galaxy. Today, the Imperium is still virtually unknown to the Pact Worlds, although sporadic reports of "weird and terrible things hiding in the Drift" have been made by explorers who have succeeded in crossing the intergalactic vastness between the Pact Galaxy and the Milk Spiral, and survived to return to the Pact galaxy.
Depends on the grenade. I could see a fully energy-based one going off like a disco ball, only to be later picked up. Any form of non-explosive chemical load could just be reinserted into the container.
The Goa'uld had a "flash bang" spherical device like this, but I don't remember seeing anyone ever retrieving an expended one.
By now, someone should have already figured out how to reverse the corrosion process that rust monsters use for feeding, to turn base metallic ash back into useful raw materials for building things with.
I find that almost nothing in the Tech guide would be useful.
The creation rules dont work well for something so abundant.
Pathfinder creation rules in general are time and resource sinks and that is kind of done on purpose to make creation have impact on the players to prevent them from constantly rolling with twice the expected gear and power of a group their size.
Indeed! In Starfinder, commercial manufacturers may be assumed to beleveraging assembly lines and other optimization techniques to realize economy of scale, and churn out dozens of weapons every week if not every day.
Launch with an adventure path, 3 scenarios, and quest. That looks to be about 40 hours of game play AT LAUNCH. I'm frankly quite pleased with the amount of material that exists. If you need more than that, consider yourself fortunate to be able to get a group together that frequently. Also, write your own adventures if needed.
Most first person shooters with a single player or co-op component (or any storyboarded game for that matter) are designed to aim for X number of hours cumulative from beginning to end. Game designers also have to balance complexity and problem solving (make it too hard and you will lose future sales, too easy and the player may feel cheated of a challenge). Unless there's a multiplayer component, if the game is really well made, you can expect maybe up to 36 hours of unrepeated content from a product that costs at least $50 or $60 at release. With mission packs/addons the content time is even less.
Creative writing is not just a skill, it's a labor of love and can be quite tedious if you care at all about trying to craft something that (you hope) will not only be interesting but also internally consistent within the rules you have imagined for your world. You also have to live with the nagging fear of rejection and bad reviews that will inevitably come out. It's your baby and you want it to thrive and win hearts & minds. The hardest thing to do is to step back and let it live or die on its merits, when you have to accept that it has to be good enough deadline or no deadline.
It's hard to give birth to greatness, harder still to rush it or work under pressure from fans and eager critics.
I'd imagine with such a large base of playable races, there might be some kind of theme that lets you take traits from two races or something like that. It would probably be more work than necessary to create a half-breed whenever a new humanoid race comes out.
You could set this up ahead of time by designing all your races with different labels attached to each of their traits, either primary or secondary. Primary traits aren't crossable; you get either all the primaries from one or the other parent. Secondary traits (less powerful, less game breaking) can be a little more flexible.
So when two species crossbreed, the offspring gets all primary traits from one of their parents, then may get one, two, a few, or several of their secondary traits from the other parent. A point system like Race Builder would trade balance for complexity, but if you left it up to the GM to approve all crossbreeding on a case by case basis then you can keep it a little more simple.
Bigelow Aerospace wants to make a whole space station with this technology. Bubble compartments made of reinforced cloth and fabric linked together sounds like something you'd see in Spelljammer / Starjammer or Starfinder, wouldn't you say? Probably cheaper than boosting a whole lot of metal and plastic into orbit, anyway.
Build one big enough and you could make yourself a self-sufficient bubble greenhouse (under spin gravity, of course). Grow some fresh food and sell it at a good price to all your fellow orbiteers that can't afford to bring up their own food from the surface.
Planetary orbits don't increase in radius incrementally. That is, the fifth planet's orbit would not necessarily be five times the size of the orbit of the first.
Orbital resonance between planets ensures that the further out you go from the central sun, the more distance there needs to be between neighboring planets if they are to have stable orbits.
If Triaxus has an eccentric orbit as we assume it would have for its seasonal changes, its orbit would need to be in resonance with its planetary neighbors so that neither planet pulls the other out of its stable orbit around the central sun (at least on the time scale of intelligent life and advanced civilizations developing on said planets). Given enough time, all planetary orbits will fail.
A "solar system map" should be considered as representing the sequential order of the planets of a system. If Triaxus is presented as circling between Eox and Liavara, then Eox's orbit most likely falls entirely within Triaxus' orbit, and Liavara's orbit (probably) encompasses Triaxus' orbit, but they wouldn't be of equal distance apart nor comparable of the distance between (say) Aballon and Castrovel, or Absalom Station and Akiton.
With phonetic alphabet words, you can't just listen to the consonants. Listen to the vowels and listen hard, because in radio communications you may only be able to hear the vowels and piece together what words would make sense with that vowel sequence, syllable stress, rhythm, available context of the message, source and intended listener, and so on.
Parsing distorted, all-vowel speech is done automatically by the brain. Star Wars and New Battlestar Galactica both emulate this really well. We don't even realize our brain is being challenged by the signal loss or interference sometimes, it's just a sound effect or audio trope meaning "awesome dogfighting or other space combat about to happen real soon or is already in progress".
I'm just going to assume that any former gods got superseded in one of three ways:
1. They traveled beyond the rim like the First Ones of B5
2. They "retired" themselves by voluntary suicide (merging with the universe like Apollo's kindred from Star Trek)
3. They decided to settle down and stay local, and some of them could had gone with Golarion wherever it went.
Wherever a bigger better god or goddess has shown up to take charge of a portfolio it's not that they forced their predecessor out of office; except for maybe Triune they've always been around, just no one from Golarion had knowledge of them till Starfinder times. Some deities have a sphere of influence that limited to a continent; others a whole planet; some multiple planets, and then there's deities like Pharasma which have achieved a monopoly and kept out all potential usurpers.
Jail time for different offenses probably vary according to species longevity. A ten year sentence means a lot less to an elf or drow than it would to a goblin.
Other crimes:
Genetic theft (misdemeanor)
Cloning without consent (felony)
Cloning a person and duplicating their brain pattern, so the two are identical or near identical twins:capital offense, because you have to recognize the clone as a person at that point and can't terminate them.
Spells like the enchantment school that override a person's will, should be considered a form of mental rape. It is similar to spiking a person's drink then taking advantage of them. If they are under your control and commit certain crimes, you the caster would be the guilty party rather than the involuntary slave.
Ecological crimes might go above and beyond destruction of property or vandalism. If you contaminate a space station's air or water supply or cause the recycling machinery to make it inoperable, it's going to rank up there with manslaughter, reckless homicide, murder. Similarly if you damage or contaminate a colony's or starship's rationed food supply you're also dooming those who depend on it to a slow death by starvation or deficiency of essential vitamins, minerals, etc.
Starship theft should be an infamous crime, like stealing horses or cattle were in the Old West, or grand theft auto in modern times. It represents a person's livelihood (or the whole crew's). So piracy maybe should get you a long jail sentence in some places, or years of hard labor in others. Destruction of a stolen ship: capital crime for sure.
- A community of advanced magic-using humanoids became decadent in their power.
- They created a community of anthropomorphized various skymetal golems (Handmades) to serve as menials, farmers, builders, and household servants.
- The master race wanted to improve on their golem slaves so they developed the means to Awaken them, giving them intelligence and free will and a deep sense of insecurity, a need to be needed. Some masters were able to get their Handmades to love them voluntarily, though Handmades only took to obedience out of fear and threats of harm.
- The master race grew dependent on their Handmades to the extent they could barely maintain their own civilization. Generations of the master race have come and gone, while the Handmades are effectively immortal and have been assigned to new households as needed. Legally they are considered public property 'on loan' to individual households.
- Eventually the last generation of makers died off without teaching their descendants how to build or repair replacements, and the arcane art of golem creation was believed to be lost, until...
- A certain Handmade discovered a trove of arcane writings, and taught themselves the specific rituals to be able to magically repair themselves and other Handmades, but the ability to create new constructs from scratch or to Awaken new Handmades still eludes them.
The Handmade is on a quest for this information and has even left their home planet to search for someone who can teach them how to do these things. The master race forbade any of the Handmades to leave their world and they're aware the Handmade has fled and are in pursuit of the Handmade to bring them back home to their assigned master.
Full Name
Adurus Krupt
Race
Human
Classes/Levels
Oracle 1 | 19/19 hp | AC 20 (ff 18, t 12) | F +1, R +3, W +4 | 2 Hero Pts | Per +1 | Init +2
Gender
Male
Size
Medium
Age
17
Special Abilities
Oracle of Flame
Alignment
Neutral
Deity
Primary Deity Abadar
Location
Braganza
Languages
Common, Varisian
Occupation
Calligrapher/Prospective Soldier
Strength
14
Dexterity
15
Constitution
10
Intelligence
13
Wisdom
13
Charisma
15
About Adurus Krupt
Trackables
Fire Breath uses: 0/1
Inexplicable Luck uses: 1/1
Touch of Flame uses: 5/5
Channel energy uses (1d6): 0/3
Daily spells remaining:
1: 2/4
Human (Chelaxian) Oracle 1
N Medium Humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses oracle's curses (clouded vision), darkvision 30 ft.; Perception +1
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 20, touch 12, flat-footed 18 (+6 armor, +2 shield, +2 Dex)
hp 19 (3d8+1)
Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +4
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 20 ft.
Melee Heavy mace +4 (1d8+2/x2) and
Heavy Shield Bash +0 (1d4+2/x2)
Ranged Sling +4 (1d4+2/x2)
Special Attacks revelations (fire breath [30' cone, 3d4+1 fire, DC 13 Ref half] [1/day])
Oracle Spells Known (CL 1):
1 (4/day) Cure Light Wounds, Burning Disarm (DC 14), Ray of Sickening (DC 13), Summon Monster I
0 (at will) Virtue, Light, Spark (DC 12), Stabilize, Vigor
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 14, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 15
Base Atk +0; CMB +2; CMD 14
Feats Defiant Luck (1/day), Elemental Focus (Fire), Inexplicable Luck Traits Classically Schooled, Simple Disciple (Craft (Calligraphy)), Most Noble Order of the Exalted March
Skills Craft (calligraphy) +5, Diplomacy +10, Heal +5, Intimidate +6, Knowledge (nobility) +8, Knowledge (planes) +7, Knowledge (religion) +8, Sense Motive +6, Spellcraft +8
Languages Common, Varisian
SQ Oracle Mystery (flame) Gear Breastplate, Heavy steel shield, Heavy mace, Sling, Sling bullets (10), Alchemist's fire, Holy water (2), Oil (3), Artisan's tools (Craft [calligraphy]), Backpack (14 @ 9.66 lbs), Ink, black, Inkpen, Parchment (2), Spell component pouch, Torch (3), Waterskin, Abadar's Temperance
Wealth26 GP, 7 CP
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Clouded Vision You cannot see beyond 30'
Darkvision (30 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Defiant Luck (1/day) Reroll a natural 1 on a save, or force a reroll of a critical hit confirmation roll.
Elemental Focus (Fire) +1 DC to spells that deal damage of the chosen energy.
Fire Breath (30' cone, 1d4+1) (1/day) (DC 12) (Su) 30' cone of flame deals 1d4+1 fire damage, Ref Half.
Inexplicable Luck (1/day) Gain +6 bonus to a single d20 roll.
Touch of Flame (1d6+1) (5/day) (Su) Melee touch attack deals 1d6+1 Fire damage.
Most Noble Order of the Exalted March:
A facsimile of the righteous and noble traditions of Lastwall to the north, many have guessed that the true purpose behind the establishment of this Knightly Order is an attempt to paint an attractive face on the Molthuni war effort—a source of inspiration to Molthune’s citizenry and an honorable guise for the scrutiny of nations beyond. Though boasting few in number currently, the ranks are continuing to swell, and include followers of Abadar, Erastil, and Iomedae in addition to several noble-born scions and decorated war heroes.
You have been recruited into this burgeoning Order under the tutelage of Ser Eodric Teldas, an Abadaran Justiciar (“Paladin”) and younger cousin of the Imperial Governor. Eodric is a stern but fair man, and has thus far acquitted himself admirably as head of the Order.
Benefit: You receive a +1 trait bonus to Diplomacy, Knowledge (nobility), and Knowledge (religion); one of these is a class skill for you. Furthermore, your service to the Order earns you an annual stipend (You receive an additional 250gp in starting funds).
Abadar's Temperance:
Abadar's Temperance: A prominent theme of Novennia's counsel and tutelage was ever the concept of self control. Raw, untamed power is a terrible thing to unleash, capable of unpredictable damage and disruption to the usual ebb and flow of civilization. When mastered, however, such a gift can be an immense boon. Just as a warmage is capable of imposing will and form upon the chaotic forces of magic, so too could Adurus be taught to master the fiery gift afforded him by the powers. During a particularly memorable lesson, she illustrated this point to Adurus by focusing the rays of the sun through a small, crimson crystal—a perfectly rounded thin disc. The gem caught the beams of sunlight and projected them into a concentrated stream that quickly caught fire to the small bundle of twigs and kindling she had arrayed before her. She allowed Adurus to keep the trinket; along the outer circle of the gem is an inscription that reads: versari et temperare — 'Focus and control'
Benefit: Adurus has learned to use Novennia's gift to augment his own inner gifts. Your fire breath ability now extends to 30' and deals an additional point of fire damage.
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Description:
Adurus is a young Chelaxian man of 17 years. With charcoal hair, pale skin, dark green eyes, and a strong frame, he strikes a handsome figure. His garbs are reminiscent of a cleric of Abadar: a white tabard with gold trim over a suit of scale mail, topped with a white-trimmed barbute which doesn't quite hide his burn-scarred eyes. He also wears a shield, mace, and sling, furthering the looks of a warrior priest. However, the god's symbol is nowhere to be found on him. Adurus's demeanor is one of wary calm; he regards people and situations carefully.
Personality:
Adurus is an individual who, in the end, is in it for himself. Though he upholds the law carefully, Adurus does not have any personal love for it; he might break it if it serves him and he could get away with it. He is kind to others, but not overly so, and doesn't go out of his way to help those in need. He is careful and calculating in both social and combative situations. He is particularly sensitive about people calling him blind; he has had to explain to too many people that he really can see, and it has worn thin on his patience. He is accepting of people of many backgrounds and beliefs; however, he holds a special grudge against House Thrune.
After his years being taught in the Golden Glory of the Lawgiver, Adurus has a serious and patient personality. He is a calm and patient sort, very difficult to get a rise out of. When he or another is seriously threatened, Adurus responds in kind, never escalating a situation if it can be defused otherwise. However, Adurus has a darker side; in extreme situations the flames inside him might rise and consume his caution in a wave of anger and rash action.
Selfish: Adurus does things for himself first. Although he is not overly selfish, and won't demand a larger share than he deserves or anything like that, he is still primarily motivated by the need to watch out for and care for himself.
Calm: Through two years of training, Adurus has a level head and is able to control his emotional flares.
Accepting: Adurus was taught about many different religions, and as a result he has gained a greater understanding of people in general. He has become more tolerating of others' beliefs and opinions, regardless of whether he shares them.
Cautious: Adurus is always cautious; sometimes even overly so. When going into any situation, he first spends time to learn the full extent of the circumstances and gauge the situation before coming up with a plan for dealing with it. He hardly ever brashly dives into an encounter, and never if he can help it.
Untrusting: As with all other things, Adurus is cautious in placing his trust in newly met people. Although he will warm up over time, at first he may seem cold.
Hot Streak: Despite his hard training to control the flame inside him, Adurus still feels its call, the insistent pull toward fiery action that gets stronger with his powers. Slowly his careful planning and caution will melt away, revealing the flames within.
Background:
Adurus Krupt (part of the Chelaxian house only by name) was born a laborer in the western Plains of Molthune, close to the middle point between Fort Ramgate and Braganza. Even in young age, Adurus was a wild child, constantly breaking things and throwing tantrums. Like thousands of other laborers, he spent his childhood learning the simple ins and outs of working on a farm. Adurus had 5 brothers and 3 sisters, being the fourth one born into the family. As such, he was not in line to take control of the farm anytime soon, meaning his options in life were highly limited.
With a wild nature such as his, Adurus resented the farmer's lot in life. He had heard tales and on occasion seen the finer life afforded to imperial citizens of Molthune, and greatly desired the higher standing afforded to them. Without the knowledge of his parents, the young boy conspired with two other farmer's children, and the three hatched a plan to join the Mothune Imperial Army and earn citizenship through 5 years of service. The two other children were his best childhood friends, a large boy named Gruckalus and a stubborn young Varisian girl named Bordana. At the age of 15, Adurus set his plan into motion, stealing most of his family's savings (about 15 gp) and running away from home with his two cohorts.
It was about 75 miles from Adurus's home to the city of Braganza; it took the trio almost a month to get there. Along the way, they had several adventures and unusual encounters, and they came out the other side of the trip with 20 more gold pieces and a well-cut topaz gem. Finally in Braganza, they pawned the gem, bought themselves some proper weapons (an adventure in itself), and applied to the Imperial Army. They were accepted into the recruitment training for the Molthuni Regulars, three excited children among the many recruits of the time seeking a better life. However, a few days into the selection process, disaster struck for Adurus.
It happened during a sparring match. Adurus had been matched against a pureblooded Thrune boy (or so the boy arrogantly claimed) named Manius, who had become something of a rival since they first met. When they clashed swords, things became heated, and it seemed they might actually fight in earnest. However, the instructor did not yet call them off. During this furious exchange of blunted blows and parries, Manius's blade sneaked into Adurus's guard and struck him in the throat, hard. As Adurus fell to his knees, grasping his throat, his eyes suddenly radiated a fiery light, and out of his mouth erupted a searing cone of fire. Manius and a few other unfortunate recruits fell to the ground in flames, screaming terribly. Adurus fell forward, choking violently and grasping his throat hard. His eyes were terribly seared, as if by a fire, burn marks fresh across a large part of his face. Most of the bystanders stood stunned for a few seconds following, until suddenly everyone sprung into action, putting out the burning people and restraining Adurus.
A few minutes later, Adurus was taken to the Priests of Abadar, his drill sergeant spinning tales of a demon or dragon in disguise while Adurus could barely croak out anything. Divining magic was employed, and it was discovered that Adurus was indeed a human boy, who came into divine magical powers accidentally. When the priests gave Adurus time to explain the circumstances of the fire coming out, and the council of judges discussed the matter carefully, it was decided that Adurus would not be detained in prison. Thankfully none of the injured recruits suffered permanent damage, and Adurus had no indication or knowledge of the origin of the fire himself. However, they did require that Adurus stay under the "protection" of the chruch of Abadar until his new powers were under his control. The drill sergeant was infuriated that Adurus would not be incarcerated, and vowed to insure that he never joined the Molthuni Regulars.
Adurus spent two long years locked deep inside the Golden Glory of the Lawgiver. It was quickly discovered that the burns across his eyes could not be healed by any magic, for he was chosen by the gods to be given the powers of an oracle. This made him a bit of a special case inside the church; many disciples of Abadar would stop by his holding cell, staring in as if he were some sort of freak show attraction. During his time inside the church, Adurus was tutored by a kindly but strict younger priestess named Novennia. She wore a magical necklace as protection against fire when teaching him at first, but as the months churned on and he gained control of his power she started teaching without it on. At first, the bouts of fire were spontaneous, occuring when Adurus was injured or otherwise acutely stressed. When that was controlled, Novennia moved to teaching him how to shape the magic of the gods into other forms. "Heat is the essence of life", she would tell him, "It can create as well as destroy." Classically Schooled trait.
The months of long tempering were not just spent in magical training; Novennia also taught Adurus about many other subjects a member of the church should know. She taught him about the many gods of Golarion, and how they all shaped the world. Ease of Faith She taught him the names of the planes of existence, how they all fit together, and what resided on the different planes. He learned the art of spellcraft, the anatomy of many types of humanoids, and even learned calligraphy. Finally, after two years, Novennia decided it was time for Adurus to show the priest-judges that he was in control of his powers, and could be released from his imprisonment. The tests the judges inflicted upon him were brutal; they probed his mind and used his deepest fears against him, they tied him to a post and lashed him with a whip, they starved him and humiliated him. Yet for those two excruciating days, Adurus did not use his powers. Finally, the judges decided he had passed the test. Finally, Adurus would leave the temple and return to the world. In order to insure Adurus wasn't simply detained for being a laborer travelling about, Novennia gave Adurus papers (with the church's seal and permission) that officially bound him as a laborer to the church of Abadar. This also meant that he could be called upon by the church at any time to repay the debt owed them for his time spent there. After bidding Novennia a heartfelt thanks and goodbye, Adurus stepped out into the world again.
And he found it just as it was before. Perhaps worse now, as he received many strange looks at his burns. Despite being in possession of incredible powers gifted by the gods for mysterious reasons, Adurus was still a laborer to the law, sitting very low on the totem pole. Knowing that he could not return to a mundane life after what he had been through and what he could now do, Adurus decided to continue his search for a branch of the Molthuni Army which would accept him into its ranks. For even though the Molthuni Regulars were now closed to him, there were many other branches which he could find a place in with his divine powers. Who knows, he might even fight alongside Gruckalus and Bordana one day...
Story 1: The Barn:
"Would you hurry up already? It's gonna be dark before you're done at this rate!" Adurus called out, staring ahead while trying not to glance backward. He scrunched his nose and blew a few charcoal bangs away from his eyes, his hands impatiently worming around in his pockets. He and Gruckalus stood at the edge of the road, kicking the dirt, rocking back and forth, and forcing their gazes forward. "Sheesh!" Adurus huffed out, crossing his arms in front of himself and pouting. With a sidelong glance of crimson eyes toward Adurus, Gruckalus commented in his slow and long way of talking, "Come on, it ain't taking that long. 'Sides, she's a girl, she's gotta take longer." Gruckalus sniffed hard, the loud sound of snot regressing into his nose covering up another huffy sigh from Adurus. Shuffling in the bushes came from behind them, and a moment later Bordana hopped up next to them, tying the strings on her pants tight around her tiny hips as she said, "I'm done now. You two ready to go?"
The three trudged along underneath the cloudy sky and shady trees, walking side by side as they had for 10 miles now. The sky was growing dimmer, and a strong breeze picked up coming head on into the children. Each of the children held a piece of bread in their hand, munching quietly as the farmland slowly rolled by them. Gruckalus spoke up then, "Wonder how far it is until the city. Y'know, papa said the city is full'a huge houses with all sortsa funny people livin' in 'em." For a second, no one added to that, then Bordana ventured, "I don't think we're close yet. It's probably like, a week away." At that Adurus stopped, the others turning to him as he whined, "A week of walking. Ughh, my feet hurt. We should stop now." Just then, a CRACK of thunder broke overhead. Gruckalus said, "I think we should keep goin'." Adurus raised no objection, and the trio carried on.
A few minutes later, the rain started to come down, just as they approached an old farmhouse. A light sprinkle quickly became a heavy pounding, and by the time the three had dashed into the rickety barn their hair and shoulders were well soaked. Without much conversation, they looked around the dark barn from the doorway, a place seemingly abandoned for at least a few years. A rat or two scurried along the floor in between cracking posts and pitiful piles of what might have once been hay. They ventured further into the room, staying instinctively close together as their eyes darted from one object to another. The further they went in, the darker it became, and the closer they huddled, until Adurus realized how scared he was acting and exclaimed, "C'mon, get off me. You aren't scared, are you?" Bordana forwned at him and said, "No way! You're the scaredy cat!" As the two started shouting at each other, Gruckalus calmly stated, "Hey, we can get a fire started. 'Ve got a flin' and steel in m' boot." The other two looked to him, looked to each other, and looked away, blushing. Then they started searching.
They worked together in the gloom and gathered up a small pile of the best hay they could find, adding some of the rotting wood on top. Gruckalus was the strongest of the three, so he pulled the boards apart from the rest of the rotting wood and broke the pieces into smaller bits across his knee. When the pile was big enough, Gruckalus removed his shoe, turned it and dumped the flint and steel out of it, then set about igniting the hay. The other two sat watching him. After a few moments of waiting, Bordana began to sing a little nursery song, her fragile-sounding voice barely audible above the pounding rain.
The Pale Lady comes into the town today
there's someone here she's gonna take away
The tinder caught a spark under Gruckalus's flint, a small puff of smoke rising as the fire slowly spread to the rest of the pile.
The cold moon's shining on the cobble street
and may-be you'll be the one she meets
As the flames danced onto the wood, Adurus gazed intently into them, the fire reflecting off his thoughtful green eyes in the dark room. Gruckalus sat back, removing a waterskin he had strapped around him and talking a few deep gulps.
If she comes to my door today
I'm not worried because I will say
You can't have me, I'm the-
Bordana cut herself off suddenly, gazing wide eyed at the ceiling beams. Adurus and Gruckalus looked to her questioningly. She whispered in a low, dreamy voice, still staring up, "What is that thing?" As the two boys turned their gaze upward, a low, creaking growl like a sickly dog started from up in the rafters, steady getting louder. In the gloom the children could barely make out the shape of a human head, the eyes of which opened and glowed with a sickly green light. Adurus exclaimed, "What the f-" but was drowned out by a terrible, keening shriek from the head in the rafters. It pitched forward and fell, unfurling batlike wings and opening wide its horrible maw, revealing rows of long, sharp, and blackened teeth. It's keening wail continued, and Bordana and Gruckalus froze in place as it descended swiftly among the children.
Adurus jumped up into action, looking around for a weapon. He reached down and grabbed a sturdy piece of wood from the fire, but as he did so he heard Gruckalus let out a terrible cry that was swiftly muffled. Looking up, Adurus saw that the monstrous head had attached itself to Gruckalus's face with tentacles along its sides, and was reaching it's long putrid tongue down his throat. Gruckalus was finally able to move, and he flailed his arms at the terrible creature, feebly trying to break its grip on his head. Adurus quickly dashed over to Gruckalus and with a hard swing smashed the abomination with his makeshift club. The creature's tongue unfurled out of its victim's throat and its tentacles detached from his head as it was send careening into the wall of the barn. Gruckalus quickly bent over and retched.
Bordana snapped out of her trance then and drew a small kitchen knife from her side, holding it uncertainly toward the creature as it regained its composure and advanced again, this time toward Adurus. Not ready for the assault, Adurus held his club defensively in both hands, and was pushed to his back by the snapping abomination. He held the club inches from his throat, the creature's snapping jaws barely kept at bay, and squealed, "HELP!" Bordana rushed forward with the knife, her eyes barely open as she screamed and plunged it into the thing's back end twice. It keened again and flew upward and away from Adurus, and he regained his footing.
The monster circled around and came back at the pair, but this time Adurus was more ready for it. He planted his feet and delivered a solid swing with the club, splintering it and sending the head smashing into the fire. Its flesh ignited quickly, and the three children simply stared as it emitted the most horrible noises they'd ever heard, over and over until it was nothing more than a charred remain. Without another word all three children walked out of the barn and into the pouring rain.
Gruckalus:
Appearance:
Gruckalus is a big man, especially for his age. At 6'5" and 270 lbs, he certainly stands out in a crowd. He has a shock of unkempt, shoulder length, brown hair atop his head, and bright red eyes which always dart about nervously. He wears the simple garb of a laborer underneath his Molthuni Regulars uniform.
Personality:
Gruckalus has always been a simple person. Oft times in his youth, he was teased for it, even by his friends (though in a less cruel way). As a result, he is shy and reclusive, only making a couple friends and then sticking fast to them. He speaks in a long, drawn out manner, with a heavy country accent. He is a quiet and peaceful soul, who enjoys observing the beauty of nature. Many times, when put into a stressful situation, he freezes up, though his military training has helped to iron out this habit somewhat. His primary reason for joining the Molthuni Regulars is to achieve citizenship, so he can move his family into the city and afford them a better life.
After Adurus was kicked out of the recruiting, Gruckalus searched around town for several days for his lost friend. Eventually, the recruiting officer let it slip in conversation that Adurus was given to the Temple of Abadar, and detained there. Gruckalus went with Bordana to the temple, but they were disallowed from visiting Adurus, and were never told when he would get out. After about a year and a half, Gruckalus and his company were sent to Fort Ramgate.
Bordana:
Appearance:
When standing beside Gruckalus or Adurus, Bordana makes an amusing contrast. At only 5'2" and about 100 pounds, Bordana is a small woman, but she makes up for it with a big personality. Her curly blonde hair and violet eyes mark her as a Varisian by blood. She wears simple, sweat stained clothes underneath her Backar Forest Rangers uniform and armor. A red cloth strip keeps her hair tied back, revealing a couple bronze studs in one ear.
Personality:
Bordana is a woman who works hard to get what she wants. She doesn't let things such as her size or her status as a laborer get in the way of her goals. She has an energetic and joking personality, using her gift of glib to embarrass or compromise her way out of most bad situations. She is kind at heart, and often gives to those in need. Her primary reason for wanting to join the military is to escape the terribly boring life of a farmer's wife that she was headed towards.
After Adurus was kicked out of recruiting, Bordana asked around to figure out where he'd wound up. Gruckalus found out before her, and together the two of them went to the Temple of Abadar, where he was supposedly being held. However, although they learned he was indeed being held there, they were not allowed to see him. Bordana leaves the city for a few months at a time to patrol the surrounding areas, especially the Backar Forest. However, every time she gets back one of the first things she does is check at the temple to see if Adurus was released. She hopes one day the three of them can be reunited and have more adventures together.
