Pathfinder Society GM. Starfinder Society GM. 2,521 posts (26,378 including aliases). 4 reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 76 Organized Play characters. 43 aliases. 
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Helvetilia gestures for the "men" behind her to follow her as she sers a course for the nearest stairs leading upward.
"I can hold that rapier for now," Helvetilia says. "I will use it sparingly. Don't want word of its deeds moving faster through the keep than us. I want it to be a surprise for Ordulf." She grins impishly again. "Let me do this, though." She balances her mundane greatword on the storm lash's display hooks as best she can. "Heh." She then takes the adamantine greatsword and straps it to her back.
Helvetilia attempts to demonstrate that physical appearance is not the truest marker of strength... feeling her footing is not in the best position, she then tries to cheat.
It might be a bandwidth issue with Outpost. EDIT: And I've played that one.
"These deaths served the greater pursuit," Helvetilia says in rote ceremony as she cleans her saber on the tunic of the last berserker to die. She sheathes her blade and looks around. "There should be some of those hidden dwarven storage closets that Coro heard about down here. Let us get these corpses hidden and clean the blood off of the floor before we search onward."
We're missing someone with intelligence The burn!
You might mention your Playtest concession from PFS recruiting.
OK. I liked this character idea so much that I withdrew from other opportunities so that I could play this villain. Edict 1: Start fires for the pleasure of watching them burn.
Gamble worked as a firefighter in a logging town. He was known as one of the bravest firefighters, risking himself to save townsfolk or cut off a fire to save a building. His hometown never knew that he was the cause of many of these fires. As his power grew, he set off to wander so that he could fool more people with more elaborate fires and more "heroic" actions in the face of those fires. Seldheg's offer to fool a bunch of high-and-mighty sorts was very tempting.
"Back to you and your sins, it appears," Helvetilia says to her original prey as shemakes a mark on her blade with ashes. With a patronizing sneer, she pulls an effigy from one of her pouches--a dove nesting atop a great sword--and brandishes it at the Gorumite before making one intentional slash at his arm.
↺ Strikes: + +
Helvetilia leads a benediction over their endeavor. ”Achaekek, whose blade strikes before the scream is born, let my footsteps fade from memory, let shadows cling to me as faithful allies. Still the breath in my chest and sharpen the purpose in my hand that I may pass unseen, unfelt, unquestioned.” Once preparations and ceremony are complete, she slips into the night.
"We should buy some beans to share among ourselves in case we run into that oni," she suggests.
Helvetilia swirls a chair ostentatiously out from under the table near the bar and slides her rucksack onto the back. She brushes her dark hair over her left shoulder before sitting down with one leg crossed over the other knee. She taps the toe of her red, leather boot in the air to whatever tune the resident skald is playing. "It's fine Graloch," she says while waving to get a barmaid's attention. "You sit way over there. We won't take offense." She fastidiously adjusts the belts, pouches, and charms wrapped around her waist. "Another dramatic tableau, touchingly appropriate as usual, Vorcan. But did you see his expression when the blades came out? That moment when they realize that they did not, in fact, get away with their crimes is priceless." Once the waitress arrives at the table, she orders a quality red.
Recognizing that Zadiki's sabbatical may be longer than Koride's lifespan, he adds to Alrinkiri's explanation. "Teacher Koride and this Lore-Master Ok arranged to interfere with the invitations and trade, mmm, matriculating students for the Shadow Magaambya's purpose in exchange for help with an artifact shaped lije a scaled egg. Soomdevi was meant for the Shadow Magaambya but ended up enrolling with us. He has a good heart. Mm. Troubled past, but a good heart."
"Clear your mind of feeling," Chimwemwe says as he pieces the Kilia Mwibos tactics together. "Place your mind in the state it is in after Mafika made us run laps around Nantambu all day." For his part, he starts listing the titles in the Archorn Library alphabetically while trying to fall into a measured running rhythm.
Having a backstory of "a dragon burned my village" is not the same as an event in a scenario. You put the GM in a tough spot if you ask to go way off script, tougher if you insist on it. Threatening to kill off your character or turn them into an unplayable NPC is an extreme way to get you back on the railroad is extreme, but I also wasn't at your table to know how insistent you were being nor is the GM here to defend their statements. For clarity: do you mean, as we have assumed, that the GM would mark your character dead? Or do you mean they would remove you from the scenario and adjust the challenge for the revised number of players? I disagree with Driftborn's take on your desire to be affected by exposure to First One tech. There is at least one scenario where it is clear they engage in species modification, so coming into contact with an unidentified widget that gives you cantrips is not too far to stretch things.
"We should be able to, mmm, outrun foliage even as he prepares for battle," Chimwemwe says to Curling-Wisps-of-Smoke even as he prepares to engage. "In theory."
Chronicles have been mailed out. Session reported to HQ.
Here is my most recent profile template. It has historical remnants since I have old characters, but you can delete what you don't need.
"I died, but it was not so bad," Chimwemwe awkwardly tries to make light of his experience in the temple. He winces at the earned punch in the arm. "In a way, I am serious. Harder to explain than celestial geometry." He steps back and stares at the palms of his hands. "It will sound insane, but my death was more like an invitation," he says as he raises his gaze to meet Esi's eyes. "My body was not torn apart by claws or pierced by arrows." His fingers unconsciously brush the years-old scar on his temple. "I was alive, here in Mzali. Then suddenly, I was somewhere else. A guest in someone's home. And that someone talked to me for a long time. Days. Curling-Wisps-of-Smoke tells me that it was only a matter of minutes." He shakes his head and smiles ruefully as he steps closer to Esi. He rests his hands upon her shoulders. "It could take me days to try to describe what I still remember. Even as I speak about it, the memory seems to become even more ephemeral." He squeezes her shoulders gently. "What is important is that I am alive, you are alive, and we are together. I do intend to keep it that way for many, many decades."
Chimwemwe had been looking forward to a good night’s rest. Not being dead proved physically more taxing than being dead—likely due to a spiritual existence being exempt from material suffering. ”Thank you, Binji,” says as he surrenders any hope of more rest and rises to wash. He chooses to be sincere. The little gremlin is on his own path of self-discovery after all. In the library, Chimwemwe frequently pauses in his search for the tablets and becomes lost in one of the other ancient scrolls. Once they have located and assembled the four stone tablets, he says, ”We should return these to Walkena as our newly ascended sun god instructed. Let the tyrant learn his future fate and try his best to escape destiny. It will do him no good without a sincere change of heart. We can relay what we have learned to the Bright Lions.”
Chimwemwe staggers under the anandi's ferocious hug. "Ow! I am!" he cannot help but chuckle despite the solemnity of the moment. "And I am glad all of you are, too!" He squeezes Curling-Wisps-of-Smoke in return, pats her on the shoulders, and gently disengages himself so that he can look over Akoril and Alrinkiri. His eyes are different. The brown deepened to nearly black and limned by a thin rim of amber that almost seems to glow in contrast. The tattoos, once invisible except when manifesting his experimental energy, are clearly visible as darkened brands along his skin. "It was very strange. Being, mmm, dead," he confesses, his fingers reaching for his puzzle box--a sure sign this is the man you knew. "I did not feel dead. I was very busy. Mm, I think. I remember there was so much, but it is fading very quickly. Like smoke on the wind." Chimwemwe hefts his shield. "I remember this!" He traces the brands on his forearm and, instead of the shield glowing with energy, it projects a star field around all of you. If you were an astronomer, you would recognize it is a replica of the celestial bodies in the heavens above you. For the moment the projection lasts, you feel safe and watched over. "If only I could remember it all."
There is a flicker of light--relatively bright in the darkness--from the entrance to the ritual chamber. It flickers again, and, with your attention drawn, you see the tattoos on Chimwemwe's body flicker erratically with white or blue light. Perhaps his experimental magics activated in some unexpected synchronicity with the power released in the ritual. It only lasts a moment, and then there is darkness. A tense breath later, the light returns. Chimwemwe now stands in the doorway to the ritual chamber, illuminated by a warm amber light, like the late afternoon sun of autumn, that shines from his tattoos and his eyes. A darkness eclipses the light in his eyes, and the light along his markings shrinks and dims to orange, then red, then nothing. Chimwemwe groans in the darkness.
Rations heads into the room. He slips on the waxed floor, falling on top of Huang Tong. "Apologies!" He crawls off the kobold so that he can get to his feet.
↺ Flash of Grandeur (brilliant flash) - Trigger: an enemy damages an ally, and both are within champion's aura: Ally: resist all 3 vs. triggering damage Enemy: revealing light, dazzled, off-guard until the end of my next turn
As a GM who has played under other PbP GMs, it can be difficult to give unsolicited feedback. They just went through the trouble of running a game for you, and now you're springing constructive criticism on them. So asking for feedback helps, but it can still feel awkward. Do they really want feedback? A form would help--it signals a seriousness about feedback--but then could become daunting if there's a lot of questions. Self reflection and asking for feedback in specific areas would help. "I find tracking conditions in combat is hard and I forgot a bunch in this game. Do you have any tips?" "I feel like my NPCs are flat. Do you have any tips?" But at the end of the day, giving and receiving feedback can be challenging.
Zanderel speaks a word to summon a shield around himself. He then drains his bonded item to repeat the incantation that teleports him across the field.
”Well met, indeed,” the white tendu says, cocking his head to observe the kobold directly. ”I am Leiting Zhi Ge, but you may—and will find it easier—to call me Rations.” He chuckles to himself and gazes to the side thoughtfully. He sets down his needle and thread so as to not be rude and returns his attention to Huang Tong.”My companion and I arrived last night. He is off tormenting the sea birds while I await our assignment.”
A tengu with unusual white plumage, pale beak, and red eyes looks up from his needlework as the two kobolds crash into one another. He observes the pair from under his broad, straw hat. Then he makes a mental notation that two kobolds are quieter than one apparently bored kobold. The embroidery needle twitches in his talons. Brown thread outlines the shape of a sailing vessel. More complete sections on his robe depict imagery of storms, a white tengu walking a mountain path, a jungle with an orange, prowling cat, and the same distinctive tengu being confronted by the cat. He glances in the direction of the coast.
I generated my son’s account recently. His is in the 6-millions.
FYI Since there was enough interest--thank you for signaling your interest--I will begin preparing for the Breaking Storm series. This will most likely start at some point in September and will not be part of Gameday. Once I'm ready to recruit, I will post in the recruitment forum.
This really is just an interest check right now: are there four or more players interested in playing through Season 2's Breaking Storm trilogy (5-8, 7-10, 7-10)?
My cynicism does not negate my ability to have a rationale discussion. I've got a little time to kill. Sure. We can discuss my prose. First of all, it is a completely legitimate opinion to hold that my choice of word was ridiculous. You opinion is not up for debate; however, neither is whether or not I am allowed to feel a certain way about something or express those feelings with the words I choose--within acceptable societal constraints--up for debate. I will describe why I chose "fervor," and it will be completely reasonable for anyone to disagree with my rationale. You are essentially already, and I am not trying to change any minds here. I'm going to spoiler the rest as it is largely a lark to pass the time. Spoiler:
Second, I observe that my application of the word fervor within my own head as I wrote my sentence does not appear to be the same application of the word in your head as you read my sentence. For me, fervor is not only assessed by absolute volume but can also be assessed by relative change. And, again, not everyone or nobody will assess the relative change to coincide with the word "fervor." I also acknowledge that I have not been on the public Pathfinder forums in years, so the moderator behavior that I'm used to may have changed, thus biasing my assessment. However, I begin: Status Quo A forum post is made. It is flagged as Spam. The moderator determines it is not Spam. They clear the flag and move on to the next task. This was the entirety of the Paizo employee's effort on the matter. If a post was marked as Offensive, and the moderator determined it was not offensive, never before have I seen the moderator step into a thread and state, "Stop flagging this post. It is not offensive." Change A forum post is made. It is flagged as Spam. The moderator determines it is not Spam. They clear the flag. And then they take the time to write a post about how it is not Spam, step in as a character witness, and inform the original OP (and break the news to the PbP forum) that Paizo will be creating an area to support paid GMing. None of that is "bad" or "wrong." It is, however, a deviation from the status quo. And as big of a change as I saw that being, fervor did not yet apply in my mind. Then a user posted an expression of their disappointment to learn that Paizo would be promoting paid GMs. The moderator returned to address Paizo's rationale for the coming change as well as further explaining the rationale for determining the designation of Spam or not. None of that is "bad" or "wrong." But it's certainly much more defense than I've witnessed any other advertisement post receive from Paizo. This engages more users to discuss the opinions expressed by the moderator. The moderator then creates a third post with a link to a fourth post and entire thread to divert discussion into where it won't reflect negatively on the advertising poster and potentially scare away the original OP's potential customers. A thread they encourage people with opinions about Paizo promoting paid GM services to go and discuss even though the company has, apparently, made their decision and does not want feedback. Cynasism warning But they do want a potential revenue source in well-reviewed paid GMs staying connected to their site, so they drive away the negative discussion. End particularly cynical cynasism. That amount of energy put into convincing users to not flag a post as Spam is, in my experience with these forums, a very notable change in energy expenditure. So, to me, it is relatively fervent. For someone else? Not worthy of note. It is certainly a level of energy on par with writing this post to kill 30 minutes, but I wouldn't call this fervant because I normally post rather lengthy posts. Someone else might read it and say, "Wow. So many words. They must feel passionately." And I would think in response, "No. But I can see why they think that. Those were a lot of words." Now, have they hired a ton more moderators with spunk and energy to be more visible to create a friendlier face to their consumers, and this is just a reflection of that? That's entirely possible. Did the moderator feel bad that they started the discussion in the first place and was just trying to make amends to the original OP? Quite possible. Did that post generate 10,000 Spam flags that each needs to be manually cleared with a 3-click process because the Paizo website is very old, and clearing those flags literally took 8 hours? That too is entirely possible. Now, if someone wants to debate my explanation for my own word choices and feelings, I probably won't bother writing anything else unless someone points out that I wrote an unintentional faux pas that needs an apology or clarification. Or someone writes something that significantly mischaracterizes me or is particularly hurtful. I'm rather bad at resisting the bait.
My cynicism does not negate my ability to have a rationale discussion. Here are my core beliefs on the subject:
Now, that said, I do not feel good to learn about Paizo making changes to promote paid GM services. And I, cynically, do not feel good seeing for my first time Paizo apparently asking for opinions on something they have already decided upon, apparently. Those who run StartPlaying are free to do what they're doing. However, if Paizo is looking to compete with StartPlaying or even advertise for StartPlaying, it gives me concern for the future state of the PbP (there are pay PbP games, too) population here.
I fear that Paizo endorsing paid GMing will result in fewer, let's say "hobby" games because calling them "free" would imply the norm is paid, hobby games being offered and less player bandwidth to fill those hobby seats. The spotlight will be aimed at the paid games and the player population will follow the light. Hobby GMs will never be endorsed by Paizo. They will become second class GMs, looked down upon by players as the culture is shifted and influenced by money and the attention Paizo pays to those games. The culture will become intolerable of absences, delays, and the interruptions of life that hobbiest deal with when trying to play a rather time consuming game in their free time. However, this thread clearly isn't a solicitation of thoughts but rather a diversion from the derailment of an advertisement thread. Honestly, the apparent fervor with which Paizo came to the defense of an advertisement post suggests a lot about Paizo's plans for the new forum.
Chimwemwe thinks on what he has learned this past day and over his Magaambya curriculum. Then he concentrates. An ephemeral blue light begins tracing a medallion in close approximation to the holy symbol of Dajermube. The madelion blinks into existence once the outlines are complete.
Pawero considers the larger fairy creature harassing Jack as the swarm of tiny fey moves away. While he still does not recognize the type of fey, he sees a recurrent opening in the creature's antics. He draws one of his shuriken, but he licks the blade instead of throwing it immediately. Then he tosses it toward the fey.
Venom: Saving Throw Fortitude; Maximum Duration 6 rounds; Stage 1 1d6 poison damage (1 round); Stage 2 1d6 poison damage (1 round); Stage 3 2d6 poison damage (1 round)
I'm still here. I've fallen behind on a publishing deadline and I've been on my own with the kids the past few weekends, so I haven't had time to push. Feel free to make any Gather Information check before I get to pushing, hopefully Saturday morning.
Once he has Hampton ushered out of the room, Iniquity draws a feather in the air and presses it into the half-elf, flooding him with vitalizing energy. "Let me meditate for a moment, but if anyone can bandage wounds, please do," he says before inspecting the art in the hall. Lay on Hands Cycles:
Re: Mission and vision Benefits of the PbP Forum Lodge to me: * I can play PFS despite lack of a physical venue and local players.
My story with these forums is that I live where not many people play PFS. When I found the PFS PbP forums, I finally had a way to play a hobby that I really enjoy. It even brought to my attention a small lodge not too far away from me to game at once a month. Unfortunately, that lodge did not survive, but the PbP lodges are still going. If it were not for the PbP lodges, I would not be able to play very much at all. What I see for others even more than myself, but also for myself, is that the PbP lodges 1) provide opportunities to play PFS to people in isolated situations and 2) bring diverse players together in camaraderie.
|
