Celeste the Small Bird's page

If Celeste isn't threatened, she uses her at-will guidance SLA on Neuthro. (+1 to the d20 roll of your choice in the next minute!)

She then flies over and perches on Traianus's shoulder.

If she's still threatened, she'll withdraw to Traianus's square instead, after he 5' steps out of a threatened square.

Celeste laughs uproariously at the halfling joke, and flies over to give Neuthro a bit of her celestial guidance.

Celeste twitters quietly in her anxiety. "I... I don't see anything. Is it empty in there?"

Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11

"Hey! Focus, paladin wanna-be! I think we should go check out this shrine."

"Wiffle! Wiffle! Wiffle wiffle!" she chirps at the shrine.

"Wiffle Wiffle!" says Lord Gyr. "Wiffle wiffle!" echoes the Grand Council. "You know, I can do things besides transmute the nearby architecture into 12-packs of Absalom Light" says Lady Darchana, grimly.

Celeste says, "Oh! Good idea! Maybe the plaque itself is important!"

She'll guidance Neuthro for a +1, and then try to Aid Another.

Perception to Aid Another: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Celeste starts looking about all over while perching on Neuthro's head, irritating him exactly as much as she helps.

Celeste hops onto Mar's shoulder and looks at the coin. "It's a pretty coin, at least."

Ha, yes. Neuthro has the right of it.

Stat wise... STR: 17 DEX: 7 CON: 12 INT: 10 WIS: 7 CHA: 17 before racial mods. Man, that's ugly to look at. Poor guy.

With the whole Sovereign Court arc coming up in this season, I thought it was high time I made a high-diplomacy character. My wife made a fey sorceress who was a slightly better smooth-talker and she had a lot of fun playing her (she's almost retired now). I thought it looked like fun, and I was feeling like I was missing out on the Sovereign Court plot by not having anyone particularly tied into the faction. So... Traianus'll fix that!

I tried to build Traianus in a lot of different ways (I looked at linguistics, profession barrister...) but in the end the only thing that really worked was just piling on the normal diplomacy bonuses. It made me a little sad, but sometimes that's how it goes! :)

Of course, because I was trying not to copy my wife, I didn't want to go full-caster with him, so Traianus ended up a paladin. That meant he had to be ridiculously MAD, which means he had to dump stats. Sigh. Apparently you need to be clumsy to be that pretty. Who knew?

And yeah, if getting this number even higher is important to you (it's important to Traianus!) then look for Persuasive, Voice of the Sybil, a Circlet of Persuasion, and a few other things. By being a paladin, Traianus will miss out on some of the crazier high-level Diplomacy buffs, though, like Raiment of Command and Heroism. (Almost all of them appear on the bard list... bards make excellent diplomancers.)

Celeste flies over to Traianus and uses guidance.

Celeste chirps. "Hey, be careful!" She casts guidance on Traianus, and on anyone else who enters the house.

"You've got bigger things going on, Traianus. So be good, and don't break anything while you're looking for Fimbrik!"

Celeste flies back into the room and perches on Traianus's shoulder "I have never smelled something so fowl! Oooh. Did you find something? Should you tell Master Dreng?"

Outside of the secret study, you might hear a tinny, high-pitched *hurk* *hurk* *hurk* *hurk*

Celeste tries to resist the smell!

Fortitude: 1d20 ⇒ 11
Fortitude: 1d20 ⇒ 3

She guidances Traianus, and then flies off to be sick.

Celeste gives Neuthro a peck on the cheek in thanks--quite literally. "Thank you, my good gentleman." She shakes out her feathers and puffs up like a ball of fluff for a moment.

"Hat back on! Hat back on! Now! Those lessons were for you, not me."

Knowledge (history) Untrained: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (16) - 2 = 14 Maxed out at 10.

"I can't believe you'd do that to me, Traianus! I'm going to hang out with Neuthro for a while. Neuthro, you mind a pretty girl on your arm? You wouldn't expose me to the elements like that, now, would you?"

Celeste says, from under Traianus's very damp broad-brimmed hat, "Master Dreng! I was just going to look for you! It's great to run into you like this! Do you have a registration form for--"

Celeste says, "I think you mean Uori. Right, Tarael?"

As an aside, she tells Janira, "You should probably trust Tarael's notes. She was one of the smart ones."

Celeste then sticks her beak in Traianus's face. "Tomorrow: lessons! I hear Master Dreng is an excellent instructor." She looks up. "Anyone else want me to register you for a swim class with Master Dreng?"

Celeste seems a little embarrassed. "I'm coming! Just--just hold on! I guess! Oh why am I even yelling you probably can't hear me!"

She flies to Neuthro and guidances him along the way.

Celeste yells, "Wait--you don't know HOW TO SWIM???"

She flies to Tarael and guidances her.

I love this minotaur. But then, I'm usually GMing...

Celeste flies over to Traianus, and guidances him.

Celeste guidances Son of Cayden.

Celeste says "I don't know! Neuthro, get them!"

Five-foot flap and a guidance to Neuthro?

Celeste listens.: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7

"I can't hear anything." she chirps. "Except the sound of a wise man reminding you that you can't always make things better by talking to them, Traianus!"

She gives Traianus a kick in the head with a tiny scaled foot.

"Now how about you go see if that voice Neuthro hears is your mission leader's?"

Celeste will try to drive Traianus through the secret passage.

Celeste flaps over to Traianus and perches on his shoulder. "You look pretty beat up! Gotta train you to move your feet more. Get out of the way of some of those hits."

The bird is providing guidance for her friend Traianus.

Ninja'd by the end of combat!

Celeste mutters inspiration to herself, and looks around.

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (10) + 3 = 13

Celeste flies over to Makon. "Keep it up!! You can do it!"

Celeste will use a standard action to cast guidance on Makon.

Nuethro's foot connects with the zombie's head, but does not seem to do any appreciable damage.

Traianus, does Celeste have an action? Or are they delaying for your next turn?

Celeste isn't used to this whole "having a turn!" thing. Sorry! :)

"Augh! Zombies!" the tiny thrush shrieks in a tiny voice. "I don't wanna get too close to them--Mar! Help!"

Mar gets buffeted lightly with a wing, and Celeste flits up toward the ceiling.

Fly check to hover (DC 15): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (3) + 12 = 15

Standard action to guidance Mar.

5' step to fly upwards 5' toward the ceiling and get out of peoples' way. Probably requires a DC 15 fly check to hover.

On another note, please fill in your initiative and perception modifiers to the first page of that maps deck.

Do you have a preference for how to handle Traianus's familiar, Celeste, for initiative?

"Is your head full of rocks? We're here for gillmen. Besides, this hole looks at least a year old. They could have come and gone."

Celeste says, "I dunno what any of these things are! Lot of good nesting materials though. Augh! No no no. This bird brain is not going to win. But I see some papers and I see some sticks and some... potiony-things here."

Celeste perches on Traianus's head. "Quit it with that awful racket! Let Son do the singing, he's obviously got more of a voice for it than you do."

If the bundle of cloth isn't mage-hand-able, Celeste will certainly fly down and try to pick it up and fly off with it. Her carrying capacity would let her fly with something of up to 2.5 pounds, if it matters.

Celeste finishes inventorying Janira's bag, and then flaps across the gap to sit on Son's shoulder. "You look like a moral sort of fellow. Have you ever considered a life of service?"

Son of Cayden can be considered guidanced for the next minute. +1 to a d20 roll of his choice.

Celeste rummages through Janira's bag. "I don't suppose she left her horned-demon-slaying-potion in here, did she?"

Celeste flies right past the snakes without dropping her acidic munitions, and flies back to perch on Traianus's head. "Sorry Traianus, those snakes just really freaked me out!"

@Tektite: thanks!

@Son: So, the nitty gritty and the way I was reading the situation:

encumbrance shouldn't be a problem because the light encumbrance limit is only written into the rules for flying mounts and, I think, barding. Heavy load is 2.5 pounds, and the acid flask puts her into medium load. Reduces her fly speed from 40 feet to 30 feet. As long as she's moving at least 50% of her speed and isn't making a turn of 45 degrees or more, she probably doesn't need to make a fly check to fly, but what a complex maneuver is is up to the GM, so if Tektite tells me she needs a fly check, she'll make a fly check. :)

Next round should be a move action to move 15 feet (half movement, no fly check triggered) and a standard action to bombard (must be directly above, it looks like).

Assuming this thing doesn't burn up before then!

Celeste picks up the flask of acid Traianus holds out with a talon. "I got it I got it! Ugh snakesnakesnakes! Hate snakes!" She launches herself from the paladin's shoulder and flies over the evil horrid awful snakes.

Move action to pick up Traianus's flask of acid

Second move action to fly toward the snake!

Traianus wrote:

Hmmm. Would Celeste be able to drop a flask of acid on the snakes if Traianus handed it off? Move action to pick it out of Traianus's hand, move to fly over the snakes, and next turn a standard to drop it?

Don't know anything about why a Paladin has a bird ..bought? boon? or especially why it talks...but unless this is a familiar..you generally need to teach animals tricks..the trick you need to teach your animal is called:Bombard (DC 20): A flying animal can deliver projectiles on command, attempting to drop a specified item that it can carry (often alchemist's fire or some other incendiary) on a designated point or opponent, using its base attack bonus to determine its attack roll. The animal cannot throw the object, and must be able to fly directly over the target. I suppose the GM could allow you to push your animal to do this (DC:25) but, that would be his/her call. Even an intelligent familiar you'd need to do this unless you both spoke the same language (which apparently you do??) Anyway..hope this helps.

Ha! Fair enough. I'll explain, a little bit.

"SNAKES! snakesnakesnakesnake!"

The bird on Traianus's shoulder speaks up. "Sorry, sorry. I know he's got a little bit of a stick up his backside, but we're working on that. I'll try to keep him in line. He's always been able to talk his way out of a problem, so maybe now that he can't do that, he'll learn something."

Celeste preens.