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You hear a bolt retract and the door swings open to a cloaked man with more peircings than you have ever seen adorning his face beckons you inside.

"Welcome to our humble house of worship. How may we serve you?"

Apologies team, my post must have not gone through and I kept meaning to and forgetting to check back in here. I'm going to railroad it forward slightly, as the cult is situated between Hajoth Hokaidos and Torch, so it would make sense to go there first, unless anyone has significant objections.

You approach the door to the temple poking out of the side of the hill. As you do, a voice calls out from inside.

"Greetings, travellers in this harsh land. Have you come to receive the wisdom of The Midnight Lord?"

There are definitely a lots of awesome options in the Spheres system. Part of the reason that I am running this prequel is to give you guys a chance to play around with Spheres, and consequently I'll give you all a chance to re-spec your characters before we start on the AP.

As for Bestow Weapon Proficiency, I think an Enhancement talent could be brewed up that you place on a weapon which removes the non-proficiency penalty for people wielding it? I'll have a think on some other options but that seems like a good way to go.

Or possibly an War talent that give your allies in range proficiency with more weapons? Hmmm... Will continue to think on it.

Trinam and DH your builds look nice, Nickadeamous you need to pick some talents so that we know what you can actually do with your magic! Thank you all for your patience, I know that it's been quite a wait to actually get into this but I am quite excited.

After gathering some supplies, and Shiras's mysterious Gur, you begin the four day trek into the highlands above Torch.

Somoewhat suprisingly for a trek through the highlands of Numeria you don't encounter any mutated beasts or dangerous individuals on your journey.

An uneventful four days later you arrive at the base of a path up to what you can see is a worse-for-wear temple, juxtaposed into the blasted hill into which it is built.

All you know about the cultists is that several people from the nearby town of Torch have gone missing over the past few weeks, and that Joram Kyte, the town's priest of Brigh, has requested you (through an intermediary) to investigate these cultists and, if required, deal with them.

Thanks Trinam, have a good trip.

Just as you finish talking, you hear the *CLANK* of the heavy lock turning and the door swings open.

"Gerrup you miscreants, paperwork's done. Just don't steal anything, how hard is it?"

The guard escorts you from the building and you collect your possessions from the gatekeeper, before departing together for the nearest tavern, The Bawdy Spittoon where Fritz awaits the release of Damian.

Well improvised!

You guys are in Hajoth Hakados, a different city to Torch at the moment. Torch is a smaller, closer knit community, but Hajoth Hakados is a small city. Sorry if I didn't communicate this clearly.

The two of you sit in the surprisingly clean cell, waiting for your inevitable release. As long as you can pay having your debts, minor crimes don't leave you in the lock-up for long in Hajoth Hakados.

Aster exchanging names and generally getting a feel for watch other, Shiras opens up to Damian about an interesting opportunity...

Alrighty, I'm thinking you two start in the lock-up in Hajoth Hakados, where you meet, both having been thrown in there for petty misdemeanors.

From there you can collect Fritz and we will go from there.

I've messaged Shiras, who will fill you in on the quest.

Yup it's a prequel, a taste of one of the themes of the adventure and a chance for me to test my skills and you to test your characters' skills.

I'm back! I have converted a one-shot to flavour and spheres, and I'm ready to give this DMing thing a whirl.

I have one last question for you guys before we start, how do the three of you know each other? For our pre-adventure, you will have picked up a contract to go and investigate some cultists in a ruin a few days hike from Torch.

Sorry team, my reply to the previous check-ins must have been eaten by Paizo. I am still waiting on the Kickstarter which should be in any day now. I don't want to start you guys on an AP if I'm not capable of running it, so if it's ok with you I'll run the one shot first. It'll also give you guys a chance to play with your Spheres abilities before the AP.
Will let you know when I get the one-shots as we should be good to go then.

Alrighty team, uni is getting a bit hectic over the next couple of weeks so I'll hold off starting anything until then.

Additionally, I should be receiving a kickstarter I backed containing a ton of one-shots. I am thinking that I will run the three of you through one of these both as a trial run for me as a GM and to explain the reason you three are working together. While that is going on I'll run a recruitment for a fourth player to join when we start on the actual Iron Gods AP.

I'm currently looking over your builds, will get back to you soon with some responses.

Ok so I've had a bit of a think, and we can make it work with a couple of changes.
You grew up on the streets/in a workhouse in Starfall (capital of Numeria) when you were snatched up to be in an experiment by a crazy Evil alchemist, who also has ties to the Technic League. Val was also destined to be a part of the experimentation before Khonnir rescued you both, and after wandering around as basically vagrants for some time the three of you settled in Torch.
The remaining issue is your young adult life. Now as you are starting at level 1 I would prefer you not to have too much experience under your belt (at least of the adventuring type) to maintain verisimilitude, but a small amount of mercenary-ing either among the Kellids or Pathfinder Society would be acceptable.
To maintain the jail angle, perhaps you are prone to getting into brawls or are a kleptomaniac? There just isn't that much/any tech stuff lying around Torch itself to steal.

Done and done. Let's move this to the discussion thread so that we won't be at the top of the recruitment threads.

And discuss away.

Dot and delete away folks.

@DH I had a bit of a read of your backstory and while I love it, it seems there is a bit of a misconception behind it. While the Technic League does control Numeria, it doesn't directly control Torch, but is instead happy to simply accept it's tax each year. They don't have a (known) representative there, and wouldn't be able to use the orphans of Torch for labour.
As far as the armiger goes, thanks for pointing it out as I hadn't noticed! After some consideration, I think Customized Weapons should grant 2 talents at 1st level, +1 per odd level. It's normal proficient talent progression becomes 1 talent each level.

Thanks DH, will have a proper look this evening but it looks interesting so far!

Hey guys, have made a thread to chat about our characters/for me to learn how having control of a PbP works.

For convenience, here is my houserule document.

There are a few Iron God's specific things to iron out which I'll post later today, but if you have any questions let me know.