Kobold

DM Amethyst's page

19 posts. Alias of Adrien Wasila.



Scarab Sages

It all started with a card . Its appearance upset the existence you have fashioned for yourself since Gaedren Lamm blighted your childhood , or your later life . It was to be expected therefore that the card and Gaedren's name ,whispered only by those who knew poverty or crime and seemingly unknown to the Korvosan Guard for all the zeal they put into arresting him, would appear together.

The card , one for each of you, found you in different places and at different times. They all bore a short message on the back . written in a small , cursive hand.

"I know what Gaedren has done to you . He has wronged me as well . I know where he dwells , yet cannot strike at him. Come to my home at 3 , Lancet Street at sunset . Others like you will be there . Justice must be done !"

More disconcerting than the message though , was the ink used to write it . As far as you could tell , even down to the faint smell of iron, the message was written in fresh blood.

In the distance , the bells of the Vault of Abadar have just rung the evening . It is nearly sunset on this windy , late autumn day.

What would you do ?

Arianna :

:
Apart from the disturbing message , the card feels almost reassuring to you . The Harrow is your constant companion and friend. When you turned the card over you saw the one that had chosen you. It shows a workman in a desert , the tools falling from his hands as he touched by a celestial hand from above , bathed in blue fire. It is the card of arcane knowledge , madness and genius. . It appeared face up when you first reached for your cards this morning.

The address is also familiar . It was the home of Zellara , a well respected and elderly fellow Varisian Harrower who disappeared mysteriously early last year.

Copper :

:
The card was found in the locked evidence box at a guard station not far from Lancet Street after you had been called in to be told of the recent disappearance of yet another Varisian boy, 8-year old Niklos Korda. The guards swear to have kept the box locked since last night which may be true , though it would be unusual in Korvosa.

The card depicts a glove puppet of a plumed knight in shining armour , slaying a winding ,snapping green cloth dragon on a cardboard stage while an audience of children cheers him on. "The Theater" is written at the base of the picture

Dammersel :

:
The card was propped up against a statue of Sarenae's sword arm when you went to perform your devotions to the goddess earlier on . Surprised and shocked by its sudden appearance , you took it down .

Appropriately enough , the card depicts a stalwart knight in shining golden armour and plumed helmet with a red cloak . He rests his hand on a broadsword expectantly. The name "The Paladin" is emblazoned across the bottom of the card

Rutter :

:
The card had found its way into a spider's web , woven in a corner next to where you slept last night . It was partly covered in dirty , dust-covered silk and it was only the bright blue colour of the top of the card that caught your eye. You can't remember it being there last night ,although the spider and web were there , but it looks like it has spent a good deal of time there.

The card depicts a wandering acrobat , perched on a brown plateau dotted with fir trees. In his hands he juggles far more than the brightly coloured balls and weights you'd expected . There's an elephant , a clock tower , a boat and a chest spinning around in his hands and a name written at the bottom : The Juggler

Senjin :

:
This morning , like most mornings since you joined the Sable Company's stables you were asked to clean the pens of the hippogriffs after they had been taken out for their morning exercises and flight. The card was resting on a bale of straw and caught your eye when you went to get some fresh straw to spread out after cleaning out the old one.

You were given the key to the supply room and told to open up since you were the first arrived and have gained a reputation for keenness and conscientiousness among the stablehands.

The card depicts a floating castle with many turrets , battlements and crenulations . It has red brick roofs and golden ,domed towers and spires. It floats in a red sky , while underneath armies of orcs and giants pour out ,rampaging, towards it. Underneath is its name : The Keep

Yamiko : The card was in a chest of chains , weighted metal shoes and crowbars used on prisoners condemned to "judicial questioning" , which in Korvosa is a routine part of inquests. The chest was locked , though you were given the keys . Today it was your turn (on a rota) to clean and check the solidity of the "tools of justice" as the array of torture implements is euphemstically called. It was the blood on the back of the card that first caught your eye , it was surprisingly fresh , too fresh to be even from last night's round of torture.

Turning it over , the card depicts a strange , giant queen ant with a bulging red thorax . Strangest of all it is wearing a crown and a red cloak trimmed with ermine . Underneath is the legend "The Queen Mother" .

Could this be a slanderous caricature of Queen Illeosa ? King Eodred has been ailing since last winter and never goes out anymore , with the queen ruling with his blessing . But she is a foreigner and there have been many executions of slanderers and firebrands even in the short time you have joined royal service. [/spoiler]

Scarab Sages

Hello :)

This is a follow-up to the recruitment thread . Thanks to everyone for completing their characters earlier on . I think they'll mesh really well within the story and hopefully as a group as well.

This is the thread to discuss any questions that you might have about the game , both before and after we start.

The game should start on the 19th as I said earlier . Do you have a preference in terms of how often people post ? Once a day seems to be a regular number on the boards , but we could do a faster or slower game depending on what everyone's schedule is .

There's a reasonable amount of combat throughout the AP , do people have any preferences about running combat on a PBP basis ?

Initiative might be an issue , I think for groups of monsters I will simply have a flat initiative number and basic tactics (essentially just attacking or fleeing) after the PCs have acted and reserve round by round initiative for NPCs. This is closer in a way to "cinematic" systems and their "mooks" but it should speed up the process and allow the story to flow more smoothly

Do have preferences about the combat to story/NPC interaction ratio ? I will mostly be running the AP as written , ad-libbing some of the dialogue to flesh out the NPCs a little bit .
That being said if people prefer more NPC interaction I can reduce the number of combat encounters (e.g when exploring a dungeon or building) , or if you prefer a bit more combat (NPC interaction still forms a good part of the AP , especially early on) I can avoid some of the sidequests .

For XP I was planning to follow the AP's general guidelines (There are various points in it when party levels are suggested , i.e "The PCs should now be around level 2" or the like) and have the characters level together as the story progresses (in line with XP gained obviously) , but I'm open to a more traditional breakdown of XP if people want to keep track of their character's own XP .

Finally I was wondering if you could tell me if there's anything specific you'd like to see in the game , which I'll do my best to incorporate while using the AP as written . More swashbuckling or more investigation/film noir ? NPCs as companions ? Any other ideas ?

Personally I'd like to see a heroic CotCT where villains are suitably villainous and heroes are suitably heroic (of course some of your characters are Neutral like Nekogami's Inquisitor, their alignment will definitely have a part to play . CotCT doesn't have Dragonlance-like levels of moral conflict) The game opens with a plague on Korvosa which makes for some potentially altruistic or tragic interactions with some NPCs. Some of the NPCs will have a more nuanced viewpoint however and negotiation will of course be possible if you want it to.

Thoughts and comments welcome :)

Scarab Sages

Hello .

I hope you may be able to provide me with advice . I am about to run Curse of the Crimson Throne as a Play-By-Post after seeing a DM-less group thread on the boards .

I have indicated that I'd prefer a non-evil party because I'd like to emphasize party co-operation and the adventure's heroic pitting of non-evil characters against the evil Queen Ileosa and her assorted minions . One of the players has pitched a concept of a LN Inquisitor of Zon-Kuthon and I was wondering how you'd handle such a character concept within CotCT

To my mind a LN Zon-Kuthonite is probably involved in judicial torture or executions of some sort and historical evidence from Renaissance/Enlightenment era Europe suggests that executioners and their aides often filled in as coroners/anatomists because they could perform autopsies and had access to the bodies of the condemned (making death masks etc) . I have suggested this possibility to the player (e.g the character might be an executioner's apprentice) , but I am a bit concerned about his description of the character as 'antisocial' . If the character is Rorsach-like this could be damaging to the enjoyment of the other players. This also raises the question of torture (likely an evil act) within a non-evil party . A case of 'going back to the drawing board' ?

On the other hand it raises interesting possibilities for future volumes of the AP where the church of Zon-Kuthon features heavily (e.g Skeletons of Scarwall) . What are you thoughts on the viability of a non-evil Zon-Kuthonite in a party playing Edge of Anarchy and beyond ?

I have also suggested that the player should take a look at the "Zon Kuthon ,Shelyn and Lifestyle issues' thread on the boards in case the the player is interested in going along with some of the ideas about worshipping Shelyn and Zon-Kuthon as twinned deities or a masochistic character worshipping Shelyn .

It's very early days (character concept stage) but I'd appreciate some guidance . Thanks !