Agreed that as a revenant that's what he SHOULD do. Also agree that isn't very fun for the players (I had a similar situation in another AP).
Note - This is going to be a pretty long post, but will hopefully serve as an excellent resource for other GM's to pick apart and use. I've spoilered simply to keep things tidy.
So when this happened my friends were level 5 at the time, but the Ranger it was targeting saved against both baleful shrieks and the only one that failed both times was the crossbow fighter who it wasn't even targeting. They only had a party of 3 at that point but they wrecked it with just the Druid (Ursa) and the target Ranger (Draken).
My Current Party:
Draken of Valenhall
- Human (Ulfen) Ranger (Guide) 6/Alchemist (Vivisectionist) 1
From: Unknown, The Lands of the Linnorm Kings
Mysterious Man (GMPC they wanted me to play with them and love everything I create which is mega refreshing)
A mysterious character with a hidden purpose who's solidly linked to Draken, Naureen and Ursa's past. Also a regular guest of the party who's saved them more than once.
- Human (Taldan) Swashbuckler 2/Fighter (Dragoon) 1/Cavalier 5
From: Oppara, Taldor
Teeler (the party found him locked up with Sholn in Fort Hailcourse' basement. He's the only surviving member of Omari's initial investigation team and had a little inside knowledge as a result)
- Human (Ustalavian) Paladin of Pharasma (Oath against Corruption) 7
From: Caliphas, Ustalav
Rather than villains, I made my initial party victims of circumstance (because I ran Hollow's Last Hope and a homemade sequel quest to retake Falcon's Hollow from Mayor thuldrin Kreed). Naureen was adopted and having been given a lead of her birth fathers whereabouts from their new Noble ally - Alexi Vandemir, Draken, Naureen and Ursa set out to find Naureens father. Alexi stayed behind as he was now Mayor.
This lead them to Caliphas, only her father wasn't there, but they caught a lead taking them to Thrushmoor. Cue the events of Strange Aeons.
Weiralai forced Naureen into slavery and told both Draken and Ursa if they ever wanted to see to it their friend would get out alive, they'd join her in working for the Count. Thus, they were coerced into working for Lowl's. The Ranger accidentally killed Klyn in self-defense (Klyn went for him, so he hit him in the face with the pommel of his sword, only for Klyn to stumble back and hit his head on the way down, killing him), the Druid punched out a punter at the Silver Wagon because he got a bit too handsy with her and Keldrin Mon sympathised with Naureen over drinks.
Tilsitari - Fake Draken:
Note: I use Mysterious Man as a plot device, which is why he's mentioned so much.
As the party left the lobby, Draken was last to leave and fell victim to one of Tilsitari's more unique (homebrewed) abilities - Grabbing the Ranger, Tilsitari pulled Draken into some kind of monochromatic mirror world. Bashing on the glass, he tried to escape, but there was no way out. This was her realm and all the Ranger could do was watch as the Soulsliver took his form and his place among his allies, turning to flash a sinister smirk at him before walking off.
Note: At this moment I worked with the player of Draken to control Tilsitari.
After reaching the ramparts and watching as her enemies waged war on Deggorhbaatha, Tilsitari knew the party had no idea she had expertly integrated herself into their group. Taking a moment to weigh up the situation, she surmised that with Deggorhbaatha dead and Mysterious Man jumping on the Light Ballista earlier, enough noise was caused to alert the group of the 7 remaining Skum Fighters below and they were likely waiting to ambush the party from the lower floors of the Donjon....and waiting they were.
With Deggorhbaatha down, Sholn runs up to Ursa, Naureen and Teeler and excitedly says; "Did we get'em?"
Meanwhile, having finally broken a sweat, Mysterious Man crouches down and notices two potions of Cure Mod Wounds have rolled out of the bosses belt pouch.
*************************************************************************** ***
Dan - As Mysterious Man picks them up, Fake Draken asks; "What do you have there?"
*************************************************************************** ***
To which Mysterious Man replies; "It would seem two healing potions." as he downs one of his own, stands and nods at you before leaving the room.
Approaching Teeler, the Mysterious Man says "Well, brave Paladin. You're looking a bit rough there. Take this." as he hands you a potion of Cure Mod Wounds.
He then turns to you Naureen and says; "Woman, you came here looking for your parents, did you not? In fact, considering the circumstances, that's a stupid question - the three of you I'd previously met all seem to be suffering a state of fugue. I get this doesn't help build trust between us, but trust or don't trust me, if you plan to survive, I recommend staying at the back and pressuring your enemies with ranged attacks. You've got potential."
*************************************************************************** ***
Dan - Following Mysterious Man out of the room, you stop and look at everyone, taking in how injured they all are before saying; "Not to alarm you, but we made quite a bit of noise just then, especially with the Ballista. You're all in pretty rough shape and I'm still alright, all things considered. I'm gonna just check the coast is clear. The last thing we want right now are unwanted guests. Maybe there's a potion or something to get us back to good health."
Note - If the party show concern and want to join, just say; "Don't worry about me. I'll head back at the first sign of trouble. I know what my luck's like."
*************************************************************************** ***
Mysterious Man just says "Alright" and with no further word, he steps past Teeler and Naureen. Upon reaching you Ursa, he looks at you for a moment and seeing you're the most injured, he takes your right hand in his left and places a potion of Cure Serious and Cure Mod Wounds within it. Gently closing your hand, he rests his right hand over the top and simply says; "You're in bad shape", holding his gaze (to judge her reaction) as the moonlight shimmers within his Diamond-like eyes and his long, wild hair flows haphazardly in the wind.
- If Ursa says she's taken, he simply smiles and says "Lucky man.", before stepping away.
- If asked about the wand going missing, his mood drops as he replies with a heavy sigh; "Other than largely doing my own thing, have I given any reason not to trust me?"
- If Naureen intervenes, he says; "I needed to see how well you could fight. I'm piecing something together myself, but that's all I can say for now."
Dan - What you're actually doing - You know full well the Skum are likely in the room up here getting ready to mobilise for battle. Having worked with them but not wanting to take any chances, you shift your entire front back to your normal Soulsliver form as soon as you turn away from the party and enter the Reading Room.
As suspected, all 7 of the creatures are here, getting ready to leave from the eastern and western exits in two groups. They don't attack, but you take this moment to prep them on your plan to come.
"I'm going to lure the invading adventuring party up to old Padgett's apartment above. They've already taken out Deggorhbaatha, but let's see how they do when they have me, you, Itsqaal-Thoal and the Doppeldrek to deal with all at once."
"What I need you to do is rush out and box them in on the stairs so there's no escape. Ready yourselves when I shout "Guys, I've found something, come here!" This is when the party will hopefully follow me up and when they're almost in the room I'll shout "Quick!" That's your cue."
Conveniently, there was a book here titled; Thrushmoor at a glance.
Back to the Party:
After only a couple of minutes, you head back to the party with a book in hand and call out; "it's clear, but I found this. Maybe it'll help us remember our pasts."
- The book is titled; Thrushmoor at a Glance.
- Move as close to the party as you want before the following:
Looking toward the upper floor of the building you just returned from, you tell the party; "Everything's clear on this floor, but it looks like there's only one way up to the room above and that's the outter staircase. I'll go check it out, but just in case, hang back a bit. I'll call out if it's safe. Naureen, you might want to ready your Crossbow for if anything goes down."
*************************************************************************** ***
As Draken says this, Mysterious Man holds the rest of the party back a bit and tells them "Draken seems eager. How do we want to go about this? We have Sholn with us and if anything comes from behind we need a rear guard. Draken's already gone, so Teeler and Ursa, that leaves us three to tank and decide on formation. Who's taking lead and who's on rear guard?"
*************************************************************************** ***
Dan - As mysterious man halts the group, you carry on up there, picking up the pace as you go, giving yourself enough time to tell Itsqaal-Thoal to hide under the bed, leaving the Doppeldrek motionless & dripping ooze in the corner.
- It's at this point you shout; "Guys, I've found something, come here!"
- As the final party member's on the stairs, you shout the trigger; "Quick!"
- The Doppeldrek only attacks when either fake Draken or Itsqaal do, or if the party attack it first.
- DC30 Sense Motive to see through fake Drakens ploy.
As the party enter the room, you're leaning against a desk, and with a nod you direct their attention to the weird creature across the room, commenting; "What....is this thing and why is it not attacking?". You then tell them; "I'm not getting a good feeling about this" as you casually draw your weapons, holding them by your side with feigned nervousness.
As soon as the party try to talk or interact with the Doppeldrek, provided at least 3 members are in the room, you activate Mirror Image and attack whoever's closest with both of your swords as a sneak attack!
Note - If the party attack it first: You already have a readied action to attack whatever party member is between you for the flanking bonus, which triggers before the attack against the Doppeldrek.
*************************************************************************** ***
At this point, if in the room, Mysterious Man says aggressively; "Knew it! What have you done with him?"
*************************************************************************** ***
Dan - Tilsitari playfully responds; "Wouldn't you like to know?"
*************************************************************************** ***
Itsqaal then comes out from under the bed and as he stands, EVERYONE ROLLS INITIATIVE!
- If rear guard, Mysterious Man says; "EVERYONE! I'VE CLEARED A PATH! JUMP THE RAILING AND GET TO A BALLISTA!"
*************************************************************************** ***DDan - If targeting Mysterious Man in combat, you say; "Time to die, you armoured freak!"
*************************************************************************** ***
Mysterious Man responds; "Oof, go easy on the insults. You might hurt my pride."
Things Fake Draken says in combat:
Note - Feel free to change Drakens voice to hers if the players react badly.
"You should never have come here!"
"You should have left while you had the chance!"
"You should have walked away the first time you called!"
"Deggorbaatha softened you up well. Now, it's time to finish the job!"
"Die, you insignificant beings!"
"I'm going to gut you just as I did those Paladins!"
@Teeler - "Oh look, one of them's out of their cage."
"This is the end for you!"
"I'll continue killing your friends one by one in front of you, just so you know true fear before you die!"
Tilsitari's dying breath: "You don't have a clue what's in store for you, ha.....ha....h......eurgh."
Has 3 mirror images up
Always targets the character she's flanking
Always tries to flank the most injured character
Coup de grace's once 2 enemies are unconscious, mocking those still standing
Mysterious Man took quite a beating as he was flanked by Tilsitari and the Doppeldrek, but standing firm on about a third of his health, the party had his back.
Teeler (the Paladin) smashed Itsqaal-Thoal to death with one single, incredibly powerful critical hit from his Warhammer.
Boxed in, Ursa jumped out of the window and considered turning into a bear, but instead used one of her spells to blind almost all of the Skum in a 10ft radius. Tilsitari jumped out of one of the windows and Naureen jumped out of another to try and stop her escape. It wasn't enough however as Naureen landed badly and fell over. Sholn on the other hand, armed with a Longbow, fired at Tilsitari and landed a solid hit.
Weakened, Tilsitari ran to the reading room and used the mirror where the real Draken was waiting, ready. The real Draken was hardly damaged and after a lot of running around, he turned the Souslivers plan against her, killing her in her own mirror dimension which shunted the Ranger back out into the material plane, but not without a ton of explaining to do!
What happened from Drakens perspective:
"As we left the lobby, from the corner of my eye I noticed a ripple in the glass, almost like that of a rain droplet hitting water, and before I knew it I was grabbed from behind and pulled into this chromatic, luminescent realm. Once I noticed the mirrors surrounding me, I realised what had happened and the creature, having assumed my form just looked at me through the mirror and grinned before following you out.
I saw how Mysterious Man kicked in the door and handled the fishman through the broken shards of a glass mirror and it was the first time I truly saw our mysterious ally take damage. Frustrated by my situation, I could only watch as that last fight went down and focused all of my anger on my double. I tried to find a way out, but with no obvious escape I was stuck in that damn mirror prison, and so I waited...waited for an opportunity to strike that deceptive b+$%%."
The Risi Shootout:
At around 2.30am, Risi perched herself on a rooftop and sniped the unarmoured Paladin with 2 shots taking him down from 88hp to -3hp. The Ranger woke up to the sound of the window smashing (they share a room) and immediately pulled the unconscious Paladin off the bed. The Ranger then got sniped and lost about 50hp (nobody could see where Risi was sniping from and they weren't about to pop their head up to look) but managed to drag the Paladin into the hallway to safety and shouted for the others.
Risi then targeted the girls room with both Ursa (the Druid) and Naureen (the Fighter), hitting Ursa pretty hard. In response, Ursa rolled from her bed and shoved the sleeping Fighter (Crossbow wielder) off of her bed, both now awake and crouching down in an attempt to remain out of sight.
Risi couldn't get a clear shot lined up, so readied an action to fire a single bolt at anyone that popped up. It was here that the already injured Druid ran for the door to try and get out of the room, only for her to be sniped unconsciousness. Meanwhile, in the corridor, the Ranger crawled along to open the girls door and the Fighter managed to grab her Crossbow from the rooms trunk but still couldn't see Risi, so moved over to Ursa and crouched over her body to protect her.
Risi missed her next two shots, giving Naureen enough time to drag Ursa out of the room, after which she immediately knocked on the Tavern owners bedroom door, waking her up (to her displeasure), only to be told it was their problem and they'll be paying for any damages. The owner then slammed the door in her face and went back to bed.
Outraged, Naureen turned around and caught a flash of yellow (like that of a lightning flash), but still hesitant to go back into the room, shut the door and with the help of Draken, carried the unconscious Druid and Paladin downstairs, searching for any clean rags and strong alcohol they could find to treat the wounds and put their allies back on the road to recovery.
A brutal fight against sleeping, unarmoured and unarmed adventurers, but you know what they say - out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Twenty minutes later the acrobatic Mysterious Man returned through a window upstairs and while he had his own reasons for being out so early in the morning, he didn't expect to stumble across a deadly and dangerous sniper pinning his allies down under fire. Telling the others this and more, he explained the sniper caught sight of him and left, and describing a flash of yellow light before losing sight of her entirely, he thinks he managed to chase her off (this was her activating the teleportation function of the Star Stelae).
Risi's Build:
Slayer (Sniper) 6/Rogue (Roof Runner) 2
Str: 15
Dex: 20
Con: 14
Int: 10
Wis: 10
Cha: 8
Feats
Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Deadly Aim, Expert Sniper, Skill Focus: Stealth and Master Sniper.
Rogue Talents
Snipers Eye, Combat Trick, Fast Stealth and Expert Leaper.
The damage she was able to deal was pretty horrendous from stealth - it worked out as 1d8+5+3d6+6+1 for being within 30ft on every shot, so a max of 38 damage without any exploding sneak dice on each shot, then with Studied Target active she gets another 2 damage, so a max of 40 damage on each bolt. I also add exploding dice to sneak attacks, criticals and healing. So when she rolled 4 6's out of the 6 total from both attacks, those re-rolls really ramped up the damage.
Weiralai's Dialogue/A Flash of Memory:
Memory flashes before your eyes - Draken, Naureen and Ursa: An unshakeable feeling of oppression washes over you as you remember serving the count as both servant and personal enforcer. You know you were in this situation against your will, but can't place how or why. You also remember disobeying Lowl's requests was never an option and something he all too often took pleasure in reminding you. Staring at the robed figure, you instinctively feel your blood begin to boil and sense that she did great wrong to you, but again are unable to place what it was exactly that she did. More interestingly, this odd looking woman was always by the counts side, aiding him with his research and serving as some kind of confidant when he needed personal guidance.
Weiralai's opening speech: Standing up from Omari’s body, the robed figure turns slowly to address you; "My, my. You have made a grave mistake returning here. Lowls should have finished the job of sacrificing you instead of sending you to that...doctor. You will interfere with Melisenn’s work no longer!”
Weiralai's closing speech (as the bear-turned Druid was ripping her head off): As you cut down the arabic looking woman, she gradually begins to fade out of existence, laughing arrogantly with broken damaged vocal chords as you ferociously rip and tear at her head; "Defeating me here will do you no good. A minor setback perhaps, but we will meet again. Of that, I am certain."
Just like they did with Fort Hailcourse, the party entered the Aqueducts via the well closest to The Silver Wagon came up against a keeper of the yellow sign. It hit three characters with energy drain (1 level) and each character passed each of those saves so while the drain hit, it did nothing and they trivialised it. A Denizen of Leng with some nasty Dex drain was the main sub-boss of the area and it failed every single one of its Dex drain bites against them, only connecting with its claws. Then the Druid started to rip its head off in bear form as it was telling them it'd be back...
Upon realising his leader (Omari) was the corpse before him, Teeler was all too happy to help put down Weiralai - The Denizen of Leng. After the encounter, he grabbed the Confabulation Plate while both Naureen and Draken spotted the secret passage hidden behind the statue of Pharasma.
Note: They entered via the aqueduct and cleared the floor, but have gone straight for the boss. So, I've created a distraction by sending the 4 Kuru down from the kitchen and into the Ice Cellar to investigate the explosion from the tripped rune trap and on her standard patrol, Risi is heading down to explore the basement from the other end of the complex (she entered via the hatch in the library).
Note: All of the Cultists of Hastur are unarmoured in their robes. The only real threat is their Touch of Chaos ability. They have AC16, 28hp and can be dealt with easily with AoE's.
Melisenn on the other hand:
...is level 9 with:
Str: 8
Dex: 18
Con: 16
Int: 10
Wis: 22
Cha: 14
She has Magical Lineage: Murderous Command
Spells:
Level 1 - Entropic Shield, Murderous Command x3 (DC18 Bouncing), Protection from Good, Shield of Faith, Domain: Erase
Level 2 - Cure Mod Wounds x2, Hold Person x2, Bouncing Heightened Murderous Command x2 (DC19 Will due to Spell Focus) Domain: Secret Page
Level 3 - Bestow Curse x2, Cure Serious Wounds, Mind Maze, Domain: Fly
Level 4 - Divine Power, Terrible Remorse x2 (used up on both Blast Runes), Domain: Explosive Runes
Level 5 - Murderous Command x2 (DC22 Will, Bouncing, Heightened), Domain: Lesser Planar Binding
I also found a bunch of maps on Reddit from a user name DaddyDMWP who's created maps in DungeonDraft for the first two books. I felt his version of Iris Hills grounds were good but nowhere near creepy enough, so I heavily modified his map for a creepy mist-filled night setting - Iris Hill Grounds (night)
Lastly, I've used an animated rain gif over the top of Iris Hill. I've also been compiling an OST as I go along.
Sound Effects - Heavy Rain
Iris Hill Main - FF7 Remake: Train Graveyard
Iris Hill Manor - Castlevania Symphony of the Night OST: Abandoned Pit
Nemira in the Attic - The Others OST: The Attic
Iris Hill Basement - Species OST: The Alien Underground
The Star Stela/The Court of the Unspeakable One - Onimusha 3 OST (S Side): Battle with Guildenstern
Battle with Melisenn - Nier Automata OST: A Beautiful Song
Not that I particularly want to do it, but am I right in thinking Klyn would 100% Coup de Grace his target if given the chance?
Being a Revenant I see this as the main thing he'd do, but it 100% will not be fun for the player, so would it just be better to go for normal attacks against the PC while he's cowering for 1d4 rounds?
So I introduced my new group of players into Pathfinder by running them through Hollow's Last Hope and then wrote my very own adventure to overthrow the Mayor (which I'd love to sell on the cheap for others to enjoy, though not really sure how to go about that or the legality behind it).
Anyway, as a result my party began Strange Aeons at level 3.
At the start of the campaign they had no armour or weapons, so the first encounter with Scaen, even at level 3 was very tough for them, but they pulled through!
Next session it's highly likely they're going to be fighting Zandalus and The Tatterman.
I have a level 8 NPC running around and keeping an eye on them (little do they know, he's a friend from their past) and my game is very narrative driven, but as I have this NPC more as an observer right now (he only turned up because he'd not heard from his girlfriend - the Druid of the party, in 6 months) trying to piece together what's going on, he hasn't revealed who he is or even that he knows the party. The parties memory of his old self has appeared in many of their dreams and even as full bodied apparitions - A by-product of the dream situation, but his armour currently hides his features and he isn't able to see the shared dreams or apparitions of his past self.
As a side note: The party wanted me to have my own character and thankfully haven't realised this is the same guy they loved from Hollow's Last Hope. I've just dubbed him "Mysterious Man" and play him...mysteriously, but also evasive to a lot of their questions, only revealing what he knows when I want for narrative reasons. He dropped in through the sky from his Griffon, which is currently not around and knew the chances of getting out were slim.
That said, I have him as a fallback plan in case things go sour for the party, but with the focus mostly on the PC's, I've been thinking about how to make this encounter both frightening and a challenge to the party of 3.
So, what I've done is rolled a perception check for Zandalus to know when the party are near (which he passed), allowing him to have Bear's Endurance already in effect and then when The Tatterman appears, he comes in with 70HP and due to party level, I've replaced his ability to cast Dream with Deep Slumber. He's a Nightmare creature, not a Dream creature. Also, the experience shared between all 3 PC's will bump them up to level 6 in time for the next book.
That's it.
Is there anything else you'd recommend doing or do you have any further suggestions in general?
We're using Hero Points which I introduced after the Ranger kept going down in every combat of Hollow's Last Hope (and also due to the fact he said if his character dies he's no longer playing - putting me in an awkward position really), but the party consists of:
An Arcadian Human Ranger 5 (Guide)
An Ulfen Skinwalker (Were-Bear) Druid 3 (Nature Fang)/Fighter 1 (Unarmed)/Barbarian 1
A Mwangi Half-Elf Fighter 5 (Crossbowman modified for normal attacks, not readied actions)
The NPC is a Human Cavalier 5/Swashbuckler 2/Fighter 1 (Dragoon) with a Griffon Mount and a Mithral Double-Spear - Gimmick is fall damage with Boots of the Cat.
We're having fun though and as I modified Red Destiny and made some additional dream sequences, if you'd like me to post them I'd be happy to.
Just in case this'll help, I have a few things to contribute:
1. I wanted Red Destiny to have a more literal name and be something one of my players would be inclined to keep for a long time to come and so I have created the following:
Red Destiny releases a low hum as it gently vibrates at the first sign of combat. This grants the wielder a +4 bonus to initiative as it knows exactly when it's needed. Additionally, this +2 Short Sword enables its wielder to cast Deathwatch 3/day as a swift action. To the wielder of this weapon, one might say destiny is in your hands.
2. I have a 3 person party. Before they began this campaign we were running through Hollow's Last Hope, plus a follow up side quest they loved, which had them working with my GMPC/NPC (Alexi Vandemir) to overthrow Thuldrin Kreed as Mayor. This brought them up to level 3. Now, they're new to roleplaying in general, but are very creative people who just don't want to see their characters die. So, I got them into Strange Aeons by using one of their own personal character plot hooks (one character was searching for her real parents and their last known location was Caliphas, Ustalav) and to keep things somewhat balanced, I had them all start on half health plus a number of extra hp equal to their Fortitude save. I also removed all but 2 of their 20 odd potions, chalking it up to the fact they would have used some in the two years they were working for Lowl's, but unknown to them, about 12 of these potions are in the bag hidden under the pier in book 2, for Keldrin Mon to point them to. Anyway, her father wasn't there when she turned up and she was instead directed to Thrushmoor by one of the residents of Caliphas. This lead her to becoming enslaved by a Denizen of Leng and the other two party members (an Ulfen blooded Were-Bear kin Druid from Olfden and a Sellsword Ranger from Arcadia) were coerced into helping if they ever wanted their friend back. This meant the party weren't evil to begin with like the AP suggests, but were more a victim of circumstance.
So, for anyone wanting the bad deeds to be more consequences of unfortunate circumstance, here's what I've created for the reveal:
At the oasis:
Ursa's theme - Distant Memory/Memories of that Day, FF9
Ursa - You came here with the other two people you see beside you, initially in search of Naureen's parents, but later found yourself stuck here, a slave to the Count and Mayor of this town - Haserton Lowl's IV.
Traveling from Darkmoon Vale, you left behind your boyfriend, Alexi Vandemir, who currently lords over the town of Falcon's Hollow, delivering more and more on his promise to you and the citizen's of Falcon's Hollow with each passing day.
You remained in contact with him until 6 months ago. This is when you were taken somewhere - a dreamlike realm, often nightmarish and tainted with yellow hue. Realising that same yellow hue currently swirls around you, it hits you that the dreamlike place you suddenly remember visiting so vividly was here. Next to you is the pool you now remember willingly bathing in just 6 months ago, where the memories of your life up til now had all washed away.
Read privately to Ursa's player - Your heritage had gifted you a heightened sense of smell from birth, and having spent a year of your life together, the scent of the mysterious man clad in armour next to you was unmistakable - It's Alexi. He must have set out to find you as soon as you stopped communicating and has been watching over you and the party ever since you first saw him mysteriously diving down through the clouded yellow nightsky, Double-Spear in hand, saving you all from the nightmarish flying monstrosity known as the Nightgaunt.
Only where you came together, he came alone, fighting his way through the many creatures plaguing the sky, knowing full well that once in, there was little chance of escape.
Play - Roses of May, FF9 for the following:
If confronted, Ahringar will lift off his helmet, glancing at you all (the party) with a knowing smile before grabbing Ursa in a gentle embrace; "These last few days (or weeks) have been so painful to endure. Seeing you all, unable to recall who you were, why you were here or what you had done - it must have been truly awful.
Ursa, my love, having spent countless nights alone in that Asylum, plagued by the many nightmares that stirred with each passing night was nothing when compared to seeing you this entire time, completely unaware of even my existence....that was...the hardest part for me."
To everyone - "I could not reveal my identity sooner for a number of reasons, and for that I am truly sorry, but if the public were to learn that I lead a double life - one of both Noble responsibility and that of an adventurer, I fear the town of Falcon's Hollow would be in grave danger. I know it's asking a lot, but please, keep this secret solely between us.
Whether lover or friend, you are all my allies and from here on out, we do this together, like we did three years ago, back at the old ruined Dwarven Monastery of Darkmoon Vale. Where we were once green, it's clear now that we are all seasoned adventurers and Lowl's isn't going to know what hit him!"
Play - Terra, FF9
Naureen - Searching for your parents only lead you into the cruel and manipulative hands of Count Haserton Lowls IV. While searching for your parents, a cruel and unnatural humanoid had captured you and taken you to Count Lowl's' manor at Iris Hill, forcing you into slavery.
When both Ursa and Draken realised what had happened, they investigated Thrushmoor and after finding their way to Lowl's, discovered that your captor was working for this man, and he promised to free you, should they both work for him. To this, they hesitantly agreed, causing this whole mess to begin with.
Standing by the otherworldly oasis, you feel yourself drawn to the pool as it shows to you your father has sadly passed and though you had never met, you can feel within your heart that the man you so often saw smiling at you and granting comfort from within your dreams, was your father, Adwale Okurele - a man of Mwangi descent.
Though your surrogate parents are good people, your journey has been one of finding yourself. Your real father was a slave, forced into slavery by Katapeshi slavers and was often forced to fight in the arena of Katapesh to appease his owner and earn him some coin on the side. It was through the arena that your father met a Drow woman by the name of Ansell Lanaseela. The two had a tryst and eventually won their freedom shortly after Ansell had discovered her pregnancy, but eventually, wanting different things they ended up going their separate ways.
If the pool has any truth to it, you can see your Drow mother alive and well, hunting in an unknown mountainous region and returning to her homely looking shack.
You also recall your first real romance with Gnomeo back in Falcon's Hollow and the many drinks you had with Keldrin Mon in Thrushmoor. Under the employ of Lowl's, he was just a mere Stevedore (dock worker), but a good man and loyal friend of yours, true to his word. You had many drinks and laughs with him - a pleasant break from the hardships of working for Lowl's.
- When the fight at the oasis breaks out: A small breeze causes your dreadlocks to gently flow to the side, as suddenly you feel the weight of a hand on your right shoulder.
"I am here for you daughter. I have been watching...waiting. It was not my intent to abandon you, but know that the life your mother and I had was not one we wanted you to grow up with. You have endured much my child and I am here to guide you on your journey through the dreamlands. Here, things are different - both living and dead can travel and interact within the world of dreams. My soul is yet to pass on, and while I am no longer living, I am here for you now and will accompany both you and your friends for as long as you exist within this realm."
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GM Note: After being enslaved by the Denizen of Leng and forced to do participate in a number of rituals as a test subject, Naureen's father passed but remained attached to her, watching over her as events unfolded and gave her comfort as she dreamed in the basement of Briarstone Asylum.
He can serve as a guide within the Dimension of Dreams and only allows his soul to pass on once he knows his daughter is safe.
Alternatively, as a side effect of all of the experimentation with the dream world, Adwale could possibly be able to step out as a physical being to live the life with Naureen he never had the chance to, for this isn't a dream version of he, but his actual soul trapped here as a result of Lowl's dream experimentation.
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Play - You're Not Alone, FF9
Draken - Perhaps having the hardest time of all, the tasks Lowl's required were less than savoury, but not wanting your friends to go through such hardships, you bore that burden yourself.
One night at the Silver Wagon, one of the punters grabbed Ursa's arse as she walked past. By this point she was already drunk herself and had run up a pretty large tab, but out of sheer frustration and humiliation, she turned and socked the man square in the jaw, nearly knocking him off his chair following the surprisingly audible smack for someone of her stature. It was here that the man and four of his friends decided to gang up on your friend, forcing you to step in, and while this got you both banned from the Inn, neither of you were to blame. That still didn't stop Ursa from being imprisoned for the night for causing unrest. It would seem in the town of thrushmoor it was far easier to blame outsiders than it was the local regulars, no matter how rowdy they got. Once they realised Naureen, who was in there the same night having a drink with Keldrin on an opposite table, was part of your group, they banned her too. This was nothing in comparison to what would follow however.
While you all acted as intimidators on behalf of Count Lowl's IV, pressing the elderly for money and taxes and scaring children away who got a little too close to Lowl's manor on Iris Hill, you pushed the stevedores to work even harder and purposely covered up the crimes of those employed by Lowl's by pinning them on other less savoury people (some of whom regardless of how awful their personality was, were innocent of any crime). You even once murdered for the man, though not by choice.
Having been sent to intimidate Klyn Murik after Lowl's discovered he had been stealing food from his kitchen, fearing for his life, Klyn grabbed a rolling pin and struck you over the head with it. Staggered and out of self-defense, you retaliated by hitting the man with the pommel of your sword several times in an attempt to get him to back off, only as he went down, he hit his head on the kitchen worktop and died.
To Everyone:
All of you remember working for Lowl's, not out of loyalty or pride, but out of coercion, for he promised to free Naureen from his Leng slaver, provided you worked for him, carrying out any task without question. What he did instead however, was use you, bring you to this very oasis and purge you of your memories before chucking you into Briarstone Asylum, where he assumed you would remain, absent of mind, never to be seen again. He was wrong however, and now you have only one goal in mind and that's to stop Haserton Lowls!
I also have a question:
The PC who's likely to wield Red Destiny is a Ranger with Favoured Enemy: Aberration. This was the top choice of enemy to choose in the players guide, only upon reading the encounters throughout every book, I don't possibly see how this character will shine when there oddly simply aren't enough aberrations in the campaign for his choice to mean much. Sure there are quite a few in the random encounters table, but the AP itself says there's very little chance outside of what's written to include random encounters. This is a bit of a letdown really, so instead, because a large amount of the creatures are connected to the dream plane, many variations of typical creatures have changed and don't really belong in reality, so would you say it's fair for me to consider any dream/nightmare plane creatures as Aberrations rather than just monstrous humanoids with the nightmare template? Specifically the first creature that comes to mind is The Tatterman. Would many of you agree to including him in the list of Aberrations? He fits the description of an Aberration, but is considered a monstrous humanoid.
Lastly, I accidentally read the description of B12 wrong, so the party have already dealt with Klades and the two Ghouls.
Instead of the collapse, I think I accidentally read the wrong section, reading the part of "the wall has collapsed here, revealing the controls of the showers inside of the shower room" - paraphrashing here.
If anyone's interested in how that went down:
The Crossbow-Woman Fighter took out the two lesser ghouls with Rapid Shot before they could even reach the party. Klades jumped up out of his throne and didn't quite make it across the pool, falling in himself. When he made it to the party, everyone became effected by his Stench Aura and everyone contracted Ghoul Fever (they're hoping they can find somebody to heal them only nobody in book 1, not even Winter, has that ability). The Ranger was paralysed for 4 rounds, the Druid for 2 and this just left Klades and the Crossbow-Woman (Naureen) fighting it out.
Naureen kept rolling around (with acrobatics), getting to a safe distance and firing a shot off. Her health was pretty low and she knew if she went down the rest of the party would be done for. So, she carried on rolling acrobatics, taking a few AoO's in the process and when she finally got bitten and paralysed, it was that exact round where Ursa the druid (already shifted into a Bear, but frozen in place with paralysis), moved 5ft (difficult terrain so technically 10ft) and bit the Ghoul, landing a crit (Amulet of Mighty Strikes being used for Acid damage) and dealing a whopping 29 damage as she lifted the Ghast up into the air, shook her head violently, causing Klades head to smash open against the wall before finally shaking his body in two.
Now they're in the room with the Apostle, the dead woman and the Ghoul eating the womans arm. They managed to speak to the Ghoul, get his name as Argade and got a little hint of what's to come from him. If they're clever I'll allow them to free him to fight and hopefully weaken Oathsday, but I don't honestly think they'll think to do that.
I use Hero Points as they're new players, but have ruled that they get one per session (with the ability to earn more via exceptional roleplay or cinematic moments), but these must be spent each session or else they're wasted. With this, I allow them to remain conscious on 1hp if they were going to be KO'd or die, but also allow them to spend one point to heal 1d6 with Savage Worlds explosion rules (I allow explosion rules on this and crits only). Funnily enough the Ranger rolled a 6 3 times in a row for healing and thought it was a bad thing as he doesn't really read any notes I make to help them. This meant with 3 6's and a 2, he was back up to full hp before fighting Klades. As it stands now, Draken is on 24hp, the Druid (Ursa) is on 10 and the Crossbow-Woman (Naureen) is on 9. Naureen was actually MVP last game and for MVP's I allow them to have advantage on any one roll of their choice (roll twice, take the better result), so that should help, but they have no healing and are on this hp after managing to convince York to aid them a little as they dragged the bodies of everything they killed up towards the barricade.
They made too much noise talking to Argade and freeing the Apostle, so Oathsday heard them and is currently on the bed in the other room under the guise of Iza Weeds. They saw through Doctor Latchke's elderly nurse front, so let's just hope they win next session.
I've also created a fun little thing - A document in Oathsdays lab with her nicknames of the party members, so they'll likely think the names on here are their real names for a time (I hope the players buy into it and go with it for fun at least). Instead of Draken, Ursa and Naureen, it's Johnny, Violet and Mercy.
So very early in the campaign, the party unknowingly opened a can of worms by finding the key to Malfeshnekors prison, and considering how long the magic of Karzoug had been holding the beast, in my campaign I ruled that the key to the room broke the magical seal for as long as the doors to the room remained open. Long story short, the party were getting their arses handed to them and so, out of desperation they took the key back out of the double door, hoping to seal Malfeshnekor away once more.
This massively p****d the Greater Barghest off, who jumped over the party and through the closing doors, blocked two of the party members escape instead (the Cleric of Desna and Anti-Paladin Insinuator). It then tore through two of the party members, at which point the other two PC's abandoned their comrades and fled for their lives. Mal was onto their scent however, and with a bit of luck the two party members were able to make it up to the courtyard just one round ahead of Mal, and with a change in wind direction, the Greater Barghest misplaced their scent and followed it out of the complex altogether. At this point, it realised it was free and figured there would be plenty of food in the surrounding wilderness.
So, not only did half of the party abandon their comrades, they released this monstrosity upon the world. Heroic.
That aside, I've actually had Malfeshnekor crop up again from book 4 onwards and it wasn't until the Wendigo Siege that the party realised the big Wolf they kept seeing was in fact Malfeshnekor. What happened here was the Wendigo had just broken the walls of the Vekker Cabin down and was about to truly wreck the party, when Malfeshnekor who'd been following them this whole time leapt from the roof, lunged for the Wendigo's throat and tumbled through the snow as the two beasts took it in turns to try and rip each other apart.
Mal prevailed (he's currently level 16) and while his blood trailed through the snow, following the wounds he'd received, he made his way back to the party to say with a wicked, bloodied grin wide across his face; "A chance to stretch my legs...this one's on me, though I see only one of you remain...", before turning invisible once more as he left the party. This is because only one of the original party members remain at this point.
Now, however, the party are in Xin-Shalast and though they have no idea of his intentions, Mal is so enraged by the fact Karzoug imprisoned him for so long that he's helping the party reach the Runelord, so he can laugh and revel in the joy of Karzougs downfall.
What I have planned for next session is when the party presumably get their arses handed to them either from Ghlorofaex or Gamigin (who is likely to attack them very shortly after their encounter with the dragon), Mal is going to become visible as he grabs the only original surviving player character by the throat, and with a grin, demands his newly acquired Sihedron Ring. If the PC agrees, Mal will then take the ring and throw the PC across the floor, telling him to sort himself out before turning invisible once more and running off.
What he's actually doing though, is bounding straight for the Pinnacle of Avarice to take the Sihedron Rings from the four Wardens of the Wind, with the intention of returning to the five PC's with at least three of those rings.
Behind the scenes, he's so far made his way past the Spiders of Leng and successfully cast Charm Monster on one of the Four Wardens. Having "befriended" this one, he requested to borrow its Sihedron Ring, only the Giant explained that giving up his ring within the pulses of the Occlusion Field would result in his death, stating also that he was not permitted to leave the area. So, with a grin as wide as his face, Malfeshnekor had an idea - Making his presence known to the other three Wardens, with a successful diplomacy check, he explained that he is Karzoug's latest ally, and that he was instructed by Karzoug himself to approach them, raising his claw to show them his own Sihedron Ring.
My question now is, how can I get the rings to the PC's?
I had the idea of either somehow getting the Giants to turn on each other and reclaiming the rings from their corpse, or luring them away from their post and setting up an ambush for the Leng Spiders to take care of them, but I don't know how likely or believable either of these would be, so I've made this post for assistance and to hopefully pick your brains!
Also, yes - Malfeshnekor will be the parties ally in the final encounter, though for how long after they hopefully defeat Karzoug, I don't know.
Thanks for any help/advice!
This will include some spoilers as I mainly see this section as reference for GM's, so please stop reading if you're not a GM.
So my party will be returning to the Catacombs of Wrath next session and I'm in a bit of a bind.
Upon reading about The Scribbler, it appears the intent was to make it so he could dash in, attack once and dash back out of combat again, only his stats, feats or abilities don't really accommodate that. At least, not fully.
Sure he gets Dimension Door at will, but that doesn't allow him to cast it as a swift action. He has the Quicken Spell feat, but I don't actually know if you're allowed to modify "At-Will" spells with this, and so, assuming you can't, his combat actions would go something like this:
Surprise Round: Teleports to a PC casting DD (standard action) and can't do anything else that turn.
Round 1: If the party win initiative he eats a full round action quite possibly from all 3 members.
Round 2: There isn't one. He died incredibly fast due to action economy.
So, to rectify this, there are only two ways I see this working:
The 1st way
1. Swap Iron Will for Dimensional Agility
2. Swap Toughness for Dimensional Assault
This way he gets to teleport and attack, then on the following round will 5ft step and DD back out of there again.
The 2nd way
1. As GM, I rule he can Quicken his DD's, so he can Dimensional Door in and attack (full-round action with Dimensional Assault), then quickened DD out again whilst making a concentration check for casting defensively as usual.
Note: He can't 5ft step and then do it safely because Dimensional Assault counts as a charge.
This is the closest I can get his hit and run tactics to work, otherwise it's simply not possible.
The party can handle a lot. They consist of:
Goruk-Rei: An Anti-Paladin (Insinuator) who's currently insane after too many trips to the Abyss. He currently contacts Calistria for his powers. He died earlier in the campaign, but decided it was a good idea to use a Balor as his lacky to keep bringing him back to life. He's so far been revived 13 times after forcing the Balor to use his power to bring him back to life, lording the Balors true name over him. Only, the name he holds is the true name of a dead Balor and the Balor that's playing along is a Balor Lord that's slowly taking over his body with each revival. Goruk has 2 lives left and has no idea. He's level 12 with 2 Mythic Tiers and the only Divine magic that can effect him is that of his own (I made the God-Proof ability of Black Magga literal). He went toe to toe with Mokmurian alone, after the party had incurred the wrath of Mokmurian's army. It was a big spectacle and though Mokmurian beat him into unconsciousness, nobody had the ability to heal Mokmurian's bleeding (of which he had 29 every round due to Goruk's crit card), largely due to the fact Mokmurian narrowly escaped the party shortly before and the two Lamia Priestesses used all of their healing to heal him back up to full before meeting up with most of the other Giants within The Black Tower and marching down to his lair where the PC's awaited. Also, though he would have dropped from the bleed, or made a heal check after combat (he was trying to prove himself in front of his army), Arizar chucked a bomb at the back of his head during his gloat for KO'ing Goruk, at which point Conna and have of Mok's army turned on the other half. Goruk is linked strongly to the sin Wrath.
Arizar: A Beastmorph Alchemist who sometimes turns into an equivalent to the Cleric Beast in Bloodborne (he wanted to research his idea of the perfect form, which to him is an Emerald/Green Dragon, so I homebrewed this Beast as his failure concoction which he gets on a 7 as I modified his Unstable Mutagen to have an effect on a 7 and 8). It's incredibly strong, able to paralyze anything that comes into proximity of him (provided they can be paralyzed), at which point he simply coup de grace's the now helpless victims. This was not meant for him to have control over, is an entirely different personality made of pure rage and hunger, and it forces him to target the closest small or larger living creature, no matter who or what they are. He took out Undead Lamatar, Lucretia, Barl and Barl's Stone Giant bodyguard - the latter three in 3 rounds (while three other party members at the time were all polymorphed into Newts and Toads, luckily for them)....He's also the only remaining original hero of Sandpoint and though civilians see him as a hero, the way he fights is less than honourable. Though he's been rather charitable and offered financial aid to most in need of it (Sandpoint, Fort Rannick etc), he's an opportunist and likely onyl does this to empower his public image. He's linked strongly to the sin Pride. He's level 12 and has 1 Mythic Tier.
Lazarus: The Dual-Wielding, Switch-Hitting Rogue/Ranger of the party. He got onto the Paradise with a tattoo of the Sihedron on the back of his bald head. He died during my upscaled Feast of Ravenmoor module (which I ran before they got to the Storval Stairs) against an Avatar of Ghlaunder which I created. Naturally, he was being sent to K's pool of souls to empower the Runewell, but on his way, I had Desna intervene as it was her who released Ghlaunder by mistake and when he was brought back to life, his Sihedron tattoo was replaced with a blue butterfly and he's since been gifted with the ability to put any creature that steps within 5ft of him to sleep (lasting 1rd per level and only usable once per day), where he can then Dream Travel, taking the physical party members into the Dimension of Dreams to escape. I've also allowed him to use this ability to enter and leave the Dream Plane when the rest of the party is asleep to try and assassinate campaign specific targets. He came close to doing this to Mokmurian but thought it was too risky. He also went with the poisoner Archetype and to make poison actually useful, I allowed him to increase the DC of all poisons by a maximum of 10, so long as he makes the craft checks (this also works in reverse and can make some pretty poor poisons and ruining them altogether if rolling poorly). Lazarus isn't linked to any sin due to his actions, but is in fact strongly linked the virtue of Diligence. He doesn't yet have a Mythic Tier.
Of note: I got them to roll for their stats (4d6, drop lowest six times) and they've all ended up with 38-45pt buy, though I ruled at the start of the campaign they weren't to increase 18's during character creation, and anything less than an 8 gets re-rolled.
So some of you may have seen my previous thread a while back about a Half-Orc character called Goruk - He's an Anti-Paladin Insinuator of Nethys. The short of it is he was killed and cremated at Sandpoint shortly after the party dealt with Thistletop (they released you know who and half the party suffered immeasurably during the chase scene - I ruled the magic could indefinitely contain the creature, but as soon as the door is opened, the seal would be broken), but for whatever reason ended up in the Abyss rather than Limbo and/or Hell.
During his time spent there he ended up finding the true name of a Balor and has since been using that Balor to bring him back to life. Now, I haven't quite decided what he is anymore other than because his body was cremated, his actual soul is what manifests physically in the material plane now. If he dies too many times, it's possible he could suffer soul destruction but highly unlikely because I've been giving him powers every two deaths he suffers. Since Thistletop we're now at the end of book 3 and he's died 9 times (10 if you include the original), and little does he know, the Balor he's abusing is actually not the one he has the true name of.....that one died looooong ago. So now, every time he threatens to say the Balors real name, it plays along, bringing him back, but with each revival, a little more of its essence seeps into Goruks physically manifested body.
Even more interesting is the fact the Balor is messaging followers of Pharasma anonymously, telling her agents where he is so they can kill him over and over again for disrupting the balance of life and death, speeding up the process of full body takeover. He doesn't know most of this, but he's reached the point where he's received all boons he'll get as a PC (+4 Str, Con and Cha), as well as having grown a foot in height, his skin now blackened instead of the grey Half-Orc he was, with now grown and much sharper tusks (that were once filed) and a subtle red glow on his skin in direct sunlight. The voice inside his head hasn't quite formed yet....He has 6 deaths left before he dies one too many times and ends up fully stuck in the Abyss, with his soul somewhat divided - the physical side of it being controlled by a Balor Lord and the ethereal side being stuck in the Abyss with his identity still in tact. When this happens, he's likely going to be tougher to kill than the end boss and tbh I think I'm going to have to extend his lives from 15 to 20, else it'll probably be a TPK from one of their own before they've even reached the final book.
The trick to this is he has to find some kind of ritual guide hidden somewhere deep within the Abyss to partially regain control of his physical form, slightly weakening the balors grasp over him long enough so he can kill himself, killing the Balor along with it. He also sat in a pub in a flooded village, water 2 feet deep surrounding him, slit his own throat and respawned inside a legendary creature called a Black Magga. He killed it and I gave him a "god proof" ability. Due to that he can't ever be the target of any divine spells or abilities, unless they're his own abilities stemming from himself....this is a one man job.
I got him to roll a random dice (secretly to know what he'll return as after the stories conclusion and he rolled an Aasimar.....pretty funny).
Anyway, wandering through the Sanos Forest, the party found a derelict galleon of all things, with nothing left aboard aside from the remains of a long dead captain and some items/treasure the rest of the party found. This is where things then took a strange turn....
When the rest of the party climbed down from the Ship, Goruk decided to stay and rummage through the dead captains pockets. The party walked a little ways ahead (60ft or so) thinking Goruk would join them, but instead when they turned back, the ship was gone....along with their companion. Now, the ship's meant to disappear as the area is weird, mysterious, possibly haunted and close to the first world (land of the Fey), but there's no mention where it goes to as it's never meant to return again. So, I initially figured it had gone to the 1st world, only the description I gave on the spot was something like "stepping out onto the deck of the Galleon, you're in the middle of an ocean, floating in unfamiliar territory. The sea water is as black as night, the fog surrounding you is the same and the only thing that lights the sky is the brightly lit pure white moon."
Welcome to the Shadow Plane I guess!
So, I've been toying with some ideas but am a little stumped on where to go:
1. If he dies here, he dies full stop. The Shadow Plane and the Abyss aren't connected in the usual sense of the Abyss and Material Plane. He's out of reach of the Balor Lords power.
2. I was going to have this boat like some kind of creepy ghost story akin to the ships that go missing in the Bermuda triangle - It's been afloat, blipping in and out of dimensions and traveling for the best part of 100 years. You can never tell where it'll end up next or how long it'll remain in its current location for, but for this quest I wanted it to steer him to a port in the Shadow Plane, docking at the bottom of a massive Dracula/Castlevania typed Castle.
3. When he gets there, I wanted him to have some kind of encounter with Zon-Kuthonites, perhaps walking with them standing either side of him at ease, almost as if they were expecting him, as the rest of their group pray in front of the Zon-Kuthon altar. Only it's here I don't know what to do with him. Do they all try to convert him over to Zon-Kuthon who currently lives on the Shadow Plane, possibly even granting him a meeting with the Dark Lord? Or, do they try to kill him or have something more sinister planned for him? How does he get out and back to the material plane?
4. When he eventually leaves, considering the module set there, I was going to have him re-emerge not far from where the current party are (Turtleback Ferry) in a small town called Nidal. I also wanted to go with a Hellraiser theme/vibe, as Zon-Kuthonites are very much like the Cenobites!
P.s. I've also mentioned his backstory in case you all have any further fun suggestions for me to implement, but also to kind of serve as an understanding of his character to help in creating a sidequest very much appropriate for his character. He's a Scholar of the Ancient past, with a focus on Thassilonian history....and also a bit twisted and mad, more so since he's not been able to really die.
Hey BadBird - Thanks for the response. My initial concept was actually just that - An Invulnerable Raging Urban Barbarian with a focus on Renewed Life, Renewed Vitality and Guarded Life etc. Only thing is, one of the players who's usually a GM gets annoyed with the concept of mixing Barbarian and Fighter, claiming it just doesn't work.
I said to him instead of seeing their classes as what they are, see the abilities of the classes as just a single character. A character driven by anger and rage at the world, who then sees there's more hope in the world and strives to become more disciplined, so far so that he becomes a Knight for the Korvosan Guard.
Anyway, that aside, the reason I didn't go that route in the end is because I read that nothing else stacks with the Invulnerable Ragers DR, so Stalwart would be useless etc and he'd only be able to reach a DR of 10 (at 20th level, when most campaigns cap out at about 17 as you know). Yea, his survivability would be higher and he could transform a lot of damage into non-lethal AND ignore negative levels, but his DR is just not as impressive and to make it good, I'd really need to just stay Barbarian from start to finish.
As is stands with this build, I'd still like to be 15 levels Samurai purely for the resolve ability. He gets to about 14 DR by level 17. I did manage to create an amazing Barbarian build beforehand, mind. I just think I like this idea more, even though it's not as hardy as the Barbarian/Fighter I had in mind.
I guess I'm looking to pick your brains here, but I'm trying to build a Samurai to serve as an eventual member of the Sable Company Marines for Curse of the Crimson Throne.
The idea is he's a homeless Half-Elf kid who's just gotten over an addiction to shiver (Lamms fault). He's a bit of a street punk - Definitely a street urchin. He's lost a lot in his life, smokes and is incredibly reckless.
I'm going to start him out in the campaign with no gear and improved unarmed strike. The frustrating thing is, he essentially gets Diehard and Endurance with his resolve ability, but I need the actual feats for Stalwart and Improved Stalwart - I want his development to go from homeless, depressed, angst-ridden teenaged punk-bum to one of the finest Knights of Korvosa.
The focus for him should be high Damage Reduction and I'm using his Samurai class more akin to that of a Cavalier, treating the samurai side more as a fighting style, so he'll eventually be wearing medium or heavy armour. In short, I'm trying to make one tough SoaB.
I want him to go from an incredibly unrefined, non-caring, sensitive guy who means well to a shining example of a hero and Knight, so there needs to be a development of self-discipline. He was also inspired by Black Jack, so has a bit of an edgy attitude. I considered mixing Barbarian with Fighter, but the Samurai fighting style gives me a much better vibe.
Another issue is it takes about 8 feats to give him decent DR.
Ideally, I also need him to have Mounted Combat for his eventual Hippogriff mount (Dragoon is good for this, but I want to keep dipping into Fighter to a minimum).
The build I have for him currently is this:
Level 1: Fighter (Unbreakable)
Level 2 onwards: Samurai (Order of the Warrior)
Feats:
1. Improved Unarmed Strike (required for Crane Style)
3. Dodge (required for Crane Style)
5. Crane Style (necessary for the DR build)
7a. Crane Wing
7b. Power Attack
9. Crane Riposte
11. Stalwart
13a. Improved Stalwart
13b. Weapon Focus Katana
15. Critical Focus
17. Greater Weapon Focus: Katana
This gets him to about DR 15 against his challenges by level 17, but he can't do a lot else.
I've actually simulated this with all legal material (yet to play the character), but I found Cavalier (order of the sword) to be the best choice for me. Boots of the cat, a double ended longspear (functioning like a double weapon with TWF - There are official weapon creation rules I used for this) and a focus on acrobatics is the way to go. :)
I recently made a topic asking for creative ways to deal with the below situation and you can see the result below. Any feedback is appreciated as usual, but I think I'm happy with the outcome.
So...
A player of mine had gone through three characters by the time we made it to the end of book 2, so I allowed him to come back from the dead in any way he saw fit. So when he came to me and said he'd obtained the true name of a Balor, I decided to work with it. This is his final Pathfinder game, before he moves over to 5E.
I decided the only thing powerful enough to bring him back would be a Balor Lord, and so, using the Balor Lord as his lapdog, every time he now dies, the Balor brings him back. Little does he know, the Balor Lord allowed him to obtain its true name and is working on a rather sinister plan itself.
On top of this, Goruks return from the grave has upset the natural order of life and death and as such, Pharasma is far from happy about it. He has just recently been visited by a Vanth (Psychopomp) who tried beckoning him over. I've worked it so through Pharasmas will, only he can see the Vanth, as they're intent on keeping their presence hidden from those they have no business with. It will only attack him while alone, but if he slays it, more and more will come, until he faces Pharasmas Herald herself. Adding to the dangers of this, the Balor Lord is actually the one guiding Pharasmas army behind the scenes. Via its loyal servants residing on the material plane, he's having them commune with Pharasma to give away Goruks location. Why? To speed up the process of possession of course, for every time Goruk dies, a little more of the Balor Lords essence seeps into his mortal body.
Notes regarding Goruk:
Note: To anyone reading this, Goruk is a NE Anti-Paladin (Insinuator).
- Area fills with static electricity.
- Floor goes black with thick, unnatural misty darkness.
- Goruk steps out from it anew (every time he dies, but see below).
Deaths:
2 deaths: The dark aura of the Abyss appears to have tainted your soul. You feel great joy when slaughtering your opponents and an oddly comforting level of anticipation when near death, like something wonderful is about to happen. You feel a lot more confident in your own abilities and have a permanent +4 to Charisma.
4 deaths: Something feels off about your body. It's like your bones don't fit properly, and your muscles are pulling hard against them. Permanent -1 to hit, +2 to damage.
6 deaths: You've grown a foot taller and weigh an extra 50 pounds. The previous -1 to hit and +2 damage is replaced with a permanent +4 to strength. Your filed tusks have also grown considerably.
8 deaths: Your skin has darkened in hue, appearing closer to black than grey, while under direct sunlight it glows red. Your aura of evil has grown into something awful. Animals avoid you and children cry in your passing. All non-evil creatures within 30ft of you take a -1 penalty to their saves, skills and attack rolls (this is a fear effect - DC 10 + Cha mod + Character level negates). Your Con permanently increases by 4.
10: Your dark vision improves to 120'. Sometimes you hear a voice, like something is talking inside your head. Your prolonged contact with pure darkness has caused you to suffer from light sensitivity.
11: The voice gets louder.
12: The voice gets louder still, and makes it hard to focus.
13: The voice makes it hard to hear your own thoughts.
14: The voice is one with you. It's like you're looking through somebody elses eyes. Your body feels sluggish. You take a -4 penalty to Dex and to all Reflex saves.
15. Goodbye Goruk - Make a DC34 Will Save (10 + Balor Lord Charisma Mod + Number of Deaths) or lose your body permanently. If Goruk makes this save, the DC increases by 1 with every future death.
Lost body: Your soul is banished to the Abyss. If you haven't already realised, the Balor Lord is now in possession of your body and is doing god knows what with it on the material plane. Calling its true name has no effect as it's now bound to your physical body in your stead. You are now considered an Evil Outsider and are no longer tethered to your body.
Going forward:
- You have one way to deal with this:
A side quest to claim an ancient text from within the Abyss, where you'd need to perform some kind of ritual to reverse the final stages of the Balors control over you. Through reading this, you realise the bond is far too deep and to permanently remove the link between yourself and the Balor Lord, you must kill yourself when whole in body once more, killing the Balor Lord with you.
- This gives the PC's one final fight after the BBEG of Rise of the Runelords (hopefully not before - don't abuse this for your own (and the parties) sake (player).
The final kicker:
Several years after the defeat of Goruk, either by his own hand or outside forces, a child struggles to sleep. All night long it can hear an unknown and yet familiar voice in its head; "Who....are....you?". "Who are....you?". "Who are you?". "WHO ARE YOU?". At that moment the child wakes up, aware of all past events that occurred during the course of the Rise of the Runelord campaign. Then the child spoke up, its face widening with a grin; " I...am Goruk-Rel!"
Roll a d10 (re-roll on a 10) to determine the race of this child:
@Meirril - Haha, your first two sentences are actually what I had as a potential outcome in my head at the time of creating this post.
All of this actually has nothing to do with the Rise of the Runelords AP and is very character specific, so I have the freedom to go through with this, which is nice, but also bad for Goruk. The AP itself only runs up to level 17 (18 if I'm nice) and this will in fact be the players last Pathfinder outing, since he enjoys the mechanics of 5th edition more.
So, I'd like his character to go out in an epic way.
As such, I do really like all of your ideas and those suggested above your post. I just don't know how I can go about it for now. I think a good idea would be to tally how many times he's died and think of suitable things that change about him every time.
2 deaths - Each day he needs to start making Will saves. Failure means I control some of his actions (as if controlling the Balor through him).
4 deaths - Every day there is a 50% chance the Balor will be in control.
8 deaths - The Balor Lord assumes full control of Goruks body, with Goruk being at the mercy of whatever creatures reside in the abyss. If Goruk dies, the Balor does and vice versa.
Something like that, but if you'd all like to further suggest things here, it'd be great to see how far you can stretch your ideas!
I'll definitely ramp up the difficulty with Psychopomps, so he'll continue to have them against him (again, only attacking when he's alone). Additionally, he'll have the traps and encounters to deal with, likely killing him at some point and risk potentially drawing unwanted attention from Demon Hunters.
Also, outside of Goruk, as Aeron has the Spirit Totem Rage Powers, I've decided to rule that any characters who die from this point on will return as additional Spirits for the Barbarian to fight alongside (he said to me the conjured spirits are fallen war heroes, so I felt this would be a nice touch).
Hey all, so I have an interesting and potentially fun thing for the community to go absolutely nuts with.
Without spoilers, I'm GM'ing Rise of the Runelords right now and having just worked their way through the caverns, my players are now in the Fort of book 3.
The Characters:
Lazarus - Human Rogue (Poisoner) 8
Notable features: Bald with a Sihedron Tattoo on the back of his head. He's keeping an eye on the party for the Lord-Mayor of Magnimar (Grobaras), following the recent attempted of Assassination of Grobaras himself, from one of Magnimars very own City Guards who joined the party before being taken away for execution. He also paid bail for Goruk who was imprisoned briefly for slapping their Lord-Mayor awake and then swinging at Grobaras' Guards for attempting to escort him off the premises. Wields two Shortswords, multiple daggers and a Longbow.
Goruk - Half-Orc Anti-Paladin (Insinuator) 8
Notable features: Doesn't like being touched, having been previously tortured. Studies and searches for Thassilonian magic/rituals. Isn't anyones lapdog. Does as he pleases and adventures with the party for his own selfish reasons. Wields Sword and Board.
Arizar - Half-Orc Alchemist (Beastmorph) 8
Notable features: Has absurd AC, took the unstable Mutagen, throws bombs and wields a Greataxe. More often than not, the group diplomat. Also the only character to still be alive from the start of the entire Adventure Path.
Aeron - Half-Orc Shoanti Savage Barbarian 8
Notable features: Skoan Quah tribe. Only fights out of necessity, not pleasure - A paficist by default. He believes he's human, is a 4th generation Half-Orc and has focused heavily on pass for human enough so that aside from his size (he's 6'10), he looks as human as any other. Wields a +2 Earth Breaker.
So, though this is not something written in the AP itself, a situation has come about. The player of Goruk had gone through three characters upon reaching the last quarter of RotRL's second book. Naturally, he was deflated by it all, so I said he could bring one of his previous characters back, so he actually gets to run with one of his concepts. He brought his Anti-Paladin back.
I ruled that for one reason or another he'd somehow escaped the Abyss and made his way back into the material plane. Naturally, the first thing he did was casually stroll up to the adventuring party after his original body was cremated in Sandpoint. Essentially, this is now his soul that has taken physical form in the real world.
Anyway, I homebrewed some extra abilities for him:
Hellish Mark:
Damage Reduction: 5 vs good, increasing by 5 every 5 levels thereafter.
Abyssal Flame:
At 6th level, you may willingly engulf your hand in red and black flame as a swift action. When touching a creature in this way, as a standard action you cause that creature to be shaken (DC of 10+character level+charisma mod fort negates) for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier. In addition, this touch drains a number of hit points equal to your charisma modifier. You may use this ability a number of times per day equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier.
Unnatural Influence:
At 10th level, when you touch a creature with your Abyssal Flame ability, you may transfer any one condition you're currently suffering to that creature. They must make a Fortitude save equal to the original DC+your Charisma modifier or be stricken with that condition. In addition, when you drain hit points from a creature, you gain double the amount you normally would.
Essence of the Abyss:
At 14th level, when you touch a creature with your Abyssal Flame ability, you may substitute the HP drain to instead drain ability points from your target. This drain heals any ability damage you are currently suffering up to your Charisma modifier, as you siphon the very essence of your opponents soul into your own mortal vessel. Creatures touched in this way may make a Fortitude save equal to 10 + your character level & Charisma mod to avoid this altogether or suffer the ability damage penalties as normal. This can effect even those with immunity to fear.
So...
That in mind, I told the player this isn't a free life. He's not aware of this yet, but having upset the natural balance of the world through his own selfish means, Pharasma is not happy. Todays session had the first of her minions leave its natural plane - A Vanth Psychopomp found him when he was on low life. I roleplayed that only he could see it, but those within range would still be effected by its fear effect/aura. Naturally, they thought he was crazy talking to something out loud that wasn't there (to them at least).
It's gone away for now, but will be constantly stalking him and any time he's alone, it'll strike. If he takes that down, I'll send two more after him. If he takes that down, I'll send four more after him, capping at 8. I'll then change the type of Psychopomp that's after him until hopefully I get to send Pharasmas herald after him.
That's not all, though. I gave him some leeway as to how he returned to the natural world in the first place. He told me today that he acquired the name of a Balor and so long as he holds that name, he holds power over the Demon. I'm fine with this, so I decided to roll a dice behind the scenes - 1. It's a simple Balor. 2. It's a Balor Lord..... I rolled a 2.
So, though he's using the power of this creature to essentially be immortal right now, leaving Hell/The Abyss freely whenever he dies, eventually I'm going to have it that the Balor Lord is so done with him, Goruk will stop going to the Abyss altogether and just revive on the spot over and over again.
The main issues I have is power level wise, the Balor Lord is CR25. Goruk is level 8. The Balor can kill Goruk with ease, but should Goruk find another way back to life, the Balor knows his true name will no longer be safe. Naturally, the Balor Lord will be looking into things from the Abyss, researching ways to get out of this ordeal.
So, I ask you all - What can the Balor Lord do to ensure Goruks permanent death and get out of this deal? Is there anything even more creative you can think of based on what I've said about Goruks actions so far? Pharasma is now essentially warring against his existence behind the scenes.
If Goruk dies, his entire body will disappear every time now, as it goes back down to the Abyss. His physical body got cremated after all, so all that's left is his tainted soul returning in physical form.
Hopefully this is a fun one for you all. I see Goruk either becoming a Demon Lord himself or becoming immortal, forever defying Pharasmas will and making a ridiculous amount of enemies along the way. Please go nuts!
I can't really find much on this, but I have a question concerning the Titanic Rage feature of the Titan Mauler Barbarian Archetype.
Quote:
Titanic Rage (Su): At 14th level, a titan mauler may choose to gain the benefits of enlarge person when she enters a rage. While using titanic rage, she must spend 2 rounds of rage per round, and she becomes exhausted rather than fatigued when the rage ends. This ability replaces indomitable will.
1. Does this make me grow one size category, or do I stay the same size, but gain the benefits of Enlarge Person?
2. As it says you gain the benefits of Enlarge Person, would I only grab the +2 Strength, seeing as that's the only benefit outside of the size increase?
In short: I'm happy to go straight Barbarian, but really don't want my guy to physically grow through any kind of magic or class ability, so if he gains the strength increase, I'm happy, but I have no desire for him to grow in size. Jumping up a size category and remaining the same size would make little sense to him gaining an extra 5ft reach (as per the physical size increase).
The way I'm seeing the Archetype is that you can gain the benefits of Enlarge Person due to training and fighting all of your adventuring career against titanic foes, but you don't actually physically grow in size. So I'm just kind of trying to work out how it would work.
If I have to grow in size, I'm only going to have 12/13 levels Barbarian and go 4/5 levels Fighter instead. I'm making my own version of Guts from Berserk.
Well, what can I say? Prepare yourselves for one of the craziest ways to go yet and the kicker? It all started with a door. This is a long read, but one I believe the community will love!
After an incredible turn of events leading up to this madness...:
After essentially a TPK (all party members were knocked out, but not killed, including Bruthazmus), Lyrie being the one to mop the remaining PC's up notified Nualia, seeking more knowledge and power through research as a reward for capturing the intruders. As punishment for his failure, Bruthazmus was locked up also, with Orik on food duty, serving as the prison guard.
Orik didn't hate the party. He treated them as he'd like to be treated in a similar situation and after the events that followed, the party quickly discovered he could potentially become a temporary ally, provided they proved their worth. After all, he didn't want to help the losing side and his boss paid well, so the PC's needed to prove they could take on Nualia before he'd switch sides.
Later that night, Bruthazmus was lead out of his cell and into the Chapel of Lamashtu after Lyrie cast Ray of Enfeeblement on him, making sure he wouldn't put up much of a fight and that he'd stand little chance of escape. After threatening to screw the Elf out of the (currently imprisoned) parties Half-Elf Ranger/Rogue and hitting Orik in the face, bloodying his nose, Lyrie and Orik lead the Bugbear into the Chapel of Lamashtu.
Convinced until the very end that Nualia would be kind to him and after laughing at Orik who claimed escape was unlikely for him, so began the ceremony. After a speech from Nualia to Lamashtu, behind the closed door of the prison ward and out of sight of the players, but not out of earshot, the ritual opened up a tear in reality, leading to the abyss momentarily, with the wails of screams of countless damned souls echoing throughout the halls. Darkness and hues of red and orange light flashed in and out of existence under the doorway to the Chapel. What horrors occurred the other side of that door, you can be certain the players were glad they did not witness, however, Orik did.
Stepping up to the Altar beyond the door, Nualia gave her speech:
"My Queen, Lamashtu. The mother of monsters. The creator of corruption. My lady. My saviour.
I hereby present an offering in the form of my loyal bodyguard and Bugbear, the hunter Bruthazmus. Though he has slain countless Elves, Half-Elves and innocents, he has now failed me and so, I offer him to you as a slave in the afterlife. May you train him, sculpt him and craft him into the killing machine you so desire. May his essence flow into me, so that I can further aid you on the material plane and grow ever closer to demonhood as your loyal, unwavering champion."
The PC's then heard two quick thuds and then all of a sudden, silence. The ritual was complete and the two thuds? Bruthazmus' head bouncing across the floor. It was ironic - Where Bruthazmus couldn't bring the players to their knees, he instead was brought to his knees.....now without a head.
This gave the PC's 1-2 nights at the most before they too would be sacrificed one by one as an offering to Lamashtu, for Nualia to ascend to full Demonhood. With only Lyrié, Nualia, Malfeshnekor, the Giant Hermit Crab, Nualia's Yeth Hound and the three Shadows left, Orik had little to worry about and though scarred from seeing into the abyss and already feeling uncomfortable with his current life situation, he kindly informed the PC's if they didn't act soon, they'd be next.
The PC's escaped (averaging 1hp each & without gear as it had all been confiscated), the rogue/ranger picked the cell lock with an old rat bone, carefully ventured out and down the corridors in the dead of night, found and reclaimed the party gear and ended up walking in on Orik who, through being done with this place and wanting to get the hell out, listened to what the PC had to say without confrontation or any intention of fighting while Nualia and Lyrié slept in their own rooms. After agreeing to aid the party, should they prove their worth, he made one request - To take Lyrie alive.
The next day, the party made their way to Lyrie and after she had assumed the PC's escaped (they were just sleeping in a tower on the upper levels to replenish their abilities after a good nights rest), they captured her with relative ease, tying her up and leading her up to the tower they had just slept in, placing Orik on guard duty while they explored below.
Upon triggering the trap, Nualia was aware of an enemy presence and buffed up as needed. When the PC's opened the door to her room, I created a special segment, implied to have been a viewing into the past at Desna's desire:
As the door opens to this room, a brilliant white light washes over you as you find yourselves walking through the familiar streets of Sandpoint. A kaleidoscope of blue butterflies flit and flutter around you before taking to the sky in an entrancing and dizzying swirl.
Passing you is an incredibly attractive, silvery white haired girl, holding a book of some kind tightly to her chest and keeping to herself, smiling as one of the butterflies lands on her hand.
Moments later, a nasty teenaged boy runs up to the girl, plucking the butterfly from her hand and ripping the wings from its body right in front of her, before dropping it to the floor and stomping its still live body into the dirt.
The girl begins to sob, at which point the young boy laughs, pushing the beautiful teenaged girl to the ground. The onlookers did nothing to help the poor girl and as soon as she clambered to her feet, a group of boys pelted her with manure.
The girl ran home crying. Her pristine book now damaged, her face and clothes dirtied.
You're now outside the Cathedral, only it looks different to how you remember it. You're standing outside and looking up to the top, open window. That same girl from before is gently playing with another butterfly. The air is warm and as you feel the cool breeze brush past, the girls hair waves around with an otherworldly sheen.
The next morning, as she leaves the Cathedral and heads toward the academy, a group of boys and girls watch with malicious intent as she passes by, whispering to one another as if to plot something. The kids then run up to her, attempt to kick her legs out from behind with every step she takes.
Viewing from the academy, she spends most of her day in isolation, working hard to excel in all classes.
Back home, you appear to be watching from her bedroom, standing behind her as she sits at her desk in her almost transparent, white silk gown, lined with patterns of blue butterflies around the trim. She appears to be documenting the events of her life in a rather impressive looking, leather bound diary. At closer inspection, you can see tears streaming down her face, staining the pages with each teardrop.
Daylight breaks and school is over for the summer. The silvery haired girl makes her way down to the beach to quietly read a book. After what feels like several hours, a hateful man approaches her and seems friendly at first, until he grabbed her, claiming she's unnatural as he pinned her in place for his two sons to douse her hair in some kind of liquid.
As she struggled to break free, one of the boys ran back over with a torch, instantly lighting her hair ablaze. Undoubtedly expecting her to die and yet, she didn't. She seemed oddly resistant to fire as she dropped to the floor and frantically rolled to put it out.
Oddly, her hair was mostly fine, frayed and missing patches in places, but mostly undamaged, as was her delicate skin.
At her desk and sobbing once more, the girl closed her diary with a somewhat muffled thud. The cover reads "The Private Diary of Nualia Tobyn". Standing from her chair and stepping back, the walls of her room become engulfed in fire. Screams can be heard from outside, claiming the Cathedral of which you all stand within, is on fire.
Utterly distraught and wrought with fear, focus shifts to the tears of streaming down Nualia's face and as the flames grow closer and closer to her in their heated dance of destruction, you find yourselves back outside amongst the onlookers as the Cathedral begins to fall in on itself.
The imagery subsides and you find yourself staring at red marble lining the curving walls of this room, lit only by the four burning skulls in
each corner. Three chairs rest here, with both stone ledges covered with old books, scrolls, teeth, bones, scrimshaw artwork, jars of deformed creatures soaking in brine, taxidermied animals, limbs and other strange objects. To the north, a large round fountain filled
with frothy blue water fills the room with the gentle sound of bubbling and in front of it stands what looks to be a 30 year old woman, similar in looks to the teenaged girl you saw only moments ago.
Is this a dream? You're not sure, but she's charging right towards you!
During a pretty devastating fight with Nualia, two of the PC's went down (unconscious). With only the Half-Elf Rogue/Ranger and Half-Orc Anti-Paladin left standing (who had 24AC thanks to full plate armour and Smite), the fallen Aasimar failed to hit Goruk multiple times (even with her +17 to hit via buffs, due to the trap being triggered) and screamed with rage in his face as the Half-Elf backed down the corridor towards the L shaped room, pelting her with arrows.
As Nualia swung, invoking Lamashtu's name, Goruk who was previously imprisoned for three weeks (this is how I introduced his character after his previous characters death, Rikter), tortured by Bruthazmus and on the verge of either sacrifice or starvation was not a happy Half-Orc. Butting his face up against Nualia's, he said "The only mistake you made was crossing paths with me!" as he struck her down into unconsciousness. He'd already realised the girl in Desna's vision was Nualia, but he had no intention of redeeming her. He was (neutral) evil afterall, though he did say one thing as she lay there with a huge gash across her abdomen and that was "Truly, I feel sorry for you. Had your life gone a different direction, we would never have met, but due to your actions and your bright idea to keep me alive, today just isn't your day. May your next life treat you better." as he then plunged his sword deep within her chest, outright killing her and expelling her into the afterlife.
With the Yeth Hound and Nualia dead, the two left standing de-activated the trap, forced potions down their unconscious allies throats, ignoring Nualia's journal for now, and made their way through the rest of the complex.
During this time, Orik left his watchpost in search of Lyrie's cat, Skivver. Having previously been invited to join the PC's in Sandpoint, he had considered playing hero and escaping with Lyrie, but the PC's upheld their end of the deal and having visited Sandpoint once before (detailed in the AP), he decided to take them up on their offer to make a new life and hopefully work out some way to reduce Lyrie's sentence.
Then this happened:
Making their way through the remaining unexplored segments of Thistletop, they discovered the stack of coins and two coin slots to the east. Placing a coin in each slot, the golden coined wall grinded down into the ground, allowing them access to the three rooms beyond. Exploring the communication room and finding the key to Malfeshnekors lair, they pressed the emblem into the door, where it slowly automatically opened (by slow, I mean 3rds slow - 18 seconds). Upon entering, Goruk was quickly attacked from the front by the Greater Barghest (for 12 damage). This was the surprise round.
With a chunk of flesh now bitten out of Goruk's side, the rest of the party got involved. Due to the positioning the Halfling Cleric of Desna and Goruk were the two up front and so took another two attacks. With an attack from each of the party - A swipe from Goruk's Bastard Sword, a flurry of arrows from Ashryn's Rapid Shot Bow attack, a Bomb from Arizar, the Half-Orc Alchemist, all attacks missed. This continued to be the case and after just one round of Malfeshnekors attacks, the party were in serious trouble.
As they began to back out down the corridor, ensuring the girls were behind them, Goruk and Arizar blocked Mal from attacking the Halfling and Half-Elf, before an idea sprung to Goruks mind.
Goruk grabbed the door key/insert and took a step back towards the corridor as the doors slowly began to close. The rest of the party carried on with their desperate struggle, but being more intelligent than the entire party, Malfeshnekor saw through their plan and wasn't about to be imprisoned once more.
For 1 round, the beast attacked the party, landing all four attacks (three initially, but we use crit cards, which gave him an AoO on Goruk) on Goruk, ripping a fatal hole in the Full Plate wearing Half-Orcs chest, practically ripping him in two.
The Half-Orc Alchemist was done and fled for his life for a round until the Halfling and Half-Elf called him back, screaming for help. Cora then took a single attack, Arizar ran back in to throw fire at the beast and Ash let off another two shots. Firing a blast of Magic Missile from the wand they'd taken from Lyrie, Cora the Halfling fired off two darts, only to yet again miss (50% miss chance with Blink, even causing a spell that doesn't miss to miss).
The healer was out of healing spells and with no time to pull out a healing wand, it was clear that having not dealt a single bit of damage to the beast, they needed to get out of there. Arizar was terrified, for he was the only one to actually hit Malfeshnekor in his beast morph form, but failed to get through the Greater Barghest's DR.
Ash and Arizar fled, each taking considerable damage from a vicious claw swipe (the AoO for leaving the second square of the large creatures reach - Arizar had a max of 19 life and took 16 damage from that one swipe), with the only problem being Cora was the last to act in the initiative.
With the door now closing, the Greater Barghest leapt out of the room with a huge roar that echoed down the corridors and throughout the entire complex of Thistletop, blocking Coras escape, felling her with its huge teeth and clawing her body apart on the ground.
Both Ashryn and Arizar were thankful for disabling the trap as they fled as fast as they could through the rooms and tunnels leading to the upper levels. The only issue was Malfeshnekor now in full pursuit of them.
Slowed only by the cramped corridors for his size, the two remaining PC's made it back up the top and continued to run full speed ahead, taking the right path of the courtyard (where the dogs and the caged horse Shadowmist were/is), making sure to slam the doors behind them.
Running up the tower stairs, Orik was still waiting outside the trap door. Arizar shushed him and signalled to follow him swiftly up the ladder to the hatch above. Ashryn followed and closed the hatch as Orik, without thinking, placed his hand over Lyrie's face, where all four of them remained as still and quiet as possible, for their own lives depended on it. Orik didn't know what exactly had happened, but his gut instinct and brief interaction with Arizar answered all for him.
Making his way up to the courtyard, Malfeshnekor sniffed the air and after spotting the open 5ft door into the lobby, pelted it forward and out through the door (he rolled a 1 on his perception and I gave him a slight penalty with scent due to the wind direction above - in short, I was kind to the party as a 1 for skills doesn't mean failure).
Making it to the bridge, Malfeshnekor saw no sign of the party and though he believed the party were still in the complex, he thought there was a slight possibility the party had some way of teleporting away and so instead of dashing across the rickety old bridge, he climbed down the side of Thistletop and swum to who knows where.
The PC's were glad they accidentally left that door open, but being too afraid to leave in case it still roamed around and having it dawn on them that they'd just released this beast into the wild, they felt less than heroic and remained in the tower until the next day, bravely venturing down to where their comrades fell, just on the off-chance one of them survived.
Needless to say, the corridors and contents of every room in Malfeshnekor's path was now in ruins and even the stone corridors were now wider than they once were.
Managing not to trigger the Shadows, Arizar, Ashryn and Orik explored the remaining sections of Thistletop, successfully passing through the room with the shadows, without activating them, both on the way through and their return (even after defeating the Giant Hermit Crab and dragging the 300lb golden helmet through the room - I rolled a 6 for spawn time both times the PC's passed through the room and with all three of them guiding the helmet through, this was enough time to not have any further trouble head their way).
Taking Shadowmist back with them, Arizar, Ashryn, Orik and Lyrie made their way back to Sandpoint, taking several trips back and forth to transport their horde of newly acquired goods.
Orik is now set to be a permanent member of Sandpoints Town Guard and Lyrie is currently being held in a cell at Sandpoints Garrison.
Okay, so this is what I have planned for the PC's.
If anyone else ends up with an unconscious but not dead party on the first basement level of Thistletop, feel free to use this or add it to the Burnt Offerings GM thread.
The Fate of an unconscious party at Thistletop:
Okay, so this is what I finally have planned for the PC's. They'll have to break out of a sturdy barred prison cell, would you say the DC's at the end are fair?
Here goes:
Thistletop:
You each wake up in your under-garments, unarmoured and without your gear, likely surprised to even be alive and yet, you find yourselves in a less than ideal situation.
Goruk - Though you had been freed once already, you find yourself yet again, caged in the same prison cell you've endured for the past three weeks and the same cell you've grown to hate.
Cora finds herself in the cell adjacent and with clear view of the door ahead, which you all came to know as the Chapel of Lamashtu.
Ash - The most likely of the party to find a way out, you find yourself adjacent to Cora, with Arizar right next to you.
Arizar - As a capable fighter even without your alchemy, if brute strength could get you out of this situation, you're the second most likely candidate to escape, considering your new companion Goruk's physical state.
Next to you all however and separated with a cell in between, to your surprise is Bruthazmus. The Bugbear Cora once thought slain had somehow pulled through and lay currently unconscious two cells over from Arizar.
As you glance at one another, weighing your actions for the next few minutes, more out of chance than anything, a heavily armoured man wearing a helmet enters from the east. With what looks to be a Bastard Sword at his side and a heavy Steel Shield on his back, this man looks to be some kind of mercenary.
- A DC20 Knowledge Local check (only able to be made by Goruk) will identify him as Orik Vancaskerkin - A mercenary from Riddleport, recently chased out by the law for the murder of a well known Alchemist.
Walking right past the Bugbear, he keeps his head down and mostly keeps himself to himself. Approaching Goruk, he passes food through the hatch in his cell. "I'm amazed you lasted this long" he said, somewhat surprised. "I had a search through the upper floors and it looks like the two Goblins tasked with feeding you had their skulls kicked in by that Horse the Goblins seem to have captured. Lucky for you, I've been tasked with bringing you back up to good health."
Passing the rest of the food through he says; "Here. Fresh Water and some bread. It's the best I can do."
Any roleplay goes here...
Moving over to Cora, he passes food through without a word.
The next one to be offered food is Ashryn, to which Orik sighs. "I guess even the attractive ones find their untimely end in hell holes." With a deep exhale, he shakes his head before heading over to Arizar.
Speaking fairly quietly but louder than a whisper, he says "I don't know if the odds were ever in your favour, but you guys sure did a number on the pests upstairs. It's too bad I already know your fate."
- If asked with a diplomacy or whatever, Orik will just reply with "Ah, it's not for me to say. I just do as I'm paid."
- If Goruk mentions sacrifice, Orik will simply look knowingly at him, which can be revealed with a DC10 Sense Motive.
Making his way over to Bruthazmus' cell, the armoured man nudges the Bugbear twice with his foot, swiftly stepping back at the first sign of movement.
"Wakey wakey, big guy. Food's here." said the man, sliding the food tray over to Bruthazmus.
In a gruff and bestial tone, the Bugbear expressed concern; "What am I doing in this enclosed cell? DID YOU PUT ME HERE?"
"With the help of Lyrie, much to her displeasure." replied the man.
"Well, WHAT are you waiting for you insignificant CURR!? Get me.....THE HELL OUTTA HERE!!!"
The man looked away, tilting his head with a subtle shake.
In a blind rage the Bugbear jumped at the cage, rattling the bars with such strength and anger, it was comparable to that of a Gorilla.
"GET ME OUT NOW OR I'LL CRUSH YOUR DAMNED SKULL YOU PATHETIC HUMAN WORM." shouted Bruthazmus, spitting forcefully with each word that left his vile tongue.
Placing his hand on his hilt, the man stepped back, somewhat unsure if the cell would hold Bru back, once again shaking his head, only this time a little more assertively. "You're to stay put. Bosses orders."
At that moment, the Bugbear burst out laughing, instantly shouting at the top of his lungs; "HAHAHA! YOU FOOL! NUALIA WOULD NEVER BETRAY ME!" and with a more quieter tone he continued; "Silly human. Far too simple-minded to see the bigger picture."
Watching on knowingly, the man said nothing as Bruthazmus grabbed some bread, sat back against the cell wall, taking a large bite out of it.
"Fine" he said, chewing loudly. "Then at least throw that Half-breed wench in here with me."
Looking over to Ashryn, the Bugbear grinned gleefully. "I'll f*** er' Elven ties out of er before snapping her puny twig neck."
With a raised eyebrow, the man glances over to you Ashryn before focusing his attention back on Bruthazmus. "Enough of this crap. You're not having her. You're staying put. Bosses orders. Save your strength and shut yer damn mouth."
At that point, the man turned and headed toward the eastern door he initially entered through.
"A brave one aren't yer!" laughed the Bugbear. "Just you wait. She'll be back for me and as soon as um out, ah'll promise ya, I'll gut yer f***in dead."
Without stopping, the man walked through the door, muttering something (DC15 Perception - "I wouldn't bank on it.") as he slammed the door behind him.
- Any interaction with the PC's results in nothing more than aggression, profanities and sarcasm fuelled with arrogance.
2 hours later:
The Chapel door opens to the north and through the crimson hue steps out Lyrie, followed by the man from earlier who appears to be somewhat reluctant and uncomfortable.
Stepping closer but not within arms reachs of the cells, Lyrie chuckles; "Think yourselves lucky I was in a generous mood. I told you to leave, but you just had to dig didn't you? Ignoring me is one thing, but disrupting my research....IS UNFORGIVABLE!" she said with a glare that could kill, before quickly composing herself.
"Anyway. That's not why we're here."
Pacing back and fourth, the dark skinned woman eyes each of you up and down, as if she were looking for something, pausing occasionally with the odd "Hmm" and "Ahh". This goes on for about a minute when the man behind her interrupts; "Lyrie, it's time."
Glancing over her shoulder, she immediately responds "Very well."
Stepping once more, closer to each and every one of you, she moves over to Goruk....
and then Arizar.....
and then Bruthazmus.....
and then Cora and finally Ashryn.
Pulling out the cell keys, she smirks at Ashryn before immediately darting over to Bruthazmus, blasting him with some kind of energy.
"There, that should make you a little more compliant." she said sternly.
Seemingly sapped of strength, she opened the cell, allowing Orik to enter with a pair of handcuffs.
"Looks like you are getting out afterall." said the man, before immediately being punched in the face by the Bugbears giant hand, drawing blood as the mans nose took the impact.
Stumbling back, the armoured man violently grabbed the Bugbears arm, twisted him around and securing Bruthazmus' arms in place.
Shoving him forwards at every opportunity the Bugbear used to try and escape, the armoured man eventually guided Bruthazmus towards the Chapel door, before stopping momentarily.
"What are you waiting for?" laughed Lyrie.
Tilting his head toward the ground, the man winced as he ran his hand up and over his forehead, as if to comfort himself.
"N-nothing. It's nothing."
"Good" replied Lyrie. "Then shall we?"
Shifting his expression to that of determination, the man nodded, walking the Bugbear back through the open door into the Chapel of Lamashtu, Lyrie shutting the door behind her.
Several minutes pass and though hard to hear, those with well trained ears (DC25 Perception) can hear the speech in full; "My Queen, Lamashtu. The mother of monsters. The creator of corruption. My lady. My saviour.
I hereby present an offering in the form of my loyal bodyguard and Bugbear, the hunter Bruthazmus. Though he has slain countless Elves, Half-Elves and innocents, he has now failed me and so, I offer him to you as a slave in the afterlife. May you train him, sculpt him and craft him into the killing machine you so desire. May his essence flow into me, so that I can further aid you on the material plane and grow ever close to demonhood as your loyal, unwavering champion."
At that moment, sheer silence falls upon you all, as darkness flows no more than 5 feet towards you from under the Chapel door, when suddenly, screams can be heard all around, wailing as you've never heard before, wind beginning to stir unnaturally, before flashes of red and orange hues beam violently under the door also, flickering in and out of existence, until there is but silence once more, followed by the sound of something hitting the floor twice.
- This was Bruthazmus' head.
After ten or so minutes pass, the armoured man passes back through the prison, swiftly closing the chapel door behind him.
- If questioned as to what happened, he simply says "Nothing good and I take no pleasure in saying one of you are next."
He then leaves once more through the eastern doorway, making sure to close that door also.
- The PC's only have until the same time the next day to escape before one of them are chosen for the next sacrifice, so if they're going to break out, now's their chance.
- Ashryn's Disable Device is 3 less due to not having the Masterwork Thieves Tools to hand and having to do it likely with the leftover bones of previously imprisoned creatures/maybe rat bones. Her bonus will be +9 instead of +12 due to no longer having an ACP.
- Cell Door Lockpick DC: 20, Strength DC: 28 to bend the bars.
You could get them to roll an unbeatable Will save at the bottom and describe the building as something else entirely, leaving the stairs in the same place as the actual map (so the players don't drop off) and then, when they eventually reach the top and hopefully beat X, the illusion spell will fade, revealing the true appearance of this building.
GM tricks are all things like this need, though granted you could change the location altogether or even create your own.
Yea, I kinda have for the most part, but just wondered if this was a legit way to go and if what I have planned for Bru would really happen.
So...:
I mean, would Nualia really thin her numbers out even more by sacrificing one of her own? He did try to kill her to begin with, so that's against him, but I'm not too sure.
I was tempted to do a Russian Roulette typed thing, rolling a dice (d5) to see who would be sacrificed first and if it didn't turn out to be Bru, but one of the PC's, giving them the necessary rolls (escape artist mainly) to avoid this. If they managed to escape however, they'd still need to track down their gear before they could even stand a chance of fighting back. It needs to remain challenging, but be fairly winnable.
It's more this that I was going for. Lyrie is very self-absorbed.
Spoilered in case my players accidentally stumble across this:
Oh, I had no intention of her switching sides, but I am playing her as someone who is only concerned for her own self interests, so thought imprisoning them for sacrifice instead of outright killing them would perhaps convince Nualia to hand over her notes on Demon Transformation - Another document for Lyrie to study, yet at the same time give the players one last chance to succeed in a plausible manner. I mean Bruthazmus essentially failed the psychotic Aasimar and got shown up by a weak Wizard. I mean, is there any way to extend on that or is that cool enough?
I've envisioned Bruthazmus being imprisoned alongside the party, so when one of Nualia's henchmen enter the prison to take somebody away as a sacrifice, while the players are pooing themselves, they actually drag Bruthazmus out for that nights sacrifice. As it stands though, there aren't many members left alive at Thistletop.
So I was thinking Orik would be the one to escort the remaining sacrifices to the Chapel of Lamashtu for sacrifice.
Also, I did the same with Nualia. She's pretty badass/monstrous.
Nualia (Un-Buffed):
Class: Cleric of Lamashtu 3/Anti-Paladin 3
Domains: Strength (Ferocity) and Evil (Demon)
Channel: Negative 2d6/6 uses per day
Alignment: CE
Speed: 20ft, Initiative: 1
HP: 59/77* (d8+2x3/d10+3x3, *False Life medallion)
AC: 18, Touch: 11, Flat-Footed: 17
- w/Fury of the Abyss: AC 16, Touch 9, Flat-Footed 15
BAB: 5
CMB: 8
CMD: 19
Str: 16
Dex: 12
Con: 14
Int: 10
Wis: 16
Cha: 17
Fort: 12
Ref: 7
Will: 13
Combat:
Special - Lamashtu's Mark (DC: 19): 1/day, free action, may invoke Lamashtu's name on a successful attack to cause the creature a hideous and hellish deformity temporarily.Drops targets Charisma by 1d4 for 1 hour.
+1 Bastard Sword (Two-Handed) +10, 1d10+5, 19-20x2
w/Fury of the Abyss - +1 Bastard Sword (Two-Handed) +11, 1d10+6
w/Ferocious Strike - +1 Bastard Sword (Two-Handed) +11, 1d10+7
w/Smite Good - +1 Bastard Sword (Two-Handed) +14, 1d10+10/1d10+13 vs a good Cleric/Paladin on the first hit
Claw +1, 1d6 + Touch of Corruption/Cruelty
Power Attack:
+1 Bastard Sword (Two-Handed) +8, 1d10+11, 19-20x2
w/Fury of the Abyss - +1 Bastard Sword (Two-Handed) +9, 1d10+12
w/Ferocious Strike - +1 Bastard Sword (Two-Handed) +9, 1d10+13
w/Smite Good - +1 Bastard Sword (Two-Handed) +12, 1d10+16/*1d10+19 vs a good Cleric/Paladin on the first hit only
Notes:
Fury of the Abyss (swift action, used on first 6 attacks).
- Lasts 1 round each use and gives a -2 penalty to AC
Ferocious Strike (6 uses, use on the first 6 confirmed hits).
Smite Good (swift action, once per day until next rest or enemy is defeated).
- Grants a deflection bonus of +3 vs target of Smite
Special Attacks:
Touch of Corruption - 1d6 damage touch attack with no AoO.
- 4 uses, standard action
Cruelty - Touch of Corruption w/Sickened for 1 round (Fort DC: 14).
Aura of Cowardice - Foe within 10ft take a -4 to saves vs fear and those who are immune to fear are no longer immune.
Plague Bringer - Immune to all disease, but can still carry/spread.
Unholy Resilience - +3 (Charisma mod) to all saves.
+1 Bastard Sword (Two-Handed) +13, 1d10+9, 19-20x2
w/Fury of the Abyss - +1 Bastard Sword (Two-Handed) +14, 1d10+10
w/Ferocious Strike - +1 Bastard Sword (Two-Handed) +14, 1d10+11
w/Smite Good - +1 Bastard Sword (Two-Handed) +17, 1d10+14/1d10+17 vs a good Cleric/Paladin on the first hit
Power Attack:
+1 Bastard Sword (Two-Handed) +11, 1d10+15, 19-20x2
w/Fury of the Abyss - +1 Bastard Sword (Two-Handed) +12, 1d10+16
w/Ferocious Strike - +1 Bastard Sword (Two-Handed) +12, 1d10+17
w/Smite Good - +1 Bastard Sword (Two-Handed) +15, 1d10+20/*1d10+23 vs a good Cleric/Paladin on the first hit only
So today the PC's made it to the first level Basement and had a bit of a lacklustre encounter with Lyrie.
The Beastshaping Alchemist went into her room and instead of being met with hostility, was met with concern as to why he was down there.
When asked what she was doing, she replied half-heartedly, claiming she's studying away from the Goblins up top and would like her privacy and a good deal of peace and quiet, telling the PC's they should leave Thistletop if they know what's good for them.
Questioned as to what was through the secret door (currently hanging ajar, due to no alarm being raised), she told them only death awaits and when asked if it was her who'd kill them, she told them there are far worse things down there than her.
The Half-Orc Alchemist, along with the rest of the party accepted her wishes due to the lack of hostility and made their way through the corridor leading to area D11, but not before Lyrie closed the door behind them, wishing to avoid combat if possible.
Upon entering the Chapel of Lamashtu, two of the three current party members dealt with the Yeth Hounds with relative ease before making their way to the Prison. Slumped down, exhausted, malnourished and in nothing but a loincloth was a Half-Orc (replacement character for Rikter who died in the Howling Hole last session - Posted his death in the RotRL obituaries thread). The party found the key to the cells with little effort and did their best to heal the Half-Orc before moving on.
Heading back upstairs, the party made their way to the Armoury in the hopes of finding something helpful for the Half-Orc until he could reclaim his gear. Unknown to them however was Bruthazmus. Currently having a good old time with the three female Goblins, Bruthazmus overheard movement outside the door and after quick inspection of the cells, realised Gorul-Rél, the Half-Orc he'd been torturing for the past three weeks had escaped. Making his way back down the corridor to area D11, he caught the party returning back down the stairs and had his bow pointing straight at them.
Unable to resist the urge to grind the new Half-Orc's pride even further into the ground, he challenged the barely standing, exhausted man to a 1 on 1 honourable fight, knowing he was outnumbered. The Half-Orc accepted and with a cheeky buff from one of the other party members, engaged with the Bugbear.
Firing the first shot off from his bow, Bruthazmus backed up into the prison, giving himself some distance between he and Goruk-Rél. The Half-Orc, not falling for the plan, mocked him and readied an action around the corner of a wall, provoking Bru to drop his Bow and charge with his Heavy Flail. The fight quickly went sour for Goruk and as soon as he dropped, Bru had a feeling the rest of the party would get involved and so backed up back into the prison room again. The other Half-Orc (Arizar, the Beastshape Alchemist) went forwards but couldn't quite reach Bru, who immediately stepped out and smacked him upside the head with a Heavy Flail attack. The party Ranger/Rogue then got involved and ended up moving about the room to try to take the attention off of Arizar. Arizar eventually dropped and by this point, hearing the noise of fighting echoing down the corridors, along came Lyrié down the other corridor, opening the door to blast magic missiles at the tortured Half-Orc Goruk-Rél, complaining about the noise distracting her from her studies, before immediately dropping him again. This left Cora and Ashryn as the only two characters still up, so Cora, the Cleric of Desna healed, bringing Arizar and Goruk back to consciousness as Bru landed a heavy hit on Ashryn with his flail.
Catching his attention once more, Arizar was faced with Bruthazmus who once again smacked him to the ground, taking out Ashryn shortly after. Meanwhile, in D11, Cora was spending her curatives bringing Goruk back to consciousness, only for Lyrie to keep sending him into the negatives almost immediately.
Eventually Cora ran out of healing and ran down the corridor to fire her slingstaff off at Bruthazmus, dropping him. The only issue was with her channels, any small damage she'd dealt to Lyrie was healed (Cora didn't have selective channeling) and after taking several more magic missiles followed by a casting of Burning Hands (which I kindly chose to attack out of range of the currently unconscious PC's), eventually dropped as well.
This brings me to my current line of thinking.
What to do now?:
This brings me to my next point. Though generally if a party member dies, I'll leave them to it, a TPK at this point will cause problems with Aldern later on, making things lack any kind of impact.
Not only that, they didn't attack Lyrie on sight, so she's gone after them more out of anger and frustration than anything else and none of the characters are outright dead. They're all stable in their negatives, so, this is what I was very much considering on doing:
1. It makes little to no sense outright killing them when Nualia requires sacrifices to further ascend to Demonhood.
2. As such, I think it's best to have each party member imprisoned within the cells until Nualia decides to sacrifice them.
3. Bruthazmus, failing to dispatch the party (with Lyrie showing him up as the weaker character) would likely be made an example of and be the first character to be sacrificed to Lamashtu as punishment.
4. This would give the party a day, two at the most to try and break out and even then they'd need to find and reclaim their gear before taking on the rest of the dungeon.
5. Lyrie, more interested in her research than outright murdering the intruders (and unaware of anything happening to Tsuto, due to it being only a day later) would likely be rewarded for accomplishing this before going back to her research while Nualia grew ever closer to full transformation.
So, does this sound plausible to you? Would you do anything more with it and would you buff Nualia up even further considering what I have planned with Bruthazmus?
Anything you could add would be greatly appreciated! :)
After an incredibly successful start to the campaign with only three players, Tsuto was dealt with, with ease. He barely got a chance to do anything (I rolled a 3 on almost every roll, including all acrobatics) and so the PC's ended up clearing out the Catacombs of Wrath with relative ease. Koruvus was a tougher fight than Tsuto, but they still got him good.
Fast-forward to todays session and we have the first PC death of the campaign.
Name of PC: Rikter Von Eisling
Class/Level: Bard 3 (Dervish Dancer)
Adventure: Burnt Offerings - Thistletop
Catalyst: The Howling Hole
Story: After dealing with the Licktoad Tribe refugees, the party (along with their new member, Ashryn), found themselves looking down a particularly large hole. This was the Howling Hole and what caught their eye was the treasure below.
Climbing down alone, Rikter went into the hole unaware of the Bunyip below (with a successful stealth check of 26). The Bunyip snuck up next to him, took a bite out of him and swam away, circling him in the darkness (it was nighttime too) like a shark, testing what it could get away with. Landing three attacks before Rikter could do anything, Rikter began to drown (failing his swim check), managed to swim back to the surface to heal, got bitten again, each time suffering the bite and additional bleed.
There were three rounds before this where the bunyip kept missing and ended up critting itself twice, biting its tongue and catching its fang on itself, taking 8 damage, 1 bleed and 4 Strength damage. This was even before it landed the first attack on an unaware Rikter.
He managed to heal twice before running out of curatives and still attached to the rope he initially climbed down, the other PC's noticed what was happening and began to pull him up. He was on 6hp and dangling 10ft above the water surface, with the Bunyip constantly circling below and leaping up in an attempt to take more chunks out of him.
After attempting this for two rounds and being pelted with arrows and slingstaff bullets, the Bunyip roared, terrifying two of the three party members above, one of which was holding the rope with Rikter.
Down plummets Rikter, back into the dark waters below, as Arizar the Half-Orc Alchemist runs in fear, dropping the rope as he and Ashryn the Ranger/Rogue run away from the hole. The Bunyip takes another chunk out of the Swashbuckling Bard and as the rope slides along the ground, Cora, the Halfling Cleric of Desna tries to grab it, but fails and things are looking really bleak.
It's now a struggle to see who will survive - Rikter or the Bunyip. The Bunyip, still taking the 1 bleed every round, is finished off with a slingstaff pellet to the temple. I then allowed Cora to make survival checks to find a vine to rescue Rikter, but unfortunately Rikter still had 3 bleed whittling away at him he just couldn't do anything about.
He then dropped unconscious, began to sink as he was now drowning, with Cora only finding a sturdy vine as he succumbed to blood loss and suffocation.
Now cleared, Cora, Arizar and Ashryn (now composed after their frightful ordeal) climbed down the vine and into the water below, collecting the treasure and making sure to secure themselves to the vine beforehand, so they could easily climb back up and down, underwater or not. They claimed the treasure for themselves and left their comrade afloat, dead and facedown in the cove below.
Ultimately, Rikter was adventuring to regain his lost fame, but ended up just adding to the treasure horde already there, literally drowning his sorrows away.
They can battle forever more in the afterlife now that they both (eventually) lay dead together in the Howling Hole. A pretty good encounter I'd say!
No problem, Jura. There was a lot about to happen, but with how slow PBP can be and as you said, a more focused group, this would have been amazing. I finished Erin's story arc a while ago and the first Apostle was just around the corner!
But, such is the way of PBP. It's always better in real life, but over here Pathfinder is still very niché, so it's hard to find in-person players sadly. Though, you would have gotten this far in the first session IRL, haha.
If Izsha comes back then I'd still be open to having her in the party but it's just Erin, Sebastian And Jura left now. I can leave this open to see if anyone else is interested and continue posting for you three or I can cancel the game. Up to you guys.
The guard laughs under his breath and shakes his head.
The only way that can happen is if someone from inside dismisses us from our duties for the day and that rarely happens.
Glancing over to his fellow guard, but still aiming his conversation towards Sebastian, he remarks The only time I can carry out such a request is during Guard rotation, when my watch ends for the day.
Looking back to Sebastian, the guard then simply says; Looks like you've got a long wait ahead of you.
The guard glances over you all and then focuses his attention on Sebastian.
Noble or not, we have been given strict orders. There's to be two guards stationed here at all times. Leaving my post to pass on a message is disobeying that command.
Hey Berserk fans, I'm looking for one more player to join the current group!
This is a roleplay heavy game and currently in the party we have:
Rodrick: Human Fighter
Jura: Human Fighter
Sebastian: Human Ranger
Erin: Pixie Sorcerer
I'm looking for another human character. You can be any age (I won't be using the age modifiers to adjust your stats), but you can play a Midlander, Chuder or Kushan. The character we lost was a Kushan Alchemist.
This is a low-magic setting, but magic is allowed depending on how well it fits into the setting and how interesting your backstory is. So far, the only character who can use magic fully in the party is the female Elf (Pathfinder Pixie).
Point buy is 25.
We're using Background Skills.
Two traits, but none can cost RP.
Average Starting wealth.
Special: No confirmation roll for crits. If it hits their AC, it auto-confirms. This is universal, though.
Combat: Roll20
The story is taking place currently where the Berserk Manga is up to. It's set in Midland and is going on during the current Manga events, while Guts is at Elfhelm. As such, you'll know of The Black Swordsman, The World Tree and The (current) Band of the Hawk.
The party have literally just left the starting pub, had their first encounter and are currently outside the front gates of The (deceased) Counts Castle Town, so bare all of the above in mind when creating your backstory.
You'll get as much out of this as you put in and if you can stick to posting daily, even better. We need to pick up the pace of this game really.
Other points:
- I'd like everyone to be able to add at least one post daily, though naturally if you need time off or are going away, just let me know and I'll probably GMPC you during your absence or think of something to allow for a temporary departure.
- This is mainly story driven, but just like in the world of Berserk, there will be a lot of action.
- If you want to try something flashy or unusual (for example, running up something and slashing it before jumping off), go for it. Be as stylish as you want and if I think it's possible I'll ask you to roll the relevant checks to see if you succeed or not.
- I'll be making this as cinematic as possible at appropriate times, so like above I encourage you to do the same.
- If something feels too tough to fight or if you have a bad feeling about certain situations, go with your gut. Fight or flight could be the difference between dying or living to see another day.
As you approach the guards, they both cross their Halberds over the front gate. The guard to your left does so without paying much attention to you, while the guard to your right speaks up.
Entry is forbidden. Nobody enters or leaves town and all trade has been temporarily halted, as ordered by the Countess.
As you talk amongst yourselves, the guards don't seem to move, continuing to hold their position.
It seems that whatever action you plan to take, talking amongst yourselves isn't going to solve much. There's also no sign of life outside of your group and the two guards in front of you.
You expect things are probably quite lively within the Castle Town, but with no current plan of entry, you have no clue what awaits beyond those gates.
1. Kaze Daizaemon
Class: Monk (Martial Artist), likely with levels of Fighter.
Concept - Kaze is a huge, musclebound 6'6 human male who trained incredibly hard to be the top dog of a fighting dojo, but having grown strong enough to defeat every person who ever challenged him, he grew tired of staying in one place and now travels the lands in search of either someone who can best him or for the proof that he is indeed the strongest bare handed fighter in the world, proven only by physical combat and victory over anything aggressive he crosses paths with. He doesn't know for sure which will come first, but the thrill of the fight is what excites him and although level-headed out of combat, he's interested in finding out what's in store for him and if he truly can conquer all with nothing but his own bare hands.
Focus - Grabs, Bull Rushes, Pinning Manoeuvres, Kicks, Punches and Headbutting. A lot of his feats focused on impeding enemy movement and causing them all kinds of ability damage/bleed and paralysis.
2. Vamoss Lucael
Class: Barbarian with possible Fighter levels.
Concept - Vamoss is based heavily on Guts from Berserk, but is in no way a clone. There are just similarities between him and Kentaro Miura's creation. He's a cold (fitting for the campaign) character who, if shown love and appreciation, is actually a very warm individual. He may seem like he lacks personality at times, but he's hesitant in opening up to those around him and so doesn't say much. His actions speak louder than words, but he has a lot of roleplay potential and after suffering the loss of his entire Mercenary Band, he now just moves from place to place fighting to survive. He lost his eye when a stray arrow caught it after falling down a cliff, while several other arrows caught his left leg, stomach and back. As such, he now has multiple scars across his body to serve as harsh reminders of what he's lost and suffered. The ones who wiped out his band left him to die, thinking the arrows and cliff would kill him. It didn't, but he did suffer broken ribs and a broken leg, which have both now healed.
Focus - He's a powerhouse. His weapon is a Large Greatsword. His AC will be low, but his health high. He'll have some Damage Reduction, but his feats will consist of Cleave, Great Cleave, Power Attack and his Barbarian Archetype is Titan Mauler. Fighter classes (if any) are likely The Two-handed Fighter.
Vamoss' Backstory:
Born from a dead woman, Vamoss was found crying in a pool of deep, warm blood by passing traders and taken in. He lived with them, helping out as best he could. By 15 he could make weapons, earning his keep this way, but was especially good at making large blades out of flint, training himself to use his own creations in order to protect those around him from the likes of Bandits and Raiders that posed a threat to those he cared most about.
By 18 his home had been decimated by an overwhelming number of Bandits passing through the region. The only reason Vamoss survived was due to the fact he fell unconscious during battle. He was naturally gifted at fighting and took down 11 people alone, but with so much chaos going on around him it was hard to predict who would strike next and where. To no surprise, he was caught off guard and stabbed in the stomach. As he collapsed to the ground all he could do was watch as those he grew up with and came to accept as family were slaughtered, beheaded and dismembered right in front of him, with their homes torched to the ground. The bodies soon piled up over the next two days as Vamoss lay unconscious, face down in the now cold blood of his loved ones.
When Vamoss came to, his home was little more than ashes and the majority of resources he and those he lived with had gathered over the years were either burnt to the ground or stolen by the Bandits. However, Vamoss took what he could and gathered enough resources to forge a new blade. With that, he went out slaying creatures for food and resources alone. He was lucky if he found shelter to set up a small camp, where he stayed in one place for no more than a couple of days at a time.
He spent the next two years living this way until he crossed paths with a group of what he thought to be Raiders at the time. Little did he know, the ones he crossed paths with were members of the infamous group of Assassins – The band of the Crow. Through some strange turn of events, Vamoss fell into this crowd, with killing becoming all that he knew during his later teen years. He didn’t take pleasure in the killing of others who did him no harm and after a few years, left the Crows, wanting to discover his own life path away from the needless bloodshed of Assassination. That was of course after he took revenge for the people of his youth. Through the Crows, he found the leader responsible, mutilated him out of pure vengeance, satisfaction and entertainment and set fire to the rest of the camp, leaving as the screams of those being burned alive echoed across the land, for this person and his men were the ones who so coldly killed those who were kind to him from birth.
Vamoss made his own way through life from this point, spending the next year alone, wandering and doing the odd jobs for those he crossed paths with, simply to get by. That was of course, until he was caught ambushed along a long narrow path while searching for food one day. Without warning, two men on horseback charged at him, but with his quick reflexes he parried, hacking one of their arms off and slicing the other rider in half. At this point, a woman appeared clad in armour.
She was the commander of the group, second only to their Leader, Luka. Crossing blades with Vamoss was a mistake however, as she too was destined to be defeated. At least until the fight was cut short by Luka’s interruption. He may have been a good looking and somewhat effeminate guy, but he knew how to lead and had the respect of all those that followed him. Clearly, there was more to him than met the eye.
This group of fighters wasn’t exactly a bad group. Vamoss had fought with and alongside worse, and although uncertain of their intentions and honesty to begin with, he soon became one of them, forming bonds as they became his family for the next 8 years, even having intimate relations with the woman he first crossed blades with – Grace.
Their objective was simple – To protect the land and all those who wished for a safer, more peaceful world to live within. They used co-ordinated tactics and strategy to take out camps of Bandits and Raiders known for their wicked ways, using intelligence, quick thinking and overwhelming force to swiftly overpower their opponents, for that was the way of the Cunning Wolves.
Luka once told Vamoss if anyone were to survive, should the Wolves be defeated, it’d be him. He always found Vamoss interesting. He was born from death, surrounded by death and constantly found himself at deaths door and yet he always seemed to dodge death, recovering to a state even stronger than before. Vamoss was a bit of a mystery to him, but a close friend all the same.
Vamoss had certainly felt the effects of death for too long…enough so to leave its mark upon him. Having brushed shoulders with death so frequently, he regularly sensed things that few others did. Hideous monsters and spirits would invade his dreams, disrupting his rest as they spoke to him and at times can be spotted from the corner of his eyes. This has hardened him up enough for very little to phase him for all he’s really known is war, food shortages and how to survive.
Vamoss’ time with the Wolves saw many victories up until recently. Luka often received his intel from survivors of Raider attacks and passing travellers who had trouble with Bandits, Raiders and vile groups of people. The issue was, with so many victories under their belt, word got around and fast.
One day, one of the rival Bandit group members caught sight of the Wolves in conversation with a traveller. It was clear who the Wolves were. Most dressed in Leather, with flag bearer’s carrying the blue and white flag of the Cunning Wolves. Reporting back to his leader, the Bandit on watch was tasked with bringing the traveller back to camp, torturing him for information and then setting up a deceptive trap to catch the Wolves in the act.
For fear of his life, the traveller told them all that they needed to know and begged for his own safety. He begged in vain however, for these Bandits survived by any means necessary. They’d grown accustomed to the taste of human flesh so once he spilled all they needed to know, they hit him over the head, tore him asunder and consumed him.
At nightfall, the Wolves made their move, trekking up a small Cliffside to make their attack on the Bandits camp. Luka commanded Vamoss to take the front while he guarded the rear as they moved through the mountain pass. The camp was in sight when suddenly one of the Wolves fell. As members watched their dead comrade, more arrows flew their way, sticking to them like pinned cushions. The Wolves guarded as best they could, but the Bandits had the high ground, so all they could do was push through to a cave ahead, minimising casualties as best they could.
Laying in wait ahead however, was a group of vicious looking savages. Vamoss was able to take a good few out ahead, but from the rear, Luka was also having trouble. One by one the members of the Wolves fell, until the only ones left standing were Luka and Vamoss. To make things worse, some of the hungrier Bandits began eating the recently slain Wolves raw. Luka and Vamoss had never seen anything quite like it and for once feared for their lives. Keeping strong, they fought even harder, taking more and more men out as fast as they came, for they knew they too would be eaten and that was incentive enough to fight until their very last breath. Through the curtains of crimson madness, Vamoss noticed Grace on the ground, still barely alive, though sadly so did the Bandits.
Vamoss ran to her aid, with Luka guarding him, disarming and wounding all those that approached. Grace was in a bad state but a nearby Bandit thought to worsen her health by plunging his blade through her toned exterior, piercing deep into her soft, vulnerable stomach before Vamoss could reach her. Still breathing, Grace stared lovingly into V’s eyes. Clutching her hand, he shielded her body with his own as Archer’s took aim from behind. Luka was still fighting strong, seemingly exceeding his own bodily physical limitations as he gave his all to protect the last surviving Wolves.
Three arrows suddenly sprung fourth towards Vamoss. One missed while the other two burrowed deep into his back. Taking the pain, Vamoss refused to leave Grace, remaining by her side as she bled out all over the muddied dirt of the ground. Her wounds were fatal and with her dying breath, she kissed Vamoss.
With no time to mourn V knew the score and had no other choice but to leave Grace’s body there. Rising up from the ground, he joined Luka as they battled their way towards an opening passage. As one, each could hold their own, but together, the pair were a force to be reckoned with.
With most enemies defeated on one side, there was only one direction V and Luka could travel and that was further into the mountain. Once through the opening, they dashed through the natural passageways which served as mountainous veins, desperately searching for a way out. It was dark with minimal light to work with, so a lot of their searching was through feel. They knew if they lit a torch the enemy would find them and that was the last thing they wanted.
After some time, they eventually found a way out of the passageway. Leading them to a path that ran along the side of the Cliff, it also seemed they’d put good distance between themselves and the pursuing Bandits. As such they slowed, balancing cautiously around the precarious ledge supporting them. It didn’t take long for them to find a way down from the cliff, but with the relief of their escape route in sight, they failed to notice a couple of Archer’s that had once more found their way to the higher ground.
Caught off guard, Luka took an arrow in the side, abruptly lost footing and fell from the cliff. With two arrows already in his back, Vamoss turned instinctively in an effort to grab his friend and Leaders hand, only to receive two more arrows, one in his side, the second in his left leg. Unable to save his friend, he too careered down the jagged cliff face. Further adding insult to injury, a stray arrow caught V’s right eye as he tumbled to the ground below, blinding him moments before he hit the ground. The impact didn’t help either, for the force instantly dislocated his left arm and shoulder.
Vamoss wasn’t done yet however. Forcing his body to standing position, he looked around for Luka but with no clear sign of him, had to shift priorities to himself. It was apparent the Bandits presumed them dead after the last flurry of arrows as there was no pursuit, but the man was in an incredibly bad way. He trekked for as long as he could stay conscious, shrugging off the lingering and almost unbearable pain, taking short breaks only to bandage up along the way.
Finally finding a shelter that looked as though it hadn’t been visited in a while, his body finally gave way as he slumped to the ground, passed out from sheer exhaustion and blood loss. In his barely live state, his dreams were once again haunted, this time not only by spirits and horrific monstrosities, but also the past memories of his fallen comrades. Bandaged, bloodied and now blinded in one eye, Vamoss slept for two days, Sword still gripped firmly in hand as his body sped his recovery as best it could.
Vamoss would soon be out for blood, just as soon as his natural healing could bring him back from death’s door.
Personality:
Alignment: Neutral
Loves: Companionship
Hates: Betrayal
What brings contentment? – Sword training. It puts his mind to rest.
What brings resentment? – Bullying the weak.
Annoyances – Loud mouths and people who are all talk.
Why is it an annoyance? – People should be true to who they are and true to their own strengths and weaknesses. False strength endangers everyone because when those around them are in need, the weak, dishonourable and loud mouthed are the first to run.
Secret: Used to be a member of the Band of the Crow when killing was all he knew, but left wanting to discover his own life path away from the needless bloodshed of Assassination. He takes no pleasure from killing those who’ve done him no wrong, only relishing in the blood and fury of those who’ve personally gone out of their way to wrong him. For that he is unforgiving and merciless.
Vamoss is mostly cool headed, quiet and somewhat lacking emotion. When pushed, he’s fuelled by rage and rage alone, though depending on how pissed off he is he can still at times, fight with a clear head. It’s all dependent on how threatened he feels and what mood he’s in. He tends to get on fine with most people, but rarely expresses how he’s feeling and takes a very long time to trust, care about and form bonds with others. Problems only tend to occur if trouble finds him, though anger is all he knows at this moment in time, having just lived through his entire family being killed around him.
Killed: Raiders and their leader who invaded his home during his younger years.
Left: Band of the Crows to pave his own way in life.
Seeks: Revenge against the Bandits who wiped out those he came to know and care for over the past 8 years.
Haunted: Vamoss is forever haunted by those he loved most within the Cunning Wolves and as such, regularly has nightmares and can even see his friends as if they were still alive. Perhaps there's more to it than meets the eye, though more likely, it's just that his mind is so fractured, he has trouble differentiating between dreams and reality. He'd also like to think Luka escaped, but in truth, he might not ever know.
Other info:
Vengeance: Losing the Wolves has weighed heavy on Vamoss. This experience has torn him apart and reduced him to a being of primal emotions. Dreams of vengeance are his only comfort.
Schooled: Vamoss learned the basics of fighting at an early age, but only really perfected the art when he became a member of the Cunning Wolves. This is where he learned to truly hone his fighting prowess and understand tactics. This also helped to form him as a person. Luka once considered him Commander to the Wolves, teaching him to fight as part of a unit.
Survival: Having spent his life in the wild, Vamoss learned to abide by the laws of nature and survived by being stronger, faster, and more cunning than the predators that stalk him. He hasn’t ever fought for coin, honour, or principle, only for his life.
Big Game Hunter: With large creatures being the easiest source of food, Vamoss has gotten used to hunting prey larger than himself and has learned how to be quick in sizing up weaknesses in those behemoths who seem to have none.
Nightmare Slayer: From an early age, Vamoss has stood up against some of the most terrifying creatures imaginable, facing off against creatures most people can’t even begin to imagine. He has incredible courage as a result.
Power: Vamoss wants to continue Luka’s dreams of protecting the weak, using his own strengths to accomplish this.
Pride: Vamoss is a proud man. He’s proud of his own accomplishments and won’t allow others to challenge this. If friends do so, even they are considered enemies until they make amends.
The Future: Vamoss’ concerns lie not with the present, but with preparation for the future. He feels he’s living in a troubled time and sees the signs of a coming dark age. His training in the Wolves have taught him to behave cautiously, conservatively, and methodically, though his primal instincts still shine through in the worst situations.
Appearance:
Vamoss stands at a towering 6’3 in height. His build is fairly muscular, well-toned and lean. He now only has one working eye (his left eye) and has black, short hair. He always wears bandages on his forearms to give extra support to his wrists while swinging his huge sword and currently has two open wounds on his back, one in his side and another in his left leg. Additionally, he also has a heavily bruised left arm and shoulder, following his recent fall and the dislocation of these bones. His weapon is six foot long with a blade only about five inches in width with a reinforced cross guard. His Scale Mail armour is made from blackened bone he treated himself, he wears tanned shin high boots, black trousers and a dark brown, leather under garment on his torso. His arms are mostly exposed, but plates of Scale Mail run from his shoulder down his bicep. His armour also protects the front of his neck, where it’s raised up to his chin and offers good protection to his back and chest.
He also has a pocketed leather strap, wrapped diagonally around his torso. On his back to express his association with the Cunning Wolves, he has a muddied brown cape with the head of a snarling wolf at the top of it. Although adorned over his shoulders, the Wolf head is actually the hooded section of his cape and can actually be worn to further intimidate enemies, for it covers his face to the tip of his nose, though the way it’s made still allows for him to see clearly. The wolf head is mostly black with some lighter brown patches and highlights, matching the rest of Vamoss’ attire. The eyes are yellow, with a noticeable scar running vertically across its right eye. It was treated professionally by a Taxidermist working within the Cunning Wolves at the time. The wolf fur also runs down to a point, halfway down his back. Due to the way it was treated, it will forever be preserved.
I was able to play Vamoss in a homebrew setting for about 3 sessions, but other than that he's pretty fresh for me. Kaze on the other hand, I've never played but would very much like to.
What would the changes be? I made him purely for Kingmaker, so although dependent on the changes you're making to the campaign yourself, his story should fit in fine. Though saying that, I'm happy to change things to fit into your vision of the campaign better. It just really depends on what you'd like changed. :)
As for being of his own ideals, he's not a religious person. You could yourself decide which god/goddess is giving him his powers, but he's not religious and has no intention of ever being religious. He's a very self-sufficient guy.
He's more a Warlock than anything else, but considering Pathfinder doesn't allow me to do what I wanted fully with him, Cleric was the best option. I looked at Bard but they don't have Command or Murderous Command on their Spell List and I could see no way of getting them on there. I then wanted Lesser Geas on his Spell List, but only Bards get that, so that wasn't possible, but because he's support but also a Leader who leads from the back with great strategy, Cleric was best for me due to the Channeling, ability to sacrifice prepared spells to spontaneously heal party members and although Lesser Geas would have been perfect, I've instead got Command and Murderous Command so he can command enemies to run away or kill each other. He's a very clever character. I played him once in one tabletop session and he worked amazingly well.
So although he's a Cleric, his concept isn't, which is one of the reasons why he's not religious. If a class existed that allowed me to speak commands and gave me access to the three spells above, I'd go with that. I guess though in a sense, it's better to look at him as how a Ranger gets their spells. They aren't religious, but they have access to a Divine Spell List. That's all the Cleric spell list does for him. It gives him access to these abilities, but he's not religious.
As for me as a player - I always make different characters. I never go with basic clichéd types, so some of my Clerics do have gods that they recognise while others have divine power but don't know where that power originated from. They just developed these powers seemingly out of nowhere and while some are interested in finding the source of said power, Lelouch isn't one of those people.
He's a very ambitious person that uses his powers to accomplish his goals and great ambitions, with little care as to where they came from. He's arrogant in thought, but is outwardly very polite and values the importance of his companions.
Anyway, I'm not expecting him to make it into the game. He's just a character I've wanted to play fully for years and haven't had the chance to, so great if he makes it, but if not I'll just have to keep waiting until someone is cool with him/likes the idea.
After a great deal of walking, you eventually follow the path long enough to find the Castle Town in sight, though the bright sun you awoke to has since been covered by cloud and the darkened atmosphere around you is very bleak.
Following the path, you realise just how large this Castle Town is and although it's possible there are other gates around the walls encircling the large settlement, the most obvious entry is the set of large wooden gates ahead of you, currently shut with armed guards either side, both equipped with Halberds, firmly planted in the ground beside them, as the guards simply stare ahead without giving eye contact. Their chins are pointed up and in their entire posture is in a strongly formed, upright position.
Knowledge Local DC10:
This path is a well known trade route and so you find it a little unusual the gates to the town are guarded and shut during daytime.
Oh, sorry. I must have forgotten. I wanted Lawful Good, but am just going to put him as Neutral Good as it'll likely fit into the campaign better. He's just a little more on the Lawful side than the usual Neutral Good type. Gotta keep up appearances!
Also, I quite like the idea of Alexi having a sister, so I'll just add this to the above:
Sister: Corina Kine
High Lord Alexi is 26 years old, where as his sister Corina is two years younger than him. He hasn't seen his sister for the past eight years and last saw her at her wedding shortly after her 16th birthday party, but then lost all contact with her entirely.
Perhaps her husband murdered her. Perhaps she died at the hands of a highwayman. Perhaps Bandits got her. Perhaps she was assassinated or perhaps nothing bad happened to her at all.
Though concerned for his sisters wellbeing, Alexi had to get on with his life and although he'd paid several different investigators to look into the cause of her disappearance, everything was still a great mystery.
What I was thinking was that somehow, whether through choice or against her will, Corina has now become a member of the Silver Ravens, though anything could have happened to her, so it's just one of many plot hooks for you to play with if Alexi makes it into the campaign. I'd be discovering what happened to her at the same time as Alexi.
Here's my complete submission. If you like the idea and I'm fortunate enough to be chosen, if you want me to change or add to anything then we can work through it, but as he is, he'd have no problem forming a rebellion to overthrow an evil tyrant.
Build:
High Lord Alexi
Class: Cavalier - Order of the Sword
Theme: Dragoon
Race: Human
Level: 1
Challenges: 1 per day
Challenge Attack Bonus: +1 when astride his mount
Challenge Damage: 1
Tactician: 1 per day
Tactician Duration: 4 rounds
Fighting as his Noble self for the beginning of the campaign with a Rapier.
Trait: Child of Kintargo - Has an Uncle in Kintargo, but is actually on business to acquire
the services of an Architect to build a tunnel under his home. Staying with his Uncle.
Alternate Racial - Focused Study: Replaces Human Feat.
Alternate Racial - Silver Tongued: Replaces Skilled. +2 Bluff and Diplomacy. Can increase an attitude towards you by three steps instead of two.
Campaign - Child of Kintargo
Reckless - Acrobatics class skill and +1.
Reason for Protest - Tagging Along: +2 on Perception and Initiative during the protest.
Gear: Fancy Breastplate (used with the 200gp Child of Kintargo fund), Fancy Rapier (20gp), Noble Outfit and Signet Ring (from trait).
Gear not currently on him: 8 shortspears (8gp, 1d6, 20x2, piercing), 1 double-ended Spear (can detach into two short spears, 20ft range, piercing, 20x2 crit, 90gp?).
Gear desires for later: Ring of Featherfall, Boots of Springing and Striding, +1 Mithral Breastplate (fashioned to conceal his identity with lightweight, decorative metal plates and a beak-like helmet covering his face and body. This is simply for aesthetics, will look unusual and I'll focus in Disguise around this time).
Wealth remaining: 57gp
Cavalier abilities:
Tactician - At 1st level, a cavalier receives a teamwork feat as a bonus feat. He must meet the prerequisites for this feat. As a standard action, the cavalier can grant this feat to all allies within 30 feet who can see and hear him. Allies retain the use of this bonus feat for 3 rounds plus 1 round for every two levels the cavalier possesses. Allies do not need to meet the prerequisites of these bonus feats. The cavalier can use this ability once per day at 1st level, plus one additional time per day at 5th level and for every 5 levels thereafter.
Challenge - Once per day, a cavalier can challenge a foe to combat. As a swift action, the cavalier chooses one target within sight to challenge. The cavalier's melee attacks deal extra damage whenever the attacks are made against the target of his challenge. This extra damage is equal to the cavalier's level. The cavalier can use this ability once per day at 1st level, plus one additional time per day for every three levels beyond 1st, to a maximum of seven times per day at 19th level.
Challenging a foe requires much of the cavalier's concentration. The cavalier takes a –2 penalty to his Armor Class, except against attacks made by the target of his challenge. The challenge remains in effect until the target is dead or unconscious or until the combat ends.
Edicts:
The cavalier must show courage in the face of danger, mercy to those who have wronged him, and charity to the poor and the meek. He must be just and honorable at all times and in all things. He must defend his honor and, above all else, the honor of those he serves.
Loose progression later on:
Level 7
Mount: Griffon
Mount name: Stormchaser
Alexi's Moniker: Ahringar, Rider of the Storm
Backstory with as many points as I could fill in from your original list:
Two goals that you'd like the character to accomplish in-game.
1 - Establish Ahringar as a different personality without arising suspicion of his true identity.
2 - Remove the corruption of House Thrune from Kintargo, establising contacts under his public Noble guise of Alexi, while becoming a symbol of hope for the people under his mysterious moniker of Ahringar.
Two secrets, one the PC keeps to himself, and one kept from the PC.
1 - The tunnel he's having built under his home is to house his Griffon. It'll run into Verduran Forest from his Town that's half a mile away, to not raise suspicion with the local townsfolk.
2 - His mother fell pregnant a second time, but miscarried when he was young and kept it from him. His father knew but didn't think it was necessary to inform Alexi when he was too young to understand.
3-5 people that are tied to your PC by blood, love, rivalry, honor, etc. I'd like at least one enemy in a set of three or four, with no more than two for a set of five. PLEASE consider the players reference guide for ideas.
1. Elaine Kine - Mother - Lives in Oppara - NG
2. Renard Kine - Father - Lives in Oppara - LG
3. Victor Kine - Uncle - Lives in kintargo, Renard's brother - LG
Three key memories that define your character as the person they are at the time of submission.
1. Leaving home for the first time. There was a mixture of uncertainty and excitement that lead him to becoming the man he is today. It solidified his personality and gave him his independence.
2. Being given a town to Lord over by Baroness Origena Devy. She's a close friend to Alexi's parents and repaid what they had done for her over the years by giving Alexi his town. Learning to lead, he knew he had to be a fine example of a man for his people, making firm but fair decisions on their behalf and calling for regular council meetings to see what needed to be addressed, changed, declined or agreed upon.
3. Seeing his Griffon friend for the first time, as he crashed down into the Verduran Forest one day when Alexi was out on his balcony. When Alexi went to investigate, this changed his life and put him on the path wanting to make big changes with his strong, soon to be mount/animal companion. He just needed to fund and put his plans together to become the anonymous figure he so desired to be.
Name: Alexi Kine
Title/Role: High Lord of Deepfir
Hair: Black, choppy fringe, layered back to shoulder length hair kept in a tight ponytail
Eyes: Blue
Face: Attractive, strong jaw, fairly thick eyebrows
Complexion: Pale
Height: 6'1
Build: Slim
Clothing: White tailcoat with red lining. It has gold buttons and embroidered tassels on the shoulders. Under this is a White and gold waistcoat also with red lining, a crimson cravat, tanned trousers and black boots with gold detailing.
Notable equipment: White and Gold non-magical Rapier
Languages: Common and Sylvan
Personality: Very polite, chivalrous, grateful, highly formal, well spoken, confident, calculative, wise, considerate of others, rarely over-exerts himself, spirited, charismatic and intelligent. Lordly - Very respectable and loved by his people and in some cases, admired by his relatives and noble relations.
Alexi is well-spoken at all times. He's down to earth with good manners that never subside and he always greets others with formality - proper etiquette.
Backstory:
Born in Oppara, Alexi was the only child of his mother Elaine and his father Renard. He had a very studious upbringing and often took delight in reading tales of fantasy and the supposedly heroic tales of travelling parties and adventurers before his time.
He was privately tutored, often by his mother as his father spent a lot of time away from home on business, carrying out his duties and responsibilities as a noble lord.
It was through these duties that relations were formed with the leaders of surrounding settlements. Renard had a bit of sway with the council, making it easier for other notable members of nobility to acquire planning permission for expansion of their buildings or lands and so many high ranking members of the public would liaise and trade deals with him.
Though they remain in contact, most of the Kine family had gone in very different directions. Renard's brother Victor for example, moved to Kintargo to establish his name there as a Teacher of Philosophy and the Taldori language. He privately tutors and resides in the Green (Green) District.
At 20 years of age, it was time for Alexi to leave home and forge a name for himself. He'd had a proper upbringing and although fairly sheltered, had a good understanding of what would be expected of him in life, having seen first hand how his parents were treated and how members of nobility act around one another at privately held parties and events. He knew to be wary of others and that keeping up appearances was the best way forward, whether he trusted those around him or not.
Now at 26, Alexi's held his own settlement (courtesy of Baroness Origena Devy) for the past six years and has become quite a well respected political member himself. On the surface he appears to be a very intelligent person, capable of using the strengths of those around him to his own advantage, as well as guiding those around him to reach their potential for their own benefits. This makes him a formidable leader, yet under the surface he sees his nobility as something he has no way of escaping and a very challenging occupation at times.
As such, with every new adventurer he came into contact with, his dreams of doing something greater for the people of the land, something more fun than acting pretentious around folk that often made him sick to his stomach, became more and more a reality.
Going back two years, at 24 he decided one day to stroll out onto his balcony, gazing up at the blue skies above to take in his surroundings and accomplishments, reflecting on his past and pondering his future. It was then that he saw a large majestic creature soaring through the sky, seemingly on the hunt for food. Alexi watched with curiosity, when all of a sudden it dipped down into the forest not too far from his home. With little excitement in his life, he left without alerting those around him and made his way into the wooded surroundings of Verduran Forest.
Making his way through the twisting natural paths before him, he found himself at a rather large pond. It was quite the sight, highlighted by the sun in the middle of a clearing, encased in nothing but trees and thickets too wild to pass. It was here that the large creature he found himself gazing at above was in fact drinking from the pool some 30ft away.
As Alexi approached, the large beast seemed to ignore him as it carried on drinking. Alexi got a little closer still, when suddenly the bushes behind him rustled, revealing a charging pack of wild dogs headed straight for him and the creature.
Two of them jumped on the beasts back, sinking their teeth deep into its flesh. It let out a powerful roar and immediately leapt into the air, thrusting its wings down towards the ground, releasing a gust of wind strong enough to push the grounded dogs back several feet.
At this point, Alexi briefly covered his face from the dirt and lowered his posture to anchor himself a little better as he watched the creature thrashing about above.
Still attached to the beast, one of the dogs went for the throat and missed, crashing down to the ground and instantly dying, while the other clung on for dear life as the creature flew higher and higher into the air. Meanwhile, Alexi was on the ground slowly getting surrounded as the dogs advanced on him, backing him further and further towards the pond edge.
Drawing his Rapier, Alexi held his weapon out in a defensive stance and tried to ward the wild dogs off by shouting, which served to only aggrevate them further. Suddenly, there was a yelp and a huge splash behind him. Instantly turning to see what the commotion was, the three dogs ahead made their move and ran towards the noble. Lunging upwards, Alexi managed to catch the first dog in the eye, swiftly drawing his blade back down and readying himself for the next attack, this time against the dog to his right. As it leapt through the air, Alexi lowered himself further to the ground and aimed his Rapier high once more, piercing straight through the dogs ribcage as it jumped towards him, instantly killing it.
Pulling his blade from the corpse and under the pressure of the dangerous situation he found himself in, Alexi lost his footing and stumbled back towards the waters edge, not realising how close he was to the pond or how uneven the ground around him was. This time he wasn't ready for the dog. As it snarled and foamed at the mouth, it ran for him once more, leaping straight for his arm when suddenly, out of nowhere, the soaring beast Alexi had seen before, swept down from the sky above and snatched the dog right before Alexi's eyes, taking it high into the sky and dropping it some 80ft away.
The beast then returned to Alexi, landing right beside him. It was tense for a moment, but the creature cautiously approached the noble and nudged him with its beak before lowering itself to the ground, gesturing to Alexi with a nod to seemingly get on its back. Still a bit uneasy, Alexi ignored his gut instinct and climbed aboard the beast, which was in fact a Griffon. The creature then flew him to the edge of the forest and out of harms way, where Alexi, somewhat awe inspired by the situation then made his way back home.
Over the next few days the noble realised that this forest was in fact the Griffons hunting grounds and over the next couple of years, he made regular trips to visit this creature, befriending it and eventually learning to ride it. With each visit Alexi was better prepared than the last and understanding the dangers of the forest, planned to have a set of armour privately commissioned for him. The helmet would somewhat resemble that of the Griffon's head, while the rest would armour him head to toe. He had a distinct vision of what it would look like, with decorative thin plates strategically placed to not impede movement, but covering enough of his body to at least conceal his identity while protecting his most vital organs.
He continued to slip out of his home unnoticed and after familiarising himself with the Griffon, he set aside a very small amount of the towns funds to begin building an underground lair in the form of a massive tunnel, leading from his home to the Verduran Forest. He planned for it to be constructed within the basement of his home, with the idea that it would be far enough down to not alarm or suspicion in town.
First, he would need an experienced Architect to ensure his home would remain stable after digging a lot of its foundations up and had planned to have the builders/miners visit his home publicly, so he could easily address the public with his new "Wine Cellar", should they ask.
After some tedious research, he discovered a Noble family by the name of Jarvis were trained specifically within the building and construction industry and that the Architect's within the family would likely take him up on his request. This would also allow for him to form further business relations and would likely benefit both parties.
The purpose of this 40ft wide by 30ft high tunnel was to serve as the home for his Griffon companion, which he personally named Stormchaser.
Though a great distance away from his home in Andoran, Alexi departed Deepfir and made haste for Kintargo. He travelled by sea on a rather long journey and decided the first thing to do upon arrival would be to drop by his Uncles place, who he hadn't seen for at least ten years. He was still recognisable as the same boy his Uncle once knew. He was just a little older and wiser, but kept his true intentions a secret from everyone.
He'll tag along to the protest, but as soon as anything kicks off, he'll gladly root out the evil and destroy it, acting as the caught up citizen within the struggle until he can establish his second persona - Ahringar.
After cutting up the Deer, your combined efforts allowed for you to make a fairly different stew for those of you wanting to prepare it that way and you had enough leftovers to last you to the end of the next day.
With a decent meal inside you, you all eventually get to sleep and the night passes by uneventfully.
Though perhaps a little chilly, you all wake up to the sun beaming down upon you through the branches above, with the sound of birds chirping and the gentlest of winds in the air around you. It's genuinely just a pleasant day to be alive.
While thinking about the day ahead, judging from the signposts and your own general understanding of the surrounding area, you estimate the Castle Town to be another six hours march to the North East of your current location, though the path you detoured from is most likely the quickest route there.
Roll20 or Google? I've not used Google, so can't help you with that, though it should just let you put the background image down, then the square icons of characters over the top.
I find it just does more. You can conceal areas, add background music for when yourself and players log on and sync up movement squares with whatever you use as a map. I guess the only drawback is you need to register and although they have a paid service, I find the free one always does enough.
Two goals that you'd like the character to accomplish in-game.
1 - Establish Ahringar as a different personality without arising suspicion of his true identity.
2 - Remove the corruption of House Thrune from Kintargo, establising contacts under his public Noble guise of Alexi, while becoming a symbol of hope for the people under his mysterious moniker of Ahringar.
Two secrets, one the PC keeps to himself, and one kept from the PC.
1 - The tunnel he's having built under his home is to house his Griffon. It'll run into Verduran Forest from his Town that's half a mile away, to not raise suspicion with the local townsfolk.
2 - His mother fell pregnant a second time, but miscarried when he was young and kept it from him. His father knew but didn't think it was necessary to inform Alexi when he was too young to understand.
3-5 people that are tied to your PC by blood, love, rivalry, honor, etc. I'd like at least one enemy in a set of three or four, with no more than two for a set of five. PLEASE consider the players reference guide for ideas.
1. Elaine Kine - Mother - Lives in Oppara - NG
2. Renard Kine - Father - Lives in Oppara - LG
3. Victor Kine - Uncle - Lives in kintargo, Renard's brother - LG
Three key memories that define your character as the person they are at the time of submission.
1. Leaving home for the first time. There was a mixture of uncertainty and excitement that lead him to becoming the man he is today. It solidified his personality and gave him his independence.
2. Being given a town to Lord over by Baroness Origena Devy. She's a close friend to Alexi's parents and repaid what they had done for her over the years by giving Alexi his town. Learning to lead, he knew he had to be a fine example of a man for his people, making firm but fair decisions on their behalf and calling for regular council meetings to see what needed to be addressed, changed, declined or agreed upon.
3. Seeing his Griffon friend for the first time, as he crashed down into the Verduran Forest one day when Alexi was out on his balcony. When Alexi went to investigate, this changed his life and put him on the path wanting to make big changes with his strong, soon to be mount/animal companion. He just needed to fund and put his plans together to become the anonymous figure he so desired to be.
Alexi Kine, High Lord of Deepfir
Hair: Black, choppy fringe, layered back to shoulder length hair kept in a tight ponytail
Eyes: Blue
Face: Attractive, strong jaw, fairly thick eyebrows
Complexion: Pale
Height: 6'1
Build: Slim
Clothing: White tailcoat with red lining. It has gold buttons and embroidered tassels on the shoulders. Under this is a White and gold waistcoat also with red lining, a crimson cravat, tanned trousers and black boots with gold detailing.
Notable equipment: White and Gold non-magical Rapier
Languages: Common and Sylvan
Personality: Very polite, chivalrous, grateful, highly formal, well spoken, confident, calculative, wise, considerate of others, rarely over-exerts himself, spirited, charismatic and intelligent. Lordly - Very respectable and loved by his people and in some cases, admired by his relatives and noble relations.
Alexi is well-spoken at all times. He's down to earth with good manners that never subside and he always greets others with formality - proper etiquette.
Backstory:
Born in Oppara, Alexi was the only child of his mother Elaine and his father Renard. He had a very studious upbringing and often took delight in reading tales of fantasy and the supposedly heroic tales of travelling parties and adventurers before his time.
He was privately tutored, often by his mother as his father spent a lot of time away from home on business, carrying out his duties and responsibilities as a noble lord.
It was through these duties that relations were formed with the leaders of surrounding settlements. Renard had a bit of sway with the council, making it easier for other notable members of nobility to acquire planning permission for expansion of their buildings or lands and so many high ranking members of the public would liaise and trade deals with him.
Though they remain in contact, most of the Kine family had gone in very different directions. Renard's brother Victor for example, moved to Kintargo to establish his name there as a Teacher of Philosophy and the Taldori language. He privately tutors and resides in the Green (Green) District.
At 20 years of age, it was time for Alexi to leave home and forge a name for himself. He'd had a proper upbringing and although fairly sheltered, had a good understanding of what would be expected of him in life, having seen first hand how his parents were treated and how members of nobility act around one another at privately held parties and events. He knew to be wary of others and that keeping up appearances was the best way forward, whether he trusted those around him or not.
Now at 26, Alexi's held his own settlement (courtesy of Baroness Origena Devy) for the past six years and has become quite a well respected political member himself. On the surface he appears to be a very intelligent person, capable of using the strengths of those around him to his own advantage, as well as guiding those around him to reach their potential for their own benefits. This makes him a formidable leader, yet under the surface he sees his nobility as something he has no way of escaping and a very challenging occupation at times.
As such, with every new adventurer he came into contact with, his dreams of doing something greater for the people of the land, something more fun than acting pretentious around folk that often made him sick to his stomach, became more and more a reality.
Going back two years, at 24 he decided one day to stroll out onto his balcony, gazing up at the blue skies above to take in his surroundings and accomplishments, reflecting on his past and pondering his future. It was then that he saw a large majestic creature soaring through the sky, seemingly on the hunt for food. Alexi watched with curiosity, when all of a sudden it dipped down into the forest not too far from his home. With little excitement in his life, he left without alerting those around him and made his way into the wooded surroundings of Verduran Forest.
Making his way through the twisting natural paths before him, he found himself at a rather large pond. It was quite the sight, highlighted by the sun in the middle of a clearing, encased in nothing but trees and thickets too wild to pass. It was here that the large creature he found himself gazing at above was in fact drinking from the pool some 30ft away.
As Alexi approached, the large beast seemed to ignore him as it carried on drinking. Alexi got a little closer still, when suddenly the bushes behind him rustled, revealing a charging pack of wild dogs headed straight for him and the creature.
Two of them jumped on the beasts back, sinking their teeth deep into its flesh. It let out a powerful roar and immediately leapt into the air, thrusting its wings down towards the ground, releasing a gust of wind strong enough to push the grounded dogs back several feet.
At this point, Alexi briefly covered his face from the dirt and lowered his posture to anchor himself a little better as he watched the creature thrashing about above.
Still attached to the beast, one of the dogs went for the throat and missed, crashing down to the ground and instantly dying, while the other clung on for dear life as the creature flew higher and higher into the air. Meanwhile, Alexi was on the ground slowly getting surrounded as the dogs advanced on him, backing him further and further towards the pond edge.
Drawing his Rapier, Alexi held his weapon out in a defensive stance and tried to ward the wild dogs off by shouting, which served to only aggrevate them further. Suddenly, there was a yelp and a huge splash behind him. Instantly turning to see what the commotion was, the three dogs ahead made their move and ran towards the noble. Lunging upwards, Alexi managed to catch the first dog in the eye, swiftly drawing his blade back down and readying himself for the next attack, this time against the dog to his right. As it leapt through the air, Alexi lowered himself further to the ground and aimed his Rapier high once more, piercing straight through the dogs ribcage as it jumped towards him, instantly killing it.
Pulling his blade from the corpse and under the pressure of the dangerous situation he found himself in, Alexi lost his footing and stumbled back towards the waters edge, not realising how close he was to the pond or how uneven the ground around him was. This time he wasn't ready for the dog. As it snarled and foamed at the mouth, it ran for him once more, leaping straight for his arm when suddenly, out of nowhere, the soaring beast Alexi had seen before, swept down from the sky above and snatched the dog right before Alexi's eyes, taking it high into the sky and dropping it some 80ft away.
The beast then returned to Alexi, landing right beside him. It was tense for a moment, but the creature cautiously approached the noble and nudged him with its beak before lowering itself to the ground, gesturing to Alexi with a nod to seemingly get on its back. Still a bit uneasy, Alexi ignored his gut instinct and climbed aboard the beast, which was in fact a Griffon. The creature then flew him to the edge of the forest and out of harms way, where Alexi, somewhat awe inspired by the situation then made his way back home.
Over the next few days the noble realised that this forest was in fact the Griffons hunting grounds and over the next couple of years, he made regular trips to visit this creature, befriending it and eventually learning to ride it. With each visit Alexi was better prepared than the last and understanding the dangers of the forest, planned to have a set of armour privately commissioned for him. The helmet would somewhat resemble that of the Griffon's head, while the rest would armour him head to toe. He had a distinct vision of what it would look like, with decorative thin plates strategically placed to not impede movement, but covering enough of his body to at least conceal his identity while protecting his most vital organs.
He continued to slip out of his home unnoticed and after familiarising himself with the Griffon, he set aside a very small amount of the towns funds to begin building an underground lair in the form of a massive tunnel, leading from his home to the Verduran Forest. He planned for it to be constructed within the basement of his home, with the idea that it would be far enough down to not alarm or suspicion in town.
First, he would need an experienced Architect to ensure his home would remain stable after digging a lot of its foundations up and had planned to have the builders/miners visit his home publicly, so he could easily address the public with his new "Wine Cellar", should they ask.
After some tedious research, he discovered a Noble family by the name of Jarvis were trained specifically within the building and construction industry and that the Architect's within the family would likely take him up on his request. This would also allow for him to form further business relations and would likely benefit both parties.
The purpose of this 40ft wide by 30ft high tunnel was to serve as the home for his Griffon companion, which he personally named Stormchaser.
Though a great distance away from his home in Andoran, Alexi departed Deepfir and made haste for Kintargo. He travelled by sea on a rather long journey and decided the first thing to do upon arrival would be to drop by his Uncles place, who he hadn't seen for at least ten years. He was still recognisable as the same boy his Uncle once knew. He was just a little older and wiser, but kept his true intentions a secret from everyone.
He'll tag along to the protest, but as soon as anything kicks off, he'll gladly root out the evil and destroy it, acting as the caught up citizen within the struggle until he can establish his second persona - Ahringar.
He didn't choose the life of a Noble, but it chose him, though that doesn't exactly count because he knows he's a Noble. His Uncle is a good guy, so I don't think it would work him being in contact with House Thrune without Alexi knowing. It's tough because I just see Alexi as having a mundane life. He just has the normal things to deal with in his position and has gone away "on business" to change all of that. No idea. Character creation isn't the problem because I have his backstory. It's just some of these questions. Anyone can think anything about him, good or bad and I wouldn't know. Someone in Kintargo hates Nobles, scoffing at Alexi behind his back when they saw him in the street.....it's just too bland. Very tough.
Just so other players know the right characters, I just want to correct the Class you put me as - I'm a Cavalier, not Fighter.
Cavalier's are able to buff allies. That's partially why I went with the class. Still working on the points you wanted us to follow, because some of the questions are actually incredible hard, specifically "name a secret your character is aware of and one he is not".
I've got a few he's aware of, but none for what he's not. He has Noble opposition, but no enemies. That's why I thought it would be interesting for him to be in Kintargo. He'll make a few there.
He has his secret, but as a Cavalier of the Order of the Sword, he's honest. He doesn't lie and has lead a fairly normal life as a Noble, so there are no secrets I can think of that are relating to him that he's unaware of. I've tried and tried, but there's just nothing.
Between you all, you manage to gather enough food to have a sizeable meal for the night.
Excluding Bella who found more than enough to feed herself on rodents and other tiny creatures, Izsha and Rodrick found a good amount of wild berries and vegetables between them. Rodrick's find mostly comprised of wild (but edible) mushrooms, along with a few sprigs of Rosemary and Thyme, while Izsha came back with a healthy supply of Wild Strawberries and Blackberries.
Meanwhile, Jura found the main course for the night - A young Deer that had fallen down a hole and was now dying. Searching around for signs of more territorial animals, you came to an opening, revealing a large lake in front of you, though your vision struggled to make much out under the moonlit sky.
Heading back to the Deer you found, there were no signs of animal attacks on the injured creature. You simply get the impression it landed awkwardly and likely broke its neck as it plummeted into the 4ft hole. Though panicked and still breathing, the poor thing could barely move.
Back at camp, the combined efforts of Izsha and Sebastian got a fairly decent campfire going. Though not a great amount of kindling and firewood was found, the flame took well and provided a great deal of heat for you all on this bitterly cold night.
Okay, so his build is now complete for level 1 and all that's left to do is his story!
Build:
High Lord Alexi
Class: Cavalier - Order of the Sword
Theme: Dragoon
Race: Human
Level: 1
Challenges: 1 per day
Challenge Attack Bonus: +1 when astride his mount
Challenge Damage: 1
Tactician: 1 per day
Tactician Duration: 4 rounds
Fighting as his Noble self for the beginning of the campaign with a Rapier.
Trait: Child of Kintargo - Has an Uncle in Kintargo, but is actually on business to acquire
the services of an Architect to build a tunnel under his home. Staying with his Uncle.
Alternate Racial - Focused Study: Replaces Human Feat.
Alternate Racial - Silver Tongued: Replaces Skilled. +2 Bluff and Diplomacy. Can increase an attitude towards you by three steps instead of two.
Campaign - Child of Kintargo
Reckless - Acrobatics class skill and +1.
Reason for Protest - Tagging Along: +2 on Perception and Initiative during the protest.
Gear: Fancy Breastplate (used with the 200gp Child of Kintargo fund), Fancy Rapier (20gp), Noble Outfit and Signet Ring (from trait).
Gear not currently on him: 8 shortspears (8gp, 1d6, 20x2, piercing), 1 double-ended Spear (can detach into two short spears, 20ft range, piercing, 20x2 crit, 90gp?).
Gear desires for later: Ring of Featherfall, Boots of Springing and Striding, +1 Mithral Breastplate (fashioned to conceal his identity with lightweight, decorative metal plates and a beak-like helmet covering his face and body. This is simply for aesthetics, will look unusual and I'll focus in Disguise around this time).
Wealth remaining: 57gp
Cavalier abilities:
Tactician - At 1st level, a cavalier receives a teamwork feat as a bonus feat. He must meet the prerequisites for this feat. As a standard action, the cavalier can grant this feat to all allies within 30 feet who can see and hear him. Allies retain the use of this bonus feat for 3 rounds plus 1 round for every two levels the cavalier possesses. Allies do not need to meet the prerequisites of these bonus feats. The cavalier can use this ability once per day at 1st level, plus one additional time per day at 5th level and for every 5 levels thereafter.
Challenge - Once per day, a cavalier can challenge a foe to combat. As a swift action, the cavalier chooses one target within sight to challenge. The cavalier's melee attacks deal extra damage whenever the attacks are made against the target of his challenge. This extra damage is equal to the cavalier's level. The cavalier can use this ability once per day at 1st level, plus one additional time per day for every three levels beyond 1st, to a maximum of seven times per day at 19th level.
Challenging a foe requires much of the cavalier's concentration. The cavalier takes a –2 penalty to his Armor Class, except against attacks made by the target of his challenge. The challenge remains in effect until the target is dead or unconscious or until the combat ends.
Edicts:
The cavalier must show courage in the face of danger, mercy to those who have wronged him, and charity to the poor and the meek. He must be just and honorable at all times and in all things. He must defend his honor and, above all else, the honor of those he serves.
Yea, that's fine. I used to have Bodyguard when I had my T-Rex companion in a Legacy of Fire game. They're not game breaking adjustments. I've got no problem with it. :)
Judging from that, I'll go with option 2 then. I thought you may have been able to do a little more with it, but I don't want to break the system, so option 2 is good enough for me. It's still cool. I just wasn't sure what I could do within the 6 points, so thanks for working it out for me.
Outside of the weapon, is all of the rest fine with you?
It's only a module and although I live in the UK (England), I can work with that time difference. I'm five hours ahead of you, but free my time until 8pm, which is 3pm your time, giving space for an hour run over past your 2-3 hour estimation. Would this just be a standard module or Pathfinder Society? I'm happy to play either way. It would be pretty nice to play a one day campaign, mainly because I prefer faster paced campaigns and this would be very fast paced.
Are there any characters/classes you prefer and do you recommend anything or are you happy with anything? I can post solidly for that time. I just might take a break for a cup of tea/glass of orange or whatever.
