There has been an open call for adventurers by the scholar Sivir, who resides in the northern Vlasc city of Karali. He is looking to build a group to go into the desert to the north in search of the Library of Azadt, a buried trove of ancient books from the Dark Age. He claims to have come into possession of a map detailing its location, as well as some information regarding the potential contents. The information about this job is traveling word-of-mouth, and there is little known about the specific reward, though apparently Sivir has assigned different values to different tomes and will pay for them individually. When you (as a group or individually) arrive in town to hear this news Sivir is absent from his manse, with a promise from his servants that he will return by the next day, giving you some time before speaking with him.
I’m just going to put some skill rolls and their results below. Tell me which, if any, of the actions you take and especially if you do something else.
Knowledge (history) on the Library
15
Spoiler:
The Library of Azadt is well known in the area, being something of a local legend. During the Dark Age a small kingdom rose up in this area, and the ruler decided that all the books in his lands should be destroyed. However, the minister placed in charge of their destruction, Azadt, instead secreted them away and had a library constructed in the desert to hide them. No knowledge of its location and exact contents has been available in the last several centuries as Azadt apparently had all (or most) who worked on the library killed. Some consider the library to be little more than myth, and accounts of what tomes might be contained within it vary wildly.
20
Spoiler:
The unnamed ruler of this short-lived kingdom had a particular ire for religious texts, which included the library of a nearby monastery of an early monk order.
Knowledge (local) or Diplomacy to gather information on the Library
10
Spoiler:
According to local legend the hidden library, located in the desert, is filled with mystic tomes and ancient books of knowledge both from the time it was built and centuries before. Accounts of its contents vary drastically between tellers, from books of ancient magic to heretical texts and even the fantastical claim that a dragon is chained in one of the deeper chambers.
20
Spoiler:
The local monastery of The Shifting Way has stood since before the time the Library was built, and much of its own library at the time was stolen away to the Library of Azadt. (plus all information in history DC 15 above)
Knowledge (local) or Diplomacy to gather information on Sivir
10
Spoiler:
Sivir was once a professor of history at the University of Madzulan, and very well respected. He left that position to come north and pursue the Library, which has become quite the obsession for him. He is regarded by locals as eccentric and reclusive; while he comes out of his manse frequently he rarely associates much with the locals, preferring to visit the libraries of the local temples.
15
Spoiler:
Sivir has paid special attention to the monastery of The Shifting Way just out of town. He visits their library most frequently, sometimes spending the night and many of the monks have begun to regard him as a nuisance. He has also done quite a lot of travelling of late, particularly to Kalaitea to the east.
25
Spoiler:
Sivir’s studies have attracted him some not-so-pleasant attention recently, particularly after his most recent journey off shore. Some servants in his manse have reported that the scholar is receiving threats of ever increasing severity from an unknown source, and is as yet still undeterred from his mission.
Knowledge (geography) for the nearby desert
12
Spoiler:
There is a region to the northwest known as the Shifting Sands, where sudden sandstorms have been known to cover whole camps and caravans in a day. If anything is buried in the desert nearby, this region would be the best place to hide it.
17
Spoiler:
The true extent of the Shifting Sands is unknown to most, it extends deep into the territory of a very isolationist Talven tribe and few have traversed it.
I'm trying to find people with a little experience under their belts to help me playtest an alternate rules system I'm trying out for my homebrew setting. It's a bit of a mashup of 3.5, pathfinder, and some of my own ideas (and other stuff I've scrounged). The most changes have been made to the magic system.
The world in question is high-adventure low-fantasy with a lot of influence from Robert E. Howard and Jack Vance. Emphasis is going to be more on exploration and role-play than combat.
I'm looking for four, I'm only playtesting about half the classes at once here. The ones I'd like to work with are the Mystic (divine magic caster), the Wayfinder (druid/ranger mashup) the Rogue (which has had the least amount of changes here, essentially the control) and the Monk (which is spoken for, I have one slot filled already).
Anyone interested just email me (alex c w 2009 at gmail dot com) and post here, I can send out the files for the class you want (or, if anyone has dropbox, that's much more convenient).
Sara Palin accuses Santa Clause of being a Socialist and engages in anti-semitism. This lady was almost vice-president of the US. I have no words to describe this.
This may have come up in the various discussions of druids and paladins about, but I'm too lazy to look through all of them to see if it has.
In both the druid Nature Bond and paladin Divine Bond abilities, the statement is made that they "can take one of two forms" (pg 15 and 20). I have only ever seen this where a choice must be made, but there is no other indication that a coice must be made in the entries and no reason that I see that there should be such a requirement. If a coice must be made between the two parts of these abilities (the druid domain and companion, the paladin holy weapon and mount), it should be stated more clearly (and I would contest that, it seems to me that they are improved by these abilities together), and if not the phrase should be changed to read "takes two forms".
I know this seem slike whining over semantics, but part of this project, as I understand it, is being less ambiguous about the rules, and I see this as slightly ambiguous.
A teen shot up a mall in Nebraska yesterday. It looks like all they're talking about on the telescreen is the actual event over and over. Anyone know more about this?
I was forced once again to play D&D without the aid of rulebooks Friday evening. What was interesting was not the fact that we could remember most of the relevant rules, but the odd characters that resulted. Mr. Shiny played as a halfling fighter in heavy armor wielding only a pair of daggers. The Strength modifier to damage was more than the max damage of the weapon itself. Another player was a half-orc sorcerer (blaster), who wasn't feeling well so left after character creation. The halfling spoke only in randomly chosen verses from Psalms, and when I remembered to have the half-orc speak I played up his 8 wisdom (he had a 16 cha and 10 int). Hilarity ensued.
The indecision of the formative band to be started by myself, Mr. Shiny, AWED and some others leads me to beg for your help. Which of the following names would be good and/or are not already being used by another band:
At CTY, the administration beleives that RPGs are bad. So any D&D books and other material is forbidden. Luckily, a group of us was sufficiently geeky enough to play by memory, using only some index cards and smuggled dice. What ensued was the most hilarious campaign I have ever been in.
The cast is pretty hilarious by itself. We decided that in order to counter our lack of rulebooks, we would be as rediculous as possible (though that may have happened regardless of whether or not we had rulebooks). I am a halfling druid hermit, who gave up a useful companion for five squirrels. We also have a half-goblin "savant" transmuter with a clock obsession, a dwarf rogue alcoholic stereotypically named "Axebeard Alestone". The only normal one was the elf ranger, who was constantly being buffed by both me and the wizard so that his already formidable 18STR became 26 almost every encounter. Can you spell brick? Not to mention all the randomly generated scores overpowered most of us, except me, so that they were forced to relinquish points to me so I could boost my underpowered 8s and 10s.
Add to that the setting and events. They were simple enough, really, we were on a near-Oerth type demiplane, asked by a council of mages to locate the plane's draconic creator and find out why magic was building up on the plane. On the way, we managed to alienate the humans, fall on the wrong side of the gnomes, and get into trouble with the local dwarves (popular, huh). A few days in, the half-goblin accidentally activated what I am guessing was some transmutation-based rod of wonder or something and got turned into a female half elf. This greatly pleased the ranger, and the rest of us for that matter because without the CHA penalty, her new charisma was 18. This pissed off the player, though, because he hates elves and especially half elves. The ensuing RP involved him begging every magic user we came across to turn him back, even though most of them had no idea what (s)he was talking about.
We didn't have enough time to finish, but there was talk of it continuing online, possably Paizo, so you may well see more.
Ok, so this is the GAME. If you think about the GAME, you lose. You can't lose again for another 30 minutes, but when you lose you must announce it, preferably as obnoxiously as possable so as to make others lose.
If you die while thinking about the GAME, you lose for all eternity. If you die without having thought about the GAME for 30 min you get a patch. If you die on your birthday, you win.
I decided to move this particular rant to a new thread.
Why on earth did someone decide not to let that thing last more than one season (technically less)!? Was it just too intellectual for everyone? We didn't even find out everyone's cool, mysterious backstories. Just think of the plot hooks!
All of them deity outsider 50/god 50/raving psycho player-killer 10 (PrC)
Oh, and I'll be a little inconsistant with my posting times - I'm going to be in Europe for the next week and won't always have access to a computor, but I figure that this will just allow you some more time to make your first desisions and have some inter-player conversations. Please bear with me.
Hey all. It was suggested to me that the homebrew campaign I'm currently running in real life would make a great play-by-post. The world is a bit different from normal settings, but I'm sure you fine folks on Paizo can take it.
Here's the setting: Medium magic world left in the wake of an ancient civil war among the elves. Sort of a dark-ish Adgar Rice Burroughs/ Steampunk feel. The current status of the world on a cultural level is humans at a tribal level, but with the relatively scientificly advanced Akkadian colonists, and a native area that is mostly unknown to the peninsula continent that was untouched by the war and is about as advanced as the Akkadians.
Note: This is NOT Eberron. There are no magic trains or crap like that--normal steampunk type stuff-like hot-air balloons (in some areas). Most of the time magic and the limited technology don't even look at each other. (Although I am allowing artificers).
As the elves pretty much killed each other off, the closest you can come is half-elf, and only because you would have a distant elven ancestor or something like that, not an elven parent. Dwarves, gnomes, halflings, and half-orcs (who are their own species, not a hybrid) have special area considerations.
Gnomes change their favored class to Artificer because of their native area and culture. Humans have to chose which of the following groups they come from:
The educated and esoteric Akkadians who would be wizards, psions, and the like,
the shamanistic and tribal Jotnir who live in the center of the continent,
the nomadic Hathir of the cold southern lands, or
the advanced humans north of the mountains in the unexplored lands.
Psionics is limited to the Akkadians and the half-orcs. Artificers are limited to the northern lands.
The main religion of the world is a collection of the animisms of the tribal humans, various philosophies, and a dualism between Calum, god of righteousness (sort of like Heironeous), and Tenma, the Fiend Lord. This is only really relevent for clerics and paladins (though they can also follow philosophies). Below are Calum's stats, for anyone who wants to look at them.
Spoiler:
Calum
Greater Deity
Symbol: Crossed Sword and bandolier over a brass shield
Alignment: NG
Portfolio: Courage, daring, good, strength, valor
Worshipers: Paladins, good fighters, crusaders, good citizens
Cleric Alignments: LG, NG, CG
Domains: Competition, Courage, Glory, Good, Protection, Strength, War
Favored Weapon: Greatsword
I am allowing all complete books, Heros of Horror, and ExPH. Anything else has to be specifically cleared with me. This is starting at 3rd level. Only races from the PHB are allowed.
I'm working on a pantheon for my campaign, and just to be well-rounded I've been giving them a list of Mantles from the Complete Psionic in addition to their domains. With one of these deities--a CN god of the sea and storms--I simply cannot find enough mantles that fit. Does anyone have any suggestions for a mantle of Storms or Weather or something?
Why do people insist on using all lower-case letters? This isn't some chat room where you have to try to carry on a conversation in normal time. Is the shift key simply too much work? It just irks me.
