I'm willing to keep playing too, GM!
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Duskashae casts a significant look to those remaining, then shrugs and follows Josten and The First Flame into the sigil.
Just FYI, I'm leaving on an extended vacation tomorrow morning, and I'll be away from my computer for almost two weeks. I will have my phone and I will try to keep up with what happens in my games, but I may be less engaged than usual. My apologies in advance for any slowdowns. :)
Duskashae steps forward, their stride measured and their eyes beneath the mask darting left and right, trying to take everything in. "As you can see plainly, Your Majesty," they say carefully with their open palms outstretched, "I am nothing more than Duskashae, Warden of the Broken Circle. I acknowledge your invitation and your hospitality, and I do not insult you by offering you any gifts, which would pale in comparison to yours. Your summons, if that is what we should call it, causes me to wonder about your purpose and hope that you will enlighten us as to what you seek. It may be that we have services or possessions that we would be willing to exchange with you if the terms of our arrangement were directly stated and agreeable to all parties concerned." They nod to indicate that they have finished speaking, and after waiting a moment they step back into the line.
48 hours is more than reasonable. As far as I'm concerned, you can even reduce the wait to 24 hours, if you're willing and able to post that often.
Duskashae regards the pixie with a blank, fixed expression through their mask and wordlessly follows to the audience chamber. Let's get on with this, they think irritably as they look around the wonders of the palace.
Duskashae considers the technical and practical differences between the Dreamlands and the plane of Shadow, as well as demiplanes like her own where time moves at a different speed. She wonders if she can recognize that events are happening faster or slower than the standard. Then she cautions herself, and tries to do her best not to be distracted by the colorful surroundings. It would not do for me of all of us to be lulled into dropping my defenses by an illusion of splendor and beauty, she thinks.
@Maedyri and Dushashae: Which camp do you fall under concerning the mode of travel to the Sunset Palace? Curious as to what the whole party's thoughts are. Duskashae sees no reason to linger here longer than neccessary. I'm with the majority thinking we should move ahead to meeting with the King. :)
I'm fine with you rolling for Duskashae. She's got Skill Mastery with Perception, so she will always have a 61 without modifiers, or 65 when Home Advantage is applicable. :) Oh, and thanks for the detailed writeup of what was happening around us. It's nice to occasionally get a broad sense of what a new location feels like. Very fun!
Duskashae looks around suspiciously, certain that many things here are not as they seem. Her True Sight sees through illusions and shadow-magic, but still being a skilled illusionist herself she is often paranoid. She knows what magic-users of her caliber can do.
Duskashae nods her head once again in assent to carrying one of Maedyri's strange little trinkets. They hoped their trust was not misplaced-- it was unusual that the two of them both represented the same Parity in the Broken Circle, and Duskashae had always wondered if Maedyri had some secret allegiance that had never been revealed. Still, they both seemed to be of the same mind most of the time, and Maedyri had never given Duskashae reason to voice distrust. As everyone else also prepares to depart, they pull out their key and turn it in the "lock".
These drones offer many benifits such as allowing her to communicate over any distance (within a plane), find you, know any condition affecting you and give you buffs. However it does make you more susceptible to her mind and death sphere effects, which she doesn't hide. It's up to you whether you trust her enough. Has Maedryri given us a good reason to trust her over the years? Like, does she ever use her Mind and Death sphere effects on her allies? I always prefer to trust my fellow players, and thus by extension have my characters trust their characters, but I don't think we've played together before and I don't know if anyone is planning to do any subtle PvP with their characters. So yes, out of character I want us to work together as a team, but if there's any possibility that you might jump up later and shout "You fool! You should never have trusted me! Muahahaha!", well then I don't want my character to act stupidly. :)
Once everyone arrives at the meeting hall, Duskashae attempts to get the ball rolling by standing and relaying her experience to the others. She leaves nothing out, her sepulchral voice echoing from within the sphere of hushed darkness that typically surrounds her. "For my part," she suggests, once her story is done, "I think we should try our keys, and see what the King of Dreams has to say. Without more information, it is difficult for us to determine exactly what is going on, and whether or not this request falls within our purview."
Duskashae is pensive and vaguely troubled when they awaken. "Was visited in my dreams last night," they inform their shoulder guardians tersely. "Wouldn't bring it up, but it came with an invitation and a physical token. This key. 'M thinking I should bring it to the Circle for discussion." Memm shrugs. "Sure, boss. Prolly better you don't charge off half-cocked on your own again," he snickers. The other tiny being hovering near Duskashae glares briefly at the devil, then smiles benignly and sympathetically towards Duskashae. "Was the dream disturbing?" she asks, hesitant to voice her fears aloud, but her words heavy with meaning. Duskashae shakes their head. "Not a nightmare, no. The dream's controller seemed to be a woman named Magdalena the Twilight Seer, and she claimed to serve The King of Dreams. Apparently her lord needs us for something." With no objections from their companions, the shadowy warden completes their morning preparations and makes their way across the city to the chamber where the others of the Broken Circle traditionally meet.
I don't think I have any tweaks I need to make. I hope I don't regret that later, but Duskashae is supposed to be pretty flexible. They already have long-lasting morale bonuses from one of their silhouettes, so they won't benefit much from Maedyri's Mind effects, unfortunately. ETA: Oh wait, I do have ten languages I still have to choose. Can I just leave them unselected? If we come across something we can't communicate with maybe I can make a Linguistics check to see if that language is one that Duskashae has?
@Everyone, I can't seem to find anything on The Parities I can reference to decide which one Josten belongs to. Please help! My copy of Coliseum Morpheuon is not well tabbed. This page has a list of all the parities (it calls them Organizations) with the altered names to avoid copyright, but it also lists common alignments. Maybe the Children of Dreams? Or the Everlasting Dawn?
@Duskashae: Me, a casual Nidal enjoyer who grew up on the Hellraiser movies, add in kytons? That's CRAZY talk! I surely was not steepling my fingers and letting out am evil GM chuckle when I was considering Duskashae for selections. Okay fine, MAYBE a little bit. I suppose I only have myself to blame for the terrifying ride that is to come! ;) I think you're good on most things that need expanding upon or tweaking unless I overlooked something, save for one thing: did you ever decide which of the types you were going for? I notice you still have all of the types listed in your profile. I think I could use some help in determining how Types work in Duskashae's case. The traits for judows say: "Judow are outsiders with the native subtype. Judow only possess the native subtype while in the city, losing it while anywhere else." Also the Constructed trait says "For the purposes of effects targeting creatures by type (such as a ranger’s favored enemy and bane weapons), judow count as both outsiders and constructs." Then, the Fey Creature template says "The creature’s type changes to fey." Does that mean that Duskashae no longer counts as an outsider, native or otherwise? I would think that the text of Constructed means that they count as all three. Finally, they have the Change Shape ability, which they can use to turn into a humanoid (half-elf). So they are sometimes humanoid, and I don't remember if polymorph magic replaces existing types or just adds to them. :) Thanks for the more detailed breakdowns on your numbers by the way; those helped out a LOT in picking apart your build. Glad to help! I find I have to do those kind of breakdowns of special circumstance bonuses for myself too, or I forget what the character can do.
The relationship between Josten and Duskashae will be interesting, as the godling was raised to fear anything remotely related to Zon-Kuthon, of which the kytons are. Yeah, I'm really triggered by the kytons in general (and all the source material they are based on), but I decided to really lean into it when I started designing a shadow weaver. Although D.shae used to serve them faithfully, I can't play that for a long campaign, so she's left that path. I suspect her former superiors will appear at some point, though, which will be terrifying and exciting for all of us!
1. Oh, whoops, sure thing! 2. I tend to think that both of those Drawbacks are pretty minor-- Umbral Unmasking really matches the character's flavor, but it doesn't do anything much. Anxious is appropriate too, and since Anxious gives a Diplomacy penalty that would complement Umbral Unmasking, I was thinking maybe combining the two would make them less weak?3. I'll add some language to that effect, would that be more appropriate? 4. I use the *s as personal notes on skills/saves/weapons/etc, to tell me when there's a special bonus in certain circumstances. For feats, I use them to indicate that the feat came from another source, some kind of bonus feat that is limited in choice.
Hi there! I made this character a while ago for this adventure path, and modifying it to match your house rules was not very difficult. The stats and background are all in the profile!
Basically, she is a Gloomblade fled from Nidal, an extremely versatile guerrilla fighter/rogue who also has the skills and feats to be an excellent backup healer.
Greetings! I thought this character might fit in well for a few reasons, so I advanced her to 5th level. The details are in her profile, but here's a summary: Duskashae is a shadow creature refugee from the lands of Nidal, west of Moldani. She has been on the run for most of her adult life, having hidden in Braganza for a time and then getting conscripted into the army after she was caught stealing from the temple of Abadar. Stationed at Fort Ramsgate, she fled into Nirmathi territory during the attack, and from there made her way to Phaendar with the hope of joining the Chernasardo rangers. To prove herself, she was on a reconnaissance mission in the Fangwood forest when the town was attacked, and she has been trying to rejoin the survivors ever since. I've built her as a Gloomblade fighter with Rogue variant multiclass levels. She is an extremely versatile reach fighter, striking with a magical shadow bardiche, and she has access to several utility spells through Item Mastery feats. She can also treat deadly wounds with extraordinary skill, though her enthusiasm for examining injuries is slightly disturbing. She is an excellent scout, very athletic, and she excels at guerrilla tactics.
DM, I've finished developing this character's background and description, and I also added some build notes and a writing sample. Thanks for your consideration!
Hi, eriktd here! I decided to go with a roguelike Gloomblade Fighter, complete with Rogue VMC. I've built the character, now I just need to work on the background. Big picture, she's a wayang refugee from Nidal who got caught in the Ramsgate Massacre and has been hiding in the wilderness ever since. Now that she is running out of food, she has decided to risk approaching human civilization, specifically the settlement of Phaendar, hoping that their need for guerilla fighters against the Ironfang invasion will overcome the automatic fear and hatred to which she has grown accustomed in human lands. She is designed to be incredibly flexible, as shadow creatures tend to be, so I'm planning on Barroom Brawler at level 4, to be able to use an Item Mastery feat once a day at level 5. To enable the healing feats in case of emergencies, I'm planning on taking Heal ranks and Signature Skill (Heal) at level 5. She's also got good Acrobatics, Perception, Stealth, Use Magic Device, and of course Disable Device. To start with, she'll probably fight with a bardiche, but that will likely transform into a two-bladed sword once she gets going. |