Elliot Stormbane's page

Now that you mention it... yeah. I guess it's a consequence of magic and associated spiritual flavor-factors being a thing? Side thought, if we can keep hold of these scales and survive long enough, we have a physical component of Terendelev to resurrect her with magic near the end of the campaign? :')

Of the current four scales, the levitate one seems fairly useful to Elliot. It might get around him having to climb up shafts he's otherwise unable to, or could levitate himself up a building and throw down a rope for the others or such?

...Actually, come to think of it, this is almost exactly like his level 5 arcanist exploit but without a cost, with the only difference being that it's locked to vertical movement.

That's really strange! I thought from reading posts and looking at the lists that at least four other people were making bards... but no one has actually finished a 'classical' one with the associated marshall path?

...

*Doubt intensifies*

*Starts seriously considering arcanist variant multiclass bard with the dual mythic path ability and going marshall/archmage*

@Elliot: Aww, you took my advice! I think a peri-blooded aasimar would be very thematic for this AP. An inner conflict between good and evil to mirror the outer conflict. Maybe Elliot and Merixia can bond over the inconveniences of their extraplanar ancestry. And hey, they both have pyrotechnics as a racial spell-like ability! Cool.

Hah, really? The exact same racial spell between Tiefling and Aasimar? That is a pretty fun coincidence :) Guess if the mythic adventuring thing doesn't work out, we could always go and make a cool light show! Especially since I think I'll be making Elliot part of an acting group as a hobby, where he does the special effects for the play. Today is his first day on the job, and what a better day to start than the Kenabres celebration festival!

Also, pfew! Reading up on all the potential arcanist abilities and builds, especially taking mythic into consideration, was quite daunting. But I've narrowed it down to two progressions: an evocation arcanist who uses metamagic to add control to his damage spells, and a mostly-conjuration swiss army arcane utility knife. Both seem like fun to play. Though, given how fast damaging spells scale with mythic support thrown in, I admit I'm not looking forward to that one time Elliot fails his domination willsave and proceeds to throw empowered 10d10 fireballs on the entire party at level 6... :') Kinda leaning to the heavier control build and letting the martials do what they do best.

Elliot Stormbane wrote:

I think I'll instead make Elliot an arcanist and rewrite his backstory from the ground up.

Arcanists are my favorite class. Especially with spell lattices and pearls of power. So much versatility!

Then I will will definitely take a look at those, thanks :) I'm familiar with the pearls but not the lattices.

On Elliot: A good connection to the Storm King - I like it. The big question is - at least for me - why he has Argent Voice as an archetype. While I acknowledge that it’s a great archetype mechanically, in Golarion it’s specifically associated with the Song of Silver, from Kintargo and a big thing in Hell’s Rebels. I can think of a few ideas relating to that, however.

If, for instance, his family came from Kintargo originally, and one of his grandparents or suchlike taught him the first few bars of the song, to which he attuned himself, it would be more acceptable to me than to just have him… y’know, learn it.

Alternately, you can grab Silver Balladeer, which is similar thematically, if not mechanically.

Thanks, I'm glad you like the connection. You're right in that I didn't explain why he's an ardent voice, and flavor-wise base bard or said silver balladeer, which I actually didn't know of, would be better. I might just snag that one for a different campaign sometime as it leaves most of the skill-goodness of the bard intact as well and seems to have broader applications too!

That said, given the huge competition for Bard this time around, I think I'll instead make Elliot an arcanist and rewrite his backstory from the ground up (@Merixia, your vote mattered :) ). I've never actually played that class before, much less so a mythic version, and Peri-blooded aasimar (which best fit the class) also has good base for an interesting character background. Probably better than the current writeup, which feels slightly bare-bones to me as I read it back.

Current concept: Combined with the archmage's campaign trait, which locks his parents into being (presumably?) dead riftwardens, it leaves him to presumably atone for the sins of a fallen angel somewhere further down in his ancestry. Might make for a good tie in to a villain somewhere? And since peri-blooded aasimar feel a tug towards both good and evil and have innate fire magic, I can see him being on the closely-watched/s###-list of the inquisition and the prelate, depending on how overzealous they are. I'll be working on expanding this further as I go along. Mechanically he'll be a full arcane caster focussing on utility, buffs, blasting and some control, I think.

Dotting for great interest! I was in a WOTR campaign with Merixia that had just started when our GM suddenly disappeared (I hope he's all right since he'd posted about having flu/covid-like symptoms right before this).

My character from that campaign, Elliot, was originally an azata-aasimar ardent voice bard. I see there's already a few bard submissions including the exact same race/class setup, but what can I say - I love the bard class and might just fight you all for it! ;) Though I might instead make him an inquisitor, with the large expanded allowance of classes present. That also fits the type of support crusader spymaster character I was going for.

For bard, with mythic rules in effect he will probably go Marshall and either archmage or champion as a dual-path. If going inquisitor, I'm not sure yet.

I'll do another post whem I'm done editing his stat sheet.

Edit: One question; I am considering trying out a reach bard. What would your ruling be on the Flagbearer feat? Could a flag be hung on a type of polearm and still function for the feat's purposes?

Sorry everyone. I've had a really rough week, but things are back on track. I'll ask around the forums for a replacement GM, or failing that, is there is a different WOTR campaign we could perhaps join.

Those sound like fun options! Unfortunately, the recruitment here was for core and base classes only. So that'd leave only paladin and perhaps grey maiden if that is a prestige class, can't remember at the moment. I think both slayer and bloodrager count as hybrid/advanced classes.

However, since we haven't heard from Kyrie or Deathlock in a while (and perhaps Kyrie was Deathlock's GMPC, as he was the prepick for the AP and disappeared around the same time), perhaps we'd be better off starting a thread in the recruitment forums and asking if a different GM would want to take over, or start the AP anew. Perhaps, if that is succesful, the class restrictions would also be lifted?

Welcome! Well, I'm still here and willing to continue :) I think Death and Merixia are too. We haven't heard from our fighter Kyrie in a while and the Shogunto/Archlich is on hiatus for the next month or so.

Final say would be on Death as the GM but I definitely wouldn't mind recruiting another ranger. We don't know if Kyrie or Shogunto/archlich will come back and if they both do, perhaps we could continue as 5?

+1, would be good to know if he was here too.

Death? Are you back now?

No worries Shogunto, real life matters come first. Thanks for the heads-up!

I'm still here too. Though with Shogunto temporarily out we'd be down to 3 players for at least the next 6 weeks assuming Kyrie is also still here. Do we recruit someone to get back up to four?

We can always try? let's give Death Lok a few days to come back and respond and if it appears he's fully gone I'll post in the recruitment section.

So... nine days later, figured I'd ask for the final time. I like this group and these characters, but I assume this PBP is cancelled?

Same! Was worried it was the virus...

How are things, Death? Did the flu lie down?

Thanks for letting us know! Take care and get well soon.

That was my intent too, to keep them packed until we actually run into a clear opportunity/infiltration target. But I'll assume we're wearing them for consistency in this scene and suggest removing them based on finding survivors this close.

”Ugh, you guys always do this! Leave some for me next time. Or at least yell to let me know you found the enemy.”

Turning to the elderly couple, the cleric offers a reassuring smile.

RIP my combat XP T_T

Elliot chuckles at the cleric's indignation. "Welcome to my world, my lady. Remind me never to get on any of you guys' bad sides! I guess I got a hit in this time, but it doesn't really weigh up against twin shots straight through the skull, no?"

He pokes the prone demon's body with his black sword, then looks at the storefolk. "Sorry for the deception. We... or rather, they," -he points at the others-"Managed to kill a pack of cultists outside and I figured we'd probably do well with picking up these disguises, considering the state the town is in. Do either of you know if there's some form of organized resistance still in Kenabres? We're looking to join up with them."

Scratching his chin, he adds:"Finding survivors this close and easily could mean there's some remnant of crusaders nearby, still fighting them back. Probably best to stow the disguises until we make contact. We don't want to be shot by our friends!"

Knowledge: planes: how to stop regeneration or obvious weakness first, then most dangerous ability?: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18

While he studies the target for a weakness, Elliot quickly runs forward to strike and make the most of the remaining element of surprise!

attack vs FF: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24
coldiron damage: 1d8 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8

If Elliot has enough speed, he will attack from the side or the back so that Kyrie can flank him and he's not in Shogunto's line of fire.

Moving at his most careful pace, or so he thought, he slowly creeps towards the store...

Kyrie grabs the young crusader's arm. "Elliott, let the pros go first." Kyrie stealths into the store moving past him.

"Bwah!- bu- how did you get in front of me??" The young crusader gives a start as the halfling appears out of nowhere, then stares at Kyrie in bewilderment as he leaves.

I'm not that good! - he whispers, nodding towards Kyrie - Besides, a stealthy group is just as good as its weaker link!

He nods slowly, momentarily somewhat relieved, then notices how the Half-Orc also seems to be much better at this than himself.

"What sort of elite unit *are* you guys, and why didn't they try to recruit you yet?" he wonders aloud, glancing back at the Merixia, then following into the store.

Unfortunately, somewhat out of it for having been one-upped twice in quick succession, he doesn't notice the half-broken bottle he steps on just as Kyrie and Shogunto got within striking distance...

@Death-Lok I remember buying masterwork tools for Elliot that increased his stealth, like sound-dampening boots, but I can't find them on the sheet. Perhaps I added them after making this backup word document. Would you allow me to correct this now? I don't mind waiting for later, though. Could've just left them at home during the festival :)

Trudging through the debris outside, Elliot hears the screaming and halts, then looks at the others and back at the shop. He slowly unsheates his sword and quietly skids closer, preferably to a window or stealthily through the door, to see what was going on. With any luck, they'd be able to get the drop on whatever was inside...

stealth: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14

"True, Sir Kyrie, I'm afraid I can't shrink the outfits, and I'd understand if you were reluctant for much lesser reason. I'm hoping that if three of us were to wear them, we might convince our enemies you are a turncoat. That way, we won't have to bind you or such either." Elliot sighs and surveys the amount of destruction beyond the southern gate. "And the gods know there's plenty of incentive to abandon our side for the winning one right now..."

Shall we move on? We have the disguises to put on everyone except Kyrie if an opportunity arises, but let's head in as crusaders first and see what we encounter?

Sure! I'm fine with that.

Unfortunately the whole chest area is soaked with blood. She holds the garment up, frowning. ”I can hide the arrow holes if I put the robe under my breastplate, but the blood might be a problem. Oh well, I’ll deal with that when the time comes.”

"I think I can take care of that, Lady Merixia. Let me take a look..."

Elliot concentrates on the outfits of the cultists before them, then casts six spells in quick motion. One by one, the blood seems to detach itself from the robe and fall sideways just as the fabric knits itself back together.

He casts prestidigitation thrice to clean and mending thrice to restore the robes.

Panting slightly from the exertion, he still nods at his work, satisfied. "That should do! They'd have to get *really* close to notice anything wrong with it; enough so to strike at the very least. I'm sure sire Kyrie would appreciate such a chance, no? And dad used to say there was no place for 'parlor tricks' on the battlefield..."

He waits for everyone to finish looting and equipping themselves as they see fit, then moves to the gate to keep lookout, moving in with the others a few minutes later.

@Shogunto That was my impression too from having read up on things prior to posting. Did I misunderstand?

"It would be my honor to take righteous vengeance for you, Ms. Helen. May Ragathiel's eyes fall upon you and his wings shelter you."

"Unfortunately, it took us quite some time to get here. We promised to be back by dawn to escort them to Valaes' Gift, so if we want to get anything done in Kenabres, we'll already be pulling an all-nighter. Disguises sound like a good idea, though."

"She does have spirit, that one. Something tells me she'll make it to the other refugees just fine," Elliot comments, also grinning. "And if it's a nearly full day ride, we'd definitely lose too much time, yeah. There's probably lots of people still hiding and trapped in here," he continues, glancing back at the gate and vestiges of good spirits fading.

"Well... if anyone wants to use anything from this, speak now and take it with you. If you're not opposed to disguising yourself if needed, I'd suggest taking at least a glaive and a symbol. Let's load the excess weight on the horses and get ready to move!"

I'll take an unholy symbol of Baphomet, a cultist robe for in the backpack (assuming they have them as normal clothes), the potion of invis and an alchemist fire. Ready to move on!

"Actually... how far away is that refugee camp, exactly?" he then asks. "'Cause if it's nearby and no one needs the weapons or armor, we could quickly ride there and give it to them along with the Baphomet symbols and robes. They'd get at least have a few armed people guarding them, and if a too large group of enemies came by, the guards could claim they were baphomet cultists themselves, holding them prisoner. Maybe they'd leave them alone."

Would cost us around 550 g each (if we keep the +1 glaive, it's around 150 g instead), but seems like a thing a good-character would suggest. Also still ready to continue, might need to hurry and get to saving the city instead.

"You're very brave, the two of you," Elliot says, after hearing the story. Then he kneels down before the girl and hands her a pack of rations from his bag. "You listen to your mom and take good care of her, okay? Head to that camp down the road and we'll go save the city!"

After they leave.

"Well, this glaive is very powerful, but a bit heavy for me. We also got an invisibility potion, one fairly powerful healing potion, two weak ones, two explosive vials and a Wand of... Spiritual weapon, I think," Elliot surmises, inspecting the gear and trying to read all magical aura's. "Who wants to carry what? I'd suggest giving the healing potion to our swordsman and the wand to our battle cleric, maybe? I could make good use of invisibility potion and an alchemist's fire, I'd reckon. Though, we should take everything with us anyway to arm others or to serve as a disguise, in my opinion."

I'm ready to move into the city. I've made an excel sheet to keep track of loot values, but if anyone mrore experienced can make a shared google group document everyone can access, that's probably better.

"Yeah, we should definitely take from them whatever might be useful." Elliot agrees. He excuses himself from Merixia and steps forward, muttering an short incantation. Then he closes his eyes and concentrates on the bodies of the fallen enemies.

Detect magic on the cultists. If he finds anything, he points out the items.

As he goes through the cultist's other possessions, he slowly offers an idea. "Maybe we should take their robes and symbols with us, too. I might be able to clean them of the blood and fix the tears by magic. It'd give us disguises we might be able to use. It's not very chivalrous... but maybe it will allow us a large tactical advantage somewhere down the line?"

He looks over the others. It's clear that he's unsure and that the notion doesn't sit entirely well with him either, but he does appear genuine in wanting to seize every possible advantage.

All right, got it!

Jumping ahead slightly, Elliot will be searching the bodies, but specfically: can the outfits of these cultists potentially be used as disguises (having more options usually doesn't hurt), or are they too heavily damaged? And could I use prestidigitation to remove the blood?

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/p/prestidigitation/

Elliot takes Merixia's hand without hesitation. "Wow. She looks tough! ...They all do, actually. Maybe there's hope for us, yet!"

religion: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23

"Oh, you serve the General of Vengeance? Well, I'm glad you're here. If there was ever a time for revenge, I say it's now! And you do look downright fierce, My Lady, if you'll forgive me stating such," he gives her a nod of respect as he continues the handshake, then turns to the halfling as he approaches.

"Thanks, Sir Kyrie. I'm glad you think so. And I'm Elliot-" He pauses slightly longer than necessary. "Just 'Elliot' will do. Like I said, I'm with the Eagle Watch. I can do a bit of everything. I'm okay with a sword and arcane magic, but I'm best at, ah, 'creative thinking' and knowing things. I can also sing pretty well!"

Finally, he inclines his head to Shogunto too. "You ask about the wardstone and the church... I'm afraid I don't know much more than that. There was an explosion, and the barrier that kept out the demons disappeared. Then, the demons started teleporting in like a sudden tidal wave sweeping over a sand castle. I don't know if anyone on our side knows anything more at this point. I'm not even sure if anyone close to the stones even survived. I've been stuck here on the outer edges, mostly distracting cultists and demons so other people could get out - hopefully it made some difference. A fair bit of the city has also been destroyed. I do know the lay of our surroundings, though, and that should help us get inside."

Motioning towards the woman and her child, he then asks: "Should we take them with us? I'm not sure how else to keep them 'safe', for lack of a better term."

Elliot Stormbane wrote:

@Death-Lok, how much does Elliot know of the situation in the city? What were his exact orders?

He knows the wardstone to the north exploded and demons have overrun Kenabres. Orders were to gain intel, save people, and repel invaders, if possible.

All right. And do I know anything about the status of the rest of the Eagle Watch or the church Merixia asked about? Is there a known active base of resistance? I remember from the PC-game version that the Eagle Watch had set up base in a tavern somewhere. Of course, Elliot might also not be aware yet since he might have been out in the field the entire time.

Grateful to the halfling for the interruption, Elliot quickly answers him. "Well, yeah. Partly. I'm an Eagle Watch trainee of sorts. And I'm... not going to lie. The situation is pretty bad in there, and I'm very glad to meet some friendly faces who can hold their own in a fight!"

He gestures towards the southern gate. "Judging by your outfits - not dirty or bloodied yet - and with your horses fresh and intact, you only just got here, right? Well... in case you hadn't heard yet, the nothern wardstone exploded. Soon afterwards, there were demons and cultists everywhere. And I do mean everywhere ."

The young man looks away, perhaps sorrowful, perhaps ashamed. "Things are very chaotic even now. I did what I could; my orders were to scout first and to rescue any survivors and repel invaders second if possible. Scouting I could do... but fighting them back by myself... I'm not the best fighter. I had to withdraw and leave cultists and demons to do vile things to innocent people too often."

He shakes his head and appears to steel himself. "So if you all are going in there to take the fight to them, I'm in. I'm tired of just running away, taking potshots and leading them on wild goose chases!"

From up close, the young human seems to have an unnaturally vibrant mane of red hair along with crystal blue eyes. He has a friendly, still somewhat boyish face, and is dressed in light armor with a large brown cloak that has quite a bit of battle damage. His weapons include an ornate-looking coldiron longsword and a crossbow. He would probably be considered handsome by most standards, even if his build was more lithe rather than muscled.

@Death-Lok, how much does Elliot know of the situation in the city? What were his exact orders?

Praised be the Old Deadeye! - he yelled back to the outsider - Please, help us look after them.

The young man's eyes widen. "But don't you want help with-?"

The cultist dies, two arrows sticking out of her respective neck and chest.

"-Okay! Got it."

Deciding not the question the commands of this deadshot any further, Elliot instead sheathes his sword and approaches the woman and her child. "They got them. You're safe now - are you okay?"

Inwardly kicking himself for asking that, with her being a refugee with blooded clothing and all, he quickly rephares it to: "I mean, are you injured?"

'*Bloodied* clothing, Elliot! Gods, what do I even say to them in such a situation?'

"Never mind, those are stupid questions. But do you think you can escape and find shelter somewhere?"

"A fight...? Did I finally find the outer patrols!?" Elliot thought as he rushed to the scene.

To the left, he saw a women in blooded and torn clothes with a small child. Wincing in sympathy, he touched his amulet of Iomedae and gestured it towards them, finger on he lips as he crept around the back of the carriage towards the battle.

Seeing an orc archer, a tiefling cleric and a halfling warrior in friendly regalia all converge on one single Baphomet cultist, he silently thanked Desna for this insane stroke of luck. This was probably the one and ONLY instance of the crusaders having any kind of numerical advantage around what was left of Kenabres!

"Hey! You're crusaders, right?" He calls out the rear two, so they hopefully wouldn't attack him on sight. "So am I! Why don't we team up? We can talk later!"

Moving forward as much as he could, he managed to get the opposing cultist in range and casted a spell on her weapon, making it very slippery!

Move forward, cast grease on the cultists's glaive. Reflex DC 14.

Ah, my bad.

Edit: Done!

Hello to you too, Shogunto. Still happy to be here :)

@Merixia You're probably right. It makes sense, and Ragathiel does have a reputation for being the most angry paladin ever! I liked falayna's backstory from the empyrial lords too; it takes a serious badass to go retrieve a memento of your slain warlord husband from hell when you have supposedly no combat skill to start out. Maybe i should read the others over again, too.

I mostly finished this alias aside from some paizo website layout errors that I'll fix tomorrow, but overall Elliot is good to go!