Erasmus Ames's page

Okay GM, I've reworked Raz a little bit. This time around, Mr. Ames is traveling alone. Baqir met his end in Geb and the Blood Lords are using his reanimated corpse to hunt Raz down. Wracked with pesh nightmares and tormented by forbidden knowledge, Raz is looking for a chance to escape the mistakes of his past. He doesn't yet know what a new life looks like for him. Maybe he'll try his hand at law enforcement again, doing it clean this time. Maybe he'll run a business making and selling firearms, or get into the antiquities racket. Whatever it is, he'll find out once he gets there.

Here's most of the submission package for Erasmus Ames. Originally he was submitted as a joint package with another character. If anybody is interested in playing a character with history in northern Garund, contact me and we can work on integrating. If not, Raz will be solo (and it's assumed that his original partner, Baqir Iskandar the Water Kineticist, perished in the alluded-to adventure; in-and-of-itself, I could add that into the plot hooks.)

Spooky GM, how grandiose or realistic should these personal goals be? Is searching for the Bloodstones of Arazni too much?

Erasmus "Raz" Ames, human Gunslinger (Pistolero) 5

It looks I deleted my post as you were replying to it, GM. Ignore the PM. I'll have the updated submission for Raz up before too long.

That's rough man. Hope things get better for you.

Sure. We can still do a full inspection of the morgue. The prompt we had from the GM specified that we needed to examine that body in particular. It could be that we're searching the whole morgue for plague, starting with this body for reasons. Reasons will be provided upon the asking. If they aren't, but if we want keep up the act, we can still examine the other bodies after the initial examination to keep up appearances.

At this point there's no need to abandon the plan, and there's nothing in the current implementation that has constrained it, at least nothing that I've done. We might have to be marginally more creative in providing convincing exposition, but we're a long ways away from writing ourselves into a corner, and others are free to jump in and provide exposition if they deem it necessary. And if they chose to do so, that could probably count as an Aid Another for the Bluff check I rolled, if the GM even deems that Bluff check was required in the first place.

Yossarin's got it. Give as few details as necessary, layer them as appropriate. If they never ask 'why', never tell them.

Given the doctor in a plague mask accompanying us, they're probably going to ask.

Raz bows as he steps forward to answer. "Greetings," he says in an exaggerated Garundi accent. A strange-looking amulet spills out from under his robes to dangle next to the Pharasmin pendant. "I am Brother Markos, from the church of Pharasma. We are here to see the body, a most urgent matter we have been charged with. Please show us to the body at once."

Bluff: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

Mr. Ames takes one of the offered cassocks for himself. "Thanks, darlin'. We'll try not to get any blood on it," he says, winking at Grey. He dons the robes over his clothes with practiced ease; this isn't his first time impersonating a priest. "How do I look?"

At the mention of creating forgeries, Mr. Ames gives Miranda a sidelong look. "That's startin' t' get a little too complicated. Too many movin' parts 'n all that. Works for clockwork, not so much for plans." Kicking his feet off the table, he leans forward in his chair. "Once we're in, we're in. The plague story's good, gives us more reason to keep anybody who ain't us out of the room."

He looks around at the others, meeting each of their eyes. "If we can get in the room with the body alone, keepin' the door shut won't be a problem," he says, fishing out an ancient-looking brass-colored key from his coat pocket. Focusing on Laurence, he says, "D'you know how long a plague inspection takes? 'Cause I don't. And I'm willin' t' bet those morticians won't either."

I've got a Key of Lock Jamming, so if we can get inside, alone, we can have as much time as we need. "Seal the door against plague" and all that.

Raz shrugs, his hands still behind his head. "Works for me. What d'you think, Baqir? Ready to play priest again?"

Raz quirks an eyebrow at Laurence. "Ever seen a mummification?" He shrugs, continuing, "Don't worry 'bout the details. Once we're in, we're in." Raz leans back in his chair, kicking his feet up on the table and folds his hands behind his head.

Raz grins and takes one, putting it on over is head. Scooping up the rest, he tosses one to each of the others. "If we've got any cassocks layin' around, we could dress Grey up, hide his tools underneath. A couple of us could go plain-clothes." Turning back to Mrs. Davids, he double-checks, "Is that a thing Pharasmins do around these parts?"

Raz eyes the pendant in her hand. "Yeah, that'll do just fine. If you've got a couple more, even better." He looks to Laurnece and explains, "We're investigatin' a body. Nobody better for the job than a couple o' death priests."

Raz rubs his chin as he listens to the chatter. Sounds like the Captain has a good thing going. He finishes breakfast as the others talk things out, letting the gears grind in his head on how they could get into the morgue.

When Mathias raises the question of the cover story, he looks at Kotri. "You still got that Pharasmin pendant on ya, right?" He holds his hand out to her, asking, "Mind if I take a look at it?"

Raz glares at Baqir, the multiple early awakenings showing on his face. "Me an' the mummies have one thing in common. We'd rather be sleepin'." He props his head up with one hand as he slowly shovels the porridge into his face. "Mornin', Tombstone," he says as Miranda and Mathias arrive.

Since he and Baqir are of one mind, Raz finishes the plate of potatoes and heads back to bed. He tries not to think about the things Lord Burton suggested as he drifts back to sleep, and he succeeds...for the most part.

Raz should be ready as well. I PMed Baqir, he mentioned he's having some trouble keeping up with our posting rate.

:D

I'm so totally game for that! I'm not sure how well it will go from a mechanical perspective, but I've always preferred the narrative to the mechanics. If you think it won't screw with the tone too much, I'll do my best to keep out of screwball comedy territory, but yeah, sign me up!

*** Chronologically, this goes after Laurence has his emotional moment with Lord Burton, not interrupting it. ***

"Now wait just a minute," says Raz, sitting up straighter in his seat. No longer dismissive outright, he's still far from convinced. "Your daughter, she..." He trails off, deciding that the subject required more delicacy than he had the patience for. "It all sounds like a bunch of cover-ups, they probably are. That kinda thing happens a lot." Raz raises both hands, leaning forward slightly. "But where's this super-cult figure in to all this? What's the bigger picture here? What makes you think that these smaller things are all part of a bigger one?" His voice turns accusatory as he says, "What d'you need a couple o' foreign treasure hunters doin' your dirty work for?" He sighs, shaking his head, the disbelief giving way to sober consideration. "I'll take yer money, but this ain't about money. This is about a cause. Right now, I just ain't buyin' it." He takes another drink before adding, "But I never let that stop me before. What d'you think, Baqir?"

Red Rover sounds terrifyingly awesome! It sounds like you really know what you're doing with balancing Mythic, and I trust it would be more entertaining that way. I love the different options that the Mythic mechanics allow for; I think I'd be more inclined to use them if I could abandon the conceit that these characters are on the path to godhood. I just never felt the inclination to play a god or to attempt the Test of the Starstone. Maybe part of the problem is that my group's games always seem to come crashing down as we're getting to levels 5-6, and I haven't gotten tired of the mid-tier levels yet.

I really enjoyed Dragons of Autumn Twilight, but I for some reason I never got past that one. Something about the writing really clicked; I still remember how warm and comfortable I felt reading about the inn where the party gathered in the beginning. I read the Icewind Dale trilogy because I've got a friend who loves FR, but they didn't grip me. My personal favorite has to be the Riftwar Cycle. What are everybody's thoughts on the Pathfinder Tales novels?

Raz chews over the offer about as carefully as he chews his potatoes. He and Baqir share numerous silent looks and glances as the situation unfolds, Raz giving small shakes of his head. Once it's all been laid out, he's got his piece to say. "I reckon we've all seen some pretty weird stuff in our time, but what makes you think it's all connected? I mean, there's cults and there's cults, and you ain't talkin' about the first kind. But what's some undead conspiracy doin' hidin' out in Absalom when they could be hangin' where the real party's at, down in..." He pauses, gulping and blinking involuntarily before finishing, "Geb?"

Leaning back in his chair, he takes a deep breath and runs his hand through his hair again. "No offense t' you an' yours, Lord Burton," he says, raising a dismissively placating hand, "but Pathfinders aren't exactly known for havin' lengthy careers. They're always stickin' their noses in places they don't belong messin' with things that ought not be messed with, and I say that as a man who makes his living stealin' from mummies." He sighs and shrugs his shoulders. "It jus' don't add up."

Paizo never really managed to make the Society as appealing as they seemed to want it to be. I'd much rather play an Aspis Consortium campaign! Maybe if the Pathfinder Society were better integrated into the metaplot it could work, but Paizo seems averse to making adventures that assume anything about party composition (We Be Goblins being the exception).

WotR looks incredible, but I'm skeptical of the Mythic rules. I'd love to play a non-mythic character in a game with Mythic antagonists; it'd work great for a swords-and-sandals style game. Hercules and Xena anyone? I started working on a Worldwound campaign around the time Diablo III came out, before Wrath was announced, but it never went anywhere. RotRL and CotCT are on the list of campaigns I'm really excited to try. I'd REALLY love to play a Runelords game with canon NPCs, maybe a duo game starring Ameiko and Shalelu. Belor Hemlock could make for a great third, but I'm really not sure who could take the fourth slot.

Magic doesn't function the way it's supposed to in the Mana Wastes, so there's a very real danger that spells could backfire or worse. The history of the Mana Wastes also plays into the anti-magic angle, seeing as how the whole place was created by a magic war. Mechanically, persistent magic items simply stop being magical in magic-dead zones, so they pose less of a threat to life and limb in a place where magic gets wonky. And in a world like Golarion, being completely anti-magic is impractical to the furthest degree. Even the AM BARBARIAN makes heavy use of magic items. I'll keep the strong aversion to personal magic and typical arcane-types but temper it with grudging acceptance of magical items. Thanks for the input!

Mrs. Davids has to knock insistently several times to rouse Erasmus Ames. He moans and rubs one eye with the meat of his hand to stop his head pounding behind it. Already dressed for the most part, he pulls on his boots and straps on his guns, leaving his coat and hat. He runs a hand through his hair, not doing much to alleviate the combination of bedhead and chronic hat hair. Arriving downstairs, he takes a seat next to Baqir, eying the clockwork spider. "That's one mystery solved," he mumbles to Baqir. He glances at each of the others, more tired than interested.

It certainly is a bit small to actually play as full-on Victorian London, but that actually worked in its favor. The city is small enough that, even if it's trying to be cosmopolitan, it can still feel like a backwater. The main tension I have driving the metaplot revolves around the vampire underground.

Korvosa is probably my favorite city in Golarion thus far. The Acadamae is a great feature, and they did a really good job with the city as a whole. Absalom always seemed like it had potential, but the original book would benefit from an update. As a setting, the best part about it is that you can introduce just about any kind of character from the setting in Absalom without it seeming far-fetched, like a microcosm of Golarion.

The whole campaign setting is fantastic, and it's a little disappointing on some level that there aren't more people running homebrew plots in the setting. I'm really looking forward to seeing where you take us with this one, Spook!

Laurence, it seems that you and our GM both have quite a bit of experience with the APs. Which ones have you done? I've yet to complete one, but I've played parts of Council of Thieves, Legacy of Fire, Carrion Crown, Skull & Shackles, and Kingmaker. I've read a lot about most of them, but I don't get to play as much as I'd like.

Miranda, how'd your Kingmaker experience go? I was in a PbP here on the forums that started with three separate groups, but it got pretty overwhelming. It seems like a great AP, though.

Grey, what other experience do you have?

***

I'm having trouble making a decision about Erasmus. I was originally going for the superstitious doesn't-trust-magic angle, but that doesn't really jive with the high magic setting. It also makes spending money really difficult, and screws with the math of the game; there's only so many times I can use the "It's not magic, it's lucky" line. Thoughts?

Since this is gothic horror, who else played Carrion Crown? What'd you think of it? For my money, I liked the flavor, but the time-crunch road trip approach really got in the way of what it could have been.

Yeah, I definitely missed the question the first time around and got stuck trying to write around the pacing. My bad.

"Treasure hunters," he says casually as he sweeps the cards up. He deals out another hand as the others pull up to the table, dealing in new players. "Spend a lot o' time triggerin' traps and shootin' mummies. We specialize in fool's errands," he says, taking another drink. Turning his eyes to Laurence, he asks, "How 'bout you, pal? What's yer story?"

***

After turning in for the night, Raz tosses his coat over a chair and throws his hat on top, shrugging off his suspenders. He sets his guns on the nightstand, making sure he can reach them even in his sleep. Sitting down on the bed, he pulls his boots off with a groan and collapses back on the bed to sleep.

GM, just noticed your account name. I'm loving it! I'm imagining the "Hungry Like the Wolf" video populated by Pokémon characters.

Raz claps Baqir on the back as he heads to the stairs and folds his cards. "Bust. He never was a good loser." Peeling his own hand up, Raz takes a moment to consider his next move.

A good . . . long . . . moment.

His eyes snap up as Mathias breaks him out of it. "Oh! Uh...stand." Shrugging his duster off, he pushes his hat back and wipes the newly-formed beads of sweat from his brow. "Always gets so damn hot after he leaves." He takes a long drink from his cup, wiping the back of his hand across his mouth and sighs, satisfied. Eyeing the cards on the table, he says, "Dealer stands with seventeen. Stand or hit?"

"Well, you know what they say about men with big ears and big feet..." Raz deals Mathias in with two cards and lays the deck in the middle, pausing for a bite of the spiced potatoes. "'m starting to come around to this place," he says, talking around a mouthful of potato. "Game is Blackjack with a ghost dealer. You're familiar?" Raz spreads the dealers cards, showing a 10 of hearts and a 7 of hearts. He licks his lips as he folds his own hand up toward his eyes, glancing at them. "So what d'you reckon this letter business is about, Mr. Gabriel?"

May have bitten off more than I can chew with the card game. Ian Fleming, I am not. If you want to play a simulated game, I can draw from an actual deck.

Raz flashes a grin at Baqir, still looking at his pistol as he finishes cleaning it. "Course I am. Don't know 'bout you, but I'm happy to have a sea between us and the sand." Looking up, he adds, "Looks like we've got company."

Raz takes a look at the ale the big man slides him and raises the mug that he'd ordered with his meal. "Got one, thanks." He takes a pull from it before setting it down. "Got some big ears if you heard me from over there, Mr. Gabriel. Big mouth, too." Holstering his revolver, he pulls out an actual pack of cards from a pocket and starts dealing them out. "That's fine by me; Frosty here can't hear me ten feet away most days. Name's Erasmus Ames." He flicks his eyes up at Mathias. "You in?"

At hearing the big man's question to the barmaid, Raz snorts and glances up from cleaning his gun. "Real subtle there, Tombstone," he mutters under his breath. Guess that mean's Baqir and I aren't the only ones. His eyes dart around the room again, paying closer attention to the other patrons. The bookworm who looks like he's meeting food for the first time, the newcomers Tombstone and his tiny friend, and the dandy-looking fellow coming down the stairs to join the party. Including himself and his friend the walking snow drift, that made six. Six weirdos, all dressed up and nowhere to go. There'd been plenty of weirdos back in Katapesh, but at least people there knew better than to talk about it openly. Good manners is what sets us apart from the mutants, after all.

Soon™

You work for Blizzard?

Raz is about to rattle off the usual order when he spots an open menu. He peruses it for a moment, surprised at the list of different options. "Something dark..." He points to a random line on the Dwarven Stout page and says, "Two o' these. And," he says, sniffing the air, "a couple o' bowls of whatever you got back there. Smells good. A loaf of bread with that, too."

Finishing the order, Raz finds a table close to a wall with an unobstructed view of the room. He pushes his chair back and hunches over, pulling out his revolver to clean and oil it as he waits for the food.

Erasmus Ames woke with a start at the sound of whirring clockwork, his still-sleeping brain already sending his body tumbling out of bed reaching for his guns. Alert, he poked his head up over the edge of the bed, training one revolver on the source of the sound - a metal pigeon now sitting on his pillow, an envelope in its beak. He crouched there for a long moment, waiting for the bird to make a move. A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead, his finger twitching right next to the trigger, but the thing just sat there.

With a sigh, he dropped his gun back down, his other hand striking out to snatch the little machine. It didn't protest as he turned it over in his hands, examining it for signs of a maker's mark. It didn't look like Alkenstar tech, so he set it aside, keeping a suspicious eye on it as he ripped open the letter it carried. He squinted as read it; it set alarm bells ringing in his head, but there was something else to it that kept him from disregarding it entirely. Absalom, huh? That's plenty far from Alkenstar and Geb. Picking up the key that had fallen out, he stared at it like it held the answers to all his questions. He whipped his head around at the sudden sound of more whirring to see the bird flying back out through the window. Suppressing the urge to shoot it out of the sky, he turned his attention back to the key in his hand instead. The gears in his mind started turning as he considered the implications. The City at the Center of the World...

***

It took them awhile to find the place; he hadn't expected 'one of the finest inns in town' to be found in such a pedestrian neighborhood. Raz raised an eyebrow at Baqir as they entered. "You sure this is the place?" He glanced around the room, taking in the details - haphazard table placement, entrances and exits, windows, corners, vantage points. But as soon as he eyed it, he made a bee-line for the bar. "Check us in, I'll get the drinks."