GM Hurley's page

Hi all! I'm still here, just needed to get through holidays. I'll be catching up on posts this week and I'll have IC posts up by the end of the week.

Additional point of clarification - you all would have set out on the morning of the 25th, it is now the 28th, so it's the fourth day of travel.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays! Sorry for the long wait for the intro post. Work and family life are busy for me this season, as I'm sure they are for many of you as well!

I'm still working out my style, and I'm not totally sure I've found exactly the right voice yet, but at some point you just need to hit the "Submit Post" button and get things moving!

We're starting off with two scenes - the ball at Jamandi Aldori's mansion on Calistril 24th, and the road to Oleg's on Calistril 28th. I'd like for people to use headers with bolded OOC tags for each post and each section. For now, let's keep the prologue scenes at the ball enclosed within spoilers as well. I've provided a prompt for each PC, but this is just a suggestion. If your character wouldn't even be at the ball, feel free not to skip out on that scene entirely.

Below here I'm going to post some notes about each scene to frame it and provide some additional guidance and direction. Both of these scenes should be largely freeform RP, but they serve different goals.

Scene - Jamandi Aldori's Ball
Style: Punctuated flashback-style scenes. Probably not continuous in-character roleplay.
Purpose: Establish early characterization. Introduce NPCs (some key, some minor). Give the PCs opportunities to begin seeding characters, plots, etc. and feel out their voice.
Important NPCs: Jamandi Aldori, Maegar Varn, Hannis Drelev
End trigger: When everyone has had the chance to get a few posts in, I'll move the scene along to Jamandi Aldori's bestowing of the charters. Currently I don't think we'll do the attempted assassination plot; I'm doing this scene concurrently so it doesn't pad out the time or delay getting into the action, and one or multiple group combat encounters goes beyond the scope of what I'm hoping to accomplish with this scene. However, I'm open to changing course if the players wish for it.
Other notes: This scene takes place in a mansion in or near the city of Restov in Rostland, the southern breadbasket region of Brevoy. Restov is situated near the Shrike River, and is the Swordlord Council's stronghold. This city is a hotbed of resistance and anti-Surtova, anti-Rogarvia, anti-monarchical sentiment. Most of the nobility is more likely to be found at court in New Stetven, over 100 miles to the northwest. That's not to say you can't introduce some nobility in this scene, but people like Noleski and Natala Surtova (the king-regent and his sister) would not be slumming it here. There are people from all walks of life at this ball; rough-and-tumble adventurers are rubbing elbows with the elite. Most guests aren't even Aldori Swordlords, though there are certainly more than a few in attendance.

Scene - On the Road to Oleg's
Style: Either continuous roleplay or short vignettes.
Purpose: Provide the PCs a chance to interact more directly than they might in the Ball scene. Enjoy the scenery a bit. Give the players the chance to contribute to set dressing. Carry the game in a somewhat unstructured manner through the holiday season when posting may be impacted.
End trigger: I'll move the scene to Oleg's after a few rounds of posting and everyone has had a chance to warm up, likely after the holidays have wrapped up.
Other notes: The people in Brevoy act as if the Stolen Lands is a monster-infested no man's land, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Despite the road ending at Oleg's, there is a healthy trade between Brevoy and the River Kingdoms that runs through the Stolen Lands, at least enough to sustain a small but seemingly permanent bandit population. There are people out here living their lives, farming or the like. They're simply outside the bounds of anybody who might be able to impose taxes on them.

Chapter 1 - Into the Stolen Lands

Calistril 28th, 4710 AR
The Road to Oleg's, The Stolen Lands

Trading the labyrinthine intrigues and power plays of Restov for the open road, the Greenbelt expedition company follows their path to fortune and glory south, making a right turn where the road approaches the bank of the Shrike River and heading west toward Oleg's Trading Post. Along the way, the cobbled highway gives way to a narrow dirt track marked on either side by ruts and grooves carved by hundreds of wagon wheels, and the neat farms and clustered settlements thin into stretches of untamed fields and low, wind-bent trees. Early spring hangs in the air—a biting wind that flutters loose hair and the edges of cloaks, patches of snow stubbornly clinging to shaded banks, and the occasional drizzle that soaks the road, turning it to mud. Birds call from leafless branches, and the low sun glints off puddles that ripple in the gusts, but for all the signs of life, the world feels sharp and tentative, as if it is only just waking from winter’s hold.

This is the first time since leaving Restov that the company can speak without measured courtesy, for the road demands no social finesse—only alertness to footing, wagons, and the rhythm of travel. Lanterns swing from the wagon’s posts, mud squelches under boots, and the scent of wet earth rises with each step. They will reach Oleg's before nightfall, so long as their journey continues without incident. Time would tell who they would be to each other when they finally arrive, and how the road was already beginning to shape that bonds that would see them through the trials yet to come.

If Brevoy was not yet dead, it was already beyond saving.

There were three grains of sand left.

GM, I'm finally sitting down to finish Mal's gear. Question that could apply to anybody with crafting feats: as long as we're capable of crafting it with a Take 10, may we buy gear we could craft at the crafting cost?

Nope. I've gone so far as to allow for crafting feats to be used as justification for things like masterwork weapons, but a free 900 gold should be more than sufficient to purchase a reasonable kit without the crafting discount. Frankly, trying to extend that further just looks like powergaming for the sake of it. If you have a specific case you'd like to submit for me to consider, I'm open to hearing you out.

Hurley? You still with us?

Still here! Busy work week followed by busy weekend. The first post is taking a little bit as I tweak formatting and such; I'm trying to establish precedent for consistent posting, it takes a bit of work on the front end is all.

It sounds like there is interest in doing some RP with the Aldori banquet (Owlcat game/2e campaign), I agree that could be interesting. I think the best compromise for that is to open on the road to Oleg's to give you all a chance to RP together and capitalize on the starting energy. RP pertaining to the Aldori banquet can be handled in spoilers alongside "current" RP, I'm working on getting a first post up to demonstrate what that format will look like.

@Zsofia
The Narlmarches is a large stretch of territory, but that doesn't pose a major problem; Brevoy is willing to play fast and loose with titles to the Stolen Lands because they know that neither they nor anybody else has the power projection to make good on any claims. If a would-be count wants to set out to try to enforce their claim of any title they may have, all the better for Brevoy should they succeed.

That's interesting since neither Zsofia or Mal are currently the legitimate descendants of Myrna, unless I'm reading Zsofia's background wrong. Zsofia's descended from a cousin of Choral and Mal is descended from an illegitimate child of Choral's heir and Mal's 5x great-grandmother (wife of the founder of House Rath, which is a reskinned House Mormont from Game of Thrones). Did you want one of us to change that or is it not a big deal either way?

We really gotta get Choral's heir a name. Charles feels way too on-the-nose but it's good enough as a working name for now.

I'm pointing out the canon I had in place when I started recruitment. For backstories that conflict, we'll have to massage the details unless they're crucial to the character, in which case we'll find a compromise. In Zsofia's case, the minimum would be that she would trace ancestry through "Charles", Choral's heir. Alternatively, we could have a situation where the first generation of House Rogarvia are largely made up of Choral's warband with "Charles" as their eventual leader. So maybe Choral did have a "cousin" and there could be legal lineage that connects them, but that wouldn't establish an actual blood relation of the sort that is relevant to the foul magic of the Vanishing. If there is such a blood connection, it would have been a result of breeding in subsequent generations. So you've got the first generation of House Rogarvia freely intermingling with the other noble houses, and especially the Surtovas and their bannermen.

@GM Hurley, I'll answer the questions you asked in a little bit, but it occurs to me that maybe it would be better to not have Zsofia related to Choral at all, to better distinguish Mal's story? With the bloodline as you've described it, I think Zsofia's relative granted the lands of the Shrike river would have to have been related to Myrna Surtova. That probably means they don't have any dragon in them. Zsofia's got a lot of story hooks already without that. What do you think?

That's fine with me if you want to eliminate that angle entirely. I don't think we would need to, but I'll leave that up to you. I wasn't going to put a limit on the number of "Choral descendants" I was taking. Being a descendant of Choral is fine, being related to a "cousin" is fine. We haven't really established what happened with Myrna after Choral left, so it's possible she could have had other semi-legitimate children later on.

Regarding Noleski and Natala, he's not keen to get married but he's not actively avoiding it. Natala relishes her position as de facto queen and is in no hurry to give that up. I could definitely see her hinting to Zsofia that she might be eligible to marry Noleski, but as a ploy to create more drama and piss off/distract the other would-be suitresses.

The Lebedas are molded at least somewhat after House Tyrell. They're in an awkward geopolitical position and marrying into the throne would be a great move for them if Elanna could pull it off. The Surtovas have Issia under their thumb, or at least they think they do.

@Mark Thomas 66 I'm sorry for your loss, this must be an extraordinarily difficult time for you and your family. No harm, no foul on my end.

I don't take it personally if anyone didn't have time to follow up on initial interest. Sometimes recruitments move quickly, sometimes they drag on for a month or more. This one was impacted by the site having a full week of downtime and then ran into the Thanksgiving season. That's just the way of it. But if this one is successful, then I'm eyeing Legacy of Fire and Skull & Shackles for the future!

This is coming along together very nicely! The Swordlords were initially going to charter just one group (Maegar Varn's group) but they were caught out by the Brevic nobles and had to charter multiple groups as a result. The Swordlords are heavily banking on Varn to succeed and the PC group will be the disfavored group. In truth, you're really only there to save Maegar Varn the trouble of dealing with the Stag Lord, and if you get killed in the attempt, so much the better (is the Swordlords' thinking). You're the group of weirdos that they couldn't really fit on any of the other teams they were putting together. You're disposable. Which also feeds into why you have to clear out the bandits before they'll even consider giving you actual landholding rights.

@Maylev Yeah, we can have some Czech in there! An Eastern European mishmash for sure. Probably even have some stratification by social class and lineage if we want to get fancy with it. I'm not intending to be too strict about it, that's just my observations from what's already been published. We've got a good group here, I don't expect it to be a huge issue.

I'm leaning toward having Choral's heir be the legitimate offspring of Myrna Surtova. I had originally been toying with the idea that Caelyndraxis might have eaten Myrna on the banks of the Lake of Mists and Veils the very night she and Choral were wed and proceeded to impersonate Myrna for the next ten years, but the more I think about it, the more I like the two dragons as bickering siblings rather than incestuous. Caelyndraxis likely wasn't keen on taking human form and certainly had no interest in carrying or birthing a child. As far as the two dragons are concerned, the whole royal line are disposable tools in their quest to amass wealth and power. But the Rogarvians were still dragonblooded and probably had a high incidence of draconic sorcery in their line, and probably an above average incidence of illegitimate offspring with various other magical heritages.

@Jack In the default game of Kingmaker, Briar winds up in the possession of the king of Pitax, and I'm not even sure Nyrissa is aware of it. I'd need to check the book to make sure of this, I could be wrong. In any event, the latter parts of the AP are...ripe for being rewritten. I don't have a specific location or resting place in mind for Briar at the moment, that might very well be something we all discover together in play.

As a caravan guard, Jack is probably pretty familiar with the geography of the Stolen Lands, or at least a few well-traveled routes. He knows where bandits are likely to set up, etc.

@Ta Bayang Thanks for sharing, good to know!

@Trillium That all tracks. Though I am interested in giving Trillium the chance to do some real research work; there are Pathfinders in Brevoy who have been working on piecing together the true history of Brevoy for centuries at this point. And the Stolen Lands is dotted with ruins of past kingdoms (not to mention the Cyclopean civilization).

@Zsofia Do you think Zsofia would herself consider vying for marriage to Noleski Surtova? That would make for some interesting court politics, it's a stacked field. As far as I can find, there aren't established ages for any of the Brevoy NPCs, so for now it's a lot of relatively young nobles running things in New Stetven. The Surtovas might be early 20s, Elanna Lebeda is probably around 18-20, Lander is still 12 and his mother Dame Saronna is currently head of House Lebeda until Lander comes of age at 15.

I like to think that most of the older nobles have put some distance between themselves and the court at New Stetven; the older adults are presiding over their estates personally and keeping their thumb on business and real feudal politics as they prepare for the inevitable war while their children play at being in charge in the capital. If the Vanishing happened in 4699 AR, that puts it at 7 to 8 years ago if we start in 4707. Perhaps the former head of House Surtova, Noleski and Natala's father, secured Surtovan regency over Brevoy but died somewhat recently, so the fragility rests on a young and brash Surtovan regent.

I've cleaned up the Google Doc a bit, still more to do but it's going to take a while to reformat the journal entries. Velimira is a fun character -- she's a vapid social climber who thinks she's two steps ahead but is usually more like three steps behind. In her own mind she's the greatest court gossip in the Inner Sea.

Regarding Brevoy's culture-
Given that the Inner Sea maps loosely onto the Mediterranean region of our own world, and taking into account the various influences that can be inferred from the text, I imagine Brevoy's flavor to be some mix of western Russia, waning Ottoman Empire, and Italy. That should be reflected in human names, when you do end up introducing new NPCs. Obviously that doesn't always apply the same way to non-human races who have their own culture. If it wasn't clear enough, there are tensions that run deep and will eventually erupt into a civil war when Rostland inevitably tries to regain their independence. I borrowed heavily from Redcelt's "Game of Thrones in Brevoy" notes here on the Paizo forums to flesh out the Houses, and any resemblance to ASOIAF is likely intentional. That being said, I must confess that I only read the first book and couldn't get through the second, and had much the same experience with the show.

Regarding ancestry that traces to Choral-
Choral the Conquerer was and is a red dragon in human form. Choral was said to have two red dragon allies, but in truth the two red dragons were him and his sister, Chorazulanthus and Caelyndraxis. This is a major secret and virtually nobody in Breovy knows this. Any rumors that have been swirling for the last 200+ years have little to no evidence to support them. Whether Choral's heir was his child with Myrna Surtova or if it was actually the child of Caelyndraxis is currently undecided, but any and all true blood relation that any of the descendants have to Choral is through that heir. After 10 years of sitting on the Dragonscale Throne, Choral and his sister left and were never seen again. The heir was at most 9 years old, so there was certainly some kind of Surtovan regency until the heir came of age at 15 and ascended the throne himself.

Regarding the intro setup-
We could definitely keep it as being chartered by the Swordlords if that's what's preferred. In that case, we might have something like a Gambit Pileup with a bunch of different factions inserting their own people into the Swordlords' play for the Stolen Lands. It would be a situation where the Swordlords are suspicious that it's happening but may or may not be able to prove it, but they also can't veto it without tipping their hand to Surtova. It's a game of "everybody knows what's happening and everybody is going to pretend it's not happening and nobody's going to say anything about it or acknowledge it." This positions the PC kingdom as being a linchpin to the whole barely-contained pressure cooker.

The party will be starting off as one single party together; I just don't have the bandwidth to run two separate parties and it avoids padding the early game too much. This game in particular is going to use most of the new game momentum on figuring out the setup and I want to be mindful of the nigh-inevitable slowdown after 2 weeks or a month, so I'm not a fan of creating more hurdles at the start.

@Tsia How old is Tsia? Elves have long lifespans and she grew up in Iobaria. It's possible she was alive and around when the human warlord Choral Rogarvia showed up out of nowhere and started assimilating multiple tribes under his banner only to disappear just as suddenly when he took his army across the Lake of Mists and Veils. Certainly the dragons noticed that he seemed to have the cooperation of two of their own number who might have been known (among dragons) to be young upstarts with too many schemes.

As for lighter games, I decamped from d20 stuff for Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) games around 2016 and haven't really looked back. Masks is my favorite, but there are plenty of great games in that space, they're just usually not trad fantasy games. For my home game I'm currently hacking an obscure new game called Grimwild into my preferred shape for a rules-light trad fantasy game. I could go on at length about design theory, but the short of it is that D&D/PF1e are games that are mostly about killing things and taking their stuff with a tactical board game at their core, and the games I like more have mechanics that more actively work with you to create stories. There's a good chance I'm going to get more experimental with things like exploration mechanics and the kingdom management rules; those are low-hanging fruit for tinkering since the official PF rules for them are widely considered to be basically unplayable. I haven't tried Draw Steel yet, but I've run a bit of Daggerheart and I like it well enough. It runs a lot like a PbtA game from the GM's side, but the players' side is still a lot like D&D. So currently Daggerheart has my vote for "the game that's best for playing Cultural D&D" even if it's not the one I most want to run.

@Ta Bayang Does she go by Ta? Is it always Ta Bayang, like a Tribe Called Quest? You say the whole damn thing! In any event, she was much closer to the events surrounding Nyrissa and Count Ranalc than almost anyone. You background leaves it ambiguous, but I would suggest that she was not directly present when The Lantern King banished Count Ranalc to the Plane of Shadow and punished Nyrissa. It provides for there to be some mystery left.

@Zsofia House Dobos can be whoever you'd like. Surtova and Lodovka are both outright pirates. They certainly don't have to be the only pirates on the Lake of Mists and Veils. But they're powerful enough that the other houses can't do anything about it, and the rest of the nobles are smart enough not to openly acknowledge it at court or in polite society. You don't necessarily have to change anything about her father's interactions or relationship to the Surtovas if you don't want to, but I thought I would open that door.

I've added the Gameplay thread, go ahead and delete after you've posted. Once everyone has done that, I will go ahead and remove my initial placeholder post as well.

A major thing we need to clear up for continuity before beginning is the framing of getting the party together. Standard Kingmaker has the party as members of an expedition with a charter by the Swordlords. Trillium, your backstory implies that you've got an Aldori friend with a charter. Zsofia, your backstory provides an alternate beginning entirely, with you having a separate but substantially similar starting point as you're acting to claim "ancestral lands" for yourself separate from the Swordlords. Now, if we had had a few more submissions and I thought I could manage it, it almost could have worked to have two parties initially competing, but that's not where we're at.

I'll leave it to the party to deliberate if you all want to go the standard Swordlords route or if we want to revamp it to follow Zsofia's lead and play as Surtovan allies instead. Personally, I think the latter option is enticing for a number of reasons. Remixing the plot is fun, and it creates opportunities for us down the line to have your neighbor to the north be a hostile Rostland instead of a friendly one. If we go that route, there will still be an Aldori-chartered NPC group doing some exploring as well. Additionally, it would shift the initial objective of the game away from clearing out bandits and taking down the Stag Lord as a precondition to establishing the kingdom to making it to Zsofia's seat of power, clearing it, and proving you can hold the territory.

@Jack Good idea about using headers in the Google Doc. I'll try reformatting it.

Placeholder

Thank you to everyone who submitted interest!

Congratulations to:
Jack Ciarathan
Maylev
Ta Bayang
Trillium Anstarza
Tsia Troian Malynova
Zsófia Dobós

Please report to the Discussion thread.

Our two alternates are:
Rosc/Lady Umbra
Gem Chiaclisnid

If for any reason I should need to recruit additional players, I will contact you first before moving on to any public recruiting.

To everyone else, thank you for your interest and best of luck in future games! If anything about this unorthodox style piques your interest, I'd love to see what it might look like for others to run with it.

Welcome everybody! This Discussion Thread will probably be as much a part of the game as the actual game thread (once that gets up and running). Aside from being the OOC break room, this is also where we'll hash out a lot of the scene-by-scene details and decide on where the story is headed.

I'll be posting relevant links and documents in the Campaign Description so that we'll have them on hand. Was the Google Doc with additional info helpful, or was the structure too difficult to use? I'm still trying to find the best tool for campaign documents like that, if anybody has recommendations for tools that have worked for them I'm all ears.

I need to go back through each of your backstories one more time in case I have any lingering questions, clarifications that should be made, or adjustments or alterations to fit the vision (or alterations to what I have already provided to fit your vision!)

With the recruitment done, I am informally stepping down from "GM" to something more like "first among equals". I see myself as sort of a director, but this is a shared venture, and I relinquish the authorial control typically reserved for GMs. I'll still be performing the regular duties of posting for the world and the NPCs, but once a given scene gets going you're all encouraged to take control and ownership as you feel led. In order to facilitate that, I'll post certain expectations and conditions for scenes and for NPCs here in our Writer's Room to make it easy for us to all stay on the same page. I'll reserve the right to make final decisions if we can't form a consensus on an issue should a clash of visions occur. This whole thing is a big experiment for me in trying a new approach to PbP, and maybe it won't work, but I'm excited that you've all decided to join me in trying it out!

Also, just a thing to be aware of, I tend to post and then make edits. So if you see me post something, just know that if it's been less than an hour since I posted it there's a non-zero chance that my post will have changed sometime after you've read and responded to it. I'm going to try very hard to make sure all my posts in the IC thread will be final before posting, but I make no such promises for the Writer's Room thread. This paragraph is already the second/third edit I've made to this post since making it XD

Some other stuff I've got to be upfront about - this is my first Pathfinder game in...probably a decade. I would have pitched this in a totally different system if I had thought I'd be able to attract attention with it. I have something of a disdain for the tactical combat board game that lives at the heart of D&D and Pathfinder, but I promise not to take that out on all of you. I'm going to do my best to run the battles in a fair and consistent manner, but I'm not here to "win" the fights. But if it ever comes across like I don't have a ton of respect for the mechanics of the system - well, it's because I don't! That's why I do things like give you all 900gp to start with so that you can have the equipment you need for your vision. The party was not selected with combat balance in mind - if it becomes apparent that the game has expectations that the party can't meet for whatever reason then we won't worry about those mechanics. By RAW young dragons don't have the ability to take human form, and I have knowingly ignored that with Chorazulanthus and Caelyndraxis. Because Plot, it's certainly possible to contrive a reason why they do have that ability in a unique fashion, but at this stage I'm not super worried about those details, and I'm totally fine with suspending the RAW to allow it.

I'm a big fan of Golarion as a setting, and I'm excited to play in it with all of you. That said, I transitioned away from Pathfinder around the time of the transition to 2e. For the purposes of this game, we're playing in a "clean slate" version of Golarion. Assume that none of the other Adventure Paths have happened, unless it becomes fun for us to include some details. At this stage, I didn't see anything in the character backstories that would imply a need to have had any of the other APs already happen, so for now I'm assuming they haven't. Kingmaker typically takes place in 4710; that seems like a fine starting year for me, and even if any of the other APs have/are happening, Golarion is a big place and sometimes it takes awhile for regional events like the re-emergence of Thassilon out in western Varisia to be noticed or have a major impact on a place like Brevoy which is at the far end of the continent away from it.

All good ... thought I had 45 more minutes, but all good.

(it's about 11:15am here in Los Angeles)
Process was incredibly cool though, as I finally hammered out a really solid path to Thought Thief, one of the 2 prestige class archtypes. Totally psyched to be able to put my vision together.

Have fun!

My mistake! I live in a different timezone and did my conversion incorrectly. You are correct, and you are under consideration!

SUBMISSIONS CLOSED!

Thanks everybody, I'll be contacting my top 3 and together the four of us will select the rest of the party and alternates!

Alright everyone, here is your 24 23 HOUR WARNING. Submissions should be posted within the next 24 23 hours, by 12:00PM PST on Friday December 5th.

@Zahir ibn Mahmoud ibn Jothan Your final submission post can include as much or as little as you'd like, it's just there to clearly indicate that your character is submitted and ready for review. Either your submission post or your profile will ideally include your character build, character background info, and any other writing samples you'd like to submit for consideration. I'm not requiring full builds to be complete for submission and I'm only planning to audit characters who are accepted, so don't feel too much pressure on the mechanics as long as you've got a general idea of where you're going with the character.

Background and writing quality are the main things I'm interested in for this - submissions are judged on a gut feeling combination of how much I'm enjoying reading you write as/about the character (and any other included samples) and how much I want to play with that character. If somebody submits an enthralling story about a gunslinger from Alkenstar turned Shackles pirate with no mention at all of Brevoy or the Stolen Lands then I'll enjoy the read but pass on the character because this isn't Skull & Shackles and being able to collaborate is going to be a vitally important skill for everybody playing. Likewise, if the character is a perfect fit and slots in neatly to the plot but the writing style makes me want to claw my eyes out, I'll thank them for the submission and pass on the character because writing stuff that other people want to read is also a vitally important skill for everybody playing.

@GrimbleGrumble It is indeed too late, but I do thank you for taking the time to ask! Sorry you missed it, but if this experiment goes well then hopefully it won't be the last. In the meantime, best of luck with any other games that catch your fancy.

@Anders Smith Acknowledged, thanks for your interest and best of luck with your future games!

Hi all! Sorry for the radio silence, I was away at PAX Unplugged for a week. I am back now. With the holidays coming up, I think it's a good time to go ahead and lock in a final submission deadline of 12:00PM (noon) PST on Friday the 5th of December. I will hold off on reading character submissions until at least Monday December 1st but I will start looking over them during that week. Whether you are already finished or still working on your submission, I would ask that you make a post following this one with Final Submission or the like at the very top of the post to make it clear that the submission is ready for review. For extreme clarity's sake: I will only review any final submissions that appear below/after this post of mine which are marked as Final Submission or its equivalent at the top of the post. Thank you!

@everyone Is there an issue with the Google Doc? It should be a single doc with a lot of tabs and subtabs, someone in the thread indicated they were having trouble with it. If there's a problem, I can try to put everything in one long document instead of broken into separate tabs, I just need to know if there's an issue.

@Rosc This is a valid question and concern. The Swashbuckler is a particularly poor choice for the PbP format. My issue with Attacks of Opportunity is specifically that they introduce additional steps into the flow of combat. In sychronous/real-time play this isn't a huge issue; in PbP it can be a substantial delay. The Swashbuckler's entire schtick revolves around multiple different kinds of abilities that can introduce such delays. Opportune Parry and Riposte does it with AoOs, but Dodging Panache does it as well by allowing the Swashbuckler to retroactively increase their AC. I can imagine some "fixes" that would at least make the Swashbuckler playable; if it comes to that, I will discuss that with the Swashbuckler's player should there be such a character that is chosen. But to be clear, no, they would not be granted an exception to the rule about Attacks of Opportunity, we would houserule their abilities in such a way as to not interrupt the flow in an asynchronous game.

Oozemorph Shifter is published by Paizo, I'll allow it. I'll be happy to address any concerns about them should they come up in play. The Ooze Empathy feature is pretty clearly "magical" (it's Extraordinary, not Supernatural), it's probably going to break the limits of regular logic and that's fine.

@Mark Thomas 66 Sworn of the Eldest is published by Paizo, I'll allow it. Nyrissa's lost lover is not specified in official canon but the evidence suggests it's Count Ranalc. For the purposes of this game, that is explicitly the case.

@Malylev, the Little Lion I don't see anything in there that I have a major problem with. I haven't fully decided exactly what's going on with Choral and descendants, but the only thing I'd ask you to change is that the character is descended from Choral's heir rather than Choral himself. I'm leaning in the direction of having Choral's sole heir (and thus the branch that all of Choral's descendants trace through) be the incestuous offspring of Chorazulanthus and Caelyndraxis (extremely consistent with everything going on with the Targaryans in ASOIAF), but might decide that that heir was instead the offspring of Choral and Myrna.

@Anders Smith I'll allow the living steel. I'm open to using the Alternate Crafting Rules, but PCs do not get the monetary benefit of crafting their starting equipment. Someone else has already justified having a masterwork bow as having crafted it themselves, and that is fine, but it will not reduce the purchase cost of that item. The starting gold is already extremely generous to account for a wide variety of RP (it allows most mundane starting equipment somebody might reasonably want except a suit of full plate).

@Zahir ibn Mahmoud ibn Jothan I am checking PMs, I was offline for about the last week due to being at PAX Unplugged. I have responded to your PM as of writing this message, this is just for posterity.

@rdknight In truth I do not have a plan for methodology. There's no guarantee that I am going to select a balanced party based on combat roles. There's no guarantee that I will select a party based on balanced assortment of plot tie-ins. Heck, I'm letting 3 players have major say-so in who the rest are, so there's bound to be at least some imbalance in the final party in one regard or another. I'm sorry if that comes across as a bit arbitrary, I just want to be as up front as possible. Submit what you want to play, write your best writing sample, and we'll see where everything lands.

I'm fine with Variant Multiclassing. I look forward to seeing what you do with a Gray Maiden, I think they're a compelling part of Curse of the Crimson Throne and while I wouldn't think them a natural fit for Kingmaker I have an acknowledged bias for characters that are well-grounded in the official setting. So a Gray Maiden is more likely to be looked on favorably than some random character from an unnamed city in Varisia.

Whew! That site maintenance was a doozy, eh? Everybody still with me?

@everyone We've got some strong submissions already! I don't want anybody to be discouraged by my not commenting on anybody's characters, I'm just holding myself back from prejudicing myself or prompting any major changes. The downtime didn't help things either. We will be closed to new interest at 11:59PM PST on Wednesday the 26th of November. That's Wealday the 26th of Neth 4725 AR. I will not expect final submissions at that time; anything as minor as a "dot" post before then will be considered interest. I am also not expecting finalized sheets until after I close submissions and make final decisions. I do not have a firm date in mind yet, but I am hoping to close and make decisions no later than Friday, December 5th. I will make another post announcing the final timeline, you will have at least one calendar week between the announcement and closing to finalize your submission package. Final submission packages should include at least a general idea of a build and as much background information and writing sample as you care to provide.

I am planning to take 6 players. If I had to choose today it would already be a difficult choice, I imagine it will only get harder. In service of the group nature of this game, I will personally select my 3 favorites, and then I will work with those three to select the final three players and three alternates. So keep in mind that you're not only writing for me, you're writing for each other. And the writing really is the important thing.

@eriktd In the case of players dropping (and let's face it, there's a high chance of that happening at least once) then their characters will still be a part of the story and will become a character held in common by everyone. They can be controlled in combat by whoever chooses, or we might collectively work towards writing them out of the story.

@Anders Smith Yes, I would strongly prefer that you read the spoilers as well as the document linked in this post. It is ultimately up to you, but if you're not willing to be spoiled on either the main Kingmaker game plot or my various changes or additions, then this might not be the game for you. No harm, no foul.

@Jack Ciarathan It wasn't just you, the site received a major update that took it down for over a week. Welcome back!

@Qunnessaa Pacing is always hard for PbP. I'm looking for players that can consistently put out high-effort posts, and I strive to do the same. I'm shooting for 1-2 posts per week on average. The first couple of weeks of any PbP tend to be faster and more furious, and it will be easier to put out more posts early on before things get too complicated with having multiple ongoing concurrent scenes. But for steady-state pacing, I'm hoping for 1-2 per week. Now, if this whole token system works out the way I hope it will, it should make it easier for more people to post more frequently because we don't have the problem (as often) where 3 people are waiting on 1 person to post and that person can't get to it for 4 days.

As for AoOs, I'm ignoring them as a rule. That's a knife that cuts both ways. Casters will not provoke Attacks of Opportunity for casting in melee. That's players and enemies. This is a rule change purely to eliminate a common cause for slowdowns in combat scenes, no other reason. I'm aware it may have unintended consequences for balancing combat, but I'm confident it won't be something we can't overcome.

@Jack Ciarathan You have ranks in Craft (bowyer), that's enough justification for me.

Per the combat horse tricks, I was able to find this:

An animal trained to bear a rider into combat knows the tricks attack, come, defend, down, guard, and heel. Training an animal for combat riding takes 6 weeks. You may also “upgrade” an animal trained for riding to one trained for combat by spending 3 weeks and making a successful DC 20 Handle Animal check. The new general purpose and tricks completely replace the animal’s previous purpose and any tricks it once knew. Many horses and riding dogs are trained in this way.

Link

I am not worried that people might be playing other Kingmaker games. I'm not running games as a charitable service to the online community, I'm running them because I want to have fun, too. Knowing the general plot should provide you with more ideas about how to hook into the game well. I would hope that people aren't submitting the same character as they're already playing...because what exactly is the fun in that? If you only have one character idea that you're interested in exploring and you're already exploring it, I don't know what my game has to offer. But hey, if the character is cool and the writing style is good enough, I'd probably still take it.

I don't have any issues with people submitting characters that they have written for other games. However, I will say that I encourage you to assume tying into deeper plots. That goes for everybody. It's the whole reason I'm trying to run in this style, with all of the cool plot details on the table out in the open. I'm excited to see other people's character concepts when they know they're allowed to write them into the plot. The most disatisfying part of how Adventure Paths are written and tend to be run is that they bend over backwards to assume that Player Characters can be anyone from anywhere, and in practice it almost seems like the writers don't want the characters to be rooted in the locations and conflicts that the adventures are set it. Reign of Winter is the Irrisen game, except it's written in such a way as to virtually exclude the players from playing Irriseni characters. It's absurd to me. I want a Kingmaker game that's about people who could be the main characters of Kingmaker because they belong there, not because they're the four randoms that answered a bulletin and decided to go romp in the woods together. I set out a plot hook that there's at least one descendant of Choral Rogarvia left alive and that Choral needs to kill them to complete a ritual. I put that level of detail in the recruitment post specifically to attract somebody who wants to write a character that fits into that. That's just one example, mind you. And I'm open to other players' plot ideas too, which is why I'm openly trying to share the GM responsibilities around and building systems to let players introduce totally new stuff into the game.

I do understand that the game theory of competitive recruitment might deter some people from "committing to a lane" in that way. But if you see one of my juicy plot hooks and think you've got some cool ideas for it? Insert just_hook_it_to_my_veins.jpg here. Anybody is free to say "actually, Nyrissa and Count Ranalc had another child, and here is my submission for that character." Anybody is free to say "Nyrissa's story may be a practically unknown myth to most people, but here is my bard who has spent half their life chronicling the tales of the fey within the Stolen Lands and I have been able to piece enough commonalities that I am working on an epic poem that puts all the pieces together and when I'm done her name will be known throughout the Inner Sea!" I could keep going, but I want to see your character ideas, if I just wanted mine reflected back at me I would just go write fanfic. Last time I tried, I got a whole 3 pages out of it and couldn't nail down any kind of actual plot to drive the story forward.

Personally, I don't have a go-to PC that I want to run in Kingmaker, which is one reason why I feel more comfortable GMing it. But my pet Curse of the Crimson Throne PC is the brother of an important named PC in the plot. If I could play Rise of the Runelords, I'd want to play a version that made Ameiko and Shalelu the main characters. My preferred Wrath of the Righteous PC is intended to be a child of Iomedae, who was rejected by Iomedae's church and couldn't become a paladin. If I could get away with it, I would play Peppery Longfarthing in Skull & Shackles and write her as the estranged daughter of the Master of the Gales. I don't say all this to brag about how cool I think my PC ideas are, I say this to try to communicate the kind of plot and setting integration I prefer the PCs to have for campaigns with strong enough plots to support it. And I think Kingmaker is definitely one that can support it.

@everyone I have an additional setting document for your convenience. It is largely composed of relevant passages from he PathfinderWiki and the wiki for Owlcat Games' Kingmaker video game, but there is additional content in there as well. Feel free to use it to better inform your submissions.

Here is the link to the Kingmaker: Crowns of Flame and Sorrow dossier.

@DeathQuaker, GM_Drake Background Skills from Pathfinder Unchained are allowed. Thanks for reminding me of this system.

@TheWaskally Thanks for asking! Upon review, I'm not going to be allowing the Godling class. It's very strong, and the niche that it fills is covered in Pathfinder by the Mythic rules. This is decidedly not a Mythic game. This is the sort of class that looks like it does best when the whole party is using this supplement.

@GM_Drake Yes, treat one of your traits as a "Campaign trait". This means you can have two traits from the "Basic (Social)" list. The intention for this is that Campaign traits are a fun thing to have but the official published traits for this campaign are overly narrow in the backgrounds they cater to. So my solution is to grant a third trait of any kind as a Campaign trait.

We are using the Elephant in the Room Feat Tax rules, as listed in the House Rules section in the original post.

It looks like the concept is coming along! As you're crafting it, I would strongly encourage you to make sure that, as an Android, the character is originally from Numeria.

@eriktd Zsófia is looking good so far! Something I love about this character is that right out of the gate you are recontextualizing the standard assumptions about how the journey into the Stolen Lands starts by being on Team Surtova instead of Team Swordlords.

@GM_Drake Westley and Will Turner are great inspirations to start from!

@DeathQuaker I'm glad you brought this up. PbP doesn't have the same kind of "safety tool" culture that IRL storygames have developed, but I am fully intending to use Lines and Veils. Players will be free to delineate ahead of time what they're comfortable with and not comfortable with, and they will be written in bedrock. You are absolutely correct that players will not allowed manipulate characters unfairly or unkindly. If it wasn't clear enough in the original post, all cases of trading tokens for "botting" (that's a good way to put it!) are voluntary and the receiving player is completely within their rights to refuse. A refusal will mean some slight backtracking and retconning, but I'm hoping it will cultivate trust between collaborators. Anything that seems intentionally abusive of the structure will simply not be tolerated.

@Evindyl I'm not going to lie, I picked Kingmaker over some of my other candidate APs because I figured it would be bait. The free-roam exploration nature of the game also creates ample opportunities to indulge in ideas like this. Thanks for the note about parallel milestoning! I didn't mean to sound too flip about the Kingdom Building rules in the original post, but even at a healthy speed it will be months before we actually need to have the final rules for that established. The whole group will give due consideration and I'm sure there will be a lot of deliberation in the OOC, I just didn't want to let it get in the way of actually starting the game, especially when so many campaigns sadly die before they get to that point.

Regarding Drawbacks and 4th traits, I'm not inclined to use them for this game. Drawbacks are good to have, and every character should have flaws, but Drawbacks are intended to gamify roleplay. With the token structure, the benefit to playing into your drawbacks is considerably more engaging than a simple mechanical penalty, and having a Drawback trait might create too much focus on that particular flaw over the others. If anybody is interested in reading more about the inspiration for this token dynamic, I took cues from a game called Grimwild, specifically "story" and "tangles".

@Daniel Stewart I look forward to your submission! There are plenty of hooks for a fey-aligned character to hang off of. For gnomes in particular, I would point out the Gronzi Forest.

                                               Welcome to Kingmaker: Crowns of Flame and Sorrow!
 
"Two kingdoms, both alike in sovereignty,
 In stolen wilds where tangled magics dream,
                        From sunder’d love and dragon’s tyranny,
                        Rise fated woes to mar the mortal scheme.
                        From forth the grief of Nyrissa, fair and fey,
                        And Ranalc’s banish’d hand, comes ruin born;
                        While Choral’s fire and plague’s decaying sway
                        Do crown the fields with ash and kingdoms torn.
                        The tale of crowns by sorrow mark’d and flame,
                        Of hearts that reach beyond the world of men—
                        Which naught but loss and pride could e’er reclaim—
                        We now unfold upon this stage again.
                        Attend, ye lords, with patient hearts and daring,
                        What here unfolds — your deeds shall make a king!"
 

                                                                                                                                         *  *  *  *  *
 
In a forest glade, no less verdant for its twilit splendor, a beautiful nymph weeps with an outstretched hand. Her lover, reaching back to her in vain, fades and disappears as he is pulled into shadowy depths.

                                                                                                                                         *  *  *  *  *
  
On the shores of a misty lake, a mighty warlord from across the eastern mountains clad in crimson and gold clasps hands with a gaunt man garbed in expensive furs. Two red dragons circle overhead, gouts of triumphant flame shooting from their jaws.

                                                                                                                                         *  *  *  *  *
 
In caverns deep beneath the earth, chained dwarves work at forges and anvils while their cruel masters look over them from ledges above. One dwarf returns their hateful gaze, dreaming of vengeance and freedom by turns.
                                                                                                                                         *  *  *  *  *

Atop a fortress overlooking a river, a tall figure crowned with antlers and an animal skull drinks a long pull from a dark bottle. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he stares off above treetops, beyond the horizon where an enemy kingdom seeks to encroach upon his demesne.
 
                                                                                                                                         *  *  *  *  *

Welcome, one and all! It has been a long time since I have played or run Pathfinder. I've been off exploring the world of narrative story games, and I return to you with a bold experiment! I want to see what happens when the best parts of Pathfinder’s structure meet the collaborative energy of a storygame.

I know this system and mode of play will not be to everybody's taste. That's valid, but if you're not interested, then this game simply isn't for you, and I wish you best of luck in your future games. If you’re still intrigued after all that, I can’t wait to see what kind of legends we can build together! For anybody who is still with me, the following section contains major spoilers for Kingmaker as written as well as an overview of the relevant additions and changes I am making to the plot. This is provided to help you dig into the plot and themes for writing your character submissions.

                                                                                                                                         *  *  *  *  *

                                                                                       “In ash and briar dreams remain, for what is lost will burn again.”

Success! You free Kerm and escape without further incident.

As Sovukh begins sawing away at the vines with his knife, the vine retracts suddenly as if recoiling, and Kerm thumps to the ground.
"Thanks Sovukh. Let's get out of here!"

The group breaks through the treeline, the vegepygmies chasing after. Bone spears whizz through the air near the men's heads, but once they hit sand they're in the clear. The vegepygmies crowd at the treeline, angrily thumping their chests or pounding rocks on tree trunks, but they don't dare follow beyond the protection of the jungle. The last rowboat awaits the pirates, and the ship in the bay is already beginning to unfurl her sails.

A +2 ties with the passive difficulty for these obstacles, so you succeed at minor cost. In this case, I'm going to introduce a complication.

Sovukh's keen eye spots the signs of buried traps in the earth, the darkness proving no obstacle for his orc eyes. His companions, eager to make it to the safety of the ship, are less careful. The group charges through the undergrowth, Sovukh blazing the trail around the traps. Just as they make the treeline, Sovukh hears a scream from behind him. Kerm's taken a wrong step and now he hangs by the leg, suspended from a tree by a tangle of vines and hollering his head off. "NO! Help! Don't let them get me! Somebody help!" Further back, it sounds as though the vegepygmies have managed to make it past barrier. The beach is visible through the trees, the last rowboat waiting on the sand.

So now you've got a choice to make. Kerm is Caught in a trap. This seems like it could either be an Overcome to free him from the trap or a Defend to fend off the the oncoming vegepygmies. Or you could leave him for dead and make for the boats.

Yes, it would be silly not to invoke Blocked Path. Go ahead and give me a roll to overcome the Booby-trapped Jungle.

The men make haste to put some distance between themselves and the vegepygmies. The night is dark, the light from the full moon only piercing through the dense jungle canopy in scattered pools of silver.

Scene Aspects:
Booby-trapped Jungle
Blocked Path

Alright. Looks to me like a Forceful attempt to overcome an obstacle. Invoking gets you a +2 for a total of 3, so that's a success. You create an aspect: Blocked Path. You'll get a free invoke on that aspect.

Though paralyzed with fear, Sovukh's barking commands get through to the men. With the vegepygmies bearing down on their position, they fell the tree with a heave and a ho! The tree comes down, blocking the horde.

There's no time to waste feeling victorious. The block will slow them down, but not stop them; after all, this jungle is their home.

We're in a conflict. There are 4 zones, arranged basically linearly. On one side, we have the jungle with Sovukh, the men, and the vegepygmies. Inbetween is zone 2, which is another patch of jungle. Past that is zone 3, the beach. And the final zone is the water, with the ship at the far end. Per the rules, you can move across one zone for free unless there are obstacles. For zone 2, expect there to be an obstacle.

Vegepygmies acting to overcome the block: 4d3 - 8 + 2 ⇒ (1, 3, 1, 3) - 8 + 2 = 2

Since you succeeded to create the Blocked Path aspect by 1 shift, it has a passive difficulty of 1, so the vegepygmies have overcome it. However, if you choose to use that free invoke, it'll grant a +2 and the vegepygmies will fail to overcome it and you'll get an extra turn to try to make good on your escape.

Shackles of Fate
Part 1: The Final Piece

Somewhere in the Shackles

A bright full moon shines down on a placid jungle island. A two-masted ship sits anchored in the bay, sails furled, and rowboats dot the shore. Tracks in the white sand lead from the boats into the dense trees, palm fronds swaying in the gentle breeze.

There is a disturbance at the jungle's edge. A man charges through the brush, long dark hair whipping behind him as he makes a break for the rowboats. Captain Tremain, pirate caprain and treasure hunter extraordinaire! The men of his crew follow behind, blackguards and blackhearts the lot of them, and the calm of the night is broken by the sounds of struggle.

Back in the jungle, a squad of men brings up the rear, charging desperately through the underbrush. Terrified, they stumble through the dark tangle of trees and ferns and vines. One falls into a pit trap, impaled on spikes. Another runs neck-first into the coils of a hanging snake. Behind the unfortunate stragglers, a surging horde of viny green humanoids chases them, carrying torches and bone-white spears, eerily quiet as they move through the jungle to overtake the men.

"There's too many!" whimpers one of the men. "We'll never make it! Sovukh, what do we do?" All eyes turn to one among them with skin as green as their pursuers - Sovukh Serpent-Eye!

This is the discussion thread for Shackles of Fate, part of what I hope will be the first part of my Golarion FATE project. While Pathfinder used to be my go-to system, I have moved on to game systems with narrative-forward mechanics. However, I still love the Golarion campaign setting, so I'm hoping to have my cake and eat it to by running a FATE game set in Golarion.

The player and I have a Discord that will likely be our main OOC channel. This thread is to serve as an explanation for anybody else who happens to read along so they understand what's going on, and for whatever use I come up with for it down the line.

Let's see if we can't get things rolling again, shall we? Having another NPC that actually likes Selene should help with that.

Selene's blast hits the skeleton square-on, but it doesn't seem to faze the creature. It turns its empty sockets to gape at Selene, and slowly makes its way toward her.

Sister Mardhalas dispatches a skeleton with a glowing sword and turns to the source of the sound. When she sees Selene up the hill, she grins and raises her sword in a salute. "Pharasma sends her favor upon us this night! Selene, come down her and show these whelps what real monster hunters are capable of!"

Assuming Selene joins the inquisitors below...

Falling back to rendezvous with Selene, Sister Mardhalas briefs her on the situation. "I was starting to worry this was going to take all night! But with you here, maybe we can put an end to this quickly. These undead abominations are hardier that your average skeletons. It's fitting; in life they were among the best soldiers to grace the battlefields of the Shining Crusade. They're slower in their old age, and something about the graves in this place makes it tough for them to navigate." She gestures, and Selene sees an inquisitor back-pedaling and moving between a row of graves while the pursuing skeleton pauses every few steps, as though unsure of his quarry's location.

"The big one, on the horse there? That is, or was, Sir Brendant Hoffstader, a commander in the Shining Crusade. He was a courageous man, but he met a gruesome end at the hands of the Whispering Tyrant. His restless spirit still possesses his armor, and a few times a year he materializes and starts trying to raise an army to conquer Caliphas. One day we might discover how to send him to Pharasma once and for all, but for now, if we can defeat him tonight, his soldiers will return to their graves until the next time he calls."

I hate it when the forums stop alerting me to new posts. Sorry for the delay.

Random question, where does Selene get the horse? Does she conjure one? I'm handwaving that she gets one, I'm just interested if you have ideas.

The robed acolyte gets a quizzical expression at Selene's report, but nods and scurries off, leaving Selene to track down Sister Mardhalas.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

8th of Rova, 4717 AR
Vojmorant Cemetery
10:30 PM

The ride to Vojmorant Cemetery is uneventful but not arduous. The fog dissipates somewhat as she gets beyond the walls of Caliphas, and the countryside surrounding Vojmorant is clear and peaceful tonight. Reaching the wrought-iron gates, Selene sees four other horses tied up nearby.

Shining Gate is located far at the back of cemetery. Selene scrambles through fields of graves going back hundreds of years as she makes her way. The farther back she goes, the fewer paths and signs she sees, but the place is littered with statues, crypts, and mausoleums bearing vaunted names, some as old as Ustalav itself.

Selene hears the clanging of steel on steel and barked battle orders becoming more distinct, and before she knows it, the great stone archway of Shining Gate stands before her. A great, twelve-foot sculpture of a valiant crusader flanks either side of the grand gate, which is currently locked shut. The inquisitors must have closed it behind them to prevent any undead from getting out.

The gates prove no barrier to Selene. Just beyond stands a memorial to the knights and soldiers of the Shining Crusade, and beyond that the land slopes down into a valley. From her vantage point, Selene can survey the scene below. In the vast field of Shining Gate, Sister Mardhalas and her inquisitors are engaged in battle with undead knights. Selene can count no fewer than twelve skeletal foot-soldiers clad in ancient armor, and a fearsome figure riding a ghostly charger. The soldiers move slow, and the horsed figure appears content to watch and command from the rear.

8th of Rova, 4717 AR
Maiden's Choir
10:10 PM

Maiden's Choir is an easy landmark to spot, taking its place in the Caliphas skyline like a great eyeless socket staring heavenward unblinking. Nearby Castles Mashir (to the west) and Stryithe (east and south) keep it company, but even the splendor of the Majesty Hotel cannot blot out the great dome of Pharasma's cathedral. Made of black marble and shot through with veins of amethyst, Maiden's Choir stands as Ustalav's oldest and most magnificent claim to fame. Long before the recent relocation of the capital from Ardis, before the reinforcements of the city's walls, before even the time of the Whispering Tyrant, Maiden's Choir has been home to Pharasma's faithful in Caliphas. The cathedral has borne witness to Ustalav's many horrors through the ages, but its presence here, in the Caliphas skyline, is stone-wrought testament to the supremacy of the cycle of birth and death.

It is said by some that Maiden's Choir is the most magnificent of all of Pharasma's cathedrals on Golarion; it certainly holds some of the faith's most storied relics. At her heart sits a silver mausoleum-like reliquary, containing such holy treasures as the Sarkorin song skulls, the scroll bones of Father Gesenge, the armored Gown of Tears, and – or so goes the claim – one of the steel splinter-feathers of the goddess’s own herald.

Mother Thestia, well past her Maiden years has moved through Mother and is working her way into her Crone. Just a young priestess when the Prince moved the capital from Ardis to Ustalav, she has seen the congregation multiply in size over the years. Maiden's Choir used to be a bastion for the common faithful - farmers and laborers, mostly. These days the congreagation swells with members of Caliphas's burgeoning nobility. Through it all, Mother Thestia has done her level best to stay above the feuding and politcking of the ruling class, but the high priestess always has time for the farmhands, blacksmiths, and stonelayers. From the highest to the lowest, all are seen in equal measure under Pharamsa's eye.

Though not as militant as Kavapesta, Caliphas has need of holy warriors just the same, perhaps even moreso. The inquisitors have their own wing in the cathedral, well away from the grand domed hall where the church's services are held. Under the watchful eye of the current High Inquisitor, Sister Zetiah Mardhalas, Pharasma's red-clad inquisitors train to hunt both heretics and monsters alike. Though surprisingly young for her someone in her position, Sister Mardhalas has the hardness of a fired stake and the cutting edge of a silver dagger. Her unwavering faith in her goddess and overwhelming zeal for hunting down enemies of the faith are not wasted in Caliphas; there are enough exorcisms to be performed and ghouls in the cemetary to hunt to keep her occupied even if she had three times the number of inquisitors under her command. Though not the easiest person to get along with, Sister Mardhalas took an uncommon liking to Selene during their interactions three months ago. Impressed by the way Selene handled herself, she has snever fails to attempt to recruit the Constable into the ranks of Pharasma's Inquisitors.

As Selene wanders the halls, there are few red-coated warrors roaming about, and Sister Mardhalas is nowhere to be found. However, an acolyte who recognizes Selene stops to give her a hand. "Sister Mardhalas and the others are in Shining Gate. I expect they will be indisposed of for the evening."

This is an update I'm posting to all my games.

Cameroon is currently experiencing some civil unrest, and I happen to be living just minutes from the border with the conflict zone. The government has shut off internet to that region, as they'd done in the past. Currently, I have access; that may change unexpectedly.

I would like to emphasize that I'm in no personal danger, but if I disappear for a little while, that's what's going on. I'm pretty mobile on weekends, so I absolutely should not be disappearing at any point for more than two weeks.

With her light out, Selene manages to avoid attracting any more attention. The night is young, but she's not officially scheduled for patrol. Shortly, she finds herself at the Dock Street intersection. Going straight will take her back to Eskcourt, toward either Layla's apartment or her own. A left turn will lead her down to the West Docks, which was always bustling at this time of night. And to the right lies the East Docks and the insular Jade Quarter.

Not so much in your chain of command as above it. Like how the FBI aren't in command of the police; outside the context of their individual jurisdictions, they're ostensibly equals, but not really.

"Yes, I'm familiar with your record," the man says. "And as far as I can tell, you have no idea what you are. What matters is what they think you are, and there's sure to be more where that came from. So if you'd like to be tonight's main attraction for all that goes bump in the night, by all means, shine on you crazy diamond. But if it's all the same to you, I won't be sticking around for it."

With that, the man stalks off into the fog, seemingly keen to get away from the glowing city block.

He's going slowly enough that Selene can follow, if she's so inclined. If not, he disappears.

The man cracks a faint smile. "I was going to help, but you seemed to have the situation well enough in hand. You have to admit, lighting up a city block and fighting off three vampires isn't exactly the least inconspicuous thing you could be doing."

Despite his impertinence, the man complies with Selene's request. Reaching into his coat, he withdraws a badge that Selene can't help but recognize as the insignia of the Bureau of Special Affairs. Whoever this man is, he works for Mirakas Vashalnt in Whiteshaw's shadowy underbelly. "That should be sufficient," he says, replacing the badge. There's a lightness in his tone, but it never reaches the corners of his pale eyes. It's hard to tell what color they are in the glow. Blue? Green? Maybe even gray. "Who I am isn't nearly as interesting - or important - as who - or what - you are, Selene. Or, at least, what they think you are. Douse the light," he commands.

We never established this, but I'm going to assume that Selene switched back to her normal appearance some time after leaving Barragaro Road.

The fish heads covering the ground make for poor footing, and as she takes her shot, her foot skids just enough to throw off her aim. The energy passes by the vampire, creating another tunnel in the fog that terminates where the blast hits a building. The creature avoided the blast, but looks spooked. "The strigoi is powerful indeed," it says to the other.

They both snarl in pain as the light continues to burn away some of their gray flesh. "The light burns," growls the other. "Let us be done with this!" Silent agreement passes between them, and suddenly explodes into a whirling cloud of bats that take for the sky through the hole in the fog while the other nimbly scales back up the wall to disappear over the rooftops.

Combat over.

As Selene stands in the fog, catching her breath after her brief exercise, she hears the sound of a pair hands clapping in applause. "Well done," calls a voice through the fog. The voice was deep, masculine, and a moment later, the figure it belongs to steps out from the edge of the fog. "But you should work on your aim. Nobody likes collateral damage."

As the man steps into the glowing nimbus of light, Selene gets a good look at him. He wears armor underneath a long black coat, and the knobbed pommel and grip of a longsword poke over his shoulder. The man is lean, and there are clear traces of Kellid in his features, though it's mingled with something else that Selene can't put a finger on. A black, wide-brimmed hat sitting atop his head completes the picture.

Cool, I'll check out the table! I've got no problem with that plan whatsoever. Just a full round action to break the barrel and pick up the improvised stake. But based on her knowledge, Selene knows that they're resistant to physical damage that's only bypassed by silver; a stake is relatively useless until the vampire can be incapacitated. In fact, she got a short lesson in the effective methods of hunting vampires from High Inquisitor Mardhalas during the Incident.

Thanks, I was having a bear of a time finding that formula. Also, nice rolls!

The vampire screams in pain as Selene slashes at it with her claws. Between her strike and the searing light, the damage is too much for the creature to take. Selene feels the force holding her down disappear suddenly and dozens of tiny legs on her skin. Looking down, she sees herself covered in spiders that flee the light as quickly as they can.

The other two haven't quite gotten the message yet, but as the skin continues to burn off their faces, they seem to have traded talking for pained growling and snarling. One slashes at Selene again, but its attack is turned aside by Selene's claw. The other reaches his hand out towards Selene and jerks it back toward himself. A moment later, something heavy collides with Selene's back with a thunk! Suddenly, something else replaces the stench of the burning vampire in Selene's nose, though the smell of old fish isn't much better.

Selene is no longer grappled but was hit with a barrel full of fish heads and takes 7 damage. The space behind her is now difficult terrain, due to the aforementioned heads.

Vampire 1 attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13
Vampire 1 damage: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Vampire 2 telekinesis: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 19
Vampire 2 damage: 2d6 ⇒ (6, 1) = 7

I'm trying to parse the rules interactions between grapple and casting. As I understand it, your Defensive Casting roll is for casting defensively to provoke an AoO, but the DC for that is 15 + double the level of spell. Since Selene is grappled, she also needs to roll a concentration check with a DC of 14 + level of spell. Which leads me to my next question for you, as you're the SoP master - how do you figure the spell level with SoP in play?

The vampires recoil in pain as the city block glows like high noon. The creatures cast no shadows, but they burn like paper in the light. One screeches, "It burns!" Another tries to block the light from its eyes to no effect. But even as their skin smolders and smokes, Selene can see some of the damage repairing, the burns covering back over with new undead flesh. "The strigoi fears not the light," says the third, and takes a swipe at Selene. The others get a grip on themselves and pounce as well. A sharp contrast to their graceful display on the walls, the vampires strike with brutality and viciousness. Though dangerous, they lack finesse, and Selene manages just to duck and dodge away from swipes that could tear her throat out.

While the first two keep Selene occupied, the third wrenches her arm around as it grabs her from behind. "Blood still runs in the strigoi's veins," it rasps, a note of pained desperation in its voice. With the vile creature's face so close to her own, Selene gets a big whiff of the smell of rotting, burning flesh. Selene takes no damage, but is grappled.

Vampire 1 attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16
Damage: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

Vampire 2 attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16
Damage: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

Vampire 3 grapple: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24

Selene's blast of magic shoots upwards, leaving a clear trail as it burns off the fog. The bright light shines like a beacon as it travels, lighting up the whole street for an instant. In that brief, clear moment, Selene can see three pairs of red eyes staring down at her from the roofs on either side of the street, glinting with something like hunger.

Grinning between themselves, they each begin climbing down the walls, crawling on their hands and feet. They move with an unnatural grace but their paths are lazy, zig-zagging back and forth, and they call out to each other as they come.

"The strigoi wants to play," laughs one, nimbly crossing over a windowsill in his path. "We should oblige her," says the second, scrambling along the outside of a balcony. "But Grandfather said not to make moves," admonishes the third from the other side of the street, its tone mocking.

"The strigoi attacked first," says the second, gently tumbling in a handpring from the wall to the ground. "Yes, we have to defend ourselves," says the first, touching down a little ways from the second. "Grandfather will understand," agrees the third, leaping the last six feet or so and landing without a sound.

Through the hole in the fog, a moonbeam illuminates the street and the surrounding fog glows gently, casting an eerie pallor over the scene. As the creatures circle, Selene gets a better look at them. Their clothes were maybe once something approaching finery, but now they are now just ragged tatters. Their shirts are torn and dirt-stained, their pants are frayed, and their gray flesh is gaunt. It stretches tightly across their faces and their bald pates, the bone-structure thrown into sharp relief like a dessicated corpse, but their eyes gleam red and their tongues run over their enlarged incisors.

As they circle Selene, they begin to edge closer, slowly tightening the circle, but they seem to be enjoying their little game far too much to attack just yet.

"We've waited so long to see the strigoi for ourselves," says one of them. "Yes, ever so patiently," says another. "We've been watching for months," says the third, saliva gleaming on its teeth. "But the months feel like years," complains one. "And the years pass like days," laughs another.

Initiative:
Selene
Vampires

No real need for a map for this one. There is a roughly 30'x30' area that has been unshrouded from the fog by Selene's blast, with the buildings on either side of the street. There are three enemies around Selene in a triangular formation. Selene's up first.

Ariel nods, silently accepting the arrangement before withdrawing into the fog and shadows.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

The trap set, Selene mentally reviews the details and preparations she'd need to make. For one, it might be wise to let Layla know that there would be an attempted robbery at her apartment sometime in the next week, especially wit the Ball coming up. She was already nearly loosing her head over last-minute preparation; she had fussed with the dressmaker for what felt likehours, time Selene could have spent doing something useful instead.

As Selene makes her own way through the night, the hair on the back of her neck stands on end and she gets the unnerving feeling she's being watched. It was a feeling that was beginning to become familiar; she'd been experiencing it intermittently since the incident three months ago, but hadn't been able to attribute to anything. There didn't seem to be any pattern, except that it only ever happened at night, well after the sun had set. Whatever it was, it hadn't interfered with her work, but it certainly didn't feel friendly.

Yes, somewhere in the region of 50 gp up front. In retrospect, it would have been good to establish a silver-based economy, but oh well.

Refusing to deal in her side-business of fencing stolen goods (and apparently arranging heists), Ariel directs Selene to meet her the next evening in an alley just off Barragaro Road.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
8th of Rova, 4717 AR
Barragaro Road
9:30 PM

Walking down Barragaro Road, especially at night, is a tour through the city's social strata. The top of the route begins just south of the well-to-do neighborhood of Eskcourt. Traveling south through Hawthorne Rows, the surroundings quickly shift once the road reaches Oracle's Alley, soon after crossing the intersection at Dock Street, which connects the bustling West Docks with Ashtown and the seedier East Docks. As one continues to push through the fog past Dock Street, they soon find themselves in the open-air market the road is famous for.

At any time of day, any time of year, rain, shine, or the usual fog, the stalls, stands, and holes in the wall are filled with hawkers, mongers, and criers selling anything and everything. Fish (dried, fresh, and braised), meat (whole, butchered, or still breathing), produce of all kinds. Used clothes, furniture, housewares and hardwares, you can find it all on Barragaro Road if just look long enough. But if one keeps going, all the way down to where the road nearly runs into Lady's Harbor, Barragaro Road offers a different sort of market. Streetwalkers ply their trade while shady characters in cloaks beckon from the shadows, offering any manner of stolen goods or illicit services. As Selene walks through in her disguise, one of those shady characters waves for her attention.

"He says he'll do it," Ariel says. She wears a rough-spun brown cloak, the hood drawn over her head. "You have the money? Good." Accepting the partial payment, she opens the sack and pours the contents into her hand. "It's all here," she confirms, stowing the payment in a pocket. "It is going to take him some time. Maybe a week or more. Your target, this Navickas woman, he says it will take some work. Good security. How should I contact you once I have the item?"

After some coy banter, Ariel finally catches on that Selene isn't interested in the usual services, that she just wants to talk. "You could have said that right from the start!" Ariel laughs. With the customary lull in business after lunch, thigns are slow enough that she can chat with Selene then and there. "Rosalind, I'm going on break."

After some cajoling and dancing around the topic of the local underworld, Selene cuts a deal with Ariel for her friend Mister Kent to steal a particular item from a private home. Ariel wants half the selling price up front, to make sure the money is real, but Selene talks her down to a quarter of the price. After coming to an arrangement, they agree upon a meeting time for Selene to hand over the coin and talk further details.

Based on information available to Selene regarding Ariel and her relationship with Barius Kent, she wasn't likely to give up any dirt directly. But Selene's looking for a way to nail Barius Kent and make it stick, so I hope this entrapment angle was a good compromise. I wanted to leave the details up to you.

Okay. Ariel is a prostitute and at this point just assumes that Selene wants what everyone else wants. It's possible I've been too subtle on that point? Also, if Selene does decide to make an appointment, she'll have to get creative about how she pumps for information. If you'd like, I can take that roll, handwave it, and move on.

Ariel scowls playfully. "What does this look like, a teahouse? I can dig some roots out of the garden and throw it in some water if that's what ye be wantin'. Otherwise, it's ale, beer, whiskey, or wine. Best be off doin' your work, but if there's something special you're wanting later on, you'd best make an appointment."

It's not my intention to roadblock, but I think I'm starting to lose focus. What's Selene's goal for this interaction at the moment?

With that Perception check, Selene also notices that Dionne's not wearing anything that would publicly identify her as an inspector. Maybe Selene isn't the only one who's incognito.

With her heightened senses, the background noise of the tavern gives her no trouble as she listens in on Ariel's conversation with Dionne. Ariel seems to drop her guard as she talks to Dionne, her accent becoming thicker and more noticeably Kellid.

After their brief conversation, Dionne stands up and leaves without having ordered anything. Her eyes scan the room as she approaches the door, her eyes passing over Selene in her disguised form without noticing anything amiss.

Assuming Selene doesn't leave immediately after...
After a few more minutes and a few more patrons, Ariel finally makes her way to Selene's table. "How were the meatballs?" she asks, her Kellid accent now almost entirely disappeared.