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Herman here was made for another Ironfang Invasion campaign that ended up folding. As such, his current character sheet would need some tweaking to fit with the guidelines for this campaign - however, his background (and personality, should you wish to read some of his previous posts) should carry over without problems. I'd be happy to answer any questions or address any concerns you might have regarding him. And best of luck with the recruitment!
Thoughts: 3. I can't claim to know what makes a successful game, but I've been playing and running games on these forums for a few years now so I guess that puts me in this category. XD
I often find myself struggling in an adventure when I make a character that's nice and doesn't cause problems. I think I do this because I want to be a nice person to play with, and because I tend to be a quiet person in general. But this means that my characters don't want anything, or they only want it on paper rather than wanting it in practice. Herman is an excellent foil to these tendencies because he very much wants things and isn't afraid to let that be known. And when someone knows what you want, they can try to either help you get it or get in your way - and that's exciting and interesting and makes for fun gameplay. It was wonderful to play this character before and I hope he'll get to live again someday. To be honest, the biggest factor behind why a number of APs I've participated in are no longer active is due to something coming up for the GM. Maybe life got busy, or maybe they're not having fun but don't know how to say it. I've not left an adventure that's still ongoing, so I don't have any experience there. 4. Like several others, the vast majority of my inactive campaigns are PFS scenarios that have been completed. There are two adventures where I was GMing that are no longer active - one was a module where my GM style and the players' expectations about dungeon exploration weren't a good fit and then one player had to withdraw due to IRL complications, and the other was the evil AP that I started as a favor for a friend but quickly discovered that I couldn't be the supportive GM I needed to be for evil characters and had to pass the campaign off to a friend. But very few of the campaigns listed as inactive died before coming to their intended conclusion.
Thank you for the clarifications GM - that sounds reasonable with the Cauldron hex. As far as ethnicities go, Herman looks Chelaxian.
Herman is an incredibly sour hedge witch who was part of a campaign that fell apart most of the way through the first book of the AP - I’d love a chance to get to see him through the rest of the story (and the beginning - weird campaign). His backstory and more details can be found in his profile, and he’d of course have to be de-leveled back to 1. As far as submission requirements: A. Herman
I do have a few questions for the GM: 1. Given the themes of survival and self-sufficiency in this adventure, how much do you see the Crafting rules and creation of items/equipment coming into play? Are feats like Brew Potion and Craft Wondrous Item useful (or even valid) choices for this campaign?
It's sad to hear, but take care of yourself first GM. Hugs and best wishes.
Herman doesn’t say anything, but the sour look on his face communicates his feelings quite well as he follows the shaman.
Herman crosses his arms. "You're going to get yourselves killed, you know," he grumps under his breath.
Wounded maybe? Didn't want him to slow her down? Didn't want him falling into enemy hands?
Apologies if I missed something, but I thought we were chasing someone who killed a hobgoblin that ambushed (most of) the party. Is that accurate?
"Bah. Let's just get moving - enough time's been wasted already today." Herman scowls and shakes his head.
”Great, now we’re getting dragged into this mess too?” Herman steps to the side and glares at the still-awake giant. ”Hurry up and die so we can keep moving.”
”Oh I don’t know - maybe following someone’s trail!?” Herman spits. ”Not sitting on our asses?”
"Hrmph." Herman glowers, but doesn't say anything. Yet.
”You’re a gnome - that’s practically half-fey,”Herman snaps back. ”And even if they’re leshys, we still shouldn’t bother talking to them. Little things don’t understand flesh, or mortality for that matter. Just like fey don’t understand that when they kill someone in this world, they stay dead.”
"Faeries." Herman spits the word like a grape seed. "But they're not the ones we're looking for - too small to handle the knife that killed the hobgoblin. Don't get involved with them and just go around."
”Hold still - I’ll take care of it myself.” Herman grumpily pushes through the underbrush to get closer to the little pest. ”And stop chopping it into larger pieces - we’re unlucky enough that they’d all grow back into their own poop-flinging nuisances.” A quick blast of fire erupts from the hermit’s fingers, blanketing the still-twitching pieces and the surrounding vegetation. ”There - done. And don’t eat it.”
”Save your fantasies for when you’re dead.” Herman scowls at the dwarf before turning his ire towards the troll. ”And you! Stopp!” Giant:
”Halt!”
A small bundle of dried meat and fruits hits the sleeping Arthur in the face. ”Don’t be an idiot,” Herman grumbles sourly. ”You’re no use if you’re fainting on the road tomorrow.”
Herman snorts. "If you can avoid leading the hobgoblins right to us, then sure."
”Whatever you do, don’t go charging straight at them and fall down another pit,” Herman snorts. ”If they wanted to ambush us, they wouldn’t have shown themselves unless they wanted to lure you into a trap. Again.” He calls out to the hidden archers, ”So you’re either terrible at hiding, which seems unlikely given that you’re still alive out here, or you wanted to be seen. To what end? You can’t talk to dead people, so that’s probably it.” He spits before concluding, ”So stop playing games and show yourselves.”
Herman stands at the top of the ridge with his arms crossed and his foot tapping impatiently. "You do realize that whoever we're following killed the hobgoblin, right?" he asks the others as they return, speaking slowly as if to give them time to think. "And now there's a dead centaur. It doesn't take a genius to connect the dots - they killed the centaur, then killed the hobgoblin. We're lucky they haven't decided we're worth killing yet." From the tone of his voice, it seems probable he found a lemon or something equally sour to eat during his wait.
Could be a bloody faerie - though the flighty little things don't usually walk, so I suppose it's probably not that. This time, at least...
"It's not like it's going anywhere," the hermit crossly observes from the ridge line. "Unlike whoever we're trying to catch."
"You think?" Herman replies sourly, though much of the acid is gone from his voice. Little feyling's got good eyes - I would have gotten lost back by that stream. "If whoever we're chasing is smart, they'll be constantly moving camp - so there's no point looking where they've been unless you particularly enjoy the sight of old campsites."
Everything alright with everyone? It's been a little while since we had any activity in this campaign.
”Great - now there’s two sets of folks who might now where we are.” Herman starts to spit, then stops in thought. ”His killer though - they left all his stuff. Hells, they even left their weapon in his corpse. Wasteful, unless the purpose was to leave a message.” Grumbling under his breath, the hermit tries to help the wild gnome find any clues as to this mysterious third party.
”Pit traps. They had time to dig a pit trap.” Herman glowers at the other survivors over a cup of bitter leaf water that can barely be called “tea”. ”At least tell me you’re not going to just charge blindly at another obvious ambush.” As Auburn speaks, the hermit nods enthusiastically. ”Track them down and finish the job before they can report our location to the rest of the invaders? You’re damn right we are.”
time / PCs / NPCs / location (use map if not within the cave entrance)
Maybe Arthur wants to join Herman on the last watch so it's not just squishy casters? XD
"They what!?" Herman spits through clenched jaws. "They ambushed you with a pit!? Have you been patrolling with your eyes closed to have missed something so obvious? Were you off knitting flower crowns and singing to the songbirds too?" He throws his hands up in frustration. "Don't bother waiting until morning - goblins can see just fine in the dark, and they know we can't. They'll be back as soon as they've rounded up the rest of their friends to slaughter us all." The witch catches Aubrin's glare and returns it with his own.
Herman glances out the cave entrance at the pouring rain. "Sodden fools probably got lost out there," he mutters at Mulch. "You'd think they'd be able to find their way through the woods they've been patrolling for a week, but apparently that's giving them too much credit." He continues working with the bone in his hands, looking up every few minutes with a look of growing irritation.
Herman's still very much alive and kicking - he's too spiteful to quit even when he knows he should. XD And I'm enjoying his character and would like to see where it goes.
Herman prefers to work by himself picking mushroom rather than with the other survivors. "Sodding clod-hoppers who can't be bothered to look where they're stepping," he mutters sourly to the fungus in his hand before throwing it in a basket. "Wouldn't survive a week on their own without getting eaten by every scavenger in the Fangwood. Should've left 'em when I had the chance - now they'll cry and wail and send search parties that'll get eaten. And attract unwanted attention. They've not competent enough to survive, but enough to cause problems. Bah!" Another slice of the knife, another mushroom in the basket.
This sheet is for long-term planning, not day-by-day tracking. As such, all rolls are treated as Take 10's so we get an average result rather than a specific one. This also means that other bonuses (such as goodberry) are not included in the calculations unless the character in question is going to commit to providing them every day (continuing the example, this would mean Vale uses all his 1st lvl spells to cast goodberry and thus doesn't have any available if something exciting happens). I've locked down the majority of the sheet because I've not had much time to test it for foolproofing, and it can be difficult to roll back a mistake without also removing someone else's work due to the asynchronous nature of PbP play. Feel free to make change requests in this thread and I'll do my best to get those incorporated.
Alright, Job Assignment Sheet is live! Sorry that took so long. XD I've set a possible spread of assignments that puts us at neutral provision consumption. The figures are assuming every roll is a Take 10. I also assumed that there would be sufficient days to bring the herd up to the indicated size. And lastly,I've also not assigned PC's as I am not certain if we will be busy with other things. @GM, let us know if all of this is accurate. A few other notes:
@GM I can certainly add a Provisions tab to the spreadsheet, but it'll take a bit of time and probably won't happen before the weekend. I'll see if I can also design a way to see who's assigned to what role and how many provisions the camp should be producing on average with its current configuration. Regarding sustainability, we've also got the option to forage/hunt (which is a static DC 10 Survival check with bonus rewards for higher results). If we use people's Take 10 results, we can get a decent idea of expected outcomes (especially since we're looking at a group larger than 5 PCs). And we also have provisions to help us get through the setup period, so we don't have to be immediately sustainable while we get the herd formed. We also probably want to have some folks on guard duty and some folks doing healing and whatnot. Once we're sustainable food-wise, it would be good to then allocate some folks to the forge downstairs (for crafting weapons/tools/whatnot) and perhaps a few more to building that door to the Darklands passage. Regarding Herman himself, he can start with Survival to gather food until we're feeling sustainable and then shift to crafting. We don't have a huge abundance of crafting materials available currently, so I'm not in a rush to make something at this time. @GM, do you want those role rolls here or in the Gameplay thread for ease of accessibility? Also, @GM, did we have some more level-ups to assign? Are these per PC as we did the first time, or as a group? And lastly, who is going to be responsible for Fizzlewumpit's abandoned villagers?
"Oh for crying out loud." Herman scowls at the indecisive group. "If you throw everyone into boarding up that tunnel, they'll all die of starvation before it's half done. And if there's not a back exit to this place, then we're just begging for some goblin scouts to smoke us out. Station some guards, go harvest some food, and when there's resources available you can start working on a door. Got it? Then stop wasting my time."
"No! Pick the fungus, not 'crush it in your bare hands and inhale the fumes'!" Herman's gentle words of encouragement can be heard from the other side of the caverns as he works with the villagers to clear out the overgrown mushrooms. "This could be your only source of food for a while, so don't step on them like the bumbling clod-footed idiots you apparently are!" To everyone's relief, the hermit eventually retires to one of the smaller chambers to work by himself. There he curses under his breath, grinds herbs, carves runic sigils in gemstones, and weaves leather strips and branches together. Mulch helps as best a rabbit can, pushing tools into the man's hand or clearing space on the stone floor with his strong legs.
Do you turn the free-turning wheel to these three pictograms in that order? Nah, I'll try to be very clear about doing stuff like that. And I certainly don't want to unleash this Excavator or another group of troglodytes on our group before we're good and ready for it. XD
The rabbit appears quite content with himself. "Wipe that smug smirk off your face," Herman grumbles as he stuffs gemstones and baubles into bags. "Great bloody coward and only now do you show back up. Typical." He barely acknowledges Vale's healing magic, but at least grunts to show his appreciation. Eventually the hermit ends up next to the strange door.
"Great." He spits. "Not very original artists, these lot. Some of these pictures were scribbled on the walls up north. Easy enough to guess what 'turn grandmother's eyes towards' means, and stone and steel are simple enough. Which one would be woe though..? Maybe the pansy face bawling uselessly."
Herman grins like a wild animal. "Good. Now perish." He inhales deeply, then spits out a stream of spiders that climb and clamber over the rocks and grease to cover the troglodyte.
"And someone get ready to hit her if she starts casting another spell! Hold your blade until then!"
"Hit her harder!" Herman screeches in pain. "And you! Veni!" Magic flares around his eyes and causes his voice to boom through the room like an aftershock of the quakes tearing apart the ceiling. Draconic:
"Come!"
”Before they bring down the ceiling, you dolts!” Herman screeches angrily from the rear. ”Kill the egg-sucking idiots before they bury us all!” He doesn’t bother to translate his thoughts into the troglodyte’s tongue, instead glaring angrily at the spellcaster standing over her sleeping brethren.
”Don’t just stand there!” Herman yells across the grease puddle, ignoring the barrage of rocks. ”Kill the sleeping one before they wake up!” Turning his attention to the closer spellcaster, the hermit spits out another curse. ”Salvos aptissimum est id, quod tu victus sis.” Draconic:
”It’s survival of the fittest, and you’re losing.”
"Go on and flee, you coward!" Herman yells after his familiar. "See if I come back for you!"
"Et operuit confusio faciem tuam ovo excluduntur, quia mater tua est non inutilem opus alterius ore est cibarium," Herman spits at the target of Luke's ire. Draconic:
"Your egg was dropped before you hatched because your mother didn't need another useless mouth to feed." "Get rid of that last warrior and stop those idiots from calling any more stones from the ceiling," he orders, gesturing at Arthur and Grenwold with his walking stick. "They'll bring down the whole cave if we don't stop them, the blathering idiots."
Herman spits out a curse as the stench permeates his ward of clean air. ”Thin-scaled miserable excuses of overgrown lizards,” he hisses through clenched teeth. ”Angebant supellectilem tuam, et guttur tuum a te cauda usque ad mortem.” Draconic:
”Stuff your tail down your throat and choke yourself to death.”
"F~@+ - more of them." Herman snaps his fingers, and a translucent globe surrounds his head. With unseen air currents moving his unkempt hair around randomly, he looks even more like a madman. "Don't just stand there in a line waiting for them to kill you," he spits, taking his own advice and tucking into the corner of the doorway.
"Oi! Knock it off!" Herman yells angrily. "So help me Grenwold, if you let that thing eat any of my crafting supplies then you can kiss your stupid fairy saddle goodbye because I won't be making it." He pauses to point dramatically at the creature. "Because that's the stuff I'd be using to make it!"
"Bah! Probably trying to eat it," Herman grumps. "Don't let it near any of our stuff."
"Ya think?" Herman replies sourly, kicking a skull against the wall. "But there's still that fae nonsense, and I don't see any woe here besides whatever killed these three. Let's not sit on our hands any longer."
Herman slips closer to the chaos and twirls his sling a few more times around his head before feebly releasing it.
"Bah!" he yells, throwing the offending weapon on the ground and kicking it. "Worthless!" After a few seconds of thought, however, he begrudgingly picks it back up.
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