Still waiting, still hopeful.
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Still checking in...
Hope you're not waiting on me - I'm just looking at the cards on the table!
"All right, midnight it is." Ioseph stated. "We'll have to dodge the city guards, unless the amphitheater has a showing tonight. But that gives us plenty of time to make it to the docks." Looking at Maeneta and then the others, he asked, "You're probably going to go for the front door, correct? Unless one of you ladies is good with locks?"
Ioseph looked at the pensive brunette, expecting Thren'ody's answer. The woman was still staring at the playing card in her hand.
Ioseph stood, looking at the daylight coming through a nearby window (or crack in the wall, whatever). "Not that your harrowing meant something, Zellara," he said, without rancor, "but I'd like for the five of us to discuss just when we're going to pay Ghazi a visit. I think we were being watched coming in here, and secrets go stale faster than bread in this city." Ioseph crossed his arms, stating "We really just need to decide when to knock on the door of this old fishery - now, midnight, or morning. I'm up for any time."
Ioseph imprudently considered Zellara's card casting. "Nothing I haven't been told before, and often as of late, by many whom I would consider my lessers." He punched one fist into a palm. "It's about time I stopped being the punching bag at the gymnasium. Let's see how someone else like being plummeted."
It's been a rough week for me too, with a "working weekend" coming up. I should be able to get home and post from home instead of work, just in case. Chainsaw chains should last longer than 2 hours on ash, black cherry, and oak. Just 2 hours is annoying. It's 2012, where's my atomic beam cutter or my laser saw...
Sitting at the table with a chair, Ioseph waited for the two women to select their cards, then randomly chose his own card.
Ioseph eyed the card shuffling dubiously. "I...suppose." he concluded. "I'd prefer a Seer from the Academy tell us what the night would bring, but it can't hurt."
Grinning a not-nice smile, Ioseph put down the card he had on the table, holding it down with a finger. "The law failed us. So we will be the law that takes care of Ghazi and his kind - permanently." he declared, flicking his finger to move the card to rest with the others in front of Zellara. Leaning back, Ioseph asked everyone, "So this fishery that Ghazi has, it will be nightfall by the time we get there from here, if it is not already so? I would rather force my way into it in the morning, before most are awake. I can scout" he said, fingering the large garnet crystal in his necklace, "after a fashion, since I have a psicrystal." "And if it comes to fighting, well, I am a Shaper. So I can...make stuff...appear if needed. Useful items." Ioseph said slowly, as if admitting something secret.
"Can't say I disagree with that!" Ioseph told the taller brunette. Looking at the other woman, the man said "If Ghazi has your daughter...well, I hope she's still alive, but I'd be lying if I said there's a good chance for her. If that slimy man treats his workers the way he treated me..." he let his voice trail off. Looking at the three, Ioseph began, "Let's introduce ourselves. I am Ioseph, Ioseph Dalen, a recent graduate of the Academy of the Will and the Way, and I was supposed," the brown-haired man clenched his jaw at the word, "to be a rising star on Crystal Row until I ran across that miserable excuse for a human, who cheated me out of my shop and my fortune. I intend to make him pay, and pay dearly, for his 'assistance'." Ioseph's eyes looked at the others, judging their reactions.
Ioseph gave another look at the others. "I can say a name. It's on the card." he growled. Swallowing another gulp of wine, he snarled, "Ghazi ibn Al-Salah. There. I was led to believe I would be given information here about where he lives, how to pay him back for what he did to me." The brown-haired man looked at the big warrior, as well as the two women. "And I bet you'd like to know, too."
Not one to pass up a meal in his current economic condition, Ioseph took the basket from underneath the table and put it on top. "There's a note saying the owner - Zellara? - will be back. Meanwhile, we can probably talk here. And I'm hungry." the man told the others, taking a small chunk of bread.
"So much for staying out of sight." Ioseph muttered as he followed the others inside.
Ioseph saw the other people converging on the address he had been given. A short ravenhair with olive skin. A brunette who apparently liked scarves and finger gauntlets. They were attractive enough. It was the large gladiator with chain mail and that gigantic axe that concerned him. If the playing card had been a feint... The warrior's response to the ravenhair relaxed Ioseph a little. "If we have all been given a card," he said to the others, flashing the playing card from his belt pouch, "then I think we know the common cause that brought us here. But no names. Not yet." The redhead told them, looking around at the street they were on. "I just saw a guard, and I mean a Senator's bodyguard, not just a town guard, walk by a few minutes ago." The young man nodded at the door to the house opposite them (Zellara's place). "Maybe we should go inside, make this a private conversation from nearby eyes and ears?"
Ioseph's eyes followed the attractive guard's movements as she walked away from him in the crowd. Yes, things were better here than in his old life. Much better. But he still needed caution. The young man with red-streaked brown hair continued along the alleyways, turning onto Lancet Street.
Here's a nice picture of a city on the edge of a river/waterfall (anime).
So far so good.
Immediately defensive, Ioseph replied "It's just a setback. I told the city guard what happened." The redhead looked around them on the street. "And I can cut gemstones for any dealer, if I need to." Ioseph tucked away the information about Jonathan away, just in case.
Ioseph made little attempt to disguise where he was going - he didn't have the talent, or the training, to shake anyone trying to follow him. As he moved through the Hellenistic Quarter, Ioseph's mind was on one thing: revenge.
Ioseph studied the card. He didn't have time for this. He needed to recover the lost money the city had taken from him. But a chance to strike back at Ghazi, the slimy Human who had cheated him out of so much. The hovel boarding room he lived in was a stark reminder of what he had lost. The young-looking man had been reduced to skipping meals to save coin. The town guard had laughed at his outrage when the swindle had been thrown in his face. His wealthy patrons had been...disappointed in him. Ioseph had a very deep hole he had to climb out of. Quickly. He didn't recognize the playing card. Some kind of marriage? Nothing came to mind from his previous Shoati life. The last thing he needed was another "partnership" like his first with slimy Ghazi. "Come to 3 Lancet Street at sunset." he said, rolling the words on the back of the playing card in his mind. That was just over a glass. Ioseph looked around his bare room, then began packing what he did have left into his backpack. No sense in going unprepared.
I've been adding flavor to my character's Background and Story Hook. A waterfall? No problem, GM Elton - cities were typically built around and for water. Usually for trade, however, and a waterfall does make that problematic. However, your waste removal is a cinch now. I can easily see irrigation tunnels built for city farms and gardens, as well as sluices and gates to water different parts of the city. It's New Orleans with a big cliff. One of the lessons I learned in Iraq was that the natives didn't trust "well water" or "standing water" because of the arsenic and other heavy minerals coming from the deep ground. "Moving water" from the Euphrates River was "trusted" because it was moving. And I've gotten used to "Talking", thinking internally as well as telepathy, and ::Link or collective telepathy::.
Can we get your previous Recruitment thread's description of Alalea under the Campaign Tab, Elton? It could be just a paste-and-cut for now. Al-la-le-a, correct? I'm always wondering about pronunciation.
My feats are there: Psicrystal Affinity and Boost (Astral) Construct. For the lower levels I'll have to concentrate on Craft: Sculpting to make stuff with Ectoplasmic Creation and Astral Construct. If we need item creation feats immediately no problem, I'm hoping to buy a stone of Psychic Reformation at Level 6 to re-choose feats & skills to get the Crystal Imprinter prestige class at Level 7 (always get prestige classes at odd levels if you can because most make you skip getting 2 new powers at the 1st level and with the Expanded Knowledge feat, you can still get a power at that level). Crystal Imprinter has a strange prerequisite: Scribe Scroll. How's a psionic supposed to write a scroll for other psions to use? That puzzled me to no end. Until I realized that under Psionics-Magic Transparency, it's really "Scribe Power Stone". Psychic Reformation is really a fantastic power for psions. It's literally like taking a wizard, throwing away their spellbook, and giving them an entirely new spellbook to use the next day. There's nothing quite like it for arcane or divine casters at all. So if you wanted a true Jack-of-All-Trades who could play a blaster one day, a weapons master the next, a healer on Wednesdays, then a shapechanger, with being a Telepath or Planar Transporter on the weekends, you could do it as a psion.
You can't beat a cleric/priest for fun and (no)profit. I can't find Jeremy's healer class, even navigating DSP's SRD seems enigmatic at the moment. So a cleric would be welcome. Dreamscarred Press came out with three supplements to Psionics Unleashed, splitting the next book for psionics. Mind over Body, Find the Mark, and Unlimited Possibilities are all part of Psionics Expanded, which was printed after Psionics Unleashed. Submitting Ioseph Dalen for your inspection. I'm still working on your changed background compared to the Curse of the Crimson Throne's Player's Guide, so I could use some help changing Shoati to whatever barbarian tribe you want to use, Ghazi's hook, etc. Ioseph will be the Astral Construct maker, the Psion Shaper of the party. If Psion Shapers with item creation feats are rare, then Ioseph will be that exception. But I also go for Jack-of-All-Trade type characters, albeit later in the game with psionic powers. Ioseph is not a front-line fighter, he will be in the rear of the party. The only non-Core, non-DSP is the Call Item power, which came from The Mind's Eye in 3.5. DSP has yet to make a Pathfinder equivalent. I've used this 1st-level power in other games with no complaints from the GMs. Between Call Item and Ectoplasmic Creation, Ioseph is your go-to guy for on-the-fly equipment. |