Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber. Organized Play Member. 1,996 posts (10,050 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 32 aliases.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
The Holy/Unholy dichotomy is arguably not a moral dichotomy at all. It has more to do with the cycle of souls through the metaphysic. 'Holy' fights for the passage of souls through the cycle in their appropriate time & course; from the font, through a mortal life, to the great beyond where they are judged according to their choices & actions, and ultimately occupy that 'afterlife' appropriate to their choices & actions, as part of the appropriate afterlife, the soul will eventually (on a cosmic time scale) fully discorporate to ultimately return as quintessence (or comparable term) to the void, to begin the cycle anew.
'Unholy' effectively says 'F%@* That!' to some or all of said cycle. Anything from being willing to throw everyone else under the bus so long as they get to keep going, to 'the entire system is broken, let's shred it all' & any possible variation between and/or beside.
It's actually somewhat grimly amusing that those deities & philosophies that are arguably more attuned to the Cycle in question tend to stay quite unequivocally out of the holy/unholy dichotomy. There is a definite sense that they know that the cycle, being literally the engine that keeps all of existence going, is the actual definition of 'too big to fail'.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
pauljathome wrote:
I think that Starfinder covers essentially the same ground (Orcs in Spaaaccceeeee!!!") and does it much better.
I would counter that the sheer absurdity of the Spelljammer setting is a feature, not a bug.
Spelljammer was a clear (ish) successor to the bravura that was Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. Starfinder is Sci-Fi with Magitech, emphasis on the tech.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Korkael Koronna wrote:
And the Shadowdancer?
Given that the entire reason Shadowdancer wasn't found in Player Core 2 is that it is Legacy Content from way back in 3rd Ed/3.5, the likelihood of it popping up in a Lost Omens Sourcebook borders non-existent.
Now the Shadow Magic stuff from Secrets of Magic, that might be a possibility.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Benjamin Tait wrote:
So what beasties are in the backmatter? And what's the Green Man article like?
New Beasties!
Eyelet; weird flying eyeball that can serve as either a spy device-type critter or swarm for some anti-personal evil goodness
Glitterspore; Continues last issue's sub-theme of sinister fungi that don't quite look like fungi... and that's all I'm gonna say about that
Putrifier; weird plant/fungal/undead... thing Looks like a zombie Ghoran, which has interesting implications since according to in-game lore Ghorans didn't look like they presently do until several 'generations' after Ghorus created them & Putrifiers were created by him during his war against Taldor, which predated his creation of the progenitor Ghorans by years if not decades...
Woodblessed & Woodwarp; lore-wise, these are both template creatures & part of Ruzadoya's forces. Only Woodblessed actually get a template however & even that feels somewhat incomplete, it's enough to explain how the example creature works but it seems to imply there will/can be more options, possibly in the next issue. Woodwarp just gets two examples of what their 'finished product' are, one if it happens to a small-sized humanoid & one if it happens to a medium-sized one. Thematically, it feels like somebody asked 'what if we took the fleshwarp idea, but instead of magic doing the warping, it was woodmagic?...'
Green Men!!
It's kind of like the old deity articles, but since Green Men (non-gendered, you can have green women, but they are still called green men) function as kind of arboreal (the concept, not the creature) 'genius loci', that isn't really surprising.
In some ways, they are kind of god-tier leshies, from a highly simplistic perspective. They form naturally when an ecosystem manages to accumulate enough magical power, psychic resonance, so on & such-like.
They can even have Clerics! We are given eight examples, four with mechanics for if one wants to play a cleric of a Green Man
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Benjamin Tait wrote:
So what beasties are in the back?
My physical copy arrived in the mail today so let's crack 'er open.
Creatures:
Arboreals-Paizo's ORC Treants
Azhana-fey forest gardeners
The Bee-Man of Bellis-2nd Ed re build of a 1st Ed being specific to the Verduran forest if I remember correctly
Chetamog-dire chipmunk? Like Giant Sloth sized Giant Chipmunk...
Cythnophorian-new corpse infesting/animating fungus
Ohancanu-Cyclopes like Fey, have an affinity for old-growth forests
Twigjack Bramble-troop stats for Twigjacks.
Oh sweet! Chetamog includes stat block for one of them as an Animal Companion.
The death rate here in California has been about 1.25% of the confirmed through testing cases, including the critical cases we have brought in from Mexico. However experts here believe about 22% of the residents have been exposed to the virus.
Many of us have had it, experiences ranging from no symptoms whatsoever to being really sick. Two people I knew of have died in the same family who traveled to Mexico then came back. Most people around me that have had it felt like they had allergies with surging symptoms at night. I had the difficulty breathing and dry cough part, high heart rate and temp. Many more unconfirmed cases are all around because they don’t always test people unless they broke the 39 c mark. They tell people to remain home and recoup if the symptoms are not severe.
Luckily only two people under 18 have passed away of it in the whole state of 40+ million. Over 60% of the deaths have been people over 70 with the vast majority being those 80+. It rips through nursing homes.
Survival rate here is still over 99%, but I am aware that is not the case in many other areas of the world. 1,765,058 Californians have tested positive since March, 22,150 COVID related total deaths in CA, 269 were from today.
We are testing over 300,000 people a day here.
I hope the new vaccines make a positive impact.
Sadly, I live in a Deeply Red state, with a Governor who happily ditto's the Presidential Administration's 'party line'. I live in Missouri, near the Kansas/Missouri border. Don't ask me why we call it the Kansas/Missouri border instead of the Missouri/Kansas border, I suspect it has something to do with that nation-wide donnybrook that no one has gotten over from about a hundred-fifty or so years back. Just about every ICU in the state is at capacity. We would try to move some of our worst cases, but every neighboring state's ICU's are also at capacity. I work in retail, part-time; the week before I started self-isolating, I had a customer tell me 'it was all b!&#%*&$' when I handed him a mask because he wasn't wearing one in-spite of clear signage stating it was required just to be in the building. I am fifty, live with my maternal Uncle & my son. When I first actually thought I might have it, I was terrified that they might get it. As has been pointed out by others with much more medical/virological experience than I; 'everyone talks about the death-rate' when it's the as-yet-uncertain long term aftereffects that may be more frightening really. 'Cause the evidence is there that there are a lot of potential ones & most of them will f+~~ you up it looks like. We also don't yet have data to prove people who have been infected won't have flare-ups in the future like with chicken-pox/measles or herpes. That's why it's called novel. Every day, the scientists are learning more & more, but some things require literal years of experience.
I am also hopeful for the vaccine. If/when it becomes available I damn-well will take it.
Just got my call. Apparently I was really melodramatic, because according to my test result I did not have Covid-19. Just finished talking with my boss, I will go back to work Tuesday of next week.
Sorry I dropped that bomb with no/little follow up.
Monday I got tested. I still have to wait three business day for results, but I have been feeling progressively better every day since Sunday.
At present, my only real complaints are a stabbing pain behind my right ear if I sit in front of/too close to an electronic screen for too long.
I have been continuing to self-isolate, admittedly not perfectly. I was the responsible adult in the house before & some habits refuse to die, or pause without near-physical restraint.
'Typical Mendev'
Grey allows a blank stare in response to the Armored knight's need to declaim the obvious before slipping his blade back into it's resting-place & beginning his assessment of the interior.
Perception to examine the room, add three if there is a trap:1d20 + 13 ⇒ (19) + 13 = 32...
I gotta remind myself I optimized this little s#*~ for this...
Unrelated note: When you see something italicized bot unbolded in a gameplay post, it Grey thinking to himself.
And yes, Grey doesn't have the highest opinion of Mendevian Crusaders
Pavo Bellimarius was Patriarch of a minor Chelish House, notable mostly as financiers in trade ventures. In the wake of the Thrune ascendancy He relocated his family (and their wealth) to the new-founded city of Magnimar hoping to capitalize on this emerging trade hub, particularly in regards to trade with the distant continent of Tian Xia. For many years, this tack proved quit successful and not only did the family's fortunes grow they came to be viewed as close friends of the Tian community. In particular, a family of Glassmakers seeking to establish a Glassworks in one of Magnimar's subordinate towns, Sandpoint.
Time and generations passed, and fortunes waned. Eventually, a series of increasingly poor and desperate business decisions by Pavo's grandson, Morvius, not only paupered the family, it ended it. Only his infant son Arioch survived to be found by Lonjiku Kaijutsu on a fortuitous visit when in Magnimar on business. In memory of the many kindnesses the Bellimarius family had performed on his own & other Tian families behalf, Lonjiku took the child in & raised him as his own.
For many years, Arioch's life was as close to idylic as it could be with such tragedy in one's past. The grace & intricacy of Glassworking was a neverending delight for the boy and as Lonjiku's blood descendants showed no interest in the art, he took solace in sharing this passion with someone who appreciated it as much as he.
Sadly, tragedy struck young Arioch's life again, this time touching his adopted family, for Atsuii Kaijutsu, Arioch's adopted mother's body was found, dead, at the base of the rise upon which the family home was found. Atsuii's death presaged a time of significant family strife in the Kaijutsu household, for not long after Ameiko, his adopted sister, left following an intense argument with their father to become an adventurer. Though Lonjiku continued to share his craft with his adopted son, he grew distant & cold. A distance with did not lessen when Ameiko returned to Sandpoint, indeed if anything Lonjiku became even more withdrawn & cold. It was this coldness which simultaneously prompted Arioch to throw himself even more intensely into his study of Glassmaking & at the same time kept him from sharing with his father a growing, secret fear.
Since the morning Atsuii's lifeless body was found on the rocks below the Kaijutsu home, Arioch would find himself waking in strange places, with inexplicable bruises, his bedclothes in shreds about him.
Finally, at their father's funeral, Arioch attempted to share his fears with his sole surviving family. Unfortunately, their mutual grief, coupled with the continued resentment Ameiko felt toward Lonjiku impeded his revelation & Ameiko believed he was simply pestering her about the Glassworks. To get him out of her hair, Ameiko assured Arioch that he was welcome to stay in the family home for as long as he wished.
In the time since, Arioch has finally learned to control his transformations, somewhat, though he still has little idea of how they came to occur in the first place. As stress can bring them on, he tries to keep to as unexciting a life as possible, rarely even leaving the Glassworks for days at a time as he attempts to return to a sense of normalcy.
Does this mean Small size races will automatically not? This is a character I specifically developed for this AP back when it was originally published (every campaign died before the end of the first book sigh)
Edit: I realize I will need to adjust him to meet specs, I just wanted to know if He would be rejected outright for other reasons before I did so.
You have both Ao & I mentioned, so I am taking a chance on resisting...
Tsundere:1d6 ⇒ 6
"Really now," Tracy chastens the two sticks-in-mud, "and you wonder why you remain a deputy..." Her gaze locks particularly with Niji-tan's. "You've made your point, though I can assure you, this one," her hand languidly flows towards the quite martially postured guitarist, "bears no taint of the adversary's touch. As Loki can attest, I have become uncomfortably well acquainted with the idiosyncrasies & dangers inherent."
"Come, sway me with your words." She reaches out, clasping both Niji-tan & Takara about the shoulders before winsomely leading them back to their table, beaming coquettishly at them encouragingly once there.
Pending approval of all parties present, I also will be...
present.
That in mind, Kartari, I was all set to go with a Seducer Witch of the Green Mother & then I saw this in Heroes of Golarion, the Player Companion that just came out.
UNICORN SORCERER BLOODLINE Heroes of Golarion, pg 10:
The deep forests of Avistan, such as those found in Molthune and Nirmathas, are a haven for one of Golarion’s most fabled creatures: unicorns. Deeply empathetic and fiercely protective, unicorns on occasion form close bonds with humans, often young and noble-hearted women. When the two have a particularly strong bond, the unicorn’s magic can become a part of the bonded human, and sometimes is even passed on to her children. These children, blessed by their parent’s connection to that force of true good, grow up to become sorcerers of the unicorn bloodline.
Class Skill: Heal.
Bonus Spells:Cure light wounds (3rd), cure moderate wounds (5th), cure serious wounds (7th), restoration (9th), atonement (11th), heal (13th), greater restoration (15th), mass cure critical wounds (17th), mass heal (19th).
Bonus Feats: Alertness, Animal Affinity, Brew Potion, Fleet, Greater Fortitude, Improved Counterspell, Self-Sufficient, Skill Focus (Heal).
Bloodline Arcana: Every time you cast a spell, you can restore a number of hit points equal to double the level of the spell you cast to one target of your choice that you can see. A creature at its maximum hit points cannot be affected by this ability. Healing a dying creature with this ability does not automatically stabilize the creature unless its hit points are brought to 0 or above.
Bloodline Powers: Your connection to the unicorns’ blessing shapes you as you grow, empowering you with the forces of good and restoration.
Safekeeping (Su): At 1st level, you can touch a creature as a standard action, granting it a +2 insight bonus to AC for 1 round. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.
Pure of Mind (Su): At 3rd level, you gain a +2 bonus on saving throws against charm effects and a +4 bonus on saving throws against spells with the evil descriptor. At 9th level, your bonus on saving throws against charm effects increases to +4 and your bonus on saving throws against spells with the evil descriptor increases to +6.
Righteous Fury (Su): At 9th level, once per day you can create a spear of pure light and throw it at a creature within 60 feet as a standard action. This is a ranged touch attack that uses your Charisma modifier in place of your Dexterity modifier to determine the attack bonus. The spear deals 1d6 points of damage per sorcerer level and ignores all damage reduction and hardness. This damage increases to 1d8 points of damage per sorcerer level against an evil creature. At 13th level, you can use this ability twice per day. At 17th level, you can use this ability three times per day.
Friend to Nature (Su): At 15th level, creatures with the animal or magical beast type and a nonevil alignment instinctually trust you. Such creatures automatically have a starting attitude of indifferent or better toward you unless you or a creature allied with you has attacked or otherwise threatened violence against such a creature.
Blessing (Su): At 20th level, you gain immunity to poison, to charm effects, and to spells and weapons with the evil descriptor. You can also cast magic circle against evil at will with a caster level equal to your sorcerer level.
Should this meet with your approval, I will have character background & a completed character sheet by this weekend.
Head-canon since human peak ability in any action rating is two, I have concluded that human average is actually zero.
So having a rating above zero means above average.
That's my story & I'm sticking to it...
Flow:1d6 ⇒ 6
Pursed lips quirking slightly at Aila's sotto vocce comment, Tracy is on the inhale, clearly about to respond, when the guitar chord kicks in.
You've never seen anyone go from seated to standing to all but floating across the floor... that fast.
The fact that somehow the crash of the chair on impact manages to be at the exact moment necessary to not bring it all to a screeching halt would, in any other circumstance, be the most amazing thing about this...
only now her hand is dancing across your wrist as she isn't done yet...
What follows is somewhere between a Conga line, flamenco & Parkour.
Yes, Tracy will drag everyone not actively resisting into the dance with her, over & around furniture, and eventually up to wherever the music is coming from.
Immediately pre-LARP: Ostentatiously bowing the gathered Yokai through the gates to Perfection's Temple, Tracy takes advantage of the fact that she has as much talent for prevarication as a sea anemone does for interstellar flight. Though her lips remain closed, her expressions & eye contact make her opinions of the individual en-fleshed spirits plain, even challenging in some cases. Finally, as all pass beyond her sight, she sighs & ...
lets go...
Finding herself once more in that place that is no place, Tracy impishly embraces Petrichor before grabbing a brace (or three) cans of PBR from the fridge to slip into concealment within her work rucksack before pulling her hair out of it's habitual work ponytail & brushing it into something more closely resembling a sable waterfall.
"Don't wait up for me, but I promise when I get back there will be tales to tell."
With that, Tracy allows the gravity of existence to pull her back into Neo Jimazan's cloying, almost claustrophobic 'embrace'.
Now: The woman, (OMG! Yep, definitely a woman, her costume has cleavage even!) seated at the table has raven hair & an almost milk-pale complexion. Though honestly only 'feminine' rather than 'lush', her body's contours seem almost lewd to you, given the fact that she makes no effort to conceal or contort them to fit current mores. In truth, she seems to have taken advantage of the present circumstances to indulge in garments cut & styled to accentuate, rather than occlude.
Somehow she has acquired one of the only chairs in the tavern with a pivot, almost lazily turning around & around, one foot arched, ankle exposed, to gently kick off each time she comes to a stop. You get the impression she is observing you even as her gaze swings across the opposite end of the room. An almost aggressively white rucksack hangs from the back of the chair, you think you might have heard something within it clink. A blazingly red H is centered on her forehead. Class: NPC/town strumpet
Salvia:
Class: NPC/Artisan (Smith)
Apparel: Loose, tan t-shirt, off-white (sweat-stained) bandana, tan hakama (soot-stained), heavy weight apron (considered light armor), black tabi, sandals
gear/weapon: Boffer-style Hammer
Backstory: You have trained under the finest weaponsmith in the land. If you can acquire the necessary materials, you can craft a weapon truly worthy of your talents & prove your mastery to your mentor.
Aila:
"Well, if you've the courage to come this far," she replies, eyeing you up & down assessingly if not unkindly "'twould be harsh payment indeed to send you off empty-handed."
"Have you a plan?"
So, little bit of back-track. When I asked if the LARP was an ongoing concern, one of the ideas I was playing with was that Tracy has an on-going diversion regarding the LARP because it is the one place she can 'get away' with gendered clothing & actions. She can get away with being a girl in the LARP since of course you have to have saucy wenches in an RPG.
The following is not directly related to the present game, hence spoiler-ed. Read only if you care about my thoughts/opinions regarding the game system/mechanics specifically, not the game we are currently playing.
Girl by Moonlight & Expectation Management:
So, after playing this season for a year, obsessively reading & re-reading the GbM rules-set and finally, having watched multiple examples of play on YouTube; I have come to a conclusion.
Girl by Moonlight, as presently written, is a GrimDark RPG.
All the setting sheets have pre-eminent values that are neutral at best, with the majority of values I might consider positive suborned to the 'hidden/secret/transgressive' category. Combine this with the fact that mission objectives rarely if ever elevate themselves beyond 'Keep things from getting worse' & there really doesn't seem to be much light in Girl by Moonlight.
Possibly I have an incorrect/insufficient understanding of the Magical Girl Genre, but this seems...
incongruous,
to me. I cannot tell if this is a bug or a feature. I comprehend that angst is a factor, but as it stands, depending on setting choice, I can definitely see myself in danger of my character asking themselves 'Are the bad guys Really that much worse?..'
Maybe I'm just old, but the world I deal with on a day-to-day basis has enough Dystopian elements lately, not certain I can handle this much in my escapism as well.
All that said, I am still enjoying myself.
Every good show needs at least one heist episode, so I'm down for that certainly.
That said, BastianQuin, am I interpreting your words correctly that, technically, all of those potential missions would be taking place at/during the LARP/social?
On an unrelated note, if we are going to continue to have promises be a thing, I would second or possibly forward the motion that we see if we can't bring in at least one or two new players, else wise our promises will always & only be between the three of us...
that said, Tracy's impossible promise regarding Ao managed to be the key that finally unlocked my most recent creative block, so, yay!...
The short answer is that nothing not in the Girl by Moonlight rules set is necessary & the themes of the two are sufficiently different that I would almost recommend not reading Blades until and unless you have a firm grasp of what you want your game to be.
I have neither the time nor the energy to give you the long answer right now, as parent-teacher conferences were tonight and I am now exhausted.
"My task on the Purity Committee is site cleansing. Only site cleansing. There is nothing & no one there any more by the time Loki & I get there."
LOOK, I was as surprised as anyone when I found I was at the location that Niji-san was calling in from. By the time I was able to assess the situation, the...
entity was gone!"
"I fell back on drill & past experience. 'Triage bodies' (usually that just means 'make certain they are no longer virulently contagious')" she mutters almost to herself, "Purify the site. How was I supposed to know ahead of time that this time the body wouldn't be a corpse?!"
If you can be patient for about a week or so, I might be able to assume the reigns. Hate to see a CC Campaign that has made it this far go under, particularly one I enjoyed playing on once upon a time.
"There will be NO Assassinations!" Martella declaims quellingly. "Well, possibly some character assassination..." she muses, her eyes slipping from one to another of you.
"Oppara was not built in a day. Neither will the realization of our ambitions."
"You-" her eyes lock Elyana beneath her gaze, "hope to avenge you father. A virtuous goal, though possibly naive." Martella's expression grows pensive, withdrawn.
Shaking herself slightly, she peers now towards Mairwen, "You..."
"bemuse me."
"Your...
Cousin & I have discussed you at length." Martella quips almost flippantly, seemingly skipping Sarada as she directs her attention finally to Venetia. "You, on the other hand. Of all present this afternoon, none seem so...
purpose-crafted for what is to come as you."
"It is said," Martella contemplates as she allows her attention to wander from the four of you to some...
puckish thought, "those who enjoy sausage & have a respect for the law should witness neither being made."
I find it inordinately amusing that only one of the PC's names does not end in A...
Sorry, will save vs. Grammar fiend failed. It's spelled palate .
"Ooh, dear. Stop right there." Tracy pipes out as the wound catches her eye. Pulling her duty kit forward once more she dons a fresh pair of gloves before pulling out a liter bottle of purified water, seal intact. "This will likely sting, sorry. Do you know how your...
flesh reacts to purification?"
Elyana nodded and said, "I've noticed your definition of fun can be questionable at times Martella," she arched one eyebrow, "as I recall the last time you told me that I found myself having dinner with that trade factor only to be interrupted by his harridan wife who wanted to kill us both thinking we were his mistresses." though her words might have sounded sarcastic to most to Martella they were laced with wry amusement.
"I warnedhim, her, them! I told them it was too late for me, not my time any more! Now it's all getting even worse!" Tracy hisses histrionically to herself as matters spiral further from ideal.
So, does that count for Social link?
"You!" She snarls, her attention dragged once more to the officious prig interposing their interfering nose in matters. "Deputy Informer Niji-tan!"
"This is an active threat site. As senior-most asset in service to Perfection present, I am directing you to butt the f$%~ out!" Dragging her duty kit off her back, Tracy all but shoves the attached badge in the junior hall monitor's face. "Now move your keister back inside & keep any one else from contaminating my work space!"
Neither waiting for, nor even acknowledging a response, Tracy purposefully strides to the foot of the ladder. "I'm only coming up to talk," she calls up, "I can't hurt you & if you don't want me here, I'll leave, but please tell me first." With that, she carefully makes her way up the rungs, almost holding her breath with anxious anticipation.
Huzzah! Glad to hear your Dad made it through this point of the process Phaedra. Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. I hit a particularly down patch & have been doing not much more than work & living the last week or so. I think I am on my way back up & am going to do one last review of everyone's character's & then I should have Gameplay opened up before the weekend.
That said, Sarada, still need some kind of equipment list , even if it is nothing more than what she regularly wears.
Did you decide not to take 'Pass for Human'? Given the tail, I can understand if that is the case.
Looks like a Confess roll from a Controlled position with Standard effect. This should clear the Despair obstacle. Dark Bargain: You've upset the junior cadet, who will pull rank, and become an optional, but threatening obstacle. (They'll start ticking a clock for each move that isn't used to clear them as an obstacle.)
Taking this move against the Bladebeast will allow the optional obstacle "bystander" to start ticking a 6-clock: suffocation.
So do I make the roll considering it applies to what I have already done? Or do I consider that set-up for making the roll?
Sorry it has been so long since I posted, this week was a reminder of how three day weekends aren't exactly as great as they are worked up to be, as they are inevitably followed by a four day week where you have to get five days of work done...
That said, Rysky/Sarada, would you make another go-over of your character page, most of your buttons either don't have anything behind them, or don't seem to have enough behind them.
Drogeny/Elyana, thank you for the ammo, I mean background! Back ground, yeah, that's it!
Everyone, segue over to the Discussion page where we will start figuring out what we are doing...
Tsundere to Resist:1d6 ⇒ 1...
Sigh, That puts me at one Stress away from Eclipse. Good thing I took the Devil's Bargain last time. What are Social Links used for again?
Starting slightly at the display of controlled violence, Tracy opens her arms, spreading her hands to show she is no threat, co-incidentally exposing herself utterly to any further violence this troubled soul might choose to inflict.
"I..."
"I can't do that, I'm sorry." Collapsing to her knees as if the grief and pain of her audience were a yoke dropped upon her shoulders, Tracy's head bows as her eyelids, leaden, droop. "I know what you did," she breathes, "allthat you did. the pain just...
got too much. old world gone, new world no better. Just trading one set of torment for another. Finally, to heap insult on injury, even the peace of death is denied you." Confess (or possibly Empathize...):1d6 ⇒ 6
Either Green Knight or Flame Warden should work quite adequately, you're gonna get side-eye either way. Green Knights, if recognized as such, are associated with Druids in Taldor & Taldor and Druids have an...
interesting relationship. Likewise most Flamewardens will be assumed to be Sarenrae worshipers & consequently suspected of Qadiran sympathy. Neither is intended as an argument against you playing either, just letting you know what you are getting yourself into.
The thing about Ganzi, actually any of the 'plane-touched' as they used to be called, is that they are less the descendants of relations with Outsiders & more the result of ancestors who found themselves exposed to the energies of the Outer Planes. This is not to say that your character can't tell herself that she is descended from Proteans (She's no more or less a Ganzi no matter how it came about.)
@Gillian; you've got Craft Potion automatically from Alchemist, but no ranks in Craft (Alchemy). Given that Tinkers are more clockwork oriented than Alchemy oriented, I would be willing to let you switch out Brew Potion for extra Bombs or something similar if you wanted.
All-in-all everything is looking good. Soon as Rysky has a character & everyone has backgrounds for their characters, we should be ready to start shaking the foundations of heaven! Er, I mean paving the way from Eutropia to assume her rightful place as Heir, yeah, that's what i meant!
Hey!! Good to see you again!! Here I is. Haven't figured out anything yet, but I'm excited to see you. :o)
Good to 'see' you again too!
A lot of people tend to have difficulties comprehending the difference between evil & a%%@!&& in an RPG. It might help that I have played a lot of different RPG's, including some of the 'Monster' RPG's like the various Storyteller/World of Darkness games.
One thing that sometimes helps is looking at it as an extreme version of the 'US vs. THEM' viewpoint. Clearly you don't do your own people dirty, but everyone else is fair game, especially anyone who has acted against you or yours...
Now I am not bringing this up as an incitement to make up evil PC's, mainly as kind of a thought piece.
Rysky wrote:
*waves*
Hello everyone :3
Sorry it took me so long so to respond DM, hadn’t been on this evening.
Considering It was an entire week between when I indicated I would post this to start & when I actually succeeded in doing so, I'm not going to complain that it took you a couple hours to post.
Does bring up a good point, however. I know I have an interesting relationship with inertia, which is to say, once I get going, I frequently tend to roll right along. Unfortunately, if i get stopped for some reason, it can take me a bit to get back in motion. I will be exerting effort to keep this under control, but things happen.
One of the ways i will be trying to keep it under control will be to try to post at least two to three times a week. My goal will be at least once a day, but as long as I maintain at least two or three times a week, I should be able to avoid dead stoppage so-to-speak.
As far as party composition is concerned... This AP is really social/intrigue heavy. I'm not suggesting it, by any measure, but an all-bard or some such concept can actually work in this one. One of the reasons I am allowing the VMC rules from Unchained.
Of course, the other reason I am allowing them is that I have considered it a crime against role-play that the Maestro Sorcerer Bloodline doesn't allow more Bard-like (Or Bard-lite) qualities ever since I first read it.
In the interests of actually getting this out this time so we can get moving, I am going to keep this brief.
Character Creation:
20 pt buy.
1st level starting
average starting wealth (CRB pg. 140 or check the PRD)
Allowed races: CRB, Aasimar, Changeling, Ganzi (Planar Adventures pg. 234), Tiefling
Allowed Classes/Archetypes: CRB, Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Combat, Advanced Class guide, Ultimate Intrigue, Ultimate Wilderness; Pathfinder Player Companion & Campaign Guide at my discretion (Which is to say, if I have a copy & have reviewed it. If you aren't sure, ask.)
PC's choose up to three Traits (one Campaign, required; one non-Campaign, gratis; one non-Campaign with selection of one Drawback from Ultimate Campaign)
If you don't already have the AP Player's Guide for War of the Crown, please download it from here.
Once all of you have posted to here, we will discuss How we want to proceed. I have several house-rules (OK, some house-rules) I wish to present.
Chessa didn't explicitly share that Azu might be falling to the darkness, but she did share that Ayatori was a creature of the darkness, and as the guide of Azu, you might make the leap that the yokai guide being a creature of darkness is very bad for their sponsor. :)
Ah, there we go. I hadn't really twigged that Ayatori was Azu's Yokai previously. I should have, but didn't. Yeah, definitely puts her in a heightened threat situation. That said, as BastianQuin points out, Azu isn't on quite as rapid a boil as the Monstergirl, at least she doesn't seem to be...
On the subject of Monstergirls...
BastianQuinn wrote:
One question, I think, needs some clarification: "Does this mission center around one of your friends?" Here's something we may want to clear up: this creature spawned from a suicide, Tomoe was the 'first suicide', and there have been a few other creatures in the past. I didn't intend to insinuate that they were all suicides. Is Tomoe at all involved in this tea ritual or the plan's execution?
Again, I hadn't twigged that Monstergirl was a direct result of suicide...
I had just figured the act of Suicide basically punched a hole through to the 'Darknessverse', from which we get Monsters. Tracy was interpreting Astre/Cygnus revelation as meaning that the Darkness was now also using people's same sense of desperation & loss to drive them to become monsters. Sigh, if you haven't noticed, I have a tendency to miss the most obvious/simple explanation for things...
The shrine Tracy goes to 'talk' with Tomoe likely would make a good site for performing the ritual & Tomoe might very well recognize the bloom & it's significance, which could make for something of a shock for Tracy since I don't so much feel that Tomoe has really been an active presence. Tracy goes there when she misses her friend & needs to feel close to her again, even if only 'in spirit'.
Yes, I voted for Monsterhunt. As I mentioned before, I don't recall the other options even being presented to Tracy 'in-character'. Technically, Egg Hunt was always an option, but without the awareness that they might be used in some way to 'resurrect' Shuji, acquiring them from the Erohin just seems like playing the Erohin's game of pointless one-upsmanship, which is bad enough from them & seems unconscionable to her.
As to Azu...
again, I don't recall when the danger to them was presented to the group 'in-character'. If someone would direct me to that post, Tracy's stance could change.
She certainly isn't thrilled about the idea of tracking down & confronting an emotionally unstable woman presently 'trapped' in the form of a Darkness-imbued killing-machine who feels betrayed by everyone & everything, but at present, Tracy also feels as though she may be the only one even close to being in the 'wolf's' 'corner' so-to-speak.
Regarding splitting the party...
If the consensus is Azu or Eggs & a better rationale for why isn't presented to her, yeah, Tracy will go after the 'wolf' instead. As to how she intends to track her, Tracy has the bloom & enough experience with Neo Jimazan to know that 'weird s*+@' works here in ways it just shouldn't by the standards of the world she knows, so she is likely going to do something crazy like brew a tea from the petals & see if drinking it sends her on a vision quest or some such...
