Jesse Heinig's page

A few of you have already heard from me in PMs, but there's a Shadowrun (3rd edition) game on the boards that is re-forming its players and is in need of a replacement street samurai. If that's you, speak up! (I can help with character creation, if necessary.)

Celebeth gives Kalaman a hug before the tiefling can escape.

"It was good to have you with us," she says. "Good luck in figuring things out. I'm sure we'll cross paths again."

~~~~~~~~~~

The half-elf watches curiously as the stranger introduces himself to Tove. She blinks a few times and keeps her thoughts to herself as she tries to get a bead on this new arrival. It's inevitable that as the team's star rises, supplicants will come with various agendas, for good or for ill. If only she were a better judge of character...

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 1 = 13

To be clear, Celebeth is not hostile at all, but as the spymaster she needs to form some kind of opinion about randos coming up to her baroness. :)

I have no fight in this, as I am from Brazil, but from someone used to be on the losing side of the elections, I figured we usually think things will be much worse than they are when we lose and much better when we win.

Not sure if this applies to you in the US, but my opinion is that both sides are much more interested in keeping in power first and doing what we think they should be doing second/third if at all.

Most people, on both sizes, want to be happy, want better schools, better healthcare, better jobs, and so on. If you take the time to ask, we all agree in about 80% of what should be done, but politicians have convinced us that what really matters is the 20% we don't agree so we keep fighting each other while they get to do what they want.

A significant part of the campaigning this time around was from a support network on Trump's team indicating that they are prepared, once they win, to sweep away the entire federal government system and put in place draconian new oppressive strictures. This isn't people engaging in hyperbole; they literally floated documents where they have stated policy goals of denaturalizing people, rounding up 20 million immigrants, and putting them in concentration camps.

Alright with that fight over, shall we head back to Elkmark and drop off Kalaman and pick up Wulfric?

Sounds good to me!

Any other maintenance we need to do in the meantime?

How much travel time are we expecting? (This matters b/c Meridian can brew healing potions while we are out on the move, but only if we are out for enough days.)

Celebeth posts her blade and uses her free hand to conjure a ball of seething acid, which she sizzles into the fallen troll.

Coup de grace acid splash.

Meridian, having remained wisely out of the fray, makes a surprise appearance as she comes up behind Garethane to revitalize him.

Healing hex: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

Having felled her immediate problem, Fadilah rushes to aid her prospective roommate, Zairiah.

Staff of the sea attack, hit AC: 19 - 1d20 ⇒ 19 - (13) = 6
Staff of the sea damage: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Isabella follows up with her prayer spell to give the team even more of an edge.

Acid splash attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24
Acid splash damage: 1d3 ⇒ 1
Sneak attack damage: 1d6 ⇒ 1

Celebeth suddenly appears near the stirring troll and blasts it with a glob of acid.

Should also have a bonus for attacking a prone figure from invisibility.

One of the greatest campaigns of all time!

Fireball is always an excellent party starter when the terrain is right. I can add in a holy smite.

"I hate ocarinas."

Fadilah says, "One moment."

Fetch spell: unseen servant: 1d100 ⇒ 575 = 75
Fetch spell time: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3 rounds

After a few minutes' wait, Fadilah casts an unseen servant and directs it forward to start sorting through the wreckage and placing pieces in a wide circle around the broken caravan.

0 Team

Elsewhere

Ms. Trask goes over the Daedalus curriculum and application closely, then turns it back over to Empyrean. "Quite a list of options," she observes, "but the option of not going at all is still available. Hypocritical as it is, you still have a standing invitation to resume classes at Halcyon Prep."

She flips through her threat analysis of the Daedalus Academy, shaking her head slowly. "I can think of a hundred reasons why you shouldn't go within ten miles of that school, but I'll ask you:

"Do you want to go?

"I..." Empyrean says, and hesitates.

"I want to go where I can do the most good. If the school will help me to do that... to learn to be around people and to help them... then yes."

Fadilah watches Paritosh stuff his mouth with some nuts and then provide his response, then she scoots slightly closer to Zairiah and says, "But if I wanted be roommates with Zairiah, why not just cut out the middleman?"

Fadilah can't help but giggle at all of the back-and-forth.

"My friends," she says sincerely to Namered and Diliram, "I am delighted to have you with us again, even if only for a short time. Our fare is simple but your company makes me savor it all the more."

"So Paritosh, have you picked out your wives yet?"

Greetings, fresh meat! :D

Given the range, Celebeth also uses her bow.

Masterwork longbow attack, bless: 1d20 + 7 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 7 + 1 = 22
Masterwork longbow damage: 1d8 ⇒ 7

"My friends!" says Fadilah with enthusiasm when the genies reappear. "It is delightful to see you again! We are having a humble repast this evening but would be happy to have you join us."

I kinda wanna ChatGPT jailbreak them. I wonder if we can get them to go back and repeat things heard before our arrival, so we can "hear" the conversations of other folks in this area.

It figures that Vibenia knows how to tie a woman up.

Celebeth figures she's going to wind up in the thick of things and she sneaks around to hide behind one of the trees, using a pile of brush for cover.

Stealth: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (5) + 13 = 18

Here is our current roster.

The Protagonists
RULER: Tove Hellstrom, Ulfen human cleric of Erastil
MARSHAL: Garethane Seregon, elf hunter (feral)
SPYMASTER: Celebeth Quinciel, half-elf unchained rogue (eldritch scoundrel) - It's-a me!
ROYAL ENFORCER: Rhiannon Wyngarde, human fighter (unbreakable)
GRAND DIPLOMAT: Azen, human bard (arrowsong minstrel) - That's my half-sister!

As you can see, we currently have no "full" arcane caster.

Supporting Cast
COUNCILOR: Meridian, human witch (one of my recruits)
GENERAL: Celeste Naevirion (our ruler's girlfriend)
TREASURER: Turcáno Quinciel, elf magus (armored) - my uncle and one of my recruits
WARDEN: Kesten Garess, human fighter (emo guy) - if you played KM before you know this NPC
HIGH PRIEST: Jhod Kavken, human cleric - if you played KM before you know this NPC

We are also on friendly terms with the lizardfolk west of the Tuskwater, but a large number of them were killed by trolls and civil war and so now they are mostly refugees. One is also a recruit of mine.

Positions are fungible. If you make a super-smart wizard and decide you want to take over as Treasurer, we probably won't object.

~~~~~~~~~~

To date, our gameplay has been somewhat reminiscent of old-school D&D hexcrawling, so our principals are humans and their demihuman allies (elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings). Golarion is a big place and other kinds of creatures exist, of course, they just haven't had a reason to be involved in the succession wars and civil crisis of Brevoy.

I poked the Recruitment thread and I can reach out to anyone you might want to interview.

Cass gives one of the departing gargoyles a boneshatter just out of spite.

Boneshatter damage: 11d6 ⇒ (6, 1, 4, 6, 3, 1, 4, 1, 2, 4, 4) = 36 (Fort save 20 for half, no evasion on that. On save, fatigued; on fail, exhausted.)

I would love to recruit a new reliable player. If that option is not available, one of Celebeth's recruits can slide into the Magister role.

Jim inclines his head to Wang Shouren and says, "Please forgive me, I will use the language of the outsiders to communicate more efficiently with them."

He switches to English (keenly aware that Wang Shouren probably understands plenty of that, too) and says to the team, "We have the opportunity to gain local favor and a Boon by recovering a sword with historical value. An American buyer wishes to purchase the item, but if we can outbid him or outmaneuver him and acquire the blade, we will have the gratitude of our associate here."

"Wang Shouren is known as a philosopher who achieved the highest honors of the Confucian school. Noteworthy to us in particular was his belief that knowledge of good and evil is innate to people," Jim says, adding some context to their visitor's role.

Incidentally, Jim can't say it out loud here, but will certainly explain after the fact that "honored gweilo" is some real passive-aggressive s%&+, since gweilo is a pretty pejorative term. It's like calling someone an "honorable s@*!head."

Well, it starts as the Bath of Aiko Hattori, but yes.

Fadilah also scrambles against the wall.

"If they're keeping us pinned down with indirect fire, they're probably sending a group to enter our camp while we are under cover," she says. "Be ready!"

She sends her gen out for a spell.

Fetch spell: protection from normal missiles (<= 55%): 1d100 ⇒ 15
Fetch spell time: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8 rounds

Celebeth shakes her hands and arms, jittery. It was very, very risky for her getting into the thick of things with a troll like that, and she feels like she took an unwarranted risk. It worked out, but it could've been very painful. Like what happened to Kalaman.

"Gonna go scorch all of them, just make sure nobody gets up." She wipes off her blade and sheathes it, then proceeds to go apply judicious acid splashes to various downed trolls.

Opportunity attack, flanking: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 7 + 2 = 28
Opportunity attack confirm crit, flanking: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 7 + 2 = 15

No crit

Opportunity attack damage, sneak attack: 1d6 + 2 + 1d6 ⇒ (1) + 2 + (3) = 6

In spite of exhaustion, injury, and an uncertain future, Aiko hurls herself to Ameiko in a ferocious hug, resting her head against her long-time companion and charge. "Moon over river/has nothing to compare to/the soulmate's visage," she says extemporaneously. Then she backs up from the fierce embrace a step so that she can fluidly go down to one knee, still holding one of Ameiko's hands, which she presses to her face.

"If by my blade or by my life I can deliver you to the end of your quest, you shall have it," she says solemnly.

Or you could rogue into using guns! Very pirate-y!

Cass notes their evasion and casts slow on the gargoyles. (Will save DC 18)

Fadilah says nervously, "The plant's tendrils may have infested her brain. I hope it doesn't turn her into some kind of plant-zombie."

Cassiopeia lets out a strangled cry as she suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous... arrows, grips her spellbook and casts communal protection from arrows on the team.

Fadilah helps to pull Zairiah up the top.

"What's happening down there?" she asks. "Something I can help with a spell?"

*twang*: 1d20 + 7 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 7 + 1 = 27
Damage: 1d8 ⇒ 7

I'm sure Aiko will give you mouth-to-mouth if you lose your breath.

That honor was being reserved for Ameiko.

Well, the disk that we got from defeating the creature seems noteworthy. (I mean, it was literally noteworthy, in that the DM noted it after we defeated the monster and searched the area.) Maybe it has a use? It has magic.

Fadilah decides to stay at the top of the well (how many people can fit in a well and dig out the bottom, anyway?) and keeps an eye out for trouble.

Fetch spell: light (<= 75%): 1d100 ⇒ 8

Fadilah whispers to her gen, then a few minutes later she casts a light spell on a pebble and drops it into the well.

I feel like Ashlei will always shoot her shot :)

Once Garethane returns and gives his report, Celebeth frowns, then says, "Well, the good news is that they are moving about in small groups. Three trolls? We might be able to ambush such a group and eliminate it. The dragon's bad, though."

"I think... and this is just my opinion as a non-military expert... we ought to pick off a few of their small patrol groups before we see what we can do about some of the tougher nuts. At the very least it will help keep the border areas safer for travelers and small settlements."

July 34

???

Yeah, our b@#$@*$@ is purely our own, not the kind that gets us in doors.

Thanks for the heads up!

I'm doing my awful split commute, which has really ruined my schedule, but this weekend I will have time to finally migrate everything over to Roll20, and we can press on through the dungeons under Kaer Maga then.

"I'll go with you, Kay," says Vedika. "I can swim a little so I'll try to help if things go awry. Let's stick together."

Fadilah unleashes the magic missile that she had previously picked up for the undead.

Magic missile damage: 3d4 + 3 ⇒ (1, 1, 4) + 3 = 9 (vs. #1)

Our clues:
Primrose's body found in the barn, in a stall, a mile from home
Blood on Primrose's pillow in her room
Shutter to Primrose's window broken open
Broadhead arrows, similar to those used by Devan, found at the murder scene, with fletching of the kind on arrows Primrose had given to Devan—two used to pin her down, one broken and discarded
Strangled with a bowstring, but with multiple shallow cuts on her body
Roseblood thorn, used as a climbing spike (Rosebloods are a kind of small malicious faerie)

This was the critical initial post: Testimony!

Now that the crew is away from everyone else, Eloen says to Merlan, "The arrows, Prim's father claimed they were of a kind that Prim had given to Devan. We should question Devan about his arrows, find out if all of them are missing or just some, or if all of his arrows are accounted for and these are careful fakes. It would be easy enough to steal his arrows, though. We should also check his bow: Is the string still there, or was it actually taken off and used for the killing?"

"The drag marks that her father mentioned are consistent with our current hypothesis that the killer was small, unable to lift and carry her, only able to drag her. The spike that you found fits with our notion of faerie malice, and might even be the weapon that was used to cause some of her wounds."

DM, I'm unclear on something. In the initial description, the description says that the shuttered window to Prim's room is broken open, but there's also a description here of someone climbing into the roof itself by unsecuring the thatch? Is that at Prim's home, or the ruins of the barn? If the barn, is that supposed to indicate that the stall where her body was found was on the second floor? I was under the impression that it was ground level.

Fadilah sends her gen for a simple spell that is usually effective against smoky, semi-corporeal entities.

Fetch spell: magic missile (<= 75%): 1d100 ⇒ 75
Fetch spell time: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3 rounds

I feel like we have arrived at the tense moment where we feel like we are underpowered to take on the trolls, but we've done all that we can in the meantime and we have to face-tank this encounter next.