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The inside of the apartment is a mess. It's hard to tell if this is just how the victim lived, if it's been searched, or if it was robbed. The piles seem to have a certain order to them, but beyond that...

There doesn't seem to be anyone in the room, however.

Joseph can hear people moving, but it seems to mostly be that the place has thin walls and no sound proofing.

The home was nice, a pleasantly cluttered and lived-in area above the shop, although it hasn't been kept tidy the last few days. The plates are cluttered above the dishwasher, the dirty clothes basket is full, and what looks like a bag of takeaway sits by a full bin.

The woman showed Median to the boy's room, which seemed fairly typical of young man's room with a small ensuite bathroom. Magic pings behind the TV, in the bathroom and in the aircon vent.

I'm sorry, I missed that you erase the footage. Work has been work the last couple of weeks. We'll assume that Prestidigitation was able to clean the phone's memory because the idea is entertaining.

Ringing the bell on the glass side door takes a moment to get a response. A middle aged man with heavy bags under his reddened eyes eventually comes to the side, looking through the door. "Yes?" was all he asked, his voice weary and suspicious.

The old man laughed. "Oh, sure, just drop the mask, why dontcha. Look around if you want. You try stealing anything I'll make sure you live to regret it. And I know what a Poppet is. You'll want to look for those where the person lived, not where they died. They're a start, not an end."

Shoot. I meant Almena. Almena is the one who doesn't wear shoes. On re-writes, less A-names.

"Uh, sure? Azana did a thing with some metal that made it explode. I dunno how you make metal explode, but it was impressive. I think everyone mostly gets along, as much as you're gonna get with a bunch of people in one house. Azana and Almena were being all grumpy at each other because of the explosion thing, but things were fine. Probably."

There are no traces of soot away from the fireplace itself, no blood that can be seen and the writing sample seems quite different.

The message came back clear - nothing had changed. It didn't seem whatever had happened here was related to whatever else was going on with the undead part, at least, or it had only began to unravel that issue.

Nope, it has blankets neatly folded at the end of the beds and the drawers are empty.

Oops, I copied some flavour text I shouldn't have. Short version here is that, if you check the footprints downstairs, you'll find that the attacker came down the chimney flue in the smithy to come up behind her.

Almena stopped bawling instantly and waved it off. "Oh, it's fine sweety, I'm just playing the role. Don't worry about it at all!"

Ured sighed. "Almena, stay in character please."

"Oh, right!" The flower-haired woman went back to bawling.

The Guildmaster shook his head. "Well, that is not a problem. Feel free to investigate as much as you wish. Anything that is private to our normal lives has been removed from the game, so no need to concern yourself with that."

------

The room doesn't contain anything obviously incriminating. The one thing to note is the fireplace is closed up, with potted plants sitting in it, suggesting that this was not the way the killer got down into the forge.

With the poppets destroyed the little apartment seems brighter, happier somehow. Like a layer of filth had just vanished.

The game has been updated with a variety of changes, most notably the suggestion to remove the penalty to Social talents. A couple still have a penalty, or can't be used without taking them as before, but most of them now give a bonus to something instead.

I also Did Some Other Editing.

As mentioned, the plan is to let you guys do a rebuild when you complete the current Test to allow for these new rules, so I thought you'd appreciate a list of what has changed.

You find Ured at the front of the shop, behind the counter. "Ah, welcome back," he said, listening to the questions. He paused for a moment, considering.

"Hmm. Well, Almena and Azana were quite friendly, but recently were having something of a tiff, I think. There was some damage to the garden by an invention gone wrong, and Almena takes great care of the garden. Azana and Valera rarely interacted, and were cordial from what I saw, but I understand there was some frustration over excess water. Valera is not a fan of it, for her own reasons. None of them have been lovers in the past, to my knowledge. None of them have been my lover, either. I would not consider any of it a motive for murder, but then, as I would like to think I am not a murderer I am not sure what one would consider sufficient motive."

There aren't any obvious papers in the room, but some of the chests contain notes on the items. While most of them seem to be in code of some kind what you can see does not match the Guildmaster's writing, assuming he is the one who wrote the notes here.

The handprint does, indeed, match up to the shears. On closer inspection, you note that the shears have been damaged, and the pin holding them together is loose.

OK, here is the How to Do The Thing list as it stands. Suggestions for more esoteric suggestions would be great, as I'm tired and having writing blocks with the thing. Is it useful? If not, what'll make it useful?

The drafting tables are complex and in great detail. It seems to design the most efficient runes and inscribed spells with the least amount of materials with no drop in efficiency, but the details about which materials are best, which shapes are more effective and which materials most conductive goes over Shada's head.

Zandora looked through the books, and found the one that is open is a diary. The page it is open to reads, I'm scared. Valera is so angry with me, I'm afraid she's going to stab me in the heart, just like she said she would.

I was thinking of one of two things for Cantrips - either making it a Talent tree and letting people select a couple of effects every couple of ranks, or adding a bunch of effects to the General social talents.

Not yet, but it does sound like a good idea to add them.

The stair cupboard is a store room, full of what looks like gardening gear and supplies. A pair of shears have been half-hidden behind a pair of boots, the blades clearly bloodied.

"There's a group like that here? I mean, yeah, sure. Makes sense." He handed over his number cheerfully enough, and sent a text confirming it was the correct one.

"My assistants are in their rooms, upstairs. The stairwell is to the North." Ured coughed. "And, yes, an ability to speak with the dead would work here. Needless to say, a certain level of suspension of disbelief is required here. It turns out that actually murdering people for a test is frowned upon, so we must make do."

Shada does indeed note some sooty footprints leading to the door to the north of the room.

"Um, no. She's miles away, like in another town. No way you'll find her. Just, you know, be cool, chill out, it's all good." The voice sounded mildly panicked, but Ross wasn't able to spot the missing undead. There were a lot of buildings, mostly residences with garden walls, within the range of the spell.

I'll allow Wraithing, yeah. And yeah, you've nearly caught them.

OK, slow going as this thrice damned bug and working all the hours has left me exhausted, but here's the start of the How Do You Do The Thing? section. Only got Weapon Skill so far, but I'll try and do a bit more.

Thoughts so far?

Going over is an option here, so we'll go with that.

It's a good game and I really like both our group and Crow, so I'll stick around until we're done.

It doesn't take Ashmerain long to spot that some of the street names are comically misspelt, with one of the letters in most words clearly out of place. It doesn't take long to note down the odd letters.

O-S-T-D-N-H-A-N-E-A-O

Still here, yup.

Shada's player is a really cool GM who has been putting up with my crap for like 7 years. They deserve a chance to torment me.

Jennifer doesn't see much. There are some scuffs near the wall, some disturbed soil, that suggested that someone has been in the garden doing something.

Mrs Chou took a breath. "The names she called me. It was what she called me when she was tiny. Neither of us have used that name in a decade and a half, even as a joke."

Considering the questions, she answered, "Those names don't mean anything to me, but my daughter was an adult. I'm afraid I didn't know everyone in her social circle. Her life was hers, and I tried not to be involved too much - my mother was one who judged me for everything, and I swore my daughter would not feel the same. She worked in IT for a security firm - troubleshooting - and came over twice a week, to keep me company, or go watch a movie. She was single, although sometimes she'd mention someone at work was cute. Spirtually...secular. I didn't have much use for the older ways, and she took her que from me." She looked over towards the door. "Maybe I did her a disservice in that."

OK, apologies for the delay. I'm still feeling rough, so I'll postpone starting until Monday, which will hopefully let me finish editing the Magic and Skill talents.

Table One

Shada - Human - The Adventurer.

Jeremy - Lizardfolk - The Skilled.

Zandora - Nephilim - The Adventurer.

Cathiric - Giantborn - The Warrior.

We also have a few other folks interested, so if there are more completed sheets on Monday I'll add them to the table.

Hmmm. Maybe I should create something along the lines of Prodigy - You can start with one Attribute at 55% instead of 50% as an advantage?

The Psion looks good so far.

I've done a sweep through the combat talents for basic errors, added some content and detail to some talents that were lacking, and added a note on the 4th, 5th and 6th ranks about the level you need to be to take them.

Gonna do the Skilled talents tomorrow and then dig into the Magic talents after that. Magic is probably gonna get the biggest overhaul, probably getting a bit of beef up in some areas and some standardising in terminology.

From level 1. I think it's the only way, rules as are, to go over the 50% limit at level 1.

It was a fun little game in a semi-Weird West setting, so yeah, always up for more!

It's permanent, I probably just wrote it in a bad way. I'm gonna be swinging through talents soon to try and add some of the missing options in and do some editing, so I'll make sure to check that one.

It's basically the magic item crating system for the game, so all the items you make are eternal until broken. Which is good, because I didn't add item durability.

Cool! Give me a shout if you have an idea you can't currently construct. 'Psion' got mentioned on the Discord and now there are seven new sets of talents and archetype to play with.

The various character sheets should all be updated now, too.

Hm, might play a Samsaran as my backup character.

OK, finally woke up enough to read through stuff after two cans of caffiene and marathoning Sanctuary. Let's see.

Initaitve should be on the sheet, I'll add that to the updates.

I'll put the Movement info everywhere relevant, yeah. Good idea.

Those kinda drawbacks go on the Attribute proper, although I can't think of a mechanical difference to simply appling it to all rolls right now.

Yeah, it should be Drawbacks. Sometimes I forget words. And names. I blame the probably brain damage! Or maybe it's just me.

Yeah, it should be Draught. Editing in progress!

Yes, those abilities stack.

Nah, no limit, I just figured people could 'copy and paste' more room for Talents as they needed and there's no way to predict that one dude who does nothing but take the 1st rank of every talent for 20 levels.

I'd say you have a 19% chance of finding food and water, myself.

Item Slots is a good idea. And yes, to hit is basically your Weapon Skill, plus any talents you have that modify it.

All told, your character looks good! Got a name for this fine young Lizardfolk?

I'm not sure where the level 1-3, etc, gets mentioned. Maybe I forgot? I'll go and add it to everywhere relevant when I can, because if it is mentioned it's buried deep enough that I can't find it off the top of my head. Level up, character creation and the top of the talent sections themselves seem good.

I'll re-word that later. I know what I meant. Probably.

Fixed the titles for Unusual Weapons and the BB Code.

And thank you! It's good to hear that this thing is doing what I intended it to do.

I'll swing through your character sheet in a bit, once I drink an unreasonable amount of caffeine.

What sort of damage does that borer do?

Also, I think the calculation on your Engineering is off. It looks like you put 3 Ranks in it. It should be +3 int/+3 (ranks)/+3 class/+2 skill synergy = 11, shouldn't it?

I'll send you a PM to get started on your service record.

+12 in fact - +1 for being a Mechanic.

And the Borer apparently does cold or fire damage, as I wish. Huh, that's neat.

You are, in fact, doing it right. I wanted people to be able to pull off a concept they have from level one, if possible, so there's a bit of wiggle room in the number of talents you get. Since you can only grab ranks 1-3 at the start, and grabbing three ranks in one talent will gobble up a lot of those starting abilities, I figured it should work.

Jennifer is updated.

Jon, did we get paid for this museum job, or anything? I know we got lifetime memberships and we can call in a favor, but the ability to buy some consumable healing potions and buffs would be nice (says the player who's character just died).

Pffffffft, money. Since when have we kept track of that here?

But it does seem like you guys could do with a bit of extra gear at this point, given my casual murder and plan to do it again. The templates you guys are packing has made up for it, somewhat, but...yeah. We'll say you got paid in 5000gp worth of gear apiece for the job since Valda wants you to continue to not die.

And yeah, it was the sword of Fever, so it would have been Remington.

Adostre - Yup, like in Pathfinder, you'll recalculate your total HP based on your new modifier, and retroactively apply that to your HP. Of course, the downside also applies.

Healing is mentioned...somewhere that escapes me at 6.30 in the morning, other than the Healing talent itself, but obviously needs to be less buried. Because there's no real limit on stuff like casting spells per day I instead limited how often you can be healed - you can be healed the same number as your Physical Prowess modifier, by the way.

Yeah, there should be a slot to list AP on the character sheets for weapons. I'll try and edit it later.

Yes, you can attack with one weapon for 4AP, and then another for 2AP. The only penalty you'll get is the one for making multiple attacks.

Zanbabe

Yeah, it should be adding up to 10 in total. I'll go re-word it in a moment since it's a quick fix.

And yes, you can absolutely take some Teleport talents. It should be noted that only levels 1-3 are available at level 1, with 4th being allowed at level 5, 5th being available at level 10, and 6th being available at level 15.

Is this balanced? I think so? But that's why this is a test game. If we find something is broken or broken at level one, then we'll fix it. I am under no illusion that everything here is gonna work. For low-level teleportation talents, the main issue is the AP cost means you aren't gonna be doing something else and the short distance.

Although if you guys do see anything totally broken, please do tell me. I will swing by Teleportation to double-check it in a bit, but there's only so much theory-crafting I can do.

Awesome! And Paizo kindly ate my offerings, so I'll repost your potential jobs when I get back on tonight.

It would probably be more of an anklet for one, but sure.

Jonathan Garrett. wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

...how long before our caravan gets to nab an airship?

If anyone is interested I'm setting up a test game Here.

For living memory the Valley of Dreams has been the domain of the Fey. That all changed a year to this day, when two children were stolen back from the Fey and they came hunting. The catastrophic conflict between the village of Amburn, the Adventurer's Guild and mercernaries hired by the children's father saw resolution only when the children's father decapitated the Fey army, killing there leaders and there finest knights in a scouring magical blast.

Now the Valley of Dreams is out of anyone's control. The beings within the valley that the Fey kept under there heel have taken there chance to rebel. The Fey fight among themselves for the best fiefdoms, the safest sanctuaries. The more mortal races try to encroach deeper into the Woods, but find them far from undefended even when there Fey masters missing or elsewhere.

At the heart of all this the now town of Amburn sits, being rebuilt, a site for those who wish to explore and exploit the Valley to the north.

On this day, the Prismatic Chapter of the Adventurer's Guild is holding there first event to recruit new members to there shattered ranks. The Test of Chaos is an old tradition, and gaining membership offers a lot.

And who knows? It could be fun.

Hi there folks. I'm Jon. Over the last couple of years I've been writing my own Role Playing system, partially out of the boredom of working nights during the last few years. Now it's ready enough that I'd like to run a couple of test games.

So, here am I, asking you guys to help me out. What I need is for people to simply give things a whirl, make a character, and give me feedback on what needs tweeking, what needs fixing, what needs scrapping and the like. Be honest with me, please. You're not gonna hurt my feelings by telling me you think an idea is half baked, especially if you can give me feedback on how to make it better.

The idea of this system is to allow almost any kind of character to be played, with a relatively balanced level of power for each style. There's also a stronger focus on non-violent conflict resolution, although I must admit it's not as developed as I'd like. So, do you wanna play a Wizard in steam-driven power armour? Sure! Partially Undead Teleporting Knight of Fire? Sure! Furious Battle Cat? Sure!

What's more, if there's a concept that the current rules don't cover, then I'm more than willing to start a typing. I can't promise I'll be able to cover every concept - especially if that concept is Unkillable Winning Engine - but for most other things I think we can work something out.

For this test game we'll be using the standard point buy Character Creation with all races, traits, talents and archetypes available. You can find a character sheet Here to help you fill everything out.

I would like to run more than one game, if at all possible. My current intention is to run one game on Paizo, and another on Discord as a play-by-post. If there is enough interest I'd also like to do some voice chat sessions.

I do not intend for these games to be one offs, but something akin to a Westmarch game where new jobs come up and people can accept them - or not - as they please. I have some story threads in mind, so if you're looking for a longer game then it might happen, with enough interest. If you're only up for a one shot that's fine too.

All the current information is Here but feel free to post questions, requests, suggestions and feedback in the thread or on the Discord linked.

Thank's for giving this a read, and I hope you'll enjoy the game.

"Oh, sure, I ask for group quests and we get casual public nudity," Jon said with obvious bemusement as he accepted the quests. "Just so you're all aware, if you end up doing the pond quest, I'm bi, I'm not shy and everything became giant sized, so I am now Statiscally Above Average."

"I'd suggest we do these other ones - the one in the winter forest and the one where we need to fight - as a group, though. My whole 'bard' thing seems to be all rounder, with a slight bias towards hitting things in the skull."

Considering what the others were saying, Jon nodded. "Find a missing person should always be a priority. I dunno if it's gonna be like in the Old World, where the longer they're missing the harder it becomes, but the longer they're missing the worse off they'll be. I was gonna go looking for the lady at dawn."