How are we doing here? It's been a busy IRL stretch for me, so I can accept the same for others no problem.
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Sure, there's a case to be made there. It's not clear what weakened it's weakened state is doing to it, so we're up against an unknown here. We either need to commit to attacking full out (no holding back offensive resources,) or everyone else should get far away while I use the mirror for a round or two and then I teleport back to base. I'm willing to go either way as I'm not much of an offensive force this level and don't know how much damage everyone should expect to pump out exactly.
Kaillum retrieves the mirror from Regulus IV and steps forward, brandishing it at the vampire while her companions continue their assault.
Kaillum blinks and nods, hurrying over to Regulus IV, ready to take over mirror duties. "I will attempt to hold it at bay while the rest of you finish him as quickly as you can."
Kaillum, having escaped the grasp of the figure in the casket now takes the time to carefully examine her foe before following the lead of her companions and ducking out of the room, being careful to avoid the patches of slime.
Once she is in the shadows of the previous room, the grippli's low voice reaches her companions' ears. "I can remove myself to our base of operations at any time, but I don't have the ability to take any others with me. What is our plan should we be pursued? The foe looked weak with hunger and Grey seemed to have little hesitation engaging. Are we sure that fleeing will give every one the best chance of surviving?"
Hmm, it seems to be able to sense what's pushing on the lid of this casket beyond just pressure. That's a problem. As the figure sits up and grabs her, Kaillum grows still and attempts to teleport out of its grasp.
Hi there everyone! Sorry for the lack of Kaillum last week. It was busy. Hopefully everyone's doing well (feeling better, having time, all that fun stuff!) and we can get back to some adventuring!
Kaillum, after exploring the nooks and crannies of the passage some emerges almost where she started. She blinks as she sees Grey walking towards her and the shrugs. "I've found a loop that doesn't seem to hold anything of interest yet. Our best bet is probably to rejoin the others and see what was through the door. Perhaps we'll find something for you to kill, or at least put down, soon, eh?" With that she moves to join the others in the room with the casket. Hearing Yutin's unspoken request she nods, but before she approaches she concentrates, and all can see the dust atop the lid shift.
So as a disclaimer, I don't actually know that alchemist's bombs will clear the green slime out, that's just a guess. It's a fire splash attack and they don't really seem to have listed HP, so I figure it's got a good chance to clearing a path. If someone has alchemist's fire or other flammable resources they wanted to use that would likely work as well?
So next level I'll get the ability to control things with my telekinesis much more delicately. Once I do we might want to come back here and harvest some vials of the slime for the alchemists in the party as it would be a safe way to do so. I imagine it might be a useful material at some point. Perhaps we could even make slime bombs (not as true alchemists bombs, but which anyone could use to get some free con damage in on enemies to start fights) in the future. If anyone wants to try to harvest it now if you can think of a good method I'd support that as well. As far as teamwork goes right now, Kaillum sees the rest of the party as mostly tools that she's going to have to work to get to do what she wants. Regulus is the one that's shown the most interest in cooperation, so he's the one she'll have the most trust in so far as doing helpful things on his own, but as the rest of the party demonstrates their skills Kaillum's trust in them should grow.
Kaillum looks at her handywork and blinks a couple times. "The slime is somewhat more extensive than I had expected. Unfortunately I'm not powerful enough to lift all of you across the room yet, so I'm going to leave it to you to clear a path while I examine the smaller tunnel to see if it is worth our time to have you squeeze through. The slime is best cleared by fire, cold or sunlight and shouldn't be particularly durable." With that, the Grippli looks to Regulus IV for permission before touching him briefly while closing her eyes, but with no obvious effect. She then lifts into the air and floats across the room to the passage where she sets down, takes a close look at her surroundings and then begins to slowly move down the passage, quickly blending in with the shadows.
Seeing Regulus IV gesture Kaillum stops and take a careful look around the room.
Turning back to the party Kaillum speaks in a low voice. "The slime in the room ahead can be dangerous to touch, but as long as we see know where it is we should be able to avoid it as it's not particularly mobile. The patches on the ceiling are more of an issue if they haven't been spotted, but they should react to motion. Let me see if I can dislodge them." The grippli nods and then begins to concentrate on the various piles of bones around the room. Where ever she sees slime on the ceiling she will telepathically move a mass of bones around, crashing it into the floor if needed to try to get the slime to react and drop to the floor. Once this is done she'll search for a slime free route through the room.
"That passage would be one I could easily traverse, but looks like it would be a tight fit for the rest of you. Would you like me to go through first to see if it seems worth investigating, or shall we stick to the wider spaces like through the door for now?"
Well, it is possible that I'm overthinking things, but here's the evidence I'm working with. By Yutin's ooc in the game thread the spoiler for the candles other than the center were almost certainly Candles of Invocation which are tied to alignments. The one in the center, with the necromantic aura was something different, but I expect somehow to be the True Neutral equivalent. The standard grid of alignments in Pathfinder is, of coure LG NG CG
The candles that reacted to us matched our alignments in that grid exactly (CG for Kaillum, CN for Yutin, TN for Regulus (well, I don't see an alignment listed in the character sheet, so I'm making assumptions there,) LN for Grey, LE for Victor,) so it seems really likely that that's how the candles were attuned as well. We do know that the 5 candles that we picked worked with the TN (different one) going last, but it's not clear how other tries might have gone. The obvious thing about those alignments to me (I enjoy patterns) is that we've got a perfect balance of Good vs. Evil and Law vs. Chaos in the party, so we happened to be attuned to candles whose alignments canceled each other out. That might or might not be a thing. I also don't know what would have happened with the candles had we had, say, a second LE member of the party, but presumably, the same candle would have been attuned to both of them (though in that case maybe we just would have needed four candles to go into slots.) The sarcophagus shaped hole in the ceiling and whatever was inside that sarcophagus with it's two short swords indicate that things could have gone much more poorly/interestingly in the room. The DR on whatever the undead thing was was going to give me fits at this level, though the rest of you are probably better equipped to deal with it. It's just not clear to me how exactly our actions had to be what they were to get through the door, and, as I say, how lucky we were just based on party alignment distribution.
It's a bit hard to judge that challenge given that I'm not sure exactly the criteria needed to meet it. If we lucked into the solution because of our alignment distribution then I guess it would have depended on how obviously wrong the wrong answer might have been and what their consequences were. I think it was handled just fine, but without knowing how it would have gone trying other things (opening the sarcophagus, putting in unbalanced candles, or candles that weren't linked to us, etc ...) it's hard to get a read on the difficulty.
"I'll propose that Regulus and I scout ahead to see what we're likely to encounter. At this point I see no clearly superior path so I would choose straight ahead."
RL gets busy. I know I wouldn't have been able to do anything much today myself either. Thanks for the heads up though!
Our party happens to have a net alignment of True Neutral (with no identical alignments.) That might or might not end up solving this puzzle with no understanding why on the part of our characters.
"Grey, one of those candles is likely to be attuned to you. If you'd be willing to find it and place it in the door we'd be able to continue this experiment."
After watching Yutin's actions and the door's reaction, Kaillum blinks twice. "I suppose we can follow suit and see what happens." The grippli then repeats the process with the candle which seems attuned to her, placing it in the lowest of the alcoves of the door. After doing so, she returns to the side of the room, staying to the shadows as much as possible.
As Yutin moves, Kaillum moves to the edges of the room and attempts to blend in with the shadows, looking around for things that she might fling telekinetically at a foe.
Kaillum describes the contents of the sarcophagus now that she's taken more time to look it over closely. "Given the glowing red lights in the eyes we should probably expect it to animate and attempt to attack us at some point. We could try to open the lid now, or we could just keep watch over it and be ready for it when it comes."
"This sarcophagus isn't just for show. There seems to be a skeleton of some sort in here. Give me a moment and I'll see if there's anything else of interest." Kaillum will spend another couple moments peering through the lid, searching for anything that might be of interest, but not obvious at first glance.
Following this, the grippli will examine the candles to see if she can find one who's flame is attracted to her. As she does, she points out the hole in the ceiling. "I suspect that we should be prepared for either the ceiling to lower to the floor, the floor to raise up, or just the tomb in the center to be raised. Most likely moving the candles or some such action would trigger one of the three."
"Someone who is able should make a note of any magical aura in the room. I'm going to see what I can learn of the sarcophagus as it seems likely the solution will involve it." Kaillum carefully inspects the sarcophagus, looking for any traps or dangers.
If none are found she lays here hand on the lid and begins to focus on it.
As a sphere caster, there are a couple tricks I do well (telekinesis, teleporting, invisibility,) but I don't have a breadth of spells at all.
Kaillum nods again, then hesitates slightly. After a short pause she seems to have decided something. "Let us go then. We'll start with the stairs down. I expect that there will be some sort of door or gate that we'll need to open when we get there and I would ask for a moment or two when we get there as I might be able to spare us a surprise. If someone larger would like to activate one of the chests to carry with us that would be good. There are a couple things that I'd like to try with them and I'd rather not experiment on anyone here. Down below there are likely to be better subjects." As the others prepare, Kaillum sets a warp beacon by the chests and then moves to the stairs down, waiting until all have gathered before heading down to the depths.
Right, seems like we're pretty evenly split for preference. We'll get to both eventually, so how about we just roll for it for now and get this party started! 1 for up and 2 for down!
Looks like down to start with unless anyone really cares.
For those who prefer going down to going up, is there a reason that you're seeing that you think that would be advantageous? We've been tasked with taking care of both, but up is where enemies have broken through defenses already. If something's going to overwhelm our sanctuary unexpectedly, that's where I expect it to come from. I don't have a huge preference and am willing to go down instead, but I'm curious of there was something you saw that I missed.
Kaillum listens to the answers, her large eyes blinking occasionally. "Very well, I think that we should be able to make this work. I would know two more things before we start. First, we need to determine a direction, but apparently we lack consensus. Are there other opinions on whether we go up or down as a first course of action?" The grippli then turns to the android before continuing. "Second, I would like to know you you prefer to be referred to. A name will make communication and planning far easier."
Kaillum listens to the voice and as the contents of the chambers are revealed she gazes at each, cataloging it mentally for future use. When the voice is done the grippli explores the surroundings as much to give the others the chance to do the same as to satisfy her own curiosity. So one who challenges the gods has chosen us as its champions. I suppose I should be flattered, though being the conduit of Sal's master isn't my doing. I wonder if the two are related or will have conflict in the future. Sal doesn't seem alarmed thus far, but it's hard to tell what he holds in his tiny head. If removing the vines is within the power of the summoner then perhaps their goals are aligned for now. At some point after the exploration has died down some, Kaillum addresses those gathered in the chambers. "It seems that we are expected to act reasonably soon. Without knowing more my inclination is to try to drive out the invaders of our summoner who have penetrated whatever defenses were in place. There are clearly secrets above and below, but my gut says that those above are the more immediate threat." Kaillum pauses slightly before adding, "I don't know what powers you possess or how you engage foes, but I would propose that if we are to work together we share some of how we overcome foes. My strengths lie in the shadows and with my bow. I can reach many places unseen and report back, hopefully giving us a tactical advantage. In a fight I would be most effective providing support from a distance instead of engaging a foe directly." The delivery is overly formal, and she has some qualms about how it will be received, but she feels it must be offered as the opening to a discussion. Now she waits to see how the varied personalities will respond.
Kaillum's large amphibian eyes blink as she watches each of those around her agree to the terms in their own ways. I see. The choice offered to each of them must be as mine. Not really a choice at all. Turning to Sal on her shoulder she considers the insect for a moment, trying to sort it's intentions out from the empathic bond they share. After a short pause she nods and turns back towards the center of the room, as though addressing what sits there will make a difference to the entity that has brought them all together. "I cannot return to my home while it remains as I left it, so for now I will stay here, with the others. Your offer of hope must suffice for the time being."
Kaillum watches with fascination as the images in the smoke show first a grippli spawn and then a familiar swamp. As the voice echoes in her head she glances around to see the others listening to words which must, given the content, be different from what she hears. Lifting her head to the center of the room she calls out to the ether. "You can speak to me, no, to us in our heads, but who are you? Why should we listen to your call for aid?" With Sal's attention so fixated on the central platform Kaillum examines the Orrery there briefly as well, to no noticeable gain, before turning to look at her companions in the room. "I have been offered a choice to aid our ... summoner? ... and help my village or to leave and return to whence I came. There is no choice between the two should they be the true alternatives, but I would hear what the rest of you might have been offered as well. My people's safety should hold no sway over you. This ... this is beyond my experience and I am unsure how to proceed."
Kaillum is definitely built to let others grab attention and make the best of opportunities that present themselves. This group should be good for that. You're all plenty flashy.
Kaillum glances around the room, taking in both the contents as well as the reactions of her fellow explorers. As she looks, Sal emerges from a pouch once more, summoned by the grippli's curiosity. With the house centipede on her shoulder, Kaillum lifts off the ground and begins a tour of the outer walls of the room, thus far touching nothing, but taking in all she can. Moving clockwise, she starts with the bookshelf, noting whether or not she is able to read the languages the books are written in, moving from the bottom to the top and then above. She stops near the ceiling to confirm that a close examination still finds no seams in the stonework. She stays high in the air as she circles over the workbench and the alchemist's workshop, but comes in close to examine the long chest on the west wall. Once a transit around the outside is done she looks closely at the figures surrounding the center to see if there has been any change since her explorations began.
If my last band of companions was unusual I don't even know what words might fit this one. Watching as three of the others approach the newly opened door as moths drawn to a flame with little caution for what might lie beyond its threshold, Kallium moves until she stands beside the fourth and his mastif. Apparently not concerned by the degree to which he towers over her, nor the unfamiliar beast, she offers a reply to the previous statement. "You speak of cooperation. I had companions recently and I found that cooperation was beneficial then. If the world has finished with it's sudden changes for a time then I am willing to try it again. You can call me Kaillum. For now it would appear that our fellow explorers are on the move. Shall we follow?"
I've created a Roll20 account and linked in to the game. Looks simple enough to use for what you're proposing!
The Grippli before you stands just under 2 feet tall, her medium green skin has a charming (if you're into that sort of thing) pattern of spots ranging from black to a light brown. Her eyes, large compared to the rest of her body, are yellow with dark black pupils and seem to take in an almost unnaturally wide range range. Clad in dark, travel stained leather armor with many pouches and hanging bags, a dagger is sheathed at her side and a small bow is held in one hand. On her back is a larger bag, a mossy cloak and a quiver full of small, thin arrows. An intricate medallion seemingly woven of vines and branches hangs from her neck over the front of her armor. Seeing the others appear beside her, Kaillum's has an arrow in her bow in a flash, though she aims it at no specific target. Her eyes quickly dart over the strangers and as she edges back slightly she speaks. "The tracks that appeared outside the rocky spire when the portal came, they were yours perhaps?"
As the shaking begins Kaillum lifts into the air once more and looks around to see if she can find the source. When it stops she settles back on the spire briefly and with a quick hand gestures marks the summit with a beacon only she can see. This done, she dives off the side towards the ground, letting gravity do most of the work in her descent before slowing her body telekinetically and landing softly on the ground.
Once there she can see both the newly formed opening as well as varied tracks leading to the Rocky tower. Out of curiosity, she follows one of the larger sets back several hundred feet from the spire where it abruptly ends in the middle of the open plain. Returning to the base of the spire, she looks up towards its peak high above her once more before shrugging and beginning to move as quietly and cautiously as she can into the darkness.
I'm not wedded to Golarion. Kaillum could be from any setting with grippli in it really.
Kaillum cautiously comes to a rest on top of the spire and, after peering in the crevice with the bird's nest, looks around, using the elevation to help her, searching for anything that looks like an indication of civilization in any direction from her rocky perch.
OK, so it sounds like it makes sense for me to focus on ranged rather than melee, so I've reworked a bit of the character to do that. I'm now set to take stealth synergy at level 4 when I assume we'll be more used to working with each other.
Kaillum's large eyes blink several times as she attempts to gain her bearings. She slowly turns to look in all directions, taking in the new location. Her companions who it seemed she had just met are missing. The only familiar sight from the world before this is Sal. The tiny house centipede is out of her pockets and sitting on her shoulder, staring at the spire that towers before them. "Is this real? Was what came before real? Have we moved to a different dream now? Perhaps someone else's?" Kaillum doesn't expect Sal to answer her questions. She doesn't even have a strong feeling about whether he would know the answers at all. She feels them worth asking none-the-less. "It's not the same as before, is it? But that spire is still where our answers lie. Come, let us act. You're still here, so your master's influence is likely to be here as well. Whatever else is happening, our path still lies forward." Urging Sal back into his place in her pockets, the Grippli uses the few bushes she can find to provide some cover as she moves towards the tower.
Greetings everyone! I'm looking forward to working with you for all sorts of fun shenanigans. As far as backgrounds go and connections go, I just know that I'm now here with people who can see some of what I can even if the details are slightly different (I see a tower covered with vines.) I wonder if everyone would be willing to share what their envisioned party role is? I'm certainly a scout and rogue-ish trap disarmer, skill monkey type, but it's not clear whether I'll be ranged or melee focused as we go forward, and how hard I focus on that vs. scouting/perception. I can also go almost anywhere with magic moving forward depending on what we need for the party.
We're down to the wire now so it's about time for one last good luck to all the applicants! Plenty of interesting characters to choose from here!
I could be down for those (and even other teamwork feats depending on what my build looks like over time.) Stealth is something I'm built for, and lookout is great if we stick close together for the most part.
A Mageknight charisma caster who focuses on the Protection Sphere maybe? Not strictly an arcane caster, but it might get at what you want? Dips in other spheres might apply give various other defensive buffs you want, but it's got the cha caster, fort saves and d10 hp.
@Albion, I would encourage you not to bow out if you're seeing this. Fighter empiricist is a fine gestalt and should be fun to play in a game like this. I wouldn't worry about not having mastered all the systems, just build with what you know and you should be fine.I will submit another Grippli, probably your brother that followed you to make sure, you're save. It's a Shaman (Witch Doctor) / Inquisitor (Sacred Huntsmaster) VMC Cleric of Immonhiel, the God of medicine and toads. Basically a frogman riding a frog with a frog familiar. At level 5 I can cast Rain of Frogs, too. That would be awesome. When I hit level 4 I get an animal companion. I think a riding frog for each of us could work nicely. Depending on whether or not you see the black vines sprouting out of everyone you might or might not think I'm crazy (with the feeling reciprocated.) Perhaps it's better you don't see them, but the tower in front of us is evidence that something's up. Additionally the conflict between Immonhiel and whatever swamp spirit Sal represents should be good story. Perhaps it's a blasphemous one and I don't realize it (or maybe I even do, but I'm desperate enough to take it's help.) I'm assuming that Sal's here to help me, but that's just an assumption and it could easily be up to something more sinister (Warlocks are fun like witches that way.) If you're a brother it should probably be an older, more sensible brother (despite my wisdom,) bearing the will of the village to talk sense into me. It almost makes me wish I made a ratfolk instead for the mechanical benefits of multiple ratfolks in a party, but this one was Grippli from the get go.
@Albion, I would encourage you not to bow out if you're seeing this. Fighter empiricist is a fine gestalt and should be fun to play in a game like this. I wouldn't worry about not having mastered all the systems, just build with what you know and you should be fine.
Here is Kaillum's backstory. Background:
Kaillum’s home had no name that Kaillum knew. It was simply the village in the swamp where she was born and raised. Since she was young, Kaillum’s dreams of the village were especially vivid and gave her premonitions of things to come. The village elders encouraged her to share her dreams and she gained a certain status as a dreaming prophet among her people. This was fine. Until it wasn’t. Shortly after her Fifteenth year, the black vines began to appear in her dreams. They were a curiosity at first and seemed harmless enough, but each night they seemed to grow. At first they appeared on the trees, then they moved to the buildings, and before Kaillum knew they were starting to appear on the heads and bodies of the villagers. Although they presented no obvious threat, they felt wrong. When she shared these visions with the elders none knew what to make of them. Fortunately, they were just dreams. Until they weren’t. Kaillum remembers very vividly the first day that she saw one while awake. It was on a Cypress tree in the middle of the village. When she tried to point it out to her friends they all denied seeing it. No matter how Kaillum brought it into the light it was as though it was invisible to everyone else. Once first spotted it quickly started to spread, first along the trees, then the buildings, and then, one horrifying morning, it appeared on the heads of her parents. When it did, her parents changed. They were … cold? distant? alien? Kaillum couldn’t find the right words, but they were wrong somehow, and they weren’t alone. The entire village had begun to sprout the unnatural growths on their arms, torsos and faces. Old friends now seemed sinister and Kaillum felt isolated among the only people she had ever known. In a panic, Kaillum fled into the swamp to escape what she could only describe as a creeping doom that had overcome her home. It was in the swamp, cowering and alone, not knowing what to do next or how she would find the strength to do it, that Sal found her. In her state of terror and confusion she paid no attention to the common house centipede until it had crawled onto her arm where it sat still and stared directly into her eyes. There was no obvious source of communication, no words she could hear, but knowledge flooded into her head nonetheless. Sal was an emissary of something in the swamp, something that saw what was happening to her village, and something that would help her stop it. There was a source. Something spreading corruption from far away, from a tower or spire covered in the black vines and thrusting up, uninvited, towards the heavens. Something Sal shared his knowledge of in visions that Kaillum could apparently now have while awake. Sal offered help. Sal offered an alliance. Sal offered power. If Kaillum would journey to the tower and put an end to it’s dark influence then the entity from the swamp would lend Kaillum it’s strength for the task. The task would not be easy and Sal seemed not to know exactly what the task would entail, but Kaillum had no choice. She set out to find the tower and cut off the corruption it’s roots. It’s been three months since then. The swamp is long left behind and Kaillum has made her way through lands that she had no idea existed back in her days in the village. Sal and his patron have kept their word and Kaillum can feel her powers growing. Now she finds herself at the base of the spire that she knows from her waking visions. She can see the black tendrils that cover it, and now so can others. She finds herself working with strange allies, ready to make an assault on this … thing that she knows is *wrong*.
Let me know if anything looks off there, otherwise I'm largely good to go at this point I think.
So here's most of my (Zorblag's) crunch. All the decisions are made, though I still need to go through and list all the daily resources and powers and abilities in the appropriate sections (they're scattered throughout the rest of the build for now.) I also need to add the backstory which I've got figure out, but not typed up. Kaillum is a fairly mobile and sneaky scout, but isn't going to be doing too much damage right at the start (it gets better at level 3 when her sneak attack kicks in, and then at level 4 when her melee gets dex to damage.) Down the road her true benefit to the party is going to come from the choices of sphere powers going forward which can augment whatever the party is missing most (healing, divination, more scouting, more ranged damage, more melee damage, you name it.) If anyone sees anything that looks out of place do let me know! |