I'm going to put this down to another one of those 'start a campaign and go missing as a troll' GM games. :(
Search Posts
"That seems like poor strategy, this is not a large tower, spreading out only ensures we are not in range to support each other."
"There are more important things than gold." Kiana follows along, clearly not liking entering the building.
They are supposed to update the website tomorrow with new code. On a related note, if you install an extension in your browser to auto-retrieve the page every 30 minutes, it'll keep you logged in.
"Granted, we may have to open our own door in the roof. Or go in through an upper floor window using the rope ladder."
"May I suggest instead of entering through the front door, an obvious ambush point, I fly you all up to the roof and you enter from the top and ambush them?"
"If it is nobody you know, then we are likely cut off from those whom you hoped to meet. You have a traitor in your midst. This place and our meeting were attacked at the same time. This required coordination and advanced warning. Ergo, within minutes of your setting the meeting in motion, someone else was setting the ambush in motion. We need to leave, and we need to not make contact with the rest of your organization until we are free and clear."
Kiana shakes her head, and gathers the personal belongings of the woman. Once they are in her pack, except for the amulet, which she wraps around her wrist, she lands back at the front gate near the group. "Only one person in the tower, a dead woman who was a spellcaster. Here's her spell book, and she was wearing this." She holds the amulet out to Torrent.
Kiana stops to take an extra three quivers of arrows, and carefully arranges them, with the flaps covering the arrows so they don't fall out. Her own quiver is designed to hold the arrows in even when she flies, but that is unlikely with the guard's quivers. She doesn't speak, but instead taps her cheek under her eye, then points to the compound, and makes a circular motion in the air. Then she takes off, to the shadows.
Kiana shrugs. "Of course, we can all act without honor, and flee in safety. We only have to act like craven hum... like cowards. However, I can certainly remember your words for the future, dwarf, and remember to leave you behind if it becomes expedient. For myself, for now, I prefer to act with honor and dignity, rather than become that which hunts us, something without honor. Even if the creatures I save are lowly dishonorable things, their lack of honor or worth has nothing to do with my own honor." She then returns to scouting ahead, trying to point to streets with easier paths for the group to follow.
Kiana puts the bow away reluctantly, and takes the cat gently. She makes soothing noises to it, and then grabs the woman with her talons and lowers her to the ground, keeping a reassuring grip on the cat.
Once on the ground, she gives the cat another head rub, and then hands it over to the woman. She pulls them both to the side, so neither is hit by the dresser that comes flying out of the window and nearly kills them after she saved them. "Well, that was almost ironic. Take the cat and get to safety, come back for your clothes." She instructs, and then draws her bow and takes wing and returns to scouting.
Kiana rolls her eyes as the dwarf and the human rush into the burning building. "Ground bound idiots." However, she does swoop over to the window. "Children first, woman. If there are no children, then give me your hands and I'll take you to the ground." She keeps her bow out, but leaves her talons next to the window as she hovers, in easy grasp reach.
Kiana aids the griffins wherever possible, firing off an arrow from cover at the wyverns, always a block from the main group, using her flight to keep up with them, but flying below building top to avoid the wyverns. She stops along the way to gather more arrows from downed griffin riders or downed soldiers, whenever the need arises. She also tries to scout ahead for the group to make sure they are not headed into an ambush.
Condolences
Still waiting on the GM to say Kiana's up again.
Kiana takes the chance to exit through the front door. Keeping low to the street, but in sight of the front door, she looks at the griffins, knowing they are aligned with the city, and believing the reptiles are actually here to kill her and the others inside, not save them from the bounty hunters, she begins firing on the reptiles, trying to help the griffins.
But the narrow view from the street makes it difficult to draw a bead on the creatures.
Kiana cocks an ear toward the roof. "It sounded like Griffens dropping alchemical fire on the upper floor and roof." She answers Barrack.
"You have one chance, Human. Get your men and get them out of here. If any of them raises even a finger in what looks like an attack, you can all burn to death. Do you understand?" Kiana says coldly. Sense Motive, DC 1:
Kiana would love to kill the human and his bounty hunters, but her sense of honor won't let her act like a murderer. But by the same token, she has no real compunction about killing people who squander their chance to flee.
Kiana frowns. "I do not like partying inside. We need to guard the entrance." She motions both to the front door, and the stairwell, even though she keeps her words singular. She moves so that she can see both, with her bow drawn.
+
Kiana cocks an ear. "Well, that does not sound good." No use pretending she hadn't heard that, everyone for three blocks had heard that.
Kiana covers the stairs from her hovering position, and readies to fire at anything that comes down the stairs that looks dangerous.
Kiana glances up, then her wings expand and she shoots up, hovering below the floor. "Yes, well, if it's too big, then I cannot fly it.
She taps her ear, and then points to the ceiling directly above her, and then makes motions with her fingers like someone is walking. She puts a finger over her lips, and readies her bow and draws an arrow.
Sounds like what I use Ash, above.
Kiana raises an eyebrow, and then examines the contraption in detail. She unfolds bits of it, and in a few seconds a small wooden table is set up, with clips to hold paper, which she checks by taking a sheet of paper from the scroll case built into it and clipping it down in 12 places. She nods, and then folds the legs back up and begins to slip her arm into the leather harnesses and buckling them on around her torso. When she's done, the table is held at an odd angle, with a wooden lip that folds back over the paper on the forward edge. She leans forward, and the table becomes flat, and she ensures she can move her arms all around, her hands on the paper. Then she slides a small drawer open on the side and pulls out a charcoal stick, and quickly sketches the bar.
The result is a very accurate representation of the bar, with tables and bar and keg. No people though, just the bar. She nods, and then folds the table up against her chest, the two leaves folding on a hinge and then laying against her chest, looking like a wooden breastplate. The outside piece has a thin layer of metal on it to protect it from attacks. Nodding, she gives Torrent a small bow. "Excellently built, this shall make it easier to make my maps."
Kiana shrugs. "Only an idiot has not trepidation about things that can kill them. Only an idiot or a coward allows fear to rule them." In response to Torrent's question, she shrugs. "Armour and packs would need to go over separately, but no one in this room is so fat I could not carry them in clothing over the wall. It might slow me down, but would not stop me."
I usually roll individual for the PCs, then roll one initiative for the NPCs, then do the Fast PCs, Enemies, Slow & Fast PCs, Enemies, Slow & Fast PCs, Enemies route. Example : Moe : 8
Skeletons : 15 Moe/Larry, Skeletons, Curly Joe/Joe/Curly/Moe/Larry, Skeletons, Curly Joe/Joe/Curly/Moe/Larry, Skeletons, etc.
Already done, and bought with starting gold. Her backpack rides low on the back and goes up the sides, leaving her wings free. Her back muscles and bones are different, so that's not a bad way to carry things. A human using her pack would have a major back ache in a few hours. LOL
"Perhaps then, since some are afraid of flying..." This seems to amuse the woman. "...those who are without fear can go by air, and those who are afraid, can try to bribe their way past guards. Most of the guards are human, I understand they are almost universally of poor moral character and easily bribed."
They are Paizo, just not generic rules Paizo, they're from the Inner Sea Worldguide. Up to the GM of course. Either way, piercings would work as well. Either way, adding them will make sure she can haul a lot and still fly normal, which is the eventual desire (eventually heavy load belt as well).
My assumption was we'd seperate heavy equipment into it's own load, so no flying people in full plate. In a few levels, Kiana will get a tattoo (assuming those are allowed) of mule back cords, and then she'll have signficantly more carry capacity. As it is, she should be able to take a person in clothes one at a time, then all the equipment at once (or 1 or 2 people, all equipment, then the rest of the people).
"Most guards do not look up when guarding from walls, they look down. If we start 2-3 blocks inside the wall, fly up to 150 ft above the wall, then out and down, the chances of being seen are small. It is certainly much safer than trying to climb over the wall or sneak through tunnels that may or may not be known to the city guard."
Kiana drinks water, not ale, but will take a glass of it (properly boiled previously of course). She listens to the pitch, and then tilts her head. "So, you wish us to help you find people to kill Ragesians? I am not opposed to this." She looks around the table. "Getting out of the city is easy enough at night, land dwellers always assume walls are impregnable. Flying over them is easy enough. It should be doable in an hour, if nobody here is too fat."
@GM & Those coming into Inn:
GM: Kiana shakes her head, her white and red feathers fluttering in the wind. She takes a step off the side of the building and her wings pop as she opens them up and floats down to the ground, her talons scraping the cobblestones. "Hello Piddlenick, thank you very much for the message, although a simple wave and calling my name would have worked." She tells the gnome, and then bends over her arm as she bows, her wings sweeping out in a bow. "I shall attend, and I shall try to be polite to the human female." Kiana takes off again, zooming up and flies over to where the bar is, ensuring she can find it that night from the sky, and checking to see if there are any balcony's she can land on and enter via without being mistaken for a burglar. When the night comes, she checks the roofs from the sky, to make sure there's no ambush parties and if everything is clear, she lands (either on the balcony and entering the second floor, or the front door, if there's no balcony).
@GM - Can we get the gameplay thread created so we can all dot it so this shows up in our campaign tab? I keep having to remember to go to the recruitment thread to find the discussion thread so I can check it.
Don't have enough for the table yet, all my money went to gear. So, how about if she's commissioned it, and will pay for it on completion? By then, she should have earned 50gp. Until then, she can just go with a simple pen and paper, making maps for the smugglers to help them figure out alternate routes. @Saltstone - Sure, she wouldn't have been rude to him, and would have politely responded to anything he said to her. So he might have been rather surprised that she was described as rude to everyone. She does have a sharp tongue, but is selective in who she uses it on.
Looking for the people who killed her tribe, so she can kill them. Notably, they were mixed Orc and Human raiders from the Ragesian side. So anyone who is killing Ragesian's, she'll be neutral toward. She's just not friendly toward. That means she's neutral toward City Gate people. She doesn't go out of her way to be friendly, but she's not going to start a fight with people who are killing the people she wants dead. My original post just indicated she would not have sought out the company of humans or people she couldnt' tell from humans. She has little experience with Elves, and can't really tell the difference yet. Dwaves are obviously not humans, so she'd be cordial to them if she meets one. Same with halflings, gnomes, wyrd, tieflings, basically anything that couldn't disguise itself as human with a hat.
@GM - Can Kiana have a folding work table for doing her cartography while in the air? I'm imagining a pair of flat pieces of wood with hinges on one side that fold up against her chest when not being used, and fold out and lock in place while she's gliding. With clips around the edges to hold the paper in place. She'd use pencils to sketch in the air, then use ink to redo it on better paper when on the ground. It would give her maps a veracity that most map makers couldn't hit, even with her lower skill than a master, her maps would be remarkably accurate due to her high view of the ground.
Kiana is a recent arrival in the city, say in the last 6 months. She has probably been seen by everyone flying around at various points, but she is not a friendly person, so is unlikely to have been friendly to anyone. The less you look like a human or orc, the more likely she is to be cordial. Of the PCs, that basically means Saltstone is likely the only person she might have traded more than single syllable conversations with. To her, elves and humans look alike. The last few months she's been working with the rogues guild, mostly killing orcs to keep the smuggler outlets free, and tentatively talking to any non-humans in the mountain griffen riders, when she's not making very good maps of the mountains from up high.
Thanks for the pick! You chose wisely!
Response if Kiana is chosen:
Well, it was a tough choice, but you obviously persevered and had the wisdom to choose wisely. Response if Kiana is not chosen:
:)
I assume you don't need anything else from Kiana?
There will be opportunities for mounted characters, not quite Kingmaker level of opportunities, but there is a fair amount of travel involved and mounts will come in handy! "We don't need no stinking mounts... we gots wings."
I had a few minutes, so I got Kiana up as an actual build. Since you allowed Unchained Monk, I built her using that one instead of the base monk.
I was thinking either the Military groups or the Rogues group. Either would make sense. The Military would love another flier who isn't a griffin rider, and the thieves group the same thing.
Background:
Kiana was born in a small colony of Strix on a small island they simply named 'Home' in Strix. It lay just off the coast of Daasen. For centuries, their life was one of relative peace and quiet. That is until a small fleet of ships came to the small island. Military forces bombarded the island with siege weapons, nearly destroying it before landing and attacking. Kiana was small enough to hide in a small crevice high up on the side of the dormant volcano that had given birth to their island. She watched the destruction of her people, and then the burning of their homes. It was days before hunger drove her to leave the crevice, despite the humans having left. There were other survivors, she saw many fly off north toward the mainland, but she was too young to join them at the time. She grew up on the ruined island, practicing daily until her fingers bled with the bows left behind. Eventually, she was old enough to fly away from the island on her own. She eventually fell in with a pirate crew. Kiana's folk had always been fishers and flyers, maintaining a small fleet of fishing craft, and she had always as a child loved being on the boats with the salt spray in her face. The pirate crew, which was made up of mostly non-human crew, welcomed her for her ability to scout, and her keen eye. Unfortunately, her ship was hit by a typhoon, and sank. She barely survived the storm, making it into the center of the eye and limping along on injured wings until she could make landfall. Having made land, she felt that perhaps a change from the sea might be needed, her luck thus far had not been good. She still vowed to hunt for the killers of her island, as she had been doing. Her only clue was a bit of uniform she took off a corpse that hadn't been retrieved by the attackers of her island. The uniform is the only thing she has to try to track down the murderer's of her family. She has recently found that the symbols are Ragesian Special Forces, meaning Ragesia attacked her island. She has come to Gate Pass, having heard rumors of war, to kill as many Ragesian's as she can, in vengeance for her fallen clan.
Character Name : Kiana Sunbane
Character Background: (See above) Plans for the character mechanically: I rarely plan out long builds, as they tend to get impacted by gameplay. However, the plan is to be a zen archer monk for at least 5 levels, possibly with a level dip into a skill class for additional skills. Plans for the character’s own story: Kiana will start out with a seething hatred for humans and orcs in general, and Ragesian humans/orcs/half-orcs specifically. She will be coldly polite to non-Ragesian humans, and give Ragesian's no quarter at all. Over time, I would hope she would (if possible within the game without disrupting it too much) find out why Ragesian forces slaughtered her homeland 20 years ago. Hopefully, she will interact with humans and orcs that will eventually convince her that not all humans and orcs are evil scum. |