Kiyoshi Gekido's page

I am still around as well. Although this pointed out that I did not have my RSS feed set for the discussion thread lol

At Oscar's and Aerik's warning, Kiyoshi takes full advantage of his incorporeal nature to hide himself from all but the most powerful of senses and literally steps into one of the trees, just poking his eyes out into a shadow of the branches and leaves to give himself a decent view of the group's area while remaining hidden. "Ready yourselves. If you remain nearby, I should be able to thin the herd before they can reach us. Even better if you lure them near this tree."

Incorporeal cannot be heard with Perception checks if it doesn’t wish to be and nonvisual senses, such as scent and blindsight, are either ineffective or only partly effective.
In addition, due to Mythic Path Supreme Stealth, a creature using blindsight, blindsense, or stealth can’t automatically detect you, and must succeed at Perception checks as normal to do so. - I'm not really sure how those interact with incorporeal, but for the moment, I'm literally in a tree anyway.

Readying himself, Kiyoshi prepares to lash out with one of his tails against any of the incoming creatures who pass within range (10ft).

Perception: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (5) + 17 = 22 +2 more to avoid being surprised

Kiyoshi glides out of the shadows as the Prince points out the dangers of the foliage around them, "I wonder if the sap could be weaponized? I don't believe it would hurt me. Any idea what is considered a toxic or lethal concentration, or how long it lasts after being harvested?"

Kiyoshi's only real weakness when it comes to damage is anything without a STR score. My attacks are incorporeal (touch) attacks that target STR and then do the extra damage as negative energy damage. It would come out to 1d6 STR damage (+29 negative energy HP damage, if the STR damage works). The 5d6 Sneak attack and 1d6 force deal damage as long as the attack hits, even against something without a str score (barring other factors).

I've got other things I can do to help with anything I can't hit, but vs the stuff I can, with 12 attacks at +32 vs touch AC, that's a lot of potential damage.

I am still here, but it's basically been a conversation between Prince, Cal, and the ship captain. Nothing really to do/say at the moment and didn't want three people chiming in on the same convo. Cal and Prince have two different approaches to the same request; adding a third would just be redundant and probably confusing.

"Perhaps, and perhaps not. What kind of assistance do you seek?"

The Unfettered Prince had already covered this but Brother Ismin seems to have gotten sidetracked by the knowledge of the Lattimor just on the other side of the river so Kiyoshi reiterates the situation to keep things clear, "The deal we made with the Lattimor is to return to my own home world and retrieve the ship the Cigar Thane used to reach Perelande in the first place. If we can make our way to Qi, then catch a flight to the moon, I will be able to take us to the last known location of the ship, and then, if it's still there, return it to the Lattimor, easing the tensions between them and you, and possibly get their assistance in reaching the Spire. Or if not their assistance, then their neutrality towards that end. Currently they will make every effort to prevent us reaching the Spire on behalf of the Spinner. So the short of it is that we need the easiest way to find a ship to - and a map of - Qi, as well as supplies for a decently long journey away from this planet."

Kiyoshi shrugs in apology, "Not being limited to the ground myself, I never thought to consider flight spells of any sort."

"As I said previously - I don't know for certain the stops he made in between that lead him to Perelande, but I know where I left the ship for him in case he returned after I died. We go there in reverse of how I arrived here: Hop a flight from here to Qi, then from Qi to the moon, where the World Portal waits. We take the World Portal back to Perelande and I lead everyone on foot to the island where I last saw the ship."

"Granted, there are any number of things that could go wrong. It was easy for me to stow away on the flights this direction, but I'm practically invisible in every way, when I care to be. But at least there's a plan and a goal in this case. While we're in Qi, we might also look at purchasing or bartering for faster ground transport for the lot of us for when we arrive at our destination. Perelande is large. We can go on foot, but we would be limited by our slowest members. The largest risk is that I do not know whether he returned for the vessel after I was killed and began my journey here. It's just as likely that he did return for it after I departed and has since moved on as it is that he was killed or never returned for it, having found the Ruins that he sought."

"Would I be correct in assuming that the Spinner never gave us a time limit for this task? If we're not on a time crunch, we should easily be able to make our way back to Perelande, which is where I last saw the ship. If it's not there, we may be able to find out where it went in my companions search for the Ruin of Knowledge, but that was my whole purpose in coming here. I hoped to retrace his steps, pick up on any knowledge that he may have skipped over in his tellings to me so that I might find the Ruin of Knowledge in his stead if he really did perish the night that I did."

Details can be found in my character background, and my gameplay intro post - my time with Thane and how I got from Perelande to Earth. All information given freely to those who would ask for it.

"Or, instead of trying to convince the Spinner to do so, we could try to retrieve the Night Lady ourselves. Knowing what I know now, I wish I hadn't left it for Thane, but I do know where I left it." Kiyoshi considers for a moment the amount of time it took to get to this point and had to concede one major potential problem, "On the other hand, I do not know whether he returned for the vessel after I was killed and began my journey here. It's just as likely that he returned for it after I departed and has since moved on. Is anybody opposed to attempting to make a bargain that in exchange for letting us pass, we make every effort to find it and bring it back?"

Kiyoshi gives The Unfettered Prince a sideways glance before muttering, "Still sounds like the right place, if the Spinner told Thane to come this way. I must have missed that bit of her story though; what did she tell him to seek here, if not the Spire?"

Kiyoshi frowns in confusion for a moment before deciding he most likely had some of the details wrong in his mind. "The... Night Lady? I apologize, I assumed you were speaking about the Spinner of Songs - an entity we have met whose physical form has been separated from her mental presence which has been sequestered within the nearby Spire. Since I am obviously mistaken, may I ask who or what the Night Lady is?"

Oh dang. I didn't realize they had named the ship and figured they were worshipping her consciousness. Did the Cigar Thane ever provide the name of the ship while I was with him, and if so did he call it the Night Lady?

In other words, is that something we should have known (in which case disregard my previous post), or is that a mistake that any of us may have made? Worst case, it could provide a segue into some sort of negotiation with the Lattimore.

Kiyoshi perks up at the mention of his old travelling companion. "Sounds like we're in the right place," he says to The Unfettered Prince before addressing the Lattimore themselves. "Lattimor, we have spoken to one who claims to be she and we come on her behalf. We mean to enter the Spire and free the Night Lady. Will you lead us to the Spire, or at least let us pass to make our way there?"

Thank you; it does help my mental picture match up with the map. The close-up map would finish that off - just something to orient those of us who have crossed the river in our relation to the ornamental gate, the ceremonial mound that we're yelling over (if in a different location), and the group we're interacting with. Plus, if it happens to come to combat, I'd like to know how far we are from them and the terrain between us.

Can you update the map with something indicating where we are and where the people we're conversing with are? Somehow I missed the bit about the sheer size of the embankment (is that supposed to be the mountain on the second version of the map (judging by the scale bar at the top)?) and now I'm very confused.

... the far side of the crossing is a rocky promenade that appears well-insulated from the river's flow.

This describes to me a sidewalk (cobblestone or gravel path?) along the river, or maybe with 15-20ft between the edge of the sidewalk and the river.

There appears to be some kind of camouflaged embankment on the far side of the river ... This embankment is a massive platform mound with four terraces, 10 stories tall. Facing south, it is 100 ft (30 m) high, 951 ft (290 m) long, 836 ft (255 m) wide and covers 13.8 acres (5.6 ha).

An embankment is a foundation used to keep a road or path at a steady level (preventing it from inclining with with natural angle of the slope of the land), but we're talking about a platform 1000ft sq in size and 100ft tall.

So this tells me the sidewalk is either at the top of the embankment and all we can see is basically a 100ft tall wall (of dirt, it seems) on the opposite side of the river, or there's a path/road of some sort near the riverbank, with the bottom of the embankment a little bit further beyond that. I'm not sure how something like that gets camouflaged either.

Over the cacophonous din of the unexpected explosions, a number of guttural voices can be heard, apparently conversing ... Behind the mound, a group of a dozen ape-like creatures are huddled, each of which carries a massive handheld firearm of some sort.

Again, which mound are we talking about here? Is that referring to the mountain on the map? If so, how are we able to hear anything across it? If not, can you add something to show where all of this is occurring?

Seeing The Unfettered Prince drop down nearby, Kiyoshi moves next to him and, keeping all but his head submerged into the ground, relays what he has overheard to his companion. "They claim the territory as their own and think we've been sent by the Amber Priests - as if others have made the attempt before. They do seem ready to spring an ambush for any of our associates who follow; did anybody else follow us? Do we attack them first, try to reason with them, or attempt to bypass them?"

Being the newest to the group, Kiyoshi doesn't want to make that call on his own until he gets a better feel for the group's general attitude towards possible trouble.

I do have Comprehend Languages as a spell I can cast. If I identify that I've never heard the language before, and I've got the option to do so, I would do so.

Well I have a list of like 20 languages that I've never filled out because I asked about it way back at the beginning and never got a list of languages I could use and I couldn't find a list in the character creation guidelines, just the bits about 50%+ of people speaking The Truth with different locations having their own languages.

I am not casting those spells yet. That was just so that there's some sort of acknowledged signal for the most likely scenarios (safe vs danger/need help).

Kiyoshi glides through the earth in a back-and-forth pattern within the embankment, using his sense as an incorporeal creature to identify how many creatures are using the area for their purposes. Once he has identified their locations, he'll move a short distance away and poke his head out for a second or two - just long enough to confirm a headcount and look for any better hiding spots that he can use to try to eavesdrop on the group.

If there is a spot I can use to eavesdrop, Perception to do so to try to identify what they're up to: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (18) + 15 = 33

"Indeed. There are no shadows to hide my position, but there are other ways. I'm going to find out how many there are and find out what they're up to, if I can. I'll send up Dancing Lights if I clear it out, or a Flare if I end up needing assistance, though any who don't want to wait for me, feel free to provide a sunside distraction."
Kiyoshi, as one of his previously considered options, dives into the churning river, his incorporeal body no impediment to the flow of the water, and the water offering no resistance against his own movements, and using it to stay out of sight of any missed observers who might still be on the other bank. However, instead of rising out of the water, Kiyoshi moves into the land itself of the other bank, easily passing through earth and stone as he had the water and air beforehand then allowing his face and head topside to scout more accurately.
Stealth through the water, if required: 1d20 + 41 ⇒ (3) + 41 = 44

Note from incorporeal rules: An incorporeal creature can enter or pass through solid objects, but must remain adjacent to the object’s exterior, and so cannot pass entirely through an object whose space is larger than its own. It can sense the presence of creatures or objects within a square adjacent to its current location, but enemies have total concealment (50% miss chance) from an incorporeal creature that is inside an object.

What's the ambient light level around the portal?

Kiyoshi hums lightly to himself as he scans both banks of the river, looking for any sign that they are not alone in the area.
Perception: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (5) + 15 = 20

If satisfied that no potential dangers immediately present themselves, he takes a closer look at the terrain of the other side of the river - specifically looking for shadows that might help him conceal himself or others.
Perception: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (16) + 15 = 31

"This must be the portal that we were told to seek. I see nothing to indicate that we will be met with hostility on the other side. Does anybody else?"

Invisible in every way except the spell. Near the front of the line.

Also, didn't the Unfettered Prince walk out into the woods? If we're splitting up at all, Kiyoshi is with the group on the main route along the path.

Are you going ahead of the group to reconnoiter?

No, it was more of a 'I'm going to start walking and let it spur others to get moving, too.' I'm still going to stay with the group.

Kiyoshi waits a couple of moments to ensure his disturbing the mist didn't trigger anything before he comes back down to ground level. "Disturbing the mist didn't do anything. If those hunters are going to come after us, they may wait for us to actually be off the path. Let's keep moving." With that, Kiyoshi's curiosity is satisfied for the moment and he starts floating along again, though now wary of a potential attack and he uses the omnipresent shadows to hide himself as best he can.

Stealth: 1d20 + 41 ⇒ (19) + 41 = 60 due to Mythic Trickster abilities, Supreme Stealth, this works against Scent, Blindsight, and Blindsense. Incorporeal prevents me from being heard if I don't want to be, and constant flight prevents finding me via tremorsense.

PNW forest during cloud cover and no visible sun. I'm picturing something like this, so "normal" ambient light level at the brightest, dim light or shadowed area all over. I've got some abilities that depend on shadows, dim light, and/or darkness (sometimes one or the others) so this is definitely one thing I'll generally ask about if it's not stated.

"Very well, if you are determined to go through with this now instead of on our way back, there are likely fewer things that can cause me harm than you in our current forms, so I'll start it." Kiyoshi kneels down, still on the path, and sweeps his hand through the mist, one direction as his incorporeal self, and then back again focusing on becoming corporeal and interacting with the material world to see if there's a difference. As soon as his second sweep completes, he uses his Shadow Slip ability to teleport off of the path and into the higher foliage to put some extra space between himself and whatever might come out of the mist.

Because my armor lowers the ambient light level by one step within 20 feet of me, I can use the Shadow Slip from my Dread Shadow template to at least 20ft distance (dimension door that must start and end in a place of darkness or shadow).

Kiyoshi goes with the group into the forest, paying careful attention to the foliage surrounding them and the markings on their path, attempting to ensure that they aren't misled into wandering in circles. Being well-versed in forest terrain, and having an innate sense of direction make this an almost trivial task, despite never having been in the area before.
Perception: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (15) + 17 = 32

When the voice cries out for help, and Arc confirms that the voice seems to have come from the mist around them, Kiyoshi is immediately wary, but also curious. Perhaps on the way back, he could try to trigger whatever trap the mist represents. Even if it's dangerous, Kiyoshi knows that he should be able to retreat with relative ease from anything that can harm him in the first place. "Talking mist, a known zone of silence, and the whole forest not even belonging on this planet in the first place. It all feels like a warning. Or a trap. Let's keep moving unless we get an actual reason to stop."

What's the ambient light level on the path and in the surrounding forest?

Kiyoshi Gekido wrote:

** spoiler omitted **...

The Aeon Priest regards the newcomer with a suspicious expression,

"Well met, stranger, I am Brother Ismin of the Amber Priory of the Order of Truth, humble servant of our esteemed patriarch in distant Qi, and a student of the prior worlds. How, exactly, might you have any additional knowledge of this enigmatic figure, beyond that which was contained in a sealed volume whose contents have only just now been brought to light?"

"I traveled with him for some time - he's actually the reason I've come here. Granted, I do not believe he was wholly forthcoming in his tales, but in our time together, he provided me with details about his own past; his journey to my planet started here. He arrived using the spacecraft that the oracle here pointed him towards. I managed a different way." Kiyoshi waves him off at this point, "We can come back to this at another time. History's not going anywhere, right?"

"Seeing as I am practically a creature of darkness and silence, and I have an innate sense of direction, I may be of no little use in both the shifting structure and the surrounding forest. I'd also really enjoy putting myself to the test - I never got to really challenge myself before my journey here."

Taendael Caliean wrote:

Clearly, I went about this character all wrong. I am bowing out gracefully of this campaign.

Sorry to see you go. In many ways it's a bit more difficult for amnesiac characters without known backstories, as it's not necessarily easy to come up with a sensible (or perhaps not so sensible) reason to involve them with a random group of people who're huddled together discussing whether they're going to embark on a perilous expedition to retrieve the consciousness of a rather large, imprisoned entity.

I don't know about that. Curiosity would be the easiest play. "Hey I don't know who I am or where I am, so I'm looking to kill time until I can stumble upon a way to regain my memories and you lot look interesting/not from around here. What are y'all up to?"

"Oh, you're going on a scavenger hunt for something powerful and probably dangerous? There's a waterfall? Sharp rocks at the bottom? Bring it on."

Clearly, I went about this character all wrong. I am bowing out gracefully of this campaign.

Unable to communicate or get help from the native population, the naked elf shrugs. Taking a few steps back, the elf unpops his butterfly wings and flies off into the horizon to lands unknown.

Why would my entrance mean you did anything wrong?

Also, hi all! I think I've put more than a week real time into building this character (though I have the feeling that I still missed something), so I'm pretty excited to actually play him.

Anybody who sees past a Stealth: 1d20 + 39 ⇒ (8) + 39 = 47DC and is looking up can see Kiyoshi coming before he reveals himself. Shadowdancer's hide in plain sight allows him to hide if there's a shadow in 10ft, so he's skimming the tops of, and moving in between buildings, using both line of sight and the shadows caused by the sun over the buildings to hide himself.

His voice appears from above the group "Good afternoon, all. I apologize for the interruption, and I know my presence is unexpected, but I swear I mean you no harm, and in fact may be able to assist you in your endeavors. With that, Kiyoshi fades into existence before their eyes - a man-sized shadow given form, with a large number of tails moving out behind him - and drifts down to ground level with his hands out to his side in a gesture of goodwill, though with a noticeable darkening of the area within 20ft of himself as he moves.

"As you can see, my appearance is not the friendliest. I only hid myself to not cause a fright as I made my way here. As I was saying, I overheard you are on the hunt for the Cigar Thane, Hadrama'aldramaan. I can add onto the story that the one you called Spinner has told you."

If the group seems interested, he will relay his own backstory and his time with the Cigar Thane and any details that he can recall of his own conversations with him such as places traveled, goals, etc, including the details of the ship that he arrived on PErelande with.

Definitely down with that. Which book were you reading? If you've got discord, you can also hit me up on there and we can talk about this a bit easier. GrinningJest3r#1457

However, having multiple characters from Golarion feels fairly unfaithful to the idea of having a Numenera campaign, and I feel like that just encourages everyone to not even bother with the Ninth World fluff.

I'd really prefer something other than a character from Tian-Xia.

That's fine, and that was mostly the plan. That's why I keep trying to find out more about Corao and Numenera as a whole.

Looking through character creation guidelines, there's a Tail mutation there waiting for me :D
I'd end up something like "a mutant seeker who explores dark places" (depending on the dice roll, I could get up to 4 tails without any mechanical bonus, but I'm also not going to get into the various mutations since we're building via pathfinder rules)

Let's see....

So started out as human, but the mutation gave him tails. The Rogue portion of his classes comes from being one who Explores Dark Places. The combination of arcane and shadow Bloodrager bloodlines is the only thing that allowed him to be reborn (since the Shadows of the Void don't generally create new Shadows from the ones they kill) and now he has those as additional abilities to tap into, though it's not so much tapping into his own abilities, as what the Void will allow him to have. The Dread Shadow template is what he is now. Ranger and Shadowdancer are just natural extensions of what he used to do and what his life was before the transformation.

I've got a s#%! ton of languages (27) that I can mix and match based on what we'll need. He had to learn the languages to get by and get information in his hunt for new and exciting places and artifacts.

Also, am I going to start out as an amne also, even as a known-native?

No luck. Checked all three bestiaries for the word "fox". Doesn't appear once. The closest thing might be a Beastcoat Infiltrator from Bestiary 3, but that's a bot that tries to take on the appearance of an animal to blend into their community. Though with the template I'd be more like a Shivern or a Shadow of the Void than anything, I think, if we're pulling something from the bestiary.

On the other hand, the tails could just be a mutation or nano upgrade? Some excerpt or story/myth/legend from one of the previous worlds and I thought it sounded awesome to have so many tails. Numenera character creation seems to be pretty fluid.

Or, I could be an actual undead survivor from Golarion, existing as a shadow for millennia - zoned out for most of it, letting the void and the hunger pull me through time. I could be one of the last shadows, proginitor to the Shadows of the Void! lmfao

Updated with more. Just more.

I'm still down for being a native of Corao if you want to send me whatever extra you have on it. I did read the guidebook already, so anything else you have, I'll take it.

Are we dealing with Numenera bestiary or PF bestiary? Just wondering if I should modify the backstory a bit for that or leave it as PF origins?

Also, I didn't see a comment about it so I just want to make sure it wasn't missed (I did see the discussion note about you working 50 hours this weekend; not trying to rush you or anything).
Kiyoshi is GrinningJest3r's submission. Let me know if you get a chance to look him over and if you have any questions/concerns.

Alright. Here's GrinningJest3r's submission. I used PF material for basically everything except the template. Take a look over it if you'd like and let me know if you have any questions.