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As the dwarf prepares his drink the door to the foyer opens and two women walk out. The first you know, if only by reputation - Sheila Heidmarch. A scholarly-looking, raven-haired woman gracefully approaching middle age, Sheila Heidmarch cuts an impressive figure in her sapphire blue gown. Her appearance is further augmented by the woman following behind her. Rough-and-tumble and covered in multiple facial piercings and impressive tribal tattoos, the attractive half-elven woman accompanying Sheila more accurately resembles the typical adventurous Pathfinder. She is dressed in leather armor and armed with a distinctive-looking mithral-and-redwood aklys (a hooked club attached to a cord) and a bastard sword sheathed and hanging from her belt. A successful DC 18 Knowledge (dungeoneering or local) might recognize this woman.

Sheila greets each of you in turn with an unusually deep voice. Her tone betrays her no-nonsense attitude as she thanks you for answering her summons. She then introduces her companion.

"And this is Koriah Azmeren. Koriah has just returned from an expedition to the Darklands below Varisia, having successfully scouted out a new route down to Nar-Voth from the Fogscar Mountains. She has returned with a surprising number of Thassilonian artifacts from this
expedition," she says with a twinkle in her eye. "I apologize for the further delay, but I must must spend a few more moments discussing the implications of this discovery with Koriah." She pauses, as if struck by an interesting idea. then pauses for a
moment as if in thought. "On second thought, why don't you accompany us," she says before swaying off into an adjoining room.

@PWO: Ahhh, but as Mass Effect has proven, one can have plenty of dramatic emotional conversation with all manner of random people aboard a ship.

Add mine to Sandru, please.

Lissa sits solemnly as Ameiko finishes translating the letter to those assembled. She cringes a bit into herself as Ulf and Zaladrel both jump at the chance to begin the journey to Brinewall. She smiles weakly.

"Ameiko, I..." she stammers. "I need to think about this. I mean, I'm really behind you learning more about your family, but it's just... Brinewall's a long way away. I mean, it's one think to go down into the marsh hunting goblins, by this is a whole other thing entirely. It's just... I'm not saying I don't want to go, I just... I need to think about this."

All the confidence you've seen from the svelte summoner evaporates as she slowly devolves over the course of spilling her guts into a stammering bundle of nerves. She gets up hurriedly from the table, her half-eaten bowl of stew seemingly forgotten, and walks out the door muttering to herself.

"First, I would like to apologize for my unusual method of obtaining your services, but, as you can see, I really had no choice in the matter." Zellara looks pained for a moment. "As you probably noticed, Gaedren Lamm ended not only the life of my son, as I said, but my own as well. I am not well-versed in the arcane, nor am I an expert on religious matters of this type. I do not know how I came to be in the position I find myself in now. What I do know is that my Harrow deck is my link in this world. In a way, it and I are now the same. It is very real, but no, the cards I used to contact you were illusions. You have avenged me on Gaedren, yet here I am still. I do not know why I have not moved on, but I believe that it has something to do with you. The reading I performed before you left has me concerned about events to come. Please, keep my cards. You may use them to call upon me when you have need of my aid." With that, Zellara fades from view and the deck of cards ceases to glow with its eery luminescence. It is late, and you have all had a very interesting day. What do you do now.

In effect, Zellara has imparted to you the powers of her Harrow deck:

Zellara’s Harrow Deck:
Aura moderate divination; CL 10th
Slot —; Price —; Weight 1 lb.
Statistics:
Alignment: CG; Ego: 8
Senses: 60 ft. vision and hearing
Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 13
Communication: empathy
Lesser Powers: identify 3/day, major image 1/day
Special Purpose: defend Korvosa

Description:
Hand-painted images decorate this Harrow deck, the frames gilt in silver so that under lighting they sparkle and flash. Despite the worn condition of the card backs, the images on the faces are so vibrant they seem to move when viewed out of the corner of the eye. The deck itself handles with surprising ease, almost shuffling itself. A bent, torn, or lost card always seems to mend itself or reappear when no one is looking.

These features are subtle manifestations of the spirit that haunts the cards. In life, Zellara lived by this deck, and in death, she has become the deck. Although this magical Harrow deck wasn’t created using the standard method for creating magic items, it should nonetheless be treated as an intelligent magic item. Zellara can sense the world around the deck via sight and sound, and she can communicate with anyone who holds the deck via empathy. She can create a major image once per day, often doing so to generate an image of herself manipulating the cards—in this manner, she can carry on conversations with other creatures. She can also identify a magic item’s properties if one of her cards is touched to it, as the spell identify, up to 3 times per day. When she does so, knowledge of the item identified manifests in the mind of one creature she chooses who is also holding at least one card, or she can opt to describe the item’s functions via a major image.

Zellara can suppress the deck’s powers at will and doesn’t hesitate to do so if anyone attempts to sell the deck or otherwise displeases her. At best, a foolish character could possibly sell the cards as a standard Harrow deck—thus, no pricing information for the deck itself is needed.

I have yet to have any problem with the gunslinger class in any of my games. If anything, I have found their damage output to be slightly lower than other ranged classes. I'm wondering, are your problems coming from an actual game, or are you just basing your opinion on a read through? A lot of options sound very powerful on paper, but are only marginally so in play.

Come on, Andoran is the States. Eagle Knights, their colors, democracy.

I would like to see a classic "dragon slayers" AP. One where the main focus throughout is to kill the very big, very bad dragon at the end. We've had devils, super wizard (Karzoug), kinda-dragon (CotCT), genies, fey, drow/demons, serpentfolk, the undead, and oni. Kind of a back to basics thing (which to be fair was what RotRL was).

Also, I think a vs. Aberrations would be fun. Before I saw that 2nd Darkness was drow, I was getting all kinds of anti-abererant vibes from all the darklands fluff. Perhaps the aboleths schemes are coming to fruition (which could tie into the Absalom game quite nicely).

One thing to remember is that elves live for a very long time. Consequently they don't get into too much of a rush, nor do they consider things that might be very important to others as worthy of that much attention. To an elf, it is not unusual to spend 20 years (or more) to make a single sword just to make sure you get it right.

It also describes elves as being "tempestuous". So they're prone to very quick mood swings. Quick to laugh, quick to anger, quick to forgive.

Elves also enjoy finding the beauty in things that other races might not be able to notice. Point out how you love the way a tree branch curves just so. This also applies to the beauty of movement. Combat isn't just a race to hack the other person into tiny pieces before he does so to you. Your elf might get lost in the abstract beauty of form and motion in a sword duel. Especially if it is charged with the emotion of being a fight to the death. And especially if he is a part of it.

Finally, there's the elven sense of superiority. Elves are one of the oldest races in existence. They were mastering the arcane when humans were still hitting each other on the heads with clubs. And they know this. An elf might appreciate the gifts and unique talents of other races, but in his heart, he knows that he is simply a superior species. This has lead to no small amount of pompousness amongst elves. Even if you can't do something better than the party human, remember, elves in general can.

During an Eberron campaign I ran, it was discovered that one of the PCs had been a changeling (we'd been playing for about a year, and I was honestly shocked that none of them picked up on it...). They initially thought that their good friend had been replaced by an imposter, so they tied her up to question her, then left her in a tent by herself to discuss the ethical implications of what was going on.
Now, the group had recently acquired a half-orc barbarian who had formerly been a town guard in the Shadow Marches. He was not too thrilled with the treatment of a comrade, so snuck into the tent and untied her. He then sat her down for some tea to ask her what was going on.
When the others returned, one of the party, a Karnathi warlord, started yelling and raving about what was going on. The barbarian gently sat down his tea and informed the nobleman that it was rude to tie up a fellow pary-member.
Somehow the mental image of a Karn nobleman being instructed on manners by a half-orc barbarian drinking tea killed us.

Now starting recruitment for a CotCT game for PbP novices.
Anyone new to PbP's, been looking into them, but doesn't know where to start, here's your chance.

Character Creation:
-25 point buy
-Average starting gold
-Max hp at first level
-2 traits (one campaign trait, one other)
-Core Rulebook, APG, and both Ultimates, anything else to be approved separately

Any character submissions should be able to answer the following questions:
-How did you acquire your class?
-How did you assemble your starting equipment?
-What's the worst event of your life so far?
-What's the best thing that's ever happened to you?
-How do others perceive you in social interactions?
-How assertive are you when making a decision?
-How do you feel when faced by setbacks?
-Do you stay in contact with your family? What do they think of you?
-Do you have any secrets or conflicts from your past that might come back to haunt you?
-How long have you lived in Korvosa and in what part of the city?
-What is your opinion of the current state of affairs in Korvosa?
-What is your connection (past or present) to Gaedren Lamm?

So start posting your submissions, I'd love to see them.

You have my word, you let us in, he will not harm you unless you attack.

Cinder's cragged lips split into a toothy grin. He won't. Its claws twitch in anticipation at the confrontation with the goblin chief, however it went. It doubted that the goblin was intelligent enough to restrain itself from inciting violence against the adventurers.

"Hurry now little creature. We tire of waiting out here."

Cinder rumbles along quietly following its companions. It had not really cared whether or not they spared the tiny creature or let it live. If it had been Cinder, it probably would have just killed it for the sheer audacity to attack them and be done with it. But like much about the alien creature, its methods and motives were difficult for others to comprehend.

Sometimes even I don't understand you, Cinder, a slight voice in its head muses. Dark smoke wafts from the faults in its hide as it sheaths its sword and follows along after the group in silence.

Úlf has control of things here, Cinder, a feminine voice echoes in the saurian being's mind. Aid the others, they need us more. The rune over its head pulses an affirmation as Cinder rushes past Tavlor, through the doorway, around the corner, back outside, and past Runa and Zaladrel to get between its allies and the newly arrived goblins.

Double move to midway between Zaladrel and goblin 13.

Cinder holds its blade before it defensively and roars a challenge at the approaching goblins! It goes low and rakes its claws across the wood to show their sharpness, creating blackened scorch mark in the planks.

My wife's cousin asked me one time if we ran around in fields in our underwear playing with swords.

My aunt asked me if that was the game where you killed your parents.

A friend of mine in my group wanted to game at his house one evening. We didn't particularly care, so we told him to run it by his mom. He went to the same church as me, and when he asked her she told him that since she knew us all from church she guessed it would be alright as long as we didn't sacrifice any goats. He laughed and told her that we weren't up to goats yet, we were still on chickens. She didn't laugh.

I don't know about anyone else, but I for one am quite excited to see Mr. Wayne Reynolds's art once again gracing the covers of an AP.