Malena Omoroi's page

Hey guys -- I'm really sorry. I'm finding that I'm not able to keep up with all the campaigns that I'm in right now given the spare mental energy available to me in my life right now. I like this campaign, and like the world the GM has created, but I think I need to withdraw from it. As you've seen, I keep going for 2+ weeks without posting in the game. I'm just in too many games right now. It's only fair to the other players that I admit I'm not going to be able to keep up and formally withdraw.

Malena stays back, maintaining both her bardic performance and her illusion.

This is the last round of bardic performance.... +1 Morale to saves vs. charm and fear, +1 Competence to attacks and weapon damage.

Malena groans in pain as she's hit again with an arrow. She can't take another one like that without being in serious trouble....

She moves back on the roof so as to be out of range of fire. She maintains her bardic performance, and concentrates on maintaining her illusion (having it shoot downwards), hoping that some of the pirates still believe it.

Updated Outside Map.

Bardic Performance (2 rounds left): +1 Morale to saves vs. charm and fear, +1 Competence to attack and damage.

Hey, sorry guys, have fallen behind for the last few days. Going to catch up now.

I wanted the archer to walk forward as if it was further back on the roof where it wouldn't have been visible to the pirates in the front-- perhaps shooting at another side of the building.

Malena winces as she's hit with an arrow, and steps back on the roof away from the ranged archers shooting outside. She maintains her oratory, but weaves the words and makes an arcane gesture so that she can cast a spell. The image of another archer, looking just like one of others with them, steps forward to the edge of the roof and shoots at the ranged pirates south of the building, missing narrlowly.

UPDATED ROOF MAP

Move action: moving back. Standard action: cast Silent Image. A pirate who interacts with it gets a DC 14 save to see what it is.

In progress: Inspire Courage: +1 Morale bonus to saves vs. charm and fear, +1 Competence bonus on attacks and weapon damage rolls. Only a few rounds of that left....

GM, I want to make sure I haven't missed a line in one of the updates. My believe is that Malena is currently down 5hp, and that's all the more damage she's taken. Is that correct?

...oops, looks like you just beat me to it! I'll post for next round.

Malena maintains her bardic performance, and fires again at the melee pirate on the ground closest to her.

Shortbow attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 191d6 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Inspire Courage: +1 Morale bonus for saves versus fear and charm effects, and a +1 Competence bonus on attack and damage rolls.

Malena continues her oratory, and fires straight down at the pirate right below her.

Shortbow attack including higher ground and Inspire Courage: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 161d6 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

In progress: Inspire Courge, +1 morale to saves vs. fear and charm, +1 competence to attack and damage

Staying where she is, Malena maintains her bardic performance, draws her shortbow, and fires at the cutlass-bearing pirate closest to her. However, not only does she not get an accurate bearing on the man's position because of the rain, but also her shot just flies wide.

Greater than 30ft still has a 20% miss chance, yes?
Shortbow attack, +1 for High Ground, +1 for Inspire Courage: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
Concealment miss chance: 1d100 ⇒ 11
Damage if hits: 1d6 ⇒ 6

Inspire Courage: +1 Morale bonus for saves versus fear and charm effects, and a +1 Competence bonus on attack and damage rolls.

Malena begins singing a rousing battle hymn about protecting house and home, providing an arcane bonus to all of her allies who can hear her performance.

Start an Inspire Courage bardic performance. This will give everybody on the roof, at least, and perhaps some of the others (GM's call, of course) a +1 Morale bonus for saves versus fear and charm effects, and a +1 Competence bonus on attack and damage rolls.

Malena moves carefully (half speed) to the east on the roof. She creates an illusion of an archer on the east side of the roof, firing arrows (and barely missing) at the group of pirates outside on the right side of the map, hoping to draw some of their fire and attention.

Casting Silent Image; save DC is 14. I presume that if one of the pirates fires an arrow back that would hit the illusory archer (or touch-hit it), that would count as "interacting" for purposes of being able to make a save.

Oh! I misunderstood, I was thinking it was an exterior balcony. In that case, Malena will climb to the roof; can she succeed with a 10? If so, she'll take 10 on the climb.

UPDATED MAP with Malena on the roof.

I'd like to put Malena on the second floor balcony; she's not the greatest climber in the world, so I wasn't going to have her climb to the roof. Where on the map is the second floor balcony?

OK, I'm caught up.

A lot happened while I was moving! Yikes. Pirates marching on noble family's houses... scary. I hope we succeed in protecting them!

Malena sighs. "Yes, let's get moving. We don't want to be late for this party. I fear it's not going to be pretty, though. I will stay back and provide what inspiration I can for our troops. I will also use my illusion spells in an attempt to distract the enemy."

Hey guys-- I'm starting to get my head above water from this move. I'm moved in, and about 90% unpacked-- but of course, the last 10% of unpacking is much harder than the first 90%. (Where do I put that?) I'm also pretty wiped out, and 130 posts behind in this game at the moment...! I will try to catch up soon. I do not believe I will be able to catch up tonight, but hopefully in the next couple of days.

Hey guys -- I'm way behind right now, and as warned on the road for the next several days as I'm moving. I suspect I'm not going to be able to catch up before next week. I will try, but if not, please NPC-bot me for now.

Malena nods. "Sounds like a plan."

Malena says, "Yes, let's visit Mary's and see what we can learn there. It will probably be in service to the greater good to do the Broker's tasks if necessary to learn what's going on with all of this, but I also am uncomfortable with turning the recipe over to him. As for sabotage... well, it would depend who we were sabotaging."

Throwing a sidelong look at Lyssa, she adds, "...but we really should avoid doing that as well. We do not want to become as big a problem as the problem we are investigating, rationalizing all the way that what we're doing is right even when it's not."

I'm going to be moving next Monday (the 28th). Starting next week, my Internet access is going to be extremely spotty for at least a week. I'll try to keep up, but I may have trouble doing so.

"For you, I'll do it gratis," Malena says. "Here, sit down."

She shuffles her Harrow deck, whirling the cards back and forth between her hands as she randomizes their order.

She then pulls out nine cards and lays them in a three-by-three grid in front of her.

When she's laid out the cards, here is the array

Top Row: The Beating (NE, Hammers: Str) --- The Owl (N, Stars: Wis) --- The Forge (LN, Hammers: Str)

Middle Row: The Bear (N, Hammers: Str) --- The Winged Serpent (LG, Stars: Wis) --- The Theater (NG, Crowns: Cha)

Bottom Row: The Trumpet (LG, Shields: Con) -- The Carnival (CN, Stars: Wis) -- The Tangled Briar (LE, Shields: Con)

Malena taps the column of cards on the left. "These-- The Beating, the Bear, and the Trumpet-- represent your past. The cards are telling me that physical prowess has shaped your past, strength and robustness of body. You received a call to be who you are, perhaps in response to a defeat, perhaps physical, perhaps metaphorical, by something or someone that represented power and prowess in your life."

She then shifts her attention to the middle column . "These three cards represent the present. These are perhaps of most interest to me, because it is your present in which I myself am involved. The Owl, the Winged Serpent, and the Carnival. The cards are telling me that whereas your past may have been shaped by physical prowess, making you who you are, what is most important in your life right now is perhaps your strength of mind. Your willpower, your perception, your ability to focus your attention. In Kharoum, with what we've been attending recently, it's no surprise that carnivals are part of what is leading you about, but the other two cards suggest that wisdom and order are important. The winged serpent... this may be a warning that evil outsiders are manipulating events relevant to your present right now, for couatls are lawful and good outsiders that try to protect mortals from the machinations of such creatures."

Malena finally focuses on the right column. "For your future: The Forge, the Theater, and the Tangled Briar. The future is often the hardest to make sense of. The Forge tells me that you are not yet who you will become, that even though you have been made into the person you are by your past, you still face many trials that will fundamentally change who you are and how you approach the world."

Tapping the Theater, she adds, "You should expect others to be watching, and for the trials and your reaction to them to be visible to the eyes of many."

"And," she says, tapping the Tangled Briar, "the path will not be easy, nor clear, and you will find yourself caught up in events that are not easy to understand and that slow you down."

With a smile, she says, "...which, to be frank, sounds like our present right now!"

Malena will head back down to the docks and set up her fortune-telling stand, spending the afternoon reading the Harrow for visitors to the town. She'll make sure to be done in time to suit back up into her armor and to pick up her weapons before meeting again with the others.

Malena wanders over to where Grint is participating in the archery contest, and stands near Elsa. "Looks like he did pretty well. Is he flirting with all of the performers now?"

(Before going to the festival, Malena will change out of her leather armor and back into her entertainer's outfit. She'll put back on her necklace and bangles, and will leave her shortbow and shortsword at home. She still keeps her daggers and sap with her, however, as is her usual custom.)

Malena finds herself drawn to the quiz. She's been collecting bits of lore about everything here and yonder for some time now, partly for purposes of improving her performance at her fortune-telling gig, but also just because she finds herself enjoying doing it. As such, the quiz seems to be tailor-made for her....

"Do you have a series of questions about the local area? Who's who in Kharum, where to find the out-of-the-way restaurants and shops, information about the local humanoid tribes, that kind of thing? If so, I'll ante up...."

Malena starts to field the questions, answering those she can.... She easily answers the first three questions, but much to her chagrin she finds herself tripped up on the fourth question. Evidently she doesn't get to be a millionaire today.

Malena nods. "I would love to get out of my armor and go to an event and relax... although hanging out with you crowd, I'll probably regret getting out of my armor and letting my hair down. It wouldn't hurt me to spend another afternoon down near the docks plying my trade, either."

Malena sighs. "Unless we have another direct lead, I guess we have to go back to the Broker at this point."

Malena chimes in. "[b]Have there been any rumors about Valux, suggesting where he might have been recently? Or, any rumors about who he may have been contacting, working with, or what he might be up to?"

Malena's eyes narrow. "Test subjects? Just how far did your tests go? We've already met your memory erasing substance... what did you do to Fergus?"

To the others, she says, "We should look into the cells-- but carefully."

Malena nods, and turns back to the doctor. "I don't suppose you can tell us anything about this 'Y', or you were supposed to contact him again? Anything more than an odd, bald fellow? Also, do you have anybody in here, any prisoners, by the name of Fergus?"

I've read the thread. Will probably need to read through it again to make sure I'm fully up to speed. I'm not going to post right now, since Malena said something in the last post from the GM.

(I have tracked the resources used while she was botted.)

Hey guys-- sorry about going silent. I thought I'd posted a warning in all my games before I left that I was going to be offline Thu through Mon for PaizoCon, but I must have failed to do that here. My apologies; that was not helpful of me....

I didn't realize that Sabel couldn't understand common in combat! All that crazy speech makes sense now. Our characters are, of course, just now getting to know each other. Hopefully we will figure out how to work effectively with each other.

Because of PaizoCon, I've been catching up the last couple of days on all the things I'm behind on. I'm pretty wiped out, as the con was a very intense four days of RPGing and not enough sleep. So, I'm 50 message behind in the Gameplay thread right now.... I'll be working through it tonight.

I'm not sure I'm going to stick with this game. The party works at cross-purposes to each other too much. There was Lyssa's charging forward against what everybody else wanted, and now the complete waste of the charm in combat (and getting off a charm in combat is a hard thing). I'm finding it frustrating, and Malena's finding it frustrating, and to be perfectly honest I'm not sure how much of the frustration is IC and how much is OOC.

"Och!" Maleana cries in frustration. "Sabel, I had that guy charmed! I told you NOT to shoot at him! I'd taken him out of the combat, but now we have to fight them all! What a mess this group is, constantly working at cross-purposes to each other!"

She shakes her head and takes a step back so that she won't be in harms way, allowing those better with weapons to hold their attacks. She is just going to stay out of the way, for anything she might do might undermine what somebody else is doing.

Malena says to the archer she's charmed, "Please, drop your weapon, and try to convince your friends to stop attacking us! If they drop their weapons, we will too."

She looks at her companions, and whispers, "...and if that happens, somebody restrain Lyssa."

Did the charm succeed? Is it Archer 1 who's charmed?

I'm going to be offline from Thursday through Sunday. (I'm off to PaizoCon.)

OOps, I moved myself on the map and forgot to post the updated map. Here it is:

Updated Map

I believe from here I'm within 30ft. Down&right is 5ft, three squares right is 15ft more for 20ft, and then Down&right again for 10ft more for 30ft.)

After Grint fires his shot, Malena runs up past him so that she can see into the room. Then, targeting the closer of the two thug archers, she begins casting a spell. "If this works, nobody attack him; he'll be on our side."

If her spell works, she'll say to the man, "We're your friends! Please, defend us from those fighting us!"

Malena hisses quietly at Grint. "Grint, wait, don't let her set the agenda here. It may eventually come to thoughtless violence, but let's try another approach first."

She looks to the others. "Are you going to let her just get away with this?"

Malena sighs. Quietly to the others, she says, "Can we try a less... blunt-force approach? We might be able to learn something and take them off guard with a little subterfuge. We don't have to kill everybody we meet. I was thinking that if we can get one person isolated, I might be able to use a charm spell to get them to share a lot of information with us, allowing us to learn what's going on and perhaps helping us get further in."

Have you tried roll20.net as a way of doing maps? That seems to work pretty well. People are able to move their own tokens.

Myself, when I run games, I keep a map myself in the Gimp with layers and all that. I've labelled the grid, so that people can give me grid square references. I then just post the most updated map on the web and link it with the latest post. This way of doing it isn't for everybody, though.

Ditzie does work pretty well, but the point that, yes, we have to be *very* careful to work off of the latest one that *anybody* has linked to is a good one. Many a time I've had people move based on an earlier map, and some players' moves get lost. Everybody (and I mean *everybody*, one goof can confuse a lot of things) has to be very careful to do it right for ditzie to work well. If everybody *is* careful, it works quite well.

GM: on the map you posted, which are the doors that are the entrance we've come through? Is the left map the lower floor? It doesn't look like there are any doors to the outside there, unless that thing at the top I'm thinking is a bookshelf is actually doors to the outside.

Malena comes forward next to Lyssa, and says, "We're not in working clothes because we're keeping a low profile."

She looks around, and then says, "So, what's the news? What's going on?"

Bluff: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15

Malena Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20

Malena whispers to the others, "No, not a tune... a password. 'Dosage'."

Malena nods. "Yes, let's follow. Especially since that alchemist was asking about candy... that's suspicious, given what we saw yesterday."

Malena tries to lead the rest of the group after the tall figure. It shouldn't be too hard, given how prominent he is. (If he maintains his current form, that is....)

Malena watches the man stalk off. "Something's not right about him," she says quietly.

She looks at the broad man wearing the face-covering wrap. Is he still there? Has he moved? Does he make any moves?

Sense Motive (Versatile Perf-Oratory): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17

Malena walks forward to the stand. She's dressed differently from yesterday. No longer in her entertainer's outfit, she's now in leather armor, with a shortsword at her side and a shortbow on her back. She has realized that given what's going on right now and the people she's hanging out with, she needs to be more prepared for action....

Seeing Lyssa intimidating the patron of the stand, she winces, wondering if a less agressive approach might have worked better. Rather than interfere, though, she walks up to the merchant and quietly asks him, "What's going on here?"

OK, levelled up.

HP: +6 to 15 (5 using your "half+1" rule, +1 for favored class bonus)
BAB: goes to +1
CMD: goes to +2
CMD: goes to 12
Fort: stays at +0
Ref: goes to +4
Will: goes to +5

Class features: Well-Versed, Versatile Performance (Oratory in place of Diplomacy and Sense Motive)
New known spells: Summon Instrument (level 0), Silent Image (Level 1)
Spells/day: one more level 1 (total 3 including high Cha bonus).

(To be honest, I was torn between different spells, but Silent Image sounded like the one that would help her entertainment day job the most... :) )

Skill Ranks added: Appraise, Bluff, Disguise, Perception, Sleight of Hand, Knowledge (local), Perform (Oratory, Sing, String)

*If* you let me reassign my first-level Diplomacy and Sense Motive ranks (see above), I'll reassign them to Spellcraft and UMD.

Also, I rejiggered my inventory, leaving some other stuff at home and putting bringing a bunch of stuff along. At Str 10, it's difficult to do all this wearing armor while still staying unencumbered...! Hanging out with this crowd, where we keep getting into trouble, she's going to want to have her armor and weapons with her. When she gets a chance to get back to the docks and use her harrow deck, she's going to want to take off the armor and just wear her entertainer's outfit, plus put back on her various jewlrey and silk scarf and so forth. But, for now, the adventuring gear makes more sense. (She's still leaving all the camping gear at home, since it looks like we'll be in the town for at least a while longer.)

Full character sheet here; the "Level Plan" and "Skill Plan" pages help you see some of what was added at what level.

GM, question: I know that some of the Paizo developers use a house rule that when a bard gets Versatile Performance, they can reassign the skill points that went into the skill that they'll now be using Versatile Performance for. (F'rinstance, here's James Jacobs saying it's his preferred house rule.)

Do you use this house rule? (RAW says you don't. RAI is harder, since we see what James I'ed, but other developers I'ed different things.) I'm cool if you don't, but I'm going to take full advantage of it if you do.... :)