Okita Satomi's page

I understand why you're making that decision Yellow, but you only have four players. I am, as I said, bowing out of this game. I recruited 2 players with the understanding they would be in the game. It's certainly your call to decide the size of the party you want to run, which players are participating, and so forth.

But, I did in effect offer some guarantees to the players I recruited. If those can't be met, I can't in good conscience stay in the game while they are excluded. So whether I'm leaving the game to reduce the party to six, and I'm leaving the game because you want to go with the original players only, I am leaving the game.

No hard feelings or anything of the sort. I hope you all have a great time playing.

If seven is too many and you don't want to split into two games, I'll step out so you can run with all the originals, along with Gretel and Joseph.

I don't want to see any original players horned out, and I invited Gretal and Joseph both to the game. I don't want to see them out after having put all the work they did into creating characters after I raised their expectations.

EDIT: After thinking about it a little more, I don't want to pile extra work on you either Yellow. It would be a lot of trouble to have to adjust all the encounters to accommodate a large party, or to run two tables. I'll definitely drop out so you can keep the party at six players.

Hi, I'll get leveled up and ready to go by tomorrow. I've been painting the house in my spare time all week.

I believe you should have a link to click for editing the campaign on the main page. If you go there there should be a small box near the top labeled something like "this campaign is inactive". That box should have a checkmark in it. Click the button to remove the checkmark, and I believe you'll have to save changes.

I think that should take care of it.

WooHoo! I probably won't be able to get to leveling up before Friday, but I can get it done then

@GM in Yellow: Could you reactivate the campaign so it shows up in our regular list?

So where are we at with things?

Both are up for joining and are working on characters.

Okay, I know one person is interested and thinking about character concepts. I'll contact the other person today.

I know someone who might be interested. I could ask them. I tend to like five as a group size.

It's starting to look like there's just three of us. Should we recruit a person or two?

Sounds good!

Heya, Yellow! I'm glad things are looking up for you now. I'm still around and interested in continuing. I'll get a gameplay post up this evening.

Satomi takes Prasitis's question to be rhetorical, but it prompts her to ask in return "does anyone know what it was like here before? How long ago was it?"

Satomi has by now caught on to the fact that were they are now, which is still rather fuzzy to her, horrible things can come from anywhere and everywhere. As she looks around the room she uses her glaive to move and shift things. She's decided it's best not to touch without a check first.

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 1 = 19

Satomi steps away from the thing coming after her. She chooses a direction that will force it to start moving away from the other one if it wants to pursue her. When she has her distance again, Satomi attacks.

Attack (Reach): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10

Damage: 1d10 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8

Satomi moves around to the side and strikes at one of the things.

Don't see a map for this so I'll leave the specifics of movement and target up to you GM.

Attack (Reach): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13

Damage: 1d10 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Satomi has little idea of the layout of the place since she's seen so little of it. She's content with whatever the others choose, following along.

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Oh well, no survival anyway.

While looking around in the library for books on the subject of herbal medicines appeals to Satomi, the present probably isn't the right time.

"Where next?"

I've not had much time for posting in the last couple of weeks, and it's going to continue for a couple more before things calm down.

Not only are we getting hit with a second tsunami of applications this month now that enhanced UC benefits have ended, but we're also in the middle of transitioning to a new software platform that changes just about everything about how we work, from learning the software itself, to office procedures and workflows.

Almost all the regular eligibility workers are in training so the rest of us, who don't do eligibility but have some training, have been pulled in to cover for them. It's going swell.

Anyhoo, if I'm falling behind and slowing things down go ahead and bot me. I think we'll be back to normal around the 2nd week of September.

The ratling's comment and request are intriguing enough to keep Satomi from wanting to move right on to other things, at least for a moment.

"Hm, if books are your favorite thing to consume, does that mean it would be books you want us to find for you, or are there other delicious things besides them?"

And the part that most interests Satomi. "What makes a book more or less delicious?"

Satomi would rather not spend time in the company of the little ratlings.

We should keep going. We have things to do, and they will not be any help."

Satomi keeps her glaive at the ready, at first due to the smell and then because of the figures.

"Anyone know what is both small and has a paper diet?"

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Hehe, well I don't really mind one way or another. I was just pointing out that over time Satomi will need to diversify her AC bonuses since armor won't be contributing much to her defenses.

Sorry for the pause in posting. I think I mentioned I work for the Oregon Department of Human Services and we're still getting hit hard by the fallout from Covid-19. The start of this month was especially rough since the CARES act is mostly ending and we have to recalibrate to account for it.

I hope everything is alright eriktd!

I think we're ready to move on.

If nobody objects Satomi will take one of the amulets of natural armor. It's a good long-term choice for her since she will be sticking with light armor for a while, then switching to no armor.

Satomi removes the items fro the bodies.

"This is unusual, each with the three same items, and in each case both items are the same. Our need is considerable, and silver weapons may prove to be useful. My own is already silvered, but maybe a couple of you could use them?"

She puts the amulets aside for a moment and studies the potions. After a few seconds she adds the to the amulets and speaks the word for an orisin. Satomi spends the next couple of minutes looking for magical auras coming from the items.

"Unfortunately I can't say what the potions do."

Prof. Herbalism: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12

Well, I didn't want to say "let's loot 'em!" in character, but... :)

Any possessions with the bodies for a perception check of 15?

Satomi waits a couple of minutes, remaining alert and on guard in case they were too late in stopping the alarm. During that time she occasionally glances at the two bodies.

When she's satisfied it's safe she relaxes but asks the others for some help.

"We shouldn't leave the bodies like this. We should lay them out on a table or the floor, where they will have some dignity. Can we move them before leaving?"

Heal (Cause of Death?): 1d20 ⇒ 1

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 1 = 15

"It would take something of great strength to throw people around so high like that. The birds could be an alarm to alert it to come!"

Satomi quickly moves over to the bird cage and brings her glaive down on it in a chop.

Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

Damage: 1d10 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

For some reason I haven't been getting notifications.

Satomi also enters the room, cautiously with her glaive held blade slightly forward and at the ready. She looks around carefully.

They are barely out of the chapel and she has already seen two things she could not have imagined were possible, so she is ready to find the worse things she can imagine, or wouldn't yet think to imagine.

In reference to the bodies she comments "it seems as if every room, no matter what it is for, must be despoiled in some way. Nothing can remain unruined."

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Satomi takes a couple of steps back from the pile of... thing on the floor. Even after the acid is applied she continues to glance at it regularly, just in case.

She pulls a cleaning rag out and thoroughly wipes the gore off the club before tucking it away. She considers the rag for a moment and decides it's a lost cause. She drops it to remain with the dead thing.

Veda's compliment draws a head nod from gratitude from Satomi.

"You are very kind."

Gesturing at the open doors where the gore blob came in from, Satomi suggests "perhaps it's better if we close those doors?"

Veda's information is unwelcome and defies any kind of sense to Satomi, but then so does the simple existence of such a thing.

She shifts her glaive to her left hand and draws out a simple wooden club to strike the ball of gore with.

"This is not the kind of thing I have practiced for..."

Attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18

Damage: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 1 = 12

How did that FORT save turn out for Satomi?

FORT: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17

Satomi cries out "what is it?" But she doesn't wait for an answer. With a bright flash she hefts her glaive up. There is a second flash of light reflected off the bright blade as she brings it down.

Attack (Reach): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25

Damage: 1d10 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

To this point Satomi had followed the others quietly, regarding herself as somewhere between an interloper and a junior partner vis-a-vis the group. But she understands something about the scene that might be significant so she speaks up.

"The bags are a gesture. They are meant to communicate identity, like a signature. They were added to the dead afterward, so they are not a practical artifact of the killings. Each is the same, regardless of who or what the person it was placed on was. They do not reference the dead. They reference the killer or killers."

"The bags are a symbol, a statement, indicating who the killer or killers are. Or, in whose name the killings were carried out. It could be a religious act."

K Religion: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

Satomi lowers her eyes to look at the floor. She doesn't know what to make of the thing, or the situation. All she can put together is that 'it' used to be something else, something far more to 'it's' liking.

It seems wrong to Satomi to stare when clearly 'it' is ashamed. But averting her eyes doesn't solve the problem at hand.

"Of course. We will not look upon you. But we must pass through. How may we do so?"

Diplomacy (Aid): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (5) + 9 = 14

When it is decided she will be going with the group of other women to... look for records or paperwork she supposes, Satomi goes to collect the rest of her gear.

She returns wearing a light, oatmeal-colored coat long enough to reach her knees. The coat is quilted, but thin rather than thick and puffy. Numerous multicolored birds have been sewn onto alternating diamond-shaped spaces. The birds are hand-constructed of pieces of cloth of various colors, cut into the shapes of portions of the bird and sewn together to make the whole.

In her hand Satomi now carries a glaive. It is obviously well made. The blade at the end of the pole is bright and silvery, with scrolled etchings along the edges.

Satomi feels a certain disquiet after their conversation with Winter. She can only think the "eye" the woman spoke of is imagined, and that perhaps she is mentally unstable.

She doesn't hurry to the hallway until she hears the cry from that direction, and when she arrives to see the eye for herself, Satomi has no idea what to say or do.

Satomi remains quiet through the conversation, listening to what is said. What she hears is vaguely informative, to the extent she can tell the others "I am now far to the east of anyplace I remember being before."

Knowing the year would help if she could remember how old she is, or what year it was when her last memories occurred, but she cannot.

Satomi stops eating before she finishes her food. She takes the remaining portion and stows it away, pouring the soup into a small stoppered vial and wrapping the bread in a cloth. Presumably she is saving it for later.

As the meal and conversation start to wind down, Satomi does speak up on a subject that hasn't been brought up. While it is troubling to recall so little about the past, or to know how she came to be at the asylum, She is even more troubled by very recent events.

"Excuse me if I am asking about something already common knowledge to the rest of you. But, there are many dead bodies all over the place. What has been happening here in the last few days to make this so?"

Thrushmoor? Caliphas?

Satomi has at least heard of Caliphas, but her present location is completely unknown to her.

"I'm afraid my memory is no better than any of you, excepting Miss Winter. I do know I am originally from Kalsgard in the Thanelands. I had been traveling the Varisian caravan circuits for a while, making a living as an apothecary. That is about all."

Satomi also knows she has somehow come to be plagued by onryō for some reason she is not aware of. But the haunting is a personal problem and she does not know the people around her. Sharing such a personal problem simply would not be appropriate.

She can only guess at why she might be on the island.

"If this is a hospice, perhaps I was called here to see about a patient? I don't know..."

When Prasitis finishes with Loic the Tian woman approaches her.

"You handled him very well. You have a talent for working with patients." After the praise she adds "my name is Satomi. It is a great pleasure to meet you."

Satomi looks much like a traveler of humble means. Her clothes are basic, trousers and a tunic of hard-wearing fabric, heavily used and mended in places. Her adornments suggest perhaps an itinerant monk or mystic of some sort. Aside from a regular leather belt, Satomi wears a belt of strung wooden beads. A couple of cloth sachets hang by strings from the belt, emitting mixed herbal scents.

Three amulets are suspended from strings around her neck, a pierced golden coin, a ball of knotted grass, and a embroidered silk pouch. A second similar silk pouch is tied around her left wrist.

A short, slightly curved sword hangs from her leather belt. It is unusual looking with an ornately braided handle, small round hand-guard, and black lacquered wooden scabbard. The scabbard has three dragonflies inlaid in mother of pearl running down its length.

Her thrown-together and worn appearance does not dampen Satomi's attractiveness in the least. If anything it seems to enhance it. The particulars of Satomi's features are beautiful in their extremeness. Her long hair, held in a simple ponytail, is the blackest black. Her eyes are a layered brown, warm and luminous. Her skin is flawlessly unblemished. But for some reason that can't be exactly pinned down, Satomi's beauty is greater than the sum of these particulars. There is a brightness about her that isn't literally seen, but instead imagined by those who see her. It is almost too much for some, who can find her uncanny and slightly unnerving.

@GM: I didn't hear back about any particular way you wanted me to make my entrance since everyone was now inside so I just made something up. I hope that's alright.

As Prasitis settles in beside the man and begins talking to him, she notices a young Tian woman a few feet away working on a man's wound. She is using some types of brownish-green plant salve, spreading it on and around the wound with her hand.

The woman talks very softly to the man as she works, apparently soothing him. During the last part of the treatment the young woman's hand briefly glows with a faint golden light.

Hey everybody,

I'm sorry for going missing on you. It's been a very hectic couple of weeks. At work we had two back to back short notice and short deadline extra projects added on top of our regular work. With what free time I've had I really needed to do other things than sit in front of a computer yet more.

Things should be getting back to normal now, and I'll be catching up on reading up to date on posts and posting myself. Within a day or two I should be all caught up and back in the flow.

Hi! See y'all soon!

Level 2

Samurai (Warrior Poet)
________________________

+1 BAB
+1 FORT

Order (Songbird): Versatile Performance, Perform Sing for Bluff & Sense Motive

Oracle (Pei Zin Practitioner)
________________________

+1 WILL
Orison: Spark
1st Level Spell: Memory Lapse (Time Mystery)

Skills +1 Acrobatics, Climb, Diplomacy, K History
Background +1 Perform (Sing), Profession (Gardener)

Same here, I might not be able to post every day, but I'm still able to be active.

I work for the Oregon Department of Human Services. We're expecting to be hit with maybe the biggest rush of benefits applications ever due to statewide service sector closings.

I'm going to be pulled off my normal job to help process intakes somewhere between sometimes and a lot, and it's possible overtime could become involved.

I don't know what this is going to do to my availability right now, posts from me could become spotty at times depending on how things unfold. It's getting pretty crazy right now.

Alright, I've looked at oracle mysteries and given it some thought. I think Life is out because it's too much focus on healing when combined with Pei Zin. We're a small party so versatility is good, and this won't add much to it.

Succor would be a really great mystery if Satomi were a halfling or a fighter. Since I can't get combat reflexes until level 3 and the AC bonus won't be big enough to matter much after about 10th or 12th level, it's sort of a dead end pathway. Halfling can stack up lots of aid bonuses, while fighter can invest feats. I couldn't find enough bonuses with my limited number of feats to make it work really well on that side. Otherwise Succor tends to debuff, and we already have a witch for that.

I think the Time mystery will be the way to go. Satomi won't have a high enough charisma to be very good at offensive casting, so she'll stick mostly to party buffs and battlefield control. Time works well enough with those two areas, and it fits her background and personality well.

I'll consider it for a couple more days before a actually make the change, Ancestor also looks promising, for more melee effectiveness, but I'm not sure we need more of that.

If anyone has any comments or suggestions, don't hesitate to let me know!

Oh that reminds me, what are the parameters of the memory loss? What do characters currently know about themselves?

Hehe, and to keep on the names theme for a moment, Satomi's name is given in the Chinese / Japanese manner, with family name first. American style her name is Satomi Okita, so you can call her Satomi. :)

Actually there are a few things I'm wondering about build-wise. Are y'all using maps to track combat carefully? Satomi's current build probably requires that since she would be very mobile in a few levels.

She's using a reach weapon for a wider AoO threat range and will be picking up Combat Reflexes as soon as possible. Perfect Aid + Bodyguard will let her use AoO's to increase allies' AC.

She'll eventually be able to pounce, so a combat round for her could look like this: Move 15', Feint (free action), attack as a standard (probably using vital strike) retreat back 15' (move action completed) and then use AoO's to support allies against attacks.

This might be a bit much to track in PbP without close mapping. Figured I'd mention it now in case this seems like too much to deal with.

A more meat and potatoes martial option would be Mutation Warrior Fighter rather than Warrior Poet Samurai.

On the Oracle side the Pei Zin archetype will give her a touch healing and condition removal similar to Lay on hands and Mercies. That's a few levels away though.

Satomi's oracle mystery is currently Succor, which is what lets her Aid well. But if reach Aid based on AoO's seems very complicated for PbP, she could switch her mystery pretty seamlessly. Life would give her greater healing if that seems better. Time would make her better at area control and general support.

I'm flexible on all these things. I think she has a very neat build right now, but I also realize it might be too finicky to manage for this game.

I'd love to hear any input anyone has on the subject.