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I may be slow to post for the next week or so. I work for the Oregon Department of Human Services and we're right on the edge of a catastrophe if SNAP benefits aren't issued for November. We've been all hands on deck and overtime trying to figure out contingencies to cover the potential losses however we can. Hopefully it won't come to that, but if it does there are some very rough days coming.
Remaining mindful they have left the building exit unattended, Prax gets through any needed hugging as quickly as possible. "We need to keep moving. The stairs down aren't covered." She tries to get everyone hustling out so they can finish the job they (or at least she) came to do. Prax does take a few moments to frisk the dead half-orc for valuables though.
Prax doesn't need to move much to avoid the half-orc's attack. Her feet stay where they are she she ducks with a weave to the side to grab her blade. As she comes back up to her original height, Prax swings the blade around performing an uppercut aimed at the side of his torso under his arm. Once she's at her full height and she's drawn her blade back from her cut, Prax takes a step back away from Giggles. "Idiot."
Prax takes her time walking along the the platform to the top of the stairs, where she stops to look at Giggles. As he talks she smirks disdainfully at the half-orc and leans her blade against the wall. Prax tugs on the knot that holds what look like a braided leather cord bracelet wrapped around her left wrist. The knot comes apart and she unwinds it, removing it from her wrist. "And let me guess. You somehow think you're going to sit there on your fat ass while I come down there to you for this head-smashing lesson you pathetic lazy f++$?" Prax lets the cord drop loose from her hand and it is revealed to be a sling. She reaches into the pouch at her belt and takes out a lead bullet, dropping it into the sling. "I don't think so." Prax swings the sling in a circle above her head a couple of times to build momentum, when whips the bullet at the half-orc.
"I can do this all day."
Prax works her way through the hugging into the room. She answers Divo's question decisively. "Yes, upstairs. Children first and quickly. We don't want a situation with hostages." The brown-haired girl seems to have a good head on her shoulders and to handle extreme situations well, so Prax asks her some quick questions. "Are any kids downstairs or only up? Is the half-orc alone except for the kids or does he have help?"
After dodging the dog's teeth, Prax focuses her attention on it. She sidesteps, hoping to get more out of the way of any wand shooting that might be coming, and draws her rapier. Without any extra ceremony Prax thrusts the point of the weapon at the dog in an attempt to skewer it.
If it's just this time averages will be used, that's all fine don't worry about it. It wouldn't have mattered in this case anyway due to the low roll for Prax. But over time it would add up and make a big difference.
If initiative is going to be averaged, I'd like to rebuild my character using another class. A rogue absolutely must have a high initiative because they're so dependent on sneak attack. I may only be in Rogue for 3 or so levels, but it's hard enough to make a rogue work to good effect as it is. Gimping rogue further by reducing the likelihood they will go first in a combat while enemies are flat-footed is more than I'm willing to try to work around.
Group initiative can create balance problems sometimes. The group that goes first almost always has a huge advantage by moving and attacking before any response can be mounted by the group going second. Block initiative solves some of that problem by using smaller groupings, which means it's still faster than individual initiative. It works like this: Say there is a group of bandits attacking the party. The bandits all get one initiative roll. All the characters are rolled individually (it's better if the GM goes ahead and rolls all initiatives). Characters are split into two groups, those with initiatives higher than the bandits and those with initiatives lower than the bandits. 1. Highest init characters, 2. Bandits, 3. Lowest init characters. There may be cases where enemies are not homogenous and shouldn't act on a single roll. Let's say an evil wizard and some minions. In that case the wizard could act on their own initiative roll while the minions act on a single initiative roll. Of course depending on the specific rolls involved its still possible to have all of one side acting before any of the other side but that can happen even if every init is rolled individually. Anyway, block init tends to weaken the big advantage going first provides if using group initiative.
Since Prax can hear inside the building she assumes the opposite is true as well. Once the lock is dealt with she turns to signal the others, first a finger to her lips for quiet, then a hand wave telling them to approach.
Prax takes some time watching the place to see if any lookouts or guards are on watch.
When she's satisfied, she slips over to the door to see what's up with it. Finding it locked, she takes out some small tools and goes to work on the lock.
Prax didn't find much of anything about her card resonating with her. But, she didn't bring it up. She's not really a believer in this sort of thing anyway. She was just waiting to see if this meeting is going anywhere else beyond the information on Lamm's location. Apparently not. "Alright, appreciate the tip."
Prax makes her way over to the table without saying anything while the others seemed to be muddled and asking various questions of the woman. Her eyes scan the cards for a moment before she selects one, holding up card #8 while she looks at Zellara Esmeranda and waits.
Prax joins Amandine in casing the joint.
Prax shrugs. "No idea if there even is a host." Not feeling quite so cozy with the situation as Amandine seems to, she limits her reply to a simple "I'm Prax". Prax turns her attention to looking around the room they're all in. "Anyone give this place a good going over yet? You know, all the nooks and corners peered into?"
Prax sighs. She hadn't planned to make herself known until she'd seen a bit more so she had the best possible basis for a decision. But, it's too late for that now, and she's seen nothing alarming. After a short pause, Prax follows the goblin inside. "So, strange letters all around. Am I right?"
Prax listens to Kyki's account of getting the letter. She then takes her own copy out and shows it to the goblin. "I'm curious too. I've been watching the house at the address for a while now. Several people have gone in; nobody has left. I can't figure out if the people inside are the ones who sent the notes, or if they are here because they got one like us. They don't seem to know each other, so I'm starting to suppose they got notes and came like we did." "I'm going to go down and see if I can get a peek inside. You can come if you're very quiet." Prax sneaks down to the house and looks for a window or maybe an unlocked door aside from the front one on the ground floor.
Obviously Prax had intended to follow up by telling the goblin she absolutely was a thug. But, she doesn't when the goblin brings up the house. At that point Prax shifts to intending to ask the question "why are you interested in that house? What do you know about it?". But between decision and action the goblin presents a crinkled up paper. Prax stops and takes the paper to see what it is, and to her great surprise discovers it is exactly the same as her own mysterious note. For a split second Prax thinks some weirdo must have made dozens or scores of the notes to hand out like leaflets. But no. Probably no. Maybe no? There ARE a lot of weirdos... First though, some basic questions. Prax looks down at the goblin and asks "Where did you get this?" and "do you know what it's about?"
Prax had gone back to watching the house. She'd been clear with the goblin after all. She spares the goblin another, now annoyed, look. Crossing her arms, she asks her own question by way of reply. "If I am a thug, will you go away?"
A man and a woman arrive at the house next. The man is rather large and armed as well. The woman looks to be a Varisian. Watching the two of them at the door together, Prax thinks they don't know each other, but it could also be they don't know each other well.
Prax is interrupted before they're let in to the house though. She hears movement near her close by the wall on her side of the street. Looking down toward it, where she expected to find a rat or dog, is a goblin? She thinks? Prax has heard of goblins, but never actually seen one before. It matches the description of a goblin as far as she can tell. But, she had always heard of them as living in the wilderness or at least rural settings. But sure, I guess in cities too eventually... It doesn't really matter though. While Prax does watch the little goblin warily, they're known to be unpredictable and that includes violence, she has other things on her mind presently. Since it seems the goblin was intending to turn into the alley, Prax tries moving it along. "Next one down if you're looking for an alley. This one's occupied." Prax thrusts her thumb to the right, gesturing on down the street where there should be another alley after a building or two.
Prax watches as a lizard-like something(?), she isn't sure what it is, goes up to the door and knocks. She sees the same dwarf from before answer the door and let the lizard person in. None of what she sees tells Prax much except that there's something weird going on.
Prax is very early to the address. She doesn't linger or pay noticeable attention to it though, walking on by quickly on the other side of the street. Several minutes later she's surveyed the immediate surroundings and found location she prefers for keeping watch, and alley between buildings on the opposite side of the street a about four buildings past the address. She sets herself up in the alley to spend the next while watching the place to see what happens. There are a few things Prax didn't expect. The place is just a small house. It's not the sort of building that, at least by exterior examination, allows for discrete comings and goings, or moving and storing materials in any quantity without easy notice. The neighborhood doesn't help with any of those things either. It's relatively quiet, neither upscale or seedy. There aren't many people about on the streets comparatively. Prax wouldn't stereotype her presumed own kind, but it fails to meet some basic needs common for an organized gang. Of course, her knowledge is limited in terms of exactly how the bigger criminal organizations operate. She's also unfamiliar with what the bigger wholesale drug operations do. If it's Lamm who sent the note, this place might be perfect for some reason. It's also possible the place is simply a house whoever is behind the note has access to rather than being a base or headquarters. All in all the strangeness doesn't raise or lower her suspicions. Almost immediately after she's in position, dwarf shows up at the house. His body language and hesitation suggests to her he is not familiar with the place. It's obvious to Prax he's giving the place a careful looking over before he leaves. Otherwise, Prax sees no security at the house, no shadows or silhouettes through the windows, nobody outside, nobody along the street doing what she's doing but for the other sided. Prax continues to watch and wait.
WftC really hits its pace in book 2. Oddly it's very much a sandbox book, which doesn't usually work well for PbP. I am proud to say that under Amandine's insightful and steady guidance we barely drew weapons in the course of completing the book. :p Aside from Reign of Winter, I've played at least a little in all of those AP's GMKK. They're all at least decent to good, but Iron Gods and Hell's Rebels are the great ones. Ruins of Azlant is hard for everyone due to the underwater rules involved. Ironfang Invasion meanders a lot in book 1 after the opening scene, which is very good. I hear it gets better in the later books. I'm biased against Hell's Vengeance because I don't like playing evil. If you don't know about it, there's a guide to the AP's that isn't full of spoilers and does a pretty good job of ranking them. Tarondor’s 2025 Guide to Pathfinder Adventure Paths EDIT: I want to learn 2e just so I can play Season of Ghosts.
Prax isn't up and about until well after mid-morning. The time between sunrise and noon is the worse of the whole day in her opinion. She doesn't have any particular place to be so she loiters slowly down the street, just sort of watching the people and activity around her. Having not eaten since sometime yesterday afternoon, Prax begins to feel hungry after a while. She stops by the table where a woman is selling hand pies and asks for two, one with chicken and some vegetables inside, the other filled with blackberries. It's when she fishes into the purse on her belt that she feels a piece of paper that shouldn't be in there. Prax is quite careful about where she puts things she carries since she knows the tricks for taking the things that other, less careful people carry around. She shifts the paper to the hand holding the pies and pays the woman before moving down a few feet for some privacy. She stuffs about half of the savory pie in her mouth and lays the rest on a window sill while she unfolds the paper, which now bears some greasy spots. What she reads makes her very uneasy. She supposes she wasn't adequately careful when asking around about Lamm. Prax has never mentioned holding any ill will toward the man, or suggested to anyone she had designs for him. Whoever placed the note on her was very, very good as well. Her purse was shifted to her front where it's extremely hard to get a hand into without her notice. So a good read on her plus excellent finger work. It hardly occurs to her at all that the offer of some sort of help is genuine. Maybe something got back to Lamm, which would be bad. Prax had really been counting on total surprise, when she got around to doing something that is. It could also be one of the local gangs looking to draft her. Independent operators like her aren't well tolerated most places around the city. Prax has never been tempted to join up with anyone because she never liked the dangerous dues those new, and thus low on the pole, have to pay before they're really in. She also never liked the idea of taking orders. Staying free means no big scores, nothing better than just getting by on the crumbs, and no reputation. Prax has always played by those rules in exchange for going mostly unnoticed. Whoever might be screwing with her, Prax figures it's better to know who it is, which will hopefully tell her why, than ignoring the whole thing and remaining blind until it might be too late. She starts on her way to the address given immediately. There's plenty of time to get to the place well before sunset and stake it out for a few hours. Once Prax has seen who might be coming and going and what kinds of activities she can suss out, she can decide what to do when she's expected there.
@Amandine I had a character named Amandine, a psychic detective investigator in War for the Crown. WftC is a great AP maybe my favorite out of the ones I've played. It's an unusual name. How did you find it? I tend to go to baby name lists that are a off the beaten track so I must have found it one of those but I don't remember which at this point. Praxedis is a late Roman name with a slightly changed spelling.
Thanks! If that's a good thing... I never really plan for my character BAP stuff to be so long. But I like having them worked out well enough to be somewhat three-dimensional. I also like to have a feel for what a character would do or how they would react in different situations or circumstances so they have a consistent core to them. BTW, Prax is a Myers-Briggs ISTP. :p If Divo has been around for a while, he probably would have heard of Prax's family. He certainly won't know she has any connection to the Duvanti family though. I might pick up a short bow. I've been in too many situations where my party thought we could get by without this or that because of some reason, only to sorely miss it when it (always) became needed. It can't hurt to have it handy.
Hmm, a quick look through equipment and so forth shows several slings and a couple of shorter range options. Maybe I should switch out Prax's sling for a short bow? I could move a few things around to afford one I think.
Yep, take the time you need GMKK.
Hello hello! Thanks for selecting Prax GMKK!
Good luck everyone!
I believe Prax is complete and all ready to go now.
@GMKK I'm checking again about these two questions. It seems you missed them before?
Here's my U-Rogue submission, Prax the Half-Elf. All the character information is in the profile. I'm still working on a couple of things like appearance and personality but the build and the background are finished though they probably need an edit to correct any mistakes. One thing I should ask about. I traded away the half-elf trait Multitalented for Blended View, which gives darkvision. Blended View is fluffed as a drow half-elf thing, so if that's not alright with you I'll drop it and stick with Multitalented. I figured it seemed overly restrictive since nobody ever plays drow anything characters, but no big deal either way. I also picked up a potion of CLW since it was within budget, but I can get rid of it if you don't want any starter magic items. I paid for the Elven Curve Blade and took the Light Mace as the free weapon. Character Advancement: There are three possible paths I could take with Prax and I haven't decided which one to go with yet. 1. U-Rogue 5 or 6 -> Rose Warden 10 -> back to U-Rogue if the AP goes past level 16. 2. U-Rogue 3 -> Inquisitor (Milani) with Sanctified Slayer and probably Urban Infiltrator archetypes. Probably the Liberation domain although
3. U-Rogue 3 -> Slayer with the Stygian Slayer archetype. Deific Obedience and Diverse Obedience (Milani) feats included. I can see pros and cons for each of the paths so it's hard to know which to choose. If my character is selected and then if it's alright with you, I'd like to keep all three open as options until it's time to choose. It would help to be able to look at party composition in case there are specific things that need covering. Regardless of which one, they all play like variants of a sacred rogue character.
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