Wizard

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RPG Superstar 6 Season Star Voter. 10,391 posts (22,786 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 33 aliases.




Hello,
Hoping it's just a temporary glitch?
But since today is the last day of the Humble Bundle "So you want to try Pathfinder?" deal, I decided to go ahead and grab it.

When I strated trying to redeem my new Humble bundle codes, the Paizo site keeps telling me the codes are not recognized. (?!?)
I thought perhaps the computers just needed time to catch up with each other, so I waited an hour, still no luck. Tried again even later, still not recognized.

I have gone through the threads, and do not see where anyone else has posted this issue? (Granted there are a LOT of threads, I may have missed it?)

Is this a site issue? Or am I doing the redemption wrong? I am, logged into my Paizo account when I try to redeem them.

Thank you in advance for your help,....

~Ragadolf


Hello Customer service!

Long ago I was forced to cancel my subscription due to financial difficulties. I was ordering my Humble Bundle Beginner box set today when I noticed that part of the Giant series had been put on hold instead of cancelled. (It was part of your wonderful team trying to make sure I got to hold them in case I decided to start the subscription back up again)

PLease, DO cancel Order 3562475, (Giant series # 3-6) I can no longer afford to continue my AP subscription at this time. (Maybe in the future? I DO miss my Original Subscriber nametag) :)

I have entered a new payment method for my Humble Bundle Beginner box
(Order 3894489) I DO want that, :)

Just making sure that since I entered a new payment method my AP subscription didn't start back up.

Thank you all for your help, as always!

~Ragadolf


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Hello all.
Being motivated by some of very wonderful posters in this section, I have convinced myself to try my hand at a journal style narrative. I have chosen to recreate the amazing adventures of a wizard, one Justin Case, who was a latecomer into the PbP thread Chronicles of the Silver Rose Company by Dungeon Monkey.

To start this off, I have tried my best to write Justin's 'origin story', which unfortunately is not nearly as exciting as the Silver Rose Chronicles. But I needed to get my head in the game before I tackled the good stuff. :)

I confess freely that this character is primarily based on, borrowed from, and delightfully stolen from my current favorite wizard, Dresden. This is my homage to that character.

The Origin ran a little longer than it did in my head (20 pages) and I'm still editing the end bit. SO here is part one of:

Justin's Story- OR- A Wizard in the Lady of Pain's Court- Chapter 1 The Beginning (Part 1)

Spoiler:
Justin's Tale
or
An Interplanar Wizard in The Lady of Pain's Court

Chapter 1 – The Beginning

My name is Justin. Justin Case. And I am a Wizard. (Yes, with a Capital 'W') I'm NOT one of those old fuddy-duddies in old mothball-smelling robes and wide-@$$ pointy hats that make them look like a witch with a beard either. (At least not yet.) I am an Inter-Planar Traveling, Arcane-Energy Wielding, Reality-Bending Engine of Destruction and Creation. Not necessarily in that order.

So, I've decided, after much urging, to go ahead and do this 'Journal' thing. As means to keep a record of my (our) adventures. While I'm still young enough to remember them.

(Or before I fail to continue growing older. Professional Wizard. Occupational hazard.)

This journal will serve as a record, and hopefully provide insight (to myself) of where I am, and how I came to be here. (In the mental and meta-physical sense I mean. I KNOW how I got 'here'. Through a portal.)

Shards and spells. I knew I wasn't any good at this.

<Blot of ink on page where pen was apparently slammed between the pages. There is a brief note in a decidedly feminine handwriting.>

<That's because your starting at the end. Try again.>

So where should I start? Oh. Right. At the Beginning. OK then. Here we go.

My name is Justin. I was born to the Case family in the City of Sumdall in the land of Izmer. Depending upon which Plane of Reality you originate from you may not recognize it. Certainly no one ELSE I have asked in this stinking city has heard of it. (Or won't tell me if they have. NOTHING is free here.) Turns out the Multiverse is larger than anyone could ever have imagined. Who Knew? Right, the beginning.

So the Case Family is a well-to-do family in this part of my world. Politically powerful enough and wealthy enough to make friends, and enemies, but not big enough to be the target of every other rich, politically powerful family in the region. I was the second son. When I got old enough to appreciate it, I decided that this was perfect for me. I was not constantly hounded and brow-beaten at every turn to be turned into the next Head of the Family like my brother James was. I was expected to excel at whatever I did of course, and to eventually marry into another similar family and gain us even more power, prestige, and money. But until then I was pretty much free to do as I pleased, And I did.

Now don't get me wrong. I wasn't a complete @rsehole. I was raised to know the difference between good and bad, right and wrong. Yadda Yadda, But if I'm being honest,

<Note in margin: You had better be!>

, then I must confess that I was also a bit spoiled. Annnd a little bit selfish. Add to that mix I am taller than average, and ruggedly good looking, (If I say so myself) and so I attracted occasional female trouble. (Meaning when it wouldn't find me, I went and found it.) Add to THAT the fact that I am also smarter than the average person. Meaning my tutors couldn't give me enough school-work to keep me out of trouble. (And they tried.) But it turned out I LIKE learning new things. Go figure. SO when I did all of the work they assigned I went and discovered new things to learn. Sometimes it was 'How does the antique water clock work?' Or 'If Father Winter can fit down the grand chimney, why can't I?' And of course, 'How many eggs can my friends and I throw at Old McCranky's Mansion before we have to run from the patrols?' Of course as we got older that led to 'How long can we hold a drunken duel in the middle of the street before we have to run from the patrols?' And my favorite for a long time, 'How many girlfriends CAN I have at once before the others find out?'

<And the answer is?>
<Whose writing this anyway?>
<Carry on.>

SHORT version, I constantly found that I was smart enough to find a way into almost any sort of exciting situation that a youngster could imagine. And that made me popular. Unfortunately, I did not always take the time and effort to figure a way OUT of said situations. Leading to even more exciting situations. Which also made me popular. Just not in a way that my parents approved of.

So I found myself, at the age of 18, in a family meeting. The subject of the meeting? Me. More precisely, what was I going to do with my life? That was going to benefit the family the most? (And embarrass them the least?) It was 'decided' (I got a vote, but not really.) that I would enroll in the Academica Ars Magica. (That's 'Wizard University' in plain Common for you.) I would continue my education under the watchful eyes of the Academica's Instructors, and hopefully learn some self control and maturity. And having a wizard in the family was never considered a bad thing. (Izmer is a Mageocracy.) My parents figured that learning magic would at least keep my 'big brain' occupied. They were at least partially correct on that point, I'll give them that.

So I was given a farewell party, (The Academica was in another city, not just down the road.) Where I received the usual; food, alcohol, a large elaborately decorated cake, nice presents from those that actually cared for my well-being, gag gifts from my youthful friends, and well-wishes from both sides. It was a beautiful and very elaborate 'We love you, but you need to go and get your act together' speech all wrapped up in a ribbon and a bow. And everyone there knew it.

The one shining moment of my party, (Besides the part where I tried to tap dance on the table drunk and nearly stepped in the cake. That was great.) was when my mother gave me her gift. She gave it to me in a brief private moment instead of with everyone else. I just stared at the box for a minute, then at mother. Probably with a really stupid look on my face that at the time I thought made me look 'somber' and 'brooding'. But more likely made me look constipated.

“Open it.” She said gently. With that look on her face that every child knows. The 'Your going to do what I want you do eventually anyway. Why not save yourself a lot of time and trouble and just do it now?' look. So I relented. But I took long enough to make sure she knew that it was MY choice to open it. She just stood there and smiled patiently, waiting for me.

Inside the box was a large pendant on a long, exquisite silver chain. The pendant was silver as well, bearing the family motto on one side. “Strength is Family” written in Draconic. (Because apparently ALL families think they have a dragon ancestor somewhere in the family line?!?) When I turned it over I saw it was my mothers favorite brooch.

A flood of youthful memories all returned at once, vying for dominance. My mother had been the one constant in all of my youth. My Father was great, when he was there. But his business took him away so often and so long that he was more of a visiting dignitary in my house than 'Dad'. As he wasn't home much, he had tried every type of parenting technique known to man when he was. And maybe invented a few of his own. But my mother was always there. It was she, not the hired help, who patched up my childhood scrapes, taught me right from wrong, and read me stories to get me to settle down at night. And she almost always wore this brooch. It was a family heirloom, passed down from mother to daughter for several generations. As I was told the story, it had been a part of a dragon's hoard plundered by a group of adventurers. When the brooch turned out to be non-magical one of the adventurers had taken it and given it to his wife, (apparently raiding a dragon's hoard means you can retire.) Which led to the aforementioned passing it down the family tree.

The face of the brooch, now pendant, was unmistakable. It bore a stylized dragon flying over a castle, all surrounded by a magical circle. The carving had worn over time, but still was unmistakable in its craftsmanship. It had even been adopted as the Unofficially official family crest. Except that our family crest had the dragon in a curving “C” shape. (For 'Case' of course.) While the brooch had the dragon in a serpentine “S” shape. I had always loved that picture. Something about it had always fired my imagination, inspired me. I don't know why. But Mother never had any trouble getting me to behave when I was younger, all she had to do was promise to let me hold the brooch, and I was the perfect child. For a little while anyway. And she had just given it to me.

Part of me briefly wondered if I should be insulted. After all, it was traditionally handed down from mother to daughter. But that brief bout of stupidity was quickly drowned by another flood of memories.

I shook my head slightly, blinking rapidly. Not from tears of course. I looked at my mother and my mouth opened, but no sound came out. I finally managed to croak, “Mother, I ,...”

“I know.” She smiled gently. “Well, don't just stand there. Put it on!” She insisted. With the look.

I relented much more graciously this time, and hung the pendant on my neck.

“Mother, I,...” I repeated. Man was I glad this was a private moment. My reputation for witty repartee would have taken a serious beating otherwise.

“I know Justin. I love you too.” My mother replied, lightly touching the pendant where it hung on my chest.

“Making me proud has never been your problem. Just be good. Be yourself. And I'll be the proudest mother in the world. Just,... do your best to stay out of trouble. And always try to help those that are.” She said softly. Then she straightened up to her full height, (quite a few inches less than mine.) And became the Lady of the House once more. “Now. Get back to the party. You have guests to attend to!” she commanded.

I bowed to my mother with all of the respect that I usually refused to pay anyone.

“As you wish.” I replied with a smirk, quoting my favorite story she used to tell me.

The rest of the party, and the trip to the Academica. remains a drunken blur to this day. Considering my attention span then, and how BORE-ing long carriage rides usually are, That's likely a good thing.

Academica Ars Magica

Said the huge iron sign over the main gates. And several other smaller ones across the extensive campus. As if we were in danger of forgetting where we were at some point during the day.

Despite my original misgivings, and University life in general pretty much anywhere you go, It wasn't really that bad. Turns out that I wasn't the only child from a well-to-do family to be sent to the Academica Ars Magica to learn something besides magic. The school had representatives from all walks of life. From actual royalty, to those who thought they were, or at least acted like it. From well-off families like mine, to those so poor they worked several odd jobs to pay the tuition. You could always identify those students. The always looked tired. Not just during exams. We even had a couple of University janitors who worked day and night, just hoping to be able to learn something hiding in the back of the room while the professor taught the class. All races were represented as well. Humans were the dominant species on campus, but the school practiced the belief that the path of learning was open to all. If they could afford it. So there were many students there that are considered fairy tales in some lands. Elves, Halflings, Gnomes, Dwarves, catfolk, bird-people, and some I still don't know what.

I'm unsure what to write here. I mean, I don't know what parts are more important. Looking back now, I was just so,... If I knew then what I know now,...

Right. Don't skip ahead.

So the first thing I did was discover a group of like-minded students who shared my passion for life, and appreciated my rapier wit. These were my new friends. I was young, good-looking, reasonably well-off from a well respected family, and I had a promising career ahead of me. And as my popularity grew, so did my circle of friends. Those who dared to rival my charm, wit and school scores for some reason were never accepted into my circle. There were rumblings of course, some name calling and such. A few of the more snooty ones dared to publicly accuse me of insulting them and/or their families intentionally.

Absolute rubbish of course. I simply didn't see the need for the competition.

As it turns out, this really WAS one of (if not the single) best school for magical learning in any of the known kingdoms. So while I excelled, naturally, I'm going to swallow my pride and admit that I had to work at it. Going to a school for would-be wizards meant that it was also a school of would-be geniuses. This was great, as it meant that I could finally have conversations with humanoids on my level. Except for the whole no-competition thing I mentioned above. Turns out I had a teensy problem with ego. Who knew?

The professors of the Academica were like you would expect at any institution for learning how to bend the rules of the universe to your whims. Some were great, some were less than great, some were funny, hard, easy, boring, etc etc. And then there were two.

Caldric Greystorm was head of the schools Universalist department, and hands down the schools best instructor on magical strategy. He was old, grey-bearded, gruff-as-a-goat and twice as onry. He didn't make friends, he made wizards. Those who took his classes, and paid attention, might actually survive. (His words, not mine.) He taught that the best spell was the one you never had to cast, because you had done your homework first. He also taught us that the wizard who died with so much as a single cantrip uncast was a Moron. Capitol 'M'. Because he obviously hadn't done his homework.

Yeah, the old goat gave me a headache too. I loved this man.

Caldric taught me that magic is the life blood of the universe. That like everything else there is always a right and a wrong way to use it. And that just because I COULD do something with magic didn't mean that I SHOULD. Caldric also hinted that the universe was far larger than I suspected, and tried to get me to investigate everything that I saw. 'Not a problem' I thought. If I had only understood what he was hinting at. Hindsight is perfect.

But by far my favorite teacher was Althor Shadowlocke. A Sorcerer and head of the schools Conjuration department. I'm pretty sure he was the schools youngest teacher. Ever. He wasn't even 30 yet, (In a field where most of the instructors weren't considered experienced enough to teach until they were pushing 50 at least.) but he was magically powerful, and charismatic, and politically connected, and an excellent lecturer, (never boring!) and his classes were always interesting, and he took a liking to me from the first day of school. Did I mention that he was my favorite teacher?

Althor taught spell strategies too. Like flexibility with a limited spell selection. And creative uses for spells. Both Sorcerer specialties. He said, “Spell choices and planning ahead are all well and good when one has the luxury of an entire tome to choose from every day. But if your choices are limited, then creativity becomes the winner of the battle, not who prepared Fireball instead of a Lightning Strike.” When I mentioned this in one of Caldric's classes, he laughed, (Not kindly) and said, “If your only tool is a hammer, then every obstacle begins to look like a nail.”

For four years, I was having a great time. I had a girlfriend, (ok, girlfriends, but not all at the same time!) I had my circle of friends, I was excelling in my studies, my parents were proud of me. I was on my way to a great future! I had teachers that I liked, and more importantly liked me. While I appreciated both Caldric and Althor, Caldric wasn't really the kind of guy who encouraged students to come over and visit. Althor was. To his favorites.

Althor collected a small group of new students each year that he thought had 'true potential'. To those of us who made that cut, he became our mentor. (All of the professors were required to mentor a certain number of students, but somehow Althor got to be particularly selective. No I didn't think this odd at the time. I thought it was awesome.) He had both political aspirations, and the power and contacts to help him reach those goals. I confess that in me he found a most willing protege'. Soon I had dreams of wielding the power of politics in one hand, and the power of Magic in the other, all while living the good life easily provided to me by both. I'm pretty sure it was all my idea. At first.

Hindsight is perfect. Looking back there were so many clues that I should have seen, so many hints that I should have picked up on. But working myself so hard that I overslept, while not common, wasn't unusual. And I had several weekends that I can't remember due to perfectly normal drinking and debaucherous activities. Losing an extra here and there didn't alarm me. And the occasional nightmare? I was learning to bend the fabric of reality to my personal whims. And just glimpses of other 'common' planes would give a normal person nightmares, so the stuff I was studying it was no surprise that I had the occasional bad dream. Right? I studied, partied, spent time with friends, and girlfriends, made politically savvy friendships and alliances, played pranks on other students, got pranked in return, spent time learning new and powerful Conjuration rituals 'off the books' because they weren't on the schools approved list, and generally had a great time. Until it came to an end.

Okay. I admit that really don't remember much of what happened next. I have managed to find out some information, and I have pieced fragments together until I think I have the basics correct, if not all of the details. Yet. I'll lay it out as I believe it all came to pass.

There's an old saying. 'Power and Politics don't mix'. Turns out that they DO mix. Just not very well. And Althor was no exception. Turns out that he had dreams of power that surpassed anything I could have imagined or suspected. And he was such a swell guy. The sneaky sunuvab!#%$ had tempted, teased, cajoled, charmed, CHARMED, Geased and I don't know what else not merely myself, but his entire stable of hand-picked acolytes into participating in a ritual designed to open a Gate that was never meant to be opened. And not just us. ALL of his previous mentorees were out there too, charming, teaching and otherwise cajoling new and unsuspecting apprentices, students and whoevers into feeding energy into this ritual.

The ritual was a power-gathering conjuration circle. Once every peculiar cycle, I don't know based on what, it didn't match any Lunar, solar or planetary cycle I am aware of, all of the 'inductees' would open a portal and siphon through magical energies. All of the 'outlying' portals were feeding energy into a 'central' portal. Ours. Whether our portal was THE central portal, or just a nexus for a series of feeding branches feeding yet another portal down the line I don't know. Judging by how surprised Althor was at what happened next, I'm guessing he was the big fish in a small pond, and not the head bad guy himself.

What was the purpose? Well you know those things that everyone fears? That everyone has nightmares about? The irrational fear of the monster under the bed? Something in the closet? The tales of creepy tentacle-faced monstrosities that every culture seems to have, no matter how separated they are by culture or geography? Yeah, those. Turns out those were real. Are real. They come from dimensions outside of our usual Planes of reality that everyone (with a wizardly education at least) knows about. I'll just call them 'Outsiders'. Seems that long ago they actually walked our world. All our worlds. Until some do-gooders, either powers, or gods, or heroes, or combination of folk decided that the universe was better off without them and told them to take a hike. And the universe was doing just fine without them until some genius beings, * cough * like Althor * cough * thought it might be fun to invite them BACK to play some more. Yeah, because bringing back beings so terrible that the mere thought of them still drives men to madness eons after they've been gone is SUCH a good idea! So the portal ritual was supposed to help make this terrible idea a reality. Whether the energy being gathered and funneled forward was to wake one of these beings up, or get it's attention like a moth to a flame, or actually provide a stable inter-dimensional passageway for it I'm still not sure. But it was a lot of power. By my estimation we were the central channel point for at least 13 other groups about our size (About 13 give or take) all funneling power into our circle. Yeah, a LOT of power. Whether this would have been just another night of lost sleep, or the beginning of the end of the world, we may never know. Because that's when Caldric came in.

It turns out that Caldric wasn't just some crotchety old goat teaching basic magic principles long after most wizards had expired from one too many magical experiments. He was THE crotchety old goat, the wizard that magic-users who used magic for nefarious purposes feared. Best I can tell he was an agent of a higher authority, or a higher Power, who had suspected Althor's diabolical intentions for a while. Why and how he chose tonight to discover what Althor was up to I do not know. But I'm glad he did.

Caldric and a couple of other professors entered the spell-sealed chamber with no apparent harm from the guardians and spells outside. Caldric calmly ordered Althor to stop what he was doing. Althor declined, in a more fanatical and spittle-throwing manner. Caldric waved his hand and snapped the enchantments and charms around us students with no more effort than opening a door.

(Ok Ok, I don't really know EXACTLY how he did it, but that's the way I imagine it. And I DO know this is the part where I woke back up.)

This is where I come back in. Sort of. I regained consciousness lying on a stone floor of a subterranean chamber with the Mother of Monsters of all Headaches. The first thing I did was retch up whatever was in my stomach. I thought it was from the pain. I figured that I had been to another wild party that I would brag about not remembering. Except that my head never hurt like this after a bender, and from the noise the party was still going on.

“Hey guys, keep it down willya? Wizard trying to die over here.” I managed to croak through a painfully sore throat. Then I looked to see what was making all the racket.

“Whoahatthe,...???” I believe was my semi-coherent response to the view.

What I saw was Caldric and Althor exchanging spell-fire and other arcane energies at each other, with a giant Gate of darkly swirling energies to who-knows-where as a a backdrop. Caldric was calmly and gruffly rebuking Althor's attacks. The elder wizard deflected, absorbed, and blocked blasts of fire, lightning, ice and acid. Once he stopped a direct lightning bolt by what appeared to be his hand and sheer force of will. His counter-attacks were swift and precise, taking advantage of openings left by Althors repetitive spellcasting.

By contrast Althor was screaming epithets as well as spells, his defenses were minimal, all of his focus being on hammering out as much arcane blasts as fast as he could. His basic defenses were slowly but surely being chipped away by Caldric's precise strikes. All things being equal, even my headache fogged brain could tell where this was leading. Unfortunately they weren't the only factors.

The two teachers that had accompanied Caldric into the chamber were engaged in spell-battles of their own with a couple of my fellow students who had not been freed from Althor's mental influences. Or they were willing accomplices. Either way thinking about it now makes my head ache all over again. I tried to call out to my fellow students to stop, but all that came out was a dull croak, easily lost amid the thunderous exchange of spell-blasts.

Then the battle shifted. One of the teachers was wounded by a blast from a student, (A spell the first-year should NOT have known), and Caldric reacted by extending one arm towards the teacher, partially shielding him from the follow up attack. This brief break in Caldric's otherwise perfect defenses caused him to miss the summoning circle that Althor opened behind him. When the hell-fiend came roaring out of the summoning circle it plowed into Caldric with both spiky, ham sized fists, sending the aged wizard flying from the raised entryway and across the chamber. He rolled to a stop almost directly before the swirling gate of purple and black energies. As the hell-spawn turned its attention to the wounded teacher, Althor stepped towards Caldric, who was twitching and trying to rise.

“I'll teach you to meddle in my affairs!” Althor hissed like a villain from a B-grade melodrama. “I've been waiting a long time for this. There won't be enough left of you to identify, much less Raise!” And my favorite teacher raised his arms, strange energies coalescing around his hands, ready to destroy my other favorite teacher in cold blood.

“NO!” I screamed, rising painfully to my knees. Without thinking I used the first spell that came to mind, a lightning strike. I tapped a pin on my robes (a prize from an earlier year) which turned to dust and caused the spell to cast nearly instantaneously. The electrical blast filled the space between myself and Althor. Caught by surprise the blast stunned him. Still covered in tiny electrical discharges he turned towards me. When he saw it was me his eyes widened in surprise.

“Why?” He hissed. “We were going to do great things together?” He seemed truly hurt at this betrayal. Then I saw his fingers were twitching. They were moving in tiny but unmistakable gestures of a spell. I finished mine first. The resulting force-blast must have been enhanced by the proximity of the otherwordly energies from the Gate. Because the resulting blast was much, MUCH more powerful than it should have been, blowing Althor up into the air and sailing in a perfect arc. Right through the Gate. This was apparently the last straw for the abused portal. With energy from outside still being fed into it, and no one to control it, it went full chaotic beserk. Flares of blue, purple, red and black energies flew out of the swirling mass and blasted across the room. The underground chamber began to feel as if it was the epicenter of an earthquake spell.

Knocked flat by the shaking, and still in too much pain to try and stand anyway, I began crawling toward Caldric across the floor as it bucked and heaved beneath me. I couldn't see the other students and teachers, and truth to tell, at that point I didn't much care. All I knew was the two men I respected most in the world had just tried to kill each other, and I had stopped one of them from doing so. And likely killed him. And I didn't know which hurt worse. Maybe more about that later. Maybe.

The noise grew so loud I couldn't hear anything anymore, it grew so bright it was dim and hard to see. I crawled towards Caldric, screaming his name with a voice that couldn't be heard. In a flash of visibility, I saw Caldric's head turned towards me. His face was battered and covered in blood. But his eyes were open and focused. He was looking at me.

“Run boy, Run.” He whispered in a voice that I heard directly in my mind.

“Not without you!” I screamed back silently. He smiled wanly, his head shaking slightly. I couldn't tell if he was telling me no, or if the ground was moving that much. His arm flopped towards me, and I crawled closer. I stretched out and grasped his fingertips.

“Foolish boy.” I heard again in my head, his lips moving only slightly. “Remember what I taught you, and you may live. Good journeys.” And he,... smiled. I swear by whatever power you want me to, in the middle of all that, both the chamber and the Gate collapsing all around us, he SMILED.

Then the Gate exploded. But it wasn't a normal explosion like a fireball. There was light too dark to see, darkness so bright it hurt my eyes, fire that froze, a jumbled kaleidoscope of sights, sounds, and smells. I flailed as I felt myself falling. Up. Caldric's hand was torn from my feeble grasp and I watched as he flew away from me, or I was thrown away from him, or both. I watched him fly into the rainbow whirlpool of the fractured Gate, and I silently screamed once more as I fell into the welcoming blackness of unconsciousness.

And for the second time in a row, I found myself waking up in a strange place.


Not sure if a thread for this already exists, sorry if it does.

I just received a 'flood' of emails, all duplicates, across almost half of my PbP profiles.

They were from a 'capt Greg 903' and they all said the same thing, He is (supposedly) an American soldier in Afghanistan, that it was imperative that I contact him immediately, and not to reply through the Paizo website for security purposes.
:(

Funny thing is, of all the profiles this person emailed, none were my 'primary' account name. So obviously my brain screamed 'FAKE!'.

I of course deleted all of them immediately, silly me, next time I'll just click the 'block sender' button you have been so gracious to provide.
:)

I just wanted to make sure you knew that someone(s) was/are sending obvious Spam mails through the website now.

Thank you!
Have a great week!

~Rags


I'm sorry,

It helps if I actually give you information to work with, doesn't it? ;P

It was Order #760266

It has a pathfinder ongoing subscription on it, and I already HAVE that subscription. (Charter Subscriber! Yay!) :)

When I look at my current subscriptions, it now lists it twice. Can you please remove the second one? I only need one!

Thank you in advance!

Rags~


Hello,
I have been busy at work lately, and recently realized that I hadn't seen LoF/ PF19 or 20 yet. I checked my account, and saw the 'payment failed' statements,
Long story short, I forgot that we had to cancel that card due to our banks info getting hacked, and never replaced the payment info in my Paizo account!

So, I have now replaced the card info on my account, and I see a 'pending' notice on my PF issues. Is there anything else I need to do to clear everything up?

Thank you all for all of your great work, I am really looking forward to this particular Path.

Ragadolf~


Greetings Paizo,

Please forgive me, as I am sure this question has probably been answered before, but I can't find the thread if it was, so,...

I am an "old school" D&D'er, (yes, I still have my 1st ed books, and the original boxed set!) with a, let's just call it "not-new" PC, so I have a couple of questions about the PDF's available here.

When I purchase or aquire a PDF, like i have a free PDF copy of my Pathfinder, how many times can i download it? I am wanting to download it now at work, because I want to see it NOW. (Like everyone else, I have really been looking forward to it). If I do can I also download it onto my home pc?

What if my home PC crashes and I lose the hard drive? (This is NOT retorical! It has already happened to me once!) Do I have the ability to go back and re-download all of the PDF's which I have purchased but no longer have?

Thank you very much in advance, I am SO looking forward to enjoying Pathfinder in all of it's paper-bound and digital glory!

Ragadolf, The Mad Mage- "Meddle not in the affairs of wizards, for you are crunchy, and good with ketchup"


On Monday the happiest of sad days happened to me.
Dragon 359 arrived, still nearly pristine despite having been shoved into a tiny apartment mailbox.
After the first "WOOP" of excitement I just stood there, grinning like an idiot savant at the cover, taking it in. (Hey, I was RAISED on the art of Elmoore and the Hilderbrandts, what can I say?!) Then I realized that my wife & kids were staring at ME!
I tried to explain the situation to them, but alas, a mere 3 college degrees in Speech, Drama and Theatre are apparantly not enough to convey the sense of history, excitement, and loss that I felt from holding that issue in my hands.
After that, the momentessness of the issue hit ME. It took me a full day before I could unseal the plastic bag. I knew once I opened it there would be no going back. As long as it was still in the bag, I could keep my sense of anticipation. But I did unseal it, and I read it.
The sense of anticipation is now gone, but it has been replaced with a feeling of enjoyment for a job well done.

Good Job Paizo, and thank you for all of the work you have done the last few years.

And a CURSE on the pea-brained nit-wit who first came up with the lame-### idea that a flickering screen could possibly replace the printed page!

Now if you will excuse me, I am going to do something that I have rarely done in the many years I have been buying Dragon. Today I am going to go back and re-read the entire issue again, front to back.

You see, the first time I had something in my eyes,...

Ragadolf


I was reading some posts about mangled Dragon magazines and started wondering,...
I just moved into an apartment with very small mailboxes. My Dragons haven't been having any trouble so far, (knock on wood) but since Pathfinder is very thick for a magazine, (should I be calling it a soft-cover book?) I am now concerned about well-meaning postal employees shoving the equivilant of a softcover player's manual into my mailbox.

Is this a concern that you, the manufacturer & shipper, have already addressed (in another post), or have I officially crossed the line into worrying too much?!?

Sorry if this post belongs under Pathfinder directly, I just figured this was a logical place to start.

Thanks guys!

Ragadolf-The Mad Mage "Meddle not in the affairs of wizards, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup!"


Hello Again Paizo,
I'll try to keep this short, (I do tend to ramble)
Last year I wrote a post I titled "Moving faster than Dragons can fly". Because since Katrina I had moved 2 1/2 times (First to Oklahoma then to Florida with a stop at relatives in the New Orleans area). When I finally ended up in Florida and all my mail caught up to me, I was still missing 2 issues of my precious Dragon(s). I took your good advice and decided to be patient and let the always overwhelmed and should-take-lessons-from-Paizo-at-customer-service USPS have time to catchup. To be honest after dealing with the moves, the new jobs, schools, etc. I had completely forgotten about it. Until I started packing all my books and mags for this move. (Yes I have moved back to Louisiana, just call me a glutton for punishment!)And there was that glaring gap in my numerical Dragon run!
To keep it short (TOO LATE!) I DID get one of the issues! My mother in law had gotten it and been reading it to see what all my fuss was about!
Now I am only missing issue #345.

All of this is simply leading up too,...Have I waited long enough for the mail to catch up? I think after a year I may now ask with clear conscience for another copy of Dragon #345. I actually feel very bad, because I waited till now, and NOW you guys are dealing with the Dragon/Dungeon cancellation/changeover/etc.
Notice that I feel badly, but I'm still asking.

Thank you in advance for everything, and please note that I have decided to continue my relationship with your wonderful company by changing over my remaining Dragons into the new Pathfinder line! I can honestly say I am looking forward to it!

Emailing you from a (hopefully) drier part of the Soggy State,

Ragadolf,- "Meddle not in the affairs of wizards,...for you are crunchy and good with ketchup!" (Did I mention that Rags is also known as "The Mad Mage"?


Hello,
As I've mentioned in previous posts, I have been moving around a bit since Katrina. In the last month, I originally moved from New Orleans to Oklahoma, and in the last 2 months I've moved back to the New Orleans area, and now to Florida!
I can promise with a good deal of certainty that this will be my last move for a while, since I have a new job, and I just signed a 1 yr rental agreement for this house I am now moving into!

The point of this ramble is that my poor Dragons cannot seem to keep up with me! And I'm pretty sure that the post office is now thoroughly confused by my paper-trail of address changes.
I have been trying to keep my address changes current on all my important accounts (banks, Paizo, etc.) but somehow my Dragons #345 till current have gotten lost in the shuffle.

Would it be possible to have re-issued Dragon #'s 345-347, or would you prefer to wait and see if they manage to catch up to me on their own first?

Either way is ok, just let me know. You all have been WAY too nice and helpful to me this last year, I'm almost embarrased to ask for help again. (Notice, ALMOST,)

Thanks in advance,...again,

Ragadolf -"Meddle not in the affairs of wizards, for you are crunchy, and good with ketchup".


Dear Paizo, WotC, et all,...
Yesterday I recieved your package in the mail. While I remember the buzz on the messageboards about the "Gaming Care Packages" from a while back, in the midst of life rebuilding, job searching, and regular end-of-school insanity, I had forgotten about it.
So it was a very pleasant surprise, and I want to make sure that those involved know that thier efforts and well-wishes were both recieved and sincerely appreciated.
Like any good gamer, I promise to share my new gaming supplies with my friends when they come over, (Tonite in fact!)
Thank you all for your kind thoughts and good intentions. The spirit in which you offer this is icing on the cake of my (and hopefully many others!) almost-rebuilt lives.

May you all never have to go thru what those of us who live(d) in the Gulf region went thru, and may you still be blessed by the goodwill of your fellow gamers and friends as I am!

Thank you all, and God Bless.

Ken AKA "Ragadolf"


Hello Paizo,
I was just checking my account info, seeing how many issues were left until I need to renew, and I noticed that Dragon issue #341 says it shipped at the end of Jan., But mine hasn't arrived yet, and it's almost shipping time for #342.
Now, I am a Katrina escapee, but I have updated all my account info and address both on the web site and by phone, and since I have all my issues now up till #340, I'm pretty sure that's not the problem.
Can you help me find my poor, lost issue? Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Ragadolf the Mad Mage
"Meddle not in the affairs of wizards, for you are crunchy, and taste good with ketchup!"