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Dumb deaths.... I was playing a 5th level wizard. Flying over a battle, invisible. Saw a cluster of enemy with no allies so I fireballed them. Ended my invisibility, but I was a couple hundred feet up so no problem, right? Wrong. The fireball didn't drop ANY of them and they all had longbows. The return fire dropped me to.... -1 HP. So, unconscious I'm not flying anymore. And I didn't have anything giving me featherfall. Splat! The group did recover the equipment from my terribly mangled, chopped to pieces body. Some of it wasn't broken from the fall. Similar-ish kind of death... highish level druid in Society play, I think I might have been level 10 or thereabouts. We come, by boat, to a high cliff with a single dangling rope leading up. Obviously we are suspicious of it as a trap. I What REALLY sucked about it was that it happened in the first ten minutes of a four hour play slot. I was just blinking at the map and going "Uh.... well... do I have to stick around or can I get my chronicle sheet now...?" I've had more deaths in PFS than any of my actual campaigns. Though we did have a party wipe in Hell's Rebels around level 8, which was astonishing mostly in that it took as long as it did, because our party was the squishiest set of non-combat-optimized losers you ever did see, lololol (wizard, rogue, mesmerist, sapper alchemist).
I am/was in kind of a similar boat for Ryzel - I'll probably be elaborating some on gender for Ryzel when we properly get started. But at least I have a name! ;) You're going full blind!
Thanks to Charles Otharan for the PM advice on Google Slides. And for the email: I'm pretty sure I need the email for y'all to be able to Edit -- move your characters on the battlemat. You can set it so that it's "anyone with the link can edit" and then just share the link. I can walk you through it if needed.
Hi all! Very excited to play with you and delighted to have been accepted. In meatspace I live in California and am only mildly addicted to PBPs. I'm in recovery. (At one point I was in 15 games at once.) Currently I'm GMing one, playing in a handful of others. Looks like I already know at least one of you-- hi here too, Lemming! :) The boards are a small world. I wanted four PCs (I just don't trust PbP campaigns with lots of PCs.) Four. Not six! One thing about PBPs in my experience is that player attrition is almost inevitable. I've had games where the player I considered the most involved and dedicated wound up being the one to drop out from the game (due to life crises)... you will lose players, it just happens. When that happens, it's sometimes nice to have started with a bigger group. GM, given the unusual-ness of the setup, how do you want us to handle doing physical descriptions of our characters? Should we leave it a little bit vague, in the event of character death and the need to bring in the 'real' one later? When we don't have Names yet to work with, sometimes a nickname based on appearance can be useful OOCly- "Shorty" or "Red" or what-not. That's how we handled it in a game I was previously in with an amnesia setup.
Goad? moi????J'adore jouer à des jeux avec tout mon coeur Oh I do not doubt your commitment, mon ami!!
Slightly tweaked some stats and changed alignment to LN to better reflect the personality as per your breakdown of alignment for NPCs-- I had put Chaotic originally in the sense of 'not bound by society's rules' but as far as your descriptions go they are definitely way more lawful. This should be finalized now unless there's anything else you would like to have it feel complete. As for the 'explore the past' not being at all promised to us-- copy that! I have to make the backstory and the past for my own sense of who the character is, but I accept that it may never be remotely relevant in game, or something my character ever remembers.
Vex grimaces at the spot on her face, touching it gingerly and using a strip of torn dress from one of the dead monsters to blot the bleeding. "Angry, you alright there, man? Rotten feeling, getting froze up like that, isn't it. Right, I'm ready to proceed if everyone else is. I'll take point up those stairs."
Vex gets slashed across the face by the dire claws of the last ghoul and winces, but lashes back with her own blade.
Blow for blow traded, she steps to the side, hoping the ghoul's fool enough to come into their side and get attacked by all of them. Or that at the least she opens a free attack for another.
"For gods' sake," Vex said with a weary glare at Chatty. "Man just bloody nearly died, give him a bloody moment, would you? Going to remind you you 'ran off screaming like a baby' at one point too. Aye, go on and threaten me with your 'eye' again if you must." She hauls Ilki to his feet. "Come on, then, you. We'll get you to people who can mind you better than we can-- and who actually want to do so. And we all need another cleansing, it's true." Vex does stop by the 'doctor' to check and see if she had anything of use on her body.
"....this is b#!#&!~s," Vex says, watching the others wade (or reach) into the morass of things better left never-thought-of. Thank whatever blighted gods may exist for the fact that the asylum folk clean them when they come in, she supposes. Sighing, she sidles with a grimace into the effluvia and gore, using her legs to feel for an intact form.
Vex curses once at the claw that finds its way past her shield. She edges further along the wall, trying to keep the ghoul's attention on her so that perhaps one of the others can capitalize on its backside, and swings again.
She pays the ghoul back and then some-- from her defensive hunch she strikes with sudden, practiced precision. Her attacks are as controlled as the dwarf's are wild... but either way, the result is dead foes.
Vex presses her lips into a flat line at the sight of the corpse... and feels no need to look at it further. The man is dead. Staring at him won't help. Nothing will help. Soon enough they might be joining him.... No, don't think that way. Vex forces herself into action, glancing at the no-doubt gore-spattered floor, to see if there's any sign of what might have done this.
Slip's words make her grunt. "If it will help you sit easier. Don't try and guilt trip me over this poor bastard, Slip. We offered to bring him back if they would take him; they didn't answer us til the next morn. Anyway, you can't care overmuch about death here, d'you hea-- d'you understand me?" Slip can't hear her tone but it is strident, tense. "It's like a war, alright? Like the battle when arrows are flying and people, living people, are dropping left and right of you. You can get yourself in knots over the fact your bunkmate took an arrow into his brain, or you can box that tight, lock it up, and move. Because you're still alive. And that's all that matters." Despite her blunt words, if Slip finds a canvas or a cloth, Vex will help the halfling drape it over the mutilated corpse.
Vex chooses to sleep in the chapel. If something bursts in in the she'd just as soon be around others who can maybe, at the least, bar doors or follow basic orders, even if they're not warriors. She wakes feeling better than when she went to sleep, at least. She listens to Slip with a little brow arch of 'slightly impressed.' Seem's Slip is a scholar of sorts as well as a healer and a soft heart. Useful. "Aye. If you folk want to take on the caring for that chained fellow, we'll bring him back to you. I'm just saying, there's crazed and there's crazed, and he strikes me as the latter." Angry's words earn a short cynical chuckle from her and a nod. "Aye. If it can be killed, that's enough to be going on with. I am ready to get back to the hunting."
"Alright, then." Vex stands, wiping her hands off and collecting the kit. For a moment it seems she might say something more, but then she shrugs and turns to trudge off to find her own section of the refuge to sleep in-- dark and quiet as possible. Sleep isn't immediate for her-- first she sits and goes through all the gear she has chosen to claim for herself, checking each item for damage, rust, a loose link... even though her eyes close several times as she works, and she yawns hugely. The floor beckons, but-- but you've got to have your gear in order. Or you die. That's a lesson she learned.... somewhere. You can die no matter how polished and oiled your sword is, though, she thinks bleakly. Still, she makes sure everything is strapped to the nice, well-made pack she took-- mess kit stowed, everything either inside the back or lashed to the outside, a sunrod in easy proximity to find by touch if it's dark-- and only when everything is ready for her to grab it at a moment's notice, as needed, does she finaly stretch out on her newly acquired bedroll and blanket, and sink into a deep sleep. **** In the morning she packs the bedroll tight, then goes to find the others. Another day of horrors is presumably waiting.
"Only makes sense, doesn't it? We fight better we're all healed." Vex crouches by the man's side. "Doubt I'd like you much in the world out there, or you me. We're different. Very. But I'd be a fool to not own you're good with your blade, and we both have more chances to live if we watch each other's backs." She digs out the implements and salves, wiping Chatty's injuries with a rag moistened with clean water before applying the unguents that supposedly prevent infection.
Vex looks her work over after a few silent minutes, less than impressed with it though she supposes she did help somewhat. "I dunno if trying to do more would help or just open this up and set it bleeding again."
With Doc and Blue:
Vex looks warily at Blue, then nods. "Well, you don't seem on the verge of death or nothing. Stay that way. We'll need you both back out there if you're still willing and able. This place is a clusterf*!~. Another ghoul got me good, out there."
Her words are short and clipped, awkward with a sort of blunted, strained concern-- for herself? For the injured man? For her fellow half-elf? Who knows. After a few more seconds of standing there awkwardly, Vex turns and seeks out what food might be had in the 'refuge' - thin soup is better than nothing, and she feels hungry indeed after the day's exertions. It perks her up a little bit. When she has eaten, she goes in search of Slip, finding that Chatty and Bolkvar have both gone to bed already. "Slip," she says in lieu of a more civil greeting. "Alright, there? Bad day. Look. I know you wanted to save that chained fellow. What'd they say? "Blue's... alright. Doesn't seem any worse. Doc's watching him. "Figure we ought to sort out a symbol for each of those monsters we've met today, yeh? The ones that can shift to look like us. The ones that wanna eat us. Just to signal." When she's talked to Slip, she sets herself digging through the scavenged and recovered gear, taking those things that seem useful to her. She lingers over a locket, staring at it blankly, wondering if she.... feels something looking at it... or only hopes that she feels something. It meant something, to someone. It's a little girl. Someone's little girl, surely. Hers? Was she a-- a mother? She doesn't feel she has a maternal bone in her body. Nor, she thinks more pragmatically, stretch marks on her stomach, when she'd looked herself over during the cleansing. The little girl's no doubt a total stranger. Some other bastard's kid. She puts the necklace back with the rest. With useful items claimed, she goes in search of Chatty, nudging him awake with the toe of her boot. "Oi, it's me. Vex. Don't stab me, man. You need me to look at your wounds? I'm no cleric, but I got a tip or two from Doc. And a kit of supplies."
Vex looks both exhausted and fed up during the exchange between Winter and Chatty, but holds her tongue, for now. When the captain and the insane asylum's leader have left and Chatty says his bit, Vex shakes her head and shoves off the stone wall with one shoulder. "Aye, thank the gods-- it's a thin line as separates you, isn't it-- a bit of luck, and nothing more, from those wretches. Or that bastard we left in the chains. Slip's not wrong you ran screaming like the devil was after you. Maybe the next time something spooks you, it will be your wits that go-- and then, your life may depend on the kindness folk like that can manage, eh?" She shakes her head. "I'm going to go see if Blue's still feverish. And then I'm sleeping. The rest of you do as you will."
Vex doesn't hide her exhaustion as they trudge back into the 'safe' areas. She gives Captain York a grimly tired nod. "F*#$in' shapeshifters everywhere and if it's not them it's horrible little demon worms. Our two friends-- where'd they go? Wanna check they're... alright." By which she means she wants to check that Blue's.... secure... if necessary.... "Nobody else came, yeh? We found a few survivors out there, if it's the right word. One sad bugger ran off screamin', and we had bigger problems at the time than chasing him. Says his name's Ilki." She gives a short physical description. "The other one, well...." Vex's distaste is obvious in her speech, but she tersely explains about the man they found-- and left-- chained. "There's crazed and there's crazed, Captain. If the folk here want him to be brought back, that's your peoples' call to make, but I don't know I'd trust that giggling wretch not to try to slit people's throats." This debrief given, Vex starts off to go look for Blue. As she walks, it's hard to forget that the ghoul bit her too. She rubs at her arms, where the wounds are healed over thanks to the healing magics, but do they itch? Or is she being paranoid? Damn it all. This place will get you thinking all manner of madness, she thinks.
Woo, level up! Booooooo. I think Chatty's suggestion of putting Rook's Sense Motive over into Spellcraft is a good one. Features gained:
BAB +1
GM: Per my message to you (ages ago, I know, haha) I'll be ditching the archetype to just stick pure ranger; if it's cool I'll also reassign the skill point in Disable Device that would have been there as an Urban Ranger, but makes a lot less sense if I'm not gonna be doing Urban Ranger stuff. It's just going into Ride. Hardly game breaking. ;)
He glanced over at Chatty and shook his head at the harsh words, but as he saw the wisdom within he held his tongue. Ironically, the man's lack of a filter made him all the more trustworthy. For he spoke his mind, regardless of how it made others feel.It amuses me that I'm playing Chatty as such an a$$hole but he hasn't really faced any repercussions from the party so it only emboldens him to keep pushing the envelope. Haha, I mean, Vex is not the most non-a+%@&%$ soul in the world herself-- sure, she's LN and not NE, but she is definitely not at her best and also not feeling the 'normal societal rules' currently apply-- like she's barely hanging on to grim functionality and often on the verge of snapping or snarling, so she just figures Chatty is also under similar stresses and giving into them more than feeling he is inherently, naturally 'an a~##+*#' as it were. She does think he is kind of a slimy opportunist/suck-up, yes, but he's also good with his blade and she's in no position to be picky about her allies at the moment....
Vex's teeth are bared in a silent, wide-eyed snarl. She drops her swords and tries to grab the wretched creature and choke the life out of it.
GM:
If you feel like retro allowing back in the AOO, I'll roll it anyway, ignore if you don't want to hassle with it:
"Angry! Smash it while I hold it still! --don't smash my damn hands though!"
"THE HELL?! WHY DID HE JUST STAB HIMSELF!?" Vex cries, the horror of seeing that seeming to get through her state of numb exhaustion that is settling in. "Slip! Drag him back and help him if you can!" she cries, though her ability to gesture is limited with one hand in a shield and the other holding a sword. Teeth bared in a snarl, she tries to stab the creature again.
"Unless we got a way to weigh it down, I don't trust it can't throw the crate off it. Better to deal with it now, simple. Maybe the ghouls weren't scared of it, just f$%%ing with it. Like poking a dog with sticks, you know?" Vex sounds tired. Her body still throbs and aches with phantom pains from the near death experience. "Let's just get it done, I want to rest." She takes Slip's glance, then exhales, with a nod. "Aye. We should."
Vex is quiet and watchful, not immediately speaking, as the prisoner is freed. She observes him, and his interactions with the others, through slitted eyes before speaking at last. "Chatty here isn't using his silver tongue on you, but aye, we have plenty of reason to distrust those who look like simple prisoners, here. I tried to aid an old woman who sprouted fangs and claws and did her damndest to rip my throat out. In a room back down the hall there's a man raving about something or other with a big creepy bloody smile on his face. So you'll pardon our f#*@ing skepticism. "Don't take too much attitude with us and we won't have problems. We've got enough without sniping at each other, aye? Angry here has a point-- you can help us lug things back to the civilians. Tell me, Ilki, do you remember anything about this place? How you got here?" She nods at the suggestion to return. "Let's deal with that thing in the crate, then go back. Maybe too much work to try and drown it. I can be ready to cut it down if someone else will lift it," she says in a weary way. She's not eager to have another fight, but-- it needs doing, doesn't it?
Vex staggers upright in a weary way. "Gods, man, just stop screaming!" she snaps at the bound man. "We'll untie you if we're sure it's safe, but you thrashing and screaming doesn't do much to prove to us you're not likely to attack us, does it!?" She drags herself over to Chatty, moving as if still injured despite the healing. It feels like she should be injured. She remembers the teeth, the claws, the feeling-of-sinking-into-black... She tries to shake away the memory. Other people could afford to break down, maybe. Not her. Not her. Keep it together. The civilians wouldn't, so she had to. Right? 'Civilians'. Not the first time she'd thought that. Had she been a soldier? It didn't matter. She nodded at Chatty's words, and started dragging the ghoul corpses. "Maybe we can hold it underwater.... under-blood... in that room with the damn pool.... kill it that way without ever having to see it," she says dully.
"Uyhnnn....." Vex comes to, blinking up muzzily, to see Slip touching her. She can guess he must have healed her, since the last thing she remembers is savage pain and teeth. [b]"...thanks..." she mutters weakly, and, in case her sentiment was in doubt, uses the simple gesture of hand dropping from mouth to indicate her gratitude. She sits up groggily, feeling at the spots of pain. The blood-- her own blood-- is still there-- but curative magic has closed the injuries themselves. It's a weird feeling. "Did we win?" The dead ghoul answers that question for her. Good riddance, she thinks, and looks wearily over to the prisoner. "Yeah. Tell us. Could use an explanation for all this madness."
As Vex had hoped, her approach-- as well as her stated indifference to the prisoner's fate-- force the ghoul to pay attention to her instead. Not that it had all been some cunning ploy to save the man-- he was a stranger, and Vex felt herself already growing numb to the sight of all the blood and horror around them, what was the life of one more person she didn't even know? Still. It was good the ghoul was focusing on her. Even if that focus hurt. She bared her teeth in a silent snarl and stepped to the side, opening a clear path to the ghoul for anyone who wanted it-- and then hewed with her sword.
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