I can chance languages if you want, but it seems like a real blindspot if nobody in the party is able to start out knowing Varisian—the local language more common than common—because of that exact wording. It's clearly an issue of regional languages not being part of the SRD (and the core rules specifically strip setting material, hence it not being in there—the Inner Sea World Guide doesn't change the automatically-known languages for ANYONE).
Also, Inner Sea Races lists the option "Elven Arrogance" with "they begin play speaking only Elven, and if they have high Intelligence scores, they can select bonus languages from only 1 ancient language, Celestial, Draconic, and Sylvan." Since there are no "ancient languages" in the core game setting, but there are several traits that say "you may choose one ancient language in place of one bonus language" it stands to reason that ancient languages are not available by default (and thus I swapped out Ancient Thassilonian), but an elf living in Varisia who knows Gnome but not Varisian just seems to make zero sense.
Also: Silas took campaign setting (Golarion) languages. By default, these are not on any race/class's list, because they are setting material and not SRD, but I figured they'd be more accessible and more likely than, say, Gnome or Draconic (why would *anyone* doing trade in Varisia *not* be expected to start out knowing Varisian?)
Korak/GM: Another option is IN-character discussions for completed characters only, but players using their regular alias and a spoilered header with a character blurb at the beginning of each RP post.
Oh, right. Silas would be starting a tailors' guild. Or possibly just a "skilled laborers' guild." Because not every guild needs to involve killing things.
And here's Thunderbeard, checking in with Silas Lavein, your friendly neighborhood Clockfather of Brigh. (Apologies if skill-monkey clerics are just too commonplace, but I have a feeling they aren't).
Backstory:
He's built swords, farmhouses, spinning contraptions and brick walls... with his magic, he's helped put back together injured humans, repaired windmills, and lit some of the greatest bellow-fires Avistan have ever seen. But he's never built a permanent home... or a guild... or an entire town... and the very idea fascinates him. Laying out city streets according to mathematical, architectural principles; constructing the politics and diplomacy of a nation, part-by-part and layer-by-layer--it's the sort of project that could keep him consistently excited for quite some time.
So, when he heard there was employment out West, he joined a caravan...
Background
Small shrines to Brigh, the Mother of Invention, can be found all across Avistan... but the goddess is not especially well-known in any of Golarion's pantheons. This is because the followers and priests of Brigh do not proselytize, or worship--they create. Hers is the religion of skilled craftsmen and inventors, her secrets and blessings passed around blacksmiths' guilds the way the Drunk God's might be passed around a lively tavern.
Silas Lavein is one such devotee. Born to poor Elven immigrant parents in the city of River Kingdoms, he demonstrated from an early age both a keen intellect and a short attention span. While he spent his youth learning to defend himself with sword and bow like any wild elf, when he was still quite young (by Elven standards) his parents managed to save up enough money to have him apprenticed to a blacksmith in nearby Restov, where he proved talented enough to quickly earn his keep, to his old master's surprise. By the time he reached young adulthood, he had worked his way through several other apprenticeships, often at the same time, learning fine carpentry, alchemy, and architecture, and each time disappointing his parents a little more when he chose to take on a new profession instead of setting out as a Journeyman to earn his keep (and thereby send a bit of money home as well).
In his furnaces and tools, Silas discovered another talent as well--a talent for the magic of fire and forge. He had received the craft goddess's blessing, his old master told him, which was only fitting for a smart tyke like he was, and the smith had taught young Silas prayers and blessings to work into his steel, rituals and incantations to mend little bits of the world around him.
And finally, upon coming of age, the wanderlust took him, and Silas decided he wished to become a priest, reading scriptures in temples in a far-off land. His parents were worshippers of the old Elven gods, and with their faith in Yuelral saw their son's religious beliefs as irreverant and dangerous. His mother was not there at the docks when he boarded the ship that would take him far to the south, and his father had refused to speak to him for weeks.
Paying his passage through deckside repairs as an amateur shipwright, Silas eventually made his way to the distant city of Absalom, home to all sorts of gods and temples, where the splendor of truly inspired architecture and magic taught him just how small and simple his home city and nation had been. Over time, he found a monastery to his oft-forgotten god, but found himself learning just as much from the priests of a dozen different gods whom he met wandering the streets. And in the end, he learned most about the sheer diversity of people in the world, and a bit of the magic he could use to keep them whole.
By the time Silas decided he ought to head home, the world was changing. Andoran had declared independence from Cheliax, spawning little wars across the continent, and as he rode northwest he found frequent work in small towns healing the sick and wounded and forging new weapons to sell to local militias. Often, Silas would stop and rest for a month or a year in some backwoods village, learning and doing all he could before the time felt right to leave.
And when he finally returned to his old home, some thirty years ago, things had changed. His old master was long since passed, his mostly-human childhood friends faded into the last inches of old age. His parents, who had long since stopped answering his correspondence, had moved on, and he wonders to this day what might have become of them.
Avistan is, of course, a continent riddled with bandits and monsters, and it through an occasional need to defend himself on the road that Silas re-learned, out of necessity, how to use spells and arrows quite effectively to defend himself (and, very luckily for him, he learned quickly).
The new Restov was a different city, more business-oriented and short-tempered but without much of the grand splendor and optimism he had seen a decade past in Absalom. The new city alchemists, with whom he had hoped to find employment as a returning Journeyman, had no love for this uppity elf with his foreigner's tales. It was only by (accidentally) humiliating two of the town's laziest alchemists during a public demonstration that Silas established a reputation, but soon he had customers visiting him in his room above the tavern, asking for spells and potions and armor and advice.
For the last few decades, Silas has done what he can for Brevoy, bringing the knowledge and worldly philosophy of the outside world into the lectures he gives his apprentices and the entreaties he makes on setting up shop in a new town; but the kingdom has grown cold to elves, and once again he has felt the road calling. Plus, he's had a few close calls over the past years--accidents involving poison and explosives that suggest a certain pair of alchemists, with a long-standing grudge, may be out to take some sort of permanent revenge on his innocent self.
So maybe, starting over in Varisia, he'll be able to become a part of some newer and more meaningful business. And Silas has heard rumors and stories, wonderful ones, about the histories and treasures buried beneath ancient Thassilon, about the glorious kingdoms that used to stand here and may once again be rebuilt. Maybe he'll get to dig some of those up. (And if not, as an expert craftsman in half a dozen trades, he'll at least get to impart his values from scratch on a new generation of builders and smiths)
Personality:
Silas Lavein is a wise man, but not a mystic. By Elven standards, he is still young, and optimistic to a fault; raised as an immigrant from Elven lands, he is generally more comfortable around humans, who he feels an almost fatherly appreciation for and desire to protect.
He's also very smart, both in book-learning and practical knowledge, though he's no collegiate wizard. He's confident and proud in his ability fix just about anything, from broken bones to shattered armor, but these days he's trying to find tasks of proper skill to set himself against.
Unlike the average cleric, Silas is more likely to tell others to believe in themselves--or at least to believe in him. He is practical and pragmatic and, while he doesn't have a ton of tactical experience in a fight, knows which way to throw a cone of fire and how to stare down a pack of armed bandits without getting too afraid. He's absolutely willing to respect and trust other's advice, but only if they've first given a sign that they know more about the situation than he does.
HP 13/17, AC 21, touch 13, FF 18 Init +3; Senses low-light vision; Perception +4 Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +6; +2 vs. enchantments
Yeah... there just always felt like a strange energy in this game, which I don't understand because I liked the players, the GM, and my character. See ya around.
HP 13/17, AC 21, touch 13, FF 18 Init +3; Senses low-light vision; Perception +4 Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +6; +2 vs. enchantments
Well, he specifically said "take out the mage first and hardest," and grappling is the best way to do that... but against a touch specialist, yeah, you'd probably want a grapple specialist.
HP 13/17, AC 21, touch 13, FF 18 Init +3; Senses low-light vision; Perception +4 Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +6; +2 vs. enchantments
A note to all my active games: I'm in the process of preparing for my candidacy exam for the next few weeks, and I've decided to make a commitment to check my PbPs at most 1/day. I'll probably still be somewhat active, just, not as manic about it as usual.
HP 13/17, AC 21, touch 13, FF 18 Init +3; Senses low-light vision; Perception +4 Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +6; +2 vs. enchantments
I'm pretty ambivalent on it—though I'm not sure why it's been stagnating, it does seem to have been like that for a while—but I also don't know how likely we are to survive this battle regardless.
HP 13/17, AC 21, touch 13, FF 18 Init +3; Senses low-light vision; Perception +4 Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +6; +2 vs. enchantments
I'd rather go with fire if it's only my position that matters; it's much easier to hit, does more damage, and I've already cast Produce Flame so I might set my bow on fire with my hand.
Attack Roll (ranged touch, no range increments):1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10 Damage (fire):1d6 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6
HP 13/17, AC 21, touch 13, FF 18 Init +3; Senses low-light vision; Perception +4 Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +6; +2 vs. enchantments
I use the bits from Skull & Shackles as a general guide for what can set wood on fire (if it starts a fire on a ship, it could work with a pile of timber). If this is a catapult primarily used for hurling fire, yeah, they've probably fireproofed it with pitch; but if it's just old, dry wood sitting out there (my assumption since the fort is badly maintained) it might be a lot more flammable.
It's your call, of course, and Silas has no way of knowing if it'll actually catch (it's night, and we're far away), but he figures it's his best shot for an opening move.
HP 13/17, AC 21, touch 13, FF 18 Init +3; Senses low-light vision; Perception +4 Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +6; +2 vs. enchantments
Err... okay, but I'm the only caster who's actually building for offense; the others are support wizards. And neither of you seem much more powerful on castle walls than the average bandit, but if you want to go for it...
HP 13/17, AC 21, touch 13, FF 18 Init +3; Senses low-light vision; Perception +4 Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +6; +2 vs. enchantments
How far away they can see us from doesn't matter if we're only making melee attacks, which seems to be your plan—and my ranged fire attack lights me up pretty significantly, which is not great. (Also, low-light only helps if they're already very close, and leaving fortifications usually means getting completely surrounded)
Not trying to metagame; I just prefer to have conversations on strategy and such out of combat, because I find handling all minor interactions in character to be a bit wearying.
If we can see them from where we were, though, why couldn't we shoot them from there?
