Sir Lexarius Rubicon's page

Lex pulls out a small token and hands it to Argos. "Give this to my second in command, he'll know what it means." He turns to Kyra. "Stay safe sister. I don't want to lose you too." Both siblings share a brief hug before Lex walks over to his mount and speaks a command word, the beast disappears and a visage of it appears on Lex's armor. At this, he turns around and returns to the Princess' side.

"Only the ones within the castle. More have been summoned and are sweeping the grounds as we speak. Unfortunately the Ulfen Guard has been killed to a man, Kol Kodranson was slain in battle. What is most concerning is that magic has been nullified on the palace grounds and appears to not be functioning - many figures above my station are debating whether to move the Emperor so that healing magic may be applied."

Frowning at his sister, Lex turned to Val. "We are unaware of the identity of the assassin unfortunately, when they were...slain, only the armor and red, black leathers remained, no body...All the Lions Blades in the palace were killed, along with many of the Ulfen Guard."

"Your plan may have merit sister, though I loathe it...if you are willing, I will allow it...But you'll probably need a few good fighters." Lex looks over to Constantine appraisingly.

Knowledge Nobility: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 10 = 11
Perception: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (4) + 19 = 23

Lex does not know who Atticus Rook is, and has no idea Lord Rook is pretending to be him. He likely doesn't know who Constantine is either.

Turning to Nev, he looks thoughtful and raises a hand to his chin. "The assassins at the palace have been dealt with, the immediate danger has likely passed, but it is possible that more might linger. That said, the Princess' location is already 'known' to be somewhere else not there nor here." Lex explained, having already taken care to make those arrangements to throw off anyone else so the Princess could meet the Ambassador. He turned to Valignatir next.

"Doctor Janus has already been called to the Emperor's bedside and is treating him as we speak. I of course need to accompany the Princess, and I shan't be letting her out of my guard. I am...unsure who this Atticus is, or what his skills are. Ambassador, if you think you can help, I would welcome you to come. Any others, please make your way to the Palace by carriage or whatever means suit you, I'll alert the guard to allow you in once you arrive."

A faint swooping noise can be heard by those with some better perception, and its source soon becomes evident as a loud thump issues from the courtyard. The clink of armor and a few shouts heralds the arrival of another individual, this one clad in his usual armor and a great sword hefted onto his back. Lexarius Rubicon walks into the room, his face grim.

"Princess!...Kyra..." He exclaims when he sees her and his sister are unhurt, his serious expression softening somewhat. "Good work Robert. I'll see the Princess from here. My lady, the threat may not be passed, you will be the next obvious target."

"Ah well, good to hear. I hope she had a good evening regardless." Lex said with a small smile as he rubbed the back of his head. "It was good to see you again Kyra, you as well Lady D'Apcher. I'll talk with the Princess tomorrow and see when she'll be up for a private get together. Until next time." Lex saluted, before leaving.

Lexarius strode out into the gardens past a few lingering ladies. The party seemed to be dying down so he figured he might as well look around and try to catch his sister before she left. Spotting her familiar blonde hair, he nodded to her and made his way over to the pair.

"So good to see you again sis, and Lady D'Apcher." Lex inclined his head respectfully to Gabrielle. "Argos said you wanted to talk?" He knelt down for a moment, and after an eye roll from Kyra she leaned and kissed his cheek.

Lex scowled at the lord and made a shooing motion as he walked away, turning towards Lady Nev as he finally left. "I apologize for his misconduct. That was quite unbecoming of him." Lex huffed, opening his mouth as if to say something else before pausing as he couldn't quite find the words and sighed awkwardly for a moment before finally getting his thoughts together.

"Try not to let what those peacocks inside say get to you too much, I suppose they're just not used to seeing a woman as...brave and strong as you are. Perhaps imagine that they're hellspawn instead? I doubt you've ever had trouble facing down fiends before." Lex chuckled somewhat at his own joke.

Stand aside everyone! I take large steps.

Atropa

As responsible for the night's security, it was Lexarius' job to keep an eye out to make sure the grounds were secure. Most of his retinue was present and had formed the bulk of the perimeter security. He'd left some of his betters at the Princess' side while he made his rounds. Of course that meant he was one of the few nobles here not dressed for a party, prefering his plate armor instead.

Nobility: 16 = 16

As he passed by the Terrace, he couldn't help but overhear an argument brewing between the only two people who hadn't moved into the ballroom. He immediately recognized both, the unmistakable Lord Commander of the Taldan Horse, and the ever popular Dame Atropa who was all everyone could talk about lately.

"Excuse me Lord Commander, is there a problem here?" Lex asked pointedly, moving towards the pair. "Harassment of her Majesty's guests won't be tolerated, so I must ask you to desist or I will be forced to have you escorted from the party."

Well, so far we have two players for. One 'NPC' for. One reluctant/leaning no player. And three absent players.

I'd be down for that. It would be mighty disappointing for this campaign to be dead on arrival.

EDIT: No, it doesn't say you can treat it as a natural 20—just for opposed attack rolls. It's still not an auto-threat by any reading of the power; it's more of a variant True Strike.

What really? PoW class guide to Warlords lied to me.

Oh well, might as well just use a greatsword then.

One of my maneuvers is "Blade of Perfection" which allows me to treat that attack roll as a nat 20. So I can reliably crit even without the expanded range AND I'm doing that extra x4 over the x3. Nasty business. Also, scythes look cool and it saves me a feat on proficiency. Plus it's a trip weapon.

I do kinda hope we get a word in from the GM. I mean, he did kind of say in his recruitment thread that he did not like this sort of stuff.

The extra time has given me the opprotunity to refine my character. Switched to using a scythe of all things. Dat x4 crit. Although Falcata is still on the table. Filled in Maneuvers etc.

No new news? I'm guessing "roleplaying games" is probably low on the priority to deal with next to all the craziness of a major accident, but I do hope we hear from the GM soon. If nothing else just to let us know the game isn't cancelled before it even starts (really hope it isn't cancelled! That would suuuck!)

Well, that's somewhat a relief. I was kinda scared that they were gunna drop off the forum and we'd never hear from them.

It must have been pretty serious judging by their absence though. Hope they're alright.

I expanded on my lore somewhat, going more into detail on how Lex meets Blake if that's okay. Basically Lex lends his authority to Robert on occasion when he needs someone who's immune to the regular politics and bring in the high profile corrupt.

I also kinda pondered on what to do with some of the 100+ followers I get due to my leadership score. Obviously they're not actually expected to be in combat, but having a loyal cadre of troops to order could be fun. I'll even add in some 'officers.' Add in a few useful low level casters for non combat stuff too. Couple Rogues for spies. I am wondering if I/We have a "base of operations" though (easy enough to establish with TWO lyres of building though...can we make a ship with a lyre of building?)

Kind of seems redundant to have two lyres of building in the party. Although this seems like the kind of campaign where you could really put it to use.

Also kind of worried about our GM kinda dropping off the radar. I mean, if the other two were no shows well you could just go back to recruitment and slot in 2 other players...kinda can't replace the GM.

It looks like I'm going to need to go 2HD style though to get the full range of maneuvers I want. So...that's a lot of cheap AC gone. Probably won't matter much though, looking at our lineup I feel like most things are going to pop fast unless they are HP sponges.

@Darren. I noticed you didn't have Wheeling Charge on your feat selection, if you are going to be doing lots of charging (not gunna lie though, kinda would prefer to have at least someone else in melee with me) then it would be a good feat to pick up.

On that note, does anyone know anything about our 5th? They haven't dropped in yet. I'm also wondering what's up with Velius.

Improved Overrun solves that. I won't be making any Overruns, my mount will. The general plan is Imprv Overrun->Greater->Charge Through with some other feats mixed in. It's too bad Vicious Stomp can only be used with Unarmed Strikes.

It's not so much the map as it is the player turns. A lot will happen even in a single turn, so I expect a lot of conditional statement (for instance, what happens if I attempt a trip and then base the rest of my actions on the assumption of a success? And then other players act according to what I do, but my actions might be invalid?)

I'm just worried combats are going to get very confusing very fast. Currently in a solo PbP and that is already complicated enough with just one player who doesn't have to worry about coordinating with allies.

Not to mention, one bad thing about PbP is that it is abysmally slow.

By the way, is me tripping enemies going to be a big problem for ranged combat guys? Once my mount gets a few more levels in fighter I'm also planning on grabbing lots of overrun feats to knock people down (lots of opportunity attacks to be had!)

I hope you meant PbP. Because I don't think I signed up for PvP. That said, usually I'd expect a post from the GM by now on the campaign start up, or...at least to answer basic questions. I hope this isn't going to be a continuous issue.

And now that I think about it, just from our character line up it feels like this campaign has a huge potential to be very confusing with a PbP format due to how much positioning, and turn order is going to be. Just wondering if the GM is considering maybe using Roll20 for combats?

I don't include mounts since I'm considering them being in the same space as their rider. Also, if you include our spellcaster, that brings it up to two guys in melee, and 4 guys at range.

Idk generally I like to keep it a half disparity or more on the melee side so that we can keep the ranged types from getting rushed. Also - I only grant benefits for a lot of my abilities if you're within 30ft.

On the subject of followers, I wouldn't bring any along that couldn't turn themselves invisible. Though I wonder how cheesy it would be to bring a dozen lvl 1 gunslingers around to volley shots with on baddies.

I just realized but it seems like we have a lot of range combat guys. As in, a 2-1 disparity between range-melee types.

@Robert. Definitely! Very good thoughts on that. I'll have to start putting more into my backstory on that after I square away my crunch.

@Darren. Neither the Leadership feat nor the 'Creating NPCs' section under game mastery specifically state followers must use NPC classes. I just assumed followers were generally important enough to get PC classes. I'm also reluctant to get Quick Draw since I dislike weapon switching (also it is a move action to stow a weapon regardless), additionally, I probably won't be charging all that much - since my mount gets pounce he will charge but I won't so that I can full attack.

Also, as an aside. Should I rename my alias to Sir Lexarius Rubicon?

My ability lets me share a teamwork feat 9 times a day for 9 rounds, so I should probably pick up another teamwork feat. I'm thinking Lookout. Maybe if our martial characters invest in some Shadowed armor we can get more surprise rounds?

Right now I'm grappling with whether to go to Two-Handed style fighting, because Warlord doesn't grant access to Iron Tortoise style, and I can't use Thorne style with a shield. So I'm restricted to just two disciplines to use. (I mean, I could do it, I just would've rather gone sword and board because it fit my character concept more).

Just pointing out also, I'm invested in tripping, so Combat Reflexes might be useful to people.

Where are we on healing/divine magic? I'm going to make a level 6 cleric follower just in case, and I have a level 7 arcane crafter/buff man (if followers are allowed in battle - don't worry, he can turn himself invisible). I assumed the preslotted guy was an arcane caster but he might not be.

@Lexarius: cavaliers can grant teamwork feats as a move action, or a swift action at level 9 (so I take a move action now, but at next level I will join Opilio in granting them swiftly). It's still only one per turn, and Challenge is also a swift action, so having multiple people granting them is pretty cool. Mine focus on boosting either defense or mounted combat, and if yours boost flanking that gives cool synergy.

Unless someone knows a feat to grant extra swift or immediate actions, I will need to seriously ration mine, because I have a LOT of class abilities that use swifts and immediate. Never mind magic items or feats.

Dotted with prejudice.

Lexarius: Combat Expertise is actually a really good feat, though.

Considering my AC is already sky high AND I'm taking penalties for Power Attack? I really will never use that feat.

Also, if you take two levels of Lore Warden Fighter, you get it for free on top of a bunch of great class skills and the two normal fighter feats, which you could use for something like mounted combat.

If I multiclass then I won't get my capstone ability, which I actually really want since stances are way the hell more awesome than a few extra feats.

Also, I can already grant Shake It Off, and at level 13 I'll be able to get two more, one of which will be the awe-inspiring Coordinated Charge.

That's a good idea, since I have a stance that lets everyone get flanking for free AND use my Cha modifier (so a +6 instead of a +2). Looking forward to coordinated charge...since my mount gets pounce and that means full attacks!

I automatically grant my teamwork feats to any within 60 (correct me if I'm wrong) ft radius.

I thought that took an action to do? Mine certainly does.

They will need to change the animal of Taldor from a lion to a Pheonix!

I've gotten started touching up my crunch, getting magic items sorted etc. It looks like we'll be off to a slow start so plenty of time for that.

Couple of questions on that front. Can I not have to take Combat Expertise to qualify for tripping feats? (I really hate that feat). Do cohorts/followers follow the same HP rule? (max die). Any players have a preference for teamwork feats they would like? (given my warlord ability to grant them for free).

Aside from that, will any of our characters know/be able to know any other player's characters before the beginning of the campaign?

Right, going to assume PST then since it is 4:40pm EST right now.

Decided to go for Warlord, since War Master just doesn't have much in the way of teamwork ability (although a human Warmaster could get a stupid ridiculous +8 circumstance bonus to his AC that I really would've liked)

Here's my profile, I'll be steadily updating it until the deadline.