Lyra let Carli take the lead, settling into a chair with her coffee cradled in both hands as if it were the only stable thing left in the city. She listened—really listened—eyes attentive, expression composed, letting Carli’s account lay down the bones of the story. When there was a natural pause, Lyra added a few theatrical details.
“It felt staged,” she said, voice mild, almost apologetic for saying it aloud. “Like someone had decided the ending before the first line was spoken.” She glanced down at the mug, then back up. “Thrune didn’t speak to calm anyone. He spoke to provoke.” A faint, wry twist of her mouth. “And Nox…” Lyra continued, careful to keep it factual. “I saw a dagger find her throat. She removed it like a nuisance, and the wound closed as if it had never been.” She let that sit, then added, quieter: “That’s when I knew we weren’t dealing with ordinary intimidation.”
Lyra’s gaze flicked briefly around the office—doors, corners, the feel of the room—before returning to Laria. “We tried not to give them excuses,” she finished. “But they came with excuses already written.”
Lyra is attempting to Aid Another on Carli’s Diplomacy check by supporting her account and helping build trust with Laria.
Diplomacy:1d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19
Ragnar’s hand finds no resistance at the door. With a long, complaining creak, it swings inward, stirring a slow cloud of dust from the warped floor beyond. The old mining office is empty. Not merely vacant, but long abandoned.
The lower floor, though weathered and grimy, still holds together well enough. The stone walls remain sound, and while fallen beams, rubble, and the wreckage of the collapsed upper story litter parts of the interior, nothing suggests the whole place is about to come down on your heads. It could serve well enough as a temporary shelter or base of operations.
Dust lies thick on every surface. Vines have wormed their way in through broken windows and split masonry. A few rotted scraps of timber and rust-streaked fittings hint at desks, shelving, and the practical clutter of a long-dead enterprise, but nothing of value remains. No bedrolls. No fresh ash. No footprints but your own. No sign that any person has lived or lingered here in decades.
Outside, the silence of the hills seems to gather again as you spread out around the office and begin a wider search.
Ragnar:
A short distance away—perhaps ten minutes’ walk from the office, along the base of a stony rise and half-hidden behind a tumble of rock and a choking growth of scrub—your sharp eye catches something the hillside tries hard to conceal: a dark opening at the foot of the slope, too regular in shape to be natural and too deliberately obscured to be chance.
The mining office is empty and appears not to have been used in decades. The lower floor is battered but basically sound enough to use as a temporary base if you choose.
Artemis launched beautifully last night, so I should be back to a regularly scheduled posting cadence. That said, I know it is Easter weekend and Passover has just begun as well, so I fully understand if things need to slow a bit.
Just a heads up. I work on Artemis and for those who don't know we are expected to launch Wednesday evening. Things will be very hectic for the next couple days and posts may be sporadic.
Thank you all for your responses and thank you Yukio for that link. I skimmed a little of it and there is definitely some good info that I will look to incorporate.
As for myself, I live on the East Coast and have 2 young kids. Most of my posts will come after 9 Eastern once everyone has gone to bed. If work is slow, I may post from there. Also, most of my posts will come on weekdays. Weekends tend to be too busy but I may post occasionally.
And with that let me go post the first post of our journey
In the hardscrabble mining town of Diamond Lake, greed, despair, and old secrets fester beneath the earth. As ancient evil begins to stir, a handful of unlikely souls may be the only thing standing between the present and a long-buried doom.
The time has arrived. It took me much longer to go through all the submissions than I expected, because there were so many excellent characters to consider. When I first started this endeavor, I thought I would be selecting a party of four, but in the end I decided to go with a party of six because the applications were just that strong.
So, without further ado, would the following players please report to the Discussion Thread:
Ragnar Dourstone
Ezmelda
Yukio Orimi
Xarafine
Grulf
Aja Endymion
To those I didn’t select, thank you sincerely for your interest and the time you put into your submissions. I’m sorry I couldn’t take more of you, and I wish you the very best of luck in your future games.
First off, thank you all for applying and for putting together such a fun, flavorful group. We’ve ended up with a party that feels really tied to Diamond Lake and the surrounding area, which is exactly the kind of start I was hoping for. I’m very excited to get this game rolling with all of you.
A little about me as your GM: I’ve GM’d in-person games before, including Age of Worms, but this is my first time being on the other side of the table for a Play-by-Post game. So while I’m not new to running games, I am new to running one in this format. Because of that, I want to say up front that I’m very open to feedback. If there’s something you think would work better handled differently, or if there’s a PbP convention that makes things run more smoothly, please feel free to say so. I may not always change course immediately, but I absolutely welcome constructive criticism and suggestions.
A few things to start us off:
1. Please introduce yourselves
Feel free to share as much or as little as you like OOC about yourself, and then give us a quick introduction to your PC. You don’t need to dump the full backstory again unless you want to—just enough to give everyone a sense of who your character is, what they’re like, and how they fit into Diamond Lake.
This party already has a lot of natural overlap, so I’d love for folks to use this thread to work out any preexisting relationships, impressions, or bits of history between PCs before we begin. They do not need to be deep or dramatic. Even small things help:
*knowing each other by reputation
*having crossed paths through Allustan, Zalamandra’s, the mines, healing work, or local gossip
*having helped each other once before
*having heard of one another without really knowing each other personally
2. Posting and pacing
I’d like to keep things moving at a steady pace, but I also understand that real life happens. If you know you’ll be away or delayed, just let us know when you can. If someone goes quiet for a bit, I may bot them lightly to keep the game moving, especially in combat or if the group is blocked waiting on one action. I’ll try to do that conservatively and in keeping with the character.
3. Rules and table culture
I want this to be a collaborative game. Please assume good faith from each other, leave room for everyone to contribute, and try not to hard-solve every scene before others get a chance to chime in. If a rules question comes up, I’ll make a ruling and keep us moving; if needed, we can sort out the finer point afterward.
A few prompts, if helpful (but not necessary):
*What do people in Diamond Lake know, or think they know, about your character?
*Has your PC crossed paths with any other PC before this?
*Who in town would recognize your character on sight?
*What sort of rumor might be circulating about them?
*What is one thing the other PCs would notice quickly upon meeting them?
I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone settle into the group and start building some chemistry before we kick off properly.
Welcome again, and go ahead and introduce yourselves however you like.
Recruitment is officially closed. Below is the final list of submissions I see. If I missed you and you had a submission in, let me know and I will add you. If you don't have a submission in, I'm sorry but but you won't be considered. I will probably post my final decision tomorrow afternoon.
We are done to a little over 24 hours before I close submissions. Here is how I foresee things going. Sunday morning when I wake up I will make a post saying submissions are closed (Probably around 7 Eastern time). I will then review the submissions and make my decisions. I would hope to make my decision by Sunday night but I have not been able to review already submitted characters like I hoped. My goal is therefore to make my decision by Monday evening, probably around 6PM Eastern time. Here is the current list I have compiled (Izzy let me know when you finish the back story and I'll add you).
I have never ran nor played it, but Age of Worms is from the 3.0/3.5 days. So I am assuming any PF1e character, even if only using Core rules should find the challenges appropriate. I think we have gotten too used to optimizing the heck out of PF1e, and I believe it is totally not necessary 99% of the time. Just go with the concept you want to play, and I am sure everything will be absolutely fine.
I played this YEARS ago in a campaign that started lvl 12 and died out at 15th. It's DEADLY (pathfinder on hard setting) so I wouldn't recommend bringing a pure fluff character. I'm still mulling over what to submit.
Do not fret. If any brave adventurer should meet a truly noteworthy end I shall make sure they are forever immortalized in the age of worms obituaries.
Here are the submissions I have. If you don’t see your submission I probably just missed it. Just let me know (and link to your post or have it in your profile) and I’ll add it. However, there are a couple not listed as I could not find a backstory and therefore were incomplete. Also, make sure the link I have for you points to your submission. I will try and start reviewing these later today.
@GM would ancestral weapon be allowed? It does seem markedly more powerful (especially early game) then many other traits, as it massively increases starking gold and is essentially a +1 weapon for the cost of a trait.
I'm not going to straight up ban it but I would discourage it. This is a poor rundown mining town. Having a single object worth that much would make you a target. If you take the trait it should be supported really well by your backstory
I'm on my way back from my vacation now. I'll compile a list of submissions and start reviewing them tomorrow
1) Is taking a campaign trait (from another AP) allowed? (Campaign Traits tend to be noticeably stronger than other traits... Specifically:
Trap Finder, Finding Haleen
2) Is a Drawback allowed for an extra Trait?
I'm going to say no to both of these. In regards to campaign traits from other APs, there is just really no way to incorporate them into your backstory unless you are playing that ap. Haleen doesn't exist in AoW so how would trying to find her work for your backstory? Campaign traits are supposed to tie you into the story, give you a reason for being there. I couldn't find a set of campaign traits I liked that did that and that's why there are none in the players guide
For drawbacks, I'm just not a fan of them. They are too situational and are often forgotten. I think paizo really missed the mark with them. They really should have been like 3.5 flaws
Syeira was raised in the small town of Nybor. As for where she was born she doesn’t know. Her parents tell her one day when she was very young, perhaps no more than three, she wandered into their town covered in dirt, grime, and obviously malnourished. When they tried to question her as to where her family was, what happened to her, or even what her name was, Syeira responded with nothing but silence. Not sure what else to do, Syeira’s parents took her in and raised her as their own.
This is the story Syeira believes and she has no reason to doubt it. Her first memories are of living in Nybor. She has no memory of being found or what drove her from where ever it was before. Syeira loved her childhood. She was always running and rough housing with the other children, even besting some of the larger boys who thought she couldn’t keep up with them because she was a girl.
As Syeira began to mature, she began to develop affinities for magic. At first, it was small things like being able to move small objects with her mind. Syeira took delight in this ability and would use it constantly to prank her friends and parents. When her parents realized that Syeira had a latent magical ability, they sent her to train with the town wizard, Vesk.
While Syeira enjoyed learning about magic and how to use it, she hated the rigidness and structure of the instruction. At one point their studies crossed into Thassalonian runes and she was immediately drawn into them. They seemed to resonate with her and draw her in. As her magical prowess started to grow, runic tattoos began to appear on her skin and a strong wanderlust began to also develop within her. Constantly during her instruction from Vesk, she would be caught staring out at the wilderness daydreaming. As soon as she was dismissed for the day, Syeira would go running through the nearby woods. She always felt as if she was searching for something but could never figure out for what she was looking.
This wanderlust feeling continued to grow with age. Finally at the approximate age of seventeen Syeira decided to leave her small town. She packed a small bag; said tearful goodbyes to her parents, friends, and even Vesk; and set off down the road. Syeira didn’t really have a destination in mind when she left but her travels led her to a different small town (though bigger than her home) of Sandpoint.
Upon arriving at Sandpoint, Syeira had grown bored of the loneliness of the open road and decided to stay for a while. Wanting to be at the center of the town’s gossip and going ons, Syeira found herself seeking employment at the Rusty Dragon. Upon entering the establishment, Syeira immediately went searching for the owner, Ameiko. When asking for employment, Ameiko gave Syeira a once over. Believing Syeira to be too frail for the job, Ameiko asked, ”Why should I hire you?”
Before Syeira could answer, a fight broke out between two adventurers at the bar. Ameiko sighed in contempt and started to turn to deal with it when Syeira just smiled and put her hand up to stop her. Syeira then began to utter a few words and wave her hands. A pair of vines appeared from the floor incapacitating one of them. The second began to turn and Syeira snapped her fingers, her tattoo briefly glowing, before he froze in a daze. A third inebriated man, seeing what Syeira did to his compatriots, rushed at Syeira. Syeira quickly side stepped out of his way before smacking him on the back of the head, causing him to fall into a drunken unconscious heap with his friends. Syeira turned back to Ameiko with a grin while shaking out her hand. ”That’s why you should hire me.” Ameiko did nothing but smirk and toss her an apron.
That was five years ago and Syeira has flourished in Sandpoint. The wanderlust feeling has lessoned, but she can still feel it calling her under the surface. Syeria is loved at the Rusty Dragon for her outgoing and friendly nature, often inserting herself in the middle of conversation with many a customer. She has a standing challenge at the Inn to anyone that wants to attempt to beat her at a game of darts. (So far she has a twenty-two and three record). Her favorite time of year is approaching with the Swallowtail Festival. Though things always get busier at the Rusty Dragon at this time, all the new people in town and stories to hear excite her.
Appearance and Personality:
Syeira stands at 5'8" and has a slight build. She has long flowing jet black hair and piercing blue eyes. She has mystical tattoos up and down her arms. Across her back is stylized tattoo of a raven. As you look at the tattoo, you swear that you can see it move across her back. Syeira has a very outgoing personality, loving to be with people. Syeira is very competitive and will often try to turn the most innocuous thing into a competition. Even though she is outgoing, Syeira has a thirst for knowledge of any kind and will go out seeking it.
As to answer your earlier question about why she would want to leave, I can see some sort of tie between her magic and the Thassilonian ruins and wanting to leave to learn more. That is what I am trying to portray with the wanderlust and the searching for something unknown
Just a note: I am leaving on a short vacation tomorrow morning and returning Monday afternoon. There is a high probability I will not be responding until Tuesday Morning.
@DM Slayde- I do have two questions for a concept I have:
1) Does Allustan Neff ever take on apprentices? (Hence being a mentor for a wizard concept)
2) For a familiar , could a wizard or witch take on a small dog (Small or Tiny) and just use the Fox stats and bonus?
1) Neff will take apprentices
2) I have no problem playing a fox familiar as a dog
For those of you who participated in my interest thread: I’ve decided to run Age of Worms, converted to the Pathfinder 1e ruleset and set in Golarion.
For the uninitiated, Age of Worms is one of Paizo’s original Adventure Paths, published in Dungeon Magazine back before Pathfinder existed. It’s an epic campaign: the PCs start as level 1 nobodies in a forgotten mining town and (if you see it through) can end as level 20 legends. If long campaigns aren’t for you, neither is this thread—no hard feelings.
Posting Expectations
Because this is a long campaign, I’m looking for players who can post at least 5 times per week. I’m most active on weekdays, and that’s when the majority of my posting will happen. Life happens—if something comes up, just let me know.
Player’s Guide
There was no official Player’s Guide for this AP, so I put one together to support character creation and ground everyone in the starting town of Diamond Lake.
Character Creation Ability Scores: 25-point buy; no stat above 18 or below 8 before racial modifiers
Race: Core + Aasimar, Tiefling, Dhampir. If you want something else, ask—if it’s 15 RP or less and umanoid in appearance, I may allow it. (I’m not a fan of very odd-looking PCs.)
Class: Any Paizo class except those with an evil requirement (e.g. anti-paladin), vigilante, or gunslinger (except bolt ace; there are no firearms). Summoner must be unchained.
Skills: Background Skills in use
Feats: No Leadership. Crafting is allowed.
Traits: Two traits
Alignment: No evil
Gear: Average starting gold
ABSOLUTELY NO 3PP. Using 3rd-party material will automatically disqualify your submission.
Notes on Submissions
I’m looking for roleplayers, not roll-players. Please include a character background and—most importantly—tell me how you ended up in Diamond Lake and why you want out (or what you want badly enough to stay).
I’ll be looking at your posts in other campaigns (Gameplay and Discussion) to get a feel for your posting style and reliability. If you’re new to PbP, don’t worry, I will not be using posting history as a deciding factor.
Recruitment closes:Saturday, March 21, 2026 at 11:59 PM (East Coast / New York time).
I'll give my reasoning for wanting a recruitment thread.
First and foremost I want to make sure there is a rounded party. I don't want to pick 4-5 people and find out everyone wants to play the same type of character
Second I want role players not roll players. I've been in several games where there is a player that is basically just a stat block and not a character. While this can work in tabletop, my experience in PbP is those players don't contribute much, get bored of the slower nature and just disappear from the game.
I had a third, but I've forgotten it.
I don't intend to pay much if any attention to the extra fluff people post in the thread when making the decision. Now that said, I may look at previous campaigns someone haa been in just to see what kind of poster someone is.
TL;DR - My goal with a recruitment thread would be to get a well rounded party of active role players
I just want people to be aware that I still plan on running this but I got unexpectedly slammed at work and I don't have time to get this started right now. I will hopefully be a bit more open in a week or two and can start something then. Apologies for the delay
Looks like Age of Worms is currently leading considerably. I'll be pretty busy this weekend so I will let the thread run through the weekend and then post an official recruitment thread on Monday
Lyra’s eyes lifted at the change in sound. The opera house doors opened, and the Dottari emerged in a practiced file to form a loose cordon across the entrance. A dozen uniforms in wet light. Nervous hands. Tight jaws. Behind them, a presence paced with predatory patience, Nox, Thrune’s hound, always a half-step from a bite.
Fleck gave a sharp, dry rustle of wings from his perch, feathers tightening as if the air itself had soured. Lyra’s smile stayed where it belonged: small, pleasant, harmless. Her gaze did not linger on the cordon, and it certainly did not seek the pacing woman behind it. Looking too long was an invitation, and Lyra had learned never to RSVP.
Make waves without being seen, she reminded herself. The trick was to stir the water, not announce the oar.
She turned her attention back to the small knot of people who had lingered near her—not directly, not in a way that made her the center of anything. She simply continued her thoughtful critique of the scenery, her voice carrying only as far as the damp air would allow.
“It’s a curious choice of staging,” she remarked to no one in particular, tone light. “Guards who look like they’ve never seen a crowd before, placed in front of someone who looks like she’s seen far too many.” She adjusted her glove, eyes on the opera house doors as if the architecture were the real subject. “If one didn’t know better,” Lyra went on, “one might think they’re hoping someone forgets themselves. It’s the oldest trick in the theater—give the audience a villain so obvious they can’t help but react…”
She let the sentence trail off. The pause did the work she refused to do openly.
After a beat, her mouth curved—not kind, exactly, but amused. “But Kintargo has always preferred a more sophisticated comedy to a common brawl,” she added. “Laughter is much harder to arrest than a stone-thrower.” A faint tilt of her head, as if considering a performance she found poorly rehearsed. “And it’s considerably more insulting to someone who clearly practiced her entrance this morning.”
Lyra moved then—slowly, easily—drifting through the crowd so she never became a fixed point for anyone’s attention. Not fleeing. Just… changing seats.
Reminder that the deadline is tomorrow night, July 18th, at midnight central standard time. I realize now I had posted 12 pm, but I meant to set the time to midnight Friday night.
And here I was looking to playing "The Final Countdown" during my lunch break tomorrow
A look of bewilderment crosses Syeira's face. "What a queer little man," she thinks to herself. Syeira comes out of her stupor as Amycus's comment registers. "Yes, I may have to burn this hand off. I'm not certain my magic can make it clean enough." she says with a jovial smile.
"Anyhow, who hunts boar from horseback with arrows and bolts? I always thought they were hunted on foot as you track their trail before facing down the beast with a spear?"
She pauses for a moment as if truly pondering her question before continuing, "Regardless, where were we before we were interrupted? Ah yes, I believe I said I would be getting the drinks." With that, Syeira gets up with a smile and heads to the bar to procure the aforementioned imbibements.
Apologies... I kept looking refreshing my page and it showed no new posts. So I thought your move was just taking longer. Low and behold, I click the gameplay link and there are several. Apparently I got logged out of paizo's website.
With her mystical energies running through her staff, Syeira rushes at the oversized monstrosity and swings down on it before spinning and attempting another blow, her fear and rage just bubbling beneath the surface. "IF you hurt anyone in there I swear I'll bring you back just to kill you a second time .... or a third"
A1:Move to the giant corpse
A2:Attack Giant corpse
A3:Attack Giant corpse
As her shock takes down one of the zombies, the second continues to move towards the half-orc who is still fairly banged up from their last fight. Syeira hesitates for a moment seeing the one of the zombies grab on to Amycus before he takes it down. She then focuses all of her attention on the zombie moving toward Velkan. Syeira points her finger at the vile creature and shouts "Hahkpi". A small blue line arcs from her finger towards the creature.
A1&A2: Cast Ray of Frost, targeting velkan zombie
A3: Grip staff with 2 hands
and you thought your roll was bad. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving
Also, are there 2 or 3 living zombies? Your recap of the previous turn made it sound like Amycus killed the one that grabbed him but then in turn order there is an Amycus zombie listed.
Just a check, since your keeping Affriya's and Daidalos action, I'm assuming Affriya's happend first. Since the Paladin rolled exactly the DC required for grease I just wanted to check to see if you applied the effect of Affriya's prayer (i.e. the -1 to saves and skills)
Converting NPCs and Cohorts to Your Faith
Source PPC:C&C
You can proselytize for your deity, using your powers of persuasion and social influence to indoctrinate an NPC in the dogma of the faith while inspiring their fealty.
Converting an NPC to your faith is similar to modifying their reaction with Diplomacy.
You can only attempt to convert NPCs who are at least indifferent toward you, though you can take time to make a hostile or unfriendly NPC indifferent, and then begin the process of conversion. The DC of a conversion depends on how many conversion steps away from your faith an NPC is, starting at one conversion step for an NPC with no significant faith who matches your faith’s alignment. For each step the NPC’s alignment differs from the alignment of your faith, add one conversion step. If the NPC already holds a significant religious belief, add an additional conversion step.
Note that servants of other faiths— including divine spellcasters who worship a deity and agents in the employ of a formal religion—normally can never be converted to a new faith. The GM has final discretion over whether an NPC will ever convert to your beliefs.
If the GM rules that an NPC can be converted, the DC to convert that NPC is 10 + the NPC’s Hit Dice + the NPC’s Wisdom or Charisma modifier (whichever is higher) + 5 per conversion step. For example, a 5th level warrior with a Wisdom of 12 and no existing significant faith and who is the same alignment as your deity has a conversion DC of 21. Each conversion attempt requires at least an hour of proselytizing, and you can attempt no more than one conversion check per week. For your conversion attempt, roll a Diplomacy check and a Knowledge (religion) check at the DC determined above. If you succeed at both checks, decrease the number of conversion steps for that NPC by one. If you fail either check, you reinforce the NPC’s existing faith and add one to the number of conversion steps for that NPC. If you fail three checks over the course of a conversion effort, the NPC rejects your faith and you cannot attempt another conversion for a year. However, if the number of conversion steps ever reaches 0, you convince the NPC to adopt your religion. Note that this does not necessarily change the NPC’s alignment.
While proselytizing is a reasonable activity for a religious adventurer, it should be handled with sensitivity, both in character and at the gaming table. Having a PC repeatedly attempt to convert NPCs who aren’t interested is likely to result in worsening their attitude toward the character, and significant effort may be required to restore those relationships. Some players may be uncomfortable with too much time being spent on religious talk, in which case a GM is free to simply treat the conversion as a skill check, without actually roleplaying the talks that allow the conversion check to take place.
Successful Conversion
Characters that successfully convert others to their faith can gain divine blessings for adding new members to their religion. The first time at each character level a PC converts an NPC, they gain a conversion bonus for a number of days equal to the level of the NPC converted. Typical conversion bonuses for various faiths, and examples of classes likely to be interested in converting, are listed on the following page. In the case of Neutral deities, the bonus may be a sacred or profane bonus as most appropriate for the PC who gains it.
I was curious what the current breakdown was as we near the end (Does recruitment end in roughly 9 hours or 33 hours?) I compiled a list of everyone I saw. A lot of Operative and Soldier submissions.
Perhaps a bit overconfident given the state of their undress or the fact that he has an ogre at his back, Timo wades into the room and stands between the two opponents. He levels his sword between them and sends the two a mischievous grin. "So which one of you dies now by my blade and which one of you surrenders and gets to live? I leave the choice to you."
Is there a roll for that statement? Intimidate maybe?
