Spooky GM's page

Yeah, rerolls are fair on duplicates.

@Daniel: In the earlier days of the campaign there won't be significant amounts of downtime, but since the game is mostly centered out of one city, you'll naturally have time that you can do what you wish with.

@Lyj: Still pretty much the same; Absalom's makeup hasn't really changed, proportionately speaking, it's just a lot bigger. As far as Scribe Scroll, let's say that boosts it up to 33%. So now you're looking at 13,965 as your cap.

@Markus: He asked me about approving his evil character earlier in the thread and said that if I didn't approve of LE in his circumstance that he would bump up to LN, which I agreed would be the better situation. So, it's not down to anyone not reading anything, he just made a mistake on converting a character he'd already had from a Carrion Crown game. Lyj will be a Lawful Neutral character for this game if chosen. The exchange is back on the first page.

@Erasmus: Maybe something relatively achievable in some capacity. Whether a plot hook or just something they can be working toward one way or another, but something that could be realized. Bloodstones of Arazni might be a little too off-theme for us to really end up happening upon them at any point. Obviously he can have whatever pipe dream heist he could imagine as something he'd love to do, but also something a little more grounded and realistic on the list too.

@Thecooldudenextdoor: Missing the personal motivations bit.

@Zachariah: Everything looks to be in place.

@Jack: Lacking in description and the personality run-down, and I'm hoping that's not your finished character sheet, but otherwise everything looks fine.

@Lyj: I agree with you on the count of Breadth of Experience, and will allow you to take it. As for crafting, I like the book's suggestion of allowing you to exceed WBL by 25%, increasing if you take further crafting feats. So I will permit it, as long as you switch around your shopping such that the total value of everything is beneath 13,125 GP. You can learn as many spells through money as you wish, and yes that's standard fees.

@Markus: It's "group" in a more complicated sense than just party turn/enemy turn. I divide initiative up into brackets based on the rolls; for the first turn, anyone who rolled higher than the enemies may move, then the enemies move. Then, the people who rolled lower than the enemies moved, but so can the people who rolled higher than the enemies, as they're the next in queue. Enemies will, in the majoriy of encounters, work off a single initiative count together for simplicity and pace's sake.Then, once the whole party has move,d which is 1.5 turns, I roll for the enemies again, and everyone moves once more. This way, in an ideal world each turn takes 24 hours, rather than peoples' individual schedules drawing combat out for longer as we wait for everyone to roll in sequence. In practice, people who roll high might end up with an extra couple turns as time goes on depending on posting and how things go, but it's just a neater way of keeping the game pace moving. But having an Initiative is still rather important as far as getting ahead of enemies goes.

@Amarantha: Thing you misunderstood the accomplishment thing a bit; it's not necessarily an "anything you'd be famous for" thing, but something that would make you specifically notable to someone looking to put together a band of monster hunters.

Doomed Hero: Branded is third party, so it's out.

Markus: Sure, that's a fine ability. Just a matter of wanting to keep the ability as somewhere in the neighborhood of what it replaces, and flight/ability score boosts seem a bit much in that regard. As far as saving someone, long as it was from nefarious forces, that someone is indeed important, and it's in a manner that says you know your s*$&, then sure, that'd work.

@Markus: It doesn't have to be in Absalom, but it has to be something noteworthy; if someone were putting their ear to the ground and listening for potential people to put onto a team of elite undead fighters, it would be something they could hear about and think "Yes, good. Them." It can be anywhere in Golarion, just of some note. It doesn't have to be with Amarantha, I just figured that you two were connectifying stuff and collaborating given the connections in the backstory. You guys' call on if you want to have separate things in that regard or not, depending on how closely you're working together on these.

You can't pick +2 to an attribute if you didn't roll it, as I said above. So, if you want to reoll that 99 and hope to get lucky then feel free, but otherwise, no.

Okay, now that I have recovered from the worst day-and-a-half long hangover and accompanying migraine, and my computer screen has stopped looking like staring into a f+~!ing light bulb, time to get down to work.

@Amarantha: Everything's looking good, except that I'd suggest maybe nailing down a singular accomplishment or two as far as things she's done in her duty that might have been of some renown. In addition, hooks. Her greater, plot-ier goal seems very obvious, but I want to see characters have a personal one as well.

@Sunstone, Runge. Pale King, Godfrey: I'll wait until for the full stories to give judgment one way or another, but so far not hearing anything from any of you that would give me pause or too much worry.

@Enchanter Tim: Dhampir haven't really changed as far as public perception goes; they're still not very fondly looked at. As far as perception by the important folks in question, a Dhampir who has proven themself to walk the path of light would be trusted.

@Viscount K: Everything here looks to be in order.

@Markus: Everything here looks to check out. Coincidentally, I have sort of the same feedback for you that I did for Amarantha, so perhaps on the count of some notable deed, you two could figure one out that involves both of you, for convenience's sake. On the matter of rolling, I would say either reroll that one or pick from the list elsehwere; players having natural, constant flight is kind of a big thing.

Go for it, man.

Going to review the characters so far later tonight and get back to you guys, but right now I have a bunch of work to do before my day is 'done'.

Evil outsiders aren't going to be the most common enemy, but there's still going to be plenty of them, and it's definitely something you will get a lot of mileage out of building to fight, unless you somehow manage to do build yourself to be 100% useless in the face of anything else. And yeah, stamina is allowed.

No, just do your thing, long as it's understandable i'm fine with however you do it.

@Johnnycat93: I guess it depends on whether you take an archetype that would heavily interfere with the changes to Unchained Monk. I'd have to go case-by-case on approval for the specific archetype. Potentially with revisions/houseruling on the exact replacements/levels if I think it could work with a bit of tweaking.

@Sidewinder: I don't mind it, but if there does become an over-abundance of antisocial folk and loners there might be a bit of additional narrowness as I add that factor to choosing a well-rounded party. And you can roll or pick; with three options, I'd kind of prefer you take one of the rolled optiosn rather than decide you don't like any of them, which kinda defeats the point of rolling.

@Viscount K: It's kind of complicated, due to certain things about your pitch that I can't really go into now, but which may kind of lead down to the line to certain antagonists' goals actually perhaps seeming a bit more appealing to him than they perhaps should for a PC. There's no easy way to explain it without giving away massive chunks of story, but it is a pretty distressing concern, actually. It's neat, and I rather dig it, but in this situation it may in fact be a bit better to move up a step to LN, if not to effect his general disposition and motivation, then at least to maybe dial up a general sense for the innate value of life.

@Tin Foil Yamakah: I will allow it, if only because I can see the justification in Pharasma's healing being invigorating.

@Runge: Sure, that wouldn't be a problem. Time advancement is meant more so that I can make certain changes to things, update the city's aesthetic, and just be able to make s~!! up as far as names and locations go. As for the discovery, that looks like it should all be fine, so sure.

@Mottied: Shabti are, while kinda neat, not an allowable choice; they're under Advanced Races.

@TwelvePointFivePercent: Yeah, a cleric could get some interesting 'blasting' use out of a game like this.

@The Pale King: Nothing wrong with the tried-and-true method of "basically X", especially since this whole idea is derivative as hell, and has way too many influences on it. Feel no shame about going taking inspiration from s+*# here.

To whom it may concern,

-A

The Darkest Corners is a gothic horror/urban fantasy-styled adventure of my own design and several years' labour of love. A year ago, I ran this game until my apartment's roof caved in and then mold got discovered in our walls, and my living situation spiraled madly out of control from there (kind of hard to DM a game while couch surfing), but now I'm looking to hit this hard again, especially now that Occult Adventures is out and there is so much more goodness involved. Oddly enough and entirely by coincidence, the recruitment thread for the last one was posted a year to the day, which was extra eerie--spooky, almost--and after realizing that, I can't not go for this again.

The setting is, for all intents and purposes, Golarion, centered mainly out of Absalom, but with a few "updates". Nothing you need to worry about as far as understanding the setting goes, but consider this to take place within an unspecified number of years into the future, when Absalom has swelled far beyond its 'current' size and population, and become significantly more Victorian in aesthetic, to better fit the genres I'm going for. Gothic horror by gaslight, essentially. Within the shadows of Absalom hide secret cults and undead power players easily kept secret within the sprawling and bustling city, but whose crimes and manipulations have hard-hitting and very dire consequences.

You, the player, are somebody who knows that some things are not only problems in Ustalav. The veil has been lifted for you, in one way or another, and you are not only acutely aware of what lurks in the shadows, but you're in one way or another capable of stopping it. How this manifests is entirely up to you, but I have a thing about characters and their being on-theme and very neatly tied into a lot of the genres and ideas on display here. I'll explain this in greater detail with the character guidelines, but know that I will only be considering characters who have strong ties to the themes and sorts of enemies you'll b facing. Your character is someone hand-picked by a secret benefactor and asked to come and fight these things, and so your character should be someone who is in one way or another an asset to such a fight. More on that below.

Despite being the best at what you do, you'll still be facing difficult challenges, fighting powerful undead beings, secretive and deadly cults, mages who have mastered vile and forbidden forms of magic, and strange beasts who may not be undead but certainly fall deep into the category of "the unknown". I like to challenge my players, and so even though you'll b facing lowly ghouls and even common street thugs for one reason or another, the dangers lurking in the shadows will be sinister, and you will sometimes find yourself ekeing out a victory by the skin of your teeth. Otherwise, where's the horror?

Structurally, the campaign will have heavy investigative and intrigue bends to it, given the secretive nature of your mission and the need to investigate strange crimes and clues to hunt down the monsters in question. While "hunting" definitely accurately describes the fact you're going to be putting down plenty of monsters, characters built for out-of-combat purposes will have more than their fair chance to shine, and in fact characters specced to do nothing but hurt stuff may find themselves the ones forced to sit situations out. The game will take place largely in Absalom, with any travel to other locales being a currently very distant prospect.

Character Creation:
Crunch:
-5th level, to reflect your character's previous experiences and competency in their areas of expertise.
-25 point buy
-Max HP per level
-10,500 starting gold, per WBL
-Any non-evil alignment.
--Neutral clerics may not worship Evil-aligned deities. For all divine classes, I would suggest choosing a deity who has a clearly explainable link to connect why you are acting in their name on the specific goal in mind. Some, like Sarenrae, Iomedade, and obviously Pharasma, are easier sells than others, but if you have something in mind and you're not 100% sure, we can talk out how to spin that.
-Material from all official Paizo books is allowed, whereas no third-party material will be.
-All classes are allowed, as well as all Archetypes except for Synthesist Summoner. For Unchained classes, it's your choice on which versions to use, as per your tastes.
--Due to the Victorian setting of the game, Firearms are not only allowed, but will be using the Commonplace Firearms rules, which are as follows. "While still expensive and tricky to wield, early firearms are readily available. Instead of requiring the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat, all firearms are martial weapons. Early firearms and their ammunition cost 25% of the amounts listed in this book, but advanced firearms and their ammunition are still rare and cost the full price to purchase or craft."
--It's not by any means a must, but there are a lot of archetypes for classes that deal with very specific focuses on the undead and such. While for your average, regular game it's not an entirely smart choice to take, for this game, these archetypes provide both a palpable advantage and some interesting flavour for your character, so I would advise taking a look at those and seeing if any catch your fancy. Occult Adventures in particular has a whole bunch, and they're really neat.
--For the purposes of class features like Favored Enemy, some very strong choices would be Undead, Humanoid (Human), and Outsider (Evil).
-All Core, Featured, and Uncommon races are allowed, except for Drow and Svirfneblin.
--Tieflings do not need the Fiendish Heritage feat to access their variants. Both Aasimar and Tiefling may choose as many aesthetic effects from the table as they wish to diversify their character instead of rolling, if they wish. From the variant abilities table, they may choose any ability that does not provide +2 to an ability score, though if they choose to roll for the ability in-thread and get one, they may take it. If you choose to roll, you may make three rolls and choose your favorite of the three.
-Two traits, with the option to gain a third by taking a drawback. In addition, I will be writing a trait for each chosen player based on their backstory. The more vivid the backstory, the more likely I'll be able to find a good focus, so this is your mechanics-driven sweetener to go deep and detailed.
-A quick rundown of what your character can offer to a party in terms of their abilities, as well as a rough plan for where you see them developing, mechanically; will they be multiclassing or delving into any prestige classes, or staying the course?

Fluff:
-A written backstory, obviously, detailing your character's history, what their specialty is, and why they do it.
--For your 'hook', as I'm going to conveniently refer to it, you have a lot of freedom. It by no means has to be some manner of revenge story, although that's always a nice one. You could just as easily be a scholar studying in cults or seeking knowledge that should not be possessed by humans. A holy warrior who has found themselves tasked by their god with quelling the undead scourge. An alchemist who studies the undead in the pursuit of eternal life. There's so many different ways to go, but make sure that whatever it is, you have a strong and fully developed one, with some good backstory justification and a clear area of expertise you can point to.
--Weave a plot hook or five into your backstory, if at all possible, that can be explored and weaved into the game as we go.
--Separate to any plot hooks, state a goal for your character. Something they want to work toward or achieve that is within the scope of what one person in a city truly can. Your typical "vampires murdered my family" warrior obviously wants to kill vampires, but should also have a palpable, personal want for their life. Show me that. Give me a motivation to play on.
-A description of your character's physical appearance, as well as their personality.
-This is very weird and highly specific, probably won't actually mess with anybody's plans, but characters cannot have connections to the Pathfinder Society. This will all make sense in time.

Under no circumstances should your character be someone that you could just as easily slip into a game that has nothing to do with the undead. By all means, reclaim an alias or rework a topical Carrion Crown character or something if you've got one, but this should really be something where you're probably starting on a new character and building something meant for this game. I know it sucks to make something and fall for it only for it not to be picked up for a game, but I'm not going to be accepting characters that I feel aren't strongly tied to the themes. I know what I want, and am trying to be as up front as possible about that want so that you know what I am looking for before you start on anything, and hopefully this is fair enough warning. I will try and call tell you if your character is feeling weak in that department or if you're outright not actually giving what I'm asking for, but know that one of the main factors for party selection is going to be based on backstory strength, both in quality and in the thematic ties I'm seeking,

For house rules:
-I don't use a map, we are going 100% theater of the mind for this one. I'm not fond of fiddling with pieces, especially online, and I feel that there is more atmosphere to be had in being descriptive. I will convey everything necessary about an area and answer any questions, but maybe don't build something centered around AOOs or piece placement, because that will not work here.
-Encumbrance doesn't exist, so feel free to carry as much as you want to, up to some semblance of reason, and in that regard a size 1 Bag of Holding/Handy Haversack is all you would theoretically need. More pertinent is that you actually have a container to put stuff into.
-Due to the urban setting, you will not need to keep track of food and lodging unless you're traveling out of the city, in which case you will know about it and have time to amass resources as needed.
-I use group initiative, which I'll explain for those who don't know the workings of when the game gets going, but basically any single round of combat should be able to finish within 24 hours, speeding things up considerably from working in proper initiative order.
-In the interest of making certain enemies unique, I may flub/houserule/homebrew up elements exclusive to that enemy, like merging incompatible archetypes or changing spell lists. Certain players may not be fond of this decision and others may be weirded out when they see something that they know isn't right, so I feel it's fair to warn about this in advance.

I'm looking for people who can make one post per day and at least one on weekends. How long this thread stays open depends on sustained interest; if it peters out and everyone is finished their characters, I'll likely close earlier. If it gets sustained interest and people need time to finish their characters, I'll see about keeping it open longer. Let's say that for right now, Sunday February 7th is likely the close date, and anything earlier or even later will be announced 48 hours in advance of that.

Sorry guys, but right now my life is utter g!@+@$n chaos, and I don't think I can handle running a game right now. The horrible pace we've had this past week is entirely on me, but it looks like this'll be the case for a couple more. Long story short our apartment is currently not in any livable shape, but the 'estimate' is about a month to fix. Rest of my family is holed up in a hotel room (which by law is covered by our landlord), but I can't stand to be locked in a room with my family for a whole month so I'm instead moving around wherever there's a couch until it's fixed. Unfortunately this means going out to bars or things with the friends I'm staying with is kind of compulsory, and the relatives in question don't even have wi-fi for me to scum off of. My posting is super erratic, which is sort of not really something doable when you're the one running the game and everything comes to screeching halt for days at a time. So, sorry guys, I was looking forward to this, but the universe is 100% committed to me not running this game and I don't want to drag you guys along with hurried posts twice a week.

Sorry, things still rough on my end.

"I'm sorry, sir, I know nothing of the local morticians." She speaks softly and with a thin accent, looking just past the investigator. "There are some cities where our church is heavily involved in the funerary process, but sadly this is not one of them."

Once those of you robing up do so, Stella ushers you out of the church and through the streets, keeping a quick pace ahead of you and offering little chit-chat or reaction, though she gives small nods to other watch members as you pass by them on your way to one of a few morgues in the city, seated just outside the edge of the Petal District, close enough to tend to its dead but far away enough to not be an 'eyesore' for its affluent living. A modest, squat building of stone, it certainly looks out of place amid the upper middle-class dwellings and workplaces.

Pushing the door open ahead of you, Stella walks up to the desk. "Good morning, Hairam," she says to a rather spindly human in a white coat, currently tending to the desk and to paperwork. "Has Darril Bren's body been moved yet? I have some people who'd like to take a look at it."

Giving a curt, brief nod to the lieutenant, he looks past her to you, gathered behind her and looking like a rather strange lot. "Mister Bren's body is still here, but who might you be?"

"Take what you need from these as long as you bring them back, my dears. We don't have anything other than symbols here, but if you go through the tunnels, you can certainly get what you need." Kotri says, smiling warmly before pointing you toward the storage room.

Finishing her porridge, Lieutenant Riodos rises, cracking her knuckles and looking impatiently at all of you. "Sounds like you're all set then, let's get moving. I've only got so many hours before my shift starts." Getting a head start on you, she makes her way toward the indicated door.

The storage room is in almost every way, a typical tavern's store room, with its massive casks of spirits, slabs of cured meats, and small crates full of vegetables. What's unusual, though, is the door in the back, which the guardswoman opens to reveal a long torchlit tunnel. Spanning the few blocks' length between the Gilded Unicorn and the Church of Pharasma, it looks like a rather recent job, sleek and well supported, with a few branching paths. You can hear the sounds of metalworking occurring, a peek down one of the splintering hallways letting you catch a glimmer of the gnome who had been flaunting her spider construct the night before, wearing a different grease-stained flower dress and working on a massive clockwork golem. As you were told last night, this will be your usual manner of exit for the time being.

Most of Pharasma's churches are only modest temples, even in a massive metropolis and travel hub like Absalom. Fittingly, the death goddess's church is almost deathly quiet, empty save for a few quiet robed clerics moving about. Stella flags down one, the same deathly pale Tien woman who was in the tavern the night before, who wordlessly nods and brings several black cassocks, one large enough even for the hulking Tiefling. "Good luck with whatever your plan involves," the priestess says faintly, "Though please, try not to misrepresent us."

Sorry guys, stuff went down, currently couch hopping, just got to my friend's place and it's 3 AM. I'll post in the gameplay thread tomorrow.

Let me know once you guys've ironed everything out and are ready to move. Not in a "come the f+#& on guys" way because planning is good, but without interaction with NPCs I don't have much reason to post in-game and I just wanted to note that my silence is due to giving you guys the space to plot rather than me being poofed. I'm around.

Kotri looked with growing confusion, visibly sharing Laurence's concern at the lack of planning and having much more to lose by risking it. "If you take the tunnels to leave instead of the front door, you'll come out at the church of Pharasma, and if you seek out Xiang, she should be able to help you." She shrugged, moving to rinse out some ale glasses as she continued. "Sometimes a few priests will look over a body to perform rites on it if they are a follower, but they rarely involve a scalpel, at least officially. We've performed such visits to a morgue before to retrieve information as well, and there's rarely a mortician on staff who follows the Lady of Graves. If you are convincing, you may be able to get away with this."

"Of course I do. I always keep extras with me, just in case." She pulls out five more pendants from the drawer and lays them on the counter with a smile. "Just bring them back to me, my dear."

"Nothing comes to mind," Stella mutters. "I didn't any time to examine things in depth."

"Of course I do, my dear. Several." She doesn't bother reaching for the one beneath her shirt, instead pulling a pristine holy symbol of Pharasma from a desk drawer. "What do you need one for?"

The older woman's eyes narrow as they move toward Dr. Grey. "Hardly an idealist at my age," she grumbles. "The world is s&&$, I just don't use that as an excuse to be corrupt."

"If you believe you could inquire around his home without arousing suspicion, then you may certainly try. It is a definite risk, though, and if you get discovered it would mean I couldn't help you in any capacity, or even be seen with you. In all the places in the Petal District you'd be likely to find somebody willing to talk, I suppose his neighborhood would be one of them. It's where servants of the more generous nobles live, and there is a degree of solidarity among them."

Laurence's other question took her by surprise, eyes going wide a little as she placed her spoon down gently into her bowl and drew in a deep breath, sighing and looking off to Kotri. "Do you remember last night, the noble family I talked about? In my horribly typo-rific post; sorry about that. I was the one who first arrived at the house to find the scene. It was by all rights my case, but my captain was told to close the case without resolution by important figures from both the Arcanimirium and the district council. He's a greedy man more concerned with his career than the right thing, so he did, and made me burn all of my notes on the case right in front of him. Told me if I investigated it any further or asked any questions, I'd be demoted and toil away in the lowest position I could be put into until I retired.

"So naturally, I continued looking into it, because unlike him, career and rank are not my greatest virtues. I went to the Church of Pharasma to inquire about what sort of necromancy may be at work. Three days later I was asked to join the order, once they'd looked into my background and decided I could be an asset. It's true that I have not suffered a tragedy of my own, but my work with the order is driven by the need to do what's right. If I keep in line with the guard and do as I'm told, I'm complicit in its corruption, and I simply won't have that. This is the best way for me to play the game during my shift, and to do what's right off of it." She picked up an apple and took a big bite out of it, hoping that her answer had sufficed.

Because when I think gothic horror, I think The Wire.

Also zilch.

Zero bells.

"Darril Bren is the victim's name. Lying is not my forte, so I'll leave the convincing explanation to you, but so long as they believe it isn't for the purpose of a vigilante investigation, it shouldn't arouse much suspicion. The captain's corruption is a very poorly-kept secret, so expect anybody you come across in the employ of the Lotus Guard or the morgue to be aware that these are not to be investigated criminally. That said, the morgue workers receive none of the money, so should you have a reason other than wanting to find his killer they should let you in without much struggle, if they believe you." Stella finishes the last spoonful of porridge before addressing Baqir. "At the moment, the only action we have is the body, but hopefully there will be a lead off of that we can work with. Something that doesn't involve crossing paths with the guard at a crime scene where no crime took place."

"Good, you're all here," Stella says, less pleased as much as absent of judgement. "We've had a string of suspicious murders in the past few weeks. A quick slashing of the throat. My captain has an 'arrangement' of sorts with the Cult of Norgorber, which is to say he turns his head to assassinations the cult marks, in exchange for a weekly stipend greater than his salary. As a result, any murder where Norgorber's symbol is written on a wall near the body is quietly declared an accident and shoved under the rug. No examination, no looking around or even entertaining the thought that maybe the killer knows about the arrangement and uses the symbol as a smokescreen. He's too afraid of losing his fortune to risk it."

As Stella speaks, Mrs. Davids comes back with a tray full of freshly-squeezed juice, placing one beside each of your plates, adding a small shaker of cinnamon for Laurence before moving back to the counter to resume serving the assorted guests their breakfasts.

"Yesterday morning was the first one I was dispatched to rather than merely hearing about it, and immediately I knew that it was not the Cult of Norgorber. There were signs of struggle and destruction all over, and the victim's slit throat was suspiciously absent of any blood. The damage screamed of 'robbery gone wrong'--although I couldn't look around to see if anything had been stolen--but the absence of blood is even more concerning. The victim's home is off limits, but with a decent lie on your end I can get you into the morgue to examine the body. Suffice to say, I don't believe Norgorber's cult performed this murder."

Feel free to Knowledge (Religion) Norgorber if you wish.

The Gilded Unicorn isn't particularly full in the morning, largely due to their surprise midnight closing. Lieutenant Riodos is there though, with some bags under her iron gaze that says she didn't go home to rest a few hours after the meeting. Instead she sits at a table, positioned to get a good view of you as you ascend down the staircase while she works her way through her breakfast. Her face has some age on it, but it's been furthered by stress more than the years themselves, hair turned almost completely gray save for the occasional spot of black. Her stern expression is discerning, watching each of you as you come down the stairs, eagerly awaiting the arrival of each of you.

Though the guard's experession doesn't change much, a quick look over to the counter reveals that the dwarf is very happy to see you coming down early, giving a smile and a little nod to you. As you sit, a hot bowl of porridge and some fresh fruit is put in front of you.

"We'll talk details once everyone is down," Stella says, eyes rarely moving from the stairs. "Or, when it's late enough to call them a lost cause."

"When you have need for certain resources, naturally, you will receive them. I would hardly send you out to fend for yourselves. As for your first assignment, please come down early for breakfast. You will meet with Lieutenant Riodos at a table, and she will take you to your first task."

"If get queasy, eat light," the steely guardswoman warns. "We're going to the morgue, and I don't want anyone throwing up on their first day."

Baqir, are you still with us?

At any rate, are there any more questions anyone's character has to ask, or should we advance the scene?

Annabeth nods slowly in agreement with Dr. Grey's sentiment. "Even the best case scenario, of there being many small organizations afoot instead of one large one--and we know for certain there are small cults in play as well, though not with the same aspirations and level of infiltration--is cause for concern. Any one of them could seize major control over a part of the city and cause untold chaos."

As someone who's done it often, it basically just requires a plan and a bluff roll. Whether it works is another matter, but from the perspective of the scene in Little China, basically he just kicked in the door, rolled bluff, and walked on. It's not something that'd go too tonally out of whack, since I'm thinking it'd be useful more for things like "break into this office and find this document with a record of something we need for evidence" more than "let's go crash the cult party". The sort of situations where you don't want to go kill the people who'd try to stop you, y'know?

"Liana," he says, fighting back tears and pulling himself back together. Once the moment had passed and he seems more whole and stable, he addresses Erasmus. "I meant no offense by the 'foreign' remark, I apologize. But Geb is very different from Absalom, and frankly from all of Avistan. I believe that the change in perspective that outsiders can provide would allow us to think outside of how the city operates, outside our assumptions. The majority of our order has lived somewhere on Avistan our whole lives, so we felt it wise to reach out to people with specialties elsewhere, who could look at situations differently."

"Our belief," Miriel says, [/b]"Is that whatever relic she found with worrying necromantic powers is something the cult wanted. Liana was a divination specialist whose talents and instincts lended themselves to treasure hunting. We suspect they used her abilities to find a power object they sought, then had her slain. Whether a cover-up, or something off the books and unofficial, we don't yet know. There is a lot we're still piecing together, but we've so far been able to connect many of our people of interest to one another in ways that can hardly be coincidental."[/b]

Alandre straightens out his collar and his sleeves, clearing his throat a little. "If you don't wish to support a cause, then we could simply pay you to handle stray threats of the undead. We're driven together by the growing danger and conspiracy, but we still have use for someone well-versed in putting down the risen dead, something you're certainly capable of doing. Whether these forces are working together or not is your decision to believe, but there are still necromancers in this city we'd like put down, and mnoey is little object to me."

Can everyone please put their crunch and backstories into their profile? It's easier to reference stuff when I have it all in one place.

Also, Raz, on a player level, how much are you the sort to go bluffing your way through situations? Like, full-blown "We're with the phone company" level of ploy. Mostly I'm just asking to know if I should leave a few opportunities open.

"I have little illusion about my daughter being alive," he says, and it doesn't take a careful observation of his mien to hear the pain in his voice. "It's more likely she was dressed as a commoner and left dead in the streets, nameless and insignificant to the guard. If they have such little compulsion against killing then why would they take her prisoner? No, I don't fear any further danger coming upon her, and knowing her soul is at peace has given me purpose. I will risk everything I have to see justice brought to Captain Corten and every other member of whatever vile organization she's a part of." His eyes shut tight, and Kotri's hand is alread at his shoulder, patting it reassuringly.

"If you want to keep it private," the dwarf begins while the noble puts his head into his hands and emotion comes flooding in. "Then you may go up to your rooms and rest. If you are willing to join us, be down here bright and early, as you'll be going with Lieutenant Riodos to begin aiding us. If you'd like to decline, then sleep in, enjoy breakfeast on the house, and then part ways. Although I implore each of you who refuses to please not reveal a word of what's happened here to anybody."

Stella's eyes widen in discomfort at Dr. Grey's slip, shooting a nervous look toward Alandre before shoving it off to address Raz's question. "There is something collaborative in play. Most conspiracies tend to have one small group acting on their own, but in each organization we believe to be infiltrated, we've seen cooperation. A student at the Arcanimirium whose father sits on the Peal District council goes missing, reported only by his family when he fails to visit for several weekends in a row. The district does little, the guard ignores him, and the academy claims that he is busy studying and hasn't left the school, only to be found a day later, rituallistically slain in the home of a missing city guardsman, dead for three days when we found him.Neither his death nor the death of a missing guardsman are looked into where usually such a finding would stir the watch into a frenzied investigation. Then, his body disappears from our morgue, and his father claims that he is being stalked by the risen corpse of his son. Messages like 'They will hold me in this decaying prison until you change your course' are smeared in animal blood across his door. Then he and his entire family are found massacred by a burst of cold that left the entire room around them frozen, and our missing cadaver lying on the floor covered in cuts. Our experts say it was the Detonate spell, cast by himself, a low apprentice. The palace, the Arcanimirium, and the guard all did nothing about the wholeslae slaughter of a seated politician's family. Do you have a better suggestion?"

Alandre closes his eyes, wincing a little at Erasmus's implications and calming himself before speaking. "Does claiming she hasn't gone on a mission in months add up? A Pathfinder dying in the field is nothing new, but never is it treated with such silence and suspicion. They're memorialized as heroes, their families notified and allowed to grieve, rather than lying about correspondence and claiming she hasn't gone on a mission in months, all of her paperwork conventiently gone when they need it. Please humour me, Mr. Ames, and imagine you were hired for a job that involved retrieving something. You discovered it was significantly more powerful than you were led to believe, and your employer wishes to visit you and the object rather than you bringing it to them. You hole up an inn for a few days while your employer makes it to you, and then you're never heard from again and your employer refuses to acknowledge they ever hired you. Would it be more likely you're lying, or that your employer was tying up loose ends?"

Thankfully, there's not really much about becoming a god in there. You sort of become one mechanically by the end, but fluff-wise it's pretty open about where you can go with it, which is nice. Never read the Pathfinder books, though.

"I understood quite well. We may face more than the undead, and specimens are of little use to any of us. The only other option we'd have for a strange being nobody can do much with would be to sell it to the mages for reagents, which given the likelihood of enemies among their ranks... We have a lab in the tunnels that we can set you up in, assuming you've no issue with working underground. Well, more of a medical room, but we currently have no proper doctors and would be happy to set you up to work in it. As for your findings, I do request you wait on publishing anything too immediately. As far as we know, our enemies do not know yet that there exists an order in opposition to them, and while such knowledge should certainly be put out into the world, we must take care to protect our mission."

I like the appeal of the Society as a plot device. It's established enough within the setting that I can do things with it and paint it as a monolithic, far-reaching behemoth of an organization that the party is fundamentally outside of and in one way or another coming out as opposed to. Even what fluff we do have in-universe is just cutesy meta explanation for the entire structure of it as something in-universe. A neat idea but not something that works well in-universe.

Wrath of the Righteous is sort of everything I've ever wanted out of the high fantasy genre in terms of all the high-power, high-stakers, good gods versus evil gods stuff, since beyond The Hobbit the first fantasy novels I ever got my hands on were Dragonlance. Mythic works well for a lot of things, but they definitely underestimated how much power a single Mythic tier brings. That said, for someone willing to rebalance, it's been an amazing experience where I can build all sorts of gimmicky and interesting s+$% to throw against the party. From the stupid, like the dual Bastard Swords Rogue, to a frankly vicious endgame enemy I've got planned called the Red Rover, who combines some really nasty stuff between Barbarian and the Guardian path to form a bull rushing-focused Minotaur who threatens infinite AOOs within 20 feet and gets AOOs on every attack made against him. It's vicious and completely impossible without Mythic, and that fun s$$# alone justifies the whole deal for me.

As you continue to deliberate and inquire, plates of spiced potatoes are slid onto the table in front of everyone gathered around by the old cook, half-inch cubes of potato tossed in herbs and cooked crispy in oil, steam still billowing off the fresh food. Half-pint cups of milk are added with a grumble about not needing to drink at this hour before he returns back to the kitchen.

"Precisely, Dr. Grey," Alandre says, taking a small sip of his drink. "Through one means or another, each of you are independent, very much your own people, free of the associations or establishments that, were you agents of some dark cause, you would likely be members of attempting to infiltrate further. Not that we haven't taken extensive looks into the backgrounds of each of you." The silence hung after that remark, the nobleman taking some of his potatoes, eating them not quite gingerly but certainly with conversational patience. "A doctor engrossed in his own work, rather than an expert from the surely corrupt Acanmirium. Two foreigners who raided tombs for hire. Two local investigators of peculiar crimes the city watch would rather sweep under the rug. And a disgraced reject of the watch, who beside his keen knowledge of cults would not be on indefinite leave were he connected well enough to anybody of power.

"I think you'll find that, beyond those of strong faith in our order, most of us are misfits and outcasts, circumstance and horrible fate driving us into some dark stretch of the world where we saw something horrifying and could not stand idly by. By and large, outsiders fill our ranks, so don't feel singled out. As for your other question, doctor, we've currently little need for specimens, and value is of little importance given the resources I have committed to this order. If you wish to examine strange creatures upon discovering them, then I don't believe any among us will stop you."

Miriel regards the burly Tiefling's question with a smile. "That's what inquisitors are for!" She's devoured much of her potatoes already, eating rather gracelessly for someone so obviously elven. "Pharasma doesn't have many followers in the city, and the few working in an official capacity are ones we know we can trust. Most of Iomedae's ranks specializing in the undead and demons are at the Worldwound. Annabeth's our only official one, actually. Sarenrae has many agents who fight the undead, but among those who specialize in the matter and work with the order, there is only myself, my friend Darvin, and High Priestess Anthea. While we can call on our faiths for many tasks when needed without explaining ourselves, we keep the official involvement to a careful minimum, in case anybody attempts to infiltrate us from the ranks of the clergy. Of course if we find out there's some spies trying to get to us, feel free to put them down! Nothing bothers me more than people who use the Dawnflower's name in their lies."

Annabeth nods slowly, and sitting next to the eager elf looks even more contained than the usual steely appearance of someone clearly acting as Iomedaen as possible. "From what we have encountered, this corruption is not the temptation or enthralling of those already in office. Anybody can buy a politician's vote, but to place your own agent as a politician? That is much more valuable, and most of what we have encountered. Few agents are bought or swayed, but rather fiercely loyal and silent to whatever cause they've spent much of their lives prepared for. They slowly work their own agents' ways to power. To combat infiltration however, we tend to work in groups of at least two whenever possible, as they have dealt in temptation before."

"And as an extra layer of security," Kotri adds, "After you leave tomorrow, you won't be using the front door anymore. We have a tunnel between here and the Church of Pharasma, only a few minutes' walk, and if Gilliam can make it then you young folk have no excuse. The churchside entrance has an artifact embedded into the gate that will alert us to any ill intentions, so should any of you find yourselves bought or corrupted, you won't get far. I might look old, but I can still hit the whites of your eyes from two hundred feet with my crossbow."

Yeah. I didn't actually think it'd come up, since the Society doesn't even really exist outside of Society modules. Now that you know why, I'm curious to know which angle you were going for on that connection.

"Yes, the Palace and every major academy in the city are among the infiltrated organizations. They've yet to take any seat of total power, as far as we can tell, but have positioned themselves into high positions of advisorship and succession. The city guard, the militia... the Pathfinder society. There are no major power structures left in the city that don't have something involved. Unfortunately, we've yet to link the exact players, but there's too many coincidences to ignore. Many of our members have their own stories, reasons they sought help from Pharasma or Sarenrae and were in turn brought into the fold.

"I won't tell you the stories of anybody other than myself, as they aren't my stories to tell. My dear daughter was a Pathfinder. She wasn't supposed to divulge details of her missions, but she would often correspond with me on distant trips through magical messaging services whenever she was in a major city, and would regale me with the tales. As someone who could never leave the city due to duties to my family's company, I lived vicariously through her adventures. On her last mission she was dispatched to Korvosa, her letters claiming to be on the trail of a lost artifact. The very last one I received was a frantic and hastily-written warning, that she had stumbled upon something dark and necromantic. She believed she couldn't trust the Pathfinders she'd been dispatched with, and it implied that her venture captain was on the way to inspect it herself.

"Not only did no letters follow, but she never came home. In trying to contact the Society, I was given a lot of obfuscation and confusion, before ultimately meeting her captain and being told she hadn't been dispatched to anywhere for three months. Claimed that her paperwork had been misplaced and couldn't be found, and that any attempt to contact her was returned with silence. Given her listed address was my own home, I know for a fact they made no attempts to contact her, but I couldn't push any further without arousing suspicion, which I began to believe would make me a target. So I came to the church of Pharasma in search of aid."

"We've already had our eye on venture captain Vanelia Corten for quite some time," Kotri adds. "Certain figures within the Society have risen up rapidly to low and medium positions of command with surprising quickness, all of them having ties to the same handful of people of interest. Obviously, we have reason to play our cards close until we've had your trust and oaths, but hopefully this will be enough to earn a modicum of trust for the time being."

The human in the middle clears his throat once all of you have gathered in your seats. "Thank you for coming," he says in a clear voice, the sort someone well-versed in business uses when closing deals. Welcoming and friendly, but with confidence and certainty beneath, all of it said convincing enough to persuade any with second thoughts about what he has to say. "First, let me apologize for what you likely noticed upon arriving, that this is not exactly the finest inn in Absalom. Forgive me; I thought it would perhaps draw a little more attention to talk it up, and I'm sure nobody can blame me for exaggerating about one of my businesses." He gives a small chuckle, the polite sort that you follow your own jokes with to clear the air so that it's not an awkward transition to another subject. "But I imagine you're curious for answers, as you're right to be, having been called to a strange place and given a paid room with little explanation. Forgive me for that as well; we needed to be secretive about our intentions, in the event your letters fell into the wrong hands or you were intercepted on the way here.

"What I said in the letter was not entirely false. You have indeed been sought out with great effort for a task that certainly relates to the subject matter I mentioned, but I am not a lonesome, fearful man eager to pay experts in exchange for safety. My name is Lord Alandre Burton, and I am the financier of the Ordo Lumina. With me are Lieutenant Stella Riodos of the Lotus Guard, Annabeth Kirn of the Church of Iomedae, Miriel Liowyn of the Church of Sarenrae, and while you've already met Mrs. Kotri Davids and her husband Gilliam, you were likely unaware of their former career paths as inquisitors for Pharasma. Behind us are much of the rest of our order, who you will be introduced to in due time, but at the moment we've little need for long-winded introductions when there is other business to discuss.

"We wish to induct each of you into our order, for as loosely as we can be considered one. Aside from those devoted to faiths that need little explanation for their presence, each member of our order, one way or another, has encountered horrible things they could not face alone, and have either found their way to us or been sought out for their skills and experience, to combat the growing darkness across Golarion, and specifically within Absalom. We came upon each of you through careful consideration in search of new members who posess the skills we require, and now here we stand, inviting you to join us in this dark time. Kotri, if you'd please?"

Mrs. Davids speaks, and you notice that she has since pulled out a necklace from beneath her blouse, a proudly-beared silver symbol of Pharasma that she's kept hidden. "Our order began a few years ago, when Gilliam and I retired and returned to tend to duties at Absalom's Church of Pharasma. We met with representatives for Sarenrae and Iomedae, to discuss growing concerns that there was a swell of undead activity and cults brewing in the city. But now, a mere five years later, we're nearly two dozen strong, with resources Lord Burton has generously provided that have allowed us to extend far beyond the reaches of our faiths. Through our budding network of spies, hunters, and scholars, we have come to determine that there are not only massive groundswells of necromantic activity and cults appearing at worrisome rates, but that most of the power structures and institutions in Absalom have been infiltrated and corrupted by agents of some grander conspiracy."

"Should you accept, of course," Lord Burton continues, "You will of course be paid for your service, likely more than the going rates to hire you at the moment. You will also be free to stay here at the Gilded Unicorn, room and board taken care of at no charge. I imagine you've a lot of questions for me before you make your decision, so please, ask away."

Caliphas definitely works well for expanding on the vampire threat and what's already squirming around in Ustalav, but not so much for the "everything and the kitchen sink" approach, which is the main reason I'm going Absalom and changing a bunch of stuff within it. Well, that and it being sort of the seat of power for a lot of things, a good centralized place out of which to plan sweeping conspiracies. I still adore Korvosa for more heavy, typical fantasy noir-ish stuff without the undead focus though, it just reeks of sleaze and and corruption.

The night stretches on with little in the way of interruptions, whether you're comfortable and safe enough in this strange arrangement to sleep or not. The din of the tavern below you is not as rowdy as expected, a mixture of its middle class locale and construction solid enough to drown noise. However, the lighter of sleepers among you make out the proprieter's stern shout of, "I'm sorry, but we're closing early tonight for repairs! Everyone out, don't worry about handling your tabs, but if you never come back to pay them I'll have my husband at your door!" followed by another laugh.

A few minutes later, the sound of footsteps up the stairway bring someone up to your row of rooms, all perfectly lined up from 201 to 206 in the hallway. One by one, you're awoken a little after midnight by a firm but considerate knock at your door. "I'm terribly sorry to wake you my dear, but I have need of you downstairs," Mrs. Davids says through the door. Any sleepy refusals are met with stern, kind insistence that you really must join her, and that it is a matter of the business you've been called to. Silence is met with a few more knocks as the dwarf is determined to get you out of bed and downstairs. Once she receives her confirmation, she tells you to get ready and be down in a minute, she moves on to the next, better the noisy patter of a dwarf's footsteps make their way down the stairs. For such tiny packages they're certainly noisy.

When you make your way down the stairs, the tavern room is quite the sight to see. Despire being closed, it's full quite full of people, though clearly not clients. Nobody is dressed like a typical citizen, and in fact it has the strange makeup of a massive warband of disparate adventurers. The Palain of Iomedae from the vision sits opposite a Mwangi mage whose haircut and bulky clothes seem to intentionally mask their gender. A deathly pale Tien woman whose cloak bears symbols of Pharasma quietly looks at a gnomish man standing on the chair, pouring frantically over a pile of books laid out before him. Another gnome, female this time, whose floral dress and face are smattered with grease stains, has cleared a wide berth of floor to flaunt a clockwork spider to several interested parties, including the elven bard with the very short-cropped blond hair who Laurence has seen performing on the stage each night he's stayed. A woman bearing the uniform of the city guard leans against the wall, talking to nobody.

But all the din and commotion ceases as you descend. Everyone goes still, watching in varying amounts of curiosity, distrust, and eagerness as you make your way downstairs. They clear awak from the front, where three square tables have been pushed together and six chairs lined on your side of it. On the other side, Mrs. Davids, the Paladin, the elf, and the guardswoman each take their seats, the final being taken by a weary-looking, well-fed man in noble's clothes who sits in the middle. Miranda recognizes the sleeves as being the ones she saw in the vision. "Please, take a seat," he says, motioning toward the row of chairs set for you. "We have a lot to discuss."