The Witness's page

For decades, demons have ruled the Worldwound. Fearsome fiends of every stripe—their mottled skin harder than iron, teeth like serrated blades, and eyes burning with Abyssal flames—roam the ruined lands that were once known as Sarkoris, leaving their mark wherever they go. Four crusades have attempted to cleanse the land, but each seems to meet a worse fate than the last. Were it not for the line of magical wardstones along the eastern and southern borders, the demons would have long ago overrun northcentral Avistan and beyond. The Fourth Crusade hasn’t really ended as much as petered out, yet some refuse to accept that. Amid crippling shortages and record lows in morale among the crusaders, the Mendevian war effort teeters on the brink of collapse. Though the demonic occupation of the Worldwound is growing, a dwindling minority of paladins and priests maintain that the Fourth Crusade is still vibrant and alive, and that the turning point in the war is only a few days away.

Kenabres is a city of glory, but not one of spotless virtue. The Mendevian Crusaders riding out from the city have slain countless demons, and many of them who rode out have been carried back on their shields, interred in the catacombs beneath the Cathedral of Saint Clydwell. However, some of these same crusaders — many of them even immortalized in the Hall of Heroes — spent years hunting supposedly demon-tainted faiths and burning at the stake cultists and innocent Mendevians alike. The frequency and intensity of these pogroms have diminished, but the dark history of Kenabres remains ever-present in the minds of its leaders and many of its citizens. Kenabres hosts camps of crusaders who have come from all across the continent to battle demons. Though many of these crusaders are pure-hearted and noble of spirit, others are little more than fortune-seeking mercenaries. Still, none can deny the good deeds done by the knights of Kenabres under the direction of their zealous, strategically brilliant leader Hulrun.

For several weeks, excitement has been building in Kenabres — Armasse is coming! Traditionally an opportunity for scholars and priests to come together to study the lessons of history from wars past, since Aroden’s death, this holy day has become more about training commoners in weaponry, choosing squires, and ordaining new priests. Over time, Armasse has grown to encompass jousting competitions, mock duels, battle reenactments, and other festival events. In Kenabres, the festival (which takes place on 16 Arodus) is eagerly anticipated, for it provides distractions from the horrors of being on the front line of the war. Smiles on faces normally marred by downcast eyes and furrowed brows do wonders for city morale in the weeks leading up to the event.

Exactly what it says on the tin.

Beginning at an End

Helorus Chapel
Saturday, April 4th 1875: Morning

You arrived in Helorus within the past few days and per the instructions in your letter, you met with the executor of Dr. Pallaver’s estate, one Mr. Argentine Keel. Mr. Keel proved to be a young, well-to-do British gentleman who seems quite out of place in the rustic little town. He informed you that the late Dr. Pallaver personally requested your presence at his funeral as well as at the reading of his will, the latter appearance being contingent upon the former.

The appointed hour for the funeral has come, and you stand within the small church at the edge of town amidst a handful of people who have gathered to lay the doctor to rest. There is Father Grimsby, the elderly priest who serves Helorus’s faithful, who seems to be waiting patiently for some unknown impetus to begin the proceedings; a handsome, pale, older gentleman who sweats under an extravagant and unseasonable fur hat and overcoat while steadying himself against a pew; a young veiled woman somberly dressed all in black, her hands clasped before her as she silently sobs; Mr. Keel, seated straight-backed and proper in the first row of pews and dressed in an entirely different well-tailored suit than he wore at your prior meeting; and finally Dr. Pallaver himself, presumably, in a plain pine coffin beside the woman. There's also a pair of other attendees...

This is the place for out of character posts!

For your whole life your world has been a self-contained two mile diameter Sphere, filled with part of a seaside port town and a bit of coastline with what amounts to a small lake of stale seawater. Your parents died when you were still a child, and since then your only companion has been The Optimumist, an old man who has instructed you in the arcane arts and is responsible for keeping the Sphere in existence. Whether for good or ill, his time is coming to an end, and so too your home's.

The Optimumist rests in his study, an immaculate and ordered room filled with scrolls and parchments of his own writing on a multitude of topics: your primers and textbooks for his tutelage. These past few months he has become increasingly withdrawn and vague, seemingly able to focus on the present only with effort; he speaks to you now, but his attention seems directed elsewhere, his mind wandering paths unknown.

"The prophecy foretold that the elements would break their bonds in the foundation of the world and wreak vengeance upon the gods, the firmament would shatter, and a darkness would swallow all of creation - and that was what happened. There were signs, indications of what was to come, but we haughty few of the Octad thought we could manipulate them, manipulate fate itself, to attain an outcome we desired. We were wrong.

"In the end my time runs short, seemingly all the more so for my efforts at extending it. I have always endeavored to achieve the greatest amount of good for the largest number of people possible; my life's work, all life's work, now rests with you. You must prepare yourself as you see fit, for shortly I and the Sphere will perish."

The old man looks about the room, obviously confused, then meets your eye and smiles, relaxed. "Is there any last question you would ask of me, Vernalis?"

You have the time to ask a single question of your mentor.

I'm pretty new to creating my own pbp campaigns, and have created a gameplay thread under the wrong title/name. The campaign is titled The Last of Bastion, Part I: Into the Unknown and the current gameplay thread is titled ** Under Construction II **~. If possible I'd like to have the gameplay thread title changed to match the title of the campaign thread. i.e. 'The Last of Bastion, Part I: Into the Unknown'- on 8/31 I emailed a request to community@paizo.com as suggested in a prior thread, but have received no response, and am planning on beginning gameplay this week.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

Let us discuss this grand undertaking. First off: NPCs. How many do you want to start with in your party? From a continuity perspective, you could easily have the Arcanos fellow (human bard), Henk (orc fighter), and Kestrel the Deliberate (dwarf fighter). I can also create new people to fill in as needed.

NPC selection can easily fill in any ability gaps between your two characters.

I'll be digging out my Savio campaign notes from the basement tonight, and will then have an actual campaign page up either tonight or tomorrow night.

Nate, post any questions/comments here.

What is the maximum character limit for pages/posts on the forums? Specifically for the 'Campaign Info' tab and an alias's 'About You' section on it's profile. I've tried searching the messageboards for this topic but have only found the fact that a limit exists, with no real details on what the limit might be.

I've gotten to a pretty high character count on one of my Campaign Info pages (~50,000) and now I copy the whole thing every time I add to it in case I go over and misfortune results; it'd be nice to know if this is necessary or if I've still got a fair amount of characters left to use. If possible, it would also be nice to know what to expect if I do go over the character limit and attempt to save the changes.

Trying to make an invite-only pbp campaign without a recruitment thread, so as not to confuse people.

You arrived in Helorus within the past few days and per the instructions in your letter, you met with the executor of Dr. Pallaver’s estate, one Mr. Argentine Keel. Mr. Keel proved to be a young, well-to-do British gentleman who seems quite out of place in the rustic little town. He informed you that in his will the late Dr. Pallaver personally requested your presence at his funeral as well as at the reading of his will, the latter appearance being contingent upon the former.

The appointed hour for the funeral has come, and you stand within the small church at the edge of town amidst a handful of people who have gathered to lay the doctor to rest. There is Father Grimsby, the elderly priest who serves Helorus’s faithful, who seems to be waiting patiently for some unknown impetus to begin the proceedings; a handsome, pale, older gentleman who sweats under an extravagant and unseasonable fur hat and overcoat while steadying himself against a pew; a young veiled woman somberly dressed all in black, her hands clasped before her as she silently sobs; Mr. Keel, seated straight-backed and proper in the first row of pews and dressed in an entirely different well-tailored suit than he wore at your prior meeting; Dr. Pallaver himself, presumably, in a plain pine coffin beside the woman; and a somewhat motley mix of three other individuals…

In your first post please include some description of your character, so we don’t all have to hunt through each other’s profiles just to learn that the person we were assuming was a Caucasian American cowboy is actually a one-armed aboriginal circus acrobat.

Also, let's move all further discussion to this thread per Nate's suggestion, so the recruitment thread doesn't keep popping up for people looking for games to join.

Alright folks, here's where we'll hash out character stuff when we don't feel like talking/texting, or that you want to put up for discussion. I hope to have a full campaign page up over the weekend.

If successfully struck by a monster using an awesome blow combat maneuver (from the feat of the same name), does the resulting movement provoke attacks of opportunity from threatening creatures? Same question in regards to a character that is subjected to a grapple/move combat maneuver. Every other ability I have to look at that forces a character to move, i.e. bull rush and pull, specifically states that the movement does not provoke.
Along the same lines, does movement forced by spells provoke as well? For instance, if a bird attempted to fly through the effects of a wind wall spell and was blown upwards, would this provoke from threatening creatures?
I apologize if this topic has been covered elsewhere, but I could not find any answers after searching this forum for some time.
Thanks for any help you can give!