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*deadpans* They don't have that set of cards in sabacc.
Dotted in, withdrawn:
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Just increase the totals. 2D+1 becomes 3D+1. This goes for your skills, too — Blaster at +1D on Dex of 4D makes Blaster 5D.
Peregrine’s lips curve in a small smile. “Not just the gods of Good, I think,” she murmurs.
Gotak is going away; I am withdrawing from the game. Good luck and have fun, everyone!I would appreciate some kind of heads up about changes like this. I am ... not certain how I could have given a heads-up about it; I suppose by posting my withdrawl here before developing how she leaves. You have my apologies for not doing so. At the moment, I consider this a pretty sketchy way of leaving. I am also sorry that you see this as being 'sketchy'; I did not mean to offend you by doing so. I will probably not allow this player to participate in the Tian Xia game. As both this game and conversation about character generation in that game developed and evolved, I have become decreasingly interested in the Tian Xia game. Again, I do not mean to offend; I like to think that, no matter how poor an online GM I am, I'm generally an excellent player, and thought I had displayed such. Once more, you have my apologies. Oh, that's a bit of a bummer. I kinda liked her. Is there a reason your leaving? Feel free to PM me or message me on Discord if you don't wanna talk about why publicly. Several, but ...:
Several, but the general and increasing incoherency of the game -- which by no means rests solely on Seb's shoulders -- is one major element. Player characters are ignoring the activity immediately in front of them and wandering off to explore somewhere else; that exploration triggers the addition of new issues / elements / factions to the current mess, amplifying the chaos -- and despite the clear invitation from the Major Figure Slash Bad Guy and the encouragement from the GM via the ex-PC-characters to infiltrate her domain and try to convince her there (or, failing that, be inside her defenses when the fight starts), none or almost none of the PCs want to do that, actively resist the suggestion, and/or walk away and ignore what's going on in favor of wandering off and exploring, splitting the group further and making an already muddled situation worse.
The second major element is the realization of how spectacularly outclassed Gotak and Sha are, whether by mere sidekicks or by the rank-and-file of the opposition. The power level of this game requires people who have a strong mastery of the system; I am definitely not one such individual. I managed to acquire three attributes in the vicinity of 40; I think the highest I've seen amongst us is an 80-something. Gotak is, however, fairly readily bested by a familiar, and while I understand that Seb knows he needs to re-examine the power level of the opposition he has, the Bad Guy is 18th level with a 150+ Will, and the tribals are 18th level with 150+ Strengths. Gotak remains an 8th level character, no matter how you slice it; she may be 'kinda liked', but the power levels both in and out of party puts her into the role of 'spunky sidekick who gets into trouble, can't manage to do anything, and always has to be rescued.' I'd rather not play that character. The third and last -- and to be honest, probably the most significant -- major element is, well, one player character issue and one player issue. The first is being utterly baffled as to how and why Narzor, after insulting pretty much Every PC, can be expected to be or become part of the group; Seb, I do not envy you having to figure that out, because I can't see a single reason for any of the players (or NPCs) going an inch or a cantrip out of their way to assist Narzor if/when he goes down. The second issue is that of having my actions being utterly ignored. Not by Seb, but by the PCs, particularly Slyness. The first time was that yeah, everyone agrees that the implication was that the contest was intended to be a simple basic contest of martial skill, but (having won with something very much not martial skill, and apparently wanting to get on with the drama between Cae and his mistress) Cae says 'no, screw you guys, I ain't playing again.' Okay, sure, that's a dick move, but go along with it to keep harmony in the game. Next up, Gotak goes out of her way to take time and action to cross distances, to go around to where the tarek leader was. She interacted with him (quite nicely, and I thank you for that, Seb), but when the staff came her way, and she took a full and even definable set of actions, this was ignored -- using in part a bullsh!t excuse of 'you were going to take it back to her', bullsh!t because you could only have discovered that if Gotak had gained control of the staff -- and ignoring my actions were supported by the other players. So okay, I went with it, because again, despite it remaining apparently PvP -- I mean, how else is 'I'm going to float a thing near you that takes away your powers' meant to be taken? -- characters are one thing, players another. Plus, I had a thought and a plan: Gotak was next to the tunnel entrance outside of which the tarek leader had been standing the entire time, and with the thing floating between her and the stone wall, if it remained 'behind' her it would be forced into the tunnel and out of sight of anything, and then it would probably be out of control of whomever was, y'know, controlling it. But when that plan gets put into action, somehow, instantly and without previous statements about moving closer to the staff or a single bit of consideration for the distances involved, Vyse (who has only a 60' speed) miraculously zooms across and enters the tunnel 'behind' the tarek leader, and goes past him, getting ahead of the two people who are right in front of the tunnel -- thereby refusing there to be even a chance at losing control the thing. Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, but three times is enemy action. I don't know why, but I think it pretty clear that there are issues in play, personal, interpersonal, or otherwise. Put together, the game is something I'd just rather not continue doing. Given that preference, and given the entirely negligible effect Gotak has had on the game, I figured that simply having her give an IC analysis of those things that were within her view to the one character she's had any sort of meaningful interaction with, and then walking away, to be a remarkably low-key, discreet, and trouble-minimizing manner of withdrawing from the game. I am sorry that this is seen as being 'sketchy'. Are you dropping the other games too? I will confess to having been considering it with the Numenera game. While we haven't really gotten into a fight or anything since the original PCs gained their full power (i.e. since the octopus fight), I suspect the 'power' issue is going to be there. Also, though I appreciate the extensive amount of writing you have done for the game, when it gets down to it I am all but completely lost within the world, and my own personal RP preferences interfere enormously with competent playing within such a loose, 'anything you can't see and much of what you can is an utter mystery!' sort of world. So I am leaning in favor of withdrawing, yes. The Mongol game never got off the ground, and you seem to be folding its ideas into your Tian Xia game. I hope this answers most, if not all, the questions my departure may have raised.
... hmmm. Tian Xia, 16th level quadralt / 18th level tristalt ... Okay, look. These sorts of characters, this sort of power level, is flat-out ginormous, no matter how you slice it. Mythic, non-mythic -- and make no mistake, I'd love the 6/6/6 rules, just amped up to 12+ -- you need stunningly godlike enemies to face in a campaign like this. So give us them. Sure, we can have fortress-building, and kingdom-handling, and massive armies clashing with each other. Give us a reason, though, to a) work together, and b) use all of that. Give us great and terrible enemies, a vast nigh-endless sequence of them, each with veritable armies against which ours can clash. Give us Pacific Rim kaiju monsters for the armies' 'generals', and swarms of lesser monsters (such as those in the relatively-horrible Matt Damon film 'Great Wall'), or armies of more normal soldiers, for our armies to fight against. Tactics and strategy, encouraging the health and well-being of the nation(s) of which we are the rulers and/or heroes, salvaging what we can from a battle's loss, retreating to prepared defenses, etc. etc. If you intend to bring in all the court stuff, let there be a third kingdom/empire that is currently neutral, in whose court and territory both parties (ours as well as the kaiju-masters) are maneuvering, trying to get the leadership of said neutral third nation to side with us. That'd allow us to enjoy general skulduggery (assassinations of semi-important assistants in our enemies' staff or of 'bought' assistants to influential people in the neutral government, theft of critical messages, that sort of thing) and subtle political games without automatically removing the pressure of the kaiju+army onslaught. A breakdown in negotiations on one side or the other, or perhaps we're 'winning' the negotiations -- but the scouts reveal that another army is approaching, and we have to break off negotiations to rush home and prepare our forces to defeat the WorldBreakers, giving the other side a chance to regain lost negotiation territory. Definitely set some RP / background / drive ground rules, such as you have for the Mongol campaign: 'you are all part of X'. Definitely do NOT allow direct or indirect back-stabbing, and create a direct, IC methodology to penalize such; perhaps we're the Emperor's favorites, but screwing around with each other (and with our side's chances and such) means that the Empress withdraws some of her favor from that PC, dropping them a level or two, or a Mythic tier or two.
As usual, this relies on generally-realistic social interactions. If you want to browbeat/coerce someone, you have to be able to continue to do so; they can't be allowed to get away from you, whether that's keeping them in a corner (and being able to keep them in the corner, which may require a semi-combat roll or two), or being somewhere they can't / don't want to leave while the intimidating party is there, possibly due to some threat ("This your shop? Be a shame something bad happened to it ...") or authority ("You walk out on me, you can kiss your job goodbye, mister!!"), or -- for the 'weaker party' version -- being able to continue to follow and harangue them. For the former, there's almost always an implied (or real) current threat keeping the party to be coerced in place for the 10-40 minutes it takes you (the cop, the mafia thug, the boss) to yell at the guy (the reporter, the shopkeeper, the employee) until they finally give in (presuming you're successful) and agree to play by your rules. For the latter, there's functionally a requirement for there to be a reason for the coerced person to not haul off and beat the crap out of the other, because that's the sort of thing that indicates that negative level of attitude towards you: The target’s true attitude is hostile ... If the person doing the coercion is not in some clearly-established position of power over the other -- by physical violence, blackmail, economic/employment threat, etc. -- then this really loses its teeth, because there's otherwise no reason for Person B to hang around and listen to Person A try to coerce them; they can walk away, and if Person A can't (or won't) follow, the coercion automatically fails. Think of the coercion like a spell with a casting time of 10-40 minutes and a range of, basically, touch -- one in which the target has to be there the entire time for the spell to work. If the target can get away from you (and as said above, 'get away' is more a matter of the intimidator being unable or unwilling to follow), then the spell's going to fail. In brief, the coercion function isn't a good choice if you're hiding and looking for friends. Diplomacy (to get on their good side), Sense Motive and Bluff (to find out who they prefer and if necessary pretend that's what you are), or the 'Influence Attitude' function of Intimidate would all be more appropriate for someone hiding in a false bottom or whatever. IIRC, as these are all basically going for a fast, short change in attitude, they all take a minute, but that's far better than 10-40m.
... definitely not here. ———————————————————
The human woman’s eyebrows lift as Slam attributes her suggestion to the elven male. On the tail of Kali’s embarrassed reply, she murmurs, “I believe I missed that as well.” She doesn’t say any more, however — if they’re going to follow her idea, it doesn’t necessarily matter who gets the credit — and only listens with interest at Bander’s ramble about the Que-Kiri. “Hm. That ... may result in some difficulties, if they’ve recently had ogre trouble. Thalasi may have been more right than we’d wish.”
The human woman gives a small smile to her ... not friend, exactly, but ... 'well-known acquaintance'. The two were undoubtedly going to find out quite a bit more about each other in the coming days, perhaps weeks, and perhaps might move further towards friendship. Her eyes close again, but the smile remains on her face. "For a little trick like that? No, Kali. The Conclave won't be interested in you until you develop much greater talent, akin to that which you'll undoubtedly see from Thalasi in the coming days, when we meet some serious trouble we can't slip away from. I know a thing or two as well ..." She trails off, and one might be forgiven for thinking maybe she dozed off in the middle of talking, but then her eyes open again, and an eerie foxfire of red and white and weirdly-visible black, visible flame distinct in the dark which gives no real light, ripples around her eyes where the irises of brown normally rest. "You have to want the magic, Kali. Really, seriously, fiercely want it -- like food, like water, like ... like air. Want the magic as much, maybe more, than you want life. Not necessarily for what it can do, but ... for the knowing itself." Another small smile, this one of rueful pity, though not necessarily for Kali, crosses her lips, and the coruscation dims, fades, and her brown gaze is back. "There is a cost to such desire -- though often enough, the desire itself is the cost. But until you truly pursue the magic, they'll have no interest in you. Rest easy."
Peregrine only shakes her head slightly at Thalasi's (affronted?) response to her question. "Loved like a kender, I expect," she says -- meaning that you love kender mostly when they're not around. She listens to his warnings to Bander, then turns her head and says, "The kender has a name, Thalasi -- Bander Drunkensquirrel. You might consider using it." Her gaze turns once more to the shore behind them, looking for signs of pursuit, whether boats in the water or movement heading southwards to the bridge. Hearing Bander's question, she muses, "A blue crystal staff, presumably. Also presumably in Master Slam's hands."
Okay, so, the silliness that is me. Wanting to do for Peri what Adam Warnock did for Kali in regards to clothing, I went and made a little 3d6 chart for her, putting colors as I figured she would view them, thus:
Peri's Color Preferences:
.3 - dark red .4 - orange .5 - dark red .6 - white .7 - bright red .8 - medium red .9 - medium green 10 - dark green 11 - dark blue 12 - medium blue 13 - light blue 14 - light green 15 - yellow 16 - black 17 - yellow 18 - purple Blue and green generally remind her of 'home', as well as being colors of sea, sky, and growing things; the brighter reds are a bit flashy, the dark red and orange somewhat somber (in her mind, at least), with the yellow, purple, black, and white relegated to either something she doesn't generally like (purple and, to a lesser extent, yellow) or else something simply utilitarian. Using a spreadsheet to randomly roll, I wound up with 2 white shirts out of three, a bright red 'wintertime' shirt (apparently for finding each other against the snow, right?), and an entertainer's outfit that's almost entirely green, with red leggings to flash beneath the skirt. Ha!! :) So, y'know -- my clothing is now updated. ;) ----------------------- Language note -- Thalasi, you and I both need to have 'Magius' as a language, as that's the language of magic in the Dragonlance world. Never spoken (except in the casting of spells), but the written form is used not only for scrolls and spellbooks, but also more (relatively) mundane uses as research notes and the like. It is apparently 'the first thing an apprentice learns', so I'd read that as pretty much required. ;)
When the ogre enters the bar, Peregrine goes completely still, her downward-tilted head remaining so as her eyes turn to regard the massive, armored male. Then the oddities hit her: he didn't smash in, he entered, ducking under and turning sideways to edge his great shoulders through the door instead of wrecking it; he isn't wearing the typical mis-matched and patchwork armor of the ogres, but well-made, well-fitted, almost Solamnic armor. The shield she guesses, her head lifting somewhat to get a better look, seems to be of equally-high quality, and an urge she calls 'The Nudge' causes her to concentrate long enough to lower the touch of focus that prevents her from seeing such things all the time. Her eyes narrow as she sees the signs of magic glowing about the ogre's weapon-hilt, a hint around his hand (which she can't see clearly enough to really identify), and his cloak ... not to mention the long item he's carrying!! The robed elf as he steps past the ogre 'gets caught' in her regard, and her gaze moves from the overly-large warrior (who is, after all, just a warrior no matter how big) to follow the clear-to-her wizard, thoughtfully regarding the staff he bears until her control reasserts itself and she pushes the Sight back into her subconscious. Glancing between ogre 'knight' and elf Wizard for several moments, she comes to a decision and starts to quickly but precisely put her tools and her project away -- she's clearly a believer in 'a place for everything, and everything in its place'. "Interesting," she murmurs, though the voices in the back of her head are banging back and forth at each other. The Internal Triologue: Black: It's a Wizard of High Sorcery!! He's come to haul us back in front of the Conclave for not having dedicated ourselves yet!!
Red: Oh, come on, it's not like we're really a renegade -- we took and passed the Test, sure, we just haven't fully formally declared for -- White: Crud, crap, and stools on the Irdanaith!! Red: !! Black: !! Red: Now, really!! White: It's an ogre!! Black: It's a Wizard of the Conclave!! Red: They're just -- White: It's going to come over, pound us into jelly, and grind our bones to dust before throwing us off the tree!! Black: He's going to drag us off to Wayreth and they'll throw us in prison for centuries!! Red: He's only -- Black: And that staff!! Did you see that staff?!? White: He must be some sort of elite ogre, with that armor and sword and cloak and -- Red: NOW JUST A DAMNED MINUTE!! White: ... Black: ... Red: That's better. Look, the ogre isn't wrecking the place. The wizard isn't jumping down our throats. How about we just wait for a bit and see what's going on?? White: ... um ... Black: ... can we ... keep putting our stuff away?? Red: ... yes. That we can do. Calmly. White: ... thank you ... Black: ... White: *nudge* Black: ... thank you ... Red: ... you two, I swear ...
Cole, Lutor:
Unfortunately, Lutor's not there -- but, um, Faila did already answer both questions -- food is brought to him, and he sleeps on a pallet in the rookery. Hel exchanges a glance with Faila, then shakes her head. "The sooner disrupted, the sooner replaced," says the woman. "He has a pallet, he's alive, so he sleeps -- one way or another. Thank you for the information, Faila. Any movement on a prison cart for their guest?"
(Wow, then again I already have a 5e version.) Not a problem -- I'm more than kosher to lurk and watch. (Or kibbitz, if that's allowed. Also good for PMs, as I GM 5e as well.)
The Infinite Fool considers the others’ opinions for a long moment, a thoughtful grimace on his face, but then he looks up at the brash and bold Unfettered Prince, and gives a firm nod to his urging. “All right,” he agrees, then turns and heads back towards the Spinner of Songs, gesturing for them — presumably all of them, even the caretaker/priest. “Come — bring the book with you.” Returning to the position at which he previously stood, the Fool strikes his staff on the floor, then again, then a third time once more, as if to call the attention of the spirit of the great insect. “Spinner,” he intones, “I have brought your request to the others. Now, as you promised, reveal to us the information of Cigar Thane’s life, so that we may open his tome.”
HERE is our current loot page; notice in the distribution tab the 'knot pool' section, which is where our current reserves are listed (6,666, semi-appropriately enough). While we have not yet sold a whole bunch of stuff, I wasn't entirely certain there was somewhere to sell the arms and armor (or how well it'd be taken until we got 'a shipment in'), and we're not entirely certain (or at least agreed) as to the value of the ivory and narwhal horn.
Re: Human/Hybrid -- I think I figured that you'd meant (from this) that the (powerful!) race you built (like Erkliğ Han bloodline/race is) would be a replacement for the Hybrid; adding on +2 to any attribute, an additional skill per level, and an additional feat ... well, it overshadows other races, yea mightily. :P :) -----------------------------------
Going by what I can see of the backgrounds and flavors, I see three groups. The mercenary / travellers from the West:
Ouachitonian's Norseman could have been simply wandering east, into new/uncharted lands (from his point of view); as an (ex-)Varangian Guard, he may have turned mercenary when he left and headed east instead of back west to the Nordic areas. Razan and Art Burd's character might have been mercenaries as well, or even known each other for a long time; Khwarezmians (it appears) were often mercenaries, particularly in the west of the country. Returning to their homes, they may well have made common cause against the Khwarezmians, being potentially-suppressed religious minorities; I can't find any particular information save that the Khwarezmian Empire was chiefly Sunni Muslim. But either fleeing further east due to persecution, being recruited as spies and heading to hook up with the Mongols, or just looking to help the Mongols destroy the Khwarezmians (perhaps for having destroyed your home town(s)) gets you into the group with the rest of us. The wildmen:
Daryun is, clearly, also a Tengrist, as his (claimed) father is a Tengrist god; he might be a Turk from the Qara-Khitai, in the area recently taken over by the Khwarezmians, or someone from further north of the Mongols, in the wilds of Siberia. The former would be more likely (considering the dog story), though imagining someone like him traveling the wilds is an easy thing to do. Meeting up with the savage shapeshifter that is Monkeygod's character seems to me to be a very possible thing, wandering the northern forests and, becoming friends (perhaps after a spectacular 'unstoppable force / untouchable object' brawl) they wander together until (gasp) the Khwarezmians kill Daryun's dog (bad move on their part) and the two move to join up with the Mongols. The Mongols:
Though I'm not completely clear on Altani the Smoke's background, at least the other three are firmly Mongols. With that in mind, and considering that there should be some experience in the outside world, I strongly suggest that Sechen Spirit-Speaker is not fresh off the farm / out of the shaman's camp. Even if she is, though, considering the magic in both Coinshot's druid and Altani, it's entirely possible Sechen has known them for months, even years. Presuming Sechen comes down out of the mountains a year or two before game start, though, Num (and the men he's leading, if he's leading men -- who would of course be reassigned, since I haven't taken Leadership) might have been detailed as the other three's escort, and they're part of the scouting force for where-ever we wind up starting from.
Razan Al-Amin (Decimus Observet): Human // Custom hybrid -- Paladin (Virtuous Bravo*, Weapon Champion*, Oath of Charity) 12 // Bard (Arcane Duelist*, Dervish Dancer*) :: Holy Vindicator 2 // Mystic Theurge 2 :: Champion 2 // Guardian 2. No templates; 1/1 Mythic given over to 2/2 Prestige classes. Devout holy warrior, extreme mobility, blade and channelling. (Desert horse nomad, perhaps an Arabic Bedouin?) Christian, but don't hold that against him. Probably great social skills. Altani the Smoke (caster4life): Human (?) -- Wizard 6 // Alchemist 5, Magus 1 :: Unknown // Unknown (mythic). Templates: Smoke creature, Mutant, Outer mutant, 3x Advanced**. Shamanistic alchemist; ranged damage, utility, some buffs/debuffs, battlefield control. High knowledge skills. Daryun (Vrog Skyreaver): Human // Hobgoblin hybrid -- Fighter 10 / Unchained Monk 10 :: Champion 4 / Guardian 4. No templates. Furious charger, immense speed, pure fist-fighter. Natural disaster on two legs. Intimidation, singer, good perception and sense motive. Num (The Wyrm Ouroboros): Customized human bloodline -- Monk (Zen archer*, Master of Many Styles*) 9 // Oracle 1, Luring Cavalier (Hussar) 4, Ilsurian archer* ranger (Toxophilite*) 4 :: Champion 3 // Trickster 3. Advanced half-celestial templates. Wizard VMC. Mobility, ranged (bow) attacks, close-in ally defense against same. High initiative, good perception, sense motive, other skills.
Unnamed, Art Burd: Human / Half elf hybrid -- Summoner ?? // Cleric/Druid/Oracle ?? :: Archmage ?? // Hierophant ??. Unknown templates. Zoroastrian of Persian descent
Unnamed, Monkeygod: Legendary Shifter // Barbarian or ranger. A shape-shifting savage warrior. Unnamed, Coinshot: Human // Samsaran or Aasimar -- Monk (Tetori Monk*) 12 // Druid (Ancient Guardian*, Halcyon Druid*) 12 :: Trickster 3 // Hierophant 3 (uncertain on both). No templates. Stealth assassin, wildshifter. Loyal to and hates Genghis Khan. Mute. Expected to have no social capabilities at all. Unnamed, Ouachitonian: Human -- Barbarian (Invulnerable Rager*, Mad Dog*) ?? // Sorcerer (Elemental (Water)*, Sage*; Tattooed, Crossblooded, Wildblooded) :: Archmage ?? // Champion ??. Advanced Aqueous Boreal Giant Mutant Water-Infused templates. Rides a woolly rhino or mammoth, may go into Mammoth Rider. Likely a 'charge into them, then lay about' sort. Sechen Spirit-Speaker, Timeskeeper: Human -- Oracle ?? // Medium ?? :: Unknown // Unknown (mythic). Unknown templates. Spirit-caller, shaman, buffer/debuffer. Unknown otherwise. Jochi's daughter, grand-daughter of Temüjin. Unknown, Hayato Ken: Unknown. * -- Free archetype.
Is this everyone?
Erkliğ is a traditional Mongol warrior -- good at wrestling, great at riding, fantastic with a bow. Two of his souls have been given physical expression outside his body (though killing them does not destroy that soul). @Coinshot, I highly recommend the acquisition and use of the Bonded Mind feat. I have it (and can share it for 5 rounds 1/day), but since I'm going to have a speaking familiar who's going to be my mouthpiece, well ... ;) You might want a method for communication with others. For what it's worth, since the 'link' of Bonded Mind was, essentially, sight-based, I always thought of it as being able to read each other's micro (or macro) expressions with a high degree of accuracy. Maybe not to have complex discussions, but certainly enough to have a certain level of conversation ...
Where did you find that feat? I don't see it listed on the site linked in the campaign info.You can strike out at every foe within reach while on the move. The Horrifically Overpowered Feats come in multiple books -- five, in fact, four for general, one for mythic, three by Super Genius Games, two by Rogue Genius Games (RGG). Also, where did you find an Unchained Zen Archer? I was looking for an Unchained Tetori Monk but couldn't find one, so I ended up using the chained monk. Legendary Monk is a good idea too, but there are several different companies that have done back-fill on the Monk archetypes. My theory is that Paizo didn't do it because it requires a dozen or more nitpicky little things, and would require (or nearly so) a book all its own. @Sebecloki, I've used the Purple Duck Games version -- no new systems, just basically a tweaking of the chained ZAM so that it fits in decently. Hell, with the free Archetype, most Chained Monk archetypes will do just fine. That said, there are a few other things I'm hoping to have passed; more on that in a bit. Lastly, where is everyone finding the info for all the alternate humans that have like 31 points and stuff? That would be this post of Sebecloki's -- note that this is in place of a human/other hybrid, not including. ---------------------- @Monkeygod -- oh, wonderful. A hellspawn in the same group as a heavenspawn (me). ;) ---------------------- @Sebecloki -- regarding familiars and animal companions, I'm presuming that we (and they) still get at least some of the benefits, correct? That said, I do have a request regarding animal archetypes; I've blended three archetypes (the sage, the emissary, and the infiltrator) into the 'discreet nuncio', found below. I created it basically to removes things that I'm not going to be using (being barely a spellcaster). I'm wondering if I can use it. Discreet Nuncio:
Discreet Nuncios are touched by the divine (or profane), serving as a conduit from their chosen god. As fonts of wisdom and knowledge, these familiars are mistresses of useful facts, but not only do they possess such, they can often slip away to discover such information on their own, listening and spying to gain tidbits of information they then share with their mistress. Special Requirement: A discreet nuncio familiar can serve only a master who worships a single deity; the discreet nuncio must serve the same single deity. Discreet Nuncio Skills: A discreet nuncio treats Sense Motive and all Knowledge skills as class skills. (These class skills add the Sense Motive of the emissary to the all Knowledge skills of the sage.) Dazzling Intellect (Ex): A discreet nuncio’s Intelligence score is always equal to 5 + its master’s class level, but it gains natural armor increases as if its master’s class level were half what of the actual class level. A discreet nuncio also gains its master's native language (usually Common), and can speak normally (and can thus be overheard). This alters the familiar’s Intelligence score, natural armor adjustment, and replaces the 5th level ability to speak with their master. (This is nearly identical to the sage's Dazzling Intellect ability, is gained at the same level, and replaces or alters the same things. Only the ability to speak normally is added, and removes the otherwise-'secure' 5th level ability.) (Addendum: In this game, this might not -- probably will not -- even exist.) Nuncio’s Knowledge (Ex): A discreet nuncio gathers information on every topic and is happy to lecture its master on the finer points of a subject. A nuncio can attempt all Knowledge checks untrained and gains a bonus on Knowledge checks equal to half its master’s class level. Additionally, a discreet nuncio gains 2 skill ranks each time its master gains a class level. Its maximum number of ranks in any given skill is equal to its master’s class level. This replaces alertness and the familiar’s ability to share its master’s skill ranks. (This is identical to the sage's Sage's Knowledge ability, is gained at the same level, and replaces the same things.) Share Will (Su): Whenever a discreet nuncio or its master fails a saving throw against a mind-affecting effect that affects only one of them, the other can attempt the saving throw as well. If this second saving throw is a success, treat the original result as a success, and the discreet nuncio and its master can’t use this ability again for 24 hours. On a failure, both the discreet nuncio and its master suffer the effects of the failed saving throw, even if one of them wouldn’t ordinarily be a valid target. This replaces share spells. (This is identical to the emissary's Share Will ability , is gained at the same level, and replaces the same thing.) Divine Guidance (Sp): At 3rd level, a discreet nuncio can cast guidance at will. This replaces deliver touch spells. (This is identical to the emissary's Divine Guidance ability, is gained two levels later, and replaces 'deliver touch spells' instead of 'alertness'.) Domain Influence (Sp or Su): At 7th level, the discreet nuncio gains a spark of divine power from the deity its master worships. Choose one of that deity’s domains that grants a 1st-level domain power usable a number of times per day equal to 3 + the user’s Wisdom modifier. The discreet nuncio can use that power once per day. This replaces speak with animals of its kind. (This is identical to the emissary's Domain Influence ability, is gained four levels later, and replaces 'speak with animals of its kind' instead of 'deliver touch spells'.) Telepathic Bond (Sp): At 13th level, a discreet nuncio gains a permanent telepathic bond with its master. This bond has no range limit as long as the familiar and its master are on the same plane. This replaces scry on familiar. (This is identical to the infiltrator's Telepathic Bond, is gained two levels later, and replaces 'scry on familiar' instead of 'spell resistance'.)
I also expect that a Tiny rhamphorhynchus pterosaur (such as this, or this, and this big) is not likely to exist in Mega-Fauna Earth (backronymed from 'M-F Earth', because we are, after all, all of us Bad M****r-F****rs); I'm hoping I can get the same familiar effects and stats and simply reskinning it, probably into, in this case, some sort of hawk or eagle, likely the golden eagle; I know the Mongols still hunt with them. According to that link, the practice started in about 940, a little over 275 years before the setting's time-point of 1219. Ospreys give a bonus to Survival, Hawks to sight-based checks, but the rhamphorhynchus gives a bonus to Initiative, which is what I'm most interested in. (Granted, I'd like the other abilities, like the Evasion, Low-Light Vision, Scent, and Sudden Swoop, but I know when I might be pushing too far. ;) ) I'm also hoping to get a couple of weapon abilities okayed -- the +1-value guided (which is dubiously legal due to it being Paizo, but being pre-Pathfinder 3.5e), and the +1-value ki shot (a homebrew ranged-only variant of ki focus, which I'd be okay with going up to +2-value for). Windshot is Num's bow, an adaptive distance guided ki shot mongol horse bow. It is his legendary item, with the qualities of being virtually unbreakable as well as easily upgradable. The latter he can do himself, via his Master Craftsman and Craft Magic Arms and Armor feats.
@Ouachitonian: I have something of the same problem. I'm getting around it (somewhat) by basically building two gestalt mythic characters. Re: orc hornbows -- they're composite, they do greater damage, they have a range 10' longer than standard composite shortbows (80' instead of 70'). All that really has to change is weight and fluff. Seems perfect for Mongol horse-bows. @Coinshot: I did a bit of a sum-up on Attributes and Feats here --
Yours is correct with the exception that you missed the +2 'Fighter-like' bonus feats at L6. Let's just take a survey -- what level does everyone want to be? I am very good with where you have it. It allows us to be powerful without automatically needing to be in command of troops and armies; we get to be heroes, instead of having to be generals, stuck with shepherding along the 'normal' members of our forces. I don't think this means we wouldn't be able to be sons of the generals of Genghis; my character is Erkliğ, son of Jirqo'adai, of the blood of Erkliğ Han, from the Besud clan of the Taichud tribe. Human (Erkliğ Han bloodline):
Human (Erkliğ Han bloodline) Type: Humanoid (Human; 0 RP) Size: Medium (0 RP) Base Speed: Normal (0 RP) Ability Score Modifiers: Advanced (+2 to Physical, +4 to Wisdom, -2 to Charisma; 4 RP) Languages: Linguist (1 RP) Racial Traits: . Ability Scores: Advanced Intelligence (+2, 4 RP), Advanced Wisdom (+2, 4 RP) . Feat and Skills: Flexible Bonus Feat (4 RP), Skilled (4 RP) . Movement: Fast (x3, +30 to base movement, 6 RP) . Senses: See in Darkness (4 RP) Total: 4 + 1 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 6 + 4 = 1 + 6 + (4 * 6) = 1 + 6 + 24 = 1 + 30 = 31 RP Erkliğ Han, the god of the far sky, the high celestial, is the Mongol god of the stars, the planets, meteors, comets -- all manner of celestial objects; when he shifts stars in the sky, there are meteors, or 'hot arrows'. One of the meanings of his name is 'Freedom', and is derived from 'Erli', meaning 'strong'. Generations ago, Erkliğ Han took an interest in a woman of the Besud clan, part of the Taichud tribe. He promised her that their children would labor at the forge and understand hard work, yet come to be great leaders, and so it has come to pass. Jirqo'adai has become Jebe, 'Arrow' or 'Weapon', Chinggis Khan's great general, and his son Erkliğ has become нум, Num, 'Bow', a great warrior as well, blessed directly by Erkliğ Han. Jirqo'adai is Jebe, one of the greatest generals of the Mongols and mentor of the great Subutai; Jirqo'adai was a blacksmith by trade before becoming a warrior, just as Erkliğ was a bowyer. Having 6/6::3/3::+6 (or as it'll work for Num, 9/9::3/3::+3) makes for an amazing start -- power and strength and likely some amount of influence, but without necessarily being chained to one spot, or one group. --------------------- Speaking of videos, catch some of The HU (it's a band); all these links are to their videos on YouTube, and they really give a great Mongol Horde vibe. The Great Chinggis Khaan
Reading the translation really helps, particularly with the last one ...
Well, that was meant more as a 'people who are waiting on posts', but hey. Checking if you're paying attention: Priceless. For combat, as an experiment, I'm going to put up your opponent's AC, HP, saves, stuff like that. A few ground rules for posting, however: If you reduce a target to negative HP greater than their Con (so -11 if they have a 10 CON), they die; feel free to describe how it happens, but it can't take more than one minute (if their death would end combat), and no information can be gained. If you reduce them to negative numbers, unless they have that 'orc toughness' thing where they can really act while at negative HP, you can decide what happens next: describe their death-throes, falling off the edge behind them, collapsing to the ground, whatever. If them dropping ends combat, you may state what you start to do -- stabilizing people, running off, whatever. Stabilizing people can lead to interrogations, note. ;) If you do not reduce them to negative numbers, you can post an approximation of the hit -- a 2 on 1dx+1 means a barely-hit, while a max roll means a good solid strike -- but not their reaction or anything of that sort. If you have a 'save or die' effect (death attack, petrification, coup de grace, etc.), you can roll their save (because at least for now, I'll include their bonuses). If they fail the roll, you can describe the effect taking place (XYZ turns to stone, shudders as their heart stops, etc.); if they succeed, let me post the result. Note that while I do favor the 'over 4 HP, HP are an approximation of will-to-fight, luck, etc. and not significant damage' version, I understand that it's just easier to acknowledge that real wounds-close healing takes place instead of a potion of cure critical wounds 'merely' revitalizing your spirit. ;)
All right, doing some posting, and some other work. The Quarters of each District were always intended to exist; Eponine's random draw got me to creating Yet Another Layer, which led to several more, etc. etc. The long and short of that, though, is that there is now a little bit of information about it on the Districts of Isarn page, as well as an example on the Vieille Ville page. The idea which I'm hoping La Marquise goes with is to draw a harrow card. Harrow cards are easy to pull: roll 1d6 for the attribute, 1d3 for Law/Neutral/Chaos, and 1d3 for Good/Neutral/Evil. So 6 - 2 - 3 would be Charisma / Neutral / Evil, or The Betrayal (cards can be found on this handy-dandy harrow card page). There being 54 Harrow Cards, and 50 official Quarters (La Rouille is officially part of Le Commune I), this leads to 50 Quarters + 1 La Rouille + 1 Catacombs North + 1 Catacombs South + 1 'Just Walk as Whim Takes You'. I've suggested on the Vieille Ville page the name of 'Le Creux' for Main Vieille Ville I; many if not most of the Quarters in Paris are named after significant buildings or places of interest, whether the building is military, government, or religious, or the place of interest is a park, garden, or plaza. I've also suggested 'The Betrayal' as the card La Marquise associates with that area; 'The Liar' (CE Charisma) would also work, for Citizen Goss's flexible relationship with the truth, and The Tyrant (LE Charisma) would be appropriate, due to the rulers of Galt generally harming those they rule, especially lately. Suggestions encouraged!!
Agathe gives a 'hmph' inside her button nose, a sound that you can't remember her ever not being able to use. It mixes contempt, haughteur, derision, tolerance, matronization, and amusement together in a complex blend which would be the despair of any nobleman of a line less than eight generations old. It's a sniff and a snort and a 'faugh' that simultaneously scolds Eponine for presuming she could scold her while pats her on the head for the effort. The sound packs an entire diatribe into a half-second of sound, a diatribe that consists of 'don't you tell me my job' with 'help used to be better back in the day' and 'I've lived how long in this city without you, young lady?', adds in a touch of 'They'd understand nothing I could say to them', and blends it with a splash of 'I'll go when I'm well ready!!' Only grand-mere can spank you with one well-tuned sniff. Still, she isn't getting younger and the task she's about would have taken her another hour or so when she was a spry, clever young thing; flapping a cloth, she drapes it over the top of the project (which, technically, isn't 'hers' anyhow) before she turns away from it and makes her way down the hall to you. "Don't worry, dear, young Henri" -- one of her myriad of grandsons, and compared to 'old Henri', one of her sons (but not young Henri's father) -- "is going to be nearby with one of his bigfolk friends. So I'll be fine, dear. You'll have to let me out, though," she apologizes, patting your hand before preceeding you to the aforementioned gate.
A loot list -- absolutely everything we can strip from the ship and people, from weapons and armor to ship supplies, tar, rope, etc. -- and whether or not we can find a cave is all we need to keep going for a while. ;)
Pesky Sailors!!:
Hel will first concentrate fire on the closest to her (yellow), then shift to the ones threatening Lutor and who put Demlin onto the deck (red, then orange).
I should point out that yellow gets AoOs for my previous shots, as well as this one (before it kills him).
"You killed your own brother for this scow??" says Hel with a good deal of contempt in her tone as she evades the closest sailor's thrust. "Poor trade, no matter how bad your brother was." She puts another arrow into the chest of the sailor in front of her, then starts in on the next closest, one of the two trying to corner Lutor, and who have dealt harshly with Demlin. Hel's expression is not quite as flat as it usually is; there's an anger there, a rage at someone she knows getting severely hurt.
The hardest part of talking with others -- 'being sociable' -- is figuring out who is actually speaking, the spirits in your head or the people in front of you. Well, no doubt it'll get easier with practice. Or you'll get better. ... well, you can hope. Once the morning repast is had, and the acolytes whose duty it is this week go to clean the dishes and begin what maintenance on the slowly-crumbling church they can, you and your own circle of attendants move out into the neighborhoods around the Spire of Strife. While normally the others would seperate into pairs or trios and start doing what they do -- which is, simply put, try to help the mass of people who have gravitated to Isarn because, well ... it's the city. When the farm fails, when you lose the mill to taxes, you go to the city. It makes for a lot of hunger, unrest, despair, all of which the Iomedaeans have been trying to stave off, by going out into the neighborhoods just like you are today. Today, though, the acolytes include you in their pairs and trios, and though none of them seperate from each other more than the usual dozen or so yards, there is a greater sort of watchfulness coming from them as they witness your attempt to reach out to people. To Be, or To Seem: 'Promoting a Business' sounds like a good parallel. It may be outreach (especially if you're expending Capital), but you promote one day, then 'generate capital' the next few. Feel free to roll 1d6 to see how long that 'activity' lasts.
I hadn't even thought of a Bluff roll. Nice one, though. :D Go ahead and give me a Diplomacy roll with your next post, though; we'll see how the people in the street, who are seeing this up close, react. :)
Jared Thorne asked questions via PM, and so they are copied, pasted, and answered here.
Jared Thorne:
1: Not sure how you're meaning; there is a lot of religion in Isarn, some for the better, some for the worse. Desna's worship is roughly standard for her faith, though in general proselytizing in Isarn and Galt can be hazardous to your health. 2: It is a Divine Fighting Technique; it has its advantages and disadvantages. It would definitely allow you to maximize your AC.3-6: These ... really aren't questions, they're build thoughts. These all do, however, describe the shape of your mind and idea, and I'd like to address some of the problems I foresee. First and IMO, one of the primary disadvantages of what you're looking at are is that it requires you to be Chaotic Good in a campaign where you are striving to change the nation's governance from Chaotic to at least Neutral with tendencies towards Law. While Garson Grey was CG, the character was really more along the lines of 'criminal going legit', and I would have, in the long term, talked to him about a shift of alignment to NG. This, see, is because one of the key things a merchant really desires is stability. Yes, there is fortune to be made in chaotic situations, but the 'risk vs. return' calculation is very very steep, and gets only worse as the chaotic situation continues. In Isarn, that chaos has lasted for nigh on 50 years; this is one of the reasons for a merchant to join the Conspiracy. Second, Overlooked Mastermind and Pass for Human -- and since you have lots of feats, I'm sure you can afford it - are great; I do indeed encourage them, because they are excellent for the campaign. I will note for the record that they do clash; Overlooked Mastermind specifically plays off "half-orcs’ brutish stereotypes to their advantage, causing others to underestimate their intelligence and scheming." I would tend to make a ruling that while in disguise as a human, you do not receive the benefits of Overlooked Mastermind, but as yet that is not a hard-and-fast ruling. Third, 'something that involves travel and a caravan. Good cover for having an and force.' While again, Garson Grey had a caravan (smuggling caravan, in fact), having one is by no means a requirement; in addition, traveling is not something that the Abettors (nobleman, statesman, merchant, mastermind) are likely to do a lot of; the majority of the actions necessary to the Conspiracy exist in Isarn, and very few exist outside of it. While travel to any significant distance beyond Isarn is possible in the campaign, it is not something that is going to be frequent; the campaign basically inverts the 'Adventure Locale vs. Community Locale' ratio for the majority of the characters. (And even the Prelate, Dolorès Durante, is mostly going to be moving from one city to 'some other city'.) That said, there will be reasons for any of the Abettors to go to Galt's other cities -- if only to establish influence and control in them. Finally, while having what kind of Masked Persona would be appropriate for you is good thinking ahead, remember that a) your character won't have one yet, and b) an anonymous writer/philosopher is not a Masked Persona; they're ... anonymous, and especially concealed by the printer itself. The Masked Persona is essentially your 'Heroic ID', the 'false face' you put on when you go out to do bad things to bad people, such as sticking knives into them until they stop bleeding: in short, it's the cheap (but not inconsequential) version of the vigilante's Dual Identity -- especially because you can have more than one Masked Persona. Even vigilantes can have Masked Personas on top of their Dual Identities, potentially masquerading as several vigilantes; it's just that the two 'base' identities are far more solid than a Masked Persona. I will note that having someone with Artistry (philosophy) would be good; that's the skill that is necessary to craft the framework of a government. But that doesn't make 'the Anonymous Philosopher' a Masked Persona, it just makes for a name on a broadsheet. Any other questions, please ask them here. For those interested in building characters, please refer to the Campaign Info Page instead of the information at the start of this thread. As well, if you have a question it is advisable to do a quick search of this thread (and maybe the Discussion thread) to see if it's been asked before.
We have, alas, lost Gamer X with Garson Grey to RL issues. Best of luck to him, and hope it gets calmer, better, and easier soon. This means, however, that I am reopening recruitment for the position of the Influential Merchant.
The host nods back to Lilli as she takes the seat at the end closest to him; he's fully aware of her entirely-justified paranoia, relatively minimal though it is, and leaves the end seat available to her as a specific concession. In her line of work, that quirk will some day save her life. Lucien receives a nod -- or rather, a bow of the head -- in response; Jeggare waits, however, brushing aside small flakes of the boule he's tearing apart and eating, listening to the banter between soldier and gang boss as he waits for the others to show. Lemaître receives the same sort of head-bow after his greeting; a wry smile curls onto his lips as the counsellor notices the better-than-usual vintage that's on the table tonight. Well, when one has the financial ability to develop the palate for such a thing, and moves among the sorts of circles Lemaître does, one would be a fool not to develop the knowledge necessary; sometimes a public recognition of such a thing can be as important as knowing who to bow to, and who to ignore. With Dolorès, however, Jeggare will rise to greet her; a bow over her hand, a fatherly embrace, and he holds her chair for her to settle down. "The meditation room here remains ready for you, should you need its use," he adds in a murmur as he pushes her chair in. Aware of her extraordinary distractability, he makes a point of putting a half-loaf of food on her plate, as well as a palm-sized round of cheese. "Here, the hives have been rather bountiful of late," he adds, drawing closer to her a small crock of honey. About then is when the muffled sounds of Garson's footsteps approaching can be heard. Jeggare will look towards the hallway through which the importer will enter, his eyebrows rising as the entry of the last of the group gives the quill-haired tiefling the sense of a forward-rushing shieldman -- or, considering the way he flourishes his cloak off, perhaps one of the city's several vigilantes. The corner of his mouth twitches upwards, but he only returns to his seat, listening to the greetings and cross-chatter. "Enough," he finally says, without the vibrance and charisma that most of the others present at the table can bring to bear, but with a sense of 'father hushing the children'. "Garson, while you and Lily both have the wherewithal to put out broadsheets and perhaps spread ideas, please do not either of you go off half-cocked; Citizen Goss still has the government, the merchant class, and the mob all in the palm of his hand, and we've yet to formulate a clear, concise plan for a strong, balanced, and most importantly just government with which to supplant the current one. "Nor can the Army, or even a part of it --" and here Jeggare nods at Lucien "-- under the Lieutenant enter the city except under very specific orders, which we all know are restrictive in the extreme; keeping the peace at L'Esplanade des Invalides or whichever other market to which they are assigned is the furthest extent the City Guard will allow -- and even though their control of the city is lacking in many areas," and another nod is given, this time to 'Mama Lily', acknowledging her establishment of a modicum of control and stability over her small area in the Theater Quarter, "they still have their champions in the Senate and within the Revolutionary Council itself -- champions who won't allow the Army a whit more authority than they've been given." He gives a thin, flat smile, acknowledging the fact that that particular set of rules are going to have to be utterly shattered at some time in the future. "A fair start we may have made, in developing our contacts and building our organizations, but there is much work to be done -- an important turning point which we now come to." Looking around the table, he meets each gaze as he comes to them -- 'Mama Lily' to his right, at one end of the table; Jerome to her right, then Lucien sharing the same long side of the table; Garson opposite Lily; and finally Dolorès, to Jeggare's left and sharing that long side of the table with him. "A copy of a document has come into my possession, by means better left unsaid, listing those upon whom the eyes of the Gray Gardeners have fallen -- those whom the Gardeners would recruit. There are seven names, three of whom they will draw into their clutches." He pauses for a moment, then turns his head slightly sideways, looking not-quite-at Dolorès beside him. "Your name is on the list. If you are ready to dare it, this is our chance to ensure that you are one of the three selected -- by making at least four of the others ... unacceptable. Or unavailable."
As the players will often be running around doing things entirely seperately from each other, we will (sometimes / often) be having seperate threads for extended periods of time. While I do by all means permit players to read each other's threads, I insist that knowledge gained in that manner remain out of your own thread -- in other words, a firm seperation of OOC vs IC knowledge. It will be something I keep a close eye on, and if something seems hinky (a great word), I will be certain to figure out what it is and smack you across the nose for doing it. However, this thread will remain the sole clearing-house get-together page. Y'all can comment on each other's threads, remind each other of something previous in a thread (or in a previous thread) for whcih their character was present, and if/when you ICly meet again -- after asking permission, because sometimes I will insist on 'no, you tell them what you know in your own words' and deny you the famous spell "Power Word: Blah" which conveys all details of what everyone else just watched -- you can just go with a 'Henri tells you of his adventure in the catacombs' and let it go at that. So. Welcome to the game, thank you for your tweaks and modifications, thank you to everyone for applying and particularly to Gamer X for pushing Garson Grey over to the legal side of the street (from Criminal to Merchant).
One becomes a good writer by writing -- and by writing amongst people you think are better than you are, and who encourage and help you to improve. But 'tis your decision.
A disgruntled ex-nobleman. A military genius. A reliable statesman. A criminal mastermind. An influential merchant. A distressed prelate.
All right, I confess that as things evolved, it turned out I had some particular ideas in mind for the various individuals, so let me ramble on a bit. If this was an Adventure Path with the traditional six books, in the AP of '... Ou la Mort' you would be starting on Book II. And this AP isn't the story of 'there's a bad guy, go kill him' (or at least not JUST that story), but 'there's a society in a bad way, go fix it'. So you might be wondering 'what happened in Book I?' Well, let's call Book I "The Instigation of a Conspiracy". The Instigation of a Conspiracy:
The instigatory character, the one who started the ball rolling, is the Ex-Noble; right now I'm using Androk Jeggare, but I reserve the right to change it to Andressa just in case the game would be better with it. As an Investigator (Conspirator, Empiricist) / Swashbuckler (Inspired/Veiled Blade, Noble Fencer) / Rogue (Phantom Thief -- thank you, Sapiens, for that pointer!!), Jeggare's focus is less on action and more on information. Investigator gets him 'Detect Thoughts' as an extract; Empathy gives it to him 1/day; Phantom Thief's Skill Unlocks gets him 'detect thoughts' as an ability, albeit with some work (and some amount of difficulty -- a -20 to the roll). Sense Loyalties gives him a starting point.
All of this is put out there to show how very, very carefully he worked to winnow through his list of acquaintances to find someone with whom he could conspire; the first individual would have been the Statesman, the Criminal, or the Merchant. The two of them would have begun to plan -- who else do they need? What needs to be done, and in what order? Someone who could collect the various gangs into the palm of his hand, whether by browbeating, murder, or blackmail, and with the gangs the common rabble? A criminal mastermind is required. Someone needs to be able to introduce ideas inside the government, or better yet manipulate someone into 'having' the idea and introducing it? A reliable statesman is needed. What about the middle classes, the ones who do the heavy lifting of creating and running the trade and industry and let's face it, the economic engine of the country -- who do they need to be able to access, manipulate, and in the long run dominate that group? Well, that would be an influential merchant. Once you have the background individuals, you need the two people upon whom you're going to appear to hang all of this: someone who can be the paragon of law and order and obedience to the government, and someone who can get all the dirt on the worst of the worst of the organizations in Galt, the Gray Gardeners. You need a military genius who is willing to play along with the government until it is time to obliterate it. You also need a churchwoman who can bury her true beliefs deep enough to be presented to the Gray Gardeners as a candidate for induction, and then restrain herself for the years it will take to climb into their innermost councils, mouthing their beliefs and creeds while keeping the fire of that distant goal alive in her heart -- a distressed prelate. They don't jump into things immediately, of course; no, the feeling-out of each new member of the conspiracy takes weeks, even months. The exploration of possibilities takes longer, the plotting and planning of the shape of the conspiracy longer still. By the end of the three years since the last one joined (which one that happened to be is immaterial), they have discussed the steps necessary, reviewed the methods of communication, considered and discarded thousands of potential directions. The morality of doing bad things for a good eventual conclusion has been argued to death; the ethics, too. Every single one of the six are in it to the end, whatever that end might be; for the Abettors, if it means surrendering to the authorities and being slain by a final blade in order to preserve and advance the conspiracy, they'll do it without a moment's hesitation, without a second thought, knowing that the entire goal is to solidify the positions of the two Agents until they, together, can execute the last steps of the conspiracy, end the Red Revolution, destroy the Gray Gardeners, and free the souls from the final blades. It may not be the New Republic they hope for, but by that point the two of them might be able to produce a good government all on their own. The Abettors:
The Noble's part in the conspiracy is to gather and disseminate information to and from the other abettors. He is someone who can analyze a person's reliability and figure out which way they'll jump. He's the clearing-house for clues, the spider at the center of the web, the operator in the middle of all the wires, to listen for an opportunity for furthering the goals of the conspiracy and tell one of the others to seize it. Overall he's the one moving the pieces, but he has to move pieces in such a way so that nobody would suspect that this piece did that thing -- because it's just so unlike them. The Noble will not have a specific Masked Persona, instead relying upon instant disguises (both magical and mundane) of ordinary 'faceless' people -- guards, servants, kitchen helpers, midden-cleaners, all the people that do the work.
The Statesman's part in the conspiracy is to manipulate the machinery of the government. She's going to manipulate a fellow into recommending troops be sent into a dangerous situation, then manipulate someone else into suggesting the Military Genius for the job. She's going to forge paperwork, buttonhole a messenger and delay them a critical five minutes, and be under the microscope of one of the most paranoid and successful single leaders Galt has seen in 50 years: Chairman Goss. If this person doesn't pick up 'Veiled Contempt' (which helps greatly against Sense Motive vs. Allegiance/Trustworthiness), they should see what they can drop in order to pick it up. The Statesman arguably has the greatest use for a Masked Persona, as his position may well be the most fragile, and any unreliability, even apparent unreliability, could be grounds for capture, interrogation, and execution -- and he has plenty of work that has to be done outside of his public persona. The Criminal's part in the conspiracy is to keep a finger on the pulse of the commons. Gangs rarely begin amongst the idle rich; they begin when someone hasn't much other choice, it's either break someone's arm for a loaf of bread or starve to death yourself. He's going to constantly have a finger on the pulse of the poor folk; he's going to need to control the heat underneath the pot so that he can make it boil over, keep it from boiling over, or if he can't do the latter, at least push it so that it boils over somewhere useful for the conspiracy. He's going to need to arrange for the occasional demonstration, the frequent theft, and be able to disappear someone -- permanently or otherwise. The Criminal has the least need (among these three, anyhow) for a Masked Persona, because doing bad sh!t is right in his wheelhouse -- and doing bad sh!t will definitely help his reputation. There will come times that the operations he needs to order are going to run counter to what might be popular, though, so a Masked Personal (and an entirely seperate organization for that Persona) can come in handy. The Merchant's part in the conspiracy is to keep the middle class stable. Galt has had a severe 'brain-bleed' of the middle class; people don't want to invest in Galt, people don't want to make things in Galt, people are no longer considering Galt for anything except 'somewhere to send your Aunt Hyacinth so that she gets accidentally murdered during a charming little riot'. It's up to the Merchant to manage owners of the few manufactories that are left, manipulate the handful of investors, keep merchants -- not just shopkeeps (though he'll be working with them too), but merchants who oversee trade -- such as himself interested and active, and if necessary offer a bribe -- even if the point of offering it is for it to be turned down. The Merchant can put a Masked Persona to great use, and with the Criminal be the most readily placed to be active as such.
The Agents:
The part the Military Genius plays in the conspiracy is to establish a powerful, loyal force structure that no riot is going to be able to overwhelm. Nobody significant from Councils past is going to be trustworthy enough for Korran Goss; the Military Genius has to by all mundane and magical appearances appear to be utterly faithful to Goss. Like with the Statesman, 'Veiled Contempt' is practically a requirement, and the ability to dissemble even in your thoughts would absolutely come in handy. The Genius is going to have to establish a rock-solid reputation amongst his fellow officers for fairness on the one hand and utterly ruthless retribution on the other, so that they understand that any attempt to backstab him or those he cares about, whether literal or figurative, is going to result in obliteration for them -- but that if they are forthright and honest with him, he will respect that and be forthright and honest back, even if he disagrees with their position. In short, he has to build something of a cult of personality amongst the military without it being a cult of personality. And because he needs to rise by the hand of Goss himself, he must be no more than a Captain -- a Major, at most, but a Captain would be better by far, as it offers significant promotions for the Chairman to bestow upon him. While having a Masked Persona is possible, by preference any clandestine work the Genius needs to have done should be performed by one of the Abettors; if he needs to 'discover' something, the discovery should be in clear view of his soldiers so that he can make astounding leaps of intuition to enhance their opinion of him, even though he's been 'cued' to the discovery by one of the others. The true audience of the Genius is the rest of the Army -- and, because soldiers write home to their mothers, his secondary audience is the people themselves. The Prelate's part in the conspiracy is arguably the most critical: to gain complete information on the identities of every single one of the Gray Gardeners, and to learn the ritual to release beings from the final blades. This may be the worst kind of situation for almost any kind of priest: going undercover and doing the very work that revolts her in order to learn how to reverse it. While the Prelate is very unlikely to be completely incommunicado from the rest of the group, the institutional paranoia and thuggery present in the Gardeners will make it extraordinarily difficult to consistently interact with the rest of the conspiracy. Dead-drops, coded letters, invisible ink -- every tool of the deep-cover spy is likely to be necessary for the Prelate. At the same time, her position is going to be intensely if disturbingly useful; the Gardeners are akin to the 'secret police' of Galt, and the very presence of a Gardener -- which is, note, essentially a 'common Masked Persona' -- can shatter a mob back into a crowd. Given a hint of impropriety, the Prelate will be able to 'pick up' individuals the others have indicated are troublesome, or even those the conspiracy wants to save, snatching them up ahead of the other Gardeners and spiriting them away. At the same time, the Abettors will be hard at work, collating the information the undercover Prelate passes along, smoothing the way for her ascension through the ranks, and hamstringing her rivals in the organization. Obviously, the Prelate will have a Masked Persona -- as a Gray Gardener.
Inspirations:
The Disgruntled Ex-Nobleman: Hannibal Smith (from the A-Team), Sherlock Holmes (both original and Benedict Cumberbatch), Nate Ford (Leverage), Aerich/ Temma, Duke of Aryll(The Phoenix Guards, etc.), pretty much any 'mastermind'. The Reliable Statesman: On the outside, Aaron Burr; on the inside, Alexander Hamilton. Or Benjamin Franklin -- witty, clever, a little self-effacing, but he gets things done, even if someone else appears to be the one doing it. The Criminal Mastermind: Again, pretty much any mastermind; Prof. James Moriarty if he was patriotic instead of a psychotic; I particularly like the memory of the Mafiosi in the movie 'The Rocketeer', who turn on their employer when they find out he's a Nazi. Lucifer out of the TV show of the same name (which is NOT the same as the comic, oh my god don't get me started); John Travolta's Chili Palmer from 'Get Shorty' (the 1995 film, because I haven't seen the TV show). Any 'reasonable' crime boss who has motives beyond the criminal. The Influential Merchant: Pick a rich guy from a movie; there you go. Tony Stark before his trip to Afghanistan; any character who knows how money leverages into influence and vice-versa, and is willing to spend one to acquire the other, each at the appropriate time. The Military Genius: Napoleon is the initial idea, here; Raj Whitehall (from the series 'The General' by David Drake and S.M. Stirling, highly recommended reading) and Thomas Theisman (from the Honor Harrington Books), and D'Artagnan (from 'Three Musketeers', etc., based off Charles de Batz-Castelmore d'Artagnan) are the three perfect fictional examples, particularly as Napoleon kept the throne instead of giving it up. The Distressed Prelate: I ... am not sure I have an inspiration for the Distressed Prelate. I suppose any character who has swallowed a great amount of offence in order to lay low and discover everything necessary about their foe before not only killing them, but undoing all their works. Perhaps Edmond Dantès (The Count of Monte Cristo) might be close. Creating Organizations and Buildings:
The Military Genius is encouraged to build an Organization; this serves as the roster of troops under the command of the Genius. As a consequence, the overwhelming majority (85+%) of this organization should be composed of troops, with the occasional priest, mystic, or bureaucrat thrown into the mix. Creating a building (or a lot of them) is unfortunately rather contraindicated; the Genius and his troops are likely to be moved, reassigned, and the like, and will gain no direct benefit from any particular room/building. The Statesman might or might not build an organization. If she chooses to do so, it should be composed primarily of individuals involved with the government or high society -- lackeys, bureaucrats, priests, mystics, elite guards, and sages -- lots and lots of bureaucrats and lackeys!! Creating rooms / a building is equally up to the Statesman; early on, establishing rooms for scattered loyal teams of bureaucrats can create advantage for her, while at later stages establishing a manor house of some sort may prove equally advantageous. Doing so too soon might bring the negative regard of the Chairman upon her, though, and what the mob might do to it ... well, best not to imagine too clearly. The Criminal should definitely have an organization -- lackeys, laborers, cutpurses, robbers, scofflaws, drivers -- even apprentices and craftspeople, not to mention assorted thuggery of both physical and magical sorts. Just remember that these people are in it to make money and feed their families, and don't focus too intensely on information gathering. Having buildings where they can do their work, or to which they can return at the end of the day (and possibly even do some training!) is certainly an advantage, especially if the Criminal manages to insinuate his organization into every section of the city. The Merchant should have an organization as well; more than anyone, the Merchant can find a use for almost any type of team, from Acolyte to Soldier. Even the criminal sorts can be used to put pressure on a rival, though if that sort of pressure is needed, the task might be better passed off to the Criminal. And of course, having buildings is a benefit -- from warehouses for storing goods to workrooms for various craftspeople, to a place that can be used to impress someone susceptible to it. Getting too prosperous -- or rather, too visibly prosperous -- might have repercussions, however. The Prelate is least likely to have an organization or a building -- and yet, there is use for both such. For the Gray Gardeners must have informants, and the Prelate is likely to have contacts loyal to her in both her old priesthood and this new one. And with the Gray Gardener being a 'common Masked Persona', that suggests that the Gardeners have ... social personas as well, might they not? Just that the Masked Persona of the Gray Gardener is one in which they spend much of their time. And so a building, a room or five, might be handy as well ...
So where do we go from here? What's Book II called? What's the general outline of the rest of the AP?? The Rest of the AP:
Well, now that the conspiracy is assembled, the real work has to begin. The first adventure has to do with getting the Prelate into the Grey Gardeners; right now he (or she) is only considered a candidate, with there being several other potentials available for the Gardeners to take; the Nobleman has managed to get the list of 'Gardener potentials' that has the Prelate's name on it, and that's where we'll start: needing to discredit the other potentials on the list, so that the Prelate is taken. While it sounds like the Prelate has little to do, don't be fooled; the Prelate has to act in such a manner as to fool the examiners into accepting her for what they think she is -- and the Military Genius needs to help!
So Book II might be called 'The Firebrand and the False Face", as both of the Agents are entering what might be their most dangerous phase -- being under the microscope, the bottom of the hierarchy, the dubiously-trustworthy 'new guys' that need to prove again and again not only their competence but their loyalty. And while they're doing that, they have to dodge any jealous comrades who'd really rather not have such good competition!! Book III is a long one, and might best be called "Step by Step, A Thousand Miles". It will dwell primarily on solidifying your hold on the true levers of power, on building up resources for the government's overthrow, both in Isarn as well as in the rest of Galt. Pieces must be moved into place, opposing pieces must be converted, shifted, or eliminated, and everything done must be kept secret -- not just from the people against whom you're moving, but secret from the people who are doing your work!! Each piece must be unrelated to every other piece, and set to moving for the benefit of the conspiracy. The Criminal must keep civil unrest at a low boil, still ready to threaten an outburst, but quiet enough so that the Merchant can gain more influence. Book IV is a tough one, because the issues the Abettors are dealing with increase rapidly; call it "The Looming Axe". Their organizations will be pushed to the limit dealing with rivals, whether those are political rivals that suspect the Statesman is considerably more than she appears, criminal rivals that see the Criminal's organization as ripe for a takeover, takedown, or just a bit sliced off, or economic rivals of the Merchant who see the increase in order that he's created as worthy of elbowing in on -- and perhaps opening up trade with other nations while cutting the Merchant out. Now it's time for the Agents to use their positions to win approval of their 'constituencies' by acting decisively. Book V is when the final pieces are put into motion: "End of the Red Revolution". The level of distrust of the government and general displeasure with the state of the country amongst the population has been coaxed almost to a fever pitch, the Prelate is becoming one of the top counselors in the Gray Gardeners and learning the ritual to release souls from the final blades, the Military Genius is trusted -- not necessarily liked, but trusted -- by both Chairman Goss and the people; amongst the military, of course, he's indisputably a leader, if not the leader. Book VI comes after the fall of the perpetual revolution as the characters found "The New Republic". Military dictator for only a matter of weeks or months, the Genius turns the reins of the State over to a well-respected political survivor, and the Statesman calls for a new government to be assembled. Elections are to be held, but the leaders of the conspiracy must find and eliminate multiple other groups who are looking at the elections as an opportunity to seize the reins of the new government and dominate the country once more.
So. I would like -- I would love -- questions on this. Not so much on 'The Rest of the AP', but the rest of it? Yes, absolutely; the more the better.
... dear god, if you're going to dump your character to the thread, at least have the good grace to spoiler the whole thing -- and use 'preview' to check to make sure you did it right. If it helps, and for those of you who don't know how, spoilers can be nested by using this process:
Title:
[spoiler=Title ] First spoiler info. Title Spoiler: [/spoiler ]. [b ]Title[/b ]
[spoiler ] Second spoiler info. [/spoiler ] I can also see by cross-chatter that I rushed into this recruitment a bit, because what I'm seeing clearly in my mind's eye is not what I've managed to actually put into the recruitment, and this is the cause of some confusion, uncertainty, and internal conflict (the latter on my part). So I'm going to pause on the commenting and get to assemble what's going on inside my skull and put it down here. That'll get posted later tonight. Very briefly, however, the way the conspiracy is assembled is relatively specific, and while the parts each individual has to play are somewhat flexible, certain elements of them are not. These are what I need to elaborate upon. I'll post again in a few hours with details.
It was a wonderful rallying cry: "Liberté, Fraternité, Égalité". Liberty, Fraternity, Equality. Everyone forgot what ended the motto: "... ou la Mort", 'or Death.' For fifty years, the Revolution has laid claim to Galt. For fifty years, councils have risen to power on the whipped-up fury of the mobs of Isarn, or seized it via ruthlessness and betrayal, only to fall to the mob's fury some months, some years down the road. For fifty years, the Gray Gardeners have willingly, even ruthlessly executed those sentenced to death by the mob (whether guilty or not) using the final blades, those terrible soul-seizing guillotines from which none return -- though there are rumors that the highest of the Gardeners know a ritual which can remove a soul from the blades. Fifty years of 'la mort' ... is enough. A disgruntled ex-nobleman. A military genius. A reliable statesman. A criminal mastermind. An influential merchant. A distressed prelate. United by their frustration with the constant pandering to the mob, by their disquiet at the methods used by the Gray Gardeners, by their desire for Galt to once again become a place of freedom, wisdom, learning, and beauty, these six have dedicated their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the cause of extracting Galt from the morass of anarchy, chaos -- and yes, evil -- in which it wallows and returning Isarn to what once it was: a shining city on a hill in the greatest culture in Golarion. It's time for the Red Revolution to end. Game Summary:
Combat: 1.5 out of 5 Frankly, I suck at large-scale combat, so the idea of that is going to be pretty much right out. How much other combat -- desperate knife-fights in alleys, magical battles, formal duels between fencers -- will depend strongly on how the players approach their objectives. Make no mistake, there will be combat, because some opponents you have to stand up to directly and accept their challenge, but by and large it will depend on the players. Large-scale maneuvers / battles (which may happen) would likely be glossed over by opposed skill checks, possibly using the Mass Combat systems. That said, while force may provide an answer to many situations, it will will rarely be the best answer, and the more overt the application of force is, the more likely complications may arise. Intrigue: 5 out of 5
That means everything you do is going to have consequences. Murderhobos and psychotics need not apply. Lethality: 4 out of 5
Roleplay: 5 out of 5
However, never be afraid to PM me asking me to move it along. Many scenes of this game may be one-on-one between your character and the GM; this, too, may impede the flow of the game, and could result in others waiting on a scene to end. I will do my best to ensure this potential issue is minimized.
Recruitment:
Duration: Opening immediately, with an estimated closing date of 12:00 midnight US Eastern time, 12 May 2019. Accepted players to be determined no later than the same time, 19 May 2019. Background: I have acquired permission from the writers to utilize The Galt Gazette, and so this information will provide the cornerstone of your experience in Isarn in specific and Galt as a whole. However, with the exception of Campaign Traits, do not use the Player's Guide, and please refer instead to the 'Character Creation' and 'Additional Systems' spoilers found below. Openings: 5, all of whom have ICly known each other for some time (at least 3 years), and who trust each other with their Lives, their Fortunes, and their Sacred Honor. PvP except as a concealing action (i.e. cooperating with each other to deceive someone else, even if either or both of them take damage) will not be tolerated -- period. . . The Disgruntled Ex-Nobleman: This will be the GM's central NPC host, information source and clearing-house. Obviously not a PC; he has 'Former Noble' for obvious reasons. . . The Military Genius: You must have your PS: Soldier maxed out; the Campaign Trait 'Rising Star' is highly recommended, as are Feats and Traits that enhance that skill. Otherwise, build as you like. . . The Reliable Statesman: This character will be a member of the Senate, and will be (at least at game start) the most high-profile member of the conspiracy. The Campaign Trait 'Affiliated Agent' would prove the most useful for making you a member of one of the three political parties. 'Historian of the Red Revolution', 'Barrister', or 'Passionate Orator' would all do well -- though the last might make you a bit too high-profile ... unless you happened to be a vigilante. . . The Criminal Mastermind. Building an organization is liable to be very useful. Of the campaign traits, Catacomb Dweller' might be the perfect fit, while 'Affiliated Agent' and 'Menacing Mien' have advantages as well -- and don't underestimate being an 'Aspiring Sidekick', so long as your own ideals don't clash too hard with the vigilante's. . . The Influential Merchant: 'Local Business Owner' is probably the prime Campaign Trait, but depending on what sort of business you wish to have (and how much of your WbL gold you are willing to use), 'Historian of the Red Revolution', 'Affiliated Agent', 'Barrister' -- almost any of the Campaign Traits could be useful. . . The Distressed Prelate: You must intend to 'go undercover' within the Grey Gardeners in order to learn the secret of releasing the souls within the final blades to their eternal reward; this is a game requirement, and means being ready to take the Gray Gardener prestige class with your next level, and stick with it until Level 10. Feats and Traits that enhance your ability to carry off a long con (e.g. Bluff) are highly recommended; the Campaign Traits 'Secret Practitioner' and 'Menacing Mien' would both prove useful. Except for the two bolded 'must' requirements, these are only suggestions. Build your character the way you want for the slot you desire to fill. Prospective players may submit as many characters as they desire, for as many slots as they desire; indicate which slot you wish a particular submission to be considered for. Character Creation:
Level: 5 Attributes: Point buy, 25 points. Standard maximum 18, minimum 8 before racial modifiers. Charisma should not be considered a dump stat in this campaign. . . Level Ability Score Bonus: Doubled, but must be spent on seperate ability scores. Races: Core plus tiefling. . . Special: Tiefling may appear as derivative of any race, not just human, but in all cases ages as half-elf. Alignment: Any Lawful, any ethically-neutral (NG, TN, NE), Chaotic Good. Classes: Gestalt; Paizo only. No Spheres. . . Unchained: Required. . . Variant Multiclassing (VMC): Not allowed. You're gestalt, act like it. . . Special: One side of your gestalt must remain constant. If you decide to play, for example, a wizard/fighter, if you wish to add in any other class, it must replace one and only one of those two; at 20th level, therefore, you might be a Wizard 20/Fighter 5/Rogue 5/Arcane Archer 10 -- or a Fighter 20/Wizard 5/Rogue 5/Arcane Archer 10. You could NOT be a Wizard 15/Fighter 15/Arcane Archer 10. Archetypes: All Paizo. Purple Duck Games archetype replacements for UC Monk. Other 3PP potentially on request -- but make sure you have a 'Plan B' for it. HP: Roll the higher die of your two Gestalt classes, with a minimum of half-plus-one of that class. Feats: . . Feat Tax: World is Square / Elephant in the Room is active. Characters who normally receive the Weapon Finesse feat -- not a version of the feat for a specific sub-set -- for free instead receive Deft Maneuvers. . . Skill-Based Feat: Players receive 1 free "skill feat" [Acrobatic, Alertness, Animal Affinity, Athletic, Deceitful, Deft Hands, Magical Aptitude, Nature Soul, Persuasive, Prodigy, Scholar, Self-Sufficient, Skill Focus, Stealthy, Street Smarts] at 1st level. . . Bonus Feats: At level 3 and every 4 levels afterwards, characters will receive 1 additional bonus feat for which they qualify. . . Disallowed: Leadership and similar feats. See 'Additional Systems' spoiler. Traits: Two traits, +1 drawback for a third trait. One trait must be a campaign trait; an additional campaign trait has been created. Rising Star Spoiler:
You're becoming well-known within the current Council not only as a politically reliable individual within the officer corps, but as someone who is capable of getting the troops to get the job done.
Benefit: You have 750 GP to spend on creating a military force (see the Ultimate Campaign rules for building organizations out of teams) using primarily military teams (Archers, Cavalry, Cavalry Archers, Elite Archers, Elite Guards, Elite Soldiers, Guards, and Soldiers). You must have at least 15 military people (3 of the above teams) in your organization, though you may add on any other type of team (a team of bureaucrats would be useful, just as an FYI) in addition to them. You may add GP from your WbL if you wish, but if any GP from the 750 remains it is wasted. During downtime, 1 of every 7 days will be spent keeping the peace in the city (and cannot therefore be used in any other way, using a variant on the 'Enforce Order' Downtime Activity); however, each time you roll for an event (using the Mercenary Company Events table) during the downtime event phase you may roll twice and choose your result. Skills: . . Type: Unchained. +1 background skill point per level. . . Total: Skill point bonus option: higher skills per level of the two classes chosen at any particular level, plus 1/2 the points of the second class, plus bonus points from Intelligence. Even the pairing of low-skill classes will gain a moderately respectable number of skills over time. . . Notice: See 'Additional Systems' spoiler below. Artistry and Performance skills may be as deadly in this game as any assassin's knife. Ignore them at your peril!! Wealth: 10,500gp (standard WbL for 5th) . . Profession/Crafting: Downtime rules apply. Crafting will not be allowed for game-start gear. . . Magic Items: Please be sensible in your purchases. . . Firearms: Emerging. Note that gunfire is not only unusual, it's loud, and people (like guards!) will go looking for what caused that strange noise; the base Perception DC for hearing gunfire is set at -10. (This is why oil of silence exists.) Spellbooks, Formula Books, Etc: Receive +4 free 1st level spells and +4 free 2nd level spells in your book at game start. Other things as questions are asked.
Additional Systems:
We will be using Verbal Duels, Influence, Skill Unlocks, Building and Organization rules, and all that sort of thing; if it's in Ultimate Intrigue, chances are it'll get used. I strongly encourage you to examine the B&O rules, as leadership is functionally being replaced by the Organizations you build, and the better your organization, the better your chances of succeeding at your goals. I strongly encourage you to examine the specific rules for Verbal Duels; Performance skills are highly useful in them. I strongly encourage you to consider the uses of news, art, and propaganda both overt and subtle in history, whether for revolution, war, or political change; the Artistry skills (and to a lesser extent the Craft skills) will enable you to spread your thoughts much farther than your voice can reach. Expectations, Both Positive and Negative:
Posting: How and When Spoiler:
How to Play Like A Star: Spoiler:
How to Waste Your Time and Mine: Spoiler:
About Myself: I am an assh0le. Let me say that again, just so that you and I are on the same fvcking page: I am an assh0le. I will not coddle you. I will not automatically be careful not to insult your tender-wender feelings. I will kick your ass when you're being a schmuck, I will kick your head when you're being a pedant, and I will kick you out of the game if you deliberately wind me up. If you don't need any of those things done to you, you will find that I generally like people, that I'm a laugh riot, that I don't take myself too seriously, and that I can take an insult like a champ. But make sure you're wearing your big-boy/girl pants if you want to play here, dammit. I run with an eye towards realism. That doesn't make my game a slavish image of reality, and that won't make this a simulation instead of a game, but someone who uses ass-backwards logic in the vein of 'well, the X here could be anything, it's a fantasy X with magic' is going to get Gibbs-slapped the first time they say it, and b!tch-slapped the second, and kicked out the third - because fantasy games like this one have their core roots in what we as humans know. Isarn is practically Paris. Galt is revolutionary France turned up to 11. Leaders have a vested interest in remaining leaders, which means making sure that someone who offends them gets put in their place. Anarchy does not even begin to describe the insanity that's been Galt for the past half-century. I do not play your character - only the rest of the world. This means that you control what your character does, I do not. What I do control and dictate is how the rest of the world reacts to your charater. If you diss the high priestess, the organization heads around her take affront on her behalf -- not that she can't take care of herself, but there are still certain proprieties to be observed. As a consequence, you might get repeatedly challenged to duels. You might be seized by the house guards for being a classless idiot, sent to a kangaroo court that's made up its mind before you even get there, and have a night with Madame Margaery because you pissed in the wrong cornflakes. I don't dictate what you do; I only dictate what the rest of the world does in reaction to what you do. Heal a person? Defend a town? Slay a marauding dragon? They love you, your reputation grows. Start throwing fireballs around the tavern - or the town? Well, they don't love you, but your reputation DOES grow; just not the sort of reputation you might want. I write the way I want myself, my character, or the world to be viewed. I write so that both you and I can enjoy reading what I wrote. It is a statement of fact that I still return to scenes I have written in years (and, at this point, decades) past to enjoy the story and the writing there. I also write very, very well for an amateur, and I've been trying to break into the pro scene (if I can get at least one of my ten different projects done), but it means that I write well. And I check my writing before posting it. And I tend to use word selection specifically for its implications and impact. (Subtlety is my friend, though it may not be yours.) The more you write, the more you learn to write; the better you write, the more people want to play with you. It is my hope that you write well for this campaign, and if you don't write well, that you will Learn To Write Well - and then do so. I want you to have fun. Being a player means wanting your character to do Cool Sh!t(TM). That means Spotlight Time - you know, the moment in the game where you do Cool Sh!t(TM)? That's when the spotlight is on you and your character, and you do your Cool Sh!t(TM). That spotlight can move fast - there's a lot of characters that are going to be here - but if you want to try some wild-ass stunt, then by all means, try your wild-ass stunt. I am, in fact, here to facilitate your wild-ass stunts. I am also here to provide you with Object Lessons on why wild-ass stunts are wild-ass, because when you fail, you look like a wild ass. (And if it's a wild-ass stunt, then I think there should be a reasonable chance of you failing - but I'm pretty sure we'll figure out together what 'reason' in such a case means.) But I'm also here to cheer when your wild-ass stunt succeeds, and reward you appropriately for managing to pull it off, you crazy kid. I will be flexible - within reason. If I have a set-piece I need to run you through, then you will encounter that set-piece no matter where you go - Mivon, Daggermark, or Absalom. However, if you try to hie yourself all the way to Absalom or some other place that is clearly well out of the campaign expectations (e.g. Isarn in specific and Galt in general), then I reserve the right to be a bit cross about it, and Gibbs-slap you for making me twist reality not only into a pretzel, but into a Moebius strip in order to make everything work because of your ludicrous craptastic journey to Absalom just because your oats are up and you want to have a go at the Starstone. I want to have fun too. I am not going to get involved in huge arguments about politics, an off-the-wall interpretation of a rule that depends on how you define one word, or whatever. I am open-minded, and I know what I don't know - to wit, much of the system. However, I've been playing and running pen-and-paper RPGs for over thirty years, and so I can smell a bullsh!t attempt at sixty paces. You have one (1) chance - that means two (2) posts max, and maybe one (1) post - to convince me of a rule interpretation. If I say no, roll with it, and try again the next time, because the next time I may agree with you for a myriad of reasons. Like I said above about realism and playing the rest of the world, though, it means that for the most part, 'usual consequences' will be usual. What I said above about you having fun means that I WILL adapt the game to the wild stunts you crazy kids try to pull off - either through consequences due to your failures, or amazement due to your successes. But if I start approaching this game with trepidation, if the moment I see '3 new messages' I get a sour feeling in my gut, I will locate the cause of my upset and I will make it not be a cause of upset any more, either through telling the offender to get their act together, or removing them from the game for not having done so. Because I want to have fun too. And because I am an assh0le. I reserve lots of rights - the right to Gibbs-slap you, to tell you you're being a schmuck or a pedant, to ask you what drugs you're smoking if you think you can use two lances at once during a charge, to take a phone book to you if you think your special snowflake deserves special treatment. I especially reserve the right to kick your butt out if you not only go out into left field, but stay out there and scream and whine and cry and tell me I'm being unfair for doing all of the things I've already warned you right above this very statement that I was going to do. I also reserve the right to run a howling good game, to write like a poet (and to write entirely new poetry appropriate to the game), to make pugnacious NPCs, to make you fear for your character's life, to run you ragged, and to try to make this the best game ever played on Paizo.com. And I'm setting out to finish this game, not just start it. Now, you got all that? You did? And you're still here? Smokin'. Go put together a character, and let's go make fvckin' magic.
Seal Hunting:
I don't know why, but for some reason I'm imagining the seals usually get taken with spear hunting.
So I'm thinking Faila can scout for seal groups from the air, ones still on the beach; I tend to think of her as cold-blooded (though some research suggests that many dinosaurs were warm-blooded), so she'd be doing short stints of 10-15m. Hel can target them at a fair distance from the launch; the composite longbow's base range increment is 110', which almost doubles the sailor's standard shortbow increment of 60'. She'd also be able to use ki to add 50' to that range, or simply take shots from further out. I don't know what the penalty for firing from the launch would be -- maybe the negative of the 'boat in rough water' penalty to DC for Acrobatics, which would make it a -2. If the seals have the AC 13, HP 4 from 'Ultimate Wilderness', Hel could fire from 3 range brackets out (330', -4 to attack) on a rough boat (-2 to attack) and have an even chance of hitting an AC 13 target. Closing to within 110' and she'll hit 80% of the time ... Enh. It ain't all about me. ;) I don't know if she'd be able to put m/any down permanently, I think/hope she'd be able to hurt several enough for them to be more easily caught and slain as we closed. Other than scouting, Faila will use guidance on everyone she can to give a +1 bonus to the roll. If the scouting doesn't add a bonus or auto-succeed on Survival, she has an untrained +2 Survival, +1 for the guidance.
... well. Bad roll for Faila, but a natural 20! :D Can I be the leader? ;) In actuality, Cole would be the natural best for this, with a +8 to his Survival skill roll. As for whom to leave behind, I personally suggest Timeon; he and Grumblejack can keep an eye on the sailor left behind, and I'm moderately certain there'll be no real hijinks -- especially if we promise seal meat to Grumblejack when we get back. (This is sounding like a right excellent roast on the beach!!) ------------------------------------------------------
Hel nods in acknowledgement of the captain's instructions, and seems perfectly willing to go along with the terms of the wager. Descending into and sitting in the launch, she looks to be uncertain, even a little nervous; if there is comment, she will explain drily, "Heavy skirts are not made for swimming. I'd really rather not fall in." She will watch Odenkirk's crew row their boat in the opposite direction of their own, then draw Faila out from underneath her cloak. "Go on, now -- find us a nice pack of them." Faila gives her what can only be described as a dirty look. "You can be a real b!tch, you know that??" But, being thrown into the air by Hel, she flaps off, skimming low across the water at first before climbing into the air to scout the shoreline for clusters of the fur-bearing mammals. "So I've been told," Hel murmurs as she watches her distant familiar swim through the air -- dive -- skim the surface -- climb again. It's tough to tell if the slight compression of her lips is a slight smile of amusement or a wistful expression of regret. But practical as always, she will take her turn at the oar, however much she's nervous about changing seats with womever starts them off.
"Oh, Hell no," says Hel with a touch of -- disgust? contempt? maybe disappointment? -- whatever it is, it's something in her voice, even though her volume is kept low, so as not to be heard on the other side of the iron-bound door. "[b]Are we not good Talirean soldiery? A prayer to Asmodeus would discard any practicable use of that disguise. And think -- think!! "The squire Timeon has told us his knight must be down here, and now I expect the service required of us is that to which we are put by Thorne. Sir Balin of Kierkegaard, Knight of the Alerion, a good, faithful, and famous witch-hunter of Mitra, no doubt wears a Mitran amulet of silver-and-sapphire: undoubtedly that which we have been sent to retrieve. He is undoubtedly skilled and strong, and though he might well trade his amulet for his squire's life, do any of us really think the Cardinal would allow such a man to leave this place with his life, even were his mind erased of memory or sanity?" She shakes her head. "I doubt it. Nor, I confess, would I; Balin may not be the one who sent my parents to the stake, but he is the very type to have done so, and I would not set him loose to torment some poor soul just because ... well, just because." Hel gestures towards the door, banded and locked but with the key on the ring beside it. "Open the door. Exclaim relief we have found him alive. Examine the room so that we might flank him. Lutor and I shall remain guarding the exit, purportedly to be ready if the remaining dead in the other room should rise. Form up around him, I don't know, say that since we've cleared out everything, we're going to escort him back to his squire, and then escape this place with him. Once the four of you have surrounded him -- we strike, swift and true. "Deceive always thine enemy,[/b]" she says, quoting -- or at least paraphrasing -- the lessons recently learned. "Know thine enemy. Be ruthless to thine enemy. Be mighty, with no sympathy for the weak. Suffer not the fool who is deceived. Be secretive, and expose yourself only if needed. Make sure of his fall, that he might not rise once more. And thus we shall serve our master well -- and be rewarded."
As Hel sleeps, whomever remains awake and chances to look over at her on the side furthest from the light will be able to notice her curling instinctively up. This is not just the fetal position, this is someone huddling up into as tight a ball as they can, trying to hide from the world, from a situation that's as bad as Branderscar ... or perhaps worse in many ways. When she awakens late, for the final shift out of the ten hours, there is a sharp little catch to her breath as she emerges from sleep, as if she was being startled awake. Nevertheless, she lies there for several handfuls of seconds, perhaps mentally clawing away the cobwebs of sleep, composing herself for the day, or making herself aware of her surroundings -- who can say, besides Hel herself? Nonetheless, she does finally rise, eyeing her trembling hands and trying to determine whether or not their instability is lesser than what it was some eight hours before. On her watch she will, if it has not already been done, try to salvage the mithril snakes. Closing the door to the torture chamber turned temporary sanctuary, she'll go retrieve the metal cobras, dragging them back down the hall and into the grate-floored room, there to work on disassembling them. When it comes time to rise, she will go about waking the laggardly by lightly gripping their foot and giving it a shake. She remains quiet and thoughtful during breakfast, and will help feed Timeon; she is wise enough to keep her thoughts and attitudes behind her teeth, giving the youth the social courtesies without delving further into the myriad of conversational pitfalls that would await her in speaking with such a Mithran. When the others are ready to proceed, she glances at Timeon, nods towards his hidden cupboard, and watches to make sure he is well hidden away before she nods to Wesh and Sir Gallen, falling into her third-row slot in the marching order.
At Tiadora's contemptuous snark, Hel's laughter cuts off as if cut with an axe, and her expression practically flattens; she shares a glance with Willow, but despite the halfling's wan smile, her gaze shifts back to the other female even as she rises, examining her with precise consideration -- the sort of examination one performs upon an individual one considers to be an enemy, just not right at this second. Hel is pretty damn certain she'd be meat for the grinder if it came to an issue, which is why she doesn't make one ... but the insult is not forgotten. Nor does she ignore the missing three, but at least at the moment she can do nothing about it, so she turns to follow Tiadora, 'leading' by simple dint of being on that end of the hallway. As she goes, she listens to the continued conversation behind her; the elven House Shadirdal she does indeed recognize from her reading, and ponders the peculiar confluence of nobility three of the six here represent. Entering the 'office' and giving the room a fast look, Hel's instinctive judgement is 'not enough books', but she responds absently to the hearty congratulations from the man in the chair with an absent, "To get started yes, but certainly not to finish the job so thoroughly." She will sit if there are seats available and offered, but otherwise she will make way for the other five to enter and spread out, standing pretty much where-ever she ends up. With that, however, she places her hands in a proper attitude for listening, and attentively does so; the charismatic thunder and challenge does not stir her blood in quite the same way as it might another, but the core logic of his stirring speech does appeal to her in more than one way. ... that had clearly bloomed within Cardinal Adrastus Thorn. Despite his passion and visionary mien, Hel realized that it had not kept the man from creating a plan -- one which he needed people to execute, desperate people, people who have nothing to lose, much to gain, and a score to settle. People, she thinks to herself, like those sent to Branderscar Prison. Give them a bit of aid, assist in their escape, and they will be willing to do wonders for you. Finally she could see the concept behind the plan behind the escape; that she was caught in it made no difference to her admiration of the intellect that made it possible, that created the veil Tiadora had given to Rigel, anticipated as many possible alternates as it could ... it lights a much quieter fire in her eyes as she twitches her eyebrows upwards. "Well planned, Your Excellency," she says quietly. "I trust that your future projects are equally well-designed." She listens to Lutor's questions, and rakes him with a withering glance as he suggests that Thorn 'cannot blame him for asking'; of course he could, what a stupid statement. "I will sign -- after reading, of course. I expect each of us to have our own copy of the contract you intend for us, as ... reassurance." And to make sure that no funny business might happen. While the one Cardinal Thorn held might be the only 'true' contract, mystically empowered, those held by the rest of them would ... should help keep both him and themselves honest. "What has happened to Rigel, Demlin, and Amalrus?" she quietly inquires.
Amusing / annoying that while that specific entry for Aasmimar, Dhampir, Tiefling adulthood is 20 years (Human being 15), and their aging effects for Middle, Old, and Venerable are identical to humans (35, 53, and 70 years old, with maximum age being 70 + 2d20 for each), the amount of time for training to be added onto that 20-year-old adult remains the old amount -- 4d6, 6d6, and 8d6 (though for dhampir, the last is 10d6). Which means that a starting Aasimar or Tiefling character with an average training time roll of the trained classes (alchemist, cleric, druid, inquisitor, magi, monks, and wizards) are going to be 20 + (8 x 3.5) = 20 + 28 = 48 years old. Middle-aged, and working on old. Those who roll poorly will be 20 + (8 * 6) = 20 + 48 = 68 -- almost venerable, and needing to discover when they're going to die. Even with a minimum roll they're going to be 20 + (8 * 1) = 28, only 7 years away from middle age, as compared to the human-standard 15 + 2d6 = 17 minimum, 27 maximum. With Dhampir it's even worse -- on average they'll be 55 (Old), maximum they'll be 80 (Venerable + 10, so might die any day now), minimum they'll be 30 (5 years away from middle age). ... really should have sat down, figured out how they wanted them to be reflected, and then used:
Links really do need to be different and distinct from the surrounding text. While a change in font/color/whatever on rollover is a nice pretty way of keeping them subtle, please do use internet best practices. It's what we're used to!!
Mayhem tonight!
Yes - wrap-ups and the oath-takings inbound tonight.
That's a pain to manage, honestly. For my Kingmaker game I'm using Bengali; I actually have a mapped list of things in the game so far at the header. If it's direct speech, we use the Latin-alphabet phonetic translation: "Ē'i āmi ki balachē karachi; ē'i hala kibhābē āmi ēṭā balachi. Aśarīrī." If it's telepathic, mental, something like that, we use the language's own script: "এই আমি কি বলছে করছি; এই হল কিভাবে আমি এটা বলছি. অশরীরী." A translation always gets provided in a spoiler tag. "This is what I'm saying; this is how I'm saying it. Elvish."
Yeah, I was somewhat interested to see that many/most of the Rods also function as magic weapons, generally light maces. For the Rod of Splendor, take the base for the Rod, add on the costs for the adamantine +1 light mace (5305), and just straight add that to the cost for the standard Rod (30,000), therefore 35,305. If a player wants to make a rod a particular weapon, I allow that too; I have a variant of a scepter of heaven (which itself acts as a +1 evil outsider bane morningstar) that has its base weapon a hanbo.
Paladin, as viewed by Gygax: "You have surrendered and proclaimed your conversion to the law and good. You, having been just recently the willing servant of evil, are a high recidivism risk. I will therefore send you to the afterlife so that you may not stain that conviction by backsliding." I am of the opinion that this is the standard - that 'surrender' is not, and should not be, a 'get out of being slain free' card, especially not if they have committed grievous acts of harm in the past, whether that be recent or distant, with no intervening drift (slow or swift) away from evil. IMO, in a fantasy domain in which the gods are a real part via paladins, divination, and the like, the once-evil good character will lift their chin to the sword and ask the lawbringer to make their justice be swift. The not-actually-good character, the 'says he surrenders and repents to try to save his skin', will tend to squeal and beg to not be executed, try to lawyerly-weasel his way out of it, and that sort of thing. Killing a helpless foe is, by modern standards, an evil thing. In a medieval setting, this just ain't so. If you have no way to take them into custody, enslave them, and sell them to a distant market, if they're likely to try to escape (and considering prisons of the day, escape is quite possible) and slay your own people in the attempt and/or on their way back to their own homeland, then execution of the 'helpless' is not only 'not evil', it's justifiably good. The question somewhat turns on the Batman/Joker question. The Bat always captures Joker; Joker always escapes and kills a few (or a few dozen/hundred) people. Batman doesn't kill Mr. J, because he's 'better than him'. That, in essence, applies the first time; even applies the second time. But by the third time, it doesn't. The same question resides in the use of execution, which is currently reserved to the State; these foes are helpless, are they not? Sure, they've undergone trials, but make no mistake, both the innocent and the redeemed have been executed. (And the redeemed have all had the 'make your justice swift' attitude I speak of above. Because redeemed.) The point here, however, is that 'killing a helpless foe' - execution by any other name - is something done in regards to and for the society in (or for) which it takes place. If an individual is too dangerous to allow to live, if the methodology to keep them alive is not practical (or, as in some cases, exceedingly laborious), if one can adequately judge their past actions, then execution is entirely lawful and good - and in such cases may well be considered a violation of the social compact to keep the offender alive. Going back to the OP, the question that would need to be asked is 'were they willing participants in the Evil Overlord's schemes?' I'd think one could safely assume (you know, Evil Overlord and all) that they were indeed. Another question might be 'how soon are they going to wake up, get free, and follow us to stab us in the back?' Because the last thing you need when you finally confront the EO is his henchmen hitting you in a flanking maneuver ... That's why shows like Game of Thrones deliberately kill off major good characters. They writer hates that trope/rule.Game of Thrones kills off characters for shock value, to tie up loose ends the showrunners don't know what to do with, and (increasingly more as the show goes on) for fanservice. Clearly you lot know very little to nothing about history. George R.R. is taking the Song almost completely from the English War of the Roses. 'Favorite character' death is, well, rife in reality. Sorry.
On a day like today, the morning and afternoon is spent getting ready for the events of the evening to come. For some people who are going to participate in The Mayor's Merrymead Gala, this is relatively par for the course; for others, a highly-unwanted intrusion into their lives; and for still others, something with which they have No Experience At All. Fortunately for a few of the latter, they've managed to acquire some assistance ... but it still takes a truly amazing amount of time to make oneself ready for this sort of thing. It helps, perhaps, if one thinks of it as preparing for battle, even if the battlefield is not one with which you happen to be particularly familiar. But that only makes preparation doubly important. As per the Gala invitation, the leaders of each group have been instructed to send to the Citadel by noon what 'standard expedition equipment' they would bear; having the follower who brings the gear demand to be allowed to keep watch over it is permitted, though that individual is not, in turn, allowed to possess weaponry inside the Citadel; they can 'check' it if they wish, or send it back to your lodgings or camp with a fellow, or whatever. Notably, those who have not sent their gear by half a candlemark past the noon hour will receive a not-very-polite reminder in the form of one servant and two Restov city guardsmen, who do not depart until the gear is forthcoming - the servant will transport it if necessary. And, of course, you're supposed to wear (or bring) your primary weapon, or a representation of such, with you when you arrive. ======================================================================== The Citadel of Restov
The party officially starts at 6:00, but people arrive before that time, just as people will arrive afterwards. The Mayor's Merrymead Gala includes, however, a celebration in the bailey (the courtyard inside the walls) open to the public as well as the far more exclusive one occurring inside the Citadel itself; the soldiers at the gates are turning away the public and, functionally, everyone who doesn't possess an invitation, with hirelings and servants being, this once, expected to turn around and head right back out, instead of sticking around in the wings to assist their noble with any issues that might crop up. Much to the displeasure of some very important individuals (at least in their own minds), this policy is strictly enforced, and on the stroke of 6:00 the servants who were allowed to watch their leaders' gear are politely but with equal strictness sent home - or at least out of the Citadel. This is in part due to the fact that at that time the gear is revealed to the partygoers, up on mannequins which are themselves placed on four-foot pedestals, so as to be able to be easily viewed by the hundreds in the Great Hall. The fact that there are well over threescore guards, both spearmen and archers, watching the crowd (several from in front of the pedestals) makes it highly unlikely anything will go missing. The majority of the guards are clad in silver-trimmed blue, the remainder in the red-trimmed blue that are the colors of Restov and, generally, the Aldori swordpact. This lavish affair, more than anywhere any of you have ever been, is a function of Society, where every expression has a meaning, every interaction follows a protocol, every personage has a peculiar place depending on title, position, wealth - a Society irritated at having had their intentions not only read but pre-empted by the Surtova on the Dragonscale Throne, given life and presence by King Chalm Kowalskiy and his men. Adding to the political mayhem is the fact that Chalm has displayed a certain amount of non-Surtova, pro-Rostland sentiment, is not acting the way the Rostland glitterati are used to a king behaving, and has selected for his top people a wide variety of people, from clear nobility on one end of the spectrum to utter commoners on the other - and not even all of them are legitimate, which is a scandal in and of itself. Chalm clearly has no intention of following anyone's cues but his own. The King, wearing the same silver-trimmed blue as the majority of the guards, enters promptly at six o'clock, escorting his daughter and son; Sarra Marta is a beautiful young lady in white and silver who captivates and is immediately captivated by a sizeable portion of the party, particularly the younger generation; Tobias Jared is a quiet boy in page's clothing, also silver-trimmed blue, who virtually vanishes in the social ruck. Oskar Vorwilde, in an expensive but subdued outfit, also wears what is now clearly going to be the new nation's colors of silver-trimmed blue; even Kawaler Nikita Alexeyevich is wearing the colors, his breastplate re-enameled into those colors, and bearing a very simple 'rising phoenix' design in silver. Chalm does make a point of meeting Mssr. Kurian Hasselicht, a quite famous Galtian artist (which undoubtedly means he fled Galt two steps ahead of the guillotine squads) who is currently 'in residence' in Restov, tapped so that he might be able to execute the grand painting that has been commissioned by the Dragonscale Throne to commemorate the occasion; otherwise, he moves slowly through the scrum, with either Vorwilde, Alexeyevich, or his daughter accompanying him at any particular moment. Of course, Chalm is the most important personage at the party, not the only one; Lord Mayor Ioseph Sellemius is the host, with a veritable horde of Swordlords, wealthy and influential merchants, Restov and Rostland nobility, and of course the main members of each organization (and their top lieutenants) are all here, the latter especially throwing the social calculus of who is higher-ranked than whom out of whack, and the entire situation being a political stew-pot of disastrous proportions. But disaster from one point of view is but opportunity from another, eh? The Great Hall is, however, fairly well-packed; four hundred people before servants will do that.
The Party: Chalm Kowalskiy - as pictured, though the clothing color matches the gems in the crown, and everything gold (including the crown) has the appearance of silver. Sarra Marta - clad as pictured, though the ribbons are the more intense blue of the gems in the crown in the picture of her father. Tobias Jared - also clad as pictured, jacket in blue, shirt in silver (or at least white). All right. Everyone arrives in order of posting, so if you're an early poster, don't say you arrive at 6:30 - just don't post until later on. Those who want to post early can start arriving at 5:30 or so. Your introductory post should include a herald's announcement of your entry, meaning everyone gets to know all the sordid details of your name and noble titles. Have fun with that, but don't go TOO overboard; if it ain't in your background, it won't be in the herald's introduction. Note that all paladins are, by social definition, Kawalers - knights. Otherwise men are likely to be 'Vitez', a social courtesy 'sir' or 'lord', and women are 'Żonka', 'madam' or 'lady'. When you arrive, each of your weapons will be formally checked, a reciept written and issued to you; you will be patted down after that to check for concealed weapons. No, belt knives are not allowed, nor are canes, excessively-full pouches of money, or any such thing; not even a pen knife is being permitted past, with very few (and especially well-known) excpetions, such as a seventy-five-year-old tottering noble needing a cane. The only people who will be armed are the guards, the king (with a belt knife), and Rytier Khavortorov, the Aldori. Like before, we'll have three 'rounds', hour-long opportunities to talk, schmooze, try to push ahead your agenda, whatever. Presume you can speak with only one person or, if you can ICly swing it, a relatively-quickly-collected group of people. I expect to spend a week (or a bit more, to round the time off) on each of these; however, if it's dragging I will move things along. If 'active' social conflict occurs, meaning something more than a put-down and a walk-away - and I half-expect a certain amount of conflict to occur either between yourselves or between you folk and NPCs - we will be using the Verbal Duels system to determine smackdown. I have created one of those handy Trello boards (here's the invitation link) for this; other stuff I need from time to time will be able to be found there, and it's been added into the informational spoiler up top. It may behoove you to glance through the information, and pre-assign skills to your favorite sorts of verbal tactics. Besides the King, the Lord Mayor, Vorwilde, Alexeyevich, and the two Kowalskiy children, the following nobles and groups may be of interest. First, the Aldori Swordlords, and the 'group' to which their school belongs:
Not probably, as there was no particular 'order' he was entering. And unless a knightly order has a sacred patron, and thus requires the worship of someone specific or following a certain profile, they don't give two hoots as to which way you lean as long as you're following their strictures, contributing to the well-being of the nation, or whatever their knighthood/organization is about. They do, on the other hand, take a lot more time making mundanely certain that you will act in the ways they believe in; that's part of what the typical six- to eight-year training time (page / squire / knight) entails. One does not just
:: Lyda :: 12. Something big and important.???? Well, it was a big building, so ... :P No actual plans for it yet; if I need to send people somewhere big and important, then there ya go. ;) :: Darivan ::
Second, alignment tests, like drug and alcohol tests, as well as metal detectors and the like, are not only 'easily' fooled, they can easily throw a 'false positive' depending on how a person is feeling. Someone who just got screwed over by the courts may be feeling particularly rebellious or malevolent, and could thus very easily register as chaotic evil. What's more, on 90% of the people you're going to throw a 'null', because those people aren't of a power level strong enough to register, or a 'neutral', because that's what most people are. In addition, it may simply fail because the 'something evil' you might want to catch (such as, say, poisoning an entire roomful of adventurers and nobles) has already been accomplished, and only the spreading of its effects is occurring, and that in complete innocence. Third, even if you should detect 'evil' (or 'chaos', or whatever), it takes a discrete amount of time to establish the fact; there are limits to range, area, and 'how soon' you can get the data (i.e. the 'actual target' has to be in the area for at least 18 seconds). As a consequence, doing this 'at an event' very rapidly becomes either impossible or else actively inhibits your desired outcome of 'catching bad guys'. What's worse - and this is something that paladins can spend years arguing about - just because some rebellious CE bastard is out for themselves does not automatically mean they deserve to be on the receiving end of a smite, if what he's doing (starting a popular uprising against the stolid ruthless application of Law, as in a highly restrictive LN society) results in good for many, many people. The current actions of the individual are what must be judged, not the fact that, for example, Rytier Kanimir Khavortorov is a NE sadist and gets off on slicing people up during his duels, and is thus perhaps a lot more asinine and provocative than he needs to be in order to try and provoke people into challenging him. It's bad, yes, but it isn't what even a paladin would call 'a smiting offense' should the two of them meet in the middle of a society party. On the other hand, induction into a social organization, such as a knighthood, is an entirely different ball of wax. Re: the 'light' thing: your best bet is to find a similar item and price it off of that. Similar item: Hand of the Mage, mage hand at will, neck slot, 800 gp. Remove both the slot requirement (x2) and the 'item requirement' (x2, loosely following the ideas for runic tattooing), and you get 3200 gp. I stick by my prior pricing of 1500gp with the 'flare' issue; I am willing for you to learn how to control it, but a) you won't be able to do that starting out (i.e. right now), and b) it's likely to be a Spellcraft roll at a fairly difficult DC - probably 30. If you want to spend the 1500gp now, you can, but you'd better do this now; this will not become an option once we hit our stride. Or rather, you WILL be able to do it, but it'll be the full 3200gp amount, and count as filling the 'runic tattoo' slot. And no, you may not move your group to the Iron Gauntlet Inn. You're at / having your Block II encounter. If everyone who's there decides to stay there for the rest of the night (i.e. the 8:00-12:00 Block III), that's fine, but you don't get to double-dip your blocks, otherwise we'll never get to the party, much less the adventure. :: Everyone ::
All right, again, and with feeling. The legacy players do get to be leaders of their own groups; by all means, know each other from previous events. I do know this screws with the backgrounds you've revised to account for each other; think of the group as having naturally gone their seperate ways six or eight months back, and now reconnecting through your leadership of these other groups. For everyone, you are each considered one of, if not the particular, social leader of a group. You, your cohort, and your followers are not the only people in these groups; they'll vary from 'you plus a few' to 'you, a few, their cohorts, and their followers'. Your organizations (and their basic descriptions) are as follows:
This is actually most (if not all) of the information I have on these groups; by all means get inventive and make up more stuff. Please do not keep as a mental canon overblown stuff; while it's allowed (and even expected) to exaggerate in IC storytelling conversation with people who weren't there (and even people who were), make sure you keep your mental story straight, that 'the huge blue dragon' was actually a wyvern, or some such. Now, more to the point. I intend to do something like this for every thread, so that you the players know where I the GM intend on taking the scene/event, at least in a general sense. If there are 'must occur' items, this is where I'll let you know that, for the game to proceed as intended, X, Y, and Z must occur. Since this is my first time doing this particular thing (the 'OOC exposition' bit), it may change in the future, but hey, what doesn't?
Plot Point: The leader of each group (the PCs) will be asked to have delivered ahead of time their 'usual field gear'. This will be arranged in a group tableau so that the artist hired by the Surtova can have his assistants get sketches of everything. Restriction: While you are expected to wear your primary weapon to the function, it will be checked at the door, and placed either under guard (most everyone else) or with your gear (the PCs). The only people allowed weapons are a) the King; b) the King's personal guard (five _very_ competent swordsmen and two precision archers); c) the Mayor's Guard (about thirty halberdiers assigned in pairs to stand guard throughout the hall, who will brook no especially-crazy nonsense); and d) by ancient right The Aldori, Rytier Kanimir Khavortorov, the titular, spiritual, and in all other ways leader of the Aldori Swordlords. Plot Point: Oaths of Fealty. Every PC swears; those with a sworn sacred oath to a specific deity - in essence, only those who receive spells and other power-from-a-god's-hand such as clerics, paladins, and (maybe) druids - must still swear temporal fealty. Discussion to be raised as that time approaches. Plot Point: At this point, bad things happen. Chaos reigns, people die, and with the PCs now being sworn to Chalm Kowalskiy, they need to get him safely out of the place. Some, if not many/all, of the cohorts will have their weapons at this point, but while the PCs get the king out, they will need to find the source of the problem and fix it. PCs one way, Cohorts the other.
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