CURSE OF THE CRIMSON THRONE
Chapter 1: Edge of Anarchy Pharast 3, 4708
It has been a long winter in Korvosa and the first signs of spring are just beginning to emerge. Nonetheless, this morning is grey and dreary as a soft rain falls on the city's cobblestone streets. As the sun rises over the Mindspin Mountains and the first sunbeams of the day reflect off the Jeggare, the city awakens.
Alastair Stills:
You awaken in your usual spot in an alleyway just a few blocks from the Goldmarket in Korvosa's Midland district. It was a cold night and the morning rain has given you a bit of a chill, but living on the streets that is nothing unfamiliar to you. As you walk up Eodred Street towards the market, the rain begins to let up and has almost completely stopped by the time you reach the plaza. The vendors are just beginning to set up, and you decide it is time for you to prepare for the day as well. Ducking into an alley behind Basha's Bookstore, you pull your disguise kit out of your pack and open the lid, but find something unexpected inside. Sitting atop the usual contents of your kit is a card. Picking it up, you discover that it is a Harrow card. This particular Harrow card is labeled The Rabbit Prince and depicts a humanoid rabbit wearing a cloak, a crown, an hourglass, and wielding a broken sword. Turning the card over, you find that there is writing on the back. It reads:
"I know what Gaedren has done to you. He has wronged me as well. I know where he dwells, yet cannot strike at him. Come to my home at 3 Lancet Street at sunset. Others like you will be there. Gaedren must face his fate, and justice must be done."
Travigan Frost:
You awaken in your bed feeling a bit stiff, but no worse for wear than usual. After readying yourself for the day, you make your way into your shop to set to work. After getting the furnace fire started, you bring down the bellows from the shelf and are surprised to see a small card flutter down from where it had apparently been sitting on the shelf as well. Not remembering having put any cards on the shelf yourself, you bend down to pick it up and find it to be a Harrow Card. This particular Harrow Card is labeled The Keep and depicts a great stone keep sitting atop an island of rock suspended in the air by two metallic legs. On the ground below the keep, an invading army appears to be gathering. Turning the card over, you find that there is writing on the back. It reads:
"I know what Gaedren has done to you. He has wronged me as well. I know where he dwells, yet cannot strike at him. Come to my home at 3 Lancet Street at sunset. Others like you will be there. Gaedren must face his fate, and justice must be done."
Seraphina Allin:
You awaken with a pounding headache. As the world shifts back into focus, you recall that you are in the Creaky Hammock, a dockside inn and tavern in Korvosa's Midland district. Rolling out of your hammock and stepping over the several other passed out patrons on the floor, you make your way into the tavern area and take a seat at the bar. The Creaky Hammock's innkeeper, an older fellow named Destin, pours you a pint and slides it accross the bar, reenacting what has come to be something of a morning ritual for the last several weeks. As you drink your breakfast, you discover a small card stuck to the bottom of the tankard. Picking it up, you discover that it is a Harrow Card. This particular Harrow Card is labeled The Juggler and depicts a giant woman walking through the countryside juggling houses, carriages, and even what appears to be an elephant above her head. Turning the card over, you find that there is writing on the back. It reads
"I know what Gaedren has done to you. He has wronged me as well. I know where he dwells, yet cannot strike at him. Come to my home at 3 Lancet Street at sunset. Others like you will be there. Gaedren must face his fate, and justice must be done."
Xavaros Dalanar:
You awaken to the smell of rotten fish wafting in through the window of the small studio you're renting in the West Docks ward of the Midland district. Rather than blocking out the smell, you take a deep breath, savoring the scents of freedom from your long imprisonment. Still abed, you reach over to the nightstand and pick up your spellbook. Opening the cracked leather cover, you find a small card fall out that you are certain was not there the night before. Picking up the card, you discover that it is a Harrow card. This particular Harrow card is labeled The Foreign Trader and depicts a strangely dressed elf with a monkey on his shoulder bearing exotic goods and make a gesture of offering. Turning the card over, you find that there is writing on the back. It reads:
"I know what Gaedren has done to you. He has wronged me as well. I know where he dwells, yet cannot strike at him. Come to my home at 3 Lancet Street at sunset. Others like you will be there. Gaedren must face his fate, and justice must be done."
Rivane Hears-The-Departed:
You awaken in your quarters in the Cathedral of Pharasma, in the Gray district of town. After readying yourself for the day, you make your way to morning services in the central chapel. After taking your seat, you open your copy of The Bone Lands in a Spiral to your favorite passage and find something strange. Sitting on the page is a card. Picking it up, you discover that it is a Harrow card. This particular Harrow card is labeled The Theater and depicts a puppet show being acted out on a miniature stage. Turning the card over, you find that there is writing on the back. It reads:
"I know what Gaedren has done to you. He has wronged me as well. I know where he dwells, yet cannot strike at him. Come to my home at 3 Lancet Street at sunset. Others like you will be there. Gaedren must face his fate, and justice must be done."
Welcome to the discussion thread for my Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign!
The game will be starting up soon, but first I wanted to go over some guidelines:
Posting Frequency
As mentioned in the recruitment thread, I'd like to keep this game moving at a pace of one post per day. What that means is that I will personally be posting and moving the action forward every 24-hours at the minimum. If any people haven't posted their actions within that 24-hour window, I will control their actions for that step. In most cases, this will simply mean that they don't do anything and follow the will of the party, but if people know ahead of time that they won't be able to post for a coming day or don't have time to make a full post, if you post a brief summary of what you'd like your character to do in your absense, I can go with that. If we happen upon a day where multiple people are going to be gone and give advance warning, I'm cool with us all skipping that day so too many people don't get skipped. As I also mentioned, I'm not going to enforce posting guidelines on weekends or holidays. Not to say that people can't post on those days, but I won't move action forward unless everyone has posted in that case. Also if people do post more than once a day, that's totally great and I will just treat it the same way with not moving action forward until everyone has posted.
Formatting
I don't want to be a formatting nazi, but I do like things to be clear and look nice. Using correct spelling, punctuation, and capitalization are pretty much a given and in addition I like to do Bold for speaking in character,Italic for thinking in character, and OOC for any game mechanics type actions or questions. Also, present tense please. Here's an example:
Batman is sitting alone in his batcave feeling blue. I'm feeling blue, he thinks to himself as a bat flies down from the darkness and lands on his head. What are you doing on my head, bat? he asks with a scowl. The bat does not respond.
I could really go for a cheeseburger right now, muses the caped crusader as he glares at the reflection of the bat in the batcomputer screen. He dips his fingers into his utility belt and pulls out a handful of spell components. Making an arcane gesture in the air and muttering the spell under his breath, Batman smiles. Cheeseburger time.
Casting Polymorph any Object (DC 22) to turn the bat into a cheeseburger.
Combat
I like maps. As such, I'll be using Google Documents spreadsheets to make battlemaps for our combats. If you don't have a Google account either A) Get one, they're free, or B) Let me know and we'll figure something out. Basically I want everyone to have access to the battlemap and be able to move their characters around the grid as they make their posts for each rouch. How I'd like to format the posts is to start out with your name, current hp, and any conditions you're suffering from at the top in bold. After that, just make your post in the usual format and then include your actions in ooc text at the bottom along with any rolls. Usually it'll be best to roll damage as well for each attack and then I'll just apply it if it hits or not apply it if it doesn't. Here's another example:
Batman
hp 112/124, sickenedthe batburger didn't agree with him
Spotting the crooks dash around the corner, Batman moves accross the alleyway and ducks behind a dumpster. This dumpster stinks, he thinks to himself as he pulls a batarang from his belt and throws it at the nearest thug, aiming for the groin.
Move: Move to B4; Standard: Attack Thug #1
Attack:1d20 + 18 - 2 ⇒ (11) + 18 - 2 = 27 Damage:1d6 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7
Am I in cover behind the dumpster? That was my goal.
Other Stuff
That's all of the main stuff I want to get out of the way at this point. I'll get the actual game thread up and running pretty soon and then we can get playing!
The city of Bloodcove is one of the few bastions of civilization along Garund's western coastline. It borders both the trackless Fever Sea and the vast Mwangi Expanse—two huge wildernesses at the very edge of civilization. Its nearest neighbours are hardly much better: To the south there is the former Cheliaxian colony of Sargava; beset on all fronts by its former owner Cheliax, the greedy Shackles pirates who protect it, and its own rebellious Mwangi population. To the north lies the pirate haven of the Shackles, an island chain filled with pirates and the remains of whatever cannibalistic society dwelt there before them.
Bloodcove is unique in appearance as the entire city is built into and around the roots and trunks of one of the gargantuan mangrove trees that are found only along the Mwangi coast. The whole city is perched atop boardwalks and scaffolding that keep it out of the Fever Sea.
Through one route or another you have all found yourselves here. Tonight at different points in the evening you are all visited in your rooms by a wizened-looking halfling woman who introduces herself to you as Kora. She hands each of you a folded letter.
Open the Letter:
Greetings, and I trust this missive finds you in good health!
My name is Lavinia Vanderboren, and I humbly request your attendance at dinner at my estate on Festival Street and Blue Skink Lane tomorrow evening. I think that I can present you with an opportunity uniquely suited to your skills. Please inform the carrier of this letter of your response to this invitation, and I hope to be speaking to you soon!
-Lavinia Vanderboren
As you finish reading the letter, Kora smiles up at you and asks in a soft voice, "What response shall I give to Lady Vanderboren, dear?"
You recall having heard the Vanderboren name while giving a performance at The Pirate's Hook a few nights ago. You overheard a couple of deckhands talking about a tragic fire that broke out last month in the harbor, taking the lives of Verik and Larissa Vanderboren. The Vanderborens were survived by their two children, Lavinia and Vanthus.
For Lerith:
You recall reading about the Vanderboren family in a recent news pamphlet. Apparently, about a month ago a tragic fire broke out in the harbor, taking the lives of Verik and Larissa Vanderboren. The Vanderborens were survived by their two children, Lavinia and Vanthus.
I'm a fan of bolding dialogue to make it easier to pick out. Aside from that, feel free to make your posts in whatever format you feel most comfortable with. For those not familiar with bolding things, click the 'Show' button below your submission field for all BBCode Tags. Also don't sweat it if you don't have your profiles fully completed by the time of your first post; there's a bit of exposition that will occur before you'll have to be in combat or anything. Have fun!
Hey everyone! This thread will be for OOC Discussion for my Savage Tide game. Since I just picked the players, I figured I'd make this thread now so we can get everything ready to go.
I'm probably going to make a first post on Monday or Tuesday of next week depending on when we're all ready. If everyone I chose from the Gamer Connection thread could go ahead and post here to verify that they've got their profiles created and are ready to play, that would be awesome. I'm excited to get this started up! :)
So I'm thinking I am going to dive into trying my hand at GMing a PbP game. I've been GMing IRL for something like 8 years, but have only recently discovered the world of PbP games. I have quite a bit of free time available for posting in these so I figured I'd see what kind of interest I can drum up for a game. Here's what I'm looking for:
Four players
Regular posting schedules
25 pt point-buy
Standard character creation rules
Any official Paizo supplements (Core, APG, Companion books, etc)
Consideration of some 3.5 feats and spells per my approval
Set in Golarian starting out in Bloodcove
Also for those not in the know, Savage Tide is a seafaring campaign that focuses on lots of swashbuckling action and exploration so watch out for that.
If you're interested, post here and feel free to put together some characters. After I get some responses, I'll pick a crew and post a couple of threads in the main and discussion forums.
I'm interested in trying my hand at a PBP game of Pathfinder if any are starting up or looking for players. I've never played a PBP game before, but am a longtime Pathfinder player and generally like to think I know what I'm doing. If anyone has any room, I'd be happy to join in :)
As has been mentioned in other threads, PCs in the STAP are encouraged to form romantical bonds with the important NPCs. I am having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to get any of my players interested in the NPCs and am curious as to how this has worked out for others plus any tips that anyone might have. My PCs and their rough personalities are:
CG Male Air Genasi Rogue/Swashbuckler: Very curious, greedy, angers easily, very reckless at times.
CN Male Sun Elf Warblade/Wizard: Very methodical, cautious, intelligent, self-interested.
CN Male Wood Elf Ranger: Very crazy and unpredictable, spontaneous, quick to act, did I mention crazy?
N Female Ice Para-Genasi Druid: Calm, independent, "something to prove" type attitude, often the peace-keeper.
I'm going to go with a suggestion I saw somewhere on here about making Amella into a man-captain so that the girl in our group has someone to possibily have something going on with and also so all of the girls with rapiers don't get too confusing. Thus far the PCs haven't been very charmed by Lavinia; they're currently mopping up the Lotus Dragon guildhall and are still somewhat split over wheather to give Lavinia the Vanderboren loot that was found... If they do decide to return her money, I'll probably have her reward them pretty handsomely with a personalized Ring of Protection +1 each so maybe that will warm them up to her. I'll probably also use the idea mentioned in another thread about having one of the Jade Ravens or someone else, I'm thinking of just using a crew member of the Wyvern, point out how Lavinia is loaded and anyone who marries her would have a ticket to Tashluta's (me run in FR) nobility. I have a feeling that our Rogue or possibly even our Wizard might be enticed by that. I might try to enamour the Lirith Veldarose dame from the Wyvern's crew to our Ranger and see if I can keep her alive through HTBM; the best path to that end is probably just to have them get drunk and engage in wacky hijinks and prank-pulling throughout the ship. I don't know if any of these strategies will work, but I can see some pretty fun times coming out of it if it does so here's hoping.
So tell about what kinds of romantical relationships your PCs have cooked up and if anyone has any further ideas of how to enamor my party to the NPCs, I'd be happy the hear them. Let the Savage Tide Dating Game Begin!
2. Lesser Air Genasi Rogue 10/Swashbuckler 9/Fighter 1
3. Lesser Ice Para-Genasi Druid 20
4. Wood Elf Ranger 6/Shadow Scout 4/King of the Sea 10
They're using a 36 point-buy so they're all pretty tough, but I'm a bit concerned about there only being four of them. They did fine on the Blue Nixie and in the Vanderboren vault (though the latter took a while) so maybe I'm worrying for nothing. Do you think they'll be okay? Should I run a 5th PC?
