Also, since there seem to be people and other creatures who seem to have come from other universes, such as the paladin and elf we saw earlier, there might be other people inside the door who have different goals.
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"What a pity we don't have such a person. I, of course, know nothing of such business, but if this door is so important, I'm willing to try."
Yizid manages to remove whatever enchantments were preventing entry with ease. "Miracles happen every day..."
"Of course I'm alright, I was merely communing with spirits. And my name is Yizid," Yizid says, slightly annoyed that Terestria hadn't remembered his name, but he decided that the time wasn't right to deal with it. "As for what to do, even the spirits don't know everything, but my intuition says to get as far away as possible from the shadows, which, I have discovered, are 'spectres of devourers.' Unless someone knows how to fix the door, I think we should go the opposite direction, but I would guess that they can run faster than we can."
Yizid watches the shapes materialize before his eyes. "Obviously, if one happens to be a worshiper of that maker, the spectres would be less likely to want to 'devour,' right?"
Yizid was upset to lose track of the paladin. But upon hearing the voice, he realizes there might be something more threatening on his hands. "'Spectres of devourers' sound dangerous, and I'm afraid the problems with the teleporter might be closely related," he says, trying to appraise the situation with whatever limited knowledge he had managed to pick up. Trying to pick up as much information as he could, he asks the voice, "What exactly are spectres of devourers? And from where and when do you know them?"
"The Herald said to go that way," Yizid says, pointing in the direction he remembered seeing the Herald point, though he already noticed that the scenery in that area was much different. He looks at the Herald, hoping for confirmation that he hadn't lost track of the correct direction. "If that's the right way, I think that we should do the will of heaven and stop those villains; I'm afraid they're up to good, I mean, to no good," Yizid proposes, quickly recovering from a rare slip of the tongue.
"I'm afraid I know that person a little too closely," Yizid says with a grimace. "I wouldn't want him to do something unhelpful while I'm not watching, and I guess he would probably be heading in exactly the direction we need to go." With that, he takes off after the paladin.
Yizid puzzles over the paladin's response, but he is interrupted by the bullet that finds its way to the elf. As he watches the paladin fly off with the elf, he tries to rack his brain for who the paladin was, or from where he might know him, but to no avail. His thoughts are interrupted when the Skyruin quakes. "We were supposed to be going to find Lincoln. Does anyone know in what direction we should be heading?" he asks, trying to keep his balance.
Yizid wrests himself free from under the paladin and walks a short distance away before the paladin realizes what happens. "What are you trying to do to me, brother?" Yizid asks indignantly, echoing the paladin's words, but still unable to identify him. "Why can't we just get along peaceably? The gods hate violence, you know." He holds his dagger by the sharp side, indicating his willingness to drop it.
Yizid suddenly finds his arms wrapped around everyone else in the group hug. With his eyes partially blocked by the taller participants, Yizid only barely realizes that a projectile is aimed at him. When he notices, he tries to move out of the way. Being locked in the group hug, everyone else is brought with him, and they all fall down on top of him after a few steps to the side.
Indignant about being called a "heathen doppelganger" and called out for lying, Yizid turns to the somewhat familiar dark stranger to vehemently deny the accusations, before the stranger, or anyone else, forms an unflattering impression of him. "Did you hear the lies this impertinent elf said about me?" Yizid grumbles. "How am I supposed to do heaven's bidding with them in my way?"
Yizid laughs a bit when he hears about divine fury. "Heaven has given me a sign a short while ago that we are bound to succeed. On what basis do you claim the opposite?"
Seeing no one eager to help, Yizid reluctantly moves to the teleporter with Moves With Grace and Fizzy as he presses the appropriate button on the panel.
"I heard the control panel wailing," Yizid says, looking at Fizzy and Terestria for affirmation. Except for the elemental, none of the others seem to have noticed. "We should be able to go through now," he tells them. "If you're ready, I can bring you through, but I would like to make sure that heaven still smiles on our trip." He comes closer to the panel to make sure that nothing had gone wrong.
As soon as the Herald, Bikke, and Terrestria pass through the teleporter, Yizid hears what sounds like a gasp coming from the place in the ceiling into which they had ascended. He looks at the ceiling, and then turns around to look for what might have made that sound, but he sees nothing.
Everyone has their own pet theory about what really happened to cause the Skyruin to be torn from the ground. Which of them have you come to trust most, and what part of it do you think worth remembering as you delve deeper? The floating of the island depends on the gravity wells, but the gravity wells themselves are mysterious: They might have always existed on the island, they might have grown there spontaneously, or they might have been built there by some entity, through mundane, magical, or divine means. Yizid, of course, subscribes to the last of the theories. The gravity wells were put in place by some deity. The practical difference between the theories is whether its gravity can be manipulated by prayer, magic, or technical expertise. Yizid, lacking the two latter means, prefers to use the first. However, others might have better luck trying the other two means.
It might be helpful to know that the post notifier stopped working across the site.
Yizid fiddles with the controls once more until the Herald, Bikke and Terestria are transported to their destination. "Now we just have to wait for this to cool down," he says to Moves With Grace and Fizzy. He paces back and forth as he waits for the proper time.
"Does that mean he's suddenly started to try to bring the island somewhere?" Yizid asks. "Whether or not it's tethered, he's probably trying to do something. Does anyone want to hurry into this transporter to try to catch up with him before something goes wrong?"
"I've figured out, with help from heaven, how to work this contraption," Yizid announces. "There might be a few problems, though. If you have no objection to trying out new hairstyles, different distributions of fingers, and the like, then we can do this all at once. Otherwise, we should take two trips. "Assuming we do this in two trips," he says, turning to Moves With Grace, "then I suppose there's time, at least for half of us, to think over the prudence of an assassination plot. Perhaps you could tell us, on the way over, what exactly you learned from Lincoln that the rest of us don't know? And how do you know what he says is the truth?"
Seeing that he wasn't making any progress with the strange creature, and reminded of his duty by the Herald, Yizid turns to the glyphs on the machine, trying to uncover how they might operate.
"I see what this thing wants," Yizid conjectures. "It just needs something to eat." He reaches into his pack and takes out a crumb of bread, throwing it to the red thing in an attempt to make it more communicative.
I'm sorry to hear of the loss. For the questions, I only witnessed one of the things in the Herald's list (golems), and half-dead at that, so I'm not sure about XP for that. Having made it to the island, I think I infiltrated a location for alignment. In total, it looks like 1 or 2 XP. I'm reusing the character's previous bonds for the new characters. I will make sure that Fizzy will not discover my past.
Bow:
Right, I had forgotten that I had started with knives instead of a bow. I'll go with having unknowingly lost it, as well as the throwing knives, somewhere on the way up. Though anyone Yizid spots carrying a bow would naturally be a suspect for having stolen it. Yizid fumbles around his bag for the bow he was certain he had brought with him, but doesn't manage to find it anywhere. When he realizes his throwing knives are missing as well. "Heavens, I lost my bow and arrows. Who would dare pickpocket a poor old priest?" he asks indignantly to anyone who cares to listen. He vents out his anger by stabbing the crippled golem before standing up to appraise the adjacent room.
Having managed to reach the current floor without being burned in the library, Yizid enters the room, only to find himself surrounded by golems, as well as the people he assumed he was to work with. A golem immediately greets him with a crossbow bolt. Yizid skillfully ducks out of the way before the projectile reaches him. "Blasphemous bolt!" he says, as an indirect way of introducing himself to Lord Strom's other hires. Drawing his own bow and quiver, he manages to shoot a single arrow, but ineffectively.
How were you convinced to do Strom's dirty work? Were you bribed? Blackmailed? Deceived? Several of these factors? Different ones entirely? Due to his desire for honor, Yizid is always open to opportunities for lording it over others. Lord Strom gave him an opportunity to travel for just such a purpose. It may be different from Lord Strom's purpose, but Yizid is not one to pass up an opportunity. However, Lord Strom misled Yizid to some extent regarding the Winter. Had he known what kind of effects the Winter might bring in its wake, he might have looked elsewhere for different opportunities. How familiar are you with Strom? Have you done any work for them before? Lord Strom knows Yizid better than Yizid knows Lord Strom, and Yizid knows that. He just doesn't have any qualms with dealing with shadowy people. Lord Strom only just contacted him a few months ago to see if he was fit for the task, perhaps surveying him beforehand, and Yizid has been procrastinating ever since then. Where were you when you were recruited, and who were you recruited by? Having received a message from Lord Strom by courier, Yizid replied in kind with interest. With Lord Strom's second message, Yizid was asked to speak with the courier, one of Lord Strom's lackeys. The conversation went well, and Yizid was exposed to Lord Strom's plans. Is this the first time you've been hired to kill? Yes. Yizid usually prefers living victims to dead ones.
Hi, I'm going to be joining the campaign with this character. For reference on the character's story, Yizid poses as a retired priest, though he is actually a thief by profession. He tries to exploit his supposed history for his own gain. He somehow made it to the floating island with a magical ladder, and he's planning on joining the attempt to assassinate Lincoln when the opportunity arises.
Yizid strikes back at the creature that bit him, but manages to be caught off guard at the wrong moment.
"I am unsure myself," Yizid answers Gorn, annoyed at himself for not having been more careful. He strikes at the closest mouth and manages to fell it.
"A lock? Let me see what I can do." Yizid reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small tool he was accustomed to using for lock-picking.
"Well, what does an old priest know about lock-picking anyway?"
Yizid looks at the real priest who just showed up with apprehension. He flashes at him his best fake priest fake smile as he drives his knife into the next prisoner's flesh.
It sounds fine to me.
Yizid fatally stabs the madman with his knife and quickly turns towards the one attacking Gorn.
I won't be able to post for a few days.
"Well... if they weren't hostile before, they sure are now," Yizid mutters, charging along with Gorn now that the doubt is resolved. "Come on then!" he says to the group that has been following them around, as his knife pierces the skin of the first of them.
"Who are the people over there? They seem to be more expressive than the mouths we saw earlier. Are we sure they are hostile, Tublat?"
"I think it would be helpful if you were to sneak ahead, though we should probably all be prepared to rush in if they notice you." Yizid's eyes bulge when he sees the poison. "That thing looks dangerous, be careful."
"There's a trap here that could alert the ambush of our presence. I'll need to untie it, with help from the gods."
"So there could be an ambush there?" Yizid asks. He studies the chimes they had just passed. "If there's an ambush there, it's certainly aware of us; we set off an alarm." "Surprising them is no longer an option, so we can only choose between meeting them, although they expect us, or leaving them there for now. Both options are dangerous."
I'm staying... safe enough. Hoping the rest of y'all are too. <3
In more related conversation, uuugh I need to get off my ass and think about talking to someone about HRT stuff now that I'm on work insurance but like, man, spending money. Finally getting over that initial worry and talking to a doctor about HRT was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Here's to hoping things line up to let you do similar soon!
The combination of trans awareness week, celebrating one year of HRT, and starting a new job where for the first time I'm open about my lgbtq+ status has me feeling a little *extra* visible this week; no partial concealment for me I'm afraid.
I'm clearly not active on the Paizo forums (or much of anything Pathfinder-related anymore really) but... Gah, from one queer gamer to the others, I'm hoping the best for all of you who are still around here. <3
(Did I mention I like foxes?) Really, who doesn't like foxes? Not many, especially once I've had a chance to talk a bit with them! But more seriously(ish), oddball races are nice. I've never seen any real problems arise from a "special snowflake" character when the player's made some efforts to make the character work with the group/setting and isn't just trying to hog the spotlight. There's a lot of interesting character development that can happen simply from taking a stereotypical view of your character's race and asking "How am I similar to this? How do I differ from this?"
1) None of the core races really stand out to me as being favourites. They all have their places here and there, and occasionally I might make a core-race character to suit needs of the character I'm planning up (either because something like I really really need that +2str/+2int I can't get any way other than as a dual-talented human or because something in the flavour concept requires the core race), but I'm not all so excited about any of the core races that I'd jump up and say "this race is really cool!" 2) I'm a sucker for the weirdo races. I like the angelic/fiendish heritage stuff with aasimar and tieflings (and admittedly, the flexible stat modifiers and other nice bonuses their racial packages get are pretty handy too). I enjoy finding interesting ways to use the animal-like traits of all the animal-like races like tengu, kitsune, catfolk, etc. (and admittedly, I've got somewhat a thing for animal-like races in general). And kobolds are just pretty much the best thing ever in every way possible, right? 3) I really can't stand drow. I hate the common teenagery-edgydark "I'm just a misunderstood antihero because everyone else like me is evil but I'm really good at heart" type of drow. I hate the backstabby "only out for myself" standard drow. I hate that some people (not many, but there's a few!) seem to think Drow Noble is totally an acceptable player race to select. (41 RP! Net +8 ability score modifiers! A scattering of class abilities as racial benefits!) Pretty much in all my time playing, I've seen exactly one drow PC I've sort of liked... a CE self-absorbed sorceress who worked fairly well with the party simply because we helped boost her ego.
I've taken away a divine character's powers once. Funny enough, it also happened to be in RotRL. She was a Neutral-Evil cleric of Urgathoa. She'd been having some run-ins with the rest of the party (particularly the Sarenrae-favouring Oracle) due to her undead-related-stuff, and when the whole deal at the end of Misgivings all came to light (she did not like the fungus-on-the-wall guy), she decided undeath really wasn't her thing, and started looking for somewhere else to turn. Ended up spending some time at the temple of Pharasma in Magnimar. Pretty sure Urgathoa wouldn't continue providing divine power after that, so we went through a week or so (while the party was following up with investigative leads in town) where the cleric didn't have any powers, and had to attend prayers and such at the Pharasma temple. She got back just her channeling for the first actual fight or two the party had after that, then fully gained Pharasma's confidence and power when the party came up against a certain Lamia Matriarch. That kind of stuff seems like the sort of roleplay the cleric cause is meant for; not being an a&~#+@& GM and taking away powers on a whim just to spite the player.
What's a VC copy? Venture Captain copy, as in high-up in Pathfinder Society Organised Play stuff. VCs get new stuff early, I suppose as a measure to help them prepare for new things they'll have to deal with as adjudicators in organised play.
Correct.They have thought and emotion components in place of verbal and somatic. I think they still have material components, but eschew materials fixes that.Isn't it only expensive material components? Well, now I know!
Once again, the hat of disguise is the Most Useful Item. :) Especially when used to put the finishing touches on one's already considerable vulpine talent, eh?
844. The party's Bard is certainly permitted to play that song during any wedding involving a Blakros.
817. Even Arsheans have personality traits beyond "trans" and "sexual." But, but... those are the two best things I've got! The beauty with which Arshea's blessed me transcends all mortal expectations! And I just can't help that second part... folks I meet just can't keep themselves off me! Speaking of... that brings me to: 833. I will not cast unnatrual lust on the dragon, and designate the paladin of Irori as the target of his affection. And I probably shouldn't select myself as the target of his affection either.
(Edit: fixing numbers because Dreaming Psion threw me off with his quotes!)
Maybe a new 2-point evolution to add the appropriate functionality for bearing a child? Or 1-point for the uh... supporting the act... and a second 1-point for actually having offspring? Would the child be an Eidolon as well? Or some sort of Tiefling/Aasimar-like deal?
Just had a wonderfully amusing encounter yesterday with my group. It would have been horrific, had it not been for the fact that everything turned out okay. Scene: Chapter 3, part 2 -- Retaking Rannick Party members: Tiefling barbarian, kitsune oracle, kobold alchemist, nightmare bard (still regretting allowing that), and kobold wizard. My party's been pretty handily dispatching encounters left and right without even feeling like they were at risk... so I made the fights upstairs in Rannick a bit tougher. Sorceress ogre lady had an alarm spell warding her room, set to trigger if any non-ogres entered, and it went off when the party tried to send Jakardros in to coup-de-grace her and her sleeping ogre-incest-lover-thing. Jaagrath and the ogres in the other room quickly responded, so the fight had things coming at them from all sides. Barbarian drank a displacement potion the alchemist handed him, which saved him from not one, but TWO crits from Jaagrath's ogre-hook. Fight ended up with the barbarian holding off Jaagrath, the alchemist bombing the crap out of the two ogres from the side room, and Jakardros wrecking Dorella and her lover's evenings. Dorella managed to get off a few good casts though: targeted the wizard, oracle, and barbarian with a confusion spell. Barbarian passed, wizard and oracle failed. Next round, she targeted the alchemist, jakardros, and barbarian. Alchemist passed, barbarian passed, jakardros failed. Next round, she targeted the barbarian and bard. Bard failed. During this, the confused folk spent a couple rounds slapping each other or babbling incoherently. Then, the kobold wizard rolled over 75 on the confusion table, and slapped the oracle. I then realized "Any confused character who is attacked automatically attacks its attackers on its next turn, as long as it is still confused when its turn comes." Cue b+&$$-slap fight between the kitsune and kobold, both dealing 1d4 nonlethal damage to each other each round. Jakardros (who already hated the nightmare bard) rolled similarly, and because the bard was right there next to him, he turned, backed up, and fired a volley of arrows at the nightmare. The nightmare then began countering by attacking him. Meanwhile, the sorceress got a deep slumber off on the alchemist. Barbarian finishes off Jaagrath, sees all of his teammates asleep or slapping each other. Raging, he ran down into the sorceress's room, activating his celestial totem's invisibility purge to find the now invisible ogre, and promptly beheaded her. Realising the nightmare and Jakardros were liable to kill each other before their confusion wore off, he slapped them each in turn, then took a few rounds total defense action while the confusion wore off. Finally, when everything cleared, everybody looked around... and I think decided to never speak of the incident again. |
