Humonculus

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Organized Play Member. 410 posts (5,364 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 1 Organized Play character. 33 aliases.




The bustling desert city of Wati is near bursting with excitement. Adventurers from every corner of the Inner Sea region have assembled here beneath the hot Osirian sun to explore the tombs of the city’s necropolis, waiting only to be assigned their first sites for exploration. Surrounding the participants, the public has gathered to observe the ceremony as well. There is a festival-like quality in the air, and numerous street vendors are hawking goods and refreshments to participants and spectators alike. Some merchants have even brought what can only be considered adventuring gear to sell as last minute convenience items to explorers, while others advertise that they’ll buy recovered treasures and antiquities from those who visit their establishments.

In front of the imposing edifice of the Grand Mausoleum, an immense awning has been erected between decorated pillars in the market to provide shade for the priests of Pharasma overseeing the lottery. Beneath the awning, two urns sit on a table elevated a few feet above the ground on a wooden stage constructed for the event. The high priestess of the Grand Mausoleum, Sebti the Crocodile, sits behind the table, while two acolytes confer with her at either side.

---

Numerous adventuring groups stand in small clusters near the stage, made up of multiple nationalities and races. Like the last few evenings in the tavern most keep to themselves, but some teams engage in quiet conversation with other teams, mostly speculating about what they’ll likely face in the necropolis. You see the halfling dog soldiers, as well as the singer, Ligala, and the other three with her are, presumably, the rest of The Flickering Four.

---

The ceremony begins when the high priestess of the Grand Mausoleum, Sebti the Crocodile, rises to her feet and looks over the crowd. Sebti seems surprisingly young to hold such a distinguished position, but she has a confident air of authority. After calling for silence, she begins with an invocation to the Lady of Graves, followed by a brief history of the founding of the necropolis.

Soon after the Church of Pharasma arrived in Wati to rebuild and consecrate the city, a great burning rock fell from the sky into the River Sphinx where Bargetown now floats. Nefru Shepses took this as a sign of approval from our Lady of Graves, and ordered the black stone dredged from the river’s depths and carved into a capstone for a sacred obelisk, erecting the monument just inside the gates to the necropolis. She pauses then continues with a solemn tone, Today, mourners interring their loved ones inside the necropolis still stop at Pharasma’s Needle on their way to the gravesites to gain the goddess’s blessing for the deceased’s journey to the Boneyard. Those of you venturing into the necropolis tomorrow will pass this site. I hope you keep this history in your mind and in your heart as you travel through these streets that are our history.

The two acolytes step forward to stand behind the urns on the table.

Let the lottery begin! Although many of you have requested specific sites to explore, we must leave these matters to fate. The Lady of Graves is a far better judge of destiny than we of this mortal sphere. The gates of the necropolis will open at sunrise tomorrow. Use this evening to prepare yourselves for the task ahead. Let these rules guide you in your endeavors in this holy place: remember how this came to pass, every slave’s hut is a memorial, and honor the departed. May you go with the Lady’s blessing.

---

With that Sebti returns to her seat and the acolytes begin. First, one acolyte pulls a wooden token out of the urn before them, Daughters of the Desert! Then the next pulls a token from their urn and stands silent.

An extremely tall woman with fiery red hair ascends the stairs to speak briefly with the acolytes. They hand her what appears to be a map of some sort, and she descends the stairs to regroup with her fellow adventurers. The evening continues in this fashion for some time, with each group being called one after another. There is a delay as one woman spends quite a bit of time up on the stage. She seems to be arguing with the acolytes and even the high priestess. A Taldane by the look of her, she gets quite heated, finally snatching the paper from one of the acolytes' hands and then returns to her group. She and her party, apparently named the Scorched Hand, leave the courtyard in a rush. Another group of note are the Cryptfinders, which turn out to be led by a man named Falto, from Absalom. His swagger and smile as he comes back down the steps indicate he got exactly what he was hoping for.

Finally, one of the acolytes calls out, The Southern Osirian Trading Company! The other acolyte takes a token from the urn and they both wait patiently for your representative to approach.


Here is where we'll discuss this game of The Mummy's Mask.

I've made my initial choices already, so those players should feel free to drop in and introduce themselves. The two reserved spots should be doing so shortly.

First, I'd like you to discuss how the group came together. My preference is that the original group formed in Absalom after hearing about the opportunity. Perhaps picking up Nevai Alaro when they got in country and needed a guide, of sorts. But I'm flexible and open to any ideas you guys may have.

Second, keep an eye on the application thread and let me know if you particularly like any coming in. Feel free to PM me if you'd prefer.

Finally, you'll need to come up with a name to eventually register for your adventuring party. My only request is to try not to be silly. I'd prefer it not be too campy, but that's a difficult line to tread without it falling into too uptight/serious. Good luck. I'm glad I don't have to do it. :)


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The Mummy's Mask

Seven years ago, Pharaoh Khemet III, the Ruby Prince, formally opened Osirion's ancient tombs and burial sites to foreign explorers. Khemet III understood that adventurers who've traveled great distances in search of treasure typically do not return from whence they came to sell their discoveries. Instead, they typically sell or trade what they do not keep as quickly as possible at the closest civilized community. The Ruby Prince's policy has attracted not only explorers to the desert nation of Osirion, but also countless scholars, private collectors, special interest groups such as the Pathfinder Society, and financial interests from all across the Inner Sea. A minor industry has sprung up just to support visiting explorers, and an even larger infrastructure has come into being to serve foreign investors and traders. Every opening of a major site has heralded an economic boon, for the local area and Osirion as a whole.

And the Necropolis of Wati is next!

I'm opening recruitment for a Mummy's Mask game. I'm looking for a handful of brave adventurers to explore the ancient land of Osirion. This will be the Adventure Path, starting with Book One: The Half-Dead City. The game opens up in the city of Wati, with the characters as members of an adventuring group about to take part in a lottery to determine which part of an old necropolis they'll be allowed to loot...er, exploit...er, explore!

Posting requirements

- Post once per day.
- Play nicely with others.
- If you have a question about the rules, speak up.
- I will be rolling perception and initiative for the group.
- I'm in the EST time zone, but I'm happy to accept players from anywhere. If posting is a little slow sometimes because of odd hours, we'll deal. (In my experience it's never that bad.)

Character Creation Guidelines

Download and read the Player's Guide!

No third party products of any kind will be considered.

Attributes: 25 point buy

Races: Core encouraged, though any race allowed.

Classes: Core, Base, and Hybrid classes allowed.

Alignments: Any.

Traits: One campaign and two others. No drawbacks.

Starting Level: One

Starting gold: Max

Starting HP: Max. Subsequent levels will be half hit die +1.

Applications

I'll be accepting 5-6 characters. There are two spots reserved. The players have not decided what they're playing just yet, but as they do, they'll post. I believe both are holding off until they see some character concepts and what the group needs.

Complete applications will include stat block, back-story, description, and how your character came to Wati. The most important thing, for me, is how you expect your character will interact with the group and in the game. Are they here to preserve history, honor the dead, make some gold, find ancient lore?

I'm not expecting or looking for hyper-optimized characters. On the other hand, making exceptionally poorly optimized characters on the grounds that doing so is "role-playing" is also discouraged (or will at least be ignored.) Given the amount of characters in the party and the point-buy, encounters will be adjusted accordingly.

Applications will be open until Monday, June 29th.

Questions and Applications Welcome! Please keep role-playing to a minimum within the recruitment thread. Though if you feel some is warranted to illustrate character expectations, that would be fine. Just don't clutter the thread and scare off newcomers.

Scarab Sages 1/5

Hello,

I'm going to be starting a Pathfinder Society game in the Charleston, WV area. My intent was to run the first session this past weekend, but the State of WV decided to lose it's power for the weekend and a few days afterward. And so our first session will be January 3rd.

The Rifleman (Lost Legion) gaming store hosts the games:
The Rifleman
419 Virginia Street West
Charleston, WV 25302
(304) 205-7919

If you're interested in joining us you can contact me or the store or just show up.

Thanks,
Jason Patton

Scarab Sages

My group just ran a short playtest session for a higher level Witch (level 15). The group consisted of a Fighter, Cleric, Rogue, Wizard and Witch. I've got several observations:

1. The Witch compared favorably to the Wizard. Slightly less versatile crowd control and blasting, but they get decent ones and don't feel the loss all that much. The hexes at this point set them apart and make them feel quite a bit different from the Wizard.

2. The Witch lacks a bunch of protective spells that make them excessively vulnerable, especially to other casters. I'd suggest opening up most of the rest of the Abjuration school to Witches. They have a few spells at each level from Abjuration, but it seems like the entire school could be given to them while maintaining their flavor (they are, after all, very much like wizards in their pursuit of arcane knowledge and protection).

3. The Witch's familiar is *much* more vulnerable at this level and should never be taken out of the Witch's pocket. At low levels most AoE's have reflex saves so it's tough to kill a familiar randomly (though it is easy to drop them with one or two direct attacks.) The party members usually target the weakest creatures first, and sometimes so do the monsters. Also, letting them scout ahead is out of the question. I'm not sure why Wizards do it (200gp/lvl is a lot to bank on a familiar's sneaking roll) but the Witch is going to lose a lot more.

4. Healing and Major Healing hexes are nice though they can put out a *ton* of healing in certain situations. It takes a while though, and I'd like to again suggest a fast healing alternative to make the hexes feel different than being the poor man's cleric.

5. I'm sure it's been noted in other threads, but Retribution needs a range (touch, 30 feet, 60 feet?). I would, of course, recommend range. Witches and melee combat just do not mix. Which, on a related note, turns out to be about the same as the Wizard.

6. The Witch's spell list seems a bit short. I understand there's a danger with bloating them, but they seem comparable to the Cleric/Druid spell lists rather than the Wizard spell list (for example the 5th level Witch spell list is about half as big as the 5th level Wizard). This is a problem because unlike the Cleric and Druid, Witches are primarily casters and have little other versatility to fall back on. The hexes are powerful, but I think a more robust spell list would serve them well. There are a couple of Cleric and Druid spells that fit the flavor of Witches that aren't excessively powerful (Gust of Wind, Repel Vermin, Hallow/Unhallow come to mind.) But as I mentioned above, adding most of the Abjuration school would help, perhaps even some of the abjuration Cleric spells (which are *quite* potent). Their spell list is currently pretty good, and I expect that it would be very dangerous to expand it too far. But there are a ton of fluff spells out there that would help and a couple more decent spells wouldn't hurt.