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Something I could definitely use from you all would be a designated caller. (i.e. a designated party leader who can take all of the party input and definitively say, we're going here or we're doing this.) Given the 'time-delay' aspect, that way I'll know when you guys are heading in a given direction. Would you all like to have open elections and discuss it? You could also have a blind election (send me a PM), and I could tell you who won, or what candidates remain?
My mistake, :)
Unfortunately, I don’t know much about Natalya. She approached us and offered to be a sort of double agent among the Sczarni. The main Pathfinder lodge in Absalom has recently forged alliances with the Sczarni in many cities throughout the Inner Sea region, I thought that having a member of a Sczarni gang as a double agent could be useful—I'm still not sure whether we can trust the Sczarni fully yet. One of Natalya's conditions for working for us as a double agent was that she wanted to retain a good amount of anonymity and autonomy, so she’d be free to handle things as she saw fit. In retrospect, I'm worried that giving Natalya such a long leash might have been a mistake, but I'm not willing to write her off as a traitor yet. The Sczarni have been a part of Magnimar from the start—they’re not the most dangerous or powerful of the city’s criminal organizations, but they are the most visible. The Sczarni generally don’t involve themselves in particularly violent crimes, and in many cases in Magnimar, they actually help to protect and police less fortunate neighborhoods, and as such are often well regarded by the lower-class. There are six major Sczarni gangs in the city: the Creepers, Doolun’s Lads, the Gallowed, the Tower Girls, the Washside Wringers, and the Wreckwash Blades, with the Gallowed being the most powerful Sczarni family in the city. When Natalya initially approached Sheila with the offer of serving the Pathfinders as an informant, she engaged the aid of a man known as the Amazing Zograthy, a Varisian who keeps a permanent tent and fortune-telling business in Washers’ Row in Dockway—specifically, at the end of a narrow alley that serves as a permanent street fair. The only other thing which I can think of is the rumors of Nidalese slavers prowling the streets of late. If there's any truth to these rumors, perhaps Natalya was abducted by slavers in the middle of the night. She also might even have been picked up by the city guard for some reason, in which case a visit to the Arvensoar, the garrison for the city’s watch, might yield some clues. Knowledge (Local) DC 14: The Amazing Zograthy is sort of a middle man between the Sczarni and outsiders
... Spellcraft:
This is a ring of feather fall Sheila's mood shifts at your words. As everyone sits, she begins to speak:
You see—I’ve recently had trouble with one of my informants here in Magnimar, Natalya Vancaskerkin. She’s a half-Varisian who recently approached the Pathfinder Society with an offer to serve as a street informant. She runs with the Sczarni—I’m not sure with which group. A week ago, Natalya sent me a cryptic hint that her gang was on the verge of uncovering an item that would be of great interest to the Society. Since the Sczarnis’ methods of uncovering something often involves an armed robbery or breaking into somebody’s personal chambers, we thought it prudent not to press for further details and instead wait to see what it would produce. Suffice it to say, she hinted strongly that it pertained to Thassilon, and promised to meet with me to discuss this find three days ago. She never kept that promise—instead, she seems to have simply vanished. Initially, I assumed that the acquisition of this item was simply taking longer than expected, but now I’m hearing rumors that the Sczarni are looking for her as well. It seems likely that Natalya has absconded with this item she’s discovered. And this is where you enter, my friends. I want to know what it was that Natalya and the Sczarni found. In fact, I’m more interested in that than in what happened to Natalya herself. For now, I’d like to keep all of this quiet—if you can find out what happened to Natalya without letting a lot of people know she was also working for me as an informant, that would be preferable—that’s a big part of why I’m coming to you, as new members of the Pathfinder Society, with this task. You don’t yet have a reputation in Magnimar, and as such, the lowlifes and criminals you are likely to encounter may be more likely to talk. So... go out there and look for Natalya. Find out what happened to her, and to this item she and her gang discovered. If you can secure the item, all the better—bring it back to me and I’ll have a reward of 500 gold pieces for you. And if you can bring Natalya back alive for me to speak to, I’ll double that!"
"Well that was definitely odd! I swore I had that thing in my sights and some how missed." Sheila gestures to the Pugwampis, and says "These creatures have a strange aura of unluckiness surrounding them, in fact some shady gambling dens keep them hidden strategically throughout their casinos so that the unlucky aura surrounds any one playing at cards, dice or roulette, but doesn't encompass the dealers.
After combat "Forgive me, I am not upset with you. I'm upset that I didn't anticipate this and forewarn you. Further it seems like you managed to kill them both before they had a chance to do much more than tear up Koriah's notes on opening the Paradox box, which, since you've now opened it, are not necessary. Your ability to not only solve this ancient Thassilonian puzzle, but also to dispatch the lurking trap within, increases my confidence that I've chosen the right team for this job. Allow me to take the box, I see that the key is rearranging the runes to spell LUCRE, very clever. You can keep the contents" She pours the gems and knife and ring out onto the table. She turns to Koriah, "Farewell Koriah, it was a pleasure speaking with you, good luck on your mission." Koriah bows slightly to you all and says, "It was a pleasure meeting you all, I wish you all the best on your journeys" Sheila then gestures to the seats in the library, "Now if you'll all take a seat, we can begin. Would anyone like a drink or a bite to eat?
The Paradox box lies open, within you see a handful of garnets, a masterwork silver dagger and a ring. Detect Magic:
The ring radiates a faint aura of transmutation Appraise DC 20:
The gems are worth about 150 gp. The Library door opens. Sheila appears angry, on seeing the Gremlins and the damage they did in the library: "What on earth happened here!" , she asks in an imperious tone. Koriah stands a little behind Sheila also surveying the library and the dead gremlins.
Knowledge Dungeoneering or Nature DC 15:: Mean, dog-faced, and cowardly, pugwampis are loved by no one—not even other gremlins. These gremlins take disproportionate amounts of enjoyment from the accidents and missteps of other creatures, often going to great lengths to manufacture the perfect deadfalls or stumbling blocks. They then wait nearby, both to laugh at the inevitable mishaps and to make sure their personal unluckiness is passed off on their victims.
Pugwampis live in caves or ruined buildings, occasionally venturing forth to find victims upon which to inflict their sick senses of humor. Their “jokes” tend to involve spikes and excrement, or sometimes pits full of spiders or campsites that flood with swamp water. Certainly only the pugwampis consider their jokes funny. As all pugwampis are somewhat deaf, when not trying to be stealthy, they tend to scream and yell loudly so they can hear themselves and each other. At some point in the distant past, pugwampis became enamored of gnolls, seeing in the beast-men a kindred form and thus aspiring to the height and deadly prowess of the savage warriors, whom they honor as gods. Gnolls, for their part, hate pugwampis even more than other creatures, mostly because of the gremlins’ weakness and sickening fawning, though they sometimes keep the gremlins around just to torment them. Gremlins radiate an aura of unluck which makes successful attacks more difficult.
As the box opens, you all hear a catch somewhere within click audibly. Almost immediately afterwards, there's a whoosh as two gremlins appear in the box.
Bimbur carefully writes down all 120 possible combinations of the five runes. One combination intrigues him, because, well dwarves are always thinking about money. After moving letters three times he manages to spell 'LUCRE'. As Bimbur moves the letters to form the word LUCRE, a spark of magic burns along a groove on the top edge of the box. The magical spark moves along three sides of the box. The false lid has been transformed into what appears to be a fully functional lid. Wisdom Check DC 18:
"Your spine tingles for a moment. You instinct tell you that opening the box might be dangerous" Perception DC 15 (only Rameth): "You notice not one but two conjuration auras on the box, the second aura is faint as an untriggered spell might be"
Rameth detects a moderate aura of abjuration and conjuration.
The first scroll which Adrielle, Bimbur and Falco read lists translations of the significant runes on the box—one of the most oft-repeated symbols was the rune for “wrath,” which Koriah also notes is associated with evocation magic, and in the earliest days of Thassilon with the word “kindness.” Her notes indicate that this rune merely marks the box has having once belonged to a citizen of the Thassilonian nation of Bakrakhan, and that the rune likely has little to do with the method of opening this particular paradox box. Another of Koriah’s scrolls lists a few other key observations—the key observation being that five of the box’s faces are identical, but on one face, several additional runes appear. These runes spell out the word “CRUEL.” Koriah speculates that this word is somehow linked to the box’s mystery. She’s also noted that each of the individual runes in the word can be reorganized by touching two runes at once. Rameth's inspection of the box reveals the same information as Koriah has set forth in her notes. He also notices that the box has no seam or hinges at all. It is as far as he can see a perfectly solid stone. As you touch the letters on the "CRUEL" face they begin to glow and the two letters your fingers touched exchange places. "LRUEC"
Sheila Heidmarch leads you all into an adjoining room. This chamber is the lodge library and study. The walls are lined with bookshelves, while several tables in the middle of the room are heaped with scrolls and books. One table in the center, however, supports only a single object— an ornate cubical stone coffer covered with Thassilonian runes. Sheila asks for you all to take a seat around the table. As you sit she says: "I apologize for the delay, as I must conclude my business with Pathfinder Azmeren before we meet. In the meantime, though, I thought you could help us with another minor issue. This stone coffer is an ancient Thassilonian puzzle, a cunning feat of magical engineering known as a paradox box. As you’ll see from even a casual investigation, what appear to be seams on the sides are only shallow grooves—there’s no obvious way to open the thing. Each paradox box has its own secret method of being opened. Essentially, a paradox box substitutes hidden catches and magical triggers for a lock. Given time, anyone clever enough could figure out how to open a paradox box, just as given time, a locksmith can open any lock. This particular box was among those items recovered by Koriah—the scrolls next to the box are her preliminary notes on possible triggers or methods of opening it, but she’s not yet had a chance to sit down and properly investigate the thing. So... why don’t you put your heads together and see if you can’t do that for me? Even if the box is empty, as I suspect it probably is, knowing the method of opening it makes it a valuable find anyway. I’ll return shortly, and I hope to see that box open! Think of this as an audition, if you will—because the actual task I want to speak to you about soon will require as much wit as it will brawn!” Sheila and Koriah leave the room.
Well forgive me, I think that introductions are in order. Everyone, this is Koriah Azmeren. Koriah this is Malena, Adrielle, Falco, Rameth and Bimbur."
"It's a pleasure to meet you all in person, I was quite impressed when I received the roster from the Absalom Lodge. Anyways, to answer your question, Malena, Koriah is a bit of an expert on the Darklands, and she's just returned from Nar Voth. She discovered a new route down through the Fogscar Mountains. She discovered a surprisingly large cache of Thassilonian artifacts down there. I'm afraid I'll have to speak with her for a few more moments."
"Ahh yes, now if you'll just follow me, I've got something of a preliminary assignment for you all"
Right on cue the door into the foyer opens, and a tall woman with raven hair steps out from the adjoining room. You all recognize her as Sheila Heidmarch, the Venture Captain of the Magnimar Pathfinder Society. She is concluding a conversation with someone else in her office. Oh my you're all early. What an excellent quality in Pathfinders! Thank you very much for answering my summons. I've just been speaking with another Pathfinder here ..."
Knowledge (Local or Dungeoneering) DC 18:
This is Koriah Azmeren, one of Varisia’s most famous Pathfinders and a well-renowned expert on the Darklands "...and she's brought me some interesting news."
Knowledge:History: Taldor is an ancient empire which is but a nub of its former self. It once ruled as far north as Korvosa, sweeping south all the way to the Inner Sea and into parts of the great continent of Garund below. The Taldane army was legendary as an inexorable force, slowly conquering the known world. Long ago, Cheliax successfully broke away from Taldor, and the Tandane empire has been crumbling ever since. The Verduran forest, one of the largest woods in Avistan is located partially in Taldor, and is ruled autonomously by druids. The main human language is Taldane, but it is more frequently known as Common.
As far as these types of details go, you guys can talk it out in the discussion thread. I think you've got your bases pretty well covered.
Oh well I thought of some things to say. It's nice to meet you all, and I'm looking forward to DMing for you all. I am in my 3rd year of Law School. My name isn't actually Thomas Renault. He was my favorite PC, but my middle name is Thomas, so you can call me that ooc. Or just "DM". I think you all made really really awesome characters, and I wanted to start sooner rather than later so that the other Shattered Star campaign didn't gobble you up first. I've posted the first post of the campaign, I expect you'll all meet there in the foyer. If you want to draft up longer backstories, now that your character is in a campaign, that's awesome, but regardless I like the hooks I found in all of them. If you have any other questions, or any issues, just let me know.
You each have received a message at your lodgings. The message was sealed with the Glyph of the Open Road, the sigil of the Pathfinder Society. Greetings, fellow seeker of adventure! I am Sheila Heidmarch, Venture Captain of the newest Pathfinder Society lodge—and the only such lodge in Varisia at this time. You have come to my attention as someone who possesses a certain amount of skills and interests that make you an excellent addition to a highly specialized team I’m putting together for a matter of grave import, not only to the Society, but to Varisia
-Sheila Heidmarch When you arrive at Heidmarch Manor you're escorted to the foyer, and told that Sheila Heidmarch will be with you presently.
Well that was easy, I like what I see and I think we can kick this off sooner than I thought. Also weekends won't be a problem, you can post as time permits on the weekends. I'll take: -Rameth the Delver
Thanks to everyone else for their submissions. I'll open up the main thread asap.
So far I've got: Brutis Boyle, Human Barbarian (Titan Mauler)
I really like everyone's submissions so far, decisions will be tough. It's quite possible we'll be starting before the end of the week. One thing I forgot to mention in my initial post was, I'd like to see approximately 1 post/day. Is everyone up for that level of commitment?
Hey everyone this is my first time running a PbP. I'm looking for 4-5 PC's for Shattered Star. Calculate attributes using a 25 point buy. Any Class or Archetype (except for summoner) from one of the Core Pathfinder books is fine. I prefer the core races, but a good backstory can definitely get the go ahead for one of the 'rarer' races. Your characters can select 3 traits, 1 campaign and 2 other. Feel free to look at the Varisia: Birthplace of legends and the Shattered Star Player's Guide for options while stating up characters. For equipment use the average starting gold listed in the starting gold table. If I've missed anything let me know.
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