Sarien's encouragement to Tao made me laugh! Maybe Sarien should take a level of bard at some point...
Yeah, the thought crossed my mind that a bard would be pretty useful right now. :)
*Ponders a bard playing "Twas a misty mornin'" on taiko drums to inspire competence in stealth....*
"Dinna fasch yeself. These drooms are so looud tha' they'll nae hear yon rogue sneakin' up on them. Or yon Paladin in plate armor for that matter."
(OK, I'll stop now.)
Sorry, everyone - I'm having quite the busy day at work. I'm working on getting an update up. In the meanwhile, maybe Sarien wants to disarm that trap? [/hint]
Guys, I hate to have to do this, but I'm going to have to drop out of the campaign. My life is becoming a lot more hectic than I had previously thought it would be, and with so many irons in the fire, it is merely a matter of time before some things would get neglected, and that would not be fair for me to do that to the rest of the party and constantly slow down other peoples' gaming experience. I have thoroughly enjoyed my brief time with this campaign, and I sincerely hope some of the alternates still hanging around jump on this opportunity to join the game.
Best wishes to all, and good luck with the campaign!
No problem, Kael - AdAstra has been hanging around, and still wants to get in, last I checked. Best of Luck in your endeavours.
AdAstra, I'll talk to you via email, and we can get something worked out.
No problem, Kael - AdAstra has been hanging around, and still wants to get in, last I checked. Best of Luck in your endeavours.
AdAstra, I'll talk to you via email, and we can get something worked out.
I'm willing to step in.
Alright, this is sort of dangerous to do with a PbP, but I'm going to briefly hit the 'pause' button while AdAstra and I figure out how to get him in the game and get Kael out. I don't anticipate much of a delay, probably only a day. Please let me know if this is cool with everybody.
Edit: I'll shoot everyone an email when we're ready to go, so you don't have to keep checking in. I appreciate you guys and gals bearing with me.
J
Not a problem! Just let us know.
Good question. I've wondered that about folks too.
I'm currently in Southern NH.
I'm from Seattle, working in nearby Bellevue.
Sadly, no. My wife and I were moving that weekend, and so were my stepdaughter and her husband and two grandsons (we had rented a larger house for a couple years wtih them so they could get back on their feet). But I am planning on it for next year! The office I'm working in now is about three blocks from Paizo's old offices, and not too far from their new ones.
I'm in Milwaukee, WI.
Character writeup submitted to Jeremiziah.
Sorry; I was unexpectedly out most of the day. And I'm in Fort Worth, TX.
We're up and running.
A favor:
Can you please do the following with your map links:
to make them easier to find when I'm scrolling through 50 messages at a set?
I'll try to remember to do that.
It's a crazy day for me here, not at work today. The deconstruction company finally came to tear down my garage (it collapsed last winter), so I've got that going on and two kids running around. I'll do my best to keep updating, but I did want to let you all know.
J
Damn, the web site with the maps still keeps timing out for me. I can't figure out why it does that. Anyway, if you have a free minute of the madness of the day, could you email it to me again?
Sorry about that.
Yep, that's no problem. I am really puzzled as to why that is. Can you get the main site? Link. Please don't mind the completely amateur web design.
Edit: Sent.
Yeah, the main site timed out too. It is weird. Usually if a site is blocked by my draconian work server firewall I get sent to a blocked/ warning page. Your site always times out instead. Not sure what that's about.
Coming over here to coordinate backgrounds with AdAstra.
I'm sure he doesn't recognize the skinny, shabby-looking 17-year-old from ten years ago, especially as her name hasn't been mentioned yet (although Sarien bringing up her being a noble's daughter might pique his interest), but assuming we make it to where we're going and have introductions all around, it could make for a nice awkward conversation. :)
Hi all - Today is my three-month-old daughter's baptism, and Tao and I will both be there. For me, it's pretty much an all-day event. So, all that is to say, I won't have much coming out today. Back at it tomorrow!
Jeremy
That'd make sense. Let's make it a wedding. Hmm. How's this for a tie:
The wedding is that of Hardin's Uncle Hurnell. Traditionally, when there are two sons, the eldest inherits, the second son moves in to be a backup heir and castellan, and it's considered good manners to hold off getting married until after a male heir has been produced. Hurnell held off longer than most, nearly 20 years.
Perhaps the woman he married was tied to a family that the Gilles owe money to, and while they weren't family, when your money lender sends an invitation to a wedding, the family must attend, and must maintain social status by giving a gift or two.
I suspect that a secondary motive was your family sounding out betrothal options. The Cleganes would have been on that list, but not high on it. They aren't social climbers, their estate is small, they have minor social prestige. Your father would've thought that he could do better matches, but, well, just in case, there's no point in giving offense in turning down the offer now.
Ten years ago, Cedric would've been 18, Albin 15 and Hardin 14. If there was a discussion about who your sister would be betrothed to, it would've been Cedric, not Hardin. (Hardin isn't going to inherit, so isn't worth trying to get a betrothal for.)
Tristan at 9 or 10 had gotten her first 'adult' responsibility: Minding the kennels. Think 13th century tomboy, and just getting her first growth spurt with more elbows and knees than anyone that size should have. With a couple of dogs following her around at ALL times. And the utter and complete despair of mother trying to make her look presentable for the wedding.
It is entirely possible that if Freya thinks on it enough, she'd remember Cedric, vaguely remember Albin and Hardin, and vividly remember Tristan, the latter maybe as a friend and source of childlike glee.
Or if you're looking for something a bit darker, imagine childlike pranks run by two girls who became fast friends, and had...poor...target selection. Imagine how an Asmodean priest would've come down on their parents after they very carefully hid some frogs in his reliquary box.
DM, hope your family had a lovely day.
The Cleganes would rather have the money lenders paying them dowries to marry their daughter than be paying them interest.
As to Hurnell? His request on getting married was "Make her plain and rich rather than pretty. Is it too much to ask that she be mute?" He can give curmudgeon lessons to dwarves.
Tristan didn't need much influencing. Just having a willing partner in crime who wasn't a dog would've been novelty enough.
Two things Tristan might've done:
1) She would NOT have repeated anything you said, even when the punishments started coming down. Loyalty is something Cleganes take seriously.
2) She might have tried to shield you from punishment, by saying that since she was the eldest, she'd talked you into it. This wasn't the strict truth...but she liked you, and knew that you'd said things that would get you into even BIGGER trouble if found out.
How successful she was at this is your call. What I'd like to see is a vague hint at a guilty conscience over Tristan, or a memory of fondness. Even a bit of envy; the Cleganes gave much happier childhoods than you got.
If this happens, having revealed herself to be vulnerable, I expect Freya's reaction to Hardin to be entertaining. And acid enough to etch glass. :)
FYI: Hardin left for the temple of Iomedae on his 15th name day (roughly age 15 and a half), or a year and a half after the wedding.
I don't doubt that seeing outraged Asmodeans mobilized to deal with two girls pulling a prank influenced his decisions there.
Freya would recognize Hardin first, I'd think. She smarter, and Hardin grew from a gangly teenager to a man in that span, so there are fewer physical changes.
One reason why he isn't talking now is because he doesn't want to fall into the sewage again. (His Acrobatics check is at -5 right now...)
It will eventually be clear that his prosperity stems from the Temple equipping him before sending him out the door.
He also hasn't noticed your centipede. I'm looking forward to him trying very hard to be polite. While making sure he knows where that thing is. While not wanting to look at it. At all.
Wander Weir, I notice in Sarien's background that he comes from an old-nobility family as well, albeit one that's fallen on harder times than either Hardin's or Freya's. Would we recognize his family name, or has his family been down on its luck for so long that it's no longer remembered?
They've been down on their luck for so long that no one remembers a House of Ruseff. Sarien isn't even sure that his family ever was noble. As far as he's concerned it may have all been lies dreamt up by his father or an earlier ancestor.
Incidently, I've been thinking about this and I actually had the idea that the Ruseff's truly are noble, and that they'd collaborated with the Thrune's back in the time when the House began their association with Asmodean. They'd been thick as thieves at the time (pun definitely included) but attempted to betray the House of Thrune and seize power for themselves. Obviously they failed and were crushed by the Thrunes so thoroughly that the earliest ancestors revised their history and said they'd opposed the Thrunes all along. The revision of their family history is so complete that Ruseff isn't even the true family name -- they'd had to assume new identities entirely to keep from being hunted down to the last man.
Not sure if this matters or if it would be useful to you, but it's a line of thought that I came up with to pass the time a couple of weeks ago.
>>Map, Mid-Round 1, Kael's Betrayal<<
Tao's mighty blow crumples Kael where he stands - Kael's limp form slides quietly into the sewage trench, face down.
At the moment, that link seems to lead to the goblin battle where we met Hardin, DM.
As a boon to help combat move forward, I suggest the following:
Character's Action
Yeah, right now it's not so bad, but when combats get too long, it gets harder to scroll up (or to a previous page) to find the initiative order.
Of course, right now, I think we're waiting on the bad guys to act. :)
Yes indeed. Normally, at/near the start of most rounds, I will list the Init order again. I was crushed and work yesterday (and today, up until now), so I was lazy, sorry.
Yep, we all get crazy busy from time to time. No problem there.
While we're on the subject, I'm likely to be pretty busy all day tomorrow. I'll try to get in at least one post but it's more likely to be before 9 am EDT or after 5 pm EDT. I apologize for that in advance.
Rauno/markofbane, you're up again. :)
Rauno/markofbane, you're up again. :)
Thanks! Wow, the rounds are just flying by!
Ah, our crafty DM J, working to breed infighting amongst the group. Reminds me of the AD&D days when we had too many players and fighting would break out in the back of the party just because they couldn't get past the group to swing on the real opponents...
Which reminds me, coincidentally, that jacobs has a post somewhere around here to the effect that the maps of the sewer in the AP are not to the correct scale, i.e., there should actually be 10' wide corridors instead of 5' wide ones - I just saw it Friday. So, that should make some difference in combat going forward.
Which reminds me, coincidentally, that jacobs has a post somewhere around here to the effect that the maps of the sewer in the AP are not to the correct scale, i.e., there should actually be 10' wide corridors instead of 5' wide ones - I just saw it Friday. So, that should make some difference in combat going forward.
Nice! That'll be handy.
Didn't Rauno's ready/delay last round move his initiative up to before the armigers, Tao & Hardin? Not that it matters, as we ought to get this wrapped up pretty quickly, barring terrible rolls, but he ought to have been able to telekinetic fist after Sarien instead of waiting until after Hardin (unless he's intentionally delaying).
You're right, Joana - entirely right. He didn't kill the fellow, though, and there's only one of them left at this point, so the order that people act in isn't as important just now as it usually is. I should be able to fit actions in sequence without too much trouble, at least I hope.
Hardin will be taking the light crossbow and 20 bolts. He'll also take a suit of chainmail if one will fit him - he'll leave the gold for someone else to take, and recommend that Tao take the largest suit of chainmail, but only if there's time to strip the bodies quickly.
Tao is interested in the longspear and would want chainmail if time permits...
Are there any identifying marks on the armor, crossbow bolts, or crossbows?
Who has load capacity to carry the extra gear to the safe house?
Even if we can't use it, there's likely to be resistance members who can use it at some point.
The markings on the armor are consistent with those employed by the Hellknights of the Rack, a specific order of the Hellknights close to House Thrune and dedicated to the eradication of infiltrators, traitors, and other enemies of the State.
Sarien doesn't have the carrying capacity to carry much more than he already has. He's going to go for a light crossbow and 20 bolts as well, but that's all he wants to carry. And he definitely has no interest in bringing any of that armor with him.