A group of closely related nomadic merchant families in Ahlissa has wandered much of the old Great Kingdom's lands along the famous Windmarch, a vast annual circuit of mercantile trade fairs; little is known of this colorful group, called the Peregrines.

There is only one line mentioned about the Merchant Group called the Peregrines. You could take that and run with it. Its possible that the Peregrines are no longer around due to the raid a few years ago, Depending on where the Merchant Caravan was at when raided, it could have been close to Greyhawk City, which would be a melting pot for your character to learn all the NWP she has, and for her personal beliefs and philosophy to come out. Greyhawk would have been a good place to be educated. The Great Library of Greyhawk would have rows upon rows of books for her to read, and learn the paths of her knowledge and faith. Greyhawk is also filled with a craftsman district that has many Blacksmiths. Your brother could be associated with the Metalsmiths' Hall. The blacksmiths' guildmaster is Jaskar Smithson [Neutral Human] He could be the Mastersmith to your Brother.

As for the background to connect you to the story at hand. Elkiar Rusman would have traveled this region and the Gnarley Forest a lot, and the Forest spans all the way from here, to Greyhawk City, Greyhawk City has even tried to claim the forest as theirs at one point. Its very possible that Elkiar Rusman helped Cersei in some way, or the two met while in Greyhawk. Or maybe you are being sent to Hommlet as a representative of your Brother, who knew the Ranger or the Ranger had dealings with the Metalsmiths Guild.

All interesting ways to tie into the story.

Wow work was super busy today. I'll try to respond a little before I head out for the night with the wife.

Sylvan Elf Fighter (Archer) Kit is nasty. 5/2 Rounds ROF For using a bow, while moving, and 3/1 Rounds ROF when standing still. That's a scary volley, I wonder if that also stacks with the Combat & Tactics Weapon Mastery w/ Bows that gives you a +1 bonus to hit at any range, an increased rate of fire, and a new range category: point-blank. Point-blank is any shot of 30 feet or less. At point-blank range, the character gains a +2 to damage. In addition, bow specialists can automatically fire first as a very fast action if they have their target covered. This supersedes the specialization rules found in the Player’s Handbook. On top of Fighting Style: Missiles, which allows them to move up to half their normal movement rate and still attack with their full rate of fire, or make a full move and attack at half their rate of fire. And they gain a bonus of –1 to their AC against enemy missile fire while attacking with a ranged weapon.

The Archer Kit gives you a bonus of 2 Weapon Proficencies in the Long or Short bow, so you can use your regular WP slots for Fighter to add specialization, and Weapon Mastery.

It would take getting to level 5 to get the Mastery, but still. Nice. Even without Mastery, you are getting 5 attacks every 2 rounds. With a longbow that does 1d8 damage each arrow. Plus all the Bow Tricks that are in the Complete Book of Elves. Like The Double-Arrow Shot where you can knock an additional arrow once per round, by sacrificing Initiative and a modifier to hit.

Again scary stuff. I can see why the Combat & Tactics book and Dart users are a scary concept now. 4 attacks every round with a dart, even though they are low damage

Ah, man, last time we talked about kits I went right down the rabbit hole and lost all track of time. Bright side: did find one I like. Commando Cyborg kit. I'll pm the DM.

hahahah!

Something I found that might help some folks. I know I was doing the math during the last combat.

I will try and make sure that you know the AC of all the enemies before combat starts to it makes combat quicker, and you can know if you've hit or not.

Yeah that helps move these types of games along.

Are we looking at using combat and tactics?

I am at a total loss why Tesh is acting this way towards Althiof.

Tesh has seen zero signs of skullduggery.  Tesh has seen zero signs of secrets kept from the party.

What's going on?

Yeah, I think it may have been a strange misread, or tone through text. The secretive nature of wanting to talk away from the common room, shouldn't warrant the weirdness, Now maybe Tesh is just viewing the Dwarf with first appearances, from visual cues you have left the main room a few times, and come and gone, and then returned with muddy boots and cloths. Tesh could be thinking that you are out gallivanting around town while the others are here. No one should assume you are a rogue though, nothing has been said yet to make that distinction.


Other convo

So, my initial issues with Skills & Powers, Combat & Tactics, etc, was that I never really liked the points system when it came to building characters. But I do like some of the other stuff that the Player's Options books use. So I'm up in the air on a few things. I think for now we will stick with what we've started with. But I might pull out some things from Combat & Tactics every once in awhile, since those rules are more up to date than the PHB or sometimes the Complete Fighter's Handbook. So it will be a case to case situation.

He disappeared, returned filthy & wounded, asked Tesh to examine something in secret and then when they got there ... changed his mind.

Just having Virius be frustrated at Althiof's 'I know something you don't know' routine.

In reply to Virius Tesh (msg # 134):

Hi guys, Just finishing up my peep, I hope to join real soon :)

Woot!

Gonna be away for about an hour. Be back soon.

I agree the point system only works if the DM is the one that designs the options to match the flavor and such that they want.

I found combat and tactics is likely the best of the books and many of the things it adds as proficiencies or expands on the existing ones is great. High Mastery, Grand Mastery, etc for weapon spec is great as long as the DM actually sees the fighter work for it.

If you do open it up, i'll be looking at the ambidexterity Prof and the expertise prof.

Sweet. Welcome aboard

See I like the proficiencies in Player's Options. They are the best selling point for me.

In reply to Dungeon Master (msg # 140):

Yep they are great. Many are just reprints from the various Complete Books. Some are new, but none seem out of balance to me

We have 18 dwarves and a couple half-orcs drinking. What could go wrong?

I'm certain that there is at least a little skullduggery afoot, would be bored if not!

Congrats on 400 posts!

Some awesome (IE Bad) rolls on possible Local History Rolls to see if I know of the two places he's mentioned

Destination:

20:58, Today: Secret Roll: Korkas Stonedelver rolled 20 using 1d20 with rolls of 20.  Local History .

His home Fighting Pit:

20:58, Today: Secret Roll: Korkas Stonedelver rolled 18 using 1d20 with rolls of 18.  Local History.

Failed both of them, You know that "Sultanate of Arir" is likely somewhere far to the west across the mountains in the Desert, its a Sultanate so it sounds like its one of the Baklunish cities. You don't know what the "Pit of Geburah" is.

"Sultanate", sounds exotic. Just gotta watch those camel spiders.

Languages have been added to the Private Line Options. I think I was able to get everyone's languages.

Alright folks, I'm off for the night!

I had some of the languages messed up, If anyone notices any others that they should have that they don't let me know.