In reply to Garidan D'naitrus (msg # 49):

Session zero and sandbox till new GM joins us.

Although the more you are willing to share with me about your characters goals dreams the more likely I could just be your permanent GM

In reply to Lawpreacher (msg # 51):

Okay officially perm GM

Hi, sorry been away for a couple days. Nice to meet you! I don't know how much, if any, info you have about Ruin. She's currently built as an aasimar (emberkin) with her classes as oracle (dual cursed archetype, curses of Wrecker [non-advancing] and lycanthropy, lunar mystery) and sorcerer (abyssal bloodline). She has a charming wolf companion the size of a horse named Glimmer, and her day job so to speak is as a singer and tattoo artist. She's heavily focused on summoning and buffing, with relatively minimal aggressive magic - in fact, her only direct damage spells at present are the inflict spells she gets as free spells known from oracle. She's built for level 7//7 right now but I'd be fine shifting that up or down a bit (though I prefer not to go under 5 in PF).

In terms of personality she tends to be rather bitter, simply because of how much her curses impact her life. She cannot hold or use anything without it breaking, for as long as she's using it, and she cannot speak when stressed or agitated, just make animal noises. In terms of dreams she really, really wants to figure out what the hell is going on with the curses, the tainted blood, the ring her mother gave her right before dying and wouldn't explain why but which is the only single thing her curse never breaks. She's loosely affiliated with the Transcendent Order and buys into their philosophy of seeking flow states and avoiding rumination, and she would consider continuing to advance her enlightenment through their ethos to be something of a goal. Her half-brother Vidal, a bit older than she is, has been getting increasingly evasive, increasingly stressed, and increasingly seldom seen, and she's worried that the tiefling (they shared a human mother and have opposite planetouched heritages, a thing both joke about) found something in his books and studies that is better left alone. Her ancestry concerns her, also; born of a peri, she's entirely aware that while her personal blood is celestial, it came from a source that ultimately traces back to a fallen angel. Probably one who fell to the Abyss, just based on her inherited magical bloodline. The implications of that are...not good.

Oh, and as a final note, I personally have no issue with GMPCs when done well. Just noting in case you still want to run Kara as a more central character.

In reply to Ruin (msg # 53):

We are staying 7th level gestalt.
Kara is not a central character as I have no real goals for her

Howdy, Lawpreacher, and welcome!  Thank you for taking up the mantle of gamemaster for us.  Also, thank you, Garidan, for getting everything running again.

---

As for 'Topaz', he originally hails from a world akin to our own from the early medieval period, particularly the year 539.  The Franks are firmly ensconced in northern Gallia and vulgar Latin was still the language of the day.  The Huns were orcs and the Alfar and Dwarves of Wagner's legends still held lands in Germania and along the Rhine.  Since then, he's found himself in many places, times, and lands.  That's the real secret, though, isn't it?  There's really only one city, one forest, one ocean, etc.  If one knows the right paths, getting from here to there or this when to else-when is a pretty easy thing.

He's on the short side s fauns go, a bit over 5'.  Where most of his folk are white, he's dark, but he doesn't try to explain the difference.  He's somewhere in late adulthood or early middle age.  Maybe.  With the fey it can be hard to tell such things.  In some places, they're mortal like everyone else while in others they're nature expressing itself as much as as the elemental plane of fire gives life to elementals and ifrit.

What folk do know of the fey is that they're bound up in all sorts of obligations and duties, favors owed and paid in turn.  Topaz' remit is to be emissary at large to the Seelie Court on behalf of Nia San Rosedrake, a brownie princess who led the small folk of Lutetia Parisiorum against the occupying Huns.  The event itself was a bit before his time, though.  He was still a little kid.  :)  Still, he travels and endures the constructed and 'civilized' world where many other fey mayn't.  He reports back to his mistress when he can.

Most recently, he returned to performing with the Argentos Travelling Circus, performing for the Elves of the Ardennes and the Dour Folk aus der Rheinfall.  When the circus came to Sigil some years ago, he remained behind after their engagement was up.  It's likely he'll return to the circus again in the future, should they pass again through the city or his Lady have some task for him that requires his attachment to the troupe.

You're very welcome. I'm glad I was able to find someone up to the task of GMing before interest waned amongst the players.

Lawpreacher, regarding the current IC scene, I think there are some things I'll need clarified before I'm ready to respond:

Foremost, are we retconning the other scene Her Serenity started? If not, how does the scene at the Broken 'Corn relate to the scene at Count Cauchemar's soiree? Does it take place before or after the warehouse scene, and what ties the two scenes together?

Second, I'm not presently aware of why Garidan might have gathered the PCs together at a tavern (if that is the intended implication), or if he's going to be introducing them to Kara (have they met her previously? Is this intended to be their second or first meeting?), and other such context I/we might need to help orient me/us. I can certainly roll with Garidan gathering everyone for an adventure if I know what that is, but it's not yet clear to me what Kara is referring to. Did she request this gathering herself for an adventure of her own?

One idea is that we start off by fulfilling some task requested by Count Cauchemar (if he isn't being retconned) or by whomever removed Glimmer's curse for Ruin (in which case the rest of us are really assisting our friend Ruin with a task too difficult for her to complete by herself).

What would everyone like to do?

Yonir (Shakrik, for Lawpreacher's reference), a while back you mentioned the possibility that Baalzebul might have taken care of Glimmer's curse. I then posed this to everyone but I think so far I've only heard back from Phorcys (Topaz):


So, Yonir and Ylvathrall in particular (as Phorcys already responded) — any thoughts or preferences on all this?
This message was last edited by the player at 00:36, Sat 21 Jan 2023.

Hm. I'm not entirely sure how readily Ruin would have resorted to looking to Baalzebul for help, just because while she's not terribly averse to debts, bargaining with an archdevil while you're in a hurry and they know they have you over a barrel is not terribly well known for ending well. The other option, of having resorted to asking a powerful and well-connected acquaintance like the Count (assuming that is not being retconned out), seems a fair bit more likely. I can also see her being on friendly terms with Shakrik in general and having worked for the fiends before and gotten a favor owed that she could call in for it. Remove curse isn't a terribly hard thing to get, after all, so it would be a quite reasonable repayment for a small service or piece of assistance in the past, without running into the issue of bargaining with a powerful devil under serious time pressure.

Signing a contract with an archdevil under time pressure does sound like a bad idea, yeah.  "I have altered the deal.  Pray I do not alter it further."

Maybe you'd rather take a fey bargain? :)

Maybe so. XD Fey bargains still end badly, but the tragic plays they make from them are things of beauty.

I tend to agree. Lawpreacher, are we keeping Count Cauchemar in this? Aside from the creative positives of building on what was already started, it might make things easier from a strictly pragmatic standpoint. Preserving the Count does provide a reason for our characters to gather.


Sounds plausible to me. Lawpreacher and Yonir, does that work for you?

I see no reason not to keep the Count.


But Kara will be another.


Okay I need Pms from Shakrik and Ruin about future goals and history.

In reply to Lawpreacher (msg # 61):

Also the count has sent you all.to the Broken 'Corn.


So far Garidan knows Kara

If you all want to figure out how you know me contact me in pm

Sorry for delays, life has been...hectic. I think I posted most of what I have for Ruin in this thread, but I'll get it into a PM soon.

Welcome, Vix!


Has he sent us to meet with someone? Do we know why we were sent there? What did he tell us exactly?

He wanted the group to meet Kara.

I would really like to continue.


So, players need to pm me the goals and desires for characters.

Also people need to respond in the IC threads. I will give till Valentine's day before I consider dropping people.

I'm at this homeless, in heavy medication withdrawal, without internet in the extremely inadequate mental health rehab I moved to today from the crisis center I've been in for several months. I also have very little to go on. The IC is at present a stranger in a tavern saying "You like to adventure right?",and beyond what I've already noted as Ruin's goals I don't know that I really have enough of an idea of setting or scope to have more specific ambitions.

I'm genuinely not trying to be combative, to be clear. I just don't quite know how to respond here.

Goodness, that's rough. I'm very sorry to hear you're struggling with all that. You have my sincere sympathies.

Sorry to hear you're having a tough time, Ruin.  Hopefully there's light at the end of the tunnel for you.

Kind of agreed, Ruin.  I think most of us are looking for some introduction, a connection from A to B, even if it's just a summary narration from Count Cauchemar's party where one or more of us were made aware Kara's looking for a group and the basic gist.  That'd give us a reason for us to be talking to her about something she's agreed to retrieve for the count or one of his.

Maybe she's a Sensate, like Garidan?  That would have put at least Garidan and Topaz into contact with her, even if she's just loosely affiliated with that faction.  It feels like we're trying to find the context of our interactions with Kara and how she relates to the earlier intro.

The current IC. Is your contact the Count asked you to meet someone at a tavern?
He did not give you all the info he has
Or give you any idea of who Kara is

Hello?

Oh wow, this was a while ago.

Hey there :)

Okay I think this is dead

It's got less than ten IC posts and the last one was close to a year ago, so... yeah, seems like it. :/

Unless the other players jump in over the next couple of days, of course. Stranger things have happened.