Hail and well met, bloods!

Howdy, all.  Reckon I'll move the discussion over here.  I'm perfectly happy with 7th level as a place to start.  As for class, I'm leaning toward bard and something.  As for race, before I commit to anything in particular, I'm curious about what range of options are available to us.  Shall I plan to stick to core, standard, or other races?  If "other", what range of RP should I consider?

I'm somewhat inclined to redux "Topaz", a faun/satyr bard from another game; he was quite a flavorful soul and quite entertaining to play.  He was dialed down a fair bit from the standard DnD satyr there, too.  Unfortunately, both of those are a bit wrong mechanically for a game like this, I think.

Thoughts?

I'm open to customized or tinkered with races.  Anything around the power level of tieflings/aasimar would be fine.

I will be playing a seeker of lost knowledge. Part tomb delver, part scholar, he is an expert in lore of the arcane and the art of spellcraft, ancient history and languages of forgotten civilizations, the cosmology, geographies and creatures of the planes, the local customs and folklore of numerous regions and cities, and stories of fabled ruins and tombs and the denizens who lurk therein.

phorcys, perhaps this character and your bard (should you decide that's what you want to play) are good friends with some common interests?
This message was last edited by the player at 07:21, Thu 19 Jan 2023.

I should hopefully have some specific questions re: characters by tomorrow.

Okay, so just to confirm how you want the point buy to work, is this "all attributes start at ten, and then each point above that is one point, with 26 total to spend"? Just checking before I start writing the sheet up with that method.

Right. Starting at 10, with the same max of 18 before racial adjustments.

So, obviously everyone is going to have their own characters with their own wildly different agendas and personal missions.

I'm thinking that for an initial plot, everyone will brought together by some mutual acquaintance in order to seek out a particular planar store of knowledge... one which may or may not hold clues to the questions they wish to answer.

I think that'd be a grand thing!

My wife and I have friends coming to New Year's with us, but maybe we can firm this up over the next few days?

Sure thing! I'll message you privately and we can work out the details together.

And Her Serenity, that sounds perfect to me. I also have some ideas for my character's personal interests which might tie into this undertaking (I'll message you about those when I have time).

Almost done with my sheet! I ended up going for dual cursed with lycanthropy and wrecker, so in addition to having everything she touches break, Ruin also finds herself unable to talk and just growling and snarling like a wolf instead when she's stressed. As expected she's got a pretty decent array of buffs, notably prayer, haste, resist energy, and tears to wine. Lots of summoning, as well. Her wolf, named Glimmer, is remarkably good at tracking by scent (something like a +24 I think?) and bites things very, very hard. The sheets are on mythweavers right now just to make getting all the bonuses right a bit easier.

Just a couple questions while I work on getting it finished up. Would you be okay using the background skills optional rule? Also, are traits in use? Also, I took Inscribe Magical Tattoo as a feat on the logic that Ruin would have figured out how just trying to get around the limitations on her ability to have functioning items - just make them a part of her instead. Hopefully that is okay?

Yeah, that should be cool.

phorcys and I are currently establishing an existing friendship between our characters, and it occurs to me that a very sociable tattoo artist and singer might have easily befriended a talented bard (phorcys's character, Topaz) and an adventurous raconteur (my character, Garidan) as well. They might all have met in a tavern somewhere in Sigil (maybe Topaz and Ruin were both performing/singing at the same pub one evening), or it could be that two of our characters were already companions when one or both of them met the third, or one is a mutual friend of the other two.

Perhaps they've even had some adventures together already (level 7 is pretty experienced), something that would solidify bonds which outlast any incidental job they might do with one another? Maybe a couple of them were on some quest out in the wild together when they encountered the third, and teamed up for mutual interests — an arrangement which brought them all success and fortune (and thus, a strong incentive to stick together afterward)? Since Ruin values her own pack most of all, perhaps the others aided her or her wolf when she was in a particularly bad bind, and thereby earned her friendship?
This message was last edited by the player at 01:48, Sun 01 Jan 2023.

Sounds quite reasonable to me! Maybe casual acquaintances from having been at the same taverns before, and then happened on each other while working? You're right that Ruin would be quite loyal if someone helped her or Glimmer out of a bind, maybe by being able to treat some condition on Glimmer that Ruin doesn't have a way to solve. She's got some cure spells, but no particular ability to remove things like diseases, poisons, or curses affecting someone.

Okay, so how about this: Topaz and Garidan were adventuring together somewhere (maybe in the Outlands?) and encountered Ruin while exploring some...ruins (no pun intended), having overheard the sounds of a violent skirmish she and Glimmer were engaged in with some hostile creatures. These monsters (any ideas for what type?) had taken Ruin by surprise and overwhelmed her summoned minions, and Glimmer — wounded and weakened — was desperately fending them off to protect her. Seeing this, Topaz and Garidan rushed to Ruin's aid, and their spells quickly turned the battle's tide, enabling the four of them to finish off the creatures together.

Unfortunately, though victorious, Glimmer was badly injured and had become infected by some sort of disease or affliction which none of them could alleviate themselves (either something he'd contracted from these creatures or had suffered elsewhere in the ruins before the battle). But Topaz and Garidan knew of someone in this region who could possibly treat such maladies (a witch? A druid? Occultist? Something else?), and offered to help Ruin get to this person's dwelling before Glimmer's condition grew fatal. Combining their talents, they managed to reach the healer in time and Glimmer was cured — in exchange for a special favor they agreed to do for this person (any ideas?). This led to further adventures together, and Ruin's abilities proved just as beneficial to Topaz and Garidan as their aid had been to her and Glimmer. The four of them have been companions ever since.

This is just one possibility, of course. I welcome any ideas the rest of you might have.

Character sheets are up if anyone wants to use that section.




to clarify, yes, everyone should get two traits and we can go ahead and use the background skills rules.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:54, Mon 02 Jan 2023.

It may also be helpful if everyone edits their character description with information that would be known to others. Anything they wouldn't be keeping a secret. Just so I can sort out what is supposed to be "GM only" knowledge.



Also, with Ruin having the Inscribe magical tattoo feat, I should probably address this. If anyone wants to reduce equipment/item costs with feats or skills their character might have, that's totally fine.

I'm not really one for nickel-diming people on that stuff.

That sounds fine to me, Alarus!

Great! Do you have any ideas for where this might have occurred and what Ruin was doing there, what sorts of monsters she and Glimmer were fighting, what malady had afflicted Glimmer, who the healer was and what they agreed to do for her/him in return for curing Glimmer?

phorcys/Topaz, does all this suit you? Any ideas you'd like to add?

Yonir/Shakrik, Her Serenity told me your character wants to join the Sensates. Garidan is a Sensate — maybe there's a connection there? Or perhaps the other characters ran into Shakrik while they were fulfilling whatever favor they'd agreed to do for the healer who aided Glimmer? Any ideas?

Her Serenity, I'm completely open to any ideas you might have for these past encounters and adventures as well. Maybe something that ties directly into what you've prepared for our starting point?

Ideally, I'd like whatever we settle on to be a combination of everyone's ideas, not just my own. :)

Hm. I don't know where it would have been, but probably Ruin was there on business, since while she's a perfectly competent singer and tattooist, she's also doing jobs for people on the side to make money. They might have sent her there to get some relic or something, without actually disclosing how dangerous it was? For an affliction I lean towards a curse just because Ruin has such a heavy cursed and damned theme going on - dual cursed oracle gets hit with some pretty steep effects. There's a lot of irony to be played in the girl who is laboring under a lot of curses and can inflict a lot of them on others not being able to clear one from someone important to her.

The healer, then, would just be anyone who can cast remove curse. Maybe a cleric that Ruin knows from her affiliation with the Transcendent Order or a bard who hangs out in similar semi-criminal circles as she does? I kind of like the idea that she's not actually paid off the debt, or only partially, and it's hanging over her as an unmet obligation waiting for them to call in their marker.

Oh, also I have introduced a plot element for our GM to work with, related to people, mostly semihuman or planetouched of various kinds, starting to disappear. And in some cases reappear after a while, with no recollection of what happened, a tendency to have complete breakdowns when pushed to remember, and a distressing lack of Self going on. Kind of as though they had been mindwiped or lobotomized. Ruin is freaking out about it somewhat.

Sounds good to me. Maybe somewhere in the Outlands then.

Her Serenity, I'll defer to you on this — any ideas?


That works. What sorts of creatures or spirits might have inflicted this curse? Some sort of wraith maybe?


Hmm. Well, Topaz is a bard but I don't know if he has Remove Curse. Does he, Phorcys?

I think it might be best if the healer was either someone Topaz or Garidan knew (so that Ruin needed their help in finding them), or someone Ruin knew but needed Topaz's and Garidan's help getting to (perhaps due to having exhausted much of her spells and resources, or simply because of the dangers present in the surrounding wilderness and doubting her ability to get to this healer alone). This would provide a dependence on Topaz's and Garidan's help, which incentivizes their sticking together after that chance encounter.


Nice. Unsettled debts are a great plot hook, as well as a long-term problem for a character to work toward resolving.


Interesting! That gives me some ideas for my own plot elements...
This message was last edited by the player at 23:02, Tue 03 Jan 2023.

Well if the situation was bad enough Shakrik 'works' for Baalzebul which would be a source of  healing of any problem for a price.

In terms of contacts he's perfectly happy to do mercenary work in return for unique experiences and given the rest of the party's makeup he may just have been along for the experience.  Afterall he grew up in Malagard, anywhere in the outlands is a pleasant place to be for him.

Maybe a Gate-Town on the Outlands? Somewhere that would be a good place to start the campaign.

s

Well, on the subject of past events, I wanted to know what everyone thought of the NPC I posted in the notes thread. Who, as a possible employer/patron/chance ally of the PCs could have provided some kind of healing services.

Shakrik would probably meet someone like him acting as a representative of the devils of the Eighth.  He'd be acting as a purchaser for very senior devils rather than on his own behalf but as a disposable tool if he offends.

Sorry for falling behind, y'all.  We hit cutover day for a major transition project at work and it's moderately exciting.  I'm following the discussion, though, and hope to have Topaz' PC creation completed in draft by Friday evening.

That employer is someone I can definitely see Ruin working for. And yeah, I think she might have if nothing else needed help getting out and getting Glimmer to a healer. This is especially true if it's a progressive curse, such as one of the greater curse options which basically causes you to age a year for every day while cursed. Wolves don't have that long of a lifespan, so time would be very much a factor with that, and Ruin isn't great at rapid travel, even before she runs out of resources.

No rush!

Sounds good to me. Perhaps the tomb where Garidan and Topaz met Ruin was somewhere within 1-2 weeks' travel from one of the gate towns.

Phorcys, does this idea (Topaz and Garidan meeting in Sigil, subsequently adventuring together in the Outlands, happening upon Ruin whilst exploring some tomb, and coming to her aid) suit you?

Ruin/Her Serenity — what might have inflicted the curse on Glimmer? Some sort of ghost or undead creature perhaps? It would be cool to flesh this shared past experience out in detail. Hey, maybe we could even play it out in a freeform flashback/flash-cut prologue?


The Count could easily have been the one who previously tasked Garidan (who in turn enlisted Topaz's help) with retrieving some ancient relic from this tomb in the Outlands. Also, if Cauchemar is capable of curing curses, Garidan might have proposed that Ruin come back with him and Topaz to request his help in dispelling Glimmer's curse — and thus Ruin had a reason to help Garidan retrieve what he was sent to obtain.

Then upon their return, Garidan introduced his new companions to the Count as capable adventurers who'd assisted him in completing his task, and Cauchemar took care of Glimmer's curse in exchange for a new task or favor of some kind.

Or, we could use this to tie in Shakrik, as Yonir suggested:


What if Shakrik is the person Ruin knew who could help her cure Glimmer's curse — if she could reach him in time? Then we could have already met Shakrik and had an adventure together fulfilling whatever task or 'price' was exacted for healing Glimmer. This would also mean that Ruin and Shakrik are already reasonably well acquainted friends or contacts.


Depending on your thoughts on the above ideas, we could say Shakrik joined the other three characters mid-way through Garidan's task for Count Cauchemar, and when they returned to him Garidan introduced Shakrik along with his other companions as capable mercenaries.

What does everyone think about all this?
This message was last edited by the player at 03:47, Fri 13 Jan 2023.

I'd rather not get too lost in flashbacks.
Though I wouldn't mind starting off something at the present time. Sort of a pre-game while everyone's finishing up their characters.



A fiend would tie in better. Probably a demon. Especially if this event may have future repercussions.

So some clarification. Did we want to start in this gate town (if so, which) after this incident, or back in Sigil?

Demon sounds good to me. I would probably start back in Sigil, myself.

Agreed, I think Sigil works best.

I would go for Sigil.

Still waiting on some final bits, but if you want to start roleplaying, I can set up a dinner party scenario tomorrow.

Sounds fun to me!

Yep, sounds good!


Just checking back on this, Phorcys. I don't want to assume anything involving your character without your agreement.


I'd like to get everyone's input on these ideas as well. Does everyone agree with one of these possibilities or have any preferences or suggestions to add? I'm open to alternatives.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:48, Fri 13 Jan 2023.

That suits me well enough.  Sigil is the place to be, for this group, for sure.  It also makes sense that Topaz would have been in a tavern, maybe remaining after the Argentos' Travelling Circus went on to other things.

He'd adventure actively, if there was anything of interest to the fey court.  Otherwise he'd play the taverns and social gatherings of Sigil trusting to his charm and modest fame to open doors and provide opportunities for gathering and 'sharing' information.  That's truly where is talents lie.  If he doesn't know the Count already, an introduction by Ruin is a fine path to that.

Garidan, that sounds like a fine idea.

I'm not really interested in running this anymore.  Best wishes.

Well, heck.  If we find ourselves another GM, would you be willing to transfer the game over?

Yes.

Is everyone else still interested?

Most definitely!  Thank you for bumping the GM Wanted post, Garidan.

Maybe? Kinda nothing happened so far so I could probably, but it would depend on GM preferences etc.

Undeniably.

No problem, Phorcys. I'm glad to have found other interested players as a starting point. Now to find a GM...

Yonir, are you still with us?

Yes still around

Hello everyone

Hi all your current GM. This is my player character.

Welcome!

For everyone's info, I met Lawpreacher on the Discord RPoL server. She has agreed to take over as GM at least temporarily until we find a GM, since she would like to play. She mentioned that she might run the equivalent of a session 0 for us in the meantime.

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.