Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[TheLastDalek]

Is it just me, or has yourbes audio quality gotten worst over the past few days.

[Siriel]

I wish it didn't take me so long to manage to actually start a story.

Continuing one is easy enough, but figuring out the first scene to get started is something I always struggle with.

[Sharpandpointies]

Start from what you know, and write the first scene later.

[Nik Hasta]

I've been working on the latest iteration of my book and productivity has been way up.

Managed just shy of 10,000 words in like... four days?

[Sharpandpointies]

Good stuff.

Talking writing, I'm almost finished my wife's Christmas story. ^_^ One scene left. Then the editing, after a week break working other stuff (to let my mind get some distance).

[Len Ikari145]

[Siriel]

I started a new Pathfinder campaign with my old friends, acting as the GM. Since the Anima recaps were well-received I figured I'd see if anyone found this interesting.

The players started at level 3 and are party of the entourage of the necromancer Erish Kal, a prominent figure in their native kingdom of Kelestrad, who was sent on an expedition to the foreign kingdom of Allustra on a newly discovered continent. I explained to them that they aren't his bodyguards per se, but rather part of the 50ish people who came along with him, giving them about as much flexibility as they wanted in who they were as possible as long as they could reasonably justify why they'd be there. As an influential figure a good word from Erish Kal can make a career, so this is basically their characters' chance to make it into the kingdom's higher ranks.

The party:
Eldran Stormborn, a Lawful Evil Magus wielding a Blackblade, a sentient magical weapon passed down through his family. The scion of a relatively minor noble house and members of the capital's magical college, he's joined the trip to study the kingdom fo Allustra's magical capabilities. He took up the role of the de-facto party leader.
Amaranth, a Lawful Good Unicorn using a 3rd party monster class; I allowed it as long as the player took the talent that lets her take a humanoid shape for social events, so she spends most of the time disguised as an elf. She's part of an environmentalist faith that's trying to gain influence in the kingdom to protect the order of nature, and joined the group to try to enter contact with any similar group that might exist on the other continent.
A Lawful Evil Alchemist who's abandoned his name, so I'll refer to him as the Alchemist for this. He's an herbologist with a specialty in poison, and joined the expedition to research the local fauna.

GMs are probably shaking their head at the alignment, but this was planned in advance; the Kingdom of Kelestrad worships a modified version of Pathfinder's Godclaw, a pantheon of five Lawful divinities spanning the Good-Evil axis. As a result, Good and Evil willingly work together as long as they follow the kingdom's laws.

We started the session aboard the luxury ship carrying them to Allustra, with their characters playing Prophet's Gambit with one of Erish Kal's bodyguards to ease into it. It's a fantasy version of Texas Hold'Em that was created for 5e's Curse of Strahd and I'd recently acquired the cards so I figured why not. Amaranth and the Alchemist basically crushed the other two, but the game was called off when the sentries topside announced that land was in sight.
Erish Kal reminded everyone that they (mostly he) would meet with the king almost immediately after disembarking, and that beyond that initial mandatory meeting they had free leave to do whatever they wanted as long as they followed Allustra and Kelestrad's laws, and didn't do anything to compromise the mission.

At this point we determined what their characters would know already. Eldran had realized almost immediately that the diplomatic trip was also an excuse for Allustra and Kelestrad to size each other up in case diplomacy fell through. Amaranth got some extra coaching from Erish Kal's apprentice who reminded her that the procession would have to kneel in tune with him; kneeling earlier would indicate that you're just a servant, kneeling significantly later would indicate that you're higher ranked than him, which would of course be unacceptable.

The party disembarked and made their way through the capital city of Allustra, flanked by a large group of soldiers who'd been sent to escort them; there were a lot of curious citizen staring at the procession, but nothing major happened. Eldran got a strange feeling as they entered the palace and almost immediately reached the throne room, but couldn't place it. (He failed his roll to realize that this layout would be incredibly unsafe and therefore that something must be up.)

When they entered the throne room they found it full of nobles, servants, and a handful of royal guards. The king of Allustra was slightly overweight, but his voice was filled with authority. Erish Kal approached him, kneeled, and everyone in the procession followed suit. The two exchange a few pleasantries, and eventually the king told him he could stand and the two started their discussion with a safe distance between them. The rest of Erish Kal's entourage had free range to do what they wanted at that point, but one of Erish Kal's bodyguards motioned that no one should go further into the room than where the necromancer was standing; only people that the king trusted were allowed into hsi half of the room.

What followed was a few hours of purely social interaction, complicated by the fact that only Amaranth of the trio could talk Allustra's noble tongue; the nobles spoke common of course, but frowned upon its use in such an illustrious occasion. As a result Amaranth acted as an interpret. Highlights:
- Eldran tried to present Kelestrad as a mightier kingdom than it actually ws to the local nobility, to discourage any conflict.
- They realized that there was very little military presence in the room; the closest thing to a proper general was the prince, who was wearing armor. His entourage of nobles was also armed, but largely decoratively, which led them to conclude that the prince was probably militaristic and the other nobles treated it as the latest fad as a result. They had a chance to talk to him but they thought it would be too presumptuous to talk to royalty on their first presence in court when they aren't particularly high-ranking members of the expedition. (This is the first time any PC in any of my games has worried about this, I was pleasantly surprised.)
- They couldn't talk to any members of the clergy because they hovered on the king's side of the room, but they could see that they were all strongly built. This led them to conclude that maybe Allustra's military is tied to its religion, thus the lack of formal generals.
- Amaranth and Eldran talked with a dragonborn and a dwarf, who were envoys from neighboring nations. Amaranth, in draconic, impressed the dragonborn with her knowledge of religion and they spent quite a while arguing theology. Eldran spoke both of their languages, which they appreciated, and talked with the dwarf for some time in which he learnt that the dwarves had visited the continent Kelestrad is on over a millenia ago and that the dwarves of Kelestrad might be descendants of one of those expeditions. The dwarf was surprised to learn that in Kelestrad dwarven artisans freely cooperate with other races, as his people treat their methods of forging as a national secret.
- Both of those foreigners behaved a little oddly for diplomats and the dwarf explained that his people were relatively few in number, while the dragonborn came from a pacifistic nation. After some hesitation the dragonborn whispered to Amaranth to be careful while in Allustra, though he didn't elaborate. They got the two's contact information and left a good first impression overall.

After some time of this, I engaged the session's boss fight; the royal Vizier had been paying close attention to the delegates, and after seeing how outward Eldran was he came to talk to him personally. As the link between the king and the people, he's the only higher up in the kingdom who can speak in Common without losing prestige and did so freely. Two things happened immediately;

- Amaranth told me she would do the introductions. I asked her if that meant she introduced the Vizier to Eldran too, since technically none of them knew his name. After a lot of hesitation she told me she would try to figure out what his name was from the whispers of the court around them since I'd made it a point that the local nobility was watching the scene with great interest. I rolled perception in secret and gave her a name she'd overheard, asking her if she used it. She said yes; fortunately she'd rolled quite high (16 on the dice plus a sizeable bonus) and it was the right one.
- Eldran told me that he'd respond in Common... but have Amaranth translate it into Allustrian, the noble tongue. I congratulated him, because while the Vizier can talk to others in Common, talking to him in Common when an alternative was possible would have been seen as a mild insult.

The two talked back and forth for a time, and the Vizier idly mentioned that he'd overheard the tales of how powerful Kelestrad was militarily (tales that Eldran had been spreading all night) and that he wondered if they might grant Allustra a minor boon as guests and take care of a local brigand problem, since the king's guard was currently tied up. It was a trap, because Eldran couldn't say no without indicating that the stories he'd been telling were false. Eldran politely informed him that he couldn't accept such a request without the king's approval (or, in this case, Erish Kal's) but that he would bring it up to his superior.

The Vizier accepted and moved on, then later asked them if he could do anything for them to show Allustra's hospitality; I had Eldran roll Sense Motive, and informed him that it was another trap. If he accepted, he would be expected to do something in return. Since he rolled well I added that the Vizier didn't seem to have any hostile intent toward the delegation, but rather was simply taking advantage of an opportunity. Eldran declined, thanking him for his kind offer and that he would speak of how generous their hosts were.

Soon after the king called an end to the party and Erish Kal departed, his entourage in tow. I congratulated the players for making a good first impression on the locals. They were pretty relieved because the whole thing was pretty stressful, especially for Eldran's player. It was one of the most promising first session I've GM'd, and we all had a lot of fun so I'm looking forward to the next.

[bruceleegreyhulk]

[Guy1]

Hazbin Hotel is utterly insane and I love it.

[Jcogginsa]

The Mandalorian is Good

Hazbin Hotel is utterly insane and I love it.

Inside of every demon is a rainbow

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

The Mandalorian is quite good.

[Sharpandpointies]

Good stuff, Siriel.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

Oh gee, another school shooting.

EDIT: No deaths as of yet, but seven injured with two noted as "injured critically".

[FistofIron]

I said goodbye to my dog. I’m sad that she’s gone but I’m happy that she’s not in pain anymore.

[Lord Falcon]

I said goodbye to my dog. I’m sad that she’s gone but I’m happy that she’s not in pain anymore.

She lived a good life, I'm sure of it.