Mummy's Mask

Game Master Samy

This thread for out-of-character posts.

Here! Currently phone posting from my RL game; more to follow in the gameplay thread a little later (I'll get that last trait added to her profile later as well).

Finished editing his ability scores. I kept them as close as possible to his original buil but his INT took a hit there. Glad to see we gain ability scores at a faster rate than normal :)

Will update Regina's equipment shortly.

9) Starting money: Don't worry about equipment unless you're selected.

@GM?

That i wanted to ask too, do we roll or use avergage starting money?

Tuyena do you want me to drop disable device for other skill? It may be bothersome to have two disablers, my bonus is a lil higher tought so it may be helpful

I'm okay with two disablers. The module hints by having that trait that we'll see traps, so I see no reason why having two people to double-check each other on traps would be bad.

Plus, if something goes very badly and one of them dies, the party is not without a trapfinder.

This is a buck naked Harmose Al-Nefer. I agree that money and equipment would be nice, though this way you really can see all of Harmose's tattoos.

I've run him through Hero Lab, so hopefully all the math works now.

Turel, I know what you mean. Looking at the stats in my header, I think that it may be a good thing that Harmose is unafraid to die. The first asthmatic goblin toddler we meet may take me out with a well-thrown rock!

However, I will get to roleplay with all of you until then, so... we're good.

Does anyone want coordinate spells? With there being an alchemist in the party, I am assuming that there will no need for me to take burning hands as a spell to take out swarms and such.

Hmm

This is a buck naked Harmose Al-Nefer. I agree that money and equipment would be nice, though this way you really can see all of Harmose's tattoos.

Hey, I didn't know this tavern was one of those establishments ;)

I've only skimmed through things, but it looks like we should have just about every skill covered between the six of us, with some doubling-up that never hurts (like with Disable Device). As far as spells go, I'm not sure that I'd have much to coordinate except possibly with Regina.

*edit* Added Holy Tattoo to Aleris' profile information; that should be everything until Samy lets us know about equipment and such.

If it wasn't before Camus's strip show, it certainly is now! ;)

You may choose to either roll starting money or take the average.

Remember that I will not require you to keep track of items worth 1gp or less. You may count them if you wish, but you don't have to.

I was wondering if either Tuneya or Regina might consider a different icon? Both being Kyra confuses me a bit every now and then.

I'm feeling brave, so I'll try rolling.

4d6 ⇒ (2, 5, 3, 4) = 14 x10 = 140...which is the average for an inquisitor, haha.

Well, I've updated Harmose's backstory and reformatted it based on some of what has come out in roleplay. I really like how it has turned out, especially including actual quotes from some of Harmose's posts.

I'm okay with Tuneya and Regina both being Kyra. Regina is the dark, scary yet eerily beautiful Kyra. Tuneya's icon is much more warm... if a little suspicious looking. And being around us, I'd be suspicious too!

Harmose, can you walk me through how you have four feats?

Certainly.

Noble Scion -- 1st feat
Fast Learner -- Human Bonus Feat
Varisian Tattoo -- Bonus Feat off of Tattooed Sorcerer Archetype
Alertness -- A feat provided to the masters of familiars when their familiars are within arm's reach. All familiars give this bonus, though tattooed familiars are more likely than most to actually be within arm's reach...

Is that what you wanted?

Perfect. I had been tripped up by pfsrd calling Varisian Tattoo Mage's Tattoo instead. Makes perfect sense to me now, thanks.

Trying to pin down the human ethnicities as per the Inner Sea World Guide for each of the human characters.

Harmose: Keleshite?
Turel: Garundi?
Tuneya: ?
Camus: ?

I don't think this affects anything else than one language in addition to Common, but just being thorough.

Camus, both Finding Haleen and Jenivere Crew are campaign traits (for Legacy of Fire and Serpent's Skull adventure paths, respectively), so you'll need to look for two other traits.

Tuneya is a Keleshite. I noted it in her physical description ;)

Missed it, thanks. :)

Turel is Garundi. I noted it in his profile.

A question: Will you track water (or waterskins) carried by the party members?

Not normally, as in I doubt it'll be an issue for the first two books at least, which take place squarely within the city of Wati and thus have easy access to civilization. If there will be desert crossings or otherwise challenging wilderness travel later on, I may reconsider for specific trips meant to be difficult. But by that point you should have pretty easy access to Create Water magic anyhow.

Welcome :D

Question... can Tuneya craft some alchemical items that she starts with? If not or if it costs her the same as buying, no problem :)

Normal crafting rules and limitations apply, so you can make anything you could normally make, it costs the same as normally crafting, and if you need to make checks for it, you need to make those checks. You have effectively unlimited time to craft prior to campaign start.

Camus: Since we settled on the Isle of Kortos for Camus' home region and he has the Highlander trait, I assume he's spent a lot of time on the Kortos Mounts, unless you feel otherwise?

For convenience's sake, I am reposting the list of available initial contacts into this thread as well. Please forgive the duplication.

Religious category
• Bal Themm (female), a low-ranking member of the clergy of Pharasma, the goddess of the dead. Pharasma is the most powerful faith in Wati.
• Djat Masakhet (male) or Intef Karam (female), a mid-ranking member of the clergy of Abadar, the god of cities, wealth and merchants. Abadar is the second most powerful faith in Wati.
• Neb-At (male), keeper of Pharasma's sacred white crocodiles with a slightly questionable reputation.

Law Enforcement category
• Kema (female), soldier of the militant wing of Pharasma's church. Religious police.
• Rekitre or Khipa Yannanza (both female), city marketplace security working for the church of Abadar. Religious police.
• Tarouk (male), city guard member. Secular police.

Political category
• Junior member of the conservative Mahfre noble family.
• Junior member of the liberal Okhenti noble family.
• Meehr Zet (female dwarf), high society debutante freely spending her industrialist father's money.

Underworld category
• Member of the Fading smuggler gang.
• Member of the Silver Chain slaver gang.
• Dredge (genderless halfling) or Eswab (female), a fixer/fence/trafficker unaffiliated with any specific gangs.

Commoner category
• Farhaan (male), owner of Tooth & Hookah inn best known for its crocodile mascot and popular with adventuring parties.
• Teht Blackblossom (female), owner of the Whispering Stone inn built around a massive statue's head and known for having lots of secrets and rumors floating around.
• Terhk Fourwinds (male half-orc), owner of Terhk's Fine Expeditions, a caravan company and desert travelers' lodge.
• Sehhosep Naahn (female), instructor at the Hall of Blessed Rebirth, the city's medical academy and embalmer's guild.

So far, choices that I have spotted are:

Harmose: Meehr Zet, dwarven socialite
Camus: Kema, Pharasma's police
Tuneya: Terhk Fourwinds, desert lodge owner
Turel: Bal Themm, Pharasma's cleric
Aleris: One of the inn/tavern owners
Regina: ?

Do let me know if I missed something.

Regina has regular contact with a member of the Silver Chain gang. I posted previously in a spoiler tag (now, dearies, we don't want to give away too much now, do we?) so it was easy to miss.

The stat roller was not super good to me, so I'll take average starting money. Will update probably tomorrow night with equipment.

Since there are six player characters, and the city of Wati has six districts, it felt natural to me to draw up connections -- six and six. Each of you receives an affinity for one district of Wati, which means that you may hear rumors or receive bonuses relating to the district you have affinity for. There are brief descriptions of the districts on pages 8-9 of the player's guide, and a map of the city on the last page of the player's guide, for visual reference of the city's layout.

I have assigned two of the affinities automatically because they seemed very natural. (Though they may decline and ask for another district if they desire.) The remaining four, you may discuss among yourselves and propose which ones you'd like.

Necropolis: This is a defining feature of Wati, the Half-Dead City. It is a walled-off "quarantine area"; the old city of Wati that was destroyed thousands of years ago by a plague, and been abandoned since. Generally, only criminals and clergy of Pharasma go here anymore. This district has been assigned to Regina.

Morning Sun: This is the district of the noble and the wealthy. It features mansions and sprawling estates. It's called Morning Sun because it's on a hill overlooking the rest of the city, and because of its elevation, the morning sun hits it first. This district has been assigned to Harmose.

Midwife: This is essentially the downtown, the business district, and the workplace for many white-collar workers. It contains the marketplace, temples and the city guard headquarters to name but a few.

The Veins: The harbor district, with many canals and bridges. Plenty of industry and blue-collar workers. This is the place where a lot of the "real work" of Wati gets done.

Asp: A sprawling largely residential area furthest away from the river, this is where most of Wati goes home for the night. A good place to keep an ear to the ground and connect with the common folk and the public sentiment.

Bargetown: The slums. Consists of barges and boats without any solid land, and is not an officially planned part of the city. This is the first place to look if you were interested in shady business or criminal activity.

Oh yeah, I remember reading that now, I just forgot about it. Thanks, Regina. The name of your contact is Ekram Iffek.

A map of the nation of Osirion.
A major point of interest on that map is the River Sphinx in the eastern part of Osirion. The capital city of Sothis is where the Sphinx flows to the sea. If you travel up the Sphinx (i.e. southward), to where it splits into its two tributaries -- the Asp and the Crook -- you will find the city of Wati, where our adventure begins.

A map of Wati.
This is the same map as is found in the player's guide, except with numbered locations that will make it easier to refer to particular spots. When I give you directions to a place in Wati, I will sometimes give a number from this map.

I think I'll go with Teht Blackblossom for Aleris' contact. Her equipment is more or less done (in HeroLab) and I'll update her sheet tomorrow evening after work. As far as districts go, I'm not inclined to be especially picky but I'll think on it and see what the others think :)

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After looking over the districts, I think Turel should take the Midwife district as he has a contact amongst the Pharasma temple.

IMO, the other districts should be assigned as follows:

*Veins: Tuneya (due to her alchemy work, good for blue collar jobs.)
*Asp: Aleris (her Perform skills makes her a natural for hanging around the common folk.)
*Bargetown: Camus (shady business...'nuff said, he he.)

I am open to suggestions however :)

Just about done with Harmose, one last question and I'm done validating his sheet.

Sorcerer spells known is 4 cantrips at first level. You have 5. Is there something giving you a free cantrip that I'm blanking on?

Oh and Harmose's Sense Motive should be +2 I think, if his fifth skill point goes in it (counting familiar Alertness, and +0 without)?

Tuneya: I think your hit points drop by one; you have +2 modifier from Con 13 (should be only +1 modifier). Fortitude goes down one for the same reason, to +3. I assume your favored class bonus goes into skill points since you have 11 spent (4 base + 5 Int + 1 human + 1 favored, right?). I think you get class skill bonus to Craft and Disable for a total of +9 on both? Since your bombs are a thrown splash weapon, should you count the +1 circumstance bonus from Throw Anything into your to-hit? Regarding the Osirionology feat, which skill are you putting the +3 in?

I am also trying out whether Google Drive would be a good solution for presenting pictures and other files. Under the Campaign Info tab, you should now have a link to "Player Information on Google Drive", which currently contains some maps, pictures of contacts (Bal Themm and Kema), and a bit more. Please let me know if you can't access it.

Keleshite is fine as a human ethnicity for Harmose. From what I understand, most Osiriani have some Keleshite blood as a result of the occupation.

I thought that the fifth cantrip came from Fast Learner -- I took one hit point and 1 spell from the human FCB. (When I checked the rules forum on this, I found this post indicating that this might be an okay option. Is it still?)

As for Sense Motive, I did not put a point in it and have a negative wisdom, but Hero Lab insisted I had a bonus? That came out of the stat block from Hero Lab. I can remove it off the sheet if you'd like, since I cannot imagine which stat, trait or feat it would come from...

As for the Morning Sun district, yes it's a natural fit for Harmose. He has contacts throughout the area, and has probably been surviving in town the way impoverished nobles did in Jane Austen's day -- by being a perpetual houseguest, paying for food and lodging with amusing dinner conversation and the cachet of his noble title.

Speaking of which... Now that he's actually been selected, I will actually have to figure out a title for him, won't I? GM Samy, do you have the Osirion book? That's one I don't have and I don't know what an appropriate title would be for a landless noble.

Oh I see. You used Fast Learner to take 1hp and 1 spell. I know there's been some debate about that one way or another, but that's fine by me. So I'll knock down the skill point I had put into Sense Motive for you, and then you should have a +1 Sense Motive... -1 from Wisdom and +2 from Alertness.

You were too fast for me while I was editing my post! And if the Sense Motive comes from Alertness, I'll leave that.

There's new content in the post up above.

I'll go off now to check out the google docs information.

Another question for our GM.

I read the Ultimate Campaign Relationship rules... So we're rolling on diplomacy not per level, but each day of gameplay? Should we meet the NPCs first in gameplay, roleplay our interactions, and then roll the diplomacy roll to move our relationships forward?

Could you give us a step-by step of how this works. For an example, I am currently a house guest of someone in the Morning Sun district... I don't know if its Meehr Zet, or some other well-off person that I've charmed.

So... I want to improve my relationship with this person because they are currently putting a roof over my gorgeous head.

Would I post something like this?

_____________________

Harmose smiles and takes the hands of his hosts. "Thank you, I had a wonderful time. Mavra, I swear that you have the best hospitality in all of Wati!" Harmose kisses her on both cheeks.

Then he offers his hand to her husband, and holds it a trifle longer than necessary, feeling the heat between them. If only he weren't married. And straight. "And as for you, Ali, you know how much I enjoy our philosophical debates."

Rolling for relationship

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22

Only a plus nine, because a buck naked Harmose has no equipment yet and cannot get the extremely fashionable trait bonus. Yet. Though you think that nudity in some cases would improve the roll.. I am still deciding whether to take my standard starting wealth of 70 gp or risk the dice roller again.

No, I'm tired of being buck naked. There's only so many places you can easily apply sunscreen.

I'll risk it. Closes eyes. Rolls.

Starting Wealth: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 6) = 10 x 10 = 100gp.

Not enough to get me Extremely Fashionable yet, but maybe Harmose can pick up a slightly better quality used bedsheet in the bazaar.

Before I go on my out of character shopping spree (as opposed to the one about to happen in gameplay) I have some questions:

GM Samy, what do you rule is the interaction between Harakami and Armored Kilt? Together do they suddenly become medium armor, as an armored kilt plus leather armor would? Or is the combination still light? And would that combination work to get a +2 AC?

If I can combine the two and treat them as light armor with no arcane spell casting issue, I will. Otherwise I am just taking the Harakami.

So we're rolling on diplomacy not per level, but each day of gameplay? Should we meet the NPCs first in gameplay, roleplay our interactions, and then roll the diplomacy roll to move our relationships forward?

Correct, per each game day, not per level. And you can choose to pursue any NPC you meet through gameplay; the initial list of contacts given earlier is just a starting point. The rules are based on Ultimate Campaign's, but not 100% identical -- I'm still feeling my way through what all needs to be changed to accommodate the faster pace, as I haven't used this system before. I'm reserving the right to change things if they throw everything out of whack. But the relationship levels are the same as the official rules, the rewards are the same -- except I think that the highest level boons are limited to one at a time, so that Diplomancers can't collect ten simultaneous boons by maxing out ten contacts.

XP rewards are as per official rules. The fellowship/rivalry Charisma skill morale bonus is not used. Charisma does not affect the base relationship score, so Charisma ups/downs don't affect the score, other than how they affect the daily rolls to improve score.

For a step-by-step:

1. At the beginning or end of each game day (haven't decided which yet) I will ask everyone which NPC they are spending their daily slot on, and you get to make a Diplomacy roll.
2. I'm still feeling out the exact DCs, but I'm thinking something along the lines of DC 10 to gain one point, plus an additional point for each 10 beyond the DC.
3. RP may or may not be involved, depending on how busy the plot is, how busy the GM and players are, and whether the player wants to RP these out in detail.

what do rule is the interaction between Harakami and Armored Kilt?

...I don't remember those. Where are the rules for those? Are they in Ultimate Equipment?

Edit: Found them. I would have to say that since haramaki is light armor and armored kilt increases the armor category, together they would be medium armor.

Harmose Al-Nefer wrote:

what do rule is the interaction between Harakami and Armored Kilt?

...I don't remember those. Where are the rules for those? Are they in Ultimate Equipment?

Oops. I misspelled it, despite the fact that I have it on another caster character of mine. Haramaki is in ultimate equipment It is a light, belly band that gives +1 for no arcane penalty.

The Armored Kilt is from Adventurer's Armory.

Okay, Haramaki alone it is.

Thanks!

Okay, I've looked at the Google Drive and added it to my campaign folder.

GM Samy, may I make a couple requests?

Request 1:
Can you rename Player Information to "Mummy's Mask Player Information"? I have five different campaigns that have information on Google Drive. A distinct name lets me know right away which one I am looking at.

Request 2:
Can we players have a sub-folder that we all have access to? I'd be happy to PM you my real world email address. I'd like a folder that I and others can upload documents to relating to the game, like player-created notes.

Thank you!

Another question:

Political category

• Junior member of the conservative Mahfre noble family.
• Junior member of the liberal Okhenti noble family.

May the players help name the unnamed contacts on your list?

Hmm

Google Drive requests should now be fulfilled. For the moment the player folder is only editable by Hmm. If others want permissions, feel free to PM me your Google addresses.

Players may help name unnamed contacts on the list, although for some of them I may already have ideas, but suggestions are always welcome.

Thank you, GM, for all your rapid responses!

I hope that I haven't been too much of a pest with all my questions.

I'll make some name suggestions later.

Hmm

I hope that I haven't been too much of a pest with all my questions.

Nah, especially with Google Drive, it helped me learn some more how to use it.

I will use average money

*Bargetown: Camus (shady business...'nuff said, he he.)

I aprove of this.

Also do we have an oficial starting date? I mean as in the plot moving forward

Dealing with unexpected family stuff today. I will post towards the evening.

Okay, I'm back... I'm a bit sick today so my outing didn't go for as long as expected. So back to relationship rolls. Will you be expecting us to do the gift part of the relationship rolls too? This may change later, but I don't think that anyone has the budget for gifts at the moment.

However, if gifts can be immaterial -- a poem, a love letter written in character, a bit of off-screen baby sitting for a harried parent -- we could probably start doing them right away.

Checking in; I'm happy to go with the Asp district for Aleris (suggestion per Turel) unless someone else just really really wants it.

Just so you know, I just transferred a document with the entire letter to Meehr Zet into the player folder. That way it would be easier for you or the others to find later.

So 'delectable morsel of idiocy' has to be the funniest thing I've read in any of my games yet :3

More seriously, I'm working again today but will have a few days off starting tomorrow, so I'll hopefully get her equipment finalized then. I might also add some stuff to her profile like Shelyn's paladin code, which she tries to follow despite not being quite disciplined enough to have become one. Also, do we get to make up the finer points of our association with our contact or is there some basic information I need to know about her first?

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