Palace of the Vampire Queen (Inactive)

Game Master Terquem

Please feel free to ask questions about the game, your character, or the game setting here.

Testing that I found the discussion tab.

Any additional information forecoming on the various Knights? I'm want to include that into my background. Perhaps, why I'm loyal and tied to a house. I don't need to be a relative.

I like starting with the clothes on my back and few coppers in my pocket. Gear...who needs gear...it's over rated anyway. Seriously, pretty cool beginning.

Can you describe about the following knight?

"Lady Renarie Inarossa – She is a middle aged Dwarf. Her lands are mainly to the east and south of Sir Guisse’s lands, and include some abandoned mines."

Anything additional detail as to the land she governs? Trade, merchants and families. Perhaps, with your permission, I was lent to her by my father to develop my inquisitive knack for assembly and disassembly of small devices, such as locks.

This will be the person that I'm tied too at the beginning of the game.

When do we need a complete stat crunch for our characters?

Excellent quesiton on the stat crunch and what time do you think you will run the game on Saturday? I'm new to online gaming. I, also, have a Sat night live person game, the 1st and 3rd Saturday's of the month. I can post in the morning and afternoon though.

I added a little backgorund history to begin to get a flavor the the character. I intend to add and develop it further but I wanted need to flesh out some additonal details and complete the feats adn skills for him.

About Dennari (Goddess of the Dwarven People)

Dennari originally appeared in the Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 edition “Deities and Demigods”. I liked the concept, and the artwork, and decided to incorporate her into the Pantheon of Riom, but with a few modifications.

Her Portfolio, for this setting, describes her as a goddess of Agriculture, Strength, Perseverance, and Independence. She is the matron goddess of the Imperial Family, and currently is revered as the matron goddess of the Royal family of Karrita Morianna. She is a goddess of good aligned individuals (her alignment is Chaotic Good, but her Clerics recognize that her followers can be of any good alignment). Her domains are:

Community, Earth, Good, Plant, and Strength

Typically any Dwarven village on the island will have a temple that serves the Dwarven Pantheon and this temple will have shrines to all or most of the deities. The clerics of a temple will be predominantly Clerics of Denarri (there will be three to seven attendants with Cleric Class levels and possibly three to twelve additional attendants serving the temple who do not have Cleric Class levels), but it is not uncommon to encounter Clerics who are dedicated to other deities within the pantheon.

A Dwarven temple is a rectangular building of various size (dependent upon the economic situation/population of the village) with two or three additional buildings of non-uniform shape and size. The temple proper, will have a short peaked roof and be surrounded by columns. Each shrine within the temple will be a separate three sided enclosure.

There are two primary festivals in Denarri’s name, a spring festival, and a harvest festival. The date of the spring festival is fixed, but the harvest festival falls on different days every year (and is celebrated on different days from one village to the next) and is an event that is scheduled and planned by the desires of the individual community but generally coincides with a late summer harvest/thanksgiving celebration. The Goose is sacred to Denarri and is thus not kept, or cultivated. It is, however, not restricted by any dietary laws, and is served as the main course in the harvest celebrations.

Iconography of Dinarri takes two forms. The first are statues and images of the goddess herself, usually found in temples and individual shrines. The second, more common, iconography associated with Denarri is the symbol of an upright maul (hammer) of stone with a wooden handle that sprouts vines with large serrated edged leaves. This symbol is found commonly engraved on ploughs, the handles of agricultural tools, and on the traditional Holy Symbol of the Clerics of Denarri which normally takes the form of a wooden object three inches wide by nine inches long by one inch thick. The holy symbol will be flat on one side and carved in relief on the other with the symbol of Denarri’s maul, often with a short metal handle on the base, or with a hole made in the top and worn from a leather or rope lanyard around the neck.

Followers of Dennari are common, and generally eight out of ten dwarves will claim that she is the goddess most often invoked in prayers. Clerics of Denarri are usually well liked, trusted, and given hospitality. It is commonly understood that Clerics of Denarri will unwaveringly take up the plight of individuals who are unable to defend themselves.

There is a feeling among many Dwarves who have regular contact with Goblin tribes that the Goblins worship a deity very similar to Denarri and that Dwarven Clerics of Denarri who approach Goblins peacefully can expect to be treated without hostility. However, many Dwarves who do not have regular contact with Goblin tribes will tell you that this is not true, and most Dwarves believe that Goblins worship a six-armed Goblin goddess who is both evil and violent.

About Lady Renarie Inarossa, her holdings and family

Lady Renarie is a widow. She is fifty-eight years old, and has five children. Her children are (from oldest to youngest), Catheretta (her husband is Martopos), Enggio (his wife is Penelope), Sarianne (female), Thelimaea (female), and Arumio (male).

She can be described as average in both height and weight (she is 4 foot nine inches tall and weighs one hundred sixty-five ponds). She has an attractive face and thick red hair that she wears long with two small braids at her temples that she pins up above each of her ears. She has brown eyes. In public she is reserved and soft spoken, but it is rumored that in private she is domineering and has a quick temper. Her husband, Georgianno, died from injuries he sustained in an accident while helping to clear a buildup of debris on the Greenbank river two years ago.

Her home, a large farm just to the west of Corner Mill, is a collection of many buildings (and is practically a small village unto itself) and there are four families of tenant farmers working directly for her. The Fleetfoot family lives in the main house (the “villa”) with the Inarossa family and the patriarch of the Fleetfoot family is the “Kassamo” or adopted brother of Renarie (se the note on the culture of Dwarven Families).

Renarie has the King’s authority over the towns of Corner Mill and Westfork. Her holdings are approximately 27 square miles in area.
Meets and Bounds: From the western shore of the Laslo peninsula northward along the Greenbank River to the top of Signalfire Hill, from Signalfire Hill east to Thickwater Springs, from Thickwater Springs north to the foot hills below the Jack Rock Mountains then east to the headwaters of the Rolling Valley River, south along the Rolling Valley River to the east fork of the Linore River, then south to the coast.

There are several fishing villages along the southern coast of the county as well as many villages along the banks of the Manero River. Corner Mill lies at the mouth of the Greenbank where it empties into Rocky Bay and Westfork lies inland where the west fork of the Manero River joins with Thickwater creek. North and east of Westfork is a high rugged mountain range with a few abandoned mines. To the west and south of Westfork are a lower elevation range of mountains and a few mines that are in operation.

Economically, Lady Renarie’s lands are doing better than her neighbors, and most of the people under her charge are well off. However, currently the raids and random attacks by undead creatures are occurring mostly within her lands to the west of Westbank.

Do I start the game with a holy symbol or do I need to buy one? Also, how many traits do we get? I'm guessing two probably

Wow, didn't realize all this information was already in the discussion thread. I'll move my posts over to here, I'll get an Alias up tonight with the crunch in it.

Here's my Alias. Most of the crunch is up, I can finish it when I get off work in a few hours. Waiting on my second (and possibly third?) trait until I know for sure about the heirloom weapon thing.

I also realized dwarves have weapon familiarity and I was probably overreacting a bit to how essential the hammer is to the build. In the end I will let you decide Terquem.

Crunch should all be up in the profile now. The numbers to the left of the slashes are without the Eidolon 'suit'.

Let me know about the traits, and if I need to change anything.

Crunch should all be up in the profile now. The numbers to the left of the slashes are without the Eidolon 'suit'.

** spoiler omitted **

Let me know about the traits, and if I need to change anything.

Helgen: How do you create the Hide tab for spoilers? Thanks

All the formatting is at the bottom of the page under the submit post button. Where it says "How to format your text (show)" I would type it out, but then it would just create an empty spoiler box and be useless for showing you how. Hope that helps >_>'

Can we have a gameplay thread to dot so the game shows up in our campaigns tab?

All the formatting is at the bottom of the page under the submit post button. Where it says "How to format your text (show)" I would type it out, but then it would just create an empty spoiler box and be useless for showing you how. Hope that helps >_>'

Thanks, I figured it out.

There is still some work to be done on these characters, in my opinion, Halister Silverspike needs to review the gear available in the campaign description, and some other minor issues, but I think I will put up the game thread on Saturday. It looks like we have an Arcane Caster, A Cleric, A Dex based fighter, and a Rogue, a very basic party.

H. Inarossa - I would allow the heirloom weapon, as a trait, if you want to use one of your three to begin with it.

So far, unless I missed something, only Helgen has tied his character to one of the knights. Specifically he is the nephew of Lady Renarie Inarossa (the son of her eldest brother, who lives in the capital).

can I get a ruling on my build questions?

I'll have time to finish my character tomorrow night. looking forward to this game. :)

I can't think of any reason not to allow it.

Thank you. I will definitely take Heirloom Weapon as one of my traits. How much copper do I need to pay for it? The trait says I should still have to purchase the weapon.

I selected my other two traits and updated the backstory to include a line about the hammer.

Azram, I was going to go for diplomacy but saw that you had a good score and we were lacking spellcraft so I grabbed that instead. Hopefully we'll make a good team ^_^

Terquem can I get a ruling on my character. I think he is pretty much done. HP is max at level one correct, or is 1.5 at level one?

My character's background as my father is the adopted brother Lady Renarie. I saw how you incorporated my family into her background which is perfect. I made a small change in my background based on your description.

Final question before I hammer out the numbers-

My Dwarven Dervish feat basically emulates Dervish Dance which let's you finesse a scimitar.

The Scimitar is a one handed martial weapon. The battle axe is the one handed martial axe.

So, dwarvn dervish should let me finesse a battle axe.

Does that sound right to you?

Is there any info about Lord Anrollo Guises?

I'd like to flesh out info a bit and he sounds interesting.

Background and mechanical crunch finished and awaiting review.

As a note on Hal's run-in with the barrow wraith, that's me working Level Drain into his background. My idea was that he used to be higher level, possibly even renowned. Now he's been drained back to first level, has lost a lot of his former strength and combat prowess and is sort of starting over. I've decided that his entire combat style is going to stem from his thoughts while he was bed ridden, very much like how Bruce Lee developed Jeet Kun Do.

While looking through ultimate combat I saw a pair of archetypes that would work great with my concept...

What's your opinion on taking two archetypes for a class that don't clash until high level but I wouldn't be going very far into the class.

Details and crunch

Problem is the both replace the same ability at level eleven. I don't want to go too far into cavalier probably only third level but can I take both archetypes or should I only take one?

Rownig Fleetfoot - The character is done (looks done to me)

An attentavie member of the retinue of Lady Inarrosa, he looks common, and does not seem to draw attention to himself. It is not clear to strangers what sort of service he provides to the Lady or her family

Complication factor (1)This is a factor I am assigning to character builds based upon my familiarity with the Pathfinder Rules and how much you guys are taxing my simple brain, it is just a reminder for me to pay closer attention to the character when I should be.

Where you are when the game begins
You have travelled to the capital with a small retinue accompanying Lady Inarossa. When the game begins you will be sitting at a small table near a low wall overlooking the beach on the north shore of the city. A few tables away Lady Inarossa sits with Sir Henri Vessocho and Sir Anrollo Guisse, who sit alone and appear to be in a heated argument. You cannot hear what they are saying but your basic instincts tell you that Lady Inarossa and Sir Vessocho seem to be on one side of the argument against Sir Guisse.

Sitting a table one away from you is a young dwarf by the name of Helgen Inarossa. You don't know him and he did not travel with the rest of the retinue. You have been told to keep an eye on him. He was invited to the dinner the night before with a relative of the Lady. So far there is nothing interesting or remarkable about this Dwarf, other than he is always accompanied by some sort of summoned being that vaguely resembles an ancestral Dwarven warrior. You have heard about such things, but have not seen one before. It is a bit unsettling, but does not give you any reason to worry.

Azram Diamond-Hammer – This character needs a little more work. I do not see if there has been a choice made as to which Knight this cleric is attached to, but I may have overlooked it. Your Ability Scores look a bit off to me, by about -7 points; can you take a look at that for me? You are allowed an additional trait (3 to start the campaign with). Otherwise this character looks good.

Complication Factor (1)

Hallister Silverspike – This character has a few complicated issues (and although I really like the concept, we are taking a few liberties with the rules, never a problem for me, but it does jack up my responsibilities to pay attention). It looks like your Ability Scores are a bit off, take a look at them again, please (your Charisma should be 8, unless you spent 2 points to start with a Charisma of 12, but then you would be one point over budget, unless I missed something). Your starting gear is a bit off. Mafolin is perhaps not the best choice for a Patron Deity, sort of the "Dark" side of the afterlife, but Freeda Songwind would be more appropriate.

Complication Factor (7) – Okay one thing to keep in mind. The Dervish Dance ability isn’t really a Feat, it is a Class Feature of a particular Bard Build. And it is a bit more complicated because there is room to argue that the Dervish path allows the character to substitute familiarity with the scimitar for the rapier, but doesn’t specifically say that this includes the rapiers inclusion as a weapon that can be finessed (is that even a word?). BUT I really like the idea. So in the hope of not creating a train wreck, I am going to say that there is a new Combat Feat called, Weapon Balance Master (Requires Weapon Finesse, Dex 13) – You can treat any one handed Martial Weapon as a light weapon as long as you carry nothing in your off hand (you may still strap an item such as a buckler to the arm of your off hand) – How does that sound? (You will need to give up the Iron Will Feat.

Otherwise I think the character is ready to begin

Where you are when the game begins
You have travelled to the capitol with the retinue of Sir Vessocho, or Sir Henri as he prefers to be called. His retinue is much smaller than the retinue of the other two knights, and for good reason. His lands were the most recent to see an attack by an undead mob and he has left most of his able bodied soldiers behind. Sir Henri is determined to fulfill his obligation to his King, but is not certain he knows the right path at this time.

You are sitting at a table near a stone stairway leading down to the beach at an outdoor tavern/restaurant. There are many other people sitting around you. The Knights sit at a table across the open restaurant grounds and you are sure they are arguing. It is unclear what they are arguing about. Other members of the retinue are sitting with you and they include people you know, but do not normally spend time with. Since your “accident” your duties have been to provide training to young Dwarves of the families of Dwarves living near a mill in the town of Three Willows.

Helgen Inarossa – This character is close to complete, but I think you are off by one in your Ability Score point buy allocation. Could you please review it and tell me if I missed something? You do not need to spend money on the Heirloom Weapon.

Complication Factor (5) – I don’t see anything out of the ordinary, but it is a class I am not familiar with. I am having trouble finding the Heirloom Weapon and Militant Merchant Trait. I would like to know more about how you intend to use the Hammer, it sounds interesting to me.

Where you are when the game begins
You were allowed to accompany your family to the dinner held at the palace, but you do not know what is going on or why the King was asking for a report from three of the knights. You have heard that a large number of Dwarves, all members of the retinues of these three knights, is gathered at a restaurant you know well, the “Ocean Bell”, and you have gone there against the will of your father who has told you to “stay out of your kin’s business”.

You father speaks well of his sister, Renarie, but is reluctant to show too much support for her cause as it may mean that he must find a way to funnel money to her, and this is something he would rather not do as he believes she is well off and he does not know (neither do you) that her lands are being threatened. You sit at a table, alone, and dine absentmindedly, on a few broiled shrimp and tomatoes, and overhear many discussions about the troubles on the south side of the island. You know who your Aunt is, and she is arguing with two other Dwarves, about what, you do not know.

I should have asked this before but does Rownig begin with a simple set of locksmith tools? If not, that is fine and I'm sure I will be looking for them.

As far as you complicating factors, I don't intend to do anything overly taxing since this is my first play by post game.

No, not right at the start, but should be available right away. There are a few ways the story can go, right from the begining, so let's wait and see. The game thread will be up in the next two days, I hope.

No, not right at the start, but should be available right away. There are a few ways the story can go, right from the begining, so let's wait and see. The game thread will be up in the next two days, I hope.

No problem. Looking forward to the game thread

Heirloom Weapon I'm choosing the proficiency option.

Militant Merchant I just noticed this was converted from a 3.5 pathfinder book, hope that's okay.

As for the stats, they are correct for an 18 point buy.
Str 7 (-4)
Dex 8 (-2)
Con 16 (10, +2 racial)
Int 11 (1)
Wis 7 (-4, +2 racial)
Cha 16 (17, -2 racial)

I intend to use the hammer to kill things what need killin' ^^

Whoops! Listed my Charisma wrong in the above post, it should be:
Cha 18 (17, -2 racial)

Yes I see where I missed the Wisdom drop and Race bonus. It's all good.

Okay details are all done. Let me know if I missed anything you want.

Fixed my stats. As for the knight, he was just accepted into lady innarosa's court as a assistant priest

character stuff

You're absolutely right about my Charisma. Edited. Thanks for the catch.

I must have missed Freeda Songwind in the list of deities. I'll take a look.

As for Dervish Dance, as you can see, it is a feat. Because of it's prerequisite of 2 ranks Perform: Dance (which I hope to change to something a little less silly, like Acrobatics or something) the feat isn't meant to be taken before 2nd level.

That means for all of first level I'll be a really sub-par fighter.

I'm fine with that. It completely fits with the character concept. He'll basically spend 1st level recovering and working on developing this "new style".

I've looked over the deities again. Can you give me a little more info about the death-themed ones?

Here is a bit of a wrap on the current issues, the next thing to finish is the introduction to the game thread itself. I do hope that it lives up to your expectations.

Azram Diamond-Hammer

Where you are when the game begins

You are standing by a short wall overlooking the beach. Near you are several tables of an outdoor restaurant, and you are closest to a table where Rownig Fleetfoot sits. You do not know Rownig, but you know he has been in the Lady’s service for longer than you have. Across the restaurant the Lady sits with two other knights, you don’t know them, but the three are engaged in a heated debate. Although you are in the service of Lady Inarossa, you are also a servant of the temple at Corner Mill. The temple is managed by Priestess Daphaellia Vulskova, and she has asked you to be a good example of the temple, fulfill your duties, and be respectful of the needs of Lady Inarossa.

Mazrim Deacon – This character is ready to go.

Complication Factor (5)

Where you are when the game begins

You sit at a table with other members of the retinue of Sir Guisse at a restaurant that overlooks the beach. Your table is quiet, and even though you can imagine everyone is thinking the same thing, none of you will speak your concerns. Close by Sir Guisse argues with Lady Inarossa and Sir Henri. You can hear bits of the argument, particularly when Sir Guisse raises his voice, for you are familiar with the sound of his elevated ranting. Sir Guisse believes that the three of them should approach the King as a group, express that they are not prepared to pay to outfit a rescue party, and ask the King to elevate one of the three of them to the title of Baron, and thus give that individual authority over some of the Kings men. Naturally he believes he should be made Baron and put in charge of the all the lands shared by the Knights. Sir Henri and the Lady Inarossa disagree and it is hard to hear what their counter proposals are.
Sir Guisse is ambitious, and that worries all of the people under his command. He is loyal, and his loyalty has never been questioned, but his lands are particularly underworked and his people underfeed. Many of the people under his charge wonder if he is letting his ambition blind him to the needs of the people he is responsible to protect. So far there have been no events related to the undead in his lands, but with the stories coming from the south and west, it feels like it is only a matter of time.

The concept of Death to the Dwarven people

As was discussed, briefly, in the recruitment thread, “Death” is not personified as a deity in the Dwarven pantheon (and is not generally represented as a deity in the pantheons of other races).

Like many of the races of this part of the world of Riom, Death is spoken of as a broader overarching concept and referred to as “Karuk” (in the Dwarven language, but it is know by other words in other languages).

Karuk means finality or also the “inescapable natures of the way things end”. Karuk is how all things end, whether this is in reference to life, or some other thing, Karuk is often used as the word to describe the finality of things.

Each culture will have deities who are associated with the afterlife, and the belief in how souls are transferred to the afterlife. Some cultures describe these deities as “Hands of Death” or specifically, in the Dwarven culture, “Hands of Karuk”, and these figures can be both good and evil aligned depending upon the destination of the soul in the outer planes.

The Dwarven people believe that Freeda Songwind is the goddess who sings souls to the heavens (good aligned outer planes). She is not generally worshipped on her own, but as a part of a pair of deities:

Praggul Strongfist and Freeda Songwind

He is seen as a god of war and she as a warrior woman who sings soldiers into the highest halls of heaven.

These two deities are representative of the “older” pantheon and are symbolic of the more war-like past of the Dwarven race.

Both Praggul and Freeda are part of an older tradition, and generally speaking the Empire does not have a “modern” incarnation of the goddess. The Empire has tried to encourage a separation from older, more warlike, traditions, but the belief in these two gods is very strong and it has been decided, by the Emperors of the past few generations, that it is better to leave this issue alone, rather than make a concerted effort to change the traditions (unlike the efforts to change from worship of Ismaea to Danarri).

Freeda is represented in iconography as a matronly Dwarven female, aged but still beautiful, with long flowing silver or white hair. Her face is serene. She wears a suit of armor and often is depicted wearing a winged helmet. She carries a staff in one hand, wound with the branches of an olive tree, and a lyre in the other. Her songs are long and melodic and tell of the good deeds of the departed. Although she is not worshiped regularly with festivals or feasts, she is invoked during funerals, and it is usually a unique privilege to have a singer present who can sing one of the Songs of the Dwarven Ancestors (and this Dwarf may or may not actually be a Cleric of Freeda Songwind).

On the other hand most dwarves whisper the name of Mafolin Ramorra (The Helmsman of Karuk (death), as he is known to sailors, or simply the Hand of Karuk to common folk). Common Dwarves do not know, or will not speak of, the existence of clerics or temples dedicated to this deity. When he is spoken of it is in fear, as most Dwarves believe he is a dark cloaked and disfigured Dwarf who wrestles souls to the afterlife who are destined for the evil outer planes because of their deeds. Common folk will also make a sign when speaking his name to ward off the evil eye (they would prefer not to be under his gaze). He is seen as a deity who brings bad luck to Dwarves who lie, cheat, steal, or disgrace their ancestors.

As the concept of Finality, would it be culturally reasonable that far in the past there might have been a sect of dwarven warriors who dedicated themselves to the idea of Karuk, training to destroy things that unnaturally escaped their own end?

It may be that this group would not have an official deity (not wanting to dishonor them with their dirty work and high chance of failure), but instead gave more distant worship to the entire pantheon?

My original concept was of a group that followed the ideals of a god that made people uncomfortable, but in a way anyone would agree was necessary. Karuk might not be a god, but it certainly fits that description best.

If not that, then it seems to me like Malfolin is still the best deity, as Hallister's sect is basically going after creatures that manage to escape his grasp. They might not really worship him, but they recognize that their purpose is to be an extension of his grip.

Your idea is great. I love it! But particularly the idea that they are not "officially" in the public sphere, dedicated to any sort of "God of Death" but secretly that have a sworn oath to see to it that Karuk is not defied in any way. If you want to, and you don't mind, work up the details of this sect and I will incorporate it into the campaign. It may be that this sect actually has it origins on Karrita Morianna, and deep in their shrouded mysterious past are some secrets about the nature of the Palace of the Vampire Queen itself. Your character, though experienced in this sort of work, is still a novice in the sect, and does not, yet, have access to these secrets, but he may know who to go find to ask questions of, if certain things should come to light.

Awesome idea.

Terquem, I'm not sure if you saw a quesiton that I had regarding the starting hit points a few days ago. Do we start max for class at 1st level or is a 1.5 at first level. Thanks

Start at max for first level, sorry I missed that. And by the way, nice opening.

Thought I would get the converrsation going. I did an edit and inserted a request to you the DM to do a perception skill check.

Terq, I've added the order info beneath my character description. Please let me know what you think.