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Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest

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Absylon Quilby said:
Haven't paid attention to discussion in a while, where did the limit on uses of a hex per day come from? Additionally, as a pre-planning measure for Zaia, I want to make sure that for second level extracts alchemical allocation is at least discussed. Granted it's less amazing in a world where caster levels do not get very high, but it still turns renewable resources (spell slots) into consumable resources (potions).
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Like myrix mentioned, limiting the number of times a specific Hex can be used daily was something DP and I came up with to factor in this world's lower magic and how endless Hexes could be overpowered if not limited in some way. They're not really that limited, though, since Inge can still use them pretty often.

Yeah, I want that one for Zaia, too. It's a nice resource management tool. I didn't include it in my plan because he can learn it when he actually levels up to 4th level and learns a 2nd level Formulae, plus I wanted to check with DP to see if he was going to allow it and the Full Pouch spell. They're both 2nd level spells that allow awesome resource shenanigans.
myrix said:
@Goldfish, maybe add a note to Inge's Healing Hex description, like this:
  • Healing (27/Day; [Witch Level x INT bonus] x 3**)
Also in her Conduit Surge:

1d4-1 levels
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Note added and corrections made. Thanks!

I had noticed the issue with Conduit Surge a couple weeks back, but forgot about it in the meantime. :oops:
Artemis1992 said:
Are you sure it works like that?
I assumed the Tanglefoot Bombs had the Tanglefoot effect instead of the damage, not in addition to it.
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Nope, they stack with the bomb's damage. If a Discovery modifies a bomb to where it won't do damage, it specifically says so in the text, like in the case with Dispelling Bombs.
Arhin said:
All other changes seems like a logical development of character (loss knowledge due to other world, no longer Helpless), but this seems as very sharp turn. Maybe save Improvisional Healer for now and swap it at the next level up?
Although if DragonParadox does not object, I a fortiori do not have a right to do so.

So big amount of formulae seems almost like too good to be true!
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Like Artemis said, Improvisational Healer is something Zaia picked up shortly after coming to this world. The way I look at it, the feat was a quasi-magical ability to make healing potions more effective, but now it has further evolved into an ability to make his own healing potions.
 
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@DragonParadox, will Zaia be able to learn and use the Alchemical Allocation and Full Pouch Extracts? The first lets him drink a potion without consuming it and the second lets him duplicate certain Alchemical items, with each effect instead costing a 2nd level extract slot.

Neither effect is overwhelmingly powerful, but they are still really strong for the setting.
 
Goldfish said:
@DragonParadox, will Zaia be able to learn and use the Alchemical Allocation and Full Pouch Extracts? The first lets him drink a potion without consuming it and the second lets him duplicate certain Alchemical items, with each effect instead costing a 2nd level extract slot.

Neither effect is overwhelmingly powerful, but they are still really strong for the setting.
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I am gong to say no on those, they do not really fit the fluff of how I have alchemy work and as you said they are a bit strong for the setting.
 
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Arc 8 Post 37: Writ in Flame
  • Threadmarks
    • Writ in Flame ​

    Seventh Day of Ashinu-hamba (Ashinu Descendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

    "Sheathe it in the flame..." the voice is clear and sharp in your mind, like the hiss of sourceless fire. Something holds you back, a warning you got as a boy from the blacksmith at Verley. 'Never set a sword to fire least you are a smith, t'would be like a green boy trying to blood it.' A moment taken, a breath let go... and so you do, the mists turn back and for an instant you can see the tongues of flame fully rising from the waters of the pool in defiance of all natural ordering. Phantom heat courses up your arm, just short of pain, a flash of fear turned back and then you draw your sword back.

    Mist trails it in strange coils, clinging to its edge. You look again to where the Serpent of Flame coils and the question falls from your tongue almost without meaning to. "May I...?"

    "Yes," it hisses and that is all the encouragement you need to turn the blade and strike the wall of the chamber where the water had worn a groove into it.

    The mist flashes to white flame in an instant and the stone parts, though only a little, not even enough to shift your footing. If that had been flesh and blood and not unfeeling stone you would be looking at a corpse now.

    This blade has earned a name if any did.

    [] Write in a name for your new sword

    ***​

    The others have to wait a while for their own gifts, though not near as much as any mortal craftsmen would take in the making of such things... if mortal craft were even capable of it. For Esha there is a staff that seems at first to be wrought of ebony capped with red copper, though as you take a closer look you see the wood is in truth black obsidian polished into false semblance with veins of copper flowing through it in the shape of strange runes. "I would demonstrate it, but there is only so much magic in it and I have not yet learned how to restore it once it has been spent," she says with a smile that recalls your own test.

    Your own thought does not linger on the teasing, but on the conversation of precisely what magic is and how it is made manifest on the world. "Restore?"

    "Worry not, my soul is safe... safe as it has ever been. This is a work of masterful craft to allow one to weave spells into its substance with no more effort than one would take in casting them freely, and as for letting them loose... well I wager I could teach you to do it."

    "That is alright my lady, I shall keep to the sword," you chuckle.

    The other things brought from the depths of the hill that evening are far heavier and more ungainly. First there is a cauldron of bronze adorned about its rim with a serpent swallowing its tail, which warms and cools at words of arcane power. Surely it would be impossible to tear Zaia from it... had it not been for the fourth and final gift of the living flame.

    A plinth of back stone stands in the middle of the clearing at the center of the village. Seven sided, with a base about three feet wide and nine feet tall, you do not think anything other than the mammoth of the Wyrdoki chief will be able to carry it comfortably. Though there is no sign of magic upon it according to Esha the swirls of writing that twist 'round and 'round it hold the secrets of transmutation, or at least such of those secrets as the spirit possesses and could share with a mortal without harm.

    "D'you think he will get any sleep tonight?" Antonio asks, coming to sit beside you on the long flat stone that serves as a sort of simple bench worn down by countless Danuk before you.

    "Maybe if Esha casts the spell on him... maybe." you answer, managing to keep a straight face, if barely. "Do you regret not asking for something of your own?"

    "Ah, there is more to treasure than what you can weigh in your hands, oftentimes it is what you know, who you know and I think a few words from that one, carried up here," he taps his temple. "Will be worth quite a lot in the long run." For a long moment there is silence, then Antonio's expression darkens. "Hopefully this works better than the last time I went looking for local contacts. I fucked up with Ulk, could have gotten all of us killed..."

    How do you reply?

    [] Point out that he was not the only one the daemon fooled, none of the rest of you had recognized it until it had been ready to act

    [] Remind him that you are all strangers in a strange world, it is no more reasonable to expect him to spot a daemon than it is for you to know how to fight a lion

    [] Write in

    OOC: Not the most exciting update to start the year on, but hopefully an interesting one just the same.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • I am really bad at naming stuff.

    /still thinking about it

    [X] Brightrazor
    [X] Dawn's Edge
    [X] Ember's Edge

    Artemis' suggestion seems quite fitting to me.

    [X] Durendal

    [X] Point out that he was not the only one the daemon fooled, none of the rest of you had recognized it until it had been ready to act
     
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    [ ] Sting
    [ ] Point out that he was not the only one the daemon fooled, none of the rest of you had recognized it until it had been ready to act

    I want that Tolkien reference very much! :evil:
     
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    [X] Durendal

    [X] Point out that he was not the only one the daemon fooled, none of the rest of you had recognized it until it had been ready to act
     
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    [X] Sting

    [X] Point out that he was not the only one the daemon fooled, none of the rest of you had recognized it until it had been ready to act
    -[X] This creature did not manage to kill anyone. And what would have happened if it remained in Apuku? Imagine what would happen if it corrupted, for example, king Ansefu? It all ended for the better.
    -[X] What do you think, my friend, was it unlucky accident, or did someone in Apuku plot for you to hire Ulk?

    Maybe Antonio is too neutral for this argument, but something like that seems to me IC for Roland.
     
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    Unfortunatly Dawnfire is already trademarked.

    I'd like to call it Peacemaker, as that is what the blade has been used for here. But that sounds too gun-like.

    So I'd go into history. Durendal, the blade of Roland from the Song of Roland, the sharpest of swords, which has various possible etymologies, among them Blinding Blade or Strong Flame, very fitting here.
    Also not to high-strung I think, since Keen makes it a pretty high-end weapon for the low leveled world.

    [X] Durendal

    [X] Point out that he was not the only one the daemon fooled, none of the rest of you had recognized it until it had been ready to act
     
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    [X] Durendal

    [X] Point out that he was not the only one the daemon fooled, none of the rest of you had recognized it until it had been ready to act
     
    [X] Durendal

    [X] Point out that he was not the only one the daemon fooled, none of the rest of you had recognized it until it had been ready to act
     
    @DragonParadox, editing:
    Writ in Flame ​

    Seventh Day of Ashinu-hamba (Ashinu Descendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

    "Sheathe it in the flame..." the voice is clear and sharp in your mind, like the hiss of sourceless fire. Something holds you back, a warning you got as a boy from the blacksmith at Verley. 'Never set a sword to fire least you are a smith, t'would be like a green boy trying to blood it.' A moment taken, a breath let go... and so you do, the mists turn back and for an instant you can see the tongues of flame fully rising from the waters of the pool in defiance of all natural ordering. Phantom heat courses up your arm, just short of pain, a flash of fear turned back and then you draw your sword back.

    Mist trails it in strange coils, clinging to its edge. You look again to where the Serpent of Flame coils and the question falls from your tongue almost without meaning to. "May I...?"

    "Yes," it hisses and that is all the encouragement you need to turn the blade and strike the wall of the chamber where the water had worn a groove into it.

    The mist flashes to white flame in an instant and the stone parts, though only a little, not even enough to shift your footing. If that had been flesh and blood and not unfeeling stone you would be looking at a corpse now.

    This blade has earned a name if any did.

    [] Write in a name for your new sword

    ***​

    The others have to wait a while for their own gifts, though not near as much as any mortal craftsmen would take in the making of such things... if mortal craft were even capable of it. For Esha there is a staff that seems at first to be wrought of ebony capped with red copper, though as you take a closer look you see the wood is in truth black obsidian polished into false semblance with veins of copper flowing through it in the shape of strange runes. "I would demonstrate it, but there is only so much magic in it and I have not yet learned how to restore it once it has been spent," she says with a smile that recalls your own test.

    Your own thought does not linger on the teasing, but on the conversation of precisely what magic is and how it is made manifest on the world. "Restore?"

    "Worry not, my soul is safe... safe as it has ever been. This is a work of masterful craft to allow one to weave spells into its substance with no more effort than one would take in casting them freely, and as for letting them loose... well I wager I could teach you to do it."

    "That is alright my lady, I shall keep to the sword," you chuckle.

    The other things brought from the depths of the hill that evening are far heavier and more ungainly. First there is a cauldron of bronze adorned about its rim with a serpent swallowing its tail, which warms and cools at words of arcane power. Surely it would be impossible to tear Zaia from it... had it not been for the fourth and final gift of the living flame.

    A plinth of back stone stands in the middle of the clearing at the center of the village. Seven sided, with a base about three feet wide and nine feet tall, you do not think anything other than the mammoth of the Wyrdoki chief will be able to carry it comfortably. Though there is no sign of magic upon it according to Esha the swirls of writing that twist 'round and 'round it hold the secrets of transmutation, or at least such of those secrets as the spirit possesses and could share with a mortal without harm.

    "D'you think he will get any sleep tonight?" Antonio asks, coming to sit beside you on the long flat stone that serves as a sort of simple bench worn down by countless Danuk before you.

    "Maybe if Esha casts the spell on him... maybe." you answer, managing to keep a straight face, if barely. "Do you regret not asking for something of your own?"

    "Ah, there is more to treasure than what you can weigh in your hands, oftentimes it is what you know, who you know and I think a few words from that one, carried up here," he taps his temple. "Will be worth quite a lot in the long run." For a long moment there is silence, then Antonio's expression darkens. "Hopefully this works better than the last time I went looking for local contacts. I fucked up with Ulk, could have gotten all of us killed..."

    How do you reply?

    [] Point out that he was not the only one the daemon fooled, none of the rest of you had recognized it until it had been ready to act

    [] Remind him that you are all strangers in a strange world, it is no more reasonable to expect him to spot a daemon than it is for you to know how to fight a lion

    [] Write in

    OOC: Not the most exciting update to start the year on, but hopefully an interesting one just the same.
     
    [X] Durendal

    [X] Point out that he was not the only one the daemon fooled, none of the rest of you had recognized it until it had been ready to act
    -[X] This creature did not manage to kill anyone. And what would have happened if it remained in Apuku? Imagine what would happen if it corrupted, for example, king Ansefu? It all ended for the better.
    -[X] What do you think, my friend, was it unlucky accident, or did someone in Apuku plot for you to hire Ulk?

    Hey guys, why not ask Antonio about the hiring of Ulk? As DP said,
    DragonParadox said:
    You can ask him, how useful that information is is hard to say without investigation
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    it won't get us something immediately, but what's the harm in asking? we are not losing anything for it.

    We have daemons who recognized us as fateless and wanted to get rid of us controlling Korman, we have other threats targeting us, like divination about the big bad had shown, and somebody sicced the group of Knikut on us when we fought the dragon, why not check if Ulk getting to us was part of something greater?
     
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    [X] Durendal

    [X] Point out that he was not the only one the daemon fooled, none of the rest of you had recognized it until it had been ready to act
    -[X] This creature did not manage to kill anyone. And what would have happened if it remained in Apuku? Imagine what would happen if it corrupted, for example, king Ansefu? It all ended for the better.
    -[X] What do you think, my friend, was it unlucky accident, or did someone in Apuku plot for you to hire Ulk?
     
    I started speculating if there was some plot in Lirman/Apuku also, and remembered when we met boar-people sacrificing Iranea man, and look at this:
    DragonParadox said:
    The eyes that turn upon you with shock are bright blue, but hallowed by a corona of blood red, as though he had not slept for days. His face is pale and not in that natural manner than might show merely an aversion to the sun, but yellowing like old parchment and somehow... thin, as though there was something beneath waiting to burst forth. From some forgotten corner of your childhood rises the memory of watching a overstuffed caterpillar twitch and writhe only to burst forth into a mess of innards and a gleaming black wasp.

    "Who are you, what do you want?" the man calls, imperiously, his voice all the more unsettling for being smooth, almost melodious
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    Does it not raise suspicion? "something beneath waiting to burst forth"? "smooth, almost melodious" voice? Who knows, maybe there is something bad happening inside Iranea clan and maybe Ulk getting to be hired by us is connected to it.

    We really need to ask Antonio of his thoughts about possibility of Ulk being pointed to us.
     
    myrix said:
    I started speculating if there was some plot in Lirman/Apuku also, and remembered when we met boar-people sacrificing Iranea man, and look at this:

    Does it not raise suspicion? "something beneath waiting to burst forth"? "smooth, almost melodious" voice? Who knows, maybe there is something bad happening inside Iranea clan and maybe Ulk getting to be hired by us is connected to it.

    We really need to ask Antonio of his thoughts about possibility of Ulk being pointed to us.
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    I just assumed he was old and wrinkly, but looking at it again through the lens of recent experiences, the language DP used their is suggestive of something more disturbing. I hope that isn't the case, though, as it paints a grim picture for Apuku. I don't think he was like Ulk, if only because he didn't try to kill us. IIRC, we only had them slightly outnumbers there, and a Daemon could have easily swung things against us.

    As for his voice, wasn't there some speculation that he was a Bard of some sort?
     
    Goldfish said:
    I just assumed he was old and wrinkly, but looking at it again through the lens of recent experiences, the language DP used their is suggestive of something more disturbing. I hope that isn't the case, though, as it paints a grim picture for Apuku. I don't think he was like Ulk, if only because he didn't try to kill us. IIRC, we only had them slightly outnumbers there, and a Daemon could have easily swung things against us.

    As for his voice, wasn't there some speculation that he was a Bard of some sort?
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    Oh yeah, it would be much better if there were no direct threats in our only one more or less friendly port at Anwa islands and it would be just your run of the mill blood sacrifice bad magic.

    And yeah, he used his voice and drum to control the boar people.

    @Arhin, there is still some difference between your Antonio vote and our, mine and Goldfish's, vote, could you edit yours by copying Goldfish's so that it's counted as the same one in the tally?
     
    [X] Durendal

    [X] Point out that he was not the only one the daemon fooled, none of the rest of you had recognized it until it had been ready to act
    -[X] This creature did not manage to kill anyone. And what would have happened if it remained in Apuku? Imagine what would happen if it corrupted, for example, king Ansefu? It all ended for the better.
    -[X] What do you think, my friend, was it unlucky accident, or did someone in Apuku plot for you to hire Ulk?
     
    @DragonParadox, what does Esha think of condition of Almun Iranea, any possible causes of such a condition, possible uses for boar-folk he was rounding up, any possible connections between condition, its causes and boar-folk uses? Maybe she has other thoughts to offer on the encounter?

    If it possible for Roland to somehow show his memories of the encounter to her directly, maybe through some combination of Soulrider, joint meditation and Mindlink, or help from otter-kin, if she is willing, to achieve better fidelity than just verbal description, it should be done.

    If Roland can get opinion of Moru and Tender, he should also do it.
     
    myrix said:
    @DragonParadox, what does Esha think of condition of Almun Iranea, any possible causes of such a condition, possible uses for boar-folk he was rounding up, any possible connections between condition, its causes and boar-folk uses? Maybe she has other thoughts to offer on the encounter?

    If it possible for Roland to somehow show his memories of the encounter to her directly, maybe through some combination of Soulrider, joint meditation and Mindlink, or help from otter-kin, if she is willing, to achieve better fidelity than just verbal description, it should be done.

    If Roland can get opinion of Moru and Tender, he should also do it.
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    No you guys cannot show memories with present means.

    As for that she thinks of him 'magic often comes at a price, what that price may have been for him I do not know.'
     
    Vote closed
    Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Jan 1, 2022 at 10:00 AM, finished with 19 posts and 8 votes.
    • [X] Durendal
      [X] Point out that he was not the only one the daemon fooled, none of the rest of you had recognized it until it had been ready to act
      -[X] This creature did not manage to kill anyone. And what would have happened if it remained in Apuku? Imagine what would happen if it corrupted, for example, king Ansefu? It all ended for the better.
      -[X] What do you think, my friend, was it unlucky accident, or did someone in Apuku plot for you to hire Ulk?
      [X] Point out that he was not the only one the daemon fooled, none of the rest of you had recognized it until it had been ready to act
      [X] Dreamchaser
      [X] Sting
    Click to expand...
     
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