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

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[X] Warn others and talk things out.
-[X] Invite everybody of note and knowledge, Antonio, Zaia, Inge, Esha, Tender, Moru, Ziku, Silver if possible.
-[X] There are some things you should know, if you don't know already. And if you have any thoughts on all of this, please share.
-[X] We are being targeted, and by associating with us you can be targeted too, so be aware.
--[X] Some group, "secret, in woven shadows hidden true", as the fey's spirit we questioned in a temple of Ikomi, put it, promised rewards to fey on Lirman to hunt us when we've arrived on the Island.
--[X] We were targeted by the invisible foe while sailing from Orinulu, and later we managed to receive a divination that this foe was man in black guise and black of heart, a killer though he did not come to kill, who was here at the behest of another, one who means ill not just to this ship and all upon it but to the world entire.
--[X] After the battle with the dragon we vanquished, somebody sicced a band of Knikut on us, somebody powerful enough to have means to contact them from afar.
-[X] There are worrying global developments we are aware of.
--[X] During our clash with Neverborn on Korman we received warnings from Luaza, foremost Ikomi priestess of Anwa and the grandmother of the king of Korman, against the coming peril, the great storm rippling veil between worlds and driving shadows before it, bringing dark times ahead, only likely to grow darker before the light comes out of the east.
--[X] She told us that two and a half seasons ago, at the start of the year, something very wrong happened, something from beyond the borders of this world broke in, something that breaks that which is held sacred, vows of fellowship and faith, tangling the threads of fate to its own ends and binding in that net souls great and small.
--[X] Just as the king, Luaza was killed by the treachery of the Neverborn, and we couldn't get further to the heart of the matter with her.
--[X] We also received information about worrying developments in Oromo of the Thousand Towers, which may be connected to the Neverborn troubles we see everywhere, on Korman, in the White Lands and in people like Ulk.
-[X] After the battle with the dreaming dragon it prophesized ruin for us, and it didn't look like it was just spiteful cursing of the dying foe.
-[X] Can this all be connected, in part or in full?
-[X] If Moru and Ziku are interested in the dragon, show them the dead egg, the golden sheet and tell them of our investigation in the Willowbrook.

[X] Inge, the girl has been showing more and more reckless courage these past few weeks and while you are proud of her you worry just the same

[X] Tom, over the past season he has grown to be more than just the head of your men at arms, yet both of you act around the other as though you were still on a journey with Verley and its fields at the end. The men follow you by their vows, perhaps it is time to establish more formal pay
 
A point on pirates.

The last ones swore that the brother of the guy we killed would avenge them.
If we sail straight to Orinilu it seems unlikely that anyone could find us on the open sea, but if we stop in Apuku first, the Anwa-pirate might hear of our journey and catch us...

Of course. The Anwa are full of arseholes. I wonder how much of a fleet could they actually gather to go against us in short notice. I mean, they had two longships for his brother, so how many can we assume for the chief?

Will the Marcella be hungry when we meet them?
 
Of course. The Anwa are full of arseholes. I wonder how much of a fleet could they actually gather to go against us in short notice. I mean, they had two longships for his brother, so how many can we assume for the chief?
We don't know?

I mean, he could try to bring as much of his clan as he can get, or he can play it the Euron way and be one man with his loyal and skilled crew one a single ship, raiding the world.
 
Another corrections.

it is not as thought your twenty swords would make much difference in the battles of kings and princes.
Fifteen swords.

his voice echoes down into your bones as though the stones of the hall themselves had come alive and the air is filled with fitful echoes. Yet in the end he goes still as suddenly as he had started and shakes his head abruptly.

The spirit walker gives no answer then and returns to his plate, though from that moment on his eyes follow Zaia often. It is no surprise that later than night the doctor confides in you that he had agreed to teach him something of magic and spirits.
Tender is "she".
 
I kinda hope the Wyrdoki and Danuk either wrote down their shamanic teachings at some point, or the Fire Spirit is willing and able to teach new shamans.
As far as I can tell there is not one shaman or even apprentice alive and uncorrupted among them.

It would really suck if their magical traditions died out completly due to daemonic plots.
 
Good night guys, see you tomorrow with more insights into your companions on the journey south as well as me finally getting off my ass and making a proper system for making alchemy now that you have so many people who can do it.
 
Good night guys, see you tomorrow with more insights into your companions on the journey south as well as me finally getting off my ass and making a proper system for making alchemy now that you have so many people who can do it.
The Crafting rules are pretty straight forward when you're just making stuff in small quantities instead of trying to mass produce stuff like we did in ASWAH. Item material cost is easy to figure out, too. Just divide the selling price by 3, so a Tanglefoot Bag that regularly sells for 50 gold would cost us 16.67 gold (16 gold, 6 silver, and 7 copper) to create.

To make it even simpler, though, removing most of the math, I think you should just determine what Alchemical stuff they can currently create, semi-regularly adding one or two things to it to represent breakthroughs as they gain experience. If their Craft (Alchemy) bonus meets or exceeds the Craft DC of the item we select for each of them to create, after a week of work, they automatically succeed in creating that item. If the bonus doesn't exceed it, make a Craft check. If it succeeds, great, item created, if not, depending on how badly the check fails, they can either continue working on it into the next week (failing by 4 or less means no progress, but no loss of materials, while failing by 5 or more means no progress and half the materials are ruined).

With the new cauldron (+5 Competence bonus), our Masterwork Alchemy tools looted from Ipsit (+2 Circumstance bonus), and liberal applications of Zaia's new Crafter's Fortune extract (+5 Luck bonus), Zaia has a +27 Craft (Alchemy) bonus and Inge's is +26. So anything with a Craft DC of 25 or less could be an auto-succeed.

I don't think it's too much of a limit if it takes a week to produce stand alone items, like Tanglefoot Bags, Thunderstones, or Smokesticks, but maybe for liquids that can be brewed up in larger batches, like Antitoxin or Antiplague, 5 or 10 could be created at once then decanted into single dose vials once they're ready? No need to do fractional day-by-day Crafting, that just makes things needlessly complicated, IMO.
 
With the new cauldron (+5 Competence bonus), our Masterwork Alchemy tools looted from Ipsit (+2 Circumstance bonus), and liberal applications of Zaia's new Crafter's Fortune extract (+5 Luck bonus), Zaia has a +27 Craft (Alchemy) bonus and Inge's is +26. So anything with a Craft DC of 25 or less could be an auto-succeed.
There is no reason why Inge shouldn't always use Fortune Hex when she or Zaia are brewing something, and it should greatly increase crafting check success rates and greately decrease material loss rates for high DC craftings. Like if they need to roll 5, success rate would be 24/25 = 96%, no chance of material loss; if they need to roll 10, success rate would be 319/400 = 79.75% with 15/16 = 93.75% chance of no material loss, if my math is right.
 
There is no reason why Inge shouldn't always use Fortune Hex when she or Zaia are brewing something, and it should greatly increase crafting check success rates and greately decrease material loss rates for high DC craftings. Like if they need to roll 5, success rate would be 24/25 = 96%, no chance of material loss; if they need to roll 10, success rate would be 319/400 = 79.75% with 15/16 = 93.75% chance of no material loss, if my math is right.
I'm not sure if Fortune will be applicable for Crafting, since it only lasts one round, unless @DragonParadox maybe allows it to apply as part of the initial mixing or final decanting?
 
I'm not sure if Fortune will be applicable for Crafting, since it only lasts one round, unless @DragonParadox maybe allows it to apply as part of the initial mixing or final decanting?
Yeah, that might be a case, didn't consider that.

@DragonParadox, and separate but related question, can Inge apply her Guiding Spirit to Crafting?

@Goldfish, Tears to Wine give +2 enhancement bonus for INT and WIS checks, with it Zaia and Inge have +29 and +28 bonus respectively. Zaia should just mainline the stuff, drinking it constantly. I also just noticed that there is a Signature Skill feat, at 5 skill ranks it will double the crafting progress rate, maybe something to consider for the future?
 
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DP: I'm going to run a low-magic E6 setting so things don't get out of hand :smile:

DP's players: we're going to hit +30 skill bonuses before level 6 :V
 
Yeah, that might be a case, didn't consider that.

@DragonParadox, and separate but related question, can Inge apply her Guiding Spirit to Crafting?

@Goldfish, Tears to Wine give +2 enhancement bonus for INT and WIS checks, with it Zaia and Inge have +29 and +28 bonus respectively. Zaia should just mainline the stuff, drinking it constantly. I also just noticed that there is a Signature Skill feat, at 5 skill ranks it will double the crafting progress rate, maybe something to consider for the future?
I'm not sure if DP would care to use the Unchain skill unlocks, though the Crafting one is far from overpowered. That would be a feat investment fairly far into the future, though.

I wasn't thinking about the effects of Tears to Wine. That would be a good one to include. The stuff lasts as long as regular mead or wine once created, and at his current level, taking a drink of it grants the effect for 30 minutes.
DP: I'm going to run a low-magic E6 setting so things don't get out of hand :smile:

DP's players: we're going to hit +30 skill bonuses before level 6 :V
Haha, yeah, but Crafting can't really get insane, even with high skill bonuses, not like social skills.
You are all forgetting that Take 10 exists and can streamline production of anything risky too.
I forget that's even an option half the time. Yeah, if they Take 10, there isn't an Alchemical item out there they can't create.

So basically, it just comes down to available recipes, time (whether it's a week for every single item or if some stuff can be created in larger batches), and the expense of the item (1/3 sell value).
 
Yeah, that might be a case, didn't consider that.

@DragonParadox, and separate but related question, can Inge apply her Guiding Spirit to Crafting?

@Goldfish, Tears to Wine give +2 enhancement bonus for INT and WIS checks, with it Zaia and Inge have +29 and +28 bonus respectively. Zaia should just mainline the stuff, drinking it constantly. I also just noticed that there is a Signature Skill feat, at 5 skill ranks it will double the crafting progress rate, maybe something to consider for the future?

Guiding spirit is a flat one re-roll once per day so it would be applicable, you guys should consider if you want to have that on hand in case of emergency though it is not that simple to judge

DP: I'm going to run a low-magic E6 setting so things don't get out of hand :smile:

DP's players: we're going to hit +30 skill bonuses before level 6 :V

Well I did hand out the boni, no one but myself to blame :V

Seriously though, I am fine with rolling though normal alchemical production, it is not very interesting throwing 30 die every month to see how many flasks of acid did or did not work. It's not like combat or social rolls where the stuff would be interesting to put on screen.
 
One idea.

Since Esha has very limited spells prepared and Inge can brew Potions from her spells, maybe give Esha several potions of Mage Armor to keep her spellslot free?
And while we are at it, Zaia could use them as well.

In terms of magical Potions CLW and Mage Armor are the only ones in Inge's current arsenal that are really worth making.
 
Vote closed.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Jan 3, 2022 at 3:50 AM, finished with 76 posts and 11 votes.

  • [X] Tom, over the past season he has grown to be more than just the head of your men at arms, yet both of you act around the other as though you were still on a journey with Verley and its fields at the end. The men follow you by their vows, perhaps it is time to establish more formal pay
    [X] Inge, the girl has been showing more and more reckless courage these past few weeks and while you are proud of her you worry just the same
    [X] Warn others and talk things out.
    -[X] Invite everybody of note and knowledge, Antonio, Zaia, Inge, Esha, Tender, Moru, Ziku, Silver if possible.
    -[X] There are some things you should know, if you don't know already. And if you have any thoughts on all of this, please share.
    -[X] We are being targeted, and by associating with us you can be targeted too, so be aware.
    --[X] Some group, "secret, in woven shadows hidden true", as the fey's spirit we questioned in a temple of Ikomi, put it, promised rewards to fey on Lirman to hunt us when we've arrived on the Island.
    --[X] We were targeted by the invisible foe while sailing from Orinulu, and later we managed to receive a divination that this foe was man in black guise and black of heart, a killer though he did not come to kill, who was here at the behest of another, one who means ill not just to this ship and all upon it but to the world entire.
    --[X] After the battle with the dragon we vanquished, somebody sicced a band of Knikut on us, somebody powerful enough to have means to contact them from afar.
    -[X] There are worrying global developments we are aware of.
    --[X] During our clash with Neverborn on Korman we received warnings from Luaza, foremost Ikomi priestess of Anwa and the grandmother of the king of Korman, against the coming peril, the great storm rippling veil between worlds and driving shadows before it, bringing dark times ahead, only likely to grow darker before the light comes out of the east.
    --[X] She told us that two and a half seasons ago, at the start of the year, something very wrong happened, something from beyond the borders of this world broke in, something that breaks that which is held sacred, vows of fellowship and faith, tangling the threads of fate to its own ends and binding in that net souls great and small.
    --[X] Just as the king, Luaza was killed by the treachery of the Neverborn, and we couldn't get further to the heart of the matter with her.
    --[X] We also received information about worrying developments in Oromo of the Thousand Towers, which may be connected to the Neverborn troubles we see everywhere, on Korman, in the White Lands and in people like Ulk.
    -[X] After the battle with the dreaming dragon it prophesized ruin for us, and it didn't look like it was just spiteful cursing of the dying foe.
    -[X] Can this all be connected, in part or in full?
    -[X] If Moru and Ziku are interested in the dragon, show them the dead egg, the golden sheet and tell them of our investigation in the Willowbrook.
    [X] Esha, now that she has a weapon she has expressed interest in sparring with you, though making use of weapon and spell alike so that she might make a good showing
    [X] Pebble in Swift Rushing Waters, or Swift Pebble for short, the otter-kin you unwittingly dragged into a battle. You could certainly use more os her help as an interpreter, if she is willing to give it
    [X] Pebble in Swift Rushing Waters, or Swift Pebble for short, the otter-kin you unwittingly dragged into a battle. You could certainly use more of her help as an interpreter, if she is willing to give it
    [X] Wanderer, see what he thinks of your service so far and do your best to get him some better equipment and training in it
 
Seriously though, I am fine with rolling though normal alchemical production, it is not very interesting throwing 30 die every month to see how many flasks of acid did or did not work. It's not like combat or social rolls where the stuff would be interesting to put on screen.
Well, if you don't mind rolling for regular, non-amended Crafting, I guess that would let us speed stuff up somewhat, especially if we use the option to voluntarily increase the Crafting DCs by +10 and do the day-by-day crafting method.

Going back over all of the relevant bonuses others reminded me about and another that I just remembered, we have;

With the new cauldron (+5 Competence bonus), our Masterwork Alchemy tools looted from Ipsit (+2 Circumstance bonus), Ipsit's Alchemy books (+3), Tears to Wine effect (+2 Enhancement), and liberal applications of Zaia's new Crafter's Fortune extract (+5 Luck bonus), Zaia has a +32 Craft (Alchemy) bonus and Inge's is +31. Using Take 10 to push that to +42 and +41, each of them can auto-succeed on anything in the Alchemy cookbook even with the +10 DC increase to accelerate the Crafting.

Actually, I'm going to make a quick spreadsheet to calculate some stuff. Nothing crazy like from the ASWAH days. Just going to set it up to show necessary Crafting time and cost of common Alchemical items using the Pathfinder rules with no finagling. If you want to use it, cool, if not, I understand.
 
Arc 9 Post 2: Wizard's Wine, Knight's Reckoning
Wizard's Wine, Knight's Reckoning

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

It is not, as your lady mother used to say, 'the done thing' to drink with the men-at-arms. Oh certainly one is meant to be generous with wine after a victory at the low table as much as the high, and no one expects men on campaign to abstain from drink or good company when the day might be their last, but to invite one of low birth for a quiet drink and a deep talk would be a dent in one's standing before peers. A lord might does not parley with villeins.

As he walks into your cabin and sees the cup of mead on the table Tom's eyes widen in surprise.

"Don't worry about a cup before midday. It is some brew Zaia made, supposed to sharpen your wits instead of dulling them," you say with a smile. No sense charging in like a bull off fresh pasture.

"How the Devil does that work?" he asks, your distraction working as planned.

"If I understood it aright something about how a drunk will always think he is more clever with every cup, twisting that around and you make the lie true. 'Magian Wine' he calls it and says it tastes like Persian Red, finer than any vintage any of us have drunk in the east, not that I can blame the tavern keepers for not being generous with their vintage with an invading army."

He picks up the cup carefully, as though concerned it might suddenly twist from his hand or spit fire, then raises it to your honor and downs half of it in one gulp to show he is not daunted. You follow suit more sedately, enjoying the sudden flash of clarity to the senses, as though the light had grown more vibrant and the shadows deeper.

"Ah... good stuff," he sighs, sounding impressed and not a little surprised.

"It is the least I could do," you pause gathering your thoughts. "Really the least, good wine and decent food may keep one in high spirits on campaign but I do not expect you all to live and serve off that alone..."

"It is our honor to serve under you, my lord," Tom cuts in, which he would never do outside of battle in the usual run of things. "Not one soul among us has raised quarrel or complaint for how you lead us in this strange land. If it weren't for you we'd be lost and scattered by now, killed by some demon or dragged into the grave by a corpse... or God forbid worse."

A memory of Tam's lonely grave on Lirman rises in your mind. Not as good as I could have been. You shake off the thought, this isn't the place or the hour for it. "Be that as it may, one does not follow a knight for love of them alone, nor just for glory in the doing. Had we not been lost in that storm and sent into strange waters you would all have been back in Verley by now, with land to call your own for leal service. That's gone now..." It still hurts to say and from the worried look Tom gives you it shows too. Wine sloshes here and there in the goblet as you set it down, not quite hard enough to spill. "I cannot promise you land, not now, likely not for a long time, but this ship is filled with tin worth a great deal in these lands, all the more so to the starved forges of Orinilu. You and all those who follow my banner deserve your fair share of those winnings, and of all else your spears and swords help to earn it."

You think back to the conversation you had with Antonio about what he pays his crew and about what he would be willing to offer for the service of a skilled and reliable man-at-arms. Weighing swords against gold still lies uneasily in the mind, but it is the best you can do by those who have followed you, misgivings be damned. That still leaves the question of paying a fixed monthly wage, to help guard them from the temptations of unwise stepping and keep more money on hand for yourself at any one point, or share a portion of every windfall as you get them, keeping things simple and cutting off any resentment that may develop seeing you hold back the lion's share of the good times.

How do you compensate your men at arms?

[] Steady pay (60 gp/month for each 100/moth for Tom)

[] A cut of the profits (20% of your income, whatever that may be, is shared among the men)

[] Write in


OOC: It was way harder than it should have been to just find what is reasonable under Pathfinder rules to pay men-at-arms, the system assumes you use the leadership feat and those apparently follow you because of your winning smile. In the end I went with a comparison for what the average results of a profession roll at the third level 15 gold/week and what the total lootable wealth for a third level warrior which is about 780 gp. I think that being about a year's pay for such a warrior is reasonable. You can of course choose to pay out more or a little less if you want, these are ballpark estimates. Also do not worry about this being the last you hear of the wine, you will get to see Antonio's reaction to it, as well as learn why Zaia named it that, it's not just the obvious.
 
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Well, if you don't mind rolling for regular, non-amended Crafting, I guess that would let us speed stuff up somewhat, especially if we use the option to voluntarily increase the Crafting DCs by +10 and do the day-by-day crafting method.

Going back over all of the relevant bonuses others reminded me about and another that I just remembered, we have;

With the new cauldron (+5 Competence bonus), our Masterwork Alchemy tools looted from Ipsit (+2 Circumstance bonus), Ipsit's Alchemy books (+3), Tears to Wine effect (+2 Enhancement), and liberal applications of Zaia's new Crafter's Fortune extract (+5 Luck bonus), Zaia has a +32 Craft (Alchemy) bonus and Inge's is +31. Using Take 10 to push that to +42 and +41, each of them can auto-succeed on anything in the Alchemy cookbook even with the +10 DC increase to accelerate the Crafting.

Actually, I'm going to make a quick spreadsheet to calculate some stuff. Nothing crazy like from the ASWAH days. Just going to set it up to show necessary Crafting time and cost of common Alchemical items using the Pathfinder rules with no finagling. If you want to use it, cool, if not, I understand.

Thanks for looking into that.I think we can deal with a simple alchemy spreadsheet fine. ASWAH did not hit spreadsheet overload until the kingdom started to get involved.
 
One way to look at this is this way:

Fixed wages are risky for Roland, and safe for the company. We get fixed costs that we might not be able to pay if we don't go on adventures.

Variable wages are safe for Roland, but probably more expensive on the long term. If we didn't also feed them, it would be pretty risky for our men.

We can also broach the subject about how we are going to be called, and how and when we will select more men. Zuan deserves to be given a chance.
 
Thanks for looking into that.I think we can deal with a simple alchemy spreadsheet fine. ASWAH did not hit spreadsheet overload until the kingdom started to get involved.
Here's what I've got, DP. It's pretty simple and doesn't have every Alchemical item by any means. There's a separate section for Zaia and Inge, though at the moment their total bonuses are so close that only one item (Tar Bombs) take a different amount of time to create. It will be easy to update in the future as bonuses change or items are added. You might want to highlight which items they know how to create for ease of reference?

The only thing that needs to be entered for an item is its regular Crafting DC and gold value. The only part of it I couldn't automate was the final column telling us how many days it takes to create an item, because I don't know how to make the daily progress column always round up. It's easy enough to manually round each one up, though.
 
Here's what I've got, DP. It's pretty simple and doesn't have every Alchemical item by any means. There's a separate section for Zaia and Inge, though at the moment their total bonuses are so close that only one item (Tar Bombs) take a different amount of time to create. It will be easy to update in the future as bonuses change or items are added. You might want to highlight which items they know how to create for ease of reference?

The only thing that needs to be entered for an item is its regular Crafting DC and gold value. The only part of it I couldn't automate was the final column telling us how many days it takes to create an item, because I don't know how to make the daily progress column always round up. It's easy enough to manually round each one up, though.

I think it is set to private or something, it is asking for a log in to see the sheet.
 
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