Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
I'm still really tempted to backtrack to the temple and put the ring on the statue's finger.
Finding the Spark (Pathfinder 1E Quest)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Fantasy
-
- Tags
- pathfinder
- Location
- Argentina
@DragonParadox , why is it that we didn't think about putting that ring in the statue before?
Because there is no pressing reason why Kori should, there is no pattern there that might prompt a reacting, if you guys want to get back to the temple and place it on there that is a suggestion Koti can make.
- Location
- Argentina
Look back at this gibberish the Aeon said. The part with the Lure has been revealed.
It can open something or it is probably keeping something prisoner. Whatever is inside has been twisted. It acts as a lure, by the vampire bitch to murder and eat each other. It is a legacy of something, probably Azlanti.
And it is revenge from the slaves against its masters. The statue is not an undead, and there should not be a powerful worshipper of Zura who deliverately kept herself mortal. She is a mortal slave who sacrificed herself to curse her masters.
Wandered deep, damned, changed and hungering. It just described these Dark Folk we just found here. It meant them. The damned glorified lava lamp was warning us against the ambush. We are supposed to save these guys.
The ring is the curse... maybe they fell to Zura. And they are warning us not to do the same.
We are almost solving this puzzle. Damn DP, you are good.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
Don't think so. Or at least, it's only a single part of it.
"Not one thing thrice described, but three." It means there are three species described by these words, of which the Dark Folk is only one.
I might guess that it means those who are Azlanti descendants... those who may have lost their legacy, perhaps? We know (?) the Dark Folk are ones. The hungering... could be undead? Perhaps some of them turned to necromancy to preserve themselves?
The only context for "the Lost" we have is the greetings we were given:
The Sundered means Azlanti, but why are we 'the Guide'? I assume it refers to our status as an Oracle, which connects us to something greater than ourselves and sends us strange dreams. Following these dreams we might be able to reclaim the ancient legacy, thus the role of the 'guide', as the only man with an eye half-open in the land of the blind.
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- Location
- Argentina
This is interesting...
The Azlanti survivors devolved into the Dark Folk, the Morlocks, the Mongrelmen and other things we have not found yet...
But if morlocks and beyond salvation by virtue of being assholes, then there is a group of undead we need to rescue.
Interesting.
Also, to close off the whole mystery with the temple, I think that, by virtue of having stars in the ceiling, this was a temple to Desna, with its master being petrified and with fake demon wings made to divert the attention and pretend this is a shrine to Zura.
I think that we need to put the ring on the statue
- Location
- Russia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I've get compleatly lost during long holidays
Which is a pity. I do not want this quest to get abandoned.
[X] Tomcost
- Location
- Argentina
I've get compleatly lost during long holidays
Which is a pity. I do not want this quest to get abandoned.
[X] Tomcost
The thing with questing is, there are votes that gather a lot of attention and ones that not. As evidenced by the big ones like Divided Loyalties. The problem with smaller quests is that those votes that are pretty unanimous might not make people bother to vote, but I see support for this quest in the amount of likes in each update. That is why it is important to vote, even if you feel that it is not making a difference.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
Quests thrive on discussion. Votes are just a single metric of involvement, and not the most important one.
There are "opinion leaders" in this type of quests, which is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because they craft votes and plans in uncertain situations where most others hesitate or outright draw a blank; and also because they ensure consistency of player choices. It's hard to plan for anything long-term if votes are made in the moment. It's a curse because it's hard to contest these votes (and since they are good at what they do, not many see a reason to), so people don't bother interfering and just spectate the game.
Being rather inexperienced with Pathfinder (I mostly understand what's what from my experience with D&D and Forgotten Realms), I asked a couple possibly stupid questions, got ignored, and mostly leaned back since then, content to let people play.
But alright, let's try this again.
I do not believe we should be revealing our visions, or anything that would imply we had access to the terminal, to strangers on the road, especially those who are prone to mind control. Now that the terminal is gone, this information is of extremely high value, and we do not know its worth. Zura might, though, seeing how she was alive back then.
I don't know if it's possible for us to be hunted harder, but for now we are being targeted as a random adventurer who found something that belonged (?) to another. We shouldn't be raising our significance in the eyes of our enemies before we are ready to back it up.
It's a risk for no great benefit that I can see.
[x] Explain...
-[x]... what you have seen with your own eyes
There are "opinion leaders" in this type of quests, which is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because they craft votes and plans in uncertain situations where most others hesitate or outright draw a blank; and also because they ensure consistency of player choices. It's hard to plan for anything long-term if votes are made in the moment. It's a curse because it's hard to contest these votes (and since they are good at what they do, not many see a reason to), so people don't bother interfering and just spectate the game.
Being rather inexperienced with Pathfinder (I mostly understand what's what from my experience with D&D and Forgotten Realms), I asked a couple possibly stupid questions, got ignored, and mostly leaned back since then, content to let people play.
But alright, let's try this again.
I do not believe we should be revealing our visions, or anything that would imply we had access to the terminal, to strangers on the road, especially those who are prone to mind control. Now that the terminal is gone, this information is of extremely high value, and we do not know its worth. Zura might, though, seeing how she was alive back then.
I don't know if it's possible for us to be hunted harder, but for now we are being targeted as a random adventurer who found something that belonged (?) to another. We shouldn't be raising our significance in the eyes of our enemies before we are ready to back it up.
It's a risk for no great benefit that I can see.
[x] Explain...
-[x]... what you have seen with your own eyes
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- Location
- Argentina
Okay... these are compelling arguments. We might not want to overcommit over random people who assaulted us. On the other hand, I have this nagging feeling that we should be doing something else with what we have and what we know, but I just don't know what yet.
Maybe we just need to continue investigating.
[x] Explain...
-[x]... what you have seen with your own eyes
Gentlemen, I have changed my vote. For everyone who namevoted me this is just a heads up.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
For starters? Go to the surface, try to locate one of the shelters by the memories we have. The Temple of Jaidi is of special interest, having been mentioned once in our visions already. Then try to discern what the numbers/coordinates of distress beacons correspond to. Then we'll likely know more.
But that's far into the future. For now we might want to decide who gets to wear the ring. I have half a mind to give it to Mina, as humans should be rare down here. On the other hand, a human party that can reach us is bound to be experienced.
How does the 'curse' work? We saw the effect dispelled (?) immediately after we threw the ring away. Does it mean those 'cursed' lose interest in their target the moment the ring changes the wearer? On the surface, this means that changing the ownership once a day lets us avoid dedicated pursuers, but no QM would allow such a transparent exploit interfere with their plot hooks.
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- Location
- Argentina
For starters? Go to the surface, try to locate one of the shelters by the memories we have. The Temple of Jaidi is of special interest, having been mentioned once in our visions already. Then try to discern what the numbers/coordinates of distress beacons correspond to. Then we'll likely know more.
But that's far into the future. For now we might want to decide who gets to wear the ring. I have half a mind to give it to Mina, as humans should be rare down here. On the other hand, a human party that can reach us is bound to be experienced.
How does the 'curse' work? We saw the effect dispelled (?) immediately after we threw the ring away. Does it mean those 'cursed' lose interest in their target the moment the ring changes the wearer? On the surface, this means that changing the ownership once a day lets us avoid dedicated pursuers, but no QM would allow such a transparant exploit interfere with their plot hooks.
DP is always open to for us to get novel ways to bypass curses and the like. He is just going to get creative about how to screw us over.
But I think that if we have our characters put 2 and 2 together we might simply solve the curse now with the ring. We have most of the pieces of the puzzle now.
- Location
- Russia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah, one of the reasons I stopped to follow "Green flame". I often disagree with Ujuh, but too laizy to argue (other reasons are unfamiliar setting and unfamiliar system).
Not that I compleatly agree with @Goldfish . I still believe that destroing Sarcophagus in AoIaB was enormous mistake.
As for the current quest, I think that build without Diplomacy is a mistake us well. We are too similar to a bunch of murderhobos. Well, it's not true for the current update (fortunatly), but was very prominent in the past. Actually, our attack of morlock lead us into the current situation.
- Location
- Argentina
Regarding diplomacy, I think that not having it has kinda forced us into a playstyle we are not used to playing. For example, I think that we did face correctly the death of the Dancer with the tools we had.
We are actually built to be quite the Shadow Oracle. A charlatan, a swindler, someone that tells tall tales and embelishes the turth. It is not someone that we are used to playing, as it is somebody who is quite different from us. But it is actually funny if done right.
We are the mysterious shadow man, we just need to get into that mindset. We could get followers if we start preaching about our visions. I agree that we should wait before we start, but Kori is bound to be someone interesting.
In short, I like it, but I suck at playing it.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
We'll figure it out. It's new to all of us, I think.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
Well, I am going to hold on to the ring as if it were my Precious.
...why hasn't it tried to talk to us, I wonder? It did 'talk' to Cob.
As for Diplomacy, I second the notion that talking the problem away is overused. I am all for having Cob handle team diplomacy.
He's got the hang of it.
Good to see some more votes trickling in, update tomorrow.
Vote closed.
Arc 2 Post 8: Beyond Blood
Beyond Blood
The Season of Still Stone
It is a fact oft made light of that tis harder to scrub blood off raglichen than it is to mend flesh with sorcery, though it is not the coppery reek of slowly rotting blood that most troubles you so much as the sight of so many eyes on you gleaming wetly in the light of the sputter torch, the eldest of the strangers set up upon a strange folding table. Gnome-work Mina calls it, but you cannot imagine the secretive folk of the deep tunnels turning their arts to something so frivolous as a lightweight table, convenient as it might be. The three before you are Urz, with the scar running down his cheek and the off-center nose, Sizec, the only woman of the lot, though you had thought her a boy with strangely fine features at first for she had shaved her hair and eyebrows after 'a bad batch', of what she does not say and you do not press, and the well named Omn, whose name means silence in the tongue of your people
A careless move between the light and the scarred wall is all it takes, an eye thrown towards the back wall and there your shadow lies, twisted and vicious. As you flinch and recoil it only seems to grow larger. Yet instead of the anger or at least suspicion you had long since learned comes from its revelation Urz just shrugs: "That do anything?"
Spotting your Shadow: 1d20 = 20 -> 1d100+40 (Saved from Mind Control) = 135 (Super-Critical Success)
"Much of my power is over shadow, perhaps of shadow it is born," you answer, startled into honesty by the seeming nonchalance, only just gripping the stone mug filled with twice distilled grog he hands you. The smell alone is enough to curl a a guard rat's whiskers, but an offering's an offering.
Mina does most of the talking, from the fight with the morlocks, which earns a few cheers unsurprisingly for traders who rely more on stealth than strength in these tunnels. They had actually just been taking a detour through 'the Dreaming Deeps' as they call this part of the cave complex to avoid a nest of riled up morloks further south when they had been drawn to attack. Gorok first with dreams, than with whispers waking, and at last with the pull of a power that made puppets of their bodies and liars of their own hearts.
"I have never known such hunger for blood, would that I never know it again," the old trader proclaims, though when he hears of the mine, the old tomb that you had raided, whence you guess the ring had come his eyes seem to light up and not, as you had half-feared, with greed. "Burnlanders! Snake Spoor!" he curses. "That's whose been riling up the beasts and the savages, has to be. Caves ain't hungry enough to risk raiding stores and it's not like any of the tribes hereabout have so many warriors that they'd be doing honor raids." He shakes his head sadly, throwing a look to a confused Cob. "Stone Gobblers gone just like that..."
Sizec suggests that you speak to the shaman of one of the neighboring tribes, the Black Eyes, small in number, but wealthy from their control of of one of deep salt pools that bubble up from the depths in the ruins of what had once been the ancient borehole of a long dead dragon, or so the legends tell. Whether the Black eyes are indeed dwellers upon the bones of ancient dragons, one thing is certain, they know more of sorcery and spirits than most... and they would pay a fair price for the crystals in your packs
"Trust is precious," Gorok hisses, rubbing his side where he had been stabbed.
"True, true," the old merchant says. "Just offering a thought on where you might want to do to get that thing blessed. In the meantime seems to me we owe you and yours a reward for not slitting our throats while we didn't know ass from elbow."
As he offers the selection of 'wares' you might be interested in you get the sense that Urz may not be as unused to tainted treasure as he had at first let on, but he seems genuine in seeking amends. Who are you to complain given what you bear? Mina, of course, has an interest in the spellbook while Gorok would rather claim the precious blood-drunk crystal to sell beside your own hoard, while Cob, a great lover of fire, would very much desire the company of fire incarnate. That leaves you as the deciding vote for what your mercy might buy:
Select a Reward from the merchants:
[] Orphaned Spellbook: Warded by unknown magics against the digestive juices of an Ochre Jelly, this tome bears marks in a tongue your new acquiescence cannot read, but which Mina marks as a tome of arcane lore she might learn from, though what spells might be contained within she cannot say without further study (2d6 Cantrips; 1d6+1 Level 1 Spells; 1d3 Level 2 spells; 1d2-1 Level 3 Spells)
[] Gem of Foe's Pyre: Pried from the work of ancient dwarf artisanship this gem once had the power to summon a large fire elemental to protect the hold in which it had been forged. Through crude enchantments best left unmentioned the gemstone can still summon this protector, but filled with loss and rage. The elemental may only attack one target against which it is directed on conjuring which it must be allowed to consume utterly or else it will turn on the summoner with its full ferocity until destroyed. If it is instead destroyed it returns to the stone quiescent (1/day)
[] Blood Crystal (5 lbs): Deadly in the hand... and almost as dangerous to own, this crystal makes weapons beloved of thieves, assassins, and other folk who are content to let their foes bleed out, as well as those who wish to harvest blood with one swift cut for more nefarious purposes
Where do you keep the ring?
[] On Warty
[] One of you shall keep it
-[] Akorian
-[] Cob once more
-[] Gorok
-[] Mina
OOC: Looks like your luck has turned a little, now the question is what do you claim from this encounter... and who gets to keep the Ring.
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- Location
- Argentina
They are a tribe of what? Goblins? Dark folk?
Dark folk, like most people if she does not say she means 'same as me'.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Glad to see some more relatively friendly interactions between Kori and fellow Dark Folk. Sure, it didn't start off pleasantly, but things concluded well enough, and no one got poisoned this time.
Those are some great potential rewards.
The spellbook is very tempting, but Mina is too low leveled to benefit from the higher level spells and has too few 1st level slots to really take advantage of an expanded repertoire.
The Blood Crystal is worth a bit like of gold, if we can find an interested buyer. More money is always great to have, it opens up additional options if nothing else.
The Gem of Foe's Pyre is just plain awesome. Being able to Summon a CR 5 Large Fire Elemental as often as once per day, even if it can only attack a single target and might destroy any loot it carries, can and probably will save our lives. We're lucky the Dark Creepers had probably already used it for the day before encountering us or were just too mindwhammied to consider it, otherwise we would have been in serious trouble. Sure, we'll eventually outlevel the Elemental and the value of it's assistance will decline, but it will be very helpful in the meantime. Also, it will be very valuable if we decide to sell it someday.
[X] Gem of Foe's Pyre
As for where to keep the ring, I'm going to say Kori for now. He can cast Protection from Evil on himself at the first sign of mental tampering, plus his current spells and abilities make him the least dangerous to the rest of the party if he does get mindfucked.
[X] One of you shall keep it
-[X] Akorian, but we'll swap it among party members depending on the situation, if we expect to encounter groups likely to target us, i.e. giving it to Gorok when near a Dark Folk settlement.
Those are some great potential rewards.
The spellbook is very tempting, but Mina is too low leveled to benefit from the higher level spells and has too few 1st level slots to really take advantage of an expanded repertoire.
The Blood Crystal is worth a bit like of gold, if we can find an interested buyer. More money is always great to have, it opens up additional options if nothing else.
The Gem of Foe's Pyre is just plain awesome. Being able to Summon a CR 5 Large Fire Elemental as often as once per day, even if it can only attack a single target and might destroy any loot it carries, can and probably will save our lives. We're lucky the Dark Creepers had probably already used it for the day before encountering us or were just too mindwhammied to consider it, otherwise we would have been in serious trouble. Sure, we'll eventually outlevel the Elemental and the value of it's assistance will decline, but it will be very helpful in the meantime. Also, it will be very valuable if we decide to sell it someday.
[X] Gem of Foe's Pyre
As for where to keep the ring, I'm going to say Kori for now. He can cast Protection from Evil on himself at the first sign of mental tampering, plus his current spells and abilities make him the least dangerous to the rest of the party if he does get mindfucked.
[X] One of you shall keep it
-[X] Akorian, but we'll swap it among party members depending on the situation, if we expect to encounter groups likely to target us, i.e. giving it to Gorok when near a Dark Folk settlement.
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