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

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DragonParadox said:
Detect magic does not have to be prepared, it is a cantrip and can be used at will, that said it is a concentration spell, which means it requires mental focus roughly equivalent to say writing a letter or holding a mildly complex tune to keep active. They can do it for things like new hires and arrivals in parts etc...
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I meant prepared for Esha, Arcanists can prepare a limited number of even cantrips per day, so it's possible for her to not have it because she chose other cantrips.

That said, is there anything detectable on Megin, gems we got from Mynid, Cor Eso, anything besides expected on Tom's spear, Mog and his things?
 
myrix said:
I meant prepared for Esha, Arcanists can prepare a limited number of even cantrips per day, so it's possible for her to not have it because she chose other cantrips.

That said, is there anything detectable on Megin, gems we got from Mynid, Cor Eso, anything besides expected on Tom's spear, Mog and his things?
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Nope, gems are non-magical but shinny, three legged horsie is horsie.
 
Oh, and another thing @DragonParadox, now that Zaia has See Invisiblity, can we add it to our policy of complete inspection of everything on Marcella every time we leave a harbor? And extend this policy to inspect everything around Wayfarer's Respite each time when we arrive to it and leave it, if possible?

It's relevant because it would help against invisible assassins like the one we've got when we sailed from Orinilu for the first time, and who later escaped us with a Rope Trick.
 
myrix said:
Oh, and another thing @DragonParadox, now that Zaia has See Invisiblity, can we add it to our policy of complete inspection of everything on Marcella every time we leave a harbor? And extend this policy to inspect everything around Wayfarer's Respite each time when we arrive to it and leave it, if possible?

It's relevant because it would help against invisible assassins like the one we've got when we sailed from Orinilu for the first time, and who later escaped us with a Rope Trick.
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Sure, he can do that when he has the slots.
 
All right, if we are in full paranoia mode, can it be that there's something hidden with our new drummer, just as there was something hidden with Ulk, another person we hired in Apuku?

I was re-reading and there are some things that can be interpreted in a negative light:

DragonParadox said:
you come across a boy who could have been anywhere from thirteen to fifteen under the grime of a long journey, not from the city then.
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Unknown person not from here, with no way to check origins.

DragonParadox said:
"I can use a drum," he says and from the voice you realize he must be on the younger side of your guess.
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DragonParadox said:
he waves to his sorry state with a wry smile that is more than most his age could have managed.
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Looks younger but handles himself as someone more mature.

DragonParadox said:
He holds a rhythm unlike anything you had heard before, sometimes deep and echoing like echoes under the mountain, sometimes climbing as though the sound had rang off seams of gold and silver, up and up into the heights of the sky.
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"Unlike anything you had heard before", "Echoes under the mountain", "seams of gold and silver", maybe related to fey?

DragonParadox said:
Antonino tosses a silver icari at the boy to go find clothes and a sweathouse to clean himself in, though he almost fumbles with it.
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Almost fumbles with a silver coin, is it a sign of something?

Separately any of these things does not mean much, but together doesn't it look suspicious? If it's relevant, we hired him during festival in honor of Olweje, just before we travelled to the Fey lands.

Could he be something that would not be caught with Detect Magic and Holy Water, like doppelganger, Formless, half-Formless, Fey, half-Fey?

But then as we know he performed his duties as required in the battle with the naunets, so apparently things are somewhat alright with him?

@Goldfish, anyone else, what do you think, should we try to check this in any way? Available methods would probably be 1) talk to him with Focused Scrutiny and other buffs, fishing for anything, 2) maybe ask Mog and perhaps Megin if they can tell as anything out of the ordinary about him.
 
myrix said:
Could he be something that would not be caught with Detect Magic and Holy Water, like doppelganger, Formless, half-Formless, Fey, half-Fey?

But then as we know he performed his duties as required in the battle with the naunets, so apparently things are somewhat alright with him?

@Goldfish, anyone else, what do you think, should we try to check this in any way? Available methods would probably be 1) talk to him with Focused Scrutiny and other buffs, fishing for anything, 2) maybe ask Mog and perhaps Megin if they can tell as anything out of the ordinary about him.
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He could be any of those, or something else entirely. We're just going to have to trust that our rightfully earned paranoia and well developed inspection criteria will have weeded out any potential infiltrators.

That said, Focused Scrutiny is a real game changer for us. The buff is very effective at what it does, and the long duration (40 minutes per use at Zaia's current level) means Roland can easily use it to observe and interact with several people each day while we're sailing back to Orinilu. It definitely needs to be part of our vetting process from now on. I'm so glad Zaia has finally reached 4th level!

That reminds me. Now that Zaia's 4th level,the amount of Magian Wine he can produce using Tears to Wine has doubled. I already confirmed with DP a while back that this would also double the amount of revenue we get from selling Magian Wine. Anyone remember how much gold that was per season?
 
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Goldfish said:
That reminds me. Now that Zaia's 4th level,the amount of Magian Wine he can produce using Tears to Wine has doubled. I already confirmed with DP a while back that this would also double the amount of revenue we get from selling Magian Wine. Anyone remember how much gold that was per season?
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Now with his 4th level it should be 2500 gp per season:
DragonParadox said:
The math was wrong above and I edited it 5000/4 is 1250. That said yes at level four you would get 2500 and so forth as he advances in level.
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DragonParadox said:
Gain Passive Income: Magian Wine 1,250 gp/season (Scales with Zaia's level)
Zaia has -1 first level spell slot when he is not preparing for battle (when he is he will shift the casting about)
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Though would that work when we are mostly sailing / in battle like we were this spring?
 
myrix said:
Though would that work when we are mostly sailing / in battle like we were this spring?
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It's supposed to take time spent on other pursuits into account, I believe. It's abstract like that to keep things from getting too granular and difficult to track. The difference can just be made up on in-between days, those we don't see because there's nothing worth covering, with him maybe using an additional extract or two to produce a bit more to keep the average output steady.
 
[X] Swift Pebble and the rest of her people, they seem to be easily trusted by children and their mind speech conveys sincerity in a way words cannot (lowers the readiness of your sentries)
 
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Arc 15 Post 7: Writ in Stone
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    • Writ in Stone ​

    Eleventh Day of Olweje-eza (Olweje Ascendant), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

    The people of Apuku did not expect to see the Marcella again this season, before the smoke even cleared from the sky, before the last of the rubble had been cleared, much less did they expect in your company another stranger wrapped all about in one of the wolf-skin pelts of the far north and wearing a heavy cap despite the heat of summer laying like a suffocating blanket on the city. That this stranger was alike in stature with the king they had lost you doubt anyone even considered... after all he did not have the look of a warrior like their young lord had.

    The 'stranger' looks on a place made strange indeed, a barren field where not even the weeds had the time to grow that had once been the hall of his fathers and the home of his childhood. Someone had placed a stone there, carved with signs of good fortune and with prayers for the city... for its people and for the return of the true and rightful king. Long runs the list of titles and dignities that is not commonly spoken, only on high holy days when the king takes on one duty or another:

    Warlord and first captain, harvester of the grain of he earth, the fishes of the sea and thee blood of the foes... Among the list last carved in seeming haste is 'Ani', the sort of name one would give a child, or which a child might give.

    It feels almost intrusive to be here, on a still sunlit field, amid a busy city as Ansefu runs his fingers over the name that could only have been carved by one who knew him beyond the call of the throne. Was it Ohun, or had it been Lina, you do not know, you do not ask, but in the hasty meetings that follow you see more than a king returned unbidden to the people who had lost him. You witness a father in deed if not in blood embrace his son and you see a sister meet her brother again, after they had been twice parted by the machinations of immortals.

    "I should thank you for the fact that I still have a kingdom to return to and not a pile of ashes stirred up by the ambitions of the Iranea," Ansefu says to his sister as she starts to explain what had gone on in his absence, in hushed words, despite the fact that she like her brother is in disguise.

    As soon as you had com near the city Inge had borrowed one of the red billed birds that flocked around it, with kinship enough to the sea for her to understand them and bid it carry a message to the regent and her counsel. Though you chafe at the secrecy asked it's hard to ignore the need. Lirman has only just adjusted to the notion of being lead by a regent who is kin to the sea fey, to then restore the king days later would upset any deals that Lina and Ohun made in the name of an empty throne. Ansefu will have to tread carefully now, for to simply renege all of them would be to cast blame on his sister and on Ohun, a thing they might have feared would happen before the meeting had gone so well.

    A part of you, that might be speaking in Esha's voice wonders if the prayers on the stone had not been completed since the message arrived, if Lina's willingness to return her brother's power more or less in full does not hinge on the fact that those deals were never brought to fruition and the nobles of the island did not come to think of her as queen in all but name, but that is as the Anwa themselves say sea-foam on the wind, the crown of a wave that never saw shore and never will

    What is of greater import to you is that Ansefu himself wants to offer a reward to the brave Fellowship of Saint Nicholas for all that you had done, but they have little in the way of gold to share and the ship is already filled with as many goods as she can take. Thus he can either send a pair longships filled with trade goods to accompany you, about which Antonio will doubtless grumble and the pirates will lust for... or Ohun offers they can raise a more symbolic form of thanks, a shrine or altar to your God, if you would but describe what is pleasing to Him.

    You open your mouth to refuse, but then you recall Tam's grave, lonely on strange ground, you had given him a Christian burial the best you had known how but there was nothing of the Church about the place, it was not hallowed ground. Were he alive would he have wanted a marker to God to Christ and to Saint Nicholas there?

    Tom, who knew him best of all your company, chews on the thought. "Couldn't hurt," he says at last. "He was as faithful as man as you would expect, not like he wanted to be a priest or nothing but..."

    You still do not have a priest, the reminder leaves an uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach. Would be be presumptuous of you to ask foreigners who know nothing of the Church or of Christ but what you tell them to raise am ornate cross by their own arts and makings?

    What reward do you want from the Anwari?

    [] More trade goods (5,000 gp in goods and 2 longboats)

    [] Raise up a stone cross and a small chapel at Tam's grave

    [] Write in

    OOC: Things went about as well as they could on the return, now it's just choosing a reward and we are off... to the pirate infested waters.
     
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    • The chapel is nicely sentimental, but not really a good idea, IMO. The Anwari aren't the most accepting folk, and the sudden appearance of a temple to a foreign, unknown deity could be awkward, to say the least. They might ignore the chapel entirely, or some assholes might vandalize it just for the lolz.

    Worse yet, potentially much, much worse, some Anwari might actually get it in their heads to convert. That might sound like a good result, but consider that this world has gods who actually empower some of their worshipers, who communicate with them on occasion. Yahweh doesn't do that. It's one thing if someone begins to follow a different god here, they're still worshiping a deity within the common pantheon, one with recognized clergy, a documented history, and a well known dogma. Christianity has none of that here; no clergy, no history, nothing. That makes it ripe for exploitation, at the very least. Charlatans and con men have caused a lot of grief over the centuries when they used religion as a tool to manipulate the gullible. I don't think we should set the stage for anything like that when we wouldn't even be around to keep an eye the place or what effect it could have on the Anwari.

    Also, there is a real chance, though an admittedly small one, that this might piss off one or more of the local gods.
     
    @DragonParadox, could we just save this reward for another time if we wanted to? The monetary one, I mean.

    That way we would avoid making an even bigger target of ourselves, plus we could consider it sort of like money in the bank. The next time we make port in Apuku to sell a cargo, instead of having to spend money to refill Marcella's holds, we could cash in this reward to do it for free.

    This serves the dual purpose of making our return trip to Orinilu less of a hassle and not depleting Ansefu's resources at a time when he really can't afford it. Even if Anwari pirates don't make a nuisance of themselves, we still have to get through the Straits of Gibraltar again, and the last time was kinda tense. We don't know if the place is still blockaded, so the thought of having to haul additional longboats through that is not something I'm looking forward to.
     
    silvanknight said:
    @DragonParadox are spellbook materials or potions valid answers?
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    Ohun has kind of ran out of potions in the war and you guys will not be sticking around enough for him to make more, as for spellbooks... not really Ohun does not have scribe scroll. He can try to hand you some old scrolls from the treasury but that is a gamble if you get anything useful as it is just 'vaguely magical writings one of he king's ancestors looted'

    Goldfish said:
    @DragonParadox, could we just save this reward for another time if we wanted to? The monetary one, I mean.

    That way we would avoid making an even bigger target of ourselves, plus we could consider it sort of like money in the bank. The next time we make port in Apuku to sell a cargo, instead of having to spend money to refill Marcella's holds, we could cash in this reward to do it for free.

    This serves the dual purpose of making our return trip to Orinilu less of a hassle and not depleting Ansefu's resources at a time when he really can't afford it. Even if Anwari pirates don't make a nuisance of themselves, we still have to get through the Straits of Gibraltar again, and the last time was kinda tense. We don't know if the place is still blockaded, so the thought of having to haul additional longboats through that is not something I'm looking forward to.
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    Sure you can save it
     
    How about useful treasures or specialists for the crew if that's applicable for a reward?

    Or maybe they have useful contacts that can be the reward or some other information?
     
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    Okay, I'm up for banking the reward since that's a possibility. Only downside I can see is the chance that Ansefu and co get forced out of power while we're gone.

    [X] Thank Ansefu for his generosity, but ask to delay any reward we might have earned for another visit. We don't yet know the situation at the Straits, and if it remains blockaded by the forces of the Tin League we could face even greater difficulty slipping past them if we are encumbered with additional ships.
    -[X] Antonio probably wouldn't mind the chance to fill Marcella's cargo holds with trade goods without having to part with any gold the next time we make port in Apuku.
    --[X] And now is not the time for Ansefu to deplete his resources by rewarding us. Those goods and ships could play a vital part in helping to maintain the stability of his rule.
    -[X] Separate from any rewards or perceived obligations to us, we are interested in hiring a small number of additional warriors, no more than five at this time. They must be trustworthy beyond reproach and skilled in battle, and it would be helpful if they are willing to accept Olweje's blessing to become a Zentragt when we have need of it. We would of course pay them at the same rate we do our own armsmen. Any recommendations they can make would be appreciated.
     
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    [X] Thank Ansefu for his generosity, but ask to delay any reward we might have earned for another visit. We don't yet know the situation at the Straits, and if it remains blockaded by the forces of the Tin League we could face even greater difficulty slipping past them if we are encumbered with additional ships.
    -[X] Antonio probably wouldn't mind the chance to fill Marcella's cargo holds with trade goods without having to part with any gold the next time we make port in Apuku.
    -[X] And now is not the time for Ansefu to deplete his resources by rewarding us. Those goods and ships could play a vital part in helping to maintain the stability of his rule.
     
    Chapel is maybe good, but do we really need it? We do not have organized worship and probably never will, and for everything else prayers are either enough or not.

    Gold is good, but it's the last priority, we get a steady income from our regular trade and other ventures, but if possible we should get things we can't just get passively and everywhere, and things that are important to us.

    We should, in order of priority, get as many of the following:

    [X] As diplomatically and convincing as possible, any of the things we would like, in order of priority:
    -[X] From Lina (and Ohun, if he still knows something we don't), any info she knows about the darkness she expects to come and expects to weather, as she said "I am not without my own allies here, not without my own means to build something greater and weather the darkness that is to come of which what you faced in Korman is only the shadow's shadow.".
    --[X] Arguments: we are standing against the darkness, the daemons and dragons and other foul things, and it's in our mutual interest to empower us with knowledge.
    ---[X] If that's not enough convincing, consider revealing some of relevant info of how daemons want us specifically and how dragons are probably now directly against us, with us killing one, being known as dragonslayers and having an attention of "one who means ill the world entire", who is we suspect is this dragon aiming to return the dragon age. Whatever knowledge they will give us, we will use against the darkness as the darkness is 100% against us. Our words when we spoke of these threats in the court weren't just for show, we are commited to opposing them.
    -[X] From Ohun, potions for Zaia, spells for Esha, any applicable ley-line knowledge for Inge (she can make a vow to not reveal it to others unless it's required to oppose global threats), if we can't get it now, then the next time we are in Apuku.
    --[X] Same arguments.
    -[X] Help in recruiting up to 5 capable trustworthy warriors willing to fight as Olweje's metal beast, to serve with the company as long as they want (though the longer the better, of course) on our standard pay with the share of our income. On short notice now or when we return to Apuku next time, whatever is better.
    --[X] Same arguments.
    -[X] Any knowlendge on awakening Ripper? If not now, then next time we are in Apuku.
    --[X] Same arguments.
    -[X] And then, the last priority, trade goods, when we'll return to Apuku next time.
    -[X] An aside to Lina: if for whatever reason she would feel it would be better for her to go to other places of the world again, she could consider travelling with us, to oppose the darkness she mentions, to grow in knowing, wisdom and might, and to return to Lirman later as an undisputably deserving powerful hero.
    --[X] Same arguments.

    @Goldfish, what do you think of that? Shouldn't we try to get something more than just gold we are always getting in some or another ways? 5000 gp and 2 longships is about 7500 which we'll get from Zaia's Magian Wine passively in 3 seasons. Wouldn't it be better to try to get other more useful, more rare things?

    @DragonParadox, could you rule that it would have been reasonable for Roland to prepare for the meeting by getting Heightened Awareness, Tears to Wine and Focused Scrutiny from Zaia just beforehand for 40 minutes of +14 for Perception, +12 for Sense Motive and +5 for Diplomacy, for 24 Perception / 25 Sense Motive / 22 Diplomacy total?
     
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    [X] Raise up a stone cross and a small chapel at Tam's grave

    it's probably what he would have wanted and it's not like we need more stuff right now anyway
     
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