General conversation/OOC commentary

@grifter730 - I don't recall if I went over this before, but I wanted to point out that, when Morik uses Wild Shape, you can choose to roll the HP for the beast form - you don't have to take the "average" HP, though you can (it's what we've been doing with the brown bear up until now, after all). You can make that choice each time you use Wild Shape. If you want to roll the HP, include the roll in the post. Otherwise, I'll assume that you want to use the "average." Since I may not have pointed this out before - and we're not quite in combat now - you can still make that choice for the Wolf if you wish.

Ahhh that’s great to hear! I’ll stick with the average for this one, thanks!

May I please ask/plead/beg to meet a dire wolf for Morik so I don't have to rely on this fragile wolf form? Other animals in preparation for CR 2 creatures would also be highly appreciated!

Each adventure introduces at least one beast. So far, you have encountered the ones in the Beasts list. Two of those are more powerful than the wolf.

Quick question as a newbie to the group! So when Red asked me to join the group (thanks again btw), she helped me learn about Eir and Zin’s backstory as it’s shared. But I’m a little confused. Some of the players are saying they know Zin from teen years from the streets. But that’s not possible unless I’m missing something? Bc Zin never left the castle grounds until the last year or so and that was with Eir. It’s why Eir knows so much about the streets than Zin. Just wanna make sure I’m not missing something! Thanks!

Here's my take on it. This is not canon, necessarily - what is canon about your PCs is up to you, the players - but this is just how it makes sense to me with what I understand has been established regarding the game world and piecing together parts of character backgrounds (and what we've played out so far in the game) to make a more cohesive whole. Take what you like and leave the rest.

Eozindra and Eir grew up together in elven privilege in Mara (the ancient seat of western power of the Drakall Empire where the campaign started). Eozindra, slightly older, had a sympathetic friendship with Faith which sometimes made the younger Eir feel like a third wheel.

Alongside former party member Bramlin, Morik played a key role in a resistance effort against a despotic corrupt noble, Baron Gould, who ruled a smaller city in the same province as Mara with an iron fist. The Baron was overthrown and barely escaped, but he has wealth and contacts that have allowed him to regroup and organize efforts to get revenge on the ringleaders of the resistance. After assassins tried to kill Morik, Morik left that city and started work as a mercenary, doing odd jobs and then moving on. In this way he ended up in Mara, where he met both former party member Princess and Eozindra at different times at taverns (on the rare occasions that Eozindra was allowed to leave her family home...or when she snuck out with Eir's help).

Adran & Elowin Galanodel were the last surviving children of rural elven clan that had lived as nomads following herds and living off the land for generations. Various disasters led to the decimation of their clan, and more and more elves gave up on the country life and fled to ancestral lands (in the Greenwold) or the city until only their (grand)uncle was left of the adults. He protected the siblings and trained them to survive in the Drakali province that contains Mara, where they eked out an existence in an ancient ruined temple. Adran grew up with his sister and uncle, foraging for sustenance, and one day discovered the remains of a large mechanical construct. Fascinated by the implications of this object, he began to explore and eventually experiment with the defunct devices contained within its shell.

Woody is a wood elf who was orphaned in the high elf city of Shshil. Always looked down on and discriminated against by the "high and mighty" elves of the city on account of his birth and poverty, Woody worked very hard for their approval and got a job as a guard in the city watch. But his superiors were always suspicious of him, and when a patsy was needed for a criminal accusation, blame was pinned on Woody. One step ahead of the law, Woody fled Shshil and wandered the earth doing odd jobs until he ended up in the city of Mara. He found a kindred spirit there in Morik - they did some jobs together - but then he took an earlier opportunity to travel to the Greenwold capital of Grayhaven.

Never really finding acceptance outside of her friendship with Eozindra and Eir, as a teen Faith got involved in petty larceny, which led to her adopting the dramatic name of "Shade." She stole more for the thrill and rebellion than out of necessity, and one day she tried to steal an idol from a temple of Bealdor. The priest caught her and took stern pity on her. His mercy convinced her, and she developed a fervor for Bealdor, eventually training as a paladin. Then, attending a church function, she horrified the attendees as sorcerous powers manifested for the first time in billows of black smoke. The priest sent her away from the rumors and gossip of Mara to start anew at the sister temple in Grayhaven.

Former member of the party Ishi was an elf of a different clan that was completely exterminated by an attacking force when he was still an infant. He was found by orcs who were scavenging the razed village, and the orcs took pity on the baby and adopted him. Ishi was forever torn between his identity as a member of an orc tribe and his birth identity as an elf, since he was always different and apart from the others. Once he reached maturity, he left his orc family to travel the world and try to discover what it meant to be an elf, to figure out the missing half of his identity. In his wanderings, he arrived in the Greenwold and inevitably arrived at the capital city of Grayhaven.

Eozindra and Eir finally executed their plan to get away from their restrictive family and fled Mara for greener pastures. They've been traveling for more than a year, and ended up in Grayhaven several months ago. With Eir keeping careful watch over her charming-but-sickly sibling, Eozindra has taken to performing at various venues in the capital, they've encountered and befriended Woody (who had started earning generous purses through quasi-legal pit fighting) and Ishi (who was tremendously eager to learn anything to do with elves from them). Running in different circles in the big city, they did not encounter Faith in the months that they've all been there.

A caravan formed and hired Morik, Adran, Elowin, Bramlin, Princess, and dwarven soldier Gunter as guards, traveling the 20-odd days from Mara to Grayhaven. The party arrived, Princess and Gunter accepted their payment and left, and Adran, Morik, Elowin, and Bramlin entered the city, where they promptly ran into Eozindra and Eir, who were delighted to see Morik again. They were all hired by one of the caravan passengers, Findal Dinfizzle Findazzle, to protect him while he searched for and met with his old friend Tykus the sage. During that search, Bramlin felt the heat of guard scrutiny too strongly and bowed out of the party. Soon after, Ishi ran into the group and joined them, recognizing Eir and Eozindra and also eager to learn from "full" elves Adran and Elowin. They found that Tykus had been attacked and his home ransacked (Morik adopted his pet newt, "Jeffery"). Taking stock at an Inn with Findal, Tykus appeared, thrust a map upon them, and ran out. Guards chasing Tykus arrived moments later, but not in time to save Tykus from being murdered by a third party in the stable. Suspicion fell on the people in the Inn, and Duke Draymore entered and demanded a search for the map. Then they saw Findal and the guards, who'd already been instructed by the Duke to find and capture gnomes fitting Findal's description, apprehended Findal and took him away with the Duke. Before the guards could rough up too many of the other guests, the party fought back, beat down the guards, and rescued Findal from the Duke's men AND a brace of drow assassins (who seem to be the ones who killed Tykus). With Findal and the map, the party took refuge in an abandoned tannery that Eir had scouted previously.

Somehow, Faith ran afoul of the Lord Mayor's Men, and was abducted into their undercity lair in the ancient abbey below Grayhaven, where she suffered abuse until the party arrived following the map and rescued her shortly after Elowin was killed in the fight with the Lord Mayor.

Having found the orb - the artifact hinted at in the map - Morik, Adran, Eozindra, and Faith swore sacred oaths to it, and the party claimed the artifact and returned to the city above as the Queen's Fair is underway. Satisfied and somewhat overwhelmed by what he has learned about being an elf, Ishi decided to leave the crowds of the capital to process and meditate on all this new information. In the street, the party bumped into Woody. Recognizing Morik, Eozindra, and Eir (and possibly Faith?), Woody has eagerly offered his assistance to the party as they consider what to do next...and as they discovered that Findal was gone from where they left him.

What do you all think? What would you change?

very well summerised

It sounds spot on to me.

Coin or... eh, nevermind.

My only concern is the fact that Eozindra never left the estate in Mara until she ran away. She didn't have access to friends unless they came to the house. If Faith had been a scholar student or child of some who frequently visited, they could have formed a friendship that way.

The one big thing that was sort of canon built into Zin's identity (which is not her real name) was that she had literally never left her home until the day she bailed entirely on the city. So even when they were kids, she wouldn't have been Eozindra; she didn't adopt the moniker until after leaving home.

The place that Eozindra, Elysia and Faith hung out, could very well be a warehouse, coachhouse, barn or some other exterior building in said estate. Eozindra might not have ventured outside the walls of the estate

...perhaps Faith was related to/the child of someone who worked on the estate - not necessarily a servant, but a tradesperson employed by the family?

I have no thoughts about Faiths childhood other than she ended up with a criminal background. Run with it

Thanks for the info! Question for Eir. I think it was mentioned before but want to confirm. Eir knew Elowin prior to, correct? I think it was mentioned somewhere as I’ve been reading all the previous sessions from before I joined but wanted to double check. Thanks!

When the characters were initially created, I asked each player to describe how they knew at least two other people in the party. At that time, Elysia was said to have attended some of Elowin's night time temple services, which was an intriguing idea (how did she know about them? What took her that far out of the city?), but it has never come up in play. You probably remember reading this mention of it in the character generation thread. Feel free to adjust, build, or diminish (or even discard) that relationship as you like.

This is what I was operating with when @runekyndig dropped that Faith knew Zin as a kid. Ignoring the fact that she wasn’t Zin then and Faith wouldn’t have known she changed her name, lol. I made things difficult by creating a dual-identity character. Sorryyyyyyy

Could it be that Faith is the one who call her Zin while they were playing? Kids play make believe, maybe Zin was a persona from their games, and when she adopted a new persona as an adult she took the one from her childhood?

Okay perfect. Thanks! Ya, I remember seeing they knew one another, which is how I’ve been playing her as Elowin just died so Eir is probably a little messed up lol. Eir is easy when it comes to connections with anyone as she wasn’t bound at the castle; she snuck out all the time and would tell her sister about her adventures. So I’m okay with any other relationships with anyone in the campaign!