Gritt's Tale - Part 1

The scribe hurried in through the door, brushed himself off, and then looked around the room.  Yes, it was a bar.  That was a good start.  The barkeep, a solid, balding man, eyed him up and down without comment.  “Erm, excuse me.  I heard that a famous hero is to be found here.  I assume that this is, in fact, the Runeforge Inn?”  A couple of the drinkers turned to look at him, but no one responded.  The barman looked back at him, then nodded once, slowly.  Carefully clutching his quill pouch closer, the scribe moved into the room, peering at the customers as his eyes adjusted to the gloom.

Behind him, the door burst open, cracking against the wall as it swung all the way round.  Framed in the light from outside stood a muscular young man, wearing fancily embossed leather armour, with a sword buckled at his belt.  Could this be the hero?

The scribe’s voice quavered slightly as he addressed the man, “Excuse me, I’m looking for a hero. A famous hero?”

The youth’s mouth twisted in disdain.  “Well, I’m looking for a fight.  This is where the scum of the Shingles hangs out , is it not?” A couple more youths moved into the room behind him, insolent smirks on their faces.  Their leader spoke loudly, “You, you puking wimp - what are you doing here?”  The scribe looked behind him.  The hulking youth was staring in the scribe’s direction.  “What are you, some kind of adventurer fanboy?”, he said as he stepped forward.  “Well, you’ll do for starters.”  The scribe gulped, and started stammering.  “N - N - N, Not...” A bar wench intervened, hurrying forward and stepping between him and the thug, fists on her doughty hips, as she scolded the trouble maker.  “Come on, there’s no need for that.”  The young noble, if that’s what he was, clenched his fist and smashed her in the mouth, knocking her to the floor, as he screamed “Shut up, slut!”.  As she glared up at him, he stared around the room, breathing heavily, with an aggressive grin on his face.

A hoarse voice, grating like the lid of a tomb sliding closed, cut through the tense atmosphere. “Any of you kids don’t wanna to get hurt better head out the front, right now.”  An old man, with thinning white hair, and a face lined with age and scars, spoke.

His narrowed eyes gleamed with fury, but his face remained passive.  Meeting his gaze, the pair at the back paled, and almost fell over each other as they scurried out.  Their leader swallowed, but his nerves held.  “So, is this all you have to offer here?  Women and old men?  Well, it’ll have to do.”  Striding to the old man’s table, he grabbed a stool, then brought it down on the veteran’s head with a massive blow that broke the stool to kindling.  The old man looked as though he hadn’t even noticed the impact, and spoke again.  Although he spoke softly, his voice carried a tone of loaded menace that was unmistakable.  “I know what you’re thinking.  Why isn’t this guy hurt?  And, is he armed?  Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself.”  Without pausing, the old man reached around behind his chair, his gaze never breaking from his astonished opponent.  “But being as this a two-handed greatsword, the most powerful bladed weapon in the world, and would slice your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?”.  While speaking, he produced a massive black-metalled weapon, and swung it slowly until the razor-like blade was inches from his assailant’s face.

Without a further word the bully fled from the inn.  The scribe heaved in a deep breath, and realised that he had found a hero.  As he drew breath again to speak,  the old man looked at him and asked, “What do you want a hero for, anyway?”
“Well, erm, to be honest, erm, I’m hoping to become a bard, and I thought I should find a hero’s story to tell.” he replied.
The old man sighed.  “Well, I’m no hero, but I’ve a story to tell.  Been bottled up inside me too long.  You interested?”
The scribe nodded, and settled down at the table, spreading out parchments, quills and inks.  The old man stood, revealing a tall, lean frame, and went over to the waitress.  He hefted her to her feet, with unusual ease, and gave her a small bottle.  “Drink this, you’ll feel better.”  After a trip to the bar, he returned, with two small, strong looking drinks.
“Ever hear the tale of the Crimson Throne?.  No? Well, it was before your time.  Not that long ago it seems, but, anyway, it’s an interesting story nonetheless..  There’s a few different versions going around - lots of those involved put their spin on it, but I’ll try and tell it unvarnished.  You can fancy it up with your long bardy words later.  Hmmm. Where should I start.”

He lifted up his drink, and drank it down in one smooth gulp. ”So, I was born here in Korvosa, a long time ago.  Don’t know who my folks were.  Went to an orphanage.  Luckily, it was one of the good ones - set up by Lady Lindsay herself, I hear.  Those are my first memories - food, teachers, friends.  Good memories, while they lasted.  The luck didn’t last long.  I was abducted.  Snatched by a piece of human filth.  Name of Gaedran Lamm.  He used to run a few of us.  Pick-pocketings, market thefts, even burglaries.  If we brought him money, he’d reward us with a smack in the face.  If we failed, he’d beat us unconscious.  We couldn’t fight him - he only used us young kids, and he got rid of any who challenged him.  That’s what he tried to do to me.  Either I stuffed up once too often - I was never good at stealing - or he figured out I that I wasn’t going to put up with it much longer.  Anyway, he tortured me, and left me for dead on a pile of garbage.  His mistake.  I’m tougher than I look.  It’s a mistake a lot have made, and a lot have regretted too.  Anyway, I knew I had to leave Korvosa.  The wily old bastard had a long reach, and if I’d stayed, I’d have ended up crocodile food.  I ended up wandering Varisia for a while.  Spent some time with the Shoanti.  They’re a crazy bunch.  Some of them are real angry.  I guess a bit of it rubbed off.  Anyway, I finished growing up in Magnimar.  Still on the street, but I managed to survive honestly.  I never forgot Lamm though.  When I figured I’d learned enough to take him on properly, I headed back to Korvosa.  Damn, I haven’t talked this much in years.  I need to stretch my legs.”
The old man stood again, stretched, picked up his sword and pack, and strolled towards the door. He glanced back at the scribe, and said “I’ll see you tomorrow then, if you’re still interested.”.
The scribe quickly scooped up his possessions.  “Wait, I don’t even know your name.”
The old man chuckled, and, with a sardonic grin, shrugged his shoulders.  “Nine Hells, I never knew my name either.  But, you might as well call me Gritt like everyone else did.”

House Rules

Permitted Sources

• Pathfinder Core Rule book
• Advanced Players Guide
• Curse of the Crimson Throne Players Guide
• UC and UM (though run it by me)

Character Background

• Feel free to flesh out your background as much as you like, though there is one caveat: the adventure begins with each of you sharing a common enemy. A small time, yet sinister crook known as Gaedren Lamm. In Korvosa, he is known to run a gang of pickpockets made up of orphaned children. This man has slighted you and is someone you would dearly like to get even with or bring to justice. Don’t concentrate too much on your history with him … his will be short lived but it will be the initial thread that draws you all together.
• The Curse of the Crimson Throne Players Guide has some background information that you may find useful (or not)
• Major faiths in Korvosa are Abadar, Pharasma, Asmodeus, Sarenrae and Shelyn. Though there is a communal worship area where almost any faith can be worshipped.

Languages

Korvosa is originally a Chelaxian colony, as such Chelaxian is considered its official language. However there is significant minority class of varisians who make up approximately 10% of the population. This proportion is much large amongst the poorer districts and varisian is usuallu spoken in these areas.

There will be no Common tongue

Point Buy

• Standard – 15

Advancement

• HIT POINTS: Maximum for the first two levels, ¾ for the remaining levels.

Advancement

• Fractional SAVING THROWS

• Goods saving throws +1/2 per level
• Poor saving throws +1/3 per level
• First Level only: +2 bonus on each good saving throw

• Fractional BAB

• Goods BAB +1 per level
• Medium BAB +3/4 per level
• Poor BAB +1/2 per level

Alignment

Good-aligned characters are preferred, however those that like to sit on the fence can be Neutral. Neutral characters get benefits withregards to alignment based spells and effects, therefore these morally uncommitted characters will not benefit from ‘Good’ related xp awards.

Wealth

• Average for first level characters
• Otherwise wealth as per wealth chart, maximum of 50% on one item, minimum 10% on consumables

Fate/Luck Points

• Curse of the crimson thrones uses Harrow cards as a form of luck/fate points. This system is weaker (and more specific) to what we used in rune lords, but I’m going with the adventure path flavour and will be using Harrow cards/points. To be explained during the adventure path

Experience awards

• Character Background, 250xp

Standard bonus awards is 100xp per character level to givenin the following situations

• Written Journals, stories etc
• Notable in character drama moments
• Genuinely funny moments in character
• Altruistic behaviour

Magic Items & Item Creation

• Permanent Magic Items that have a save DC, the DC will be based on the spell level being employed + charisma + 10
• Permanent Magic Items are crafted at full market value cost (ie no 50% discount)
• Items that provide a constant bonus in the form listed below are crafted at full market price. These are nuts and bolts magic items that contribute most to character power. My reasoning for doing this is to make characters pay the true cost for popular magic items, and let other less used (or less attractive items) more attractive because they can still be made at 50% market price.
• AC (ie armour, amulet of natural armour, ring of protection etc)
• Saves (ie cloak of resistance)
• Ability Scores (ie belt of giant strength)
• To hit (ie magic weapons)
• Damage (ie bracers of archery, holy weapon enchantment)
• Other items maybe added at my whim ...
• Consumables are crafted at the usual 50% cost (ie potions, wands, charged miscellaneous items, rings etc). Staves will also be included here, even though they are no longer really consumables.
• An items caster level is the minimum caster level to meet the items spell prerequisites. Ignore the listed caster level for the item, this is just a typical example of the item. So a fly spell would usually have a minimum caster level of 5, an amulet of natural armour +3, needs a bark skin cast at 9^th level
• Out of slot item add +4 to the caster level
• Secondary, tertiary additions to a slot items have a cumulative increase of +4 caster level, ie a cloak of resistance +3 would have a caster level of 9, adding a cloak of elvinkind to it would make it 13, adding a third ability such as muleback cords would make it 17
• Specific weapons and armour will be more constantly to improve, incurring a further +50% cost to all extra improvements.
• Item Availability will be as per core pathfinder rules, which means you may buy any item under the base purchase limit (which is significantly lower than 3.5) plus a selection of random items above this value. I’ll use my random generator for choosing these items. This list will refresh approximately once a month. Note: When teleport/fast travel becomes available, I am just give a flat 10% per month of finding a specific item.
• To craft items you must have converted your gold to crafting materials.
• There will be times that downtime is limited so set your expectations accordingly.

Leadership Feat

No Leadership feat, though you may acquire a cohort if you wish though normal role-playing mechanisms or spells like Awaken. Cohorts do not suck up party XP awards, though they do take a half share of treasure. Generally I’ll have DM veto over what a cohort does, it will be role-played by me but the players can advance the cohort and I’ll expect I’ll normally let the player run it in combat. (I’ll step in if I think the cohort would do something out of character)

Double Barrelled Firearms

I’ve had a bit of a discussion with Jason who pointed out the rort that is double barrelled firearms; using the rules as written there isproblem when using one-handed double barrel weapons.

A double barrel pistol may be fired twice in a single attack(one for each barrel) but at a -4 penalty to hit for each shot. To reload theweapon it costs one standard action for each barrel.

With Rapid Reload the reloading time can be reduced to amove action and if you use alchemical cartridges this reduces the reloading totime further to a free action. Thus one could use this combo to reload bothbarrels as a free action, effectively doubling the rate of fire.

This means one could use rapid shot and iterative/hasteattacks to pump out a massive amount of attacks,

Ie a hasted 11^th level fighter might looksomething like this:

+6/+6/+6/+6+/+6/+6/+1/+1/-3/-3

This is before you start adding magic weapons, point blank,dexterity and other feats.

Clearly wrong.

I’ve flip-flopped a lot on ways to handle this, but I’llthink I’ll settle on the following:

a)      Regardlessof what manner of feats/equipment you are using, the quickest you can reloadboth barrels of a firearm is a move action. You may choose to reload a singlebarrel instead in which case the quickest you can reload the weapon is a freeaction. No funny business with the timing of the free action to reload, even ifyou start the round with one barrel loaded, it will cost a move action to loadthe second barrel

b)      Anyprecision based damage is applied to the first attack only.

Essentially these rules pretty much mimic the doublecrossbow.

Death

I’ll be using a variation of Pom’s system. Rather than tryto build a large table full of death after-effects I’m going to try andsimplify it and instead choose an effect to fit the situation on the fly.

I’ll probably yet tinker with these tables, they are a workin progress but for expediency I want to get this document out so you can startcreating your characters.

Also I’m, open to alternative ideas here. Alex you mentionedyou had other ideas which I’m willing to try

First determine the location by rolling a d10

Location of Injury		Associated Mechanic
1-2	Head	Sight, hearing, mental, will saves, wisdom, intelligence & charisma
3-4	Psychological	Will Saves, Confidence, Fears & Phobias, Mental
5-6	Body/Torso/Other	Constitution, Stamina, HPs, Strength, Fort Saves
7	Right Leg	Movement, Reflex, Strength, Dexterity, AC
8	Left Leg
9	Right Arm	Dexterity, To hit, Damage, Strength, Spellcasting, Shield AC
10	Left Arm

           

Then determine the impairment byrolling a d10, the lower the roll the worse the severity. The penalty shouldapply logically to whatever location the injury has been sustained

Some injuries can be consideredcontinuous or situational, continuous means the effect is constantly applied.Situational means only under certain circumstance. Generally situationalpenalties are more severe but only applied some of the time. Examples ofsituational injuries might be when hit by a critical hit, subjected to anenchantment spell, when flying etc. This will usually relate to the manner inwhich the person almost died.

Severity of Injury The descriptions given are samples of what might be applied
1	Reroll twice on this table. If a 1 is rolled again then a more severe debilitation, such as arm or leg being severed, a severe condition permenant condition such as insanity, blindness, exhaustion or constant flatfootedness. Do not make any more Rerolls
2	The injuries manifest as a Condition being applied to you. Situational: confusion, cowering, dazed, frightened, panicked, paralysed, staggered, stunned Constant: dazzled, deafened, fatigued, shaken, sickened
3	-2 penalty to a saving throw, -2 to hit and damage, -1 saving throw DC, -2 caster level
4-5	-10ft movement, can’t run or charge, 10% arcane failure,  -2 ability checks, HPs
6-8	-2 penalty to set of skill checks, the specific skills will be dependant on the injury and normally keyed to an ability score, -2 concentration checks
9-10	No significant game mechanical penalty, ie scarring, nervous habit, etc

The Beginning

Korvosa, like any city, has its share of undesirables. Cutpurses, thugs, thieves, burglars, assassins, and lowlifes of every sort can be found in waterfront slums, creeping in the sewers, or hiding in the tangled Shingles above. The Korvosan Guard does what it can to keep the city’s criminals from causing too much harm, but the cold reality is that they will always outnumber the law. And that means some crimes go unpunished and some criminals see great success.

Worst of these, perhaps, are the city’s crimelords. Dozens of them operate in Korvosa at any one time, from

the sinister leader of the Red Mantis assassins all the way down to the Varisian Sczarni thugs who preside over a gang of a half-dozen friends and cousins. These minor crimelords are often, ironically, the ones who do the most damage to Korvosa’s law-abiding citizens, as larger organizations have little need to bother commoners. One such undesirable is Gaedren Lamm, a despicable low-life who missed his chance at being somebody big in Korvosa’s murky underworld. Well past his prime, the decrepit thief abducts orphans and forces them to support his despicable lifestyle with petty crime. Many of Korvosa’s lower class have had dealings with Lamm, and even a few of the city’s middle class and nobility have had their lives complicated

by this foul old man. Yet no matter what he does, he always seems to slip away from the guards and avoid answering for his crimes.

Gaedren Lamm’s luck is about to change, though. For among those his actions have recently touched are several men and women destined to become some of Korvosa’s greatest heroes. And one of those heroes is you.

- From Curse of the Crimson Throne Player's Guide