The Romance of the River Kingdoms

Here's a basic description of Jar'Thol's spirits guides. The pictures aren't really actual representation of the spirits but are rather there to set the "mood" of each one (a picture is worth a thousand word they say ). Also, they might need Shromic names but I don't really know what Shromic should sound like.

The Playful Crane (Travel domain)
This is a young and playful nature spirit that has taken an interest in Jar'Thol traveling ways. As a crane spirit, it is beautiful and graceful. It is also quick and likes flying high and swift.

The Wise Crone (Healing domain)
This is the spirit of an ancient ancestor of Jar'Thol's mentor. She was an herbalist and a healer of great talent. She is wise, nurturing and benevolant. She appears as an extremely old salsham'ai woman (i.e. older then the art shows).

The Blossoming Mother (Plant domain)
An old and primal plant spirit of the braashak. She represents the expanding and renewing power of the forest. She's usually calm and uncaring but if angered, her wrath can be terrible.

The Rolling Man said:

The Wise Crone (Healing domain)
This is the spirit of an ancient ancestor of Jar'Thol's mentor. She was an herbalist and a healer of great talent. She is wise, nurturing and benevolant. She appears as an extremely old salsham'ai woman (i.e. older then the art shows).

Click to expand...

The thing with Shromic is that is can't really be written down, and I'm not sure that the same sound means the same thing each time, or that the same meaning is given the same sound. So I would guess that they *have* names in Shromic but you'd just have to refer to them in terms such as 'I say the name of Wise Crone in Shromic' or something vague like that!

Attached is a sketch I did ages ago of a wise old salsham'ai woman. It's a little chimpy in the ears for a salsham'ai proper, but might serve as another concept for Wise Crone?

On magic items

Some notes on magic items and feats.

Conclave is meant to be a world where small-scale magic is commonplace, but more powerful stuff is rare. Thus 0th-2nd level spells and effects that replicate them are not too unusual, anything above 5th or so is touching in the realms of the heroic.

I have borrowed a couple of Item Creation feats from Arcana Evolved which may be of interest. They are mechanically no different to existing feats, but add a little extra flavour. Level requirements remain the same.

Scribe Scroll becomes Craft Spell-Completion Item. The end product is the same - an item that gives a single use of a spell, that can be used by anyone with that spell on his spell list. It may be a scroll - sutras and ofudas are fairly common, it may be a talisman or lucky charm. The exact form is up to you, depending on the character of your spellcaster.

Brew Potion becomes Craft Single Use Item. This is a single use magical item, usable by anybody. It may be a potion or oil, it may be a specially grown fruit, it may be a scroll, it may be a pebble inscribed with magical symbols. Most spells can be turned into single use items. Ranged attack spells are usually turned into 'detonations' that require a ranged touch attack to work. Some special cases may need review on an individual basis.

The Bonded Item feat may be taken by any character of 3rd level or above, provided that they have used the item in question through several dangerous situations (and it has made a difference). A bonded item gives a +1 enhancement bonus to its 'normal use'. Most common would be a weapon, gaining this bonus to attack. A suit of armour may also benefit but other items such as thieves tools, rope, artists brushes and so forth are all candidates. Once bonded, the wielder can also spend XP to add further enhancements to the bonded item. Thus a bonded sword can gain further bonuses or special abilities. Obviously this is easier to adjudicate for weapons and armour but imagination can be applied to other equipment.

This means that, for example, swords become legendary because of who wields them, not who made them.

Losing a bonded item may or may not be a real pain. They should be fixable, with maybe a monetary cost for the ceremonial materials. Still on the subject of swords, that gives you a quest to retrieve the Green Destiny sword, or to reforge the Sword That Was Broken etc.

Further notes to the 'expanded' hit points. All hit points gained from the character class Hit Dice are considered 'Grace'. The rest (Constitution-based) are 'Health'. It all works more or less like one big pool. Grace is depleted first. Also include the following combat action (from Book of Experimental Might)

Taking a Breather
Breather moments give a PC a chance to gather himself—to mentally regroup,
collect his thoughts, catch his breath, and take stock of the situation. Characters
who use a standard action to take a breather can do one of the following:
• Heal up to their level in (Grace point) damage
• Gain a bonus to damage equal to +1 plus an additional +1 per four levels
on the following round
• Gain a bonus to one attack roll equal to +1 plus an additional +1 per four
levels on the following round
• Gain a +1 bonus to one spell save DC for a spell cast on the following round
• Gain a chance to make another saving throw to shake off an unwanted
condition with a duration measured in rounds (as opposed to minutes,
hours, days, etc. or one with a duration of Instantaneous or Permanent)

Because taking a breather is an action, conditions that prohibit actions—
such as being stunned or held—prevent a character from taking a breather.

A character can take a breather only once per encounter. A character cannot
take one outside of an encounter involving a round-by-round initiative count.

Er, I think that's the end of the houserules. Oh yes, standing from prone does *not* provoke an AoO.

So I originally said that I'd do the rolls, but would you prefer to use Invisible Castle? It gives an extra element of faff by having to add in the links, but I've always felt that the more dice that you get to roll as a player, even virtually, the better. I reserve the right for the usual secret DM checks for Search etc.

Honestly, I kind of like it when the GM rolls.

I find Invis Castle to be kind of a pain...it adds a lot of time to posting for me. Plus, I have trust issues with it.

Looks like things are getting rolling now. I've settled on a familiar...a tiny viper. I'll update character sheet asap.

Agree with Shayuri. As a player I too like it when DM does the rolling. It's more fun on the real table to roll for yourself but PBP is better this way.

I'm with Shayuri, too. Rolled 1,2,1,3 once. Sometimes IC hates me

I, for one , don't mind rolling on invisible castle but I don't really have any preferences to doing it either way.

Okay, I reckon we'll keep it that I do the dice rolls.