Tales are told throughout Golarion of shadowy figures that lurk in dark corners—stories recounted at children’s bedsides feature bestial creatures that come out only when the moon is right, and fireside legends speak of otherworldly beings beyond reckoning, whose very existence is more than the human mind can bear to know.
These are the legends that explain where the blood of the family cow went, and why clerics spend so much time ensuring the proper Pharasmin rites are observed at gravesites throughout the Inner Sea. One can write them off as simple, scary stories in Absalom or Westcrown, but in Ustalav, everyone knows the truth of the things that go bump in the night.
The Immortal Principality of Ustalav lies on the northern shore of Lake Encarthan, a grim bastion of civilization amid the barbarian north, where a harsh landscape and a history rich in tragedies inspire a wary population with skepticism, religious devotion, and superstition. A conglomeration of loosely aff iliated counties, each run by feuding nobles vying for power and influence, Ustalav is a pitiful shell of its former glory, before it was subjugated to centuries of slavery at the hands of the Whispering Tyrant’s undead armies. While the nation’s upper classes struggle to compete with the very nations that abandoned them to fend for themselves after the Whispering Tyrant’s defeat, the average Ustalavic citizen has it much worse. Hundreds of years of subjugation and the residual horrors that plague the countryside have left the people of Ustalav suspicious of magic, religion, foreigners, and their fellow citizens. Beyond their eccentric and insular qualities, Ustalavs often have a dour worldview. They resign themselves to lives of suffering, seeing nothing in their people’s history to suggest there is any hope for a better life. Despite the physical and psychological strains upon its populace, Ustalav nevertheless fosters extremely hardy and tenacious stock: men and women who firmly believe that no matter how bad it gets, history shows it could always be worse.
Although Ustalav has little to offer its rural peasants, inhabitants of its many metropolitan cities fare somewhat better, and the centers of learning and culture they provide draw trade and travelers from throughout the Inner Sea region. The capital, Caliphas, stands on the banks of Lake Encarthan, and its fog-shrouded streets host some of the nation’s most esteemed centers of trade and academia. In the north, the city of Karcau boasts a thriving culture of music, theater, and other fine arts, and its opulent architecture rivals the excess of even the most exotic Taldan palace. Meanwhile, Ustalav’s northwestern counties have broken from aristocratic rule and formed their own local, democratic government without nobles, calling themselves the Palatinates and providing a glimmer of hope for the downtrodden people of provincial Ustalav.
Although Ustalav has little to offer its rural peasants, inhabitants of its many metropolitan cities fare somewhat better, and the centers of learning and culture they provide draw trade and travelers from throughout the Inner Sea region. The capital, Caliphas, stands on the banks of Lake Encarthan, and its fog-shrouded streets host some of the nation’s most esteemed centers of trade and academia. In the north, the city of Karcau boasts a thriving culture of music, theater, and other fine arts, and its opulent architecture rivals the excess of even the most exotic Taldan palace. Meanwhile, Ustalav’s northwestern counties have broken from aristocratic rule and formed their own local, democratic government without nobles, calling themselves the Palatinates and providing a glimmer of hope for the downtrodden people of provincial Ustalav.
The Ustalavic settlement of Ravengro is located in the west of the county of Canterwall, close to the contentious border with the Hold of Belkzen.
A small river, the Ravengro Creek, runs through the town, while an even smaller rivulet meets the Ravengro Creek just north of the southernmost bridge in the town. There are three bridges in the town: two span the Creek, one to the north and one to the south, while a third small wooden bridge runs over the rivulet.
To the north of the town lies the huge water of Lake Lias, locally called 'The Great Blue Dot'. To the south of the town is a hill upon which stands the ruins of the Harrowstone prison looming over the town.
Ravengro was founded in 4594 AR as a town for the people who worked at or supported the infamous Harrowstone prison and their families. At that time the county of Canterwall did not exist and Ravengro lay in the county of Tamrivena, ruled by the unpopular Count Eigen Lorres; it was the Count's idea to build a large prison at Ravengro that could house, for a fee, criminals from anywhere in Ustalav. This plan did indeed increase Lorres' popularity as other parts of Ustalav moved their prisoners to Harrowstone and money started to flow into the county in return.
In 4661 AR, a prisoner uprising led to Harrowstone prison being burnt down and all the prisoners and many of the staff, including the warden and his wife, were killed. The prison was never rebuilt and shortly thereafter, in 4670 AR, a bloodless coup occurred in Tamrivena bringing a new democracy to the county and to Ravengro. Many political historians see the fire at Harrowstone and its immediate neglect as one of the catalysts of the move to democracy in the county.
Today, Ravengro is an idyllic self-sufficient Ustalav town supporting a local farming community, and a smaller fishing community. The town predominantly produces wheat, barley and maize, with some fish from Lake Lias supplementing the local diet.
A small river, the Ravengro Creek, runs through the town, while an even smaller rivulet meets the Ravengro Creek just north of the southernmost bridge in the town. There are three bridges in the town: two span the Creek, one to the north and one to the south, while a third small wooden bridge runs over the rivulet.
To the north of the town lies the huge water of Lake Lias, locally called 'The Great Blue Dot'. To the south of the town is a hill upon which stands the ruins of the Harrowstone prison looming over the town.
Ravengro was founded in 4594 AR as a town for the people who worked at or supported the infamous Harrowstone prison and their families. At that time the county of Canterwall did not exist and Ravengro lay in the county of Tamrivena, ruled by the unpopular Count Eigen Lorres; it was the Count's idea to build a large prison at Ravengro that could house, for a fee, criminals from anywhere in Ustalav. This plan did indeed increase Lorres' popularity as other parts of Ustalav moved their prisoners to Harrowstone and money started to flow into the county in return.
In 4661 AR, a prisoner uprising led to Harrowstone prison being burnt down and all the prisoners and many of the staff, including the warden and his wife, were killed. The prison was never rebuilt and shortly thereafter, in 4670 AR, a bloodless coup occurred in Tamrivena bringing a new democracy to the county and to Ravengro. Many political historians see the fire at Harrowstone and its immediate neglect as one of the catalysts of the move to democracy in the county.
Today, Ravengro is an idyllic self-sufficient Ustalav town supporting a local farming community, and a smaller fishing community. The town predominantly produces wheat, barley and maize, with some fish from Lake Lias supplementing the local diet.
We are not accepting new players!
Welcome one, welcome all! Apologies for the slightly lack-luster 1st OOC post I've got kicking around here, I've never really written an OOC for a Tabletop Roleplay before, and much of what I would normally put here is discussed off forum. If you're one of my beautiful players, you can probably just skip all this and start befouling the OOC with your presence. If you're not, feel free to have a look around and enjoy yourself!
So, we're experimenting with forum based role-playing. Hopefully this won't be a great big trash fire, but it's always possible. I'm just gonna put down the basic guidelines here for easy access, any other in depth questions can be asked off-forum. Just shout at me or something. Throw a rock through my window. You guys know the drill.
As I think of things or new rules are brought up, I'll throw them into here, but I'll also notify you guys. The whole goal of this is (cliched as it is) to have playing this. We're trying a new method of tabletopping, and there are going to be some bumps along the way and some kinks that need ironed out, but I'm sure we'll be fine!
- Posting can be as big or as small as you want it to be. Depending on how things are progressing, I'll most likely wait for all parties to get a post through before throwing another IC post at you. Any interactions and such can be collabed out, even NPC interactions (standard business for us). Group exploration will likely also be thrown into a collab, and broken up when we start feeling pity on the scroll bar. We'll figure it out. Probably.
- Combat will be played by ear; my current idea is to have any combat encounters as a collab as well, and then just post the whole thing once it's resolved. We'll see how that works, figure something else out if it doesn't.
- Skill Checks and Dice Rolls can be rolled on the forum; there's a neat little dice function that you can pop open. General formatting with those will be to throw it all in a hider, and then link the roll using the convenient little link button:Xample rolled a 15
- Since this is a forum based roleplay, you'll probably see everything described with a bit more fluff than usual. Most times when things are actually happening and mechanics need to be involved, I'll translate it in a 'mechanics' hider for you guys:
Xample sneaks up behind the kobold, slashing her dagger deftly across it's back, cutting clean through the armor and piercing through the rough skin.Xample rolled a 2 for damage
As I think of things or new rules are brought up, I'll throw them into here, but I'll also notify you guys. The whole goal of this is (cliched as it is) to have playing this. We're trying a new method of tabletopping, and there are going to be some bumps along the way and some kinks that need ironed out, but I'm sure we'll be fine!
[hider = {CHARACTER NAME}]
[h3][u][color [CHAR COLOR]]Name[/color][/u][/h3]
Xample
[h3][u][color [CHAR COLOR]]Age[/color][/u][/h3]
370
[h3][u][color [CHAR COLOR]]Race[/color][/u][/h3]
Another Goddamned Aasimar
[h3][u][color [CHAR COLOR]]Class[/color][/u][/h3]
Fighter
[h3][u][color [CHAR COLOR]]Appearance[/color][/u][/h3]
[hider][center][img]PUT YOUR FC LINK HERE[/img][/center][/hider]
A short description of your appearance. Be as detailed or as not as you'd like.
[h3][u][color [CHAR COLOR]]Personality[/color][/u][/h3]
As much or as little as you'd like. If you'd rather not fill this out and let it be shown IC, feel free to delete this section.
[h3][u][color [CHAR COLOR]]Backstory[/color][/u][/h3]
Guess what: as much or as little as you'd like. My initial guesses say that there won't be quite as much opportunity for backstory revealing as you'd find in an actual forum RP, so keep that in mind (not to say you can't try though.) Include your relation to Professor Lorrimor in this.
[h3][u][color [CHAR COLOR]]Other[/color][/u][/h3]
Anything else you think needs to be known. Feel free to throw a theme song in here if you've got one.
[url = {Link Your Character Sheet Here}] {CHAR NAME}'s Character Sheet [/url]
[/hider]We are unfortunately not taking character applications, sorry to say. However, if you’re interested in Carrion Crown or interested in tabletop roleplays and just want to follow along, feel free! Drop some comments in the OOC about how well our players are doing or how much you’re enjoying the narrative! We could all use some ego-boosting around here. Also, feel free to ask any of us questions; I can't guarantee that any of us will answer them, but feel free to ask anyway!
That being said; If you know Pathfinder or Carrion Crown like the back of your hand, definitely don’t be showing up like ‘You should do this!’ or ‘Do they know about the secret boss in the next room?’ That kind of thing is just rude and then I have to move the secret boss to a different room that’s too small for him. Don't come in here trying to influence the campaign, that's our job.
(We are using some variation rules and the like, so if things don’t match up, I’d really like it if you didn't jump me for what you think is an incorrect usage of rules.)
Other than that, grab a drink, sit back, feel free to watch!
That being said; If you know Pathfinder or Carrion Crown like the back of your hand, definitely don’t be showing up like ‘You should do this!’ or ‘Do they know about the secret boss in the next room?’ That kind of thing is just rude and then I have to move the secret boss to a different room that’s too small for him. Don't come in here trying to influence the campaign, that's our job.
(We are using some variation rules and the like, so if things don’t match up, I’d really like it if you didn't jump me for what you think is an incorrect usage of rules.)
Other than that, grab a drink, sit back, feel free to watch!
