[OOC] Keratia: Story of the Surf, Tales of the Deep

[Lucius Cypher]

Mainly the ones who actually went on the scouting mission aka Tayang, Hector, and Oliver. Though for the most part only Oliver shows and visible signs of actually being bothered by it, and more in a hindsight/regret sort of way like "Oh dammit that's right, we do have a scout, I didn't need to risk my butt." Cuz you know, he got cut.

[rush99999]

Out of curiosity, do half-orcs exist in Keratia? Because every time you've introduced an NPC that's one of the Godsworn, you've never described them as half-orcs as far as I can recall.

[Lucius Cypher]

Half-Orcs do exist, but baring ones who lean heavier towards their nonorcish lineage, they all look mostly orcish aside from slightly slimmer builds (since they don’t have the powerful build trait and all). Additionally it’s “unusual” for Orcs to breed outside of their own race largely due to cultural reasons, though yes the usual born from rape raiding and pillaging types of half-Orcs do exist. But this isn’t nearly as common as most people expect and, a natural but unfortunate consequence of a non-orcish couple birthing an orcish child, most half-Orcs don’t survive infancy.

As one might expect, places were the typically aggressive and warlike orcs living peacefully among their neighbors are rare. Those born from a peaceful matrimony are often caught between the two worlds while generally accepted by neither, and adventuring itself isn’t a steady way of living when allies are slim pickings. Thus most half-Orcs you might find tend to live normal civilian lives as oppose to orcs more natural inclination to be raiders or mercenaries. Or either that they do work with other orc mercenaries, but are nondescript and just sort of blend into the bulk of the horde.

[rush99999]

So if normal orcs are relatively accepted among civilized Keratian society and the rare half-orcs are as well to a lesser extent, what about orogs? Do they ever make their way to civilization? If so, are they received any differently from normal orcs.

[Lucius Cypher]

Uncommon to the point that most people consider them more a mythological being. And much like any mythological being of old, there are hundreds if not thousands of orc hopefuls who claim to be a decendant or even an orog themselves, to mixed results. The issue with orogs is that there's a lot of discussion about what exactly makes an orc an orog; is it greater than average intelligence? Is it it being bred with an ogre? Is it simply divine blessing? All these things are just one of the many things that orcs will fight among each other about.

Mechanically speaking by the way, the orcs in Keratia are not Volo Guide's orcs, but Eberron style, which mainly means two things: instead of simply Intimidation they get Primal Intuition, which means they get two skills proficiencies (Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, or Survival). And secondly, they don't have the innate -2 int of the Volo Guide orcs, so orcs in generally are not any more or less stupid than other races. It's for this reason that the orcs in Keratia are fully capable of creating and maintaining their own forms of government and diplomacy, but also still have the same issues as any other nation when it comes to conflicting ideals and cultures. Incidentally their Primal Intuition also means that there's a large variety of skill among different orcs, which encourages a sort of tribalism to stick with people who are good at what you're good at, but also competition where orcs would want to be better than their fellows by whatever means practical for them.

[rush99999]

Would Talogan be able to find 20 pitons and a rope ladder among the Kraken's general supplies or would he need to buy those?

[Lucius Cypher]

The rope ladder you can find but the pistons not so much. Don’t exactly need climbing gear on a boat.

[rush99999]

Does the narrow strip of sand and rock look like it would be difficult terrain or would Talogan and his crew be able to traverse it easily enough?

[Lucius Cypher]

The sand and rocks doesn’t look too difficult right now, but you could suspect that if it’s sufficiently wet, such as from a high tide or rain, it would easily turn into mud and thus be difficult terrain. But right now it would be easy enough to traverse.

[rush99999]

How long will it be before the next high tide?

[Lucius Cypher]

Roll a nature check.

[rush99999]

I'm guessing a 4 means Talogan doesn't know.

[Lucius Cypher]

You have a vague idea that the height of tides have something to do with moon phases, though right now what phase the moon is or how that relates to tides, you wouldn't be too sure. Best as you can tell is that it's not high tide right now.

[rush99999]

Out of curiosity, what does the Keratian calendar look like? Is it similar to the Gregorian calendar of our world or are there certain differences notable enough to be seen at a glance?

[Lucius Cypher]

Well the biggest and most notable difference is that there isn’t a standard calendar between all the nations. Some like the northern nations that made up the former Crystal Khanate May use the same calendar system, as do the orc nations, but those two differ from one another. Even neighboring nations like the Kingdom of Bray and The Apotheate have two different calendar systems due to political reasons, aka religion. Indeed, many of the different calendars are based around dominate religions, as temples and such often hold festivals and celebrations which is used by the common folk as landmarks of sorts to know what the rough approximate dates are.

The closest thing to a global standard time is one developed by Doros, the most powerful mercantile nation, that many of its trade allies adopt for convenience when doing business. They have a calendar system that resembles out real world Gregorian calendar with seven days making up a week, twelve months making up a year, and four seasons dividing up those months. However the Doros Calendar still differs by hours because each month has 32 days, except the winter months which have 40 days. Thus the Doros calendar has 408 days in a year.

[rush99999]

Can the HP of a creature be discerned simply by looking at it or does a fight have to start before the health bars are revealed?

[Lucius Cypher]

In-character, your characters can gauge the level of damage creatures have taken and may be able to withstand based off things like how bloodied they are, are they sluggish or not, and other common sense thing. Granted, zombies of course are difficult to gauge because rotting corpses, but at the same time you'd know that even the most fucked up zombie tend not to take violent and sudden dismemberment well.

Out-of-Character, you'll only get HP's if you roll initiative. I mostly keep HP displayed for my own sake.

[rush99999]

So far, Talogan knows that the unknown creature commanding the drowned has white skin, commands a mob of the drowned using a song that - while hauntingly beautiful - does not exert any influence over the living, and is probably not a siren (Which dislike ugly creatures such as the drowned.) nor a sea hag (Which have blue skin rather than white.) either.

With these clues in mind and a religion check of 15, would Talogan be able to hazard a guess as to what could be down there?

[Lucius Cypher]

White skin, haunting songs, and commanding undead. While I don't know how much of a scholar Talogan may be, putting together some information from Nyx and tales you would've heard from various sailors and pirates trying to pass the time, you could conclude that the creature controlling these undead is some sort of spirit, a ghost, and most likely: A Banshee. Women who have died horrifically, their rage and hatred turning them into an undead creature far more threatening than a mere zombie or skeleton. And compared to the relative mindlessness of the drowned, a Banshee is a fully sentient undead, albeit one who feels perpetual torment and hatred for the living.

[rush99999]

Does Talogan know what happens if a Witch Bolt is cast into a body of water with multiple creatures standing in it?