Please use this thread for questions, clarifications, chatting or updating.  Please notify the group if you need a break (if possible!)<br/><br/><strong>House Rules:</strong><br/><strong>HOW LONG DO WE WAIT?</strong>We don't punish characters for players having real-life issues.  However, if 2-3 days lapse between IC posts and we need your character's response, we will not wait and I will try to puppet your character for you.   This is to preserve momentum and interest.  Please forgive me if you don't like the post.<br/><strong>POST FORMAT:</strong>Please include all rolls at the end of the post.  Post DM questions in Teal.  If we need a grid, I'll put one out there, but this will not be a tactics-oriented game.<br/><strong>ROLLS AND CHANCE:</strong>All rolls should be made on the Invisible Castle 'dice roller'.  Please register (no verification required), put your character's name every time you roll, and set the CASE-SENSITIVE 'Campaign Name' as "Smolder" (no quotation marks).  If you're not sure about rolls or success chances, your best bet is to write it well, be sensitive to others, and accept the DM's ruling for better or worse.  I'm aiming for a good story with elements of chance involved, not chance with elements of story.<br/><br/>More as needed.<br/><br/><strong>Character Creation:</strong><br/>Starting level: 3, 24 point buy.  You can take a LA-1 character at a 20 point buy with approval.  Use resources in GUCK and BOEF with permission for flavor, not advantage ;)<br/><br/>Starting gold: 3000, with no more than 2 magic items per person.<br/><br/>Magic items house-rule: No wands, and any item must have a back-story explaining how your character came to possess it.<br/><br/>Classes allowed: Core Pathfinder or Advanced Player's Guide, BoEF or GUCK... others by select approval.  If you want to be almost assured approval, provide me a link to the rule in an SRD.  Your best friend: http://d20pfsrd.com (http://d20pfsrd.com)<br/><br/>Deities allowed: Any, with approval.  We'll make it up as we go if you can't find one that suits.<br/><br/>BoEF and GUCK: You may start with Four skill points and two feats from these works for free.  You receive 2 more skill points and one free bonus feat from them each level.  If you don't care for these books and don't plan on using those stats, you are not obligated to choose these skills or feats, and we'll try to provide them for you if the need should arise (which it probably won't).<br/><br/>Appearance Ability:  We're not using the Appearance score feature, but you get some appearance buffs for free.  Please carefully describe how your character looks and bear in mind that, depending on the circumstances, you may receive a bonus to Intimidate, Bluff, Gather Information, Diplomacy, Hide, or Seduction.  You can choose to be more than one with less buff-- maybe you're 'sort of sexy', 'moderately plain, 'sort of scary', 'quite regal'...  Appearance isn't really that important anyway, I assure you, but bear in mind, being extremely attractive might bring you unwanted attention, too ;)<br/><br/><strong>Game Background:</strong><br/>The intrepid explorers who first managed to find a route across the storm-prone, kraken-filled, and huge Quazo ocean to New Hadrius found that the coasts of "The Smoke Lands" were impossible to land; its coast seemed uniformly composed of constantly shifting volcanic rock, the evaporation bringing constant rain, the fissures spewing sulfurous smoke, and the porous black cliffs bubbling and crumbling as fast as they formed.  But other undersea islands provided stepping stones, and although the total trip is a total of about 5,000 miles across the ocean from Hadrius, enough islands have been populated and subjugated en route to make colonization feasible.<br/><br/>One hundred years ago, an intrepid explorer named Quinza set out from the Hadrius colony of Gomma and sailed the coast south with three ships-- after two ships were lost (one smashed on the rocks, one incinerated by ignited volcanic gasses), the crew managed to reach inhabitable land and, finally, plant the flag of Hadrius on the black sands of this land.  Thick with swamps and marshes, riddled with emerged sea-caves and tar-pits, the land is home to volcanic hot springs, inland lakes, and tropical jungles.  It is hot there all year, the storm season has seen up to three hurricanes a year, and the land is much too harsh for many breeds of livestock.... but in this age of tenuous empires, Fort Quinza is a gem; strategically located on the rim of a cape, this fort enables utter control of the inland salt-water rivers that, one day, may be the main shipping line for resources claimed in this wild land.<br/><br/>Currently, there is little industry in Quinza.  Oil is processed and shipped from there, but at the cost, this flammable pitch is barely worth investing in.  Exotic birds fetch a great deal of fashionable interest, as do the pelts of jungle mammals and reptiles.  The black sand, strange shells, and obsidian of its beaches makes for curiosities for wealthy main-landers.  Rice plantations exist near the rare freshwater lakes.  The ports are solid enough for fishermen.  But the most attention comes from a single diamond mine-- surely, with all the volcanic activity there must be more, and every gem mined is shipped back to Hadrius for a dangerous route fraught with piracy and natural danger. Settlers have been rumored to disappear without a trace, as if the jungle itself had swallowed them.  Living and dead samples of primitive native species have been recovered; these include: kobolds, goblins, trolls, jungle giants, and a halfling tribe calling itself the 'Kik-Tez'.  So far, no unified contingent of these latter have been found, with only a few 'Kik-Tez' who seem more fascinated by their captors' study than upset at having been taken from their people.  Explorers have reported seeing elves, halflings, and giants in the jungle, but these claims remain to be proven.<br/><br/>Your character lives or near the small city.  You might be a slave, a missionary, a mercenary, a hired thug, an explorer, a recluse, a convict, a reluctant son or daughter, a desperate business owner, a royal dispatch, or even one of the rare natives.