This is the Out-of-character thread for the Mummy's Mask Pathfinder game.<br/><br/>First things first, if you guys could re-post your sheets, backgrounds, etc. here<em>for great justice!</em>. After that, there's a<em>little</em>preliminary work.<br/><br/>1) if you want to fiddle around with your characters' sheets, equipment backgrounds, whatever, before the game starts, that's fine.<br/>2) The adventure path assumes the characters have already met and formed an adventuring party. So some background-building is in order. Can be as deep ("We grew up in the same neighborhood and are like siblings") or as shallow ("Someone offered me a shiny flat thing to watch their back in there") as you guys want.<br/>3) Finally... more for fun than anything... the adventuring party needs a name. Some examples of names in the book are The Scorched Hand, Cryptfinders, Daughters of the Desert, the Dog Soldiers, etc.<br/><br/>And some setting stuff!<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Wati</div><div class="spoiler_body"> <div class="floatleft">(http://i.imgur.com/PrMxtJR.jpg)</div> <div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Stats</div><div class="spoiler_body"><strong>WATI</strong><br/>LN small city<br/><strong>Corruption</strong> -1; <strong>Crime</strong> +1; <strong>Economy</strong> +4; <strong>Law</strong> +0; <strong>Lore</strong> +1; <strong>Society</strong> +5<br/><strong>Qualities</strong> pious (Pharasma), sacred site, strategic location, tourist attraction<br/><strong>Danger</strong> +5<br/><hr/><strong>Government</strong> council<br/><strong>Population</strong> 7.300 (6,670 humans, 292 halflings, 73 dwarves, 26 half-elves, 239 other)<br/><strong>Notable NPCs</strong><br/>   <strong>Banker of Abadar Anok Tejhut</strong> (LG male Half-elf cleric of Abadar)<br/>   <strong>Commander of the Voices Nakht Shepses</strong> (LN male human inquisitor of Pharasma)<br/>   <strong>Council Member Ahbehn Okhenti</strong> (CG male middle-aged human fighter)<br/>   <strong>Council member Damej Mahfre</strong> (N female old human aristocrat / wizard)<br/>   <strong>Haty-a Oshep Khamed</strong> (LN male human aristocrat / bard)<br/>   <strong>High priestess of Pharasma Sebti the Crocodile</strong> (N female human cleric of Pharasma)<br/>   <strong>Mistress of the Enbalmer's Guild Bahjut Everhand</strong> (LN female old halfling alchemist / expert)<br/><hr/><strong>Base Value</strong> 5,200 gp; <strong>Purchase Limit</strong> 25,000;<br/>   <strong>Spellcasting</strong> 7th<br/><strong>Minor items</strong> 4d4; <strong>Medium Items<strong> 3d4; <strong>Major items</strong> 1d6<br/></strong></strong><hr/><strong>Sacred Site:</strong> The Grand Mausoleum and the necropolis of Wati are both sacred to the faith of Pharasma, and draw a large number of pilgrims to the city.</div></div><br/>   The city of Wati sits on a sandstone shelf at the confluence of the Asp and Crook rivers, which provide it with building materials, rich farmland, and deep harbors sufficient to support a settlement three times its size. But even with its tenacious citizens, abundant fish and game, and thriving marketplaces fueled by the most important rivers in Osirion, Wati is forever a city better known for its dead than for its living. behind sanctified walls, an entire quarter of the city quietly sits as a massive, urban tomb. Shops, schools, markets, and estates serve as eternal resting places for those lost to madness and disease. To manage such an immense project, the city's entire economy shifted to the industry of internment. Almost 1,800 years after ht necropolis' inception, many of wati's residents continue to serve the city's funeral industry, either directly as embalmers, undertakers, and clerics of Pharasma, or indirectly by crafting the myriad grave goods all Osirians hope to carry with them into the afterlife. Death has become the city's lifeblood, and Wati prospers from its morbid specialty.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Districts</div><div class="spoiler_body">   <strong>Asp</strong>: This long, winding district of low buildings and twisting alleyways runs along Wati's southern edge. Asp was built without the planning or engineering insight of Wati's core, making navigation difficult for newcomers. Few of Asp's residents think of themselves as members of a common community the way inhabitants of Midwife or Morning Sun might. Instead, the district is a loose alliance of dozens ofblocks, neighborhoods, and streets all pursuing their own agendas. These associations hold bitter rivalries as well, usually along economic lines, which run from the well-off estates in the west to the slums of mud-brick hovels huddling against the walls of the necropolis in the east.<br/><br/>   <strong>Bargetown</strong>: Wati's unwashed masses, heretics, and down-on- their-luck foreigners gather in this semi-permanent floating district literally built atop the River Sphinx. Lashed vessels replace buildings, and narrow planks and rope railings make up Bargetown's rickety streets. Each family maintains its own tiny barge or keelboat, and joins the community for years or for only a few days, meaning Bargetown's layout is constantly in flux. The downtrodden bargers supply most of Wati's fish and shellfish, drawn from the Sphinx's sacred waters. The crocodiles and giant crayfish that prowl the river are a constant threat to the bargers, scavenging leftovers, waste, and the occasional drunk who falls into the water.<br/>   Bargetown hosts most of Wati's smuggling operations, as its residents are mostly ignored and anonymous in the eyes of Wati's mainland citizens. Those in the know can easily find looted grave goods, poisons, drugs, and all varieties of poached animals and bizarre magical reagents on the ever- shifting flotsam market. To skirt inspections and find buyers, local smugglers generally rely on the genderless fixer and fence called <strong>Dredge</strong> (LE halfling rogue 6), while most of Bargetown's more bizarre goods and narcotics flow through the fingers of the self-titled "Queen of Scows," <strong>Eswab</strong> (NE female human bard 4).<br/>   Bargetown is a dangerous place, and not merely for its criminal element. Disease spreads quickly, and the city guards are quick to sever the ropes securing Bargetown's boats to shore at the first sign of plague. Fire is also a constant worry on the poorly maintained collection of wood, rags, and pitch. Although Bargetown has no official leader, a few individuals command the respect of many of the district's residents. Most notable is <strong>Mahga Threefingers</strong> (N female half-ore ranger 4), who retired from adventuring after losing one hand and half of the other in a Thuvian tomb. An old traveling companion of Ahbehn Okhenti, Mahga can still call on the swaggering noble to grant occasional favors.<br/><br/>   <strong>Midwife</strong>: The district of Midwife is the heart of Wati, cradling most of the city's temples, markets, and professional artisans. Along with the necropolis, Midwife is the oldest of Wati's districts, with a history stretching back to the city's founding, and its residents take pride in maintaining their ancient community. Midwife's buildings, carved from stone and towering two to six stories tall, reflect the grandeur of Osirion's First Age, and house a wide variety of apartments, shops, and workshops.<br/><br/>   <strong>Morning Sun</strong>: The majority of Wati's noble estates sit on a small rise west of Midwife called Morning Sun, so named because the district enjoys the first touch of the sun's rays at dawn. Morning Sun is Wati's least populous district, containing a mere two dozen wealthy estates that consist of palatial homes, storage buildings, servants' quarters, orchards, vineyards, and a handful of lavish apartments-all of which are colorful, well maintained, and surrounded with lush gardens and statuary. Morning Sun is the home of two major noble families who squabble for dominance in local politics. The older, conservative Mahfre family enjoys the support of many of Wati's longtime residents and those who look to the past, while the Okhenti family holds the hearts of romantics, the young, and many newcomers to the city.<br/>   The Mahfre family was one of the stubborn remnants who stayed in Wati following the Plague of Madness, rallying their fellow citizens when times got hard and overseeing the city's management in the absence of official leadership from Sothis. Their influence has declined in the centuries since the coming of the Pharasmins and the rebirth of the city, but the family's loyalty and bravery in Wati's darkest hours all but guarantees the Mahfres will always have a place in the local government. The family's current matriarch, Damej Mahfre, sits on the city council and revels in her ancestors'legacy while resenting the influx of lowborn outsiders into her city. She's especially keen to see the fickle Okhenti family brought low, and spends more time in devious schemes to embarrass her perceived rivals - such as the current leader of Wati's church of Pharasma, the commoner Sebti the Crocodile - than actually running what should be her family's profitable winery.<br/>   The Okhenti family, on the other hand, fled Wati after the Plague of Madness, journeying through northern Garund and across the Inner Sea. A noble family with no lands or people to govern, the Okhentis finally returned to Wati alongside Nefru Shepses and the church of Pharasma. Today, the house of Okhenti has its fingers in most of Wati's trade and counting houses, and many acolytes at the Sanctum of Silver and Gold are either distant relations or adopted family members. The Okhentis still send their young scions to study abroad and bring back fresh new ideas and contacts to govern with a wider perspective. Critics accuse the family of being globetrotting dilettantes with no concern for their hometown, while proponents claim the Okhentis bring new lifeblood to Wati's markets. The family's swaggering, middle-aged patriarch, Ahbehn Okhenti, spent his youth as an adventurer in Absalom and Thuvia, and does little to convince detractors of his family's competence. Ahbehn's roguish charms have earned him both a reputation as a ladies' man around town and a dozen bastards, whom he generously provides for with money and cushy political appointments.<br/><br/>   <strong>Outer Farms</strong>: West ofWati, beyond the stable sandstone shelf on which the city rests, miles of silty, verdant farmland stretch along the banks of the Crook River. Barley, beans, cabbage, cucumbers, flax, garlic, melons, and millet fill Wati's fields, but onions reign supreme on nearly every farm. Wati's residents believe that onions are a gift from Pharasma. Beyond being a representation of the Great Beyond, the onion's stalk represents life, while the bulb's persistence represents the many stages of a soul's growth before, during, and after mortal existence. Many local recipes incorporate one or more varieties of onion, and embalmers across Osirion stuff onions into the chests or eyes of the dead. Most farms also support a small stand of date palms or pomegranate trees, as well as goats and chickens. Larger livestock like oxen are considered an affectation of the rich or out-of-touch foreigners, and any farmer investing in them opens herself up for ridicule. Livestock must be brought inside or otherwise protected for several weeks every summer when the rivers flood, making large animals more trouble than they're worth.<br/>   Most of the region's farmers are composed of independent families, though they tithe a percentage of their crops to the pharaoh, whose wisdom and counsel with the spirits ensures the yearly flood and the rich silt it delivers. Wati's <em>haty-a</em>, or governor, collects these tithes as the pharaoh's representative, and his surveyors spend the end of each summer measuring and marking each farm after the annual floods shift the land. Small intrigues abound just before autumn, as farmers beg, bribe, and cajole bureaucrats to enlarge their properties or squabble over strange treasures washed ashore by the floodwaters.<br/><br/>   <strong>The Veins]: Nestled between Midwife and Bargetown, Wati's harbor district stacks block upon block with woodcarvers, tar kilns, warehouses, and whatever shanties can be crammed between them. Its myriad shallow canals breed unabating clouds of insects, the bites of which spot the bodies of the locals, who stain their hands and cheeks with pitch to repel the pests. <strong>Ahmeb Tekhra</strong> (N male human expert 5) was appointed by the previous <em>haty-a</em> to oversee the district, but he has long since sold his loyalty to Wati's various smuggling gangs, most notably the Fading and the Silver Chain.</strong></div></div><br/>1. Acrid Street<br/>2. Archives of the Ibis<br/>3. Cenotaph of the cynic<br/>4. The Dry Veins<br/>5. Dust Parlor<br/>6. Getwahb's Tarworks<br/>7. Golden Lake<br/>8. Grand Mausoleum<br/>9. Hall of Blessed Rebirth<br/>10. House of Pentheru<br/>11. House of the Pharaoh<br/>12. Insula Mater<br/>13. Mender's Row<br/>14. Pharasma's Needle<br/>15. Precinct of Left Eyes<br/>16. Sanctum of Silver and Gold<br/>17. Sanctum of the Erudite Eye<br/>18. Shrine of Wadjet<br/>19. Sunburst Market<br/>20. Tahtep's Dance Hall<br/>21. Tehrk's Fine Expeditions<br/>22. Threshed Souls Fragrances<br/>23. Tomb of Akhentepi<br/>24. Tooth and Hookah<br/>25. Ubet's Folly<br/>26. Umbracene Well<br/>27. Vizier's Hill<br/>28. Whispering Stone</div></div>