Remove ads

Finding the Spark (Pathfinder 1E Quest)

Reader mode
Huh, @DragonParadox what does it mean if opposing rolls tie each other in a social interaction like this?

On a random note, I think we are better off waiting. We can inspect slaves later as a pretense to save them and capture everyone involved, Skal included.

Unless a sneaky means to keep getting info shows itself, of course.
 
I wasn't convinced we should have talked to the guy in the first place. The question is, can we interrogate him and hit his sources before they wise up to the fact.

Leaning towards attacking.
 
@DragonParadox, Mina should have used the Metamagic Rod of Encouraging Spell to boost the Mythic Heroism spell she cast on Sirim. That would have raised its bonus to +5 and given him a decisive result in that opposed Bluff check.

I'm not sure we should try to drag this out another day. The longer a con goes on, the more likely it is to be discovered, and we've already made some waves with our arrival in Cassomir and our actions since then. Steelbite's compensated silence also expires tomorrow, assuming he wasn't lying about that.

At the same time, it might be a bit premature to attack immediately. Maybe we can pressure him to act hastily and see what happens?

Here's what I found for regular slave prices. If we're offering 700 gold each, that basically demands that we be a difficult customer. We can act like we are entitled assholes who want our new slaves ASAP, perhaps even in an unreasonable amount of time. If Skali is greedy, he might overlook his regular caution in hopes of getting a huge payday. If not, then we may as well just resort to violence.

Slave, common 75 gp
Slave, hard labor 100 gp
Slave, household 50 gp
Slave, slip (halfling) 100 gp
Slave, specialized 500 gp

I'm assuming Mina already used her Pass Without Trace SLA on everyone. That would make sense given our mission and other precautions taken for the ruse.

[X] High Pressure Purchasing Tactics
-[X] Sirim counters with, "When my master pays premium prices for merchandise, he expects service to match. That includes discrete and expedited delivery. If you can have your stock delivered to the Locker by dawn, he will pay you the agreed upon 700 gold per head. If he must delay his departure until tomorrow evening, the price falls to 300 each, and should he need to arrange to smuggle them across the city it will be 150 each. If these terms are not acceptable, he will look elsewhere for test subjects."
-[X] If Skali agrees, the group will depart. As they go, however, Kori will surreptitiously cast Extended Mythic Invisibility on Sirim using one of the new Metamagic rods, and Sirim will use Wild Arcana to cast Seek Thoughts in order to glean any information from Skali and his associates in the building related to the slaves, their hidden partners, etc. Sirim will remain behind to observe Skali after we leave, to see who he contacts, how he does so, etc. The group will remain nearby to await Sirim's report.
-[X] If Skali does not agree, take him prisoner now. You can handle his thugs and then cut your way to his partners before they even know what's coming for them.
 
Trying to pressure someone for time while appealing to their greed is a classic con tactic that rings all the alarm bells if the suspicion is there, and the circumstances are already suspicious.

On the other hand, we lose little by trying. I would expect a stronger security detail if the deal smells too fishy, but that may be to our benefit as the lead back to his suppliers may get shorter.
 
Nevill said:
Trying to pressure someone for time while appealing to their greed is a classic con tactic that rings all the alarm bells if the suspicion is there, and the circumstances are already suspicious.

On the other hand, we lose little by trying. I would expect a stronger security detail if the deal smells too fishy, but that may be to our benefit as the lead back to his suppliers may get shorter.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Seems worth making the attempt, at least.

It's a con, but one backed by a lot of cultural baggage and the tradition of rich assholes getting their way by throwing around obscene amounts of money while doing shady shit. That should be right up Skali's alley. And Sirim won the opposed Bluff check, so that means Skali bought the story. The prospect of making many times more per slave should be a good motivator for him to kick his operation into high gear, enough to maybe make some mistakes or take some shortcuts that give us an advantage.

And if he doesn't take the deal, oh well, then it's stabbing time.
 
Tomcost said:
Seems awfully cheap for a living being...
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The life of a commoner in a primitive death world beset by magic and monsters isn't worth much, I guess.

Then again, 50 gold coins is the equivalent to a pound of gold, and that is worth almost $42,000 IRL. Sad as it is, people are still bought and sold all around the world for much less than that.

50 gold used sparingly could buy enough food to feed a commoner family for quite a while. For example, 2 copper coins will normally buy a half pound loaf of bread. There are 100 coppers to 1 gold, so 1 gold can buy 25 pounds of bread.
 
Goldfish said:
The life of a commoner in a primitive death world beset by magic and monsters isn't worth much, I guess.

Then again, 50 gold coins is the equivalent to a pound of gold, and that is worth almost $42,000 IRL. Sad as it is, people are still bought and sold all around the world for much less than that.

50 gold used sparingly could buy enough food to feed a commoner family for quite a while. For example, 2 copper coins will normally buy a half pound loaf of bread. There are 100 coppers to 1 gold, so 1 gold can buy 25 pounds of bread.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I am going to use the metric system

Anove half a ton of bread is the worth of a commoner. Huh.
 
Also, can we have the good bluffers in the party ready actions to attack for if he refuses?

I'm guessing we want to Command Undead to make him ask questions?
This spell allows you a degree of control over an undead creature. If the subject is intelligent, it perceives your words and actions favorably (treat its attitude as friendly). It will not attack you while the spell lasts. You can give the subject orders, but you must win an opposed Charisma check to convince it to do anything it wouldn't ordinarily do. Retries are not allowed. An intelligent commanded undead never obeys suicidal or obviously harmful orders, but it might be convinced that something very dangerous is worth doing.

A nonintelligent undead creature gets no saving throw against this spell. When you control a mindless being, you can communicate only basic commands, such as "come here," "go there," "fight," "stand still," and so on. Nonintelligent undead won't resist suicidal or obviously harmful orders.

Any act by you or your apparent allies that threatens the commanded undead (regardless of its Intelligence) breaks the spell.
Your commands are not telepathic. The undead creature must be able to hear you.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

@DragonParadox
1. Regarding the bolded bit above, is it possible to curse a(n undead) person so they can't recognise answerin certain questions to us as suicidal/obviously harmful?

Either by cursing their ability to determine risk, or their ability to recognise that we are people that he should keep this stuff secret from?
 
I was reading at my break at work, didn't have much time to do so carefully, I misunderstood zxzx24's post.
If he's not undead, I still want to know if we can use Bestow Curse to get around the "will not answer questions if to do so is seen as suicidal" limitation, but removing his ability to evaluate risk
 
Here's the list of spell scrolls I've come up with that I want us to buy for Mina and Sirim to learn. The total comes up to 2,375 gold.

Most of them have a casting time longer than a Standard Action, meaning that Wild Arcana cannot be used to duplicate them. There are a few that are just useful to have prepared regularly for various reasons and would be worth having available, IMO.

Vanish, for example, is a shitty version of Invisibility that only lasts 5 rounds, but it's also a 1st level spell. That means we Sirim could cast one of them into Cob's Ring of Spell Storing and still have room for a 2nd level spell like Mirror Image or Sense Vitals. Blood Money is another good one to have, since it can be used in conjunction with a lot of other spells to avoid the need for expensive or difficult to find Material components for spells. We really need the Magic Aura spell, too. Once we get it, Sirim can start preparing and casting it at least once a day to hide some of the magical auras of our gear to make it look like we're carrying less enchanted stuff than we really are.

If we can get a Secret Coffer spell scroll, we should also try to get the requisite focus chests and replicas made so that Sirim and Mina can each have one. You can store a lot of stuff in a one cubic foot box. They would be great places to keep valuables, like SIrim's gear he can't wear yet, emergency supplies, money, etc. We would just need to make sure they each renewed the spell every couple of weeks to avoid risking the contents of the chests.

Spell Scrolls to Buy: M = Mina, S = Sirim
1st Level (25 gold each): Blood Money (M, S), Magic Aura (S), Reduce Person (M, S), Sure Casting (M, S), Vanish (S)
2nd Level (150 gold each): Ashen Path (M, S), Carry Companion (M, S), Make Whole (S), Mount: Communal (M, S), Tattoo Potion (M, S)
3rd Level (375 gold each): Conjure Carriage (M, S), Secret Coffer (M, S), Summon Monster III (M, S), Thorny Entanglement (M)
 
Goldfish said:
Once we get it, Sirim can start preparing and casting it at least once a day to hide some of the magical auras of our gear to make it look like we're carrying less enchanted stuff than we really are.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Not sure that's realistic, since it takes one casting per item and Sirim is just one Wizard.
Goldfish said:
Conjure Carriage (M, S
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Why that one?
It's stylish, but not exactly our fastest or best way to travel?
 
Vote closed, lets see if you can bully the slave taking necromancer.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Nov 14, 2024 at 4:54 AM, finished with 23 posts and 4 votes.
  • [X] High Pressure Purchasing Tactics
    -[X] Sirim counters with, "When my master pays premium prices for merchandise, he expects service to match. That includes discrete and expedited delivery. If you can have your stock delivered to the Locker by dawn, he will pay you the agreed upon 700 gold per head. If he must delay his departure until tomorrow evening, the price falls to 300 each, and should he need to arrange to smuggle them across the city it will be 150 each. If these terms are not acceptable, he will look elsewhere for test subjects."
    -[X] If Skali agrees, the group will depart. As they go, however, Kori will surreptitiously cast Extended Mythic Invisibility on Sirim using one of the new Metamagic rods, and Sirim will use Wild Arcana to cast Seek Thoughts in order to glean any information from Skali and his associates in the building related to the slaves, their hidden partners, etc. Sirim will remain behind to observe Skali after we leave, to see who he contacts, how he does so, etc. The group will remain nearby to await Sirim's report.
    -[X] If Skali does not agree, take him prisoner now. You can handle his thugs and then cut your way to his partners before they even know what's coming for them.
Click to expand...
 
Artemis1992 said:
Not sure that's realistic, since it takes one casting per item and Sirim is just one Wizard.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I don't expect him to hide the auras of all our gear. That's just unreasonable. But if he cast the spell once a day, he could hide the aura of one piece of gear for each party member continuously, since the duration is so long. The idea isn't to hide everything, but just to make it look like we're carrying less enchanted gear than we really are.

It's not a huge issue, since our Nondetection amulets also protect against people using Detect Magic and similar effects to see the auras of gear we're wearing, but that protection isn't foolproof. If we can hide just one aura from each party member, the amulets would be my first choice, since we don't want anyone to learn we have them, if possible.
Why that one?
It's stylish, but not exactly our fastest or best way to travel?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's a comfortable and inconspicuous way to travel in a lot of civilized places. No need to be miserable walking or riding through snow, rain, etc., if we can do so in the comfort of a carriage, assuming there are roads or viable terrain.

While it isn't our fastest method of travel, that would be using the Abductor Figurine and Ant Haul to let it carry everyone as if flies (but only for a maximum of 8 hours a month), it's faster than walking everywhere and the duration means it could last 12 hours right now if Mina uses the Extend Metamagic rod when casting the spell. A Communal Mount spell could get us the same general travel speed and in more terrain types, which is why I also want us to get it, but the duration is much shorter since it has to be split between multiple people.

The carriage is also a good way to carry passengers who would otherwise slow us down. Escort missions suck, so anything we can do to mitigate that is helpful, IMO.
 
Goldfish said:
While it isn't our fastest method of travel, that would be using the Abductor Figurine and Ant Haul to let it carry everyone as if flies (but only for a maximum of 8 hours a month)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
8 hours a month is plenty, given how rarely we need urgent long-distance travel. But we still need it at times, so may I suggest arrangements to make this travel more comfortable than 'grab a tentacle and pray you make the Athletics check'? Some harness may be in order, or maybe turn this whole thing into a Zeppelin and make the Abductor hold a carriage/cabin with us inside?

 
Last edited:
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top