Once we get the coin which contains the decisive evidence (besides the testimony of a pirate who can be dealt with locally) and report to Eutropia so she could direct her response in Oppara, our mission here is done. We don't even need to maintain secrecy, as Eutropia's guards will be here in an hour to detain the head of House Basri, and he will realize whose plot it was anyway. Secrecy would buy us his inaction in the meantime, though.
Our goal is the coin, which we can grab and run. Cob has Shadow Teleport, and the rest of us aren't even fully there. Extraction is secure, and with it, the job.
Then the hell are we doing trying to murder the head of the house in the middle of a family gathering and in front of two of his children?
I know, I know, we aren't really doing it for the murder, but it's in the cards, and more importantly, we aren't doing it for the mission that can be completed without it. The proportionate response to House Basri's intriguing would be to get them to hang themselves with it through Eutropia, not... whatever this is. Hitting him with his own tentacle, sure. Planting him headfirst in the grease, sure. Stabbing him with a lethal weapon with his kid watching, I'll pass on it.
We aren't trying to murder him at all. As I mentioned earlier, even Cob's possible Sneak Attack will only be made in order to attempt to break the Wizard's concentration if he tries to cast a spell.
No one can see what's happening right now except for Kori and Cob, thanks to the Deeper Darkness spell. If the Wizard succeeds in dispelling that, however, there will suddenly be a lot of potential witnesses. So far, all the Wizard has seen, thanks to his See Invisibility spell, was Cob disguised as a Liminal Sprite.
Everyone gets to act before the Wizard in the Initiative order, so he is going to have to succeed against multiple effects before he can attempt to cast a spell. We just need to delay him for one round to give Cob the chance to Shadow Teleport out of here.
We aren't trying to murder him at all. As I mentioned earlier, even Cob's possible Sneak Attack will only be made in order to attempt to break the Wizard's concentration if he tries to cast a spell.
Yep, that's more reason to keep the Deeper Darkness from being Dispelled. The only other beings in the vicinity who might be able to see through it would be Devils, who we now know may actually be around here somewhere.
The darkness AoE is a huge 60 foot radius and it radiates from the pebble. It will spread out to fill as much of that space within the manor as it can, only stopped by tightly sealed rooms, closed doors, etc. As long as it persists, we don't have to worry so much about reinforcements showing up, though one round should be enough.
All we need is to hit. Sneak Attacking with lethal intent assumes striking a vulnerable point to better kill or disable a person. The ability is called "Debilitating Injury". Cutting their tendons, stabbing them in the throat, that kind of thing, which the debuffs and extra damage represent. I don't want that.
Non-lethal attack implies going to pains to take someone alive and not stabbing them in the eye on accident, hence the reduced to hit.
If I could, I'd take the middle road of not going for vulnerabilities and not handicapping ourselves.
Not quite. He can't do a Sneak Attack inflicting non-lethal damage with a weapon that normally inflicts lethal damage, like his dagger. I wasn't thinking about that.
The only way he is going to do a non-lethal Sneak Attack is to punch the Wizard with his Tiny-sized fist.
If you take damage while trying to cast a spell, you must make a concentration check with a DC equal to 10 + the damage taken + the level of the spell you're casting.
The Concentration check DC will be 10 + damage dealt + spell level.
So assuming Cob's punch does an average of 22 damage, the Concentration check DC will be 35 for a Dispel Magic spell. Assuming the Wizard is 9th level, just to err on the side of caution, and has a +6 INT bonus, his Concentration bonus is going to be +15. There are effects which could boost his check, though, so it's not a guaranteed success on our part, just close to it.
Plan updated, now with Super Goblin Punch.
[X] "Fey" Shenanigans
-[X] Cob activates his Unfettered Shirt as a Standard Action to gain Freedom of Movement and retrieves the coin as a Move Action. If the Wizard attempts to cast a spell this round, he uses one Mythic power to make a Surprise Strike Sneak Attack as a Swift Action against the Wizard, punching him so as to inflict nonlethal damage. He inflicts the Bewildered condition on the Wizard (-2 AC for 1 round). --[X] Surprise Strike Nonlethal Sneak Attack Punch: +15 [+1 Mythic, additional +1 Size and DEX bonuses from being Tiny-sized], 1+7+4d6 [x2], Ignores DR
-[X] Kori uses Inspired Spell to cast a Chain of Perdition spell targeting the Wizard, instructing it to attempt to Drag him into the Black Tentacles spell effect. --[X] Chain of Perdition Spell: +15 CMB vs Blinded Wizard's CMD (-2 AC penalty, No DEX bonus)
-[X] Pepper casts a Grease spell targeting the Wizard's position. --[X] Grease Spell: DC 15 Reflex save.
Vote closed, sorry this took so long guys, combination of not sleeping much last night and the weather looking like it's Silent Hill outside, shockingly the diffusion of all natural light in a thick blanket of fog isn't good for motivation.
Why wouldn't this have happened during an Ustalav arc?
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Jan 1, 2025 at 11:03 AM, finished with 38 posts and 6 votes.
[X] "Fey" Shenanigans -[X] Cob activates his Unfettered Shirt as a Standard Action to gain Freedom of Movement and retrieves the coin as a Move Action. If the Wizard attempts to cast a spell this round, he uses one Mythic power to make a Surprise Strike Sneak Attack as a Swift Action against the Wizard, punching him so as to inflict nonlethal damage. He inflicts the Bewildered condition on the Wizard (-2 AC for 1 round). --[X] Surprise Strike Nonlethal Sneak Attack Punch: +15 [+1 Mythic, additional +1 Size and DEX bonuses from being Tiny-sized], 1+7+4d6 [x2], Ignores DR -[X] Kori uses Inspired Spell to cast a Chain of Perdition spell targeting the Wizard, instructing it to attempt to Drag him into the Black Tentacles spell effect. --[X] Chain of Perdition Spell: +15 CMB vs Blinded Wizard's CMD (-2 AC penalty, No DEX bonus) -[X] Pepper casts a Grease spell targeting the Wizard's position. --[X] Grease Spell: DC 15 Reflex save.
Cob's shirt gleams with an oily sheen and in a moment he is lose, diving for the coin he'd dropped only to dart upwards before the mage had even finished his next incarnation and hit him in the eye. Seeing him blinded, you strike: a conjured chain around his ankles to drag him into the reach of his own spell. In the darkness the fleshy whips fails to connect as one of the other men present pulls their lord back out again, a sword half drawn at his side.
"Never mind me!" He shouts, managing to keep his feet with surprising grace despite the floor now being covered with a fine layer of grease. "Spread out and find it!"
As though mortal eyes could spot Cob, you snort inwardly, slinking along the wall. Then something about the spell those words flow into catches your ear, familiar and more deadly than any blade or blast of fire could be; a wandering wizard's eye, tool of spies and supervising clergy left to deal with lazy novices alike. The guards, you realize, are a distraction for the true way he means to track the trespassers in his domain.
Cob Attack (vs AC 19): 1d20+15 = 21 (Success) -> Cob does 19Damage
Lord Basri at 31/50 [Nonlethal]
Chain of Perdition (Vs AC 16): 1d20+15 = 17(Success)
Guard Initiative: 1d20+4 = 9(Failure)
Tentacles Grab: 1d20+15 = 23(Success)
Tentacles Miss Chance (DC 50): 1d100 = 2 (Miss)
Pepper Spellcraft (DC 19): 1d20+15 = 18 (Failure)
Akorian Spellcraft(DC 19): 1d20+9 = 22 (Success)
So as you follow Cob you look over your ethereal 'shoulder' and willing that you might see the unseen, pyros bright in your veins and in your eyes until you can see the spark of his attention and try to burn it out. Alas, like a white hot coal it proves tenacious, no matter how much you might blow on it.
Again... words come... purpose comes, the spell behind you dies out and with that slipping out of the house is as easy as a greased eel through a noose. Lord Basri no doubt knows someone was minded to steal his thunder, but with any luck he won't be able to connect that to an odd group of mercenaries who are working with Princess Eutropia.
Akorian uses Inspired Spell x2: See Invisibility and Dispel Magic x2 -> Mythic Power at 3/5
Akorian Dispel (DC 15): 1d20+7+2 = 14(Failure)
Akorian Dispel (DC 15): 1d20+7+2 = 25(Success)
Speaking of Eutropia, she is shocked to hear about the diabolism and at once horrified and grudgingly impressed when she hears of Basri's plans to reveal her dealings to the Emperor. "This must be getting quite the old hat for you now, but you have my thanks once again, masters Akorian and Cob."
"Hat?" your friend asks hopefully.
The princess, who had been leaning against the rim of a fountain not far from the Basri estate where she had bid you meet her, says something to one of her guards in what you assume is the Ulfen tongue. The man laughs, nods, and pulls out a large fur hat seemingly made out of a whole badger out of his pack to throw it to a very happy Cob.
"You can use that hat as a distinguishing sign if you ever need to get to me in a hurry through all the purple ribbons," she says, referring, one assumes, to the custom in Taldor to bind official documents with purple ribbon to signify the Imperial family.
What do you do next?
[] Return to Augustana in order to rebuild the Dancing Slurk and recover Gorok's tribe
[] Spectate Pisca attempting to drink the fluids recovered from the pirates under the supervision of a resurrected Saenar
[] Write in
OOC: Kori's Spellcraft pulled through when it had to. Without that even Cob's perception would have struggled to see an invisible sensor zipping along behind him, which would have lead to Basri to knowing who had just broken into his house and maybe even being able to continue to spy on the princess and her plans before she paid him a visit, giving him further advantage.
Arcane eye can see with the same acuity as the caster, so he could have cast some kind of darkvision spell after you guys ran off, there is no way to tell from just the sensor.
I think the most important part of this encounter was that Cob just got an awesome new badger hat. That's much better than the stinky armor he was so attached to for a while.
We've more than done our part here in Cassomir. It's not what we set out to accomplish, but we ended up being pretty damned big heroes, IMO. Dealt with pirates, saved a bunch of slaves, uncovered a major Drow plot, revealed that the Elves of Kyonin were playing diplomatic FAFO games, that House Basri is compromised in the extreme, defused Elywa's plans, made a very good impression on the princess of Taldor, and possibly saved her a great deal of trouble back in Oppara if our final efforts were enough to diffuse the blackmail scheme. And Cob got the hat, can't forget that.
All told, it was a long arc, but quite satisfying.
Now I'm ready to head back to Augustana. Things are going to get even more fraught here in Cassomir, and Taldor in general, from what I can tell. The princess has to do some serious damage control and politicking back in Oppara, and those are waters we don't want to swim in right now. The sooner we get back and start work on planning the rescue mission for Gorok's tribe, the sooner we can get them safely settled in their new swamplands.
[X] Return to Augustana in order to rebuild the Dancing Slurk and recover Gorok's tribe
-[X] Make one last trip to a suitable merchant to purchase at least two more Greater Teleport scrolls (2,275 gold each), three Mirror Sight scrolls (375 gold), and three Dimension Door scrolls (700 gold each).
--[X] Also try to find a scroll of Summon Ship (700 gold), a scroll of Trade Wind (150 gold), and two Unseen Crew scrolls (1,125 gold each). It isn't a bad idea to have a backup plan to evacuate Gorok's tribe, just in case.
