Crap, trying to buy a Deathwine scroll poisoned the well for us here with other Divine magic, so to speak?
Okay, nothing says we can't try to buy another one elsewhere when we haven't unintentionally tanked our local rep among the temples. Now the question is whether we should go ahead and buy the scroll anyway? I doubt the scroll itself will be problematic, but dealing with the Norgorberites, on the other hand, could cause longer lasting issues. The last thing we need right now is a lot of attention from the followers of the God of Thievery.
This is annoying. Unfortunately, the damage has been done and we have more attention from people we would have rather avoided.
I think the best thing we can do is just go ahead and buy what he's selling, then try to see if he has any info to sell related to our current goals. Norgorber isn't really associated with slavery or Demons, at least, so there is only a small chance his people are actively working with the WWC, House Basri, or the Drow.
If it comes out that we've been dealing with the Norgorberites, we can at least try to claim we were doing so to get information about illicit activities in the city at the behest of the governor. Everyone knows they deal in secrets and have their fingers in most criminal pies.
@DragonParadox, how is it looking for the other purchases? I would have like to go after the anti-Divination stuff before anything else, if possible.
[X] Purchase the scrolls and poison, and attempt to buy any information the Halfling might be willing to sell about slaves disappearing into the depths of the city, and who might be involved in the process.
The wizards you spoke to indicated they have some of what you are looking for, but how much and at what price they have not informed you yet... probably because they want to divine you to see how much you are worth before they sell you wards.
I worried that Deathwine would look skeevy, but I was hoping that our intended use-case would be considered reasonable:
To boost Sharesister – d20PFSRD . So as to boost Tears to Wine.
I was thinking about adding in a line explaining what we wanted it for, but I didn't want to be naggy. Darn.
Either way, this person is likely to have quite a lot of information we would consider quite valuable.
@Goldfish we might be able to pull more info from him somehow... but not sure. Ill think about it.
"Halflings are embarrassed to admit that some among them worship Norgorber: those who have turned to crime and those that are disenchanted with their normal role in life. There are enough such halflings that small halfling-only cults exist. Halflings of Norgorber often retain a loyalty to their halfling communities, secretly aiding them using their dark talents. Most halfling cultists favour the aspect of Norgorber known as the Gray Master, including the rare halfling inquisitors. Others with a penchant for poison follow Blackfingers. Halflings following Father Skinsaw are as rare as they are mad. The halfling god Thamir is also somehow linked to Norgorber."
Honestly. Putting the knife between the ribs of some slavers might make this particular cult very pleased. Not as happy as the pile of gold we are forking over but still.
Ya know what, people can be reasonable. Especially if we are offering them money.
What if we tried to go to a temple and explained our intention for Deathwine, and then tried to buy a raise dead scroll.
It might help our reputation in the local magic circles a bit if we at least tried.
[X] Don't think you should buy a scroll granted though the power of a god you do not trust
-[X] Try again at a temple of a god who's clerics are likely to look well on our sort (adventurers), and explain that the Deathwine was intended to boost a casting of the Sharesister spell. Which was intended to boost a casting of Tears to Wine. Which was intended to help Pepper and Cob work together to design the second (Improved!) Dancing Slurk, because we chose to demolish the previous one rather than pay the 2000 gold docking fee. (Mina is buffed with Bestow Insight Diplomacy, Fortune Hex and uses Mythic Surge). Pepper puts his racial bonus to Diplomacy and gives the help action. The hope here is to get a scroll of Raise Dead, but also try to undo a tiny bit of the damage done to our reputation.
Kori was looking at the ruins of the former Arodonite abbey, he has 12 guises of which 4 are described above, though now that you mention it it does seem odd that those statues all seem intact.
Ya know what, people can be reasonable. Especially if we are offering them money.
What if we tried to go to a temple and explained our intention for Deathwine, and then tried to buy a raise dead scroll.
It might help our reputation in the local magic circles a bit if we at least tried.
I doubt it would be that simple. It would just seem like an attempt at after the fact justification; sketchy people lying to cover their asses after being found out to be doing questionable stuff. Basically, a case of the shadowy group of adventurers who could be poster children for Norgorber professing their innocence, just like real poster children of Norgorber would.
It's just time and effort that probably won't amount to much at this point.
I doubt it would be that simple. It would just seem like an attempt at after the fact justification; sketchy people lying to cover their asses after being found out to be doing questionable stuff. Basically, a case of the shadowy group of adventurers who could be poster children for Norgorber professing their innocence, just like real poster children of Norgorber would.
It's just time and effort that probably won't amount to much at this point.
I don't want to use the Raise Dead scroll currently offer, or have to wrestle with selling it on when we get a reliable one later.
I think that earnest boat building intentions are pretty wholesome and sincere, and I think it's worth the shot, so I made a vote for it. We might roll well.
Basically, a case of the shadowy group of adventurers who could be poster children for Norgorber professing their innocence, just like real poster children of Norgorber would.
I don't want to use the Raise Dead scroll currently offer, or have to wrestle with selling it on when we get a reliable one later.
I think that earnest boat building intentions are pretty wholesome and sincere, and I think it's worth the shot, so I made a vote for it. We might roll well.
As DP mentioned yesterday, once the Divine magic is used, in this case when it was imbued into the scroll of Raise Dead, the god who provided the power for the spell no longer has any control over how it is used or what it does. That's why it can be harder to find certain types of Divine scrolls for sell.
The danger in this transaction isn't the scroll, but the lead up to the transaction itself. We've already crossed that bridge, though, so we might as well carry on.
...a witch's familiar and a goblin concoct schematics for some hellish vessel.
There is no point in trying to look like heroes where our team is as shady as they get without being thrown out of town at a glance. We should leverage our reputation, not seek to correct it.
I think Goldfish is onto something with poking the Norgorberite for secrets. We might mention our prior stunt with escorting halfling slaves out of Cheliax and see if it means anything to them. Halflings do seem like they are on the list of people whose disappearance wouldn't bother the guards much.
I did roll to see if Mina thought to worry about the Deathwine IC, but she has been hanging around with Kori 'I see ten-thousand-year-old-dead people', Gorok 'skull-taker' and Sirim...
If there is anyone who could be contacted for information about slaves without it leaking back to House Basri and the drow, it's Bellflower. And we know their cells are active in the city.
Oh indeed my mysterious friend, there has long been agitation to tax Taldan grain more heavily so as to benefit Andoran farmers. People don't usually like the price of bread going up though, but it sounds like the recent Bellflower leaflets about the contrition of slaves in Taldan estates have done their job.
[X] Purchase the scrolls and potions. After checking to be sure they are what he says they are.
-[X] Ask about the "hidden" cost of the scroll his patron might ask for.
-[X] Trade for information also.
-[X] Slaves have been disappearing en mass. And perhaps about the local bellflower organization
-[X] Ask about the prices for hiring people to collect information... or property.
We have more morals than most. But murder. Betrayal. Lying. Stealing. And poison are all things we have and likely will do in the future.
[X] Purchase the scrolls and poison, and attempt to buy any information the Halfling might be willing to sell about slaves disappearing into the depths of the city, and who might be involved in the process.
[x] Purchase the scrolls and potions after checking to be sure they are what he says they are.
-[x] Ask about the "hidden" cost of the scroll his patron might ask for.
-[x] Trade for information.
-[x] Slaves have been disappearing en mass. And about the local Bellflower organization; namedrop Iolda if you have to.
We just wanna buy useful items! Does it have to get political? lol
[X] Purchase the scrolls and poison, and attempt to buy any information the Halfling might be willing to sell about slaves disappearing into the depths of the city, and who might be involved in the process.
[X] Purchase the scrolls and poison, and attempt to buy any information the Halfling might be willing to sell about slaves disappearing into the depths of the city, and who might be involved in the process.
Weirdly enough, a priest of a semi-legal cult is a more trustworthy source than most regular merchants here.
After all you can never know if the merchant will report to a noble house we are in disfavor with, but you can assume that the evil cultist will keep his secrets, or use them to his own or his patrons benefit.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Nov 11, 2024 at 4:20 AM, finished with 23 posts and 7 votes.
[X] Purchase the scrolls and poison, and attempt to buy any information the Halfling might be willing to sell about slaves disappearing into the depths of the city, and who might be involved in the process.
[X] Don't think you should buy a scroll granted though the power of a god you do not trust -[X] Try again at a temple of a god who's clerics are likely to look well on our sort (adventurers), and explain that the Deathwine was intended to boost a casting of the Sharesister spell. Which was intended to boost a casting of Tears to Wine. Which was intended to help Pepper and Cob work together to design the second (Improved!) Dancing Slurk, because we chose to demolish the previous one rather than pay the 2000 gold docking fee. (Mina is buffed with Bestow Insight Diplomacy, Fortune Hex and uses Mythic Surge). Pepper puts his racial bonus to Diplomacy and gives the help action. The hope here is to get a scroll of Raise Dead, but also try to undo a tiny bit of the damage done to our reputation.
[X] Purchase the scrolls and potions. After checking to be sure they are what he says they are.
-[X] Ask about the "hidden" cost of the scroll his patron might ask for.
-[X] Trade for information also.
-[X] Slaves have been disappearing en mass. And perhaps about the local bellflower organization
-[X] Ask about the prices for hiring people to collect information... or property.
[X] Purchase the scrolls and potions. After checking to be sure they are what he says they are.
-[X] Ask about the "hidden" cost of the scroll his patron might ask for.
-[x] Trade for information.
-[x] Slaves have been disappearing en mass. And about the local Bellflower organization; namedrop Iolda if you have to.
Taking the scroll from Mina you feign deep interest in its script, though the wedge-shaped markings mean nothing to you. "Things seem... in order." Deception and comprehension dance upon a razor's edge, or perhaps better to say the points of daggers hidden in the halfling's eyes. Eventually he snorts to himself and turns his head aside in recognition, mayhap even a mote of respect. "We are also in the market for information, slaves going missing in the Teeth. You wouldn't happen to know something about that do you, Master Steelbite?"
He seems to find the name amusing and thereby showing more of the teeth for which he's named. "What's it to you?"
"Now that you'd have to pay for. Our business is our own. Now if you'd asked how much it's worth to us, I'd say..." you look towards Gorok, who already has some numbers in mind thankfully. "A thousand for the location of one or more of the missing slaves, three times that if you give us a name for the people holding them so we do not have to waste our time extracting it from the local... talent."
"If they were talented they wouldn't be knee-breakers, would they? Two thousand."
"For...?" you trail off when it's clear he's not going to continue.
"Everything I'm willing to share and my silence to anyone else who might ask about the curious for..." he looks over your company again, weighing each in part, paying particular attention to Cob. "Three days. I reckon in about three days you'll finish your business one way or the other. That or you'll be buying a quiet way out of town. But we can talk about that, if it comes to it, later."
"Talk," and then we'll see if you're worth the money, it goes unsaid. It's refreshing to talk to someone who doesn't need that added, almost enough to make you homesick.
"Skal Sallowflesh's sailing high in the surf these days, big man in the corpse trade, ghoulrunner. Guess that tells you what I think happened to those slaves. He's been branching out into eskelette, cutting it with something exotic. Alchemist I'm tight with said it's got traces of mushroom, meat, an' magic, lots of magic. You can't grow something like that in the Teeth, there ain't no room on those shitty little islands, and I'd heard he can't be smuggling it in. That leaves down. They're growing something down in the Low Locker, which means there's either a new way down or they have a man on the inside in the Guard. "
"Where can we find him?" Gorok interjects.
"Leatherworker down by where they make fishhooks on north isle, ask for patchleather, and when the fellow says you look a might prosperous for that, just say, 'I just like the look of it'. That'll get you to one of his ghoulrunners as a customer. I'm guessing you can make your own way up from there. Skal should be upstairs most days, he doesn't like to show his ugly mug where the sun can see him. Try not to burn the place down though, they do actually turn out decent leather, and only place in the Teeth than can boast it."
On the balance you don't think he's lying, if only because your return business would be worth more than the people he's selling out, and the others seem to agree.
Lost 2,000 gp
***
18th of Kuthona 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)
The nights that follow give you more reason than history and the musings of scholars to dismiss the workings of fate, for if such a thing exists than one must conclude it holds your efforts in particular ill-favor. Mage after mage complains that they do not have the right reagents to craft what you asked or that the stars are not right, in one particularly infuriating case that a shift in the city's geometry caused by the standardization of roads means they have to move their sanctum. That will be three times the price next month.
Thankfully you are not entirely without your own means of divination, nor without friends. Between Leontas knowing a Taldan war wizard who does large enchanting orders on the side for discerning clients and Urgor sending the word out among Cassomir's dwarves you eventually manage to aquire enough warding... for now at least.
Availability (DC 20/50/60): 9 (Failure)
Focus Re-roll: 10, 69 (Failure, Full Success) All Re-rolls Expended
"Feels strange to be wearing all this," Mina confesses guiltily that evening. "You could buy a castle or feed a town for this much gold."
"We have neither castle nor town, just five lives, and I'd rather we keep them." Gingerly you put a hand on her shoulder, as she had sometimes done for you. "We are worth this."
"Well... we are doing the right thing, even if everyone else thinks we're wicked, even the actual wicked folk."
"Steelbite?" The silence lingers a moment as you think. "I think he wants us to succeed. He told us more than we strictly paid for, after all."
"Like what?" Said another way the words might have been a challenge, but she just means them in honest interest. You can tell.
"Three days, that's how long he figures we have until someone tracks us down for our interest. One day now."
"One and a half if counting to the hour, it's still early." She dons her cloak and glamor too. "Lets get to it."
***
Thankfully, enchantments to aid the bearer in whit and charm are far more common on the open market than wards against divination. According to Sir Pisca, they are the common fair of 'gilded men', commoners who made their wealth in craft or trade and now wish to impress. Though he does allow that there is nothing wrong with a magician seeking such to better their art nor a warrior his strength, to which Cob takes the chance to prove his strength by lifting Warty... attempting to at least. The slurk gives gives a helpful bounce when he figures out what he's trying to do.
Bead of Newt Prevention: x5 (1,000 gold each, total 5,000 gold)
Belt of Physical Might (+4 DEX & CON): x2, Gorok & Cob (40,000 gold each, total 80,000 gold)
Belt of Mighty Constitution (+4 CON): x4, Kori, Mina, Sirim, Warty (16,000 gold each, total 64,000 gold)
Cloak of Resistance +4: x5 (16,000 gold each, total 90,000 gold) Handy Haversack: x5 (2,000 gold each, total 10,000 gold)
Headband of Alluring Charisma (+4 CHA): x1 (16,000 gold)
Headband of Vast Intelligence (+4 INT): x2, Mina, Sirim (16,000 gold each, total 32,000 gold)
Lesser Metamagic Rod of Encouraging Spell: x1 (3,000 gold) Unfettered Shirt: x5 (10,000 gold each, total 50,000 gold)
By the end of the night you had acquired a regiment's worth of minor and middling enchantments, enough so that you'd probably driven up the prices in the city for months to come, though hopefully you won't be here to see it and the ghoulrunners hadn't heard about it. On the one hand, nothing of what you're now wearing requires a necromancer's touch, but on the other, a great deal of money changed hands. As Gorok rightly puts it, the best way to find out is to ask him. The question now is how to go about it.
Availability DC 20/35/55/80: 1d100: 82 (Full Success)
Bracers of the Glib Entertainer: x1, Kori (7,900 gold) Folding Boat: x1 (7,200 gold) Gloves of Arrow Snaring: x5 (4,000 gold each, total 20,000 gold) Hunter's Band: x1, Gorok (11,000 gold) Headband of Ponderous Recollection : x1, Cob (5,100 gold) Iron Spike of Safe Passage: x1 (2,000 gold) Jaunt Boots: x3, Kori, Mina, Sirim (7,600 gold each, total 22,800 gold) Lesser Metamagic Rod of Tenebrous Spell: x1 (1,500 gold) Not found
Lesser Metamagic Rod of Extend Spell: x1 (3,000 gold)
Lesser Metamagic Rod of Silent Spell: x1 (3,000 gold)
Lesser Metamagic Rod of Still Spell: x1 (3,000 gold)
Lesser Metamagic Rod of Enlarge Spell: x1 (3,000 gold)
Pearl of Power (1st): x2 (1,000 gold each, total 2,000 gold)
Pearl of Power (2nd): x1 (4,000 gold)
Pearl of Power 3rd: x1 (9,000 gold)
Ring of Sustenance(Slotless): x5 (5,000 gold each, total 25,000 gold) Ring of Minor Spell Storing: x2 (18,000 gold each, total 36,000 gold) Scabbard of Keen Edges: x1 (16,000 gold) Trapspringer's Gloves: x1 (4,000 gold) Traveler's Any Tool: x10, Gorok's Tribe (250 gold each, total 2,500 gold) Verdant Vine Bracer: x2 (6,000 gold each, total 12,000 gold) Vambraces of Defense: x2 (5,000 gold each, total 10,000 gold)
Cob suggests going up to the leather shop with a magic bag to nab Skal, a plan Mina agrees to with unaccustomed fervor. "Wicked elves or not, this has to stop. The dead should rest."
"It is easier to take off a silken glove than to don it again over a gauntlet of hot iron," Sirim holds his own. "We should approach him peacefully first."
