Finding the Spark (Pathfinder 1E Quest)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Fantasy
-
- Tags
- pathfinder
- Location
- St. Petersburg
Funny is what it is. The question of 'where do I find you a slave at 5 AM' just got answered. It's good to see that WWC is such a customer-oriented enterprise, and that its employees will go to any length to oblige.
Probably not, though. Wouldn't risk the beans spilled.
Probably not, though. Wouldn't risk the beans spilled.
Gorok's Ghosts should open an office at 221B.
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- Location
- being near locations is my passion.
@Goldfish hey. uh. buddy?
So "and to dispose of his remains as we deem appropriate" seems really skeevy. Just so so sketchy. Especially since all we want to do is burn it to ash so he needs a True Resurrection to be brought back.
Which is 100% ethical, and sounds ethical as opposed to "these incredibly sketchy looking adventures are absolutely gonna do necromancy on this corpse" I mean, I know that we just mean to burn the body to ash, and it reads to me like we intend some fucked up shit that we're just asking the govenor to look the other way on.
Why not just say "and burnt to ash so he can't be brought back with anything less than a True Resurrection". Because that's a reasonable thing to do to the body, and with a very good reason for it that fits with our "oh, and we're killing him after the interrogation"
Otherwise,
[X] Goldfish
@zxzx24 changing my vote to Goldfish's plan btw, so I think that drags your vote with mine? You'll have to copy-paste my write in.
Edit: Fire elemental could do it, now I think on it.
So "and to dispose of his remains as we deem appropriate" seems really skeevy. Just so so sketchy. Especially since all we want to do is burn it to ash so he needs a True Resurrection to be brought back.
Which is 100% ethical, and sounds ethical as opposed to "these incredibly sketchy looking adventures are absolutely gonna do necromancy on this corpse" I mean, I know that we just mean to burn the body to ash, and it reads to me like we intend some fucked up shit that we're just asking the govenor to look the other way on.
Why not just say "and burnt to ash so he can't be brought back with anything less than a True Resurrection". Because that's a reasonable thing to do to the body, and with a very good reason for it that fits with our "oh, and we're killing him after the interrogation"
Otherwise,
[X] Goldfish
@zxzx24 changing my vote to Goldfish's plan btw, so I think that drags your vote with mine? You'll have to copy-paste my write in.
Edit: Fire elemental could do it, now I think on it.
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Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Deranged Looking Man <while holding a bloody, severed head behind his back>: "No, officer, just out for a walk in the park at 3 AM. Nothing to see here!"
Haha, plan updated to make it seem less likely that we have unwholesome plans for the Drow corpse.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
Sirim would like to point out that feeding the body to the Corpse Engine does not require necromancy, and in fact negative energies are wholly undesirable for the process.
...we still haven't sold that ship, yes?
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
@DragonParadox, can you remind me what Sirim believes he will need to create himself a new body?
To make an undead host:
- Sacred Writings of Urgathoa or Zura (or texts from the Runelord of Greed/older Azlanti works of necromancy)
- A greater undead host, preferably something well preserved like a vampire
- Time to perform a rite to replace the soul of the undead
- The aid of a skilled priest with the Healing, Resurrection or Sun domain
- The equipment required to grow a soulless body
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
So no using the high level Drow as a new meatsuit.
Oh well, maybe next time.
How can I put this...? 'Not given the present composition of the party'
- Location
- Germany
We will find some major undead to capture and kick out of his or her own body, sooner or later.
The nearest vampire is never as far away as you wish it might be.
The nearest vampire is never as far away as you wish it might be.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
Is this a skill issue, or ethics issue? The latter would point to Mina (well, certainly not Cob!), which raises the question: is there a solution with a living host that would satisfy her, or does the body need to be grown/constructed? I remember her not being too enthusiastic about an undead host either, but I think she agreed that one less vampire or some other higher undead is a net bonus. Why not 'one less [insert your proposal here]'?
I am not counting Sir Pisca as belonging to the party, of course.
An ethics issue and yes the option for growing a body exists, but you need divine lore so souls to then attach a foreign soul to it. Either you need to talk very fast at a priest of Serenrae... or rob them.
Massgamer
Advance toward the Future
- Location
- The Future
A nice little show of mundane utility of magic.
I always like settings where at least minor magic items are if not common are at least pretty accessible to those of at least middling means, show off that society does have little changes and such with all the magic around.
Vote closed. Sorry for the delay guys I slept like shit last night again because we had elections and and the 2024 ride doesn't stop.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
I feel your pain, dude.
If I wasn't able to compartmentalize to what has to be a really unhealthy degree, I would probably need to be on anxiety meds right now.
- Location
- Germany
No three weeks left until its over with the elections, right?
Two weeks, next Sunday's the parliamentary election, Sunday after that the presidential runoff.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
@DragonParadox, how are you going to calculate XP for our work in Cassomir so far?
The outright combat is obvious, though it's probably difficult to figure out the encounter calculations given the numbers involved and how separate fights were happening simultaneously.
But what about the non-combat stuff? Dealing the governor and the associated intrigue, scamming Skali and gathering info about the Drow in the city, scouting them out, etc.
The outright combat is obvious, though it's probably difficult to figure out the encounter calculations given the numbers involved and how separate fights were happening simultaneously.
But what about the non-combat stuff? Dealing the governor and the associated intrigue, scamming Skali and gathering info about the Drow in the city, scouting them out, etc.
1/2th of what you would have gotten for defeating them in combat.
Arc 9 Post 58: The Measure of Treason
New
The Measure of Treason
17th of Kuthona 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)
One of the advantages of being garbed in glamor that you had not considered before today is the ability to present yourselves as the sort of folk the governor would see, not bloody and bruised, your clothes still showing newly tender flesh where they had been torn by spell and claw. Not nobles certainly, but messengers or spies of a more reputable sort.
Up narrow stairs you go, and through a door that's hidden behind what Mina tells you is a griffon's wing. To one side you have Pisca and to the other Leontas and his right hand woman, no longer as displeased with your company now the payday had come. That had been replaced with concern over House Basri, the elves, and the WWC. The chamber the seven of you find yourselves in is stone on three sides, encased in marble and glass on the third, a sort of trophy room for curling horns and dry pelts wrapped up tight, cracked geodes like eggs of stone and eyeless faces whittled from bone that still seem to stare into the back of your skull.
"What... why?" you motion broadly at the case.
"Maybe it's where they keep the diplomatic gifts they don't want to display, but can't throw away," Mina offers.
"Or the interests of past governors that the present one doesn't want to be seen casting off," Sirim finishes. "Palaces, I have found, gather treasures like magpies' nests."
"The trophies deserve a better place," Gorok puts in.
"No, they do not," the Lord Governor enters wearing a much simpler robe than his daytime attire, but still seeming awake and alert. "This is what's called the Fool's Hall, as it holds all manner of forgeries, deceits, and curses that were attempted against the Orestes Dynasty, the last Cassomirian dynasty to mount the Lion Throne."
Well... that is a very blunt message.
At least Sirim doesn't seem the least intimidated as he weaves the story of how you had come find the drow aboard the Floating Bloat, leaving out only mention of the steel-toothed halfling who had been replaced with 'gathering rumors'. "We have several dead and one alive. Do you have a warded cell to interrogate him in?"
Over the course of the account Bozbeyli had grown ever more grim until his eyebrows formed a single grizzled line above eyes that glittered dangerously.
"For our own safety we wish to execute the prisoner once you are done interrogating him and dispose of the remains," the shade continues and you know he is about to launch into a polished argument, to be followed by lies just as polished if that does not work, but none are needed as the master of Cassomir gives a sharp nod.
"The elves you spoke of, yes. The Lantern Bearers?"
"And most likely the company you suspect of dealing with the drow. The prisoner should confirm it one way or the other."
"You said he tried to surrender and called you traitors, mistaking you for someone else?" he frowns even as he motions for the seven of you to follow.
"As a ruse," your ethereal companion emphasizes. "I have do doubt he would be wiling to say whatever you wish to hear to keep his life even an hour later. I suggest judiciary compulsion if you have a mage on call for such dealings."
"It would be best to keep this between us if you have the skill..." He sighs and admits: "Such tactics are also entirely inadmissible by law for the seizing of a citizen's property unless they are performed publicly under the watch of a priest of Abadar. I cannot use whatever he tells me if I kill him tonight, and I cannot ask you to bear witness given the danger you rightly fear out of the elf-woods." He rubs his chin, thinking as he leads you deeper and deeper into the palace, taking a lantern from a hook on the wall as he walks on.
Thankfully Sirim has an answer "If you become known as the man who revealed this elven shame your worries will be no less than ours."
"You think I can't deal with some skulking hunter and his pet lion?"
"She who sits on the Viridian Throne holds many threads about her fingers that she does not use, for such is the way of elves, as the years pass them by only slowly. Yet wrath would move them swiftly, shame swifter still."
A soldier's curse spills between his teeth, but he adds. "You're right, it's not worth trying to crack this wide open now of all times. Probably saved me some trouble."
Sirim Diplomacy (DC 25/30): 1d20+13+2 (Pisca Aid another) = 34 (Success)
The cell Lord Governor Bozbeyli leads you to, dismissing guards along the way as show of trust or just the fact of it you wonder, is locked with two doors; one of iron and another of lead which can only be moved by either magic or clever engineering, you're not sure which. The air is thick and still, and even Sirim seems to find it easier to pool along the floor than fly.
Warded indeed.
For once you do not feel the least troubled to let the prisoner out of the sack.
"You..." the drow blinks up blearily, either from the light or from missing his spectacles. "Are not Marian Cicato."
"That I am not," the Governor smiles like a wolf with a haunch of meat. "How do you know that name, elf?"
"Why should I tell you more?" the prisoner challenges.
"Because not doing so could prove very painful indeed."
The threat is only met with laughter. "Mortal, you cannot hope to inflict more pain upon me than I have known in all my years, nor should you even if you spend the remainder of your brief span on this plane for the task."
One might expect a man as powerful as Bozbeyli to grow angry at the defiance. Instead, his manner stays painfully even. "Then I shall have my mages bespell you and the last thing you do in this life will be blithely reciting your life's story, not even aware you are playing the fool."
Bozbeyli Intimidation (DC 29): 1d20+11 = 31 (Success)
"Fair play," the elf nods, his smile wavering though he seems to mean it. "I had hoped that Marian Cicato would would rid me of the... blood guzzlers who had accompanied me from Zirnakaynin at the call of my... former matron. I wished to take up residence in these lands above rather than follow her dictates. The sun is irritating, but tis only up for half the span of hours and less trouble than some of what awaits me below." Unwelcome sympathy touches you at those words, though they are quickly overshadowed by his next ones. "It was my thought that the mercenaries could not tell one drow from another, and then that Cicato was going back on his word and trying to kill me along with the rest... I do not suppose you are open to a similar deal?"
Bozbeyli gives Gorok a look over the prisoner's head. He'll keep to his vow if asked, but it's clear he wasn't expecting this much forthright cooperation and the chance to deal his rival a bad turn.
As your friend ponders the matter he looks to each of you in turn: Mina who's wavering in the face of potential redemption, however unlikely, Sirim interested in where this is going, and as for Cob... well, he looks like he's about to ask for alchemy lessons.
What does Kori think of the situation?
[] No, it's still madness to trust one of the drow
[] If he can be properly warded and bound with a strong enough geas you are willing to see him live
[] Write in
OOC: Man, everyone is rolling high this update.
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- Location
- being near locations is my passion.
I'm thinking nope.
He was making drugs out of people - and not those who died of otherwise natural causes, but actively having people killed for a reagent.
Also, terrifying vengeance.
Also, I don't trust any sort of geas against a frickin' drow. The culture he was raised in + he has a time to think means I'd forever fear a dagger to the back.
Maybe we could:
1 pretend to accept, get what info we can,
2. knock him out (so he can't save against a curse that messes with his ability to recognise some questions as directly dangerous to answer),
3. apply curse
4. Mina casts Ill Omen on him (Ready action Fortune on herself, next round she uses Fortune and then casts Ill Omen. [Note: Does Fortune work on Caster Level checks to beat SR?)
4. Wait for a full turn (for Mina to get her actions back). Wake him up and Suggest him - Mina has a readied action to use Evil Eye on the prisoner before suggestion is cast), uses Fortune on the person casting Suggestion to help them beat his SR.
Edit: Also, Detect Thoughts
He was making drugs out of people - and not those who died of otherwise natural causes, but actively having people killed for a reagent.
Also, terrifying vengeance.
Also, I don't trust any sort of geas against a frickin' drow. The culture he was raised in + he has a time to think means I'd forever fear a dagger to the back.
Maybe we could:
1 pretend to accept, get what info we can,
2. knock him out (so he can't save against a curse that messes with his ability to recognise some questions as directly dangerous to answer),
3. apply curse
4. Mina casts Ill Omen on him (Ready action Fortune on herself, next round she uses Fortune and then casts Ill Omen. [Note: Does Fortune work on Caster Level checks to beat SR?)
4. Wait for a full turn (for Mina to get her actions back). Wake him up and Suggest him - Mina has a readied action to use Evil Eye on the prisoner before suggestion is cast), uses Fortune on the person casting Suggestion to help them beat his SR.
Effect: The witch can grant a creature within 30 feet a bit of good luck for 1 round. The target can call upon this good luck once per round, allowing him to reroll any ability check, attack roll, saving throw, or skill check, taking the better result. He must decide to use this ability before the first roll is made. At 8th level and 16th level, the duration of this hex is extended by 1 round. Once a creature has benefited from the fortune hex, it cannot benefit from it again for 24 hours.
Edit: Also, Detect Thoughts
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Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
People can willingly fail saving throws and they can willingly choose to let their Spell Resistance allow spells to affect them. I'm writing a plan now that includes the Drow allowing spells to affect him if he wants a chance to live.
After he answers our questions, I doubt anyone will have much reason to keep him alive.
- Location
- being near locations is my passion.
Good point.
If we were going to actually make a deal, him agreeing to being enchanted to not lie would be part of it. And it'd be much better for us (saves spells) if he agrees to lower his SR/fail saves.
Personally I think he'll refuse and I think that if he has anything that he might use to try and escape - anything at all, that would be the moment he makes a desperation play to escape.
So I'd like readied actions from our melee guys to bring him back to 0hp for the moment we ask, and for two or three turns after that.
------
Idea on how to get him to lower his SR/fail saves: It might be good to couch it in terms of "It appears that circumstances being what they are means we have removed you from an... annoying situation than causing you any significant long terms harm. [Bluff:] We have no interest in your private life[/bluff], but if you wish to enter an agreement we need to know that you are someone who will keep to a fairly made agreement."
Actually, @DragonParadox putting aside Mina's "non-Mythic can't try to save until Mina's next turn, I'm not seeing anything about Evil Eye only being able to be used once on a target every 24 hours.
Does that mean that even if a target saves against -2 to skill checks or it wears off, she can just apply it again?
If so, I'd like for her to apply it to Skill Checks at all times, unless this guy tries to resist our spells, and for those turns I'd like her to switch to saves please.
If we were going to actually make a deal, him agreeing to being enchanted to not lie would be part of it. And it'd be much better for us (saves spells) if he agrees to lower his SR/fail saves.
Personally I think he'll refuse and I think that if he has anything that he might use to try and escape - anything at all, that would be the moment he makes a desperation play to escape.
So I'd like readied actions from our melee guys to bring him back to 0hp for the moment we ask, and for two or three turns after that.
And then we can go back to cursing him while unconscious (so he can't/is less able to recognise us as people who he needs to keep secrets from), and doing the Fortune/Ill Omen + Fortune/Suggestion stuff (which will consume more resources than if we can get him to agree)
------
Idea on how to get him to lower his SR/fail saves: It might be good to couch it in terms of "It appears that circumstances being what they are means we have removed you from an... annoying situation than causing you any significant long terms harm. [Bluff:] We have no interest in your private life[/bluff], but if you wish to enter an agreement we need to know that you are someone who will keep to a fairly made agreement."
Actually, @DragonParadox putting aside Mina's "non-Mythic can't try to save until Mina's next turn, I'm not seeing anything about Evil Eye only being able to be used once on a target every 24 hours.
Does that mean that even if a target saves against -2 to skill checks or it wears off, she can just apply it again?
If so, I'd like for her to apply it to Skill Checks at all times, unless this guy tries to resist our spells, and for those turns I'd like her to switch to saves please.
Evil Eye* (Su)
The witch can cause doubt to creep into the mind of a foe within 30 feet that she can see.
Effect: The target takes a –2 penalty on one of the following (witch's choice): AC, ability checks, attack rolls, saving throws, or skill checks. This hex lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the witch's Intelligence modifier. A Will save reduces this to just 1 round.
This is a mind-affecting effect. At 8th level the penalty increases to –4.
The witch can cause doubt to creep into the mind of a foe within 30 feet that she can see.
Effect: The target takes a –2 penalty on one of the following (witch's choice): AC, ability checks, attack rolls, saving throws, or skill checks. This hex lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the witch's Intelligence modifier. A Will save reduces this to just 1 round.
This is a mind-affecting effect. At 8th level the penalty increases to –4.