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Finding the Spark (Pathfinder 1E Quest)

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Artemis1992 said:
That seems completely absurd to be honest.

Who would think that, instead of giving your agent the legal documents, giving your legal documents to a Devil and giving the agent a scroll to summon the devil at need, is sensible idea?

You just made everything more complicated, wasted the money for a Scroll of something like Lesser Planar Ally at least and made it more complicated for any officials to check up on your agents.

If anything, an officer of the crown should arrest you for trying to pull this shit and your boss for making his people try to pull this shit.
And the devil too for being complicit in it.
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The point is not that the devil would have the documents, but that it is itself the repository of whatever arcane legal exception you are using to justify your movement and the reason it can happen like this is because Chaliax is not a kingdom allied with Baator, it is a kingdom in the thrall of Baator.

To give a comparison before Rome has law tablets that everyone could read they had a tribunal of elders who functioned on a 'trust me I'm honest' principle, that obviously gave them a lot of power. Same principle with Chelish law and devils. No one in the captain's position wants to question a serious devil and you just convinced him that this is the kind of mess he was in at the moment

The improbable nature of the lie you had to go with was why the DC was so high.
 
DragonParadox said:
The point is not that the devil would have the documents, but that it is itself the repository of whatever arcane legal exception you are using to justify your movement and the reason it can happen like this is because Chaliax is not a kingdom allied with Baator, it is a kingdom in the thrall of Baator.
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Cheliax might be de facto in thrall of Baator, but in their own self-conception they are not, as far as I can tell.

Her Infernal Majestrix should come down hard on anyone trying to justify legal bullshit merely with "I have devils" because every mediocre summoner can pull that string.
And she should also come down on officers letting people get by with that, if she values her authority and the appearance of sovereignty.

Edit: Going a step further, even if she was openly sworn to serve Asmodeus, she should still not let devils or people with devils do what they want, because devils can lie and cheat and no legal system based on trusting random devils without a clear sign of being agents of Asmodeus in this particular matter can function.
 
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Damn, a DC 60 Bluff check. That freaking Vampire...

Well, it's a good thing we did try to Bluff instead of handle it some other way, because there wouldn't have been any talking them out of that when they had written orders.

No reason for everyone to not be available for watch, thanks to Keep Watch spells. Everyone in our party also has Rings of Sustenance except Sirim, but those don't completely eliminate the need for sleep.

[X] All Hands on Deck
-[X] Sirim uses Shadow Enchantment to cast Keep Watch on the himself and the rest party so that everyone can remain vigilant. Kori will also cast it on four Iruxi combatants to for the same benefit.
 
Artemis1992 said:
Cheliax might be de facto in thrall of Baator, but in their own self-conception they are not, as far as I can tell.

Her Infernal Majestrix should come down hard on anyone trying to justify legal bullshit merely with "I have devils" because every mediocre summoner can pull that string.
And she should also come down on officers letting people get by with that, if she values her authority and the appearance of sovereignty.

Edit: Going a step further, even if she was openly sworn to serve Asmodeus, she should still not let devils or people with devils do what they want, because devils can lie and cheat and no legal system based on trusting random devils without a clear sign of being agents of Asmodeus in this particular matter can function.
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The rigid adherence to the law - or at least the appearance of it - breaks down the further from the seats of power one goes, just like in pretty much any civilization.

People are going to let stuff slip through from laziness, greed, fear, or malice. The captain should have carried out the inspection as he was ordered to, but the potential fear of repercussions if he angered the wrong Devil or Summoner outweighed his fear of the consequences of not following his orders to the maximum possible extent.

In almost any other instance, he wouldn't have talked at the danger, but Kori just told a lie enhanced through multiple magical effects, and he still only succeeded through a reroll. It's not like the captain himself is a Devil, or some sort of unfeeling automaton such as an Inevitable.
 
Artemis1992 said:
Cheliax might be de facto in thrall of Baator, but in their own self-conception they are not, as far as I can tell.

Her Infernal Majestrix should come down hard on anyone trying to justify legal bullshit merely with "I have devils" because every mediocre summoner can pull that string.
And she should also come down on officers letting people get by with that, if she values her authority and the appearance of sovereignty.

Edit: Going a step further, even if she was openly sworn to serve Asmodeus, she should still not let devils or people with devils do what they want, because devils can lie and cheat and no legal system based on trusting random devils without a clear sign of being agents of Asmodeus in this particular matter can function.
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To be clear this guy is about to get censured into a potentially literal pit for believing a fast talking adventurer. The normal procedure would have been for you to summon your devil (which is a valid and recognized means of holding information) and then the devil to say its piece. This would be matched up against whatever is on that sealed document (and potentially the one who gave it to them), but Kori went from ruthless slaver to 'you really don't want me to have to do this' so the captain got cold feet and now he is in deep shit.

You came off as more frightening by proxy than the Chelish law to an agent of Chelish law, that is why the DC was 60.
 
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It should also be noted most people in Cheliax are aware that devils are horrifying monsters, conceptually. It's been three generations since the end of the Civil War, that is not enough to wipe away millennia of religious lore, they also know what soul pacts and possession are. What portion of them think Abrogail is just a puppet of some devil's whims? Well that is the kind of suspicion you do not share with anyone ever... but it's probably not a small number.
 
DragonParadox said:
It should also be noted most people in Cheliax are aware that devils are horrifying monsters, conceptually. It's been three generations since the end of the Civil War, that is not enough to wipe away millennia of religious lore, they also know what soul pacts and possession are. What portion of them think Abrogail is just a puppet of some devil's whims? Well that is the kind of suspicion you do not share with anyone ever... but it's probably not a small number.
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Actually, I was doing some reading on Cheliax nobility yesterday (gotta pass the time while I ride my stationary bike somehow...) and Abrogail II isn't scheduled to come into power for a couple more years.

She's only 15 years old right now and her cousin Infrexus is the current ruler.
 
DragonParadox said:
She is by the time she's crowned, she murders large swaths of her relatives in barely deniable ways to get into power.
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She's practically the apple of Asmodeus' diabolic eye. He sent a freaking 13th level Erinyes Inquisitor (that's CR 21!) to tutor her, and at some point after ascending to the throne, he gives her the ability to make Infernal contracts using his power.

When you've got that kind of juice, "Deniable" barely comes into the equation. 😈
 
Damn, this vampire is really pulling out all the stops to try and get his target, like wasting a lot of time and resources even.

So glad that Kori passed bluff check, that was damn high.

[X] Goldfish
 
Now we just have to hope we can make it to the sea and get underway before the Chelaxian bureaucracy can send out another ship or some other force to intercept us. With any luck, they'll be expecting us to show up in Remesiana. We just need to reach the coastline, though.
 
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