The Teleporters
Delyliath easily finds charmable slaves, although it's a while before she finds one with enough wits to have interesting answers.
Andirifkhu, the demon lord of traps, is worshipped here, but a bit grudgingly; at least among the farmers and slavekeepers, there doesn't seem to be much confidence that their deity does anything these days.
There are about two thousand drow, six hundred slaves, and maybe two hundred free citizens of other races living in Lavosha. Very few interesting things have happened recently, and trade with other civilizations continues to dwindle, forcing the settlement to grow ever more self-reliant. There's not a ton of petty crime in the city, with most of the local drow being caught up in scheming or apathy.
The Travelers
Flying across the river proceeds without incident.
Don't have a second set of checks from Drisquar or Shimsil. As it stands now, Mal and Iranaset are able to tell that there is a large vegepygmy settlement in the forest they're passing through, as well as some other potentially nasty fungoids. You're not certain you could avoid them entirely, since the forest reaches up almost to the roof of the local cavern, but you are fairly certain that you could get the drop on any patrols you encounter.
"Lets skirt the edges and take out any patrols we come across."
The Travelers
Near the edge of the forest, where the trees get thinner, there's a patrol you don't think you can avoid completely, although you should be able to get the jump on them or possibly even just run past, but there's something odd about the ways they sit in on the ground and in the fungus trees, casting a wide net through this part of the forest.
There are about eight green fungus men, some wielding spears, that you can see hanging in trees and on the ground, two larger shambling fungal creatures and a few large mushrooms scattered throughout the area.
The purple mushrooms are Shriekers, which should make a loud noise if you get too close; if you know this, you can avoid them and succesfully surprise the fungus creatures.
Most of the green fungus men look like Vegepygmies, and you're aware of their weaknesses and resistances.
The purple mushrooms are Shriekers, which should make a loud noise if you get too close; if you know this, you can avoid them and succesfully surprise the fungus creatures.
At least one of the purple mushrooms is actually a Violet Fungus.
Most of the green fungus men look like Vegepygmies, four of them a bit tougher than the others, and you're aware of their weaknesses and resistances.
The two shambling creatures look like some sort of fungoid ogres.
The purple mushrooms are Shriekers, which should make a loud noise if you get too close; if you know this, you can avoid them and succesfully surprise the fungus creatures.
At least one of the purple mushrooms is actually a Violet Fungus.
Most of the green fungus men look like Vegepygmies, four of them a bit tougher than the others, and you're aware of their weaknesses and resistances.
The two shambling creatures look like some sort of fungoid ogres. Their odd shambling motion, however, suggests some sort of coordinated mind control, which might imply that this portion of the fungus forest might be under the control of a Fungus Queen who has coordinated the patrols to be harder to avoid.
The Teleporters
Anything new you guys are doing on your end?
Illia approaches the gate to the city in her Kolyarut disguise.
The Teleporters
There's some information you can get just simply as a ghost floating around through taverns and walls. The rest might require some of this party's legendary Diplomacy (since that's what Gather Info is tied to in Pathfinder)
The palace sits in the north, with the cave wall against its north face (and a thick city wall in between the two). The palace is a squat rectangle with a few pointy spires; its entire west side is abutted by barracks, and its east side opens into a fenced-in menagerie of rather pathetic creatures.
There is, in fact, a large hedge maze leading to the southern main entrance of the palace. It's got a few cute traps and monsters hiding around in dead ends, as well as some riddles and clues written in strange tongues, but the party member scouting this, being a clever ghost, is easily able to map the route to the entrance without risk.
Basic reconnaisance on the palace defenses:
There are perhaps three hundred guards in the palace-attached barracks. These are the town guard, and also Lavosha's standing army, although most of the city can fight in an organized manner if need be. The palace guards don't do much other than train, although a few times a year half of them might leave for a year on a slave-taking raid or hunting trip.
You can't find out much about the last time the town or the palace was attacked and how it responded; apparently this does not happen very often.
Most of the guards are low-level rogues, warriors, and adepts, with a few high-ranking wizards, fighters, or noble drow in leadership positions. A few of these are from feuding houses (though most of Lavosha's non-ruling house elites find more glamorous occupations than the military), but you're also able to pick up rumors about several guard captains with strange curses or proclivities who tend to not see eye-to-eye.
Lady Mencara's House Guard proper spends most of its time drilling on the palace guards, and is composed entirely of arcane casters, although many of them are magi or summoners rather than wizards proper. The city's queen has a great distrust of other noble drow and divine castersral, and prefers them out of her sight whenever possible.
At any one time, there are about 50 guards in the palace proper, with perhaps two thirds of them being House Guard.
As the palace functions as a city center, it's entirely possible to enter at least part of it without attracting too much attention; the main entrance to the dungeons, as far as you can tell, are in a guarded hallway located near the throne room, which might be a little harder to get to. Guards regularly enter and exit at least the top level of the dungeons several times a day.
Drow tend to be notoriously distrustful of outsiders, even if they're outsiders of the same race. Still, you manage to gain some information.
At least one of the city guard captains is said to be a Drider, who is generally mistrusted by the city populace. Another is fond of disguises but is said to be a Succubus bound to Lady Mencara's service, who has little patience for anyone else. There is, in fact, quite a bit of tension between these two as well as between them and the House Guard who defend the palace.
There are perhaps a dozen members of the House Guard powerful enough to cast a spell like Dimension Door, and only a handful capable of proper teleportation.
Drow tend to be notoriously distrustful of outsiders, even if they're outsiders of the same race. Still, you manage to get inside their g#%@#&n heads.
You've learned quite a bit about the town's guard captains.
Captain Skarro, as well as two of his lieutenants, are said to be male Driders, and all three are generally mistrusted by the city populace.
Captain Ayiyasha is a Succubus bound to Lady Mencara's service, who has little patience for anyone else and has a tendency to occasionally murder other soldiers in fits of boredom.
The third captain, Baron Filias is the only member of the town guard leadership who is actually locally-born, and tends to inspire confidence in his followers, though he is also a drow noble from a minor house (and a male), and widely mistrusted by Lady Mencara.
The House Guard themselves are led by Tian Elyia, a mysterious drow shadowdancer from a city far to the east, who is rumored to be responsible for a number of poisonings across Lavosha. For some reason, none of the wizards she commands have been able to murder her yet and rise to take her place.
All four mistrust each other greatly, with only Ayiyasha an Tian Elyia having Lady Mencara's favor.
There are perhaps a dozen members of the House Guard powerful enough to cast a spell like Dimension Door, and only a handful capable of proper teleportation.
The house guard appear to communicate mostly through Message spells. The palace's obvious defenses include Arcane Locks and Alarm spells on certain doors.
If you're stealthy enough, you can get a glimpse into the dungeon itself without having to worry about getting seen. The whole place shimmers with magic, and appears to be guarded with at least one Guards and Wards spell.
And, scouting the menagerie:
If you're sneaky enough, you're also able to scout the menagerie with little difficulty. There are some powerful and wild creatures, but the creatures Lady Mencara considers the "prizes" of the collection are the most intelligent ones—two captured elven wizards from the surface world, and a young Underworld Dragon.
Other info:
As a drow city remote enough to lose much of its racial uniformity, Lavosha is happy to cater to any sort of vicious-looking, powerful-but-civilized travelers... at a rather high price. A few rooms in an inn would cost the party about 15 gp a night, while renting a whole building for some privacy (with or without indentured servants) would cost at least 50.
You're welcome to find other lodgings, but the inkeepers here wouldn't care too much about any magical crafting going on under their noses.
Assume you can find any magical items for sale (or commission) with a caster level 10 or less without trouble. Items up to caster level 15 are available, but will require both a spellcraft and diplomacy check of DC 20 for each item you search for.
Illia will go ahead and move around some money, sell some stuff, and get Rallying on her new shield, then.
Stealth: take 10 => (10) + 14 = 24
::Hmm. Surface wizards? As much as it might tick the rest of the party off, perhaps setting them free could be a useful way to sow dissension and also to get some allies.::
::On a totally unrelated note, I wonder if there's a way to disrupt message spells.::
I'm pretty sure if it's spell, there's always overkill. Anti-magic field.
::True, but it will be a while before I can cast large numbers of 8th level wizard spells.::
::In this case, "any" is a large number. And the clock on "a while" starts when I multiclass into wizard.::
Oh, I thought you were a wizard, Myce. What with the haste, glitterdust, and summoned monsters. And I thought Anti-Magic was 6th level. My apologies.
::I have certain arcane abilities that do not include the capstones of wizarding power.::
Delilyath uses detect thoughts and charm monster (and her natural diplomacy) in an extensive way to find and procure a "farm owner" who would be inclined to give hospitality to her party. She would hint at the fact that he would be recompensed for his trouble, not to mention the most obvious perks of succubus gratitude.
Her final objective would be obtaining a household where both masters and slaves are enthralled by her. Possibly with a master kept level-drained to the bare minimum to make the continuous control of his mind easier.
The Teleporters:
A nice-sized farm house should be quite possible to acquire as a base of operations, as the drow living outside the city are not of the talented or noble variety. That's not even going to require a check, although it might not be quite as comfortable as the mansion you stayed in in the last city.
The Travelers:
Without Iranaset, you have no way of knowing much of anything about the fungus monsters in front of you. You could attack them, or just run through and hope their attacks don't hurt you much (which they probably won't).
The Teleporters:
A nice-sized farm house should be quite possible to acquire as a base of operations, as the drow living outside the city are not of the talented or noble variety. That's not even going to require a check, although it might not be quite as comfortable as the mansion you stayed in in the last city.
The Travelers:
Without Iranaset, you have no way of knowing much of anything about the fungus monsters in front of you. You could attack them, or just run through and hope their attacks don't hurt you much (which they probably won't).
Unless someone stops me I'm running through.
Nobody's going to stop you, but it's a forested area, so your mount might go a bit slower. I'll see if Drisquar & Shimsil have any thoughts on that plan, and update later with what it results in.
Once inside with Delyliath working her particular brand of magic, Anaxian went about doing what he does second-best, discreetly flapping about the city, staying out of sight whenever possible.
Then he reported back to his succubus partner to share what he had learned.
This city is very interesting…
Delyliath in turn shares her findings with Anaxian.
"So they do have a young dragon. One who can shapeshift.
I would like to have one of these as my personal pet." says the succubus fantasizing on it. While doing so her gaze falls upon his undead companion.
"You know? there is something I really don't get.
I can understand humans. they are frail, they are scared, they have a short life. And so, some of them are misguided enough to trade their humanity for being an undead and they don't realize that they lose everything worth living for to begin with.
But you are a dragon. The passage of time does nothing to your kind but make you stronger.
Why in the world would you trade that away for the empty existence of an undead?
It's something I can't quite comprehend"
"I am a pseudodragon. Weakest of dragonkind. Age does nothing for one so small and frail. The most I could hope for would be to end up as the Familiar to a powerful wizard. I was not satisfied with the fate I was given when I hatched."
"Magic can do many things, but permanently changing a living thing into another thing is essentially beyond any kind of arcana, divine or arcane."
"Undeath is a means to that end. Lichdom, for dragons, cannot recreate a body as it does with humans. Instead, it transfers the spirit into the nearest appropriate vessel. So, through that odd glitch in the way necromancy interacts with dragons, I found the path to the form which I seek. Were there another way, aside from necromancy, I would have taken that. The path matters little. It is the goal that matters."
"And so, for that reason, I must contest your claim to the the dragon. Its body is necessary to me."
"Mal, I could easily carry you and fly past these things in my wind form. Unless of course you're hellbent on charging through. If that's the case, I suppose we could just slaughter them all" Dris says, clearly indifferent either way.
"Mal, I could easily carry you and fly past these things in my wind form. Unless of course you're hellbent on charging through. If that's the case, I suppose we could just slaughter them all" Dris says, clearly indifferent either way.
"They mean nothing to me. If you have a more efficient way to travel I am amenable. I can dismiss the horse easily. "
Okay, looks like everyone's made it to Lavosha. People who teleported can do a bit more scouting and questioning before the rest of the party arrives, but I figure I should deal out some exp.
This might be the last time there's experience for avoiding random encounters, unless I put together random encounters that are harder to avoid than just "fly overhead."
And that should be just enough to boost everyone over the edge to level 8 before you go into the palace dungeons (as I was hoping). Feel free to level up at your leisure, and if anyone has a plan for actually getting into the palace and either sneaking into/getting permission to enter the dungeons, go ahead and propose it so I don't need to think up any convenient railroads.
And that should be just enough to boost everyone over the edge to level 8 before you go into the palace dungeons (as I was hoping). Feel free to level up at your leisure, and if anyone has a plan for actually getting into the palace and either sneaking into/getting permission to enter the dungeons, go ahead and propose it so I don't need to think up any convenient railroads.
"Well .. ok .. you are just a pseudodragon. So what, you won't become all mighty and powerful like a true dragon. Who cares?
I mean .. what would all your power be worth of when you would become unable to enjoy even the smallest things?
Once you will obtain the dead body that you would desire. what use would you have for t? It would still be a dead body, you won't be able to experience anything through it."
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"My body is not who I am. Much thought is given to what it must be like to be undead by those who have no basis for comparison. The undead themselves do not discuss it because there is no way for the living to understand. It is like describing sound to the deaf."
"Having been in both states, I can honestly say I prefer this one. I do not need to eat or sleep. I feel no pain or discomfort. I never tire. I have no annoying instincts to breed distracting me from my goals. My body is fully under my control now, rather than the reverse. I have the leisure to pursue my goals without any hindrance whatsoever. I no longer feel visceral elation or joy, but I do feel satisfaction and pride. I research, contemplate and create. I am free in a way you will never know."
"Everything with a conciousness can be essentially described as a point of view. In mortals, that point of view lies rooted in the physical. They are bodies which have minds and souls. Demons and angels are points of view rooted in the spiritual. You are spirits, which have minds and bodies. I am a mind. I have a body and a soul, but neither are actually anchoring me. My body is somewhat interchangeable, and my soul is kept safely elsewhere."
"And should I genuinely miss the taste of a particular delicacy or the feel of coitus, my arts can return those things to me for a time."
"I see..." said the succubus not particularly moved by the dracolich exposition.
"so basically you don't think you are missing out
I think you put too much faith in your plans
For my experience, the most cherished moments I ever had are the ones that surprised me, the one when I let go of every control.
But then again, you are the one who would call them distractions.
I won't, they are the goal.
Because I think, in the end, no plan really survives.
There is only so much we can achieve until something screw us up royally and turns all our plans to dust.
I am sure the high priest in Solku had great plans.
And the Drow priestess of this town has big plans too.
We all know how they will turn out.
In the end, they have no real use for all their plans.
When they die, all that remains is the collection of all the surprisingly pleasurable moments they had.
You know, the mage who originally brought me in the material world died too.
Killed by a dozen self-righteous crusaders who torched him alive for demonolatry.
Sure, he could have spent more time learning powerful spells, he would have been able to defend himself from the crusaders maybe, and he would be alive. He would have spent the best years of his life in a library, obsessed by books, but he would be alive.
Instead he lived with me and the rest of his harem and enjoyed every single second of it.
Given the chance, I don't think he would chose differently."
Delyliath pets the dracolich.
"Do not think your plan is going to be different. Everyone thinks that way, mortals, immortals, gods... and yet they all end up in the same way. One day someone will screw you over and all you will think about will be how much more joy you could have had out of your existence. When my time comes I want to think that I had everything I could ever had."
"You mistake plans with goals. I am an artist. There is an ending in mind, and that is all. The painter does not plan their strokes. They simply picture the object of their desire and work. Everything is made up, adapted, improvised. It is only at the end, when everyone can see the manifestation of what was once only in the painter's mind that there seemed to have been a plan."
"What seems to be careful planning is really just layer upon layer of chances taken, mistakes covered and changed until they form a finished masterpeice."
"So you are correct. No plan lasts. Fortunately, I no longer have the capacity to worry and all the time in the world to work on my art. That, to me, is a constant source of satisfaction."
the succubus shrugs her shoulders.
"whatever floats you boat I guess. I would ask what art you are referring to if I wasn't afraid to know the answer.
Nonetheless you are quite nice for an undead, that I will concede.
I just wonder how nice you would have been as a pseudodragon."
Delilyath sighs and paces nervously back and forth.
"I hate to wait... if the others don't arrive soon I will have to find some recreation to kill the time"
"I imagine more than time would be slain." Illia mumbles to herself. Perhaps it would be inaudible to normal folk, but there were only gods of sensory perception among them currently.
*cough*
Dris touches down in a dusty ash cloud and reverts to his normal form. "What have you found out?" He asks of Del and the others, wasting little time.
Ah, in case people were still unclear: everyone has now arrived in the city of Lavosha.
Dris drops Mal a few paces away shortly before reforming.
[ooc] I believe the teleporters have investigated everything they were planning to, and obtained a farmhouse to stay in. (Nobody's asking too many questions about any oddness of the travelers, because this is a pretty odd town)
Mal puts on a Drow appearance.
"I speak under common. That's bound to be helpful. "
"Me too!"
By the time the others arrived Anaxian had set up shop in the farmhouse. He'd somehow brought a substantial number of bones with him and rebuilt his "diggers." They had been busy. They hollowed out an underground den for him and brought the bones below and out of sight.
Much has been learned. Anaxian replied to Drisquar's question. The city is well guarded. Its captains are competent and powerful. There are three of note. One, called Skarro, is a drider, as is two of his lieutenants. The common people do not trust or like him.
Another, called Ayiyasha, is a Succubus bound to Lady Mencara. She has a well known streak of sadism, which, to be noticed among a city of crow, must be more than just a streak.
The third captain, Baron Filias, was born close by. He seems a competent leader but is not trusted by Lady Mencara.
The House Guard themselves are led by a drow shadow dancer called Tian Elyia. She is an adept poisoner and likely Lady Mencara's personal assassin as well. She seems, to me, like the one to be most concerned about. She commands a number of wizards, perhaps a dozen of which are capable of casting spells of the same caliber as our own group. A small handful are perhaps even more adept at spell casting. They communicate with each other primarily through magic, which is quite efficient, but an exploitable weakness.
All four captains mistrust each other greatly, with only Ayiyasha and Tian Elyia having Lady Mencara's favor. The other two may be potential allies.
The palace itself has extensive magical defenses include Arcane Locks and Alarm spells on certain doors.
If you're stealthy enough, you can get a glimpse into the dungeon itself is heavily enchanted and appears to be guarded with at least one Guards and Wards spell. Quite powerful.
Lady Mencara also keeps a menagerie of captured creatures, the prizes of which are two captured surface elf wizards, and a young Dragon.
We should begin our undertakings as quickly as possible. We will not go unnoticed or ignored long in this place. It is likely that the strings of interest in us have already begun.
"I have mapped out a route through the maze that will enable us to bypass encounters and traps. Within the citadel itself, things are less predictable, but I believe I have found a low-risk path to the dungeons.
"I have not yet been able to determine what lies within the dungeons."
The former Bralani listens closely to Anaxian's information "I think the idea of trying to ally with Baron Filias and Skarro might be a good one. Perhaps utilizing the menagerie of slaves could work in our favor as well. Beyond that, I could attempt to get into the dungeon to scout it out. Its a bit easier to ward against a ghost than a cloud of ash and dust"