we could have 3-4 pregen keys to be used on certain weeks.
That wouldn't quite work. The one-time pad is literally one time. One message. If it is ever reused, even in part, it is no longer unbreakable.
Of course, we could still carry 3 or 4 or 20, but we would need to carry them per message and not per week.
I'm back, thanks Anthony for keeping Saul in one piece for me!
I don't know what plan have going on, so feel free to let me know what you're thinking so I don't mess it up.
For the moment its all about finding out what actually happened. Saul is just as much there because he (i.e you) seems to have a bit of flair for the talking side of thinks, so feel free to say stuff :)
Unless he actually turns out to have a good reason for what he did, depending on what he tells us I might try to convince him he can return, although thats pretty risky even with my Bluff modifier. This guy seems the type whos likely to have Sense Motive out the wazoo.
@Vaek: Do we want to recover the Spice per the mistress' instruction, for distribution purposes, or is that something that we want to allow to continue with just our oversight? I am a little confused on that one.
@ GM Ascension - does Sic have any idea on how much time is left on his invisibility?
1:30 at least on the invis. Maybe a few more seconds than that.
I believe we just need to make sure it is safe so that guards can't search it and claim it.
If that is the case, if we can pass me off as owning the place, then the guards shouldn't have a need for their unlawful search and seizure. I didn't think we needed to take it back to the mistress.
My confusion stems from the following post by GM Ascension:
""The last item that needs to be taken care of is Drail Soyeth's warehouses. One of them currently contains a crate full of pesh spice. Normally Drail would take the cut off the top on that, since he isn't around to collect any more though the cut is yours if you can retrieve it."
Drail was one of the lieutenant's. Pesh spice is a hallucinogenic drug, technically illegal in the city, though it flows pretty freely in the west end of town near the The Wailing Spirits and nearby areas. It is often mixed with food, and carries a good price tag with it. Drail operated a number of warehouses in the docks area - doing honest business with the merchant's storing supplies waiting to leave Coran by ship or having just arrived by the same."
I assume from your response that what we are to retrieve is "the cut", correct?
The intent is to make sure it doesn't get found and confiscated. The means of doing that is up to you. But the guards are certain to look into the warehouses to search for clues as to why Drail was killed.
Just realized ive been doing my Cure Light Wounds wrong, rolling 1d8+4 for my Summoner levels, when in fact the Cures come from my singular Oracle level, i.e 1d8+1
Woops.
Do we as the guild have any other safehouses available that we could store the spice at? I am assuming that most merchants when bringing and taking their cargo would use wagons? So if we were to use wagons to transport it, that would not be suspicious.
Also, How is the spice packaged? Is it something that could move it from its original packaging, and hide it at the bottom of a barrel of beans or such, perhaps with the use of a false bottom to keep separated? As I assume the spice itself is not particularly heavy.
I don't know if we ever officially decided who the cloack of resistance would go too. I didn't want to take it since I was getting the headband. As I am not a greedy person. But if it helps me the most, I will. So if nobody else lays claim on it, I will take it tomorrow. And that should put me out of the loot for a little bit so everybody else gets something useful.
Sounds like you need a Handy Haversack or Bag of Holding.
A Bag of Holding would work great in this instance. I am a little short to buy one. A 250lb. Type I is 2500 Gold. I can put around 1250 Gold towards it. Either way, I believe that getting it to a safehouse is a sound plan.
Your characters know ANthony has a Haversack, in case thats relevant.
Also, Vaek and Maels last two posts in the gameplay thread...I say GET A ROOM! :P I dont know wether to find it adorable or obnoxious :) Probably a bit of both...Suffice it to say, if this was a manga, there would be so much fan Yaoi out there.
(Not completely sure if this could offend or not, so if it does, im sorry, wasnt the intent)
HAHA. Let us not forget, that Mael and Vaek's backstory indicates they are good friends. But says nothing about friends with benefits.
Unfortunately, you are doing something secret. (I have resisted in looking at the spoiler... hasn't been easy), hopefully whatever it is you guys are doing, hopefully at some point we will be able to enjoy the effects of it.
So no haversack for this, but if we can hide the good stuff in barrels or something that isn't suspicious, the result should be good for our group.
Yes, lol, our mutual admiration comes from our friendship...nothing more...I assure you. Not that there is anything wrong with that...lol.
Yada Yada Yada :)
Unfortunately, you are doing something secret. (I have resisted in looking at the spoiler... hasn't been easy)
Oh its positively riveting my friend.
FYI, I will not be available to post Monday night - long weekend. So I will post again tomorrow night, then a three day weekend, then post Tuesday night.
Also, I'm down for the whole cipher thing if you find a reason/circumstance to put it into play.
About the Magocracy: Do they have free reign to do as they wish? Or are they normally looking to keep up public appearance? Or do they take the attitude, we are the law, so we can do whatever we want?
I ask, since that will help me determine my approach with them.
Also: is it safe to assume I can walk directly to the office at this point with out showing that I've never been there before?
They have a pretty free reign, though if soldiers/guardsman are found to have falsely accused someone, damage property, or otherwise violated the public interest the penalty is pretty harsh - prison time and fines, released from their position, and for severe cases physically marked in some way as a sign of shame and dishonor. As such it is not often that the guard will overstep their bounds. They are generally pretty cautious with making sure they have sufficient proof to make things stick according to Ondian law.
That isn't to say there aren't those elements of the guard that wouldn't plant evidence... but that would be pretty rare.
Well, let's hope I roll significantly higher then a 2 on my bluff roll. Don't want to have another disaster roll like at the glass shop :)
Very well crafted post Vaek, im rooting for ya...but I cant help but feel, deep down, like I want you to fail...simply because what would happen if you did would most likely be hilarious :P
Well this is true, that's all I need is to be arrested, when it is a 2v1 situation since Mael is otherwise engaged. And I get the feeling these are not your run of the mill level 1 guards. Not with one of them dual wielding.
But yes, let's never let stuff get in the way of something fun and/or funny :)
Yep, nice play Vaek. Im rooting for you to fool them as well.
Well done, Vaek, I have confidence that things will play out like we expect. I am certainly in no position to aid you immediately.
I ended up driving four hours tonight to go pick up my daughter, so no updates from me tonight.
@Ascension: Do I gain any information for my knowledge local roles on the two guardsmen as well as on Merchant leadership, that I can potentially implicate for Drail's death.
The easiest way to explain a poly-alphabetic shift cipher is to begin by assigning each letter a number. Thus a = 0, b = 1, c = 2, ... z = 25. We then take the number for our keyword letter and the number for the plaintext letter and add them together (subtracting 26 from the result anytime that it would give us a non-negative answer), giving us a number corresponding to a ciphertext letter.
The major weakness of such a cipher is the repetition of the keyword, which results in several mono-alphabetic ciphers. My suggestion is to change the keyword for each word of the message--Specifically, to use the previous word of the message as the keyword for the next.
To make this more complex, instead of just using the plaintext word as the keyword, we could use the ciphertext word as the keyword--Or we could use both, taking the average number of the two, rounding up.
As a further precaution, all of the spaces will be removed (dtzggbbmeqyc), and then reinserted at random (dt zg gbbme qyc). And every seventh letter will be a null, chosen randomly as well (dt zg gbdbme gycc)
Again, suggestions on making it more/less complicated are welcome, as well as any questions to clarify as I realize I did a poor job explaining.
Regarding ciphers.
I think, rather than allowing for a basically uncrackable cipher (cause what fun is that if no one has a chance to break it) I'd like to do something like the following:
Sorad can spend a day in the library researching ciphers. This will be a knowledge local check which can be made untrained and will get a +5 for the extensive library resources. Sic may do aid another for another +2 (or the other way around with Sic making the roll and Sorad doing aid another).
The strength (DC to crack it) of the cipher will increase by +2 for every 5 points on the knowledge (local) check. The total strength of the cipher will be a hidden linguistics roll done by me + the strength of the cipher from the knowledge local.
As for cracking it then it will be an opposed linguistics check at DC 10 + the cipher linguistics roll. They will receive a penalty if they don't know cyclopian (or whatever language is used to write in). Probably -2 if they know a similar language (giant is close to cyclopian) else a -5. If further down the line they intercept additional documents using the same cipher they will get cumulative +1 bonus for each new document that was written using the same cipher.
Neither the creation of the cipher or the cracking if it can be done with a take 20, though take 10 is allowed.
However, I'm making all of these rules up, and am open to input if anyone has comments they want to add about how this should work.
Sic has a higher local bonus (+11 with the library bonus), so he should probably do it. Presumably we will all get together and discuss it and can all assist?
My assist:
Multiple people can do aid another on this to both create or crack the cipher. (within reason, I wouldn't let someone gather up 50 linguists to make cracking it a sure attempt for example).
I have not looked because I treat them seriously, but why are we using spoilers with Saul and Anthony? We are all part of the same guild. What is the big secret?
I have not looked because I treat them seriously, but why are we using spoilers with Saul and Anthony? We are all part of the same guild. What is the big secret?
Yes, the group is working as one. I put Saul and Anthony in spoilers though as there was potential for something to occur that could have led to some very interesting role-play (not in terms of betraying the group, but other things that could happen).
They should have an interesting story to tell when they get back :)
Dat intimidate.
oops! forgot that we rolled Bluff/Diplomacy/Intimidate into one. So Sic is using Bluff to Intimidate Serle.
What does Vaek mean exactly? That we put a fake Maklo in the real ones place? The line "Of course, that impostor will need to be coerced." kinda threw me.
My thought was if it were possible to kidnap someone. put a spell on them or poison to keep them incoherent. then the guard won't suspect that they don't have the right guy until it is too late. granted that may be too difficult to pull off. but it would be an awesome fear If we could.
It would be awesome! The biggest problem would be how to get someone Under the Influence inside the jail without anyone seeing them? Getting Maklo out is one things...parts and pieces in sacks will fit nicely into a Handy Haversack. Well as long as he weighs less than 120 lbs. Pretty sure we have two at our disposal though...<evil grin>
In regards to poison: Do we know what kind of posion was used on Ilvaria's lockbox? That has a high save roll, and it had paralysis. Looking in the UE, there is Tears of Death which is 6500. I am hoping to find one that his perhaps only slightly weaker, but more cost efficient. Being able to take someone out of the fight with a single hit would be extra nice.
Also, What is the possibility of having a small item with a silent spell cast on it with permanency, That one can activate/deactivate as they see fit. Something like a 10-15 foot radius?
Also in regards to the Pesh. Being that it causes hallucinations, is there a will save? do we have an idea of how high a will save? Can it only be ingested for the effects, or could it be coated on our swords for the effect. If this is the case, would the hallucination be strong enough to effectively prevent someone from fighting?
Wow, and I thought dragon bile was expensive...
As for the silence, I would think the best we can hope for is an item that casts it a number of times pr day. A permanent with an on/off switch would probably be stupidly expensive.
Being a drug I doubt it works fast enough for combat. Even the most hardcore modern drugs take a good 10-15 minutes before they start affecting you. But I dunno, in Pathfinder, even a snakes venom works emideatly :)
How long is the normal wait before requested potions arrive? Anthony would like to purchase three Invisibility potions at the first opportunity.
You can pick them up first thing in the morning - which would be now unless Maeltheron is going to poke around the gate area on his own.
In regards to poison: Do we know what kind of posion was used on Ilvaria's lockbox? That has a high save roll, and it had paralysis. Looking in the UE, there is Tears of Death which is 6500. I am hoping to find one that his perhaps only slightly weaker, but more cost efficient. Being able to take someone out of the fight with a single hit would be extra nice.
Also, What is the possibility of having a small item with a silent spell cast on it with permanency, That one can activate/deactivate as they see fit. Something like a 10-15 foot radius?
Also in regards to the Pesh. Being that it causes hallucinations, is there a will save? do we have an idea of how high a will save? Can it only be ingested for the effects, or could it be coated on our swords for the effect. If this is the case, would the hallucination be strong enough to effectively prevent someone from fighting?
Pesh is an imbibed drug. So it couldn't be used as a contact 'poison'.
Getting a on/off silence item would be quite expensive. I'll have to look through the rules on crafting again if you want something you can use a couple of times per day.
okidoki, settled for 2 two potions at 300 each, gold and inventory updated accordingly.
Saul's going to grab a potion of Heroism and another Cure Moderate.
I would be interested in seeing the cost of an item with the use of 1/2/3 times a day If it is available. And would the cost change based on range of silence, or is it standard radius based on the spell.
Just a quick question that might have been answered already--When is the town meeting going to be? We might need/want to hold off on killing Maklo until after it.
Everyone should also be reminded that Diguri specifically said we would need to kill Maklo, so he is more of a priority than many of us seem to be thinking.
It was my understanding also, that Diguri said, that as long as he believes he can be apart of the "winning side" of the thieve's guild coup, he wouldn't likely say anything. Which is why he was willing to out Tony and others, but didn't put the thieve's guild stronghold location of being compromised.
Regardless, I think we need to give the Tower other things to worry about, so they feel that Maklo really isn't a huge deal. If they are heavily guarding the place every day, were just asking to be caught and/or killed. We can't take them on in force.
If we think about it, we could cause enough trouble in a weeks worth of game time, robbing various places, perhaps kidnap someone of importance to cause the Tower to drop its guard on Maklo, and then we move in when he is more vulnerable than he is now. And for a real thief, spending a week or two in Jail is not really a big deal for someone to 'break' imho.