GM Dak - Curse of the Crimson Throne

Game Master karlprosek

Mirela steps out trying to draw all eyes to her.
why do that be? It’s do be a perfectly good shelter and you All patrol here more often so it should be safer!

Not sure if you want me to roll something to distract so others can do what the want unnoticed… I’ll guess bluff to aid another on stealth?
Bluff (aid another)to distract: 1d20 ⇒ 11

@GM - have we been able to get the Arcane Eye into the building to map out the interior?
Can you update the map?

Sure, map updated.

1d20 ⇒ 3

Haha, ok well sure then.

The guard looks confused. "Well, yeah, but we can't let people squat here. You don't know who might be out to get the Emperor. You're, uh..." he looks back at the rest of his patrol. "Just get out of here before the next patrol comes through. If we see you again we'll give you a beating and run out out of here."

Did the Arcane Eye see any creatures or is that entire large building to the SW just as empty as the map shows?
Is Pilt still hanging around overlooking the Blood Pig field, with 9 guards and the executioner near him?

*bumps*

Sorry, had a response ready but then the board wasn't working then I forgot. Yes, there are people present in all the adjacent buildings. If it's late at night Pilt is behind a closed door so you don't know where he is.

Also if it's late at night the patrols are getting kind of sloppy and are only walking around every half hour or so.

So what do we do know? Did you already used your magic tricks to spy on the Emperor? Do we know where to go, and whether there are guards on our way?

Sorry, had a response ready but then the board wasn't working then I forgot. Yes, there are people present in all the adjacent buildings. If it's late at night Pilt is behind a closed door so you don't know where he is.

Also if it's late at night the patrols are getting kind of sloppy and are only walking around every half hour or so.

It shouldn't be late at night. It was early in the day when we left the Arkona palace (we spent the night there and had a morning meeting with Lord Arkona). Then maybe an hour to get to Pilt's neighborhood being reasonably stealthy, and an hour observing. Maybe noon now?

Sorry my mistake. Pilt's in the throne room in that case. Also in that case, there are guards/members of the mob everywhere and patrols are very regular. It's not possible to plan out a stealthy way in for the whole group during the day, there are too many people moving around doing things.

The arcane eye can fit through small openings, so unless the doors are sealed tightly Cynara may still be able to find Pilt.

The arcane eye can fit through small openings, so unless the doors are sealed tightly Cynara may still be able to find Pilt.

Yes. We know where Pilt is. As the GM wrote just above:

Sorry my mistake. Pilt's in the throne room in that case. Also in that case, there are guards/members of the mob everywhere and patrols are very regular. It's not possible to plan out a stealthy way in for the whole group during the day, there are too many people moving around doing things.

The throne room is open to the air and therefore open to the Arcane Eye. We were there over a year ago IRL, before you joined. It is described here.

This open-air balcony is shielded from rain and sun by a brightly colored canvas roof that extends up over the area like a half-dome, held in place by a wooden framework. The inside of the canvas has been decorated with scenes of gruesome debauchery; battlefields, executions, torture chambers, and human-eating monsters all vie for space. The balcony contains two major features of note. The first is a high-backed throne that looks like a poor man’s version of the Crimson Throne, a thing of blood-red cushions and silks and spikes. Directly west of the throne stands an intimidating device: a tall guillotine of carved wood and bone, its base depicting grasping demonic feet and the housing of its glittering blade a leering demonic face.

We might try to go through the SW corner of the large building, depending on what guards/creatures the Arcane Eye saw in there. It looks like from the room we would enter there is a corridor that leads to the throne room. This would be my first choice.

We could try disguises or trickery, but Pilt's guards know us.

Or, we could try to come from the air. We can't make everyone fly, but Cynara and Mirela could maybe handle this. If they could fly into a position with line of sight to the balcony (like in the air over the Blood Pig field, or directly above if we take down the awning), they could probably take down Pilt and many of his guards with spells and arrows. It's not very sporting, and it would leave Nargun and Artegall with little to do, but if the guards don't have bows then it's probably the safest plan (and even if they do have bows, they would be unable to use them once grappled by Black Tentacles).

Or we could ask Pilt to fake his death somehow, since I know Mirela doesn't like the idea of killing him. Artegall however is pretty poor at Bluff, so I don't know how we would convince the Arkonas that we truly believe Pilt is dead.

Or we could wait for night, when Pilt would be in his bedroom instead of the throne room.

If we come in from the air, we would need to be able to keep Pilt in place so he doesn’t run under cover.
It also would be nice to have some sort of disguise so everyone doesn’t know it’s us doing it. They may not know Cynata, but given how we played blood pig yesterday (in game) they would know it was Mirela.
Other option. We do have all the blackjack items. That could make one of us really sneaky.

So, making a plan is good, but when do we strike? I'm growing quite restless...

If we come in from the air, we would need to be able to keep Pilt in place so he doesn’t run under cover.

That's why I mentioned Black Tentacles. If that is the plan you wanted to do, that would be one of the spells to use.

It also would be nice to have some sort of disguise so everyone doesn’t know it’s us doing it.

I think we're past that point. We have to do some messy things to get Seneschal Kalepopolis back into power, and we can hope for a pardon after that. The Emperor's mob I hope will cease to be a concern once we defeat him.

I was holding back on posting because I don't like feeling that I am pushing this game along but it has been just glacial. Let's pick a plan and go with it. And have everybody posting at a decent clip. I want to have some chance of completing this AP and my few successful ones have gone at a pace of about 1 year IRL per book. We have done basically nothing in the past year. We talked to Glorio Arkona and that's it. Who knows how long it will take to complete our mission here depending on the approach we use? But we need to pick up the pace I think.

I too am growing restless.

"I don't like the idea of anyone with a Final Blade, especially someone as...erratic as the Emperor. Plans where you divide your forces in the face of an enemy are generally not desirable, let's say, but in this case I think that pinning down the guards in the courtyard from the air with black tentacles and stinking cloud would let Mirela do significant damage. Everyone in the place is going to respond to the attack, too, which would give the rest of you a chance to get in...wait a minute. You've all been there before. Is there any reason the rest of you would be stopped if you came back and asked to see Pilt again? That would get you closer to the action when the time came.

"Do you know if there are any spellcasters of note in the court? The only thing I'd worry about would be having someone there with a prepared dispel magic when Mirela and I start the attack."

"You do raise a good point that you and Mirela would be in a lot of trouble if you were attacking from the air and your magic was dispelled. You'd be surrounded and killed. We don't know enough about Pilt's forces to say if that is a risk, other than the fact that he claimed to have 'enough magic', whatever that meant.
So let's bump that plan lower down the list. As I said, we could go in together through the broken wall on the southwest corner of the larger building."
I have made reference to that obvious gap several times. It sounds like the Arcane Eye was able to go in that way but the GM hasn't said if the Eye saw any guards in that room.

Aroden thinks a minute.
"Or, we found a Scroll of Teleport. Would that be useful?"
Cynara can use it with a DC10 caster level check, and can bring along three others. Unfortunately Whisper counts as 2. So Cynara brings the melee to the Throne Room while Mirela and Whisper fly in? And we time it so we arrive more or less together?

My first choice is the Teleport scroll since that gets us all into the action quickly.
My second choice is the gap in the wall.

I have made reference to that obvious gap several times. It sounds like the Arcane Eye was able to go in that way but the GM hasn't said if the Eye saw any guards in that room.

Nope, no guards are stationed in that room.

Of note, the mod says that room is 25' off the ground, implying there's a couple of floors beneath the one shown in the map but there's no map of the ground floor. Maybe it's ruined or somehow closed to entry.

"If I can make this scroll work, do you want to try to teleport directly into the throne room, or into an unoccupied area so we can form up before we attack?"

If we do be doing this, I would rather do this as quietly as possible. Ambush not all out assult. Less bystanders ‘urt that way.

So I vote we form up and attack then get out.
Dropping into the throne room leaves us to be asking ‘ow do we be getting out?

Cynara takes the scroll and studies it carefully.

Can she take 10 on the Spellcraft check to decipher it?

Yeah, you can always Take 10 on a skill check as long as you're not distracted or in danger.

OK, so it's a DC 25 Spellcraft check to translate without read magic, but Cynara has +17 Spellcraft.

The witch finishes her perusal and looks around at the others. "Whenever you're ready."

Once the word is given, she invokes a hex to give herself good fortune before reading the scroll aloud.

DC 10 caster level check (assuming that the scroll CL is the minimum for a 5th level spell): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10
Fortune hex reroll, just in case: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15

Targeting roll: 1d100 ⇒ 24

Artegall will activate Whispering Spirits before Cynara reads the scroll, giving him +3 insight to AC and saves for 1 minute. (Commune with Spirits ability at 8/9 uses left.)

I'm just gonna say this scroll was crafted at level 15 so everybody can pop in at the same time.

Cynara figures out the scroll and invokes the power held within. One moment the party is in the abandoned townhouse and the next they're standing in the Emperor of Old Korvosa's throne room. It takes a few seconds before anyone notices them (that can be a surprise round if you guys want to attack immediately).

I thought we were going to the unoccupied area to form up.