Doug M's Way of the Wicked (Inactive)

Game Master Douglas Muir 406

I was thinking more of a Disguise and not a spell, and could we make him like a waif officer?

Okay, I have a snapshot of the corner of the Tower you've explored so far. If someone has an account at which they can host it, please contact me at vormuir in the land of yahoo dot com.

:)

I was thinking more of a Disguise and not a spell, and could we make him like a waif officer?

The downside to that is I'm pretty sure any disguise will be over-shadowed by the amulet's illusion ability. And Jax's horns + tail are hard to hide. Xen might be better for this even though Jax is great at lying.

Edit: Bit random, DM, but does the local alchemist happen to have any potions or scrolls of glibness?

Also, Cimu, if we happen to get some down time could you make Jax a scroll of invisibility?

Message sent. Let me know if you get it.

[occ]If we plan to take them out why don't we skip taking a chance by interacting with them and putting them on edge and just follow them.
Or we can skip dealing with them entirely?[/ooc]

Received and responded. Nothing fancy here -- it's just a clip from part of the map. But it should make visualization a bit easier.

My work PC doesn't like imageshack, had this issue before.
I should have it up after I get home in about 3 hours.

Also, Cimu, if we happen to get some down time could you make Jax a scroll of invisibility?

Certainly, we just need enough time and the appropriate funds. The night before Mama Kolo's stew perhaps? Also we need Silence and perhaps some scrolls of that spell for us to deal with rooms of sleeping guards.

Where could we get those?

If we plan to take them out why don't we skip taking a chance by interacting with them and putting them on edge and just follow them.

You have to be visualize the plan a little please.

The persona is one of a military officer, and a noble, rather pompous and a snob, the men in theory won't be on edge but rather be happy to be rid of him BUT should be interested and eager in news that a well traveled courier brings for a little while.

I assume we would like to take the patrol while the majority were sleeping, if that were the case we would need them to travel at least most of one day. I was assuming we would deal with them after the play but as I posted before we as a group have to decide when to go about it, before or after the play.

So far Cуровую, Edmin, Jax, and Xen seem to be willing to take on the patrol, waiting for the Judge's opinion and Dren may be against it.

I would love to take out the patrol and agree that weakening the troops in the fort by 8 is a great thing. However, the question is whether we are stretching ourselves too thin. Jax is getting a decent idea of the layout of the fort. While poisoning is a great idea, if we can simply coup de gras a pile of them while they sleep by finding where the dormitories are and hitting them in the middle of the night, that could cut their numbers in half. Then the question is how hard it will be to make sure that the gatehouse and drawbridge are disabled when the bugbears arrive.

We have the following that we can hopefully do:
Patrol - 8 guards and 1 captain down
Mott v. Easterly - 2 captains down
Sleeping guards - 10? 20? 30? possibly can be taken out.
Messenger Ravens - possibly something for either a few summoned air elementals or a climbing Morsum to try to take down.

This leaves the commander, the wizard and the priests, together with about 60-70 troops.

Remember, we do not have to defeat everyone, just disable the gates long enough for the bugbears to get in. Once they are within the fort, our job is pretty much done.

I would love to take out the patrol and agree that weakening the troops in the fort by 8 is a great thing. Jax is getting a decent idea of the layout of the fort. While poisoning is a great idea, if we can simply coup de gras a pile of them while they sleep by finding where the dormitories are and hitting them in the middle of the night, that could cut their numbers in half.

I think the patrol is a captain and six.

We will also get the benefit of finding out just how strong our opposition is if we sneak up on the patrol.

I posted earlier, taking out sick, poisoned guards would be easier if we had Silence or scrolls of the spell available.

Using Mama Kolo's stew to do so is obviously key here and we need to discuss how we go about doing that after we deal with the patrol and our scouting activities the night of the play.

Yeh - silence + Edmin coup de gras would be sweet. Too bad it only lasts 1 round/level.

I have a scroll of silence I bought just for this purpose and it lasts 1/min per level, so 3 minutes.

Can Edmin cast spells yet?

Silence is an anti paladin spell, but it does only last 3 rounds at the level of this scroll.

Not yet.

Note that the party is accumulating experience for all these skill checks and roleplaying. I give out XP for non-combat stuff -- sometimes quite a bit, if you do something remarkable. So, between that and the boss fight with the Captain, y'all are well on your way to the next level.

:)

I have a scroll of silence I bought just for this purpose and it lasts 1/min per level, so 3 minutes.

Wow they did nerf Silence as a spell...3 rounds is correct. That is still enough time to use it to kill one spell caster though... :]

1 minute/level would be pretty brutal. Basically, it would allow exactly what you're thinking -- kill a couple of dozen sleeping guys with no risk.

Even with just three rounds to work with, in a crowded barracks room full of snoring soldiers you could still kill a lot of people quickly.... depending on how closely they're packed and how high level they are, murdering a dozen or more in three rounds wouldn't be out of the question. So it's still a spell worth thinking about.

When am I not hung over?

Tomorrow. But we can fast-forward if you like.

DM we already fast forwarded a bit for Xen to meet with the theatre types.

Am I at a point where I can act again, or should I cool my heels a bit? I don't mind but dont want to waste time either.

think we need to kill the alchemist? I mean he does not know my face since I have used a different disguise everytime i have encountered someone different. yay hat of disguise

The only reason to axe the alchemist is that if the castle crew starts getting sick and it is tied to the alchemist's rat poison, then there is a strong possibility that the castle will go on high alert. If the alchemist has taken off, or is not around to tell people that he sold the poison, then it is less likely that they will immediately tie the illness to the poison recently purchased from the alchemist.

Once we poison the fort they may look into what caused the men to fall sick or worse and if they determine it was poison where the poison came from.

It won't be a great leap of logic that the first person they may look up is the alchemist, even if only to get his opinion on what the cause was.

We remove the alchemist the night we poison the garrison.

If officials from the come to the alchemist even to 'consult' with him for a probable cure we can do one of two things.

a. Make it look like he left for a week to secure some important ingredient or was hired to do work in the town near by. No suspicions raised.

b. We make it seem that the alchemist was in fact the possible culprit and was the one who poisoned the garrison, and left to hide out in the next town to meet some benefactor. This may put the fort on alert but this has the added benefit of the fort sending men to try to find the alchemist.

We can make it look like he slipped out of town, and long gone, perhaps even indicating he has left for an area where yet another patrol has to be dispatched, weakening an already weakened fort.

Taking the alchemist out also gives us access to what he has in his store, we get to use whatever items we find useful from his shop but we can't make it look like he himself was attacked, we make it look like one of the above.

Poison using Mama's stew. We take out the alchemist, but leave indications that he was near Mama's cooking pot. We then create a trail showing him leaving the area and heading out.

With luck, this will tie in with what Cy has been saying. It will lay the blame on him. The garrison will head out after him, which will further reduce their numbers.

My biggest concern is that we do not want the garrison to know that it was poison. The goal here is to put enough rat poison into the stew to make a large percentage of the garrison sick. Hopefully, they will believe that it is food poisoning, and not actual poison. If they know that it was poison, irrespective of whether the alchemist is taken out, then our job is much more difficult as we will have to be fighting a garrison on high alert.

Question: what is the goal of poisoning them?

You could potentially make a fair chunk of the garrison weakened or incapacitated, and create a hell of a distraction. But it will probably pass.

We need to poison them the night we are going to try and take out the tower. At that point the alchemist and anyone else means little. If many of the troops ar sick or incapacitated then it will be much easier to hold the gates.
Why try to lay blame on anyone, we seem to loose our strategic advantage if we wait after we poison them.
They then have time to possibly increase what guard they have left, investigate the issue, possibly request additional men to help suppliment the downsized guard, give the clerics time to heal the sick men.

If the night we plan to attack we poison them they will have little time to react and potentially we will be able to cripple many of the guards.

Do you think we can delay Mama until we are ready? Maybe poison her or talk her into our schedual?

Do you think we can delay Mama until we are ready? Maybe poison her or talk her into our schedual?

I've mentioned this before, is there any way we can move her doing her special stew a week later? Without raising suspicion. Perhaps we can say its the commander or a cleric's birthday.

Do we think it is possible to remove her and impersonate her. Voice and all.
Probably not I would think but if we can not get her to change her plans we may have to try

Do we think it is possible to remove her and impersonate her. Voice and all.

Yes, great idea.

But none of us can cook at the level of pleasing an army, unless Grumblejack is secretly a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu and is Iron Chef Ogre.

Alternatively if we remove Mama Kolo after she makes the stew, we can delay the stew serving by two days without ruining the food. That gives us two more days.

Keep ideas coming though!

Nobody ever takes those sorts of skills, alas.

Anyway, if you want to deal with Mama, someone needs to go and do that. Right now half the party is still poking around inside the Tower.

DM we already fast forwarded a bit for Xen to meet with the theatre types.

Am I at a point where I can act again, or should I cool my heels a bit? I don't mind but dont want to waste time either.

No, we can skip forward a bit. What are you thinking?

popped in a post about it. I gave the basic idea, and going to go put rolls in now, but in case you needd to dig up some info, i made the first post

We need to poison them the night we are going to try and take out the tower. ...

If the night we plan to attack we poison them they will have little time to react and potentially we will be able to cripple many of the guards.

Totally agreed with Dren here.

Nobody ever takes those sorts of skills, alas.

Anyway, if you want to deal with Mama, someone needs to go and do that. Right now half the party is still poking around inside the Tower.

Hey, Jax had Profession painter! You never saw that coming.

True!

Another thought: What can we do with the poison and waters of Lamashtu other than the stew? Ideally, we know from Jax's alchemy checks that its not enough to kill anyone, just make them sick for a few days. If we could locate/sneak into the kitchens the day of or the day before the invasion, perhaps we could pour the poison into the cooking meals there?

I had thought we could poison the stew and use the waters for their water supply that would potentially cripple the guard.

Mama Kola's stew is delivered on Day 12, four days from the current day. The bugbears invade on day..20 something? The effects of the poison are enough to sicken the people in the fort, but not much else. The sickness is not likely to last 2 or more weeks. The waters likewise won't have a strong effect on their own since we only have a few doses.

I think the stew is a red herring for our purposes

also how do we feel about Xen actually joining the guard? Can someone make the appropriate local check or can edmin tell if it is feasible?

I think the stew is a red herring for our purposes

also how do we feel about Xen actually joining the guard? Can someone make the appropriate local check or can edmin tell if it is feasible?

I think its good idea if we can get someone to poison the meals. But you're right, the stew is definitely red herring. Its VERY convenient but occurs too early for our purposes.

Unless of course we want to poison it, then sneak into the place and kill the magister and a few rooms of enemies before running the f$*# away?

Xen, do you still have any of that wine? If possible I'd like to put some in my flask for Irin.

I have one bottle left, but Xen is saving it for a special occasion. Maybe you can talk him into it. But so you can get some action does not seem high on his list.

ask in game!

I have one bottle left, but Xen is saving it for a special occasion. Maybe you can talk him into it. But so you can get some action does not seem high on his list.

ask in game!

I figure Jax will look for something a little more exotic anyway.

Remember, we do not have to wait until the 20th, that is the LAST day we can call the bugbears. There is no reason why we cannot signal for them earlier. If we can poison the stew on the night of the 12th, then we can set up our dismantling of the fort for the 13th.

A few things of note. I could summon a few fire elementals to run around the town lighting things on fire on the evening of the 13th. This would most likely bring a chunk of the guards from the keep to help battle the blazes. Even if we did not make the attack at the same time, it would tire out the guards (not sure how the PF rules would work on this). Then, with sick from Mama's stew, and tired from fighting the fires, guards, we would go into the fort and sneak through. If we manage to find a few barrels of oil, they would be great for filling the great hall and other parts of the fort aflame to create more confusion and to further deplete the guards from manning their posts. Then we make for the gatehouse and send the signal flare.

If we can disable the big main doors from within, and possibly light them on fire as well, together with taking the gatehouse, then we should be able to open enough of an entrance to get the bugbears in and they can fight the guards.

This leaves the three wildcards we have been discussing.

1) the commander
2) the clerics
3) the magic user

Hopefully we can disable the magic user before starting the rest of the assault. In addition, if there are a number of wounded guards from fighting the fires and being poisoned by the stew, then hopefully most of the clerics will have at least partially depleted their days allotment of healing spells.

Just a few thoughts trying to tie things together. Obviously if we can eliminate the guards on patrol, that decreases the number that can be in the fort. The play may or may not be relevant, if the clerics and mage are at the play, this might give our more stealthy crew a chance to look into their chambers. Just remember that I am sure their mage will be casting Alarm just as Cy has been doing, so that one will require a little more care.

I also think we should strike on the 13th. Here is what I had been thinking for our plan:
1. Complete scouting the tower.
2. Kill patrol and captain. Sacrifice at least one of his men or maybe even the captain and see what the voices are saying.
3. Remove the other captains through the letters and the affair.
4. Poison the tower through stew and waters of lami'.
5. Sneak into the tower the 13th while they are sick. Xen or Dren pretend to be the 3rd Captain out on patrol. He orders the men in the main hall to follow him into the Captains area, maybe they didn't know he came back...We close the door behind them and kill them.
6. Move up and kill the wizard in his room once we activate the silence. Unless he has silent spell we should be able to kill him quickly, escpecially if he is alseep.
7. Move to the commanders room and kill him. With the comand structure gone whomever is pretending to be the captain just opens the gates and we hold them until the hoard comes and kills everyone.

One thing that has to be remembered is that somewhere there is a chapel protected by good spirits. While some of us are probably ok, if we level, then we will all have at least Faint evil auras. I am pretty sure that Edmin and Morsum will be detectable anyway. In addition, Jax (Ousider(native) and possibly me (going undead) may also be detectable. Thus, if this chapel is protected by spirits, we will have to avoid it, or somehow circumvent it.

This is also important if Jax and Morsum come across it while scouting.

We can question the Captain about it before we sacrifice him...

Slight delay because a certain eight-year-old boy is having a big birthday today. Should be back this evening.

Party on. Mine are 7 and 9.