Doug M's Way of the Wicked (Inactive)

Game Master Douglas Muir 406

Guys, you're getting ahead of yourselves a bit -- and it's getting a bit confusing with the buffs, too.

Everyone gets TWO ROUNDS of buffing. Please confirm which buffs you have up; if you don't, I'll pick two.

It's a bit late in the day for the Silence conversation, perhaps? My assumption is that Dren casts it as the last thing done in the surprise round. However, since that round is not resolved, you can change your minds.

Jax uses Alter self and cat's grace. He can cast shocking grasp (standard) and then attack with spellstrike once (free attack) on the surprise round.

Okay, so in the surprise round we have

Edmin -- melee attack
Jax -- spellstrike melee attack
Xen -- Touch of Gracelessness
Zimu -- Scorching Ray
Dren -- Hold Person
Judge -- Haste
Morsum -- ?

Nobody has mentioned Grumblejack, so he's not here.

Morsum was going to grab him, since he was going to use the evolution for grabbing claws.

And we talked about letting grumblejack eat as much of the cleric as he could...but i guess that could be later.

Initiative rolls

Jax 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14
Xen 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14
Dren 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 2 = 22

Zimu 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18
Edmin 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (19) + 4 = 23
Judge 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14

-- can everyone please put Init up in their character lines? It makes things easier. Thanks.

Okay, then: Sir Edmin opens the attack with a charge as the Father steps out of the entryway. With a roar of pure hatred -- seven years of bottled up rage! -- he swings the axe for 28 points of damage!

Next up is Dren. He reaches forward and makes a clutching gesture, as if to grasp the priest's throat. Icy tendrils of evil magic reach outwards... A big roll here for Father Dunnigan: 1d20 ⇒ 19

The good Father's will is far too strong! Dren recoils, momentarily baffled.

Next, Zimu lashes out with a ray of magical energy! Searing, blazing hot, it scorches the priest for 25 points of damage.

Whoops, I see Jax already rolled initiative. Okay, he's a 20, not a 14. That means he would go before Zimu.

Anyway: Spellstrike for 30 points of damage!

...and that puts him at -1. Father Dunnigan literally never knows what hit him; hit three ways, he slumps to the ground a couple of seconds after entering the room.

On my side, well, a bit anticlimactic. On yours... congratulations, all. You've struck your first hard blow against Balentyne Tower.

Well. That was..quick.

Goblin love it when a plan comes together! tee hee tee hee hee hee

Added init to the end of my vital line dmdm

Xen begins to loot the body, detect magic and the like.

The cleric is Wis based while all of our casters are not.

On some level I must have known that but just know realized we don't really have a Wisdom caster.

Round 1: Bless on everyone except for Xen.

You can cast it on Grumblejack instead of Cуровую.

Edit - Just read no Grumblejack? :(

Edit - Just read we won YAAAY!

I note in passing that he's still alive. Cut his throat?

Goblin love it when a plan comes together! tee hee tee hee hee hee

Do we see the spirit of Bref smiling in the corner?

I assume Edmin removes his head...

I note in passing that he's still alive. Cut his throat?

To be honest we should bind and gag him and gag him again then leave him with Edmin for a few hours.

Then put his head on a pike in to be carried by the bugbear army just to demoralize the troops in the fort.

Actually we should start saving leader's heads and heave the bugbears launch them into the fort before the attack like in Return of the King.

I think I may need chocolate if I thought of that before I've even had breakfast.

well whatever it is, I leave it to the judge, edmin and he brains of this operation to decide. I think it is safe to say that someone will stabalize him if Edmin does not remove his head completely. Just killing him seems safest.

That's true. Nicely done Xen and all.

The only reason I can think of keeping him alive is either as a lure for a trap for another leader or for a source of information before he is killed.

How would the party feel if Xen, Dren and Cуровую use Disguise to look like officers or civilians of the town, pretend to be prisoners and the others threaten our lives to get info from the cleric?

Too dangerous? We won't know if he is telling the truth? Just leave him with Edmin then?

Also if anyone comes to check on the noise we did make, those with high Bluff can pretend we are actors from the play rehearsing for our next town.

Cуровую will use her bonded item to cast Blood Transcription when the cleric finally meets Edmin's justice. Also aid Xen with Spellcraft.

Dren would love to sacrifice him and hear the words of his patron but I am guessing that Edmin would object and really wants to end the good father himself...he can live with whatever the party decides.
It might be more horrible for the good fathers soul to let him go to my dark place though.

I think it was probably quick enough that not much noise was made. No one was able to shout out so...let's look out the window and make sure. Maybe you should check with see invisibility just in case Nimpy is around.

The halfling-tiefling magus tilts his head and speaks in a squeaky voice.
Uhm..is..we killed him? That was..I mean..wow. Poor sod.

My votes for murder rather than getting more complex. Xen's incredibly simple "Lure and Murder" plan seemed to work. Talk about lucky rolls.

The halfling-tiefling will also loot through the priest's pockets. We finish him off now, right? I mean, we don't have anywhere to keep him..

Does..does blood transcription work with clerics?

Xen does like his l and m

Edmin looks down at his one time friend and spits. "Where was your precious Mitra, Dunnigan? Nowhere. Even for one of her clerics."
The anti-paladin raises the hell blessed headsman's axe above his head. "I told you after Dagny's murder that I would see you dead. When you get to hell tell them Edmin Al'Roth, Champion of Asmodeus, sent you."
The ax slams down towards the good father's neck.

Coup de grace.

i am jealous of your revenge champion. One day mine too shall be complete. Will you join me for a fine bottle tonight?

Xen cradles Della and mutters something about Mordig.

'Congratulations Edmin, and Xen. Time for the the next part of our plans then.'

Cуровую will cast Blood Transcription and aid Xen with Spellcraft.

'How do we wish to cover for the cleric's disappearance. We should use this to our advantage while at the same time keeping the fort's alert status low.'

Posted three of four possible ideas on the discussion thread.

No clue. I would rather not venture into the fort disguised as the good Father. I did not know him well enough to take his place. All I know is that tonight I drink and perhaps have a few dances. Perhaps my soldier could disappear as well.

Edmin picks up Father Dunnigan's head and stares into its eyes before casually tossing it to the side as turns to Xenfal. "You have the mind of a tactician,Slaver. I never thought you would be able to pull this deception off in such a manner. Remind me never to play cards with you." The knight wipes the priest blood from his axe and refastens his Circlet, once again taking the form chosen by The Cardinal. "I will assist you as I can in finding your revenge, but first I would see this village burn."

Personally I like setting up Edderly/Ms. Mott as having been found out by the good father.

The Judge looks at the headless corpse of the former cleric lying on the ground. He reaches down and wipes his finger through the blood spurting from the dead father's neck before sticking his finger in his mouth and savoring the taste.

Mmmm, those faithful to the sun god always have such a sweet taste.

He then pauses before continuing.
We have several options. I believe that we should work to set up Captain Edderly as the killer. Xen of Jax should be able to leave a tainted murder weapon within Edderly's home. The question is what we can leave here to set up the good captain. I believe that using one of those cloaks we took from Edderly's room would be most useful. We could leave a piece ripped from the cloak in the father's hand, and then place the bloodied torn cloak in a not-so-well hidden spot in Edderly's home along with the murder weapon.

I am open to other ideas, but we have little time and this first step will not go unnoticed.

"Place a note in his pouch such as the ones you found describing their union. This could make it look like the bastage Dunnigan found out and was killed. He is known for putting his nose into other peoples business, or was."

While there are other priests in the tower it will be too easy to foil that plan for the other captains with a magic known as Zone of truth. It would be a simple matter to use this magic to confirm that he didn't have anything to do with the murder even if the evidence pointed to something of that nature.
They would then question why the father was killed as well as why is someone trying to set up the captains. We may get one disgraced but I believe it might warn the tower.
I still believe we make the father just disappear and try to get the two captains to kill each other in a fit of jealousy.

Well, anyway you have a head, a headless body and a big pool of blood. What are you doing with these things?

Cуровую will cast See Invisibility and scan the outside and see if there is a certain halfling shadowing us.

Perception 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23

Cуровую will cast Blood Transcription and gather some of the cleric's blood for use later.

-

As Dren has pointed out, it may be hard to frame the captains for murder.

How about this idea then, we send Xen Disguised as the cleric to go to Mott with hard evidence of the wife's adultery?

After that, Xen goes to a guard of the watch. He will instruct the cleric or guard to deliver a note to the commander. The note will read he needs to go to a town a few days away (Knowledge Geography +8) and he is on a mission of mercy to redeem an old friend (no names?) he will ask the commander to send a squad of men (timed for the day of the bugbear attack) if the cleric is not back. The additional BENEFIT of this is Xen or the Judge can come back before the bugbear attack and masquerade as the cleric and get into the high priority spots in the fort with no difficulty.

-

We have not used a lot of our resources against the cleric, if you guys want to hunt after the patrol tonight or go and sneak into captain Edderly's home we can attack him tonight as well and make it look like Mott did it. We can Disguise one of us to looklike Mott so that when they Speak with Dead the answer will implicate Mott. Either means we deal with two leaders tonight.

Cуровую will cast See Invisibility and scan the outside and see if there is a certain halfling shadowing us.

Nothing there.

Cуровую will cast Blood Transcription and gather some of the cleric's blood for use later.

I'm starting to dislike this spell, because it requires me to go through all of a caster's ready spells and determine which one are on your spell list. No big thing if you kill another arcane caster, but if you kill a cleric-type it's a bit of a PITA -- and that will get steadily worse as time goes by and ready spell lists get longer. Hm.

Note that you need a full pint of blood.

Dren is correct, Judge. Placing the blame of the murder on another will be difficult when simple magics can be involved. Additionally, if they have any healers worth a damn, they'll be able to tell you that there are multiple types of wounds on the corpse. Let us clean this up. We can use invisibility on the corpse and carry it back to the Dalliance. Or, even better, wait till tonight to do it. We can then drop it off into one of the fort's cisterns. The ones they only use in emergency.

The Judge looks over at the hulking Morsum.
Morsum can simply carry the body into the woods and then rip it to shreds. Then they can wonder what caused the death and why he is out there. I could even summon a few wolves to tear into his holy flesh.

As a thought, Cy, you can put people to sleep can you not? Perhaps we should find a child and put him to sleep. Then take the child and the priests bodies into the woods a little way off one of the roads into the town. There, I summon several wolves to kill the child and to massacre the priests body. End result is a dead priests which from all appearances looks to have been killed saving a child from wolves. The missing head is troublesome, but if the body is destroyed enough, it should look like it was eaten or ripped off.

I'd rather not go abducting children to murder when we have alternatives.

I'd rather not go abducting children to murder when we have alternatives.

The child will be dead anyways in a few days from the bugbears Jax. Don't let sentimentality for their weak forms sway your thoughts.

Cуровую зиму wrote:

Cуровую will cast See Invisibility and scan the outside and see if there is a certain halfling shadowing us.

Nothing there.

Quote:

Cуровую will cast Blood Transcription and gather some of the cleric's blood for use later.

I'm starting to dislike this spell, because it requires me to go through all of a caster's ready spells and determine which one are on your spell list. No big thing if you kill another arcane caster, but if you kill a cleric-type it's a bit of a PITA -- and that will get steadily worse as time goes by and ready spell lists get longer. Hm.

Note that you need a full pint of blood.

Hmmm I wonder if there is a spreadsheet somewhere that compares those lists

Xen returns to his looting of the body, hopefully finding something useful

Breastplate +1!

Masterwork longsword!

Potions of Cure Light Wounds (x3), Cure Moderate Wounds (1), Slow Poison, and Cure Disease!

Healer's kit!

aaaand...

...a little silver raven that he kept in his pouch.

It looks like a charm for a bracelet. It isn't. It's a Figurine of Wondrous Power (Silver Raven).

WOW!

Hmm a Raven would fit Cуровую concept (and I personally really like Raven's in art), but I think Edmin and then Xen would have first rights to picking.

Right now I don't even know what a Silver Raven can do.

Still it sounds cool.

Hello, I just read what the Silver Raven can do.

Which works with Cуровую's plan!

Cуровую attempts not to grit her teeth to powder and tries to show patience with her fellow inmates of Brandascar.

Judge you are mistaking this cleric for the old cleric who travels from town to town. This is ANOTHER cleric.

'Giving the body to the wolves is a waste of an opportunity nor is it even believable, do you think this cleric would not have the intelligence and capabilities to survive such an attack or the wisdom to run if he knew he was beaten.'

'We have his writing samples,' Cуровую brandishes the cleric's writing' 'we need to put this advantage to further our cause. We have Xen or another with the skills of deception (Bluff) masquerade as the cleric, go to the guard of the watch and leave a note for the commander.'

'The note will read that the cleric needs to go to a town a few days away (Knowledge Geography +8) and he is on a mission of mercy to redeem an old friend (no names?) he will ask the commander to send a squad of men (timed for the day of the bugbear attack) if the cleric is not back.'

'The additional BENEFIT of this is Xen or the Judge can come back before the bugbear attack and masquerade as the cleric and get into the high priority spots in the fort with no difficulty.'

'Now we even have a magical Raven that we can use to further entice the commander at the fort, we can have a second letter read 'Send help, I wish to take a felon down, on the date we need troops to be away from the fort.'

'How do you not understand that we are given a great opportunity here?

In the event that you didn't kill him, it was also a bit of a plan-messer-up for you guys, since come the attack he'd have been able to send a message about what was happening.

Of course, they still have a bunch of actual, real ravens that you haven't come anywhere near yet. So there's that.

What does it do?

Edmin try not to break tha magic armor

What does it do?

Here it is.

It is a tool that we can use to further our deceptions.

Xen or Jax, how would you feel about masquerading as the drunk cleric just one night to scout some sections of the tower, like the rookery.

DM brought a good point up, if they have ravens the fort can call for help, or at the very least it will warn the rest of the country. We may need to deal with that before the attack begins.