DM Delmoth's Planescape

Game Master Delmoth

"Sounds like we'd be doing you a favor if we just happened to find who brought him in, ask them what we need to, then make sure they aren't overstepping. We could even convince them if necessary, if you want us to. After all, everyone deserves a chance to better themself before death, right?"

Diplomacy+Blue Book+Enhanced Diplomacy: 1d20 + 7 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 7 + 2 + 2 = 24

Vaascht nods at Rinlka's flawless logic and diplomacy.

well said

Akrynn nods at the catfolk.
Resourceful. Nice.

Ulthdar regards the guards nearby and says, "Now Rin you know I don't have any authority to authorize such an action. What I can do is give you a little tour." He leads you through an internment chamber and then up a flight of spiraling stairs to the overvault:

The upper level of the Mortuary's dome is one expansive chamber, divided by the vaulting that supports the roof. Narrow galleries run around the perimeter of the room, with dark portals gaping. Chains suspended from the ceiling support a number of iron platforms similar to those in the chambers below. Several sheet-draped bodies await interment, and several zombies shamble about the room, moving the bodies or greasing the chain tracks. From one corner a brilliant reddish light dances beneath the roof. One Dustmen is standing before a portal filled with raging flame. She's about to slide a body through the portal.

Ulthdar says, "Toranna take a break." She bows and leaves. Ulthdar flicks a red bead into the portal and it fills with raging fire again. He says, "Mourner-Tom brought in Eliath, if you can track him down he might have some answers for you but I doubt it. I won't say he's not a knight of the post but I don't think he killed Eliath."

"Could we get a demonstration of the rest of the process?"

Jek offers the dead turtle dove to Ulthdar.

Ulthdar shrugs as a zombie tosses a nearby body into the portal. At Ulthdar's requst it does the same for the turtle dove. Both disappear into the flames and then the portal closes.

Rinika gives the old man a big grin at his exposition. "Mourner-Tom. Thanks Ulthdar, you're a dear as always. We'll be gentle as long as this Tom is, then. I'll find you about that next job once I'm looking for more scratch, unless you want to tell me now."

Akrynn nods to Rinika to get more information at the mention of another job.

After Ulthdar directs the zombies to feed another body to the Plane of Fire he considers the rest of the party and says, "Sorry Rin. When we talk it will just be the two of us. No offense to you bashers but I don't know that you won't turn stag. It's personal and sensitive."

She nods, pats him on the shoulder, and starts to pull her scarves back up as she says "Later then."

She beckons to the rest of the party to head out to the streets again.

Vaascht watches the body disposal with some interest, unsurprised at the irreverence at the body being casually tossed in by a zombie.

He nods at the cat girl at the resolution of the conversation.

"Yes, let's keep moving. Get paid."

Forced March
Arkrynn: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 14
Evie: 1d20 ⇒ 20
Jek: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11
Rinika: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10
Vaascht: 1d20 ⇒ 7
nonlethal: 1d6 ⇒ 4

As the night wears on the bottoms of your feet become sore and blistered, it’s just after anti-peak and the night is dark. Vaascht takes 4 nonlethal and is fatigued

"Anyone seen a good kip?"

Jek looks around for familiar lodgings.

Akrynn nods.
Perhaps, we report our findings to our client then seek rest for the night; before continuing.

Stoicly enduring the exhaustion and pounding headache from his earlier fight, Vaascht sighs in relief as his companions suggest rest. He was far too proud to broach the subject first when he was the most exhausted one.

"Yes, rest would be good."

Rinika tries to cover a yawn with a shrug and pulls out her guide to the city to see if there are any safe lodgings close by.

Knowledge Local+Blue Book: 1d20 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 3 + 2 = 13

Near the mortuary is a ramshackle one room flophouse. For one copper a piece you can have a flea ridden bed and a moldy pillow. Mawl is in the Market Ward on the other side of Sigil it will take at least 5 hours to get over there on foot.

Rest, then finish our business.

The party rests and gets a late start the next day but because everyone is used to sleeping in less than ideal conditions you feel refreshed and renewed. If only a little flea-bitten.

Back to S&J Transport to meet with Mawl or look for Mourner Tom?

I say, we return to give our findings, before going further in the investigation.

Heading back through the Market ward, you cross the various merchants hawking their wares. Fine composite bows from the best goblin bowyers in Clangor's realm on Acheron to furs imported from the Beastlands. From the last book of poetry from Dockise Limn Yin, inspired by her trip to Bedlam to a merchant with only a small dot of Karach, smelted chaos stuff from Limbo.

The group returns to S&J Transport to give Mawl the good news. A single chair and desk adorn this spartan office. The tiefling is pacing back and forth, he bears pointed teeth when you enter, "The Doomguard got to Eliath! One of my cutters saw him in the Black Sail, a tavern in the Lower Ward. He was in Doomguard colors. I guess he wasn't so barmy after all!"

Vaascht wakes early from the "restful" night propped up against a wall and getting mailed by fleas to prepare his few spells for the day. Though the night was brief, it was enough to alleviate much of the trauma from the prior day's events, enough surely that he would be find for this days tribulations.

At the suggestion of returning to their employer he merely grunts and follows the group, having no real desire to steer the groups decisions on trivial manners, being primarily Evie's bodyguard after all.

not being paid for my witty repartee and charm.

Upon reaching the office he hears the mention of Doomguard and ventures.

"Doomguard? How they figure?"

"The Mortuary said they processed Eliath. Something's piked."

Mawl throws up his arms and the temperature in the room increases by 1 degree, "Maybe they faked his death so he could drop out of sight. The Doomguard and Dustmen are tight. They're up to no good. You'd better find out whether Eliath is dead or not. Maybe he stayed in Sigil the whole time and wasn't really cremated by the Dustmen."

You need him alive, I wager. Don't know much about these crews you mention; anything that you can give us for informational would be helpful.

"Intact enough to answer questions. If you have to kill him at least get his head. And if the Hardheads get involved I didn't hire you. Just verify what Zeke said. I don't trust him, heard he works for Tattershade and Lothar the Old, next I'll hear he's an informant for Shemeshka."

"I suppose we never saw the body but I've never known Eighttoes to lie to me. Let's check out this Black Sail. Theres that Mourner-Tom to talk to as well.

"Capture or maze for jink? Maybe with a good reason. Can't we just get a list of questions for him?"

Black Sails sounds interesting.

Mawl gives Jek a peery eye, "I'm looking for a portal to the Isle of Black Trees. It's supposed to have some great treasure. Eliath was the last known person to know the portal's location. Get that out of him and I'll consider the job done."

The Lower Ward, several hours later

The Black Sail stands in the shadow of the Armory, the Doomguard headquarters. The Lower Ward is grimy and gray, but not as squalid as the Hive. Dark foundries and smithies belch forth gray smog and caustic steam around the clock. The Black Sail sits at the end of a dark alley between a pair of armorworks. The blackened bowsprit of an ancient galleon juts out over the street end. The remnants of the ship's foresail sag over the figurehead. Soot has stained the sail black. Inside, there is a dim common room with dark rafters overhead and about a dozen curtained alcoves concealing the tables. Several stained and notched tables stand in the room's center, where a group of sullen crafters are gathered, drinking quietly.

"Well, at least we know what we are really looking for now."

Vaascht grumbles as they set out again.

Reaching the Black Sails the mercenary looks around the tavern with a small smile.

"My kind of place."

Staring at all the curtained alcoves Jek whispers "Private. Quiet.
Ambushy. Let's grab the closest table to the exit and order drinks."

Rinika looks at her companions incredulously. "A table? You gonna wait for Eliath to walk up to you?"

She walks up to the bar, seeking aid from the shadows in her pursuit of knowledge, and plonks a silver on to it, and begins to warm up her chatterbox with the lubrication that the coin provides.

Casting enhanced diplomacy

"So, you get a lot of new doomies here? What's the name of the boat? Are you sure this glass is clean? How'd the boat get here? Is there a special shot here for newly inducted little doomlets? Anyone join up recently? What's the qualifications?"

Gather info + enhanced diplomacy: 1d20 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 3 + 2 = 23

Vaascht follows the catgirl, suppressing a grin at her colorful mastery of the common language and negotiation tactics.

I like this one!

He stands off behind her a bit as she talks, projecting "bodyguard" to any toughs in the bar, in case her prominently displayed sword wasn't warning enough.

Or the heavily armed barataur, and gith, and human...

Well, they'll figure it out

I got my diplomacy and perception mixed up, diplo is +7 and not +3, so that should be 4 higher. ...I'll work on getting that stat block set up in my profile. Oops.

Akrynn follows along.
Catgirl has some spunk. Let's see where she takes us...lol.

The serving boy engages with Rinika and her questions, ”Oh yeah we get a lot of Sinkers in here. Uh… I think the Black Sail, I don’t know, it’s been here as long as I’ve lived here. I don’t know about a shot but I see the new recruits smashing weapons against the outside wall of the Armory. I always hear them talking about decay and entropy and stuff. You could ask the bashers over in that booth, they're members."

Jek chuckles at Rinika's rapid barrage of questions. "Try not to harass too many Sinkers at once." He claims the table he was eying anyway and looks around for a drink list.

Vaascht looks over the group the bartender indicated, waiting for their speaker to initiate more questions.

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 1 = 11

Having been paying attention to how to speak to people, the Patryn adds,
As my feline friend has so rapidly explained, we are tasked with finding a fella named Eliath. You seen a bloke fitting this description around here?

diplomacy aid another: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8

Obviously, he needs more practice!

The serving boy answers and points to the same cloth draped booth, "Yeah he's right over there. He started renting one of our rooms almost a week ago. He's always kind to the servers."

Akrynn nods at the server, flipping him a silver coin.

Well, that worked! How do we want to proceed? I am going to have a quick look around to get the lay of the place before we confront him.

The druid walks around the outside of the tavern; he gauges where their mark is inside to relation of outside. He also looks for any extra exits besides the front.

Once outside, he draws a simple rune for Guidance.
Perception: 1d20 + 8 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 8 + 1 = 28

The druid also attempts to be nonchalant about it (after drawing another rune for Guidance).
Stealth: 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 6 + 1 = 22

Map of the first floor is up. The X marks which booth

Rinika smiles smugly at the serving boy's answers. She's about to respond when her stomach gurgles and Akrynn cuts in to fill the awkward silence. "Urg...you sure this glass was clean?" She looks over to the booth with some distress when it's pointed out, but her gaze soon turns darker, almost envious, as she scans them for valuables.

After giving them a once-over, she asks the bartender sweetly, "Which room would that be, my friend?"

Perception: 1d20 + 4 - 2 ⇒ (8) + 4 - 2 = 10
Appraise: 1d20 + 4 - 2 ⇒ (17) + 4 - 2 = 19

I realized when leveling up that, due to her Oracle curse, she's not wearing enough bling and will be sickened until she gets somewhere between 50 and 100 more flashy threads on, depending on interpretation.

Suspecting that a dozen Doomguards behind the curtains could soon become upset, Jek begins sizing up the patrons he can see.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

map is not loading on my phone. Everyone else see it?

As the group moves towards the covered booth Vaascht casually sidles along, leaning on a convenient table while keeping his hand near his blade and going over his combat magics in his head, just in case.

I'll see if I can't see it from my computer later today

The bartender takes the glass and gives it a good wipe and refills it, "Terribly sorry. I suggest you ask Eliath yourself if you want to see his room."

Vaascht, Jek, and Arkynn try to get a read on the room. Arkynn is the most successful, in Eliath's group there are 4 other doomlets. In another alcove is another group of 5. Arkynn catches a glimpse of one, an aasimar woman who has bought chivs like they were going out of style. Four swords at her hip and two strapped to her back. Four of the other alcoves are occupied by craftsmen, the rest are filled with mercenary groups spending the pay on their last job. Arkynn also notices a lizardman staying out of sight but keeping an eye on the room.

Rinika's nose for gold does nothing for her today. DCs for appraise starts at 20, but if you wanted to sell or purchase anything you had the opportunity since you would have had to walk through the market ward to get here.

Map came up on my phone just fine. It took a couple of seconds for the image to load properly though. I use the google slides app and was on WiFi

After surveying the outside parameter, the druid returns inside and reports his findings (after tracing a Shillelagh rune on his oaken quarterstaff and a Guidance rune).
Viewing 10 potential hostile thugs relating to their objective, the Patryn grins.

So, a dust up or a parley?

yeah, my internet is hot garbage, it's loaded now. Thanks!

Vaascht looks to the druid as he speaks absently rubbing his still bruised jaw.

"We are a bit outnumbered, so they might stand a chance. Guess we can try talking first."

As he speaks the Gith mentally tallies his scrolls and prepared spells, absently wishing he had prepared a crowd suppression spell on this day.

If we have to throw down, gonna have to do it the hard way.

Rinika pats her now-settled stomach and adjust the new spectacles that caught her eye in the market, looking over at the large collection of Doomguard. She orders a pitcher and hefts it up, nodding to her party and holding a paw out flat to hold for the moment. Calling for enhanced diplomacy from the shadows again, she walks over to Eliath's table and puts the pitcher down in the middle.

"Hello gentlefellows, I trust all is well. My friends and I would like a word with this one for a few moments, if you will, and a here's a round for your troubles." she nods toward Eliath and then gestures towards one of the open tables in the middle, in clear view of the Doomlet table.

diplomacy: 1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 8 + 2 = 20

There are a couple of options you have here, combat works.

4 against 10?....seems fair!

I like our make up, as a group. I also am not opposed to having 5.

Some sort of true ranged support might be nice, but this group is solid and fun so I'm happy as is if need be.

@Akrynn- Better hope we never have to fight anyone who has a laser. First you get shot, then you get pounced.

I wouldn't expect anything else, good sir...lol.

And here's me realizing that we dont have anyone trained in knowledge: religion...

We will miss our clue...lol.

The more important clue was out in the open in any case.

FYI I'm drove to visit my mom's for the weekend. A storm just came through and knocked out the power so I only have my phone and its at about 33%.

Hope everything's okay, be safe, we can always wait a few days!

Yeah we have no power and I have a few trees down in my yard as well.

Good thing the heat is dying down as I'm gonna have some serious chainsawing to do this week. Hoping I get power back before my basement floods too bad.

Stay safe!

This place is just plain weird.

Lol, we haven't even gotten out of Sigil yet.

Anyway if you hadn't guessed I have power back again. Sounds like I got off lightly.

I'm texting from my porch, battling mosquitoes, waiting for my wife to bring back the generator we borrowed so we can run all three of my sump pumps to unflood my basement.

At this point I'm gonna have to eat everything in my freezers this week.

And we got off pretty easy too

Eek. Good luck in any case!

always makes me think of the excellent Simon R Greene Nightside series. Though the audiobook makes it much better, Mark Vietor is fantastic as John Taylor

Never heard of it but I'll give it a go on my drive home tomorrow. Seems like it might be betweem Rivers of London series and Dresden files. So right up my alley.

State of the adventure

I feel like we're perilously close to completely jumping off the rails in such a way that the adventure will be uncompletable. Which is absolutely fine, it's a one off where you tromp around Sigil and interact with some of the factions. It's not like an AP where the game ends when you jump the rails. And I'm comfortable enough with the setting that if you said we find a portal to the Abyss and jump in you'll find something to do.

The next part takes character initiative to finish. As you have figured out someone is killing people in the Hive, they're sent to the Mortuary to be cremated (preventing anything but a 9th level spell from bringing them back), and then the deaders somehow turn up joining seemingly random factions.

Ways forward.

1. You quit. You did the job you were hired for so you don't do anything else and you miss out on the who, what, and why. Consequences happen.

2. You investigate, find the villains, and stop their evil plans.

3. I force it on you. Which is fine if the character wouldn't get involved but the player wants to know the dark of it.

Basically I'm struggling with is the story interesting enough to finish and how to do that with these characters or should we cut our losses and move to the next one.

Ahh, so Eliath DID actually die and come back. I was thinking he just got messed up by something and faked his death convincingly.

I'm fine with finishing, it does seem fascinating how that i know it isn't just standard Sigil shenanigans, which is what I thought it was.

That is Eliath's story and he's sticking to it. He's a horrible liar so it's a wonder the doomguard took him at his cover story.

Myself being new to Planescape, I am enjoying the tour.

New here too, and didnt realize this was anything out of the ordinary in this strange, strange place.

I'll be very busy over the next few days - can probably still post, but it'll likely be delayed.

I wasn't complaining and don't mind hard encounters, i started in AD&D second after all. I think my tone didn't come through right, I blame typing out my post while trying to rock my kid back to sleep in the middle of the night.

I was more commenting that it wasn't the dice hating us as much as we had a 75%, roughly, chance of failing that save for 3/4 of us, so the dice were working as intended :)

Though, I think perhaps my design philosophy for Vaascht was "fun PFS" power level, and perhaps a bit under optimised for this campaign.

If so, and Vaascht bites it, no problem!

I have been itching to try a Bloodrager for some time now :)

well, he was a caster level 5. Not the easiest to combat with a couple level 2s. Then again for all the use I've been in combat this far I might as well go ahead and jump in that pit of flame. I had been hoping that demoralize would have disrupted the spell though, ah well

One hit from Jek would've downed him. That fight was winnable. There was some bad luck and a few non-optimal actions from everyone.

Aaaand my encounter design philosophy might be clashing with this group. One of my pet peeves with paizo published products is that encounters are very often too easy. A second is they tend to have wizards alone in a closet.

I think a lot of this would be remedied with a 5th player. So if it's alright I'm going to invite a few people I play with to see if they're interested. And if that doesn't work out I'll do an open recruitment.

I wasn't complaining and don't mind hard encounters, i started in AD&D second after all. I think my tone didn't come through right, I blame typing out my post while trying to rock my kid back to sleep in the middle of the night.

I was more commenting that it wasn't the dice hating us as much as we had a 75%, roughly, chance of failing that save for 3/4 of us, so the dice were working as intended :)

Though, I think perhaps my design philosophy for Vaascht was "fun PFS" power level, and perhaps a bit under optimised for this campaign.

If so, and Vaascht bites it, no problem!

I have been itching to try a Bloodrager for some time now :)

And this is an AD&D adventure originally.

Its constructive criticism that I should own. Vaascht's fine. Party had a weakness that I picked on. I knew it going in but I also knew it wouldn't end the game if you lost.

Anyway I should get back to work.

Rinika is pretty far from mechanically optimal...consequence of building a skill monkey rogue out of an Oracle. I've got some plans to add some combat effectiveness but it'll take another few levels.

Vaascht wrote:

I wasn't complaining and don't mind hard encounters, i started in AD&D second after all. I think my tone didn't come through right, I blame typing out my post while trying to rock my kid back to sleep in the middle of the night.

I was more commenting that it wasn't the dice hating us as much as we had a 75%, roughly, chance of failing that save for 3/4 of us, so the dice were working as intended :)

Though, I think perhaps my design philosophy for Vaascht was "fun PFS" power level, and perhaps a bit under optimised for this campaign.

If so, and Vaascht bites it, no problem!

I have been itching to try a Bloodrager for some time now :)

And this is an AD&D adventure originally.

Its constructive criticism that I should own. Vaascht's fine. Party had a weakness that I picked on. I knew it going in but I also knew it wouldn't end the game if you lost.

I, for one, am now more intregued in solving this riddle, and getting revenge.

As a player I am entertained and ready to see what's next, as a character Vaascht is in fully now, someone has gotta pay for this insult!

No worries about losing the battle here, I'm liking where things are going.

I'm fine with another player as well. It'd definitely help round out the party.

Huzzah! It'll be afternoon before I can do a gameplay post. Thank you for being awesome players.

Had I prepared Color Spray (like I had regretted earlier but didn't rectify) I'd wager that fight could have gone much better.

Win some, lose some; happens.

A 5th is cool.

I have someone who's interested in joining, they are currently working on their character.

Sounds great!

Hi, I heard you needed a zombie hoard another PC.

Nikrir wasn't originally supposed to have gray skin, but I like the picture and I'm beginning to think that Nik has been going palpatine-pale via magic experimentation...

Also I keep flip flopping between Undead Lord and Undead Master. Do you guys have a strong opinion on getting a cleric or a wizard as your next teammate? xD

I hope you don't mind a member of the Dustmen joining you :3

@GM: would it be good if the PC I'm replacing happens to one of Nik's 3 rivals?

Hmmm.... I don't know how I feel about that.

If it helps the party has an oracle, magus, and druid for casters.

Sounds cool to me either way.

FYI I'm waiving any evil required alignment for your archetypes Nik. I know one of the options requires evil which as we discussed doesn't necessarily make sense given the setting.

@GM: would it be good if the PC I'm replacing happens to one of Nik's 3 rivals?

I'll tentatively allow it. But they likely won't appear as an NPC, at least any time soon, since I'll feel weird about taking control of the RP of a former PC.

Good to know, and thanks for permission.
Since it doesn't sound both easy and fun from where I'm sitting, I think I probably will just make up another NPC for my rivals :3

Also, persuant to me getting a pass for casting spells with the [evil] descriptor to create undead, would other [evil] spells like a certain curative magic that is definitely just curative magic handed out by the church of Asmodeus be non-alignment shifting? You know, as long as I use them for ostensibly good things like healing evil doers? the good guys? team-mates? :3

'cause I feel like we need a third healer.
Maybe a fourth if Vaascht has extra spell slots ;p

Anyway, I'm definitely okay with it just being OK for me to create undead as a Dustman, but I feel like I should make stuff like the [evil] descriptor clear :3

TL;DR is it just creating undead that's okay, or are only evil acts, not [evil] spells, alignment shifting? :3

Hey, a negative channeler would be very welcome from Rinika's perspective!

While I may pick up some of the condition-removal spells at later levels, she really isn't a healer. I wouldn't worry too much about stepping on toes as a cleric, I'd be cool with either.

We talked about getting a partially charged infernal healing wand a while ago and then never did. Oops. It would be nice though since it works on everyone.

Source, intent, and purpose matters. So casting an evil descriptor spell by itself is not sufficient to cause an alignment infraction. Casting infernal healing granted by an evil deity probably pushes it over the edge unless you're healing a paladin on her way to save an orphanage.

It's complicated and messy just like morality should be. What I'm saying is expect an inscrutable point system ala The Good Place only with tallied for law and chaos too.

Vaascht will be hard up for spell slots as a Kensai, but I plan to invest in scrolls and pearls of power if possible.

And as for Evil spells, you'll probably fit with my plan to make use of Infernal Healing, possibly even via wand as a useful way to heal both our positive and negative channelers

Akrynn doesn't really care about Good or Evil. Patryn's tend to view all others as lesser beings anyway...lol.

I see him as LN, but still playing around with his rping to find out....

Akrynn will be melee focused, although being a full caster does grant options.

Well, if we have 3 melee guys, I'll definitely go wizard with a heavy crossbow then. At least I can take pot shots from far away. Maybe throw a fireball or two eventually xD

Also,

Source, intent, and purpose matters. So casting an evil descriptor spell by itself is not sufficient to cause an alignment infraction. Casting infernal healing granted by an evil deity probably pushes it over the edge unless you're healing a paladin on her way to save an orphanage.

It's complicated and messy just like morality should be. What I'm saying is expect an inscrutable point system ala The Good Place only with tallied for law and chaos too.

I like this ^

Welcome to the party!

I don't think we've technically won a fight yet. The first one ended in talking and the second one... well.. we fell asleep and were thrown into the plane of fire.

Jek may be the only good aligned character in the group. He grew up around Sigil, so undead are pretty normal. Unless you're evil to the core, it shouldn't be an issue. I'm fairly to happy to have range support and an extra damage sponge on the front lines.

I've finally found more time to work on Nik and I'm around 80% done, but I've only got two for each category of the 3x3. Anyone wanna be friends with a necromancer before I try too hard to fill out the last three spots? xD

Yes, welcome! And the closest we've come to winning a fight is talking our way out of one...

Plus my sword slinging magus' best abilities in a fight seem to be taking a punch and intimidating folks. Some day I might even use my sword!

Still, especially with a necromancer in the crew I think we'll find out groove soon and kick butt and take names.

Vaascht could certainly be an.. aquaintence anyway, he's pure mercenary so if you've had a reason to pay for a sellsword at some point for essentially anything he might have been your Gith

I see Vaascht as the Worf of the party.

In case anyone is wondering about Nikrir's traits, those are from magical experiements in the vain attempt to become a lich. He'll make some progress again around the time he turns level 20 xD

edit: I think I've got everything but the third friend picked out well enough. I'll leave that (#1) spot open until I'm not longer busy this afternoon/evening.
If none of you guys want it then I'll have to actually think of another NPC ;p
Or maybe I'll just be friends with the friendly fiend? xD