Very much. That creature was taking over our contact immediately following his detection as a counter agent (The memory of Alexia's charade.) The creature was likely going to report to her superiors and this particular monster if unique enough that interrogation might give us viable information. At least I hope we can get that, otherwise we will have blown our best advantage against the Rakshasa shadow league in the city. Now comes the work of erasing the crime scene and giving these guards something reasonable to believe or killing them in a manner that could be easily blamed on the Rakshasa. If Rori has something up his sleeve for dealing with now would be good to reveal it. The attention we have just drawn will swiftly unravel Rori's cover and draw attention to us otherwise.
Spell is Message. We did but I'm out of range. I think Rori was the second "Cell tower" on that aspect but he was also in a place where maintaining it would be difficult. I'm going to be looking into cheaper methods of keeping contact between the group in city distance (couple miles) because I get the feeling that as the sneaky types we are going to have lots of instances where splitting up would be best.
Xabu the scorpion is acting as a middleman between Alexia and you all. He should still be within range to get a message back to Alexia if it is apparent that you all need the back-up *EX: the target is getting away.
On that topic could I make some roles on the Tavern to see if I can't wheedle any more potential watchers out of the place? If I'm not needed in the battle it would be best if I did something of marginal use elsewhere.
I'm assuming Nyx is still within range of my message.
"One of the drunks who has been here since morning just staggered out in your direction. He might also be an imposter" Alexia whispers sending the words to her closest associate.
Ok seriously November is now my least favorite month. I apologize with great volume and vigor for my absence. We shall just say the real world ate me alive.
I'll tell the tale if you folks care to hear it but for now I'm just going to get back to the action.
Alexia eyes the retreating halfling and gives the room an appraising glance "Might be bait. Xabu will link us. " the whisper popping into the ears of all who were still within range to hear her. With that she gives the scorpion a glance and it rapidly skitters to follow the Halfling.
Xabu can stay in between and act as a range extender between my message spell and everyone else. All we need is a basic indicator that backup is needed sent to Xabu and he can easily inform Alexia. Secondly is there a window or door with a view of the direction everyone is going?If she is needed, Alexia would likely desire to use her teleport trick to avoid detection as she is assuming this newly arisen enemy is bait for the rest of the Rakshasa to draw us out with. It seems fishy that they would enact a body switch so close if they knew something was up (from mind reading). So while it might not be whats happening Alexia is going to try and cover the contingency.
Alexia then casually glances around the room for a quiet space to cast a detection spell. Wheels turning in the tieflings mind as the events occur Now, if I were in disguise where would I be in this bar? Alexia would like to cast a spell (Aura sight) in a spot she would be less likely to get detected in. Would the general noise of the bar restrict detection to a close proximity? If so she would use that and something like spilling beer on self/ cast spell/ cast prestidigitation to remove beer in order to lessen suspicion. Minor cantrips are likely quite a common thing in a city so closely tied to the mage guild. Just about anyone can learn such a thing.
Alexia uses the scroll the mistress had obtained to modify her own memories along with a book and letters to lead her freshly modified mind into the proper path on waking. A massive loss of memories would would be easily guided into a path of her acting as an agent for a Shapechanging hunter group. The kills she had made being various monsters masquerading as humans. A few letters indicating where she needed to go and who her allies were in this situation would shape the rest. The mortal mind was fantastically flexible after all.
Such a vast lie would not last long but it would only be needed for a short time.
The tiefling writes down as much as she can recall about the memories she is losing, locking them away in a book and telling Xabu to hide it somewhere in the city.
Alexia and Xabu arrive in the silver spirits tavern after she awakens from sleep, prepares her spells for the day and readies herself for a dangerous fight.
The memory modified Tiefling checks in with Tess to let her know she is here before going to find her own place to watch in the bar.
Knowing her skill at disguise to be less than stellar+11 once she notices indications that the meeting might be taking place Alexia will stay to the back areas of the bar attempting to lurk out of sight*+11
Well aware that her disguise was an easily destroyed illusion.
* magic not involved in stealth check. 10 of the 11 points on the disguise check come from the Hat of disguise. The clothing of the disguise will be maintained by a separate illusion. from the sleeves of many garments.
Xabu acts as lookout for Alexia taking a spot out of the way but still able to see a good chunk of the bar. Alexia will maintain contact with the scorpion using message. Stealth+22 perception+11
Alexia seems to pause a moment before responding, her stance relaxing some as she takes the moment. How are these idiots still alive in a city of magic? "In order" The tiefling starts pausing for effect and turning to Rex
"Yes I believe we will draw heat from this, as we discussed before letting people know we stole these items today leaves lots of possible options for our cover of "Shape-shifter hunters" getting blown later. However as the theft is already accomplished we might as well press on. Hence my asking if anyone has ideas for how we might distract that mage. If not then as suggested we should distance ourselves in order to avoid the more immediate location spells. Never mind the chance that one of those guards happens to have a good nose or sharp eyes and happens to spot us leaving when they notice the problem."
Turning to Rori she points to the sky
"Its not even dawn yet, there is another cart coming and a small platoon of guards clustered over there. Is there any reason you have to be certain that they won't be moving those goods today? you hold in your hands a collection of items worth slightly more than the purchase price of a sailing ship able to move several dozen tons of cargo. While it isn't making off with an entire cart of bullion it is still a significant theft. It will be investigated.
" As for who is to use the item I have no martial skill to speak of so consider me out of the running for that." Pathfinder vehicles: Sailing ship (10,000GP to purchase in comparison to the purchase price of what we have at slightly more than 12000GP
With that the looks over to Tess
"Yes Scry only works on a creature but just like much of the divination school that is only limits the uncreative. As an example were one to desire to scry "the thief who stole the Magic swords from Depo #6" it would take longer than scrying someone you have information on but would eventually work. Truth seeking magic and other enchantments make proving such actions in the absence of evidence childs play. Few methods work to totally escape that particular noose. If no one realizes it was stolen and chalks it up to a clerical error then no one has reason to make such inquiries. There are other divinations that can be put into play to hunt us down but ultimately if no one notices anything wrong then they don't get put into play."
" I am not saying we will not get away with this action. What I am saying is that without taking care to erase them you can easily leave loose strings someone can bind you with. Much of those precautions is grasping the various methods one can use to discover those threads." The Tiefling seems to finish and mutters a quick arcane word, the area surrounding the group of thieves seeming to smooth out and lose some of its color before returning to a more uniform shade.
Prestidigitation to erase any tracks of scuffs our presence here has left and generally make this area look about equally dirty to the rest of the street.
Alexia is ready to move forward when folks are ready. Nice as the loot is we didn't get anything useful out of this side trip, that sword can't even puncture a Rakshasa's DR without help from the same scrolls we were going to pick up anyway. My vote goes to Rori using the Bane weapon, as he is both proficient with it and could use a better weapon. Jidhuun and Rex have better, Nyx has a feat invested in her ability to use that greatsword and if I recall correctly the weapon is a bladed belt so she can modify it to be a piercing weapon anyway.
Alexia had remained silent for the occurring events waiting until her allies had done whatever they had been planning to. Looking at the weapons and back to her allies she shrugs.
"Well the third weapon is the enchantment sought, the other two are simple magic enhancements. Though I question what the plan is now as we are soon to have the Temple of Abadar leveraging their collective divine might to obtain our identities. Scrying, Locate object, and Divination would all permit someone to either attempt to locate the thief or to locate the items. These are things the temple and the tower are both going to be easily capable of.
With that the tiefling nods and looks over to Tess
"Your distraction appears to have been adequate but now we need to deal with the aftermath. It will be very difficult to actually use these weapons later today if the church and tower are actively looking for them. So unless we can find a method to intercept the inspection that is about to happen here and the one at the gate the blades are mostly useless for the purpose we intend them for."
The tiefling dispassionately informs
"I have what I need, we need to get scrolls of weapon alignment, holy water and holy weapon balm from what I remember of the discussion."
And again if we steal it and it is noticed they will report it. If it is reported then our job gets harder as the chance someone connects the dots between the "unaffiliated" shape shifter hunting group that ghosts into town and the theft of holy weapons that just happened is significant. If we have a means to hide a magic aura then great. Our job has become somewhat easier.
Most of the plans are predicated on the idea that we get away with this and avoid detection for no less than 24 hours. We need that long to use the items and then pitch any excess somewhere they won't find it. Leave it with the mistress where she puts other hot property. Now as I was basing Alexia's idea off what she knew the plan has changed with the influx of new information. Stealing the items right now is just going to result in us being detected and getting the entire church of Abradar on our tail, also meaning us using the weapons will reveal our affiliations just as we had dicussed in both discussion and gameplay Currently the only plan that will result in us obtaining this stuff without being detected is stealing the stuff after it has been checked in at the west gate. None of us have means to disguise a item (Magic Aura) so much as it would be amusing to steal the weapons and replace them with magic aura'd clubs graven with rude words I don't think that's happening. Alexia is already written as not being good at coming up with plans on the fly so she's just blundering through here. This would also be possible were one of us to take the place of whoever was in charge of the item check and keeping that same person distracted so we don't have an obvious reveal to being a fake.
Would she know who is in charge of the west gate check and/or how it is done? Because while this particular situation seems doomed to failure if we can get even five minutes time we can likely get something. As it stands short of smashing everyone here and making off with the goods there is little chance of actually stealing this stuff.
Sad fact is that we simply don't have enough time to effect a proper 'Heist' of the stuff and visibly stealing it is pointless for our purposes. And amusingly I don't seem to have the Magic Aura spell and neither do the others.
Alexia pushes her glasses back up the bridge of her nose before turning her head to look Tess in the eyes with a cool but neutral expression.
" I do not know your skills, the fact of the matter is that we cannot afford to be caught at the moment. As both Nyx and Rex suggested at our table discussion if a theft happens in the city and a group of shapeshifter hunters show up bearing weapons like that then the ruse will fail. Our biggest concern to outright theft right now is that mage and his book. If we can take over his position then we can have anyone with the skill go in and steal what we want. However without a means to do that we need to take those items after he has checked them off and had the caravan make to leave. Otherwise we will get caught within minutes as the cargo manifest would show that what we stole is missing. Unfortunately planning something viable off the cuff is somewhat difficult when I have next to no information to work with and only the vaguest sense as to each of your actual skills. If you have a better idea that won't get us caught within minutes please feel free to suggest it."
"Were we to somehow capture the Mage and replace him with one of our number we could use the scrolls of memory modification the mistress has provided us to make the mage forget said replacement happened."
Alexia frowns as she hears the news her familiar brings.
" Xabu says the Mage is checking off things on a list. He's likely doing the final assessment for transport now. This means we have to make this happen now. Xabu was unable to fully identify the various magic items but I can say this much. The weapon lockers in the back of the depo has the magic items. There are several small crates full of objects bearing conjuration magic. I assume potions of healing, holy water would bear an aura of transmutation. The Mage has a ring of protection, and something in his pouch with an aura of illusion. I'd assume its his spellbook obscured in some manner. The Cleric has magic armor, sounds like basic enhancement. Both the priest and the Mage are capable of third tier spells. Silvers is festooned in magic items, everything he has is at least enhanced. Looks like he has manacles that have some form of enchantment, likely to suppress the one bound. None of what he has looks to enhance his detection abilities. Still be careful, he isn't a captain for nothing."
Alexia then rapidly erases the previous plan and starts on a new one.
"New plan, assuming none have a better one, with the short distance from this depo to the open road there is no reason to believe there will be a second check. There is a area of open terrain between the depo and the exit of the city. I will use this to enter the caravans and obtain anything that escapes the rest of you. I know Nyx is skilled in disguise, as is Tess. Use these skills to get access to the carts after they leave the Depo."
I'm waiting for a response relating to my question about ID-ing the magic items.
However would a sufficient knowledge Local test not also reveal the typical path a package takes when exiting Coran?
That way we could know for certain whether or not we will be avoiding the guard for several hours as we wait for the meeting to happen.
Alexia frowns at Jidhuun as she waits for her companion to return.
" Yes and if the items go missing now we will have the entire guard on us within the hour unless we keep the items under a lead sheet or you intend to cower in the sewers. And even that will not stop the more creative spells of detection, with the presence of that proest I can say with certainty that the length of our successful theft will be measured in hours. We need a day to be sure we can actually do what we want to, as we have yet to determine when the meeting is scheduled for today. For all we know it is midnight tonight and we'd need to play cat and mouse with the forces of the tower, the church and the merchants." The tiefling explains as she looks to the mess of guards and continues to consider.
"Were the priest not here I'd say we could pay Captain Silver to run some interference for us and delay the investigation for a day. If you care to give a few more minutes Xabu will return with some scouting. "
Xabu has my skill ranks in both Spellcraft and Knowledge:arcana, so he has a chance of identifying the objects in the boxes and any he does not succede in I'd ask him to try and describe so Alexia could bring her own knowledge to bear.
"Xabu is in the process of scouting the building, he can tell us our desirable targets. With the way the guards are arranged and the presence of multiple defenses I believe we will encounter severe issues if we attempt to steal the objects we desire at the moment."
With that the mage scribbles a quick map with lines of magically generated dirt.
" Simply taking the boxes in whatever fashion we desire at the moment will be prevented by the ledger they are currently using to keep track of all the delivered objects. Secondly assuming the guilds of Coran are anything like the guilds of the hold there will be a check of the goods immediately before the caravans depart. I can handle identifying what we desire out of the boxes, we still need to get hold of that ledger to modify and to physically obtain the objects.
We will need to intercept the wizards ledger before he passes it off to safer keepings. Abjuration will mean we need to be especially cautious of magic traps and bindings, explosive runes, sepia serpent patterns and illusory pages on top of arcane bindings and spells for proof against theft. The best method would be to convince him we are the person to pass the ledger off to, if he is a coward then a forceful enough play at merchant inspector might be able to part the man from his book. I could also have Xabu attempt to steal it and have us just attempt to disarm the traps if anyone feels their skills are up to task. I could do it but it would take days before I could be certain no dangerous magic defenses remained.
As for accessing the objects, I am thinking we could use the Captain for that. Pay him enough to have our pick of guards to actually do the second inspection of goods. Assuming one or more of us can masquerade well enough to be undetected we could then use that opportunity to steal the goods. If he is not in charge of that then we use him to find out who would be doing the last inspection."
Then they ride off and do not realize the missing goods until they arrive in Gumlat. By then the deception of Rakshasa hunting mercenaries would not be necessary."[/b]
so here's a potential plan. Likely full of holes, feel free to inform Alexia of them.
We would also be better served to just try and manipulate the Mage group into attacking the Rakshasa than dealing with them ourselves anyway. The whole idea of this ambush is based on the idea that we can manipulate the Mages into working with us rather than killing us first before killing the Rakshasa.
I'm just rolling forward with something rather than letting my concerns stall the game but GM ascension has kindly provided us with a Depo to raid. Who knows, perhaps we will find something genuinely useful.
Like a crate filled with 60+ holy water that Alexia could shrink and run away with.
from the way I understand it the reason we are stealing them is that due to the war in Gumlat there are next to none in the city.
The big exceptions are the temple of Abadar and the citys own armories.
So if we want something like an Outsider bane anything this is the only option.
I'm set, admittedly not as well as I want to be but Alexia can now reasonably detect an overwhelming evil like a Rakshasa and can hit them for an acceptable amount of damage.
No we are robbing a heavily guarded caravan for potently enchanted items. (Evil outsider bane stuff) some of them we will end up using in the fight with the Rakshasa, I'd assume the rest gets given over to the mistress and sold in the city.
At least I think thats the idea.
Is that the idea?
So before we go into this situation flying by the seat of our pants anybody got further ideas?
From what we have sussed out in game our plan is:
1. Ambush the approaching caravan.
1b. Masquerade as guards
2. Get the stuff out of the Depo
3. Edit books (somehow?) Nyx'x knowledge local will likely help on that front.
4. Ride into the sunset with the city none the wiser.*
*For a little while
We are in easy range for Message and Alexia will send off Xabu to scout the Depo so we know what we want to grab.
We could likely hedge our bets with some spell use but I don't much fancy burning many slots when we have Rakshasa to deal with later on today
Detect magic and arcane sight can both piece 3ft of wood. Assuming we can get into the building undetected we should be able to pinpoint the largest collection of magic stuff as our most likely targets for obtaining weapons. Alchemical tools are cheap enough and easy enough to obtain that while they would be nice to have getting them here is not a necessity. We are going for the big ticket items, hopefully in a manner that keeps us unseen and unnoticed. If the theft is seen then we basically have to toss the weapons under a lead sheet until whoever is trying to get them back gives up.
Also check the campaign info page, as a skill that we should not know the success of Stealth is rolled by GM ascension. The list of other skills that work like that are over there.
I really hope we can avoid it as killing this many people in town is going to come back to bite us in the ass. However looking at what we have in front of us it won't be entirely impossible to wipe this group if the catch onto us.
Between blistering invective and Stonecall the mook fighters will fall like wheat if we need to enter combat.
Rex can hammer the cleric and wizard, cleric first probably. Massed healing will be problematic as that will keep the Mooks alive longer.
I'm hoping everyone that will actually be seen by the NPC's will have a high enough disguise to make identification next to impossible. It might be good to take the form of folks involved with Fiyrin if that is a possibility. Then regardless of our success he takes the heat.
Also a note, once we get some actual cash Alexia can craft and would be willing to help you all. Some Feather step slippers would be great for us as it would make escape much easier when we can drop crowd control spells and not get tangled ourself.
Also Goz Masks but those are expensive and a longer term investment.
That second wagon looks like an excellent target. As is typical of Alexia she is going to send Xabu to scout the surrounding area and report back. I'm also going to be looking for any collections of pest insects, a wasps nest would be perfect. Just the sort of thing a disgruntled peasant might throw at a group of bureaucrats and guards in order to ruin their day and cause a viable distraction.
Alexia, finished with her shopping, gathers with the rest of the group in their agreed upon meeting spot.
"I'll be sending Xabu forward to scout for weaknesses additionally I can outfit him with arcane sight so we can know what boxes in the depo we want to target. It also means we can know if any of those guards are wearing magic items. It looks like we will need to separate that bureaucrat if we want to modify the books. Nyx, do you know the names of that guard captain, his ally the priest or the mage? It would be good to know if we can tailor our distractions to get where we need to be. If we can bluff someone into taking over for the bureaucrat.
Rex, as it is your skill set please get into position to overwatch and attack if our ruse fails. My skills of disguise are not impressive so I shall maintain some distance as well."
With that she examines the roofs of the area before thinking again "Do any of you have a spell of See invisibility prepared? I could do so but it would expend resources I could use on other things. It seems that this sort of place would have someone invisible watching the cargo transfer in case something were to happen. "
"It might also be an option to ambush the men in the caravan coming down the road right now. If one of us produces a fog or provides a distraction for the main group a Silenced assault on the four guards would provide us all a reason to be close and a viable exit strategy."
I ask because my plan was to give Rori and Rex along with whoever else is inside the bar the job of solidly tagging our targets before combat starts. dropping the pheremone in a beer and then spilling it on them would be an easy method to deliver the stuff in an obscure method. Assuming the pheremone would not get overwhelmed.
My thoughts were similar to Nyx, many of our players function much better in a city where they can blend in. With how much focus our party has on disguise and misdirection over raw combat power I think the Depo might actually be much easier. At least in the assumption that whatever powers we expend on this are not available for the encounter with the Rakshasa.
It might be something of sufficient difficulty that GM Ascension requires we actually run it as an encounter. Arguably you could also try to raid the supply depo the caravans are getting stuff from, that would likely be harder but also very likely result in us being guaranteed to get what we want. Alexia burned a decent chunk of her power today scouting and proving her worth to Nyx/the mistress. Additionally she is busy bartering with a bunch of hedge mages to get spells that will actually work on Rakshasa. I would be entirely happy to help if the timing can be finessed that everyone can be there though. Though I feel that Nyx/Jidhuun/Rori could do an excellent job making off with whatever they need. Making sure no one realizes the stuff is gone for a day or two would be really nice, that way we don't need to worry about divination defenses.
So I think what we as players can do is outline our clever ideas for making this caper easier.
The story won't progress much without Ascension back as pretty much all of our players are involved in recon or material gathering jobs.
My current plan is to get a small horde of bees and a bunch of bee Pheromone. Our job will go much easier when those who don't have magic to detect our foes know 'that bloke covered in bees' is our target.
Crowds also don't like bees and would disperse faster were there bees, even not actively aggressive ones.
From Ascensions post it sounds like we are going to have slim pickings for bane/holy weapons. I'd still say raiding a transport headed for Gumlat would be a sure fire method to grab that stuff. But that would be a whole secondary mission that would hold up everyone who wasn't in on it and such.
Holy water, Raining arrows and other non or low magic solutions are likely to be better available.
I would personally find robbing a temple of Abadar to be both incredibly dangerous and exactly the sort of caper that could be fun.
Fair enough, it should be mentioned that with the way scrolls work just because a spell caster is unable to normally access a spell of level X does not preclude them from having a scroll. Alexia currently has multiple level 4 spells due to her beginning purchases in the hopes she can cast them soon.
regardless that means I'm boned on spells that are going to actually be useful for this situation. I suppose a scroll of -urban grace- would also be reasonable. being able to move unimpeded by crowds could be useful.
Actual purchases. Scrolls- Snowball, Stonecall, suppress charms/compulsions, Aura sight.
I'm going to be interested in the near future with working to pull some capers and steal a few spell books around town if I can. I find Alexia's spell list currently lacking quite badly in illusions and enchantments that would be helpful in redirecting or misleading foes. Previously I had the focus on transmutation and combat spells with the way the past party worked.
Reasonably I can deduct who might be a Rakshasa with Arcane sight and time but Aura sight would let me see who gives off an overwhelming aura of evil. Outsiders and such would be quite potent sources that could be noted.
I'll convince as many bees as I can to move shop for a day, have them take up residence in one of the abandoned buildings around the silver spirit. Assuming all goes well I'll split the pheremone I purchase between the party and we can use it as an insurance to track them and/or a method to diferentiate them from normal passers by in the inevitable bar brawl.
If I can see them before they see us I think I might try to have Xabu spill the stuff on their feet. To normal senses the pheromone would not be more potent than cheap beer or crappy cigarettes right?
" I shall see what can be done for my acquisitions then. I shall meet you all once I have obtained them and prepared myself for the day. Unless there is anything else I shall depart."
---- If no
The spellcaster then stands, turns on a heel and exits the area.
GM ascension:
Well crap. Don't suppose I know of someone who I don't trust that might have it? I suppose if not then Arcane sight lets me ID spell caster power level. It won't let me ping the Rakshasa's spell-like/supernatural transformations but it will give me a better chance of finding them. Spellcasters capable of third level spells are apparently semi-difficult to find.
Other call outs. -Non detection- -Detect Charm- -suppress charms/Compulsions- -Aura sight-. Other spells I want but those are the ones I can think of that would be immediately useful for this.
Also would be interested in getting a large quantity of Molten lead or some other metal to shrink. It would be an excellent method to annihilate a corpse to being unusable for divination spells.
As to the bees. Would I correct to assume that you would allow the honey bees to detect the scent as though they have the Scent quality? from what I can see of their giant brethren bees and hornets don't have that quality. Which is insane as they are so heavily dependent on pheromones for communication and command.
I'd be more interested in using the pheromone as a splash weapon if it has the same effect at 10 raining arrows. Rex can at best output 3-4 attacks a round. If something is still up after that much damage I don't know if I still want to find it. Nyx and our most recent addition could also potentially plant a vial in one of the Rakshasa's clothes.
Hrmm.. though that could make for an amusing trick for a Dhampir paladin.
What with them not taking the penalties of negative levels until they die from them.
"What me? A paladin? Do you see the horrible monstrosity of a weapon im using right now. Were I a paladin I'd be in agony holding something like this. Its just my Bralani leather cloak giving you a false positive."
EDIT:
Oh wait. Lightbulb.
-holy weapon snip-
It bestows one permanent negative level on any evil creature attempting to wield it. The negative level remains as long as the weapon is in hand and disappears when the weapon is no longer wielded.
-holy weapon snip-
Tell me, do you wield ammunition? Arguably you'd need to get around the act of touching the material but you could avoid that with an unseen servant.
Holy raining bolts with holy water. Major ouchtown right there.
Also we seem to have absolutely no information about the other players actions when much of this plan the Mistress has put forth relies on us manipulating them into helping us.
We definitely need to work on some recon options for that in future as I doubt we are going to get a chance before the stated time.
"Find some spots to hide, make sure you have a good view of the building and surrounding areas. likely keep hold of those glasses. It will be easy to tell an enemy if they have a crossbow bolt sticking out of them. Counter spotting and keeping lookout for whatever the mages or any aid they call in start doing."Alexia rattles off as she looks at the man.
"At least that's what I understood. Though I assume whatever scouting Rori wants might be helped by a proficent death dealer."
I'm set to go do my stealing. Without additional funds I won't be able to afford scrolls of what I need for all this.
Alexia could likely do with a Knowledge local check for individuals with private collection of arcane lore and others in the city that might sell spell knowledge on the down low.
An act that I would assume carries a decent sentence as it has the chance of individuals using magic for ill that would carry bad press to the tower. Though likely more concerning is sharing spell knowledge erodes the guilds best methods of controlling who is allowed to have reality warping powers.
fair enough.
The tiefling responds as her eyes dart across the rest of those at the table then to the scrolls
"now who of you feel yourself capable enough liars to cloak your affiliations without magic aid? Even one failure in this will make this mission much harder to complete. And doubtless our targets for this rushed will have methods in place to identify deception."
could I press an insect into service to act as messenger? Basically have Xabu take the thing to Rosuc's room or Elsa's home with a note around it a skin when the meeting is going to occur? I want to keep Xabu as unknown as possible.
Also in case anyone is wondering to the refrence it was mentioned in the recruitment thread but the nation of Gumlat was invaded by a demon army.
I'm assuming such a place would be clamoring for weapons and other items useful in fighting such creatures.
"Likely anywhere they can before getting them shipped to Gumlat. I'd say that there are even chances of opportunities in churches devoted to gods of crafting and crusader or warrior deitys. More so if they are both in one. So Torag is possible, Iomedae, Sarenrae and Abadar would also also be options. Of course just seeing if there is a gathering point those groups use to ship weapons off to Gumlat could skip the angle of interacting with those of the church entirely." Alexia responds as she glances over to the halfling.
"As to splitting up that is reasonable.
It will be a small challenge to obtain such spells in the middle of the night with little to barter. Mistress Diguri are there any viable night markets or dealers in the area you can think of that would be open in the middle of the night?"
Alexia" The tefling states blandly indicating herself. "Assuming your song is closer to an arcane spell then a psudodragon's poison? I'd say you don't have the best of chances to affect them. They are ridiculously hard to enspell. your SLA is still subject to spell resistance. You are looking at a 17 or so to hit their SR.
"Were we talking about a single target a Pesh overdose would work well enough. It would also obscure the deed what with Rosuc's profession. However more than one in the same place on the same day would stretch believability."
With that the tiefling massages one temple and looks to the table. "As to an actual plan, we are attempting to hammer that out now. With as many unknowns as we currently have i'd currbetly advocate not getting involved. This rushed job is just asking to end in failure with one or more captured. "
@Rori
As Alexia has already been written as an outsider to the guild it would likely cause some issue if she were to take the lead. She would do so if asked but has no reason to step up at the moment.
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Alright so just that I get this correct.
We as a group are going to crash a meeting between rosuc and his Rakshasa masters. The mistress thinks the mages are going to be in the area?
Are we suppose to be getting the mages to come with us and help? I'm lost on that part.
Planning around the potential for PVP if even one thing goes wrong and the mage group realizes we are not in fact a group of shapeshifter hunters is really putting a kink in my brain.
Anyway, we ambush the Rakshasa and murder them.
Then I guess Nyx does something to convince the other Rakshasa that she is actually the Rakshasa we murdered or whatnot?
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Plans far as I can recall.
We had plans to purchase or steal evil outsider bane or holy weapons and holy water. I beleive Nyx and Jidhuun would serve that purpose best.
Jidhuun wants to scout out the building and see entrances, exits and other physical aspects. best places to set up an ambush, good side streets to use for scouting.
I need spellbooks and bees. Well winged insects really.
Any aspects of scouting involving people (regulars, barkeep, Local watch captain *can be bribed?*) Ought to be covered by Nyx.
Rex will need a perch near the building that he can use to fill people with holes. while distance isn't much of an issue concealment and cover still is. Perhaps Rex can help with scouting?
this is only a list off the top of my head so please fill in the gaps I've left as you recall them.
Arguably you only need a sheet of lead large enough to hide your noggin from the spell's directed cone if your intention is to avoid detection from "Detect thoughts"
I can likely manage if we stay in one area with a Misdirection spell.
(Looks at spell list)
Oh joy another thing to add to the shopping list.
So anyone have a particular good aligned deity they are in the mood to mess with?
It could be greatly amusing to just walk up them all, radiating evil and ask for some evil outsider slaying weapons.
"With as little time as I've been given to plan? Assume everything will go wrong and be thankful when steps don't go that way. Ensure our mission here has several methods of escape, as I've no doubt the guild dogs will bring fire enough if they are given half a chance."
the tiefling states as she seems to think a bit.
" I will need to go hunting to find them but I have a few spells in mind that would aid us in the questions you have asked. Though without more time I have no method to ward teleportation. If the Rakshasa has that power there will be little to do but hope they are wounded enough to hunt down."
With that the tiefling glances over to the mistress.
"Determining a better method of shielding our thoughts would be wise, we have no idea the number of Rakshasa we will face and only one of them would need success in breaking the willpower of a single one of us to ruin the ruse.
A sheet of lead would spoil their attentions if placed in the right spot. Perhaps those of us who would need to be in the bar at all could use that to our advantage?"
Alexia's shopping list for spells is Piece Disguise, Snowball, Stone call, Arcane lock, Erase. Oh and Misdirection as I don't have that one for some reason. Drovic and the other old thieves can likely serve as a good source for the Silver Spirit It is a local bar after all. That or we can just ask Nyx, the walking Knowledge bank.
Alexia nods to Rex before turning back to Tess.
"Well with a large number of temples in the city it would not be difficult to obtain holy water or possibly outsider bane arrows or weapons. Obviously ammunition will be easier to acquire both legally or not. . Hrmmm..."
Alexia glances over to the mistress before coughing.
" Now that I think on it I believe I might have a method to ensure my ability to stand up to the Mage dog's questioning. There is a spell I acquired, it allows me to modify my own memory with great flexibility. I could do so and have one of you contact me to sign on with a monster hunting group. IF you state you primarily deal in shapechangers I wouldn't even need to change much."
@GM ascension
So that would mean weapon blanches, alchemical arrow types and other stuff like that is out. Arrows crafted of specific types of metal maintain that ability though?
Hrmm... this would mean as the critical range of the crossbow doesn't change that ol' Rex over there can get a 17-20 X4 crit range then?
@Jidhuun
This would be why you want scrolls.
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Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells
An inquisitor can’t cast spells of an alignment opposed to her own or her deity’s (if she has one). Spells associated with particular alignments are indicated by the chaotic, evil, good and lawful descriptors in their spell descriptions.
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Align weapon snip.
When you make a weapon chaotic, evil, good, or lawful, align weapon is a chaotic, evil, good, or lawful spell, respectively.
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As Lawful evil, with if I recall correctly, an either LE or NE deity you are SOL on casting the good version of the spell. also the chaotic version, though not important right now.
Then they will need to wear costumes large enough to hide the tiger head on top of their torso. Possible but it locks them into needing to wear hooded robes to be able to have a chance at it. Never mind how strange that cloak would look hiding a head much larger than normal humanoid.
