Cassia Nigra's page

An armour class of 36 won't solve ALL your problems m'dear. What's your will save like, eh?

The look of relief which crosses Cassia's face is profound. She bolts the door behind Gravus as he leaves.

Yes, probably best, after all, I may be plotting to murder you ;-)

Cassia stops at the door and turns back towards Valka, her face is a porcelain mask though her eyes are full of unshed tears.

"This is nothing to do with Agneta, or Gallus, or your precious slave. Order it out of here so we can talk, or I leave now with what is mine."

"Then we're done, Valka Spartaca Tisiphone."

Cassia crosses the floor of the Vulpes to where one of the mules is loaded with belongings. The effort she is putting into maintaining control is evident, almost as if her skin were too small to hold her in one piece.

"If your most important decision right now involves your slave, then I wish you the joy of him."

"Or what? You'll force your way in and kill everyone inside? Again?"

Nevertheless, after a short pause, the bolt is withdrawn and the door swings open. Cassia's dressed in her normal wear, though has sword and pugio belted on.

The floor of the Vulpes is still cleared of furniture, and there's still a pile of bodies near the cellar door. Cassia turns to Gravus.

"Get out."

She holds the door open for Valka to enter, and Gravus to leave.

"What do you want, Valka Spartaca?"

The door is firmly shut.

Cassia only glares at Gravus, and returns to the blankets on the floor.

"You have delivered your message. Return to your Domina, or stay if she has so instructed you."

The floor of the Vulpus has been cleared of furniture which is pushed together against the walls, and it looks like Cassia was sleeping, or at least lying, downstairs.

Not unplayable, but perhaps "a lot less fun". The attraction of high level play, in my arrogant opinion, is how much more you can do, and the caliber of opponent you can face. Defeating the evil necromancer who intends to subjugate the world beneath his booted heel is a lot more dramatic than overcoming the bandit leader who is holding the town of Durholme to ransom. BUT, the fact that you can do more doesn't necessarily make things more fun. The plethora of possibilities slows down combat so that a decent sized fight can take hours with increased irritation in the event of a save-or-screwed effect. Balancing a combat becomes more difficult because of the increased variables - do you assume the enemy wizard will go high enough in the initiative tree to get a spell off or not?

I think one of the biggest problems is coming up with a rationale for why the villain of the piece doesn't use their villainesque resources to kill the PCs 'off screen'. The combination of scrying, teleport and 'enough' minions makes it hard to justify level appropriate encounters from a world-beating 'big bad'. "Hmmmm...these heroes have become a thorn in my side, I know, I'll send twice as many lower level characters against them." "Sir, why don't you, you know, send eight times as many? With a couple high level wizards?" "Ummm...actually, you know, that would make a lot more sense, wouldn't it?"

There's a lengthy pause, as of someone considering, then the door is opened long enough for a dwarf to enter before being swiftly barred again behind him.

"Speak."

Cassia bears a naked sword, she's clad in a light shift, her hair is tangled and there is a slightly hysterical glint in her eyes. The wise dwarf would respond quickly, and to the point.

Eventually, Gravus hears a hissed "What?" in reply to his knocking.

I think no AoO would streamline things dramatically. As noted, there would be many minor impacts but we did without them just fine in AD&D and had just as much fun. AoO basically prevent you from doing things you want to do (or, at least, are a disincentive) and as such are inherently negative. Now, I'm a bit of a wargamer, and the added 'realism' (if such a term can be used in a game where dragons fly and no one ever breaks a bone no matter how hard they fall) of AoOs means that this is a sacrifice I'm willing to make, but if you want a faster, funner game where you have to think a bit less and get to thwack, cast and run a bit more, then go for it.

MDTs various problems can occur whether you have AoO or not - the polearm wielder backed up against the wall, full withdraws, high concentration bonuses... Try it Riatin, let us know how it works out.

1) Bookkeeping sucks. You can do it if you want, but I don't care about exactly how many arrows you have or what spells are in your spellbook.

Pretty much my only houserule. Has served me well thus far.

+1.

Except, I hope you don't apply the same rule to say, hit points.

Fireball is explosive so full damage in central 10' radius, half damage outside that. (Rationale - RAW it's too much better than lightning bolt and not enough worse than cone of cold, also I don't like battlefield placement where the big bad takes full damage and the friendly hero fighting toe to toe with him takes none)

Armour check penalty applies to fortitude saves vs. heat/exhaustion effects. (Rationale - I want 'Legacy of Fire' to look like Arabian Nights)

Healing spells re-roll ones on the die. (Rationale - rolling a 1 is depressing).

Fighter save bonus vs. fear also applies to DC check to intimidate them, and any other similar roll. (Rationale - it should).

Magic bows do not help against DR and cannot give their ammunition flaming etc. effects. On the other hand, enhancement bonuses for magic bows and magic arrows stack. (Rationale - why on earth would anyone ever make magic arrows?).

DR/Magic is adjudicated in 5 point blocks, a +1 weapon reduces DR 15/Magic to DR 10, not bypass it all together. (Rationale - I recall fondly "+3 weapon or better required to hit", and by the time you meet monsters with DR/Magic, everyone has a magic weapon so it's pointless).

Teleport type spells are universal. (Rationale - Conjuration is by far the best school of magic already).

There are more illusion spells which are a bit more flexible - organised lvl 1 figment, lvl 2 figment... lvl 1 glamour, lvl 2 glamour... So a 3rd level figment spell (replacing major illusion) creates 1-3 objects or senses (3 visual objects, or one object with vision, sound and smell, or two objects with just sound and smell...etc.) (Rationale - Illusion is too weak, especially now that you can take spells of your forbidden school so every wizard can STILL have invisibility even if they give up illusion).

Dragons come in all colours so you can have a white dragon with the book stats of a red dragon except that it breathes cold not fire. (Rationale - I just think that it's silly that the dragons are so specifically defined).

No tanglefoot bags. (Rationale - just too powerful, there are magic items that aren't so good).

Any permanently effective wondrous item has to be made as a ring, requiring 'craft ring' feat. (Rationale - items like "amulet of permanent shield", "boots of permanent expeditious retreat" are potential game breakers which can be made by third level wizards).

When you take a magic ring off, it stops working for 24 hours. (And same goes for any similar 'slot' magic item) (Rationale - one ring of feather falling in a party negates any vertical hazard, carrying six rings for different purposes and swapping between them as needed just irritates me).

Wizards don't have actual spell books. (Rationale - it's a non-limitation, if you were to actually destroy a wizards spell book, you might as well kill them, burn the body and scatter the ashes, so rather than hand wave it, they have a set of spells they know and can learn the ones they want every morning).

Learning spells in the morning, you can only learn one spell of each level per day. (Rationale - no longer can you blow all your magic in one encounter knowing that you get all your spells back tomorrow).

"Be careful Valka Spartaca. Maybe I should worry more about what you are going to do."

She walks over to the door and gazes at Valka.

"Really, be careful. This game is only just beginning and we have no idea who else is playing."

Cassia watches Gallus' dignified departure and Valka's tantrum with an unreadable expression. She makes a half-gesture that might have been an attempt to get Gallus to stay, but it dies, part formed.

"Valka. Behave yourself. You've done an incredible thing, but don't underestimate how dangerous it is, and do not treat an honest man who has risked his life repeatedly in your cause as if he were one of Placidius' minions."

Cassia looks towards Agneta.

"I regret that he sought to humiliate you. We will need your help, perhaps more than we did before the deaths of Paesentius and Placidius."

She turns back to Valka.

"If you remember, the day before yesterday, Placidius had the high throw and all he really had to do was keep his nerve. Laurentia Agneta was someone who could tilt the balance and she agreed to do so. Part of that agreement was her betrothal to Lucius Gallus to strengthen the network of alliances. Gallus agreed...for reasons of his own, but do not think that he was overwhelmed with lust for a comely girl."

She waves her arm dismissively.

"Think through the rest for yourself. It's unimportant compared with the challenge we have in front of us. We are Dominii of an inn with no patrons, a brothel with no girls, a gang with no members. We owe an unspecified service to an unspecified patron. We have a vacuum to fill in any manner we choose and if we underperform or overstretch, we die. Valka Spartaca Tisiphone, what have you done?"

Is there any sense that he's waiting for a formal statement? My recollection is that a client/patron relationship was quite a formal thing and he hasn't initiated such - instead making his position in the relationship pretty clear without delineating it, like a senate faction leader with one of his faction - there's the illusion of equality but it might as well be patron/client - is there a mode of address which would convey an acknowledgement of this?

"Thank you Aratus," you can just detect the inverted commas around his name. "You set us a test which will determine whether we can meet the potential you see, or end us quickly. If you can remove the complication of a continuing web of vengeance without this circus," she points at the corpses, "then do so, please. Who is the patron?"

He knows we don't already know who it is, so he didn't tell us on purpose. On the other hand, the quickest way to find something out is to ask someone who knows. Shy bairns get nowt, as they say around here.

Cassia almost laughs out loud when Aratus says Vulpa Domina, then decides that this man puts the 'deadly' into 'deadly serious' and keeps quiet.

After Valka Spartaca has finished her incisive analysis, unless Aratus responds, Cassia continues.

"I am tired of being a low value playing piece in a game I have no say in. I had hoped that I could learn the local rules from Paesentius. I imagine they are ultimately the same as anywhere else. Know who your enemies and allies are. Ensure that you have more power and influence than the one. Ensure that you are loyal to the other. Bear in mind that allegiances can change without warning. That's what my father taught me, I expect that it is not unhelpful here."

"I have given up making plans. Were I to plan for tomorrow it would be that I still be alive when the sun comes up. After that," she shrugs. "Ask Laurentia Agneta who knows better than I how the dice fall in the Loutharnium."

Cassia intercepts Agneta and serves wine to both her and Aratus, if it's appropriate to serve a guest first, then him before her.

"Take wine Laurentia Agneta, and introduce us to your guest. Maybe he can prevent that pile getting any bigger before this sorry chapter is done."

She gestures to the mound of corpses.

Ghost sound definitely can't be used to give a lecture. No figment can duplicate intelligible speech unless it specifically says it can. (Under Magic - Illusion - Figment, rather than under the spell description itself. In thirty-five years of gaming I have yet to run across a rule system that gives you the information you need in the place you would automatically go to to look for it).

You could probably use it to create music though.

Please, self mutilation is an order of magnitude higher - the technical term is 'superficial self harm'... ;-)

"What would the prisoners know of any value? Kill them and be done with it. They came here to do murder and we'd save the magistrates a job."

She says this after they have woken up and loud enough that they will hear. In a lower voice.

"I will go tell Laurentia Agneta her betrothed has claimed the Vulpes for her and see whether she still wants him. We can't wait until morning to decide on what we do next. If the watch or other authorities turn up, tell them..." She shrugs. "Tell them whatever you like and let Lucius Gallus do the talking," after Gallus' recent speech, she looks a bit uneasy about this, "but don't give too much detail, I don't know what the law has to say about division of the spoils of a civil war within a group like the Vulpus Nigra."

Unless she is physically restrained, (a hand on her shoulder won't do) Cassia disguises herself (as a non-descript, heavily built and thus intimidating, guy) and sets off.

Is travelling the streets at night allowed? Or is there a curfew? If challenged, Cassia will talk in a whisper, blaming it on a sore throat if necessary, as you can't tell the difference between a man's voice and a woman's voice if they're whispering.

Who are you? And what have you done with the real Lucius Gallus?

Cassia looks with mild surprise at the blood and she wipes it off with a bar towel and sheathes the blade looking faintly embarrassed.

"That many bodies will block the sewer," she says dully. "Agneta or Minca will probably know better how things stand now both Paesentius and Placidius are dead. We may do well to go into hiding."

Cassia leans her head on the table top, staring sideways at the world.

"Does your dwarf have any more of whatever he gave me last time I caused a bath of blood at the Vulpes Nigra?"

Cassia goes to the corpse of Paesentius and aims a couple of vicious kicks at it.

"You stupid, stupid, fat, f*&%ing plebian."

She turns away and stares up through the ceiling.

"All I want is a f*&%ing place! Is that too much to ask?"

Her violent outburst over, she sits and plays with her pugio drawing it across her forearm. So sharp is the blade that despite the gentleness and almost absent minded nature of the movement it draws blood.

"You see, Lucius Gallus, why I cannot swear to turn my back on the darker gods."

Cassia gestures at the carnage.

"They will not turn their backs on me."

She stows her sling, moves to stand next to Gravus.

Cassia targets her sleep spell at the vertex between Valka/Bjarturius/G2/G3.

Cassia 5' steps to 8-9, drawing her pugio with her off hand and spinning her sling.

You can never rely on npcs.

Cassia 5' steps to x7y10.

"Then at last I surrendered myself gladly to overwhelming sleep, for my strength was utterly gone with myself having managed the sheets throughout the voyage."

Two hours later it occurs to me that I probably go first with a roll like that...

Cassia will go out to stand on the balcony drawing her sling. She will call out to Gallus a quick description of what she sees (at a volume that hopefully won't alert anyone elsewhere) and unless all is clearly well, load her sling.

Initiative roll

1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19

Cassia will do nothing about the mourners etc assuming there isn't anyone trying to break in anywhere else. I think the best thing is not to make too much of a fuss about it, hence Paesentius showing he's not bothered, beyond being a bit irritated because we can't sleep.

Does Paesentius recognise any of the women? I could try to scare them off by 'whispering' to them, but we wouldn't want anyone to think the Vulpes is haunted. What if Paesentius were to go out and thank them for their trouble but point out that his conscience is clear and he has no need of their assistance? Or invite them in to pray with the priest of Kord for the health and long life of all those within the Vulpes Nigra? Or maybe just pay them to f&%$ off home. (Cassia's irritation with the chanting shows through just a little at that point).

My computer use is going to be erratic for the next few days, hopefully it won't disrupt things.

"I think they're up to something. Could the noise and movement be concealing some other action? Like people climbing the walls while we're distracted? Viusenius' room looks out over a climbable roof."

Cassia peers through whatever gap we are looking through, her hand tracing some sigil in the air.

If we get the opportunity, Cassia will cheerfully go halfs on some un-hiring (just say how much and deduct bearing in mind that I've already implied to Agneta that some old fashioned motivation is due her as well). Her thinking is that while disposing of Placidius permanently will probably be necessary, if enough of his associates can be convinced one way or another to leave his side then it will be clear which way things are going and the rest will jump ship as well. While clearly not particularly averse to bloodshed, Cassia seems fairly keen to solve this with the minimum of violence.

"I'd like there to be something left for us to win."

...I was invisible the whole time...

Well, you weren't, Greater invisibility has a 1rd/level duration and you would have used half that getting down from your 800' up. I could go over your whole fisherman's tale and pull it apart like Aelrynth did, but to be honest, after the first couple paragraphs I tuned it out with "that's not how I like to play". I'm glad your group enjoys that kind of maximise powers/minimise problems play, more power to you.

...to allow you to decimate the army

-10

Decimate means to reduce BY a tenth, not reduce TO a tenth. <wink>

Hey, it beats "we're all going to die".

Would it be possible (I ask Paesentius) to scatter a bit of coin to UN-hire some of Placidius' muscle? It is the patrician way, after all.

It occurs to me that the priesthood of Nerull would welcome a sign of his direct action, and are possibly waiting to see if Placidius does die within the week (in which case, they declare it a genuine sighting of the servants of the god), or if he survives (in which case they attribute it to trickery and seek to crucify me as a blasphemer (although, if he DOESN'T die, then that might be the least of my worries)).

Having played this campaign (both original AD&D and now converted to 3.5) it all revolves around the GM. The conversions by WOTC are, well, dodgy for sure, especially the first one. (Your comment in your previous thread about "the GM is not to blame, the module says it's an 'old' red dragon" - our GM laughed like a drain at the statting and re-statted Ember as 'adult' (and it still nearly ate us all)).

Bear in mind your character is WAY overpowered for tenth level - 28 int would be respectable for a 20th level wizard. Having said that, your GM let you off fairly easy and obviously supports a heroic style of play. Were my GM in charge, you would have found the white dragon wing making an aerial patrol.

Wizards with time to prepare against unprepared enemies are rock, probably game-unbalancingly rock, but everything depends on your GM. If they don't want your cunning plan to succeed, it won't, if they're suitably impressed at your ingenuity, then it will. As a GM I hate characters having too easy a time of it, and your plan would have run afoul of all sorts of judgements and sudden things you hadn't thought of (e.g. your darkvision is only 60' - that means you're combing the battlefield backwards and forwards looking for targets and you can't target anything outside of that distance - and Thanoi DO have low light vision). Which isn't to say that that is the right thing to do, you put a hell of a lot of preparation into it.

Short answer, by my style of play, yes, you most definitely got away with something you shouldn't have been allowed to. By your own GMs, no, not at all. Enjoy Silvanesti!

Maybe he'll surrender!

When Cassia returns to the Vulpes Nigra she sheds her 'disguise' but is distracted and hard to communicate with. Her eyes are wide and staring and she won't or can't give details to Valka, starting sentences which she doesn't finish or just quoting old poetry. She keeps looking at the cuts on her hand and rubbing off the scabs so they bleed again. She drinks some water but doesn't seem to have much appetite and before very long locks herself in one of the smaller upstairs rooms, presumably to sleep. She doesn't rise early.