Taking a few moments, Fadilah conferences with her gen, then casts a light spell upon her staff of the sea to illuminate the area.
"The world is vast and we are young and our travels are far from over. A flying carpet is not outside the realm of possibility," says Fadilah. She folds her arms and says sternly to Zairiah, "But destined for failure? Hah! Fate has greater plans in store. Why, when someone says something terrible like that about one of my friends, I am usually quite cross with them. Sometimes I write an angry poem, or I am even tempted to curse them with a spell. So don't say such terrible things about my dear friend!" She leans forward and raises one hand to her cheek and says sotto voce, "That friend being you."
Celebeth says, "Right? We could even make a fire trap! Set it off with a fire arrow!"
It really is going to come down to how the DM feels about wishes and what you can get out of them!
"Thanks Kayleigh," whispers Vedika. "You're a sweetie."
"Ahhhh I'm just tryin' to be a goofball!" says Vedika as her joke falls flat. "Let's get some sleep in actual beds in a place that isn't going to erupt into a riot at a moment's notice."
Vedika explains, "Er, 'the Trots' is a nickname for the runs. The uncontrollable poops. The explosion after you eat something that you shouldn't have."
"Are you suuure you want to eat the stew from a place called 'the Trots'?"
Fadilah takes a moment to think about this, though she is clearly happy to be right in the middle of her wheelhouse. "Genies can call upon mystical and elemental forces that are greater than they themselves are," she says, "but there are often... terms and conditions. The participation of mortals like ourselves creates a sort of... mystical resonance that enables them to draw forth greater powers through the combination of our delicate desires and dreams in conjunction with the genie's abilities. In a sense, genies rarely want for anything in the way that mortals do; genies are robust, magically powerful, able to sustain themselves trivially, so they instead engage in games—like this one!—and feuds and romances. It is the desire fostered by fragile mortals like ourselves that fuels the ability to turn their power into more than a simple glamour and to bend the cosmos to that will." "Basically, mortal desire can be so strong that it acts as a key that unlocks the ability of the genie to call upon greater powers that they would never need or bother with for themselves." Fadilah twirls her finger in the air as she speaks, like an excited academic. "Efreet are crafty and can be dangerous, but they are also people of their word. But you must always be careful that your reach does not exceed your grasp! The magic of wishes is bountiful to those of virtue, who use their wishes for good ends, for simple needs, for humble requests. To those who are greedy and grasping and power-hungry, wishes become a vehicle for lessons, an instant retort from the cosmos, reminding mere mortals to be humble in their station." "A wish for great wealth or immortality would be possible, but might come with many problems. For instance, the wealth that appears to you might be whisked away from a powerful merchant-prince, who comes looking for his coffers of gold and jewels. Or immortality might not come with eternal youth and vigor, leaving you an empty shriveled husk after many centuries, hoping for a death that will never come." "The more that mere mortals try to outwit and trick the universe through our machinations, the more that we discover that we are, after all, limited beings, and our desires are more likely to bring us ruin than satisfaction. Many stories tell of wishers who thought that they had an ironclad contract to cheat 'the system', as it were, only to discover that they had naturally overlooked one thing and found themselves trapped in chains of their own making." "My advice is... if you choose to seek a wish, and you succeed... remember to be humble. Do not ask for a banquet, when a meal will do."
My hope was to have Meridian make some acid or alchemist's fire while journeying, but unfortunately the PF crafting system makes that largely impossible. The easier of the two, acid, has a DC 15 Craft check. Meridian has a +11 in that check (thanks for witch's Cauldron ability) so she can hit a 21 by taking 10. This means that her weekly progress brewing acid is (roll times DC, 21 × 15) 315 silver pieces of progress on an item with a value of 100 silver pieces; this means she can make a vial of acid in ⅓ of a week. So, if it takes us three days to reach the trolls, Meridian is able to make one vial of acid. Worse still, doing this while traveling means she is spending 4 hours working after 8 hours of travel and gets only 2 hours of credit for the work (presumably the other 2 hours is eaten up in the set-up and tear-down of the lab while on the move), so she actually makes stuff at one-quarter that rate while we are traveling, meaning it takes her 4/3 of a week to make one vial of acid—about 10 days. Soooo not real useful. We should probably just buy a bunch of acid at 10 gp/flask if we can.
"Ship is probably best safety until we can magic up some cures for these problems," agrees Cass. She makes an arcane gesture and conjures a supernatural mount, a light horse. "This horse should make traveling a little easier." She helps her sightless companion up to ride.
Vedika glances at her colleagues and says, "I think every woman in this room has had to do a walk home through an unsafe neighborhood. We may be vagabonds, scoundrels, and seditionists, but we're not monsters."
Krezzik angrily turns and heads off to aid the other lizardfolk survivors in adjusting to life in the nascent town. Living among humans, especially while in dire straits like this, will be taxing to everyone involved, but at least Krezzik speaks the local language and has a rudimentary understanding of human customs. Meridian says, "Sounds like I need to pack my cauldron and come along on this one. I'll start gathering up the supplies that I need to make as much alchemical fire as possible while we travel."
Fadilah says, "Oh great Achmed Al-Zul the Magnificent, we are simply travelers attempting to cross the desert. Alas, some of our number have been sickened by the needles of some of the cacti, and we are ministering to their wounds before we travel onward."
Ok team, so, after we disperse the mob, presumably we just leave the region? Because nobody wants us here, not orcs, not humans, not talking wolves. There is nothing for us to do here, everyone is hostile to us, and there's no reason for us to stay.
Aiko says, "I honestly wasn't sure that was going to work."
She winces as she flexes her legs. "Hard on the knees and the back, though." "I don't think that our foe was so fortunate." She takes a few moments to catch her breath and re-center herself, leaning on the pole of her bloody naginata, then matter-of-factly pulls out a dark rag and starts wiping down the blade. "Thanks for the quick assist, Adrian. And you're right, Byron. Eventually we'll have to face that monster down in the depths again, and it was flying, so we all need some kind of ranged weapons."
"Very well. Mahara, please treat Frackit first. We'll rest here and see if the poison loses its efficacy overnight. If not, we'll stay encamped and do our best to lie low while we wait to treat the others."
Aiko crouches, then makes a leap off the edge of the tower, swinging her reach weapon up at Zaiobe.
Then she falls... and falls...
... tumbles and rolls as she hits the ground far below.
"Historians will record that they were roommates."
"Sadly, yes, if I leave the area, the spell collapses," says Fadilah as she picks up the magic water canteen and stoppers it. She finds a flat spot of ground and says, "Over here." She scratches a mark in the ground with her staff, then says, "I'll help you move them all over here before casting." Once the paralyzed team members are safely moved to a flat space she casts the tiny hut, which creates a momentary flicker as it generates an otherwise invisible dome that moderates the temperature inside. She then bustles about helping to set up pillows and blankets to make the paralyzed folks comfortable while they are unable to move.
Ok, for now I will take rogue 3, with the possibility that if the story bends in that direction I might retrain completely to vigilante and become Batman. Woman. Blackjack. Whatever.
Look, if nobody says anything, at some point you either need to: * Decide how many players constitutes a consensus and push on
It's really, really common for groups to forge ahead if there is at least a raw majority consensus. If at least half the team says "Ok we are doing this," then move on if nobody pipes up with "WE ABSOLUTELY MUST NOT DO THAT BECAUSE REASONS." Right now this is just wheel-spinning for wheel-spinning's sake.
I spoke with DC recently and I'll be moving things along shortly, probably this weekend. Hang on folks!
"Yeah, yeah, we made it through, there were some cuts and scrapes but we're all alive. Just a lot of folks wiped out by the trap." "... uhh, by 'wiped out' I mean 'tired'."
Having failed to fetch a spell to change the weather and resorted to using her staff, Fadilah can now focus on helping the team.
After a brief conversation with her gen, she says, "I can raise a dome that will protect against the extreme heat, but we can only fit a small number of people or camels in it. I have to remain inside or the magic of the dome will collapse. Can we find a defensible spot? Once I raise the dome, it cannot be moved, so we would have to make sure it's in a place that we don't need to worry about being attacked by something."
"Once the wall of force drops, I can toss a resilient sphere on the cyclops, so that should buy us a little more time," says Cass.
Level 8: Cleric 8 +1 Wisdom +7 hit points
+1 4th-level spell per day +1 each of: Diplomacy, Heal, Knowledge (religion), Spellcraft; Knowledge (history), Linguistics New language learned: Orc ~~~~~~~~~~ I'm in the middle of job hunting, so things are very stressful.
This sounds a little like arguing that creatures get SR agaisnt the magic weapon spell because they can resist the magic that makes the weapon magical.
Celebeth flings a magic missile at the skeletal leader, figuring it won't stop him but it might help Rhiannon to wear him down.
"Hearing the squeal of surprise?"
Cass scooches up closer to the team and bisects the room with a wall of force so that the group can burn down one (red) while the other is isolated.
"That will give us time to make some plans of our own!" says Fadilah. "My friends, what can we do in preparation? We suspect the Brotherhood has retreated to a fortified location with the Sheikh's son. I will try to fetch some spells to give us more information about the place, but there are no guarantees."
"With all of those allies, making a move against the Brotherhood puts his son in grave danger. He cannot attack their fortress directly without risking that they might injure or kill his son. We have to find a way in to save him," says Fadilah. After her gen returns, she sends it back out for a detect magic spell to examine the items wrested from the enemies.
Once she has had a look over, she sends the gen out for one other spell.
She heads over to Frackit and says, "Hold still a moment." She makes a clipping gesture with her hands and then pantomimes as if pulling on a rope or... a beard?
Isabella tries to invigorate the group further with a prayer spell to help in making the final push against the tentacle monster.
"Yeah. That."
Fadilah says, "If it be within your power, could you remove this barrier please?" and indicates the invisible barrier to the tent.
Fadilah calls for Diliram, hoping that the genie will hear her.
Starting to feel like we have a theme mage on our hands. Bigby has hands
"Wow. Glad Corft sent you to help us," says Vedika, though she keeps her sap in hand. "This is um... getting kind of creepy. Not 'using children as a crime ring' creepy, but more 'deranged alchemist with eerie plans mixing up oddball parts to make a formula with no good end' creepy." "What is all this stuff? This necromancer's working on something, but what? Whatever it is, looks like it went really sideways."
The thing that would've really turned the barbarian fight is a calm emotions spell.
Aiko raises her eyebrows skeptically and says, "You really think a lone living child is in the middle of this monster murder house in the middle of nowhere? Kelda was captured, her crewmates were killed, this whole place was sacked decades ago and nobody has been here since, and a child just... wandered here from the middle of the wilderness and is up in an attic sobbing where any of these creatures can hear it?" "I will put down money it's undead."
Fadilah examines the pieces of the bow and says, "They seem quite separate, I am eager to see how this resolves."
Fadilah leans over to Sheikh Ibn Taaib and whispers, "I could, but why would I?" Immediately after the bow snaps, Fadilah cries out, "Ah! A fine illusion! You already showed us one, and now to break a magical bow simply over one's knee? Quite a trick, surely there is some misdirection here!"
Vedika casts a few prestidigitation spells to remove the worst of the filth from Kayleigh. She seems uninterested in going through the sludge of the otyugh droppings to look for other trinkets, though. "I should probably get a collapsible pole for poking around in these kinds of cesspits at some point," she muses. Moving on past the stirges and into the chamber of skulls, she pauses and says, "I have some half-formed memory about 'don't put your hand into the yawning black mouth' but I can't recall what it's from."
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