Mary brought up in another thread the idea of a center where these gals are training? What features, defenses, and fluff would you put in such a place should your PCs decide to infiltrate/destroy it/do a rescue op?
Seems like the most likely place for training would be somewhere out of the public eye, where they don't have to go around with their helms on 24/7. So...the palace, or perhaps chambers in the pyramid beneath it.
As for features, there would have to be an indoctrination center, where their wills are broken, and perhaps a torture chamber/surgery center where their former beauty is put under the knife, or acid, or whatever measure you deem best for the scarring that is inflicted upon them.
The best defense would likely be the Gray Maidens themselves. Waltzing into a training camp of elite warriors would be no cakewalk. Perhaps there are a couple of ex-Acadamae enchanters that work there, helping with the indoctrination process.
I'd think one of the vaults beneath the city - there are quite a few of them after all.
Creative Director
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There's 2 primary "training camps" here. The 1st is a few rooms in Castle Korvosa that double as torture chambers. The majority are in and under Longacre Building in Korvosa itself. The process for training involves lots of enchantment magic like charm person, dominate, geas/quest, and the like combined with a fair amount of torture and other mind-control domination type stuff.
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Director of Brand Strategy
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There's 2 primary "training camps" here. The 1st is a few rooms in Castle Korvosa that double as torture chambers. The majority are in and under Longacre Building in Korvosa itself. The process for training involves lots of enchantment magic like charm person, dominate, geas/quest, and the like combined with a fair amount of torture and other mind-control domination type stuff.
Where do I sign up?
There's 2 primary "training camps" here. The 1st is a few rooms in Castle Korvosa that double as torture chambers. The majority are in and under Longacre Building in Korvosa itself. The process for training involves lots of enchantment magic like charm person, dominate, geas/quest, and the like combined with a fair amount of torture and other mind-control domination type stuff.
She's got the spellcaster resources to throw around 5th and 6th level spells--in order to indoctrinate 2nd level fighters?! Or is she casting them all herself? (Since we already know she's a*~!$#@ crazy, but not that she has access to a stable of a!#%%%% priests and mages....)
In our game this appears to be explained by vampires, the Dominate part anyway. If you have vampires Dominate is cheap. Don't know where you'd get the other spells, though. Geas is particularly hard to come by. How many Maidens is she making, anyway?
Incidentally, Pathfinder RPG really ought to have at least a mention of long-term effects of charm magic. It came up in RotRL, and it's coming up here again--there's clearly a consensus among the AP authors that long-term charm does things to your mind. It'd be good to mention this in the rules. You don't need details, just a general comment.
Since it isn't mentioned in the modules, we put this camp well outside of Korvosa in a seaside fortified-warehouse complex "liberated" from House Arkona. More than that I can't say, as my PCs haven't hit it yet. I expect there must be a morbid bit where trainees who snap under the strain are imprisoned, and a heavy-duty security center in case of an uprising.
Mary
Incidentally, Pathfinder RPG really ought to have at least a mention of long-term effects of charm magic. It came up in RotRL, and it's coming up here again--there's clearly a consensus among the AP authors that long-term charm does things to your mind. It'd be good to mention this in the rules. You don't need details, just a general comment.I agree.
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Creative Director
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She's got the spellcaster resources to throw around 5th and 6th level spells--in order to indoctrinate 2nd level fighters?! Or is she casting them all herself? (Since we already know she's a@@~+*@ crazy, but not that she has access to a stable of a!$***~ priests and mages....)
In our game this appears to be explained by vampires, the Dominate part anyway. If you have vampires Dominate is cheap. Don't know where you'd get the other spells, though. Geas is particularly hard to come by. How many Maidens is she making, anyway?
Incidentally, Pathfinder RPG really ought to have at least a mention of long-term effects of charm magic. It came up in RotRL, and it's coming up here again--there's clearly a consensus among the AP authors that long-term charm does things to your mind. It'd be good to mention this in the rules. You don't need details, just a general comment.
Since it isn't mentioned in the modules, we put this camp well outside of Korvosa in a seaside fortified-warehouse complex "liberated" from House Arkona. More than that I can't say, as my PCs haven't hit it yet. I expect there must be a morbid bit where trainees who snap under the strain are imprisoned, and a heavy-duty security center in case of an uprising.
Mary
Throwing up the spoiler tag!
Queen Ileosa is a 16th level bard before long; she's supercharged by the Fangs of Kazavon, and gains a LOT of levels very quickly as a result. We probably should have nailed down WHEN she gains those levels, I guess... basically, by the end of Edge of Anarchy, I suspect she's about 10th level, and by the end of the 2nd adventure she's 16th level. She can cast all of the big spells; charm person, geas/quest, dominate person, etc. She handles the majority of those spells herself (augmented here and there with scrolls, I suppose). Geas, in particular, is a great spell for this cause, since once she learns it it's free to cast and has LONG lasting effects.
She's also got a lot of other high-level spellcaster buddies too, be they devils with lots of spell-like abilities or red mantis pals or her buddy Togomor, who's a 15th level wizard IIRC.
Were I doing Crimson Throne over again... I would have required the authors to do more with the Gray Maidens, I suspect. Ah well.
Throwing up the spoiler tag!
Heh, that explains a lot...
Last session, when she gave her speech before the execution, our ranger turned to the bard and said "You should be taking notes. That's how you do it."
I have three NPCs who are close to the PCs and want to join the Gray Maidens.
Dame Harina Zelnov is twenty-six and a member of the Order of the Nail. She's a "friend with benefits" of Anaster Carowyn (one of the PCs). I think that she'll fall into line and become a loyal Gray Maiden. Ideally I'll have her confront Anaster in some dramatic way at some point, and have her brainwashing prevail.
Andreea Ornelos graduated from the Academae as an illusionist, and has also accumulated an impressive number of necromancy spells. She's the older sister of Karmina Ornelos (one of the PCs). I don't know if a character with three levels of aristocrat and five levels of specialist wizard would be accepted, but if so then she'll also become a Gray Maiden, tromping around in her full plate armour. (If she isn't accepted then I'll swap her story with Ensa's.) I'd like her to confront Karmina some time and then tear off her helmet (showing her disfigured face) and defy the geas. Presumably her family will help her at that point with a lesser wish or something along those lines.
Any thoughts? Specifically, what do we know about admission requirements? Page 19 of volume eight just says that the queen personally examines their strength and beauty, so presumably this is pretty arbitrary when in the GM's hands (which is perfect).
I went with my plan, and Ensa Bromathan became a Gray Maiden and then defied the geas. She is now locked up in the Deathhead Vault beneath the Longacre Building.
Unfortunately, the fellow sweet on her is getting a divination and will discover this information. I'm saying that Queen Domina paid to have the Deathhead Vault lead-lined and protected against magical intrusion, somehow (possibly with a permanent wall of force, or something similar).
So the Longacre Building is traditionally guarded by the Korvosan Guard, but after the events at the beginning of Chapter Three it will definitely have its defenses bolstered by Gray Maidens. I'm thinking that at any given time the building and its surrounding area will have three squads of standard Gray Maidens (as per p. 42 of vol. 8) and maybe one officer (as per p. 18 of vol. 12).
I suspect that any rescue attempts by my players will take one of two approaches. The Vault method will be easy to foil, since there's a derro colony right around there and I can just suck away resources and such until the other plots demand attention.
The second method is going to be to try to appeal to authority. This would involved going to an arbiter, probably Zenobia Zenderholm, and trying to get authority to inspect the Gray Maiden facilities. I think that Zenobia must be pretty suspicious, and would likely want some sort of inspection to take place. Given the identity of my player characters, they're not even completely unreasonable candidates.
I think that Zenobia would listen to them in a serious way, tell them that she will investigate, have them make an appointment with her for two days hence, then mysteriously disappear. I think that she'd start asking questions (if she hadn't already) and the queen would roll her eyes and add one more name to the Red Mantis list. Zenobia is level 10 (aristocrat 1/expert 9) and has a rank as a clergymember in the church of Abadar in spite of not being able to cast spells herself, and I see her as smart enough to get out of Dodge. I think she'd move to either Kaer Maga or Skelt (though sending her to Glimmerhold would provide a nice tie-in to Clash of the Kingslayers), then try to get a message to the PCs as secretly as possible.
Regardless this would squelch legitimate avenues of investigation. The PCs could still try to find stuff out, but it would be hard to do it while maintaining a low profile.
Any thoughts?