My PCs are doing some serious fund raising and plan on paying the Bank of Abadar to cast planar ally and call an astral deva of Sarenrae and task her with casting remove disease on everyone they bring to her. Then they plan to orchestrate a massive healing line-up, where everyone who's sick goes through the line, gets targetted by remove disease, then waits in an isolated holding area (presumably a very large isolated holding area) until everyone has been through the line.
On the one hand, this won't work perfectly. Even discounting the red mantis assassins taking out the astral deva, people are ornery and won't coopoerate. This extends to all levels of the operation, from some sick people who trust their grandmother's cures more than those of some random nobles all the way up to city magistrates who don't like the way this is all being thrown together and will want to reorganize the healthy people. And, of course, it will be a simple matter for agents to infiltrate this area and pass out items that have been in death's head coffers.
On the other hand, this kind of effort deserves to be rewarded and will certainly save a lot of lives. It will also put the PCs pretty deeply into debt. I'm thinking that something like this could save as many as a thousand lives, even without it working as well as they want it to.
I'd like to reward this kind of initiative, even though I think that the bad guys aren't going to just sit by and let it work. This will certainly garner them a lot of good will, and people will be very aware of who they are.
I also think it could be fun to play the astral deva. Any thoughts on what angels of Sarenrae are like?
Creative Director
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Sarenrae is herself an angel; the only angel yet who's ascended to divinity (just as Asmodeous is the only devil god and Lamashtu is the only demon god). As a result, Sarenrae's angels should be pretty much the "vanilla" angels; they should be exactly what one would expect when summoning them, and should probably be right out of the SRD with very little changes. You might consider giving them fiery hair or a Keleshite spin, but beyond that I'd say no changes are necessary at all.
Thank-you for that insight! That helps a lot.
Your players have certainly had a cool idea. Let them run with it, but don't let the bad guys just sit around either.
That's my thought, too. They're working hard to come up with solutions to the disease, and I'm just adding to the tally of lives saved every time.
So do you think that Red Mantis will take out the angel, or will they avoid that level of escalation? I think that the astral deva's Magic Circle Against Evil would trump the prayer attack, which more or less removes a lot of the danger from the assassins. I'm not really sure what they could do against it without either getting new equipment or calling in reinforcements. Maybe they'd just concentrate on undoing its work and let it keep wasting its time?
Well, I guess if the spell weren't being cast at the Bank of Abadar then the Gray Maidens could intercept the priest en route to wherever the PCs were waiting, and replace him with either a conjurer or else Sermignatto. Then the false priest would claim to be calling an astral deva but would actually call up something else.
I think that the PCs are too smart for this, though. I think that they'll just get the spell cast at the Bank after they've made all their preparations. There really isn't much that the queen or her allies could do in that case, I don't think.
It's a fun idea, though. :)
Well, the need for a large quarantine of the cured made me think of a warehouse or a pasture outside the city. I guess a good old fashioned Cloudkill on those quarantined holding areas might dissuade people from getting a free cure....
Wait for some nobodies to leave after their cure, poison them with with something truly vile or give them Mummy Rot or some such.
Spread rumours claiming that varous underhanded and nefarious things associated with the healing.
"their actually tagging you magically when you get that cure"
"The cure is a fake, When [a very pretty and young female or a child] got the cure her body simply started to rot away."
"The Angel is an illusion - Its actually a Demon!"
Well, the need for a large quarantine of the cured made me think of a warehouse or a pasture outside the city. I guess a good old fashioned Cloudkill on those quarantined holding areas might dissuade people from getting a free cure....
Wererats?
Peace,
tfad
During the events of Seven Days to the Grave the PCs saw the Gray Maidens setting up quarantines to protect the rest of the city. In particular, much of Old Korvosa has fallen under this sort of restriction, to the point where (as we're nearing the end of the volume) it looks like the entire island is just going to be cut off from the peninsula for a while.
They've been working up the cash to pay Archbanker Tuttle to cast planar ally, and I think they can finally afford it. They've also found enough information beneath the Hospice for someone to create a cure for the plague, but they're being careful not to be connected with that. (They want to seem like clueless but helpful nobles who support the queen and want to help her cure the plague, and they're doing everything they can to destroy any evidence that they were beneath the Hospice.) Between the cure and the deva, I suspect that the population of Old Korvosa could soon be the healthiest it's been in years.
I'm thinking that the quarantine will remain in place, possibly with some very flimsy excuse. I think that the district won't descend into lawlessness in quite the same way described in Escape from Old Korvosa, though. In particular, I think that the Arkonas will have a much tighter control on the population, and Pilts won't become emperor. Does this sound right?
Personally if you want the Story to progress as in the book... Let them Some the Ally. All it takes is for one person to be missed for this to start all over. This isnt to say they shouldnt be rewarded. Saving family Members of Nobles, Guards, etc... They would have Inn stays payed for, safe houses, etc.
My Party took a slightly Different Approach. Our Cleric of Pharasma took party funds and Researched "Detect Disease." For story purposes i made it a first level spell so they cant keep it up 24/7. He shared it witht the Churches in Town and i gave them more Points for it (towards how many people were saved). I also gave them favors from the churches.
Personally if you want the Story to progress as in the book... Let them Some the Ally. All it takes is for one person to be missed for this to start all over. This isnt to say they shouldnt be rewarded. Saving family Members of Nobles, Guards, etc... They would have Inn stays payed for, safe houses, etc.
I've had the astral deva wandering the streets under guard. There have been a lot of squabbles, but because she's sticking to North Point and the Heights there hasn't been anything too unsightly. She's around for thirteen days, and her mandate is to travel the city and cast remove disease on anyone who wants her to.
She's one of the good guys and she's surrounded by guards from various noble houses, so she's not going to break quarantine when city officials order her not to. The PCs got the extra reward for combating the plague, but Old Korvosa is still in a bad way. It'll take longer for things to deteriorate, but the group is out of town (doing Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale) so I have time to let things degrade.
Thanks for the help!