So our party benefactor is trying to take over the world. We are his emissaries.
I find his most recent request, however, rather absurd. He wants us to go into the desert and annihilate the nomadic culture there, to the man. Apparently, they refused to give fealty to our lord and now face his wrath.
But...um...how do you destroy an entire nation of nomads? They are too many. And they are too spread out. And too well hidden (I imagine they know the desert better than we forest-dwellers do).
We are a 9th-level party with a human sorcerer, an elf ranger, an orc barbarian/monk, and a human battle cleric.
It would take an army years to find and slaughter all of the nomads (if it can be done at all). What are four adventurers going to be able to do?
What would you do? How could we possibly resolve this situation?
I thought maybe we could spread a disease, but they are too spread out and would wise up as to where it is coming from before long (and then avoid the source).
EDIT: We were given limited resources, about 6,000gp apiece to do the job (well, in payment for the job, but whatever).
most desert nomads use sparse wells and i would use those to kill these nomads, what i would do is poison the water eventually they will need to go to one of the wells scattered around the desert and will die from drinking said poisoned water.
most desert nomads use sparse wells and i would use those to kill these nomads, what i would do is poison the water eventually they will need to go to one of the wells scattered around the desert and will die from drinking said poisoned water.
Ooh, clever.
I could probably come up with some elaborate scheme given half a chance. Let's see.
As a spellcaster, have them disguise themselves as some sort of soothsayer and request an audience with one of their chieftains, then Dominate him. Get any information you can about the locations of the other tribes, then get him to declare war on his neighbors. This may take longer than 9 days (the duration of Dominate) so hopefully you have a metamagic wand of extend. Elsewise you'll just have to revisit him to re-dominate him. Command him not to resist further dominations.
Visit the locations of the other tribes and warn them that Chieftain A is amassing an army, and that if they don't stand against him, united, at this one place at this one time they'll all be destroyed one by one. Diplomacy checks, bluff checks, and saber rattling abound, maybe some magical handwaving too ooh and ahh the locals. Think Gandalf meets Lawrence of Arabia.
Get everyone in one place and have them all duke it out. Unleash some HUGE illusory monsters on the horizon and corral everyone into as small an area as possible. Wall of Force or Stone optional. Cast a few embiggened (a perfectly cromulent word) Confusions. Sit back and enjoy the carnage. Stack Cloudkills on the survivors.
Combine both ideas as the agents from tribe A or B or whatever who are poisoning th wells of tribe C to promote chaos and war.
Combine both ideas as the agents from tribe A or B or whatever who are poisoning th wells of tribe C to promote chaos and war.
Yes yes, sure, of course. The important part is that you get to watch them tear their brethren limb from limb, awash in red, sticky ichor, before awaking from the haze to see what they have wrought. Then making them dissolve with cloudkill. *rubs his hands together and giggles*
oh nice, i never thought of something like that, several layers of sceams would also hide your groups real intentions.
oh nice, i never thought of something like that, several layers of sceams would also hide your groups real intentions.
Well the benefactor obviously has some sizeable forces... wb a amall army of animated objects?
By 9th level you should have some good divination spells. Find their leader. Teleport to him. Butcher him and his family and averyone within a thousand yards, but leave a handful of survivors. Make it clear to them that this is the fate of their people.
Offer them three choices:
1. Make a pilgrimage to wherever your benefactor lives, there to swear fealty and beg for mercy.
2. Leave the land and never return, upon pain of death.
3. Die like the fools you just butchered.
Make sure these few survivors go forth and spread the word.
About once every week or so, repeat the process, using divination and teleport to get you to the largest community or central gathering place. Each time, destroy almost everyone and send a few survivors to carry the same offer to their fellow nomads.
Don't forget to destroy their tents, pavilions, camels, watering holes, wells, caves, or whatever shelter or food or transportation is present when you wipe out their leadership each week.
Sooner or later they will run out of good shelters, run out of food and water, run out of places to live, run out of places to gather amongst themselves, run out of leaders, and run out of reasons to keep living there.
Or, before it gets that bad they will go swear their fealty - at which time your benefactor can either gain an army of nomads to command, or can take personal delight in executing each of the fools who is stupid enough to make the pilgrimage.
We have but one teleportation scroll for emergencies, nor do we have any ability to scry. The next best thing is a sorcerer with dimension door.
As for poisoning the water supply, what if they have clerics/druids with create water?
Here's a downloadable zip file with PDFs of our characters to help you help us.
Pay some poor mercenary mooks to poison the wells.
Produce paper work revealing the benefactors desire to slaughter the nomads.
The party arrives in time to save the nomads from the posioned wells.
The party executes the mercenary mooks responsible.
The party then uses spells to kick up wind storms on the horizons. Stories are spread that an army is approaching through the haze of sand to finish off the nomads.
Then the party explains some kind of death star weakness in the benefactors fortress of strength.
The party gathers the nomad warriors by their side to lead a strike against the benefactor's weakness.
The women and children are sent to a safehouse oasis which is a death trap.
The party leads the nomads to an ambush and finishes them.
Devil seduction of the cleric/druids.
The force them to kill each other play is probably a good idea to start with. In the end all you have to do though is kill all the women. Without those the nomads will die out in time.
The funny thing is that you can combine all of these =). Except the scry and fry which is more like level 11.
So our party benefactor is trying to take over the world. We are his emissaries.
--snip--
EDIT: We were given limited resources, about 6,000gp apiece to do the job (well, in payment for the job, but whatever).
Easiest way to end this: kill the stupid b@stard who gave you the impossibly dfficult (for a party your size / level) job and throw a wild party with the 6,000 gp you were each given. Invite the nomads to the celebration. Given his ambitions you'd probably make a lot of powerful friends as well :)
Like someone else pointed out, you go around poisoning the oasis, make that sacred oasis of a high level druid and said druid is going to hang you from the local trees for the crows and vultures....
Or you just kill the stupid tree-hugging (or in this case sand-lovin') druid. Kill 'em all til blood stains sand!!!
You have to destroy the nomad culture. Not the nomads themselves?
If this is true, causing a cultural change would count as victory.
You could convince the nomads to settle down and begin farming, which would destroy them in the sense that there are no nomads anymore.
You could introduce an addictive drug. Perhaps potions of cure light wounds laced with something that keeps you coming back for more. That might detroy thier traditions too.
Most nomads are herders of some kind. A really good cattle disease would do the job.
Or, introduce some new false god to the region, or a wandering prophet. Rig up some omens if you need to. Convince them to leave the area, or begin a holy war against someone else.
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Or, use the 6000 gp to hire the nomads. Then, turn on your benefactor.
Turn on your benefactor now and end his plans for world domination.You must know that when he has won your usefulness to him will be at an end.
Turn on your benefactor now and end his plans for world domination.You must know that when he has won your usefulness to him will be at an end.
Not all evil is that transparent and cliche.
Turn on your benefactor now and end his plans for world domination.You must know that when he has won your usefulness to him will be at an end.Not all evil is that transparent and cliche.
The whole "conquer the world", and "destroy those who have not grovelled before me" bit sounds pretty d@mn cliche to me... On the other hand, there is a lot of "cliche" in the world or it wouldn't be cliche :D
One of the party members should become a desert cheiftain and lead an uprising agaisnt the employer, gathering the nomads together. Then at the last possible moment go the wrong way, when they tire it will be easy.
It sounds to me like said "benefactor", in spite of his perceived original altruistic intentions to "unite the world under one banner", has finally showed his true face. Either he's been playing you all along or the process of dominating the world has simply made him loopy. He is now more of a danger than a uniter. Time to end him and move on. :)
I think you were too quick to dismiss the bio-warfare angle. Have your orc barbarian/monk (how is that even possible) visit several dozen brothels. Then set out into the desert seducing every nomadic woman you come across. Before you know it, BAM! Everyone has AIDs. Including that contradiction you call your party member.
Just out of curiosity - what are your characters' alignments?
I think you were too quick to dismiss the bio-warfare angle. Have your orc barbarian/monk (how is that even possible) visit several dozen brothels. Then set out into the desert seducing every nomadic woman you come across. Before you know it, BAM! Everyone has AIDs. Including that contradiction you call your party member.
A fallen monk(i.e. one that loses his lawful alignment) dosent lose his powers, he just cant gain any more monk levels. So if he started monk, became chaotic and lost accsess to monk, then he could start taking barbarian levels.
Edit: As a DM, he would have to spin me a really good tale for me to allow it though.
How is [a barbarian/monk] even possible?A fallen monk(i.e. one that loses his lawful alignment) dosent lose his powers, he just cant gain any more monk levels. So if he started monk, became chaotic and lost accsess to monk, then he could start taking barbarian levels.
Edit: As a DM, he would have to spin me a really good tale for me to allow it though.
Actually, he started as a barbarian, then slowly became civilized through his experience with the party. When we first found him, he was a savage creature. Now, due to our efforts, he is a civilized, literate, gentleman.
Smite the genocidal bastard.
AND BURN DOWN HIS HOUSE.
Smite the genocidal bastard.
Why? Why not help and share in the glory?
Smite the genocidal bastard.Why? Why not help and share in the glory?
I probably should have clarified that we are an evil party.
The big question is, do you have to do it NOW? are you given a time limit? or is it just a flat "do it" whenever and however you can. Depending on the answer can determine your course of action. My character in an evil party went from hunted criminal and Lord murdering villain, to leader of the nation we were terrorizing, all through a long and cunning process of double identities (like Chancellor Palpatine/Lord Sidious), scalpal-precision assassinations, and hard work. Much of which was outside the actual campaign time, but, if time is on your side, there is a greater variety of opportunities open to them.
The big question is, do you have to do it NOW? are you given a time limit? or is it just a flat "do it" whenever and however you can. Depending on the answer can determine your course of action. My character in an evil party went from hunted criminal and Lord murdering villain, to leader of the nation we were terrorizing, all through a long and cunning process of double identities (like Chancellor Palpatine/Lord Sidious), scalpal-precision assassinations, and hard work. Much of which was outside the actual campaign time, but, if time is on your side, there is a greater variety of opportunities open to them.
I don't recall receiving a deadline, just a magical book with which to communicate with our benefactor. We are to update him on the matter every two days (and he credibly threatened to have us killed if we didn't), so I don't imagine his patience will be infinite. He has a grand scheme to put into motion and the nomads stand in his way.
I also don't think he wants us to subvert the nomads or ruin their culture. I really do think he wants them completely annihilated. I just don't know how else to interpret the statement, "wipe them off the face of Uldvar."
My suggestion is to have the Cleric lesser planar ally up some reinforcements - 6000gp is plenty to secure the 1 day per caster level version of services. I suggest either Bearded Devils because their teleport ability will let them seek out nomads much more quickly, or Vargouilles because of their ability to spawn more of themselves. Alternatively, you spend some of the money on scrolls for an upgrade to planar ally for Erinyes devils, who may work at a discount due to the nature of the task.
In cases like this I do use meta-thinking, why is the DM asking you to do this? It could be an on going thing or could lead to other adventures. So might not be as bad as it first seems :)
As for the get help, you need to make sure you dont slip into the 'fire and forget' way of thinking. He has asked you as a party to do it so you need to atleast do some work. You could summon slaad red and blue and have them spread some terror with implant and fever, then find the most blood thirsty of the tribes and tell them you can make sure they dont get the 'plague' that is affecting other tribes but you want the failty to help you wipe out the rest. Then just find 1 tribe at a time and do it over. Local knowledge is a great thing as others have pointed out water holes are a good starting point to finding tribes as is your 'pet tribes' knowledge as most nomadic tribes will have certain areas they travel and most likely set places they move to at given times.
Remember get others to help not to do it for you.
Plague zombies are always appropriate. They search out their own targets and they self perpetuate.
Nomads must be nomadic for a reason. Find out why they are nomadic and see what you can do there.
Are they following a herd of something? Destroy the herd.
Are they going from well to well? Figure out their destination and drain/foul the wells before the get there. (I know with create water this doesn't seem reasonable but if the nomads are simply well hoping then it's reasonable that they have limited create waters)
Are they following trade routes? Destroy their trade goods.
You get the idea.
A lawful barbarian loses his ability to rage, right? Wow. That guy deserves a pat on the back for roleplaying that kind of character. Not much more than a Warrior/Monk. Rare to see a player sacrifice game abilities for an interesting story. I judged too soon. I'm too used to players that want polar opposites in the same character: Ninja/Samurai, Barbarian/Monk, Paladin/Assassin...
Contact the leaders of the nomads and try to unite them into a single force to be used against your master. Convince them you will betray him, allowing them to kill this evil despot. Remain firm that only with all of them together can they possible win. And convince them that, in order to prevent any retaliation, they should gather all their people into some stronghold or safe location.
See? We just got all the nomad people gathered into two conveniently disposable groups. Now just kill them.
I doubt that would be a good idea. The "evil despot" is the brother to a goodly king. He wishes to overthrow his brother in a coup and seize power. Before he can do that, however, he must garner support from outside his kingdom in order to better legitimize/hold his power once he takes the thrown. If we were to rally the nomads against him, even under false pretenses, then word might get out of his plans. That's why we are here: we are an independent group that can both get things done AND take the fall/blame should we fail.
I suspect he plans to start wars in order to weaken the kingdom's infrastructure and to divide his brother's military forces so thin that they will be wholly unable to stop the coup.
It was probably misleading for me to say he plans to take over the world. Still, after all the leg work we have done to get him secret allies, we have garnered support from all the middle kingdoms, effectively dividing the world in half.
Once he has his kingdom, he will be in ripe position to take the world if he can.
We will likely betray him in some fashion (as most of the alliances support US more so than they do our master), but we aren't quite sure how that is going to happen.
For now, we are content to do as he says and reap the benefits.
A lawful barbarian loses his ability to rage, right? Wow. That guy deserves a pat on the back for roleplaying that kind of character. Not much more than a Warrior/Monk. Rare to see a player sacrifice game abilities for an interesting story. I judged too soon. I'm too used to players that want polar opposites in the same character: Ninja/Samurai, Barbarian/Monk, Paladin/Assassin...
I don't see anything that says a barbarian turned lawful can't rage anymore.
hmmm, maybe that's a 3.5-ism. Ok, go go angry monks.
I don't think there is a single "swiss army knife" answer to your problem.
In the real world, poisoning the wells would work...well (pun intended). But this isn't the real world. Neutralize poison, create water, etc. will put an end to the poison well scheme.
Extraplanar help will drain your resources. If you want a lot of help (to more quickly hunt down the nomads) your help will be too weak and the nomads could easily fight back. If your help is strong, there won't be enough of them to hunt all the nomads down. If you help is too strong, then they may decide they have better things to do.
Zombies are slow, and would take even longer than extraplanar help to hunt down the nomads. Also, they will be fodder for the nomad clerics.
Gathering them together in a large group means that they will be tougher for you to fight.
Maybe you can use all of the above, along with some scheme that will get the tribes to fight each other. Perhaps start with a captured member of Group A, compelled and with a modified memory, and sent to assasinate Group B's leader. Follow that with poisoned wells against group A. Then send the animated corpes from Group A to attack group B. Follow up with some weak-ish extraplanars to attack group A that "accidentally" drop a tribal totem from group B. You get the idea.
But...um...how do you destroy an entire nation of nomads? They are too many. And they are too spread out. And too well hidden (I imagine they know the desert better than we forest-dwellers do).
There's plenty of brute force methods to do it.
However, the DM may want you to investigate a sneaky way of doing it. Perhaps unlocking some kind of horrible curse will age all the nomads 100 years. Perhaps there's ancient magic sleeping in the desert that will transport all living things to the 9 layers of hell. Maybe a powerful necromancer will lend you a huge army of undead if you perform a service for him. . .
Look around -- don't automatically assume you have to personally kill every man, woman, and child (that sounds boring).
Yep so your group are emissaries of the goodly king
but really serving his evil twin "skippy" in a coup......
Then you can lock the good king into an iron mask and keep him in the dungeon....
Sounds good.
'Fraid not. The goodly king doesn't even know we exist.