I will run the Spirit Dancers encounter tomorrow and have a question about that:
How could the PCs manage to remove the dancers' Profane Gifts? There is no way for the 6th lvl group to have 3 5th lvl Dispel Evil spells (they didn't buy scrolls of them) and as far as I know even after the succubus' death or departure the Gifts persist until dispelled.
Any ideas?
I will run the Spirit Dancers encounter tomorrow and have a question about that:
How could the PCs manage to remove the dancers' Profane Gifts? There is no way for the 6th lvl group to have 3 5th lvl Dispel Evil spells (they didn't buy scrolls of them) and as far as I know even after the succubus' death or departure the Gifts persist until dispelled.
Any ideas?
Though not explicitly stated as such, the underlying telepathic connection created by a succubus's profane gift would seem to imply that it lacks ontological inertia: that is, without the succubus in question existing to supply the profane energy, there would be no profane gift.
In short, my RAI would say once the succubus is destroyed, all profane gifts linked to that individual fiend would immediately end. Different GMs may have different thoughts on the matter, but I'm guessing that was the most likely solution intended for the encounter: disable or ignore the gifted-allies and whack the fiend. :3
I can see why the gift would vanish once the succubus has been slain but the encounter will most likely end with the fiend teleporting away. So that's still a problem and I wouldn't want her to stay to get herself killed, that'd just be bad tactics.
I can see why the gift would vanish once the succubus has been slain but the encounter will most likely end with the fiend teleporting away. So that's still a problem and I wouldn't want her to stay to get herself killed, that'd just be bad tactics.
There is also a certain wondrous monkey head available, assuming the PCs had not used it on another fiendish encounter.
They have already used it against the Shadow Demon (of course). I guess I'll just have to wing it, who knows, maybe they manage to kill the succubus before she can take off.
The session was tonight and it got interesting, here it goes for everyone who's interested:
The party arrived at the scene and saw the bathing women from afar. When they asked Nkechi about those intricate tattoos of theirs he told them about Zenj spirit dancers and their ability to commune with totem animals and the spirits but that he has never met any in person. The group got interested and drew closer.
From here it went quite as written for a while, the girls giggled and Zakiyya invited the group to dinner at their hut which the PCs gladly accepted. The succubus did all the talking in the interaction and I stressed that fact to a point where I almost thought it blatantly obvious that something's going on but still none of my players became suspicious, everyone failing their Sense Motive checks.
So over dinner the PCs asked about the tattoo-equipment in the hut and Zakiyya offered to give them tattoos, promising the awakening of their totem animals. As expected the group was more than happy to accept.
The gnome sorcerer in the group detected poison in the tattoo color and even found out that there is Blue Whinnis mixed with the paint but the demon convinced him that it is just used to numb the skin.
So everyone had a tattoo made and eventually failed 2 saves in a row against the poison thus falling unconscious.
When they came to, the party's druid was dominated while the rest was charmed. The succubus asked them to stay for the night and after some entertainment by the dancers everyone went to bed, except for the gnome sorcerer who kept going on about Zakiyya being the most beautiful one and that she should dance too. In the end, he received a big smooch and a Profane Gift before she tucked him in bed.
The next day the party's monk was invited to come with the women to the river to "help" them. Of course he didn't think twice and once in the water also fell for the succubus kiss and her Profane Gift. But when Zakiyya tried to dominate him he made his save and realized that something was very, very off here. He felt his mind being pushed aside for a moment as something else tried to take control of his body and that is of course a serious offense for a monk! He shook free of the charm effect and ran back to the hut, trying to warn the others. Zakiyya didn't want to show her true power thus refrained from teleporting and instead told the druid to shut the monk up once he comes back via her telepathic link.
But the monk managed to shout out enough to make the others realize the druid's dominated. Following a hunch, Nkechi cast protection from evil on the druid so for a few moments he was clear minded again. I ruled that all of this was enough for everyone to lose the charmed effect and the group tied up and blindfolded their dominated friend and started to run as fast as they could across the plain.
But soon Zakiyya realized what happened and flipped. She changed to her true form, took to the skies and raced after them, cutting her profane gifts and causing 6 Cha drain on the sorcerer and 9 on the monk.
When they saw her coming, the PCs decided they had to make a stand. With the barbarian up front the monk readied an attack should Zakiyya come in reach. When the succubus swooped in to claw the barbarian the monk got through to her with his stunning fist and she landed in the dust right before the barbarians feet who ended her with a coup de grace.
There was a lot of improvising and on-the-spot ruling involved in the whole affair and stunned usually doesn't mean helpless but in this particular case (falling prone from being stunned mid-air) I ruled otherwise. I would be very interested to hear if any of you GMs out here would have run things differently.
My group hates Dominate Person like the plague (Council of Thieves was our previous AP). They Bought a Horn of Goodness in Kalabuto or Eleder (yes, they used almost all their cash on it). When they entered the hut and met Zakiyya the bard carrying the Horn said "Invited for dinner? I think not! This is a trap!" and blew the horn (I think this hunch was supported by our druid rolling a phenomenal Sense Motive, but it was mostly a metagaming hunch). All dancers but one made their save (I made the hut pretty cramped, not thinking about the Horn), and one of them screamed "Zakiyya is a demon!". Two rounds later she was pinned on the ground and pummeled to death by our barbarian.
The problem with playing with players who were raised on WoD with a sadistic GM is that they can detect a fishy situation from miles away. It might also be the fact that I'm not that hot on "random guys you just met try to trick you", I'm much more a "the guy who helped you when you were lvl 1 was just using you and now he's duping you into taking the blame for some stuff" which my players usually don't detect that easily.