Long Range transportation / vexing without teleport spells.

[Dark Immortal]

So our gm has a game world where no player, monster or summon has access to a preset list of spells. Among the spells banned are teleport, greater teleport, and dimension door. My ninth level Winter Witch has some pirates to murd- ahem, I mean 'parlay' with. These pirates are all likely cr 9+ and everything that is not a PC has max HP.

I cannot defeat them (or anything) in direct combat, and definitely not alone) and have just attained 9th level and have 3 new spells to select. I had considered the Summon Accuser' spell as the devil it conjurs could spy for me and acquire things like hair and such and allow for a pretty good witch-themed assault on these sea-lovers. But the devil cannot use greater teleport. The gm, apon request, gave a compensatory power of at will gaseous form-Useful, but this doesn't allow me to reach the pirates once they set sail. Ships travel pretty slowly (up to about four miles per hour) but realistically they will be hundreds of miles away in short order.

I am wondering if there are some less likely known options for transport at distance or affecting the pirates from such long range, consistently. Otherwise this is looking like I simply cannot allow the pirates to leave dock and if I do, I have to go with them.

info:

My witch has craft wonderous item and has two uses of freeze and thaw per day (which is useless right now). His patron is trickery so we have access to hallucinatory terrain. Enemies can be assumed to make more or less any save at 50% success since the only things that do not scale with our level are commoners and specific NPC's. My witch is the lowest level in a party of 10-11's. My PC also has only about a thousand gold and is not looking like cash of any significant sort will be coming for a while.
I do not have the soothsayer or scar hex and currently have no room for them in the 20 level plan. I have a consistent means of daily scrying and can take the actual scry spell this level, if I choose.

[snejjj]

A Combo of overland flight and invisibility could do the trick, if they're not too far out and you have some means of pinpointing their location.

[Claxon]

Sounds like you have a chase on your hands.

I think this is what the GM wants. Overland flight wont be able to keep up with them once they have set sail, a ships speed is faster than your overland flight speed. They can also sail continuously (with enough crew).

While in character this should take time and be vexing, it can likely be handled with just a few skill rolls and RP'ing. Make good use of divination if you're having trouble locating them. There is also spell that allows you track a ship by having a splinter of wood from the ship.

The good news is that none of you have magical teleportation, so they can't get crazy far ahead of you. And divination will allow you to locate them if you lose track of them.

[Dark Immortal]

Right, but the pirates have to die. Like, I cannot play the character if I do not kill the pirates barring some very major (like polar alignment shift) rp change/event. This is unlikely to happen. So if I cannot go after the pirates at some point in the respectable future, I have to prevent them from leaving. Freeze and thaw would have worked to landlock their ship by freezing all the water around it. But the ability is a five foot cube, usable twice a day. Completely useless.

I am not aware of any spells which allow me to afflict a target at ranges of say 100 miles, that is within my level to cast. This situation seems tedious, honestly.

[Claxon]

It sounds like a good chase.

Have you just tried following them? And killing them once you can get close?

You say the pirates have to die, and that's fine. But you say it's because you cannot play the character if they don't die. Which I think is probably incorrect, and that what you mean is that your character will be killed if you do not kill the pirates. You also mention "in the respectable future" which makes me think they are going someplace to tell someone about something you've done. Which is why you will be killed.

You're right that it's difficult to cast spell over such a long range. Using scrying, plus message, plus disguising your voice may allow you to convince the pirates to stop some place where you can catch them. Or provide some other orders that may give you an advantage.

To be honest, I don't really see a problem with the situation. This seems like exactly what the GM wanted. To create a sense of urgency that wasn't easily resolved by scry and fry tactics.

Try hiring a boat and sailing after them. Or magical create a boat. Or whatever. Hell, you can use shadow walk (or an elixir of shadow walking) to reach their destination before them and set an ambush. Assuming the GM didn't ban that spell also.

[Mathius]

If you have cleric ally you can use wind walk to follow them.

If you can sneak onto their ship and hide, have your invisible familiar carry around the focus gem while you magic jar them all to death.

Water breathing should allow you to get under their boat and put a hole in it.

If you have access to planer binding, an air elemental should be fast enough to catch the ship.

If you know where they are going to be in a few days you can plane shift twice and hope this gets you close enough to head them off at the pass.

A tree feather token dropped from up high breaks a ship.

Fast zombie with a good swim speed and quad move forever and overtake a ship. Same with a flier.

Fireball gets most of the crew. Wall of fire burns a ship up.

Magic hat lets you join the crew.