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There's an evil cabal of highly intelligent spellcasters out to spread chaos and fear throughout the world. Essentially, magical terrorists.
Sticking to just their spells and class abilities (as opposed to rituals, artifacts, magical items, etc.) how might they best go about launching their attacks?
Please help me brainstorm some ideas. Bonus points for especially unique ideas, as unusual ideas will be much harder to predict and counter by the cabal's enemies. (For example, any necromancer can send a shadow into a village at night to make a silent army of terror, or something cliche like that, but it's predictable, and only takes one competent cleric to put a stop it.)
I'll start:
Combine Node of Blasting with Apport Object to place items people would instinctively pick up (like a gold piece) in pockets or (through windows or over walls) inside people's homes. Especially evil terrorist could use Node of Blasting on children's toys left in the open where kids play. Make everyone afraid to reach in a pocket, pick up an item they aren't sure hasn't been tampered with, or leave children free and unsupervised.
1) attack the currency, start circulating coins with node of blasting on them, node of blasting is a psychic attack so it'll just look like people are dropping dead at random
2) attack the food centres, flooding fields is a good way to do this with control water and control weather
3) attack business centres, go underground, shatter their foundations, bring them down on people's heads.
4) bring terror, necromancy is fun but shadows are overplayed, go to the local graveyard, raise the dead, get people killed by their grandparents corpses, and do it in the day time, no-where is sacred and you're never safe.
5) give them hope, then snatch it away, let some of your cabal 'get caught' then use magic jar and body hope your way through the prison/jail, set some explosives runes up and don't look at the explosion xD
I'll be back if I think of anything else.
Use Dream Scan to learn deep secrets remotely, use Mage's Decree to deliver those secrets, threats, and ultimatums to a huge population.
Use Demand to make high ranking individuals do wacky things like ditch their bodyguards en route to an ambush site
The Animal Messenger spell can send diseased, or perhaps bomb-implated creatures all over town. People would become scared of every pet, pest or random wildlife.
But if you really want to destabilize society... give people what they might secretly want. Offer free Lesser Simulacra to anyone who asks, and watch half the population degenerate into sadistic slavers by having disposable people at their beck and call. "They perish anyway after a few hours. And there's always more of 'em."
If they replace people they assassinate (with simulacra, undead, dopplegangers) they can both gain assistance for more covert actions and also when they expose them further terrorise their groups and those that rely on them.
For that matter when they've done that a couple of times, they could send replacements and immediately expose them to create doubts about people they can't assassinate.
If they've got patience, setting up some magic to bypass problems with a trade route, waiting until those skilled at dealing with the problem have moved on, then removing said magic could disrupt a trade route pretty well. This could be anything from the not-Panama canal to removing monsters to teleportation circles.
Good plans might have more than one way to go right. Assuming that necromancy is evil, creating undead labourers to accustom people to their use might advance their plans alone. If that doesn't work have them rise up and kill their 'masters'.
Attack crowds at marketplaces or festivals with Etheric Shards + Fear to cause a stampede into invisible razor wire.
There's always the tried and true 'Suggest someone to take a letter to X person/location and read it' trick via suggestion and glyph of warding/symbol of death/explosive runes. Brutal but effective. If you can't get a creature to do it, use an Unseen Servant carrying an invisible bag to then pull out the letter and read it instead. Both of these are brilliant assassination methods.
Another method is Charm Person on any old commoner, then getting them to willingly accept a Marionette Possession to wreck havoc without the fear of death or repercussion, since it just looks like that commoner was the one pulling the attack. This becomes more difficult when you realise that you need to have your body be 100 feet away from the attack. Best to have someone in a disguise or invisible carrying you around in a chest while your commoner body goes to town.
1) attack the currency, start circulating coins with node of blasting on them, node of blasting is a psychic attack so it'll just look like people are dropping dead at random
This won't work. Node of blasting activates upon touch, any touch, by a thinking creature. After casting the spell, you wouldn't be able to handle your own money, nor pass it off without immediately killing someone. Hardly random or terrifying.
I think Storm of Vengeance should do the trick...
Mass Suffocation as well.
Hmm... could you have some mindless minions pass the stuff out in that case RD?
Constructs or undead seem likely candidates for this task.
Bah. You people are going too simple with your explosive runes. I have long had a long nightmare scenario... that could be the intro to a campaign.
The king is holding a parade, and all the people in town are gathered to cheer the latest military victory. You and your companions are there to revel in the festivities (and to get some of the free booze that is being provided). Right as the king approaches, you see something in the sky. The flying creature passes overhead, dropping loose papers. Thousands of papers.
Each paper has an explosive rune. There are thousands of sheets spread around the down town area. Each and every person present could set off the explosive runes. You have to escape. But you can't just sit there with closed eyes- because some idiot is eventually going to come walking by and look down while you are in the blast radius. Everyone is a threat- from young children to old women. Sneak you way out of the area and hope that the wide doesn't kick up.
This tactic is nice as a surprise for the players (make them think they are just doing a 'walk into the bar' style intro)- it makes them feel powerless and at least a few of them will die. But that makes things personal- they will wish for revenge against those that made them feel this way.
Sidenote- the clean up of such an attack would be horrible. It is basically a landmine that can be blown randomly behind old crates adn boxes, waiting for someone to find it. This makes it much more dangerous than a single placed item with a trap or a personal item that quickly gets blown up. It can be easily spread around, end up trapped in odd places waiting go be blow.... and you can easily make fake ones that cause false reports with just paper and arcane mark. Spread some fake papers on the other side of town, and the town guard will spend the next few days trying to clean it up (obviously throw in a couple of real ones to keep them involved)- this gives you time to perform other plans.
1) attack the currency, start circulating coins with node of blasting on them, node of blasting is a psychic attack so it'll just look like people are dropping dead at randomThis won't work. Node of blasting activates upon touch, any touch, by a thinking creature. After casting the spell, you wouldn't be able to handle your own money, nor pass it off without immediately killing someone. Hardly random or terrifying.
If a cabal of wizards can't move some coins without a thinking creature they ain't worth the name.
This one is a bit risky, but:
A group of (wizard) cabalists subtly enter the town square as people gather for the new mayor's inauguration. They spread out and wait. One of them, near the stage, sends up dancing lights, and all the others cast Flickering Lights shrouding the square in chaos. Then the helper near the front helps the boss (a higher level psychedelic psychic with horrific doubles precast) out of his bag of holding (having put an air bubble around the bosses head in advance). The boss emerges and warps the terrain with Impossible Angles. He follows upon by placing Hunger for Fllesh on the new mayor Then the cabalists wait until thew darkness occurs, where some cast ghost sound of a lot of people screaming while others cast Waves of Blood. Once the flickering lights die down, the psychedelic walks out of town as the cabalists use Gaseous Form.
End result: Well, a riot starts because co fused villagers attack neighbors starting fights, and everyone is covered in blood and slipping around, nobody knows where to go or how too get there, and the lights keep flicking off. Also the new leader of the town might resort to cannibalism. After that stops everyone is already stirred up and fighting, and continue for some time. As the psychadelic leaves town, any guards!an who try to apprehend him will likely be confused or frightened. The best part of this though, is the cabalists don't directly hurt anyone, most of the direct damage is done by townsfolk. And its unlikely anyone can stop the cabal from floating away as a mist.
For bonus points, have a group of shaman cabalists prepare the scene by spamming life blast in the middle of local farms in order to cause famine (raising the tension in the town which will make the riots more severe).
I suppose Hunger for Flesh could also be replaced with Moonstruck for the same effect, but slightly more likely to kill.
Tell a group of adventurers about all the loot in the king's palace.
Find a celebrity that is frequently surrounded by people. A famous politician or musician or similar. Wait for a public event, then when he/she is surrounded by as many people as possible use magic jar to possess him/her, and cast detonate. Ideally follow this up with a gruesome suicide that destroys the lower jaw if they survive the first blast. Having a respected public figure commit acts of terrorism upon their own fans should wreak havoc on morale.
Or get a high level Heavens Oracle to use Awesome Display and Rainbow pattern lure an entire village off a cliff. Lower everyone's HD to whatever the GM says the minimum is (RAW there is none, but most I encounter agree on 0 or 1) with a high charisma and take out a lot of creatures. This does require a bit of work though, since you need to stay close by without being stopped. I think effortless trickery and a good bluff could convince anyone unaffected that you are also fascinated. And with overland flight you can just walk off the cliff.
Augmented Mythic Baleful Polymorph, cast in the middle of a city.
The downside to this route is that unless you are running a very mythic game, the PCs have approximately zero chance of defeating the caster.
Putting a large amount of Decanters of Endless water underneath the City so that eventually the entire place just becomes bog and the foundations fall apart or suffer from flooding.
Eco Magic Terrorism.
Putting a large amount of Decanters of Endless water underneath the City so that eventually the entire place just becomes bog and the foundations fall apart or suffer from flooding.
Eco Magic Terrorism.
I've done something similar already in one of my games. :D
Simply zombify a purple worm (or use a similar massive burrowing slave creature) and have it tunnel underneath the city for a few months. With proper direction, it might even be able to stage a massive simultaneous collapse of the entire city.
That would be a terrifying message for an entire nation, especially if it as the nation's capital that got obliterated in a single instant (or even just the royal palace).
During the daytime, have a wildshaped-as-a-bird druid cast Spike Stones just outside the market along any major routes that allow an exit. Each casting can effectively block a minimum of 7 roads. 2-3 casts should effectively trap people in even the largest marketplace. Then do much of anything in the market and watch the carnage.
This also works great any time that the local leader is conducting a speech.
The Agrawgh from the Planes of Power bestiary is a 7 HD elemental (planar ally/binding required) with burrow 60 and this ability:
Burrow (Ex) An agrawgh can burrow through solid stone
at half its normal burrow rate. When traveling using its burrow speed, as a free action an agrawgh can choose whether to leave a tunnel in its wake that is 10 feet tall by 10 feet wide. As long as the agrawgh does not encounter any non-dirt or non-stone substances along its way, it digests dirt and stone with its stomach acids at a rate equal to its burrow movement speed. An agrawgh can’t run or perform combat maneuvers while burrowing. If an agrawgh encounters any creature while burrowing (such as one using meld with stone), it can’t enter that square.
Great for undermining a city/fortress very quickly and then collapsing it. If Planar Binding/Ally is out of reach, then:
An agrawgh can be summoned as an alternative option for the summon monster V spell.
During the daytime, have a wildshaped-as-a-bird druid cast Spike Stones just outside the market along any major routes that allow an exit. Each casting can effectively block a minimum of 7 roads. 2-3 casts should effectively trap people in even the largest marketplace. Then do much of anything in the market and watch the carnage.
This also works great any time that the local leader is conducting a speech.
Multistage attacks such as this one are truly horrifying. Even those that survive and get out of the kill zone will likely end up being horribly maimed--serving as living reminders of the event to the public for years afterwards.
I always enjoyed the log horizon version. Give everyone a day but no time, place, or orders other than to cause mayham somewhere in the city. Rather than a large scheme that can be out thought or otherwise prevented, you have tons of small scale but still dramatic events occurring in completely random order. Better yet, regardless of how many are caught and/or stopped the plan goes on. CE at its finest
Multistage attacks such as this one are truly horrifying. Even those that survive and get out of the kill zone will likely end up being horribly maimed--serving as living reminders of the event to the public for years afterwards.During the daytime, have a wildshaped-as-a-bird druid cast Spike Stones just outside the market along any major routes that allow an exit. Each casting can effectively block a minimum of 7 roads. 2-3 casts should effectively trap people in even the largest marketplace. Then do much of anything in the market and watch the carnage.
This also works great any time that the local leader is conducting a speech.
If the people seem to be reacting too well and sanely, a spell like Dreadscape or Vision of Hell could change that.
South Park already did this. Terrorists attacked our imaginations. You can't beat that. You. JUST. CAN'T.
South Park already did this. Terrorists attacked our imaginations. You can't beat that. You. JUST. CAN'T.
What level spells does the cabal have access to?
All of them, but assume that resources are not infinite.
My favorite terror tactic, however, hinges on a lovely little creature called an aghash. They're a type of div, and can be called fairly easily with lesser planar binding as early as level 9. Put a few of these in a city, though, and it will crumble from the inside....
Sounds like the show Gotham. Change it to amnesia instead of psychosis and you end up with Big-O.
:D
I love the symbol of blood idea!
Here's one, Cantrip style: you don't need a decanter of endless water when each (20th level?) druid or cleric can create up to 40 gallons of water every round- 400 gallons a minute per caster- at will. They could flood municipal water systems, important stores, or even flood fields and destroy food sources.
I love the symbol of blood idea!
Here's one, Cantrip style: you don't need a decanter of endless water when each (20th level?) druid or cleric can create up to 40 gallons of water every round- 400 gallons a minute per caster- at will. They could flood municipal water systems, important stores, or even flood fields and destroy food sources.
I've seen people crunch numbers on create water. It doesn't create nearly as much water, or do nearly as much damage, as you might think.