| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Fendrikor |
Posted - 23 Apr 2014 : 11:35:32
Currently i am planning a raid upon a temple.
The Temple is situated within a Large walled town. It is relatively well guarded by a contingent of 15 1-3rd level warriors and houses within its walls 22 dawnbringers ranging from levels 1 to 5. The head cleric is a morning lord of 10th level.
Currently due to unforseen circumstances the Town has come on Alert (which has nothing to do with the raiders, simply coincidence) and the nightwatch has been doubled on the town walls and gates.
The Temple has also doubled its watches.
Within the temple the item i am raiding for is a Minor Relic called the Blood of Lathander. It was recently moved here (to the town of Daggerfalls from the town of Hap) by a cleric and a small contingent of Asterknights.
My Forces failed to get the Relic while it was in media res, and now the only option is to get the relic while it is in the temple.
The only problem is, I lack the forces to take the temple by force and must instead be cunning with my spell setting to get the item.
THIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN:
You are Varlae, an 11th Level Cleric of Bane (Page 304 Campaign guide)
Assisting you are two 2nd Level Medusa Fighters (Page 305)
You have been tasked by your Dracolich master to Reclaim this Relic so that the Cult of the Dragon can destroy it. You know little about it otherwise. You have never seen it. Thus you cannot simply use Locate object.
The 11th level Cleric who transported the Relic, and the Aster knights who acompanied him are currently not in town. So this is a window of opportunity.
You have acess to the exact inventorys as listed on the page numbers.
Midnight is approaching, so Varlae can reset her spells as she wishes.
----------------
WHAT YOU KNOW:
Earlier, having prepared for this in previous days, Varlae created four scrolls of Clairvoyance.
Hiding in the trees on the outskirts of town she had an effective Clairvoyant range of 840 feet. She used the first to locate the temple , the second to view the temple grounds, the third to view inside the temples main hall, and the fourth to listen in the main hall but she gathered no conclusive information from the dawn bringers who passed through it.
HOWEVER when you were clairvoyantly observing the main hall prior to the 11th level clerics departure, a wizard who kept his company was noted to be troublingly aware of your sensor.. this will make further clairvoyant actions risky if the wizard is present, but to your knowledge he left with the Cleric.
Failure is not an option, and you have about a ten-day to complete the task or else your master will will find someone else who can. But you still have no idea where the Relic is. Only that it is 'there' some-place.
What would you do?
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| 10 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Fendrikor |
Posted - 01 May 2014 : 09:43:15
THE END RESULT
- The Party goaded the information out of the Mornmaster and managed to convince him to stay at the temple.
- The wizard then disguised himself as the highpriest (with his jewlery and clothing) and went to meet with 'V'.
- The Bard went invisibile, rode a flying carpet with zone of silence behind 30 feet or so.
- V summoned the deamon and had it wait in the trees for her signal to attack the town.
- She then had one of her Medusas sit by a campfire and wait.
- The Other medusa was sent down into the woods to 'Delay' any reinforcments that may head to the hill top.
- She then got her fullplate on and hid behind some rocks.
- When the party arrived she emerged and gloated how easy it was to lure the Mornmaster into a trap. She then jestured to the blood-circle in the snow saying she had summoned a deamon and would loose it on the town if he did not submit to a Gease spell to deliver the Blood of Lathander to her Mistresses lair.
- The wizard disguised as harndarr refused and .... Absolutely obliterated her with Quickened Scorching Ray followed by Scorching Ray both in the surprise round (as he is a diviner... he can make a standard action in the suprise round).. he then beat her on initiative and hit her again. She didnt stand a chance.
- The Deamon flew towards the town, the bard couldnt keep up and realised it was immune to hold monster.
- They then made short work of the Medusa on the hill and dimension doored to town to find the Deamon.
- STILL disguised as the mornmaster, they found the deamon (which had killed a few erstwhile night goers and a small patrol of guards in the temple grounds).
- The Deamon then split in 2, set its summoned ally upon the party and ported elsewhere. They failed to dispel it, and thus ended up fighting it on the rooftops...
- At one point, the Wizard was ripped off his Flying carpet carried halfway across the city and slammed into the temple rooftop... meanwhile onlookers saw the Mornmaster fighting a Deamon in the Skys over the city.
Now the Mornmaster is notorious for a sedantary existance in the temple, he is a buisness man first, warrior second. But here he was on the rooftops doing Matrix moves (displacment) to avoid being hit, Kickstanding to his feet and blasting light and fire all over the shop. Suffice to say, onlooking guards and civilians were cheering him on (it did great things for the Mornmasters reputation too!) Suffice to say I was Greatly ammused by the mental imagery of this whole scene!
Finally they vanquished the summon, and landed in an alley way - the subsiquent arriving templeguards were dismissed by the wizard, STILL disguised, to go search the temple grounds. He then forgot he was disguised as the Mornmaster mid conversation with a lone dawnbringer - who passed out when he went 'Oh... im not Harndarr' and scrubbed his disguise.
When the REAL Mornmaster, Harndarr Orynn finally emerged from the temple - Clad in his fullplate (which he had spent the whole time putting on) and brandishing his mace and holy symbol he simply enquired 'Right. where is the deamon?'. The Bard was activly looking for it, levitating into the air and looking for patches of Darkness (a tell tale sign of its deeper darkness spell) and from his vantage point he could see Lights being snuffed out at a popular tavern called the Redrock. 'Good' the Mornmaster said - before vaulting into the air like superman.... (airwalk).
Suffice to say the party looked at eachother and said 'Wow... maybe he 'IS' actually Awesome'. Harndarr then proceeded to land at the Tavern, saving a pair of terrified lovers. And Banished the deamon with a sucessful dismissal spell.
Meanwhile in the woods, the remaining Medusa shoved 'V's body into a bag of holding and fled the scene.
The Relic left very much still in the hands of the Temple.
:)
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| sleyvas |
Posted - 26 Apr 2014 : 02:38:42
geas/quest the high priest when he's outside into walking it out to you without talking to anyone (if you need to, hire someone to go into the temple and plead for the priest's aid to get them to leave the temple). You might want to add in someone informing him that the temple will be under attack and the artifact needs to be moved to a safe place. |
| Cbad285 |
Posted - 25 Apr 2014 : 08:51:12
Well...
First I feel like I need a lot more information. But, this is what I would do.
I'm a cleric of bane, a lot of thoughts run through my head on what that means. Hiring a thief is certainly an option. But Since I'm such a powerful priest, and the good cleric is out an about, a smash an grab doesn't seem like such a bad idea either.
I don't like that the wizard is possibly aware I've been watching them with magic. That means the priest could have felt something as well.
As far as stealth goes, this all seems bad. I should have spent more time on protection spells than clairvoyance. But lets work with lemons here.
How about this... I charm some lower than average men about the town. There has to be some farmers or something nearby. So I take whatever small group I can muster, send my two medusa guards and send them to start a commotion. Lets say draw swords on the nearby merchant or they pick a few guys out in the tavern and go to work. While the guards nearby are running off to stop a sword fight, I slip over to the church and come in looking to make an offering. It takes a couple of moments for the priests to realize I'm a bad guy, or maybe the guard at the door doesn't like my dangerous look. In whatever form this goes down, I'm gonna burn this place to the ground anyway so lets just start the killing here. A good harm spell or something touch based works good on the first guy. After than I'm gonna need to get inside and shut the door behind me. Lets hope the sceams are drowned out by all the ruckus outside. Next I'll let loose a nice area affect spell. Something vicious, maybe it's got tentacles. Bane knows how I like it. So we tear into these sun worshipers and lace the nearest pillow bitter with a good curse. Something that sends shooting pains through his groin, idk I'm being creative here.
Now the important thing here is that I need some one alive to spill on the beans on where this relic is. Now either they can comply, quickly, or I'm just gonna have to kill them. I won't wait around from an argument or lies. Anyway, if in the event none of them survive, I just search for the door with the biggest lock. Maybe a detect magic spell is in order. I'm sure these priests and wizards protected in some fashion.
Now, lets just say I actually DO find the relic or the door that the relic is hiding behind or something along those lines. I could tear down their protections, meld the stone or somehow otherwise take down the wards protecting the relic.
OR
I could totally flip the script, drop a couple severed tongues into the offering plate (any of my victims will suffice) and leave the temple without even looking for the relic.
Now, once out of town and back to my tree fort in the woods, I take the time to prepare another clairvoyance spell. I'm sure I could have looted some materials during my forray.
It will take some time, but maybe, this whole thing will prompt the hyme hummers to move said relic to a new location. Whatever the end result is, it should all be very chaotic and I imagine Bane enjoy the show. |
| Lothlos |
Posted - 24 Apr 2014 : 16:30:28
Hire a good thief - they steal things, and break into heavily guarded places. While the thief is doing his thing have you minions provide a distraction.
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| Fendrikor |
Posted - 24 Apr 2014 : 08:38:04
Ok i am thinking the following course of action:
NOTES BEFORE YOU READ THIS -
Mornmaster Harndarr Orynn is the high priest of the temple.
Kesselara is a harper contact and an inkeeper at the Redrock.
The Waterdavian division are the Cohorts and followers of one of the players, warriors from the spires of morning in waterdeep who have been given over to House Morn of Daggerdale to better defend the city. This has caused some contention between the party cleric and the Mornmaster. Truth be told, the move was not only political, but he felt suring up the town walls would also protect the temple, besides the Waterdavian church supplys men to the city guard in waterdeep with regularity.
Eagles Eerie is a crag overlooking the town, between it and town is the River Tesh, and a small stretch of woodland.
Varlae knows nothing to begin with except Treygyn has taken the blood of Lathander to Daggerfalls.
After watching for a day, and using Clairaudience to scope out the temple she initially plans to infiltrate it and look for the Blood.
She notices a great many Dawncloaks going to the Redrock tavern however and decides to go there instead to scope out more information.
Seducing one of the Guards, she casts emotion: lust, and has him tell her everything he knows about the blood. Which is nothing. He comes from waterdeep. She then casts Gease on him to find out anything he can, Subtly, while the other clerics are attending morning song, and report to her in the woods in the morning.
Kess notices the stranger talking to the dawncloaks, gets a bad feeling but nothing she can act on. She decides to tail her back to the woods, but is engaged by the Medusas and turned to stone. They hide Kess under some Leaves and snow in the woods.
The next day the Dawncloak scopes out the church during morning song but he finds nothing. Asking some questions which seem suspicious if not alittle forced. This unsettles a guard named Tommin but he tells him nothing.
Varlae meets with the guard around 8 am in the woods near Shevaril Starcloaks shack, who tells her little. She reknews her Emotion, Lust spell and Geases him for another task.
She decides if she wants results, fast, she will need to draw out the Mornmaster
At this point Varlae knows there is some Tension between the Mornmaster and the Cleric Treygyn. She decides to play on this. Penning a letter that says simply 'Harndarr, I have
Dire news regarding Treygyn and the Waterdavians. Things are not what they seem. Discretion is important, only you can stop what is about to happen. Meet me after dark at eagles eerie. Sincerely, V.'
The Man brings the letter to Harndarr who reads it. It plays upon his doubts and curiositys. He is ambitious and gaining such information is incredibly tempting to him. But he is also not an idiot. Harndarr questions him about who the woman was. He describes her as the most beautiful woman he had ever met. But knows little about her. Concerned, but still curious, he assembles a squad of sword bretherin and dawnbringers (10 sword bretherin, 2 dawnbringers, 1 level 3 Sergeant).
The guard returns to Varlae at the Cottage and is promptly petrified by her Medusas and burried in the abandoned cottage garden.
At Dusk Harndar heads to the Eerie prepared for a fight if necessary. Varlae prepares herself by Compacting a Nabassu deamon which she has hide in the rocky crags. She promises it a great many souls to feed on as she fully expects the cleric – unless daft – to not come alone.
Harndarr arrives, and to Varlaes annoyance he brings his entire guard contingent up with him (seeking to be in control of the situation at all times).
The two have words and the Guards surround her. He asks her who she is and what she wants. She says she is no good at lies, so she breaks her character immediately and says that he had fallen into her Trap. Now they would know the Wrath of Bane. She then cries out 'NOW!' and hides her head behind her shield. She is well used to fighting around the Medusas and more often than not willingly takes the blind fighting penalty where necessary - and they know to fight from behind her.
Within a round all the Dawnbringers and Guards are Turned into either Ghouls, Stone Statues or horrible hybrids of both twisted and contorted in Agony.
The Nabassu flys into a rage at not knowing about the Medusas and turns on Varlae (who had the full intentions of betraying the nabassu anyway as it had on betraying her), but the Medusas engage it first and after a furious battle in the air, turn it to stone.
Harndarr manages to escape with airwalk over the Eerie side, but Varlae dispels it dropping him hard into the woods. He casts freedom of movment and attempts to lose Varlae amidst the Trees, but she summons a direwolf to hunt him down and trip him.
The Direwolf Distracts Harndarr long enough for Varlae to catch up. He fails to dispel it in time and she is upon him. She offers him a quick death if he tells her where the blood is. He tells her he will never give in.
She then fights Harndarr in single combat while the medusas watch with their hoods up from the trees. After a long fight (which i did the math for) Varlae would win this fight through sheer brawn alone. It is a hard fight, as Hardnarrs freedom of movment and high will save makes him impossible to pin down for a Gease. In the end she is forced to bring in the medusas, at which point he is turned to stone.
Her intentions are to find some method of interrogating him later.
This isnt going well so far. One of my friends has told me, this may even be 'mission impossible'
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| Thrasymachus |
Posted - 24 Apr 2014 : 03:27:18
If you want it done right, do it yourself. I call this "It’s always darker before it goes pitch black…"
Step 1: Prep incendiaries (all team effort)
Step 2: Get access to the chow hall of the temple (Bad Guy One)
Step 3: Kidnap a minor cleric of Lathander. If successful, then kidnap a child. Kill both. Keep their stuff for Step 5. It’s important that the bad guy who has access to the chow hall has an alibi provided by the Lathanderite’s themselves. (anyone but Bad Guy One)
Step 4: Poison the food, or better yet drug the food. The only thing better than dead Lathanderites, and ones stumbling about town high out of their minds. (Bad Guy One)
Step 5: Create an abandoned campsite outside of town. Leave personal effects of both victims from Step 3 at campsite. If you have any influence in town, move that some of these numerous guards be put to good use to clean up the obvious mess the Lathanderite caused.
Step 6: Has anyone been overly critical of the Lathanderites? Time to put the incindiaries to work on that persons stuff. Make it look like the Lathanderites may have done it. All we need is doubt.
Sidestep: Do the bad guys have a girl on the team? If so it’s time break out the mace and let her TOFTT ala The Dirty Harry - Scorpio Beating. Go to Youtube “watch?v=OvAs1pos3TA’ Remember, you have to pin it on a lathanderite. So make sure that you lure the patsy Lathanderite into privacy elsewhere at the same time, and then pull his alibi out from under him, or her.
Enjoy the Relic.
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| Ayrik |
Posted - 23 Apr 2014 : 23:14:04
Hire an incompetent adventuring party to accomplish this task.
You can assist them accomplish your task, without bothering to inform them beforehand, by setting fire to the place during their attack. A few kegs of oil, some burning arrows, whatever, the arson is only an incidental distraction intended to divide the defenders. You might even luck out and catch them attempting to preserve their precious artifact, making your job much easier.
If your hired pawns succeed, you (and your medusae) ambush/betray them at a site prepared by you in advance, claim the artifact (and other goodies) from them before they can heal and replenish themselves after their daring raid.
If instead they fail, which seems more likely, then you can attack the temple complex before the defenders are able to heal and replenish and organize themselves. |
| Lord Karsus |
Posted - 23 Apr 2014 : 16:09:14
-Hire a competent thief. Not exactly "Bane-like", but discretion is the better part of valor; once the artifact is retrieved, those lousy morninglords can be dealt with in a manner more fitting to Bane. |
| Bladewind |
Posted - 23 Apr 2014 : 14:45:48
Getting to know the location should not be a problem. Lots of gullible townsfolk probably know where the temple stores their relics. Perhaps a few coppers worth of information. If Varlae is not known to the public she should be able to get a tavern for herself with some slight disguise, and come in contact with some locals. Her medusae should be held far from the people though.
After locating the temple storage, her first attempt would include getting aid from inside, either through guile or mental domination. The infiltration would need to be done by someone able to get relatively close to the relic in question, so preferably a (weak willed) member of the clergy or low level warrior with temple guard duties. With a little probing, a disgruntled guard could perhaps be convinced to infiltrate for the right price. Getting a guard to leave his station long enough that Varlae can touch him with a quest spell is probably the quickest way to guarentee getting an 'ally' inside the temple grounds. Not gonna be easy though, so perhaps some (magical) disguises or use of the emotion:friendship spell can facilitate an easy approuch for Varlae to cast this spell or personally convince the target.
Let the geas/quest spell or proposed mission be something fairly simple along the line of opening the temple hall doors at midnight in a few days hence. Then use clarvoyance spells with moderation (to avoid the wizard) to monitor the geased infiltrant's progress, get him to locate the exact location of the relic, and set up a night time infiltration (probably using the fly potion for easy entrance and/or escape).
During the nighttime assault lots of use of silence spells can help counter any oppositions attempts to rally/wake more defences, hopefully avoiding waking the morninglord. Against the clerics spell immunity: searing light and silence, and silence will be required. Against the guardsmen emotion: fear, (greater) command and Varlaes wand of hold person will see most use. Once the relic is in hands obscuring mists and sanctuary make Varlae a problematic target for many temples defenders (expect certain clerics to make the save vs sanctuary though). Insect plague makes for a perfect distraction for a nice get-away, after that. If things go her way, she'd not be seen clearly, has a new infiltrant in that temple and is in possesion of the Blood of Lathander. |
| Fendrikor |
Posted - 23 Apr 2014 : 11:43:02
NOTE: I love the idea of villainous PVP. In posing this here on the forum, i would like to give you an opportunity to concoct a plan with some 'human' intellegence behind it. I feel this will put my players offguard and give them a real challenge. |
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