What's A Beguiler To Do?

[Palanan]

In the last couple sessions of my seafaring campaign, the party cornered the "ghost" suspected of murder and mayhem aboard ship--who was in fact a beguiler on a mission of commercial espionage. As previously (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13711571&postcount=22) detailed (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13789520&postcount=29), the beguiler escaped in a small boat, was pursued and finally captured.

And they let him go. They just...let him go.

--It's more complicated, of course: fluid situation, extenuating circumstances, yadda yadda. Although I fully expected him to be summarily slain, I've now been handed a lovely opportunity for a running villain, and I'd like to make the most of it.

At present the beguiler is in the Moonshaes, charming and whelming every rider he meets along the King's Road, making his way to the nearest seaside town in an attempt to catch up with the party's ship again. I'm looking for ideas, suggestions, and plain dirty tricks to help him in a couple of ways:


1. All of his gear, magical and otherwise, has been taken from him. He doesn't have time or money to replace it all. What one item, under 500 gp, would help him the most?

2. Since the party has leveled (at his expense), I'd like to nudge him up one level to remain a credible threat. His current build is Martial Rogue 2/Beguiler 4/Spymaster 1. Another level of beguiler won't help him too much; what else would be good, especially for a bitter and running threat?
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[Eldariel]

Probably some Scroll (he has +10-11 base for UMD so he has a lot of options especially if he has the synergy ranks too); which one depends on the strategy you wanna go with. A few doses of Drow Knockout Poison or Oil of Taggit (for food poisoning) could also work (while it's not technically one item, poisons can certainly be bought in quantities larger than one dose at once so I'd say he just bought as much poison as he can afford, which amounts to a bottle containing enough for 5 doses at the cost of 450gp); it's cheap enough and seems to do about what he needs done. I'd give him extra levels of Spymaster or Beguiler anyways; those frankly make the most sense. Nothing wrong with two levels of Beguiler either; maybe his rigorous study allows for unlocking some hidden potential.

Now, how to steal the thing; my solution would be to use an illusion. Create mist near the object and then create a Silent Image of the object flying across the room to another exit (make it seem like Telekinesis is being used). Then cast another Image of a figure running away (object disappearing once the man gets a hold of it, making it seem like it disappeared into a Handy Haversack or something) that way; probably a Minor or a Major image to include some silent footsteps. He's of course invisible at a hard-to-see location during all this. Now, after the image turns the corner and loses line of sight it disappears; hopefully the party will go after them while the Beguiler steals the real object.

Of course, using a charmed person with access to said room could also work; or trying to incapacitate the PCs for the duration of the encounter on board - poison, charms, sleeps, whatever. He should know by know the PCs are the ones who are guarding the object. Some of them have to sleep at some point; at that point trying to sleep/negate the others for long enough to steal it could work. Maybe some combination; trying to take as many of the PCs out of the deal as possible beforehand, then going for an Illusion feint to misdirect the remaining sentries and taking out the object. If worst comes to worst, elusive caster can be a rather formidable opponent.


EDIT: Oh, and he should probably try to arrange for as many people as possible to switch on-board the ship for whatever reason at the next port; he could use ~two identities to assume in addition to other people for the PCs to worry about. Maybe somehow arrange some changes in the crew or something? He does have Forgery, right? Some written command from higher up.

EDIT#2: He prolly won't have Poison Use and any poisoning is done out of combat anyways so definitely Oil of Taggit. It could knock out some of the PCs for the crucial time (1d3 hours so at least 1 hour). Just Charm the appropriate person in charge of catering and go from there; unless they eat their own stuff in which case offer it mixed with some drink or whatever.

[silverwolfer]

why would your beguiler need to do posion checks? Do your magical Dm thing and just make it happen and pretend he made all his checks before use....or just have him wear gloves so he does not have direct exposure to the mixtures.

[Eldariel]

why would your beguiler need to do posion checks? Do your magical Dm thing and just make it happen and pretend he made all his checks before use....or just have him wear gloves so he does not have direct exposure to the mixtures.

The checks apply to combat use only; it's irrelevant for e.g. ingested poisons. The reason to use the rules tho, is that Beguiler isn't really a specialist poisoner so they have the same risks as anyone else and ignoring those risks would kinda just undermine his character class.

Besides, there'd be something awesome about finding an unassuming-looking NPC unconscious 'cause he accidentally poisoned himself; story doesn't need to go as planned to be good and hell, that's why this is a game not a book, things outside player/DM control (luck) can affect how the story plays out.