A Biitter Artist in a Bitter City

[AlanBruce]

Greetings! My group is currently living and running around doing their own errands in a very large city.

While the priest makes acquaintances of the heads of church and the wizard enrolls at the prestigious wizard school, the sorceress in the group- a mermaid- decided to take a stroll around the city (using the Stormwrack spell that changes your fins to feet).

While sightseeing in the city, she came across the city's most renowed and pretentious Art gallery, ran by a buon vivant who likes to host lavish Happenings to the nobility, hoping to make a quick coin from the artists displaying at his gallery.

Currently, the gallery is preparing to host a big show based around a famed sculptress in the city. The woman makes good coin by selling her "extremely lifelike" stone statues to the wealthy and as such, has acquired a dceent status and lifestyle in the city, as oppossed to other starving artists.

The mermaid caught her attention and she has asked her to come to her studio/loft after sundown 'because as an artist, inspiration strikes best after dark'.

The sorceress is delighted- as a mermaid, painting underwater is impossible, and she is quite curious about the whole process.

The fact that the artist offered her 20 gold/hour to pose may have been alluring in and of itself. Of course, she has been requested to come alone.

Here's the catch- the artist isn't really an artist at all. She has been making quick money and fame by luring in men and women to her studio, getting them drunk/incapacitated somehow and using a special dagger said to be crafted from the very first medusa- if only a small portion of it.

The sorceress is ECL 13, with fatespinner and IotSF levels, but through guile and (hopefully) some spiked liquor, the artist will attempt to have her remove her items of power- after all, her sculptures are bereft of clothing, with the exception of a prop- a cloak to be worn by the model- which is in fact a cursed cloak of resistance and imposes a penalty to saves, so as to make it harder to resist the dagger's effect.

The artist's build is a female human beguiler5 /unseen seer 3, with a few feats geared towards poison use, but when looking at the poison's handbook, the most potent is the one that does 3d6 Con damage and it's injury. I wouldn't want the sorceress to die- the idea is for her to be alive when the dagger strikes her and preserving her image of pain as a statue, so I come to the Playground asking for ideas- any way to make this work? The artist in question has decent bluff and I put some ranks in sleight of hand, to sneak in some poison into the mermaid's drink, but other than that, no ideas whatsoever.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Xerlith]

A question - if the "Artist's" plan works, and the sorceress ends up incapacitated, what have you planed for the player to do the whole session?
Don't get me wrong - the idea's okay (Although easy to figure out for a genre-savvy player, just "wealthy unlike other artists" and "lifelike statues" screams "PLOT"), but if the player's character ends up unablet o act, they might just be bored. I mean, it's worse than dying, because they can't be resurrected, nor can they roll up a new character to resume playing.

[Tarlek Flamehai]

Any chance you can get the player to buy into the plot and have them run the "artist" afterwards?

[AlanBruce]

Those are good questions.

The game is PbP, so time will not be an issue. The PC has been through a lot IC and would most likely not go to the studio alone. If she did, she would make sure her allies knew where she was going.

In the extremely rare chance she concedes to stripping of her magic items (and what PC does that, anyway?), she still has a decent chance to make the save. And if she suspects something is wrong or finds out the artist's plot, she can turn the tables on her and stab her with her own dagger (the mermaid is actually stronger statwise).

And yes, should the 'artist' succeed (which is unlikely, given the above reasons), I am certain the player, who is very good at roleplaying, would be willing to play as the artist in the meantime.

Of course, if the artist sees the mermaid come to her studio escorted by another party member, she will refuse to let them in, making up some story about 'three's a crowd', or somesuch (enter bluff) and find someone random in the city.

She isn't here to fight the party, but to prey on unsuspecting and (presumably) weak targets that won't be missed. The mermaid has no family in the city, being a mermaid, so she's a perfect candidate.

[Exegesis]

The artist's process seems fishy. Wouldn't it be way simpler and safer to just get some easier shmuck, possibly a cheap sick slave if slavery's legal as it has usually been, and charm or suggestion them into drinking a potion of alter self and assuming some fanciful form? Why would you need or even want the real thing, whose vanishment is ten times more conspicuous and whose capture is deathwish-level risky?

But the problem goes deeper. If there's such a market for sculptures, why hasn't a wizard with polymorph polymorphed squirrels into amazing creatures, petrified them, and made a fortune?

Well, what if the artist's thing is a method of black market slave/animal trafficking, and the statues are all of exotic creatures like the mermaid? The statues get made, sold, and the buyers "defrost" their new pet afterwards? But what if, since most of the art-involved population is unaware of this, word gets out and the exorbitant prices of these sculptures fuel a huge inflation in the price of sculpture in general, making them valuable status signifiers for those who are out to buy that, leading to a Holland-inspired sculpture craze?

Edit: actually, what if there is a large market for polysculpts, or alter selfies, as the more harmless/rarer and more horrifying/easier methods are respectively called--the Dutch flower effect is already there--and the thing that's fishy about the artist's work isn't how expensive but how relatively cheap it is, since what's actually being sold are the creatures themselves? A squirrel polymorphed into a griffon and and petrified goes for a vast sum; an actual griffon, sold under the cover of stone, goes for suspiciously less even after hazard tax.

Poison, just make something up? The high level sorceress is probably pretty on guard, why not give the beguiler a warforged apprentice or something? If she's not aware of the sorceress's powers the artist might just have an invisible warforged leap out from behind to knock her out. Otherwise, barrage someone with transfixing sigils or lace their wine with ghoul juice and a mound of sugar to disguise it.

[Flickerdart]

The game is PbP, so time will not be an issue.
Time is even more of an issue in a PbP - instead of not being able to contribute for a session, they might not be able to play for weeks or months.

[AlanBruce]

Time is even more of an issue in a PbP - instead of not being able to contribute for a session, they might not be able to play for weeks or months.

Thankfully, the group posts at least twice a day, so it's not like the game will be on hold for that particular player. And, as stated earlier, the player would, IC, take all necessary precautions a high level PC would take after offered such an invitation. Barring that, the player would be willing to play the minor villain for awhile, since the grand opening is, IC in just two days, and the party will be invited.

[AlanBruce]

The artist's process seems fishy. Wouldn't it be way simpler and safer to just get some easier shmuck, possibly a cheap sick slave if slavery's legal as it has usually been, and charm or suggestion them into drinking a potion of alter self and assuming some fanciful form? Why would you need or even want the real thing, whose vanishment is ten times more conspicuous and whose capture is deathwish-level risky?


Thing with this city, is that slavery is prohibited. The artist saw an exotic and (potential) victim strolling down the street and called her out, offering her a job. Her vestments and walking staff (rune staff), would not have been enough to raise any red flags yet, especially since the current ruler of the city has imposed a law against using magic- entirely. Reason why the mermaid was walking, rather than teleporting or flying.


But the problem goes deeper. If there's such a market for sculptures, why hasn't a wizard with polymorph polymorphed squirrels into amazing creatures, petrified them, and made a fortune?


Polymorph has been banned in this game since the get go, so that formula is out of the question. A group decision, which I embrace wholeheartedly.


Well, what if the artist's thing is a method of black market slave/animal trafficking, and the statues are all of exotic creatures like the mermaid? The statues get made, sold, and the buyers "defrost" their new pet afterwards? But what if, since most of the art-involved population is unaware of this, word gets out and the exorbitant prices of these sculptures fuel a huge inflation in the price of sculpture in general, making them valuable status signifiers for those who are out to buy that, leading to a Holland-inspired sculpture craze?


This right here is plot gold, sir! Who is to say everyone in the city is law abiding? There are factions that work underground. Criminal king pins. Unscrupulous nobles.


Poison, just make something up? The high level sorceress is probably pretty on guard, why not give the beguiler a warforged apprentice or something? If she's not aware of the sorceress's powers the artist might just have an invisible warforged leap out from behind to knock her out. Otherwise, barrage someone with transfixing sigils or lace their wine with ghoul juice and a mound of sugar to disguise it.


Had not considered her having back up, since she usually preys on commoners, too weak to resist the call of coin and resist the effects of her spells. An invisible brute, or the warforged standing still as one of her 'earlier pieces' might get the job done as well.

[Exegesis]

This is fanciful and not thought out, but what if there were a small group of three or four, including the beguiler, who had been petrified by the medusa from which the dagger or whatever comes? They could be a group of adventurers but might be more interesting if they were just people/creatures thrown together by chance, including maybe a mephit or wouldn't it be hilarious if an invisible stalker were petrified?...Anyway, maybe someone eventually came along, slew the medusa and unfroze them, taking the medusa's eye as a trophy, but that night they banded together, stole it and petrified their rescuer, and since then they've been in the city, living together in an apartment, pulling the statue act.

(Are they in on the black market, or are they pulling this independently and the Mafia sends them Shadows and Nightmares every evening?)

Edit: The agents of the Art Mafia could be phantoms that spring from abstract paintings anew each day. The colorful ones flit back to their frames with sundown, which is when the dark ones rise. Its actual bosses are of course people from within paintings.

[AlanBruce]

This is fanciful and not thought out, but what if there were a small group of three or four, including the beguiler, who had been petrified by the medusa from which the dagger or whatever comes?

saw this idea and loved it! Currently working on others to be part of her unwilling entourage.


(Are they in on the black market, or are they pulling this independently and the Mafia sends them Shadows and Nightmares every evening?)

Edit: The agents of the Art Mafia could be phantoms that spring from abstract paintings anew each day. The colorful ones flit back to their frames with sundown, which is when the dark ones rise. Its actual bosses are of course people from within paintings.

My idea was for this sidequest to give them a hook on an underworld circle operating in the city dealing with cursed items. I was trying to work the gallery istelf and turn it into a sidequest for a PC in particular who has ties to the original owner of the gallery. You just gave me the feel for the quest and idea. Thank you very much!