Fixing an archery competition

[firruna]

Ok, so I'm running a game for some friends who wanted to try being evil for a change.
Their running level 15 assassins. The party is made up of a rouge 5/assassin 10, fighter 4/Battle sorcerer 11 (variant [UA]), Barbarian 5/rouge 2 (Fighter bonus feat variant [UA])/ frenzied berserker 8, and then a new player who I believe is making a tracker of some sorts.

Their job is going to be hunting down two brothers who won a tournament flat out. However after they left with their winnings it was found they cheated by drugging their opponents. My plan is to have one of them be an 'expert' swords men, and one be an 'expert' archer. Both will be good, but not good enough to have won in the contests. They win by having a third brother who, as stated above, drugged the other contestants.

This seams like it will work well for The Joust, and Single Combat, however not so much for the archery contest, as I suspect it would be clearer that someone with a bow was drugged.

So my question to you all, is:

How would you go about rigging an archery contest watching by a lot of people, where there's one or two moderately skilled (lvl 8-10) wizards watching to make sure no one uses magic to cheat?
Also, if you have any ideas on The Joust, or the Single Combat, I'd love to hear that as well.

[Ephemeral_Being]

How are these wizards preventing anyone from using magic to cheat? That's pretty key in figuring out a way to beat them.

[Crake]

How are these wizards preventing anyone from using magic to cheat? That's pretty key in figuring out a way to beat them.

I would imagine permanencied arcane sight? Problem with that is Nystul's Magic Aura can easily bypass that

[Red Fel]

Have the third brother pose as one of the judges. He examines everyone's bows and arrows to prevent them from employing any tricky gadgets or unauthorized equipment. In a hidden pouch in his gloves, he keeps some contact poisons designed to cause slight disorientation and blurring of vision; not potent enough to be obvious, but enough that your target appears a few inches to the left of its actual location. He places these on the fletching of the arrows he inspects, as well as the bowstrings. These are areas where there will be extended skin contact - the fletching as arrows are drawn, the bowstring as the bow is pulled and the arrow is aimed - and therefore the perfect place to secrete doses of mild toxin. Prolonged contact further ensures that the toxin will take effect. And because the toxin is mild, it is also metabolized fairly quickly - it kicks in very fast, but burns off not long after the shot has been fired, resulting in a nearly untraceable cheat.

As an aside, the toxin as administered during the competition can be a very mild dose. If needed, he can attempt to employ more serious doses against his pursuers, resulting in serious dizziness, disorientation, and possibly temporary blindness. I'm sure you can hash out some stats if you need to.

The joust is even easier to rig - dope the horse. The idea of drugging combat horses isn't exactly novel - many horses were given small amounts of alcohol before engaging in combat, to prevent them from panicking - but some traces of a sleeping drug placed on its horseshoes or barding would exhaust the beast, causing its rider to be thrown more easily.

Single combat is the trickier part, since you have to secrete the toxins someplace where there can be skin contact, and the only thing you have an excuse to examine is weaponry (which won't touch the wielder's skin, since he's likely wearing gloves or gauntlets) and armor (which likely won't touch the wearer's skin, as he may be wearing padding underneath). The solution is to drug the helmet. A sharp blow to the head will not only rattle the wearer, it will ensure that the toxins get into his bloodstream posthaste. And because it was triggered by a blow to the head, it's to be expected that the victim would become dizzy, groggy, and disoriented - nobody would expect that it's the result of a toxin, and not a concussion.

[firruna]

How are these wizards preventing anyone from using magic to cheat? That's pretty key in figuring out a way to beat them.


I would imagine permanencied arcane sight? Problem with that is Nystul's Magic Aura can easily bypass that

Ya, that's what I was thinking. Not originally planing on having it permanencied, but definitely arcane sight. It will be permanencied now that you gave me the idea. Thanks.

[firruna]

Have the third brother pose as one of the judges. He examines everyone's bows and arrows to prevent them from employing any tricky gadgets or unauthorized equipment. In a hidden pouch in his gloves, he keeps some contact poisons designed to cause slight disorientation and blurring of vision; not potent enough to be obvious, but enough that your target appears a few inches to the left of its actual location. He places these on the fletching of the arrows he inspects, as well as the bowstrings. These are areas where there will be extended skin contact - the fletching as arrows are drawn, the bowstring as the bow is pulled and the arrow is aimed - and therefore the perfect place to secrete doses of mild toxin. Prolonged contact further ensures that the toxin will take effect. And because the toxin is mild, it is also metabolized fairly quickly - it kicks in very fast, but burns off not long after the shot has been fired, resulting in a nearly untraceable cheat.

As an aside, the toxin as administered during the competition can be a very mild dose. If needed, he can attempt to employ more serious doses against his pursuers, resulting in serious dizziness, disorientation, and possibly temporary blindness. I'm sure you can hash out some stats if you need to.

Great idea, I love it! This way, I can even say that on one knows how they pulled it off, and throw in a curve ball when it comes to a fight in the end.


The joust is even easier to rig - dope the horse. The idea of drugging combat horses isn't exactly novel - many horses were given small amounts of alcohol before engaging in combat, to prevent them from panicking - but some traces of a sleeping drug placed on its horseshoes or barding would exhaust the beast, causing its rider to be thrown more easily.

Interesting idea, I didn't even consider doping the horse. I was going to have the competitors water drugged. However, I feel that the horse will likely be easier to get to, making this a better option.


Single combat is the trickier part, since you have to secrete the toxins someplace where there can be skin contact, and the only thing you have an excuse to examine is weaponry (which won't touch the wielder's skin, since he's likely wearing gloves or gauntlets) and armor (which likely won't touch the wearer's skin, as he may be wearing padding underneath). The solution is to drug the helmet. A sharp blow to the head will not only rattle the wearer, it will ensure that the toxins get into his bloodstream posthaste. And because it was triggered by a blow to the head, it's to be expected that the victim would become dizzy, groggy, and disoriented - nobody would expect that it's the result of a toxin, and not a concussion.

I like this one as well. If I already have the third brother set up as a judge, then he's in place to mess with the helms as well.


Thank you for the well thought out, and explained response. I will likely use most of this, in one form or another.

[WeaselGuy]

As someone that actually wears armor on a somewhat regular basis, there's only one problem with drugging the helmet: arming caps/coifs. We wear thin cloth hats between our helms and our heads, to prevent chafing and to absorb sweat. For the melee combat, I would stick to poisoning the water, since we frequently drink it to stay hydrated between bouts.

[bjoern]

I would think inspecting the armor would be more neccesary than checking anything else in the whole competition. There are just so many places to hide stuff in a suit of full plate.,
I mean the inside could have runes of whatever, the under padding could have who knows what inside of it.

I would think that the judge would have to be present when the guy suited up to make sure he doesn't slip something Into his suit, like a toe ring of butt kicking or whatever.

Just put some kind of toxic powder on the padding , that only activates when wet, after the guy suits up, and goes to the arena, hell start to sweat (naturally, its full plate after all) which will activate the poison