Demolitions in Faerun?

[Starchild7309]

Ok so in the campaign I am running one player is building a Temple to Bane. All fine well an good. The temple is progressing as he feeds more gold to the builders. However, quite a few levels back, in a power play between players, this same player for all intents and purposes drove off another player's character. I have been having the now NPC character plotting his revenge and while he can't reach the worshiper of Bane to exact revenge he can cost him resources with attacking his temple. In a fight the Banite would destroy the other character.

The character seeking revenge is a beguiler, very good at collecting minions to do his bidding. What kinds of creatures or classes would he want to collect to set upon the work site of this temple? I want to say goblins, but getting goblins into town is not impossible, but problematic. What classes would these minions have, specialized in causing destruction to objects on a grand scale?

Any ideas or suggestions welcome please.

[DeltaEmil]

The beguiler would surely contact the local (hidden) temple/cult of Cyric, who would then work with them together to spread literal chaos and havoc and murder and mayhem upon the Banites for not worshiping the Black Sun.

They would probably work together to let the beguiler charm and put Banite worshipers to sleep, and then the cult of Cyric puts some kind of magical curse upon them to make them explode or turn into undead or crazed and raging insane cannibals.

[Baroknik]

Note that blast globes (MIC) are originally from Faerun and make great demolitions items. IIRC they were Lantanese in origin, so The Banites could trade or slave their way to them.

[Darrin]

Charm/dominate a few druids. Have them undermine the walls via dire badgers/thoqquas.

[Anlashok]

I seem to remember reading a Forgotten Realms novel that had gun powder they used to blow things up, not sure if it exists in the rules anywhere though.

[Starchild7309]

OK so good suggestions so far, but issues I have thus far.

1. Beguiler is not a worshiper of Cyric and kinda burnt that bridge so that's not going to work. Though I do like the idea of turning the workers themselves. The beguiler is a worshiper of a demon lord (will have to check to see which one).

2. The druid idea is ok, but the city is build on stone so undermining the temple cannot be done with badgers.

3. The blast globes seem like a good idea, but its mostly fire and a little sonic and only once a day so against a stone foundation I don't see them being really helpful.

I was trying to avoid just going the straight magic route of stone to mud and the like or disintegrate, but I may have to go that way...I liked the druid idea cause it could have looked like an accident, that could reoccur again and again, bogging down the build.

Any other ideas?

[Baroknik]

If you are willing to risk an "alliance" with one -- be holders are possibly the best miners/excavators in the game.

Edit: or a warlock with shatter

[Bullet06320]

I seem to remember reading a Forgotten Realms novel that had gun powder they used to blow things up, not sure if it exists in the rules anywhere though.

Smoke powder is in the Realms, its specifically banned in Waterdeep and few other places, but can be found on blackmarkets and in Lantan, any one with craft:alchemy can make it.



If you are willing to risk an "alliance" with one -- be holders are possibly the best miners/excavators in the game.

Beholders is an interesting choice, if this church and cleric are associated with Zhentil Keep, be carefull there is a group of beholders aligned with the Zhents, so it would need to be a rival group of beholders, still brings up an interesting plot line tho

[Bronk]

In one of the drow novels there was some kind of special rock burning alchemist's fire they used to take down Ched Nasad. I'm not sure if it made it to a rule book or not.

[RolandDeschain]

I don't know enough about the storyline or available resources to be much help, but the following spells might be interesting:

Stone to Flesh
Stonefire
Stone Shatter

[LoyalPaladin]

What's the alignment/personality of the beguiler? Another good piece of information would be what is your goal for working against the player? Are you trying to completely obliterate him or are you just trying to make an interesting setback happen.

If the beguiler truly wanted revenge, he'd report the temple and tyrantry of the banite to the Order of the Golden Lion in Waterdeep. Nothing says annihilation like a couple thousand worshipers of Torm. Bane and Torm directly oppose each other, so they would have no issue smiting an uprising temple of Bane.

[Starchild7309]

Ok so the beguiler is CN. I am not trying to destroy the Banite. I just need an interesting setback. We are coming close to the end of the campaign and each "original" member of this party has picked up one or two enemies along the way. This is one of them. A former Pc that was driven out of the party by this particular pc's actions. The Banite has invested a goodly sum into this church. However, he had zero in game repercussions for basically ruining the fun of another player. I normally am not a fan of in game retribution, but all players involved agreed on the situation working as it did. Therefore I am giving the player who lost his character a chance to feel it was not all for nothing and giving an interesting story twist.

All that said, I don't think the beholders will work. The setting is faerun and down by chult.

[Gurifu]

1- Divert a river. A couple thousand villagers working for a few days should do the trick for a few thousand gp.

2- Dimension Door airdrop shenanigans. What happens when you and your pair of bull's-strengthened elephants drop fifteen tonnes of boulders on the temple from six hundred feet up? (Pair assumes CL8. More at higher CLs.)

2a- Teleport airdrop shenanigans. What if you do it from five thousand feet up?

2b- Bonus shenaningans. What if you're carrying more interesting things than rocks? How many Feather Fall'd cages full of scorpions can you fit in your carrying capacity? What if you add a few hundred Glyphs of Warding carved into pieces of gravel, so the repair crews have to navigate a mine field? What if you use feather-fallen Mountain Trolls instead of elephants, and drop those, too?

3- Bag of holding. Portable hole. Oh god, the humanity. Who came up with this terrible rule?

4- Undermining. There are any number of magic, monstrous, summoned, and mundane ways to dig tunnels. Dig a 10x10 tunnel under the target, build or conjure supports, destroy or dispel the supports when you're ready to collapse the temple. Bonus points if you build two and ward the second one against detection to activate a year later.

5- Guerrilla warfare. Force the Baneite to spend more and more money on hazard pay, replacing stolen payments and materials, guards, etc.

6- Hostile takeover bonus round! Approach the Baneite with some investors. Convince him to incorporate. Quietly acquire a majority of shareholders. Dedicate the temple to a different god when construction is complete.

[Bullet06320]

The setting is faerun and down by chult.
rampaging dinosaurs

[Bronk]

Maybe the classic 'whoops, basement broke through to a tunnel and now connects to the underdark and now I'm being assaulted by waves of kobolds, goblins, orcs, drow...', but, you know, not necessarily in a 'good, easy XP' way.

[Starchild7309]

So far I am looking at the sabotage/forcing the Banites to have to pay more to have it completed because of theft and destruction and harassment on the job site. I was hoping to make it look like an accident casually, but upon serious investigation that it would be found to be sabotage, but the mechanics in the game make for either obvious attacks (ie dropping boulders from 1000 foot in the air) or very little bang for your buck (ie alchemical solutions that require casks of the stuff to do what I was hoping. I am going to look into contigent spells like Transmute Rock to Sand or a warlock with Baleful Utterance.

Also, after doing much real world research it would seem the prime target for this cathedral to Bane is not the foundation once its built, but the support columns attached to the buttresses. Interesting note I thought.

[Bronk]

So far I am looking at the sabotage/forcing the Banites to have to pay more to have it completed because of theft and destruction and harassment on the job site. I was hoping to make it look like an accident casually, but upon serious investigation that it would be found to be sabotage, but the mechanics in the game make for either obvious attacks (ie dropping boulders from 1000 foot in the air) or very little bang for your buck (ie alchemical solutions that require casks of the stuff to do what I was hoping. I am going to look into contigent spells like Transmute Rock to Sand or a warlock with Baleful Utterance.

Also, after doing much real world research it would seem the prime target for this cathedral to Bane is not the foundation once its built, but the support columns attached to the buttresses. Interesting note I thought.

Well, on top of all the obvious sabotage, you could have people use shoddy materials or materials with hidden sigils to goodly gods so that the Temple would be finished, but Bane would be inexplicably angry.

You could also make the columns out of either shoddy materials or out of some kind of magical material that either has a time limit or is easy to ruin later. They could be made of shapesand formed by a sandshaper, which would remove the 100' distance limit. It could then be disguised (covered in lead and painted?), and someone could come by later and turn it back into sand.

[Chronos]

My favorite demolition tool is the psionic power Energy Wall, set to sonic. Put the energy wall right up against the stone wall, with the dangerous side facing it: A minute or so of concentration will reduce hundreds of feet to rubble.

[Starchild7309]

I think the biggest issue I am having is to make the sabotage look like an accident or shoddy work. The banite hired experience craftmen. I think I might just have to go with the more overt terrorizing of the craftsmen.

[jiriku]

You really have a very easy solution here. Your revenge-seeker is a beguiler. He has more charms than you can shake a wand at, and social skills to boot. He charms half the work team and instructs them to work slower, or use shoddy materials, or have an "accident" that sets back construction. To the Banite, at first it will seem that work is going less well than expected. After a while it will seem that the workplace is unaccountably prone to accidents and bad luck. Perhaps he may mistakenly come to believe that the temple site is haunted (built on top of an Indian graveyard?) Only if he really investigates will he discover that half his people are working against him. A few dispel magic spells will solve the problem for him, but that kind of thing doesn't earn you experience points, so any reward he gets for solving the problem will be very small.

[Aldrarad]

I am confused. Wasnt the temple built for Cyric, and the beguiler Banite? If the beguiler follow Cyric, causing insanity or chaos among the followers/workers would be an idea. If he is of Bane, fear and strife.
Perhaps starting fraktions among the ppl, motivated by fear what the others are planning. A fued among assassins sounds fun.
Finaly: DRAGONS.

[Hamste]

Another solution is to pay for a wand of Illusory wall. Notable for not disappearing even when someone realizes it is not real many of these things in the temple could be really annoying. Each one would need to be dispelled and it is a high enough cl from the wand that dispelling is unlikely for any old mook. An expensive trick if they don't have it on their list but pretty hilarious.

[Chronos]

Sabotage that isn't obvious until it later fails is given as one possible use for the Disable Device skill.