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Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-04, 08:20 AM
Okay, there's a series of things going on around Beldor, a big city.

From previous experience, we know that the water supply comes from an underground stream, which is also used to occasionally empty out the sewer system. The stream also runs into a cavern underneath an ex-BBEG's mansion (He's since vacated). We also know that there's a very small natural tunnel that goes from a druidic forest outside the city into the cavern.

Now, for the events happening around the city:
A few weeks ago, a member of the Yondalla priesthood went missing and hasn't been seen or heard from since.
A number of caucasian women of similar figure have been kidnapped and found, skinned and lobotomised, a few days later, (fortunately) dead. The few witness reports say the victims were dragged into the sewers by giant demonic snakes. Oddly, there don't appear to be any signs of a weapon involved in their skinning or lobotmisation, save perhaps that most of their blood vessel are left in a somewhat haggard state about them.
Over in the forest, a number of druids have been attacked by similar snakes guarding a number of giant octopi who, strangely, do little else but gather firewood before retreating into the tunnel to the ex-BBEG's cavern.

Anyone have any ideas what the heck is going on here? I'm completely confused.

kamikasei
2008-01-04, 08:29 AM
From previous experience, we know that the water supply comes from an underground stream, which is also used to occasionally empty out the sewer system. The stream also runs into a cavern underneath an ex-BBEG's mansion (He's since vacated). We also know that there's a very small natural tunnel that goes from a druidic forest outside the city into the cavern.

An ex-BBEG's mansion, as in, it's the mansion of a former BBEG, or it's the former mansion of an extant BBEG?

In other words, if foul play's afoot, is there reason to suspect that the mansion's owner is involved, even from a distance?


Now, for the events happening around the city:
A few weeks ago, a member of the Yondalla priesthood went missing and hasn't been seen or heard from since.
A number of caucasian women of similar figure have been kidnapped and found, skinned and lobotomised, a few days later, (fortunately) dead. The few witness reports say the victims were dragged into the sewers by giant demonic snakes. Oddly, there don't appear to be any signs of a weapon involved in their skinning or lobotmisation, save perhaps that most of their blood vessel are left in a somewhat haggard state about them.

Can you expand on this?
The women are "of similar figure" to one another or to the missing priest? What are those figures/features?
No weapon? What are there signs of? Do the bodies look to have been maimed by natural weapons, had their skin dissolved off by acid, their brains extracted by illithids, or some magic spell vanish the relevant organs altogether?
"Most of their blood vessel are left in a somewhat haggard state about them" - sorry, more detail needed. Are their blood vessels ruptured or damaged as if, say, they were frozen suddently, or exposed to vacuum? Or have their veins and arteries actually been separated from the body in some way?

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-04, 09:03 AM
The mansion used to be owned by a BBEG, but is presently vacant.

The women all have a similar figure, but not to the priest. They are between 18-23 years old, ~5' 4", ~140 lb., caucasian.

Picture a biology text book, with an image of someone without their skin, so just the musculature underneath. The blood vessels have been disconnected pre-mortum, and most are hanging or dangling to some extent outside the musculature. The frontal lobes are completely gone from their skulls, with no signs of external penetration. Clearly whoever did it was more skilled than most modern physicians, or they used magic. The skin itself and the missing lobes, are simply "gone" for lack of a better explanation.

SpikeFightwicky
2008-01-04, 09:35 AM
Some more questions (if you have answers):

- Are the bodies completely drained of blood?
- What position were the bodies in when found and where were they found? (unceremoniously dumped somewhere, hanging from a streetpost, left in the same dark alley?)
- Are there any cults that have ever worked in the city before? Particularly any that deal in snakes?
- Do the bodies disapear in a noticeable pattern? (Same time/day every week?) Maybe instigating a curfew can help flush the villain out of hiding.
- Did the Yondalla priest go missing before or after the murders? (BTW, which deity is Yondalla again?) Would they have the means to control strange 'land octopi'?

What we know:
- Culprit needs firewood. Any woodsmoke coming from any sewer grates or entrances?
- Culprit needs brain parts, skin and I'm guessing alot of blood.
- The frontal lobe processes alot of functions that make humans 'human' (social, decision making, memory, etc...). Any rituals or magic spells require this as a material component? Maybe some mad scientist is trying to make his flesh golem smarter?
- Snakes shed skin -> victims are robbed of their skin. Possible MO for a creepy giant snake dude?

Emperor Demonking
2008-01-04, 09:38 AM
Yondalla is the halfling goddess.

Telok
2008-01-04, 09:46 AM
Somebody is making something. Bad magic is involved. They could be sacrifices to a demon type thing, but this sounds more like gathering material for an arts and craft project.

Find out if the bodies have any blood left in them. If they haven't been bled out before being skinned there may be a blood trail in the sewers. This is more likely if the bodies aren't completely drained and the blood vessels have been ruptured. If the bodies are entirely drained then the blood is another component of whatever is being made. If the bodies have all/most of the blood left then magic is being used to skin these girls, possibly alive. If most of the blood is still present in the bodies and the blood vessels are mostly intact then you should have a decent trail to follow if the bodies have been transported to where they were dumped.

Actually that could be important. Try to find out if the victims were skinned and debrained where the bodies are found, or if they were transported to and from a central location or workshop.

Whoever is doing this needs to be smashed and done in. If nothing else then they'll cause a shortage of pretty young women. Stick an illusion on your barbarian and go fishing. Wound, but do not kill, the giant demonic snake. Track it back to it's master.

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-04, 11:42 AM
Some more questions (if you have answers):

- Are the bodies completely drained of blood?
- What position were the bodies in when found and where were they found? (unceremoniously dumped somewhere, hanging from a streetpost, left in the same dark alley?)
- Are there any cults that have ever worked in the city before? Particularly any that deal in snakes?
- Do the bodies disapear in a noticeable pattern? (Same time/day every week?) Maybe instigating a curfew can help flush the villain out of hiding.
- Did the Yondalla priest go missing before or after the murders? (BTW, which deity is Yondalla again?) Would they have the means to control strange 'land octopi'?

-By virtue, we suspect, of the ruptured blood vessels
-Unceremoniously dumped in alleyways
-There was one cult that worshipped the ex-BBEG as a deity a while back, but they've since been eliminated entirely
-The bodies disappear roughly one a week at random
-Lux Lucis (The priestess) vanished prior to the murders. As a cleric of Yondalla, she has, as far as we know, no ability to control the octopi or the snakes.

Anxe
2008-01-04, 11:46 AM
I suspect mindflayers or Yuanti. Either way you should prepare for psionics. As for how to catch them, you said the captured women look similar. disguise or polymorph a party member to look like them and use her as bait.

kamikasei
2008-01-04, 11:53 AM
I assume from what you've said that the witnesses and druids have seen multiple snakes at once, and there definitely isn't just one?

When you say the octopi take firewood, do you mean that they take actual chopped firewood that's left out to dry or something, that the druids have specifically said that they choose only wood suitable for burning, or that you're assuming it's for use in a fire (in other words, might they be doing anything else with the wood besides burning it)?

Whether it's something like illithid or yuan-ti will depend in part on how likely your DM is to be using some homebrewed monster or spell/ritual which any class-leveled villain could use.

It seems very clear that there is something nasty being brewed up under the mansion. It's possible a dam is being constructed with this wood, or that furnaces of some sort are in operation. Is there any sign of smoke?

The real puzzle I think is the disappearance of the priestess. It's not obviously connected to the other two.

FlyMolo
2008-01-04, 12:03 PM
Right. Let's make a list.

BBEG has:
-Snakes
-Octopi
-Probably yondalla priestess.

BBEG needs:
-Wood
-Brains
-Skin

BBEG is making:
-Flesh golem?
-Construct?
-Army?

It sounds like there's one particular woman the BBEG is looking for. Check for relatives of that priestess. Find out what they look like. Check against descriptions of the vanishing women. Organize some kind of census of women who look like the vanished ones.

Most importantly, invade that mansion. Find out what's going on down there.

kamikasei
2008-01-04, 12:05 PM
Given that the priestess is a cleric of Yondalla (actually, you didn't say she was a cleric, but it's not really a factor just now), can we assume she's a halfling, and thus bears little resemblance to the murdered/missing women?

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-04, 01:06 PM
Amazingly we actually haven't asked if Lucis was a halfling...we'll need to remedy that at some point soon

The octopi seem to be physically chopping up trees and similar plant matter for wood, which they're taking back with them.

There's definitely more than one snake, there's been reports of up to 5 at a time. The octopi tend to be no more than 3 at a time though.

Thinking way back, during the time the cult was operating a number of children were kidnapped and implanted with Tsochar (See Lords of Madness), to serve as fake divine messengers. The party managed to retrieve all but one of them: Elizabeth Kerrigan. There is a possibility I suppose that she could be involved somehow, since we're fairly certain she escaped into the sewer system, which seems to be home base for these creatures. The DM is certainly well known for making us keep our prior actions in memory...

BRC
2008-01-04, 01:14 PM
Thinking way back, during the time the cult was operating a number of children were kidnapped and implanted with Tsochar (See Lords of Madness), to serve as fake divine messengers. The party managed to retrieve all but one of them: Elizabeth Kerrigan. There is a possibility I suppose that she could be involved somehow, since we're fairly certain she escaped into the sewer system, which seems to be home base for these creatures. The DM is certainly well known for making us keep our prior actions in memory...
Does your DM play Starcraft perchance, if he does, expect said kerrigan to turn into a human/one of whatever these things are hybrid, also, she's a psion.

Ganurath
2008-01-04, 01:18 PM
Snakes make me think Yuan-Ti, but octopi and missing brains make me think illithids. Given the respective CRs between the two, it's easy to see a one-sided relationship forming favoring the mind flayers, probably giving the Yuan-Ti a Dark Eldar mindset: They want brains, they don't care who's brains they get. Let's kill some surface folk, send their brains to the illithids, and we'll get some mammal skins to burn as offerings to Merrshaulk. Better if we were on top, but we still get room for personal advance and we aren't the ones getting our brains eaten.

Perhaps the priestess of Yondalla went to investigate things, as she is actually the priestess of some other halfling deity non-halflings never hear about that favors a more aggressive tact, and now she's either dead or trapped underground. The priestess is the mastermind behind the attacks, because someone matching the description of the victims had been victimizing halflings, probably bragging about her comparative good looks and intelligence. The priestess makes the victims watch as their boasted features are burned in front of them.

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-04, 01:33 PM
Does your DM play Starcraft perchance, if he does, expect said kerrigan to turn into a human/one of whatever these things are hybrid, also, she's a psion.

Yes, we were well aware of the connection the instant we heard the name of her mother. According to him, the name is from Elizabeth Borden and Sarah Kerrigan. Fortunately, Psionics isn't in play period in the campaign setting, by his decree.

SpikeFightwicky
2008-01-04, 01:47 PM
Snakes make me think Yuan-Ti, but octopi and missing brains make me think illithids. Given the respective CRs between the two, it's easy to see a one-sided relationship forming favoring the mind flayers, probably giving the Yuan-Ti a Dark Eldar mindset: They want brains, they don't care who's brains they get. Let's kill some surface folk, send their brains to the illithids, and we'll get some mammal skins to burn as offerings to Merrshaulk. Better if we were on top, but we still get room for personal advance and we aren't the ones getting our brains eaten.

Perhaps the priestess of Yondalla went to investigate things, as she is actually the priestess of some other halfling deity non-halflings never hear about that favors a more aggressive tact, and now she's either dead or trapped underground. The priestess is the mastermind behind the attacks, because someone matching the description of the victims had been victimizing halflings, probably bragging about her comparative good looks and intelligence. The priestess makes the victims watch as their boasted features are burned in front of them.

Unfortunately, the fact that only part of the brain is missing likely rules out mind flayers (they scarf down the whole thing). Also, illithids tend to bore holes into the skulls of their unfortunate victims to sup on their delicious brain meats, but these victims were found with their skulls intact and only part of their gray matter missing.

BRC
2008-01-04, 01:48 PM
Unfortunately, the fact that only part of the brain is missing likely rules out mind flayers (they scarf down the whole thing). Also, illithids tend to bore holes into the skulls of their unfortunate victims to sup on their delicious brain meats, but these victims were found with their skulls intact and only part of their gray matter missing.
High-class illithids, they only want the most delectable part of the brain

SpikeFightwicky
2008-01-04, 01:55 PM
High-class illithids, they only want the most delectable part of the brain

Curse those illithid aristocrats! Even abominations have a class society. I pity the mind flayer on the bottom rung:
Please sir... I some more.... brains.
WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ganurath
2008-01-04, 02:06 PM
Unfortunately, the fact that only part of the brain is missing likely rules out mind flayers (they scarf down the whole thing). Also, illithids tend to bore holes into the skulls of their unfortunate victims to sup on their delicious brain meats, but these victims were found with their skulls intact and only part of their gray matter missing.Yeah, my theory about the halfling rules out both parties anyhow. If she's actually a priestess of... the other halfling goddess... then she'd be able to use multiple castings of Summon Monster VII to get Fiendish varieties of both giant constrictor teams and giant octopi.

Illiterate Scribe
2008-01-04, 02:06 PM
I'd check the caves under the mansion, Lying.

What sort of resources do you have? Is there any way that you could mark and then track any of the things leaving or entering the cave network?


Women's brains - probably not.
Snakes - meh, there don't seem to be enough sightings to make this feasible. They probably won't attack if they know you're there, too.
Octopi - possible. As far as I can tell, they aren't going to be overly maneuverable, so splashing them with some sort of smelly/trackable stuff is a possibility.
Wood - this might work. Aromatic/resinous woods could be left out for the octopi (how intelligent are they, btw? If they're summoned monsters, then whoever's controlling them is going to be quite close), which could then be tracked.

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-04, 02:17 PM
We have a Human Diviner/Loremaster, who actually seems to have better firepower than our last Dread Necromancer, a Human Fighter, and a Drow Arachnomancer (He is Evil, but we're not exactly certain what his goals are).

And Commy, that line is hilarious, if InkScape weren't persistently crashing for me at the moment I'd make a little art piece to it's effect :smallbiggrin:

Ganurath
2008-01-04, 02:26 PM
We have a Human Diviner/LoremasterStop right there. Ask the halflings for something of the priestess's so that you can divine on her. Ask the latest/next victim's loved ones for something belonging to the victim so you can divine on her. Use a tree stump as a focus to divine on the firewood/support beams for tunneling, if that's possible. You shouldn't have a mystery if you have divinations.

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-04, 02:37 PM
We gave that a shot but all we got was the equivalent of a 404 message

Ganurath
2008-01-04, 02:39 PM
We gave that a shot but all we got was the equivalent of a 404 messageDid you try sending an arcane eye down the bunny holy? [read: BBEG tunnel]

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-04, 03:02 PM
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v684/Lyinginbedmon/Upperclasssquid.png
We considered an Arcane Eye to have too little illumination to function as a useful reconnaisance spell in this instance, but suffice it to say we haven't tried it

Illiterate Scribe
2008-01-04, 03:35 PM
I lol'd.

Could the arachnomancer cast the arcane eye? They could use their darkvision, see ...

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-04, 04:12 PM
It's possible, but that's going to require a Diplomacy/Intimidate check all of its own...:smallannoyed:

Illiterate Scribe
2008-01-04, 04:24 PM
Aah. That sort of party. :smallamused:

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-04, 04:46 PM
Yes, it's that kind of party, though we're fairly certain it won't impact much because we have a fairly easy way of keeping him in check.

One is a spontaneous gout of flame that produces no pressure, the other a sharp pointy thing composed of a mix of iron and carbon.

EDIT: New info:
We "persuaded" the arachnomancer to send the eye down. We didn't find anything but there were splinters everywhere, and an extremely foul smell to boot. It also appears that the rubble that blocked off one end of the stream through the cavern has been cleared, specifically the one that leads to the city.

I've still got no idea what's going on, but it's looking more and more unlikely that the priestess is the one pulling the strings. It certainly doesn't seem that the cavern itself is back in use.

FlyMolo
2008-01-04, 06:10 PM
Sounds a little like someone is building flesh golem variants. Like a wooden thingie covered in skin with a brain in it. Like a really creepy scarecrow.

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-04, 07:27 PM
Sounds a little like someone is building flesh golem variants. Like a wooden thingie covered in skin with a brain in it. Like a really creepy scarecrow.

I admit it. I felt compelled :smallbiggrin:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v684/Lyinginbedmon/OzGolem.png

It seems to me that all this mischief just for the creation of a Flesh Golem would be a bit much, especially since both the giant snakes and the octopi are more dangerous than a typical Flesh Golem (CR 7)

Illiterate Scribe
2008-01-04, 08:01 PM
Also, they wouldn't go for a specific area in the brain. I'll ponder this over a good night's sleep - it should make, along with Bioshock, a lovely cocktail of nightmares. :smalleek:

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-05, 06:21 AM
A Knowledge (arcana) check on the part of our Loremaster has determined that the smell is probably coming from the wood via magic. It's possible that someone is trying to run a drug deal, but that's too simple as well for all the fuss. However, Extract Drug + Wood = Mushroom powder, a hallucinogen, so who knows...

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-05, 10:56 AM
Okay, some help from the Loremaster's lore ability has earned us the knowledge that whatever magic is summoning the fiendish giant constrictor snakes and giant octopi is both tremendously evil and involves a hivemind and something aberrational. What confuses us is how something that casts Sorcerer spells (Assuming "hivemind" to be literal) is blocking out Divination into the sewers (Yes, we tried that too).

We followed the stream from the cavern to the sewer entrance and managed to find what looked like a Tsochar strand, which pretty much confirmed our ideas on Lizzy being somehow involved, though we're still in the dark as to how because we haven't seen anything but that one strand to suggest such, excepting perhaps the "aberrational" influence.

Since he's pretty much busted out all over the Knowledge aspect of his character, Asteroth (The Loremaster) also managed to find a very old reference to an incantation called the "Rite of Panacea". Having made this thing myself a while ago (The DM is using quite a bit of my stuff since he's new at everything), I can say with certain metagaming that the Rite is a literal cure-all.

It needs Black Lotus extract, Luhix, Black Unlyn poison, and a Star ruby to go off. So far, we figure that the smell from the wood is from Extract Drug, which produces Mushroom Powder (I'm largely concerned whoever is casting the incantation is substituting it instead of Luhix). The brain matter from the victims could be connected to Psychic Poison, which creates Black Unlyn. If so, whoever is casting the incantation is either looking for multiple uses or is making certain to have it work (Too much is better than too little I guess).

If we're right about the Rite (Rimshot), then there's a whole new spin on this. It means that someone is going all the way through all of this to heal someone. The skin makes me think burn victim, but that's kinda unlikely in and of itself given medieval medical knowledge.

What worries me the most is that, if you don't get the incantation just right, it mirrorcasts :smalleek:

Illiterate Scribe
2008-01-05, 04:26 PM
Okay, some help from the Loremaster's lore ability has earned us the knowledge that whatever magic is summoning the fiendish giant constrictor snakes and giant octopi is both tremendously evil and involves a hivemind and something aberrational. What confuses us is how something that casts Sorcerer spells (Assuming "hivemind" to be literal) is blocking out Divination into the sewers (Yes, we tried that too).

We followed the stream from the cavern to the sewer entrance and managed to find what looked like a Tsochar strand, which pretty much confirmed our ideas on Lizzy being somehow involved, though we're still in the dark as to how because we haven't seen anything but that one strand to suggest such, excepting perhaps the "aberrational" influence.

Since he's pretty much busted out all over the Knowledge aspect of his character, Asteroth (The Loremaster) also managed to find a very old reference to an incantation called the "Rite of Panacea". Having made this thing myself a while ago (The DM is using quite a bit of my stuff since he's new at everything), I can say with certain metagaming that the Rite is a literal cure-all.

It needs Black Lotus extract, Luhix, Black Unlyn poison, and a Star ruby to go off. So far, we figure that the smell from the wood is from Extract Drug, which produces Mushroom Powder (I'm largely concerned whoever is casting the incantation is substituting it instead of Luhix). The brain matter from the victims could be connected to Psychic Poison, which creates Black Unlyn. If so, whoever is casting the incantation is either looking for multiple uses or is making certain to have it work (Too much is better than too little I guess).

If we're right about the Rite (Rimshot), then there's a whole new spin on this. It means that someone is going all the way through all of this to heal someone. The skin makes me think burn victim, but that's kinda unlikely in and of itself given medieval medical knowledge.

What worries me the most is that, if you don't get the incantation just right, it mirrorcasts :smalleek:

You could well be right. Under what circumstances did this BBEG die/get driven out?

The hivemind thing worries me, too. Perhaps they're somehow trying to make the hivemind incarnate into a single being, to prevent it's easy disintegration? That would be both evil and powerful, and the Rite might be being used to seal the process.

Also, do you know what's going on with the local Star Rubies? Might want to keep an eye on them.

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-05, 04:34 PM
The BBEG took over the city as a Lord, so we led a rebellion against him victoriously.
After that, a cult took up residence in the cavern, we drove them out as well.

Basically: We defeated them. The BBEG is a Lich, but he hasn't been seen or heard from ever since.

Illiterate Scribe
2008-01-05, 04:37 PM
Hmm ... I don't exactly see the lich wanting to reverse the transformation, since it's a pretty good deal for him, and he had to be willing when he made it. Have you considered trying to contact the lich? :smalltongue:

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-05, 04:45 PM
Nope, there's no way in heck we're finding the Lich, we hate him too much as it is

As for the star ruby, the only one we know about in the kingdom (And therefore within the grasp of the sewer system), is set in the King's Crown, a relic from the Great War when the monarchy was largely obliterated, leaving a democratic council. Where the crown is is anyone's guess, because we ourselves aren't certain.

Presently, our plan is to wait until they get the other components for the incantation and then make a public display to the effect that we've found the crown and are keeping it in our possession until it can be safely stored. That way, we can draw the villain to us.

Sebastian
2008-01-05, 04:45 PM
Maybe is a stupid question, but someone tried a Speak with Dead on the corpses?

FlyMolo
2008-01-05, 04:48 PM
I am seriously worried about this. New, updated list.

BBEGs(possible):
-Lich
-Octopi(hivemind?)
-Priestess
-Demon snakes(hivemind?)
-Unnamed abberations(possible. Illithid or Tsochar)

BBEG Plans:
-Rite of Panacea(to make incarnation of hivemind? To heal priestess?)
-Variant flesh golems(unlikely)


Idea! The BBEG here is using the Rite of Panacea wrongly. It's trying to trick the hivemind into undergoing the rite, using the wrong materials, to kill it off. Alternatively, the Rite is being used wrongly on the lich guy, which would deal lots of neg. energy, right? But he's a lich! Instant overpower for your undead buddy.

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-05, 04:49 PM
In order for Speak with Dead to work, the corpse needs to be intact. The remains are missing their skin and their frontal lobes.

Sebastian
2008-01-05, 05:56 PM
In order for Speak with Dead to work, the corpse needs to be intact. The remains are missing their skin and their frontal lobes.

actually it must be "mostly intact", and missing skin and frontal lobes could still make them qualify. It is quite vague.
Also,and I quote,

"A damaged corpse may be able to give partial answers or partially correct answers, but it must at least have a mouth in order to speak at all."

And their mouth is intact, isn't it?

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-05, 06:00 PM
Lucky me, I'm not the mage responsible for these tasks :smalltongue:

As said, it was believed that it wouldn't work, so neither the Arachnomancer nor the Loremaster has tried it.

Sebastian
2008-01-05, 06:45 PM
Lucky me, I'm not the mage responsible for these tasks :smalltongue:

As said, it was believed that it wouldn't work, so neither the Arachnomancer nor the Loremaster has tried it.


Well, I think it would be worth a try. Don't you know if the city or temple autorities had tried it?

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-10, 05:22 AM
Okay, we tried it and we got some answers, mostly along the lines of "It was so horrible". Apparently the DM did his homework on brain regions, because we're either getting extremely detailed answers or near-single-word answers. Basically, we're not getting anything we didn't know already.

Talic
2008-01-10, 06:54 AM
Perhaps y'all are looking at this from the wrong point of view.

Perhaps the wood isn't a construction material, but a fuel source.

This could be a sacrificial type ceremony, where women of a very specific type are burned (or cooked, if eating's involved). Not all the women have been located, so perhaps women meeting certain criteria are kept. This criteria might not be immediately apparent to the snakes, with limited intelligence, so the ones that fail whatever sort of test is being used are dumped out like the garbage.

Then again, I could be way off.

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-10, 10:41 AM
Perhaps the wood isn't a construction material, but a fuel source.

This could be a sacrificial type ceremony, where women of a very specific type are burned (or cooked, if eating's involved). Not all the women have been located, so perhaps women meeting certain criteria are kept. This criteria might not be immediately apparent to the snakes, with limited intelligence, so the ones that fail whatever sort of test is being used are dumped out like the garbage.

Well, statistically whilst their Intelligence is a mere 3 (Assuming Fiendish Giant Constrictor), their Wisdom is a comparable 12, which is the skill that Spot is based on. We have to assume they're grabbing the right people and what they don't need (The frontal lobes, the skin) is being thrown away.

However, the wood indeed could be being used for burning, but that still doesn't leave the fact that it could also be a source of Mushroom Powder drug, which might be an ingredient for the Rite.

Accersitus
2008-01-10, 02:52 PM
Has any of the victims been identified? (I know it's hard without skin, but
that is what we have magic for)
Or has there been reports at the city watch of missing women to match the
flayed bodies?
I'm starting to think a variation of the ritual (or a similar ritual),
using the skin and brain of some of the victims to produce infiltrators
of some kind. (The skin is most likely removed flawlessly from your
description of the bodies, and if the frontal lobe is as important as a
previous post indicated) This is more likely if the bodies can't be
identified, and there are few missing person cases in town, even
with the murders.
I don't know how far your DM goes with home brewing rituals,
but I think a cure all ritual could be modified to a skin graft +
mind augmentation ritual to create perfect infiltrators.
You said it seemed strange to kill all those women just for the ritual.

Yes I know I jump to weird conclusions, I'm not very good at finding the
easy solution :smallbiggrin:
I just can't get away from the thought of what you can do with
perfectly removed human skin, the frontal lobe of a human brain,
magic, and an evil mindset.

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-10, 04:18 PM
Have any of the victims been identified? (I know it's hard without skin, but that is what we have magic for)
Or have there been reports at the city watch of missing women to match the
flayed bodies?

Yes, all have been identified post-mortum, either by comparing with missing persons, magic, or the few eye-witness reports

Neon Knight
2008-01-10, 04:55 PM
Hmmm....

The Elizabeth Kerrigan thing got my mind working.

Giant Demonic Snakes- The Zerg Hydralisk creature from Starcraft resembles a snake to some degree.

Octopi- The Zerg Overlord creature from Starcraft can be said to resemble a flying octopus to some degree.

Hivemind- The Zerg Overmind from Starcraft is a hivemind creature that was psionic in the Starcraft game. Since your campaign does not employ psionics, this might be translated as arcane power.

All of the above could be possibly argued as Aberrations.

Perhaps I'm reading into it a bit much, but he borrowed from Starcraft once, and he could do it again. Then again, using the name Kerrigan in conjunction with things that could be mistaken for Starcraft lookalikes could be a ploy to misdirect your metagame wondering. Or a loving homage.

But most likely, it's just a coincidence.

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-10, 07:23 PM
And yet, that's still disturbingly worrying :smalleek:

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-12, 10:36 AM
Update: We managed to locate Lux Lucis, the missing priestess, in the sewers and teleported in to rescue her. What we found was...less than pleasant.

Initially, we arrived in a section of tunnel that was covered by flesh walls on all 6 sides, sealing Lux in like a prison cell. The walls weren't technically fless, more likely they seemed to be made of Tsochari strands like we found a while back. However, we found we couldn't teleport out, one reason being that the Loremaster had only prepared it once, and the other being that Dimension Door failed to work as well. This also left him sans Dimension Jaunt, because he was out of teleportation effects. The Arachnomancer didn't turn up, so we were in trouble.

We eventually escaped the strand-coated sewer area, but despite some innovative use of Disintegrate, we ended up in a dead end. From there, we were essentially put into a bargaining position, as the snakes and octopi (We can now confirm that Fiendish Giant Octopuses are involved) were held off by a Wall of Force. We got to know a bit more about who we assume is the ruling intelligence in the hivemind, a Tsochar previously involved with the cult called Dulsik. He claimed he wasn't responsible for the murders.

We dug our way out of the sewer using Disintegrate (We made a very slender tunnel, courtesy of the complex trigonometry the Loremaster spun together, the DM succumbed to the idea due to sheer confusion and the alternative TPK option). We got through, despite being hounded by a trio of Celestial Dire Tigers, but Lux was dragged back by the hivemind (Loremaster went first to "dig", I was dragging Lux behind me and failed a Grapple check abysmally).

So, new knowledge:
The Hivemind is Tsochar-based and linked directly to a Tsochar used by the cult as part of their religious worshipping of the Lich, the Tsochar being named Dulsik
Dulsik claims he isn't responsible for the murders, though he also seemed curious when the Loremaster mentioned the Rite of Panacea to him
Lux is being held captive to continue Hide the Path, which is blocking divination near-universally and is messing up teleportation as well (Though that may be the sorcerery of the Hivemind instead). Lux wasn't able to aid us in any meaningful way because she'd spent her spell selection to keep herself alive. We're thinking she had a Tsochar parasite inside of her to keep her in line.

Laurellien
2008-01-12, 01:15 PM
As far as the blood vessels thing goes. I think that would be the product of an avasculate spell or an avascular mass spell (Libris Mortis). It indicates potent, evil magic.

Zenos
2008-01-12, 01:46 PM
Ain't there something in the BoVD about using body parts to enhance spells? I don't have to BoVD, but I've heard about something like that.

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-12, 02:02 PM
Ain't there something in the BoVD about using body parts to enhance spells? I don't have to BoVD, but I've heard about something like that.

There's humanoid brain for doubling the range 50% of the time, but it's the only one that applies and it kind of implies the entire brain, not the frontal lobe alone (Which seems to fall under the "brain tissue" component of Psychic Poison)

On Avascular Mass (Which I assume is the one you mean), I cannot believe I didn't think of that...

Lyinginbedmon
2008-03-15, 12:58 PM
Alright, now that the campaign has concluded, I can fully reveal the solution to this mystery.

Now, first, an apology. I lead you all to believe I was a player in this campaign, when in actuality I'm the DM and I've been using this thread to gauge the level of mystique and complexity in the plot. I hope you'll all forgive me.

Now for the solution:

A few months prior to the campaign, in a previous campaign, the players were facing a religious cult called Zakia (A religion started by a Lich Blackguard that was temporarily a dictator in the city). They had an encounter with a number of small children, all with Tsochar in them. Most of them were rescued and the parasites removed, but one of them escaped into the sewer system and wasn't seen afterwards. This was Elizabeth Kerrigan.

In the next campaign, in prison, the players met Elizabeth's father, Tanas Kerrigan. He's an alchemist in the family business. They also ran into her mother, Diana Kerrigan, who works at the Mystical Experimentation Complex (MEC) developing new alchemical mixtures for the government.

So, here's what happened:

After escaping into the sewers, Elizabeth went to the first safe place she could think of, the MEC where her mother was. As a result, she was exposed to a substantial amount of magical and alchemical brick-a-brack and her parasite forced her to flee.

Afterwards, her body began fusing together with the parasite. The players met her a few times, though they were never able to identify her before she fled. At this point, she was counted as a Symbiotic Creature and could have been saved.

A few weeks before the campaign hit full swing, Elizabeth (Under the mental control of Dulsik, her parasite) hired some goons to ransack a number of temples. They were killed and/or arrested before this could work.

Not long after that, her transformation went into severe overdrive. She started producing new Tsochari strands on a massive scale. However, they wouldn't bind together into new Tsochari, so they developed instead into the Hivemind. Dulsik held the predominant control over it, and worked to perform the Rite of Panacea to repair the damage fusing him to Elizabeth.

The murders were undertaken by the Hivemind's summoned creatures, but it was Elizabeth's influence that did it. As her body changed and shifted, her skin couldn't cope and regularly broke and tore, so she used the skin of her victims to replace it as she developed and matured. Dulsik took the opportunity to use the brains for the Rite.

Shortly before the players met the final battle, Dulsik performed the Rite, but without the proper materials it mirrorcast and hastened the transformation process. He was subsumed into Elizabeth, forming Lizzy. Still, she wasn't entirely complete.

During the battle, Colonel Judicata Emes of the local Guard was hit with Steal Life, affecting largely her physical ability scores before it was interrupted. This allowed Lizzy's maturation to be completed. Not to full effect, but completed to an acceptable standard.

And so, she opened up Reality Maelstrom, and went through it with all the components of the Hivemind (Which she called "The Flow" judging from her self-given title of "Queen of the Flow") to an unknown plane. There was some discussion about following her, but the wounds accrued set the conclusion at retreating.

EagleWiz
2008-03-15, 08:15 PM
Simple: Discuise yourself as one of the women.

Lyinginbedmon
2008-03-15, 08:18 PM
Simple: Discuise yourself as one of the women.

...it's a bit late for that now