PDA

View Full Version : Suggestions for an interrogation



Blackadder
2008-02-02, 05:59 PM
Setting:In a home brewed world, the party(At this time consisting of one Mageblade(4) and one Rogue(5) has captured a Necromancer on the skirts of a undead city. Successfully brought him back alive to their ship off shore after knocking him out and defeating his undead servants.

Things acutally went poorly for the Necro(5th Level) since combat started when he got Bull-rushed and grappled by the Mageblade who promptly pinned him and started choking him and slam his head into the floor until he passed out from non-lethal damage. Which he did in round three, having done nothing during combat. His minion's did almost as badly.

If you don't want to bother reading the background skip to the "Skip to here section
First off a ton of background and plot the PC's need to know/would find interesting.
Background:The Necro(Refered from here on in as "Rugen") is a 5th Level Specialist Wizard who's rather weak(8-STR) and unattractive(7CHA). Not that he cares, he's a good old fashion Necromancer, he has dreams of immortal life some day and he's getting in on the ground floor now studying the undead and raising his own when needed.
(And what I need to get across to my PC's)
The City Rugen was at is a undead city filled to the brim with mostly home-brewed undead. The story is, is that this city(Seaguard) used to be a prosperous port city and one of the richest on the entire coast, home to major shipyards and right next to one of the major river mouths. But some years back(Roughly seventy) the city suddenly experienced a plague which drove it's a large part of the population mad or out-right killed them. Those that survived the plague fought anything that moved and those that tried to escape simply went mad later and were quickly put down by wherever they ran to.

Within a month the city was empty of living inhabitants and filled with two forms of undead. A Homebrewed Variant of Ghoul which is stronger, faster but is not totally undead. Anyone who went made during the plauge became ghouls. Anyone slain by the Ghoul within seven miles of the city center will re-animate as a Ghoul within one day. However these ghouls did not have Ghoul fever, and elves are not immune to their touch. Most of them have some misc class level from their old life tossed on top of the standard Ghoul template.

The other variant of undead are Animated Zombies. These people died to the plague, and anyone who dies within seven miles of the city center will rise as a Animated Zombie within the day. Animated Zombies are treated as Zombies for hit-die and move-ment purposes, but might have class levels and in some cases still access to any magic they knew. Zombie Cleric's have no access to their powers even if they were evil. The reason being is that theses Zombies are as mindless as traditional zombes, they are as slow as traditional zombies, but they are not-decaying like regular zombies(+1 Regen) and as per the Ghoul's they may retain their class levels.

And this bit is the kicker and I must get across to the PC's. The Animated Zombies attempt to live out the last week of their life when before they died. They go the the stores they shopped at, but do nothing but stand there until they left, if it's a ruin they stand in the rubble or on the street outside. If they were Cleric's they will go back to their temple and stand blank eye at the alter's. They are mindless as far as rational thought goes, but retain the memories of the last week or so of their lives(Plot point!) and attempt to relive them despite the fact they can't do it anymore.

Theses zombies also FYI have a -20 to both Spot and Listen unless the PC is within ten feet of them.(Then it drops to -5) And if some thing actively attempts to stop them from re-enacting their previous life they attack at once. But otherwise they will ignore everything including each other. They are effectually dead to the world.

Few other examples, if the AZ remembers going to an Inn to eat he will go to that Inn, sit at the table if the chair is still there(Otherwise he stands where the chair was) and simply sit until his life goes on(Post meal). If he was asleep(They don't sleep) he will go home and lay in his bed(If it's still there) otherwise he will stand where his bed was, if his house is gone, he will stand in the rubble of his old house, where his old bed should have been. If he can't get to the spot where he needs to go, he will get as close as possible to it.

Now there's one last twist, and that is, if a Animated Zombie is reduced to 0 HP it will simply rise up again in 1 turn(10%) chance with a 1% chance increase every 1 turn after that. Destruction of the head of an Animated Zombie will prevent it from raising up again for some time(As much as a whole month) and only total destruction of the body(Via burning or immersion in acid or holy water) will prevent raising. Any AZ's who are reduced to zero HP also begin their life over again from their eariler memories, so if they were on the fifth day before they died when they were "killed" they start over again on their earliest memory even if the time is wrong. AZ's are not affected by sun-light and continue to move about the city re-enacting their lives regardless of what the actual time is.


Now then
Rugen knows all of these details, there are over a hundred low to high level Necromancer's who are in and around the city who are studying these undead(Including two Liches), he was one of them and has spent five years preforming experiments on these undead. The Necormancer's keep to themselves since they can command the Ghoul's and the Zombies leave everyone alone it's acutally quite safe for anyone who can awe or command undead. Aside from the Necromancer's there's several HL Vampire Lord's using this city as a lair, they have discovered that in a pinch they can feed of the AZ's(It tastes bland) and the ten's of thousands of Ghoul's and AZ's ignore them(Ghoul's because they taste terrible and are strong, and AZ's ignore anything that does not get directly in it's way or attack it)So the Necromancer's and the Vampire's exist in an uneasy truce, the dead walk free and the city "lives" on.

Skip to here
Background done, Help me here!
And now here come the PC's, the Rogue has a Intimidate of +6, a Bluff of +12 and a Diplomacy of +15(Ultra combo of synergism, maxed rank, high CHA and background trait)

Rugen meanwhile has a Sense motive of +5, he's smart man, not especially wise but better than most(+1). He's just woken up, his last memory was reading his notes then hands around his throat, he has a pounding headache and there are several large men standing over him, his face is wet and he's not feeling to happy right now.

He knows he's at sea from the motion of the boat and currently bound hand and wrist with enough silk rope for someone five times as strong as he is(Rogue got a 26 Use rope to tie him up)

How should I handle this conversation and how can I try to reign in Rugen so he's not trying to beat a 35 Diplomacy or Bluff Roll here? I know I'm going to try to make him use intimidate to get questions answered as much as possible, but he's still rolling high and he's helpless.

So what DC's would you suggest I set for Rugen to offer up all this information? I've done integrations on the fly before, but Rugen was slated to be a BBEG rather than a helpless rag doll so he knows to much, help is appreciated.

Blackadder
2008-02-03, 01:24 PM
One single bump, suggestions?

BisectedBrioche
2008-02-03, 01:43 PM
I'd suggest you divide the infomation into categories and assign DCs like this;

{TABLE]Infomation|Example|DC

His inner-most secrets|His own plans for the city, any (possibly literal) skeletons in his closet|30

Important/Sensitive info which would be detrimental to his cause|What the necromancers are working on/their plans|20-25

Important/sensitive info which could complicate things if it got out|The vampires' stronghold locations (which only the necromancers know)|15-20

General infomation which can be found with some research|What happened to the town before the necromancers et al moved in, the layout of the town|10-15

Anything which would be obvious fairly quickly|The fact that the zombies will not attack so easily|10[/TABLE]

Does that help?

Blackadder
2008-02-03, 02:54 PM
That will work, the PC's have enough negative modifers against them(They knock him out, kidnapped him and went to sea with him) so he's not in a postive mood. So the DC's will have to be higher but otherwise it looks like that works.