WotW: Call forth Darkness OOC

[Maugan Ra]

OK, ladies, gentlemen and assorted beasties of the deeper pits of hell, report in.

Victor Revalionby Razorstorm (Spellslinger)
Kydrak Seldon by Thattaman (Transmuter)
Quintinius Veresius by Comissar (Illustionist)
Halifax Eater by Angstrom (Necromancer, I believe)
Ilvaria by Snowfire (Mystic Theurge)
Kin, by Cloudsmeet. (Evoker)

Cohorts:
Reyna Teodora, Victor's Cohort
Caldrel Seldom


This here is our Out of Character thread. If you want to make any knowledge checks, ask any questions, or form plans for upcoming combat with sudden telepathic abilities, post it here.

Now, for reference, this game assumes that you have been working together for a time as part of the cult. The cult as a whole is known as the Knot of Thorns, your specific sub-cell is the Nessian Knot (or the Ninth Knot, depending). The cult master is one Adrastus Thorn, cleric of Asmodeus, and his direct subordinate appears to be a woman known as Tiadora. Being members of the Knot, you are all signatories to the Pact of Thorns, given below. Exact wording may well become very important later on, as it often does with infernal pacts...

Behold on this day ___________ in the eighth age of the world, a pact is made between Cardinal Adrastus Thorn (hereafter the Master) and those who would be bound to him as his acolytes (hereafter the Bound). Both the Master and the Bound shall hold fast and true to this compact through all trial and tribulation. By blood and soul the Bound commit to the Compact and swear that it shall never be undone.

The Bound shall know and understand the Four Loyalties:

The First Loyalty is to their patron and God - mighty Asmodeus, first amongst the fallen, prince of the nine hells, our father below. They shall do all they can to further his worship and glory.

The Second Loyalty is to their master - He who is called the Cardinal Adrastis Thorn, High Priest of Asmodeus in Talingarde. They shall do the Master no harm and obey his every commandment as long as those commandments do not clash with their first loyalty.

The Third Loyalty is to their companions - the other Bound who serve alongside them. The Bound shall deal with each other fairly and honourably as long as this does not clash with their first and second loyalties. All treasure, wealth and reward garnered in their exploits will be equally shared with all of the Bound who aided in its acquisition.

The Fourth Loyalty is to themselves - for Asmodeus is the Lord of Ambition and all who serve him should strive to become great and powerful in his service, as long as doing so does not clash with their first, second or third loyalties. By their weakness, ye shall know the Unworthy.

The Bound swear that they will cleave to and uphold the Four Loyalties even in the face of death and damnation.

The Master swears that as long as the Four Loyalties are upheld, he shall reward the Bound as they deserve for their deeds.

Thus it is written, thus shall it be.

We, being of sound mind and free body, do so swear and let they who violates this Compact know all the wrath of Hell unending.

Signed
______________

XP count (All of this is individual rewards)

Enough to place you all on level 7
+ 1,080xp each for summoning the outsiders
+ 2,100xp for fighting the Moon Dogs

Maps

Horn of Abaddon Caves
Level One
Level Two
Level Three

Your Resources and Allies
8,100gp
(Headband of Intellect +2 x4
Belt of Dexterity x1
30 hit dice of undead)

Fully equipped torture room, presently capable of holding one inmate at a time.
Fully repaired traps and cells.

Fully stocked Tavern and guard rooms, to provide lodgings for over 50 individuals.

Your evil organisation:
Ruthless +2
Secrecy +0
Survivability +1
Connections +3
Espionage +2
Loyalty +1
(Your organisation, as it stands, is mostly comprised of locals from Farholde. They don't stand out much, so they tend to be quite good at finding out hidden information, and they're generally pretty well disposed towards you. They're also pretty good at committing violence)

16 Boggard warriors, led by Zikomo the Shaman.
Ezra Thrice-Damned, Dread Wraith (modified) and his 4 Wraith-spawn minions.
Hexor and Vexor, Greater Ceustodaemons.
Baron Arkov Vandermir, an ally in Farholde and presently the most important nobleman remaining in the area.
Elise Zandira and the Seventh Knot
- Tallus Rakburn, Cleric of Asmodeus
- Titus Rakburn, Ranger
- Dorstan, Barbarian
24 Skeletal Archers, six in each Guard Room
6 Bloody Skeletons of various description, second floor entry hall.
12 Hell Hounds, two apiece
6 Nightmare steeds, one apiece
4 Mud Elementals, guarding mud pit chamber in caves.

Artephius the Alchemical Golem

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N Large Construct
Initiative +4 Senses: Darkvision 60ft, Low-Light vision. Perception +0

Defense
AC 23 (+10 natural, +4 armour, -1 size)
Hit points: 96
Saves: Fortitude +4, Reflex +8, Will +4
Damage Reduction: 10/Adamantine or Bludgeoning
Immunities: Construct Traits, Magic

Offense
Speed: 30ft
Melee: 2 Slams +19 (2d8+8 plus alchemy)
Ranged: Bomb +15 (8d6 energy damage)
Space: 10ft Range: 10ft

Statistics
Strength 27, Dexterity 18, Constitution -, Intelligence -, Wisdom 11, Charisma 1
Base Attack: +12, CMB: 21, CMD35

Special Abilities
Alchemy: When the golem strikes a foe, there is an additional random effect. It might cause an extra d6 fire, cold, electricity or acid damage, it might cause the target to be sickened for d4 rounds, or it might make the target entangled for d4 rounds.

Bombs: As a standard action, the golem may throw a bomb at any target within 60ft, requiring a ranged touch attack to hit. If it misses, treat it as a thrown splash attack. If it hits, the target takes 8d6 damage of a random type (either Fire, Cold, Acid or Elecricity). Targets within 5ft of the impact point take d6 damage of the same type.

Immunity to Magic: Artephius is completely immune to any spell or spell-like ability that can be subject to Spell Resistance. The one exception is sonic spells, which damage the golem as though it were a crystalline creature.

12 Hell Hounds, two obeying each of you.

6 Nightmares, one for each of you.

[Thattaman]

Reporting in Indigo. I'm looking forward to this game a lot. Can I still edit my character sheet slightly? I'm thinking of giving my character a noble outfit. Because he is royal born and will often refer to himself as Lord Kydrak. He will later on get a royal outfit when he rules the world and will instead refer to himself as King Kydrak, The Prophet of Asmodeus.

[Maugan Ra]

You can wear whatever you want. As part of the initial mission, you were all gifted with Iron Circlets, magical headpieces which allow you to change your physical appearence essentially at will. Fine tools for infiltrators, though the illusions are not immune to magical countermeasures.

And the IC thread is up. If people would like to describe their appearences and initial actions there, please go ahead.

Time to conquer the world...

Making your own evil organisation
It wouldn't be a villains game unless you had serious numbers of minions to throw at problems and generally take care of the menial tasks (even if it's just holding back the heroes until you can be properly prepared for them... or run for your life). The obvious method of gathering minions, then, is the Leadership feat. But having to deal with ten thousand distinct individuals is rather too much paperwork, and it might well leave you without suitable flexibility.

Therefore, any players who take the Leadership feat may instead take it in the form of an organisation, and multiple players may optionally combine their feats to form a council. Sharing minions allows for an evil force far greater than the sum of its parts, but you will have to share control over it (I encourage pooling resources, mostly because it simplifies the whole thing and is most cost effective).

An Organisation's stats

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Much like characters, an organisation has a series of characteristics, representing how good it is at different things. These characteristics are rated from -5 to +10, and by default start at zero.

Ruthless - The Organisation's ruthless score determines how good it is at acts of violence and intimidation. If Ruthless hits -5, you can't order violent actions.

Secrecy - The secrecy score represents how good your minions are at staying below the radar. If this stat hits -5, then your forces are a household name in Talingarde, and odds are serious resources will be leveled towards your destruction.

Survivability - This stat represents a combination of raw numbers and how personally resilient your minions are. If it hits -5, your minions have been wiped out, and you are on your own.

Connections - This stat represents your ability to get non-violent tasks done, be it raising funds, acquiring items of gear, or smuggling agents from place to place.

Espionage - This characteristic is used to acquire useful information, be it public ally available stuff found by trawling the taverns, or top secret data looted from the governor's own office.

Loyalty - This represents how loyal your minions are to you. If it hits -5, they abandon you, and you are on your own. It is also used to resist interrogations of captured agents.

All stats start at 0. For every master (that is, PC) contributing to your organisation, you receive a number of points equal to the charisma modifier of the master (if positive), which can be allocated to any stat. Stats are also improved through in-game events, and every time a master gains a level (so if five of you hit eighth level, the organisation gains an additional +5 points to distribute among its stats).

What can my minions do for me?

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Why, all sorts of things. Every in-game week, your minions can perform a number of actions. The precise number of actions depends on the levels and charisma modifiers of the Masters, but the organisation can always perform at least one action per master per week. The results of the action are determined by the DM, who assigns a difficulty for what you want to get done and then rolls a d20, modifying the result by the applicable score. So, if you wanted someone killed, I'd roll and add the Ruthless score. An easy action, like intimidating or bribing the dock workers assigned to a particular area, might have a DC of about eight. A nigh impossible action, like stealing the altar from the local church of Mitra, would be rated at about 25.

Scores can be boosted for individual tasks by assigning a named NPC to lead them, who contributes their own stat bonus to the roll. For example, Hexor and Vexor have strength modifiers of +6. If one of them could be persuaded to assist with the assassination, it would receive an additional +6 bonus on the roll... though it might also lower your secrecy. Word of daemons being used does get around. Unless, of course, there are no witnesses left alive to spill the beans.

Finally, if you are unsatisfied with the result of an action, you may execute the fool who failed you and try again. This grants a re-roll, but reduces loyalty by 1.

Possible actions

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Abduct peasants - On a ruthless check, you acquire 2d6 commoners of levels 1-3 for your nefarious purposes. Odds are, their families will never hear from them again.

Assassination - On a ruthless check, you have a particular NPC killed. Especially important NPCs might be immune to death at the hands of minions... when you want something done properly...

Criminal enterprise - On a ruthless check, your minions raise level x d6 x 10 gold pieces for your funds.

Gather Information - On an espionage check, your minions bring you useful information about particular topics or just anything they happen to overhear.

Frame someone - With a successful espionage check, you manage to get the blame for a particular action assigned to another individual or group. Or even have something made up.

Indoctrinate - You use this action to tighten your grip over your minions, raising their loyalty by 1 to a maximum of 0.

Recover - As indoctrinate, but for Survivability.

Lay Low - As Indoctrinate, but for Secrecy.

Training - As Indoctrinate, but can be applied to ruthless, espionage or connections.

Legitimate enterprise - On a connections test, you raise level x d4-1 x 10gp. Less profitable than criminal enterprise, but fewer downsides if it fails.

Hunt Beasts - On a ruthless check, you obtain a number of fierce critters to use as experimental subjects or guard beasts. Generally in the CR 1-4 range.

Torture Captives - On a ruthless check, you receive answers to a number of questions from guests of your dungeons.

Trap building/repair - On a connections test, you build or fix certain traps. You still have to provide the cost of the raw materials, but there's no need for your characters to actually do the work.

Grave Robbing - On a connections test, you acquire dead bodies for reanimation and general villainy.

Guard duty - This is a big one. You create an encounter in a particular location with a challenge rating equal to that of the highest level master, -2.

Other assorted notes

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Firstly, taking this option does not deny you the use and design of a cohort. You'll still get one, with a class level determined as per the standard leadership rules. The one restriction is that no cohort may have access to arcane magic (bards I'll allow). You are the wizards in this council, after all. Personal bodyguards would be a recommended build, for when they're not off assisting minion actions.

Secondly, you may gain bonus actions from different factors in-game. As an example, for every eight Boggard allies alive, you get a single 'boggard' action each week. The boggards are terrible at espionage and the like, but they are quite good at ruthless actions.

Thirdly, every week there may be random events, which will influence your organisation in different ways. There's too many possibilities for me to list here, but you'll work it out when they happen.

[Thattaman]

Prepared spells

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1:
Mage Armor
Charm Person (2)
Magic Weapon
Magic Missile
+ Enlarge Person

2:
Eagle's Spleandour
Fire Breath
Fox's Cunning
+ Bull's Strength

3:
Fireball
Suggestion
+ Beat Shape I

[Morbis Meh]

Frantic, who will go by Stein, shall talk in orange




damn you thattaman lol dark colours suit necros damnit

[Thattaman]

Frantic, who will go by Stein, shall talk in Indigo

I've already claimed Indigo sorry.

Edit: Missed your edit, dark colours just suit evil in general. Grey suits undead.

[Morbis Meh]

I've already claimed Indigo sorry.

Edit: Missed your edit, dark colours just suit evil in general. Grey suits undead.

I was actually first on here but before I could post/claim the colour via phone my boss came in oh well I shall make him the most flamboyant and colourful necro in history... maybe even the Freddy Mercury of the Necromancer world... and as for your 'King' bit good luck at taking over the world when there is an undead army at my characters back and alongside 4 other wizards... if anything it would be better to split the world 6 ways then slowly wage war on each other with puppet rulers while we sit back and laugh(thank you OotS)

[Razorstorm]

Victor Revilon shall post in Purple.

This is awesome guys! I'm stoked to be here! I've never played on a game on this site before. Do I need to load my character sheet stuff anywhere?

[Thattaman]

I just realised that me and Tevin did both get in! We are quite smililar though, so I don't know if they'll be some competition between us. Also, we have a party with only one human. I think Lord Kydrak will be slightly irritated about having to work with an elf and a half elf.

[Comissar]

Quintinius Veresius has always spoken in Cyan and sees little reason to stop now.

[Morbis Meh]

Victor Revilon shall post in Purple.

This is awesome guys! I'm stoked to be here! I've never played on a game on this site before. Do I need to load my character sheet stuff anywhere?

Nope, our GM has done so for us already and welcome to the game, this will be my first evil campaign... totally stoked for undead shenanigans!

[Comissar]

I was in a short, one shot campaign once where I played an evil character. At the end I betrayed them all in an amusing manner proved to be a loyal and trustworthy ally.

[Thattaman]

This is my first time playing in an evil campaign although I have tried to GM this very campaign (but in vain seen as we are doing PbP). If you did point out Kydrak's pointy ears, he'd just use his iron circlet to change into a human who looks very similar to him but without pointy ears.

[Comissar]

*Casts Silent Image*

Hey, pointy ears!

[Morbis Meh]

*Casts Silent Image*

Hey, pointy ears!

Ahh comissar is shall be great fun having you here! And as the party troll no less!

[Comissar]

Ahh comissar is shall be great fun having you here! And as the party troll no less!

What else are illusions for?

[Thattaman]

You're going the right way of being killed in a painful way either by natural weapons or longsword. I've always liked the taste of raw sylph meat served on a bloodstained longsword

[Comissar]

You're going the right way of being killed in a painful way either by natural weapons or longsword. I've always liked the taste of raw sylph meat served on a bloodstained longsword

Pfft, I'd like to see you try. You'd have to figure out which was the real me first.

*Casts Mirror Image + Blur, preps Windy Escape*

[Thattaman]

Pfft, I'd like to see you try. You'd have to figure out which was the real me first.

*Casts Mirror Image + Blur, preps Windy Escape*

A simple cantrip can solve that, detect magic. Then I can fireball you, cast beast shape and become a humanoid wolf then run at you with longsword in hand, cast bull's strength slash at you and then eat you.

[Comissar]

A simple cantrip can solve that, detect magic. Then I can fireball you, cast beast shape and become a humanoid wolf then run at you with longsword in hand, cast bull's strength slash at you and then eat you.

Illusions are magical too, try again ;-)

[Thattaman]

Illusions are magical too, try again ;-)

I cast detect magic so I can see you through the illusion.

[Comissar]

I cast detect magic so I can see you through the illusion.

You'd detect that the illusions were magical, and that I was magical, what with me being blurred and all. So, all 5 of me are magical, no help there

[Maugan Ra]

Indeed, it would likely take more than a cantrip to beat an illusionist.

Anyway, good to see people reporting in. And someone is flirting with Tiadora. Oh, excellent...

[Thattaman]

You'd detect that the illusions were magical, and that I was magical, what with me being blurred and all. So, all 5 of me are magical, no help there

I'd just kill all of you.

[Comissar]

I'd just kill all of you.

Yes, I'd clearly make it easy for you

[Morbis Meh]

Yes, I'd clearly make it easy for you

Indeed... the necromancer would back the illusionist since he plans on politely asking the dear fellow to make his undead horde looking like happy clowns, I can't think of anyone that wouldn't want to die whilst being mauled by happy clowns anyways lets not turn this into a pissing contest because who cares if you can turn into a wolfman when i can simply throw my uber skeletal minion at you whilst draining you of your soul but enough of this we are here to work together!

[Thattaman]

Let's work just work together as one happy murderous and evil family!

[Morbis Meh]

Let's work just work together as one happy murderous and evil family!

Indeed, the family that slays together stays together!!!!

[Comissar]

I just want to say, who are you calling a fey! I'll have you know I'm a native outsider

And I entirely agree, any illusions I may pull out against our little party will be in good jest. Or amusing pettiness, I guess.

[Tevin]

Interesting party composition. Well, Xannek will speak in Dim Gray. Hopefully that shows up alright.