DrK Way of Wicked Take 2 OOC

[Farmerbink]

Posting to add that I don't think we should try to "hold" either shop. We should loot them blind and burn them down, perhaps literally.

I'm pretty OK with buying the manor and the brothel, if we can. We plan to do a little GTA-esque murdering to get our money back anyway, right? Something about all your eggs in one place comes to mind.

Corollary, we can perhaps stash some of the looted goods in the purchased manor- specifically things we don't plan to use directly, but might serve our purposes in the hands of the bugbears?

[DarkOne-Rob]

I think FarmBink's points are solid. We've surely got the cash, given the GTA-style recompensating we intend.

I need an answer regarding poison - do we have something for the sword? Or am I dropping it off with Mrs. Mott to cause more trouble?

[Farmerbink]

We could perhaps find something at the alchemist's shop?

[DarkOne-Rob]

@DrK - did either Stvari or Ahkmathi see something that would work? Oghash isn't above breaking and entering overnight, if needed, to get some poison. She can do it in disguise, after all...

[DrK]

@DrK - did either Stvari or Ahkmathi see something that would work? Oghash isn't above breaking and entering overnight, if needed, to get some poison. She can do it in disguise, after all...

Nothing overtly poisonous at the alchemist shop. Its was mainly anti-dotes/anti-toxins and alchemist fire etc...

[Farmerbink]

Stvari will cast Egorian Diplomacy, as Bellam approaches. DC 16 will to resist specifically the "he doesn't remember the intimidation."

He will then use intimidate to coerce Bellam to find their offer more compelling: (1d20+10)[19]

[DrK]

A will save (1d20)[11] I'll read through the detailed IC posts as well and get back to this.

One thing with the pure sandbox of this part of Way of Wicked is it quites complicated for PBP! I hope you are enjoying it though and its still working

[DarkOne-Rob]

Investing would both satisfy Ahkmathi's concern of making connections so people wouldn't immediately assume us (investors in a town don't usually want to burn it down) and also give us a foot in the door to interact with the ladies in evangelical ways, so I think we go for it. We offer coin to help them expand and offer training to help cultivate "ladies with the right attitude" to see to the business when we can't be around.

---

We could be simple"

• Stvari silently grabs loads of stuff, and we take it back to our place to work out the findings (not magically silent, just good stealth and darkvision plus detecting magic to avoid auras where he might have left magical defenses).
• We could be less simple: grab things, start a fire, bail and hope the ruckuss covers our involvement
• We could murder this dude, in so many different ways (few of them foolproof in the sense of not getting caught)

Regarding the cleric and alchemist, I strongly like the idea of using the alchemist's death as fuel for a death knell spell and the cleric as fuel for the flesh golem activation (I don't have any RAW mechanics for using ritual sacrifice to fuel this sort of thing, but that's like the most common literary trope maybe ever).

I think we're in agreement on 'expanding business' - however we need to work the rolls, it sounds like the boss was already good with opening up new opportunities. We don't care if he keeps the business here...w/in a month, they'll all be dead. We just want to get some of the best girls down south for a foothold (and ones that are familiar with us enough to feel safe working with us in the future. Especially with our 'shared tragedy' of losing Aldencross 🙂).

As for the Scroll, I'm not sure which way is best, but it might behoove us to get Oghash some 'real' food. Ahkmathi wants to read through some of the legal stuff...might be some good things to help us solidify our foothold in town. He wants to check out the magic scrolls, but w/out the possibility of someone crying theft and the whole city looking at the new peeps in town. That being said, we're probably best off killing him, robbing the place and burning it down. Whether that's today or another night, doesn't matter to me. Whenever we benefit from a big distract (like the day of murdering the priest) might be a good one. Would be nice to start some rumors of talking with the owner and hearing him mutter about his lost love and old regrets. Then the thought of the man getting drunk and knocking over his candle might be more believable.

Last thing - sure, let's get thematic with the golem. Just need to figure out how we hide the priest's death. We can either kill the alchemist first and trick the priest into meeting us in the woods alone (not suspicious at all). Or you two kill both of them at the same time while Ahkmathi wander's around town disguised as the alchemist, showing up at public places to off-set any suspicions about our cover story.

Let's try again with the innkeeper and madam. I prefer to get them out of the way entirely, in any number of different (tasty?) ways, but if we just work with them for a while, that's fine too.

As mentioned in Discord, I think we take this opportunity to kill the wizard, repair his backdoor, put up a sign to keep out nosey witnesses, and then take our time.

Death knell using the Alchemist is a great way for Stvari to power-up prior to the (presumed) fight with the Priest. I'd prefer we all be around for fights, but either a decoy or programmed illusion or something to keep the townsfolk from being suspicious sounds good. But honestly, if all else fails I think we have an easy failsafe - the golem. If both the alchemist and priest are dead, we let the golem loose on the town/keep, and it takes the blame. Afterall, it's an unholy abomination (construct) that must have gotten loose and attacked/killed them both. Shouldn't be a hard sell to convince people of that...

[DarkOne-Rob]

To summarize some tactical points and then recommendations that Oghash would like but be unable to express well...

• We've already forced entry - we need to do something violent and permanent, preferably removing the evidence as well so that suspicion isn't placed up our disguised selves.
• If we can prevent mundane retreat and get into melee, wizards have a bad time. Close quarters are our friend.
• If we can find scrolls of Resist Energy or something similar to cast on ourselves, we likely beat the fire wizard outright and can ignore most mundane fire damage.
• The wizards will have a bad time with ongoing fire damage, even of a mundane nature, if they aren't prepared.
• Asmodeus approves of ambition, trickery, and fire. Oghash is devout and would revel in those things if given the opportunity.

All this said, I think we need to take several moments looking for scrolls of Resist Energy, use them if found, start a mundane fire (using any oil or other flammable materials to make it grow fast), and then collect everything we can that isn't nailed down. When the two wizards notice, Stvari and Oghash get into position to force melee and block exits while Ahkmathi prepares to counter their magical assaults/defenses anyway he likes. Then, once they're both dead we loot the bodies, finish collecting what else we can, ensure their bodies are thoroughly destroyed (minus a large muscle or two for Oghash), and get out of dodge. Change our disguises on the way out, flee if necessary, and then get back to the inn once clear in our original disguises.

What do you both think?

[Farmerbink]

Adding disable device checks. If he can, he'll take his time.

(1d20+9)[22]
(1d20+9)[15]
(1d20+9)[27]
(1d20+9)[14]

[DarkOne-Rob]

Oghash's Reflex Save: (1d20+4)[7]

[DrK]

(1d8)[7] and (1d3)[2] for the bomb landing somewhere!

Ouch for the mage! cast defeinsively (1d20)[16]

[Starbin]

@DrK - I think we're waiting to find out the answer to my question in discord - given the order of actions, wouldn't Stvari have tripped the mage instead of damaging him? It makes a big difference in response ...

[DarkOne-Rob]

I concur with this. Thank you for the consideration, @DrK!

[DrK]

I've been away for a few days seeing family over the jubilee bank holiday and was busier than I expected so didn't update. I'll have a read through and respond over the next couple of days

[Farmerbink]

I should probably also have rolled a bluff: (1d20-4)[14]

[DrK]

I should probably also have rolled a bluff: [roll0]

That is an excellent bluff for Stavri! Especially in the dark and the chaos

[Farmerbink]

That is an excellent bluff for Stavri! Especially in the dark and the chaos

Haha, just might be enough to get out of here. Decently good timing on that nat 18!

[DarkOne-Rob]

Four more Cure Light Wounds spells, self-applied: (1d8+3)[7], (1d8+3)[6], (1d8+3)[7], (1d8+3)[8] HPs healed. Edit: Oghash hit full HPs after the second third-to-last spell.

[Farmerbink]

I've got one on Stvari to round off the blood rage: (1d8+3)[10]

[DarkOne-Rob]

In that case I won't need another CLW. Thanks!

[Farmerbink]

Reposting to get it fresh in mind:::

Day 3 (today) - Oghash works to get details about the patrol from CAPT Eddarly and the party tries to influence the duel to have both lose somehow. Perhaps we make it look like one of them cheated or something. If we can implicate the unfaithful wife in the scheme, even better. Investigate what the Illuminate Scroll has in their stock and if we can take all of that for ourselves too. Done. Stvari needs to use his high(er) Intimidate modifier and Egorian Diplomacy to get things happening like we want them. Ahkmathi can cast Fox's Cunning on him if he knows it to improve the bonus further. What info did we get here?
- Oghash and Stvari work together to convince Alicia and Bellam Barthold to "sell" their inn and brothel, take an extended (and sudden) vacation, and we kill them and get our investment back. Didn't pan out, but still might

Let's try again with the innkeeper and madam. I prefer to get them out of the way entirely, in any number of different (tasty?) ways, but if we just work with them for a while, that's fine too.

Day 4 - (today) Morning: watch the duel go horribly, horribly wrong for all involved. The worse things go for everyone the better. Suggestions include - poisoning both weapons and planting poison in the home of Kaitlyn Mott. Also the Enthrall spell to mop up any survivors.
Afternoon or Evening: ambush the patrol, kill them all, eat some of them, ensure things can't be tracked back to us.
Day 5 - Prepare to ambush the Priest and we disable the alchemist. Ahkmathi takes his place. We need to find out how large the Priest's entourage is and ensure we take him alone. We need to look through all the Alchemist's wares for buffs so we can start the combat on Day 6 with maximum power already applied. Possibly use mundane pit traps (via Expeditious Excavation?) or something similar to help split off any support he has.
- Stvari and Oghash indoctrinate the brothel girls and begin working on their eventual corruption.
Day 6 - Ambush the priest and alchemist en route to the workshop. Take him alive (?) to ritually sacrifice both him and the alchemist as fuel to empower the golem (for a bonus on a relevant Spell Caster Check or statistic, as found in the Death Knell spell). Tactics need to include summons, pits, isolate the Priest, fight in disguise, etc...
Day 7 - We do to the owner of the Illuminate Scroll what we did to the Alchemist (kill him, replace him, take his wares, etc...)
Day 8 - Bard arrives and we get involved somehow we find a way to use him to get into the keep itself. If we can do that and bring our Golem along, then we do Day 9 inside the keep instead of in the town.
Day 9 - We have the Golem attack the town and pick off individuals as they are weakened. We can buff the golem with temporary HPs by doing Electric damage to it ahead of time. It will eventually go berserk and go more crazy - I think we let it run its course and don't even try to regain control.

---

Brothel Goals:
1. (Simplest) Use the girls to get intelligence about the keep (rumors) and see if we can get into the keep somehow without being noticed.
2. (More involved) Allow problems to develop by having things get out of hand - soldiers getting in trouble, maybe some STDs going around, loss of military discipline, girls where they shouldn't be, figure out the highest ranked soldier visiting and blackmail him, etc...
3. (Full Corruption) Basically turn the brothel into a Temple Prostitution ring for Asmodeus. Encourage the girls to be ambitious, tricky, and craven. Let this go full HAM and cause several problems inside the keep and in town.
Alchemist Shop Goals:
1. How are we having the alchemist disappear? Are we concerned about repercussions?
2. Same question, regarding the Priest? Wasn't he supposed to lead a worship service?
3. What are we doing to empty the alchemist's shop? "Temporarily Closed" sign? Is that enough?
Illuminate Scroll Goals:
1. How are we having the owner disappear? Are we concerned about repercussions? Heh, I guess we're not too worried now
2. What are we doing to empty the shop? "Temporarily Closed" sign? Is that enough? Snort. Defintely not enough.
Other Goals:
1. The Keep: actually our primary goal - we shouldn't get too distracted - and we still need a solid entrance. Maybe a wand of Fly or something? Start from the top and go down? Or use the dwarven repair team somehow?
2. Timon Meadery: will it be worth doing anything here? Poison/drugs in the alcohol? Or just burn it down?
3. General Store and Smithy: burn them down. Make it big enough to be difficult to put out, maybe pick off individuals as they try to fight the fires...?
4. Graveyard: resources for a Lesser Animate Dead spell or two?
5. Dominik Vallison, village reeve: break into his home one night, kill him, rob him blind? Or try to Charm him and use him to get into the keep?

---

1) We have a month to weaken the place, so our efforts should be efficient and quick. - Agreed, hence the need for a plan.
2) Not sure we expect much to remain here after the bugbears roll through, so any corruption efforts should be focused on key individuals (not just 'the town.'). - I like a point you make a bit later on this topic...
3) We have several key targets, but the two we were specifically asked to kill are Havelyn and his mage. - But more death is allowed, right? Maybe even encouraged?

- If we are going to try and corrupt the ladies, let's not kill them. Let's take advantage of the action to the south and send them (saved by the grace of our Dark Lord) to continue their good works down there. That seemingly has a longer term affect on the bigger mission at hand. - This is BRILLIANT! I have not liked a more [Evil] idea in a long time. We totally work this angle with a select few, capable, ambitious, and willing women (if we find any) and spread the worship of Asmodeus through them. I absolutely wish I'd had this thought. I'm on board here, as well

- Taking over the Alchemist's shop is easy ... we're well postured for that, and it will certainly set us up for success. However, things get complicated with the priest ... if he disappears and folks thing the Alchemist had anything to do with it, we get burned. So let's make sure we don't implicate the alchemist publicly. - Only if we haven't emptied his store of anything valuable. Then, if we let him take the fall, no loss, IMO. But if we plan to replace him for more than a day...yeah, we need to hide his involvement. That said, can we successfully replace him that long? Or is that too risky? Without more Face skills in the party, I think long-term deceptions/disguises-of-existing-NPCs are a tough sell.

- Not sure about the scroll shop, but holding two of these places might be a chore, and we don't know the owner's relationship with the town. The alchemist was odd and prone to being reclusive ... not sure about the scroll keeper. Might be best if we steal some stuff and burn the place down. Unfortunate candle accident one night after the man had too much to drink. - Totally agree, we shouldn't hold down both shops - as mentioned above, I'm not sure we should hold down one. Either way, we pillage this shop, kill the owner, eat him, burn it to the ground, etc... Check!

- Let's rent / buy that manor and see if we can't hide all of our ill-gotten gains in it for the time being? It even has a sound-proofed basement for torture / culinary delights, and is a pleasant walk from Balentyne. - Is this necessary if we purchase the inn/brothel instead? Via forced-Diplomacy (Stvari using Intimidate and Egorian Diplomacy)... I'm on board with this. We can always recover our investment in other ways

- Not sure when we deal with the reeve, but it needs to be at the right time, likely around when we decide to use his image to get into the keep ... when we go to kill the Lord and Mage. - By "around [the time]" you mean, kill him shortly before, right? We should also plan to rob him blind, as I'm sure he's got resources... If the battle mage we just dealt with is the same guy, I think we're actually off to a good start. As I recall, the reeve was the guy who could sell/rent the manor to us? Just saying :-)

- There was something about beef stew for the keep ... I think poisoning the stew to make folks sick and/or doing the same to the latest batch of mead are good ideas. Timing dependent, of course ... - I'm not opposed, but I'm not sure it's worth the time if we can remove forces more quickly/effectively in other ways. Poison/disease/starvation take time.

- Do we need the bard to get into the keep? The reeve has access, as I recall. Might be useful to try and lay blame on the bard for some events ... - Perhaps the bard is our first look inside, scouting, so we can later use the reeve's appearance for a deeper dive? I still think there may be better ways inside than the front door...

- Golem use: around the town? In the Keep? In the tunnels beneath? I think we need to leverage some of the information those dwarves have. - Golem + intelligence from the Dwarves sounds like a decent idea. I'm game for whenever you all think it's best, but having the golem kill soldiers instead of just random townsfolk seems like a more effective idea to me.

- Can we kill the smithy but leave the goodies? Might be another opportunity to either a) arm our own troops, or be, provide the bugbears with more stuff. - Sure? I doubt the bugbears need it much, but why not?

[DarkOne-Rob]

(Starting a new summary, for ease of reading)

The Keep
Our primary goal - got to keep this in mind and we still need a solid entrance. Maybe a wand of Fly or something? Start from the top and go down? Or use the dwarven repair team somehow?

Tomorrow (Day 5)

1. In the morning we need to ensure the duel ends tragically, with as much death as possible. We've done some work to this effect so far - time to seal the deal, IMO. Let's be ready for violence in the morning!
2. In the afternoon we find and dispose of the patrol. We've got some basic info on this, so following their path and finding their trail shouldn't be hard. If they're drunk or generally loafing about, we should be able to kill them all, feed Oghash again, and return to town with no one the wiser.
3. Spend the evening replacing the alchemist with Ahkmathi? Prepare an ambush for the visiting priest? I think we should empty out the alchemist shop of valuables so that he can take the fall for the priest's disappearance - when the townsfolk investigate, they find it gutted and him gone. He's an easy scapegoat that way.

Day after tomorrow ("overmorrow," Day 6)

1. Take out the priest's entourage via subtlety so we can fight him solo.
2. Ambush and capture the priest.
3. Sacrifice him to empower the flesh golem.
4. Find more trouble to make?

Day 7
Find more trouble to make?

Two days later (Day 8)
The bard arrives in town - how do we intend to use this for our advantage?

Day 9
Release the Golem as a distraction while we infiltrate the keep?

Other goals

1. I still want to take over the brothel, by force if necessary. Alicia and Bellam Barthold need to be pushed out of control of the girls, removed from positions where they could discover our subterfuge, or something similar. We've got a variety of ways to do it - just need to succeed somehow.
   
   

   - If we are going to try and corrupt the ladies, let's not kill them. Let's take advantage of the action to the south and send them (saved by the grace of our Dark Lord) to continue their good works down there. That seemingly has a longer term affect on the bigger mission at hand.

2. Timon Meadery: will it be worth doing anything here? Poison/drugs in the alcohol? Or just burn it down?
3. General Store and Smithy: burn them down. Make it big enough to be difficult to put out, maybe pick off individuals as they try to fight the fires...?
4. Graveyard: resources for a Lesser Animate Dead spell or two?
5. Dominik Vallison, village reeve: break into his home one night, kill him, rob him blind? Or try to Charm him and use him to get into the keep?

Notes

1. We have several key targets, but the two we were specifically asked to kill are Havelyn and his mage. - But more death is allowed, right? Maybe even encouraged?

   - One step completed - now we work on the commander of the keep and maximizing the death/destruction we accomplish.
   
2. Beef stew for the keep (poison it?)
3. Smithy?

[DrK]

Are you guys happy to move forward to the morning? And you can get involved in the heading down to where the duel is happening locally?
Also, if needs be you throw red smoke into the air to attract the bugbears early so you don't need to wait the full month if you opened the Gates of the Watchtower earlier...

[DarkOne-Rob]

I'd like to spread rumors more, but otherwise, yeah, I'm good to go.

[Farmerbink]

I'm good moving on to the next day

[Starbin]

I'll try to post something today, but we should at least poison weapons tonight, or at least plot how we want to rig the fight tomorrow. Do we know who the better fighter is? I'm presuming its the cuckold and not Eddarly, but you never know ...

[DarkOne-Rob]

Screwed up some dice rolls - neither attack misses due to concealment

Primary attack action: (1d20+9)[19] to hit, (1d20+9)[26] (20/x3), (1d12+13)[17] magic slashing damage, (2d12+26)[39] critical strike damage, +1 to hit and damage if the soldier is Lawful.

AoO: (1d20+9)[23] to hit, (1d20+9)[14] (20/x3), (1d12+13)[18] magic slashing damage, (2d12+26)[33] critical strike damage, +1 to hit and damage if the soldier is Lawful.

[DarkOne-Rob]

(Updating)

The Keep
Our primary goal - got to keep this in mind and we still need a solid entrance. Maybe a wand of Fly or something? Start from the top and go down? Or use the dwarven repair team somehow? (Tunnel under the gatehouse? Mentioned during the duel-scene.)

Today (Day 5)

1. In the morning we need to ensure the duel ends tragically, with as much death as possible. We've done some work to this effect so far - time to seal the deal, IMO. Let's be ready for violence in the morning! Done!
2. Need to babysit Eddarly and secure control of him, perhaps via Kaitlyn? Kidnapping her or something?
3. Secure an appropriate "burial site" for the four dead men.
4. In the afternoon we find and dispose of the patrol. We've got some basic info on this, so following their path and finding their trail shouldn't be hard. If they're drunk or generally loafing about, we should be able to kill them all, feed Oghash again, and return to town with no one the wiser. Is this still happening today? Are we fresh enough on resources? Oghash has spent four of her 10 rounds of daily Bloodrage...
5. Spend the evening replacing the alchemist with Ahkmathi? Prepare an ambush for the visiting priest? I think we should empty out the alchemist shop of valuables so that he can take the fall for the priest's disappearance - when the townsfolk investigate, they find it gutted and him gone. He's an easy scapegoat that way. I think we need to do this earlier, hide bodies, and then do the patrol-ambush in the late-afternoon.

Tomorrow (Day 6)

1. Take out the priest's entourage via subtlety so we can fight him solo.
2. Ambush and capture the priest.
3. Sacrifice him to empower the flesh golem.
4. Find more trouble to make?

Day 7 ("overmorrow")
Find more trouble to make?

Two days later (Day 8)
The bard arrives in town - how do we intend to use this for our advantage?

Day 9
Release the Golem as a distraction while we infiltrate the keep?

Other goals

1. I still want to take over the brothel, by force if necessary. Alicia and Bellam Barthold need to be pushed out of control of the girls, removed from positions where they could discover our subterfuge, or something similar. We've got a variety of ways to do it - just need to succeed somehow.
   
   
2. Timon Meadery: will it be worth doing anything here? Poison/drugs in the alcohol? Or just burn it down?
3. General Store and Smithy: burn them down. Make it big enough to be difficult to put out, maybe pick off individuals as they try to fight the fires...?
4. Graveyard: resources for a Lesser Animate Dead spell or two?
5. Dominik Vallison, village reeve: break into his home one night, kill him, rob him blind? Or try to Charm him and use him to get into the keep?

Notes

1. We still need to kill the commander of the keep and maximize the death/destruction we accomplish.
2. Beef stew for the keep (poison it?)
3. Smithy?

[DarkOne-Rob]

First, I suggest we hide these bodies in the abandoned warehouse...

Have we investigated this or broken into the building yet? Hope it's easy...Otherwise I like it. I think we are all on the same page regarding the alchemist.

Next, we must prepare to take on the patrol and end them quickly...

I agree with all this - let's get the bodies hidden and get moving!

After the patrol, we need to return and prepare for the priest's arrival tomorrow...

By "prepare" do we mean plan and handle spells? Go through alchemical buffs? Or setup an ambush site?

Finally, we need to find out about any hidden tunnels below...

I hadn't thought about using the tunnels to get bugbears inside. That seems to be an option if we don't intend to use it ourselves.