100,000 gp, 24 hours

[Squidmaster]

My DM just gave my group a big problem. We are 16th level and we are in Sidgel trying to find a way to hell(level 4). We needed to forge paperwork for travel but the person who we went to had different plans. He said that he could sell my paladins blood for lots of money, and he threw me in a magic resistant prison. He told my group that they could have me back if we payed him 100,000 gp, but we only have 24 hours to get it to him. We are short on funds now and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for generating this much wealth in such a short time. We cant just fight this guy, which is our usual course of action, so I cant think of anything. My group consists of 1 monk, rouge, wizard, archer-fighter, ranger, cleric, bard and paladin(me), we also have a young silver dragon helping us. Is there hope, or are we just doomed?

[Ulrichomega]

My DM just gave my group a big problem. We are 16th level and we are in Sidgel trying to find a way to hell(level 4). We needed to forge paperwork for travel but the person who we went to had different plans. He said that he could sell my paladins blood for lots of money, and he threw me in a magic resistant prison. He told my group that they could have me back if we payed him 100,000 gp, but we only have 24 hours to get it to him. We are short on funds now and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for generating this much wealth in such a short time. We cant just fight this guy, which is our usual course of action, so I cant think of anything. My group consists of 1 monk, rouge, wizard, archer-fighter, ranger, cleric, bard and paladin(me), we also have a young silver dragon helping us. Is there hope, or are we just doomed?

What level are you guys, and how powerful is this dude? Since you're trying to go to hell, I assume that you are rather powerful.

Now, you have a wizard and a dragon. Just nuke this guy into the next dimension and hope the paladin has enough h...

Just kidding. Hmm... If you have enough right now, you can go to the local lords and ask for loans from each. You can then offer an item or two as collateral. That should get you up there. If there are no local lords, use teleport. Then, you have a much longer period to gather the 120,000 that you would have to pay back. Then you can go to hell (hehe).

[AmberVael]

Oh nifty. Sounds easy enough to do, actually.

The plan? Dragon hunting. An ECL 17 dragon provides you with triple standard treasure, and ECL 17 gives you 36,000 gp worth of treasure.

So, the plan is to kill two ECL 17 dragons (or there abouts) in one day. I say two because you need 100,000 in raw gold, and selling items will take time and yada ya ya.
They should be easy enough to find, since you have a Ranger (for tracking within a specific area), a Cleric (for divination), a Wizard (for more divination), and a Bard (for bardic knowledge and hopefully knowledge checks to know where to start off).
As for killing them... you've got enough people, and they aren't too much more powerful. You could do it, especially since they'd have time to rest and recuperate between each one. With teleports, you can get around to them pretty quick.
Frankly, the most time consuming part of my plan is finding them.

[Soups]

It is a terrible thing to do, and borders on evil, but my "neutral" campaign, we held high oficials for ransom. It helpped thay they were nobels. and the money they gave us were Vouchers, since 20k+ gp is hard to carry around. we got rid(bought tons of crap) of those vouchers A.S.A.P, since he would eventually get to telling the army about what happened after they would regain conciousness.

Otherwise, have a mage make "flash lights", ever burning tourches in a bullseye lanern should sell for 1.5 times the cost to make em. We did it back in 3.0, not sure what 3.5 says about something like that.

Both of those ideas require huge DM lieniency.

[Mr.Bookworm]

You have a dragon helping you. Find out if it knows anything about where evil dragons are. If there's one nearby, kill it with fire/ice/acid/sonic, and show him the hoard.

Alterantively, just kill him. I mean, even if he's higher level than you, that many people plus a dragon should be able to put him down.

[Redpieper]

Find a party two levels lower then you, capture one of them and give them 20 hours to give you 100.000 gp.

[Runolfr]

You had a paladin working with a forger to get you papers to get into Hell?

Call it Lawful Stupid if you like, but I don't see a paladin purchasing forged papers from someone who is almost certainly evil in order to get access to Hell. With a 16th-level wizard and a 16th-level cleric in your group, you can't come up with a plane shift or something to get you there?

Anyway, this sounds like an occasion for violence and/or intimidation to me instead of scrambling around for ransom money.

[Sebastian]

Try making a deal, 50.000 gp and half the paladin's blood, then a couple of heal/restoration and he should be OK.

Actually you could even start a business selling paladin's blood, as long as you don't take too much of it all at once. :)

[Arbitrarity]

Major creationing some gold, then Nystul's magic aura, OR Fabricate cheese, OR let you die and get a true resurection, OR PAO something into a creature which is generally considered rare/valuable.

(Note: Most of the above are very cheesy, sorta. Most also involve the possibility of him getting revenge)

Also, why the hell does he want you to pay him more than the cost of true resurection? Suicide when he's not there, prehaps?

[rollfrenzy]

Another answer would be to find and travel to a plane where time runs slow. like 1 year there = 1 day on sigil. Then go on a money grubbing sidequest.
More oppurtunities for interesting hooks and what-not.

..Or there's always the import steel to dragonlance and exchange for gold.

or buy a whole lot of ladders....

[Sebastian]

Find a party two levels lower then you, capture one of them and give them 20 hours to give you 100.000 gp.

Pyramidal schemes in D&D.

[Kiirseva]

Find someone to loan you 100k gp in exchange for another quest without a 24 hour time limit.

[The_Snark]

You had a paladin working with a forger to get you papers to get into Hell?

Call it Lawful Stupid if you like, but I don't see a paladin purchasing forged papers from someone who is almost certainly evil in order to get access to Hell. With a 16th-level wizard and a 16th-level cleric in your group, you can't come up with a plane shift or something to get you there?

Anyway, this sounds like an occasion for violence and/or intimidation to me instead of scrambling around for ransom money.

If you don't have papers, every single devil in Hell can attack you if it feels like, and when they don't succeed, the survivors teleport away and report you to their superiors. It's not something you want happening unless you can take on multiple pit fiends at once, and even then you ought to think twice. When you have legal papers, devils generally can't attack you directly (unless there are extenuating circumstances), and all you have to deal with is occasional attempts to trick you into doing something stupid from devils with nothing better to do.

Plane Shift can only deposit you on the first layer of a plane, and they want to be on the fourth. This means that without papers, you have to fight or sneak your way through four layers of Hell.

And I think he already said that violence couldn't be applied here, although I'm not sure why...

I imagine you're a good party, what with a paladin and a silver dragon, so that rules out a lot of easy schemes, like "find another paladin and offer to trade", or mugging mercanes. If there's really no way you can find this guy and kill him, try getting a loan from a good-aligned church (preferably your paladin's church). Even if they don't have the money themselves, they might be able to point you towards, say, an evil-aligned dragon or two.

[bugsysservant]

1. Fabricate cheese
2. Some form of illusion- it only has to last long enough for you to take the paladin and go
3. Robbing evil creatures
4. Borrowing from the church
5. Mentally dominate the forger to believe you have given him the money
6. Kidnap an associate of the forger and offer to trade
7. Violence. If you don't think it will work, you just need to use more of it.

[Mewtarthio]

And I think he already said that violence couldn't be applied here, although I'm not sure why...

Hard to forge papers when you're dead, I suppose. You could always beat the guy unconscious, then use some memory alteration spell (modify memory, if your bard knows it or a skillmonkey can UMD it, scroll of programmed amnesia otherwise) to make him think you've already paid. Or you could bead him unconscious and put a geas on him: "Forge free papers for the next ten thousand customers without telling anyone besides said customers." You get free papers, and your safe from retribution until he's forged ten thousand papers. Of course, in the meantime, you run the risk of Hell being flooded with cheap tourists using forged papers, meaning that the devils will find out about this little operation and devour your souls, but there's no such thing as a free lunch.

[Damian_Blackclaw]

There are so many what ifs and additional information requests to be had . . . because we haven't been in this campaign.

But, consider, they have no good purpose for taking the paladin's blood. They have ransomed you . . . they can have no good purpose for your 100,000 gold.

Consider any number of (depending on campaign) items within the party should be able to be sold (if possible).

Other less reputable member of the party can take loans.

Side quests . . .

Time shift . . .

How about reverse kidnapping/ransoming/fake bag of gold . . . "We have the money, it is at a safe location . . .you show us our friend is safe and alive and we'll give you (lead you) the map."

DtD

[Animefunkmaster]

Well you could plane shift to anywhere and gate you back. Or other means of teleportation might be efficient.

Otherwise:

How to turn 9900 gp into everything (3 times).

Step 1: Procure a candle of invocation.
Step 2: Burn said candle, activate the Gate ability (let the cleric do this).
Step 2.5: Wizard Readies a force cage.
Step 3: Summon Efreeti

A noble djinni can grant three wishes to any being (nongenies only) who captures it.

Step 4: Ask for the wishes.

One in particular you will want:

Transport travelers. A wish can lift one creature per caster level from anywhere on any plane and place those creatures anywhere else on any plane regardless of local conditions. An unwilling target gets a Will save to negate the effect, and spell resistance (if any) applies.

Edit: You can even rinse and repeat this, by wishing for another candle and the dust for force cage. But this might get silly and on the DMs nerves.

[Drider]

the first time I read that, I thought you were only lvl 4 and needed to pay 100,000 lol. Did you get a chance to fight back this guy, or did he "quickened DM kidnap"?

[Squidmaster]

You had a paladin working with a forger to get you papers to get into Hell?

Call it Lawful Stupid if you like, but I don't see a paladin purchasing forged papers from someone who is almost certainly evil in order to get access to Hell. With a 16th-level wizard and a 16th-level cleric in your group, you can't come up with a plane shift or something to get you there?

Anyway, this sounds like an occasion for violence and/or intimidation to me instead of scrambling around for ransom money.

My paladin is, uh, special. He killed a good gold dragon once, belives that all evil should be erased in the bloodiest way possible, and has tried to kill the party bard on numerous occasions. In just this quest he worked with a vampire (who drank his blood for information) and a devil (who made us find a solar for him to whip (to find the location of a gate to hell level 4) My DM is very lax abut that sort of stuff. Why we cant fight is because the leader of Sidgel whos name escapes me kills anyone who commits violent acts.

Thanks for all the great advice so far.

[TheLogman]

Sigel is a lawful community it has guards and junk, plus the Lady of Pain. Either fake money through Fabricate, or even illusions, or just call in the authorities. Or, ya know, kill the guy. You're powerful.

[tyckspoon]

My paladin is, uh, special. He killed a good gold dragon once, belives that all evil should be erased in the bloodiest way possible, and has tried to kill the party bard on numerous occasions. In just this quest he worked with a vampire (who drank his blood for information) and a devil (who made us find a solar for him to whip (to find the location of a gate to hell level 4) My DM is very lax abut that sort of stuff. Why we cant fight is because the leader of Sidgel whos name escapes me kills anyone who commits violent acts.

Thanks for all the great advice so far.

And drawing your paladin's blood (presumably against his will) to sell isn't going to qualify as a violent act? It sounds like you could just not pay the ransom and then let the hammer of the gods fall on the kidnapper.. or is he planning to sell you off to somebody else who will presumably be exsanguinating you somewhere outside the jurisdiction of Sigil?

Plan for not having to raise the money: If the forger is not immune to mind-affecting things, get your wizard, cleric, and bard together. Blitz the forger with charms and dominates until he fails a save, force him to release you, and get him to draft the travel visas for free as compensation for being dumb enough to try and cross a 16th level party.

If you really do have to get the money, the fastest way would be to get your hands on four wishes. Wish for 25,000 gp each time (the limit for a safe Wish) and you're done. Binding Efreets is probably the simplest method; two wishes for cash, one wish to call a second efreet.

[Squidmaster]

is he planning to sell you off to somebody else who will presumably be exsanguinating you somewhere outside the jurisdiction of Sigil?

Probaly. He didnt say though. Also, the Forgers name is master thief, so I assume he is a rouge, and he is very rich, so I assume he is high level. Also, his house is anti-magiced.

[AslanCross]

Wait, so you're trying to planeshift directly to the 4th level of the Nine Hells? As far as I can tell that's not supposed to be possible, as Asmodeus keeps the whole thing in such lawful shape that even the most powerful demon lords can't planeshift in past the first level. That's why his defenses on Avernus are so solid despite demons outnumbering devils 20 to 1.

[Fuzzy_Juan]

Ooh...have some fun...PaO to turn a very irate monster (a nice and strong one) into a gem...stick it in a pile of other gems and meet him outside his place...tell him you will be back with the rest in short order and wander off...

laugh when he takes the gem into his house and the monster goes berserk on his ass...oops...no magic...*lol* make sure it is a creature with some decent damage reduction and hopefully immune to sneak attacks with a very good spot check. Something should fit the bill. maybe you could do something that would persist through the anti magic to ensure the creature will kill the guy...then you just come to the 'rescue' and slay the beast...or alert the guards to a disturbance and let them handle the creature while you rescue your buddy.

find someone else to get you papers to hell.

[Jothki]

I would assume that in general, devils would hate people who forge papers more than they would hate giving real papers to people who notify them about the name and location of a forger.

[Squidmaster]

Wait, so you're trying to planeshift directly to the 4th level of the Nine Hells? As far as I can tell that's not supposed to be possible, as Asmodeus keeps the whole thing in such lawful shape that even the most powerful demon lords can't planeshift in past the first level. That's why his defenses on Avernus are so solid despite demons outnumbering devils 20 to 1.

We are going to use a special gate. That is why we needed to get a devil to whip a solar and read the marks to find it.
we also had to go through hell (figuritivly) to find the key that let us use the gate.

[Psionic Dog]

Are you really expected to raise 100k gold?

If yes, look for a local side quest. At the least you should be able to buy more time.

Alternatively, plan a sneaky rescue.

First, get the papers so you can make a fast exit once the you (the paladin) is free.

Then, use mundane means to jail break the paladin. This can be done by disguises and bluffs, stealth, brute mundane force, or some combination of the above. If the Master Theif and his high level minions can be drawn out of the house the people working the jail break will have an easier time.

Also, define "magic resistant prison"

That term suggests loopholes to be exploited.

[MMad]

Hm. Find 10 other people willing to loan you 10k each on short notice and with little collateral. You'll put yourselves even deeper in debt in the long run, but it'll make for an interesting situation to roleplay your way out of.. :) Especially considering the only people you could realistically be able to approach for those kinds of loans would be the local equivalent of mobsters.

[Squidmaster]

Also, define "magic resistant prison"

That term suggests loopholes to be exploited.

It means that when the cleric tried to teleport to me, then use another spell that I forget, it didnt work. Also, as far as I can tell, all of Master Thiefs house is magic resistant.

Also, The house is in a very bad part of town, so it is hard to bring anything of value there without being mugged by gangs/monsters/higher level adventurers with nothing better to do. Part of the reason the cleric(who was there with me) and I didnt just fight MT is because all I had with me was a masterwork greatsword.

[Dervag]

I would assume that in general, devils would hate people who forge papers more than they would hate giving real papers to people who notify them about the name and location of a forger.

But that's only a viable strategy if the devil with the power to issue the papers is confident they won't be misused. Since the PCs are presumably not planning to do something in the interest of the devils, they're unlikely to get the papers (not least because the devil issuing the papers is in a lot of trouble if the PCs wreak havoc in Hell using papers he issued them).