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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jfdlsjfd" data-source="post: 8177670" data-attributes="member: 42856">Part II: THE HUNT.Three days later, Alfred was under his porch, quietly observing Butler packing the snow in human-sized stacks. It was still July but Alfred had petitionned the Council of Elders -- the eldest and wisest residents who advised the Mayor, essentially consisting of Liches and a few elve who comprised the more transient members. The Council supervised the terrain and structures in Foggy Bottom for a patch of land covered in snow just behind his blossoming garden. He's been burning through Butlers recently and acquiring the snow was complicated in summer... But the governing body had been supportive of his effort to locate and castigate the Butcher of Binky, so his request was processes quickly and forwarded to the Illusionist Guild for quick implementation. The Illusionist Guild was composed of an unknown number of Wizards, all called Kosh and all having the same appearance. Some said the guild was just one guy, but it was heavily discussed. What wasn't discussed was the Guild's ability to surround the craggy valley in which the village was surrounded by a dense mist, which discouraged many traveler to visit and helped keep the village quiet. If you wanted the excitement of the big city, you went to Candlekeep or teleported to one of the large metropolis of Toril.He had been doing absolutely nothing over the past days, just tending to his garden, because apparently the Unknown Assassin was taking a long time between two attacks. That was strange; Sorcerer often bragged about their ability to cast spell non-stop, but this one was like the first-level wizard of the 3rd Edition: a few round and poof, they needed to go to sleep. Alfred was of two mind regarding that period... Of course he was happy to have access to more flexibility in his spell preparation, but he felt envious when he read the stories of the Great Wizards of Old, who could concentrate on several spells at the same time or have Chained Contingencies on them or cast Permanency... All that without having to resort to strange Glyphs of Warding as is done today... Alfred longed for some action, so he was relived to hear the chime of his pet Invisible Stalker."wooooooosh shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh wooooooooooooooooosh shwoooooooooooooooosh", said the Inviisble Stalker."157 miles, 13° 17' 43" W from the full south, you say?" repeated Alfred "That's in the Cloud Peaks... Most probably our quarry planeshifted "in view of Foggy Bottom" and appeared on a rock near the mountaintop. From there, you could actually see Foggy Bottom through a telescope..." Alfred knew that because he had tried planeshifting back to the village when he was younger, and he remembered that the magic spirit appointed by Mystra to oversee planar travel was a former real estate agent, who had a very broad acception of the word "view". "He'll have to walk for two or three weeks before reaching us again... if he lacks the magic to select a precise destination, our best defense is to force him to retreat to his bastion and rest... his entire existence could consist of leaving, walking for a few day, being defeated and retreating... without ever reaching his destination" Alfred realized the Invisible Stalker wouldn't answer him, his spirit only focussed on tracking his quarry.So Alfred decided to send a message to the unknown sorcerer, so he'd keep out of Foggy Bottom.On Monday, Alfred visited the Illusionist Guild and communicated the position of the advancing sorcerer. Kosh scried the general area, not targeting the sorcerer in particular, then teleported there. He then cast Mirage Arcane to take control of the terrain over a range of 1 mile. Knowing he had teleported north of the known location of the Sorcerer, he created a structure on his south, namely a large floating castle, which he turned real for one minute. One minute was ten rounds, enough for a heavy object to fall 5,000 ft, when gravity asserted its control over the newly real, no-longer-floating castle. "Ouch" thought Kosh, it must hurt."  So disappeared the DMM and the Simulacrum and most of the summoned units, crushed by a freaking falling castle (18d10 damage) [hey, it's in the DMG, who knew the example in this table would see actual use in play?]On Tuesday, Kosh inquired about the Sorcerer's location and turned a large area he was in into a bottomless pool of lava. Since it was suspected he'd be on foot this day, it would probably drown in it (18d10 damage, again).On Wednesday, Kosh was barred from participating. Silverleaf, the local level 20 druid, had expressed extreme displeasure over 1 square mile of wildlife being suddenly roasted. So Alfred asked a friendly Transmuter to take his turn having fun. Knowing the location of the Sorcerer and plotting his moves on a map, it was trivial to teleport 1,000s of feet in front of him, along his probable path. Turning, thanks to Animate Object, 10 pebbles into animated pebbles with blindsense, that would attack the Sorcerer at +6 would ruin the Sorcerer's day. Especially fun was the fact that 5th level spells could be cast 8 times day, for a maximum 80 rounds of stoning by 10 pebbles. That's 8,000 potential damage (800d6+3,200), easily beating that lout Illusionist performance.On Thursday, Alfred decided to actually do something about the Sorcerer problem and resolved to create a Simulacra loaded with Teleport (to get on the path of the Sorcerer), Greater Invisibility (to position oneself freely if needed), fireball and Dark Star. Readying an action to cast as soon as the Sorcerer enters range (as calculated by the Invisible Stalker), the spell has a good chance of taking out a surprised sorcerer (no action on the first round meant no Dashing, hence no possibility to be outside the range of the spell which prevents from casting verbal spells. 2 rounds during which to pelt the area with upcast fireballs, the old fashioned way before teleporting back. It wouldn't kill the sorcerer necessarily (a mere 22d6+16d10, save for half), but Alfred could make that happen twice, each day. Life would be tough for the advancing sorcerer. He would be blasted six ways to Sunday.The next week, apparently, the Sorcerer abandonned the idea of attacking Foggy Bottom, instead appearing in densely populated places, probably trying a smear campaign, spewing lies about Wizards being dangerous people. It would be the best time to go for the kil...</blockquote>

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