Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ambrus" data-source="post: 1879671" data-attributes="member: 17691">Wow. I'm still staggered by the amount of keys people have been willing to press in response to this. I appreciate all your opinions and criticisms. There are a few issues people have been kicking around or have been waiting for my response to judge (the single sense motive check, the casting of the geas and the goodwill of the gnomes) so here goes:The Geas:The party's investigation into the gnome's activities (tunneling into the dungeon) led them to seek out a high placed member of the LG church, a cardinal, who they befriended and whose help and advice they wanted. In trying to help the PCs on their quest, the Cardinal has cast numerous spells (restorations, cures, break enchantments, raise deads, communes) for free (except for the material costs). At one point he suggested to the party that it would be in their best interest to form/join a holy order, sanctioned by himself, dedicated to this "holy" quest (recovering the artifact). He told them that it would help shield them from the crown if they were ever apprehended doing something seemingly illegal. Ecclesiastics have their own legal system separate from the state's legal system. As members of a holy order they could simply claim to be on church business and somewhat exempt from state prosecution. Together they penned a charter for their new holy order incorporating the party's gods and philosophies rather than just the cardinal's god (which is quite progressive and somewhat unorthodox for the Cardinal's church). After dark they went to the cathedral to seek out the blessing and advice of an ancient elven anchoress (a religious recluse) who lives entombed in a small cell in the floor of the cathedral. Together they prayed and each read through the party's newly scribed charter (including the Cardinal) and as each of them finished reading the oath "to retrieve and return to the gods the [sought out artifact]" she cast a silenced geas on each of them. She did it because she'd been waiting for a group of heroes to fulfill this quest on her behalf, but she was weary of putting her complete faith in a group of strangers she'd just met. After they were all geased she used an unseen servant to lift out of the floor a king's ransom in donations and tithes she'd collected over the previous century (60 000 gp worth) for the party to use as they saw fit during the quest. A shopping spree ensued shortly thereafter.The anchoress is LG and will most likely remove the geas if it becomes life threatening and she is told about what happened.The goodwill of the gnomes and the sense motive check:Like I mentioned earlier, the gnomes and the party have had a rocky relationship. But members of both sides have tried to put that behind them and cooperate (even though the party killed 2-3 of their members). The party has eventually won over most of the gnomes they've dealt with personally. In the end, they were dealing with two gnomes, one who was already won over and one who was distrustfully. Pretty quickly, the party won even this holdover to their side (even though their long term goals differed). When the sense motive check was made (I usually prefer to roll social rolls myself in secret but my fiance made this roll herself) the gnome was truthfully relaying his immediate intentions to the PC gnome (to go talk to the other gnomes involved, arrange a place for the PCs to hide and to arrange the crating details and then to return to retrieve the party). These two gnomes had been won over by the party and were sincere in their efforts. They had themselves crated up alongside the party. It was the members of the gnome faction who they had entrusted to load them onto the ship and their superiors (whom the party had never personally encountered) who made the final decision to leave the party behind.The gnome faction did consider taking the PC gnome (whom they like and trust) with them but they were worried that the PCs would be able to track them down much easier if he was with them. OOG I was also dubious about splitting up the party. The gnomes knew that the party had formed some kind of secret order, but were unaware that they had been geased (the party hasn't advertised that fact).Hope this clears up some details for you all. :\</blockquote>

Verification