Good party needs to "extract" information

[just__al]

The party was originally found by an envoy from the elven kingdom. His companions died on the journey to find us. He lead us into a trap as he was a disguised (via a hat of disguise) Teifling and not an elf. When the battle started he shadow jumped (he's a shadow dancer) and got away before the battle ended.

Well, we scried him and jumped in and subdued him. Now we need get some info from him. What would you do? We don't want to kill him and torture is out. He shrugged off all the charm/dominate etc. spells thrown at him during the battle so I'm looking for ideas... He is currently out numbered 8 to one (nine if you count the lepord animal companion)

 

[MerakSpielman]

Detect thoughts might work. It's hard to deliberately not think of the answers to questions, even if you don't say them out loud.

You could try to Bluff him into thinking you're willing to use torture, or that you'll just kill him if he's not worth anything to you.

You could offer him lots of money. That often does the trick.

 

[Altalazar]

There's always the "Garrak / Sisko" gambit - where the party unwittingly do something nasty to get the information by accepting "help" from someone who knows the party's limitations on methodology and is more than happy to keep them in the dark about methods (until after the fact, that is...)

 

[diaglo]

offer him a quick death if you cooperates.

or tell him you are going to turn him over to the authorities if he doesn't.

orcs make great executioners for elves.

 

[Pyske]

Well, there's always the old classics. Appeal to his conscience. Make him feel betrayed by his employer, so that he has incentive to return the favor. Intimidate him with the (lawful) consequences of his actions (the authorities are likely to have to take pretty extreme measures to confine a shadow dancer). Offer him a "break" if he cooperates. Trick him into ranting at you, revealing all the details of the villains plans. ("It is already too late, you fools! Even now, my master is...") Offer him more than his current employer does. Interrogate his companions, or heck, even his equipment. Commune. Convert him (time permitting). Make sure that anything that endangers your party endangers him.

And if all that fails, you could always beg.

. . . . . . . -- Eric

 

[smetzger]

He shrugged off all the charm/dominate etc. spells thrown at him during the battle so I'm looking for ideas...

My players recently ran into this problem. They were able to overcome this with Curse (-6 Wisdom) and maybe one other spell to reduce the captured persons Will save. Then they used Detect Thoughts. It took two days and about 7 attempts until the guy failed his Will save.

 

[just__al]

Thanks guys, keep em coming...

 

[Lord Pendragon]

What level spellcasters are available? Best bet is probably to spend a day to prepare a slew of spells designed to lower saves and magically secure cooperation.

To lower that Will Save:
Bestow Curse (Clr3, Sor/Wiz4): -4 to saves.
Doom (Clr1): -2 to saves.
Enervation (Sor/Wiz4): each negative level adds a -1 to saves. Need to be careful with this one. To much enervation can kill. But the negative levels stack and there's no save, meaning you can really hurt the target's Will Save for other effects.
Mind Fog (Sor/Wiz5): a whopping -10 to Will saves.

I'd probably go with some Enervation, followed by Bestow Curse and Doom, then finish it off with Mind Fog. The softeners mean that the target will hopefully fail the save vs. Mind Fog, and at that point have a -10+ Will Save.

After the save is down, the usual Charm and Dominate Spells are good. Detect Thoughts. Suggestion ("Your master probably won't be happy that you failed. He'll probably kill you. It might be a good idea to help us, so we can take care of your master before he takes care of you!")

 

[Dirigible]

Doesn't it strike you, Lord Pendragon, that bombarding the poor schmuck with all these maledictions is probably an evil act on its own?

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Doesn't it strike you, Lord Pendragon, that bombarding the poor schmuck with all these maledictions is probably an evil act on its own?

Poor schmuck? This is a villain who wanted the party dead. None of the spells I listed are [Evil], none of them cause pain.

To be honest, I can't imagine what sort of logic would lead to it being considered evil. It's painless, causes no lasting harm (save the Bestow Curse, which can be removed afterward,) and gets the party the information they need to continue doing good and saving lives.

Really, Dirigible, it doesn't strike me that it's an evil act at all. Indeed, I cannot imagine what logic would lead to such a conclusion.