Help! How can our PCs find something we lost?

[Piratecat]

Or, more accurately, something that was stolen from us. We're a 17th level party, and in one of our we-killed-the-bad-guys-and-moved-in strongholds there was a unique cauldron linked to the plane of shadow. Unfortunately, some unknown enemies just broke in and stole it from us -- which is tremendously bad if it gets used.

So what tactics can we use to find the thing? We've never touched it, and I know that limits our options. We have a 17th lvl single-classed cleric and a 16th lvl single-classed wizard within the party.

 

[Staffan]

The best spell for the purpose I can find in the SRD is vision, but that's subject to a lot of DM adjudication. I suppose you could also use miracle, but you might not want to blow 5,000 XP on that.

If you know of an outsider/elemental with specific ties to the cauldron, you could try using one of the planar binding spells and extract the information from it.

 

[Vrecknidj]

Get the wizard enough XP to go up a level (plus some) and cast wish?

Dave

 

[shilsen]

Miracle?

 

[starwed]

I see Discern Location, my initial thought, is no use if you haven't touched it. Did you manage to capture any lower level clerics/wizards who worked for the bad guy? Dominating someone who has touched the cauldron and can cast Discern Location off a scroll might work.

Get the Cleric to cast commune, maybe? The XP cost is really low by this level, and you get a bunch of yes or no questions. That might be enough to narrow it down somewhat.

If you can't directly find it, you should first do some research on the artifacts background. It might help reveal who would want it, or track down someone who had touched it. Heck, even a Gather Information check might help you out.

Oh, and if you're really really stuck, you could use contact other plane to speak to someone on the Plane of Shadow or beyond. It's a little risky, though.

 

[Piratecat]

So, assuming you needed to phrase it like a wish, how would you phrase "miracle" to help?

I wanted to use discern location, too, but we've definitely never touched it. We have no idea who stole it, other than the rough affiliation of the cult. No one living that we know of has touched the thing (we were pretty thorough when we killed off the eeevil previous owners!)

Commune might work, if I could figure out how to phrase the questions. The cult that stole it is known to use divination blockers, but there's no guarantee that they have one now.

 

[shilsen]

So, assuming you needed to phrase it like a wish, how would you phrase "miracle" to help?

Since you're directly requesting aid from your deity with a Miracle, I wouldn't mess around with phrasing but would just go with a straightforward question. Either "Where is the Cauldron of ... currently located?" or "Who is currently in possession of the Cauldron of ...?" I seriously doubt you'll get an answer which'll completely resolve the issue, but it should get you a basis to start using weaker spells for info. You could try for instant teleportation to the location of the Cauldron, but I doubt that would work.

Also, when you're at Miracle level, so much is dependent on the DM that I'd talk to the DM (is this Sagiro's game, BTW?) about his conception of what Miracle can or can't do. That should be IC info for any cleric capable of casting it.

I wanted to use discern location, too, but we've definitely never touched it. We have no idea who stole it, other than the rough affiliation of the cult. No one living that we know of has touched the thing (we were pretty thorough when we killed off the eeevil previous owners!)

So you can identify the cult? In that case, it might be better to just go with a Commune or Contact Other Plane and ask questions about them and narrow things down.

Commune might work, if I could figure out how to phrase the questions. The cult that stole it is known to use divination blockers, but there's no guarantee that they have one now.

Start off with "Was Cult X involved with the theft of our Cauldron in any way?" to be sure it was the cult. And then do the twenty questions thing, and try to narrow down towards a general area or individual to investigate.

 

[Legildur]

Take the Leadership feat and get a high level Bard cohort and have he/she use their Legend Lore ability

I'm assuming that the thieves are bad people here, and not simply trying to prevent inappropriate use of the cauldron.

 

[Piratecat]

It is indeed in Sagiro's game - and he knows about, and is okay with, this thread. Part of the problem is that this is the cauldron that makes null shadows. We HATE null shadows.

I suspect that "who is currently in possession of the stolen cauldron, and where is it currently located" would work as a miracle. I'm tempted to try "show us a vision of the immediate area and surroundings of where the cauldron is currently located, and teleport us there 30 seconds later unless I say 'do not bring us'" might work as well -- but be more dangerous.

Commune questions (feel free to refine!):

- did agents of the Black Circle steal this cauldron?
- Is the cauldron currently in the possession of the Black Circle?
- Is it currently being kept in an area that is safe for us to teleport into?
- If we travel to the cauldron in an attempt to regain it, will we be attacked by null shadows?
- Is the cauldron in a city or town that we have been to before?

Hmm... it's a start. Ideas?

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

So what tactics can we use to find the thing? We've never touched it, and I know that limits our options. We have a 17th lvl single-classed cleric and a 16th lvl single-classed wizard within the party.

Are psionics available? Maybe hire one?

Psychometry might be useful; that's a 6th-level power (from Complete Psionic) that shows what happened in an area. Unfortunately, if people've been in and out of the area since the incident, it probably won't help; it can only go back one incident/7 manifester levels, sadly.

Brad