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Message: <blockquote data-quote="takyris" data-source="post: 803594" data-attributes="member: 5171">Mind-altering enchantment specialist bard-type monsters:Used Modify Memory to get townsfolk to think that the Duke was raping and killing people.  The party had to quell a rebellion that included paladins.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  They were REALLY unhappy about having to kill paladins.- - - - -I had an evil bad guy put out a hit on the party.  The method to be used against them was a famously horrible means of execution known as "Love's Gasp".No one in the party knows what the means of execution is -- only that it's so traumatic a means of death that no soul has ever been raised from it.  The souls fear to return to the world, even with resurrections.I've brought Love's Gasp back as an occasional possibility, hinting a bit as to what it might be, but the party has NEVER EVER wanted to find out.  It's so much more scary as an offstage deal.- - - - -My Lawful Evil mastermind came to the party's house one night, alone and undefended.The party dragged him inside, threw him down, and drew swords.The Mastermind said, "Kill me if you will, but hear me out first..."  He then proceeded to tell the tale of his childhood as a paladin who fell after his church "allowed" his wife to die and then refused to raise her.  That betrayal, as he saw it, caused him to switch allegiance to the Lawful Evil god of merciless order.He finished by saying, "I tell you this because I want you to understand how much I loathe bringing innocents into a fight between two equals.  However, I MUST have you listen to me, so I MUST make this statement.  Around my neck, I wear a simple necklace attuned to my body.  At midnight tonight, the head of the Assassin's Guild will look at a stone attuned to this necklace and see if I am still alive.  If I am still alive, he will do nothing and receive a small amount of money.  If I am dead, he will carry out the assassination, by torture of..."  The Mastermind proceeded to list someone of great importance to each of the PCs.The PCs, fists clenched in absolute pissed-off hatred, told him to talk, then, and the Mastermind declared that he and the party had a mutual enemy, a power from beyond the boundaries of the world, that would kill every living thing in the land unless it were stopped.  It was time, he said, to put aside petty differences and fight this monstrosity as a united team.  The enemy, he said, was called the Ta'bar'pur, and......And then, as soon as he said the name, he began to choke.A moment later he fell down, spasmed, and died.A moment after that his body exploded as a 10d6 fireball, leaving nothing but ashes.What followed was a frantic adventure in Real Time, as the party called in favors and roughed-up contacts galore to find the location of the local Assassin's Guild, ready every ounce of muscle they could, and charged that place, desperate to get there before midnight -- when the instructions to kill their friends would be magically delivered to associate guilds all over the country.  They fought their way through traps and tricks, slaughtered thieves galore, and finally pinned the Head of the Assassin's Guild against the wall with about five different weapons at 11:58 PM.The assassin then declared, under a Detect Lies spell, that he had no idea about any contract of that sort.The evil mastermind had just wanted to get rid of the local Assassin's Guild, but he didn't want to bother to do it himself.  So he set the PCs up.Oh, how the party laughed...Well, maybe "laughed" is the wrong word.-Tacky</blockquote>

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