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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iron_Chef" data-source="post: 3081316" data-attributes="member: 4530">Oh, they are southerners betrayed by their allies and handed over to the barbarians "never to be seen again." Only the allies were betrayed by the barbarians and the alliance is off... The allies will come seeking revenge eventually, but that's small comfort to those captured.  They would be probably be killed or worse if "rescued."  It's only because the party are all young women and deemed non-threatening by their enemies that they were not killed outright, plus they had escaped the clutches of the barbarian chief earlier, humilating him in the process, and he needs to bring them back alive to his village to prove his manhood and fitness to lead his tribe.The party consists of a rural, newlywed baroness, her female bodyguard and her lady-in-waiting (actually a psionic "witch" in league with a splinter group of the death god's cult who has made herself invaluable so far to her mistress). They all hate barbarians--especially after their barbarian slave betrayed them.  Because they are women in a fiercely patriarchal society, they are being underestimated, and due to some other peculiarities of the situation, have generously been offered a "place" in the tribe (not as slaves) which they must earn... They are free to choose their own mates (as is his tribe's custom) but can never leave the tribe.    This is a grim & gritty type setting and rules set, where combat is a last resort--most sessions go by with no combat whatsoever, just a whole lotta scheming and NPC interactions.  The only party member with any combat skills beyond a dagger is the bodyguard but even she's not that great, LOL. The witch can knock people out with her mental bolt, but it takes 3 rounds to focus with only a 35% chance to succeed and even then, the target could shrug it off about 45% of the time, and using it causes fatigue, successful nor not. Otherwise, her powers consist of short-range clairvoyance and medium (communicating with spirits). The witch spent a lot of time getting her mistress wed (to gain power) and is upset at this turn of events.  She believes that it was preordained by her god that this happened.  She was sent to the barbarian camp as a test, for some great purpose.  She is convinced her mentor knew her plan (the one that led her to trust her allies) was doomed and did nothing to prevent this, but not out of malice--merely to "help" her gain wisdom from the folly of youth and to some inscrutable end that benefits him.  Her mentor gave her a bone pendant and told her if she was ever captured to bury the bone in the ground (or flesh) at night, pray over it 13 times, and a servant of her god would spring forth to do her bidding. That's about the only thing giving her any hope of escape right now, but she's waiting to use it until they get to the camp and see what's what.  She hopes to kill the troublesome barbarian chief with it, or taint their holy ground, or something extra-special nasty.  If it works, LOL.Also, the chief mentioned the old bailiff of her mistress' manor is a slave at his camp and he knows where a substantial treasure is hidden that he embezzled from his cousin, the king.  Everyone's looking for it...  Perhaps she can somehow corrupt/convert/manipulate some of the tribe and use them to gain revenge on those who betrayed her, leading them back to the manor to kill and pillage--particularly the baron, who is a roadblock to her mistress gaining absolute authority. However, she spent a lot of time converting villagers to the worship of her god and restoring them to productivity/high morale, and numbers some of them as "friends."  She'd never be able to control the activities of the horde, so some would invariably die or be dragged off as slaves or bloodsport victims, but at least their souls would go to her god...  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/paranoid.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":uhoh:" title="Paranoid    :uhoh:" data-shortname=":uhoh:" />   The witch can't return to the baron's manor without her mistress or she will be blamed and killed for her mistress' kidnap. Plus, the baroness is her ticket to power and steady coin (she likes her too, of course).  The bodyguard is her bloodsister and only trustworthy friend, so she won't abandon her if she can help it.  However, she's taken her (possibly undead) mentor's advice to heart and will use and sacrifice her allies to her best advantage, run from every fight, and seek revenge later when she has the advantage (in numbers and at night). The strategy has worked well so far.  The last time she ignored it she was impaled on a spear and nearly died...  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Anyway, one last note--the chief is aware the witch is psychic but not to what extent. He wants his shamans to look her over. She has some knowledge of the tribal gods and is planning to use it, to "convert" to their religion if it will aid her in her quest to destroy them and escape.  So some kind of religious initiations/tests would be cool to have...</blockquote>

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