Sijhen's escape plan ... how could it work?

[efreund]

I'm not sure how Sijhen's escape at the climax of Adventure 3 is supposed to work.

In the lead up to the gala, Hans will give the players the letter from Xambria that clearly spells out "I am possessed." This is the PCs' cue to load up on scrolls of Protection from Evil and make other back up plans.

From the moment Xambria breaks into the gala, the PCs are going to be straining to slap her with a proevil ASAP. If they never "see the ghost come out", they'll be sure to keep her under proevil for any interactions they have with her, just to be safe. What was the original save DC for Sijhen to possess her? Since she'll be getting a reroll on it with every casting. (I am using Pathfinder rules.) Knowing my PCs, they'll blow 750gp on a wand and cast it 50 times over just to make sure it sticks.

Once Xambria is thrown into the cell beneath RHC, she'll presumably be kept in the magecuffs. I can't see the PCs being willing to take them off given the circumstances. How does Sijhen get around them? I understand that the planar energy ritual was on a timer and kicked off hours ago, but how does Sijhen do the other things he does during the climax? For example, climb around (his hands are literally tied), threaten Saxby (his hands are tied and he can't ego whip her), and kick off the second stage of the ritual (where he holds the golden starmap and recalibrates the seal of Apet to point to Gidim).

Finally, while on the topic of the Adventure 3 climax: who sent the Ob kill squad? Not sure who exactly Sijhen contacted to get them to show up. What cell would they nominally be associated with? What do they know if interrogated? (Yes, I know they blow up if they take too much damage, but I have an Enchantment focused Sorcerer in my group.)

Also, other knickknack from that scene: the golden seal of Apet is described as weighing 2 tons, and there's tons of references to moving it (and that being a bad idea), but how difficult is this supposed to be? I cross referenced the seals in the two Ziggurats, but there's no Strength DCs there either. (again, Pathfinder) I don't need an exact DC, I'll settle for knowing if the design intent was for it to be "easy" or "hard."

Final knickknack: is it your intent that, even after a few lanterns have been destroyed, you can still use the trains to do a "safe closure" of the portal?

 

[RangerWickett]

1. I never considered protection from evil. Honestly it never crossed my mind when discussing the adventure with the author.

2. At best, protection from evil will keep Sijhen from controlling her for a few minutes, and that's if you decide the save DC is something she can make. You can always just handwave it. In any case, the spell doesn't expel Sijhen, and the party can't possibly keep up a magic circle forever.

3. Sijhen can get out of the cuffs because when the waves of incorporeality hits, it just emerges from Xambria's body, removes the cuffs, re-enters her body, then goes about its merry way while the party is stunned.

4. Sijhen uses the memories it took from Caius, who knows Lorcan Kell is on the Ob payroll. So it just alerts the crime boss that Saxby is a threat that must be taken out immediately, and he rounds up the Ob people he knows and some of his own killers to do the job.

5. A two-ton golden seal is very hard to move without magic. Sijhen has telekinesis, but not really that much. Honestly, it's a small plot hole.

6. Yes, any situation that encourages the players to ram a train at something to save the day is good by me.

 

[efreund]

Re #4:
The kill team is sent to kill Saxby? I thought they were after the PCs.
Also, Kell has the ability to call up the dark stalkers and give them orders? I thought the lines of authority flowed from Quital to Kell, not vice-versa.

Aside on #2:
Nat 20 always succeeds on saving throws, and the wand-trick essentially emulates taking 20. Oh well. I'll figure something out.

 

[mdusty]

I've run through Book three with two different groups and not a single player even thought to use protection from evil. Ever. And they very much so understood that she was possessed by something.

 

[RangerWickett]

Well, Saxby because she's a snitch, and the PCs because they're the ones she's allegedly snitching to. And Kell has some leeway for time-sensitive operations, which in the scope of this campaign basically means just this one time, after which he's reprimanded for being tricked.

 

[hirou]

I've run through Book three with two different groups and not a single player even thought to use protection from evil. Ever. And they very much so understood that she was possessed by something.

In my game the party prepared 3 magic circles "from aberrants" in advance in RHC headquarters (in basement, on ground floor and on second floor), and inserted Xambria via Witch Cauldron from adventure 2 (allows to complete one ritual instantly if pre-cast). Had they made another circle on the roof, Sidjen would be trapped, since mutated Xambria body is definitely not natural by then.

 

[RangerWickett]

Oh, and yeah, if the party really does figure out all the angles, sometimes they just get to win. Sijhen might be trapped, and the monsters come pouring in when Apet energy starts fritzing the place up, but all Sijhen can do is offer to help if they let it go. They'll probably decline, go kill a bunch of monsters, and then after a few minutes the energy will just stop because Sijhen wasn't able to reaim the portal. I mean, there's still the issue of what do you do with a possessed archaeologist, but a call for a favor could get someone to 'cast out the fiend,' and it would only be a matter of days before Sijhen was captured and carted off to some Risuri facility to be cut open and experimented on.