Dunamin
First Post
The Drawmij’s Instant Summons Con
This is not intended as a serious reliable source of income for PCs. It might be used for NPCs, though, as an adventure where the PCs are tricked and need to track down the con man. However, I would advise against crippling their economy with the con for obvious reasons - or perhaps have a relative of one of the PCs be the unfortunate victim.
The Con
The basic premise is pretty simple, really. Use the Drawmij’s Instant Summons ritual to attune yourself to a very valuable possession. Sell it off with as much anonymity on your part as can be accomplished. Retrieve the item through the ritual’s power from far away. Repeat with a new client.
Covering your tracks
Work through multiple reliable middle-men who only know their immediate contacts. If a powerful conned client manages to close investigative efforts in on one of these, assassinate your middle-men as needed.
Choose timing, clientele, and markets carefully! Avoid vengeful gangsters who are likely to have the resources to track you down. Avoid overusing the con in the same region, lest you attract attention from capable authorities.
Get used to living in a home covered by the Forbiddance ritual. Make it magically mobile, if possible. Live a life of discretion, patience, and paranoia. Send assassins or saboteurs against investigative teams before they get close.
Don’t wait too long before retrieving the item. It might be tempting to hold off for days or weeks to give the client a sense of security, but in doing so you give him time to have rituals of his own cast on the new prize. Rituals that could break your DIS, rituals that could track the item, or rituals that otherwise could trap or ward it against completing your con.
Countermeasures
The last note could be an option you want to give the PCs to track the con man, though, if alternative means prove fruitless. Also, don’t underestimate the plot potential and hilarity of having multiple DISs in place:
PC Paladin: “At last, we have our hands on the holy avenger of the Phoenix Knight! … Hey, it vanished!”
Con Man (in his hideout, across the globe): “… And right back in my hands. Another fool, another bag of platinum coins... Whoa, where did it go?!”
PC Wizard: “… I got it! Our suspicions were right! … Oh no, don’t tell me…”
Con Man’s mage lackey: “… Good thing you have me as a fail-safe, master! Here is the sword back again. Wait, you’ve got to be kidding me…”
PC Warlock: “… Bet they didn’t see that one coming.”
One particular concern is that the ritual can be identified by someone reasonably capable in the Arcane skill. The con man should be particularly careful to investigate potential clients beforehand and avoid those with considerable skill in the arcane art. You might implement that the magic of the ritual is notably harder to detect within the much stronger aura of a powerful magic item, similar to how Detect Magic worked in 3rd Ed, effectively increasing the DC well beyond normal values.
You might also consider giving the con man a beefed up version of the ritual or supplementary powers or magic items that would increase the DC of such an Arcane check to make it difficult (but not impossible) for the PCs to detect the ruse.
This is not intended as a serious reliable source of income for PCs. It might be used for NPCs, though, as an adventure where the PCs are tricked and need to track down the con man. However, I would advise against crippling their economy with the con for obvious reasons - or perhaps have a relative of one of the PCs be the unfortunate victim.
The Con
The basic premise is pretty simple, really. Use the Drawmij’s Instant Summons ritual to attune yourself to a very valuable possession. Sell it off with as much anonymity on your part as can be accomplished. Retrieve the item through the ritual’s power from far away. Repeat with a new client.
Covering your tracks
Work through multiple reliable middle-men who only know their immediate contacts. If a powerful conned client manages to close investigative efforts in on one of these, assassinate your middle-men as needed.
Choose timing, clientele, and markets carefully! Avoid vengeful gangsters who are likely to have the resources to track you down. Avoid overusing the con in the same region, lest you attract attention from capable authorities.
Get used to living in a home covered by the Forbiddance ritual. Make it magically mobile, if possible. Live a life of discretion, patience, and paranoia. Send assassins or saboteurs against investigative teams before they get close.
Don’t wait too long before retrieving the item. It might be tempting to hold off for days or weeks to give the client a sense of security, but in doing so you give him time to have rituals of his own cast on the new prize. Rituals that could break your DIS, rituals that could track the item, or rituals that otherwise could trap or ward it against completing your con.
Countermeasures
The last note could be an option you want to give the PCs to track the con man, though, if alternative means prove fruitless. Also, don’t underestimate the plot potential and hilarity of having multiple DISs in place:
PC Paladin: “At last, we have our hands on the holy avenger of the Phoenix Knight! … Hey, it vanished!”
Con Man (in his hideout, across the globe): “… And right back in my hands. Another fool, another bag of platinum coins... Whoa, where did it go?!”
PC Wizard: “… I got it! Our suspicions were right! … Oh no, don’t tell me…”
Con Man’s mage lackey: “… Good thing you have me as a fail-safe, master! Here is the sword back again. Wait, you’ve got to be kidding me…”
PC Warlock: “… Bet they didn’t see that one coming.”
One particular concern is that the ritual can be identified by someone reasonably capable in the Arcane skill. The con man should be particularly careful to investigate potential clients beforehand and avoid those with considerable skill in the arcane art. You might implement that the magic of the ritual is notably harder to detect within the much stronger aura of a powerful magic item, similar to how Detect Magic worked in 3rd Ed, effectively increasing the DC well beyond normal values.
You might also consider giving the con man a beefed up version of the ritual or supplementary powers or magic items that would increase the DC of such an Arcane check to make it difficult (but not impossible) for the PCs to detect the ruse.
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