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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack99" data-source="post: 5115553" data-attributes="member: 53135">Session 4After tying up the illusionist, our heroes decided to interrogate him on the spot, instead of contacting any authorities. Despite doing their best, he would say nothing but: "I can not betray the mistress". Even a knife through the hand and under the knee-cap could not make him talk. This convinced Tokiel that he was under some spell exerting mental control beyond normal means.[sblock=Thoughts]This first part took a while. There was a lot of in-game debate over how to proceed with the prisoner. Usually I cut short such arguments after about 5-10 minutes, and tell people to vote. Not because I do not like roleplay or debate, but because after a while, it's just people repeating the same arguments over and over, and no one is changing their mind based on them. Might as well get the story flowing. Anyway, they opted for diplomacy and bluff first, but little did it help, and then they go creative <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=";)" />[/sblock]Using Hand of Fate, Dobukan found that the wizard was below. Searching through a ravaged laboratory turned up a trapdoor and a recently dug tunnel below, leading to the sewers.[sblock=Thoughts]Hand of Fate is an odd duck. [sblock=Hand of Fate]When you perform the ritual, ask up to three questions about possible courses of action. A translucent blue hand appears and indicates with a gesture what the most rewarding course of action is.    If you describe courses of action that refer to directions or specific objects, then the hand points toward the choice that bears the greatest reward. If you ask the hand, “Should we head down the stairs or through the doors?” then the hand responds by pointing either to the stairs or the doors. If you ask the hand, “Which of these three levers should we pull first?” then the hand responds by pointing to a lever.    If you describe only a single course of action, the ritual assumes that inaction is your other option. The hand either beckons you (to indicate that you should proceed) or gestures for you to halt. For example, the question “Should we explore the ruins of Solitronia?” results in the hand either beckoning you or gesturing for you to halt.    The hand can’t assess events in the far future; its judgment extends only to likely events in the next hour. If the hand can’t indicate a preference, the ritual has no effect and expends no components.    There are two drawbacks to using the ritual to aid your decisions. First, fate values rewards over risk, and this ritual provides guidance accordingly. It points you toward a high risk, high reward option before pointing you toward a low risk, low reward alternative. For example, if one tunnel leads to a dragon and great wealth and the other tunnel leads back to town, then the hand points toward the dragon. However, a high risk, low reward alternative is considered less rewarding than a low risk, low reward option.    Second, the hand can choose only the most rewarding course of action relative to the alternatives provided. That doesn’t mean that the indicated choice is necessarily a good idea, only that it’s a better idea than the other options you’ve indicated. In the example above, if all three levers activate traps, then the hand points toward the lever that triggers a trap less lethal than the others.[/sblock]It seemed possible to ask it - If we go this way, will we find the wizard, or similar questions. I allowed it this time around, mostly because I like when players use rituals. It was also nice to see the others chip in for the cost of casting the rituals.[/sblock]After a quick foray into the rather disgusting sewers, the party returned to the tower in order to search it for more clues. In the bedchamber, they found Yuzura, a magical dagger that Tokiel immediately claimed as his.Not satisfied with the clues they had, the heroes shoved the unconscious illusionist into a big bag and made their way to the Temple of Erathis. After a short talk with an acolyte, they gained access to High Priestess Dirina of Erathis.After a short but hard negotiation, Dirina agreed to try to remove the enchantment from the captured illusionist. Alas he didn't survive the removal. Angry that she hadn't mentioned that this was a possibility, the heroes demanded a refund. No luck on that. But she did offer them a discount on a speak with dead ritual. Via their questions, they learned that the illusionist was merely there too look for additional components and scrolls and that Mistress Adele was a woman who had taken over the Ravens and that she was controlling the members by magical coercion.[sblock=Thoughts]Here I turned my meta-game screw-up into something in-game. I had totally forgotten that you could die from the results of the ritual, so when I rolled and looked it up and realized that the guy would die, I could either turn back time and warn the players, or simply roll with it. The high priestess knew from the players' talk that the illusionist was an evil man and that they needed information from him. She decided to not reveal what could happen, so that she might be able to sell them a speak with dead as well. It turned out pretty well, creating some debate and role-playing. [/sblock]After the transactions were done, Dirina blessed the party, but little did that help their mood. They swore never to return to the church of Erathis.[sblock=Thoughts]The blessing was just sorta a on the spot thing I came up with, giving the players +1 to hit on the first attack they would make within 24 hours. Just to add a little something to their visit. [/sblock]Back to the tower and sewers the party went, determined to find the wizard and Mistress Adele. After a couple of hours of searching, some castings of Hand of Fate, and a lot of swimming around in <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=":)" /><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=":)" /><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=":)" /><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 finally found a secret entrance leading up. Following the tunnel, they stumbled over a rogue counting money in front of a door.Retreating a bit back, the party had a talk about what to do. When they finally agreed to bluff their way in, the rogue was gone. Instead they found themselves standing in front of the door, not sure whether they should head in or wait.Suddenly the door opened, and without looking, Tokiel blasted away, killing a young girl of about 11-12 years. [sblock=Thoughts]I love  being a evil DM at times. I said: You hear something at the door, and my player promptly stated. I blast whoever opens the door. It was just supposed to be a random thief, but that changed quickly. Actions and consequences. We will see if adds to his character's personality. [/sblock]Now there was no way back, they felt. Entering the headquarter of the Ravens, the heroes started to snoop around. They found a lot of sleeping rooms, and a guildhall full of thieves and thugs. Not wanting to take them on all at the same time, they explored further. After dealing with a trap on a chest in one of the rooms, the heroes finally found the wizard. Unfortunately, he was pretty dead, hanging in chains up on a wall, with his entrails half hanging out, half laying on a stone on the floor in front of the wizard's body.Dobukan used a quick ritual, Last Sight Vision, to see what the wizard experienced just before dying. After his vision, Dobukan stated: "I do not think she is human". When asked, he told how a raven-haired relatively young girl had been casting a ritual, while eating the entrails of the wizard.Garel-Kai mused that it might be some sort of ancient ritual that allows you to draw out of the power of arcane spellcasters while they die.Determined to deal with this threat, the party decided to set up an ambush to take out some rogues, before confronting the majority of the inhabitants of this secret hold-out.Unfortunately while good, the ambush plan was not air-tight, and after killing 5-6 rogues, one managed to escape. The heroes followed in pursuit, ending up facing around 20 thieves, rogues and thugs in the main eating hall of the guild. Mistress Adele was there as well.The fight was long but furious. Mistress Adele took some good hits and fled, but not before spending some time empowering a couple of thieves, turning them into raving maniacs that felt no pain and were thus very hard to kill. [sblock=Thoughts]The "empowering" results in changing a level 1 minion to a level 5 brute, so a rather big change, making the monster much more dangerous. I initially considered just adding temporarily hit points and some bonus to damage, but I wanted a significant change. Worked pretty well for us.[/sblock]In the end, the heroes managed to kill all the thieves. And no one died, although it was close. Especially Kavaki was under a lot of pressure, and had to drink several healing potions to stay alive. They party also learned that Garel-Kai's focus was not on "healing", but instead on combat. "I only heal people when they go down".[sblock=Thoughts]Before any rogues were killed, the guildhall was a 1650 xp encounter, not counting the succubus. At level 2, that's an +5 encounter, most likely a lethal encounter. So I was fairly happy when they decided not to storm things. The reason why the encounter went relatively well was the invokers complete control over the battlefield, using his spells to dictate where the fight should take place. This forced many opponents to stand at a distance and use their relatively weak ranged attack, instead of being in the middle of things, getting CA and sneak attack bonuses.[/sblock]With the thieves dead, the focus of the heroes soon reverted to Mistress Adele. Although pretty beaten up, they decided to find her immediately. Finding a secret door in a storage room, put them back on her trail and they found themselves once again in the sewers. Paavu rushed off to the right, while Dobukan was sure he had evidence that she had gone left. Unfortunately for Paavu, Dobukan was wrong.Not far from the others, Paavu was surprised by Mistress Adele, who dominated him and sent him back to kill his friends. Luckily, Paavu was no match for his 4 friends, but he did manage to bring Kavaki down and slow down the heroes so that Mistress Adele could escape. [sblock=Thoughts]If you have been reading my previous campaign, you will know that there is nothing I love more than a dominated character killing a party-member. Which was one of the reasons for making this very special succubus one of my BBEG's for this campaign. I even went as far as giving her a stronger ability, called Charm. When charmed, the target is not dazed and can still use encounter powers, magic item powers and utility powers. Paavu's player promptly took advantage of that and used his gauntlets on his first attack, causing an additional 10 damage and flooring the poor warden. Great fun. [/sblock]</blockquote>

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