BishGada (Private thread) Labyrinth of Madness

[TristenC]

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Ok, if he wants to use one of those spells I can give you some clues to help find people faster

[BishGada]

"Let me focus to improve perception and we go 'recruit' few natives to enrich our ranks." he says to Allakhain and Dromacus.

Then Ke'Sha pull out from one of the pockets at his belt a bright yellow gem stone. He opens his palm flat, the gemstone resting in its middle. Then he starts turn around, wave his free hand while moving the other hand up and down slowly, keeping the gemstone balanced. During the movement he whisper in his dark language, but from time to time he raises his voice and clearly call upon powers:"By the power of Hextor, guide my hand and sharpen my senses," he intoned, his voice a low, resonant hum that echoed through the chamber. "By the wisdom of Iuz, reveal the hidden paths and lead me to my quarry." each time he mentioned a name, the gemstone flashes for a moment with bright light which reflects back from Ke'Sha's eyes. The High Priest's voice grew louder, more forceful, as he invoked the names of other powerful beings. "By the swiftness of Erythnul, grant me the speed to reach my destination. By the keen eyes of Vecna, pierce the veils of illusion and reveal the truth."
After the first full turn, the gemstone starts to float and then it circles Ke'Sha head, faster and faster.
With each name he spoke, the energy around him intensified, the air crackles, swirling around him like a maelstrom. Finally, he raised his hands high above his head, the gemstone glows brightly and continuously and his words sounds clear.

"By the power of the Lord of the Undead, I command you to reveal the location of the natives! Show me the way!"

At the end of the spell, the gemstones circles Ke'Sha so fast that it is nearly invisible. The bright light subsides and after using his own senses and also sharing Gur's, his eyes are fixed on a single point in the distance.

A minute later, the gemstone slows down, Ke'Sha presents his palm again and the gemstones comes to rest in it and he returns it to his pocket. A faint smile touched his lips as he turns to lead the others in their path. He now knew where to find the natives, and he would not rest until he had them in his grasp.


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(OOC: Ke'Sha casts Genius. The spell description doesn't mention that the gemstone is consumed, so I allowed myself to retrieve it. And I also allowed myself to assume it worked and Ke'Sha knows the way. )

[TristenC]

[ooc]Genius and Idea are more about him having a mental epiphany than magically pointing in a direction, but it's fine. If the spell doesn't say it is consumed, then it is not consumed[/ooc]

Dozens of possibilities flow through his mind where tribal peoples tend to make their homes, but one that meets the most basic needs stands out; access to fresh water. The group they had met initially when coming to this secret valley was many miles away, far on the other side of the caldera. However, a memory came back to him from their first arrival, along the edge of the steep cliffs he had seen a mist hanging low in one . Doing some quick mental gymnastics he determines the orientation is probably no more than a mile or so from where he stands. He could probably make it there and back by morning, if only barely. The jungle itself would slow their movement significantly, and his own short stature slowing it even further than that unless he was carried by one of his new 'pets'

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Basically, it will take all night to get to the waterfall location and back if he walks because of the jungle. Of course he could ride on or be carried by one of the trolls, which would cut walking time in half. or they could use some magical means to speed their progress

[BishGada]

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(OOC: First, Ke'Sha wouldn't mind to ride one of the trolls. Second, with Allakhain ethereal plane, wouldn't the movement be much faster?)

[TristenC]

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[OOC] Hey, sorry I thought I had replied already.

Movement on the Ethereal border is at normal speed, unless you try to make a 'jump'. To use the Ethereal to 'jump' requires traveling through the edge of the Deep Ethereal which takes 1d10x10 hours and (with a successful check) puts you within 1d10 miles of the target area. So in this case, it has a much better chance of putting them farther away than they are now :\

Following the border Ethereal manually would almost certainly be faster than trying to 'jump' there, since at least they can move through non-living obstacles.

As far as searching goes, when Ethereal one can see across to the plane they are bordering, but not very far. The Planescape 'Guide to the Ethereal Plane' (GtEP) says it's about 12 feet in daylight, 6 feet with a torch on the non-ethereal side. So it would be pretty hard to search a large area like that. But it could be used to get to the waterfall area slightly faster and with less likelihood of detection

[BishGada]

Ke'Sha speaks to Allakhain, "Well, if we go on the border of the ethereal realm, your dress won't get thorn-torn," he grins, "and if you don't mine Bert here carrying you," he gestures toward the tallest undead troll accompanying them, "we will move even faster. Once we are close to the location, we will use diversion and keep as quiet as possible, it will make it easier acquiring the ingredients for my... our if you will..." he fights himself not to roll his eyes, "work." inhaling deeply he continues, "So, if you tell me what spells you memorized we can plan the attack." once their plan is ready he waits for Allakhain spells and then commands the trolls to carry him and Allakhain, towards the waterfalls. With Gur and Binky flying and sharing their senses, the travel is more predictable and going through the ethereal world, they can move in a straight line. When they see and hear the waterfall clearly, they hold for a moment, letting Gur and Binky scout the area to target a village and find the 'ingredients' locations. When all intel is gathered, Ke'Sha nods to Allakhain and Dromacus the varaggoind and they set their plan into motion.

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(OOC:
Yeah, I meant that the 'jungle' effect wouldn't hold them back, and walking a mile, should take about an hour at most I assume...

So... I thought it will be short, but I figured it becomes more complex task, so I have a plan to avoid battle but I have few issues with it, and Allakhain and Dromacus are welcome to pitch in.

OK, so once I read a bit about the Varrangoin, it seems it is a 9th lvl wizard + some other innate magic. This can allow us silence and invisibility 10' radius. (even more than once).
There are at least three ways to completely scan the village: 1. Dromacus can use wizard eye. 2. We can go ethereal even in the village. 3. Binky and Gur can fly invisible through it but I think it is a bit less discrete.
Also, with Gur and Binky ability to detect magic we will check for magical alarms and defenses. We will also try to detect spellcaster according to the items we see.

Then: We mark the targets - 3 strong humans. (can be even more if we want to "feed" the bargain for long time.) I think it doesn't matter if they are women or man, but the age might matter. Also we will target those who sleep.
We get to the targets - using silence and invisibility or through the ethereal plane.
Capture: must be with silence + invisibility, but as far as I understand if we get out of the ethereal plane we can't return to it. Is it possible to "capture" the humans while we are at the ethereal plane? It says we cannot be harmed by weapons or spells, but that means there is an interaction between the planes.
Also, during the capture I can't decide if to activate diversion. Otherwise, even if we sneak out without detection, the next day the village will look for the missing people. If there is a fire elemental rampaging the place, it can be thought that the missing people were incinerated, but the paladin might connect the fire elemental to Ke'Sha...

If we can stay at the ethereal plane, we will capture them while staying there and sneak out. (with or without diversion)
If not we will get out from the ethereal plane as close to the targets as possible.
In both cases we will cast silence, a moment before the capture, tie them, then can invisibility and sneak out.

Diversion can be the fire elemental flaming up everything which makes everyone be occupied with putting down the fire, summoning earth elemental or having the undead trolls go on rampage.
The first is the easiest...

Waiting to conclude the plan with you (Allakhain and Dromacus) and execute it on the next post.
)

[TristenC]

[OOC] I believe Ke'Sha summoned a Type V not a Type VI varrangoin, I'd have to look to see where you specified beyond 'Greater Varrangoin'. The type V can use Dispel Magic and Symbol of pain. it is the Type VI that have the spells.[/OOC]

Allikhain gestures for Ke'Sha to join hands with the trolls, the Varrgoind and Gur, leaving Binky in the material plane (unless you want both quasits to remain in the prime). She speaks her spell quietly in an even tone, her voice fading subtly by degrees as if she were moving farther away. She holds the hand of one of the undead trolls and Ke'Sha can see they each begin to flicker and fade as if an illusion were dimming or turning into mist. Looking down at himself he sees that his own body is doing the same until abruptly the image of himself and the others solidifies and it is the world itself that has gone smoky and grey. To one side a dense fog seems to have settled on the world in eerie darkness. The muffled sounds of the jungle hardly penetrate from the prime. To the other side the grey fades into infinite blackness, shot with streamers and swirls of colored vapor.

Releasing the trolls hand Allikhain nods. We should make haste. The sooner this is done the sooner we can return. The Varrgoin stretches its wings, the pitch of his leathery hide seeming to meld with the monochromatic border and his predatory eyes glow like embers. One of the trolls picks up Ke'Sha at his instruction, though Allikhain declines to be carried since it would be no faster for her. With some guidance from Binky Flying high above the canopy to ensure they are moving in the right direction and floating back down to call back and forth across the border with his master they remain on-track.

After some hours, the dull roar of a waterfall can be heard as they draw near. Binky scouts around for a while and returns with good news, calling back through the border. Yeah, so there's a little community over there. Just a few huts really, probably no more than twenty people or so if I had to guess. They're all asleep for the night except for one guy keeping watch with a fire going in the middle.

[BishGada]

"Good. That should be easy enough." Ke'Sha says. "So, I can make the guard freeze for a very long time, from far away, making sure no accidental interruption happens. Then have the silence of the underworld surround us, get out of the ethereal plane in a hut containing enough persons, make them freeze as well, tie them and take them quickly and silently with us. Any other suggestions?" If there are no other suggestions, Ke'Sha will guide the execution of this plan. Before leaving into the ethereal world again Ke'Sha will write in common on the ground. 'Your friends have been chosen by the gods to serve a higher purpose. Rejoice in their ascendency. Your gods are pleased with you. Accept these trinkets in memory of your good men.' and he leaves few fetishes and one gold coin at the spot where each person slept.
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(OOC: It is possible to cast the spells from the ethereal plane? If not, is it possible to get in and out of the ethereal plane at will within the spell duration? In any case after Binky search we know if there are huts with 3-5 strong persons? Go ethereal for a hut far from the guard preferably on his back and close to the jungle. Get out of ethereal if needed. Cast one hold person on the people in the hut. Then hold person on the guard from his back (range is 120 yards). I keep thinking we can cast silence. Is it true? If so use it. Tie the people we find. Go ethereal again (Ke'Sha also have etherealness that can include 9 creatures, and Binky and Gur can fly invisibly) and return. I was playing with the thought of telling the guard that the people we take were chosen to serve higher purpose and leave trinkets that will help the village so they will really believe the gods has chosen them... but I was not sure I could pool it off without waking other people in the village. So I left the note, and going ethereal, there will be no tracks so I hope it would be believable and I won't have to slaughter a complete community... (without making them zombies... what a waste. )

Regarding the varrangoin type. I went back over all the posts (and also used the search, but wanted to verify in case of typo in varrangoin) and I only found one place mentioning the intended type, which you posted saying you check probability against the intended type and that I got the intended type. But I couldn't find any place I wrote I want type V or type VI, I did mention I want greater and not lesser varrangoin. Few posts ago I checked into the varrangoin to plan the attack on the village and learnt about type VI being spell caster, which suits me well.
What do you suggest? It's like a warrior (V) vs. mage (VI) even that this mage has strong physical attacks . I could do with type V but rather have type VI.
)

[TristenC]

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Once they step out of the Ethereal the spell ends. The wizard version only allows the caster and up to 6 creatures

The priest version allows up to 9, but is from the Sphere of 'Numbers' which Ke'Sha does not have access to.

Ok, if we didn't discuss specific type previously (V vs VI) then that's fine. It can be a type VI, magic user
I will say silence 10 ft and invisibility (basic version) are reasonable for such a creature to have prepared. Maybe not wizard eye.

Binky and or Gur can certainly scout the place out invisibly

I will have to check of spells can be cast across the border ethereal. I think there are some limitations but I will verify.

[BishGada]

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(OOC: Etherealness is also 'Astral' which Ke'Sha has full access I think. https://adnd2e.fandom.com/wiki/Ethereal ... est_Spell)
Wizard eye is innate magic for type VI not from being a wizard.
I think the plan I raised is safe even without casting it from the ethereal. If you (Allakhain or Dromacus) have comments, I'll listen, but I think we can execute it.)

[TristenC]

[Ooc] Ah, right. I wish the PSC and the PO:S&M were more consistent with each other. The PSC only lists 'Numbers'. Even so, Ke'Sha doesn't seem to have the spell prepared for the day.

Ok, I overlooked Wiz eye in the description b/c I was focusing on the spellcaster part not the spelled out other abilities. My bad. I'll write something up tonight [/ooc]

[BishGada]

And I missed that etherealness is not prepared. :/ Well, I hope sneaking out from the village with silence will do the trick. That or the fire elemental.

[TristenC]

[ooc] While on the Border Ethereal, the party could simply walk into camp and scout it out without the use of magic. According to the GtEP, " no light, sound, or other energy naturally passes from the Border to an adjoining plane except under special circumstances." So they would all be invisible and silent; able to pass through the solid walls of a hut as easily as the trees in the jungle they bypassed.

I'm not finding a solid reference on what can and cannot cross the Border ethereal. I will say for than that:
-Mind affecting spells can cross the border,
-Things that Conjure, or Evoke, Alter a physical or chemical component cannot affect the prime.
(i.e. no lightning, fireball, acid arrow, etc. But Charm, Hold Person, etc can)

So of they want to use hold Person from within the Border Ethereal on the guard on the Prime, I will allow it. [/ooc]

[BishGada]

Ke'Sha leads the company into the village, they walk in the ethereal world, carefully moving through the camp and the huts without disturbing the village sleep. They locate the targets, as close to the jungle border as possible, then Ke'Sha casts hold person on the guard and carefully noting if he keeps his normal moving or freezes completely. Then they enter the targeted hut, cast another hold person on the victims. Again, after verifying their breaths stop, Ke'Sha signals Dromacus to casts invisibility on them, Allakhain to let them out of the ethereal border. Now invisible Dromacus casts silence, according to their plan, on Bert ragged cloths. Dead silence falls immediately surround them, the trolls easily carries the stiff bodies of the victims. Ke'Sha carefully writes down a message on the ground, 'Your friends have been chosen by the gods to serve a higher purpose. Rejoice in their ascendency. Your gods are pleased with you. Accept these trinkets in memory of your good men.' and he leaves few fetishes and one gold coin at the spot where each person slept.
The company leaves invisible and surrounded by silence.
After gaining some distance from the village they tie up the victims, making sure that even if they awake from the spell, they are restricted.
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(OOC: Ke'Sha casts two hold person spells. The first with -2 penalty on saving throw.
Dromacus casts invisibility 10' radius and silence 10' radius.
They will fetch 3 people and walk away.
I prefer they will have means to go without leaving trail. So, teleport, air walk, dimension door, fly, dust devil to cover their tracks, lesser etherealness, plant growth after they walk through it, gaesus form, limited wish that can even affect the whole village avoiding tracking, any of these that can cover their trail or any other means that wouldn't hold them back too long and are known to Dromacus and Allakhain, and obviously, if can just lose the track in the jungle, all are welcome to help them avoid being tracked later once the village wakes up.
I also thought of charm person and/or stronger charms such as suggestion on the guard to convince the village it was really the gods choosing these person to ascend, but it might create more complexities...

If their retreat goes well, before they will reach the camp they will still have some work to do to turn them into undead.
And later two more summoning, one slaying and another monster raising...
)

[TristenC]

[What language is he writing the note in?
Allikhain has teleport and dimension door, but those spells can only take the caster. The real issue is getting the trolls out without tracks]