DMDM's Way of the Wicked: The Devil My Only Master (Inactive)

Game Master Douglas Muir 406

Since we're skipping from the middle of the second module to near the end of the fifth, there's a lot of backstory to be filled in. Some of this is chrome, but some could affect things going forward. So I'm going to come up with a mechanic for this.

Each player has three (3) Plot Points. You can spend Plot Points to make things turn out to your advantage. For instance, suppose there is an NPC who is hostile, and might survive to cause all kinds of trouble for you. If nobody spends a PP, that's what happens: he returns to make your life difficult. If someone spends a PP on him, though, he's taken off the board -- either killed off earlier in the story, or simply not a factor. And if two PPs get spent on him, he becomes your ally instead. Or if it's an NPC that you are certain to confront, one or more PPs may give you a weapon to destroy them, or information about a critical weakness. If an ally, perhaps they become unshakeably loyal to you, or are in a position where they can give you critically needed help. And so forth.

Clear enough? Okay, here are some of the people and things you can spend PPs on. This list is not exhaustive; you could in theory spend a PP on anyone or anything you can think of. But this should get you started.

Ulp wants Zargo gone. Definitely spending a point there (Now I am the greatest alchemist the world has ever seen!)

ideas.

Spymaster (maybe spend a second one on him to make him ours, all the knowledge could be huge?)
Doctor Moon (two points to have him our ally could be great.)
Tiadora (get rid of her)

Sir Marcel is probably terrifying might want to remove him

note Xen would have made Nimpy our friend but since Xen is dead...

The spending of Plot Points will shape your backstory, so give it some thought. Once everyone has put them down, I'll start telling you what's happened.

At the beginning of play, you are at open war with Cardinal Thorn; either you are a bunch of treacherous rebels, or his paranoia has caused him to foolishly see you as a threat. Regardless, it's now you or him. When play opens you will be attempting to recover his phylactery, which he has tucked into the treasure hoard of a particularly huge and terrifying linnorm.

I think Edmin will kill Sir Marcel, he would be to big of a threat to him at this point. Probably spend 2 points on either relations with Hell or the contract devil.

Could you explain a little more about relations with Hell?

Could you explain a little more about relations with Hell?

Well, if you don't spend any Plot Points, they default to X. What is X? It's not as good as if you do spend Plot Points.

-- Okay, here's a hint. You're rebelling against Thorn, right? How does Hell normally view that sort of thing? Of course, as a general rule victory pays for all; if you *successfully* overthrow and murder your boss, well and good. Have you successfully done that yet? Or are you currently in violation of that contract you signed in, you know, your own blood?

OK then.

Edmin being who be is will spend 1 point to kill Sir Marcel. He will also spend 2 point on relations with Hell. There is only room for one golden boy of hell. Present company excluded of course.

Unless some one has a better idea.

I think that is a great idea Edmin.

Ulp Definitely kills Zargo. I hope it was epic.

I will hold my other points and see what folks are doing and see if we don't bring someone to our side.

Ulp Definitely kills Zargo. I hope it was epic.

You ambushed him while he was in his "Smoove" persona. Smoove was a player but not so great at combat.

I feel like I should make something out of his remains. a Zargo skin rug maybe?

Obviously the Judge will be influencing the judiciary. And generally perverting the minds of the population. Amazing what one can do with a few Suggestion spells and Dominate Person.

Other than perverting the judiciary, he will probably be working against the king and Mitra to undermine their support. Pretty much any bad news in the community, the Judge will be spreading rumors that it was caused by the slack rulers and that the king is just getting fat on the hard work of the populous, and really is not a worshipper of Mitra or to be trusted.

As far as specific enemies, the Judge is not a big fan of Tiadora. As I recall, she sought to do some corrections on him. The Judge never forgets a slight like that. (Unless I screwed up and he did not receive a correction, although I am pretty sure he did.) Of course, if she could have been turned into a lower level vampire, that would be even more fun.

I feel like I should make something out of his remains. a Zargo skin rug maybe?

In this particular case, you triggered the change to Smoove by exposing him to a powerful angel that the party had captured and was interrogating... a mighty celestial spirit of goodness and beauty and cleansing fire that just happened to manifest as female. After allowing a few minutes for Smoove to be Smoove, you snuck up behind him and quietly erased one of the glyphs binding the angel in its circle. Effective, but afterwards there wasn't really enough left to make a rug.

Jax will definitely spend two points on Irin. He's too enamored with her not to do what he can to (1) free her from the Cardinal's influence and (2) keep her around. His last point he'd either want to team up with someone to recruit the Aranea as he was mildly enthralled with the creepy spider girl.

Failing that, murder the hell out of Nimpy. He'd do it personally, quietly to prove a point. Nimpy finally relaxes somewhere only to have a teleported and invisible Jax taunt him and slowly carve him to pieces.

Ulp: 1 to Zargo, two still open
Edmin: 1 to Marcel, 2 to relations with Hell
Judge: 1 to corrupting the judiciary, 1 to suborning the population, one still open (maybe Tiadora?)
Jax: Two to Irin, last one either to recruit the Aranea or on Nimpy

That leaves Zimu (e-mailed Kate this morning) and Dren.

BTW, Judge, it really sounds like you should be taking Leadership and using it to run a secret cult. That's an option given in the AP; I can spell out the details for you.

Hmm what about using leadership to start a knew knighthood of asmodius?

Hmm what about using leadership to start a knew knighthood of asmodius?

Absolutely yes.

Ulp will throw a point to recruit Nimpy

Leaning towards eliminating the spymaster, another point to assist and make him ours might be good

So what could be the benefits to a plethora of knights of asmodius?

So what could be the benefits to a plethora of knights of asmodius?

At 15th level with a +2 Cha modifier and +0 otherwise, you'd have 36 knights under the RAW. Most would be low level, so they'd have limited use in combat. But they could have all sorts of other uses, from terrorizing the peasantry to spreading the word of Asmodeus. And there's never really a downside to having your own small private army.

Hmmm -- Leadership. I should have at least a 33 Cha (20+3(leveling)+4(vampire)+6(headband) for a +11 modifier. So, with a leadership score of 26 or higher, I should be able to have a nice subversive organization working for my own ends.

hp:9d10 ⇒ (5, 10, 2, 10, 6, 5, 4, 10, 8) = 60

Are we rolling hp?

HP: 2d10 + 7d8 ⇒ (10, 5) + (5, 7, 8, 4, 5, 6, 3) = 53

Ulp: 1 to Zargo, 1 to Nimpy, maybe one to Lord Hooke the spymaster?
Edmin: 1 to Marcel, 2 to relations with Hell
Judge: 1 to corrupting the judiciary, 1 to suborning the population, one still open (maybe Tiadora?)
Jax: Two to Irin, last one either to recruit the Aranea or on Nimpy

Zimu and Dren still open -- haven't heard from Kate. Well, the rest of you try to finalize these, so then I can start spinning backstory. If Kate joins us in the next day or two, great. If not, she'll waive her Plot Points, and we'll just jump in.

Drens plot points:

Tiadora: Dren tries to convince her to join our cause, or at least sit on the sidelines while we finish the Cardinal.

Elise: Dren tries to form a conneciton with Elise. He and her are similar in that they are aberations at heart. She also may prove a valuable ally or spy with one of the other groups.

Doug, PM'd you with some questions about my third plot point.

Your sword Brink is intelligent and has its own agenda. So far this has not led to serious conflict, but it's worth keeping in mind.
A word about Jax's black blade.

Its alignment is NE and (you have discovered) when it kills a victim, it eats a tiny bit of their soul. It gets bits and pieces of memory and personality. That's why, after it killed the Captain, it was babbling in Norspik for a while. It's also why it took a while to start talking: it had to assemble pieces of a mind, bit by bit.

Most of the time this is pure chrome, but it does have occasional in-game effects. First, Brink greatly prefers to kill things that are "interesting". Intelligent opponents are preferred to animals, higher level to low, and so forth. Killing a bunch of low level, unintelligent fles is like forcing it to eat celery: it gets cranky.

Second, when Brink kills something, it occasionally picks up memories that contain useful information. Think of this as getting an occasional partial Speak With Dead.

Third, when Brink kills a particularly powerful creature, or one with a particularly strong personality, it may take on the flavor of that creature for a while. So far, this has only had a major effect once: when Jax struck the death blow against a powerful angel a while back. Brink emitted a strange loud BONG, and then simply stopped working for half a day -- would not speak, lost its pool of points, was completely nonresponsive. It did eventually seem to recover, but it was very subdued for a while afterwards.

HP: 60 +(3x9)+=87 (base)

Items: 22400
+4 headband of ch = 16000 (8k)
+5 Plate Dastard, Medium Fortification = 81,000 new was +1 Dastard = 4000
+6 Belt Physical might (STR & CON) 90,000 (45k)
+4 Amulet of Natural Armor 32,000 gp (+4), (16k)
+5 Axe Keen = 72,000 (was +1=2k)

= 291000total full cost (224k for items madr by Jax and what was posesed already)

Lol: HP: 41(previous)+53(rolled above)+15(toughness)+165(charisma) = 264

That sounds awesome, DM. Jax will, if they end up getting more mythic tiers, definitely be making Brink a legendary weapon, if possible.

As for Leadership..

Existing Feats

-Power Attack:

-Intimidating Prowess:

-Weapon Focus: Great Axe

-Boon Companion: (Depending on what happens to Ragnar I might retrain to Toughness or Critical Focus)

Not sure about these feats

-Leadership - 7

-Cornugon smash 9

-Furious Focus 11

-Toughness 13

-Improved bull rush 15

i need to pick my daily extracts as well as which ones i have in my preserving flask as well as what I would have set up as my delayed consumption. I will grab a couple more spells as well.

I made a post for some RP before we enter.

Edmin, I can learn Darkvision if you want to have some potions of that,

Also you all might want some potions of Barkskin, I can learn that as well.

A bit of background on what you've been up to.

Levels 6-10: After capturing the Horn of Abaddon, you spent 222 days holding it against all comers in order to complete the dark ritual that would summon the daemon lord Vetra-Kali. Astonishingly, you succeeded, despite the best efforts of adventurers seeking to loot the Dark Tower, the forces of good trying to disrupt your ritual, treachery from within, an attack by the demonic minions of the Two Queens, and a final, near-overwhelming assault by Sir Richard Havelyn, aka That F&++ing Paladin, and his allies, including Irin's adopted daughter and their friend, a silver dragon.

While exploring the Horn, you discovered one survivor of the Seventh Knot: Sister Serafina, who escaped the slaughter of her group and had been hiding in a cell deep underground. It turned out that Sister Serafina was the midwife who saved Jax's life at birth, and who had (she said) been watching out for him ever since. Some of the party wanted to kill her on the spot, citing Irin's prophecy that the Seventh Knot would be nothing but trouble, but ultimately it was decided to allow her to live and join the party. This helped you survive several of the attacks -- Sister Serafina is a powerful spellcaster, very intelligent, and very convincing -- but ultimately it turned out to be a mistake.

Elise Zadaria and the Eighth Knot provided backup in town, notifying you of potential threats and serving as a first line of defense. In the short run, this worked very well. In the long run... less well.

During the final battle, Irin and Zargo both joined you. Irin fought a duel, one on one, with her adopted daughter Janna; at the end of it, Irin was severely injured, but Janna was dead. Irin blames That F~#$ing Paladin for turning her daughter against her.

Ultimately you prevailed: you brought the monster Vetra-Kali to this plane, and wrested three boons from him. The first was of course for the Tears of Achlys, the abominable plague that has killed a quarter of the population of Talingarde over the last two years. The third was -- wisely -- that Vetra-Kali once again banish himself from this plane. The daemon did not take this well, and you had to move quickly to escape the Dark Tower before it collapsed in a massive catastrophe of shrieking stone and evil magic.

(And that, by the way, is how you earned those Mythic Ranks.)

Ok I have been thinking.

I will take Leadership and build a new order of Knights of Asmodeus. The will be called The Knights of Neraka.

I am still concerned about Ragnar. If i have to I will take 3 more levels in Cavalier in order to do as Judge brought up and gain Horse Master and if allowed by DM keep Ragnar at my level for an animal companion.

What do you think DM?

Don't post in the gameplay thread just yet -- let's get the plot points finalized and character designs done first.

Also: any consumables you had have been long since consumed. That includes Jax's Dream Journal of the Pale Seer (saved your life in the final combat at the Horn) and Bref's head.

oops sorry dm

Ok I have been thinking.

I will take Leadership and build a new order of Knights of Asmodeus. The will be called The Knights of Neraka.

I am still concerned about Ragnar. If i have to I will take 3 more levels in Cavalier in order to do as Judge brought up and gain Horse Master and if allowed by DM keep Ragnar at my level for an animal companion.

What do you think DM?

I thought we were advancing Ragnar as your Fiendish Companion?

Hey DM, working on my story for my legendary armor. What was the angels name that killed off Zargo?

As opposed to the weapon for the antipaladin? How do you wish me to do it? I must have missed a post.

Hey DM, working on my story for my legendary armor. What was the angels name that killed off Zargo?

Lea the Huntress, Guardian of the Sacred Gardens. She was a Leonal Agathion with a couple of ranger levels and the ability to take the shape of either a lion or a human in addition to its normal "winged human with a lion's head" form. You managed to subdue and capture her. Back in the Dark Tower, you'd discovered that hanging around any reasonably attractive female for any length of time would cause Zargo to change into Smoove. So you arranged for him to guard her...

When you released her, the upshot was that Zargo, in his not-so-combatant Smoove mode, was facing an incredibly pissed off CR 14 angel, up close. Mm, popcorn.

As opposed to the weapon for the antipaladin? How do you wish me to do it? I must have missed a post.

No, my bad. Send me the link to the Master of Hounds cavalier archetype again?

Since irin was already an ally, can she have only cost one pp? :D

If yes, other point is used vs that damned paladin.

Ulp planned for a long time. stupid Zargo thinks he is so great. Time for him to die. Ulp thought for days, weeks, months. He spent his free time invisible in Zargo's lab, invisible, he occasionally messed with Zargo's work and reveled in watching Zargo burn off his hair.

Then he found his chance. Smoove showed up. Then the angel showed up. It was so easy. Just smudge one of the rubes in the small room, rig the locks and wait. Smooch went in so did a cloud kill bomb, or three, close the door and wait. Everything was dead and in went Ulp, nothing was left of Zargo but the angel lay there dead but intact.

Ulp was so happy he sliced the angel open and he bathed himself in its silvery blood, in a fit of delight he broke off a finger bone and began to etch symbols of joy into the armor in the blood. Between Ulps own inner (mythic) power, the enchanted mithril and the poison corrupted blood a reaction began. At first it was slow, the metal gently heating but before long it became painful the exhilarating as the power coursed through him into the armor, filling it with the essence of the betrayal and power.

Since irin was already an ally, can she have only cost one pp? :D

No, two for Irin is good. Trust me, she'll end up very close to you.

Alright. Jax will likely use the other point against Havelyn still. Either to get something to assist with the fight or take him out personally.

I'm holding my other point until I see what folks do. Currently I am using it on the spymaster if I am not inspired by anyone.

So how does this epic item thing work? I think the heads man's Axe should be getting some of that love.

It's done with the universal path feat. You get 3 special abilities from the list. You will want to take upgradable so you can upgrade it for half cost. The other two I am not sure. It also gets two legendary surges per day which lets you add a d6 to (attack or damage not sure which)

It's pretty neat.

not feat path ability