The Literati (Part 2 of 3)

By Amber E. Scott

Branches of the Literati

Literati membership spans all races and classes. The divisive goals of the organization mean that small “branches” often develop, each slanted towards retrieving and using information in their own way. The members (and even some Lower Echelon) of these sub-groups often think their branch is the organization in its entirety, unaware of the great shadow of the Literati falling over everything. Only after long and dedicated service do members begin to realize the extent of the cartel.

Two such branches of the Literati are detailed below, along with new feats, spells, and adventure hooks.

The Mnemephages

“On the contrary; dead men do tell tales.”

Many outsiders who are familiar with the mnemephages choose to call them by the disrespectful term, ‘corpse-talkers’. They also assume the mnemephages are necromancers, when in actuality, their talents lie in divinations that target the dead.

Mnemephages are most commonly clerics or wizards (usually diviners), but they are also tomb-raiders, cutthroats, funeral parlor owners or employees—and yes, necromancers. Too often people resort to murder, thinking their secrets will die with their enemies. But the mnemephages see death as only a temporary interruption, and with the proper spells (and the bodies brought back to them by the lesser members of the organization), they can learn a great deal about almost anything.

Mnemephages control the business of the dead in a city. They own funeral parlors and graveyards, and often use thugs and bullies to intimidate other mortuary owners into selling their businesses. Necromancers and unsavory rogues spread the word that they will buy corpses, no questions asked. Some operate crematoriums and sell coffins, and high-ranking mnemephages spend time out of every day interrogating corpses. In this way, the mnemephages learn secrets and bits of knowledge that would otherwise be lost forever, and in many cases, material that can be used to blackmail powerful people for money or more information.

Adventure Hooks:

• a family in a small city has owned their funeral parlor for generations. They pride themselves on compassionate, professional service. Recently, hired thugs have been badgering them to sell their business to a new operation in town, and the family is both baffled and frightened. They don’t want to sell, but they worry they’ll be harmed if they refuse. They ask the PCs to stop the extortion.
• the PCs hear rumors that there’s a crazy old wizard buying corpses in the seedy area of town. The party wizard (or a concerned sage in town) fears that the shady wizard is trying to construct a flesh golem for nefarious purposes.
• when the PCs visit a temple for healing services (or simply for prayer or meditation), they might encounter Sylvia Segilman, who has coaxed the temple priests into recommending her services to families of the recently deceased. Sylvia runs a small funeral home, and she may use her divinatory powers to manipulate the PCs to her own ends. Or, seeing that they are adventurers, she may just ask them to bring her the bodies of any enemy they slay “so that they may receive a proper burial”.

 

Sylvia Segilman, female human diviner 7/loremaster 2; CR 9; Medium humanoid (human); HD 9d4+18; 42 hp; Init +1; Spd 30 ft; AC 12 (16 with mage armor), touch AC 12 (12), flat-footed 10 (14); Base Atk +4; Grp +3; Atk +4 melee (1d6-1, quarterstaff) or +6 ranged (1d4-1/19-20, dagger); Full attack same; SA spells; SQ: opposition school evocation; AL NE; SV Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +11; Str 8, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 22, Wis 17, Cha 12. Skills: Concentration +14, Decipher Script +13, Diplomacy +7, Gather Information +5, Knowledge (arcana) +21, Knowledge (history) +18, Knowledge (local) +14, Knowledge (nobility and royalty) +14, Knowledge (religion) +18, Profession (mortician) +9, Sense Motive +5, Spellcraft +20 (+2 if divination related). Feats: Brew Potion, Extend Spell, Negotiator, Scribe Scroll, Silent Spell, Skill Focus (Knowledge (arcana)), Still Spell. Languages: Common, Draconic, any other three. Possessions: amulet of health +2, cloak of resistance +1, headband of intellect +2, masterwork dagger, ring of protection +1, masterwork quarterstaff topped with a 100 gp crystal, two 100 gp pearls, 80 pp. Literati Rank: Lower Echelon Spells Prepared: (4/6/6/4/3/2 plus one divination of each level; save DC 16 + spell level): 0 - detect magic x 2, read magic, mending; 1st – charm person, comprehend languages, detect undead, disguise self, final vision, identify, mage armor; 2nd – command undead, corpse read, daze monster, mirror image, obscure object, see invisibility, scare; 3rd – arcane sight, charm person (still and silent) x 2, tongues, vampiric touch; 4th – detect scrying, detect thoughts (still and silent) x 2, scrying; 5th - contact other plane, confusion (extended), magic jar. Spellbook: Sylvia’s spellbook holds all the spells she has prepared, as well as the following: 0 – all; 1st – cause fear, chill touch, detect secret doors, hypnotism, true strike; 2nd – false life, locate object, touch of idiocy, spectral hand; 3rd – clairaudience/clairvoyance, gentle repose, illusory script, suggestion; 4th – locate creature, animate dead. Sylvia is not a combatant. She prefers to avoid danger whenever possible. If a combat is inevitable, she confuses and charms as many party members as she can. If she is wounded and it looks like she will lose the battle, she magic jars into one of the pearls in her pocket (hoping that any PCs who recognize the spell she casts will assume she has transferred her soul into the gem atop her staff).

History: Sylvia was born the youngest child of a large, poor family. Unable (or unwilling) to feed yet another mouth, her father “gave” her to a noble house when she was six, to work there as a servant (in exchange for a large monetary gift, of course). Sylvia was worked to the limit of her young strength, and she grew up with a keen sensitivity for the discrepancies between poor and rich. The poor worked hard and died miserable; the rich lived in luxury. Sylvia was determined to someday rise above her station and claim some of those luxuries for herself.

Sylvia’s chance came when she realized servants hear and see a lot, and that that information is worth a great deal to others. She became a snoop, listening at doors and peeking through keyholes, or going through her master’s things while he was away. What she learned she sold to whoever was interested, and accumulated a small amount of money.

She had a bit of a dilemma, though; she knew that one day she would get caught. And if she left before she was caught, her cash flow would end. She could attempt to get work at another noble house, of course, but she was afraid someone would catch on to her scheme. Her problem was solved when one of her regular clients paid her a huge sum to bring him information needed to coordinate her master’s assassination. She agreed on the condition that her client, a wizard of some small power, agreed to take her on as his apprentice afterwards. When the assassination was completed, Sylvia received her money, and she and her new master left town together.

Sylvia proved to be a quick study, and after a year together her master indoctrinated her into the Mnemephages. Sylvia is now in charge of mnemephage operations in a large city, assisted by her partner, Drevis Mull (NE male gnome cleric 7 of Vecna, member). She poses as the sweet, sensitive proprietress of Peaceful Hollows Funeral Home, and is well-liked in the community. Sylvia knows there is some larger organization that controls the mnemephages, but she is unaware of the true scope of the Literati.

 

New Spells The mnemephages have developed many new spells to aid them in their quest for knowledge. Three such spells are detailed here. Corpse Read Divination Level: Clr 2, Wiz/Sor 2 Components: V, S Casting Time: 1 standard action Range: Touch Target: Corpse touched Duration: Concentration (up to five rounds) Saving Throw: None Spell Resistance: No Corpse read allows a caster to discover the history of the corpse she touches. For every round she remains in contact with the corpse and concentrates, she gains one piece of knowledge about the corpse’s life. The information is always gained in the following order: 1st round: Corpse’s race. 2nd round: Corpse’s gender 3rd round: Corpse’s age 4th round: Corpse’s full name 5th round: Cause of death The caster must remain in contact with the corpse and concentrate for the duration of this spell. If either contact or concentration is broken, the spell ends. “Cause of death” reveals only the literal cause of the corpse’s death, not the circumstances surrounding it. For instance, a murder victim’s cause of death would be “stabbed in the heart” not “murdered by Jack Stalker”. This spell cannot target undead. Final Vision Divination Level: Clr 1, Wiz/Sor 1 Components: V, S, M Casting Time: 1 standard action Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels) Target: One corpse Duration: 1 round/level Saving Throw: None Spell Resistance: No When this spell is cast on a corpse, the caster experiences the last few seconds of the corpse’s life through her own senses. She can see, hear and feel everything the corpse did for one round per caster level before the corpse died (for example, a fifth-level caster would experience the corpse’s last 5 rounds, or thirty seconds, of life). The caster receives no special knowledge about the corpse or the manner of its death, only what the corpse itself saw, heard, and felt in life. These experiences may be confusing to the caster, since she experiences them without any context. They “overlap” her own senses, and thus she takes a -2 circumstance penalty to all Spot and Listen checks while this spell is active. This spell cannot target undead. Arcane Material Component: A round piece of glass, through which the caster views the corpse to be targeted. Impersonate Transmutation Level: Wiz/Sor 8 Components: V, S, M Casting Time: 1 standard action Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels) Target: One living humanoid and one corpse (see below) Duration: 1 day/level Saving Throw: Fort negates Spell Resistance: Yes This spell is one of the most powerful ever developed by the mnemephages. They, as well as other Literati branches, use it to great effect. With this spell, a member can become a deep cover spy, one who is completely unaware of his own deception. He becomes, quite literally, someone else. The material component is a grisly, and necessary, one. The casting requires the brain of a deceased humanoid and one living target, willing or unwilling. When the spell is cast, the living target becomes the dead person for all intents and purposes. He gains the physical appearance, attributes, skills and memories of the dead person. He no longer remembers ever having been anyone else. Upon failing his saving throw, the target of this spell loses access to all his feats, skills and class features, as well as his supernatural, spell-like and extraordinary abilities. His skill ranks and feats are replaced by those of the deceased person’s. He gains the extraordinary abilities and class features of the deceased person, but not any supernatural or spell-like abilities. He does not gain the deceased’s spellcasting abilities, if any were possessed; the mental discipline and training required to cast spells cannot be conferred with even such a complex transformation as this. Any divinatory magic cast on the target reveals information consistent with his new identity. He has all the characteristics of his assumed identity – alignment, thoughts, and mannerisms. He seems to have always been this new person. However, he is still polymorphed, and thus can be found out with a true seeing, dispel magic or similar magics, or by entering an antimagic field. The Literati use this spell to gain information accessible no other way; by sending deep cover spies into households, castles, or guildhouses who don’t even know themselves that they are spies. In some cases, the Literati even casts this spell on its members in secret, without warning, so that if his cover is revealed, the spy doesn’t even know who transformed him or for what purpose. When the spell’s duration ends, the target’s original memories and abilities return, and his new ones fade. He recalls everything that happened during the course of his transformation perfectly. If a corpse’s brain is used as a material focus for this spell, the deceased can thereafter only be returned to life by means of true resurrection, miracle or wish. Arcane Material Component: The brain of a dead humanoid.

Rappaccinists

“He would sacrifice human life, his own among the rest, or whatever else was dearest to him, for the sake of adding so much as a grain of mustard-seed to the great heap of his accumulated knowledge.” -Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Rappaccini’s Daughter”

Few know the Rappaccinists by their true name. Most who are familiar with the organization call it by a nickname, such as “Black Brewers” or “Poisoned Blades”. Rappaccinists are fascinated with poisons and potions of all sorts, particularly rare plants and lost recopies that allow them to create fantastic brews. They have serums that force a man to speak the truth, potions that can make a person seem dead (and preserve their ‘corpse’ for hundreds of years), and poisons that melt a man’s flesh, rendering him unable to be returned to life by all but the most powerful of magics.

Assassins and evil wizards are naturally drawn to this organization, but anyone with an affinity for herbs and poisons can find a place in the group. Druids and rangers sometimes find the organization a help in finding extraordinarily rare plants, and the more cold-hearted ones don’t mind repaying the Rappaccinists by offering their services as poison-makers and potion-brewers.

Rappaccinists can be found prowling in ancient forests or mysterious jungles, rifling through libraries after hours, infiltrating noble balls or slumming with crime lords on the street. Their services are highly sought after by those who need enemies eliminated, as the Rappaccinists have a reputation of being the most competent assassins around. Criminals and nobles alike seek to purchase untraceable poisons from the organization, and the Rappaccinists are happy to oblige, in return for funding or knowledge. Many a noble lord and guildmaster owes his position to the group, and assists them however possible as a result.

The stealth and cunning of their members is very useful to the Literati, and the Upper Echelon directs this branch towards subtle activities, such as pilfering from libraries or court buildings, as well as funding their research into the workings of mundane alchemy and magical concoctions. Rappaccinists work well with mnemephages, if they are aware of each other. The Rappaccinists are very skilled at procuring corpses for the mnemephages to work with.

Most people who have even heard of the Rappaccinists know them only as a rumor. However, a small group of clerics devoted to the art of healing, and aided by other individuals who serve the cause of good, have learned something of the Rappaccinist’s work (though they are unaware of the Literati as a whole). They call themselves the Baglionists, and oppose the Rappaccinists at every turn.

Adventure Hooks:

• a library in a large city is unexpectedly burglarized. A librarian in the building was rendered unconscious by some sort of sleep gas, and several valuable books were taken. The librarian begs the PCs to recover the books for him.
• a Rappaccinist druid, angered by a village’s encroachment on his forest, poisons the town’s water supply. The villagers degenerate into a bestial state, living like animals in the streets. The PCs must find the druid and demand the antidote to the poison – if there is one.
• the PCs are attending a feast thrown by an important figure, a king or mayor, when their host is poisoned. Can the PCs save his life? And is the assassin still among them? Perhaps it is the notorious Poison Pint, the greatest assassin in the Rappaccinist ranks.

 

Poison Pint, male gnome rog5/ftr4/assassin6; CR 15; Medium humanoid (gnome); HD 5d6+4d10+6d6+30; 95 hp; Init +7; Spd 20 ft.; AC 23, touch AC 18, flat-footed 23, +4 dodge bonus to AC against monsters of the giant type; Base Atk +11; Grp +11; Atk +21 melee (1d3+7/17-20, dagger) or +21 ranged (1d3+5/17-20, dagger) or +22 ranged (1d3+8/17-20, dagger, within 30 ft. of target); Full attack +21/+16/+11 melee (1d3+7/17-20) or +21/+16/+11 ranged (1d3+5/17-20, +1 dagger, and 1d3+4/19-20, masterwork dagger, and 1d3+4/19-20, masterwork dagger) or +22/+17/+12 ranged (1d3+8/17-20, +1 dagger, and 1d3+7/19-20, masterwork dagger, and 1d3+7/19-20, masterwork dagger, within 30 ft. of target); SA death attack (save DC 18), +1 racial attack bonus versus kobolds and goblinoids, Sneak Attack +5d6, spells, spell-like abilities; SQ evasion, low-light vision, poison use, trapfinding, trap sense +1, uncanny dodge, improved uncanny dodge; AL CE; SV Fort +9 (+11 versus poison, +13 versus spider poison), Ref +17, Will +6, +2 racial bonus on saves versus illusions; Str 18, Dex 25, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 13. Skills: Balance +9, Bluff +9, Climb +10, Craft (alchemy) +8, Diplomacy +7, Disable Device +12, Disguise +5 (+7 when acting in-character), Hide +28, Intimidate +14 (+10 versus Medium opponents), Jump +6, Listen +12, Move Silently +24, Open Lock +20, Search +20, Spot +12, Tumble +15 Feats: Far Shot, Fast Apply (new feat detailed below), Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Virulent Strike (new feat detailed below), Weapon Focus (dagger), Weapon Finesse, Weapon Specialization (dagger). Languages: Common, Gnomish, Elven, Orcish Possessions: belt of giant strength +4, cloak of arachnida, gloves of Dexterity +4, +2 studded leather armor of shadow and silent moves, +1 keen returning dagger, 6 masterwork daggers, masterwork thieves’ tools, 2 vials terniav root, 1 vial dragon bile, 2 vials large scorpion venom, 1 vial carrior crawler brain juice, 50 pp. Literati Rank: Upper Echelon Spell-Like Abilities: 1/day – dancing lights, ghost sound, prestidigitation, speak with animals. Save DC 11 + spell level (+1 if illusion). Assassin Spells: Spells per Day: 4/4/1 1st – disguise self, feather fall, obscuring mist, true strike; 2nd – fox’s cunning, invisibility, pass without trace, undetectable alignment; 3rd – deep slumber, nondetection. Save DC 12 + spell level (+1 if illusion). Poison Pint strives to never be seen, and always tries to strike from hiding. If the PCs are unaware of him, he will hide and study them before opening with a death attack. He uses poison whenever possible. If a battle turns against him, he has no compunctions about fleeing.

History: Poison Pint never fit in from the very beginning. He was born into a loud, rambunctious family and grew up in the middle of a pack of boisterous siblings. Pint (as he was called, being the smallest), hated the noise and clamor in a very un-gnomelike way. The only peace he got was working in his father’s laboratory. His father was a great herbalist, making poultices and healing potions for the village, but Pint enjoyed playing with forbidden concoctions of herbs and plants. He had a knack for alchemy, and indulged in his gnomish trickster nature by creating sticks of chewing gum that turned people’s teeth green, and invisible glue that stuck people to outhouse seats for hours.

But Pint also had a cruel streak, and his pranks grew more and more devilish, often with painfully humiliating results. When one of his “jokes” rendered a gnomish girl blind, he was driven out of the village. But Pint didn’t care. He had tired of the country life, and headed for the big city.

His talents soon landed him a job in a large apothecary, but Pint felt his pay was too small. He supplemented his income by stealing ingredients on the side and mixing poisons and alchemical bombs to sell to the local Thieves’ Guild. The Guild soon wooed him away from a respectable lifestyle altogether, and Pint found that he could earn respect from the undesirables of the city. He shot up in the Guild ranks by poisoning his betters once he’d learned all he could from them. His reputation as a master assassin and a bastion of knowledge was legendary in the city, and it wasn’t long before he was approached by the Rappaccinists.

Poison Pint, as he was known by then, took to the organization like hemlock to the bloodstream. He rose to power as a Rappaccinist just as he had in the Guild; by listening at keyholes, learning all he could, and then poisoning those who were above him. He is now the leader of his guild as well, and the information his subordinates gather for him wins him greater status and prestige among the Rappaccinists. Poison Pint was recently inducted into the Literati by Hexalore, who is trying to win the assassin to his side of the upcoming battle for leadership of the organization. He is frustrated by Pint’s chaotic nature, however, and it is uncertain how long a truce between the two will last.

 

New Feats Fast Apply You can anoint a weapon or object very quickly. Prerequisite: Dex 13+, Quick Draw Benefit: You may apply an oil or poison to a weapon or object as a move-equivalent action. Normal: Applying poison or an oil is a standard action. Special: If you are using this feat to apply poison to a weapon or object, the risk of poisoning yourself increases to 15%. If you have the “poison use” special ability, you have no chance of poisoning yourself when doing a fast apply. Virulent Strike You can poison a person in a particularly vulnerable spot, doing greater harm to them. Prerequisite: Sneak Attack +2d6, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (any piercing weapon) Benefit: If you hit with a sneak attack while using a poisoned piercing weapon (the same weapon you have Weapon Focus with), you may sacrifice +1d6 of your sneak attack damage to add +2 to the DC of the poison save. You may sacrifice up to half of your sneak attack dice (rounded down) to increase the DC in this manner.

 

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