Cosmic Hunters (OOC)

[Metastachydium]

840,000 gp actually, increased it again. Basically I want the PCs at the threshold of epic levels.

Edit. By the way, if you have LA on a monstrous race that has been discussed on the LA assignment threads, I'd be happy to reduce it accordingly.

Huh. With 2 points already bought off, that would mean Delja, as a Nixie, gets a level and will have an ECL equal to her level at last. I could finish Duelist (the stupid, but funny thing to do) or go Thief-Acrobat (the sensible way forward)! Don't mind if I'll take that chance and run with it. So… Thank you!

Ah yes, the wands of Prestidigitation are invaluable just so we can look clean after a dungeon crawl. You have no idea how annoying it is to remove dried blood lodged between each scale.

Actually, Delja also has scales. Hers are just much smaller and fishier.

I'm thinking Bahamut sent him first to Tiamat's lair, on the first layer of the Nine Hells, tasked with retrieving the soul of a "tarnished" dragonborn - a dragonborn having forsaken Bahamut - in order to give the repentant soul another chance. Then, he'd had Ux climb back from there up to Celestia and find the location of Bahamut's palace among the first four layers of the plane, to put the soul at his feet among his divine hoard. After having thought about it long and hard on his way, Ux also decided to give everything he possessed to the hoard of Bahamut at that moment and took a vow of poverty.

Oh, man. If poor Ereshki dies, Myriad goes off to do weird Myriad stuff and Ux heads off to tour the Hells as a redemption quest, I'm afraid Delja is likely to slide back into a drinking habit and Ux will have to have an awkward conversation either with one of her other weird friends or a giant psychic crocodile once he gets back, only to know which muddy ditch by the road he has to fish her out from.

Apart from that, he is the same Ux, who barges in in social situations, laughs at goofy Myriad antics, enjoys good fruit juice, sports enormous eyebrows, doesn't like people standing on his knee, likes hot baths and irritates the hell out of Delja.

Well, that does cover the really important bits!

Let's do this for her, and for all the others that needed Ux but he wasn't there for them. You know what he's going to do with the Noctuary? A flattening. He wants every mortal to be of the same power level. Now, the specifics are murky even to him - having everyone be an ECL 1 character? An ECL 20 character? What about extraplanar creatures? Are there any unintended side effects to such a situation? His Int score is only 12. But the core idea is that if everyone wields equal power, there can never be brute-forcing of one individual onto another anymore.

There will not be weak and strong people, the former being oppressed by the latter - only people.

Wiat, what? 5e is a bad future where Ux succeeded?! This can only lead to PvP!! (The horror! The HORROR!!)

[remetagross]

Man, that 5e jab is soooo good :D

I don't dare to even contemplate what Delja would do with the power of the Noctuary...get an illimited-resistance liver?

[Metastachydium]

I don't dare to even contemplate what Delja would do with the power of the Noctuary...get an illimited-resistance liver?

Oddly enough, probably nothing. Delja's primary motivation ultimately continues to be her weird messed up midlife crisis (of which her tumultous on-and-off rerlationship with alcohol is a symptom). She'd most likely just be all "I still have it"; and go home.

EDIT: Albeit a way to add STR to AC would probably get her interest.

[remetagross]

Adding Str to AC? Yeah, I don't know any way of doing that. Str is not added to that much stuff, usually.

Though to be fair, "I gain Str to AC" would be a very tame way of exploiting the Noctuary :D

[remetagross]

Guys, I'm fairly torn.

For Ux I've swapped his Dragonborn aspect from "heart" (gives a breath weapon) to "wings" (gives flight). But in the end it's only 30ft (average) flight. I want to enhance that by blowing a feat. But I'm hesitating between Improved Flight, for having 30ft (good), or Air Heritage, for having 60ft (average).

What do you think is more useful?

[Metastachydium]

Improved Flight if you need it for combat, Air Heritage if you just want it for utility.

[chaincomplex]

It's more likely for Improved Flight to be valuable since at high levels, long-distance travel is usually available through teleport or similar effects.

Anyways, what do you guys think Ux and Delja would have done with Teru, and whether they would have walked out of this adventure with an ally/patron?

[remetagross]

I was thinking more along the lines of "30ft is really short as far as tactical movement goes", more so since I want to make use of Flyby Attack.

About Teru...more likely, we would have ended up uncovering part of the truth, with the help of Sofie. At that stage, I think Ux would have been okay with blowing his Teru-granted Wish to swap Teru's and Pilot's place in the Five Pebbles, as we had once envisioned.

I suppose we would have remained quite friends with the Dustmen as well, since we would probably have solved their little mystery in the process.

[Metastachydium]

Anyways, what do you guys think Ux and Delja would have done with Teru, and whether they would have walked out of this adventure with an ally/patron?

About Teru...more likely, we would have ended up uncovering part of the truth, with the help of Sofie. At that stage, I think Ux would have been okay with blowing his Teru-granted Wish to swap Teru's and Pilot's place in the Five Pebbles, as we had once envisioned.

Yup. Probably went through with the original plan of the swap and then Myriad probably sped away with the Pebbles, probably because of pushing a random button just to see what it does.

As for patrons, I figure Delja would have somehow tried to swindle Ux into accepting NEVER EVER to talk to that stupid Angel again once the serial killing and totally justified book burning business was concluded; report to the Dustmen; and court their favour by selling them all the dead Obyriths cheap.

I was thinking more along the lines of "30ft is really short as far as tactical movement goes", more so since I want to make use of Flyby Attack.

Yeah. If you want to use it to close-attack-withdraw in combat, you want the maneuverability. Trust me. Unless you want to do more math than with the Knight stuff, you don't want to melee with average flight.

[chaincomplex]

The control you have over Teru when you break the soul gem is basically the line from trap the soul interpreted generously. Since Teru is dramatically level-drained when freed, and probably missing a gem of requisite value besides, a naively given order to swap souls would fail and he would be free. At which point he would try to skedaddle and put the party in a nasty position: if they kill him, one of his clones would awaken somewhere else. Unfortunately, the main party never ended up getting its caster, who would have warned them of this potential problem.

A patron would be able to point out the same thing, depending on how powerful they are. Sofie would be able to do so. The soul swap order must be given very precisely and still there is a risk in its execution. Sofie would probably suggest she just flies Teru's soul gem up to one of Lunia's many fort-prisons where he would be held and slowly redeemed over centuries (well beyond the scope of the adventure). If the party insists on soul swapping, she would stand by, preparing to wish herself, the party, and Teru into Celestia should the gambit fail, and try to force him to surrender with sheer number of angels. Killing would just awaken a clone, and Sofie knows this, so she's strictly against killing.

Sofie would also be able to free Pilot, at which point he would reveal himself to be a minor noble of the Elemental Plane of Air. If the party does not probe further, he would leave and never be seen again. Hunters from the City of Brass would track him down and slay him, which they would learn from the merchant they bought their eternal wands of prestidigitation from the next time they meet him, who is a distant relative of a high-up in the City of Brass.

If the party probes into his circumstances, they would learn that he was imprisoned by the Grand Sultan of the Elemental Plane of Fire as a prisoner of war. His identity was stripped magically and he was sold to a visiting trader (Teru) as a slave, as punishment. They would not forgive him easily, and this would have been a side adventure to try to settle affairs. While the City of Brass is a capital-E Evil land, while Pilot is no worse than Chaotic Neutral, there is a complication as he is implicated in the killing of efreet civilians and noncombatants during a raid (who are still unquestionably Evil in nature). This makes the discussion of justice for him complex.

Sofie would direct the players to the rest of Teru's fleet. He was managing an aeronautical trading empire, after all. The party would readily find documents regarding his activities and worlds where notable disasters were happening. The second act of this adventure was going to be the party chasing down these disasters, wrapping back to the invasion of the Far Realms premise.

Instead, while the party finds these, the party also finds Teru's mountains of notes and journals on the Noctuary, including credible discussions of its supposed powers of granting impossible wishes, and speculations thereafter about how the Noctuary ties into ending the threat of the Far Realms. Importantly, Delja doesn't particularly like Sofie, so she convinces Ux not to notify Sofie about the Noctuary.

Does anything in this sequence of events bother you guys? We can change things as needed until what happened fits Ux and Delja's characters to a T. What do Ux and Delja do about the Sauvais daughter and her retinue in the Twelve Factols, fight or work to help eliminate the serial killer? Would Ux and Delja tell Sofie about Teru? Depending on how much on the Teru matter they tell Sofie, they may or may not have learned the tightrope they'd have to navigate to do it cleanly. Would Ux and Delja try to negotiate peace with the City of Brass (Evil), convince Pilot to go into hiding in Sigil forever while slaying all his efreet pursuers when they pop up, or what?

[Metastachydium]

Yes, that… Changes the equation somewhat. If we can slot all the deals with the Dustmen (which would include hauling all those Obyrith over to what remains of their HQ after the war with Azlin), I could see that working. As for the details:

What do Ux and Delja do about the Sauvais daughter and her retinue in the Twelve Factols, fight or work to help eliminate the serial killer?

Nothing or, rather, neither, I'd assume. At least that's what Delja would advocate. The fate of House Sauvais and its members is largely irrelevant to her; what matters to her, is the mission from the Dustmen, which is, at the end of the day, a reconnaissance mission. She'd figure their job is simply to identify the conspirators, learn as much of the conspiracy as possible and report back to Trevant.

Of course, Delja sits at the pragmatic end of True Neutral and is unbothered by the more intricate moral ramifications of the matter. The dilemma of "help Good people let a serial killer run loose" or "blow a well-intentioned ploy meant to help abolish slavery" might look very differnt fo Ux.

Would Ux and Delja tell Sofie about Teru? Depending on how much on the Teru matter they tell Sofie, they may or may not have learned the tightrope they'd have to navigate to do it cleanly.

Probably. They need her to destroy the Book, and the Book is on Teru's ship, accessible only from Teru's quarters in the Festhall. Delja, at any rate, would really rather not try to move (or so much as touch) the Book. And it's not like the party didn't try to ask the Sahuagin priest about Teru. I could see Ux asking Sofie the same question, and Delja would, for once, certainly let him.

Would Ux and Delja try to negotiate peace with the City of Brass (Evil), convince Pilot to go into hiding in Sigil forever while slaying all his efreet pursuers when they pop up, or what?

Probably the latter. Negotiations with state actors is not a something Delja would feel qualified to handle, and she would do her absolute very best to keep Ux from doing it.

Hm. I don't suppose having a portal specialist and a spacejammer ship could help finding and reaching a good spot for Pilot where the Great Fire doesn't shine? I know the Grand Sultan has a long reach, but I'm not sure just how long is long.

[remetagross]

About the risky soul swap plan, Ux would've preferred not to leave it to chance and gone with Sofie's plan of forced redemption instead.

About Pilot, I'm not sure Ux would've inquired much further than that. However, had the party uncovered Pilot's past, then Ux would've been in something of a quandary. I suppose he would've suggested that Pilot's long time as a slave would've served as enough of a punishment, and that we used Sofie's daily Wish to completely blank out the memory of Pilot from the minds of all the efreeti guys after him.

Ux would've kept his end of the bargain with the Dustmen. From here on, he'd have been confident the Dustmen would've meted out justice to an unhinged serial killer, that is, poor guy is not really responsible of what he did so must be mentally cured/physically restrained. In addition, finding out about all this and stopping the killing spree would've probably not prevented the ban on slavery to actually happen, all the more so that House Midai wasn't really pushing that hard against this prospect. Which pleases Ux.

So, yeah. Ux would've told Sofie about Teru, if only for the Book, would've tried helping Pilot go to ground without a direct confrontation with the City of Brass if possible, and would not have told Sofie about the Noctuary, since he trusts Delja more than her. Besides, he figures if gods themselves do not have the kind of power the Noctuary is supposed to provide, then it's best not to have that kind of information attract the attention of too many gods, and Amaunator is not entirely to the theological liking of Ux.

Besides, can we have Myriad turn into an NPC and be our Five Pebbles pilot?

[remetagross]

Oh, and I've got a couple mechanical questions, chains.

1. The invocation Baleful Geas (Dragon Magic p.79). It's super flavourful and can produce great RP, but it is rather murky. It says:

Spoiler: Baleful Geas

Show

You place a magical command on a living creature to carry out a service or to refrain from an action or course of activity, as you desire. The creature’s Hit Dice must be no more than your class level. Twenty-four hours after the target becomes affected by this invocation, it takes 1d4 points of Strength damage; this damage repeats every 24 hours thereafter. If the target’s Strength is reduced to 0, the invocation immediately ends. Creatures immune to Strength damage instead take 2d4 points of damage every 24 hours.

This invocation otherwise functions as the geas/quest spell (PH 234).

Does the Str damage replaces the 3d6 damage taken by the subject each day they don't comply with the Geas? Or is it in addition? Does the subject takes the Str damage even on days when they comply? Also, is the casting time a standard action (as for all spell-like abilities) or 10 minutes (as per the original spell)?

2. The feat Power Surge that I have previously mentioned and that you have accepted. It says that one has to wait for 1 extra round before being able to use their Su ability again. Now, in the case of the breath weapon of the Dragonfire Adept, it's at-will, so a waiting time of 0 rounds. Which means that if I have somehow 2 standard actions during my round, I can breath 2 times. But if I use Power Surge, I now have to wait for 1 round before using it again. So it becomes a 1/round ability. But in 99% of situations, where I don't have 2 standard actions in the same round, I am already using the ability 1/round. I have thus 0 downsides to using that feat.
However, I discovered this RAW interpretation (that I find solid) after having requested the feat to you. In my mind, at the time I brought it up, it meant "I will have to wait a whole turn without using my breath weapon, and on the turn after that one I can use it again". In essence, there's a 2-round cooldown on my Power Surge'd breath weapon. I still stand by that, as I find the other interpretation too powerful. I'm bringing that to your attention in case another player from the team (and many applicants seem fairly versed RAW-wise) points out to me or to you this specific point, so that you know where I stand in that regard.

[Metastachydium]

Besides, can we have Myriad turn into an NPC and be our Five Pebbles pilot?

I'd fell as dirty about that as does Delja whenever she hears Myriad speak, honestly.

[remetagross]

Oh darn why? You feel it's not good policy to turn PCs into NPCs without the agreement of their player?

...yeah, once I've said that aloud, it probably feels accurate.

[chaincomplex]

Does the Str damage replaces the 3d6 damage taken by the subject each day they don't comply with the Geas? Or is it in addition? Does the subject takes the Str damage even on days when they comply? Also, is the casting time a standard action (as for all spell-like abilities) or 10 minutes (as per the original spell)?

By my reading, it doesn't replace the damage. It's in addition, every single day, compliance or no. I guess this makes sense under the principle that a baleful geas is a geas but always baleful, which this certainly is.

It's definitely, unequivocally a standard action.

However, I discovered this RAW interpretation (that I find solid) after having requested the feat to you. In my mind, at the time I brought it up, it meant "I will have to wait a whole turn without using my breath weapon, and on the turn after that one I can use it again". In essence, there's a 2-round cooldown on my Power Surge'd breath weapon. I still stand by that, as I find the other interpretation too powerful. I'm bringing that to your attention in case another player from the team (and many applicants seem fairly versed RAW-wise) points out to me or to you this specific point, so that you know where I stand in that regard.

Per Draconomicon it is unambiguous that having to wait 1 round coincides with being able to use it again next round. DFA unambiguously can make breath attacks at will, and Power Surge unambiguously gives it a 1 round waiting time.

Thus you are absolutely able to use it again immediately next round. It doesn't appear this is disputable in terms of the rules as written, only as intended. And I'm not certain enough that the intention is otherwise; it at least prevents the use of Quicken Breath to breathe twice in a round.

Ux would've kept his end of the bargain with the Dustmen. From here on, he'd have been confident the Dustmen would've meted out justice to an unhinged serial killer, that is, poor guy is not really responsible of what he did so must be mentally cured/physically restrained. In addition, finding out about all this and stopping the killing spree would've probably not prevented the ban on slavery to actually happen, all the more so that House Midai wasn't really pushing that hard against this prospect. Which pleases Ux.

The party wouldn't find this out naturally unless they had Skall as a patron, but the serial killer would get grabbed, subjected to terrible necromantic rituals by Skall, then killed.

From the party's perspective, the Dustmen honor their word and direct the party to Sofie, and the rest follows. The party will also end with good relations with the Dustmen, which I'll keep in mind for the upcoming campaign. I will suppose that the party then is OK with Sofie dragging Teru's soul gem up to Celestia and find some god or goddess willing to assist, or potentially to Everwatch to be held by Helm if she's dissatisfied with the options.

Besides, can we have Myriad turn into an NPC and be our Five Pebbles pilot?

Five Pebbles was basically being readied for decommission after sustaining substantial damage on Dymos and was in no state to be flown again, not without an artificer to rebuild it. Hence none of the facilities working.

About Pilot, I'm not sure Ux would've inquired much further than that. However, had the party uncovered Pilot's past, then Ux would've been in something of a quandary. I suppose he would've suggested that Pilot's long time as a slave would've served as enough of a punishment, and that we used Sofie's daily Wish to completely blank out the memory of Pilot from the minds of all the efreeti guys after him.

This is likely beyond the scope of a wish's power (being at least as potent as a mass variant of mindrape, a 9th-level spell). Thus the wish would have a very large scope of possible drawbacks to "balance" affairs that a solar would be unwilling to test.

Hm. I don't suppose having a portal specialist and a spacejammer ship could help finding and reaching a good spot for Pilot where the Great Fire doesn't shine? I know the Grand Sultan has a long reach, but I'm not sure just how long is long.

The Grand Sultan is an epic caster, it seems unlikely to be beyond his reach unless in the domain of another epic caster or deity. Sofie might recommend sending Pilot over to Akadi's court, or to the court of the Great Caliph of Air, who is not statted but likely epic or even possessing divine ranks. Pilot would probably resist the latter on political grounds, and would want to avoid the former if possible to avoid become a servitor—with his freedom recovered, he is loathe to give it up again—but when Sofie impresses on him that he is likely to die otherwise and the party unwilling to intercede and speak to the Court of Fire, he would crumble and accept a new life in Akadi's realm.

[Metastachydium]

The party wouldn't find this out naturally unless they had Skall as a patron, but the serial killer would get grabbed, subjected to terrible necromantic rituals by Skall, then killed.

I think that would disturb Delja far less than it should. She's seen some messed up things, what with engaging a lot with the lower registers in the sphere of wartime activities a lot back in the day, and the guy kinda has it coming.

From the party's perspective, the Dustmen honor their word and direct the party to Sofie, and the rest follows. The party will also end with good relations with the Dustmen, which I'll keep in mind for the upcoming campaign. I will suppose that the party then is OK with Sofie dragging Teru's soul gem up to Celestia and find some god or goddess willing to assist, or potentially to Everwatch to be held by Helm if she's dissatisfied with the options.

Sounds more than fine.

Five Pebbles was basically being readied for decommission after sustaining substantial damage on Dymos and was in no state to be flown again, not without an artificer to rebuild it. Hence none of the facilities working.

Fair and figures! Is using it as a kind of extradimensional storage space and base of operations for the whole party out of question too?

The Grand Sultan is an epic caster, it seems unlikely to be beyond his reach unless in the domain of another epic caster or deity. Sofie might recommend sending Pilot over to Akadi's court, or to the court of the Great Caliph of Air, who is not statted but likely epic or even possessing divine ranks. Pilot would probably resist the latter on political grounds, and would want to avoid the former if possible to avoid become a servitor—with his freedom recovered, he is loathe to give it up again—but when Sofie impresses on him that he is likely to die otherwise and the party unwilling to intercede and speak to the Court of Fire, he would crumble and accept a new life in Akadi's realm.

I kinda always liked Akadi for some reason. I'm on board with that.

[chaincomplex]

Fair and figures! Is using it as a kind of extradimensional storage space and base of operations for the whole party out of question too?

Well, here the mechanics kind of break down, since I imagined the current location of the Five Pebbles to be on a temporary demiplane generated by the relevant PF spell, whose D&D equivalent costs XP and is permanent.

But presumably after about fifteen days, the Five Pebbles would get dumped back into Sigil's airship docks. Dock workers and managers would investigate, the party would have to fend off Five Pebbles constantly and/or try to commission its repair in the meantime. I imagine the party would make short work of anyone who comes knocking straight up, but would have to hire guards when they're out adventuring. This being in Lower Ward, guards capable of fending off fiends wouldn't be cheap. I expect it's not an ideal decision.

Some potential patrons could readily salvage Five Pebbles as a boon. If they revived some of the deceased crew, there could have been a refit project done in way of thanks, but most of them aren't fans of the Five Pebbles as a ship. It would have been easier for the party to acquire another one of Teru's still-functioning vessels once they got pointed that way.

[remetagross]

Okay, thanks for the judgings chains, though I'll still choose not to use a PowerSurge'd Breath Weapon on consecutive rounds. And Baleful Geas...might be a bit too Baleful for an exalted character...I'm still on the fence, there's this tasty Freezing Fog casting fiery glances at me.

About what the Dustmen would do to the serial killer, that's not fine for Ux. He'd try and negociate with Skall for giving him a hand for any other task he wishes, in exchange for leniency for the Sauvais son - who Ux would have directed for the Bahamut shrine they'd been to. Bahamut has a way for salvaging lost souls, Ux knows this firsthand.
About the Wish not being that powerful, yeah okay, it makes sense. But I'd still like for Pilot to get something out of all this. Due to his troubled past, Ux is fine with him essentially becoming a courtesan in Akadi's court - that's a form of stewardship still miles better than outright slavery, so there's penance in that, but there's also a glimmer of hope. He will be able to work his way up from there. Ux is not versed enough in planar politics to have any kind of hope of swaying a warring, epic-level, evil efreeti.

Ux would ask Sofie to let Pilot have the free use of one of her Wishes, then. He'd suggest restoring his deleted out identity, but that could be anything Pilot would desire - knowing that, after that, he'd have to to something to avoid the bloodhounds of the City of Brass.