[Conan/Call of Cthulhu d20]Shadow over Stygia Recruiting

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 1:22 am

Isandro's also updated. He's got Web of Death now on top of the cheesy parry score, so if you need someone to mulch through mooks at one end of the staircase he's your man.

Nebuchadnezzar · Post by **Nebuchadnezzar** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 11:58 am

My guy's updated. Since now he can turn into a Lesser Son of Set, and his A.C. got a decent boost, a little sandbagging on spells/feats is cool. As far as prep., he'll spend the next couple of weeks taking drugs, casting Visions to spy on Katsetshuset's progress, trying to find something useful in the tattoos, and, if possible, corrupting one or two of Karanthes' apprentices for a potential Debaucher PP source.

Edit: Oh, and maybe he and Kamoses could whip up some smoke powder.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 2:42 pm

Karanthes reminds that the cause of Ibis is not a poor one; if the PCs can come up with a list, he can probably have his followers secretly bring them almost anything within reason from the city.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 8:28 pm

Oh, and I forgot: Neb wanted to know what was at the northern end of the hall, shrouded in darkness.

Karanthes leads the way, holding ahead of him the Ibis-stick, from which a wan radiance pours to light the path through the dust. Seated at the end of the hall, on a broad throne of ivory, squats an immobile horror.

"This is Rhan-Tegoth, who shall open the way for the Old Ones." the old man's voice quavers. "In a fortnight's time, Katsetshuset will arrive here when the planets and stars are in their houses, to make the Red Offering. We must not let that happen."

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 10:21 pm

I'm away from my books at the moment, but I should be able to get my character updated (at the least in the form of "here's what's changing") by tonight. My internet access is split between my phone at home and my laptop using public wifi still.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 4:47 am

Taotie will talk to Karanthes on how he lost against the beast women (not even able to land a blow on that damn priest) and how he can overcome them in the upcoming battle, and the nature of the spell on his warfist.

Nebuchadnezzar · Post by **Nebuchadnezzar** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 2:10 pm

Here are a couple of things that would be found in the region, aren't crazy expensive, and could be easily used against sorcerers by non-sorcerers. Pretty much anything fancy that isn't some singular magic item is either found in Tito's Trading Post or the main book, if someone else feels like looking.

Elixir of Orkideh(3000sp): actually found not far from Kheshatta, if dumped on a sorcerer they are unable to use magic for 1d4 minutes.
Kothic Demon Fire(500sp): thrown glass orb causing either 5d6+stun against 1 opponent, or 2d8 in 10'x10'.
Black Stygian Scorpion Venom(1000sp) Injury DC23 1d6Con/Dex, 1 round/1 round/1 round/1 round
Upas-Tree Oil(1000sp) Injury DC20 1d6Con(+power points), 1 round/5 rounds
Stygian Tomb Dust(400sp): can cause blindness. Requires a magic attack roll to use.

Stuff my dude wants:
Ebon Staff(50sp), so he can cast Dread Serpent; scant handful of "drinking buddies".

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 3:07 pm

OgreBattle wrote:Taotie will talk to Karanthes on how he lost against the beast women (not even able to land a blow on that damn priest) and how he can overcome them in the upcoming battle, and the nature of the spell on his warfist.

"His lemans are deadly monsters; the lamia may be banished, but for the other there is little that cannot be done with cold steel."

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 9:21 pm

Ok, so I was looking through the books and realized that werebeasts would actually be far more effective than zombies. There's also the fact that Awful Rite of the Were-beast actually gives you pp like performing a sacrifice.

And thus formed an interesting plan.

A ritually perfect offering returns the greatest amount of pp, this should be something like temple prostitutes. I can find a handful of such that are willing to serve Set by removing an upstart priest who would destroy the world, overcharge my pp to 27, make three were giant cobras, and probably get at least 12 pp that way, plus the three remaining is 15. Make another, get about 4 pp for 11, make another, get another 4 for 7, wait a bit to recharge one or sacrifice anything, and make another.

Then we have six beautiful women who can turn into 4hd large snakes with 1d4dex and 1d4con (initial and secondary both) venom. We can then try to say they're a gift, or have them sneak in in snake form. Even with DC11, six bites per round. Should take karanthes down.

If we can find willing "sacrifices" who are large, they can be were-lesser sons of set (huge, 11hd, constrict) or were-giant stygian crocodiles (huge, 14hd, str 30), and would probably work better as "gifts"

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 1:07 am

Karanthes blanches at mentions of these dark sorceries, but only nods his aged head, seeming to shrink even more into himself, agreeing that suitable sacrifices might be procurable.

(With regards to studying the spells from Taotie's body, there is limited time to do so with the other ritual preparations that Neb and Kamoses are planning - they can perhaps glean 1 spell each from their perusal while waiting for the virgins and whatnot to appear.)

Kurama314 · Post by **Kurama314** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 6:17 am

In terms of a shopping list Velasco definitely wants at least one flask of the Elixir of Orkideh, as well as a dose of the Black Stygian Scorpion Venom. If we opened the ambush with the elixir we could end it before he was able to cast a single spell. The poison is mainly to play it safe.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 7:03 pm

Anybody else have something to add to the shopping list? Or plans to put in place? An actual strategy for how they want the ambush to work (i.e. who waits where, etc.)?

Nebuchadnezzar · Post by **Nebuchadnezzar** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 7:25 pm

(My guy knows enough spells. Taotie can have it, if that's ok.)

Fuck it, Operation Cobra Hooker is go.

tl;dr: making 6 drugged-up weresnakes just before Kat. shows up puts the sorcerers >=30PP each.

Neb. will cast Visions several times over the next fortnight, using the Silvered Mirror as a focus, just so the party knows exactly when to expect Katsetshuset and his retinue. ~3 hours before they arrive he and Kam share some of the blue-black sand found in the Blasted Temple with a half dozen new Initiates of Derketo, before having a lighthearted conversation about horrors from prehistory for 2 hours. They end the conversation with a demonstration of the Usir/Osirin belief in what was effectively a chakra system, named the Opening of Set's Eyes. Kamoses then spends the next half hour making women into monsters, while Neb. gets freaky with his A.C..

K. starts at 10/10 PP, N. at 7/9 (having cast Visions shortly before). They each have a +2 to Perform(ritual) checks due to fancy staves, so N. can only fail a DC 22 on a 1.

They each do the Third Mystery Invocation of Usir (Stygia p64), being 3 Perform checks at DC 18, 20, 22.
N. does the Second Mystery Invocation of Derketo (Stygia p52), being a Perform check at DC 15.
If all checks pass that puts K at 10/14 and N at 7/14, with a maximum of 42 PP each.

Each level 1 victim makes 2 Corruption saves (DC 1d20+6). Assuming each fails one, they generate 1d6+11 PP/person. Awful Rite of the Werebeast costs 8PP, so each transformation nets an average of 6.5 PP +sacrifice bonus. Assume the targets aren't virgins. With the bonus from the Ritual Sacrifice feat the werebeast conversion grants 1PP/4hp, or 1PP/each, for a total of 7.5PP average gained per victim. If the sacrifice bonus is instead based on the HP of the snake form, it goes up to 10.5/each, and the sorcerers are just shy of their maximum PP. If they both smoke some Black Lotus beforehand they reach it.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:09 pm

Kam is really more limited by "resources" than time or anything. So his actual request for the shopping list is "as many of the biggest stygian slave girls you can get, preferably virgins." If they're large, he'd actually rather go crocodile hookers, for reasons of power. But if we can only get medium slave girls, then cobra hookers will work. If we can buff their Con in any way, that would be good too.

Also Kam has Ritual Sacrifice, so he's one step up on the sacrifice pp table.

Nebuchadnezzar · Post by **Nebuchadnezzar** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:21 pm

Well, there is Nekka, but I'd argue given her nickname she should be a werehippo. This assumes she isn't already one, which would perhaps explain her getting along with the possible werecamel.

As far as strategy, Neb. will stand in the open, so as to trash talk/lock something sorcerous in a War of Souls/hit anything demonic with an Incantation of Almaric's Witchman, before turning into a giant snake. His A.C. has a good Hide score, so will try to poison something from concealment near the base of the stairs.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:50 pm

Actually, rather than spending all of his prep time on making were hookers, Kam should probably also acquire at least a few bodies he can animate, to actually, well, justify his presence, since the were hookers are free willed and can just be told the plan.

If he can get that many bodies, Legions of the Dead would allow him to create up to 105 raised corpses with a duration of concentration+1d6 hours.
If he learns Make Greater Undead, he can instead make 210 permanent 1HD zombies, or 42 permanent 3HD zombies with an xp expenditure.

A question on the undead. I've been going with skeletons in my descriptions, both because I prefer skeletons to zombies stylistically, and because that's the materials I've had. Have you been using skeletons stat-wise, AH, or the Risen Dead from the book, or what?

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:52 pm

Risen Dead. Also, Nekka is not a virgin.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:59 pm

Make Greater Undead in Betrayer of Asgard says that it can create undead other than the four that are listed, with their own requirements. Could I use it to make skeletons ("GM may I?")?

1HD Zombies are 1pp/5corpses, 10xp/corpse to make permanent, no component cost, and take a standard action
3HD Zombies are as above, but 1pp/corpse and 50xp/corpse
Zombies with HD equal to what they had in life are 3pp/corpse, 100xp/corpse to make permenant, 50 silver (flat) component cost, and 1 standard action.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 9:06 pm

Sure.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 9:09 pm

Just to be clear, I mean mechanically, so that they aren't limited to partial actions.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 9:16 pm

I suppose. Although the XP cost might bite you in the ass.

[/edit] You have 250 XP to play with before losing a level.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 9:26 pm

Ah, good to know. I think in that case, I'd go with smuggling in the remains to make them, and then casting the spell first thing, non-permanent, and my immediate prep for the assault being maxing out my PP.

Nebuchadnezzar · Post by **Nebuchadnezzar** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 11:38 pm

I guess the question is how many minions were being considered here. The people that get turned into animals could fail Corruption saves up to 8 times each, and actually fail more readily each time, so there would be a stupid amount of PP available over the course of several hours. The Create Greater Undead spell is entirely handwavy, so throwing points at a BS'd 20-30 point temporary Lesser Child of Ahriman or whatever wouldn't even be a thing. Storywise, using just a couple of corpses could be looked upon less unfavorably by the meeping morticians of the Acheronian highway. Making a bunch of mook skeletons is also cool, though.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 12:20 am

How wide are the stairways? Alchemy isn't Isandro's thing but scattering some flame-powder around would be easy enough. It wouldn't help that much, mind you--the relatively short duration once scattered makes coating the whole stairway impractical--but it's something.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 12:22 am

No more than two armored men can pass down the stairs at a time.