D&D puzzle
Jan. 8th, 2017 09:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkWe spent about an hour past midnight at the last D&D session trying to come up with a solution for the scenario below. Usually I wouldn't involve people from outside our party, but in this case the DM already admitted that he planned for this situation to be unsolvable, so I think asking for brainstorming help just in case there is a solution after all is fine in this one case.
Context: There's an organization called the Citadel. They have many powerful mages and they specialize in fighting with animated constructs. They're regularly fighting against the gods and have killed two of them in the past. One frustrating thing is that we don't know – apparently nobody knows – what the Citadel's exact end goal is, which makes them unpredictable.
There's another organization called the Protectors. They consist of the remains of the armies/organization of the two dead gods as well as additional volunteers, and they're led by our time-travelling gold dragon were-scorpion paladin NPC friend, the Lady Rose. The Protectors fight against the Citadel, but they're not on the best terms with some of the other gods, probably because the gods consider them to be too powerful (but we don't know details yet.) Our party is currently in one of the Protectors' headquarters.
Constructs of the Citadel have infiltrated a city of 100,000 mostly humans on the continent of the god Heironeous. In one night they killed all the commanders and leaders, closed the city walls and said they would kill anyone who tries to leave. The civilian population is terrified: the constructs are among them and could be anyone. Past experience with the constructs' style suggests that there are probably around a hundred of them in the city.
Heironeous, having fought against the constructs in the past and almost lost, is paranoid and wants to destroy all the constructs at all costs. He doesn't trust any other method to work, so he wants to destroy the whole city. What he needs for the ritual is currently on its way to him and will arrive in 5-6 days. This is the time we have to eliminate the constructs so the destruction of the city is unnecessary. (We also considered bribing him, but the one thing we could think of that would almost certainly work – a duel with the leader of the Citadel – we almost certainly can't deliver.)
(The question the DM planned for us to answer is whether or not we want to help attack the transport for the important ingredient for the destruction ritual. I understand the impulse but it seems like a huge risk, very questionable reward plan.)
The constructs have assumed the appearance of random citizens via a ritual using their dead bodies (and then destroyed the bodies.) Their skin and blood are indistinguishable from those of humans, but their fake inner organs decay rapidly when laid open; however, cutting people open to the necessary degree kills them without medical attention and this is therefore not a large-scale option. Detect Magic doesn't find them because the skin is a sufficient barrier. Everyone in the city is acting suspiciously because everyone is scared out of their mind. As far as we know the constructs are only physically superior to normal humans and don't have any magical abilities, but we're not certain. They don't need to eat or breathe, but fake it. Experience says that when they feel like they're in danger of being discovered they start killing the townspeople at random.
The Protectors would like to save the town, but they're forbidden to officially act on Heironeous' continent and it's likely that that would lead to war. Which would be bad. However, our party (~7 people) can act because we're sorta-independent outsiders. The Protectors would share any resources with us. They don't have many powerful mages, but they have alchemists and kobold Gundams.
Advantages our party has: long story short, we look like Heironeous' highest representatives and for that reason the citizens are likely to do what we say when they see us. However the town is pretty big and to get a message to all of them we'd have to, idk, write something on the sky, I'm pretty sure they don't have radio.
Disadvantages we have: we're currently on another continent and nobody can cast Greater Teleport, so we're stuck waiting for an airship and it'll likely take 3-4 days until we even arrive at the city.
Right now my best idea is that even if the constructs start killing the townspeople, even if they kill 10,000, that's still better than the alternative. So if there is a way to reliably identify the constructs, or get them to identify themselves, eventually the constructs will be killed by the townspeople. If we put a flavorless (to avoid detection) potion in the water that acts only after, say, a day, works via internal organs and doesn't incapacitate people but gives them some kind of visible marker, that would identify (most of) the townspeople and you'd just have to test whoever is left. Could the alchemists make a potion that works on delay and turns people's skin or hair different colors? If they don't know one, could they develop it quickly enough and in sufficient quantities? I don't know the odds for these, I don't think they're that good.
Or is there another option I'm overlooking?
I think these were the important details. Ideas welcome :)
This was my procrastination for the day (instead of the official session summary that I should be doing.) I also made very good chocolate muffins, and tomorrow I plan to make a banana topping and introduce myself with cupcakes to the neighbours that I don't know yet despite living in this house for a year and a half. Somehow I never got around to it.
Context: There's an organization called the Citadel. They have many powerful mages and they specialize in fighting with animated constructs. They're regularly fighting against the gods and have killed two of them in the past. One frustrating thing is that we don't know – apparently nobody knows – what the Citadel's exact end goal is, which makes them unpredictable.
There's another organization called the Protectors. They consist of the remains of the armies/organization of the two dead gods as well as additional volunteers, and they're led by our time-travelling gold dragon were-scorpion paladin NPC friend, the Lady Rose. The Protectors fight against the Citadel, but they're not on the best terms with some of the other gods, probably because the gods consider them to be too powerful (but we don't know details yet.) Our party is currently in one of the Protectors' headquarters.
Constructs of the Citadel have infiltrated a city of 100,000 mostly humans on the continent of the god Heironeous. In one night they killed all the commanders and leaders, closed the city walls and said they would kill anyone who tries to leave. The civilian population is terrified: the constructs are among them and could be anyone. Past experience with the constructs' style suggests that there are probably around a hundred of them in the city.
Heironeous, having fought against the constructs in the past and almost lost, is paranoid and wants to destroy all the constructs at all costs. He doesn't trust any other method to work, so he wants to destroy the whole city. What he needs for the ritual is currently on its way to him and will arrive in 5-6 days. This is the time we have to eliminate the constructs so the destruction of the city is unnecessary. (We also considered bribing him, but the one thing we could think of that would almost certainly work – a duel with the leader of the Citadel – we almost certainly can't deliver.)
(The question the DM planned for us to answer is whether or not we want to help attack the transport for the important ingredient for the destruction ritual. I understand the impulse but it seems like a huge risk, very questionable reward plan.)
The constructs have assumed the appearance of random citizens via a ritual using their dead bodies (and then destroyed the bodies.) Their skin and blood are indistinguishable from those of humans, but their fake inner organs decay rapidly when laid open; however, cutting people open to the necessary degree kills them without medical attention and this is therefore not a large-scale option. Detect Magic doesn't find them because the skin is a sufficient barrier. Everyone in the city is acting suspiciously because everyone is scared out of their mind. As far as we know the constructs are only physically superior to normal humans and don't have any magical abilities, but we're not certain. They don't need to eat or breathe, but fake it. Experience says that when they feel like they're in danger of being discovered they start killing the townspeople at random.
The Protectors would like to save the town, but they're forbidden to officially act on Heironeous' continent and it's likely that that would lead to war. Which would be bad. However, our party (~7 people) can act because we're sorta-independent outsiders. The Protectors would share any resources with us. They don't have many powerful mages, but they have alchemists and kobold Gundams.
Advantages our party has: long story short, we look like Heironeous' highest representatives and for that reason the citizens are likely to do what we say when they see us. However the town is pretty big and to get a message to all of them we'd have to, idk, write something on the sky, I'm pretty sure they don't have radio.
Disadvantages we have: we're currently on another continent and nobody can cast Greater Teleport, so we're stuck waiting for an airship and it'll likely take 3-4 days until we even arrive at the city.
Right now my best idea is that even if the constructs start killing the townspeople, even if they kill 10,000, that's still better than the alternative. So if there is a way to reliably identify the constructs, or get them to identify themselves, eventually the constructs will be killed by the townspeople. If we put a flavorless (to avoid detection) potion in the water that acts only after, say, a day, works via internal organs and doesn't incapacitate people but gives them some kind of visible marker, that would identify (most of) the townspeople and you'd just have to test whoever is left. Could the alchemists make a potion that works on delay and turns people's skin or hair different colors? If they don't know one, could they develop it quickly enough and in sufficient quantities? I don't know the odds for these, I don't think they're that good.
Or is there another option I'm overlooking?
I think these were the important details. Ideas welcome :)
This was my procrastination for the day (instead of the official session summary that I should be doing.) I also made very good chocolate muffins, and tomorrow I plan to make a banana topping and introduce myself with cupcakes to the neighbours that I don't know yet despite living in this house for a year and a half. Somehow I never got around to it.
no subject
Date: 2017-01-08 10:35 pm (UTC)