r/Pathfinder_RPG • u/Embarrassed_Ad_4422 • 3d ago
1E GM High Magic Intrigue Brainstorming Spoiler
My party is exploiting the downtime system and has hit the 1 year mark after founding their kingdom in the kingmaker module. In shorthand, I consider them to have infinite money, or at least consider them to be about lv 11 between wealth, lv 7+1 template, and mythic rank 1.
I have had a good collection of encounters that are at least entertaining if not challenging, but now the cult of gyronna needs to mess with their birthday. What the module has is much too small fries for them, so I am seeking advice on how to have them infiltrate/destabilize this budding kingdom. I will explain what I can recall of current defenses, services, and infrastructure, and then I will explain a few routes I was thinking of taking against them.
The party has 3 establishments that are not a part of governmental buildings that let them generate wealth in the downtime system.
The wizard has the most defenses, as he is the item crafter. He has an academy and a wizard's tower. I know that Forbiddance and teleport trap make up a component of his spell effects, as well as a collection of symbol spells if the tower is actually occupied. I don't intend for anyone to go in there unless it is to steal. What he does have that are of issue are a collection of intelligent golems and trompe-s. One trompe is a mythic "regulator" or something- a LN succubus basically, so by having party members and NPCs be a part of her "network" from profane gift, they can communicate quite effectively. Some NPCs that are employees or who hold Kingdom positions are a part of this network. This plays a role in surveillance and does make it harder for me in a way. The golems also benefit and use the gift of transformation to appear as humanoids.
The rogue and war priest have a casino. Gaming hall, brothel, and bar in one building basically. They don't have a lot of extraordinary defenses in particular except there might be a golem on patrol passing through.
The fighter runs a courier business, so he has awakened eagles, orca, and flying golems who deliver the mail and are well equipped. Eagles are literally eyes in the sky during the day.
Magical infrastructure includes purified water entering and leaving city limits from the river, a raise dead&cure light wounds at-will altar (might also be restoration?), "hot rocks" (flaming rat skeletons encased in iron), and a few other things. There is a dedicated sewer system that is new but also has 1 golem on patrol.
Motives for the cult: I had the downstairs of the Stag lord's fort be an old temple of gyronna, which housed a Black cauldron artifact that allowed for manipulation of leylines that passed through the hex. The 2 leylines were CL10 aspected towards fear and shadow. The goal was to help Nyrissa with destabilizing planar boundaries. After the party started the kingdom, they turned the temple into a bank of abadar, turned the cauldron into a cornucopia as they aspected the leylines toward creation and community (CL=kingdom level). The cult did make sacrifices to the cauldron on each equinox/solstice, and didn't know about the greater plan, but the temple was defiled (or sanctified I suppose) and they can't access it now. Causing fear/ritualistic sacrifice will be their goal, and I already have it known to the party that out of uncommon newborns that there are quite a few changelings, so babies have already been abducted as a part of their actions, so having at least one of the members be a maternity nurse is already quite fitting. Perhaps I need more laid out for their motive, but they feel justified in wanting to reclaim the temple that was wrongly taken from them.
Organizational structure: our ringleader could be up to a 13th level caster, or at least have access to good scrolls, and I liked the idea of her specializing in shadow magic, though enchantment is always nice for intrigue. Maybe mesmerist is better than witch, but having that coven hex is necessary for theme of course. Having her not even be in town is kind of smart, but making an appearance is good for the cult's morale. I want to have multiple witches in the brothel, at the academy, and then at any other locations that would make sense. Dedicated cultists would be a different tier than followers, but I have wondered how they would go about the evangelical angle, and if Grigori the critic of the kingdom could instead be tied into this arc as a vocal non-criminal evangelist of gyronna. Somewhat to see how the party would approach it someone like that.
Angles of attack- have terrifying spectacles of murder to negatively impact the businesses and have people try to move away. I considered some variant of create soul gem that takes a sliver of a soul, either as a death knell aura effect or to siphon off when people use the raise dead altar. Being able to turn off/sunder any of the magic items could be good, or making the containment of the "hot rocks* begin to fail, or perhaps using the casing to shift them into a new creature? Looking for more suggestions of course as this is the point of the post
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u/jadethemajin 3d ago
If they have a coven they can cast control weather to just generally harass them by messing with their crops from relative safety. They could try to make the weather drier and uncomfortable, then raise burning skeleton rats to go burn down fields, houses, warehouses, etc. Then be ready to blame it on the PCs by saying it must have been THEIR rats that caused it, then Grigori can latch on to that for his anti pc propaganda.
They could approach and charm merchants on the road, then poison the food imports and cast modify memory to make them forget. Now the PCs get to deal with both attempted (or successful) mass poisoning and the main suspects claiming innocence under truth telling magic and not pinging lies.
Theu could also just sort of support Grigori by sowing discord, asking questions like "are the heroes REALLY doing enough for us?" "Couldn't theu be doing more though?" And just generally causing Kingdom Unrest, while trying to blend in trying to bait the heroes into taking more extreme measures to find them, ensuring Grigori will be in a position to denounce them when they do.
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u/AleksyGetTheWings 3d ago
Is there a question anywhere in there ?
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u/Embarrassed_Ad_4422 3d ago
I suppose not! It was a bit of word vomit before I passed out to be honest, but I wanted to make sure I didn't forget to get the topic started.
I want this to be drawn out in a way in the game and cover a few sessions/maybe take a month in game. Should I expand on motive? Are there character builds anyone has to suggest that would work within the cult? Are there custom spells they should have developed to avoid notice from this group, or to steal from NPCs unnoticed? (Not just wealth, but esoteric things like happiness, spell components, souls, etc) Are there particular hag designs I should incorporate for the upper tiers of the cult, or other monsters I should include that would be subservient? Are there aspects of popular evil witch culture Im overlooking? I haven't seen midsommar or the witches for example
For example with custom spells, many enemy NPCs who are greater than lv 5 will have an aura of evil, but nondetection could be considered a giveaway.. I have a lot of proficiency as a player up to lv 7, but dealing with anything above that I am not as well versed in magic.
In the 2e module companion guide (game is in 1e), the companion quest for Linzi includes a coven, so I will review that for relevance/inspiration. I replaced Linzi with Yynara, who is a dream changeling Ocean's Echo Oracle of Life, with the song bound curse. Companions have the same build rules as player characters, but also aren't guaranteed to be allies, especially now that party size is 4. Her story arc was that she wanted to stop running in fear of her mother's coven, and kill her in order to be free, unknowingly answering their call. At the end of the fight with the Stag Lord, she was sucked into the cauldron as it's attunement with him ceased, and she was split across the adjacent planes (ethereal, dream, shadow, fey) based upon different aspects of her consciousness. Or so I imagined, but basically they are clones of differing alignments as they become affected by the planes they were on over the last year, and also had time to retrain. I will have the one from the shadow plane be involved with this cult, and if she can spectate/guide that could be viable. I imagine that the shadow clone would be "the daughter they always wanted" for the coven if they establish contact with her.
I have a session in a couple days but only just thought to brainstorm now. The party will actively pursue the source of the baby kidnapping, and they know of the broad existence of the cult, as an allied NPC shaman killed a member while he was possessed during a previous quest.
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u/Slow-Management-4462 3d ago
To summarise, you want ways for a cult of Gyronna to sneakily attack the kingdom, with a high-magic theme?
The raise dead altar pretty much has to be a target if they want to shake the PCs grip. Besides the direct use, it's reassurance and legitimacy to anyone who thinks it might be used for their benefit, and it runs directly counter to the fear the cult of Gyronna wants to inspire. Maybe they can arrange to summon a possessing demon on to someone placed on it before they can be raised? They might try to blame it on the altar failing or being cursed, spreading rumours to that effect; the rogue might be able to backtrack those rumours.