Building Bhakashal - Session Report

My Wednesday group had a new player join yesterday. The party had been sent to spy on a powerful warlock who was opposed to their patron, Quin Faal the Iolite. Faal suspected the warlock, one Hoak the Red, of plotting against him (he was right!). So the party headed out to the forest where Hoak was hiding and attempted a surprise assault to either capture him or kill him. The dice, however, weren’t having it, and they did not manage to get surprise, instead, they alerted the guards.

Zero level guards aren’t really a challenge unless they happen to get a lucky critical or they grapple and overbear individual party members. Still, as soon as the party was discovered the alarm was raised and Hoak was alerted. Hoak appeared with a charmed mustard jelly at his side, surrounded by soldiers. Now, just for context, the party are 6-7th level, and there are 7 PCs. 7 mid level PCs are nothing to sneeze at, and they could have started something. But they chose not to.

Instead, they parleyed with Hoak, unfortunately for them Hoak had an ESP spell, and he used it to discover why they were really there. 

Ouch.

What to do?

I use encounter reaction rolls in situations like this. I add modifiers based on their actions and the interlocutor’s charisma, and we go from there. I got a “positive no action” result, so I had to interpret that, why would Hoak not just blast them? I decided that Hoak was pleased that Faal was sending out minions to check on him, that meant he was afraid and Hoak had the upper hand. But rather than slay the party outright and “tip his hand”, he was open to other options

The party suggested that they would report back to Faal and tell him that Hoak was not plotting against Faal, instead that he was exploring the forest for magic items rumored to be hidden there. It was a plausible lie, but Faal might have ways to check.

I came up with a list of three “positive no action” options, kidnapping the party for ransom, buying their loyalty from Faal, or sending the party back to tell their “lie” and see what happens. 

I diced and Hoak decided to go with the party’s plan. 

He had an ESP spell, so when they returned he could determine if they kept their part of the deal, and he insisted that one of the party stay behind as collateral. They discussed it and agreed to leave the party phantasmist (illusionist) behind, as he would have the best chance of escaping if the opportunity arose. 

They set off back to the city and managed to pass 12 consecutive random encounter checks! I love it when this sort of stuff happens, they feel like they are favored by luck as they made that many checks!

They spent a good half hour debating whether or not to lie to Quin Faal. Faal is their patron, and generally trusts them, so they could likely lie without being caught on the spot, but sooner or later Faal’s many informants and magic scrying would likely discover the deceit. The argument was eventually resolved, they would tell him everything, and hope that it went over well. This is in itself a big change, in the early days they would have tried to kill him in his own tower if he got upset at them, now they knew better.

Faal reacted by telling them that Hoak was clearly a threat, and that they needed to neutralize or capture him. So then we had another problem, if they went back to Hoak he would read their minds and discover the subterfuge. So the party and Quin Faal strategized, they suggested that Faal call out the warlock in open combat in the arena. I decided that, given the honor culture of Bhakashal, Faal might like this option, so I had an encounter reaction roll to see what he thought of it.

It gave me a “negative, no action”, so Faal dismissed the idea, “I will not call him to the arena until I know what he is plotting, if I slay him there I will not be allowed to use sorcery to speak with his shade, and I don’t look forward to flushing out his spies.”

They came down to two plans, one was suggested by Faal (me), the other by a player. Faal suggested that they return to his base with a white dragon he had polymorphed into the form of a small gekko lizard. When they return to Hoak and he went to use ESP the party priest would cast dispel magic on the gekko, transforming it back to a white dragon. Hoak would be pressed by the dragon while the party attacked from a distance. This was a variation on a gambit used by my players years ago. 

The players plan was to pretend that Faal was so enraged that they had backed off from Hoak and come back to deceive him, that he slayed them all in a rage. They were to be transported back to the forest by a small group of House soldiers and the priest. There several of the guards would go and meet the new party member, a bard, and wait for a signal. The NPC priest and the party priests would cast feign death on everyone, then the NPC priest and guards who witnessed the spells would leave, signalling the other guards and the bard to appear. The other guards would depart, leaving the bard to deliver the bodies. 

The bard had been only told to deliver the bodies, he had no knowledge of the plan, he was just told to escort the bodies to Hoak. He believes them to be dead, and is supposed to persuade Hoak to accept their delivery as a sign that Quin Faal is taking him seriously. Since he knows nothing of the plan, he will pass an ESP reading, and he will read a prepared statement from Quin Faal, while that is all happening, the party will regain consciousness and attack. Or at least that’s the plan. Both plans had strengths and weaknesses, I will say this, D&D players know how to strategize! 

The lads came up with lots of possible problems in both plans, and of course asked good questions, “Will my body have bleeding wounds and such with Feign Death?” “Will the warlock not think it’s funny that we are all dead and don’t have the signs of being killed?” LOL, the spell doesn’t specify any of that, just that you are in a “... cataleptic state which is impossible to distinguish from actual death”. So, would you have wounds? We discussed that one for a while. Pretty much every session I have ever run has one of those questions, one of those “the rules don’t specify so you have to decide” questions. In many ways these are the lifeblood of D&D, and the variances from table to table make up much of the flavor of the game.

So they decided on the feign death plan. They then traveled to the forest. This time the dice produced a random encounter with a Shen Lung dragon while they were on the river. It gained surprise on them, and set the water around the boat on fire, demanding tribute. The party doesn’t know what Shen Lung dragons can do, and they were worried that it would be too tough to take out quickly, so they asked what the dragon wanted, it demanded magic items. 

Somehow, they decided to acquiesce.

I was honestly expecting a fight or at least parley, but they wanted to get on with it, so they gave the dragon a scroll of 3 spells, oil of slipperyness, a +1 spear and a +1 dagger. The dragon left, sated for now, and they continued on. Next session they will be at the forest and execute the plan, we will see if Hoak is deceived, and if so, if they can take him in a fight. 

Interestingly, they have zero idea what spells Hoak has, other than something to control the mustard jelly. One of the keys to making warlocks intimidating is the Bhakashal spell allocation system. Rather than picking spells and “optimizing” the choices, spells and magic items for NPCs are randomized. This gives them tactical opacity. It is extremely important to realize that not knowing what your opponent can do is a huge disadvantage, one that, IMHO, can give your opponent an edge that is equal or exceeds the edge produced by optimization.

So many of the decisions made by the party (to not fight Hoak initially, to not deceive their patron) are informed by their respect for warlocks in the setting. They get it. They understand that a high-level warlock is extremely deadly. They assume that NPCs are a threat, so just starting a fight is not always a good idea. This leads to a lot of parley, characters and NPCs engaging in discussion with positive or negative outcomes. And this allows players to get creative. 

Good times.