User blog:MorganAllison01/Visit with Lord Downmond

June 13, 2021

Azarian's goal is to secure the library, and the entire crypt, for himself. My guess is that House Downmond would welcome some help in securing the area and would like to not have to fear the crypt any more. I also assume I am one of the most powerful mages in the area. The city has one mage of about 9th level, but I don't think there are others that high. Correct me if I'm wrong about any of those assumptions and Azarian knows better.

Azarian's plan: approach House Downmond and personally report upon our success in the crypt. Azarian would assure them the danger is past, for now, but the undead could very well rise again and they should stay away from it for their own safety. He would offer his services to protect them from any further danger from the crypts and, as their own House Wizard, counsel them and offer his spell-casting abilities to them. In return, he would need them to turn over the land around the crypt to him and allow him to construct his own tower there.

Before Azarian approaches House Downmond, he casts Augury for his plan.

In order to adjudicate the Augury, we have to determine how Lord Downmond would react to these proposals. The rules for persuading NPC's relies on their general disposition toward the PC which can be modified by their bonds, flaws, and other personality traits, and then how risky they would interpret the requested actions, which also is based on their personality and how they might way various pros and cons. We can randomly roll an NPC's personality, but a lot of it depends on the alignment. We can roll 2d10 to determine alignment based on our assumed alignment distribution. A roll of 56 gave us Neutral.

Rolling on the random tables: high wisdom, low constitution, sings beautifully, makes constant jokes, is quiet, his ideal is "people," he is captivated by a romantic interest, is brave to the point of being foolhardy. Based on this, the insight check to determine specific traits wouldn't be higher than 10. He wouldn't be hiding them. But, would he be willing to accept "help" from a necromancer? Given his wisdom and disposition, probably not. The augury would come up "nothing."

Azarian would still go and talk to the lord, just to gain insight and maybe persuade him as much as he can in his direction, but would play it fairly safe. He succeeds with a 17. A d3 check to determine which trait he learns: the ideal of "people." Lord Downmond also uses Insight, and he is skilled at it (+3), against Azarian's passive deception of 11: he rolls an 8 and does not sense Azarian's true motivations.

Azarian does not sense that the lord would be well disposed to the suggestion that Azarian be his house mage, so passes on that idea, but does request access to the crypt on a permanent basis and couches it in terms of protecting Lord Downmond's people from further danger. A persuasion check of 17 means that the lord is willing to accept a small risk. Lord Downmond grants Azarian permission to come and go from the crypt as he pleases, but also plans to keep an eye on things there.