Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Bort333 09-23-04, 04:27 PM	If your in my campaign get the hell out! Ok situation - Party has just completed a task for a powerful noble. The noble is going to reward them with gold and a huge feast in their honor. Well the noble is actually going to poison their drinks (make them fall asleap). How do I run this? If I say "Ok your at the feast do you drink the wine?" they will know something is up. If I don't say anything and just assume they drink, no doubt it will be considered unfair because "well maybe I didn't want to drink." How should I handle it? EDIT - CRAP wrong forum... uh could a moderator delete?
jnrhayz 09-23-04, 04:29 PM	This might be better in the DM section, but whenever I have a feast I usually ask each person if they eat and drink their fill. I do that every time however, so they never know when something bad may happen.
eudas 09-23-04, 05:51 PM	answer: whatever you need to do to fake them out... you may want to look at binary agents and such as well... poisons that only work if you imbibe both parts. that way, you can put poison agent 1 in the food, and poison agent 2 in the wine, but have the noble drink from his own wine bottle (one that lacks poison agent 2). The party (and others) drink and eat, and get poisoned; the noble suffers nothing because he only eats poison agent 1. or alternatively you could have him celebrate with a "special" bottle of wine for the adventurers, with poison agent 2, and try to make it such that only the party drinks that wine. eudas
ride1wheel 09-23-04, 09:43 PM	or alternatively you could have him celebrate with a "special" bottle of wine for the adventurers, with poison agent 2, and try to make it such that only the party drinks that wine. You could throw them off even more by saying something like "the nobleman shows up late to the feast (thus not eating the apptizer (poison1) that everyone else at the table, including the party eats). He walks over to the PCs, congralates them on their recent victory, takes a heartry drink out of the wine (poison 2) flask, then hands it to the party, saying ""only the best wine out of my cellers for the bravest adventures of the land."" The nobleman sit down next to the pary and feasts with them (carfuly avoiding the breadsticks)."
Gedrin 09-24-04, 12:59 AM	Well, first, I don't recal ever sitting down to a meal where there was food and drink, and not drinking. Some characters may drink only certain things, but that's likely well established. I would no more expect a complaint from a player for my assuming they consumed the dinner beverage, than a player of mine would expect me to question that they're actually wearing shoes after donning their equipment in the morning. It is common practice to drink the beverage for dinner, and I would consider it a petty complaint if somone considered me "unfair" for assuming that they actually drank the coke that came with the burger and fries. As for the method of poisoning, poison their table settings, not the food itself. The noble will have assigned seating and servants who do the work of passing out the food. No reason to put the nobleman in any risk. If the PC's have no reason to distrust the noble, they'll likely just talk over food. If you'd like to go all out, have the IC dinner timed with when you order lunch/dinner IRL. The mechanics of the situation are another matter. I'd recomend doing the save rolls yourself, but I know some groups would have a problem with this. Essentially, there are 2 things in play. 1: Does the PC notice the poison? 2: Is the poison effective? Assuming the noble does a good job of concealing things, and the PC's aren't familiar with poisons or the dishes in play, the first shouldn't be a problem. However, PC's who are cooks, know about the food being served (maybe they have noble backgrounds), or have knowledge of poisons, should have a chance to taste/smell the poison in the food. The real problem the noble has is his potentially violent dinner guests are not likely to pass out all at the same time. Saving Throws are important to see if anyone's still resisiting when the first person drops. Slow acting poisons run the risk of being cured by clerics. Fast acting poisons run the risk of having the first person drop while the rest are still eating their unpoisoned salads. The best option is to have a very very potent poison that can be placed in a dish of the noble's choosing. Then, when that course of the meal comes around, he can be virtually garaunteed that everyone will be taking their first bites at the same time, and that the poison (if consumed) will be effective. Access to highly potent poisons is a pretty interesting advantage to have, and it might be worth giving some thought to how a nobleman comes into contact with such people (alchemist as a retainer?).
Lina_Inverse 09-24-04, 01:57 AM	um question.do you actully expect your pcs to fail there fort saves?sleep poison is what DC15?a fighter LEVEL ONE passes on a 9 or higher.which if there dealing with powerful nobles they should be well above that. that and this noble is doing this why anyways?and what alingment is he anyways.
Master Agnald 09-24-04, 08:35 AM	Make they make FORT rolls out during the feast. Tell them it's because of the wine's alcohol. When they fail, tell them they fell asleep. Whoever succeeds, will be awake, but numb, with his vision all blurry and all. If they're stupid like the ones I play with, they might actually think that the wine was a "really strong kind of wine".