TG418

Suffer Not a Sorcerer to Live

Episode Number: (TG418)
Original Airdate: 9/2002

Duke Eledin delivers an ultimatum to Ambassador Fayel: leave Twingate in three days or be charged with treason. The party attempts to meet with Fayel in order to discuss the situation, but due to a teleportation error they end up in a small town south of Alyon. There they find that an evil sorcerer has been kidnapping and slaughtering children... and a town hell-bent on lynching sorcerers of all types. After investigating the sorcerer's home, they find some items to kill evil outsiders, as well as a powerful book (which Tim flips through, makes a save against, and watches disappear). They go to the pentagram, stumble upon the sorcerer, and fight him. He escapes back to town, where he is finally defeated, but not before fireballing a lot of people.

Plot Points

• Significant Other Update: Naoine has run off to train with her master; Krim headed off to find out where she's gone. Emcee is off on a mission for Karilon.
• Arlemis has agreed to protect Yadarjin against some as yet unnamed threat.
• Baelin is a referred to as a "man of the people," and has a lot of popular support.
• There's some sort of trouble with the spiders in the dwarven kingdom.
• Sorcerers are getting a bad reputation. They are said to use blood and human sacrifice for spell components, to be undisciplined, to grow horns and scales and wings as evidence of their demonic heritage, and to cause half-orcism by sorcerous magic on babies still in the womb.
• The party has chosen to ignore multiple hints about The Haunted Ziggurat outside of town.

Unanswered Questions

• Was Zorkin really a sorcerer? His study seemed to have a lot of books, but they did seem like they were only for show, as they didn't actually radiate magic.
• Who did Zorkin think was after him? He kept saying that people were one of "them," though he never specified who "they" were.

Analysis

• It is practically impossible to say "pentagram of babies" without laughing.
• The party believes that the Gray Army, which destroyed Twingate in the most recent alternate universe, may be on the move. In the alternate universe, Twingate was destroyed for rebellion against the throne. And here in the real world, Duke Eledin is stepping up his rebellion against the throne.
• The propaganda about sorcerers is tough. That they use blood and human sacrifice is tough to disprove, because some evil sorcerer somewhere probably does -- as do evil wizards and clerics. That they are undisciplined is probably true, though that doesn't mean that they are evil. Timus, who may be going faintly half-dragon, is liable to be a tad upset about demonic inferences regarding his scales and horns. And the half-orc jab is incendiary and, if true, an ugly accusation that's going to cause a lot of anger.
• Tim is acting a little odd. It's probably nothing, though.

DMP Speaks

The fact that the party is now paranoid enough to actually realize what I'm doing, if they can't prove it, is just beautiful.

It's hard to play an irrational person. Most of what the party was saying about needing more evidence, not leaping to conclusions, and all of that, made sense to me, and as me, I want to agree with the party. Playing a freaked-out, scared, and manipulated townsperson who is going to ignore that logic and just burn someone is much harder to do.

And yes, it was, in fact, a Book of Exalted Deeds.

Quotes

Patrick: And they discover that the sorcerer has made a pentagram out of dead babies!
Karin: [giggle]
Patrick: Shit, you too?

DMP: Who's feeling lucky?
Colin raises his hand. Dave points to Colin
Colin: {not looking) He's pointing at me, isn't he?

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