Memento Mori: a New Secret Society

[Brandi]

Just how weird is it to cast this spell upon a person anyways ?!?

There's an interesting image: a slave, tongue cut out or mouth sewn shut, who nonetheless carries a message to the PCs... perhaps the slave is deafened too so they cannot try to communicate the message to the wrong people (by gestures or writing).

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Hard to say how many members there would be, considering the sparseness of material on the island. The population of the village isn't given anywhere, and the population of the entire Sea of Sorrows is only 1,300 if we're to believe the reference in RL3E. Giving the lion's share to Ghastria because East Riding is listed as the only settlement of note, I'd say we'd be looking at about 500 or less for the village of Blaustein. We can massage the numbers a little by saying that Bluebeard's thugs don't count (they are all expatriates from other domains) but I'd be inclined to throw the numbers out entirely and set the population around 1,200 for Blaustein alone. But then, I also expand the scale of RL for my games.

With these as a guideline, I'd set the membership of Memento Mori at around 30-60 members. I wouldn't want it to be more pervasive than 10% of the population, but I'd like it to be widespread enough to have contacts with anyone in Blaustein. As you say, it's a small island, and Memento Mori can turn that small-town atmosphere to their benefit.

This may still seem like a large percentage of the population, but MM's outlook has a special appeal for the people of Blaustein: it's their memories being wiped. Once they find that out, many will be hard pressed not to want to join. In someplace like Darkon, where memory alteration has become a respected part of the local mythology, this outlook might find more resistance.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Just how weird is it to cast this spell upon a person anyways ?!?

There's an interesting image: a slave, tongue cut out or mouth sewn shut, who nonetheless carries a message to the PCs... perhaps the slave is deafened too so they cannot try to communicate the message to the wrong people (by gestures or writing).

Or how about casting the spell upon someone in their sleep, so that they don't know they carry a message. You could turn them all Tourettes by filling their mouth with expletives the next time they meet with a crucial ally. If I can't scry on that conversation, I'd hope my DM would at least give a cut scene.

Seriously, I can see magic mouths playing a crucial role as a memory key: someone gets undressed in the privacy of their room, has a tattoo on their hip of a foreign word they mysteriously understand despite never having learned the language. The person speaks the word aloud in their confusion, and activates a magic mouth (in their own voice) that tells them to listen carefully and don't panic....

Of course, the exactness of specifics with magic mouth makes it indispensible in this regard. At the very least, the mouths can be told to only speak when the target is alone. I can see a nested series of mouths on the same object, each activated by the listener speaking the last word or words from the previous message in order to get more info. This would allow the listener to learn at their own pace, and activating the mouths would destroy the evidence in the process.

Of course, magic mouths can be fooled by disguises...imagine one of Bluebeard's cronies going around the village with a hat of disguise, erasing the records in preparation for one final mind-wipe...

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Just FYI: when the Zherisia Survey finally comes out, there've been some recent technological developments in Paridon which the MM might find of particular interest, when it comes to creating trustworthy memory-keys. (Say "Cheese"! )

This is indeed interesting, especially considering that Zherisia high on my list of places where I can see MM really hitting their stride. Holy war against the brain-rapers...kinda funny to think that most people are horrified by the shapechanging, but MM's would be totally rabid about the mind reading ability, and they have already developed a lot of countermeasures.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

So here's a question to those still following this thread: how might Memento Mori successfully entrench themselves in Darkon?

The old "Azalin finds them useful for now" ploy seems a bit dry to me. I mean, Azalin of all people should know about dogs coming off the leash, and the potential for mayhem is so great if they slip his control. His policy of "kill them only if you can't control them" doesn't seem to apply, because by the time he finds out he can't control them, he might not be able to kill them all, either.

Random thoughts:
--Living near a border would be almost a no-brainer. Perhaps Mementos would have to make a weekly (daily?) trip across the border just to make sure Darkon hadn't claimed them.
--If that wasn't enough, maybe they would live across the border from Darkon, and only make the occasional forays into it. Nova Vaasa would be a good choice for that.
--If the Fraternity of Shadows has a magic item that defends against Dominic's powers, why not Azalin? Perhaps when MM comes to Azalin's awareness, they are rescued at the last minute by mysterious benefactors, who share a few precious secrets with them in the hopes of using them as a smokescreen to hide behind.
--Is anything immune to Azalin's powers? Undead? Constructs? The wearer of a normal Ring of Mind Shielding? While I can't see them all blithely embracing undeath, I can see their fanaticism leading to some strange alliances.
--In an extreme move, perhaps the MM develop new magic or alchemy that enable them to remove their memories from their minds. These memories would be placed in magical items that would grant the wearer access to the memories, but would itself be inviolate. In this case, Azalin would find no memories to alter.
--Hypnosis might also yield some interesting effects.

[Nathan of the FoS]

--In an extreme move, perhaps the MM develop new magic or alchemy that enable them to remove their memories from their minds. These memories would be placed in magical items that would grant the wearer access to the memories, but would itself be inviolate. In this case, Azalin would find no memories to alter.

A Pensieve?

[The Giamarga]

--In an extreme move, perhaps the MM develop new magic or alchemy that enable them to remove their memories from their minds. These memories would be placed in magical items that would grant the wearer access to the memories, but would itself be inviolate. In this case, Azalin would find no memories to alter.

A Pensieve?

There's the Thought Bottles magic item in Complete Arcane iirc, which stores memories.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Thought bottle might be what we need. How does it work?

[The Giamarga]

2e thought bottles are in the Tome of Magic: 2E description

The 3E version is in Complete Arcane:

Thought Bottle: A flask of thick green glass, a thought bottle can be used to store thoughts, memories, experience, or spells. A single bottle can hold five thoughts or memories at a time, or a single creature's current experience, or a single spellcaster's collection of prepared spells. Any individual that toches the bottle and speaks the command word instantly gains a general knowledge of the bottle's contents, but doesn't actually access the thoughts, memories, or spells within until she consciously decides to do so. Storing or retrieving anything from a thought bottle requires a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity.

Thoughts: The bottle can store specific ideas, communications, or conclusions. Once a memory [edit: it should probably read though here]is stored, it disappears from the user's mind, but she remembers the general nature of the stored thought. For example, if the user stored the name of a murderer, that name would disappear from her memory and be unrecoverable from her own mind by any means, though she would know that the thought bottle now contains the murderer's name. Similarly, secret messages and intelligence can be hidden in a thought bottle to pass them to someone else.

Memories: The user's recollection of a single day's events can be stored in the bottle. Once stored, the user remembers the general nature of the memory ("the day we performed the Ritual of Binding") but loses all details of the event itself.

Experience: A thought bottle can be used to offset level loss as a restoration spell can, but is effective against level loss that even a restoration can't undo (Inculding levels lost due to death, but not the negative levels bestowed by magic items such as a holy weapon). When a user's experience has been stored within the bottle, he can subsequently acess the bottle to restore his XP total to exactly what it was when it was last stored, negating any level loss in the interim. Storing experience in the bottle is difficult, and the user must pay 500 XP (Deducted before storing) to do so. Only the creature that stored the experience can retrive it, but if the bottle is destroyed or lost, the user suffers no ill effects.

Spells: An owner who prepares spells can store some or all of her memorized spells in a thought bottle. Any spell she puts into the thought bottle is expended as if she had cast it, but the spells in the bottle can then be retrived at any later date to be prepared as normal. Wizards often use this function of thebttole to create a kind of backup spellbook, concealing thought bottles in well hidden boltholes against the eventuality of their grimoires being stolen or destroyed. Only the character who stored the spells can retrieve them, and if the bottle is destroyed, the stored spells are lost with no effect.

Strong Enchantment; CL13th; Craft Wondrous Item; demand, modify memory; Price 20,000gp; Weight 1lb.

from a interesting thread on ENWorld discussing this item.

BTW Gromph Baenre did use a though bottle as part of an elaborate trick to beat/escape a mind flayer mage in the novel Extinction, by Lisa Smedman.

Also in the House of Serpents trilogy the main character, Arvin, a rogue/psion often eradicates his own memory but leaves himself clues to trick other psions who might read his mind...

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Sounds very close to what we need. The cost to create is a little too high to make it workable, but then again we don't need the XP or spell-storing versions. Eliminating those should make it much more affordable.

A thought vial?

[Nathan of the FoS]

--In an extreme move, perhaps the MM develop new magic or alchemy that enable them to remove their memories from their minds. These memories would be placed in magical items that would grant the wearer access to the memories, but would itself be inviolate. In this case, Azalin would find no memories to alter.

A Pensieve?

From the Harry Potter books. Albus Dumbledore uses one of these to store and re-examine memories he believes are important.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Does anyone have any other ideas on who or what would be immune to Azalin's memory modification?

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Looking around the Core for another beachhead for MM, I think Valachan would be perfect, especially when they learn that the charm-tainted food is being shipped to other lands!

[HuManBing]

Does anyone have any other ideas on who or what would be immune to Azalin's memory modification?

Depending on how closely you want to read the ability, if it functions exactly as the spell does, then presumably things that are immune to mind affecting magic are also immune to this.

This would mean most undead, constructs, plants, and probably outsiders. (Although Azalin has several other really powerful ways of commanding undead apart from this.)

[High Priest Mikhal]

probably outsiders.

Outsiders with reality wrinkles would definitely be immune; they're not "in" Darkon in the same metaphysical sense as everything else so the land is powerless against them, and Darklords can't use their domain powers against such beings. Outsiders without reality wrinkles--those without the Good or Evil subtype, or those with 22+ corruption points--would be just as vulnerable as any mortal, IMO.

The undead would be immune, but then Azalin can control any undead creature so it's a moot point.