How to interrogate powerful rune lords

[Soccercalle]

My PCs plan to kidnap and interrogate a powerful rune lord. The plan is to capture him when he is sleeping. But we wonder about the magic abilities. Will he be able to cast spells on them even if he is in chains? Is there a way to make it impossible for someone to cast spells?

[French Desperate WindChild]

i don't see anything different between rune lord and initiate (or shaman or sorcerer)

 

the rules say (p314)

Quote

The caster recites the invocation to the god, either aloud or in the mind, after which the spell takes effect

so a gag is useless

 

then i think you have two ways (maybe 3,4, ..) :

- be sure your rune lord has no more rune point

- use enough iron to have 95% resistance (win win if your RL is chained with iron, magic resistance + ap)

- don't know if there is a cult for that but sorcery may create a kind of "bubble" anti magic, where nothing inside can cast or use magic

- send the rl in some heroplan jail (or hell or what you want) but if you are powerful enough to do that, you don't need any help, right ? 😛

[French Desperate WindChild]

and by the way, the rune lord is sleeping, but what about the allied spirit ?

[Nick Brooke]

Slap him in a slave collar: see "Cults of Prax" for details.

[Nick Brooke]

If you can get him into a temple (or other sanctified ground), you might be able to bounce him into being an involuntary participant in a heroquest ritual, which could seriously limit his ability to go off-script. But that's mostly a GM call.

[Runeblogger]

If you consecrate to your own deity the ground around the runelord of another deity without waking him up, at least he won’t be able to call for divine intervention. 😝. Risky business.

[jajagappa]

4 hours ago, Soccercalle said:

The plan is to capture him when he is sleeping. But we wonder about the magic abilities. Will he be able to cast spells on them even if he is in chains? Is there a way to make it impossible for someone to cast spells?

I introduced marshwort leaves/tea in my Edge of Empire book as one response to the question. If ingested it drains away magic points largely limiting the use of spirit magic (and Rune magic requiring magic points). [Borrowed the idea from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.]

There could be a similar herb or perhaps a magic mushroom that inhibits one's ability to connect with the deities, perhaps by lowering a specific Rune for a period of time (e.g. if the Rune Lord's Air Rune was 80, then using Ground Powder in food/drink they ingest lowers their rating by POT x5%. Low Air Rune = difficult to cast the relevant Rune magic).

[JRE]

In past editions, if you could avoid touching it, a pristine piece of truestone would force a rune level to put all their rune magic in it, so you could strip them of magic and get a powerful magic item with exotic magics. Pity untouched Truestone is very rare and we are not sure how it works in RQG.

Important prisoners are always kept in sanctified ground to overcome the divine intervention in literature. I suppose that with a sufficient show of force the Rune Lord will not start casting while tied up. Blindness is also a good tactic, for both the rune lord and the ally, because many spells require you to see a target. 

So a leather bag on the head, allowing also to asphyxiate them if they put up too much resistance, another bag for the ally spirit if it has senses separate from the Rune Lord, and get them unconscious fast and take them to a temple different from theirs.

In RQG it is important to know how full is their rune pool, as if it is full, escape by divine intervention is almost guaranteed if conscious. If the rune pool is low, they may prefer becoming a prisoner to risking a portion of their soul, hoping for ransom. How many players would prefer paying ransom to losing 1D10 POW? All of them I know.

Once they are in the temple the high priest may order the wyter to just neutralize any magic they cast. Expensive in POW but probably unbeatable.

The consecrated ground from a spell could be dispelled or dismissed, so depending on the Runepool it may be only a temporary solution.

I am sure the dwarves have sorcerous objects that impede spellcasting, and may well be the source of the first Praxian slave collars. Sorcery also has interesting long duration spells limiting specific runes or types of magic, but they are not available to non-sorcerers and require a lot of preparation. They can also drain MPs, that would cause unconsciousness and limit spellcasting. Our PC really likes it as a pacifying spell, used from a long distance, though it would be hard to affect a Rune level.

As Nick says, the elegant heroic solution would be to find a myth where their deity is imprisoned or immobilized for some time and get them to assume the role. If you want interrogation, you could find or make a new myth and see if it sticks: "Orlanth spills the beans..." may be difficult, but "Orlanth pillow talks with Ernalda" could work and fill both requirements. 

[Soccercalle]

To give some context. I run a Six Seasons/Company of the Dragon campaign and my PCs (including THE Griselda) plan to kidnap Fazzur Wideread in his palace in Dunstop. They want to get information and hope that he will be pissed at Tatius et al.

[Richard S.]

5 hours ago, JRE said:

"Orlanth pillow talks with Ernalda" could work and fill both requirements. 

Of course, that one always comes with the risk of Orlanth convincing Ernalda to run away from the Emperor's palace with him...

2 hours ago, Soccercalle said:

To give some context. I run a Six Seasons/Company of the Dragon campaign and my PCs (including THE Griselda) plan to kidnap Fazzur Wideread in his palace in Dunstop. They want to get information and hope that he will be pissed at Tatius et al.

That definitely sounds ambitious. A slave collar would probably be the easiest method like others have said, plus a few rune masters of your own to watch him. Unless your players are unusually familiar with Lunar myths, a heroquest trap probably won't work (and I'm not sure if Yanafal even has any appropriate ones in the first place). The hardest part will probably be capturing him in the first place.

[dumuzid]

Force Discorporation on him with a heavy snort of hazia, and have a shaman spirit prepped and ready to Spirit Combat his spirit into submission.  Then the shaman can use Command spells to get him to tell you whatever you need.

[JRE]

If he can cast spells, he may have a large spirit block on him (several times if dispelled) while he waits for the bodyguards, any Lunar wyter in the area, and general troops and priests to intervene. Capturing him should be hard. And if not impeded, he could always DI away. In his case POW loss is almost sure better than capture.

[JRE]

In the case of Fazzur, and I knew how to get into his bedchambers, I would trade for teleport spells and matrixes, and have the teleporter ally spirit stay behind in the chosen interrogation temple. Then the bag on the head, making sure we get also any ally spirit (to make tracking more difficult) and apply a barrage of spirit and non-damaging spells to keep him unbalanced (and hopefully demoralized or befuddled). We would consecrate the bedchamber to avoid inpromptu DI, and then trust one of the teleports overcomes his POW. 

I would rely that Fazzur will not throw his life away, so the main objective is to get out with him without DI. If you had a sacred relic, and if not in a highly defended location, just staying close with the Relic and taking him flying with a huge air elemental could be enough, but I would not expect him not to have anti air and earth elemental defences.

A more elegant but ruthless method would require an Eurmali with 13+ Runepool, Swallow and a traded Guided teleportation. Swallow him, teleport, vomit the corpse and ressurrect him in the temple. Now he is yours.

[Shiningbrow]

Ummm... Eurmali Lie - "The Emperor wants you to come with us and tell us everything about XYZ".

 

Done and dusted!

[Joerg]

Spirit possession might be a way, depending on how you play with that. Including possession by a friendly discorporate warlock.

[Lordabdul]

On 7/12/2023 at 7:50 AM, Soccercalle said:

To give some context. I run a Six Seasons/Company of the Dragon campaign and my PCs (including THE Griselda) plan to kidnap Fazzur Wideread in his palace in Dunstop. They want to get information and hope that he will be pissed at Tatius et al.

Ignoring for a while all the guards and wyters and guardian spirits they need to sneak past in order to get Fazzur, they can do it the nice way or the hard way.

• Nice way: they get to Fazzur and somehow manage to reason with him or appeal to his sense of Honour (if he has any). "We caught you fair and square, you don't have your armour or weapon, let's simply talk and then we'll leave you be. Scout's honour."  Maybe the PCs even came prepared with a proposal: "Sorry to interrupt your nap here, Mr. Fazzur, but I think we can help each other."
• Hard way: they destroy everything that looks like a spirit magic focus, including any tattoos (cover them or burn the skin). This will take him extra time to cast any spirit magic, which gives you ample time to slit his throat if needed. Rune magic is trickier but if the blade is already on his neck, maybe he'll think twice about how fast a Strike Rank goes. Plus, many of the spells he can cast to get away would have to be targeted at his captors, so buffing up the interrogators with magical protection will help defuse any attempts.

Bonus points:

• Bring a Lankhor Mhy initiate. Check that cult's spells: they are great at doing interrogations.
• Put some Warding around Fazzur. Maybe a couple layers of it.

[narsilion]

When he sleeps, you have to put an incense with funny herbs near him. A lot, lots of funny herbs. Then come in the disguise of toadstools, humpty-dumpty, a smile without a cat, a blue frog with a pipe and a few other similar things. Then wake him up and invite him to a philosophical dispute combined with a walk...

[Nozbat]

Ermmm... what about using the Spanish Inquisition? No one really expects it... and certainly I expect Fazzur would be surprised

[g33k]

On 7/12/2023 at 2:31 AM, Nick Brooke said:

Slap him in a slave collar: see "Cults of Prax" for details.

I thought I had seen Someone Official state that those had been retconned out of "Official Glorantha."

(Obviously, YGWV)

Edited July 25, 2023 by g33k

[Nick Brooke]

They’re in the Guide, and Someone Official tells us that’s canon. So I’m not sure what you’re referring to.

[Lordabdul]

There's still canon as far as I know but Jeff says they're "very rare", FWIW.

[JRE]

And Fazzur is commonplace?

[Shiningbrow]

1 hour ago, JRE said:

And Fazzur is commonplace?

Extremely popular name, AFAIAC... 😛

[Darius West]

On 7/12/2023 at 5:10 PM, Soccercalle said:

My PCs plan to kidnap and interrogate a powerful rune lord. The plan is to capture him when he is sleeping. But we wonder about the magic abilities. Will he be able to cast spells on them even if he is in chains? Is there a way to make it impossible for someone to cast spells?

Soccercalle, you failed to tell us the most important thing... What cult is the Rune Lord?

[Nick Brooke]

4 hours ago, Darius West said:

Soccercalle, you failed to tell us the most important thing... What cult is the Rune Lord?

Yanafal Tarnils Rune Lord, Red Goddess and Hon-eel initiate, probably some others.