Okay, people in the party have decided that maybe they should keep tabs on Sumiko and try to kill her after/near the end of the adventure. understandably, I find myself trusting them less and less.
The party consists of:
- ratfolk Cleric
- elf Ninja
- human Soulknife
- elf Aegis (constructs)
- human Druid
- tengu Cryptic/Thrallherd lich (moi) + my Dread werewolf gnome bodyguard
So I spent the last few days forming a bunch of contingency plans -- having a list of each party member, their strengths, their weaknesses, and how I could take them out if necessary (aka if they suddenly jump me). One difficulty is that it's five vs two until I can turn/lock down some of them, and I know they will hit me hard up front.
---
My first concern is protecting my soulstones (esp the Dragonstone) from being lifted by the Ninja, so I've asked the GM if I could insert some of them into my skin and touch them to activate them (considering I'm undead). He hasn't done this yet, but I know he lifted something off a party member earlier and I need to keep an eye on him. It helps that liches do not sleep.
- Anyway, the ninja is easy in a fight -- his Will save is terrible and his slashing damage is something I can mostly soak, so I Mythic Mind Control him and throw him at the party.
- I can attune the voodoo doll I found to paralyze the Soulknife at a distance. He can do a lot of burst damage in one shot and he can fly perfect, but otherwise he's a one-hit wonder. (He's also scared of me, which I've been playing into so that he doesn't really want to attack me.)
- The Cleric is in love with me, so I'll suck up to him in roleplay and make him think he has a chance, so he won't attack me later. I think I can get him to either abstain OR even protect me.
That leaves me with the Druid (who is pretty powerful -- he mostly wildshapes into elementals + has a few powerful divine spells) and the Aegis (who is very smart and controls constructs) -- their Will saves are hard to beat. I have some powers that can just try to mow them down, but gives either of them a round or two to do something wicked to me.
---
So I rethought this... and realized I had more options, based on the Dragonstone.
Because of various Mythic feats I have and my UMD I've dumped feats and items into, I'm pretty sure I can cast Wish right out of the stone now, with almost no chance of failure (at least the first casting of it). The DC is damned high, but I can manage it by burning a mythic power and maybe even not needing it.
Wish can be used [explicitly in the rules as an example] to teleport up to CL people (19, in this case) from their locations on one plane to locations on any other plane. Unwilling participants get a DC24 Will save.
Meanwhile, the planes in our campaign are still separate, which means that each of the three material planes is missing a particular energy source.
So here is Operation Dorothy:
1. I can dump the psionic casters in the non-psionic plane and divine casters in the non-divine planes -- preferably nasty locations with natural threats -- and they'll be hard-pressed to live even if I don't intervene further because they will be mostly powerless.
2. The ninja, I can drop somewhere physically brutal or even just in a cage of my own devising... I haven't decided yet.
3. Meanwhile, my thrall and I are ensured of going anywhere we want, since we're willing targets of the Wish. So regardless of whether some make their saves, we can escape to a safe hidden location if we want. Or we can go with the divine caster to disable him at my leisure as first blood. Or take our time and hunt them down one by one.
Don't fight them at once, on their turf.
Instead, separate them all to turfs of my choosing, then crush them individually.
(I could just drop them under lava but that would just be mean. So we'll do it the more fair way.)
---
My restraint here fits my character (she's pragmatic and does need their help currently, so I wouldn't try to hurt them during the game) + the rules of fun gameplay where it's not cool to just kill other PCs.
This is primarily if they turn on ME after the fact. (Won't THEY be surprised? heh heh.)
---
I have something else in my favor too: I can keep building my cult, winning over various races diplomatically and forming a network of connections among the elites, until it would look REALLY bad for all of them to attack me after we save the worlds by defeating the dark god.
Sumiko can postpone this battle to a time of her choosing (and crush them); AND/OR she can make it extremely difficult for them to assault me since no one else in the land would support their move and might even punish them for it.
Flaws are fun. (One of Sumiko's flaws is that she actually takes minuses on social rolls if someone criticizes or accuses her of something; she has trouble letting things go. In fact, she's gotten in trouble before because someone "insulted" her in her own mind and she just has too much pride to ignore it...)
