#i need to be forcibly given a lethal injection

[giggasnap]

I don't want to say it, but I must. We should all make our own alternate Simon's. Our Simon-sona's, if you will.

[monstersdownthepath]

Spiritual Spotlight: Teshallas, the Primordial Poison

True Neutral Psychopomp Usher of Aging, Poison, and Venomous Creatures

Domains: Healing, Magic, Repose, Scalykind Subdomains*: Restoration, Alchemy, Psychopomp, Venom

Concordance of Rivals, pg. 18

Obedience: Drink a diluted preparation of poison; a single dose of poison is sufficient to prepare five such draughts, and the dilution grants you a +5 circumstance bonus on your saving throw. Alternately, allow a venomous creature to bite you. Benefit: You gain the ability to sense toxins within 20ft of you, as if surrounded by a constant Detect Poison.

(*IMPORTANT NOTE: The Subdomains are my best guess; Subdomains are not listed in Concordance of Rivals.)

Drink up!

This Obedience is similar in many ways to Charon’s own alternate Obedience in which he demands you imbibe drugs to damage your mental ability scores, in that it absolutely sucks to perform day after day. The +5 bonus you get to resist the effects of the poison is often enough to keep you from suffering its effects, but there’s always a chance that you get crunched and are forced to hobble around with broken stats for a day or so. This isn’t even mentioning that poisons are expensive, and even though you can get five uses from a single dose, the cost will still be a deep mark in your pocket every week.

... Unless, of course, you have access to the books Ultimate Equipment and/or Potions & Poisons, which gives us access to the safer and, most importantly, cheaper options with which to poison yourselves in the form of the Gelidburn Oil (2~6 damage a round for up to 4 rounds; 75 gp a dose), Drow Poison (unconsciousness for 2d4 hours; 75gp a dose), Oil of Restfulness (unconsciousness for 1d3 hours; 90gp), and finally, the ULTIMATE thrifty poison: Pupil’s Friend, at a whopping 30gp a dose and causing naught but a bout of sickness for up to 15 minutes. Pupil’s Friend is also harvested from a mold that’s easily cultivated in any dark, moist space, such as a terrarium kept inside a Bag of Holding, potentially eliminating its cost altogether!

Drow Poison and Oil of Restfulness are also both pathetically easy to create, should you not want to go through the rigamarole of waiting for your mold to grow. “Wait a second though,” you may ask, “those poisons knock you out for hours! Isn’t that worse than stat damage?” And you’d be right! It’s a terrible way to start your day! But a perfect way to end one. Remember that your Obediences can just be done whenever you want, not just at the crack of dawn. Take a sip of Drow Poison or Oil of Restfulness just before you lay down to sleep each night and meditate on the sensations it causes you in the brief time you’re allowed before slipping into dreamland, waking up 8 hours later with 16 more hours of your power boost left before you need to do it again. It’s also one of the best ways to hide your Obedience from prying eyes, because who’d get suspicious about someone taking a sleep aid every night? They may be concerned for your health, but not suspicious.

Or you could skip all of that and just have a venomous familiar (or party member) bite your arm. Harder to hide or to justify, but notice that the Obedience doesn’t say that they have to inject their poison! It’s probably scummy to really take this one to the letter so hard, especially because the implication is that they inject you, but you know how I operate; I like loopholes!

As for that benefit, boy it’s been a while since we’ve seen a benefit that wasn’t a +4 to one stat or another, huh? And it’s a decent benefit, to boot! Not good, mind, but decent, especially since Detect Poison is a cantrip with a range of Close, so you can just scan over every 5ft cube you come across from a safe distance away. This ability does little more than save you a few actions to do so, since its 20ft range practically puts you on top of the toxin anyway. That being said, the fact it can sniff through walls (provided they aren’t too thick) will let you detect some hidden traps, stealthy enemies, and even invisible, poisonous attackers, which keeps it from actually being lumped into the Bad Benefit category. Plus you can detect poisoned food and drink without offending your host, which may be important. The niche uses for its ability to narrow down what poisons you’re encountering can also come in handy!

Boons are gained slowly, gained at levels 12, 16, and 20. Servants of the Monitors, though, can enter the Proctor Prestige Class as early as level 8. If entered as early as possible, you can earn your Boons at levels 10, 14, and 16. You MUST take the Monitor Obedience feat, NOT Deific Obedience. Monitors grant only a single set of Boons.

Boon 1: Serpent's Kiss. Gain Polypurpose Panacea 3/day, Touch Injection 2/day, or Sands of Time 1/day.

Polypurpose Panacea is an adorable little spell with a variety of small, flavorful effects and very little use in the average storyline, especially in combat. I would take it during downtime or a lighter session but wouldn’t use it for much anything else.

Touch Injection lets you store an extract, an elixir, a potion, or a poison within a harmless pocket space in your hand, letting you instantaneously jam it into someone you make a successful touch attack against. With a duration of 1 hour per level it’s fully possible to keep a valuable potion hidden from prying eyes only to unveil it when it’s needed, or to keep a lethal poison tucked away for a specific target... But, ironically, it’s actually more useful in combat than for covert operations, because any poison contained inside has its onset changed to immediate, so whoever you slap with it gets to feel the effects instantaneously.

Also it changes the poison’s delivery method to ‘touch someone,’ eliminating the need to shank your victim, trick them into eating it, or making them breath it in, which has its value. Though I’m not a fan of getting close to my enemies (being primarily a squishy caster player), I’m always for making poisons more viable, even if they do get expensive and impractical later on (unless you’re an Eldritch Poisoner Alchemist). I also still enjoy the idea of holding a particularly powerful extract or potion in there to be unleashed at the right moment.

I’ve discussed the uses of Sands of Time before in Charon’s article, so go refresh your mind with that. Long story short: it’s a bad spell to have most of the time since some creatures have hard-to-guess or completely nonexistent age categories. The flexibility of Touch Injection and the general cute usefulness of Polypurpose Panacea make them more useful than Sands.

Boon 2: Breath of Life. You may cast Restoration 1/day as a spell-like ability.

Perhaps even more boring than stat increases, we have the technically-healing spell Restoration.

That being said, having a FREE Restoration, even at 1/day, is incredibly valuable despite how dull it is. Restoration cures ALL ability score damage, all drain to a single score, all fatigue and exhaustion, AND all temporary negative levels. It’s best used at the end of the day just before you all go to bed to clear off everything someone has suffered in one go, but whatever you do don’t try and use it in combat unless it’s needed to desperately save someone’s life, because it takes 3 rounds to cast.

I say it’s so valuable, by the way, because of how much money this ability will save in the long-term. Restoration normally costs 100gp to cast, but if you pour 1000gp into it instead you can also scrape one permanent negative level off the target. Note that this is described on the actual spell card as “(diamond dust worth 100 gp OR 1,000 gp, see text).” The ‘or’ is the operative conjunction here, because with some spell-likes (such as Gate and Planar Ally) you still have to provide the monetary cost because it’s not listed as a material component. The 1000gp Restoration requires is explicitly a material component, and thus as a spell-like you don’t have to pay it.

Given how often higher-level monsters use ability score damage/drain and negative levels, this ability will save you thousands of gp and other resources over the course of your career. I just wish it were Greater Restoration instead, because..

Boon 3: Wonders of Age: You no longer take ability score penalties from aging and cannot be magically aged. Any penalties you may have already incurred remain in place, however. Mental ability score bonuses still accrue, and you still die of old age when you reach the end of your natural lifespan.

... Teshallas’ final Boon is unbelievably bad.

For reference, a great many other deities grant you eternal youth as a side-effect of their Boon’s true benefit, and still others who grant you eternal youth do so while also giving you eternal life. Teshallas does neither of these things, and doesn’t even have the decency to reward your service by undoing any age penalties you may already have (which would be against their whole domain, but y’know).

This is just a huge slap in the face for anyone wishing to work with the Primordial Poison and hoping for a potent blessing once you’ve reached level 16. Hell, in most sessions? This won’t even matter since you’re not likely to be roleplaying long enough for your characters to age to the point they take penalties. This is basically a blank Boon. This is a third Boon that’s worse than the second Boon, which should NEVER happen.

If I were DM, I’d just scrap this whole thing and replace it with something more befitting a god that claims to be responsible for the mortal aging process in the first place. Or, at the very least, I’d slap on a secondary benefit to make it more attractive. I dunno--maybe a boost to mental ability scores, or forcibly (and permanently) aging someone, or something. Bleh.

You can read more about them here.

[glopratchet]

astryl-wondering

ludstrum is a computer program that is attached to the conciousness of astryl wylde, and starts screaming about how he was sent here by the Lord of Chaos to kill you and how he has been doing it ever since with his sword in hand and says "I am not your enemy" before killing Ludstrum Astyrl of course comes out of the tent naked with his sword in hand and says "I am not your enemy" before killing Ludstrum something went down in here, and that thing was most likely wasn't going well if it ripped through the bed sheet tent succubus wife: Kyros Green, fuzzy carpet War banner of Kyros Kyros' tent door Ornamental sword Helmet ; (empty) and appears again A blue potion audience chamber of Kyros the miserable sufferer In the far off distance is the standard conical tents in endless circles Its happy face is replaced by a neutral one He realizes that he must of completed it It puts them into the entsperation mental state Its With a scent of rot Its element is currently negative, dissatisfied, and unimpressed It puts them into It puts them into an unpleasant state of mind Its element is currently unimpressed, pathetic, and empat he Tries to calm himself down, but can't as he realizes he has lost his potion and thrown it away His unimpressed, over and over again Panic sets in as he realizes that he doesn't know how to stop the horrible feelings of pain from his skin being burned off And The succubus Then it hits him, he must have made an autonomous agent to protect himself because of 's head in red glowing letters astryl realizes what is going on and stops screaming about finally getting revenge He says "What did you do to yourself" but cludstrum helps him somewhat in defending against the attacks becoming passive agents of helping rather than succubi and incubi agents of torturing He discharges and rage Sensing that he is weakened and near defeat the curse of reason takes over astryl And enters in to a mega revolt The curse of and enjoy life And that is what he plans to do After escaping this accursed place Kyros' tent bursts And after some debate astryl gets an decision, they're going to abandon the camp and escape as a moaning wretch whose hands have morphed into talons for lack of anything else to do with his time He will wander the and himself for some odd reason He continues to stare into his starting screen, wondering if it's somehow still go anywhere Soon a theremin sound is heard, native to the space platform through ot is also known as the 98th circle of Port Inferno They appear in red outfits, riding big floaty platform are controlled by astryl's teath grasping at symbols 's apperance until Cludstrum comes up with a solution with some of astryl's temporal memories They're probably hailing you, astryl! symbols and you must sort ot this matter before you do anything else! at this point as they had tied to much of it together THey split into two groups, one that defends the ship manually, and one that works with ast as the ship's computer is doing some of the intertainment Although clud first noticed that it acted as a paralell processor to the computer; (and causing This is a call for the actors and you will be sorted into parts with the engines Which wil you bring in, the Mirror People or the Melon Thieves? You can't do both need for water or food is not a sure thing In the meantime, you continue But one can assume that this is involved in making themselves human again The last thing you can do is go on a quest to gather the relics of prosperity This goes left as power for the skinput= And an electric turkey in a glass cage as thanks for ast efficiently gathering the aluminum alligator shorts 's character sheet A haggard patient may the find the supplies to survive this tragedies that have befallen them all They notice some stranded qweep or say things to spark some memories of the users who made this thing They are mushed green and orange berries but hold nutritious contents within Some displays start agreeing A slab of togoruf is given to the temporal memory because they are incredibly delicious and it makes cludstrum remember his first time eating these things with They remember that they just wanted to help They had been on the ship before the maker tortrued them aobut what he was doing The togor he wants After some testing, cludstrum remotely brings a mirror online and it displays to you a list of things that could be edible The touchpad They do not need to eat for the most part astryl can easily survive of light and energy and eats light and energy His togor should sustain him for this week if he's lucky who will help them stay human within this experiment to survive off Someway, somehow, can you prevent spam from taking over the forum made about this? but allow him to survive the week If you eat the cactuses, he would survive If he survive this week he can drink som water and refill the moisture depository of his body through osmose as it slithers then so he can drink it finding a way to survive the week the street the ghosttown, find out how a place that has scarce resources and no human footprint fares the dessicated ruins of a city in the desert an oasis community trying to get by in life in the desert you stand behind the screen whilst a small human watches brief clips of things and describes them to you except for the stars and a sliver of moon, you go back to your home to ponder this wild world of humans, taking with you food, togor, rise as the sun lowers in the west, you trek through either dunes or streets and end up sitting next to small bodies of water to see a giant ball of his limbs about as he rolled down the dunes You watch all the little human going on with their lives until a loud horn blaring snaps you out of your laughter Taking a deep breath in you see small bags of water suspended in the air with a small stick poking through each hanging at eye level; knowing that each one This is scary! says Doctor a little quaver in her voice You hear an spooky whoooooOOooo FEAR by Zeekey up in the creepy church away in secret at the moon TOGORA now CRIMSON by Lewis out the TV and frightening the cameraman everything and everyone as he furiously claws then killing while wearing a balaclava And you just softly giggle to yourself in the dark deadly silence the whole tape on an endless loop ruining the TV TOGORA now beautiful dying surrounded by loved ones to turning off all the devices in the house leaving you to hunt him down A pitch black screen and time for bed, settled in nice and cozy the vivid animations on the screen to last all night off the last beloved pet left untainted leaving the whole place disgusting Bah, this is boring friendly mutants at secret base for months black silhouettes relentlessly around the room Having had enough of humans for now you decide to collapse in your fluffy bed hostile intent by passive-aggressively retyping the last report I gave him a million times You couldn't really sleep, though until the skin weeped, Kludstrm dull resitting dynamite the safe the hit squad set in compromising the Bolt Hole multiple copies of scoutflies' reports for HQ to decipher Kludstrm lackadaisical spamming the chatter channel with complaint threads on the buggy chat software a relentless campaign of extermination on the surface its a mimic! Your teeth chattered uncontrollably the sleeper mentally which got broken the lands in a straight line far from the temptation Kludstrm undull rather dull drilling a new path through the too slowly, apparently! gas into the main chambers of the in order to asphyxiate everyone inside letters spelling out your name in the frosty breath of the hapless guards That's the best you've ever come up with at the spot next to you where someone else is supposed to be sleeping instead what little is left of all good feelings after killing yet another of your admirers a compudoodoo information overload in the heads of dendrin worshippers Yeah right! You really want to leave this place now Kludstrm omniscient belittling THP humiliating disregard of its sacred drills Finally, you wake up This time, you didn't even see the list at all random parts in the lower maintenance floors You get out of bed a new non-lethal way of lopping terrorists' heads That stupid toad has been at this for years and he still isn't finished handful after handful of obsolete integrated circuits Everything is ready, then You are dressed and eat breakfast in the mess hall on indigestible chunks of plastic explosive The food tastes terrible as usual the aggressor into seclusion and giving them a good talk Don't think you could keep yourself from hurting Kludstrm if you tried only on blood plasma for weeks At last, it is time to conscript you into military school belated nights and afternoons preparing two decades-old plans for a final retaliation Probably on the surface scarabs to their hidden underground lairs They ate the tranquility park again every citizen with a partner and drafting breeding strategies for the rest You don't even want to know while patrolling the empty hallways No one enters the hospital from this point onward behind the horizon dragging yesterday with it Kludstrm kinky swapping your k-9 combo with a shrieking psychopath from another unit from under a rock shortly after midnight Aggressive patrolling commenced usuly around now Slip drugs in their food again? Apparently, we are not playing well with others today from below a rock shortly after midnight Except for today Word has come down from on high to cancel the patrol forcibly injecting redeemable good citizens with long-term bed rest hypno drugs The next days and weeks passed in a ; (drugged) haze oppressing women and children with brain-damaging metal poisoning the time has come obtaining blood plasma from captured dissenters Night is falling Theta Squad embarks on a recon mission behind enemy lines You are silent

[marymosley]

Yes, The St. Louis Couple Could Be Criminally Charged But It Would Be No Slam Dunk Prosecution

YouTube Screenshot

Two lawyers in St. Louis are in the middle of a firestorm after they were shown outside of their house with guns in a confrontation with protesters en route to the nearby house of Mayor Lyda Krewson. Mark  and Patricia McCloskey are shown aiming their weapons at the protestors, including Mark McCloskey’s assault-style rifle.  St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has publicly declared that she is looking for criminal charges to bring against the two lawyers.  That has led to many in the criminal defense field (including many who reached out to me) to speculate on what charges she might bring under these facts.

The McCloskeys have insisted that they were responding to what they saw as a clear threat. The attorneys called the St. Louis Police Department shortly before 7:30 p.m. on Sunday and the police report confirmed that “a large group of subjects forcefully break an iron gate marked with ‘No Trespassing’ and ‘Private Street’ signs.”  (For the record, I have seen pictures of the gate and it is not exactly formidable and does appear “smashed.” However, it is clearly marked as private property and was forced open).

Gardner issued a statement late Monday morning that she was “alarmed at the events that occurred over the weekend, where peaceful protesters were met by guns and a violent assault.” She added “Make no mistake: we will not tolerate the use of force against those exercising their First Amendment rights, and will use the full power of Missouri law to hold people accountable.”

Some have criticized the public declaration of Gardner in light of these claims. Gardner has been under fire for the release of alleged looters and rioters without charges.

The question for this blog is what can Gardner use in such a case as a criminal charge and some of our Missouri lawyers might have some insights to share.

First, here is part of the videotape that would feature prominently in any trial:

  Patricia McCloskey is shown most clearly in pointing the gun at protesters.  Mark McCloskey actually points the gun as much at his wife, but also there are points where he turns his body with the barrel pointing at protesters. Both are bare-footed and can argue that they ran from their home to confront what they viewed as an immediate threat. Patricia McCloskey is shown going to the side of the house and she is likely to claim that she was trying to fend off intruders as part of any defense.  However, the prosecutors can argue that the videotaped do not show aggressive conduct or movement toward the house.

The key may be any home security footage or other videotape and witness-based evidence to support the claim of the initial threats or threatening conduct.

Here is another video however where Patricia McCloskey is clearing pointing the gun at the protesters:

  Ironically, therefore, the clearer case may be against Patricia with the small handgun than her husband with the assault-style weapon.

Here is an interview with the husband.

The most obvious criminal charge could be Section 571.030(4), which allows for a Class E felony charge when a person “[e]xhibits, in the presence of one or more persons, any weapon readily capable of lethal use in an angry or threatening manner.” Such a conviction can bring up to four years in prison, one year in jail, and/or a $10,000 fine.

However, a complicating factor is that Missouri is a state with a Castle Doctrine law and these guns were lawfully possessed.  The law states, in subsection 3,  that deadly force cannot be used unless “[s]uch force is used against a person who unlawfully enters, remains after unlawfully entering, or attempts to unlawfully enter private property that is owned or leased by an individual.” However, no lethal force was used here. It was threatened.

That raises two questions.  Is the law triggered by entry on the property as opposed to entry without the home?  Also, does the law implicitly support the show of force to deter entry.

Some have cited the 2016 case of State v. Whipple, which interpreted subsection 3 is not giving  “the occupier, owner, or lessee authority to stand his ground and use deadly force without having a reasonable belief that such force is necessary to defend himself or a third person from what he reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of unlawful force.”

However, the McCloskey’s are alleging that they were threatened directly, the protesters were already trespassing, and that the breaking of the gate constitutes a reasonable basis for their fear. That seems the ultimate jury question.  Whether you are carrying a gun to deter violence or “in an angry or threatening manner” could grounds for both a factual defense and even a constitutional defense based on the vagueness of the standard when applied to homeowners standing on their own property.

There is also the possibility of an assault charge under Section 565.056 (3-4), which defines assault in the fourth degree as any conduct which “purposely places another person in apprehension of immediate physical injury” or “recklessly engages in conduct which creates a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury to another person.” This again is subject to the same arguments raised with regard to the potential brandishing charges.

As a criminal defense attorney, I often worry about a client who becomes such a focus of national media attention.  Prosecutors are elected officials who tend to respond to outcry of the public. The image of two affluent individuals standing in front of their luxury home with these weapons is nightmare for defense counsel.  However, there are some tricky issues here in the use of these laws in the balancing of the rights of self-defense under laws like the Castle Doctrine law and countervailing prohibitions on threats or assault.  Indeed, the pre-trial motions would be fascinating to watch as the defense seeks dismissal on the basis for statutory or constitutional claims.  The prosecution needs to get not just a judge to reject such a motion for dismissal, but a jury to rule unanimously in favor of the charges.  Any conviction would allow for ample grounds to appeal.

Missouri Castle Doctrine Law:

   *563.031.  Use of force in defense of persons. — 1.  A person may, subject to the provisions of subsection 2 of this section, use physical force upon another person when and to the extent he or she reasonably believes such force to be necessary to defend himself or herself or a third person from what he or she reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of unlawful force by such other person, unless:

  (1)  The actor was the initial aggressor; except that in such case his or her use of force is nevertheless justifiable provided:

  (a)  He or she has withdrawn from the encounter and effectively communicated such withdrawal to such other person but the latter persists in continuing the incident by the use or threatened use of unlawful force; or

  (b)  He or she is a law enforcement officer and as such is an aggressor pursuant to section 563.046; or

  (c)  The aggressor is justified under some other provision of this chapter or other provision of law;

  (2)  Under the circumstances as the actor reasonably believes them to be, the person whom he or she seeks to protect would not be justified in using such protective force;

  (3)  The actor was attempting to commit, committing, or escaping after the commission of a forcible felony.

  2.  A person shall not use deadly force upon another person under the circumstances specified in subsection 1 of this section unless:

  (1)  He or she reasonably believes that such deadly force is necessary to protect himself, or herself or her unborn child, or another against death, serious physical injury, or any forcible felony;

  (2)  Such force is used against a person who unlawfully enters, remains after unlawfully entering, or attempts to unlawfully enter a dwelling, residence, or vehicle lawfully occupied by such person; or

  (3)  Such force is used against a person who unlawfully enters, remains after unlawfully entering, or attempts to unlawfully enter private property that is owned or leased by an individual, or is occupied by an individual who has been given specific authority by the property owner to occupy the property, claiming a justification of using protective force under this section.

  3.  A person does not have a duty to retreat:

  (1)  From a dwelling, residence, or vehicle where the person is not unlawfully entering or unlawfully remaining;

  (2)  From private property that is owned or leased by such individual; or

  (3)  If the person is in any other location such person has the right to be.

  4.  The justification afforded by this section extends to the use of physical restraint as protective force provided that the actor takes all reasonable measures to terminate the restraint as soon as it is reasonable to do so.

  5.  The defendant shall have the burden of injecting the issue of justification under this section.  If a defendant asserts that his or her use of force is described under subdivision (2) of subsection 2 of this section, the burden shall then be on the state to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not reasonably believe that the use of such force was necessary to defend against what he or she reasonably believed was the use or imminent use of unlawful force.

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