Just got issue #115 the other day, and it looks great, as usual. Of course, the first thing I checked out was "Strike on Shatterhorn," which I will be running this Saturday. Upon reading the final encounter, though, I encountered a small problem.
See, Embril Aloustinai's main tactic in said encounter is to attempt to possess one of the characters via magic jar and then escape to Carceri. The problem is one of my players is an astral deva (using the progression from Savage Species) and has a protective aura that prevents mental possession by evil creatures to himself and all allies within 30 feet of him.
I have been trying to come up with solutions to this. One would be to change Embril's alignment to Neutral to circumvent the aura, but that seems kind of ham-handed and not in keeping with her character. Another way would be to make the room larger and give the spell weaver some minions so as to hopefully get the party to split up.
I was also curious as to what Embril should do should she fail to possess any of the characters. Would she re-enter her body and attack them in a rage? Play the part of damsel in distress and try to con one of the group into being alone with her before abducting them?
Advice on either of these two matters would be greatly appreciated. :)
Since she plans to plane shift asap, and has little equipment, I would assume the plan is to don more equipment to continue the fight in part 11. Waiting until the next installment would be your best option for clairification.
I wouldn't penalize the party due to a members ability countering Embril's plan. I see many options available as she senses her inability to possese the bodies in range.
Remember the spell weaver knows the plan and can communicate telepathicly. The astral deva's ability is only 20' radius and can be dispelled (although he can activate it again on his turn as a free action, MM3.5 page 10-11). The spell weaver and Embril hold actions to go on the same turn. The spell weaver has greater dispel magic on it's spell list. After dispelling the aura Embril can attempt her possesion.
It can also try telekinesis to knock the astal deva back (or pull an ally closer) placing a target outside the proctective aura.
Otiluke's Resilient sphere cast at the deva would negate the protection to his allies as nothing passes through the sphere in either direction. A well placed wall of force could trap a single PC or two on the wrong side, and blocking the devas aura.
Quick kill. If the deva's dead the ability is too. Finger of death is an excellent choice to try to take the deva out but after one try it'd be best to dispel the aura.
The spell weaver could use it's plane shift ability to send the deva away...or send another PC to Carceri...alone...as Embril wakes up and follows.
As far as the spell weaver's other spells possibilities include 'confusion' to possible send the deva away, 'baleful polymorph' has a chance of making the target lose his supernatural abilities, 'disintigrat' as a possible quick kill, 'bigby's crushing hand' as telekinesis example , and finally 'wish' to produce one of many other spells that could funtion near a stated example. (This is so neat I almost wish the deva was in my campaign...I am devious)
OH, and if you need to further "JUSTIFY" the spell weaver's actions of specifically targetting your deva PC'c aura point out it's +27 knowledge plane, +27 knowledge arcana, and +27 spellcraft to know the deva's natural ability and effects theof.
ONE FINAL AND GREAT OPTION is if all else fails have Embril return to her body and teleport away. In the 'backdrop' she aquires another casting of 'magic jar' either by getting a scroll or resting a day if time permits. When the party returns to Redforge (or in part11 if they go on first) they find out that Embril aquired Jenya Urikas, the high ptiestess of the church of St. Cuthbert (or other most important NPC in your campaign) as the appropriate sacrifice.
Please let me know if my babbling helped you.
Creative Director
|
Those are all excellent suggestions, Rikkus! I especially agree with your point to not penalize the party for having unique abilities. And the plan to kidnap Jenya is great as well; that'll serve as an excellent way to get the PCs started on the final adventure in the series.
One more that comes to mind is that Embril is quite the smartie, and she knows who the PCs are. She'd know well in advance that one of them is an astral deva and has that troublesome aura, so I doubt she'd use the magic jar tactic on the party at all. She'd prepare some alternate plan to capture one of them. You as the DM know your PCs' strengths and weaknesses, and since Embril's got an Intelligence of 19 and has been keeping an eye of the PCs behind the scenes for several adventrues (possibly as early as "Flood Season"), feel free to adjust her spells prepared so they'll be more appropriate against your particular group. Blasphemy or word of chaos, in particular, should wreak havoc on that astral deva. If the astral deva fails a DC 22 Will save (at a -4 penalty), it's banished to its home plane for 24 hours. Of course, both these spells will mess up the neutral spell weaver, so it should take shelter in one of the side passageways behind a wall of force; it can ready an action to dismiss the wall of force once Embril casts the spell so it can get into the fight as well. Once the deva's been banished, she and the spell weaver can teleport away. Once this happens, Embril can prepare her [i]magic jar[/i} plan and the spellweaver can teleport itself, her body, and her magic jar back to the PC's proximity (but in hiding; remember, they know the layout of Shatterhorn better than the PCs) so Embril can seek them out and possess one of them.
As for Embril having not much gear... she actually has quite a bit more gear than an NPC of her level should have.
Thanks, those are all good ideas! Now to choose which one to use...perhaps a combination of a few. :)
I'll let you know how it went after the session.
Heh, well as it turned out, all this scheming was irrelevant. The astral deva fell in the second encounter, paralyzed and subsequently coup de graced by the yuan-ti mohrg. I'd like to add that Contagious Paralysis is one of my new favorite feats. Half the party got paralyzed just trying to push past their comrades to get through the corridor. :)
The PC's haven't reached Embril yet, though, but now she can stick to her normal tactics as written. Thanks for all the good advice though: I'm sure it will come in handy at some point in the future.
In my experience when you plan ahead like this the 'deva always falls in battle' before the said encounter. Oh well, glad to help anyways.