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To be honest I told my players ahead of time the adventure had the potential for TPK's. These boards bear the lethality of thsi adventure out. My group of players were a friend and his wife playing 6 characters (!). Gotta get more...anyway, the group was a 5th/10th Ftr/Paladin with a Holy Avenger, a 5/5/4 Ftr/Wiz/Arcane Archer, a 5th/6th Rogue/Acrobat, a 6th/7th Cleric/Radiant Servant of Pelor, a 12th level Wizard, and a 12 the level sorcerer who specialized in fire magic. One of the players is a 26 year D&D vet, so he took the warning seriously. The wizard took 3 memorizations of Arcane Eye, and let me tell you, it's almost as useful as Death Ward in this adventure.
After scouting much of the ruins with Arcane Eye, and discovering the Beholder and his troll scum and the Yuan Ti, the party made sure they stayed clear of the north nd west areas. Of course the Knight of Kyuss saw the invisile eye, but since the deomodand has used it often, he didnt pay much attention to it.
The group made their way up the steps to where they saw the knight, and out came the knight and the beetles. I have to say, the beetles caused more problems than the knight, since in any given round, half the party was clutching their ears.
After destroying these undead, the party retreated to their Secure Shelter to rest....prudence is not their weak point.
The Cleric used augery to decide if it was safe to use passwall in the chamber at the top of the Zigguart. "A soft tread attracts attention not" was the reply. So they passwalled and sent in the arcane eye...did I mention this spell is well worth taking? The Eye scouted down the shaft and the open areas below, all letting the party remain relativly safe.
Once they get into the main chamber, another two uses of Arcane Eye tell them about the goons in both rooms, including the deadly library. AGAIN the group retreats so the cleric can ready several 'disrupting weapon' spells. They beef up with Righteous Wrath fo the Faithful (can you say mass +3 att/damage and haste all in one?), Mass Bear's Endurance, True strike and finally teleport....into the library...they get a free round of smackdown on the swords (the knowledge: undead skill check before the adventure ensured some of the archers used silver weapons).
They looked a little miffed when they learned the swords were on HD too many to be affected by the disrupting weapons. Init is rolled...the wormcaller uses quickened hold person on the paladin (who's wearing a ring of freedom of movement, but he was in its face and as DM you gotta play the monster as ignorant of his ring, of course) followed by area dispel...NONE of the affects get dispelled.
As it turned out, initiative rolls for this battle were PERFECT for the party...this alone is probably what saved even this powerful group, as I rolled individual initiatives for all the monsters. Krieg the Paladin and the fire wizard took down the wormcaller, then one of the Swords used Call of the Worm and blasted the group....I ruled the female wizard's scarab of protection took the hit and lost a charge for her.
The rest of the group took real damage. "Jezuz! If they are all the same type of monster they can all do that!" The female wizard as it happened had saved her action so she could cast wall of force to seperate the monsters once the lower init Radaint Servant stepped out of the way...well she said 'f that' let the radiant servant run from battle (BOTH attacks of oppertunity missed her). The radiant servant grabbed two party members and 'Word of Recall'd back to their HQ... the female wizard tiptoed through the already AoO'd area of the swords, and grabbed two more party mebers and teleported. They already planning on Death Ward spells...
So, they are doing well. However, all I can say is, without Arcane Eye, a party of 13th level characters who have no knowledge of the Sword's power are gonna die, period. Even with a buffed up party and a free round of attacks, this group had to retreat. Now taht they know to use deathward, it's gonna be a walk over for that particular room. Still, I feel the pain for players who don't have either of these spells (Eye and Death ward)
Note that these are not the same playing group who got continually stomped in the Achilles Honor Roll post....
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Ugh...did I say it was managable for a higher level? They came back two days later and whupped the swords with the use of death ward. Unfortunatly, the lich used several limtied wishes to make the place scry proof for a while. This cost the party 3 lives, as three Naga and a worm crawler guarded the main chamber, invisible when they heard the fight against the swords. The party entered the chamber, enervations flew, then fingers of death...boom down goes the 11th level rogue...the 7th/6th radaint servant/cleric got finger of death'd (needed a 6, rolled a 1, just like the rogue)..the wormcaller rolled two crits wtih empowered slashing darkness on the 5/10 ftr/paladin....dead. I almost had a 28 year vet of the game quit that day...the only bright moment was when the sorcerer's ring of spell turning threw back a Finger of Death on one of the naga's, killing it with its own spell, while retrieving the paladin and rogues bodies.
Normaly we play with luck points but I steered away from that since we were playing greyhawk and raise dead (or more precisley, True Ressurection)is available.
They came back and used a total of 5 dispel magics before fianlly dispelling the scry affect. They then beat down the nagas and wormcaller in short order.
On a side note, I tend to agree with the paladin that the Holy Avenger got totally nerfed with its pathetic spell resistance. 5 + paladin's level? That's a far cry from the 50% enjoyed in 2nd edition. (A 10th level caster needs a pathetic 5 to exceed a SR 15 Holy avenger wielded by a 10th level paladin?). I might change it to SR 10 + Paladin's level...that would be somewhat more reasonable....or just leave it the flat 50%
Here's how ours started last Friday...
**Spoilers**
PCs, with the necessary assistance of Eligos, research Kyuss in the Library-Temple prior to meeting Tenser. During this time, they craft a spell to help put the Kibosh to “Kyuss’ Gift”. Also this gives me an opportunity as a DM to educate the players that Spawn of Kyuss are only foot soldiers; there are in fact more powerful Kyuss oriented undead.
Upon meeting Tenser (his description, what he’s doing at his desk, and the overall atmosphere of his fortress), I pause, then declare its initiative. I was kidding – that was my weak April Fool’s joke for the year. I play Tenser and Eligos off of each other; Tenser’s power is severe, but I feel it is important to make Eligos indispensable as a source of information. When the PCs show Tenser their equipment (and the numerous artifacts), I make it apparent that Tenser is still human, and very much enjoys collecting artifacts. He tries to get over on them like a sly baseball card/comic book shop owner – and he does. He’s very giddy over his new acquisitions.
When the PCs get to the Spire and fly over the Obsidian Wall, they see that the courtyard is full of undead. They land in the middle of them to wipe them out (turns out to be about 40+ Spawn of Kyuss), and learn that these undead are not alone. They end the fight up close and personal with the scheduled Kyuss Knight (who kills the main fighter thanks to the massive damage rule) and the Beetles after a two-hour long battle royale.
One of the players note: “If this is an indication of how tough its going to be inside the Ziggurat, we might be in trouble! We haven’t even got inside of it yet!”
Ugh...did I say it was managable for a higher level? They came back two days later and whupped the swords with the use of death ward. Unfortunatly, the lich used several limtied wishes to make the place scry proof for a while. This cost the party 3 lives, as three Naga and a worm crawler guarded the main chamber, invisible when they heard the fight against the swords. The party entered the chamber, enervations flew, then fingers of death...boom down goes the 11th level rogue...the 7th/6th radaint servant/cleric got finger of death'd (needed a 6, rolled a 1, just like the rogue)..the wormcaller rolled two crits wtih empowered slashing darkness on the 5/10 ftr/paladin....dead. I almost had a 28 year vet of the game quit that day...the only bright moment was when the sorcerer's ring of spell turning threw back a Finger of Death on one of the naga's, killing it with its own spell, while retrieving the paladin and rogues bodies.
Normaly we play with luck points but I steered away from that since we were playing greyhawk and raise dead (or more precisley, True Ressurection)is available.
They came back and used a total of 5 dispel magics before fianlly dispelling the scry affect. They then beat down the nagas and wormcaller in short order.
On a side note, I tend to agree with the paladin that the Holy Avenger got totally nerfed with its pathetic spell resistance. 5 + paladin's level? That's a far cry from the 50% enjoyed in 2nd edition. (A 10th level caster needs a pathetic 5 to exceed a SR 15 Holy avenger wielded by a 10th level paladin?). I might change it to SR 10 + Paladin's level...that would be somewhat more reasonable....or just leave it the flat 50%
Hope they were attacked after the end of their spells, Death ward protects from Enervation and Death spells....
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Yeah...they spent time eating knowledge worms and organizing books from the library into two neat piles for easy teleport after thourougly searching the room...about a good 45 mins worth of reading, eating and stacking....We also left off with them in the main chamber ready to go down...they are not about to leave and come back with another reinforced room waiting..