Spoiler warning... they are probably in here for Hall of Harsh Reflections.
The group is just about done with HOHR. They have fought hard, and made it all the way to Zyrxog's cathedral of the mind. They are very low on spells and abilities, but do have plenty of healing available to them. The options for the party are:
1. Try to kill Zyrxog... which will most likely be a TPK.
2. Try to escape... almost everything else is dead except for Fassash, whom they gave some magic items to let past.
If they try to attack, I know what I will be doing, but if the party flees, I am wondering what the reaction of Zyrxog will be. He's going to be pretty ticked off that this group of adventurers put a serious dent in his political capabilities, with the doppelgangers being dealt with already. Also, if the party doesn't hit this room they lose out on a nice plot hook for the champion's games. Perhaps some sort of attack in the city... would he risk something like that? I am trying to think of how they can learn of Raknian.
If the PCs are walking into a deathtrap and you don't want to rightly punish them for their foolishness, have Zyrxog flee the scene before the PCs can reach him. After all, how would he know the PCs have depleted all their resources? He has no idea of their power levels, only that they've slaughtered all of his minions. The smartest thing to do might be to live to fight another day.
He would certainly attack the PC's should they "escape his clutches" (or visa versa). I wrote a thread about it myself a few weeks / months back - basically, he sent a drow (on a nightmare) and some octopins after them, ambushing them at night in the Crooked House. Worked a treat (motivated my players go finish him off).
He's expecting them, they are just beyond the door (they tripped the silent alarm). If they choose to leave I will let him do so, but he will send assassins after them to harrass them until they actually go back and kill him. I like that idea best.
Of course, my group is bull headed enough that they will barge into his room anyhow without resting. If they attempt to rest in the lair, they will be rewarded with octopins and possibly the big guy himself, though I see him more protecting the tadpoles.
I wrote this long well-reasoned post last night but it suffered a TPK at the hands of the messageboard protocols. Here are the bare-bones:
Does the party have anti-mind blast magic ready for Zyrxog? If they do they might avoid the TPK despite your most evil attempts. Who knows. Otherwise, if you can (and want to) convince them to rest do you think that they'll return to finish up the dungeon? Because I'd imagine that Zyrxog is pretty pissed off and would go out rounding up a few new bodyguards to protect himself and ultimately hunt the party down. I'm sure that he would of course be sticking pretty close to his little tadpoles as well.
If the party returns to the lair they might be in the middle of rifling through his papers when Zyrxog returns with a few helpers to discover them. (Perhaps he cast another alarm spell?). If they don't return to finish what they started, I'm sure that Zyrxog would be motivated my more than just his contract to kill them. He might coerce a few members of the Assassins guild or something to come help him on a hit.
Other possible henchman ready to help could be some or all of the other doppelgangers out on "assignment" in the city government and militia. After the party kills them, a number of unusual absences could highlight how deep the 'gangers had penetrated and contribute to city wide paranoia. Good background fodder (I'm imagining bands of roving militia with a wizard using true sight pointing out the occasional doppelganger who is summarily executed right there in the street - the party just happens to be present to see this presumably rare occurrence of actually finding a doppelganger).
Hope that helps.
As worried as I was about a TPK at the hands of Xyrzog my party destroyed him pretty handily...and that was after he blasted the tank fighter. That damn Eversmoking bottle they picked up along the way somewhere came in handy.
They had a much harder time with the Invisible Stalkers (giving something invisible reach is just cruel).
My party was in a similar situation this week with Ilserv (FR conversion). 60% of the party is now dead. The other 2 ran away. They were only able to retrieve one body. It was a bad night for them.
We stopped at that point, so it will depend on their next actions. One of the remaining characters wants to leave "that octopus-guy" alone. The other doesn't.
So, I am preparing an ambush of these guys if they don't head back down there. Some doppelgangers (already in political positions of some power) will be able to lend resources to harrassing and annoying these PCs until they are all taken care of. I think we will start by having them arrested for killing their friend by corrupt City Watch. This will force them to have to either flee the city completely, go underground, or kill Ilserv to prove their innocence. (The evidence collected from the doppelganger's lair will, of course, be "misplaced" if they are taken into custody.)
But, maybe they'll just rest, buff, and head back down. You never know what those wacky kids will do...
My group didn't fight him. I actually changed this section significantly. I had too many characters to put as one group in the Champion Games without significantly boosting the other teams, and I didn't want to spend that kind of time. So I split HoHR and that game actually ended with the final doppleganger encounter and the note with the tentacle crest thing as the clue for the next game.
In my game, I made the Drow thralls one of the Noble merchant families in the Free City. They corner the market on trade with the Underdark, and Zyrxog is often seen with them and known to be their Underdark contact. Makes it a lot harder for the group, as they're not just accusing a bunch of unaffiliated Drow everyone hates. Quite the contrary, as the House has a lot of political power.
I had the Drow use the tentacle crest as their House seal, and used Elgios to fill the party in on who they are. (all happens at the dinner that opens Champion's Belt). Elgios said it was a given that the Drow would have a team in the games, which means the drow family and Zyrxog would be at the opening dinner and other events. So, split the team...... one group entering the games to stay close to the Drow and give them an opportunity to make their next move while the other sneaks into their house (and finds Zyrxog's lair underneath) while the dinner and games are going on. Elgios sponsors the group, so as manager he can see them throughout the games and let them know about the progress of the other group.
Group infiltrating the house doesn't fight Zyrxog because he's not there, and finds mention of the Apostolic Scrolls. I had Elgios know enough of what will happen should the ritual outlined in the scrolls be used to let the party know what's at stake in terms of the blood sacrifice and final cataclysmic possibilities. (One thing that bugged me about Champion Games is that, as written, the PCs don't KNOW the magnitude of what's at stake unless they fail. Seems a gip that the person experiencing the most relief if they thwart the plot is the DM!)
I actually toyed with the idea of using Zyrxog as an ally. After all, there's no reason for HIM to know what the scrolls would be used for, and it's not in his best interests for the town he's spent decades infiltrating to turn into a Romero movie. I didn't wind up going that way, but COULD have had the group working with the drow thralls in the games for the final arena encounter (I had the beastie burst up towards the end of the last fight so there was an NPC group in the ring as well as the PCs... seemed more dramatic).
To post a follow up, the group survived with some surprisingly good tactics, and managed to scrape a win with only one party death (a cohort at that). On to the games...