Our group had some difficulty with Kazmojen. They first encountered him coming into the great hall through the dining area. When he demanded to know who had interrupted his business proceedings, the group charged without a word. Kazmojen and Prickles were able to effectively flank the leading members of the party since they had spread themselves out thinly. I had Kazmojen making single, two-handed attacks with his urgrosh instead of wielding it as a double-weapon which made for a more effective combatant.
Kazmojen and Prickles were able to tear to pieces each of the party members that came close, frequently switching to the most lightly-armored target they could reach. I could hear the panic in their voices when the hobgoblins, alerted by Prickles eerie howling, started to flood into the chamber in a seemingly endless stream. When one of the six party members was dead and two more had fallen, the retreat was called. The heavily armored dwarven fighter was felled during the retreat leaving two members to escape.
The fallen members were imprisoned and, in a mini-session played out with captive party members, they were able to effect their escape the next morning through a clever ruse and some very effective Bluff checks. Alas, during the escape, the general alarm was raised.
As the escapees reached the elevator, the party members who had survived the first fight were just coming down to rescue the fallen, accompanied by Fario and Fellian for added support. The reunion was short-lived however as the general alarm brought Kazmojen, Prickles, and the remaining hobgoblins charging in to face the new arrivals and escapees.
In this second encounter, the party was caught off-guard and ill-equipped (with the escapees being dressed only in hastily-donned hobgoblin armor and weapons) and again allowed themselves to get spread out along the length of the corridor, providing ample opportunity for the hobgoblins to surround the archer and Kazmojen and Prickles to again flank the remaining party members freely. After two more deaths (Fellian being one of them) and another two fallen, the party again fled to preserve their lives.
They regrouped on the surface with a few members bringing in new characters to replace the dead and captured. Joined by Fario and Alek Tercival (scaled down for being an early chapter, though still formidable), the revised group once again descended into the Malachite Hold. This time, Kazmojen had left the secret door leading to the elevator open so his guards could see when they came back. The alarm was raised immediately, but since Kazmojen was down to only a few guards left, they had instructions to pull back to the great hall.
The group was blessed with the wisdom to not charge after them and instead proceeded carefully down the hall, through the entry room, and down the next corridor toward the great hall. One of them fell prey to the pit trap but the others managed to avoid it. They had come in time to interrupt the sale of their fallen comrades (shackled and gagged, of course), to a kuo-toan slave trader (in an effort to foreshadow Bhal-hamatugn).
This time, the group stuck together to prevent flanking and kept the cleric immediately behind the front line for in-combat healing. Despite Kazmojen withdrawing for long enough to get two free rounds of Fast Healing, they were still able to overcome both he and Prickles (though they nearly lost another character in the process). During the fight, the Kuo-toan slave trader fled the great hall so he could come around the back of the party with his two lemures (repurposed from Pyllrak) as a surprise for the rear ranks but he fled and was chased down when he saw that Kazmojen had fallen.
To make the combat more interesting and less static, Kazmojen had also set up a swinging deadfall trap by having his hobgoblins go out to the jungle through the lava tunnels and collect saplings that he then had bundled together and hung from the ceiling, rigged to swing down and slam into anyone standing in the center of the great hall. He was hoping to catch a few of them in it, but it was triggered early by a panicked hobgoblin and ended up being something that the group was able to move around instead of though.
I'm really glad they have finally gotten past Kazmojen. He was a tough opponent, made all the tougher by poor tactics on the part of the PCs. I think they're starting to get a better idea of how difficult some of the encounters are going to be, so that's giving them a new respect for those characters who have been able to survive.
Some great foreshadowing going on there...
They certainly seemed to have a tough time with Kazmojen!
(Aside: Right now, the PCs in our campaign are currently tromping their way through Occipitus and, while they had not much issue with Kazmojen way back when, are getting their asses handed to them in the Abyss. Ouch ouch ouch.)
Some great foreshadowing going on there...
They certainly seemed to have a tough time with Kazmojen!
(Aside: Right now, the PCs in our campaign are currently tromping their way through Occipitus and, while they had not much issue with Kazmojen way back when, are getting their asses handed to them in the Abyss. Ouch ouch ouch.)
Yeah, I liked the idea of using the Kuo-toan, especially assigning the two lemure servants to him. It establishes a relationship right off the bat between the kuo-toa and devils, making it that much more plausible when they run into Aushanna later in Chapter 4.
I'm also glad the party got the chance to meet Alek and have him help out with their fight. I'm going to try to find some other ways for Alek to lend assistance on behalf of the church so when they are faced with having to rescue him, it will seem that much more emotionally significant that the guy who has helped them out in the past is now desperately in need of help from them.
Plus, when Nabthatoron butchers Alek later, it will make the devil seem more potent since Alek will be someone the party looks up to as a powerful combatant and ally.
I used Alek in an earlier adventure as well (in Zenith Trajectory) as a guide to get to Bhal-Hamatugn (he met them at Crazy Jared's and guided them to the cavern with Bhal-Hamatugn) as I thought the way to get there as written was just far too simple, and I too wanted to introduce Alek earlier in the path.
I had him leave for "other duties" at that point (a bit cheesy, but it made sense to my players so I got away with it), but with hindsight they could have used his help since they got beaten very badly in the shrine...
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Our group had some difficulty with Kazmojen. They first encountered him coming into the great hall through the dining area. When he demanded to know who had interrupted his business proceedings, the group charged without a word. Kazmojen and Prickles were able to effectively flank the leading members of the party since they had spread themselves out thinly. I had Kazmojen making single, two-handed attacks with his urgrosh instead of wielding it as a double-weapon which made for a more effective combatant.
Kazmojen and Prickles were able to tear to pieces each of the party members that came close, frequently switching to the most lightly-armored target they could reach. I could hear the panic in their voices when the hobgoblins, alerted by Prickles eerie howling, started to flood into the chamber in a seemingly endless stream. When one of the six party members was dead and two more had fallen, the retreat was called. The heavily armored dwarven fighter was felled during the retreat leaving two members to escape.
The fallen members were imprisoned and, in a mini-session played out with captive party members, they were able to effect their escape the next morning through a clever ruse and some very effective Bluff checks. Alas, during the escape, the general alarm was raised.
As the escapees reached the elevator, the party members who had survived the first fight were just coming down to rescue the fallen, accompanied by Fario and Fellian for added support. The reunion was short-lived however as the general alarm brought Kazmojen, Prickles, and the remaining hobgoblins charging in to face the new arrivals and escapees.
In this second encounter, the party was caught off-guard and ill-equipped (with the escapees being dressed only in hastily-donned hobgoblin armor and weapons) and again allowed themselves to get spread out along the length of the corridor, providing ample opportunity for the hobgoblins to surround the archer and Kazmojen and Prickles to again flank the remaining party members...
I made Kazmojen a reoccuring villian. He killed quite a few characters during the campaign, and I even had him kidnapped Jenya at the end, to try and get the party to chase after him to keep the campaign going. Alas, the party was sick of Jenya, and her constant divinations, so they said &*!# Jenya, let HIM deal with her. We ended the campaign the next week. They never did kill Kazmojen. I plan on making him a reaccuring villian in future campaigns.
In my first Shackled City game, the party wizard cast Grease and Kazmojen spent the rest of the combat failing Balance checks. :-/
In my first Shackled City game, the party wizard cast Grease and Kazmojen spent the rest of the combat failing Balance checks. :-/
My party cast Cloud of Bewilderment on him and Grease. He was naseated (so couldn't attack) and then copped 2 AoO's while trying to move out of the greased area.
If it wasn't for that they would have had a very tough time with him. I was worried that a TPK was a possibility but the party's Conjurer was very effective with his spells in that fight. It didn't help that I couldn't get Kaz to pass a saving throw during the whole combat.
Olaf the Stout