Ebon Aspect on the Rampage


Age of Worms Adventure Path


Last night's game was quite a good one. The party entered the inner sanctum of the temple of Vecna, and there was one miserable roll after another. The allip hypnotized 4 of 6 characters, giving the two acolytes time to regroup (as per the tactics) and come back. In the meantime the allip just tore through the group. There was only one magic weapon in the group (which at this point in the adventure seems to be not enough for the allip) and the allip seemingly could not miss on its incorporeal touch. When the Faceless One showed up, it was almost looking like a tpk. I decided to go a little easy on the party (I know, I'm a softy) and decided the FO would not summon the monstrous centipede (?) in the middle of a battle his people were already engaged in. It probably saved the party's hide.

But having said all that, they are still severely hurt. They have one character down to 0 Wis due to the allip, everyone is down below 1/2 hp (except for the one NPC in the party - former player that moved away), and pretty much no spells. (And I still forgot about the 2 acolytes in the lab with the FO. I guess they were never there...)

So after the battle they decided to retreat back to the temple of Hextor to lick their wounds. The session ended when they entered the Black Cathedral in time to witness the Ebon Aspect emerge from the pool.

They are sh***ing themselves. They are going to run away, that's for sure. Probably to one of the secret rooms in the labyrinth. I know the text says that Ebon Aspect will follow the party, but I'm not sure he'll be able to get past the secret doors.

Anyways, my question (after all that) is this: has anyone played it out where the party left the Ebon Aspect to escape the mines and start wreaking havoc on the town? What timeline did you use for general destruction?

Thanks,
Greg


I DM'd this thing 2 twice, and both time the party barely contained it. I would give them a 24 hour head start, but that is about it. I am sure he should be able to leave if that is what the writer said. The writer may have messed the logisitics, but I don't think intent should be waved off by a map error.

PS: You might need to give some lessons in tactics so they know to get access to magic weapons the next time you player. The casters should have also been able to handle the allip with magic, unless they ran out of damage dealing spells.

PS2: Are you running this in PF or 3.5?


wraithstrike wrote:
I DM'd this thing 2 twice, and both time the party barely contained it. I would give them a 24 hour head start, but that is about it. I am sure he should be able to leave if that is what the writer said. The writer may have messed the logisitics, but I don't think intent should be waved off by a map error.

IIRC (I skimmed it last night) there is basically a 10min period at the start where he's "slow" (not quantified, I don't think) and then he can find the party within 1mile as if using locate object. My thought is that if they hold out in one of the secret areas for 24 hours to heal and get spells back the aspect will get "bored" and start heading into town, assuming he can't get past the secret doors.

wraithstrike wrote:

PS: You might need to give some lessons in tactics so they know to get access to magic weapons the next time you player. The casters should have also been able to handle the allip with magic, unless they ran out of damage dealing spells.

They really aren't that bad. I think the problem is that this is the first monster in the AP that requires magic weapons to hit it, so the cleric didn't have magic weapon memorized. There was a +1 shortsword that was retrieved from the Hextor temple, I think, and it was the rogue that had it. He used it as best he could, but the net result is that he's currently sitting at 0 Wis. The ranger picked it up near the end to finish it off, but it took a long time to get there. The monk has equivalent of "magic hands" but again, the babbling of the allip really f'ed them up. Of the 6 party members (fighter, rogue, monk, ranger, cleric & wizard) only the ranger and rogue survived the allip's initial babble. Really, really, really bad rolls. And my dice were hot so I think the minimum downtime was 6 rounds because of it. After the monk "came to" he was grappled by one of the pillars (got too close in the first round), and couldn't get out of it for 3 rounds. Add to that the fact that cleric couldn't hit with his light of mercuria (or whatever it's called - SC, I think): of 4 or 6 ranged touch attacks he made, I think he hit with one. By that time, the allip had over doubled his hit points due to the Wis drains he was doing. (Nasty, nasty, nasty.)

And the acolytes showed up with protection from arrows and mage armor buffs and things started to get difficult. Then the FO showed up and threw flaming sphere and lightning bolt pretty much unmolested for a few rounds.

I want to stress how badly they were rolling. I don't recall so many sub-10 rolls on d20s in a long time. The cleric, on three consecutive "to-hit" rolls, rolled 1, 2 and 3. And that was similar for pretty much everyone. It was one of those nights where the dice just hated them. And my black d20 was hitting 15+ a little too often... (I sometimes thinks it's not purely random, but when I test it out outside of the game, I get a nice distribution of numbers. As soon as the figs are on the table, though, that die is just nasty.)

wraithstrike wrote:
PS2: Are you running this in PF or 3.5?

3.5: core + some complete (warrior, divine) + Book of Eldritch Might.

Greg


I gotcha. It was just one of those days where the dice gods were angry. I have had those days. I don't remember what skills the monster has so it may or may not be able to find the secret doors, but it has decent mental stats. The town militia should be able to kill it, but that might take XP away from the PC's.


I had a great time with this story line. In my game the Ebon Aspect killed a player and the rest retreated out of the mine. Well they head off to rest and I have the Ebon Aspect emerge and go on a rampage in the town.

The whole scene actually players out later as the characters flee back to their base and rest up before heading for the Feral Dog, hoping to find a new member before returning for a rematch with the Ebon Aspect.

What they actually find is a half dozen dead guardsmen (and 3 or 4 miners) and the half the town celebrating their 'Hero's' - which are the 4 adventurers from the Free City who, with the help of the garrison took the thing down.

---------

DM Jeremy: The citizens are constantly hoisting cheers to the adventures from the big city. A pretty maid hands them yet another round of shots. She seems to gaze upon their burly warrior with a look of hero worship and says "I'm not busy tonight in a shy and hopeful tone".

Player1: Those bastards - they vultured our kill!

DM Jeremy: You saying that outloud?

Player2: Uh...no...instead we, umm, quietly slip away hoping none of the miners recognize us.

DM Jeremy: You slip away like dogs with their tail between their legs.

Player2: You put such a negative spin on it.

Player1: I hate you.

----------------

Note that not only was this a fun scene for me as a DM but it also goes a very long way to alleviating issues regarding the 5 minute work day. Its early in the campaign and now is a very good time to reinforce the idea that the players can't just run away and rest without any consequences.


wraithstrike wrote:
I gotcha. It was just one of those days where the dice gods were angry. I have had those days. I don't remember what skills the monster has so it may or may not be able to find the secret doors, but it has decent mental stats. The town militia should be able to kill it, but that might take XP away from the PC's.

I think I've got 3 at 5th and 3 at 4th level. Not sure if that's enough to go into EaBK - I'll have to think about it.

Just checked and the aspect has no ranks in search, just his bare Wis score. So that's a +3. With secret doors at DC of 25, he can't find them even taking 20. I think he will definitely be heading into town...

Jeremy Mac Donald wrote:
Note that not only was this a fun scene for me as a DM but it also goes a very long way to alleviating issues regarding the 5 minute work day. Its early in the campaign and now is a very good time to reinforce the idea that the players can't just run away and rest without any consequences.

Interesting take on it. I've managed to build up a bit of animosity between Kellek et al and the party in an earlier encounter, so maybe this might help to build up more tension for when they get to Greyhawk and the games in the arena.

On the other hand, I had thought this would be a good way for the party to redeem themselves to the town. They are still on the run due to accusations of assault and theft of Kullen's gang and murder at the old observatory - of which they are entirely guilty of :) There are extenuating circumstances, of course, but the sheriff doesn't know that.

Next game is Thurs night, so I've got time to think about it.

Greg

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