This weekend, my players are going to continue our game, and they'll probably have their second go at Erylium. Meanwhile, I've sent each of my players a letter detailing what their character is doing in Sandpoint, based on what they told me at the last session's end. I've tried to give them some help and/or tips on how to deal with Erylium.
The party saved a little girl and her puppy at the Swallowtail Festival, which so happens to be a ward of Ilsoari, who rewards the sorceress with a wand of magic missile with 7 charges left.
At this point, you notice a man passing you by, leading a horse laden with several heavy sacks. You proceed to ask him if he might know of a person like this. The man seems to think for a moment, and you're genuinely surprised at the fact that he doesn't steal a glance at you, like most of the men you've encountered in your travels. This really is a pleasant town.
"Well, there's old Brodert Quink, who'm lives out by tha old light, but he ain't much of the magic sort I dunnae think. Yer best bet is probably Ilsoari. He's the headmaster of Turandarok Acadamy, which is part school, part orphanage. He used to be quite the accomplished wizard himself, back in his adventuring days."
After thanking the man and receiving directions, you make your way there, but as you're walking down festival street, you're accosted by a man running out of Sandpoint Theater. The man is dressed in well-made colourful garb, is sporting a blonde handlebar mustache, and seems genuinely pleased to see you. You recognize him as one of the main speakers at the Swallowtail Festival earlier this week.
"Ah, Milady! If I may be so bold, I would have but a moment of your time! My name is Cyrdak Drokkus, the propietor of this here fine playhouse," and he makes a grand gesture towards the very impressive theater behind him. "I am always on the lookout for talent, and if you don't mind me saying so, I believe I may have found the next Chelaxian diva in you! What would you say to being the star in a reenactment of your fight against the goblins in a dazzling show, accompanied offcourse, by fine illusion-work from yours truly? With your flair and charisma, I'm sure the crowd will show up in droves! And I will, offcourse, offer full compensation," he adds with a charming smile.
Slightly taken aback by the exuberant man, you ask him if you can think about it.
"Certainly my dearest lady, I will await your answer with great anticipation!" And with a grand flourish and a bow, the man says goodbye to you.
Arriving at Turandarok Academy, a large two-story stone building, you knock on the heavy wooden doors, and are quickly led inside by a servant, who asks you to wait while he fetches the headmaster. Within mere moments, you are surrounded by young children, who all want to see one of the heroes who saved the town from the goblins only a few days earlier.
"Are you a wizzard?!"
"Are you going to the basement?"
"I hear there's a goblin farm in the basement!"
"No there isn't, it's a nest of phantom spiders!"
"Na-uh, it's the Sandpoint Devil that's down there, I seen it myself!"
"Children children, please allow the good woman some breathing room." The last voice came from not one of the children, but from an elderly man standing in the door opening. The children quickly disperse, and the man invites you into a small office before he sits down behind a large desk.
"You'll have to excuse the little rascals, it's not every day they get a visit from a genuine heroine. I'm Ilsoari Gandethus, the headmaster. Now, I understand you wanted to speak with me?"
After explaining the situation you've encountered in the catacombs, you recall noticing how the tiny flying creature seemed to shrug of most of the damage your newly acquired friends could inflict upon it with their projectiles, but your magic seemed to genuinely wound it. Relaying this information, Ilsoari closes his eyes for a moment.
"Well, to my shame I must say I'm not very well versed in extraplanar beings, but I do think I have something that might be of help. And since I understand you and your friends saved one of my youngest pupils, Vera, at the Swallowtail Festival, I'll consider it a gift." The man opens a drawer and pulls out an object wrapped in a piece of dark blue cloth. Pulling the cloth aside, you find a thin bronze wand, about 7 inches long, embedded with tiny silver specks.
"It's served me well in the past, but I'm an old man now and I doubt I'll be needing it again, so I'm happy to let you have it," he explains.
No help for Erylium here, but this was an excellent chance to introduce the news of Tsuto's suicide to the party. At the moment, Sheriff Hemlock still hasn't returned from Magnimar.
Reaching the point in Main Street where the Sandpoint garrison faces the town hall, you gaze on the large stone buildings, wondering bewildered how some people can spend their entire lives indoors, never experiencing the freedom of the open plains or the rugged beauty of the Storval Plateau.
Then suddenly, the garrison door is thrown open and one of the guard clerks runs out towards the northeast, obviously panicked about something. You decide to investigate further, and enter the garrison complex. Inside are a few guards, one of which is arguing with the desk clerk.
"He was fine last night!"
"Well he's certainly not fine now, so something must have happened!"
"I was here all night, no one came through!" Approaching one of the guards whom you know by face, you ask what's happening.
"The prisoner, something's happened to him," the guard explains. "He's gotten hurt or something. We sent someone to fetch Father Zantus at the cathedral."
Alarmed, you head down to the underground wing that houses the jail. The garrison's jailer, a fellow Shoanti named Vachedi, is standing in front of Tsuto's cell, its door open. The heavily scarred brute sees you approaching and gruffs something, accompanied by a respectful nod. As you look into the cell, you see Tsuto slumped against the far wall, his head hanging down and his chin and the front of his shirt completely red with blood. Behind you, A guard rushes in accompanied by Father Zantus and followed by a second guard. The priest hurries over to Tsuto's motionless form, and lifts up his head, placing his hands on both sides of his neck.
"No healing can help here, his spirit has left his body," Father Zanthus announces after a few moments.
"I don't understand, what happened to him," one of the guards asks, "Phelps was stationed upstairs all night and he didn't see anyone coming or going?"
"I founds him like dis when I's bring him his dinner juz' now," Vachedi agrees. Zantus carefully pries the dead half-elf's mouth open slightly more and explains, "It's suicide. He bit off his own tongue and bled to death." Closing his eyes, Father Zantus bows his head and murmurs a quick, short prayer to Desna. "Let each dream be a bright star in the night sky of your mind, and let it light your path in the day."
One of the guards shuffles his feet. "Someone should inform miss Ameiko, I guess."
"Actually, it's Lady Kaijitsu now. Since her father's death, she's our newest noble, and the sole inheritor of the Kaijitsu fortune," Father Zanthus remarks.
Sabyl Sorn seems to think the tome they recovered is valuable, and could perhaps be used to manipulate the quasit...
Reading those words are calm and soothing, especially after the somewhat unnerving encounter with that tiny demon in the catacombs. Placing the book back on the shelf reverently, you decide to take the ancient tome you took from the catacombs to Sabyl, in the hopes she can shed some more light on it.
Informing Maris of your intentions, you head upstairs, where you find Sabyl Sorn, the proprietor of the monastery deep in meditation, her single long braid draped over her shoulders. You wait respectfully until she notices you, then show her the tome with all the horrific creatures. Inspecting the cover and opening the book, she nods, her face masking her emotions.
"This seems to be a book dedicated to Lamashtu. I believe it's written in Abyssal, and it looks like a religious text." She slowly leafs through the old pages as she rubs her chin, and elaborates, "Lamashtu is the mother of monsters, devourer of infants, and source of all that is corrupted and bestial. A monstrous and terrifying deity born from the depths of madness, she is both fiendish queen and revered mother to the horrors that stalk the night. There are legends that say that from her womb sprang many monstrous races, among which goblins and gnolls are the best known examples."
Sabyl points at an illustration of what looks like a stylized jackal head. "This is her, she is often depicted as a pregnant woman with a three-eyed jackal head, taloned bird legs, and black hawk wings. Her pregnant belly is also often heavily scarred to symbolize her monstrous progeny. Can I ask where you got this from?" She asks while she keeps turning pages.
Telling the tale of your exploits in the catacombs, eventually Sabyl concludes, "It seems clear to me that the creature you encountered worships Lamashtu, judging from the fact that she mentioned her 'mother's sanctum'. If that's true, this book might hold some value for her, and perhaps might be used to manipulate her." Closing the book, she taps it with her finger. "In any case, this book seems remarkably well preserved for its age, and I would love to add it to my collection. I would offcourse offer proper compensation, say one hundred gold pieces?"
The witch, with the help of Sabyl's library, realizes that cold iron might be a very good way to hurt quasits.
"Make yourselves comfortable, I'll be upstairs if you need anything," Sabyl Sorn says with a small bow, and you bow in mutual respect, thanking her for allowing you entry. "Don't mention it, my door is always open for fellow worshipers of the master of masters." Glancing around eagerly, you start looking through the tomes, and realizes there are numerous ones that talk about the Great Beyond and the various different planes. Certainly you can find some more information about the small demons called quasits here, and perhaps some inherent weaknesses. Before long, you find a hefty volume titled 'A Treatise on the Abyssal Plane, by Kreighton Shaine'.
Installing yourself at a small table near the flickering lantern, your owl flies of your shoulder to perch on one of the highback chairs, and begins to lazily groom his feathers. As you open the book, the spine makes a creaking sound, and you read the first few lines.
'Surrounding the Outer Sphere like the impossibly deep skin of an onion, the layered plane of the Abyss begins as gargantuan canyons and yawning chasms in the fabric of the other Outer Planes, bordered by the foul waters of the River Styx. There are no rules in the Abyss, nor laws, order, or hope. The Abyss is a perversion of freedom, a nightmare realm of unmitigated horror where desire and suffering are given demonic form, for the Abyss is the spawning ground of the innumerable races of demons, among the oldest beings in all the Great Beyond.'
You're aware that Nandalee says something to you before she heads upstairs, but you're completely engrossed in the book. Slowly, you start to turn the pages. The first few are filled with various sketches of how the author perceives the layout of the planes, and you come across numerous illustrations of its inhabitants. After skimming these pages for a while, you finally come across an entry that seems to be what you're looking for.
'A quasit's natural shape is that of a tiny horned humanoid with wings and a long tail, although they are capable of shape-shifting at will. They are normally found serving as counselors, spies, or familiars for more powerful demons or evil spellcasters. They are weak fighters, although they have several useful tricks up their sleeves, such as poisonous claws and the ability to shapeshift, turn invisible, and cause fear. They generally employ these tricks to the full as they prefer to use hit-and-run tactics whenever possible.'
Reading ahead, there's a lot of information about their origins and their affinity with souls. Apparantly, the quasits that serve as a wizard's familiar, are somehow linked to their soul, and sometimes they even follow their master into the Great Beyond when they die, upon which the master's soul is placed in possession of the quasit, turning the role around.
It also mentions they have a natural immunity to electricity and poison, and are quite resistant to all sorts of acid, as well as fire and cold.
But the entry that you find most interesting is the one that talks about the resilience of their scaly skin. It seems their scales interlock so well, that most normal weapons can only partially penetrate them. The only weapons that can reliably pierce these scales, are weapons made of a material called cold iron. This metal is mined deep underground, and forged at a lower temperature to preserve its delicate properties.
You recall there was a blacksmith in town, called Das Korvut. Perhaps you should inquire there and ask after the availability of this material.
Lastly, the barbarian learns of an old paladin living right here in town, who could prove useful, if they can convince him to lend a hand.
As you open the door to Savah's Armory, you pause as you notice a man across the street, exiting a building. The man is unshaven and dressed in an unassuming leather jerkin, clutching a small packet to his chest. When he sees you looking, he flashes a toothy grin at you, and quickly stuffs the packet inside his clothes, hurrying down the street. The building he exited is nestled at the base of a small cliff, tucked between several old tenements, with nothing but a painting of a pillbug perched on a mushroom to indicate that it is anything more than yet another home. Shaking your head, you dismiss it and walk into Savah's Armory.
Behind the counter, Savah Bevaniky beams as you enter, and pulls her fingers through her short, spiky black hair. "Good afternoon," she says cheerfully, "Just let me know if I can help you find anything!"
Looking around for a moment, you start picking some javelins and piling them together. Savah raises an eyebrow and smiles at you, "So, going dragon hunting are we?" After explaining the intended target and relating your encounter with the flying little pest, Savah walks over to a display case in the center of the shop. "Well, I still have this here beauty," she says, taking out a crossbow, with a rectangular container where the bolt normally would be. Made out of a rich, dark wood, the stock is inlaid with ivory that spells the name 'Vansaya'. "I'm not sure what the name means, I bought it from an adventurer on his way to Riddleport about a year ago. You can put up to five bolts in here at the top, so you can shoot and reload it really fast. It's a bit complex to use though, and pretty pricy, which is why I haven't been able to resell it yet I guess," she smiles apologetically.
"Oh," she says, as if suddenly remembering something. "You might want to try asking the assistance of Sir Jasper Korvaski. He's quite an accomplished paladin of Abadar, or at least he used to be, in his younger years. He's long since given up the crusader's lifestyle, but I'm sure he'd be willing to help the heroes of Sandpoint." Leaning in, she whispers, "Otherwise you could always ask Cyrdak Drokkus, I'm sure he could convince Jasper, as I hear they're become quite friendly with each other," she winks at you conspiratorially.
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The Quasit flew around going invisible/summoning monsters etc vs the group of 4 players. The ranger was scared away for most of the fight. A summoned dire rat jumped onto the rogues neck after she was subject to a hold person, and almost CDG'd her-she made the fort save by 1! After the sin spawn/summoned monsters were taken care of, the monk readied a grappling hook and smashed her out of the air, then the whole party dog-piled her. The gnome Drogort CDG'd her, and then split her head in half. He was planning on fitting the two sides of her skull into his new plate armor, but he died to Malfeshnekor before that could be realized.
All the players except one are brand new to PNP RPGs, so they weren't prepared for a ranged fight like this--they've learned their lesson. :)
Well My players finally killed her. She has been a thorn in their side for a while now. They thought they had her trapped in the Catacombs (upward collapsed stairwell). The party had left for Thistletop. Erylium changed into a centipede made it to the surface. Broke Tsuto outta jail and set off in pursuit. The party had already killed the goblins and taken a short rest. The party practically made a bee line first to the Yeth hounds on level two which alerted everyone. Then straight to Nualia and Lyrie. The party was assaulted from behind with the rest of the named bad guy's. Erylium met her end towards the end of the fight when the monk grappled her. She used a villan point and used her SLA cause fear. The monk initially failed his save but, used a hero point to reroll and made it. He then killed her with a crit from his numchuks .
Just ran this last night. Once my players entered the Glassworks, they started heading towards the prison and zombie pits, but before entering the always ominous closed door, they decided to turn around and headed straight for the Elyrium encounter. I debated locking the door to stop them, but instead tried to make the altar unpleasant and obvious that they should not forge ahead. Instead they did.
They fought her summoned monsters, a sinspawn and her all at once. The fighter has a ridiculous armor class for his level (I ran the beginner box as a prelude so I believe he got some nice armor from Black Fangs cache). A lot of enemies wail on him but he's almost impossible to hit unless I roll a natural 20 (I think his AC at lvl 2 is 28...first time Pathfinder DM is learning things.). Elyrium's spells did a number on him as he often failed his saves and was rendered useless. The sinspawn also caught him flatfooted and nailed him with a sinful bite.
The other two party members, the cleric (who is known for being amazingly badass) and the rogue (who deals absolutely massive damage because he's the only player who min-maxed like crazy, but always ends up bleeding out) did their best. At one point, the fighter was feared, the rogue was down and the cleric was barely holding her own against ALL the enemies.
The fighter got his bearings back and gave the rogue a potion to get him on his feet, the cleric killed the sinspawn with her trident, and the summoned monsters were killed. Then it became a matter of getting Elyrium out of hiding, who kept tossing spells at them, occasionally appearing when she tossed her dagger, only to go invisible the next round. Unsure what to do, they tried to enrage her by breaking skulls on the fountain, and the cleric ran over to the minor runewell, and I was hoping she'd figured it out--instead the players started discussing if they should pour their only holy water into it.
That's when the half orc fighter got his idea. Once they managed to pinpoint her location he tossed some oil at her, which managed to splash onto her, revealing her location. The next turn he lit some flint using his sword, and tossed it at her. Wanting to move the fight along, I called it a CMB move. Why not? He rolled a 20, the fire caught the oil covered quasit. It didn't take long for it to burn through her fire resist, but in that time, the cleric of Gozreh managed to catch the tiny demon in her net and grounded her. Before the net caught fire, the group just started beating the crap out of her. Net burned through, she ran for the fountain and jumped in to douse flames, hoping to be able to fly away afterwards. Nope. Cleric pinned her with the trident and the rogue coup de graced her.
It's always interesting with them...
Later they pushed Koruvus into a zombie pit.
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We ran this two weeks ago and the fight was great fun. Although there are 6PCs (5 2nd-level and 1 1st-level) they were tired and out of spells by the time they found the temple. I'm also mean, so I got her to create a couple of sinspawn to hold the PCs off.
The party consisted of:
Human fighter (leader)
Human rogue
Human warlock (witch)
Elf ranger
Dwarf cleric of Torag
Half-elf magus
The players work well together tactically (even if the player with the warlock hasn't quite figured out 'spells' yet) and flanked and slaughtered the first sinspawn in one round. The ranger kept her bow ready for the quasit and shot her when she first appeared (no damage though, DR was too high). Encouraged, they stormed up onto the platform at the end of the temple to face the second sinspawn, only to get hit by the quasit's fear spell...
The fighter, rogue and ranger took to their heels, racing off into the darkness. Summoned hounds tore down the magus and flung him down the stairs, leaving the cleric and the warlock to battle the quasit, sinspawn and summoned creatures. And battle them they did! The cleric, calling on Torag for strength, stablised the magus then beat down the summoned creatures with his hammer. The warlock unleashed every scroll and wand he had on the sinspawn (to little effect :P), and all the while they made save after spell save. By the time the warriors returned the combatants were all exhausted. Erylium's spells were all gone, and sinspawn was dead and it looked like a long, drawn out battle of attrition was ahead, with the quasit attempting to whittle down the PCs with her dagger (1d2 damage!?). That is, until...
The fighter, ranseur in hand, leaps off the bank of the cleric as the quasit swoops low to fling her knife. Natural 20.... threat.... and promise! 36? (my memory fails me) points of damage later, the quasit is spitted on his spear.
I had her blood summon yet another sinspawn from the runewell, but even so it was game over for Lamashtu!
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Erylium got away from our group.
The group's make-up was:
Human paladin 2
Human barbarian 1/oracle 1
Elf ranger 2
Half-elf bard 2
All four characters were fairly well optimized, and the group has players with sound gaming experience. Upon reading the Tsuto's sketchbook, and seeing the clue about the "quasit's aid", they researched the little bugger, and came prepared to combat it's invisibility, flight and DR - bringing powdered flour (from the Avertin's shop), a net, and cold iron weapons and arrows.
As the fight ensued, it was certainly and predictably painful for players to be playing, with copious holding, fearing and slumber hexing - and who likes to have a few rounds go by when they can't control their PC at level 2? I believe at most points, two of the players unfortunately failed Will saves and weren't in the main combat.
In our game, Erylium managed to summon 4 three-eyed jackals (3 with the Summon II and another with Summon I) as speed bumps. I also had 2 sinspawn enter the fight, one to start, and another that Erylium summoned later once most of her fodder was gone. The minions did reasonably well, with a critical hit dropping the bard.
However, once all the minions were cleaned up, Erylium was near full HP (since the poor ranger was the one feared and she's the only one who did early damage, which was healed up completely by fast healing).
We played out a couple rounds of throw-the-returning-dagger, where I believe Erylium went from 35HP down to ~15HP or so when she appeared and got ganked by cold iron arrows. Without any further minions to summon, or spells to control the battlefield, I had a hard time having Erylium just continue to make weak attempts to hit for 1d2 damage at the risk of taking 5-10 herself, so she made a break for it.
While I intended to play Erylium "to the death" to defend her "kingdom", I saw her as too clever to throw it all away in an obviously unwinnable circumstance. Ultimately, if the main damage dealers in the group (the paladin and barbarian) would've made an effort to coordinate their damage output with the ranger, they would've probably dropped the quasit, but with their split damage output and their focusing on the sinspawn first - it ended up in a long stalemate phase at the end.
It wasn't as bad as a pugwampi pack, but the players definitely don't count the Erylium fight as one of their favorites due to all the loss of PC control that occurred from sleep/hold/fear.
Party:
Kobold Rogue 2
Half-Elf Ranger 2
Human Alchemist 2
Catfolk Monk 2
Human Fighter/Oracle 1/1
I had a bigger write-up, but I accidentally hit Ctrl+R while typing, so cliffnotes. Half dead group with no spells, and no Cold Iron decides to go after this Quasit. Ranger's hitting it with arrows between fending off an Air Elemental and a Fire Beetle that's summoned on him, as the Rogue goes down(but not out) to the Sinspawn. Erylium gets pissed her monsters keep dying, so she starts putting b+*!~es to sleep. Alchemist stops that plan, sadly(only four people up, and the Ranger was too far away). Pinging people for damage, the Monk who was at 1 HP buggers off with the unconscious Rogue, as the Alchemist gets a "sample" of the Runewell water. I still say "nope, taking damage. Roll Will save, bro", even as he tries to "skim" the water. He fails, shoots the Monk in the ass as she runs.
Ranger sees this, puts an arrow into the Alchemist's face and knocks him out. Fighter grabs the Alchemist and they book it out to lick wounds.
Knowledge Checks with the Church! Cold Iron, you say? Two quivers of arrows and a quiver of bolts later, and they return and, between awesome rolls on their parts, Erylium goes from 30HP to unconscious and dying from falling damage(she was 30 feet up), where they decapitated her. I kept trying to find "objects" for them to cover up parts of the water so they could create more Sinspawn, but they said "eff that noise" and buggered off.
Three hours for the first part, a half an hour for the rematch(real life time) to kill the wench.
Favourite Part of the fight: Monk wanted to pull a Black Widow/Captain America and jump off the Fighter's back to latch onto Erylium when she was only 20 above him. She failed the roll, passed the save and was a very wet cat as she fell in the waters. Was funny with the typical fear of water cat that she was. I knew she wasn't going to make the roll(It's a DC what, 60 to jump 15 feet in the air?), so I said if she rolled a 18-20 I'd give her the success. Rolls a 5, so no epicness.
Amusingly enough my party ran into Erylium soon after their first Sinspawn encounter - they "chose wisely" as it were. And after casting "Purify Water" on the water font (I was so dumbfounded by that it took me five minutes of research to try and figure out what would happen - I chose "it works but eventually it'll be despoiled once more") they entered into the chapel and fought the quasit and her summons.
The halfling cleric, after several ineffectual attacks, got so pissed she grappled the quasit. I was so surprised I forgot the "free attack" on being grappled. (She rolled a natural 20 for the grapple.) And after the halfling shoved her Silver holy symbol down the quasit's throat I realized Erylium couldn't shapeshift or she'd rip her own head off.
Eventually after killing the summons the group surrounded the halfling and invisible quasit and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed until finally the half-orc barbarian was able to do enough damage to knock Erylium unconscious... and then cut her throat.
It was absolutely hilarious. ^^;;
(I started everyone off at 2nd level and have just added levels to everything to compensate. So Erylium was one level higher, her Sinspawn had a level of barbarian, and on down the line.)
Half-orc Barbarian, level 3
Human Ranger/Transmuter level 2/1
Halfling Bard/Cleric level 1/2
GMPC Sylph Wizard/Roge level 1/2
Increase her level and give her Suggestion. "Drink from the bubbling well..."
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You might not need to force a PC to climb into the runewell.
Sometimes they do crazy stuff like this on their own, and it's even more classical.
Option A) You find a way to get Erylium to get a PC into the runewell. That person basically gets a debuff and attacks the closest person (which sometimes is a sinspawn or Erylium and it's moot).
Option B) No PC ever goes in the runewell. Who knows what dangers it possesses? An unknown is sometimes exciting.
Option C) A PC surprises you and tests it out on their own. This is often after the battle is over. This is a guaranteed duel usually between the 2 martial/melee types in your group. This happened to my group and it was amazing/hilarious to see them roleplaying WHY they were fighting each other. "Did you look at Shayliss Vinder?" "Me, no? I saw YOU looking at her! She's MINE!"
I originally fretted about it, and given that (C) happened on its own, I'm glad I didn't force the issue and possibly miss a great moment.
The party actually brought Brodert Quink down since they were obsessed with deactivating the runewell, especially after seeing a sinspawn spawn from it.
Quink proposed that someone who is good and holy might be able to counteract the evil. If you think your paladin or cleric might climb in on their own, these events could repeat. If you do go this route, please post back and report what happened!
None of my PCs went into it. However, they were considering weaponizing it. As in gathering some of the water in a glass container, putting blood in another glass vial inside it, and then throwing the whole thing at an enemy. It took me pointing out "Nualia is still alive and escaped from prison and she knows how to use the well" (Ripnugget led a rescue party to spring her from Sandpoint, dying in the effort) before they decided "destroy it."
At which point they were considering having the town do a tax to gather the hundreds of gallons of holy water which would have been needed. The Scarnettis nixed that and proposed blowing the ceiling above the well (which was my group's initial plan until they thought "property damage! We'll be blamed!").
Heh. I should have subsidence occur and the Scarnettis blamed. Just for the amusement factor. =^-^=
Just ran this encounter for my group this past weekend. Everyone in the group has a minimum of 20 years gaming experience, the last 15 of it together. Same group TPK'd out of Kingmaker and completed Carrion Crown. Good group, but still one that makes their PCs more for flavor and consistent concept than from a min-maxing perspective.
Human Fighter 2 (sword and board)
Human Magus 2 (whip magus)
Human Rogue 2
Dwarven Cleric of Torag 2
The PCs were pretty seriously tapped out by the time they got to the Cathedral, having chosen to explore the entirety of the Catacombs first. Since they opted to return to Sandpoint and rest for the night before continuing, I gave the quasit an additional Sinspawn who began the fight hiding under one of the staircases.
Encounter opened with her summoning the second sinspawn from the well during the 'surprise round.'
Round 1. Magus casts Enlarge Person on the Fighter. Rogue nails the quasit with a cold iron arrow from Tsuto's old shortbow. Enlarged fighter and cleric move to engage the two sinspawn. Quasit goes invisible.
Round 2. Party tussles with sinspawn and falls prey to some annoyingly bad dice while quaist starts casting Summon II.
Round 3. Summon II triggers and spawns 3 riding dogs to flank the PCs with the sinspawn. Quasit starts casting Summon 1, still invisible. Party starts panicking a bit as they are now outnumbered, injured, and throwing terrible attack rolls.
Round 4. Summon I triggers and spawns another riding dog. Quasit becomes visible as she drops a Cause Fear burst on the party. Everyone saves but the rogue, who takes off. Not knowing how long the summoned dogs will remain, the cleric calls a retreat and the group begins a fighting retreat out the double doors.
Round 5. Fighter goes down while heading for the doors. Quasit fails a Hold Person on the cleric. Cleric of Torag, now fully buffed up, puts his back to a wall and holds off the remaining dogs while channeling heals for the retreating party.
Round 6. Remaining first 2 dogs unsummon, causing the party to reassess their options and re-enter the combat. Dice finally turn and they dispatch both sinspawn. Rogue returns, the CF having timed out. Quasit, now missing most of her spells and with all of her followers dead, goes invis again to reassess her own options.
Round 7. Party closes the doors to try and cut off the quasit's escape, but have difficulty coming up with an idea to draw her out.
As the GM I am loathe to have her begin suicidally throwing that ineffectual dagger around now that her spell load is mostly gone and her followers/summons are dead. I know she's a bit paranoid and twitchy, but she's also thousands of years old and smart. She sees that the party has an enlarged fighter (with a ranseur for extra reach if he needs it), a deadeye shortbow with cold iron arrows, and a magus with a whip. I don't want to cheat the party out of a hard-earned victory, but neither do I want to hand them one too easily because the quasit is resource-tapped and 'decides' to foolishly engage rather than retreat to lick her wounds. So she sits silent and invisible, intending to at least wait out the Enlarge while she considers her options.
So the dwarven cleric decides to make her angry and draw her out by advancing and urinating in the runewell.
We went over time at that point, so will be finishing the encounter next session. Though I am a bit unsure as to how I should have the runewell react to the dwarf's defilement. I feel that hitting him with the same effect as if he'd entered the runewell is probably appropriate. Moreso than having it summon a sinspawn, which I interpret as being a more 'directed usage' of its power. The group only half-grasped the clue about the runewell fading, so I am hoping that if I drain another 3 points off of it by having the dwarf enrage, it may prompt them to burn its remaining points and thereby deactivate it.
Of course, the quasit showing back up, even spell-deficient, once the cleric of Torag starts raging around (assuming he fails his save) could make for an interesting conclusion to the encounter.
I'd say have her immediately attack Torag when she realizes what he's going to do. This is HER Runewell after all. And she probably doesn't know what urinating into it will do. You could even rule she's affected by Rage for a bonus to strength and constitution as a result (if you want to be legal about it, have her splash herself for that effect as she probably knows about the rage effect).
After all, she has no allies left. So Rage is a benefit for her.
I have to agree with Tangent101 -- although it's crude, it's a really clever idea, and I really dislike punishing a player for being clever. She really should fly into a rage and try to kill him.
Think, "How would this person react to such an event," rather than, "If I allow this, the fight's going to be too easy."
Sometimes players come up with really clever ideas that make fights too easy. And you know what? If you let it happen, most players love it.
My party had two bouts with Erylium, the first where they were forced to flee due to sustained injured and unpreparedness. The second proved that the dice wanted to kill them (but with a bit of fudging, they made it through).
Original party:
Swa - gnome cavalier 2
Audra - human air elemental sorcerer 2
Mia - half-elf fighter 2
Ze - human inquisitor of Pharasma 2
Round 1:
The party charged into the first encounter with both Mia and Swa severely injured and in the single digits for HP, as Koruvus and the Sinspawn had taken their toll on the party and they felt that the couldn't return to Sandpoint without finishing off the last of the creatures in the ruins. Unfortunately, the party had not done any research on quasits beforehand, and thus were fully unprepared. Mia soon fell unconscious from an attack from the Sinspawn. Ze could barely scratch the quasit with his crossbow. Even worse, Audra felt completely useless, as all her spell repertoire was basically useless due to the quasit's immunities (her only useful spells were grease and silent image). Swa finally dismounted, loaded Mia onto his wolf, and yelled for the party to flee. Swa ended up bleeding out in the runewell.
Round 1.5:
Now that the party knew was the enemy, they visited Brodert Quink to get some learning. Knowledge (Planes) . . . 12 after bonuses. Well, Sabyl Sorn has a library, let's try there. Knowledge (Planes) . . . 8. Come on Brodert! Let's try again! Knowledge (Planes) . . . 11. Finally, Mia (yes, the fighter) makes an untrained Knowledge (Planes) in Brodert's library and gets a 24, so the party can have knowledge! Armed with 3 tanglefoot bags, a cold iron sickle, and 20 cold iron crossbow bolts, the party ventures in again.
Round 2:
New Ally! James - random NPC guard, placeholder for Swa's replacement, played by Swa's player
New Enemies! Swa bleeding out in the runewell has expended all remaining charges, summoning 2 fresh sinspawn (though one was very weak as only 2 sin points were used to summon it)
Battle commences, the sinspawn get mopped up fairly quickly, though the frequency of their max damage attacks hint at things to come. They almost kill James in the process (he remains unconscious for the rest of the battle). The dice then take a definite turn against the party.
Audra fails her save vs. Cause Fear, and gets to spend the max 4 rounds running in terror
Tanglefoot 1: hits, but is a victim of the Sandpoint alchemist's 5% chance of failure. The cloud of perfume that is released disrupts spellcasting though.
Tanglefoot 2: misses
Tanglefoot 3: misses
Ze needed an 11-12 to hit Erylium with his crossbow, his accuracy stats: 3/12, and those 3 hits were spread out enough that Erylium's fast healing took care of the damage (a whopping 8 or so from the 3 hits). Ze was also, I believe, the thrower of the 2 tanglefoot bag misses (at least 1 was him).
Mia finally was able to jump up and grab Erylium, pin her, and tie her up. 2 coup de grace attempts later (min damage and successful save on the 1st), and Erylium is dead.
I have never seen ANYONE quite as hated by the dice as Ze's player in that battle. It was like a train wreck, horrifying to behold, but you can't look away. Erylium has kind of set the bar really high in terms of "tough battles".
My party showed up fairly fresh, this being their second session in the Catacombs. They comprised a barbarian, rogue, bard, sorcerer and cleric. Their lack of ranged damage made me wonder how they would do, and the answer is: not well at first. There are also no D&D / Pathfinder 'experts' amongst them, and no one had any insider-knowledge on quasits.
Erylium stayed up near the runewell and sent the sinspawn plus various summoned creatures at them, plus landing a hold person on the barbarian, slumber hex on the sorcerer and then ray of enfeeblement on the barbarian. Meanwhile the party had noticed that their ranged attacks weren't doing any significant damage to her.
With her minions finally defeated the party rushed the stairs and tried to engage in melee. I had them execute a few acrobatics checks to leap up, over the runewell and try to reach her. No luck there and she flew up even higher. Meanwhile she caused fear on the barbarian who ended up running from the chamber altogether. The party was just not able to do enough damage with her out of range of their melee.
At this point things went from bad to worse: Erylium flew off the platform and over the main pool in the centre of the room, taunting them in Abyssal (understood by the sorcerer). She was essentially unhurt at this point and the party had taken various hits.
The party chased her, switching tactics on the realisation that catching her was their first priority. The rogue tried using a grappling hook + rope (good idea) but failed his roll. It's not easy to hit a 1 1/2 ft moving target with a grappling hook.
In desperation the sorcerer and the bard both used the scrolls found in the catacombs together (flaming sphere / hands). This did a serious burst of damage finally, and Erylium was threatened. I also rolled to find her clothes caught fire, and she failed a roll to put them out. Because of this I decided she'd drop down quickly into the pool to extinguish the flames.
The rogue (who has good swim skill) dived in and went for her, managing to get close. Meanwhile the barbarian lept into the shallow part of the pool: brandishing the Ranseur from the statue to get enough reach to threaten her should she surface. With the rogue attacking her underwater she was forced to emerge, where she took a furious hit from the ranseur, followed up by a magic missile from the sorcerer that proved to be the incapacitating blow.
She was probably the hardest struggle the main group i run have had in the first three adventures. They were very confused as they didnt know what they were facing, and her invisibrlity (and the sinspawn from the well) caused them alot of tactical issues.
Very difficult encounter, imo...possibly even more difficult (albeit possibly less deadly) than the original version of Xanesha ...
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My group prepared for the Erylium fight - they read through Tsuto's journal and saw the word "quasit," which prompted them to do some research. One montage later (and a natural 20 on the monster knowledge check from the party wizard), they realize that cold iron weapons are important, but most of them decide against getting cold iron arrows, instead favoring their chosen weapons.
They advance directly towards her chapel first, after dealing with the three sinspawn in the early part of the catacombs. They stop when they see the font of Lamashtu, and the cleric of Ragathiel decides he needs to deface and destroy this unholy font. Erylium hears them banging away at the spring, trying to break it, and she cuts herself to summon a sinspawn. She directs it to open the door and kill the intruders, and she begins casting a summon monster spell. The sinspawn is quickly cut down, but due to her ability to fly and her invisibility, they have a protracted fight against the quasit. The summon conjures some fiendish eagles, and while they do draw some attacks, they do little to hinder the group. The cleric, who had also taken a level in paladin, grabs the polearm they'd scavenged from the statue of Alaznist, places his smite upon her, and runs around the Catacombs, trying to chase after her and hit her. They resist most of her spells, and she only throws her knife once before everything ends.
So, yeah, even if you do your research, the group can still come to the wrong conclusions!
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Bedrolls.
Lots of bedrolls.
That was the first group I ran through the encounter.
Bedroll as an improvised weapon to entangle resulting in a confirmed critical. As she would try to cut her way free, other bedrolls were thrown on top and the lump was beaten until it stopped moving. The entire party had to replace their bedrolls after that one and began the saga of the bedroll being the most improvised item in any PCs inventory through the campaign.
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Bedrolls.
Lots of bedrolls.
That was the first group I ran through the encounter.
Bedroll as an improvised weapon to entangle resulting in a confirmed critical. As she would try to cut her way free, other bedrolls were thrown on top and the lump was beaten until it stopped moving. The entire party had to replace their bedrolls after that one and began the saga of the bedroll being the most improvised item in any PCs inventory through the campaign.
You know, "Paladin Smiting Evil and not rolling under an 18" vs. "Bedrolls"? Bedrolls wins. Hands down.
Of course, the paladin DID then turn her dress into an embroidered hankie, so the paladin doesn't lack for style...
My party of eight ran right into the Cathedral of Wrath. (Why did they make the Cathedral so easy to walk right into?)
At level one.
Against an Erylium buffed up for fighting eight level 2 characters...
Full details of that sorry encounter are here, but suffice it to say the party ended up vacating the dungeon within about three rounds at high speed, and not all of them volentarily. While I got to practise my best "you guys are screwed smirk and laughing like a maniac all the while.
They'll handle her with another level under their belt, I'm sure (heck, they even have some idea of what to do now), but for the moment: party 0: Erylium 1.
My players mowed down every encounter in the book so far, especially Tsuto who lasted a rather lack luster 4 rounds. So I thought it was time to remind them that not all battles would be easy. With two players out due to exams, three level 2 players rocked up to play against Erylium, a Ninja, Monk and Cleric.
Initially in the battle Erylium summoned two Sin Spawn who at first whiffed all their attacks, Erylium threw out some debuff spells which were all saved against. Realising that I had forgotten to mention the Runewell getting darker and having one of the Sinspawn getting downed quickly, Erylium summoned another pair of them for a total of Three. An NPC who I had following the party to "learn adventuring" got dropped to -1 and spent most of the fight unconcious.
Here Erylium went invisible and started summoning spiders to further flood the battlefield. Erylium got off a hold person on the ninja who couldn't make any saves to free himself for the full duration.
Slowly the multiple attacks of the Sinspawn ate away the health of the 18 AC Cleric and the 17 AC monk. The monk was saved by his massive Con score but took -2 on everything because of his sickening bite. The ninja who recovered from the hold spell also took a beating even with his 18 AC, running around with <10hp.
In order to keep the battle going the Cleric threw out a few channels healing friend and foe alike. Working together for once they focused down one Sinspawn and Erylium had run out of spells resorting to her dagger.
The ninja got downed, the npc got downed again with the cleric and monk both got low worrying me about a TPK. The cleric threw out a last channel and they all tactically retreated having not even once swung at Erylium.
Ended session with a loss (but no deaths)
~~~
On start of the new session we had a new player bring an Orcish two handed Barbarian in. With only the Cleric having the sense to buy a Cold Iron Mace, no planning for Erylium's invisible or flying abilities they trundled down into the Glassworks to find the whole place torn apart and most of the furniture missing.
Going down into the basement level they encountered the Zombies plus a ghoul (to make a CR2 battle) because previously they just left them alone (I had changed the pits into a single giant pit with rotting wooden walkways on the map previously).
The zombies and ghoul were absolutely destroying the team. The ninja made no saves vs the paralysis, the monk and cleric focused down one lone zombie rather than the threatening ghoul and the Barbarian stood toe to toe with two zombies tanking plenty of hits. The barbarian got dropped unconcious while the monk made all his paralysis saves (except vs ghoul fever). Finally the cleric resorted to channeled energy to finish the undead en-mass. Healing up via wand they trudged on to fight Erylium for the second time.
They find all the furniture from upstairs had been dragged downstairs to blockade the easy routes into the cathedral and a Sinspawn guard noticed them easily at the choke point. Running off to slam the cathedral doors the Sinspawn attempted to hold the doors closed but the barbarian knocked the door open throwing one prone. The party focused down the standing Sinspawn rather than taking advantage of the prone one and again ignored Erylium while she wreaked havoc with her spells. While all spells failed against the Cleric and Monk, her slumber found home on the barbarian and ninja who again couldn't make the saves to end the spells early.
Erylium summoned spiders again to do her bidding and the party realised how unprepared they were for her flying and invisibility. The monk was determined to kill all the minions and spent his time missing his attacks vs the spiders. The barbarian rolled horrifically for the whole battle not managing anything above an 8 for the dice.
The cleric and ninja were able to down one Sinspawn and tried work out a plan for the troublesome flier. I suggested he use his amazing ninja jump skills to leap at the spell exhausted Erylium and he worked out he could grapple her.
The ninja rolled two 20s to which he managed to successfully acrobatic jump and grapple Erylium. The cleric stopped what he was doing to run in and bash her with his cold steal mace, Erylium rolled high enough to break free of the ninja's grapple (crappy CMB/CMD scores as it was a halfling str dumped ninja) and again the ninja pulled off amazing rolls to recapture and grapple Erylium. The cleric again attempted to bash her skull in with his mace while the monk and barbarian focused on the minions. The barbarian stood toe with a spider and Sinspawn taking massive punishment for his efforts.
The barbarian finally managed a decent roll and dropped the Sinspawn and moved in to try and help with the Erylium problem. The monk ignored the party and tried to kill the basically useless spiders.
At this point the battle had gone on for what must've been 3 or more hours and as GM I had already neutered the battle to try and make it easier for the players by not going all out on their weaknesses and not using her invisibility. In the end it didn't make sense for Erylium to simply fly within the 25 foot jumping reach of the ninja but I couldn't imagine her giving up her cathedral and losing her Runewell.
After a critical fail by the ninja I had Erylium jump into the Runewell asking for her mother to protect her and transformed her into monstrous version of herself with the advanced template plus giant template. She walked out the pool with 20 AC and three +12 attacks at her disposal. Knowing full well she could easily kill any of the weakened players with her full round attacks I split the attacks up against all of them. The Cleric had the great idea to throw up an Obscuring Mist and they slugged it out with all of them having concealment penalties. The barbarian continued with all horrible rolls, while the monk kept jumping and out of battle with her.
It took another hour for them to finally bring her down bringing the total fight time of one battle to around 4 hours.
My story is...well, a bit eccentric. To really understand it, you have to get the dynamics.
I was playing a hobgoblin wizard. The other two party members (this was 3.5, so the GM figured my being a hobgoblin would balance things out) were a half-elf druid and an elf monk. My hobgoblin hated the monk, but I was the most assertive player OOC, so the hobgoblin ended up being the leader.
If you read Homestuck, my wizard was basically Karkat, in hindsight.
So we come to the room with the altar (the one right before the big quasit chamber), and my wizard gets fixated on getting a shard of the altar for study. He convinces the monk to help him pick it up and throw it off the steps.
It smashes into the title with a deafening boom, efficiently alerting every single monster in the caves to our presence.
And that's when we started to get stupid...
@Deadalready:
You know, I'm quite the "marshmallow GM"; in 10 books over 3 campaigns I've killed two GMNPCs and an animal companion.
I think you handled the first encounter beautifully. (And a cleric who doesn't take Selective Channeling as a 1st-level feat? Hmmm...)
But the second time they came in and they STILL didn't have missile weapons, and the cleric chose a cold iron mace instead of arrows? I would have taken the kid gloves off.
Sometimes players have just gotta learn that refusing/failing to prepare the second time can have dire consequences.
Nobody, I got the impression he only added "kid gloves" because the fight would have otherwise taken forever.
I am surprised the quasit wasn't more prepared, though. When my group had to withdraw, we came back and had to take down something like four sinspawn and that stupid mutant goblin. Teach those players a lesson--NPCs will prepare even if PCs don't.
Heck, an ounce of preparation is worth a pound of brilliant planning. Or something like that.
The players had already killed everything downstairs before encountering the Quasit so really I didn't see a logical way for her to reinforce herself.
I am a soft GM but a hard stickler to the rules and at this point in time keeping the kid gloves on because these players are new to pathfinder. Once they've completed chapter 1 I'll be more liberal in my punishments.
The players had already killed everything downstairs before encountering the Quasit so really I didn't see a logical way for her to reinforce herself.
I am a soft GM but a hard stickler to the rules and at this point in time keeping the kid gloves on because these players are new to pathfinder. Once they've completed chapter 1 I'll be more liberal in my punishments.
I love it! "Liberal in my punishments!"
Yeah, too many of these posts end up as, "She was out of spells, the party couldn't hurt her, and I couldn't see her flying up there with her 1d2 dagger trying to pinprick the party to death...."
I just wince a bit as a GM when I see a party encounter her a first time ("Oooh! She's nasty! We'd better go back, regroup, and try again,") and then reappear with almost the same tactics and gear. Ah, well, experience is everything!
Have fun!
My players shredded two sinspawns and three summoned dire rats in no time, meanwhile making all the saves against Eryliums spells. She targeted the Paladin in my party, but with his +8 will save, it just didn´t work at all. I have to admit I forgot her hexes, though - slumber might have changed the picture, if they failed the saves.
The Bard rolled a 20 on her knowledge (the planes) roll about the Quasit, so she knew that normal weapons wouldn´t do much good. A crossbow bolt from the Paladin for five hp proved that knowledge as right. I figured that she would save cause fear for an attempt to get rid of her attackers when the situation would get bad for her, which she did - but only one character missed the save (the Paladin - talk about poetic justice there). So, the Dwarf made an impromptu lasso from his rope and caught her with it (scoring a 23 on his attack roll, so even with the penalties he did well enough), and pulled her down. Quite some lucky rolls! The Calistria Priestess chained the Quasits wings with her handcuffs (talk about being an aspiring part-time domina!), forcing the Quasit to shapechange into a centipede to get rid of these, which the Dwarf used to pin her to the ground. Then they stuffed her into a sleeping bag and beat her senseless, just to unpack her and kill her for good.
I´m a firm believer in rewarding thinking outside the box, and the ideas my players had there - the lasso, the handcuffs and the sleeping bag - were much better than just waging a war of attrition. Coupled with some lucky rolls, I felt like they had earned the victory.
EDIT: Now I´m thinking how I will continue - my PCs went B1-B2-B3-backup-B12-B13. Neither the sinspawn at B1 nor Erylium escaped and alarmed the complex, so they should be able to leave unmolested. But when they come back, the rest of the complex will want revenge - maybe they even come up at night and wreak some havoc in Sandpoint while the PCs are resting.
I'd say the party definitely won their reward. However, I'm not sure if the rest of the monsters would attack Sandpoint. The mutated goblin might but the Sinspawn would rely on the commands of their Mother... and she's dead. They may decide to protect the Runewell but outside of that I doubt they'd consider leaving the catacombs. And the goblin may very well think it's in control now and take up residence at the Runewell thinking it's now the "King" of this domain.
The most important thing I've taken from my own use of this fight and of seeing other players... is to read up on the monsters ahead of time, know their abilities and tactics, and use the recommended tactics more often than not. In cases like this they can help prevent TPKs. And once the players are better able to handle threats like this, then you can expand from the recommended tactics and do more interesting things to the party.
Yeah, probably the remaining monsters will just stay there. I think that the goblin might release the Zombies, however. I guess combining the sinspawns, the goblin and the zombies would be too much.
Full story here, but in short - this time, their second encounter, the rogue made a flying leap off the dias - Erylium has dropped down low enough to slap someone with IMW - and grappled her. And the wolf companion tripped her (and they both went prone.) Then the dwarf barbarian joined in and pinned her.
It took rounds and rounds of hacking (since my Erylium had four sets hit points), but from then on, it was pretty much a forgone conclusion...
My party has 6 PCs, so I gave Erylium 3 sinspawn at 24 HP each as help. They aced their Knowledge check based on Tsuto's journal mentioning a Quasit, so they took preparations. The alchemist has holy water and the rest had cold iron arrows/bolts. She managed to scare away the Ranger and the Cleric for only 2 rounds, with the Fighter, Alchemist, Rogue, and Sorcerer all saving. The GM screwed up and had her try to put the half-elf to sleep. The Rogue is a drow blooded half-elf and the 3rd time she went invisible he readied a Faerie Fire for when she reappeared. The summoned wolf hit him with an AoO, but he pulled off the concentration check and she was illuminated for the rest of the fight. From there, her fast healing couldn't keep up and they blocked the doors so she couldn't escape. They made pretty short work of the summons and Sinspawn. It took about 8ish rounds before she was dead.
The first time we fought her the party was barbarian, cleric, rogue, wizard and 1 other I forget. She went invisible and ran before we could finish her, so being worn out, we left the place to rest up and better prepare ourselves for next time. By the time we encountered her again the party (now lv3) consisted of a paladin, cleric/fighter, grappling rogue, wizard and melee sorcerer. The gm added some monsters to make up for our increased power but it was a great fight, lots of sin spawn and zombies, a large sin spawn, a 3 armed goblin and the quasit.
The wizard summoned 2 celestial eagles and got lucky with their attack rolls. So after 2 full attacks with a summoned eagle, the large sin spawn was down to 1/3rd his hp and the rogue finished it off before the 2nd eagle appeared. Then the wizard cast glitterdust on the quasit and surrounding enemies to prevent her from going invisible. Since they all failed their save to avoid being blinded, she just flew in place doing nothing for a couple rounds. Just before glitterdust was about to wear off, the wizard cast web, another failed save later she was grappled by the web. So the quasit being blinded and grappled, the rogue climbed the web (making his save and climb check to do so) and started to grapple her. Immediately afterwards, the cleric set the web on fire, causing the two to fall to the ground below. One round later, the quasit was pinned with everyone surrounding her, and well it didn't last much longer after that.
I still remember the halfling cleric rolling a natural 20 to grapple. And then stuffing her silver holy symbol down the quasit's throat. I was so surprised that I didn't have her do half the things she could have done (free attacks vs. grapple) but it still worked out well as it was a spectacular end of the game. And started a theme of the halfling jumping on things! Last time it didn't work out though. Her foe's defensive modifiers were too high. ^^;;
Our last session had ended right after the Tsuto fight, so the group had time to go over the hand out. None of them had knowledge planes, so they went to my favorite NPC, Brodert Quink for help! He rolled all 15+ for his knowledge checks all session so he informed them all what they'd need to defeat a Quasit. They got a Cold Iron Dagger, potions of bless weapon and some cold iron arrows.
When they got to the actual fight, the sinspawn and 4 summoned firebeetles drove our fighter nuts, surrounding him and keeping him locked down while the Ninja tried to (unsuccessfully) throw his dagger at the Quasit who ended up plowing through all her spells. They also picked up scrolls of protection from evil, like crafty little adventurers, so most of her spells were wasted. Finally, they tried to flank the beasty, but she was flying, so no dice. When she came down to slice with her claws and bite, the ninja got in a good hit and took her down. None of the monster have been able to run in this AP yet, the ones who would get sneak attacked!
I'm still utterly astonished at the dearth of missile weapons in this thread; at this point it's borderline pathological!
Aotrscommander reports that in their SECOND fight with her, they still had to do a jump-n-grab instead of shooting her. Similarly, Some Random Dood reports that they used summoned eagles and a Web spell. Kairos reports that they got "some cold iron arrows" but they don't figure into his description of the fight...
I don't know, maybe it's just my Runequest background, but if your PC doesn't have a missile weapon by Lvl 2, your PC isn't trying very hard... and 4 PCs shooting at a single target are bound to get in a point or two of damage every round, even without cold iron.
A single paladin Smiting Evil with a bow can end Erylium pretty darned fast. Even without a paladin, 2-3 bowmen can make a mess of her every time she's silly enough to become visible.
So why do people hate missile weapons so much?
I'm still utterly astonished at the dearth of missile weapons in this thread; at this point it's borderline pathological!
Aotrscommander reports that in their SECOND fight with her, they still had to do a jump-n-grab instead of shooting her. Similarly, Some Random Dood reports that they used summoned eagles and a Web spell. Kairos reports that they got "some cold iron arrows" but they don't figure into his description of the fight...
I don't know, maybe it's just my Runequest background, but if your PC doesn't have a missile weapon by Lvl 2, your PC isn't trying very hard... and 4 PCs shooting at a single target are bound to get in a point or two of damage every round, even without cold iron.
A single paladin Smiting Evil with a bow can end Erylium pretty darned fast. Even without a paladin, 2-3 bowmen can make a mess of her every time she's silly enough to become visible.
So why do people hate missile weapons so much?
I kept the Ceiling about 15ft so Erylium couldn't escape too far and the PCs grabbed ransuers from the Sinspawn early on. Strength is where most of the melee damage is coming from!
The witch had the Cold Iron Arrows, and she was fighting off Fire beetles and generally being... unhelpful.
I kept the Ceiling about 15ft so Erylium couldn't escape too far and the PCs grabbed ransuers from the Sinspawn early on. Strength is where most of the melee damage is coming from!
The witch had the Cold Iron Arrows, and she was fighting off Fire beetles and generally being... unhelpful.
Yeah, as I said, it's just odd to me -- as you'll see early in the thread, my players had a barbarian and a paladin, and the barbarian engaged the summoned critters so the paladin could get clean shots. Any DEX-based character (a rogue, for example) has a decent chance of hitting her once she's visible. I have to admit, a low-level witch shooting cold iron arrows might as well be flinging cotton balls...
You know how hard it was to convince the Barbarian in my Runelords game to take the +4 Strength Bow? Now admittedly when she has her character use it, he's only doing +5 damage per attack, compared to +20 when raging and hitting with a two-handed weapon. But still, it's an additional round in which you get to attack! And it doesn't risk you being surrounded by enemies because you moved way in front of everyone else!
Not that that's as big a deal now that the Paladin Cohort is with the group - her wardog (basically the size of a pony) lets her get close to the enemy anyway about as quickly as the Barbarian can move.
That said, there was one reason why in my other campaign (which is dying the death of hiatus due to scheduling conflicts) the Paladin didn't have a bow: it was against his religious beliefs (that group of paladins weren't allowed to wear armor heavier than medium or use ranged weapons). But that's a moot point since I switched the campaign world over to Golarion (had to - the Paladin's moral beliefs disallowed bringing the dead back to life, but the campaign is lethal enough that I know there will be deaths - or there would be if the damn game ever got to be played).
Aotrscommander reports that in their SECOND fight with her, they still had to do a jump-n-grab instead of shooting her. Similarly, Some Random Dood reports that they used summoned eagles and a Web spell. Kairos reports that they got "some cold iron arrows" but they don't figure into his description of the fight...
So why do people hate missile weapons so much?
It's more of a case that she was close enough for them to do it. My players are well trained and always carry a back-up ranged weapon. (As do the monsters, as I learnt fairly early on...!) They ahd even seriously considered Blessed Aim as a party buff.
However.
At level 1/2, you aren't going to have much in the way of ranged damage output. Unless you have a dagger-throwing specialist or something, you're likely going to be on D8-5 or D6-5 damage (by that stage you don't have enough money for composite bows) unless you manage to acquire cold iron weapons or something (which would entirely depend on you a)knowing what you were running into and b) the availability of said weapons (do any of the Sandpoint stores carry a stock normally? I'd have thought not, unless any of the information specifically says they do) and c) if you can afford it anyway (especially if not playing Pathfinder).
So melee, where you get the added strength bonus, is a far better bet - and grappling, as shown by my lot, is by far the most efficient option in terms of damage output. On a handful of hits per round, if that, for a four-man team (some of which heals off anyway) on limited ammunition, engaging in a shoot-out with Erylium is a losing proposition. (If you can get her in melee, you can get her flanked. Otherwise, that AC of 24 is pretty much Nat 20 for anyone but maybe the fighters and maybe rogues for damage that if you're not careful, she'll just heal off.)
My party consists of eight characters built on a 36 point-for-point build from base 8 (e.g. bard stats 10, 16, 10, 16, 14, 18), so they're well above average and their stats and melee damage are pretty buff. They had Erylium grappled and were all wailing on her (with help from the druid's wolf). Erylium, by comparision had 196 hits in blocks of 48 (max hits), one of which she sacrificed to negate a statues effect. So it required them to deal 144 damage between nine attackers (well, eight since one was pinning). Her AC was down to 6 while pinned, so they were all hitting. It STILL took them seven or eight rounds of hacking to finally kill her, and really only two characters were doing any real damage (the rogue and the warblade), everyone else was really just keeping her fast healing down if they were lucky.
So the big problem with ranged is that with her AC (as your non-archer specialist is only going to have, what +3-5 attack bonus at level 2) - especially with low party size - is that you could run into the very real danger of running out of ammunition before she dies - especially if you haven't got any ammunition that'll punch through her DR.
(Worth noting the stock PCs would be absolutely murdered if they tried that, between their best of a +3 short bow and -1 light crossbow (+1 for being level 2 for both) - you're still on natural 20 by the time she's tossed up Shield of Faith and got to AC 24.)
It is certainly possible, yes, but it's by no means the optimal solution for a party of that level, as you're suggestion, unless they actually do have an archer or throwing specialist to hand. (And make no mistake, I know how brutal those can be once they get started! We've had 'm up to Epic in the past and they are... not funny! But this time, the party didn't have one.)
Ah, we're playing two very different combats, then. I have 4 PCs with 15-point builds, so I played the out-of-the-book AE Erylium build: AC 19, 35 HP, so readily hittable and eventually killable with ranged weapons. Even the sorcerer hit on a 16 or better.
EDIT: Don't get me wrong; it's still going to take a while to whittle her down without cold iron or a paladin smiting evil, but at AC 19 it's do-able by a determined party long before running out of ammo... the AE version specifically doesn't have any AC-boosting spells.
Ah, we're playing two very different combats, then. I have 4 PCs with 15-point builds, so I played the out-of-the-book AE Erylium build: AC 19, 35 HP, so readily hittable and eventually killable with ranged weapons. Even the sorcerer hit on a 16 or better.
EDIT: Don't get me wrong; it's still going to take a while to whittle her down without cold iron or a paladin smiting evil, but at AC 19 it's do-able by a determined party long before running out of ammo... the AE version specifically doesn't have any AC-boosting spells.
She's AC 22 in the original, which we're playing, and has as written a Shield of Faith memorised, which puts it to 24.
(I haven't done anything else to her apart from up her hit-points as I'm dealing with a) 8 players and b) to a lesser extent, our typical stat build, which really doesn't make as much difference as you'd think. (It mainly means everyone has an 18 and a 16 and means that MAD classes are considerably more viable, plus you have a little room for roleplaying rather than pure mechanical assignements.))
So, yeah, a 5-point AC drop (or even 3 if she's got a similar spell in the AE) does makes a frack-ton of difference!
(Though kudos to my PCs - by the time she's been pinned (-4 AC)and prone (-4AC) and thus not only denied her Dex for grappling, but reduced to effectively 0 Dex by the pin (-10 AC from her +5 Dex)a -18 penalty to AC is I think the highest penalty anyone has ever wracked up, including our Epic games...!)