Before we start anything: Michelle, Rasmus, Helle, Aja and Heine. STAY OUT OF THIS THREAD!
With that out of the way...
Hi everyone, I am seeking your advice on a topic that came up in today's Rise of the Runelords session. My players completed book 4 today, defeating Mokmurian and stopping the invasion of Varisia.
Before entering Jorgenfist, the players sought out Longtooths cave, and made a deal with him. He would have 3/5ths of the treasures gotten from Jorgenfist and first pick of what he wanted. In return, he'd provide them with information about Mokmurian, a hidden way inside and support in driving the remaining giants apart, ensuring that if Mokmurian died, the remaining giants could not attack Varisia in unison anyway.
But during their dungeoncrawl, the players had to make a full retreat, teleporting to Magnimar to quickly sell what items they had aquired, buy new gear and rest up, returning to the dungeon in full force. It worked, they won, and then they met with Longtooth to split the loot.
However, with half the loot missing, Longtooth sensed treachery. He expected more, much more in fact. So when he asked them if that was all, I had the players make bluff checks. 2 of them failed horribly, but even while 2 others succeeded, and the bard succeeded big time, Longtooth saw through 4 of the 5 attempts to appear innocent, and demanded they presented what they were keeping from him. The witch presented a few scrolls she had kept, in an attempt to draw Longtooths attention away from the fact that they had found 2 artifacts: The Anathema Archive and The Runeslave Cauldron. She failed.
It turned sour at this point. The paladin, who had cautiously agreed to cooporate with the dragon, in the interest of saving Varisia from the giants, would not accept the dragon getting its claws on the evil Runeslave Cauldron. Longtooth was outraged, but was smart enough to know his opponents had beat him once, when they were split up, so he would not risk direct confrontation. He took to the sky and escaped to his cave, where he quickly grabbed his favorite treasures, and left before the heroes could give pursuit.
Now the players have added most of Longtooths hoard to their loot, and have kept everything taken from Jorgenfist. Longtooth is pissed.
So I ask you, Paizo board, how would you use an angry, vengeful Red Dragon against the players?
Presently I'm considering having him learn what he can of the heroes (easy, since most details about them are known far and wide in Varisia) and then make efforts to destroy their lives, break their spirit and have them rue the day they crossed a dragon.
I've upped Longtooth to an adult Red Dragon (because I can, shut up :) ) and while I want my players to succeed, and will not pull any fiat on their attempts to counter him, I want to give an impression of, and let them experience, the hate and bitter vengeance of a Dragon whose pride has been injured.
TL;DR: level 12 party broke an agreement with an Adult Red Dragon and then stole his Hoard. Dragon wants to destroy their spirit and their lives, and I want your input :)
Thanks in advance
-Nearyn
Have the dragon find and kill their families. Man, that'd be funny.
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He hires a team of adventurers to get it back with leading to a terrible encounter between your PCs and the Dragon's Fang party.
The Dragon's Fang consists of:
1. Bard with large country and western music selection. Play loud country music during the fight to stimulate the effects on the party.
2. Druid specializing in summoning enraged herd animals who try to trample the party.
3. Dual weilding Gunslinger.
4. Horselord Barbarian throwing javelins and convinced he PCs stole his people's land.
5. Rogue with magic rope, The Equipment Trip: Rope feat, who grapples charcters and drags them behind his horse.
The encounter is on the Shoanti planes, and the Dragon's Fang all are on horseback with appropriate Ride skill ranks and feats.
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Not wanting to derail this into a Paladin allignment thread (heavens forfend) but isn't a Paladin doing a deal with a known CE creature a bit dodgy? And isn't then breaking that deal even more dodgy?
For me? Sue them. Seriously. The Dragon should take them to court. They had a legal agreement and as lawful characters they should stick to it. Sure the Dragon is CE but I would think he would enjoy beating the PC's with their own stupid rules.
Give it a couple of sessions and then have a few inevitables turn up demanding reparations be paid to the Dragon.
They won't be expecting it
I love you guys. You have some wonderful suggestions.
One of the things I was considering, since the players are Lords and Ladies of Fort Rannick, was having him fly over Turtleback Ferry and Bitter Hollow, making several people homeless with just a few breaths of his mighty flames, and reducing the granary to ashes. With spring still a few months away, who is gonna take care of all the freezing, hungry people?
Any thoughts?
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Have Longtooth show up after the white dragon in book 5.
Have him hire mercenaries waylay the party and ambush them on the ambush.
Have him seek the temple that the artifacts were taken too and sack it. Using the temple sack and artifacts as bait into a deadly dungeon, perhaps the halls of wrath from Dungeons of Golarion.
Quick question, since I realize they might try to be proactive in this case and get the drop on him. Does flying have a runspeed?
Longtooth can move 200ft in flight, with a single move action, but if he flies in a straight line, can he fly up to 4 times that, as you can with run?
Thank you :)
You should probably just encourage the party to seek out and kill the dragon. You said they had defeated the dragon once in combat, so reasonably they should be wanting to track down and kill the dragon since they would also be reasonable sure it will try to strike at them.
Be vewy quite. We're hunting dwagons.
Longtooth's actions will likely encourage them to deal with him. Also, to me, they appear to want to take a proactive role against him, so maybe the situation wont get a chance to escalate. However, if they let him go unopposed, I'll have Longtooth make the first move :)
Presently my ideas are:
Longtooth attacks Turtleback Ferry and Bitter Hollow, leaving many people homeless and without food.
Longtooth seeks out their families (which could be amusing, since at least one character has family who I am already setting up as sidevillains :) )
Longtooth hires an adventuring party to oppose the PCs.
Longtooth threatens several creatures (maybe someone from their past) into helping him, ceasing to be "just" a dragon, and instead becomming a minor power, opposing the PCs.
Longtooth hires mercenaries to attack the party.
Longtooth aquires a scroll of create undead, and raises Teraktinus as a sentient undead, then manipulates him to join in the fight against the PCs.
Longtooth backtracks the PCs trail through Varisia, finding the Goblin tribe of Thistletop. Gogmurt the druid of the tribe, whom the PCs spared, is then made to cooperate or have his tribe destroyed. This would give Longtooth spies among birds and beasts, but also present funny opportunities for double-play, as Gogmurt tries to warn the PCs, as payment for sparing him and the remaining members of his tribe, when they were at Thistletop.
Longtooth makes several raids on the lands surrounding Fort Rannick, in an attempt to draw the PCs out. Then, he ransacks the fort, as revenge for them invading his cave and taking his hoard.
These are the ideas so far :)
-Nearyn
Wait till the heroes go out of town and turn sandpoint into a heap of ash.
Any town they visit gets burned to ash. The dragon then plants a sign
"This is the price for crossing Michelle, Rasmus, Helle, Aja and Heine"
Since the dragon knows he'll get curbstomped in a direct confrontation again- I think he'd be smart enough to not go backwards and antagonize them. Rather he'd go forward and make their lives a living hell from this point forward.
He's a dragon and has spells and a fairly substantial brain. If he doesn't know where they are going next he could follow easily enough and either start making friends with their enemies or just.. wait.
They have his loot. His loot will be around longer than the PC's life spans, generally. He can afford to be patient. He can swoop down after they are fresh from a long combat and lay waste to them then. Heck- he can do a few fly-by attacks and just fly off now and again just to annoy them. (always fresh after a battle, to make their lives difficult).
The PC's have a long slog ahead of them still. The AP presents some tough stuff for them to deal with- and they just made it alot harder.
-S
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Here's a thought - maybe his wrathful-ness reignites the runewell, and he teams up with the Scribbler? Together they're able to access Runeforge...
One thing to remember is that the 'soul marks' are sihedrons. It reads like each marked soul filters through each type of soul lens on its way to judgement. So even so marked, he isn't 'bound' to Karzaoug, but to all the runelords simultaneously.
Of course, after the first time he tries punking the PCs, they may very well decide "track down and eviscerate this scaly nuisance." And with scrying spells and teleport, they probably can do just that.
He probably knows that as well. So his best bet would be to team up with an older dragon by warning that dragon about their habit of raiding dragon lairs of their treasure. Sure, if the other dragon wins, he loses out on his own loot... but he gets revenge. And if the other dragon dies? The PCs may not know where that lair is, and he gets to move in and steal it instead! Win/win, you know.