Climax of Stolen Lands (SPOILER)

[eyelessgame]

My Kingmaker campaign is currently finishing RRR. But I wanted to take the time to share this story from earlier this year, because my PCs are still talking about this battle. The climax of Stolen Lands was one of my favorite sessions in nearly forty years of DMing D&D in all its various editions.

This is the tale of how 3 PCs, having just reached 3rd level, took down the Stag Lord and all his minions.

Cast of characters:
Serafina, a half-elf Celestial-bloodline sorcerer, follower of Sarenrae
Royce, her twin, a half-elf rogue, dual-wielding a pair of shortswords
Darby, a gnome druid, with Norbert, her badger

Having interrogated prisoners and learned what they could of the Stag Lord's forces, our intrepid adventurers decide to make themselves look disreputable (as much so as Serafina could manage, anyway) and present themselves as new mercenaries in the cause of the Stag Lord.

Successful Bluff and Diplomacy checks (from Royce and Serafina, respectively) get them into the fort. They are introduced to the soldiers. Royce throws around Sense Motive liberally, identifying the simmering conflict between Akiros and Dovan, and divining the Stag Lord's issues with alcohol. Darby remains beneath most of the bandits' notice and manages to climb to a spot where she can observe the owlbear in its pen.

The day passes into the evening; Royce works hard to bond with Akiros, eventually encouraging him to spar and discuss elements of his life. Darby meets several of the isolated guards in their towers and spends time talking to Auchs, repulsed by his casual cruelty but finding his low intelligence and bravery to be a potential tool; she also quietly directs Norbert to undermine certain post-holes around the owlbear's pen. Serafina has a moment to cast message on her friends around sunset, and with her 18 CHA, has convinced Dovan of her helpfulness and pretended to a level of dimwitted loyalty, favorably comparing him to Akiros and suggesting her brother could be a more loyal and helpful lieutenant to the Stag Lord than one whom Dovan so obviously mistrusted. She then engages three of the off-duty bandits in a game of cards, gathered around a crate in the armory, while Dovan sits and contemplates her words (and her).

Royce ultimately gains enough information from Akiros to figure out his discontent with the Stag Lord, and in the course of their sparring and conversation becomes increasingly direct in suggesting that Akiros was too good a man to follow such a dark course. When Akiros looked like he might consider those words, Royce turned his head and murmured "We have an ally. We should act" into the message.

Darby, having returned to the pen, summons a monkey and speaks to it, telling it to throw the other latch; she and the monkey unlock it as she prepares to throw a flare to enrage the owlbear. "Go," she whispers into Serafina's spell.

Serafina goes to the door of the armory. "Dovan? Should there be a light out there by that beast's pen?" Dovan goes through the door and temporarily out of line of sight. Serafina smiles sweetly at the three mooks and color sprays the room. None of them make a DC 15 save.

She then whirls to face Dovan, who walks directly into Serafina's charm person without seeing the room of unconscious brigands behind her.

The owlbear roars and smashes through the open gate of its pen.

Royce, two blades in his hands, looks meaningfully at Akiros. "We are taking them down. Are you with me or with them?"

Meanwhile, Serafina looks at Dovan with a mixture of alarm and craftiness. "If that creature is loose, I can get Akiros to die defending me - with your help. Come on!"

From the watchtowers come calls of alarm. "That gnome let the beast out!" The mooks on guard start descending their towers to the main floor.

Akiros makes his decision. "Through that door -- " he points -- "is the Stag Lord, drunk off his ass."
Royce nods. "What are you going to do?"
Akiros swings his sword in a vertical salute to the half-elf. "Deal with Dovan."

Darby curses her poor stealth; she hadn't avoided drawing attention. Norbert snarls and stands beside her.

Dovan and Serafina, the mooks from the watchtowers, and Akiros all reach the common area in the center of the keep at the same moment. The owlbear leaps out of its pen. "Dovan! Auchs can distract it!" Serafina shouts. Dovan nods to the huge man and points; Auch's eyes widen, but his pride in his brawn overcomes what little sense he has, and he charges the huge creature.

"What about the gnome!" shouts one of the mooks. "She came in with that witch-woman, and she's who let out the owlbear! Aren't they together?"

"No!" should both Dovan and Akiros at the same moment. The two lieutenants stop, do a doubletake, and stare at one another for a moment, each trying to figure out the other's motives for lying.

But faced with this unambiguous direction from their two usually-at-odds superiors, the remaining mooks charge Darby, leaving Akiros, Serafina, and Dovan facing one another. Dovan draws his knife and smiles cruelly as Serafina slips behind Akiros.

"Flank him, lady, and I will do the rest," shouts Dovan.

Serafina drops her staff and backs away as Akiros raises his sword.

Royce, meanwhile, has snuck into the chamber of the Stag Lord; he raises his shortsword to apply a coup de grace to the bandit leader - but something in the helm must have warned him; Royce lands a blow but not a fatal one, and the huge man roars in outrage, rolling away and stumbling to his feet.

The gnome stands her ground, a tiny figure against four charging humans. She gestures, and a flaming sphere appears, rolling right into one of the mooks, who spins screaming, on fire from head to toe. Norbert the badger leaps at the second, enraged, and drops him instantly. The remaining two reach the gnome, but her small size and quickness evades their first blows.

Craft and malice turn to shock and betrayal in Dovan's eyes as, instead of a rogue with a flanked opponent, he finds himself a small, poorly-armored man facing an enraged, greatsword-wielding ex-paladin. He has time for only an oath and epithet at the sorceress - better omitted - before finding himself impaled on Akiros' blade.

The Stag Lord, meanwhile, gains a shaky equilibrium and, even hung over, is better than holding his own against the inexperienced young half-elf -- but knowing where his true power lies, he wastes an opening to dive instead for his bow, and snatches up an arrow with it. "Somebody get this damned bastard off me!" he roars; Royce pursues desperately, less interested in landing a blow than denying the Stag Lord the opportunity to step back and shoot, perceiving that a great power lay in that helm, and that a single shot from the bow could prove lethal.

"I need help! A distraction! Anybody? Sister! Please?" Royce calls into the message. But he and the Stag Lord are on the far side of the owlbear from any who might interfere.

Darby rolls away, gets back to her feet, and redirects the sphere into another of her opponents; he to lights afire, screaming. She then makes a dramatic gesture and produces flame from her hand. Firelight from multiple sources gleaming in her eyes, she smiles at her final target. "Sure you want to do this?" she asks.

The owlbear, nearby, rips Auchs in half and roars.

The remaining mook drops his weapons and scampers for the exit.

"Norbert! Help Royce!" Darby shouts. Norbert scuttles into one of his pre-dug tunnels, emerging, moments later, thirty feet away, behind the Stag Lord.

Royce leaps forward with both of his swords as the raging badger tears into the bandit king's flank.

The owlbear, so terrifying during the chaos, proves no match for the combined might of the three heroes, a flaming sphere, a still-enraged badger, and an experienced and battle-tested ex-paladin/ex-bandit.

But this means that no one is beside the Stag Lord as he breathes his last. And thus no one hears the name that escapes his lips, in a final, silent plea...

[Norin d'orien]

Realy awesome if my fight with the stag lord goes half as nice as this i'll be a happy GM.

[eyelessgame]

I was just really impressed at the effective use of their limited magic in this fight. And the description doesn't quite do it justice, but Royce was pulling out all the stops to survive long enough to get a flanking buddy.

In the last couple games we've been discovering how terrifyingly effective hold person is on trolls. Nagrundi was anticlimactic. Serafina has an Enchantment specialty; with eagle's splendor she has a 22 CHA, which means the save for hold person is DC 20, and Nagrundi's Will save was only +4. Royce and Norbert can deliver enough damage in a round that it really doesn't matter that a troll can get back 5 of it. If the trolls had had decent tactics it would have been a different story, but they're written to mostly ignore noises elsewhere in their lair, so the fight against Nagrundi was against Nagrundi alone.

The only real drama in the Nagrundi fight happened because the first thing their hireling did (Kesten has insisted that they take someone with actual armor, so an eager young War3/Pal1 is accompanying them) once Nagrundi was held was throw an alchemist's fire at him, which set off the necklace of missiles and damn near killed Royce.

[Curghann]

I was about to post how Trolls arent viable tagrets for Hold Person, but then I remembered that KM is written for full PF rules and I'm running mine as 3.5. Sure enough Giants, and by extension, Trolls are considered Humanoids in PF.

The more you know. Nothing to see here =).

[pennywit]

eyelessgame wrote:

In the last couple games we've been discovering how terrifyingly effective hold person is on trolls. Nagrundi was anticlimactic. Serafina has an Enchantment specialty; with eagle's splendor she has a 22 CHA, which means the save for hold person is DC 20, and Nagrundi's Will save was only +4. Royce and Norbert can deliver enough damage in a round that it really doesn't matter that a troll can get back 5 of it. If the trolls had had decent tactics it would have been a different story, but they're written to mostly ignore noises elsewhere in their lair, so the fight against Nagrundi was against Nagrundi alone.

Probably too late now, but Dudemeister's Monster Kingdom mod makes the trolls a far more interesting adversary.

[Bofdm]

Fantastic end to Stolen Land. Top notch. *applause*

[Lee Hanna]

Yes, yes: applause.

[Andostre]

Fun to read how these things play out in other campaigns! Your party did well for only three players!

I'm still in the midst of my Stag Lord fight in my PbP campaign. Five players, and I'm using the six player conversion, and one of the players set the boardwalk/watchtowers on fire, so it's pretty chaotic.

[Wolfgang Volos]

My players went for the infiltration option as well. Leading up to the fort I had them see a few haunts that explained bits and pieces of the Stag Lord's past concerning his father and his 'dream'. I also rebuilt The Stag Lord, Auchs, and Dovan using classes from the Advanced Class Guide. The Stag lord became a slayer. Auchs was a brawler. And Dovan was a Swashbuckler. Being crafty my players were able to turn Auchs against Dovan, Akiros against the rest of the bandits, and they were able to take down the Stag Lord in short order. However at that point I decided that a certain heartless lady would give her aid to the Stag Lord and bring him back to full HP as a Bloodrager. At the same moment the Owlbear finally burst forth from its cage, having been charmed by the same unnamed lady. It was a fun fight for my players, and it really gave me a chance to show them the story behind the Stag Lord.

[pennywit]

It's a great climax for low-level characters isn't it? My group used some Dust of Illusion (gathered from previous encounters) to disguise themselves. I kept tension up by having them make a LOT of Bluff rolls; meanwhile, the rogue slipped to the back and managed to coup de grace Staggy.

[Gargs454]

Awesome write up, sounds like an amazing session!

[Fortune Teller]

Just joined Paizo. Going to write up a summary of our recent victory over the Stag Lord here soon. Yes I agree: your party did do very well considering you only had three 3rd-level characters. And, really, a badger animal companion named Norbert? Sheer awesomeness.

[Fortune Teller]

Thanks to Eyelessgame for starting this thread.

Two weeks ago, our intrepid band of four fourth-level adventurers boldly stormed the Stag Lord’s fort in broad daylight:

Cast:
-Female elven druid, JANE
-Male human fey-blooded sorcerer, KHRYSTOS
-Male half-orc monk, TAD
-Female human wizard (diviner), VINCZE (played by me)

Background:
Our party didn't need any coaxing to hunt down the Stag Lord because, in our game, the Thorn River camp was formerly inhabited by a tribe of fey-blooded humans that was slaughtered by the Stag Lord and his men. Our sorcerer's backstory is that he is the sole survivor of that tribe. So, he was out for revenge! Another, secondary motivation was that my character was suffering from Nettle's Nightmare/curse (note to self: never talk back to vengeful, undead drowning victims).

From the very beginning, our party gained a reputation throughout the Greenbelt: calling ourselves the "Greenbelt Defenders", we actively hunted bandits, like a team of superheroes. So, when we finally decided it was time to take out the Stag Lord, we figured a full-on frontal assault was our only option, because we thought that if we tried to infiltrate the fort, the bandits would instantly recognize us.

BUT, on an off-game night, I took our DM out for a drink and mentioned our plan for full-on assault. He laughed at me: "You'll all die!" ...SO we promptly changed our plan: we rounded up stag amulets, disguises, and a lot of booze. We questioned visitors to Oleg's Trading Post and learned where the fort was; that there was a wooden palisade around it; and the current password (which, to our great dismay, was "We Bear The Heads of the Greenbelt Defenders!"). We also scribed a bunch of scrolls; bought some potions from Bokken; and even mail-ordered a wand of Cure Light Wounds from Restov. We were ready.
[Note: We toyed with the idea of burning the fort to the ground, and the idea of poisoning the booze, but decided both ideas were ignoble based on our characters' (mostly lawful and good) alignments.]
[Back-up plan: In case we couldn't con our way into the fort, the druid prepared two scrolls of Warp Wood, to bust our way in through the palisade if need be.]

After locating the fort, we spent a night doing reconnaisance: The druid flew around the fort wildshaped as a Great Horned Owl, learning the general floorplan and spotting the trapdoor to the south. Then our monk, cloaked under a Darkness spell, went to investigate the trapdoor. The zombies were a nasty surprise! But he outran them (and the guards on the watchtowers, though they noticed the zombies, never saw the monk because of my Darkness spell). The DM ruled that the zombies gave up chase after the monk left the hillside. So, we successfully avoided both a fight with the zombies and detection by the bandits.

We camped the rest of the night in some woods a few miles to the west. The next day, before we headed to the fort, my character did a Harrow reading, then used her scrolls to buff everyone with Mage Armor and Protection from Arrows. The latter seemed like a good idea; but as it turned out, because of the Stag Lord's magical bow, the DM ruled later that the Protection didn't work against the Stag Lord's arrows. Oh well.

Our party loves its animals (familiars, animal companions and mounts). So, our druid didn't want to leave her battle-trained elk mount out of this battle. At the last minute, she suggested we take her elk in with us, as a tribute to the Stag Lord: "A stag for the Stag Lord", she joked. Which is exactly how we presented the elk to the bandits. What we DIDN'T expect was that the bandits would immediately want to slaughter and butcher it. (UH-OH!). Within minutes of us gaining entry to the fort, one of them announced that's exactly what he was going to do, and led the elk around back by the reins. Our monk lept up and offered to "help" him.

Here's basically what happened after that, and all of our roles in it:

Monk: Threw the first punch, nailing the one bandit before he killed the druid's elk--but not before the bandit shouted and raised the alarm. The monk then tangled with Auchs up on a walkway. After a few rounds (and a few ki points) Auchs fall down, go boom. He later defeated Akiros in a similar fashion. [Note: Akiros didn't turn on the Stag Lord in our game, as he did in most other campaigns.]

Wizard: After Dovan opened its cage half-way, she cast Web to contain the Owlbear, but was unsuccessful. So, she and her Celestial rabbit familiar lured the Owlbear into the courtyard--and then Levitated up a watchtower, out of harm's way. Owlbear proceeded to munch on random bandits in the courtyard for the next few rounds.

Sorcerer: Dispatched a number of random (non-lieutenant) bandits before finally getting sneak-attacked by Dovan and falling. Sorcerer rejoined the battled within two rounds, however, after being mysteriously healed by the monk's pet cat (long story!). Later, he nearly died again after being shot in the back by the Stag Lord while delivering the coup de grace to Dovan. (Our sorcerer seems to have nine lives.)

Druid: Held Akiros at bay with a number of strategic spells until our monk could take over. She also cleverly attempted to warp the Stag Lord's bow with Warp Wood, but failed, since it's a magic bow. Most importantly, however, she used her Wand of Cure Light Wounds frequently, keeping us all alive in lieu of launching attacks. Her wolf animal companion killed Dovan.

The Stag Lord ended up running into the back courtyard, sneaking past the Owlbear, who was there tearing apart the bandits' horses. The rest of us followed, and were immediately set upon by the Owlbear. After nearly being shot out of the sky by the Stag Lord, the Wizard offed the Owlbear with a Shocking Grasp. The entire party then ganged up on the Stag Lord on the walkway above the Storage Room in a final showdown. Although the monk and the wolf were the heaviest hitters, the sorcerer dealt the killing blow--with a Magic Missile, of all things. And so, in the end, the sorcerer avenged his slaughtered Greenbelt tribe--a very satisfying outcome. In a humorous moment, the sorcerer's owl familiar coup de grace'd the villain, ripping his throat out while simultaneously knocking his stag helm off. (We were all were quite shocked by the hideous face behind the mask.).

Coolest moment: When the druid's wolf, outrunning a pack of zombies, Spider-climbed over the wooden palisade to join the battle in the courtyard below.

MVP award: the Wand of Cure Light Wounds. Runner-up: the Owlbear (for killing most of the low-level bandits).

Follow-up:
After killing the Stag Lord, the party went downstairs to confront the creepy old man in the basement. All of us were battle-weary at that point, so we agreed to try and spare his life. After succesfully calming him with Diplomacy, telling him we meant no harm, he asked what we had done with his son. We simply replied: "You never have to fear the Stag Lord again. He can't hurt you now. Leave this place. Go in peace." So he scuttled upstairs. When we came up after him, he had left without a trace.

In hindsight, maybe that wasn't the smartest move. Judging from the DM's sly smile and cryptic comments, we may have a recurring villain on our hands. (Oh goodie.)