Hello,
My players have made it to the battle against the Dancing Lady and they have all failed the will saving throw. I have read the thread which says that the Dancing Lady cannot grapple and continue dancing, but that she can attack and dance. Effectively, this could be a TPK, which I do not want to do. My players prefer to win, and get6 really frustrated when bad things happen. I ended the session with them all entranced by her dance. I had her use detect thoughts on them and asked each player how they would feel about an alliance with the Dancing Lady, hoping to resolve the situation that way. Out of the five players, only one said they would work with her. The others said they will kill her when free. Any ideas on how to resolve the situation? Thanks.
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What's your party current level and composition? Can you give us more information about them, so we could figure out a way to avoid TPK?
The party is all currently level 5, consisting of the following characters:
Horus, human fighter. He is a sword and shield fighter.
Jaktar, samsaran alchemist. Throws bombs and and also turns into a
melee monster.
Red, vanara gunslinger. Musketeer specialist.
Quorin, half-elf, fey-blood sorcerer. He is specialized in enchantment magic.
Guillem, human cleric of Abadar. Melee fighter/healer. He is an NPC character, because no one wanted to play a healer.
The encounter started with them chasing the very wounded grimstalker into the tower. They raced to the top of the tower and found the grimstalker croached besides the Dancing Lady. She attempted to start a dialogue with the party, but they immediately jumped into initiative. They all concentrated their attacks on the grimstalker until he died and then the Dancing Lady stood up and started her dance. They all failed the saving throw. I tried to think of something on the fly, but it was getting late so I just decided to call it there. We start again this Saturday.
I would stick with the idea of her not beeing able to keep the dance up while grappling, you could use her suggestion to take one of the players with her and lock the door while she drains the living hell out of him and the rest of the party give chase. Or she just attacks, or she uses the suggestion to make one of the players help her..
BTW this is no TPK in my opinion, it looks more like a stalemate: in the moment she attacks the other members of the party will kick her ass.
Maybe I am just misunderstanding, but she can claw and bite without breaking her dance. She she would kill four party members, then grapple the last one, right?
Norin d'orien wrote: I would stick with the idea of her not beeing able to keep the dance up while grappling, you could use her suggestion to take one of the players with her and lock the door while she drains the living hell out of him and the rest of the party give chase. Or she just attacks, or she uses the suggestion to make one of the players help her..
BTW this is no TPK in my opinion, it looks more like a stalemate: in the moment she attacks the other members of the party will kick her ass.
rakur wrote: Hello,
My players have made it to the battle against the Dancing Lady and they have all failed the will saving throw. I have read the thread which says that the Dancing Lady cannot grapple and continue dancing, but that she can attack and dance. Effectively, this could be a TPK, which I do not want to do. My players prefer to win, and get6 really frustrated when bad things happen. I ended the session with them all entranced by her dance. I had her use detect thoughts on them and asked each player how they would feel about an alliance with the Dancing Lady, hoping to resolve the situation that way. Out of the five players, only one said they would work with her. The others said they will kill her when free. Any ideas on how to resolve the situation? Thanks.
The biggest problem with the Dancing Lady, IMO, is not that she's this overpower, but that there's no friggin' warning about her. The players are cleaning out a dungeon's resident fey, then BOOM, in comes the Dancing Lady and it's save or a very, very slow death. Your only hope is for a spellcaster to make his Will save and cast a mist or fog spell, or for a creative bard player to break out his countersong and distraction abilities. Very unfair, in my opinion.
On the other hand, you gave your players a chance to avoid combat. At most tables players are smart enough to understand that when a critter says "parlay," it's a good idea to listen. (This, by the way, got my table's barbarian horribly killed at one point. But he got better.)
As far as your situation, I think there are a couple options available to you if you don't want a TPK.
The first option is to change up her motivation. Instead of simply killing the party, she humiliates them. She has minions (maybe twigjacks or pixies) who come out of the woodwork and relieve the PCs of their gear. While they're entranced, the pixies strip the PCs buck naked and dump them out the front door of the keep. Meanwhile, a bunch of fey from across the Narlmarches are waiting outside the gate to laugh at the PCs. They'll have to go back to their capital (or do something) this way.
Another option would be to change up the captivating dance. Allow her to keep dancing, even when she grapples a foe and starts drinking blood. But each time she grapples a foe, the PCs viewing her get a new Will save.
I second pennywit advice. Change her motivation. For First Word creatures death is not a permanent condition, so she could think that humiliation is worst than death to punish the intruders.
Another possible related idea is a T.P.K. meaning instead a Total Party Knockout.
Have her and maybe a under Suggestion SLA fighter deal non-leathal damage against the rest of them... until all of them are unconscious.
At this point, strip them of all the gear you think some fey creatures will take. Have them woke up after a few hours outside the tower, with mocking painting / writings on their bodies and items ... eventually, build a quest to recover the lost gear from others fey, involving the good ones the party has allied (if any).
Could do a replay in an altered setting with pregen characters for party named Orc 1, Orc 2, Orc 3, and Orc 4, having chased the housekeeper up to her lady's quarters(a former adventurer semi retired), and proceed to slay said housekeeper at the feet of her mistress, what would be the appropriate reaction? Good and Evil can some times just be a matter of perspective, but the fact they ignored a parlay and went straight into combat does kinda present them as the monsters instead of heroes in this case. Perhaps in the future if this situation should come up again, simply call out initiative then refer to them as Orc 1 - Orc 4 in turn.
PS. If you go with "naked party members march back to capital," have Grigori waiting for them when they get there.
rakur wrote: Maybe I am just misunderstanding, but she can claw and bite without breaking her dance. She she would kill four party members, then grapple the last one, right?
Norin d'orien wrote: I would stick with the idea of her not beeing able to keep the dance up while grappling, you could use her suggestion to take one of the players with her and lock the door while she drains the living hell out of him and the rest of the party give chase. Or she just attacks, or she uses the suggestion to make one of the players help her..
BTW this is no TPK in my opinion, it looks more like a stalemate: in the moment she attacks the other members of the party will kick her ass.
You are right.
In my mind once she manages to hypnotize eveyone she would immediately start draining them.. So.. My bad..or you could do just that.
IMC i stole the idea from someone on the board and made her the transfigured mother of one of the PC, so he will not be immune, but she'll recognize him.
Actualy we are ending VV,and they are yet to meet her, so maybe she's getting a little buffed hehehe
In foreshadowing ideas most people have the dancing lady as an agent of "she who should not be named."
So she might have orders as to what to do with the interlopers.
Recent threads in Kingmaker
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