Six and half years ago (November 2013), I began to DM the Age of Worms campaign in D&D 3.5 with six players. Yesterday (meeting virtually via Zoom to display the map and RollDiceWithFriends to roll dice), five of those players (plus one new addition) faced Dragotha with the same characters they had at the beginning (we've had a few deaths, but revivify/raise dead/resurrection has brought them back to life).
The heroes are:
Mortimer Underwood, Paladin 10/Fist of Tyr 10
Gwilym, Cleric of Tyr 10/Inquisitor 10
Avorr, Focused Specialist (conjuration) Wizard 6/Master Specialist 10/Archmage 4
Muscra, Scout 20
Ravalynn, Cleric of Oghma 1/Duskblade 19
Swift Taylor, Ranger 20
They also brought a couple friends:
Xitomax, Couatl Monk 16 (Gate negotiation with Gwilym)
Reggie, Leonal Guardinal (Greater Planar Binding with Avorr)
The heroes had cleared out most of the Tabernacle of Worms, including Mahuudril, all of the avolokia priests, and the wormdrake. They got a quick glimpse of the final cavern and teleported out. After buffing hard, they returned via greater teleport right into the Writhing Sanctum. They faced the following:
Dragotha, bumped up to Great Wyrm age, and spell list revamped using the Spell Compendium
Two nightcrawlers and two nightwalkers (instead of three nightcrawlers)
Venk and Zyrith
Brazzemal the Burning from Kings of the Rift (the heroes grabbed the Phlactery and fled)
Dragotha had Anticipate Teleportation running, so no one was surprised when the party teleported in. During the round available to Dragotha, one nightcrawler remained in the tunnel to block any advances the enemy might make via the tunnel, and the other nightcrawler and two nightwalkers spread out within the sanctum after hasting everyone. Dragotha used Sending to demand Brazzemal to come to his aid (my expanded Writhing Sanctum is large enough that Brazzemal can teleport in above the door on the ledge and be out of range of Dragotha's Anticipate Teleportation). Brazzemal casts Shield to augment his AC, planning to teleport next round.
The heroes’ plan: Avorr and Gwilym will dispel buffs off Dragotha, then use Dimensional Anchor to stop him from teleporting away. They each memorized both spells so whichever of them went first could begin the process, and the other could finish it.
Dragotha’s plan: The minions in front of him stationed themselves 60’ away from Dragotha, so Dragotha can start by using the 9th level swift action spell Breath Weapon Admixture to breathe a clinging fire/lightning breath (122 fire/122 lightning, then 61 fire/61 lightning next round). With his extra age hit dice feat, Dragotha has Arcane Strike, so he plans to full attack the next round, with the goal of spiking down Mortimer, whose Charging Smite is renowned for doing massive damage against his minions. His contingency plan if he gets into trouble is to Time Stop, Harm up to health, and buff with Lifeward if he has time. If he misses a key roll, he has Alter Fortune on his sorcerer list to give him an Immediate Action re-roll.
Note: In this campaign, the players and DM have agreed to a MAD based decision to not use Mordenkainen’s Disjunction against each other.
Round 1: Avorr uses Chain Dispel on Dragotha, but 7/8ths of it is turned back against him. Dragotha loses Resist Acid, Avorr loses almost all his lower level buffs from scrolls. He uses 2 charges from his Belt of Battle to cast Time Stop, and gets 3 rounds. In time stop round 1 he summons two storm elementals (rapid spell metamagic) and swift casts Assay Spell Resistance on himself to buff his SR rolls against Dragotha. In time stop round 2 he rapid spell metamagic casts Summon Golem (Iron) and draws a potion of Barkskin from his Heward’s Haversack. In time stop round 3 he quickens (Major Spell Esoterica) Sphere of Ultimate Destruction and drinks the potion. The Time Stop ends and Avorr uses his move action remaining from the original action round to order the sphere to enter the space of the nightcrawler near Dragotha, doing 140 damage. The storm elementals use their 1/minute Su lightning bolts to do over 100 damage to both nightwalkers, and the golem swings and misses. Avorr reports to Gwilym his Chain Dispel mostly failed due to spell turning. Avorr’s player apologizes to the rest of the group for how long his turn took, lol.
Xitomax moves to Dragotha and makes one unarmed attack, missing. Gwilym casts Chain Dispel on Dragotha and strips all of Dragotha’s buffs except Haste (+28 caster level check due to Inquisitor prestige class and karma prayer bead) and draws his rod of empowerment. Venk ends up being useless, as the Mass Spell Resistance blocks his eldritch blast SLA against everyone due to his pathetic CL 10. Zyrith swoops from a ledge to hit Muscra with a talon, grapples her, and via Flyby Attack moves away to land next to a nightcrawler (and within reach of Dragotha). During Muscra’s turn, she realizes she has Freedom of Movement as a class ability, uses it to automatically win the grapple check to escape, and tumbles back toward the other heroes. She then uses two charges from her Belt of Battle to shoot 1 arrow at Zyrith (with +20 bonus from the slayer fragment). Swift Taylor full attacks Zyrith, pin-cushioning him to death. The nightwalkers cast targeted greater dispel magics on Gwilym and Mortimer, stripping about 6 spells from Gwilym, and about 10 from Mortimer. Each also quick casts Unholy Blight for minimal damage. Mortimer charging smites Dragotha, doing 176 damage. Dragotha goes next, sticking to his plan. Spell Resistance Mass does nothing to stop a Su breath weapon, but the group’s crazy high saving throw buffs (including everyone affected by fire and lightning being within range of the Evasion/+10 Reflex Save fragment) saves the party for the most part. Gwilym and Ravalynn each take (122-30 Resist Energy Mass – Electricity) 92 electrical damage, and they will take 31 additional electrical damage next round due to Clinging. Brazzemal teleports in next, surveys the battlefield, and uses a move action to land next to the left flank of the heroes, positioning himself for a full attack next round against almost any of the heroes. The nightcrawlers go next. The one in the tunnel takes a double hasted move to squeeze out of the tunnel to avoid getting trapped, foiling the intended role for Reggie to use Wall of Force to block tunnel reinforcements from coming. He quickens a cone of cold (as does the other nightcrawler), but no one takes any damage due to a combination of cold immunities, Spell Resistance Mass, and fragment enhanced Evasion reflex saves. But the second nightcrawler’s standard action is to cast a targeted Greater Dispel Magic on Mortimer, stripping him of many of his remaining buffs. Ravalynn mutters to herself why she puts herself in these situations, drinks an Enlarge Person potion, and moves into range to hit either Dragotha or the nightcrawler next to the big D. Reggie, seeing no reinforcements left to block in the tunnel, casts a 20’ high 50’ wide wall of force in front of Brazzemal to block him from full attacking anyone.
Round 2: I comment that the party has completely failed to understand how the fragments work. Avorr’s Sphere of Ultimate Destruction finishes off the nightcrawler next to Dragotha, doing another 140 damage. Avorr lands a Dimensional Anchor on Dragotha, uses a move action to draw his rod of lesser quicken, and quickens a ray of clumsiness on Dragotha, reducing his Dexterity by 8 (and his AC by 4). The storm elementals miss the nightcrawlers with their melee attacks, and the Iron Golem takes a 5’ step to swing at and miss Dragotha. Xitomax does his full flurry of blows of Dragotha, landing 3 fully buffed hits for a total of 87 damage. Gwilym casts a purified Righteous Smite, finishing off one nightwalker and damaging the nightcrawler that emerged from the tunnel. He then uses 2 charges from his Belt of Battle to cast another spell (I forget which one) that finishes off the nightcrawler. Venk realizes he is outclassed and Flees the Scene to the 15’ high ledge. Muscra uses her last charge from her Belt of Battle to move to get her Skirmish bonus, and full attacks the remaining nightwalker. Since she has both the Slayer fragment and a Greater Truedeath Crystal in her bow to allow her skirmish damage to affect undead, the last nightwalker dies. Dragotha only has useless Venk and faithful Brazzemal left as allies. Since Swift Taylor goes next, Muscra interrupts her turn to pass the Slayer fragment to her as an immediate action. She has two Greater Undead Slaying arrows, and fires them from her splitting bow. All four shots hit, forcing Dragotha to make four DC 23 Fortitude saves. We read the entry in the DMG to verify they work against undead, even though undead are normally immune to Fortitude saves. My first two saves from the first split arrow include a 1. The party cheers, but I announce Dragotha has Alter Fortune on his spell list, and he takes an immediate action to cast the spell and re-rolls a 12. The second split arrow forces two more rolls, and I roll another 1 on Roll Dice With Friends. Dragotha is destroyed, despite having about 600 hit points left. Sigh.
We finish round 2 and go far enough into round 3 to see if Brazzemal is able to kill Mortimer in melee, but when Brazzemal finishes his second full attack on Mortimer and he remains standing, I announce the hero’s victory (Brazzemal only had about 120 hit points left, and the whole party was arrayed around him ready to act). Heroes 1, Dragotha 0 (no hero deaths at all).