Hi everyone,
my group did take on the mission about finding Zenith and encountered Jared while running from the dragon. They decided to wait and see what happens. I chose to have Jared proudly walk back to defend his castle, which prompted Gottrod to catch him and start an interrogation.
The group still didn't want to attack, not being able to scale their enemy properly they didn't want to risk anything.
They snuck up on him and (due to a few bad rolls on listen/spot) the dragon managed to overlook them in the first place. They all had some position, when the Bard finally decided it was time to start singing. And that, of course, found Gottrod's attention. So much, in fact, that he got fascinated and - to add insult to injury - was suggested to follow the Bard, who proceeded to lead Gottrod away from the burning hut to allow the rest of the party to bring Jared to safety. Jared, however, didn't want to let this dragon part, not with his minions finally coming to see him and called out to the dragon, who still followed the suggestion given to him by the Bard.
Group decides to knock Jared out, which takes some time, despite the knock-out master dealing over 10 hp per round and getting help from other party members and the AoO allowed by Jared's attempt to educate his non-behaving minions by use of a spell.
In the meantime, the Bard starts talking to Gottrod and he tells about his motives, trying to find the Underdark, which coincide with the players, so the Bard makes the mistake of admitting that they, too, don't have a clue where to go and want to ask Jared themselves. Gottrod takes the opportunity to break from the suggestion and searches for Jared, as this is exactly what the Bard had told him is the course of action.
He finds him quickly as he (unconcious, ~40 hp subdual damage) is being dragged away from the scene by other PCs. He flies over quickly and talks to the PC who is holding him. After that one responds with draconic (Black half-dragon accent) and admits also not being able to help, he attempts to dispose of him using his breath weapon on him and his friend as well while at it.
Needless to say, Jared was between them and took the full 36 hp fire damage, not being able to save (helpless) and dies right there. The fighter/bbn takes 18 to the head, the fighter/rogue evades. I gave them exactly 1 round to attempt to rescue Jared and would have let them have it, but the fighter/bbn/dragon ancestry decided that curing himself of his flesh wound was more important than stabilizing their only source of information on how to proceed, so Jared died a quick death right then and there.
Gottrod didn't live very long after that as a combination of lightning bolt (7d6), phantasmal killer (3d6), magic missiles (4d4+4) and dispel magic (to make a few more arrow hit due to the dispelled mage armor) plus the Barbarian attack (full power attack and backed by an action point to make it hit nonetheless) had taken its toll on the poor beast.
6 characters (4 7th, 2 6th) do make a CR7 dragon really look puny... (at least it showed in the small chunk of XP they received for that)
They decided to drag the corpse of Jared back to Cauldron and have him interrogated through speak with dead.
What would he be able to tell as a dead person ?
Would he want to be resurrected before giving answers ?
Would he answer sensible ?
How can he reveal the information that he would have put on a piece of paper (map to pit) as a dead guy ?
Any input is appreciated.
Nib