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Okay, my players are only 4th level and have managed, through some skillfull roleplaying and a few lucky rolls, managed to locate the drow layer in Children of the Void. To make things even worse, they let Depora escape at the end of Shadow in the Sky by clearing out most of the tunnels under the Gold Goblin but then leaving to rest for a day before finishing the job. What can I do to help keep the batte from becomeing a TPK, but at the same time not feeling like deus ex machina?
Okay, my players are only 4th level and have managed, through some skillfull roleplaying and a few lucky rolls, managed to locate the drow layer in Children of the Void. To make things even worse, they let Depora escape at the end of Shadow in the Sky by clearing out most of the tunnels under the Gold Goblin but then leaving to rest for a day before finishing the job. What can I do to help keep the batte from becomeing a TPK, but at the same time not feeling like deus ex machina?
How did they locate the Caves? What is the make-up of the group?
A few thoughts:
Use Akron to clue them in that something is up with Clegg and the caves. Careful searching turns up a hand crossbow bolt with a curious design. Perhaps they meet up with Depora on a patrol or having a secret tryst with Clegg. She could "hire" them to kill Shindiira and warns them of the Demon, even giving them a pass phrase to keep it from attacking them (it will not let them attack Shindiira without retaliation however).
The goal of the encounter is to turn up more information (primarily the diary). It is in a tough spot but if the party notices the ingress to the Sea Caves, they could get in without fighting the whole complex. The orca will need to be dealt with however....
If they do not know the story of the Siren, they could discover this secret and enlist her aid. Maybe you can make the wraith a touch more intelligent and a smart party could use it to help them find the Siren, in which case they die peacefully together and leave the party some boon (sniff.). I would put Depora in the front room to face the wraith if this is the case and have the Demon attack in round five or so.
Otherwise flushing the drow from their caves (fire? what to do about fuel?) might work but then its a large high EL combat. If they have prepped the terrain, it might work. This could be particularly interesting if they lead the akatas to the caves...
They could enlist the aid of the Cyphermages (limited help) or Akron and some of Clegg's men (also limited help).
If none of those are an option, your typical party will likely get TPK'ed because they will not know when to stop and retreat. If the group is smart, they will attempt guerrilla tactics and pick the drow off over time.
At the end, the drow will need to leave somehow and the party could battle them on the way to the shore where they will meet up with a paid pirate vessel. Ooh - Maybe add some akata and void zombie goodness to that chase.
Have fun!
~D
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They found the cave on an incredibly lucky perception check. The player who made the check is a half-elf and had put their skill focus into perception. They had already met the Cyphermages and helped them get to Clegg's camp. Along the way the half-elf kept making perception checks to make sure they didn't get ambushed and rolled a nat 20 about the same time they were passing the trail. The group is composed of a barbarian, two sorcerers, a cleric/rogue, and a rogue.
my party actually stumbled onto the cave as well at level 4
the shadow demon alone, absolutely mauled the party
even thought they now know where the drow are, the party is hesitant to go back to the sea cave anytime soon
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My party has actually done okay so far. Of course we are using Beta characters, so they are slightly stronger then 3.5 advanturers. We also added a monk to the party and he burned his ki pool pummeling the shadow demon. However they have gotten to the battle in the sea cave and the orca is giving them fits. The barbarian won't go out on the platform because the first time he did, the orca leaped out and hit him for half his hit points. Now he and one of our sorcerers are trying to figure out a way to kill the orca from the shore. Meanwhile Shindiira stood back and let Depora, the guards, and the weakened shadow demon fight the pcs. So now that there is only one guard left, they still have to deal with a completely healthy Shindiira and most of the party has taken at least some damage, including the monk taking Shindiira's mace to his skull. Oh and the party cleric is currently taking a nap thanks to a failed save vs. drow sleep poison. And they have no idea that Xakihn is sneaking up on their rear flank....
Well, the barb should be able to take out Mr. X. and with him dead, maybe the charmed orca won't be such a pest (I actually did not have the orca attack unless people hit the water - Couldn't convince myself that an orca could tell a dark elf from a light human. The movie suggests otherwise, but hey.); A few lucky rolls and a PC melee type should scare off the cleric (or kill her) - If you are nice and the PCs observant, maybe they notice the "vial necklaces" the drow wear (potions of cure moderate) and may try one (if its good for the goose, er, the drow...).
Good Luck (to your players!)
~D
The barbarian won't go out on the platform because the first time he did, the orca leaped out and hit him for half his hit points. ...
Oh and the party cleric is currently taking a nap thanks to a failed save vs. drow sleep poison. And they have no idea that Xakihn is sneaking up on their rear flank....
Pretty sure that platform is 20' up - seems unlikely the orca can leap quite that far. Maybe have it leap up a couple times, just shy of the platform, to show it got lucky that first time.
Can't you wake someone from sleep poison?
And as another mentioned - kill Xakihn, the orca probably leaves.
Once my party got Shindiira alone (this last saturday) she was pretty much toast. She's tough, but mostly on disabling things that let her minions deal more damage (command people to approach into the water, disarm/trip them, etc.) Of course my players had some darn lucky spell resistance checks.
Rough stuff - my 5-6th level group fled after the Shadow Demon retreated through the wall... of course that was mostly because the Rogue and paladin's mount got feared. Fun stuff.
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Pretty sure that platform is 20' up - seems unlikely the orca can leap quite that far. Maybe have it leap up a couple times, just shy of the platform, to show it got lucky that first time.
Actually, the first two platforms are 10' and 15' respectively. The 10' platform is easily within reach of an orca, which average about 10' in length or more and can leap completely out of the water. Also, taking a cue from Animal Planet, the orca has made a few charge attacks on people along the shore. Unfortunately for my party, none of them have been willing to approach the orca to attack while it takes a full round action to wriggle back into the water.
My issue with the sea cave encounter is that the drow have been made aware that the PCs are outside the cave, just as the PCs know that there is, well ... something behind a secret door in the rock. However, they are unlikely to investigate immediately, as they are all injured and out of spells and need to find somewhere they can rest for a while. Therefore, the drow are going to have plenty of time to prepare for their arrival.
I figure the drow's preferred plan would be to wait for dark and escape in the only ship immediately available to them, the pirate ship Teeth of Araska which the PCs are now in possession of. If, however, as is likely, the PCs investigate the secret door before dark, I'm trying to figure out what the drow would do.
Priority # 1, I guess, would be the escape of Shindiira and Depora (who got away in "Shadow in the Sky") to bring their information to Celwynvian. If the battle were turning against the drow, therefore, I would assume the orca could swim the two out and try to get them to the ship, or at least to a hiding place. Priority # 2, though, would probably be not leaving behind the valuable noqual, and I don't think the orca could get that out. If Shindiira left but was still living, would the shadow demon remain behind to fight per her directions, or would he flee? And would Xakihn acquiesce in the females' escape and sacrifice himself for the greater goal of his race?
I'm just thinking out loud (or "in type") here, hoping to come to some conclusions. If anyone has any tactical advice for me, though, I'd appreciate it. For story purposes, I'd like for at least one of the female drow to escape to Celwynvian, if I can manage it.
Priority # 1, I guess, would be the escape of Shindiira and Depora (who got away in "Shadow in the Sky") to bring their information to Celwynvian. If the battle were turning against the drow, therefore, I would assume the orca could swim the two out and try to get them to the ship, or at least to a hiding place.
I'm not sure if Shiniira is capable of communicating that to the orca. The orca is trained to fight, alhtough Xakihn might be able to give the orca the message.
Priority # 2, though, would probably be not leaving behind the valuable noqual, and I don't think the orca could get that out.If Shindiira left but was still living, would the shadow demon remain behind to fight per her directions, or would he flee?
I would guess he would hang around a bit to fight, but would flee the moment he starts fearing for his own life. He may be a selflish demon, but he needs to try to impress Shindiira if he wants to escape the mortal plane.
And would Xakihn acquiesce in the females' escape and sacrifice himself for the greater goal of his race?
LOL! Seriously, Xakihn has little loyalty to either Depora or Shiniira, or their houses. I doubt he would fight to the death. Although he would probably aid any escape attempts.
I'm just thinking out loud (or "in type") here, hoping to come to some conclusions. If anyone has any tactical advice for me, though, I'd appreciate it. For story purposes, I'd like for at least one of the female drow to escape to Celwynvian, if I can manage it.
The drow would hang around for 3 main reasons.
1) The transportation of noqual is difficult without a ship (and even then could take a few hours to load up the vessel before departing).2) Xakihn wants to study more akatas. His plan is to nab any that Clegg Zincher has captured before they leave. He'd no doubt want to take out any meddling PC's before stealing the akatas from Zincher, may as well wait for the PC's to come to them.
3) Shindiira sees the PC's as an ideal opportunity to kill Depora once and for all.
I struggle to see how Depora is going to get out of this one alive. She has no real magic to speak of, and Shiniira is happy to backstab her at the first opportunity. Shindiira, however, could escape fairly easily.
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This is all spoiler...
For starters, keep the guards from retreating so they can be faced more or less two at a time. Secondly i made the guards motivation to stop the PC's advance. So when drow poison dropped one of the PC's, the guards did not coup de grace (as i saw it they would have been flogged for abandoning their responsibility to savor a kill). Although Depora or Shindiira would have coup de grace'd without hesitation had the opportunity come to them.
The Shadow Demon was the most dangerous, but they dropped him to half and he used Deeper Darkness to retreat into his Magic Jar. Then he went for a ride along in the body of the parties ranger, who tried unsuccessfully to trip his friends and push them into the water (bad dice) he even took shots at them (all missing, dice again) in the heat of combat.
I kept Xaikahn busy with summoning (some of which are ineffective) and actually had him summon the crocodile next to a prone drow (he is chaotic after all).
Once the first person in the party attacked Depora, i had Shindiira shoot her in the back (no poison), at which point Depora spun and they engaged in a futile exchange of 1d4 attacks, giving the PC's time to take care of guards and Xiakahn. (During this whole time Shindiira was out of the range of their lights).
Once they were through with the guards and X, they took out Depora. As the party was looting the bodies, the bard moved the light and as soon as the ledge came into view Shindiira dropped and started to attack with spells. Enter the Orca... At virtually the same instant that they killed Shindiira, the ranger finally rolls well enough to throw the wizard into the water. She gets bit by the Orca for big damage, and executes a full round retreat to get out of the water. The orca with reach makes a critical on it's attack of opportunity and kills her outright.
That ended the night, with the ranger still in the jar and the demon still in his body. I thought the party did awesome and was very pleased that they survived with only one casualty. Of course it was the wizard so they have no way to identify all the great stufff they looted ;)
All in all i think what saved it was Depora and Shindiira being busy fighting each other, that really gave the PC's a window to just deal with the 3 guards, druid, gecko, crocodile, eagle, and bat swarm...
Good luck!
One way to deal with a too-powerful group without fiat is to send part of it on an akata hunt. After all, the druid wants to study them, and he'd need help catching some. Then you can have the enemies encoutered as two groups rather than one, which will make them much less dangerous (assuming you don't get cruel with when the second group returns).
My PCs were much higher level than expected for this and still found the shadow demon to be a severe problem. So that would be my choice for who to send away with the druid.
Of course, this is less plausible if it's daytime, though the hunters could be holed up (say, in the non-haunted lighthouse) waiting for dark.
Mary
The sea cave battle was one of the best I have ever been in. I was the GM and without going into details the encounter lasted between 3-4 hours. Awesome!!