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Hello all, at my last session I ran "Lords of Oblivion" and my party easily stomped the last laugh and laid down serious pain on Lady Rhivandi's meeting. However, before any of this started they had been sending letter asking Lord Vhlantru to meet with them some night so they could discuss donating money to the city's defense. This was of course just an excuse for them to actually meet with him since he is so darn elusive. Now before I began running LoO he replied by saying he would meet them in three days. He timed this so that the third day would be AFTER he finished his ritual and so he could handle the part easily.
In three real time hours my next session starts and Vhlantru is going to use the doppleganger from "Zenith Trajectory" to pose as him and eat dinner with the party in his estate's dining room. So here is my question...What should he be planning. The PCs don't fully suspect his true evil (they thought Maavu was evil and when they discovered he was not stopped suspecting everyone). I figure a smart person such as Lord V would still want to use adventurers if he could. Or would he just use all the power he has to set a trap and screw trying to keep them fooled?
Wow! What a great set-up.
My party finished the Vhalantru encounter last night, and it went almost as the adventure said it should. But... first to your situation.
If Vhalantru thinks he can use the party members, he might try. But then again, he should be aware that they killed Riavadi... that would be enough motive to kill them now.
Sure, she wasn't a Cagewright herself, but she was a strong recruiter to their cause. With her gone, the Cagewrights stand to lose important contacts and ties in the area.
Vhalantru already ordered Iverson to take out the party once... and now he has the opportunity to do it himself.
If the party members are fooled into trusting Vhalantru, or his imposter (Bravo! on keeping that option open), why not try some various poison techiniques (DMG 297)...
contact poison on the silverware (Black lotus extract... the shimering sheen could an effect from the silver polish)
ingested poison in the food (Dark reaver powder... I hear it takes like Tabasco sauce)
Both of these do CON damage, to lower their Fort saves vs some of the eye rays.
If the captain of the town guard is a bad guy in your campaign, you could always arrange for him to be their with a small contingent of town guards as well.
I've been trying to think of what Vhalantru could be planning that he could get the party to do... things that would help his standing with the Cagewrights, or his overall control of the Cauldron region, but not something he would be able to do himself, for political reasons.
He obviously won't be able to trick the party into killing Jenya (which would be a big boon to his cause), or any other NPC known to be helpful.
Perhaps Vhalantru could get the party to take out the remaining Jesters in the Last Laugh so they can be replaced by people fiercely loyal to him.
Or, if your party has been suspicious of the Striders of Fharlanghn, perhaps he can convince the party to take on that organization.
Now... these encounters might take a lot of work to throw together (if they happen to agree to help Vhalantru), and there might be some serious alignment problems afterwards when the party discovers what they've done.
As for time-line issues... the next adventure pretty much starts because of the death of Vhalantru, and if that doesn't happen right away, it shouldn't change events. The Cagewrights aren't planning on starting the ritual for an unspecified amount of time anyways, so if it takes another week of "game time" before they actually kill Vhalantru, it shouldn't make a difference.
If they happen to never kill Vhalantru, then I think the adventure would continue with the evacuation of the city (skipping the meeting with Jenya), and they would probably have a final showdown with Vhalantru while they're trying to evacuate the city.
Just thought I'd chime in on this thread to say how my party did with Vhalantru.
In our last session, the party role-played through the House Rhiavadi encounter using disguises. The character with the Smoking Eye was smoking a pipe and tried to remain mysterious... kind of like Strider when you see him at the Prancing Pony for the first time.
At the party, they discovered (through many bluff, disguise, diplomacy, and gather information checks) that every preparation for the ritual was completed, and the ritual itself would begin "soon;" that Rhiavadi deferred to Vhalantru in many decisions, and that Vhalantru was not at his meeting because he was already preparing himself for the ritual; that Zenith was a shackle-born, and that they used the party to bring him to the Cagewrights.
They eventually left without a fight... and not a moment too soon. The party spent the final hour last session, and the first hour of this session debating on attacking or leaving. They ultimately decided to leave and save their resources for tracking down Vhalantru, whom they believe to be responsible for taking one of the PC's brothers, another Shackleborn. (I threw in an additional shackleborn to make it "personal" for the party. After all, there was an extra soul cage... why not an extra shackleborn?)
The party members were given an invitation to attend the party at house Rhiavadi by the assassin Jil... she had hoped that the party members would kill the jester that was there to open up a slot for her to move into. When she realized that they weren't going to attack, she sent a messenger to house Rhiavadi to tell them of the disguised party members... hoping to provoke a fight.
As it was, Rhiavadi got the message after the party left, and she scried on the party's fighter (failed his save) and indeed saw him in his disguise, and that they were already in the foyer of House Vhalantru. She teleported to Vhalantru's side, buffed herself up with some spells and cast improved invisibility on her shield guardian.
The rogue eventually opened the first two doors they encountered and saw Lady Rhiavadi and a half-demodand beholder. Lady Rhiavadi turned to the beholder and said, "They are here, my Lord Vhalantru... just as I said they would be."
The party backed up as the door closed, then Vhalantru came out and rose 20' up with his anti-magic cone fixed firmly on the Archmage (who has the Smoking Eye), and started with the eye rays left and right.
The party figher (with VoP feat) was put in a forcecage, and rendered useless, and Rhiavadi started throwing spells at those not in the anti-magic cone.
The beholder shifted the anti-magic cone on each spell-caster as their time came around... forcing them to use mundane attacks. Quickly, though one of the spellcasters moved next to the fighter, and the anti-magic cone suppressed the forcecage long enough for him to escape.
A few rounds into it, one mage held his action until another caster's intiative, then when the anti-magic cone moved off him, he cast DISINTEGRATE. And I rolled a 1.
Rhiavadi herself was being pelted with attacks, but she was displaced, had stone skin and shield other protecting her. I also gave her a mithral chain shirt +1, heavy fortification, and changed her contingency spell to Death Ward.
As the party turned its focus solely on Rhiavadi, she cast a maximized Arc of Lightning (Miniature's Handbook) and sent her sheild guardian after the Archmage. She continued to take minimal damage until the druid cast Faerie Fire and she lost her displacement.
The archmage dropped (to -8 hp) when hit by the Shield Guardian, having been seriously damaged by the arc of lightining and the disintigrate that he saved from Vhalantru. She was about to Dimension Door to her quarters when the party started hitting for near max damage in the last round of combat, and she dropped.
The party eventually killed the shield guardian, and decided to set up house in the foyer for the remainder of the night.
The party found Skylar Krewis (now a lieutenant and second in command of the town guard) petrified, and the mage cast Stone to Flesh (which he almost always has had prepared ever since the Test of the Smoking Eye... you know... basilisks... Retrievers...).
Skylar woke up and said... "Guys...? Where...? Wait! Vhalantru is a beholder!!!" "Yeah, we found out..."
Skylar was convinced that Vhalntru was up to something (he doesn't know about the ritual of planar junction, the shackleborn, or the soul cages), and that "something" is going to be soon... or else he wouldn't have taken action against anyone yet. He wanted to go back to the surface to warn someone, but he didn't know who to trust... the captain of the guard hasn't done anything to stop the rising tensions in the city, and he is starting to suspect that the captain is involved somehow.
So, the party members convinced him to go to Jenya, and the party members want to stay and investigate the lair some more... hopefully with more luck on the doors.
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For anyone else... did your party have trouble opening the doors? The party rogue had to take a 20 to get past the DC. I let her take a 20 after she disabled the traps, which she only set off three times.
Oh... and no one died. Everyone made every save from Vhalantru's eye rays and Rhiavadi's spells.
They did well.
FROM THE ARCHIVES!!!
Anyone else have anything to add here? Lady Rhiavadi escaped from her party and has had a chance to rest in Oblivion. My party has just started exploring Oblivion and is probably going to fight Vhalantru in our next session. They are 6 13th level PCs, (one with the smoking eye). Do you think that it would be feasible to run an encounter against Rhiavadi and Vhalantru together? Big Jake?
One thing I wanted to do was have Rhiavadi cast baleful polymorph on the party paladin, calling him a "lapdog of Heironeous." Assuming he fails his save, he will turn into a little white schnauzer (think "snowy" from TinTin. Then a hungry Vhalantru will eat him. A nice memorable character death!
Do you think that it would be feasible to run an encounter against Rhiavadi and Vhalantru together? Big Jake?
It depends on a few things:
If you have players that are fairly optimized for combat (min/maxed or power gamed, or just good sound characters), six PCs should be able to handle the two of them together. (You can read how my guys did above.)
However... if you're running the adventure from the Shackled City Hardcover, Vhalantru is more powerful than he was in Dungeon #111. He has more hit dice, a better AC, and spell resistance. He's definately harder to take down than when I ran this encounter.
The new improved Vhalantru 30 feet up plus a wind wall spell (provided by Rhiavadi) could spell certain doom. If Vhalantru blasts away with his disintegrate eye ray and the PCs fail, you could have a TPK in six rounds.
Or your party mage might get his disintegrate spell off first, beat the SR (which is only 20, not too hard for a 13th level caster), and Vhalantru fails (like in my scenario) the combat might last one round.
Of course, how well your players can adapt in combat makes a big difference as well. Sound tactics come into play. Key special abilities and class features can have a huge impact, too.
Good luck! Let us know what happens.
On another note... I can't believe that was a year ago for me! Part of it seems so recent, and other part seems longer.
Looking at these archives also reminds that my posts get really long sometimes. Thanks for reading them!
I ran this yesterday and it came very close to disaster for the party. The party decided to go for the midshaft door and after seeing the ornate foyer, decided that something big was behind the door. The party wizard used a scroll of disintegrate to open the door.
The party took in the scene before them. Vhalantru (Haydenson IMC) underwent the last parts of the ritual in front of them. Lady Rhiavadi flew near the top of the cieling watching with awe and said, "See Lord Vhalantru, I told you that the True Heroes of Cauldron will come." In the surprise round, the rouge and the ranger got standard actions. The rouge used a wand of fireball which slightly singed through Rhiavadi's stoneskin and left Vhalantru completely unscathed. Most of the party ended up with good initiative though. The melee fighters twiddled their thumbs on the ground while the ranger fired arrow after arrow (though most were called shots to the beholders and rhiavadi's eyes, so many missed). The party cleric (St. Cuthbert) used Bigby's Grasping Hand to grapple Rhiavadi (who floated above the beholder). Then Vhalantru opened his eye downwards (his antimagic cone on Rhiavadi would negate her fly effect and cause her to fall to the ground) and spat parlyzing gunk onto the ranger. The ranger made his save. Rhiavadi was grappled and was unable to act. The party wizard moved out of the room to get out of the range of the antimagic cone.
The ranger continued his arrow assault on the beholder. Vhalantru then dispeled the grasping hand with his spell like ability. Before she had a chance to act, the party wizard cast phantasmal killer on Rhiavadi through the antimagic cone (he was outside the room/area of effect as was she. The gnome wizard still had a line of sight so I allowed it) and she failed both saves! Rhiavadi fell to the ground with a grunt. Vhalantru had a good "NOOOOOOOOOO" moment.
The melee fighters continued sitting on their hands, using their actions to draw their ranged weapons. The ranger continued his assault with a 2nd favored enemy (abberation) he was actually doing a fair amount of damage on his hits. The beholder opened his eye dropped a cloudkill on the party which lowered a few constitution scores (including the ranger, the rouge, and the cleric). Vhalantru had tired of this and being in range, he fired a flesh to stone ray at the ranger. Nice aasimar statue for his collection.
With their primary ranged damage dealer out of commision, the barbarian and the paladin futily shoot at Vhalantru. They got lucky a fair amount scoring a few criticals and doing some damage. Vhalantru tried a mass charm monster but everyone made their saves. The wizard taunted Vhalantru about his ultimate demise. Now pissed at the Wizard, Vhalantru dropped down and fired another flesh to stone ray, turning the gnome wizard who was outside of the room into another statue. The party rouge (who by this point has taken 8 of his 10 constitution points in damage from the cloudkill moves out the room just as the door closes.)
Now we've got 2 melee fighters (barbarian and paladin) unleashing a relatively innefective barrage of arrows (although again, they were getting quite lucky with natural 20's) the party cleric does a distintegrate against Vhalantru...and Vhalantru makes it, taking a paltry amount of damage. Vhalantru sets his eyebeam against the cleric now, who's parents were former adventurers that were turned to stone, and...he joins them in petrification.
So now the fighter and the barbarian are stuck in room (013 i think) with a petrified ranger and cleric, while the party rouge is trapped in room (014 i think) with a petrified wizard and has no idea if his compatriots are alive or dead. Now, it would seem that this would be the end of the party, but Vhalantru has taken a fair amount of damage from the rangers arrows as well as the disintegrate and some damage from the melee fighters arrows. Also, most of Vhalantru's deadly attacks are fort saves. So the rest of the battle basically becomes an endurance contest. Vhalantru tries to use finger of death multiple times on each but fails. They continue scoring about a hit a round. Vhalantru manages to hit with one disintegrate which still leaves the Paladin alive (though barely), but by this time he's at about 15 hp. He begins to retreat, firing his disintegrate rays strait up while using invisibility as described in the book. The melee combatants continue firing straight up, eventually killing Vhalantru to hoots and hollars from the players, their characters taking a fair amount of damage when a large beholder corpse falls on them.
Now the party has a new issue. The fighters are inside the room and can't get out because they can't cast disintegrate. The cleric and ranger inside are turned to stone. The party rouge can't get out to go for help because all of the scolls were on the party wizard. The rouge spends the next two days living in fear that a beholder has eaten his party and hides behind the statues while the barbarian and the paladin cleared their room and spent the days spooning for warmth *heh*
Finally, Meerthan came. The party had asked Shensen to keep an eye on the estate before they came down just in case anything went wrong. When there wasn't word from them in two days, they went down after them. Meerthan undid the wizard who used prepurchased scrolls to free the ranger and cleric.
The rest of the session was relatively easy. The party quickly dispatched with the Nessian hounds (1st Ranger favored enemy Evil Outsiders is great for this Campaign.) and was met with Azithief coming outside asking "What the @#%*%( did you to my dogs? You'll pay for them with your life?" The paladin got knocked into the negatives before the battle was through, but was healed before anything permanant could happen. The party then cleared out the rest of the dungeon before facing the golems (which they prepared for by gathering the adamantine weapons that the flamewarders had in their treasure and casting haste).
All in all, a very fun, memorable session. The players were really scared against Vhalantru, especially when they all started becoming statues. I really like this option, becuase it takes that player out of combat without say, disintegrating him, but it could still lead to a total party "kill", and a much more flavorful, creepy one at that, considering the environment.
The barbarian, rouge, and paladin all managed to level up, while the ranger, cleric, and wizard will probably do so in the next session. They have purchased a bunch of nice items and upgraded their weapons and armor. I plan to run a little sidequest where the players defeat Nabathoroton(who they couldn't touch previously). I'm going to have the demon lord, in anticipation fo the coming fall of Cauldron, march on Redgorge with a small army of Vrocks and Hezrous. This will be followed by a more intense battle with Nabathoroton. After that, the PCs will reicieve a summons from Jenya in cauldron and I will begin Foundations of Flame as written.