That stands for "total party knockout." Add the party I'm running to the tally of those that have been slaughtered by Three Faces of Evil. The party thought they were all badass sneaking into the temple after walking through Whispering Cairn like it was a breeze. The party makeup was as follows:
Goliath Bbn1/Rgr1
Grey Elf Wiz3
Raptoran Clr3 or Obad-Hai
Human Drd3 of Obad-Hai with riding dog companion
Human Spellthief3
They boldly marched into the Temple of Hextor and their barbarian got killed going toe-to-toe with the dire boar. Not stopping any longer than necessary to heal up their wounds and planning to take the barbarian back later, they walked right into Theldrick's trap in the main room. Theldrick wanted to take them all so he waited one round to see if they would all come inside the room before sealing the doors, but the wizard refused and stayed outside. The doors closed and hell ensued. Kendra cast bane, Garras cast bless, Theldrick began summoning, and the tieflings from the guard room ran up to the balcony and shot arrows down at the approaching party. Fortunately the party cleric of Obad-Hai had silence memorized and used it to interrupt Theldrick's spell. The wizard pulled out the wand of shatter found in the Whispering Cairn and blew the door away, allowing the party to get out, but not before having sucked up several ranged attacks, a sound burst, and a spiritual weapon. They were hurting, and could have pulled back, but instead, the wizard blew apart the door leading to the guard room and the group proceeded to try and enter the other way. This is where everything went FUBAR. The tieflings stayed behind in the main temple with their bows trained on all entrances while the priests and the troglodytes buffed themselves for the PCs' imminent arrival. What happened next was not pretty.
Garras and the troglodytes burst into the bedchambers between Theldrick's room and the guard room to face the PCs who were fast approaching. Having gulped down a potion of bull's strength he began kicking ass and taking names, tripping the cleric of obad-hai and the druid of obad-hai in successive turns. The wizard managed to gain control of one of the zombies with command undead, but Theldrick rebuked it and it cowered in the corner. The spellthief was largely ineffective except for the rare occassion when she managed to sneak attack and steal one of the buff spells from the bad guys, an event that only happened 2 or three times in what became a 26 round battle.
Things took a turn for the worst when the tieflings decided to abandon their post in the main temple and sneak around to the stairs leading down to the guard room and attack the party from behind. Hereafter, the wizard spent all of his efforts keeping the tieflings at bay with his wand of shatter, destroying two of their greataxes and one of their bows (poor Will saves didn't help at all). Eventually he got into a fist-fight with the tiefling who remained weaponless. However this effectively took his attention away from the main battle which was going sour fast. Theldrick tag-teamed Kendra and Garras and waded into melee after 5 or 6 rounds while they moved back to heal with Kendra's wand. He spent several rounds ineffectively swinging at the spellthief who was fighting defensively. But eventually he decided she wasn't going to hurt him anyway and began taking out the other characters. He laid low the druid while the tiefling who maintained his bow scored a critical hit on the wizard, taking him down. The spellthief was eventually hit and knocked down when Kendra and Garras moved back in.
So as all this is happening, I realized the party was getting nowhere fast. Theldrick had offered them a surrender several times in battle and they had refused (not like it would have helped much since he would have just given them a painless death as opposed to an excruciatingly painful one). Hence, they were likely to become worm food if I didn't do anything. I sure was glad the AoW Overload was released Friday because I was able to develop a plan. I decided the Free City adventuring party of Khellek, Auric, and Tirra had followed the party, thinking to clean up after they had died and loot the chambers for themselves. They came in from behind and the battlefield changed drastically.
Tirra sneak-attacked one of the tieflings and took him out while Auric handled the other the old-fashioned way. Khellek scorched Theldrick with a ray of fire and suddenly things were not going so well for the Herald of Hell's minions. Of course, at this time my party was on its last legs. The cleric was the only one left standing, and as Theldrick moved away to deal with the new invaders, Kendra and Garras spent the next several rounds beating the cleric into submission. Tirra snuck around the balcony while Auric went toe-to-toe with Theldrick in a glorious melee. With a little aid from Khellek, Auric managed to bring Theldrick down. Tirra loosed a well-placed arrow in Kendra's back and then darted away before Garras could catch her, performing hit-and-run attacks until the half-orc was finally brought to the ground.
My party awoke in the main entrance chamber watching Tirra sort loot as Auric hauled it out. Khellek watched the group with his wand of glitterdust and made sure they didn't try anything funny. Although he would have liked to simply loot them and leave them for dead, he figured he wouldn't like them to do the same to him, and they might even be in a place to return the favor one day. So he let them live, let them keep their things, and even let them keep the loot that he, Auric, and Tirra couldn't carry out of the temple (mostly scrap metal, a few mundane weapons and no magical items). He swindled them of looting rights by trading them Theldrick's journal, which he didn't much care about. I figured he didn't know a thing about the Ebon Triad and wouldn't really care if he did.
So in the end, the party got away with 4/5 of their lives and a pitance of treasure. But at least they weren't made sacrifices. After running this part of the adventure, I have to agree that it was tough, but there were plenty of mitigating circumstances. My party had three chaotic characters and none of them got along well with each other so they didn't coordinate too well. They often charged headlong into battle without making any form of a plan first, and they grossly underestimated the organized and efficient response to invasion that would be found in a temple to the Scourge of Battle. Had they cooperated a little bit more and acted with a little more caution, I have a feeling they would have been alright. Plus, the spellthief has a nasty habit of getting in the thick of things and being very ineffective while taking up very good tactical positions on the battlefield that could be more useful to other members of the party. Overall, I think this was mostly the PCs' faults, and not the fault of the module. But I will say this adventure is very unforgiving to mistakes. Make one, and you could be running or begging for your lives.
Incidentally, I could have swayed the tide of battle by fudging a couple rolls, but I don't do that for this campaign. I want it to be scary for the PCs, and that means maintaining the element of luck and chance is important. I'm not against fudging in general, particularly in campaigns where I focus on role-playing, but that's not the case here. I want the Age of Worms to terrify my PCs and threaten them with true danger. Death is just one lucky critical hit around the corner.
Great synopsis, airwalkrr. 26 round combat!?! That's pretty incredible. I haven't had many go 20 myself... but when they do, it's pretty memorable.
Yesterday my group finished up the Whispering Cairn, and started formulating a plan on how to enter Dourstone's mine. They don't want to work for Smenk, but they discovered that Mayor Neff wouldn't even see them to hear of their suspicions, and that the local garrison doesn't have the jurisdiction to enter the mine... let alone without proof of something wrong happening down there.
So... they started a 24-hour surveillance of the mine entrance, trying to see what's going on. One of the PCs, an aasimar sorceror, bribed his way past a guard, and wandered around the mine (passing coppers around the miners as it were, well... coppers) until he found the tunnel leading to the elevator.
He was taken captive, and the rest of the party just discovered that he is missing. They went to get Filge for help (hee, hee), and they forged some documents to get in the mine.
So, next session (two weeks) they might get into the fray. I'm still concerned about how it will turn out, so I'm thinking about having the aasimar being held in an outside cell, not taken down to the cult's area. That way, they can still find him, get the info they need, and maybe get on a short side quest to level to 4th before going down.
Wow, Big Jake. That's pretty gutsy for a sorcerer with a +1 LA to go around on his own. What was it that got him captured? Did he go into the temple proper or did he get bagged by the tieflings in the antechamber?
BTW, sorry, I didn't mean to post this twice. First time I posted, it didn't show up for several minutes so I decided it was a dud and I posted again. If the mods would kindly delete the other thread...
It was very gutsy. He didn't go in with the intent to enter into any combat, just have a look inside the mine. The first two days of stake-out didn't reveal anything, so he figured he could try to sneak in.
He paid a couple of bribes, people looked the other way, passed enough coppers to the miners, and he found the path to the elevator. He was stopped by a tiefling guard and two human guards before he found the elevator itself.
So far, they simply bound his hands and blind-folded him. The tiefling, of course, holds no love towards the aasimar PC, but as of right now, they don't suspect that he knows anything about what's going on below.
His actions were unexpected, and I think it will urge the rest of the party into an attack before they are ready. So, to try to stave of a disaster, I think I'm going to position him in a holding cell that is not down the elevator.
As for the LA, I'm using a "pay-off" method similar to what's in Unearthed Arcana, but at third level instead of 4th. So, he's now 3rd level, same as the others, but lagging in some XP.
This is off-topic, but we rolled for stats for character generation, and he actually had the lowest stats out of the group. Even with the bonuses of aasimar, stat-wise he ended up a little behind the rest of the party. So, I lessened the pay-off for his character.
I've found that LA, especially the +1 variety, don't tend to tip the scales very much unless you use a point-buy system or use some sort of pre-set array of numbers.
Your Pcs were third level going into the Room 11 fight? It wouldn't surprise me if they were defeated handedly. My PCs will be fifth level by the time they hit the room, and I think it will still be challenging.
Your Pcs were third level going into the Room 11 fight? It wouldn't surprise me if they were defeated handedly. My PCs will be fifth level by the time they hit the room, and I think it will still be challenging.
How did they reach 5th level? I have a group of 5 (soon to be 6) that should hit 3rd level this week after the wind warrior encounter. I even gave them a little xp boost from running "Wormfood as Encounters".
The adventure says it's for 3rd level characters. Isn't this area supposed to be the first one of the first they go to in 3FoE?
Well, they could enter any of the three temples first. There's nothing forcing them to take on the Hextorites first. I like the fact that the tieflings guarding the Hextorian temple encourage the PCs to go there first however. It was a brilliant move of authorship that I didn't recognize when first reading through the module. The Hextor temple is actually the least challenging of the three if you go by CR of the creatures inside, although Theldrick is quite optimized (not that I have a problem with that). But I think all temples are designed to challenge the midpoint between levels 3 and 5, which are the levels the PCs are expected to be when they go into this area, meaning that the first temple is likely to be the toughest, while the last temple is likely to be the easiest. The Ebon Aspect at the very end makes up for this though.
Anyway, I'm really not surprised my group fared so poorly since a little more caution and planning would have gone a long way. Since Auric, Khellek, and Tirra were able to handily defeat the three priests that the PCs had hardly scratched, my expectation is that 5th-level characters will walk all over this encounter. The Free City Adventurers are not optimized characters by any means. However if 5th-level PCs are equipped like 2nd or 3rd level PCs they might get a bit of a challenge, though I wouldn't expect anyone to die without a really lucky crit.
To get you to run the adventure "in order", A stone key on Theldricks desk provides access to the locked Grimlocks cavern. Also note that a "code" can't be broke without the "key" from the the Faceless One. But I think Airwalker was assuming as DM you could of course change some of these elements to your suiting.
As for my players, I was rash in saying they will be 5th level; it looks like they are still 4th, but about 1,00 XP away from 5th, and based on how the Hextorite showdown will play out (one big fight), they will hit 5th right after the Room11 battle.
We have been playing many side-quests with each character (there are between 3 and 4 characters), which has been just as fun as the printed Dungeon modules themselves. I think the players would argue that the side-quests are more important, because they are driven by the character/player based on individual choices as opposed to the AoW story line. They have probably gotten an entire level's amount of XP (say, 4 - 5k).
I threw in Melinde from the Hieronean chapel and a wizard I made up from the Wee Jass cult to help the party out (their only other arcane spellcaster was a hexblade, and their only divine caster is a ranger- with no Rays of Frost, they were really stumped by the Brown Mold in the Whispering Cairn). They gave the cultists PLENTY of time to prepare, so I was real worried, but they ended up getting bottled in the corridor going to area 6, which took out the Hextorite's numerical advantages. Only the NPCs I threw in got seriously hurt- the wizard nearly died, and Melinde did, in more or less single combat with Theldrick (she was quickly avenged). Still, I was amazed that none of the players' characters died considering (what one would assume to be) their poor tactical position and the ample preparation time affored to the Hextorites by their actions. I was also amazed they all lined up in a 5-foot corridor with a door at the end. They have avoided doing that since our very first campaign together, where a simple lightning bolt trap got all of them (they still joke about how stupid it was of them to line up like that).
We finished the Hextorian Temple fight: 27 rounds of combat, and none of the party members died... but just barely.
The party: female human Cleric of Pelor, male human rogue, male elven bard, male aasimar sorceror.
The PCs (with Filge along) managed their way into the mine with some forged documents (proclaiming them to be mine inspectors) and purchased second-hand mining equipment. They put their gear in a bag of holding, then put on their gear in a secluded spot in the mine. They made enough noise to alert the two guards near the elevator, so combat started the moment they stepped out.
The fight started with some pretty bad rolls on both sides, and no one got hit for several rounds. Finally, one guard dropped, and the other ran to the door to alert the Hextorian Temple. The party rogue went toe-to-toe with the remaining guard, but again the low rolls dragged out the encounter, giving the cultists inside time to prepare.
In the round that the second guard dropped, the rogue used his initiative to open the door, and was greeted by two arrows, one hitting him pretty good. The players spotted the cultists running down the hall, and assumed that they were going to alert someone else. But instead of entering the temple and facing the guards, they backed down towards the Dark Cathedral, scattering some caltrops, and the bard cast grease at the doorway.
So, the PCs backed up waiting for the cultists to come out, and the cultists used ranged attacks, trying to get the PCs to enter into the trap, which never happened. So, three rounds after the door opened, the dire boar was released and charged into the cathedral, nearly killing the rogue in one fell swoop.
As the PCs continued their retreat from the boar (two were in the hallway), one of the guards yelled that the PCs were in the Dark Cathedral, drawing out the combatants that were waiting for the planned ambush in the Battle Temple. So, three rounds later, just as the dire boar was slain, the two lesser clerics emerged, and commanded the skeletons to go attack, and for the cultists to go fight as well.
The party cleric destroyed the skeletons with an outstanding turn check, but the arrival of the two clerics and the cultists inspired Filge to finally turn against the PCs... this was about 15 rounds into combat. (The players weren't happy with that, and thought I was trying to really stick it to 'em... but then they accepted that Filge was simply looking out for Filge's own self interests.)
Garras entered into melee with a trip attempt, which failed, but in the next round dropped the rogue to -1 (who finally stabalized at -8), then tried to flank the bard. Kendra cast Doom (saved), then Bane (everyone saved), but didn't use the scroll of silence, because the minions were dropping like flies (but it wouldn't have mattered much... all of the casters were out of spells by that time).
A couple of rounds later, Theldrick emerged exclaiming "Why are these creatures still alive?! Kill them!" and summoned a creature to fight. He then cast bane (everyone saved), then Sound Burst (stunned the bard), then succeeded on a Hold Person against the sorceror (who had managed to kill Kendra), then entered melee when it was down to Garras, a cultist, the summoned creature (who missed every round), and himself.
When everyone was killed except for Theldrick, he dropped his weapon, fell to his knees and said, with a bit of a smirk "I surrender and throw myself at your mercy!" Everyone rolled a Sense Motive check, and figured that the smirk was due to the fact that as lawful and/or good characters he knew that they wouldn't kill him, eventhough Theldrick would if their places were switched.
So, after weeks of preparation for the big battle in Battle Temple (I even made card stock walls for the balcony, complete with stairs and all), my players never set foot into the temple itself until the battle was over.
In the end, the rogue had been dropped to negatives twice, and the bard and sorceror were down to 4 or 2 hp at one point. The cleric was roaming around throughout the battle casting heal spells as best she could, and nearly died herself.
They then dragged all of the bodies into the temple, and secured the temple. They bound and gagged Theldrick and took his holy symbol, the set about searching every nook and cranny.
The session ended as the party confronted the first two groups of grimlocks, and are standing at the edge of the cliff...
So, no TPK for me. Actually, not even a PC death, and they were all third level, but made fourth by the end of the battle. I imagine the rest of the adventure will go much smoother for them.
Go smoother in the future?
My PCs are stuck in the bottom level of the Grimlocks cave more than halfway dead, and no way to call for help.
Events turned poorly when one of their party members fell the 40 feet and survived only to be ambushed by an unscripted Dae Ta'Koti (Advanced Large Fiendish Viper). Now I'm wondering how I'm going to keep them alive.
Well, there is always the possibility of bad dice rolls that can make anything difficult... I once rolled a 1 on a DC 5 Reflex save :(
Thanks for the heads up on the cave... I hadn't really considered if anyone would fall, and I also thought about putting an extra baddie down there as well.
How did the rest of the encounter go? Did the two archers get in any good shots? Did anyone get stuck to the wall with the tanglefoot bags?
Oh, and thanks for reading my looong post. I really wanted to capture that combat... it was pretty cool to see.
Wow BigJake, I'm suprised nobody perished from the dire boar. Especially if it made a bull rush or charge.
Exactly how many cultists are there in room #3 (pgs. 24-25 of Dungeon #125) of the temple??
I couldn't find any exact numbers in the room description.
I used a highly scientific method to determine how many cultists were in the complex. I had five "thug" D&D Miniatures on hand, so there were five cultists :)
As for the boar not charging, honestly, I didn't count out each square of movement to determine if it could line up for a charge attack. I hadn't considered what would happen if the PCs didn't enter the Temple, and I didn't want to slow down the combat (which already took like 5 hours of game time), so I kinda eye-balled it. Since the two halls don't line up straight for a large creature to charge, I didn't think it would have movement enough to set up for a charge... probably a good thing for the players.
As it was, they just barely killed the boar as it was goaded into provoking attacks of opportunity from two PCs and Filge (who hadn't turned on the PCs yet).
I did notice another mistake that I made... Theldrick used hold person against the aasimar, who should have been immune. Ooops :(
Ah no worries BigJake. It probably wasn't as bad as when I threw an ogre at my PCs in their trek to Elmshire and back.
Well, I have 6 Cultist of the Dragon minis, giving the encounter a CR of 2. But we're still in Whispering Cairn, so hopefully I can find at least three more of those minis somewhere between now and the time I run 3FOE.
Exactly how many cultists are there in room #3 (pgs. 24-25 of Dungeon #125) of the temple??
I couldn't find any exact numbers in the room description.
Me neither, but there are 8 CR 1/3 skeletons in the room outside and that encounter is described as EL3. The cultists are also described as EL3 and CR1/3, so I am assuming 8 of them as well.
How did the rest of the encounter go? Did the two archers get in any good shots? Did anyone get stuck to the wall with the tanglefoot bags?
Four member party's descent into the lower cave went as follows:
Fighter fell 40' (got scared by the Krenshars), avoiding arrow shots. He survived only long enough to be finished off by the snake.
Barbarian jumped down 40' (sustaining less damage due to jump roll), avoiding arrow shots.
(Up to this point the PCs still have no idea about the snipers.)
Rouge featherfalls to the floor, and gets lit up by arrows on the way down and never saw the shooters. He hits the floor at -4.
Druid attempts an accelerated climb down, and although he sees the snipers, still gets shot full of holes. At least he's concious when he reaches bottom.
Now they are stuck at the bottom with knowledge that there are grimlock snipers using the cave complex in guerilla warfare like tactics against them. As you can see, I didn't use tanglefoots: the PCs were already really hurting. During this battel, the "sad music" was playing for at least two of the characters.
My party consists of:
Melinde (female human Pal 3)
Semet (male human Clr 3)
Shindar (male grey elf Wiz 3)
Leonan (male elf Scout 2)
Pallis (female half-elf Rgr 3)
Elzar (male half-elf Drd 3)
Korm (male human Bbn 3)
My party first entered the temple last night. To my surprise, they did surprisingly well, after a bit of bumbling actually getting into the mine (they almost avoided a fight with the guards but blew their cover while they took the time to disassemble the barrier and were found out). After using a web to block their escape, they ran down the tunnel and descended the elevator, however as a safety precaution only four of them descended at once: Korm, Pallis, Shindar, and Semet.
When they arrived in the cathedral, they claimed to be making a delivery of supplies and started trying to cast buff spells. One mage armour was cast before the druid came floating down with the ring of feather falling. This made the tieflings mighty suspicious and the fight broke out shortly after. One of them fetched the skeletons while the other bravely died for Hextor. The skeletons were destroyed by the cleric as the tiefling fled to join the other guards in area 4. Shindar used another web spell (from a wand he got in an encounter I added in) to entrap the cultists. They picked off the cultists one by one as the tieflings were trapped in their room by the web. They didn't even have torches to burn it. However, they used darkness and tried to pick off the PCs with arrows. Once the cultists were dead, Shindar dismissed the web and they trapped the tieflings in their room, eventually killing all of them.
Aside from forgetting to use the tieflings' potions (I always forget something), I think I played the NPCs realistically and intelligently. Despite this, my party completely fouled the temple's initial response plan and the rest of the temple is ripe for the picking! I was very impressed with my PCs, especially since the scout and paladin weren't even needed in the fight--they were stuck at the top of the shaft the whole time!
The thing is, they are now planning to "rest in the elevator" because they are low on spells. If they do this, not only will the guards from above be able to ambush them, but the tieflings from area 6 will discover the raid on the temple and organize an assault on them. This should be interesting. I can't wait to bring out the big guns--all those clerics casting spells on them while the tieflings fire arrows, the guards drop boiling oil from above, etc. Although the guards wouldn't be able to co-ordinate with the Hextorites, so I'd have to do it as two separate encounters.
Does anyone have any ideas for what the appropriate response would be from the temple of Hextor if the party does not press on? How about from the other temples? Might they emerge from their lairs now and then and find the PCs? What would the guards above do? (given that some of them are Hextorites).
My party consists of:
Aldrich (male dwarf Rgr 3)
Caliban (male elf Wiz 3)
Doc (male human Clr 3)
Jaden (male kalashtar Psi 3)
Sledge (male personality warforged Clr 2 / Pal 1)
Vallen (male dwarf Rog 2 / Ftr 1)
This is a very strong party using 32 point buy, action points, and up to 20 "circumstance bonus points" awarded each night for descriptive combat.
They steamrolled through the tiefling guards outside the elevator, turned the skeletons and wiped out the mook fanatics in no time. The Psion slimed the dire boar with entangling ectoplasm and they took him out with ranged weapons. We ended the session with a cliffhanger by having all of the party members in the battle chamber when the door slams shut and Theldrick emerges to welcome them. The fiendish ape is already summoned and waiting for them. (Theldrick is actually Jierian in my campaign; he has been manipulating the rogue sect of the Silver Flame into committing acts of the Mockery.)
I posted a pic of the room and setup online for the group to study and prepare for. They came up with a pretty decent plan for the first 6 rounds. I practiced the skirmish a few times and beat them easily, so I decided to pull some punches and not ready actions against the casters. When it came time to play the party had a very difficult time beating concealment on the darkness. Fortunately for them, the ape rolled horribly time and again, and was successfuly hit by a great ray of enfeeblement (-6 str). Jierian and Kendra used the first few rounds to buff Garras while Garras quaffed potion after potion. The trog zombies were turned by the cleric's disciple of the sun and quicken feats, killing them almost immediately. After the statue was knocked to the left balcony, Garras moved into position to attack. The warforged was wielding Todrick's guisarme and managed to get an AoO on the ledge before Garras could close. The AoO was an incredibly lucky double natural 20, dealing 34 damage and instantly killing the buffed fighter. Jierian/Theldrick blocked the balcony with Kendra around the corner to cast CLWs with her wand. Two rounds of failed defensive inflicts later the ranger bull rushed him so the forged could knock out the female cleric. Then the forged bull rushed the head cleric down 20 feet into the pit and followed him (aided by the feather fall ring). Now alone with only a few hp's left, Jierian/Theldrick warned the party that they did not know what they have done and then uses his kama (weapon of the Mockery) to end his own life. He will rise later and join Grellack and the Faceless One to enter the pool and create the Ebon Aspect.
They were able to rest for one night in the secure back areas. Balabar had told them that he makes supply runs every day to the other chambers, so if they rest for more than one day then there's a much greater risk that the other groups will become aware of their presense.
The grimlock cave was much more difficult for the group. I think the highest spot check in the group is +4, and the grimlocks ended up with 25+ on their hides. The first room was literally full of surprises, while the last grimlock went to warn the kennel master. He ordered the krenshars to hide, and when the party finally neared the ledge area none of them could spot the krenshars either! The two hiding grimlocks waited for someone in the party to leave an opening to the tunnel, and the krenshars were discovered before this happened. The krenshars got a free attack but I waited on their scare until the hole was covered. They rolled horrible inits, and only one survived their action. That was enough because the rogue ended up running away down the ledge. The two archers picked him off and almost killed him.
The scare wore off, the ledge and archers were cleared and the party had to decide to take the top tunnel or the bottom one. They chose top and ended up meeting the barbarian in the horseshoe cavern. Despite the barb strength, the forge managed to easily bull rush him off the cliff into the area below (I rolled a 3 and he rolled a 19). The barbarian retreated out of site into the lower tunnel. No one could see the grimlocks on the other side of the rope bridge, so forged with the feather fall ring decided to cross it slowly and alone. About half way through the grimlocks appeared and shook the bridge, easily causing the forged to fall. The barbarian then came out of the tunnel and dropped the forged. The ranger and rogue/fighter jumped down and were able to defeat him while the others wiped out the two on the bridge with ranged attacks. I didn't include the chokers yet, as it was getting late and we decided to rest.
From this area alone they've already used up 14 charges on the CLW wand.