So what have other people done with Filge?
The party I'm DMing has a paladin and when he came up to slice Filge to pieces Filge did as the text says and offered his surrender. The paladin held up his attack and began a conversation. They even go to the topic where Filge offers to go into the Dourstone mine with them.
Now the note in that section says Filge goes with the party to betray them later, but nothing in Three Faces of Evil mentions this so I guess its up to the DM.
Within my game (set in Eberron) I made Filge Karrnathi and a Blood of Vol worshiper. Now one of the character's fought in the Last War and hates Karrnathi (for background reasons... well written by the way) so he's been mumbling about how Filge is going to betray them and seems to be barely holding back the urge to murder. The Paladin is of the Host and has thus a distinct dislike of the Blood of Vol, plus there's a Cleric of the Host who's not all that excited about the guy.
I began with thinking about how Filge would betray the group when it dawned on me that maybe he shouldn't. I mean the things that really excite you in a good movie, book, tv show, etc. are the things you never expected. Maybe Filge should become a reoccurring plot device???
I'm thinking that since he was already researching the spawn of Kyuss for Smenk that maybe he slowly becomes a researcher/expert on the Kyuss myth who the character might run into from time to time. He also might have some other motives that ultimately clash with the PC's but he wouldn't actively betray them. I'd like to walk a fine line between "Is he good or is he bad???" "Is he useful or is he an enemy?"
In my party's Three Faces of Evil Filge actually ended up playing a major role in the battle against the Mockerites (Hextor). Generally he hudled in a corner but when needed he came through. He ghoul touched a Teifling who was about to kill a character allowing for a Coupe de Gra (sp??), ray of enfeebled and touch of fatigued Garras who'd buffed up to a 20 Str (knocked down to 11) and used his animate dead scroll to raise up some skeletons and commoner zombies to hold off the enemy while the party regrouped for a couple rounds.
Now their singing a different song, but still wary. I'm debating what to do with Filge and thought I'd see how he played out in other campaigns.
Thanks,
Shade325
P.S. - If your group simply killed him I guess their's not much to say.
Well, my group first put him to negative hp, then made him stable. But after the Zombies were defeated our catfolk spellthief decided to kill Filge. Our elf fighter tried to grapple him in order to prevent this but failed his check.
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Bravo for bucking players' expectations- walking that fine line gives you a great plot device that can help (or hinder) the party according to your whims, and they certainly won't come to rely on an individual they barely trust. He's the unasked-for cavalry when the fights vs. Kyuss's cultists get too brutal, but who knows what he'll do when the Age of Worms comes? :)
Good luck and congrats
My PCs knocked Filge into the negatives, then stablized him. I think they learned it's sometimes better to question NPCs rather than kill them--they learned this the hard way when they coup-de-graced Kullen & Co (the only PCs who remembered they needed to ask about the Land skeletons were both unconscious).
They've since turned Filge in to the garrison, & are contemplating whether to confront Smenk or just head into Dourstone mine w/o speaking to him.
What I think I'll do is have Natalo Bask (from AoWO) get Sheriff Cubbin to arrest the PCs for the murders of his brother (Merovinn) & Kullen & co. Smenk of course is behind this--he's pissed about his lackeys being slain, as well as the whole Filge situation. To top it off, Filge will be tranported to the jail & placed in a cell with the PCs, much to their annoyance.
A few hours after their arrest, someone will go the PCs' bail--they'll think it's Allustan at first, & they'll receive a note to meet their benefactor for dinner at the Hungry Gar. Turns out, it'll be Smenk--he makes a deal with them--he'll get the witnesses to the PCs' crimes to recant in return for keeping his involvement with the Ebon Triad secret. This way, he brings down the Ebon Triad in DL, gets an opportunity to snatch Dourstone's holdings, & keeps his nose clean.
Hell, I may even have him secure Filge's release & have him join them in the mine--they need the help, after all. The paladin won't be too happy about it, though.
My group beat him down and then questioned him. When they got all the info they wanted out of him they told him to leave town and never come back. Granted they entered the observatory from the top, so they made the deal before seeing all the sick things he had in his little tower. They were starting to second guess their decision when he lead them out past his dining table.
My players made the most naive error. They had Filge cornered and all his creations distroyed. When he offered to surrender they accepted and questioned him. At this point he offered to assist them in learning more about the Ebon Triad and they agreed easily. He asked if they could give him a few days to prepare some potions to bring along and they though this was a grat idea. The party left him with all his equipment in the observitory and headed back to the mine office to rest and heal. Filge, realizing that he was no match for the group alone, ran to Smenk to give a full report then left town pausing only to gather up his valuables that he had convinced the players he needed to make the potions. Needless to say, they were shocked to find their "ally" had split with all his stuff.
Interestingly enough, I used Filge tonight in our first Hall of Harsh Reflections session. He was the plot hook to go to the free city!
After WC our warforged paladin of the Silver Flame placed him in an exorcism cell in the Church dungeon. During a private interrogation the party zone of truth'd him into confessing to murders in Sharn (the zombies at the dinner table). Smenk was sheltering Filge in Diamond Lake. The Governor-Mayor is in charge of administering justice in Diamond Lake. Between a few detect evils around the court house and some gather info checks, the paladin concluded that Neff would not bring Filge to justice due to bribes from Smenk, so he sent a note to the cathedral in Sharn asking for help. A cardinal replied with a summons for the paladin to appear in person with the necromancer.
Filge almost didn't survive the journey to Blackwall Keep and on the road to Sharn, but he finally arrived tonight in one piece. What the paladin doesn't know is that the Church is only interested in Filge for the reward money on his head. Is 10,000 gold for the murder of an ir'Tain apprentice enough for a nice party moral dilemma?
If I planned a little better I would have done a little more with Filge. You could alter the events in WC by kicking off the campaign with dreams about Alastor Land. The dreams could lead the party to Land Manor, then Kullen then Filge. After obtaining the bones and laying them to rest Alastor the Ghost would lead the players to the WC. The dreams were caused when Filge disturbed the Land bones, so in a sense he would be responsible for eventually preventing the Age of Worms.
Filge was killed as our group targetted him first until he was knocked unconscious...the battle with undeads took however so long that there was no time for stabilization.
My group hasn't encountered Filge yet. I am running this as a Gestalt campaign, and have turned Filge into a Necromancer/Warlock 3. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.
So what have other people done with Filge?
Watched him die.
My group is very aggressive and trigger-happy. The only reason they got information from Alastor was because I bludgeoned them with not-so-subtle hints that they should let him have his say.
Jack
My PCs fought him to negatives, almost let him bleed to death while fighting his other undead, and then stablized him at the last moment. They questioned him once he woke up and got a lot of good information out of him. Finally, they turned him loose, minus his spellbook and other items, kicked him in the butt and told him to get out of town, and the nset fire to the observatory. Filge fled to Smenk and told him the story of what had happened, and a rather irked Smenk got Filge back to the Free City. I'm sincerely pondering having Filge show up in the Free City as a recurrant villainous type.
As with all good posts, I can't find the one I'm looking for. However, a post somewhere on these boards suggested replacing Allustan with Filge, and that's exactly what I intend to do.
I'm running an Eberron campaign--AoW is my first time running Eberron. I made the critical mistake of rolling a random encounter when my players travelled from the abandoned mine office back to Diamond Lake at 2 AM right before WC. I rolled 2 wererats, and didn't even think about lycanthropes in Eberron. I didn't realize my mistake until after the encounter started.
Remembering Monte Cook's "Never let them see you sweat" addage, I played it off like it was very significant that the players were fighting lycanthropes in Eberron. I racked my brain to try to figure out why, and then I got it:
In my AoW, Filge is a shifter, and he feels impure about it. This explains the angel statue--he wants to be wholly human. Filge turned to necromantic studies in order to preform experiments on undead, trying to make them were-creatures and then curing them. He had no success, and it was this sort of behavior that got him ejected from Morgrave, where he studied under the same tutors that Allustan did.
Filge had a relationship with Smenk, who offered to put him up in Diamond Lake. Smenk sweetened the deal by providing two prisoners who were set to be executed so Filge would have live subjects to try his "purification magic" on. He injected them with lycanthrope blood and began his tests--but they escaped. Thus, the two wererats the players fought.
That's part 1, how the wererats got there. But I like Filge too much to let him be killed off, and Allustan is just too darn trite. So, part II:
Before WC, I ran an adventure in Diamond Lake, to give the players a feel for it. Two of them got arrested. Allustan sprung them, but he had to call on Smenk for help, and now owes Smenk a favor. Between this, and the fact that my Allustan is more desperate to find out the truth of the AoW endgame than anything else, Allustan will ultimately betray the players.
And Filge, who believes undead should serve people and not the other way around, will become the player's ally. Sometime after 3FoE, Filge will replace Allustan in most of the further adventures. Of course, Allustan will remain, always trying to get the upper hand over the players.
I am having to modify Filge to be a shifter, and to replace Allustan (higher intelligence & knowledge skills). If anyone is interested, I'll post my Filge. I'm intending to have Filge grow in levels so he remains ahead of the players until the point where Allustan and the party are supposed to part ways.
So what have other people done with Filge?
Well, in my campaign, Filge was captured by the PCs and turned over to authorities outside of town. He was put on trial and sentenced to prison. He currently is a madman (having experienced Kyuss up close and personal) and often supplies the PCs information from behind a closed cell door. Think "Red Dragon" or "Silence of the Lambs" and you'll get the picture.
My group finally ran into Filge. Like I mentioned earlier we are playing in a Gestalt campaign and Filge was a Necromancer/Warlock. He had a little bit of time to prepair as the Half-Orc in the group wanted to grab the platinum piece on the tongue of the mummified womans head down below. Everyone told him no, and then the Paladin of the group takes his sword and swats the platium piece off the tongue, well that trigured the alarm. So Filge cast Mage Armor on himself and then waited to see what would happen.
My group runs up the stairs, Filge releases his zombies and a fight breaks out. The Rogue in the group decides to run after Filge. Filge releases a swarm of bats on her and one of the zombies was chasing her. That didn't stop her. She did everything she could to get a sneak attack off "Lots of Tumbling". In the end he was nearly dead, and there were still 3 zombies up. He surrenders, "or pretended too" and injects himself with a cure potion. He walks away and is telling the group various bits of information, and then turns and uses his eldritch blast on the paladin, by this time the paladin had determined that Filge was Evil - and was making his way toward over to him to attack anyways.
Needless to say they got a little info out of him, but not everything before he was killed.
Am I the only one whose PC's got beat down by Filge? It could have easily been a TPK if I hadn't let up a little, and it did end up with two dead. A lot of it was their fault - they hadn't healed up totally from their previous encounter.
Anyway, it took them two tries to get rid of him. They got their info from him and sent him packing. I expect he'll resurface in Waterdeep.
My PC's rested after the fight with Kullen and his gang. So the next day they were full of mana and HP. They only had to fight 3 skeletons before his encounter. If my group had not rested before assaulting Filge it may have been a bit worse for them.
My group just ended their "Filge" session. I'm a little stuck with what to do too (thought the suggestions on this thread are rich fodder). Here's what happened:
The PC's snuck into the observatory from the window to Filge's bedroom on the second floor. The Party went upstairs as a group and weren't very quite about it so Filge was ready for them. Confronted with the Scene in front of them the PC's did the reasonable and attacked. It was a great battle but I'll skip the details to say that the PC's had their dice mojo working for them on their saving throws. As a result, nobody had been harmed directly by Filge. This made them much more receptive to accepting his surrender after defeating the zombie horde. The PC's agreed to spare his life as long as he coughed up the details and got out of town.
They were escorting Filge downstairs when I remembered that Filge still had 12 or so zombie "dinner guests" as well as the skeletons guarding the front door. I had Filge demand to have spellbook and research papers back (the PCs were going to destroy them). The PCs took this as a betrayal and combat erupted again. This time Filge just released the zombies and ran. With over a dozen undead to deter and delay them Filge made a clean getaway.
Needless to say Filge is primed as a recurring character. I haven't decided what to do yet but I'm enjoying this thread immensly as a source for inspiration.
Cheers,
C.
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The PCs had tried to confront Kullen and his gang in a public forum dropping numerous hints about "owlbears" during a wrestling match between the warrior PC and Kullen. Kullen won, barely, and he and his gang vanished into the back rooms of the Feral Dog and laid low as per Smenk's orders ("Lads, you screwed up! Any dodderhead could follow wheelbarrow tracks to town and you didn't bother to heal up properly before indulging in the firewater!"). So it took a day of game time for the PCs to gather the rumours of the new tennant in the observatory and figure that's where the skeletons went. That evening during a steady rain they hoisted the rogue up to look in the windows, seeing the angelic statue, tuxedoed midget and severed head which was enough to rationalize they're dealing with a nut case. The cleric cast detect undead which rooted out the three skeletons which made their poison bolts moot after turning and destroying them. The macabre dinner was destroyed as well, making the effectiveness of the Extra Turning and Disciple of the Sun feats very clear to me. When the PCs cautiously reached Filge's bedroom, they could hear him singing "The Worms Crawl In, The Worms Crawl Out" upstairs as he worked on his blue-skinned subject. This provided ample cover noise to get people into position to spring an attack on him, with the rogue waiting for the sound of Filge sawing to be the attack cue. Unfortunately Filge began to admire his work ("Ah yes, aren't you a most beautiful blue corpse? Yes, Daddy is very proud of you. ::kissy sounds::") which induced oogy feelings for everyone at the table and was all they needed to spring their attack. In typical fashion, I cannot roll a decent initiative roll to save a villain and after some very effective turnings (goodbye two trogdolytes and the bugbear zombie, oh, and the skeleton), Filge was flanked and eliminated before a syringe could be brought to bear for anyone. So the most satisfying bit of the Filge encounter for me was getting "The Worms Crawl In, The Worms Crawl Out" stuck in all my players' heads.
My PCs confronted Filge and then beat him to submission after a near TPK battle that all enjoyed. I had Filge gladly "sing" his song in exchange for his life. The PCs asked questions that covered about 75% of the material offered in there. What they did next was surprising (and where we ended the session). They decided to pay Filge 100gp to make sure that any research that he did was told to them first, before he reported anything to Smenk... the 100gp was an attempt to get him to stop using undead as "assistants" and instead hire a couple of living assistants... He gladly made the deal and told them to "come back in a week... (he) should have more answers by then..."
So now I'm thinking that Filge is going to split back to Greyhawk. It will allow me an opportunity to bring him back. It'll be fun for them to bump into an old "friend".
We very nearly completed our Filge session last weekend. Previously, my players did a masterful job of confronting and defeating Kullen & Co. at the Feral Dog. They planned their "assult" on the gang out to the last detail with plenty of back-up plans should things head south on them.
First, They broke up into groups, placed themselves in the barroom ahead of Kullen and his gang. The female players tried seduction on him first (failed), the priest attempted diplomacy (failed), they waited for Todrek to use the loo and corner him alone (failed), the rogue attempted a well-planned bluff (failed) and finally resorted to flat-out intimidation (failed).
The best-barroom-brawl-ever broke out at that point. Kullen had no idea who he was fighting at any time during the fight as the party had succeeded in appearing dissasociated with each other. Fisticuffs, sheild bashes, bullrushes, trips, subdual damage and restraint/weakening spells flew from all corners of the bar while innocent patrons fought hard to get out of the way. In short order the gang was wrapped up (truly a thing of beauty).
The party got their info and calmly left, only to be confronted oustide by first the proprieter, then Guv'nor Neff and finally Cubbins. Again - wonderfully played - no arrests, no trouble.
At that very moment we allowed another player to join - bringing the total number of players of my group up to a mind-numbing eight! (Geesh - Eight really Is Enough.) The new player rolls up a first level half-orc barbarian. I have to figure out a way to introduce this new character (and quickly). So, Kullen steps out of the Feral Dog, greets the party semi-corgially and agrees to help them out if they will in-turn spring him from his life of servitude with his master (Smenk). I know, I know - this move clobbered Kullen's official stats block and took away the opportunity for a really good reoccuring villain, but, hey - this is my campaign.
After a night of rest and further planning, the players marched up the hill to tackle Filge and the observatory. No sneaking in windows for this group - no ma'am! Right through the front door is how this party operates - except they started with the tool shed. With 8 characters, I basically doubled the encounters from here on out (more on that later). So the (now) two little tiny undead spirit-mote things in the tool shed were first - and an amazingly difficult combat ensued. For some reason, my party decided it was best to fight the motes IN THE SHED! Hmmm..perhaps they needed more coffee - no idea. So, only one medium or two small characters could battle in the shed at any one time. Others just stood outside and occasionally tried to throw spells.
The Land family skellies in room #1 were next - a nice turning roll by the cleric finished off the battle in one round.
Exploration of the observatory was a lot of fun - I ad-libed a whole lot of dungeon dressing to add suspense and strangeness (each bedroom was unique, rooms and hallways were painted with astronomical, astrological and then necromantic motifs to reflect the different uses of this structure over the years, etc.
The dinner party was a bust as the characters decapitated the zombies and no one would dare sit in Filge's seat so I didn't get to run the dead-dialogue (sniff).
Party was quite loud while exploring Filge's room and they took a long time. Filge heard them, prepared for them, and then finally just called them up to his operating theater for "a little chat" - the party obliged.
I ran this encounter with 6 trog zombies and 2 bugbears, plus Gertia and Filge - I shouldn't have. That was a slight bit too much for them. The ensuing combat lasted 14 rounds. The monk Tumbled through the room to reach Filge and managed to harass him for most of the combat - but never managed to harm him much. Our two fighters and our new half-orc barbarian wedged themselves into a corner in front of the stairs so as to keep from getting flanked and to bottle-neck the zombies as much as possible (3 of the zombies went after the monk but were far too slow for him - so just managed to chase him around Filge most of the time). The cleric tried turning twice and only managed to defeat Gertia, then went to Bless and buffing spells, before spending the rest of the combat running around trying to keep the party alive. The illusionist, druid and rogue spent most of the time dealing with Filge from a distance.
Filge was tough! He hung in there until just about the end! He eventually got rid of the monk with Scare and kept the others at bay with his Spectral Hand and range-touch attack spells - he got pasted by the party's only tanglefoot bag but managed to make his DC check for all but one spell.
In the end, the zombies flat-out killed both fighters and dropped the rogue and barbarian into the negatives. The zombies were finally defeated by run-shoot tactics which the party agreed they should have adopted at the beginning of the battle. Filge is currently down and presumed dead (actually stabilized at -6hps).
Now, here's the really interesting part. The party is only concerned with identifying and returning the Land family skellies back to their graves. The note from Smenk, the green worm in the jar, the hints about the Ebon Triad and the Age of Worms had no apparent affect on the party - they are only concerned with the goal at hand and don't seem to care about looming danger. They haven't shown any interest in questioning Filge, they don't feel sorry for him one bit, they would have been glad to have him tossed into jail had he been able to surrender.
Hmmmm....interesting predicament for me. We'll just have to see what they end up doing next time. We left with Filge at their feet and they think he's dead.
At any rate - it was an awesome night of adventuring and the players thoroughly enjoyed it (well - except for the two dead fighters - well, 6 is MUCH better than 8.)
Cheers.
My party's bard managed to sweet talk Kullen into revealing Filge's location (though he got slapped around by the brute in a later chance encounter during 3FOE at the Dog, due to his failure to bring "that bastard's eyeballs," and only escaped with a well-timed Tasha's Hideous Laughter).
They too chose to surprise Filge by coming in the second floor window from the roof, and tipped him off when the paladin fell on the floor trying to get through the window. The ensuing combat was tough, but the Elf ranger/cleric of Ehlonna got good turn rolls, neutralizing some of the undead, and the Dwarf wizard flushed Filge from his cover spot behind one of the tanks with some smart maneuvering and a demonstration of his offensive firepower. As Filge tried to get across the operating theatre to where his remaining zombies could protect him, the paladin jumped all over him, hacking off his arm and dropping him to -9 hp. The elf cleric made a flying dive across the operating table to administer cure minor wounds and save him for interrogation.
So the party revived and grilled him (after discovering all the incriminating evidence on his desk), and extracted most of his secrets. They had already come to the conclusion that the Diamond Lake justice system was so corrupt that they might find themselves up on charges if they handed him over to the sherriff, and, with a paladin and a CG cleric couldn't very well summarily execute Filge without a proper trial by the proper authorities. Rather than trying to lock him up in the basement of the mine office, they decided to turn him loose, sans gear and spellbooks, with a threat to kill him if they ever found him in Diamond Lake again. (Our paladin puts up with some borderline behaviors once in a while, but he's a good guy at heart).
So now Filge is in the Free City, grubby, penniless, missing a hand, and bearing a huge grudge against the party. It doesn't seem realistic to bring him back as a more powerful recurring villain, so I think I'm going to have him hook up with Loris Raknian somehow (perhaps Loris gets a tip about a slimy beggar just in from Diamond Lake from his Thieves' Guild contacts--Filge is certain to visit his old cronies looking for a handout, and Raknian has sent out feelers looking for news from Diamond Lake . . .) Since no one in the Free City can recognize the party, Loris sends him to Zyrxog, who stations him by the city gate to point them out to Ixiaxian & co. when they arrive.
Actually, Filge might make a very interesting agent for Zyrxog . . .
So now Filge is in the Free City, grubby, penniless, missing a hand, and bearing a huge grudge against the party. It doesn't seem realistic to bring him back as a more powerful recurring villain, so I think I'm going to have him hook up with...
Not so fast there Peruhain... If he's hooked up with Zyrxog, there's all kinds of possibilties for bringing him back bigger and badder than before. Mind Flayers have been known to experiment with grafting the flesh of two types of creatures. Bring him back with a new and improved hand--a choker's tentacled hand seems appropriate, but a hulking demomic arm or even a necrotic zombie oe skeletal arm would be nice too!
Mind Flayers have been known to experiment with grafting the flesh of two types of creatures. Bring him back with a new and improved hand--a choker's tentacled hand seems appropriate, but a hulking demomic arm or even a necrotic zombie oe skeletal arm would be nice too!
Yeah I remember some agent in Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil having one demonic arm, I've always wanted to do that.
I might get my chance as my players are in much the same situation. Filge has told them everything he knows for promise of his freedom (what a coward! love it!). However some of the party feels he still needs to be punished. The priestess of Wee Jas in the group wants to kill him outright. However one party member suggested cutting off a hand as punishment for all the zombie bodies they found in the dining room.
I'll see how it goes.
hints about the Ebon Triad and the Age of Worms had no apparent affect on the party - they are only concerned with the goal at hand and don't seem to care about looming danger.
After reading the AoW Overload and planning for my game I felt I should prepare for this condition as well. The group I am running does not have a Paladin or otherwise holy crusade type, mainly thugs and outcasts. To get them involved in the "main story" I constantly gave them hints throughout the Whispering Cairn and used the DM’s favorite "restless dreams" about a doomed AoW. The few in the group that actively worshiped a deity had visions from their god about this apocalypse so that when Filge started talking about the Ebon Triad all the players could contribute their puzzle piece to put it all together. They were then invested in the story line.
Yeah I remember some agent in Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil having one demonic arm, I've always wanted to do that.
Yeah, there was a machine that would pull a character in , grind them up and spit them back out with a random demonic appendage (my favorite was the imp grafted to the charcater's shoulder whispering evil things to them constantly), our group's paladin wound up with a hulking demon arm. That's what made me think of it!
My group didn't fare so well, or should I say, didn't do what I expected. They followed Kullen home after he left the Feral Dog and found out where Filge was. They entered the observatory the next morning via the front door, killing everything along the way except the zombie dinner guests. I was so disappointed when they didn't activate that scene. The cleric tried to grab the platinum piece on the tongue of the severed head and set off the alarm. Melee ensued and spells and undead went a flying. Filge was brought low by the paladin's blade (I was impressed how long he lasted against a melee PC) and was brought to -4. The party began to fight the undead at this point and killed them all while Filge bled out and died. So once again, I didn't get a chance to use any of Filge's info except the letter they found from Smenk. However, I am planning on blackmailing them like crazy with Smenk. Mwahahaha.
So now Filge is in the Free City, grubby, penniless, missing a hand, and bearing a huge grudge against the party. It doesn't seem realistic to bring him back as a more powerful recurring villain, so I think I'm going to have him hook up with...Not so fast there Peruhain... If he's hooked up with Zyrxog, there's all kinds of possibilties for bringing him back bigger and badder than before. Mind Flayers have been known to experiment with grafting the flesh of two types of creatures. Bring him back with a new and improved hand--a choker's tentacled hand seems appropriate, but a hulking demomic arm or even a necrotic zombie oe skeletal arm would be nice too!
Thanks for the idea--I'm sure I should have thought of it, having just purchased and looked through the Fiend Folio a few months back. Heh heh heh. No good deed goes unpunished, as we used to say in the Navy!
I just ran three people through the observatory and was a little surprised. My players have a major habit of kicking down doors, so Filge knew they were coming for a long time.
They walk up the stairs, talk to Filge a bit, then he attacks. He summons his big bad undead monsters, runs away, and injects himself with false life. The goliath barbarian and Tiefling Warmage tear apart a troglodyte zombie. The barbarian gets whacked in the head with a twisted steel club for 20+ damage. Then the Elf Rogue goes.
This elf had recently procured a couple bottles of wine after sitting down for a very eventful dinner. When he sees Filge, he downs one bottle and throws it. The bottle shatters about 3 inches before it reaches Filge's head. Then the rogue downs the other bottle, and being particularly drunk now, somehow manages to throw the bottle with the strength of a god. "Wait, was that a 20?" The bottle sails across the room, goes between the iron bars on the undead vat, and smashes Filge's nose in. Seeing Filge practically fall down on the skeleton, the warmage fired off some magic missiles to know Filge out.
Now, Filge is pretty much a slave to the group. It will be interesting to see what happens in the tomb of Zosiel. Especially since there's a big gaping hole. >:)
My group managed to seperate one of Kullen's gang from the group and lead him (drunk) home through the streets where they questioned him. They found out about Filge and decided to go there immediately (it was night time).
Two of them snuck through the bedroom window on the second floor and went up the stairs to the lab. Though they are excellent at hiding and moving silently, they weren't good enough, and Filge noticed them. He yelled for the skeleton to attack, and they bolted. The whole group ran down the hill to figure out their next move while above them all the lights in teh observatory started going out. Filge was preparing for them.
They decided they needed to go back in immediately so he couldn't get away, and went back in via the bedroom windows. Up the stairs they found him waiting. As the dwarf's head (first in marching order) appeared above the lip of the stairs, he was shot with a crossbow bolt from the skellie, and battle was joined. They chased Filge around the room as he fired off spells and the undead tried to block them (a couple of the party almost got pounded into the floor). Filge jumped down the stairs to escape, twisting his ankle, and the rouge and the wizard caught up to him.
He surrendered and told them everything when they threatened to turn him over to the Cult of Wee Jas for his indiscretions with the dead. It was decided to take him to the garrison where they handed him over to Skunt.
The next morning they returned to give their testimony to Lt. Mikkela Venderin. She was shocked to hear about the cultists under the Dourstone mine and thanked the party.
The problem I was faced with was, if the militia knows about the cult, why wouldn't they go in after them? Why would they need the party? So, when the party gets back from the Whispering Cairn they will find out that Filge killed Lt. Venderinin battle while escaping. This isn't the truth though, the truth is that Skunt is a cultist (Hextorite). He killed Lt. Venderin and stole her notes from the PCs to cover it up. he had Filge spirited away (to return later).
The PCs will be looking over their shoulders, and with no proof about the cult to give the Captain of the militia, it will be up to them to stop the cult.
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Well, we finished last session just before the Filge encounter. My players managed to not make too much noise so he is unaware of their approach. The only significant change I made was to change Filge into a dread necromancer.
I'm somewhat concerned as to what kind of repercussions, if any, there should be if my players attack him. I'm expecting my players to be a little gung-ho and attack him, even if he hasn't really done anything wrong other than animate a few corpes (although according to the Greyhawk Criminal Code, tomb robbing is considered a major crime). After all, they're the ones breaking into his home. Not to mention that my players killed Merovinn Bask last session after Kullen and his gang tried to rough up the druid/rogue.
My PCs came in through the upper windows and had a fairly easy time with Filge, taking him alive. They questioned him at some length and then wondered what to do with him. To my complete surprise, they ended up marching out to the Cairn of the Green Lady and giving him to Amaris as a ... present? Obligation? Amaris does not like grave robbers, so the next time they saw Filge, he was an empty-eyed guardian they assumed was undead.
Pleased by this outcome, the PCs started using Amaris as their bigtime prisoner disposal unit, which seemed weird to me. They showed up on her doorstep a week or two later with practically every living soul from the Triad temple!
This led to some cool plot threads, including the "cure" of one of the mad Vecnan acolytes who became the apprentice of the party wizard. It has turned out that Vecna is not done with her yet; she has interesting dreams....
I expect there will be a showdown at the Cairn of the Green Lady some time in my campaign's future. The warlock is working toward her own ascension and Amaris has things she needs. So we may see Filge again in that scene.
Mary
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To bump this a little:
I wanted to make a separate Filge thread, but thought perhaps it would be best just to add onto this one.
My group just dealt with Filge...mostly.
They made short work of the undead, and if it wasnt for all his healing/temp hps he would have gone down in the first hit. Actually, the pcs got initiative on him, and the fighter, instead of attacking for a min 15 dmg (taking all of his HP's away), decided to grapple him(thank god).
For some reason, the fighter, even buffed to STR 22, failed a few opposed grapple, and Filge was able to do some stuff (inject false life, cast mage armor, etc).
It was like a Benny Hill scene; the PCs were chasing Filge all the way around his top floor, until they finally took him out with a well placed arrow.
They have him conscious, bound, and have milked some info from him.
The party feels a bit of loathing for his desecration of the undead, but are also big time pitying the guy as a loner. They did promise Kullen his eyes, but have not decided what to do yet. Filge has offered to help them in the dourstone mine (betraying them at a later time), though they havent decided one way or the other.
I have a couple questions here:
Because Filge is helpless, is their outright slaughter of him (if they choose to just kill him) considered an Evil act?
None of the PCs are lawful, so turning him into authority is not high on their agenda.
Where did your PCs go from here, and what came of it?
Thanks!
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Welcome to Paizo, Xdahnx! Your first post, too!
I began with thinking about how Filge would betray the group when it dawned on me that maybe he shouldn't. I mean the things that really excite you in a good movie, book, tv show, etc. are the things you never expected. Maybe Filge should become a reoccurring plot device??? I'm thinking that since he was already researching the spawn of Kyuss for Smenk that maybe he slowly becomes a researcher/expert on the Kyuss myth...
I agree; I'm half-considering running AoW, but am wary of the fact that, in the few bits I've subconsciously taken in, they seem to imply that there's a lot of instances where the PCs are sent hither and thither by a wizardly mentor. This can be OK for some groups, who just want to get to the next fight, and the next XPs, but can stretch some players' patience and credibility.
The obvious questions I expect, are "Why doesn't he do these jobs himself?"; "Why us?"; "Haven't we helped him enough?"; "What do we owe him?", etc.
There are many players who really object to anything they infer as 'railroading', who will do their utmost to do the opposite of what they think the DM expects, just to prove a point or test if this is the case.
Other players (maybe with good reason) are paranoid of being caught out by 'the Evil Mentor DM trick', possibly from prior experience under other DMs.
Since both these situations result in a LOT of wasted game-time, while every player covers his rear, I think it best (for reassuring the players, and to inject some freshness) to have plot hooks, clues and Kyuss-lore to come from as many different sources as possible.
That way, the players are less likely to suspect they are being lied to, it doesn't derail the plot if they fail to empathise with a specific NPC, and it allows the party to follow separate leads, so as not to have one person do all the talking, in a solo session.
Having Filge be a source of future info also makes the players feel they have 'earned' it, through their smart play. The fact that it's info you were going to read out of a box anyway is irrelevant...
Filge got a critical before he could spill his beans, beheading him to the point of no return.
Maybe the party'll be able to ask their questions through the Cult (speak with dead) but that'll cost them. The letters on his desk give all necessary info though to put them on track.
So far, Filge has been a recurring pain in the behind -- who always manages to sneak out the back or slip through the PCs grasp somehow.
Something tells me that after his most recent act of betrayal, though, he'll be hard pressed to escape with his head.
But you never know ...
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Sorry for the double-postiness, I guess it's really been a while since I've posted here, and for some reason I thought you could edit your own posts. (and now I've said the word "post" about a thousand times. Post post post!)
Anyway, when our intrepid adventurers discovered the empty graves at the Land estate, we were like, "You have GOT to be freakin' kidding me!" Fern and Talinwere adamant about at least getting Alastor back into his promised resting place, and stayed behind to bury his remains, while the boys went back to town to get some answers. Thomas and Sorin wound up at the Feral Dog, where their bravado and lack of manners did not actually seem that out of place, and made a deal with Kullen to bring back the eyes of the necromancer Filge, a fate Thomas felt was deserved because necromancy was his banned school and therefore inherently evil, and was acceptable to Sorin because he took great pleasure in hurting people. By this time, the girls had made it back to town and had begun asking around, but their companions proudly informed them that they had the required information. They did NOT, however, share the little detail about the eyes...
As the group headed out to the observatory, they came across a resident of the Bronzewood Lodge, Croidhamsa, a druid sent out by his master to investigate strange undead sightings in the area. Thinking their missions might be related, they joined up.
The ensuing explorations of Filge's tower had a definite air of escalating hilarity, though it must have seemed decidedly less so to the characters. The tomb mote in the toolshed latched onto Sorin's face and remained there for the entirety of the fight, Sorin running around and cursing (though quite muffled by the undead facehugger), and Thomas swinging wildly at it with his staff, until finally swatting it away like some macabre softball. Meanwhile, Talin was testing her lockpicking skills against the front door, and was rewarded with a crossbow bolt that impacted with such force, it sent her flying backwards into Croi's arms. When the pair was joined by the rest of the group, the fight went much more smoothly, though there was some consternation regarding the battered state of the Land family remains. Thomas marched through, undaunted, opening all doors he came to, heedless of possible danger on the other side. He even employed the wand of unseen servant to more expediently complete this task. The group came to a shocked standstill, though, at the dinner table. After a moment's hesitation, our headstrong wizard took a seat at the head of the table, triggering the Filge-centric praisefest from the zombies, and prompting a substantial portion of the party to make certain assumptions about what other heinous acts might be perpetrated by the kind of person that keeps his ex as a zombie. Talin managed to keep the group from touching anything else that could possibly be horridly detrimental to the party, including the head on a platter. You might be wondering how all of this could have gone unnoticed by both necromancer and familiar, but Filge kept rolling abysmally low on his Listen checks, and the owl had nipped off for a quick, mousy snack.
When the group got upstairs, Filge was singing a song in Infernal (I like to think it was a rock ballad of some sort), and continued to not notice us. When the fight finally broke out, the music that should have been playing was "Tubthumper," because he got knocked down, he got back up again, lather, rinse, repeat, thanks to those lovely syringes of his. One of the earlier posts in this thread made me laugh in wonderment, because of the similarity. When Sorin went to collect the eyes from his (finally) fallen foe, Talin freaked out and tried to stop him, because you know it's always a good idea for a human teenage girl to grapple with a raging half-orc. She recovered from being flung into a wall, but not in enough time to save Filge's left eye from being popped out of his skull. Seeing that Sorin wasn't stopping, she grimaced, then flung herself over the prone and scrawny form, pumping in the first CLW she ever used. Arguing that the group could use his information, she was able to get them to spare his life, though they kept him tied to a chair at the hapless Allustan's house for several days, torturing him psychologically and generally committing arbitrary acts of cruelty, mostly perpetrated by Thomas and Sorin. Croi just wanted to kill him, Fern wanted to turn him over to the guards, and Talin...brought him soup. Fern was finally able to "negotiate" with Smenk over a game of dragonchess into accepting Filge's return in exchange for not pressing any charges against the group. Filge returned to the Observatory, where he was visited individually by each member of the party, multiple times a day, to make sure he wasn't harboring any more undead, or doing anything sneaky, but still continuing to research...
The party is currently in the HoHR, and Filge has gone with them on every adventure since then, for reasons yet to be shared with the group at large.
The combat with Filge went as must as expected. The party knocked him out, however, though their barbarian was KO'd at the same time.
On the way out, Kullen and his gang was waiting for them. They really wanted to pay Filge back for how they were treated. So, Kullen gave them a choice---give them Filge and live, or they'll take him from their corpses. Down hp, spells, and their big fighter, they acquiesced. Needless to say, Filge was eventually killed.
But our story does not end there.
Smenk was able to retrieve the body and sent it be buried in honor of his old friend. However, what was unexpected was that, due to Filge's exposure to the worm, he came back---wrong. Filge became a Kyuss-tainted worm-that-walks (modified for much lower level). As the PCs did TFoE and EaBWK, Filge was trying to figure out what happened to him. And he wanted revenge. He killed Kullen's gang, drove Kullen mad, and stole the corpse of the PC's barbarian (who died in TFoE).
The PCs discover this, and try to find the (unknown to them) wormy Filge. In the meantime, filge is trying to do more research on Kyuss. He finds our tentacled friend from HoHR and kills him, taking over his 'operation' while doing more research. Thus, the party eventually encounters Filge. Surprised he's alive (he's in his human disguise), they fight him, their former barbarian collegue (now a spellstiched wight), and other undead. In the middle, when Filge turned all wormy, the party freaked out.
They party barely won the day, and Filge fled down a convenient drain. He's now out and about plotting. :)
Filge escaped back in May when we ran the Whispering Cairn adventure. We had a long marathon session this weekend in which we finished up Hall of Harsh Reflections and most of The Champion's Belt.
I changed the motivations of Chyrassk (Zyrxog) and Telakin a bit, associating them with Filge. Once he learned that the party was in Sharn, where he had fled to after his defeat, he urged the doppelgangers to take out his old enemies.
The party eventually hunted Filge down in the mind flayer's lair and, despite the ogre zombie, minotaur skeleton, and spectral rider protecting the necromancer, killed him once and for all.
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But our story does not end there.
Aww, maaan! That was awesome! Unbeknownst IC to most of the party, Filge in our game has recently become a Death Delver. It seemed totally appropriate for all the near-death experiences his spindly little form has suffered.
Worm that Walks? That makes him a BEAST, and a wickedly creepy one at that.
I'm endlessly entertained by all the Alternate Universe versions of Filge out there...
In my campaign Filge just died when the PCs encountered him. End of Filge, or not?
I'm currently playing through Hall of Harsh Reflection and I upped the opposition in the Sodden Hold quite a bit, which originally led to the party being taken captive and later on in the game a near TPK (three of the four PCs lost their lives).
Upon entering the Fugue Plane (the realm where people wind up after death to be judged whether they are worthy to join their patron deity) they notice things are wrong there. Kelemvor (the Forgotten Realms god of death) has disappeared and the demons of the plane are having a blast torturing and 'killing' the spirits of the recently deceased.
The three PCs manage to make their way to the city of the dead, which is surrounded by the horrible wall of the unfaithful and guess what ... they come upon Filge in the wall. The necromancer explains to the PCs what has happened in this plane and offers them a way out if they agree to get him out of the wall. The deal is made, but when the PCs pull Filge from the wall, he discovers he has the body of a larva (I used the Vanthus Vanderboren picture from # 150 for this) - hilarious laughter followed.
Then when the PCs were sneaking into the city to reach the way back home, they were noticed by some enraged demons who pursued them. To slow them down, the gnome bard, who was carrying the Filge worm, tossed the unfortunate necromancer their way - antoher hilarious moment at the gaming table.
Suffice to say that the PCs found their way back to the Prime Material Plane.
We turned him over to the Sisters of Wee Jas, along with evidence of his undead animation.
In my game, Filge was a tremendous coward. The PCs accepted his surrender, and he spilled his (figurative) guts, telling them everything he knew about Smenk, Dourstone and the Ebon Triad. The group stripped Filge of his possessions, and stuck him on a ferry back to Korth [[the Free City]], with the understanding that they would ship his spellbook back to him at a later date. Filge decided he needed to lay low for a while anyway, having sold Smenk out.
As it turns out, the party struck a deal with Smenk later. They kept quiet about Smenk's part in keeping the temple supplied, and in exchange he "encouraged" Bask and Rastophan to testify in favor of the PCs at their trial for the murder of Todrik. (Witnesses agreed that Kullen's death was just part of a fair fight, and Kullen had had it coming; the PCs' kidnapping of Todrik, carting him off into the woods, interrogating and eventually killing him didn't go over so well.)
We're just past Blackwall Keep at this point, and Filge is just resurfacing. Dourstone, who got the heck out of Diamond Lake when it became clear that the PCs were slaughtering the Triad, and not the other way around, also fled to Korth, to rendezvous with another Ebon Triad cell there. Filge spotted him, and sent word back to Smenk, hoping to get back in his good books. Smenk, in turn, dropped casual word to the party that a mutual friend of their had shown up in Korth, and that he was sure the PCs would find that as interesting as he did.
They PCs will arrive in Korth next week, where I expect they will start hunting down Filge, who will be a bit perturbed that his spellbook never made it back to him.
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They PCs will arrive in Korth next week, where I expect they will start hunting down Filge, who will be a bit perturbed that his spellbook never made it back to him.
Our group's wizard, Thomas, who is more of a high school bully than the diviner he claims to be, insisted on keeping most of Filge's belongings and returning them to him, piece by piece, one book at a time, for continued "good behavior," which of course gave him an excuse to stop by the observatory multiple times a day to harass him. Necromancy is his prohibited school, so he was actually angry at Filge for not having a more useful spellbook. The rogue/cleric Talin persuaded Allustan to let her go inside and take the spellbook back, which became a bit awkward later when Thomas decided Filge had earned his spellbook back for his contributions in battle (Filge's contributions were virtually nonexistant, Thomas was just sick of the party pestering him to share his own spellbook with Filge), and she had to stealth the book back into place again.
I like the "friendship" you've set up between Filge and Smenk, Pweent. So loyal...XD I've often wondered what their story is, how they met in the Free City all those years ago...
My group did a pretty good job of dispatching Filge's defenses, so being the coward he is in my game he immediately surrendered. My PCs had made a deal with Kullen to bring back Filge's eyes, and for some unknown reason they felt the need to tell Filge about it. Through some decent bluffs he convinced them to take back the eyes of the corpse he was operating on instead of his own eyes.
They let him go with the promise he would return to the Free City. He then convinced them to let him tag along to the Dark Cathedral. Before they left for their dungeon crawl, he went to Smenk, who had Kullen and his gang killed and their eyes removed. Smenk then captured our sorcerer's (party leader de facto) familiar to assure they would cooperate and investigate the cult for him. Now Filge is under orders from Smenk to accompany the PCs to the Cathedral where he will wait until the cult is dealt with before turning and attempting to do away with the players.
Ah, gotta love the intrigue...my players always take the NPCs at their word and have never paid for it.
This time, they just might.
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My group didnt even bother to knock on Filge's door. They blackmailed and intimidated Kullen and his gang to kill Filge and bring back the bodies of the Land family. So the NPCs were the ones who did the dirty work. Kullen of course had no mercy on the necromancer and killed him. They learned the facts later by a member of Diamond's Lake militia (a PC) who was in charge of investigating the murder at the Lighthouse.
I am actually quite surprised how much my players hate him for having such a short amount of contact with him. In my campaign they took him prisoner and gained some information from him. But being a party of goody goodies they ended up turning him over to the garrison and asked the garrison commander to put a watch on the observatory. Unfortunately for them they didn't make a thorough search of the place and missed my clues as Filge's familiar was able to get away before they found it. So it can back and set off a pre-made trap from Filge that ended up burning the place to the ground and destroying all the evidence of his deeds. The party being away continuing the mission didn't realize that with no evidence the garrison could only hold Filge for so long with Smenk putting the pressure on them. So Filge got away and hasn't been seen since. But they constantly bring up his name and wanting to find him and put him down once and for all.
It does make me feel good knowing that one of the NPC's in the campaign made such a lasting impression. They are now about to have their first sit down with Lashonna which I hear she is quite memorable.