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Why is Vhalantru concerned about the wellfare of Terrem? There is nothing written about why he must be returned to the orphanage in the first adventure. My players are in the Malachite Fortress and are about to enter the slave bazaar. They like to ask NPCs alot of questions and since Vhalantru does not want to hurt the party he will be assaulted with vollies of questions about Terrem or "Why doesn't the beholder just waste us now?". They may even promise Vhalantru that they will escort Terrem safely to the orphanage. Would Vhalantru object to this offer?
Terrem is one of the Shackleborn, and needs to be sacrificed to on the Tree of Shackled Souls (which isn't finished yet).
Why would Vhalantru stand around and chat? He's got the kid, and he's got the means to teleport out (actually his invisible wizard friend does), so he's going to be there for three rounds or so, depending on how easy it is to get Terrem. Vhalantru could zorch everyone in the room at the Bazaar, so it shouldn't be that long. The party is little more than annoying insects to him at this point, so treat it like reporters shouting questions to the President as he's boarding Air Force One, he hears them, but ignores them, does his thing and leaves.
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Actually i was wondering what happens afterwards if or when Terrem Kharatys refuses to go with the ugly round thing.
This is one of those things that i should taken into account when i ran Life's Bazzar instead of taking for granted that the pcs would let Vhalntru take the boy.
Another thing is that the pcs did not bother to question Terrem or checked up on him. They only found out that he was taken in Secrets of the Soul pillars!
When i run this again in the not so near future ,i'm gonna do this right this time.
If Terrem refuses to go, the beholder or his wizard friend could charm him to make him want to go.
I'm curious how my players will react if they find out he's missing again later on, and whether they will try divination to try to find him.
In fact Vhalantru doesn't know where is Terrem at the start but when he sees that the temple is going to act to retrieve the missing persons he lets them do, I read that it's by scrying group members that Vhalantru learns about the story and the whereabouts of the boy, waiting for them to do all the work and teleporting in once they found him and there is no real risk.
He remembers them for Zenith trajectory, who works once can works twice....
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In fact Vhalantru doesn't know where is Terrem at the start but when he sees that the temple is going to act to retrieve the missing persons he lets them do, I read that it's by scrying group members that Vhalantru learns about the story and the whereabouts of the boy, waiting for them to do all the work and teleporting in once they found him and there is no real risk.
He remembers them for Zenith trajectory, who works once can works twice....
Not possible, as stated in the text of Life's Bazzar,Vhalantru knew about Kozmojen's little enterprise and allowed him with Veril Ashmantle to coninue in cauldron in retrun for a share of the profits. He even sent the last laugh on Laro to discourged the Tyrrans from investigating too closely. Only when the cagewrights(well only Thallifene Rhiadavi) found out about Terrem's kidnapping and Vhalantru has to take from the boy back before the other cagewrights will know and the lives of the beholder and the wizard will forfeit. Otherwise,Vhalantru could've not care less about the children.
I don't have my book in front of me but Vhalantru could "Diplomize" Terrem to a friendly or helpful state. His Diplomacy score may even be high enough to take the -10 penalty to do it in one round.
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I don't have my book in front of me but Vhalantru could "Diplomize" Terrem to a friendly or helpful state. His Diplomacy score may even be high enough to take the -10 penalty to do it in one round.
There isn't a skill roll high enough to make a child more friendly to a drooling eleven eyed spheroid monstersity unless he was charmed. Granted after what Terrem has been thru with the slavers,he might be trumatized to the point of being shell shocked so he can comply with the beholder's "request".
as I understand it, Vhalantru picks up Terrem before the players can (or should) be able to interact. This is a sequence where the party is an observer. Terrem may not be happy about it, but he has been kidnapped and made very aware he is about to be sold as a slave. The beholder coming up to claim him like this may not fully register on him too well. Terrem is supposed to be a kid with a lot of attitude (I do recall a quick description of him as being surly, but historically, who asks a slave who that slave gets to go off with?) The party may not be happy about Terrem 'getting away' before he can be rescued, but that is to be soothed by his presence, apparently free, back at the orphanage, when the party returns to Cauldron.
As I understood the hints about those bearing the sign, they have a predisposition to evil personalities (or at least mental instability, as evidenced by the only other bearing the sign that the player characters directly interact with before they are caged at the Tree).
And when all the Shackleborn are taken later, this has to create a bit of a conflict, especially considering how they're found.....I've wondered how many parties go to the effort of trying to bring these folks back once the crisis is averted.
When I ran this part of the adventure, the PCs had just put down Kazmojen and his puppy, when two hobgoblin guards ran through the door with fearful looks plastered on their ugly mugs. One of them fell to his knees and was disintegrated, the other looked back and was turned to stone. This saved me the trouble of any stupid "I attempt to disbelieve" notions.
Then, he demanded the boy and showed this party of upstarts what was up. Fortunately for them, none of them were foolish enough to draw down on Orbius. The Paladin did stand right between him and and boy, however, so Orbius simply put him to sleep, charmed Terrem to come with him, and floated on out.
And since he's rich as Croesus and enjoys corrupting the good guys, he telekinetically tossed them a bag of coins to show them he thought as little of them as servants.
Not possible, as stated in the text of Life's Bazzar,Vhalantru knew about Kozmojen's little enterprise and allowed him with Veril Ashmantle to coninue in cauldron in retrun for a share of the profits. He even sent the last laugh on Laro to discourged the Tyrrans from investigating too closely. Only when the cagewrights(well only Thallifene Rhiadavi) found out about Terrem's kidnapping and Vhalantru has to take from the boy back before the other cagewrights will know and the lives of the beholder and the wizard will forfeit. Otherwise,Vhalantru could've not care less about the children.In fact Vhalantru doesn't know where is Terrem at the start but when he sees that the temple is going to act to retrieve the missing persons he lets them do, I read that it's by scrying group members that Vhalantru learns about the story and the whereabouts of the boy, waiting for them to do all the work and teleporting in once they found him and there is no real risk.
He remembers them for Zenith trajectory, who works once can works twice....
You're right, I have to read again my books...I think that the teleport on the spot is made after a scrying, once all is clear and to show who is the leader (and to foreshadow...).
I also remember the mage in the party doing some spellcraft+ knowledge checks after Vhalantru and Terrem disappeared (trying to find out if they were invisible and still nearby) and getting the tidbit of information that:
1. They seemed to have teleported away.
2. Beholders have many powers but teleportation is not normally one of them.
That freaked them out but good. A beholder is bad enough at their level, but a super duper teleporting beholder? That's got to be bad mojo.
That freaked them out but good. A beholder is bad enough at their level, but a super duper teleporting beholder? That's got to be bad mojo.
Dang! I wish I'd thought of that!
What I don't understand about this part of the adventure is why would Vhalantru even appear after the PCs successfully freed Terrem? I assume he's certainly spying on them, so once he learns that the PCs found the children, he should know that they will take Terrem back to the orphanage, which is exactly what he would do anyway. So I think hes just taking unnecessary risk of being revealed, just because the plotline needs this bit of mystery about the beholder.
What did your players say/do when they found out that Terrem has been safely returned to the orphanage?
What I don't understand about this part of the adventure is why would Vhalantru even appear after the PCs successfully freed Terrem? I assume he's certainly spying on them, so once he learns that the PCs found the children, he should know that they will take Terrem back to the orphanage, which is exactly what he would do anyway. So I think hes just taking unnecessary risk of being revealed, just because the plotline needs this bit of mystery about the beholder.
What did your players say/do when they found out that Terrem has been safely returned to the orphanage?
You are right. That bothered me too. I kept reading the book again and again trying to find out, why Valanthru should do this. So the only reason I could come up with is, that he wanted to be sure, that Terrem is not accidentally killed in that battle with Kazmojen. In fact the book kind of states that attitude: "Get Terrem and do not care what happens to the group or Kazmojen."
My players are also very puzzled, what that all was about. They plan to interrogate Terrem again, in order to find some clues.
Alternatively, if Vhalantru had been so concerned with Terrem's fate, he could have teleported there anytime, killed the captors in the blink of an eye (pun intended) and that's it.
(Okay, so maybe his mage cohort has been on sick leave:))
The way it went down in my campaign, Terrem and the other children could have been carted off to the Underdark while the battle was still raging. I believe Vhalantru shows up on round 3 of that particular battle, which isn't very long, so it could have gone either way.
And when they returned the other children, they found out that Terrem was returned by a woman wearing a veil. Then they didn't bother investigating further. Basically, they were third level and the prospect of a diligent investigation that would lead them to a beholder didn't appeal to them at all. I suppose they're planning on coming back to the beholder when they think they can take him.
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It all boils down to this:
1.Vhalantru knows where to find kozmojen so does not need to scry.
2.Since he did not scry, he does not know about the pcs.
3.once he arrives after the carnage,he assumes the survivors(the pcs or koz)are the "new management".
4. he shows up in his ture form because he wants to make a good visaul impression in the "off" chance kozmojen might refuse on "principle".
5.Mainly Vhalantru is doing all this to save his own keister(reclaiming the boy before the other cagewrights find out he almost allowed a shackleborn to be sold.)and make himself look good."Look this scumbag slaver stole the shackleborn but i Vhalantru brouhgt him back to you safe and sound!"
6. Terrem Kharatys is a deaf-mute with 1 Int and 1 Wis.
7. Vhalantru is already eating patch and Twindaggers for their "ineptness" and warns the last laugh that they will be next if this ever happens again.He also hires the stormblades to hunt down and kill any skulk and dark creeper under cauldron they can find and destroy the tunnels from the malachite fortress to the surface.
8. Vhalantru tells Veril Ashmantle(another of his silent partners) thats its all the pcs's fault. And that he Vhalantru is doing him a great favor at personal risk to inform ashmanlte of this news.
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All went well when I ran the encounter last week. When Vhalantru showed up after the battle with Kaz & crew, one PC was dead (the sorcerer). Vhalantru demanded the boy, who was in shock of seeing such a vile monstrosity, so Terram remained silent. My players did begin to ask questions but I just read them what he says upon arrival, he floated on over to Terram and Poof! Disappeared. Luckily my players know what a beholder is and the power they have. I know, Metagaming. But at least they didn't try to fight him!
Why is Vhalantru concerned about the wellfare of Terrem? There is nothing written about why he must be returned to the orphanage in the first adventure. My players are in the Malachite Fortress and are about to enter the slave bazaar. They like to ask NPCs alot of questions and since Vhalantru does not want to hurt the party he will be assaulted with vollies of questions about Terrem or "Why doesn't the beholder just waste us now?". They may even promise Vhalantru that they will escort Terrem safely to the orphanage. Would Vhalantru object to this offer?
You are certianly a lot nicer than me. I let my players figure out the rituals in there own way.
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My party had a pretty amusing moment at this part of the campaign. They hadn't had the best of luck fighting Kazmogen right before and when the beholder appeared they had a cleric out of spells, and an unconscious paladin and LG fighter. Vhalhaltru told the party to give child to them and the CN cleric and TN Wizard looked from it, to each other and then just sort of pushed the kid forward. Its amazingly how easily these moral dilemmas go when you take the characters with some sort of sense of decency out of the picture.