I just finished running a session where the party assaulted the temple to Bane (Hextor). The previous session was their first foray into it, and due to a PC death they stopped after slaying the skeletons and dire boar. Tonight they went back in, with a new character, after about an hour of time in-game. I ran the cultists as suggested, and lured the party into the arena. After 33 rounds of combat Theldrick and 2 tieflings beat the last standing PC into unconsciousness.
All four party members are alive, but in negatives. As for the cultists, Theldrick, Kendra, and 3 tieflings are conscious, one tiefling and Garras are in negatives. With her wand of cure light wounds, Kendra is the only person left with healing capabilities.
I'm trying to figure out how to set the stage for the party to escape. I have some ideas concerning Kendra making a move for power and setting up the party to take out Theldrick before he can pray for more spells. I'd like to hear some suggestions from you fine people first though.
An interesting (but perhaps difficult) twist would be to have the Hexorians bring the PC's to court. They are lawful after all. Or perhaps they could be handed over to Dourstone, and then he is instructed to bring Theldrik to court as the prosicution. If the PC's win, theldrik escapes, summoning a creature to cover his escape. Following that, the remaining Hexorians would move in with the Vencans (is that a word?) making the labryinth more challenging and exciting.
However, one of the problems in this could be the increased challenge rating. Theldrik and the Faceless one are likely to be working together. You may wish to have the hexorians far more disoriented, and in obvious places to show that they don't understand the full workings of the labryrinth.
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Anytime a party is completely overwelmed, I tend to have A4 In the Dungeons of the Slavelords ideas. I'd suggest having the PCs waking up in the U-shaped cavern controlled by the grimlocks. Theldrick left the PCs to the grimlocks to "do as they see fit". Perhaps Kur wants the PCs "fattened" up for eating or the PCs will be used for sacrifice in a future ceremony and Kur is "babysitting" them. Regardless, they find themselves naked, bound and dangling from a rope in the darkness. Allow the PC with the best Escape Bonds skill to make a skill check versus a relatively low DC and let the "Escape from Erythnul" start. Have some grimlocks nearby get overtaken by the PCs, they grab their weapons and progress onward. This way you can still advance the story and have the Ebon Triad remain in a state of readiness similar to how the scenario is written. The PCs find their gear at a convenient time/location of your choosing. Their current hp totals can be whatever you feel is challanging yet survivable. Besides completing the scenario, the players will have a Survivor-esque story associated with it. Have fun with it!
hexTorians, veCnans
:)
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Rexx, your idea is probably better. using the "taken to court" idea, the main problem is that the entire town would now know that there is a cult of the ebon triad under dourstone mines. they'd torch the place, and the leaders would die, waking the EA. It would rampage through town and destroy everything. and with no one to stop the age of worms, the world ends. a good fix to this would be to have a group from the free city going to explore the stirgenest cairn find the entire town destroyed and the EA running loose. they defeat it, and while looking for clues to what happened, find a PC's journal. There is still the problem of what to do next...
I also like the A4 In the Dungeons of the Slavelords idea.
Court doesn't float for me. Lawful doesn't necessarily imply respect for the law, especially when you are a bunch of self-avowed murderous, sociopathic goons seeking to destroy civilization.
Later :)
Jack
All I was saying with the court thing is that he even threatened to take them to court. And the faceless one decides to place a perminant image on the two other doors, or on the elevator, or something like that, it would turn out far better. And I didn't mean for Theldrik to be like "They invaded my cults chapel" No. I meant more like he was the lawyer for the prosecution, speaking about how the PCs invaded diamond lake.