My players are just about to throw down with the Lord of the Demonskar and I'm concerned that it might not go well for them. They are obviously not just gonna hand over the paladin, which is what the demon wants, and they dont ever think about retreating until over half the party has been wiped out. Anybody got any helpful hints on how to run this fight? Or how about some entertaining stories about how this fight played out for them?
thundergawd
My players are about to enter the dungeon with the Starry Mirror, and will doubtless soon end up facing Nabthatoron as well. I'm thinking of possibly changing that encounter to instead be a face-off with a hezrou, CR 11, or maybe a slightly advanced hezrou, CR 12. This would be an agent of Nabthatoron. If the players can keep Alek alive and return him to Redgorge, then I'll have the players and Alek help the town fend off Tercival's/Blue Duke's attack, only to then be faced with a raid by Nabthatoron and a small demon horde.
Exactly what GROG said.
I am tentatively planning to remove Alakast (!) and have them fight Nabthatoron as scripted. Then they will have a reason to want revenge on him later after he presumably brushes them aside as he slaughters Alek. I am planning to use some ideas about the Invasion of Redgorge from these boards (notably Chef's Slaad) where the party has to lead the defence against the demons in a final showdown. As a prelude I will have the Bard guy from the Chisel lead the party on a quest to recover the legendary Alakast, Nabthatoron's nemesis, from Surabar's tomb deep in the jungle (for which I plan to use a modified Rana Mor for the approx 12th level party, including a Kyuss corrupted priesthood). Hopefully the party will get a chance to finally defeat Nabthatoron using Alakast and their greater experience.
Of course, we are only just about to start Zenith Trajectory at the moment, so its a bit premature yet!
Wow Tim thats a great idea you have there. I wish my party hadn't already found Alakast so I could "borrow" your adventure idea. My version of Alakast is an intellegent weapon that will slowly gain more powers as the wielder bonds more with it through roleplaying and of course slaughtering evil outsiders. I set up Alakast to be the soul of Nidrama's celestial brother, who was reforged into this quarterstaff when he fell in battle against many fiends in an ancient and forgotten war on another plane. I believe I borrowed this idea from someone else that posts here, but I cant remember who at the moment.
Thundergawd
My version of Alakast is an intellegent weapon that will slowly gain more powers as the wielder bonds more with it through roleplaying and of course slaughtering evil outsiders. I set up Alakast to be the soul of Nidrama's celestial brother, who was reforged into this quarterstaff when he fell in battle against many fiends in an ancient and forgotten war on another plane.
Thundergawd
I was thinking of "improving" Alakast with one cold iron head and one silver head. What sort of "growth" powers were you thinking of?
I like the Nidrama's brother connection, too. If I am going to make finding the staff more epic feeling, then I really ought to make the staff itself more interesting. What about a tie-in to Adimarchus as well, or would this be trying to do too much with it?
I made Alakast a weapon of legacy in my campaign. I also changed it to a longsword, so one of the party fighters would be inclined to use it.
One thing to keep in mind about the weapon being a quarterstaff. Every PC class is proficient in its use. Thus anyone can use it. Monks and two-weapon fighters would gain more from it.
I was thinking of "improving" Alakast with one cold iron head and one silver head. What sort of "growth" powers were you thinking of?I like the Nidrama's brother connection, too. If I am going to make finding the staff more epic feeling, then I really ought to make the staff itself more interesting. What about a tie-in to Adimarchus as well, or would this be trying to do too much with it?
I havent got it all worked out yet Tim, but some of the powers I was thinking of slowly adding to Alakast were a 3/ per day dimensional anchor, dispel magic perhaps, and maybe a once per demon encounter casting of Blessing of the Righteous, which is a 4th level spell out of PHBII that grants all allies weapons within 40 feet of Alakast an extra id6 points of holy damage and the weapons are treated as good aligned for DR purposes.
As for tying Alakast to adimarchus, perhaps the last war Alakast fought in (the one in which his body perished) was the one in which a piece of Celestia was cast down and into Occipitus, and Alakast was there to witness Adimarchus's fall into the Abyss. I dunno, just throwing stuff out there, I'm sure you can put a better spin on the basic idea.....
Thundergawd
I gave Sundabar two weapons, a staff - Alakast (as written but with the ability to cast cantrips at will and maximize spells 3/day) and a longsword - Cresentia.
Cresentia has a dark blade blanketed in tiny stars that twinkle. The crossbar is shaped like a majestic golden hawk whose wings curve towards the blade in a crescent shape to form the weapons crossbar while the body of the hawk acts as the weapons hilt. The hawks talons clutch a large diamond.
The weapon was Sundabar's primary weapon (he was a fighter/wizard in my campaign)and has the following abilities:
- +3 Holy weapon
- 3/day Spark Shower (slash the air horizontally causing a arc of white and blue sparks to fly out burning and blinding opponents (Burning -5d4 damage: Ref Save 20
Blindness - Fort DC 18 to avoid)
The weapon also acts a Weapon of Legacy, increasing its abilities as the path continues.
I'm planning on having the weapon as part of Vittris Bale's treasure horde but if someone else has a better location let me know.
I'm not sure if anything I wrote above is on topic but hope it helps.....in some way ;)
Delvesdeep
This was one of the most memorable fights from the first time I ran this campaign. As stated, Nabthatoron focused on Alec. However, the paladin (read holy ass-kicking style paladin), scored a critical hit on Nabthatoron with his Holy Greatsword. Nabthatoron got mad. Real mad. Nabthatoron decided he was going to show them just who they were dealing with. It was a really close fight, and at the end, Nabthatoron was going to teleport away, but just before he could, the Paladin scored another critical hit and struck him down. Was a awesome and epic fight, and I don't mind that the characters killed him at all.
O.k., I decided to throw Nabthatoron at the party as per written in the Demonskar Legacy adventure. The player characters were peeking outside into the desert, trying to figure out if they were still on the Prime Material Plane. Alek Tercival had calmed down somewhat and had been convinced that he'd been tricked by the "angels." Then Nabthatoron arrived. I have a house rule that it takes one round to arrive when teleporting in, so the party got to cast one round of buffing as Nabthatoron arrived. They were suitably terrified as I plopped down the huge glabrezu miniature on the tomb built out of Dwarven Forge pieces, towering over the players' miniatures, especially the itsy bitsy gnome rogue's miniature.
The demon blasted them with unholy blight because they were bunched up together, though only two of the six party members were sickened. Then Alek charged in and Nabthatoron picked him up in a pincer (improved grapple). The next round, Nabthatoron inflicted over a hundred fifty points of damage to Alek, hitting with all four claws and the bite using max Power Attack. I described Nabthatoron grabbing Alek's feet each with a small claw and his arms each with a pincer, then biting the paladin's head off while he was torn in four pieces and the pieces tossed in four directions. Then they heard the demon's voice in their heads through telepathy: "Who's next?"
It was a cool and memorable battle. I had Nabthatoron taunt each player telepathically when it was their turn. Miraculously no player character died, though several were very close to death. The players got lucky and managed to inflict a lot of damage and slow the demon with a spell while hasting themselves. The warrior types were both grappled in the demon's claws while the others attacked with spells and everything they could think of. Finally, as things got too close for Nabthatoron's comfort (and for the player's comfort too), Nabthatoron teleported out of the tomb into the desert, and sent them another telepathic message: "You failed. The paladin is dead. Now Redgorge will be destroyed. We will meet again soon, but next time you will also meet my army."
The players decided they want to return to Redgorge, but that they need to "renegotiate" for a fee if they are expected to face the demon and his army.
O.k., I decided to throw Nabthatoron at the party as per written in the Demonskar Legacy adventure. The player characters were peeking outside into the desert, trying to figure out if they were still on the Prime Material Plane. Alek Tercival had calmed down somewhat and had been convinced that he'd been tricked by the "angels." Then Nabthatoron arrived. I have a house rule that it takes one round to arrive when teleporting in, so the party got to cast one round of buffing as Nabthatoron arrived. They were suitably terrified as I plopped down the huge glabrezu miniature on the tomb built out of Dwarven Forge pieces, towering over the players' miniatures, especially the itsy bitsy gnome rogue's miniature.
The demon blasted them with unholy blight because they were bunched up together, though only two of the six party members were sickened. Then Alek charged in and Nabthatoron picked him up in a pincer (improved grapple). The next round, Nabthatoron inflicted over a hundred fifty points of damage to Alek, hitting with all four claws and the bite using max Power Attack. I described Nabthatoron grabbing Alek's feet each with a small claw and his arms each with a pincer, then biting the paladin's head off while he was torn in four pieces and the pieces tossed in four directions. Then they heard the demon's voice in their heads through telepathy: "Who's next?"
It was a cool and memorable battle. I had Nabthatoron taunt each player telepathically when it was their turn. Miraculously no player character died, though several were very close to death. The players got lucky and managed to inflict a lot of damage and slow the demon with a spell while hasting themselves. The warrior types were both grappled in the demon's claws while the others attacked with spells and everything they could think of. Finally, as things got too close for Nabthatoron's comfort (and for the player's comfort too), Nabthatoron teleported out of the tomb into the desert, and sent them another telepathic message: "You failed....
Cool- this is what I will be aiming for with my guys. If they do somehow defeat Nabthatoron, I can always fall back on his Hezrou lieutenant for Redgorge, but I don't think it will be a problem as there's only 4 PCs...
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The PCs forshadowed Nabathatoron alot for themselves. They asked the Chisel about the Demonskar, why the Basalt Bastion's where built, and who is that glabrezu demon that Surabar is fighting in that mural please? They are such curiosity Cosby's :) However the clincher was when the Wee Jasidan cast charm monster on Kymzo as he flew away i.e. not charm person so an outsider is effected.
The gist was hello, how are you? What are you doing here? Work for hags you say? Really? Treat you well? Oh, you used to be Nabthatoron's factotum, fancy coming to live inside a volcano away from all these bullies etc. You can imagine the rest :) Anyway, I did an offstage event of The Big N losing his mind at Kymzo spilling his guts and trashing his throne room and clobbering demons as he screamed at his crystal ball. The players then pointed out to Kymzo that N was scrying them and he may have just dropped himself in it, stay with us, we'll look after you. The paladin was unsure but the Wee Jasidan pointed out mephits are not usually evil and this once had just spent 5000 years surrounded by frustrated and exiled demons, what did he expect? Paladin grins at the thought of another soul to redeem. Thus when the met The Big N, which the decided would be inevitable as they where messing up his plans, they where very ready indeed.
Dimensional Anchor, demon dirge, storm of law, holy storm etc. An enlarged Saint Cuthbertian uber tank whose Scion of Surabar was like a maddening stench to the Lord of the Demonskar and held his attention (as well as clobbering him with a sacred warmace). It looked 50/50 and was a brutal fight until the Wee Jasidan critically hit N with an Enervate and rolled 8 on 2d4 and suddenly N couldn't hit them as much. At that point it was just a matter of time.
Alek of course was dead having charged N. The players felt little sympathy for him (well the paladin of Pelor did a little bit), particularly the Saint Cuthbertian who felt both Alek and Sarcem before him had let the Cudgel down. They have made the decision that really they best just sort the problems of the region out themselves as other people are just embarassing their religions with pointless sacrifices. Some may call this hubris bat as Nidrama had chosen to reveal herself to them, as she had Surabar, clearly they where destined to do such things to the greater glory of their churches. The party do have a lawful harsh component to them and have no time for idiots :)