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After a fairly long combat at the temple, I was left with a dominated rogue, fighter, and cleric and the wizard, both blind AND deaf. So naturally, the Whisperer intends to send the characters against its brethren who attacked it recently and forced it to retreat to the temple. Unfortunately, I'm not too sure what to do afterwards. A few options for the Whisperer:
- If the PC's survive, the Whisperer can use them to become the new Lantern Killers.
- Knowing that the wizard and cleric are more likely to break free of the Whisperer's enslavement, it could have them killed and keep using the fighter and rogue for its dirty work.
- It could simply have them all killed afterwards.
None of these options bode well for my players. So what to do? The longer they stay under the Whisperer's control, the more powerful the Spawn becomes. Eventually they're bound to break free but it might take a while and what do I do in the meantime? Another possibility is to have a 3rd party save them from the Whisperer's control. I could even re-enslave them with the Whisperer's brethren.
So has anyone else had to deal with this situation? Any ideas would be appreciated.
Just ignore the avatar name ok, it's the Paizo staff's idea of a huge joke...stop guys, my sides...have pity, they ache so...:)
I'd say that one possibility is that there would be other councilmen who keep an eye on what their enemies are doing and may inadvertenty help the heroes, purely for their own selfish reasons of course...
Rich Pett
After a fairly long combat at the temple, I was left with a dominated rogue, fighter, and cleric and the wizard, both blind AND deaf. So naturally, the Whisperer intends to send the characters against its brethren who attacked it recently and forced it to retreat to the temple. Unfortunately, I'm not too sure what to do afterwards. A few options for the Whisperer:
- If the PC's survive, the Whisperer can use them to become the new Lantern Killers.
- Knowing that the wizard and cleric are more likely to break free of the Whisperer's enslavement, it could have them killed and keep using the fighter and rogue for its dirty work.
- It could simply have them all killed afterwards.
None of these options bode well for my players. So what to do? The longer they stay under the Whisperer's control, the more powerful the Spawn becomes. Eventually they're bound to break free but it might take a while and what do I do in the meantime? Another possibility is to have a 3rd party save them from the Whisperer's control. I could even re-enslave them with the Whisperer's brethren.
So has anyone else had to deal with this situation? Any ideas would be appreciated.
Maybe the other aboleths have some method of distrupting Sgothgah's domination ability. Unleashing the Whisperer's slaves may well be a good tactic, as the PCs are bound to be vengeful after having their brains washed.
Otherwise,maybe the Whisperer wants to campaign for the seat Mr. Dory left behind on the Council...
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Having the aboleths use their enslave ability on the PC's might work. If it works, the characters could be sent to kill the Spawn and then the Whisperer. Afterwards, I imagine the aboleths would go back home, relinquish control, and the adventure would end on a happy note. But the Will save DC for their enslave ability is only 17, 19 if I give them Ability Focus. The problem is that my players have pretty good will saves: +13 for the cleric of Zilchus, +13 for the wizard/war weaver, +7 for the rogue/fighter, and +8 for the dwarven fighter. And this time they know they're going up against aboleths, so I imagine they would do the utmost to succeed even if they're dominated.
I do have a question: Can a dominated cleric prepare new spells? Wouldn't his patron god object? In this case, we're talking about Zilchus, who is neutral. But what if it were Pelor instead? I wasn't sure if the Whisperer would allow the characters a chance to rest before taking on the aboleths. Perhaps it would prefer to have the situation dealt with as swiftly as possible. However, if it thinks the PC's will have a better chance of success, it might allow them a chance to rest. If the cleric can prepare spells such as protection from evil, their chances against the aboleths will be greater.
I think it might be prudent to see how the encounter with the aboleths goes before deciding what to do afterwards. However, I do like the suggestion to involve the other councilmen. I imagine that they would know about what happened to Mr. Dory and would probably be interested in the going-ons of the characters.
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Another thing I have to deal with: What do I do with the blind & deaf wizard? The Whisperer used its three enslave ability attempts on the other PC's. It cast blindness followed by deafness on the wizard to take him out. I immediately ended the session after that, to give both myself and the wizard time to decide on a course of action. Fortunately, the Whisperer can communicate telepathically with the wizard to possibly intimidate him into submission. However, even if the wizard "surrenders", the Whisperer has no way of removing the effects of the blindness or deafness. It could always hold on to the wizard as some sort of insurance policy in case the other three PC's break free from its control, but I'm not fond of that scenario as it would force one of my players to basically sit out the next session. I would much prefer for him to escape, but I'm not sure he can pull it off.
It could always hold on to the wizard as some sort of insurance policy in case the other three PC's break free from its control, but I'm not fond of that scenario as it would force one of my players to basically sit out the next session. I would much prefer for him to escape, but I'm not sure he can pull it off.
I like this idea. Here's how I'd make it work:
1) Clear the following plan with the wizard's player before the next game session.
2) Have a stand-in character ready for the wizard's player to control while his primary is hostage. The stand-in should be the same level or one level higher than the wizard character, but only have an NPC's worth of loot.
3) Let the player apply all XP earned by the stand-in character to their primary.
4) Make the stand-in someone essential to the short term plot but one who'll vanish at the same time the wizard is rescued. In this case, I really like the idea of the stand-in being a willing agent of The Whisperer. He's sent along to keep tabs on the party and steer them. When the party breaks free of the domination, they take him down and find out from him (or his corpse) where the wizard is being kept. The circumstances of the wizard's prison, once they have the needed information and their freedom, should be a non-encounter for the party. This way the player can get back in the action without pause. One other cool thing about having the player play an agent of the Whisperer who'll be against the party is it gives them a challenge that's the player's style, not your own, which should be refreshing for them. It also gives the wizard's player a chance to try out whatever powergaming twink he's been thinking about for the last few months, but been too much of a mature player to actually put into action. (Note, this whole plan assumes your players are mature.)
If the wizard has to sit this one out on account of being blind and deaf, why not have Sgothgah pull the other characters on an expedition to finish off its aboleth rivals and have the wizard's player either play as Sgothgah against the other aboleth or have them play as one of the rival aboleth against Sgothgah and the kraken (assuming that the PCs break the Whisperer's control over them. It could be a lot of fun for a PC to play as a monster for a change, if only for one encounter.