**Spoilers actually pertain to my campaign, and not necessaily her abilities as written**
In my campaign I think the players will view Kyuss as the big climax. That’s ok, but for me (the DM), I am really focusing most of my efforts on Lashonna. She is a brilliant mastermind who has usurped control from the now destroyed Dragotha using the PCs as her pawns. She hopes that the PCs loyalty lies with Kyuss and will forever serve him as thralls, but knows that they will not. They are powerful: she knows this. But she also knows all their strengths and weaknesses (talk about a tired cliché by now) and will have taken measures against them. In fact, some of these protective plans were seeded the very moment they laid eyes on her.
First of all, the resident PC cleric is arguably the most powerful undead killer in the material plane. To stifle his Light descriptor spells (Sunbeam) and turning abilities, she has procured a minor artifact in the form of a chunk of basalt rock from the Plane of Shadows. The rock cloaks the area in shadowy darkness, negating Light descriptor spells in a 120 foot radius, and provides a +8 turn resistance bonus.
Second, she will be accompanied by a few Nightcrawlers (or the like) so that the PCs can’t immediately decapitate her in one round like some CR1 Zombie.
Finally, she will dominate one of the PCs. Truth be told, she already has. When the PCs met her gaze in Prince of Red Hand, I had all PCs make a Will Save. This was against her near god-like ability of charming people which was not truly statted out yet in Dungeon, but was inferred in the module. One of the powerful fighters failed this roll. I informed him that he was simply star struck with goo-goo eyes for her. They’ve all forgot about this, however. Its been along time since we’ve played that module. When she goes off on her monologue (asking them to join Kyuss in the darkness to come), she will inform them that a member of their own party has already made the glorious decision to serve as her lap-dog. As DM, I will first ask players who it is (I am kind of promoting the treachery.) If the players decline, then they will immediate point fingers around the table who they think the betrayer is. The effect of that failed roll months ago will take on much more meaning when the PC turns to swing on the closest ally (no save) until the PC dies, the PCs die, or Lashonna dies. Such is the power of her deadly allure.
It will be classic – certainly a highlight in the campaign in my opinion!
Any thoughts?
I don't get it.. What do you mean you will ask them who the traitor is??...Ask "inside" the game ??.. And won't they be like " what the hell..!?"
Your 'plan' looks preety sweet, I might 'borrow' some ideas..: )
Vampires are awesome.
The same thing happened when the players went through the AoW version of 'Expedition to Castle Ravenloft'. Strahd dominated one of the players, and at the worst time, had them turn on the party, resulting in a well-liked NPC's death.
You have to have a really mature party, though. This sort of backstabbing can really wreck a game. Thankfully, if your players have made it all the way to Lashona, I'm positive it will go over well.
Good luck in your sick little plans. I myself have taken them to heart and will be plotting the same course of action.
Run with it.
Your pcs will probably be detecting the extra magical aura beforehand, and a simple protection from evil will stop it. They could always take the smart, sledgehammer approach and mind balnk the guy in the party with the bad will save.
And seriously, the fighter (with all of the undead with nasty abilities) and the rogue (with all the un-sneakable creatures) take enough crap in AoW. Cook up something to mess with your wizard or cleric.
Interesting, I had every intention of letting Lashonna perish when the party faced her in Dawn of a New Age. But you have inspired me to rethink my plot threads.
I’ve been looking for some way to tie in the adventure “The Quicksilver Hour Glass” from Dungeon Mag. 123 and now I may have it.
Perhaps Lashonna is also a member of the dread cabal of undead known as the Union of Eclipses and after the Age of Worms she decides it best that all mortal life be eradicated least she eventually suffer the same as her former lord Kyuss.
Lashonna may have acted to manipulate the party to destroy Dragotha not only for personal vengeance but with the knowledge that if the Eclipses succeeded in destroying all living things they still would have to face Dragotha who would survive the Eclipses use of the hourglass.
It would give me an excellent tie in for AOW to the Quicksilver Hourglass without having the generic NPC show up and tell the party the end of the world is at hand and only they can stop it.
And seriously, the fighter (with all of the undead with nasty abilities) and the rogue (with all the un-sneakable creatures) take enough crap in AoW. Cook up something to mess with your wizard or cleric.
He did come up with something to mess with the Wizard - The Party's Fighter.
Interesting, I had a similiar thing happen in my campaign. A long abesent player rejoined and picked up his old Druid character. We were in the middle of 'Library of Last Resort' so Lashonna gladly pointed the Druid towards Tilagos, but not before he rolled a Will save. He failed, but I'm pretty sure he has forgotten about it. The Dragotha fight is coming up, but I think I'll try a similiar trick with the druid once they reach Lashonna...especially since his Shapechange spell has been nearly derailing every encounter...
Good use of the old "you're smitten by her beauty" subterfuge!
I’m glad most of you appreciate the ideas; I’ve stolen more than my fair share from all of you as well. That’s what is so great about this Dungeon community.
I guess that it goes without saying that many of the ideas that I (and others) share assume our own party of PCs and more importantly our own gaming table and player personalities. I recognize that others might not find all information useful, but hopefully it might provoke ideas (yours and my own).
I have an “old-schooler” Dungeon aficionado who best summarized it at our gaming some time ago in that Dungeon adventures are really just framing for a house. You furnish it, decide what pieces you want to use and dispose of the rest or save it for later.
As a final bit on personalizing my game, I want to bounce this thought off of you all: I have a player who is a min-maxer (and that’s okay, he’s a dear friend and great gamer) that runs the party’s cleric which is clearly the most dominant PC on the table. In the final fight with Kyuss, I have decided that of all the fights that follows convention and rules, this one will not. Kyuss will be invulnerable, slowing damaging PCs and it should be clearly obvious that great divine intervention will be necessary to defeat him. Enter this min-maxer. He’ll likely use “Miracle” to somehow bypass this invincibility, and that’s exactly what I want him to do, but at a great cost: his life. I know that the acceptance of this course of action is dependant on the player and the DM – player relationship, but I’d like to know how you all would react to the DM asking you to hand over your character sheet permanently (albeit in a glorious manner) and the DM handing you an NPC to run as a stand in for the final fight….
In the final fight with Kyuss, I have decided that of all the fights that follows convention and rules, this one will not. Kyuss will be invulnerable, slowing damaging PCs and it should be clearly obvious that great divine intervention will be necessary to defeat him. Enter this min-maxer. He’ll likely use “Miracle” to somehow bypass this invincibility, and that’s exactly what I want him to do, but at a great cost: his life. I know that the acceptance of this course of action is dependant on the player and the DM – player relationship, but I’d like to know how you all would react to the DM asking you to hand over your character sheet permanently (albeit in a glorious manner) and the DM handing you an NPC to run as a stand in for the final fight….
Although its a bit off-topic, I would recommend against this. I play with a power-oriented group of players, and that's okay. I appreciate how accessible AoW is for nearly all kinds of players. Still, although I made my players make back-up characters at the start of the campaign--just in case--I know that players get attached to their creations. If your player's cleric has survived this long, he surely wants to see it through. Awe-inspiring as a monumentous sacrifice is, you've practically cut your player out of the big endgame fight.
Instead, I would consider leaving some of the benefits granted by effects such as the Unlife Vortex, despair in Alhaster, etc (like his +20 insight bonus to AC, divine rank, and so on), instead of removing them for the PCs efforts in Alhaster. If the players don't play ball and help the ruined town, consider the invicibility approach. But instead of having the cleric die for it (which might come up if he were persueded to use the Hand of Vecna from Darl Quethos in LoLR, if they got the artifact), make the invicibility one that can only be destroyed by a sphere of annihilation--such as one that might be procured using the talisman of the sphere from the very first adventure, and the sphere Manzorian points out in his painting of the Tomb of Horrors. And make it so that only the cleric can use it, or something. That puts a definite focus for the player, without allowing him to overrun the final fight.
I'm aching for my party to fight Lashonna. Best of all, they haven't even suspected she is evil. Finally, a plan is coming together! They just witnessed the end of LoLR, where she transformed into a silver dragon, but have yet to fully grasp the entirety of her character. (Mr. Burns-esque voice: excellent...)
Though I concede that I am worried about the whole "charm" effect myself. A DC 42 Will save is nothing to sneeze at, even with those fate points awarded in the Spire of Long Shadows. Sure, my players are playing classes with favored Will saves, but oww! My NPC cleric may be the only one who has much of a chance. (Currently +23, but with 5 levels of Wormhunter, +28 at 18th level). We do have a bard in the party who can inspire courage to an obscene degree, and I believe the bonus to saves vs. charms and fear will come up...provide he gets initiative.
Still, in the end, while I can see how my players could survive this singularly potent effect, I am curious how other game groups plan on addressing it.
mind blank? protection from evil? It's pretty easy to defend against charms and compulsions.
One thing I'm doing with the sphere of annihilation is to make using it the only way to destroy the unlife vortex. In the process, the sphere will be destroyed.
mind blank? protection from evil? It's pretty easy to defend against charms and compulsions.
A-ha! I forgot about mind blank. (Wouldja believe it?) That'll make its way into the mix somehow. Thanks for the tip!
Enter this min-maxer. He’ll likely use “Miracle” to somehow bypass this invincibility, and that’s exactly what I want him to do, but at a great cost: his life. I know that the acceptance of this course of action is dependant on the player and the DM – player relationship, but I’d like to know how you all would react to the DM asking you to hand over your character sheet permanently (albeit in a glorious manner) and the DM handing you an NPC to run as a stand in for the final fight….
I like your idea and in my earlier gaming life (some 20 years ago :)) I had a very similar situation: I almost hoped that there will be a player self-sacrificing to rescue his friends or to save the day.
Then there was a scene where all players fumpled their rolls to bypass a trap, monster (actually I can´t remember whaat it was). There was only defeat or give up the game. Then the (remember!) red D&D box Elf (you know, there was a time where every elf was half fighter/half mage) started a prayer to his deity and pledged for help. I took him aside for a 4-eye conversation between the elf god and his character and offered help at the cost of his life. The player agreed and we create a breath stunning climatic and dramatic showdown which ends a a well played death of a friend.Then I took the player aside a second time and his god sends him back to earth as his paladin (effectivly changing the alignement and introducing multiclass to the old school D&D elf).
None of the group ever forgets this adventure and the players elf became an iconic within our campaign world.
Again, thanks for the input. I want to achieve an ending like you describe, Bromley, but I think I will heed the advice of Heiro and play it out as written unless they bypass the side-quests to take possession of artifacts that may help their cause.
Funny aside - I don't think my players read my posts (they could if they chose to), but the player I had been thinking about making a sacrificial martyr using Miracle to defeat Kyuss actually approached me a few days ago asking me what I had thought about that plan. So much for surprises, but that gives me the green light to tell the story I want to tell.
I don't know about any of you, but why wouldn't ANYONE want to play a character who sacrifices himself/herself for the good of his/her comrades and/or society...especially in a fantasy setting?
In real life, these are real heroes (in my opinion).
Thank again for the input! This Dungeon and the Dungeon online community makes my game better.
This Dungeon and the Dungeon online community makes my game better.
Amen, brother (sorry for the gender assumption :)).
I like the idea of the glorious sacrifice and it sounds like it'll work out since your player approached you about it. I would have been leery of it otherwise, since it adds up to you as a DM saying "you have no choice, you can't use the character you've been nurturing for so long. Bzzzzt. You're dead!" Willing player participation makes it a whole different ball of wax though. Glory!
Perhaps you could give the sacrificed character a little story reward for the whole thing? I.e. if they defeat Kyuss, the release of divine energy combined with a self-sacrifice means that the sacrificed character gains Kyuss' divinity though he becomes a minor god of anti-undead: a negative of Kyuss. The surviving players can receive appropriate material rewards (like a kingdom for instance).
This Dungeon and the Dungeon online community makes my game better.Amen, brother (sorry for the gender assumption :)).
I like the idea of the glorious sacrifice and it sounds like it'll work out since your player approached you about it. I would have been leery of it otherwise, since it adds up to you as a DM saying "you have no choice, you can't use the character you've been nurturing for so long. Bzzzzt. You're dead!" Willing player participation makes it a whole different ball of wax though. Glory!
Perhaps you could give the sacrificed character a little story reward for the whole thing? I.e. if they defeat Kyuss, the release of divine energy combined with a self-sacrifice means that the sacrificed character gains Kyuss' divinity though he becomes a minor god of anti-undead: a negative of Kyuss. The surviving players can receive appropriate material rewards (like a kingdom for instance).
Or, you can always raise the character as a Saint, from the Book of Exalted Deeds. As they made such a noble sacrifice,and that gives them a sense of helping, and reward.
Just a Thought.
--Tulani
Both of your ideas are very good, I will likely use one of them. I have a “Teaser Ending” that will capture the spirit of Savage Tide, and I will at the very least hint that maybe the loss of the sacrificial character might not be as permanent as feared. You know, a classic comic book ending.