Well, My PCs decided that discretion is the better part of valor, as they spent a half hour discussing whether or not they were going to teleport into the Dragotha's writhing sanctum, to finally decide in not following Balakarde's footsteps. (Good thing too, I had a five round play-by-play tactics set up for Dragotha and all of his minions. With Greater Anticipate Teleportation in place, they would have had to watch Dragotha buff and mock them for three rounds while getting every minion in the tabernacle up there to fight them. EL 29+, Definite TPK.)
The PCs buffed themsleves in Zulshyn's fortress and then Windwalked past the Chimeras, down the tunnel, and straight across the bridge. The drow rogue/hexblade cohort drops out of windwalk, alerting all of the overworms to her presence. She proceeds to search the front door for traps (finding it), and rolled a natural 20 on disable device (what she needed to get DC 40). I elected not to use Zyrith and Venk as six PCs plus cohorts versus 1 monster= waste of gametime, even with overworms. (They'll be in the sanctum instead), so they proceeded into the first room. They were greeted by the Six Avolakia priests, who were joined two rounds later by Mahuudril.
While not terribly challenging, I inflicted a lot of damage by substituting Mindworms (Dragon 343, Spells of Kyuss)for Death Ward as their domain spell, chewing up resources. The priests themeslves stood about six good rounds before being slaughtered, with Mahuudril teleporting away after a failed ForceCage attempt on the Paladin, who had teleported next to her (The ominous fabler's helm strikes again). I advanced Mahuudril to an 18th level sorcerer, giving her Mordenkainen's Dysjunction, Maze, and a couple other options besides Finger of Death which a smart party will be protected against. Alas it was not enough, as you will soon see...
The party bypasses the wormdoor with massive amounts of damage (needed only 1s to fail saves...grr), to take the side passage straight into the Wormdrake's cavern. The party stares in awe at the thing and buff themselves. A couple bowshots and spells bounce off it as the party gets a feel for its defenses. On its turn, it proceeds to use Gate, bringing in a Balor (Nothing scares a party like the word 'Vorpal')and moves to get a good line next turn with its wormbreath. The Balor summons a Glabrezu and moves forward. The party stares in horror as spells continue to shrugg off the creature's prodigious SR and resistances. The druid casts Shapechange, turning into a Wyrm Black dragon. Mother maggot teleports in, invisible and a good sixty feet behind the Wormdrake. The party knows a line when they see it, so proceed to spread out slightly while advancing. Mother Maggot hits the Druid with MDJ, dropping all his defenses. Wormdrake proceeds to breath acid and cold cone, which nearly drops two PCs, having about half effect on the majority, while one sucking the 106 damage into its BreathDrinker Sword (Dragon 342)and another evading. The Balor uses Firestorm while the Glazbrezu hits the Rogue/Hexblade with Power Word Stun. Half of the party is at 25% health or less!!
Lots of healing occurs at this point from the PCs, with only the Ranger/Figher and Ranger/Deepwood Stalker taking any offensive actions. Paladin riding Gold Dragon flies towards Mahuudril, only to have her Maze the Dragon away. Wormdrake breathes Wormbreath on clustered, healing PCs, while Balor swings with abandon at Solar (He can't damage it, but I figured I would roll a natural 20 once or twice..I never did against the one I wanted to, the Solar). Glabrezu teleports into the midst of hereos, preparing to unleash chaos. The druid casts Shapechange again, turning into a Wyrm Green while others cast Assay Spell Resistance (Which they were saving for Dragotha, ensuring that later castings of flamestrikes and harm get through. Wormdrake retreats slightly after taking numerous blows due to landing (to be fair, it was the only way to get him into a line for breath), and uses Summon Worm to bring forth 2 Frost Worms and a Purple Worm. Glabrezu gets honed as Breathdreaker sword unleashes Wormdrake's breath against it followed by some Solar beat-down. Purple Worm ties up Paladin, letting Mahuudril hit Druid with Finger of Death (no death ward due to MDJ). He makes the save and decides enough's enough. He shapechanges into a Beholder and blankets the cavern in Anti-magic. Due to it's angle, only Mahuudril and the paladin engaging her are effected (summoned worm disappears), though no one can close quickly because of this. Balor waylays with abandon (still no 20). Spirit Shaman PC attempts to fly through Balor's threatened area to cast Heal on comrade....and the Balor finally rolls a natural 20 (with a 19 on confirm) on the attack of opportunity. Lopp!!(1 dead). At this point the Wormdrake breathes again, reducing the already damaged frost Worms and Balor to be at the brink of death. Rangers roll a round of critical hits against Wormdrake (4 of em') taking him far down.
Here's where it gets crazy. The Solar proceeds to finish off the Balor, causing him to explode. This does enough damage to kill the FrostWorms, which in turn explode. The entire area was blanketed with 200+ damage in one instance, not even on a monster's turn (and since its Extraordinary to explode, no Antimagic for you!!) The wormdrake and three PCs died instantly, while the survivors confronted and cornered a seriously screwed Mother Maggot (She's okay in physical combat, but Paladin and Rangers made every save against Poison, which they were immune to without Antimagic).
Final tally: 4 dead PCs, before even getting to Dragotha. Thank goodness for True Resurrection, I really can't see the old "And you see this guy tied up in the Sanctum's Dungeon. He must be a prisoner and...describe yourself please!" working in this dungeon. Dragotha doesn't strike me as the type who keeps living prisoners. Can't wait til Sunday when they fight Dragotha!!!!
Best things about Wormdrake:
1)A Monster with Gate, and the power and knowledge to use it.
2)Great resitances insure he sticks around a good 5+ rounds of combat.
3)Breath weapons are both deadly and unique, with one getting around Elemntal resitances and the other being near death for anyone de-buffed
4)Summoning a d4 of Giant Worms is just awesome.
5)His encountered area plays greatly to his strenghts.
I could see 3 of these things mopping the floor with any party, even Epic. Great job, Mr. Jacobs!
Awesome. You run a great table. Glad to see this adventure plays as well as it reads.
Funny footnote... when I had the wormdrake breath use its freezing acid breath weapon, everyone stopped and said, "Wait... doesn't acid become *less* caustic at low temperatures???"
I could only reply, "Shut up and make your Ref save, Mr. Science!"
Funny footnote... when I had the wormdrake breath use its freezing acid breath weapon, everyone stopped and said, "Wait... doesn't acid become *less* caustic at low temperatures???"
I could only reply, "Shut up and make your Ref save, Mr. Science!"
Ha! LOL!
And to think I toyed with the notion of moving the Wormdrake in with Dragotha for a little extra help.
I didn't use its gate ability. Didn't need it; this Wormdrake packs a whallop.
Its stories like this that make me realize what a great game this is.
Awesome encounter. Wish I could have been there even to just observe it all go down in real life.
That sounds like it was a true battle royale, great play-by-play too. Awesome use of summon/gate tactics. My only question: could the gated balor summon another demon? Not a gamebreaker, I know, but I didn't think gated creatures could use their gate/summon abilities.
That sounds like it was a true battle royale, great play-by-play too. Awesome use of summon/gate tactics. My only question: could the gated balor summon another demon? Not a gamebreaker, I know, but I didn't think gated creatures could use their gate/summon abilities.
At first, I thought not. But Gate doesn't have the same stipulation that Summon Monster does stating the monster in question can't teleport or summon.
At first, I thought not. But Gate doesn't have the same stipulation that Summon Monster does stating the monster in question can't teleport or summon.
Spells of the summoning subschool (such as summon monster) prevent a summoned creature from using any innate summoning abilities.
Gate, however, is of the calling subschool when used to conjure a creature (it is of the creation subschool if you are just creating a planar portal). Any creature called is physically present and cannot be dispeled like a summoned creature can. They may also use their innate summoning abilities.
That clears that up...thanx!