Well, Dragotha suffered ignominious defeat at our last session.
The seven heroes, having been chased out of the Tabernacle of Worms once, regrouped and returned by teleportation to the Wormdrake’s cavern the following day. There, they fought a second wormdrake plus a Ragewalker (MM3, with 10 fighter levels) that had been summoned up by all the rage, death and evil of this unholy site. Then, they flew to the upper level.
They battled four Nightwalkers (instead of Nightcrawlers, because I had the minis and because I wanted something other than more worms) – the dwarf eldritch knight was horrified to see his cold iron longsword reduced to scrap, and before the end of the fight, the elf ranger lost his (very expensive) longbow and the warforged-scout rogue lost one of the two blades recovered from the Tomb of Icosiel (the warforged made his Fortitude save on the other – he was greatly relieved).
During this battle, they could hear Dragotha’s deep, deep voice rumbling down the curved passage ahead of them. The foul creature was cursing “that Kyuss-(darned) silver @%&$” and ranting about how once he dealt with these interlopers, he’d go deal with her for “stealing my monolith.”
At this point, I should mention that the handsome catfolk healer had greatly impressed the lillend bard Zulshyn (well, she thought he was an incredibly interesting physical specimen, anyway – boy, was the player embarrassed), and he had agreed to come stay with her for a year as her companion (after he and the others dealt with Kyuss) if she and her apocalypse golems would come and help the party in their battle against Dragotha. So at this time, he used the magical token she had gifted to him (the players called it his “Booty Call”) to bring Zulshyn and her golems to join them. As Dragotha fell silent (realizing the fight was almost upon him), the adventurers (and Zulshyn) cast their final prep spells. Zulshyn even used a Wish to restore the eldritch knight’s cold iron sword to working condition (“Gosh, I wish that hadn’t happened”). They also learned the details of the assistance Balakarde would offer them in their battle. And then they ventured into the cavern.
The colossal Dragotha perched not far inside the cavern (which was about twice as big as the map indicated, since I’d upgraded Dragotha’s size). Dragotha breathed an Energy-Admixtured breath weapon of Fire and Electricity (they were all immune to the former, but not the latter). The adventurers delayed for the catfolk healer to Mass Heal them all, then several charged to the attack.
The warforged-scout rogue made it to the far side of the undead dragon, and did a bit of damage. The dwarf eldritch knight charged (flying) toward the dragon’s head, while the half-orc bear warrior charged along the ground. A fair amount of damage was dealt to the beast.
Three Swords of Kyuss stepped out from behind the massive ziggurat and one used his Invocation of the Worm to heal most of the damage his master had taken. Dragotha took a full-attack action to deal about 350 hit points of damage to the half-orc bear warrior, dropping him to -20hp – and showing the others that one to two of them would be slain per round if they came within the dragon’s reach. The druid (wild-shaped into dire tiger form) was charging the Swords of Kyuss to stop them from healing their master, but wondering if he shouldn’t have stayed in the main fight instead.
The healer decided to run forward and Revivify the bear warrior (raising him to stable at -1hp), and two of the apocalypse golems ran forward with him to guard him. Dragotha’s attack of opportunity struck one of these glass guardians instead of the catfolk healer, so his spell was successful. With Dragotha’s attack of opportunity spent, Zulshyn ran forward and then teleported herself, the catfolk healer, and the unconscious bear warrior to a safer spot near the cavern entrance. Others of the adventurers attacked the dragon and dealt substantial damage, but still only a fraction of that needed to put down the beast.
And then two of Zulshyn’s apocalypse golems made their attacks. Each unleashed a Prismatic Spray on Dragotha, and I proceeded to roll for the effects. Two 8’s – so each generated two results.
The first was a 4 and a 7 – Poison (Dragotha was immune), and the possibility of sending Dragotha to another plane. Dragotha handily made his save, and sneered.
The second was a 4 and a 5. Poison again (Dragotha was still immune), and a save to avoid being turned to stone. Because this was a Supernatural ability, spell resistance didn’t apply, so straight on to the Will save, which Dragotha could only fail on a natural 1. Two of the players stood and were making “jazz hands” palm-down at the table, chanting “One, one, one” – and I rolled a natural 1.
I worried for a moment that they might cry foul. This wasn’t just an NPC making the final blow – it was an NPC’s minion! But the players were high-fiving each other and celebrating. They spent some time chopping the statue to bits, dispersing the bits, and then casting Break Enchantment and stomping the fleshy bits to make sure no one could put Humpty-Dumpty together again.
So the fight was an overwhelming success, despite the unorthodox ending. My only concern now is that, as they plan for their final fight with Kyuss, they might decide they can all whore themselves out to powerful NPCs in exchange for help.
And that post will look a lot better when the Pirate-Speech feature gets turned off. Although I'm making a copy of both versions to share with the group. Ye' scurvy dogs!
Um...aren't undead immune to petrification?
The undead are, by the books, immune to anything that requires a Fortitude save that doesn't also affect objects. That said, since they're made out of organic matter, I can see the logic in making them vulnerable to petrification.
That sounds like an awesome fight, and so long as your players had fun, who cares if it was an ally's minion that did the Big D in? Of course, Zulshyn won't be around to help them once Kyuss starts pouring out of the monolith...
I admit, it didn't occur to me at the time that Flesh to Stone doesn't affect objects. That may be a mental holdover on my part from previous editions, when it was considered to be basically the same spell, reversed, to cast Stone to Flesh, which obviously affected (stone) objects. But the group was having such a good time with that ending, I'm still happy with it.
And they promptly had a discussion about the fact that Kyuss, as a god, won't fail saves automatically on a natural 1.