My PCs found an...unusual way to deal with Ilthane in Gathering of Winds. They hit her with, in very fast succession, -8 levels due to enervation, feeblemind, charm monster, and baleful polymorph. She is now a friendly little Int 1 lizard.
This would be okay except that they plan to strategically undo some of those spells later (after they find Allustan) and question her. With their resources, they are almost certain to succeed. I have no idea what she knows, other than the plot in Mistmarsh. She invoked Dragotha's name when attacking the PCs, and that caught their interest. But I really have to avoid providing information that would lead to them shortcutting to the endgame, since of course it will kill them.
What does Ilthane know about Dragotha, and how? Does she know anyone else involved in the main plot arc? Maybe her main contact was Bozal; that would limit the usefulness of her information a bit.
(The PCs handle most fights with stuff like this. Up until the end, where they redeemed themselves in the public eye by their fight against the ulgarstasta, they were the most unpopular successful gladiators in the history of the Games. They would win, but no blood! no heroics! no spectacle! They turned Madtooth to a frog before it ever got an action. I had them roundly booed, but they didn't much care. Raknian had to have the frog turned back into Madtooth and killed by someone else that afternoon, or there would have been riots.)
Mary
That's hilarious! My PCs are just like that in my Eberron game (going for the one shot kills), so I feel like a kindred spirit. Luckily, my AoW PCs are a bit more viscerally oriented.
Anyway, to your problem - Ilthane should know quite a bit about Dragotha, her master, but not necessarily too much about Kyuss. She definitely shouldn't know about Lashonna; you can justify this as a byproduct of Ilthane not having her lair in the Wormcrawl Fissure compounded by Lashonna's desire for secrecy.
One of the first things she should verbalize about Dragotha is that he is a dracolich red wyrm. If this doesn't scare your 11th level PCs into holding off on a direct assault of the Wormcrawl Fissure, I suppose they deserve what comes next. After all, they still face the problem of Dragotha's phylactery ('where is it?'), and they won't have the necessary lead to pursue it until the beginning of Library of Last Resort.
I think it's okay to give them some information now, since they managed to take such a knowledgeable prisoner, mainly because there is little they can do with the information if they really think about it.
Alternatively, you could cheese them out by having a Dragotha-hired assassin snipe Ilthane-the-friendly-lizard before she can be restored to her original form.
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Hi Mary,
A tricky situation you have found yourself in, balancing future enjoyment and plot cohesiveness with the clever actions of the PCs that should be rewarded.
Firstly I would look closely at the Charm Monster spell as that is the only thing allowing the PCs to question her, otherwise I imagine she would go feral and attack them - once the polymorph is off that is.
The Charm Monster spell says she regards them as trusted friends and allies. However, she would still be cautious in regards to Dragotha - her fear of Dragotha should override any charming effect in my opinion in regards to information involving him. Perhaps she would ask the PCs a few questions too, particularly in regards to why they destroyed her efforts with the egg - or perhaps she now assumes it was someone else and she wants to find out who it was - maybe even get the PCs to take them out if they know? However, in regards to Dragotha, she would certainly not give away his position, even if she knew this (which I doubt she would). However, she would most likely be able to contact an intermediary - one of the big dragons from Kings of the Rift. She might offer to arrange a meeting for the PCs with one of these so they can then deal with Dragotha directly and assist the Dracolich with his plans.
However, the PCs would be crazy to follow her in this regard as the intermediary dragon you choose would absolutely roast them. In regards to the Age of Worms, Ilthane most likely knows little aside from the usual doom of the world stuff with perhaps a tasty morsel or two thrown in. She just follows orders - orders directly from Drgotha but through this intermediary dragon.
The question becomes whether you want to link Dragotha directly to Kyuss or to leave the connection between them hazy. I can see benefits in both. However, the focus you want for the PCs at the moment is to want to find out more about Kyuss (that's the whole premise of The Spire of Long Shadows). As such, anything that leads them to Manzorian for further information about Kyuss is good. As such I would leave the connection between Kyuss and Dragotha hazy, this should then give the party a big knowing "aaah" moment with one of the visions at the Spire when the relationship is confirmed.
In the end, the PCs most likely should not get that much out of her. I'd go the dragon intermediary approach to put her one more place down the Kyuss chain. Give away fluff that in the end means little - and should spur the PCs to find out more. Perhaps when they try to dispel the baleful polymorph, they'll dispel the Charm Monster too, in which case she'll just go feral and try to kill them all.
Perhaps there is one other line that you could take with this. Perhaps she was to meet with this intermediary dragon at a particular time that may have just elapsed. Perhaps this dragon will come looking for her if it finds out that she is still alive and can scry her? In this way, Ilthane becomes an exceedingly dangerous captive if the dragon knows the PCs have her (and have tormented her in her little lizard form). The threat of a CR 19 Dragon should be enough to get the PCs to deal with her very quickly in a most final way. I'd be careful with this, but the threat of a massive dragon dropping in on them should keep them on edge, a fear you can play on here and there as the campaign develops.
This is all of a muddle but hopefully there's some wisdom in here you can use.
Best Regards
Herremann the Wise
Hi Mary,
Firstly I would look closely at the Charm Monster spell as that is the only thing allowing the PCs to question her, otherwise I imagine she would go feral and attack them - once the polymorph is off that is.
The player has actually been rather clever here. Ilthane is at -8 levels, so she will tend to fail saves. He cast two Touch of Idiocy spells, ten minutes apart, on her before removing the Polymorph and Feeblemind. (No, there is no chance of accidentally removing other spells, at least not as I read Dispel Magic: you can target it on a specific spell.) She ended up as an Int 2 Wis 3 charmed dragon. The other PCs kept carefully out of her sight here. At Int 2 her basic reaction to the charmer was "You're my friend. Feed me!" and that's what the charmer did. The PCs then waited for the first Touch of Idiocy to wear off, leaving a charmed Int 7 Wis 8 Cha 7 dragon with 8 negative levels. Such a critter is not going to make any saves or skill checks, so it's very hard to argue that the PCs don't find out what she knows, especially when Detect Thoughts is added to the mix.
Then they killed her. Too dangerous to keep.
The player was, I think, very disappointed with her information. He is craving some local enemy to engage with; his PCs take the attitude that the Age of Worms as a whole is too big, too nebulous, and too obviously someone else's problem. I wish I'd had a big Ilthane-related plot to spill. I may have to write an intermediate adventure between Gathering of Winds and Spire of Long Shadows.
Mary
How bad did you roll for Ilthane's SR? All the spells your players cast allow Spell Resistance, especially the key spell, which was enervation. BTW, was that spell maximized or did your player roll 4 each time? All in all, assuming your player was a 11th level wizard, s/he expended alot of their high level spell slots. Good luck in the True Tomb!
Ilthane is actually a relatively minor flunky in the grand scheme of things (just look at all the dragons that appear later in the AP), though she definitely knows about Dragotha. Most of her involvement centers aroud her plan to corrupt the lizardfolk in the Mistmarsh and some stuff in Alhaster.