My group has made it to Bhal-Hamatugn. They entered, found their way to the central chamber, and then retreated, drawing Aushanna out with them, and took her out. They then went the back way in (taking long enough in the process to give Mangh-Mictho time to dress), entering through the secret door to the central chamber.
Now, this fight took them down. Two characters down for the count, and four more retreating to Garekk's flooded room, hoping to beat a retreat out of Bhal-Hamatugn.
They're wounded, low on resources (cleric and wizard both basically out of spells, and the two who died were their bruisers), and easily surrounded. I could easily get a TPK out of this.
I don't want to. Anyone have any advice of how to play the villains smart, give the PC's a chance to accomplish their goal, and make it out relatively alive?
Party Resources:
Human Cleric of Fharlanghn, low on spells, low on wands, ok, but not great in combat.
Human Wizard, nearly out of spells (I think he has a Mirror Image left).
Human Warlock,
Human Monk.
a really easy solution... either make the room empty or change the encounter to something easier i.e. zombies. Let them retreat and come back in force. Of course Michto will have gotten a few more guards by then.
Sorry, perhaps I wasn't clear. They have already defeated Garekk. I was more talking about Dhorlot/Mangh-Mictho/Zenith, who could easily surround the room, causing a seige situation.
Anyone have any advice of how to play the villains smart, give the PC's a chance to accomplish their goal, and make it out relatively alive?
My party was captured then tortured by Garrek - nasty. When Garrek finaly left them to report to Zenith, they escaped. When they came back two day later, they had a purpose to conclude the adventure - revenge!
Sorry, perhaps I wasn't clear. They have already defeated Garekk. I was more talking about Dhorlot/Mangh-Mictho/Zenith, who could easily surround the room, causing a seige situation.
You can safely say that Zenith isn't going to participate unless the party comes to him.
I would also think that Dhorlot has little interest in the party and , seeing the temple in trashed by adventurers, would take his treasure and move on. Evil is like that sometimes.
That leaves Mangh-Mictho to defeat the players. Good luck, We all know what its like to have a party on the ropes and almost dead but wanting them to live on for another day.
I'm a bit surprised that the warlock can't defeat him one-on-one, but then the Warlocks I have played with where a bit overpowered.
Okay, here's my take, and take best with a grain of salt:
Wizard
Cleric (fharlangn, what domains and has he used his domain powers)
Warlock
Monk
You have a decent setup. Have the players run across darts, throwing darts (something on the Wizard's weapon list that he can use at range). The warlock & wizard are your ranged folk now. The Cleric & Monk are your unfortunate bruisers now. The warlock is now what level? (I don't have the mag right in front of me), but he's doing at least 2d6 from the eldritch blast. That should scare off whatever mooks you should throw at them. Don't bring Mango out yet, as he no longer would see them as a threat. Let them out, but not "easily."
This is where you as a DM don't do the TPK, but if they lose, say, the Cleric or Monk, you shouldn't be surprised. If they are retreating, and a stray bolt hits the wizard & drops him, again don't be surprised. One to three survivors is acceptable losses in this case. And yes, REVENGE is a heck of a powerful motivator.
How about Far... Fal... the two elven guys? Thrown the downed guys in the cells and let those two players run F&F until they can be busted out.
Thanks, everyone for the advice. What I ended up doing was having M-M convince them they would die if they tried to escape (that wasn't hard), and then get drawn into negotiation talks. It's amazing how often dialog can be intimidating, combined with the fact that he'd taken down their barbarian by himself.
They were (and are, I think) still convinced at this point that Zenith needed to rectify with his dad in order to get rid of the curse. So, the cleric agreed to remain behind (with heavy insinuation of being a 'plaything' for the unknown Dhorlot) in return for letting the other three (and two bodies) go free and being allowed to speak to Zenith. Was a good resolution, I think, for the situation. The right amount of tension, allowed them to hear prophecies, but they still failed at their mission of retreiving the dwarf.