As stated in the title, this post contains Burnt Offerings spoilers, so read ahead at your own risk. Also, this does get rather long, but I think it's pretty funny, too. As always, YMMV. :)
It seems my players always find a way to do the strangest things.
So, my PCs were exploring the Catacombs of Wrath this past weekend (I know, but hey, we only get to game every so often) and they came to the big fight against Erylium, the quasit.
Now, I feel I should set the scene first. The party consisted of a human barbarian, a human ranger (ranged specialty), a halfling rogue, and a half-elf swashbuckler, all 2nd level. The barbarian and the ranger are Shoanti brothers of the Skoan-Quah clan. You'll notice that there are no dedicated spellcasters at all in the party's composition. My players are challenging themselves to try to get through this AP without a spellcaster (other than the ranger) in the party. They plan on stocking up on healing potions, wands, and commissioning any magic items they may need along the way.
So, as you can guess, the party is pretty lethal against most mundane opponents, but I thought creatures like Erylium would prove to be quite the challenge. Not so. Here's how my PCs did it...
The encounter started out pretty much as scripted in Burnt Offerings - with the exception that Erylium was surprised on Round 1 (due to pretty poor Listen rolls on her part, and good Listen rolls on the rogue's part). She screamed indignantly as the PCs burst in, but was unable to take any action the first round. To compound her bad luck, she rolled poorly on her initiative check, meaning that pretty much everyone acted before her on round two.
The party didn't squander their opportunity when they saw they had the drop on Erylium. Due to her being flat-footed during the surprise round (and through a goodly portion of the party's round 2), she took quite a number of hits from a ranged sneak attack, a critical hit from a crossbow bolt, and a nasty lump on her head from a raging barbarian. Despite her Damage Reduction, they had already knocked her down to 2/3rds of her max hitpoints. However, their luck was about to change...
Once Erylium finally got her first action for the encounter at the end of round 2 (and, as a result, got to add her considerable DEX bonus to her AC), she flew up out of the barbarian's threat zone, easily avoiding his attack of opportunity. She then flew up directly above the Runewell and summoned a sinspawn.
Once round 3 rolls around, the PCs had no trouble dispatching the sinspawn as soon as it was formed, but on Erylium's next action, she turned invisible and moved somewhere else within the cathedral, planning to summon creatures and cast spells on the poor PCs with impunity. Or so I thought.
On round 4 - remember the PCs all were able to act before Erylium - the barbarian, not being one for ranged attacks even if he could see his target, becomes very angry (even angrier than a normal raging barbarian). He wanted to taunt the quasit to get back in range of his hammer. He looks at his Shoanti brother, and, without a word passed between the players of the two characters, BOTH Shoanti open their trousers and start - shall we say, relieving themselves - into the Runewell. And here I thought the adventure write up covered pretty much everything that a DM was likely to come across.
My jaw dropped and the room erupted in laughter. I don't think Erylium had planned for this. So, I had to do some serious thinking on how she would respond to this desecration. I got to thinking about how she had been waiting 10,000 years, devoutly worshipping Lamashtu, yet having her prayers gone unanswered until just 5 years ago, when the Runewell bubbled back to life.
The text mentions she more or less goes insane from the inactivity during her imprisonment in the catacombs (presumably even more unhinged than a normal CE outsider). She sees the Runewell as a sign from her goddess of her divine favor - possibly even the first sign of favor from Lamashtu in 10,000 years. (Heres where I start to extrapolate.) Couple this with the fact that she's been staring into the depths of a Runewell of WRATH for the past 5 years or so, teaching a young girl how to nurse her hatred. Agoraphobia or no, Erylium sees that Runewell as the key to the expansion of her little empire - if not outright escape.
So, when she sees the two Shoanti desecrating her Runewell - which, she incorrectly assumes (again, my interpretation) to be Lamashtu's first manifestation of her power (and her favor towards Erylium) in the last 10,000 years - I figured Erylium would have at least some sort of chance of snapping her already tenuous sanity.
I decided to have her make a relatively low Will save - DC 10 + the combined CHA modifiers of the barbarian and ranger (which in this case amounted to DC 12) - to avoid basically going into a rage herself. She has a good Will save, so it shouldn't be much of a problem. I rolled a 1.
So, Erylium frothed at the mouth, screamed in a maddening frenzy, and charged right at the barbarian - probably the absolutely worst thing a tiny spellcaster can do tactically, despite her high AC. She essentially went into a rage for two rounds, like a barbarian, clawing away (and poisoning people), but otherwise doing little actual damage.
The party, on the other hand, took advantage of her tactical blunder and set up flanks, sneak attacks, and what have you. By the time Erylium came out of her "rage", the battle was pretty much decided. She tried to use her Cause Fear ability, but to little avail. On the next round, she planned on going invisible again and casting spells, but it was too late. The party pretty much ground her to paste right there in front of the barbarian.
So, that's how they did it. I found their methods to be an interesting - if not inspired, in a toilet humor sort of way - method of turning a potentially deadly battle into a resounding victory for the PCs.
I have to admit, I was thoroughly amused by the party's creativity in the situation. So, I came to the boards both to share my tale and to hear what other crazy ways your players have overcome obstacles in your RotRL campaign.
So, what crazy schemes have your RotRL players come up with, whether they succeeded or not? I'd love to hear them! :D
(Again, sorry about the length.)
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As stated in the title, this post contains Burnt Offerings spoilers, so read ahead at your own risk. Also, this does get rather long, but I think it's pretty funny, too. As always, YMMV. :)
It seems my players always find a way to do the strangest things.
***Spoiler omitted***
...That reminds me of Fatespinner's RotRL game; one of his players got nauseated by Erylium and spent a bit throwing up into the Runewell. Apparently spitting in the face of evil is no longer in vogue; now you have to do more outlandish things. ;)
My favorite humor bit from RotRL was when the PCs were trying to haul an unconscious giant prisoner down a snowy mountain on an improvised sled. The organizing PC failed his Survival check, and the sled began to slide away from its haulers. The human and centaur PCs dutifully made Strength checks as they grabbed the ropes, reached for handy trees, braced themselves and just barely managed to stop the sled from escaping.
They then turned to look at the sled and found all three of the halfling PCs sitting on it--apparently on the grounds that if the sled was going to make an uncontrolled descent to the bottom of the mountain, they wanted to be along for the ride!
The fact that one of those halflings is now the Champion of Wrath--and really lives up to the name--has also been fun. Watching Lel sweep into the room with his entourage of inhumanly tall bodyguards and air of unquestionable menace--all four feet of him--is pretty cool.
Mary