Dhorlot

[AmbassadorShade]

What is a black dragon doing in a little room like that? Sure, he's getting a lot of Kua-Toa action (shudder) but he has no quick escape, and would he even fit in/out the little door?

[Dedekind]

My players asked the same thing. There is the back story (which my players didn't figure out) but I just assume the dragon needed a place to stay and no where in the temple was large enough.

But, yes, the fight was pretty easy since the dragon didn't have much mobility.

[Shimrath]

Agreed. Only a white dragon would be dumb enough to trap himself in a tiny room like that.

I had Dhorlot negotiate with the Kuo-toan priests for an escape tube that provides him access to the lake outside. However many stone shape spells later, the Dragon-Father has an easy way to get in and out of his temporary lair in Bhal-hamatugn.

[AmbassadorShade]

In all seriousness, in my campaign, instead of stairs leading out of the room, it will be a ramp leading to a wide, arched doorway. I'll make Dhorlot's room bigger, and have a secret tunnel at the rear that leads out of the complex, and under the lake.

And not so seriously, I think I'll make it a Dragon Bachelor Pad.

I'll optionally add a plush heart-shaped bed with a switch that causes the bed to slowly spin & vibrate. Mirrors on the roof and a magic mouth that occasionally fires up with some Barry White music.

What is Kua-Toan for "Can't get enough of your love, Babe" and "This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you, Baby."

;)

[The Black Bard]

...ew. That's awesomely disturbing imagery. Kudos!

In my last session, my group faced Dhorlot. Since the warlock had EATEN Gottrod's heart in a spur of the moment act (that gave him a bonus invocation, and a massive case of heartburn), Dhorlot noticed this immediately and realized that A: his greatest enemy was dead, and B: the people who killed him were now facing him in a cramped room.

So he rolls over and shows his belly. Asks for parlay, offers half of his hoard in exchange for his freedom. To his surprise, the power hungry warlock offers for him to live freely in his mountain keep outside of Cauldron. Even willing to arrange for "experiment supplies" through the various animal husbandry and importing buisinesses in Cauldron.

So now the warlock has a sexually deviant evil dragon living in his basement. The rest of the party is kind of taking an "out of sight, out of mind" view of this, as they see his bizzare experiments as creepy, but not neccessarily evil. I may give them a few tense moments, say a "lady of the night" dissapearing from Cauldron and being found wandering around the warlock's keep in a dazed and confused state.

I think I'll have Hookface showcase his raw badassery by owning Dhorlot in the Evacuation events. Nothing like seeing the dragon you once feared getting dirtnapped by a bigger one to crank up the tension.

[Fantomas]

AmbassadorShade wrote:

In all seriousness, in my campaign, instead of stairs leading out of the room, it will be a ramp leading to a wide, arched doorway. I'll make Dhorlot's room bigger, and have a secret tunnel at the rear that leads out of the complex, and under the lake.

And not so seriously, I think I'll make it a Dragon Bachelor Pad.

I'll optionally add a plush heart-shaped bed with a switch that causes the bed to slowly spin & vibrate. Mirrors on the roof and a magic mouth that occasionally fires up with some Barry White music.

What is Kua-Toan for "Can't get enough of your love, Babe" and "This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you, Baby."

;)

That's pretty hilarious haha. When I read this adventure, I had Dhorlot in my head as a minor encounter. The PCs are higher level than him. But things took an unexpected turn when the PCs hacked up piles of kuo-toans, set off an alert, and then tried to take a 6 hour rest in the armory.

Ultimately, the kuo toans found out where the PCs were, and Dhorlot decided to investigate. He went to the armory and tried to make them a deal - he'd let them go if they gave him their female. Their female is the party paladin.

The PCs tried to fight him, but the 4E cloud of darkness is pure death in a cramped hallway. The PCs had to run.

Next session, they came back to the temple focusing on dealing with Dhorlot. But they ended up finding and killing Zenith instead. I thought to myself "well good, the dragon can just stay there. He was giving them trouble". But the players made it very clear to me that after they handed Zenith over to Gortio that they were going back for Dhorlot!

At the beginning of that session, they had rested back in Gottrod's cave lair (not too far from the Pit of Seven Jaws). I had thrown an encounter at them where they found a small orc camp. The male orcs of the camp attacked and the PCs killed them. Then they saw the females. I tried to portray the orc females as just horrible, evil women. Smacking their spawn, even evidence of them eating one of their own children.

My idea was that they could offer these orc women to Dhorlot for safe passage. But they either didn't realize that was a possibility, or more likely, they were not interested. They want to kill the Dragon-Father.

I may not put in a rotating heart-shaped bed, but I should probably make some kind of "passion area" where Dhorlot takes his fish-maidens.

[section8]

AmbassadorShade wrote:

I'll optionally add a plush heart-shaped bed with a switch that causes the bed to slowly spin & vibrate. Mirrors on the roof and a magic mouth that occasionally fires up with some Barry White music.

My group used a Locate Creature spell to find Zenith, and so missed the entire Dhorlot encounter. They realized they skipped a lot of the Kuo-Toan living areas, so they are finally returning.

Due to the actions of my PCs, Dhorlot has moved into the main temple area (Aushanna was "killed" by the PCs) and is now worshipped as a Father to the new race. Funny enough, the group left the 2 prisoners in their cells as they were so focused on escaping with Zenith that they forgot them. I am sure that finding them as spectres will make an interesting encounter.

In re-reading the material, I found an oversight. The Hall of Heroes (area 10) has females that died giving birth to Dhorlot's children. The fingerlings are described as tadpoles. The Kuo-Toans are like sentient frogs. According to the MM, Kuo-Toans spawn similar to fish. This means that females lay soft eggs in groups, and the males fertilize them afterward. So Dhorlot's child-making activities will be much different than many have assumed (possibly even the writers).

[Fantomas]

Dhorlot ended up becoming something of a legend in my group. When they burst in on him in his lair, he was on a big cushion, with a kuo toa female stroking him lovingly. He corrected their pronunciation of his name in his french accent...

So last session, the heroes ran into Dhorlot's lost son, the half-minotaur Zarik Dhor. The heroes have been tormenting the poor NPC ever since. It's pretty hilarious.