I originally posted in the obit. But I thought the experience was worth sharing.
The Party:
Korthag: Male Dwarf Cleric 4th of Irori, Grew up in the hills neighbouring Jhanderhoff and came to Sandpoint to catch up with his brother and seek self-perfection threw travel.
Keela: Female Shoanti (axe-clan with tattoo) Barbarian 4th, Grew up as a tamed wild-child on a boat trading between Riddleport and Magnimar, got off at Sandpoint after her captain’s death.
Gwenda: Female Half-Orc (Parents from the Cinderlands) Barbarian 1st-Fighter3rd, Was taken to Sandpoint as a child by her human father who was soon-after killed by tribe-mates, Grew up doing odd-jobs and left after witnessing one of Chopper’s murders.
Laura: Female Varisan Bard 4th, Grew up on the Varisian caravan roads daughter of a well-respected varisian leader as a silver-tongued seductress bearer of the Carnassia (enchantement) Varisian Tattoo.
The party went almost directly from level 1 to level 3 in Thistletop following a runaway Lyrie. After defeating Nualia, her pet and Lyrie, the party was very low on resources (hp and spells) so they rested there for a while but where disturbed by Bruthalzamus who they drove off (He left Thistletop, being seriously injured and seeing his employer dead. He was followed by others.).
When they started moving on they had a few spells left and about 1/3 hp all around. The group found the key and entrance to Malfeshnekor’s lair but they were mostly under the impression that Nualia was trying to summon Malfeshnekor (except for Gwenda who had a “bad felling about this”) so they opened the door. The fight was brutal and since they didn’t realize that the monster was bound to the room they gave it their all to stop it from escaping, it was a brave heros’ stand against an overwhelming evil but in the end they were out-matched.
That’s where the fudging began: I chose to make “getting out” Malfeshnekor’s main objective. Instead of having him completely mad from his capture and consuming all of the party, he controlled his urges and chose to use the party. (I had asked if any player wanted to make a new character, warning them that what would follow wasn’t going to be pretty, but they all wanted to stick with it).
So, he stabilized them, took all their gear, destroyed their lesser items and holy-symbol in the fire-pit and over the next 9 days, he proceeded to beating, charming, intimidating, abusing and torturing them to learn of the current outside world (he had never seen either dwarves or orcs!) and find out how they could help him get out. Keela and Laura were treated a bit differently because of the tattoos that he somewhat recognized.
And in the end Keela (whom he associated with his old Lord) was sent out (charmed) to rush out to Magnimar with magic items mostly useless to her to trade for Scrolls of Anti-Magic Field (one Arcane and one Divine), her memories of the journey are hazy but may get clearer when she returns to Magnimar. When she came back, Laura (charmed) was convinced to Use Magical Device the 1st scroll to let him get out and traded “intimate” favours to the beast so he wouldn’t eat them all before leaving (here too the tattoo added a significant worth to the favours coming from what he saw as a willing pawn of another Lord), so he locked them up in the room and left with all their gear.
It took close to a full day for them to get out, combining some no-focus/material component buff spells, improvised weapons and rage to bash the door and getting back to Sandpoint. Over the next few days among the group there was a lot of silence, then some yelling, then some talking and then some vowing against the Beast that got away.
The town was very supportive and thankful of their beaten-up heroes.
Still a few days later Korthag and Laura (who had since “seen the light” of Calistria) had omens of something coming. They all caught-up with Malfeshnekor (and Bruthalzamus and a few other bugbears) in the previously emptied Chapel of Wrath where he was trying to get in contact with Lamashtu. They had help at the time, some wanted (a couple of Pathfinders, Ezren and Harsk from Magnimar), some un-wanted (a Fiendish-Four-Armed-Gargoyled from the hash pit on Chopper Island) it was still a tough encounter but in the end they prevailed (and got some of their gear back from the Beast and his mooks)!
It was a great sub-plot and I think it will be remembered for a good while by all!
Sounds cool great way to turn a TPK into a great roleplaying experince
My party had a much stronger sense of self-preservation. They shut the door in the hope of just slowing down the beast, thinking that it wouldn't stop him. Lucky them.
Unfortunately, my PCs left Thistletop as soon as they killed Nualia so that entire wing of the dungeon has been left unexplored. By the time I knew it, the PCs were all way too powerful for Malfeshnekor.
Sounds cool great way to turn a TPK into a great roleplaying experince
I have to give credit to previous posters of the RotRL board for some great ideas and to the writers for plenty of material to flesh out and link the ideas.
Many thanks!
