How does he DO that? (CoBI Spoilers)

[ellegua]

I'm prepping the first encounter of CoBI, and I can't figure something out. In Onailati's tactics, it says that if he is reduced to < 30hp he teleports back to Khala so preparations can be made for the PCs arrival (the adventure even goes on to say that it assumes that this occurs).

My question's pretty simple: How? He doesn't have it as a SLA, it's not a typical ability for a maurezhi, nor a Julajimus, and the Acolyte doesn't have the spell on his list of spells known. Am I missing something (which is entirely possible)?

Did anybody else catch this, and if so, how did you work around it? I doubt my PCs are experienced enough to catch it (and I know I sure didn't the first time I played Tide as a PC!), but I like being fair anyway. Darn Lawful alignment! :)

Thanks for the help, fellow STAPers!

[Triple20]

Well spotted!

Spoiler:

We've yet to play CoBI, and I remember reading this an thinking, yeah, he's a demon, so Greater Teleport - which he doesn't have. Checked the Fiend Folio entry, is not there, and Tanar'ri do not get it by default. This is kind of a big deal, as the Temple encounters assume he got away and warned them.

You could have him use his assume shape power to change into a Lizardman or something else that can swim, or maybe even a humanoid with wings of some type, and get away that way. He's a lot higher HD than the base creature, so you could easily assume he's seen a lot different humanoids, and well, eaten them...

Swimming in the lake, of course, presents a few dangers of its own (well, one really big one, anyway).

Triple20!

[Morgen]

Sure he doesn't have some kind of little item focus that zaps him back to the temple? A little stick to break or something along those lines?

[Matthew Vincent]

ellegua wrote:

Did anybody else catch this, and if so, how did you work around it?

I gave him an item with {url="http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/refuge.htm"]refuge[/url] cast on it.

... didn't need it though: he didn't have a chance to act once he reached < 30 hp.

[Mykull]

I'm just going to say that he paid for a contingency spell.

Assuming it ever comes up and the PC's demand an explanation.

[Matthew Vincent]

To make up for the error, I had given Onailati an object with the Refuge spell cast on it... not that he had a chance to use it (< 30 hp is a pretty small window of opportunity at that level).

[Matthew Vincent]

Mykull wrote:

I'm just going to say that he paid for a contingency spell.

I was thinking of that too, but since contingency can only be cast on yourself, by the strict rules he would either need the Use Magic Device skill (which unfortunately he doesn't have) or have access to some very powerful rings of spell-storing every few weeks.

[Mykull]

Contingency is 6th level. I create spells of one to two levels higher for any spell that has a target of "personal" that instead has a target of "one creature or object."

So, a 7th level contingency could be cast on another person.
In my campaign world.
Maybe not yours.
Maybe not anyone else's.

[Morgen]

Matthew Vincent wrote:

I was thinking of that too, but since contingency can only be cast on yourself, by the strict rules he would either need the Use Magic Device skill (which unfortunately he doesn't have) or have access to some very powerful rings of spell-storing every few weeks.

Or he has a friend capable of casting Contingency as well as Magic Jar.

[Triple20]

Not a big fan of randomly assigning NPC's abilities or spell effects for no apparent reason - in the interests of something resembling in game consistency, maybe make it a potion?

Khala's supposed to be a super-duper Alchemist, am sure there are rules in an old Dragon somewhere for creating potions with high-level spells.

You could then play up the alchemy lab at the end, maybe swap out some of the skinwalkers stuff for other high-level potions...

Triple20!

[Laurellien]

You could always just do it as a special alchemical substance made by the prince of demons himself that has been put into one of those mouth capsules for potions which one can just crack open as an immediate action.

Or you could give him a Cape of the Mountebank.

[carborundum]

In the 4th Crimson Throne adventure there's a nifty potion (Elixir of Shadewalking) that basically replicates Shadow walk. Put it in a hollow tooth; have him curse the PCs, make a weird expression as he bites the fake tooth, and fade into shadow. Let them fill in the blanks as to how he did it, but DemoG and Khala are potion masters of the universe.

[ellegua]

carborundum wrote:

In the 4th Crimson Throne adventure there's a nifty potion (Elixir of Shadewalking) that basically replicates Shadow walk.

Aha! There's what I'll use. I didn't want to give him a Word of Recall item or something similar, because knowing my party, had they punked him early, one of them would accidentally teleport themselves right to the BBEG ("Uh, hi there..."). But the potion is legitimate (ie, I can point to a stat block later), thematically appropriate, and in the event they paste him before he can use it doesn't unbalance the treasure load (because let's be honest - it already hurts to give out that ring).

Thanks for all the great ideas, gang! As always, I love our community and all its collective brilliance!

[carborundum]

Me too! Best community on the world(s)!

If they aren't the type to perform forensic magic on enemies they'll just identify his stuff without finding the tooth. And... if they do find it, they'll need to remove a molar and replace it to get the benefit. Odds are you'll never need to worry about an inappropriate shadowwalk spoiling a plot.

If it comes to that, let the party wizard realize he can extract some funky negative energy poison from it and give a bad guy a negative level once. Fun for all!