Hi,
as written, Lashonna casts scrying on Heskin in the beginning of LoLR. She (and the PCs) get to see Darl and some of his gang, as well as the ship they are located on (at midnight, in heavy storm). My group will probably discuss teleporting there right away (after some buffing, naturally). Lashonna would probably encourage this, as it would give them a chance to get rid of their competitors early on.
Question 1: Can they teleport right onto the ship ("viewed once") or would they end up in ice cold waters as the ship will have moved? The wording on teleport is not precise on this, i fear. "A location viewed once" could well be the area around the ships main mast - or the geographic location where the ship was. Strategically, it would be an advantage (Darl does not know anything about them yet, and would have little time to prepare). Tactically, it might be a very interesting fight (Balance checks for movement of ship, no flying above ship due to hurricane-force winds, etc...).
Question 2: Malhazzar the Exiled Flame can grant up to three wishes to nongenies. How does this work, mechanically? If Darl, for instance, wants all allies to be healed to full hp, would he have to...
a) take a standard action to word the wish (as if he was casting it), and would then Malhazzar grant it as an immediate action?
b) take no action at all (speaking = no action) to word the wish, and would then Malhazzar take a standard action on his turn to fulfill it?
c) take a standard action to word the wish, and would then Malhazzar grant it later on his turn with a second standard action?
d) or rather could Malhazzar grant his wishes beforehand (sa), and Darl use each of them as a standard action later?
Question 3: Who of you have run this encounter as written, and how did it go? Did you make adjustments, and why? When I played the campaign as a player some years ago, it was a TPK and campaign ender for us. Now, as a DM, I don't want to end the campaign yet (barrying unforgiveable dumbness on the PCs side).
Thanks!
I would think in a combat scenario option (c) makes the most sense mechanically.
Any reason your group stopped playing entirely after the TPK when you were a player?
Hm, I tend to agree. Wording a wish is no triffle task. Granting one shouldn't be, neither. Plus, it takes away an action of Darl's gang. However, I remotely remember a thread on these forums that got that question answered "officially", but cannot find it...
Hm, to be honest, I don't know exactly. It was a mix of reasons, part of it "We are f***ed, what now?", part of it "the last encounters were pretty hefty anyways, and we are behind treasure curve" (SoLS went, uhm, suboptimal for us). And our DM had these new shiny Savage Tide adventures, so he probably didn't want to wrap his head around a semi-reasonable solution to the TPK problem.
For the record:
My PCs did teleport onto the ship, after taking quite some time buffing up and discussing tactics. Darl was buffed as well, and all members of his gang had actions readied.
The party quickly managed to do considerably damage to Darls party; the monks were forcecaged; Malhazzar went to the single digits before Darl could heal him with a wish, and was killed the round after that; Nalhazarath went down quickly soon (his attacks were pretty useless, only once did he stun the PC sorcerer); and after Krekie unsuccesfully used a death attack on the PC ranger who did most of the damage, she tumbled to Darl and both planeshifted away.
Two "scry and die" combats later (into a sanctuary of Vecna, where Darl intended to greater planar bind new mooks), Darl was dead, disintegrated and his dust dispersed into the Nyr Div. Fun was had, and glory too.
A few key infos for all you fellow DMs:
1) One great advantage in a teleporting assault onto the ship is that Darl has already used the blasphemy power of the Hand of Vecna. Consider preparing another one.
2) As pointed out by others, Modenkainen's Disjunction is a must for Darl. It greatly scared the PCs on their second assault (He did not have it prepared the first time).
3) I run the granting wishes thing as two standard actions; one for Darl to word it, one for Malhazzar to grant it. In hindsight, I would change that to a move action for Darl, and standard for Malhazzar. An action each from the only two scary NPCs is a tad too much.
4) On a ship, Malhazzar is much less dangerous - being unmounted, his feats don't help him much.
5) I totally forgot about the minotaur fighter that ends up in Krathanos chest in the written adventure. This one might have helped to make this assault a bit more daring.
6) Implosion is not a [death] effect, and thus one of the few things Darl has in stock against death warded PCs. Make use of it!
I actually changed the opponents in this adventure to adversaries from previous adventures who had escaped: the arena manager, his wife and captain (assassin)and two more NPCs from other adventures. It's nicer for the players to see some old adversaries reappear.
I'll be running this next weekend, I'll post how it went for us if you want.
Sure! Thats the best thing about DMing an adventure path - sharing stories and experience!
The Pc's:
Fire elf evoker/master specialist
elf rogue
elf ranger (archery)
dwarf cleric
hlf elf cleric/RSoP
human fighter/tempest
dwarf fighter/barb/bear warrior
giant eagle bard (cohort)
Ok, so my party did not attempt to teleport onto Darl's ship, even though they did talk about it.
On the "real world" island, Krekie really had no chance to catch a lone pc, so she ended up going through the portal an hour after the group did and meeting up with Darl and gang, while the group ran rough-shod through the trials. Darl's group ( now minus one minotaur)decided the best course of action would be to set up camp at the wild-watcher's meeting point and ambush the party. So they hid in their tents and covered the tents with Krekie's Mirage Arcana scroll, giving total concealment/ time for Darl to buff everyone like crazy the moment Krekie spotted them. (I completely re-arrainged his spell list to account for Spell Compendium and to account for the fact that he NEEDS to have Mordenkainen's Disjunction)
The fight went thusly:
round 1
one monk and horned devil stay by darl, protecting him
other monk(with silence cast on him) tumbled through the frontliner's in attempt to disrupt spell-casters
mounted Efreet charges from foe to foe, dealing considerable damage.
Darl casts MDJ, forever earning me my party's hatred. (I managed to take out around 200000 gp worth of items)
Krekie stays by Darl, intently studying the group's cloistered cleric/radiant servant of Pelor, under the cover of improved invis.
The pc's are pretty much in full panic mode and disorganized. Only signifigant thing I remember happening was the Evoker cast Radiant assault Catching both monks, the devil, and Darl in it. Darl was immune due to greater spell immunity, but the silenced monk failed and was dazed for 5 rounds pretty much making my mobile silence field useless.
Round 2
Undazed monk stays with Darl
Efreet charges ranger, setting up a charge at mage next
Krekie continues studying
Devil makes AoO at closing barbarian
Darl casts quickened wrack at rogue(she made save), activates unholy aura and moves from barbarian
Party regroups a little. Clerics begin bombarding the devil with bolts of glory. one was a critical. The 45d12's he ate took him out fairly quickly. Both fighter's attack the cauchemar. Ranger, rogue, and the eagle all attack monks, even though snatch arrows took away the first projectile from each archer. (my group for whatever reason never concentrates fire on one enemy) Mage notices shes next in line for Efreet charge, moves toward the Tempest and Dimension doored both to 80 feet behind Darl (muahahahaha)
Round 3
Monk full attacks closing cleric
Efreet cannot charge this round, moves and attacks
Krekie stops studying, double moves to within 30' of mage
Darl casts Repulsion
Party is really taking damage and really starting to panic.
Everyone attacks something, dealing alot of damage but not enough to drop it. Forgot what mage did, but it didnt do much, whatever it was. one cleric bolt of glory'ed a tiefling and the other divine powered himself.
Monk disarms the the dwarf cleric
efreet charges again, dropping the rogue
Darl uses his blasphemy to paralyze the Barb/bear
Krekie full attacks the mage, killing her. (24d6 against a squishy no longer buffed wizard is fun!)
Party is in full on panic mode. Both cleric's managed to get close wounds off to restore the rogue. fighter cannot move forward towards Darl, barbarian is paralyzed. Rogue and ranger continue shooting arrows at random targets
Round 4
Monk continues full attacking
Efreet keeps charging knocking cloistered cleric into negatives.
Dazed monk finally dies
Darl uses mass heal
Krekie attempts to get within 30 feet of fighter (she failed vs the repulsion)
Party ready to cry. Cloistered cleric closed wounds himself. Starts healing others with some cure mass spell
Dwarf cleric shield bashed something.
fighter continues moving laterally trying to get to something.
Ranger and rogue keep attacking different targets.
Round 5
Monk and efreet keep doing their thing
Darl casts harm on paralysed barb, but he made save.
Dont recall what krekie did.
Party continues attacking willy-nilly
Round 6
Getting late and combat is slowing down. Darl almost out of offensive spells. (and I wanted to avoid a TPK) Darl unleashes a radiant assault and quickened plane shifts out.
Krekie and monk make way to efreet.
Efreet plane shifts out.
Party rejoices at their own defeat, due to survival.
This fight is a nightmare as a dm of a big party (7 level 15's and 1 cohort) I forgot completely about the efreet's wishes, as well as his quickened scorching ray, as well as Darl's spell turning. I will not forget this when the groups learns of his location and plane shifts to him next time we play. It was a nightmare, but it was ultimately rewarding and fun. I cant wait to hit the group with another disjunction!!!!
I also want to note that usually my party leads off with 2 or 3 dispel magics and for whatever reason chose not to. That would have made things so much easier on them. As it was, I had maybe 10 buffs up, and it made Darl & company nigh invulnerable. To answer one of Armnaxis's questions, Yes this is very easily a complete TPK, and was maybe the second time I've actually "pulled my punches" a little bit. (The only other time was way back in TFoE after the only healer in the party at the time took 100+ damage from a dire pick critical from the 3 rd level grimlock barbarian)
Thanks for your tale, TheWhiteknife!
They failed a lot on these saves against MDJ? Sometimes it's good to be DM after all :) I always wondered if it was mean to target cloaks of resistance before the rest of the items...
My PCs very early learned to target only one enemy at a time (at around level 2, I think). Therefore, almost none stands more than one round in the heat. In LoLR, only Krathanos did.
Darl casts MDJ, forever earning me my party's hatred. (I managed to take out around 200000 gp worth of items)
Heh... this is why I like Pathfinder's version of MDJ - nothing perm destroyed except on a natural '1'.
Yeah, someday maybe my party will have it hammered into their heads that they need to focus on one enemy. Fight would probably have been easier if they had led off with their dispels and if they had focused on one enemy at a time.
The disjunction made them angry and therefore dis-organized. They failed alot of saves, because they had to roll so many. The wizard alone had to make 32 rolls! Which leads me to a side question: How should items in a bag of holding react to MDJ? I ruled on the fly that if the bag made its save, the items were safe, but that if it failed they would have to save too.
That's what I figured was probably "official", but two of my players are much bigger than me.......
Sorry to hijack this thread, but anyone have any ideas for Darl's sanctuary? having a lil bit of a writer's block problem.
I had to make up a sanctuary on the fly, as my PCs were scrying&teleporting after him. I came up with a pretty generic temple to Vecna; underground, huge natural cave with clean, smooth stone floor, vast gold inlays in pentagram shape, many acolytes, library, some secret rooms with secret doors, and such. Luckily they did not explore the whole thing once they'd nuked Darl.
I had to make up a sanctuary on the fly, as my PCs were scrying&teleporting after him. I came up with a pretty generic temple to Vecna; underground, huge natural cave with clean, smooth stone floor, vast gold inlays in pentagram shape, many acolytes, library, some secret rooms with secret doors, and such. Luckily they did not explore the whole thing once they'd nuked Darl.
I'm thinking that I'm gonna go with a carbon copy of Vecna's skull shaped mountain/fortress that he has on the plane of ash. Think I'm gonna put Darl's skull fort somewhere a little less hostile to mortal beings. Im thinking somewhere in Blackmoor, or in the Joten mountains by Sterich. I got 2 weeks to prepare so i'll keep crackin away at it.
Also, I forgot dimension door does not work on Last Resort, so the party's mage shouldnt have been whacked by Krekie.Oh well' hindsight is 20/20. This was the first highly complicated fight in AoW. I thought the 4 team battle royale in Champions belt was rough........
