To Kill A Quasit

[eyelessgame]

I'll be writing much more about our campaign in the upcoming weeks and months - Burnt Offerings, done with Pathfinder characters and rules, is the most fun gaming we've had in years.

But today I want to discuss how they handled Erylium.

Details for those who have read or played the adventure...:

Three second-level PCs - Nuraya, Varisian sorceress with elemental fire bloodline; Janus, Varisian cleric of Nethys with magic and destruction domains; Tholak, Shoanti rogue - had just cleaned out the Glassworks and were exploring the smuggler's tunnel. Reached the Catacombs of Wrath, went straight for the cathedral/temple.

Erylium, of course, called a sinspawn, then a fiendish giant centipede and a fiendish dire rat. The PCs were able to deal handily with all the summoned creatures.

But damn, that quasit was hard to hurt. She'd appear briefly and fling her dagger, or try her shatter, but nothing seemed to hurt her. Nuraya's elemental fire blast did nothing (fire resistance 10). Janus' arcane-thrown morningstar did nothing (DR 5/cold iron or good). Even Tholak's dual shortswords did nothing, because he simply couldn't flank the darn thing. And when they did roll lucky and hit for six or seven points, the hit points just came back the next round - each time the quasit reappeared, she was perfectly healthy (and even more enraged).

The combination of effects finally came from the sorceress and rogue. Out of other options, Nuraya started trying to hit the little demon with ray of enfeeblement; on her final casting of the spell, she hit with the ray, the quasit failed her save, and Nuraya rolled the full 7 point penalty to STR, dropping the quasit's STR to 1.

A Tiny creature with a STR of 1, I ruled, could not carry the tiara, the dagger, and the obsidian holy symbol without becoming encumbered. I felt it reasonable to downgrade her flight maneuverability, which meant she could no longer hover. When she then had to land, invisibly but awkwardly, only fifteen feet away from Tholak, he rolled an 18 on his Perception, pinpointing the spot where the quasit had to be. He dropped his shorswords and made a blind grab for the insane little thing, which reflexively made an attack of opportunity on him, becoming visible: he then grabbed and pinned it.

Quickly Janus handed him one of his shortswords, while Nuraya cast mage hand (which, I ruled, was sufficient for a +2 Aid Another assist on a grapple against a cat-sized STR 1 creature). Erylium's CMB, given her STR of 1, was a grand total of something like 9 at this point. Her untrained Escape Artist was just barely good enough to give her a chance of wriggling out of the pin, but each time Tholak was able to leap and grab her again before she could turn invisible - and with her pinned, he could deliver sneak attack damage repeatedly, doing more damage each round than her Fast Healing could recover.

But damn that was a long fight. I'm not sure what Erylium, as insane as she was, could have done: if she hadn't been unwilling to leave the PCs in the temple unchallenged for a couple of rounds, she could have rounded up the rest of the unfought denizens of the level, and things would have gone badly for them. But being true to her personality gave the PCs the chance they needed, and I think they had a very satisfying win, finally pounding the quasit into the dust.

[Aeshuura]

They never killed her in mine. She always went invisible and ran away, to try and come back to hurt them later with allies. The way that I played her was as a weasel-ly type, that was always trying to gloat when she has the upper hand, but when she is left alone, she bailed!

Now she is biding her time, trying to find a way to re-claim her home under Sandpoint.

[Charlie Bell]

It's been years ago, but when I played Burnt Offerings, we had a hell of a time with Erylium, too. I don't recall the exact party makeup, but I was playing a big, beefy Shoanti cleric. The only way we were able to beat Erylium was that I got enlarged, then readied an action to grapple Erylium when she next appeared to throw a dagger. Large creature vs. Small creature, 3.5 grappling rules, grapple -> pin -> coup de grace.

[pjackson]

She is one of the best encounters from the whole path. Very hard to kill but unable to do much damage. Frustrating for the the players, but giving a good feeling once defeated.

[M K 588]

My PCs were having a tough time of it until the party monk managed to grapple Erylium.

The quasit was not shy about using her spells at the beginning of the fight, and that really made the PCs wary. She nearly dropped the monk with s Cause Moderate Wounds in the second round! Heh.

Unfortunately, the 20 STR half-elf fighter with the +1 sword finally got to take some swings, and Erylium doesn't hold up long under 1d8+8 damage rolls...

[Trader2699]

We had some serious problems with that...female.

Some lucky rolls, and a Barbarian chasing her down when she ran with his massive foot speed and one final crit.

However, the first few rounds of combat were so frustrating.

[Jam412]

Erylium fell to a REALLY stupid mistake on my part. After a long combat of the Quasit wearing the party down with summons and her returning dagger, the cleric decided to give the sleep spell a shot. I don't know what I looked at, class level, CR or what to determine that the spell worked, but I did. Of course she failed her save, fell to the ground and was turned to squishy paste. Not exactly my finest moment as a GM.

[hida_jiremi]

M K 588 wrote:

My PCs were having a tough time of it until the party monk managed to grapple Erylium.

This is basically what happened in my game too. The party druid opened combat by hitting her with faerie fire so that she couldn't go invisible, then she used shatter on the barbarian's axe while some sinspawn were tangling with him, and they were having a devil of a time doing anything to her. Then the halfling oracle pulled out a birdcage from her backpack ("just happened" to have one, thanks to the APG feat), the monk grappled her, and they shoved her into the cage and locked it. Now, the oracle is trying to redeem her. ^_^

Jeremy Puckett

[great melinco]

hida_jiremi wrote:

M K 588 wrote:

My PCs were having a tough time of it until the party monk managed to grapple Erylium.

This is basically what happened in my game too. The party druid opened combat by hitting her with faerie fire so that she couldn't go invisible, then she used shatter on the barbarian's axe while some sinspawn were tangling with him, and they were having a devil of a time doing anything to her. Then the halfling oracle pulled out a birdcage from her backpack ("just happened" to have one, thanks to the APG feat), the monk grappled her, and they shoved her into the cage and locked it. Now, the oracle is trying to redeem her. ^_^

Jeremy Puckett

When i was a player for it my party ended up running as all spells were exausted and the rogue failed the summersalt over the well and landed in it... so he turned on us as well as sinspawn on first round... it was a fun fight but needless to say as lvl 2 we all ran, lol

Funny enough im GM'ing glassworks battle and some cata (hopefully all) on tuesday with my new group (since i already played some as a player)

[NoStrings]

Aeshuura wrote:

They never killed her in mine. She always went invisible and ran away, to try and come back to hurt them later with allies. The way that I played her was as a weasel-ly type, that was always trying to gloat when she has the upper hand, but when she is left alone, she bailed!

Now she is biding her time, trying to find a way to re-claim her home under Sandpoint.

This is almost the same thing that happened to my players in this encounter. I think the actual combat went on for 30 rounds, then she ran away (with 1 hit point). I'm sure she'll be back to cause more trouble later!

[Liane Merciel]

My group couldn't kill her either. They didn't even scratch her (as detailed in my last uber-long session report).

I'm planning to have her follow them around invisibly, waiting for a shot. If they start losing badly in another fight, she'll gleefully shank them then. If they are foolish enough to try sleeping in the dungeon (unlikely since they're on a timer, but you never know), she will try to sneak up and cut their throats before whoever's standing guard catches on.

In a few more levels quasits are going to be nothing to them, so I intend to make Erylium an unholy terror and hate-focus while I still can.

[Sharoth]

Liane Merciel wrote:

My group couldn't kill her either. They didn't even scratch her (as detailed in my last uber-long session report).

I'm planning to have her follow them around invisibly, waiting for a shot. If they start losing badly in another fight, she'll gleefully shank them then. If they are foolish enough to try sleeping in the dungeon (unlikely since they're on a timer, but you never know), she will try to sneak up and cut their throats before whoever's standing guard catches on.

In a few more levels quasits are going to be nothing to them, so I intend to make Erylium an unholy terror and hate-focus while I still can.

Give her a few levels of Rogue or something else like that. ~wicked smile` Then she can keep up with the PCs.

[Greycloak of Bowness]

My group "tripped" her with a whip, grappled and dragged her into the pool until she stopped wiggling.

[Majuba]

My group beat her after a bit of a tough fight, but couldn't catch her.

She showed up again:[spoiler]in Fortress of the Stone Giants, when the sinkhole forms. They were chasing down the Scribbler when she was sneaking up on them. The magically paranoid (some rune trap I think?) wizard had See Invis, and blasted down the hallway (through the party) at her.

I thought she was dead at that point, but noticed immunity to electricity later, and had her sneak off. I don't think I ever remembered to include her after that, so she's still about, much like Old Scratch.

[Tamago]

I have run this encounter twice, for two different gaming groups. They both ended in a similar way. One group fashioned a lasso out of rope, snagged her, and dragged her into the pool to drown her. The other gimped her wings with a critical hit from the Crit Deck, then grappled her and pinned her underwater.

Drowning aside, she is *very* difficult to kill!

[tonyz]

I was playing a cleric of Calistria with a whip, so I managed to tangle her up with it, which stopped her flying, and brought her down to where the rest of the party could turn her into paste.

[OmegaZ]

My players are literally right outside the Cathedral of Wrath (had to end session due to time constraints). I'm hoping it doesn't go on forever, that will be annoying. Not gonna fudge the dice or anything, but I think I might embellish the spikes around the pool to give them a hint.

The PC's are a Varisian fencer (high Dex), cleric of Sarenrae (healing/sun), elven sorcerer (dragon bloodline), and human alchemist (lots of bombs). The alchemist has the best chance of really hurting her with her 20 bombs per day and splash damage, but I don't know what everyone else will do. I'll make sure to have her summon a lot and make that sinspawn do its job (I played them stupidly earlier).

Since they ended right outside her door and plan on resting (either in dungeon or in Sandpoint) I want to incorporate that into her tactics. Erylium certainly knows they're coming, its just a question of how she prepares. Would giving her another sinspawn be too much?

[Liane Merciel]

OmegaZ wrote:

Erylium certainly knows they're coming, its just a question of how she prepares. Would giving her another sinspawn be too much?

Probably not, depending on how easily your group handles combat.

I ran the fight with five PCs vs. two sinspawn + goblin dog (via Summon Monster) + Erylium and it wasn't even a challenge. Since I didn't intend for that to be a huge fight anyway I wasn't too worried about it, but if I had wanted it to be tougher, I'd probably have tossed in a third sinspawn and/or upped Erylium's offensive capabilities a little so she could do aerial drive-bys on the group with a wand or something.

(edit: of course, this is sticking with Erylium's tactics as written where she's a coward who won't engage in melee if at all possible. If you're willing to have her scratch and spit, she'll do some damage to Level 1 groups, and you might not need more than one extra sinspawn then.)

[OmegaZ]

Liane Merciel wrote:

OmegaZ wrote:

Erylium certainly knows they're coming, its just a question of how she prepares. Would giving her another sinspawn be too much?

Probably not, depending on how easily your group handles combat.

I ran the fight with five PCs vs. two sinspawn + goblin dog (via Summon Monster) + Erylium and it wasn't even a challenge. Since I didn't intend for that to be a huge fight anyway I wasn't too worried about it, but if I had wanted it to be tougher, I'd probably have tossed in a third sinspawn and/or upped Erylium's offensive capabilities a little so she could do aerial drive-bys on the group with a wand or something.

(edit: of course, this is sticking with Erylium's tactics as written where she's a coward who won't engage in melee if at all possible. If you're willing to have her scratch and spit, she'll do some damage to Level 1 groups, and you might not need more than one extra sinspawn then.)

Alright, that makes sense. I'll throw another sinspawn in there, plus the summons and Erylium herself will round out the fight. Can't wait to get to the fight!

[Richard D Bennett]

One of the changes I made shortly after the APG came out was to reconfigure Erylium as a Witch. The party failed to kill her in the Cathedral and she reappeared at Fort Rannick, hexing the party from altitude during their final assault on the Ogres. They managed to drive her off but have still been unable to close the deal.

Spoiler:

I'm thinking about giving them their best shot at killing her by putting her with the Scribbler. I am concerned that this will make the encounter a little overpowered, but I've got a six-member party.

[OmegaZ]

Bookkeeper wrote:

One of the changes I made shortly after the APG came out was to reconfigure Erylium as a Witch. The party failed to kill her in the Cathedral and she reappeared at Fort Rannick, hexing the party from altitude during their final assault on the Ogres. They managed to drive her off but have still been unable to close the deal.

** spoiler omitted **

Nice! Do you have the her stats as a witch? I'd love to see how that worked out.

[Fraust]

I wrote her up as a witch too the first time, but somewhere I messed something up. Somehow when I wrote her up I ended up not giving her any offensive abilities, so she was hard as hell to find/hit/damage, but all she could do was throw her tiny dagger...Not sure what I chose for her hex, but knowing me that's where her damage was probably supposed to come from and I just forgot to use it...

Writing her up as a summoner now for the next time I run it. Think I'll have her start off with her eidolon unsummoned, so she can machine gun summon monster at the party. Once they catch up to her or she runs out of summons, POW, out comes the big bad eidolon to shake things up.

[OmegaZ]

@Fraust: Summoner could definitely work too, but I was thinking of making Nualia a summoner, so I don't want to have a repeat fight.

She's a level 3 thaumaturge with Cha 16 and Int 12, so I think a level 3 witch with Int 16 and Cha 12 should work well. For hexes I'll probably give her some combination of Evil Eye, Slumber, Cackle, and Misfortune.

[Fraust]

When I ran Erylium as a witch, Nualia was a summoner/fighter. Went disasterly, but due to circumstances rather than class. She got beat on initiative, the party wizard used specters hand to ghoul touch her, and she wiffed her save...then the fighter came in and coup de graced her. I was sad...very sad.

I forget what Misfortune does, but her flying around making the party fall asleep in a room with sinspawn will be AWSOME. Especially if the party wizard is fond of using sleep to drop monsters.

[OmegaZ]

@Fraust: That's what I was thinking. Slumber, let the sinspawns go into melee, then start summoning like a beast. For the purposes of being a lazy DM I'll still let her have Shield of Faith via a scroll/potion, so she'll still be hard to hit.

[OmegaZ]

Just a thought: if I gave Erylium the spell Beguiling Gift (as a 3rd lvl witch) and gave her a bottle of the Waters of Lamashtu, would that be going to far?

[cynarion]

OmegaZ wrote:

Nice! Do you have the her stats as a witch? I'd love to see how that worked out.

Hey Omega. I'm not Bookkeeper, but here's my current build for Erylium as a witch; I plan on running RotRL when there's a slot open in my gaming group.

The stats below presume she has cast mage armor on herself before encountering the heroes, and that she's primarily using her +1 returning dagger (hence her other attacks are at reduced to-hit rates). In terms of her tactics, I plan on delivering touch attacks via her familiar, which has a +21 on Stealth checks to hide (and Go Unnoticed to hide in the first round of combat). In addition, she has her hexes--Evil Eye on saving throws followed by Misfortune and then Cackle to extend the Misfortune. If the heroes are close together, vomit swarm will create a challenge for all of them at once, and hopefully keep them busy to let her get more spells off.

At least, that's the plan--which as we all know never survives first contact with the enemy. : ) She does lose access to shatter, but I reckon vomit swarm--and three hexes!--make a fair trade.

As for the idea with the waters of Lamashtu/beguiling gift combo, Erylium would need to get close--and be visible--for it to work. She'd hand the waters over on the turn she casts beguiling gift, then the recipient would use it on their next turn--which means pretty much the entire party would be able to get up to her and give her a thwack or lay a touch spell on her. You might want to take out or distract any enemy casters first, but after that it could go quite well. Of course, if your target makes his/her Will save against beguiling gift it all comes to naught as Elyrium will likely cop a good whack next turn--smart parties will target her average CMD, grapple her and then it's good night Irene.

Well, that's enough rambling from me; on with the stats...

###

ERYLIUM CR 4
Female Demon, Quasit Witch 3
CE Tiny Outsider (Chaotic, Demon, Evil, Extraplanar)
Init +10; Senses Darkvision (60 feet); Perception +10
--------------------
DEFENSE
--------------------
AC 22, touch 16, flat-footed 18. . (+4 armor, +4 Dex, +2 size, +2 natural)
hp 41 (3d10+3d6+12); Fast Healing 2
Fort +4, Ref +8, Will +7
DR 5/good or cold iron; Immune electricity, poison; Resist acid 10, cold 10, fire 10
--------------------
OFFENSE
--------------------
Spd 20 ft., Flight (50 feet, Perfect)
Melee +1 Returning Dagger +11 (1d2+1/19-20/x2) and
. . Bite (Demon, Quasit) +5 (1d4/20/x2) and
. . Claw x2 (Demon, Quasit) +5 x2 (1d3/20/x2)
Space 2.5 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks Evil Eye (DC 14), Misfortune (DC 14), Poison: Claw—Injury (DC 15)
Spell-Like Abilities Cause Fear 30ft radius (1/day), Commune (1/week), Detect Good (At will), Detect Magic (At will), Invisibility (At will)
Witch Spells Known (CL 3, 6 melee touch, 10 ranged touch):
2 (2/day) Inflict Moderate Wounds (DC 15), Vomit Swarm (DC 15)
1 (3/day) Chill Touch (DC 14), Mage Armor, Ray of Enfeeblement (DC 14)
0 (at will) Detect Magic, Guidance, Putrefy Food and Drink (DC 13), Touch of Fatigue (DC 13)
--------------------
STATISTICS
--------------------
Str 10, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha 14
Base Atk +4; CMB +6; CMD 16
Feats Extra Hex, Improved Initiative, Weapon Finesse
Skills Bluff +11, Fly +25, Intimidate +11, Knowledge: The Planes +12, Perception +10, Sense Motive +10, Stealth +21
Languages Abyssal, Common, Giant, Goblin, Thassilonian; Telepathy (Touch)
SQ +2 to Initiative, Alternate Form (Su), Cackle, Deliver Touch Spells Through Familiar (Su), Empathic Link with Familiar (Su), Share Spells with Familiar
Combat Gear +1 Returning Dagger;
--------------------
TRACKED RESOURCES
--------------------
+1 Returning Dagger - 0/1
Cause Fear 30ft radius (1/day) (Sp) - 0/1
Commune (1/week) (Sp) - 0/1
--------------------
SPECIAL ABILITIES
--------------------
+2 to Initiative You gain the Alertness feat while your familiar is within arm's reach.
Alternate Form (Su) You can assume the form of a bat, monstrous centipede, toad or wolf.
Cackle Extend the duration of other hexes.
Cause Fear 30ft radius (1/day) (Sp) Cause Fear (DC 11) 1/day, 30ft radius
Commune (1/week) (Sp) Commune 1/week, ask 6 questions
Damage Reduction (5/cold iron or good) You have Damage Reduction against all except Good or Cold Iron attacks.
Damage Resistance, Acid (10) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Acid attacks.
Damage Resistance, Cold (10) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Cold attacks.
Damage Resistance, Fire (10) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Fire attacks.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Deliver Touch Spells Through Familiar (Su) Your familiar can deliver touch spells for you.
Detect Good (At will) (Sp) As the spell. Caster level 6th
Detect Magic (At will) (Sp) As the spell. Caster level 6th
Empathic Link with Familiar (Su) You have an empathic link with your Arcane Familiar.
Evil Eye -2 (6 round(s)) (DC 14) (Su) Inflict penalties with a glance.
Fast Healing 2 (Ex) You heal damage every round if you have > 1 HP.
Flight (50 feet, Perfect) You can fly!
Immunity to Electricity You are immune to electricity damage.
Immunity to Poison You are immune to poison.
Invisibility (At will) (Sp) As the spell, self only. Caster level 6th
Misfortune (1 round(s)) (DC 14) (Su) Target must take the lower of 2d20 for rolls.
Poison: Claw—Injury (DC 15) (Ex) Poison deals 1d2 DEX damage, 1/round for 6rounds, cure 1 save.
Share Spells with Familiar The wizard may cast a spell with a target of "You" on his familiar (as a touch spell) instead of on himself. A wizard may cast spells on his familiar even if the spells do not normally affect creatures of the familiar's type (magical beast).
Telepathy (Touch) (Su) Communicate telepathically if the target has a language.

Created With Hero Lab® - try it for free at http://www.wolflair.com!

[shadowhntr7]

eyelessgame wrote:

I'll be writing much more about our campaign in the upcoming weeks and months - Burnt Offerings, done with Pathfinder characters and rules, is the most fun gaming we've had in years.

But today I want to discuss how they handled Erylium. ** spoiler omitted **...

I'm playing in a Runelords game atm, where I'm playing a druid with an animal companion- a roc, in this case. She critted with inflict moderate wounds, instantly killing the roc (which was already wounded). So.. I went insane. Rolled an acrobatics check for a flying leap, natural 20. Rolled a grapple, natural 20. She ended up pinned underneath me while everyone took their shots for a damage or two each round, but dang she's a hard fight.

[OmegaZ]

@Cynarion: Makes sense about the Beguiling Gift putting her in the open, I planned on doing that as a last resort. I think I'll giver her the Extra Hex feat as well, I didn't think to do anything with her feats. Thanks!

@shadowhntr7: Yeah, I'm hoping they grappler her then use the spikes around the pool to impale her.

I'm definitely giving her the spells Web, Burning Gaze, and Burning Hands. The combo should do a good amount of damage as well as hold them so the sinspawns can attack and Erylium can get her summons off.

[OmegaZ]

Well, they didn't kill her. They dispatched the two sinspawns pretty easily, destroyed her summons, got out of her web on the first try, got hit with a few hexes, but weren't doing much to damage her because of her DR and fire resistance. I even left out the fast healing and they weren't getting anywhere. They did get her grappled at one point, but then they tried drowning her instead of impaling her. She did did her Hideous Spittle attack on the cleric who had to drop her, then she Escaped Artist-ed out of there. They got frustrated and we ran out of time, so she turned invisible and flew out of the room.

Long fight, I do NOT want to put them through that again. Could have her make an appearance at Thistletop or just wait for book 3.

[cynarion]

OmegaZ wrote:

Long fight, I do NOT want to put them through that again. Could have her make an appearance at Thistletop or just wait for book 3.

Sounds like they had a lot of trouble! I'm expecting the same when I eventually get around to running this AP. Erylium strikes me as the sort of 'irritating but not party-killing' opponent who would easily make a great recurring villain. Thistletop might be a bit early to spring her on the party again.

As for how she got away, I thought Hideous Spittle was the result of one of the corruptions she gained as part of her Thaumaturge class features. Or did you just rule it in anyway?

Thanks for the feedback, it helps those of us yet to run the AP work out how to handle the situation for our player groups. I know mine would get bored with a lengthy combat so I will try to make it decisive and have her escape early if the PCs aren't making any headway.

[OmegaZ]

@cynarion: If/when you do Burnt Offerings, consider removing a LOT of Erylium's defenses. Her DR should be dropped to 5, fast healing shouldn't be there, but I'd say the fire resistance can stay. For explanation on why she's weaker, it could be because she's been trapped down here so long without much food and has been wasting away a bit.

Because seriously, with her 30 hp, flight, invisibility, and cowardice she's hard enough to defeat. Did Paizo playtest this? Defeating her is nearly impossible at level 2!

[Richard D Bennett]

OmegaZ wrote:

Nice! Do you have the her stats as a witch? I'd love to see how that worked out.

Mine was actually very similar to cynarion's. Misfortune allowed me some serious schadenfreude versus the Wizard who took Unluck out of the Spell Compendium.

She reappeared at Fort Rannick in two roles:

Spoiler:

When the party attempted to strike within the Fort, she acted as a messenger between the Ogres, keeping them up to date on where the party was and what they were doing. She spent this whole time invisible, trading away offense to give the Ogres an edge. The party complained bitterly about how the Ogres seemed to know their every move... of course, Lucrezia was also upstairs with a crystal ball, so they did know the party's every move.

When the party elected to storm the front gate, a summoned dinosaur leading the way, She finally appeared, to much cursing and spitting from the party. She stayed airborne and laid down hexes to frustrate the players. When the Ogres broke (Jaagrath died), she fled along with Lucrezia, who's now in Jorgenfist, replacing one of the Lamias in the book.

As for what's to come...

Spoiler:

I'm considering putting her with the Scribbler in book 5, with a few more Witch levels. Is Scribbler bad enough on his own or can I add an evil quasit to plus the encounter for a 6-member party?

[pjackson]

OmegaZ wrote:

Because seriously, with her 30 hp, flight, invisibility, and cowardice she's hard enough to defeat. Did Paizo playtest this? Defeating her is nearly impossible at level 2!

Defeating her in a straight fight is nearly impossible, but that is not a problem, it is actually a good thing.

Her offence is very poor, so she isn't very dangerous.
The party can leave her and come back later.
Or they can get clever.

She teaches the party not to expect to be able to steamroller through every thing.
For most groups the satisfaction of defeating her eventually should be more than enough compensation for the initial frustration.

[godsDMit]

pjackson wrote:

She teaches the party not to expect to be able to steamroller through every thing.
For most groups the satisfaction of defeating her eventually should be more than enough compensation for the initial frustration.

This, which is why I left her alone.

[Power Word Unzip]

Our group couldn't finish off Erylium either. My dwarf barbarian pinpointed her location at one point by observing the sequence of her actions prior to her turning invisible - he was standing by the wrathspawn well and jumped on top of her, hacking at her with his greataxe and rolling a lucky hit. I think our rogue managed to get off a solid shot or two with a shortbow, but once she started running low on hp and had used two or three wrathspawn, she high tailed it out of there. We plan on going back to wipe her out eventually, though... here's hoping the catacombs aren't restocked with nastier denizens next time. =]

[hida_jiremi]

Erylium is now the familiar of my party's arcane trickster. ^_^

[tonton]

My group could not get Erilyum after 3 encounters while exploring the catacombs. Very frustrated, they decided to forget her. Just the mention of her name could break the harmony of the party. It brought us some funny role playing while they kept arguing about who was to blame for their nonsuccessive attempts to get rid of the quasit.

Spoiler:

They met her again in SotS back at her old job as The Scribbler's familiar and they finally killed her.

[godsDMit]

I've just finished re-statting her as a Summoner. I definitely like the build, and Im considering having the Eidolon have the same general look as The Scribbler, for two reasons. First is that I might be able to play it up that the eidolon is the actual boss of the dungeon, instead of Erylium, and second is so when the party comes back in book 5, it might surprise them into thinking that they actually hadnt killed him in the first place in book 1.

Technically, i dont think the eidolon is supposed to be able to pass for a person, but I might do it anyway, lol.

[Michael F]

Yeah, the quasit frustrated my party too. The first battle was a draw, and they retreated to rest & re-rack. I think they blocked the door so she couldn't get away.

We only play once a month, so they had a lot of time to email between sessions. They went back to face her and grappled her and then drowned her in the fountain.

[Terraneaux]

In the game I'm running currently, the party failed to down Erylium and exhausted most of their resources, so decided to retreat from the shrine and close the doors. Erylium, seeing this, made a break for it, getting past the party and out into the outer room. The barbarian, however, managed to grapple her before she left the outer room, and, as the player described it, 'bit off her head like Ozzy done to that bat.' They got their revenge for the most frustrating encounter so far.

[Lord Worcestershire of Perrins]

eyelessgame wrote:

I'll be writing much more about our campaign in the upcoming weeks and months - Burnt Offerings, done with Pathfinder characters and rules, is the most fun gaming we've had in years.

But today I want to discuss how they handled Erylium. ** spoiler omitted **...

My group really had a a rough way to go with her until the monk of my party grappled her....it was pretty much over from there.

[Miranda Silva]

My experience running this, from another post:

My group just played this a few days away. They decided to send in 3 of their group to map out the tunnels. Caviler/Fighter(a hellknight), a Magus and the Oracle.

The Magus got to Erylium just after she casted Shield of Faith at the start of round 2. The Hellknight couldn't hit her with his crossbow and the Oracle cound't hit her with his Masterwork Longbow.. The Magus hit her about half the time (+5 attack). Since she wanted to cast a spell she took a 5 foot step(or fly in her case) to avoid an AOO and summoned a hyena who promptly hit the Oracle and tripped him. Things weren't looking so good. Erylium became invisible but since the she took the 5 foot step the Magus more or less knew were she was and tried to hit her (50% cover). She was also moving away from the stairs while the Magus was slowly moving back down them out of range, as she never flew down down. (This led to a hilariuos momnet when the player of the 5'7" Elf tried to argue that being so tall he could hit her. We all had a good laugh at his expense)

The Oracle used Color Spray knowing full well it could hit the Hellknight. The hyena rolled a natural 20 on his will save, the Hellknight failed. He used up a hero point and we decided that he got his shield up in time to block the spell. Things started to turn for the PCs when the Hellknight decided to stop trying to hit Erylium and gave the Precise Strike feat to the oracle(still on the ground) and stepped behind the hyena. 1d8+1 + 1d6 later the hyena was dead(the Oracle had damaged him a bit as well). Erylium summoned a Dire Rate which the Hellkight promptly killed the following round.

Eryluim was taken down because the Magus hit her with 3d6+4 twice(1d6+2 bonus, +1 Arcane Point, +1 Magic Weapon and Shocking Grasp 2d6. 14 and 17 damage respectively. Shocking Grasp's no save was huge. The enhancement bonus from the Arcane Pool also negated Eryluim's DR. The Oracle's second Color Spray hit her and she was stunned, so I said that she floated down into range of the Magus' second of his Shocking Grasp attacks.

After she died the Sinspawn that had been failing to hit the Magus botch his attack, fell down the stairs (the Magus got an AOO as he rolled past him) and the Hellknight crossbow'd him for the kill.

I forgot to give AOO against my PCs when the casted spells, so that might have made a difference. It went better than I thought, in particular the Magus keeps proving to be a beast. It took about 5 or 6 rounds. The group decided to regroup in town and fill in the rest of the group about what they had discovered.

From Tsuto's journal they knew their might me demons down there, but they chose not to do any research first. Really, I think they just expected more Goblins and went in there all brazen. I expect them to be more prepared before the go down to map the rest.

[Miranda Silva]

Dammit, looking over my notes of Erylium she has immunity to electricity!!!! Messed that one up. They would have made things very interesting.

[Richard D Bennett]

My party finally got to grips with the Quasit again in Sins of the Saviors...

spoiler:

Our wizard, who's been packing glitterdust for four books now just for this moment, tragically spent the fight trying to keep a Black Tentacles spell from getting too frisky with him. The ranger scored with a few arrow shots that sent Erylium scuttling for cover. When she returned, she had cast a Mislead spell and sent the double to an obvious point in the room while she headed over to cause trouble. Our sorcerer hit the double with a Suffocation spell, and Erylium directed the quasit to make with choking actions and fall from the sky. The party had a great cheer until the dying quasit disappeared, the real quasit smacked the Sorcerer with an Evil Eye, and the Sctibbler lashed out with a Destruction spell (I re-imagined him as an Oracle of Battle). The party managed to kill the Scribbler (Action Economy is some brutal arithmetic), but Erylium escaped again!

The Sorcerer's new nickname is "Dusty."

[leo1925]

I have heard about this encounter.....
Now seeing that the majority of the people who defeated her used grapple and impale/drown as a tactic....
I have to ask why didn't anyone of those parties, that left and returned, bought cold iron weapons?

I don't think that it would be too much trouble for the players when i ran it because most likely there will be one gun user among the party members.

[Greycloak of Bowness]

The difficulty in killing Erylium only becomes obvious after the group makes its way through a lot of fodder critters (sinspawn and summons). Once the fight descends into a stalemate (DR plus fast heal plus invisibility at will plus the quasit being unable to do any significant damage), parties develop a real hate for the critter and start to get creative.

Sure they could retreat to the surface to get cold iron weapons but by then a smart quasit would know this is coming and might decamp and return later like also has been reported.

[Mazra]

Greycloak of Bowness wrote:

My group "tripped" her with a whip, grappled and dragged her into the pool until she stopped wiggling.

Burnt Offerings - Erylium:

Just ran this encounter for the first time last week. The party used the Goblin Warchanter's whip from the initial attack on Sandpoint. Erylium was healthy after healing what minor damage the party had inflicted. Erylium on the other hand had already dropped one of the party members, and was getting close to a second. She was feeling a bit sure of herself. But after Erylium popped visible with another knife attack, the Female Half Drow Elf Fighter on her initiative used the whip to grab her and overpower her toward the ground. I used the same stats as a trip attack. Erylium did not go invisible again as she struggled to free the grapple. Later in the same round the Male Human Cleric made a standard grapple attack. Erylium failed in her attempt to free the grapples. In the next round, the Half Drow Elf Fighter then dropped the whip, took her newly acquired ;) Masterworks Ranseur, rolled a natural 20, and thoroughly skewered Erylium. Dead Quasit, and payback for Shattering her favorite Falchion!!! I looked at the player and shrugged; that was her second 20 in a row.

It was a long fight, but worth every round of it. It took some luck, but this is one of the better low level encounters I have had the pleasure to DM; and I have been doing this for a while.

Later,

Mazra

[Swiftness]

So it took us 4 carts of oil soaked wood but we killed it. Opened the door shoved cart 1 in and closed it, the quasit had her sinspawn push it into one of the rooms closet, the sinspawn were already weakened from previous encounters with us so the fire finished them off. The second cart was quenched by a water elemental the quasit summoned. The third cart was pushed by the quasit herself into the second closet and closed off. The 4th cart she had no way of dealing with so it filled the room with smoke and after a lot of rounds she eventually died from smoke inhalation. The carts, wood, and lamp oil used ended up costing less then half the 1 scroll of detect invisibility I purchased. :)

[caps]

I'm prepping a Gestalt RotR campaign. In trying to convert Erylium I couldn't find thaumaturge stats *anywhere*; not even in D&D 3.5 wikis. I like the idea of making her a Witch/Summoner, possibly with a Rogue level for sneak attack since she'll be invisible so often.

Lots of good ideas in this thread. I'll definitely be considering having her run away if things go too sour for her.