My players are approaching the end of book 4 and I'm planning for the part in the Lamashtu's Shrine under Sandpoint, I'd like to hear your opinions and advice.
I have already established that Brodert Quirk was spending a lot of the time in the cattacombs, investigating, making notes and searching for any archeological findings. He was assisted by an acolyte from the cathedral that helped him. I'm going to tell that when the runewell in the catacombs exploded and the sinkhole formed, he was close and got hurt in the accident. Additionalaly, afflicted by such arcane energy he was bedridden with some magical illness that Father Zantus wasn't able to remove. Worried about how the catacombs endured the earthquake, and yet not being able to move, he has sent his assistant to check on it. Now, unlike the guards, this assistant would have all the reasons to check the catacombs thoroughly, and if he had found a new passage he might not be able to resist checking it, ultimately falling prey to Scribbler's hounds.
Alternatively I can make it that Brodert was mostly fine and after receiving some healing went back to check on the catacombs himself, but knowing that his expertise may yet be useful later, I'm hesitant to make him die like that. He can speak Thassilonian, so maybe he could survive, being held by Scribbler as a source of information? But if Scribbler had him already he wouldn't need to trade information with the PCs.
Skipping ahead to the meeting with glabrezu Yerrin-Ku. I'm not sure what to make of it. He's not some brute that will ataack party on sight. Yet he is ultimately bound to protect the shrine and cannot let them as they please either. I think he may use veil lo look like Brodert's assistant, allowing for some interaction before he attacks. Yet I'm puzzled on how to use such deception.
Alternatively, I was thinking that he could pretend to be a statue of Lamashtu, so that when he starts the fight the PCs would assume he's a creature of a completely different type, but apparently you cannot use veil to appear to be a perfectly still object.
but apparently you cannot use veil to appear to be a perfectly still object.
Oh? What's to prevent you from appearing to be a stone golem in the shape of a statue of Lamashtu, then simply standing really still?
I think I could, it is a glabrezu after all, it doesn't need to breathe, so staying perfectly still shouldn't be impossible. I still don't have a good idea how to use it, outside of making the PCs to think they are fighting a construct and not an outsider. Although this particular glabrezu serves as a guardian, just attacking the PCs seems out-of-character for a glabrezu.
I had the S. start speaking with the party already in the first big room. They continued the conversation long enough that he got what he wanted basically by the time that the party made it's way into the temple proper - at which point he set Y-K on the party to kill them, summoned some babau demons, and then entered the fray himself.
If your players have an optimised party, here's a tip to make they day worse: swap out one of Y-K's feats for the Quickened Spell-Like Ability feat (B1), and choose Mirror Image for that feat. Three quickened Mirror Images a day will help him immensely. :)
I had the S. start speaking with the party already in the first big room. They continued the conversation long enough that he got what he wanted basically by the time that the party made it's way into the temple proper - at which point he set Y-K on the party to kill them, summoned some babau demons, and then entered the fray himself.
If your players have an optimised party, here's a tip to make they day worse: swap out one of Y-K's feats for the Quickened Spell-Like Ability feat (B1), and choose Mirror Image for that feat. Three quickened Mirror Images a day will help him immensely. :)
Ditto. Okay mostly ditto - I wasn't clever enough to think of the quickened mirror image tactic (but I'm stealing it going forward!)
I don't like "monsters stay in their room waiting to be killed" structures so I had the Scribbler intermix interrogations of the pc's with waves of attacks from himself and his minions.