I've recently started DM'ing for half our normal group (the three of us have slightly more availability than the entire group, so figured we'd start up a game for those weeks when the rest can't make it and we'd otherwise not play).
My tendency is toward mystery/city adventures, but I figure it's been a long time since we've done a nice, straightforward dungeon crawl and I've started planning one. The Tomb of Three Kings will hopefully be a nice, three-section adventure, with levels of about 8-10 locations.
I figured I'd like the BBEG to be a medusa, as it gives me some capability to give them their goal (someone, currently a statue, they need to talk to to learn about a more important campaign NPC) and more importantly is a monster I don't remember our group encountering in any of our various campaigns over the last 7 years.
So the question is what monsters would work well with Ms. Snakyhair? I think I'd like to have some cooperation between levels of the tomb. The Bestiary suggests medusas may form alliances with blind creatures or
intelligent undead. I figure her level could also have some nice snake baddies.
Party is two 10th-level characters, an inquisitor and rogue/assassin...
Red wine?
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/grimlock.htm
Grimlocks. They're blind, so they can actually work with the medusa. For 10th level adventurers they'll need some class levels.
Undead: they're immune to effects that require a fort save.
The blind master: Evil is an equal opportunity employer. this blind cleric/fighter casts darkness to even the odds, then slices his opponents to pieces in the dark.
The Bat Man druid: He keeps the monsters around because they cut down on those tree clearing peasants. First the adventurers clear out the dungeon, then they put up a keep, next thing you know your pristine forest is a parking lot.. stop them at step 1.
A blind Oracle, any type of construct.
A stone golem-making medusa that uses her victims as raw materials might be interesting.
Yrthaks and plants come in mind.
Technically, a Medusa can see via the snakes on her head, so she can wear a veil or blindfold and not be blinded.
I could fully see a Medusa running a powerful criminal syndicate, being the powerful monster who rules equally through fear and respect, using her Petrifying Gaze only on Minions who attempt to betray her and the Organisation or on annoyingly persistent PCs.
Again, Undead and Blind Creatures are immune to her gaze, but a hand-picked crew of orphan street-rats trained to fight blindfolded could make an interesting challenge. Pump them up to the mid-levels and give them Helmets with Blindsense but blocks Vision and they make the perfect acolytes to a powerful Medusa Spellcaster, a near-to-end 'Boss' that the PCs may bump against on their way to the BBEG or possibly ally with.
Thanks for the ideas so far; I definitely like the idea of the golem-making medusa.
Thinking now that I'll have the first two levels be grimlocks with a few golems from the medusa to keep things interesting. The bottom level would probably work well as an underground marsh, with some nasty plants before finally getting to the medusa.
But please feel free to have the ideas keep coming.
Green dragons. Have the medusa be a green dragon. Or vice versa.
Technically, a Medusa can see via the snakes on her head, so she can wear a veil or blindfold and not be blinded.
Technically, the eyes on the medusa's hair count as her eyes, and would petrify enemies as well. Technically ;-)
Aside from classic serpents and animated statues the medusa can also be an accomplished trapsmith and work with oozes (kept in containers to be released upon the PCs via traps preferably). I doubt that she'd have many undead minions unless she had levels as cleric or some kind of arcanist (sorcerers and oracles would be traditional probably, but those 8 HD would hurt bad, It would do better with a cohort IMO). Various blind cave vermin could probably work with druid medusa (blightlord). Rougish medusa could also be interesting, combining the traps, sneak attacks and petrification on those trying to catch the medusa. This medusa would also probably work well with kobold underlings (they wouldn't fight much, just maintain her domain).
A nice chianti, whether you're serving the medusa or... serving her.
+1 the idea of stone golems animated out of the statues of people she's petrified. Really, anything snake themed works. Giant snakes (advance the regular snake's HD) or yuan-ti. The iron cobra is a snake AND a construct.
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If you're up for a little conversion work, you can surprise your party by going old school with the Maedar. There's a 3.5 version of the Maedar in Dragon #355.
A delver might be unexpected as well. Chasing after some ancient Macguffin, the medusa could have worked out a deal with the delver to excavate the city in exchange for feeding it her petrified victims. Delvers eat all sorts of stone and this one may have developed a fondness or addiction for petrified creatures. New rules for Delvers are in Misfit Monsters Redeemed. Delvers aren't immune to petrification, but the medusa may work through a proxy or conceal her face while talking to the creature.
The fey race of Pech are another mining race the medusa may have enslaved or hired to work for her. Pech are immune to petrification and, at CR3, it wouldn't take too many of them to cause trouble for the party. You could toss in a Pech with a few character levels to act as their leader.
The nice thing about the pech and delver is that they are generally neutral so PCs might be able to bargain with them.
If you want to go with straight up evil, you've got the destrachan, which is immune to gaze attacks and has considerable intelligence and wisdom to go along with it's sonic abilities. The medusa may have discovered the creature's lair while exploring and struck a deal with it. Don't forget the destrachan can use its harmonics to reduce the medusa's petrified victims to gravel.
Also, from Bestiary 2, the Amphisbaena is a good pet, if nothing else. Two-headed snake, immune to petrification.
Only a CR 4, so some advancement/reworking may be in order. Advanced giant amphisbaena as a cohort to a buffing Medusa sorceress? Might be an interesting fight.
Alternatively you can go wild with any allies and this.
NARROWED GAZE (feat)
Type: Monstrous
Sources: Serpent Kingdoms, Savage Species
Your gaze attack has a limited field of effect.
Prerequisite: Int 13, gaze attack.
Benefit: You may choose to limit your gaze attack to an active gaze. Doing so prevents you from accidentally affecting friends with your gaze.
Normal: A gaze attack functions constantly on all those within range, and it can also be used actively as an attack action.
Amphisbaenae.
Lamia.
Gorgons.
Harpies.
Scylla, Charybdis
Serpentfolk.
A cult of poison-wielding assassin NPCs.
An army of permanent animated objects made out of all your petrified victims. Cheaper than stone golems and just as terrifying.
An army of permanent animated objects made out of all your petrified victims. Cheaper than stone golems and just as terrifying.
+ the goods characters have to cope with the fact that breaking a statue means killing an innocent victim of medusa's gaze :D
An army of permanent animated objects made out of all your petrified victims. Cheaper than stone golems and just as terrifying.+ the goods characters have to cope with the fact that breaking a statue means killing an innocent victim of medusa's gaze :D
This is made of pure awesome and genius. I will do it.
(and I will say to my players it is an idea of mine, of course)
Giant Anaconda -- CR10 -- Bestiary 2
Emperor Cobra -- CR5 -- Bestiary 2
Serpentfolk -- CR4 -- Bestiary 2
Lamia Matriarch -- CR8 -- Bestiary 2
Amphisbaena -- CR4 -- Bestiary 2
Salamander -- CR6 -- Bestiary 1 (good for sorceress medusa)
Naga [Dark/Spirit] -- CR8 & CR9 -- Bestiary 1
Iron Cobra -- CR2 -- Bestiary 1
Hyrda -- CR4 -- Bestiary 1
Oread -- CR1/2 -- Bestiary 2 (class lvls needed)
Necrophidius -- CR3 -- Bestiary 2
An army of permanent animated objects made out of all your petrified victims. Cheaper than stone golems and just as terrifying.+ the goods characters have to cope with the fact that breaking a statue means killing an innocent victim of medusa's gaze :DThis is made of pure awesome and genius. I will do it.
(and I will say to my players it is an idea of mine, of course)
Be sure to include a few small statues of children and hunched elders...
Now I'm getting away from the tomb scene, but perhaps give the medusa a disturbing habit of painting statues with vivid colours and adding nonpetrified accessories to it's dolls, making them very life-like and ordering them to perform some innocuous acts, like sawing wood or other such simple things in a depopulated village (imagines other petrifid terrors, like cows, poultry, rat swarm tehee... now we're getting weird).
Weird lik this? Mother and child divided. D. Hirst.
Weird lik this? Mother and child divided. D. Hirst.
Well, if there was a sawmill in the village, then the PCs could be really scared.
+ the goods characters have to cope with the fact that breaking a statue means killing an innocent victim of medusa's gaze :DAn army of permanent animated objects made out of all your petrified victims. Cheaper than stone golems and just as terrifying.A stone golem-making medusa that uses her victims as raw materials might be interesting.
This is made of pure awesome and genius. I will do it.
(and I will say to my players it is an idea of mine, of course)
Be sure to include a few small statues of children and hunched elders...
Now I'm getting away from the tomb scene, but perhaps give the medusa a disturbing habit of painting statues with vivid colours and adding nonpetrified accessories to it's dolls, making them very life-like and ordering them to perform some innocuous acts, like sawing wood or other such simple things in a depopulated village (imagines other petrifid terrors, like cows, poultry, rat swarm tehee... now we're getting weird).
+1 on the idea of painting the statues. It's even historically accurate, as all those ancient Greek and Egyptian statues we see in museums were originally brightly painted.
Another thing to remember is that some of a Medusa's victims would have been armed and wearing armor, some of it likely magical.
A related idea might be to have one of the animated statues carrying a intelligent sword that can direct it's "wielders" actions.
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... but perhaps give the medusa a disturbing habit of painting statues with vivid colours and adding nonpetrified accessories to it's dolls....
This requires them to be magic mouth'ed with "are you my mommy?" and "I don't wanna play anymore. I wanna go home."
... but perhaps give the medusa a disturbing habit of painting statues with vivid colours and adding nonpetrified accessories to it's dolls....This requires them to be magic mouth'ed with "are you my mommy?" and "I don't wanna play anymore. I wanna go home."
OK, you win.
That would be really creepy.
... but perhaps give the medusa a disturbing habit of painting statues with vivid colours and adding nonpetrified accessories to it's dolls....This requires them to be magic mouth'ed with "are you my mommy?" and "I don't wanna play anymore. I wanna go home."OK, you win.
That would be really creepy.
And to remind the PCs what are they going to break she could have the small frightened face say something like "Pleas miss sakehair! I won't be naughty aga..a." and THEN the statue animates to attack.
An army of permanent animated objects made out of all your petrified victims. Cheaper than stone golems and just as terrifying.Ahem! I said that first! :)
Also - Pairing a Medusa with a Gorgon would be a very meta combination.
Let's throw in an army of Cockatrices and Basilisks while we're at it!
But seriously, Gorgon does seem to fit Medusa, if only because mythology would indicate it. Though admittedly, in PF, the two are nothing alike.
...characters have to cope with the fact that breaking a statue means killing an innocent victim of medusa's gaze :D
+1 here!
I'm drawing up a future adventure where the kidnapper medusae will now include a Wizard with animate object (I added this to my W/S list). the whole 'rescue the children' goal will be tweaked by a custom spell that allows the children to beg for mercy and cry out when the PCs attack. Might work better as an Illusion cast on the statues...
Just read down thread! These ideas are sick, twisted and AWESOME!
Well we are twisted after all. Can you imagine having one dominated child playing with the statues... now that would be a rude moment.
EDIT: Especially for a Dwarven hammer wielding paladin... ouch.
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Alternatively, you can have the medusa be so enamored with the dying words of her victims, she magic mouths them to repeat the last thing they said over and over whenever there is a living being in the room.
Alternatively, you can have the medusa be so enamored with the dying words of her victims, she magic mouths them to repeat the last thing they said over and over whenever there is a living being in the room.
That's a great idea.
She'd have to be a bard, though. Beauty of the spoken word.
She has severed stone heads in her lair that she touches from time to time and thinks about.
As for monsters, I don't know, but I imagine that minotaurs would go good with her for some reason as her brutes and go-to guys. Not too many, though. Maybe a pair of them? Named... Minos and Maxos. :P
Really, you could use anyone. Just give them slake-moth mirror helmets (ref: Perdido Street Station) and the minions will be fine.
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Pathfinder Gorgons are really variant Khalkotauroi with their fire-breath replaced with a paralysing breath.
I would love to see PFRPGv.2 rename Medusa with the more accurate Gorgon (Medusa simply being the name of the most famous Gorgon).
Then we could have fire-breathing Khalkotauroi and some nostalgists could create alternative breath weapons for them.
A maedar mate (if you can find a conversion).
Maybe with some class levels.
Pathfinder Gorgons are really variant Khalkotauroi with their fire-breath replaced with a paralysing breath.
I would love to see PFRPGv.2 rename Medusa with the more accurate Gorgon (Medusa simply being the name of the most famous Gorgon).
Then we could have fire-breathing Khalkotauroi and some nostalgists could create alternative breath weapons for them.
Here we go again.
The D&D gorgon is named as such because Topsell, drawing on Pliny's Natural History and other Greek bestiaries, named the mythical African death-breathing ungulate (what the Greeks called catoblepas) in honor of Medusa and her gorgon sisters. The D&D gorgon even has those scales. It's no more inaccurate than D&D hydras being mortal and non-venomous, and decidedly more accurate than, say, rakshasas (which owe more to an episode of Kolchak: the Night Stalker than they do to actual Hindu lore).
I've statted out this CR 15 Medusa in a downloadable PDF statblock.
Put her in a swamp cabin surrounded by her statues (which consist largely of women and children). The statues themselves are animated objects which she created via her Craft Construct feat. They all are painted to look very lifelike and have Magic Mouth cast on them so they say creepy things to intruders.
Since she is a serpent sorcerer, she has any number of charmed reptiles as guardians on the outskirts of her statue garden (I'm thinking really bug alligators and/or snakes).
So the heroes have to fight their way past the reptiles, enter the creepy garden as the realistic statues turn to look at them and voice creepy things. Then they encounter the Medusa who, due to her guardians and alarm spells, has a number of defensive buffs precast. She relies on defensive magic and her statues to keep the heroes at bay as she tries to turn them into new garden ornaments.
The statues, magic mouths, etc. are NOT accounted for with her NPC starting funds, so the PCs should get XP for those as though they were separate encounters.
Should the PCs get anywhere near her home, her door frame has a sign with a symbol of persuasion trap.
Here we go again.
It's worthwhile to note that we are discussing myth and folklore - there's occasionally a 'first codified' answer or 'best expressed' answer, but there's rarely a definitive answer because there's generally a plurality of traditions. There is either a or the Gorgon, which the individual Medusa is retconned into with a bit of fuzziness around what each is like relative to one another, and she serves as a sort of synecdoche that takes over and pushes the other Gorgons to the point where people don't notice a total shift.
Fundamentally, you're correct to say that the various monsters are pretty much word salad-ed, and it's just as well to keep them the way that they are if for no other reason that they've managed to become a set of folklore unto their own.
Here we go again.It's worthwhile to note that we are discussing myth and folklore - there's occasionally a 'first codified' answer or 'best expressed' answer, but there's rarely a definitive answer because there's generally a plurality of traditions. There is either a or the Gorgon, which the individual Medusa is retconned into with a bit of fuzziness around what each is like relative to one another, and she serves as a sort of synecdoche that takes over and pushes the other Gorgons to the point where people don't notice a total shift.
Fundamentally, you're correct to say that the various monsters are pretty much word salad-ed, and it's just as well to keep them the way that they are if for no other reason that they've managed to become a set of folklore unto their own.
I just think it's funny that gorgons are the one monster that everyone has the "one true monster" mentality about.
Please let me know if I made any mistakes in the above NPC stat block. :D
Should the PCs get anywhere near her home, her door frame has a sign with a symbol of persuasion trap.
If the trap doesn't get them, the medusa certainly will.
Again, Undead and Blind Creatures are immune to her gaze, but a hand-picked crew of orphan street-rats trained to fight blindfolded could make an interesting challenge. Pump them up to the mid-levels and give them Helmets with Blindsense but blocks Vision and they make the perfect acolytes to a powerful Medusa Spellcaster, a near-to-end 'Boss' that the PCs may bump against on their way to the BBEG or possibly ally with.
There is no need for allies of medusa to fight blindfolded. According to rules they can simply turn their back to medusa or not look at her, then only medusa gains total concealment vs them. They can attack the party without penalty.
Realistically if a party member is between a minion and the medusa, the PC should also have concealment against the minion, but the rules state explicitely the option of turning ones back and that due to that only the gaze creature gains concealment:
"Wearing a Blindfold: The foe cannot see the creature at all (also possible to achieve by turning one’s back on the creature or shutting one’s eyes) and does not have to make saving throws against the gaze. However, the creature with the gaze attack gains total concealment against the opponent."
If one tries to be realistic against the rules it also cuts the other way. The minions can stand in a circle around medusa, then the PCs will suffer gaze when attacking the minions without concealment, because the medusa is behind them and the minions can as long as they are not pushed to some other hex attack back without risk.
Where have I said anything that is against the rules? As far as I was aware, the Medusa's Pertification Gaze originated from her Humanoid-part eyes, not the eyes of her serpents. However, this is unlisted in the rules-text, however the flavour-text describes the medusa being able to use a veil to obscure her Petrification Gaze, and again in the Rules-text that the snakes in her hair provide her with all-around vision, so we can assume this also means the serpents can be used for 'normal' vision.
The reason I suggested Blindfolded or Blindsense-using Minions would allow the Medusa to move at will and constantly threaten the PCs with her Gaze, arguably a potent threat against Casters who traditionally would have low Fortitude saves against such an ability.
Further, Blindfolds could be disguised as head-bands, pulled into position when the combat starts and the Medusa rips off her veil. Further, the Blindfolds mean they don't have to keep their backs to the Medusa and don't have to worry about player shenanigans, such as a Grapple check that forces them to look in the Medusa's direction, Charm or Dominate effects that can trick or force them into making eye-contact. Also makes a great fluff-based feat for a Medusa's minions who have learned to fight in pitch-black conditions as part of their training to serve 'The Mistress'.
Where have I said anything that is against the rules?
There is no need for allies of medusa to fight blindfolded.
If one tries to be realistic against the rules it also cuts the other way. The minions can stand in a circle around medusa, then the PCs will suffer gaze when attacking the minions without concealment, because the medusa is behind them and the minions can as long as they are not pushed to some other hex attack back without risk.
You seem to assume, that for avoiding the medusas gaze the only option is to have no vision at all.
But according to the rules one can just turn the back on her and the only gameplay effect is, that the medusa has total concealment against the creature turning the back.Therefore if a combat starts and the medusa removes her veil, all medusa allies can simply turn their backs upon her. The gameplay effect would be, that the medusa allies have a 50% misschance when attacking the medusa (which they normally have no reason to do), the medusa could not communicate with them using sign language and in case the medusa makes a stealth check, they would no longer know, where she is.
The medusa allies would be hindered in now way, when attacking the party members.
Therefore i do not understand the need for blindfolds, because then the party members also have total concealment.
The reason I suggested Blindfolds is so that the Medusa can move freely around the map without having to worry about accidentally petrifying her own minions. Medusa moves to a flanking position, I'd rule that because the Minion is averting his eyes, the PC between the Minion and the Medusa would also be granted a 50% Miss Chance to the Minion's attacks because the Minion dare not look up and risk become a victim. And I also suggested the Blind-Fight feat.
I used this to devastating effect with a Medusa Crimelord who had 'adopted' thirty young boys over the years and trained them to be lethal fighters with a variety of melee weapons. Soon as the PCs invaded her mansion, the Medusa triggered a series of self-perpetuating Darkness Spells in the upper rooms and her Boy-Toys/Bodyguards moved to their positions, pulled down their Blindfolds and waited. PCs burned through a half-dozen Light Spells and several Lightrods before they realized the Darkness Spells just were not going to go away for longer than 1d3 rounds. By the time the PCs had figured out the location of the Medusa they'd had to fight a half-dozen of these Bodyguards and were hurting badly, and had to leave as their last Light spell illuminated a very pissed off Medusa stalking down the hallway towards them, flanked by two Bodyguards in more of those Greater Shadow Fullplates and Tower-Shields.
I've seen very, very few battles of this kind where the PCs don't immediately try to use the enemy against each other, and a freaking Gaze Attack strikes me as the Flamethrower of Special Abilties, although in the Medusa's case, if she knows she's going to be risking a Minion, can easily just close her Humanoid eyes and rely upon her Snake-Hair to see, but quite frankly that's potentially nerfing the Medusa's combat potential. Still I would reward canny PCs who pushed the Medusa into such a predicament.
To the other side of the Argument, the 'turn your backs' strategy holds well so long as the Minions can stop the PCs getting around them, and the Medusa has a strong ranged attack such as a Seeking Composite Longbow to pound away at the PCs with while the Minions keep the PCs from advancing close enough to do the Medusa harm.
what about a pair of basilisk pets?
A medusa with levels of cavalier or druid?