How did your Erylium encounters go?


Rise of the Runelords

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Mine was a little odd.

Erylium stayed up by the ceiling and jumped between being invisible and casting spells a lot.

My GMPC crouched down and used his shield to lift one of the PC's up to her (there were enough ranseur's for everyone, thanks to the Sinspawn) whilst she was being attacked by a mental Barbarian who kept using the higher stage/pedestal area to run and jump at her with the reach weapon Ranseur they found.

Forgetting to state I was casting defensively both times, she lost her most powerful summon, but managed to summon a Wolf in time. The wolf downed the Barbarian, the Sheriff walked through the Waters of Wrath, becoming enraged and attacking anything in reach. This is what caused the Barbarian to go down mostly.

Once Erylium was killed, the Wolf kept going for the Barbarian, whilst the Sheriff kept going for my GMPC and missing all of the time (AC 28 - level 4, buffed by gear, so I could keep him alive to help the PC's through most of the campaign when I need to bring him in).

Tristan, the party Magus/Rogue still had a Sap he found and didn't want to harm the Sheriff (who took him in a few years back after his parents were slaughtered by Goblins). In fact, none of the party wanted to, so while he kept going for Brik and the Barbarian (even when the Barb was down and nearly dead), Brik kept punching him, triggering off an AoO on every hit, which the Sheriff failed for obvious reasons and Tristan kept hitting him over the head with his Sap.

Eventually after everybody was out of spells, we got everyone back safely and took a trip back over to Magnimar (which is where Aron came in originally), so Aron could buy his Bracers of Armour +2.

The party are now level 3 and in Magnimar, Tony Stark will be introduced as a scientist of Arms and Armour.

Not sure where to bring in the Gnome yet.

Anyway, they found the fight with Erylium to be incredibly boring because of how hard it was to see her, catch up with her and attack her. I told them afterwards that a lot of players just walk out and leave her down in her domain, but no, they managed to kill her. :p

Though, the Barbarian did get bored when she was out of reach, so just started throwing Ranseurs at her. Haha!

I also used my GMPC to guide them a little and suggest bleeding into the pool (after he passed his perception check) as they didn't understand why the pool glimmered less after the first Sinspawn came out.

Anyway, Brik bled into his tankerd and flung some blood into the pool from his bottleneck position. He was in the doorway whilst Tristan was with a reach weapon to attack, right behind him.

Worked out well eventually. :)


Decided to hide this:

Does your party have a religious aversion to bows?

Tsuto's note specifically mentions a quasit, and the party paladin made her Knowledge: Religion roll to know that quasits were small *flying* demons.

So the entire party had bows before they entered, and the paladin just told the barbarian to defend her while she stood in the back with her bow, holding her action until Erylium appeared and then nailing her.

Yes, it didn't help Erylium in the least that the paladin couldn't roll under a 17, and turned her into a pincushion. Then took the dress and had it made into a monogrammed hankie.

But no; my group knew she'd be flying, broke her altar, and then waited for her to get impatient/pissed off enough to appear and try something. So it was far easier than it should have been for them.

EDIT: Having a paladin was also a huge difference. With 2 points of fast healing, at-will invisibility, and DR 5, I can see a group taking forever to whittle away her hit points, only to watch her vanish and come back later. The smite evil/composite bow/high rolls combo was just too much for her quick healing to keep up with, and the paladin rolled max damage on the final shot, so she never got a chance to turn invisible and flee.

EDIT 2: Just added a spoiler tag. I realized this might be spoiler talk for some players.


Nah I don't think so. They've just not bothered to buy one and have sold every weapon they found but didn't want to use. I can't recall if the Magus/Rogue kept the +1 Cold Iron Returning Dagger for himself though.

Also, the description for the room in the new Rise of the Runelords book didn't actually mention the significance of the altar, to the great deal the original one did, so the party didn't break the altar.

Is that significant? They're off to Thistletop next week.

My party consisted of:

Belor Hemlock - Sword and Board, Town Sheriff (came on a one off trip)
Brik Wahl - GMPC Cleric who's always drunk and sometimes has Narcolepsy
Tristan - Half-Elf Magus/Rogue
Aron - Human Shoanti Barbarian

Nobody had the needed knowledge skills. The Cleric follows his own ideals but firmly agrees with Cayden Cailean's beliefs.

So yea, they had no idea and weren't prepared at all.

Sounds like your group slaughtered her with ease and probably had fun doing it. :p


Bandavaar the Brave wrote:
Nah I don't think so. They've just not bothered to buy one and have sold every weapon they found but didn't want to use.

Ah, yes. I know that group! ;-)

Quote:

Also, the description for the room in the new Rise of the Runelords book didn't actually mention the significance of the altar, to the great deal the original one did, so the party didn't break the altar.

Is that significant? They're off to Thistletop next week.

It was a temple of Lamashtu, and the party had a paladin of Sarenrae.

The altar got the good old holy-water-and-big-barbarian-with-earthbreaker treatment.

Quote:

My party consisted of:

Belor Hemlock - Sword and Board, Town Sheriff (came on a one off trip)
Brik Wahl - GMPC Cleric who's always drunk and sometimes has Narcolepsy
Tristan - Half-Elf Magus/Rogue
Aron - Human Shoanti Barbarian

Nobody had the needed knowledge skills. The Cleric follows his own ideals but firmly agrees with Cayden Cailean's beliefs.

So yea, they had no idea and weren't prepared at all.

The cleric didn't take Knowledge: Religion? OK, now I'm SURE I've gamed with this group before! ;-)

Quote:
Sounds like your group slaughtered her with ease and probably had fun doing it. :p

Oh, it scared them quite a bit -- the other 3 party members knew that if the paladin went down, they were in big trouble. They couldn't hit her, much less damage her.

The paladin? SHE enjoyed herself immensely!

EDIT: The paladin informs me that her final hit was a longbow crit, explaining why Erylium didn't get a chance to run away.


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Haha!

Yea and the best part is that the Cleric without Knowledge Religion is my GMPC Cleric. :p

I actually just made him as a drunken cleric, who has narcolepsy and obsessively, compulsively heals people, so didn't bother with his skills really. I just have him walking around with a Keg of Ale on his back, whilst his armour is lined with hanging glass tankerds that he drinks from and attacks with.

He drinks as a swift action, then smashes his enemies around the side of the head or throws his tankerds at them from afar (he has both feats to do this without provoking). :p

Your Paladin sounds pretty epic btw!

Also, I noticed when I say things to the group, they seem to think everything I say will be in favour of them, so when they asked if they could walk through the Waters of Wrath (which they just knew as water) and it wouldn't harm them, I said they can do if they like and so my brother who was around so controlled the Sheriff, did just that.

Fail!

I'm glad nobody died though. I also really like my girlfriend's character. A 15 year old Half-Elf who likes to climb things, sneak around and open locks, who one day grew an interest for magic, had his parents killed and is now vengeful towards any Goblins he comes across. 4 Levels Rogue (Scout and Roof Runner Archetypes), 13 Levels Magus. :)


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LOL. My wife was reading over my shoulder and LOVED the Sheriff walking through the waters.

Her exact words: "Who DOES that?!?!"


Wow, my Tristan wording failed.

I meant he had his parents killed by Goblins...not that he got bored of them, so had them killed. XD

Anyway, that's exactly what I thought and when I said what happened, they all said "but you basically told us to go through it. We read your words as a hint!"

Lol, my reply was "I said you could walk through it if you desired, but I didn't think you'd actually do it." Haha!

My Cleric was meant to be the Comic Relief, not the Sheriff. Wow, there's no hope for Tristan, growing up with an ex-Shoanti as a father figure. :p

The evil of the pool must have compelled him to do it. LOL.


In our game my whole party but my gnome failed a fear save. She flew down to kill my gnome as I had shown no ability to disarm her. I then disarmed her grabbed the little dagger and ran. We came back later but the first encounter she beat us like red headed step children.


Unfortunately for Erylium, only the bard failed his will save.

When the bard runs away, but the paladin's still shooting, the barbarian's still blocking, and the sorcerer's still lobbing stuff, life continues to stink...


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In my first run of Burnt Offerings, Erylium TPK'd the entire group.

Group was composed of:
Elven Barbarian
Dwarven Barbarian
Half Orc Cleric
Human Sorcerer
Human Ranger

Erylium went all megalomanic as they entered her 'sanctum' and proceeded to flick and out of invisibility either shouting curses at them and throwing her knife or doing some spell tricks.

While the rest of the party dealt with her minions (more sinspawn had gathered here due to how things had played out previously) the elven barbarian runs over to the Runewell (above which Erylium was perching) and starts climbing. Erylium freaks, starts stabbing him, he fails his climb check horrendously, falls into the runewell.
Elven barbarian succumbs to rage waters and when the half orc cleric runs over to help him out, he eviscerates him with his bastard sword (Crit while raging takes the cleric to negatives) the dwarven barbarian tries to reason with the elf and gets a sword in the face for his trouble (dwarf down into negatives). Sorcerer and Ranger both try to stop the barbarian who, amazingly, is able to take out the sorceress as well before being brought down by the ranger.

Erylium guffaws at the entire scene and proceeds to torment the ranger. Ranger attempts to take out Erylium. Critically fumbles three times in a row winding him, breaking the bow and spraining his wrist. Erylium is staggered by laughter at this point but still manages to take him down to zero hit points at which point the ranger gives up.

Erylium gives him a chance to drink of the waters of Lamashtu or be slain. Ranger gives in, drinks, world melts into a tide of blood and monsters, fade to black.

---------

Entire group was brought to Thistletop scheduled to be sacrificed and the Ranger became a recurring villain!

All in all a crazy fight =D


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That is just EPIC!

Yeah, if our party's barbarian lost it, it would pretty much obliterate the rest of the party. At 2nd level while raging he was at +7 (2d6+12/x3). Plus Cleave if they tried to gang up on him. Not many 2nd-level characters can survive that.

Those waters! Our party wouldn't even go in the room with them 'til the little vixen was dead.

P.S. In case you're wondering what kind of game I play to do that kind of damage at 2nd level, it's scary simple: 18 STR + 4 raging = 22 STR = +6 attack, +9 damage with a 2-handed weapon when raging. Add Power Attack and a +2 BAB and you get the stats above. Unfriendly!

*EDIT*
(1) I'm not saying there aren't better barbarian builds; I'm sure someone somewhere could double those numbers. It's more just to indicate how dead the rest of the party would have been.
(2) @Dreihaddar: Making the ranger drink the waters of Lamashtu = ultimate genius! I *so* have to remember that one!


In ours Erylium was tough, especially since only one PC carried a ranged weapon at the time and he was having trouble shooting through her DR (my groups really need to learn to pack cold iron and silver weapons). Nobody was knocked unconscious, but it was a long and grueling fight until finally Erylium exhausted all her spells, and the paladin readied an action to try and grab her returning dagger as it stabbed into him (he deliberately allowed it to hit him, so I allowed him a reflex save to grab it), thus successfully preventing it from going back to her, and forcing her down into melee combat (the barbarian had closed and blocked the door, so escape wasn't an option). Erylium's own dagger proved to be her downfall in the end.


This was last weekend, so good timing on this thread. Erylium was doing negligible damage to the party (hold person took the fighter out for a few rounds, but beyond that, the dagger wasn't doing much for her, and I determined she was not desperate enough to go close up). In return, the party was doing negligible damage to her, with damage oft negated by the DR, or the fast healing next round. Then the gnome druid took his medium mount, an elephant, up the stairs, took a running jump, and grappled the quasit, and brought the fight to the ground. She managed to use the slumber hex to put the elephant to sleep to escape again, but was caught quickly with more grapples. I was surprised to see her CMD was so high, for a tiny creature, but the players rolled well, so it worked out for them.

I was pretty pleased with this outcome. I didn't want to have this drag on all evening, and it was still a unique battle that wasn't a cakewalk.

Grand Lodge

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After a long battle with one PC unconscious and the party out of healing, this is what happened next:

Erylium Spoiler:
One of the PCs that had the Goblin Warchanter's whip attempted a grapple with it as Erylium was flying around just out of normal reach. I have played around with a whip enough to know you can grab with them. So I allowed the attempt with long odds from a Half-Drow Female Fighter. The PC rolled a 20. Figures. Other PCs jumped on the snagged Quasit. It was short work for the party after that.


My group faced Erylium last night. It took a funny turn towards the end so I figured I'd share it.

The three man team of a switch-hitter ranger, archaeologist bard, and flame oracle entered the catacombs and quickly came across the cathedral by following the mantra "Always go right." They had burned all their hero points bringing Tsuto down (itself a funny story) and only had one back from rescuing Ameiko. The bard and oracle had cold iron arrows because I had Savah "just get a shipment in" and encouraged the party to buy them.

Tsuto:
The group kept the goblins from warning Tsuto thanks to a Sleep spell, and faced him alone. After his flurry landed two kicks on the ranger and he deflected an arrow, the group didn't know what to make of him. The one player who actually knew something about the game (playing the oracle) eventually realized he was a monk. Then the ranger got a critical with his greatsword, and dropped Tstuo down from full to 5 health.

Tstuo said "Screw this, I'm out of here." This surprised the ranger. "He's running away!?" "This isn't a video game; a lot of people are smart enough to run away."

They pursued him down the tunnel ("Wait--we can chase him off the map?" "Again, not a video game.") and used their hero points to get enough actions to take him down with arrows. They returned to the tunnel after a night's rest and warning the town that another raid was planned.

Erylium lands Hold Person on the ranger and drops a giant spider on top of the oracle. The sinspawn attacks the archaeologist, but I don't have it full attack because I'm concerned that dropping him will likely result in a TPK at this point. It turns out I probably didn't need to worry, but I'm glad I did it, anyway. A sickening bite is enough to worry about.

The ranger burns his hero point to break free of the Hold Person, charges the spider and kills it in one hit. The group has a hard time hitting Erylium's 19 AC, and burn the rest of their hero points to nick her with projectiles. Around the time the sinspawn goes down, they realize Erylium's healed the damage they've already given her. Cue panic.

Erylium uses the rest of her spells, but the group disrupts or saves against all of them, although she rolls high on Ray of Enfeeblement and the ranger is down 3 STR, plus the bard is sickened by the sinspawn and the oracle is useless outside of Bless. The bard is passing the ranger his cold iron arrows. At this point I toss them a bone and decide Erylium is made confident by their inability to really hurt her and have her swoop around them, slashing with her dagger and annoying them. They still can't hit her worth anything.

This is where it gets interesting. I'm about to have Erylium lead them to her other minions when the ranger speculates that the runewell is the source of her power. It is suggested that someone stomp through it and dirty it up, but the archaeologist rolls high enough to realize that this would be a spectacularly bad idea. The oracle decides to drop her own blood in the well to see if she can summon a sinspawn loyal to her for help.

So, as the oracle is staring big nasty teeth in the face, I'm planning to have Erylium go nuts over the power loss in the runewell. Then the archaeologist criticals her with Tsuto's composite shortbow. Immediately after that, the ranger gets another critical, while power attacking with his greatsword. Erylium goes down to -10, the guys help the oracle, and they realize that this well is the source of the quasit's part of the raid plan and they figure that they can shut it down by summoning a couple more monsters. So they do. They went from 2nd to 3rd level in that one session.


I was very pleased with how my party handled this encounter, mostly because most of them are new players and this was the first time they really started thinking tactically. We had...

And elven cleric of Desna(favors a bow)
A dwarven barbarian
A halfling rogue
A half-elf ranger
A half-orc druid

I had re-statted Erylium as a cleric and she had the Madness variant channel ability, so after creating a bunch of sinspawn, she began hovering over the center of the pool of water in the middle of the room, outside of the PC's reach, and started channeling negative energy every round while the sinspawn engaged the PCs in melee. The cleric summoned a celestial eagle to engage her in aerial combat while he took shots with his bow, and the others mopped up the sinspawn. After that was done, the barbarian started taunting Erylium and managed to goad her into attacking him in melee. The druid cast entangle on the area, then the barbarian grappled the quasit and forced her to the ground so the plants could get her and she couldn't take wing again. They finished her off pretty quickly from there.


Party consists of Human Cleric, Tripping Fighter Dwarf, Human Barbarian and Gnome Illusionist Sorcerer (celestial).

While on the subject, anyone else wonder what was the point of Erylium going invisible when she hears players approach if shes just going to yell at them as soon as they enter and cut herself?

This encounter was a gong show for both sides.

They entered the room and she slit her hands and created 2 sinspawn (oops). As the players, aided by to guards, fought the sinspawn Erylium cast SMII and SMI, making a spider and snake. So those all died easy enough and it was just the party, 2 guards and Erylium left. She stayed flying and caster her stuffs and the party shot their bows and granted abilities at her. Bows always did 5 or less damage (aka nothing) and the cleric has fire bolt (aka no damage). What little damage they could do she healed pretty quickly so this became somewhat of a long boring fight that I tried to speed up by getting to to coup-de-grace anyone she slumbered (not to kill them, but to allow them to use combat maneuvers on her) so they ganged up and grappled her and stuff and she got away every time...

Eventually she just disappeared and did not return (shapechange to a bug and GTFO'ed). Players basically did this room first so ill have them encounter her probably with Korovus and the last 2 sinspawn for a final defensive wave.

Heh I totally forgot they statted the guards at the back of the book, so they were stuck with 2 foot-soldiers from gamemastery guide, the poor fools.


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Well for this fight we had 6 players all 2nd level.
Shoanti Paladin of Sarenea
Halfling Summoner with snake Elidon
Cleric of Kalistra
Monk
Witch
Rogue

The fight was spread out over two sessions.

Session 1
The party pretty much made a bee line to the cathedral. Since I'm running six I had beefed up the sinspawn to 2 already there and she cussed out the party and summoned another sinspawn. She then used SMI(grat) and SMII(gspider) and fear affecting only the rogue. She then commanded the snake elidon to flee. The party just pretty much waded through everything and yet did not hit Erylium. For some reason only one person has a bow? At this point she turned invisible and fled barely escaping getting trapped in the cathedral when they shut the doors.

Erylium became pissed and started stalking the party

So the party continued on and walked into the Vargouille room. I again increased the Vargouilles to two. The Paladin was able to crit one so it had like 1hp. One vargouille shrieked and stunned two thirds of the party for 7 rounds. The other Vargouille made his (it's?) kiss attack on the paladin. Who failed his save errr I mean who made it (hero point). Erylium started attacking the rear most stunned character. The two remaining active players were able to dispatch the wounded Vargouille and then two rounds later the other Vargouille.
Erylium was still stabbing stunned people until she saw both Vargouilles drop. she again turned invisible telling the party off and fled. End session 1.

Now my players are good roleplayers, amazing optimizers and excellant tacticians. I decided to truely give them a challenge next session. So thought about it and came up with Erylium's plan B. Which was that at the top of each prisoner pit was a rope spiked to the ground. In case of emergency she would tell Koruvus (who I bumped to 4th level fighter) to free the Zombies. I had to plot out how fast he could move and how long it would take the zombies to get out of the pit. So the zombies would attack in waves of two spaced 30' apartSo the party recovers from the Vargouille fight. (I'm slowly counting rounds off in my head). They proceed forward to the collapsed stairs going up. They turn around reach the varguoille room and see two zombies charging down the hall to them.

Ok at this point I have to admit my players are crafty. They form a line across the pool. The first zombie charges and engages the paladin. As each zombie moves into the room he takes multiple AOO's and meets the paladin with the two handed sword (2d6 +6 DMG). The paladin becomes the tip of a zombie killing machine. At the tail end of the zombie train Koruvus and Erylium show up. disappointed not to see a scene of zombes eating the adventurers. Only one or two zombies are left and the summoner sends the elidon at koruvus. Erylium uses her slumber hex on it and Koruvus does a coup de gras on the eiledon (god that thing is annoying). Koruvus moves into the room.

Koruvus is engaged with most of the melee types in the party. The summoner casts summon monster I and summons an air elemental. Erylium is running out of spells so she flies behind the party invisible and casts hold person on the paladin(the cleric of Claistr gives him luck to get out of it in a round ). Now the summoner fesses up and say whoops I can't summon that. Now I learned a lesson...do not give your players an inch or they'll take a mile. Rather than rework stuff I just go with it. I tell the summoner mark off three spells and we'll just say this once you really extended your powers. On the next round the summoner uses the vortex power of the air elemental to push Erylium into the collapsed stairwell and they shut the door. So she's trapped. The rest of the party finishes off Koruvus

I'm not sure how this is going to play out but, some of the ideas the party came up with had me trying not to laugh. Stuff like everyone charge in the room and stab upwards.... The cool thing is I did a write up of the game session from Erylium's point of view which was fun.. Sorry if this is a tad long


Last night my party entered the Catacombs of Wrath. They fought the first Sinspawn standing guard there, then retreated back up to Sandpoint on recommendation of the barbarian, who felt they needed to rest after fighting the goblins and Tsuto in the Glassworks (that's a mark in the sloth box right there).

The players then spent a good few hours roleplaying in town with the mayor and some guards, attempting to interrogate Tsuto, who stayed silent throughout. They even tried the good cop-bad cop routine, but the only time he talked was when he said "I'm not afraid to die," in response to the party explaining that he would probably get the death sentence in Magnimar.

They went back to the catacombs the following day, and explored towards the prison, torture chamber, and the zombie room, dispatching two sinspawn and Koruvus with relative ease. We broke off the session here, so next time will be very interesting as they still have to encounter the vargouille and Erylium herself.

I'm very interested to see how the Erylium encounter is going to play out, I have a feeling it could take a turn for the worse quite quickly. The sorcerer rolled a 15 on her Knowledge: The Planes check after reading Tsuto's journal, so I informed her that she recognized the word Quasit as being a small, flying demon.

Regardless, they glossed over this, and didn't think to prepare. At this point, I'm afraid they're only going to have one character who's going to be able to do any damage to Erylium, being the ranger. The barbarian, monk and sorcerer don't have any ranged weapons, and the sorcerer's only damage spells are acid splash (useless against a quasit), and hopefully she'll have a few magic missiles left. The witch does have some sort of ranged weapon like a crossbow or sling I think, but DR 5 means his attacks will be largely futile.

I'll be sure to report back how this is gonna play out!
(With or without a link to the obituary thread...)


Your timing is perfect!

Did you notice the, "My character doesn't carry a ranged weapon because..." thread?

When your characters can't hurt her, just point them to that thread. (I swear, whenever I join a group and one or more of the players isn't carrying a bow, I ask, "What's WRONG with you? A short bow is all of 30 g.p.!?!?!")


Yes, I read that thread. The barbarian's answer would be "Because I have a greatsword!"

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

My party went through this encounter last week and it was varied. The party consisted of a Human Gunslinger (mysterious stranger who was doubling as a rogue with disable device), Catfolk Celestial Sorcerer (to add extra healing), Tengu Druid (Pack lord), and Half-Orc Fighter (two weapon fighter).

The party didn't know about the quasit (bad rolls on the knowledge religion check), but got lucky based off knowledge of previous fights.

When the party showed up, there were two sinspawn and Erylium was invisible. The party had been handling the spawn fairly easily so they went for their standard tactics. Fighter moves up and engages the spawn, while druid sends his wolves to assist. The slinger and sorcerer stayed back to provide ranged cover.

While the fight with the spawn started, the sorcerer actually decided to defile the alter, which enraged Erylium. The quasit cast a spell at the sorc (who passed with flying colors) and the gunslinger (who was holding an action) fired at the quasit and critted.

Even after DR, the quasit was almost dead. I ruled that the blood from the attack actually landed in the well and summoned more spawn.

The next round the sorc hit the quasit with a magic missile and the gunslinger followed up with another good hit to fell her. After that it was just clean up of the spawn.


Alright, round 2:

The party went back to town and got some healing from Father Zantus and rested for the night to freshen up for their return to the Catacombs. In the morning they decided to do a little more preparation than last time since they now know what they are up against. One of the players went to the book store and looked though a book on demonology to find some hints as to their weaknesses. Zantus approached them a little later with the gift of a scroll of Align Weapon telling them that what they told him sounded like a Demon and this should help. They made sure everyone in the party had light crossbows and they made there way to the dungeon.

They entered the cathedral all prepped and ready for a showdown, but were let down that no one seemed to be there, so they decided that the Quasit must have bailed and that they should finish exploring the place. After an ambush in the prison rooms by a few more Sinspawn they make there way to the Prisoner Pits room where they are bonfronted by a pissed off Erylium and a mutated goblin with three arms. Fight ensues and after the gnome illusionist being feared away and then rolling no higher than a 5 on his celestial bloodline beamy thing and they cleric falling into a pit to hug a zombie they actually manage to dispatch both of the enemies and high fives were had for all.


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Kitsune Barbarian attempted to eat her. Basically she slumber hexed the fighter, Wizard cast sleep on her, she went sleepy time. Barbarian picked her up and rage chewed on her.

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Kris Vanhoyland wrote:
Last night my party entered the Catacombs of Wrath. They fought the first Sinspawn standing guard there, then retreated back up to Sandpoint on recommendation of the barbarian, who felt they needed to rest after fighting the goblins and Tsuto in the Glassworks (that's a mark in the sloth box right there).

Question: Would you still have marked "sloth" if the Barbarian had wanted to retreat specifically to get a sling and chunks of cold iron?

(And maybe some chalk powder or some means of dealing with Invisibility?)

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

NobodysHome wrote:

Your timing is perfect!

Did you notice the, "My character doesn't carry a ranged weapon because..." thread?

When your characters can't hurt her, just point them to that thread. (I swear, whenever I join a group and one or more of the players isn't carrying a bow, I ask, "What's WRONG with you? A short bow is all of 30 g.p.!?!?!")

... and a Barbarian who is fond of his Greatsword should consider getting some Javelins at least (since they allow him to use his strength bonus).

Paizo Employee

My group completely avoided the double doors in the temple and resolved to collapse the tunnels using the fireworks from the Swallowtail Festival.

During their collapse attempt Erylium and the last sinspawn ambushed them, forcing them to light the fireworks early. She was already planning to summon 1d3 fiendish "riding dogs" (reflavored as hyenas) behind them, which she did.

The encounter ended quickly, but tensely, with the party fleeing between the two hyenas she summoned. A successful trip attempt would have resulted in a PC trapped in the collapsing tunnel, but they were able to slip through (one miss and one hit that failed to trip).

Of course, the question remains whether Erylium was killed in the collapse <_< >_>

Cheers!
Landon


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KingmanHighborn wrote:
Kitsune Barbarian attempted to eat her. Basically she slumber hexed the fighter, Wizard cast sleep on her, she went sleepy time. Barbarian picked her up and rage chewed on her.

Sleep shouldn't have worked on Erylium, since she has 6HD and sleep only affects 4HD worth of creatures.


So yesterday my party had their next session after dispatching Koruvus. They checked out the meditation chamber, and the sorcerer who knows Thassilonian was baffled at the strange words and emotions on the walls there. They took the floating items (apart from the maggot-infested raven corpse), and then proceeded to head straight to the cathedral where Erylium was.

The party composition is as follows:

Half-elf Barbarian, armed with a greatsword and Koruvus' +1 longsword.
Human Shoanti Ranger, armed with Tsuto's composite shortbow.
Human Monk, unarmed.
Human Witch with the healing patron, armed with a sickle and a sling.
Half-elf Sorcerer with the arcane bloodline.

Upon entering, they found a sinspawn lurking in the corner near the door, and Erylium near the runewell in the back. She flew into a rage, and proceeded to create a second sinspawn immediately (I added a sinspawn to the encounter to at least give the melee characters something extra to hit).

As combat starts, the sinspawn near the door had the highest initiative, so it moved to block the entrance and the PC's engage it in a fight, while Erylium goes invisible. She then proceeds to cast her summoning spells to summon a giant frog and a viper in the subsequent rounds, which are pretty easily dispatched, although by this point the barbarian is sickened for 5 minutes because of the sinspawn bite.

As the barbarian fights the viper, the party moves into the room, readying actions to fire at Erylium if she appears. The monk tries climbing the wall near where she went invisible but fails, and the attempt to track the blood stains from her wrist are futile too, since her fast healing means her wrist won't be bleeding anymore.

Abandoning her invisibility, Erylium casts hold person on the ranger, who incidentally had the heaviest armor (chain shirt), and becomes paralyzed. She stays in flight near the ceiling the entire time, shooting through the room every round. She tries Command on the monk but fails, then sleeps the ranger when he breaks the paralysis. She's punishing the ranger pretty hard, so the only damage is coming from the few magic missile spells the sorcerer cast, since the witch with the sling is unable to get past her DR 5, and her ranged superiority means the monk and barbarian are pretty much useless in the fight.

Ray of Enfeeblement on the barbarian means he now has a -5 strength penalty and is still sickened, and one round later he is frightened because of her Cause Fear ability and flees back down the corridor.

At this point it has become clear that they won't be able to defeat her, since I've described how the minor wounds they've been able to inflict seem to heal quite rapidly.

So hanging their heads in shame, they decide to join the barbarian and haul ass back outta there, the gleefull triumphant laugh of Erylium echoing through the corridor. "Yes yes, flee my kingdom you useless ants!" Her lowest hp count during that fight at any given point was 30, and she healed back up to 35 the same round they fled.

They spent the last hour and a half of the session trying to come up with strategies on how to defeat that little pest. The barbarian has been buying javelins, and the monk and the witch went to Sabyl Sorn (who gladly let them in, our monk being a fellow worshipper of Irori), and used her extensive collection of books to do some research on Quasits (The +4 bonus on Knowledge the Planes gave the witch a check of 26, upon which I let him read the Quasit statblock in the Bestiary.

All in all, I think my players learned an important lesson.


Lord Fyre wrote:
Kris Vanhoyland wrote:
Last night my party entered the Catacombs of Wrath. They fought the first Sinspawn standing guard there, then retreated back up to Sandpoint on recommendation of the barbarian, who felt they needed to rest after fighting the goblins and Tsuto in the Glassworks (that's a mark in the sloth box right there).

Question: Would you still have marked "sloth" if the Barbarian had wanted to retreat specifically to get a sling and chunks of cold iron?

(And maybe some chalk powder or some means of dealing with Invisibility?)

If that had been the reason then no, but his main reason for wanting to leave was being wounded and the witch already having used a number of spells that day in the glassworks.

Grand Lodge

Thanks for posting your Erylium encounter, Kris. It has proven to be a somewhat epic challenge at the level most parties face the nimble Quasit. It is fun to read both the struggles and successes fighting the tiny demon. It always brings up memories of my party's eventful encounter. I will be curious where you and your party will take it from here. Please let us know.

Cheers,

Mazra


Kris Vanhoyland wrote:
KingmanHighborn wrote:
Kitsune Barbarian attempted to eat her. Basically she slumber hexed the fighter, Wizard cast sleep on her, she went sleepy time. Barbarian picked her up and rage chewed on her.
Sleep shouldn't have worked on Erylium, since she has 6HD and sleep only affects 4HD worth of creatures.

Nobody is perfect. Some of us forget to check such things until later. :P *the times I've forgot DR....*

Also it wasn't a coup de grace. She woke on the grapple, and it was a long session with just that. The rest of the party just watched after the sinspawn went down. And they left the runewell functioning.


My party has finally dealt with the trapped Erylium in the stairwell...at least for now. They had some stone masons come in and brick over the door...lol

Liberty's Edge

Nice! Though, depending on the stairwell, she can change shape into a centipede or raven and escape into the world to further harass the party!

Liberty's Edge

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At the level they ran into her, the group had no way to see invisible, but they did have a Cleric of Cayden in the group who summoned ale over and over again wherever they thought she went invisible, so people could see her.

I thought it was a funny enough move to let it go, and so the combat went pretty well for the group.


HangarFlying wrote:
Nice! Though, depending on the stairwell, she can change shape into a centipede or raven and escape into the world to further harass the party!

Ohhh I had forgotten about that thanks.... She's trapped in the stairwell leading up so surely there must be room for her to get out...


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My players got very frustrated at the flying/invisible menace. The fight took a very long time...

  • The fighter was using Tsuto's composite shortbow, but was having trouble hitting her. His damage couldn't really bypass the DR, either, so he was pretty much useless. At one point, the player got so mad that he threw his dice at the wall.

  • The rogue didn't have a reach weapon, or a ranged weapon. He tried running up the wall and attacking her (Assassin Creed style). I let him roll acrobatics to leap off the wall and attack her (treating it as a charge attack). Still, he couldn't really hit her due to how high her AC is at that level. The player abandoned the table for the nearby desktop computer. Not sure what he was doing, but it was clear he was disengaged from the game.

  • The sorcerer could only deal electricity damage (djinni bloodline). So, she literally was useless. Spent most of the battle using the aid another action. Like the other two players, she was completely turned off by the fight. Put her head down when it wasn't her turn.

  • The paladin had a longbow, but it wasn't composite. Like the fighter, his Dexterity is low, so he was having trouble hitting (though his smite increased his chances). When he did hit, his smite helped bypass the DR... but, the quasit's fast healing complicated things.

  • Eventually, the fighter used a readied action to catch Erylium's dagger, at which point I had her fly into a frenzy and attack the party with tooth and claw. Basically, I just wanted her to die and get back to the story.


I just ran Erylium again last night! Group composed of two players who'd been there during the last TPK event and two new ones =D

Ifrit Oracle of the Flame
Human Abjurer Wizard
Human Cavalier of the Blue Rose
and a Kitsune Ninja

I changed the encounter slightly, having a sinspawn already there and then having Erylium summon another one. I also armed the sinspawn with ranseurs.
I did this mainly due to how quickly the group had handled the sinspawn previously. One look at Erylium's spell list told me that if things went the same the sinspawn would last 1-2 turns and then it'd just be Erylium flitting around debuffing the group semi-pointlessly.

The fight was excellent at the start. Oracle and ninja jumped into the cathedral with the Cavalier standing in the door and the abjurer standing behind him. The sinspawn split up and go for the oracle and ninja with Erylium successfully casting Hold Person on the Cavalier. Later she then summons a spider in front of the Cavalier with the sinspawn and oracle/ninja fighting the sinspawn who are now flanking with the spider against the two of them.

The spider can't manage a hit against the cavalier so it skitters up and over him and goes for the abjurer while Erylium summons a dire rat and keeps the pressure on.

After this though, things start falling apart for the Quasit. Spider times out, sinspawn fall, rat times out and it turns into "Chase the Quasit!" I followed the tactics for her and she didn't go invisible since she was at such high health and regenerating most of the damage dealt to her. After several unsuccessful lasso, rope around a crossbow bolt, climb and grabble attempts the Oracle whips out a grappling hook and grounds her. What follows is a sickening boot party on the Quasit, who can't escape no matter how much she tries.
It takes them about 6 rounds or so to finally kill her off due to a combination of her actually turning invisible (thus having total concealment but still being pinpointed due to the rather large grapping hook) and then through sheer toughness, since DR/5 and Fast Healing 2 goes a long way against Level 2's.

They finally killed her meaning they've cleared the entire catacombs of wrath save for the Varghouille fountain area, which I don't expect to be much of a problem.

I find it hard to imagine how it does not turn into a boot party grindfest at the end, especially since there are no good aligned/cold iron weapons/temporary enhancements to be found =p


Paladins can bypass the DR, and with a successful Knowledge (Planes) check it can be discerned that as a demon, a quasit is vulnerable to cold iron. Thus, weapons of that sort can be attained before the fight. Also, the dungeon is littered with reach weapons.

She's not totally un-hittable... but an unprepared party is certainly going to find her problematic (mine sure did).


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I find it abit strange that the only way for it not to turn into a grindfest is to have a certain class. Or that they need to encounter her, succeed at a knowl. check, flee, resupply and then have at it again.

As an aside, both the Oracle and the Wizard knew what she was and what she was resistant/vulnerable to. Helped so they didn't waste spells on her, but its not like knowing she's vulnerable to Cold Iron makes some appear =/. Additionally, she can stay easily out of reach of even reach weapons with her flight. If it hadn't been for a string of good rolls for the Oracle they'd have no ability to bring her down. What saved them was me sticking to her combat tactics and not preemptively going invisible to heal up.

I consider Erylium almost a gear-check for the rest of the adventure and I told my players the same thing. This kind of thing will become more common later on (Xanesha is like a pimped out Erylium, really). The players have already started looking at their own builds with this in mind.


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I find it odd that Tsuto's note specifically mentions a quasit, and the AP specifically has him leave his journal behind even if he flees so that the party is guaranteed to get it, yet it seems like many parties ignore this little tidbit.

My party rolled their Knowledge: Religion, did a bunch of research, and knew they were dealing with a flying demon, so every party member had a ranged weapon and a plan.

Yes, having a paladin shooting the living daylights out of her with Smite Evil going made the encounter ridiculously simple for my group, but reading the number of groups that ignored Tsuto's note and/or didn't all have ranged weapons is kind of scary.

Dreihaddar is absolutely correct: without a paladin or cold iron weapons, it's a grind of trolling for crits and high damage rolls, so it's destined to be a LOOOOONG encounter.

But considering the AP provides a handout giving away what she is, then gives them a bookstore, two temples, and several NPCs to assist them in their research, and has a blacksmith who can forge cold iron weapons for them, it does sadden me to see so many parties go in so hopelessly unprepared.


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My group had the handouts and knew there was a Quasit 'somewhere'.

Sadly there's no sign saying "Now entering Catacombs of Wrath. This is the place mentioned in Tsuto's notes and the freaks discussed are the sinspawn. Expect the Quasit to be here."

They pieced it together as they went. "Hey, maybe the freaks he mentioned are these icky things!". When the doors to the cathedral opened and Erylium does her "INTRUDERS!" spiel the Abjurer immediately asked "That wouldn't happen to be a Quasit, would it?" Then there were knowing looks all around.

My group absolutely manhandled the Glassworks Goblins and Tsuto escaped down the tunnels. They then followed after him, releasing Ameiko on the way and grabbed his notes as they pursued down the smuggler tunnels. They found a hidden cove there with some rotten boats and tracks indicating that Tsuto must've had a rowboat stashed here. They then notice the once-bricked up smuggler tunnel and headed in.

I can understand it if groups 'head back to base' after every encounter and stock up on what they somehow assume must be in the next section of the adventure. I personally feel that the adventure flows quite naturally from the Glassworks and then straight into the Catacombs, them going back to town first didn't even occur to them and I agree that it would've been kinda weird. My group took the North path through the prison, ran into Korovus and then camped out near the levitation champer thingamy and then took on Erylium after a brief rest.


Dreihaddar wrote:

My group had the handouts and knew there was a Quasit 'somewhere'.

Sadly there's no sign saying "Now entering Catacombs of Wrath. This is the place mentioned in Tsuto's notes and the freaks discussed are the sinspawn. Expect the Quasit to be here."

They pieced it together as they went. "Hey, maybe the freaks he mentioned are these icky things!". When the doors to the cathedral opened and Erylium does her "INTRUDERS!" spiel the Abjurer immediately asked "That wouldn't happen to be a Quasit, would it?" Then there were knowing looks all around.

My group absolutely manhandled the Glassworks Goblins and Tsuto escaped down the tunnels. They then followed after him, releasing Ameiko on the way and grabbed his notes as they pursued down the smuggler tunnels. They found a hidden cove there with some rotten boats and tracks indicating that Tsuto must've had a rowboat stashed here. They then notice the once-bricked up smuggler tunnel and headed in.

I can understand it if groups 'head back to base' after every encounter and stock up on what they somehow assume must be in the next section of the adventure. I personally feel that the adventure flows quite naturally from the Glassworks and then straight into the Catacombs, them going back to town first didn't even occur to them and I agree that it would've been kinda weird. My group took the North path through the prison, ran into Korovus and then camped out near the levitation champer thingamy and then took on Erylium after a brief rest.

Points well taken.

My group has a paladin, and felt that their first job was to get Ameiko safe and sound to the surface, so they had a very natural 'break point' between the Glassworks and the Catacombs. Obviously, every party's mileage may vary...


It didn't happen with my group this time, but often my players will carry cold iron, silver, and adamantine backup weapons with them, as well as slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning. All in preparation for damage reduction.

Upon reflection, the group agrees that what they really should have done to defeat Erylium, rather than take the bootfest route, was grapple her as a group, and then hold her underwater in the pool, pinning her at the bottom until she drowned. As a tiny creature, her CMB/CMD are so pathetic that she'd almost certainly fail to escape being pinned down by four adventurers.


How were people grappling her? She can fly.


In my group's case, exhausting her spell slots and catching her weapon to force her down into melee range is what allowed for grappling to work.


NobodysHome wrote:

I find it odd that Tsuto's note specifically mentions a quasit, and the AP specifically has him leave his journal behind even if he flees so that the party is guaranteed to get it, yet it seems like many parties ignore this little tidbit.

Yeah none of the characters had Knowledge(Planes) to figure out what a Quasit was, nor did any of the players know what a Quasit was so I think they glossed over the word at first. The did eventually go to the Curious Goblin to find a book there that gave them some basic Evil Outsider onfo.


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BuzzardB wrote:
NobodysHome wrote:

I find it odd that Tsuto's note specifically mentions a quasit, and the AP specifically has him leave his journal behind even if he flees so that the party is guaranteed to get it, yet it seems like many parties ignore this little tidbit.

Yeah none of the characters had Knowledge(Planes) to figure out what a Quasit was, nor did any of the players know what a Quasit was so I think they glossed over the word at first. The did eventually go to the Curious Goblin to find a book there that gave them some basic Evil Outsider onfo.

LOL. I could print a random string of digits in a note, and my group would spend the next 2 sessions trying to decipher exactly what evil plot I was up to. "Don't let the bunyip eat my 3.141592653..." and we'd lose 6 hours of playing time...

Grand Lodge

Detect Magic wrote:
How were people grappling her? She can fly.

Erylium would swoop down barely out of reach playing with the party. One of my players attempted a grapple with the Goblin Warchanter's whip. Having played around with a whip in my past, I knew you can grab with it. So I allowed it, and gave it very long odds. Of course the player rolled a 20. They then drowned the tiny demon. It was epic.

It is a tough encounter at the level the typical party faces Erylium for sure. The party totally exhausted their spells before coming up with the whip idea.

So to answer your question, the GM allows Erylium to be over confident or wreckless at some point in the fight. And after many rounds, I could see the mad little demon making a mistake.

Cheers,

Mazra


Drowning her sounds like the absolute funniest/best way of dealing with her.

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