Just for background: My player is a solo adventurer with Kendra as a sidekick. He's a Summoner with Eidolons, with a 15 point buy and uses absolutely everything at his disposal to get through the AP where I am not at all kind to him!
And here is what happens....
In Feldgrau, he finds the "dust of sneezing and choking" and pulls a lucky spellcraft roll to identify it.
Having realized Vrood was going to be a pretty serious BBEG, he dimension doors in with his Eidolon in tow ready to die for her cause. She gets her init before Vrood and in fact is the first to move. She sprinkles the dust in the air and one bad Fort save later, Vrood is dead and his jaw is disintegrating with his deathgag just as mine also hits the floor.
Just to make matters even more hilarious, had he passed his save he would have been stunned for about 11 rounds anyway and well out of the fight.
So instead of circle of death wiping out my player like I'd hoped, or eyebite giving them a run for their money, Vrood got 6 seconds of blazing glory where he says "Prepare to die!" and then promptly dies instead.
At least it was funny?
Yeah, it was great :) We've had some very clever moments in this campaign!
It's fun when moments like this happen, after you get over the 'wow that was quick' reflex. Auren Vrood lasted a few rounds with my group, but that was because I had him start out invisible.
I did have a moment in book 5 with a fight I had expected to last longer only going 1 round, and technically only 2 combatants got to act before it was all over.
My initial read of that description had me thinking 'Death by Head-butt'...
Oh what a way to go.
He actually lasted about a minute in my game. It looked it like was gonna be quick until he made the eidolon explode. Then he took to the air and began taking potshots.
It was not an easy battle. A lot of fun tho.
I guess people can overestimate how long/short battles can be. In the 'real life' battles that happen in the game, swords and spells can flash out in a blur and people be brought down in under a minute(Hence the 15 minute workday).
I'm not remembering where that dust is in the module, but it seems like I may want to omit it. I'd prefer Vrood not to go down or be disabled quite so easily...
It's in the Apothecary in Feldgrau.
Book page: 56
Area F11
Also, now my solo adventurer wants to know how many of these all the cities carry... I'm thinking there's been a sudden shortage of this stuff due to heavy demand from OTHER adventurers :P
Dust of sneezing and choking just seems way too powerful!
By the way, thanks so much for sharing your (hilarious) experience. It helps a lot to see and prepare for the unexpected twists in the AP.
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It's in the Apothecary in Feldgrau.
Book page: 56
Area F11Also, now my solo adventurer wants to know how many of these all the cities carry... I'm thinking there's been a sudden shortage of this stuff due to heavy demand from OTHER adventurers :P
Dust of sneezing and choking just seems way too powerful!
Oh yes, it's WAY too powerful to ever allow PCs to repeatedly use it as a weapon. It's basically an insta-kill, even if the target passes the save.
It was designed as a Cursed Item, with the idea of somebody only using it on accident. So they didn't take game balance into consideration. There's a reason that there are no rules for intentionally crafting cursed items. ;)
By the way, thanks so much for sharing your (hilarious) experience. It helps a lot to see and prepare for the unexpected twists in the AP.
Of course!! Happy to help. :) I was a longtime lurker on here but have recently started posting. If I can ever help in any way, let me know! We are about to start Ashes at Dawn. :)
Let me know how WotW goes!