Tips for roleplaying Mokmurian?

[Tourq]

The underground assault on Mokmurian will be a heavy combat lead-in, but I don't want the final showdown to be an immediate roll for initiative with him. Any ideas on how to play this one out (at least initially) so that there's more to the encounter than just combat?

Thanks!

[Landon Winkler]

Adding some conversation at the front of the combat is always good. My players compulsively talk to everything, even in the middle of fights, but this fight deserves special attention in that regard.

Spoiler:

You really want to be able to contrast what he says before the fight and what Karzoug says after. If the party hasn't talked to Mokmurian, it isn't entirely clear what's going on when Karzoug takes over.

I'd suggest bringing the hounds into his chamber and let him bluster at the PCs through that fight (offering them chances to surrender, talking about how awesome Karzoug is, etc.). If the PCs jump the gun, attacking him, then he'll join in as well, but it's actually to their advantage to hear him out while they take care of the hounds.

Remember, as far as he's concerned, the fact he and the PCs are fighting is basically a misunderstanding. Sandpoint happens to be next to Old Light, but otherwise he never would have sent anyone near the place for years.

I also made him a bit of a Karzoug fanboy, which made Karzoug's betrayal at the end a complete jerk move. Between that and his Napoleon complex, you can actually do a lot of characterization.

Cheers!
Landon

[Tourq]

Interesting, thanks!

How did you make him a fanboy?

[el cuervo]

dot.

[Landon Winkler]

Tourq wrote:

Interesting, thanks!

How did you make him a fanboy?

Looking at his backstory, I think Karzoug is the only person who ever really accepted him or treated his skills as anything other than a vile secret. He's also sort of possessed, but I played him like a true believer who'd really be into it even without Karzoug's influence.

His basic sales pitch was "We can set aside our conflicts, leave behind our age of bickering tribes, humans and giants ruling side by side, a return to the prosperity of Thassilon of old."

As far as Karzoug "And who better to lead us than Karzoug, the architect of the previous Golden Age and the greatest of Thassilon's runelords?" Which is where the fanboy part totally comes in.

You can foreshadow Xin-Shalast a bit with something like "He carved Thassilon's greatest city from the realm of nightmares, an oasis of boundless luxury where the streets are literally paved with gold."

I made a point to hit on gold and prosperity a lot during the pitch, keeping thing's firmly in Greed's court. I'm not sure if my players picked up on it, but it amused me.

I don't have an arcane caster in my group, but he'd probably be most confused by them standing against him. The idea of a society where rulership is determined by magical skill really appeals to Mokmurian and he'd imagine other casters would feel similarly.

That's probably his justification for giant slavery in old Thassilon too, if the party brings it up. It's not his fault that those giants are stupid. If they studied more, they could be in Karzoug's inner circle like him.

Cheers!
Landon

[Azimuth1]

This stuff is pure gold, I had made a point to hint at the greed and acceptance part to my players, but going so far as to offer them a place at Karzougs side! That is just awesome!

[Splendor]

My group kept doing hit and raid attacks.
After a couple day Mokmurian started to track them down with scrying spells. He attacked the PCs home in Sandpoint once (wizard failed his save), his henchmen giants he teleported in with were defeated but he retreated as all the guards started to show up. The PCs then decided to go on the road and camp/hide as they attacked his base. The memorized extra teleport spells to flee if he found them again. (He started making sure there were more defenses at his base; perm. alarm spells, had someone on Roc duty who could see invisible, summoned a couple more forgefiends, etc...
After the PCs third raid, he went on the offensive and started scrying them each day.
Wizard failed his save and he teleported into their camp in the middle of the night with two forgefiends. After a couple rounds the party was able to teleport away. (He left one of the forgefiends in the area to 'attack all humans').
After another raid he managed to scry them again (the cleric failed this time) and teleported in with 1 giant and 1 forgefiend. Unfortunately for him the PCs were setting up to hunt him down the next day (had killed the guard troll and the runeslave that day). That night they were staying in the courtyard of Fort Rannick. The fight ensued. The cleric cast a successful dismissal on the ForgeFiend and the wizard hit Mokmurian with enervation and a feeblemind. At the point the fight was really over. I let Karzoug give his speech and then Vale Temros (the black arrow) shot Mokmurian's body through the chest with a ballista.
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As for RPing him, I had him be smart. He scryed them, fully buff himself and then teleport in with enemies. Taunted them, killed their horses, caught their house on fire and fled when he felt in danger. Tough, mean and powerful. Someone to be feared.
But an enervate lowering his Will save by 3 and then feebleminded (which wizards get a -4 to save against) gave him a will save of +8 and he failed and was feebleminded. While he still could have been a threat to a single character, he was no longer a threat to the party and couldn't flee.