So my players took on the Maka-Yika last night, and took them out fairly easily. All but M'degogg that is, who feebleminded their cleric, confused the magus and almost killed the dwarven tank. So the witch teleported them to safety.
Now what? M'degoggs band is dead and his laboratory was blasted to smithereens (fireballs, flame strikes etc... nothing that injured M'Degogg though). I reckon he's pretty pissed.
He probably needs a body to retrieve his stuff before the adventurers do, so I'll have him snatch a hunter or something. Then he starts plotting and healing (he did get down to 80 hits). I was actually thinking of having him take over The Radiant Muse. It's the most powerful body in Saventh-Yhi (bar the PCs) and she's friendly towards them. Add a dominated Ozond and the PCs should get a fairly tough fight on their hands.
Other devious suggestions?
17 days
Is it feasible to take over the radiant muse or would she easily resist it (I just don't remember her stats)?
Also, taking over the most neutral party in Saventh Yi is pretty mean, especially if the players don't know that she is dominated (or whatever). You may want to let them have a normal encounter with her first, but then the next follow up with her she has been 'taken over'.
Other good ideas would be for leaders of rival factions or even the leader of the PC's faction.
Contributor
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Given that the encounter he's describing is supposed to be one of the last in Book 4, they've probably already encountered her. ^_^
Your other point is strong though, especially since M'deggog already has a track record with the factions.
trellian: can you give other details about the situation? Which faction are the PCs aligned with? Has everything more-or-less been as written, or have there been other wrinkles in the Path?
I was assuming not since the OP said
I was actually thinking of having him take over The Radiant Muse...
:)
(but honestly, I do forget exactly who M'Degogg is now)
Intellect Devourer
They were originally aligned with Pathfinder and Sargava. The remaining Aspis merchants and soldiers were assimilated into this coalition after the Ivo Haigan-incident. The pirates and the mantis are gone.
The Tribe of the Sacred Serpent is also an ally and they have met the Muse several times. She's a little nuts in their opinion, but she has aided them on occasion when she has been lucid.
As far as I read the Intellect Devourers description, he can simply wait until the Muse sleeps (outsider can sleep, they just don't have to) and burrow into her mind. This is a coup de grace causing 40+ damage, so there is no way other than a natural 20 on her save to survive it.
As for the vault situation, they only have the Silent Vault left. Yes, I know they're supposed to deal with the body thief vault last, but when they heard the Gorilla King was coming, they stopped going into vaults and prepared for war. They know where the Silent Vault is, though.
In addition, they didn't find the crystals in the Hujurat vault.
In the body snatcher vault, the ogre mage monks gave them a proper fight for the money, but it ended in a stale mate as one of the oni was near death. His sibling grabbed the PC witch, threatening to break her neck if they didn't let her brother go. So it ended in a stalemate where the oni backed away. But they're probably itching for revenge too.. so I was thinking of having M'degogg make them a deal (they're not controlled though).
So the ogre mages polymorph into hunters from the sacred serpent tribe and go fetch the PCs. They say that there have been some killings, and that the Muse and Ozond would like to speak with them.
When they've reached the ziggurat where the Muse lives, they spring the trap. A CR 15 M'Degogg, two CR 10 Oni and a CR 8 dominated Ozone should be a really tough encounter for the PCs.
Another option though: maybe M'degogg wants to go back to Ilmurea, but finds out that the portal has been destroyed. He finds out via Detect Thoughts (from.. whoever, really) that the PCs are collecting gems. Maybe he needs their help to return to his people so that he can prove to them (his people, that is), that his unorthodox ideas were sound? He can always kill the PCs later... :)
the group I run has let several named NPCs go. 6 in particular. One has some definite plans in motion. I have to figure out what the others are doing, but I imagine they are forming a League of Super Villians.
This thread is a million years old now but my campaign has M'degog possessing a popobala served by a bunch of sabosan. The bat people scour around looking for material that might be useful for the intellect devourer's lab, so sometimes they attack the camps because M'degog thinks one of the factions have looted something it needs.
I thought having the Maka-yika bandits just squatting there either before or after the city was discovered stretched credulity, so I came up with something even more convoluted and fantastic.