My group has done well so far, in book one and two, despite a penchant for running straight to the BBEG in each dungeon. They are also new to roleplaying, with the exception of the alchemist's player. I recently adjusted the Shadowclock back to as-written because we lost the druid player to real life, leaving 4 players.
Anyway, I used a fan-made journal for Ironbriar's diary/ledger which gave them some good info on Xanesha's powers ,etc, but they didn't think to do more research (odd for this research heavy crew), but they headed to the Shadowclock and prepped for the Scarecrow more than Xanesha. They blew through the Scarecrow, they enjoyed the suspense of the stairs and survived the bell. They used invisibility to great effect and easily overcame the two Faceless Stalkers that met them at the top, and even located the third one hiding in the clockworks in case I needed some flanking for Xanesha.
Prefight:
The ranger uses a fly potion to fly away from the tower and check out the roof (which I have made flat, rather than slanted). X, having heard the bell and buffed, interacts with the ranger via her demon illusion to toy with them. He makes his will save, reports the lone demon to the others (who make a Kn:Planes check and can't figure out what kind of demon, because she really didn't bother to make an anatomically correct demon. Aka the DM used a mini inconsistent with the bestiary) The ranger flies back to the rest of the group, having made his will to disbelieve the demon, but not having seen X.
Round 1:
The alchemist moves to the top of the stairs. He's nearly fully buffed and in his feral mutagen form, ready for a fight. He can see invisibility, so he knows X is there. X goes next, though, and Charms him. Oops. Ranger flies back up to flank the spot where he thinks X is, causing an AoO (X simply says "Welcome", pleasantly to him), so X is visible, the despair from Impaler of Thorns goes off, making the alchemist and ranger sad. Cleric and Wizard double move to make it onto the roof.
Round 2:
Alchemist forlornly drinks an Enlarge Person potion. X, forgetting that the Ranger can fly, attempts to Bullrush him off the roof, and comes up 5' short. Great- everyone knows that's possible way to die. Ranger full attacks and hits all four times. Wizard uses Dispel Magic on X's mirror image and takes it down. Cleric channels to heal the Ranger (bless was already up).
Round 3:
Alchemist dejectedly drinks a potion of Bear's Strength right next to X, who doesn't attack him. X proclaims that even if they prevail the city will swallow them up (backstory: they never bothered to confirm that Ironbriar was the bbeg of the sawmill, so they just left him and Magnimar without reporting it to any authorities, so the city rumors are that Ironbriar was getting too close to finding the murderer and paid with his life. The city watch is now looking for a group that matches their description), and full attacks the ranger, much to his chagrin. The ranger full attacks but only hits once, bringing x down to 3/4 her hp. The wizard attempts to use Command on her (W5,C2), but she's immune. The cleric runs up and uses Inflict Moderate Wounds on her, but fails to get past her SR.
Round 4:
Alchemist, fully buffed, summons the will to attack but finds that he only has friends on the roof and doesn't know how to make them all stop fighting. He does nothing. X bulrushes the cleric off the roof, but the wizard is handy with a Feather Fall, so the cleric catches herself on the clockface, 60 ft below. The ranger provokes an AoO to fly down and retrieve her and fly almost all the way back to the roof. The wizard tries magic missile, but fails the SR. Cleric heals the ranger as he carries her.
Round 5:
Alchemist gives in to despair and does nothing. Player looks up duration of Charm Monster and is grumpy. X casts magic missile at the wizard, and moves to a new position on the roof. Ranger drops the cleric and pulls out his bow (he decided he didn't like being toe-toe with her. Wizard tries magic missile again(?) does no damage. Cleric runs up and tries inflict moderate again, this time it gets through.
Round 6:
Alchemist broods, now. X uses her medusa mask on the ranger, _who fails his fort save_.
We left off there for the night, only because I knew in my heart of hearts that this fight was far from over: The party is down to 2 actively fighting members, and X hasn't hit the threshold where she begins healing herself.
The good news is the replacement for the druid is starting next session, so we will likely have the deus ex machine built in that saves their bacon(like a caster with a dispel primed and ready, that's been tracking the party or the tower and decided to follow them up). Otherwise, it doesn't look good, because neither the wizard or cleric have a counter to the charm or petrification. The Impaler's despair trickled through to real life, too- it was like a funeral march as the players left that night.
Hope you enjoyed the read.
I'll update after the next time we play.
Part Two
We finished the fight last night. It was not my best not as a DM. This is a long post,but I need advice at the bottome, please bear with me.
In the last few weeks I came up with some options to avoid a TPK:
1)New player was joining to replace the druid, and Shalelu was guiding her to Magnimar because of Book 3 reasons. That player didn't show, though. Boooo.
2)Charmed alchemist uses his new Master Chymist mutate, I ruled that this broke the charm- one time only.
3)Xanesha senses her victory, and begins to toy with them. Delaying until the petrified ranger unthaws. This worked pretty well- not too much, very threatening, etc.
4)The tower crumbles under Xanesha and she falls- I completely forgot this as an option. Damn.
5)The fox
Round 7:
The cleric casts sanctuary on the petrified ranger. The wizard uses a class ability to attack with a sword from a distance, ineffectually. The alchemist mutates and moves up to X. X doesn't know the new threat moves to the wizard and touches him for wisdom damage, talking about them becoming her new minions. She's put off by the AoO the alchemist takes when she moves.
Round 8:
Cleric shoots her crossbow at X, misses. Wizard moves to avoid being pushed off the roof, and provokes an AoO, X misses. Alchemist gets his full round and hits once. X full rounds the alchemist and hits 3 times.
Round 9:
Cleric channels energy and rolls poorly. Wizard attacks fro ma distance again, misses. Alchemist full rounds and again only hits once. X hits him twice this time dropping him unconscious.
Round 10:
Cleric channels again, rolls a little better and the alchemist is awake. Wizard also casts CLW on the alchemist, rolls poorly. The alchemist stands, provoking and loses all but 2 hp. X moves away, casts CSW on herself, and monologues about how nice it will be to make a cleric of Erastil not only watch her tear the community of Magnimar apart, but make her like it.
Round 11:
Cleric channels energy again, rolls poorly again. Wizard casts chill touch and designates his weasel familiar as the one to administer the touch. The weasel moves to melee, the Alchemist moves up again, avoids provoking an AoO and attacks/hits once. X moves to melee with the cleric, lamenting the loss of her alchemist as a friend and promising that the cleric will replace him, touches the cleric for wisdom damage.
Round 12:
The cleric panics and uses her thorn fist ability to create a flanking bonus with the alchemist, which works. The wizard attacks again, and the weasel does a little cold damage (I forgot to roll for SR), The alchemist full rounds and hits once. splits her attacks between the alchemist and cleric, and this was my first mistake- I gave her two attacks on the alchemist and a touch attack on the cleric. All three hit. The cleric can no longer cast spell because of wisdom damage, and the alchemist is killed outright, taking 23 damage when he was at 2 hp.
Round 13:
Cleric stands her ground, attacking poorly, declaring that they would see this to the end. The wizard attacks again, the weasel doing a tiny bit more cold damage. X uses charm on the cleric now that her wisdom is depleted and it works.
Round 14:
The cleric uses her round to ask X what she should do, and X replies that the cleric can begin her work by practicing carving the rune on the alchemists body. The charisma check is rp'd and X fails it. The wizard and weasel attack again, the weasel crits. X is at 30 hp. On her turn she tries to wrap her tail around the ranger, because she knows the flesh to stone will wear off soon, but fails against the sanctuary. I tell the players she is distracted by something on the scaffolding, and opts to use her last move action to slither off the roof, feather falling to the ground below, ending the fight.
The party couldn't see her face behind the mask, so they couldn't see that X was terrified of what she saw, and she only said "You...." before slithering off. They made their perception checks and saw the fox sitting there. They tried ot interact with it, but it walked around the corner, and they didn't follow it. They also didn't bother to watch where X went when she got to the ground, totally focused on the fox. I had a moment in that last round, where I realized the only person left to fight X was the wizard who was 100% depleted. Two rounds and he would have been dead, which is how long until the ranger unthawed. I forgot to collapse the tower, I forgot that the players wouldn't know if I ended the flesh to stone early or not. The fox ended up being a blatent DM interference. The ranger actually thanked me for not TPKing them.
So here's where I need help- what do I make of this fox that fits the AP? I need to work it in for real now, somehow. And I don't know how. Maybe I'll think of something later, but if anyone can think of something off the top of their head, I'd love the input. I know it won't appear again until at least book 5, and I'll want them to see it BEFORE the sh*# goes down, rather than be saved by it again. Thanks for reading.
Crazy ideas:
1. It could be the spirit of Father Tobyn, trying to protect Sandpoint.
2. It could be a spirit ally of Madame Mvashti who has been keeping an eye on the pc's. She knows trouble is coming to Sandpoint.
3. It is the spirit of Vandarrec, the leader of Mokmurian's old tribe. He's seeking someone to stop what's happening to his people.
By the way, as GM interventions go, the fox seems pretty low key. Unless I misread, it effectively cast light for the party once and provided psychological dismay to an enemy another time. Hardly heavy-handed.
Also until you decide what it is, I wouldn't make any decisions about when and how it will appear again.
I'll look those up and see if I can make them work- thanks!
We have different interpretations of "that threatens the charmed person"...
I imagine I'm IRL sitting with my friends and two of my friends get so mad at each other, that they start punching each other. Do _I_ feel threatened by this? No. I might try and break up the fight, but both of these people are trusted friends and allies, so I wouldn't immediately start punching one or the other. Nobody's threatened me at all.
I take away the presupposition that we know one of my friends really isn't my friend.
Flip it around, and use it as a PC against enemies, and you'll see why it's worded the way it is: if your DM rules that any hostile act by you or your allies against any ally of the one charmed negates the charm, no PC will use it again. It wouldn't even last a round in combat.
As for the alchemist; I reminded him that, in my analogy above, he could still do things in that combat. He said his character was both depressed from the Impaler of Thorns and also had a predisposition wherein his alchemist wouldn't step in and try to stop friends from fighting each other.
If we're taking a poll (and no one was - I just made it up), I'm with mousmous. The spell says you treat the caster as a friend and the caster or his allies can break the charm by attacking you. It's a leap to make it attacking you or your allies. Keep in mind, if you're charmed, your head is messed up- you're no longer able to see that an attack on your allies might mean you are also in serious danger.
However, Tinalles was also right, though for the wrong reason. It's not the attack on the ranger that should break the charm, it's the despair affect from the Impaler which hit the charmed alchemist. If I do something, say an area affect of despair, and you have to make a saving throw to avoid deleterious effect - that's an attack and that breaks the charm.
Also, just because the alchemist was charmed and sad (which is just -2 to all rolls) doesn't mean he can't do anything. He just can't attack Xanesha. Nothing stops him from buffing or otherwise helping his friends. "Oh you're damaged? I'll use my wand of cure light wounds or give you a potion." There's nothing to stop him from getting in between Xanesha and his friends, perhaps trying to provide cover or doing total defense. If pc Y says - I do everything to block X attacks on Z, Z should get some kind of AC benefit - partial cover, etc.
I would guess the majority would use mousmous' interpretation. When charmed you see the caster as a friend, just as much so as your actual allies. The other main problem with charm is that it is often made to be too powerful, as per dominate, when it isn't.
Xanesha's Finale
Poor Xanesha. She became obsessed with the party and followed them to Turtleback Ferry.
The party first got a hint that she was tracking them when Shalelu got separated after their first disastrous attack on FR, and someone tried to impersonate her in TBF. Then, they learned from Lucrecia just how vengeful her sister was, but still not concrete sign. X was set to catch up to the party and attack them on top of Skull's Crossing, but thanks to me putting the Black Magga encounter there, X thought maaaaaaybe it wasn't the right time.
The party was heading back and gave me one of those "I'm doing this right moments": they'd been leaving stragglers right and left in TBF and FR, and each of them had a run-in with X. One became a charmed minion of hers, the other three... at the crossroads the party found Kaven crucified on a post, with Shalelu tied to him as if he were holding her. There was a note that read "A sister for a sister." with an arrow pointing to FR. (Kaven was the ranger's dad in this campaign, and X mixed up here info between Kaven and Jarkadros, Shalelu and the party ranger: she thought Shalelu and the ranger were siblings). X wasn't happy about Lucrecia's death and torched FR. A little further down the road, they found Jarkadros also crucified. He'd formed a bond with the party cleric of Erastil. It was here that one of my players muttered "Well this is starting to feel down-right personal."
In the devastation of TBF, the tavern was empty, so X set herself up as the barkeep there in order to figure out where the party was heading next. She tried to engage them in conversation, but they sniffed her out and tracked her when she fled, and finally had it out with her and their old party-mate in the rain and the woods. Alas, she was no match for a party two levels higher. Poor Xanesha.
I felt I owed her a(n?) eulogy. What a great character she was.
An idea for the fox - Alaznist's familiar. As much or as little power as the plot demands and a good reason to be opposed to Karzoug.
That's an excellent suggestion. It'd take some work on my part, but Alaznist hints can always be a red herring if something better reveals itself later for the fox. Thanks!
Rezzing this for closure. I'd been mulling over the fox for a long time, and finally had an epiphany while prepping for the most recent game. Long story short: the fox was Svevenka's animal companion so as to be opposed to Karzoug but not as directly so as if it were aligned with Alasznist. Long story long: sometimes a particularly brave and entrepid Saved makes it out of Xin-Shalast. Sometimes one of those Saved stumbles across Svevenka before they die to the elements. One of these lucky few imparted their story of being enslaved and the prophecy that someone from outside Xin-Shalast would break the enslavement. his story moved Svevenka, and she agreed to send her AC out to find five souls that would help. Her fox was a gift to her from a Tian Xia deity called Daikitsu (I think), because reasons. And it was a 5-tailed fox that could do the deus ex machine stuff I'd done earlier and could move farther away from Svevenka than a normal Ac because DM fiat.
When the party met her, none were the original party members that had run into the foxes before. An additional fox had shown up sitting on the ship in the same swamp Myriana lived in (and the party earned Myriana's inspiration so Svenvenka 'recognized' them despite the now -tenous fox connection), which they avoided like the plague for some reason. That ended up being some fortuitous foreshadowing for this encounter.
So she chatted with them briefly before asking for the tale of her sister's demise, which she loved. And when the party asked her about Xin-Shalast she said all her knowledge was second-hand form the Saved that made it out, and then told her own story about the sending her fox out to find people, but that they had all returned alone. So, even though none of the character knew anything about the foxes anymore, the players got some closure on that particular sub-plot. Thanks for the suggestions on how to deal with it. I think it tied things together fairly well in terms of giving my players a stronger story to follow within Xin-Shalast, while finishing a big question mark.
That's cool. Shame the original PCs weren't around, but it certainly does the job. And it handles the fox's original appearance better than being Alaznist's familiar.