Vordekai Who?

[Curghann]

My group has been delving into Vordekai's Tomb for the last couple sessions, having rescued Xamanthe the previous session.

Last night, they made their way through the burial chamber and decided not to go into the Hell Pool, but rather go to the Sacristy. They found the secret door to the Occulus Focus and hacked through the wall with the Samurai's adamantine sword. After identifying the magic of the wall carving as divination, they freaked out and went about destroying it until the magic was destroyed.

This triggers Vordekai's actions to buff and Dimension Door to the focus room.

They stayed in the room for a few more rounds so Vordekai and his champion showed up in the room with them and it was on.

The PC's were well arrayed for the champion's AoE fire cone so he shot that off a couple times while Vordekai tried dispelling their buffs and and casting spells at them. The spell fail from breaking the Occulus Focus foiled 2 of his buffs and his Waves of Fatigue, and after that the PC sorceror cast Mad Monkeys on V's square and between the caster level checks for casting in the swarm and the monkeys successfully stealing his spell component pouch and the arcane spell fail he was pretty well neutered. He and the champion even ended up in a Create Pit at one point. V tried to Dim Door them back to his throne room but the failed to complete the spell due to the occulus.

The PC's certainly didnt come out unscathed, but they made quick work of V and his champ. They all had Freedom of Movement on after hearing Xamanthe's story so the couple times V did hit people they were unaffected by his paralysis.

The fight took a long time, and they seemed to enjoy it but I had figured I was going to likely kill at least one of them in the combat (and wasnt too worried about it due to the Raise Dead scrolls they got in Varnhold).

Just wanted to share an interesting combat.

[pennywit]

Interesting encounter. I don't like Vordekai the way he's written in VV. He kidnaps the Varnholders and packs them into soul gems, and then he more or less hangs out in his tomb waiting for the PCs to come get him. IIRC, there are one or two possible encounters before the PCs finally get to his base.

I kind of like the idea that as soon as he bottles up the Varnholders, he starts making trouble for the players ... or, more accurately, for their kingdom.

[Spatula]

Heh. When my players started messing with the secret eye room, V went right there before they had a chance to give him a 20% spell failure chance. Given the importance of the room, why wouldn't he alarm it and protect it? That didn't go so well for the PCs.

Prior to that, he animated the inhabitants of the city of Varnhold as a massive zombie horde and sent several soul eaters after the Ruler. Afterwards, he tried some scry & fries and animated the colossal linnorm skeleton. Fun times, fun times.

[Steel_Wind]

It's been quite a while since we fought Vordakai, back in the day.

But it remains (at least in my memory) the toughest fight against a boss monster in Pathfinder that I ever had. It was epic.

If the game had ended then, we would have been okay with it. And tbh, no latter part of the AP ever topped The Varnhold Vanishing. It was all downhill from there.

Great summit though. Vaughan's best work, imo.

[Indraea]

I am curious if anyone has done anything with Wilendithas the Eternal Hag? As another lich present in the Stolen Lands region (in the southern area of the Narlmarches, just past the edge of the map, I would assume), I feel like it could be rather interesting if Vordakai straight up ignored the players' kingdom initially and instead started raising an army to march against Wilendithas so as to establish himself as the undisputed undead ruler of the region. With the players' kingdom thus located in between two powerful liches intent on going to war, they would have to deal with at least one if not both or their kingdom would inevitably become the battleground on which the undead would fight each other.

[Spatula]

Indraea wrote:

I am curious if anyone has done anything with Wilendithas the Eternal Hag? As another lich present in the Stolen Lands region (in the southern area of the Narlmarches, just past the edge of the map, I would assume), I feel like it could be rather interesting if Vordakai straight up ignored the players' kingdom initially and instead started raising an army to march against Wilendithas so as to establish himself as the undisputed undead ruler of the region. With the players' kingdom thus located in between two powerful liches intent on going to war, they would have to deal with at least one if not both or their kingdom would inevitably become the battleground on which the undead would fight each other.

Huh! I'm shocked that this is the first I've heard of her. I mean, her territory is basically just off the south edge of the 1st Kingmaker map. I had my players go up against a coven of "legendary" hags back in book 2, and they've already killed Vordakai, so I dunno if I can do anything with her. But I like the idea of her and V coming to blows and the PCs being caught in the middle.

[Indraea]

Spatula wrote:

Indraea wrote:

I am curious if anyone has done anything with Wilendithas the Eternal Hag? As another lich present in the Stolen Lands region (in the southern area of the Narlmarches, just past the edge of the map, I would assume), I feel like it could be rather interesting if Vordakai straight up ignored the players' kingdom initially and instead started raising an army to march against Wilendithas so as to establish himself as the undisputed undead ruler of the region. With the players' kingdom thus located in between two powerful liches intent on going to war, they would have to deal with at least one if not both or their kingdom would inevitably become the battleground on which the undead would fight each other.

Huh! I'm shocked that this is the first I've heard of her. I mean, her territory is basically just off the south edge of the 1st Kingmaker map. I had my players go up against a coven of "legendary" hags back in book 2, and they've already killed Vordakai, so I dunno if I can do anything with her. But I like the idea of her and V coming to blows and the PCs being caught in the middle.

She's not actually described at all in the Kingmaker AP books, but rather makes an appearance in the appendix of the final book of the Carrion Crown AP, where she gets a half page blurb and a picture, but no stats. Given the lack of stats and how hard it is to even stumble across her, I'm not at all surprised you've not heard of her before now. I'm putting a lot of effort into crafting a 'living' campaign world, so I want to have high level enemies even in low level areas... who are unlikely to try and murder low level PCs before they have a chance, and dragons, liches, and vampires are all perfect for that.