| Sakoyo |
The party came up with a clever way of sneaking into Jorgenfist. After the raid on Sandpoint, one of the players decided to use Flesh Puppet Horde to zombify Longtooth, Terakinus, and 1 or 2 other stone giant grunts. After they found out about the invasion and Jorgenfist, they decided to use the zombies and pretend that Terakinus is returning with some of his crew and some new recruits (the rest of the party) with the stone. They managed to use this tactic to get into underground part and met with Conna. That's where the session left off. For the next session, I figured their trick will work on the guard to get to the library floor, but I'm not sure how to handle it after that. Would the guards down there give them treat them as intruders or as friendlies? From my understanding, Mokmurian's people are allowed down there, but don't go because it's dangerous. This kind of leads me to think that everyone but Mokmurian and maybe the lamias are treated as intruders, but I'm not sure.
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
| Phntm888 |
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Looking over the encounters, I'd treat them as intruders.
In the Chamber of Reduction, the runeslave attacks the first person to notice his presence. The PCs, not being known as allies, should be subject to that attack. Plus, the magical trap doesn't distinguish between Mokmurian's allies and enemies - it affects everyone. The Runeslave is actually called out as having been affected, but now recovered from the effects. It cannot be affected unless it leaves and re-enters the room.
For the Cauldron of Giantkind, the stone golem attacks any non-Giant who enters the room. It may ignore Teraktinus and the other one or two stone giants, but Longtooth and the PCs are fair game. Golems don't have the ability to reason that the PCs might be new allies for Mokmurian. It has its orders, and it will carry them out.
The Headless Lord...Mokmurian might order him to let them pass, if Teraktinus and Longtooth's corpses are still functional. However, if the PCs are with them, and he doesn't know why, he might decide Teraktinus and Longtooth are trying to betray him with the PCs, and have the Headless Lord attack.
The Forgefiend serves Mokmurian, but reading its tactics of jump out of the wall, attack the PC's for a round or 2 after a battle, then jump away, it should start plaguing them after they fight the stone golem. If it sees the Headless Lord allow them to pass, it might allow them to pass, but otherwise, it should attack them. It serves Mokmurian, not the Stone Giants.
The Shining Child attacks anyone, no matter who they are, if they either don't have the password or the key to open the doors.
The Hounds of Tindalos are called out as being eager to vent their frustrations upon anything that moves. If Mokmurian has allowed the PCs to pass the Headless Lord and the Forgefiend, then he may order the Hounds of Tindalos to let them pass. Regardless, once the PCs attack him, he should call the Hounds to his side.
Don't forget to give all the guards on the first level and on the library level a Perception opposed by the caster's Diguise check to see that they are Flesh Puppets. Also don't forget the DC 30 Perception check to notice the string connecting the PC to the Flesh Puppet.
If the PCs want to get off a surprise attack against Mokmurian by pretending to be new allies, have them make a Bluff check vs. his Sense Motive. If they fail, he knows it's a trick, and no surprise round. Also, as a free action, he should call for the Hounds of Tindalos (if they're still alive) to aid him on his first turn.
Something you might want to do in this instance is have the enemies concentrate on destroying the Flesh Puppets, possibly because they view them as the most dangerous threats. That way, the PCs can avoid damage and get some benefit from the spell, but they lose their cover.
If they get through the first level without having to fight anyone, make sure to note who's left. Once Mokmurian is finished, when they try to leave, they should probably still have to face Galdurian and whatever forces you feel he can muster from the first level as he tries to "avenge Mokmurian's killers" and take over the army.
How did the player manage to animate both Teraktinus and Longtooth, as well as one or two other stone giants? Flesh Puppet Horde specifies that you can only animate 2 HD per level with a single casting, and a second casting automatically ends the first casting. Teraktinus and Longtooth alone are worth 27 HD, and if your PCs are on the level track, they should only have been level 11 when they cast the spell. That's 22 HD max per casting.
| Sakoyo |
*facepalms* You're right about the HD. I used the CR by mistake instead of HD which comes out to 21 for Teraktinus and Longtooth. As far as the other stone giants now that I'm talking about it, I remember now that there was 1 "point" left over and the player wanted to use a random villager that died in the raid (which got instantly vetoed by the others). The other stone giant was one of the PCs Wildshaped as a Stone Giant (I forget the name, he's some kind of giant Druid archetype)
I've been rolling for Perception for everyone they've encountered and so far the dice have been in their favor each time. Funnily enough, the only one that passed the check so far was Conna.
Your explanations for everyone's tactics really helps put it all in perspective. Thanks for that. It gives me some ideas for how to work this. I'm definitely excited to see how they do and how far they can take this. They sometimes come up with really weird solutions to some of the problems in the campaign.
| Phntm888 |
No worries - you've let them do it, and there's no sense changing it now. It is a really creative solution, and honestly, if you had used their HD, they probably would have left Longtooth and animated a stone giant or two in his place, so it wouldn't have changed the ruse too much.
I'm glad the tactical explanations have helped with things. There is some discretion available for you as far as the guardians on the Library Level, based entirely on the Headless Lord, if you don't want them to have to fight everything. That's up to you, though.