Long thread ahead! Thought I'd share my experience with the keep, since I posted a few days ago asking for advice. Feel free to share any experiences you've had, I'd love to hear how it went, and whether other parties tried a different approach.
My group, for reference, consists of (all 8th level):
Tengu Unchained Monk - High AC, high damage, high speed. Very self reliant.
Tiefling Gunslinger - Pistol style, pretty solid build, basically never misses because of how poor most humanoid touch AC is.
Half-Elf Bard - Primarily uses inspiration and buffing/curing spells. The group's main support and only healer.
Half-Elf Unchained Rogue - Rapier style fighter. Low HP, high AC, crazy sneak attack damage.
So they snuck into Menador by scaling the cliffs from above while invisible, and then disguising once they found a place inside to hide. Aside from a close call with the Erinyes because of truesight, they managed to scope the place out a good bit without drawing attention to themselves. Eventually, the Rogue snuck into Lucian Thrune's quarters and found the secret door, and the group decided that must have been where the Anvil of Unmaking was. So they lit a fire to draw attention (largely unnecessary because they were already unnoticed and so they only raised the alarm more, but it was fun at least) and headed down.
There, they used silence to kill the Host Devil and steal the chest of potions, and then stumbled into the Wyvern den, and the monk got full attacked. Anybody else would definitely died, but his high AC (even higher, because of a mage armor potion) kept him in good shape. The rogue decided to try to climb on the wyvern, which promptly began to fly away to get Lucian, realizing it was cornered. As expected, the Gunslinger obliterated the wyvern before it could get there, but his roaring and the gunshots alerted the guards. They hurried upstairs to try and escape, and bumped into Lucian as he went to check on his beloved wyvern.
I was at a bit of an impasse; they were terrified of Lucian, and though he was surely some kind of combat beast. From my perspective, even after I rewrote him (Ditched the NPC levels for Cavalier ones, swapped many of his feats for a better combat build, since I assumed he'd be caught on foot) he still wasn't able to take them all on at once, especially with surprise. Still, I didn't want them to feel cheated, so I had him follow his tactics as written, and thankfully he arrived before they could properly hide, so they didn't get a surprise round.
Much to my amusement, half the party tried to fight and the other half tried to run away. The gunslinger used dust of disappearance and tried to slip past Lucian onto the balcony, the rogue hid and waited for Lucian to enter the room to stab him, the Monk tried to fight Lucian 1v1, and the bard cast invisibility sphere and tried to hide.
Unsurprisingly, these disparate plans struggled against the organized defenses of Menador (Defenses which I had to organize myself, because wow is Menador Keep messy. The biggest change was swapping the soldiers for three Dottari Troops.)
The rogue ran to the kitchen and tried to interrogate Zorumar for more information (a success, he told them about the secret door, but they couldn't act on it in the moment,) and then got pinned between a troop coming up the stairs and the Erinyes. The gunslinger relied on invisibility to sneak around, and then got spotted and tailed by the Erinyes (which saved the rogue's ass probably.) The monk, backed by the bard, actually handled the fight against Lucian pretty well, but when his troop arrived to back him up, they only escaped because of a lucky stunning fist that stopped Lucian from taking opportunity attacks. Through the whole fight, the bard kept running between the different group members, not sure who to help, and then getting turned around by some new threat (the troop from downstairs arriving, the erinyes leaving her room, etc.)
They all eventually jumped over the balcony and high tailed it down the path. Before they could escape, they got hit by a bunch of volley attacks, since they never really tried to attack the troops (I think they were scared of the auto-damage mechanic): the volleys knocked the rogue to 1 hp, barely scratched the monk (evasion! only one failed save out of five) but he was hurting from earlier so he dropped to about 12 hp, the bard turned invisible to dodge the worst using their last spell, and the gunslinger was dropped to -22 and died. :O
They picked up the gunslinger's body and fell back to their camp, and that's where we left off. They have one oil of life which they plan to use now, and one scroll of raise dead, though I don't think any of them can actually use it (no one thought to put ranks in UMD.) Then, they don't really know what to do. Some want to go back to Kintargo to get reinforcements of their own (either Vandelflek the fairie dragon, or the Hellknights) and some want to try to scale the walls with grappling hooks and just go full assault. I think they could definitely pull off an assault, as long as they commit to it instead of getting scared off.
The defenses that are left right now are: Lucian Thrune, 3 Dottari Troops, 1 Advanced Erinyes, 2 Slithering Trackers. They didn't kill anybody in their escape attempt, though Lucian was reduced to about 4 hp. I'm thinking that Lucian will send the Erinyes to get reinforcements first, and then when that fails he might send her to scout the mountains. My biggest worry is Lucian getting blasted off the table anticlimactically because of his terrible AC; to combat that, I think I might stick the Devilbound template on him, and say he signed a contract to get revenge.
Player panic is the great leveler. That and facing troops with no area of effect spell casting.
I think it's okay if Lucian goes down like a chump. He did so in the most humiliating fashion at my table, at least. Didn't harm the narrative or the tension at all, as the troops and the erinyes were the real stars in that battle. Heck, a faerie dragon can humiliate Lucian with a judicious use of grease spells, let alone a gunslinger. Given your player's morale, it might be good for the table to not buff Lucian.
Player panic is the great leveler. That and facing troops with no area of effect spell casting.
I think it's okay if Lucian goes down like a chump. He did so in the most humiliating fashion at my table, at least. Didn't harm the narrative or the tension at all, as the troops and the erinyes were the real stars in that battle. Heck, a faerie dragon can humiliate Lucian with a judicious use of grease spells, let alone a gunslinger. Given your player's morale, it might be good for the table to not buff Lucian.
You know, I think you're right, having had a little time to think about it. I don't need to kick them when they're down, and they're gonna feel great when they overcome the Keep on (hopefully) their next attempt. On a side note, Lucian did, in fact, get knocked over with a grease spell from the Bard. I'm interested to see what they try for their next attempt; I expect they'll want to be sneaky, but I don't foresee their original plan working again, so they'll have to try something new. They use a group-chat to communicate plans without me knowing (I have encouraged them to do so), so I can't know for sure, but they mentioned trying to climb up the cliff face and enter through the Wyvern nest.
My main plan right now is to release the slithering trackers in the halls, and to have the Erinyes patrol the keep in the air, watching in-case they try their original plan again (rappel from mountains). That should be enough to feel like the defenses have been bolstered, without screwing them out of any chance at stealthy re-entry.
I have my post session notes from my group's run through. Amusing enough, so I'll share.
Dramatis Personae:
Kitsutaro 'Kit' Human (M) Daring Champion Cavalier
Kari Half-Orc (F) Primalist Bloodrager
Cassidy Caylean Tiefling (F)Slayer
Gabriel Crisp Human (M) Heavens Oracle w/Lame Curse
Lyssa Liefinder Human (F) Bard
Zoe Jhaltero/Jackdaw Human (F) Vigilante/Slayer
Zog Half-Orc (M) Wizard (Dead)
Part 1:
Team Trainwreck
Hell's Rebels
After Action Report
Session 45
Played on 11/26/2017
All players present.
We open in Kintargo, where Zoe Jhaltero is getting ready for bed, on the scant hours of sleep she requires to get everything done when she suspects that something is not quite right. Her Perception check was one under the Assassin's stealth roll. So she goes and checks the room's windows, finding the assassin clinging to her windowsill.
Initiative is rolled, the assassin wins, but has to spend his turn sundering the window. Zoe backs up and Vanishes as per the ninja trick ability, because Tiesatsu vigilante.
The red mantis assassin also vanishes. They move about in invisibility until the assassin's wears out and Zoe attacks. The tiefling Zea, who has been acting as Zoe's handmaid while the rest of the Ravens are out comes in and attacks the assassin.
The assassin is wounded, but he knocks Zoe out into the negative HP and she falls out the broken window.
Fade to black
So, Zoe has been causing some trouble for Thrune on the Noble's council, but he doesn't want it easily traced back to him, so he outsourced to the Red Mantis. Also, in our continued efforts to panic the rest of the Ravens by denying them Zoe's leadership we'll see how this goes. Zoe will be declared dead by assassination via the Silver Ravens because Thrune can't pass an opportunity to blame them certainly, and Jackdaw will continue to operate while they search for this assassin.
Because I didn't have enough subplots apparantly.
I do a cutscene where the Lictor and Viona meet with the Raven's orc reinforcements. It does not go well. The orcs were already weak allies, but along their travels they come across Zog's body. They didn't like how Zog died on the road, looted, and buried in a ditch (Figuratively). So they give the Lictor a piece of their mind, telling him that they're tired of being used and they can tell that the Silver Ravens are no better, just using people including the Lictor. So they're going to kill him and do things their own way.
And we cut away from that. Most of the players don't see it that way, really. As far as they're concerned, they tried to raise Zog and he declined so that was that, and the Orcs were never very nice to them to begin with so what more where they expecting? The Ravens are very use-them-and-lose-them sorts I find. The orcs are also Chaotic and Evil so they maybe don't have an objective view. That said, I didn't want to give them more people for the fort sequence and this played together well enough. A little bit of a snag in their usually-works-after-a-fashion plans.
I should figure out of the Lictor and the cavalier survive. Well, you would think it might be a question, the orc forces being 12 CR 3 orcs and 1 Brawler 7 orc (CR 6, I think) but actually the Unicorn can cast greater teleport, so yeah. They'll get by, I think.
The Ravens arrive at Menador Keep, tiny fort that it is. They are admitted to the common room and told to wait. Later, Lucian Thrune's Janni servant comes down and gets refreshments while briefly explaining that they will have to wait a little longer until the commander is ready to meet with them. The group decides to wait. Zorumadt tells them that he is bound to serve Lucian and there is little he can do as much as he would like his freedom.
Lucian makes them wait six hours in which they try very hard to keep Kari from getting violent. Then he has a meeting with Kit. Why the party thought he would meet with all of them is beyond my reasoning.
Kit's story is that he's a mercenary from Minkai and is here to do work. Lucian rolls a 23 on his Notoriety check (their current notoriety is 36), recognizing Kit as a Silver Raven affilliated person. So, he brushes him off and tells him to talk to the Emmissary who might have a job for him.
Kit obliges and is warned by the Lt Hallors whom he seduced earlier that instead of meeting with the emmissary he should just go. Kit decides to go to the meeting. The Emmissary is in fact, an Erinyes with a passion for tattoos. She knew he was coming and closes the door behind her. It very quickly gets out of hand and Kit tries to escape. The Erinyes grabs Kit and he screams for help.
Cassidy, Gabe, and Kari hear this and things get messy. Kari starts attacking, dealing non lethal damage to the soldiers. It takes the Erinyes three rounds to secure Kit to her torture table. In that time, Lyssa starts tries to confuse the guards fighting Kari, and Kari gets caught in the area, and is also confused. Lyssa goes to help Kit, Gabe follows and Cassidy and Kari fight sixteen CR 2 soldiers and a CR 6 Skald sergeant. Cassidy goes for non lethal KOs and does very well. Knocks out six guys while Kari is confused and kills two and terribly wounds two more.
That fight ends when Kari becomes unconfused and then Intimidates the room with a 44 intimidate, natural 20. The remaining soldiers Nope right out of that fight. There are so many soldiers in this keep that keeping track of who's turn is whose and it takes so long. I grouped them into smaller clusters of initiative and I still forgot to have some of them take their turns. And I had a hard time imagining how anyone could take this keep without a long, drawn out combat because they no longer had any one to cast fireball, not that Zog knew fireball. It turns out being impossible to hit and intimidating will also do in a pinch.
Upstairs, Kit is strapped the table, unable to escape. Lt. Hallors comes in and tries to bluff the devil away from him and that doesn't work. Then next round she decides she doesn't want to see Kit tortured to death and sunders his bindings. For her trouble, Lt Hallors takes six arrows to the chest from the Erinyes becoming unconscious and dying. Lyssa comes into the room and helps Kit. Kit tries to kill the devil, but his rolls are pretty awful. Lyssa casts Charm Monster on the Erinyes and she fails the throw, then convinces the Erinyes to hand over her bow.
This was a difficult decision as a GM because the Erinyes views Lyssa as her best friend and most trusted ally, but the bow is her primary weapon. So I call for a Charisma check and Lyssa beats the roll off. The bow gets handed over. Kit gets a swing in. Gabe showed up, healed the Lt. who killsteals from Kit. Because that's what my NPCs do, I guess.
Lyssa hastes and Kit runs out of the room at half health to stab Lucian Thrune in the face because Kit has had bad experiences being tied to tables by outsiders in the past.
Lyssa casts hold person on Lucian, he fails Kit Coup de graces him and we have to call it there for the night, but I'm fairly certain the Ravens have taken the fort. What remains is clearing out the last devil, the wyvern, some looting and maybe blowing the keep up. Depends on if they want to try to keep it.
End session.
The troop subtype would have been useful versus Kari and Cassidy and just in general for these combats that feature lvl 9 PCs versus eight CR 2s.
Part 2:
Team Trainwreck
Hell's Rebels
After Action Report
Session 46
Played on 12/03/2017
Kari's Player was absent. Notified ahead of time.
There are a lot of soldiers in the Menador Keep. And the Ravens only ended up killing 1 of them and that was because Kari was confused at the time.
So, now, Kari is standing guard while the rest of the Ravens go over the stuff in the keep. Take inventory.
Kit talks to Lt. Hallors. He wants to know why she betrayed Lucian Thrune's command and helped him. He doubts it was because he was that good in bed the one time.
So, I hadn't expected that question, and I talk about how the Emmissary Erinyes got paid. And traffic through the keep wasn't exactly bustling so occasionally a soldier got put up for it. Those were people under her command and she didn't exactly like that.
I'm going to question something here. There is a piece of treasure, a tin wyvern toy Lucian got from his aunt that has no value except to get a reaction out of Lucian if he is presented it. The one good memory he has of his childhood. I guess this is to imbue a sense of sympathy in him? Or humanize the one page villain? All I really know is that the rest of the times he is mentioned go out of their way to make him something of a monster. He fed halfling slaves to his slithering trackers.
Oy. Anyway, Lucian's body got fed to the slithering trackers to keep them busy for the moment.
Since she stabbed her commander in the back, figuratively, Lt. Hallors thinks she is pretty much done with the Chelaxian army. So she wants to know who Kit and his buddies are. The Silver Ravens. She fails her notoriety check so its more of a "Those dead defenders of Kintargo from the Chelish Civil war?" "We're taking up the name."
Also, "C'mon man, you know? Silver Ravens, notorious outlaw?"
Eight of the soldiers are either from Ravounel and aren't eager to go back to the front lines or just aren't that interested in Cheliax. So, they'll stay on. Sense motives around, they seem okay.
The rest of the soldiers are packed up, given provisions and kicked out on the Chelaxian side of the border. Best I can figure, the next closest town on that side of the Menador Gap is Kantaria, which as Iomedae fans will know, is the place where the Inheritor ruled for a year and a day while fighting off faceless stalkers infiltrating the town. Anyway, given its Iomedaen tourist hotspot, the Glorious Reclaimation reclaimed the hell out of Kantaria. So the soldiers will run into that or avoid it, but either way it won't be our problem any longer. And because I have no Hell's Vengeance team, Kantaria will stay pretty securely held.
I had to alter some of the documents in the War Room that say the Chelaxian gov't will send someone to hold the fort if Lucian cant. I changed it to reflect that they don't have the manpower to spare, so he has to hold it. The Ravens wanted to keep it open even though they know destroying it is the more prudent option so I'm letting them keep the Menador Keep. Aside from how it impacts the Oakrib Inn's business in book six, I think this will be a minor change that just makes the players happy for doing a thing.
But, once the soldiers are kicked out, they have to clean the place. Kill the oozes, Kill the Host devil, and dispatch a wyvern. These are all fairly perfunctory fights in tightly closed spaces so not much can be said about them. Kit ended up critting the Devil and the Wyvern for most of their blood, the rest was cleanup.
Loot the warroom, the barracks, and the treasury.
Hey. Here's something important to note. Each soldier in Menador Keep is equipped with 3, count'em, 3 Screaming Bolts. A screaming bolt is a +2 bolt with an added fear effect. Each arrow is 267 gp. There are eight soldiers in each encounter on the bottom floor (C3a-d or whathaveyou) six soldiers stationed on the Battlements, six more in the barracks room, and three in the break room. That is 45 soldiers, and each one carries 801 gp in bolts. 801*45=36045 gp in loot. I only mention it because it was easy to overlook. And, because most of it survived my encounters.
They were told of the secret door in the armory and took the stairs up to find the Graven Guardians. Lyssa and Gabe ID them before they activate then Gabe goes back downstairs and crafts 4 holy symbols of Torag to get them by the sentinals. Gabe reads Dwarven though! He can read the warning the hall. And...neither him or lyssa can make the DC 25 religion check. Really sad because Gabe has a +14 Religion. I guess that's only a 50% shot, but still.
Cassidy comes in a proves their usefullness. IDs the trap, and bypasses it. Revealing the Legion Archons. The Ageless, tireless, ever watchful Legion Archons. Who must be so bored. So, so bored. They've been there since before Cheliax was a country. Since before Taldoran expansion. Thousands of years. In a tiny room guarding a self destruct mechanism. After the Ravens explained what they were doing, the Archons were "fine, thank you. Please close the door on your way out." They did leave them a deck of cards.
And finally the Raven's reinforcements arrived. Madame Docur's girls, Elgin Laronge, and Viona and Octavio. The Lictor explains what happened with the orcs, how they tried to kill them, and that he was amazed that Unicorns can teleport. Saved his life, I think. Level eight character with AC 19, C'mon Lictor. Jeez.
I have my post session notes from my group's run through. Amusing enough, so I'll share.
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **...
Sounds like a fun time Kasoh!
Honestly, I don't know why, but the encounters in the book seem to assume the party will just walk into Menador through the front door? But then there's only two or three boxes describing what happens if they do that. It just seems like a miscommunication or something; it's a rebellion campaign, so it feels logical to assume the group are going to want to do sabotage or something (my group has always leaned towards subterfuge). Lots of earlier encounters like the holding house were written around that idea, but the first time they directly attack the military, it's assumed they'll just barge in the front door and massacre everyone? Kinda weird. They are even expressly barred from using their rebel-actions (if you actually use the sub-system, which we have elected not to do) to gather any information.
Then again, your group opted or the direct approach and it seems to have worked totally well for you! so I imagine it's a group-by-group thing.
And yeah, we can thank RogueRogue for the troop idea. It hadn't occurred to me before, but it turns the speed-bump soldiers into something that can at least deal damage and take a few hits. Those soldier statblocks don't have a high enough hit bonus to land attacks against my PCs, even with their attack bonus recalculated properly. Using their crossbows (I believe +8 with deadly aim) against my PC's (AC's of 16, 23, 23, 25) they could *maybe* land a few hits, but because of the map layout they'll likely be stuck using their halberds (+5 to hit), if they can even attack at all given the reach property. Yeah, I've enjoyed all the narrative beats of this chapter, but the encounter design has been messy, I think it must have been rushed or something.
I never considered how odd it was, but I also assume that PCs have so many options by this level that doing any sort of extended 'here's what they could do' would take up more space than anyone could use, since however they get into the keep, they still have to subdue everyone there and activate the self destruct mechanism. (Or go wildly off book.)
A total stealth infiltration right to the self destruct mechanism would be a really cool way to do it, but its rare to have a party with enough group stealth to do it. Leaving it up to a single PC or duo would be exciting, but maybe not a great session for a whole party.
Its an amusing part of Pathfinder and TTRPGs in general when perfectly reasonable plans are not considered because the entire table cannot participate, so instead the table goes with the eyebrow raising 'Lets all disguise ourselves as clowns and throw poisoned pies over the edge' plan.
Its an amusing part of Pathfinder and TTRPGs in general when perfectly reasonable plans are not considered because the entire table cannot participate, so instead the table goes with the eyebrow raising 'Lets all disguise ourselves as clowns and throw poisoned pies over the edge' plan.
The clown plans are my favorites, to be honest, because they're the ones where the party is clearly having fun and doing the thing they want to do, rather than what they think they're supposed to. But you do end up with situations where, for example, the rogue could probably do a huge amount of scouting and stealth (Menador), or the bard could handle all the talking (the banquet), but it would be boring for everyone, so they opt for something unexpected. Like lighting the stable on fire to distract the guards so everyone can tag along into the secret door, instead of just the rogue investigating it, for example! I love them, but they do have some, let's say, unorthodox plans. :)
Who doesn't love a plucky, unpredictable rebel? I think it adds to the charm.
Menador Keep has turned out to be super fun, I'm in the middle of running it right now. It's so open, and at 8th level there's a ton of ways that the heroes can approach it. I'll give you my summary to compare:
Party consists of:
Aasimar Sorceror: Buff-oriented mostly, with occasional magic missiles. Lots of Haste and other such spells.
Elf Magus: Heavy hitter, just gets in there and wrecks stuff up.
Half-Elf Investigator: Very skill focused, not all that great in a fight, but excellent in social situations.
Half-Elf Rogue: Built for stealth and trickyness, also not all that great in a fight. But excellent out of combat for sneakyness.
The gang got into Menador's courtyard by talking their way into joining the caravan guard of a travelling merchant who was willing to pony up the cash to cross through the Keep. They specifically approached the keep during the night and talked the guards (and Lucian) into letting them camp in the courtyard before moving on the next day. They also talked their way into the guard's card game to shmooze and ingratiate themselves.
During the night the Sorceror and Magus managed to sneak off and use Invisibility and Dimension door to do some scouting inside the keep. They found lots of rooms but were eventually caught when they threw open the door to the Erinyes (because of true sight). When that happened they enacted their contingency plan, and had the Investigator invisibly sneak into the stables and light a fire. The guards rushed out to try to put it out, giving them enough time to deal with the Erinyes without getting discovered.
Afterwards, during the commotion from the fire, they continued exploring and discovered the Slithering Trackers. They slammed the door shut on them and ran off, hoping they wouldn't follow. Shortly after they found the secret door in the armoury, leading to the Anvil of Unmaking.
We left the session just as they were getting jumped by the Graven Guardians. I'm going to have the Slithering Trackers join the fight after a round or two as well, tracking them up the stairs. They also only have three of them up in the Graven Guardian room, they left the Rogue downstairs to keep an eye on things. So it should be a challenging fight with a three-quarters party, extra enemies, and most of the Sorceror's high-level spells gone (from Dimension Door-ing everywhere).
As for Thrune, he mounted up when the fire started, and is currently flying overhead scouting to see if this was an attack or sabotage. The players are terrified of taking on a flying cavalier, so they're staying far away from him. I'm guessing they'll probably bring down the keep and avoid fighting him, so I'll get to figure out how to bring him back into the story later.
Menador Keep has turned out to be super fun, I'm in the middle of running it right now. It's so open, and at 8th level there's a ton of ways that the heroes can approach it. I'll give you my summary to compare:
Sounds like a fun time! I notice your group also went for the "set fire to the stables" route. Gets them every time. Having just finished Menador I can say I enjoyed it a lot as well!
My group (Tengu Monk, Half Elf Bard, Half Elf Rogue, Tiefling Gunslinger) snuck back in after their first attempt by staking the place out and scaling the walls, only just barely managing to avoid getting caught because of their invisibility magic. They made their way into the secret passage in the armory, took down the Graven Guardians after a bit of effort and some illusionary magic to appear like Torag worshippers, and convinced the Archons to let them use the Anvil of Unmaking. Not a lot to say about the Archon encounter, except that charisma skill DC 30 seems a little steep, especially since the alternative is to murder 2 Lawful Good Archons. I just lowered the DC and kept the story moving, since we were on an IRL time limit.
They split up again at this point, and left the Gunslinger to activate the Anvil so the rest of the party could free Zorumar/the halfling prisoners with a bit of a head start. This is where things start to get hairy. By and large, they did well! The Monk bust open the prison door, enlarged himself, and carried the halflings in his backpack. The Rogue went the opposite route and had Zorumar shrink him, turn invisible, and fly him over the edge of the balcony. The Gunslinger activated boots of levitation and gently floated down the balcony edge, taking a decent amount of damage from archers along the way. These plans mainly worked because the chaos of the earthquake + the group being undetected until then, and when the troops mobilized it started to get worse.
The monk tossed the halflings over the gate, used Abundant Step to appear on the other side, and caught them. He made the required skill checks, but that was so creative I almost just let him have it without rolling anything. Unfortunately that left the bard, who was badly injured by arrows from the balcony at this point, alone. They decided to cast invisibility. This would have worked out, except that the Erinyes, who the group has come to fear at this point, had truesight and had no other targets she could see. :(
The bard gets dropped to -4 and the rest of the group, because they split up, have no idea. Eventually, they end up having to just hightail it outta there before the place collapses, meaning that the bard was stuck in the keep when it collapses.
I feel quite bad about killing the Bard, but there wasn't really anything else I could do. The Erinyes would certainly shoot them, because she's evil and because it's the only logical thing to do. And because of the landslide they can't even recover the body to try and revive later. When they get back to Kintargo we'll do a funeral scene and introduce their new character, probably as a contact at the Ruby Masquerade, but maybe I'll add something little in between the masquerade and this to give them a breather. They've definitely earned it. I am also considering the possibility that the bard was taken prisoner, rather than killed (Erinyes have their lasso and can fly), so that's something I might use at a later date, possibly in Kintargo Keep.
They split up again at this point, and left the Gunslinger to activate the Anvil so the rest of the party could free Zorumar/the halfling prisoners with a bit of a head start. This is where things start to get hairy.
We did our next session this week, and my players also left someone behind to blow the place while sending the other three on rescues!
After defeating the Graven Guardians and chatting up the Archons, they rested up in the Anvil room. The Menador guards didn't know about that area so they were safe to do so. Before settling down, the Rogue snuck back out while invisible to do some scouting on her own though. She managed to find the other secret door up to the treasure trunk and the Wyvern parking. She threw open the door to the treasure, which the Host Devil noticed, but he wasn't able to see who opened it, because of the invisibility. She ducked out of there and then checked the other room, came face to face with a Wyvern, and ran away to rejoin the other party members.
The next day they left the Magus upstairs to trigger the Anvil, then went to go liberate the treasure trunk. I assumed that the Host Devil would have told Lucian that something fishy went on, so I stationed another two Guards up there with him. One of them got off a shot with the Screaming Bolt before they took him down, which the Wyvern heard next door. Wyvern took off into the skies and started screaming, which alerted the rest of the fortress.
They finished the fight with the Devil quickly, looted the chest, and Dimension Door'd out of there just as Lucian and a few more troops busted into the room!
They then went to go try to rescue Zorumar, who they had to knock out and tie up for his own good, since he couldn't disobey Lucian by escaping. They then ran off, and left the Magus to trigger the Anvil. He did so, and then in the ensuing ten minutes of chaos he freed the halflings and cast invisible on all of them. They just ran out the front door while everyone was evacuating.
Lucian and his Wyvern are both still fine, so I'm going to have him track them down as soon as their invisibility runs out as they're running away down the pass!
