The latest adventure with the D&D crew was a doozie; I had to follow up on the last session in the style of old radio shows where there is a Cliffhanger at the end.
I kept the tension up and told them that I was enforcing exhaustion rules in the fire prison. And that they had not been able to have a rest after the last session, so they were low on hit points and out of spells. They then had tripped an alarm that raised the demon hoarde to full alert and they had to find refuge before they were caught and they had to go slow enough that they did not create too much stress on their bodies. Only one characters had the equivalent of a ring of fire resistance, the dwarf had a Frostbrand. The rest had to move more slowly. I gave them two minutes before they would be found, if they held still, but they did not know that. They chose to keep a scout and that was beneficial, because the leader, the Paladin tended to always chose left and never right; the only path of succor was to the right. The Ranger chose the second right and crept down it slowly. When he arrived at a room he found that there were four occupants and they were not demons.
They were elves, but they were strange elves, because their skin drank up the light—they were the colour of night with no moons nor stars. The elves saw the Ranger and they were not immediately hostile. The Dragonborn spoke quietly and calmly in all the languages he knew. He tried Sylvan first, it was the closest language that they shared, but they did not speak anything like that. But he managed to signal his peaceful intentions by putting his bow away. The rest of the party joined him.
The bard tried to pantomime after the party's failed attempts at communication. Only the Half-Orc came close, (he spoke, really he read mostly, a long forgotten dialect that was found on some scrolls in his school's library) after some gestures and brief words a deal was struck to hide the characters from the pursuing demons. The Dark Elves used magic to create a wall of stone over a portion of their room and then told the demons that they had not seen the enemy when they came looking for them. They were then allowed to rest for an hour while the Demons searched for them in the prison.
After a little more than an hour a meeting was called and the elves priest arrived with a spell for easy communication. A deal was struck and they agreed to help the Elves overthrow the demons who were oppressing them and help them to the surface so they could flee home and never return. The Paladin did not trust them and made them swear an oath backed up with his Oath Sanctification spell. The party asked them many questions which they answered truthfully, except for the times that they lied, which the perceptive Bard detected, but did not let them know that he knew they were lying, reasoning that if he knew they were lying, then that told as much as them saying the truth.
The Elves told a sad story about how they had retreated to the Prisons rather than facing justice when e temple was destroyed the first time over a century ago. They talked about the town to the south of the temple where they originally came from, well the base that they used to help create the temple. They talked about how they had spent the decades in captivity and how they had settled in the Fire prison because it resembled their home. They told the party that they were subdued by the demons that broke into the prison (lie). They told them that the demon was using them as frontline troops against the Devil's troops in the south, (truth).
A deal was struck and a plan was made. The Drow, as they called themselves, would arrange for the characters to arrive and the arrival room so the characters could ambush the guard there and kill them and to set up the room to look like there had been an attack from the Devil and his troops as a reprisal for the last attack against them. Then the Drow would try to draw the Demons into a search for the Devil and the PCs would attack the cowardly demon leader in his thrown room. The Drow gave the ranger some magic arrows so they could attack and do more damage to the demons. And they promised to seal the Demon leader's guard rooms from e outside so they did not interfere. Then they promised they would attack the demon with them.
The players were able to get a night's sleep before they staged the two step attack. when they woke that bard suggested that they probably should scout out the location of the attacks, to make sure the elves were not lying. The rooms that the Elves had said were not important were checked out. One contained a odd golem that had cut several demons to pieces and the other was a cobweb filled temple to an evil god. Both rooms were not as the Elves had claimed, but they did appear harmless, as long as no one went in them.
The Dark Elves suggested using a silence spell as they entered the room so that the door would not squeak when they opened it. They also suggested coming in from two doors to allow the entire party to engage the demons quickly. The plan worked. The doors opened silently and four of the five demons were surprised and they all went down quickly within several seconds after the doors opened. The ranger used one magic arrow on one of the demons and used his marksmanship to kill a couple of the demons. Then they quickly moved to the staging area for the second attack after making the scene look as though there was an attack in the far half of the demon's territory.
Demons rushed past the opening where the party hid and they slowly counted to ten and then advanced cautiously on the demon leader. The demon was very large and he had a large scythe that he held in two hands, he had two hands, but he also had two more arms that ended in pincers similar to that of a lobster. It's head was snapped like a dogs and he had many vicious teeth. The characters attacked, but he was on alert, so there was no surprise.
The ranger nocked four arrows, the magical ones and fired them in succession hitting him four times for 93 hit points of damage! The demon was not alone, there was a squad of guards ing the room but they were spread out. The demon waited no time and rushed to advance as did the players, as the hall was wide. The dragon flew towards it and his guards breathing frost on them. The demon paused and spoke a word at the ranger that caused him to enter a swoon for the rest of the combat. He only got four attacks, but they were very strong hits.
The beast rushed into combat and struck at all three warriors in the front row with him with his scythe. He tried to hit the first one, but seemed to miss only to succeed at the last second as he used his paladin powers to hit the Half-orc cleric. After hitting the clerics the blade missed the Dwarf, and the swath of destruction ended there, but if he had hit the attack would have continued through all his opponents until they had all be hit and possibly killed. Still his attacks were not over he attempted to grab at his opponents with his third and fourth arms, he grabbed one characters and they were pinned in that attack. His last attack was to just swing at the paladin with his scythe. The paladin at this point realized that it might have been smart to have healed himself after the last battle. The demon's guards then attacked the players in a line and the paladin went down and the Druid stepped in front of the be spelled ranger and turned into a bear. The demon tore through the flesh of the bear leaving the Druid an elf again after just turning into the bear.
The dragon used spells and physical attacks. The characters attacked as they could. The bard cast spells on the foes and used his wand to paralyze the demon, but the demon shrugged off the attacks. The battle was intense and after about twenty seconds, the battle was over. Except the Drow had not helped them one bit. What had happened to the Drow?
For this adventure I had to create a few new things, a scythe for the monster to wield, and a monster scythe at that, then I had to create a special maneuver, or in this case a special feat that the demon had to use. And then I had to make it magical and something the characters could not normally wield. I made the scythe very heavy, so that only Large creature could use it. However I had forgotten that the Druid had a magical item that allowed her to become a Fey or Giant in addition to Beasts when she shifted shapes, so she as an Ogre, could wield the blade. The blade is consecrated to Drogath, the Evil god, so she may choose not to use it yet.
I had to create the Drow and name them incase anyone asked and all their allies.
I had to detail the dragon, because if they walked by the Drow, they might have run into the Dragon instead, and then they would have been truly, fucked, wounded from the battle at the gates to wounded after the dragon, and then fighting the demon hoarde. Total player kill.
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Spoilers
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All that is below:
Scythe d10 damage reach 10' heavy
Special Feat Sweep
Required extra attack, weapon with reach and slashing
• Once per action the character may make an attack that if succeeds may continue to the next target. The sweep continues until it has missed a target. The sweep attack uses two attacks and the attacker may not move during the attack. The sweep ends if the attack completes a 360° sweep.
• On a critical hit the target is maimed and loses a body part:
d20
1-2 left hand
3-4 right hand dominant lose weapon
5-6 left arm lose shield
7-8 right arm dominant lose weapon
9-10 left foot. Prone or Dex check to stay up; lose 8 dexterity
11-12 right foot
13-14 left leg
15-16 right leg
17 slit abdomen Con check to stay in fight
18 slit chest
19 disfiguring scar
20 beheaded dead.
Great Scythe d12 damage reach, very heavy (creature must be large sized)
Dra'zal the Glabrezu Demon 5th level Conquest Paladin of Drogath
300 Hp. Resistances magic, cold, fire, lightning, and non magical weapons
Immune to poison
Once per long rest, either Fear within 30' DC 15 or +10 to hit
Cast Darkness and Dispel Magic at will
Cast Confusion, Fly, and Power Word Stun 1/day
Multi attack, 4 or 5, 2 pincer attacks an 3 scythe attacks, or 2 pincer attacks and one scythe attack and one Scythe Sweep attack
Pincer +9 to hit, reach 10', 2d10+5, medium or smaller are grappled DC15
Scythe attack +11 to hit, reach 10', 1d12+1d6 necrotic damage +7, heals 1d6 damage
Scythe Sweep attack, +11 to hit, hit all creatures in succession within 10' until miss 1d12+1d6 necrotic +7; heals 1d6 per hit.
Drow. The Drow have been here for a very long time ever since the temple fell over a century ago. They are all from the House of the Red Torrent
There are four Mages:
Astar, Fenriz, Mantus, and Oriax
There is a Hight Priest and her Acolyte:
Decarabia and Aym
There are six Warriors all female:
Akta, Bune, Nija, Osah, Shava, Uzza.
There are four children all between 10 and 50 years old:
Dae, Eli, Lue, Sai
There are seven Driders. They have no names.
If the players make an alliance with these Drow, they will betray them when they bring them to the Drider room, until that time they will be completely honourable, they will share their food and they will even heal the characters. The High Priest will recognise the Orb instantly, she will offer an alliance to the characters in exchange for escape, but she rally would rather take the orb from them and escape by herself.
F33 North West Square Room Partially open to the sky, this is the domain of Azkandr, a young red dragon who was placed in the Node as a guardian. Before the Temple fell 12 years ago, he received regular offerings of treasure. Recently Allrem sent a small offering of treasure in along with a message to Azkandr hoping to renew relations with him. Azkandr has no effective way of responding yet, but Allrem has been researching possibilities. Young Red Dragon: MM p.98, 5,000xp Treasure: potion of supreme healing, potion of invisibility, potion of invulnerability, potion of mind reading, blue ice potion stand (250gp), gold jewelled dragon-sized necklace/belt inscribed 'From the Revived Lord of Fire – Allrem – to the great and glorious Azkandr. A token of Esteem (500gp), Jewelled breastplate (750gp), Jewelled Urim of a Cleric of Rao (250gp), 481cp, 5,490sp, 3,100gp, 104pp
Mature. 20d10 large. +100 proficiency modifier +4
HP 250. BW 18d6(63)
Damage modifier +5, multi attack bite, claw, claw
bite 2d10, claw 1d6
AC 18. CR11
Sorcerer level 12. Spell save DC 17; spell attack modifier +9
12 known spells 6 cantrips 4/3/3/3/2/1 12SP
Distant spell, Empowered spell each costs 1 SP
8 minions
Cantrips: Fire Bolt, Light, Message, Dancing Lights, Prestidigitation, Minor Illusion
1: Burning Hands, 2: Scorching Ray, Web, 3: Daylight, Fireball, 4: Confusion, Wall of Fire, Polymorph, 5: Dominate Person, Animate Objects, 6: Sunbeam, Mass Suggestion.
Next session, what happened to the Drow.
Some thoughts, they wanted the players to die. They faked injuries from a fictitious battle and join up with the characters and convince them that they need to retreat to the only place the demons are afraid to go, the Temple to Llolth! They will then ambush the characters, with help from seven Driders and try to kill them. The temple is safe from the demons, those demons anyways, they will summon their own demons to squash the players. The priestess made an oath with the Paladin and he used a spell to Sanctify it, so the Priest will be struck by the effects of the spell when she attacks the characters, the sudden retribution will give the Characters a free round of attacks and the spell could kill the priestess outright.
This is a necessary event. The paladin is overly suspicious and he needs to see that if he makes an oath his deity will back him up. The battle needs to be tough. They have already gained enough for a new level, but they need to take a long rest, so when they do in the temple they will get that level. And dreams of spiders… and the atheist Bard will get a dream about getting power from Drogath. More and more interesting stuff
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That was the plan, and that is what happened in the end. Although, I leaked what was going to happen to Natural20, and it affected the fight. Mental note don't tell any of the players anything. It is hard because I want to talk about things and I have no one to talk to anymore that is not in the game.
The Drow told that characters that they were in a serious fight, that they were using illusions to show that demons from the force they were leading as devils and the forces they were leading against as also devils, so that the two allied demon forces would engage in a battle and fight to the death. They told the characters that the battle had gone awry when the Dragon saw through the deception and attacked the Drow. They told the characters that the battle had gone poorly and there was only one place that was safe from the demons, and that was their abandoned temple to their goddess Lloth.
Telling lies needs to be convincing, and the best way to be convincing is to pick your lies and keep the rest as truth. They did use illusions to get the demons to attack each other. The dragon was not in the combat, so did not see through the ruse. The wounds were real, but they were self inflicted. The ranger tried to determine if the wounds were real, the blood was real but the wounds were not, but they did exist. The temple did provide shelter from the demons, but the Drow had not used it before because their food source was outside the temple. Also there were allies inside the temple.
The full party followed the Drow into their temple and they stopped just inside the temple fearing an ambush. It was, but the character's thought that they were on top of that; one rolled for perception and another with a wildly high passive perception let it slide. The Drider enemies rolled a natural 20 and their bonuses to stealth surpassed the high perception roll and the passive perception of the other.
The elves attacked, ie they rolled for initiative and we proceeded. The higher initiative players delayed until the Dark Elves attacked. When they did, they broke the Oath that the Paladin had made with them. The first thing that happened, was the High Priestess cast a spell, but upon targeting the characters, was struck by Green Lightning, the retribution of the Goddess of Law. The lightning stroke was as bright as the Green Sun and for a few seconds, the entire room was bathed in sunlight—and the Drow were at disadvantage for the round. Also, the High Priestess took 90 hp damage, no saving throw, and died, instantly; her spell also failed. In he unexpected sunlight, the Seven Driders that had snuck behind the characters, appeared and were blinded by the light. The players attacked.
With the NPCs in the party the battle took a lot longer than it should have. A lesson for the GM, me. Next time, there will be a contrivance for the characters to fight alone, like the henchmen to be fighting spiders or doing an important task, like holding the door shut. One important thing happened, their White Dragon ally breathed Paralyzing breath instead of frost, signalling its shift from White to Silver. The Drow fell easily, but the mages were able to cast potent magic, including a Cloudkill spell and Greater Invisibility and Lightning Bolt.
The Driders were harder to kill, but they too died. The characters were able to then, finally take a short rest and a long rest. I told them that they gained a level then, and they are now level 10! They were eligible for advance the time before, but they had not had a chance to rest, so no advance for them. They picked up a few magical items, along with a number of magical Drow weapons and armour, that will lose their magic in sunlight. As well as the hoard of the Demon, 11k gp in gold and silver, a bunch of gems, and five magical items, a potion of Storm giant strength, a Ring of the Ram, leather armour of fire resistance, a great axe of Giant slaying, and a Pearl of Power.
They also got a diary of the High Priestess, Decarabia. I gave the atheist a dream where the evil god tries to corrupt him.
The next few sessions I think will include the Dragon and the rest of the demons, maybe the Deva, the golem, and the devil and the fire forces. Lots to prepare for.
The Golem: twelve arms, 15hp each, must be killed with a single hit of 15hp or more. Regenerates 15hp until then. Each arm can attack once per round, melee attacks first creature within 15' of its shoulder. Holds action until a characters comes withing reach, it's initiative is both 20 and 1. Each arm does 1d10+6 per hit, +10 to hit. If it has not attacked by the initative 1, its remaining arms fire a +10 attack with range 1d6+4 damage. Anything that approaches the head gets an attack +10 to hit 2d12+6, the head has 50hp but will regenerate as long as it has arms, completely.
The treasure in the room is a whole bunch of Adamantine ingots and gems and gold jewelry that was fashioned from the mines on the level. There is Mithril and gold and silver too. Lots of idolatry of Lloth, black bsidian statues etc. the gem of power might be here too, if the efreeti doesn't have it.
If the characters spy upon the dragon their dragon will recognize the signs of Dragon metamorphosis and suggest the players attack it before it gains power.
