Peregrine
2010-09-14, 09:19 AM
Seriously, I mean it: Tanc, Moreta, I know you have accounts here -- out! And Mel, Rifus, if you're browsing around here all of a sudden, you get out too.
[hr]Okay, so my players are going up against a cabal of evil mages. Last session, they arrived at the location and, contrary to my expectations, went straight in at the top floor (wearing the traps and moving on). Since it was contrary to my expectations, I figured it was contrary to the cabal's expectations, and so they caught them underprepared. The cabal knew the party was coming, knew they were coming today in fact, but had assumed they would approach overcautiously.
Now the cabal has had time to regroup on the lower floors and set up for the party's attack. I would like your help, O Playgrounders, in making this a good encounter.
The Party
The PCs are four 12th-level characters.
Bard/Cloaked Dancer (Complete Scoundrel). Diplomacy from here to next week, and uses feinting to get her surprise strike (with an assassination (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070314a) weapon to up the pain quota).
Rogue/Monk/Matapor Street Wrestler (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=159190). Likes to grapple casters. Has the Mage Slayer feat (Complete Arcane, I believe), which stops casters from casting defensively when he threatens them.
Sorceress/Incantatrix. Blaster caster; cone of cold, fireball, magic missile. Sculpts them to hit the most enemies and the least allies. Tends to forget she has things like dispel magic.
Warlock/Hellfire Warlock. He flies, goes invisible and shoots stuff with his eldritch blast. Completely forgot for several sessions that he has noxious blast. They are also accompanied by a 15th-level paladin. He's getting on in years and so is a bit frail, but this will be the first time since he's adventured with the party that they've faced groups of evil, corporeal creatures, so he'll be in his element. He's also there for healing (helped by having the divine spirit ACF from Dungeonscape).
The Assault So Far
The party kicked in the door on the top floor, which just happened to be right next to the female ablutions block. So they caught a number of mages, shall we say, devoid of spell component pouches? (This was actually intentional on my part, although they all but missed the clue to it: a young male mage who'd found a way to spy on the ladies' baths.)
Having killed several of the women, they've noticed that at least a couple have a certain arcane mark on one hand. This is how mages of the cabal are able to open all the arcane locked doors (the monk's been kicking them down instead), but the party so far thinks that they're some sort of ownership mark for spellcasting concubines.
Then they busted into the master bedroom, where the head honcho of the cabal was setting up with a symbol of pain and a phantasmal killer -- hoping to wipe at least one of them out and make his retreat. The monk only survived after being reminded that the bard's inspire courage boosted his save against fear. And the warlock (who can see invisible things) remembered his noxious blast in time to use it to ruin the head honcho's day. He only got away because of some manner of contingent teleportation (I haven't bothered statting it out, I just decided he had a one-shot 'port-to-safety). So he's teleported, probably to the ground floor where his minions were waiting to heal him up.
As for the party, they've blown several spells and about half of the paladin's healing. The monk is suffering the lingering effects of the symbol of pain. And now the cabal is setting up for them.
The Cabal
I want this to be a difficult fight, EL 13 by the numbers, made harder by the party's (lack of) tactics. The head honcho is an 11th-level caster (wizard, I'd say), and there should be up to twenty underlings present and not yet killed or incapacitated. So far I've included a 9th-level spellthief. His job will be to ruin the warlock's day by stealing his eldritch blast. So that leaves the equivalent of another 9th-level character; two 7ths, or four 5ths, or numerous mooks, or whatever. Meatshields and such will be provided by summoning; the people themselves should be exclusively or almost exclusively casters.
This cabal is devoted to the god of secrets (which is part of my in-game justification for not doing a scry-and-die; too public). They like illusions. In fact they quite successfully used mirage arcana to put some illusions of inaccessible terrain in the way of the party while they were approaching. They weren't expecting the party to be fooled; but it worked very, very well in making them absolutely convinced that the totally empty valley they arrived in was where the cabal's headquarters ought to be. (They eventually scouted around and found the real location.)
The cabal has at least one cleric. I say this not only because it's a cult of an evil god, but because they used Vorpal Tribble's gutworm (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32252) (a Pestilence domain spell) to great effect in diverting the PCs by infecting innocents.
Oh, that's another resource they have: their complete disregard for innocent life.
And among their summoned creatures, they have a Large fire elemental. The party knows this because the sorceress got bored and blithely walked down the stairs, alone, and straight into its fiery fists. :smallsigh:
I might scan or digitally redraw the maps of the building for your reference, in case you have any suggestions for how to prepare the corridors and such. But any tips on what classes and spells and whatnot to use? (Incidentally, I prefer to avoid multiclass NPCs; it saves me some effort.)
Just remember this: I don't want a TPK, but killing one or two and forcing a retreat is perfectly acceptable.
[hr]Okay, so my players are going up against a cabal of evil mages. Last session, they arrived at the location and, contrary to my expectations, went straight in at the top floor (wearing the traps and moving on). Since it was contrary to my expectations, I figured it was contrary to the cabal's expectations, and so they caught them underprepared. The cabal knew the party was coming, knew they were coming today in fact, but had assumed they would approach overcautiously.
Now the cabal has had time to regroup on the lower floors and set up for the party's attack. I would like your help, O Playgrounders, in making this a good encounter.
The Party
The PCs are four 12th-level characters.
Bard/Cloaked Dancer (Complete Scoundrel). Diplomacy from here to next week, and uses feinting to get her surprise strike (with an assassination (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070314a) weapon to up the pain quota).
Rogue/Monk/Matapor Street Wrestler (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=159190). Likes to grapple casters. Has the Mage Slayer feat (Complete Arcane, I believe), which stops casters from casting defensively when he threatens them.
Sorceress/Incantatrix. Blaster caster; cone of cold, fireball, magic missile. Sculpts them to hit the most enemies and the least allies. Tends to forget she has things like dispel magic.
Warlock/Hellfire Warlock. He flies, goes invisible and shoots stuff with his eldritch blast. Completely forgot for several sessions that he has noxious blast. They are also accompanied by a 15th-level paladin. He's getting on in years and so is a bit frail, but this will be the first time since he's adventured with the party that they've faced groups of evil, corporeal creatures, so he'll be in his element. He's also there for healing (helped by having the divine spirit ACF from Dungeonscape).
The Assault So Far
The party kicked in the door on the top floor, which just happened to be right next to the female ablutions block. So they caught a number of mages, shall we say, devoid of spell component pouches? (This was actually intentional on my part, although they all but missed the clue to it: a young male mage who'd found a way to spy on the ladies' baths.)
Having killed several of the women, they've noticed that at least a couple have a certain arcane mark on one hand. This is how mages of the cabal are able to open all the arcane locked doors (the monk's been kicking them down instead), but the party so far thinks that they're some sort of ownership mark for spellcasting concubines.
Then they busted into the master bedroom, where the head honcho of the cabal was setting up with a symbol of pain and a phantasmal killer -- hoping to wipe at least one of them out and make his retreat. The monk only survived after being reminded that the bard's inspire courage boosted his save against fear. And the warlock (who can see invisible things) remembered his noxious blast in time to use it to ruin the head honcho's day. He only got away because of some manner of contingent teleportation (I haven't bothered statting it out, I just decided he had a one-shot 'port-to-safety). So he's teleported, probably to the ground floor where his minions were waiting to heal him up.
As for the party, they've blown several spells and about half of the paladin's healing. The monk is suffering the lingering effects of the symbol of pain. And now the cabal is setting up for them.
The Cabal
I want this to be a difficult fight, EL 13 by the numbers, made harder by the party's (lack of) tactics. The head honcho is an 11th-level caster (wizard, I'd say), and there should be up to twenty underlings present and not yet killed or incapacitated. So far I've included a 9th-level spellthief. His job will be to ruin the warlock's day by stealing his eldritch blast. So that leaves the equivalent of another 9th-level character; two 7ths, or four 5ths, or numerous mooks, or whatever. Meatshields and such will be provided by summoning; the people themselves should be exclusively or almost exclusively casters.
This cabal is devoted to the god of secrets (which is part of my in-game justification for not doing a scry-and-die; too public). They like illusions. In fact they quite successfully used mirage arcana to put some illusions of inaccessible terrain in the way of the party while they were approaching. They weren't expecting the party to be fooled; but it worked very, very well in making them absolutely convinced that the totally empty valley they arrived in was where the cabal's headquarters ought to be. (They eventually scouted around and found the real location.)
The cabal has at least one cleric. I say this not only because it's a cult of an evil god, but because they used Vorpal Tribble's gutworm (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32252) (a Pestilence domain spell) to great effect in diverting the PCs by infecting innocents.
Oh, that's another resource they have: their complete disregard for innocent life.
And among their summoned creatures, they have a Large fire elemental. The party knows this because the sorceress got bored and blithely walked down the stairs, alone, and straight into its fiery fists. :smallsigh:
I might scan or digitally redraw the maps of the building for your reference, in case you have any suggestions for how to prepare the corridors and such. But any tips on what classes and spells and whatnot to use? (Incidentally, I prefer to avoid multiclass NPCs; it saves me some effort.)
Just remember this: I don't want a TPK, but killing one or two and forcing a retreat is perfectly acceptable.