Party's NPC ally is lost in Hell. Now what?

[OttoVonBigby]

The title doesn't quite say it all, so:

The NPC in question is a Ranger 4/Cleric 7 (Sun and Life domains, fav enemy Undead). Probably his best magic item is mindarmor, which gives him +5 3x/day against mental effects.

My hell is laid out largely differently from the standard D&D setting, but the same thematic areas generally do exist. I have a Blood War in my setting, similar uberfiends, etc. Right now Ally Guy is in hiding, about a couple days' foot travel from the River Styx, but relatively safe. That's going to change in the next session.

The party level (not including Ally Guy) is about 11. Most are resolved to go in after him, others more resignedly just going along. There are multiple clerics in their ranks.

My current thinking is that Ally Guy gets captured and enslaved somehow. I'm not sure where to go from there (hard labor, building some great war machine? serving as womb to wriggling Things That We'd Prefer Not to See, a la Slither?), but it seems to me that it'd take a significant Hellish Host to overcome and subdue Ally Guy. It also seems to me that a living adventurer may be a valuable commodity, if not a terribly rare one, in the abyssal economy.

I welcome whatever ideas you might have. Some key caveats:
1) The party's been using sending and scrying to keep tabs on him. I'd ideally want to deprive them of that option as part of Ally Guy's capture/discovery/banishment/whatever happens to him. This would naturally clue them in immediately that something is amiss, which I want (to build dread and all).

2) Though his captors must be pretty capable, I don't want to turn this into some grand epic quest. I'd like the problem to be resolvable within 2-3 sessions.

3) I don't want to use Dis or any other abyssal city. Strongholds, even vast strongholds, are fine.

[Ketiara]

Ask this guy, he is awsome. Imo
http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=8165.msg129109#msg129109

[VanIsleKnight]

Just have some low-standing demon/devil with enough guile/power to take the NPC hostage, and have him plan to use the guy as a bartering chip with someone. Or to sacrifice somewhere for a power boost. Have it figure out that the NPC has friends that are likely to come looking for him, and it'll take the necessary measures to make it difficult to be tracked.

Personally I think if the party is dumb enough to go into Hell itself though, the supreme overlord uber Pit Fiend/Arch Demon or whatever isn't going to let them enter or leave without making some kind of deal. It isn't exactly a place that should just be entered and left like a typical plane.

[TypoNinja]

I feel obliged to point out that your NPC is not in fact stranded.

He's perfectly capable of his own escape.


Dismissal
Abjuration
Level: Clr 4, Sor/Wiz 5
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One extraplanar creature
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will negates; see text
Spell Resistance: Yes

This spell forces an extraplanar creature back to its proper plane if it fails a special Will save (DC = spell’s save DC - creature’s HD + your caster level). If the spell is successful, the creature is instantly whisked away, but there is a 20% chance of actually sending the subject to a plane other than its own.

He gained the extraplanar subtype as soon as he left the Prime Material, and he can voluntarily fail a save thus Dismissing himself.

Granted there is no way say where exactly he appears once sent home, but its gotta be better than being prisoner to something in hell. Even then, the party can fetch him with a Scry followed by a Teleport or two.

PS. Whenever I leave the Prime Material I always carry a one shot Wondrous Item that will Dismiss me (assuming I can't do it my self). It's your emergency Panic Button.

[OttoVonBigby]

Ha HAA, thanks TypoNinja. It does indeed look like he could cast that on himself.

But there's a 20% chance he winds up elsewhere, so... maybe that happens. And maybe he winds up in worse trouble :smallbiggrin:

[Emperor Tippy]

Just pool the money for a scroll of wish (or Gate and then Gate a Solar or Shapechange and then shift to Zodar) and use the Transport Travelers clause to pull the NPC ally to the parties location.

[TypoNinja]

Ha HAA, thanks TypoNinja. It does indeed look like he could cast that on himself.

But there's a 20% chance he winds up elsewhere, so... maybe that happens. And maybe he winds up in worse trouble :smallbiggrin:

20% is decent odds so that could get hilarious, on the other hand if capture by the denizens of hell seems imminent, its hard to get worse. Elemental Plane of Fire maybe?

The point is, the risk may look like a good idea if whats coming after him looks nasty enough. I did something similar once with my cleric. Plane Shifted blind (DM rolled on random planes table) because I decided the mess I was stuck in was sufficiently nasty that I'd take my chances.

[Asheram]

I feel obliged to point out that your NPC is not in fact stranded.

He's perfectly capable of his own escape.

He gained the extraplanar subtype as soon as he left the Prime Material, and he can voluntarily fail a save thus Dismissing himself.


xD This is genious! I'll have to remember that whenever I find myself stranded in another realm.

[sabelo2000]

Any decent devil that could capture your Ally, and had motivation to hold him, should be smart enough to realize that a caster can escape himself. Dimensional shackles and any of the protection-from-scrying spells seem like standard dungeon equipment in this case. It may seem like meta-gaming, but when you look at it from the perspective of the captor it's just common sense.

A single diabolic stronghold seems like the best bet. In my campaign I'm writing a similar adventure that involves retrieving an artifact, and I'm having some fun with the River Styx. Basically speaking, the adventure will begin in the middle as they get their memory wiped by the Styx and they have to re-discover what they're doing there and where they've been... I was trying to write it like Memento, but that's too tough with a D&D party so it'll end up more like The Hangover instead.

As for the adventure itself, I'd recommend you discourage the "Storm the Gates of Hell" style. Devils are normally assumed to be very efficient and regimented, so any attack against one devil will cause armies to come after the party (assuming the attacked devil has time to alert its Chain of Command, or the attack is witnessed by another devil.) Infiltration would be the key in this case, as well as ensuring that any guard they fight gets taken out in a few rounds, tops, so that it can't alert others.

If it were me, I'd pace it as a shadowy infiltration, lots of tense hiding and sneaking interspersed with a few seconds of frantic action every now-and-then.

This also gives you good cause to scale the encounters to your party; obviously a group of 11th-level Good clerics kicking in the door to Hell would soon be overrun by pit fiends, but a party that sneaks past the heavy threats can be allowed to engage level-appropriate foes without stopping to think, "Wait, why is the entirety of Hell only populated by Barbazu and a single Gelugon captain?"