How to Survive This?

[AlanBruce]

Greetings! In a game I am running, the party has decided to take on an old colosseum occupied by an old dwarf warlord. To be precise, there are three locations the party learned they can go and, against my subtle hints, they split, reasoning that IC, it made sense.



Conjurer 9

Monk 2 / Rogue 2 / Drunken Master 5 (we house ruled that AC, US and speed stack with Drunken Master and monk levels)

Beguiler 9 with a Runestaff of Fire

Paladin of Freedom 2/Sorcerer 4/Spellsword 1/ AbjChamp 2

Sorcerer 6/Sea witch 1/Stormcaster 2 (he's split in another locale and doing actually fine with his team)

They knew that these three locations were dangerous and, using the monk's contacts, recruited a few members, especially for the colosseum.


Shifter Ranger 3/Swordsage 2/Shadowdancer 2/Bloodclaw Master 5

Rogue 4/ Swashbuckler 3/ Duskblade 5

Rogue 1/ Druid 5/ Daggerspell Shaper 5

Rogue 2/ Monk 3/ Drunken Master 8 (PC monk's master and mentor)

I handed the sheets to the players, so they could use these NPCs as they saw fit- I already have enough work on my hands running the encounters and villains on my own and they were given the chance to remain in a group and let the NPCs head to the other three locales, but too late about that now.

The party's Conjurer set out with a team of 12 to one of the most dangerous locales- a far away run down district filled with "monsters" that not even the guilds would dare venture in. Little to no intel. No attempt by the party to Divine (although he has some spells of that school).

For some reason, the wizard chose not to prepare Teleport and Dispel Magic for the day, reasoning it would not be needed...

When his team of 12 was down to three he began having second thoughts and it was because the Beguiler had an NPC Diviner Hermit in her backstory that she had him teleport both to his location after a thorough scrying and get the 3 out in the nick of time before they were devoured.

Of note, the wizard uses the Abrupt Jaunt ACF and wasted ALL his uses for the day.

The two surviving NPCs with the wizard asked him to come see the local priestess, but he declined, deciding to head with the beguiler to the colosseum.

The monk's party with the aforementioned NPCs had the time of their life in the colosseum barracks.

Thug fighters? Easy pickings.

A couple of Minotaur barbarians? The druid cast Bite of the Weretiger and that's all she wrote.

A duergar cleric/warpriest? Party ganged on him and murder hoboed the guy before he could be a real threat.

Sure, there were some hits here and there, but the party has access to a few dwindling wands of CLW and CMW, which they are not shy to use.

At this point, the party conjurer, very much spent spell wise and the beguiler meet up with the monk's team, whose casters are just as spent. They find the duergar's diary in his room after thorough looting and read up on the Baths in the colosseum, below where they are. Mention of vile rituals and human sacrifices and all manner of horrible stuff, which leads the PCs to deduce their might be undead.

They all heal up, nearly exhausting the wands and head down, while the party's sorcadin catches up with them a few minutes later on her hippogryph, going off intel from a friendly NPC that they were "in the colosseum... BELOW, in the old Baths.""


Sorcadin flies up to the actual arena with her familiar and faces the leader of the gang, who has a few Vivisectors (MMV) and gnoll warriors. The leader can't reach her. The gnolls can't either...

But the Vivisectors can, which hurt her a bit before causing her to retreat to the barracks of the colosseum, where the group was said to be.

Sure enough, she heads down to the Baths, having to leave her familiar behind- the entrance is too small for the guy.

The monk, beguiler, conjurer and NPC friends have begun a fight against 4 Bloodhulk Fighters (MM IV). Tough bags of HP with low AC and the Fragile Trait. Thankfully, most in the party have slashing weapons- be it kukris, rapiers or broken bottles- so although it takes time, they have a field day carving their names on the bloated undead.

Things are looking well...when 2 Bloodhulk Giants show up deeper in the Baths and eventually move in, each wielding a non magical heavy mace. they hit hard, but so can the party.

It's here when things go downhill.

The party has successfully IDed them as undead. They know they are "bloated zombie like creatures that act as Meat Shields for Necromancers and evil Priests".

This reveals all undead traits as per the SRD, which I had them read.

Beguiler walks confidently towards the undead group and unleashes the mighty MASS WHELM!!!....

....

Nobody said anything out of respect, but it baffles me: why cast that spell when IC the beguiler knew they were undead, with all traits that come with it. To make matters worse, she has a +1 keen rapier with a wand chamber that has a brand new wand of Gravestrike in it, but has not bothered to inform the group before descending, so they might try to ID it somehow.

It is by round 3, with the party cutting and slashing and getting blood all over that the boss of the underground Baths makes his appearance:

A Durzagon (MM2) Necromancer 5/ Blood Magus 4 who heard the fight above and has buffed accordingly. Of note, Spider Climb, so as to stay out of reach of the party that cannot fly, while tossing a bunch of no save spells mostly at the NPCs, like Channeled Lifetheft, followed by a Swift Escalating Enfeeblement on the monk's mentor, reducing his Strength to 1.

The NPC druid went tiger to rake and grapple one of the Bloodhulk Giants and succeeded, not before getting bashed thrice by the one that wasn't grappled (his AC is rather low) and although he did succeed in killing the giant, he had to tumble back so as to avoid getting hit again.

The conjurer is slowly but steadily relying on Acidic Splatter on them, but these guys are mountains of HP: the acid hurts, but doesn't kill immediately.

The paladin has just entered the area and is busy chopping two new Bloodhulk Fighters with judicious use of PA and Arcane Strike. still, the party is severely weakened now and the Durzagon hasn't even been hit- none in the party- PC and NPC- have ranks in knowledge the Planes. All they know it's a "very creepy dwarf". obsessed with blood.

Right now, the NPCs are between 20 to 8 HP each, having taken the brunt of the BH giants and the Durazon's spells. The PCs are mostly fine. Mostly, but they have no idea on how to best this guy.

I know what spells a beguiler has, but I cannot tell the player "use X!", since as a 9th level beguiler, her PC would know what to do against the undead and later the boss, instead relying on Fireball on the guy and failing to overcome his SR, which they already know he has, as well as fire resistance.

I do not wish to send in "The DM Fiat cavalry". They have managed to kill a bunch of these undead so far, but they are not in the best of shape. The Durzagon will not allow them to escape, using his spells to cripple as many as he can,

So, any ideas on how to survive this? Because the only thing that comes to mind is the Conjurer's Rope Trick, which may get a few safe inside, but seeing how they are scattered, a tad difficult.

Any suggestions are more than welcome before this turns into a potential TPK!

[finaldooms]

Well...im no expert at saving the party from...whatever the hell happened ( im personally bad about throwing to much at the party) but he could always catch them to sacrifice later ....and then you can kindly remind the beguiler that his character goes..oh,hey i know a spell for this ...and proceed to make him reread all of his spells

[Calthropstu]

So they simultaneously initiate 3 different areas and the the 2 parties that had to run got off scott free? Unless all three are aligned, I'd initiate a nasty 3 way mass melee between one the party, this boss guy and his undead and a group from one of the other 2 places sent to track them down.
If the party plays their cards right, they could use the confusion to work the new group against the undead buying time to escape. This party bit off way more than it could chew, got a lot of people killed and are likely getting a horrible reputation, but if they stick with things as is they are dead.

[AlanBruce]

( im personally bad about throwing to much at the party) but he could always catch them to sacrifice later ....and then you can kindly remind the beguiler that his character goes..oh,hey i know a spell for this ...and proceed to make him reread all of his spells

The three locales 9areas, if you will) were the unknown "monster infested" area where the wizard went, the colosseum and the sewers. They did not have to split. The NPCs IC suggested that, but I reminded them OOC that NPCs don't always have the best ideas in mind: they saw competent PCs with spell casting and of course wanted to have the best on their team. Could the party had chosen to refuse their idea? Yes. And then taken all on one direction or none.

As for the beguiler, I did send the player this link (http://www.imarvintpa.com/dndLive/Index_Class_Desc.php?Class=Beguiler), explaining that Beguilers do more than just "enchant" enemies.- they have a bunch of tools at their disposal when encountering undead like this case.

As for the scenario I described in detail, the Durzagon plans to kill them and use the rituals to replace the destroyed Bloodhulks on them- the party did slay a bunch of his men in the floor above and so, he wants retribution, so being captured is a possibility, but it might as well be a TPK, since nobody else has been asked to come forth and help from the outside.


So they simultaneously initiate 3 different areas and the the 2 parties that had to run got off scott free? Unless all three are aligned, I'd initiate a nasty 3 way mass melee between one the party, this boss guy and his undead and a group from one of the other 2 places sent to track them down.

The party suspects all 3 areas are somehow connected by a common cause, but have no solid proof yet. As it stands now, the wizard that had to flee did not manage to slay any relevant member of that area, but they know his face and name and what he can do.

The sorcerer in the sewers has not had it that rough yet: he has lost some mooks sent with him, but the NPCs that joined him are fine and he is blasting his way out of things rather fast.

The guys at the colosseum are the ones with the biggest disadvantage because of low resources based on several battles. Could they have rested? Maybe. There is a 3 day limit for a major mission and so, they decided to split. Still, the party did not have to split their own group this way: the NPCs, although higher level, are not that optimized, as has been observed.

Plus, nobody has a cleric in heir group, which would have helped tremendously, not only healing wise, but in the ways of buffing.

[dantiesilva]

So was their a reason they decided to fight another group without resting? I mean they heard sacrifices were taking place in a gladiator ring so it has to either do with how the warlord gained power or a third party using the dead of said warlord.

I would have tried talking to said third party if they are not bothering anyone doing what they are. As is it sounds like the party is hit first ask questions if it still moves, rush rush type of play. That has its uses, but when there is a good amount of uncertainty it's best to take a step back. I would say the easiest way for them to survive is to try and start retreating to an area where they can funnel the enemies. This still leaves the dwarf thing on the ceiling, but if there is enough room for blood hulk giants I believe the paladin should have room to summon his or her mount and they could take the battle to the dwarf.

[AlanBruce]

So was their a reason they decided to fight another group without resting? I mean they heard sacrifices were taking place in a gladiator ring so it has to either do with how the warlord gained power or a third party using the dead of said warlord.

The wizard's team, largely reduced, decided to split with the NPCs leaving and one of them mentioning an NPC cleric, whom he was going to see immediately, but the party wizard and beguiler opted to go on their own to the colosseum to catch up with the monk and his team sans rest.


I would have tried talking to said third party if they are not bothering anyone doing what they are. As is it sounds like the party is hit first ask questions if it still moves, rush rush type of play. That has its uses, but when there is a good amount of uncertainty it's best to take a step back. I would say the easiest way for them to survive is to try and start retreating to an area where they can funnel the enemies. This still leaves the dwarf thing on the ceiling, but if there is enough room for blood hulk giants I believe the paladin should have room to summon his or her mount and they could take the battle to the dwarf.


The party and allies have been given by one of these parties a list with names. Names and a time frame to deliver said people to the three locales mentioned. The party and allies decided not to wait for the 3 day minimum and take the fight to these 3 places, which prompted the splitting idea.

The Bloodhulk Giants have been created in the basement of said colosseum by the Durzagon. In theory, they have no way (to the party's knowledge) for them to get out, since the entrance is for medium sized creatures, reason why the paladin could not fly down with her familiar.

[dantiesilva]

The wizard's team, largely reduced, decided to split with the NPCs leaving and one of them mentioning an NPC cleric, whom he was going to see immediately, but the party wizard and beguiler opted to go on their own to the Colosseum to catch up with the monk and his team sans rest.

So instead of the party wizard saying to the group he was with your right lets go see your cleric friend before meeting up with the others, they decided instead of convincing someone who could heal their friends (because Colosseum) to join them, that they would let their own team disband and go alone. Knowing they were running low on spells and other resources? It seems like they let a potential ally slip through their hands.


The party and allies have been given by one of these parties a list with names. Names and a time frame to deliver said people to the three locales mentioned. The party and allies decided not to wait for the 3 day minimum and take the fight to these 3 places, which prompted the splitting idea.

The Bloodhulk Giants have been created in the basement of said Colosseum by the Durzagon. In theory, they have no way (to the party's knowledge) for them to get out, since the entrance is for medium sized creatures, reason why the paladin could not fly down with her familiar.

If you are going to rush something like that you need to know without a doubt you can take out all three targets with ease. And not go side quest hunting when you finish your area, but move to support the other two groups. It sounds like they had a focused mission, which while splitting up was not ideal, they did have a rather large group. Hitting two of the places would have made more sense, leaving the third as a meet up spot for when both groups finished their individual missions. If you go searching for side quests you will always find one, which runs down the timer. If you know you have three days to do something you either use a day on divination and attack in force, or try and trap them the best way possible on that third day. Rushing something like this is possible, however if you give any of the other groups time to realize what is going on they can prepare counter measures.

As for the paladins (familiar?) hippogriff, its a pitty that it wasn't the special mount as it could be summoned. Did the paladin have a bag of holding or Something it could have placed its familiar inside of just until it got down the stairs? Leaving it upstairs (alone) when they knew enemies were there because they were being attacked basically signed its death warrant and I would not be surprised to see it die or fly off leaving the paladin stranded there.