Tactics idea for meenlock fight

[Yora]

In the near future, my players will most likely go to an underground prison on a tiny island to get a prisoner and find that the guards who let them inside were escaped prisoners waiting for someone to bring them a boat to complete their escape, while everone else inside the dungeon has become victims to meenlocks. They are either dead, insane, or turned into meenlocks. With the guards being all dead, nobody has been refilling oil lamps, so the whole place has been pitch black for days. And of course, if the players get fooled by the fake guards, they lock the gate behind them and the players have to find a way out, whether they find the guy they are looking for or not.

I've been thinking for several days about possible spooky things to find in the dark dungeon before the meenlocks are discovered and faught in the most distant room, but I think simply having only the meenlocks as the only monster and them just relying on cool tactics could perhaps work even better.

Meenlocks have paralyzing claw attacks and they can also teleport 30 feet between two places that are both outside of bright light. So I gor the idea that they would use their teleport ability to jump between the shadows in unlocked cells and get themselves into positions to attack the party from two sides at the same time.
Then they use their claws to try paralyzing PCs and drag them away into the darkness. Since they are small and only have 7 Strength, I would have them drag paralyzed PCs at half speed, so they won't get very far quickly. But if two PCs are being dragged into opposite directions at the same time, that would be really bad. And I think the players realizing this is a possibility will already be pretty dramatic.

The party currently only has one cleric who could cast light and a warlock whi can see in darkness. So there is a good chance that when two PCs are down, the remaining three won't be able to just split up and run after both. Immediately I feel that waeak CR2 critters with light sensitivity, and paralysis that allows a new save every round, could potentialy wipe out an entire party one by one.

The players could get more careful and carry multiple lanterns or torches. Mine are prefering lanterns, which is great. Lanterns can be disarmed and then break when they hit the floor. Now we have an oil puddle on fire in the middle of the party and the meenlocks can run off until it burns out. If the cleric is not providing any magical light, it will then be complete darkness snd the meenlocks come back to have a day.

The players could take shelter in a cell with a lantern, torch, and spell, to completely fill it with bright light and make it impossible for the meenlocks to teleport through the door or walls. So they have a safe place to rest. But in the hour of a short rest, the meenlocks can also torment one of the half dead and mad prisoners, and it should only take one failed safe for him to turn into another meenlock. The players could then be hearing the faint mad screams somewhere on the other side of the door.

By putting the prisoner they want to get and an alternative escape route from the dungeon at the far end, the players would have to travel deep into the dark corridors. Or they could try to find a way to break open the gate, forever living with rhe humiliation that they ran away from an unexplored dungeon that was too spooky for them.
Returning with a larger and better prepared force is of course an option, but doing an especially equiped extermination mission would also be super cool.

What do you think of this approach? Any flaws that I made, or potential additional tricks that I overlooked?

[Zetakya]

What type of Warlock do you have in the party? Because a GOOlock could in principle set out to take control of the meenlocks.

[sandmote]

The fear aura can prevent the PCs for chasing after a meenlock for the first turn it is dragging someone away. Or if some are covering the retreat of the one doing the dragging.

Although if my character understood what a meenlock was I'd probably see about making the prison slightly less below ground.

[pr4wn]

I really like this idea. What level is the party?

Meenlocks have a low DC on their paralyze and a low to hit modifier on their attack. If you are using flanking, I would strongly suggest having them pair up (or more, depending on PC level) for their attacks.

If your prison has the cliche iron bar doors, you can have them teleport into and from locked cells as well. It can be a handy way to get some breathing room from any martial classes. With a strength of only 7, they will likely need to work in pairs to drag off the average PC based off weight+worn gear.

You could have them drag a PC into a nearby unlocked cell, and then lock it to isolate the PC from the party. You could use this on the initial encounter with them to give the PCs a better chance of recovering the abducted member. With an Int of 11, they are smart enough to adapt their tactics as they go. When the party recovers the abducted member, the meenlocks could change their tactics to dragging them off into the darkness. Have them use hit and run tactics, along with distractions and then pick off the easiest member.

Overall, I think you have a great concept for the encounter. Depending on the level of the party, you can dial up how mean you want to be (no pun intended, but I couldn't think of a better way to say it... long day). Play up the tormentor angle, have them drag claws against stone, just out of site, but loud enough to be easily heard. Have them chittering and skittering about just outside the sight radius (maybe at the edge of their darkvision of 120ft) where only the Warlock can briefly catch glimpses of them.

You can describe the scene in unnerving ways without having to be gory or graphic. Allow the players filling in the detail with their own mind make it that much more unnerving. You can have crazed inmates that gouged out their eyes and tore off their ears in a misguided effort to keep the meenlocks out of their heads. Have corpses that are spread between two adjacent cells, yet still connected. Don't give a lot of details, let the players imagination do it for you. They will probably figure out how to scare themselves better than you could with graphic detail.

-pr4wn

[Yora]

Meenlocks can teleport straigt through walls. Which makes them particularly hard to catch if you can't trap them in bright light. Their limitation is that the teleportation needs recharging, so if they teleport to ambush they can't teleport back out immediately.

What type of Warlock do you have in the party? Because a GOOlock could in principle set out to take control of the meenlocks.
How? They don't have any ability to do that any more than anyone else.


The fear aura can prevent the PCs for chasing after a meenlock for the first turn it is dragging someone away. Or if some are covering the retreat of the one doing the dragging.

Ha! I did not think of that. I thought the fear aura would be irrelevant in this information.

The party is 3rd level and my intuition is to start with 5 meenlocks in total throughout the dungeon. I don't usually move goal posts during the game, but if the players have too much of an easy time, I can always add a few more as seems fitting. In the end, I want this encounter to be overcome through planning, not by numbers and attrition.
I think the meenlocks should be very quick to try making a run if an ambush does not result in anyone getting paralyzed. Perhaps run towards them from hiding spots and make an attack in round 1, then try another attack and retreat into shadows in round 2 if everyone is still fighting.

[Zetakya]

How? They don't have any ability to do that any more than anyone else.

IIRC (unless the background has changed) Meenlocks have a known association with outsiders and other aberations, and a canny GOOlock should be able to play on their association with those powers to influence them.

Especially because just like Meenlocks, a GOOlock has the same projective telepathy power.

[Kobold_paladin?]

i'm not sure if i'm to late but, what would add a whole lot of spook factor is having the lanterns or torches on the wall all on, but as the PCs explore they start flickering out until the PCs have the only light source. not only does this make it seem like everything is fine when they walk in, but can you imagine trying to outrun darkness?

[Yora]

That might work with ghost, but it wouldn't make sense with meenlocks. How are they keeping the lights on and how do they blow them out all at once?

[Kobold_paladin?]

That might work with ghost, but it wouldn't make sense with meenlocks. How are they keeping the lights on and how do they blow them out all at once?
I think you misunderstood me.
The lights where already on (if that works) and they smash them out with their mandibles one by one by one by -YOU GET THEM POINT. The farther away from the entrance the PCs get the more lights behind them go out. At some point speed up the process in multiple directions and have the meenlocks strike.
I use this for a fight with a wraith once and one of my players was visibly uncomfortable.