Now enter Bag of Nails! Because the group rescued little Imbok (Sacrifice of Fire) and returned him to his father, they earned a reward in the form of knowledge: the location of two other shrines near the Shrine of Nangang. They also learned about a dangerous group of killers on the loose who murdered anyone who attempted to cross the log across the river.
And yet they decided to go hunt for them anyway. They've since learned that Bag of Nails is very adept at hiding and sniping at them from long range and ducking behind total cover only to disappear and reappear later to snipe at them again. Not only that, but because the PC's now have five puzzle cubes, Zagmira is on their case and has threatened them via an illusion.
Pinned down by Bag of Nails, they decided to make a run for it, using the Hexblade's specter to distract him, and a twinned fly spell (plus two protector aasimars using their flight). They zipped off to a shrine that they had already cleared (10. I’jin’s Shrine), hoping that by flying off faster than Bag of Nails could keep up, that he wouldn't know where they were going to rest for the night.
Bag of Nails ain't giving up and being the supreme hunter that he is, he'll invariably find them and look to keep ambushing and sniping at them. Zagmira and the remaining two other Red Wizards are also planning an ambush and are bringing along the last of their thugs (five left). There are also a couple of more twists to this tale: firstly, I made all the red wizards specialists of different types instead of just boring old mages. Zagmira is a Necromancer, Dyrax is an Enchanter and Yamoch is a Transmuter. The other thing is that the PC's have a camp set up with several friendly NPC's including Azaka Stormfang, Taban the Gladiator, Shago, an Ankylosaurus that the totem barbarian is best friends with, and four Kobold Inventor's that the slayer of Tzindelor recruited because they were the last surviving kobolds in the Wyrmheart Mine and they really wanted to keep breathing (the hexblade has actually managed to convince them to worship him).
As they've moved through the ruins, they've had the camp move up and secure a location. The newest camp isn't too far from where they are, so the possibility exists that they could maybe be of assistance should the need arise. The kobolds have also been very adept at laying highly inventive traps around their campsite, much to the annoyance of the camp leader, Azaka.
One of the PC's also managed to endear himself to the Chwinga (11. Chwinga Wagon) and earned himself a supernatural charm as well as a chwinga pet he doesn't know is hiding inside a rock inside his backpack, and granting him Resistance and Guidance spells constantly. As an orcish totem barbarian, he also now smells like honey, has a few bees follow him everywhere he goes, and his beard is growing at least an inch a day.
They have a nice array of scrolls (custom magical item, basically a spellbook where the pages can be used as scrolls) with some decent wizard spells but with a sorcerer and a warlock the only ones who can cast them, not much option to really use them. No other magical items (of consequence) have been found by the party. I have also given Zagmira a Staff of Defense.
So, given all the above, how best can I arrange their doom? There are plenty of corpses for Zagmira to bring along but Bag of Nails might not be too pleased that her group are hunting his quarry. Then again, he might just use the opportunity to skewer a few of the PC's; who really knows the mind of an insane cat?
Looking at this I was a bit confused, first because why would you want to TPK...but it's not my game, so I'll just go with the question. I'm also going to assume you don't want to use simple DM fiat to make an unbeatable scenario.
Second reason I was confused is because I was looking at the information that was provided and I just couldn't see a way to use what was available to do what you wanted.
Then it hit me...you're now the party, and they party is now the BBEG!! Looking again at your "tools" you have all sorts of things that you can do and all it will take is some good tactics and strategy. Bag of Nails has learned how the group fights and responds to attacks. The Mages have dealt with the group before so they have an idea of what the party composition is like. Your baddies, your party, has all this information...use it!
The first rule of any good strategy is: Don't fight in the monster's lair! The party has had the time to set up camp, defenses, fortifications, and settle in, this is bad. So, we have this hit and run assassin type...that's easy enough to do during the fight, simple ranged rogue tactics all the way. The mages can use all of their various buffs, illusions and summoned minions to great effect. All that needs to happen is for Bag o' Nails to run into Zagmira and make a pact which is beneficial to both, easy enough considering it involved both sides wanting the party dead. None of this needs to be known by the party, they do things these guys were unaware of too, all is fair as it's said.
Draw the party out from their bunker, have mages and Bag o' Nails in wait for an ambush, and start to pick them off one at a time. Start with CC spells to tie up some of the players and their NPCs. Then have them figure out who is the threat to whom, and pin people down, just like the players do against the BBEG normally. There is nothing different here from basic PVP, all that you're presenting is that they are fighting smarter opponents than bugbears, gobins, and kobolds now.
Looking at this I was a bit confused, first because why would you want to TPK...
Hyperbole to attract attention to the thread.
It's always fascinating to me how people react to certain things. People will go out of their way to interpret and insert meaning into the most mundane of things, while taking other things completely literally and they'll do either of these things irrespective of context or any evaluative process.
Anyway, they're not back at their camp yet, they're holed up about a thousand feet from it and would have to travel in the open for a good ten or so minutes (Omu travel guidelines) through an area where Bag of Nails could easily spot them.
Also, Bag of Nails really isn't rational enough to form an alliance with anyone; I linked all the things in my OP so that people could have the proper context to fully understand the situation and offer suggestions based on them.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
You could let every one fight and because you have so many spell casters maybe it get's the attention of a god that doesn't like the imbalance of strength in these mortals. Gods' are fun. Angry gods can do a lot of killing.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Let me first set the scene for you.
The group is currently in The Forbidden City of Omu having hit 6th level. They're comprised of a divine soul protector aasimar, a hexblade protector aasimar, a half-orc totem barbarian, and a hill dwarf grave cleric. They've encounted the Red Wizards twice now: once as a triggered encounter (9. Adventurers’ Camp) and another time in Obo'laka's Shrine (19. Obo’laka’s Shrine). They've also recruited Orvex Ocrammas so they know that the Red Wizards are up to no good, chasing the same puzzle cubes.
Now enter Bag of Nails! Because the group rescued little Imbok (Sacrifice of Fire) and returned him to his father, they earned a reward in the form of knowledge: the location of two other shrines near the Shrine of Nangang. They also learned about a dangerous group of killers on the loose who murdered anyone who attempted to cross the log across the river.
And yet they decided to go hunt for them anyway. They've since learned that Bag of Nails is very adept at hiding and sniping at them from long range and ducking behind total cover only to disappear and reappear later to snipe at them again. Not only that, but because the PC's now have five puzzle cubes, Zagmira is on their case and has threatened them via an illusion.
Pinned down by Bag of Nails, they decided to make a run for it, using the Hexblade's specter to distract him, and a twinned fly spell (plus two protector aasimars using their flight). They zipped off to a shrine that they had already cleared (10. I’jin’s Shrine), hoping that by flying off faster than Bag of Nails could keep up, that he wouldn't know where they were going to rest for the night.
Bag of Nails ain't giving up and being the supreme hunter that he is, he'll invariably find them and look to keep ambushing and sniping at them. Zagmira and the remaining two other Red Wizards are also planning an ambush and are bringing along the last of their thugs (five left). There are also a couple of more twists to this tale: firstly, I made all the red wizards specialists of different types instead of just boring old mages. Zagmira is a Necromancer, Dyrax is an Enchanter and Yamoch is a Transmuter. The other thing is that the PC's have a camp set up with several friendly NPC's including Azaka Stormfang, Taban the Gladiator, Shago, an Ankylosaurus that the totem barbarian is best friends with, and four Kobold Inventor's that the slayer of Tzindelor recruited because they were the last surviving kobolds in the Wyrmheart Mine and they really wanted to keep breathing (the hexblade has actually managed to convince them to worship him).
As they've moved through the ruins, they've had the camp move up and secure a location. The newest camp isn't too far from where they are, so the possibility exists that they could maybe be of assistance should the need arise. The kobolds have also been very adept at laying highly inventive traps around their campsite, much to the annoyance of the camp leader, Azaka.
One of the PC's also managed to endear himself to the Chwinga (11. Chwinga Wagon) and earned himself a supernatural charm as well as a chwinga pet he doesn't know is hiding inside a rock inside his backpack, and granting him Resistance and Guidance spells constantly. As an orcish totem barbarian, he also now smells like honey, has a few bees follow him everywhere he goes, and his beard is growing at least an inch a day.
They have a nice array of scrolls (custom magical item, basically a spellbook where the pages can be used as scrolls) with some decent wizard spells but with a sorcerer and a warlock the only ones who can cast them, not much option to really use them. No other magical items (of consequence) have been found by the party. I have also given Zagmira a Staff of Defense.
So, given all the above, how best can I arrange their doom? There are plenty of corpses for Zagmira to bring along but Bag of Nails might not be too pleased that her group are hunting his quarry. Then again, he might just use the opportunity to skewer a few of the PC's; who really knows the mind of an insane cat?
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
― Oscar Wilde.
Lure the King of Feathers over to their campsite. Nothing like a big ol alpha male trex to ruin anyones camping experience.
Looking at this I was a bit confused, first because why would you want to TPK...but it's not my game, so I'll just go with the question. I'm also going to assume you don't want to use simple DM fiat to make an unbeatable scenario.
Second reason I was confused is because I was looking at the information that was provided and I just couldn't see a way to use what was available to do what you wanted.
Then it hit me...you're now the party, and they party is now the BBEG!! Looking again at your "tools" you have all sorts of things that you can do and all it will take is some good tactics and strategy. Bag of Nails has learned how the group fights and responds to attacks. The Mages have dealt with the group before so they have an idea of what the party composition is like. Your baddies, your party, has all this information...use it!
The first rule of any good strategy is: Don't fight in the monster's lair! The party has had the time to set up camp, defenses, fortifications, and settle in, this is bad. So, we have this hit and run assassin type...that's easy enough to do during the fight, simple ranged rogue tactics all the way. The mages can use all of their various buffs, illusions and summoned minions to great effect. All that needs to happen is for Bag o' Nails to run into Zagmira and make a pact which is beneficial to both, easy enough considering it involved both sides wanting the party dead. None of this needs to be known by the party, they do things these guys were unaware of too, all is fair as it's said.
Draw the party out from their bunker, have mages and Bag o' Nails in wait for an ambush, and start to pick them off one at a time. Start with CC spells to tie up some of the players and their NPCs. Then have them figure out who is the threat to whom, and pin people down, just like the players do against the BBEG normally. There is nothing different here from basic PVP, all that you're presenting is that they are fighting smarter opponents than bugbears, gobins, and kobolds now.
Hyperbole to attract attention to the thread.
It's always fascinating to me how people react to certain things. People will go out of their way to interpret and insert meaning into the most mundane of things, while taking other things completely literally and they'll do either of these things irrespective of context or any evaluative process.
Anyway, they're not back at their camp yet, they're holed up about a thousand feet from it and would have to travel in the open for a good ten or so minutes (Omu travel guidelines) through an area where Bag of Nails could easily spot them.
Also, Bag of Nails really isn't rational enough to form an alliance with anyone; I linked all the things in my OP so that people could have the proper context to fully understand the situation and offer suggestions based on them.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
― Oscar Wilde.
You could let every one fight and because you have so many spell casters maybe it get's the attention of a god that doesn't like the imbalance of strength in these mortals. Gods' are fun. Angry gods can do a lot of killing.