Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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(I'm not sure Angus has been formally introduced to SKANT, or is even aware of his existence, so someone else should probably do that.) I don't see how #2 is an option if none of us knows what was said, so let's go with #1.
He's a professor orb worn around Chadderlays neck. He's AI, expert in Netheril, wine and vampires
"Professor Skant, can you translate for us please. Ask if we might have a brief moment to confer as we don't speak the same language."
Chadderlay will reply to the demilich:
"We should salvage what we can. Who knows when more help will arrive. I understand there are cultists roaming free, they should be dealt with immediately."
Deception: 14
(ooc: I was trying to change the word 'hep' to 'help' and it changed my roll from a 9 to a 10... it should be a 9.)
(does it matter that my deception is full of facts: we don't know when help will arrive, cultists are roaming free etc.)
Maybe I should retire... His country, his family, his mission - all taken away from him. And what was he even doing here? He felt suddenly that he'd bitten off more than he could chew, constantly up against undead or fey or eldritch abominations. Thayan archmages would be a welcome change of pace at this point. At least his magic had some chance against them. What about this floating skull here? What could he do about it, blast it with a fireball? Try to counterspell it while the others handled the actual fighting? How does one counterspell a skull...?
Maybe I could go find that naked elven princess...
<Not a spoiler, just an explanation of what my roleplay dialogue is trying to convey:>
Here's the situation, cards on rhe table, stuff your NPCs should realize through my clever roleplay dialigue. I'm telling you outright because I don't know that I can convey these things effectively enough in character, but I will try. The demilich floating before you built this city and his actions led to its literal downfall. Unable to find his phylactery and thus starved for souls, he deteriorated into a demilich. Deapite this, he has a very high opinion of himself and a very poor concept of how much time has passed. He believes you're here to rescue the survivors, as he has been expecting another Netherese conclave to send a rescue party. By now he's seen you vanquish an arcanoloth and battle devil-worshiping cultists, so he's inclined to think you're OK. The nothics are a functional accessory for him. He uses them to open doors and such. They are subservient to him, but otherwise quite feral. If you incapacitated him, they'd attack you.
Here's the thing: Someone is a Knight of Myth Drannor, and this demilixh, he thinks his kingdom is in conflict with Cormanthyr and woukd be far more inclined to see a Knight of Myth Drannor as a spy, saboteur or theif than an ally.
As for deception or other Cha, I think the key issue is intent. He's deciding if you're hear to help the survivors or help yourselves and the fact is its the latter, not rhat you dint want to help an ancient de.iloch and his monstrously devolved wizard citizens, bjt that was never your purpose. So if you won't admit to being here just for that purpose, its deception. If you tell him this place has been buried for a millenia and you're just exploring, well, I don't think he'll take it too well, but if you're persuasive enough, it could work.
Prof. SKANT starts to translate. The demilich's reaction I'd hard to gage as he listens to the orb speak tbe dead tongue if the lost empire, but when he speaks. It is clear that he is not pleased.
"This is a harsh land, it is understood you are not of High Netheril. Surprising the Demesnes have lost even the understanding if their master's words, though. Barbaric." The floating skull bemoans the decline kf gus once great society, a process h3 believes still slowly unfolding in tur world above ground even now, ignorant of the millenia that separate the empire's violent end from the lost enclave he haunts today. "No matter, you are here and that is proof enough you know your place, now as for those... Say. You, there. The large one. You wear the mark of the elves. Explain yourself. Are you sent by Cormanthyr? What is the meaning of your presence among this party?"
<he's talking to Angus. Check the not-a-spoiler above for clarification>
Angus regards the floating skull, not wild about the idea of negotiating with the undead, but also realizing that antagonizing this creature may not be in the party's best interest at the moment.
"Iriolarthas, the conflict between my people and yours ended long ago. Much time, even centuries, has passed since your city fell. We were sent here to inspect the ruins and salvage what we could, as my friend [he indicates Chadderlay] has mentioned. We did not know that any of the original inhabitants would still be 'alive'. How many other survivors are there?"
Persuasion 12
"Survi.. you mean these stirring echoes of mages long gone? I've bo clue. Dozens, I would venture. I find your words difficult to believe, but a fool's gambit if untrue. It matters not to me, so long as you help me locate my lost phylactery. These scavengers, here only to loot my city, they are of no use to me. For who knows how long, there had been no one in this city who lived not here before the fall."
<and for sticklers, yes, I know demiliches csnt typically communicate, but this one does, its not a trick, it's just me.>
"Your first words to us were: There were several survivors, but they have fared little better than I. No matter. This phylactery, what does it look like? Where have you searched already?"
<yeah, sorry for the confusing prose. I mean the nothics are the citizenry of Ythryn, so they're not technically dead. They survived the fall, but now they're essentially gone, but not dead. The lich himself starved of souls b3came the demilich he is now. There is considerable confusion around demiliches as in one edition, WotC really made the demilich superior to a lich and in some instances and circumstances, you could regard a demilich as more powerful thsn a lich, but for most practical purposes, the lore and stats of 5e have demiliches as a far lesser entity on the material plane, anyway. I wanted to reflect thst this is not a particularly powerful creature because throwing a demilich at you while you explore the ancient city he magically created has boss fight vibes, but it isn't at all. That's what I was trying ro indicate. He's just here from a random encounter roll earlier. And, as written, cant normally speak, but i hoped i could make things clearer by allowing him to. This may cause a complication, but ill deal with that if it comes up>
Iriolarthas: "I've looked everywhere. I've left no stone unturned, yet it must be here somewhere! With it, I can be restored to my whole material presence. And I shall oversee the conquest of all the Realms by the great nation of Netherill. But first, we should deal with the scavengers in the Skydock Spire. For all we know, they've found the phylactery and hold it even now. I saw your eye scouting the area already, we should move at once before the cuktists regroup. They're searching the city even now, but the raven flew straight to the spire after it saw you fighting the elementals that accompanied them. Soon they will regroup and harden their positions, i expect. You should move in now and eliminate them."
<I'm not sure if he didn't believe you or just cannot mentally accept that things have chsnged. Either way, hes operating as if Netheril is still a powerful magocracy, but hes not hostile to the party. >
You guys good to just check out the skydock spire?
<I probably should have mantioned that there is a door, so you would have seen it. It is the typical way to access the tower, but you could fly up there to a chamber at the top, if fly9ng is an option for you. The tower and chamber are all that remain of a much larger facility that served as a dock for flying ships.>
As a reminder, thus egomaniac floating head is still capable of killing in a single round, or at least reducing to 0hp. Of course, if you can kill him, that barrier will just go down... in ten days.
"We could cover more ground if we split up. Why don't you let us check out the tower, and you head over to the library? Perhaps the arcanoloth was hiding the phylactery from you. You didn't tell us what it looks like... is it an amulet? We wouldn't want to accidentally discard or destroy it simply because we did not recognize it..."
Akame gets an idea on how to possibly take care of their hag problem. He speaks up, hooking his thumb in the general direction they came from. "We ran into a coven of hags in a pocket plane who seemed like thieves. Maybe they stole it?"
"They rarely muck about the city. They just took up residence in a space accessible ke from the tower. I followed them quite closely when first they arrived. I can say quite confidently they do not have it. Now that twigling and her dambed raven, they have been scouring the city since you arrived and I intend to deal with it immediately. If you've come to assist, then render assistance or I must regard you as hostile to this enclave and deal with the matter accordingly." Prof SKANT translates Iriolarthas’ implied threat.
<If I generate a phylactery to inhabit this area, are you sure you want to find it?>
(Only if we know a way to destroy it... Are we supposed to know who the twigling and raven are?)
Typo. "Teiifling"
Morwena actually knows, but she doesn't want to say anything. It's actually how I'm planning to get rid of my DMPC I was using when Chadderlay was solo questing the last area. Spoiler: she's at the top of the skydock spire. She sent the cultists and the gargoyles. The 'real' raven is her familiar. They followed Chadderlay after he opened the glacier. If any of the people involved in the conflict before the glacier were hanging around, these guys killed them. Her name is Avarice.
Yeah, I have no idea about the phylactery, it's not my intention to do anything with it. Of not for a random roll earlier you'd have beverages even met the demilich. That said, this is what makes TTRPGs interesting. You guys want to help a demilich find his phylactery. So, by being vague and trying to direct you to 'slay the spire you're being railroaded, which I'm against, so I'll create the phylactery and put it somewhere and leave you the option if finding it for the ancient lich.
Like the napkin, it's not something I thought was important to your origress, but it us something that is there, kind if filling in the world. If you want to pull those threads, they are there to pull
Elden Ring players: have you heard about the "Frenzied Flame" ending? You might be barking up that tree here.
I'm just going to point out explicitly that Iriolarthas has Truesight and that is how he sees both the hags in the ethereal and the arcane eye Akame sent. If they didn't know already, those with proficiency in arcana would know based on what he's said by now. Just stating this in case anyone was concerned about metagaming. Your PCs do know this.
So, Angus is not actually wanting to help a lich. He was trying to get rid of the lich by sending him off to the library while we head the other way. If he did stumble across the phylactery he would try to either destroy it or take it to someone who could destroy it, but his priority is not the phylactery, it is completing the party's mission, and presumably that means getting away from the demilich.
Too late. It's now woven into the world. Possible minor retcon to previous dialogue may be expected. If there is a conflict, go with what's here:
Iriolarthas: "Although... by the time I escaped the space where I secreted myself during the fall, rhe central spire was shrouded by magics I've struggled to reverse, despite the nothics' aid. They are little more than dogs at this point. But, if someone fou d the phylactery and brought it there before they succumbed to the madness and transformation brought on by this place, or by the hunger - that same hunger which once raised this city, wrought its vengeance on those mages who once reveled in the splendors and abundance afforded by Ythryn’s Mythalar. You see. My phylactery, the key to my ascent into lichdom, is a coffin. The Ark of Famine houses the collective spirits of those killed by hunger and crop blights long ago. A famine I created, magically turning a small part of lower Netheril to an arid wasteland. Those souls have long since been the fuel for my undead form, and now my presence on this plane has withered. But now you can open the way and perhaps I can locate my phylactery and walk this plane once more. But first, we really must be rid of the interloper, lest she prove a greater nuisance than she has already shown herself to be."
(again, all translated from Loross by Prof. SKANT)
*I'm trying to get you to flip her and have the dozens of cultists stop attacking you. Now that they have seen how powerful you are, they'll resort to traps and things if they have time. Not to mention all the other stuff that's roaming the city trying to kill you.
If you don't agree to help him, Iriolarthas just goes and deals with Avarice himself. The phylactery can be located and you can do with it as you please. It is officially an artifact.
So, group: what will it be?
>Slay the spire
>Snub the demilich and keep doing what he otherwise wanted you to do, anyway. *persuasion might be used, but there is no DC, he's not doing anything differently if you 'fail' to persuade him, he just goes without you.
>Something else [?]
Edit: another option, "punch lich in face," also exists.