<Excellent RP, but I just to make sure players are clear on what's going on:>
Szazz Tam is a Lich, so still has an undead body, and is the ruler of Thay. Kazit Gul was already a lich when Tam was born. He built the Doomvault. He's really passionate about Dungeouns, and, like many liches, uses his to feed his phylactery with the souls of those foolish enough to tread in his domain. Or at least he did, until Thay became an insular nation of mostly undead, by number, reducing the flow of unwise explorers in the Doomvault to a trickle, starving Gul of souls and leading to his decay into a demilich. (it's not a passive process; he did choose it, but he was content to remain a lich and the whole point of the Doomvault was to attract souls to siphon.)
<<The Doomvault also houses the Bloodgate nexus and there's even another lich hiding in here. I think it's 1 lich too many, but I didn't write it. They were just stuck with a bunch of lore and having to tie into other playtest material that was coming out, but I digress>>
So, what the characters see, for sure, is a bunch of phylacteries. These sepulchers are full of them. These belong to Tam's trusted generals and leuitenants. Housed in this extraplanar room is the key to Tam's iron grip on Thay. Destroy his phylactery, he may make another. Destroy all the leadership loyal to him, and there is a real chance for his defeat and lasting change in Thay.
As for Gul, well, he is a demilich and he just asked for a soul. Make of it what you will. But, he is still here, after all these years. Whether Szazz Tam knows it or not, it is hard to say. And what the shadow of Eltab, the Tyrant posing as Ethan, thinks of all this and what binds him here, those are mysteries, still.
While the Dark Ethan grapples with Randy, Kazit Gul continues the psychic discourse, "I have been here long before the temples were turned ro laboratories and tbe chosen brought to my Doomvault. I have seen, through the eyes of my Dread Warriors, all thay transpires within its walls. I myself a prisoner in my own home have little sympathy for these chosen, who answered the call of their patrons of their own free will, imbued with divine power beyond even mortal paragons, in exchange for being the hands of their elusive gods."
<here's all that background stuff right from the book, if you're interested, the extra lore tie-in bits I mentioned in passing, and the other lich Tarul Var. It's like 3 paragraphs.>
Near the village of Daggerford on the Sword Coast, the Red Wizards of Thay plotted to extend the evil reach of their land and its master, the lich lord Szass Tam. At a site called Bloodgate Keep they built a powerful portal, fueled by elemental nodes, that could allow Thayans to instantly transport whole armies into the very heart of the Sword Coast. With this power, the Red Wizards would surely overthrow and take control of the North.
However, groups of heroes recently assaulted Bloodgate Keep and its master, the lich Tarul Var. With the help of a renegade Red Wizard named Mennek Ariz, this assault was successful. Bloodgate Keep fell, and Szass Tam’s plans of invasion were crushed.
What no one expected, though, was that despite the fall of the keep itself, parts of the Bloodgate Nexus (an interconnected series of teleportation circles) survived, and a Thayan Resurrection cell leader named Syranna devised a way to use it against Szass Tam. Syranna had been part of the team that originally assembled the Bloodgate Nexus, and knew that remaining nodes allowed direct access to a secret Thayan training ground known as the Doomvault.
(Piccolo may have been in this dungeon almost as long as Kazit Gul)
(A refresher of when you first met her)
As you hear the music, the sounds brings to mind strong visual images. Its as if you can almost make out words as you feel emotions conveyed by her music. (Musical Telepathy)
Sounds ofJoy, exciting energy, happiness, warmth of the fire.
The image of a beautiful blue sky encases warm golden sand beaches. The sound of waves gently crashing on the sword coast. A small primitive fey village, mythical creatures of long past.
A nighttime harvest festival, with all wearing masks and costumes. Zombies, Centaurs, Skeletons, Humans, Wizards, Bears. Curiosity, youth, innocence:
A young beautiful girl plays with her friends in the night, spinning around and around and chasing her friends in merriment.,
(The song changes to a sharp key, and becomes more rapid.)
Boom!!!!
A crash of thunder, black sky, large beings, red cloaks. Fire, lightning, poison, death. Creak, Pitter Patter!
She runs to her tree home, “Mother?,” she yells out.
Captured, silver chains, blackness. A cage filled with children, enslaved.
An out of pitch shrill scale…..(men's voices, chanting in ritual) “Kazit Gul, Kazit Gul, Kazit Gul.”
A new terror rises.
A dark, powerful, cruel flat pitch of her instrument. The face of a…skeleton.
She does not bend. She does not break. She is oak, the will of mother. (male voice) “Submit.”
(The young girl opens her mouth to scream but has no voice)
Darkness. Sun rises and sets, A clock spinning around and around endlessly, Images of the four seasons.
Alone, hungry, trapped, darkness, forgotten.
“If you will not yield, then here you will stay…..forever.”
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Unfortunately for the lich, Randy already sees his attack long before he can throw it and expertly blocks his grapple with his cannon (Shield). Frustrated that his brother's words got nowhere (then again this is a lich so what else could he expect), he readies himself for battle. "Nice try, but my unreasonable brain can only process your actions, not your words. We don't care if your laboratory has been turned into place where people become meat shield for your cause! If you insist then we'll do it the hard way. But even I value my soul as much as doing whatever the hell I want! So much for using our heads!"Randy snarls. He gestures to Piccolo to focus on healing Ethan whilst he aims at destroying the sepulchers first, then focus on the current lich. For the other casters, he gesture them to distract him for as long as they can as he gets to work.
That is... if they can somehow get rid of the wall of fire surrounding them. "Guys. Dispel the fire wall!"
BA Ballista point-blank range (No sharpshooter): 28 Damage: 7; Ethan takes half
Action: Drives through the dark clone's chest with his bayonet... (19, 16 Slashing, Ethan takes 8 damage)
Reaction: Since Ethan's gonna struggle with the save, Randy will give him one last Flash Of Genius so he'd have a better chance of getting out of the bond. Besides... as he looks around again, where did Trisk go? He's not in the circle so...
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Wildland Shifters Pt 2 (Pt 1 with PyromaniIsDeadThankGod) Celci (The Lamb) - Non-Binary Changeling Sorcerer (Shadow Magic) Maya Kurosaki- Female Kitsune Cleric (Twilight Domain); Currently in Lancea Randy Wolftree - Male Human Artificer (Armourer); Currently in Crimson Sands of Time Shijiro Otsune- Male Kitsune Blood Hunter (Order Of The Lycan) Trojan Dseyller - Male Tortle Barbarian (Path of the Ancestral Guardian) Xenia Ironhide - Female Kobold Rogue (Soulknife)
(OOC: Piccolo can also aid Ethan's save with her counter charm, Ethan should have advantage on save vs frightened or charmed, if needed, she can also add Bardic Inspiration to his roll, adding another 1d10 to the save. She has Sanctuary up so she can cast healing, or use healing hands, or go full dodge and attract attacks.)
"Randy wai- AGH!" Ethan yells out when his brother suddenly attacks the dark clone and takes half of the pain. He needs healing again otherwise he'll drop into unconsciousness.
WIS Save with Flash Of Genius: 17
Unable to break free again, Ethan decides to fire another frostbite to stall, seeing that he has no other spells that could possibly help him get out of this bond. Unless if Remove Curse... no it won't, will it? he thinks. (DC 18 Con or take 11 Ice damage, disadvantage on next attack but Ethan will take 3 Ice damage as a result)
Edit (Thanks Shimshon): At least, until Piccolo's song unlocks something in him... and all of a sudden, before the shadow realises it, he breaks free as he glows bright blue for moment... before doubling forwards in exhaustion.
<FYI, the Intimidation check vs the lich mechanically stopped him from attacking you last round after yiu turned down his offer.>
The map is on tbh previous page, the fire wall was just around the tyrant. Your ally, Eira, who you rescued, is concentrating in it, but she can drop it off you want.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
The o lyrics acruve hostile is the tyrant, who looks like Ethan and uses most of his stats, which is why he is so limited for the moment. Since he didn't hit, though, he does not grapple Ethan as a BA (Ethan's simic ability) so he atill has it. Other than that, his tuen woukd be over. He uses the BA to shape change back into his original tyrant form, again growing ro colossal size and re-opening Legendary Actions.
Then it's PCs.
Ethan's save comes at end of turn, which if aided by picollos countercharm follows that, but we can say it comes before Randy's ballista, so Wthan can avoid the ½ damage from that, which the tyrant does indeed feel. He will still feel the effect of his own frostbite, though.
This also means the Tyrant uses his natural Con save modifier against Ethan's frostbite, so DC18 Con save: 21 or DA on next attack
Shadow Blink. The shadow surrounds itself in black mist, then teleports up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space that it can see. This being an adjacent floor of the tetrahedron.
Mind Spike (Costs 2 Actions) 19, or [roll]1d20 +14[roll] (if DA from frostbite) to character X for 23 psychic damage.
I flubbed the DA, but saved on frostbite, so no matter.
To avoid teleportstion retcon preceding melee attack by Randy, it follows the action of the druid, Eira, who casts conjure woodland beings, at which point a sea hag appears just above the pool on the surface adjacent to to both the floor with the players and the tyrant, before that wall's gravity pulls her down into it.
Requiring her concentration, Eira's firewall disappears as the sea hag arrives.
"We have to weaken it's will to resist the hag. She can kill anything that lacks a strong will to survive." Eira calls out.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Piccolo casts healing word on Ethan10, then she moves toward the phylacteries,and throws to magic daggers, hoping to damage what is holding it closed (hoping this is not an attack as she has sanctuary up): To hit: 32, to hit: 20, magical piercing damage: 9, 9
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
"Ha! Fool. The sepulcher's magic prevents the phylacteries from being damaged." Kazit Gul derides Picollo.
<Trisk succeeded on 2 of 3 necessary checks to disable the sepulcher. It's an action to try a check. You can just have another action, though somewhere between a retcon and a do-over.>
The Tyrant, seeing Eira conjure the sea hag, projects despair unto her DC22 Cha Save or stunned (lair action)
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Trisk will attempt another Arcana check: 18
"We are not here to feed liches but to destroy phylacteries and thus weaken the foul undead leader of Thay! You must choose if you are one of his puppets dancing on a string to his every whim! Or if you oppose his tyrannical rule and are dangerous enough to strike at the heart of his power!"
"Which have you chosen?"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
Once Trisk shouts at tbe skull, something happens on the floor above them, the same floor where the summoned hag was conjured (and waits in the dark pool). The doors of the nearby shrine fly off, literally, becoming another pair of four-armed gargoyles. From the shrine leaps a young elven woman, screaming, "Stay away from those phylacteries! In the name of the Zulkirate and the nation of Thay, I will destroy you!"
<Going to try and put this all on the map. But don't wait on me, players are up.
Active hostiles include the Tyrant shadow (i dont think tooltips will work for CoA monsters), the 2 four-armed gargoyles and the screaming elf lady. There's also.a lich, but he hasn't attacked anyone yet.
Eira is stunned, but her summoned sea hag is still present, nearby but unseen by the hostile elf lady.
Also, @Brian_Avery has two PCs in this scene and I'm going to invite another player to join this campaign so they can see what's going on here. If you don't know what this is all about, that's perfect: neither does your PC.>
<Excellent RP, but I just to make sure players are clear on what's going on:>
Szazz Tam is a Lich, so still has an undead body, and is the ruler of Thay. Kazit Gul was already a lich when Tam was born. He built the Doomvault. He's really passionate about Dungeouns, and, like many liches, uses his to feed his phylactery with the souls of those foolish enough to tread in his domain. Or at least he did, until Thay became an insular nation of mostly undead, by number, reducing the flow of unwise explorers in the Doomvault to a trickle, starving Gul of souls and leading to his decay into a demilich. (it's not a passive process; he did choose it, but he was content to remain a lich and the whole point of the Doomvault was to attract souls to siphon.)
<<The Doomvault also houses the Bloodgate nexus and there's even another lich hiding in here. I think it's 1 lich too many, but I didn't write it. They were just stuck with a bunch of lore and having to tie into other playtest material that was coming out, but I digress>>
So, what the characters see, for sure, is a bunch of phylacteries. These sepulchers are full of them. These belong to Tam's trusted generals and leuitenants. Housed in this extraplanar room is the key to Tam's iron grip on Thay. Destroy his phylactery, he may make another. Destroy all the leadership loyal to him, and there is a real chance for his defeat and lasting change in Thay.
As for Gul, well, he is a demilich and he just asked for a soul. Make of it what you will. But, he is still here, after all these years. Whether Szazz Tam knows it or not, it is hard to say. And what the shadow of Eltab, the Tyrant posing as Ethan, thinks of all this and what binds him here, those are mysteries, still.
While the Dark Ethan grapples with Randy, Kazit Gul continues the psychic discourse, "I have been here long before the temples were turned ro laboratories and tbe chosen brought to my Doomvault. I have seen, through the eyes of my Dread Warriors, all thay transpires within its walls. I myself a prisoner in my own home have little sympathy for these chosen, who answered the call of their patrons of their own free will, imbued with divine power beyond even mortal paragons, in exchange for being the hands of their elusive gods."
<here's all that background stuff right from the book, if you're interested, the extra lore tie-in bits I mentioned in passing, and the other lich Tarul Var. It's like 3 paragraphs.>
Near the village of Daggerford on the Sword Coast, the Red Wizards of Thay plotted to extend the evil reach of their land and its master, the lich lord Szass Tam. At a site called Bloodgate Keep they built a powerful portal, fueled by elemental nodes, that could allow Thayans to instantly transport whole armies into the very heart of the Sword Coast. With this power, the Red Wizards would surely overthrow and take control of the North.
However, groups of heroes recently assaulted Bloodgate Keep and its master, the lich Tarul Var. With the help of a renegade Red Wizard named Mennek Ariz, this assault was successful. Bloodgate Keep fell, and Szass Tam’s plans of invasion were crushed.
What no one expected, though, was that despite the fall of the keep itself, parts of the Bloodgate Nexus (an interconnected series of teleportation circles) survived, and a Thayan Resurrection cell leader named Syranna devised a way to use it against Szass Tam. Syranna had been part of the team that originally assembled the Bloodgate Nexus, and knew that remaining nodes allowed direct access to a secret Thayan training ground known as the Doomvault.
(Piccolo may have been in this dungeon almost as long as Kazit Gul)
(A refresher of when you first met her)
As you hear the music, the sounds brings to mind strong visual images. Its as if you can almost make out words as you feel emotions conveyed by her music. (Musical Telepathy)
Sounds of Joy, exciting energy, happiness, warmth of the fire.
The image of a beautiful blue sky encases warm golden sand beaches. The sound of waves gently crashing on the sword coast.
A small primitive fey village, mythical creatures of long past.
A nighttime harvest festival, with all wearing masks and costumes. Zombies, Centaurs, Skeletons, Humans, Wizards, Bears.
Curiosity, youth, innocence:
A young beautiful girl plays with her friends in the night, spinning around and around and chasing her friends in merriment.,
(The song changes to a sharp key, and becomes more rapid.)
Boom!!!!
A crash of thunder, black sky, large beings, red cloaks. Fire, lightning, poison, death.
Creak, Pitter Patter!
She runs to her tree home, “Mother?,” she yells out.
Captured, silver chains, blackness. A cage filled with children, enslaved.
An out of pitch shrill scale…..(men's voices, chanting in ritual) “Kazit Gul, Kazit Gul, Kazit Gul.”
A new terror rises.
A dark, powerful, cruel flat pitch of her instrument. The face of a…skeleton.
She does not bend. She does not break. She is oak, the will of mother. (male voice) “Submit.”
(The young girl opens her mouth to scream but has no voice)
Darkness.
Sun rises and sets, A clock spinning around and around endlessly, Images of the four seasons.
Alone, hungry, trapped, darkness, forgotten.
“If you will not yield, then here you will stay…..forever.”
Unfortunately for the lich, Randy already sees his attack long before he can throw it and expertly blocks his grapple with his cannon (Shield). Frustrated that his brother's words got nowhere (then again this is a lich so what else could he expect), he readies himself for battle. "Nice try, but my unreasonable brain can only process your actions, not your words. We don't care if your laboratory has been turned into place where people become meat shield for your cause! If you insist then we'll do it the hard way. But even I value my soul as much as doing whatever the hell I want! So much for using our heads!" Randy snarls. He gestures to Piccolo to focus on healing Ethan whilst he aims at destroying the sepulchers first, then focus on the current lich. For the other casters, he gesture them to distract him for as long as they can as he gets to work.
That is... if they can somehow get rid of the wall of fire surrounding them. "Guys. Dispel the fire wall!"
BA Ballista point-blank range (No sharpshooter): 28 Damage: 7; Ethan takes half
Action: Drives through the dark clone's chest with his bayonet... (19, 16 Slashing, Ethan takes 8 damage)
Reaction: Since Ethan's gonna struggle with the save, Randy will give him one last Flash Of Genius so he'd have a better chance of getting out of the bond. Besides... as he looks around again, where did Trisk go? He's not in the circle so...
Wildland Shifters Pt 2 (Pt 1 with PyromaniIsDeadThankGod)
Celci (The Lamb) - Non-Binary Changeling Sorcerer (Shadow Magic)
Maya Kurosaki - Female Kitsune Cleric (Twilight Domain); Currently in Lancea
Randy Wolftree - Male Human Artificer (Armourer); Currently in Crimson Sands of Time
Shijiro Otsune - Male Kitsune Blood Hunter (Order Of The Lycan)
Trojan Dseyller - Male Tortle Barbarian (Path of the Ancestral Guardian)
Xenia Ironhide - Female Kobold Rogue (Soulknife)
(OOC: Piccolo can also aid Ethan's save with her counter charm, Ethan should have advantage on save vs frightened or charmed, if needed, she can also add Bardic Inspiration to his roll, adding another 1d10 to the save. She has Sanctuary up so she can cast healing, or use healing hands, or go full dodge and attract attacks.)
"Randy wai- AGH!" Ethan yells out when his brother suddenly attacks the dark clone and takes half of the pain. He needs healing again otherwise he'll drop into unconsciousness.
WIS Save with Flash Of Genius: 17
Unable to break free again, Ethan decides to fire another frostbite to stall, seeing that he has no other spells that could possibly help him get out of this bond. Unless if Remove Curse... no it won't, will it? he thinks. (DC 18 Con or take 11 Ice damage, disadvantage on next attack but Ethan will take 3 Ice damage as a result)
Edit (Thanks Shimshon): At least, until Piccolo's song unlocks something in him... and all of a sudden, before the shadow realises it, he breaks free as he glows bright blue for moment... before doubling forwards in exhaustion.
The Wildland Shifters
Daisy Ethalena - Female Wood Elf Ranger (Monster Slayer)
Ethan Wolftree - Male Simic Hybrid Warlock (The Hexblade)
Mira Laurits - Female Harengon Sorcerer (Clockwork Soul); Lancea
Raiden Kurosaki - Male Kitsune Wizard (Bladesinger); Lancea
Rixian Nishinoya - Male Fire Genasi Paladin (Oath of Vengeance)
Tenebris Amaro - Male Dark Elf Druid (Circle of Stars)
Yurime Hanasaki - Female Kumiho Bard (College Of Creation)
(Add a d10 to your save)
(Oh wait yeah I forgot)
9
The Wildland Shifters
Daisy Ethalena - Female Wood Elf Ranger (Monster Slayer)
Ethan Wolftree - Male Simic Hybrid Warlock (The Hexblade)
Mira Laurits - Female Harengon Sorcerer (Clockwork Soul); Lancea
Raiden Kurosaki - Male Kitsune Wizard (Bladesinger); Lancea
Rixian Nishinoya - Male Fire Genasi Paladin (Oath of Vengeance)
Tenebris Amaro - Male Dark Elf Druid (Circle of Stars)
Yurime Hanasaki - Female Kumiho Bard (College Of Creation)
<FYI, the Intimidation check vs the lich mechanically stopped him from attacking you last round after yiu turned down his offer.>
The map is on tbh previous page, the fire wall was just around the tyrant. Your ally, Eira, who you rescued, is concentrating in it, but she can drop it off you want.
It is not surrounding anyone, presently.
(OOC: that makes Ethans save a 26!, have we decided we can damage the Phylacteries, then we can open them and destroy the lich or liches.)
(Not sure where we are in the turn order, Piccolo has sanctuary up).
The o lyrics acruve hostile is the tyrant, who looks like Ethan and uses most of his stats, which is why he is so limited for the moment. Since he didn't hit, though, he does not grapple Ethan as a BA (Ethan's simic ability) so he atill has it. Other than that, his tuen woukd be over. He uses the BA to shape change back into his original tyrant form, again growing ro colossal size and re-opening Legendary Actions.
Then it's PCs.
Ethan's save comes at end of turn, which if aided by picollos countercharm follows that, but we can say it comes before Randy's ballista, so Wthan can avoid the ½ damage from that, which the tyrant does indeed feel. He will still feel the effect of his own frostbite, though.
This also means the Tyrant uses his natural Con save modifier against Ethan's frostbite, so DC18 Con save: 21 or DA on next attack
Shadow Blink. The shadow surrounds itself in black mist, then teleports up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space that it can see. This being an adjacent floor of the tetrahedron.
Mind Spike (Costs 2 Actions) 19, or [roll]1d20 +14[roll] (if DA from frostbite) to character X for 23 psychic damage.
X = {1,2,3,4}, {EIRA, ETHAN, PICOLLO, RANDY}
X= 2 (see above)
I flubbed the DA, but saved on frostbite, so no matter.
To avoid teleportstion retcon preceding melee attack by Randy, it follows the action of the druid, Eira, who casts conjure woodland beings, at which point a sea hag appears just above the pool on the surface adjacent to to both the floor with the players and the tyrant, before that wall's gravity pulls her down into it.
Requiring her concentration, Eira's firewall disappears as the sea hag arrives.
"We have to weaken it's will to resist the hag. She can kill anything that lacks a strong will to survive." Eira calls out.
Players are up.
Piccolo casts healing word on Ethan 10, then she moves toward the phylacteries,and throws to magic daggers, hoping to damage what is holding it closed (hoping this is not an attack as she has sanctuary up): To hit: 32, to hit: 20, magical piercing damage: 9, 9
"Ha! Fool. The sepulcher's magic prevents the phylacteries from being damaged." Kazit Gul derides Picollo.
<Trisk succeeded on 2 of 3 necessary checks to disable the sepulcher. It's an action to try a check. You can just have another action, though somewhere between a retcon and a do-over.>
The Tyrant, seeing Eira conjure the sea hag, projects despair unto her DC22 Cha Save or stunned (lair action)
Eira's save 5
Piccolo lets out a "disrespectful" sound on her instrument at the Lich, and considers what else can be done to open them.
Trisk will attempt another Arcana check: 18
"We are not here to feed liches but to destroy phylacteries and thus weaken the foul undead leader of Thay! You must choose if you are one of his puppets dancing on a string to his every whim! Or if you oppose his tyrannical rule and are dangerous enough to strike at the heart of his power!"
"Which have you chosen?"
Once Trisk shouts at tbe skull, something happens on the floor above them, the same floor where the summoned hag was conjured (and waits in the dark pool). The doors of the nearby shrine fly off, literally, becoming another pair of four-armed gargoyles. From the shrine leaps a young elven woman, screaming, "Stay away from those phylacteries! In the name of the Zulkirate and the nation of Thay, I will destroy you!"
<Going to try and put this all on the map. But don't wait on me, players are up.
Active hostiles include the Tyrant shadow (i dont think tooltips will work for CoA monsters), the 2 four-armed gargoyles and the screaming elf lady. There's also.a lich, but he hasn't attacked anyone yet.
Eira is stunned, but her summoned sea hag is still present, nearby but unseen by the hostile elf lady.
Also, @Brian_Avery has two PCs in this scene and I'm going to invite another player to join this campaign so they can see what's going on here. If you don't know what this is all about, that's perfect: neither does your PC.>