Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
The current big bad that they are dealing with in my Masks of the Imperium campaign is a elf-hating duke who has made a deal with an Oinoloth in order to gain the knowledge of a genocide ritual, and for protection again his (PC) nephew who has killed him once before (in backstory).
(Note that the people of the dukedom are not evil - guards are most likely doing their job. Oh, and the party's patron is the Child-Empress currently without power because of a regent was imposed by the Council of Nobles, who has warned them that "Regicide is not a habit we wish to encourage my citizens to partake in", so killing the Duke without exposing the Oinoloth to the people won't work.)
The party has spent sessions setting everything up right. The found out about the Oinoloth (which was oriiginally planned ot be a surprise), researched it's powers, figured out how to expel it from the duke's body, were brilliant in putting that together with the fact that he would be at the dawn blessing of a Opympiad-expy at the hallowed shrine invoking th gods, and that they have a very good bard with them who can lead the spectators in a chant of exorcism for force the Oinoloth out of the body and to materialize.
They've gotten the loan of some items that will be particularly useful. They approached the head of the local clergy and let them know something is up, even if they were worried work would get back so they didn't tell them exactly. They've spread rumors among the people. They even found out that one powerful supposed ally of the duke will not help defend him.
Basically, they will be going into a fight that would have been a multi-stage boss battle with lots of surprises instead fully rested, prepped, with consumable magic up, knowing the foe and what they can do. And as the first fight of the day where you know it's a big one, PCs can punch well above their weight class.
So I expect this to turn into a meaningful but fairly pre-determined fight, that the PCs will have the upper hand.
And I worry that after putting sessions into lining all of that up, the players will feel cheated if they were able to turn it in a fight without a lot of tension. I could make it harder so that it feels like they worked to turn it from nigh-impossible to possible, but that's ignoring player actions in a way I don't like.
So, if you were a player and had invested several sessions in getting allies, information, and such about a big bad, and using that turned the conclusion of the arc into a fairly short fight because you were Batman-level prepared, would you feel great about it or would you feel like you wasted time and shouldn't have put in that much research and prep?
(Note that the people of the dukedom are not evil - guards are most likely doing their job. Oh, and the party's patron is the Child-Empress currently without power because of a regent was imposed by the Council of Nobles, who has warned them that "Regicide is not a habit we wish to encourage my citizens to partake in", so killing the Duke without exposing the Oinoloth to the people won't work.)
The party has spent sessions setting everything up right. The found out about the Oinoloth (which was oriiginally planned ot be a surprise), researched it's powers, figured out how to expel it from the duke's body, were brilliant in putting that together with the fact that he would be at the dawn blessing of a Opympiad-expy at the hallowed shrine invoking th gods, and that they have a very good bard with them who can lead the spectators in a chant of exorcism for force the Oinoloth out of the body and to materialize.
They've gotten the loan of some items that will be particularly useful. They approached the head of the local clergy and let them know something is up, even if they were worried work would get back so they didn't tell them exactly. They've spread rumors among the people. They even found out that one powerful supposed ally of the duke will not help defend him.
Basically, they will be going into a fight that would have been a multi-stage boss battle with lots of surprises instead fully rested, prepped, with consumable magic up, knowing the foe and what they can do. And as the first fight of the day where you know it's a big one, PCs can punch well above their weight class.
So I expect this to turn into a meaningful but fairly pre-determined fight, that the PCs will have the upper hand.
And I worry that after putting sessions into lining all of that up, the players will feel cheated if they were able to turn it in a fight without a lot of tension. I could make it harder so that it feels like they worked to turn it from nigh-impossible to possible, but that's ignoring player actions in a way I don't like.
So, if you were a player and had invested several sessions in getting allies, information, and such about a big bad, and using that turned the conclusion of the arc into a fairly short fight because you were Batman-level prepared, would you feel great about it or would you feel like you wasted time and shouldn't have put in that much research and prep?