Challenging my high-lvl group (NPCs and monsters; my players shouldn't read this!)

[the Jester]

OK, I just couldn't bring myself to mention this in the Defenders Story Hour Thread, but...

...Didn't Nolin AND Telay both go to study magic at Hagiok's academy?

Thank you for your discretion.

This idea has come up before in this thread... and a certain cat we both know asked everyone to hush up and keep it here.

Leading one to believe that you just might have something there....

 

[WizarDru]

PC has mentioned that the Defenders have assumed that their actually dealing with Abassador Soder...when we have only circumstantial evidence to work off of. I think the only time Ambassador Soder has shown up is in Agar's vision.

The repeated dropping of Telay's name is all to set up what is to come. They keep running across snippets of references to her, and so forth. The most recent discussion, wherein "Soder" professes to liking the defenders, and the specific reference to Nolin, makes a lot of sense if one assume that it's Telay speaking, and not Soder.

 

[Allanon]

Of course Piratecat could be just adding this innuendo to make his player's think this (he is one of THE RBDM's). Playing with their mind so to say.

We know that the puppeteer can control undead.
We know that Telay was according to our last intel a vampire.

They might just run into Telay as she is controlled, the subtle hints adding to the feeling that they have finally confronted their nemesis. And let's see what happens then. We know that the puppeteer has employed this tactic before (anyone remember our undead dwarven defender ).

 

[Piratecat]

Boy, I sure considered this. But Telay's abilities were well defined; she's a high-lvl bard, not a wizard, so when this idea occurred to me it was too late to retrofit Soder into it. As a result, I threw this in as a little red herring, causing the party to think about it as well.

Soder isn't anyone you've met before; he has a long and storied history working side-by-side with the Ivory King, and he knows thing that no one else does. He also has some secrets and some quirks, but they're a little different.

You'll see pretty soon that I'm saving the rat bastardiness for a different little trick that I think you'll like it. And boy, it's a doozy.

Telay will probably be back in a future adventure, when she fixates on Nolin's daughter. That's in the future, though.

 

[Benben]

What were the templates on that hydra? It was certainly evocative.

 

[Piratecat]

Fairly simple: 16 heads and true ghoulish, so it drained strength on a hit. I tossed in the revenant worm breath weapon as a fun afterthought.

 

[Benben]

Yes, nothing says fun like Revenant worms.

The psionic wall stealing player secrets and then sharing with the party, is a trick of yours I was just able to use.

I changed the McGuffin, and included 4 secrets of an enemy with which the party is temporarily allied. Adding those made it easier for the players to swallow--save for the couple who gave very telling and sensitive secrets.

I'm dribbling out the secrets now, but it's made for some great insight and role-playing. Thanks for the trick.

 

[Steverooo]

I think I'm hiring you folk as executive consultants. WHY didn't I think of the ballistae idea myself? And the undead arrow idea is superb. I'll just stow that away for future use. But I don't think you'll be disappointed anyways! We'll find out in a few days.

The Sinbad movie had something like this, using Dragon teeth... An arrow whose head is made from a dragon's tooth, which animates as a skeleton, upon impact... Not a lot of use against the DoD, though.

Maybe a Mohrg? Or a Mohrghoule!

 

[Talix]

Question: If the players are way past this point in the story, and have already encountered and (presumably) defeated Sodor, is there a particular reason we're acting like we have to keep the secret from them in the main story hour? Is it just to sustain suspense for the readers who don't want to read this thread (an admirable goal), or is there further information we might give away, or what? Or is it just the principle of the thing?

 

[BSF]

Talix - All the above.


Besides, there are a lot of things that come up here that Piratecat is preparing to spring on the PC's. Note a lot of the earlier brainstorming on what a Kou-toa city would be like. It is difficult to really keep track of what surprises haven't been sprung yet.