D&D 5E Help on Final Fight

[Wolf118]

My players took a long rest before the final fight, instead of the short rest I was expecting. I'm looking for advice on how to logically change the final fight now that the bad guys have had 8+ hours to get ready.

The Situation: The party found the hidden entrance to the sewer that the yuan-ti are using to ship a magical drug. The yuan-ti and their snaketongue cultists attempted to fight off these intruders, but to no avail. All were slain, and the party discovered the entrance to a cavern under the sewers. However, the party decided they were too low in resources to check out the cavern, and voted on a long rest. The sewer is under a decent-sized town they had saved previously from a undead attack, and so they have rent-free rooms in an inn for now. They are going back to their inn to rest up before investigating the cavern.

The cavern is not very big, with one large space occupied by an underground forest, and a small temple to Merrshaulk. There is also a semi-permanent portal to the Feywild there. The yuan-ti have a diplomatic agreement with the Feylord who owns the portal; he provides a place for them to hide in the Feywild while they build up their numbers, and in return they do 'favors' for him. He also is supplying them with the magical flowers to make the drug.

Originally, there were only a yuan-ti priest and his acolyte, an abomination and some elite guards, and a few regular mobs waiting for the players. The Feylord controls some territory in the cavern around the portal. He won't fight the party unless they violate his territory (which is marked with magical boundary stones).

The yuan-ti in the sewer were able to warn the yuan-ti in the cavern about the party before dying. Since the party did not stick around, the yuan-ti in the cavern were able to investigate the scene of the battle afterwards. As such, they have some intelligence on the party's capabilities and spell preferences. They have left the bodies where they were, to make the party think that nobody has disturbed them.

So, the question is, how to reinforce the yuan-ti to make the fight interesting, since the party will be at full capability? The players are Level 11, and include 2 Champion fighters (one melee, one ranged), a Moon Druid (with a pref for going elemental), a Light Cleric (who likes to zoom around on her flying broom), and a Sorcerer (your basic blast-everything-in-sight).

Reinforcements could be more yuan-ti, and/or help from the Feylord in the form of charms/enchantments, glyphs, traps (the yuan-ti already have some traps in the forest, Viet Cong-style), and/or terrain hazards.

Any ideas would be appreciated. I have about 2 weeks to prepare the setting.

 

[Bawylie]

Don't change the final fight. Repopulate the sewer with a couple of stronger/reinforced encounters PRIOR to the final fight.

They left, and while gone BBEG noticed his front door got kicked in. Now he's bolted the door and got some new guard dogs.

Maybe next time they won't cede all their gains for that long rest.

 

[Fimbria]

When the adventurers wake up, they will find that the innkeeper has been beaten half to death by a thug and given a note. The note informs them that one city official will die every hour unless the city guards execute the adventurers. Copies of this note have been distributed around town. Already they can hear the tone of the crowded streets rise as the city starts to panic.

Prepare a few panicked townsfolk for the party to evade, a large mob of peasants for them to fight, and an encounter with some guards. Throwing the city into a riot is one way to reinforce your defenses...

Meanwhile, the villain has skipped town.

When the party arrives at the villain's hideout, they find no one present and the entire place ransacked. There are drawers left open, boxes strewn about, and the hollow frame of the portal with all of the critical parts removed. There are a few coins and valuables left behind for the party to loot, but the villain has taken everything needed to restart the operation somewhere else.

Prepare a few encounters based on tracking the villain. The villain passed through the kennels of some hostile dobermen; a successful tracking check will reveal the animals before the party reaches them. He passed through a town intersection where a beggar definitely saw something, but demands a hefty bribe for the information. He fled into the arms of a friendly noblewoman, who keeps her own guards ready.

(Trim parts of this tale as needed to fit your available time.)

 

[Imaculata]

The yuan-ti have had enough time to do a ritual to summon a guardian who can protect their sanctuary. Maybe a second abomination, or maybe they have boosted the powers of the one they already had. Extra hit points and a damage boost.

They can also have had the time to set up some magical traps at the most likely points of entry. The guards will have taken strategic positions, and those with ranged weapons will now have a height advantage. Some areas may be barricaded, forcing the players to take a more dangerous route. And more traps are probably sprinkled around the dungeon (but they would be traps that don't require a lot of work to build, such as bear traps, or a simple boulder trap)

 

[Celtavian]

What does the drug do? If the drug is highly addictive and they're making money off it, they could contact their distribution network and offer free drugs to anyone that can take the PCs out. You can have the PCs harassed by attackers on the way to the Yuan-Ti. Perhaps an ambush by drug dealers that don't want to see their operation disrupted.

You could have the Yuan-Ti make a deal with the Fey Lord to reinforce them for additional services. Toss in some fey creatures with the Yuan-Ti or some one use magic items.

You could have the Yuan-Ti leave during the long rest. No use staying around if the party is going to give them time to go elsewhere and wait the PCs out. That's how you stop a party from taking a long rest by making the enemies leave if they do.

If you hadn't already allowed them to take a long rest, I would have had the yuan-ti send someone to attack them to disrupt their long rest. No use letting the PCs sit around.

Raise the other yuan-ti as undead to assist the living yuan-ti.

 

[dmnqwk]

8 hours is enough to move the operation.

There are 2 paths to take, either the villain can afford to risk confronting the PCs or, as is more likely, the PCs are too powerful and the villain knows it.

My advice would be to have the villain flee elsewhere. Pick up their operation and leave behind only trace evidence in the lair anything happened. The PCs receive no XP, no treasure and feel let down because they felt their 8 hours of sleep was more important than going in. At some point in the future, the villain begins to make things tough on the PCs. Either a smear campaign making it hard for them to stay anywhere (perhaps framing them for a crime using magical and mundane means) or finds a way to become more powerful, powerful enough to attack (this'd be a great place to get an Adult Green Dragon out - he can be bribed to take on the adventurers by the Yuan-ti.)

All in all ensure the Pcs are fully aware their choices have consequences, not always positive for their loot but ultimately driving the story forward.

 

[Flamestrike]

Any ideas would be appreciated. I have about 2 weeks to prepare the setting.

Add more rooms to the dungeon. Have the cavern be attached to a larger cavern, or break it up into smaller encoutners.

 

[Ath-kethin]

When the adventurers wake up, they will find that the innkeeper has been beaten half to death by a thug and given a note. The note informs them that one city official will die every hour unless the city guards execute the adventurers. Copies of this note have been distributed around town. Already they can hear the tone of the crowded streets rise as the city starts to panic.

Prepare a few panicked townsfolk for the party to evade, a large mob of peasants for them to fight, and an encounter with some guards. Throwing the city into a riot is one way to reinforce your defenses...

Meanwhile, the villain has skipped town.

When the party arrives at the villain's hideout, they find no one present and the entire place ransacked. There are drawers left open, boxes strewn about, and the hollow frame of the portal with all of the critical parts removed. There are a few coins and valuables left behind for the party to loot, but the villain has taken everything needed to restart the operation somewhere else.

Prepare a few encounters based on tracking the villain. The villain passed through the kennels of some hostile dobermen; a successful tracking check will reveal the animals before the party reaches them. He passed through a town intersection where a beggar definitely saw something, but demands a hefty bribe for the information. He fled into the arms of a friendly noblewoman, who keeps her own guards ready.

(Trim parts of this tale as needed to fit your available time.)

I was going to propose something similar to this, and it seems I've been ninja'd twice.

Yuan-ti are not stupid, not suicidal, and they know when they're outclassed. Better to live and fight another day. You actually might combine this with the "summoned a guardian" option suggested above, too; nothing like the heroes coming back from their nap to discover a nasty fight and their actual quarry gone. Maybe a contingency trap that triggers one of the new demon-summoning spells from this week's Unearthed Arcana? "The snake guys are gone, and the place is overrun with demons!"

 

[Uchawi]

This all hinges on whether you are penalizing the party for not doing what you expected, or just letting the adventure play out. For example, you state on one hand that all the yuan-ti were slain in the initial confrontation, and on the other hand you state the yuan-ti has determined the relative strength of the party. I would play the middle ground that the strong hold is on guard, but does not know the relative strength of the party. You will have to give a chance for the party to discover that the initial battle scene was disturbed and then have a couple story forks depending on what happens next. You can still make the lair a challenge, especially with the fey lord modifying the plant life or terrain in the cavern. Having the yuan-ti reaching out to the city or any other network has the risk of exposing themselves when it may not be necessary.

 

[ExploderWizard]

From the description given about what the Yuan-ti know,and how they know it, they don't actually know the identities of the PCs. Based on what happened to their allies in the sewers, they can approximately determine the strength and number of PCs and capabilities but not much else.

Given that, how critical is this place to their operation? Could the leadership appeal to the Fey Lord to hide them, close the portal and re-open one elsewhere to continue operations?

If the answer is no, and the current locale is too important to abandon, does the leadership think they have the resources to deal with the threat given their knowledge of what happened in the sewers? This is where personality traits and role-playing can help provide an answer. Are the leaders cautious & cowardly, or bold and overconfident?

If they decide that they can handle the threat, then take stock of what resources that can be called upon in that short time. Do they have reserves in the Feywild that can come through the portal and assist them? If so perhaps they can set a trap. Gather reinforcements on the other side of the gate, lure their enemies in with the prospect of a seemingly weak force, then come pouring out of the gate once the battle is fully joined.

A few traps near the entrance wouldn't hurt either. It will help sell the idea that their numbers are few.