[Updated with a free bonus encounter!] Cover art for Under the Eye of the Tempest

[Rugult]

Consider your delightfully free, OGC monster pilfered!

All I have to say.... God Bless Biomancy!

 

[d20Dwarf]

What was the Emperor if he wasn't a crazy monk-mage?

Yeah, and he shot lightning!

 

[Morrus]

So, we've added an extra encounter (as you may have gathered from the exchange between Claudio and myself, above). I thought it would be cool to show it off as a "freebie"; it doesn't affect the plot, but below are spoilers. This is presented as an "easter egg" jump-off point for GMs wishing to expand the campaign after the last adventure; it's not necessary to enter that part of the tomb, and it is likely that many parties won't do so.

This encounter occurs when the heroes revisit the Sunken Prison and the Pyromancer's Tomb from Shelter to the Storm. I won't spoil why they are revisiting this area, though!

[imager]http://www.enworld.org/enpublishing/russ_windborne_slaad_web.JPG[/imager]Finally, in the few months since the heroes were last here, the laboratory (Area F on the tomb map) has become home to Glurthog, an advanced huhhoad. Glurthog is hiding here from the agents of a powerful balor, Hedrenatherax, from whom she’s stolen an intelligent bastard sword. She is aware of the presence of Longinus and his monks, but is plenty intelligent enough to know she is outclassed. She inhabits the laboratory and swims the magma in the prison cell area (Area H), using her considerable Hide skill, and she’ll gladly kill any lone monk that ventures through. She’ll take on the PCs for a bit of sport, but she’ll retreat into the magma if she discovers she’s outclassed. The huhhoad’s breath weapon and supernatural abilities are not affected by the enhanced fire magic in the tomb, but any fiery spell-like abilities she uses are. She does not use her summon ability: she tried it once before, but it failed because of the weird planar mix in the tomb.

Glurthog CR 18
Female advanced huhhoad
CN Huge outsider (chaotic, extraplanar, water)
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60', low-light vision; Listen +24, Spot +24
Languages Ogdoadt
[D]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/D]AC 25, touch 11, flat-footed 22
hp 282 (20 HD); fast healing 5; DR 10/lawful
Immune acid, fire, suffocation, drowning, gas attacks
Resist cold 5, sonic 5; SR 23
Fort +19, Ref +15, Will +16 (+4 vs. charm, compulsion, fear)
Speed 40 ft. (8 squares), swim 40 ft.
Melee Pyrronax +31/+26/+21/+16 (2d8+18 plus 1d6 fire plus 2d6 vs. lawful, 19–20/×2 plus 1d10 fire)
Melee 2 slams +29 (2d6+11 plus 1d6 fire)
Ranged —
Space 15 ft; Reach 15 ft
Base Atk +20; Grp +39
Attack Options Awesome Blow, Power Attack
Special Actions breath weapon, searing aura, summon ogdoad
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 20th)
At will – astral projection (self plus 50 pounds), burning hands (free action, DC 16), detect law 3/day – scorching ray (3 rays), protection from law, shatter (DC 17)
1/day – chaos hammer (DC 19), disintegrate (DC 21)
[D]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/D]
Abilities Str 33, Dex 16, Con 31, Int 16, Wis 18, Cha 21
SQ alien mindset, breathless
Feats Ability Focus (breath weapon), Alertness, Awesome Blow, Cleave, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (burning hands)
Skills Bluff +19, Climb +24, Concentration +17, Diplomacy +21, Disguise +19 (+21 acting), Hide +19, Intimidate +24, Jump +19, Knowledge (arcana) +12, Knowledge (the planes) +15, Knowledge (religion) +9, Listen +24, Move Silently +23, Search +12, Spot +24, Survival +13 (+15 on the planes), Swim +29*, Use Magic Device +22
*Glurthog has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check made to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. She can always choose to take 10 on Swim checks, even if distracted or endangered. She can use the run action while swimming, provided she swims in a straight line.
Possessions Pyrronax
[D]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/D]Alien Mindset (Ex): Huhhoad have a +4 racial bonus to resist all charm, compulsion, and fear effects. Further, anyone attempting to read an huhhoad’s mind (via detect thoughts or some similar effect) must succeed at a Will save (DC 27). The save is Constitution-based. If successful, the character is stunned for 1 round and the mind-reading fails. If the save fails, the mind-reading fails and the character is stunned for 1 round and then affected by a lesser confusion effect for the following 1d4 rounds.
Breath Weapon (Ex): As a standard action once every 1d4 rounds, the huhhoad can breathe a 20-foot cone of scalding slime. All in the area take 10d10 points of fire damage (Fortitude DC 26 half). The save DC is Constitution-based.
Searing Aura (Su): At will, as a free action, a huhhoad can surround itself with an aura of blistering heat in a 10-foot radius. Any creature in the area is affected as if by a heat metal spell (no save), except that the damage applies to all creatures, even those not wearing metal armor. Creatures actually wearing metal armor take double damage. Once the effect reaches the level of “searing” (per the heat metal spell), it does not lessen until the creature leaves the searing aura or the huhhoad dismisses the aura, at which time the effect lessens to “hot” and then “warm” over 2 rounds, as the spell.
Summon Ogdoad (Sp): Once per day a huhhoad can attempt to summon 2d4 nunnoad or another huhhoad with a 65% chance of success. This is the equivalent of a 5th-level spell. Ogdoad summoned in this way remain for 1 hour, and summoned ogdoad can’t use their own summon ogdoad ability for 1 hour.

[D]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/D]

New Item: Pyrronax
Pyrronax is a bastard sword which once belonged to the powerful balor Hedrenatherax. The huhhoad Glurthog stole Pyrronax from Hedrenatherax two months ago, and fled here to the Prime Material Plane. The Pyromancer's Tomb, secreted below ground with its wardings and magma flow, turned out to be the perfect place to hole up. Hedrenatherax is, naturally, searching for his lost sword, and will eventually catch up with whoever has it in their possession.

Pyrronax
+2 flaming, flaming burst, anarchic Large bastard sword
Alignment Chaotic Neutral
Senses darkvision 120 ft., hearing
Communication empathy*
* Unlike most weapons of its intelligence, Pyrronax can not communicate directly with its wielder.
Abilities Int 10, Wis 17, Cha 17; Ego 16
Lesser Powers (CL 3rd)
At will – detect magic
3/day – faerie fire, cure moderate wounds (2d8+3, on wielder)
Greater Powers (CL 9th)
1/day – wall of fire (ring, with wielder at its center)
Dedicated Power (slay devils, CL 15th)
3/day – greater shout (15d6, DC 19)

Click on map to enlarge​

[D]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/D]

[imager]http://www.enworld.org/enpublishing/Hedrenatherax.JPG[/imager]Who is Hedrenetherax?

This mighty fiend is a gargoylesque mountain of living evil and flame. Its massive head features a wide, fanged maw, deep-set reptilian eyes, and two great black horns projecting from either side of its skull. The demon’s body is armored with burnished red scales and corded with massive slabs of sinewy muscle. A pair of gargantuan wings, alight with green flame, jut from its broad back, spanning thirty feet from tip to tip. The demon wears only a simple kilt of beaten bronze from which hangs a massive, jagged-edged sword.

Hedrenatherax is a powerful balor in the service of the demon lord Pyrak, acting as an enforcer of his master’s will, especially when direct, violent action is necessary. Although powerful, Hedrenatherax is quite dull for a balor, and lacks much of the guile, charisma, and intuition common to the most powerful of demons. He makes up for this lack with sheer brutality, and is considered one of the most ruthless, petty, and overtly cruel demons in
the Abyss.

You can find out more about Hedrentherax, including his game stats, in EN Publishing's Metamorphosis: from Dretch to Demon Lord trilogy. Needless to say, Hedrenetherax is far too powerful a foe for heroes of the party's current level to handle, but provides opportunity and scope for the GM to continue a campaign after the War of the Burning Sky is over.

For those GMs wishing to introduce Hedrenetherax early, stat him as a Balor Barbarian 10 armed with a +2 vorpal flaming falchion.

 

[Morrus]

A griffon-riding messenger.

 

[Morrus]

A doppleganger monk!

 

[Klaus]

A doppleganger monk!

Damn, you're quick!

 

[Morrus]

Gar-Alanak, a windborne giant!

 

[Morrus]

On the deck of The Tempest, wielding the Torch!

 

[Big Mac]

That would be the The Tempest, a mile-long living airship!

It was first seen from a distance in WotBS#5: Mission to the Monastery of Two Winds. Here's the picture of it from that adventure and a brief description as the PCs saw it (briefly) then:

The howling winds have died to a safe flurry, and as you take a moment to rest you feel
something watching you from above. You scan the skies cautiously and there, miles up, directly above the now-annihilated laboratory, you glimpse something impossibly large, so massive that its silhouette is visible even through the clouds of the fading storm. Lightning flashes intermittently, giving you a hint of its form.

It must be colossal, the size of a small city, floating in the tempest like a shark in the dark seas. Massive horns adorn its head, and its body stretches backward at sharp angles, like the wings of a swooping raptor or the fins of an ancient sea predator. Its body tapers to a forked tail, but even that must be hundreds of feet wide. You see what might be a flock of birds sweeping past it, white birds flying erratically like those at the monastery, and then the clouds begin to roll back in. You know in a moment it will be hidden from you, if it truly exists now.

The last you see of the stormy vision is a glowing disk on its underbelly, and as it vanishes back into the tempest, you realize the disk, farther across than even the largest dragon from maw to tail, was an eye. And it was watching you.

The Tempest features in a major way in Under the Eye of the Tempest, as it attacks Seaquen.

Hmm...

The Tempest...and...The Spelljammer...

...two living creatures with cities on their backs...

...but which one is better? There's only one way to settle this. FIGHT!