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Legend
In my ToA campaign, the villainous sorceress Xandala has been deep undercover as the apprentice of my party's archmage patron & posing as the daughter of a missing NPC (in order to get his artifact). After being in the background for many sessions, she is about to make her move... but what is that move?
Villain's Character & Capabilities. She's very deceitful (Cha 18, Deception +10), very cunning (Int 18), a keen judge of character (Wis 16, Insight +6), and views most others as expendable fools to be manipulated to her own ends. A Neutral Evil CR 7 (roughly 9th level) half-elven sorceress with ties to the Red Wizards, she was imbued with black dragon blood by hags during her infancy (to save her life from disease, but really to provide the hag coven with a "backup" should one of the hag sisters be slain). She knows these spells:
Cantrips (at will): acid splash, fire bolt, light, mage hand, ray of frost
1st level (4 slots): chromatic orb, feather fall, shield
2nd level (4 slots): invisibility, misty step
3rd level (3 slots): fireball, fly
4th level (3 slots):polymorph, vitriolic sphere
5th level (1 slot): dominate person, teleportation circle
Recent Events. Recently, Xandala learned the party found the missing NPC (and his artifact) she's been searching for. The party were corresponding with the archmage via intermittent project image spells that the archmage casts using a magic map blood-linked to one PC. This magic map, in the archmage's possession, locates that linked PC kinda like a blip on radar. However, the NPC in question is very canny and this could be one of the false trails he set up to throw others off his scent; therefore, Xandala needs to confirm it is indeed him before she risks tipping her hand to the PCs.
Possible Monstrous "Allies". Xandala learned the sigil sequence of a teleportation circle at a location very close to where the PCs reported their location to be. She researched the teleportation circle spell and cast it, arriving in the ruins of an overgrown hanging garden inhabited by a mad medusa queen commanding plant monsters. She has reached some kind of understanding with the medusa queen that I need to define. Nearby, she also encountered a goblin hunting party tracking one of the PCs (an exile of the goblin tribe), and Xandala made some kind of tentative alliance with the goblins that I also need to define. From a past encounter with party, the goblins know PCs can call down lightning & summon quetzalcoatlus (actually an illusion), include a deadly archer in their ranks.
This leads to my question: What should Xandala's next step be?
Villain's Character & Capabilities. She's very deceitful (Cha 18, Deception +10), very cunning (Int 18), a keen judge of character (Wis 16, Insight +6), and views most others as expendable fools to be manipulated to her own ends. A Neutral Evil CR 7 (roughly 9th level) half-elven sorceress with ties to the Red Wizards, she was imbued with black dragon blood by hags during her infancy (to save her life from disease, but really to provide the hag coven with a "backup" should one of the hag sisters be slain). She knows these spells:
Cantrips (at will): acid splash, fire bolt, light, mage hand, ray of frost
1st level (4 slots): chromatic orb, feather fall, shield
2nd level (4 slots): invisibility, misty step
3rd level (3 slots): fireball, fly
4th level (3 slots):polymorph, vitriolic sphere
5th level (1 slot): dominate person, teleportation circle
Recent Events. Recently, Xandala learned the party found the missing NPC (and his artifact) she's been searching for. The party were corresponding with the archmage via intermittent project image spells that the archmage casts using a magic map blood-linked to one PC. This magic map, in the archmage's possession, locates that linked PC kinda like a blip on radar. However, the NPC in question is very canny and this could be one of the false trails he set up to throw others off his scent; therefore, Xandala needs to confirm it is indeed him before she risks tipping her hand to the PCs.
Possible Monstrous "Allies". Xandala learned the sigil sequence of a teleportation circle at a location very close to where the PCs reported their location to be. She researched the teleportation circle spell and cast it, arriving in the ruins of an overgrown hanging garden inhabited by a mad medusa queen commanding plant monsters. She has reached some kind of understanding with the medusa queen that I need to define. Nearby, she also encountered a goblin hunting party tracking one of the PCs (an exile of the goblin tribe), and Xandala made some kind of tentative alliance with the goblins that I also need to define. From a past encounter with party, the goblins know PCs can call down lightning & summon quetzalcoatlus (actually an illusion), include a deadly archer in their ranks.
This leads to my question: What should Xandala's next step be?