D&D 5E Gut-Checking to My Jerk-DM Level (ToA Spoilers)

[Retreater]

I am running a group of mostly new players through ToA, and they have arrived at the climactic battle. Throughout most of the adventure they have complained that it was too hard and just wanted to get to the end of the adventure. I told them that as they advance it will be getting more difficult and that I will be less forgiving.

For the past several sessions, they have been taking long rests between most rooms (not necessarily between all encounters, because there are sometimes multiple encounters in the same room.) They went nova on the second-to-last big fight (the hag coven), and wiped out one of the three hags in a single round. Thus the coven was broken and they couldn't really do anything to challenge the party.

The second round saw a second hag get killed AND the third hag reduced to 20ish hp. On her turn, the third hag went ethereal to escape the combat. The party is explaining their strategy in front of the ethereal hag and take a long rest. I decided that due to the environment, they could only get part of their spells, hit dice, etc, back. [They are listening to the wailing of the atropal in the next room and sleeping in the green mist of the hag cauldrons.]

The quick situation is that the party saw the next fight is the boss encounter and wants to retreat to a far location for a long rest to get back every resource and prepare. There are 6 players and they haven't had a real challenge in the campaign for months.

Would I be a jerk to have the remaining night hag to materialize from the ethereal plane and take the keys from the door to the final encounter, trapping them in there with the "boss fight"? She has been listening to the plans and I've already demonstrated that the hags can relock the door.

 

[Mistwell]

The party is explaining their strategy in front of the ethereal hag and take a long rest. I decided that due to the environment, they could only get part of their spells, hit dice, etc, back. [They are listening to the wailing of the atropal in the next room and sleeping in the green mist of the hag cauldrons.]

That seems an odd decision. A check to focus, that I can understand. But just hand waiving "only part" seems odd. It's either a long rest or it isn't a long rest.

The quick situation is that the party saw the next fight is the boss encounter and wants to retreat to a far location for a long rest to get back every resource and prepare. There are 6 players and they haven't had a real challenge in the campaign for months.

Would I be a jerk to have the remaining night hag to materialize from the ethereal plane and take the keys from the door to the final encounter, trapping them in there with the "boss fight"? She has been listening to the plans and I've already demonstrated that the hags can relock the door.

Seems rational, but can't the party break down the door?

 

[iserith]

If they are aware of the risk and choose to take the chance, then that's on them. But you have to make doubly sure they are aware of the risk they are taking i.e. know that the hag knows what they want to do and can take steps to prevent it.

More importantly though, there seems to be some kind of disconnect between how you view the difficulty of the challenges you're presenting and how the players view them. You may want to get on the same page regarding this before doing anything else.

 

[Retreater]

That seems an odd decision. A check to focus, that I can understand. But just hand waiving "only part" seems odd. It's either a long rest or it isn't a long rest.



Seems rational, but can't the party break down the door?

Right. I had them make "focus" checks and no one did very well. Therfore I had them get a less effect, to fail forward a little bit without a total loss. My thought was that the night was not restful enough so they couldn't focus on their preparations the next morning.
No. The door is impenetrable according to the adventure. Massive stone door, magically reinforced. The design of the dungeon also stops magical teleportation. The magic is keyed to the dungeon creator. When he dies at the end of the encounter (or flees the dungeon) the magical reinforcement will end.

 

[Mistwell]

Right. I had them make "focus" checks and no one did very well. Therfore I had them get a less effect, to fail forward a little bit without a total loss. My thought was that the night was not restful enough so they couldn't focus on their preparations the next morning.
No. The door is impenetrable according to the adventure. Massive stone door, magically reinforced. The design of the dungeon also stops magical teleportation. The magic is keyed to the dungeon creator. When he dies at the end of the encounter (or flees the dungeon) the magical reinforcement will end.

Well that seems like the thing a hag would do, particularly after they killed her allies and injured her.

Is the key just sitting there in the lock, or on someone? If it's on someone, they should have a chance to catch her in the act and stop her.

 

[MarkB]

I had a similar situation very recently - the party took down a coven of three hags, but the Night Hag escaped with minimal hit points and went ethereal.

What happened next was that they tried to take a night's rest, and the party's cleric (their only full caster) got hag-ridden, and woke up with reduced max hit points and no recovered spells or hit points.

Basically, as long as the hag's around and they fail to take the appropriate precautions, she can prevent them from ever completely recovering their resources.

 

[Retreater]

Well that seems like the thing a hag would do, particularly after they killed her allies and injured her.

Is the key just sitting there in the lock, or on someone? If it's on someone, they should have a chance to catch her in the act and stop her.

Based on the design of the adventure and the lock mechanism, they put 5 special "magical" keys in the lock, which allows the door to be moved. Once she closes the door and removes the key from the other side, it can't be opened. So they are leaving the keys unattended, at least temporarily.

 

[Mistwell]

Based on the design of the adventure and the lock mechanism, they put 5 special "magical" keys in the lock, which allows the door to be moved. Once she closes the door and removes the key from the other side, it can't be opened. So they are leaving the keys unattended, at least temporarily.

I'd give them a perception chance to spot what's she's doing before she does it. But, if they don't spot it in time, it seems a perfectly legit thing to do.

 

[S'mon]

The party is explaining their strategy in front of the ethereal hag and take a long rest. I decided that due to the environment, they could only get part of their spells, hit dice, etc, back. [They are listening to the wailing of the atropal in the next room and sleeping in the green mist of the hag cauldrons.]

The quick situation is that the party saw the next fight is the boss encounter and wants to retreat to a far location for a long rest to get back every resource and prepare. There are 6 players and they haven't had a real challenge in the campaign for months.

Would I be a jerk to have the remaining n

They are taking an 8 hour sleep in the room before the final boss fight?

I used to think my players were silly when they'd go camp right outside the dungeon or a quarter mile off and get TPK'd. Then I mellowed and started mentioning it was obviously an incredibly stupid thing to do. They're not playing a CRPG.

 

[robus]

Well the simple question is will they be mad at you or mad at themselves? If they’re going to be mad at you, you should do something to clue them into the situation they’re setting up for themselves. But they also seem to be sick of the campaign so perhaps a TPK would be a mercy?