We had a rather cinematic experience yesterday in my 3.5 campaign. The PCs were shunted onto the Negative Energy Plane through the machinations of a gnome lich whom they had fought earlier, but they had failed to find and destroy his phylactery so he remanifested and had been planning his revenge. After destroying the four wraiths the lich had sent after them through a whirling portal, they were deciding whether they wanted to enter the portal themselves when the second wave showed up. (I should point out that the PCs were able to survive the normal rigors of the Negative Energy Plane since one of them had cast attune form on the group.)
The second wave consisted of a dragon turtle zombie, upon whose back were six gnome skeletons, although they appeared to be five gnome skeletons and the Darklord Drago von Mordak, a skeletal equiceph. (For those unfamiliar with the D&D Miniatures figure, imagine a Large humanoid skeleton with a horse skull for a head. The PCs were already aware of the gnome lich's penchant for cloaking himself in the guise of a skeletal equiceph, figuring - quite rightly - that he was more imposing in that form than as a gnome lich. For the same reason, "Darklord Drago von Mordak" sounds more imposing than the gnome's real name, "Toofles Pigwilligan.")
So, the sudden apparent appearance of the PCs' foe got the players all excited that this was going to be the big battle against the main enemy. We rolled for initiative, and the first guy to react was Chalkan, a ranger/cleric/sorcerer/arcane archer played by the 14-year-old son of a co-worker of mine. Chalkan decided that the best bet was to fire off a charge from his wand of fireballs, and targeted the top of the dragon turtle zombie's shell. 8d6 points of fireball damage later, he had destroyed all six of the skeletons, revealing the "Darklord" for the illusion he was. (The PCs knew from past experience that he could definitely survive more than 8d6 points of fire damage.)
And then I remembered why Toofles had sent out six gnome skeletons to soften up the PCs in the first place. Earlier, he had raided a magic shop and had made off with a necklace of fireballs among other items. Each of the skeletons was armed with one bead from said necklace - one 10d6 bead, two 8d6 beads, two 6d6 beads, and a 4d6 bead. The plan was they would each throw their one bead at the PCs and after that they were pretty much expendable, but they'd have weakened the PCs sufficiently that Toofles would be ready to step in and take it from there.
Instead, all six of the beads detonated at once, turning my dragon turtle zombie into a rather unappealing cloud of turtle soup, much to the surprise of my four players and no less a surprise to their astonished DM.
First round of combat, first action, and seven enemies were destroyed in one fell swoop with no adverse effects on the PCs except for one charge on a wand of fireballs. Toofles, scrying on the scene from his lair elsewhere on the Negative Energy Plane, opted not to go leaping into battle with them right then after all.
Johnathan
The second wave consisted of a dragon turtle zombie, upon whose back were six gnome skeletons, although they appeared to be five gnome skeletons and the Darklord Drago von Mordak, a skeletal equiceph. (For those unfamiliar with the D&D Miniatures figure, imagine a Large humanoid skeleton with a horse skull for a head. The PCs were already aware of the gnome lich's penchant for cloaking himself in the guise of a skeletal equiceph, figuring - quite rightly - that he was more imposing in that form than as a gnome lich. For the same reason, "Darklord Drago von Mordak" sounds more imposing than the gnome's real name, "Toofles Pigwilligan.")
So, the sudden apparent appearance of the PCs' foe got the players all excited that this was going to be the big battle against the main enemy. We rolled for initiative, and the first guy to react was Chalkan, a ranger/cleric/sorcerer/arcane archer played by the 14-year-old son of a co-worker of mine. Chalkan decided that the best bet was to fire off a charge from his wand of fireballs, and targeted the top of the dragon turtle zombie's shell. 8d6 points of fireball damage later, he had destroyed all six of the skeletons, revealing the "Darklord" for the illusion he was. (The PCs knew from past experience that he could definitely survive more than 8d6 points of fire damage.)
And then I remembered why Toofles had sent out six gnome skeletons to soften up the PCs in the first place. Earlier, he had raided a magic shop and had made off with a necklace of fireballs among other items. Each of the skeletons was armed with one bead from said necklace - one 10d6 bead, two 8d6 beads, two 6d6 beads, and a 4d6 bead. The plan was they would each throw their one bead at the PCs and after that they were pretty much expendable, but they'd have weakened the PCs sufficiently that Toofles would be ready to step in and take it from there.
Instead, all six of the beads detonated at once, turning my dragon turtle zombie into a rather unappealing cloud of turtle soup, much to the surprise of my four players and no less a surprise to their astonished DM.
First round of combat, first action, and seven enemies were destroyed in one fell swoop with no adverse effects on the PCs except for one charge on a wand of fireballs. Toofles, scrying on the scene from his lair elsewhere on the Negative Energy Plane, opted not to go leaping into battle with them right then after all.
Johnathan
