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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 7004435" data-attributes="member: 12731">As the slave caravan approached the Warlock's Imp (acutely aware she's now playing on away ground, as it were) checked them out. The slavers seemed ordinary enough (for the Outer Planes anyway) with just a red glimmer in their eyes. Their prisoners mostly humanoid but a couple of chained Barlguras and a Vrock pulling the supply wagon. They made a half-hearted attempt at skirting the caravan, but immediately gave up evasion as they changed course to intercept. If there's anything I've failed at, it's instilling respect for monsters in my players minds.Anyway, when they met Tarnstaff welcomed them to his care, and more or less assumed they would yield. The Warlock could now see his men's true nature. The halfling made an attempt at intimidating them to move on and let the party pass, rolling low (total 10 doesn't impress).And so my idea died quickly that Tarnstaff, if suitably impressed, would agree to a one-on-one deathmatch between one of his men and the party's champion for the right to them as property. Tarnstaff wins, the rest accept slavery; party champion wins, they're allowed to go free.Instead initiative. The half of Tarnstaff's men further away (collecting chains from the wagon) were caught off-guard by this, and didn't get to act the first round. Warlock casts Forcecage at Tarnstaff and one of his men (the bigger version). Tarnstaff casts Hold Monster at the Warlock, his closest lieutenant at the Cleric. Both lock. I probably forgot to tell you their spell save above: DC 17, just like their AC. Everybody else move or charge. Tarnstaff arrogantly says if they yield now they'll still be spared, just as they let him out of the cage.Next round, Warlock makes her save, Cleric fails (which is quite unlucky). Monk runs around stunning demons (two or three not sure), but spends Ki points quickly since the +9 Con save makes the Stuns quite far from automatic. I believe all three martials use Action Surges at this point. The rear demons run forward to catch up. Tarnstaff Forcecages the Cleric, Monk and Eldritch Knight (also using the big box version).The martials are astoundingly resilient even against these quite beefy melee demons, but attacking the Warlock is quite another matter. Especially the two fighters - they each have a resource of Shield spells that sends their AC into the stratosphere where they become functionally immune to martial violence (especially considering how sturdy they are even if an attack were to hit).Next round, Warlock sends one close demon "through hell", and attempts to escape into darkness cast halfway outside the cage by the Monk (who needs it to teleport outside the Forcecage). The Eldritch Knight also passes the Charisma save to escape (using Misty Step). The Cleric fails his Hold Monster save yet again <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> The halfling seems impressed by the savage and brutal fight (finally! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ) and blows their Horn of Nidavellir (a custom horn of valhalla given to them for the final demon showdown fight): twelve spectral dwarf Berserkers appear to help. Next round a couple of demons chase the Warlock into the darkness (she can herself see just fine). Getting OAs from dwarfs, but pushing through and eventually finding her (wasting some attacks). The last two Hold Monsters were shrugged off by the halfling and EK, respectively.Demons trying to attack the other party members have very little luck, although one luckily rolled a 19 on his snake attack, making Eldritch Knight player freak out, since she needs to roll 15 to make a DC Wisdom save (talk about having strengths and weaknesses... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />). But, no exhaustion - there's always one more ability, one more reroll or one more bonus die to help out...Demons attacking Nidavellir have an easier time (obviously) but I'm running them as combat vets, so they are acutely aware of the futility in attacking summoned beings (compared to killing the summoner, I mean).By this time, we are up to 25+ combatants, so the fight takes quite some time, and we're breaking for the day. Three demons are down, the Warlock is on her final Death Save; but Tarnstaff and his mate are effectively out of the combat, and the rest of the Molydei are all approaching bloodied state, while the Cleric and Monk are unharmed and the two fighters have only lost ~40 hp between them (apart from the 20 temporary hp Inspired Leader grants everybody).I offered to wrap up the fight, but since one of theirs is close to needing a Raise Dead, they all wanted to finish it off properly next time (especially the Cleric player who got to do diddly squat for six hours <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />).Questions in next post. Later dudes /Zapp</blockquote>

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