Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celtavian" data-source="post: 6826540" data-attributes="member: 5834">Session 12Apothicas scouts the svirfneblin and duergar compounds using a combination of stealth and his bat familiar. He finds the svirfneblin compound in a state of ruin. The doors to their warehouse have been broken open with picks. The svirfneblin inside have been slaughtered by duergar weaponry. The bat’s echolocation detected a few concealed svirfneblin likely using magic or their natural ability to blend with stone to hide. Most of the valuables have been plundered.The duergar compound was fortified and unscathed. The gates to the compound were closed. The bat detected invisible duergar guards at the gates and doors of their warehouse. Apothicas decided to leave the assault on the duergar compound for a later time.After making a deal with Sirak to slay the beholder negotiated by Apothicas, the PCs joined by Kinyel, a drow assassin working for Sirak, made their way to the Zhentarim enclave for a meeting arranged by Sirak to further negotiate with Ghazrim. Dar had earlier informed Apothicas of a demonic presence associated with Kinyel. Apothicas confirmed the presence with his paladin gifts from the goddess Shar. They ambushed her on the way to the Zhentarim enclave with Apothicas shouting, “Die, Demon!” At that moment most of the group was surprised save Dar and Apothicas. They attacked Kinyel failing to damage her. A gargoyle that had shadowed them from the drow enclave came to Kinyel’s aid. The party not sure what was occurring killed both Kinyel and the gargoyle. The PCs searched Kinyel’s body finding a gem with a powerful demonic presence. Destrian touched the gem and felt a powerful demonic mind touch his, the thoughts so profane he was almost driven mad. Only his extremely strong will prevented his mental dissipation. The PCs immediately decided that Tytus should attempt to destroy the gem with his vorpal sword. He proceeded to strike it. Each time he struck the gem, his mind was assaulted by the demon lord Fraz’urb-luu. Tytus continued to strike the gem until the demon lord’s mental assault caused him to halt and almost killed him. At that point Destrian took up the task of unleashing the power of the grave upon the gem. His stronger mind allowed him to resist the mental assault and destroy the gem. When the fist-sized black gem of exquisite craftsmanship shattered, the spirit of Fraz-urb’luu rose up as a demonic shadow of the demon lord, laughed, and faded returning to his body in the Abyss, the first of the demon lords to be driven from Underdark.The PCs took a short rest, then proceeded to the meeting with the Zhentarim. At the meeting Apothicas told Ghazrim why he was sent: to kill the beholder and obtain his ring. Ghazrim, sure that Sirak would not send anyone not capable of killing a beholder to make such a bold threat, offered his ring if the PCs left. Apothicas took the ring, Jharzzle’s bow Sassindra banished Ghazrim, and the PCs assaulted the beholder and the Zhentarim guards. The beholder did not last long in an open fight within the Zhentarim pavilion. It did almost petrify Apothicas and did a bit of damage to Tytus, but it could not withstand such a powerful group. After the beholder felt, the Zhentarim thugs were quickly dispatched and the remaining Zhentarim veterans surrendered. The PCs dismissed the banishment and left Ghazrim in place for Sirak to negotiate with.The next day the PCs assaulted the duergar complex killing most of the duergar. They found the deep gnome leader being tortured by the duergar leaders. She was dressed in a suit of gems suspended over a xorn while being questioned about the whereabouts of the gem. Apothicas informed them the gem was destroyed, then killed them. The party left the merchants that did not fight alive at Jharzzle’s urging. Sirak dispatched them later as well as the remaining svirfneblin to take control of the trading post and opened negotiations with the weakened Zhentarim taking control of trade with the surface world. Sirak was pleased with Apothicas and they developed a romantic as well as political and economic relationship.DM Notes:1. I used a full powered beholder in Mantol-Derith rather than the weakened version given the size and power of the party. It did ok. A DC 16 save isn't an automatic save. I think in an environment more amenable to its mobility, it would have done better. But the beholder is as it always has been: more frightening in appearance than power. I imagine for a group with less magic and smaller, it would be a lot scarier creature. Though I did boost its hit points and allowed calculated uses of its eye rays. It didn't change much. I'll have to work on modifications for the beholder that make it more dangerous and capable. I think improving its mobility may do the trick. If it can move around the battlefield using its flight effectively for defense, it would be a much more dangerous creature.2. The gem was a custom encounter. I wanted to make the destruction of the gem a more interesting encounter. Even though it was easy relative to the power of a full demon lord, I wanted the PCs to have a taste of what it was to battle an Abyssal lord. I also used it as a chance to dispense an high experience award to boost the level pace as they reach the parts of the module where they will be facing more formidable enemies. I gave the full value for defeating Fraz-Urb'luu. If the group did not use the ideal PCs to attack the gem, this encounter might have been a great deal more costly. Destrian was the one character that could withstand the mental assault of the demon lord with some degree of success.3. The PCs acquired some minor magical items from the duergar compound, some of them looted from the svirfneblin by the duergar.4. The PCs made level 8.</blockquote>

Verification