Challenging my high-lvl group (NPCs and monsters; my players shouldn't read this!)

[blargney]

Fun from the past!

Their fight with their old enemy (a former antipaladin of the God of Murder, now a death knight after the PCs had him arrested and beheaded several years back)went fairly well. When all was said and done, they had slain the body and flame-struck the still animate head. If they're lucky, that will have been sufficient to slay it.

Did you say you were resurrecting undead? *wink*

-blarg!

 

[Piratecat]

Oh. My. God. That would be bad. Evil. Mean.

But they DO have certain divination spells at their disposal, such as legend lore... is it TOO unlikely? Possibly. I'll have to give it some thought.

 

[blargney]

Oh. My. God. That would be bad. Evil. Mean.

Right! Where exactly is the problem?

But they DO have certain divination spells at their disposal, such as legend lore... is it TOO unlikely? Possibly. I'll have to give it some thought.

First Legend Lore: Destroyed undead enemies of the Defenders of Daybreak.
(To be enlisted with resurrection thingy...)

Second Legend Lore: Dead enemies of the Defenders of Daybreak.
(To be found, raised, undeadified and enlisted...)

Gotta get 'em all!
-blarg

 

[Bronz Dragon]

Just for a littl freak-out factor...

Have them walk into a room full of upright pikes, with innocents impaled on each one... and a lot of them still alive. The ones at the beginning would be writhing in pain, they'd all be dead by the time they get to the middle... and then when the party gets to the last row, they suddenly start attacking.

Ghoul Hachery

For added effect, have a narsty little ghoulish mind-flayer wandering around the chamber.. A kind of caretaker taking a bite here, a nibble there, but more horrific, he reaches into the minds of the poor afflicted innocents, relishing their terrified memories of the ghouls' attack on their little village.

They see their entire family torn up and devoured with hungry abandon, gore splattering and entrails flying as the frenzying undead sate themselves. Then when they are no longer hungry, they hear the whimpering from beneath the baseboards, haul the victim from their hiding place and hurl them down a twisting turning tunnel faster and faster, then sending them plunging into a void.. filled with spikes reaching up like greedy claws for them. Then hours of suffering as they slowly slide down the hideously barbed stalagmites, watching the hoary death-wizard working his way toward them with languorous cruelty, and then...

At this point the Defenders should somehow gain the mind-flayer's attention, and he'll send this gobbet of memory lancing directly into some sensitive individual's brain via a Mind Blast, torturing them psychically during the stunning period.

Neat little flavour nugget, and a cool way to insinuate a mind-flayer into your game, everybody LOVES mindflayers!

EDIT -- cool idea inserted

 

[Capellan]

At this point the Defenders should somehow gain the necromancers attention, and he'll send this gobbet of memory lancing directly into some sensitive individual's brain, torturing them psychically until he is slain.

Neat little flavour nugget, and a cool way to take a player out of combat. Dunno what kind of spell you'd use, though.

Use psionics for it, instead of a spell. Mind Blast would be very appropriate - treat the period of being stunned as when the PC is helplessly stuck in the memory, unable to act from fear and revulsion.

 

[Wippit Guud]

BTW, just to give credit, impaled people 'visual' courtesy of my PBEM Ravenloft game... horror checks are fun things, really

 

[Bronz Dragon]

Use psionics for it, instead of a spell. Mind Blast would be very appropriate - treat the period of being stunned as when the PC is helplessly stuck in the memory, unable to act from fear and revulsion.

Hey yeah! duh, me...

Okay, editted it. My apologies to the Defenders

 

[maddman75]

Here's another one, now that the Ghoul Master is paticularly upset with the Defenders.

Legend Lore - Dead *friends* of the defenders, whose corpses would be recovered and "recruited."

 

[DoctorB]

I love the idea of bringing back dead enemies of the DoD and even better, dead friends...
The only problem is the time factor. Did the ghoul leaders know what a pain in the rotting rear-end these guys would be? If so, some could have happened ahead of time. Otherwise, it will take time to find the corpses and raise them.

Another idea, BTW. Toward the end of this, you could go for the false ending. Have the ghoul godling create a duplicate of itself that it allows to be killed. Then, as the triumphant Defenders are returning to the surface, hit them with everything they have fought up to then at once.

 

[Bronz Dragon]

Why stop with just friends?

Anyone whom the Defenders have had contact with could be a target. Halfway through the battle, they start seeing faces which are vaguely familiar, then creepily so, then people they knew well. Past lovers of Nolin's might be particularly poignant for him.. or not, come to think of it.