Encounter - Split Personality

[malcolm_n]

This is the second encounter of a new dungeon I'll be building over this next week. When the dungeon is complete, each encounter, save the last, can be completed in any order.

Encounter Level 11/12 (3000/3500 XP)

Setup
This encounter includes the following creatures at the low tier:
Grand Magus Telestra(T, Spell Weaver Collector, increased to level 11); she can use Flametrap Invocation against any target.

This encounter includes the following creatures at the high tier:
Grand Magus Telestra(T, Spell Weaver Collector, increased to level 12); she can use Flametrap Invocation against any target.

Telestra guards the first magical ley line which holds the dragon above encased in ice. She and the other mages the party have encountered were promised they could channel the dragon's magic for themselves if they keep it frozen for a rival blue dragon. She will fight to the death, having been driven mad with the promise of power. Read the following:

The last of the eladrin fall to your assault, and a barrier drops from the wall to the right. Throughout this area of the cavern, you hear a feminine, beautiful voice call, "I will handle this, my allies."
She then turns to you directly and says, "Aren't you the curious type to try and steal our power. You know what they say about curiosity."

Features of the Area
Illumination: Reflected Light (bright illumination)
Arcane Bolster: aura 2, emanating from Telestra; at the start of the spell weaver’s turn, she gains temporary hit points equal to the level of the highest level magic item within the aura.

Tactics
Grand Magus Telestra starts combat with a surprise round, having prepared to cast "Flame Trap Invocation" before the barrier fell. Party members can make an Arcana, Insight, or Perception check (Medium DC) to participate in the surprise round She makes the attack against defenders first, then strikers, leaders, or controllers in that order. Throughout the rest of the fight, she'll continue to try and pin down a defender with the invocation, while controlling damage dealers with Sharing of Minds or Arctic Rune. Telestra will also make liberal use of her other powers as the battle warrants.

Scaling the Encounter
Make the following adjustments to the combat based on the number of PCs present.
Four PCs: Grand Magus Telestra doesn't have a readied action.
Six PCs: Grand Magus Telestra has combat advantage against creatures before whom she acts during the surprise round and the first round of combat. When first bloodied, her extract arcane soul recharges, and she uses it as a free action.

Ending the Encounter
The encounter ends when Telestra is defeated.
If the PCs question Grand Magus Telestra, or any of the eladrin they encounter before or after this encounter, they relate the following:
* The king of the blue dragons has declared war on humanity for trying to use magic for their own gain. He is working to remove all magic from the world, save that of his kind and those with whom they ally.
* The blue king and the red queen have a long standing rivalry, and when he learned she sought this dragon's soul to put it to rest, he sent the eladrin to stop anybody who would free it.
* The eladrin came here of their own free will, seeking more arcane knowledge and power. Once inside, they were granted passage to this corridor by the blue dragons above.
* If the party continues down this corridor, they'll find the area where the blue dragons are attempting to harness magical energies within the cavern to strengthen the red dragon's prison above.
* If the party continues up the corridor, they'll likely run into a rogue dwarven general on whom the grand magus was spying and had planned to face.

Experience Points
Each PC should receive 3000 / 3500 experience points for defeating Grand Magus Telestra.

Treasure
There is no treasure in this encounter.[sblock=Encounter Map] [ ] = square, || = Wall, [x] are where PCs can start.
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[Ebylon]

World of Dungeons and Dragoncraft much?

EDIT: Geez, the encounter name is even the achievement name too, man. And all that fluff... Why not just say "I'm conceptualizing World of Warcraft in a D&D form" instead of making it look like you're making all of it up? Not to be a jerk. :\

 

[malcolm_n]

check out my blog... I very plainly put it up there for you. Her name is even the same as posted at wowwiki. You should also check out the frozen commander below this one. And next, I'll be working on Chaos Theory, Crystal Giant, and finally Intense Cold.

I work to complete the dungeon in it's entirety as individual encounters first. After I'm done with them all, I'll create another post hosting them all with story and explanation.

 

[Ebylon]

I don't read peoples' blogs. I come here for the forum, mainly. I doubt I'm the only one who does that. I'm not saying I don't like the idea. I'm a WoW crackhead, and I like seeing things get transposed like this.

I'm just saying that, unless someone went looking at your blog, if they were just glancing through the forum it'd look like you were ganking WoW source material and labeling it as your own.

That all said, does Telestra actually split up into her multiple forms? Since there's no statblock to look at yet.

 

[malcolm_n]

Meh, take it as you will. I did Old Kingdom previously too. Stick around and follow the posts. Thanks for the replies. I'm not posting stats for her, as they already exist on the compendium.

An'kahet: The Old Kingdom

 

[Ebylon]

Another question, is there any particular reason why the two tiers are only a level apart? That's not so much multiple tiers as one level's worth of stat tweaking... why not make two actual different tiers from a D&D sense for it? A heroic and a paragon version, or paragon and epic?


EDIT: And what compendium are you referring to?

 

[malcolm_n]

The tiers of a module are within a level range (in this case 11-14). When the dungeon is complete, there will be encounters of each of these level builds available. This monster I used starts as level 7, so the most she can be raised within reason is 5. I also picked 11/12 because personally I've always felt the commander is a harder fight, warranting the higher encounter level for him.

The D&D compendium, available at wizards of the coast. DDI subscribers can access the full utility and read stats. This monster, in particular, is available there and was published in a recent Dungeon Magazine article. Because I'm referencing a monster not readily available through the GSL, I don't want to post full stat blocks on it.

As a quick summary, the monster gets a lightning, a fire, and a cold attack, as well as a psychic attack which stalls enemies and heals the monster. When I read it, it very much felt like how I'd like to represent the magus in D&D, so I stuck with it. If you happen to not be a subscriber, consider building a monster for your group if you run this that holds more to your idea of her.

 

[Ebylon]

I have DDI. I just didn't understand you were saying what the monster type was in the parenthesis after her name. I get it now. It's almost ridiculous how perfect a fit for her it is.