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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 8011239" data-attributes="member: 1210">Just finished up, and we left it mid-battle for what might be the first time in 5e.It was my Delta group. They've been exploring this underwater pyramid, and tonight, they finally found the undead (death knight) king's lair. They attacked him, but one of them had been snared by a trap that left him charmed by the king for 8 hours, and he immediately turned on the rest of the party.Upon attacking the king, five wraiths and two margoyles joined the fight (margoyles, if you don't know, are basically a tougher, stronger version of gargoyles). The pcs looked like they were going to have an easy time of it at first; the monk stunned the death knight on round one, before he could act, and the party took him down before he got a turn.Buuuuut....Okay- so the bard/sorcerer hit him with a chill touch, which didn't hurt him, but did set the party up for a surprise. See, this is one of those bad guys who just can't be killed unless you figure out the trick to him. If he is at 0 hps at the start of his turn, he regains half his hit points. But the chill touch prevented that for one round. So they didn't realize it until they'd gotten cocky and gone in hard against his minions for a round or two. Then, suddenly, the death knight rose up and cast destructive wave, and the pcs were in trouble.They realized there had to be a phylactery or something similar at work, and after several rounds, surmised that it was his crown (are they right? I'm not telling). The monk grabbed it but it wouldn't come off his head until he went down again- but then, the charmed pc hit him for like 25 points of (sneak attack!) damage and dropped him, and before anyone could do anything about it, the king rose up and put his crown back on.By this time it was after midnight, and we called it for the moment, with the monk down, most of the pcs very badly injured, the death knight back at half his hps, the charmed pc ready to kill to protect his king, and the party having figured out a degree of strategy- namely, use that chill touch again! Stop him from getting up once he's down!They also have a friendly couatl with them, shapechanged into a shark.On the bright side, the pcs aren't even there to deal with this death knight. They're there to find one-third of a map, which they found on the king's desk while frantically searching for a way to stop the king. So they have what they came for, if they can get out with it.This is one of the most desperate battles I've run in 5e. The pcs have dispatched one of the margoyles and two of the wraiths, with the rest of their foes in bad shape, but they're getting low on spell slots, especially high level ones, and the death knight has a TON left, hasn't even used his Abyssal blast, and nobody has made any real effort to break the charm on their rogue/wizard buddy.I'm excited to see how this ends up!</blockquote>

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