In my 4e game, the PCs have found themselves in the Underdark for the past several sessions. The last few have involved them hanging out in a duergard stronghold.
The events
After a duergar theurge called Framath helped the PCs in their fight with a hydra, which left the PCs in possession of a 4th piece of the Sceptre of Law (= Rod of 7 Parts), the PCs returned with her to the duergar stronghold so that they (i) take an extended rest, and (ii) repay the debt they owed her for her help. (They made it clear that they were not going to give her even a piece of the Sceptre as repayment!)
In the duergar stronghold, the PCs were housed in two separate groups. The invoker/wizard who wields the Sceptre, and the tiefling paladin who respects the duergars' reliability and empathises with their past dealings with devils, were housed in pleasant quarters. The dwarf fighter/cleric of Moradin, the elven ranger, and the drow chaos sorcerer, were housed in dingy quarters. The drow was in a bad way for two reasons: (i) his channelling of chaos energy in the fight with the hydra had blinded him and has Robe of Eyes (although he was able to attune himself to chaos emanations, gaining a variable blindsight); and (ii) the duergar didn't trust him, given that he is a drow wearing demonskins emblazoned with runes of chaos.
The two privileged PCs met with Framath's superior (a duergar warrior-type called Pechuk) and discussed the fate of the multiverse, how the battle could be taken to the Abyss, and the role the Sceptre might play in such a project. This conversation confirmed what the PCs already knew, that the duergard had a fragment of the Sceptre in their own possession. It also revealed that Framath, by helping the PCs kill the hydra and gain the piece of the Sceptre that was embedded in its body, had gone agaist the wishes of another faction within the duergar hold, who wanted the hydra to be left to grow to maturity, as it would then open a gate to the Elemental Chaos through which the duergar could storm. (Mechanically, this was resolved as a skill challenge to establish good relations between these two PCs and Pechuk, and in particular to ensure that he didn't make an attempt to take the Sceptre from them himself.)
In the meantime, the ranger PC joined the duergar on patrols and scouting missions, and learned a bit about the layout of the Underdark region, and also the threat to the hold posed by purple worms. And the dwarf PC was invited to show his prowess by fighting an arena-trained ogre in the gladitorial pit - which he did rather well! While the bulk of the duergar were watching this fight, the drow received a mysterious telepathic communication from a being calling itself "Pazrael", telling him that if only he would open a doorway in a warehouse in an out-of-the-way part of the hold then his blindness would be cured. Deciding that he was sick of being cooped up, the drow sneaked out to the designated location, and after some scouting out, and some wrestling with his conscience, decided to "open" the door by blasting it with the Winds of Change. When he did (i) his blindness was lifted, as promised, (ii) a magical gate opened in the doorway, and (iii) some duergar guards heard the (loud) noise and came to investigate. They found the gate, but the drow managed to persuade them that he was in the area because he heard the noise, rather than that he was the one who had helped open it. (This was resolved as a skill challenge, with only partial success.)
The guards nevertheless took the drow before the leader of the hold (and Pechuk's rival), Murkelmor. The other PCs were also called in, while Framath was placed under arrest. A further complication was the appearance of a group of devils through the gate, who explained that they had been trapped on the Plane of 1000 Portals (the 1st layer of the Abyss) for a long time, having been there as part of a contingent fighting the Blood War, but had now managed to come through a gate that had opened. When the PCs appeared before Murkelmor, the devils were there with him, as well as his duergar mage/cleric/sage advisors. The PCs also noticed the presence of a small invisible being, although couldn't work out what it was.
This was another skill challenge, and despite some faux pas (for example, emphasising rather than downplaying their killing of the hydra) they managed to persuade Murkelmor that they were friends of the duergar who wanted to fight common enemies in the Underdark (like drow, and also forces of Orcus who have taken over the drow outpost of Phaervorul). He sent them from his chamber to reach his judgement. While waiting in the antechamber the PC invoker used his Crystal Ball to spy on Murkelmor, and observed him being dominated by the devils. When he called the PCs back in, they were therefore ready to launch an assault - knocking most of the devils unconscious (but killing the invisible dominator) and freeing Murkelmor from possession. (One of the devils escaped from the chamber through a secret door, leading to a dramatic chase by the ranger PC o foot and flying carpet to head it off and kill it before it could escape back through the gate.)
The PCs trapped the surviving devils in a Magic Circle, and then interrogated them, learning some of the information above, and that the gate had been opened by a nabassue demon - whom they had sneaked past to go through it. (They also levelled to 19th.)
As this interrogation was taking place, news came to Murelmor that hordes of demons were now attacking through the gate. Naturally, the PCs were in the vanguard of the response! This fight unfolded in two stages. First, the PCs (minus the ranger, whose player had to go home - we took it that he was on his flying carpet helping the duergar off-screen) came to the gate and fought the demons guarding it - a nabassu, a shaadee and a (levelled up) Jovoc - as well as a flight of vrocks that flew in to attack them (elite Gargantuan swarm). The two biggest tactical challenges here were (i) bringing the vrocks to ground - once they did this, they didn't have too much trouble with them), and (ii) the shaadee's domination, which I got off twice in a row against the sorcerer PC, who was therefore blasting away the defenders' hit points with Blazing Starfalls. Once the sorcerer's player got his actions back, he blasted the demon away with some well-placed demonsoul bolts (which pushed it off the roof of the building it was lurking on, for bonus damage). But just as the PCs were finishing off the demons, they got a shock when Orcus (or, as it turned out, an Aspect thereof) came through the gate.
At the same time that this happened, the ranger PC came onto the scene chasing mobs of orcs (two Huge swarms), plus half-a-dozen ogres - slaves of the duergar in revolt under the leadership of an ogre dreadnought and trying to escape through the gate. (In the real world, Orcus's arrrival marked the end of one session, and when we reconvened a fortnight later the ranger's player was back on deck.) The players opted to focus on Orcus while holding off the slaves, or picking them up in AoEs. The paladin was maintaining a Righteous Inferno, which in conjunction with some other terrain features forced the orcs and ogres to focus on the defenders rather than the squishy sorcerer and invoker.
As his 19th level daily the invoker's player had chosen Forced Submission (a relibale save-ends domination power), and decided that now was the time to use it. He hit first time, despite needing 15+ - he had bonuses from Preserver's Rebuke, Knowledge is Power (Divine Philosopher ability) and combat advantage due to Orcus being in the paladin's Inferno. So Orcus spent two turns dominated: on the first he threw his Wand through the gate, which the sorcerer then blocked off by raising a pillar of earth in front of it (6th level utility from Heroes of the Elemental Chaos); on the second he clawed ineffectually at the ogre leader (who had got too close to the invoker for the invoker's comfort!).
After that it was all downhill for Orcus, as the ranger pelted him with arrows, and the other PCs wailed on him too), and while the revolting slaves managed to pile quite a bit of damage onto the defenders (especially the fighter), good healing tactics kept them up. Meanwhile the invoker shut down the gate - this took four actions (three standards and a minor) but was done in a single turn using a Timeless Locket and Uncanny Insight. In the course of this, he worked out that the gate had runes of Pazrael inscribed around its edge, but that it was not opening onto the Plane of 1000 Portals. He also detected a strange disembodied presence, which offered him help in shutting down the gate. He declined the help, but opted to shut the gate quickly rather than try and force the presence back through it (mechanically, he finished the skill challenge at 4 rather than 6 successes). Shutting the gate hurt Orcus further, debuffing him on defences and damage, and he was killed (fittingly enough) by an arrow from the ranger, who is also a cleric of the Raven Queen. (The paladin, who also serves the Raven Queen, and whose turn was up next, was forgiving of this kill steal by a felow devotee.)
At this point it seemed like things were OK. The PCs had seen Murkelmor fall in trying to quell the slaves, but otherwise things looked OK. When the disembodied voice vowed vengeance against the invoker and his duergar friends, he laughed it off and set about conjuring a Magic Circle to trap the body of Orcus's Aspect, and thereby (hopefully) depriving Orcus of some of his essence. (He used a jewel carved in the shape of an eye that had earlier been taken from a worshipper of Vecna as a focus to make the Circle permanent - the players liked the idea of having Vecna be their watcher over Orcus.)
As the other PCs were carrying the bodies of Murkelmor and other fallen duergar back to the citadel, the invoker went up to the palace also to consult with Framath about the imprisonment of the Aspect's body. But then disaster struck! A purple worm tunnelled into the stronghold, down into the underhalls of the palace. The invoker could see, though the tunnels that it left behind it, the worm break into a room where Framath was picking up a small casket, obviously (he inferred) holding the duergar's fragment of the Sceptre of Law. And then the worm swallowed here, casket and all! As the disembodied voice in the invoker's head gloated, the worm proceeded to tunnel through the duergar hold, bringing buildings crashing down. With a speed of 8 even when tunnelling, and the ability to attack with a move action, the PCs had no hope of pinning it down; and the duergar, morale already undermined by the apparent betrayal by their devil allies, and then by the demon assault and slave revolt that killed their leader, gave up.
The paladin PC had already, when the PCs first entered the duergar hold, mused that the duergar did not seem to have come to terms with the fact that (as with the tieflings) their infernal pact would leave them a dead civilisation and a diminshed people. He pondered whether now was the time to make that point, but decided instead to rally the duergar - and with the help of the ranger, using techniques the duergard had taught hime while out scouting (successful Nature check), and the fighter, who took control of the duergars' batteries of arbalest constructs, they managed to drive the worm away from the hold and back into the wild parts of the Underdark. (Another successful skill challenge.) The session ended with the PCs ready to perform a Phantom Steed ritual to give them the speed they need to chase the worm through its tunnels. Framath has been given up as dead, but they plan to at least recover the fragment of the Sceptre!
GM's reflections
When the players decided to have their PCs go to the duergar hold to recuperate I wasn't quite sure how it would play out, and had to make up quite a bit of stuff quickly. I already knew that there were two factions among the duergar leadership, but the way it played out was mostly improvised. I'm not sure what gave me the idea for the gate, but it worked out quite well, and the whole episode has increased the campaign-level stakes around the Rod of Seven Parts and the war between law and chaos, while also reinforcing the centrality of Orcus as an opponent. I'm not sure that the players really appreciate that the nabassu moved the gate from the Plain of 1000 Portals to Thanatos so that an Aspect could come through, and I'm sure they don't know who/what Pazrael is (though the invoker is very sceptical of the folklore that he recalls!), but there is no shortage of new leads for them to pursue, and new ways for me to poke at them.
If the invoker had opted to try to force Pazrael's presence back through the portal, and had succeeded, then Pazrael would have been unable to call the worm into the duergar hold, and Framath would have been able to hand over the fragment of the Sceptre. But the players don't sem to have processed this, and I am going to have to do something to reinforce their awareness that there choices were a major cause of ruin coming to the duergar. From the moral point of view this may be distrubing, although aesthetically it was pleasing that the paladin player's musings about "dead civilisations" came true!
The events
After a duergar theurge called Framath helped the PCs in their fight with a hydra, which left the PCs in possession of a 4th piece of the Sceptre of Law (= Rod of 7 Parts), the PCs returned with her to the duergar stronghold so that they (i) take an extended rest, and (ii) repay the debt they owed her for her help. (They made it clear that they were not going to give her even a piece of the Sceptre as repayment!)
In the duergar stronghold, the PCs were housed in two separate groups. The invoker/wizard who wields the Sceptre, and the tiefling paladin who respects the duergars' reliability and empathises with their past dealings with devils, were housed in pleasant quarters. The dwarf fighter/cleric of Moradin, the elven ranger, and the drow chaos sorcerer, were housed in dingy quarters. The drow was in a bad way for two reasons: (i) his channelling of chaos energy in the fight with the hydra had blinded him and has Robe of Eyes (although he was able to attune himself to chaos emanations, gaining a variable blindsight); and (ii) the duergar didn't trust him, given that he is a drow wearing demonskins emblazoned with runes of chaos.
The two privileged PCs met with Framath's superior (a duergar warrior-type called Pechuk) and discussed the fate of the multiverse, how the battle could be taken to the Abyss, and the role the Sceptre might play in such a project. This conversation confirmed what the PCs already knew, that the duergard had a fragment of the Sceptre in their own possession. It also revealed that Framath, by helping the PCs kill the hydra and gain the piece of the Sceptre that was embedded in its body, had gone agaist the wishes of another faction within the duergar hold, who wanted the hydra to be left to grow to maturity, as it would then open a gate to the Elemental Chaos through which the duergar could storm. (Mechanically, this was resolved as a skill challenge to establish good relations between these two PCs and Pechuk, and in particular to ensure that he didn't make an attempt to take the Sceptre from them himself.)
In the meantime, the ranger PC joined the duergar on patrols and scouting missions, and learned a bit about the layout of the Underdark region, and also the threat to the hold posed by purple worms. And the dwarf PC was invited to show his prowess by fighting an arena-trained ogre in the gladitorial pit - which he did rather well! While the bulk of the duergar were watching this fight, the drow received a mysterious telepathic communication from a being calling itself "Pazrael", telling him that if only he would open a doorway in a warehouse in an out-of-the-way part of the hold then his blindness would be cured. Deciding that he was sick of being cooped up, the drow sneaked out to the designated location, and after some scouting out, and some wrestling with his conscience, decided to "open" the door by blasting it with the Winds of Change. When he did (i) his blindness was lifted, as promised, (ii) a magical gate opened in the doorway, and (iii) some duergar guards heard the (loud) noise and came to investigate. They found the gate, but the drow managed to persuade them that he was in the area because he heard the noise, rather than that he was the one who had helped open it. (This was resolved as a skill challenge, with only partial success.)
The guards nevertheless took the drow before the leader of the hold (and Pechuk's rival), Murkelmor. The other PCs were also called in, while Framath was placed under arrest. A further complication was the appearance of a group of devils through the gate, who explained that they had been trapped on the Plane of 1000 Portals (the 1st layer of the Abyss) for a long time, having been there as part of a contingent fighting the Blood War, but had now managed to come through a gate that had opened. When the PCs appeared before Murkelmor, the devils were there with him, as well as his duergar mage/cleric/sage advisors. The PCs also noticed the presence of a small invisible being, although couldn't work out what it was.
This was another skill challenge, and despite some faux pas (for example, emphasising rather than downplaying their killing of the hydra) they managed to persuade Murkelmor that they were friends of the duergar who wanted to fight common enemies in the Underdark (like drow, and also forces of Orcus who have taken over the drow outpost of Phaervorul). He sent them from his chamber to reach his judgement. While waiting in the antechamber the PC invoker used his Crystal Ball to spy on Murkelmor, and observed him being dominated by the devils. When he called the PCs back in, they were therefore ready to launch an assault - knocking most of the devils unconscious (but killing the invisible dominator) and freeing Murkelmor from possession. (One of the devils escaped from the chamber through a secret door, leading to a dramatic chase by the ranger PC o foot and flying carpet to head it off and kill it before it could escape back through the gate.)
The PCs trapped the surviving devils in a Magic Circle, and then interrogated them, learning some of the information above, and that the gate had been opened by a nabassue demon - whom they had sneaked past to go through it. (They also levelled to 19th.)
As this interrogation was taking place, news came to Murelmor that hordes of demons were now attacking through the gate. Naturally, the PCs were in the vanguard of the response! This fight unfolded in two stages. First, the PCs (minus the ranger, whose player had to go home - we took it that he was on his flying carpet helping the duergar off-screen) came to the gate and fought the demons guarding it - a nabassu, a shaadee and a (levelled up) Jovoc - as well as a flight of vrocks that flew in to attack them (elite Gargantuan swarm). The two biggest tactical challenges here were (i) bringing the vrocks to ground - once they did this, they didn't have too much trouble with them), and (ii) the shaadee's domination, which I got off twice in a row against the sorcerer PC, who was therefore blasting away the defenders' hit points with Blazing Starfalls. Once the sorcerer's player got his actions back, he blasted the demon away with some well-placed demonsoul bolts (which pushed it off the roof of the building it was lurking on, for bonus damage). But just as the PCs were finishing off the demons, they got a shock when Orcus (or, as it turned out, an Aspect thereof) came through the gate.
At the same time that this happened, the ranger PC came onto the scene chasing mobs of orcs (two Huge swarms), plus half-a-dozen ogres - slaves of the duergar in revolt under the leadership of an ogre dreadnought and trying to escape through the gate. (In the real world, Orcus's arrrival marked the end of one session, and when we reconvened a fortnight later the ranger's player was back on deck.) The players opted to focus on Orcus while holding off the slaves, or picking them up in AoEs. The paladin was maintaining a Righteous Inferno, which in conjunction with some other terrain features forced the orcs and ogres to focus on the defenders rather than the squishy sorcerer and invoker.
As his 19th level daily the invoker's player had chosen Forced Submission (a relibale save-ends domination power), and decided that now was the time to use it. He hit first time, despite needing 15+ - he had bonuses from Preserver's Rebuke, Knowledge is Power (Divine Philosopher ability) and combat advantage due to Orcus being in the paladin's Inferno. So Orcus spent two turns dominated: on the first he threw his Wand through the gate, which the sorcerer then blocked off by raising a pillar of earth in front of it (6th level utility from Heroes of the Elemental Chaos); on the second he clawed ineffectually at the ogre leader (who had got too close to the invoker for the invoker's comfort!).
After that it was all downhill for Orcus, as the ranger pelted him with arrows, and the other PCs wailed on him too), and while the revolting slaves managed to pile quite a bit of damage onto the defenders (especially the fighter), good healing tactics kept them up. Meanwhile the invoker shut down the gate - this took four actions (three standards and a minor) but was done in a single turn using a Timeless Locket and Uncanny Insight. In the course of this, he worked out that the gate had runes of Pazrael inscribed around its edge, but that it was not opening onto the Plane of 1000 Portals. He also detected a strange disembodied presence, which offered him help in shutting down the gate. He declined the help, but opted to shut the gate quickly rather than try and force the presence back through it (mechanically, he finished the skill challenge at 4 rather than 6 successes). Shutting the gate hurt Orcus further, debuffing him on defences and damage, and he was killed (fittingly enough) by an arrow from the ranger, who is also a cleric of the Raven Queen. (The paladin, who also serves the Raven Queen, and whose turn was up next, was forgiving of this kill steal by a felow devotee.)
At this point it seemed like things were OK. The PCs had seen Murkelmor fall in trying to quell the slaves, but otherwise things looked OK. When the disembodied voice vowed vengeance against the invoker and his duergar friends, he laughed it off and set about conjuring a Magic Circle to trap the body of Orcus's Aspect, and thereby (hopefully) depriving Orcus of some of his essence. (He used a jewel carved in the shape of an eye that had earlier been taken from a worshipper of Vecna as a focus to make the Circle permanent - the players liked the idea of having Vecna be their watcher over Orcus.)
As the other PCs were carrying the bodies of Murkelmor and other fallen duergar back to the citadel, the invoker went up to the palace also to consult with Framath about the imprisonment of the Aspect's body. But then disaster struck! A purple worm tunnelled into the stronghold, down into the underhalls of the palace. The invoker could see, though the tunnels that it left behind it, the worm break into a room where Framath was picking up a small casket, obviously (he inferred) holding the duergar's fragment of the Sceptre of Law. And then the worm swallowed here, casket and all! As the disembodied voice in the invoker's head gloated, the worm proceeded to tunnel through the duergar hold, bringing buildings crashing down. With a speed of 8 even when tunnelling, and the ability to attack with a move action, the PCs had no hope of pinning it down; and the duergar, morale already undermined by the apparent betrayal by their devil allies, and then by the demon assault and slave revolt that killed their leader, gave up.
The paladin PC had already, when the PCs first entered the duergar hold, mused that the duergar did not seem to have come to terms with the fact that (as with the tieflings) their infernal pact would leave them a dead civilisation and a diminshed people. He pondered whether now was the time to make that point, but decided instead to rally the duergar - and with the help of the ranger, using techniques the duergard had taught hime while out scouting (successful Nature check), and the fighter, who took control of the duergars' batteries of arbalest constructs, they managed to drive the worm away from the hold and back into the wild parts of the Underdark. (Another successful skill challenge.) The session ended with the PCs ready to perform a Phantom Steed ritual to give them the speed they need to chase the worm through its tunnels. Framath has been given up as dead, but they plan to at least recover the fragment of the Sceptre!
GM's reflections
When the players decided to have their PCs go to the duergar hold to recuperate I wasn't quite sure how it would play out, and had to make up quite a bit of stuff quickly. I already knew that there were two factions among the duergar leadership, but the way it played out was mostly improvised. I'm not sure what gave me the idea for the gate, but it worked out quite well, and the whole episode has increased the campaign-level stakes around the Rod of Seven Parts and the war between law and chaos, while also reinforcing the centrality of Orcus as an opponent. I'm not sure that the players really appreciate that the nabassu moved the gate from the Plain of 1000 Portals to Thanatos so that an Aspect could come through, and I'm sure they don't know who/what Pazrael is (though the invoker is very sceptical of the folklore that he recalls!), but there is no shortage of new leads for them to pursue, and new ways for me to poke at them.
If the invoker had opted to try to force Pazrael's presence back through the portal, and had succeeded, then Pazrael would have been unable to call the worm into the duergar hold, and Framath would have been able to hand over the fragment of the Sceptre. But the players don't sem to have processed this, and I am going to have to do something to reinforce their awareness that there choices were a major cause of ruin coming to the duergar. From the moral point of view this may be distrubing, although aesthetically it was pleasing that the paladin player's musings about "dead civilisations" came true!
