Return to the monster's lair: what would YOU do?

[Piratecat]

My players out of this thread, please.

In one of my campaigns, the lvl 6 PCs have just fled the lair of a lvl 9 solo bloodkiss beholder after rescuing some captives but losing one party member. They intend to return the next day with allies and all their dalies. The question has been asked: what will make the fight exciting next time in terms of surprise/complexity when the players know its tricks, the full layout of the lair, and the PCs have all their big guns?

I'm curious how other people would handle it.

Components:

- undead blood-slurping beholder
- large damp underground smugglers cave attached to the city's sewer system, fairly near the shoreline
- two vertical wells leading to unknown parts, at least one partially filled with water
- several dozen dead bodies, drained of blood and hanging from chains and meathooks from the ceiling (act as difficult terrain)

If you were the beholder, and you guessed your foes were going to come back for you, what would you do? As the DM, how would you make the encounter exciting and memorable?

 

[theskyfullofdust]

I'm curious how other people would handle it.

Components:

- undead blood-slurping beholder
- large damp underground smugglers cave attached to the city's sewer system, fairly near the shoreline
- two vertical wells leading to unknown parts, at least one partially filled with water
- several dozen dead bodies, drained of blood and hanging from chains and meathooks from the ceiling (act as difficult terrain)

If you were the beholder, and you guessed your foes were going to come back for you, what would you do? As the DM, how would you make the encounter exciting and memorable?

What if, the beholder has his allies (the same ones that brought him his 'food') brought him some magical scrolls that animated the dead.

That way you have a bunch of hanging undead bodies (treat as minions, mostly grab attacks) that not only act as difficult terrain, but also hinder the enemy too.

I'd have the beholder target the more powerful enemies first, attempting to bull rush them into the deep, deep wells. Then take out the weaker ones, in an attempt to intimidate everyone else.

I'd also have an escape route prepared, straight out to the sea, maybe with some traps along the way that target anyone at ground level, so that the beholder could float over them with ease.

And, since Toiva was killed, maybe have the corpse animated too, for that extra creep-factor.

Simon

 

[Rechan]

Idea 1:

- large damp underground smugglers cave attached to the city's sewer system, fairly near the shoreline

This is what caught my eye.

In the last battle, the PCs won by skirting around the edges of the battlefield and escaping. Not to mention the shaman/wizard hanging back to cast spells. The Beholder might want to prevent that completely.

So instead of doing battle in its lair, the beholder chooses a much more cramped, much more dangerous battleground. It goes down the well, and finds a chamber that is partially submerged, with a smaller area of land (although possibly some ledges that spiral up the side of the cave). Here, it's small.

The beholder also knows this chamber will flood when the tide comes in (if it's the sea) or, perhaps he finds a way to block a channel of water so that he can get the chamber to flood when the PCs are on their way.

So here you have the PCs in a cramped cave, with water rising (or perhaps crashing waves), battling the beholder. You could even have it come from under the water (ala Aliens).

The trick will get the PCs to go spelunking, rather than turning around and thinking the monster fled.

Another trick might be to get the PCs into an area where the ground is easy to disintegrate, dropping them into water. And the beholder bursts through the soggy ground behind them, cutting off their exit. Cue the rolling in tide...

Idea 2:

Definitely have the beholder take the offensive. First, it takes the various corpses off the hooks, and stuffs them in the drainage pipe the PCs used to escape. That way, they only have one avenue to approach its lair. Then, it lurks in the sewage in the sewer near the opening to its lair, preferably at a very good vantage point. Maybe there are some nice set pieces (burstable pipes and whatnot) that the PCs (or it) could take advantage of.

Then, when it can make that ambush, its first order of business is pulling a target into the sewage and latching on. With its threatening reach, it will punish that guy something awful to get away. Force your three melee strikers to go into the sewage to battle the beast. There might be a current there, or they could even get a disease for being in the muck.

I'm also trying to think of a way to use those chains. Perhaps have them underneath the sewage, possibly a hazard to catch PCs and anchor them into place. Or use them to block off areas by being waist high (although that would give away the ambush site rather obviously).

 

[Piratecat]

I like these ideas.

I think there are a couple of options. I thought about the beholder just fleeing, but that's hardly satisfying. I also thought about it taking the fight to the PCs, but it's fat and lazy and undead; it's a homebody who just can't be bothered. But it's stubborn and holds a grudge, and that suggests laying a trap.

Some of the 4e design tenets are that you shouldn't use difficult terrain all the time, and you should make sure the PCs have nice big areas to fight in. I'm reluctant to squeeze them down into a tiny area as a result. Frankly, if I did they'd probably get slaughtered and they definitely would feel frustrated. Unless I wanted to make "smoke the beholder out of its hiding place" (which is a cool challenge) one of the encounter goals, I should save that.

So far I'm considering how a lazy beholder might booby trap its cavern to make attackers vulnerable and miserable.

- Restrict access; that means collapsing the smaller tunnels the PCs used to escape, and collapsing the main entrance enough that people have to crawl through on hands and knees. Forcing many people into small areas, or separating the groups, will pay off.

- Traps! Collapsing ceiling when the chains are tugged. Create undead. Use alchemy to boobytrap bodies. Flood the room and use the water to push PCs into spikes.

I'm considering having the beholder load alchemical bombs into the dangling corpses, with the trigger stuffed into Toiva's body - designed to go off when she is taken down off of her chain. That would set off explosions that chain throughout the room. It would also signal the beholder's appearance from hiding.

- Hidey-holes. If he's in trouble, where does he flee? Who might be able to help him?

I'm starting to get an image of what this fight is going to look like, but I'm not quite there yet.

 

[Legildur]

The above ideas are great. But another option springs to mind.

What if the food providers arrive roughly simultaneously as the party? (or are already there?)

That could provide a really interesting mix as to then whether they join the fight, and if so, on whose side? They could be motivated to defend their ally, or perhaps see an opportunity to rid themselves of the creature and share in the loot?

 

[Rechan]

I like the collapsing ceiling after tugging on the chains. As well as water and spikes and whatnot. The boobytrapped body is MEAN. I love it.

The animated undead is a good idea - just giving them a grab attack and holding PCs still. Or perhaps the undead can set off their own bombs, or pull the ceiling down on top of them. (Undead A grabs, undead B pulls the ceiling down - harsh!).

Another avenue might be to take some of the chains down and hook it to other chains, to form 'hallways' or blocked paths. That way the players can't surround/flank it, and have to travel down certain paths the chains have roped off.

You said there are two wells, yes? Perhaps under the water there's a tunnel connecting one well to the other, so the beholder could dive down and pop out of the other, or hide underwater. Maybe then would be a good time to 'smoke it out'.

One mean tactic the beholder could do: position itself on one side of the well, and Blood Call a PC right over the edge of the well, dropping them into the water. This would likely work on the sorcerer (ranged PC who's got blood, shooting harsh powers? One definite method!) or one of your melee strikers, taking them out of the fight for a round or two. It might be a vicious "Opening Move": Move action: Float out of well, minor action, blood call PC into well, standard (convert to move in order to get towards PCs), action point: area affect that dazes, so PCs must either back up or attack in melee.

 

[The_Warlock]

Some additional thoughts:

Rather than collapse the ceiling, which would likely cause more difficult terrain, make the undead difficult:

1) Toiva's Body - not just animated, but as a doppelganger, give it the ability to Leech Dailies from the PCs on a hit (target Will - the horror of being attacked by their comrade), which Toiva's undead body can then use against them.

1b) When "killed" Toiva's body melts into undead ooze minions that scream in her voice, forces PCs to move away from the ooze in surprise 1 square.

2) Zombies with Chains - The animated dead pull their chains from the ceiling - half simply have unthreatening reach, bludgeoning PCs with the ceiling bolt at 2 squares. The other half pull the meathook end out, and on a successful hit, pull the targeted good guy adjacent to them (in addition to damage). Welcome to the Undead Do-Si-Do.

3) I totally agree with the two-well water pop and shoot Rechan suggested, if the space works so that the Beholder is never gone for more than a round.

4) Taking a cue from some old FR stuff, the Beholder now has a weapon, a magical Beholder Mouth Pick - a flanged knife/saw that it can manipulate with it's tongue/mouth, that leaves wounds that bleed slowly (say 3 damage a round), or a spiked mouth pick that can paralyze a limb (arm - -2 to skills require hands, no two weapon fighting; leg -1 to Dex defense and speed).

5) Have the beholder have a new prisoner that has been force fed several potions - the beholder can attack it's new prisoner and get a random beneficial potion effect. The new prisoner can survive 5 "drinks" before dying.

Hope it works out for the worst!

 

[KidSnide]

Personally, I'd turn the layer into a death trap -- the sort of trap that conceptually leads to certain doom, but that the PCs can escape in a number of different ways.

Personally, I like the idea that the bodies on chains are animated to grab the PCs and hold them in place while the layer slowly fills up with blood (or, I suppose, water - but that's less fun). It's a difficult encounter because they're trying to recover Toiva's body and deal with the fact that there are very few places to stand where they aren't subject to restraining attacks. Maybe there is safe place by the entrance where it would be safe to stand while providing ranged support, but the combination of the escalating environmental threat and the danger of being unable to move out of it has to be perceived by the PCs as a immediate and deadly threat.

When they're gasping (except Strom) their way out, *that's* when the beholder strikes. It will be like getting caught between a bloodkiss beholder and a very difficult location.

-KS

 

[RangerWickett]

There is an evil lurking in there, and it is our duty to destroy it.

Are the PCs going in with that point of view? Or is it more for revenge? Or to investigate the lair and find evidence connected with a greater plot?

Perhaps . . . the monsters is alien, so he doesn't quite get human thoughts. He thinks, "People care about each other, so they won't hurt other people." So when his feeders bring him food, he knocks them out and hangs them on chains as 'hostages,' even though they should by rights be enemies of the PCs.

So you can have the added challenge of keeping these guys alive, with the reward that if the PCs save them, they get some valuable information, and maybe a grateful spy on the inside. (I don't recall what organization this is that they're dealing with, if anything.)

Oh, and you've got to have it rig something that blocks off their retreat. It's seen them get away several times, so it must be annoyed with them. Maybe some sort of concealed rig that, when the beholder tugs a cable, swings a heavy door down over the exit. He could use this to cut the party off when they're only half in, or just to trap them all in if he thinks he can slaughter them.

(I think outright collapsing tunnels is less fun, because it just removes options. This puts a challenge into the scenario. "Oh no, our buddies are in there with it. Let's get this damned door open!")

Oh, and definitely, give the critter a few allies, something so that the opposing side has a few new tactical tricks up its multi-eyed sleeves. Alchemically exploding corpses are good. A few corpses animated to grab is good too (Oh, so you think you're the only bastard who can use tethercords?! Well mine have rotting infected teeth!)

For added complication, maybe once the beholder gets bloodied, he sets off his 'big trap,' but it goes wrong. It's supposed to explode some sacs filled with sulfurous gas to suffocate the non-undead (I think gas is a better hazard than water because it doesn't slow movement), but the gas explodes and rocks the chamber, meaning both sides only have a few rounds to get out before the place collapses. At this point you can seal off the main entrance, so the only way out is to jump down its well.

The beholder, of course, wants to get out too, so you have a great excuse to move the fight to a new 'stage.' If things have gotten boring in the same old cave full of chain-dangling dessicated corpses (if I had a nickle for every time I saw that one), you can switch to a multi-leveled cave/sewer complex with balconies, waterfalls, currents, and narrow hallways that PCs can duck down but the beholder can't follow them. But since sulfur gas is heavier than air (I say without checking the chemistry of it), all those hallways are full of poison that attacks PC fortitude, which keeps them from staying out of the monster's reach for too long. (The main thoroughfare would have airflow due to the running water of the sewer.)

Hope some of those ideas come in handy. And thanks for the excuse to brainstorm, because now I'm going to steal some of this for my game too.

 

[WizarDru]

M
- large damp underground smugglers cave attached to the city's sewer system, fairly near the shoreline
- two vertical wells leading to unknown parts, at least one partially filled with water
- several dozen dead bodies, drained of blood and hanging from chains and meathooks from the ceiling (act as difficult terrain)

If you were the beholder, and you guessed your foes were going to come back for you, what would you do? As the DM, how would you make the encounter exciting and memorable?

Let's take a different tack, for a second. The beholder is undead AND lazy. What if it didn't take any precautions at all? What if the additional hazard was the environment itself? This depends on the beholder's intelligence and state of mind. Is it smart enough, in it's current state, to even consider the option of a trap? Does it honestly believe that the morsels that escaped are going to come back (after all, he schooled them pretty bad and got a meal out of it).

So, if the beholder doesn't change, what does?

THE TIDES.

We're near the shoreline, in caves underground that may or may not indirectly lead to the ocean. Sure, there are fresh-water wells, but sewers generally lead to large bodies of open water. Have any of the players asked about the sewers connection to a large body of water?

What if when the players return....so does the Tide? I realize that you were looking to avoid negative environmental effects, but what about balanced effects that help and hinder both sides?

Imagine that the tide coming in makes water flow in, sure. But what if the rush through the tunnels creates gusts of wind through the caves that can make arrows fly faster and slow the beholder down? What if a salt sea-spray occasionally blasts through that could be used to trick the beholder into getting an eye-full of seawater (red-eye!)?

Perhaps the water brings in predators like sand-sharks that attack the beholder or the chain-corpses, now buoyed by the water, can be used for cover or to hamper the beholder. The environment doesn't have to be harder to be interesting...just different. If the players enter into an environment that they thought they knew, only to find that the rules have changed...that can be great fun.

The players are now forced to re-evaluate all their strategies. Perhaps the tides bring in flotsam and jetsam, with useful things that can help the players. Shredded (and flamable) whale blubber, perhaps? A message from one of the beholder's victims detailing a weakness he has, thrown into a bottle while he was dying on a hook? There are possibilities, there.

And if a storm is raging outside, more the better.