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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dark Dragon" data-source="post: 3539520" data-attributes="member: 1115">Yeah, but that's often the case when a PC is on a solo tour and then gets into trouble...not so easy to handle.Nevertheless, the story continued.To bring the group together (easier for me as the DM), and to minimise a vendetta (the monk always seeks revenge when someone treated him bad, he is a servant of Hoar...), the Shadow Masters and their allies decided to capture the party. However, only three attackers were sent: the wiz/acm, the ftr/rog and the leader, the rog/asn.The adventurers had a meeting with Lady Gallidy in Two Stars. There they were also visited by a hathran and the ftr/bbn bodyguard of the captured hathran (see above). The two told the party about the attack in Immilmar.The party was a bit nervous because now they don't have a cleric for support. Lady Gallidy was also unsure about what to do next. The party seemed not being able to handle the Shadow Masters.The Lady offered guarded shelter in her castle for one night. However, the group knew that the castle was infiltrated once earlier by two rogues, so the security level is not high...So always two adventurers were on watch, the party stayed in one small room (15x15). During the first watch (the dwarf and the bodyguard were awake), one guard patrolled the area before the room every 30 minutes. Every time the guard passed the room, the dwarf opened the door to have a look. However, he didn't check the guard with detect magic or the like...When the guard passed the door the fourth time, the dwarf opened the door again...The guard turned around, cast a Mass Hold Person and a quickened confusion...This put the the bodyguard and the tempest out of action. The ranger and the tempest were also confused. Two invisible rogues (the fighter/rogue and the rogue/assassin) then attacked the dwarf, dealing lots of subdual damage...Initiative was rolled. The alienist was too slow. The Shadow Master wizard cast Bigby's Grasping Hand and thus disabled the alienist. The dwarf (last man standing) cast a Wall of Force to separate the wizard and the assassin from the party. The bodyguard and the tempest failed their saves vs. Hold Person again...The ranger was doing nothing dangerous.Next round, the wizard disintegrated the wall of force, and the two rogues focused their attacks on the dwarf. He was k.o. by the end of the round. Now the rogues worked their way through the party: the bodyguard and the alienist were next and disabled quickly. However, the tempest made finally her save against the Hold Person spell. The wizard cast Otto's Irresistable Dance on her, so she couldn't do much. With this major threat removed, the confused ranger (specialised in archery) was no match for the attackers.It could have been a TPK. The three attackers have killed the guard, the wizard used Disguise Self to mimic the guard. The two rogues took a position near the door and waited for the first person to leave the room.The party was stripped of all possessions, sent into an old prison complex within the Forest of Lethyr and repeatedly enchanted with Modify Memory, Detect Thoughts, Bestow Curse...After some days, they awoke from unconciousness. Everyone was tied to a wall in different small cells (5x5). There was no light source, except in the tempest's cell, where a burning candle was placed (it should be an important spell focus later!). Food & water were very bad, and no one took care of the wounds. So I ruled that there was no regeneration, everybody stayed at 1 hp. The only exceptions were the monk who could heal himself, and the tempest who as treated better because she should be sold to Kront.The alienist's cell was sealed with a wall of stone, however, the room was enchanted with a zone of fresh air. He was left there to starve to death.Here starts one part of my campaign, but it is not entirely fix (I have not much time at the moment and thus have to improvise some parts on the fly; that's one reason why I'm posting here  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ) :But the alienist was able to 'communicate' with the voices of the Far Realms. So he tried to meditate and stayed in trance for days. Finally he was able to enter the Far Realms mentally, leaving his weak body on the Material Plane (somewhat similar to Astral Projection). There, he met an entity that was formed like a wast colorful net. The being was quite interested in the alienist and liked philosophical discussions about ethics, the future, chaos and the mind. During these discussions the being tought the alienist the power to link his mind with his friends and to summon their minds into the Far Realm. So they were able to speak with each other, even the captured hathran (who was imprisoned in souhtern Thay) participated. But when the alienist sent the minds of his friends back into their bodies, a mishap occured: The minds of the monk and the barbarian were forced into the barbarian's body, the ranger's mind into that of the monk, and the dwarf's mind into that of the ranger. This offered the opportunity to heal the barbarian's body with the monk's self-healing power and the monk/barbarian was now in a cell without a Dimensional Lock. So he tried to escape. He was able to free the dwarf/ranger before an alarm went off. The two tried to leave the complex, but a troll guard disabled the dwarf/ranger on the way. The monk/barbarian fought his way through the guards (several human and orc ftr 5), left the complex and found himself in a dense forest haunted by ghosts. He received a sending from a wizard called Talaran, who shortly explained that the monk will not survive in woods because of the ghosts that hunt intelligent beings in the night. Without weapons and food and unsure about a way out of the forest, the monk returned to the prison and was put into a cell again (this time he was tied to the wall with his head down - see Life of Brian  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ).The alienist shortly returned his mind into his own body, realizing that he'd starve to death (his str, dex, and con were already drained by 6, I used a different ruling here for starvation). So he went into trance again. The net creature was very interested about what might happen if it would interfere with the happenings on the Material Plane. So it tought the alienist on how to pass spell energy to his friends. However, this came with a price to pay. Depending on the spell level given to another creature, the alienist's con and str will drain further...But it was the only option for the party, since the day was close when they should be separated (either sold as a slave, or sacrificed in some bloody ritual). The alienist summoned his friends to the Far Realms again to establish the mind link needed to pass spell energy to his friends. Once the link is established, he could either give a spell to a friend (like imbue with spell, but more powerful) or cast the spell through the link on a friend. When he sent the minds back into the bodies he was luckily able to put everything into order again.He used gaseous form, invisibility, and summon monster VII for every party member. This brought his con to 2 and str to 0, leaving him helpless in his cell and almost out of magic energy. But now the party made a relative coordinated escape attempt, using some summoned monsters to distract the troll guards and gaseous form to escape the cells. The dwarf found a strange unnatural stone wall in the complex. The monk destroyed it and found the helpless alienist in the room behind it. The human and orc guards were no big deal for the monk and the barbarian, and the group escaped into the forest.They didn't explore the prison further, because of the trolls and possible other foes like spellcasters. The alienist had also learned that a very powerful being was close to the prison. The adventurers grabbed some weapons of the guards (some daggers, longswords, crossbows and a shortbow with a few arrows) on their way out.It was night, most party members were weakened, fatigued, badly wounded and in an overall poor condition. The ranger (thanks to Endurance) and the barbarian pushed the group along, but after two hours, the rest of the party was totally exhausted. The ranger found a place to rest, the alienist cast a still Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum to avoid scrying attempts.But the night is not over: A huge Green Dragon found the group. The ranger and the monk had met the dragon a few weeks earlier and had to pay 100 gp for visiting the dragon's forest...The dragon was not really interested in the party (they had nothing to offer for their lifes), but he told them that he was called by Tiamat herself for a 'meeting'. The dragon goddess has sent an Aspect of Tiamat to the prison to guard the party's ftr/rog/tempest. The tempest is a young woman who had a short affair with a polymorphed deep dragon. She is pregnant and expects giving birth soon. Tiamat and her church is very interested in the baby that'll be a half dragon (the party knows this). But the Green Dragon was not instructed yet by Tiamat and he doesn't really like the goddess, so he simply said: "I'll let you go this time. But you all owe me a big favor!" The party agreed and the dragon knows that the party should stick to the deal later (the dragon will show up later in the campaign again).So far...dawn wil begin in four hours, but I plan a final assault on the group by a hunting party from the prison (without the aspect of Tiamat or strong spell support, of course). The group has no magic items, no costly spell components or foci and no armor, spellbooks, food, and water. Anyway, the players are just waiting for the moment when their PCs could hunt the Shadow Masters...The hathran was able to escape her prison in Thay as well, but it would take some hours for her to meet her friends in the forest.Thanks!Yes, that's a nice hook I could use.... Yep, that might work: The hathran who visited the party in Immilmar could have acted in disguise. The party didn't know her very well. She is the mother of the captured hathran. Hmm, I could replace her by a durthan, maybe Chaul of the Fortress Rashemar (see Unapprochable East)...Could work, have to think of the details.Have definetively consider this for future situations, e.g., successful demands and alter self actions.What will happen is that the Shadow Masters will ruin the good reputations of the party, like causing trouble in disguised form.Thanks. You're from Germany?</blockquote>

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