Author Topic: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle  (Read 6351 times)

Offline ksbsnowowl

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4776
  • Warrior Skald, teller of tales.
    • View Profile
Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« on: July 31, 2012, 12:34:44 AM »
I'm running a heavily re-vamped version of Red Hand of Doom for a Gestalt Viking-themed game.  My players are currently 10th level, and they will be 11th, or possibly 12th by the time the main event (the "battle of Brindol") rolls around.

In RHoD, the party should be 9th level characters for the Battle of Brindol.  Here is what they are placed up against:



Save the Walls: EL 11
 (4 hill giants)
Abithriax's Rampage: EL 10 (Large Red Dragon)

Streets of Blood

*Wave 1: EL 9  (2 manticores, 2 sergeants, 3 regulars)

*Wave 2: EL 10 (8 bloodghost berserkers)
*
Wave 3: EL 11 (5 goblins on 5 thunderlizards)

*Wave 4: EL 12 (3 razorfiends and 2 bards [mindbenders])

Sniper Attack: EL 11 (skather and two 6th level sorcerers)

Final Battle: EL 12+ (Hravek Kharn, 2 Hill Giants, 4 ogres, possibly more)

The possibility exists for a 5th wave in the Streets of Blood encounter, depending upon the previous successes of the party.  What I have listed here equates to what my players have accomplished.

I'm going to have many encounters similar to those above, but the main goal of the evil army is disrupting a ceremony to keep a planar rift sealed.  Regardless of the success (or not) of the evil army, at the peak of the planar event, there will be "demons" that slip through.  The PC's won't be the only ones there, but what I am planning is the portion of demons that the PC's will have to deal with.

Here are the RHoD-equivalent encounters the PC's will face (note, all of the listed CR's are adjusted to account for the fact the PC's are gestalt):

Save the Walls:  EL 13 (4 Skullcrusher Ogre WarHulk 3/Feat Rog 2’s and 2 Primordial half-troll Draegloth)
Nycaloth's Rampage:  EL 11 (x2… he succeeded in the % chance to summon a Nycaloth - the second one will be dealt with by an ally they have recruited)
Streets of Blood
Wave 1:  EL 11 (3 Winter Wolves, 2 Half-Troll Marzana Hags, 1 Ice Troll, and 2 Ogre Mages)
Wave 2:  EL 11 (8 Tanarukk Berserkers - Shock Trooper/Combat Brute)
Wave 3:  EL 13 (5 Bladerager Trolls and 5 CR 5 something else’s, or 10 Bladerager Trolls)
Wave 4:  EL 13 (3 Beasts of Malar and two GCR 5 War Adepts [Tanarukk Wizard 6's])
             
Sniper Attack:  EL 12 (Skapti GCR 11, and two GCR 5 War Adepts)

Final Battle: EL 14+ (Azmurgul, two Skullcrusher WarH 3/F Rog 2’s, four Half-Fiend Ice Trolls)

The climax of demons slipping through will occur between the sniper attack and the final battle.  Several of the encounters I have planned are merely one (or none) EL's above party level, as opposed to those in RHoD, which are 2, 3, or 4 EL's above party level.  I've done this so the party still has resources for this extra set of encounters... and they will be grueling.

The wave of "demons" will rise like a tide, reach a climax of size/CR, and then recede, followed by the Final battle, which is a last-ditch attempt to stop the ceremony and allow demons to come through the tail-end of the rift.  A new wave will head the PC's way every 4-10 rounds, for six and a half minutes in game.

Below is the list of demons, devils, and Yugoloths that I find to be interesting foes vs my PC's, and I'm looking for advice on how many of these to actually plan to run, and which ones.

Demon/Devil Waves (for the PC’s):

Demons of interest:
Babau: GCR 5 [Med](MM1)
Hezrou: GCR 10 [Large](MM1)
Vrock (x2): GCR 8 each [Large](MM1)
Jovoc: GCR 4 [Small](MM2)
Arrow Demon: GCR 6 [Med](MM3)
Carnage Demon (x5): GCR 3 each [Med](MM5)
Gadacro: GCR 2 [Small](MM5)
Skulvyn: GCR 3 [Large](FF)
Maurezhi (Advanced): GCR 10 (12 or 14 HD...) [Med](FF)
Armanite: GCR 6 [Large](FC1)
Bar-Lgura: GCR 4 [Med](FC1)
Bulezau: GCR 8 [Large](FC1)
Juvenile Nabassu (maybe an advanced one?): GCR 4+ [Med](FC1)


Devils of interest:
Barbed Devil?: GCR 10 [Med](MM1)
Bearded Devil: GCR 4 [Med](MM1)
Erinyes: GCR 7 [Med](MM1)
Hellcat: GCR 6 [Large](MM1)
Amnizu: GCR 6 [Med](MM2/FC2)
Malebranche: GCR 8/GCR 13 [Huge](MM2/FC2)
Green Abishai: GCR 5 [Med](FC2)
Blue Abishai: GCR 6 [Med](FC2)
Legion Devil (x5 or more): GCR 2 each [Med](FC2)
Orthon: GCR 7 [Large](FC2)


Yugoloths of Interest:
Yagnoloth: GCR 9 [Large](MM2)
Voor: GCR 3 or Dreadful Lasher GCR 8 [Large or Huge](MM4)



Demons in the background (the PC’s won’t deal with them)
Klurichir: GCR 24 (FF)
Dybbuk: GCR 7 (FC1)

Devils in the background
Horned Devil: GCR 15
Pleasure Devil: GCR 10 (FC2)

My party consists of:
Wizard 8/Iot7FV 2//Rogue 10
Druid 9//Sorcerer 9//Arcane Hierophant*
Barbarian 10//Beguiler 9/Mindbender 1
DMPC Druid 10//Scout 5/Ranger 1/Wizard 1/Master of the Yuirwood 3 (Likely to die earlier in this massive battle)

*Arcane Hierophant took up both "sides" of the level at which it was taken.

The druids have tiger animal companions, and the druids themselves wildshape into tigers and pounce with skirmish or arcane strike.

Offline phaedrusxy

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 10708
  • The iconic spambot
    • View Profile
Re: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« Reply #1 on: August 07, 2012, 12:23:55 AM »
So... did you run this yet? I'm curious how it went.
I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra.  Stay frosty my friends.

Offline ksbsnowowl

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4776
  • Warrior Skald, teller of tales.
    • View Profile
Re: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« Reply #2 on: August 07, 2012, 01:10:55 AM »
No, this won't happen for another two months of gaming, most likely.  Still need to determine exactly how many and which of the above encounters they will actually face.  I might not end up finalizing that decision until the week before it comes up in game; see how they are doing after the bulk of the battle has already passed.

They are currently in the evening of December 1st, and so have 20 days to go 'til the solstice.

They are about to undertake a mission to rescue and deliver some mercenaries that were waylaid by the portion of the horde that got stranded back near where the PC's first encountered the horde.  Due to the encounters I have planned, that will likely take two or three sessions, and probably 4 days in game.  Then there are a few other problems to deal with (minor, though they might not figure them out), and then they'll have several weeks to go yet before the solstice.  Not sure what they will do to fill that time; I know some of them want to get some items upgraded (and this will be the first real opportunity for them to "shop" for items), and the upgrades will take nearly two weeks in some cases.  They have potions of Bull's Strength to get them through not having their Gauntlets of Ogre Power (which will be getting upgraded), etc.

There will quite probably come a point where they will be sitting around looking for ways to spend their time while waiting for the inevitable, though they will likely try to find ways to further hinder the horde's movements once they have emerged from Nidavellir.  It could be a bit of a plot problem, as they will be moving through mountainous terrain, so the PC's could try something to block them.  I'll have to make sure the forward scouts are stealthy and tough... 

Perhaps I'll have to use the Hathran to influence them in some way.  I already had to shoot down one idea they had, partly because I didn't like the implications it was going to have for the final battle, but it also made logical sense in as much as there are nature spirits that would not have put up with them erecting a wall of stone dome over the stonehenge (it's only the second most important ley line conjunction in all the nine worlds, you know; the CR 23 Spirit of the Land that watches over the area would have torn it down in short order).

Once this "final battle" does finally start, I expect the events of the solstice to take five or more game sessions.

Offline Dwarfi

  • Hero Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 547
  • I'm new!
    • View Profile
Re: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« Reply #3 on: August 16, 2012, 05:57:16 AM »
He there. Sounds pretty epic. Curious how it will turn out.

I think you cant do much wrong as long as they have fun and you can underline the importance of the quest and the thread.
As you said, you start rather easy and carefully build up so that they dont die in the first wave.

For some extra suspense the group could actually move away from the fighting place beforehand and is then urgently called back by a messenger, calling every man to arms.
They race back and already find dead poeple, raided farms, impaled skulls... the whole barbaric horror scenario ;)
This time pressure can add a lot of atmosphere to the scene.

Or they are in a close by village or outer city part and all of a sudden little demons appear, attacking the people.

Just some ideas, maybe you can work with it.




Offline ksbsnowowl

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4776
  • Warrior Skald, teller of tales.
    • View Profile
Re: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« Reply #4 on: August 16, 2012, 02:29:16 PM »
Well, the demon rift will occur at a specific site where a ritual must be performed to strangle the flow of demons as much as possible.  A fiendish troll army will be attacking that site at the time of the ceremony, to attempt to stop it.  So the PC's will already be right there at the battle, and they will get redirected to the demons once they start overwhelming the ritual to keep them out.

Haven't had much time to look into this more.  Still have to figure out how many demons to actually put them up against.

Offline AfterCrescent

  • The Real Cleric
  • Lurker
  • *
  • Posts: 47
  • AC
    • View Profile
Re: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« Reply #5 on: August 16, 2012, 08:45:48 PM »
Are you sending in waves of demons, or just one chaotic free-for-all?

I'm just going to go down the list you provided and give my two cents.  :D

Babau: GCR 5 [Med](MM1) - If you're going in waves, I could see 2-4 Babau being a first wave, since they're assassins, they'd likely blitz, drop the biggest threat, and then retreat once the second wave shows up.  If you're going free-for-all, they don't seem like they'd fit in the army-horde mentality.
Hezrou: GCR 10 [Large](MM1) - The sergeant at arms for demons? This guy is a must include. As an EL 13, you can run him and 4 CR 8 demons or 8 CR 6s.  A good ol' demon strike force sounds awesome. :)
Vrock (x2): GCR 8 each [Large](MM1) - They say Hezrous are the only demon to love battle more than a Vrock. And Vrocks are very iconic D&D demons. I think they'd fit well in the Hezrou platoon.
Jovoc: GCR 4 [Small](MM2) - Wow, I hadn't read these guys before. That's dirty. :P  I'd pair them with a bigger monster who isn't afraid to squish one in order to damage everyone in range. Kamikaze Jovocs are mean.  Now I'm thinking a good wave is a Hezrou, two Vrocks, and 4-6 of these guys.
Arrow Demon: GCR 6 [Med](MM3) - Without a doubt, one of my favorite demons. Unfortunately unless you're letting a whole army through, I don't see them making the break in the first waves. I'd argue to leave them out of combat as their strength is best when they can play ranged support in a war.
Carnage Demon (x5): GCR 3 each [Med](MM5) If you're using a wave approach, a wave of carnage demons could be simple but effective. They don't use tactics or have a lot of abilities to make them more than fodder, but they may be used to soften PCs up.  Depending on how many waves you want, I could see one of these, but they'd also probably be my first cut.
Gadacro: GCR 2 [Small](MM5) - These guys are pretty cool, too. But they're carrion creatures. They'd likely show up if the PCs lost, not rush through claws first.
Skulvyn: GCR 3 [Large](FF) - Unless there's a nearby rive or lake for fighting, I'd pass on the aquatic demons.
Maurezhi (Advanced): GCR 10 (12 or 14 HD...) [Med](FF) - An advanced one could be a challenge, and may even be on the front lines. More likely, I'd predict it crossed over first, took someone in town, and has been powering up, ready for the invasion.
Armanite: GCR 6 [Large](FC1) - Yes! Wow. Who summoned the cavalry? 6 of these rushing through the portal either before or after Squad Hezrou. No one's gonna enjoy that. Except maybe you. :P
Bar-Lgura: GCR 4 [Med](FC1) - Without time for an ambush set=up, I'd pass on these guys. Although teaming them up with Babau could make things interesting.
Bulezau: GCR 8 [Large](FC1) - Definitely. Heavy infantry of the army? Check. Terrifying looking demons? Check. I like 'em. :)
Juvenile Nabassu (maybe an advanced one?): GCR 4+ [Med](FC1) - Nabassu already spend part of their time on the Material Plane. Crossing over through a rift doesn't seem their style.


Well that's my two cents on the demons. If it's any help, let me know, and I'll go over the devils and Yugoloths later. :)
Clerics just wake up one morning and decide they need to kick ass, and it needs to be kicked NOW. ~veekie

Offline ksbsnowowl

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4776
  • Warrior Skald, teller of tales.
    • View Profile
Re: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« Reply #6 on: August 16, 2012, 09:37:48 PM »
Are you sending in waves of demons, or just one chaotic free-for-all?
Quick reply:  Waves.  Each new wave will come 5-10 rounds after the one before it.  (In truth, that's just the ones the PC's will deal with; a new demon/small group of demons will come through each round, but there will be a LOT of people there dealing with different groups of fiends "off-screen").

Now to actually read and digest your post.  :D

Edit:  To make things clear, with the exception of a Nycaloth and a Vrock that are already with the attacking army, no demons/devils will be coming through early or sneakily (well, those that can make themselves invisible will probably do so).

Due to the way the rift works, I want the PC's to first deal with small/medium fiends, multiple medium/single large fiends, and at the climax, huge or multiple large fiends.  It will be a building climax of size and CR, and the climax will last for two or three waves.  I'd like to have a Huge fiend for them to face at the climax, but I would have to go to the GCR 12 Glabrezu (the Malebranche was increased to CR 14 in 3.5), which I think will be too much, especially given everything else I'm putting them up against in this one day.  All that to say that I need to have some medium demons/devils, just due to the "mechanics" of how the rift will work.  Oh, I guess I could go with the GCR 8 Dread Lasher (Voor) as the PC's climax.

A few points:
Jovocs: I know, right?  It will be nasty fun!
Vrocks: The pair of vrocks will team with the one vrock that is with the army to do the dance of ruin thing.  The PC's gotta stop it.
Skulvyn: this one isn't supposed to be a big threat, but will be a chance for the PC's to affect the future of the world.*  The location of the rift is on a natural stone bridge that spans the gap between a continent and an "island," a half-mile above sea level.  If the PC's don't stop the group that comes through, they will scamper to the edge, and dive off into the sea, becoming a future scourge of sailors everywhere.
Bar-Lgura: their fun bit is the against-your-will-teleporting.  Maybe I'll just have these happen on "stage left," and the PC's can deal with them (thus saving people who are getting snatched) if they feel like it.
Juvenile Nabassu: interplanar travel is difficult in my setting, except when there are "conjuctions" such as this planar rift.  So nabassu aren't normally running around on Midgard (I know I didn't mention this before).

But I still need to decide what EL's I want them to face, and craft groups to hit those EL's.  Your advice about the Hezrou + minions is a good one.

*not all of these need to be super large challenges. My PC's will be fairly worn down by this point.  Also, I can judge how they are doing at the time of the game, and adjust what they face on the fly if they are mopping up, or doing badly.
« Last Edit: August 16, 2012, 10:40:11 PM by ksbsnowowl »

Offline AfterCrescent

  • The Real Cleric
  • Lurker
  • *
  • Posts: 47
  • AC
    • View Profile
Re: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« Reply #7 on: August 16, 2012, 11:24:10 PM »
Looking at the encounters you already have, your party will be fairly harrowed by that point. Even if they make it to level 12. 3 waves sounds good to me, but I could see 4-5 if you want to stretch it. You could always have a conservative number and the carnage demons making a wave that you can cut or keep depending on how they're faring as things go.

The Skulvyn sound awesome as a plot point. I like that idea. I think have the Bar-Lgura happen 'off-stage' works better. That way post battle, when they're counting the dead, the survivors can recount the story of the ape-demons that grapped heros and vanished, creating something new that can be hunted down later. :)

Something like this, maybe?

Wave 1 - Skirmisher style demons (babaus, bar-lgura)
Wave 2 - Carnage Demons (potential to be dropped if party's stretched too thin)
Wave 3 - Hezrou & Co.
Wave 4 - Vrock party
Wave 5 - Demon boss

Something like that would work, with a scaling EL of 8/10/11/12/13?  Is my EL calculation right in that 3 CR 9s is a 12? It's been a while. :P
Clerics just wake up one morning and decide they need to kick ass, and it needs to be kicked NOW. ~veekie

Offline ksbsnowowl

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4776
  • Warrior Skald, teller of tales.
    • View Profile
Re: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« Reply #8 on: August 17, 2012, 01:25:37 AM »
And that's why most of these that I've chosen are in the (gestalt) CR range of 5 - 10; I know the PC's should be worn fairly thin by this point, and they still have the final climactic battle to go (vs the Hravek Kharn replacement, a Mur-Zhagul Spirit Shaman 9).

Bare minimum though will be 6 waves, as the rift will be open for six and a half minutes of game time (65 rounds).  Each round a new "wave" will come through, but again, the PC's will be among a fairly large group of defenders, which is why they will only face a new wave every 5 - 10 rounds.  In the background they will witness others taking on a CR 25 Klurichir (and getting their heads lopped off from its vorpal pincers).  Other things above their pay-grade will also be witnessed.

It will also reach a crescendo, then back off.  So EL's of 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8 ... for example.  And the size/number will also reach a crescendo.  Nothing more than one huge or two large + one medium, for example (ie - 9 squares) at the peak 13 rounds.



So yeah, a tough thing to gauge this far out.  My PC's have done pretty well overall in this campaign, but I often only give them one or two big fights per game day, and they are often able to catch things in surprise attacks.  But, they are also gestalt characters, which have much longer staying power (though this is partially compensated for in the adjusted CR's), and they will also have extra character wealth.  They will have 12th level character wealth, even if they are only 11th level yet, and they will have access to additional one-shot resources (as proscribed in RHoD: 5000 gp worth of scrolls, potions, or wands, anything from the DMG.  They can access it between each encounter set).

Just thinking... stream of consciousness sort of thing.

GEL 2: one GCR 2 Gadacro*
GEL 4: one GCR 4 Jovoc*
GEL 6: one GCR 6 Amnizu

GEL 8: three GCR 5 Babaus, one Gadacro
GEL 9: one GCR 9 Yagnoloth
GEL 10: one GCR 10 Barbed Devil, three GCR 2 Legion Devils

GEL 8: one GCR 6 Hellcat, five GCR 2 Legion Devils
GEL 8: one GCR 8 Voor Dreadful Lasher
GEL 10: two GCR 8 Vrocks, one GCR 4 Jovoc (really GEL 11: a third vrock will join)

GEL 8: one GCR 8 Bulezau
GEL 7: one GCR 7 Orthon
GEL 6: one GCR 6 Armanite

GEL 10: one GCR 10 Maurezhi (Advanced)
GEL 6: one GCR 6 Arrow Demon
GEL 6: one GCR 6 Blue Abishai

That's a decent list, I think.  I know that is 15 waves, but I also start very easy and small, and I won't actually use all of these, either.  Basically there will be 13 rounds of "medium" creatures, 13 rounds of "large" creatures (or four medium), 13 rounds of "huge" creatures (or two large + one med, or one large + 5 med), then 13 more rounds of large, then 13 more rounds of medium.

Supposing the PC's first encounter starts in round 5 of the 65 (we'll hereafter call it round 1), and a new wave shows up 1d6+4 rounds later, on average we get a new wave in rounds:
1 (Med), 7 (Med), 15 (Large), 22 (Huge), 30 (Huge), 37 (Large), 45 (Large), 52 (Med), 60 (Med).  That's nine waves, but gives me leeway for dice randomness.

There will also be effects depending upon how well the PC's did earlier in the battle (both in their combat effectiveness, and in their decision-making).  If some earlier bad guys were not stopped, some of the ritual Hathran will have been taken out, and on the round when one of the missing Hathran is supposed to be doing her thing... there will be no "plug" in the rift, so LOTS of things can come through.  This will allow me to have things like the Skulvyns come through.



A nice EL, but didn't have anywhere to put it:
GEL 10: one GCR 8 Bulezau, five GCR 4 Jovocs

And a nice EL, but the abilities clash:
GEL 9: one GCR 7 Orthon, five Legion Devils


*not meant to be a threat, but rather a thematic element and slight tension-builder, showing that the Hathran can't hold things back any longer... a "here they come" sort of thing.

Offline AfterCrescent

  • The Real Cleric
  • Lurker
  • *
  • Posts: 47
  • AC
    • View Profile
Re: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« Reply #9 on: August 17, 2012, 04:08:04 AM »
I think that looks really cool and should work well. My only concern is 3-4 gestalt characters will easily overpower most of those 1-off monster by pure action economy, even if they're stretched a little thin. But like you said, the early and later waves are supposed to taper off, so that probably works. I like the crescendo feel of the battle.  I definitely want to know how things play out. This battle sounds awesome.  :D
Clerics just wake up one morning and decide they need to kick ass, and it needs to be kicked NOW. ~veekie

Offline ksbsnowowl

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4776
  • Warrior Skald, teller of tales.
    • View Profile
Re: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« Reply #10 on: August 17, 2012, 08:31:05 AM »
The other thing I can do, is have an alternate list that has some higher EL's.  That way I can judge how they are doing on the fly; if they handle the Barbed Devil and three Legion Devils with no problems, I can shift to the "hard track" and pull out EL 11 or 12 things, and/or have the waves come a little more quickly, so that there is greater chance of overlap in the waves.

It will take extra prep work, but that's okay.  I really need to see how the PC's are doing through the earlier parts of the battle to judge how hard to make this.  I want to hit that perfect balance of instilling the fear that they might die, but not actually killing any of the players' characters.  I pulled that off beautifully with the first ambush at the start of this RHoD conversion; here's hoping I can judge it right at the end.

Offline ksbsnowowl

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4776
  • Warrior Skald, teller of tales.
    • View Profile
Re: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« Reply #11 on: September 16, 2012, 12:23:30 PM »
I'm way behind on my campaign journal, so I'm going to write things here, and reassemble them into my journal later.

This last week was a big planning session, and the battle will begin at the next game session.  I allowed my players ~2 hours to plot and devise, and then we dealt with one encounter (the spy), and did a little roleplay while advancing the story line roughly 10 days, to the morning of the solstice.

The Stage:  The Niflhenge itself is basically a 100-foot diameter stonehenge composed of thirteen individual and free-standing trilithons arranged in a circle.  During the ritual, thirteen Hathran will take position within/under each trilithon, with her arms outstretched and palms placed against the facing surfaces of the two upright pillars.

The Niflhenge is located upon a natural stone bridge spanning the gap between the mainland of the continent, and the "island" that is the equivalent of the Scandinavian peninsula.  This bridge is a quarter mile long, 400 feet wide, and half a mile above sea level (and the sea does pass through underneath).  The bridge itself is located on the northern end of Rashemen, and the far north side of the bridge is the limit at which the Hathran can use their spirit magic (which allows them to spontaneously cast their spells).

Over the last two months, using circle magic to boost their caster levels to obscene levels, the Hathran have erected two large stone walls via wall of stone spells.  With their highly-boosted caster levels, they got a section 5 feet high, 200 feet long, and 10 inches thick with each casting of the spell.  Over the course of several days, they were able to erect two walls, each 500 feet long, 20 feet high (with an additional 10-inch thick low wall with crenelations), and 5 feet thick, blocking off both ends of this natural bridge.  They have also erected two stone buildings to serve as combat hospitals, each located 1/12 mile from on of the walls (thus "dividing" the bridge into thirds), and this is where most of the Ethran and younger Hathran will be located during the battle.

The party has also taken the initiative, with the help of several Hathran, to use stone shape to excavate some moat-like pits near the center portions of the outside of each of the walls.  Each pit is 25 feet wide, 30 feet deep, and extends 50 feet out from the wall.  The displaced stone has been spread along the ground to either side of the wall, also extending 50-feet out (and all the way to the ends of the wall), and has been used to create boulders and otherwise difficult terrain.  On the evening of December 20th, a Hathran with a boosted caster level of more that 25 will place a spike stones spell at each of these four areas of difficult terrain, and it will persist through the battle, basically be undispellable, and cover each area out to 40 feet.  Each pit will then be covered over with hallucinatory terrain, from a scroll.

The party has also gotten one of the Druid Hathran to make a scroll of six castings of Control Winds, at 15th caster level (hurricane force winds).  When the battle starts, she will cast these six scrolls such that two cover each long side of the bridge, at brige-level, and two are on top of the bridge, starting about 50 feet up (so there will be a 10-foot gap between the top of the side winds and the bottom of the top winds).  There are gaps in the coverage, but it should* significantly hinder the effect of the horde's aerial forces.

*ie- the PC's think it will

Lastly, every Hathran and Ethran that can do so, will each cast one casting of mass resist energy, and will be able to cover more than 700 people with resistance 20 to one energy type, and more than 500 people with resistance 10.  In truth, I think they will have those doubled up on people, giving most of their elite forces resistance 20 to one element, and either resistance 20 or 10 to a second element.

The "elite" forces they have recruited include:
A Wild Hunter (along with his mount and a few hounds [woodling shadow mastiffs])
~200 Geat Berserks (Human Barbarian 8//Scout 5/Berserk 3 [berserk is from Deities and Demigods])
~150 Runescarred Berserkers (Rashemi Barbarian 7/RSB 1+)
42 members of the Fur & Feather Fighting Company (Barb//Druids, ranging from 4th to 8th level)

Then there are also about 1250 Barbarians of 7th level and lower.

There are also a few Hathran that will not be involved in the ritual.  Of the 140 hathran available, 46 are able to lead circle magic (and thus get boosted caster levels).  Twenty-six of those 46 will be busy at the Niflhenge, leaving mostly 10th and 11th level circle-magic-boosted casters free to fight.  There are also about 400 ethran (6th level or less).  The higher-level half of these Hathran and Ethran will have already sacrificed one of their highest level slots to power circle magic, and all those 5th level and above would have cast mass resist energy once, so they are already down on spell slots.  The party has also cautioned them to be ready to cast several instances of daylight in order to light the battlefield (as it is occurring during the long night of Dec 21st; the sun sets at 1:37 pm, and dusk lasts until 3:24 pm).

The party also suggested that the Vremyoni make some wands of grease.  I think their plan is to put some Ethran on the walls with the defenders, to try and prevent any scaling of the wall.  Not a bad plan; the only bad part is that the grease patches will only last for one round, but it still has the potential to help quite a bit.

The party has also given their suggestions on troop deployment to the Iron Lord, and plan to have the Wild Hunter guarding the hathran performing the ritual, and then the other four elite units stationed along each of the four sides (behind each wall, waiting to defend against a breach, and along each open side of the bridge), with the RSB's lined up behind the south wall (the south holds the greater force), 7th-level and lower barbarians manning the walls and lined up behind the north wall, and the Geat Berserks and the Fur & Feather Fighting Company defending the 1/4 mile-long sides of the bridge (along with some more 5th-7th level barbs).  We'll see how well they end up helping in deploying these units in the heat of battle.

Well, that about covers everything.  It should be an interesting battle over the next five weeks or so.
« Last Edit: September 16, 2012, 01:43:53 PM by ksbsnowowl »

Offline ksbsnowowl

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4776
  • Warrior Skald, teller of tales.
    • View Profile
Re: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« Reply #12 on: September 16, 2012, 01:40:33 PM »
Running through the CR/EL calculations again, I find that some of them are a bit on the low side.  Not sure how that happened.

Quote
Save the Walls:  EL 13 (4 Skullcrusher Ogre WarHulk 3/Feat Rog 2’s and 2 Primordial half-troll Draegloth)
Nycaloth's Rampage:  EL 11 (x2… he succeeded in the % chance to summon a Nycaloth - the second one will be dealt with by an ally they have recruited)
Streets of Blood
Wave 1:  EL 11 (3 Winter Wolves, 2 Half-Troll Marzana Hags, 1 Ice Troll, and 2 Ogre Mages)
Wave 2:  EL 11 (8 Tanarukk Berserkers - Shock Trooper/Combat Brute)
Wave 3:  EL 13 (5 Bladerager Trolls and 5 CR 5 something else’s, or 10 Bladerager Trolls)
Wave 4:  EL 13 (3 Beasts of Malar and two GCR 5 War Adepts [Tanarukk Wizard 6's])
             
Sniper Attack:  EL 12 (Skapti GCR 11, and two GCR 5 War Adepts)

Final Battle: EL 14+ (Azmurgul, two Skullcrusher WarH 3/F Rog 2’s, four Half-Fiend Ice Trolls)

This needs to be updated:

Save the Walls:  EL 13 (4 Skullcrusher Ogre WarHulk 3/Feat Rog 2’s; 1 Half-Troll Marzanna Hag, 2 Primordial half-troll Draegloth)
Nycaloth's Rampage:  EL 11 (x2… he succeeded in the % chance to summon a Nycaloth - the second one will be dealt with by an ally they have recruited)

Streets of Blood
Wave 1:  EL 11 (3 Winter Wolves, 2 Half-Troll Marzanna Hags, 1 Ice Troll, and 2 Ogre Mages)**
Wave 2:  EL 11 (8 Tanarukk Berserkers - Shock Trooper/Combat Brute)
Wave 3:  EL 13 (10 Bladerager "Feral" Trolls)
Wave 4:  EL 13 (3 Beasts of Malar and two GCR 5 War Adepts [Tanarukk Wizard 6's])
             
Sniper Attack:  EL 12 (Skapti GCR 11, and two GCR 5 War Adepts)

GEL 2: one GCR 2 Gadacro
*GEL 4: one GCR 4 Jovoc
GEL 6: one GCR 6 Amnizu

*GEL 8: three GCR 5 Babaus, one Gadacro
GEL 9: one GCR 9 Yagnoloth
GEL 10: one GCR 10 Barbed Devil, three GCR 2 Legion Devils

GEL 8: one GCR 6 Hellcat, five GCR 2 Legion Devils
GEL 8: one GCR 8 Voor Dreadful Lasher
GEL 10: two GCR 8 Vrocks, one GCR 4 Jovoc (really GEL 11: a third vrock will join)

GEL 8: one GCR 8 Bulezau
GEL 7: one GCR 7 Orthon
GEL 6: one GCR 6 Armanite

GEL 10: one GCR 10 Maurezhi (Advanced)
GEL 6: one GCR 6 Arrow Demon

*Those maked with an asterisk are unlikely to be used.

Final Battle: EL 14+ (Azmurgul, two Skullcrusher WarH 3/F Rog 2’s, four Half-Fiend Ice Trolls, plus the Night Hag spy that escaped)


**Here's what I was going to change it to.  I'm now abandoning that, as I forgot the PC's will have helpers (and my reinforcements are higher level than those in RHoD)
Streets of Blood
Wave 1:  EL 11 (3 Winter Wolves, 1 Half-Troll Marzanna Hag, 1 Ice Troll, and 2 Ogre Mages)
Wave 2:  EL 11 (8 Tanarukk Berserkers - Shock Trooper/Combat Brute)
Wave 3:  EL 13 (10 Bladerager "Feral" Trolls)
Wave 4:  EL 13 (3 Beasts of Malar and two GCR 5 War Adepts [Tanarukk Wizard 6's])
             
« Last Edit: September 22, 2012, 01:31:03 PM by ksbsnowowl »

Offline ksbsnowowl

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4776
  • Warrior Skald, teller of tales.
    • View Profile
Re: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« Reply #13 on: September 25, 2012, 02:56:32 AM »
Had the first session of the massive battle, and it went well.

Much like Red Hand of Doom, my players have a few resources to call upon during the battle.  They can get 5000 gp worth of consumable magic items from the DMG, from the 'strategic reserve' the Hathran had held back: wands, potions, and scrolls.
They can call upon the help of four 6th level Rashemi Barbarians (Wolf Berserker trippers) and four 8th level Geat Barbarian/Fist of the Forest//Scout/Berserks.  Any that survive can be used in later encounters, and they can call upon as many or as few as they want.
They have a former player's character helping them out, who is a 9th level Barbarian/Runescarred Berserker//Warlock.

The party consists of:
Half-Elf Barbarian 11//Beguiler 10/Mindbender 1
Human Rogue 11//Wizard 6/Incantatrix 2/Iot7FV 3
Human Druid 10//Sorcerer 10//Arcane Hierophant 1 (the AH level takes up both "sides" of the level)
DMPC Half-Elf Druid 11//Scout 5/Ranger 1/Wizard 1/Master of the Yuirwood 4 (former player character kept around for story reasons; I intend for him to die during this battle).

I shamelessly stole an adaptation that someone posted over at Giant in the Playground.  He wanted to streamline the Battle of Brindol, and so created four "Crisis Points" that encapsulated two of the encounters the PC's were originally supposed to deal with, as well as introducing two more encounters.  The PC's could act as generals for a bit, and decide which allied troops to deploy to deal with these situations that arose.  He altered a few other things, such as using Deadborn Vultures from the MM4 (MM5?), and added a wave of mook skeletons at the beginning.  Depending upon which troops the PC's sent where, each set of troops would either rack up a "win" or a "loss," and each loss would add one complicating factor to the Streets of Blood encounters.  You can read more about the "Crisis Points" set up from the horse's mouth here.

I didn't want my PC's to fully miss out on dealing with the Skullcrusher Ogres (my replacement for the Hill Giants), nor did I want them to miss out on fighting the Nycaloth (which will be a tough battle).  So, I merely increased the number of Ogre units, so the PC's still had to deal with one of them, and I luckily rolled the % chance for the Nycaloth to summon another Nycaloth (the Nycaloth is my replacement for the Red Dragon), so the allies can be sent to deal with the summoned Nycaloth, and the party can deal with the real one.

Just after 1:00 PM the first wave of invading trolls and tanarukk make their way up to the wall under the effects of obscuring mist cast by Trollwife warlocks (the Breath of the Night invocation functions as obscuring mist in my game, not the gimped version in C. Arcane).  The party runs to the wall to watch and assist, some of them being a bit obtuse and wasting a fly spell to get to the wall faster. (More on that later - one of my players blew through a WHOLE bunch of spells tonight).  They get to the wall, the Druid//Sorcerer in eagle form, and witness five groups of fog approaching.  The groups avoid the smooth-looking, hallucinatory terrain-covered pits, as the PC's did not succeed in finding all the spies in the camp, nor did they defeat the Night Hag spy that escaped, and has since been inspecting things from the ethereal plane, and told the army about the pits.

The clusters of fog-shrouded trolls and tanarukk approach the difficult terrain to either side of the pits, and the party hears clattering and clanking of wood.  The groups continue forward, and there are a few yelps of pain as they encounter the spike stones effects.  The trolls then pick up the ladders, and the tanarukk ride the ladders, so only the trolls take damage from the spike stones.  The trolls will regenerate the nonlethal damage taken, though they will still be slowed for 24 hours or until magically healed.  The ladders rise out of the fog, and the tanarukk make their initial assault on the wall.  They start to wound the wall defenders enough that they may actually make it up onto the wall, but the Iron Lord (and the PC's agree) sends the Rashemi Runescarred Berserkers to reinforce the wall defenses.

This initial crisis point was not meant to be something the PC's got actively involved in, as they are the strike force to be sent to deal with issues others can't, but the PC's decided to get in the fray a bit anyway.  They didn't eat up too many spells here, though, using reserve feats to damage the ladders, and using strength checks to topple the ladders (which was quite a feat, given that each ladder was being held in place by two trolls - the Barbarian//Beguiler rolled two Natural 20's to topple some ladders.  By this point the Runescarred Berserkers are upon the wall, and fight off the tanarukk successfully.  The wooden clunking noises the party had heard was the tanarukk dropping off piles of wood into several large wood piles about 50 feet from the wall.  The party decided to light these with dropped torches and flaming arrows, figuring it would be good to be able to see out in front of the wall.  They even chucked some more wood out onto the burning heaps about two hours later when they had burnt down to coals.

The next little encounter wasn't even supposed to be anything beyond a narrative happening, but my PC's stopped me and argued that they would have seen the fliers coming in, and wanted to go deal with them, so an extra encounter ensues.  At each wall, both north and south, three half-fiend trolls fly up to just do an aerial reconnaissance and each drop two beads from a necklace of fireballs.  The PC then interjected as I said before, and dealt with two of the three half-fiends approaching the south wall.  They succeeded in getting the necklaces to blow up in the faces of those two, and actually succeeded in killing one of them.  The other escaped, while the four the PC's didn't deal with dropped their payloads and returned to their respective horde camps.  Again, the PC's succeeded in doing most of this with reserve feats, so it didn't really drain them too much, though the Druid//Sorcerer did throw out a Sound Lance at one of the half-fiends.  Shortly after this, the sun set at 1:37 PM, though dusk would hang on until 3:24 PM.

With the duration on Control Winds, the party urged the Iron Lord to have them deployed about one hour and twenty minutes before the ritual, so it would last all the way through the ritual, and a bit beyond it.  So, at about 5:00 PM, the Druid//Sorcerer Hathran cast fly upon herself, and flew out to the planned points and cast the 15th-caster level spells from a scroll, placing them to the sides of this natural stone bridge and above, but with approximately 10 feet of vertical distance between them, so there were gaps the party could use to exit if need be, but the bad guys wouldn't know about (because control winds has no visual manifestation).

Just a few minutes after the control winds spells were deployed, the Druid//Sorcerer PC noticed a cracking noise from the south.  He went to investigate, still in eagle form.  By this point, the wall defenders had deployed some Daylight shining objects out near the bonfires as well (Daylight provided by some of the relative plethora of 5th level Ethran present), so with Low-Light vision he was able to see about 300 feet out from the wall.  He flew out and investigated, hearing the cracking noise some more, and eventually he saw it: small boulders hitting the top of the Control Winds, which was directed to blow upwards, and though they didn't bounce off the spell effect, the wind effect slowed their momentum enough that they fell well short of the wall.

The rocks stopped, and the druid returned to report what he had seen.  As the party was discussing this development with the Iron Lord, a Listen check clued them in that the wind was slowly dying down.  The players were quite confused at first, "what could be killing all the control wind effects?"  While reading control wind in the PHB, the Druid//Sorcerer players also saw Control Weather, and figured it out.  The Hathran that had cast the Control Winds spells from the scroll offered to head back out (to get in range of the spells) and concentrate on them again to bring the wind forces back up.  The PC's thought this was a grand idea, not realizing that control winds allowed such a thing.  So the Hathran flew out, under the effects of invisibility, and made the circuit of the six control winds spells, ramping each one back up with a mere thought.  They started to die down again, slowly (control weather takes effect over the course of 10 minutes), and so the Hathran just continued to make the rounds.  No one could see her of course, but the winds were staying near hurricane-force the whole time.

This carried on for several minutes.  Then the Hathran was attacked.  All the party saw was a large green demon appearing (the Nycaloth) as it grabbed something (improved grabbed the Hathran, which it could see with at will see invisibility), folded its wings, and just plummeted down toward the ocean below.  Again, this was merely supposed to be something that happened; a narrative part of the battle.  But the Barbarian//Beguiler (who has a Feathered Mask), and the eagle-shaped druid decided to take off after them.

The plan was for the Nycaloth to free-fall while grappling the Hathran for 9 rounds (2550 of the 2640 feet in a quarter mile), then teleport away, giving her almost no time to stop the free-fall before she smacked into the ocean. (Someone in a free-fall must make a DC 20 Reflex save to pull out of it, though this is generally more for winged fliers than magical fliers).  By the time the PC's got to the edge, the Nycaloth had been free-falling for two rounds, or 450 feet.  The Beguiler cast Haste, and the eagle-form druid dove after the demon.  He calculated that he was actually going 100 mph (controlled dive; [2*[4*[80+30]]=880 feet per round as a run action]), which means he caught up in no time.  Here is where he wasted a WHOLE bunch of spells, though.  He tried to cast Baleful Transposition on himself and the Yugoloth; he failed overcoming its spell resistance of 24.  He tried to cast the same thing the next round; he again failed to overcome SR.  I forget what he tried the round after that, probably something like Wing Bind, but again failed to overcome SR.  By this point, the hasted Beguiler had been catching up at 60 feet per round (90 foot fly speed, doubled for descending, taking a double-move action for 360 feet per round), and was in range to fire off a medium-range spell.  He placed a Solid Fog beneath the grappling pair, which cushioned and nearly halted their fall.  The nycaloth then started to sink in at 5 feet per round.

The Druid//Sorcerer then tried another spell, which did nothing, and the Beguiler hit the Nycaloth with a Ray of Dizziness (which is a wickedly broken spell, by the way), overcoming SR, hitting its touch AC, and overcoming the 20% miss chance for the Nycaloth being in the fog (on the edge, so still targetable, but still completely within it).  At this point, the Nycaloth teleported away, but the Druid//Sorcerer was ready for him to come out the bottom side.  The Hathran then emerged, and the players assumed the Nycaloth got away.  They all ascended back up to the bridge unmolested, and decided that the Hathran would just stay on the bridge near the center, and just keep the two top wind effects running for now, and would bring up the side effects when the main battle started.

Shortly after 6:00 PM a report came in from the southern wall that massive boulders were being thrown, and they were hitting the wall.  The Iron Lord sent the Druid//Barbarian mercenaries to deal with the problem, and the PC's agreed with that decision.  The Druid flew out to look, and saw these were much larger boulders than he was seeing being thrown before.  They are still being affected by the wind, and some of them are falling short of the wall, but most of them are hitting.
Then a runner comes to report that there are more stones being thrown at the north wall.  The Iron Lord tells the party to deal with the northern threat, and off the party goes.  Our battle mat is long enough to represent about 200 feet, so I just started the party out that far, especially given how dark it is (new moon, mostly cloudy, only a little light present from the enemy camp behind the Skullcrusher Ogres), but the ogres were 950 feet out from the wall (Far Shot doubled their range to five 200-foot increments)  By this point the wall sections had lost nearly 66% of their hit points (after factoring in hardness, each of the four Skullcrusher Ogre War Hulk 3/Feat Rogue 2's was dealing 16 points of damage each round).

The bad guys consist of four Skullcrusher Ogres that have two levels of Feat Rogue and three levels of War Hulk, as well as two Primordial Giant Half-Troll Draegloth, and one Primordial Giant Half-Troll Marzanna Hag.  The primordial giants all could use invisibility purge at will, to prevent sneaky forces from approaching undetected.  The War Hulks also had the Large and In Charge feat from the Draconomicon.  The Half-Troll Draegloth were wielding battle axes in their smaller arms, and those axes had Purple Worm poison on them.  Each also had a dose of sassone leaf residue to apply.

Just as in Red Hand, each of these foes is spread out such that no more than two can be caught inside the radius of any one fireball.  This was quite unfortunate, and caused my Druid//Sorcerer to waste another spell, as his opening salvo was a scintillating sphere, catching the Marzanna Hag and one of the Skullcrusher Ogres.  He failed to overcome the hag's SR 15, and the Ogre made his save, and evasion prevented him from taking any damage.

The party chose to bring two Geat Berserks along with them (the two flying barbarians could carry them over the spike stones effects, while everyone else flew either in wildshape or via a fly spell), and they charged out ahead with their impressive 70 foot speed.  Most everyone else started to close with the 'trolls,' but the Druid//Scout/Wizard DMPC made excellent use of his new items, inflicting some pain with his +1 Giantbane Longbow and his (Giant) Enemy Spirit Pouch, and the Geats charged the other front ogre, one of them getting stopped by Large and In Charge.  The next round was again spent closing the distance, while the archer again injured the same ogre with two bow shots, dealing an impressive 36 points of damage with a critical hit.  The Geats full attacked the second ogre, hitting three times with their power attacking fists, bringing him down to half hit points.

The Beguiler//Barb and the Wizard//Rogue have buffed themselves with invisibility and improved invisibility, and move forward, both aghast that something negated their invisibility spells.  I wryly inform them it is a core spell effect, and they couldn't believe it.  The beguiler charms the nearest Half-Troll Draegloth, and as always tries to convince it that its friends are its enemies, which doesn't work (he never seems to learn); add to it that these are fanatics trying to assist the entrance of demons into the world...  But still, it prevents this draegloth from doing much to the party until everything else had pretty much been taken care of.

And I'm going to pause here, because it is extremely late.

Offline ksbsnowowl

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4776
  • Warrior Skald, teller of tales.
    • View Profile
Re: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« Reply #14 on: October 02, 2012, 12:10:55 PM »
Continuing...

The party whittled away at the skullcrusher ogres, dividing their attention among the ogres and the primordial giant assistants that were helping to protect them.  That’s normally not the best of tactics, but since there were so many PC’s and allies on the board, it didn’t really hinder their fight overly much.  There are the three party members, the DMPC, the former player character Barb//Warlock, and two Geat Berserks.  Seven good guys vs. seven bad guys.  (The Tiger animal companions were left back behind the wall due to the spike stones effects).

The primordial giant half-troll marzanna hag used her Numbing Sphere SLA to try and injure the Rogue//Wizard, but the player made his save.  The Druid//Sorcerer PC then decided to close with the “caster” in front (the primordial giant half-troll marzanna hag), pouncing upon her, but only hitting with two out of five attacks.  Regardless, he did start a grapple with her, which kept her occupied almost the entire rest of the combat.

The Beguiler//Barbarian, flying with his shiny new feathered mask, approached the same front ogre as the Geat Berserks, gaining flanking with one of them, and struck for a small bit of damage (he doesn’t often rage, so it is only ~2d6+7 damage).  The Geats tumbled around the ogre to activate skirmish, disappointing the beguiler that they moved out of flanking with him (but still in flanking with each other).

The Rogue//Wizard moved around a bit, exploring the edge of the invisibility purge, and discovering that he became invisible once again when he left the area.  He then attacked with some spell, though I forget what.

The Druid//Scout/Wizard DMPC continued to slowly work his way toward the action.  Some rounds he would stay in place and throw off two shots; some other rounds he would close 40 feet, and once within range, activating his Improved Skirmish, nailing an ogre with one big hit.

The Druid//Sorcerer continued to grapple the Marzanna Hag, and the Geats full attacked this time, power attacking with their fists, dropping one of the skullcrusher ogres.  Thordinskald, the Barb//Warlock, continued to press his attacks against one of the rear ogres, injuring it enough to start drawing its ire with melee attacks.

Several of the ogres started focusing on the party at this point.  The front ogre the Druid//Scout archer had hit hard returned the favor, nailing the DMPC with a Power Thrown boulder for more than 30 points of damage.

The Rogue//Wizard spent a little more time playing around the edge of the invisibility purge, discovering that he could not be invisible and also within sneak attack range, which frustrated him, so he nailed the half-troll draegloth with a spell (again, I forget what).

At this point in the battle, I realized I’d been slacking a bit, and just had the primordial giant half-troll draegloth stand there providing their warding against invisibility, and not actively attacking the party.  Silly me.  So, the draegloth that had just been hit charged the Rogue//Wizard, striking with her poison-laced battleaxe (purple worm poison), which all-told only did 6 points of Strength damage between the initial and secondary effects.

Once the ogres started falling, however, they fell at a rate of one per round.  The party cleaned them up, then finished dealing with the half-troll draegloth and the marzanna hag was finally raked to death.

They looted the area, finding a few sacks filled with silver, gold, platinum and gems, as well as a +1 shield and a +1 battleaxe.  The sorcerer pulls out his artificier's monocle and spends two minutes identifying the two magical items.

Thus ended the first session of the massive Battle of the Niflhenge.

Offline ksbsnowowl

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4776
  • Warrior Skald, teller of tales.
    • View Profile
Re: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« Reply #15 on: October 07, 2012, 02:12:36 PM »
The second session of the battle began with the PC's walking back toward the north wall while the sorcerer was inspecting the magic items with the monocle.  As they are jogging their way back, they get a message over the telepathic link that the Hathran are taking up position in the stonehenge for the ritual.  A short time after that, they get a mental message from the Iron Lord that some of the other groups have failed to stop the ogres, and the southern wall has been breached in a few places.  The Iron Lord orders defenders to stop the horde at the breaches.

The PC's double-time it to the northern field hospital and a few of them get patched up.  This is one of the compromises I had to make in this Red Hand of Doom adaptation.  There are LOTS of 3rd-6th level spellcasters around working some hospitals that the Hathran erected (just two stone buildings straddling the Niflhenge, and spaced so they "divide" the natural stone bridge into thirds).  In Red Hand, there were very few casters, and most of them were like 3rd level.  However, they won't be able to help forever; by the time the big showdowns arrive, they will be exhausted on healing.

As a few of the party members are getting patched up, the Druid//Sorcerer wildshapes back into an eagle (3 daily uses used up) and starts heading toward the southern wall.  He can see that the whole horde is on the march, and notes that more than twenty half-fiend trolls are now attacking the wall.  Some of them have Tanarukk "Trollwives" (Tanarukk Warlock 1's) in their arms, strafing the wall as the tanarukk takes shots at wall defenders.  Unholy Blights are also starting to eat into the ranks of the wall defenders.

The PC's suggest sending the Geat Berserks to reinforce the walls, having just seen two of them be quite effective in a fight.  The Geats start heading that way.  By the way, all the PC's and NPC's are flying at this point, either through spells, magic items, or wildshape.

As the newly-healed party members are catching up, having just passed the Niflhenge (the mid-way point), a call goes out from the Druid//Hathran who cast the Rary's Telepathic bond, and has been serving as an aerial scout throughout the battle.  She reports that a large green fiend is snatching up Hathran along the wall, and he must be stopped.

The Nycaloth's Rampage:

In planning for this battle, I pre-rolled the summon %, so I could effectively plan my strategy.  I nailed the 30% chance, and so there were going to be two nycaloths.  This was going to work well, as the PC's would deal with one, while their ally the Wild Hunter would deal with the summoned one (with some side help).  Thus, their ally would serve his purpose, and the party would fight my big bad stand in for the Large Red Dragon of Red Hand of Doom.  The Nycaloth would summon the second Nycaloth, then initially snatch up a few more hathran before turning his attention to those performing the ritual.

However, my PC's like to make life hard for themselves, and spread themselves too thin.

I call for spot checks.  They all notice a hathran cast a Wall of Thorns to block one of the breaches.  She is then immediately snatched up by the Nycaloth (advanced with two levels of Bear Totem Barbarian for Improved Grapple).  She is dropped from the sky off the edge of the bridge, but the PC druid recognizes her as being high enough in level to wildshape, and the PC's leave her to her own devices to save herself.  The PC's push on to catch the Nycaloth, with the Beguiler hitting the party with a Haste spell.

The Nycaloth, under the effects of Mirror Image, summons another Nycaloth, and sends him to start harassing the Hathran performing the ritual.  The Druid//Sorcerer strikes with some magic missiles to take out the mirror images, but then the PC's split, with the Barbarian//Beguiler heading toward the real Nycaloth at the southern wall, along with the Druid//Scout/Wizard DMPC and two tiger animal companions.  All the others head back to the Niflhenge to protect the Hathran from the summoned nycaloth.  My word of caution that they are spreading themselves too thin goes unheeded.  I'm not so much worried about the PC's dying against this foe, but I am worried about them blowing through almost all of their spells before this massive battle is finished.

The DMPC tries an Ice Darts spell to get rid of the remaining mirror images, but only hits once (his CL only allows for two darts).  I forget how the last of the mirror images were taken out, but they were.  The nycaloth snatches up another Hathran who is working to defend the wall, and the Beguiler makes his strike, hitting the nycaloth with a Ray of Dizziness, and succeeding at the caster level check to overcome its Spell Resistance of 24.  At its first opportunity, Æsbjornix the Nycaloth teleports away to wait out this dizzying malady, dropping the hathran he had grappled, though she feather falls back to the ground.

Some point around this time the Barbarian//Beguiler expended the last slot of one of his spell levels.  One of the house rules in my game is that spontaneous casters have to make a Fortitude save of 10+spell level expended each time the spend the last spell slot of a given level.  If they fail, they are fatigued.  If they fail again, they are exhausted.  This is to represent the stigma against Seidr casters in Norse society.  It weakened you, which was unmanly, thus the stigma against male Seidr casters.  This instance was the first time any of my players has failed this saving throw, so now the Beguiler//Barbarian is fatigued.

The Barbarian//Warlock NPC charges the summoned nycaloth doing 6 points of damage after the DR 10/Good is applied.  The Rogue//Wizard nails him with an Acidic Splatter, and is disappointed to see that it does nothing.  They previously fought a Red Abishai, who was immune to fire, and so they now assume the Nycaloth is immune to both acid and fire.  I mention that the other one was a devil, while this one is a yugoloth (a Knowledge: the Planes check succeeded at that much, but told them nothing else), but do nothing else to dissuade them of their misconception.  The Druid//Sorcerer is still on his way back toward the Niflhenge, as he had previously sprinted toward the south wall.

So, now the Barbarian//Beguiler and the DMPC (in eagle form) start heading back toward the summoned nycaloth.  The nycaloth auto-succeeds at his concentration check to activate his mirror image SLA, and escapes taking damage from the Barb//Warlock's attack of opportunity.  The nycaloth continues toward the hathran, and the two druids, being rather speedy, arrive on scene.  The Barb//Warlock I think charged once again, though as I write this up, I realize the nycaloth should have outpaced him.  Oh well, the DR kept it from hurting too badly.  A magic missile from either the wizard or the sorcerer got rid of the remaining mirror images.

At the nycaloth's next turn, it used its invisibility SLA to protect itself from the coming AoO, not knowing that the Barbarian//Warlock has the see the unseen invocation, allowing him to see invisible creatures.  The AoO strikes, but is not too overly damaging.  I forget specifics, but the first five hits the summoned nycaloth took only dealt 20 points of damage total.  A few charges and AoO's, as well as one magic missile that actually got through the SR.

The nycaloth continues forward and sets himself up to snatch away a hathran in the next round, though most of the PC's had see invisibility up by this point, and can tell that he is hovering 15 feet above the ground, in prime position to attack the Hathran.  They also now see why there are assistant hathran helping those performing the ritual.  The assistant is under the effects of Disguise Self and mirror image, so it now looks like there are ten identical hathran in position at the stonehenge trilithon.

The PC's descend upon the summoned nycaloth, and the Barbarian//Beguiler hits HARD.  His first full attack against the nycaloth gets four attacks; he hits twice, but crits once.  Since his greatsword has a Lesser Fiendslayer Crystal, it counts as a Good weapon, cutting right through that Damage Reduction, and dealing 38 points of damage.  The nycaloth returns the favor, full attacking with three greataxe attacks and two claws.  Sadly, the claws didn't hit (they cause lingering bleeding damage).

The nycaloth takes a few more hits for small damage, and then the Beguiler attacks again, dealing 41 damage.  A few more spells and other minor attacks deal a bit of damage, one being a Freeze spell from the DMPC, which had absolutely no effect, as well as a lone claw attack from a tiger-formed druid, who tries to grapple him, but just barely fails.  The nycaloth full attacks again, but didn't roll too well, and the PC's are wondering why he isn't teleporting away (sometimes its nice to play with PC's who don't know all the rules that well; he can't teleport because he is summoned, and the PC's were even wondering before why the first nycaloth wasn't teleporting away with the hathran [because they have to be willing]).  One last heavy attack from the Barb//Berguiler "kills" the summoned nycaloth, and he disappears.

They ask how the rest of the battle is going, and they learn that the southern wall has been overrun.  The Rashemi forces are setting up a defensive line inside the wall, and the tanarukk/troll army is securing their hold on the wall.

XP awarded: 50 (because fighting a summoned creature doesn't earn XP).
But, it was good practice for the real nycaloth who will come back with a vengeance next session, as the Ray of Dizziness will soon wear off.  His tactics will be different, as he saw the party deal with the summoned one.  He also has the advantage of being able to teleport.  At any time that his number of mirror images falls to less than four, he will teleport away and reapply his mirror images.  He will also just teleport while invisible, placing himself right above his hathran targets, and the PC's will have a harder time getting in his way (though the wizard may have prepared dimensional anchor).

I'm really starting to worry about my party's staying power through this battle.  They keep taking on EVERYTHING, even things that are meant to be narrative.  I don't stop them from doing so, as that is their decision.  But they have these allies to allocate to handle situations.  Some things the allies will handle well, others they will not, but the PC's keep trying to be everywhere, and are blowing through spells like there is no tomorrow.  I mentioned this, though was not super specific that they better be holding things back, merely saying that they are spreading themselves too thin, and are trying to be everywhere.  Their reply: but that's where the danger is.

I'll grant them the situation dealing with the summoned nycaloth:  The real one left the scene until the debuff wears off, so there was nothing better for them to deal with at the time.  But they might find themselves in a world of hurt in a few sessions.  Especially when they face the gestalt CR 13 final boss with 285 hp's and an extremely high buffed AC.

« Last Edit: October 08, 2012, 02:38:59 PM by ksbsnowowl »

Offline Nachofan99

  • Full Member
  • **
  • Posts: 111
  • I'm new!
    • View Profile
Re: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« Reply #16 on: October 09, 2012, 10:46:05 PM »
Cool write up!

Please, please PLEASE let the dice decide if they win or lose or survive this ordeal!

You can show them this write-up later.

I love the idea of them just fighting absolutely EVERYTHING - and then losing in the end!  It was their choice! Don't take that away from them.

Offline veekie

  • Spinner of Fortunes
  • Epic Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 5423
  • Chaos Dice
    • View Profile
Re: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« Reply #17 on: October 09, 2012, 11:32:34 PM »
Wouldn't the NPC efforts saved be able to contribute to the big final fight?
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline ksbsnowowl

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4776
  • Warrior Skald, teller of tales.
    • View Profile
Re: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« Reply #18 on: October 10, 2012, 10:55:57 AM »
Wouldn't the NPC efforts saved be able to contribute to the big final fight?
Which "NPC efforts" are you referring to, veekie?

The initial hathran saved from a plunging death will be doing her part, sure.

The fact that they have gathered the allies in question has garnered them "victory points" ala Red Hand of Doom, in that they do have a general effect on the battle, thought it might not seem like it to the PC's at the moment.

As for their allocation of those NPC forces, it will have an effect of the next phase of the battle (I have yet to write up last Monday's session, where they did defeat the Nycaloth), in which they will have to defend against waves of bad guys.  You can read up about this "crisis points" model here.

They did well in allocating their allies, and only earned one "loss."  That loss will lead to them having fewer low-level allies present against those waves of bad guys, but they still have all their high-level allies that can come party with them (four 8th level gestalt Barb//Scout/Berserks and four 6th level Wolf Berserker Lodge barbarians), as well as a few low-level Geats that will be there.

When the waves of demons start to come through the rift, the PC's will not be the only ones present as the demons are flooding through, and there will be lots of NPC's partaking in demon skirmishes in close proximity to the PC's (though "off screen").  If the party still has their Geat Berserks and Wolf Lodge Barbarians with them, they will certainly join them in the fray with the demons.

However, most of the Rashemi barbarians and other allies present will still have their hands full with the horde that is pushing their attack, trying to bring down the hammer while the anvil of demons have the Hathran "surrounded."  That was the main point of their attack; strike while the demons would flood through anyways, and hope the two combined attacks are enough to break the ritual.

The fact the PC's have succeeded at the things they have gives the whole army of defenders a decent shot at succeeding.  (There are precautions in place to help the hathran performing the ritual survive; each has a highish-level hathran [11th+] who is using shield other on the ritual member, and is disguised and mirror imaged to look like the ritual caster, and will heal her if she is damaged - these will come into play once demons start flooding through and unleashing area SLA's).

The final crux will come down to the PC's though.  Once the peak of the demon flood has receded, and the hathran have things back under control, and must merely keep performing the ceremony uninterrupted to prevent any more demons coming through, the final push from the horde will come (the equivalent of Kharn's final battle).  Many of the higher-level NPC's will be dead or incapacitated, and it will fall to the PC's to stop the last-ditch effort to end the ritual and break the "plug" they've put into the rift.  That's where it will truly fall upon the shoulders of the PC's.  If they fail there, things will not end well for Midgard.

Offline ksbsnowowl

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4776
  • Warrior Skald, teller of tales.
    • View Profile
Re: Help planning the climax of a demon rift massive battle
« Reply #19 on: October 21, 2012, 07:23:16 PM »
The next session started with a few rounds of down time while Æsbjornix the Nycaloth was waiting for the Ray of Dizziness to wear off.  During this time the party's haste spell wears off.  Even though they aren't supposed to be able to access the magic item reserve during a given encounter, I allowed them to do so here so the Rogue//Wizard could get a scroll of Assay Spell Resistance.

Æsbjornix returns, teleporting on the far side of the Niflhenge from the party.  The Druid//Sorcerer spots him, and tells the rest of the party.  The nycaloth tries to snatch up a Hathran, but hits a mirror image instead.  Over the ensuing round the party gets two light hits in, dealing a total of 6 points of damage after the nycaloth's DR 10/Good and resistances.  The Beguiler//Barbarian again strikes with Ray of Dizziness, and once again the nycaloth teleports away.  My players are starting to get pissed.

The thing they have to learn with many fiends is that if you debuff them too much or too effectively, they will leave until their disadvantage is remedied.  They have to change their mindset when fighting such things.  The party has a plan, however, to keep the fiend from teleporting away.

Eleven rounds later, the nycaloth returns.  The Wizard//Rogue buffs up with True Haste (essentially 3.0 haste as a 5th level spell), and the Sorcerer//Druid throws some magic missiles the nycaloth's way to destroy the mirror images the nycaloth has up.  The Barb//Beguiler charges the nycaloth, and destroys another image.  The two DMPC's also strike with eldritch blast and arrows, destroying more images.

The Nycaloth moves forward and attempts to snatch up a Hathran performing the ritual, and again hits an image.  The Wizard//Rogue flies forward, buffs himself with Assay Spell Resistance, so as to ensure he gets past the Nycaloth's spell resistance.  He then uses his extra standard action from True Haste to hit the nycaloth with Dimensional Anchor, and... misses.  He rolled a 3 on the die, getting something like a 14 to hit, versus the nycaloth's Shield of Faith-buffed touch AC of 17.  It was the only copy of Dimensional Anchor he had prepared.  Another round buffing with True Strike may have been warranted...

Disheartened, the party labors on, the Barb//Beguiler charging forward and striking for 23 points of Good damage.  This is followed up by a Sound Lance from the Sorcerer//Druid, getting past the SR and dealing 24 points of sonic damage (which the nycaloth has no resistance to).  Attacks by the Barbarian//Warlock and Druid//Scout/Wizard NPC's are ineffective, as are the arrow attacks of the Wild Hunter.  The nycaloth strikes out at the Barbarian//Beguiler, hitting a few times with his greataxe, but not his claws.  The Wizard//Rogue strikes with an expertly placed Cone of Cold, his last damaging spell that will work against the nycaloth (he still has some acid spells, though the nycaloth is immune to acid).  Still buffed with Assay Spell Resistance, he easily overcomes the nycaloth's SR, dealing 33 points of damage after resistance due to the nycaloth's failed reflex save.  The Barbarian//Beguiler hits for 27 points of damage (his Lesser Fiendslaying crystal makes his base damage 3d6+8 when not raging) bringing the fiend below 100 hit points.

Another Sound Lance from the Sorcerer//Druid overcomes SR and deals 23 damage to the fiend.  More missed attacks from the NPC's, and the nycaloth flies onward, and tries to snatch up the Druid//Scout/Wiz DMPC, who was perched atop the Niflhenge's trilithons, but Abrupt Jaunt saves the DMPC.  The next round the Nycaloth is hit by the Barbarian//Beguiler, and subsequently teleports away to get some healing.  (I must be missing something adding to the Barb//Beguiler's damage, because several times I have him dealing 26 or 27 points of damage, which is quite high for a single hit at 3d6+8.  It's possible that he was raging during this time, which would increase his damage to 3d6+15).

The party is again frustrated that he can teleport away at will, but I am not the kind of DM to alter things overly much, and have my intelligent bad guys use poor tactics just because my players are not playing very well, or the dice are working against them.

The Nycaloth returns a few rounds later, having been healed back up to 125 hit points (a pre-determined amount).  He has placed himself on the opposite side of the Niflhenge from most of the party, though the party had spread out quite a bit once again, knowing he would return here.  The nycaloth takes two hits for 14 points and 22 points, and at the nycaloth's next turn, he rages (he is a 2nd level barbarian), bringing his HP's back up to 121.  The remainder of this battle is a blur, though I know the Druid//Sorcerer spent much of it lamenting the fact he couldn't engage the fiend in melee while it was in the air.
In the email to the group after this session, I mentioned that there are longer-duration ways to gain the ability to engage in three dimensions, and my Druid player felt like an idiot for not remembering Air Walk.  He decided he would get a scroll of that from the magic item reserve.

The Nycaloth gets a few more attempts at some Hathran, but always hits mirror images.  The party whittles the fiend down between the fiendslayer-empowered greatsword and what I suspect were a few hits from the tiger-form Druid//Sorcerer.  They get him down into the range where rage is the only thing keeping him alive, and end up taking him out.  The advantage to the party was that he raged, which prevented him from using his SLA's.  Therefore, no teleporting away.