Sendai battle (Baldur's Gate II campaign)

[Braininthejar]

So my Baldur's Gate campaign has reached the point where the party is to fight Sendai.

Since the game gives her allies such as illithid, beholders, and an elemental prince, I decided that rather than have an 'enclave', she would take over a whole drow city, and have an actual army of monsters.

While the party tackled the other bhaalspawn, Viconia went on a scheming spree in Underdark, trying to rally multiple drow houses on a crusade against the heretic. I want the fight to be a massive battle like the ones in "Ways of the Wicked" campaign, with the party deciding the general outcome by handling several key encounters on the battlefield.


I'm looking for sub quests the party could go on, to gain an edge in the battle - things to reduce Sendai's forces, or increase their own.

So far, they have two assets: Viconia has used the "control spawn through controlling the parent" principle to amass a horde of shadows (which would anger the good guys in the party, so she hasn't told anyone yet) and Sarevok got himself polymorphed into a fire giant and managed to subjugate what was left of Yaga Shura's army.

[SorO_Lost]

Does D2's bestiary even have Shadows or is this a 3.5 game modeled after Diablo?

They can go on quests to target Viconia's lieutenants, the parent controllers, which will result in the underling Shadows becoming free. They default into attacking anything alive which means they will immediately attack the Drow in the houses they are hanging out in. After a couple noble houses fall, it won't be too hard to convince the remaining Drow that Viconia and the second or third most powerful house were in an alliance and orchestrated the entire event to quash several houses.

Then if the party wants to perform some sort of frontal attack, Drow and Shadows are inherently Chaotic Evil. So for your Arcanes they can consider using Blizzard while your Divines can consider Forbiddance, just scry and teleport into the basement of their central temple during a meeting and drop it. Bonus points, leave a Drow House Insignia of one of the recently fallen houses with a posioned dagger where you cast it at to make them consider it was a retaliatory attack by a stray member.

[Braininthejar]

You seem to have totally misunderstood the question.

Are you familiar with Baldur's Gate series?

Also, I'm DMing it in 3.5

[SorO_Lost]

Just D2 which does't really have a storyline let alone any Drow in the Underdark. So I just stuck to a more d20 side

Also there is an offical Diablo d20 rulebook, includes Classes, items, monsters, and such.

[Nanshork]

Just D2 which does't really have a storyline let alone any Drow in the Underdark. So I just stuck to a more d20 side

Also there is an offical Diablo d20 rulebook, includes Classes, items, monsters, and such.

Baldur's Gate has nothing to do with Diablo.  Baldur's Gate is a D&D video game based on the 2E rules.

[Braininthejar]

so, should I explain the situation in detail?

[Stratovarius]

Go for it. And ignore the bizarre Diablo references.

[Braininthejar]

Okay then, from the beginning, and with campaign / video game spoilers.

My campaign follows the plot of the old but awesome computer game, with some modifications and additions for extra flavour, and to make the plot compatible with pen and paper.

The core of the campaign is the protagonist discovering that she is one of the bhaalspawn - hundreds of children that Bhaal sired just before the Time of Troubles, hoping to prevent his death he fortold, by setting them up to fuel his resurrection.

Didn't go to plan. Lots of kids didn't die as they were supposed to, the high priestess betrayed Bhaal and tried to steal the gathered magic for herself... long story short, there are just a couple bhaalspawn left alive, and the ones who didn't die leveled up enough that one of them might actually ascend as the next god of murder - and since most of them are evil, the story has become an all out war, whole armies brought to bear and annihilated as each is trying to remove the competition.

Last time, our protagonist defeated Abazighal, a half-dragon bhaalspawn with the power to command dragons. (she didn't actually kill him - a chromatic doom from her teammate accidentally turned him to stone and dumped him into astral. But his dragon flight is broken, and he's pretty much out of the game)


Now, the next bhaalspawn to fight is Sendai, a drow priestess (ur priest?) who took over a city in the Underdark, and filled it with an army of drow and monsters. Now she's using the thousands of slaves she has access to for demon summoning and exp-draining rituals, sending abyssal assassins after the player, and looking for various ways to locate and kill her.

And the player doesn't feel like trying to scry and fry into a literal fortress full of monsters, so it looks like a siege is in order.

Now, none of the player's allies on the surface has an army they could lead a mile underground. But, an act of open heresy Sendai committed has ruffled some feathers among the surrounding drow cities. Since the player's party (badly oversized, and full of colorful NPCs) includes Viconia, a drow priestess of Shar, she took a part of the party to Underdark, and helped make sure the cities would cooperate and go to war (it was the typical drow problem of "I know it is important, but if I commit too much of my forces, I'll expose myself to my rivals." So, while the protagonist followed the main plotline, Viconia helped stage a couple coups, bringing the right drow to power.

So now, A combined army of several drow cities is marching against Sendai, composed of drow, orog and goblin slaves, undead, and even summoned demons. The party plans to use polymorph/illusions to hide their being surfacers until the battle starts, then break through the city's defenses, and assault Sendai herself while the drow army handles the rest of her minions.

Now, with just days until the armies set off, (and Sendai trying time after time to kill the protagonist with magic at range) the player could run some last moment sub-quests to get more allies to her side.

The thing is, most of the drow underground neighbors wouldn't have any stake in one or the other side winning, especially not one big enough to get them involved in a battle that contains epic spellcasters on both sides.

So, my question was, who could the player turn to, and how to convince them.

Forces engaged in the battle so far:

1 Drow - already engaged on both sides.
2 Derro - engaged on Sendai's side for whatever crazy reason she managed to suggest them.
3 Illithid - engaged on Sendai's side, with some slave exchange, and high hopes of continued cooperation if she ascends. The Elder Brain could be persuaded to reconsider, if the party can get an audience (without fighting the whole illthid city - because if they do kill the brain, the Illithid stationed with Sendai will stay with her just for revenge)
4 Beholders - Sendai has a hive mother in her fortress, giving her control of a sizable beholder force. Sadly, this is her best guarded asset.
5 Demons - both sides employ them through magic. Sendai also has some yugoloth mercenaries.
6 Elementals - Sendai has managed to make a pact with Ogremoth, the prince of earth - but she's keeping it a secret so far - he's her trump card in the battle.
7 Undead - both drow armies have a couple liches in their ranks - undead fodder is bound to be used.

8 Duergar - unafilliated so far. Might go to war against the ilithid, but it won't be worth as much as the illithid quitting. Might contribute some iron golems to the siege effort. (something like "50 axemen" would be too little to affect the outcome)

9 Kuo Toa - so far unafilliated. Also a bit weak. What could they contribute, and how to phrase the message to make them join?

10 Neogi - both sides already have umber hulks, but Neogi could provide a good deal more. Problem is, they're a race of honorless, pragmatic slavers. (and offering them enough slaves to justify possible loss of that many umber hulks is something that won't stand with the good guys in the party.

11 Deep gnomes, myconid, flumph - too weak military to contribute.

12 Dragons. Sadly, the one powerful dragon the party befriended is both silver, and currently stuck home guarding a hatchling. There is an ancient deep dragon somewhere near, but it's a vain, greedy and sadistic creature thousands of years old. How to make it listen to an offer, and what would be a good offer?

13 Assorted monsters. Perhaps a tribe of fomorians or something? Would they be stupid enough to go to an epic battle for a promise of loot? Sendai has a megalopede (controlled by a magical rod rammed into its head) - unless the party recruits a dragon, they will have to handle it themselves during the battle.

14 did I miss anyone?

[oslecamo]

Some suggestions at the top of my head:

8 Duergar - unafilliated so far. Might go to war against the ilithid, but it won't be worth as much as the illithid quitting. Might contribute some iron golems to the siege effort. (something like "50 axemen" would be too little to affect the outcome)

"50 axemen" may not be very much, but "50 sappers" or "50 underground engineers who can find secret passages, dig new paths, detect weak structural points and collapse tunnels" seems like it would be a valuable asset in a siege scenario.

9 Kuo Toa - so far unafilliated. Also a bit weak. What could they contribute, and how to phrase the message to make them join?

That fortress must have some kind of underground river or well to provide water, in which case having an amphibious force opens new paths of attack. Offer sacrifices to their dark god, or promise they get to gain control of some watery ways.

12 Dragons. Sadly, the one powerful dragon the party befriended is both silver, and currently stuck home guarding a hatchling. There is an ancient deep dragon somewhere near, but it's a vain, greedy and sadistic creature thousands of years old. How to make it listen to an offer, and what would be a good offer?

Offer some shiny trinkets, promise more, add plenty of compliments and boot(claw?)-kissing, spread the lie that Sendai has been insulting the dragon and plans to aim at it next.

[SorO_Lost]

Baldur's Gate has nothing to do with Diablo.  Baldur's Gate is a D&D video game based on the 2E rules.

Massive senile moment there >.>

It's been a loooooong time since I played BG/BG2, so long I forgot it's existance. Also TIL Baal with an extra 'h' means some other evil god-like creature.

[Braininthejar]

Baldur's Gate has nothing to do with Diablo.  Baldur's Gate is a D&D video game based on the 2E rules.

Massive senile moment there >.>

It's been a loooooong time since I played BG/BG2, so long I forgot it's existance. Also TIL Baal with an extra 'h' means some other evil god-like creature.

So, with the misunderstanding out of the way, do you have any ideas?

[SorO_Lost]

You mean other than letting Viconia's own Shadows destroy her army and ubernuke the battlefield like I suggested before? Let the Bard make some Diplomacy Checks to recruit the Duergar, Kuo Toa, Gnomes & Fungi.

A Neogi alliance can be made as well, simply stick to more of a cease fire truce. In other words the Adventurers won't attack the Neogi and the Neogi can take slaves from the opposing side and will even receive updates on easy targets as the main forces distract them. And in exchange, all the Neogi have to do is agree not to attack the Adventurer's side. It'll work until someone starts promising free slaves at least. They can kind of do the same with the Deep Dragon by appealing to it's hubris and easy pickings of an entire Drow House's worth of loot if it helps.

Then there is the obvious point of creating your own forces. Sometimes the best thing to fight a Necromancer with is another Necromancer.

[Braininthejar]

1 Oh, I expect the battlefield to be nuked several times over the course of the battle, starting with the protagonist's tsunami spell, and ending with Ogremoth casting earthquake on the ceiling. This is why fodder won't make much difference unless there's a lot of it.

2 Necromancy is an obvious way to get more soldiers quickly, even during the battle. the drow on both sides are planning something to the effect. The problem with the player doing it is, She has had a habit of consulting the bad guys in the party to look for pragmatic solutions behind the good guys' back, and last time it backfired spectacularly, badly straining the party relationships.

Jaheira, Airie and Minsk are worth more than a thousand ordinary soldiers, so morally flexible as she is, the player is unlikely to do anything that might make them quit.

3 Strangely enough, despite its bloated numbers, the party doesn't have a bard. (Garrick left the group for easier cash in the city, and the player decided against pulling Hear'dalis' rump out of the fire twice in the same week)

The closest they have is Imoen, who would probably do an admirable job. The thing is, I'd need to roleplay the scenes, so I still need some arguments for her to use, not just a stat to roll.

4 The player might make such agreements, but the drow will go there to kill the heretics - there's likely to be even fewer captives than usual. (Sendai is even going to use it for a speech at her last stand, telling her minions that they have nowhere to run, and no afterlife will accept them either, unless she wins and gets to ascend - so if they don't want to end in the wall of the faithless, they'd better focus on taking the protagonist with them as they die.)

5 They will bring a sizable force of their own. First, as mentioned, Sarevok has managed to salvage some of Yaga Shura's army, so they have a couple dozen fire giants. Second, during the hell test of greed, the player (who would have had no use for Blackrazor sword) received an evil druid's staff which, among other things, allows her to do spellstaff twice. She uses it to cast summon elemental swarm twice before engaging in big battles.

[Braininthejar]

General Battle Plan

(I'm wonder if it's too much or too little. I do want the party to use nearly all resources, but not really kill them)

The battle event contains 50 victory points, with the players needing at least 30 to break through into the fortress. 

22 points can be gained by recruiting allies before battle:

3 for the remnants of Yaga Shura's fire giant force. (but Sarevok needs to lead them so he will be unavailable for most of the battle)
2 for incorporal undead that Viconia is supposed to provide.
1-2 for the party's own summons, depending on how many they prepare.
2 each for neogi and kuo toa mercenaries.
3 for a duergar clan with their iron golems
4 for getting the illithids to abandon Sendai
4 for getting Verritrax, the deep dragon

The battle starts in the large cavern leading towards the narrow pass where the city gate is located. Both sides throw waves of fodder at each other initially.

* The party is hit with a fireball - it seems there is a group of teen level mages bombarding their side of the battlefield with area attacks. Worth 2VP if defeated.

* A bunch of yugoloth mercenaries appear, spamming their deathcloud SLAs to massacre nearby mortals. worth 3VP if killed personally, 2VP if countered with shadows.

* A 20 level lich shows up, mass-animating the victims of the initial clash. He has several AOE spells that instantly animate his victims, so if he and his retinue aren't taken down quickly, he will amass a sizable force (2VP if defeated)

* One of Sendai's clones shows up. This one is a druid, and opens with a tsunami, killing hundreds instantly. She needs to be taken down quickly(3VP)

* A group of allied drow manage to kill an enemy balor, but his detonation wipes out the command squad. With the flank still reeling from Sendai's tsunami, the battleline might collapse, if the party doesn't plug the hole. (requires either plugging the hole with the party, against a mixed derro and demon attack, or delegating one of the allied NPCs to take command - he or she will be unavailable for the rest of the battle - 2 VP)

* A magically controlled megalopede bursts from the ground, devouring soldiers by the score. If the dragon has joined the battle. he will take it down, but get disabled by its monstrous venom (1VP) The party might handle it themselves instead (3VP) The quickest way to take it down is hit it with a disjunction - it will break the magical control rod rammed into its head, causing it to abandon battle.

* Just in front of the gate, a team of demons swoops down on the party, trying to take down them specifically (3VP if defeated)

* Finally the party reaches the gate. The gatehouse is magically reinforced, and spams deadly beams through the archer slits - there are beholders inside! (4VP for breaching personally, 3 for using duergars' iron golems for the task)

* as the conquering army squeezes through the shattered gate, trying to form their ranks on the inside of the city's main cave, there is a mighty rumble, and a part of the ceiling collapses from an earthquake spell. The counter attack is made of earth elementals, and lead by Sendai's ace in the hole - elemental prince Ogremoth. (worth 6VP, and the attackers can't get better than a bloodied draw unless he is defeated. Ogremoth retreats if taken to 1/3 HP, which is a lot of damage)

After his defeat the invading army breaks into the city and over the inner walls. Sendai throws the rest of her forces against the party - she can no longer defend the city, but if she takes down the bhaalspawn, it won't matter.

If the score is 30-39 the party needs to fight through the last wave of enemies before reaching Sendai - the hive mother that controlled her beholders, her drow officers, and an ulitharid with his illithid retinue (this is regardless of whether the rest of illithid quit on Sendai)

if the score is 40-49 the party needs to face either the Ullitharid and his retinue or the hive mother, plus one drow officer - the attacking army takes down the rest.

if the score is 50, the party can watch as their allies overwhelm the defenders, leaving them with just the boss battle to complete.

The boss battle consists of Abazighal (he got dumped into astral in his boss battle, and Sendai fished him out) , Sendai, and bunch of her level 20 'clones' with different character classes. As long as any clones remain, Sendai can avoid death by getting "reborn" from one of the clones, so she will always be the last to fall.

Good? Bad? Over the top? Not enough?

[SorO_Lost]

I like the idea of a point based deal.

[Braininthejar]

I took it from the Way of the Wicked campaign