Tower of the Witch King

Part 2: Threat removal

In Game	Out of Character
The Infiltrator Inside Zhengyi’s tower, where he has been for a while, Chaugnar Faugn studies the Pool in Klavikus’s library. With the hezrou dead, the well-stocked shelves are now open for all to explore. As he lounges in one of the few human-sized chairs, one of the tower’s wraiths slides up through the floor. The ancient undead warrior whispers, “the interlopers have returned.” The Seekers who destroyed Zhengyi have just entered the building and are heading upstairs. Chaugnar tells the wraith to tie him up and lays on the desk, then sends the spirit to spy on the adventurers. Downstairs the group talks for a minute and decides to search through the second floor of the tower, where they had previously detected hidden magic. Their path takes them almost directly to the library where they find and “free” the warlock. Though they easily see through his lies, they still let him lead the way to the pool.
The Departed The group comes out onto a huge landing just in time to see a large fiery demon with souls trapped inside it. The Immolith comes through the door from its parapet and calls to Chaugnar to destroy the intruders before unleashing a fiery curse on Arik the warrior, making it feel like his blood has turned to sluggish sludge. Chaugnar moves into the room and curses the fiend before giving it a vision of otherworldly horrors, drawing its attention from the group to the phantasms. Arik charges and misses, but it puts him in the demon’s face, which is right where he wants to be. Adran smites the demon and bolsters Arik, letting the half-giant vomit the offending mass up. Unfortunately, when it touches the air it ignites, and when it falls on him it clings like napalm. Naxis steps off the stairway and tries to test the creature’s vulnerability to cold but his ray of frost misses. The sword wraith and three of its companions take their opportunity to strike, sliding up through the floor and moving into flanking positions around the two party members wearing holy symbols: Arik and Adran. Their icy touch slips past armor and into the bodies of the two priests, draining their strength instantly. The demon strikes out at the illusionary foes around it and Arik uses the opportunity to drive his axe into its inky blackness. It responds with an attempt to curse members of the party, but they fight it off easily. Chaugnar creates a freezing black shadow around the Immolith, but it easily sidesteps. The warlock sacrifices a bit of his life energy to Caiphon to retain the power. Arik swings at the demon and gets a vision of missing at the last second, but does not react to it in time to hit instead. Surrounded, the priest shows off his incredible speed and runs to the other side of the giant room. He gets hit by both monsters beside him, but uses the breather to heal himself and break the spirit of the Immolith. Naxis takes the opposite escape route: he shifts slightly to the side and pushes one of the wraiths away from himself and into the spinning blades of death known as Arik. The demon sends out a wave of necrotic energy, healing itself and the wraiths around it, but can’t lay a claw on the large brute beside it. Chaugnar again fails to connect with his Frigid Darkness, but he does manage to curse the last of the enemies, ensuring that no matter who he hits, the pain will fly. Arik spins in a whirlwind of sharpness, and then stomps to drop them all to the ground. Arik calls on the Raven Queen to destroy the undead, and slams radiant energy into them, especially the Immolith (crit). His oracular terrifying insight makes it easy to hit them all. As the demon dies, Chaugnar calls upon Caiphon to intercede on his behalf. Pleased by the cursed offering, the entity whispers into Arik’s ear to strike, and the fighter drives his blade home into another wraith. Naxis again slides and pushes the wraith away from him and towards the fighter. Their new position lets them surround the fighter, and they use their combat advantage to keep him weakened and hurt. He lashes back out at one of them. The half-giant tells the wraiths around him to come and get it, then swirls his axe through them all before getting a surge of energy. Adran uses a healing word on the wizard, then fills the air around Arik with shining light, hurting the undead and healing the warrior. Naxis again tries a thunder wave, and again the wraith dodges the blast. As one of the wraiths dies to the half-giant’s axe, but not before it get a chance to strike back. The other two on Arik also wail on him. Chaugnar trusts in his guiding star and kills a wraith, which tries to drag Arik to the underworld with it but fails. The warrior strengthens the faithful, killing one more but it misses with its retaliatory strike. The last flees through the ceiling after being missed by a bolt of force from Naxis.	Far Realm Phantasm (Dragon 366) turns out to be beastly in conjunction with a fighter’s Combat Challenge. It forces the target to make a basic attack against the air on their next turn, which will give the fighter a free attack. When the epic level fighter’s basic attacks deal 4d6 + 23 damage (11d6 + 47 on a crit), that’s some hefty pain. The Deathfire Curse’s aftereffect sounds cool, but ongoing fire 5 is kinda silly at epic levels. I should have bumped it up to at least 10 when I added levels to the Immolith. Weakness is one of the nastier status effects at epic levels. Damage output and hit points are so high that halving the damage someone does is like giving all enemies Resist 20. Arik’s player was especially unhappy about it. The build is meant to dish out major damage, and he’s got some very high output strikes that he usually holds off on while damaged. I think I’ll have to remember that and put weakeners in lots of fights. ;) Pushing (in this case via Thunderwave) is a great way to sticky someone back onto the fighter. At this level the wizard is pushing enemies six squares, making it very easy to get them back into the warrior’s reach. Combat Challenge plus stances that deal damage like an aura means that once they’re there, avoiding damage isn’t an option. As with ongoing 5, a burst that heals 5 isn’t very useful, even after I increased it to 10. It combined well with the wraiths’ regeneration on the turns they didn’t get hit with radiant damage, but that wasn’t very often. I should have either increased it to 20, or removed the once per turn restriction from it so the demon could have continually fired it off, giving the wraiths more time to fight. I forgot that the fighter’s Stomp is only for creatures on the ground, but him knocking the wraiths over didn’t end up mattering. The fighter has uncanny dodge, but the wraiths still get combat advantage effects, and because they’re attacking reflex they easily hit repeatedly for 71 damage in a single round. This bloodies him, but that’s bad for the wraiths, as it gives hum a frenzied attack. Fighter stances and many auras deal damage to enemies that start next to the user. I wonder what the effects would be of changing that to be at the start of the user’s turn. It would avoid times when an aura gets missed, and lower the number of things that happen on others’ turns.
Hide and Seek Tired from the battle, the team decides to wait and rest before moving up to the flight deck to take care of the enemies up there. Chaugnar tells them of Zhengyi’s general, who is a rakshasa in disguise, as well as Arctigis, a huge white dragon. Also with the general will be his two concubines, which are hags in disguise. They move into the parapet holding the pool, but decide it is too small to defend. If the general comes down and has any way to push them back towards the pool the guardians will put them into a two sided battle. Instead they head to the library to hide. A few minutes later there were voices outside the door, speaking in Supernal. They had been found, but there was enough time for Naxis to create a door to his extra-dimensional mansion where they waited it out. Eight hours later they head to the barracks of a group of fire creatures, to destroy the general’s troops before they face him.	Mordenkainen’s Mansion makes its first appearance, letting the party take an unmolested long rest in the center of an enemy stronghold that’s on alert. Very nice.
Burn, baby burn The bridge to the parapet is small, allowing for only single file. When Chaugnar opens the door it is plain to see that the archons inside heard the full-plated fighter. Adran’s oracle skills prevents them from being surprised though, and the battle is joined. Two fiery robed creatures move to the front and fill the air with sheets of flame. Chaugnar is almost pushed off of the 150’ tall bridge but holds his ground by clutching the ground. Adran moves in to plug the hole in the doorway and prevent the enemies from pushing them repeatedly. He enthralls them with his divine light, preventing them from trying to remove him from the slot. Chaugnar stands and teleports himself invisibly to the rear of the room, while Arik rushes around the archons and then draws them deeper into the room with a “Come and get it!” shout. He takes a small cut for his troubles, but doesn’t care. The three emberguards attack ineffectually and the blazesteels manage to land a few minor blows. Adran calls forth the light of his Queen and fills the air with her mantle of glory, replenishing the warrior’s minor fatigue. The ash disciples fill the air with flames and cinders, blinding several Seekers. Trusting in his guiding star, Chaugnar ignores the blindness and blasts an emberguard. Arik stomps the ground and all but one of the archons around him falls, and he uses the opportunity to cleave through one into another. Naxis surrounds the battle with a cage made of thunder and lightning, leaving a hole for Arik to leave through should he need to. Fire rains, blades flash, and magic flies. When the smoke clears (literally), the Seekers stand triumphant.	There was much talk of running away if anyone fell off, but the saving throw to avoid being pushed off a cliff saved the warlock a major hassle. The other attacks from the ash disciples missed with lots of bad rolls, so nobody else was in danger of plummeting. Come and Get It is proving to be an amazing fighter power. Damage, enemy control, and marks all wrapped into one make it the fighter’s go-to attack for crowd control. The rest of the fight is more of the same. The archons have used their encounter powers by this point, so I fast forwarded through the rest of the fight. As a 21^st level encounter against a 21^st level party (4 characters, but min-maxed and using higher starting attributes) I didn’t expect it to be a tough one, and it wasn’t. The only real way for it to have been a challenge would have been had someone been pushed off of the ledge and the party not have fled.
The General and his Retinue After a brief rest the party heads upstairs to face the general and his last remaining troops. The moment they come out of the spiral staircase (this time led again by Arik) they see the dragon and the Rakshasa. Adran grants divine armor to his allies and then runs full tilt to the other side of the staircase. Arctigic moves forward and unleashes his frightful roar, stunning the Seekers. He follows it with an icy breath that chills them to the bone. The general moves up to Arik and displays a deadly amount of accuracy with three strikes from his long sword. Naxis looks over the ledge to the roof and calls up black tentacles that grab every enemy and hold them fast. Chaugnar opens a portal to the Far Realms and lets glowing tentacles through, which also grab the dragon. Arctigis’s icy tomb fails to hit the priest, and he cannot extricate himself from the tentacles, which are now bolstered by Naxis’s orb. Arik heeds Adran’s call and waits. The General speaks of his great deeds and Chaugnar responds by covering himself in extraplanar leeches. The general also drives the two trapped hags into a frenzy, and though they escape and move tout of the tentacles, they are quickly put back in by the teleportation effect of Naxis’s Maelstrom of Chaos. Chaugnar also delays, and when Adran’s purifying burst cleanses them, the fighter and warlock react with fury on the General. Fast forward to a bunch of dead enemies less than two minutes later. The dragon’s hoard seems small, but when they open the chest and see 50,000gp worth of powdered residuum concerns of not having any cash handy are lost. They also find a phoenix helm, a thundering hand crossbow, and a Belt of Titan Strength. They take the crossbow to Artesano and Adran puts on the helm. Arik grabs the belt. Down below they search the library’s level and find a powerful book they recognize from legends. The attorney devils’ Books of Contracts bind souls who fail to fulfill the bargains they agree to, and requires services from them. It contains four defaulted contracts currently, for:	The Rakshasa’s ability to roll two dice with his longsword and keep the best was great. He rarely missed because of it. Evard’s Tentacles, Tendrils of Thuban, and a lot of really bad rolls came together to prevent the dragon from ever joining the fight beyond a couple of breath weapons. The first time Icy Tomb recharged, Naxis stole it. The other times it missed. He breathed a couple of times, but not enough to matter. And despite having a +6 to saving throws, Naxis’s -8 meant he never once saved. I made the dragon an elder and raised him to higher levels. I should have made him an ancient and lowered him down. With the Rakshasa / Warlord I made a lot of ally-focused choices, and shied away from giving him too many ways to heal (all he had was Inspiring Word). In hindsight I shouldn’t have been so concerned with overwhelming the party. If he’d had more heals and heavier damage he might have stuck around longer. His aura halves healing within it, and the Death Hags prevent healing if they hit with a claw (though they never came into melee range of a PC). I’m not sure it would have mattered if the enemy had been more min-maxed though. The party was working together like clockwork to make sure they only fought a single enemy at a time. The dragon got locked down close enough to attack the fighter, and would have done more damage if he’d been the gargantuan version, but not enough to burn through the cleric’s heals. I definitely have a newfound respect for an epic party, and am both scared and excited to see what happens when all five of them are at the same session.
Artesano’s Findings Artesano stayed in Bloodstone and researched the Pool of the Elements. Martine, Baron Tranth's oracle and advisor, made his library available to the artificer in thanks for the party's help. He searches through it for a couple of days and finds quite a bit. Martine is a Bloodstone history buff, and the Talisman of Orcus is constantly talking to the researcher. It points him to the right shelves by rifling through Martine's mind and pulling up his memories, as well as augmenting that with memories it learned from Zhengyi. It seems honestly impressed by the group's victory over Zhengyi, and wants to attach itself to a strong companion. Artesano learns much in two days. The pool appeared about 50 years ago, floating in midair outside of the Witch King's tower. It was close enough that Zhengyi could build a parapet to reach and surround it, but he had to add the three others to keep the tower balanced. Only one person has been known to have gone through the pool. Around a decade ago Zhengyi hired a band of mercenaries led by the famous Jarlaxle Baenr, a drow. Jarlaxle's group destroyed the guardians, and the three survivors stepped into the pool. Only Jarlaxle returned, and his hair had been replaced by flames. One of his men was hurled from the pool by a whirlwind. He bounced against a wall and hit the ground limp. His left arm had turned to a barely controllable tentacle of mud and he was in constant pain. Jarlaxle hired a priest to help the man, but there was nothing they could do. Over the course of the next few days the man slowly transformed into elements before finally breaking apart completely. The third bather was never seen again.  Jarlaxle Baenr is a constantly described as a famous mercenary leader in the tomes, but there appear to be no records of him prior to the pool. It's possible that he is another product of the shifting reality. Zhengyi went to enter the pool after Jarlaxle, but when he stepped close more guardians appeared, stronger than before. The new guardians allowed Baenr through though, and the drow left to travel through to the other side of the pool, where he had seen a portal he believed would transform him and make him even more attuned to the plane of his choice. Six weeks later he showed back up in Bloodstone, his skin gray and thick like rock. He had passed through successfully to the plane of Earth and been changed by the passing. He knew if he left through the portal he would change back, so he snuck past a gigantic multi-headed dragon and worked his way through the caverns to the city of yoD (Terran for shield). yoD sits on the border between the elemental plane of Earth and Fire. Jarlaxle went through against shortly after, but hasn't been seen since. It's not known whether he survived and attuned himself to another pool or was lost to the planes. Many cultures believe in the existence of a fifth element. The Orientals of Kara-Tur sometimes call it Change or Spirit depending on their religion. Others call it Void, and still others believe the fifth element is Mind. A few believe it to be Heart, and think that a combination of all five elements will save the planet, but they're usually laughed at. There are planes associated with all of those, so it could be any of them.	We usually have one player run the character of another player if they can’t make it. But with this one being an artificer and nobody in the group being familiar with them, they opted to let him stay back and research instead. In game terms, he learned: · Bathing is a personal skill challenge involving surviving the combined destructive forces of the five elements. DC 34, Complexity 2 (6 successes before 3 failures. Skills are Endurance: You fight the destructive energy's effects on your body. Nature: The first success on a Nature check will give the character a +1 to his d6 roll to resist Elemental Discontinuity should he fail the overall challenge. Arcana: A character who made any arcana successes will get a +2 bonus to an attempt to create a ritual for removing Discontinuity. Athletics: You swim, jump, and push your way through the elements, avoiding being pulled under. No more than three checks may be made with any one skill. · While bathing, you must focus on one or more of the five aspects of the pool. Success: choose one eleement to draw into yourself. You gain a power associated with that element. The only one you know about is Fire, which transformed Jarlaxle's hair and caused his blade to burst into flame when he was angry. Major success (no failures): choose two elements, only one is active at a time, they can be changed with a move action Encounter power. Total Success (no failures and at least one success with every primary skill): gain access to all five elements, but can still only access one at a time. Failure: suffer from elemental discontinuity, as your body unravels itself into its base components. It's also possible that you get pulled through a portal to a random plane. · The pool may also be used to travel to another plane. If you do, you'll attune yourself to that plane's hazards. Travelling back through will unattune you, but travelling through another portal on that plane will elave you attuned and protected. Same DC, complexity 3 (eight successes before three failures) though it can be done as a group if everyone is going to the same place. All must work to pull themselves through, so aiding others for +2 is not an option. Nature: Attune yourself to the forces and travel by feel. Arcana: Mystical protection and navigation. Athletics: climb, swim, and jump your way through. Endurance: Must make a check each round or lose one healing surge. Success: Travel to the appropriate plane and gain resistance against that plane's hazards. Failure: Pulled through a random gate. No resistance gained. · At least for the plane of Earth, there is something powerful on the other side waiting to prevent you from making the change permanent.