Tower of the Witch King
Part 1: The Witch King Falls
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In Game |
Out of Character |
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Blasted Sands Getting to Zhengyi’s realm was easy. Though armies lined the border, none guarded the mountain passes against a small force. The party walked easily past the few border guards and into the Valley of the Mage. But getting to the tower seemed like it might be a little more difficult. Even before they can see the tower, the blasted two mile radius desert in the midst of the lush valley is clear. The constant storm above it is visible from the horizon. Rising like a
ghostly tree-trunk from the surrounding cracked earth, the with-king’s citadel
is visible for miles. A solid wall circles the base of the fortress, which
appears to be a tall cylinder surrounded by several narrow towers. Each of
these towers is supported by a frail looking flying Buttress. The stone of the castle is black, streaked with red. It stands like a garish sentinel over an expanse of barren, lifeless wasteland. No remnant of the lush forests in the valley survives within reach of the chaotic maelstrom above. The ground in cracked and broken, as if supernatural forces had at one time wracked and twisted it. High above the tower a gigantic eye floats in the air, spinning in a lazy circle to watch the land. Naxis sees the eye and recalls his studies. It is a high level version of Eye of Alarm, capable of seeing interlopers within miles even if hidden by magic. It relays images of creatures it sees to its creator, providing ample warning of an attack. However, it cannot see through the earth, so the chasms provide a way past its gaze. Both the artificer Artesano and the spellstorm wizard Naxis recognize the storm. It is a confluence of elemental chaos that only occurs in areas where the balance between the elements has been destroyed. Wind, rain, ice, and even fiery boulders fall from the sky. Somewhere in the tower is a massive breach in the elemental planes’ equilibrium. Artesano, Naxis, Adran the Oracle, and Arik the Seeker move to the deep canyons. As they approach, they spot a group of evistros, demonic brutes set to guard the low path. They are not spotted, but are now on their guard against roving patrols. It proves to be much simpler than they feared, and the group moves in, Arik leading the way past the rocky obstacles and the rest keeping their eyes peeled. Naxis and Artesano use their arcane skills to avoid the fury of the storm, which sometimes even bursts out from the rock under them. Adran and Arik weather it with sheer fortitude, and do not fare as well. No one is severely injured though, and the group climbs out of a chasm next to the towering walls. |
Text in italics is taken straight from the module. Things not in italics but embedded within an italics block were changed because of the difference between settings. For instance, the original tower sits in the middle of a large tundra, not a lush forest. Minor changes, like converting “you see” to “the party sees,” are still formatted. No rolls were needed to get to the outskirts of the blasted lands. The trek through the canyons was a level 20 skill challenge (complexity 2). We’re using the most recent errata, so the DCs are 27 and they need 6 successes before 3 failures. Available skills are: Perception: use at DC 27 to add +2 to another's roll. Athletics: counts as a success or failure Stealth: counts as a success or failure Endurance or Arcana: all must roll one or the other once per round to avoid the lightning strikes. Failure causes the loss of a healing surge. If two people do not succeed, it also counts as a failure on the challenge. Because the DCs are so low, nobody can fail the Perception checks. Arik, the fighter, cannot fail the Endurance checks if everyone uses Perception to aid him, so they do. The two arcanists cannot fail the Arcana checks, so they are in no danger of getting a failure from these either. The endurance checks are not gimmes though, and Arik ends up losing one healing surge. Adran loses two. Reward is 5,600xp. Each failure rolled would have added an extra Abyssal Ghoul Hungerer to the wall (see below) or Shock Trooper Demon to Zhengyi’s chamber if they did not go into the wall. Three failures would have meant someone climbed too high and was spotted by the eye, warning the tower of their approach. |
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The Wall A smooth-surfaced high wall runs through
an apparently perfect circle around the castle proper. They can see no doors
or gates on ground level, although two doors are visible in the wall, some
distance above the ground. These doors are spaced about 60 degrees from each
other along the circular wall. The top of the wall is protected by a steep overhang that is crowned by a studded parapet. No signs of life are visible either outside or on top of the wall. Arik pull out his rope of climbing and sends it to the crenellations 50 feet above. The priest grabs onto his back and the man with the metal arms easily pulls them both up the dangling rope. He deposits Adran on the outer edge of the wall and heads back down to ferry another up. Atop the wall, Adran finds himself on a raised and protected archer’s ledge, three feet above a wide walkway. The other side has another ledge to mirror the one he’s on. Looking for a better view of the tower, he steps down into the lowered section which immediately bursts into flames, catching him on fire and sending a blaze into the air. He moves back to the ledge and puts himself out as Arik drops of Artesano. Adran warns the artificer, who studies the area with his arcane gaze. Noticing the shimmering heat field, he recognizes it as a strong field of Everflame, something which normally occurs near wormholes to the plane of fire. This field appears to have been shaped by magic. Naxis arrives on Arik’s back, and the four briefly discuss what to do. Using some advice from Artesano, the wizard shuts the field down with a few arcane gestures and words. He then strides across to the opposite side, but doesn’t make it. The far half of the walkway crumbles beneath his feet, dropping him into the near pitch black hollowed out insides of the wall and onto the hard stone floor far below. Arik retrieves the rope and commands it down into the hole, and Naxis begins to climb back out, but hears the sounds of claw on stone coming near. His goggle-granted darkvision shows him the approaching ghouls, and he redoubles his efforts to reach the top. |
The fire is an elite field of Everflame (DMG). It does a little bit of damage and a little ongoing damage, but is not a major hindrance. Artesano rolled extremely high on his check to detect the field, and learned the extra information that it was not naturally occurring. He used aid another to help Naxis disarm it because Naxis’s Arcana is a point higher. The pit trap does more damage, because of the 5d10 fall. Both combined are worth 5,000xp and a trip into a fight.
Conversion notes: The original H4 has something that’s about as close to a skill challenge as you can get, so converting it was fairly easy. On hindsight, I would have gone higher on the level and complexity, but I didn’t have the PCs’ stats yet, so didn’t realize they couldn’t fail, and opted to err on the side of caution. |
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Inside the Wall Abyssal ghouls swarm from both sides, and Naxis can’t make it to the top of the rope in time. Their icy claws reach out and scratch him, and their poison does its work. His muscles clench tightly to the rope, preventing him from climbing further. He responds by calling upon one of the strongest manifestations of the Spellstorm he knows, creating a Maelstrom of Chaos that tears at the ghouls’ flesh. Four die almost instantly, and others get hurled around the room, including a sneaky wight that was creeping up through the debris on the ground. The ones that resist the spell turn out to be the unlucky ones, as they are drawn into Arik’s blade by well timed bluffs and feints. Artesano slams a ghoul with force, pushing it down but it doesn’t fall. Adran calls upon the Raven Queen to fill the area with fire, and ghouls burst into flames. They seem unheeding of the pain though, focused only on their unending hunger as they charge back at Naxis, yet again paralyzing him. One of the wights pulled to the roof digs a claw into Arik’s shoulder, draining the life energy from him and feeding on it. Radiant light pours from Adran’s symbol, burning the undead and bolstering his allies. Naxis pushes the undead away with a wave of thunder and scrambles farther up the rope, but one of them manages to nick his thigh and paralyze him yet again. Tired of the human tug of war, Arik stows his blade and grabs a hold of the rope. A mighty heave pulls the wizard out of the wall and back onto the ledge above. The undead scramble to follow, but a fight on solid ground favors the heroes, and it is soon in their favor. Only one slight wrinkle dampens their rapid victory: the Eladrin artificer steps through the Wyld and behind the foes, but lands in a spot which had not been disabled, and the field of Everflame roars up around him. He quickly leaves it and puts himself out, but not before the shock of it causes a second Runic Resistance to miss its target. Naxis takes a moment and senses magic below them, so they climb down into the wall and search around. They find a multitude of corpses, many of which have a few trinkets and baubles. There are a few bodies with magical gear and better gems on them. They opt to do a short search for magic only first, and find several thousand gold plus a few minor items that will probably end up being sold. They then climb up to the top again to better survey the courtyard, taking care to avoid the crumbling sections of the floor. |
Four minions die to Maelstrom of Chaos, and a few others get hit and teleported to the ground far from Naxis. The fighter uses Come and Get It to draw the rest up to him, smack them around (including a crit), then drop into a stance that deals damage to any enemy starting adjacent to him.
There’s a lot of back and forth, with the wizard constantly making his save just in time to be paralyzed again, so the fighter grabs the rope and pulls him out. I set the Athletics DC at 20, with one square of movement per 5 past that, and he rolled high enough to get the wizard to total safety above. The artificer managed to roll a natural 1 on runic resistance, use an action point (via Battle Mage) to regain it, and roll a natural 1 again. It will take four hours to search the insides of the wall thoroughly, or 40 minutes to use Arcana to pinpoint the magic. The players opt to look only for magic now, and move on. They find 6,000gold in various coins, gems, and jewelry on four of the corpses, as well as three potions of vitality, a pair of elven boots, a diadem of acuity, a cloak of resistance +3, and an orb of indisputable gravity +2. Naxis keeps the orb handy in case of fliers, and they stow the rest in haversacks (everybody bought one). Conversion notes: H4 has a purple worm inside the wall, but I removed it because I didn’t want there to be two solo creatures in the opening stage of the adventure. Had I not already pulled it out for that, I would have pulled it out after fighting a purple worm in another game because the worm is an incredibly boring fight for anyone that gets swallowed. |
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Zhengyi The courtyard within the wall is a moonscape
of blasted dirt, barren of even a blade of grass or withered bush of thorns.
The castle itself rises, more like a skeleton than a
solid edifice, high into the air from the center of this courtyard. Its black
stone walls are streaked with red, as if countless gallons of blood have been
spilled across them. Each of the four towers flanking the
castle has a slender and unprotected stairway climbing from the tower to the
main castle, where it ends in a door. Doorways also lead from the stairways
into the small towers. There is a parapet surrounding the base of
the castle’s high tower. This is simply a platform of smooth stone. There are
no visible doors leading into the castle from the parapet. Below
this parapet is another platform. This one supports the bases of the many
buttresses that curve upward to support the midsection of the castle. This
platform also does not show any signs of doors into the castle. Having come in from the South, the party immediately spies two huge bronze doors side-by-side at ground level. Naxis sends out his arcane senses and detects the presence of electrical energy around the doors, which he quickly disables from a distance. He also felt he presence of two incredibly strong sources of magic inside the tower, one a giant circle and the other, stronger one, a pinpoint of power. The cessation of the low hum is enough to warn those inside that the trap has been disarmed, and they step into formation. Arik opens the door on a room with 8 large demons in formation before a stair leading to Zhegyi’s throne. Behind the throne is a massive column of flame and lava stretching from floor to ceiling. To the left of the throne is a poorly hidden slaughter wight, easily seen by everyone. Again Arik taunts his foes, and several of them are drawn into his waiting blades. All but one perish. Others charge, teleporting outside to attack the weaker looking casters outside. Buying a moment, Naxis traps Zhengyi in a block of ice, but the death priest of Orcus quickly escapes and avoids the second attempt. His one remaining minion fights admirably, dodging a divine burst of flame and a blast of force from Artesano. But it is finally laid low by another bolt from Adran. Zhengyi calls out to Arik and shows him a glimpse of his death, but the warrior fights off the fear and entropy. Arik drops into an even stronger stance than the last and charges ahead, while Naxis holds off the wight with the slowing effect of a Ray of frost. The amulet around Zhengyi’s neck cackles with glee and belches forth black flames that surround the Witch King, draining the strength from anyone near him. Arik responds with a devastating blow, and Artesano fills the air with a shower of lightning. Naxis complements the electricity with cold, and Adran throws in a bit of divine flame to even out the mix. Hurt but not downed, the Witch King again calls upon the power of the Talisman of Orcus. He reaches out his hand towards Artesano and tugs. The Eladrin feels a pull in his chest and is forced to exhale. With the breath comes a sparkle of life energy which travels across the room to be devoured by Zhegyi, closing his wounds and transferring them to the artificer. The wights flank Arik and keep him tied down, but are also quickly chewed up by his blades. The Witch King calls out the secret name of Orcus, a word so vile that only the most powerful of his priests can remember it, and the living who hear it are torn to the core by entropic energy. Undead around are healed, and it is the only thing that lets the wights survive the onslaught of the fighter. Fortune shines on the hierophant, as he continually manages to regain the strength needed to pronounce his master’s name. Artesano, whether because of bad luck or because he is a man out of time, continually manages to miss. He is not without bite altogether, but his most powerful and favorite powers constantly fail to hit their mark. Even his Skipping Shot, which can kill three men at once, manages to bounce off the Witch King not once, but twice. Naxis continually fills the air with cold, at times reaching into the spellstorm to regain the energies of his prior castings. Every blast chills the target to the bone, setting them up for even more pain should they be struck again. Adran fills the air with damage of his own, this coming from his deity. The radiant damage alternately explodes in bursts and shoots forth in rays, seriously injuring the undead while bolstering his friends. Vowing to destroy the wights so he can focus on his master, Arik calls on inner reserves and strikes through one into the other. The attack would have missed, but at the last moment his connection to the time stream shows him his bad angle and he corrects it. The wight screams a horrific wail of defeat and falls. Moments later an inexorable tide of iron destroys the second. The wights dead, the party focuses their full fury onto the Witch King. He fights well, and the weakening effect of the aura saves him many times, but he dies at Artesano’s hands. Or rather, at the hands of the Lightning Matrix protecting the artificer. Artesano crafts a small figurine, and the companions drain the positive energy from it to heal. Meanwhile, the Talisman speaks to them, congratulating them on their strength. |
The electrified door trap is detected with Sense Magic (DC 31) and then disabled (also DC 31). Inside are two wights (one well hidden, one that rolled a 1), 8 Shocktroop Demons (slightly modified Legionnaire Devils), and Zhegyi. They’ve had a chance to prep, so the demons are array in a liane to better surround anyone that moves in, but it doesn’t matter once their charge is broken by Come and Get It. Minions at epic levels die without a fight (and often without a die roll). I may either house rule them or stop using them as often as I have been. Zhengyi’s amulet is based on the loosely Axes of the Dwarvish Lords, given different flavor and slight changes to its powers. The aura of black flame deals 15 necrotic damage and weakens any foe starting adjacent to him. The soul suck deals 3d10 + Charisma and lets the user spend a healing surge. Come and Get It proved its worth again in this fight, wiping out several of the demons, a couple of which had teleported back to get at the squishies in the rear line. Of course, the minions’ 6 damage meant they weren’t a real threat, but the party didn’t know that at this point. Unyielding Avalanche is beatly. Automatic damage, regerneration, and slowing the enemy meant eh two wights and Zhengyi spent most of their time standing next to the fighter getting slapped around. Only a string of good rolls on recharging the Word of Orcus kept it from making the fight very lopsided. The Word’s stunning effect was almost always saved against on the first turn, but the one round breather against half of the party let the bad guys maneuver more. The artificer’s player constantly rolled low on attack rolls, including several natural ones. He still did half damage sometimes, and triggered the attacks’ effects, but he wasn’t doing anywhere near as much damage as he could have been with better luck. The wizard has Lasting Frost, and used it with good effect to deal extra damage in successive rounds with his cold spells. Arik’s action pointed Cleave would have missed, but hits when he uses the daily ability to reroll a single d20 check. He gained this ability (and +2 to initiative) in his journey to the future through the Pool of Time. |
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The Talisman of
Orcus The talisman of Orcus is an ancient tool, forged by Orcus to aid him in his quest for Godhood. It is given only to his most trusted servitors on Oerth, but it is not wholly loyal. Once they have a breather, the more historical types get a chance to think about the Talisman, and recall the following information:
They think it over and decide to hold onto it for now rather than let it fall into others’ hands. But despite the knowledge that it is not wholly loyal to its creator, and because of the tales of the traitor’s death, they do not attempt to use it themselves. The artifact is unaccustomed to remaining inside a bag, and offers several times to help the bag’s bearer (Artesano). So far it has not been answered. |
The Talisman of Orcus is a powerful tool when kept happy. Though its current goals include helping Orcus to ascend and gaining power over weaker beings, a bearer in good standing could possibly convince it to realign its loyalties to themselves. Known and hinted at abilities include:
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Apartments Behind the throne, the lava column churns, but it is not as hot as it should be, and Naxis feels there is something off about it. Adran borrows some residuum from Naxis and enacts a ritual to speak with the corpse of Zhengyi. From him they learn that the Pool they seek is upstairs in the Eastern parapet, guarded by creatures born from the merging of the elemental planes during this cycle’s end. The test of the pool is to survive bathing in the five elements and not be pulled through to the other side. They elect to take the stairs before examining the lava further, and come out above in a small room with but a hallway and a door as exits. Behind the door is a largely empty room with a small pile of treasure: the source of one of the magical auras Naxis detected earlier. Naxis and Adran head into the room to search for the magic and an invisible force from above falls upon them, squeezing and tearing. Bells go off while Arik cuts Adran free of the invisible net and Naxis blasts himself clear with a wave of thunder. Moments later another battle is joined. A huge Hezrou enters the room through the far door, wearing robes and with a sheaf of papers and quills at his side. His servants, four evistros, follow. The large demon waits for his underlings to swarm around and then swings twice at the wizard, hitting easily both times. One of the lowly demons even manages to get a claw in. Farther down the hall the clanking of armor is heard, and a humanoid figure in full plate with a black sword, ornate shield, and glowing red eyes clanks his way around a corner. Artesano moves into the hallway to slow the approaching death knight, and gives the out numbered Naxis some Thundering Armor. Arik declares that all bets are off and sends the Hezrou reeling. Naxis reaches into the spellstorm to regain his Blast of Cold and moves back to where he can safely uses it. Adran fills the air with a holy firestorm. The death knight runs up to Artesano, more concerned with closing the ground than hitting the Eladrin. He succeeds in getting himself into the artificer's face and threatening him severely, but his rush causes him to miss. The artificer’s forceful retort misses. The fighter again pulls the enemies towards him, his blade biting deep into the evistros who so foolishly chose to come and get it. Several abyssal ghouls, who had been trying to sneak up, abandon stealth when they see they won’t be able to remain hidden and still aid their lord. They charge in, and one of them connects with Artesano but dies to the return strike of his death cut armor. Clear of enemies, Naxis moves out and thunder waves, killing two more of the hungry ghouls. Adran enthralls the masses, finishing off the remaining evistros. The undead warrior seems momentarily confused, then strikes out at the artificer, connecting easily. A spectral, crying woman seeps into the room through the wall behind Adran and dives into his body. He begins to weep tears of blood and speak with her voice, crying vengeance against those would harm her. Artesano strikes out at the death knight and then steps through the Wyld and into a corner. Arik rushes into the death knight’s face and stomps the ground hard, but cannot knock the immortal foe down. He does connect strongly with his axe, though. Naxis attempts to get them a breather with a tomb of ice for the knight, but the fiend sidesteps it despite his heavy armor. The dominated priest hits Arik with a Righteous Brand, giving divine aid to the knight’s next swing, but the sight of his powers being used against his friends snaps Adran out of his servitude and forces the ghost out. Unfortunately, the priest’s strength of will gives the ghost the opportunity to find a much stronger vessel, and she dives into the body of Arik. The half giant warrior’s charge misses horribly, and the artificer readies to rain inescapable force upon her when she is next forced into the open. Seeing the danger of the party being turned against itself, Naxis creates of sword of force to strike the ghost when she returns. The hezrou continues to wail on him, but the ministrations of Adran and Artesano keep him strong. Unholy fire pours from the death knight’s eyes and fills the room, burning the living and wreathing the dead in flames. The dominated fighter connects hard on his priestly friend, but he forces her out. The sword and missile strike out, but she does not fall. Naxis blasts the hezrou, who moves into the room. Now that its blood flows onto the ground, the microscopic demons living within it surge to greater life, weakening all living non-demons around it. The death knight continues to slam Artesano, who keeps himself alive with infusions. Artesano reaches down deep and sends out more lightning motes, killing the hezrou and damaging the knight. Arik again attacks Adran, but missies. And without the sight of the priest’s blood, he seems unable to shake free from the ghost’s control. Moments later the priest utters a calming prayer, and she is pushed out. The priest calls upon his inner reserves and slams the ghost with a hammer of fate, hitting the perfect spot because of his oracular insight. The ghost wails in pain and anger, causing all but Naxis to run in fear and cower, dazed. The hezrou now dead, its last living ally is no more and the death knight unleashes unholy fire into the room, wreathing the ghost in flames and burning the souls of the living. Naxis slams arcane energies into the ghost, destroying it, then blasts the knight. It fights a few more moments, but without allies soon falls. The group spends a few minutes as Naxis creates a teleportation circle linked to one deep in the mines of Bloodstone, and they then return to the city to collect their reward and rest. Baron Tranth is happy to hear the news, and that night a serving girl knocks on Naxis’s door. When he opens it she bows her head and holds out a gift-wrapped box. "The Baron's advisor and oracle, Martine, saw your name in the stars, and offers you this in honor of the birthday of one of the newest heroes of Bloodstone." Inside the box is a small amethyst and platinum ring. The inscription inside is made up of the arcane runes for safety and flight. |
The wizard’s insight tells him something is different about the column when he gets closer, and his nature tells him the heat is wrong.
The evistros filled out the XP for the encounter, and turned out to be somewhat more useful than if I’d thrown in minions. Their higher hit points meant they could stand around longer. One of them got lucky and hit, but they were mainly there as mobile flankers and distractions. The death knight’s “momentary confusion” was caused by it being pointed out that Containing Strike is effectively a basic attack when you already have Combat Challenge. If I use a death knight fighter again, I’ll be swapping it out for something else.
Yet again the minions proved to be mostly useless. The move in, swing for a piddly amount of damage, and then die. The “microscopic demons” were flavor text for the hezrou’s weakening aura. |
We’d
fought possessing ghosts in a previous campaign, so I knew this one would be
nasty. There was only one of her, but being able to take the heaviest hitter
out, turn them against the party, and remain untouchable while doing it was
probably the biggest contribute to the entertainment value of the battle for
me. If she’d been any other creature it would have just been a slugfest.