The woman, clearly the Hag Soryth, turned towards the party and spoke to them. “No longer have we cause for conflict. I have what I desire, and forgive your trespasses. Serve me, and I shall grant your fondest wishes.”
Take One – Harry T North
We had a great turnout for the final week and ran two tables of six. At my table were a Satyr Paladin (Caviler) [Fey Beast Tamer], Dwarf Rogue (crossbow build), Human Seeker [Unseelie Agent], Dwarf Cleric, Elf Cleric, and Wilden Monk [Sidhe Lord] – this was exactly the same group from the previous week.
The party began with a brutal, all-out assault. They all used their most powerful attacks and those who had them used their action points. They almost bloodied Soryth on the first round. They did manage to daze and slow her (never underestimate the power of a good controller). Soryth moved to her most advantageous position on her turn, even drawing an opportunity attack for her trouble. The PCs learned why during the next round.
Now that all the PCs were within three squares of Soryth, they were subjected to her Fields of Delusion and were compelled to attack their allies at the beginning of their turn. The Monk attacked his allies and was compelled to add Flurry of Blows, the Rogue was compelled to attack allies with combat advantage and use his sneak dice. With the strikers’ extra damage being used on each other they couldn’t use it on Soryth. When they were fortunate enough to miss with the compelling powers they took 5 psychic damage for their troubles. Suddenly they realized that they were in really deep trouble.
It actually turned out to be a fairly even fight. With two leaders and a decent controller they managed to keep most of the PCs conscious and involved in the fight. The Monk, Seeker and Paladin were all low on healing surges so they had to be more mindful of their tactics than the rest of the party who all joined in week 12 and were in pretty good shape.
By the time the party finally defeated Soryth three of them were unconscious and making death saves while the other three were just as close to death as Soryth. The encounter was difficult, but in the end the heroes were victorious.
Take Two – Dueling Grounds
We were surprisingly low on participants this week. I expected a good turnout for the finale, but in the end we ran the session with two tables of four. At my table were a Shade Assassin, Human Fighter, Human Wizard (Arcanist) and Elf Rogue. This was the first time the player running the Rogue had ever played D&D.
The party was in rough shape with minimal healing surges and less than full hit points. The Twig Blights won initiative and two rushed the heroes. The Assassin and Rogue both attacked and destroyed the nearest Twig Blight only to discover they were minions. The Fighter charged the Xivort while the Wizard used Magic Missile on Soryth. However the PCs remained bunched together so Soryth opened with Visions of Desire (area burst 2) and got three of them. The Wizard was unconscious and out of healing surges.
Not wanting to have the player running the Wizard sit idle for the session, and realizing that the party was in for a short and fatal encounter without a leader to heal them. I had Valenae the pre-gen Cleric arrived on the scene. The player running the Wizard now had two characters. He started by using Healing Word on the Rogue and gave the Wizard the 2 overflow hit points of healing. She then attacked Soryth.
By the start of the second round Soryth had moved closer to the PCs and now everyone was close enough for her to compel their actions using Field of Delusions. At the beginning of each PCs turn they had to attack an ally. Considering the dire straights this party was facing I opted not to apply the 5 psychic damage if they missed their allies.
The Rogue and Assassin worked in tandem to attack Soryth while the Fighter focused on the Xivort (I only had one present in order to scale for an original party of four). The Cleric hit and badly wounded the Assassin because of the Hag’s compulsion but made up for it by healing him and giving the Wizards the 2 extra hit points. She then used a power on Soryth that granted everyone 5 temporary hit points. The Wizard, now with 4 real and 5 temporary hit pints, wisely moved as far away as possible and continued using Magic Missile on Soryth.
Soryth moved tactically and on the Rogue’s turn compelled her to attack an ally that was granting combat advantage from flanking. This meant that the Rogue was using her sneak dice on the party and not on Soryth.
Things looked grim so I threw the PCs another lifeline. Valenae produced two healing potions from her backpack that were extra special healing potions. They did not require the imbiber to expend a surge to regain the 10 hit points. This allowed the Assassin to heal back up to full. Unfortunately on the very next round the Rogue was compelled to attack him and scored a crit bringing the Assassin from full hit points to 1 hit point.
The Fighter finally dropped the Xivort. The party by this time learned that if they left one Twig Blight alive Soryth couldn’t summon any more. They also realized that ranged attacks from opposite sides of the map meant fewer of the PCs could be compelled to attack their allies. They took turns engaging Soryth in melee, limiting the potential for friendly damage.
After two rounds of getting hit with the Rogues flying daggers, Soryth focused on her. However another crit and solid teamwork brought the Hag closer and closer to death. The Fighter, Assassin and Cleric all dropped. The Rogue finally managed to land the killing blow. The Wizard only ended up taking one hit from a minions so he ended the battle on his feet with 4 hit points.
Conclusion
As the PCs landed the killing blow on Soryth she cried out “Oh, Kalbon would that I were a Devil, so that I might have your company in the Hells.” She then fell as a bright white light tore free of the Hag’s body. The essence flew through the PCs healing each of them before finally returning to the unconscious Juliana’s body.
As Juliana awoke Ragnar and Uma appeared in the garden. “You have succeeded beyond all we dared hope. With the Hag’s power broken, all her enchantments are dispelled, and the palace is open to us once again,” Said Uma. “Now, it’s time for your reward.”
The PCs were led to a nearby white dome. Inside was the tomb of Propherio and Caerwyn; water from an elegant fountain flowing between two sarcophagi. “This is the Fountain All Heal,” says Uma. “Drink from it, if you will, and make the wish that was offered you.”
Before the PCs can drink Uma does so first. She wishes that the archfey learn of what has transpired and appear. Uma is rewarded by the Summer Queen and becomes her agent on the isle. Ragnar drinks and the Green Lord maked him the greatest master of the isle. Fianlly the heroes each drank the water and wished.
The Wishes
Harry T North Party
- Satyr Paladin – Wished for a harem. The archfey provided him with a map of the Feywild which marked areas where creatures gather to engage in carnal delights. His Charisma greatly increased when dealing with potential partners.
- Dwarf Rogue – Wished for perpetual combat advantage. He was rewarded with a magical quiver. Each day he can draw forth 1d6 bolts that are work as Surprise Bullets.
- Human Seeker – Wished for an enchantment on his blade. They instruct him to submerge his sword into the fountain and when he drew it from the water it had the enchantment he sought.
- Dwarf Cleric – Wished for immortality. Although they cannot grant that request, they were able to extend his lifespan by 200 years and provide +2 to all death saves.
- Elf Cleric – Wished for greater healing powers. They allowed her to use Healing Word one additional time per encounter.
- Wilden Monk – Wished to ascend to godhood. The archfey found this wish humourous and very much beyond their power. He instead wished for the power to travel freely between the Feywild and the real world. They granted him a ritual that only he could use once a day to transport back and forth between worlds.
Dueling Grounds Party
- Shade Assassin – Wished to return to his home in the Shadowfell where he could restore peace to a warring kingdom.
- Human Fighter – Wishes for gold and was promised a “win fall.” When he returned home he learned that his uncle, a very, very old man died happily and peacefully in his sleep and bequeathed unto him 3,000 gp.
- Human Wizard – Wished to remain in the Feywild where he could find a tower and rule all around him. He was given a map. “Follow the trail to the X. It’s a long journey and along the way you will meet many friends. They will see you as a leader and will follow you. When you arrive at the X they will help you construct the tower and will remain nearby. They will accept your authority and remain loyal to you.”
- Elf Rogue – Wished for an enchanted blade. The archfey reached into the fountain and drew forth a finely crafted Elvin Luck Blade.
Those heroes who wanted to return home were able to do so. Juliana and Orlando chose to remain on the isle where they were welcomed with open arms. The heroes explained to Lady Tamora and Lord Carric what happened in the Feywild. Although they were saddened to learn that their children would not be returning they were happy they found love and would be safe. They agreed to end the fighting and peace was restored.
Afterthoughts
I thought the final encounter was great. It was difficult but not prohibitively so. The players enjoyed themselves and it really could have gone either way. Soryth was a deadly solo monster since she could compel the PCs to attack each other.
The story had a satisfying conclusion which tied up all the lose ends nicely. The wish as a reward was a lot of fun to play and adjudicate; it’s too bad that none of these characters will ever be used again. Some of them were quite creative with their wishes and it sounds like they will have fruitful adventures ahead for many levels to come.
Although we haven’t yet received our kits for D&D Encounters season 8, we’re all assuming that next week will be another slot 0. With no field report to share next Thursday I’ll be posting my season 7 Report Card in which I look at the entire season as a whole. Until then what did you think of this final encounter? Did it live up to your expectations? Did anyone have a TPK? What kind of things did you players wish for?
We continue to record our D&D Encounters sessions and make them available to you for download every week. This season I’m going to try to record the games at both FLGS where I play so that you can hear how two very different groups handled the same encounter. These recordings are made in a loud, crowded game store so at times it may be difficult to hear everyone.
D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 13) – Podcasts
Visit the Dungeon’s Master D&D Encounters Archive for all of our ongoing weekly coverage as well as other great D&D Encounters articles and resources.
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1 2 Next »Long time lurker, first time poster. My group ran through this encounter yesterday. We had myself (Skald Bard) a Goliath Warden, an Elf Ranger (Hunter) and a Hamydryad Witch. It was a very fun encounter, nowhere near as challenging as the battles you seem to have had (we had an inexperienced DM and a very experienced party that have already worked well together, as well as a trick up our sleeves) but still pretty hard.
Sorinth won initiative (technically 1 PC was before her, but it didn't end up mattering) and attacked us all with her Burst 2 as we were all adjacent to a displacer beast. Hit all but 2 of us (some very poor will saves in the group, including an 11 at level 3). She then ran in and (here's where the inexperience of our GM showed) teleported herself and my character outside the main room, making us invisible to all but each other for a round. My character had been taunting Sorinth (ha ha! you can't hit me! kind of stuff, as I had the highest will of the entire party at 21) so it was a reasonable play at first glance but it ended up leaving her and me away from the rest of the party for most of the fight, and I have no ranged attacks (woo! +1 for 1d4-1 unarmed!), so it basically negated her Aura for quite a while.
Our other main advantage was daze effects. Between our hunter and myself we had 4 daze effects, 3 save ends (that she saved against first try every time) and 1 until end of next turn. This ended up locking her down pretty effectively as she got prone'd early on and couldn't stand up because of the dazes.
I was very thankful my character was built as an off-tank, as I ended up taking the burden of her attacks. 19 AC (+1 from the twitter buff from the mound) and 21 will defense made her day kind of rough, and our hunter put some obscuring mist around me to give me concealment from all attacks, which was awesome. Tack on my daily (distracting words) and we had a nice 'all enemies grant CA and all allies get +2 to all defenses' effect going most of the battle.
It was a fun battle and definitely rewarded teamwork. I think it could have been a lot harder had our GM not mistakenly moved Sorinth away from the party (in his defense, we were a mostly melee party, and he saw his mistake shortly after he made it, but our daze-lock meant he couldn't really get back in a good position. And in the end we all moved in close to her anyway and suffered the aura, but it was with no one but her left so it wasn't for many rounds) but it was a good finale and made me want to come back next season.
If anyone's curious. The wishes were (to the best of my memory):
Wil (my character) - Wished to be known throughout the land as Wil the problem solver! +2 Cha, which made me sad to lose him, as it meant +2 atk from deceptive dualist, +1 hp per short rests for everyone, and lots of other fun stuff.
Rolan (elf ranger) - Wished to never miss his attacks (he'd had some very hot dice for attacking everything but minions). +2 to attacks, which he loved.
Hamydryad Witch (can't recall name) - Wished to see the beauty of the Feywild preserved forever (we all taunted the player about his selfish wish :P). +5 resist psychic for being so selfless.
Tyan (Satyr Barbarian, whatever the essentials one is) - Wished for a weapon that could 1-shot solos. GM gave him a Vorpal blade...and told him he needed to be epic levels to use it :P (would have broken the economy, but done with these characters).
Auken the Unslain (Goliath Warden) - Wished for Juliana to fall madly in love with him instead of Orlando :P. GM said alright, but that she would die shortly after from the wish having bent her will so much.
What a satisfying ending to the campaign. Sadly I had to rush the ending for my table as I and several others had to leave very quickly after the combat was over. Over all, Soryth is a very satisfying solo. She was made even more difficult by the inclusion of 2 additional lurkers and some spawnable minions. That add a lot of color and flavor to the combat. I'll have to poach that for my game.
This season had some real ups and downs but over all I think it was pretty good. MUCH better then the last one, and while some of the combats were really filler, it seems like a lot more of them were memorable then the others. The Unicorn fight, the raft & the wind pixie, and Soryth herself. This adventure did a lot of things right and I'm hoping that the next one picks up on this good progress.
My store also didn't get the next module yet as well. We too assumed that a week 0 character creation session so many of us are taking a break on that week.
Looking forward to the season review.
As I started the game, I was really hoping the PCs would take Soryth up on her offer to serve her. It was sort of like the last boss fight in the original Dragon Warrior for the NES, where if you agree to help the dark lord instead of fighting him, the game just ends. I had written up an alternate encounter in case they went that route, though, where they'd have to fight as Soryth's soldiers against Uma & Ragnar... but thankfully that was not necessary.
It was a very rough night for the table I ran. The dice were just not kind. We were using all Essentials & Heroes of Feywild characters, but only had 1 healer (a skald bard) and a paladin who only had Temp HP-granting powers left. I think the highest initiative in the party was 12, so Soryth went first & summoned the twig blights. She then started with Visions of Desire (pretty much as the Tactics section said she should). It hit almost everyone, as they were all still clustered around the fountain portal, and since it slowed on a miss, nobody was going anywhere.
As a story thing, our arrogant Satyr Bard (who had been calling himself "King Horn") took Kalbon's crown after he slaughtered him last session, so Soryth used that dual teleport/invisibility thing to take him outside the room where she could beat him down one-on-one. The rest of the party was rolling so poorly that I didn't actually activate her aura until she'd taken damage, which wasn't for a few rounds. The party was able to take out the twig blights and the xivorts in a couple rounds, and again, because they were doing so poorly with rolling and everyone was low on HP, I didn't have her summon any more twigs.
Once the party started to crowd around Soryth, she activated her aura. Since it could only compel folks to make basic attacks, and not add any other effects, the party did okay with that. The rogue was the only one with a build based on his basic attacks, but since he didn't have to add sneak attack damage, they were mostly okay. Though the 5 psychic on a miss hurt people more than their inter-party attacks did. Also, the aura slowed our game down a LOT, so eventually the druid (who was using lightning from range) went out the other door to check out Juliana's body, and I allowed the awakening of Juliana (via a nature/heal check) to suck away some of the soul energy Soryth was using, disabling her aura (I also changed her mini at that point to an actual hag, which gave my frustrated PCs hope that they were actually close to success). 2.5 hours after the fight started, they finally killed her, with the rogue repeatedly stabbing her with his shadow-wrought dagger.
A rough fight, but they were pretty beaten-down from Kalbon, so it's no surprise this was difficult. If I had run Soryth at full-power and used all her powers as often as possible, though, I would have had a TPK. Sometimes as a DM you have to pull your punches so everyone can have fun.
Our next season stuff is scheduled to arrive today. I'm guessing week 0 will be character gen, though I've been writing up pre-gens in the likely event that they (once again) give us no new pregens.
@Joe Lastowski
Wizard made it very clear that they have no intention of providing any new pre-gens for D&D Encounters. They want you to make your own characters. This just leaves room for the creative members of the online D&D community to create their own using the new races, classes, themes and powers in the corresponding release (this time Heroes of the Elemental Chaos).
Check out the Dungeon's Master Pre-Generated Character Library for all the pre-gens released to date as well as new unofficial additions in the coming weeks.
Ran the the game for the second consecutive week after the main DM wasn't able to make it and had a very different experience this time. Most likely due to the party makeup this week versus the last. We had an eladrin druid (protector) [Fey Beast Tamer], a human barbarian (Berserker), a human mage (Jarren) and a drow ranger (hunter).
We led in with some conversation with Soryth while Julianna reposed nearby. I nearly managed to convince the barbarian to strike down his allies and take Kalbon's place at Soryth's side until the party gave up on talk and decided to fight.
The fight then proceeded to go VERY much against the PCs. The visions of desire hit all but on PC and left their barbarian out of the action (immobilized) for two rounds while the xivorts and twiggies were able to pound on the squishier members of the party. None of the "controllers" in the party could get anything to hit and lockdown Soryth so she was able to force everyone to slaughter each other from a distance. After the third round 2 players were making death saving throws and the other two weren't far behind and Soryth still hadn't been bloodied. The mage hit on the idea that Soryth might be regenerating by pulling magic from Julianna/Caerwyn and the remaining players decided to dump as many skill checks as they could into interacting with Julianna's body instead of fighting Soryth directly. This seemed like a plausible idea and so I threw together an impromptu skill challenge using arcana, religion and diplomacy to call Julianna's soul back from Soryth and end her. They barely managed to finish the skill challenge by sacrificing all of their actions to make minor skill checks as Soryth (who noticed their change in focus) tried to bring the last of them down before they could shatter her ritual.
We finished with the wishes: The mage asked to always have money in his pocket when he reached in to buy something (to his chagrin he would find out over time that this magical money would vanish after a time causing him no end of trouble), the druid asked for the shadowstaff artifact (and ended up spending the next several months being chased by shadar-kai assassins), the berserker asked for a generic magic item (and ended up with the scarblade) and the drow asked that Lloth would spite down his companions (they all would be killed at an unspecified moment in the future by a particularly deadly spiderbite).
Thanks to everyone at dungeonsmaster for all the great content they provide!
Awesome. I had no idea that pregen library existed. Thanks!
After a TPK last week, including one complete death, the party awoke to find themselves bound sans weapons with Soryth and a still-bloody Kalbon standing over them. Soryth was overjoyed with her new "pets," though a tad surprised and wary when Appachi, the half-orc barbarian, took her up on her offer to join her. His intentions became ever clearer when he incapacitated one of his own party members in his first turn - summoning his magic great-axe that, with his barbarian-ness, he deals 2d12 + a ton of damage with.
So I now had a table with the party's tank/striker (an insane combination I don't quite believe), Soryth, and a severely bloodied Kalbon (I didn't keep the xivorts, understandably) vs. a pixie mage (Briar), a new dwarf tank (Thewman), and a cleric (Mikal). I found myself scrambling to save the night from being a complete disaster (and understanding why one player, who knew what Apachi had planned, decided not to show up). In the second round, Apachi incapacitated Mikal with a 4d12 encounter power, so I determined that Soryth would let him clean up the party and then kill Apachi before some unknown conclusion.
Soryth toyed with Briar while he and Thewman immobilized Apachi and took out Kalbon. To throw a bone, Mikal's god gave him two free surges; and Apachi threw another bone: if they could bloody Soryth, he'd rejoin the party. With some "luck" on their side, the three party members did this, and Apachi rejoined the party. Even so, we nearly had another TPK (imagine that with a mutinous party vs. a campaign boss), but Briar, with the party's final 2 HP, finally dragged Soryth through a fountain of fire to finish her off.
After three hours of craziness, only a couple stayed around to make their wishes - amazingly no one wished for the immediate arrest and/or destruction of Apachi. It was a harsh DM lesson in what can happen when player does not understand the player/DM contract and is not quickly reigned in (I should have addressed his volatility in a previous session head on).
Thanks for writing the log for this season, Derek. It's been fun to read.
SEASONING OF GREENBOW - 13. We did it
We reached the top of the stair and found our quarry, the witch hag, who tried to bribe us. Wisely or not, we declined. [Now if we had correctly recalled that we had been promised 50 gold, rather than the 500 we were imagining, to bring the couple back, our nobility of purpose might not have survived so easily, but we were likely wise anyway since she likely would have decided that those who betrayed others to join her, would leave her for larger promises, and thus would have disposed of us soon enough.] So battle broke out.
For awhile, we were regretting our choice. The witch could somehow confuse us and we were doing nearly as much damage to each other as we were doing to her. And when I fled outside the range of her mind control, I was hit by some of her minions and was knocked out.
I was not the only one who suffered. Bin the changling psion was knocked down at least twice, despite rescue by both Bolivar and myself. It was perhaps only proper that Bin was the one who struck the final blow. In the meantime, Tamlin was reviving me, and Violet and Petunia were firing off spells.
But with her dead, the other fey were able to get in and set things right, and to give us some pretty big rewards. Then we were able to get home and collect a little more reward, and a fair amount of fame. We also got the couple back and so all the dispute were settled, at least for now.
I don’t know about the others, but I may well be out looking for more excitement.
VICTORIES OF VORDAL - 13. Mission Accomplished
It took us some time to figure out the puzzles that crazy fey had put in our way. I am not sure why she tried to bar our way with the puzzles when a stone wall would have worked so much better, but that is the fey for you. In any case, we solved the and soon found ourselves confronting the witch.
She tried to bribe us, but a dwarf is true to his word, and some of my companions had an outright hatred for her and were wanting blood, which we soon had in large amounts.
The witch had some way to confuse us all, and we spent as much time fighting each other as we did fighting her. But even if perhaps half the blows fell on the wrong targets, plenty did hit her and she eventually fell, to the joy of Regar the human barbarian, Cyrus the elven ranger, Orla the elven thief, Quillion the eladrin wizard, Kross the drow thief, Richard the paladin, and Memphsis the drow warlock. We were all badly wounded, and Quillion was almost dead, but we achieved success.
It took much longer to take care of the details. The higher authorities had to be called in, and had to have their say. Not to mention we had to receive our pay. Then we found ourselves waking from what was almost a dream, but with much evidence it was not, including the couple we were attempting to rescue. So again we wasted time in ceremonies where much was said and little was done. [A proper dwarf ceremony would have been “Good job. Now get back to work.”] But we are heros and there were warnings that we may be called on in the future. I hope I can meet any such challenge.