Kat awoke, as she so often did, to the noonday sun right in her face. She grumbled death threats to whatever hotel architect put a skylight right above the penthouse bed. She looked over and saw a man sleeping in the bed next to her. She didn't remember his name. All in all, a normal start to the day for one of the most popular bards in Karcerinburg, capital city of the Kaldish Empire. As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she spotted a note that had been slipped under her door. She ran over to read it.
It said, in a practiced, lunate hand:
The note:
Kat -
You are in grave danger! Gather the others, meet me tonight at the center of the hedge maze, before the Moon Maiden reaches her height.
-C
Kat was elated. The note must be from Chernyx, the undead rogue/cleric of the Moon Maiden who had befriended the party, and whom Kat had killed and raised from the dead. She ran to the bed to kick the mystery man out of her room, but as she did so she saw a shadow fall across the bed. Seconds later, the leaded glass panes shatterd and a black-garbed figure leapt nimbly down onto the bed, brandishing two shortswords menacingly.
Panicked, Kat ran out into the hall and jester's jaunt-ed herself over to her cohort Ryder's door. She knocked on the door furiously and called in, "Wake up sleepyhead! I'm in danger!"
Ryder called back, "Who on earth would be asleep right now? It's noon!" and came out the door in full armor, clutching his bow and curved sword.
Ryder held off the assassin while Kat, realizing she was naked and unarmed, jester's jaunt-ed herself past the assassin back into her room, where she grabbed her bastard sword Deathfang. Although Kat took quite a beating, the were able to beat and intimidate the assassin into submission. Knocked off his feet, the assassin pulled out a potion and promised that it would answer all of their questions if they would just let him drink it. They did, and he promptly exploded in a massive fireball. Just another in a long list of hotel rooms trashed by the famous bard.
Then Kat sprang into action. She needed to warn the others. She hadn't been in touch with most of the Graverobbers in a while. Even her twin sister, Daphne, was absent for days or weeks at a time, off on some escapade or another. The only one of her friends whose whereabouts she had any idea of was Sigrid, who would be at one of those tournament things she’s always doing. She was about to check her diary for Sigrid's schedule, but then remembered that she hadn't been able to find it for a week now. She thought that she might remember something about a tournament that day, though, at Grunspar, a village not too terribly far from there.
~~~
The roar of the crowd filled Sigrid's ears. On the other end of the tilt, her opponent reared his horse and shifted the weight of his lance in his hand. The herald raised a flag, and the crowd went silent. The flag dropped. She spurred Flokki forward, lowering the coronel of her lance toward her opponent’s chest. CRACK! She broke her lance on his breastplate. The two knights wheeled and charged again. Her opponent's lance grazed her shield, but she broke hers on his helmet. On the third pass, she broke her lance again on his shield. With three passes and three broken lances, Sigrid tasted victory.
The herald announced the next challenger, a mystery competitor known as the Knight of Skulls, wearing black armor decorated with silver death's heads. As they charged together, Sigrid cracked her lance on his breastplate, but the mystery knight lowered his lance at the last second and struck her horse, Flokki, with a critical hit - a most unchivalrous move. At that exact moment, Sigrid's husband, Sir Hardrig of Whitemouth, watching from the sidelines, was struck in the back by an assassin, and two crossbow bolts shot out of the stands at Sigrid.
The tournament ground descended into a panic. Sigrid and the mystery knight drew their swords and met in single combat, but he was a tough opponent, and Sigrid was still wearing the same mundane scale mail she had stolen from her brother when she ran away from her family farm so long ago. As most of the spectators fled, a few brave knights jumped the crossbowmen, who went down fighting and blew themselves up. Sigrid and Hardrig took more wounds than they could dish out from their respective assassins, but Sigrid soon turned the tide with a well-placed critical hit, unhorsing the mystery knight and allowing her horse Flokki to get some payback with his hooves. Then Kat and Ryder came jumping over the railing and rushing out onto the tilt yard to help their friends. The four were able to take down the two assassins just as another group of knights rode up to lend a hand.
Victorious but bloody, they decided to return to Sigrid and Hardrig's house for some much-needed healing. They rushed back to the city and met up with Varisana, Sigrid's cleric cohort, who was watching their baby, Hardreth. They explained about the assassins, and Varisana promised to stay with the child and keep him safe, no matter what. The injured warriors raided their potion cabinet, and as they were debating where to find their other party members, Varisana smacked herself in the head and explaimed, "I know where Rikkit is!" She went into the other room and came back with a worn flier. "I saw this posted on a notice board when I took Hardreth out to the market earlier," she explained. The flyer said, in big block letters:
~~~
“Behold!” Professor Gears cried out to the packed auditorium, “As the goblin drinks the potion, watch as his skin disappears, revealing his internal structures! This is an alchemical substance of my own devising - it took me years of research, trial and error… And it’s 60% non-toxic!”
The audience gasped, and Rikkit knew from having done this many times before that his green skin was disappearing. He looked down at his hands as they faded, revealing musculature and nerves and tendons. The Professor was running around him excitedly, demonstrating by means of various measuring instruments the details of his anatomical argument. Soon, Rikkit's bones faded as well, leaving only faint outlines and revealing his brain and a web of nerves. As the professor’s excited lecture built to a crescendo, the doors at the top of the hall burst open, and Kat, Ryder, Sigrid, and Hardrig and Ryder rushed in. Suddenly, like game being flushed out of their hiding places by a pack of predators, four hooded figures stood up from the audience and fired crossbows at Rikkit.
"I would kindly ask the audience from participating in the experiment!" Professor Gears yelled angrily as Rikkit dove over to him and cast emergency force sphere around them both. The crossbowmen then turned their attentions on the newcomers as the spectators fled in a panic. The party clambered over chairs to get to the crossbow assassins and hacked at them while Rikkit dimension doored out of his sphere and started hurling spells. Once the assassins were dispatched, the party grabbed the semi-visible Rikkit and told him the situation. Rikkit knew that Zel would be out in the woods tonight, harvesting mistletoe under the light of the full moon; she had invited Rikkit to come drinking out in the woods afterwards.
~~~
Zel set two bottles of home-brewed wood alcohol down by the standing stone where she told Rikkit to meet her. As she looked around the forest for a suitable oak tree to harvest the mistletoe from, she secretly hoped that the effects of Rikkit's alchemical transformation wouldn't have worn off yet - she wanted to see what a partially see-through goblin looked like drinking booze.
She climbed the tree (with a boost from her roc, Cameo) and started harvesting a sprig, but then noticed a dark, mysterious figure hunched over the bottles behind the stone. She called out a tentative greeting, and the figure revealed himself to be Monty, the grizzled dwarf fighter the party had last seen after he defeated his nemesis, the orc-giant Grathwar. Soon afterwards, a bedraggled, dark-cloaked figure stumbled into the clearing, muttering about searching the woods for hours. He started at the sight of Cameo, then raised his crossbow. He was woefully surprised when Monty roared around the corner. Zel watched from the tree branch as Monty and Cameo brutally double-teamed the beleaguered assassin. Soon the rest of the party ran up and caught Zel and Monty up on the situation. Zel had hung out with Daphne a few days ago, and remembered that the rogue was planning some big heist at Wulfric Manor that night.
~~~
Daphne stalked through the halls of Wulfric Manor, warmed by the knowledge that the famed Wulfric Diamond would soon be within her grasp. She turned a corner and saw that one of the doors in the corridor had a light coming out from the crack below it. She snuck a listen and heard the sound of a game of dice coming from within the room, probably late-night guards passing the time between shifts. Thinking back to the plans to the manor that she broke into the Architects’ Guild to see, she realized she needed to go past that door to get to the strongroom that contained the jeweled necklace. Cautiously, she tried to stealth past the door, but tripped over a loose paving stone. She heard one of the guards get up to check on the noise, and quickly scrambled behind a suit of armor in the hall. The guard took a brief look around to satisfy his sense of duty, then returned to the dice game. Daphne began to sneak forward again, only to hear the sound of mailed footsteps in the hall ahead of her.
Just as the guard was rounding the corner toward her, there was a loud cry from the direction of the manor's front door.
"DAPHNE!! DAPHNE, WHERE ARE YOU?"
Only her twin sister Kat's voice could carry so far and so loudly. The guard turned and ran for the front door. Daphne quickly darted behind the suit of armor again as the other guards ran out of the room. Her sister's typical lack of subtlety had actually created an opening for her. Daphne snuck down the deserted corridor toward the strongroom and unlocked the iron door, but in her haste she neglected to check for traps. She opened the door and was immediately engulfed in a cloud of acid as tinny alarm bells rang out.
The guards at the door started running back toward the strongroom. Daphne, thinking fast, took the diamond necklace out of the box and gave the empty box to her pet monkey, Pascal, telling him to run back to the window that they used to break into the manor. As the monkey led the guards on a chase, Daphne slipped out the front door and silenced her yelling sister. They quickly hopped the fence and were joined shortly by Pascal.
~~~
The moon was fast approaching its zenith, and the newly-reunited companions ran to the hedge maze in the imperial palace gardens to meet with Chernyx. The gate into the gardens was locked for the night, so Rikkit enlarged Monty, who knocked the lock off the gate and walked through the hedge maze to the center.
Chernyx slipped out from behind an equestrian statue. "I'm glad you were all able to make it. I called you here because we are in grave danger. Kat, a few days ago my underworld connections made me aware of an auction of stolen goods. One of the items was your diary, evidently pilfered by a fan of your work. I tried to buy it to get it back to you, but I was outbid. I'm not sure exactly what it said, but it must be bad because the next day the winner took it to th-"
Just then, another voice spoke up from behind a hedge wall. "Okay. We killed Spider. I’m just gonna say it. He’s dead, and we are one hundred percent guilty." The figure stepped out from behind the hedge. It was Storvin, cleric in the Church of Death and companion of Spider. Over a year ago, Spider the undead-hunting ranger came into conflict with Chernyx, who at the time was still undead. The party was forced to choose between their two part-time companions, and Monty chose by braining Spider with his lucerne hammer. Storvin had been unconscious for the fight, and the party told Storvin that Spider and Chernyx had killed each other.
"Interesting reading," Storvin called out, closing the diary and brandishing a wicked-looking scythe. He gave a sharp whistle, and four black crossbowmen and four black knights stepped out from various points in the hedge maze, weapons ready. Storvin opened the engagement by casting zone of truth and asking the party which of them killed Spider, but he was disappointed when everyone but the roc made their saves. Enlarged Monty charged Storvin but was stopped by two of the skull-knights, whose longswords bit deep into the heavily armored dwarf.
Rikkit passed out from a combination of fear and the poisonous alchemical substance coursing through his partially visible body (and the fact that his player wasn't here for that session). Kat used pilfering hand to steal the scythe out of Storvin's hands while Zel summoned an ettin next to Storvin. Weaponless, and with a giant dwarf and an ettin bearing down on him, Storvin cast hold person on the ettin and fled between his legs through the hedge maze, pausing occasionally to bathe everyone nearby in channeled negative energy. Meanwhile, Sigrid charged one of the skull-knights and Hardrig charged the other. Daphne traded shots with the crossbowmen while Kat and Ryder poured healing into their allies.
Zel knew something the others didn't about the hedge maze; there is only so much a druid can do in a major city, and she had done all of it. Two of the topiaries in the hedge maze had been planted and shaped by her from seeds she obtained from the fey. They needed only the application of some freshly-harvested mistletoe to come to life. Zel hopped on Cameo and shoved the mistletoe into the roc-shaped shrubs, which then began to attack the crossbow assassins.
Storvin popped out of the shrubs and called down a flame strike followed by mass inflict light wounds, and Zel responded by summoning a tiger in front of him. Cornered, Storvin cast obscuring mist and disappeared into the hedge maze again.
Monty, unused to actually taking damage in combat with his 30 AC, was struggling against the two knights but still giving a little bit better than he got. Chernyx, noticing that one of the knights was barely staying on his feet, slew him with death knell and then animated him as a zombie, the ultimate insult to the Church of Death. Monty then bisected the remaining skull-knight with a well-placed Power Attack.
Sigrid and Hardrig each slew their skull-knights as well after a long struggle, with Sigrid neatly dicing hers with two well-placed critical hits. Daphne and the living topiaries mopped up the crossbowmen, leaving only Storvin unaccounted for. Zel spotted Storvin walking up through the air over the city, called down lightning on him, and quickly took up the pursuit on Cameo. Storvin dropped down into the city streets before they could arrive, but Zel spotted the door of a house swinging shut, dropped down, and sent Cameo back to lead the rest of the group there.
Meanwhile, a group of palace guards arrived at the scene to investigate what was going on. As Chernyx casually disappeared into the hedge maze, the party explained that they were attacked by death assassins, and that their leader fled into the city. The captain of the guard recognized Sigrid and Hardrig as famous knights and invited the party to stay the night in the palace for their own safety, and told them that the Emperor wished an audience with them. But first, they would pursue Storvin. Cameo led them to the street where Zel was waiting, and as soon as the druid saw her party coming, she burst through the door. As soon as she crossed the threshold, Storvin reached out and touched her with a hand wreathed in black fire. She shrugged off the deadly attack and tripped Storvin with her scythe. Storvin, realizing his last-ditch attack had failed, cast darkness and scrambled out the back door. The party and the guards gave the area a quick sweep but were unable to find him.
With that, the reunited Graverobbers were led into the Imperial Palace, where they awaited their audience with the Emperor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The excerpt from Kat's diary that I used is actually from Kat's diary. The players of Sigrid and Kat both kept diaries of their characters throughout the last campaign, which is a neat way to get inside the head of your character and understand how they see the world and the events that they are participating in. They sure had a lot of fun with it. I read both diaries last year, and as soon as I read that part (We killed Spider. I’m just gonna say it. He’s dead, and we are one hundred percent guilty.), I knew I had to use it to reintroduce Storvin and the Church of Death as a major threat in the campaign.
I had a lot of fun coming up with the whole 'getting the band back together' series of encounters. I only regret not having anything cool for Monty and Zel to do, but I hope I made up for it with the big battle at the end, giving Zel the living topiaries and Monty a challenging fight with two well-equipped fighters of his own level. My major regret with that battle was that I was running two DMPCs, which meant I spent a fair amount of time rolling dice against myself. It was not ideal, but I think it was appropriate for the whole grand reunion thing that was going on.
Let's talk about escapes. Specifically, having your Big Bad Evil Guy escape the battle to become an ongoing threat. My advice here is twofold: make it realistic, and don't break the rules. By 'make it realistic', I mean don't just make him vanish through an evil magic portal right before the party is about to kill him. Make sure that he (or she, or it) escapes using his own abilities, spells, and magic items, not by DM fiat. Even if you really want him to escape, the party could still catch him (and if they do, remember that they will get their hands on whatever magic items you are using to help him escape). By 'don't break the rules', I mean don't cheat the party out of their victory. If they catch him fair and square, don't pull extra healing, magic items, or spells out of your ass to save him. And make sure not to cheat by giving him extra actions during his escape; if the BBEG retreats with a double-move action, he's not going to be able to cast a spell also in that same round. If you are breaking rules for yourself that you don't let the party break, you are cheating them out of victory.
I will say that I wanted Storvin to escape and become an ongoing threat. With that said, I was prepared to let them capture him if they could. As a GM, your plot should never hinge on the characters failing at something that they could possibly succeed at. They damn near almost caught Storvin a couple of times, but he had barely enough tricks up his sleeve to wiggle out of it. If he didn't have a trait that let him heal from negative energy, he would have died several times over.
This isn't perfectly related, but all this talk of following all the rules when making an escape reminds me of a time when doing that actually let me save a villain that the party thought they defeated. Years ago, when I was still playing D&D 3.5 edition, the party was fighting a ship full of yuan-ti corsairs. The yuan-ti captain had jumped into the water and was swimming over to the party's ship. The party's druid, Bobolink Bufflehead, turned into a squid, grappled her, and jetted down into the dark depths of the sea before releasing her to be crushed and drowned in the briny deep. After the session was over, I played out her attempt to reach the surface again just to see if she survived, taking into account the depth to which she was pulled, her swim speed, how many rounds she could hold her breath under water, and the rules for crushing damage in deep water. As it turned out, she barely survived the swim back to the surface. I hadn't intended her to be an ongoing threat, but she sure would be now. Or she would have been if that campaign hadn't prematurely ended.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey, here's a spot of news: d20 despot has a facebook page! Go to facebook.com/d20despot and like us. Tell your friends.
-your reunited d20 despot.
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