I want to add a little bit of a twist to the Sniper Attack encounter, as per usual taking inspiration from things folks have said elsewhere (in this case the discord).
This will take 2 forms:
- A mini skill challenge to find Skather quickly enough to catch him
- A chase as he decides that his work is done and enough chaos has been sown
The Sky Turns Red
As discussed in Avernus Rising, just before the 3rd wave of Streets of Blood (or earlier if the PCs fail to stop 3 crisis points/encounters), the sky will turn red and divine magic not granted by Tiamat will cease to function.
I mention this mostly to say that this makes saving Jarmaath much harder! If you want to be nice, you might allow PCs to spend an additional action to make a DC 25 Counteract Check when casting a Divine Spell, casting it on a success, but I would only let this work 3 times per PC max before they are cut off from their Divine Source altogether!
If you are not using my variant ending, feel free to ignore this (and edit the read-aloud text below accordingly).
Finding Skather / Saving Jarmaath
You hear Jarmaath's voice in your head - "Their advance has broken! Come, return to the Cathedral Square - we must plan for a counter attack to push them out of the city for good, and put an end to whatever strange magic is at work." The city streets are painted red as you rush through them, both by blood and whatever strange magic is blocking out the sky, but each group of soldiers perks up as you pass, ready to fight as long as their heroes do. You make your way back to the Cathedral Square, where you see Lord Jarmaath, Captain Ulverth, a handful of the Lion's Guard and a few aides and scribes are waiting for you on the steps. Jarmaath strides forward to embrace you all warmly, saying "My friends! You have fought well - if we hold here today, it will be thanks largely to your efforts. But we are not done yet. Come, we have much to discuss in order to -" he pauses, looking confused for a moment, before collapsing to his hands and vomiting black ichor onto the ground. You see an arrow that glows an infernal red protruding from his back as he falls to the ground. The soldiers around you begin to panic as they look around helplessly, hiding behind their shields as they try to see where the attack came from. Captain Ulverth immediately begins barking orders, starting with "Get Lord Jarmaath to cover, then take cover yourselves! Find the assassin!" Before they can move, however, another soldier falls to an arrow through the eye, instantly killed, followed swiftly by a fleeing scribe. Chaos ensues!
We're in a bit of a soft initiative, and running things Theatre of the Mind until combat starts. PCs can go in whatever order they wish, though any that don't take cover will be in for a an unfortunate surprise! After they go, Skather will shoot at them, and then Jarmaath will take 2d6 Persistent Bleed Damage and make a recovery check (assuming he hasn't been treated).
PCs have 3 actions each round as per usual, though we are in Theatre of the Mind. Some solid options are below! After 1 round, the Lion Guard carry Lord Jarmaath inside. After 5 rounds, Tredora Goldenbrow arrives and can take over Jarmaath's care if he is still alive. The assassin might leave in this time - see "Chasing Down Skather."
At the end of the round but before Jarmaath's turn, Skather will fire 3 arrows at the party.
- Targets are always Off-Guard to Skather until on the battle map (see "Reach the Assassin!"
- Apply MAP as usual, but don't account for range (he's used to long-range sniping).
- Apply Cover if the PCs have it (+2 to AC, or +4 if they used the Take Cover action)
- The first arrow each round is poisoned with giant scorpion venom (he pre-poisoned these and has them set aside for his most accurate shots).
He has the following priorities, and will target PCs in the following order, firing one arrow at each target (if something applies to multiple PCs, look at the next point down for a tie breaker)
- Jarmaath, if he is still visible.
- PCs who are out in the open.
- PCs who are helping Lord Jarmaath.
- PCs who are actively Seeking for the assassin.
- The squishiest PCs (Skather has a pretty good eye for this, plus accurate intel from the PCs past encounters with the Red Hand)
- He cannot target anyone in Total Cover. If the PCs are all in Total Cover, then each round, a soldier pokes their head out and is immediately killed for their efforts.
Take Cover!
They can easily Stride to either Standard cover (behind hedges/pillars) or Total cover (inside the Cathedral), though can Take Cover behind Standard Cover and cannot Seek for Skather from behind Total Cover.
Get Jarmaath to Cover!
This requires 3 Cover Points, most easily earned by making DC 20 Athletics checks to drag Jarmaath inside the building. This can be from multiple PCs, though might require some extra Strides for them to also be in cover. Spells like wall of stone can automatically do this, and other spells might automatically grant 1-2 Cover Points (or just allow a check).
If the PCs don't do this round 1, the Lion Guard will, but not before Skather shoots him again, and he will continue taking damage.
Save Lord Jarmaath!
In order to stop Lord Jarmaath from dying, the arrow must be removed and the bleeding stopped.
Removing the Arrow. This requires a PC make a DC 25 Medicine or Thievery check (or DC 28 Crafting) to safely remove the arrow.
- Critical Success: as Success, and Jarmaath can immediately attempt a DC 15 Recovery Check to end the Persistent Bleed Damage.
- Success: The arrow is removed successfully!
- Critical Failure: Jarmaath immediately takes 2d6 Bleed Damage.
- Critical Success: As Success, but DC 10.
- Success: Jarmaath can immediately attempt a DC 15 Recovery Check to end the Persistent Bleed Damage. If he fails, the DC of his Recovery Check at the end of his next turn is also DC 15, though resets to 20 after that.
- Critical Failure: Jarmaath immediately takes 2d6 bleed damage.
- If the counteract check succeeds, the infernal magic fades. The arrow does not need to be removed, and the DCs of Recovery Checks against the bleed damage are reduced by 5 (to 15 normally, or 10 with treatment as above). This requires a Success from a Rank 4/5 effect, a Failure from a Rank 6+ effect, or a Critical Success from a Rank 3 effect. Lower rank magic cannot help here.
- If the check was 1 degree of success higher than needed for success (so a Critical Success from a Rank 4/5 effect, or a Success from a Rank 6+ effect), Jarmaath can immediately make a DC 10 recovery check.
- If the check was 2 degrees of success lower than needed (so a Critical Failure on a Rank 4/5 effect, a Failure from a Rank 3 effect, or a Success or worse from a Rank 2 effect), Jarmaath immediately takes 2d6 bleed damage.
Healing Jarmaath
Jarmaath starts with 0 HP and Dying 1, and will take 2d6 persistent bleed damage at the end of every round. Healing can take him above 0 HP and reset his Dying value. Note however that it also increases his Wounded value, so if he starts Dying again, he will start at Dying 2!
- He can act while conscious, but cannot take actions except to crawl to cover or speak in a pained whisper. Note that his turn is after Skather's, so if he is still out in the open, he likely won't stay conscious.
- After 5 rounds, Tredora arrives and can take over (assuming Jarmaath is in cover).
Find the Assassin!
PCs can Seek by making a DC 20 Perception Check. The party needs 3 Search Points in order to triangulate him (each gets them closer to the right direction). PCs take a +2 circumstance bonus if Skather missed them with an arrow this round, or a +1 if he missed someone else, as they can see the direction of the arrow.
Reach the Assassin!
Once the PCs have accrued 3 Search Points and found Skather, unless they want to have a firefight from 120 feet away, they will have to enter the Battlemap! To do so, they must spend a round make a DC 20 Acrobatics check or a DC 25 Athletics check.
- Critical Success: As success, and Skather wastes his first arrow shooting at them and missing.
- Success: The PC reaches cover before Skather can shoot them.
- Failure: The PC reaches cover, but Skather can shoot them first.
- Critical Failure: The PC trips and falls prone about halfway there - they can get back up, but Skather can shoot them first. Treat a second Critical Failure as a Failure.
Chasing Down Skather
The dragonblood assassin has no desire to die here today, and once he has caused enough devastation, he will flee to rejoin Wyrmlord Kharn for the final push!
At the end of each round, Skather gains 1 Chaos Point. He also gains 1 Chaos Point each time he knocks a PC unconscious or kills an NPC (not including those in the initial description). If Lord Jarmaath succombs to his wounds, he gains 2 Chaos Points.
When Skather has enough Chaos Points, he flees. If the PCs have located him by this point, this triggers the chase below (otherwise, he simply escapes). If he is Bloodied in combat (brought below half health), he also flees.
The number of Chaos Points required to make Skather flee depends on how many Victory Points the PCs have accrued so far (the better they've done, the more chaos he needs to achieve his objective):
- 0-39 VP: 3 Chaos Points
- 40-49 VP: 5 Chaos Points
- 50-59 VP: 7 Chaos Points
- 60+ VP: 10 Chaos Points
The Chase
When Skather Flees, the PCs must chase him down! He starts 2 obstacles ahead if he fled due to accruing enough Chaos Points, or 1 obstacle ahead if he fled due to becoming Bloodied (he throws down a smoke bomb and slips away, but they see him running). Each round, he advances 1 Obstacle, and then the PCs can each make 1 Check in whichever order they'd like.
As soon as the PCs reach Skather, battle commences once more (use the Streets of Blood map or similar) and fights until defeated.
Obstacles:
- Ruined Rooftops (3 Chase Points*): DC 22 Acrobatics, DC 20 Athletics, DC 25 Survival or Perception (to follow from the ground - skips the Sharp Drop obstacle entirely if the whole party does this)
- Sharp Drop (2 Chase Points*): DC 18 Acrobatics, DC 20 Athletics, DC 22 Crafting (to rig something helpful - gives everyone else a +2 against this obstacle)
- War-Torn Alleyways (3 Chase Points): DC 22 Perception or Survival, DC 20 Society, DC 15 Brindol Lore, DC 18 Elsir Vale Lore or Warfare Lore
- Clashing Soldiers (3 Chase Points*): DC 28 Acrobatics, DC 28 Intimidation, DC 25 Stealth, DC 20 Attack (each time you attempt this, you take 10 damage)
- Blasted Battlefield (3 Chase Points): DC 20 Acrobatics, DC 22 Athletics, AoE spells to clear obstacles automatically succeed (or Crit if Rank 4+).
After this, Skather escapes to behind enemy lines and is unreachable (until the final battle). Or, if they choose to press on anyway, feel free to throw a Severe encounter at the PCs with a bunch of random hobgoblins I guess.
*+1 Chase Point required for groups of 5. For groups of 6, all obstacles require +1 Chase Point.
The Aftermath
If the PCs defeated Skather, they earn 2 VP! If he survived, he will instead return to face the PCs in the Final Battle alongside Wyrmlord Kharn!!
If Lord Jarmaath dies, they lose -4 VP as morale falters.
Even if he lives, Lord Jarmaath is too badly injured by the aftermath of the Infernal Wound to continue his duties, so Lady Kaal swiftly takes command. She does her best to coordinate the now scattered and disorganized forces, but not before Wyrmlord Kharn's forces were able to exploit the gap and march directly on the Cathedral. The final battle begins! While Lady Kaal rallies the remaining soldiers to push back this latest offensive, the PCs must take to the center and cut the head off the snake once and for all!
If you are using my remixy/Avernus shennanigans, make sure that The Companion rises just before the final battle in a burst of holy energy:
You stand at last across from Wyrmlord Kharn, second in command of the Kulkor Zhul, answering only to the High Wyrmlord himself. Silhouetted by the red sky above, he bellows in challenge: "So you are so-called Heroes of Brindol? I was hoping for more of a challenge than puny weaklings like you. So be it - I'll enjoy this all the same!" As he and his forces advance, however, a blinding flash of white light covers the battlefield. You feel yourselves instantly restored - regain all HP and Focus Points - as you feel divine light wash over you! As you regain your vision, you see a second sun hovering in the sky above Brindol! Bathed in its holy light, you see clerics in nearby skirmishes cry out with joy as their divine magic and their wounds alike are restored! Kharn snarls in agitated fury - "This changes nothing. Die like the dogs you are!"
That's all for now folks! The other thing I'm working on this weekend is writing up some character-specific RP stuff for the prelude to the battle, but I might not post that as it's fairly specific to my campaign. TBD! In the meantime, as always, I hope you find this useful, and I'll see you next time!
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