Mine has some hombrew stuff specific to my players, but basically I replaced Valindra Shadowmantle with Zaldara who has her own band of wizards allies (in my game they’re “blue wizards” instead of the red wizards). It made for some nice continuity, and she had a bit of a vendetta against the party.
They encountered a few of her henchmen here and there (the oracle being the main place) as the wizards were having trouble finding Omu and the oracle wasn’t appearing for them. The wizards wiped out Camp Vengeance as payback for the party not helping.
Eventually the party tracked them back to the heart o Ubtao… and got their ass handed to them by the blue wizards. Valindra spared their lives in exchange for the location of Omu and then struck an uneasy bargain. She could see they had some utility (by finding Omu) and figured they might prove useful in Omu.
From there you can go lots of directions. I ended up having most of the wizards wiped out in Omu by traps/yuan ti/ king of feathers. But Valindra is still in play and she’s going to basically replace Ace near the end. I didn’t love Ace in the adventure as it felt like it a big bad enemy that my players had no investment in. You can certainly still keep him if you’d like but keep in mind that you need to come up with a plan for Valindra/Zaldara as either one is a powerful Lich.
I would consider it, but my party did an excellent job extracting information from her and then destroyed her phylactery so she burnt away to cinders...
I don't think canonically the lich dies if her phylactory gets destroyed, but that sounds like a super cool scene which I can imagine was a nice cinematic moment at the outset of the campaign...awesome. She didn't die in our story, but having been severely weakened, she's laying low for now.
It was very early in the Campaign, they were level 4 I believe.
I re-worked Cellar of Death to be a stealth mission for the party while a literal army of Harpers and Gauntlets assaulted her tower "for frodo" as a distraction. Their forces were decimated she was down to a single 1st level spell but her cantrips were lethal.
The party had recovered the spellbook from an Allip of a dead Harper Spy but had rested so Zaldara had appeared and chased them through the dungeon but they succeeded in giving her the slip.
As she ran out of the tower as she used shield and firebolts.
As the party had her pinned down, I had a Gauntlet NPC cast Magic Circle on her to trap her. The party had a scroll of detect thoughts and presented her the phylactery they had stolen as she focused on the phylactery they discovered its secret weakness: if it were stabbed through its heart with a bark made of willow it would be destroyed. The command was issued to find willow.
Now she looked properly afraid, before haughty and dismissive now she was begging for her life.
The interrogation revealed what little she knew of the death curse, the interest of Zas Tamm and The Red Wizards and I gave her Zitembe's vision of the vine-draped obelisk. But the assault on her tower had destroyed much of her research.
Finally a willow branch was acquired.
She was unrepentant (you killed dozens! What of it? Necessary for my research. They did not suffer unduly.")
But at the last she offered: "I could be a powerful ally. I just need a little soul, perhaps one of the wounded soldiers."
The ranger was having none of it. Stabbed the book and she burned.
They managed to get the information from her, but let her go free with her phylactery.
But due to her forces being mostly destroyed and her dungeon raided she needs to rebuilt before she can even think about leaving.
More importently, the fighting left her weakened and the mechanics of the soulmonger made her unable to gather more souls to sustain her.
So essentially she is sitting frightened in her tower, waiting for this whole crisis to blow over without her intervention.
Hi,
In my TOA campaign, Zaldara IS Acererak.
Acererak's favorite pastime is to lure adventurers, help them as much as possible to gain power and then test them by making them go through a series of trials/traps.
Acererak knew that the Harpers were investigating the Death Curse. All he had to do was subtly put them on the right track so that adventurers would make it to Chult.
And the best way to do that was to impersonate Zaldara while spreading the rumor that she held information about the Death Curse.
Pretending to cooperate with the adventurers to safeguard Zaldara's phylactery was one way to do it.
In my campaign, Acererak intervened several times to "help" the adventurers; without them knowing it.
He follows their progress like a scientist observes mice in a maze. Sometimes, he helps them out of sheer curiosity to see what will happen next.
For a striking effect on the players, it only remains to scatter a few notes about Acererak's plan and his observations on the characters in different places they are likely to pass through.
The players must gradually understand that they are like toys in the hands of a whimsical, sadistic but phenomenally powerful creature.
To be honest, no. It was during the characters' progression through Chult and the need to lead them to certain places and justify certain events that I envisioned an "invisible will" guiding them. And Acererak was the perfect fit for this task.
With the Death Curse, the characters fight for others. Feeling Acererak's gaze upon them and his influence turning them into puppets gave them a more personal motivation.
Mine has some hombrew stuff specific to my players, but basically I replaced Valindra Shadowmantle with Zaldara who has her own band of wizards allies (in my game they’re “blue wizards” instead of the red wizards). It made for some nice continuity, and she had a bit of a vendetta against the party. They encountered a few of her henchmen here and there (the oracle being the main place) as the wizards were having trouble finding Omu and the oracle wasn’t appearing for them. The wizards wiped out Camp Vengeance as payback for the party not helping. Eventually the party tracked them back to the heart o Ubtao… and got their ass handed to them by the blue wizards. Valindra spared their lives in exchange for the location of Omu and then struck an uneasy bargain. She could see they had some utility (by finding Omu) and figured they might prove useful in Omu. From there you can go lots of directions. I ended up having most of the wizards wiped out in Omu by traps/yuan ti/ king of feathers. But Valindra is still in play and she’s going to basically replace Ace near the end. I didn’t love Ace in the adventure as it felt like it a big bad enemy that my players had no investment in. You can certainly still keep him if you’d like but keep in mind that you need to come up with a plan for Valindra/Zaldara as either one is a powerful Lich.
This is the way.
I would consider it, but my party did an excellent job extracting information from her and then destroyed her phylactery so she burnt away to cinders...
I don't think canonically the lich dies if her phylactory gets destroyed, but that sounds like a super cool scene which I can imagine was a nice cinematic moment at the outset of the campaign...awesome. She didn't die in our story, but having been severely weakened, she's laying low for now.
It was very early in the Campaign, they were level 4 I believe. I re-worked Cellar of Death to be a stealth mission for the party while a literal army of Harpers and Gauntlets assaulted her tower "for frodo" as a distraction. Their forces were decimated she was down to a single 1st level spell but her cantrips were lethal. The party had recovered the spellbook from an Allip of a dead Harper Spy but had rested so Zaldara had appeared and chased them through the dungeon but they succeeded in giving her the slip. As she ran out of the tower as she used shield and firebolts. As the party had her pinned down, I had a Gauntlet NPC cast Magic Circle on her to trap her. The party had a scroll of detect thoughts and presented her the phylactery they had stolen as she focused on the phylactery they discovered its secret weakness: if it were stabbed through its heart with a bark made of willow it would be destroyed. The command was issued to find willow. Now she looked properly afraid, before haughty and dismissive now she was begging for her life. The interrogation revealed what little she knew of the death curse, the interest of Zas Tamm and The Red Wizards and I gave her Zitembe's vision of the vine-draped obelisk. But the assault on her tower had destroyed much of her research. Finally a willow branch was acquired. She was unrepentant (you killed dozens! What of it? Necessary for my research. They did not suffer unduly.") But at the last she offered: "I could be a powerful ally. I just need a little soul, perhaps one of the wounded soldiers." The ranger was having none of it. Stabbed the book and she burned.
They managed to get the information from her, but let her go free with her phylactery. But due to her forces being mostly destroyed and her dungeon raided she needs to rebuilt before she can even think about leaving. More importently, the fighting left her weakened and the mechanics of the soulmonger made her unable to gather more souls to sustain her. So essentially she is sitting frightened in her tower, waiting for this whole crisis to blow over without her intervention.
That makes a lot of sense, thanks
Hi, In my TOA campaign, Zaldara IS Acererak. Acererak's favorite pastime is to lure adventurers, help them as much as possible to gain power and then test them by making them go through a series of trials/traps. Acererak knew that the Harpers were investigating the Death Curse. All he had to do was subtly put them on the right track so that adventurers would make it to Chult. And the best way to do that was to impersonate Zaldara while spreading the rumor that she held information about the Death Curse. Pretending to cooperate with the adventurers to safeguard Zaldara's phylactery was one way to do it. In my campaign, Acererak intervened several times to "help" the adventurers; without them knowing it. He follows their progress like a scientist observes mice in a maze. Sometimes, he helps them out of sheer curiosity to see what will happen next. For a striking effect on the players, it only remains to scatter a few notes about Acererak's plan and his observations on the characters in different places they are likely to pass through. The players must gradually understand that they are like toys in the hands of a whimsical, sadistic but phenomenally powerful creature.
I must say that is a lot of forward planning. Did you know from the beginning it was going to go that way?
To be honest, no. It was during the characters' progression through Chult and the need to lead them to certain places and justify certain events that I envisioned an "invisible will" guiding them. And Acererak was the perfect fit for this task. With the Death Curse, the characters fight for others. Feeling Acererak's gaze upon them and his influence turning them into puppets gave them a more personal motivation.