TG514

Come Hell or High Fort Save

Episode Number: (TG514)
Original Airdate: 2/2003

The party takes out the remaining shadows and wraiths, then meets at the Temple of the Bright Blade. After some exhaustive planning, they head out to take down the Pit Fiend general of a fiendish Black Pillar army preparing to assault Twingate. As the episode ends, we see that their plans may just slightly have been in vain.

Watch For:

• A creature with lots of points in Listen rolling a 20 on its check.

Plot Points

• Naoine appears to be in league with the Penumbral Lord.
• The device on the amulets that Arly and Tierney have may be the symbol of the Penumbral Lord.
• The party is engaged with the monsters.
• The party had a Meteor Swarm and two Cones of Cold waiting for them when they opened the door.
• The room is magically silenced for non-Evil people.

Unanswered Questions

• Urk?

Analysis

• The monks at the Tashir Temple said that the symbol on the amulet was that of the enemy that they were fighting. If that is, in fact, the symbol of the Penumbral Lord, then perhaps he was the infernal creature that tried to attain godhood in the Great War.
• Which kind of sucks for Arly.
• There was some good strategy here -- if the whole party hadn't had Spell Resistance, Fire Resistance, and spells that buff saves, the battle might have ended in the first round. There were also some strategic misses. Gryff spent his first round readying and climbing into his air chariot despite having a minute of watching people cast spells earlier. Also, the party prepped all their spells right in front of the door to the big room. It made for an obscenely difficult Listen check (40), but the fiend got a 41.

Notable Quotes

Tierney: So she was good at some point.
Tim: That's why I didn't kill her.
(Everyone rolls Sense Motive without asking.)

(One guard made his save against Sculpt Sound to sound like normal conversation.)
Guard 1: Who goes there?
Guard 2 (spotting Arly sneaking around and pointing): The funny thing about swords is that you have to polish them all the time...

(As Guard 2 dies:)
Guard 2: My... buckles... are... shiny.

DMP Speaks

Just in case it's important, I'd like to mention that all of this is by the rules. Unhallow allowed Dispel Magic and Silence. I swapped a few feats with the Pit Fiend, as I'm sure you'll notice soon, but he is legally the same creature. So don't go throwing "Oh, this is a PLOT effect" around.

As the director, I missed some stuff -- for example, the fact that the Silence was affected by Spell Resistance. I'm arbitrarily ruling that Arly and his cleric were affected by it, so that you guys would notice. Tierney pre-cast his Joyful Noise spell, so it's a moot point for him and his cleric -- but everyone else will get SR against the Silence, so there's a decent chance that it won't affect you.

By the same logic, however, Tierney's Joyful Noise might not affect everyone who tries to make use of it. It takes SR as well, yes?

Just to bear in mind. It's a two-edged sword.

Geordan speaks

As far as I can tell, Silence offers saves and SR only if it's cast on you or an object you're carrying. Once you enter the area of Silence it doesn't look like it offers a save or SR.

So it's gonna be a pretty quiet battle. For us.

Timus Speaks

Boy, women sure are nothing but trouble. Fascinating... enthralling trouble. Of course so are Pit Fiends. This Spell Resistance stuff kicks ass. I am going to have to get me some of that one of these days. Of course that new fireball I just figured out is tasty too. Make me want to BURN things. Or freeze them. Or run away. No, definitely something involving hurting evil. Maybe I should pay more attention to the battle.

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