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Switch to Forum Live View Kill My Character With Dragons
2 years ago  ::  Jan 26, 2011 - 2:11PM #1
JonnyT_
Date Joined: Oct 19, 2005
Posts: 24
The Short Version:
Dragons are coming to permanently kill a high level wizard (3rd edition).  They want to end him permanently.  But he is well prepared.  What should they do?

The Long Version:
In the Eberron campaign that I am running I have a character who has made it his life's work to thwart the Draconic Prophesy.  He has now done so in a small way and soon will be thwarting it in bigger ways.  By doing thus he has terrified and enranged dozens of powerful dragons who are now intent on putting an end to him - forever.

Expecting this the chracter has laid MANY preparations to protect him.  The player has spent quite a bit of effort on planning for contigencies, and I feel the only way to really do justice to this is to really TRY to kill his character.  If he manages to survive the dragons of Argonnessen REALLY trying to kill his character this will greatly validate all his planning.

That said, I already know too much.  I know what plans he has laid, and its hard to decide if the dragons would double-outsmart him or not.

Thats where you, the internet, come in.  Knowing only what the dragons would know, I want your suggestions on how to kill this fool mage.

Here is what you know:

Who Are You:
1) This is a 3rd edition Eberron campaign
2) You are an extremely powerful dragon (CR 20-30) with a dozen powerful dragons (CR 15-25) you can command or influence to do your will
3) Anthedon (the character) threatens everything you hold dear and must be destroyed at ALL costs
4) You have significant gold/items at your employ - lets say 1/2 million gold
5) There are at least a dozen OTHER similar groups of dragons out there

Who Is Anthedon (the character):
1) High level wizard (17 now, but may be as high as 20 by the time you reach him)
2) You have scried him many times and he has been all over the world, clearly teleporting
3) Lately he has generally been unscryable
4) Every once in a while he can be scried, and the last time you tried he was in ship on a planar sea
5) He is lawful good
6) He travels with a group that includes a bard, a swordsage, a crusader, and a cleric or similar level
7) He is able to cast a small number of spells from other classes (artificier, druid, cleric)
8) He is able to use any dragon marked ability
9) He is currently attempting to thwart the destruction of the world which has been fortold by the draconic prophesy and you suspect that this will take him to the planes
10) He is expecting you, he KNOWS you've been scrying on him, and he will be prepared

Your Goal:
Kill him forever.

What I am looking for is general plans on how to destroy him.  I don't need statblocks or anyting.  Mainly clever plans, spells, items that you plan to use to end him.  I'm curious to see what your collective strategies will produce.

Thanks.
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2 years ago  ::  Jan 26, 2011 - 2:54PM #2
Calm
Date Joined: May 16, 2008
Posts: 211
Send in lesser (lower level) dragons first that fall for his ploys. Then the older, smarter, and more powerful ones make their push. Work it so a group of them working together make it to his inner sanctum, sucking up most of his contingencies. Before the last one dies, have it plant a marker or item of some sort that summons the elder dragon heading this assault. Then you can have a straight up fight.
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2 years ago  ::  Jan 26, 2011 - 3:56PM #3
Dragonsblood
Date Joined: Jun 2, 2005
Posts: 925
I would take advantage of a dragon's ability to polymorph into a human and use a combination of political manuveuring and Trap the Soul. IE, lure him with promises of whatever his heart desires into a kingdom the dragons-turned-human have infiltrated. Then spike the utensils at a banquet. Immediately I would attempt to kill his companions, focusing on the cleric.

To keep him thrown off the scent of this plan I would send lessor dragons and hired assassins at him non-stop. These are only pawns that I expect him to beat.

This is the critical part of Trap the Soul:


The second method is far more insidious, for it tricks the subject into  accepting a trigger object inscribed with the final spell word,  automatically placing the creature’s soul in the trap. To use this  method, both the creature’s name and the trigger word must be inscribed  on the trigger object when the gem is enspelled. A sympathy spell can also be placed on the trigger object. As soon as the subject  picks up or accepts the trigger object, its life force is automatically  transferred to the gem without the benefit of spell resistance or a save.




[edit]I deleted my old plan in favor of this one.

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2 years ago  ::  Jan 26, 2011 - 11:43PM #4
BilopTheFleshwarper
Date Joined: Jul 8, 2007
Posts: 401
...  a half million GP?

Okay.  Here's several ways.

Hire assassins.  1/4 million GP reward for his head... and it's relatively indirect.

Assuming he doesn't have contigency teleports set up, he's taken out quickly and quietly.

Horde of dragons.  Seriously.  If the PC can handle a concentrated assult by a dozen high level dragons(and their spells) he deserves to survive... seriously...  how many 30+ DC breathweapon attacks can he dodge and resist? how many saves versus instant death spells can he make? And you've got 1/2 a million gold to use... grab some magic items! be serious and take this sucker out. a full slew of +6 stat items, make everything +3 better for taking him down. Don't forget to make good spell lists for the dragons.

Trolls, no seriously, trolls.  Implanted with items that have antimagic aura on them, and decked out in heavy armor, a big group of trolls can take out a party that is offguard(and likely magically dependant).  and if you throw a few levels of barbarian or fighter on them they become scary.

Trick him thru a portal to the far realm, and then destroy the portal.  Along the same lines... send him to Darksun, or Ravenloft.  Force him thru the portal with your 70+ grapple checks! sacrfice an arm for the greater good! (regeneration spell optional)

Hire hoard of archers... 10000 arrows a round will eventually take him out.

Preferences... Not where they should be.

Asking someone if they're Trolling you is in violation of section 3 of the Code of Conduct.
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2 years ago  ::  Jan 27, 2011 - 12:03AM #5
Dragonsblood
Date Joined: Jun 2, 2005
Posts: 925
I think it's a given that he has contingency teleports up, along with sensory buffs that will make a horde of anything easily avoidable. A direct, overwhelming assault is just going to scare him off. Honestly, such crude tactics should be beneath an ancient dragon.

Also, if he has access to level 8 spells he's going to have a clone setup somewhere. If not, he can surely get a friend, such as his level 17 cleric companion, to raise him. Killing him once won't do the job.
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2 years ago  ::  Jan 27, 2011 - 2:11AM #6
slobo777a
Date Joined: Jun 2, 2009
Posts: 1,882
As a dragon, I know too little about the capabilities of this Wizard.

I want to know what the contingencies are. I want to find loopholes and weaknesses.

I want to run a few feints, and learn from them.

I want to spy on the wizard and learn what tricks he is using to avoid being destroyed by enemies that he *thinks* are as powerful as me. I will then try to figure out counters to to the tricks he reveals. He'd better be resourceful with new ideas, because anything he reveals in an early fight I will have a counter for.

So, plans are two-fold:

1) Direct, brash assaults, lots of noise and power, with whichever allies I have that are up to the task, but disposable for the final battle. Ideally get one of the other dragon groups to waste its resources. Make him think this is the one, this is the big bad come to get me. Send a spy or scrying device along with the assault, get intelligence on what spells are being used, what attacks and defences need neutralising.

2) Deep cover. Get agents in places I expect him to be. Initially they should be regular unimportant NPCs - shop-keepers, town guards etc. Find out where he's heading, what kind of people he goes to for support. Get one of these "supporting" role characters close to him, gain trust, and report back whenever safe and possible. Deep cover = play it safe always, no back-stabbing or silly assassination attempts.
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2 years ago  ::  Jan 27, 2011 - 3:52AM #7
CCS
Date Joined: Nov 27, 2006
Posts: 3,538

So he can't often be scyed heh?

Well, I'd infiltrate his group.  Replace/possess a trusted companion, NPC, follower, etc.  Someone that's always going to be close to him.
Then I'd just scry them....

Over time I'd whittle down his resources.  He'd be hard pressed to ever find any more treasure or magic items.  I'd be one step ahead of him due to scrying on the agent.
This'll force him to sit still & craft.  Burning off more resources, (including XP, not that one could tell "in character").

Every now & then I'd hit his remaining stuff with Disjunctions (think that's the spell).

If i could?  I'd begin barring him from various planes.
Much easier to keep track of him/ maintain access if he's not skipping through the multi-verse....

His companions?  Who likely aren't as paranoid?  I'd coup de grace them in their sleep.  After draining their memories into some kind of doppleganger.  Then I'd render their bodies/spirits un-raisable etc.
This would likely piss off the other players.

Eventually?  When I'd ground him down?  But right before I killed him perminently?  I'd pry loose the info of where his clones etc are.  They'd be all destroyed before he met his end.

In short?  I would win.  He might have fun.  The other players certainly wouldn't.  

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2 years ago  ::  Jan 27, 2011 - 1:14PM #8
Igfig
Date Joined: Oct 22, 2002
Posts: 314
If your player is as clever as you make him out to be, he'll be expecting trickiness.  Of course any frontal attack will be a feint.  Of course you'll try to replace his allies and trick him into destroying himself.  He'll have mind blank and true seeing and death ward and protection from evil and all those other vital spells active all the time, and anything he can't hard counter he'll have a contingency against.

If the dragons really want to kill Anthedon, their best bet is to exploit the power of metagaming.  I don't mean they should use out-of-character knowledge--that'd be ridiculous.  No, their strategy will be to exploit the character's own expectations about how events will proceed.

What they'll do is start out with slobo777a's basic strategy of feints and infiltration.  So far, so good.  This is what Anthedon will be expecting.  As he counters the dragons' various assaults, however, he'll begin to learn that things are not quite as they seem.  There's a rogue group of dragons with similar, but not identical goals: while they aren't trying to thwart the Prophecy per se, they are trying to avoid the destruction of the world.  His primary antagonist among the dragons is being controlled by forces unknown.  The Lords of Dust believe that thwarting the Prophecy will shatter the locks on all of the Rajahs' prisons, and are offering him subtle aid and guidance.  The section of the Prophecy that foretells the destruction of the world may actually be a forgery.

All of these twists have, of course, been made up wholesale by the dragons.  The idea is that Anthedon will notice something subtly amiss somewhere, investigate, and eventually piece together enough clues to come to one of the conclusions above.  The clues should be subtle enough that he can afford to miss or discount some of them, and placed in a variety of ways so as not to give any indication that they all come from the same source.  In any case, depending on what he finds and what he believes, Anthedon should eventually come to believe that he has uncovered the "real plot" and act accordingly.  

The dragons have three goals for all this twistiness: 
1. To delay and distract Anthedon, giving them more time to prepare
2. To make him doubt his cause, and perhaps consider compromise
3. To get him to seek out a dragon (any dragon) as an ally. 

This last one is the most important.  The whole plot revolves around Anthedon thinking he's the active player in all this.  If a dragon comes to him and offers its services, he's going to be suspicious; but if he seeks out a dragon himself and after a lengthy debate manages to convince the dragon to join his cause, he'll feel like he's outmaneuvered his enemy.

This dragon alliance can take many forms, depending on the plot he pursues.  His allies might be the group of rogue dragons, his former primary antagonist (freed from the "real BBEG"'s control), or some other dragon that is willing to put aside their differences to combat the real threat.  The important thing is that Anthedon thinks he's in the third act when he's really still in the second.

In any case, he and the party and their new loyal dragon ally head off toward the "final showdown" with the "real BBEG".  This is a difficult and dramatic battle, and it needs to strip the PC of his hardest defenses, both magically and mentally.  Most importantly, it should make him expend whatever contingencies he has in place against trap the soul and good old-fashioned betrayal.  That is, one of his allies (but not the dragon) should betray Anthedon in a dramatic and shocking manner.  After those two things have happened, the "BBEG" kills the loyal dragon ally; with his final breath, the dragon gives Anthedon his prized magical doodad (like a powerful staff or something) so he can destroy the "BBEG" once and for all.

The doodad is, of course, a trap the soul trap.

Because seriously, what kind of idiot tries to pull the exact same trick twice in row?  (Evidently the kind that wins.)

The doodad-with-soul then teleports back to the dragons before the other PCs can break it.  The dragons can then break the soul down into its component XP, feed it to a demilich, throw it into a sphere of annihilation, or put it back in a body and make it hug a lavawight.  If they want to be a little kinder, they could also imprison it in Dollurh until the plane's Entrapping trait turns him into a shade.
Some things to consider Show
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2 years ago  ::  Jan 27, 2011 - 1:18PM #9
TheHankerChief
Date Joined: Aug 29, 2007
Posts: 8
I've kinda latched on to the 'kill permanently' clause of the requirements.

Taking a look at the various ways a character can be returned to life, it seems the only thing most of them can't get around are old age.

Unfortunately, the wording for Wish seems like it would get around that, however it causes level loss.

So the permanent death strategy would be:
Step 1: Bring Anthedon to level 1 with 2 or less Constitution via whatever means available.
Step 2: Kill him with old age. (Cursed potions of aging?)

I have to wonder if it wouldn't be more efficient to trap him somewhere for eternity.

Even with all that effort, I think a deity or time traveler could still undo the Dragons' permanent removal schemes.

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2 years ago  ::  Jan 27, 2011 - 4:15PM #10
Dragonsblood
Date Joined: Jun 2, 2005
Posts: 925

Jan 27, 2011 -- 1:18PM, TheHankerChief wrote:

I've kinda latched on to the 'kill permanently' clause of the requirements.

Taking a look at the various ways a character can be returned to life, it seems the only thing most of them can't get around are old age.

Unfortunately, the wording for Wish seems like it would get around that, however it causes level loss.

So the permanent death strategy would be:
Step 1: Bring Anthedon to level 1 with 2 or less Constitution via whatever means available.
Step 2: Kill him with old age. (Cursed potions of aging?)

I have to wonder if it wouldn't be more efficient to trap him somewhere for eternity.

Even with all that effort, I think a deity or time traveler could still undo the Dragons' permanent removal schemes.




Going with that, maybe the dragon could trap this guy on a plane that ages him really fast.

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