The Plan

Hey all, sorry this took me a bit, kept slipping my mind.  The plan as it stands in my mind: Get to Krona Peak. From here I feel like we have two options: either, we pay or use our influence to get a sending gnome to accompany us to the foot of Noldrunthrone, or, we can leave Edvald behind to send our message if they are unwilling to accompany us. He is also familiar with Nightscale and as we saw last week, he isn't essential to our combat abilities as a group. Ideally we convince a gnome to come with us though. The message should be along these lines (they are limited to 20 words, but if we feel a need to embellish more than this, we can pay for multiple messages, This text by itself would be two messages, we can add or cut down as necessary) "You are forgotten. Your power is weak and fading. We have the rest of the keys, come and claim them at the foot of Noldrunthrone in a week's time, to regain your former power and glory." The time delay serves two purposes despite the fact that it will be sent when we are already at Noldrunthrone: first, if edvald is the one sending the message then it will give him time to potentially rejoin us. Second, if Nightscale decides to be dishonest and show up early, maybe we will catch him off guard by being there earlier than he expected so he can't set an ambush for us. (We could also set some sort of trap for him, but I don't know what kind of trap would be possible or effective). There are two main issues that I see with this plan and I'm open to ideas on how to mitigate those. The first is that Nightscale could flat out refuse to agree to come out and fight us. An obvious fix is to prepare some sort of water gear or other devices to reduce the potency of his defenses. The second is that he is a flying creature. If we choose to fight him out in the open, if things aren't going well for him, he could choose to just fly off and recover at his lair, so we need a way to ground him if we want to end the fight above ground (dragonrend from Skyrim style). If all goes according to plan, we can then march into his lair and claim his treasure and the key (there is an issue of how we get there before anyone else gets wise and loots the place, so I'm open to ideas on that end too). Anyway, this is obviously not a finished product of a plan, and the flying thing in particular is concerning to me so I'd be interested to hear what the rest of y'all think. - Noah

Nightscale just flying away was my biggest concern because I'm 99% sure that will happen if we do get him out and start to get the upper hand. I don't know how or if this could be prevented. At the end of the day, I think we end up having to fight him in his lair so figuring out how to neutralize the water issue should be high on the list. That being said, I am not sure how that can be addressed. A potion of some sort that offsets the water issue maybe or spell scroll? I could be 100% wrong also and his pride makes him fight it out to the end out in the open. Just my 2 cents. (I think we need to make those flying boots though for Sedris though)

If we do have to go to the lair, I can cast water breathing as a ritual which will last for 24 hours.  Either way I can also give 1 person resistance to acid damage.  This is a concentration spell, however, so I wouldn't be able to cast my damage dealing concentration spells. Alternatively, I can conjure 8 pteradons with a flyby attack. 

I ultimately agree that we are actually unlikely to successfully draw him out under this plan. Additionally, this plan could entirely backfire, as we might plan to draw him out, but instead notify him of our arrival giving him more time to prepare. Perhaps we can update this with two choices. We prepare to go directly into his lair. We try to draw him out through the plan above, but do not meet him, instead sneaking into his lair to claim his treasure. This carries the risk that he brings the glyph key with him, but he likely leaves most of his treasure behind. If our warning does not draw him out...then see #2 (minus the surprise) We plan to sneak directly into his lair with a well prepared surprise attack. We lay out as much as we can on him and hope for the best. I think the following spells might be useful. Walk on Water Water Breathing Daylight (to counteract the darkness) Acid resistance (I can possible do something for that, maybe a potion...need to look into that) then, we prepare powerful direct attacks that are difficult to resist any ability that can get the melee fighters in close. Can we negate his flight and/or swim speed? not an issue indoors. Faerie Fire might help tracking him underwater as well, if I can get that off. Any scrolls that we can pick up in Sharn that might give us a boost? What do you guys think? Unless we have a near 100% chance of removing his flight outdoors, we really have no hope of fully defeating him outside (he's too fast for boots of flying to keep up) Additionally, first level spells are Common Magic items, thus readily available (with Koop's blessing) I recommend the following. (both spells last 1 hour) False Life,, for an additional 1D4+4 HP to everyone Longstrider (+10' speed) - useful to run around darkness if it were to trigger Could we give everyone 2 or 3 Absorb Elements Scrolls...can a reaction spell be cast like a scroll...probably not... Also, another strategy is Tari can cast Hex on a familiar, then take a short rest, then kill the familiar (allowing her to transfer the hex to the dragon, and still have full spell slots) (yes...this is a little cheeky)

In it's lair, would Hunger of Hadar work underwater?  I can conjure plesiosaurs to attack it underwater or water elementals.  Can we create a bag of holding or two to help carry off the treasure? I wonder if Moonbeam or Call Lightning work on targets underwater?  There's nothing in the books that say they don't.  Does anyone have Haste?  That could be useful on Sedris.  

Hey folks, Just skimming through these comments and saw some rules questions. Yes, Common spell scrolls are readily available (and roughly half price) in Sharn. And I see no reason that spells like Moonbeam, Call Lightning, and Hunger of Hadar wouldn't work underwater--even Fireball, which is instantaneous (I might have to think about a spell like Wall of Fire, because dousing a Wall of Fire with water could extinguish the spell). For the most part, spells are magical and defy or even break laws of physics--that's what makes them magic. If Hunger of Hadar was held in place underwater for an extended period of time, I might have to think about what would happen to the water in and around the vicinity of the spell--could you use Hunger of Hadar, if uninterrupted, to drain a lake? Possibly--but I see nothing particular that prevents those spells from operating underwater. Good luck with the planning! I'll be around if you need something. Koop

In my opinion attacking in the lair seems like the best option. Regardless of his having the crystal key, he is on our kill list and attacking him in his lair means that he will not run away. I think he is unlikely to meet us in the open as it seems to me like he is currently fending off raids from the soldaric guards that are raiding his cave, and may just be too busy keeping his hoard safe to leave and get more. Another thing that I want to bring up is that we need some way to keep him out of the water so that he can't dive in there and wait for all his powers to recharge. Either that or we find a way to fight him in the water. As a final idea, I recommend that if we fight in the cave, we split up so the darkness and the poison breath won't be as bad.

Hunger of Hadar may drive him out of the water or a bunch of spells like Moonbeam and Fireball can just batter him while he can't do anything to us while he's underwater.  As I said, if we know we are going into the cave, I can give everyone water breathing and water walking which each can be cast as a ritual. Steve for False Life, remember I give everyone temp hit points in the first round, so that should be held in reserve. .  

Okay, it sounds like a surprise attack might be the way to go. I know that we normally aren't the stealthiest group, but if we prep a little bit, we can give ourselves advantages in that department too (invis potions, I don't know if a muffle spell exists or if we could get a scroll for it but something along those lines).

Pass without a trace (Druid level 2) will help. 

Potions of Resistance to Acid are only uncommon.  I think we need to brew a few of them. 

Hey everyone!  Just a thought, but which way would we be entering into nightscale's lair? Would we be going through the portal or the way we originally came through? I know that splitting the party is a big no no, but do you all think that if we were able to surround him, like half going in the front way and half the back way would help?