...Demon God's Fane Free Preview!

The following encounter is a sample from Demon God's Fane. If you are contemplating purchasing this adventure to run for your friends, "The Sigil Hearth" should give you a feel for the adventure.

If you don't intend to buy Demon God's Fane, use this encounter in your own campaign, or simply use the NPC as you see fit. Realize, however, that many of the spells, feats, items, and character abilities in this encounter come from The Book of Eldritch Might.

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The Sigil Hearth

The fortress of the graven ones lies about 6 miles from the village, through dense coniferous woods. Only a narrow, ill-used trail makes travel through the thick forest possible. Of course, a fly spell or similar magic will get the PCs there much faster.

The Sigil Hearth is a single, dark-stone keep, with a small courtyard bailey (80 feet square) surrounded by a 15-foot-high stone wall. A slate-shingle roof tops this two-story structure. When the PCs arrive, a fight is going on!

The Courtyard

From inside the walls of this fortress come cries of surprise and shouts of dismay. A purple glow extends over the wall.

A Listen check (DC 15) enables a character to pick out the sounds of a spellcasting fight. A Spellcraft check (DC 21 [19+2 for only hearing the spell]) reveals that the spells chains of vengeance and wall of fire have been cast.

Within the courtyard, a strange sight greets you. Fully one-half of the bailey has become deep mud, with three men and women struggling to get out of it and three times that number seemingly bathing in the stuff. A 20-foot-high wall of violet fire cuts off the rest of the courtyard from view.

The infected Tyrestina has launched a surprising and therefore devastating attack against her fellow graven ones.

The 12 people in the mud (the result of a transmute rock to mud spell) are members of the graven ones (most are 9th-level wizards with one or two levels of graven one), their apprentices (1st- through 3rd-level wizards), or their servants (1st- or 2nd level commoners). The nine that seem to bathe in the stuff failed their saves versus a mass suggestion encouraging them to do so -- five are servants, three are apprentices, and one is a graven one. The three trying to get out made their saves -- two of them are graven ones and one is an apprentice. The graven ones are obvious because of their leathery skin covered in tattoos.

If the PCs investigate or attempt to help people out of the mud, someone yells, "She's gone mad! You've got to stop her! She's behind the wall of fire!"

The PCs must either go across the mud and through the wall of fire or somehow fly over the whole setup to get at the force behind all of this. Climbing up the side of the keep (Climb DC 20) and scuttling across the roof works as well.

Behind the Wall of Fire (EL 16)

Within a shimmering sphere stands a human woman with long black hair. Covered in tattoos and symbols, she holds a bright red wand and laughs maniacally. Three terrible, spine-covered, sulfur-breathing beasts stand outside the sphere, pawing at the ground, and a huge, hulking brute with gray leathery skin and six eyes crouches protectively next to it. Near the entrance into the keep, two rune-covered men in robes (an elf and a halfling) lie on the floor, struggling in vain to free themselves from chains made of fire.

The violet wall is a wall of fire. Behind it stands Tyrestina within a globe of invulnerability, which is surrounded by summoned fiendish dire boars and her gray render. The two graven ones are held within chains of vengeance spells from Tyrestina's wand.

Creatures
Tyrestina attacks the PCs immediately and viciously, using her hasted action to cast mass suggestion ("Don't you think you should go home now?") followed by a coldscream upon whomever didn't flee. She willingly puts the bound graven ones in the area of her spells as well as the PCs. It's her goal to kill everyone, eventually.

She fights to the death. If the Umbral Taint is banished from her, she remembers nothing about the whole time she was infected. Without the Taint, she is quiet and studious, usually keeping to herself.

Tyrestina: Female human Sor10/Gra6; CR 16; Medium humanoid; HD 10d4+10+6d6+6; hp 58; Init +4; Spd 30 ft.; AC 19, touch 16, flat-footed 15; Atk +10/+5 melee (1d4+1, dagger), +13/+8 ranged (1d4+1, dagger); SA Tattoos of power: fortification (negates 25% of all criticals against her), defense (+3 natural armor bonus to AC-already figured in), strength (+2 enhancement bonus to Strength-already figured in), graven image (grey render); AL CE; SV Fort +9, Ref +9,Will +10; Str 12, Dex 18, Con 13, Int 17,Wis 12, Cha 21.

Skills and Feats: Concentration +20, Hide +5, Knowledge (arcana) +22, Knowledge (local) +22, Spellcraft +22, Spot +10, Tumble +13; Conjure Mastery, Dodge, Etch Object Rune, Item Image, Scribe Scroll, Spell Penetration, Toughness.

Possessions: Mirror of vanity +4, ring of protection +2, wand of chains of vengeance (16 charges) glass of mist (stored in an item image, inflicts 1d6 points of fire damage upon anyone other than Tyrestina who attempts to use it), flesh runes of lightning bolt (10d6 DC 18), haste, dragonskin, and coldscream (10d6, DC 19), etched object rune (dagger) of summon monster V, etched object rune (amulet on necklace) of stoneskin, potion of cure serious wounds, dagger, 22 gp, 250 gp gold necklace.

Spells per Day (DC 15 + spell level): 0 level -- 6, 1st level -- 8, 2nd level -- 7, 3rd level -- 7, 4th level -- 7, 5th level -- 7, 6th level -- 4.

Spells Known (9/5/5/4/4/3/2): 0 -- arcane mark, detect magic, mage hand, mental alarm, minor ward, prestidigitation, ray of frost, read magic, resistance; 1st -- erase, grease, magic missile, mage armor, shield; 2nd -- cat's grace, endurance, mark of fire, invisibility, see invisibility; 3rd -- dragonskin, explosive runes, lightning bolt, sepia snake sigil; 4th -- coldscream, greater mark of air, stoneskin, wall of fire; 5th -- summon monster V, transmute rock to mud, wall of force; 6th -- globe of invulnerability, mass suggestion.

Tyrestina has already cast the following spells:

• On herself: mage armor, shield, cat's grace, endurance, see invisibility, mark of fire, dragonskin (red), haste (from her flesh rune, created with the help of another graven one), stoneskin, and greater mark of air. Her Dexterity is now 22 (+2 to AC, +2 to Reflex saves), her Constitution is now 15 (+16 more hit points, +1 Fortitude saves), and her AC is now 37 (including +4 from haste). She has 9 rounds of haste left.
• In the battle: mass suggestion, transmute rock to mud, wall of fire (in front of her), globe of invulnerability (around herself), and three summon monster V spells cast before the battle began, summoning three fiendish dire boars now vigilant beside her. One will disappear in 8 rounds, one in 7, and one in 6. She also used her graven image to create a gray render to serve her for about five more minutes.
  

The Umbral Taint has created a conditional spell ready to be triggered so that if Tyrestina is subdued or incapacitated in any way, a summon monster III spell conjures a fiendish constrictor snake (for visual effect, the snake slithers out of her open mouth) that wraps around her to use coup de grace and finish her off before she can reveal any information. However, as GM, if the PCs try to stop the serpent, don't work too hard to prevent them from questioning Tyrestina. She won't willingly give any information, but vague mentions of the Demon God's Fane at this point only serve to further the plot and entice the players, so it's okay.

Fiendish Dire Boars (improved with Conjure Mastery) (3): hp 56, 60, 64, AC 16, +13 bite (1d8+13), DR 5/+1, SR 14, smite good (+14 damage) once, continues to fight to -10 hp, cold and fire resistance 10. See Core Rulebook III, p. 57.

Gray Render: hp 125, AC 19, +12 bite (2d6+6), +7 claws (1d6+3), 10-ft. reach, improved grab, rend (3d6+9). See Core Rulebook III, p. 112.

Running the Battle

Even though there are other graven ones about, you can effectively choose to ignore them, assuming they are helping others out of the mud, attempting (and failing) to dispel Tyrestina's spells, etc. Alternatively, they can take actions and cast spells that deal with her summoned creatures when they get the chance. It is not, however, worth the time to create stats for all of them the PCs are in the best position to take on Tyrestina, and they should be her focus.

Illustration by Unseelie Court