The lair of Igghagh, an epic Dungeon Fantasy encounter

[Kuroshima]

I just finished preparing the next boss encounter for my dungeon fantasy game.

Map of the encounter (warning, large file, is really an SVG file renamed to html, so any modern browser should open it, but I've only tested it with Firefox and Chrome/Chromium)
Writeup of the encounter

Let's give some background: the characters (700+ point dungeon fantasy characters) are in a quest to collect the 12 MacGuffins to open the gate to the Big Bad. They learnt that one of the MacGuffins is in the ruins of the old Sea Elf capital city, that sank a thousand years ago. In order to get there, they obtained items of Transform Body (Sea Elf), and found a guide. The MacGuffin is guarded by a shoggoth-like elder thing the size of a house (15 yards diameter, more or less spherical, SM+7).

[Anthony]

Why does the creature have brawling skill (and lack wrestling)? All of its attacks would use wrestling skill.

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Why does the creature have brawling skill (and lack wrestling)? All of its attacks would use wrestling skill.

It has brawling because I wanted it to have a combat skill to resist feints, and strike with the pseudopod (and gain the damage bonus, but in the end, I used my house rules for ST damage, instead of figuring the damage from striker and brawling for ST 300, but the end result should be the same, splat!).

If you check the numbers, it's grappling with DX plus the size modifier bonus. Also, it won't use any of the fancy wrestling tricks, it's basically a stupid ball of teeth, tentacles and eyes.

[Mateus]

Holy creeps! This beast is awesome! How you expect your player to deal with it? If I read it right, the monster has many attacks that are almost one hit KO.

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by Mateus

Holy creeps! This beast is awesome! How you expect your player to deal with it? If I read it right, the monster has many attacks that are almost one hit KO.

I expect that they will take turns gAzing at it until they all turn immune to the terror, since it won't act until attacked. Then the saint will ask God to negate the injury tolerance (diffuse) so it takes full damage (and they can deal obscene amounts of damage) from attacks. Then they will hit it with range attacks and kite it around, while killing the sea elves to prevent it from healing. They have superior intel (they know that it must be killed with silver weapons), and they know it's death to be caught by it, or grappled by it, because they faced a lesser version earlier (one of it's spawns).

With my group, I've learnt that if I don't design the encounters to be almost assured total party kills, they end up being cakewalks.

[Dammann]

With 700 pt DF characters, I'll bet you do. It took me a long time to appreciate the defensive capability of my group's DF characters, and they are still around 350.

Did they start at 250? 300? How long did it take you to dial in the difficulty?

[TheVaultDweller]

These power levels are so beyond my usual scale that I can barely envision this thing being killed by anything other then "Mage casts a time travel spell to get a fuel-air bomb in the future and we throw it at the thing".


I need to pay a DF game someday to see how this works :)

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by Dammann

With 700 pt DF characters, I'll bet you do. It took me a long time to appreciate the defensive capability of my group's DF characters, and they are still around 350.

Did they start at 250? 300? How long did it take you to dial in the difficulty?

They started at 300/-75/-5 (thus 50 total points, and 20 points in disads over standard DF) so any race was possible, and everyone cuold start with a changing profession lens back in November 2009. As for finding a way to challenge them without going overboard, it's still work in progress, mainly because I prefer to be conservative (really) because the players are invested in their characters. Of course, given that they have a cleric/saint that can resurrect, killing characters is not that much of an issue any more.

Originally Posted by TheVaultDweller

These power levels are so beyond my usual scale that I can barely envision this thing being killed by anything other then "Mage casts a time travel spell to get a fuel-air bomb in the future and we throw it at the thing".

I need to pay a DF game someday to see how this works :)

Anyone who says that GURPS can't handle gonzo-level D&D-ish games is welcome to contact me ;) In fact they feel more epic than actual epic level D&D ever felt.

[PseudoFenton]

Originally Posted by Dammann

It took me a long time to appreciate the defensive capability of my group's DF characters, and they are still around 350.

Well that makes a change, my lot are such glass cannons that they've decided that it should be used as their sigil on their banners.

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

I just finished preparing the next boss encounter for my dungeon fantasy game.

Okay, you say the place sank, and they've changed form into sea elves, and the listed hazards state that the place is water filled. So why does Igghagh have no means of breathing underwater or swimming skill? I assume its just an oversight, because "duh, of cause it wont drown two seconds after the encounter starts" but knowing how its surviving might be important as a means of foiling it.

Otherwise, I'm not sure if the red regions on the map are meant to be the hazards (or if the whole room is affected by those hazards) or if they're meant to be solid rock/drops into deeper caverns etc. It doesn't seem to be indicated in the write up or on the key at all, so I can't work out if due to the size of the Igghagh you can keep range from it and hide behind any "pillars", if they are indeed that. (Its reach is high enough to still be able to get you, but it has no extra sensitivity or flexibility in its limbs, meaning small and fast PCs might be able to successfully hide behind from pseudopods blindly groping about).

What happens if a PC manages to get corrosion damage resistance or immunity but willingly (or otherwise) gets swallowed? Will Igghagh still heal? I'm assuming its the corrosion damage that is linked into its healing, not the crushing injury from being constricted. It's stated as having 15 DR, is any of that tough skin, or is it armoured in thick calcium plating like a starfish? Does that DR extend to its insides at all? (I ask because the "get swallowed and fight your way out from the belly" is a tried and tested adventuring tactic. As is feeding big monsters explosives, I'm sure those suicidal will-less sea elves will be willing to carry some into its maw...)

The dimensional fractures around the edge, which contain hundreds of sea-elves, when those rifts open... are they two way? Can you see in, can you estimate how full they are? What happens if you go in? Can you swim in and just murder them all before they get a chance to leave (and then hopefully skip back out during the next scream). Can a skilled mentalist (or wizard with control gate) keep these fractures closed - or if wished, open to let in a flood of sea-elves to keep Igghagh preoccupied with eating them?

Just musing on a few solutions which are more likely up the avenue of my group... they're big fans of non-conventional solutions to such problems, hence the (potentially) odd queries.

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by PseudoFenton

Well that makes a change, my lot are such glass cannons that they've decided that it should be used as their sigil on their banners.

Fun stuff. I wholeheartedly approve. Of course, I do have two glass cannons and two turtle tanks in the group, so the sigil would be more like turtles with glass cannons on them. Probably laser cannons ;)

Okay, you say the place sank, and they've changed form into sea elves, and the listed hazards state that the place is water filled. So why does Igghagh have no means of breathing underwater or swimming skill? I assume its just an oversight, because "duh, of cause it wont drown two seconds after the encounter starts" but knowing how its surviving might be important as a means of foiling it.

Omission, I translated and cleaned up my notes for posting (and it was a chore, but I wanted to share). It doesn't breathe, it's amphibious, power dodge represents flowing around the attack as a diffuse being (so negating diffuse deprives it of the ability) yadda yadda yadda.

Otherwise, I'm not sure if the red regions on the map are meant to be the hazards (or if the whole room is affected by those hazards) or if they're meant to be solid rock/drops into deeper caverns etc. It doesn't seem to be indicated in the write up or on the key at all, so I can't work out if due to the size of the Igghagh you can keep range from it and hide behind any "pillars", if they are indeed that. (Its reach is high enough to still be able to get you, but it has no extra sensitivity or flexibility in its limbs, meaning small and fast PCs might be able to successfully hide behind from pseudopods blindly groping about).

Those are underwater volcanic vents, anyone passing through them takes 3d burning damage. The players don't care (salamander and serpent amulets protect them from the hazards) but if they force Igghagh to move over them (Igghagh will move over them if it means he gets to grab a tasty morsel), it will take damage, and they can use them for cover too. The whole room is subject to the hazards. The characters are protected, and so is the boss, but I keep the hazards so they realize that the cash spent on the protection was worth it.

What happens if a PC manages to get corrosion damage resistance or immunity but willingly (or otherwise) gets swallowed? Will Igghagh still heal? I'm assuming its the corrosion damage that is linked into its healing, not the crushing injury from being constricted. It's stated as having 15 DR, is any of that tough skin, or is it armoured in thick calcium plating like a starfish? Does that DR extend to its insides at all? (I ask because the "get swallowed and fight your way out from the belly" is a tried and tested adventuring tactic. As is feeding big monsters explosives, I'm sure those suicidal will-less sea elves will be willing to carry some into its maw...)

Indeed, only corrosion heals. The DR is external, though the creature is more akin to sergeant Schlock from the Schlock Mercenary webcomic, in that it's made of semi-independent interchangeable motile "cells", it has a coat of debriss that serves as armor. It has chinks too (since it's all torso, they're targeted at -7). Getting explosive inside will be very effective, as they will work as internal explosions (and yeah, it means that if the scout/mystic knight/wizard fires a shockwave arrow inside of Igghagh when it swallows something, the swallowed thing will take double damage (explosions in confined spaces) while Igghagh will take triple damage (internal explosions). Useful for dealing with ingested sea elves, as not only it will reduce the amount Igghagh can heal from eating them, but it will also deal a lot of damage.

Speaking of explosions, since the adventure is underwater, I've ruled that underwater explosions get an extra level (or two, if the explosion happens within a yard of a wall) of Explosive for free (so the damage falls much slower). I don't care if it passes the reality test, but I like the rule, and it passes the fridge logic test at least.

The dimensional fractures around the edge, which contain hundreds of sea-elves, when those rifts open... are they two way? Can you see in, can you estimate how full they are? What happens if you go in? Can you swim in and just murder them all before they get a chance to leave (and then hopefully skip back out during the next scream). Can a skilled mentalist (or wizard with control gate) keep these fractures closed - or if wished, open to let in a flood of sea-elves to keep Igghagh preoccupied with eating them?

It's possible to enter if you take a wait maneuver and don't fall victim to the stun. The infected sea elves can be killed easily (they won't defend themselves, or even move away) once inside. A wizard with gate magic, a mentalist or a cleric/saint of the elder gods will be able to control them too. Leaving them open will cause a tasty sea elf to wander out each turn, but that might end up being counterproductive as it will mean that Igghagh will grow much bigger. If it comes to it, I'll roll 6d×10 for the number of sea elves. A much better strategy might be to seal them, either with control gate or with shape earth, to restrict Igghagh from healing.

Just musing on a few solutions which are more likely up the avenue of my group... they're big fans of non-conventional solutions to such problems, hence the (potentially) odd queries.

I'm not complaining, though my players might ;) It helps me be better prepared for playing this on the table and not get blindsided by my crafty players.