I Smell a Rat: Rune-Lined Hallway

[sjmdw45]

Originally Posted by WhiteLily

I'm going to be running some DFRPG demos, but this scenario seems to suggest a TPK IMHO.

You've got the ruined-lined hallway (room 5), an almost unavoidable trap with unlimited shots that does 3d6-3, going into a very tough boss battle (room 6), with a nearby chamber of zombies.

I feel a lot of parties just die here.

A cleric with Magic Resistance, like Miriam Suntemple, makes a huuge difference here. A couple of energy points toward the Magic Resistance spell gives a -4 to Evil Runes and a +4 to your own HT rolls, +8 total swing. The last time I ran this adventure I believe someone attempted the hallway, took a bunch of damage, and then pulled back out for healing. Then the party sent in three characters with Magic Resistance and other buffs, fought the peshkali (Grukuk lost an arm), and ignored the zombies/never released them.

Originally Posted by mburr0003

Not as oddly brutal as the later Siege Beast can be, but the Peskali is a mini-boss for a reason.

If your PCs have a super rough time with the Close Combat fights earlier (spiders and rats), maybe consider reducing damage by a d6 for the trap and Peshkali (so 2d-2 for both). And if the Peshkali fight is then going too easily, the demon could always burst the false wall and invite the zeds in to help spice it up.

Nitpick: there's no siege beast in (vanilla) I Smell A Rat.

I like your idea of involving the zombies better than the book's suggestion of multiple peshkalis. I'll maybe try that next time. It's an interesting tactic for a peshkali to try after losing an arm or two.

If you wanted to make the peshkali easy to kill I would suggest removing either its DR or its Supernatural Durability--but IMO the peshkali is the most interesting thing in the (vanilla) adventure so don't!

I also like replacing the Merle-thing at the end with a Merle-Ramex. It' thematic, dramatic, and mechanically interesting: instead of just blasting away at a target until it dies a second later, it feels more like the end of Ghostbusters where they hit Gozer and it's gone... but after a minute or so it comes back. For extra fun make Merle-thing visibly older each time it heals up and reappears. And reread Stephen King's story The Jaunt to get ideas for what kind of mad dialogue to give someone trapped outside of time.