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Summary:
The PCs are harrassed by a lilitu demon and her lover.
Assumptions:
The PCs have taken part in the scenerio "Days of Future Past"
Location:
Aladur
Historical Date:
705 A.C. Spring
DM's Introduction:
This scenario is a "continuation" scenario of a previous one. As such, it postulates a set of very specific events: mainly that the lilitu demon and ghast lover in the haunted caverns survived and that the PCs have begun to establish a stronghold in the ruins of the Tri-Claw Fortress. If such events did not occur in the DM's world, then he will have difficulty using this short scenario whole-cloth, although parts of it can be lifted and used or adapted for other situations.
In the Days of Future Past the PCs encountered a lilitu demoness and her ghast sorcerer lover. The lilitu and the ghast escaped the death of the phaerimm Wind of Blood and fled far to the north, where they made a lair. The lilitu had an extensive network of slaves and dupes in Aladur amongst the killoren, and she seeks revenge against the PCs for defeating her master and driving her away.
However, a lilitu demon represents the apex of infiltration and subtle influence and so she carefully noted the powers and capabilities of the PCs and knew that the PCs were formidable foes to be respected. Nevertheless, her pride has been wounded and her hatred of the PCs has grown over the couple of years since she was driven forth, and now she seeks to make her first strike at the PCs.
This scenario is designed to have a recurring villian harrass the PCs. As such, she is designed to be very difficult to bring to ground. That said, sooner or later the PCs should resign themselves to bring her to heel, and if they are smart and capable they just might do so.
Part One - The Lilitu's Set-up
The lilitu's lair and her statistics and those of her lover and minions are presented first, to allow the DM to properly run the rest of the encounters. Note that between 2-4 years will have passed since the PCs encountered her. As such, just as the PCs have gained levels during the interim, so too have the lilitu and ghast sorcerer. She has gained 4 levels of cleric, worshipping a powerful demonic entity she has contacted in the netherworld (a risky move given the vulnerable state of her body, but necessary, she deems, in order to have a chance to defeat the PCs). The ghast has gained 2 levels and has exchanged his illusory wall spell for a dimensional anchor spell.
The lilitu has also crafted a spell component focus for her nondetection spell. This item will have taken the better part of the first year to have crafted, at considerable cost to herself. But it will allow her to use her nonedetection spell voluminously, in furtherance of her plans.
Statistics:
The statistics for the lilitu and ghast sorcerer are presented here.
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FEATS: Dark Speech (FCHotA p85) - 4 uses: dread - you take 1d4 Cha damage, all in 30 ft radius must make DC 22 Will save or: non-evil lvl 1-4 = shaken 1d10 rds and flee until out of sight evil lvl 1-4 = cower in fear 1d10 rds non-evil 5-10 = shaken 1d0 rds evil 5-10 = charmed as charm monster for 1d10 rds non-evil 11+ = filled with loathing for you but unaffected evil 11+ = you gain +2 competence bonus on attempts to change target's attitude in future power - you take 1d4 Cha damage, +1 CL to spell with verbal comp or evil magic item creation corruption - full-round to reduce hardness of object by 1/2 dark unity - you take 1d4 Con damage, give swarm with Int 2 or less one command as suggestion spell (CL 14) SPELLS: crawling darkness (SC p55) - r personal, 1 min/lvl; concealment and hide features, +4 competence bonbus on grapple, Climb, Escape Artist, tentacles strike melee attacker for 1d12 dmg at att bonus of BAB + Wis bonus. dampen magic (CC p118) - r touch, 1 creature, 1 rd/lvl or discharge, SR; -1 enhancement bonus on any weapon used against subject (plus -1 per 6 lvls above 7th with max of 19th lvl), if bonus fully negated weapon still masterwork, -1 to CL and save DC vs any spell, spell-like or supernatural ability affecting subject (increasing as above), lower or raise field as move action, discharge into antimagic field in 5 ft radius for 1 rd per 5 rds duration left on spell (must have at least 5 rds to activate). demoncall (FCHotA p92) - swift, r pers; +10 profane bonus on Knowledge (arcana or planes or religion) check in the same turn as spell is cast. demonflesh (FCHotA p92) - r pers, 1 min / lvl; +1 enchancement to natural armour per 5 CL (min +1, max +4). fiendish quickening (BoVD p95) - 1 full round, r personal, 1 rd/lvl; caster's teleport or greater teleport ability is quickened. heartache (BoVD p97) - r close, 1 creature, sv W neg, SR; subject helpless for 1 round. insight of good fortune (PHB2 p115) - r close, 1 creature, 1 min/lvl or discharge, SR; once during duration roll twice for attack, skill, save, or ability check and take better result. wretched blight (BoVD p110) - r med, 20 ft spread, sv F part, SR; good creatures suffer 1d8 dmg/CL (max 15d8) and stunned for 1d4 rds Fort sv for 1/2 dmg and no stun, neutral creatures suffer half dmg or 1/4 with save. |
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SPELL COMPONENT FOCUS Price (Item Level): 200 x caster level x spell level
plus 500 uses of material component A spell component focus is a means of turning a costly material component for a spell into a focus that can be used over and over again. The cost of creating such an item makes it prohibitive to use except in a case where costly spells are cast frequently. The caster must still cast the spell in question. This item simply takes the place of the material component. The focus looks like a small representation of the component itself. For example, a spell focus component for a nondetection spell would look like a crystal shaped like a diamond. Each spell component focus works for a specific spell. Creating a spell focus component requires 500 uses of the material component. In addition, the cost to create is equal to caster level x spell level x 100 gp. Spell focus components do not last forever. For every 500 uses of the device, there is a 5% cumulative chance that the item shatters and the energies contained within dissipate, rending it useless. To use a spell component focus, the caster must hold the item in his hand while casting the spell. The activation of the item is considered to be a part of casting the spell, just like using a material component. Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, the spell in question, Spellcraft 15. Cost to Create: 500 uses plus CL x spell level x 100 gp, XP = price divided by 25, time = price divided by 1000 times 7 days. |
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FEATS: Magic Disruption (CM p44) - as long as abjuration spell 3rd+ lvl available can as immed action disrupt spell cast within 30 ft and caster must make Concentration check (DC 15 + abjuration spell held) or -2 to save DC and CL of spell being cast, +1 CL to abjuration spells SPELLS: acid storm (SC p7) - r med, 20 ft cylinder, Ref 1/2; 1d6 acid dmg (max 15d6). choke (TaB p86) - r cl, 1 creature up to size Large, 1 rd / lvl, Ref 1/2, SR; aberrations, animals, fey, giants, humanoids, magical beasts, monstrous humanoids, outsiders with necks can be affected, target takes 1d4 damage per round and Ref save each round, all attacks and checks while choked are at -2 (-4 if speaking involved), spellcasting requires Concentration check (DC 10 + spell lvl + 1/2 damage) and the -2 and -4 penalty applies to this as well. corrosive grasp (SC p53) - r touch; touch attack causes 1d8 acid damage; may use this attack 1 / lvl and may be used with unarmed strike or natural weapon or while dealing grapple damage. death armour (SC p60) - r pers, 1 rd / lvl; any creature striking you with body or handheld weapon takes 1d4 damage +1 per 2 CL (max +10). SR applies to this damage. Reach weapons do not endanger their wielders. negative energy ray (TaB p93) - r cl, sv W 1/2, SR; ranged touch deals 1d6 negative energy plus 1d6 per 2 lvls above 1st (max 5d6 total); ray heals undead. orb of force (SC p151) - r med; ranged touch attack deals 1d6 damage per lvl (max 10d6). spirit worm (SC p202) - r touch, living creature touched, 1 rd / lvl up to 5 rds, Fort neg, SR; targets takes 1 Con damage per round, victim saves each round to end spell. unnerving gaze (BoVD p108) - r cl, 1 creature, 1 rd / lvl, sv W neg, SR; -1 penalty on attacks. |
The Lair:
The lair has been made some 750 miles to the north of Aladur. This is far enough that the lilitu feels safe from the PCs and remote from other parts of civilization including the Scaled Ones. With her greater teleport at will, she can still come and go to Aladur as she desires.
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1. The PCs Stronghold
This is where the PCs have made their stronghold. Refer to The Fortress of Eixtenizti for more information.
2. The Lilitu's Lair
The lair is located in a small system of caves nestled in the crook of some steep hills in the highlands above the Rainbow River valley. The river, a small thin ribbon of silver in the sunlight, is visible in the distance. The lair is about 750 ft in elevation and the approaches are screened by tall boulders and scrub, such that the cave entrance is not visible from any distance at all, even from the air. The ghast does not leave the lair, and the lilitu teleports, so there are no tracks or other indications of occupancy nearby.
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The cave lair is a set of naturally formed caverns that do not run too deep into the hillside. Unless otherwise stated, all floors are natural stone floors and walls are unworked stone (per 5 ft, hardness 8, 900 hp, break DC 65, Climb DC 15). No places are lit unless noted in the description. The caves are only very slightly damp, and the ceiling is between 10-12 ft overhead. Dotted lines show natural steps or small shelves between 1-2 ft high. The jagged line between areas A and B shows where the cave ceiling begins.
Purple lines show where the screen spell set by the lilitu shows cave walls instead of passages.
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Natural Stone Floor The floor of a natural cave is as uneven as the walls. Caves rarely have flat surfaces of any great size. Rather, their floors have many levels. Some adjacent floor surfaces might vary in elevation by only a foot, so that moving from one to the other is no more difficult than negotiating a stair step, but in other places the floor might suddenly drop off or rise up several feet or more, requiring Climb checks to get from one surface to the other. Unless a path has been worn and well marked in the floor of a natural cave, it takes 2 squares of movement to enter a square with a natural stone floor, and the DC of Balance and Tumble checks increases by 5. Running and charging are impossible, except along paths. |
Magic:
The entire complex is covered by two spells that are cast with 24 hour durations.
The first is a mage's private sanctum spell cast by the ghast sorcerer (CL 12).
The second is a screen spell cast by the lilitu demoness (CL 13).
The mage's private sanctum provides proof against scrying spells and blocks sight and sound within from without. The effect covers the entirety of the caverns out to area B where the cave roof begins. Here it manifests as a dark, foggy mass. Similarly, should the PCs somehow tunnel or be able to see through stone, looking into the caverns from any other vantage reveals only a dark, foggy mass. While the presence of this magic might seem to belie the abandoned state of the caves as presented with the screen spell, the mage's private sanctum spell can be cast with permanency on it, so the presence of the spell would not, per se, ruin the illusion. However, should the PCs observe the mage's private sanctum effect at midnight, when the ghast sorcerer recasts the spell, they may notice the slightest flicker in its effect as the spell is recast. This would require a DC 20 Spot check and a DC 25 Spellcraft check by the same person to realize it was just recast.
The screen spell might seem redundant given its ability to fool scrying, but the lilitu is aware that the PCs may be able to teleport or greater teleport into the area and so does not wish them to scry on the area, see a false vision, and elect to teleport in anyways. Instead, the lilitu uses the screen spell in case someone should actually enter the caves. The spell will make them seem like something different.
Because of the screen spell, most locations have two different descriptions...one as viewed under the effects of the screen and one as it actually is. The lilitu has been careful to make the screen match the actual location as much as possible in order to better fool intruders. So basically the screened caves will appear to be abandoned, with a lovely little note from the lilitu indicating that whomever has arrived in her compound has come too late to catch her! DMs should be careful about mapping the caverns on a battle mat in front of the PCs until they have familiarized themselves with the changes in the layout made by the screen spell, since some chambers and entrances are hidden by the illusion.
The screen spell, it should be noted, includes olfactory and thermal components (while this is not specifically stated in the spell descrption it is highly implied and necessary to make the spell useful). This allows the ghasts to be hidden by the spell.
The screen spell effectively covers tracks and other signs of habitation, such that anyone with the Track feat will not be able to determine any activity unless he can pierce the illusion.
It should be noted that all of the denizens of the caves, including the lilitu and the ghast sorcerer, are hidden by the screen spell. They are not invisible, so see invisibility or any other means to see invisible creatures will not reveal the hidden denizens...even should they attack! Of course, such attacks will prompt a disbelief Will saving throw each round that such an interaction occurs and magic that can pierce illusions will reveal the hidden creatures. The denizens are also, of course, aware of the effects of the screen spell and so automatically have disbelieved it and are therefore unaffected by it.
A. Approach
| A sloping hillside leads up to a cave entrance nestled between the crook of two large hills. The entrance is about 25 ft wide and 10 ft tall and the top is covered with overhanging ivy and moss. Covering the cave entrance is a wall of dark, foggy mist that is thick enough that it cannot be seen through. |
B. Entrance (EL 0 or 7)
Screen Description:
| This cave narrows to the west and descends down a few jagged natural stone steps. The walls of the place are covered in cobwebs of the normal variety and a thick layer of dust coats the floor. The air is musty with disuse. |
Actual Description:
| This cave narrows to the west and descends down a few jagged natural stone steps. Along the south wall where it begins to descend towards the passage to the west is a painting of a serpent-bodied female with six arms. Between her breasts is a blood red rune. |
The painting is of a maralith (Knowledge [planes] DC 10 to identify), and the rune is a magical symbol (see Traps below).
Traps: The lilitu has scribed a symbol of persuasion on the southern wall of the place, where the first stone step meets the wall. The symbol will only activate if a creature sees it, and so the screen spell initially will cover the symbol. Only if the illusion is dispelled, pierced, or disbelieved will a creature be subject to the symbol. The symbol is attuned to all of the current denizens of the caves.
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Symbol of Persuasion CR 7*; spell; spell trigger; no reset; spell effect (symbol of persuasion, 14th-level cleric, charm monster for 14 hours, DC 26 Will save neg); multiple targets (all targets within 60 ft.); Search DC 31; Disable Device DC 31. * This item is a spell-like ability of the lilitu and is therefore already included in her CR |
C. Main Cavern
Screen Description:
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This larger cavern is 15 ft high and several natural stone columns support the ceiling. There are cobwebs along the walls and ceiling and the floor is coated in dust. A steady drip drip drip of water from the ceiling puddles into some tiny pools of water in the floor in the center of the cavern. Several rusted iron sconces are set into the cave walls, but they are covered in cobwebs and there are not even the stubs of torches left within. A wide tunnel ascends to the east and south while another travels level to the west. |
Actual Description:
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This larger cavern is 15 ft high and several natural stone columns support the ceiling. Several iron sconces are set into the cave walls, and each bears an unlit oil lamp filled with oil. A wide tunnel ascends to the east and south while another travels level to the west. A further tunnel heads west from the southern part of the cavern. |
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D. Upper Cave (EL 14)
Screen Description:
| A pair of stone steps rises up to the cavern that is supported by a single natural fluted stone column. The column itself bears a faded carving of a skull and spine, which is only barely visible amongst the dust and cobwebs that cover the column and line the walls and floor. Mouldering and dust-coated bones, including skulls, lie on the floor, yellowed with age. |
Actual Description:
| A pair of stone steps rises up to the cavern that is supported by a single natural fluted stone column. The column itself bears a carving of a skull and spine, and 2 large ambers are set into the skull's eyes. Bones and skulls litter the floor, many with gibbets of meat still on them and gnaw marks scoring their surfaces. |
Creatures: A coven of ghasts dwells in the chamber, having been created by the lilitu using a create undead spell from the bodies of abducted killoren. The ghasts are free-willed, but content to stay here due to the victims the lilitu brings back to feed to them and give them some sport.
The ghasts are aware of the screen spell and are under orders to allow intruders to wander around until such time as the lilitu or ghast sorcerer gives orders to attack or until the ghasts are attacked or the intruders obviously become aware of the illusion. As such they will tend to remain pressed up against the walls if they are aware of the intrusion and will try to maneuver out of the way of anyone approaching their locations. Should the ghasts be caught unaware, they will be spread all over the cave eating and arguing, all still hidden by the screen spell.
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Tactics: The ghasts will try to swarm a victim, gaining flank attacks and attempting to overwhelm him before moving onto the next one. They are fearless attackers, but can be driven off with determined resistance, as they are not compelled to remain in the service of the lilitu and ghast sorcerer, but simply do so out of expediency and the promise of fresh kills and eventual treasure and power. Should the illusion be pierced and more than half their number fall, the rest will flee unless in the presence of the demoness or sorcerer or unless it appears they have a decent chance of winning the combat (i.e. several PCs are paralyzed or defeated already).
Treasure: Hidden in little piles around the room are small caches belonging to the ghasts. There are 12 such caches, stuffed into some of the many nooks and crannies that are always present on the floor of a natural stone cavern. Assume a DC 22 Search check will uncover each cache. Each cache will contain 1d8 gems worth 1d10x10 gp each, along with a piece of ivory or amber jewelry worth 1d3x100 gp.
The two amber eyes of the skull carving on the stone columns are each worth 65 gp.
E. "Final" Cave (EL 12)
Screen Description:
| This cavern has only one entrance, to the southeast. Natural stone steps lead down to a cavern supported by a single natural stone column encrusted with quartz formations. Cobwebs line the walls and the floor is dusty from disuse. To the far north of the cave is some sort of painting or perhaps even runes or writing in rust red but the cobwebs and shadows obscure it enough that it cannot be discerned from a distance. |
| This cavern has two entrances, one to the southeast and another to the west. Natural stone steps lead down from the southeast to a cavern supported by a single natural stone column encrusted with quartz formations. Bound to the stone column by stout cords is a killoren female. To the far north of the cave is some writing in rust red. |
Because of this suggestion (which is reasonable enough to give a -2 save penalty), the moment the hidden and bound killoren child sees the PCs she will begin to scream for help. However, as she is hidden by the screen spell, unless the PCs have pierced the illusion, her screams will not be heard (by the PCs...they will be heard by the lilitu and ghast sorcerer).
The writing is in dried blood in Sazhan and while under the effects of the screen spell cannot be read from a distance of more than 15 ft away. The writing reads:
So glad you took the time to visit...but alas, you are far too late to catch me. But, so as to give your efforts some relevance, I leave my gift to you...enjoy! (symbol)
The symbol at the end of the message is another symbol of persuasion (see Traps below).
Presumably, in the 3 rounds the bar-lguras (see below) are activating their preparatory spell-like abilities and teleporting in, the PCs will have read the message in blood on the wall, such that the arrival of the bar-lguras will seem to have been triggered by their reading of the message.
Creatures: When the ghast sorcerer is aware that there are intruders in this area, usually by means of the screaming killoren child here, he will order his bound bar-lgura demons first to summon forth more bar-lguras, any of which will remain to guard the sorcerer. The original bar-lguras will then use invisibility and then greater teleport into the chamber while under the effects of their invisibility spell and to attack the intruders. The bar-lguras will enter the chamber in a circle against the walls, with a pair each blocking both exits. They will then move to attack.
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Tactics: The bar-lguras will always have see invisibility active. When attacking, they will seek to grab a foe and use their abduction ability. How they use their abduction ability depends upon whether the demoness and sorcerer know that the PCs have pierced the screen spell or not.
If they believe that the screen spell is still working against the PCs, who believe that they have entered an abandoned cave, then the bar-lguras will be instructed to abduct PCs to a trio of hidden dells in the hills to the north and northwest of these caves. Each dell is 1d3 miles away, and if an abduction to a dell occurs, a second bar-lgura will accompany the abductee, having been alerted via telepathy to which specific dell the abductor is travelling. There, the pair of bar-lguras will attempt to slay the abductee before returning to the fray. At worst, even if the pair of bar-lguras is defeated, the abductee will now be a mile or more away and possibly have no idea where he is or how far he might be from the caves!
On the other hand, if the jig is up and the demoness and sorcerer believe that the PCs have penetrated the ruse that the caves are empty and abandoned, then the bar-lguras will adopt a wholly different adbuction strategy. The first two victims abducted will be brought to area G, where the lilitu, her undead, the sorcerer, and any bar-lguras successfully summoned by the original bar-lguras will be waiting to deal with the abductees. After two abductees have been brought to area G, no further will be taken there, as the lilitu and sorcerer do not wish for too many foes to be brought to them at one time.
Any additional abductee will first be taken to area D to be dealt with by the ghasts if they are still alive. In this case, the bar-lgura will just drop the victim off and return to the fray, leaving the ghasts to swarm him. If the ghasts have already been defeated or are not present, then the victim will be taken to one of the hidden dells (see below).
Any abductees beyond the first three will be taken to the hidden dells as previously mentioned, and a pair of bar-lguras will attempt to slay them before returning to the fray.
Traps: This symbol is not hidden by the screen spell and will be activated upon reading or viewing it (generally by reading the message). The symbol is attuned to all of the current denizens of the caves.
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Symbol of Persuasion CR 7*; spell; spell trigger; no reset; spell effect (symbol of persuasion, 14th-level cleric, charm monster for 14 hours, DC 26 Will save neg); multiple targets (all targets within 60 ft.); Search DC 31; Disable Device DC 31. * This item is a spell-like ability of the lilitu and is therefore already included in her CR |
F. Private Chambers
Screen Description:
This cave is not subject to the screen spell, as the lilitu feels that anyone who makes it this far has already penetrated the illusion of abandonment of the caves and so there is no reason to obscure or muddle her own living quarters.
Actual Description:
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This cave has a smoother floor than much of the rest of the complex. To the east is a pile of plush furs and flayed tan and green skins forming a large bed. Stone barziers carved into the floor flank the bedding and emit a ruddy glow and wisps of incense. In the center of the place is a wooden table and two wooden chairs resting upon a large splayed fur rug of dark grey. Set upon the table are plates that each hold the half broken heads of humanoids, and a silver spoon rests insise each brain cavity. Two silver goblets and a bottle of wine are next to the plates. To the west are three large stone chests with carvings on their faces. |
The table and chairs are those crafted by the killoren which have been ripped out of their living roots and set here as normal dead wood. In other words, PCs familiar with killoren furnishings will recognize the table and chairs as seeming to be of the killoren style of using living roots and wood and shaping them into useful shapes, but in this case it is as if a living table and chairs were ripped away from their living tree and set here. The ceramics are also painted with scenes of nature and are of killoren origin.
The tan and green skins in the bedding are of flayed killoren, and the two heads on the plates are also killoren heads.
The chests have the carved likeness of a lilitu on their face. This carving is sufficient to cause anyone charmed by the symbol of persuasion (see below) to realize that these chests are the property of the lilitu and to leave them alone (and to insist that others leave them alone as well).
Traps: In addition to the chests being trapped (see below), the braziers are burning siren's breath, which will affect anyone in the room that is susceptible to poison (meaning the lilitu and ghast are not affected).
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Siren's Breath Inhaled, Fort DC 18, -5 penalty to Sense Motive and Will saves/-5 penalty to Sense Motive and Will saves. |
The lilitu has cast a symbol of persuasion on the wall behind the chests. The symbol faces east, and is activated when any sapient (Int 3+) living nonoutsider reads it.
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Symbol of Persuasion CR 7*; spell; spell trigger; no reset; spell effect (symbol of persuasion, 14th-level cleric, charm monster for 14 hours, DC 26 Will save neg); multiple targets (all targets within 60 ft.); Search DC 31; Disable Device DC 31. * This item is a spell-like ability of the lilitu and is therefore already included in her CR |
Furthermore, each chest has a glyph of warding and a profane item spell cast upon it.
The profane item (Complete Champion page 126) is not technically a trap and cannot be searched for or disarmed. It will cause any animal, plant, good outsider or good shapechanger to discharge it causing 10d4 points of negative energy damage. If the toucher is an animal or plant it must save vs fear (Will DC 24) or flee in terror (or cower if unable to ) for 1d4 minutes. A successful save means the creature is shaken instead. If the toucher is a shapechanger, an image of its true form or most common natural form will be sumperimposed for 1d4 rounds, revealing its nature.
Chest #1:
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Glyph of Warding (Blast) CR 5; spell; spell trigger; no reset; spell effect (glyph of warding [blast], 10th-level cleric, 5d8 electricity, DC 23 Reflex save half damage); multiple targets (all targets within 5 ft.); Search DC 28; Disable Device DC 28. |
Chest #2:
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Glyph of Warding (Spell) CR 3; spell; spell trigger; no reset; spell effect (summon monster III, 9th-level cleric); Search DC 28; Disable Device DC 28. |
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Chest #3:
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Glyph of Warding (Spell) CR 4; spell; spell trigger; no reset; spell effect (unholy storm [Spell Compendium page 227], 9th-level cleric, 2d6 damage per round for 9 rounds [4d6 to good outsiders], -4 to Listen, Search, Spot, and ranged attacks, extinguish unprotected flames, 50% chance to extinguish protected flames); multiple targets (all within 20 ft radius cylinder); Search DC 28; Disable Device DC 28. |
Treasure: The chests are not locked.
Chest #1 contains 16 vials of unholy water, furs and pelts worth 500 gp, a divine scroll of longstrider (CL 2), a divine scroll of speak with plants (CL 4), a divine scroll of remove disease (CL 5), 250 gp worth of silver dust (about 50 lbs.), 3000 gp worth of diamond dust, and 2500 gp worth of onyx (about 1 lb).
Chest #2 contains a bejewelled lyre made of bone and inlaid with ivory (masterwork instrument worth 1500 gp), a suit of masterwork leather armour, and a masterwork small wooden shield.
Chest #3 contains 600 gp and 500 sp of blank mint, a leather pouch with 5 pearls (worth 200 gp each), 2000 gp worth of herbs and incense suitable for an unhallow spell, and a set of 10 tuning forks wrapped in cloth (these are components for plane shift and are set to the lilitu's home demiplane, this region of the Prime Material, and to 8 other planar locations of the DM's choice; at least one of them leads to a planar touchstone).
G. Summoning Chamber
Note: DMs should note that a magic circle against good effect radiates 40 ft from the altar in the cavern, and so summoned creatures not of evil subtype cannot enter the cavern proper.
Screen Description:
This cave is not subject
to the screen spell, as the lilitu feels that anyone who
makes it this far has already penetrated the illusion of abandonment
of the caves and so there is no reason to obscure or muddle her
own living quarters.
Actual Description:
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This cave has a smoother floor than much of the rest of the complex. Set in the center of this cavern is a large black block of polished ebony, 10 ft long, 5 ft wide and about 3 ft tall. The structure is decorated with intricate carvings of writhing worms and distorted skulls. Flanking the structure, to the north and south, are two 10 ft diameter circles of metal that have been inlaid into a flat part of the cavern floor. The circles form a complicated diagram likely of magical purpose, and the metal that comprises the inlay seems to flow along the diagrams as if it were liquid metal of some sort. Along the west wall are are about a dozen clay pots, flanking a couple of low wooden tables the tops of which are covered in dried blood and crusty gibbets of unknown material. An iron rack of wickedly shaped knives is set into the cavern wall above the tables. Along the east wall are a trio of iron manacles set into the cave wall and a flat portion that contains complicated diagrams, symbols, and runes in what could be both dried blood and chalk. |
Also set upon the altar is a glyph of warding (see Traps below).
The circles flanking the altar are inward-focused magic circles against evil (CL 12) spell bolstered by a special diagram, used by the ghast sorcerer to cast his lesser planar binding spells. The spell has no effect other than as a binding diagram and will not provide benefits to those within its confines.
The clay pots contain grave earth and brackish water (components for the create undead spell).
The manacles are masterwork and are opened by the key on the ghast sorcerer.
The scrawlings upon the wall are arcane formulae by the ghast sorcerer. A DC 28 Knowledge (arcana) check will reveal them as research by a sorcerer into various metamagic feats.
Traps: The altar has a glyph of warding cast by the lilitu. While technically a trap, the glyph can be activated by a ghast as well, allowing the ghast sorcerer to use it to bolster undead. The glyph is programmed to activate whenever the altar is approached by a living creature within 10 ft or when it is touched.
| Glyph of Warding Trap CR 3; spell; spell trigger; no reset; spell effect (widened glyph of warding [desecrate], 13th-level cleric, desecrate effects); multiple targets (all targets within 40 ft.); Search DC 28; Disable Device DC 28 |
Part Two - The First Strike
The Camp Spy:
The lilitu demon will have taken an interest in the PCs during the several years since she encountered them in the haunted caves. She will spend the first few months asking her various contacts in and around Aladur about the PCs, and assuming that the PCs have taken part in the scenarios entitled "The Beasts Within" and "A Refuge from Reason", the killoren will be able to tell her much about the PCs and their prowess. She will also learn of their intention to set up a stronghold in Aladur and to eventually make war on the Scaled Ones.
Once so armed with this knowledge, she will then make her way very surreptitiously to the stronghold and spy for a time, just getting a lay of the land and seeing who is at the stronghold site and the patterns and comings and goings of the PCs.
At some point, she will attempt to make contact with someone at the stronghold. This will never be with a PC or a cohort. She is wise enough to know that such an attempt it far too risky. Instead, she will make contact with a low level male worker, such as any who might be building or improving the stronghold. The contact will be made under the guise of another worker, a female, who will feign love of the worker. After their lovemaking session, which occurs nightly, the lilitu will bestow the lilitu's gift upon the worker while he sleeps. She will also cast an extended nondetection on the worker, using her spell component focus as her material component.
She will also implant 3 suggestions into the worker. The first is that should the PCs leave the stronghold, whether in part or en masse, that the worker should think this fact to himself and to the voice inside his head. The second is that the worker should resist leaving the stronghold and being returned to Azotchtlan Lands. Instead the worker really wants to remain at the stronghold for as long as possible. The third is that she needs to keep their love a strict secret to the rest of the workers and the PCs, for she is a married woman who has fled her abusive husband, but she is worried that if anyone found out about their trysts they would not understand her situation or that word would get back to her husband in Azotchtla, a powerful priest and jealous man.
These suggestions are all renewed twice a day since they last 14 hours each. To renew the suggestions, the lilitu uses greater teleport to arrive at a nearby location out of sight of the stronghold. She then changes her form using her disguise self ability and ridiculously high Disguise skill bonus to approach the worker and start up a conversation. She makes sure that the real female coworker whom she is mimicking is never awake or around, usually by casting a suggestion upon her to perform some errand away from where the lilitu will be meeting the worker. Usually, the daytime contact is at noon and simply consists of a brief flirtation with the worker, during which she renews the suggestions. The nighttime visit involves the two stealing away for a lovemaking session or her visiting him in his tent to make love to him. During this lovemaking, she renews the suggestions and the lilitu's gift.
Given the low Will save of the worker and the high DCs of the lilitu's suggestion spells, this will succeed almost all the time, and should a suggestion fail she simply activates another one next round, since she has unlimited uses of the spell-like ability. Once she is done, she leaves and once out of sight teleports back to her lair.
The save DC for the lilitu's gift high enough that the worker can only save against it on a roll of 20. If he should do this, the lilitu is "blind" for a day, but then renews the gift the next night.
When the lilitu's gift is active, the tell-tale tattoo is in the crook between his right thigh and groin.
The lilitu's gift allows the demoness to effectively spy on the stronghold from any distance with very little chance of the PCs suspecting. Unlike a scrying spell, there is no invisible sensor for the PCs to see, and as the gift is a supernatural ability, it does not radiate a magical aura that can be observed by spells such as detect magic or arcane sight. About the only tell-tale sign that would expose the gift is that it radiates chaos, so that a detect chaos spell would show that something was truly amiss, but that would have to pierce the nondetection spell cast on the worker.
With the suggestions in place, every time a PC leaves the stronghold, the lilitu is alerted to the fact by the worker thinking about it to the voice inside of his head. The worker simply believes this voice is his conscience, but he is actually telepathically communicating with the lilitu via the gift. Of course, the suggestion to do so is a bit strange to the coworker. He is not sure why he thinks about it every time he knows one of the PCs is leaving, but he does it anyways.
Furthermore, the lilitu can and often does use her gift to see and hear through the worker's senses. She might even telepathically communicate with the worker as his conscience to tell him to go somewhere or observe something, though these instances are rare and subtly initiated.
The First Strike:
At some point the PCs are going to go on an adventure and leave the stronghold. Since they do not know they are being observed, they will likely not make a secret of this, possibly even alerting the workers and other functionaries of the stronghold that they are leaving for a time. The lilitu's worker will then notify the lilitu telepathically of the PCs' departure. The lilitu will wait a time to make sure they have gone, and then she will strike in some sort of minor fashion, just to test the PCs' defenses and, more importantly, their eventual response. She wants to tease them...and she wants to guage their reaction.
An example of such a first strike might involve half a dozen hirelings of the PCs. The lilitu will appear in the guise of a beautiful woman and use her charm monster ability to lead them out of the PCs' stronghold and north into the wilderness for about 5 miles before murdering them all in a quiet little secluded dell in the hills. Likely someone in the stronghold will have noticed this woman leading these people out of the stronghold, but no one will have thought anything about it until the hirelings go missing and the woman never returns.
By the time the PCs return back to their stronghold no doubt triumphant from one of their adventures, they will be urgently contacted and informed of the missing hirelings and the circumstances of their disappearance. For convenience purposes, the DM can assume that the lilitu struck about a week before the PCs returned (or less time if the PCs' absence was shorter). Should the PCs track or use other means to locate the site of the bodies of the hirelings they will simply see a sight of gore, with dried blood and half eaten bodies (for the local wildlife would have devoured most of the corpses as carrion).
First Response:
The lilitu will almost certainly know when the PCs return and when they have been notified of the disappearances because she will be intently watching via her gift. If the PCs make it known what happened to the hirelings, then she will be on alert for any clues or information as to how the PCs intend to respond and, more importantly, if they can determine who was responsible.
Should the PCs take any overt steps observable by the lilitu's gift to determine what happened, including simply heading out the front gate as a group and tracking north, the lilitu will strike again. She will use her greater teleport while the PCs are away to arrive directly into the stronghold and there she will murder an easy but significant target. This will possibly be a follower of the PCs, even one with a couple of levels. An example might be a low level acolyte of whatever temple or shrine has been set up at the stronghold.
The victim will be slain and left in his house or sanctum and any holy items (like an altar) will be desecrated. The entire scene will be filled with the victim's blood and on a wall will be written in Abyssal:
Do not seek to find me.
After this first response, the lilitu will lay low for some time in the hope that the PCs will become frustrated in their attempts to locate her and her lair.
Tracking the Lilitu:
The lilitu is a difficult quarry to track to her lair. She uses greater teleport to travel, and so distance is no object and there is certainly no physical trail to follow. Her lair is constantly protected by the ghast sorcerer's mage's private sanctum spell, such that any attempt to scry her and teleport into the area being scried will fail utterly.
Divination spells such as divination or commune can possibly provide some vague clues, but the DM should not give any precise directions or even clues that will lead directly to her lair. The lilitu is designed to be very difficult to bring to heel.
Nevertheless, there are means to do it. Some spells can locate her when she is outside of her lair. Circle dance (Spell Compendium page 46) is a great example of this. All the PCs have to do it cast the spell, teleport some distance laterally, and then cast another circle dance. The change in angle between the two circle dance spells can then be calculated to arrive at a fairly precise direction and distance to the lair. A trace teleport psionic power will also be useful if manifested soon enough after the lilitu teleports away.
Unfortunately, circle dance and other divination and clairsentience effects are susceptible to nondetection. This means that in order to use that spell on the lilitu, the PCs must make a caster level check of 29 (11 + the lilitu's caster level + 5 for having the spell cast upon herself). That means such spells are going to fail most of the time and it will take some persistance on the part of the PCs to employ this method.
Further Actions:
After laying low, the lilitu will surely strike again and again. The precise details of further harrassments are up to the DM, but the above should provide an excellent template into her means and abilities. In all cases she will seek to taunt the PCs and to savour their frustrations.
Defeating the Lilitu:
So, what to do?
The DM should realize several things. First, the lilitu is the pinnacle of demonic infiltration, manipulation, cleverness, and nondetection. If succubi are good at all of these things, lilitu's are far and away better at them. As such, defeating a lilitu should be no easy task. If the PCs wish to defeat her, they are going to have to be clever and put some real thought into it. In addition to her many abilities, the lilitu is extremely smart and wise. The DM should reflect this should the PCs become careless in their potential counterstrikes against her.
There is a good chance that the PCs will not be able to track the lilitu. If the first few circle dance spells fail, then the PCs might assume that that spell will not function and will not continue to try it.
At that point, it will perhaps be a better idea to consider their foe and her abilities and work from there.
A very high Knowledge (planes) check can reveal many of her abilities, including the key one of her gift. Assume a DC 35 Knowledge (planes) check that specifically asks about the lilitu's abilities will turn up mention of her gift ability. Once this is known, it can be researched and the details known by the PCs. At that point it shouldn't be too difficult to cast a detect chaos spell or simply examine everyone near the PCs for the tell-tale tattoo. Furthermore, examining the stronghold personnel via magic could also turn up the aura of the suggestion spells on the worker. While the worker will have a nondetection spell running, the PCs need only make a DC 24 caster level check to penetrate the nondetection spell and observe the auras.
Even more fortunately, the PCs could simply decide to send the workers home for fear for their safety. All but one of the workers will gladly leave...the worker with the suggestion spell will be quite insistent upon staying. That could provide a clue that something is amiss, and then as simple a means as using a protection from evil spell on the worker to remove the compulsion of the suggestion spell should be revelatory.
Once the worker is identified, there are various ways to go about getting the lilitu. The best way would be to lure her to the stronghold and then ambush her. Questioning the worker could get results if the questioning leads him to reveal his trysts with the female worker. The PCs could then question her and, possibly using magic, realize that she was not the one who was sleeping with the male worker!
In any event, the best course of action is probably to stake out the male worker and wait for the lilitu to make her twice daily visit. At that point, a dimensional anchor spell will force her to fight.
While the lilitu can observe through the senses of the lilitu's gift, the plain fact of the matter is that she does not do so all the time. She has other business to attend to, including dealing with her various contacts in other parts of Aladur and interacting with her ghast lover. This is part of the reason she put the suggestion spell into the worker to alert her when the PCs leave the stronghold. That way she doesn't have to use his senses all the time.
As a rule of thumb, the DM should assume that there is a 5% chance in any given 10 minute period that the lilitu is watching through the eyes of her gift. This means, on average, she will check in on his senses once every 200 minutes (or about 2 to 2.5 hours). This gives the PCs a decent chance to investigate the worker without it being known by the lilitu.
Should the lilitu realize that the PCs are on to her gift, she will watch through his eyes for the remainder of that day and then deem it too dangerous to return to the stronghold to renew the gift. Attempts to promote a new gift will depend upon what steps the PCs take to prevent or detect any new lilitu's gift recipients.
Clever PCs should be able to come up with other ways to entice or lure the lilitu to the stronghold or some other place where they can get the drop on her. The DM should not make such a ploy impossible, but on the other hand, he should at all times reflect the demoness' intelligence and cleverness and force the PCs to really bend their minds towards solving their lilitu problem.
Experience Points:
In addition to normal experience (which in Therra is half of that recommended in the DMG), each party member should be rewarded as follows: