The 3.5 Red Hand Of Doom Handbook for DMs [Major spoilers!] - WIP, PEACH!

[Talesin]

Bear in mind she doesn't have to be a combat encounter until later on - you could just use the "my heroes" gambit to get her into the party and thus into Brindol from there. Suppose she gets to go along with the party as an allied NPC and makes it all the way into the Audience with the Lords, only then pulling out an assassination attempt on Lord Jarmaath himself? Could turn it into something a bit more exciting than the standard thing. The handbook might well want some better suggestions on Miha Serani, she has a lot of potential...

Had a bit of a mismatched session last night so I skipped Miha as they took a long time fighting Ulwai and the session would have overran. I've set her up as a rescue encounter now though, saying that she's been 'working' for Brindol and hasn't reported back for a few days with her regular messages. I'm going to get the PCs to ship out on a rescue mission and then run the marked for death encounter.

If the PCs just paste the encounter up the wall i'll let them save her and bring her back to Brindol, where she'll try and attack Jarmaath at some point. Could make a fun chase through the city if I assume the assassination attempt failed and then run something similar to the rooftop chase from Curse of the Crimson Throne (Pathfinder AP). The party has no natural ability to fly and if they use their potions of fly attempting to chase her down then it depletes their resources a little. This would also allow them to gain Jarmaath's favour and grab a few pluses to the diplomacy roles during the Brindol planning stage.

If they're struggling or getting bogged down a little I might break her out of her "oh no help me" into her Aranae form, declaring that this was all a ruse to attempt to take out Brindol's champions.

In terms of the Ulwai encounter I didn't have the fog cloud in the room to start with because I had upped the Monks and Clerics in order to make it a little more challenging of an encounter:

Characters Present:
Ranger 7, archer build with a Cat Animal Companion
Fighter 7, full damage 2h Flail build
Rogue 7,
Cleric 7, Mainly heals in encounters and is oddly afraid to use his high level spells. Preferring to bless in most combats.

(I am still trying to 'teach' my PCs a bit about the game as they are all new and they haven't really fought smart groups of enemies yet hence the Fire/Healing domain. I wanted to include some strong AOE to try and force themselves to spread a little bit but also provide a strong healer to stop them just focusing the front line fighters who get healed over and over.)

Spoiler: Doomfist Monk

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DOOM FIST MONK
Hobgoblin Monk 5
LE Medium humanoid (goblinoid)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +2 Immunity Disease
DEFENSE
AC (19) 15, touch 13, flat-footed 12 (+2 dex, +2 natural, +1 dodge)
hp 42 (5d8+20)
Fort +7, Ref +6, Will +5 *+2 vs enchantments
Special Defence: Ki Pool 3/day +4 dodge bonus to AC
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee Fist +7 (1d8+3) or Flurry of Blows +7/+7 (1d8+3) Ki Pool 1 additional attack +7 (1d8+3)
Special Attacks Stunning Fist 5/day (DC:13): Stunned for 1 round
STATISTICS
Str 16, Dex 15, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8
Base Atk +3; CMB +8 (+10 Trip); CMD 19 (+21 Trip)
Feats Toughness, Weapon Focus (natural weapon), Dodge, Improved trip
Skills Perception +9, Stealth +14; Racial Modifiers +4 Stealth
Languages Common, Goblin
ECOLOGY
Treasure 1 Thunderstone

Monks are up to level 5. They are still pretty weak but with Ulwai up at Bard 9 she's got a fair number of buffs for them to cause some damage.

Spoiler: Cleric

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HOBGOBLIN CLERIC
Hobgoblin Cleric 6 Domains: Fire, Healing
LE Medium humanoid (goblinoid)
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +6 Resistance Fire 10
DEFENSE
AC 18, touch 10, flat footed 18 (+6 armour, +2 Shield)
hp 42 (5d8+20)
Fort +8, Ref +2, Will +8
Special actions: Channel Energy 3d6 (DC13 for half) 4/day All Cure spells are empowered (+50%)
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft.
Melee Heavy Mace +5 (1d8+1)
Spells 4, 4+1, 4+1, 3+1
3rd: CSW, Fireball (D), Prayer, Magic Vestements (DC:16)
2nd: Aid, Bull’s Strength, CMW (D), Darkness, Hold Person, (DC:15)
1st: Bless (Bane), CLW, CLW (D), Doom, Hide from Undead (DC:14)
O:
STATISTICS
Str 13, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 12
Base Atk +4; CMB +4; CMD 14
Feats Toughness, Selective Channelling (1 person), Command Undead
Skills Heal +10, Perception +6, Stealth -2 Spellcraft +4; Racial Modifiers +4 Stealth
Languages Common, Goblin
ECOLOGY
Treasure 2 Potions CLW, Scroll Spiritual Weapon, Chainmail, light steel shield, heavy mace

These are a bit of a mismatch but at Cleric 6 they're really quite powerful. Sadly their pitiful HP pools let them down as they were focused down in a round each.

Overall the encounter went really well and was easily one of the most challenging fights i've had with this group. I started off by fireballing into the room, which hit 3 monks, 2 saved with evasion, and all 4 PCs, the rogue saving with evasion. Then I dropped a fog cloud straight into the room while Ulwai started singing to buff up the troops.

The monks managed to last 4-5 rounds in total doing 4 attacks a round at max BAB, 2 from flurry, 1 from ki pool and 1 from haste, because of awful rolling for miss chances from all of the PCs including the fighter missing a 42 damage crit that would've one shot one of the monks. At one point the Cleric had a single hit point, fighter had 6, the rogue was in single digits and the Ranger was below half. This forced a heal from the Staff of Life and that ultimately saved the day.

Ulwai was a strong character at Bard 9 and had buffs to really cause issues for the PCs. She surrendered after they had killed all of her minions and gave up information about the Ghostlord as well as a bit about the Red Hand. I've dropped a few fun 'lies' for the PCs to feed back to Brindol, such as there being more than one dragon left in the horde and that there are more Greenspawn Razorfiends. Both of which have the PCs a little worried.

Spoiler: Ulwai

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ULWAI STORMCALLER
Hobgoblin Bard 9
LE Medium humanoid (goblinoid)
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception
DEFENSE
AC 21, touch 13, flat footed 18 (+4 Armour, +4 Shield, +2 Dex, +1 Dodge)
hp 76 (9d8+36)
Fort +6, Ref +8, Will +6
Special actions: Bardic Performance 16rds/day start as a move action
Inspire Courage: +2 to hit and damage and saves against fear
Inspire Greatness: Gain 11+2Con hit points, +2 to hit and +1 on fort saves,
Dirge of Doom: Causes targets to become shaken, -2 to attack rolls, saves, skills and ability checks
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee As book
Spells 6, 5, 4 (Known: 6, 5, 4, 4)
3rd: Displacement, Glibness, Good Hope, Haste (DC:17)
2nd: Blur, Heroism, Invisibility, Suggestion (DC:16)
1st: Comprehend Langs, Cure Light Wounds, Lesser Confusion, Grease, Obscure Object (DC:15)
O:
STATISTICS 15 14 12 11 10 8
Str 8, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 18
Base Atk +6; CMB +5; CMD 17
Feats Toughness, Combat Casting, Dodge, Weapon Finesse, Deceitful
Skills Not Listed; Racial Modifiers +4 Stealth
Languages Common, Goblin
ECOLOGY
Treasure

Great session overall. The advice for how to roleplay the Ghostlord worked wonders. They kept trying to talk to him and I had him more or less ignoring them while walking around the various chambers inside his lair. They brought up the Red Hand and I had him stop and just stare at the PC who mentioned it before going back to his ramblings about killing and finding his phylactery.

They eventually mentioned that they had it and at that point he span around and immediately demanded it's return or he'll take it from them. They tried to negotiate a bit, requesting that he leave the Red Hand alone for it's return, to which he just demanded it's return. After a few seconds of in talking I had him move foward to take it and they gave it up and ran, pushing the bound Ulwai towards the Ghostlord.