Zalto's Iron Maul

[saeval]

minor storm kings thunder spoliers and a whole lot of bragging beyond this sentence.

So, I built my hobgoblin wizard with a back story of hating fire giants, because its adventurers league and I sorta have to get my roleplaying done where I can in that scenario. So, Ragnar is a diviner wizard, and he was enslaved with the rest of his clan to be grunts to fire giants. In his visions, he would see his son grow up, and fail to lead a revolt. The only paths he saw, in which the fire giants were defeated, were paths in which he let his wife and son die, so that he could escape and manipulate the right people to bring down Zalto and his warmongerers.

Flash forward and my Lawful Evil hobgoblin is becoming a major player in the zhentarim, has ingratiated himself in a group of outstanding individuals, primary among them a paladin with a giantslaying greatsword, who actually thinks Ragnar has many redeeming qualities to him, and could see a future in which he benefits society as whole. (misguided? who's to say?) we've infiltrated the forge of Duke Zalto, and Ragnar's normal calm/resolve is breaking. he's very much getting revenge hungry after waiting 15 years.

He took medium armor and wears a +2 breastplate and a mythril shield, so he is generally pretty good at deflecting attacks, what with his ability to cast shield and turn is 20 ac into 25, it rarely becomes an issue. He fights with his party for the most part, but while they were cleaning up a scenario, he decided not to waste his expeditious retreat spell (he was using it for positioning), and scout ahead. Now because he's a Zhent, he has boots of spiderclimb, so he's doing so from the roof. He finds Zalto, with his hellhounds, while zalto is berating a group of orcs and hobgoblins about disturbing him and why isn't his forge running up to speed etc. the group is roughly 3 rounds behind him some trickling in sooner. Ragnar's raven, Orin, who was assisting the paladin(the closest person to me), begins squawking out Ragnar! Save Ragnar! as it sensed the danger I had stumbled into.

(session ends there, we have a week until I actually get to fight Zalto) I think of everyway I could possibly delay to make Ragnar live long enough to get the party there, but it just seems unlikely. between Zalto, his hellhounds, those orcs and hobgoblins, and some armored Ogres.... I was basically dead. even a 25 AC could only save me for so long, one or two good swipes from zalto, or even just a pair of doggy breath attacks... things looked bleak. so bleak, I had a fancy dinner before the next session, to say goodbye to Ragnar.

Enraged, he lets loose his hounds, which are intercepted by my lions, and he approaches me saying I lie. The DM at this point describes in detail his appearance, and describes his maul as having a cage. he shows the picture from the book. I very much went from assuming this is where my character was going to die, to laughing maniacally. I bonus action cast misty step, and using my spider-climb boots, I cling to his weapon which he has not begun to swing around just yet. I put my Immoveable rod through the cages vertical bars, twist it horizontally, and activate the rod. Zalto doesn't realize what I've done, he takes a round to see that i went onto his weapon, puzzled, he tries to swing it into the wall to smash me. I make an athletics check to stay on the weapon, as it travels no more than 3-5 feet and stalls out, my rod keeping it in place. The paladin turns the corner, giantslaying sword raised on high.

"WHAT IS THIS?" Zalto is completely baffled by his weapons current state. He calls for reinforcements, tells the orcs and hobgoblins to get more firegiants -NOW- at that point, I ask the dwarf, residing in the cage, if he would like to stay in the cage, or help me kill a -ton- of orcs right now. His arm reaches out, and I dimension door the two of us to be between the gobs and the orcs, and the reinforcements they wish to gather. Turns out he's Zhent too. Things just were coming up Ragnar that whole session.

Zalto heaves one last time at his weapon, unable to beat a DC 25 (to break the door open) or the DC 30 (to move the rod 10 ft) strength checks. The paladin meets him in bloody, glorious combat, and he has to attack with his hands and feet, drastically reducing his ability to fight. the rest of the fight felt more like cleanup at that point. every table at out gamestore was cracking up when they heard what I did. it was quite a turn of events. I had a great time, and truly thought I was sending one of my favorite characters to the grave, which while fitting, I truly did not want to do just yet.

[ZorroGames]

Freaking awesome roleplay!

[Dappershire]

Locking a Giant down with an Immovable Rod, will henceforth be known as the Ragnar Gambit.