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Let's Read Threats to the Nentir Vale: Shadowmire
Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.
Here’s our third dragon!
The Lore
The black dragon Shadowmire has made the Witchlight Fens his home for over two hundred years. He’s the more active and aggressive of the Vale’s current draconic inhabitants, and I guess also the one most like a typical dragon.
Shadowmire claims the entire extent of the Witchlight Fens as his dominion, but though his personal power is terrifying, his power base is not quite up to the task of controlling all of that territory. The dragon rules many of the lizardfolk tribes who live on the area as a terrifying overlord, and while they’re not always capable of preventing others from encroaching into the fens, Shadowmire uses them to punish any groups foolish enough to do so. He likes to brag that the fall of Kalton Manor was his greatest victory, though he was not the sole factor involved in that tragedy.
The dragon’s main goal is to turn his claims into reality, and to grow ever wealthier and more powerful in the process. He patrols the Fens to make its inhabitants fear him, and can sometimes be seen flying over the Nentir River where it passes by the swamp. He can also move more stealthily, even swimming silently where the water is deep enough.
Shadowmire’s lair is under the Cairnwater river, accessible through an underwater entrance at the river bed. Its true location is known only to the dragon himself, but there’s much speculation about it and the treasures it contains. Shadowmire is entirely aware of this and keeps a number of fake lairs throughout the fens, which he uses to misdirect his enemies and lure greedy adventurers to their doom. The dragon increases his hoard by looting those greedy adventurers, and by raiding trade boats that pass through the Nentir river.
Since he’s lived in the Fens for so long, Shadowmire knows practically every one of its secrets, and a good deal about the story of the Vale besides. He also makes some effort to remain aware of the Vale’s current affairs through his network of spies.
Not every inhabitant of the Fens serves the dragon, and some even try to oppose him. I imagine there might be a hag coven or two who have objections to his rule, but the group the book calls out as the most persistent torn on Shadowmire’s side are the Daggerburg Goblins! They regularly venture into the fens and clash with Shadowmire’s lizardfolk servants. I imagine they might be in a true pickle if the dragon decides to retaliate personally, but he doesn’t like leaving the Fens.
The Numbers
Shadowmire’s stats make me think all three dragons were written by different authors, because he’s Huge and a Level 19 Solo Lurker with 712 HP. This makes him the most powerful dragon in the book, even stronger than slumbering Calastryx. I guess this is balanced by the fact that he has the weakest army, as his lizarfolk aren’t very organized and can’t operate very well outside the swamp. This limits how far he can expand.
Despite having a level comparable to that of a “stock” Elder Black Dragon, Shadowmire has a slightly less varied repertoire of attacks. His passive traits are all work the same, as do his bite, Breath Weapon, and Bloodied Breath.
Bite and Breath Weapon do less damage than the ones from the base elder dragon. The difference here is that the Threats writers considered the added ongoing acid damage from both the bite and the breath to be part of the damage formula, while the Monster Vault writers added them on top of that. Both bite and breath do half damage on a miss, too, so a fight against Shadowmire is a grueling battle of attrition.
Shadowmire’s Claw attacks do the same damage as a base elder dragon’s, and pull the target 2 squares. His Tail Sweep works the same but does more base damage.
And finally we get to the star of the show, his custom ability: Swamp Simulacrum. When used, this makes Shadowmire turn invisible for a turn and summons 2 identical duplicates within 10 squares of the original. They last until the end of the encounter or until destroyed. The duplicates are effectively minions with Shadowmire’s defenses, and explode in a burst of acid when destroyed (Close Burst 2, acid damage, half on a miss). This recharges when the dragon is first bloodied.
Final Impressions
Shadowmire is an interest mechanical variation on an elder black dragon, and his lore is workable enough, but I think he’s a bit too high level to fit with that lore. I’d probably make him Level 12 or so. He’s more dangerous and intelligent than Bitterstrike, but is not seen as a living calamity like Calastryx.
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Let's Read Threats to the Nentir Vale: Scroll Mummy
Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.
Another more generic entry. I first remember seeing scroll mummies in 3e where they appeared in the Monster Manual III. I wouldn’t be surprised if they date from earlier editions than that. There’s a bit of an AD&D 2nd Edition vibe to them.
The Lore
Despite the name, these creatures are constructs, not undead. They’re armatures made from magical detritus (broken magic items, shards of potion vials, and so on) wrapped in spell scrolls. They style of the wrapping makes them resemble mummies, so I guess the name stuck.
They are however still undead-adjacent because each one is powered by a lich’s soul. To activate a scroll mummy, you need to destroy a lich and place its soul vessel inside the finished body of the construct before the lich can reform. The lich’s soul is bound as a power source, and the mummy rises to obey its creator like a typical construct.
Scroll mummies are fairly clever as constructs go, and their construction gives them the ability to cast the spells written on their wrappings. In the Vale, the Mages of Saruun know how to create scroll mummies and love using them to guard their private libraries. Most other people who know the secret of their construction are more explicitly evil mages and priests, many of which worship Vecna.
There is, of course, a complication here: if a scroll mummy is destroyed and the soul vessel survives, the lich it belongs to will reform within 1d10 days. It will likely also be pretty angry at whoever decided to turn it into a glorified battery.
The first scroll mummy ever created was named Grisgol, and its heart was the vessel of the lich Asperdies. Legend has it that Asperdies eventually found a way to break out of his imprisonment and took his revenge on Grisgol’s creators. To this day, wizards who are particular about terminology prefer to call these constructs “grisgols” since they aren’t true mummies.
The Numbers
Grisgols are Large Natural Animates with the Construct keyword, and also Level 15 Elite Soldiers with 276 HP. That puts them at about the same power level or a bit higher than a typical lich. Its basic attack is a Paralyzing Claw, borrowing the power of a lich’s touch. It’s Reach 2, does necrotic damage, and immobilizes for a turn.
Once per round as a minor action, the grisgol can cast a spell from one of the scrolls wrapping it. The GM rolls a d6 to determine the effect. All of them are bursts or blasts with different elemental damage types and riders.
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Boiling Blood: Close Burst 2 vs. Fortitude, immediate and ongoing fire damage on a hit (save ends).
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Ice Barrage: Close Blast 5 vs. Reflex, cold damage, half on a miss.
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Lightning Lure: Close Blast 5 vs. Reflex, lightning damage, pulls 4 squares.
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Shadowy Tendrils: Close Burst 2 vs. Fortitude, necrotic damage, inflicts necrotic vulnerability (save ends).
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Thunderforce Pulse: Close Burst 2 vs. Fortitude, thunder and force damage, knocks prone.
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Wave of Madness: Close Blast 5 vs. Will, psychic damage, target must choose between making a basic attack against an adjacent ally or taking extra psychic damage.
I imagine that in past editions these would be standard spells, but here they’re custom.
When a grisgol is reduced to 0 HP, it collapses and releases a cloud of Choking Dust in a Close Burst 2. This attack does both immediate and ongoing necrotic and poison damage (save ends).
Final Impressions
It’s interesting that Vecna, who spreads lichdom rituals, would also be the source of the recipe for scroll mummies. Maybe it was all a scam from the start, or maybe he feels it’s a waste to simply kill all those “competing” liches who are affiliated with Orcus.
I guess this also gives a plausible reason for some shady wizards to not want to become liches. “A lich? You mean like those things I use to power my guards?”
In addition the treasure these things might be guarding, their own bodies might serve as a plausible source of treasure for an encounter. Maybe one of those broken magic items isn’t so broken after all, and maybe you can bring combat scrolls back into 4e by giving them out as consumables that let PCs use one of the grisgol’s spell attacks once.
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Let's Read Threats to the Nentir Vale: River Rats
Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.
A very specific group that makes the city of Fallcrest its home.
The Lore
Before we talk about the River Rats, I figure it’s useful to talk a bit about Fallcrest itself. This is information from both the DMG and this book.
Fallcrest grew around a small fort (Moonstone Keep) originally built to guard a portage site around a big waterfall in the Nentir River. The entire rest of the river is perfectly navigable, but trade boats arriving at this point need to unload their cargo so that it can be hauled up or down the limestone cliffs around the waterfall that would eventually give the city its name. The loading points are known as the Upper and Lower Quays.
Fallcrest was a prosperous trade hub for many years, but it was hit hard by the Bloodspear invasion. It hasn’t recovered completely even after all these years, since the volume of foreign trade coming into the Vale was severely reduced by the fall of Nerath.
The cliffs split Fallcrest into two districts, Hightown and Lowtown. Hightown is located at the more defensible top of the cliff. It suffered relatively little during the sack of the city and was the first area to be rebuilt and resettled, making it the wealthier half of the city in our narrative present.
Lowtown is the poorer half, located at the foot of the cliff. It was almost completely razed back during the invasion, and only began to see new construction much later, as the city began growing again. There are still significant stretches of it that are abandoned or ruined, which make good hideouts for the city’s criminal element.
That finally brings us to the River Rats, which are a significant faction in that criminal element. This gang had a Dickensian start, with a band of orphans who got together for protection and were turned to crime by an unscrupulous adult. Most of its members are grownups in our narrative present, but they still recruit new members by taking in street urchins. These new recruits are provided with food, shelter, training, and a sense of camaraderie they have likely never experienced before, which makes the River Rats extremely loyal to each other. They also have something of a “us against the world” mentality, since the world never gave them any of the things the Rats did.
The gang’s current leader is Kelson, the halfling who owns the Lucky Gnome Taphouse and who despite rising from the ranks neatly fills the archetype of the exploitative leader. The Taphouse is the cheapest and rowdiest of Fallcrest’s taverns, catering to dockworkers and porters. Despite the unsavory reputations of the Taphouse and its owner, Kelson has not yet been linked to the activities of the River Rats.
The gang has a wide repertoire, but the most profitable of their activities consists of burglarizing the warehouses near the Lower Quays. Kelson chooses targets based on the information he overhears in the Taphouse, and his gang is very enthusiastic about following through. Merchants who make use of these warehouses must carefully weigh the risk of losing their merchandise against the abusive monopoly prices charged by the Porter’s Guild to haul the cargo to safer storage spaces in the Upper Quays. The Porter’s Guild is not in collusion with the Rats, but the overall picture still adds up to quite a damper on Fallcrest’s economy.
Kelson dreams of expanding the River Rats into a true criminal syndicate with chapters on every city in the Vale, but before he focuses on that he wants to eliminate all his rivals in Fallcrest. If his plans succeed, Fallcrest could be the site of a bloody gang war, likely between the Rats and the Shadow Court plus whatever other groups the GM wants to add into the mix.
The Numbers
As a hostile faction that resides in Fallcrest itself, the River Rats are early to mid-Heroic threats. They’re from a variety of “playable” species, and as mentioned in he Lore section are mostly Unaligned, since their loyalty to each other is their main motivation.
You can easily switch their races around for more variety through the usual tactic of changing and reassigning the relevant stats and abilities.
The gang’s signature trait is River Rat Tactics, which lets its owner gain combat advantage against any enemy who has one of the owner’s allies adjacent to them.
Lowtown Urchin
These halflings are actually around the age of a typical starting adventurer, but they disguise themselves as human children to avoid suspicion as they pick pockets and spy on people.
Our urchin is a Level 1 Skirmisher with 28 HP. As a halfling they have a Speed of 6 and a +5 bonus to saves vs. Fear effects. They fight with a dagger, and will use the Cloak of Filth that covers them to make themselves harder to hit. This is a move action that allows them to shift 3 squares and gain partial concealment for a turn. As a halfling, they can use the Second Chance power once per encounter to force an enemy who hit them to reroll the attack and use the new result.
When bloodied, the Urchin will resort to the River Rat’s Gambit special attack. This encounter power lets them make a basic attack and cause 2d6 bonus damage if that attack hits. If it misses, the urchin takes 1d6 damage instead.
Market Green Grifter
Grifters usually pick pockets or run rigged gambling scams in Fallcrest’s Market Green area, but might be called in to do other work. They’re not very good at direct confrontations, but they can play dead like no one else. This one’s a half-elf.
The grifter fights with a Short Sword whose basic attack profile is nothing special. They’ll make a half-assed attempt at fighting until they first take damage, and then they’ll Play Dead. This causes the grifter to fall prone. Until the start of the grifter’s next turn, they have a +5 to all defenses against close and area attacks, and enemies must spend a minor action to roll and pass a DC 20 Insight check to target them with melee or ranged attacks (otherwise, the enemy will believe the grifter is dead).
On their next turn, the grifter can come Back From the Dead, which lets them stand up, shift 3 squares, and make 3 shortsword attacks against an enemy. The attacks use the basic profile, but also do half-damage on a miss.
Once the grifter hits 0 HP, they can use The Jig is Up as an interrupt. They retain their last hit point and can shift 3 squares, likely as a prelude to running away at full speed.
Lower Quays Guttersnipe
Guttersnipes usually act as lookouts and spies, but are not adverse to a spot of murder if needed. They’re Level 2 Artillery with 30 HP. This one’s a halfling.
It’s important to remember that the guttersnipe doesn’t need to be adjacent to an enemy to benefit from River Rat tactics! As long as at least one ally is adjacent to that enemy, the guttersnipe can shoot them with combat advantage.
They also have the Sniper trait, which lets them stay hidden if they miss with a ranged attack from hiding.
Those ranged attacks will be made with Slings. If enemies get too close for comfort, the guttersnipe can toss a Hooked Net, which acts as a Close Blast 2 that restrains and deals 5 ongoing damage to those it hits (save ends). They only have one of these, though, and after it’s spent they’ll need to resort to weak-sauce Gut Punches to discourage melee attackers.
They also have the halfling Second Chance power.
Razorclaw Jack
Jacks are part of the Rat’s beefier contingent, and specialize in burglary and kidnapping. This one’s a Razorclaw shifter, and a Level 3 Skirmisher with 43 HP. When they’re bloodied, Razorclaw Shifting gives them a +2 bonus to Speed, taking it from 6 to 8.
The jack fights with their claws, which deal extra damage if they have combat advantage. They can also use the River Rat’s Gambit technique. If conditions are right (recharge 4+) they can use Skulduggery to shift half its speed as a move action and gain combat advantage against enemies adjacent to them at the end of the movement. This combat advantage lasts until the end of the current turn, so the movement must come before an attack.
Lowtown Kneebreaker
Kneebreakers are pure muscle, sent to rough people up or kill them when the time for subtlety is past. This one’s a human, and a Level 3 Brute with 56 HP.
They fight with Clubs, can use River Rat’s Gambit, and can do what their name says as part of a Crippling Strike (recharge 6+), which deals extra damage and slows (save ends). It still does half damage on a miss.
Kelson
The leader of the River Rats has the only stat block in this entry with an Evil alignment. Everyone else is Unaligned. I take this to mean that the River Rats are motivated primarily by loyalty to each other, but that Kelson is exploiting that loyalty for his own profit. He’s a Level 5 Elite Skirmisher with the Leader tag and 120 HP.
Kelson’s skills as a Gang Leader act as an aura (3) that gives allies inside a +2 bonus to saves. He fights with a Short Sword and throws poisoned Daggers that deal damage and inflict 5 ongoing poison damage on a hit (save ends). The Flickering Blades at-will maneuver lets him make a shortsword attack, shift 3 squares, and throw a dagger at someone else, all within the same standard action.
He can also use River Rat’s Gambit and Second Chance.
Final Impressions
The River Rats are mostly a pretty standard thieves’ guild and are a good tool for GMs who want to add a bit of urban adventuring to 4e’s standard points-of-light setup. They’re more straightforward and less problematic than the Fell Court, and also a bit more morally ambiguous. Most of the River Rats are in this business simply to make a living and take care of their found family. This means it’s possible for diplomatic PCs to dismantle the gang using mostly non-violent means!
They’d need to befriend its rank-and-file members, make them turn against Kelson, and give them the material conditions to leaver their criminal careers behind for good. More complex than the usual “kill’em all” approach, but potentially much more satisfying. Of course, less scrupulous but still diplomatic PCs might end up just replacing Kelson as the boss instead of ending the Rats’ criminal activities.
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Let's Read Threats to the Nentir Vale: Raven Roost Bandits
Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.
This is a new Vale-specific faction.
The Lore
Raven Roost is an old manor located about 10 miles to the southeast of Thunderspire. It used to be the home of a local lord back in Nerathi times, and got this name because the lord had a gallows assembled at a nearby hilltop and was in the habit of keeping the bodies of executed criminals on display there. This attracted a lot of ravens, and gave the property its name.
The lord and his household are long gone, and today Raven Roost is home to a fairly sophisticated bandit gang. Their proximity to the Trade Road allows them to regularly attack travelers and traders moving between Fallcrest, Thunderspire and Hammerfast. They’re helped in this enterprise by Barton, the cheerful owner of the Fiveleague House inn near Hammerfast, who sends them advance warning of juicy targets coming from that direction.
The book also mentions the bandits also attack the King’s Road to the south, but that’s pretty far from their home base and requires them to cut through a bit of Harken forest to reach it. Harken’s Heart or the Hunter Spiders might have something to say about that if they exist in your campaign.
Banditry was always common along that stretch of road, as the nearby Harken Forest seems to offer a nice source of shelter and concealment to the deserters, cutthroats and outlaws who tend to make up these gangs. None of them ever lasted for very long, though, eventually falling prey to infighting or incurring the displeasure of the forest’s inhabitants. This changed when the three shadar-kai, disgraced former servants of the Raven Queen, arrived on the scene.
Of the three, Samminel was a warlord, Erzoun his court witch, and Geriesh his chief spy. Erzoun once predicted that Samminel would never advance in prestige and station if he remained on his Shadowfell domain, so the trio crossed into the world. Their spectacular displays of violence unburdened by compassion earned the fear and respect of all the little bands that hid in the Forest, who decided to swear loyalty to them and beg for training and leadership. Thus were the Raven Roost bandits formed.
The three leaders don’t actually work together very well, since they have a tendency to undermine each other’s authority. They know this, however, and have arranged things so that each of them commands a separate force with little direct interaction.
Raven Roost itself is an excellent home base for them. It occupies a little hidden valley in the Old Hills that’s supremely defensible and cannot be seen from the road. It’s also out of Harken Forest proper, which makes the bandits much less vulnerable to attacks by angry druids. They hide in the edges of the forest while waiting in ambush, but Raven Roost is where they rest their heads.
The bandits’ initial attacks were shockingly violent, but they’ve toned it down after their reputation began to spread. They frequently spare the lives of their victims and accept surrenders, since they know that people fight back harder when their lives are at stake. Sometimes their reputation allows them to avoid a fight entirely. Eventually, they plan to capitalize on that reputation to move from banditry to warlordism, and try to conquer and rule their own stretch of the Vale.
The Numbers
We get stats for the three shadar-kai leaders, and for the rank-and-file bandits they lead. Bandits are usually human, though you could certainly mix things a bit and add other ancestries here.
The three leaders have the Shadar-kai Shadow Jaunt encounter power, which lets them teleport 3 squares and become insubstantial for a turn as a move action. The others have no common traits.
As usual, we’ll look at them in ascending order of level, with the leaders at the end.
Raven Roost Harrier
Trained by Geriesh, harriers are Level 4 Skirmishers with 53 HP. Their short swords deal physical damage and prevent the target from making opportunity attacks for a turn on a hit. Their Crossbows have no raiders, but are decent basic ranged attacks. They can make Moving Attacks that let them move their speed, attack with the sword at any point, and move away without provoking opportunity attacks from their target.
Raven Roost Cutthroat
Also trained by Geriesh, cutthroats are Level 5 Lurkers with 49 HP. They fight with daggers and garrotes. Garrotes target Reflex and grab the target on a hit. The escape DC is a surprising 22! While the grab lasts, the cutthroat has superior cover and both it and the victim are immune to forced movement. The bandit can use an Aterial Cut on its grabbed victim, an attack that deals both immediate and ongoing physical damage (save ends), and ends the grab on a hit.
If the victim escapes the cutthroat’s grab, it can use Quick Cut to make a free dagger attack against them.
Raven Roost Grenadier
Trained by Erzoun, grenadiers are Level 5 Controllers with 61 HP. They’re armed with a Shortsword and with a large assortment of grenades. They carry 8 Fire Bombs that deal fire damage in an Area Burst 1 and knock the targets prone on a hit. They deal half damage on a miss.
They also carry a single Smoke Bomb laced with poison, which attacks an Area Burst 1 and causes the targets to become dazed and to take ongoing poison damage (save ends). This creates a zone that lightly obscures its space until the end of the encounter.
Finally, they carry a bomb that can produce an Oil Slick, which can knock everyone in an Area Burst 1 prone and as an effect make them vulnerable to fire for a turn.
Once per encounter they can also use Grenadier’s Rush to move their speed with a minor action.
Raven Roost Sharpshooter
Another Erzoun special, sharpshooters are Level 6 Artillery with 55 HP. They fight with short swords and crossbows, and as expected of artillery the latter are more accurate and damaging.
Sharpshooters can spend their move action to perform a Careful Aim maneuver. This lets them pick an enemy they can see. If they can still see that enemy at the start of their next turn, their crossbow attack will attack the target’s Reflex instead of their AC, and will deal 5 extra damage. So not only will the attack be more accurate than usual, it will also target a lower defense (often much lower for heavily armored characters).
Sharpshooters can also deploy an Archer’s Decoy as a free action, which grants them a +2 bonus to AC and Reflex for a turn. This recharges when they’re first bloodied.
Since Careful Aim is a move action, sharpshooters are quite powerful when they can remain stationary. You can help them with that by deploying them behind good cover.
Raven Roost Outlaw Veteran
Led by Samminel, veterans are Level 6 Brutes with 86 HP. They fight with bastard swordS and can do a fair few things with them.
Aside from their basic attacks, they can use Mighty Blows, which do the same damage, push the target 1 square, and let the veteran shift 1 square to follow. Their Swath of Death maneuver lets them attack twice and keeps recharging as long as at least one of the attacks misses.
They can also use a Forceful Shove as a minor action to attack a target’s Fortitude and push then 1 square on a hit.
Raven Roost Highwayman
Led by Samminel, highwaymen are Level 7 Soldiers with 77 HP. They wield the classy bandit’s choice, a rapier and a hand crossbow.
Their basic rapier attack marks for a turn, and despite carrying 10 bolts for the crossbow they have no ranged basic attack! Instead, they have a special encounter power named Bolt to the Gut. It’s a ranged attack but does not provoke opportunity attacks. It deals heavy physical damage, immobilizes, and inflicts ongoing physical damage (save ends). Even on a miss, it immobilizes for a turn.
What do highwaymen do with the other 9 bolts once they use this? They wait for a marked enemy to make an attack that doesn’t include them as a target. That lets them use Stand, You Coward as a reaction, which lets them immediately recharge and use Bolt to the Gut on the offending enemy!
Geriesh
Geriesh is a Level 6 Elite Skirmisher (Leader) with 136 HP. His sneaky leadership takes the form of a Swiftshadow Master aura (5), which gives all enemies inside a +4 to Initiative and to Stealth. Willing Prey makes any enemy marking him grant combat advantage.
The spymaster fights with katars, which deal extra damage against targets granting him combat advantage. If the attack does more than 20 damage, the target falls unconscious (save ends). This is possible if he attacks with combat advantage, since his damage is 3d6+7 in that case. That’s about a 40% chance of unconsciousness, which of course also happens if he crits because that causes max damage. His version of Double Attack allows him to perform two attacks and move up to his full speed between them.
Geriesh replaces the standard Shadow Jaunt power with Shadow Leap, which doesn’t grant insubstantial but lets him teleport his full speed of 6. Once per encounter, he can also use Dagger Flick as a minor action, which deals physical damage, immobilizes, and inflicts ongoing poison damage. Even on a miss, this grazes the target and immobilizes them for a turn.
Erzoun
Erzoun is a Level 7 Elite Controller (Leader) with 152 HP. Her witchy leadership manifests as a Quickshadow Aura (5). Any ally who shifts while inside the aura can shift 1 extra square. While the bandits under her are fairly martial sorts, she’s a proper witch and fights exclusively with magic.
Erzoun’s basic attack is a Blackfire Touch that does fire and necrotic damage on a hit, and slides 1 square as an effect. She can attack at range with a spell named Beshadowed Mind that deals necrotic and psychic damage, and makes the target unable to see anything further than 2 squares away (save ends).
She also has a host of limited spells, starting with a fun one. Witch’s Prophecy is an attack against Will that does no damage, but has a very interesting effect. If Erzoun hits, she can choose an ally within 10 squares. The target of the spell is weakened when attacking anyone other than the chosen ally. This lasts until the end of the encounter, and recharges whenever she misses with it! She’s going to use this to set up the worst match possible between a PC striker and a beefy ally who can resist their attacks.
Erzoun can also create a zone of Deep Shadow in an area burst 1. This is difficult terrain to enemies inside, and deals 10 damage to those enemies when they enter the zone or end their turn in it. It lasts for a turn but can be sustained and moved 4 squares with a minor action. It recharges when bloodied, so Erzoun might have two of these zones in play at once.
Erzoun gets the standard Shadow Jaunt power, but she also gets a Shadow Augury reaction that triggers when she’s hit in melee while bloodied. It recharges Shadow Jaunt and lets her use it immediately!
Erzoun is hard to pin down and will wreak havoc on the PC’s formations with a Deep Shadow zone and a prophecy right at the start. Once bloodied, she stays mostly stationary to sustain her two zones, relying on Shadow Augury to avoid being surrounded.
Samminel
The overall boss of the Raven Roost bandits is a Level 8 Elite Soldier (Leader) with 172 HP. He’s the more direct and martial of the trio, wielding a halberd in combat. His leadership instills his underlings with a Deathshadow Fervor (aura 5) that lets them daze any target against whom they score a critical hit (save ends).
The halberd marks for a turn, and he can also use it in a Double Attack or in a Sundering Sweep, which doesn’t mark but hits a Close Burst 2 and inflicts a -2 AC penalty (save ends).
If a marked enemy tries to ignore Samminel, he can make a basic attack against them as an interrupt, scoring a critical on a 17-20. He also gets the standard Shadow Jaunt power.
Samminel is less gimmicky than Erzoun, but is a good enabler for the sort of direct henchman he prefers to lead.
Final Impressions
It’s easy to see the word “bandits” and immediately think of the sort of generic opponent that tends to grace each edition’s first Monster Manual. Fortunately the ones we get here have fairly interesting mechanics that elevate them beyond the generic.
They all work very well together, but the structure described in the Lore encourages a story where you face each “sub-gang” in order, defeat its boss, and move up the ladder. The likely order is Geriesh, Erzoun, and Samminel. Depending on how tightly you couple the bandit stat blocks with the leaders who train them, you might need to insert some generics in here to pad out your encounters.
We don’t get an exact headcount of the Raven Roost bandits. There’s enough to give the Hunter Spiders pause and make them avoid “hunting” the same routes, which means you can use however many you need for your own story. Unlike the drow, these guys can get new recruits from the constant influx of assholes who arrive at their territory looking to join.
A final stand should definitely involve the three leaders at the same time. If anything would force them to work together again it’s a bunch of heroes who have systematically dismantled the rest of their gang.
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Let's Read Threats to the Nentir Vale: Ragewind
Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.
Ragewinds first appeared in Third Edition, and make their Fourth Edition debut here. They’re mostly generic, with some added hooks for the Vale.
The Lore
Also known as sword spirits, ragewinds are undead monsters that can form in battlefields. They’re made up of the spirits of despondent soldiers who believe they died for nothing. These shades are individually weak, but they have the ability to move the weapons they wielded in life. A ragewind arises when many of these indignant ghosts join to form a single composite entity.
Ragewinds can lie dormant to appear as a random pile of old weapons. When active, they assume the whirlwind form you can see in the illustration. They can understand Common and modulate their wind to speak it, but they’re true monsters and are only interested in killing living people who stray too close to them. When destroyed, they release the pent-up anger and hatred inside them, which might cause their enemies to turn against each other. These creatures carry no treasure save the weapons that make up their form. They might also be hanging around something worth digging up, acting as accidental guardians.
The Nentir Vale region doesn’t just contain the ruins of a number of old civilizations - it was also the site of many of their battles. Bloodspear Orcs against Nerathi, Nerathi against the Hill Folk or the dragons of the Dawnforges, Arkhosia against Bael Turath, elves vs. drow, and perhaps others that have been lost to time. Any of these places might house a number of very old ragewinds.
The Numbers
A ragewind is a Large Natural Animate with the Undead tag, and a Level 18 Skirmisher with 112 HP. It has an amazing ground speed of 10 and a flight speed of 5, and perceives the world through Blindsight 20.
As a literal weapon whirlwinds, a ragewind projects a Slashing Aura (1) that inflicts 10 damage on enemies caught inside, or 15 when it’s bloodied. Its All-Around Defense means it doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks when moving, and it’s under a permanent Freedom of Movement effect that ends any slowing or immobilizing effects on the creature at the start of its turn.
Its basic attack is named Weapon Fury, which does physical damage and also gives the ragewind 10 temporary HP if it’s bloodied. It can also use a Rush of Blades maneuver to shift 5 squares and use Weapon Fury at any point during the movement.
By expanding itself a bit the ragewind can make a Steel Whirlwind attack (recharge 5+), which attacks a Close Burst 1 and does more damage than a basic attack, half on a miss. If the creature is bloodied the area is a Close Burst 2 instead.
When it dies, the ragewind triggers its Death’s Rage ability, which attacks the Will of every enemy in a Close Burst 5 and, if it hits, forces the target to make a basic attack against its nearest ally.
Final Impression
These are dangerous physical combatants who are hard to pin down and can really punish PC groups who like close formations.
If the location of any of the Vale’s ragewinds was known, they’d probably be the stuff of legends told all over. It’s quite likely that they’re unknown because no one who met one has lived to tell the tale. With a speed of 10, they’re almost impossible to outrun even on horseback.
A lot of the NPC factions we saw so far have a relatively high chance of running into these things, because they spend their time digging up old ruins and battlefields: Dythan’s Legion, the Gray Company, the Hunter Spiders. Y’know, our usual suspects. I imagine this would happen as the climax of their story arcs, as they’re just about to find what they’re looking for.
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