The Drow War Book Two. The Dying Of - RoseRed

Spells known (6/8/8/8/7/4, save DC 18 + spell level): 0 th
– acid splash, daze, detect magic, ghost sound, ray of
frost, mage hand, message, read magic, touch of fatigue;
1 st – expeditious retreat, mage armour, magic missile,
shield, obscuring mist; 2 nd – eagle’s splendour, hideous
laughter, summon monster II, web; 3 rd – dispel magic,
stinking cloud, summon monster III; 4 th – animate dead,
dimension door; 5 th – cloudkill.
Equipment & Treasure: +4 composite shortbow, +5
dagger, arrows (20), cloak of charisma +6, staff of
power
The secret behind Noctulos’ self-imposed exile and
constant hiding away in a dome of darkness is not related
to his vampiric condition at all. He is a male medusa,
a hideously ugly freak of nature, monstrous because of
his race and doubly so because of his aberrant gender.
The offspring of a babau demon and a medusa sorceress,
he was abandoned by his kin many centuries ago and
forced to fend for himself. He became a vampire
voluntarily, desperate to increase his powers by any
means he could find. He finally found his way to this
plane, where he used his powers to set himself up as its
enigmatic ruler.
The Colossus is now decorated with idealised images
of him, in which he is portrayed as handsome and his
hair is depicted as a virile mane instead of a hissing
reptilian mass.
Noctulos is amused by the Player Characters’ attempts
to persevere and confront him. He is supremely arrogant
and does not believe that he is at any risk. In his long
centuries of isolation, he has forgotten that he is not in
fact a god but merely an undead tyrant who has fallen
for his own rhetoric.
So as to prolong the game of cat and mouse (as he sees
it), he is not lurking in the sphere of darkness. Instead
he has used his powers to spider climb up the walls and
hide himself among the black moss mentioned in the
room description. Once the Player Characters are off
guard, he selects the weakest-looking one and attempts
to destroy him.
Note: This is intended to be a very hard fight indeed.
If the Player Characters are not well prepared for it,
there may be a massacre. If the Player Characters have
Bodesca of the Axe with them, she rushes in and attacks
Noctulos as soon as she has a chance, which buy them
a little time as he tears her to pieces.
Plot Event: The Coming of the Dark
If the Player Characters manage to bring Noctulos close
to destruction (below 20 hit points), he screams out for
assistance from his ally, the enemy of the Starborn: the
Dark.
‘Aid me, Father Night! Aid me, exiled one! Crush out
these sparks of malignant life and claim their bodies
for your own!’
With that, the Player Characters feel an overpowering
sense of imminent danger, as if some enormous hand
had cast a shadow over them. If they can see out of the
balcony doors, they see the same titanic shape appear
that interfered with their teleportation at the beginning
of the last adventure – a hooded, ragged shadow as huge
as the Colossus in whose skull they stand. It slowly
reaches out its fingers towards the throne room.
The Player Characters now have five rounds in which to
finish Noctulos (if they wish to attempt this) and make
off with the tenebrium from the throne. At the end of
those five rounds, the substance of the Dark begins to
permeate the throne room, like a wall of shadow flooding
across it. It moves at a rate of 60 feet per round. The
Dark is strong on this plane and can drain the life from
its victims in seconds. All living creatures within the
darkness must make Fortitude saving throws (DC 40)
on every round on which they remain immersed or gain
a negative level. The Starborn gain a +10 resistance
bonus to this saving throw because of their stellar
nature. The Dark remains until all living creatures in
the Colossus are dead.
Aftermath
With the tenebrium block from Noctulos’ throne safely
in their possession, the Player Characters can return
to Xoth Sarandi, where the elven mages subject it to a
thorough arcane analysis.
The news is good: it is possible to create a wand that will
project exactly the right kind of energy to disrupt the
tenebrium’s crystalline matrix. If the Player Characters
can enter the spire at Crom Calamar and discharge the
wand into the mass of tenebrium at its head, the resultant
discharge will destroy the crystal and probably a large
part of the spire as well. With the darkness lifted, the
drow will lose their advantage, and the human armies
and their allies will finally be able to strike back hard
against the oppressors!
Ibon Presno Gonzalez (order #73006) 8
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