The party headed through the dark orchard following the Wight mounted Wolf tracks, as the trees were so densely packed they could not see the other side. While they walked though the dimly light orchard each adventurer could hear eerie creaking as if the trees were pouring out their tortured souls, everyone even Vicrael who is usually very talkative, were deafly silent. When they reached the edge of the orchard the mansion came into view, it was not the stately manor house the party had been expected. All building was in disrepair; windows boarded over and garden overgrown. Two rows of tree lead up to a large solid wood double door, either side of which are two large stone plinths with stone gargoyles preached atop.
As the party approached the mansion stood in the doorway is the Wight and his undead mount. Again he spoke in his deathly voice “Well done! I was sure my horsemen would dispatch with you, it seems I may have under estimated you. I matters not you are too late to save you friends, soon they will be like us.”
Eligos felt her blood boil but was hesitant to advance towards the mansion, and with good cause. As she paused her animal instincts heard noises in the trees, she was just fast enough to warn the others before four smaller undead hounds leapt from the trees.
Initiative is rolled
Even with Eligos warning the party the wolves still acted first and charge into the sides party, the Wight’s wolf also charged. He charge straight into head on the party and sunk his teeth though Eligos’ chainmail, her pain was compounded as the Wight also struck her with a grave bolt rooting her to the spot. Surrounded by rotting wolves Glen swung his axes edge with no regard for this own safety and smashes a wolf’s head with maximum force. Vicrael unable to release an arrow with taking a bite from a wolf drew his scimitar and hacked it towards the nearest foe, but the wolf’s relaxes were a lot greater than the Lord’s strength and evaded the blade easily.
Hogar took advantage of a bloodied wolf and shoot to arrows into its side fatally wounding it. Eligos, now immobilized and marked by the monstrous wolf, swung her khopesh and connected cleanly with the wolf’s torso and sliced away a huge chunk of putrid flesh. The wound began to heal over immediately, as did all the wounds inflicted on the wolves. The remaining three wolves kept feverously attacking the party, two of which combined to flank Minron. As he held one off with his shield the second leapt up his back and bit into his shoulder, the pain and force from the fiend force him to the ground. Eligos continued to absorb untold damage at the head of the party from the giant wolf, the Wight, shielding the lighter armoured members. Lord Vicrael repaid this protection by not only healing Eligos with a Majestic Word but also by releasing an arrow from his bow fuelled with arcane magic that dealt maximum damage and also jinked the beast. Rodney also repaid the warden by casting burning hands to hit the Wight and the great wolf with a cone of fire. Hogar the on the other hand did not repay the tiefling, or any other party member for that matter, as he wildly shot two arrows, both of which sailed off into the distant trees. He was so shocked by his own failure he was complete disorientated for a spilt seconds and let his guard down, thankfully the wolves were otherwise engaged and failed to capitalise on it. Glen and Minron were easily coping with the two wolves that were snapping at Minron’s heals and Glen’s chest, while Eligos took a final swipe at the large wolf to take it out. Not to be foiled so easily the Wight called upon the power of Orcus and the Monstrous Wolf, still with many khopesh holes still in it, stood and took another bite our of Eligos. As quickly as the wolf was raised we was toppled by Vicrael’s arcane archery. As the Wight stood alone with 6 adventures in front of him his eyes turned to the mansion door, but before his feet had time to join his gaze Minron’s horns were in his midriff goring him to the floor. Without an ounce of mercy Minron’s longsword was raised and glowing with Divine powers as he chatted a short prayer to the raven queen the Wight was no more.
DM Points
Monsters: 1x Death lock Wight (L4 controller), 4x Undead Grey Wolf (L2 Skirmisher), 1x Undead Grey Wolf Body Guard (L2 Elite Skirmisher) - 925xp Level 3 Encounter
Map: "Silverkin Mansion Outside" Created map, see picture below.
This encounter not only has my first created map but also has my first created monsters.
My first attempt a created a monster was to edit an exciting monster, and then add an elite template to that. So I took the standard grey wolf (MM1) and made it undead. This gave it immune to poison and disease resist necrotic and vulnerable to radiant. I also decided to add in regenerate 2, to balance this I have lowered their hp from 38 to 32. On reflection the regeneration and undead traits I added didn't add anything to the encounter; they didn't take anything away on the flip side. But I could have just as easily used the grey wolves’ stat block and told the party they looked undead, I think this was mainly due to no radiant, necrotic or poison damage being dealt, if there was the party would have expected to deal more or less damage.
I then created an elite version of the wolves. To do this I added the bodyguard template to the wolf. This gave it an action point, more hp, extra AC to adjacent allies and the ability to mark. This was even less of a success, I noticed after creating this monster that I had added a solider template to a skirmishing monster. I didn't know how much this would affect the encounter so I tried it, but having mixed roles meant that the monster wasn't great at either. It didn't have the high defences of a soldier and the aura of extra AC meant that it didn't move into positions enough to gain combat advantage to utilise its extra damage.
The map was fairly straight forward, as it didn't have many features. In essence it is just a big open space with a few trees. This looks ok but didn't add anything to the combat as every action everyone took happened between the trees.
Hogar killed the wight!
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