2 cultists battles down, one more waiting inside the building. I scouted the forces inside first.
There was:
A cult wizard who casts Horror,
Two cult assassins (yes, again)
Two cult guards,
1 cult archer,
And 1 cult enforcer with a magic sword +1 again, who turns invisible.
Hrm. How to go about this?
-
I went out, got Neera to cast invisible on me, and went back in.
My Detect Illusions skill wasn't high, but Neera's Invisibility lasted 24 hours. Plenty of time to find the telltale signs of the invisible Cult Enforcer.
Once found, I drank a potion of Stone Giant Strength, and whipped out the Staff of Striking (+9 damage).
Cult Enforcers only have 39 hit points, so tap with the Staff of Striking's amazing +9 damage bonus is all it took to completely splatter the poor guy's head across the room. As the other cultists realed in shock, I drank a Potion of Invisibility immediately.
Next, I drank an Oil of Speed. I was going to need it soon.
But first there was one more priority target to take out. Invisible, I walked behind the cult wizard, and punted his head across the room with the Staff of Striking as well.
Both priority targets down! I ran back out before the rest of the cultists could catch me, thanks to the Oil of Speed I had guzzled down earlier.
Outside, I passed by Neera in the form of a mustard jelly.
What, you didn't think I was going to play fair, did you?
This was why I had taken out the Cult Enforcer. This was the only enemy who was armed with a magic weapon and thus could hurt a mustard jelly.
Cultists emerged from the building, chasing after me but meeting a mustard jelly instead. With all our enemies in this battle unable to harm Neera the mustard jelly, it was just a matter of providing supporting fire while the cultists wailed on Neera in futility.
-
The third battle with the cultists done, what next awaited in the basement of the building was the encounter with Aec'Lectec (and his retinue of 6 Cultist Guards) would be left. The followers would be led by a woman named Tracea Carol.
Tracea: "You have come. I suppose it was inevitable. You have weathered Durlag's Tower, so breaching our meager defences would be a minor feat. It is of little concern. IN a matter of seconds creatures such as you will be powerless before us."
Us: "Why would you do this? The beast you mean to raise is not to be trusted!"
Tracea: "Pray tell how you would know this? Have you prepared the rituals, spoken the incantations? I have, and the assurances of Aec'Letec were the fruits of my labors! Certainly the denizens of the lower planes are prone to falsehoods, but only when dealing with the weak and stupid! We shall be strong and fitting allies for this new master! Here I break that dagger, and here the new lord comes!"
At which point she will break the dagger, releasing Aec'lectec once more.
-
Aec'Letec has 131 hit points and AC -9, Thac0 0, hits for 1d12+8, 4 attacks per round, and he has a lot of special qualities.
-As suggested by the ghoul we met in Durlag's tower, Aec'Letec has a special Death Gaze that inflicts an auto-death debuff on a party member. There's a short window to remove the debuff before the party member dies, but really the best way to deal with this is for every party member to drink a Potion of Mirrored Eyes to prevent the effect. The level one Protection from Petrification spell works just fine as well.
-Other than the Death gaze, like most tanar'ri, Aec'Letec can also paralyze enemies. So a Freedom of Movement from a ring, spell or potion will help.
- Casts Silence at the beginning of the battle.
- Casts Vampiric Touch.
- Lastly, if any of the Cult Guards are alive Aec'Letec will resurrect itself using one of the Cult Guards at full health. So the Cult Guards need to die first.
Tracea herself is a mage who casts Horror and the like, but she wouldn't be an issue very soon into the fight.
-
The demon had not even arrived yet when we chucked three Potions of Explosions into the middle of the area.
Tracea Carol's eyes widened. "Fool! Demons are immune to fire!"
"You lot aren't though," Imoen said after finishing incanting FIREBALL.
Three Potions of Explosions and two fireballs erupted in the center of the ritual circle, engulfing Tracea Carol and the guards in a gigantic inferno. They died screaming in agony.
We had missed one of the guards, but taking five of them out as well as Tracea so quickly would make what was going to happen next much easier.
From the middle of the ritual circle, a winged demon appeared. It was colored bright red and had vicious claws, and fully black eyes.
Khalid went forward to battle Aec'Letec. Even as he did so, the horrible creature used it's Death gaze on all of us. Not one of us succumbed to it's gaze however; Protection from Petrification did the trick. Potions of Mirrored Gaze would have worked too.
Aec'Letec cast Silence at our party, which affected Jaheira, Imoen and Neera. Imoen and Neera countered the effects with vocalise, but Jaheira would be using her scimitar from now on.
Even with a warrior in front of it, Aec'Letec wasn't done with special tricks. The demon threw out a wave of paralysis at Branwen, who completely disregarded the effects. The whole party was immune, either from Rings of Free action, the Freedom of Movement spell, or via potion.
Finally it hit Khalid with its Vampiric Touch. There was no counter for that, but a simple healing potion helped recover some of the pain.
The rest of the party focused our attention on the remaining cult guard, and burned down his 70 hit points like he was a scrap of tissue paper. No more resurrection for Aec'Lectec.
Meawhile, the terrible tanar'ri, out of tricks, slashed at Khalid with bestial ferocity, but it's claws could not find purchase through his stellar defences. Khalid had been protected by Protection from Evil, Defensive Harmony, Cloak of the Shield, and Potion of Agility, so he was currently sitting at AC-12 or AC-20 vs slashing.
But what really did Aec'Letec in was the Staff of Striking crushing it's bones with a mighty strike from behind. Neera and Imoen chain cast invisibility on me. Turns out even a nabassu can't survive that many backstabs from the Staff of Striking. My final strike caught Aec'Lectec sqaure in the back of the head, striking with so much force that its eyeballs flew out and splattered across the opposite wall.
Aec'Letec let out a bestial cry, and sank into the ground, passing from this world back to the abyss it had spawned from.
I pointed at the demon even as it disappeared. "Feel free to come back anytime!" And gave it a thumbs down. "Faerun will always have champions ready to humble you."
The nabasu was gone.
---
Back at the tavern, Hurgan was truly surprised at the turn of events. "I have misjudged the cult's power. I never believed them capable of freeing the tanar'ri. Ye have destroyed it for now. Eventually it will be ale to return to this place. Rest easy, my friends. Ye did all that ye could do. Ye saved the Sword Coast from a demon. I'd reward you with the magical hammer I had promised, but I am ashamed to say it has gone missing."
"Ah, don't worry about it," I said. "We were glad to help."
-
And that's how it would have gone if I made the completely illogical decision to bring the dagger to Ulgoth's Beard in spite of not actually helping rid the realms of a threat. It's not like I'd get any sort of rewards for beating the demon down either.
So instead, we settled for passing Soultaker Dagger to the Harpers. Once it's in their hands, they could organize for someone like Elminster or Hurgan to destroy the demon in it safely.
Anti-climatic, I know.