Thursday 14 June 2007

Death of Zilkloog

Grim, Verschoyle, Sir Ivan, and Horgar Horgar travelled by battle-wagon to Zilkloog's village, along with Hurgadar and Primrose. They found that the entrance to the temple was under guard by gnoll mercenaries. The party fought their way in and survived a gnoll ambush in the main hall of the temple. They also encountered and summarily killed the young goblin priest.

The party then barged into Zilkloog's chamber and engaged the mind flayer. The nine-foot tall mind flayer they had seen on their previous visit turned out to be an illusion, as did the wall behind it. Behind the wall was hiding the real Zilkloog, a small creature that appeared to be a goblin-mind flayer hybrid. Hardly anyone failed their will saves and Verschoyle stopped Zilkloog teleporting away, so finishing him off did not take long.
I could only find pictures of regular-sized mind flayers.
On the way out, the chieftain of the village foolishly attacked the party, and they made short work of him. Sir Ivan held aloft the head of Zilkloog. The goblin population shut themselves in their huts, terrified.

Sir Ivan burnt Zilkloog's head and felt confident that his mission was complete. He now feels compelled to go to the Tomb of Dragith Nurn and put the spirit of the slain cleric Merred Nastor to rest. Grim, meanwhile, is plotting how he can extend his territory to encompass this new village.

Of course, the party carted away all the loot they could find in Zilkloog's lair, up to and possibly including the furniture (I can't remember whether you decided you were actually taking that). Notable items were a +1 longbow, a +1 buckler and a mithral breastplate (from the gnoll mercenary captain); and a ring of mind shielding and headband of intellect +1 from Zilkloog.

Rules clarification: Grim is not immune to illusions
There was some confusion about exactly what Grim, as a 4th-level Warforged Juggernaut, is immune to, and specifically whether he was immune to Zilkloog's illusion spell. At the time I gave the benefit of the doubt to the players, but I have just read the rules again and I'm pretty sure I was right first time. Grim is not immune to illusion spells such as Zilkloog's persistent image, or his shadow evocation.

Grim is immune to "all mind-affecting spells and abilities (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects". This doesn't give him a blanket immunity to spells of the Illusion and Enchantment schools, though, because not all of them are mind-effecting in the sense required. Specifically, persistent image and related spells are Illusion (figment) effects, which aren't on the list of things Grim is immune to. Terms in D&D are well-defined: a 'mind-affecting spell' is a spell with the [mind-affecting] descriptor, and nothing else.

This does make sense if you think of the image spells as creating a kind of hologram or light-sculpture, rather than reaching into the subjects' minds and causing them to hallucinate. Grim sees the illusion because it is in some sense actually there, even though it's not a physical object. Similarly, if Verschoyle is inside his globe of invulnerability he will still be able to see a silent image spell that is conjured outside his globe.

(Another problematic thing is what exactly it would mean to say that a character is 'immune to illusions'. Does it mean he simply doesn't see the illusion, or that he immediately recognizes it as an illusion, or that he recognizes it as an illusion only when he would have to make a saving throw against it? All three would lead to very different outcomes.)

Grim was still immune to most of Zilkloog's spells; he didn't have to make a save against the confusion spell, for example, and Zilkloog knew better than to target him with a phantasmal killer.

I know I seem a bit anal pointing all this out but I think Grim's immunities really would break the game if we allowed them to be more far-reaching than they actually are. The fewer effective options the bad guys have, the less interesting the game will get for everyone.
For example, Grim would not be immune to this.
A final note Grim may wish to bear in mind for his future plans: Grim is also not immune to a medusa's petrifying gaze attack.

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