CotN: Betrayer's Rise Boss Fight
Spoilers
DnD 5e Adventure - Call of the Netherdeep
Triggers
Spiders, Tentacles
Intro
- Add a more satisfying conclusion to Betrayer's Rise and highlight Torog as the main adversary of this dungeon.
- Adds a room between R12 (Threshold of the Exoriated) and R16 (Prayer Site) and a boss fight encounter.
- Best used when your party are friendly or neutral with the Rivals. If they are hostile with the Rivals maybe skip this encounter, as they will be fighting the Rivals and Aloysia soon after.
- Deadly for five 6th level characters. Scale easier if your party is low on health or resources.
Challenge
Torog laid a trap just inside the statue to prevent access to the Shrine of Avandra. The adventurers must get past the lair of a Balhannoth and two Female Steeders. Both creature stat blocks can be found in Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. The Balhannoth has warped the terrain inside the statue to match what it thinks the adventurers are looking for. In this case it created a fake shrine to Avandra.
Triggering the Encounter
The door in the Wailing Statue in room R12 (Threshold of the Exoriated) opens when all three pustules have been destroyed from its hands.
When this happens, read the following
As the doors open you get a comforting feeling. You're finally on the right track. You get a sense this is the place you've been looking for.
A ramp descends ahead of you, down from the doorway in the statue's chest. It's confusing because you realize the ramp should exit out the back of the statue, but seems to lead into an impossible space. You can see the ramp widens at the base into a chamber lit with amber light.
This appears to be a humble temple or shrine. The walls are wood planks, painted yellow. The floor is made of beautiful blue and gold tiles depicting a spiraling coins motif. Toward the back of the room is a statue of a woman with long hair, lit by flickering candles.
Flavor
Enhance the description by adding other items the characters desire - such as piles of coins, gems, books, scrolls, food, or portraits of their loved ones. The Balhannoth will try to display what the characters most desire. This also gives the party a chance to become suspicious of the trap.
Tactics
The fake shrine is 55 feet wide by 35 deep, with 15-foot ceilings. The doorway is 15 feet wide, and the ramp up to R12 is 20 feet long.
At the start of the encounter the Balhannoth is invisible and pressed flat on the ceiling near the doorway. The two Female Steeders are hidden in the front corners of the room on the ceiling. Unless a character detects the creatures with high (18+) Passive scores or has Blindsight, the character should start the fight in a Surprised state.
The Balhannoth's first round goal is to grab two characters with its Tentacle attacks and then teleport out of the room with its Legendary action. It will target the character wearing the Jewel of Three Prayers, if the party owns it. It wants to get out of the room when it has at least one character restrained.
In future rounds the Balhannoth will teleport and crawl up to get out of range of the characters. It ascends the statue or the three arms while trying to kill the characters it holds.
The Female Steeders will Ready an Action to move/leap and block the doorway once the Balhannoth has left the room. Their goal is to keep the characters separated. On future rounds they will attack with Sticky Legs, trying to grapple
During the fight Torog's voice will taunt the party, "You will never escape my sacred, devouring darkness mortals! Give in." and so forth.
Remember to use both the Balhannoth's Lair actions, and Legendary actions between the characters' turns for extra attacks, movement, forced teleport of characters, and selective invisibility.
Scaling
- Easier - Remove the Balhannoth's Bite attack and only make Tentacle attacks. Remove the Female Steeder's Bite attack or Poison damage.
- Harder - Especially if Rivals are traveling with the party, add one or two more Female Steeders.
Conclusion
The lair and fake shrine will block the path to R16 (the real Prayer Site of Avandra) until the Balhannoth is killed. If the Balhannoth gets low on health it will try to run away, up to R10 or east to R13. The party must hunt it down to complete the dungeon. After, the lair warps back into a hallway and the characters can proceed as described in the text for R16.
If the characters flee, the creatures will not give chase. They will lay in wait in the lair, biding their time for an hour as the Wailing Statue regenerates Pustules and the door locks again. The creatures heal to full after 8 hours.
Reward
Where the shrine used to be, lying on the floor of the hallway is a lump of silvery metal weighing 1 pound with two clear gems embedded in it. The remains of former victim's treasure. Characters can easily identify the metal as platinum and it can be appraised in town at 500g value. Gems are diamonds are worth 300g each and can be quickly removed from the metal with a Smith, Jeweler, Tinker Tool, or basic Dex check DC 15.
