Buffing Zarak: Turning up the pressure in Thither

Ed. Note—this post contains spoilers for Chapter Three of Wizards of the Coast’s Wild Beyond the Witchlight. If you are a player and not a DM running the adventure, turn back now!

By the time your players’ characters have arrived at the Wayward Pool in Thither, the second fey realm of the now-divided Prismeer, their suspicions that something is rotten in the state of Zybilna are proving true. They have encountered (and maybe defeated) Bavlorna Blightstraw in the realm of Hither. They may have met Nib, a tragic character doomed by Skabatha Nightshade to make amends for his ill-gotten wealth. They’ve either met Will of the Feywild and his Getaway Gang, or learned that Skabatha is hunting the young boy. By the time they meet Lamorna, the unicorn who haunts the Wayward Pool, they are primed to seek justice against Granny Nightshade. When they learn that Lamorna’s mate, Elidon, has possibly been imprisoned by the Hourglass Coven, their resolve will likely stiffen.

Fitting, then, that the designers have provided an outlet for that revenge. At this point in the adventure, your players may be interested in rediscovering their lost items, if you used the Lost Things adventure hook. Prismeer is such a wild and wonderful place, however, that they may have gotten distracted, or wondered just what their motivation should be. Just then a good, simple villain appears: the assassin Zarak, who has been sent by The League of Malevolence to take Lamorna’s horn from her.

Unfortunately, as written, Zarak is less than a speed bump. The characters are level four at this point in the adventure, and at 37 hit points and a 14 AC, your rogue will probably dispense of Zarak near the end of the first round of combat. If you proceed with the assassin as written, your players will be confused from a narrative perspective: “What was that? Was that supposed to be difficult? Whoever was trying to kill that unicorn isn’t really a problem—that must have been a random encounter instead of a major plot point.” Zarak should present a real danger for your PCs, or at least a real danger to Lamorna. The adventure provides Zarak a means to escape in his potion of invisibility, so there is nothing wrong with making this encounter hit hard and then fade away. If you run Zarak as a true assassin, you can really put pressure on the players by having him target Lamorna straight away.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Eventyr Games, who craft the excellent Wild Beyond the Witchlight DMs Bundle and Map Pack, suggest bumping Zarak to 67 hp and 16 AC. Doing so pushes Zarak’s CR to 6, which is probably close for a party of five fourth level characters. Eventyr’s Zarak is better, certainly, but even with Uncanny Dodge and Relentless Endurance he is unlikely to survive far into the battle. In order to make your characters feel anxious, Zarak should be able to accomplish his objective: wounding Lamorna so that she cannot escape. In order for that to be possible, we suggest further refining Zarak as outlined below. For this stat block we built upon Eventyr’s Zarak, and included statistics from EN World’s Level Up 5E Monstrous Menagerie. Feel free to grab our stat block below for inclusion in your own game.

Encounter Makeup

Even solitary assassins get the blues, so let’s give Zarak some cronies. Bizarrely, Zarak’s stat block as written has removed the sneak attack option, limiting his damage output per round to an anemic 20 damage per round IF he manages to hit both times (which will probably only happen 25% of the time) and IF he hasn’t been reduced to below 18 hp. Taking away some of the assassin’s best abilities (advantage on those behind him in the initiative order during the first round of combat, sneak attack, and substantial poison damage) means that Zarak as written is almost guaranteed to go down in the first round, probably without having damaged anyone in the party or his goal: Lamorna the unicorn. Eventyr gives Zarak a damage boost to 32 hp per round if he manages to connect both times with his thrown daggers, a likelihood only in the 33% range, now. This Zarak will probably make it into the second round, but if he’s forced to choose between attacking the characters or attacking Lamorna, you’ve robbed him of his narrative point, which is to make the characters care about Lamorna and Elidon. So let’s give Zarak back his sneak attack, some of the assassin’s features, and a couple of goons so he is guaranteed to land at least one sneak attack somewhere. We used the Assassin stat block from Level Up 5E as Zarak’s chassis, which means a successful sneak attack will do a whopping 37 damage with a +7 to hit. If Zarak is targeting a creature who hasn’t gone in the first round of combat, that roll is at advantage, which works out to roughly +11 to hit. Lamorna’s AC is 12, so the assassin is likely to hit his prey, almost instantly reducing her hp by more than half. We added two Cutthroats to the encounter to distract the characters and to allow Zarak to proc his sneak attack on either Lamorna or one of the PCs. The Cutthroats from LevelUp 5E are simply reskinned Spies from the Monster Manual: CR 1, 27 hp, AC 12, and an average damage of 17 per round if it connects with one sneak attack and one normal attack, a probability of only 25% or so—these two mooks are here simply to distract the PCs and give Zarak a shot at his goal. Your best move is to have one of the Cutthroats dash into melee range with Lamorna, allowing the other Cutthroat to shoot at her with their crossbow (with sneak attack), and giving Zarak the opportunity to use sneak attack as well. As written, the encounter suggests giving Zarak a surprise round, so it is very possible you could drop Lamorna in the first two rounds of combat. As a named NPC, giving Lamorna death saves or a chance to be healed can introduce a level of desperation for the PCs—they just befriended this unicorn, they probably don’t want to let her die!

Zarak’s Abilities and Action Economy

Here at Backyard Adventure, we enjoy playing in each other’s games. Aaron is a player in Chris’ Wild Beyond the Witchlight campaign, and Chris plays in Aaron’s homebrew Chronowheel campaign. In Aaron’s game, he set the characters against a Chronohag when they were level two. What’s a Chronohag? Well, it’s a hag that uses time magic, of course. Aaron designed a mobile enemy who could manipulate the battlefield by shifting time, giving “Granny Tock” a few legendary actions as well. Legendary actions at level two? We can hear you thinking. That’s way overpowered! But for a party of six second-level characters, played by experienced players, giving the Chronohag some additional action economy made for a gripping but winnable fight. The indie RPG Lancer deploys enemies such as these regularly, regardless of character level. The lower power enemies are called Elites, and the really dangerous ones are called Ultras. Elites get to take two full turns per round, while Ultras take four. Since legendary actions aren’t a full turn, an enemy with two or three legendary actions only rises to the level of an Elite. Really want to scare your players? Give an enemy n – 1 legendary actions, where n is the number of characters in the group. We’re not going to do that today, but it’s a handy tool to keep in the toolbox. We are going to give Zarak two legendary actions per round, with the choice of three different actions. We’ll give him an action we’ll call “cunning step” which allows Zarak to take the disengage action and move up to his full movement; a combined attack and debuff action called “low blow” where Zarak attacks with his dagger, doing damage and possibly reducing the target’s speed by half; and his “oh shit” action, which uses up both his legendary actions, deploying his Cloud of Daggers ability. These legendary actions give Zarak some mobility, a way to limit the mobility of others, and a “nuclear” option to dish out damage in a small area of effect. What’s the sum total of these effects? Let’s add it up. Remember that, as written, Zarak can only use his deadly poison attack on three melee attacks or up to 15 attacks that use ammunition (thrown daggers, folks, are not ammunition). During round one Zarak is likely to hang back and try to kill Lamorna, allowing his two cutthroats to provide him some front line cover.

Surprise Round

Zarak will always attack a creature that goes after him in the initiative order due to the advantage his Assassinate ability grants. The adventure suggests giving Zarak and his cronies a surprise round, which means that the assassin will likely achieve a critical hit against his target. If Lamorna is surprised, he will target her, certainly, doing a whopping 20d6 + 3 damage (2d6 + 3 from the hand crossbow, 6d6 from the poison, and a monstrous 12d6 from sneak attack) in the first round alone, an average of 73 damage, more than enough to drop the unicorn to unconsciousness. Nothing will motivate your players more than an assassin who drops their newfound friend in the first six seconds of combat.

One of the cutthroats should move into melee range with Lamorna, if she’s still standing (or if Zarak hasn’t gone yet), dashing if necessary, to make sneak attack an “always on” option for the rest of the fight. If Lamorna is already down or out of reach, the cutthroat should simply approach the closest character. The other cutthroat should fire their hand crossbow at the character adjacent to the cutthroat that just moved into melee, activating sneak attack. If the cutthroat hits, it will do 12 damage (five from the attack and seven from sneak attack), bringing your damage for the round to 85. If your first cutthroat didn’t need to dash, it may have hit to bring the total to 90. That is an alarming surprise round!

First Round

In the first full round of battle, you have simplicity with the Cutthroats and choice with Zarak. As a named NPC, I gave Lamorna death saves. This also meant, though, that I could keep raising the tension by having one of the enemies try to saw off her horn (this is probably something you should bring up with your players in the moment, as describing mutilation could certainly be beyond the pale for some). If Lamorna is down, the Cutthroat near her will use his action to try and get the horn, using his attack to force her to fail a death save. This is definitely a “grimdark” move, so get buy-in with your players that this is the kind of game they’d like to be playing. The other Cutthroat shoots at whichever character is either A) trying to save Lamorna or B) attacking their buddy, making sure to get sneak attack again. 12 damage.

Zarak is better in melee than at range, since he gets more attacks and more flexibility. He knows better, though, than to wade into a group of five or more characters. If there is a character on the outskirts of the group, he will move in and use his Garotte action. Ideally he’s able to use Sneak Attack here, but that will be a bonus. Why Garotte? Well, if he hits, he’ll be doing regular damage each round, and his AC goes up to 20 after using Meat Shield, a significant challenge for 4th level characters. A bonus? Attacks that now miss Zarak hit the grappled character, making for a real puzzle. If Zarak has Sneak Attack, his total damage this round is 29, not bad, and if not he deals only eight, but he’ll take it. He can also use his Low Blow legendary action to attack the PC he is grappling or another PC within range. If things look like they are going south already, or a spellcaster is causing problems, he’ll use his Swarm of Blades legendary action.

Second Round

By now, the Cutthroats are almost certainly dead, but they will simply continue their actions as outlined above: try to get sneak attack on characters or kill Lamorna. If Lamorna is dead (three failed death saves, meaning her horn is up for grabs) Zarak will do everything in his power to retrieve it and drink his potion of invisibility. Zarak will drag the character he is grappling towards Lamorna (or his crony), attacking anyone nearby with his daggers, using Rapid Attack on his turn to do even more damage. If Zarak has been reduced to 1/3 of his hit points and his two partners are down, he will simply try to flee, realizing this is tougher prey than he imagined.

Third Round

By this point, Zarak either has the horn and is trying to escape, realizes he needs to escape, or is on his last legs. Relentless Endurance helps out here, as does Zarak’s Uncanny Dodge. As long as he isn’t grappling anyone, he can use Assassin’s Whim to dash or disengage and start to make his escape. A chase may begin, in case we direct you to our Revised Chase Rules for 5e, in order to have a gripping pursuit through the forests of Thither.

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