B36 (Lucrecia's Retreat)

Lucrecia has a surprise in store for the party here. Through whatever means (perhaps throwing her weight around in front of Dorella, or utilizing her own innate powers), she has managed to shackle a shadow slime with an arcane ritual. It waits in the dark corners of the prison cells. I suggest the following encounter for a party of five adventurers:

• Lucrecia, Lamia Matriarch
• Shadow Slime (see Dragon #367)

Total: 3,000 xp (Level 11 Encounter)

When the party arrives, assuming negotiations fail, Lucrecia makes haste to open the door to the cell block, and releases the slime from its imprisonment with an arcane gesture. It eagerly slips into Lucrecia's chamber and douses the burning brazier, plunging the room into darkness (unless the party is carrying its own light source, in which case it puts that out, too). This is just fine with Lucrecia, whose darkvision grants her a pretty significant tactical advantage. The shadow slime puts out light sources as quickly as it can manage, going so far as to ready an action to extinguish a light if it becomes a recurring problem (though if that doesn't work it gives up and just focuses on staying alive).

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