Pathfinder Villain of the Week #6: Desert Church of the Serpent Cult (BBEG and encounter)
An asura rana sired a half-fiend royal naga, and set it to corrupting and destroying the religions of the region. Finally, you track it back to it's profane temple, a temple formerly to Irori. You confront the monster in its church...but it's a trap! The Titanaboa and dark naga rise behind you, as 12 nagaji high guardians cluster around their master, and asuras attack!
This encounter is CR 27 technically, but is more like CR 28.
With 12 6th level nagaji fighters (all high guardians with a teamwork feat) and six of the adukhait asura, there are plenty of lower level minions to keep the battlefield busy. Each fighter can take the hit for the royal naga, so that substantially increases its threat. It can spellcast and still attack via Quicken spell. It can use its whip to drag folks into its own range (and that of its minions) one at a time, while minions keep the others at a distance. The Greater Balor Whip trick means one whip attack, drag a victim in range, then 2 sword attacks via haste *and* 5 bite attacks...Take a good look at the spell selection and mesmerist special abilities...these allow for a lot of unique tricks involving the minions. And the fiendish titanaboa will certainly help keep folks distracted!
In a long running campaign, note that the mesmerist has a lot of followers.
Its Leadership score grants it over 40k 1st level troops, and a lot of those would be nagaji warriors or fighters, as would many of the other followers. But there's no reason at all there would not be rogues, mesmerists, etc. With Buree Ichcha, the half fiend royal naga mesmerist/fighter able to manipulate so many people so easily, a wide variety of un-related forces could be arrayed against the PCs across the campaign. Discovering the cult could be a whole arc by itself. Convincing people it was real when some folks have had their memories altered could be a real beast.
For the encounter, consider the guards, the asuras, and the royal naga to be inside the church. The dark naga and the titanaboa are outside, the titanaboa actually hidden under the sand in a moat around the church (It was assisted in its stealth check by numerous nagaji and has the bonus it would have in a swamp, making the DC to notice it on the way in 30 if PCs look.) It will allow characters in, to attack them from behind once they engage the defenders inside. The titanoboa will smite a paladin or goodly cleric by preference.
The cult assassin is added for campaign purposes, and should not be used in the encounter unless you really want to be nasty.
Click here for pdf of characters/monsters, battle map by Maps N’ Quests, and a printable set of encounter notes.
