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I'm not real thrilled with the options available as Judge in castle Jhareg. Finding both brothers guilty is not an option.

If a confession is obtained from the demon (at the expense of a valuable magical item), the only way to judge the demon is to find both brothers innocent. Not only is that unsatisying, but it results in a lesser XP award that finding the "right" brother guilty.

To make matters worse, if the demon is summoned for adjudication, the only way to condemn him is to condemn everyone to limbo forever, including both brothers, the guardian, and the townspeople. Otherwise, the demon is set free.

Well, call me old school, but I tend to think that setting Greater Demons free is never a good idea. Yet, the game distinctly frowns upon condemning everyone to limbo and you'll get a nice curse from the Mayor if you do.

My solution, if interested, is below.










Summon the Demon without protecting yourself from Evil. That prompts an immediate attack. Kill the Demon. This is not easy, especially solo.

If you don't want to go solo, enlist Daelan or Grimgnaw (make sure they level up if they haven't lately). If you can use scrolls, a Planar Binding purchased from Eltoora will summon another powerful ally. Load up on Ice Arrows and bring the demon and his summons down.

Solo, you will need to cast or potion every enhancement you can think of. Stoneskin or Greater Stoneskin are nice to have, as the Demon hits for a big number when he connects. The Demon will then summon a Succubus, who will cast Dispel Magic on you until your buffs are gone. Attack her (not the Demon) the moment she appears. Once she is killed, repotion or respell any enhancements that have been dispelled (Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace, Stoneskin, etc.).

After that, it is a straightforward battle, curing critical wounds if you get low, until the Demon is Near Death. He will then cast a pretty bad Death Spell. If you have an items that makes you immune to Death Magic, equip it prior to battle. Otherwise, try to get your saving throws as high as you can.

Make the Save, kill the Demon (not as large of an XP award as I would have thought given the difficulty), and then adjudicate the "right" brother guilty. All is well now well.

-Zebulon

Nice tactic.
Real good d&d thinking.

I must admit that I have little problem setting them all free - but then again, my characters are all chaotic good or similar. Then punishing them futher is not really an option for my characters.

Especially when both the brothers both were tricked into the crime by the demon. The lich brother thingy thought the children would be raised to live again after the "sacrafice" and the priest brother just thought they were going to have a party.

As for letting a demon go - well, it is not like they are in short supply, so releasing one back to his plane of existance will do little in the grand scheme.

I remember doing something really good with this one... wish I could remember what I did though.
But IIRC there is a good solution for this, you have to find some evidence to set both of them free and keep the demon captured or something like that.

The "best" I've seen is setting everybody free and keeping that Phylata(sp?) item thingy they all fight over. Which is like Zebulon says.

I've not found any other way of punishing the demon while freeing the village.
Not saying it isn't there, but haven't found/seen it myself.

Perhaps I remember it wrong, it has been a while.

The Phylactery

I tried the "keeping the Phylactery" approach.

It freed everyone, including the Demon (who cackled a bit after he left).

The item allows the bearer to to cast two Sanctuary spells a day. All that fuss over an item that lets someone cast two 1st Level Cleric spells? I think Eltoora offered me 150 GP for it. For this, an entire town has been kept in limbo for eons?

I decided that I'd rather have the fun of killing the Demon, plus the extra 150 XP for convicting the right brother, plus the 400 or so XP for killing the Demon. It's also a little more in keeping with a lawful good character to stand up to a chaotic evil demon, not to mention avenging the death of the innocents.

-Zeb

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you can kill karlat too, i got 600xp from him with my wizard and he just respawns instantly same as before after you kill him except after he respawns he cons as effortless.