Lykaia and the Nine Throats
The passage opens over a bowl of sand thirty feet across and eight feet down, and around its rim, at even spacings, are nine tunnel mouths. Nine. Somebody counted them and then named the place after them.
There is breathing in three of the mouths. Not in the other six, which is worse.
A woman is sitting on a flat stone at the bowl's edge with a hunting spear across her knees and a wolf's jaw hung at her throat. She has been watching you come down the corridor for a while. She looks along your line — not at your faces, at your hands and your feet and the way you carry your weight — and then she points the spear at exactly the right one of you.
"You," she says. "Come down. The rest of you can sit."
DM summary. A priestess who hunts with nine hounds and would genuinely rather settle this with one fight than nine. She offers single combat to first blood before anyone rolls initiative, she means it, and she has correctly identified the party's best fighter from thirty feet away.
The Boon
The Hound Nobody CountedOptional companion
A hound she never counted, fed and at heel — the party names their champion, not her
What it is. A half-grown two-headed hound, ribs showing, one head scarred blind. The Hound Nobody Counted was driven out of the litter before Lykaia numbered it — she keeps nine, and this was never one of them. It is not tame. It is fed, which for a dog of this blood is the same thing twice.
Where it comes from. Plant it in the first three rooms, because it has to have been fed twice: under the bench of a resupply room, or in a snare it has been in for a day. Late plant: twenty feet behind the party in the corridor into this chamber, on the smell off the meat rack. Feed it and say nothing; the players will name it themselves.
What it does here. She sees it before she sees the party, and pack law is the whole of her: a hound raised out of another's litter runs a debt to whoever raised it. She pays it with the one thing she meant to keep, the naming of the champion. The party puts forward whoever they like, openly, and the terms stand exactly as offered — no worsened terms for sending someone other than the one she picked, and no Deception DC 18, because nobody is pretending. The duel is otherwise unchanged: 75 hit points, first blood at 15 damage or a critical.
It cuts both ways, and this is the part to hold in your head. She is reading the animal, not the party's account of it. If they starved it, struck it, or drove it ahead of them as bait, she sees that instead, withdraws the offer before it is made, and the encounter opens in phase two with whoever did it first on her list. This is the one boon in the deck that can make its finale harder, so plant it knowing that, and let the table's treatment of a half-starved dog matter.
Given a minute on the rim beforehand it will also stand and stare down the tunnel mouths that have something in them, so the party knows which of the nine are held before initiative, and one round of warning on each wave after that.
What it doesn't do. It does not fight. Eleven hit points, a 4-damage bite, and it lies down flat and stays there once she raises her voice. She cannot call it into a wave and Howl the Throats does not touch it, which cuts both ways: it is never in the duel, it will not cross the scent-line, and it takes nothing off the howl clock. A party who never found the hound is offered the duel exactly as written below.
Card and numbers or jump to the card ↓
Arena
Battle map: The Broken Galleries — pages 15 & 16, 110 × 75 ft
The full cave is the den, and the printed pit is the sunken bowl: wipe the bridge, ramp its east side, and sand its floor. Chalk the nine throat-mouths around the rim, the kill-stone with its channel, and the moonlight circle over the bowl.
- Dimensions. 90 ft × 70 ft chamber, ceiling 35 ft, with a sunken bowl 30 ft across and 8 ft deep in the middle of it. The party enters at rim level on the east side.
- Light. A moon-hole in the ceiling directly over the bowl drops a 20-ft circle of dim silver onto the sand — genuine night sky, forty feet up, and the first sky anybody has seen since the Beginning. Everything outside that circle is dark. The hounds prefer the dark and she does not care either way.
- The bowl. Sand over old bone. Climbing in or out is a 8-ft scramble, no check on the ramped east side, Athletics DC 11 anywhere else. Sand is not difficult terrain, but it takes a print, and she reads prints.
- The nine throats. Nine tunnel mouths around the rim, each 5 ft wide, each the standing place of one hound. Three are occupied when the party arrives. Six are not, and the room should let the party count them.
- The kill-stone. A flat slab at the rim, worn dished in the middle, with a channel cut to a drain. She sits on it. It is exactly what it looks like and she will not pretend otherwise if asked.
- The scent-line. A ring of musk and ash laid around the bowl's lip. No hound crosses it while the circle holds. The line is the rule of the room and it is a physical object: a character with a stoppered flask of the stuff (there is one on the kill-stone) can re-lay a 15-ft arc of it with an action and a Survival DC 15, and hounds will honour it for one round even in open combat.
- The larder. A rack of hung meat in the north-west corner. Cutting it down is one action and every hound in the room must save against Split Attention.
Roster & Budget
Her, and three of the nine.
| Count | Creature | XP each |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lykaia, Priestess of the Nine Throats | 5,000 |
| 3 | Two-Headed Death Dog | 700 |
Base 7,100 XP; ×2 for four bodies = 14,200 adjusted, against the APL 9 Deadly budget of 14,400. That is as close to the number as this book gets, and it is the opening roster only.
Outside the number: the other six hounds, in two waves of three, on the howl clock. Each wave adds 2,100 base and pushes the count to seven and then ten bodies, which is a ×2.5 multiplier and roughly 25,000 adjusted by the end. The waves are the timer, and the duel prevents them entirely — which is the honest reason the alternate resolution here is the good deal it looks like.
Phases / Clock
Phase one — The Circle. She offers single combat before initiative is rolled. While the circle holds, no hound crosses the scent-line, she attacks only the challenger, and she stops the moment either of them draws blood or yields. This phase can last the whole encounter and end without a general fight.
Phase two — The Nine. Triggered by the circle being broken — a second character entering the bowl, a shot from the rim, anyone laying hands on a hound — or by Lykaia dropping to 75 hit points. She howls, and it is answered from six directions at once. What changes: she takes the wolf-shape and stops being able to speak, so every conversational route in this room closes at that moment; her speed goes to 50 ft; and the hounds come off their mouths.
The howl clock.
| Round after the howl | What arrives |
|---|---|
| 1 | Nothing. You hear them coming, from three different directions |
| 2 | Three hounds, one from each of three empty mouths, on opposite sides of the bowl |
| 4 | The last three, from the three nearest whoever is most wounded |
| 6+ | Nothing more. There were only ever nine, and she told the truth about that |
Combat Resolution
Five to eight rounds if the circle breaks, and the party will be fighting on three sides by round four.
- Round 1 of a general fight. She does not engage. She goes up out of the bowl onto the rim, howls, and starts using the tunnels — she fights the whole encounter as a raid, in and out of the dark, and she will not stand still for two rounds in the same place.
- Tactics. The hounds drive rather than kill: they bite, then position between a target and its way out, exactly the way the pack does everywhere else in this deck. She goes for whoever is healing, then whoever is casting, then whoever named terms and broke them, and she remembers which is which.
- The bowl is a trap. Down in the sand, everything above has high ground and the scramble out costs movement. A party that fights from the rim with their backs to the entry corridor holds the room; a party that goes down after her loses it.
- The weaknesses, discoverable, and both cheap. She hunts by scent: thick smoke, spilled vinegar, or a burst bag of pepper within 10 ft costs her advantage on Perception and gives her disadvantage against anything she cannot see, and it does the same to every hound (Survival or Nature DC 12 to think of it). And she cannot break her own word: terms she has agreed to hold, and she will lose a fight rather than go back on one.
- The meat rack is a legitimate answer to the whole pack. Three hounds saving against Split Attention is three hounds spending a turn eating.
- When she dies, she dies in the wolf-shape and comes back to her own face afterward, which is a thing the players will not expect and should be given a moment for.
Alternate Resolution
Roleplay — take the duel. She offers it first, in plain Greek, before anything is rolled:
"One of you fights me in the sand. To blood or to yield, not to death. If you win, you all walk out the way I came in and my hounds see you to the door. If I win, you leave your spears here and go back the way you came. If you refuse, I will hunt you through nine tunnels and I will be honest with you: I would enjoy that more."
The decision. She has already named who she wants: the party's best fighter. Sending someone else is allowed and she notices immediately.
| Choice | What it costs |
|---|---|
| Send the one she named | The terms stand as offered |
| Send someone else, openly | She shrugs and accepts, and the terms get worse: win and you pass, lose and you leave the spears and one other thing she picks |
| Send someone else, pretending | Deception DC 18 against her passive Insight of 17. On a failure the circle never forms and you are in phase two on the spot |
| Refuse the duel outright | Honest, and she respects it. The hounds take their mouths, she gives the party a ten-count to get back up the corridor, and the finale becomes a running fight in the corridor with none of the bowl's advantages |
If the party brought the Hound Nobody Counted, the middle two rows of that table fall away. She looks past everybody at the animal, says "That one I never counted," and gives the party the naming of their own champion on the terms as offered. She volunteers it before they can ask, because a debt she had to be reminded of would not be one, and she will not be thanked for it.
Running the duel. It is a real fight, one on one, and everyone else is watching. Use these:
- She fights at half her hit points (75) for the duel and does not use legendary actions. It is a bout, not a war.
- First blood is the first hit that deals 15 or more damage, or any critical. Either party may yield on their turn at any point, no check.
- Nobody else may act. A character on the rim who casts, shoots, aids, or steps over the scent-line ends the duel, and Lykaia's opinion of the party is set for the rest of the session.
- If the challenger wins, she puts her spear in the sand, says the challenger's name back to them if she has learned it, and keeps every word of the bargain including the escort.
- If the challenger loses, she stops. She does not finish anybody. The party leaves their weapons on the kill-stone and goes back up the corridor — and the DM should then let them roll d20 for a different finale, because F09 has resolved itself and losing a duel is not the same as losing a session.
- If the challenger yields early, she takes it, and thinks better of them for knowing when.
The third option nobody expects. She is a priestess and the moon-hole is why this chamber exists. A character who makes an offering at the kill-stone — anything genuinely valued, and Religion DC 14 to do it correctly — buys passage without a duel and without a fight. She will not ask for this and she will not hint at it. It is there for the party that looks up.
Scaling — APL 6 / 12 / 15
| APL | Adjustment |
|---|---|
| 6 | 105 hit points, five hounds total with two present, and the waves come every third round. Duel at 52 hit points. DCs −2 |
| 9 | As written |
| 12 | 188 hit points, twelve hounds with four present, and one Calydonian Boar-Warden in the ninth throat that she does not control and has been feeding. DCs +1 |
| 15 | 225 hit points, twelve hounds and two Boar-Wardens; add a lair action on initiative 20 — one tunnel mouth of her choice becomes the mouth she is standing in, anywhere on the rim. Second phase at 50% adds a legendary action. DCs +3 |
Exit to the Resolution
Boon Card
The Hound Nobody Counted
Small beast, unaligned · CR 1/4 (50 XP) · a companion, and not a combatant
AC 12 (natural armour) | HP 11 (2d8 + 2) | Speed 40 ft.
Skills Perception +6, Survival +4 · Darkvision 120 ft. · Passive Perception 16 · Two heads, the left one scarred blind · It hunts by nose, as everything of its blood does
Two Heads. It has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks and on saving throws against being blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, stunned, or knocked unconscious.
Never Numbered. It is not one of the nine and never was. Lykaia cannot call it, command it, or count it into a wave, Howl the Throats does not reach it, and she will say as much out loud the first time she sees it standing behind somebody else's knee.
Will Not Cross the Line. It will not step over a scent-line, down into the bowl, or into a duel, and no command gets it to. This keeps it out of single combat without the DM having to rule anything at the table.
Points the Mouths. Given a minute on the rim it stands and stares at each tunnel mouth with something in it, so the party knows which of the nine are held before initiative — and once the howl clock is running, which mouth the next wave is coming out of, one round before it does.
Eleven Hit Points. Any area effect that catches it drops it. It runs from anything that swings at it, does not come back until the room is quiet, and cannot be commanded into danger by anyone, including whoever has been feeding it.
Hurt It and She Knows. Lykaia reads how an animal has been kept the way she reads a print. If the hound has been starved, struck, or driven ahead of the party as bait, she withdraws the duel outright: the circle never forms, the encounter opens in phase two, and she treats whoever did it as a creature that has broken terms with her.
Bite. Melee, +3 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 4 (1d6 + 1) piercing damage. It bites only what has already bitten it, and then it runs.
Creature Cards
Lykaia is this finale's only inline card. The pack belongs to Beasts of the Hunt (W17) and its numbers live in the bestiary; the nine mouths and the scent-line are this room's.
Shared across rooms, so the full cards live in the bestiary: Two-Headed Death Dog, Calydonian Boar-Warden. Every mention above opens the numbers here on this page.
Lykaia, Priestess of the Nine Throats
Medium humanoid (human shapechanger), chaotic neutral · CR 9 (5,000 XP)
AC 16 (wolfskin, no shield, very fast) | HP 150 (20d8 + 60) | Speed 40 ft.
Saves Dex +9, Wis +8 · Skills Athletics +7, Insight +8, Perception +12, Religion +5, Survival +12 · Darkvision 60 ft. · Passive Perception 22 · Passive Insight 17
Legendary Resistance (2/Day). If she fails a saving throw, she can choose to succeed instead.
Legendary Actions (3/Round). She spends 3 legendary actions each round, one at a time at the end of another creature's turn, and regains them at the start of her own. She has none during a duel.
The Circle. While a single-combat duel she has offered is being honoured, no Beasts of the Hunt creature crosses the scent-line, she attacks only the challenger, she takes no legendary actions, and she fights at half her hit point maximum. The duel ends at first blood, at a yield, or the instant a third party interferes.
Reads the Line. On first seeing a group she identifies its most dangerous fighter and names them aloud. She is correct; the DM should simply pick the character the table would pick. She addresses that character for the rest of the encounter whether or not they answer.
Keeps Her Word. Terms she agrees to aloud bind her absolutely, including terms that cost her the fight, and she expects the same. A creature that breaks terms with her is the only target she pursues out of the chamber, and she will follow it for a mile.
Wolf-Shape. When the circle breaks or she first drops to 75 hit points she takes the half-wolf. Her speed becomes 50 ft, she loses her spear attacks and gains the bite, she has advantage on Perception checks that rely on smell — and she cannot speak or be spoken to. Nothing turns her back tonight.
Nose First. Within 10 ft of thick smoke, spilled vinegar, or scattered pepper she loses her advantage on Perception and has disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures she cannot see. Every hound in the room shares this and the party can work it out by watching one of them lose a trail.
Multiattack. Two attacks with the hunting spear, or three bites in the wolf-shape.
Hunting Spear. Melee or thrown, +9 to hit, reach 10 ft or range 20/60 ft, one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) piercing damage.
Bite. Wolf-shape only. Melee, +9 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) piercing damage, and a Medium or smaller target makes a DC 16 Strength saving throw or is knocked prone.
Howl the Throats (recharge 5–6). She calls the pack. Each hostile creature within 30 ft that can hear her makes a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or is frightened until the end of its next turn, and three Two-Headed Death Dogs arrive at the start of the round after next, one from each of three unoccupied tunnel mouths of the DM's choice. There are nine hounds in total and she cannot call a tenth.
Cut the Ring. She moves up to 30 ft without provoking opportunity attacks, so long as the movement begins or ends in darkness or in a tunnel mouth. She will not cross the scent-line with this while a duel holds.
Pack Answer. When a Beasts of the Hunt creature within 60 ft drops to 0 hit points, she moves up to 20 ft toward whatever did it and makes one attack against it.
Circle (costs 1). She moves up to half her speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
Set On (costs 1). One hound within 60 ft that can hear her uses its reaction to move up to its speed and make one bite attack.
Strike (costs 2). She makes one spear or bite attack.