I did get married on Friday. And I'm heading to England and Scotland for a couple of weeks next Monday (honeymoon). However, I do plan to have the remainder of the campaign details posted before I leave. I've been waiting a bit on one of my players who took notes during the final session and was going to type them up and e-mail me them. However, he hasn't seemed to have been able to get around to it. Thus, I might have to go strictly from memory, but given the complexity of the battle that will be a challenge.There are several UK resident posters on these boards; if you are at liberty to reveal any details of your itinerary, we may be able to give you recommendations of local things worth seeing/doing, places to eat, beers to avoid, and/or offers of emergency accomodation if your hotel bookings fall through or some such catastrophe strikes!
Mayhap the kind Mr Pett will show you his pet shoggoth...
I don't know if I can spare the sanity.
Mayhap the kind Mr Pett will show you his pet shoggoth...I did get married on Friday. And I'm heading to England and Scotland for a couple of weeks next Monday (honeymoon). However, I do plan to have the remainder of the campaign details posted before I leave. I've been waiting a bit on one of my players who took notes during the final session and was going to type them up and e-mail me them. However, he hasn't seemed to have been able to get around to it. Thus, I might have to go strictly from memory, but given the complexity of the battle that will be a challenge.There are several UK resident posters on these boards; if you are at liberty to reveal any details of your itinerary, we may be able to give you recommendations of local things worth seeing/doing, places to eat, beers to avoid, and/or offers of emergency accomodation if your hotel bookings fall through or some such catastrophe strikes!
I don't know if I can spare the sanity.
You're married - your SAN permanently set to zero upon uttering the Vow.
Mayhap the kind Mr Pett will show you his pet shoggoth...I did get married on Friday. And I'm heading to England and Scotland for a couple of weeks next Monday (honeymoon). However, I do plan to have the remainder of the campaign details posted before I leave. I've been waiting a bit on one of my players who took notes during the final session and was going to type them up and e-mail me them. However, he hasn't seemed to have been able to get around to it. Thus, I might have to go strictly from memory, but given the complexity of the battle that will be a challenge.There are several UK resident posters on these boards; if you are at liberty to reveal any details of your itinerary, we may be able to give you recommendations of local things worth seeing/doing, places to eat, beers to avoid, and/or offers of emergency accomodation if your hotel bookings fall through or some such catastrophe strikes!
Game Session #45 part 2- the finale continues....
Having recovered from the battle against the death knight, the adventurers are about to continue their search of Wat Dagon, when they again find themselves under assault. Two orbs of fire come streaking into the main shrine room searing Sir Roland and Argent. Hovering in one of the doorways, the heroes spot the source of the sudden attack. It is an olman tribesman from the looks of things- a terrible shaman who is hovering in the air. His legs have been hacked off at the knees, and he wears little clothing over his emaciated body. Magical power radiates from his ancient frame. The heroes take action against him quickly. A greater dispel magic is hurled at him to take out his magical defenses. Then Breca casts a miracle spell to weaken his resolve and then Yvy hits him with a feeblemind spell. The combination is devastating to the old sorcerer, and he is instantly transformed into a babbling old fool. At this point he no longer poses much of a threat to the heroes, but they decide to pillage his body, which has several magical items on it, including a potent magical staff of flame. After stripping him of his magic items they gag his mouth, bind him with rope and leave him hidden away in a nearby alcove.
Next they continue their explorations. They quickly find a staircase that winds its way up into one of the temple’s spires. They find only a single small chamber at the top of the stairs. It has two windows. One of the windows looks out into the ocean of gaping maw, while the other window has a completely different view. This one is a view of the waters beneath the waves, and it would suggest that the temple is actually completely submerged below the water. When the characters look out this window they can make out the vague form of an enormous, multi-eyed, squid-like monstrosity floating the darkness. There is something about its horrid form that tears at the mind, and makes one go mad. Fortunately, half the party is protected from insanity due to mindblank spells. Tommen is not so lucky, and despite his great strength of will, he finds himself succumbing to the madness. Perhaps it is in part to do with the fact that he alone recognizes the creature, for he suspects that thing lurking in the water is in fact Dagon- one of the most ancient and powerful demonlords in the abyss. As Dagon’s form rends his mind, he finds himself developing a sudden and intense fear of the water. He has to turn away from the window, and he begins to quiver; his stomach turns, and he vomits. His companions escort him away from the horror, and the shaking Tommen, turns from the window, never to look back.
They head back down to the main level, and they explore the surrounding rooms. They find no trace of the shadowpearl. However, there is one final doorway that they have not investigated, and this doorway leads into a strange tunnel. A tunnel that looks very organic, almost like the insides of a giant worm or an intestine. They are a little leery of entering the strange hall and they suspect some sort of nastiness awaits them inside. Thus, they again use powerful dispelling magic to try to deactivate or suppress any traps that might be waiting. Once this has been done, they quickly move through the winding worm tunnel. Every now and then it quivers a little, but the dispelling magic seems to be preventing it from doing anything more. When they come out, they find themselves in a room where the floor has collapsed, and hot, steamy water has flooded in. A rickety wooden walkway bridges the water and disappears off into the mist, a thick cloying mist the obscure most of the room. They follow the walkway, flying for the most part, and this proves to be quite a challenge for Tommen due to his new fear of water. Yet, with some prodding and pushing his companions help him along, and soon they find that the walkway leads to a single, large door made of some sort of strange metal that is glowing red with heat. There is a lock mechanism built into the door, and it looks incredibly complicated. The necessary spells are cast and the door cools to a regular temperature and then swings open. Beyond is another chamber where again the floor has been hidden by dark, fetid water. A fishy stink pervades the room, and in its center, rising from the murky waters is a massive oyster shell. The shell is dark in colour and covered with sharp, spiky protrusions. It is wide open, and inside it sits a large black pearl. However, the heroes catch only a brief glimpse of the pearl before the oyster protectively closes over its treasure. At the same time, three figures rise out of the water to defend the oyster. Two of them are particularly hulking, armoured hezrou demons, and they seem to be the source of much of the stench that infects the chamber. The third demon is even larger. It has a heavy looking boar like head, and bat-like wings. One of its most distinguishing features is the gaping, fanged mouth that occupies the place where its stomach should be. A nasty pincer protrudes from each side of the mouth. Tommen recognizes the thing as a Kuluchir demon, a type of demon that is reputed to be nearly as dangerous as a balor or molydues demon. This particular one has a strange look about it; its skin looks wet, bloated and rotting. It is almost as if it were some type of waterlogged undead. In its clawed hands it wields a deadly looking great axe.
The heroes quickly form their plan. Yvy decides that she will again try to get the pearl into the portable hole using telekinesis. However, the pearl being in the shell poses a problem, but Breca suggests that she just try to move the entire oyster, and put the whole thing inside the portable hole. Sir Roland and Argent will again push forward into melee, to keep the demons occupied, and Tommen and Allanah will do what they can to provide support with their spells.
They set their plan into action. Argent and Roland fly forward into the room, and engage the demons. A vicious melee breaks out as Roland begins slashing away with his blazing holy avenger, while Argent darts about contributing deadly stabs and thrusts with his demonbane rapier. Tommen and Allanah hurl various offensive spells into the fray- orbs of acid, cacaphonic bursts and the like. Yyv again casts telekinesis and attempts to move the oyster, while Breca readies the portable hole. Unfortunately, the oyster does not budge. Yvy is not sure why, but suspects it might be somehow fastening itself to the ground. She curses in frustration, and prepares to take her anger out on the demons. Breca puts away the portable hole and starts tossing bolts of glory at the demons. Demons howl and bellow as spells blast them and swords slice them. Yet, they are hardy, and they press hard against the mortals. Sir Roland is forced back towards the doorway. He is already suffering several terrible wounds from the biting maws of the hezrou, and his strength is low as he holds his position in front of the entrance. He is a bulwark of defense, keeping the demons from tearing into the spellcasters. Only Argent is up front; he has preoccupied himself with battling the deadly Kuluchir demon, and already he has suffered some nasty wounds from its axe. In return he has driven multiple puncture wounds through its chest with his rapier, though unlike the hezrous, this demon shows no sign of feeling pain. Sir Roland keeps slashing away despite the pain from his wounds, and he finally manages to fell one of the hezrous. He immediately starts hacking at the next one, which hops in to take his kindred’s place. Roland is suddenly distracted when at the far side of the room a large, glowing gate forms.
The hearts’ of the heroes sink, and terror wells in their souls as the fiend they were fearing the most strides through the portal. It is Demogorgon, and he looks mad! He is the prince of demons, and possibly the most feared demon in the Abyss. Luckily, he has just been through a battle with Orcus and his toughest minions; he is weak and tired. Still, he is the prince of demons, and even a weakened prince of demons constitutes as the most dangerous foe the party has ever faced. His duel baboon heads howl and shriek, and his tentacles writhe. His deadly gaze sets on the heroes and he prepares to flay them to shreds. He strides forward, and as he comes the oyster opens, and one of his tentacles snaps up the pearl and tosses it into one of his huge baboon mouths. In an instant the masterpearl is gone, swallowed by the prince of demons.
~Psst!!~ Grisly details of half a dozen character deaths await our gore-deprived STAP obits thread Sir Dungeon! Well, ok, we got the kill count but not the gruesome details of messy maimings and detrimental dismemberments!
I just got back from my Honeymoon in the UK, so I haven't really had internet access in the past two weeks. I plan to try and get that final section of the journal finished soon now.
~Psst!!~ Grisly details of half a dozen character deaths await our gore-deprived STAP obits thread Sir Dungeon! Well, ok, we got the kill count but not the gruesome details of messy maimings and detrimental dismemberments!
The battle against the Prince of Demons begins!
Most of the party has clustered near the entrance to the pearl chamber, allowing them to hurl spells into the room. Argent, and Sir Roland where the only two gutsy enough to hurl themselves directly into the fray, but the with the arrival of Demogorgon they both realize that they are in trouble. The wounded Sir Roland flies back to the door and positions himself in front of it to defend his companions, and Breca provides him with much needed healing. Argent finds himself alone in battle with the Kuluchir demon without his usual array of abjurations to protect him. He is no coward, and he stands his ground, knowing that the fate of the Flaness may depend on this fight. Blood pours down his chest from his wounds, but he finds the strength to jam his demonbane rapier into the fiend a couple of more times. The fiend is terribly wounded, but it refuses to fall. A hideous grin spreads across its rotted, porcine face, and with its massive axe it cuts Argent down. The swordmage falls into the dark waters of the chamber. Argent’s companions boil with rage, and an instant later a barrage of devastating spells blast the body of the hulking Kuluchir demon into chunks of wreaking ichor. At the same time Sir Roland cuts down the final hezrou demon. Tommen lets loose a Mordenkeinan’s disjunction spell, that encompasses Demogorgon, he hopes to dispel any protective wards that the Demonprince might have active and possibly destroy the shadowpearl in the process. He is uncertain of the success of his spell, but it does close the open gate behind the Demon Prince, and it seems to further arouse his ire.
A howling Demogorgon strides forward, and Sir Roland bravely stands to oppose him. The knight feels no fear, and the beguiling gazes of the Demon prince seem to have no effect on his mind, which is imbued with the strength of his god. He knows that he is going to die, but for him there can be no greater enemy, and with luck his sacrifice will contribute to the Demogorgon’s demise. He raises his holy avenger, and begins feels its power coursing through him. He then hurls himself at the Demon Prince and begins slashing away. The blade bites deep, and causes Demogorgon to feel pain. However it doesn’t change the fact that Sir Roland, though blessed by Heironeous, is still but a mortal. The Demon Prince strikes back, smashing the paladin with his mighty tentacles. Bones shatter, and the paladin collapses. The tentacles keep on hammering, and the paladin’s spine is shattered. His corpse sinks into the waist deep water, and Demogorgon cackles with hateful glee.
Yvy desperately puts a wall of force up between Demogorgon and her companions. It is too late to save Argent or Sir Roland, but she knows that if he gets among the heroes he will tear them apart. She hopes to at least buy the heroes some time to formulate a plan. Breca reaches into his Haversack and pulls forth the Iron Flask of Tuerney the Mad. The flask jostles in his hand as it still struggles to hold the essence of Obox-Ob.
“Drop the force wall Yvy!” commands Breca.
She does as asked, and Breca pulls the runscribed crystal stopper from the flask. Stinking yellow smoke gushes out of the flask, billowing into the chamber of the master pearl. The smoke quickly assumes a more material form, and in seconds the huge, droning horror that is Obox-Ob stands before the Prince of Demons!
Ooooh!! Finally!! This is so good! This is so Good! Type faster bard!! =D
(And on a more personal note, I wish you All Congratulations and Happiness in this new stage of your life my friend!)
(Oh and PS, a certain Rouge/Barbarian/Ranger/Scout may be back in a certain town in the very near future for a couple/few weeks so please be sure to warm and save a seat for him! ;-)
Thanks James. Keep me posted on your schedule. Have you stared getting involved in some pbp games on this board? I see a few aliases under your name now.
Ooooh!! Finally!! This is so good! This is so Good! Type faster bard!! =D
(And on a more personal note, I wish you All Congratulations and Happiness in this new stage of your life my friend!)
(Oh and PS, a certain Rouge/Barbarian/Ranger/Scout may be back in a certain town in the very near future for a couple/few weeks so please be sure to warm and save a seat for him! ;-)
Thanks James. Keep me posted on your schedule. Have you stared getting involved in some pbp games on this board? I see a few aliases under your name now.
Hey! No name no names! lol
But ya, I sure have started to pbp some, 'tis balm for my adventurers soul it 'tis' =)
I've been following your 'I swallowed a bug' pbp game too, they've got a good crew together there and things look to just be getting interesting! ;-)
I have to admit that I'm finding the final stretches of this fight very hard to write up. I want to do it justice, but my memory of the details has been slipping (it was a very long battle). I had asked one of my players to take notes during the battle, which he did, but then he took them home saying they were chicken scratches that I wouldn't be able to decipher. He told me he'd type them up and forward them along, but I have yet to receive them and I'm not sure if I will. I had been holding out on writing up the final fight, hoping I'd get the notes. Anyhow, right now I'm trying to wing it, but I feel many of juicy details are being lost, so my apologies. When I post the rest my players will probably be bombarding me with e-mails with corrections and omissions, so I may send it to them first to see if they can fill in some blanks. As a result the final stretch of the fight will probably be a couple of days away.
I have to admit that I'm finding the final stretches of this fight very hard to write up. I want to do it justice, but my memory of the details has been slipping (it was a very long battle). I had asked one of my players to take notes during the battle, which he did, but then he took them home saying they were chicken scratches that I wouldn't be able to decipher. He told me he'd type them up and forward them along, but I have yet to receive them and I'm not sure if I will. I had been holding out on writing up the final fight, hoping I'd get the notes. Anyhow, right now I'm trying to wing it, but I feel many of juicy details are being lost, so my apologies. When I post the rest my players will probably be bombarding me with e-mails with corrections and omissions, so I may send it to them first to see if they can fill in some blanks. As a result the final stretch of the fight will probably be a couple of days away.
If that works out well and permits you to fill in the details, so much the better.
I know I had a hard time trying to recall the chapters following Vanthus' final demise (well, as an opponent...), so it'll be interesting to see if your group can pull it together and get us some flavor text to go with the character deaths. :)
Unfortunately, I haven't received much feedback from my players, so I will have to do the best I can at finishing up this journal from memory.
As for what's going on with our game...
Well I just ran a Call of Cthulhu adventure that was a lot of fun. I'm not sure I'll get to journaling it, unless there seems to be some interest. I've also started running Keep on Shadowfell, but we've only done one session of it. It was a fun game session, but I'm not that excited about the adventure so I'm not sure if we'll get to finishing it or not. We were going to return to it this weekend, but Breca's player is away and his new character (an elven ranger) was pretty important in the Keep on Shadowfell, so I'm post-poning it. Instead, I'm running a homebrew Mutants and Masterminds adventure this weekend. I haven't run a superheroes adventure in over a decade. I used to play the Marvel superheroes game, in fact it was my first rpg. I'm excited about giving M&M a go, but once again I'm not sure if I'll get to journaling it.
In the more long term, I may start running the Second Darkness AP either for 4E or for the Pathfinder rpg, depending on what my players decide they would prefer. Breca's player also plans to give me some gm relief in the fall by starting a Call of Cthulhu campaign, so we may do some of that before I get going with second darkness, and we might be rotating between the two.
Here it is, the final battle with Demogorgon. There will still be an epilogue coming, but this is the goods.
Breca (dwarf, cleric/demonwrecker 20)
Argent (Air Gensai, fighter/swashbuckler/wizard/abjurant champion/eldritch knight 20)
Yvy (human, sorcerer/malconvoker/fate spinner 19)
Tommen (human, wizard/loremaster/fate spinner 19)
Allanah (human, wizard/cleric/mystic theurge/abjurant champion 19)
Sir Roland (human, paladin/knight of the chalice 18)
A look of genuine fear spreads across the duel visages of the Prince of Demons. For an instant the fury and rage drain from him, and his tentacles fall limp. Obox-Ob is only disoriented for a brief instant, and he soon sees his most hated enemy before him and starts stabbing at him with his scorpion-like stingers. In desperation, Demogorgon turns towards one of the walls of the chamber, and moving his tentacles with arcane purpose he shapes a great hole in the “stone”. Beyond is the central shrine where the party fought the death knight, and the Prince of Demons hurries through the gap into the great shrine. Obox-Ob follows after him. The shrine is a much larger room, and sufficient in size for the two demon lords to battle it out. The two massive foes face off against one another. The insane droning of the millions of insects that crawl across Obox-Ob’s body echo through the chamber drowning out the savage howls of Demogorgon’s baboon heads. The Prince of Demons shakes off his initial fear, and focuses his wrath on the demon lord of vermin. The two lock in battle, tentacles clashing with stingers. Obox-Ob brings allies to the fight by magically enlarging two scorpions that were crawling across his body. They surround Demogrogon, and are even larger than the Demon Prince. With their massive pincers they attempt to seize him.
The heroes take advantage of the conflict to haul the bodies of Sir Roland and Argent out of the dark water, and resurrect them with the powerful staff of life. With this done they hurry to aid Obox-Ob in his fight against the Demon Prince.
The sight of the two demon princes locked battle is not a sight meant for mortal eyes, and the keening drone of Obox-Ob burns their ears and tests the limits of their sanity. They would happily stand back and watch Obox-Ob destroy Demogorgon, but the Prince of Demon’s is too powerful. It is quickly becomes clear that he can beat his hated enemy, for the rotting disease that courses through his tentacles is causing Obox-Ob’s exoskeleton to crumble and fall away in great chunks. Furthermore, the deadly poison of Ob’s sting is having no effect on the Prince of Demons. To make matters worse, Demogorgon’s paniced minds start to realize that they are winning, and his confidence and rage pour back into him. The ferocity of his assault grows, and Obox-Ob’s piercing drone becomes one of pain.
The next few seconds of pitched battle seems to last for hours. Breca doesn’t let morale convictions stand in the way of his objectives, and he uses his healing magic on Obox-Ob, allowing the demon to keep on fighting long after Demogorgon should have destroyed him. The rest of the heroes do what they can to reestablish some of their arcane defenses, and pummel Demogorgon with offensive magic. At one point one of the magically enlarged scorpions gets a lucky grip on the Demon Prince, and he finds himself unable to get free of its grasp. With Demogorgon pinned, it looks for a moment as though, the heroes might be able to take advantage of the situation and hammer him down with magic. Their hopes are quickly shattered, as he uses a dispel magic effect to return the scorpion to its normal size. He then lashes out in retaliation. Obox-Ob does not relent, but he is over matched and eventually the demon lord of vermin is defeated. His corpse melts away into a seething mass of crawling vermin, and with him destroyed it is just the heroes and Demogorgon that remain. The Prince of Demons is starting to feel the wounds of his battles at this point, but the power of the Abyss runs strong in his body, and it seems to heal with uncanny speed.
He focuses his wrath on Breca. He towers over the dwarf and begins thrashing him with his tentacles and biting with his fangs. Unlike Sir Roland, Breca is not immune to disease, and even his dwarven fortitude is not enough to save him from the rotting touch of the tentacles. Its effects show instantly, and Breca’s flesh begins to fester and peel away from him. Desperately, he tries to blast the demon prince with a bolt of glory and Demogorgon’s own reptilian flesh bubbles and boils as a holy bolt hits him in the chest. Argent and Sir Roland both rush to Breca’s aid, hoping at the very least to distract the demon from their captain. Argent’s true desire is to get in close and channel a spell into the Demon Prince through his sword, but as he closes on the demon his eyes meet his duel gaze. For an instant, Argent can’t look away from the hypnotic eyes, and a savage madness consumes his mind. The gensai runs off, slathering and savagely swinging at anything that gets in his way. In retaliation the demon reaches down, sinks his teeth into the dwarf and picks him off the ground. Blood and entrails gush out of Breca and more of his rotting flesh falls away. With a final, bone crushing chomp he ends the dwarf’s life. Then the Prince of Demons unceremoniously drops the corpse to the floor, and seeks out a new opponent. He feels a sudden shot of pain shoot through one of his reptilian legs, and he looks down to see Sir Roland hacking at him with his holy blade.
“It seems I must kill you again knight of the chalice. I will savor every death I give you, and soon one of them will be permanent.”
Again the Prince of Demons lays into the knight, while Yvy, Tommen and Alannah hurl their most devastating spells at him. Some he shrugs off with no sign of injury at all; others penetrate his spell resistance and cause him shriek in agony. Sir Roland tries to fend them off, but the tentacles come in once again, wrapping themselves around him. He is lifted off the ground and bones snap, crackle and pop in dozens of places.
Barely alive, Sir Roland is raised up to one of the baboon mouths, and its teeth bite into his head turning it to mushy pulp. The corpse is hurled to the ground, and the mad demon prince searches for his next victim. However, Roland’s sacrifice gives Allanah a chance to dart to where Breca has fallen and use her divine magic to bring him back from death. Meanwhile Yvy continues to hurl magic at him, while Tommen casts a powerful spell that transforms him into a mighty red dragon.
The dragon unleashes its flaming breath at demogorgon, and the smell of burning fur fills the chamber. Yet just like Argent, Tommen’s dragonform meets Demogorgon’s gaze and is driven to insanity. The mighty creature thunders off towards the pearl chamber, slathering and shaking its head in confusion.
A healed Breca, rises to his feet, and Allanah rushes for safety. He conjures a final bolt of glory that he hurls at the Demonprince, and the wounded demon staggers back. Enraged that the dwarf is alive again, he promptly tears into him once more, and in seconds Breca is dead for the second time since his arrival in Wat Dagon.
Demogorgon is quite wounded now. The mortals have caused him more pain than he had ever believed possible from such insignificant beings. However, they are in trouble. Argent and Tommen have gone mad; Sir Roland and Breca are dead. Yvy and Allanah are the only two who can still fight, and they have expended their most powerful spells. For a final time, Allanah manages to get to Breca and use the staff of life to bring him back from the dead. This time Demogorgon takes his rage out on her and makes sure she will never do it again. With a horrific blow from one of his tentacles he sunders the staff, destroying the party’s most potent magical item. He then rips Allanah’s arms off and bites off her head, leaving her mangled corpse on a stone floor that is growing ever more drenched in blood.
In the chaos of the attack on Allanah, Breca manages to stagger away. He gets to Argent and casts a heal spell that brings the gensai back to his senses. Argent looks around, his mind taking in the carnage that the demon prince has wrought. He knows that he has one chance, one chance to land a killing blow. His magical defenses are gone, and if he doesn’t land the blow Demogorgon will slay him in an instant. Breca and Yvy’s magic are nearly spent; if he falls they will fall soon after. He focuses his mind, readies his rapier, gives a quick farewell bow to Breca and hurls himself forward. As he approaches, Demogorgon tries to swat him away with a tentacle. It is a grazing blow, and the agile gensai tumbles under it, putting him in close- close enough to thrust with his rapier. Tapping into his arcane powers, he channels the most powerful spell he has left through the blade, using a wraith strike spell to ensure pierces the demon’s hide. He leaps into the air, and the holy blade plunges into Demogorgon’s stomach. The eldritch energy detonates inside him, and the demon’s entire body convulses and shakes. His twin heads howl and bellow, his mighty tentacles crash to the ground, and his saurian legs buckle. The Prince of Demon’s body falls to the gore stained floor, and twitches for a few seconds before going still. Demogorgon is dead! The massive corpse quickly begins to dissolve, and as it does an immaterial crown rises from it ruin. It is the crown of the Prince of Demons. In that instant Argent realizes that having landed the killing blow entitles him to make a bid for the crown, and potentially take the throne. It is a possibility he won’t even entertain, and he realizes that this was what Malcanthet had wanted him for. With no one else in the room trying to claim the crown, it floats out of Wat Dagon seeking out the next Prince of Demons.
Breca moves towards Demogorgon’s corpse, and in the vile sludge that it has become, he sees the master pearl. The sound of single pair of hands clapping breaks the silence. Argent, Breca, and Yvy turn. Standing at the back of the room they see Iggwilv and her wolf headed apprentice Landerbold.
“It seems I have underestimated you. I did not think you had what it would take to fell one as mighty as Demogorgon, though it looks like he gave you a fight that be haunting your dreams for many years to come. I am here to collect on one of the favours that you owe to me. The flask of Tuerny the Mad, served you well, but it is my wish to have this artifact. Bring it to me.”
The heroes look at eachother.
Yvy whispers, “We are in no shape to be arguing with the likes of her right now. “
The trio nods in agreement, and Breca searches out the flask. He then hands it to Iggwilv. She smiles.
“That absolves you of the favour you owe me Breca. The rest of you are still in my debt. I will seek you out to collect one day. Expect to hear from again.”
With that she and Landerbold make their exit, leaving the heroes to deal with corpses of their fallen comrades. Breca locates Tommen and cures his insanity. The bodies of Allanah and Sir Roland are brought back to the material plane to be resurrected, and the Shadow pearl is put into the portable hole. The heroes then depart Wat Dagon, and swiftly transport themselves to their home plane, just before the horde of demons waiting outside for them can sink their teeth into the heroes.
Awesome!!
Thanks Dax! I hope you like the conclusion.
Hey, Marvel Supers was my first RPG experience too. Small world, huh.
I've been enjoying your journal very much and hope you are able to finish it.
A most worthy recollection of the final battle with the Prince of Demons, Sir Dungeon, most worthy indeed.
Thanks guys. This is probably about the end of this campaign. Though I may be inclined to pull the heroes together for a reunion and epic adventure in a few months. We shall see.
Here is my brief epilogue.
Epilogue: With the heroes gone, Wat Dagon sits quiet. Iggwilv and Landerbold emerge from the shadows. The witch queen moves forward to the corpse of the demon prince. A black mist has formed in a small cloud above the remains of the demon. Iggwilv kneels down examining the mess. Its stench offends even her seasoned sense of smell. Carefully she removes the stopper from the flask and the mist flows in. A smile crosses her face, and she inserts the stopper back into the flask. She turns to Landerbold.
“It is done. His remaining essence is mine."
In the days following the death of Demogorgon, the master pearl is analyzed, and it is Mordenkeinan, Tommen, Yvy and Breca come to the conclusion that if the pearl is destroyed the other pearls will be rendered inert. They pray their theory is right. Destroying the artifact could prove to be very difficult task, but to solve the problem they return to the Court of Stars. There they are hailed as great heroes, and the master pearl is dropped into the fountain of beauty. The enchanted waters of the fountain are enough to seemingly destroy the terrible artifact, and the eladrin cheer as the vile pearl sizzles into nothingness within the waters of the holy pool.
With the threat of the Savage Tide averted, the heroes go forth with new hope. All the heroes are recognized by King Skotti of Keoland as saviours to the Flaness, and are knighted as an honour.
Breca returns to the colony of Vessarin, which he had established after the fall of Farshore and named after Vessarin Catherly, Farshore’s priest. He continues to oversee the colony, but focuses on the development on the Ansparr Consortium’s trade routes between the Isle of Dread and Gradsul. He continues his work as a priest of Procan, and with the support of King Skotti a large temple to Procan is built in Gradsul. He also finally gives into his mother’s wishes and starts considering some of the dwarven women she has been trying to find for him to take on as a wife.
Argent becomes the dean of the Graymalkin Academy, but he too spends much time in Vessarin where he rebuilds his tavern the Parrot Docks, which had been destroyed by Vanthus. As usual, he continues to womanize and seek out ways to make himself ever more powerful.
Tommen and Yvy find themselves spending most of their time in the city of Greyhawk. There they mingle with the likes of Mordenkeinan and the Circle of Eight. Tommen contines his magical studies, and Yvy continues to seek out ways to battle the forces of the Nine Hells and the Abyss, as well as salvage her own soul from eternal damnation.
The heroes still get together on a semi regular basis, having been through so much together they have found that they have a bond that cannot easily be forgotten or broken, no matter how much time and distance comes between them.
Thanks Brent. It was a good run. I've run several campaigns over the years, but this was the first one that took the PCs all the way to 20th level, so that was a big achievement for us. The journal was a lot of work, I'm not sure if I've got the stamina to do it again if I run another campaign.
I can imagine that PHD, (Hey, I Just got that! You're a Doctor of Dungeonering! lol Boy the Sun musta been making me slow! lol)
But having been fortunate enough to play with you F2F before, I think if you were to insist on or reward Player's journals, it may make your job all the easier no? It'd just be a shame to deprive the world of your obvious storytelling skills ;-)
Well I had been awarding 50xp per level per journal. So several players had been writing journals, and I would always add those into my posts. For instance all the letters by Captain Breca are written by Breca's player, and several of Argent's player journal were either posted independently or worked into my own journal. However, I didn't particularly encourage them to merely recap game sessions, as that gets pretty dull, so I let them do whatever sort of journal they wanted and took on the responsibility of writing the (drudgerous) recounts. However, I don't particularly like writing in the 3rd person, but as the dm I didn't have that much choice. I might be a player in an upcoming Call of the Chthulhu campaign, and if that's the case I might give a more first person in character journal a go.
I can imagine that PHD, (Hey, I Just got that! You're a Doctor of Dungeonering! lol Boy the Sun musta been making me slow! lol)
But having been fortunate enough to play with you F2F before, I think if you were to insist on or reward Player's journals, it may make your job all the easier no? It'd just be a shame to deprive the world of your obvious storytelling skills ;-)
Thanks Thomas, the feedback from people on the board sure helped to inspire me to keep it going and see it through to completion.
Did you ever figure out who became the new Prince of Demons? (Since none of the PCs stepped up for it, was it even important to you guys?)
I never rolled it, but for me it's a toss up between Dagon and Orcus. I think Orcus is more deserving, and I really like both demonlords. I'll take votes from anyone out here. What do you guys think- Dagon or Orcus? I may actually do an epic adventure to as a continuation of all this in a few months, so I may need to know.
I never rolled it, but for me it's a toss up between Dagon and Orcus. I think Orcus is more deserving, and I really like both demonlords. I'll take votes from anyone out here. What do you guys think- Dagon or Orcus? I may actually do an epic adventure to as a continuation of all this in a few months, so I may need to know.
I'll toss my home-brewed baddie Dardaptoerebus in the hat.
However, if such a nomination is not in the cards, then I'd go with Dagon - he's older than dirt, has a Lovecraftian name and is just plain nawsty. All positives in my book. ^_^
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I was noodling through possible endings for this AP that were more redemptive, to balance out the "fight evil with evil" theme of the last few chapters. I had thoughts of a PC taking the crown of the Prince of Demons, then submitting himself to the Court of Stars as a prisoner. The evil power of the crown would be sequestered away from the Abyss, but at great (near infinite) personal cost.
Just a thought....
P.P.S.: Also, Dagon carries over to Golarion, whereas Orcus does not. Which way you go I would recommend to dovetail with which rules set your epic campaign is to be using...
I'm a big Dagon fan so...
Anyhow it looks like I'll be running Second Darkness campaign in the near future. I'll see about keeping a journal again, but I'm not sure if I can manage it, at least not with the level of detail my last one had, but we shall see.
I'm a big Dagon fan so...
Anyhow it looks like I'll be running Second Darkness campaign in the near future. I'll see about keeping a journal again, but I'm not sure if I can manage it, at least not with the level of detail my last one had, but we shall see.
Hrmmmm. Maybe you can dragoon your fellow dice jockeys to sucking it up and doing the legwork for you ?
Well they have always been doing some, but never as thorough as I really wanted to really document the campaign, though I always enjoyed their in character writing. The letters from Captain Breca were always favourites- though I think that player wants to run an illiterate elven hill billy now, so we'll see what he comes up with.
Well they have always been doing some, but never as thorough as I really wanted to really document the campaign, though I always enjoyed their in character writing. The letters from Captain Breca were always favourites- though I think that player wants to run an illiterate elven hill billy now, so we'll see what he comes up with.
I was thinking that perhaps the xp rewards need to increase with character level to 'make it worth their while'? I mean, after-all, what's 50xp to a 18th+level character?
That's what I was doing
I believe PHD said 50 per level, so that'd be 900. Not too shabby, wish I'd thought of that before I started our journal myself!
If you ever want to read it I'll post the link, but it's in Dutch.
I believe PHD said 50 per level, so that'd be 900. Not too shabby, wish I'd thought of that before I started our journal myself!
If you ever want to read it I'll post the link, but it's in Dutch.
Ah, oops! My Bad...Ok, then how about Reward AND Punishment? XP reward for those who do and xp (or some other kind ) of penalty for those who don't contribute Something at least? After all, the Journal is for the benefit of all and I'm sure all the players enjoy it. The DM already does 10X the work of anyone else, why should he/she be fully responsible for the journal too?
Anyway, just an idea