Goblin Squad Member. RPG Superstar 6 Season Star Voter. Organized Play Member. 2,529 posts (12,368 including aliases). 4 reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 16 Organized Play characters. 23 aliases.
You clear the rest of the hobgoblins and allies from the fortress and burn their taint from the area. Krowe remains behind to rebuild and reinforce the Stone Roads from future invaders. Who can know if you'll recognize him when, or if, you see him again.
Bor, Bazsil, and Faolan return to Phaendar and drive the remaining Ironfang forces into the hills. You break the siege of Londshadow and Kraggodan, return the body of Daq Sontine's brother, and enact a peace between Nirmathas and Molthune.
Finally you settle down at the inn in Phaendar, rebuilt and restocked with beer. From caravan guards to heroes, you fought an army and won against all odds thrown at you. Though it takes many days, every citizen of Phaendar listens with rapt attention to Bazil's story of your deeds.
The future is uncertain. Faolan remains a hunted man, though he has perhaps forgotten. Bazsil has told one story, but is this his last? Will Bor succumb to the madness he spread in others, or has he learned to master it? And will Krowe find that he has toppled one tyrant only to give rise to another, powered by infernal pacts and armies?
Whether you find the answers to these questions or not, the Ghosts of Phaendar live on.
Folks, it's been an absolute pleasure to run this for you. 6 years, thousands of posts, and we completed all 6 books of the AP! I hope you all had as much fun as I did! This is my last Pathfinder game, my last Paizo game, but not the last game I'll ever run. I'll be logged in for a few more days here before I close the Campaign tab that's been open on my browser for the last 10 years a final time.
At this point the adventure is pretty well concluded, just need to know what you're going to do about the Ironfang Legion and if there are any threads you want to wrap up/allies you want to conclude the story with.
Destroying it is far beyond your ken, the most practical solution is the drive the IronFang out and either restore the original keepers or take over yourself to guard it. You also have access to all of Zanathura's notes, destroying them should prevent anyone misusing the device.
Having studied the transposition engine earlier using the sand table, Krowe is able to easily reset the device and halt the countdown. The hum in the room stops as device returns to its stable operation.
You find yourself alone in a room behind two secret doors and passageways, which you've used a Wall of Stone to block off. What is your next move?
You heal yourselves while Bazsil loots the corpses of your foes in true mercenary fashion. You all wait for Krowe to either save or damn you by stopping the countdown or sending the tower hurtling into Phaendar at terminal velocity.
One of Bazsil's arrows crosses with two of Krowe's magic missiles. Faolan's shield slams into Azaersi as she resists the worst of Bor's spell. Her smile is bloody as she grabs Faolan's arm, crumpling down the wall. Her laugh trails off into a death rattle, but the smile remains.
The sound of fighting no longer fills the room and you hear the thrum of the engine set to destroy your home.
The Dex check will be fine, and Faolan catches his shield. It's not going to make a difference here, but I will point out the tactical inadvisability of having someone who can see invisibility throw a shield at his invisible teammate who has attempted to sneak up on the main villain.
Azaersi proves she can see invisible creatures, even without Krowe's help.
The last golem explodes and Azaersi moves away from Bor, making her way around the blind wall. No other foes remain on the field, though Azaersi remains out of reach of the bone devils.
The honor guard are down and another golem falls. Azaersi sees Krowe isolate himself and takes advantage of it during her last round of inflicted madness.
This is the spell I read and it's a very confusing spell, because the first paragraph is 30' then the second paragraph is 60', and it's basically just a level 9 AoE with no save even if you're 18+ HD?
Faolan's shield is against the back wall, you'd have to go through the blind wall or around the long way.
Unless I misread creatures 18HD and above are immune, though you are also rolling damage which the spell I found does not have. Maybe I have the wrong spell?
Azaersi and one of the honor guard completely avoid the lightning, with the bolt killing one of the honor guard. The remaining golems completely ignore the bone devils and move towards the group.
Azaersi tumbles away from Bor and moves behind the stairs.
Faolan's golem attacks him then releases a spray of shards into both Faolan and Bor.
The arrow strikes true, Azaersi failing to block it with her buckler. Her bodyguard almost falls to Faolan while the Ice Devil continues to whittle down hobgoblins.
They focus their strikes on Bor and the Ice Devil while Azaersi and one golem moves to Bazsil.
Faolan and the Ice Devil both drop one of the honor guard. Bor's touch missed in the first round and only a golem has walked through his wall, nobody else seems interested in crossing the barrier.
Azaersi and the golems advance while the other two golems and remaining honor guard attack the ice devil.
Attacks on Ice Devil:
The rules aren't clear on the interaction of Bleed and Regen, I would say you did it correctly by taking the bleed damage then the regen goes off and cancels any further bleed.
She parried your first attack and attacked back as an immediate action, that's a swashbuckler ability. 2 of your other attacks hit on your turn, then she flew down and hit Krowe on her turn. She used Acrobatics to avoid your AoO. Azaersi didn't take your shield, it's flung across the room.
These are obsidian golems, they can be hurt with adamantine weapons.
Fort DC 23:1d20 + 13 ⇒ (9) + 13 = 22 Fort DC 23:1d20 + 13 ⇒ (1) + 13 = 14 Fort DC 23:1d20 + 13 ⇒ (10) + 13 = 23 Fort DC 23:1d20 + 13 ⇒ (5) + 13 = 18
Azaersi maintains her grip on her sword and swings away from Faolan, returning to the ground. "Zanathura would not betray me! We seek a place for my people free of human meddling, together!"
Lights begin to pulse from the walls as an obsidian golem emerges.
Bazsil finds a secret door on the far side of the room, aided by the shard vibrating as he gets close. You descend another flight of stairs. Large black jewels float through the air of this massive chamber, orbiting each other in an elaborate dance. Lines of silver metal highlight a diagram etched in the black stone floor—a map connecting three large altars.
You see your final foes, General Azaersi and Zanathura. Six hobgoblin honor guards flank them and stand ready for you. Azaersi looks at you as you enter the room.
"The Ghosts of Phaendar. Fitting that we meet here, I suppose."
Faolan and the earth elemental smash into the adamantine golem with wild abandon, desperate to avoid another hammer blow. The earth elemental manages to put the final hit into the golem, sending it back down into a ring form. You sense it is not destroyed, but it will not rise again soon.
The golem is effectively immortal, you don't have the knowledge or tools to completely destroy it. It won't be a factor for the rest of the adventure.
You look around the room, seeing nothing else of interest. You know hobgoblins came this way but see no exits.
Natural 1 on a skill check doesn't auto-fail, so you'll still know it's an adamantine golem and resistant to all mortal weapons and almost indestructible. Faolan and Bazsil actions?
The liquid flows into place and forms an enormous golem made of black metal. Bazsil recognizes this as an adamantine golem, an almost indestructible construct that will not stop until you are slain.
A single flight of stairs leads into this stark chamber. Several intersecting rings of black metal are set into the floor, forming a curling pattern, while three glass cylinders hold a bubbling, green fluid and slithering, serpentine forms. Several maps depicting the wilds of Nirmathas and Molthune hang from the walls.
For the most part you're unable to make sense of the notes and messages scrawled on the wall. They appear to be magical research into xiomorn magic and the Citadel itself. Krowe might be able to spend months here making sense of it, but it's well beyond you.
Baszil finds a journal page torn out and shoved under a shelf that proves easier to understand.
Journal page:
Why must Azaersi be so frustratingly limited in sight? The one being in all this world who functions on my level, with such an astonishing breadth of knowledge and insight, and she is forever limited by such childish ambitions. Rule a nation? Of hobgoblins?! Why not run a kennel, for all the fulfillment that will give her! Godhood is the only true goal for those who mastered life as mortals, and I am So. Tantalizingly. Close.
I must test the transposition engine. I know it will prove all my theories on xiomorn geomancy and lines of power! I know it! But my general is so frustratingly limited in sight and so stymied by prudence. I fear that in the heat of argument last night I fell on old habits and shifted her opinion on the matter with magic. But what is the harm in one exercise of influence when one is correct, and she would have agreed with me eventually?!
She will thank me for helping her see reason when we are goddesses
of this vault.
With little else to go on your toss the bedroom next. A large bed, a plush chair, and an armoire fill this otherwise bleak room. The only item breaking the monotony of the onyx walls is a large tapestry with the Ironfang Legion’s coat of arms woven into its thick fabric.
Krowe barricades the door and you move through the double doors. A large bed, a plush chair, and an armoire fill this otherwise bleak room. The only item breaking the monotony of the onyx walls is a large tapestry with the Ironfang Legion’s coat of arms woven into its thick fabric. The other three rooms prove to be small private quarters, empty of all furnishings.
You notice a door near the stars that you passed by, opening that door reveals honeycombed shelves stand crowded with scrolls in a rainbow of hues, filling all of this huge library save for a single corner with piled pillows and notes scrawled on the walls.
What you've done has disabled the charge for now, but what was created can be recreated. You'd need to find the source of the energy and not the battery to truly put a stop to the transposition.
You did pass several doors on your rush to the top.
You rush out of the room as Faolan prepares himself. All of the hair on his body stands on end as he approaches the arcane battery. Once you are clear, he strikes on of the etchings with his shield, breaking the flow of power. It unleashes in a strike like none you've felt before, washing over you in one powerful wave.
You hum disappears as the energy dissipates. The question remains, at least 3 beings where in the training room when you began your assault. They weren't up here, so where did they go?
Krowe detects magic on the room and immediately goes permanently colorblind. No, really. He is able to determine the nature of the room and how to deal with it. This is a battery for the transposition engine Zanathura turned the Citadel into.
The only way to discharge the massive amount of magical energy collected here is for a living creature to physically mar one of the metallic diagrams etched into the floor or walls, using her body as a conduit. Creatures bound by magic—such as summoned creatures, eidolons, and phantoms—and nonliving creatures (such as constructs and undead) can’t be used as a conduit to discharge the gathered energy. Only a living, breathing creature can break this arcane circuit. Once the circuit is broken, the discharging energy strikes all creatures in the room.
He is further able to determine that when discharged everyone in the room will suffer acid, cold, electricity, and fire damage.
You move across the room and quickly up the stairs. Jet-black spines of crystal jut down from the vaulted ceiling of this massive chamber, massive bolts of blue, green, and purple lightning arcing between them. Ancient runes and diagrams trace across the room’s floor and walls, with secondary additions made in glistening silver.
Sorry folks, meant to get this out yesterday and life got away from me. I spent several hours figuring out these maps and where everyone would be now, then forgot to post it.
Their best weapons neutralized, the sappers are forced to use their swords, with which they are woefully untrained. The gargoyle is no match for the devil and you soon overwhelm the defenders.
You hear cries through the tower, the alarm is raised and you are on a timer. The wall behind you will slow most of the troops down and you've killed a room of powerful spellcasters already.
It'll take 3 rounds of combat to finish off the alchemists, their AC is high but once Faolan gets a flanking bonus they'll be done.
You make your way through the double doors you passed earlier. A grand, recessed dueling ring dominates this circular chamber. Skirting the ring is a five-foot path cordoned off from the ring via a flexible rope secured to several three-foot-tall posts. Six dead humans wearing shoddy equipment lie scattered around the ring. This seems to be a training room and the humans were only recently killed, no doubt as a result of the alarm being raised.
There are 3 doors recessed into one wall, a set of double doors on the opposite wall, and stairs leading up.
Bor and Bazsil can't seem to connect their blows, the grenadiers have hardened their skin against explosions and prove tougher to damage than you would expect. Even Faolan struggles, eventually bringing one of them down.
The two up the stairs dodge the worst of the cold breath and fall back as the devil moves towards them. A ruby winged gargoyle steps around the corner, summoned by the lookouts when you snuck by them the first time no doubt.
The gargoyle stands ready to attack the ice devil while the bombers throw more bombs at Krowe. Seeing the cold ones have done no damage, they switch to fire.
Bor spears a hobgoblin in the leg as it rounds the corner while Bazsil shoots an arrow into another. The cold has thrown Faolan right off his swing with only two connections.
The two engaged by the wall swing at Faolan while the newcomers focus on bombing the heck out of the rest of you.
You hear alarms ringing from your new position, echoing through the citadel. The two hobgoblins at the bottom of the stairs throw bombs at Bazsil and Bor.
You jump to the other side of the stone wall and see two hobgoblin's working out how they're going to get through. The other two are not in sight, you hear shouting from the platform above.
Will you engage the two below or head to the balcony and see what's going on there? You'll be in combat either way, just need to know how to set the scene.
