The final fight in the Eon Pit wasn't going very well for the adventurers. Vsevolod had hit the Cleric of Iomedae with his Frost-Thunder Hammer in the very first round of combat after winning initiative, and froze him into a Clericicle for almost the entire encounter (DC 24 Strength check is tough to beat), the Svathurim charged through their ranks, and separated the characters across the massive chamber, the Arcane Trickster vanished as soon as she realized she was outmatched physically, the Ranger's mammoth companion was unconscious, and Finnian the Wizard (Fin to his friends) was burning every summon monster spell he had to keep Vsevolod immobilized by waves and waves of summoned monsters, flying above the fray.
Keeping Vsevolod busy enabled the Ranger to duel one on one with the Svathurim, dodging the massive stallion and his deadly lance while whittling his HP down with arrow after arrow, until finally the Svathurim was felled by a well placed magical arrow. Around the same time, with a mighty shout Vsevolod crushed the skull of the last Hound Archon Fin brought into the fight with his massive hammer, and decided he was tired of fighting the minions, he wanted the to go right to the source. He wanted the Wizard.
In the intervening time, Fin landed next to his frozen friend and with his feeble old bones (the party was hit with Sands of Time in the Croning Ritual earlier) started chipping away at the ice with his staff. Vsevolod spied this, and knew if he didn't take this opportunity when it presented itself, the ice would break and release a, at this point by now, super pissed battle Cleric.
So he took a step back and flung into existence a huge column of divine fire (I gave him a couple more levels to make the fight more challenging) that he centered on the Wizard and the frozen Cleric. The result of the ferocious attack was devastating. It melted the ice around the Cleric, but at the same time knocked him into the negatives and dying, while it brought poor Fin to exactly 0.
Fin decided it was no longer worth it. All of his high level spells were gone, his teammate left the battlefield long ago, his Cleric (as far as he can tell) was dead, the Ranger was still fighting hard, but was distraught for his dying pet and it seemed like Vsevolod was untouchable. So he did what he kept warning the party he was going to do if he was in mortal danger: he dimension door-ed away.
But, he lost 1 HP by doing it, so as soon as he blinked into what he thought was an empty Totem Room, he fell unconscious...but the room wasn't empty unfortunately.
When the Eon Pit encounter began, I rolled a percentile to see where the Bebilith would be in the dungeon because the party skipped over the encounter earlier and in the book it said it liked to roam around the dungeon looking for prey. I was almost hoping I would roll the Eon Pit for more shenanigans, but alas I rolled the Totem Room.
Back against Vsevolod, the Ranger decided it wasn't worth it anymore as well, so he de-summoned his mammoth (I gave the Ranger and the Cleric a similar ability to the summon mount ability of Baba Yaga's Riders because they are essential to their builds) and dragged the half dead Cleric out of the Eon Pit, with the soundtrack of Vsevolod laughing manically ringing in his ears. Vsevolod figured they were retreating with their tails between their legs, having been thoroughly routed, and decided to not give chase. That decision would eventually cost him his life.
The Ranger used his Cure Light Wounds on the Cleric and was able to bring him back to consciousness. After a small conference and copious heals, they realized Vsevolod had no interest in following them, so they set to find their Wizard and Trickster.
Once they came to the Totem room, they spied the Bebilith coiling something in a cocoon and feared the worst. They fought the Bebilith, a relatively easy fight for them, and eventually found out what was in the cocoon when the desiccated corpse of Finnian Arthfael fell out and onto the ground.
The Cleric said a prayer to his Goddess and lamented their loss and professed his anger than the Trickster left in their time of need (they don't get along), and was ready to just leave this place. The Ranger would have none of that. They didn't come this far to lay down and let some Demon-worshiping Centaur dictate the fate of the world.
So they rallied together, just the two of them, spurred on by the death of their friend, and collectively decided that you know what? F&*& that Centaur.
They swung onto their mounts, a ferocious mammoth and a gallant white steed, and came to the entrance to the Eon Pit. They saw Vsevolod still in there, but he had his hand firmly around the throat of the Warden Jadrenka, who had befriended the party earlier. She was severely weakened by the Eon Pit, and was helpless against the Centaur's assault, so in one final moment of clarity, the Ranger turned to the Cleric.
"Smart and silent or loud and stupid?"
"Loud and stupid."
They charged the Centaur and began the duel to the death. They traded blow for blow, until Vsevolod was able to reduce the Ranger to 1 HP, so he backed off toward's Jadrenka's prone form. She weakly handed him the golden nugget, one of the keys to the Dancing Hut and told him that Vsevolod had the other key, and that they should try to get it off him before he kills them both.
The Ranger took the key and called out to the Trickster, who he knew had to still be in the room, asking that she show herself. He then heard a loud bang as Vsevolod caved in the Cleric's shield with his hammer and the Ranger became desperate. He yelled out one more time to the hidden Trickster.
"I'm sorry!"
See, the Trickster and the Ranger had been the best of friends up until the point he learned she performed witchcraft (read: had levels in Witch), and considering most of his kin had either been killed or enslaved by Witches as he was half-Ulfen, he had not been speaking with her. This angered and hurt the Trickster.
But hearing his outcry swayed her and just as Vsevolod was ready to end the Cleric he was still dueling with, she threw a bolt of lightning at the Centaur's back, damaging him greatly (he had 6 HP left after her hit), revealing herself out of the shadows of the Eon Pit.
Vsevolod looked back to see who had the audacity to hit him from behind, and that was all the opportunity the Cleric needed. He thrust his Holy Longsword at the Centaur.
Nat 20 on the dice, which was followed up by an 18 on the confirmation roll.
The holy energy of his sword entering Vsevolod's chest cavity burned him from the inside out and he fell to the ground in a heap.
The Ranger rushed over to Vsevolod's body while the Cleric silently said a prayer to Iomedae, and searched vigorously for the Dragon Scale that Jadrenka said he had. But his search came up empty and he let out a frustrated sigh. But then the Trickster trotted over to him, gave him a cheeky smile and held up a Blue Dragon Scale.
"Looking for this?"
