I'm running RotRl using the Pathfinder RPG system.
My players are:
"Chanak" Male Dwarven Barbarian - Raised by the Shoanti, wielding twin Klar.
"Adonica" Female Varisian Abyssal bloodline Sorceress" - One eyed and fierce she's currently out of action due to the Vargouille's kiss.
In her place her former companion, Manow, a male Elven pit-fighter is trying to find a cure for her.
(Read as: Elven fighter is her backup, he joins after their second excursion into the Catacombs)
"Hrunt" Male Half-Orc Cleric of Gorum - Devoted and stoic (Joins after the second excursion into the catacombs)
"Jacob" Male Human Cleric of Desna - A no-nonsense man who, after Adonica gets bitten by the Vargouille stays in town to look after her and then gets replaced by
"Kruschev" Male Human Goblin-slaying Ranger - Crude but ruthlessly effective.
So the party is made up of Chanak, Adonica and Jacob for the first part, then after the second trip to the Catacombs the group is Chanak, Manow, Hrunt and Kruschev. Abit complicated, but I hope I explained it well enough.
Campaign went pretty "normal" until they discovered the Catacombs of Wrath. My players made repeat excursions into the Catacombs. This in and of itself was problematic since the place really doesn't feel like it it meant to be run as several encounters with daytrips back to town in between. On their first run they took out most of the complex, slaughtered most of the sinspawn but did not enter the Prisoner Pits, Vargouille infested washing pool nor the Shrine to Lamashtu. Second time around, instead of making the trip extremely uneventful, I add another sinspawn and have all the zombies moved into the hallways. Erylium is not about to let intruders prance about her sanctum unchallenged so this seemed to make sense. The heroes kill all the zombies and the sinspawn then proceed to the washing pools where the sorceress gets bitten. They thoroughly trounce the Vargouille and then head to the Shrine.
Erylium summons a sinspawn and combat ensues. The players nuke the sinspawn and it dies without really doing anything. Most of Eryliums spells get resisted so I have her screech and summon Korovus. He arrives a few rounds later at which point Erylium has taken to hit-and-run tactics, going invisible and then appearing and taking a few slices at a PC or hovering up near the ceiling and firing off some spells that start to wear on the PC's.
Korovus enters play, there's some shenanigans involving the PC's swarming him. The cleric gets taken out of action, others severly wounded and Erylium is at this point out of spells but otherwise unharmed.
The players decide to retreat and escape the catacombs.
At this point I was at a loss what to do next. I KNEW they'd go back down there and I'd used everything that was down there and then some. Only thing down there was Erylium which I could either just let them kill (which wouldn't have been very satisfying). So I decide to have Erylium make a last stand. At this point her plans for conquest and glory seem pretty hopeless. By all accounts her goblin and human allies are all dead. Her Sinspawn are all dead and her zombie worshippers are smashed and gone. She's all alone again and while the presence of Lamashtu is still present the power of the Runewell has lessened considerably and with it her hopes and sick dreams. In desperation she summmons another sinspawn, the runewells glow dimming even more. She has the sinspawn collect all the bodies into the Shrine and then prepares for the return of the PC's.
The PC's recruit a few more able bodied adventurers in town and head back to the catacombs the next day. The place is eerily quiet and the doors to the shrine are closed. The door is opened by reciting a prayer to Lamashtu that is written on the door (the prayer from the Lamashtu article in Sins of the Saviors...I think it was). The door opens, blood and ichor leaking from the wailing faces on it. The atmosphere was great, the PC's psyched.
Anyways...the über sinspawn attacks and lasts two rounds before being chopped apart and set on fire (oil + tindertwigs = Crispy Sinspawn). The dwarven barbarian has a personal grudge against the Quasit and goes after it. Erylium gives it all she's got and I play her very aggressively (mainly to give them more chances to get close to her). She uses loads of Inflict spells, claw attacks, hideous spittle on the ranger and so on. She's untouchable, she's a dervish of destruction, a cackling goddess of spite and rent souls
...
Seriously, they couldn't touch her! She escaped from grapples against all odds, she critted left and right and people were fumbling in face of her vicious assault.
In the end the elf splashes into the Runewell, fails his will save and impales the cleric who promptly goes unconscious. Then the mad elf takes out the barbarian. The ranger, not wanting to be next, takes out the elf from range. Just like that, 3 of 4 adventurers are down and all due to friendly fire. My jaw dropped as the ranger proceeded to fumble three times in a row and due to our use of the Fumble Deck he's pretty much crippled.
Erylium cackles as she slices at him a few times. The ranger tries to hit her...he really does...but he can't manage to hit this Avatar of Ruin =p.
The session ends where he's doubled over, winded and bleeding from a dozen small cuts. His friends all unconscious and a cackling demon thing floating over him, flickering in and out of invisibility and taunting him.
It's here that I need some advice. Should I just kill him and be done with it? That seems like a pretty blunt way to end things. Also what would Erylium gain by this? She has him at her mercy and her situation isn't so good.
I've been thinking that she'll try to break him, have him get something she needs. At the very least I think she doesn't want to be left alone again. With the runewell all but extinguished and a very real threat of the creatures on the surface returning again in greater numbers or, as she fears most, sealing up the way to the catacombs for good she needs something...
But what?
What would you fellow GM's do in this situation?
