My group just finished the final session of STAP last night. The campaign ran for over 50 sessions, and it was also the culmination of two other successive, long running Greyhawk campaigns.
After all this, Demogorgon won the final battle; destroying the PC’s, their world, and much of the multiverse (his combined halves went on a spree). Not a big deal, since we were switching to 4e anyways (and this fit right in), but it goes to show that sometimes the world just doesn’t get saved in time.
***SPOILERS***
Some incidents in the final session leading up to the defeat:
- Two characters had become savage upon entering Wat Dagon. Both were knocked unconscious by the party, and one was soon after slain by a disguised Ghorvash (then raised afterwards). However the other character, their clerical cohort, was not cured… and not having a cleric in the party became a major issue.
- All six players were normally very reliable, but two of them couldn’t make it to the final session (one we didn’t learn about until after the session had started).
- St. Kargoth sundered the weapon of the most powerful party member (a tripper build)
- In the tower, one party member caught a glimpse of Dagon and failed his will save, making him all but useless against aquatic creatures (btw: Demogorgon is evidently aquatic).
- They had a time crunch for the final session (i.e. if they rested to recover strength, so might Demogorgon).
All this together made the final, epic battle pretty lop-sided.
- "Your deaths will be neither quick nor painless. They will be works of wonder, tortures to inspire the ages. You will, at my touch, become legends."
