Alrighty, we finished it up last night! I'll give you the short version, so that my awesome players (two of which are leaving the game group due to college graduations and transfers) can have a testament to their exploits. This is huge, read it if you like, comment if you want; ultimately, this is to record what happened, nothing more, nothing less. Because when we start up Age of Worms or Savage Tide, this is part of the setting now! Those of you familiar with the APs, you may find some interesting twists in the conclusion paragraphs.
So we have the cast:
(PC) Miiri (CG Half-Song Dragon Bard/Lyric Thaumaturge) The result of a failed Cagewright experiment at creating a "empowered" Shackleborn. Leader of the new theive's guild of Cauldron, the Faceless Flames.
(PC) Azbera (LG Admantine Clad Dwarven Knight) Descended from a family of dwarves who's ritual bonding to an adamantine skin hides a terrible family curse. Current Captain of the Cauldron Guard.
(PC) Laecim (CN Raptoran Warlock/Acolyte of the Skin:Slaad Variant) A power hungry Magnificent Bastard that hits on anything that walks. Recently got lucky with a the marilith Byakala.
(PC) Todd "Freaking" Vanderboren (CN Human Rogue/Assasin/Duelist) Partially redeemed by Miiri due to a song about the Vanderboren family that she performed, he joined the party seeking revenge for his own murder. Currently masquerading as Vhalantru, thanks to the simulacrum suit.
(PC) Genon (NG Human Healer) A soft spoken, feminine young man, who's healing powers have become the stuff of legend. Currently the Lord Mayor of Cauldron.
Nidrama - The Angel who watches over Cauldron and the region, now joined with the PCs in an effort to put down Adimarchus.
Pharoh - A balor trapped in Skullrot. Seeking some sort of aid, the party used what few divination spells they had, and found the most favorable result to lie in the cell of this Balor. An ancient being who's mortal soul hailed from a land of rivers, sand, and pyramids, he unexpectedly freed thousands of the slaves under his watch and voluntarily incarcerated himself in Skullrot.
After much debate, they decided to free Pharoh, having recovered a chime of opening from Slouva the Hag thanks to a cunning ambush from inside a cell, made possible by the last remaining minutes of a Wind Walk spell.
They then proceeded to free a powerful unique slaad, which the warlock Laecim had been siphoning power from for some time. The encounter was tense, as no one was quite sure what the slaad would do. The slaad acknowledged Laecim as being stronger than it, and gave him a final peice of its power, thus raising him to the last level of the Acolyte of the Skin class, and making him officially an outsider in type. The slaad then left Skullrot, violently.
Dark Myrakul at this point decided that enough prisoners had escaped, and so flew down to confront the heroes. While the balor gave them some warning, none were prepared for the sight of the demonflesh golem that attended the Warden of Skullrot. But the suprises did not end there. Pharoh tackled the golem off of the balcony on which they stood, sending the both of them plummeting several stories to the ground below, where they continued their scuffle.
Up above them, Dark Myrakul prepared to unleash hideous magics upon the heros. But then from the shadows stepped Todd Vanderboren, his crossbow cocked and pointed at the lichfiend. The crossbow's twang was muffled by the screams of the inmates, but the sight of the lichfiend's undead form falling from the air to crash in a lifeless heap on the floor next to the balor brought a gallery of disbeleiving looks to young Vanderboren from the rest of the heroes.
For his part, Todd merely looked back at them quizzically and asked "What?" as he stepped to the railing, loaded another crossbow, and shot the demonflesh golem locked in combat far below him. With a spasm and a quiver, the hideous construct slumped and did not move. Todd checked his crossbow to make sure it was still in good order, and replaced it on his hip. (I will never look down on Slaying Arrows ever again!)
After no small celebration, the party ascended the stairs to Adimarchus' cage. Nidrama, knowing she would not fare well in a fight with a demon lord, gave them what protections she could and waited on the level below, praying for their victory. They elected to fight him at the top of Skullrot, using a scroll of Wall of Force to seal off the opening in the floor and give them a large battlefield free of advantages for either side. While he appeared as an angel at first, he assumed a demonic form as the battle was joined, and the ensuing conflict was quite severe, as he resisted almost all of their spells, and banished the warlock to a labrynth of madness (Maze). The party nearly fell when he caused the blood to erupt from their bodies (Horrid Wilting), but the healer Genon did not flinch and restored their health even as it fell (readied Mass Heal).
The fight began to turn in their favor when the dwarf Azbera realized that, fighting on the wall of force as she was, her ancestral dwarven axe would not aid her as well (Earthbound, looses benefits if not touching ground, we agreed that Wall of Force was not ground), and Adimarchus seemed quite content to stay where he was. As such, she elected to grabble the demon lord using her prodigious strength. Calling on the might of Moradin and St. Cuthbert, she held the demon lord still long enough for Laecim to return from his prison and summon a blue slaad to serve him. The slaad likewise attempted to hold Adimarchus in place, and in that moment of vunerability, and thanks to the courage flowing through them from the song sung by Miiri, the balor Pharoh was able to bring his sword cleaving through the demon lord's neck. (Nat 20 crit only confirmed due to loss of dex from grapple and bardic music)
To their shock and horror, the headless body did not fall, instead it shimmered and changed, revealing the angel they had seen before (Bad coin tosses, Adimarchus never flipped forms after the initial flip to demonic form), hale and hearty, and enraged moreso than ever. His razor wings inflicted terrible wounds upon those around, and only the hearty strength of Azbera and the indomitable luck of Todd Vanderboren prevented them from succumbing to the implosive might of his touch (Todd could only make the save on a nat 20, which he rolled).
Adimarchus fought tooth and nail, but now that a previous success had been seen, the party fought invigorated, and attempted to recreate their victory on the demon lord. As if the gods themselves smiled upon them for such faith in fate and each other, the balor's blade soon cleaved through the neck of the entangled and grappled angel (Immune to crits thanks to Golden Tatoos doesn't stop vorpal).
His life force waning and being pulled back to Occipitus, Adimarchus uttered a dying curse even as his head hit the floor. "May you all fall into madness! Let the whole be sundered and the sundered be whole!" (At this part, the PCs have won, the rest was "cutscene" and as such, outside of normal game mechanics, with the exception of an occasional saving through or d20 roll, which my players were fine with.)
The walls of Skullrot began to crack apart under the might of the demon lords curse. Worse so were the effects upon the heroes. Azbera's adamantine skin began to peel itself off of her; Miiri's dragon and human halves began to tear free from each other. Laecim, having experienced one such transformation already, held firm against the power assaulting him. The balor began to split, into a bronze skinned human man, and a gargantuan demonic beast that was to a balor what a balor is to a human. Genon the healer and Todd the assasin, rather than splitting as the others did, instead seemed to fuse together, becoming a luminous humanoid composed of roiling white and black light.
Even as Azbera willed herself to bear the pain of forcing her skin back onto herself, both Miiri and the balor's respective halves completed their separation. The amalgam of Genon and Todd dissapeared, seeming to sink into the body of Laecim, who stood next to them, and reappeared from the crumpled body of the human half of Pharoh. Even as a glowing white hand touched the pain wracked man, who slumped in releif under the touch, the other hand, a vibrant appendage black as night, thrust up into the chest of the great demonic beast looming over them, which fell with a crash, dead in an instant.
Reaching up as if to pull off a mask who's seam lay in the middle of the face, Genon and Todd somehow separated themselves, returning to their normal forms, although they looked at each other with wonder.
As Skullrot began to crumble even more, its peices falling and floating in all directions as even gravity obeyed the dying curse of Adimarchus, leaving only the wall of force hanging in midair, Todd leapt from rubble to rubble to the floor below, gathering the crumpled form of Nidrama. She too had succumbed to the curse, and her wings were now plucked bald, her body covered with thousands of tiny punctures. The heroes huddled together on the wall of force, and Genon opened a gate to Occipitus.
There they found the body of Adimarchus, alternating between its forms, its head still severed. After a moment of discussion, the realized that the demond lord would revive unless another claimed the throne of the abyssal realm. Only Azbera and Genon sought to claim it, and so they elected to let the realm itself choose between them. They lifted Adimarchus into the plasm rift, and spoke their claim of Occipitus out loud. There was a rumble, and when it subsided, Azbera gave a small chuckle, and kneeled before Genon, haling him as the Lord of Occipitus.
Things sorted themselves out from there with some ease. Genon asked Todd to accept his nomination as the new Lord Mayor, who reluctantly agreed, stating it was the least he could do for his brother. Their melding had brought clarity to shared memories, and the younger sibling Todd had been separated from at the orphanage was finally returned to him.
Miiri's human half went on to become the Head Professor of Bluecrater Academy, and went to great lengths to open its doors to all who showed talent, not simply the wealthy. The theives guild under her control became an unspoken, unnofficial first and last line of defense for the city; the few who caused it harm that were not dealth with by the city guard found their stay cut very short by the Faceless Flames, who became quite beloved by the rest of the population. Her dragon half retained her wanderlust, and although she made her lair on the slowly purifying realm of Occipitus, she was rarely ever found at it, instead scouring the world for stories and songs to hoard.
Laecim found a soulmate in the woman Cora Lathenmire, who had suffered many terrible ordeals in the last few weeks, some of which had left her physically scarred. Not one to place much weight on appearance, the raptoran's relationship with her blossomed. Genon revealed to him that his union with the marilith Byakala had resulted in a child. As the marilith was possessed of the sign of the smoking eye, it was a simple matter for Genon to summon her to him with his new powers. She was wracked with pain, barely able to move, apparently due to the child she now bore. She begged for it to be removed, and so Genon did, placing it inside a plasm he pulled from the stream and purified. While never one to care much about good or evil, Laecim cared for his child greatly, and espoused a good lifestyle as best he could, to counter the influence of evil he feared remained in his child. Not neccessarily regretful, he was at least respectful of the results of his previous dalliances, and as such was faithful to Cora unswervingly, to his last days and beyond.
Todd masqueraded as Vhalantru for a few weeks, before growing tired and annoyed with the duties of Lord Mayor, and so passed the office to Azbera. A roundabout relationship with the angel Nidrama began, in which the arguments were as fierce as the affections, which ultimately led to a wedding. When Sasserine freed itself from the rule of the Sea Princes, they moved to establish Vanderboren holdings there. They had two children, Vanthus and Lavina.
Azbera, after becoming Lord Mayor, served the position with care, kindness, and determination for many years. She became known as "She of the Iron Hand and the Silken Heart". A minor scandal erupted when a rematch of the Drinking Contest at the next year's Flood Festival resulted in her waking up next to the half-orc High Priest of Kord, Alsfekir, and a signed marrige certificate. A child was born of their union, but their marrige was less than perfect, and they divorced soon after. She remarried, to the dwarven smuggler Adrick Garthun, who had fallen in love with her at first sight when they first met at the Cusp of Sunrise so long ago, and after she spared him at House Rhivadi, he turned over a new leaf to make himself worthy of her. Their marrige was happy, and Moradin blessed them with several children.
Genon, Lord of Occipitus, came to be known by many names. To the fiends, he was known as the Deathlord, for his melding with Todd had given him great insights into the nature of life and death, which coupled with his already incredible skill at healing, made him as capable of taking lives as restoring them, although he was loathe to do so. To the forces of light, he became known as the Hope of the Abyss, as he began expanding the influence of the celestial rubble through Occipitus, a slow and tedious process, but one that showed visible results. In short time, celestial creatures flocked to Occipitus through a permanent gate he opened between his throne room there and the flotilla in the middle of Crater Lake, where the statues of the Heroes of Cauldron had been erected. As such, Cauldron became known for having a large population of angelic and celestial creatures, and even a small smattering of rebel fiends.
On the first aniversary of the Ritual of Planar junction which had so devastated Cauldron, Genon made his first and last appearance on the material plane since his ascension to the throne of Occipitus. He stepped through the gate and dipped a hand into the waters of Crater Lake. The waters rippled and roiled, and a great wave rushed up the streets, frothy and foamy, fast enough to reach the outer wall's edge in moments, but gentle enough that it did not knock a petal from a flower. As the mist of the wave settle to the ground, all those that had died unneccessarily in the chaos of Cauldron's darkest times were restored to life, returned to their loved ones. From that day forth, the waters of Crater Lake glowed, even at night, and those that drank from them did not fall prey to sickness, poison, or infirmity. Many made the pilgramage to drink of the water, as its power did not last if removed from the lake. Cauldron quickly returned to its former size and more, as more buildings were built around the outer wall.
The citizens of Cauldron lived happy lives, blessed with education, health, a gentle but firm government, celestial neighbors, and stalwart defenders.
But the battle for peace is ongoing, and the citzens of Cauldron had learned that lesson well. They knew, like the Heroes of Cauldron, and Surabar Spellmason before them, that when the times were darkest, heroes would rise. Cauldron would not loose hope. Even as the dark clouds of the Age of Worms roll in, and the roiling Savage Tide behind them, they would not loose hope.
But those are stories for another day.
Kick ass. Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun and wrapped everything up nicely. Finishing this bastard of a path is not easy but so worth it, it seems.
My party is only now beginning on Zenith Trajectory and thus, have a ways to go before they reach Asylum.