SPOILER ALERT
Hello all,
I'm an admitted lurker around here, only posting when I see the need or when I have a helpful comment; however, I just wanted to share an awesomely fun Siege of Redgorge scene.
Quick Backstory
After Vaprak's Voice, the party battle Nabthatoron and the insanely powerful urban ranger, Korvain, nearly bested the demon. Truly, it was a case of great dice rolls, wielding Alakast, and a zillion attacks per round that gave Korvain so much advantage (all the other PCs were taken out of the fight by a few nasty abilities and a reverse gravity spell).
Nabthatoron barely got away and ever since then has dedicated a scry-a-day to keeping tabs on Korvain (and Alakast), who so nearly killed him.
The PCs traveled to Occipitus and, as luck would have it, Korvain ended up throwing Kaurophon into the plasm and gained the Smoking Eye template (I like to call this type of character "chaotic everywhere" instead of "chaotic good" since, when something is going on, he has to be there).
Last Game
The party travels back to the Material Plane, gets to Redgorge to see that it is under siege (however, the siege has not started), parley with Skellerang and try to persuade him to "cease this madness," and overall are doing really well.
Now, I was a bit intimidated by the whole point system and event driven scenario of the Siege of Redgorge that I have (from RPGenius); however, I was willing to run it as written. Fortunately, the PCs sped up events and made it an all out battle royale (keep reading).
After meeting with the Chisel, the PCs decide to play diplomats. Two go to the human encampment, one stayed in town to formulate defensive strategies, and the other, Korvain, went to the half-orc encampment to parley with them. Remember, Korvain is on the deep doo doo list of Nabthatoron. The reason that Korvain wanted to talk to the half-orcs was that, during the fire elemental attack in Cauldron, he befriended a couple of them and thought that would get him far in this situation - not a bad idea.
The Blue Duke is informed that Korvain is in camp and, having been in league with Nabthatoron, he knows immediately to send a runner to the demon's minions carrying the news that Korvain is in camp - alone.
The Blue Duke meets with Korvain and the urban ranger begins to try to bribe the leader to leave the battlefield - again, not such a bad idea! The Blue Duke stalls and the talks go on for a good 30 minutes until one of the half-orcs steps into the tent and says, "Sir, your guests have arrived."
As Korvain brings his attention back to the Blue Duke, he notices the man is smiling...
Tent walls drop, the Blue Duke polymorphs into true form, and in the shadowy darkness Korvain sees dozens of figures, both demon and half-orc.
Needless to say, Nabthatoron took revenge. Korvain died and Nabthatoron broke Alakast. Over the next minute, Nabthatoron gave an inspiring speech as to how the demons would raze Redgorge and Surabar's curse was lifted. However, Korvain has the Smoking Eye template and so, after that minute, his body was transported back to Occipitus. The time? 10pm
Fast forward slightly:
Midnight - The party wonders what is taking Korvain so long.
1am - The demons, in a bloodlust frenzy, attack the human Cauldron forces as Nabthatoron retreats back to the jungle to rally more demonic support for the upcoming razing of Redgorge.
1:15am - As the party bard is playing in the Redhead Miner's Inn and the remaining PCs are enjoying the atmosphere, a scream is heard in the night. Then all hell breaks loose.
Running outside, they see citizens and Cauldron solders (humans) running through the streets madly. A screech is heard from above and the head of Skellerang splats on the ground next to one of the PCs. A second glance verifies that, what the PC thought was the spinal cord, is actually a broken half of Alakast...
The demons do not attack anymore for tonight... they regroup and the planning begins.
Meanwhile, the PCs find out that Korvain has been killed. They head to Occipitus, spend several hours (wind walk) getting to the skull, raise dead, plane shift, spend a full day traveling back to Redgorge (wind walk) to arrive as the city is under siege from demons and half-orcs.
End game...
The city, with its boost in numbers and siege weapons (salvaged off the battle field) can last 1.5 days (according to my math). Next game is gonna rock!!!!
