This thread is FULL of spoilers. Get out if you even want to enjoy the end of this campaign! Get out now! Er, anyways...
Finished Council of Thieves last night... I think we're the first group to, so I took some pictures for everyone else. Enjoy, and I'm sorry about it being as blurry as possible.
Link here.
The party:
Human infernal sorceror w/ ranger cohort
Elven evoker wizard/fighter/eldritch knight
Human battle oracle w/ bard cohort
Human order of the cockatrice cavalier
Half-elf "mage-seeking missile" rogue
Was a really cool set-up and we were totally pumped for the finale. Eccardian turned down my offer for him and his sister to join the Children of Westcrown, and I guess irreconcilable differences led us to murder him to pieces. Combat was short-- I'll cut it up for you in round-by-round.
Round -1: When it looks like Eccardian isn't going to give up his plot, Calseinica hit the entire party with good hope. Eccardian and Chammady are too busy arguing to notice.
Round 0: Eccardian denies Chammady's plea to give up his plans, goes upstairs, kicks over the barrels of oil, lights them and jumps down onto the book. Melavengian teleports to the book with Eccardian.
Round 1: The ranger cohort shares Hunter's Bond for Eccardian and declares him his quarry. The sorceror drops his magic carpet and unfurls it, his ranger cohort stepping onto it. They use a Cloak of the Mountebank to dimension door outside and floating. The oracle casts divine power, and Calseinica Nymmis hits the party with haste and chases Eccardian up to the head of Aroden and calls out that he's on the book outside. The Cavalier shares Paired Opportunists as a swift action and waits. The wizard greater teleports them all out to the book, fails, mishaps, and teleports them back into the statue. The rogue sighs. Melavengian and Eccardian drink potions and cast spells.
Round 2: The sorceror flies by the sword of Aroden, jumps onto it and tries to get Eccardian with a ray of exhaustion. It misses. Melavengian casts more spells. The ranger full-round attacks Eccardian. They all miss. Calsenica hears that the melee botched teleport and runs back down, and then dimension doors the cavalier and the oracle out onto the book. The oracle stabs the devil for 30 damage and the cavalier steps up to Eccardian, who uses his readied action to stab him. The cavalier declares Eccardian challenged for his swift action and full-round attacks, missing everything but a confirmed critical for 106 damage. The wizard tries again and greater teleports the rogue and the wizard outside now, where they join the fray and miss every attack.
Round 3: Eccardian opens up by feinting the cavalier and then rolling a 1 on his attack roll. Melavengian full-round attacks the wizard, grapples him and chokes him out while holding him over the edge of the book. The sorceror tries to dispel Eccardian and fails. The ranger full-round attacks the devil and hits once for less than 20. The cavalier full attacks and misses more, hitting once for about 40 damage. Calsenica Nymmis casts mirror image and moves up to Eccardian while the oracle takes a step forward and trips Eccardian with Greater Trip. It provokes, and every single person threatening Eccardian hits him as he goes down. The oracle finishes his full attack, dealing 120 damage to Eccardian by himself, and Eccardian dies. The rogue steps over, attacks the devil, and hits a bit.
Round 4: The sorceror tries to cast spells on the devil, the ranger misses his full attack, the wizard fails his grapple check to escape and the cavalier steps over and ends the devil's life. The end!
The only real magical buffs we had were Good Hope, Haste, Hunter's Bond and various Magic Weapons and Magic Vestments-- and the oracle, myself, had Divine Power. The cavalier shared one of his tactical feats to the entire party, which ended up giving us all another +4 bonus (Paired Opportunists) on attacks versus Eccardian when he was tripped.
To be honest, Eccardian Drovenge was a bit of a let-down-- even when our DM gave him the kind of magical budget he truly deserved and ended up with a 36+ AC with a 14 dex mod. Out of all of the major villains in all adventure paths, he's definitely the least powerful and the least impressive.
The battle didn't last long, Eccardian posed no threat, and we took a combined total of something like 60 damage across the entire 7 person party. I understand fighting him on the book isn't exactly a sound option for him, but it's a much cooler option than fighting him in the uninteresting square of terrain at the base of the statue-- and it would've ended up exactly the same for him even if he was in an open field.
Nonetheless, right afterwards we were going to use a grave candle from What Lies in Dust to speak to Eccardian to ask him if it was worth it knowing how it all ended up, but Mammon took his soul from us. As the gates to Hell opened up and Mammon ripped Eccardian's soul from his body, dragging him down into the deep darkness, our cavalier turned to the aspect of Mammon manifesting itself in the Material and had only one option...
He challenged Mammon.
Mammon retreated, like he should have. Good choice, Mammon. It may have ended up bad for you.
I have to admit that sounds less cool than fighting Demogorgon or Kyuss, but it sounds like you had fun! Kudos on finishing!
I have to admit that sounds less cool than fighting Demogorgon or Kyuss, but it sounds like you had fun! Kudos on finishing!Considering that PCs are about 10 levels lower than the finale of AoW and ST in this one... one would HOPE they don't face something like Demogorgon! :)
Well the issue is more that he wasn't a challenge for my players, whether due to the set up or his class/gear composition he went down pretty easy.
Good to know - I shall "revise" accordingly. ^_^
Good to know - I shall "revise" accordingly. ^_^
From what I've seen of your obituaries, just remember that until this point the synergy between my players had dominated a great deal of the game. I see that you've had alot of deaths, I only had one. Just something to keep in mind.
Good to know - I shall "revise" accordingly. ^_^From what I've seen of your obituaries, just remember that until this point the synergy between my players had dominated a great deal of the game. I see that you've had alot of deaths, I only had one. Just something to keep in mind.
Not that many, all things considered. My players generally synergize very well, especially at the higher-mid levels on up.