Last and memorable session for a player

[Malag]

Hi everyone,

I am currently GM-ing in a sandbox campaign, but after a long time, one of the players is planning to retire from campaign due to real-life commitments. Next weekend is gonna be his last session and I want it to be a memorable session for him. Unfortunately I cannot come up with anything memorable besides a fight to the death with a BBEG and I am trying to step away from such typical endings in search of a better one.

So how can I make this last session memorable for player? And additional question, what would you consider a memorable and good ending for your character?

Character Info:

The player in question is playing a dwarf magus. His personality is to mostly step on toe of every person he meets and he is generally fairly annoying individual with some private set of codes and laws (Neutral Alignment, 5 Cha).

Current Campaign Info:

Party (5x lv4 characters) is currently trapped in underground basement complex of a Mage Tower they were supposed to investigate. They finally reached the several last rooms in which they discovered a mage frozen in stasis and a single frustrated Djinni servant of his. They revived him and after calming down the frustrated Djinni who was on border of attacking the mage (there was a private deal made between mage and Djinn), they managed to find out what exactly happened in the complex. The temporary truce and peace didn't last long before the attackers who destroyed entire tower and kept attacking PCs, showed up again this time in their last assault. PCs quickly raised several barricades and with a help of outsiders, and allies are currently in the process of repelling the attackers. This last fight is supposed to be a final showdown during this entire quest and several BBEGs will show their faces. Attackers consist of corrupted satyrs (CR 4), ghoul rangers (CR 2) and three BBEGs (CR 6, 2x CR 8).

Thanks upfront for all comments and advices.

Adam

[Johnny_Devo]

Is there an important character in that character's past?

Perhaps an old mentor that betrays him, or something similar. Make it a fight that he alone has to fight, and the result is either death or a journey of self-reflection. Either way, the character gets a memorable exit from the campaign.

Could always go gandalf. Some insurmountable foe, and he finds himself in a position where the only way for the party to get away is for him to sacrifice himself. Perhaps via a cave-in against a way over-CR dragon.

If the final battle you mentioned will be this very next session, you could perhaps go heroic defense. The defense has some ace of their sleeve, like some kind of magic ritual or reinforcements from far away, but they must defend the walls until that happens. Unfortunately, the walls almost certainly will not last that long... unless perhaps some volunteer were to sacrifice himself holding the front lines.

[ParagonDireRaccoon]

The memorable ending could be a (not necessarily permanent) sacrifice to save the party. The stasis device could have a setting so leaving a person in stasis gives the party the assistance of a powerful outsider. The party and allies fight waves of attackers, and when things look grim the dwarf enters stasis and the outsider appears. After the battle is over, the outsider is free to travel from its home plane to the prime material when it wants. If the player has time to rejoin the group occasionally, the stasis ends is put on hold and the dwarf is free whenever the outsider returns to its home plane.

[Mark Hoover]

Well, retrospectives are a good way to end things. I see this working one of 2 ways:

1. This guy's super annoying and steps on people. What if those people come back to haunt him? Now, at this most crucial time all his old sins catch up with him. Ghosts, taunting words distracting his concentration, even real manifestations of folks he's left behind. He relives his most memorable beats and proves once and for all how much better than all of them he is.

2. He's visited by his past, but not the bad stuff. Show him the few good things; a loving mother, a kindly mentor, or whatever. Now, when he can easily screw his party continuing the cycle of jerkiness remind him that he can rise above selfishness and do something for others. Then give him a choice. Maybe one of the BBEG's minions knows a secret way out, but just the dwarf can go or whatever. Now it hinges on him: step on people one last time and escape certain death, or sacrifice himself for his party.

Either way a reminder of his past is always good.

[Malag]

@Johnny Devo & ParagonDireRaccoon

Some of the ideas are good. I especially like the stasis chamber idea but granting them additional outsider help might be a bit off since they already have numerous helpers. But these suggestions did give me a good idea. I could set up a two choice ending where the player can choose a heroic defense (most likely ending in heroic death) or he can choose to go to stasis chamber which will enable him to activate a massive trap inside the complex (end result being that his character is frozen inside it).

@Mark Hoover

To be blunt honest, the history of his character is fairly small. He was a runaway slave who was almost worked to death in the Shenmen silver mines. As a result, he believes that everyone in Shenmen is evil. He has literally no known friends besides party and it becomes super hard to insert some character history in the scene.

I could combine the 2nd option with the above idea. Adding up few short scenes from his general past as long as they don't take too much game time, should be cool.

Thanks again for answers and ideas,

Adam

[DM-DR]

Kinda along the same lines as others have posted, but...

I remember running a pre-made, splat adventure back before D&D 3.5e came out. The adventure was "The Last Gods" by Kevin Wilson. It had a rather interesting final battle mechanic. (See Spoiler)

Final Boss Spoiler(?):

(It has been 14 years since I ran this so forgive me if mistaken on some parts). The final fight is with Azrael, a god of death. The players have a major artifact that is the only weapon that can hurt him; however, there is one point in the adventure where one party member sacrifices their life for all the others to continue on. Though the dagger can hurt Azrael, it is in that final fight that the martyred player comes back and is the only way to kill him for good (again, I may have forgot exactly how it ended and have since donated my 3rd edition books and adventures).

But perhaps something like that. The player sacrifices himself to get the others out of a jam, but then in an epic glory comes back for one final moment to see his friends finish what they started. From here, the character can either move on to some afterlife, or perhaps be granted a lesser deity status (or something else you see befitting).

EDIT: I am only mentioning this adventure because it is still one my group mentions from time to time (namely this and one other part of the adventure involving a puzzle). And like I said, we only ran it once fourteen years ago. It made that kind of impression!