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So I'm running Shattered Star right now and plan on running Return of the Runelords afterward. Naturally, I plan on utilizing the Onion Kid Division (long, hilarious story behind the name) for the Sihedron Heroes.
However, after having built the party up, the idea of just taking down the whole group offscreen seems not only anticlimactic but unfair to the characters and their players. Hence, I have decided to take a more dramatic route.
What I plan to do is to run the encounter outside Crystilan that took place prior to Return with the Onion Kid Division, having them fight of Alaznist and her followers in an epic but ultimately futile final confrontation that would end with Alaznist using the Sceptre of Ages to seal them in Crystilan but causing her to lose the item in the process.
The ending is effectively scripted, but I think that a suitably difficult encounter could give the players the sense that they tried their hardest to avoid this fate. I've had successful final-session encounters in the past where the players have lost but were ultimately satisfied with the conclusion, and I'm fairly confident that I could repeat that success here.
What do you folks think? Should I go through with this or would it be better for the Onion Kid Division to fall without the players' involvement?
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If you've done it in the past without issue before, and you have either the same or some of the same players from that time, I think you could go ahead and do it.
My big question is, if the players lost the final-session encounter before, was it because they got beaten in combat or because the bad guy used a maguffin to take them out of the fight?
It was with a different group, and the players lost that one because they opted to detonate a nuke and take the villain with them once they came to realize that their victory was unlikely (one player fled the scene).
For Alaznist, I plan for her to deploy the Sceptre of Ages as a tool of last resort, giving the party a good solid fight before time-warping them as a desperation measure.
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EDIT: Maybe give her a champion wielding Garvok, the Sword of Wrath.
Way ahead of you there. Already statted up some allies for Alaznist to ensure a sufficient threat, one of which is packing this thing.
As for running this, I still have a ways to go in Shattered Star, so I’ll have the stats by the time this all goes down.
I also want to run the Sihedron Heroes instead of an off-screen happening. Worst part for me is that I was a player in Shattered Star and will be DMing Return effectively having to kill my own character, I am looking forward to the encounter and how yours turns out.
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Here's what I have planned so far. This ties into another game which my friend is running.
Alaznist has spent the last few months recruiting demons from the Worldwound-less domain of Sarkoris and has accrued a tremendous army which she is throwing at Ogunthunn and the Onion Kid Division. Fortunately, Ogunthunn brought backup, and busts out Xin's clockwork army which she has finally figured out how to unlock and control. Most of the demons are nondescript, but a few noteworthy creatures that Alaznist has under her command are Belsefelek (packing Garvok), a Herecite Eliandra (both from City of Locusts), Crimson Lotus, Balravnus, and Saorhaz (all from Demons Revisited). She's got a couple Rune Giants and Devastators too for good measure.
The party and the clockwork army have to fight off the horde from the sea, but they have a set of allies in the form of the original Sihedron heroes (from my friend's Rise of the Runelords game). For most of the ritual, things go pretty well and the party is managing to hold their own. At this point Alaznist arrives and tries to kill them herself. If she ever gets to a point where she's losing, a contingent action spell activates and Alaznist sends the heroes hurtling through time using the Scepter of Ages.
I'm planning to do something similar with my PC's too. Her power level shouldn't really be of too much concern though. From what I understand Alaznist's was already mythic at the start of this adventure but gained even more mythic power when she slew Xanderghul. The final adventure is supposed to be the Return PC's trying to strip her of some of that mythic power to be able to take her down. So when your SH fight her it should be an even more powerful version of her than the ones the Return PC's are destined to fight. A fitting sacrifice I believe.
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I'm planning to do something similar with my PC's too. Her power level shouldn't really be of too much concern though. From what I understand Alaznist's was already mythic at the start of this adventure but gained even more mythic power when she slew Xanderghul. The final adventure is supposed to be the Return PC's trying to strip her of some of that mythic power to be able to take her down. So when your SH fight her it should be an even more powerful version of her than the ones the Return PC's are destined to fight. A fitting sacrifice I believe.
Challenge accepted. Will probably put tier-10 Alaznist in the Homebrew chat as soon as I can get my mitts on the book.
It will be absolutely worth it to rain down a tier 10 Meteor Swarm just once.
