Session Forty
Our next session was on July 29.
Arriving at the plateau to the south, the party immediately leapt into battle with the Ivory Behemoth. With Dagomir returned, Val having taken time to research his foe, and Ysbrylla preparing a slate of control spells to lock down the behemoth and inflict a steady stream of cold damage, they were much better equipped for a fair fight.
Val did end up petrified during this combat, which did put us in a bit of a pickle. As far as I understand, the main method of reversing petrification is Stone to Flesh, which is a 6th rank spell, so even our druid didn't have innate access to it yet. They could try to track down a scroll, but the nearest reasonable place would be Hillcross, at the far end of the hexcrawl they're in, and this adventure path does not really make a point of stocking up on gear in shops.
I did a deus ex machina workaround and tried to make a mechanic of it, which was this: Ser Jaim Mulwyn, their newest ghost companion (I'd have two nickels, etc.) was now locked inside a Mendevian crest. When they beseeched him for aid, I had him able to restore Valcarian (we could call it cleric-adjacent powers), but one of three feathers of the gryphon emblazoned on the crest shrank and fell away. Thus they knew they had a couple of outs, but they also weren't sure what would happen if they ran out of feathers, adding a bit of tension to it. Sometimes you just have to make stuff up!
Anyway, the really interesting thing here was that this encounter served as a key part of the culmination of Ysbrylla's arc. Since I'd replaced the pyramid with the final apaku (necromancy, natch) Ysbrylla became the first creature to commune with all of the apakus in the realm in countless centuries. This manifested as an innate heightening of her magical power, and geometric tattoos reflecting the apakus and the different schools of magic shifted across her throat and chest as she became a significantly stronger spellcaster.
Mechanically, I created a (likely overpowered) feat to signify Ysbrylla's hard work, called Apaku Mastery. It included a +2 bonus to RK checks to determine an effect's school, a +1 to saves against magic effects, and the tattoos granted her additional slots equivalent to a Greater Staff of a given school - the school in question would be chosen by Ysbrylla at the start of each day. Since this was the last major story beat for Ysbrylla before we wrapped the campaign, I didn't mind giving her plenty of juice to keep the party moving through the final chapter.
After this dramatic scene, the party prepared to head east and make their way out of the Tar Forest, only to learn that the Tar Forest was not finished with them yet.
I started this encounter off by pairing it with a tar pit, where || || whiffed some rolls and ended up quite stuck in some tar. Hegremon took this moment to begin sniping, and the party needing to split their attention between extricating themselves from the tar and fending off the giant made for a dynamic encounter.
Eventually, the party prevailed. Overall, I found the giant stuff to be a tough sell in this campaign. It was difficult to convey the nuances of the backstory dealings between the giants and Ivarsa, and the (very nice) backstory stuff with Hegremon himself is quite distant from the rest of the scope of the adventure. I don't know if this felt like they were stalked by a deadly hunter or if there was just an annoying rival in their midst, but I do like how the last encounter played out, and it made for a more triumphant and interesting note as the party finished this chapter and headed east to Castle Grimgorge.