Alternate Finale of Skulls & Shackles

[Pima]

Hi all!
When I read book 6 of S&S my thoughts was "fleet battle - cool! fighting on the ships, defeating invasion - cool! next is... Hmm, so you are going to the dungeon and kill old bearded man. Wait. So epic finale of S&S is just this?"
To my mind, it was anticlimatic, so I decided to add smth.
Homebrew territory on.
While traversing Eye of Abendego, Druvalia finds ancient temple on the rock, located in the Storm's eye literally (there are no hurricane there and weather is fine). This temple seems to control Hurricane's power. So she stroke one more deal with devils - they will control the Hurricane and invoke terrible storm towards Northern Shackles, destroying fleets located there and probably few towns. In the same time, she will try to slip and strike Port Peril. The cost of this new deal is Hurricane Crown OR her soul (if she fails to deliver the crown in limited number of days to this temple, where the rest of the devils working on controlling Storm's power).
SO, after fleet battle (PCs can still spot Cheliax fleet somehow and defeat it) and Druvalia's defeat, Devil will appear, and saying that "now after your defeat, Druvalia, contract will be in full power anyway. And you, mortals (to PCs) will suffer from harvesting after {insert number} days." Then devil dissapear.
Details on this new contract addition can be found on Druvalia's ship.
As a result:
1.Now PCs have to retrieve crown from the bearded man (to retrieve the crown)
2.Be prepared to sail into the Storm for real! (to stop tsunami and storms coming from Eye)
3.And stopping devils in the temple (by defeating or handing the crown). May even negotiate for Druvalia's soul (if anybody care).

I can provide details on temple or Storm sailing if somebody will be interested.

[*Khan*]

Wow - sounds epic!!
I would like the details.

[Pima]

*Khan* wrote:

Wow - sounds epic!!

I would like the details.

And here they are, *Khan*:

Receiving information
Once PCs receive info that the Storm is coming, one of the NPCs, for example druid Master of the Gales, can tell them about rumors that in the middle of the Eye there is ancient temple, dropping a hint for PCs that they need to go there to stop disaster. He can also tell that Hurricane crown was forged in this temple, and potentially Crown can help with preventing disaster (basically Crown needs to be delivered to this temple to make it work).
Also it's important to mention that there are only limited number of days to prevent this disaster to raise the stakes.

Sailing through the Storm
In this part, PCs need to reach Eye of the Storm and deliver the Crown.
It takes 4-8 days from Port Peril to the Eye by ship, depending on the weather. And the weather is BAD.
Mechanically, I simplifed Stormbound hazards from Book 3, doing it once per day with maximum modificators. Allow each PC to contribute to the results to avoid such danger. For example, Kineticist can apply his/her water/wind powers via burning itself to add some help, wizards can cast any suitable spells, etc.
In the final day, there can be encounter with bakekujira attacking the ship (my PCs avoided combat entirely by summoning one of the greatest Besmara's powers - Summon Sea Serpent and teleporting the ship away).

Ancient temple
There is a place where devils are controlling power of the Eye. It was created probably by serpent race long ago. Once Eye of Abendego opened one hundred years ago, the heart of the temple resonated with the Eye and now some powers of Eye of Abendego can be controlled through it.
Devils are guarding this place, trying to fulfill the deal. They need to be defeated or negotiated to stop incoming danger.
I have a set of encounters with them, and if you are interested in these also, I can detalize too.

[*Khan*]

Wow - nice! I like your ending idea a lot. My group are at book 5, but encounters would be awesome.

[Pima]

Eye Of the Storm Temple
0. Entrance. There is a sea shore with partially stone floor, 4-5 rust devils represent welcoming party. They are here to guard temple from ocassionally attacking water elementals from the ocean (result of weird magic dissonance of controlling the Storm via temple).

From entrance, there are 3 paths:

1. Main pathway to the heart of the Temple. This is a corridor to the Boss Fight. However, it is closed via undestructible Force fields with Prismatic walls and cannot be teleported through. But, it can be opened by powering down two sources of energy in nearby paths - this is visible via detect magic.

2. Path to Apostate devil. In this room, Apostate devil is meditating and serves as energy source to the Main Pathway (see 1). He is bored - contract makes him bound to this place and he cannot leave by his own will, but if PCs converse with him, he can agree to be banished from this plane. Additionally, he can give advice about the Boss for money (few thousands of gold per advice). But initially he is so bored and starts to fight, and when he is losing, he can negotiate (for banishment or other things)
2.1 Lemur's Room. After the devil's room, there is a room full of lemurs. Their part of the room is separated from PCs by the lattice. Lemurs are used as a source material to create new devils by the Boss. In this room, there is a teleportation circle which teleports lemurs to the Boss so he can make more devils if there is shortage. However, to activate this circle, special key is needed from 3.1. This teleport can be used to surprise the Boss. Apostate devil can advise to use teleportation circle in this way.

3. Path to prisoners. In this room, there are halfling prisoners. They are used by Handmaiden devils for sacrifices to power prismatic/force walls. Prisoners can tell that devils periodically take some people to 3.1, and also sometimes devils just pass through this room, after that new devils appear (actually Handmaiden devils go to 2.1, unlock lemurs and the teleport circle and then Boss creates new devils).
3.1 Room for sacrifices. Contains machines in which neardeath halflings are drained from life power. 4 Handmaiden devils located here attack anyone who is not devil. Handmaiden devils possess magic key to unlock teleport in 2.1. Liberating or killing halflings will result in disturbing prismatic/force wall.

4. Boss room. There is a Pit Fiend as a Boss. One or two (depending on the party level and size) Advodaza devils also here.
To get here, entrance wall should be disabled via destroying/banishing Apostate devil(2) AND disturbing halfling energy flow (3.1).
Alternatively, teleport circle can be used to distract Pit Fiend. Once lemurs appears, he starts to mend some new devils from them, and will be distracted. If PCs use this approach, they can get a surprise round. If they will wait too long, then a new devil may appear).

After killing Pit Fiend, central altar can be used to stop Storm from gathering - this will require using the Hurricane Crown.
Pit Fiend can also be satisfied if PCs give him the Hurricane Crown. This will free Druvalia's soul (if there is some interest). But in this case, there can be some possible problems with Ruling of Shackles (King or Queen without a Crown???).

Ask questions, if you have any.
If you will play with these ideas, I'd be happy if you post how things go in your case.