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jordangreywolf) wrote2018-02-26 11:37 am
jordangreywolf) wrote2018-02-26 11:37 am
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[Games] Finale ... Sort Of
Last Saturday, we ran what could've been the finale ... but in retrospect, it really only could've been that if things had gone very, VERY badly. (And they quite nearly did!)
By the way -- here's a picture of the Apostate, belatedly added (pictured before he got defeated, of course):
The Champion of Anarchy (an infernal umbral with mimic and shapeshifting abilities) had taken on the form of Ayisla in order to congratulate Thale, but also to inform him that there was one last task: in order to free Ayisla, and for Anya to gain a soul, he would need to perform a ritual to bring Anya to death's door. Only then could Ayisla, Shepherd of Souls, be within her power to guide a soul to Anya's body, and then restore her to life.
It was all presented as a test of faith ... and somehow, I seemed to succeed in seriously conveying to the players that this WAS the hard choice that Thale was supposed to make, and that this was fully justified within the Iron Kingdoms universe. I suppose it didn't help much that characters such as Brah-Lurh and Ximena were so amoral that they didn't particularly care about Anya's fate anyway -- and while the Reclaimer and Siegmeyer were holy types, they weren't inclined to interfere in "the business between elves and their gods."
So Thale spent some time trying to explain things to Anya, and to ask her to have faith in him, but he was a bit unnerved that she was fully committed to doing whatever she was commanded to, if it was by a goddess herself. Why would she ever question such a thing?
But then, there was one thing that bugged Thale (or his player, anyway): Ayisla had instructed him to take Anya to the altar and shed her blood, with the dagger dropped by the Apostate. Why that dagger, specifically. Couldn't it be *any* means of bringing her to death? But also, he recalled what he had learned about "Soulless" assassins such as Anya (i.e., looked at the reference sheet I'd provided ;) ), and noted that Anya had runes upon her that were indicative of a type of assassin who potentially served as a sort of "anti-magic bomb": upon her death, she would release a potent anti-magic curse that would effectively dispel all magic in a large radius, and prevent any spellcasters within that area from being able to cast spells or use magic at all for several weeks. And for Thale, it occurred to him that would mean he'd lose his link to his very angry Hydra ... and he lost his link to his Hydra, for a *warcaster*, that would mean it would shut down, but for a *warlock*, as he arguably was, it means it would GO BERSERK.
Suddenly, it dawned on him just how much the party might be crippled if he carried out this action, and Ayisla didn't just miraculously wave away all the unwanted side effects. He also recalled that the Reclaimer had mentioned that there were FOUR champions serving the Apostate -- each one corresponding to a different "gift" of Menoth. They'd defeated the Champion of Ruin (countering the Gift of Architecture), and the Champion of Void (countering the Gift of Fire), and they'd sneaked past the Champion of Fallow (countering the Gift of Agriculture).
What was the fourth? Something countering the Gift of Law. (Anarchy.)
At once, he decided to question "Ayisla." It occurred to him that, being a mere mortal, he actually did not know what Ayisla SHOULD look like, but that she did fit the various ways in which he'd described Ayisla when telling Anya bedtime stories aboard the Rusalka, such as when they'd been parked right outside the Orgoth Temple of Power. Is it possible he could have been scryed upon, just as he had scryed upon the island from there?
So, he tried asking some "innocent" questions to clarify HOW he should put carry out this ritual, deliberately inserting some questions that were based upon false premises. "Ayisla" would be persuasive in a normal circumstance, but her answers were evasive -- and when that was apparently obvious enough to both Thale and herself, she rather more forcefully bid everyone to "be at peace." (In other words ... Willpower rolls, all around! Thale of course got a situational bonus, since he was expecting this -- but unfortunately he only managed to RESIST her command to kill Anya (rather, freezing in place), but didn't do so well that he could also act freely on his own.) "Everyone," as it turned out, included the constructs, to Ximena's chagrin -- she knew something was off, but when she decided to rush up to assist Thale, her jade jaguar just sat there and "purred" artificially.
The Champion of Anarchy
At this point, "Ayisla" began to contort and reform, showing her true appearance. It was something like this...
... but the creature was a shapeshifter, and kept constantly changing, tweaking parts of its form to resemble features of various persons and creatures present, or even their equipment. It had the ability to mimic abilities of nearby enemies, and as the Reclaimer rushed up to "purify it with fire," it quickly duplicated the priest's "Immunity to Fire" ability. Furthermore, it started calling up jade statue golems from the ruins to protect it (doing a "castling" maneuver like the Champion of Ruin by changing positions and leaving an animated statue in its wake).
Anya calmly reached up and took the sacrificial dagger from Thale's frozen hand, even as he struggled to resist, and then she strode over toward the altar. Brah-Lurh took the straightforward approach of simply attacking her ("If she has to sacrifice herself in a certain way, with that dagger, then surely all we need to do is make sure she dies in some OTHER way!") to Thale's horror, but Ximena managed to leap over in time to use her animated whip to snatch away Anya's dagger (flinging it far into the undergrowth), and then made a quick head-butt for a knock-out maneuver.
(Ximena's jade jaguar was frozen up by the Champion of Anarchy's "pacification" effect, as the constructs of the party were particularly vulnerable. Here's a picture, by the way:)
Poor Siegmeyer was frozen up for the bulk of the combat, and the Champion of Anarchy pulled a number of annoying of tricks (stepping into a shadow and reappearing right behind a new target, stabbing Thale in the back and draining some of his life force to heal itself, trying to trick its enemies into accidentally hitting each other due to its confusing ability to swap positions with other characters, etc.) -- but at last Brah-Lurh got close enough to it to unleash a flurry of blows that obliterated it.
The Champion of Fallow
Once the Champion of Anarchy was gone, Siegmeyer finally snapped out of it, and decided that it was time to check out the four Tablets of the Gifts that the Champions had been guarding.
However, there was still one last Champion left to thwart this: as soon as Siegmeyer began to scrap the obscuring vines away from one of the ancient holy tablets, there was a loud and furious whinny, as the Champion of Fallow came galloping into the garden.
The Reclaimer had been puzzling over how to get the Golden Bridle of legend out of the Eternal Voidflame (which had not yet been purified to turn back to a full fire ... and therefore his "Immunity to Fire" offered no protection against the cold-fire), but at this point, he decided it was now or never: he thrust his hands into the flame, endured excruciating pain (Willpower checks, and burning of Feat Points), and wrenched the bridle out. Then, as the corrupted horse galloped up angrily toward Siegmeyer, the Reclaimer rushed the horse, leaped up onto its back, and slipped the bridle over its muzzle.
Despite the bridle going into place as intended (and successful Riding and Animal Handling skills -- skills the Reclaimer had all this time, but rarely used), the horse was so wild at this point that it would be so easily tamed. It kicked and spun around, knocking over crumbling ruined walls of blackstone, and ramming the poor priest into them. Siegmeyer had a "Sanguine Bond" ability to absorb any damage taken by an ally within range, but the Reclaimer as a matter of honor refused to let anyone suffer for his test, and took the punishment himself. By the time it was done (three successful checks to stay on), the Reclaimer had only a couple of points of vitality left (and zero Feat Points) ... but he had succeeded! The Champion of Fallow had been tamed ... and so the curse of the wild slipped away, as plants returned to more natural (and less aggressively carnivorous ;) ) forms, and at last the tablets could be read.
A fiery agent of Menoth appeared at this time, in order to congratulate the Reclaimer and his "followers" for achieving the mission that Menoth had set out for them. The Reclaimer, in sign language, asked if there might be any way to heal the land and save these people. The fiery messenger replied that there was: The Reclaimer could resign his commission as a Reclaimer, and take over the duty as the new Guardian of the Gifts of Menoth. This would have been the honor for Prince Ivan, and this land would have been his new domain to replace his lost kingdom of Trans-Umbrey, but he had committed blasphemy by misrepresenting himself as a priest of Menoth, and acting in an un-priest-like fashion toward the naive locals -- so the honor would have to pass to another.
The fiery agent also addressed Siegmeyer, letting him know that he had faithfully completed the task for which Menoth had miraculously extended his time on Caen (by granting him a temporary sort-of "resurrection" after his original death on the Phantom Isle). He was warned that his remaining time was short, but that now he should take joy in witnessing the fruit of his labor, and knowing that even now a place of honor was being prepared for him in the City of Man in Urcaen.
The messenger blessed the primitive locals who had assembled, granting them gifts of understanding (a very basic understanding of Sulese -- the language of the Protectorate, and close linguistic relative to Cygnaran), so that they might be able to read the tablets and discover the Gifts of Civilization: Fire, Agriculture, Architecture, and Law.
Each of the adventurers was also granted a special Boon, choosing from one of the four Gifts. (This translated into a "skill affinity" for some skill associated with each category. Normally, there are VERY tight restrictions on what skills you can possibly learn, based on your career -- there are no opportunities to pick up "cross-class" skills, even at a penalty, as there are in various other systems. Ironically, that leads to weird situations such as where you simply CANNOT learn to sail a boat unless you take a career in "Pirate," because that skill doesn't show up in ANY of the other career lists! But, anyway, this was an excuse to give the PCs a chance to grab one of those skills they normally can't get, as if it's now a "career skill" -- and to get a bonus when rolling it.)
Thale, Ximena, and Brah-Lurh each chose the Gift of Law (Thale picking a bonus to the Law skill, while Ximena branched out into Research, and Brah-Lurh decided upon a bonus to Cryptography). Siegmeyer chose the Gift of Fire (picking an affinity with fire that allowed him a chance to reroll fire damage).
The Reclaimer accepted the role of Elder -- and at this point, surprised everyone by actually speaking again, his first words being to accept the offer and to praise Menoth's name. He then passed on his old items of station to Ivan, saying, "After all, you already have my robes."
(From this point on, he took over playing Ivan, under the idea that Ivan would try to "redeem" himself for his failures. The Reclaimer also entrusted the fiery dog and the fiery horse to Ivan, but kept the animated fiery sword by his side.)
Challenge of the Orgoth
Some time later, the lookout at the Rusalka spotted an approaching ship ... flanked by otherworldly DOGS that were racing atop the surface of the grey sludge, forming an escort for the strange (and evidently Orgoth-designed) barge. An amplified voice hailed the Rusalka in the Orgoth tongue, and Thale was the best prepared to respond, so he did so. The unnamed commander of the Barge insisted that if the crew of the Rusalka should leave this territory and never return, they would receive a boon. What boon? Well, NAME IT.
Thale conferred with the others, and they decided upon, "Bring us the skull of Khanjira the World-Breaker," thinking that if they could get their enemies to commit to that, then perhaps they'd die in the process ... or if they actually took out Khanjira, that'd save them a hassle. To their surprise, the person agreed, but intoned that Thale was soul-bound to carry out his half of the deal. (The way this was phrased was suspect: Thale had signed no contract. But nonetheless it was a bit creepy.)
Some time later, they heard an unearthly roar. It was Khanjira the World-Breaker ... and it was headed for the Rusalka! Thale face-palmed, and said, "Aha. So they're sending us the skull of Khanjira ... with Khanjira still attached!"
(Digital_Rampage at this point kept on and on griping and grousing about how this was totally unfair and that no REASONABLE person could think that actually sending Khanjira would qualify, blah-blah-blah, argue-argue, but I got a little tired of explaining that with the Orgoth, "reasonable" and "honorable" are NOT the operative words here, so I just pretended to ignore it after a point. GM fiat: Bad guys do what bad guys do. Anyway, I got a little bitty ship to put on the "sludge" board, and a great big Khanjira. So obviously there was a bit of a scale difference. HOWEVER, I also established that for this scenario, I was treating it as if every ranged weapon had an "Extreme Range" category that JUST SO HAPPENED to measure out on this table to be exactly what the attack's NORMAL range was. And, the range penalty for firing into Extreme Range just HAPPENED to be offset by the size modifier for Khanjira's immense size. So, for ranged attacks, we'd still be measuring 10 inches, 12 inches, etc., exactly as normal. It's just that the PCs were crammed in a much, much smaller space, and if for some reason the PCs started shooting at anything "normal"-sized, we'd have to scale-down the usual default ranges.)
Siegmeyer decided that if his time was limited on this world, now was the time to go out in a blaze of glory. So, he climbed out of his magnificent holy armor, took up a blessed halberd, and loaded himself into the catapult (nicknamed the "Brah-lista") that Pete had made a while ago as a bit of a gag, that they should launch Brah-Lurh into combat in naval engagements, rather than firing cannonballs. Well, now we'd get to find if the thing was just a gag prop, or it actually worked! Ivan actually had skill with artillery weapons (as part of his "warcaster" training), so he had the honors of aiming the catapult and then flinging poor Siegmeyer at the distant dragon. To some amazement, he actually succeeded, and Siegmeyer made a crazily-powerful strike as he hit Khanjira right in the head! (Siegmeyer also got impaled on one of Khanjira's many spikes, and Khanjira's shed blood immediately started transforming into tiny swarming dragonspawn.)
Thale realized that once Khanjira reached the boat, that would be the end of it, so he compelled his Hydra to jump into the sludge ... and then use its anti-gravity ability to slowly glide across the surface, keeping an intercept path between Khanjira and the Rusalka. Ximena manned a cannon, while Ivan used his arcane field marshal abilities to instruct all the cannoneers on the proper ways to pray and bless their cannonballs before firing (i.e., granting every cannoneer under his "leadership" the ability to fire as a magic weapon, thus counteracting Khanjira's "semi-corporeal" nature).
Things got crazy when Brah-Lurh followed Siegmeyer's example, loading up next -- and Ivan fired him, and hit again! Brah-Lurh took a bit more lasting damage from the impact, as the Blight Aura of the dragon interfered with the fast-healing abilities Brah-Lurh so relied upon when doing crazy stuff like this. Nonetheless, he had a runic enchantment upon his fists such that if he damaged Khanjira (and he did), then Khanjira would not be able to heal or recover for the next round. One of the big threats of this encounter was that Khanjira could "recover" up to 15 points of damage each round. (15 points past armor would be enough to take out a typical thug in one hit.) Things got even uglier for Brah-Lurh when enough damage was done that he had dragonspawn swarms tearing away at him -- and then Khanjira, taking too much cannon fire, submerged, and the "soul-sapping" properties of the sludge began to drain away at Brah-Lurh's life force each round.
Siegmeyer, having burned all his Feat Points in his crazy initial attack, and minus any armor at all (a very, VERY severe thing in this game) didn't last long on the dragon's back ... but when he went, his body began to glow and ascend, as a great fireball began to wash outward. Normally this would be no concern for a fireproof dragon, but this was holy damage that would burn even the unburnable. At this point, Brah-Lurh slapped the dragon with a passing curse (no healing for you this round!) then leaped out and tried to start swimming through the sludge toward the fleeing Rusalka. Ivan at this point commanded the Aethon (flaming horse) to gallop out to Brah-Lurh; Brah-Lurh grabbed hold and swung onto the horse, and then it galloped back to the ship.
Just as Khanjira was about to overwhelm the ship (even as it was being overtaken by the expanding blast wave, and its minion swarms were disintegrated), the Hydra used its force cannon to hinder Khanjira's progress.
Even posthumously, Siegmeyer was able to use his "fire affinity" to modify the holy fire damage: he could reroll not only to make the damage higher, but he could reroll in the hopes to make it LOWER (i.e., if it came out high, roll again and have a chance at geting a lower value) -- so he used that when the shock wave washed over the Hydra. Lo and behold -- the Hydra somehow survived!
But just as Khanjira was about to be vaporized, Ivan took over at one of the cannons, and, in another case of stupid luck, he actually managed to score the hit that finished off Khanjira! (Right after Ximena softened it up for him, that is.)
The holy fire continued to rise into a mushroom cloud, vaporizing all the unholy sludge in the vicinity, such that when it cleared, the sludge had been cleared out to quite some distance, and was taking a long time to flow back in again. The calcified remains of Khanjira's skeleton were reared back in anguish, forming the basis of what might be a new island at the site of Siegemeyer's ascension. Thale sent in the Hydra to extract the Heartstone from the calcified dragon skeleton, but rather than allowing it to bring the gem to the ship, he set about working with Ximena to fashion a containing cage, based on the principle of the acid font that had been keeping the shard of dragon crystal before, incorporating the sacrificial voidflame dagger, in order to complicate the gem's attempts to form a new body for itself.
Epilogue
So, the crew of the Rusalka returned to the island. They set up a containment cage for the dragon crystal in hopes of preventing it from reforming itself into Khanjira, isolating it on the new dragon-skeleton island so that it would not risk spreading dragonblight to the garden island. But this was only temporary: Ximena impishly suggested that they could simply boat over to the Gate of the Immortals and chuck the dragon crystal inside ... and then let the Orgoth deal with it when a very hungry dragon suddenly emerged.
The crew of the Rusalka appeared uncertain: They had completed their task, had they not? But would they attempt the arduous journey back to Immoren, or take their chances staking out life on this strange garden island in the middle of a Dead Land?
Prince Ivan, meanwhile, felt inspired by Siegmeyer's ascension, and felt compelled to take the battle to the wicked Orgoth. Indeed, he could take that dragon shard there, he was certain of it. But who would accompany him?
...
And so that's where we left off. BUT, I opened up the option to take part in an "epilogue" session next weekend. NinjaTheWolf could play Ivan on a quest to "redeem" himself. TheNewGuy could actually play some character that he'd create for HIMSELF for a change, rather than just having something assigned to him (but that might be a tall order to get something written up in just a week). Thale still hasn't resolved the issue of just where the real Ayisla might be ... so maybe answers are on the other side of that gate? And Brah-Lurh and Ximena might be along just to witness the carnage.
After that, we'll take a 3-week break to get back onto our usual once-every-two-week routine, and Goober_Chris will be starting up his Pathfinder "Kingmaker" campaign.
So, after next Saturday (if all goes well ... or even if all goes pretty poorly) I can take a break from GMing for a while. Paint some more minis. Do some chores around the house. Maybe draw something. Maybe write something. Who knows? As it so happens, yesterday I wasted a bunch of time playing Fallout 4 ... and I finally wrapped up the last of the quests in the Nuka-World DLC.
I've pretty much finished everything except to take on the "Machinator" -- and that, I understand, is a pretty short quest in terms of the DLC offerings. That's been a big gripe about the DLC offerings, is that a lot of them are just offerings of a few more items available in the workshop to add to settlements ... but that's exactly the sort of thing that was fairly easily added early on by various mods, since most of the times those aren't even NEW additions, but simply adding a few more items you would otherwise encounter in the environment, now as building options. Technically, I could already do that myself, by "cheating" those items in with console codes -- which is exactly how I used to decorate my home base in Novac, once upon a time in New Vegas. :)
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Heehee, Khanjira's skull... with Khanjira still attached. Yeah, that pretty much counts.
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P.S., I went back and fixed the broken image link, plus added some more.
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