The campaign has been moving along nicely. Really most everything I was wanting to happen the party has been doing. Which is nice. This was a very big week in regards to the over all story line of the adventure. It was actually an opportunity for there to be very big changes in the game and I was not exactly sure where things were going to go. Lots of fun to be had when you don't know what is about to happen. Very exciting.
EPISODE 22:
The party took time to finish up their preparations. It turned out that Tyhpus sword, Crissus, became sentient this last time that it was enchanted... as it turns out Crissus has belonged to the Paladin order of Tyr for centuries and it views itself as a defender of the faithful. I have decided to make a random chance for any item that receives an enchantment to become sentient. The idea is the process of making a magic item is somewhat.... volatile, and sometimes they wake up.
So the party took their new gear and headed into the blustery winds of mid December towards the Sunlight Keep. On their way south they ran into some of their old friends, Leanna the assassin and Athis the Graveknight. Those 2 were very interested in making the party dead. It was a tough fight, and it once again brought Urz to the edge of death. Once Athis fell Leanna tried to bargain for her life. She offered to trade freedom for secrets. I only about 25% expected that this was going to get the party to bite. Instead the took her down, bound her up, questioned her and killed her. I cannot entirely blame them- I did what I could to get her out of there but ultimately the party was just too interested in seeing her die for her crimes. She has been a foil to the group for some time and it was good for them to get some closure there.
From the clues she left they managed to put together that Belfast was completing a ritual that night to open up the seal that was holding back Nagaste-Tor. If Nagaste-Tor was unleashed than every person in Osht would die, more than 150,000 people. So they slipped past the Black Guard encampment, hurried into the secret tunnel and then ran into a few cultists at the bottom of the tunnel. These cultists were really causing some confusion for the group. They knew now that not all of the cultists were bad and yet here they were killing paladins of Tyr and trying to raise the most horrific scourge that the world had seen back into the open. This was really the effect I was hoping for, because things were about to be cleared up shortly. The cultists that they fought were also the exact same difficulty as the cultists they fought at the beginning of the game, a couple of level 2 guys, and a few level 1's. I thought it would be fun for them to see how far they had come.
Once they got downstairs they saw that Belfast was finishing up the ritual. And now he had a chance to provide a little exposition. Belfast informs the party that he became aware of rifts between Proveria and after researching what was happening and communing with Nergal realized that there was a Demon Lord that was trying to tear his way into their reality. He tried to find ways to stop it and with more study determined the only thing strong enough to stop the Demon Lord was the Arch-Lich Nagaste-Tor. He used Athis's money and resources as the Count of Pastan and then asked him for the ultimate sacrifice, become an evil undead monster to help save the world. And now Belfast is prepared to sacrifice the entire country so that the rest of the world will be saved from the demon invasion.
At this point the party had a decision to make, do they stand back and let Belfast kill 150,000 people that night and potentially the entire country to stop the Demon Lord, or do they stop Belfast and find a new way to prevent this Demon Lord from entering their world.
They chose to stop Belfast and save Osht. Another tough fight. This is the inherent problem with difficult encounters- they can be extremely volatile. Belfast had a few spells that boiled down to save or die- destruction and disintegrate. I hit 2 people in the party with those and they both saved, and still took a ton of damage. The whole fight took about 5, maybe 6 rounds. I would love for a boss fight like this to take 9, 10, or 11 rounds, but the nature of them is such that the party just cannot stand the damage output. The only reason that its a problem is that a Big Bad Evil Guy that has been built up from the start of the game ought to have, I don't know, something more.
That being said, Belfast was slain. The party arose victorious from the depths, freed the paladins who had been captured below and convinced the remaining Black Guard that they should follow Chara (the Black Guard priestess who helped them defeat a demon earlier). With that the adventure was basically over, they headed back up to Wisthaven and needed to find out what happened to Ismana.
Until Next Time!
-Ubercroz
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