It was the final showdown with the big bad tonight. The party was exhausted, on their fourth encounter of the day, having used all their daily powers, and low on healing surges. And yet, into the breach they went! Read on to see how it turned out...
Having defeated the underpriest of Orcus and some of his minions, the party rested a few moments, listening to the ominous chantings of Kalarel from the darkness below. Splug, seething for the blood of Kalarel, could barely hold still, but waited for his great heroes to assess the situation.
After checking the catacombs leading away from the cathedral, and satisfying themselves that they hadn't been used in centuries, they considered waiting at the top of the chains to assault whatever came up. But as Kalarel's chanting grew stronger, they felt a rumbling in the ground, as if something had moved in the earth around them. Faint, unworldly growls began echoing up from below.
When the rogue pointed out that, quite likely, the only thing that would come up the chains would be Orcus himself, the heroes decided that they would have to assault the cultist directly. Unfurling the ropes from their packs, they attached them to columns and climbed down, two to a rope. Splug climbed down the bloody chains.
The paladin, clumsy and heavy in his armor, lost his grip on the rope and fell 50' to the pool of blood below. Climbing to his feet, he glanced around and saw danger in every direction. To the south, a hooded, hunched looking figure emerged from the shadows of a statue, hissing. To the west, the berserker they had pushed into the pit crouched at the base of a statue of Orcus, ready to attack them as they came down the chains, the clay scout crouched on his shoulder. To the north, Kalarel stood chanting at an unclean altar to Orcus, guarded by two skeletal warriors. But to the east was the most terrifying sight - there, in a circular portal, was a rippling black membrane which stretched and strained as some enormous thing pushed against it.
The rogue, swift as the wind, alighted next to him, helped him to his feet, and then charged the berserker and clay scout. The paladin followed suit, and they were quickly joined by most of the others. The cleric turned his attention to the crypt-thing to the south, and Splug, in his thirst for revenge, charged Kalarel alone.
The clay scout went down fast, but the berserker, filled with a bloody rage, fought tenaciously against the dwarf, paladin, warlord, wizard, and rogue, but finally went down. The wight revealed his awful visage, and the cleric staggered backwards towards the portal, which strained, reaching further into the room than it had before.
DM's note: I changed the thing in the portal slightly to increase its reach by 1 every round until it reached the maximum of 3. It didn't matter mechanically, but the image of the thing in the portal growing stronger each round lit a fire under the players' seats.
As Splug charged forward, the two skeletal warriors moved to defend their master, coming at him from both sides. As the berserker went down, the party turned their attention to helping Splug dispatch the skeletal warriors. Meanwhile, Kalarel stood at his altar, firing necrotic rays that sapped the strength from the fighters' blows, and infecting their flesh with necrotic fire.
As the party fought the skeletons, Kalarel saw his chance. The rogue, who had moved to flank a skeleton warrior, had left his rear unprotected. Kalarel walked down the steps and slammed the rogue with his rod of ruin, dropping him to the ground! The skeletons stepped back and interposed themselves between the party and their master.
The party launched an assault against the front line of the skeletons, and one went down as the cleric and the wight traded blows of radiant and necrotic power at the other end of the room. The paladin laid hands upon the rogue to bring him back to his knees, and then rushed to join the fray. Slowly, the thing in the portal stretched further and further into the room as Kalarel's chanting gave it power.
The dwarf shattered the jaw of one of the warriors, dropping it, leaving an opening for the others to rush in against Kalarel. But just as they pushed in, Kalarel vanished in a puff of foul smoke! Looking around, they saw Kalarel had teleported onto the magic circle before the thing in the portal, a grim smile on his face. The black tentacles waved all around him, reaching into the room, searching for life to clutch and devour.
As the party turned toward Kalarel, the wight breathed out a necrotic cloud, which settled upon the fallen skeletal warrior, and it stood up again! Suddenly, the party knew they had to deal with the wight. The warlord charged at it, and used his battlefield acumen to put it off guard so that the others could strike it. As the dwarf and paladin finished off the skeletal warriors, the cleric and warlord beat the wight into powder.
...which left all eyes on Kalarel and the thing in the portal. All the heroes were wary of entering the area where the tentacles could reach, but Splug bravely (foolishly?) charged into the thick of them to get at Kalarel. The tentacles flailed all around him, but Splug's rage kept him swinging his axe at his enemy. Following Splug's lead, the party's fighters charged into the maelstrom of tentacles, too.
Then one of the tentacles managed to grab Splug! Long, needle-like spines sprung out of the tentacle, and punctured Splug's flesh, and they quickly engorged with blood! The blood grotesquely streamed back through the semi-transparent black tentacles, and screamed back up another one, which lodged itself into the base of Kalarel's neck! He squirmed a bit at the end of the tentacle, but as Splug's blood flowed into him, his wounds healed. A demonic grin spread across Kalarel's face, and the magic circle he stood upon began glowing, surrounding him with a sinister blue glow that made his wounds seal even faster.
To their abject horror, the heroes watched all their strikes melt away as the tentacles lashed them and pumped more blood into Kalarel. The grasping tentacles dragged them greedily towards the portal, and they fought to stay away from it. One by one, the heroes fell, and the others would drag them out of the tentacled mass to administer healing potions.
The party's healing supplies were draining away fast, and Kalarel still seemed strong. The paladin, trying something different, bull rushed Kalarel off of the circle, and the healing power of it faded! Suddenly, the party had found a weakness, and they began working together to keep him off of the circle.
But even without the aid of the circle, Kalarel was a fierce opponent. Between him and the tentacles, heroes kept falling, and more and more heroes lay crumpled at Kalarel's feet. He could see victory was at hand, and gloated, "Surrender now to the power of Orcus." As the heroes lay scattered at Kalarel's feet, the cleric ran in to aid a fallen hero, and was struck down herself by the tentacles.
All seemed lost! But just then, there was a shout from behind. Stepping down from the chains were two friendly faces: Douven Stahl and Marla of the Great Church. As the dwarf and cleric fell to the grasping tentacles, Marla stepped forward and called down a beacon of sunlight into the room! All the heroes were healed slightly, but enough to get them to their feet! Douven Stahl fired his arrows into the midst of the fray, tagging Kalarel.
DM's note: knowing that I had kind of railroaded them into four encounters in a row without a rest, AND knowing that the final combat was tough, I'd prepared character sheets for these characters to use as some backup in case they needed them in this combat. The players very nearly didn't need them - Kalarel was low on hit points - but a series of bad rolls on their part and extremely good rolls on the part of the bad guys brought some real ruin to the party. I decided to bring them in before things went too south.
"Fools! More lambs for the slaughter!" he hissed. But as his attention turned to the new, fresh combatants, Splug saw his chance. Having been unable to hit during the entire combat, he finally connected, and did massive damage! Kalarel staggered sideways, and Splug chased forward. The Warlord barked commands to assist him, and he struck again, and Kalarel was heavily hurt. "This be for Poo-Jowls!" snarled Splug through clenched teeth.
But again, the tentacles lashed out, slamming the cleric to the ground. All the heroes gasped in horror when they realized she had stepped too close to the portal! Her screams echoed off the halls as the tentacles dragged her through the portal into the Shadowfell beyond. A terrible gnashing and tearing sound made clear what lay in wait for any who fell through the portal.
Redoubling their efforts, the remaining heroes launched themselves in a last-ditch effort to take down Kalarel. One, two, three heroes fell at his feet, but his blood was dripping on the floor. As he raised his rod of ruin to brain one of his foes, the rogue slipped in from the side, and buried his shortsword deep into Kalarel's side!
Kalarel's eyes went wide, as the life ebbed from him. A thunderous voice rattled the chamber: "YOU HAVE FAILED ME, KALAREL!" The portal began sucking into itself, and the tentacles, just before vanishing, lashed out, and dragged the astonished Kalarel into the darkness. And then it was merely stone.
They had lost one of their companions, but the threat had been thwarted, thanks to the timely arrival of some old friends. Marla said a blessing to Pelor, and tended to the wounded. Splug, for his part, felt little vindication in Kalarel's grisly demise, and resolved to wander the world and kill others like Kalarel; though he wanted to continue serving the "great heroes," he understood that he could not travel with them - their paths lay in other directions. And Douven Stahl, he was still resolved to retire and live his life in peace, but he realized that he could not turn a blind eye to evil, no matter what his age, and was relieved he had rushed Marla back to this place.
Finally, Marla stood, and addressed the adventurers. Clearly, her usefulness at the city was worth little. She resolved to travel with the heroes and serve the role their previous cleric had before her untimely demise. And with a solemn demeanor, they turned to begin the long climb back to the surface, for there had been some mention of a threat called the "Bloodreavers..."
It was the final showdown with the big bad tonight. The party was exhausted, on their fourth encounter of the day, having used all their daily powers, and low on healing surges. And yet, into the breach they went! Read on to see how it turned out...
DM's note: I changed the thing in the portal slightly to increase its reach by 1 every round until it reached the maximum of 3. It didn't matter mechanically, but the image of the thing in the portal growing stronger each round lit a fire under the players' seats.
Did your party have an opportunity to encounter the traitor at the cemetery, and if so how did you route them there? The text indicates that it should occur between sessions in the keep, but I get the feeling my party is going to be a group that will try to stay in the keep through the whole thing, but I think I'd like to work that encounter in.
Yeah, my party didn't head back to town, either, rightly assuming that it was a "lesser of two evils" situation to stay and fight the rise of Orcus himself, or go back and try to save the town. It was pretty fun to pose that moral dilemma to the characters, though. Splug really came in handy there.
The way I worked it in was to just play out the events described in the module when they finally get back to town. Ninaran has been plaguing WinterHaven with zombies, and the town asks the players to go take care of it.
The nice thing about this is that it becomes a little revenge vignette after the big bad has been killed - Ninaran is not just obeying orders, but is out for blood since she has sensed (in some plot-unspecified manner) that they have killed Kalarel.
Because the encounter came after the characters had reached level 4 (instead of level 2 as the encounter assumes), and because we had a party of six instead of four to five, I added two zombie hulks to the mix, making it a pretty tough encounter with some interesting dynamics. I'll try to write up a description tonight and post it...
And, by the way, your encounter sheets are a godsend! I don't know how I ever ran combats without them. Thanks again!
Glad you like them. They sure streamlined my game after I started using them, so I'm glad someone else is getting some value from them, too.
