I spent the afternoon before the game playing God of War II. So I decided not to be quite so apocalyptic.
The PCs:
Tochipel, a wizard who has mastered necromancy and the art of creature-creation. He has acquired a ritual to steal the divine power that Ferruus himself stole from the dead god, which they intend to use to gain a divine spark for themselves.
Merkal, a cleric who can heal, stoneshape, and teleport.
Gorlub, an elemental warrior who learned to change between different element types, each granting him their own suite of combat abilities. He usually fights with massive weapons like mauls and scythes.
Adeo, a monk who has dabbled in magic so he can empower himself and turn ethereal.
Zaph, a sword-and-board fighter with a 'Six Demon Bag,' capable of making his attacks explosive, or of banishing lesser demons.
The NPC:
Esha, a young sorceress involved in a love triangle with Tochipel the wizard and Merkal the cleric.
An Endless Night:
Night fell, and there were ominous tidings -- storms and falling stars and planar magic fading. Many days passed as they waited, not knowing when the ogres would come. Then after over a month of darkness and cold, a howl like a tornado sounded in the distance, and a torrential storm burst over the village. The PCs and the townsfolk went to the walls they had built (wall of stone and stoneshape adds up over enough time), and Gorlub, the flying multi-elemental PC, flew out to see just what they were facing. Just as he spotted the army through the rain, a nycaloth swooped in and began to battle him in the air.
Flashback Time:
At the very beginning of the campaign, when the PCs were just 2nd-level 10-year olds, the town was attacked by another one of these creatures during a flood. The encounter had just been intended to tease that such monsters existed in the world, and that they would return later, but Gorlub (who was only composed of stone back then) saw the demon attacking a woman who was struggling against the rushing flood waters. Though the player knew doing it would get his character killed, he ran to save her, swinging his maul and actually managing to hit the demon and hurt it.
Then an astounding sequence of events occured, with ridiculous dice-rolling.
The demon had turned and swung at Gorlub, but it fumbled, and tripped in the flood water.
Esha, then just a little girl who wanted to impress the PCs, had been out with Gorlub, and though she was scared, she tried to help. Esha could, because she was designed with Elements of Magic, cast a 1st-level hold outsider spell. It had practically no chance to work, because she had to beat spell resistance, and the save DC was ridiculously low, but she cast it.
It didn't work.
But then Gorlub grappled the demon, and beat it. Basically this 600-pound earth elemental child grabbed a demon twice as large as it and held its head underwater, trying to drown it because his maul had barely hurt the thing. The demon tried to break out of the grapple, and failed again.
Esha tried the spell again, and again the demon shrugged it off.
Gorlub continued to hold the demon under, trying to pin it, but the demon managed to break free. It stood up, and prepared to tear the child to pieces. Then Esha cast the spell again, beat its spell resistance, and the demon rolled a 1 for its save.
One round with a held demon was time enough for a coup de grace with a maul to smash even a demon's head in. And at 2nd level, a pair of children had managed to beat a CR 10 monster.
Back in the Present:
Gorlub, who has since learned to shift between different element types, flies away, he and the demon exchanging blows as they made their way toward the wall of the village. A half-dozen bowmen peppered the hellish beast ineffectually, until finally the yugoloth came within range of Esha, now all grown up. History repeated itself, though with higher level magic this time. A hold monster spell sent the demon plummeting from the sky, and one coup de grace later, the villagers were cheering.
Then, beyond the faintly visible army, a fiery golden glow appeared, and deep rumbling like swift, massive footsteps shook the earth. As it grew closer, the glow coalesced into a massive humanoid shape, 80 ft. high, and then the demon Ferruus spoke, urging its worshipers to destroy the heathens. The ogre army surged forward, and Ferruus led the charge.
Ferruus arrived well before its minions, tearing through the storm to reveal the towering form of a skeletal colossus, grafted of the bones of thousands of victims, its claws sharpened elephant tusks, its skin a jagged sheet of shattered screaming skulls, its muscles and flesh the glowing amber spheres in which Ferruus had trapped the souls of those sacrificed to him. Its eyes were more of these soul orbs, staring out from two holes in the monster's head. The colossus's chest glowed with white light that seeped through the cracks between fused bones that made up its rib cages. The PCs had been warned by the godling Vona before they realized he was an ass that they would need to know how to climb, so they had all trained in climbing.
(I had a training montage. It was fun.)
Just before Ferruus reached the wall, the town's sorceress mayor came up on the wall . . . and attempted to grapple Merkal, the cleric. The PCs quickly realized it was a succubus (who, they later learned, had attacked the mayor earlier that day), and they started to bash her. At the same time the witch arrived, visible only to the few who had dealt with her in the past and knew how to resist her magic (meaning the PCs). Her ghostly form flew into Adeo, the party's monk, and began to control his mind.
Just then, Ferruus swept one claw at the warriors on the wall, but most of them managed to duck behind cover. Only Adeo, who was witch-possessed, was caught in the attack, sending him flying away inside the town walls. Gorlub, who had transformed to his stone form, leapt upon the colossus's arm and began to climb up, and Merkal followed after him, moving more slowly but with readied actions to teleport them out of harm's way if Ferruus got pissy.
However, Ferruus was not concerned with two tiny people climbing his body. He continued to bash at the wall, trying to strike Tochipel, because he had been warned the wizard had found a way to steal his power. Tochipel scampered away and down the stairs to the normal ground inside the walls, unwittingly coming within range of the witch in Adeo's body. Esha ran to follow Tochipel, though she was torn between who of her two loves she needed to help.
A tricky magical battle ensued. The witch ray of enfeeblemented Tochipel down to 1 Strength and threw a monster at him to grapple and crush him, but Esha managed to banish the witch out of Adeo, and then continually ready actions to block the witch's line of sight with illusions whenever she tried to cast any spells. Adeo turned ethereal so he could beat up the ghostly witch on her own turf, and Tochipel used the corpse of the dead succubus to defend him from the witch's summoned monster. Then he just smiled charmingly to the Esha and attacked the witch with a few spells that put a nice hurt on undead.
Meanwhile on the wall, Zaph was hogging the glory, shooting arrows with Six Demon Bag gems on them into the left eye of the colossus, half-blinding it. Ferruus spat a curse at him and had the colossus grab him, but he crawled free of its claws and fell back on the wall, then resumed his assault, keeping the colossus distracted and focused on him while Merkal and Gorlub climbed for the massive skeleton's chest, where they assumed Ferruus was controlling it.
Hoping to save time, Gorlub tried to leap from the arm to the chest instead of climbing up the shoulder first. He missed and landed on the colossus's hip, taking him out of range of Merkal's healing. Seeing that Zaph was only narrowly managing to escape being crushed by the colossus, Merkal started to climb back down the arm for the hand, just in time to be swung off when the colossus lifted both its hands and slammed them down on Zaph, leaving him near death. Of course, amid all the smashing and swiping at the PCs, the colossus was also shooting blasts of soul energy from its eyes into the center of the town, and releasing blinding sunbursts from its chest.
The ogre army had reached the wall, but animated trees and undead the PCs had created were keeping them from scaling the walls. Ferruus decided he would just kill everyone himself and tear open the main gate, so he lifted the colossus's legs and steps over the 30-ft. high wall. Its foot came down and cracks the earth just beside the ongoing battle between the witch, Esha, Tochipel, and Adeo, and the PCs realized it would very much suck to get stepped on.
Tochipel calmly started his ritual to suck out Ferruus's divine power, keeping a forced smile on in hope that no one will think to attack him. The witch tried to possess Esha to keep her from disrupting any more spells, but Esha resisted, and the ethereal Adeo pummeled her. The witch withdrew into the ground, intending to regroup with the ogres. Adeo, also ethereal, dove into the ground after her, doing what monks do best -- kill spellcasters.
The colossus was just about to crush the PCs when Gorlub finished scaling its ribs. He planted his feet in the soul orbs and bones, pulled out his scythe, and used his various amazing sundering feats to snap open the colossus's chest like a lobster shell. The bone plating cracked and fell away, revealing a chamber full of holy light, and a slender humanoid figure of shadow and fire standing in its center, holding two waist-high pillars of bone like control sticks. The creature's eyes flickered slightly as it realized its sanctum has been pierced, and it chuckled. Ferruus had been enjoying his toy, but he would like a chance to use his own power at least a little bit this battle.
First, however, Gorlub's player reminds me he has 'Sundering Cleave.' Ferruus is not within melee range, but I let him have some fun, and he hurls his scythe, the godblood-forged blade impaling Ferruus in his shoulder.
Ferruus draws a long sword of sharpened bone, then fires a quickened scorching ray at the elemental warrior, and throws up a wall of fire at the opening of the chest, but Gorlub charges straight through it, bull rushing like a boulder and slamming Ferruus away from the controls and straight into the back of control chamber, shattering the bones of the far wall. Ferrus and Gorlub end up dangling out a window-sized hole in the back of the colossus, just at the same time that, on the wall, Merkal has finished healing Zaph back to consciousness.
The colossus's back is facing the wall of the village, and though a huge army is pressing to get in, the PCs' attentions are all focused inward, at Ferruus.
Zaph stands and begins inserting Six Demon Bag stones into his arrows, while Merkal uses a variant teleport spell to link his magic to Gorlub. On the ground, after some confusion and fear regarding where Adeo and the witch have gone, Esha summons a pterosaur, climbs on, and helps Tochipel mount behind her, so they can go aid Gorlub. Tochipel continues to concentrate on his spell, still nowhere close to done.
Hanging out the back of his great skeletal titan, Ferruus sears Gorlub with another quickened scorching ray and delivers a volley of devastating sword slashes, cutting through the stone warrior's body and knocking him out. Gorlub falls to the ground in the control chamber, and Ferruus pridefully steps over his fallen foe's body, and positions himself next to the control pillars again. But before he can strike again with the colossus, Zaph fires a Six Demon Bag arrow through the opening in the colossus's back, striking Ferruus with an explosion that reels him.
Angry at being distracted, Ferrus fires his last quickened scorching ray, consuming the injured Zaph with hellfire. Then Ferruus again grabs hold of the colossus's control pillars. He assesses the battlefield, seeing a group of mages preparing to mount a pterosaur, and decides to crush them. But then Gorlub, healed back to consciousness by Merkal, draws his maul and smashes one of the control columns, stopping the colossus's blow.
At this point the interruptions are just getting irritating, and Ferruus strikes Gorlub back into unconsciousness with his sword, then pulls from within his shadowy form an amber sphere. He kneels beside Gorlub and presses the sphere to the elemental's head, intending to suck his soul.
Then Merkal heals Gorlub one last time, and he regains consciousness just as Ferruus is finishing his chant. Gorlub doesn't even bother to stand. He kicks off the ground, slamming bodily into the demon god and sending them both flying out the open chest of the colossus.
Flashback Time:
A year earlier, the PCs had recovered a decanter of endless water from a dungeon, and, still being teenagers, they had seen it as a great opportunity to create a swimming pool for the village.
Back Again, to the Present:
Gorlub and the demon lord Ferruus plunge through the wall of fire, then crash to the ground, twenty feet from the frozen surface of the swimming pool, just as two mages atop a pterosaur are lifting off. Gorlub is heavily injured. Ferruus is heavily frustrated.
The pterosaur swoops into the control chamber of the colossus, the wall of fire slaying it, but Tochipel and Esha survive. Tochipel, busy concentrating on the ritual, tries to motion for Esha to grab the controls, but she has run to just behind the wall of fire, looking out at Gorlub, who is alone beside a seemingly invincible demon. She grabs Gorlub's scythe and throws it down to him, then casts a fire ward on him, while Tochipel thinks that it would be much more effective if someone were fighting with the colossus.
A moment later Merkal teleports into the chamber. He sees Esha there and bravely says that he'll handle it, hoping to impress her, since apparently Tochipel is too busy to talk. Merkal grabs the one surviving control pillar and concentrates, trying to figure out how to use it.
Below them, Gorlub and Ferruus both stand. Ferruus blasts with another scorching ray, but Gorlub is now protected against fire. Gorlub grabs his scythe and steps up, swinging. Though he makes a solid blow, it seems to barely harm Ferruus, just slicing through the demon's shadow flesh. Ferruus sees that his colossus is being hijacked, and he tries control it from a distance, but Merkal realizes what to do at just the last moment, and the colossus's claw stops short of grabbing Gorlub.
Figuring that the farther Ferruus is from his monster, the better they'll be, Gorlub bull rushes him again. Ferruus staggers from the sheer momentum of the attack, but is unharmed. Seeing that he'll have to end this the old fashioned way, Ferruus starts to swing his sword, but the ground beneath his feet is cracking. He looks down and realizes he is standing on the surface of a pool of water, frozen from the winter of the long night. The ice shatters, and Ferrus and Gorlub plunge into the water.
Shocked by the sudden fall, Ferrus is unable to keep Gorlub back as the stone man grabs him, pulling them both down to the bottom. And Gorlub doesn't let go. Ferruus tries to crawl free, but Gorlub holds him down and pins him. The demon god calls upon his magic to steal Gorlub's soul, but Gorlub resists. He even tries punching the earth elemental because he cannot swing his sword freely, but Gorlub's stone flesh is impenetrable.
Then a light flares overhead above the surface of the pool, and Ferruus realizes his colossus has leaned overhead, the luminescence of the control chamber now only twenty feet over the surface, giving the wizard Tochipel line of sight. With a scream, Ferruus feels the strength of a god pulled from his body. For a moment a globe of pure liquid sunlight shines from Tochipel's hand, and then it bursts, directed by Tochipel's will to flow into himself and his allies.
Underground, ethereal, Adeo drives his fist into the witch's chest, grabs her soul, and snuffs it with a thought.
Dead atop the wall, Zaph's soul rises, refusing to stop fighting until the ogre army is defeated.
In the depths of a swimming pool, Gorlub holds the feeble, terrified Ferruus until the demon lord spends his last breath to curse him to ruin. The former demon god drowns, and in proper heroic form, Gorlub tears his head off, just to be sure.
Over the pool, Merkal directs the colossus to stand tall, so the army of ogres can see it, what they believe to be the body of their god. He draws upon the remaining divine power and light within the heart of the titan, and conjures a brilliant light over the village, a small sun pushing the night away.
Then Tochipel concentrates on the souls that make up the colossus's flesh, and he frees them all. Thousands of amber spheres shatter, and the colossus begins to explode. The cheers of the fanatical ogres falter, and then turn to wails of despair as they god's body slowly collapses upon itself.
As bones and shards of amberglass rain about them, Esha's magic calmly deflects the danger and holds her and her two loves safely aloft. When the colossus finishes collapsing, they are standing atop a mound of its remains.
In the distance, the ogres flee into the night, but here, for now, light is shining.
Cheers to the PCs for winning the day!!
