The Party
Neferitt – Seela Paragon lvl. 2 / Paladin 17
Shaith – Fire elf Wizard 1(with precocious apprentice feat)/Druid 8/Arcane Hierophant 10
Killian – Human Wizard 1(with precocious apprentice feat)/priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Mystic theurge 10 / frost mage 5
August 2
The next morning the party returned to Seaquen and settled in for the next step. Shaith and Neferitt went searching for someone who could help them on their quest to bring back life to the living blade and thus the forest of Innenotdar.
During the first day Killian is contacted in his room by Rantle, the current leader of Gate Pass. He asks Killian to come along, as he is invited to join in on a small council meeting. While walking to the meeting, Rantle asks Killian, if he would be willing to be an official representative of Gate Pass at the next big and final council meeting. Killian accepts without pause.
DM Note: The war councils I had made so far were all a big successes both because they were fun as well as being a great way to give the information to the players in a more interesting way. Also they seem to remember things better when having to present them to the others. So I decided to include three council sessions in chapter 12, a small council meeting, a strike force meeting and a big final war council.
While Killian is walking towards the council, Tiljann appears where Shaith and Neferitt are studying and asks if they can spare a little time for a trip with her. They accept and she teleports them to the edge of Seaquen, where a small contingency of Seela have made camp. They represent Innenotdar in the alliance. With them they have Trilla, who is in elf form. She has decided that the best way to atone for the pain the Seela’s have felt is to help them in this quest.
Papuvin is the leader of the contingency, but he has little experience in the world, and since Tiljann is with the wayfarers and Trilla is as inexperienced, he wants Shaith and Neferitt to be his aides at the council meeting. They both graciously accept.
Back at Lyceum Killian is led into a small office, where a small group of people are present; Simeon, King Shaaladel, Ambassador Snord for Sindaire, Duke Gallo for Dassen and of course Rantle.
The point of the meeting is to settle some disputes before the big council meeting, to ensure that the alliance is on the same page.
The main issue is of course who is to be the supreme leader.
DM Note: I made sure to rule out the party; their role is much more hands on. The choice was between King Shaaladel and Commander Foebane. In this council session Killian played himself, I played Simeon and the other four parts were shared between Shaith and Neferitt – scripted to the extent that it was possible.
The council is fairly evenly split among who to support, which led King Shaaladel to pull out the document signed by the party, as representatives for the alliance, during the liberation of Gate Pass. King
Shaaladel pointed out that he was a bit annoyed that he had to point to a legal argument.
DM note: No… he wasn’t really, he enjoyed rubbing it in the face of Killian, and Shaith sold that scene perfectly.
King Shaaladel pointed out, that as stipulated under point number two, that he was to be the supreme leader until the end of the campaign. That ought to end the discussion.
Simeon studied the agreement and found no fault, although he did point out that one could possibly argue over what timeframe “the end of the campaign” was said to cover.
Killian was loath to say it out loud, but his honor bid him do it. He supported King Shaaladel as supreme leader, as he had signed the document and while he had never thought this through, his signature was on the document and it was binding.
DM note: Killian had completely forgotten everything about that deal, and when Shaaladel presented it at the session, he was torn. On one hand he hated that he felt bound by his word, but loved the fact that an action in an earlier chapter had a consequence in the future.
The rest of the session is about choosing a group to coordinate the planning as well as agreeing to send a strike force to take out a ritual in process in Ragos. The ritual is stopping the alliance from gathering intelligence on Leska and her army, and it has to be stopped.
DM Note: The job went to the party… Surprise!
The council agrees to use Dassen as the staging area for the combined army, but to hold the final council in Lyceum.
The small council session ends shortly after. In the evening when the party is gathered Killian briefs the other two about the session and about the strike force job.
August 3-4
Shaith and Neferitt keep studying and find a solution, that might help them, but it will have to wait until they have finished their business with Leska.
DM note: If the campaign ends, as it is written, with one of the party members sacrificing himself/herself and ascending to goodhood while the others win the final fight I thought this could be used in the final narrative. It would be a nice touch for the new divinity as the first action to bring life back to Innenotdar if he/she wants it – it will be their choice.
The rest of the time is spent shopping and restocking supplies
August 5
The party is called to join in a strike force meeting with a select group of people. Present are Simeon, Private Coaltongue, Commander Foebane and Warleader Steckart
DM note: They all seemed a bit taken back with the fact that Coaltongue is now a private in the alliance army. The role seems to suit him quite nicely… and I am pretty sure that he most likely isn’t digging latrines
The party played themselves as well as one character each (scripted as usual) and I played Simeon.
The meeting was a briefing about the protections and layout of the imperial palace. Also, the party had to make a choice as to which approach to use; they could either go in with torch blazing, fighting every single step of the way, or go in undercover. The problem with the last plan was that there would be no way they could bring along the torch.
DM note: And a little bit of biomancy – like temporarily taking of Neferitts wings The reason is that I had made a rule brought in place by Leska, any Seela was to be killed on sight at the palace. The only Seela known to be outside Innenotdor was Etinifi, and if he showed up, she expected it to be to kill her.
This led to a bit of a discussion and planning, and in the end they decided to use subterfuge to get as far as possible without getting caught.
DM Note: As Coaltongue is on he was able to give them a lot of insight. I also felt that with all the combat in this chapter, that there would be no need for forcing the party to fight through extra enemies, if they were willing to make the sacrifices needed.
August 6
The day went with detail planning and transport to Ragos, to prepare for the assault the next day.
August 7
The plan works as detailed and they are only exposed, as expected when they meet Master of the Palace Staff.
DM Note: The plan included faking a set up meeting with the Master of the Staff. He of course knew that there was no such meeting.
This meant that the party was already halfway through the sixth floor of the palace, before the hostilities began. At first the party felt that things went their way without too much trouble, but the continuing reinforcements of Ragesian infantry squads soon started taking a toll.
DM note: I had Roav use his Wish before entering the throne room, so they could not counter it. Sadly it meant that they found out early on that healing was not an option.
When they entered the throne room, Shaith had an ace up his sleeve. He used a Tsunami spell to push all the defenders to the other side of the room, thereby making the way to the ritual room easier.
The battle in the throne room was pretty tough, and while Roav was pretty sure to lose, he did manage to pull off making a deal, as he convinced the party that killing him would be a waste for everyone. He offered commit a lot of devil to join in the battle at Opaline wastes.
DM note: Yeah…he made sure to word the deal so he could wreak havoc and get away with it…![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
The ritual ended, and Roav teleported away, and so did the party.
DM note: I decided that after the fight with Roav they would level up. I wanted them to be able to play as level 20 characters for the final part of the campaign.
The Party
Neferitt – Seela Paragon lvl. 2 / Paladin 18
Shaith – Fire elf Wizard 1(with precocious apprentice feat)/Druid 9/Arcane Hierophant 10
Killian – Human Wizard 1(with precocious apprentice feat)/priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Mystic theurge 10 / frost mage 6
August 8-14
The next week passes without incident for the party. The armies start to gather and get ready for the final fight.
August 15
The final war council commences. At the table, which is round so no one feels slighted, there are 30 chairs, three for each of the 10 groups invited to the meeting. Three of them have not come, however. They are the Ragesian rebels (Generals Magdus & Danava), Ostalin and Longinus with his monks.
DM note: Magdus never forgave the party for lying to him and bringing him aboard after finding the torch. As for Ostalin, since the Khagan got away they have internal issues, while Longinus never even responded to the invites.
The council was a massive one, with the players having six-seven roles each, making the council more of a play than anything else. They delivered as usual, and they had a lot of fun. I cannot say this often enough; the war councils have been my best idea in this campaign.
After the council and the large amount of information has been shared, it is time to get ready for the attack.
August 16
DM Note: I presented them with the VP count and the running total. Telling them how much they needed to win and how much they would have to avoid losing. I also told them what factors during the campaign had influenced the VP count to let them know how their actions had an effect on the outcome.
Killian activates the torch and starts teleporting the armies to their respective staging areas. After settling in with about 80.000 soldiers, the party is contacted by Crystin who comes to deliver a final vision warning to them.
They interpret her vision as Deception being hidden somewhere with Shaaladels contingent.
DM note: Not a bad guess
After Crystin leaves; Haddin and Guthwulf drops by asking the party to bring back prisoners… or corpses (Guthwulf).
DM note: I really like Guthwulf as a NPC. I love the way that he really likes the party; seeing them as some of his best friends in the world. He would do anything for them, he is nice, jovial, trustworthy and above all a very good friend. He is also evil as hell and has no qualms of going to extremes and beyond. It gives a very nice dynamic as they really don’t like him, but somehow they still do
The weather turns bad, and Shaith helps countering it with control weather. And then the enemy arrives. Their lines a long and very thin and the party see through the ruse warning their side to the trap.
The fighting commences and after some tough fights they defeat several waves and finally manage to kill the general and capture the standard. They bring back the corpse to Guthwulf.
DM note: The party really liked the concept of squads. They thought that it was a very smart way of making lower level masses relevant in a high level fight. They also liked the fact that they were still rather easy to take out with area spells, while still being a threat.
One could discuss the details as to how to make squads, but on paper they work, and the party liked the idea.
After a short break they are called to the elves to help them. They have some problems with Golems who are wasting them. The first problem is getting there, while fighting undead squads. After taking out the first wave of enemies they find the golems, and end up in an epic fight
DM Note: The golems are very tough, especially until they figure out to hit the breast plates, and I felt the adventure didn’t really give many clues so I had to. During the fight they had to call for help, and I sent in the treant groves, and they had a hard time against the golems.
In the end after a very tough battle the party won, managing to liberate the captured fire elementals, who joined the alliance in the war against Leska.
After taking care of the golems, Shalosha send them to take care of the necromantic general. The fight is a strange one, because of the general’s strange behavior. Just as they finally seem to have him cornered he just drops dead.
They soon realise that he used a magic jar to escape, but they captured the standard.
DM Note: The coward ran and lived to fight another day… actually more specifically the next day, where the PCs got him and killed him.
As darkness falls the fights seizes and the armies draw apart. The party then starts to focus on Crystin’s visions and how to protect the leaders.
DM note: The watch changed and the false guards took their places right under their noses.
After scouring the area, Neferitt decides to talk to the captain of the guard. He asks him if he has been briefed about the coming attack, and that an assassination attempt is expected.
DM note: In other words Neferitt just told the leader of the assassins that they are expected… the guard reacted in the only reasonable way – he panicked and called the attack.
The assassins draw their bombs and then they throw their necklaces blowing up all the leaders present and themselves. The nightcrawler then arrives and try to swallow the bodies and get away, but it failed and got slayed.
DM note: The leaders of the resistance died, but were resurrected, some right away, and some the next day. The blow to morale did cost on the VP count though.
Just as everything settles down, they learn that another assault was made; this time on Shalosha who has been abducted.
August 17
The next morning the newly resurrected Simeon tell the players that they have found the general behind the bad weather and that he wants them to take him out.
They find him on top of a plateau and quickly find that stealth won’t work for them this time, so instead they throw away caution and simply teleport in; cutting him down.
DM note: To say that this was much of a fight would be an overstatement.
They bring back his body to Guthwulf.
DM note: They were a bit behind on VP at this point, and instead of throwing in more fights I asked them each to tell of one course of action that they were taking that would help in the fight.
Amongst the things they mentioned were taking out the necromancer general. I let them take care of those issues without any further dice rolls.
August 18
The enemy is surrendering army by army and the alliance army now stand at the entrance to the Two Dragon Arch. Everyone in the army knows that it is a murder tunnel and no one wants to go in first.
DM note: Actually that is not true, the party volunteered, but the leaders of the army decided against throwing the heroes into an unknown death trap.
In the end Duke Gallo volunteers part of his personal guard to go in first. His dwarves would be well suited to the task, as he stated. At the last moment, he is convinces not to join the foray into the murder tunnel himself.
The loss of life is high for the group going in, and soon a few of them exit with a Ragesian soldier. This turns out to be a druid who wants to change sides. He represents a group of people who would rather live and be on the winning side.
DM note: For some reason they didn’t really believe him on facevalue… go figure
In the end he agrees to being dominated to ensure that he is telling the truth both about the way in, as well as about the conspiracy he is telling them about. It turns out that every word was actually true.
End of session
Neferitt – Seela Paragon lvl. 2 / Paladin 17
Shaith – Fire elf Wizard 1(with precocious apprentice feat)/Druid 8/Arcane Hierophant 10
Killian – Human Wizard 1(with precocious apprentice feat)/priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Mystic theurge 10 / frost mage 5
August 2
The next morning the party returned to Seaquen and settled in for the next step. Shaith and Neferitt went searching for someone who could help them on their quest to bring back life to the living blade and thus the forest of Innenotdar.
During the first day Killian is contacted in his room by Rantle, the current leader of Gate Pass. He asks Killian to come along, as he is invited to join in on a small council meeting. While walking to the meeting, Rantle asks Killian, if he would be willing to be an official representative of Gate Pass at the next big and final council meeting. Killian accepts without pause.
DM Note: The war councils I had made so far were all a big successes both because they were fun as well as being a great way to give the information to the players in a more interesting way. Also they seem to remember things better when having to present them to the others. So I decided to include three council sessions in chapter 12, a small council meeting, a strike force meeting and a big final war council.
While Killian is walking towards the council, Tiljann appears where Shaith and Neferitt are studying and asks if they can spare a little time for a trip with her. They accept and she teleports them to the edge of Seaquen, where a small contingency of Seela have made camp. They represent Innenotdar in the alliance. With them they have Trilla, who is in elf form. She has decided that the best way to atone for the pain the Seela’s have felt is to help them in this quest.
Papuvin is the leader of the contingency, but he has little experience in the world, and since Tiljann is with the wayfarers and Trilla is as inexperienced, he wants Shaith and Neferitt to be his aides at the council meeting. They both graciously accept.
Back at Lyceum Killian is led into a small office, where a small group of people are present; Simeon, King Shaaladel, Ambassador Snord for Sindaire, Duke Gallo for Dassen and of course Rantle.
The point of the meeting is to settle some disputes before the big council meeting, to ensure that the alliance is on the same page.
The main issue is of course who is to be the supreme leader.
DM Note: I made sure to rule out the party; their role is much more hands on. The choice was between King Shaaladel and Commander Foebane. In this council session Killian played himself, I played Simeon and the other four parts were shared between Shaith and Neferitt – scripted to the extent that it was possible.
The council is fairly evenly split among who to support, which led King Shaaladel to pull out the document signed by the party, as representatives for the alliance, during the liberation of Gate Pass. King
Shaaladel pointed out that he was a bit annoyed that he had to point to a legal argument.
DM note: No… he wasn’t really, he enjoyed rubbing it in the face of Killian, and Shaith sold that scene perfectly.
King Shaaladel pointed out, that as stipulated under point number two, that he was to be the supreme leader until the end of the campaign. That ought to end the discussion.
Simeon studied the agreement and found no fault, although he did point out that one could possibly argue over what timeframe “the end of the campaign” was said to cover.
Killian was loath to say it out loud, but his honor bid him do it. He supported King Shaaladel as supreme leader, as he had signed the document and while he had never thought this through, his signature was on the document and it was binding.
DM note: Killian had completely forgotten everything about that deal, and when Shaaladel presented it at the session, he was torn. On one hand he hated that he felt bound by his word, but loved the fact that an action in an earlier chapter had a consequence in the future.
The rest of the session is about choosing a group to coordinate the planning as well as agreeing to send a strike force to take out a ritual in process in Ragos. The ritual is stopping the alliance from gathering intelligence on Leska and her army, and it has to be stopped.
DM Note: The job went to the party… Surprise!
The council agrees to use Dassen as the staging area for the combined army, but to hold the final council in Lyceum.
The small council session ends shortly after. In the evening when the party is gathered Killian briefs the other two about the session and about the strike force job.
August 3-4
Shaith and Neferitt keep studying and find a solution, that might help them, but it will have to wait until they have finished their business with Leska.
DM note: If the campaign ends, as it is written, with one of the party members sacrificing himself/herself and ascending to goodhood while the others win the final fight I thought this could be used in the final narrative. It would be a nice touch for the new divinity as the first action to bring life back to Innenotdar if he/she wants it – it will be their choice.
The rest of the time is spent shopping and restocking supplies
August 5
The party is called to join in a strike force meeting with a select group of people. Present are Simeon, Private Coaltongue, Commander Foebane and Warleader Steckart
DM note: They all seemed a bit taken back with the fact that Coaltongue is now a private in the alliance army. The role seems to suit him quite nicely… and I am pretty sure that he most likely isn’t digging latrines
The party played themselves as well as one character each (scripted as usual) and I played Simeon.
The meeting was a briefing about the protections and layout of the imperial palace. Also, the party had to make a choice as to which approach to use; they could either go in with torch blazing, fighting every single step of the way, or go in undercover. The problem with the last plan was that there would be no way they could bring along the torch.
DM note: And a little bit of biomancy – like temporarily taking of Neferitts wings The reason is that I had made a rule brought in place by Leska, any Seela was to be killed on sight at the palace. The only Seela known to be outside Innenotdor was Etinifi, and if he showed up, she expected it to be to kill her.
This led to a bit of a discussion and planning, and in the end they decided to use subterfuge to get as far as possible without getting caught.
DM Note: As Coaltongue is on he was able to give them a lot of insight. I also felt that with all the combat in this chapter, that there would be no need for forcing the party to fight through extra enemies, if they were willing to make the sacrifices needed.
August 6
The day went with detail planning and transport to Ragos, to prepare for the assault the next day.
August 7
The plan works as detailed and they are only exposed, as expected when they meet Master of the Palace Staff.
DM Note: The plan included faking a set up meeting with the Master of the Staff. He of course knew that there was no such meeting.
This meant that the party was already halfway through the sixth floor of the palace, before the hostilities began. At first the party felt that things went their way without too much trouble, but the continuing reinforcements of Ragesian infantry squads soon started taking a toll.
DM note: I had Roav use his Wish before entering the throne room, so they could not counter it. Sadly it meant that they found out early on that healing was not an option.
When they entered the throne room, Shaith had an ace up his sleeve. He used a Tsunami spell to push all the defenders to the other side of the room, thereby making the way to the ritual room easier.
The battle in the throne room was pretty tough, and while Roav was pretty sure to lose, he did manage to pull off making a deal, as he convinced the party that killing him would be a waste for everyone. He offered commit a lot of devil to join in the battle at Opaline wastes.
DM note: Yeah…he made sure to word the deal so he could wreak havoc and get away with it…
The ritual ended, and Roav teleported away, and so did the party.
DM note: I decided that after the fight with Roav they would level up. I wanted them to be able to play as level 20 characters for the final part of the campaign.
The Party
Neferitt – Seela Paragon lvl. 2 / Paladin 18
Shaith – Fire elf Wizard 1(with precocious apprentice feat)/Druid 9/Arcane Hierophant 10
Killian – Human Wizard 1(with precocious apprentice feat)/priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Mystic theurge 10 / frost mage 6
August 8-14
The next week passes without incident for the party. The armies start to gather and get ready for the final fight.
August 15
The final war council commences. At the table, which is round so no one feels slighted, there are 30 chairs, three for each of the 10 groups invited to the meeting. Three of them have not come, however. They are the Ragesian rebels (Generals Magdus & Danava), Ostalin and Longinus with his monks.
DM note: Magdus never forgave the party for lying to him and bringing him aboard after finding the torch. As for Ostalin, since the Khagan got away they have internal issues, while Longinus never even responded to the invites.
The council was a massive one, with the players having six-seven roles each, making the council more of a play than anything else. They delivered as usual, and they had a lot of fun. I cannot say this often enough; the war councils have been my best idea in this campaign.
After the council and the large amount of information has been shared, it is time to get ready for the attack.
August 16
DM Note: I presented them with the VP count and the running total. Telling them how much they needed to win and how much they would have to avoid losing. I also told them what factors during the campaign had influenced the VP count to let them know how their actions had an effect on the outcome.
Killian activates the torch and starts teleporting the armies to their respective staging areas. After settling in with about 80.000 soldiers, the party is contacted by Crystin who comes to deliver a final vision warning to them.
They interpret her vision as Deception being hidden somewhere with Shaaladels contingent.
DM note: Not a bad guess
After Crystin leaves; Haddin and Guthwulf drops by asking the party to bring back prisoners… or corpses (Guthwulf).
DM note: I really like Guthwulf as a NPC. I love the way that he really likes the party; seeing them as some of his best friends in the world. He would do anything for them, he is nice, jovial, trustworthy and above all a very good friend. He is also evil as hell and has no qualms of going to extremes and beyond. It gives a very nice dynamic as they really don’t like him, but somehow they still do
The weather turns bad, and Shaith helps countering it with control weather. And then the enemy arrives. Their lines a long and very thin and the party see through the ruse warning their side to the trap.
The fighting commences and after some tough fights they defeat several waves and finally manage to kill the general and capture the standard. They bring back the corpse to Guthwulf.
DM note: The party really liked the concept of squads. They thought that it was a very smart way of making lower level masses relevant in a high level fight. They also liked the fact that they were still rather easy to take out with area spells, while still being a threat.
One could discuss the details as to how to make squads, but on paper they work, and the party liked the idea.
After a short break they are called to the elves to help them. They have some problems with Golems who are wasting them. The first problem is getting there, while fighting undead squads. After taking out the first wave of enemies they find the golems, and end up in an epic fight
DM Note: The golems are very tough, especially until they figure out to hit the breast plates, and I felt the adventure didn’t really give many clues so I had to. During the fight they had to call for help, and I sent in the treant groves, and they had a hard time against the golems.
In the end after a very tough battle the party won, managing to liberate the captured fire elementals, who joined the alliance in the war against Leska.
After taking care of the golems, Shalosha send them to take care of the necromantic general. The fight is a strange one, because of the general’s strange behavior. Just as they finally seem to have him cornered he just drops dead.
They soon realise that he used a magic jar to escape, but they captured the standard.
DM Note: The coward ran and lived to fight another day… actually more specifically the next day, where the PCs got him and killed him.
As darkness falls the fights seizes and the armies draw apart. The party then starts to focus on Crystin’s visions and how to protect the leaders.
DM note: The watch changed and the false guards took their places right under their noses.
After scouring the area, Neferitt decides to talk to the captain of the guard. He asks him if he has been briefed about the coming attack, and that an assassination attempt is expected.
DM note: In other words Neferitt just told the leader of the assassins that they are expected… the guard reacted in the only reasonable way – he panicked and called the attack.
The assassins draw their bombs and then they throw their necklaces blowing up all the leaders present and themselves. The nightcrawler then arrives and try to swallow the bodies and get away, but it failed and got slayed.
DM note: The leaders of the resistance died, but were resurrected, some right away, and some the next day. The blow to morale did cost on the VP count though.
Just as everything settles down, they learn that another assault was made; this time on Shalosha who has been abducted.
August 17
The next morning the newly resurrected Simeon tell the players that they have found the general behind the bad weather and that he wants them to take him out.
They find him on top of a plateau and quickly find that stealth won’t work for them this time, so instead they throw away caution and simply teleport in; cutting him down.
DM note: To say that this was much of a fight would be an overstatement.
They bring back his body to Guthwulf.
DM note: They were a bit behind on VP at this point, and instead of throwing in more fights I asked them each to tell of one course of action that they were taking that would help in the fight.
Amongst the things they mentioned were taking out the necromancer general. I let them take care of those issues without any further dice rolls.
August 18
The enemy is surrendering army by army and the alliance army now stand at the entrance to the Two Dragon Arch. Everyone in the army knows that it is a murder tunnel and no one wants to go in first.
DM note: Actually that is not true, the party volunteered, but the leaders of the army decided against throwing the heroes into an unknown death trap.
In the end Duke Gallo volunteers part of his personal guard to go in first. His dwarves would be well suited to the task, as he stated. At the last moment, he is convinces not to join the foray into the murder tunnel himself.
The loss of life is high for the group going in, and soon a few of them exit with a Ragesian soldier. This turns out to be a druid who wants to change sides. He represents a group of people who would rather live and be on the winning side.
DM note: For some reason they didn’t really believe him on facevalue… go figure
In the end he agrees to being dominated to ensure that he is telling the truth both about the way in, as well as about the conspiracy he is telling them about. It turns out that every word was actually true.
End of session
