What's the "win" scenario in adventure #3?

I'm going to start taking my players through Digging For Lies next week... I'm looking forward to it! One thing I'm confused about, though:

How do the players prevent the portal from rupturing at the end? I've run through all the scenarios and I don't see any way for them to not end up killing 100s of people.

Scenario 1: Ritual completes.
Siljhen stalls until the countdown completes, which causes the portal to rupture.

Scenario 2: Fight Siljhen
When Siljhen is close to losing, he lets lose the Thing From Beyond. First thing it does is throw the 2-ton seal at them. The ritual can't be stopped without the seal, and the seal is too heavy for the players to move. When the countdown completes, the portal ruptures.

Scenario 3: Gain Control of the Ritual
When the party is close to success, Siljhen releases The Thing. Same result as Scenario 2.

Scenario 4: Destroy the Lanterns
Same as Scenario 3.

What am I missing?

The 'rupture' only happens if the ritual is complete at the end of the 20-round countdown. The golden seal is the focus for the ritual. If Sijhen summons the Thing from Beyond in response to player activity (getting close to stopping the ritual as detailed under 'closure' or 'collapse') bad things happen, but the 'rupture' doesn't because the ritual isn't complete. The seal is a focus for the ritual and needs to remain in place.

gideonpepys said:

The 'rupture' only happens if the ritual is complete at the end of the 20-round countdown. The golden seal is the focus for the ritual. If Sijhen summons the Thing from Beyond in response to player activity (getting close to stopping the ritual as detailed under 'closure' or 'collapse') bad things happen, but the 'rupture' doesn't because the ritual isn't complete. The seal is a focus for the ritual and needs to remain in place.

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That's not how it reads to me:

Digging for Lies said:

Closure.

...After all 8 lanterns glow gold, if the golden seal is next to the portal, the ritual ends.

If the seal is not beside the portal, the ritual can still be safely completed by moving the two ton gold plate adjacent to the portal.

Collapse.

...After all 8 lanterns are destroyed, if the golden seal is next to the portal, the ritual ends. As above, the ritual cannot end if the seal is not next to the portal.

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Stopping the Ritual... The golden seal of Apet is the ritual’s focus, and it also holds hostile creatures at bay. A PC might get the bright idea to move the golden seal of Apet away from the portal. This has the poor consequence of letting The Thing From Beyond into this world.

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But it does end the ritual. Also:

CollapseIf any of the lanterns are destroyed, a safe closure is impossible, but a dangerous collapse can be achieved. After all 8 lanterns are destroyed, if the golden seal is next to the portal, the ritual ends. As above, the ritual cannot end if the seal is not next to the portal.

When the portal collapses, the uncontrolled magical energies blast outward...

Additionally, if The Thing From Beyond hasn’t already escaped, it
emerges right as the link to Apet ends.

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But the ritual does not complete and a rupture is not caused.

@gideonpepys, I agree that this is a reasonable approach to take. But it doesn't appear to be supported by the text. It does say that moving the seal away from the portal releases the Thing from Beyond, but it doesn't say that doing so ends the ritual. (In fact, it says the opposite: the ritual cannot end unless the seal is next to the portal.)

For Collapse, "a dangerous collapse can be achieved" but not "if the seal is not next to the portal."

If you collapse the portal (by destroying all 8 lanterns while the seal is next to the portal) then The Thing emerges when the link to Apet ends. But it doesn't say that the link ends when The Thing emerges.

@RangerWickett, what was your intent?

In my campaign, the PCs killed Sijhen in Saxby's office. Then they took the starmap and went down into the rail tunnel. There, with the help of the map, having a skyseer in the party, and just having awesome skill bonuses besides, they took control of the ritual and turned off the lanterns. They never physically interacted with the seal or damaged anything down there. That's what I'd describe as the "critical win" scenario.

In my mind, the "win" (but not critical) scenario would also be to hijack one of the train cars down there and plow it over Sijhen and ram it into the seal, forcibly shutting it.

Then there's some shades of grey about unleashing the Thing from Beyond, Sijhen getting away, and then possibly the Rupture being a "critical failure."

Mind you, the preceding fight is tough. The Ob skill squad has great ability to neutralize/debuff the party, and if any Gidim get in on the action at the same time, it's going to drain the PCs really hard. (And remember, they likely have not gotten a proper rest since the fight at the gala.) If my group had been forced to fight the Thing after all of that ... it would have been a nigh-guaranteed TPK. I'm actually glad they found a way to avoid it. (And then I showed them the stats on the thing afterwards, to demonstrate the bullet they just dodged ... they were very proud of themselves for bypassing that encounter!)

Yeah my group had a skyseer and a technologist and immediately figured out to use the train to ram the seal into the portal. Then the lanterns were destroyed. Ended the ritual.

efreund said:

Mind you, the preceding fight is tough. The Ob skill squad has great ability to neutralize/debuff the party, and if any Gidim get in on the action at the same time, it's going to drain the PCs really hard. (And remember, they likely have not gotten a proper rest since the fight at the gala.) If my group had been forced to fight the Thing after all of that ... it would have been a nigh-guaranteed TPK. I'm actually glad they found a way to avoid it. (And then I showed them the stats on the thing afterwards, to demonstrate the bullet they just dodged ... they were very proud of themselves for bypassing that encounter!)

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The Thing got released in my campaign too and it very nearly was a TPK (except that one PC had already stayed behind at RHC HQ because he was so beaten up). One PC died fighting the Thing. It was a great moment, though, because we'd brought him in as an expert in these tentacled alien horrors: he was an obsessive who believed the world was run by aliens. So when he died in the maw of the Thing from beyond - fighting and screaming as he went - it was like that scene in jaws when Quint gets eaten by the shark.

The intention is one of three options

1. You defeat Sijhen, and get the seal next to the portal. If the lanterns are intact, you fiddle with the ritual and safely close it. If you destroyed any of the lanterns, instead you get a collapse that does some damage.

2. You wait too long, the portal opens to Gidim, Sijhen escapes, and the portal ruptures, killing a ton of people.

3. The Thing From Beyond gets out, knocks the golden seal away, and you have the very difficult task of killing the Thing, or fiddling with the ritual & driving it back & moving the seal back into place. If you pull that off, you get ending 1. If you fail, you get ending 2.

The real issue is moving 4000 pounds of portal. I assumed PCs would be creative, and recruit fellow RHC folks or even bystanders (who can phase through the ground with guidance to get to the tunnel).

But to answer the question, while the portal ritual is going on, if you move the seal, the Thing comes out. If the portal ritual ends in a collapse, the Thing comes out. If Sijhen completes the ritual after the 20 round countdown, the seal is blown away, you get a glimpse of Gidim, Sijhen leaves, and you get a collapse, but no Thing.

I can't believe noone so far mentioned that RHC holds confiscated exoskeleton armor, which is pretty handy in moving heavy objects.