Ah, thanks RW. The great mystery is answered by petty jealousy, very good. A PC is a drow, so I think I may play up that angle.
So, where is the Torch of the Burning Sky? I had a thought last night that it could be literally stuck in the eye of the Dreaming Dragon. Maybe the Drow stuck it there to wake him up. This could culminate in some epic battle with a the dragon wherein pulling the torch from the beast's eye has some significant effect... perhaps an episode of drow scheming leads up to this. Drow without spiders would be I think appropriate for WOTBS.
Whatever I do, I've got to keep it short. I'm running out of time.
Well, I figured originally that if a GM were going to run an abbreviated campaign, they'd base it around getting allies for Gate Pass, so the focus is saving Gate Pass. You wouldn't try to resolve
all the plot's mysteries.
If all you've got is a few sessions, and you're trying to wrap up Leska as villain, the 'aether' being on fire, the theft of the Torch, and the trillith, that's a tall order.
But let's see what we can do.
In the original design of the campaign, the assassins steal the torch (you find this out in adventure 6), then fled to a haunted forest where scrying doesn't work, hoping to lay low (this is in adventure 7). Unfortunately, they did not anticipate how vigorously people would pursue them; they didn't really have an endgame.
If you want to tie this together quickly, at the risk of being a bit sloppy, how does this sound?
1. In a bid to topple Steppengard, one of the other lords of Dassen (maybe Lady Namin? She's friendly with the Shahalesti, and wants to rule) recruited assassins to kill Coaltongue and sieze the Torch. So she's got the Torch, and Coaltongue's body, but she can't get the Torch to work. She expected to be able to hold the Ragesians at bay with the threat of the Torch, and secure her rule over Dassen, but things aren't going her way.
Who the assassins are is unimportant, though if you want to give Lady Namin drow buddies, I guess feel free.
2. Leska sent agents to try to find the Torch, and she knows it's somewhere in Dassen, but she thinks Steppengard has it. So she sends her trillith minion Madness and other forces to try to weasel it out of the king. They kill his family, drive him mad, and still don't get anything out of him.
3. They pin the blame for the royal family murder on Gallo so they can weaken Dassen's defenses, in prelude to an invasion.
4. Forget Trilla, the dragon known as the Mother of Dreams. She's too hard to fit in.
5. PCs show up, visit king.
Add in a scene where, during their time in the castle, Lady Namin asks them how Seaquen's search for the Torch is going, and expresses interest in helping research how the Torch works so they can use it when they find it. (The Torch in this scenario isn't 'broken.' The problem is just that Lady Namin hasn't killed anyone with it, and it needs to consume a soul to activate.)
Continue with adventure as written. PCs get targeted by assassin, perhaps be captured, flee to Gallo, learn of imminent Ragesian invasion.
Then, instead of fending off Steppengard's forces, they send their evidence to Steppengard, and try to unite the nation against the Ragesians. Steppengard, seeing this as an opportunity to kill the man he thinks is responsible for his family's murder, agrees and invites them to a war council and banquet.
Skip ahead in the adventure to the return to Bresk. Keep the tournament if you want. Keep lead-up to plot at the banquet, enter castle through dungeon to stop poison plot, fight against Madness and Steppengard. You want them to capture Madness and be able to interrogate her, so when they reduce her to 0 hp, she flails and
In the fight's aftermath, either Steppengard is freed from his madness, or he dies and someone else takes his place. Then they need to figure out how to fend off the Ragesians, and Lady Namin finally admits that she has the Torch. (In this version of events, Coaltongue's not actually immortal; that's just good PR.)
6. Now we add the capstone to finish the campaign.
Some folks from Seaquen show up in a hurry to help Dassen figure out how to use Torch. Bring in any allies you want to showcase.
The armies of Ragesia are already moving through the Alydi Gap, and there's not enough time to rally Dassen's armies by traditional means, but with the Torch they can teleport to the field of battle.
Gallo returns to his castle to hold back the Ragesians. The Ragesian armies battle (off-screen), and eventually cross the river and set up on the far side of Otharil Vale, where they build siege engines. They plan to raze Gallo's Fend, and search its ashes for the Torch, then repeat the process for each other city in the land until Dassen is charcoal.
The night before the great battle is set to begin, the Seaquen scholars figure out how the Torch works (maybe you have some puzzle, riddle, challenge, or something so the PCs figure it out, or maybe you just have them find the right book just before dawn).
At sunrise, Dassen trots out Ragesian agents who were spying, and one by one executes them with the Torch to activate it, teleport to a lord's domain, then kill a prisoner, activate Torch, teleport to the next lord's domain. Repeat until all eight armies are gathered, and then teleport onto the field of Otharil Vale just as the Ragesian armies are marching for Gallo's Fend.
7. The defenders spread out in a long battle line, and the PCs are assigned a stretch of terrain to protect. Use the 'Steppengard' forces and the combat encounters in the module as a starting point, but add in some inquisitors, and replace the sphinxes with wyvern-mounted warriors.
Throw in all sorts of background awesomeness, like Seaquen mages taking on a dragon, or a Ragesian ritual going off and animating a whole swath of soldiers as undead, or an eldritch cannon that hurls shards of ice that freeze huge areas. Maybe every once in a while, the good guys activate the Torch to bamf a unit into an advantageous position, and a huge column of flame lights up the battlefield.
After a couple of waves of combat, the Ragesians pull back, giving the PCs a chance for an extended rest. Combat started early, so actually they can rest at noon and be ready to fight again by evening.
(You should probably give the Torch some limitation so that it doesn't totally wreck things. Like, each time it activates in a day, you need a stronger soul [i.e., higher level] to feed it if you want to activate it again.)
8. Whoever the PCs view as leader (Simeon? Steppengard? Lord Gallo?) dispatches them to take out a critical objective behind enemy lines: the Ragesians are performing a strange ritual, and auguries say it must be stopped or they will fall. Dwarvish mages have sapped a tunnel to the far side of the Ragesian lines, and the PCs get to pop out and wreak havoc. Maybe let the PCs bring along the drow assasins as back-up.
The ritual is being presided over by Madness. The plan is to ritually sacrifice a trapped trillith who has the body of a young gold dragon (the incarnation of Hope, perhaps, or Dream, or Freedom), which will open a portal to the depths and conjure dozens more trillith who will be enthralled by Leska.
When the PCs pop up, they can take out the mages in the ritual, defeat Madness, and then release Hope, who can provide any explanation the PCs need of the trillith, and how the Torch was created.
9. I'm not sure what the best way to frame the final fight with Leska. Make sure it's some place dynamic and interesting. Maybe Katrina betrays the good guys and opens a tunnel so Leska and a small legion enter Gallo's Fend through the back door. (The leaders of the armies are staying there, and have the Torch heavily guarded.) The PCs don't know anything's amiss until they see one of the turrets of the castle shudder and collapse thunderously.
They hurry into the castle, and for a long while just see devastation. Hundreds dead, most of them the good guys. Signs of horrifyingly powerful magic. Once or twice they come upon mighty warriors and mages they have met before, and in their dying breaths those NPCs tell how they could not stop Leska. Basically, you give the PCs plenty of opportunity to dread this fight.
Then finally the PCs come upon the central keep. It's a big fight, so have a sprawling environment. A few satellite turrets, some damaged so the terrain can be fun to move around. A central throne room which is under siege. Leska, her bodyguards, and some monstrous allies are tearing through the defenders, trying to reach the throne room where the Torch is.
(Leska, being an inquisitor, has performed a ritual to keep the Torch from activating, so that the good guys can't just escape. The ritual is keyed to a necklace pendant she's wearing, so if the PCs can get it and destroy it, the Torch comes online.)
So the main fight is Leska, some prominent bodyguards, and some monsters. If the party is level 12, I'd say make Leska a level 15 elite controller, with maybe one level 12 soldier bodyguard, a level 12 artillery inquisitor, and two level 12 skirmisher monsters -- something wyvern-esque, perhaps, or undead. Since there are dozens of soldiers all around, every round a handful of level 8 minions show up every round to represent the army coming to protect their empress.
(Likewise, the PCs might be able to call upon minion allies of their own.)
When Leska's bloodied, she draws upon the power of the conflict and shatters the door into the throne room, and then tries to seize the Torch. Optimally, you'll want a PC to grab the Torch and hit her with it, which deals a mortal blow, but also negates the magic of the Torch (because her whole gimmick is counterspelling). A giant column of flame consumes her, and then the Torch shatters, leaving only Leska's mask on the floor.
Maybe a bit overwrought, but how does that sound?
