Help Me Give My 3 Year Campaign An Awesome Ending

[Olaf the Stout]

After 3 years of regular fortnightly sessions, my Shackled City campaign is nearing it's conclusion. With the help of some posters on the Paizo forums (delvesdeep in particular), I am creating an alternate ending to the campaign.

In the published version of the SCAP, Adimarchus is the main baddie and the PC's have to take him down before he is released upon the world.

In my campaign he is a fallen angel, who can possibly be saved and redeemed. He is currently held in a prison, in constant pain. His inner demon has taken over, but his inner angel still exists. If the party can kill Adimarchus' inner demon he can still be redeemed. He will never return to heaven, but he can still be "saved".

In order to do this the PC's will have to enter Adimarchus' nightmare realm and defeat the challenges before them. Upon completing the challenges they will be transported to where Adimarchus is being held where the presence of his long lost love can snap him out of his madness.

The idea I have for the challenges at this point is based on working through the 5 stages of grief.

5 Stages/Challenges:

1. Shock/Disbelief/Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining/Guilt
4. Depression
5. Acceptance/Hope


Ideas for each stage/challenge:

1. Shock/Disbelief/Denial

The PC's will head down a totally non-descript corridor, face some creature (possibly Adimarchus himself), fight and defeat it before continuing on down the corridor. The fights will either be exactly the same (or possibly get more difficult each time). In any case it will look like exactly the same creature every time.

In order to move past this challenge the PC's need to disbelieve that it is real.

2. Anger

A relatively simple challenge in concept, (but still difficult to overcome! :-D)

The PC's must defeat Adimarchus' inner demon (Adimarchus' demon stats used) who has captured and is torturing his inner angel. Although defeated, he can never be completely killed and taunts the PC's that will return over time to regain control once again.

3. Bargaining/Guilt

Not sure. Ideas needed.

4. Depression

Not sure. Ideas needed.

5. Acceptance/Hope

Not sure. Maybe they need to somehow convince Adimarchus that all is not lost, that his inner angel can once again regain control of his body.

Upon overcoming the final challenge the PC's will find themselves in Skullrot. There they must defeat Dark Myrkul. After doing that they can release Adimarchus' from his cage but he will remain unresponsive. His eyes will be open but staring blankly ahead.

Nidrama speaking and embracing him will get some positive responses but won't break him out from wherever he is. Only placing the Elypsium tulip he gave her* will bring his mind back.

I'm thinking the campaign will end with either Adimarchus and Nidrama trying to track down Anthux or simply letting it go and choosing to live out their lives together in the mortal realms.

*After serving her penalty for being with someone greater than her station, Nidrama returned to where she and Adimarchus were found out and arrested by the other angels. It was there she found the crushed tulip still laying on the ground. She has carried it with her since that time as a reminder and considers it her most valuable possession.

So that is where I am at. The final session is a week from now, so I still have a bit of time. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Stormonu]

Rather than a straight A to B to C to D run, I think it would be better if it were a sort of A,B or C encounter at each of the 5 points. How the characters proceed from each help determine how the final encounter will play out.

That is, perhaps there should be a "good", "neutral" and "evil" exit from each encounter; rather than seem like a straight shot, the exit the characters take from each encounter influence the appearance and goals of the next. Likewise, each exit should have strong clues to how they will affect each of the next encounters.

Starting with a pre-encounter, the characters might face a guardian/doorman of some sort, who upon being defeated gives them warning of what lies beyond. ("You have bested me, but you have not won! Three paths you face - one that leads to ruin, one lorded over by apathy, the last beset by unyielding righteousness. Where I have failed, they shall be your undoing!")

By the corridor they take, different things are modified in the encounter to make it different. Choosing "evil" might make the terrain treacherous. Perhaps "neutral" upgrades the villain of the encounter from an Elite to a Solo. "Good" adds additional minion/lesser creatures to aid the villain. By mixing up what changes (and presenting a clue what that change might be), you give the players some ability to affect what they face - an illusion of choice.

My own suggestions for the different trials:

1) Shock/Disbelief/Denial (Frustration and the lack of progress)
This appears as three arched doorways into a narrow maze at the mouth of a low, boulder-strewn hill - the barrow of Adimachus. Characters undergo a skill-like challenge to maneuver through the maze of corridors, chasms, stairs, vaulted chambers and ever-twisting corridor to find the way out. Blocking their exit from the maze is an Angel of Death - a hooded skeletal figure brandishing a blade of burning fire.

Evil - a horrid, deformed caricature of Adimarchus stalks them through the maze. At each failure, it pounces from the darkness, lashing out violently before disappearing cackling into the mazeworks.

Neutral - Corridors suddenly shift and change. What was a clear path ahead is suddenly an impassable wall. Mocking laughter taunts the PCs efforts, driving their nerves to the edge. Frayed nerves among the PCs rise with each failure and may eventually cause one or more individuals to snap, causing the party to turn on itself. Only by mastering their rising frustrations will the PCs finally be able to force the maze to reveal the way out.

Good - Fleeting glances of Nidrama can be glimped through the maze. Only by leaving the right path, though can the characters track her down. If they are willing to utterly lose themselves to the maze, only then can they find her and gain insight into Adimarchus's unspoken remorse. Once revealed, a simple exit from the maze reveals itself.

2) Anger (Unending combat)

A furious volcanic ruin spreads before the players. Among the ashes of a city being swept away by a river of magma and a biting ash wind, the characters must destroy the pillaging hordes of Adimarchus.

Evil - The demon-horde raises the cadavers of the dead to fight as well. Only with the death of their masters can the unending tide be stemmed.

Neutral - The demon-horde plays a game of cat and mouse among the abandoned buildings. The players must hunt down the horde before the flaying winds and scorching rivers swallow them whole.

Good - The characters must save the abducted city dwellers before the demon-horde can spirit them away to their doom at a ritual to extoll Adimarchus. At every turn, those saved plead with the PCs to save Adimarchus from his conversion to demonhood.

3) Bargaining/Guilt (Consequences of choices and desires left unfulfilled)

The Burning City is left behind as the characters pursue the remnants of the demon-horde into the cliffs at what was once the edge of a now-blasted sea of obsidian (volcanic glass). Into the earth the demons have fled, carrying Adimachus to his demonhood.

Evil - Through jagged, twisting, narrow tunnels of obsidian the characters face those they have wronged in the past, returned in smoky reflections to wreck vengeance once again on the PCs. The dead enemies of the PCs take on bodies of living glass to impede the characters once and again.

Neutral - Snaking corridors lit by the dim heat of magma just beyond the walls open into caverns of utter darkness occupied by strange pools that are windows back into their home lives. Into these pools leap creatures of the demon-horde, bent on wreaking destruction on those unsuspecting back home. The characters either must follow (and risk not being able to return) or push on and hope for the best.

Good - Rough, dimly lit corridors wind deeper and deeper into the earth. Here and there furtive folk with faces of those back home stare out, beckoning the characters to abandon their quest and take up dreams and aspirations long forsaken along their quest. Yet for each dream to be fulfilled, a creature of the demon-horde awaits to steal away that dream from the character - if not their life as well.

4) Depression (Overwhelming, hopeless odds)

The winding corridors finally empty into a vast, black-walled chasm lit from beneath by the fires of Hell itself. The creatures of the demon-horde flit about the chasm, mocking the character's approach. Spirited away on a litter, Adimachus is borne into the heart of the hellfire below. Three paths wind their way downward to the chasm below.

Evil - This ramshackle path is treacherous and trap-laden. The demon-horde lies in wait where the path turns into the rock of the chasm itself.

Neutral - What at first seems a spiral staircase into the earth itself quickly opens onto a wharf overlooking a river of molten fire. From here, the only way down is to ride the slowly melting slabs of rock down the fire-rapids.

Good - This open path wends its way down the open face of the chasm, leaving the PCs open to overwhelming aerial & teleport attacks and guard tower/posts along its length. But if the characters can breach the armories of the demon-horde along the path, they can take the fight with flight to the demons themselves, or perhaps hurry quicker down the path to their ultimate goal.

5) Acceptance/Hope (Resolution)

The character's path ends at platform at the bottom of the chasm. Carved into the wall of the chasm is an unholy temple to evil; from within come the foul sounds of blasphemous rituals praising the ascenion of Adimachus.

What awaits inside depends on the paths the characters have chosen thus far...

At the heart of the temple Adimachus sits upon a throne soaked with his own blood. There is pause enough for the characters to decide the path with which they will face him:

Will they rush forth to slay him as a villain? [Evil?]

Will they berate him for his choices and attempt to make him see the folly of his choices? [Neutral?]

Will they attempt to redeem him? [Good?]

 

[Zelda Themelin]

We did 2 ago my gm did similar stuff. Premise was otherwise very different as Shacked City was set in Scarred Lands, Termana. Well it was very different but encounter with that ex-angel went down pretty much like that.

Well except for we were much higher lv as module expected and so was mr. A.

First we found him, as beautiful angelic being, crying. Hands held covering his eyes and bloody tears run through his sheeks. Area was very bleak, but don't recall details.

Then he reacted to our presence and started insulting our chars with very personal material.

And when one of us got angry and started threateting him he transformed into this demon form. And we had to take him down multiple times, well until, we realized he woudn't be killed permanently in his prison and we didn't want to free him.

We were running cirlces around the hellisly changing land scape with some additional danger effects. Until we game into this hall of mirrors. At this point we thought we had lost our opponent. Then creepy mirrors sucked us into personal landspaces of corruption. We all were able to resist the temptations (which were played openly corrupt-like) and then we had to fight single battles with demonic versions of us (weaker). Some of them tried to surrender and some of us allowed that and we had demonic clones as our party members.

Then we move through to another hall with only darkness (could see limited area) and A is there again looking at last piece still not eaten by this darkness his angelic figure crurmpling statue. We at this point have clue that he might be possessed or something akin to that and try to talk to him. He is in very desparete entropy hugging mood and we try to get him see he still can fight his demon (that's how he called it, and we thought we shared some intel on the matter).
Demonic counterparts give some alternative "ideas" but we dismiss them.

Entropistic darkness gets finally dispelled befores his suicidical mood kills us all, and we are back in original encounter room.

We are there with sort of ghosty non-evil A and our party and mirror-spawns and prison itself (at least in sense of power flowing) into more-nasty-demonic version.

Battle itself it's not combat it's more like stay alive and help spirit of A get his body back from demon thingie. We win the fight and A becomes angelic again but kinda neutral one. He becomes our ally which was important in follow up.

We returned to shackled city to finnsh some ass-kicking and orginized repairs for city for all the damages. Turns out or evil-clones were actually nightmare demons, and their forms fizzled once we get back to normal world.

Prison itself was partially tagged into realm of dreams (nightmares). There was lot other stuff related and research before we entered the place. SO we had some idea that some redemption thing was possible and preferable to try.


I simplified story a lot and my english fails me, but maybe you get some ideas.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I'm liking the ideas so far and have added some into my plans. Any further suggestions anyone?

Olaf the Stout

 

[Argyle King]

I don't really have a good idea for the different stages/emotions, but perhaps you could do something with one of my old encounter ideas.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-le...mpactful-battle-environments.html#post5762904

To explain the post in that other thread a little more: imagine being on the inside of a rubik's cube to help you visualize how the idea worked.

 

[Mark CMG]

Did you settle on one plan (or combination of plans)?