Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="THEMNGMNT" data-source="post: 8949222" data-attributes="member: 6809274">48th session of Monte Cook's 3E Banewarrens campaign run with Shadow of the Demon Lord on Owlbear Rodeo. Five player characters at level 10.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dwarf Executioner/Berserker/Warrior. He now wields the sacred Axehammer of the Lost Clan.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Elf Librarian/Wizard/Magician. Outcast from elven lands, raised in Ptolus, keeper of a dark secret. His magical traditions are Arcana, Teleportation, Chaos, and Fey.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Goblin Pyromancer/Oracle/Magician. Responsible for the destruction of his tribe. Specialized in the Fire and Forbidden magic traditions, with a dose of Divination.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Changeling Dervish/Spellbinder/Rogue. Created by House Vladaam to replace a child they kidnapped and held in servitude. Naturally, she wants revenge. Two weapon fighter with the Battle tradition.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Human Defender/Paladin/Priest. Cleric of Lothian, the primary god of Ptolus. His magical traditions are Life, Theurgy, and Battle. His murdered wife was has returned as undead and now he seeks to stop her.</li> </ul>The penultimate session of the campaign! The characters are in the heart of the Spire, fighting various factions for the magical key that will lock (or unlock) the Banewarrens forever. Previously, they defeated the Pactlords (a confederation of intelligent monsters) and the Vladaams (an evil noble house). The Dread One (creator of the Banewarrens) remained. And now they were joined by minions of a necromantic death cult under the leadership of a fallen inquisitor of the Church of Lothian.The session started with the paladin destroying the Black Grail. Which is about as evil as it sounds. He brought his blessed mace down upon the Grail and both disintegrated, a shockwave of energy flattening everyone around.I will admit to being a little disappointed. In the climax I have given the players multiple opportunities to gain overwhelming power and unleash it upon deserving foes...and all it costs is a part of their soul. Or maybe all their soul. They've turned me down flat over and over again. Sigh.The action then shifted further down the Spire, one hundred feet from the bottom of the Baneheart. The inquisitor's undead had swarmed up the walls and broken into the vault that held the Book of Inverted Darkness.With their potions of flying the character descended, landing on the catwalks that crisscrossed the Baneheart. The elf wizard used arcane lightning to clear the catwalks of undead. The other characters entered the vault in pursuit of the inquisitor. They found him encased in a 15 foot high exoskeleton of bone. And he was already reaching for the Book of Inverted Darkness. With the Book in his possession, he was able to deflect and reflect spells, and he began casting forbidden spells -- the elf wizard's skeleton tried to tear out of his body; the dwarf berserker and changeling spellbinder swapped mind and body. The dwarf berserker used his magical axe to destroy the bone exoskeleton while unleashing powerful magic -- an earthquake that began to weaken the vault itself and threatened to bring the roof down.In our very first session, the inquisitor's undead had murdered the paladin's wife. Now she reappeared as a vampire under the inquisitor's control. She told her husband she wanted them to be together again, and tried to wrap him in her bloody embrace.The tide of battle shifted suddenly when the goblin oracle used a spell to merge the bodies of the vampire wife with the inquisitor into a single twisted abomination.Meanwhile, the Dread One had possessed the form of an undead boneclaw. It seized the Book of Inverted Darkness. This book was the artifact that had twisted the holy priest Danar into the Dread One himself. The true source of evil in the Banewarrens. With this, the Dread One could reconstitute its form and rise again.Next session: The finale!</blockquote>

Verification