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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TerraDave" data-source="post: 6347991" data-attributes="member: 22260">They drive the dead god of death back to allow the final gems to be placed. One is placed successfully. Then, for the first time, Simoria fails to place one correctly, unleashing another pulse of pain from the horrid being. Even as they seem to succeed in shedding the ongoing rot he has placed on them, he restores it, on all of them! (ongoing went and came right back). The great cat is close to final death. Its master is also dying. Resources are largely depleted. Forge engages, Buckthorn helps save the cat, and Sim gets that last gem in. In its dissipated state it can fight no longer. It goes.The portal opens. Sim determines that it leads to the heart of Nerul’s fortress. The final battle?! They have a few hours before it closes again. They also need to rest desperately. With a ritual from Sim, they do so in an hour or so, giving ample time to get through the portal and avoid the despair that would have started to creep in from a longer rest. (I actually had a despair track…). And on the same day that they arrived in Hades, found the Warlord,  fought zombies and skeletons in a magic striking storm, escaped from Orcus and Demogorgon, fended off animated weapons and armor, forfeited a board game to a powerful fey, evaded shadowfell ghosts, encountered deadly pools, and rekilled a dead god of death, they again met Acererak. Sim had a whole plan for coming through the portal. Acererak, his skull ensconced in a huge golem structure, a great glowing eldritch machine above him, had another. When the moment came, neither acted quickly enough. Instead Allowyn led a massive assault that did huge damage to the would be “god-golem”.  A blizzard of attacks, along with dazing, pinning, slowing, blinding…even devastating attacks reversed by a sudden power of the arcanist or a well-placed shield from the fighter. [ATTACH]63198[/ATTACH]You can just see the skullThe thing starts to retaliate. It can slam with its mighty arms and drain souls, and finally manages to start draining Sim and Forges. As Sim suspected, Acererak now possesses the Eye of Vecna, and uses that do induce panic. It shrugs off the conditions imposed on it. None of this is enough. The soul draining stops. The great cat even inflicts a fair amount of damage. And it collapses. But they are not done. The great gem-engine shatters and all goes dark. When they are able to activate the floating lantern and radiant helm, they realize they are back in the Tomb of Horrors. Both Buckthorn and Forge recognize the massive chamber of pastel pillars. Within a few minutes, they also recognize the skull floating about the dais.  Freed of its experimental golem body and back in its favored habitat, the demi-lich is deadlier and more evasive. It resists damage. It uses its vecna eye panic to drive them into the pillars, which, as years before, causes them to gently float upwards and drift back across the chamber. It is more furious with its soul draining. Even when the soul draining is broken, a little piece (via healing surge) is lost. It can retaliate against hits with a sudden curse of pain engulfing everyone around it. Skull Acererak can also daze and dominate with the undead eye. And it floats, often out of Forge or Allowyn’s reach. [ATTACH]63199[/ATTACH]You can't see the horn. Allowyn comes close to having his soul drained, sending the party into a panic. Once avoided they keep him back and Forge and Sim stay close the thing while Buckthorn pelts it. Allowyn tries to make sure the soul drains effects are avoided when needed. (the cat mostly floats away and tries to get back). And it works! For a while. They drive the thing down closer to the ground so that Forge can pound on it. In turn, it can never quite get a soul sucked out, even when it starts targeting the cat. When it is damage enough, its starts attacking twice with the drain. The 5 hang in there! Until they don’t. Allowyn ability to yell away damage and conditions is expended. Almost everything is expended. Forge is finally panicked, floating, and being soul drained. Sim is driven back. Buckthorn, on the other hand, is in range of its effects. The time has come for the near gods killing strike. Another sudden curse. That does next to nothing. Then the cat leaps up, grabs it in its claws. And destroys it. Acererak is done. But there is one last bit of drama for the adventure.They all feel compelled to look at the dais. A ghostly figure, somehow regal and horrible at the same time, stands before above them. They confirm that this is Zorrath, ultimate god of death and evil. He thanks them completing the final test of the demi-lich and proving its unworthiness. In reward, they are allowed to leave his realm and returned to their own. Allowyn claims the horn and he and his cat are sent to their lands. The others, having taken large quantities of components and oversized gems, return to Thraeya. Never to encounter that demi-lich again. AND SO ENDS LEGACY OF DEATH</blockquote>

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