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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9087066" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/X4h9vFQ.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />For this post, we’re going to be covering two chapters instead of one. That’s because they’re both individually quite short.Azrael is really down in the dumps about the failure of their last mission. In case the PCs haven’t figured it out, Azrael will tell the party that Jeremiah Resh is the Antichrist and is actually a being of pure evil taking the form of a human. Back at the Lampstands, there are four lights remaining.Azrael explains that Unity Tower is going to have additional security, and on top of the Antichrist’s presence their odds of breaking in to get the Scroll of Seven Seals are virtually nil. However, the Antichrist is also a creature of pride who has spent considerable time building his empire and crushing all opposition. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_witnesses" target="_blank">To distract the Antichrist, two people must publicly preach God’s word outside Unity Tower to draw his attention while the rest break into the complex.</a>The PCs can recruit three Elders instead of one due to the party split-up, and it’s up to the group who is chosen as the Two Witnesses. The book presses on the gravity of the situation in that the Witnesses are destined to die, can’t be resurrected, and Azrael and the Elders know this. Thus players who wish to have their PCs commit the ultimate sacrifice must be communicated this both in and out of character. Either way, portals will be summoned for the two groups, where they can enter the Material Plane but this time as their fully-powered 13th-level selves.The characters who serve as the Two Witnesses materialize on the streets outside Unity Tower, and beyond being a distraction their other main goal is to sway as many hearts and minds as possible to God’s love and away from the Antichrist’s evil. This is done with Persuasion checks performed as an action each round, although said checks can be modified by things like providing evidence of the International Unity Project’s atrocities, recalling old scriptures relevant to the situation via Religion, or making a Persuasion check with disadvantage as a bonus action rather than an action. In two rounds the Antichrist will show up, give a standard cocky villain speech: basically saying that if they’re so self-assured of their God then He would surely protect His prophets from all manner of danger. Initiative is rolled, and as they fight the PCs and Resh can alternate between standard combat tactics and making social skill checks to win over more people.In terms of stats the Antichrist is pretty much an unholy spellcaster. His physical abilities aren’t very high (135 hit points, 17 AC, highest physical score is 16 CON and is the only proficient save of the three), but his mental, social, and magical abilities are powerful. He can cast a limited amount of innate spells, from Dimension Door to Mass Suggestion to Dispel Magic. The only real direct damaging spells he has are eldritch blast which he can fire four per casting, Telekinesis to slam things into the Witnesses, and Power Word Kill which he’ll unleash on the 5th round of combat. Resh has a damaging Hand of Sin melee attack that can curse a target so that fiends automatically sense the characters when they come within 60 feet until uncursed, can forcefully teleport a target to hell as a rechargeable ability, taking them out of combat for one round and appear later with psychic damage (no save can resist), and as a reaction he can Counterspell at will and regain 1 Legendary Action if the counter is a success. The Antichrist can do a bunch of stuff with his Legendary Actions, from making an attack, cantrip, or Deception check (his favored tactic for winning over the crowd), can utter blasphemous words to stun nearby targets if they fail a Constitution save, or create a pall of supernatural darkness that snuffs out light sources. He can also use Legendary Actions to break open a seal on the Scroll of Seven Seals, but he can’t do that in this battle.If either of the PCs are still alive by the 6th round, Resh will brutally murder them (no save, no way to resist) proclaiming them as terrorists or false prophets to the crowd. If the Witnesses have a chance at actually killing the Antichrist,* then 10 Marked Shock Troopers will be summoned to kill the pair.*Which is likely for certain builds, as he has a low amount of hit points for a CR 21 character.These social checks aren’t for show. They have consequences in Chapter 11 during the Battle of Armageddon, where the total number of the forces of good and evil in the mass combat are determined by how many successful checks the Witnesses and Antichrist got during this time.While the Antichrist is busy and away from Unity Tower, the rest of the PCs are breaking in. The building now has a magical barrier mimicking the Wall of Force spell, preventing entry save from the ground floor, and this security can be disabled by hacking it in the server room or using the Disintegrate spell.While this is reasonable advice, lower-level teleportation magic such as Dimension Door can still work via line of sight. Using such a spell to transport the party onto the roof while they’re flying should be perfectly doable, for instance. Unity Tower in this chapter reuses much of the prior one’s material, save that there’s now a higher number of Marked Taskforce members on all levels. Ashmedai, DJ Murmur, and Madam Rahovart will also be in the Nightclub level to fight the PCs, although they may run away if the battle turns against them (or in Ashmedai’s case can join the PCs if they’re clearly winning). None of the demons in the Nightclub are supplemented by Marked Taskforce members. The three of them plus the charmed civilians should be more than enough to handle for combat purposes.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/y1hIqCT.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Figure that now’s a good time to talk about the two newer demons. DJ Murmur was once an angelic composer of holy music, and when he joined Satan’s rebellion he rededicated his talents to using music to corrupt people into evil. His musical equipment is magically enchanted, and are placed throughout the Nightclub Level allowing him to make musical attacks several rooms away. There’s a big party happening at this level at almost standing room only, and DJ Murmur will use his music to mentally compel the crowds to violently crush the PCs and each other, force charmed people to make Performance checks in dance-offs which cause psychic damage of shame to the loser, create forced movement by making people dance a certain way, and limit visibility by smoke machines and flashing strobe lights. The limited visibility and charm effects are his regular actions, with the more harmful ones being Legendary Actions. DJ Murmur has no real means of non-musical attacks, so he’ll transform into an Imp and flee if the PCs manage to destroy his musical equipment or otherwise negate their effects.DJ Murmur is one of my favorite characters in this book. He is just so different from the rest of the fiends, who tend to feel more classically Biblical.As for Madam Rahovart, she operates the cigar club in Unity Tower, using it to gain access to the world’s most wealthy and powerful businessmen. Over time she gains their trust and respect, using her influence to make them even more selfish and reinforce the existing systems of oppression in society. If she ever learns that one of the club members has a change of heart or is considering using their influence for good, she has them assassinated, and absorbs their soul into a magical handbag she calls her “soul purse.” Rahovart isn’t in the Bible, but she is based off of a demon from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionnaire_Infernal" target="_blank">Dictionnaire Infernal.</a>In terms of stats Rahovart has no Legendary Actions, and her main attacks are all cigar-themed. She can do a fire-based melee attack that can blind a target, exhale flaming cigar smoke as a low-damaging AoE that also pushes targets away, and can transform into a cloud of cigar smoke as a rechargeable ability, being similar to Gaseous Form save that those she moves through take poison damage and risk the poisoned condition on a failed Constitution save. She can also absorb the soul of a creature who dies within 60 feet as a reaction with her soul purse, but if that’s destroyed all the souls within are freed and move on into the afterlife.Once the PCs reach the Vault, they will find out that two of the items are missing: the Scroll of Seven Seals and the Talisman of the First Sea which can summon Leviathan. At this point every television in Unity Tower will turn on to a news broadcast of Melissa Mendax, spinning the events of the Two Witnesses as Resh being attacked unprovoked by religious fanatics. Looking directly at the camera, her next message is meant for the PCs, saying that Resh plans to make an appearance at Unity Memorial’s podium where he will read a rehearsed speech from a scroll. She will then hold up the Scroll of Seven Seals, winking as she says that “we will not be stopped.”So I haven’t been writing this review in secret; sometimes I share my thoughts of the books I read with my friends and acquaintances to get outside opinions. And one of them said that if his PC was one of the Two Witnesses, he would’ve quit the game right then and there after Mendax’s speech.Think of it like this; the Scroll of Seven Seals and the events revolving around it have been one big railroad. Ashmedai must be captured, even if the PCs smell something fishy. Wormwood must not be detected, even if the PCs know there’s a traitor in Heaven, and he has special abilities to thwart all forms of divination magic. PCs who pursue Ashmedai at the cost of letting Wormwood and Abaddon go free will still have him get into Unity Tower. PCs who infiltrate Unity Tower are destined to experience a “rocks fall, everyone dies” at the hands of the Antichrist. And once again there’s a chance that at least one PC will get killed by the Antichrist again in this chapter, this time with no way of coming back. And then they go for the Vault once again…and the Scroll isn’t even there.Let’s talk about the three valuable items left behind in the Vault. They’re a Holy Nail (one of the nails used to crucify Jesus), an Orbital Strike Remote which is that nuke-bearing satellite I mentioned in the previous post, and a Ring of Symbiosis. The Holy Nail is an 8 inch long spike that can be wielded like a dagger when fighting evil-aligned creatures, and has a +3 enhancement bonus. If the nail is used to drop such a creature to 0 hit points, the nail permanently consigns the target to Hell and prevents them from returning to life by any means, even if there’s something in a creature’s stat block that would allow this to happen.As for the Ring of Symbiosis, the person attuned to the ring can once per short or long rest spend a reaction when making an attack, ability check, or saving throw to add a d6 to the roll, but they take a number of damage equal to the die’s result. They’re basically giving themselves an extra boost by drawing upon their own life force. If the ring-bearer is reduced to 0 hit points in a manner that isn’t instant death, they instead drop to 1 hit point. This only works if they used the ring earlier that day, and if they don’t use the ring’s abilities for 3 days it falls off their finger and becomes lost.Okay, let’s move on to the Orbital Strike Remote. The PCs have a nuclear warhead in their hot little hands! What are its effects? Well you first have to make a DC 19 Investigation check to enter the launch coordinates; if successful it has the effects of the Meteor Swarm spell but is nonmagical, and if you roll a natural 1 the user is at ground zero. There’s only one such warhead, meaning this item can only be used once.I can’t believe that I’m saying this, but they managed to find a way to make a 9th level spell feel underwhelming. Personally speaking I’d reflavor it as orbital laser strikes.As for why the Antichrist wanted to auction it off…well he had it designed as a failsafe mechanism for taking out the last bastions of resistance and as leverage against his enemies, but never had to use it as by the time he achieved near-total world domination there was nobody significant to use it on.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/y4jNjKt.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Although the PCs level up to 14, this technically isn’t the end of their mission yet, so if they have any Elders still in the party they’ll continue to accompany them until the end of this chapter. The PCs have one day (and thus one long rest) until the Antichrist arrives at Unity Memorial. The PCs can choose to go there early, which denies them a long rest but also denies the Antichrist and any surviving demons (Ashmedai won’t be there) the benefits of a long rest as well, meaning they won’t get any per-day abilities back.Azrael has a vague premonition that this may be the last time he interacts with the PCs. While he won’t share this openly, he will try to be extra helpful and supportive, saying any last things he feels the PCs need to hear. In regards to the scroll, he doesn’t think that the Antichrist should be able to open it due to the prophecy, but even if he cannot, the man “is a murderer, and it is time to avenge our friends.”The PCs have various means of reaching the Memorial. It is perched at the edge of a waterfall with subway tracks running through its lower levels. The place is well-defended: if the PCs approach by subway they only have to deal with 2 Marked Agents, but any surviving demons from the Nightclub will be waiting at the subway station along with a pair of Marked shock troopers. PCs who approach by air will be attacked by 7 Marked rotorcrafts and Melissa Mendax’s Marked snipers will shoot at them. If going by water, the PCs will need to fight soldiers specially trained to fight underwater, being 5 Marked ironclads supplemented by an Infernal Warmage.This new enemy is very obviously demonic, being a physically frail fiend (42 hit points at CR 9) but can cast up to 6th level spells and can cast single-target spells as opportunity attacks. Most of its spells are geared for damage and combat, from Cone of Cold to Scorching Ray to Counterspell.PCs who use high-level magic such as Etherealness or Teleport to reach the Memorial can more or less bypass the above encounters. The adventure is encouraging the PCs to go by rail, and when you look at the sidebar it’s pretty obvious why: there’s detailed rules for passing subway cars as a damaging lair action, and anyone who moves on the “third rail” that provides electricity to the subway can take a lot of lightning damage. Most of the Memorial doesn’t have any other enemies to encounter save what I’d dub as three “boss battles,” and the only big treasure of note is a spellbook in the Administrative Office that contains up to 7th level spells.The positions of Melissa Mendax and the Antichrist depend on the PCs’ method of arrival, arranged so that the party is most likely going to deal with Melissa first. In spite of all forms of religion being banned, the Antichrist is still prepping society for open Satanism, and has built a magically-powered statue of a seven-headed dragon on the Grand Rotunda. Its subtle infernal influence has caused a number of people in the capital city to make pilgrimages to it. The statue can be possessed by Satan himself, using Adult Red Dragon stats but with alterations such as being a Construct and its Frightful Presence is replaced with a Compel Worship ability that reduces targets to falling on their knees prone when they become frightened.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/yG2q8Fe.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />As for Melissa Mendax, she too is an Amalgam demon taking on a mortal body much like the Antichrist. While she has a limited amount of innate spellcasting, none of them are overtly offensive. The bulk of her offense comes from her reactions, which she can take one per turn in combat rather than per round. This is to represent her being a sort of villainous mastermind, where she built many contingencies in dealing with the PCs ahead of time. As an action she can have up to 4 Marked Snipers make a ranged attack with a sniper rifle; this isn’t just flavor, as the Snipers exist as their own NPCs and taking them out reduces her Actions by that number.. As for her Reactions, she can gain immunity from all damage against one attack (once per day), can grant one of her 4 Legendary Resistances to an ally to use when they fail a saving throw, have one of her Snipers shoot someone who just attacked her…or use Reveal Hostage, a once per day ability where she holds up a live video feed on her phone of a character’s loved one being held hostage next to a Marked Agent. She also casts Arcane Gate at the same time as this reaction. The intent is to force the character between choosing to go through the gate and save their loved one, or refuse and put them in danger. A PC who goes through the gate has it snap shut behind them, effectively taking them out of the battle. Refusing the deal or taking any other kind of action will have Mendax spend her next turn to order the Agent to kill the hostage.On a first impression, Melissa Mendax strikes me as a pretty cool boss encounter. The danger she poses isn’t so much from herself so much as the people around her and what she has planned. I also like how the hostage ability still has an out with creative play: the Marked Agent is very weak, and since a character has line of sight to them and the hostage they may be able to do something like shoot the Agent without having to pass through the portal, and even refusing her lets them and the entire party get an effective round to still try and save them.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/nPLsTZQ.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />We’ve already discussed Jeremiah Resh’s statistics in the prior chapter. Against an entire party he won’t pose as big of a threat given his lack of highly-damaging abilities besides a one-use Power Word Kill. However, now that he has the Scroll of the Seven Seals he can spend 2 Legendary Actions as well as Lair Actions to break a Seal. Each broken seal imparts unique boxed text as well as terrain effects: the first four seals broken will unleash a Horseman: Conquest, War, Famine, and Death in that order, and they all gallop into the city leaving waves of destruction in their wake. Once Rhesh breaks the fourth seal Azrael will scream in horror as he begins to violently transform into the Horseman of Death. Rhesh will laugh as Azrael’s free will gets hijacked and he is made to carry out his role in the prophecy, wordlessly riding into the city followed by absolute silence.Technically speaking it’s possible, likely even, that the PCs will kill the Antichrist before he breaks open all seven seals. But for plot reasons it’s extra-important that he breaks at least four of the seven seals, for the Horsemen comprise a significant part of the rest of the module.The fifth seal unleashes a chorus of ethereal ghosts who cheer on the PCs, giving them buffs against the Antichrist. The sixth seal causes the sky to become night, and every star in the sky winks out, plunging the world into complete darkness. The seventh seal causes the entire world to be affected by an infinite-range Silence spell. If Resh manages to survive by the eighth round, then a world-wide earthquake will occur, causing Unity Memorial to split into two and the harbor’s water to drain into a vast chasm. The Antichrist will die from the earthquake, ending this encounter. Regardless of how he dies, a tiny demonic frog will climb from his corpse, saying that the Reapers haven’t actually won. He will also explain how he was able to break the Scroll of Seven Seals: by taking on a human-like form he thus “humbled himself” to share in their humanity, and at their hands he has suffered and died, only to rise again.The Antichrist is dead, but in his place an entity known as the Beast will rise, and now the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have been unleashed on the world. The PCs are called back into the Veil, and for the first time they are adrift and alone without Azrael to guide them. They reach 15th level, and find his Timekeeper and Book of Souls lying at their feet along with the Scroll of Seven Seals. His Scythe of Death can be retrieved in a later chapter.Thoughts So Far: Engaging in a literal and rhetorical battle against the Antichrist to expose him in front of a crowd is a cool concept. So is him breaking the Scroll of the Seven Seals in battle to generate Biblical-themed legendary and lair actions. Melissa Mendax’s “I just planned for that” counters, the alternative ways to get to Unity Memorial, and the flavorful demons with music and cigar-themed attacks really stand out. But the other aspects of these chapters, such as the mandatory deaths at the hands of the Antichrist, the Scroll being taken out of the PCs’ reach once again, and having another “this can be averted, but it must happen for the sake of the module” event for having at least four seals be broken really weigh down these chapters.There’s an interesting thing I’ve noticed in this module, where the writers retcon events in the Book of Revelation so that several unambiguously awful actions taken by the forces of God are instead changed to have Satan and his minions be the responsible parties. In the Bible, Jesus was the one who opened the seven seals and unleashed the Four Horsemen into the world. In some interpretations, Jesus is even one of the Four Horsemen himself! Furthermore, they are encountered later in the module, but the angels from Revelation 9:14-9:21 who are unleashed to kill a third of humanity with the Horsemen’s cavalry are changed into demons known as Chained Devourers. Furthermore, the 200 million cavalry of the Four Horsemen in those same passages are evil-aligned fiends in the module known as Plague Bringers, helping Satan’s forces destroy the world.In Azrael’s Guide to the Apocalypse, the role of the celestials is to defend the remaining human population centers from the misery and destruction rending the world, rather than participating in the mass slaughter of mortalkind.Personally speaking, I’m fine with these changes, although keeping the Four Horsemen neutral-aligned is still a major stick in my craw. While Azrael’s forced transformation indicates a sense of loss of free will, this isn’t entirely the case with the others who more or less existed far before the seals are broken. And later in the module it’s possible to get the Horseman of Death to voluntarily surrender. While Red Panda Publishing is likely threading a delicate needle when it comes to remaining faithful to Revelation while not making the side of good unpalatable, I’m getting really weary of seeing characters in tabletop products knowingly and willfully participate in (or attempt to) genocide people and/or destroy of most or all of civilization and be something other than evil-aligned.Join us next time as the PCs head into Heaven and defend it from Conquest’s infernal army in Chapter 6: the Citadel!</blockquote>

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