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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9087917" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/vXLWeqY.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Now that the PCs have Azrael’s Book and Timekeeper, they can shift to any time and place in the Veil. However, due to timeline rules they can only be passive observers, meaning they can’t do something like kill Hitler or save Jesus. I get the sentiment, but this robs the party of doing something awesome like bringing Moses along to summon a flood and thunderstorm during the Beer Hall Putsch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfyt2PtEySQ" target="_blank">or the party Commando pulling a Farnsworth.</a>Regardless, the PCs wander aimlessly for a while, with the DM throwing as little or as many cosmic encounters involving celestials and fiends as they desire. The Elders present during the prior two chapters depart with one last goodbye before moving on to Heaven, and when it’s time to move on the Timekeeper will show a mysterious third button that just so happens to match an illustration in the Book of Souls. Pressing the button summons the party into the middle of the Glassy Sea, a placid region of heaven with a seemingly endless body of water said to be fed by the rivers in the Garden of Eden. Nobody can get tired from swimming or drown due to the environment, and characters are as buoyant as they wish to be. A nearby fortress on an island known as the Citadel is the closest feature among the vast blue. The Citadel is a former military fortress used by Angels during Satan’s rebellion. Since there’s been no wars in Heaven from then on it’s been converted to a library, living space, and mission center for the Reapers. In fact, one of the rooms in the Citadel is the Lampstands, and the only person currently here is Sophia. Sophia is a Virtue, a type of angel <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_virtues" target="_blank">who is linked to one of the Seven Heavenly Virtues.</a> Such angels are creatures of pure intuition and feeling, having the utmost faith in God’s plan and relying on divine instinct over methodical strategy and learning.In terms of stats Sophia (as well as all Virtues) are pretty strong celestials: a CR 15 creature with 179 hit points and a 17 Armor Class. They have a +6 Proficiency Bonus in spite of their Challenge Rating, and have a massive 30 Wisdom and 27 Charisma, and their Wisdom save in particular is peerless at +22. They can intuitively sense any lies, but unlike Azrael there is no mention of limitation for written lies. Virtues can cast two innate spells once per day each depending on their Heavenly Virtue: for instance, Kindness can cast Heal and Dispel Evil and Good, Chastity can cast Forbiddance and Guardian of Faith, and Patience can cast Greater Restoration and Time Stop. A Virtue’s major actions include a thrice-per-day healing touch that removes damage and certain negative conditions, and a thrice-per-day Holy Burst AoE whose effects depend on how many have been already used that day: damage and forced movement, blindness, and damage plus covering someone with glitter in a manner similar to Faerie Fire. As she can join the party during certain missions, Sophia is a pretty convenient ally to have.Sophia’s Virtue is meant to be chosen by the DM, but overall her personality is that of a whimsical and carefree woman. She and Azrael were close friends, and she has drawings of him in her sketchbook. Sophia will be incredibly upset to hear that he was forcefully changed into the Horseman of Death. They do love each other, but their relationship is something deeper than simple romance, for both represented two sides of the same coin in ways that allowed both to better understand and complement alternative means of viewing the universe.Sophia will take the party through a tour of the Citadel, which has a lot of details particularly for defending it during a siege.* She even prepared the party their own personal bedrooms whose decorations and belongings map closely to their personalities and backstories. Azrael’s room is at the end of the corridor of bedrooms, and contains his Mantle of the Reaper along with a copy of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Sophia will mention that Edmund was his favorite character. This conversation, along with a PC who takes the book, has relevance later in the campaign when the PCs fight the Horseman of Death. There’s even a Treasury full of magic items, which have to be “purchased” via the rules for the celestial reputation economy as mentioned back in the first part of this Let’s Read. Such items include things like the Chains of Solomon (can magically restrain a creature it is thrown at, and if they fail to escape three times they cannot escape again until they complete a long rest), a Holy Lance that once belonged to the Roman soldier Longinus (+3 weapon, wielder is immune to becoming blinded, a natural 20 to hit an evil creature blinds them without allowing a save and they cannot be cured save by Wish or attuning to the lance), a Ring of Heavenly Protection (+1 AC, can spend 1 of 2 charges to knock hostile creatures prone and push them back 15 feet if the fail a Strength save, fiends and undead have disadvantage), and a Staff of the Cross forged from the wooden used to crucify Jesus (+2 quarterstaff that also gives +2 to AC and saves, has 10 charges which can be spent to cast travel-related and healing spells, can spend all 10 charges to teleport perfectly to a named destination that automatically bypasses magical defenses). Quite a bit of useful stuff!*I bet you can’t guess what’s going to happen later on in the module!Once the party is ready, they are led back to the Lampstands where they receive their next mission: to defeat the Horsemen and restore the Scroll of Seven Seals. The PCs can spend downtime researching the Four Horsemen, where they make an Investigation roll where results from 1 to 32 reveal various aspects of the Horsemen’s abilities. This effectively partially reveals aspects of their stat blocks, and as each result corresponds to a specific Horseman ability further rolls can allow pieces of information about particular Horsemen to be revealed on an equal or lower roll as well. Sophia will also suggest the PCs use the Timekeeper and Book of Souls to teleport to Jerusalem during the reign of King Solomon to ask him for help and advice. If they do so, they will arrive at a time when the Jewish kingdom is in its prime, where the First Temple has just finished construction. Solomon is able to sense and interact with the PCs despite them being in the Veil, and if they are respectful to him he can offer three gifts: the Ring of Solomon as a unique magic item, the services of Benaiah as an Elder, and +5 on all Investigation checks for researching the Horsemen to 1 PC. The Ring of Solomon is a pretty useful treasure for this adventure path, as it affects a constant Detect Thoughts on all fiends within 120 feet without allowing them saving throws, and can cast Dominate Monster that only targets fiends once per short or long rest.Eventually, the PCs will fight the Horseman of War. The Book of Souls will alert the PCs to his presence in four time periods at once: 1944 AD when the Allies storm the Beaches of Normandy, 216 BC when the Roman Empire besieges Carthage at the Battle of Cannae, 1099 AD during the Siege of Jerusalem when European crusaders invaded the Caliphate, and 2002 AD in a nondescript modern urban battle zone.I should note that the book has some POLITICAL OPINIONS in regards to the Crusades: namely it takes the stance that the Crusader’s belief that an invasion of the Holy Land was divinely sanctioned was a lie. God had no desire to see innocent blood shed in His name, where people such as the Templars were deceived and corrupted into a war their God didn’t want.In order to stop the Horseman of War, the PCs must use the Book of Souls and Timekeeper to jump to one of these eras and overcome the Horseman in combat in order to return them to the Scroll of Seven Seals. During this battle the Horseman will transport themselves and the party between the four battlezones by spending 3 Legendary Actions, and each environment has its own terrain hazards, map, and enemy units which are equally hostile to War as well as the PCs. The enemies are Warbound, not actual flesh and blood beings but Enigmas representing the bloodlust and brutality of violence throughout history. For example, the Beaches of Normandy have Warbound Rifleman who attack with guns, and terrain features include buried land mines, machine gun encampments that deal AoE damage, and shallows and slopes that are difficult terrain. The Siege of Jerusalem is perhaps the simplest, for it has no ranged attackers nor siege weapons, just a bunch of Warbound Crusaders who are attempting to climb/break through the city walls and gates.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/vm1SkNA.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />In terms of stats the Horseman of War is the physically strongest of the Horsemen, a CR 21 creature with nearly 300 hit points, 20 AC, Strength and Constitution scores of 27, and interestingly a massive History bonus of +17.* War also has advantage on all attack rolls against creatures that don’t have all their hit points and heals 20 hit points at the end of his turn if he strikes a creature in melee. Furthermore, he can also cast Confusion and Destructive Wave at will, which do a good job of representing the “fog of war.” Like all Horsemen, War’s mount is actually a part of his body and soul and cannot be knocked off the horse against his will. War’s more notable features include an AoE trample attack that leaves the Horseman unbalanced (attacks against him are made with advantage until start of his next turn), while his legendary actions include increasing AC to 22, an AoE attack dealing thunder damage centered on himself, a bonus attack with his hooves, and changing the battlefield map and era to one of the other three.*War does feature prominently throughout history, after all.Overall, the Horseman of War is a chaotic, unpredictable force. His attacks are a threat to his enemies as well as himself, be it the Warbound fighting everyone or the unbalancing trample. All of his attacks deal partial or total thunder damage which few beings have resistance to or immunity. War’s main weakness is that he doesn’t have unconventional movement speeds such as flight, a common weakness for all Horsemen save for Death. Without any good ranged attacks besides the Confusion spell, PCs who take to the skies need only worry about artillery and arrows when it comes to damage. I can see this being a fun battle, but the regular cycling between four maps looks pretty challenging.PCs who defeat War can claim his Sword of War or trade it in for an item in the Citadel’s Treasury. They will level up to 16 as they return to the Glassy Citadel to rest.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/vROF5c8.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The next chapter involves fighting the Horseman of Conquest, but this time the PCs don’t seek her out; she plans to take the fight to the PCs at the Citadel!But first, the party receives some very worrying news as the loud peal of seven trumpet blasts echo across the entirety of Heaven. Sophia and all celestials recognize this warning: it was sent only once before, when Satan rebelled against God.This time, Satan is not making war in Heaven, but instead the Material Plane. Michael the archangel arrives to tell the PCs that fiends are opening up portals all across the Veil to spill onto Earth, in numbers so vast that just their cavalry alone numbers around 200 million! This is actually incredibly out of character for Satan and his minions: even before Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross and weakened the power of fiends to operate on Earth, demons never used overt military force on the Material Plane. They much prefer to manipulate mortals into performing evil deeds so that they can walk into the fires of Hell themselves. War is immediate, indiscriminate, and can send many otherwise corruptible souls to Heaven before they have the chance to choose evil.Well, the reality of the situation is that the invasion of Earth is but a distraction: knowing that the celestials will seek to protect humanity they will leave Heaven less-defended, where the Horseman of Conquest seeks to march upon the Glassy Sea, breach the Citadel, and establish a foothold in Heaven.But the PCs and other angels don’t realize that yet. Michael and Sophia stay behind at the Citadel as the PCs are sent to Earth. It’s been about a year since the Antichrist unlocked the Scroll of Seven Seals, and much of the world is now in a post-apocalyptic state. A nearby human city has ten demons known as Plague Bringers heading towards its front defenses, which are manned by Gethsemani (who now has a shotgun and frag grenades) along with four other defenders who are hopelessly outmatched Commoners. During combat various Lair actions will take place reflecting the sorry state of the world, such as flaming hail raining from the sky, mountains collapsing into a nearby river causing massive waves to rush across the plains, the sun and moon just randomly stop giving light, and the awakening of a massive demon known as Chained Devourer hundreds of miles away (no game effect, more a foreshadowing).Gethsemani is destined to die during this encounter, and upon her death she will become an Elder. Her soul will refuse to come back to life if the PCs attempt to revive her, as “she died for what she believed in and wouldn’t have it any other way.” During Gethsemani’s death the Book of Souls will reveal this to be her destiny, and the DM is encouraged to allow some social interaction and roleplay for a PC who was particularly fond of her and/or has an appropriate Eternal Trait.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/u9omaYr.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Plague Bringers are fiends who are basically mounted cavalry, albeit their mounts are but biological growths on the backs of the real creatures, and the “horses” and can effortlessly create a new “mount” upon their backs. They, along with the Chained Devourer above, will kill one third of humanity just by their efforts alone, and they’re one of this adventure’s more fanon interpretations of the Bible. For in the Book of Revelation, these mounted cavalry and the chained beings were angels instead of demons. Statwise a Plague Bringer is a CR 6 fiend which attacks with a longsword and tail that deals necrotic and poison damage on top of physical damage, and their rechargeable breath weapon can alter between damaging fire, blinding smoke, or acidic, poisonous sulfur. There are sidebars for alternate types of Plague Bringers, such as one wielding a greatsword but attacks against it have advantage, a spellcaster who specializes in damaging and battlefield control spells up to 4th level, and Dark Scions with innate psychic abilities that take the form of spells such as Detect Thoughts, Fear, and Knock.After defeating the demonic cavalry, the Book of Souls will alert the party that the Horseman of Conquest is leading an army of demons to besiege the Citadel. When the PCs arrive back at the fortress, they can recruit 1 Elder to aid them in its defense,* and the party has 12 hours to make preparations. This can include a Long Rest if desired. Attempting to prematurely attack Conquest or her forces will just have her launch the assault early.*Sophia is here, along with 2 Chalkydri Dawnbringers to aid in the defense, but Michael is gone. Chalkydri are blue phoenixlike celestial birds who burst into light instead of flames upon death, and will be killed semi-offscreen when battling in the first wave.Conquest’s main goal is to take control of the Citadel, acting under the Antichrist’s orders to seize the lampstand room to give it over to the demons. But as that particular room has magical wards, attempts at using magical transportation won’t work. Thus, a conventional takeover of the fort is Conquest’s plan. The Horseman’s siege takes the form of 5 waves to wear down the PCs. The waves see a return of some enemy types we haven’t seen in a while, such as Infernal Dreadnaughts and Legionaries, along with Plague Bringers, but the fourth wave has new enemy types in the form of an infernal priest along with infernal warmages and a warlord.The infernal priests look like demonic humanoids dressed in the style of a Catholic or Orthodox priest, but with the spiral triple 6 Mark of the Beast instead of the holy cross for motifs. They were originally humans who were part of a secret training program for the International Unity Project, to be the priestly class when the Antichrist would unveil the new religion of overt Satanic worship. They are true believers that even in death never regretted their denial into Heaven. Infernal priests are basically NPC Cleric spellcasters, having the same advantage versus fear and charm effects as the Marked Taskforce but can cast spells of up to 5th level with a preference for battlefield control such as Darkness, Spirit Guardians, and Black Tentacles.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/Af3GMWo.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The fifth and final wave will just be the Horseman of Conquest, who is confident that the prior waves weakened the Citadel’s defenses enough for her to mop up any survivors. In terms of stats she is less physically resilient than War, having 216 hit points and an armor class of 18. She is immune to force damage, meaning that any warlocks in the party who use eldritch blasts as their main weapon are going to have a bad time. Along with truesight of 120 feet* and a Passive Perception of 24 it is extremely hard to get the drop on her. She can cast Bane, Conjure Volley, and Wall of Fire at will, and her default attack with the Bow of Conquest can make up to four attacks that let her choose from a list of 6 extra effects on top of damage. Such effects are things like letting an ally make one weapon attack as a reaction,** can blind a target on a failed Constitution save, turn an invisible opponent visible, or deal an equal number of damage to an adjacent target as well. Her Legendary Actions include making an extra bow attack but with no additional effect, gaining advantage on her next attack roll against a target she can see, or 2 Legendary Actions to cast one of her innate spells. As only Conjure Volley is non-concentration, this spell is the one she will most likely use over the course of battle.*all Horsemen have this ability.**this would be useful, IF SHE HAD ANY ALLIES ACCOMPANYING HER!Like War, Conquest has no alternative movement types than a land speed, although relying upon a bow means that just trying to fly out of range isn’t a surefire solution. Being able to attack four times per round along with legendary actions and extra effects means she has quite a bit of “action economy” in replicating a multitude of attacks even in just one round. However, one big weakness is that she has no Crossbow Expert equivalent of ignoring disadvantage on ranged attacks when being adjacent to a hostile creature, so this can even the playing field a bit.Like War, the Horseman of Conquest is absorbed back into the Scroll upon defeat and the party can claim her Bow as a reward or to exchange for an item in the Citadel’s Treasury. They will now be 17th level, with 2 more Horsemen to go.Thoughts So Far: Chapters 6 through 10 are what I’d describe as a “Boss Rush.” They are incredibly similar in being combat-heavy and revolve around fighting a Horseman, whether as the sole major encounter or after fighting through a wave of minions in Conquest’s case. The start to Chapter 6 is appropriately paced and touching, where the PCs learn a bit more about Azrael through Sofia and prepare for the battles ahead. While I can’t truly judge them until I run the encounters myself, the fights against War and Conquest look like they can be fun. Unfortunately Conquest has one element of poor design in that one of her arrows is useless in the battle by RAW, but otherwise I don’t have much else to complain about their stats. My main concern is that these successive Horsemen battles may be too monotonous and result in “battle fatigue.”Join us next time as we go back to the Garden of Eden to fight Famine and begin a tearful reunion with a changed Azrael in Chapters 8: Wrath and Famine and 9: Death Waits!</blockquote>

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