monboesen said:
As much as enjoy your story I have to chime in that this is the first time that I have really felt it was out of touch with the rules its based on. That fight would have been a dead sure TPK if played out at a table. Theres not even a shadow of doubt in my mind of that.
Perhaps, at
your table. In fact, if I was DMing with all rolls in plain view, and playing the glabrezu to full effectiveness against this party (even with good players), I'm sure I would have gotten the same result. However, I'm of that school that says it's okay to fudge a bit to save the party, if the dice would turn a dramatic triumph into a sad disaster. In this case it's even easier since I don't have to roll the dice.
Both in
Travels through the Wild West and in this story I've set fictional adventurers against encounters that an adversarial DM could easily use to wipe out even a lucky party. The only difference is that in this story, there's another author (even more sadistic than me, apparently!) setting up the challenges in each module in the Adventure Path series. In this case, Tito Leati (the author of "The Demonskar Legacy") thought that 4 9th level characters could overcome the glabrezu (with Alek's help; the way the module's written, with the glabrezu focusing on killing him first I see his role primarily as a damage sponge); I figured 5 8th level chars with a cohort could do it.
Heck, I could have easily TPKed this group at least ten times already. These mods are
hard, and I'm surprised there aren't more stories of bitter players out there whose hard-earned characters litter the alleys and dungeons of Cauldron by the dozen. My goal is to tell a dramatic and plausible tale; sorry if I failed in the latter, at least for one reader.
Anyway, here's the conclusion; I'll start "Test of the Smoking Eye" in a few days (I'm already well along in the story).
* * * * *
Chapter 188
They were victorious, but the cost had been great.
Zenna was the first to reach the body of Alek Tercival. His body was slaked in blood, running down from his mouth to cover his jaw and throat, and oozing from the great wounds torn in his body by the demon’s claws. Worst of all was his chest, distended by the crushing pressure of the demon’s pincer.
But as she looked down at him, his eyes suddenly opened.
Zenna jumped in surprise. Then she was kneeling beside him, casting a healing spell, to save the life that was inexplicably still trapped in this battered body.
Alek’s mouth opened. For a moment only blood hissed out, but then, he spoke, his voice warped by pain and the agony wrought upon his body.
“There is naught for you in Cauldron, heroes! To return is to enter your own graves and bring doom upon all that you love! Seek the sign of the smoking eye if you wish to save them all!”
And with that, he fell back, dead. Zenna knelt there, stunned. Her spell had dissolved without effect; it was as if he’d already been dead...
She felt the presence of her friends behind her. Looking up, she saw them, battered, weary.
Except Mole, she didn’t appear to be hurt at all.
“It may come back,” Dannel said, still wary.
“No, I don’t think so,” Zenna said, not sure how she knew, but feeling a strong sense of conviction as she spoke the words. “But I think it was right, we will face that demon again at some point.”
Morgan, barely able to stand himself, even with Zenna’s earlier healing spell, looked down at the body of Alek Tercival, his face a stone mask.
“I’m sorry,” Zenna said, and there was real pity in her voice.
The knight nodded, and turned back toward the center of the room.
Mole had returned to the doorway that looked out over the desert. The others slowly gravitated toward her, standing behind her, looking out over the bleak landscape. There was nothing as far as they could see, save for the rolling dunes. No vegetation, no sign of habitation by any living creature.
“Where are we?” Mole asked, and none of them had an answer for her.
THE END OF “THE DEMONSKAR LEGACY”
COMING SOON: “TEST OF THE SMOKING EYE”
