The Doomed Bastards SH: Reader Input Poll (decide how the story ends)

[Nightbreeze]

Well, the point is that I think that they are hardly going to rally only the forces of Camar...rather, they would probably bring in whoever is there in the entire world that is interested in keeping the world...you know, existent.

 

[Baduin]

Letelia has Gate, she used it to come to Rappan Athuk.

And I even didn't suggest getting the Candles of Invocation. Price 8,400 gp per item - about ten should be enough to defeat the Ravager. I think the cathedral in Camar should have at least one or two in stock. Or perhaps a little side quest?

Or perhaps a grand reunion - resurrecting all the heroes who had fallen in Rappan Athuk, from that unfortunate barbarian to Varo? The low level characters can be polymorphed into something useful.

Edit: I've forgotten most of them had their souls eaten by Orcus. But Varo can be resurrected, and also Navev, now that he has been destroyed as undead. They can also Wish Talen to them, and ask the elves for their most powerful spellcaster. They would also need Epic swords for fighters.

I say it seems doable.

 

[Nightbreeze]

Well, if this was in the setting of Speulchrave, I would request a cascade

 

[ScribblesTheGhoul]

I really can't imagine the Doomed Bastards taking the relatively safe and certain route. In anything. Ever.

I mean, they took out a demon lord in his throne room. That couldn't have been absolutely necessary. Sure, they couldn't have just left him there, but at some point between "There's cultists down there" and "The Lord of Undeath will feast on our souls", there must have been a few instances where they could have just walled something off or thrown a consecrate on it and achieved basically the same effect, at least for the moment, that they got from leaping into a high priest's sacrificial chamber and going toe-to-toe with something nine feet tall.

But pretty much every time the Doomed Bastards have ever encountered a situation, they've gone for the thorough, unlikely-to-succeed route that got the job done right (and/or killed them in the process). When Tiros found out what the Duke was like, he could have opposed him politically, hampering the damage he could do. Instead, he staged a coup to remove him once and for all. When his accomplices found out about his capture, they could have found a new leader and invoked their martyred one's name. Instead, they went in through the nastier entrance of the world's most elaborate execution device to rescue their leader and pick up where they left off. When Talen was turned into a vampire, they could have just destroyed him and mourned his loss. Instead, they dragged one of the most powerful undead creatures they knew of to the heart of their city and tried everything they could to cure him. The dragon, the ravager spawn, the ghoul army, the corpse collector, the list goes on of situations when rational compromises just weren't their thing.

Besides, so what if the Ravager's creators couldn't kill it? They're the ones who thought it'd be a good idea to make it in the first place, how clever could they have been?

 

[Lazybones]

Great feedback thus far, 38 votes and counting! It looks like the readership is definitely leaning toward the more ... direct outcome.

I am thinking of such things as planar binding Efreet for Wishes, then using those wishes to bind more Efreet etc (chain-binding Efreet) or of gating in Solars. Using such tactics it seems possible to create enough magic items (eg rings of wishes, scrolls of Gate) etc to defeat Ravager.With such resources you could shape the battlefield, prepare traps etc.

Hmm... never seen LB go to those lengths before; more to the point, I don't think I've ever seen his pc's have access to that level of abuse... I mean power.

Well, if this was in the setting of Speulchrave, I would request a cascade

One thing you've probably already noticed is the limits I've placed on callings within Rappan Athuk (I've ruled that no celestials can enter the complex, a ban which has come up a few times in the story already). In most of my campaigns I use a device called the Compact which sets rules that limit the uber-power of divine beings on the Prime plane. One of the limits I use is a prohibition on the "chaining" of powerful entities by calling one and using it to call another, and so on (i.e. Sepulchrave's "cascade"). I'm more lenient when it comes to Outsiders using short-termed summons.

Letelia has Gate, she used it to come to Rappan Athuk.

Technically she's 17th level. Originally I'd planned on giving her a custom L8 planar transport spell similar to Sepulchrave's Passage of Lightning (as gate, but self-only, and no summoning). But then I realized that she could have done the same exact thing with a plane shift linked to greater teleport. I cheated a bit with the special effects.

And I even didn't suggest getting the Candles of Invocation. Price 8,400 gp per item - about ten should be enough to defeat the Ravager. I think the cathedral in Camar should have at least one or two in stock. Or perhaps a little side quest?

There aren't any 17th-level clerics in Camar's recent history who could have created such an item. The church definitely would have put one to use when they confronted Orcus, had they possessed one.

Thanks for all the comments, the story continues in a week!

 

[Faren]

This is a really tough call for me.
One one hand, this creature just doesn't seem to be something the current people can kill, as one spawn alone is nearly enough for Dar, Duke Aerim and and all the other warriors combined, with or without healing and mage back-up. Depending on how much stronger the Ravager is than its spawn (I assume exponentially), there should be no chance in hel (or in Rappan Athuk, same thing it seems) that they and Camar would survive if it were released. Not at their current levels.

However, Scribbles is right. The Doomed Bastards are bastards, and bastards always take the hardest route
Vive Camar.
Kill the Ravager.

 

[HugeOgre]

I for one could easily see Allera persuading Dar to make the sacrifice, but I voted for the combat approach

 

[Neverwinter Knight]

I guess they should realize that if they sacrifice themselves and don't succeed, there is nothing that will stand a chance against the Ravager. The fighting option has already worked once against an overpowering enemy.

 

[Lazybones]

It looks like the readers have spoken decisively. I'll resume the story tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who voted!