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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ltclnlbrain" data-source="post: 6077344" data-attributes="member: 12882">We began our final session as the PCs ventured into the Bleak Gate. They took the Canal Route, bringing Asrabey and Grappa along. The guards at the watch post went down rather quickly, especially with Asrabey's help. I misread the encounter at the outer doors, however, and had the guards standing around outside the complex instead of waiting just inside as was intended. Fortunately, one of the players retroactively played his plot twist card "Road Most Traveled," which allows or easy access around a locked door or the like. The in-game explanation was that the guards were going out for their smoke break and had left the door open a crack. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":P" title="Stick out tongue    :P"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":P" />After taking the cart to the main complex, Piotr used rusting grasp to destroy the next set of doors. Unfortunately, this noisy entry alerted the guards, and so they activated the oil sprayer trap in the next hall. The party just managed to get through the far doors before being incinerated. With the complex on alert, they faced off against the bulk of the guards in the halls around the barracks, with engineers and miscellaneous personnel scrambling for cover. Again, the party made quick work of the guards.Proceeding deeper into the complex, the party soon squared off against the Borne prototypes. Asrabey engaged the larger one while the two smaller ones moved in to try to get to Mariah and Oliver. The players were surprised when the golems started bantering with each other and displayed intelligent tactics. Leone Quital grappled Will with his telekinesis, but was only able to do so for a round before Piotr dispelled the scrying sensor in the room. Mariah used her slippers of spider climbing to ascend out of the golems' reach and fired down on them with adamantine bullets, while Oliver turned invisible to support Will and Piotr with magical healing. Asrabey managed to take down the big golem by himself, but took more than half his hit points in damage in the battle. The two lesser golems fell soon thereafter.Will made an impressive Disable Device check to open the locked gates without Tinker Oddcog's assistance. As the doors opened, the party finally got their first glimpse of the colossus Borne. Once more, the players were surprised. They didn't expect the massive construct to be what the Obscurati had been working on. Leone floated up to Borne's shoulder and the dark slayers took aim with their rifles. The party sprang into action. Asrabey and Mariah began running up the walls with their slippers of spider climbing. Piotr, wild-shaped into a flying beast, grabbed Will to carry him up to the walkway. Oliver was forced to take the slow method up via the lift, with Grappa at his side.When Will and Piotr neared the walkway, Leone's trump card revealed himself: Olivert Boone. Since Lorcan Kell had been taken down, I decided to replace him with the tiefling gunslinger from "Always on Time," risen after his brutal murder as an undead known as a pale stranger (Bestiary 3). Piotr dropped Will off to try to fend off Boone while the druid tried to get to Leone. I had Leone trap Piotr in a cage of steel ripped from the catwalks to keep the druid from getting to the Plot Device. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":P" title="Stick out tongue    :P"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":P" />Will didn't fare too well against Boone, as the pale stranger dropped him with a full attack. Mariah hoped Asrabey would help, but as soon as he got to the catwalk, the dreadnaught plunged deeper into the complex in search of Kasvarina. That basically left Mariah and Oliver to deal with Boone. Fortunately, as a spellslinger, Mariah was well suited to fight the pale stranger. The two exchanged volleys of gunfire as Oliver invisibly moved to heal Will before disarming Boone of his gun.In the middle of the heated battle, Grappa moved up to Borne and placed his hand on the golem's forehead. Leone noticed what was going on and ripped the golem's body apart, but not before Grappa got a hand on Leone. Borne awoke, shaking the complex and casually swiping at Leone, knocking him out and sending him plunging into the witchoil below. Freed from his prison, Piotr moved to help take down Boone, then transformed into a massive winged dinosaur to carry the party to safety. Oliver ran off to find Asrabey, following the trail of destruction to the elf, who had found Kasvarina and was bringing her along. The group took cover as Borne punched his way out of the complex, bringing everybody back to the real world. Asrabey and Kasvarina immediately left, to much swearing on the players' part.Exiting the complex, Piotr's player really wanted to engage the colossus head-on, but the other players managed to convince him it was fruitless and that they had to get to the king. Aodhan outlined his plan to send the colossus into the Dreaming, and the players supported leading the construct along Stanfield Canal to minimize collateral damage. At the docks, the party supported Captain Taylor and helped Thames Grimsley convince the dockers to help man the ships.The final naval battle was cool, but seemed pretty easy for the players. Piotr took command of the Coaltongue, with a command score of +9. He managed to outmaneuver Borne almost every time; the golem only got one good hit in, spawning a pair of witchoil monster that Will was able to single-handedly take down in 3 rounds. While the rolls were kind of anticlimactic, I tried to use exciting narration of near-misses and ships being tossed about by the massive waves, so I think the players still dug it. Borne was banished to the Dreaming, and now the players are concerned that they might be inadvertently starting a war with the Unseen Court. They told the king to try to convince the people that the colossus' appearance was the work of terrorists and not to blame Danor directly. As the Coaltongue pulled back into the harbor, Aodhan knighted the players amid the cheers of the crowd.All told, the players really loved this adventure just as much as the previous ones. Some of their questions have been answered, but just as many new questions have emerged. The stakes have definitely been raised, and we can't wait until the next adventure is out!</blockquote>

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