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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tolamaker" data-source="post: 9759388" data-attributes="member: 7031495">Session 125: PenultimatumA young Coaltongue walks through a ravaged village. Their leaders did not bow down, so they had to be shown the price. He shakes his head. What a waste. He hears shouting and follows the sound to a few of his men trying to get into one of the huts. A woman wields a knife, not letting them get any closer. Coaltongue looks past the woman to see a few wounded on pallets, fear evident in their eyes.When the woman sees Coaltongue, she spits at him. “You’re the one who did all of this. I hear what they call you. But you’re just a petty chieftain. You won’t change a thing.”Coaltongue considers her for a moment, and then reaches to his belt and tosses the woman a healing potion. The young Leska looks at him like it’s a trap.“Help me prove you wrong,” he says.As the Stormbreakers rush to stop the summoning, Leska turns on the throne to a pair of aides. "Bring him here."The party tries to fight through The Flames of the Empress to stop the summoning, but are too late. Titivillus, devil of lies and corruption, bursts through and sends beams of energy out, almost killing Eluriah in a single blast. The Flames are able to heal each other, forming a vanguard to stop the party’s advance.The aides return, carrying the body of Coaltongue. Leska looks down and grimaces.Gruz and Aripos teleport about, cutting off Flames one by one, while Mishka goes toe to toe with Titivillus. Eventually, they are able to finish off the summoners and send Titivillus back to the hells.Leska takes out a soul gem, and presses it to Coaltongue’s body. He gasps, looking around. “Leska! There were… assassins.”“I know,” she says, shaking her head. “I sent them.”His eyes widen.With nothing between them and Leska, Mishka leads the charge up to the throne. As she reaches, Leska turns with frightening speed and takes the Torch from Mishka’s belt, and swings it down on Coaltongue’s head.The torch tries to consume Coaltongue’s soul, but the power of the Aquiline Heart keeps it from being eaten away. Coaltongue screams as the Torch is fed more and more, and a ring of flames spreads out beyond the palace, beyond courtyards, to encompass the entirety of Ragos. As Leska feels the Torch begin to struggle under the power, she directs more than a hundred thousand souls to a desolate wasteland.Entire armies are dumped into the obsidian sands of the Opaline Wastes. Lightning cracks, and glass winds howl as Alliance and Ragesian alike look about in horror at where they’ve landed. Armies have been separated, and Leska’s voice booms out, supernaturally loud. “To the cleft! There is still hope!”Post Session ThoughtsThis was a fun session, with Titivillus being a great enemy to pack a punch. That blast he could send off put a real scare in the players, especially as it recharged on his second turn as well. This was also fun as it was a long walk up to Leska's throne, showing progress to a goal as they could see how close they were.About five or so sessions back, I asked the party permission to let the villain pull off one "video game cutscene moment." I told them there would be no check, no save, and it would be complete BS. They agreed. As soon as Leska grabbed the Torch, I could tell that half of them had forgotten me asking for permission, and every time they asked "Can I?" or "Couldn't X do so-and-so?" I got to just grin and tell them no.The party also enjoyed the Leska flashbacks I included. I had written up a little more backstory for her, and every time we reached the top of initiative, I read a little bit. I have more than what is there at the top of this recap, but otherwise this post would get overly long. I'll post it a bit later.Changes to the moduleI changed the pit fiend to Titivillus, and obviously had the big moment of Leska teleporting everyone to the Opaline Wastes. Does it make sense for her to bring her enemies with her to the Heart? Maybe not, but it was cool. I also made the Flames part-Inquisitor, just to give them a few more tools in their belt. Even with their low health, the vampiric spears they wielded made them a lot tankier than I was expecting, in a good way.One more session to go!</blockquote>

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