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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aboyd" data-source="post: 5044752" data-attributes="member: 44797">So I wanted to follow up and close out this thread with a summary of how everything played out.  I ended up using info from many threads here at En World.  It all came together.The short & sweet of it is that the group's cleric received omens to flee the area, as some of you suggested.  And they did flee, at first.  However, once out of the storm, they met up with an oracle and paid for a Divination spell ("where should we go?"), which gave them this warning: "The wounded bird knows no direction but that of escape."Apparently the cleric didn't understand it at first.  So they re-armed themselves with some extra magic items, and then <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-3rd-edition-rules/269624-fun-xp-lets-make-up-reward-fits.html" target="_blank">rode right back in</a>.  They made it to the ziggurat (pyramid), which shocked me.  The game day ended with them tumbling down some slippery stairs into the ziggurat.  A few days later, this was posted on my campaign forum:So, after they were back at the vortex, the cleric realized in hindsight that they were supposed to flee the vortex.I couldn't think of any possible way for them to live through this.  They already escaped one TPK.  So I placed a high-level party in the ziggurat, just a short way past the entrance.  If the PCs parlayed, surrendered, and allied with that high-level group, they might all might survive.  This also would play well with their quest for redemption (the PCs had almost all turned chaotic evil over the course of the campaign, and now this high-level group would offer them a chance for ultimate good -- saving the world or a big chunk of it).  Unfortunately, the PCs have some history with <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-3rd-edition-rules/264766-good-non-magical-armor-anti-magic-hero.html" target="_blank">the leader</a>, and they did not like the whole "surrender" thing.  Fights break out.  One player in particular kept saying, "I'm sure I can beat them!"  This despite the fact that the high-level party had been the source of their previous near-TPK.Two (smart) PCs teleport outta there at that point.For the remaining characters, in the midst of this brawl, their <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-3rd-edition-rules/269063-making-5th-level-goblin-respectably-competent.html" target="_blank">little goblin recruit</a> turned on them and began blowing up their hirelings.  Chaos reigned -- I had the goblin appear to look like one of the other players (alter self) and it genuinely confused the players for a couple of rounds.  So 2 dead hirelings before the players even decided that the goblin was responsible.Once they began to lose and fled outside of the ziggurat, then the storm spirits closed in and the PCs had to contend with hundreds of lightning strikes (in addition to the high-level party, and a mutiny from within).  Everyone died.So... players who are used to level-adjusted games: 0.  Sandbox: 1.The two who fled will now serve as the core of a rebooted campaign.  They've already begun recruiting new PCs.  They don't have much time, however.  There are storm clouds on the horizon.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Thanks everyone for the help!  My Greyhawk world has been utterly ravaged by this unplanned apocalypse.  Hopefully the new party will survive longer... perhaps by fleeing prophesied doom, and journeying to a safer place.</blockquote>

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