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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 3654388" data-attributes="member: 63">This post will be full of spoilers for the final adventure of War of the Burning Sky. Having never run a campaign to 20th level, I would like a bit of help making sure the adventure turns out well. Any suggestion is appreciated, and your assistance will aid the gaming experience of many gamers.[sblock]Quick overview: It is the twelve and final episode of the War of the Burning Sky campaign saga. While of course there is some wiggle room as to what path things have taken, what it comes down to is that the leader of the Ragesian Empire, Leska, will face the heroes and their army on a desolate plain, the dust of which is white like bone ash. In the center of this plain is a rift in the ground that leads to a colossal cavern, and at its bottom depths lies the Aquiline Heart.The Aquiline Heart is a living relic, torn from the breast of an ancient elemental entity -- a primordial eagle who represented this land's connection to the plane of air -- and hidden here by the creature which slew it -- a likewise primordial dragon who represents this land's connection to the plane of fire. The Heart still beats, and any who find it and taste its flesh are completely cured of all injuries. Leska found the heart, and used her magic to become immortal.The heroes will know all of this, and will also know that, according to the myth, if the heart is destroyed it will cause the whole region to tear itself apart from an imbalance of elemental energy. However, as long as the Heart lives and its blood flows through Leska's veins, it is impossible to truly kill her. Of course, there are ways to deal with immortal villains without killing them, and I'm sure the players will come up with a few, from the old "drop the whole cave on top of her" scheme to the silly "chop her up and throw her into a bag of holding with a wight."The plot of the adventure is fairly straightforward. If your side is losing the war, you go to the Heart to defeat Leska and break the command of the army. If you're winning the war, you instead go there to stop Leska from destroying the Heart in spite. Your armies and hers clash on the field while you try to make your way to the entrance of the cavern, then you have to brave the ancient defenses put in place to protect the Heart, and finally you face Leska herself at the subterranean blood-filled crater where the Heart lies.Leska is an epic spellcaster. The heroes ought to be 19th or 20th level here, so I'm currently statting up Leska as a LE female human wizard 3/cleric 3/mystic theurge 10/archmage 4/loremaster 6. That's caster level 17 wizard, 19 cleric. And she's immortal, so she has regenerative abilities similar to those of a Tarrasque. And she's got access to 4 epic spells a day (2 arcane, 2 divine) with a +48 Spellcraft check (though honestly, I'm willing to use this as sort of carte blanche to let her wield crazy but cool magic far beyond what 9th level spells do). I've given her the multispell feat and one each of the metamagic quicken rods so she'll be popping off 3 spells a round. She's also got the ability to reactively counterspell with a pretty damned good chance of stopping whatever she doesn't like each round.Hopefully combat with her will last longer than it did in that famous battle against Vlaakith I read about in the Storyhour forum.What I want help with is coming up with interesting tactics, good elements of the combat terrain, and ways to engage all types of high-level characters in a climactic showdown with the woman who is willing to destroy the world if she cannot conquer it. Give me your inspiration, your experiences with high-level games, and your idea of what would make a cool ending to this long war.[/sblock]</blockquote>

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