This is a continuation of my Actual play thread from last week. Like last week, it's very complicated, and there's a big cast of characters we've sort of generated over the last 40 sessions or so. This week's cast is actually very large, but it refers back to events from over the campaign.

To recap:
DRAMATIS PERSONAE!

Player Characters:
Owyn Glydd: gnome rogue/wizard/arcane trickster
Bernhard: buffoonish fighter/cleric of Zunail, the fire spirit. Recently transformed into a goblin.
Vork Barkor: human ranger with a background as a sailor
Ganex Firemane: Elan Psychic Warrior/Psion

Non-Player Characters:
Kismet: bitchy Elan "girlfriend" of Ganex
Guinevere Vartagnan: aristocratic merchant princess, and somewhat of a girlfriend to Vork. Now captured by Vincent.
Ios An immortal Sphynx
Stonebowl: Angel of Pascion
Hamuran A Shedu associated with a planar  'law-enforcement' organization called the Farwalkers. He has been on the trail of Asrafel.

Gods Of note:
Zunail: the mischievous fire spirit. Sort of a cross between Prometheus and Hermes.
Zumaloken: the forgotten god of secrecy and greed
Pascion: the Scion of Knowledge
Xalene: The Witchqueen. Goddess of snakes, magic and darkness. (Somewhat based on Hecate)
Kurgh: The Conqueror. Lawful evil tyrant deity who commands a powerful warrior cult.
Mizrah the Devourer: A demonic, animalistic god worshipped by humanoids (especially gnolls) and really evil humans. An early campaign enemy was the Cult of Mizrah, and later a group of gnolls who had occupied a temple of Mizrah.
Lieromin: The Hierophant of Balance. An elven/human god with sort of a unique myth surrounding him.

Important Villians:
Vincent Defabro: undead cleric of Zumaloken. (Formerly a PC!)
Asrafel the Fallen: freelance fallen angel of Zumaloken. Former angel of Xalene. She took the fallen Vincent and re-animated him as undead. Working with Vincent.

(I'll be editing this as time goes on.)

Ok, so we played last night. Stuff happened.

When we ended the last session, Ganex had just disintegrated the mast of Vincent's slaver galley as it pulled out of port.

The group reunited then and there.

Onboard the ship: Vincent has Vork's girlfriend (Guinevere Vartagnan), and several gnomish slaves. He also has several of his undead sea-zombie goons who can drown civilians simply by turning on an aura, and several Orcish slavers.

The players are on the docks. Vincent calls back to them.

"I warn you not to challenge me. I'd hate to see all these fine people die for nothing.."

(We had miniatures on the table and I had stat blocks ready to go in case they did want to fight. Coincidentally- I was bluffing. Drowning the slaves  would have been ok, but Guinevere has to be captured to fulfill a prophecy, and Vincent wasn't wanting to have his orcish sailors be drowned. The orcish sailors, by the way, were all 6th level warriors. Not an impossible battle, by any means, but not an easy one either.)

The players are going over their resources and note that they haven't rested since last adventure, so spell-lists haven't reset, and Bernard and Owyn in particular have already blown through everything. Vork is absent as a player so we shuffle him offstage by saying something like this "you look around and don't see Vork. Kismet shrugs and says she saw him slipping away."

OOCly: I'm going to give Vork the choice of a few options when he returns. One of which is he can say he slipped away, sneaked over to the water, dove in, and somehow ends up aboard the orcish ship-- so next week we'll find out where he wants to be.

No Vork, and low on spells. Owyn tries to 1-way negotiate as the galley makes it's way out of harbor. He yells "we know where you are going!!"

Vincent sends back a message spell: "You can meet me there. I offer you one last chance to join me. Oh and, I left a parting gift for you, back at your own ship.."

The players watch as the galley pulls away. I also desribed a Karelon Light Warship trying to block the galley from leaving harbor and Vincent disintegrating it.

The players do indeed know where he is going: The sunken temple of Zumaloken. It's several fathoms underwater, about two days sail from Roan. They have been there before, twice. They foiled one of Vincents excavation attempts to dig up the entrance using gnomish underwater mining equipment.  The other time, they went as recon.

Not yet known to the PCs: The gnomish slaves, of course, are being used to excavate some silt-covered tunnels that lead into the temple, and there is a magical "airy-water" type gate that has to be rebuilt, that will allow surface dwellers to descend to the sea-floor and go into the temple. There's something sinister in mind for Guinevere, so there has to be air there.

The players head back to base - the guild hall-- and rest up. Then they get their stuff together and sell off all the crap they had collected over the last few adventures, to re-equip. They need gear- water-breathing potions, new weaponry, new stat-boosting items. Owyn is saving up for an Intelligence-boosting circlet that will help him with spell penetration.

They are discussing what to do next:

They could go directly to deal with Vincent at the sunken temple.

They could head back to their former base- a reclaimed temple of Mizrah the Devourer. Vincent spent a lot of time there when he was a PC. There may be clues. This is also the site, coincedentally where Owyn helped sacrifice a young Kurghite warrior earlier in his career. He had recently asked Pascion for that event be erased from his history in the previous adventure.

They could head to the capitol city of Evander. Evander is Vincent's home city, and coincidentally also the home city of the Elan cabal. (They have all fled the place under accusations of being undead). One of Vincent's missions that they know about is 'to kill Queen Emerald of Karelon". It's very specific, and it has to do with some kind of prophecy. Emerald is based in Evander. They've never met her, but as representaive of their guild they now count as nobles, and conceivably go meet her.

* Evander is under an undead curse, where low-level undead tend to break out of their tombs and graves at night. There are special patrols, "no-go" zones and abandoned areas in the 'inner city'.

They could head south to deal with the Kurghites. The Kurghites were the party enemies from way back. They're building some kind of animated walking siege fortress. This could be useful against Vincent. The PCs have uncovered what looks like a long-term plot to overthrow Karelon, but contented themselves with sabotaging major Kurghites efforts back in sessions 10-20 or so.

The players agree "we need an army of some kind to counter Vincent's. We need allies."

Owyn suggests something about the Wraith Queen Joniele, but get's shot down by Kismet (now keep in mind, she's an NPC! so this was me roleplaying her. This comes back later.) Dealing with the Wraith Queen would mean returning to the Tomb of the Starrior Kings (a dungeon) where Joniele is bound.  

There are a couple of other possible groups of allies: one of which is the Farwalkers- a sort of planar law-enforcement group. They are hesitant to bring them up, as the group is now completely chaos aligned.

They discuss the options of where to go next and finally come up with this: They'll head to Evander, by way of hitting the old Mizrah temple (Vincent's hangout) first- gathering clues. Owyn suggests they also stop off to return something to a very wise sphynx they met back in like session 12 or 13.

There's more, of course.

Ok, continued.

Finally, on everyone's mind is that last bit: Vincen't's last message spell said "I left you a parting gift on your ship.."

This is their airship, the Intrepid, we're talking about. The Airship is a submersible, flying, ocean-going magical vessel. I have these in a lot of my campaigns. This particular vessel was liberated from a group of Mind-Flayer invaders.

So, now, well-rested and re-equipped, the PCs decided to see what the damage was. They expected a trap, curse, undead, or ..something similar. Back when Vincent was still a PC, they had set up countermeasure defenses on their ship.  The only upgrade they did when they found out Vincent was now an enemy, was remove him from the Alarm list: so the ship would shut down and psionically alert them whenever anyone not on the list (including Vincent) tried to board. The ship was docked at a private area of the Harbor, and guarded. It had been there for about 4 sessions.

Vincet had summoned a pair of yugoloths, (Echinoloths, actually) and left them lurking near the dock of their ship, underwater. These are like giant starfish-squids with a pretty brutal rend attack. They are amongst the least intelligent Yugoloths I've found. The version I used is from Stormwrack. They are blind, but have tremorsense, so they could sense when the players were coming down the docks.

Ok, so cautiously approaching, we threw down miniatures. Owyn (rogue/wizard/arcane trickster) was in the lead trying to search for traps. Ganex at the rear with Kismet did a Detect Scrying.  
 
He located and destroyed a scrying sensor (Vincent's of course. He delights in watching the carnage) located above the vessel. Too bad! But since the watcher was not in the radius of the spell, he couldn't psionically trace it back.

At that point, they rolled spot checks, and Owyn was the only one to pass. Out of the water spring my two Echinoloths. Rarrhh!

They scramble up onto the docks and lash away at Owyn- and he's hit!.
Owyn casts fly (on the defensive, now, because he's in threat range) successfully. But he flies up and out of range. Ah, it's one weakness. No ranged attacks. Plus, these guys were slow out of water.
Of course, right behind Owyn is Bernard and then Ganex and Kismet in the rear.

Surprise round over, it goes back to the top.
One closes in on Bernard, who is flat-footed, and wails on him- hitting with three tentacles, and then rending for extra damage. Oof. Bernard is almost halfway down and he hasn't even acted yet!

The other closes in on Ganex and hits him three times, and rends. Oof. Ganex is hurt even worse, because he recently rebuilt as a pure Psion. That really nerfed his hit points. He's more than halfway down.

The tactical situation was- the PCs were standing on docks, over water. So they had set paths to walk on and fight from (and escape to).

Owyn tried an Otiluke's resilient sphere: the idea was to encase one, while the group concentrated on bringing down the other. Divide and Conquer. Unfortunately, he failed his spell penetration roll. Otiluke's Resilient Sphere hit the critter... and fizzled.

Bernard doesn't want to take another AoO just to get a better tactical position (this was foolish of him, because he could have withdrawn to a safer fighting position if he had just sucked it up and taken the AoO). So he tries to fight from where he is standing. He barely damages the thing.

Ganex attempts a psionic disintegrate- one of his best powers. It fails to penetrate spell resistance.

Kismet tries to mind thrust it, and it saves. No damage.

This was bad: bad luck (bad spell-penetration rolls actually, and good saves by the yugoloths) put them in a position where I could now full-attack a flanked Bernard.  

Which I did. The Echinoloths together hit him with 6 out of 8 possible tentacle attacks, and two rends. He was down to like .. less than a quarter of his hit points. He can't heal himself either, because these are infernal wounds. This could be the end for Bernard.

Owyn flies up and casts a scorching ray from his wand. It fails spell penetration. Zot! Fizzle.  

Bernard assess where he can go: now, he can't fully withdraw. One round's hesitation closed the escape route and left him trapped between both monsters on a narrow dock. He didn't want to take one tentacle swipe, and instead he got hit by 6 and two rends. See, thats tactics in action. Sometimes you have to go ahead and take the hit just to get position.

He considers the situation for a second, and then decides the only option is 'into the water'. He drops off the dock into the water. In full plate.

This cleverly avoids him taking an AoO (actually two AoO's, one from each critter). But now he's got trouble, as he sinks to the bottom. He tries to heal himself with a wand, but fails the heal check (for infernal wounds).

Ganex bravely steps up to try and distract the beasties from going after Bernard in the water. He fails another disintegrate.  Still, desperate measures are needed.

Kismet sets up some defensive buffs. (She's now an allied 'henchman' type npc during combats, so technically Ganex's player runs her as an extra PC during combats. However, I roleplay her NPC-ness in non-tactical situations).

One of Echinoloths drops off the dock and goes into the water after Bernard. uh-oh. The Echinoloths have an advanatge in water! A huge advantage! It closes in and takes one swipe at him. Ouch. Bernard is on his last few hitpoints.

The other Echinoloth turns around, and full attacks Ganex who has gotten too close. It latches on with all four tentacles and shreds him. And also rends. Ganex is dropped down to his last few hit points as well.

It's looking dire!

Ganex and Bernard are almost down. Owyn has yet to hit with anything. Kismet has been fairly useless.

Suddenly the tide of battle changes. Owyn tries to pull the Echinoloth off of Bernard by swooping down under the water, Swift Invisible, and using another Scorching Ray from his own spell list. This gives him sneak attack and a higher spell penetration roll.  He finally makes a spell penetration roll.

He hits with a sneak, hits again, and then crits with the third ray. Zot Zot Zot! The echinoloth is badly damaged.

Bernard withdraws underwater, holding his breath. Even though he's in armor,  he's within walking distance to shore.  He struggles to move, and tries healing as he goes. He finally makes a caster check and heals the infernal wound. He's getting back some hit points.

Ganex holds his action, Kismet grabs him from behind and psionic dimension doors him 300' back onto dry land. He then tries to heal himself by burning a metamorphosis. He changes into a will-o-wisp. That boosts his AC, and he makes the heal check and gets some hit points back as well. But he's hurtin'

The echinoloth in the water catches up to Bernard and hits him again, wounding him badly, but Bernard is hangin in there from just healing a round ago. Plus he's like 5' from shore now. He can full withdraw out of the way of this thing and just outrun it if he has to.

Owyn drops a fire-brand spell on the wounded one, and then flies back out of the underwater zone. It has some resistance, but not enough. It dies. Finally!

The last one tries crawling towards Bernard on the shore, but is too slow to get very far. It hits again, but it isn't enough to drop Bernard.  

"Everyone, ranged attacks!"

Aha, they figured me out.

Within a couple of rounds, they back off from the critters, lure them out of water, and bring them both down.

Great, brutal combat. At his lowest, Bernard was down to 3 hit points, and losing 1 hp per round from a 'wounding' effect of the Infernal wound. Ganex managed to stay at around 15 hit points after he beat the heal check and metamorphed. Kismet was fine. Owyn was barely hit, but fine.

The interesting thing happened next.

After the battle:

They are healing. Trying to beat the infernal wounds check, and cursing Vincents name.

And I took Kismet back over. She's all tending Ganex who is badly hurt, and she starts blaming the rest of the group. "This is all your fault! We Elan should never trust you mortals.. all you bring us is disaster!"

Owyn takes offense. "Excuse me? Didn't we save YOU back in (a previous adventure). Didn't we rescue YOU from (another previous adventure).. "

So they argue it out. She gets mad and looks to Ganex for support. He says "I just turn away from her"

She goes as far as saying "That's it. I am quitting and returning back to the Cabal. Ganex, your'e either with me or with ..them."

It was big drama. Ganex just waves goodbye, and Bernard taunts her.

I had her start walking off, furious.

Owyn suddenly changes his mind.

"Wait."

He switches tactics, and starts going over clues from his notes. He explains why going back to the cabal would be a mistake for her, and how the group can help her get revenge on Vincent. How the Cabal is definitely tied up into the mystery somehow. How the Wraith quen could help them, and how much they need her.

He makes some convincing arguments for her to stay. He makes a good diplomacy check. She stops for a second and after Owyn makes a very good point about how he knows Vincent has the key to getting the Elan Cabal's exile condition from Evander reversed.. she agrees to stay.

Ganex interjects with some things and she just glares at him (haha, because he ignored her earlier). "We'll talk about this later.."

(clues in next post)

Ok, so great roleplaying scene. They get on their ship, and everyone starts brainstorming clues they have individually collected over the last 20 sessions or so.

Quote from: Abyssal MawThe players head back to base - the guild hall-- and rest up. Then they get their stuff together and sell off all the crap they had collected over the last few adventures, to re-equip. They need gear- water-breathing potions, new weaponry, new stat-boosting items. Owyn is saving up for an Intelligence-boosting circlet that will help him with spell penetration.

I'm real interested these days in where people spend their actual real-world minutes in a game.  Do you remember how long this section, with the rest and the shopping trip, took to execute in the real world?

Quote from: Abyssal MawShe goes as far as saying "That's it. I am quitting and returning back to the Cabal. Ganex, your'e either with me or with ..them."

It was big drama. Ganex just waves goodbye, and Bernard taunts her.

How'd you feel about their responses?  Were you satisfied with them, as living up to the dramatic standard you'd set with Kismet?  Do you think that, on the whole, they addressed her concerns, or do you think that the whole "Mortals bring us nothing but trouble" thing is likely to simmer and resurface?

They assembled a big list and tried to draw connections. You can play along at home.

* Asrafel is a former angel of Xalene. Fallen.
* Asrafel now, works as a messenger somehow for Zumaloken
* Zumaloken is 'dead', as in a dead god.

* Asrafel has tasked Vincent with killing Queen Emerald in Evander. Nobody knows why.

Decision: "we should introduce ourselves to this Queen Emerald." (good call!)

New discovery:
* Next in line for the Quadrite throne is.. Guinevere Vartagnan! Hey, that's Vork's girlfriend. And now she's with Vincent.

Everyone looked around the table at each other upon discovering this. "I'm not sure what that means, but it doesn't sound good..."

* Asrafel carries a book of secrets that keeps a powerful Marid Padishah trapped on an island. She wears it chained to her waist.

* There is something called the Prophecy of Zumaloken. It has been referred to a couple of times by Asrafel and Vincent.

* The Marid Padishah is visited from time to time by Farwalkers, who want to make sure he stays exiled.

* Vork's (npc) mother is also on the island of the Marid Padishah, where she has been kept as a servant.

* Vork's father has been transformed into a magic sword which the Padishah gave as a gift to Vork. The sword is intelligent but has not yet developed speech.  

* Wraith Queen Joniele (and her wraith horde) are followers of Xalene from ancient times.

* Wraith Queen Joniele is under the effects of a curse that puts her at odds with a ghostly King Ymmane

* The Wraith Queen is somehow allied with the Elan. Why?

They turned to Kismet who has known all along.

New Discovery:
* It dawns on them: If Asrafel was once an angel of Xalene, and Dread Queen Joniele has been a worshipper of Xalene, then she may know something about Asrafel.

New Discovery:
* After being pressed, Kismet eveals: The wraith queen and the Elan share a heritage as energy beings. The Elan Cabal had allied with the Wraith Queen in exchange for help regathering the life essence of their slain leaders from the void-plane. Ganex was kept from learning this by mutual agreement amongst the cabal leaders. (And Ganex had studiously avoided the cabal since he was first level).

* The Elan leaders were slain in Evander after accusations of being tainted by association with undead. This happened in SESSION #1. YEAH! I rule.

* The ghost king Ymmane is a follower of Lieromin
* Ymmane is at odds with Joniele. They both occupy the Tombs of the Starrior Kings (one of my dungeons)

* Ymmane said the curse can be lifted, and Joniele be de-wraithed (and this will allow him to be put to final rest as well). But how? The party never followed up on that. Instead they attacked Queen Joniele, and the battle went badly. It ended when Ganex teleported them all to safety. Since then, the party has been attacked at intervals by wraith assassins.

Decision: "We have to go back and talk with Ymmane." (good call!) We should also try to make peace with Joniele. Possibly by using Kismet as a proxy." (good call!)

Decision: Where is this "Prophecy of Zumaloken? What does it say?"

* Owyn remembers Vincent spent over a month working on scribing down some part of Asrafel's book, while the rest of the groupo were off dealing with the Kurghites. This was back in the old base- the abandoned temple of Mizrah dungeon that they had seized from gnolls. "So maybe we should go toss that place one last time?" Agreements all around.  

* The temple of Zumaloken is under the sea.
* The temple was once on dry land, and the worshippers remained there in secret, until it was destroyed by a flood.
* The cursed priests became the Drowned.
* The Drowned now work for Vincent.  

* They have scanned the silt dome under which the temple of Zumaloken ruins lie--  and they have a crude map.
* There is a gigantic stone or coral structure down there that looks like a hand. This "hand" is the size of a small building.

Quote from: TonyLBI'm real interested these days in where people spend their actual real-world minutes in a game.  Do you remember how long this section, with the rest and the shopping trip, took to execute in the real world?

Not quite an hour! It was a revolving argument that started with Owyn, and had Bernard taunting. Ganex tried to interject a few times but eventually he decides to 'dump her.' During this time, Bernard's player and Ganex's player were also doing some player-admin stuff, trying to heal and figure out what they had left as far as spells and resources. So Owyn really lead this scene.  

QuoteHow'd you feel about their responses?  Were you satisfied with them, as living up to the dramatic standard you'd set with Kismet?  Do you think that, on the whole, they addressed her concerns, or do you think that the whole "Mortals bring us nothing but trouble" thing is likely to simmer and resurface?

It will resurface. It's been there all along, actually. Ganex (as a player) doesn't play the 'resenting gross mortals' bit at all,  but he's also played himself as "very different from the rest of the Elan Cabal. an outsider amongst outsiders"
He recently dueled it out with another Elan over this exact issue in the Dream plane.

Bernard is played by a very comical player, so I don't expect him to add more than his usual taunty stuff, which is played for laughs. So when Kismet disgustedly snaps "Get away from me, you filthy cretin" he responds with "I lick her." (You know, because he's a goblin now).
Or one time Ganex bought her a piece of jewelry when we ran our Christmas adventure -- and he said "I hope it was a muzzle".

She also picks on Vork, who is very mild-mannered. So when Vork had submitted to the Dominate Person spell last session, she figured this out through brain scanning him. (She's a telepath).  She interpreted Vork submitting to the spell as "He betrayed us. Ganex, we should kill him now...". Ganex refused. Then she lied to Vork later and said "Ganex suggested that we kill you, but I stopped him.." There was one scene where they were both surveilling an enemy using Vork's spyglass, and as he reported what he was seeing, she walked up and rudely snatched the spyglass out of his hands to look herself. Then she said something accusatory to him and he snatched the spyglass right back. That was a funny scene.

As for drama, it's all good. I'm not a theater director, so I dont exactly hold anyone to a standard. But this one scene where she's all fussing over the badly wounded Ganex and starts snapping at the rest of the adventurers was fairly intense. Because- up to this point-- Owyn has mostly ignored her bitchiness, and then finally really got into it with her. Owyn (as a character) is the defacto leader, and tries to stay above the petty squabbles which I throw in from time to time. Heh.

But this confrontation worked out well.

Ok, there's still more.

Once back up in the Intrepid (their airship/submersible), they zoom off. Theyre going to Evander, but they want to stop off at the Crone Mountains. That's where their old base is, that's where the Sphynx lives. Thats also where the Tomb of the Starrior Kings is located, as well as a few other adventure locations.  

Owyn has been carrying around a stolen feather belonging to the Sphynx Ios. He stole it from the exhibit hall where they got the planar gate two sessions ago. They also stole the Flame of Zunail that attracted so much attention on the Plane of Shadow.  

The idea is- they'd go and visit the Sphynx.  They had met the Sphynx once, answered her deadly riddle, and gotten information about Vork's parents. This was waaay back in session 10 or 12.

Sphynx's are wise and know a lot, and Ios, reportedly knows very much. They were friendly with her last time they saw her. In return for the feather, they hope to get some more answers.

(I'll update more soon).

The short version: They met with the Sphynx, and got a few more clues.

They headed to the old base, searched it, had an encounter with Asrafel.

Pascion made good on his promise to Owyn.

They found a secret copy of the Prophecy of Zumaloken, but were unable to translate it just then.

More details soon!

Okay, so back in the ship. Owyn says "we're going to he where Ios lives", and off they go.

Upon arrival, they disembark and walk around the remote stone pavillion in the mountains. The way to summon the Sphynx before was to solve a riddle, but Owyn wanted to bypass it by just calling out "Ios, I come not to solve riddles but to give a gift.."

That sounded ok to me, so I had her arrive in a blinding flash. She was curious.

"what kind of gift could you possibly bring me, gnome?"

Owyn explains: "We visited the mansion of a famous hunter (OOC: some three sessions ago- this is the guy that loaned them the planar gate to reach the Plane of Shadow) and I noticed this "Feather from a Sphynx of the Crone mountains"..I knew it was yours. So I stole it. Now I return it to you."

Ios reacts favorably and smiles. "Well, this is a surprise."

I decided that that was worth a minor amplification on a bit of info Owyn had sought long ago: the whereabouts of his vagabond grandfather "Grampy". So Ios lets him know: "I'll help you a little. That grandfather of yours? Trapped in ablock of ice, in a rift far to the north. A place called Winterfang."

(thats a reserve dunegon I happen to have ready. I'm just throwing it out there for a future advenbture hook).

Ok, so they exchange pleasantries one last time, and a little chat. When they talk with the Sphynx they have to be careful never to phrase anything as a question, because Ios always demands payment for questions. So this was a fun little roleplaying scene.

This time they head off again to the Temple of Mizrah/old hideout base.

They reach the area, scout around for any monsters or guards left by Vincent. Vincent spent months in the hideout by himself back when he was still a PC. He may have since returned after they had abandoned it. But as it turns out, no, nothing there, really.

(However, the fallen angel Asrafel has been tracking them this entire time. )

They descend into the main chamber of the old temple base and poke around. Owyn goes over to the sacrificial pool where he once helped kill a young Kurghite. This event was the one event of his history that he regretted and he asked that it be retracted in the Forge of Pascion. (This was last adventure.)

They had a roleplaying scene about recapping some of the events, what they regretted. Bernard offered some funny comments about how he would never be with a human woman again, exzcept maybe a really freaky one. Ganex does his martial manhunter thing where he says "I regret nothing... except maybe attacking that Wraith Queen".

One of the other things they remembered was Owyn had actually built a small shrine to Zumaloken at Vincents urging.

Ganex then points out that the sacrifice Owyn particpated in was the one thing that powered the shrine and allowed Asrafel to cross over into this world.

Just then I had Asrafel reveal herself.

"You made your mistakes.. now you will die!"

But then, I had Pascion fullfill the promise. There is a sudden time-stop spell that goes off, and then a planar rip opens, and Pascion's angel, Stonebowl, comes through, followed by Hamuran, a Shedu.

Stonebowl throws a pair of silver manacles and binds Asrafel.

They have arrived, bringing the body of the sacrificed kurghite back from hell, and to take Asrafel back to the prison plane of Carceri.

We switched back to roleplaying:

They all had questions for Stonebowl (Hamuran does not talk, because his voice causes sonic damage. He's somewhat based on the Inhuman known as Black Bolt). Hamuran can nod and smile and do other expressions, though.

The group makes an impassioned plea for Asrafel to leave her book behind. She hates them, so she isn't interested, but Stonebowl was convinced by a high diplomacy check from Ganex. Stonebowl unlocks the book and tosses it to Ganex. Ganex had secretly cast retrieve so that it would be torn out of Asrafel's hands anyhow, but it won't go off until the time stop ends. I thought that was cool that he had a backup plan.

Bernard tries messing with Hamuran a little after hearing that he can't talk. That was funny. Stonebowl empties the chalice containing the soul of the Kurghite warrior that Owyn killed, and it forms a new body, wrapped in a white shroud. The body begins to come to life.

The celestials make their exit, with their new prisoner. As the celestials are leaving, Bernard yells out "Hail Zunail, bitches!" and I had Hamuran roar then. It shakes the walls and deafens the party.

THEN we had another roleplaying scene with the reclaimed soul. Owyn apologizes to him, and the man tells them all "what hell is like." The Kurghite (now named Scianin) vows  to turn his life around, and forgives Owyn.

They offer him food and drink and a trip to Evander, which he accepts.  

Just then Bernard remembers he wanted to toss the place, and makes his search checks. He finally locates the Prophecy of Zumaloken hidden in Vincent's old workbench area.  Unfortunately, it is written in Abyssal, and none of them speak it.

Owyn says "one last thing.." and he goes and locates the makeshift shrine he dedicated to Zumaloken long ago- a bit deeper in the caves of the temple. He fireballs it twice and then hits with a wave of force.

They look at each other and nods all around the table.

"I think we're done here. To Evander?"

And that was the end of the 40th session.

I think it was rather slick that the rebuild quest from earlier took a major player from the board as a sort of bonus like that.  Was that planned by the player? A gimmee from the GM? What effect does pulling Asafael out of play have on Vincents plans?

Interesting stuff. A bit wonky at times, but interesting use of threads and plot devices...

Good stuff Abyssal. I'm really enjoying this stuff. Keep posting

Regards,
David R

Quote from: SpikeI think it was rather slick that the rebuild quest from earlier took a major player from the board as a sort of bonus like that.  Was that planned by the player? A gimmee from the GM? What effect does pulling Asafael out of play have on Vincents plans?

Interesting stuff. A bit wonky at times, but interesting use of threads and plot devices...

I had the idea for that the night after the rebuild quest. I hadn't expected Owyn to ask to retract any of his history, I just thought it would be fun to say "and you can change history". So when I heard that, I just thought, well thats cool. I should reward that.

There were two established things going in:
It was that sacrifice that summoned Asrafel in the first place. The players often talked about that. So maybe he was hoping for that. But I'm not sure he expected it. When they visited the Sphynx, Ganex at one point said something like "One wonders if a man was seen leaving the old temple of Mizrah, some miles from here." (They can't phrase anything as a question for the Sphynx, but this was close). The Sphynx replied "one would think such a thing unlikely".  

Secondly, In a series of earlier adventures they had dealt with the Farwalkers and their mission to "bring Asrafel to justice".
So I figured once the Farwalkers appear with Asrafel at the same time, she would just be removed anyway. She's not that important in the greater scheme. Once I was sure they had figured out the Asrafel/Xalene/Wraith Queen connection, that's all I really needed.

(Some of this) goes back to the difficulty of running a medium-high level campaign. If you want a recurring villian and not be railroady, you have to be very careful about tactics. The party are at the level now where they are almost powerful to foil Asrafel's escape plans: they can almost use Dismissal, Dimensional Anchor, or Plane Shift after her in pursuit when she does her hit and run tactics...

Also: Thanks David R!