We started, short one Paladin. That had an impact without his save bonuses. The Monk and the Rogue were also late in arriving, however, turns are so slow at these levels, they arrived before their turn came up. Of note, the Warlock who was once standing next to the Paladin, now was in the middle of the room all alone, stuck in a Web, surrounded by enemies. He was concerned. We did add a Barbarian who rolled high on initiative. But Vampira went first. She tried to cast a spell and Patrina tried to counter it but missed the Int check. She did not know what it was but when she was told her target was for a 9th level spell, Kharn offered up an inspiration and she made that one. It was a 'Time Stop', as if 3 actions a round wasn’t enough. She did cast another one of the Fog Mist spells that temporarily blinded each of us. But more significantly, Esmeralda and Kharn(?) missed the save and took a level of exhaustion which hurts in a skill challenge. She also did a whip attack and pulled Kharn into the center of the room. Not that he wasn’t heading that way anyway.
Patrina went next and elected not to further the ritual, figuring it was someone else’s turn. On the lair action, 6 Spiders descended from the ceiling. They got 3 attacks a round and the bite could poison on a failed save. (Another disadvantage on skill rolls.) We still had one Wight and several Vampira Spawn on the board so it was very crowded. Kharn attempted to fortify the Air round of the ritual. Using his new Eagle Spirit power, he would Athletically fly around the circumference of the seal. However, that gave Vampira and a Spawn an attack of opportunity as he took flight. The damage was not an issue however, she hit with a whip and Kharn was Paralyzed. But it was pointed out that the Spawn attack should have come first. It hit and did a free Grab. So, he was grabbed, not paralyzed but could not further the ritual. Esmerelda cast True Polymorph on Kaladin and turned him into an Adult Copper Dragon, armed with breath weapons and legendary actions. Talk about crowded. On a Legendary action, Vampira absorbed a Spawn and transformed into her true form. A big blob of blood and flesh. And she got to go again, in the same round, since she was a new form. Protest! Denied!
Ambrus bravely charged her, doing some sneak attack damage but it was a drop in the bucket. It did get her attention, for better or worse. On Loki’s turn, no one had moved the ritual along. He was hesitant to do so since he did it last time. It should have been King Q with his Gust of Wind but if he failed, there was only Kaladin left. He was unwilling to take the risk. His plan was to take a page out of Kharn’s book to run around the perimeter (40+40’) Acrobatically after disengaging. That was iffy however Paul pointed out that Loki could now change into CR ¼ beasts at will. So, he changed into a Giant Owl and flew around (60+60) Acrobatically. He made his roll however he ended next to Vampira. She lashed out with an attack, knocked the meager owl hit points out of him and he crashed to the floor in the middle of the enemies and Web. But, a success. King Q fought and Kaladin did a legendary Wing Attack, knocking down friends and foes. And an acid line breath weapon.
The next round, things got more dire. We were okay on hit points (although that changed fast) but the conditions were adding up. As were the number of foes. A Silence Field fell across the room. The lair dropped 6 more Blood Blobs that looked like cherry Jello molds. When Patrina went, she decided to dispense with politeness and augment the Fire seal. Her first thought was to use Fire Bolt and best skill, Arcana, however DS pointed out that the last stage required Arcana and since Brian didn’t want the same skill used twice, he might want to save it. So, she used Calligraphy to enhance the runes with her Fire Bolt fire and succeeded. At this point, we were hopeless outnumbered and it became a matter of keeping Patrina or Esmerelda up until the next round. Ambrus was knocked out as was Loki. Kharn poured a healing potion into Ambrus who did the same to Loki. Loki decided to just dodge and try to keep the number of targets up. King Q tried a Mental Prison against a Jello next to Partina but it could not be charmed and therefore only took damage. And was knocked out for his troubles. Esmeralda and Patrina did those Steel Wind Strikes which, as pseudo AOEs with no friend fire, were the only effective attacks. Esmeralda got a Potion from Loki’s prone body that cured her exhaustion levels.
On to the last round. Patrina was ready but needed to be in the middle of the room. Rather than delay one slot for Kharn to move out of the only friendly square next to the center point, she moved into a square with a Jello. She took 21 points of damage but only had 20 left. Tragedy. But then pulled out a power that allowed her to transfer the damage from one attack to her Manifest Mind which blinked out of existence. She rolled an Arcana powered by generic spell energy and completed the ritual. All the foes were pulled into the center and all the friendlies were gently pushed out. The amber column was reformed without any cracks and we successfully kicked her out of Barovia. Victory!
Brian gave us the choice of storyboarding what happens to our characters from this point or having another session and using the Fiasco rule system to sort of play it out at a concept level. We chose to finish this night. Jon said the Ambrus was going to repopulate the Shadow Elves, one baby at a time. But it was pointed out that Patrina was the only female Elf in this land. New plan. He was going to leave with Esmerelda and try to recruit Elves to move here. Kharn wanted to become the leader of the Vistani. Brian said that Madame Eva was moving on and would give him her blessing. Given their expertise in moving about the area, they’d become the guides for people moving into this realm now that the borders were open. And raise his daughter. Patrina wanted to go with Ambrus and Esmerelda but first, she had an idea. Since Stradanya was once her friend and once a Paladin who was led astray by dark powers, she’d use a Limited Wish to bring her back. As a non-vampire. Kharn was okay with that and would keep an eye on her. It was pointed out that there was no Limited Wish in 5.0 so she’d have to wait until 17th to do it. So, it’ll be a while.
Brian asked if King Q would be moving into Castle Ravenloft. Even though some of it was good, lots of it was evil. Dave said he’d build a new keep nearby, using the old for parts. When asked if he would be a benevolent ruler, he said that the people of Barovia had been through enough and there was no point in kicking them when they were down. And then started talking about killing people he felt needed killing. So, benevolence TBD. Loki planned to move in with the Wine Wizards and use their network of spies to clear the land of all the monsters that were still roaming about despite the change in rulership. I mean he couldn’t go back to eating crawfish by a stream. And perhaps he could find the compound where he was made since it was in the area. Brian said that despite his rejection of the Arch Druidship, the Ladies 3 would still be in touch when something needed to be done. Kaladin’s first plan was to talk Ezra into taking over the Silver Dragon Paladin order. It just didn’t fit for a Monk. And commence wandering again. His history was basically a guy who ran away from home to see and do and go. Thus far, he’s spent 4 weeks in this bleak realm. Unfortunately, Andy could not attend so Ezra’s plans are unknown although leader of the Silver Knights sounded reasonable enough. He might want to stick around and keep an eye on things.
A campaign successfully concluded. Congrats to all. It’s not easy to do. Many thanks were passed out to Brian for running for 3 years and by my count, 67 games. Before jumping into another long campaign using Pathfinder 2.0, he said he’d run a couple of one-shot games to give himself time to reset and gird himself for another round of character creation.
