TOPIC: R6 2019 (RotRL) Spires of Xin Shalast

Andrek, it took me a while, but I eventually got your joke about New Thassilon happening in ten years! Very good.

Spires of Xin Shalast, Week 4 / Part 1

The headless body of the rimewyrm thrashes, destroying several giant-sized buildings in its final death throes. Dark blue blood pulses from the severed stump, drenching the terrace in inky gore. Thrown from their monstrous mount in the moment of its death, the heroes rise from the rubble, dusting themselves off and reaching for their weapons. The rune giant towers over them, almost as tall as the golden pagoda it defends.

Asha casts Armour on the whole party, surrounding each of her allies in a nimbus of radiant fire. Grogg and Silas charge! The rune giant raises a foot to squish the plucky fighters. Silas spots a glowing rune etched into the sole of the giant's sabaton as it eclipses the sky. Silas cant read ancient Thasillonian, but he knows a conspicuous glowing weak spot when he sees one.

Grogg leaps clear of the rune giant's crushing boot and realises he can now fly. Asha gives him the thumbs up from across the battlefield. A half dozen golden gargoyles perched atop the pagoda take note and swoop to intercept the flying half-orc. Grogg spins through the gargoyles like a cyclone of steel and dizzily observes a second rune on the giant's helm. He smashes it! There is a blinding flash and the rune giant roars in rage (and is Shaken)!

Forbin takes aim and shoots the foot rune with his rune-forged bow. The giant swings his sword - longer than the Sandpoint cathedral was tall - demolishing another building and wounding Aeleana. Karack notices a third rune on the back of the giant's hand. He runs up the length of the giant's sword and drives his spear through the giant's palm! the rune giant reels away! Karack backflips, landing on the hilt of the giant's sword, still embedded in the debris of the collapsed building.

The heroes cannot see the final rune! The giant roars and stomps around like a bear with a sore head. Eventually, Forbin spots the fourth rune in the small of the giant's back. But how to reach it?! Asha casts Smite (with 6 points of AP!!) on Silas' trademark pickaxe and the delusional dwarven miner starts to climb. Karack sees his chance! Leaping from his vantage point atop the giant's sword, he lands on the pickaxe handle (crushing Silas' fingers beneath his scaly toes) and springs up towards the final rune. The tip of his runeforged, giant-killing spear barely scratches the edge of the rune - but it is enough! The ancient Thasillonian spells animating the rune giant fail with the destruction of the four runes and the final guardian falls, slumped over its own sword.

Spires of Xin Shalast, Week 4 / Part 2

The golden portal into Karzoug's Spire of Avarice is unlocked at the touch of the Sideheron. The heroes enter a cavernous chamber, lined with golden pillars shaped in the likeness of muscular giants. Runelord Karzoug, a wizened old man with multicolored gemstones embedded in his wrinkly brow is perched upon his throne. He starts to villainously monologue how pitiful they are, etc... The heroes wait for him to finish. He doesn't finish, he just keeps going. The party get bored of waiting and attack! Turns out it is only an illusion, sent to taunt and disparage them as they ascend the pagoda.

The heroes head to the first floor and face off against golden statues in their own image! Karzoug hasn't had time to add Silas or the Faresight twins to his gallery, but some old faces are represented. Aeleana approaches Gold Karack and gets stabbed for her trouble.

"First strike! It has First Strike!" she cries.

"Oh yes, I went to great trouble making these statues as lifelike as possible." cackles the illusory runelord.

Karack doesn't want to know what Gold Asha can do so he takes her out first. Gold Snot stupidly impales himself on the lizardman's spear.

"Maybe too lifelike," Karzoug concedes.

Gold Grogg attacks real Grogg and the two go down in a tangle of limbs, following two consecutive critical failures. Is that life imitating art or art imitating life? Real Grogg recovers first, picks up Gold Groggs golden axe and cuts off his golden head.

"I'm keeping this!" Grogg roars, picking it up. Karzoug does not complain.

Gold Rast breathes a cloud of very poisonous gas over the party! Aeleana gets a lungful of the noxious fumes and starts dying. Forbin and Silas stagger out of the cloud, straight into the line of fire of Gold Ben Kotek's golden arrows! Gold Andor Drake enters the fray. Silas buries his pickaxe in his golden face!

"Enough with the gold already!" Asha cries, "You're the Runelord of Greed, we get it!"

The heroes overcome their golden counterparts and proceed to the second level. The floor is marked by a 6x6 grid of different coloured tiles.

"Oh great, it's a puzzle room," the party groan in unison.

Yes it is! Aeleana spots a silk pouch sitting on a stone pedestal and reaches in to find 5 random gemstones; two amethysts, two opals and a piece of amber. The party quickly deduce the different coloured gems correspond to the different coloured tiles. By only touching two purple tiles, two orange tiles and one yellow tile, Aeleana is able to traverse the room.

"That was easy!" she says.

"Oh, was it?" illusory Karzoug grumbles, before deactivating 25% of the tiles.

The rest of the heroes draw their own gems and manage to cross the room, although it takes Grogg multiple attempts (and multiple healing potions). The party proceed to level three. One wall of the room is dotted with circular depressions creating a 7x7 grid.

"Two puzzle rooms in a row?!" the party grumble, close to mutiny.

Karzoug casts a half dozen gems onto the ground, they immediately grow into hulking crystal elementals. Half are made of blood red ruby, the other half of pale amber.

"Now you must face me, Karzoug, in a battle of wits!" the runelord crows, "In ancient Thasillon, we call this game Syndeste Tessera! You must align four coloured discs in a row to win!"

"That's Connect 4!" the party protest, "Are you really going to make us play a childrens game?!"

"Yes! Shut up!!" Karzoug howls. He waves his hand and one of the amber golems shatters, leaving a yellow disc spinning on the floor.

The Runelord uses Telekinesis to place the yellow disc into the bottom-centre (and arguably best) position on the game board. The heroes focus on destroying the ruby golems to generate their playing pieces. It is a close match, but even their combined intellect cannot overcome Karzoug's genius! The Runelord cackles as he completes a diagonal line of four amber discs! Bwahahaha!!!

As punishment for losing, Karzoug hits the entire party with chain lightning, inflicting a single, unsoakable wound that they will carry forward into the final confrontation!

TBC

Spires of Xin Shalast - The Finale

Wearied and wounded, the heroes reach the pinnacle of Karzoug’s golden spire. It’s been a long road, but the end is finally in sight. A portal blinks opens between two pillars, inviting the party to enter the Runelord’s private demiplain; the Eye of Avarice. Stepping between worlds, the heroes emerge on a wide, circular platform overlooking a lake of molten gold. Poisonous fumes rise from the boiling metal, making the heroes’ heads spin. Wide stairs, warded by fire giants, lead up to the Runelord’s throne, where Karzoug himself sits, a flaming ranseur lain across his lap.

(From the very beginning of the session, this was one epic, drawn-out battle. Neither Karzoug or the heroes had anything to say to one another, so they just went straight into combat rounds.)

Two fire giants lumber down the steps, approaching warily behind enormous shields that glow white hot with heat from the giant’s fiery aura. Lava golems appear on the balconies overlooking the platform and vomit streams of molten rock over the heroes!

Several different coloured gemstones appear, floating around the Runelord’s head. Each gem performs a different function; rubies explode (Blast), opals intercept attacks directed at Karzoug, the amber stones create barriers to block off certain areas of the battlefield, emeralds heal wounds, sapphires create flashes of blinding light and amethysts drain Power Points.

A wall of amber appears, separating Karack and Grogg from the rest of the party. A blue crystal appears on the other side, Asha, Aeleana and Silas are all blinded. Asha recovers quickly and vaults over the barrier, Silas swings his pickaxe to break through the wall of amber. Grogg and Karack take the fire giants apart, while the Faresight twins focus on picking off the golems. Asha stumbles around helplessly, unable to shake the blind effect for about five consecutive rounds.

Seeing that the party are making short work of his minions, Karzoug joins the fray. Robes billowing around him, the Runelord rises over the battlefield and rains devastation down upon the heroes! Silas and the Faresight twins go down! Grogg is sad because he cannot reach the Runelord without a ranged weapon, then he remembers the golden bust of his own handsome face that he picked up earlier.

“Heads up!” Grogg yells, bouncing the golden bonce off Karzoug’s skull.

This does little to improve the Runelord’s disposition. Grogg has made a powerful Enemy (as per the Adventure Card of the same name).

Finally regaining her vision, Asha casts Fly on both Karack and Grogg, enabling them to bring their runeforged weapons to bear. They both have the First Strike edge and can destroy Karzoug’s tricky crystals faster than he can manifest them. They begin whittling away the Runelord’s health in earnest, now that he doesn't have any more floating emeralds to heal his wounds.

(Once Karack and Grogg gained the ability to fly, Karzoug was done. He couldn’t hit their Parry and moving out of combat with them would have triggered all manner of counter strikes. In retrospect, I should have used Timestop/Entangle to stop them attacking and then moved away, or just used the Defend action – although I doubt that would have helped with the numbers they were rolling on their Fighting die).

Asha stumbles over to heal her fallen comrades. Aeleana and Forbin stagger to their feet, but not even the light of Sarenrae can guide Silas’ soul back to his broken body, he has already bled out and died from his grievous injures.

“You insolent worms!” Karzoug screeched, blood spraying from a deep gash across his chest.

“THIS!” Grogg bellowed.

“You can kill me, but you can’t kill my dream of a New Thasillon!”

“IS!!”

“I am Karzoug! I am – “

“STRENGTH!!!”

Grogg makes a Wild Attack! Monica hacks through Karzoug’s neck and the Runelord’s severed head falls away from his body. Grogg somersaults in the air and bicycle kicks the head into the lake of molten gold!

With Karzoug slain, the Eye of Avarice closes and the heroes are deposited back in Xin Shalast. Sensing that their master has fallen, the surviving giants abandon the city and retreat into the mountains. The yeti and the dryads celebrate their shared victory!

Thank you Mike for running a truly memorable game over the past 7 years.
It was a grand and fitting finale to complete an epic adventure which started with goblins ( go Snot! ) and ended with Grogg (fittingly) decapitating the runelord of greed.

Thank you to my fellow players for making it so much fun.

Oh and Mike... #%*! the cards.

Thank-you everyone for playing! It was my privilege to be your GM for this epic campaign.

Quick reminder that from this Thursday onward, we are merging with the one-shot table; www.bcrps.co.uk/cms/index.php/forum/game...e-shots?limitstart=0