The Chronicles of a DM: Part X

The group are in the spire, and head upwards towards their final destiny at the top, and confrontation with great evil! Aside from in-party glaring, they also intend to fight the big boss.

They pass by the Vrock nest (you don't disturb them, they don't disturb you), past the room with the singer singing something that can be barely heard and cuts off if they enter the hall (it's a ghost bard, run!!!), past the empty chamber, through the library where they find some rituals (now held by the next DM, see below), and up to the Hall of Inquisition...

Torture racks, a fire pit, and iron maidens! Woo! There are brawlers and warriors and some wagons! [Once again Evard's Tentacles neutralises most of the fight. There are a number of problems, such as having a lot of melee fighters, having low defenses and basically not being able to do anything but making a saving throw but being unable to do anything until the next round, by which time they are caught again! The head of the hall remains free, but is unable to hit anyone due to really bad rolling, sigh. And the paladin kills creatures by Bull Rushing them, of all things. Really was a pathetic battle. Even the main bad guy ran away!] No loot, they are disappointed. (Considering they just got the paladin to make them stuff, and the loot they have been getting, they have no leg to stand on upon which to complain. Won't stop them though.)

Up the ladder they go, until they get to the top of the spire, open to the sky. They can see the dark soul cloud overhead, forming a soul vortex that touches the top of the spire. Dragon wraiths drop soul sparks into it, and they pass down and into Urishtar the huge draonic wraith below. Alrick, the evil warlord, asks how he can get in on this action, but eventually they are enjoined in battle. [Ha! Now this was a proper fight. Urishtar moved all over the place, tentacles was no use, and neither were other area effects. Still had plenty of other broken powers (they stay without needing to even sustain them, let alone they still managing to do many attacks and sustain...). The big changer was that the soul sparks could go into anyone and free action point! However, it was all for naught as Urishtar got damaged but no-one else did. Bah!]

Just as well the soul vortex disapated on its own, or it would have new users (Unaligned my ass). They find tons of loot and some shadow dragon eggs, and, plot conveniently, a soul ring with the soul they came for which wasn't destroyed unlike every other soul... Lots of money and xp all round, and they eventually rest, the linear fight sequence done...

[And so, ten sessions later, I end my run as DM. Oh dear gods, taht was not the best adventure to run. We switch now to a Dragonlance campaign, run by someone else, with the occasional dips back into this world when that GM isn't available. Back to being a player...]

[END]