DM Chronicles, Session 13: Crunchy Finale, Part 2

See part 1 here.

Anti-climatic Finale

After the Gnoll lieutenant’s infernal challenge, the party surveyed the room for threats.  The room was two-tiered. On the ground floor was a great minotaur idol sitting behind a boiling cauldron from which noxious fumes emerged.

A mezzanine was accessible by a short set of stairs.  On the mezzanine stood 3 more smoky cauldrons, an altar and a magic circle with two bound captives (1 human, the other Dragonborn) in it.  The PCs had finally found the 2 remaining slaves.

The upper part of the room featured  3 Carnage Demons, one Bar-Igura (an ape-like demon), a large minotaur skeleton and Maldrick Scarmaker, a Gnoll Warlock.  Scarmaker was in the middle of a ritual (Speed of Plot anyone?) that was draining the life-energies of the captives to fuel a re-dedication of the Well of Demons from Baphomet to Yenoghu (demon lord of Gnolls).

Initiative was rolled and the melee characters (Takeo the Warlord, Bjerm the Fighter and Rocco the Rogue) rushed into the room, climbed the stairs and took on the skeleton before it could climb down and block access to the mezzanine.

Fizban the Wizard froze the skeleton and the Bar-igura in place with Icy Ray.  This allowed the party to engage and vanquish the Skeletonbefore they could be overwhelmed with threats.  The remaining demons, being brutes, had difficulty landing blows and I had to use the Carnage Demon’s ability (they get bonuses to hit when allies are adjacent) to be able to damage the PCs.

With the gnoll lieutenant (a demonic scourge) giving the party a hand, they kept the upper hand throughout the fight and they rapidly dispatched the Warlock.   Seeing that it was past 10 PM, I ruled that all remaining demons (2 Carnage Demons and the Bar-igura) disappeared.

The party rushed to save the 2 captives and turned to the now very much alone Gnoll “Ally”.  At this point I realized that I made a mistake by making the demons vanish. I had no narrative leverage to push the Gnoll’s agenda.

Fizban: What was the name of the god you wanted to dedicate this temple to again?

Gnoll: Hmmm, Bahamut?

Naquist (Cleric of Bahamut) groans noisily.

Fizban: I can never tell those guys apart.  He’s the evil one right?

Gnoll: No, no, he’s a good god, I’m good!

Naquist: (cough) Liar (Cough)

Fizban: Tell me again what god you said?

Gnoll: Bahamut I swear!

Whole party picks up weapons.

Gnoll: Fine, I sais Asmodeus, so what?  What do you care now that you got what you came for?

Eric: Fizbans take out his wand again.

And then I did the most childish of DM tricks, an atavism from my early years when I didn’t want to lose control of the plot and get to my objective (which was to end the game as soon as possible).

Phil: Fine, then all 3 demons reappear surrounding your wizard.

Yan: It’s not worth it man, let’s go.

Eric (grumbling): Fine.

I’m not proud of that.  It seems that the later it is in the night, the less likely I am to react favorably to suprises.  Oh well, can’t win them all.

For what it’s worth Eric, I assumed that as soon as the campaigns end credit stopped rolling, your PC was back with a full posse of Eladrin Wizards and they nuked the whole damn place into glass.

And that’s how the campaign ended, on a somewhat anti-climatic note.  A good session nonetheless, just not one that will be remembered much.

Campaign Post-Scriptum

This last mini-campaign, along with the previous one was not focused on story-telling.  The goals were for us to master the new rules while having some fun on Friday nights and in that it was a success.  I went through some pretty hard stuff in my personal life during that period and I didn’t feel up to do much more than follow the script of a published adventure. I’m happy that we forged on and some sessions were pretty cool.

My favorite moments of the last two campaigns were the ones were we did some free-form roleplaying or when the strengths of D&D 4e shined through.

• The First session after Gen Con, where the story flowed out of our pores like storytelling was our natural way or roleplaying.
• The climactic combat against the Dragon and her mistress in Dragora’s Dungeon where the fight degenerated in a poison cushion contest.
• The time the PCs surprised me an found the back entrance to the Duergar’s Stronghold.

I also know that I’ve been too hard on myself lately and that while I strive to be a better DM, I’m preety darn good already.

A note about Thunderspire Labyrinth.  It’s a very good published adventure.  I especially liked the 3rd part with the Well of Demons as it demonstrates several cool things you can do with D&D combat.  Like all published adventures, it needs some lovin’ from the DM but it is very friendly for crafty DMs who want to mold it to thier hands.

What’s next?

My Primal Within campaign is shaping up to be very promising.  My players are getting excited about it and many are considering changing for new PCs.  Emails are firing rapidly and I already sense that they are more inspired in their character concepts and backstories than those of the previous campaigns.

I have a pre-game session planned for this week for my players who are available and want to test their new PCs before we officially start the campaign in 2 weeks

So far, we’re I’ve got:

Yan: Deva Avenger, who’s been a champion of the City Within the Dungeon since it was founded many centuries ago.  He always gets reincarnated into a new hero whenever he dies.

Franky: A Dwarven Shaman who was called by the world’s spirits to go deep underground and help cure it from the spreading cancers that are both the Dungeon and the City.

Math: A Halfing Sorcerer of Chaos.  No backstory yet, but from what I gathered from the emails between my players, Math’s planning something.

Eric: He’ll either stick with his Eladrin Wizard or make a Goliath Warden. I think he’ll enjoy playing a defender.

Michel: His heart swings between pursuing to explore his Warlord or make an Invoker. We’ll see what he chooses.

Stef: He’s got too much fun with Rocco the Halfing rogue and he wants to see him reach his Paragon level.  I’m curious to see how he’ll explain Rocco’s foray into the depths of the Underdark.

Stay tuned for some posts on my prepping the new campaign.

Thanks for reading!