[3.5] An Eberron-flavored Red Hand of Doom Campaign Journal

[Dusk Eclipse]

I bow before you AslanCross, your journal has given me excellent pointers on how to run the RHoD and also saved me from dying of bore (I was grounded yesterday) I read it all in one sitting and again I am impressed.

[Myshlaevsky]

I'll take a guess, then:

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Glabrezu are also very bad.

[Fcannon]

Great update. I grinned at the cleverness of covering the turret with a tent, but I was cracking up when they thought to write Out of Order on it

[Greenish]

(I was grounded yesterday)

Can't be too careful with lightning.

I'll take a guess, then:

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<picture>
Glabrezu are also very bad.

Is that PF art I see there?

[Myshlaevsky]

Can't be too careful with lightning.
Is that PF art I see there?

I'm afraid it is. I was lazy enough to just grab it off of google images and I hate the picture in the manual.

Great update. I grinned at the cleverness of covering the turret with a tent, but I was cracking up when they thought to write Out of Order on it

I think you mean (*ahem*, best fiendish voice...): "This pathetic machine is USELESS!"

[AslanCross]

I'll take a guess, then:

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Glabrezu are also very bad.

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Ding ding ding! It is indeed a glabrezu.

[Schylerwalker]

As usual, enjoying the journal immensely, and hoping we get an update soon! The duel with the naztharune was extremely intense.

[AslanCross]

Day 51. 5th Rhaan 998 YK

So...Holden's player is indisposed this time. Due to inclement weather, Nox's regular player couldn't make it. Lyka's player was supposed to make it, but she'd just had her wisdom teeth taken out and wasn't allowed by her parents. Oh well.

They kept in touch through Skype, but for the most part, Linny's player handled Holden and Lyka. One of the backup players showed up, so he handled Nox instead. Kikkeni was handled by her regular player.

Deadly Memories

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We began where we left off. The PCs had just avenged Holden's wife by slaying the rakshasa assassin Afrasiyab, and had decided to leave the Fane to recover their daily abilities.

They decide to finally try to disable the spell turret, since they figured that someone would remove the covering while they were asleep. They didn't want the trap to slow them down again when they made their way back in.

Kikkeni pulls off a patch from her [i]robe of useful items[/u]---a 24-foot ladder--and has Nox use this to climb up to the trap. As soon as he pulls off the tent, though, he fails his disable device check. The turret's red dragon head blasts the assassin with phantasmal killer. He fails both saves and falls to the floor 20 feet below, quite dead.

Hearing the clatter of the falling ladder and the thump of Nox's falling body, Linny runs to his aid and immediately casts revivify on him. I warn the players that any deaths from now on are seriously difficult to remedy, and that if they get TPKed, it is a game over.

Sobered by the thought of their mortality, the players decide that they've had enough of the Fane for now and that further risking their lives to shut down the turret is pointless. They make a break for it, closing the central door behind them.

A Fitful Sleep

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The PCs run across the bridge and climb back up the far side of the canyon, and rest in the hollow of the crashed Lyrandar airship. They nurse Nox back to working order, and get back in the next day.

Day 52
6th Rhaan 998 YK
The Charnel House

The PCs rush back in, and this time give the main hallway a wide berth. They decide to go for the left door, as they haven't opened that yet.

It takes them through a narrow passage with a side storeroom, but after seeing nothing of value in it, they press on and open the door at the other end. When Holden opens the door, a shocking sight greets him.

The room is pitch black. In front of the door is a large wooden mess table, with a thick layer of congealed blood smeared across the top. The constant sound of dripping liquid draws his gaze up, where a grisly sight greets him---a young bronze dragon, only about 15 feet long, hangs unceremoniously from meat hooks attached to the ceiling. Its belly is torn open and its entrails hang out, decaying and filling the room with a nauseating stench. Two other dragons of similar size, also bronze, hang from more chains around the room.

A huge pile of beds and tables--a barricade of some sort--blocks of almost the entire northern end of the chamber. At that moment, the chains above the PCs' heads jangle---something is hiding there. A chain-shrouded humanoid figure is hanging from the chains.

Linny identifies it as a kyton, a chain devil. While it's not immune to fire like baatezu are, it's instead immune to cold and uses chains as its primary method of attack. Before they're able to start opening fire on it, though, legion devils begin teleporting in around Lyka and begin attacking her, and once the PCs start thinking it the legion devils aren't so bad, whatever it is behind the barricade casts a spell on the area: cloudkill. Of course, the legion devils, being baatezu, are immune to the damage. The toxic gas begins taking its toll on the PCs. The chain devil then begins animating the meat hook chains and attacking Linny, but not before she drops devil blight on one of the legion devils.

Again the significant drawback of the legion devils bites: Holden smashes a single one with Divine Surge and all of them die. However, there's still the chain devil, which is clinging to the chains 20 feet above the PCs, and whatever it is hiding behind the barricade.

Lyka attempts to push the pile of furniture down, but fumbles. Linny dispels the cloudkill, but another casting takes its place. By now the PCs are hacking and coughing.

Nox, unable to do much damage to the chain devil (and not having the requisite anti-regeneration weapons), pulls out a scroll of recitation and buffs the party. Holden tears down part of the barricade, and Linny finally identifies the creature---a mezzoloth. After I'm done enumerating the long list of resistances and immunities, Kikkeni decides to trash the rest of the barrier.

A huge pile of beds and tables falls onto the mezzoloth, but it quickly picks itself up and dispels their buffs. Lyka, Nox and Holden close in on the fiend while the casters move out of the way of the rolling cloud of toxic gas.

Lyka's swings don't deal full damage to the yugoloth due to its DR, but Holden is able to crush it quickly enough. The chain devil is left, and its superior reach has already severely injured Linny, who retreats to just outside of the reach of the dancing chains. It attempts to use its unnerving visage on everyone, but they all make their saves.

Kikkeni decides to end it quickly. She asks Holden to drop Kumbhakarna's Penance, and then throws the maul along with Lyka at the chain devil. Amusingly enough, she crits with the hammer, which melts a large hole in the fiend's side, but misses with the thrown shifter. Lyka manages to land on the rotting dragon corpse.

Nox takes his shot, knocking out the fiend. Lyka picks up Holden's maul and crushes the fiend's head. The kyton breaks apart in a mass of rusty, crumbling chains.

The PCs realize that there are two more doors that lead out of the room. Nox pulls away the bed that's blocking one of them and realizes it opens out into the main corridor. He then decides to open the other door.

The Torture Chamber

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Nox is unable to see inside, so Kikkeni hands him one of the darklights. What he sees inside sends chills down his spine.

Standing in the darkness is a 12-foot tall monstrosity that looks like a horribly distorted skeleton. Its long, distended skull sprouts twisted, antelope-like horns. A pair of shredded wings and a long, bony tail pokes out of the long, leather coat that it wears. In its hands it holds a long glaive that seems to be carved out of bone tipped a saw-toothed blade that emits a foul-smelling gray energy.

"A bone devil," says Linny---"a devil commonly employed as a torturer by devil lords." She also recalls that they possess powerful spell abilities that make them masters of battlefield control.

Instead of attacking them, however, the bone devil beckons.

"Ah, you have arrived. Do come in. You have nothing to fear. I have no intention of hurting you...yet. I was wondering if you could do a favor for me."

Holden shoves his way to the front of the line.

"What do ye want?"

"In the room at the other end of the complex is a nuisance that needs to be dealt with. You will find trapped inside a Khyber dragonshard a demon named Shabririv. I want you to slay it."

The party is silent.

"In exchange I am going to supply you with all the information you need to defeat Azarr Kul's plans."

They look at each other and eye the baatezu warily.

"You might be asking why I don't go and deal with it myself. The damaged dragonshard prison is going to suck me in. I would rather not be trapped in a prison with an enemy of mine for all eternity."

The party excuses themselves and deliberates on what to do. Nox is wary of the plans, but Holden and Lyka agree that stopping the Red Hand cult is the primary goal right now and that if disposing of a demon is going to help them, getting through to the end will be much easier. Kikkeni agrees as well, thinking that going blind into the lower fane is suicidal.

Holden goes up to Terilanyx and asks him what guarantee they have of his word, and the devil offers to draw up a contract signed in blood. Ultimately, Holden says that he has more in common with a lawful devil than a chaotic demon, and they negotiate on terms. Holden wants Terilanyx to avoid attacking them, but Terilanyx stipulates that neither of them is allowed to harm or in any way hinder the other party, and that any hostile actions will automatically void the contract. If the party brings Terilanyx the skull of Shabririv, then he will show them the quickest route through the rest of the Fane and give them detailed information on what awaits them later.

After a last-minute debate, Holden signs the contract.

The Power of Chaos

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As a show of good faith, Terilanyx informs them that Shabririv is a glabrezu--a fiend of about his level in terms of power. He tells them that glabrezu are masters of subversion and corruption, but that they are equally as dangerous in physical and magical combat.

The party arrives at Shabririv's prison. At once the demon senses their presence and asks them if they've considered his offer. Holden bluffs, saying that they've decided to set him free, but the demon merely says that Holden's a very bad liar. Holden and Lyka take their positions beside the dais the shard is on, while Linny, Kikkeni and Nox stand apart close to the doorway.

Holden shatters the prison, and the PCs are surprised to realize just how big Shabririv is. The exploding shard knocks Holden and Lyka off the dais as the others look on.

"You're going to regret this. I shall feast on your innards!"

Lyka immediately pushes her way into the demon's space (as he snugly fits the dais), and jumps over the demon, attempting to cleave him with her sword. Vaanon'gan cleaves into demonic flesh, but the fiend is still more than capable.

Kikkeni picks up the head of the shattered Bahamut statue with her telekinetic thrust and flings it at Shabririv's head. He almost bats it away with his pincer, but Kikkeni is able to spin it just enough to send it crashing home.

Before Holden is able to hit with his own attack, though (his slow speed is once more his downfall), Shabririv sends Kikkeni spiralling into the ceiling with reverse gravity. She immediately activates her catfall power, preventing herself from being smashed into a gory paste on the ceiling.

Linny fires off a sound lance, but fails to penetrate the fiend's metaphysical defenses.

Kikkeni greases the spot underneath Shabririv's feet, sending the demon sprawling.
The two warriors try to attack, but Lyka misses her swing, and before Holden can do anything, Shabririv also blasts them with reverse gravity, then gets back up on his feet.
Unable to hold onto anything, the two warriors fall 70 feet up into the carved stone ceiling. Holden's Boots of Landing help him land gingerly upside-down on the ceiling (albeit still taking some damage), while Lyka gets smashed pretty badly.

Linny posits that if they leave the gravity field, they'd be able to get back into regular gravity. She then begins casting her favorite fiendbuster spell, Light of Venya. Lyka leaps out of the field, tumbling to reduce her falling damage and to avoid Shabririv's AOO, but she fails her last check. The demon plucks her right out of the air with his pincer, and she takes damage from the sudden stop to boot. He then begins to crush the life out of Lyka.

Holden tries to find a way to get down, but due to his weight with the new maul, Kikkeni could no longer afford the PP cost to fling him. Nox finally takes his shot against the still flat-footed fiend, and just before Shabririv snaps Lyka like a twig, Linny vaporizes the fiend's physical form with her Light of Venya. Shabririv's skull falls onto the ground with a heavy thud as the rest crumbles to dust.

Holden and Kikkeni are then dumped unceremoniously to the floor.

After some healing, they drag the fiend's head back to Terilanyx.

To the Next Stage

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After the baatezu torturer sees proof of his tanar'ri rival's demise, Terilanyx fulfills his end of the bargain.

He explains that one of the cells in his lair has a secret passage that leads straight to the lower Fane. The first area they will arrive in is the great hall that Azarr Kul holds worship ceremonies in honor of Tiamat. He notes that Azarr Kul's pet abyssal drake is kept here, along with its mezzoloth handlers.

A secret door from there leads on into the great cavern that was once the home of the ancient bronze dragon that once guarded this Fane. Its children, too young to know the original purpose of the complex, were easily slain by the Red Hand cultists and their dragons as they invaded. Now the cavern is home to the greatest of Azarr Kul's dragonspawn.

Even deeper in is the Outer Sanctum, heavily guarded and populated by cultists who are supporting Azarr Kul's main ritual. A secret door here would lead to Azarr Kul's private quarters and his treasury.

The PCs will find Azarr Kul and his planar orrery in the inner sanctum.

The fiend asks the PCs if they have any more questions, and simply vanishes, telling them it was a pleasure doing business with them.

The Great Temple of Tiamat
The PCs take the secret passageway and enter the cavernous temple. Before they're able to make any preparations, they notice that everything was indeed as Terilanyx had said: two mezzoloths were standing in the alcoves at the far end of the room, and in the largest alcove, behind the altar, was an enormous, black scaled wyvern with fiery red eyes. The abyssal drake stirs and takes to the air.

Four heavyset, eyeless doglike creatures encased in armor---canoloths---lunge strait for the PCs.

Almost immediately one of the mezzoloths drops a cloudkill on the PCs, and the canoloths make a beeline for them. Although the canoloths have blindsight, the foul-smelling cloudkill vapors prevent them from fighting at their full ability. The drake flies overhead and blasts everyone with its unholy fire breath, but Kikkeni manages to activate her Intellect Fortress and helps the party avoid being crisped. The blast, however, incinerates one of the canoloths.

The PCs try to get out of the cloudkill as fast as they can, while the Canoloths pursue. The other mezzoloth uses its produce flame ability to continuously bombard the PCs with thrown flaming projectiles.

Kikkeni, wanting to avoid any more trouble from the drake, attempts something: she extends the full force of her psionic power and fires off a psychic crush on the abyssal drake---which fails its save. The massive beast crumples onto the wooden pews, splintering them as it falls. Heartened by the drake's demise, the rest of the party continues to fight the Canoloths.

The yugoloth attack dogs aren't able to do much against the PCs, though Lyka and Linny do get snagged by their adhesive tongues. Nobody fails the paralysis saves, however.

Kikkeni and Nox take cover in the double doorway; the sniper taunts one of the mezzoloths into attacking him. The fiend teleports right behind the two of them and begins lunging at Nox with its trident. Nox draws a bane dagger from his gauntlet of infinite blades and feints; the mezzoloth falls for it, and the rogue shanks the fiend.

Lyka and Holden take down the last of the canoloths as Kikkeni attempts to distance herself from the mezzoloth that just teleported behind them. The other mezzoloth, still on the alcove, continues to bombard the PCs with its thrown projectiles. Lyka and Nox decide to take down the injured mezzoloth quickly, while Kikkeni throws Holden at the flame-producing mezzoloth. As the dwarf sails through the air, though, he notices that very close to the fiend's alcove is a secret door hidden in the wall.

Nox sneaks his mezzoloth, killing it, and Kikkeni throws Lyka at the last one. The two Silver Flamers take down the last fiend.

Thoughts

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-I really enjoyed the Shabririv encounter, as short as it was. I found it a bit amusing how easy it was to frustrate the tanks by simply putting them on the ceiling (or having the monsters on the ceiling).
-I had a feeling they'd just kill both Shabririv and Terilanyx, but apparently they decided to let him off without any real difficulty. I'd boosted Terilanyx with a few swordsage levels, so he was actually the same CR as Shabririv, but I guess they found Shabririv's size a lot more intimidating.
-The players now really, really hate Cloudkill. I'm amazed at how effective it is, considering nobody ever failed their saves against it.
-I had expected the Abyssal Drake to die relatively quickly, but not THAT quickly.

Sorry for the late post; I've transferred to a new job and I'm still in the process of adjusting. We had our final session yesterday; expect the last update within a few hours.

[Greenish]

Holy smelly grey energy, batman!

[Eldariel]

Cloudkill: Ignoring successful saves since 2000! Yeah, it's a great spell for tough guys; always does something (except against Druids) without actually insta-gibbing folk.

Quite the combat marathon, as is to be expected with the Fane. What exactly did they do with the Turret in the end? Did they just ignore it or something?

[AslanCross]

Eldariel> They just went around it using Terilanyx's secret passage.

Anyway, I'm sorry if this post is a bit of a cliffhanger. Leaving for church in a bit, so here's the first half of the entry for the final session.


Everyone is able to make it this time, and they're mostly able to bargain with their parents to let them stay until about 5:30 pm. The only exception is Lyka's player, who still had to leave early as she was simply hitching a ride. No matter; we're all here and this is the final session, and I sure hope you enjoy it as we did.

The Fury of the Storm

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"After this, I'm gonna need a vacation," Holden grumbles.

In the temple of Tiamat, the party debates about whether they should rest or not. For some reason they forget exactly what Terilanyx says about the rest of the dungeon, despite Linny's player taking down notes. Thanks to JRPGs, he assumes that the big double doors that lead out of the worship chamber lead to "the boss battle." ~_~

Thus, they check the secret door. To their surprise, it opens into inky darkness. The only sound is the vague whistling of wind from somewhere. Kikkeni brings out her darklight and reveals that they had just entered a vast, vaulted cavern even larger than the temple chamber---it soars to over 175 feet high, but the interior is uneven: half way across the chamber from them is a vast cliff that goes up at least 150 feet, and a rickety scaffolding supports what looks like a hastily-built staircase.

Uneasy about exploring the rest of the cavern, Holden mentions they should rest first. Kikkeni wants to check the other door.

Wanting to scout before they retreat, Nox drinks his potion of invisibility, but since going up will take over a minute, he asks for a Psionic Fly from Kikkeni's staff instead. He heads up on his own. As he goes up, he notices that an enormous network of webbing is anchored to the scaffolding and is on level with the top of the cliff. He picks out a campfire from his Survival Pouch once more and sets fire to the web, which begins burning rapidly. Soon after, he hears a piercing, chittering shriek----and the sound of a very long, large sword being drawn.

"I TOLD YOU WE SHOULD'VE GONE TO SLEEP FIRST!" whispers Holden.
"Dibs on the sword," Lyka replies.

However, Holden tells Lyka that they have to go up, but she refuses. "Sir, I believe this qualifies as sending a subordinate to her death! When we get back to Thrane, I am so filing a complaint!"

As the web barrier burns away, Nox spots the monsters above: a monstrous, black spider the size of a full-grown bull, with a distorted, draconic head and distinctive forward-curving horns: a blackspawn gloomweaver. The other creature worries everyone: a 20-foot tall, musclebound humanoid figure wielding a gigantic bastard sword that crackles with electricity.

"It's a bluespawn godslayer," says Linny.

Holden and Lyka fly up slowly, halfway up between Nox and the ground.

Nox tells the others to stay low while he tries to snipe the godslayer. He's confident that the monsters can't reach far enough to attack him, so he goes up alone and takes the shot.

He scores a solid hit on the godslayer, but the brute simply yanks out the bolt in its chest and---horror of horrors---runs toward him and jumps a solid FORTY FEET across empty space towards Nox. It makes a touch attack, grabbing him right out of the air, and they fall to the floor 150 feet below.

Nox lands on the cave floor with a sickening crunch, at 1 HP. The godslayer, damaged by the fall, sets its sights on Linny and Kikkeni, who are isolated on the cave floor.

Holden and Lyka look at each other, wondering why this is even happening, as the party had agreed that they didn't want to go up. Lyka sees the blade, however, and says "Dibs on the blade!" once more.
"But ye can't even wield it!"
"It will look good on my roof."

Linny fires off a Sound Lance, but rolls rather poorly and the beast saves against it. Kikkeni, attempting to end the encounter quickly, manifests Death Urge, but the godslayer shrugs it off.

The Gloomweaver sprints across the cliff shelf and lands 10 feet away from Linny and Kikkeni.

Holden and Lyka charge the godslayer, but only Holden is able to deal any significant damage to the furious creature.

Nox, still on the ground, realizes that any movements he make will be met with a massive, electrically-charged sword to the face, so he delays his turn.

The godslayer angrily roars, drops its shield, and swings its sword in an enormous arc across Holden and Lyka, dealing enormous damage to both of them. Lyka decides it's time to end this, and cuts it in half with Soaring Raptor Strike.

The Gloomweaver charges and gores Linny with its horns, but the two tanks come in and take it down quickly.

The party decides they've had enough for the day, and make a break for their resting place outside the Fane.

Lyka and Nox finally level up to 12. Lyka takes her last level in Warblade, picks Stormguard Warrior as her Lv 12 feat and takes the maneuver Rabid Bear Strike, while Nox takes one level of Swordsage.

Day 53. 7th Rhaan 998 YK.

The Avatar of Rage

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It's dangerously close to the secret time limit that I've set (Day 55), but the PCs (and the players) are determined to finish this once and for all--they've gotten this far.

They enter the Fane a third time and find that it is eerily empty. The remaining clerics and personnel have all boarded themselves up within the Outer Sanctum, and are all functioning off Lesser Restoration spells to avoid the effects of fatigue. The ritual must be completed.

The PCs reach the large cavern without any resistance, and begin climbing up. Nox goes up the stairs first, and sees the bright light spilling out of the carved hallway at the upper end of the cavern. The party manages to sneak close to the entrance of the Outer Sanctum without being heard---even Holden manages to roll high. The two frontliners take up positions on either side of the Sanctum, while Linny, Nox and Kikkeni position themselves as far as they could from the entrance of the hallway, outside the darkness.

The light clearly illuminates seven figures inside: in a circular room stand five hobgoblin clerics, wearing the relatively simple outfits that the low-level clerics the party had been fighting since the start wore. They have their hands outstretched upwards, and the Tiamat heads in the dais they stand on spew multicolored energy into the ceiling above. Two larger hobgoblins stand closer to the hallway, one in ornate robes and a breastplate, the other in full plate wielding a greatsword.

Nox decides to open up with the trinket he pulled off Kharn's corpse: The Dhakaani Siege diadem. An enormous fireball lights up the interior of the cul-de-sac at the end of the hallway, and the five clerics die instantly.

Seemingly unaffected, the figure in robes turns around, and its form changes: it grows to at least 12 feet tall, its burly arms swelling with muscle. Its head morphs into the black-furred, tiger-like head of a Naityan rakshasa, but instead of orange stripes it has twisted, bronze-colored stripes fashioned like dragonmarks. Six horns jut out of its head and jaws, and a pair of bronze-colored wings extends from its back. In its hands, it holds an enormous chain of black metal that looks like it could be used to tether an elephant.

Linny recalls that as Tiamat is a demon overlord, she is served by her own cadre of rakshasa agents. Particularly skilled and successful rakshasa are given the chance to undergo a ritual that bestows upon them the power of dragons. This one is probably the ringleader of the rakshasa cell.

"I've been waiting. It's time for you to die."

Kikkeni blasts the greatsword-wielding crusader and the rakshasa with a fiery energy line, badly scorching the already injured crusader. However, the rakshasa is completely unscathed by this as well. Nox takes a shot against the still flat-footed crusader, severely injuring him, but the crusader breaks the bolt in his chest and gets back up, declaring that he would serve Indravan until his death.

Linny casts Sound Lance on the crusader, killing him.

Nox uses a wand of sniper's shot and readies to snipe the rakshasa, while Kikkeni blasts it one more time, again to no effect. Lyka readies to attack anything that gets into her range, while Holden decides to charge in.

The rakshasa swings at him with his spiked chain, bashing Holden as he comes in, but the crusader isn't stopped. He rolls an impressive 35 on his attack roll, and he thinks his blow strikes home, but the rakshasa simply snaps his chain tight and stops Holden's maul dead cold.

At this point the party is shocked that such a high roll didn't make the target's AC.

The rakshasa holds up a fist, and a ring on his finger glows with fell power. A pair of large greatswords--each over 9 feet long--unsheathe themselves from the scabbards on the rakshasa's back.

"I am Indravan-Yagna, the avatar of rage!"

The two greatswords burst into flames.

Indravan sprints for the cavern, and while Holden swings at him thanks to Thicket of Blades, he misses badly. Just as Indravan is about to pass Lyka, who is still hidden at the lip of the hallway, the rakshasa lord vanishes in a cloud of shadowy motes---and reappears right in front of Nox, Linny and Kikkeni, practically pinning them against the cavern wall.

Imagine looking up at a 12-foot tall, 800-pound, musclebound tiger-dragon-fiend wielding a spiked chain made of the hardest metal in existence, with two flaming bits of metal taller than you hovering around him.

The players realize just then that this encounter isn't going to be easy.

[ka_bna]

Anyway, I'm sorry if this post is a bit of a cliffhanger. [...] No matter; we're all here and this is the final session, and I sure hope you enjoy it as we did.

If?! Well, it is, and I hope to enjoy it just a little more when I read the conclusion!

[Myshlaevsky]

Been looking forward to this update. Looking forward to the final conclusion even more!

[Eldariel]

Gonna be an epic fight. Though he's severely outnumbered.

[Zephyros]

Excellent job really... (also I'd like to see Indravan's stat-block he seems inpired :P )

[Barbarian MD]

Come on, man! We're on the edge of our seats!

[AslanCross]

The Avatar of Rage, continued

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Nox tumbles between the rakshasa lord's feet and runs the hell away, going as far into the sanctum hallway as he can--provoking AOOs from such a big target is just insane.

Despite the terror she faces, Lyka charges at Indravan, attempting to distract him long enough for the others to get away. She gets whacked by the rakshasa's chain, and simply bounces off his leg as she swings Vaanon'Gan. Kikkeni senses the opening and teleports herself and Linny onto the dais in the sanctum, leaving Lyka to face the fiend alone. Linny fires of a Dispel Magic at Indravan, disenchanting the swords, which pierce the ground with a solid "thunk."

"It's just you and me, little puppy," growls Indravan. "And I can use this more than once."
His ring glows oncemore, and the blades reanimate.
"I'm more of a kitten than a puppy," manages Lyka before the Grand Talon of Tiamat throttles her with his chain. Lyka gets smacked by the first hit. The second hit catches her off balance, throwing her to the ground, and Indravan's follow-up injures her severely.

Then come the greatswords. Lyka is able to roll out of the way for one, but the other sears a horrible wound into her flesh. On the ground and in great pain, Lyka thinks fast, and so do the other party members as they look on the shifter's valiant but foolhardy attempt to save the softies.

Holden decides to stand his ground, and Lyka yells at him, calling him a coward for earlier sending her to her death and now not coming to her rescue when she needs it. He says "I'm being tactical!" as the others roll their eyes and consolidate their new battle line.

Kikkeni pulls in Lyka with Telekinetic Thrust (I know it's not necessarily a valid use for Telekinetic Thrust, an attack power, but I let her do it anyway), who sails up past Holden and into the rear where Linny can heal her. Linny brings her back up to decent HP.

Just when they thought they had the advantage of position, Indravan changes form---his face morphs to that of a large, snarling hound with a fiery aura--and snaps his wings mightily, closing the distance between him and the party in one leap. He flies over Holden's head, and although Holden tries to take a swipe, it just doesn't do anything.

Indravan lands in the center of the party's line, separating the casters from the frontliners. Much swearing erupts once more around the table.
Nox pores over his scrolls quickly and pulls out the only thing he can use effectively--Web.

The sticky gunk immediately starts burning as it makes contact with Indravan's greatswords, and Indravan succeeds on his reflex (in fact he doesn't fail a single save the entire encounter), but the entangled condition takes effect and takes his lofty AC and attack bonus a notch or two. Nox then runs away, making sure not to get smacked. Unfortunately, the web entangles Lyka as well, which leaves her in a pinch. Her AC is penalized, she's entangled, and the web is on fire (though she doesn't take any damage thanks to her Dragonhide bracers).

With the rakshasa lord entangled, Kikkeni teleports with both Lyka and Linny to the relative safety of the cavern, leaving Holden alone. Lyka gets herself back up with her Healing Belt and now laughs at Holden, who is left to face Indravan on his own. Her laughter doesn't last long, however, as Indravan's searing aura goes from heat haze to blast furnace. The flame leaps onto his chain, and in an elegant demonstration of grace and power despite his size, Indravan unleashes his wrath on Holden.

The first chain swing rips hard into his chest and is enough to fill up Holden's damage pool and then some. The second misses, but the third tears a huge gash across his face. Both of the swords rise above Holden's head and each impale the dwarf diagonally through his clavicles. The blades magically extricate themselves from the crusader's body, and he dies before he hits the flagstones.

The players look at each other in stunned silence. The tanks, one of whom has just died, are useless, the sniper can't get a good shot, and the casters can't do much. There's just no way Linny can get to Holden's body in time to Revivify him on her own power. Kikkeni then realizes that since her turn comes right before Linny's she can teleport him half the way---though she still has to stand within Indravan's mighty 20-foot reach.

Nox makes a run for the rakshasa, and when the others ask him if he's out of his mind, he says grimly: "You need a distraction, right?"

Conjuring up his newfound swordsage powers, Nox snaps a Shadow Garrotte at the rakshasa's neck and slices through his fur and skin, injuring the now furious fiend for the first time.

Lyka hangs back, while Kikkeni teleports with Linny to within touch range of Holden, and then runs as far as she can go away from Indravan's whirling chain. Linny manages to make the check to cast her Revivify spell on Holden.

The tiger fiend, seeing everyone lined up, unleashes his lightning breath weapon on Kikkeni, Nox and Linny. Nox withdraws and readies a deadeye shot, and Kikkeni drops an Energy Ball on Indravan (taking care not to fry the newly-revived Holden). However, he saves successfully and his fire resistance (from Flame's Blessing stance), so the party begins assuming he actually has immunity. Linny risks the AOO and blasts Indravan with a Sound Lance, visibly damaging his chest and tattering his robes.

Before the rakshasa lord is able to get off another attack, Holden draws a Divine Surge, spins his maul along its haft, and smashes Indravan in the chest.

In a spray of gore and in an enormous explosion of silver fire, Indravan's body is shattered and his spirit is sucked shrieking back to Khyber.

The party eagerly looks over the loot, but unfortunately they realize that everything is one size too big to use effectively in the final battle. Nox, however, picks up Indravan's ring of dancing swords and the two greatswords.

The Treasury

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Going by Terilanyx's word, Nox examines the walls for the secret door and finds it after taking 20.

They enter the hallway and first try the summoning room (enlarged on my map, since it was far too small in the book's map to accommodate creatures of Shabririv's and the godslayer's size). As Linny explains the purpose of the circle, Holden decides to break it to prevent any further summonings.

They then take the door to Azarr Kul's quarters.

Azarr Kul's Erinyes concubines, already alerted by the tremor caused by Indravan's death, see the interlopers, and immediately teleport away.

"...crap," the party says in unison, forgetting that Indravan's rather spectacular death would have alerted everyone in the Fane anyway.

They examine the rich furnishings of the chamber, and take particular interest in Azarr Kul's ornate Tiamat hookah.

OOC, Nox's player tells Holden's player:
"Dude, it's a bong."
"...dibs on the bong."

The girls wonder why on earth Holden's going to take a 50-pound (How big IS that thing?) bong all the way back to Thrane, but the dwarf says he's going to keep it so he can urinate on it.

Nox finds the five keys hidden within Azarr Kul's bed, then recalls Terilanyx's info on the hidden treasury. After a further 20 minutes, he finds the entrance, and they walk right into the chamber, guarded by a barbed devil and a nycaloth.

At this point, Lyka's player had to go home, so Linny's player handled her for the rest of the fight.

The PCs rush the two fiends, but Lyka triggers the trap. The party doesn't have much trouble with the fiends, though--although Lyka gets grappled (Is it a furry thing? I don't know. She always seems to be the first to get grappled---maybe because she's always faster than Holden). Kikkeni manages to grease the Nycaloth, and since it stays on the ground to avoid the blast trap, Nox is able to sneak attack it with Indravan's flaming greatswords, using up the ring's last daily charge.

With the fiends dead, Nox attempts to disarm the blast trap, almost killing himself in the process by failing once. He succeeds a second time, though, and haphazardly opens the rest of the chests without bothering to disarm the traps---he saves successfully each time, avoiding the damage.

The party assesses the contents of the chests and determines that there's nothing they really need immediately except for the massive potion stash in the green chest. I regretfully inform them that I forgot to change the contents of the blue chest, and that its current contents consist of vendor trash.

Understanding my place and accepting my apology, the group decides to push on. They burn up all their last wand charges to heal back up to full.

Into the Inner Sanctum

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Seeing that the only way up is through the shaft in the Outer Sanctum, the party decides to use Kikkeni's Psionic Fly from the Horn of Abithriax.

The party ascends as one, gulping down potions along the way. As they crest the lip of the shaft, the awesome sight of the Inner Sanctum greets them.

The large, oval-shaped chamber is over 50 feet high in the center, and it floor is decorated with a grisly sight---hundreds of fossilized dragon bones. Thousands upon thousands of candles in Tiamat's five colors are perched on every conceivable nook and cranny, but their light is eclipsed by three things: the glaring colors of the enormous aberrant dragonmarks etched all over the dome, the energy arcs pouring from the five 15-foot tall dragon heads centered around the dais, and the glow of the portal itself.

Azarr Kul's Planar Orrery, made of polished black adamantine and composed of numerous arms, gears, and glowing magical spheres, hangs from the middle of the ceiling like some kind of monstrous chandelier. The portal, surrounded by glowing, twisted versions of the 12 Dragonmarks, yawns in the center of the Orrery.

The Erinyes the party had seen earlier stand with their bows at the ready on the 20-foot high balcony.

Azarr Kul, in all his glory, stands before them in the center of the dais, standing even taller than Kharn. His armor and robes are an immaculate white, contrasting sharply with his blue scales, and he holds in one hand an enormous mace capped with five dragon heads facing in three directions. A large shield hovers around him.

"I knew you would come," says the high priest calmly.

The party falls silent.

"You've slaughtered everyone in your way. Anyone who opposed you was crushed and defeated---just like what I did to those who stood in my way. What makes you any different from me?"

"I just want to help people," says Linny.
"I only do what I have to," replies Nox.
Holden offers perhaps the most solid reply of all: "F***. YOU."

"If we are all ready to kill, then there is only one thing we need to do from hereon."

Hexagrammaton

Lyka leads the charge, soaring over the steps of the dais and cleaving straight through the cleric's armor. The figment dissolves as Azarr Kul's chuckle echoes around the entire chamber. Holden swears and flies around, and so do the others. Kikkeni raises her Inertial Armor first, then flies to the balcony.

All the while, the Erinyes open fire, attempting in vain to shoot Kikkeni. (I knew I should have given them a couple of Fighter levels) The PCs take positions on the balcony in an attempt to engage the Erinyes until Kikkeni manages to activate her Psionic True Seeing. She spies Azarr Kul on the ledge, casting spells.

Holden immediately attempts to charge in his direction, but he smashes against an impenetrable barrier: Antilife Shell. Seeing that it's impossible to get close enough, Kikkeni suggests that the party begin breaking down the statues on the ledge for her to use as Telekinetic Thrust ammunition.

Before Holden is able to move, though, Azarr Kul stretches his scepter toward Holden, and Holden feels a powerful assault on his mind. He rolls once, sees that the roll was low, and uses Zealous Surge to immediately reroll---coming up with the exact same result.

I announce to the party that Holden has just been dominated, drawing gasps from everyone.

The party debates quickly what to do---Kikkeni can use Psionic Dominate through the Horn of Abithriax, but I rule that she has to make a Psicraft check to oppose Azarr Kul's Spellcraft check to see which command takes precedence. Since Kikkeni had few ranks in Psicraft, her player decides against it and decides to blast the Erinyes instead.

Holden hears a voice in his head telling him to gain great glory for the Silver Flame, to embark on an epic crusade and slaughter fiends of untold number. The voice tells him to journey to Shavarath---and that it's as simple as stepping through the portal. The dwarf begins hovering toward the portal, stopping right before the entrance.

Linny, with nothing left to do, casts Wall of Force on the same plane as the portal, blocking it.

Nox does battle with the Erinyes, meanwhile, attacking one with Shadow Garrotte.

Kikkeni wonders what would happen if she disintegrates the portal, since Psionic disintegrate automatically destroys 10 cu. Ft of nonliving matter, but her knowledge checks tell her that doing so will probably set off a chain reaction that will at the very least kill all of them in a massive explosion, at worst, will destroy the entire Shard Seal. She instead fires off an energy ball at Azarr Kul, injuring him slightly, but she notes that her PP total is already critical.

The party is unable to do much despite Kikkeni knowing where Azarr Kul is, and decide to go about breaking statues. Nox and Linny attack the two Erinyes, while Holden and Lyka dislodge the statues for Kikkeni to throw.

This strategy proves fruitless as well---Kikkeni wastes more PP throwing the statues, which Azarr Kul's shield blocks effortlessly.

Azarr Kul casts Visage of the Deity, completing his buffs, so Kikkeni tells Lyka to go dispel him---her only option now is an area dispel, since she can't target him. Linny fires off her final Dispel Magic for the day, and Azarr Kul's Visage of the Deity spell is torn asunder.

The players begin to wonder when Azarr Kul will attack, and at this point the fight has gone on for several rounds (we lost count) already.

Nox takes down the two devils along with Lyka, but the high priest finally attacks---making a beeline for Linny and bashing hard clean across the face. Holden, seeing the Antilife Shell is down, runs to Linny's aid. Lyka cleaves the last statue off its mounting, and Kikkeni uses her quickly dwindling energy to hurl it at Azarr Kul, again to no effect.

Linny stumble-hovers away and sacrifices her prepared Cometfall spell to unlock her staff's ultimate power: The Quill of Aureon enables her to tap the entire metaphysical library of magic in Eberron, and she does it to just get the one spell she really needs: Greater Dispel Magic.

The powerful abjuration shatters all of Azarr Kul's wards and buffs, returning him to his normal state. With all his hard work gone, the cleric curses Linny and angrily smites her out of the air---ironically enough, with his own Cometfall.

A 400-lb icy boulder smashes Linny, tossing her like a rag doll. The cleric hits the floor hard and breathes her last.

Lyka flies into a rage at the death of her friend, and shifts as well. She and Holden charge Azarr Kul together, easily making his now lowered-AC. (Nox misses his readied shot, though) The cleric, however, has Divine Justice enabled, and answers Holden's strike with his own crushing blow.

Completely out of PP, Kikkeni hangs back and reverts to using her Dorje of Energy Ray.

Holden, however, is able to get in an extremely lucky shot---White Raven Strike. With the cleric unable to act, Nox and Lyka cut him down.

"That was too easy," they think.

And they are right. Azarr Kul's Fortunate Fate spell triggers.

Death Dragon

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At this point, in real life, a tremendous thunderstorm breaks out over the city, adding awesome atmosphere to the session.

The five dragon heads' energy arcs link to form a massive pentagram of light, and this mass collapses and leaps into the high priest's ruined body.

"Tiamat's plans are not so easily sundered," he says as he stands up, drawing a scroll.

As the priest invokes the scroll's words of fell power, a vortex of negative energy rises up around Azarr Kul, wreathing him in blackness. The fossilized dragon bones embedded in the floor come loose, and spiral into the field of necro-energy. Azarr Kul has just cast Death Dragon (although the players don't know this as Linny is dead).

Now encased in a powersuit of fossilized dragonbone and negative energy, Azarr Kul flies up to engage his assailants.

His AC has now risen to a massive 39, and only the most spirited blows can get past his defenses. Azarr Kul attacks Lyka first, his mere touch rupturing her skin and blood vessels all over. She angrily responds with a Rabid Bear Strike, supplements it with Vaanon'Gan's bloodfeeding power, and cleaves off more than a third of AK's HP.

Nox is henceforth unable to make any shots get through, and attempts to get his Shadow Garrotte back.
Holden attacks Azarr Kul with all his fury, but nothing gets through. The cleric rolls a natural 20, confirms it with ANOTHER natural 20. He grabs Holden by the neck, and with a single word, practically exsanguinates him.

Holden, now in the negatives, falls from the air, and in our minds---to his death.

However, thanks to his Diehard feat (Crusader FTW) and his Boots of Landing, he takes NO damage from the fall and lands just fine and dandy at -3 HP, still able to act. He quickly activates his Belt of Healing to absorb the damage from his damage pool, and Kikkeni rushes to help him out. She force-feeds him one of the remaining potions.

Azarr Kul addresses Holden: "You have seen the face of death. What did you see?"
"I've seen it before, alright. And I'm not afraid of it anymore."

The cleric smites Lyka this time, but she's able to save against the Inflict Critical Wounds, and continues her attacks---using up the last of her action points, she's able to make her shots count this time.

Kikkeni is able to deal humble but still helpful damage with her Dorje, and finally, Holden lands a Bonecrusher.

Azarr Kul's armor shatters, and his body flies backward and into the wall of the balcony.

Slumped against the wall, with all of his internal organs shattered, Azarr Kul weakly lifts his head and speaks one last time.

"Tiamat...my lady...you have heard my prayers."

The cleric's eyes close and he dies with a smile on his face. The remaining energy from his body is sucked toward the portal. The portal glows brightly once, and then everything in the room goes pitch black.

Manifest

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Soft light begins creeping back into the room---the candles are coming back on, one by one, but their flames each begin to twist into strange shapes---dragonmarks. Before long, the entire sanctum is illuminated by ten thousand glowing dragonmarks, pulsing with the colors of Tiamat.

The Hymn of Tiamat Triumphant

The portal flares back to life, and the orrery spins rapidly out of control. The scenes on the other side of the portal shift rapidly between planes until the PCs notice that they're now looking at the continents of Eberron.

The image in the portal dissolves into a horrifying sight: a great deep pit, surrounded with the Tiamat dragon heads, but this time the heads are at least four hundred feet tall. All around the pit is a mighty army of dragons, beginning to gather.

The image shifts one last time, diving into the pit, and finally the PCs are face-to-face with their arch-nemesis: Tiamat, now stirring within her prison.

The Daughter of Khyber looks straight at them through the portal, and begins to smash through the portal.

Crash. Crash. Crash.

CRASH.

The claw pierces through the portal, finally, and the orrery and the ceiling disintegrate in a brilliant flash of energy as the talon crashes into the dais.

The PCs now have a clear view of the night sky above, and it's on fire with vast auroras scintillating in two straight lines---presumably the lines of the great Prison Seal---and in a miles-wide halo right above them.

However, with the orrery shattered and its energy expended, the portal slams shut, cutting off Tiamat's arm.

The limb falls to the floor of the chamber and begins to change shape into---guess what? A five-headed dragon.

Sadly, this battle is anticlimactic since I just used the stock stats. Kikkeni greases the ground beneath the Aspect's feet, and everybody gets to swing once before she's able to get off a full attack.

She sprays Nox and Kikkeni with her fire breath, but they save. Kikkeni, now in Pearl of Black Doubt, gets boosted AC from the first two missed hits, and only gets mildly injured.

Lyka finally cleaves the Aspect of Tiamat in two across the chest.

The gaping wounds of the Aspect do not spray blood, but a ghastly, garish light. The Aspect speaks:

"I am eternal. I am immortal. Your victory will be short-lived. The plans of the Daughter of Khyber are rarely sundered so easily."

The Aspect slowly dissolves into massive currents of energy that are sucked back into the aurora halo above them.

With a tremendous explosion that lights up the night sky like day for miles, the Great Prison Seal resets.

Eberron is safe for now.

Final Thoughts

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To close this journal, I'd like to leave with a few final thoughts:

1. I'm really happy my group enjoyed this as much as I did, and I think I was able to meet their expectations of an epic war story. It's awesome how in the end, everyone had their moments of glory, and that nobody left the table feeling that they didn't do anything.
2. Some spells are vastly underrated. I never thought Death Dragon would be this good, but a CL 13 at-will Inflict Critical Wounds with a 7th-level spell save DC still deals massive damage.
3. I'm just so happy that everything turned out in the end, and I thank all of you for your support. I don't think I'd have had the drive to finish this without you guys.
4. There are actually plot hooks left open: Shabririv wants revenge, Terilanyx is loose, and Nox still has that contract to fulfill. Who knows, we might have a sequel someday.
5. I actually owe my players an epilogue, but that will have to wait.
6. I'm planning on converting all of this to an actual story (like the first entry) eventually, but that will be a project that will take some time. See my Wordpress for this at eberronrhod.wordpress.com. I would appreciate your comments.

[Eldariel]

Wow. Nice Greater Dispel, there. Really came at the clutch moment. I'm kinda surprised Indravan went down so "easily"; having only taken one round's worth of damage - but then again, that was a lot of hits over the round. I predicted being so outnumbered would be his downfall!

Azarr Kul fight was very nice overall; it's amazing they were able to take him down so spent. Too bad about the Aspect of Tiamat; that could've been epic but c'est la vie. And if you pulled off the stops, it would've probably been too much, what with all their resources spent already.


Will be looking forward to the epilogue...and even the possible sequel. We'll see. They are, as far as Eberron goes, worldshaking in terms of power now. That could be interesting.

As for the story...I'll get to that another time. Was a pleasure reading all this; glad you got it to a satisfying finale!

[AslanCross]

They were having difficulty getting up to Indravan's AC of 38, but he only has about 139 HP. They've dealt far more than that in one round before, so it's understandable. My log shows he only took four hits: Shadow Garrote, Divine Surge, and at least one Sound Lance, probably two---I do remember narrating that his robes got ripped up once, then ripped up more, but I can't remember when Linny did the second Sound Lance.

As for Azarr Kul, I gave him an extra 2 cleric levels and applied the Prodigy (Wisdom) trait to him from DMG2. He was much stronger in this form and had far more options. He had about 183 HP in his first form and 159 in his Death Dragon form.

[Barbarian MD]

Bravo! *claps*

[d13]

*Slowclap*
*More comments about how this journal is/was awesome, and all that jazz*

I'm saving this journal for posterity, hope you don't mind

And this weekend, I'm, for the third time, trying to start the RHoD in Eberron with my own group, so this is going to be extremely helpful.
I might even steal an idea, or three =P

Once again, thank you for sharing this with us, Aslan =)

[Fizban]

Awesome journal is awesome. The final, or third final I suppose, fight had an effective dramatic death, made even more effective by the fact that it was the cleric that died. They've already had multiple resurrections so I wouldn't expect it to be permanent if they still had the cleric, with nearly two weeks to find a big enough diamond. But without the cleric they need to find a diamond and a person who can cast the spell. Follow up adventure?

[AslanCross]

*Slowclap*
*More comments about how this journal is/was awesome, and all that jazz*

I'm saving this journal for posterity, hope you don't mind

And this weekend, I'm, for the third time, trying to start the RHoD in Eberron with my own group, so this is going to be extremely helpful.
I might even steal an idea, or three =P

Once again, thank you for sharing this with us, Aslan =)

No problem, and thanks everyone. I wish you good speed in your efforts.

Awesome journal is awesome. The final, or third final I suppose, fight had an effective dramatic death, made even more effective by the fact that it was the cleric that died. They've already had multiple resurrections so I wouldn't expect it to be permanent if they still had the cleric, with nearly two weeks to find a big enough diamond. But without the cleric they need to find a diamond and a person who can cast the spell. Follow up adventure?

Well, Azarr Kul's treasury actually contains a 5000 GP diamond, so they can get a Raise Dead. Finding someone who will do it is another story. After a day of rest, Kikkeni can teleport them all to Thrane.

Linny's player has gotten so attached to her that in his version of the story, Jaela Daran raises her for "free" (but honestly I don't see the Silver Flame letting a cleric of another religion get a free rez without forcing her to convert or something---as much as I like the Silver Flame and believe that it's got good people too). She's gotten a free rez as it is.

Nox's player wants his character to be an agent of the Chamber, which is an interesting twist and is more conducive to a later adventure than Linny's, but it'll take a bit more work.

[Kerothulhu]

This comes a tad late but for completeness' sake I shall put it up.

During the Godslayer battle, after the giant electrified lizard landed and smashed Nox into the ground, Linny hit it with a Sound Lance. Then the tanks proceeded to beat (or try to beat) the stuffing out of the lizard. The Gloomweaver jumped down from the highest ledge but could do nothing more. Since the tanks were flying above the ground, Linny cast Earth Reaver and hit both Godslayer and Gloomweaver. Soon after, Lyka was able to cut the Godslayer in two and the Gloomweaver was crushed to bits by Holden's epic maul.

During the Indravan battle, Linny didn't Sound Lance the Crusader. In her first turn she used Assay Spell Resistance to get the +10 Caster Level check on the tiger-dragon lug. Nox's sneak killed the Crusi. In the proceeding turn, Linny hits Indravan with a Sound Lance while the rest of the party struggle to hit the brute. Then Indravan does the Shadow Leap thing and scares the ship out of the softies. Lyka takes the AOO and the Full-round while casters Psionic Teleport and Nox uses a maneuver to get away. Then the rest is as sir describes it. (For once Lyka is useless in a combat encounter.)

In the fight with Azarr Kul, Lyka finds out Mr. Big Bad is invisible and the party splits up between attacking the two Erinyes while Kikkeni and Linny try to find the cleric and dispel his invisibility. This is when Holden is dominated and flies up to the lip of the portal. Linny fires off the Wall of Force to save the dwarf from a painful death on a different plane. The party continues to try to get rid of the Erinyes and when Holden's turn comes, he's ordered to go to sleep but finally manages to break the domination. Then it was Lyka who found out the AK had Anti-life Shell on him when she moved towards him after cutting an Erinyes in two. After finding that out, the party shifted their attentions to the remaining Erinyes for the time being. After getting rid of her the tanks started lopping off statues for Kikkeni to throw. Lyka doesn't Rage and Shift when AK kills Linny though. She's able to get past his defenses rather easily even after he had that necro-energy field around him.

Lyka does Rage and Shift when the Aspect appeared though. At which point the party killed it rather quickly. And yes, the Aspect battle was anticlimactic but that gauntlet of encounters had us all tired out and Holden's and Lyka's players had already left for home by then.

Call me a nit-picker but I just couldn't stand to see some of the happenings in the last session to be inaccurate, so there. >_>

Sincerely, Linny, AKA The Pokedex.

P.S. Can I please be raised by Jaella? It doesn't have to be free, a special request from Holden and Lyka and that 5000 gp diamond maybe? Heck the party has AK's dad's dragon hoard AND everything in AK's treasury for leverage, not to mention SAVING ALL OF EBERRON (for now). >_< I need to get back to the Material Plane and start writing new books.

[AslanCross]

Thanks for the corrections; it's really difficult to keep track of everything happening and then writing about it after a stressful week of work. I'm amazed I remember anything at all.

Edit: I just remebered that Holden was able to shake off the domination after Azarr Kul ordered him to go home. Not finishing his job was against his nature, so he saved against that.

[Myshlaevsky]

That was pretty sweet. Thanks a lot for doing this journal AslanCross, I'd say it's my favourite of all the ones I've read on GitP.

Maybe you'll consider doing another sometime.

All around just really enjoyed reading this, I was very impressed.

[Eldariel]

Btw, something I intended to mention, but forgot:
Multiple Mental Control Effects
"Sometimes magical effects that establish mental control render each other irrelevant, such as a spell that removes the subjects ability to act. Mental controls that don’t remove the recipient’s ability to act usually do not interfere with each other. If a creature is under the mental control of two or more creatures, it tends to obey each to the best of its ability, and to the extent of the control each effect allows. If the controlled creature receives conflicting orders simultaneously, the competing controllers must make opposed Charisma checks to determine which one the creature obeys."

So...in case you run across the case again later on... Then again, the result would've probably been the same since I'm betting Kikkeni's charisma is nothing to write home about.

[Rising Phoenix]

Thank you so much for completing this AslanCross. It helped me improve my experience of RHoD though unfortunately we never finished it.

I look forward to reading about your future advetures!

D.

[AslanCross]

Thanks for following me. Again if I hadn't received any comments expressing interest in this journal, I probably wouldn't have followed through till the end.

Eldariel> Ah, thanks for that info. Azarr Kul would most likely have beaten Kikkeni every time, indeed.

[Zanticor]

The best story hour in a very long time for me! I used to go to Enworld for my story needs but since they went all 4th edition, I much more likely to be on this forum. My party finished RHOD a couple of months ago so it was really good to see all the Eberron modifications you did to it. Quite a treat and I hope you and other DM's will post their stories on this forum in the future. I might even try my hand on one myself.
I'm still really interested in the epilogue. What rewards did you give the heroes after their return? My paladin was given a young bronze dragon (the child of the one hanging in the dining room) as a paladin mount. Might not work for every one but I'm a halfling so it fits. Hope your rewards are as epic.

Zanticor