The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

[PrismCat21]

Skills
The Beast has a +8 racial bonus on Listen and Spot checks

Bwahahahahah!! This little bit at the end of The Beast's stats had me rolling.
The couple extra empty lines between it and the last ability had me read it more as an afterthought, and in a simple unexciting way. After everything else The Beast can do, it felt like it came out of nowhere and burst the frightening bubble that reading the stats created.

-

I think the claimed moral victories are well earned.
Few actual adventuring parties at that level could have won that fight. You and the players each make the other better and it's scary what they have been able to overcome.

I count each time they have to use a Vitae to avoid death as a pseudo death. I hope someone counts them up sometime.

Spoiler: Player's, bug off

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I forget if what happened to the other adventuring party they met was mentioned.
Will then show up again at some point? Perhaps working with, or under the control, of someone? (Maria, Janath, The Scragg... :P )

Good job Pilgrims!

[danielxcutter]

*reads stats*

PUZZLE YOU SON OF A BI- *coughs*

Seriously, though?

[curious-puzzle]

*reads stats*

PUZZLE YOU SON OF A BI- *coughs*

Seriously, though?

Seriously...what? :P

In a game without a "multiple lives" mechanic of some sort, I would be hesitant to use a monster melee blender like this. But I can get away with a whole bunch of shenanigans!

[danielxcutter]

Seriously...what? :P

In a game without a "multiple lives" mechanic of some sort, I would be hesitant to use a monster melee blender like this. But I can get away with a whole bunch of shenanigans!

Eh, fair about the Vitae system. Still... You know, I have an idea for an OotS-style webcomic(though RL prevents me from making as much progress as I'd like), and one part I've decided on is a 7-person 24th level NPC party(with PC wealth): Archon of Nine" build(look it up)/King of Smack-based Illithid Slayer/Wizard + Druid + Mystic Theurge + Arcane Hierophant/Warlock/Rogue + Swashbuckler + Nightsong Enforcer/Fighter + Spirit Lion Totem Streetfighter ACF Barbarian/NG Incarnate... and I'm honestly not sure if they'd do half as well as the Pilgrims.

No wonder: CR 20 Tarrasque + six heads(+4) + Half-Farspawn template(+3) + two significant special attacks(+2*2) means the Beast is CR 31 BEFORE counting the enviroment! Whoa.

[curious-puzzle]

CR is more of a guideline, anyways...

But I had him at 26-27ish...figured giving away all the Farspawn SLAS in exchange for the ruinous bellow would be roughly even. Which 2nd special ability were you talking about?

[PrismCat21]

No wonder: CR 20 Tarrasque + six heads(+4) + Half-Farspawn template(+3) + two significant special attacks(+2*2) means the Beast is CR 31 BEFORE counting the enviroment! Whoa.

Assuming calculated it correctly, a creature's supposed Challenge Rating has very little to do with their effectiveness.
Templates will often improve their effectiveness, but not always, and certainly not in the same way for different creatures. The +CR is generalized and not meant to be a hard rule for every creature.
Same goes with adding HD, size increases, adding other abilities.

CR gives a DM a general idea of how challenging it's 'supposed' to be to an average party of 4 PC'S. The DM's job is to gauge their Player's capabilities vs the Challenge they face.

The Curse of Artaith Players are better than average Players, have better than average builds, a greater number of players, and innate respawning/healing/(other) mechanics in the form of Vitae. Any one of those means they punch above their average weight class.
The Beast was an epic Boss fight. It's suppose to be pretty difficult to defeat, especially kill, and they did it with zero deaths.

.

.

.

The Tarrasque is pretty underwhelming as a CR 20 creature. It needed a bunch of help.

[curious-puzzle]

The Curse of Artaith Players are better than average

Woah woah woah, let's just hit the brakes there

[Picanet]

woah woah woah, let's just hit the brakes there

too late he said it we are amazing!

[Orhinge]

Woah woah woah, let's just hit the brakes there

Look at it this way, if we get their ego big enough, they might get overconfident, and won't that make their crushing defeat all the sweeter?

By which I mean, yeah! Damn right they're above-average and amazing!

[PrismCat21]

too late he said it we are amazing!

Especially against Sea Trolls... :P

[Picanet]

especially against sea trolls... :p

especially against sea trolls.

[danielxcutter]

CR is more of a guideline, anyways...

But I had him at 26-27ish...figured giving away all the Farspawn SLAS in exchange for the ruinous bellow would be roughly even. Which 2nd special ability were you talking about?

Okay, fair about the SLAs. And I do suppose Really Throw Anything is more of a minor ability compared to the Beast's melee capacities in comparison. Not to mention that the Pilgrims have quite optimized builds...

Still don't want to go anywhere near it without anything at least as strong as a well-optimized Sorcadin or Illithid Slayer though.

And yeah, that fight was epic! Good job guys; I doubt I could have done half as well with anything short of an Incantrix. And let's be fair, you guys aren't *THAT* OP.

[curious-puzzle]

Session 63!

Spoiler: One more sleep

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We cut right back to the heroes. After some glares and hissed curses about Maria, they engage in a fierce debate about exactly what they should do next. Puck (rather Puck's player) wants to go after Optional Bosses, Talvosh is fine with whatever involves fighting, but Angelena, Sona, and Spotter feel they need to stop Zophiel and the Curse now. Even though several days remain, they have some sappy sentiment about not wanting more innocents to die. With the majority deciding, the squishies rest for the evening (since that last fight burned a very large chunk/basically all of their high-level spells).

Puck flies off to try selling the ashes of a mighty foe for great profit again! He does find Grabislov's shop again, but this time the Proprietor and Grabislov are uninterested. The Beast may have been the mightiest of all Daemons, but it was "still just a daemon." And it's not like they're particularly rare anymore. While he's there, Puck asks why the Proprietor isn't worried about the world ending-the mind flayerrespectable businessman replies that they'll be packing up shop and leaving shortly. Since said businessman has also hinted that he could offer escape from Artaith, Puck asks how much to break the Curse and leave Artaith.

"Hrmm...a Wish...a Gate..plus applicable service fees...125 000 gold. Or equivalent goods." Puck does not make an in-game purchase to skip to the ending, and flies back to the rest of the party with his jar of unwanted daemon dirt.

THREE

Spoiler: Gate to the Gods

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Angelena is the only reason anyone can tell when it's dawn, or where the sun is hidden behind the ashen sky. Copious buffs are applied to the party, and they warp to the Heart of the Hold Fire. It's still inside a supernaturally active volcano, but unfortunately for me they remembered their energy resistance. The island has also stopped drifting, as Sona and Puck notice a thin pillar/wall of force pinning the island beneath the gleaming portal. Floating up, the party passes through the gate.

They cross over into a grand hall. Every inch gleams gold, but the scope and scale is so epic that it manages to avoid seeming gaudy. In front of the party is a gigantic window that seems to offer a view into space. An endless black void dotted with stars, and below the world of Artaith, completely coated with grey now. To the right the hall stretches towards a set of grand stairs curving down and around, and to the left are hundreds of broad steps leading up. At the top (hundreds of feet away) the party can see just the top of a gigantic throne, but it's obscured and blocked by a shifting wall of multi-hued flame. As the party looks around at Adremmelach's Throne Room, a booming voice calls out.

"Hail, pilgrims. Hail, champions. Hail, children of Fire." What are obviously angels emerge and fade into view around the party. Two armored and winged knights, seemingly carved from stone (and looked like statues originally) step forth, two graceful figures carrying long silver horns float down, and two more impressive figures walk down from the top of the stairs. One is a multi-winged giant seemingly shaped from gleaming blue flame, light curling and wisping off the wings like smoke. The second is a six-winged giant with brassy skin that shines with glowing runes. The wings are dotted with numerous eyes, and a flaming sword floats in mid-air alongside the figure.

Angelena drops to a knee and offers her greetings to who she guesses to be Adremmelach. The Solar chuckles and gently corrects her, and then Angelena makes her Knowledge (religion) check. Two trumpet archons, two Gate archons, an Empyrean angel, and a Solar angel. What must be some of the greatest servants of Adremmelach praise the party for fulfilling their destiny, and gathering all four Primal Sparks.

"The Hearth of the World lies down those stairs. Quickly, stoke the flames and reignite them!" Here's where the mood goes sour. Sona and Puck make scoffing sacrilegious noises, and even Angelena doesn't move at the angel's statement. They try to explain their alternative plan...but there's a couple sticking points.

1)trying to convince creatures of unbending law and goodness to break the rules is difficult at best
2)most of the party is much much better at murdering things than talking and persuading others with words

Sona's pride offends the Angels, a couple of Puck's muttered comments nearly provoke violence (calling them "doormen" is a particular one, as is starting to wander up the stairs without permission), and Spotter's doubt also rankles. However, Angelena (and Sona once she resists the cheeky comments) do manage to actually cause the angels to pause. The knowledge the party possesses, their determination that there has to be a better way than simply restarting the cycle yet again, their confidence in opposing a goddess are huge. But the Solar shakes his head and waves a hand, changing the window to show what lies outside the throne room.

Endless, savage war, raging between countless daemons and angelic warriors. Every inch is coated with blood, every step is clashing blades and claws. It's unending massacre, and the Solar states that it will not end until the cycle has reset. Maybe with the next cycle the daemons will be weakened enough to be pushed back.

Here's where Puck slams his jar of dirt/dust down, and offhandedly mentions how they killed the Beast. You know, the greatest of the Daemons. No big deal.

All these things together allow the party to make a group Diplomacy check. It' a good roll, but Angelena knocks it out of the park by swearing that if the Pilgrims fail in their attempt, she will return and reignite the Hearth of the World, no matter what. The Empyrean Angel looks sad at that, warning that there are serious consequences of such actions. Sharing the strain of Linking the Fireigniting the Hearth amongst multiple people is difficult, but survivable. If Angelena's companions are unable to return to the Hearth with her (Empyrean angel being a little pessimistic here), igniting the Hearth by herself will consume Angelena. Utterly and permanently.

Even so, the party agrees. The angels look conflicted, but they agree to give the heroes a chance. When the party describes the hidden connection to Zophiel's prison that's supposed to be here, the angels don't know anything about it. But such a thing would be at or by Adremmelach's throne. The angels cannot aid the party in reaching the throne though. All they can do is not hinder them.

So the party ascends the sprawling and colossal stairway, stopping in front of the rainbow-colored flames. A spellcraft check recognizes it as a Prismatic Wall. Angelena and Sona confer back and forth. They have some of the spells needed to break the wall, but not all of them. They'd need to use at least one or two Limited wishes / Miracles, and burn another 5 spell slots on top of that. Sona offers her alternative, and pulls out the final of the BIIGG scrolls she had managed to purchase/find: A scroll of Disjunction. It's definitely a big gun, but it is the fastest option to bypass the wall. After a bit more debate, it's agreed to use the Disjunction. Everyone shuffles back out of range, and Sona makes her caster level check to get the spell off.

Speaking a single discordant word, it tears through the Prismatic Wall. The flames freeze, and shatter in a rain of stained-glass chunks before melting away in wisps of color. Sona can feel the glares of the angels on her back for using what's essentially a magic EMP tied to a club, but it works. Before them is a titan-sized Golden Throne, the throne of Adremmelach.

I'm pretty impressed with the party at this point for actually managing to convince the angels. I'd played them as quite difficult to persuade, and not particularly tolerant of uppity mortals. So the party pulled off quite the diplomatic coup.

And then Puck gleefully climbs up into the Throne.

Spoiler: D'oh

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The Solar bellows in indignation and seizes his flaming sword, but the trumpet archons + the rest of the party manage to avert combat, Puck quickly climbing off the deity's throne after most of the group yelled at him. After that bit of arguing and shenanigans is over, the party walks around the throne, looking for a hidden door or something like that. Puck notices it the same time Spotter walks into it: there's a giant mechanism behind the throne, a large lever connecting to a bunch of gears. The invisibility fades as Spotter touches it, and after checking that everyone is ready, Spotter flies up and pushes against the lever HARD.

And pushes.

And pushes.

It refuses to budge, and then Spotter notices that the gears are actually fused and melted together, as if from some great heat. They're certainly not moving in the state they're currently in. As the party plots and plans how to fix them, Angelena feels the Lantern at her side shake and rattle. Acting on instinct, she holds the Lantern out towards the gears. A mote of light leaps from the Lantern to land amongst the gears. With a roar and a squeal, the gears immediately go red-hot, but more importantly the gears separate.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" The Empyrean angel is stopped by the Prismatic Wall snapping back to Life, and he stares in despair at Angelena.

PRIMAL SPARKS REMAINING: 3

The lever moves easily now, so Spotter gives it a heave. With a heavy THUNK, the throne (and the floor around it) flips and rotates slowly. The party is all still flying, but a force also holds them to the ground as the throne inverts. Now upside down, the party can see "down" the underside of the stairs. It's a narrow tunnel rather than the grand hall above, but there's something at the end of the stairs. Walking "down" (technically up but they're upside down oh I've gone crosseyed), the party finds themselves stopped by a wall of black glass. Beyond the glass is a barren grey landscape, almost entirely featureless, and above it nothing but darkness. Puck touches the glass, and it goes all Stargate-ripple on him: it's a portal.

Spoiler: The Moon

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Spotter goes through first, and as he floats to the surface, his Survival easily tells him that while there is atmosphere, there isn't enough for someone to actually breathe.
He also notices the set of giant footprints melted into the stone, and leading away; he's pretty sure that's the way to go. The rest of the party goes through, and the Rod of Escape is activated.
They've got 20 minutes of air, and everyone still has Fly going, so they rush off after the footprints.

The moon is absolutely barren and lifeless. Nothing moves, and there's nothing other than the party, the footprints burned into the stone, and Artaith above them in the sky (alarmingly close I might add). It takes around 17 minutes of flying at full speed (technically fly would have faded a bit faster, but I didn't count the talking towards buff time) before the party is led to a massive rift in the ground. The footprints stop here, so Spotter has Angelena Light a rock and tosses it into the gorge. Hundreds of feet below it clatters against something metallic, so down the party goes.


They find themselves atop a gigantic set of doors, hundreds of feet across, with an absurdly big chain protruding out. The party hems and hews how to get through; Knock should work, but there's absolutely no way they're lifting one of the doors open. They can't teleport through, as the metal is infused with a Dimensional Lock. Cutting through will take forever, as it's a mix of Orichalchum and Adamantine. Maybe Disintegrate? At this point the Rod of Escape runs out, and so does their air. With time running out quickly, Angelena pulls out the Lantern again, and coaxes another Spark out.

PRIMAL SPARKS REMAINING: 2

The whirring and thunking of gears and deadbolts shakes the doors, and the chain slowly is dragged through the door till it disappears. With a deafening groan, the doors slowly open upwards.
Balancing carefully (or floating in mid-air), the party waits until the doors yawn wide open. Then they descend into the blackness.

We end it there.

Spoiler: DEATH COUNT

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54

But...*coughcough Final Dungeon cough*

[PrismCat21]

The air runs out... They descend into the blackness...
We end it there

Dun duh Duuuuuuunnnnn!
I'm a little surprised they were able to talk their way through with the Angels, and get away with using a Spark. '0_o

I'm excited to see if these uppity mortals will actually be able to pull it off. :D

[danielxcutter]

What was wrong with burning a Spark again? Also what level are the party?

[Picanet]

Most of us are level 19. Spotter is the only one still at 18.

I don’t know if there’s anything wrong with using the primal sparks other than we won’t be able to use them to reignite the ‘Hearth of the World’ ... if they were even required for that.

Currently they seem to be doubling as keys to unlock the layers of security Adremalach (sp?) placed on top of his sister’s prison.

[danielxcutter]

Most of us are level 19. Spotter is the only one still at 18.

I don’t know if there’s anything wrong with using the primal sparks other than we won’t be able to use them to reignite the ‘Hearth of the World’ ... if they were even required for that.

Currently they seem to be doubling as keys to unlock the layers of security Adremalach (sp?) placed on top of his sister’s prison.

And you guys kicked the ass of a monster that tells most Elder Evils to hold its beer. Color me impressed.

[curious-puzzle]

Stop complimenting the players, they'll think they're people.

Next they'll want chairs, and food, and indoor bathrooms.

[Brion]

Stop complimenting the players, they'll think they're people.

Next they'll want chairs, and food, and indoor bathrooms.

I imagine that you feed them only this:
https://frinkiac.com/img/S04E01/821687.jpg

[curious-puzzle]

But then I would have to purchase said imitation gruel for them. No, I just let them forage for themselves.

If you recall, there used to be two other players.

Used to.

[MrWink]

The weak are meat and the strong do eat. Except Puck....... he doesn’t eat...... that’s for squishy fleshbags.

[curious-puzzle]

Session number 64!

Spoiler: Entering the Moon

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When I said they descended into the darkness, that wasn't entirely true. Spotter dropped a Light-infused rock, which clanged and clattered against something several hundred feet down. He then Dim-doored himself and Talvosh to said rock, while Puck floated down with Angelena and Sona clinging to his non-spiky parts. Luckily for the non-Forged of the party, the air is breathable once past the doors. Everyone's feet touch down on perfectly smooth metal, a swirling mix of dark grey (adamantine) and reddish gold (orichalcum). Puck's visor points out that like the gate they passed through, the metal hums with a Dimensional lock. So they'll be able to teleport back and forth in this area, but not further into the prison, and not out of it...Some creative marble tossing and some high Intelligence checks suggest that the gang is standing on a humongous sphere.

A Vitae check reveals the faint tug of a Bonfire ahead and below the party - and directly below, a horrible painful sense of foreboding. After some plotting, the party decides that it isn't necessary for Sona to use a Vision, and they head off towards the Bonfire sensation.

Spoiler: The Outer Ward

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The party walks for a good 2 hours without incident. It's just as silent down here as on the surface, only now there's the click and clank of walking across the metal floor.
Puck's in the lead, Talvosh/Sona/Angelena in the middle, and Spotter is in the rear. All of a sudden, a ring of blue light pulses out from Puck's footstep and sweeps across the ground. With breathtaking speed, mounds of gears, cables, shafts, and blocks of steel burst out of the ground! Assembling into a multitude of creatures, it's initiative time!

Facing off against the party are two Clockwork assassins, two Clockwork fiends, 3 Clockwork Sentinels (who are actually Mineral Warrior Crusader/Deepstone Sentinels flavored to be clockwork.
Because they're more complex, they only have fortification instead of being immune to crits), and stomping behind the others a Clockwork Goliath. Roboguardians!

The Clockwork creatures are pretty quick, and most of them actually act before the party (who rolled fairly well other than Talvosh). Puck gets ripped into by a Fiend, Ancient mountain hammered by a Sentinel from his Mountain Fortress stance (and flanked by another one). Sona gets riddled with flechette shots by one of the assassins, while the other obscures the battlefield with smoke bombs (which I accidentally make last too long but it didn't make a huge difference). The Goliath lines his cannon arm at Talvosh, and unleashes four energy blasts with a deafening roar!

I know it says cannonballs, but I say energy blasts, so there. However, I can't roll above 16 with 6d6 on any of the four shots, so it's really not as impressive as it sounds.

This will be a shorter entry because I don't want to do an exhaustive blow-by-blow report, but the fight is complicated and busy enough that it's pretty much the whole evening. In mostly chronological order!

-Sona and Angelena split the battlefield up with Blade barriers and Walls of Force
-The Clockwork guardians also complicate things by revealing the ability to call up walls from the floor of varying sizes. They use them for cover, or to block pathways, or to in general be annoying.
-Puck is tanky and strong enough that he trips a Fiend, swats him through the blade barrier, then eventually does the same to a Sentinel (staying upright even against the Crashing mountain Juggernaut attacks (I love Tome of Battle's silly names, by the way)
-Sona makes her knowledge check to reveal the Clockwork's weakness to Lightning, but the Goliath has a shockingly (hurr hurr) good Reflex save, and it Gundam-style dodges most of her Lightning bolt
-Spotter lands a heavy Deadly-aim Crit Manyshot on the Sentinel threatening the mage/cleric combo, and deals a horrifying amount of damage with his adamantine arrows...seeing as how he's up to a x5 crit with a bow now
-The clockworks are throwing a good amount of damage out, especially the Fiends and Sentinels. I also make the Fiends self-destruct after overdriving, because why not. The sentinels especially damage the entire party with their Awaken the StoneSteel Dragon slams (which I described as the metallic floor splitting and reforming into razor-sharp whirring gears and cogs, then reforming seamlessly).
-Talvosh keeps soaking up the hurt to keep his Pain Mastery train going, and his hits do terrible terrible things to the intricate clockwork guardians
-The Goliath doesn't actually have as much health as one would think, so it is shot down and explodes (catching the remaining assassin, Puck, and Talvosh square in the face)
-The party favorite Dimension step allows the heroes to zip out from behind the Force Wall and lay into the remaining Clockworks
-Puck has taken a severe beating, but summoned Clockwork mender swarms from both Sona and Angelena puts him juuuusst in the safe zone.
-Until a Sentinel smacks him with a Earth-strike+Smite+full attack to blow him back to the "you're gonna die" hp level
-Talvosh has taken a pretty hefty thrashing, but he's just in the safe zone

The party dismantle the Clockwork guardians handily (since hp damage isn't a huge deal) and Talvosh steps out of his Frenzy.

Puck fails his Will save and chops his head off. Then he turns towards the rest of the party, who are faaarr far too close to the nigh-unstoppable death machine.

Sona summons...a Goblin!

But it's a regular old normal goblin, so he's splattered immediately. But the extra moment needed for Puck to flatten the gobin give the party the time to teleport several hundred feet away, out of easy sight and hearing. Puck then makes his Will save on the third try, and promptly falls over super dead.

We end it there for the night.

Spoiler: DEATH COUNT

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56. Party inflicted deaths are always fun too

Shorter one this time, but we are definitely in the final arc.

[danielxcutter]

Clockwork...? That a template or something?

Oh BTW, got any quick-and-easy references for what each member of the party can do?

[curious-puzzle]

Clockwork as in a type of construct from Pathfinder (I occasionally swipe beasties from there). The crusader/deepstone sentinels were NPC opponents I had made forever ago, and figured they should get used.

And a quick reference? Sure!
*note-following information may not be entirely factual, but is all accurate*

Angelena:
-Buffs everyone forever (divine metamagic persist is a big deal)
-Brings the healz
-Enjoys dropping large rocks on people (Cometfall), shredding things (Blade barrier), and melting people (Slime wave) in particular
-Has all the things available to a COD-zilla
-Laughs at ranged attacks (extra AC vs ranged attacks, can reflect spells occasionally, starting to really like Stormrage)
-Does not enjoy melee combat, has horrible dice luck with said melee combat
Current build: Cleric 9 / Radiant servant of Pelor 10

Puck:
-SMASH
-TRIP AND SMASH
-Smugly ignore enchantment and necromancy
-When frenzying, ignore hp damage too
-Far more mobile than one would expect (climb speed and fly speed due to magic items)
-Kind of like an angry steamroller with a rocket pack who occasionally murders his friends
Current build: Barbarian 1/Dungeoncrasher Fighter 6/Warforged juggernaut 5/Frenzied berserker 5/Warblade 2

Sona:
-Lots of spell-like abilities from Pact adept
-Favorite spells include Dimension step, Cacophonic burst, Mirror image, Wall of Force
-Hates anything with sneak attack
-Starting to meddle with the Skein of Fate, normally by yanking on random threads (spin fate)
-better skills than you'd expect due to ALL the draconic heritage feats
-Has a couple of the Instruments of the Blood-gift item set
Current build: Draconic sorcerer 12/Pact-bound adept 5/Fatespinner 2

Spotter:
-Super sneaky robot hunter
-Shoots things really hard (x5 crit!), especially things he hates
-HATES spellcasters the most, followed closely by Evil outsiders, then undead
-enjoys shooting multiple arrows at once
-Has never used the super cool phasing arrows I gave him. Not once
-Carries a super handy pick that can break force effects
Current build: Ranger 10/Deepwoods Sniper 8/Fighter 1 (I thiiinnkk)

Talvosh:
-SSSSMMMAAAASSSHHHH
-Deals absurd damage
-No really, it's ridiculous
-Better Will save than you'd expect, thanks to Steadfast Determination
-Doesn't appreciate the way Disintegrate spells interact with his flesh
-One day he will fail vs a Death Urge and I will laugh forever
Current build: Barbarian 1/fighter 6/Frenzied berserker 10/warblade 2

[danielxcutter]

*wheezes with hilarious laughter*(no seriously that's really funny)

Also that does clarify a few things, thanks.

And yeah Death Urge is pretty hilarious even if we weren't talking about a Frenzied Berserker with Warblade levels and Pain Mastery(among others). Remember that webcomic idea I mentioned a while ago? Main character is going to be an Elan Illithid Slayer... with a Collision dire pick. And the comic's going to start at 12th level. Youch.(Of course Illithid Slayers are very resistant against Mind-Affecting abilities, but hey, nat 1s are a thing! )

Speaking of that comic, actually... I put the Beast against the epic party I mentioned as a hypothetical situation, and while the fight would certainly not been easy in the slightest... well, having 5(!) characters who are at least passable at melee combat, one of them a Spirit Lion Totem Barbarian with Leap Attack and Shock Trooper, plus a member with a good initiative bonus and War Master's Charge... yeah, incredibly specific situation, but in that situation? Absolutely ridiculous amounts of damage(mostly from the SLT). Though even without that I think they probably still would have won, they'd probably just have to burn a good amount of resources like Psionic Revivify, Wish, and the Incarnate's 1/week Gate from the Soul Chakra Bind of Planar Chausible to summon a Solar and whatnot.

Then again, you did say that you'd pegged the Beast as CR 25~26, and since the forementioned party would have been 7 members' worth of 24th-level epic characters... actually kinda accurate. Huh.

[curious-puzzle]

Yeah, against 7 lvl 24 characters, my poor Beast goes from "world-ending threat" to "Tuesday," methinks :P

[curious-puzzle]

Also, preparations continue for the final sessions! We'll see how things go, but I'm pretty sure the remaining number can be counted on one hand. We'll say a possibly mutated hand to give myself some leeway just in case though.

Or I'll crush the heroes utterly next session and we'll have the most depressing ending ever. Decent odds either way *shrug*

[PrismCat21]

Also, preparations continue for the final sessions! We'll see how things go, but I'm pretty sure the remaining number can be counted on one hand. We'll say a possibly mutated hand to give myself some leeway just in case though.

You never specified, or even implied, a human hand. I think you're safe.
Holy crap! I totally wouldn't have ever seen your secret message if I hadn't have quoted your post.How many more of these have you slipped in over the years...?

[danielxcutter]

Yeah, against 7 lvl 24 characters, my poor Beast goes from "world-ending threat" to "Tuesday," methinks :P

Wouldn't be so pessimistic - they'd likely have more trouble handling it than most Elder Evils.

[Picanet]

ALL THE SKITTER SKITTER!
*flees*