IYDIYD: The Grand Finale

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Thanks, folks, for bearing with me through my first real campaign as a dungeonmaster. Whoof, that's exhausting. I have literally no idea how Larry does two back-to-back games in a weekend.

I will type up individual denouement letters for each of you later this week with your new XPtotals and any information specific to your PC and his/her backstory. You are also welcome to ask me questions about any remaining loose ends from the game, though if it's something that might turn into an ongoing plot hook (such as "What was preventing Chavalk from manifesting on the dreamscape?") you won't get to know that.

The basic plot resolutions in Hastenport are these:
 * 1) You killed Arthon. He's dead and his pocket dimension has collapsed.
 * 2) You did not kill Chavalk. He's presumably still out there plotting his Invasion, whatever that is.
 * 3) Genevieve and the surviving members of her earth elemental cult have left Hastenport.
 * 4) Vanessa has gone back to the Underdark and will return in one month's time.
 * 5) The town is about to suffer the ill effects of shiver withdrawal as the supply cuts off in Vanessa's absence. The good news is that it's bound to be so much better than what's been happening to shiver addicts the previous month and a half that it will not seem so bad in comparison.
 * 6) The nightmare plague is ended. Dreams return to normal in Hastenport.
 * 7) The planar instability in Hastenport has ended. None of you can see through the Veil here any more, and there are no more dream haunts.
 * 8) The souls of those stolen by the hag have been released and are now at peace in the land of the dead. They can be normally contacted by Speak With Dead now.
 * 9) No more demon incursions are noted in the city... for now.

The green-cloaked woman introduces herself as Piper. She tells the party "You have my thanks, both for protecting Malachi from a dangerous madman and for personally rescuing me. There is much I am not at liberty to share with you, and my position greatly constrains my autonomy to use my powers on the behalf of others-- but I can tell you that I am an avatar of our sphere who has sacrificed my mortal life to protect the Balance, and I can promise you that if an opportunity to repay my debt to you arises, I will do so."

You may consider Hastenport a generally safe base of operations for your PCs in the future. Morgana, Petros and Barris can be considered allies, and to a certain extent Captain Black. (She successfully disappears the fact that Jon is the owner of a house where the police just discovered multiple homicide victims, anyway.) In related news, Arthon's brother oddly enough does NOT contest ownership of this family manor (which he could have done since it belongs to the Carroll family, not to Arthon and his wife personally.) Jon, you are now the proud owner of a haunted mansion on Stonehill Road. Hannah, the wife of the butcher who lives across the street from the mansion, comes over with some sausages for a housewarming gift. You're gonna need to fix that fence though. The giant horse kicked the shit out of it. ;-)

Barris fixes and returns Adriel's sword-chain, reclaiming his cold iron blade in its place. He suggests that if she's going to take on Chavalk, Adriel should get herself a second weapon made of +1 silver or cold iron, since demons are usually immune or resistant to weapons that are not magical and/or made of silver or cold iron.

The Mayor and the Magistrate keep their jobs. Y'all did not uncover anything damaging enough about them to indicate otherwise. Seven Quinn takes over the Winding Way bookshop. Ruby's bar has closed. Arianna the tailor moves back to Hastenport now that the hag has stopped haunting her fashion shop.

Adriel, by the Draize Law, gets to keep the +1 flaming greatsword from the demon she slew. The unholy scythe belongs to Captain Black by the same law and has been taken to the guard station, where it will most certainly NOT be brought up on murder charges, because who would be stupid enough to put a scythe on trial, amirite?

Well played, everyone. Sleep well, Laura

Addendum
Oh yes, one more wrap-up:

The reason why some people were being more affected by the nightmare plague than others, and why dream haunts were more prevalent in some areas than others, had to do with the radius of effect of the dreamstone (which had been continuously expanding since Arthon began channeling it.) The dreamstone was, as you learned last session, located in the dreamscape version of the Carroll mansion (now the Rawlins mansion). The effects were strongest in the immediate vicinity of the mansion, and radiating outward from there. The people who said they just dreamed of being lost in the fog lived on the fringes of the stone's effect, and those who said they had no nightmares lived outside it (the prison was located outside the stone's effect.)

The exception was the butcher's shop, which is located very close to the mansion. The butcher and his family were suffering no effects from the stone because of the magical fey pavilion displacing their position on the dreamscape.

The well water in Hastenport was, contrary to popular belief, perfectly fine. It may not have helped the situation that the town's coffee grinder was being used as a corpse grinder by Black Mollie in the dreamscape, though!

Laura