MAL Ep. 55

Thanks for playing, everybody!

In retrospect, I'm really pleased with how the finale fight ended up going down. It was really tough for me to juggle numbers and I forgot some of the NPC's abilities like I knew I would, but in the end I felt the battle was neither too overpowered nor too easy, that all the PCs played critical roles in the victory, and that the players' advance planning for the engagement (both strategic things like how to use a tenuous alliance with the drow to force the illithids off the board, and tactical things like how to undercut some of the enemies' known combat abilities) all made a difference to the outcome. So that was all really well done, like I said on the Discord, you can go ahead and level your characters up to 20 now. :-)

I have sent some additional PC-specific information to some of you personally, but here is a wrap-up compendium of things the party is aware happened in the aftermath of the Fort Overthorn Defense, for anyone who wishes to build on any of them for a new plot hook or roleplaying arc:

1) Chavalk is dead. This has had the desired effect of shattering his alliance, but as Jon points out, also is sure to mean instability, infighting and weakness at the location of Chavalk's stronghold in the Abyss. The team could potentially exploit that to break into the stronghold to gather more intelligence about surviving League of Snakes members/ongoing plot hooks, and also just to steal some of his stuff.

2) However, the League of Snakes does seem to have united the other two Hounds of Chaos, who have both manifested and left the premises together. Bay successfully resisted and has declared her independence from them, but does not know what the future holds for her on this front. Learning more about Xhriakw, the prophecy, who the other two Chaos Hounds are, and what all this means for Bay is definitely a loose end I anticipate carrying over into the next campaign.

3) Piper has been successfully restored to life as a mortal. Her successor as Avatar and the head of Iscariot (Naruah) have requested of Piper and Aler that they explore the planes to increase firsthand understanding of them and potentially establish interplanar diplomacy. Iscariot believes learning about things is the only way to protect yourself from them, and Malachi (through its new Avatar) expresses having come to agree with this and wishing to establish a longer-lasting peace with the other spheres. Neither Piper/Jon nor Aler is required to agree to this quest but it could be a good source of both adventure and character development.

4) Harasket was not seen at the Fort Defense. (He could have been there in disguise as someone else, of course-- or he could have been causing havoc elsewhere at the time, some of you suspect his handiwork in the assassination of the Duke.) The PCs have encountered a few plot references to an interplanar organization called Fatespinners headed by a lich named Aglan and with some connection to Vecna. This could definitely be an avenue for future exploration especially since several of you would like to get the chance to repay Harasket for the many aggravations he has put you through.

5) The other adventuring party from Rovamund, the Returners (their leader is named Shanatai) are unaccounted for after the Fort battle, as is their nemesis, the Tenarri villain known as the Serpent King. The Returners heroically prevented the Serpent King from summoning his army to the battlefield but their whereabouts are unknown now. The Tenarri and the Serpent King are still big question marks to the party who may want to look for the missing heroes and/or see if they can learn more about the Serpent King.

6) Most of the individual PC's your party is close with have survived the Invasion without incident, the one exception is that Jarth Ardmore (the young monk who traveled with you to Ruastin) is dead and Seven, Morgana and Barris have disappeared. PCs may be interested in trying to figure out what has happened to them.

7) As Terrence warned, there were attacks and upheavals in other regions besides Fort Overthorn as well. Any of these can be investigated further, embellished upon, or just taken as geopolitical changes, as players see fit:

A) The Duchess of Peraine has assassinated the Duke and disappeared. It's not clear whether she was a League of Snakes collaborator, Harasket impersonating the Duchess, an illithid mind controlling her, or something else. The King has the authority to appoint a new Duke as he pleases, but has chosen to approve the title being passed to the Duke's eldest son, a move that is seen by most citizens as a re-establishment of calm and  normality.

B) The new Duke appointed the Harbormaster of Hastenport, Ainsley Donaway, as the city's new Mayor. He's generally considered an OK choice-- he's a successful businessman of noble lineage, well respected in the business community, and he doesn't have any obvious red flags, but he doesn't have any legal or political experience.

(The previous Mayor has been released from jail, by the way-- Lady Overton the Ducal emissary, though usually a somewhat uselessly officious bureaucrat, was extremely vocal and insistent about securing his release. The deal negotiated was that he leave Peraine, however, and he is currently in Rovamund somewhere.)

C) The theocracy in Averdale has been overthrown. Though the close association of the Xhorhasi with the King of Cloudwatch has cause a certain amount of international suspicion to fall upon Cloudwatch, nothing has been proven (a company of known mercenaries and a group of extraplanar genies? That's hardly a smoking gun) and also the Queen of Averdale was kind of a psycho and none of the other nations trusted her anyway. The political state of Averdale is still in flux. Kevin has gone home to see how he can help.

D) News from Tenarr is thin on the ground, but it seems there was a coordinated string of targeted attacks by "demons" (which could be anything, Malachian non-scholars tend to call most extraplanars demons,) including civilian casualties.

E) Within Peraine, there were also a number of attacks, some of the scattered type, others of the more targeted kind. Demons did attack Hastenport, but were repelled by Father Valerian and the Paladin's Guild (as well as other PCs who remained in Hastenport.) Jon's house was broken into during the fracas, some furniture was broken and some items looted, also the windows were broken as Ben stabbed his branches through to spear the intruders, causing them eventually to retreat. Damage was minor but Jon detected the faint aura of chaos lingering in his living room when he returned.

F) Since the players ran out of time to negotiate with the necromancers in Asture, Tisha and Aldrayeth took care of that during the week before the Invasion; they withdrew support from Dayant Arakin and the King has consequently overridden the ban on necromancy in the dungeon, although the new Duke and the Church of Tallian have been allowed to tighten restrictions specifically on the raising of undead.

G) The Druidic enclaves of Mendham Wood and the Green Guard have formed an alliance. Adriel is establishing her knight order in Hastenport with the help of Cartino. Skenebrax' curse was finally broken when Aler killed Ander, so Skenebrax and his girlfriend have returned to Ruastin to explain their creepy morgue to the relevant authorities... :-D

That is everything I can think of, feel free to message me if you think of anything else. Thanks for a great campaign and I look forward to the next one!