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Previously on “Princes of the Apocalypse”
With the final elemental node dungeon taking us a bit longer than I anticipated, I was afforded extra time to set up the finale and epilogue to our year-plus long campaign of “Princes of the Apocalypse.”
The party had a bit of prep time after their encounter in the shrine to take stock of their supplies and consumables – mainly in downing all their remaining health potions. They were far from full strength, having exhausted all Hit Die from short rests and about half their spell slots.
But there was no time to withdraw. The fire portal lie ahead, and the ritual drew near. The final battle was at hand.
The party stepped onto the causeway in the giant magma-filled chamber, complete with awesome giant stone statue weeping rivers of lava. The fiery portal lay suspended above the Weeping Colossus, with Vanifer in front of the altar at the end of the cliff.
The first threat they had to deal with, however, was Halinaxus, a young, opportunistic red dragon who had brokered an alliance with Vanifer and the Cult of Eternal Flame.
Halinaxus could’ve been yet another foe the party had to deal with – potentially creating a deadly scenario when Imix came online. Instead Miri and Kalinaar talked with him. Miri was all noble swagger, which irked the egotistical dragon – but he was captivated by the incredibly valuable tiara that Miri had plucked from Aerisi, the air prophet. He agreed to let them pass in exchange, but wasn’t about to join in the fight. Secretly I would have him gauge the battle as it went, only joining in once Vanifer went down.
With the dragon flown back to his perch, Vanifer summoned forth Imix, the Prince of Fire into the world, transforming a nearby fire elemental into a towering 30-ft tall vortex of fire. Cue boss battle music!
Imix is a CR 19 god-like elemental, an epic battle for very high level players. A deadly TPK wipe for our level 11 party. They are most assuredly not meant to go toe-to-toe with such a creature, and thankfully they picked up on that rather swiftly.
My players know to always go after the casters first and shut them down – both through Counterspell and by literally getting in their faces and swinging. Plus, Vanifer had the all-important elemental weapon, which the PCs knew were the keys to closing the portal.
Miri and Kalinaar rushed ahead using Misty Step and Step on the Wind to get past Imix and reach the altar. Seeing that they were annoyingly resistant to fire, Imix summoned his fire elemental and teleported right on top of Kethra and Talus. Imix deals some devastating damage simply by moving and being near you. Fire tornadoes hurt!
Kethra and Talus had to spend most of the fight running the hell away and trying to stay alive. When I had Vanifer Misty Step onto the colossus, Talus had a clutch Bigby’s Hand swat her back onto the causeway, where Miri and Kalinaar (who downed a potion of speed) tore her up while resisting her fire attacks.
Eventually Imix turned his attention back to them (after Talus went down and Kethra hovering near death) but it was too late, Vanifer lay dead and Kalinaar tossed her elemental dagger Tinderstrike to Miri. Her monk-ness let her leap across the lava and scurry up the colossus to toss the dagger into the portal in a very cool and climactic action-packed moment.
At that point Halinaxus had taken off in flight and was about halfway to Miri and the portal, and I was fully prepared to have his loyalties go either way depending on how the PCs reacted.
Miri called out that she would reward him with more treasures as she took a leap of faith off the crumbling statue. Halinaxus was impressed with their abilities (he was awed by Imix and these adventurers just stopped the whole thing) so he caught Miri and safely brought her back to the causeway.
The heroes left the dragon to the spoils got the hell out of dodge. I had them go back up the Earth temple path so they would emerge into the Sacred Stone Monastery, where I had little epilogue set up.
The most interesting and character-relevant thing the PCs did in this adventure outside of the main quest was with the lich at the earth cult monastery and the knights of Summit Hall. Kalinaar had pledged his services to Renwick the lich, and Kethra had stolen the remains of his brother from Kalinaar’s former order at Summit Hall.
I had our heroes emerge just as the knights were prepared to storm the monastery and attack the lich. It was up to the PCs to diffuse the situation. They said all the right things, about how they prevented elemental evil and how the lich is actually a pretty solid dude.
I used the lich as the final NPC to essentially congratulate the party, and offered Kalinaar a position as they transform the monastery into a monument to Tyr, and work in conjunction with the Knights of Samular to help heal the Valley and restore order.
I had Kethra stealthily and magically loot Tyar-Besil while the dwarves reclaimed it. Then her player added that she opened a school for orphans – that also trained them to be assassins for hire.
Miri returned to Waterdeep with her mother (whom they had rescued from Aerisi) and joined the political scene, as it was revealed that her mother was a masked lord, and bequeathed the honor to Miri. Miri also helped fund Kethra’s school – no one needs assassin’s more than a politician!
Talus published all his research and findings from their adventures, and was able to pay off the red wizard assassins so he could finally be free of his past. He also officially joined the Harpers, and pledged to keep doing heroic work in the area.
For now our adventures with these characters will come to an end (ironically they did get enough XP to hit level 12 after that final fight). That doesn’t mean we’ll never pick them back up again. It’s also possible we’ll see them crop up as NPCs in future adventures as we craft our own shared D&D universe.
Next week we’ll be hosting a final Recap episode of the entire campaign. We’ll attempt to skim over everything that happened, look at maps and ask questions, as well as give our final thoughts on the campaign. This will be the time the players can finally Ask Me Anything about the campaign and will be a helpful episode to watch if you missed any of our previous sessions.
I will also announce plans for our upcoming D&D adventure. While these characters’ tales have ended, new ones will begin!
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