So this is it. The final session of this campaign. Let’s jump straight in.
The session began where we left off last week, with the party passing through the portal and entering the city alongside the Resistance army, ready to face Oldfather and end things once and for all. Immediately upon stepping through, they were able to see a tall tower in the centre of the city, clearly made of or at least made to look like arcanite. Circling the tower, high up in the sky, were about two dozen dragons.
Telling Commander Brakken and the party that they would hold them for as long as they could, the Council of Fifteen members other than the blind woman and Purphoros leapt into the sky, transforming into dragons themselves and flying up to engage with the ones above. However, two of the bad guy dragons broke off from the rest and made straight for the army instead of meeting them in the air. These two landed on either side of the army and began to breathe poison clouds upon it. The blind woman managed to create a bubble of force to protect the majority, and with an order from Commander Brakken, the party went to fight one while Mallard, Purphoros, Bov and Freb went to fight the other.
It was not an extended fight. This was just an adult green dragon and with their boost in power from completing the ritual in the last session the party mulched it. All it was able to do during the fight was breathe poison once before Monk sliced his astral wings down its spine, killing it, and since both Monk and Kipth were immune to poison, Brakken was the only one affected.
After defeating it, Commander Brakken approached and ordered the party forward to clear a square up ahead so they could establish a command post. Apparently, it was occupied by something big and dangerous. Apparently.
What followed next was not pretty.
Kipth and Monk, being faster and quieter than Brakken, took off ahead and stealthily approached the square while he clanked along behind. When they arrived, they saw a massive metal construct that looked like a fifty foot tall Mortimer Phinklestein, a true testament to the artificer’s ingenuity and ego. That didn’t stop Kipth and Monk wiping it out before it even got a turn, thanks to their getting a surprise round plus having higher initiative on the first turn. It was dead before Brakken even reached the square.
It was a warforged colossus, by the way. Just in case you were wondering. And yes, I was extremely disappointed that I never got to use it. But at the same time, it was an awesome display of the party’s sheer power, so I can’t complain.
Once the army caught up, Commander Brakken explained that they had determined there were three approaches to the tower. The east and west were heavily defended, so Mallard and Freb would lead a chunk of the army against one and Purphoros and Bov would lead another chunk against the other, while the south appeared fairly undefended, though there was no entrance on that side. The party would approach from there with a small detachment from the army to watch their backs and just have to figure out a way to get in.
With a last few words of encouragement from their allies, the party and their detachment were teleported to another part of the city, to the south of the tower. The leader of the detachment was a hobgoblin and grandson of the hobgoblin sheriff that the party met in the very first session of the campaign (not an incredibly important detail, but I thought it made a nice bit of circular storytelling). He told the party that his men would protect their backs as best they could, and deciding to have them hang back a little ways to protect their rear, the party made a beeline straight for the tower.
This was not the wisest move. Deciding not to move stealthily or even keep an eye out ended up going against the party, as they passed through a small square and suddenly everything was fire.
No less than seven fireballs were dropped on the party in a surprise ambush by a variety of slaad, at least a couple of every colour. Brakken took a decent amount of damage from them, but Monk was immune to fire so he was fine, and Kipth managed to Evade every single one, also taking no damage. Then the slaad moved in for the kill.
Monk flew up to attack some slaad in one of the buildings, while Kipth climbed onto a neighbouring one to fire some shots from a relatively safe spot, leaving Brakken alone in the killing ground. He paid for it dearly, losing a significant number of hit points as he was surrounded by slaad and hammered with another four fireballs, even as he – and Monk who quickly returned to support him – began chopping through the slaad. Kipth was attacked from behind by a flying slaad, but he fled and was pursued. After a Cloudkill was cast on the central killing ground, Brakken transformed into an adamantine dragon to get out of the area, transforming back on his next turn to back up Kipth. Kipth cast Fear, causing most of the remaining slaad to flee (to eventually be cut down by the party’s rear guard). And between them, the party were able to mop up the few remaining – other than the one that Plane Shifted itself away in terror.
With the ambush survived, the party gave their last few healing items to Brakken to regain his health, since they didn’t have the time to take a short rest. Poppy also cast Goodberry twice, feeding all twenty berries to Brakken. Make a note of this – it will be important later.
Pushing on, the party reached the wall to the tower. Without a door here, they improvised – using one of Mortimer’s bombs, naturally. Not the big one, thankfully. An earlier, less potent one.
But still potent enough to do the job. Setting the bomb by the wall, the party blew a decently large hole through it. When they returned to it, they could see that the inside was dark and seemingly empty.
Taking point, Brakken stepped through… and disappeared. Kipth and Monk quickly followed and the party found themselves standing on a large, round, smooth disc of arcanite in a black, endless void not dissimilar to the place Brakken and Monk spent their lost seventy years in. Behind them there was no sign of the entrance they had come through. And standing across from them on the disc was a massive arcanite dragon – Oldfather himself, Arcanite, looking as fearsome and powerful as the first time they saw him.
There wasn’t much to say. Oldfather gloated arrogantly for but a moment, the party set themselves, and then it began. The final fight of the campaign, one way or the other.
And it was epic.
The fight began with Brakken and Monk charging forward, going on the attack with an initial barrage of strikes. Then a shadowy version of Monk appeared in the centre of the disc and attacked Brakken, striking him with Monk’s own attacks. Kipth dealt with this Shadow Monk by shooting him twice – the first time, Shadow Monk caught the arrow and threw it directly back at him. On the second impact, Shadow Monk shattered like crystal and the pieces quickly melted into the floor.
Also in the first round, Oldfather screech-roared, dealing the party a bunch of psychic damage before he opened up with his claws and tail in the second, dishing out physical damage instead. However, the party was capable of dishing out a lot of damage in turn and were able to dispatch him relatively quickly. But, as Brakken struck the final blow, Oldfather shattered like crystal and melted into the floor. The party were not initially clear on what this meant.
Before anything else happened, a Shadow Brakken appeared and once again attacked Brakken, dishing out a massive round of damage before Kipth dispatched him with a single shot. Then Oldfather came climbing up from beneath the disc, right by where Kipth stood, and roared a thunderous wave at the party, injuring them all once again.
Brakken and Monk closed in on Oldfather again as Kipth retreated, everyone raining blows. However, Oldfather was able to retaliate, striking all three of them. Another Shadow Monk appeared and attacked Kipth before catching an arrow and throwing it at Brakken before Kipth shattered him again. And thus the fight continued.
Not for too long like this, however. This Oldfather had more hit points than the last, but it counted for little when Brakken had a monster turn. Thanks to Action Surge combined with his increased critical hit rate, he dished out a whopping 460 points of damage in a single turn. After that, second Oldfather was shattered relatively quickly.
Finally, third (and real) Oldfather appeared. Not a moment too soon, either – by this point, the party were starting to feel the effects of the fight, and without any healing left they knew that once they went down they wouldn’t be getting back up. So, they set to it, mowing through his hit points as before.
But this Oldfather was as tough as the last and the party were running on fumes. On top of that, a Shadow Kipth appeared and dished out a critical hit that almost wiped the real Kipth out, before being ignored by the party that round (which turned out to be nail-bitingly important). Luckily, Oldfather chose a Dex-based breath weapon that round which Kipth and Monk were both able to Evade for no damage. Unfortunately, it did enough damage to Brakken to wipe out his hit points and trigger hit Relentless Endurance, leaving him on but one.
Brakken got a final round of attacks in on Oldfather, who was getting low by this point, before Shadow Kipth brought him down. Shadow Kipth also got a critical hit against Monk, chewing through a large chunk of his hit points (though Monk took less than half the damage as he was resistant to its damage type, necrotic, and was able to partially deflect the missile). Real Kipth, hoping for a critical hit, chose to target Oldfather with both of his attacks and ignore Shadow Kipth, gambling on bringing Oldfather down, but no crit was forthcoming and the arcanite dragon was left standing. Standing, and facing down Monk.
Here’s the situation at this point: Monk was low on hit points, not on the verge of death but low enough that three attacks from the hard-hitting Oldfather was dangerous. If he went down, Shadow Kipth would go before real Kipth and easily drop him. Brakken was already down. And the party was out of healing. There was always the chance of a downed player getting a critical success on a death saving throw and standing back up, but that’s not a gamble you want to hang the success of a campaign on, if you can really help it.
Basically, it all came down to Oldfather’s next barrage of attacks against Monk. He struck three times, he hit three times. I rolled damage. A decent total, neither high nor low. And at the end of it… Monk was still on his feet!
On his turn, Monk was easily able to finish off Oldfather’s 37 remaining hit points (which Kipth easily would have cut through had he gotten a critical hit on his previous turn, proving that his gamble was the smart move, it just didn’t pay off), jumping into his mouth and extending his wings to explode his head in a radiant burst of phoenix fire. Shadow Kipth exploded instantly as Oldfather died, while real Kipth ran to Brakken, using his last spell slot to cast Goodberry again and stuff all ten berries into Brakken’s mouth.
Which reminds me. When Brakken ate the twenty Goodberries earlier, someone joked that they’d have an ill effect on his bowels and I ran with it, because it had the potential to be hilarious. I’d had Brakken making Constitution saving throws ever since, and while he was rolling well, as soon as he was unconscious all bets were off. So, while this is the session that had an epic final boss fight and saw the first successful completion of a campaign for our group, we’ll probably all remember it as that time Brakken ate too many Goodberries and shat himself.
As Brakken woke up, the disc began to crack. The party could see the exit flickering in and out of existence and all quickly transformed into dragons to flee. They successfully got out, though they briefly terrified their rear guard before Kipth reverted his transformation.
This is where things almost went real bad. Monk decided the best thing to do would be destroy the tower, so he flew Mortimer’s Big Bomb to the top and then began flying away, ready to detonate at the extent of the trigger’s range. Luckily, when Brakken and Kipth hurried to the command square to try to evacuate the city of the Resistance army – the battle was over by this point – the blind woman explained that the bomb would kill everyone, including Monk, because it was basically a nuke. Knowing this, Brakken was able to talk Monk out of it.
At the command square, the party found Commander Brakken and explained they were successful. They also found Freb, who told them that Mallard, Purphoros and Bov had all died during the fighting, as had every remaining member of the council of Fifteen but the blind woman and many, many soldiers. And on that bittersweet note, having succeeded in their mission but not without great loss, we ended the session, and the campaign, there.
And there you have it. What a ride it’s been. I have thoroughly enjoyed DMing this campaign and I’m proud of what my players accomplished. And I am so thrilled with how down to the wire it came in the end. A real nailbiter.
What I might do at some point is write up a little epilogue for the campaign, to cover what will happen after the point at which we ended, but I’ll need to speak to my players about it first. In the meantime, we’re beginning a new campaign in which I’ll be back to being a player. We’ll see if my luck has changed any thanks to my time as a DM (not that it was ever great even as a DM). I guess you’ll just have to tune in next week to see how it goes.
P.S. In case you’re interested, all up, Oldfather, between his three incarnations, had 2500 hit points.