Xerinos
2019-01-24, 02:31 AM
I'm part of a group of 6 adventurers currently being run through the Dragonlance Age of Mortals campaign. This has been a long journey, wherein me and two others in this group started almost 6 years ago only for the campaign to fall apart, and be brought back together from the beginning 2 years ago with a new group, same DM.
Avoiding as many spoilers as possible in case anyone is still running this campaign in 2019 like we are, we're nearing the end of this campaign, as far as I can tell. For many of us, this is our first character to make it to level 20 which is a weird feeling in and of itself. The past several levels of adventuring have really put into perspective just how different of a beast high-level 3.5 is. We've had a Pounce/Leap Attack/Shock Trooper Barbarian jump around and slaughter everything (until he died), a DMM Persist Cleric walk through an army unimpeded to single-handedly decimate their general, a few session filled with illusion and enchantment magic making everyone question everything they saw, and it's all culminating in what looks to be a pretty incredible final battle (though, as is the nature of high-level D&D, I kind of expect it to be over sooner rather than later once it actually gets started, which feels a little bittersweet).
Our current party consists of a level 20 Wizard (Transmutation specialist) and her Cohort (a Level 17 Cleric), a Level 19 Cleric focused on blasting and healing, a Level 20 Paladin/Cavalier, a Level 20 Fighter/Deepwood Sniper, a Level 18 Fighter/Rogue, and a Level 18 Bard/Paladin.
Of this group, the Wizard, Cleric, and two Fighters are some variant of Neutral alignment, while the Paladins are obviously LG and the Cleric is CG.
During our last session, after a cast of commune with the level 19 Cleric's God, we discovered that someone who we had encountered last session (and killed the brother) of was planning to seek revenge. I realize that sounds kind of bad out of context, but it was a Level 20 CE Cultist Barbarian Drug Dealer Assassin something something. Standard adventurer fare, really. We had a hunch that these people had been associated with the BBEG, and after a bit of scrying, it was confirmed, so we teleported in at an opportune moment. The party has been a little murder-happy lately, which the DM has said is drawing the ire of the Gods that the 3 Divine party members (outside of the cohort) worship. A few sessions prior, we had killed a good-aligned Dragon because it demanded we hand over a magic item and we refused, intending to hand it over to the settings' order of wizards to be properly disposed of instead. That combat was a quick 2 rounds of the Wizard and Fighter/Rogue killing the Dragon while most of the party stood and watched, and afterwards, the Paladin was passed a note by the DM that his Sentient Holy Avenger would no longer be giving him his strength. He returned to using the Dragonlance and received an attonement spell later on that seems to have restored his powers, but he's on edge because he's already fallen before.
I got a bit off topic, but essentially since we'd been a bit murder happy, the Wizard allowed the party to solve this how they wanted once she teleported them in, and we essentially decided to just hold the guy up. Being outnumbered 7-1 and having lost his brother when they were together to just one of us, he decided to surrender. We question him for a bit, and then move on. We promptly hog-tie the guy, Throw him on a floating disk, and intend to deliver him to the group in town that he had slighted to see the proper justice done (though knowing the crime and the people we were bringing him to, we expected it to just be an execution anyways, but that seemed more aligned with what the gods wanted, I guess). We head out and the DM mentions that a hooded figure walks out of an alley, pulling his hood town and saying "We need to talk". Again; to avoid spoilers, I'll simply say it was a key NPC in that campaign that we'd lost track of for quite some time, and were eager to talk to and get answers out of. The session ends here, and we go online in between session to do some roleplay.
We got a bit of exposition and it ended up with a rather urgent hook. Essentially, at midnight that night, an event would take place that would more than likely result in a campaign bad-end, game over. We decide okay, we can teleport there and try and figure out what we can do to stop it before tonight, we just need to drop off this prisoner, the place is in the same town. But the NPC is freaking out, demanding that there's no time and we have to go now. The time pressure is a bit unexpected and puts some strain on the party. The Wizard just wants to finger of death the guy and be done with it, as "we know he's going to get executed once we hand him over anyways and what does it matter. We can't just hand him over to the guards, he's level 20 and they'll die." The party goes back and forth kind of debating what to do and eventually the Fighter/Deepwood sniper just declares that he's going to coup de grace the prisoner. There's some shock, and the DM takes some time to ask if anyone would like to try and interfere, and the Paladin does, so he has them rolling initiative the next time we play. This was the end of it. Until the next day.
We wake up to a message from the DM to the group that if the Fighter were to succeed in executing the prisoner, it would be considered an evil act, and the good-aligned cleric/paladins would all lose their powers unless they choose not to adventure with the party any longer. He feels bad forcing either half of the party to bring in new character to finish the campaign, and has decided that the interpersonal (in-character) problems of the party are too much for the campaign to keep going. In his words, "the gods of light cannot let some things slide, and murdering a prisoner who has surrendered to the party and not fighting anyone, is an act that good gods would not tolerate."
Unfortunately it's unlikely to avoid initiative being rolled, we're going to be in combat, and the deepwood sniper has a high initiative bonus and the ability to move and full-round action coup de grace on his turn. We've been trying to come up with solutions but it's really been falling flat. Then again, we're not as smart as our characters, and may not see all the ways out. If nothing else, I just want to mention to the good people of the playground that a good, long campaign, even if it were end like this, is filled with so many good memories, and I hope you can all think fondly on such moments in your own games.
Obviously everyone is pretty caught off guard and there's some discussion, and with the session approaching this weekend we still aren't fully aware what's going to happen. Part of me is here just to vent this out that a campaign we've been trying to finish for a few years now, so close to ending, ends with party conflict, tripping right before the finish line. Another part is here to ask if anyone has any way this could be resolved? Any angle or spell we might not have thought of or considered, that can squeeze us through the last bits of this amazing campaign!
Avoiding as many spoilers as possible in case anyone is still running this campaign in 2019 like we are, we're nearing the end of this campaign, as far as I can tell. For many of us, this is our first character to make it to level 20 which is a weird feeling in and of itself. The past several levels of adventuring have really put into perspective just how different of a beast high-level 3.5 is. We've had a Pounce/Leap Attack/Shock Trooper Barbarian jump around and slaughter everything (until he died), a DMM Persist Cleric walk through an army unimpeded to single-handedly decimate their general, a few session filled with illusion and enchantment magic making everyone question everything they saw, and it's all culminating in what looks to be a pretty incredible final battle (though, as is the nature of high-level D&D, I kind of expect it to be over sooner rather than later once it actually gets started, which feels a little bittersweet).
Our current party consists of a level 20 Wizard (Transmutation specialist) and her Cohort (a Level 17 Cleric), a Level 19 Cleric focused on blasting and healing, a Level 20 Paladin/Cavalier, a Level 20 Fighter/Deepwood Sniper, a Level 18 Fighter/Rogue, and a Level 18 Bard/Paladin.
Of this group, the Wizard, Cleric, and two Fighters are some variant of Neutral alignment, while the Paladins are obviously LG and the Cleric is CG.
During our last session, after a cast of commune with the level 19 Cleric's God, we discovered that someone who we had encountered last session (and killed the brother) of was planning to seek revenge. I realize that sounds kind of bad out of context, but it was a Level 20 CE Cultist Barbarian Drug Dealer Assassin something something. Standard adventurer fare, really. We had a hunch that these people had been associated with the BBEG, and after a bit of scrying, it was confirmed, so we teleported in at an opportune moment. The party has been a little murder-happy lately, which the DM has said is drawing the ire of the Gods that the 3 Divine party members (outside of the cohort) worship. A few sessions prior, we had killed a good-aligned Dragon because it demanded we hand over a magic item and we refused, intending to hand it over to the settings' order of wizards to be properly disposed of instead. That combat was a quick 2 rounds of the Wizard and Fighter/Rogue killing the Dragon while most of the party stood and watched, and afterwards, the Paladin was passed a note by the DM that his Sentient Holy Avenger would no longer be giving him his strength. He returned to using the Dragonlance and received an attonement spell later on that seems to have restored his powers, but he's on edge because he's already fallen before.
I got a bit off topic, but essentially since we'd been a bit murder happy, the Wizard allowed the party to solve this how they wanted once she teleported them in, and we essentially decided to just hold the guy up. Being outnumbered 7-1 and having lost his brother when they were together to just one of us, he decided to surrender. We question him for a bit, and then move on. We promptly hog-tie the guy, Throw him on a floating disk, and intend to deliver him to the group in town that he had slighted to see the proper justice done (though knowing the crime and the people we were bringing him to, we expected it to just be an execution anyways, but that seemed more aligned with what the gods wanted, I guess). We head out and the DM mentions that a hooded figure walks out of an alley, pulling his hood town and saying "We need to talk". Again; to avoid spoilers, I'll simply say it was a key NPC in that campaign that we'd lost track of for quite some time, and were eager to talk to and get answers out of. The session ends here, and we go online in between session to do some roleplay.
We got a bit of exposition and it ended up with a rather urgent hook. Essentially, at midnight that night, an event would take place that would more than likely result in a campaign bad-end, game over. We decide okay, we can teleport there and try and figure out what we can do to stop it before tonight, we just need to drop off this prisoner, the place is in the same town. But the NPC is freaking out, demanding that there's no time and we have to go now. The time pressure is a bit unexpected and puts some strain on the party. The Wizard just wants to finger of death the guy and be done with it, as "we know he's going to get executed once we hand him over anyways and what does it matter. We can't just hand him over to the guards, he's level 20 and they'll die." The party goes back and forth kind of debating what to do and eventually the Fighter/Deepwood sniper just declares that he's going to coup de grace the prisoner. There's some shock, and the DM takes some time to ask if anyone would like to try and interfere, and the Paladin does, so he has them rolling initiative the next time we play. This was the end of it. Until the next day.
We wake up to a message from the DM to the group that if the Fighter were to succeed in executing the prisoner, it would be considered an evil act, and the good-aligned cleric/paladins would all lose their powers unless they choose not to adventure with the party any longer. He feels bad forcing either half of the party to bring in new character to finish the campaign, and has decided that the interpersonal (in-character) problems of the party are too much for the campaign to keep going. In his words, "the gods of light cannot let some things slide, and murdering a prisoner who has surrendered to the party and not fighting anyone, is an act that good gods would not tolerate."
Unfortunately it's unlikely to avoid initiative being rolled, we're going to be in combat, and the deepwood sniper has a high initiative bonus and the ability to move and full-round action coup de grace on his turn. We've been trying to come up with solutions but it's really been falling flat. Then again, we're not as smart as our characters, and may not see all the ways out. If nothing else, I just want to mention to the good people of the playground that a good, long campaign, even if it were end like this, is filled with so many good memories, and I hope you can all think fondly on such moments in your own games.
Obviously everyone is pretty caught off guard and there's some discussion, and with the session approaching this weekend we still aren't fully aware what's going to happen. Part of me is here just to vent this out that a campaign we've been trying to finish for a few years now, so close to ending, ends with party conflict, tripping right before the finish line. Another part is here to ask if anyone has any way this could be resolved? Any angle or spell we might not have thought of or considered, that can squeeze us through the last bits of this amazing campaign!