Why was the Dungeon of Dorukan so easy?

[Metastachydium]

"Weak to one specific possibility" does not mean "weak overall." Heck, if we're going by that metric, Girard's Gate was the weakest, since the defenders were all dead and Xykon knew the exact location.

The basis of my comparison was „how well the defenses worked against a full-powered Team Evil” (which is part of the reason why I omitted Girard's Gate). Also, I can't see how ”defenceless against powerful undead creatures when at full strength” (because, let's face it, that's pretty much the case with Lirian's Gate) is comparable with ”only a little tricky once left undefended due to an accident” (the only real hole in Girard's defenses was the fact that most of them had to be renewed periodically).

Each Gate is poorly warded against some kind of attack, but incredibly strong in another fashion. Dorukan's Gate was arguably better protected than Soon's, as sooner or later an epic level necromancer could overrun Azure City.

Disagreed. Azure City did not constitute the main protection Soon's Gate had. Its main protection (which could not be switched off in any way we know of as long as the Gate was intact) consisted of the ghost martyrs (Soon included), an ever growing, insanely dangerous fighting force led by Soon('s ghost) himself, and our epic level necromancer failed to beat them, big time.

[Peelee]

The basis of my comparison was „how well the defenses worked against a full-powered Team Evil” (which is part of the reason why I omitted Girard's Gate). Also, I can't see how ”defenceless against powerful undead creatures when at full strength” (because, let's face it, that's pretty much the case with Lirian's Gate) is comparable with ”only a little tricky once left undefended due to an accident” (the only real hole in Girard's defenses was the fact that most of them had to be renewed periodically).

Lirian's Gate functioned perfectly fine against a full-powered Team Evil. It took them out.

Were they full-powered right after he became a lich? Since then, he has gained XP and Redcloak has advanced to 17th level. Are they full power now? What if Redcloak manages to hit epic level before the comic finishes (unlikely, but for the purposes of this argument)? The problem with your assertion is that you're taking "full-powered" to mean "as they are at an arbitrary point in time". And I'm pointing out that if you can pull out an arbitrary point in time to argue that a Gate's defenses were weak, I can do the same thing with another Gate's defenses. I'm showing you why this doesn't work.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

(the only real hole in Girard's defenses was the fact that most of them had to be renewed periodically).

I'd say that undead being immune to most illusions was also a major hole in the defences, even when fully staffed.

In fact, I have to suspect that the Scribblers never really faced any serious undead opponents, since both Lirian and Girard seem to have had a major blind spot when it came to them. They probably only encountered low-level will-less undead like zombies, and never once considered what'd happen if they came up with independent undead like vampires or liches (curious that the dwarves had a similar blind spot - despite Xykon, it feels like independently-willed undead are really, really uncommon in OotS)

Grey Wolf

[Peelee]

it feels like independently-willed undead are really, really uncommon in OotS

Given how incredibly powerful they can be, that makes sense. The world is weirdly balanced, after all.

[Metastachydium]

Lirian's Gate functioned perfectly fine against a full-powered Team Evil. It took them out.

Were they full-powered right after he became a lich? Since then, he has gained XP and Redcloak has advanced to 17th level. Are they full power now? What if Redcloak manages to hit epic level before the comic finishes (unlikely, but for the purposes of this argument)? The problem with your assertion is that you're taking "full-powered" to mean "as they are at an arbitrary point in time". And I'm pointing out that if you can pull out an arbitrary point in time to argue that a Gate's defenses were weak, I can do the same thing with another Gate's defenses. I'm showing you why this doesn't work.

K. Let's approach the problem from another angle, then. Immediately after Xykon has become a lich, he steamrolled Lirian with precious little effort and limited input from his allies (because there was a big gaping hole in her defences).
Then he became stronger, as did Redcloak, got a new army, added the Monster to the team, and he (mind you, we are talking about Xykon) still considered waiting outside the walls and trying to lure Dorukan out a wiser option than storming his Dungeon. Once he took the dungeon, it took him months to figure out how the deactivate the sigil, and even after he's figured that one out, he could not crack it open on his own.
Then he became even stronger, as did Redcloak, he got hold of a corps-sized fighting force, he stormed the castle of Azure City… And were it not for MIko's self-important idiocy, he and Redcloak would have died.
So, ultimately Lirian's Gate did worse against a weaker Team Evil than later Gates with their respective defences against a stronger Team Evil, mostly because of its faulty design.

I'd say that undead being immune to most illusions was also a major hole in the defences, even when fully staffed.

Good point. Although, at least he had the decency to not leave it out in the open as Lirian did, and hid it behind something that cannot be dispelled or bypassed by the undead (the lead-lined column worked just fine against Malack, a powerful undead creature, after all).

In fact, I have to suspect that the Scribblers never really faced any serious undead opponents, since both Lirian and Girard seem to have had a major blind spot when it came to them. They probably only encountered low-level will-less undead like zombies, and never once considered what'd happen if they came up with independent undead like vampires or liches (curious that the dwarves had a similar blind spot - despite Xykon, it feels like independently-willed undead are really, really uncommon in OotS)

Grey Wolf

Well, their existence is common knowledge, at any rate, as any acolyte in Tinkertown would tell you, and people know to be afraid of them.

[dancrilis]

The basis of my comparison was „how well the defenses worked against a full-powered Team Evil” (which is part of the reason why I omitted Girard's Gate). Also, I can't see how ”defenceless against powerful undead creatures when at full strength” (because, let's face it, that's pretty much the case with Lirian's Gate) is comparable with ”only a little tricky once left undefended due to an accident” (the only real hole in Girard's defenses was the fact that most of them had to be renewed periodically).

If a single caster can destroy your defences by accident while leaving what is being defended intact then perhaps your defences aren't that great.

Its main protection (which could not be switched off in any way we know of as long as the Gate was intact) consisted of the ghost martyrs (Soon included), an ever growing, insanely dangerous fighting force led by Soon('s ghost) himself, and our epic level necromancer failed to beat them, big time.

Had Xykon followed Redcloak's plan and they captured the city prior to taking the gate room then Soon would likely have destroyed the gate himself to keep it out of their hands.
Had Redcloak followed Redcloak's plan and sought to fully capture the city prior to taking the gate room then Xykon might have been destroyed ... for a few days and then came back with greater knowledge of the opponent, better tactics, and a reduced defence force and so Soon likely would have destroyed the Gate to keep it out of their hands.

And all that is ignoring that Soon himself only gave himself a might of actually destroying Xykon permanently in the fight if Miko hadn't acted, he was able to do nothing to stop Xykon escaping with Redcloak.

[Peelee]

K. Let's approach the problem from another angle, then. Immediately after Xykon has become a lich, he steamrolled Lirian with precious little effort and limited input from his allies (because there was a big gaping hole in her defences).
Then he became stronger, as did Redcloak, got a new army, added the Monster to the team, and he (mind you, we are talking about Xykon) still considered waiting outside the walls and trying to lure Dorukan out a wiser option than storming his Dungeon. Once he took the dungeon, it took him months to figure out how the deactivate the sigil, and even after he's figured that one out, he could not crack it open on his own.
Then he became even stronger, as did Redcloak, he got hold of a corps-sized fighting force, he stormed the castle of Azure City… And were it not for MIko's self-important idiocy, he and Redcloak would have died.
So, ultimately Lirian's Gate did worse against a weaker Team Evil than later Gates with their respective defences against a stronger Team Evil, mostly because of its faulty design..

Yes, Lirian's Gate was remarkably weak to intelligent, magic-using undead. That is a functional point of each Gate's protections being weaker due to the tunnel vision of its warder than they would have been if they had continued to work together.

ETA: If Lirian's Gate hadn't been the first one Team Evil had attempted, Xykon would never have been turned into a lich to begin with, and the other struggles for the Gates would have gone remarkably differently. Because they each had unique weaknesses. Every Gate's defenses has had a faulty design. That's the point.

[dancrilis]

Every Gate's defenses has had a faulty design. That's the point.

Well we don't know that about Kraagor's yet.

[Peelee]

Well we don't know that about Kraagor's yet.

Wanna put some gold on it?

[dancrilis]

Wanna put some gold on it?

Gold on that we don't know it yet?

[Metastachydium]

If a single caster can destroy your defences by accident while leaving what is being defended intact then perhaps your defences aren't that great.

A single caster spliced with the soul of the most powerful Neutral Evil necromancer Nero could spare, able to cast some obscure homebrewn spell, mind you. But other than that, yeah.

Had Xykon followed Redcloak's plan and they captured the city prior to taking the gate room then Soon would likely have destroyed the gate himself to keep it out of their hands.
Had Redcloak followed Redcloak's plan and sought to fully capture the city prior to taking the gate room then Xykon might have been destroyed ... for a few days and then came back with greater knowledge of the opponent, better tactics, and a reduced defence force and so Soon likely would have destroyed the Gate to keep it out of their hands.

Xykon capturing the city wouldn't have changed much. His low-level clerics and foot soldiers were no match for the ghost martyrs; for all we know, they could have held the throne room indefinitely.

And all that is ignoring that Soon himself only gave himself a might of actually destroying Xykon permanently in the fight if Miko hadn't acted, he was able to do nothing to stop Xykon escaping with Redcloak.

Well, Xykon seemed to agree that his body was done for, and he could only have grown a new one in the same throne room, where it could have been destroyed with even less effort by the same Soon. Also, Team Evil only managed to escape after the gem was broken. Were it not for that (and perhaps the distraction), I doubt that they could have gotten too far.

Yes, Lirian's Gate was remarkably weak to intelligent, magic-using undead.

Which Dorukan's and Soon's wasn't, and Kraggor's isn't.

That is a functional point of each Gate's protections being weaker due to the tunnel vision of its warder than they would have been if they had continued to work together.

Yes, mostly (although I'd still say Soon did better than the rest).

ETA: If Lirian's Gate hadn't been the first one Team Evil had attempted, Xykon would never have been turned into a lich to begin with, and the other struggles for the Gates would have gone remarkably differently. Because they each had unique weaknesses. Every Gate's defenses has had a faulty design. That's the point.

I'd say my argument about the level of power needed to defeat each still holds despite that.

Well we don't know that about Kraagor's yet.

Except we kinda do. For all we know, it is the only one that can be solved by the good old brute force method.

[Peelee]

Which Dorukan's and Soon's wasn't, and Kraggor's isn't.

....and?

I'd say my argument about the level of power needed to defeat each still holds despite that.

In that case, Dorukan's was arguably the weakest, since all Xykon had to do was goad him with the spirit of his dead girlfriend. Not to mention it was the only Gate that Xykon was able to hold for weeks, if not months. The only thing that stopped Xykon and Redcloak there was time and incredibly luck on Roy's and Elan's parts.

[Metastachydium]

....and?

Dorukan's sigil was a problem to any Evil intruder; Soon's and Serini's defenses are equally hard to overcome for anyone. Lirian's measures were good for less than either of those.

In that case, Dorukan's was arguably the weakest, since all Xykon had to do was goad him with the spirit of his dead girlfriend. Not to mention it was the only Gate that Xykon was able to hold for weeks, if not months. The only thing that stopped Xykon and Redcloak there was time and incredibly luck on Roy's and Elan's parts.

Not exactly. He had to hold it for weeks, if not months, because he could not get through the sigil. The only reason why he (and Redcloak) almost succeeded was hiring Nale for a different job, Nale figuring it out while working on a side project (rather than the assignment he was given) and Xykon overhearing that. After weeks, if not months.

[Peelee]

Dorukan's sigil was a problem to any Evil intruder

Mind-affecting spells are plentiful. Xykon and Redcloak just didn't know about it. Once they found out, they would have able to overcome it quite easily. Similar to how they didn't know about Lirian's defenses but were able to overcome them once they found out and had to deal with it.

Soon's and Serini's defenses are equally hard to overcome for anyone. Lirian's measures were good for less than either of those.

Soon's Gate was ultimately destroyed by a person his own organization recruited. The separate assault on Azure City as a whole and the Gate in particular were also created and exacerbated by his own organization's actions. Soon's defenses effectively brought themselves down.

Serini's, from what we can tell, just requires time and someone on your own team not actively sabotaging you. For an undead and a person with a Major Artifact that slows aging down to a crawl, a timesink is a remarkably poor defense.

Not exactly. He had to hold it for weeks, if not months, because he could not get through the sigil. The only reason why he (and Redcloak) almost succeeded was hiring Nale for a different job, Nale figuring it out while working on a side project (rather than the assignment he was given) and Xykon overhearing that. After weeks, if not months.

Again, mind-affecting spells are plentiful and a timesink is a remarkably poor defense against these two people in particular, who have all the time in the world.

[dancrilis]

A single caster spliced with the soul of the most powerful Neutral Evil necromancer Nero could spare, able to cast some obscure homebrewn spell, mind you. But other than that, yeah.

... so?

Xykon capturing the city wouldn't have changed much. His low-level clerics and foot soldiers were no match for the ghost martyrs; for all we know, they could have held the throne room indefinitely.

Xykon capturing the city would have allowed the clerics to cast desecrate on the gate room (twice if as guessed it was consecrated) and that has changes the nature of the battle a lot - and the defeated ghost martyrs did not seem to be coming back - they were basically wiped out.

Well, Xykon seemed to agree that his body was done for, and he could only have grown a new one in the same throne room, where it could have been destroyed with even less effort by the same Soon.

The exact mechanics of a lich's vunurability when it is regenerating are not known within the OOTS world but in the rules unless you can touch the phylactery you can't stop the regeneration.

Also, Team Evil only managed to escape after the gem was broken. Were it not for that (and perhaps the distraction), I doubt that they could have gotten too far.

You have panels 11 and 12 backwards - Xykon was escaping before Miko broke the gate and Soon did not get an Attack of Opportunity to finish him off (probably because he already to use it when Xykon tried to cast in panel 7).

Except we kinda do. For all we know, it is the only one that can be solved by the good old brute force method.

We don't actually know that the gate is in the tomb at all - it is likely but not confirmed, it is in theory possible for instance that the gate is buried under the tomb with no passage way to it in a small cell and that much of the current book will be the heroes and villian trying to find it and never succeeding.

[Manga Shoggoth]

This, although the MitD's efforts may be pointless, and they play into one of the ways that the gates are protected. Kragor's Gate is the only one protected by not only brute strength but also magic and trickery, and I wouldn't be shocked if it's the only Gate with some sort of emergency 'warn the others if loss is likely' system.

All the gates had a warning system (Noted here, and I know we've seen one of the devices, but I can't find it in the archive), which is how Soon knew that Dorukan's gate had fallen. OK, if you want the exact words, they are triggered by "loss" rather than "loss is likely", but there probably isn't a great deal of time between the two.

[Peelee]

All the gates had a warning system (Noted here, and I know we've seen one of the devices, but I can't find it in the archive)

Here ya go!

[Schroeswald]

You have panels 11 and 12 backwards - Xykon was escaping before Miko broke the gate and Soon did not get an Attack of Opportunity to finish him off (probably because he already to use it when Xykon tried to cast in panel 7).

The only reason Soon doesn’t finish him off is he hears Miko. The timeline is:
Panel 9: Soon is about to kill Xykon/Redcloak, but hears Miko.
Panel 10: Soon hears the rest of what Miko is saying and turns around.
Panel 11: Because Soon is turned around he’s not killing Redcloak and Xykon so they skedaddle.
Panel 12: Gate broken, incoming krackakoom.
Because Xykon only flees when Soon is turned around it seems to me that Miko is the cause of Xykon and Redcloak’s escape.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Well, their existence is common knowledge, at any rate, as any acolyte in Tinkertown would tell you, and people know to be afraid of them.

No, it is not. Exactly one acolyte knows about it, in a town chock-full of temples. If one acolyte out of hundreds even knows about vampire life cycle, it is the very definition of rare knowledge.

Grey Wolf

[Tvtyrant]

Because until Xykon the people who knew about the portals were weak. Lirian and Soon's Gates are attacked by hordes of low level Goblins which only succeed because Xykon and Redcloak are there. The flashback shows a group of cultists arguing that "Holes have a right to exist!" and the Order of the Scribble are shown to be fairly blase about the danger they face, only losing a member to the Snarl.

Their strategy and arrogance might have been different if they had faced threatening opponents, but each of them seems sure they can simply best the enemies they face and the gate wards are for longevity. Three of them fight Xykon, two 1v1, and none try to call for help before the fight starts.

Edit: Also think about the difference between Tarquin and Xykon. Tarquin appears to be the second strongest villain, owning a continent. Xykon and Redcloak would eat Tarquin's entire crew. After that we have a ancient dragon, Nale and Bozzack as threats, hardly dangerous to the Scribbles. Xykon is just all out of proportion to the normal world's threats.

[Peelee]

No, it is not. Exactly one acolyte knows about it, in a town chock-full of temples. If one acolyte out of hundreds even knows about vampire life cycle, it is the very definition of rare knowledge.

Grey Wolf

I'm actually not so sure about that. Knowledge that a vampire can exist is certainly different than knowledge of how a vampire works, for example.

Of course, if powerful, intelligent undead are also very rare (which we have ample indication to believe), then it doesn't matter how common knowledge that they can exist is. After all, great wyrm dragons exist, but it's not like Soon's Gate was built to defend against a Great Wyrm which could just fly on in and take out the tower with the Gate with no warning whatsoever. Gates not being built to specifically ward against incredibly rare monsters is hardly as staggering as Metastachydium seems to be making it out to be.

[hroþila]

The thing with Lirian's Gate is that it wasn't only weak against undead magic users, but also against any non-magic users at all. It didn't look like her non-epic defenses would have been able to stand against an army of mooks (or at least I get the impression that Redcloak's forces weren't particularly numerous that day).

[Peelee]

The thing with Lirian's Gate is that it wasn't only weak against undead magic users, but also against any non-magic users at all. It didn't look like her non-epic defenses would have been able to stand against an army of mooks (or at least I get the impression that Redcloak's forces weren't particularly numerous that day).

It didn't look like Girard's non-epic defenses would have been able to stand against Tarquin's army either. Frankly, I would be surprised if any of the Gates were designed with the question "what if an army tries to take it" in mind.

[dancrilis]

The only reason Soon doesn’t finish him off is he hears Miko. The timeline is:
Panel 9: Soon is about to kill Xykon/Redcloak, but hears Miko.
Panel 10: Soon hears the rest of what Miko is saying and turns around.
Panel 11: Because Soon is turned around he’s not killing Redcloak and Xykon so they skedaddle.
Panel 12: Gate broken, incoming krackakoom.
Because Xykon only flees when Soon is turned around it seems to me that Miko is the cause of Xykon and Redcloak’s escape.

That may be true if you accept that the Epic Paladin with decades of combat experience got distracted in combat with the Epic Lich Sorcerer by mundane volume talking and failed to end the threat to the world due to that.

A different intrepration is:
Panel 6: Soon's turn attacks Redcloak.
Panel 7: Xykon's turn tries to cast but Soon hits with his AOO.
Panel 8: Still Xykon's turn talking is a free action.
Panel 9: Still Xykon's turn nothing happens.
Panel 10: Still Xykon's turn nothing happens (that we know of relating to the three).
Panel 11: Xykon uses a free action to draw Redcloak and a move action to move away, Soon cannot do anything because he already used his AOO in panel 7.
Panel 12: Gate broken, incoming krackakoom.

The only thing dubious there is whether Xykon can draw Redcloak (I think he probably can) - either way if Soon had an AOO ready when Xykon moved he could have used it in panel 10/11 when Xykon began to move so either he didn't have it, it failed to finish off the Lich or he missed like in Panel 1 (and as such failed to finish off the Lich).

[hroþila]

It didn't look like Girard's non-epic defenses would have been able to stand against Tarquin's army either. Frankly, I would be surprised if any of the Gates were designed with the question "what if an army tries to take it" in mind.

There's several differences, but a major one might be that Girard's Gate was not out in the open.
Anyway, I think it didn't actually have any epic defenses at all other than Girard himself while he was alive. It's hard to say what the defenses could have done because many or even most of them had disappeared by the time we got there. By contrast, we saw Lirian's Gate at full capacity, being defended with everything Lirian had.

[Tvtyrant]

The thing with Lirian's Gate is that it wasn't only weak against undead magic users, but also against any non-magic users at all. It didn't look like her non-epic defenses would have been able to stand against an army of mooks (or at least I get the impression that Redcloak's forces weren't particularly numerous that day).

I believe Lirian was what made it work. An Epic Druid can tank an army, heck the OotS had a hard time with a single 9th level summon. All of the gate defenses except Kragor's amount to a holding action until the epic level defender deals with it personally.

Examples: Shadow Terrain makes a mile radius area of forest into a giant entangle effect with rainstorms and treants. Epidemic forces a chain reaction fort save or get a disease, with Blinding Sickness it blinds the entire army in a minute. Elemental Swarm makes a three hour duration swarm of elementals, which with Air Elementals turning into tornadoes can torch an army, an Elemental Monolith of Air can probably kill the entire army itself as a tornado.

[Peelee]

There's several differences, but a major one might be that Girard's Gate was not out in the open.

Doesn't seem like that mattered all that much.

Anyway, I think it didn't actually have any epic defenses at all other than Girard himself while he was alive.

Disregarding the final hallway so easily?

[dancrilis]

Disregarding the final hallway so easily?

I believe that was merely 9th level rather then Epic.

It's not Epic, it's simply a 9th-level illusion—since there aren't many 9th-level illusions in core, there's conceptual room for one that is pretty heavy-hitting that would still be way above anything Eugene ever tried. My closest rules-based analogy was Microcosm, which is a 9th level psionic power. This spell doesn't seem to have a hit point limit, but it does offer a possible means of escape through internal realization. Because, you know, story.

I don't see Girard as having taken the Epic Spellcasting feat, simply because that was more Dorukan's shtick. And as a multi-class ranger/sorcerer, he would have gotten access to it later and he's not really the type to spend all his time studying (when he could be out "recruiting" his defensive team). But I don't think it's necessary for it to be explicitly Epic to be "really powerful." We're getting to the point where the difference between the high-level OOTS and the low-epic Order of the Scribble is mostly one of degrees anyway.

[Metastachydium]

Mind-affecting spells are plentiful. Xykon and Redcloak just didn't know about it. Once they found out, they would have able to overcome it quite easily. Similar to how they didn't know about Lirian's defenses but were able to overcome them once they found out and had to deal with it.

It's not quite the same thing. Unlike Lirian's virus, the sigil is not an active effect. It's a bit more difficult to tell what it does and how it does it.

Soon's Gate was ultimately destroyed by a person his own organization recruited. The separate assault on Azure City as a whole and the Gate in particular were also created and exacerbated by his own organization's actions. Soon's defenses effectively brought themselves down.

I see. So „Xykon did not succeed at Dorukan's because Roy and Elan got lucky” is an argument, but ”Soon's Gate fell because the Guard got unlucky” isn't (Miko had issues, but

Spoiler: Origin of the PCs

Show

were it not for V blowing up his prison by accident, Belkar would not have broken loose and would not have had reason to skip town; were he not looking for a good way to skip town, he wouldn't have ensured Roy will hire him; were he not hired, the Order would have had Good and Neutral members only; were it so, Miko would have been much less suspicious of them; in which case she likely would not have gone so far as killing her liege for conspiring with them; in which case things would have turned out otherwise.

). It's not Soon's fault that Miko went rogue, and not the Guard's fault, either. Also, Redcloak's grudge against the Guargd is also irrelevant. He would have been less enthusiastic, in a way, about the prospect of seizing Soon's Gate were it not for the Guard's past misdeeds, but he would have tried to seize it anyway because it is a Gate.

Serini's, from what we can tell, just requires time and someone on your own team not actively sabotaging you. For an undead and a person with a Major Artifact that slows aging down to a crawl, a timesink is a remarkably poor defense.

Yup. Like I mentioned (in response to dancrilis), I also think that could become an issue. Dancrilis is, however, probably right that at this point we cannot be absolutely certain there is no catch in that.

Again, mind-affecting spells are plentiful and a timesink is a remarkably poor defense against these two people in particular, who have all the time in the world.

It's not a brute force timesink in the sense Kraagor's Gate seems to be one. It's a puzzle. It takes a little more than just time to solve it: two Evil people have to kind of understand the mindset of a Good wizard to get past it.

... so?

Uncommon or not, people in Stickverse know that liches, vampires and the like exist, and know one when they see one, invariably. Not warding the Gate against attacks by powerful undead creatures is not by any means the same thing as not foreseeing that some caster can use an obscure homebrewn spell only one (now dead) person ever knew to cast on someone they didn't even know to have been their relative, and not making arrangements to prevent that. I mean, they were a secret society. Few knew they even exist, fewer yet knew where they are, and none other than them knew their numbers and the fact that they were all related. Lirian's sloppiness is a stupid mistake, the draketooths' deaths, on the other hand, resulted from their (forgivable) lack of omniscience.

Xykon capturing the city would have allowed the clerics to cast desecrate on the gate room (twice if as guessed it was consecrated) and that has changes the nature of the battle a lot

Hm. I don't quite happen to know enough about D&D mechanic s in general and the mechanics of being a ghost martyr in particular to know if that would have solved their issues. Could you elaborate?
(Anyhow, I'd assume that the living members of the Guard would have held their ground against the low-level grunts well enough to prompt Xykon and Redcloak to enter the fray (or, at latest, they would have gotten themselves involved by neccessity once the martyrs started to grind up their hapless forcess); if they would have been both in the room when the martyrs attack, and they would have been killed, the army could have done precious little about the Gate for a while.)

and the defeated ghost martyrs did not seem to be coming back - they were basically wiped out.

Not Soon, the real problem, though.

The exact mechanics of a lich's vunurability when it is regenerating are not known within the OOTS world but in the rules unless you can touch the phylactery you can't stop the regeneration.

Soon seems to know fairly well how liches and their phylacteries work (v. panel no. 2).

You have panels 11 and 12 backwards - Xykon was escaping before Miko broke the gate and Soon did not get an Attack of Opportunity to finish him off (probably because he already to use it when Xykon tried to cast in panel 7).

Xykon and Redcloak were both in a terrible shape. Were it not for Miko destroying the Gate, it's a fair guess, to say the least, that he could have caught up with them before they can exit the room.

We don't actually know that the gate is in the tomb at all - it is likely but not confirmed, it is in theory possible for instance that the gate is buried under the tomb with no passage way to it in a small cell and that much of the current book will be the heroes and villian trying to find it and never succeeding.

Granted. We'll see how that works out, then.

[hroþila]

I believe Lirian was what made it work. An Epic Druid can tank an army, heck the OotS had a hard time with a single 9th level summon. All of the gate defenses except Kragor's amount to a holding action until the epic level defender deals with it personally.

True to an extent, but the nature of Lirian's Gate made it easy to keep Lirian away from the rift, making it extremely vulnerable to Redcloak just casually walking up to it.

Doesn't seem like that mattered all that much.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. If it's that once you blow up the whole pyramid it doesn't matter that there was a pyramid, then you'd be correct, but for that to be a factor you'd need someone to locate the pyramid first and for the Draketooths to not be all dead to dispose of any scouting parties lucky enough to stumble upon the pyramid. And even if the pyramid wasn't cloaked, it would still serve as a fortress of sorts, which is an obvious advantage against an army.