We continued the Pathfinder campaign conclusion, with the second part of the assault on Karzoug’s citadel. The group managed to finish off their first encounter with a full power Rune Giant, and then broke into the throne room, where they faced one of Karzoug’s generals. However, the battle was relatively quick, thanks to a well timed Prismatic Spray spell, and some well aimed vorpal swords. After only a few rounds, the general’s head was removed, the Rune Giant faced a similar fate, and another of the Cloud Giants was whisked away to another plane. The rest of the foes fell before the combined might of the group rather easily after that.
Moving on, the group started to scout ahead a bit, thanks to an Echolocation spell. With increased information as to what might lay beyond in rooms, they managed to bypass a few of the challenges. However, they could not resist investigating what appeared to be prison cells, despite the empty chamber. With no guardians, the barbarian pushed forward, and most of the group was surprised as the secret soldier was revealed – as an Astradaemon appears. With its natural displacement ability, the group had great difficulty striking the creature, and its magic resistance defeated many of the spells. The tide of the fight ended up very badly when the daemon struck down the necromancer with a Finger of Death spell, wiping out the caster in a single failed saving throw. In a bit of panic, the wizard burned his Wish spell, forcing the creature back to its plane of existence, and saving the rest of the group.
Although the combat was exciting, perhaps my favorite part was a bit of “natural” roleplaying on the part of the group. During a brief conversion, attempting to deal with a persistent image of Karzoug, the Paladin (obviously meaning by physical attacks) instructed the Wizard to strike at the image. The Wizard, without giving it a second thought, responded that “he had already used magic missile without effect”. Perhaps it was more meaningful in the moment, but it was a nice situation to have the Paladin and Wizard naturally interpret the situation with their own perspectives, rather than overthinking the conversation.
