As I mentioned yesterday, we managed to finally wrap up the Rise of the Runelords campaign, with the second of a two part finale. In the first half, the group had believed victory was in their hands, when a contingency Wish spell was activated, rejuvenating and reinforcing Karzoug.
We started the session with things looking bad for the bad guys – in the first two actions, Karzoug received 350 HP of damage from the Fighter and Paladin combined, wiping out almost all of his healing. However, the tide quickly turned, when he used a quickened Dimension Door to escape, followed by a Force Cage to take the melee warriors out of the fight. The Barbarian was still lost in a prior Maze spell, so the melee options were limited.
The group countered by summoning an Earth Elemental (which was lost to a Temporal Stasis spell), and by summoning a Roc to catch the Feather-falling Cleric before she reached the lava below (which started to receive volleys of arrows from the Storm Giant). The Blue Dragon was effectively countered with an Irresistible Dance spell, taking him out of action for several rounds. Finally, they were able to rescue the Barbarian thru a clever (and potentially rule-bending) use of a Discern Location spell, followed immediately by a Greater Dispel Magic (to locate and target the Maze spell). Not I believe technically per the rules, but it felt right, and seemed reasonable.
As the group managed to close back in on Karzoug, he again used another quickened Dimension Door, transporting himself far across the battlefield, and adding to the challenge of the already struggling group. As a final Hail Mary type tactic, the Wizard grabbed the Anathema Archive artifact from the remains of the Sorcerer, willing the potent item to reveal a Wish spell. Unfortunately, the fates had other plans, and the item revealed a random spell instead – a Trap the Soul spell. Not the intended plan, and certainly unlikely to function against the strong will of Karzoug, but they gave it a try regardless. It was with much relief and excitement when the villain (rolling openly) rolled a 1 on his saving throw – the body and soul of Karzoug being sucked into and trapped in the scroll itself.
Of course, with the villain not dead, this lends itself to future sequels.
