After quite a long run, we unfortunately closed the books on the Age of Ashes campaign over the weekend. During our prior sessions, the group had become over extended, and managed to get themselves captured by the Scarlet Triad. After the villain revealed their plans, he activated a death trap (on a very slow clock), and left the group with a single (fairly potent) guard – the only gear they had been relieved of was their weapons. The group rather quickly managed to escape their bonds, but then rather than using a bit of stealth, deception, or even lore skills, immediately moved to attack the guard. This in turn became a running battle with several members expanding the fight into additional rooms, fairly rapidly escalating both the fight and the challenge.
After many rounds, the group simply could not keep up with the onslaught of alerted guards and their attempts to resubdue the group, and all were defeated again.
Although we have been using Hero Points and optional rules around them, this was the second major defeat for the group, and really signaled to me that the campaign had run its course. As such, with the group fading to black, we closed the story as a loss, the efforts of the Scarlet Triad being victorious, and any future plans going unopposed.
For the group, we are now re-evaluating the future plans. Likely we will skip the next few sessions to take a break, and then resume or restart another storyline. This may be Pathfinder 2e again, although I am also considering a few other options. Stay tuned for news as we regroup.
