I’ve been so preoccupied with Zindia lately, that I haven’t kept you all up to date on the actual game that I played involving Demogorgon and the Savage Tide Adventure Path.
Once I realized that there was a great Demogorgon “miniature” that was made for Loot Crate, I picked one up so that I could use it in my epic conclusion. It’s pretty rad!
Loot Crate DX Demogorgon Figure
With a suitable representation of my foe, I was able to finally bring together the finale of the game, and try out some high-level play. Typically, the Dorks don’t play high-level games. We tried one time when Swat B ran the D&D 3.0 adventure The Bastion of Broken Souls. As it was a “let’s see what this is all about” standalone game, I was able to play a ghaele eladrin using the rules from the (then) recently released Savage Species book. Overall, we didn’t really enjoy all the accounting involved with running high level characters and having to determine the length of their buffs. It detracted from the gameplay, in my opinion, and I wasn’t a fan.
So it was also with my Pathfinder version of the the adventure Prince of Demons. It was a bit exacerbated by the fact that I had to run all characters and enemies by myself, but I still had fun running the game. I don’t quite think the bookkeeping and accounting were quite as bad this time around, but it was hard for me to remember everyone’s powers and options as I was playing. In fact, I frequently forgot some of the character’s special abilities, I forgot to decrease the DCs of some of Demogorgons’s attacks, I had characters cast spells not looking at their casting time, etc. It really proved that I need to game more, lol.
Wat Dagon battlemap with Loot Crate DX Demogorgon Figure
Here’s basically how it went:
First of all, the “miniature” was way too big to use effectively in the confines of Wat Dagon, so I swapped it with a more appropriate “huge” miniature. I didn’t play through the battles that took place in Wat Dagon so I could focus on Demogorgon, so I had Oloma burn through some cure wands to get everyone back to full hit points, and then I had Eshana cast a miracle to replenish the spellcaster’s spells. That might have been fudging the game a little, but hey, it’s Demogorgon!
Demogorgon delivered his telepathic speech after gating into the room. He was beat in initiative by Damien, Zan, and Gwynharwyf. Damien attacked (ineffectively) with his bow, Zan maneuvered to flank, and Gwynharwyf changed into her whirlwind form. Demogorgon took the master pearl and swallowed it, attempted a quickened feeblemind on Oloma, and also summoned a balor. Oloma and Eshana cast buff spells, and Belanor moved to attack.
The next 6 rounds, if I’m to be honest (and succinct) were a bit boring. Mostly because I was playing by myself. If I was playing with the Dorks it would have been way different. As it was, though, managing 5 20th level characters, an Eladrin Lord, a balor, and the Prince of Demons by myself wasn’t as fun as I had hoped. Zan turned out to be very ineffectual at actually hitting the Demon Lord, and very effective at taking negative levels from Demogorgon’s tail attack. Demogorgon was constantly able to dispel Oloma’s magics, and she was constantly unable to penetrate his spell resistance (because of surprisingly bad rolls every time she tried). Eshana stood out as incredibly useful and productive, as did Belanor. Damien fought valiantly, killing the balor in two rounds, but ultimately was slain by Demogorgon beside Gwynharwyf (who was destroyed in two rounds). Belanor frequently dished out hundreds of points of damage, and landed the blow that destroyed the Prince of Demons.
Loot Crate DX Demogorgon Figure side view
With the destruction of the Prince of Demons, the crown was now up for grabs. I had always hoped that eventually Oloma would be able to take the crown had we ever played the game to completion, but as it was I really thought Orcus was a shoe-in to win. Zan even put in his bid, of course at the insistence of Malcanthet. In a bit of karmic dice balance, though, Oloma’s 1’s, 2’s, and 3’s rolled throughout the night were more than made up for when she rolled a 20 on her Charisma roll to claim the crown. Unfortunately for her, so did Belcheresk. Even though her total would have been higher than his, I still had them re-roll, just to be fair. Oloma again came out on top, and Iggwilv smiled as her descendant Oloma claimed the crown as the new Queen of Demons.
…but that is another story.