The party beats Barnaby at the Cathedral of Gradska, stopping Gradska's spirit from returning to Hollin. They find the True Name of Ajana spell scroll under the Penance Chapel, and find that it gives power over Ajana's creation - a Wish. Haden tricks Ishild into disassembling his phylactery and Virgil secretly sabotages the reassembly. Ishild gives Virgil Word Without Warning to kill Ajana, but Virgil kills Ishild with it instead.
Before the game, Rob and I discussed the party's final fight with Barnaby by e-mail. Barnaby was Rob's original PC and he wanted to play Barnaby in the fight. Rob also wanted to challenge the party with a "really hard fight" where they could really die, and he leveled Barnaby up to a level 12 boss, Barnaby the Deceiver.
After a lot of back-and-forth, I had a bad feeling that the level 12 Barnaby would just rout the party. I vetoed the idea, saying that the other players had never signed up to get killed in a PvP deathmatch.
I kept digging into it after the e-mails though, and I figured out that I could add some NPCs to balance the fight a little in real-time. Not to decide the fight, but to avoid an unfun rout and make sure that no one had to sit around for four hours after being knocked out of the fight.
Rob arrived at the game before the other players and I asked if he would still like to play Barnaby in the fight. He said yes.
Mike said at a previous game that it was weird that Intimidation didn't use Strength, and that an optional rule actually allowed it. I'd also found it weird that Religion didn't use Wisdom, playing in another campaign. So I said we'd allow Strength for Intimidation, Wisdom for Religion, and Wisdom for Nature.
In the fight with Grunvaldr in the last game, Grunvaldr dropped Gradska's sword and Kiltak picked it up. I said then that it was a +2 sword. But Gradska's sword would be a legendary Hollin artifact, so between games I gave it some more oomph and a name.
The Queen of the Ashes
Gradska's sword.
I asked the players if they would like to fight Barnaby/Rob player versus player. They said yes, with Mike saying, "I want a shot at him, even if it costs us all our lives."
The players asked what they still had to do besides fight Barnaby. I said if they wanted to help Ishild kill Ajana, they would get the True Name of Ajana from the Penance Chapel, then go to Ishild's lair, the Hollin Grimoire. If they didn't want to help Ishild, then maybe they would fight him?
Christian said they wanted to "incept" an idea into Ishild's head, maybe by a letter, or maybe by Persuasion. I said they could Persuade by mail if they wanted.
The campaign was almost done, and I suggested we could finish the campaign this game. I had three real encounters left, and if we didn't quite finish them all, we could just resolve them with a little discussion instead of playing them out. The players agreed.
The last game ended when the party beat Grunvaldr. Now the party took a long rest. Haden and Victor rolled portents, 5 and 13 respectively. Haden also had a visitor:
Haden receives a visitor during his long rest - Ivy, a little flying fairy, a Tinkerbell type.
Ivy brings a message from Aurora: Barnaby is planning to go to the Cathedral of Gradska in Lofton.
I asked which of the three main remaining things they would like to do - hunt down Barnaby at the Cathedral of Gradska; help Isild, which would mean going to the Penance Chapel to look for the Name; or fight Ishild.
Ishild was obsessed with resolving paradoxes, and Christian suggested in a previous game that they might be able to beat Ishild with a paradox rather than violence. Now Christian produced a letter to Ishild describing such a paradox:
Greymark's Paradox
Dear Ishild,
I came across a problem that has puzzled me and may prove of interest to you. Imagine that a powerful mage were to imbue his soul into a clock, making the mage immortal. Over time, the clock shows wear and tear. The mage may replace a screw, a spring, a cover, the hands. Each time he does this, he places the broken pieces in a box. Over thousands of years, he finds that there are enough pieces in the box to create a brand new clock. The new clock is made entirely out of his old clock. Which clock contains the mage's soul? Does the mage now have two souls?
But of course, to disassemble and repair such a clock would require an item of immense power.
Food for thought.
Sincerely, Haden
Haden had a messenger boy deliver the letter to Ishild. Half an hour later, Haden received a Message in his mind:
We must resolve your fascinating problem. Please come to the Grimoire immediately to discuss it.
The entire party went. Although they had visited the Grimoire before, I put down a fancy new map of it.
Hollin Grimoire, bottom level
They talked with Ishild there, and he welcomed Haden's fascinating question again. He clarified that his own phylactery wasn't a clock, but part of a green meteor that he originally got from Morningstar Observatory.
He said that the phylactery was protected by a "spacetime" shell. He explained that a black hole bends spacetime so much that there's no path in four-dimensional spacetime from the black hole's center to the outside - which is why even light can't escape a black hole. His phylactery's spacetime shell did the opposite: it bent spacetime so much that there was no path in four-dimensional spacetime from the outside to the center. No object, no force could damage the phylactery because there was no path the object could take to impact the phylactery. Spacetime and objects flowed around the phylactery like water flows around a rock in a stream.
I said Haden's plan was to destroy the phylactery, but just destroying the phylactery wouldn't kill Ishild. Did they have a plan for that?
They weren't sure that they could kill Ishild - some AI podcasts about our earlier games said that liches are 18th level. (The 5e Monster Manual actually says liches are challenge rating 21.) However, I said that the party in the original Hollin campaign had actually killed Ishild twice. And they had also learned in Game 14:
Ishild also mentioned that through another helper, Beale the Goldenpiper, he had the fairy assassination spell Word Without Warning. Attacking with Word Without Warning would automatically kill "anything" if the user's attack had (in game terms) advantage on the victim. Ishild suggested that perhaps a rogue like Virgil might be able to get advantage on Ajana and try it.
I suggested that if "anything" could include Ajana, it could also include Ishild. If Ishild actually gave Virgil Word Without Warning to use on Ajana, Virgil could potentially use it on Ishild instead.
They said this all seemed pretty dangerous, so they would deal with Barnaby first and tackle Ishild last. When they said they would come back later, Ishild said he would use the time to get his phylactery out of its shell for the experiment, and to send a minion to Morningstar Observatory for more of the green meteor, to use in making the replacement phylactery.
They asked Ishild, if his phylactery was a meteor and not made of parts, how would they do the experiment described in Haden's letter? Ishild said there was a primordial fairy forge in Lofton Castle, and they could cut up his phylactery there, disassemble it, and reassemble it.
They also asked, if nothing could penetrate the spacetime shell, how would he cut up the phylactery? Ishild said there was no spacetime shell without spacetime, and there was no spacetime without time. So he would take the phylactery to Kairos, the plane without time, where the shell would fail.
I asked the players for a final clarification of how their plan would actually destroy the phylactery. They said that the party's rogue, Virgil, would secretly replace one of the phylactery's parts with a different piece of meteoric iron as Ishild was working. So the reassembled phylactery wouldn't be a complete reconstruction of Ishild's phylactery.
The party went to the Cathedral of Gradska to confront Barnaby.
They entered on the east side, at the bottom of the map. The pentagram, which was a Circle of Nerfed Blight in Game 4, wasn't there. Instead they saw:
You arrive at the ruined Cathedral of Gradska in Lofton, where you fought Astrid and stopped the Fey Extinction Event in Game 4.
When you enter again now, you see Barnaby standing under the dome at the far end, with the Lady of the Coven, Hebona. Millicent and her line of succession - Helga, Klaus, and Lord Huggins - are laid out on four slabs nearby. Lines of blazing green fire go up from their four chests and cross the air over to Barnaby, into his chest.
We'd said at the beginning of the game that Wisdom could be used for Religion, which gave Victor the highest Religion, +3. He rolled Religion with Guidance, a 24, and learned:
Religion check
I also told them:
Each round after Barnaby's turn, Gradska will consume one of Millicent, Helga, Klaus, or Huggins. When he has consumed all four, he will possess Barnaby's body and be loose again in the world.
Each round the party can make a contested Religion check against Gradska to prevent him from consuming an heir that turn. However, Gradska has +7 Religion.
Mike immediately suggested killing one of the captives so that Gradska couldn't consume the four life forces that he needed. I hadn't considered this tactic in designing the encounter and Mike's suggestion surprised me. Although I was surprised, I wasn't shocked, since killing captives was practically Kiltak's trademark, and the seven strange women had called him out for it as early as Game 5.
Fayne asked who the weakest captive would be and I said Lord Huggins, a young child. They asked if Millicent and her family were good or evil, and I said they were neutral. Elgis decided not to kill one, but Mike said Kiltak would kill one, saying it was for the greater good and "I have no morality here." Dan wasn't at the game, but the other players said that Virgil wouldn't kill any captives.
They rolled initiative, and Virgil and Barnaby went first in the initiative order. Virgil moved up, hid behind some rubble, and hit Barnaby with his crossbow. Barnaby moved up 60 feet and cast Sanctuary on himself as a bonus action.
After Barnaby's turn, Gradska's voice rang out from Barnaby's body, addressing Haden:
You wear my coat of arms on Ash Turner's tabard, and I claim the allegiance that coat of arms declares.
Haden declined with a simple "no." Gradska's voice reached out to Kiltak, similarly saying:
You wear my coat of arms, on Marin Brock's tabard, and I claim the loyalty that badge implies.
Kiltak replied by giving Barnaby/Gradska the finger. But Gradska tried again:
You carry my sword - a sword stolen from me. Be the spear of my army instead, and I will multiply the power of that sword many times.
Kiltak replied with the finger again, but Gradska persisted:
Your friends plan to take over the Company in disguise and rule in Board meetings. Such nonsense isn't for you - join me and our armies will subjugate all of Anhault and every city state on the Bellem Sea.
Kiltak replied with the finger one more time, saying "What part of this are you not getting?" Gradska said, "So be it."
I also noted for Elgis:
You prayed at the Chapel of Gradska in Ulm's Monument in Game 2 and received a blessing. But when you prayed at the Chapel of Gradska in the Cathedral of Gradska in Game 4, you were struck by a feeling of emptiness. Now you feel that feeling of emptiness being replaced with the presence of Gradska.
The fight went four rounds. The party targeted both Helga, trying to eliminate one of the life forces that Gradska needed, and Barnaby.
For his part, Barnaby savaged the party with Steel Wind Strike in rounds 2 and 4. He also used An Eye for an Eye, a special legendary action that Rob had suggested for Barnaby, after Victor's turn on round 2:
An Eye for an Eye
Reaction in response to being damaged.
Barnaby deals half of the damage he has accumulated back out as force damage, evenly to any opponents within 30 feet. Each target damaged this way is pushed back 10 feet (similar to Repelling Blast).
Barnaby also cast 6th level Hold Person on the whole party in round 3. When Virgil, Kiltak, and Haden failed their Hold Person Wisdom saves, Barnaby called out to Kiltak just as Gradska had:
I have done you no harm. I have held you in place for but a moment. I understand you're upset, I truly do. But Board meetings? You're going to run the Company? You're a warrior.
Kiltak again refused to join Barnaby/Gradska, and Barnaby said:
Fair enough, I gave you an option. Now I don't have to be civil.
Although Hebona was a powerful immortal, I just had her help Barnaby, not attack the party directly. The fairy queen Aurora was still in love with Virgil, and she appeared after Barnaby cut into the party with his first Steel Wind Strike; she similarly helped the party and didn't attack Barnaby directly. (These were the NPCs I mentioned at the top of this writeup, who I used to balance the fight a little and try to keep it fun.)
Victor rolled the contested Religion check against Gradska each round. With his +7 Religion, Gradska scored a better result than Victor every time, but I still gave Victor one win for rolling a natural 20. Through the fight, Gradska consumed Huggins's, Helga's, and Klaus's life forces.
The party did kill Helga, temporarily preventing Gradska from consuming her life force. My notes say that Hebona tried to Revivify Helga, but Haden successfully Counterspelled her Revivify, making Hebona fail her CON save with his low portent roll. My memory though is that Hebona did successfully Revivify Helga, perhaps on another try later, because Gradska getting all four life forces was a danger throughout the fight.
The party eventually took Barnaby down late in round 4, with Haden knocking him unconscious with his great sword. To the other players' surprise, Barnaby didn't die, but used Lolani Phyla's Moon Shadow Cloak to transform into a Shadow and dissipate. However, the party had stopped Gradska from returning to Hollin.
The Hollin Codex Hollin page just describes Gradska as a "demigod warlord" who "originally led people to Hollin." I'd never suggested that Gradska was good or evil, or lawful or chaotic, and I asked the players how they saw Gradska. Some of Rob's previous comments suggested that Gradska was a warmonger (my word), and I believe that Rob now specifically said that Gradska was "an evil god of war." Mike said that Gradska was "evil as fuck."
Although the party wanted to undermine Ishild, they still decided to seek out the True Name of Ajana that he'd asked for, to see what they could learn.
We only had about an hour left, so elided over most of the Penance Chapel encounters. They started at the Chapel's ground floor, which they'd seen in Game 1.
They took the stairs down to the Penance monks' living quarters in the first basement...
...then down to the crypts in the second basement.
In the crypts, they found a ledger (burial) stone in the floor that didn't have anyone's name on it. They pulled it up and found a carved stone stair going down. At the bottom, they found a simple stone cavern.
They saw an angelic figure standing in the center, and behind him, two other angelic figures in front of doors. The center one said:
"Welcome, I am Marad."
He said that the other two were called Naru and Kalla. They asked if the three were angels. Marad didn't know that word, but said:
We have always been here. The True Name of Ajana has always been here.
He also told them:
One of these doors leads to the True Name of Ajana. The doors are guarded by Naru and Kalla. One always lies and one always tells the truth. You can ask Naru or Kalla just one question to decide which door leads to the True Name.
The other door leads to eternal damnation.
Now they saw, to the right, the seven strange women had appeared. The women said:
Kiltak Bloodbane.
You know the question to ask to find the safe door, from the steam reasoning engine. But it seems like you, an "agent of chaos," would be obliged to pick a random door without asking anything. Otherwise I guess all of your "agent of chaos" talk is just bullshit.
Mike immediately said that Kiltak would grab one of them women and push them through a random door. But the women were spectral and Kiltak wasn't able to grab them.
Haden said, "Now wait a minute," and started to refresh his memory on how the riddle worked. In the meantime, the seven strange women said:
Virgil the Vicissitude.
You've gone back and forth a little on Ajana's existence.
You said in Game 2 that you "respected the mythos of Ajana - respected but didn't believe." In Game 14 you were "starting to believe maybe," but then in Game 15 you again suggested that Ajana might not exist, because everything could be an illusion.
Regarding Ajana's True Name: after you learned the True Name in Game 4 you told Merrick that "you saw." But later in Game 12, you said that searching for the True Name might be futile, that to "seek and know is suffering without end." Would the futility and suffering be specifically about the Name, or about Ajana's existence more generally?
Virgil, in your estimation, what is the probability that Ajana exists? Give us a number.
Although Dan wasn't at the game, Dan and I had discussed this question over e-mail, and I had Virgil report Dan's answer: 80%.
They asked the angels the question to identify the wrong door, and went through the other, correct door. Inside they found the True Name of Ajana spell scroll:
The True Name of Ajana spell scroll
The True Name of Ajana is all true statements that can't be proven true.
That's an infinite set of statements, but they can all be spoken simultaneously using this spell, also called the True Name of Ajana.
Saying the True Name, using this spell, gives the speaker power over Ajana's creation - a Wish.
They took the True Name scroll and left the Chapel.
They discussed how to handle Ishild, and whether to use the wish against Ishild or Barnaby. Regarding just wishing that Ishild or Barnaby was dead, I reminded them of the text of the Wish spell:
...state your wish to the DM as precisely as possible. The DM has great latitude in ruling what occurs in such an instance, the greater the wish, the greater the likelihood that something goes wrong. This spell might simply fail, the effect you desire might be achieved only in part, or you might suffer an unforeseen consequence as a result of how you worded the wish. For example, wishing that a villain were dead might propel you forward in time to a period when that villain is no longer alive, effectively removing you from the game.
Fayne suggested wishing that Ishild and Barnaby were tangled against each other in an eternal hell, in a fight neither could win. Mike suggested using the wish to go back in time, to the beginning of the campaign, and Christian said their memories might also go back in time.
I suggested that if they used Word Without Warning to kill Ishild, they could still use the wish on Barnaby. The party couldn't kill Barnaby at the Cathedral because he had Lolani Phyla's Moon Shadow Cloak, and Christian suggested wishing Barnaby was naked. Mike suggested they wish that Barnaby was completely helpless, and Fayne suggested they wish that Barnaby was just a fly buzzing around a pile of crap. They also suggested giving the wish to Ishild so the wish's "unforeseen consequences" would fall on him; or giving Ishild the True Name on the condition that he use the wish against Barnaby.
They decided to deal with Ishild. They said:
I said that Virgil would need to make a Sleight of Hand check to sabotage the phylactery while Ishild was experimenting on it, and Ishild would get to make an Insight check to detect Virgil's Word Without Warning treason. They decided to wait through a few long rests and make repeated portent rolls until they got one low portent and one high portent. After about five rests, they got a 4 and a 16.
They went to meet Ishild at the Lofton Castle forge. They watched while Ishild experimented with his phylactery, cutting it apart and reassembling it. Virgil had +8 Sleight of Hand, so his Sleight of Hand check with the 16 portent was 24 - a success. Virgil replaced one of the phylactery pieces with their own meteoric iron, sabotaging the reassembled phylactery.
They went back to Ishild's lair, the Hollin Grimoire. Ishild had promised to tell them where they could find 10M gold pieces if they gave them the rest of the Greencake, and they did. Ishild told them that Grunvaldr's cavern lair was high in a specific mountain outside of Welkin, and that it held hugely more than 10M gold pieces. They asked if it was unguarded, and Ishild said "it is now," since the party had killed Grunvaldr in Game 16.
Haden set up a magic circle around the party, presumably to protect the party from Ajana, but actually to protect them from Ishild. We talked a little about how a default magic circle could be Dispelled easily, since Magic Circle was only a level 3 spell. The Grimoire actually had some existing magic circles, B-H on the map, but some of those had alarming blood stains from when they'd failed to protect their summoners.
Virgil used his Rogue Steady Aim as a bonus action, to get Advantage and therefore a Sneak Attack on Ishild. I gave Ishild his Insight check to detect Virgil's attack, but the party substituted the 4 portent for his roll and he failed. Virgil fired off Word Without Warning using the Sneak Attack, killing Ishild.
They looted the Grimoire, but I said they already had the best treasure, the True Name / Wish. Of course, they could also take back the 20M gold pieces worth of Greencake.
They discussed using the wish to kill Barnaby. Christian said (my notes):
We go up to a high cliff. We wish that Barnaby's physical position is 20 feet in front of us off the cliff, with one hit point, without any clothes on, without any changes in dimension, age, physical appearance, mind state, or our mind state at the time. The environment doesn't change.
We joked that the campaign credits would start to roll while Haden listed off an infinite list of wish caveats. Christian continued:
No cloak, no spells of saving, with his spell slots drained.
I didn't immediately see any fun "unforeseen consequences" for the wish, and the wish went off as Haden intended. Rob said that Barnaby would have been sipping coffee when he was teleported to the cliffside, and Barnaby fell down the cliff and died.
I asked what the characters would do after the campaign. They'd talked about taking over the Company in disguise, would they do that? They said no: