#390

The Halls of Arden Vul

It’s finally happening! The assault on the Ziggurat of Kauket! Today about half an hour into the session the players jumpscared me with “we think we’re ready”—for some reason I thought they’d end a session with that and I’d have a week to mentally prepare myself.

They came up with a reasonable plan: they’d send three characters, made magically invisible, down the underground river (like when they scouted the ziggurat out) to loop around and open the portcullis from the inside, with that happening at the same time the army arrives. This part went fairly well, though they did alert the heqeti when they burst through a door without listening to see if anyone was on the other side first. But they completely lost the momentum they had after taking the portcullis by pausing for 40 minutes to set up a robot turret: useful to have if the enemy comes to you, but the heqeti fall back to defensive positions at the ziggurat itself (I’m not just screwing over my players, it’s what the book says!) to prepare ambushes and summon demonic allies. So the enemy had plenty of time to get all their lengthy demon-summoning rituals done, which they otherwise might not have.

The players then split their force into three, sending their allies towards the ziggurat itself while they went off down a side corridor (kind of a dick move if you ask me). They fought and overcame some enemies, and I think the players are finally getting a feel for why the heqeti are a dangerous faction: not so tough, at their level, if they get the drop on a scouting party; but if the heqeti have time to take up tactical positions their spellcasters are tough.

When they finally make it out to the ziggurat next session they’ll see a scene of pure chaos. Pitched battle between their forces and the heqeti in the marsh, a trio of 12ft tall demons stalking through the melee and melting people, giant corpse-white worms eating people, and heqeti spellcasters on the ziggurat throwing down fireballs from above. But I’m pretty confident the players will manage it.