In which Grumbit Bingus solves months of buildup and planning via clever use of abilities, downtime, and the tiniest amount of strategic thinking during pivotal combat, which subverted my complete lack of any strategic thought.
The session starts where our previous session left off: The party has successfully killed Hubert Gagnon, and is about to receive their reward (20,000 GP) from King Fulbert. Unbeknownst to me, the events that would shortly transpire after that would derail where I thought this campaign had been going previously. Without the rest of the party present, I said we would do some downtime and follow through on some of Grumbit's personal aspirations.
Grumbit spent the next several days deep in study, trying to find anything he could about hags. He pored over a book about a hexblood who had transformed thousands of years ago despite the efforts of Saint Joan of Antimont, first leader of the Cilorian Church, to stop her transformation. Though Joan had failed to prevent this transformation, Grumbit was able (through several history and investigation checks) to discover other books about Joan's life, and piece together where this hag might have transformed.
Leaving the rest of the party in Maetrigar, Grumbit travelled to the place, now deep in the Royal Woods, killing several encounters with rogue undead along the way. At the location of the final transformation, Grumbit found overgrown wards and the site of an ancient battle to contain the transforming hag. Stepping inside the circle, Grumbit was overcome by the cackling voice of a disembodied hag. After a conversation that turned (as usual) confrontational almost immediately, Grumbit struck a deal with the hag, trading any future firstborn child to the hag so that she might regain a body in exchange for the knowledge of what he would need to halt or reverse a hag transformation.
With this knowledge, Grumbit returned to Maetrigar, with no leads on where he might find the ingredients and reagents he would need, the only thing Grumbit knew for certain was that he would have to find a way to perfect the soul transference magic that was in his Notebook of Holding. In real life, it was now about 6:15 PM.
Grumbit headed out to the Revenants' base, hoping to find some kind of advice from Demiphilos, but also with a hunch that he might have someone to experiment on. While Demiphilos couldn't provide any specific knowledge, he did tell Grumbit about the abandoned lab of Giovan that the rest of the party had destroyed when they first discovered the Shadow Kingdom. Grumbit also visited Amalia, and with his expert knowledge of Arcana, was able to sus out that one of several issues impacting her was that her soul was damaged, and she wouldn't be able to recover unless that were resolved first.
After a few hours exploring to find an entrance to the Shadow Kingdom, Grumbit managed to make his way to the old lab. Through a series of incredibly good rolls, Grumbit discovered a notebook with the missing information on how soul-transference works, and a small hidden hatch. Under that hatch, he found an arcane container, which he was able to deduce held the captured souls of many of Giovan's victims.
Racing back to Demiphilos, Grumbit was able to work with the ancient Revenant to channel some of that energy into Amalia. After a burst of light, she was left lying on the ground. Grumbit approached, shaking her awake. Amalia's eyes darted around of their own volition for the first time, and she began sobbing uncontrollably.
Leaving Amalia in Demiphilos's hands to recover, Grumbit journeyed back to the castle, intent on pursuing more information about Ravenor and "Operation Alcestis". Waiting for nightfall, Grumbit used Bench (and a potion from Tommy Heals) to sneak his way into King Fulbert's chambers undetected. Once inside, he cast Identify on the young monarch, discovering that he was under the effects of a powerful illusory spell. Now aware of the spell, Grumbit could see through it, recognizing that "Fulbert" was actually just some random guy.
Confused, Grumbit went to Sabina (who already hated him, as everyone does), and knocked on her door at 3 AM. She was understandably confused, but when Grumbit revealed what he had found out, a fight broke out. In the course of the battle, Grumbit discovered that Sabina had been working with Ravenor the entire time, and that the party had thus far been playing right into the Lich's plans.
Luckily for Grumbit, he has absurdly good AC, healing, and ranged tactics, and he was able to dispatch Sabina. The revolutionary had tried to flee through a secret tunnel in her chambers, which Grumbit now used to seek out Ravenor himself.
This tunnel led to (and through) a lengthy dungeon, which Grumbit traversed using stealth, potions, and cheesy tactics. He avoided at least 2-3 sessions worth of combats by just going around them, winding up at a ritual chamber where Ravenor was in the midst of chanting. The Lich continued his spell, but used a simulacrum to confront Grumbit and explain "Operation Alcestis". Via this complex ritual, Ravenor would transfer the souls of all living Cilorians into his Phylactory, restoring his body to its former glory, and emptying out the kingdom for his ghouls to inherit. Simultaneously, it would raise all their bodies as zombies to work the fields and serve in an undead legion to march against Beggar's Hole.
What followed was one of the most anti-climactic battles ever recorded. Using cheese, magic, and his damned crossbows, Grumbit dealt with the simulacrum (which was balanced to face the entire party) without taking a single point of damage. At that point, Ravenor started trying to cut and run, but Grumbit pursued effectively. Though he took some hits from AOE attacks, his potions proved enough to keep Grumbit just on the other side of outright dying, and he finished off the Lich. The Shadow Kingdom began collapsing around Grumbit without Ravenor to maintain it, and the little gnome (and his bench) escaped the tunnels just as they collapsed.
Above ground, Maetrigar was untouched, and no one was the wiser to what Grumbit had done. When Sabina was found dead, and the tunnel was discovered, a new republican government was quickly instituted on a provisional basis to prepare for proper elections. The latest scrying attempts on King Aelfwine showed that he had gone across the Cilorian border and was fleeing, likely for the Spice Islands.
A few hours later, Amalia reached the castle. When the Shadow Kingdom collapsed, all of the Revenants had died, leaving her alone. Grumbit led her to Raoul, and they had a tearful (and weird) reunion. Raoul apologized, but told Amalia that his heart belonged to Inej, and he couldn't take her back. Though she was hurt, Amalia accepted this and started making eyes at a certain very cool Baron travelling with the party.
Rewarded by the provisional government with 200,000 GP for the party, Grumbit led the party back to Oein, the port city they had entered Ciloria from. Once there, the party chartered a ship and we wait now to discuss where they may go next. From Ciloria, Raoul, Amalia, Penelope, and of course Bone journey alongside the truly huge contingent of people that came with the party from Beggar's Hole.
P.S. if any of this story strikes you as hard to believe (in terms of how quickly things happened, their outcome, or the implications they have for this campaign going forward, feel free to DM/text Andrew (or email I guess business@andrewkruck.com) and I'll be happy to explain any part of it. No seriously, you should probably text me if you've read this far, I'm sure you have questions.
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