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Victorians on Ice: Endgame in Easthaven

Upon regaining their senses, they discovered they were back in Easthaven – though not at all the Easthaven they remembered. It was sacked, uninhabited, covered in sheets of ice, and Cyclopses roamed the streets. And a giant tower of ice loomed where the Temple of Tempos had once stood.

The spire was the obvious place to look for the cause of all of this – most likely Poquelin. But there did not appear to be an obvious way to gain entry.
They explored the town, fighting Cyclopses, until they found the villagers trapped in a stockade just to the south. After releasing them, the priest Everard explained the ritual necessary to enter the crystal tower, so off they ran.

Inside the tower they meet an old “friend”, Pomab. It turns out he was actively conspiring with Poquelin all along! And even suggested the expedition to Kuldahar explicit to provide an opportunity to eliminate Hrothgar!
When the conversation broke down and turned to violence, Victor had to find a way to battle multiple seemingly-invulnerable copies of Pomaj that swirled around him, mocking him.
Meanwhile the rest of the gang had to deal with regenerating guardians made of crystalline ice.
But eventually, Victor’s Waukeen-granted powers to see through deception allowed him to find the true Pomab and defeat him.
On the top level they found Poquelin examining Jerrod’s stone. Unfortunately Poquelin quickly took his true form… the arch-devil Belhifet!! And began to remove Jerrod’s seal to open a portal to hell!

But while Belhifet was distracted taunting them, the old priest Everard rushed past him and leapt into the portal, in the process re-sealing it with his sacrifice just as Jerrod had done!
Belhifet was furious!

Angus and Jim concentrated on taking out the Iron Golems.
Basil and Rose focused on countering Belhifet magically.
Victor had to hold Belhifet’s attention, while Maura had to do her best to protect him.
Finally Belhifet was defeated, and screamed in rage as he was discorporated back to Baator.
They couldn’t celebrate for long, because the ice crystal tower immediately began to collapse!
They watched in grim satisfaction as the tower shattered and crumbled away.
Then they took a brief respite, conferred with the townsfolk, and began to help rebuild the settlements in Easthaven, Kuldahar, and Dorn’s Deep.
Until they were engaged to visit the town of Lonelywood to investigate trade opportunities to help the rebuilding community recover… But that will be the next chapter in the tale!

7 responses to “Victorians on Ice: Endgame in Easthaven”

  1. atcDave Avatar
    atcDave

    I always imagine my party sticks around to help rebuild. It seems like the civilized thing to do!

    I like Pomab’s renders, of course the multiples scene seems like something the AI always wants to do anyway! But that comes out well here.

    I really like some of your results for Belhifet. Pretty frightening!

    Reply
    1. Zeno Avatar
      Zeno

      Belhifet actually turned out to be surprisingly easy. “Giant red satyr, persian armor,fiery aura” basically did most of the work.

      Hardest was all the combos. Most of these have at least two. Many effectively have three with the enemy. Victor, Rose, and Basil are usually pretty easy in combos. Angus isn’t bad. Maura is hard. And big ol’ lovable Jim… is a pain in the butt.

      The AI really hates to have a half-orc in there as a hero. The one of Angus and Jim with the iron golem was the worst. Basically 100 renders produced three or four shots with a recognizable Jim and Angus. It really wanted to either merge Jim with the golem or make him a regular British bloke and make the golem orcish. Sheesh! Talk about racism!

      I had a whole Epilogue set in mind. Rose organizing a library copying tomes from the Severed Hand and the Aquarium Museum. Maura filling in for Arundel until somebody else could be trained. Etc. But that’ll have to wait until after the Heart of Winter.

      Reply
      1. atcDave Avatar
        atcDave

        I love a good epilogue though, its what makes the hardship worthwhile.

      2. Zeno Avatar
        Zeno

        Yep. Definitely one coming at some point. Given Victor’s tendencies its a natural.

        I’ve never actually done “Trials of the Luremaster”. Had in my head that the party never returns from that. So may just finish Heart of Winter proper and then set up the Epilogue with Victor working to help the Ten Towns flourish.

      3. atcDave Avatar
        atcDave

        I always do it. It definitely does a few things differently, and mostly that means I don;t like it so much. I particularly dislike the jarringly different ambience from the rest of the game. I think it’s far more of an outlayer for IWD than SoD is for BG. And just logically there’s no place you would *want* to do it.

        and for all that, I still do it every time…

    2. Zeno Avatar
      Zeno

      Shall see how the characters react to it all. This is the first time I’ve started HoW from a new game rather than the shaman in the hut. I like the story flow much better this way. I suspect I’ll feel the same about HoW. Just doesn’t make sense to take a detour in the middle.

      Reply
      1. atcDave Avatar
        atcDave

        I agree with all of that. I also usually head off with the Shaman.

        I had one play where I rationalized Luremaster as a bored team-member was flirting with Hobart, and agreed to something without understanding and woosh! There we were…

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