Scarlet Citadel Session 65 – Gellert Defeated!

After 66 sessions (including Session 0), we finished my Scarlet Citadel campaign last Monday. I’ve had a great deal of fun running the game online over the past two years and eight months!

Over the length of the campaign, there have been nine PCs, six players, and two special guests (running Barrett the Red Hart when we’ve been short of numbers). Despite the deadliness of the dungeon, there have been no PC deaths since the TPK back in session 14. My group learned early on (after triggering the trap at the bottom of the stairs on Level 2 a dozen or so times!) to proceed with caution and know when to run away.

As an experiment, I went back to using XP for this campaign, and awarding it for treasure as well as fighting monsters. This old school approach worked to motivate the players into exploring every nook and cranny of the dungeon. They also needed to return to town to level up, which helped the characters build attachments with the people of Redtower.

Here’s what happened in the final session as a furious Gellert the Gruesome attacked the adventurers for killing the voidling and destroying the sphere of annihilation on Level 6.

You can read earlier posts here. This post contains spoilers for Scarlet Citadel.

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As battle is joined, Tunde casts blink, while Maya and Tricksy attack Gellert’s clay golem. Gellert casts glimpse of the void, sending Clairmont insane. The cleric dashes to the northern corner of the room and curls up in a ball.

Tricksy turns invisible and hides, and Tunde is blinking, which leaves Maya exposed in the middle of the room as a constant target for Gellert’s fire bolts, cast as legendary actions.

Tunde and Tricksy both attack the sorcerer, trying to break his concentration while Maya fights the clay golem. Tricksy’s sneak attack does the trick and Clairmont is back in the fight. 

Badly wounded, Gellert casts life drain to damage the characters and heal himself. Maya falls unconscious, but Gellert also kills his own golem with the spell. He’s not too worried, as his monolith champion butler arrives shortly afterwards.

Tricksy tries to cast suggestion on Gellert but charm spells don’t affect him. Then, Gellert counterspells Maya’s flame strike. Finally Clairmont bursts into radiance, killing the wounded sorcerer. With Gellert dead, the characters destroy the monolith champion, with the killing blows coming from Clairmont’s scorching ray.

After searching Gellert’s body and taking his brooch of shielding, cloak of protection, and unquiet dagger, the adventurers have a short rest.

They summon the boatman and travel to Gellert’s Landing where they drink potions of augmented reality so they can enter his living quarters. Inside, Tricksy is attacked by Gellert’s rug of smothering. After dealing with the feisty carpet, they loot the chamber and investigate the door to the south.

Tunde sends her familiar Mab into the submerged corridor behind the door and into the cavern beyond. When Mab winks out, killed by a ghostly foe, the characters decide not to push their luck. They return to Redtower, victorious.

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Epilogue

With the adventure over, I asked each player what their character is doing a year later:

• Tunde takes her apprentice Gabe to see the vila Dutberta in the ruins of Erdovar. She hopes to earn a boon of steel teeth from Baba Yaga, and continues to keep an eye on the Scarlet Citadel from her hut in the woods.
• Clairmont carries out regular services in Khors’ temple, and watches over Redtower, helping the town militia as needed. He lobbies the paladins and priests of Khors to mount an expedition to clear out the Scarlet Citadel once and for all.
• Maya goes on a pilgrimage to the Seat of Mavros, and builds a cathedral to the war god as promised.
• Tricksy continues to return to the Scarlet Citadel, obsessively searching the dungeon for more gold.

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Main image by David Auden Nash