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Monte Cook's second Ptolus campaign ended about three hours ago, about a week before the Cooks move to Milwaukee. Most of their stuff is in boxes and they're getting to the "make sure the fridge is empty" phase. It was easy to feel a little melancholy about the end of a long tradition and a regular meeting of good friends, but Monte had something special in mind, and there was no time for mourning. After seven years of Monday night memories, it all ended today in a marathon 10-hour session featuring more than 100 painted metal miniatures, exactly 47 fatalities, and a 100% survival rate for all 13 player characters represented by 6 players (Erik Mona, Bruce Cordell, Sue Cook, Jesse Decker, Christopher Perkins, and Michele Carter). Characters from the current and former Ptolus campaign were on the scene, allowing us to each play two characters. Chris Perkins played three characters, since he had a character in both the Monday night group (the "Runewardens") and the Wednesday night group (the "Company of the Black Lantern") in the first Ptolus campaign. My character from the first campaign, Zophas Adhar of Roth, is an aasimar paladin9/knight of the pale 8 with a holy avenger and an attack bonus in the mid-30s. My current character, pictured below, is an 11th-level chaotic neutral wizard named Barbatos Kem.
Barbatos Kem (Art by Eric Lofgren)
When not adventuring, Barbatos anonymously publishes a scandalous broadsheet called the Midtown Partisan. To help spread the news of some adventuring seminars Sue's character Benris wanted to sponsor at the party's magic shop, I sketched out the following sample front page of a typical Partisan issue.
The scene of tonight's festivities was a massive theater with balconies, private boxes, and rows and rows of benches. We were there because we knew that our enemy the annis hag crime lord Kevris Killraven was going to try to assassinate rival gang lord (and arch enemy of the party) Menon Balacazar. We wanted to make sure that whatever happened, neither of them left the theater alive.
When we arrived at Monte's, he had already drawn out the complete theater on Tact-Tiles. I snapped a quick shot of it with my phone camera:
Here's Barbatos's view of the stage, from the balcony directly across from Menon Balacazar's luxury box. Barbatos is the portly wizard in the red robes. The three-armed monstrosity standing behind him is the Cobbled Man, my character's flesh golem cohort. The woman in the blue robes to Barbatos's right is Sister Mara Von Witten, Sue Cook's character in the first Ptolus campaign.
After snapping these photos I counted the number of painted miniatures on the table and was surprised to see that there were exactly 100. It was absolutely shocking to see so many painted minis on display (perhaps a third were from Wizards of the Coast's range of prepainted plastics, but the rest were hand done by Monte, and represented only a tiny fraction of his overall collection). The number soon grew to about 130 as various assassins and evil wizards, monsters, and guards appeared on the scene. The most notable arrival was that of Kevris Killraven herself, mounted on a nightmare. She also had a few other friends, as you can see below.
It's not a great picture, but those of you who are familiar with D&D will instantly recognize the beholder and the mind flayer. They were terrifying opponents, but ultimately little match for six professional D&D players who have worked together once a week for nearly a decade.
My favorite words uttered by Barbatos tonight, and perhaps in the entire campaign:
"I wish for the entity inside my mind to take physical form and attack Kevris Killraven until she is dead, dead, dead!"That surprised Monte, and the fact that it actually worked made my week. In all my years of playing Dungeons & Dragons, I'd never had the chance to cast wish, the game's most powerful spell. I'd seen it come up a half-dozen times as a Dungeon Master, but I'd never had the thrill of doing it myself. Until tonight. The demon I yanked out had been burrowed away in my psyche for the last eight or so levels, equating to about two years of real time. It screamed about how it would get its revenge upon me as it tore and scraped into Kevris Killraven's flesh, but the hag was finally laid low by a hail of arrows from Jesse Decker's archer/cleric Tellian that weakened her to near death, allowing my paladin Zophas to lop off her head with a satisfying swing of the Ankh of Justice. Sue's character Sister Mara dispatched the enraged demon with a well-placed spell, and Barbatos was at long last free of its malign influence (and, regrettably, its arcane assistance).
A great end to a great campaign. It was an honor to play in Monte's Ptolus campaigns. My Monday nights will never be the same.
PS: You can buy Monte's new 720-page Ptolus: City by the Spire hardcover from Paizo. We also make a line of metal miniatures based on the urban fantasy campaign setting. You should check them out.