End of an Era

In most cases I prefer to let the dice fall where they may, which on occasion leads to unexpected character deaths, like that of the beloved Brewmaster General. In very rare cases, I plan a character's death as an integral part of the story, the best example of which is the demise of Priam Romlin. This time, as part of the massive epic-tier adventure to celebrate our twentieth year of Druid Cycle action, I wanted to kill off a couple of characters, but I didn't have a clear idea as to which ones it would be. 

I contacted Jason and Timothy (separately) about their elite heroes, Sir Roberts and Cathbad, respectively, and asked them how they felt about sacrificing those characters for the sake of the story (and for other benefits that I would provide to their surviving characters). Both agreed to my plan. I also had two NPCs in mind, Pyrrhus and Ariel, whom I felt were expendable. So out of that pool of four heroes, I felt pretty confident that I could get two of them killed against a foe as powerful as Ekhis. Players may have noticed that I was extremely aggressive in the choices that Pyrrhus and Ariel made during the battle, and it wasn't by accident. 

Pyrrhus went down in a blaze of glory, and as the battle wore on, it became clear to me that Sir Roberts was the best choice for the player character death. He had taken the brunt of Ekhis's attacks and had dished out more damage than any other single hero. He'd earned an epic death scene. Jason was still interested in pursuing this storyline, and we agreed that the final fate of Sir Roberts should be somewhat ambiguous. In the end, the mighty paladin was trapped inside Ekhis's mouth and turned to stone along with the monster. Can the spell be reversed? Can he be rescued or resurrected at some point in the future? Only time will tell.

For the record, here's a photo of the battlefield from the final round of combat...