#TBT The Finale of the College Game

I've occasionally posted pics from the great finale to my "College Game" held in April 2000 at Griffon Games.  A simpler time with gonzo weekly sessions and some fun "off world" scenarios outside the school calendar.

The previous pictures focused on the grand battle that dominated the session.  Our heroes and their meager allies had been betrayed by cultists (surprise, surprise!) and stared down the forces of evil, led by the spider-god himself, Baraxus the Destroyer. 

The battle was suitably epic, and despite only one PC death (Velandro, Defender of Kobold Virginity.. or something like that), the battered and beleaguered forces retreat to an unfortunate last stand:  a farmhouse and barn heavily damaged by the battle, their backs against very steep hill and a wild stream engorged by the winter's thaw.  Nearing too close to the edge in heavy armor could result in a tumble into the water, and even the bravest warriors dreaded that unfitting end.

There had been a whole storyline involving the distant heirs to the throne of a near-forgotten empire and the hereditary sword that had been uncovered.  All the NPCs who had a connection were either dead or unconscious and the sword, the Bloodblade, which essentially deigned the wielder the Emperor of the Known World, was in the hands of a Wisdom 4 dwarf named Norm Dingleberry.


Things were not good.

The Very Bare-Bones layout of the barn in the final scene.

I did pull out a Deus Ex Machina at the end.  Leif IV, Emperor of the ancient and feared Empire of Feraso of hundreds of years prior, climbed up over the cliff and single-handedly slew some minotaur lord threatening the PCs.  It was enough for him to distract some of the big boys to allow the PCs to rally their forces and win the day.


Good ol' Leif IV helped revive his descendent, simple young Rurik, handed him the Bloodblade, and walked back down the hill.


When your ancestor has ascended to become Akana, God of Law and Order, you get a few perks. 


The Bloodblade clan's reign as a uniter of the continent was short-lived;  Rurik's grand-children did their best impression of Charlemagne's heirs, which helped explain the weird borders when I restarted the campaign into Hackmaster, seventy years later in game-time (one year in real-time).


Of course, this is also where I set up my best campaign ending ever, even if a borrowed excessively from Alan Moore