It Took Over 4 Years, But Ebondeath Died Last Night!

Started August 8, 2018 on FGC and finished last night (5/3/23) with FGU. The longest campaign I've ever run, and fully to story completion.

Party started at level 1 in the Undermountain. And yes several character met their deaths in the dangerous dark.
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Then proceeded to the Alexandrian Remix of Dragon Heist, where Amalia and the twins escaped justice and established a vendetta against the party. From there they travelled to Leilon to limit the influence of Dagult, whom they had thwarted in Dragon Heist. Using the Beyond Icespire Trilogy (Storm Lord's Wrath, Sleeping Dragons Wake, and Divine Contention) the party first encountered Ebondeath, and thought they killed him only to discover the mythic dracolich had 3 phylacteries and the destruction of the one they destroyed in the Deadman's Mere only made the dracolich stronger! Using their acquired taverns (the Trollskull in Waterdeep and the Ogreskull in Leilon) as bases of operations, the party had to purge the Sword Coast of a rogue Death Knight Dreadnought and then pursue rumors of the 3 phylacteries.

One rumor led them to their old foe Amalia and her new stronghold in the Dessarin Valley. Though they defeated her and her devil allies, it wasn't before Amalia could transport them to her patron Asmodeus's realm Nessus, the Ninth layer of Hell. The acquired the second phylactery and escaped before the arch devil's hordes could descend upon them.

Sometime in their searches they stumbled upon the old Tomb of Acererak, destroying the ancient demi-lich and relieving the tomb of much treasure. And once they were attacked upon the road by Ebondeath and discovered he was more powerful than before, and was amassing capable allies.

The final phylactery was discovered in Neverwinter and in the vault of the Lord Protector Dagult. Here they called upon an old ally who had helped in the siege of Leilon, the knight Luin Diay. Only to discover that Luin was actually the true heir of Neverwinter's former ruler Lord Nasher. Much debate was had within the party and then a challenging time convincing Luin he should overthrow Dagult. But revelations of Dagult's embezzlement and mismanagement convinced the knight to step forth and make claim to the crown. Which with the party's help, they were able to retrieve the phylactery and place the crown upon Luin's head and bring death to their long time foe.

With both phylacteries in hand, the party had to find ways to destroy the artifacts. They chose to travel to the Plane of Molten Ash and the City of Brass. Here they acquired powerful magics, fought giants and celestials and in the end brought havoc and rebellion to the city. And proceeded to destroy the Great Ziggurat at the center of the city as a "side-effect" of the phylacteries destruction. But hey, it's not like they were planning on visiting again...

Having reached level 20, all the party had to do now was to kill the mythical Ebondeath. The dracolich who had lived a thousand year or more. BUT, the players wanted to enjoy their newfound powers, and so the lich Iniarv rose to reclaim his tower (that they party had claimed as a trading post). Reclaiming the claimed tower was fairly straight forward fight with a powerful lich in his own lair supported by boneclaws, ghasts, a pit fiend, and a death knight. Next, Asmodeus returned to kidnap some of their oldest friends; Luin Diay, Renear Neverember, Ulkoria Stonemarrow, and Fenna Banfyx. It took two tries, but the party rescued them, and resurrected those they had killed!

Finally, Ebondeath (with plague wyverns and harpies) attacked Waterdeep itself (yes, the DragonStaff had previously been sundered). Vajra (and the mages of the tower) held the dracolich upon the top of the Blackstaff tower, giving the heroes of Waterdeep time to arrive, but in doing so gave her life and that of many mages. The Blackstaff then gave itself to the party's sword mage, who in return sundered the staff in a failed attempt to kill the dragon. But in the end the heroes prevailed, and the dragon was brought down with a meteor swarm.
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And for those who want to see the stat block:
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And so, after more than four and a half years, my most successful and enjoyable campaign has ended. Thanks to:
Ardwill, Sword Coast Master of the Wild
Meinan, The Blackstaff
Lord Will, Masked Lord of Waterdeep
Daxmog, High Harper of Leilon
Manny, Overwizard of Luskan's Host Tower
Sorin, Thalomor of Sharindlar

Well done. That sounds awesome.

Nice work.

Congratulations and it is awesome that you have had the same group to not only game together but also go through 1 long campaign together. Bravo!

Completing a 4-year campaign is amazing. Congrats.

Using a dracolich with multiple phylacteries is a great idea for an easy recurring villain. The players get to go all out each time they seem them and yet the threat is not fully neutralized. I might have to steal that idea for a future campaign. :D

Dang it! well, I guess I'll find something else to do tonight.

Epic! That’s awesome. Congratulations, it’s satisfying to fully complete any campaign since it’s often they fall apart at some point, but a multi year one is an achievement.

Huzzah! Epic ending to an awesome campaign, it seems.

Thanks all :)
Certainly tried to make it an epic ending to a campaign for the players. I liked the idea of the multiple phylacteries (admitted inspiration from He Who Must Not Be Named) and how it gave the party a reoccurring bad guy that they could defeat multiple times with him getting stronger as they got stronger. (And no oh he escaped, or other mechanics that the BBEG didn't let the party get away or didn't fight to his fullest). Tons of other fights in there too (including a trip to Myth Drannor and Anauroch). We played almost every week, about 2 hours per session.

...that this was the best group I've ever played with.

I now look forward to playing with Lord Entrails as a colleague and fellow PLAYER in our next campaign. He definitely deserves the break. And I offer my many, many thanks for all of the hours (and hours) of effort that he put in to give us an amazing adventure virtually every week over the last 5 years. It's hard to process that we completed the campaign...like reading the final chapter of an epic book series :)

However, as Manny the Sorcerer would say with the finest bow and scrape, "Cheers to Lord Entrails! A thousand thank yous for trying to kill us every week but somehow allowing us to survive. Hazzah my friend!" (and resisting the urge to cast Charm).