All, I want to thank deeply the Aurilite players that made the Auril/Nashkel war plot so engrossing and awesome the last few months. In my opinion OOC they are heroes of the server for creating all the RP that they did. Whatever the outcome IC of that, I feel strongly that this was a big win for the server.
As far as who “won” IC, I want to hilariously point out that a certain chicken turning epic spell almost ended the battle right there and then (among other critical moments such as when a certain Aurilite priestess dropped a trap wall against the advancing team Nashkel army and team Nashkel only had a barely epic level wizard to attempt to dispel it, hey I guess when Amn brands itself as hostile to arcanists the only loyal ones still around are second rate rofl), as I suspect if Wai Li had been felled the Nashkel side would have seen its morale go to the floor given her political holding a varied coalition together, and the Nashkel host would have been routed (Wai was so concerned about her kind of critical political glue effect here that she had a bodyguard most of the whole battle to prevent getting assassinated).
Wai rolled a 17 getting her a 48 fortitude save against this DC 40 spell, so if she had just rolled a 9 or less that would have been it. So close!!!! War is so chaotic and random and sometimes can really depend on a single moment such as this literally just up to chance and I felt this moment that I will remember for as long as I live as a D&D player will encapsulate that. Also, I think Wai will have nightmares about this moment as a very clear “what if” for the rest of her life. It was that close! Love you all, players of the Icedawn! Regardless of what happens IC with the Icedawn temple (not quite sure after the final cinematic, we may have just all died in an avalanche lol), you are forever in my experience and great memories of the holy place that is the D&D temple of BGTCC! You are legends IC and OOC. And I hope that tomes in both are written about your epic struggle.
Same level of thanks for the wonderful players on the Nashkel side that produced so much awesome RP on this plot, wow we have had great RP on this plot for many weeks now. Appreciate you all so much! It was very interesting politically IC in particular given Amn making it very challenging to incorporate any arcane magic into the coalition, as it was a wide coalition IC that really could have faltered often, but various motivations (and a lot of luck lol) seemed to hold it together until the end. Some players involved were even old adversaries to Wai turned friends, some friends literally since she became a character in 2013, some new friends, some literally brand new as of a month ago and new to the server! Love you all! Excited for many more years of RP ahead and this just being another wonderful part of that journey IC/OOC!
Finally, equal appreciation and love for the DMs that made this plot possible (special thanks to DM Mimic and additionally DM Ink, DM Winter, DM Ghost, DM Soulcatcher and others that I may not know that were heavily involved behind the scenes). This was a big gamble to even allow with all the things that make Dming stressful as hell. NPC resources given to players in the plot. Pvp. High stakes. Players passionate about their characters. Gigantic scale and amounts of players involved. Really, this could have been an epic OOC disaster or a huge victory for the server and not much in between IMO.
I really feel that regardless of the outcome IC it was the latter! And your passion for dynamic storytelling showed throughout. You let players do what their characters would do and “succeed” or “fail”. Get allies. Make enemies. Cast that chicken spell or wall trap spell that almost ended the war there and then. Build the tools that made attacking the Icedawn a not purely suicidal endeavor and same with defending it. Did not railroad us. Built that custom map and content and grid system for the final battle! Empowered us. Spent 10 hours DMing the finale event! I hope it is a model for future war plots going forward (except events being 10 hours long lol, which should only be for Duchal Courts

). Thank you! Long live BGTSCC!!!!