What could have been number 1: The puzzle that never was, Helm's capture, and Falkor's restraint.
So if the players (cough Falkor with his torch) had not managed to attract the attentions of the prescence that scared off the female ghost, and had actually gotten to finally use the RA key in the RA key hole, what would have happened?
Why, they would have found themselves in a 3 x 3 room with switches on each square (basically the room of the original DM puzzle). Just so you know, you guys could, of course, have disrupted the soldiers taking you away by triggering this room to reset
Anyway, the answer to the room would have not been the usual sequential puzzle. Instead, the answer would have been to 'draw' the YA rune by pressing the buttons in a sensible order. There would have been clues on the wall, though not explicit. These clues might have triggered YA rune rememberence in Westian, giving him the spell then (evilly still without a flask) though also the YA IR hopefully (which he oculd have cast)
Anyway, so what happens if the party couldn't get the puzzle? Don't worry, Helm was on hand! He was waiting on the other sifde of the portcullus. For reasosn you might find out, he was around that area trying to get out. Except, of course, when he tried to leave (using hidden switches to open doors from the 'wrong' side) he would have come right into a trolin versus mummy fight. Ameena even smelt his scent at the Ra door.
So of course he retreated to wait it out or consider a new course of action. Remmeber the boss mummy scrambling at that door speculatively? Now you know why
And lol, infact the boss mummy had come across the hall at the party's movements upstrairs (Ameena and I think Haynuus might have detected that) but of course since the party was moving, and Haynuus was on guard, the party didn't get attacked by the mummy in that room while sleeping.
Yeah, that's right, you don't post a guard, and I might set a mummy on you in a 2 x 3 cramped space while you sleep!
Anyway, so of course Helm would have observed the party, and would have been on hand to perhasp hitn how to open the door - except, of course, if the party didn't reference the fact the mummy was dead, he may have ben more reluctant.
However, instead the party trigger some guards, and so poor Helm gets captured! And not being a halfling nor a half-orc nor a lowly rat now a cleric who can bluff his way through discussions, he obviously got tied up.
And while he walked with the party, I made the occasional check with Escape Artist. Poor Helm didn't actually have much for that skill. However, the gods of chance were with him - he rolled a 20 pretty quickly! And a good sleight of hand (he's good at that) to hide his success.
So, at that time of course Westian had made it sound like everyone was such good friends (after all, a half-orc is auto-evil, Westian loves Gholst, and the soldiers are actually escorting Falkor to see someone they report to). Only Ameena - whom Helm kinda knows - seemed nice.
Therefore, about one round before Westian's 'I love good gods' admission, Helm was all set to take the first distraction outta there - grabbing Ameena if he could
And then a series of wacky things, of course, happened. 1) Westian admits to not only being good, but being good and a member of an order Helm knows something of. So Helm suddenl;y has his perception of what's going on totally turned around. Feelign a little guilty, and wanting to help a potential ally, he takes advantage of the Haynuus tripping incident to steal Arbrut's flask and try to feed it to Westian (this is important - note that if Westian hadn't asked about flasks, Westian would not have had a flask at crucial points in the battle without Aurek havng to pull out of engaging his opponents)
Now, enter surprise number 2) As Helm is trying to get close to Westian and slip him a flask, Haynuus out of nowhere slips Helm a dagger! All of a sudden, Haynuus is doign the subtle trust me move Helm is trying to do!
Hence the whole wacky exchange of dagger/flask between a surprised Helm and Haynuus, and Haynuus's subsewuent sneaking of the flask. So right there, Haynuus and Westian managed to buy themselves an ally who would ahve otherwise been seeking to flee from them, and got a very necessary flask for the battle
So, Falkor had spotted that Drommal had been on a knife edge of behaviour, and somehow Westian's comment had broken that hesitation. What would have happened if Falkor had not fireballed Arbrut? Well, Drommal would have come through the teleporter curtain a little faster than in the battle, since time was moving at narrative speed not game round speed
And so Drommal would have heard Westian's demands on the purpose of Aurek, and would have placed a sword under Westian's neck, and in no uncertain terms warned Westian that his time of being anything other than an unbound prisoner were over, and he should watch his step because no one had ordered Westian to be safely taken anywhere.
Now, I can even go one step further since Marhman's general attitude has ben revealed so fully. I tried to subtly hint at it before. But essentially, this guy was a little disillusioned by now with things that the party have maybe spotted, even if thye don't fully appreciate the significance.
There had been some nebulous 'a funny thing happened on the way to the mage' occurances that could have triggered depending on what the party was doing. What Westian and Ameena are dealing with now was one. Haynuus neatly spotted and sidestepped another - the obviously bullying Arbrut for whatever reason trying to get a rise out of the half-orc. If the wrong people had gone through the haze, like Ameena/Westian with Haynuus first... A fight might have occurred briefly anyway!
The last event that could have happend was one that could also have triggered with the Aurek meeting, but could have triggered if the party asked certain questions before too.
Marhman had been poised to make some comment about the organisation of the soldiers as it was currently experienced in Moutn Anaias. In the case of speaking to Aurek, if Aurek gave the impression that he was unsure of his orders or where he was taking his prisoner, it would have certainly triggered a comment against Gholst from Marhman.
In this case, the two closest soldiers to Marhman would have grabbed him, wrestled him to the ground, and Drommal would have beheaded the guy there and then without breaking sweat. I might have, depending on the circumstances, allowed the action to be interrupted by anyone wishing to call for the man to not be killed.
Sure, this would have meant one less soldier to deal with, however, I have a sneaking suspicion while this would have showed exactly the kind of men you were all dealing with, this would have also have made the party more fearful of their safety but less inclined to do anything about it.
And heh, remember without triggering a combat, no one would have been any the wiser that Aurek was not a blackskull. So the party would still be six strong, with Helm not revealing his bonds undone, and Farel too appearing to be a bound knight of unknown ability. And the party wondering if Farel or Helm or both were the new PC!
Anyway, so that's how that could have gone...
Let's not even talk about the fact that I expected if the fight went south, the party might want to actually use the open door exit the soldiers used. And so was a little bit scared when it got closed by a badly wounded Helm, and then shocked when Marhman got a natural 20 to spot the switch to re-open the door (he got lower DC chance to find the switch since he knew what they should look like, but still, he needed a 20.) And, of course, then it ended up the soldiers had to use that exit not the party.
Anyway, I am probably waffling, but hopefully that's a small insight into what is going on in my brain, and hence the sort of things that are bubbling around in the world your characters inhabit. Like I have said befor,e I won't try to manufacture serendipity, as there's enough of it alreayd going around!
Haynuus announces it's Derek the Paladinic fighter to Farel, while Aurek stands beside the night. Effectively, the players atrt a fight that somehow managed to trade Marhman's life directly for Helm's!
It's so cool to see decisions many weeks ago pay off in odd organic ways that make it impossible for me to ever say the group has made good or bad decisions. providing the group keeps making decisions and playing their charatcers, it seems like really interesting stuff keeps happening, which makes my job really easy but also alot of fun.
Anyway, if you have read all the above and found it interesting...coool. If not, pretend it was a funny joke with the punchline 'and the parrot bit her.