Now for the news:
My plan is to end this game. At least in its current form. My plans for this were massive, and it is extremely unlikely we would have "finished" it. Potentially ever. I have been excited to run it, and this battle was exciting, but it has been a rough home stretch. At least for me.
I am definitely willing unlock the last action thread to allow Zhym and/or Storm11 have Roderick and/or Nexus play out the conclusion. Whatever they want to do. Maybe they seek out the sounds from the horses (the noises that initially led to the failed trap, and ultimately led to this battle).
Maybe they just return to town?
Or, we can simply hand-wave the conclusion and just call it.
That said --
Depending on interest, I might be willing to restart the game. But it would need to be a full restart. I am definitely going to want to reflect on the part of this game that ran well (and leave those parts alone), but also try to identify the parts that were challenging, or confusing, and figure out ways to make those parts less problematic.
I'm open to feedback as far as that is concerned.
It would also not be a continuation of the plans I originally had for this one.
Finally, at least for now (it's late!), I do not think I can manage another party of eight PCs again. I mean, I could, I just don't want to. It's just too much work. It became abundantly clear, as the battle wore on and the number of characters remaining progressively shrank, the game became a lot easier to run. When it was down to just Roderick and Nexus, it was simple enough where it was almost relaxing. And fun. No, I'm not going to enforce a party of two, but I'm thinking four or five, max.
So, I leave it up to you guys.
Discuss.