>>95949460
It was a good while ago but from what I can recall what worked really well was that it was in bitesize pieces - I had them going from place to place gathering items of import to power themselves up or gain important information, and upon acquiring something they'd share a vision of the heroes. Each vision was the lead up to said heroes' fight with the BBEG. Starting from some basic roleplaying between the heroes, the build up, the fight itself etc. I left them to determine the personalities and quirks of the heroes on their own to help them leave their mark a little more deeply and I think the time between the visions helped to give them time to think about that. In way of combat balance, there basically was none. It was a fight they knew they'd lose and they let loose with everything they had just trying to leave their mark to maybe help themselves in the future. There was a bunch of stuff they did, but the main thing i can remember was damaging some of its equipment which lead to some instability in some of their abilities. All that said, my players are whores for exposition and suckle up my worldbuilding like hungry babies. Your mileage may vary.