PC Name: Rael'en, male tiefling Rogue 7/Shadowdancer 3
Adventure: The Champion's Belt
Location of Death: Area 19--Ghastly Intervention
Catalyst: Critical Hit from Pitch Blade attack
Long Description: Taking a page from I've Got Reach (see previous page), I had Pitch Blade follow the party as they went through the caves beyong the Titan's House for the second day in a row. The dwarves were 2nd in initiative order, and one stepped up and critically hit Rael'en, followed up with a second hit, taking him down to -19.
The rest of the encounter was me rolling very poorly, and the Pitch Blade went down in spectacular fashion. Sadly, this is the player's second PC death in the campaign (the first one was the death in the first post in this thread), and the only two deaths in the campaign so far.
i beleive, that as dm's we are the reason of a charecters death. tee hee.
i beleive, that as dm's we are the reason of a charecters death. tee hee.
Funny you should say that, because any time I mention "that time when Ryan's character died," I'm automatically corrected by my players as, "you mean the time YOU KILLED Ryan's character?"
Funny.
PC: Den - Dwarf ftr/rog
Adventure - 3 Faces of Evil
Location - Just inside the Bane (Hextor) temple
Catalyst - Refusing to back off
The party smashed in the door to an already alert temple of Bane. The party cleric quickly dusted most of the skeletons and were hacking at the few that were unnaffected, when the dire boar was released. It charged straight at the dwarven ftr/rog and did max damage, 20 points! The other party members quickly surrounded it and took off more than half its hit points. Then Den went. Instead of moving away to be healed, he adjusted to flank the beast. His damage easily outdid any other character's so, the dire boar gored him again, dropping Den to -13.
The player thought that the damage on the first hit was due to charging and that the boar couldn't take much more. He didn't realize that dire boars fight until at -10 hp.
Catalyst: Critical Hit from Pitch Blade attack
Pitchblade's the real deal. I underestimated their killing potential when they dealt a TPK, but there were other factors involved like poor die rolls on behalf of PCs and one of their other PC fighters failed to show up for the gaming session.
Could Pitchblade take Auric's warband? Its a close match.
Pitchblade's the real deal.
I realized that from your original post, but I liked the concept so much that I had to use your idea. It made extra sense IMC, because the PCs discovered the middle level under the arena, so Pitch Blade was sent to stop them from entering.
Plus, I bought Races of the Dragon last week, and I statted up Draconic Brood as two 9th level Kobold dragonblood sorcerors, and I wanted to use them in the arena. I'll play test them and post their stats in a couple of weeks.
|
The player thought that the damage on the first hit was due to charging and that the boar couldn't take much more. He didn't realize that dire boars fight until at -10 hp.
And that, dear readers, is why metagaming is bad, bad, BAD.
See Roy Greenhilt's famous "Zykon wouldn't have trapped two doors in a row, would he?"
PC Name:Abel Horawitz (Dwrf. Wiz. 4)
Adenture: 3FoE
Location: Labyrinth of Vecna
Catalyst: Wrong Place at the wrong time
Having defeated one group of Kenkus the party ventured further into the Labyrinth. They were quickly engaged by a pair of Dire Weasels. Abel took up a position behind BOTH fighters, but unbeknowst to him another group of Kenkus came through a secret passage behinde him. The first Kenku got off a shot and rolled a crit kill (We use a slaying critical rule: 20,20, confirm hit/rolled in front of players after the first 20) Death by crossbow bolt!
PC Name:Lucius Vorenus (Paladin 6th)
Adventure: Hall of Harsh Reflections (D7)
Catalyst: Beat down (HP damage)
After seeing his companion (HalfOrc Barb. 7th) go down our hero summoned his mount (being on the starting shore and the Barb. being on the far shore next to the door)(mever mind summoning a mount in a warehouse.(I let it slide)) and rode his mount through the swords and pikes and axes and spears and etc. to the far shore (his mount near death) leaped off his horse and poured a healing potion down the Barb.'s throat. The next round he took four hits from two Ivisable Stalkers. One hit being a critical (47 hits). On his next turn Lucius pulled another potion from his backpack and poured it down the Barb.'s throat provoking an attack of Opp. from both Stalkers. On the stalkers turn they pummeled him to death. His last words were "I forgot to heal myself" (P.S. the Stalkers pummeled his horse to death after he expired to add insult to injury(or death) and the Barb. was almost killed as he reached for another potion of healing from Lucius's dead corpse)
PC Name:Cealdrin (elf wiz.2)
Adventure:Whispering Cairn
Catalyst: skeleton (Alastors sister)
The party decided to tackle Filge the same day they battled the owlbear and directly after they bribed Kullen's gang. The cleric was out of healing spells and the wizard (Caeldrin) had prepared the wrong arsenal of spells for this occasion (he thought this would be an information gathering day).
While the rest of the party where battling the zombies at the top of the stairs and loosing (only one of them had a slashing weapon and that was a glaive) Cealdrin ran past the zombies to engage Filge with his longbow. A rusty scimitar brought him down into the negatives. Right after that 2 nother party members were dropped below 0 forcing the rest to flee with those unconcious members they could grab. Filge will animate Caeldrin body to replace the 3 skeletons the party stole from him.
The next time the party will confront Filge they will encounter the zombified body of Caeldrin with a magic mouth saying:"I am greatfull that I am allowed to serve the magnificient Filge after my stupid friends left me to die a slow painfull death while they cowardly fled from their treacherous and pityfull attempt to attack him.
The next time the party will confront Filge they will encounter the zombified body of Caeldrin with a magic mouth saying:"I am greatfull that I am allowed to serve the magnificient Filge after my stupid friends left me to die a slow painfull death while they cowardly fled from their treacherous and pityfull attempt to attack him.
Man that dinner table was creepy. Maybe you should stick him there.
|
The next time the party will confront Filge they will encounter the zombified body of Caeldrin with a magic mouth saying:"I am greatfull that I am allowed to serve the magnificient Filge after my stupid friends left me to die a slow painfull death while they cowardly fled from their treacherous and pityfull attempt to attack him.Man that dinner table was creepy. Maybe you should stick him there.
Creepiest thing about it is how much gold and experience it would take to set it up, especially with having to make it reset. Nice imagery, but exxxxxpennnnssssivvveeeee.... 510 gp per and 1000 xp permanent magic mouth times 9 zombies....
A creepy guy like Filge, with probably some powerfull connections, might have little problems to convince other people to let him leave them alone for a, relatively, small sum.
This said I can say that my initial plans with the corpse of Caeldrin was thwarted. The last session stopped with the party retreating and leaving the body of Caeldrin. Tonights session started, mostly because of the presence of a player that wasn't there the session before, with a revigoration of the spririt within the party. While the survivors of the last encounter harassed Filge outside of the observatory by throwing rocks through the groundfloor windows and rapping on the door and running away, the monk (who was on the lookout outside during the fatal encounter last session because the player had to leave early) climbed to the top of the observatory to retreive the body of their fallen friend. Not only that but he managed to defeat the last skeleton of the Land family, which was sent to investigate the breaking of glass in the above. Filge, at the time, was directing his zombies to guard the front door and was busy to recreate the dinner scene (He's quite maniacal about that). The monk escaped with both Caeldrin's body and the last skeleton. They will vist Filge again because now they have a personal grudge.
It was not something I had envisioned to happen when I stopped the previous session but I must say that I'm very pleased with the results and the daring actions of the party. Kudo's and hero-points were given, drinks all around. While I like it when a devious plan comes toghether I like it more when a devious plan is thwarted, by the players, in a way i didn't think of before.
Arjen, going to sleep now (Central European time here)
PC Name: Rafe Ranger2
Adventure: Whispering Cairn
Location of Death: Land Farmstead
Catalyst: Owlbear+Crit = Dead Ranger
Long Description: Boldly leaping to the attack of a wounded owlbear, the dungeon masters dice decided to come alive and rolled numerous hits including a critical while the party rolled terribly. At level 2 you cannot expect a ranger to last too long. This was almost a TPK if not for a timely burning hands spell. The cleric was down to 1hp left and the rest of the party would not have been much work to kill for the owlbear.
Lesson party learned (I hope): Don't go clanking around in unknown spaces without having someone check it out first. I think if they had the listened to the rogue who said there were bits of flesh all over the place before poking around in the rubble things might have turned out differently.
TPK (sigh...)
PCs:
Owyn - Human Barbarian 3
Tesler - Elf Rogue 3
Fender - Gnome Cleric 3
Plankett - Gnome Druid 3
Mira - Elf Rogue 1/Wizard 2
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Catalyst: Poor reaction of the enemies using (gasp) tactics!
What happened:
The party entered the skeleton room and retreated to lure them out. After wiping them out, they entered the room. I decided that the cultists and fighters were waiting for them, and so the party was surprised and surrounded by the cultists.
The rogue had his bow ready and surrounded by 5 cultists, so of course he fired his bow. I warned him that he was going to trigger 5 AtksOfOpp, but he said he was role-playing his character's low wisdom (it was a 10 - not THAT low). Two critical hits on the attacks of ops and he went from a 19 to a -2.
The druid had to burn spells for summoning to help out. The mage was kinda useless (I'm playing her as an apprentice mage, working off of Filge's spellbook - no sleep spell). Owyn the barbarian took on Beast, and was very wiped from that - but perservered.
Then the party decided to heal up, but not by using their potions (cause they cost money - oh no!). Instead, the cleric burned all of his spells with spontaneous casting.
Also, they decided to search the corpses. This meant that the temple complex went to full alert - the priests moved to their positions and the side access corridor was barred and guarded.
Then the party moved to the main temple - barbarian first. Only the barbarian moved in - seeing the 4 remaining cultists lined up by the statue. Since it was only the barbarian, I did not have Theldrick close the doors.
The party then retreated to the skeleton room - however the druid opened the side passage door to see what was down there. In so doing, he alerted the two guards at the side passage - adding them to the melee.
So, the cultists and the fighters moved out swarm the barbarian, and the druid burned his last 2nd level summon spell to help with them. Meanwhile, I had the clerics and zombies from the temple proceed through the side passage in pursuit.
At this point, the party started rolling VERY poorly, and I started rolling VERY well. The rogue was ineffective, the mage a bit less so. The gnomes couldn't do enough damage to really help.
Then the clerics showed up, and while the barbarian got a good shot in on the female cleric, Garas completely mauled him.
It got to the point where the player of the barbarian realized I was pulling the punches, trying to keep the only person that could use the lift alive.
At that point, I asked the group if we wanted to continue to play it through and see if anyone got away. They said no.
So, the party of Owyn and crew die a painful and ignomius death, the denizens of the caves get some treasure to pass around, and Allustan will contact Melinde to get a strike force together to investigate foul doings in the Dourstone mine - emeshing a fresh party of adventurers into The Age of Worms!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
D-E-D DED!
Corpse #1
Agon, Dwarven cleric of Moradin. Slain from a critical hit from Tusk, mascot of the the Temple of Hextor (three faces of evil).
Corpse #2
Daemonar, half-orc barbarian. Slain from a lightning bolt to the chest from the Faceless One (three faces of evil).
Honorable mention:
Near-Corpse #1
Sprite, wood-gnome wizard. Should have been slain from a critical hit (and rend) from a dire ape during a raid on Balabar Smenk's resident. I fudged the damage so he was only at -8 hit points as the player was already having a rough day and I didn't want the wind taken out of the capaign session right form the get-go.
Near-Corpse #2
Immet, human fighter/rogue (thug). Should have been slain from a Wyvern poison trap during the raid on Balabar Smenk's residence. Started out with a 14 Constitution but hit with an wyvern poison arrow trap. Took 8 points of Consitution damage on the initial save, then went on to fail his save again. I rolled 11 for the damage, but only had him take 5 points. He was scared out of his wits the remainder of the session as they had no ability to restor the Constitution (and they had to complete their raid before leaving).
Near-Corpse #3
Rabeeblium the gnome bard. Remained behind the party to 'guard' the watchmen the party had liberated from the Sodden Hold (Hall of Harsh Reflections). The party had ventured into the room beyond (only to be attacked by invisible stalkers) when the two watchmen/dopplegangers struck and nearly slew him (-7 hit points) before he could make a sound. They then shut and bared the double doors, separating the party. They didn't kill him, however. They stabelized him and one of the dopplegangers took his place on the floor. The party found a note on his chest ("Get out of town, NOW") and two 200 gp gemstones. The party mistook this for DM generosity (the old 'let's scare the party' routine) and continued on with the adventure not thinking anything was to worry.
Now, the trap waits to be sprung, for at this point both the rogue and the bard have been replaced by dopplegangers...
|
Aristabulos, Cleric of St Cutbert passed beyond the veil near the Observatory (4/18/592 cy)
Raison d'etre: being less than diplomatic while unarmed.
Circumstances: the party had killed Filge the night before & discovered the connection between Cullen & the necromancer. Our 2 rogues led Cullen & crew from the Feral Dog towards the Observatory & into an ambush laid by the rest of the party. The idea was to coerce any relevant info without having to kill anyone. Ari had a momentary loss of eloquence (natural 1 on his diplomancy roll) and the enraged Cullen rolled double 20s. (Its amazing how often 1s & 20s or 20s & 1s follow each other).
He was decapited (we have target chart from 2ed for hit locations on crits).
Fortunately bewteen the wizard's Scorching Rays & some nifty swordplay no one else fell. His equipement & tresure was donated to the Temple of St Cuthbert in exchange for a Speak with Dead cast on Cullen & his burial.
PC: Sharst Lucann (9th level Human Male Sorcerer - Bleak Cabal)
Adventure: Hall of Harsh Reflections
Location of Death: Zyrxog's laboratory
Catalyst: Forgetting about the advanced octopin as he fled Zyrxog
Long Description: The party of characters had more or less coasted through the Hall of Harsh Reflections adventure, the only dramatic encounters for their health being Myriannas and her contingent of thralls. As DM, I had also thrown a drider sorcerer into this encounter as an excuse to use my miniature of the same name.
Anyway, that particular encounter has made them suffer somewhat, and somewhere along the line, Sharst, the 'Bleaker' of the party had sunk into a depression (as is the weakness of his Faction). This depression manifested itself in a way that made him think to himself "Nobody cares that I've been reduced to 18 hit points, so I won't mention it." So the rest of the party were healed, while he sulked.
Anyway, the party trudged on and Sharst handily stayed at the back. They bolted through the chamber containing the octopin, and closed the Museum doors behind them, soon reaching Zyrxog.
During the battle with the mind flayer, most of Sharst's spells were used up, and sensing imminent defeat, he decided he would back into the viewing pool room, and then aptly ran into the advanced octopin room again (forgetting that it was there).
Unfortunately, an already injured sorceror with manic depression isn't much of a match for a hungry octopus monster with 'rend'. When the remaining party members found what was left of him, they slew the creature, and dispassionately scattered his remains outside (as were the tenets of his Faction).
This marks the death of an entire party. A party of seekers of adventure. A party...with a newbie.
Adventure: The Whispering Cairn
Location: Lair of the Architect
Act that got everyone killed: Chucking a lit torch into the Brown Mold
Needless to say, everyone froze to death.
This marks the death of an entire party. A party of seekers of adventure. A party...with a newbie.
Adventure: The Whispering Cairn
Location: Lair of the Architect
Act that got everyone killed: Chucking a lit torch into the Brown MoldNeedless to say, everyone froze to death.
Jeez, that's nearly as embarrasing as getting killed by a grid bug!
Act that got everyone killed: Chucking a lit torch into the Brown Mold
This exact thing nearly happened to my party, but since the player with the druid was new, I asked him to make a knowledge nature check, he nearly maxed it, and I told him what happens when fire meets brown mold.
The reaction of the player who was about to throw the fire: "So... fire *doesn't* solve everything." Which is now doubly funny with the recent Order of the Stick line "When in doubt, set something on fire."
It is bad, and the one who threw it was playing an artificer to boot. No real knowledge rolls there....
PC Name: Orion, Pal 2 of St. Cuthbert
Adventure: The Whispering Cairn
Location: Old Observatory, Level 3
Cause of Death: Failed save vs. Ghoul Touch and Bloodthirsty Zombie or One greedy Dwarf, you pick.
Specifics: As I was looking ahead at the upcoming encounter with Filge, two things were my focus. One, my players have a large party, so I have to set the bar a little higher. Two, Filge's angle in the world lends toward him being an "undead expert." So, I grabbed Libris Mortis, and looked for ways at tweaking zombies. The basic troglodytes were scrapped for advanced humans, each with their own "special design" from LM. The party predictibly mowed through the welcome party skeletons, even though I had the skeletons' claws dipped in poison, as well. On the second floor, however, the CE Dwarven Fighter/Cleric of Erythnul, Izak Bronzeale, decides to take the platinum piece from the head-on-a-platter, setting off the alarm. Our Fey'ri fighter, Tiefling Rogue, and Human Paladin rush upstairs after hearing the shouts of Filge, the breaking of glass, and the haunting moans of the undead. (The Dwarf, the Human Ranger, and the Half-Elf sorceress waited behind.)The bugbear zombie, using his arm as an improvized club, partially blocks the stairwell, while Filge and the Land girl's skeleton fall to the back of the room. Orion runs past the Fey'ri and the bugbear's battle, moving for the Necromancer, but the three zombies move to block his path. Zombie #1, an orc with the Unkillable variant from LM and meathooks for hands, Zombie #2, human with the Diseased Variant--oozing sores and dripping pus, and lastly, Zombie #3, also human, but with the Bloodthirsty Variant, complete with six inch razor dentures. Orion fought bravely, but 3 rounds later, just as the bugbear was dispatched, and the other characters pouring out of the bottlenecked stairs, A failed save against Filge's ghoul touch/spectral hand combo had Orion paralyzed, surrounded by 3 uber-zombies. In 2 rounds, Orion's brain was being feasted upon, and the only truly "good" character in the party had perished.
|
Alas, poor Miri, We barely knew ye!
PC NAME: Miri, Lycanthrope Cleric 1 of Selune
Place: Whispering Cairn antechamber
Cause of Death: Stupidity/my hammer
Mirri was a Lycanthrope cleric of Selune who joined up with our party at the very start in Diamond Lake. Unfortunately, she neglected to mention her... affliction. We entered the Whispering Cairn, and were just barely in the door when we were attacked by wolves! I had been scouting ahead and they set upon me, and so we responded in kind... Except for Miri. She decided this would be a good time to change into wolf from and try to stop the fight. Miri attempted to grapple Ander the fighter, who was beating on the wolves, and was quickly subdued by both sides. The wolves didn't care what she was, apparently. At the end of the engagement, The wolves were dead and Ander and Miri were both unconcious. Well, since it was obviously a set-up by the evil Werewolf to ambush and devour us, I took it upon myself to slay the foul beast and stove in her head with my ancestral hook hammer! I grabed the healing potion off her and poured it down Ander, and we Retreated back to town
Out of character, I'd told hemi that if he shapeshifted without letting us in on the trick he was dogmeat. I mean come on! You're in a dungeon, attacked by wolves, and suddenly the mysterious cleric changes into one? What would you do?
Out of character, I'd told hemi that if he shapeshifted without letting us in on the trick he was dogmeat. I mean come on! You're in a dungeon, attacked by wolves, and suddenly the mysterious cleric changes into one? What would you do?
I would have no problems killing someone if they were that dumb. *rolls eyes* Why do most PCs seem like they have an INT of 2? Though I've had my moments too lol. Never use sunbeam in the town square.
Character: Paptimus Mentok, kalashtar monk 1 / wilder 4 / quori nightmare 1
Adventure: Encounter at Blackwall Keep
Location: The basement of Blackwall Keep
Catalyst: Spawned
Pity poor Paptimus Mentok. Due to the fact that his two powers were both mind-affecting, he was next to useless against the undead horrors of Kyuss advancing on his party. Due to the fact that he fought unarmed, the worms crawled up his arm, even when the one thrown on him (and not noticed until it was too late) was already gleefully eating his brain. At least his compatriots had the good sense to totally incinerate his corpse almost immediately after his death, preventing his rise as a spawn of Kyuss.
Out of character, I'd told hemi that if he shapeshifted without letting us in on the trick he was dogmeat. I mean come on! You're in a dungeon, attacked by wolves, and suddenly the mysterious cleric changes into one? What would you do?I would have no problems killing someone if they were that dumb. *rolls eyes* Why do most PCs seem like they have an INT of 2? Though I've had my moments too lol. Never use sunbeam in the town square.
Ahem, andrew berthiaume...
Unless youre looking at Miri's character sheet and playing her yourself, I suggest you seal your venomous lips. Miri was played flawlessly to who she was as a character. Her death was brought on by a combination of who she was as a character, her reluctance to reveal her lycanthropy, her schizophrenia, the encounter she was involved in and the party members she was associated with who slew her (also played flawlessly, MIGHT I ADD) So to call Hemi, who is also MY "overseer" dumb only goes to indicate your excessive presumptuous cerebral limitations. *gasps as I feel my 9 INT score swelling* God, I hate cocky DM's! Praise Selune for my DM. *mutters under breath* a-hole!... Wait. I worship Selune... Forgiveness. HEY... just be nice OK?
Unless youre looking at Miri's character sheet and playing her yourself, I suggest you seal your venomous lips. Miri was played flawlessly to who she was as a character. Her death was brought on by a combination of who she was as a character, her reluctance to reveal her lycanthropy, her schizophrenia, the encounter she was involved in and the party members she was associated with who slew her (also played flawlessly, MIGHT I ADD) So to call Hemi, who is also MY "overseer" dumb only goes to indicate your excessive presumptuous cerebral limitations. *gasps as I feel my 9 INT score swelling* God, I hate cocky DM's! Praise Selune for my DM. *mutters under breath* a-hole!... Wait. I worship Selune... Forgiveness. HEY... just be nice OK?
lol. Relax. I meant no harm with my comments. I've just been around one to many fellow PC's (I myself never being a DM) that have not played their INT well. Don't mind me to much please. I was just bring a point that some people tend to make a few mistakes. As for the person in question a few post back, I wasn't ragging on the person at all. Just stating what I would have done. And I've had moments of sheer dumbness (again no disrespect).
Campaign: Eberron's Age of Worms
Name - Tamaren-sheth (Brownie d'Jorasco)
Class - Wizard, Cataclysm Mage (Exploring Eberron)
T.O.D. - Spire of Long Shadows
C.O.D. - Bone Devil + Grapple
Quotable Quote - "You mean I couldn't make a DC 20 Intelligence check?"
This happened on the way to Manzorian's island realm, a little place called Cauldron ;) The players had planned to travel via airship to the meeting, and the wizard said he would likely be spending a lot of time in the lab. Over the next week I planned the fiend's attack on the party to claim their part of the Rod, using scrying magic to spy on them. I rolled for the wizard, and luckily he rolled poorly on the one attempt to scry on him.
Four of the fiends surrounded him and the party's Fighter/Rogue while invisible, and surprised them; the other two waited invisibly outside the lab. By the second round both those two and the formerly-petrified pseudodragon they were taking with them were dimensionally anchored, grappled and held silent.
Tamaren used his Ring of the Wind Dukes to become a lightning bolt and slipped their grasp, zipping out the door and screaming for help. The other two fiends tripped and re-grappled him, dragging him back into the room. The other players showed up, but were held back by a wall of ice. That left two players alone with the six fiends, who were torturing the unconcious pseudodragon to get them to give up the rod.
I wasn't keeping close track of the wizard's hitpoints, and a sting from one of the fiends killed him when they were torturing him. It wasn't intentional, but he was kinda sore about the whole incident, since I handled the scrying out of game and there was no way to prove I hadn't just said "You fail the roll". After the LONG fight that followed, he was given a high-level res at the Temple in Magepoint, and they decided to give the rod to Manzorian since they obviously couldn't take care of it; which was my intention all along ;)
|
Death tally for campaign: 11
My group has had several deaths. I downloaded the "pc skulls" from the kenzerco. site and have been attaching one to the DM Screen every time one of them dies. So far there are eleven skulls there. Hehe.
The party rogue (Eldon, the Jade Fox) died four times; in 3foe flanked by vecna cultists, by a disintigrate trap in dourstone's mansion (sidetrek), during an illegal fight club contest in Hall of harsh reflections (another side trek, rogue wanted to run an illegal arena, members from the thieves guild who were running their own games in town came after the rogue and took him off with talks of a bet and took him out.), and finally in a Gathering of Winds when the shadowspider Flycatcher kidnapped him, took him to the etheral plane, and killed him. The party cleric (Sayla Pandalera)has died three times; once in 3foe during the Hextor fight, during the champion games she charged the Froggemoth and got a nice full attack action that resulted in the fighter becoming swallowed to save her body, and last game where she fought Balluxus the Beholder in the Spire of Long Shadows. The party fighter (jeb) fell to the Apostle of Kyuss in the champion games and then Ilthane in front of the whispering cairn. Since then, without fail, the party cleric has healed him right before he reaches zero hp. And then my brother Mike, who has played three different pcs so far, two of which died; the first a lumi fighter, was ripped apart by boneclaws in a sidetrek preceding hall of harsh reflections (the pc's went deep into the hills looking for kyuss zombies and encountered a Heucuva cleric of Nerull and her Boneclaw minions. The group dispatched her and learned that just prior to her recent transformation she had "been in contact with a mysterious man from Greyhawk" inquiring about "the worm that walks" This got the group to go to Greyhawk quicker.) Then as a Githzeri ninja character (known as the blue elf) Mike took alot of damage fighting the True Ghoul and his Morg minions in Gathering of Winds. It just added up and mike went to -14 right before the true ghoul was defeated.
The group is currently 30 feet from the top of the spire of long shadows and have recieved their second vision of Kyuss.
Now, I have had alot of pc deaths and I needed to figure out a couple of ways to make comming back viable (now the cleric sayla has ressurection anyway) What I did at low levels was allow the WeeJas temple in Diamond lake to perform Raise Dead spells for a quarter of the price because of all the available Diamond dust from the different mines around town (Hence the name Diamond lake) The Party Cleric who has vow of poverty, has donated all her treasure cut to the temple and the town. Then after Ilthane's attack on the town and her defeat, the wee jas clerics (who survived) declared they would perform their services free of charge. I was cheap when after the cleric died I gave her a free return in the guise of a quest from Zodal to "Stop this Age of Worms" she still lost the level though. And after Magepoint they have met Agath and can have him cast True ressurection for a fee.
|
Well it had to happen, my party made it through WC without a death. They had a few close calls, a couple characters stablized at the minus 6 to 8 range, but no deaths.
Last night we played the first foray into TFoE. As I thought, they chased the Tiefling to the door of the Hextor area. But instead of rushing through, they waited a few minutes. The tiefling did get to banging on the door before he died from a spear attack so those inside were aware something was amiss.
The party had climbed down the chain of the elevator so needed to put on their armour back on before continuing on. This allowed the defenses of the Cithadel to solidify.
When they charged into the room they faced the 8 skeletons, 6 fanatics and Beast. This was easly handled by the party. As
the cleric destroyed the skeletons, the half-orc Barabarian was cleaving through the fanatics and Beast.
This where it starts to turn south for the party. They spot the two teilfings run into the arena room. The half-orc barabarian and the scout go charging in after them. Now Theldrick is sitting up in his chair with Garras and Kendra waiting down below to fight party. Theldrick panics when he sees a enlarged raging half-orc barbarian charge into the room, closes and locks the door behind them.
The Barbarian and Scout find themselves trapped in the room. The Barbarian takes down the two tieflings in one round and the Scout kills Kendra. Garras knowing he is about to die attacks the Barbarian, gets in a hit and then promptly dies.
Theldrick, impressed with the fighting skills of the two, applauds their efforts and offers them a spot on his team. The half-orc barbarian clambers up to where Theldrick is. Theldrick hits him with a dispel magic dropping every buff on the half-orc. The rage untimely ends at this point and the half-orc realizes he is in trouble. Exchange of blows with Theldrick leaves the half-orc in a bad way.
Meanwhile the scout is trying to figure out a way to get up there but not having much luck. The barbarian steps back from Theldrick and Theldrick takes the oppertunity to cast a spiritual weapon and whack him. The half orc jumps off the balcony and Theldrick follows him to the egde to continue the attack. The spirtiual weaponj knocks the barbarian to unconsciousness.
The scout grabs the half-orc and drags him under the balcony and out of sight of Theldrick. Theldrick sensing victory, jumps down, the scout takes a five foot move away and attacks with his spear. Theldrick directs the spiritual weapon to attack the half-orc, finishing him off. and then concentrates on the scout. The scout tries to run and Theldrick hits him with a hold person which the scout fails his save against.
Theldrick then beats him to death with a spiritual weapon whilst telling him how dissappointed he was that they would not join his team. Theldrick rather enjoys watching him get beat to death with the spiritual heavy flail.
Now you ask, what about the rest of the party. They spent the entire time of this fight trying to get into the room to help. But trying to break in was not going well as they kept rolling under 10 to break in the door. It really was not a good night for door crashing. Big bronze doors are tough as they found out.
The group did eventually bust in and the gig was up for Theldrick and the group (mostly the Paladin) made short work of him.
So we lay to rest....
Ozzy, half-orc, 2nd level Barbarian/1st level sorcerer.
Alex, human, 3rd level Scout.
I think that they would have made it through this area without a death had not been for a raging half-orc barbarian. Now they have to figure out how to get the bodies out and raised. I think that should prove to be difficult. How do they explain two dead guys to the guards and foreman they are sure to encounter?
|
|
PC: Aerelius (Half-elf ranger1)
Adventure: Filge's Tower
Catalyst: Pickin' a fight with a dead man. And stupidity!
So this one was pretty straight-forward. We'd gone to Filge's to get the dead kid's folk's bones to bury, and ended up in a knockdown-dragout with Filge and his boys. The stupidity was twofold, really. The first part was my fault; I'm a curious gnome and I can't help but poke things... including the severed head intruder alarm in the necromancer's bedroom. Thus, we lost the advantage of suprise. the second act of lethal stupidity was not so much that as ignorance. Y'see, our GM's kind of knew, and accidentally gave the zombies universal damage resistance 5 as opposed to the normal DR5/slashing. Also, her zombies were a little spry.
It was pretty hilarious, actually. made for a great fight. The zombies and Filge came rumbling down the stairs, and the fighter2 and ranger1 move to hold 'em off. the spellcaster and the rogue(me) start working on the Necromancer, and the cleric ran support. The fight went on FOREVER, until we killed Filge, the Zombies drive the ranger and fighter into unconcioussness, and the rest of us are at single digit HPs! Well I jumped out the window, and the casters grabbed the first man they could and high-tailed it down the stairs. We went back for Aerelius, but it was too late. he was lunchmeat. At this point, we'd all begun to wonder at the CR for this adventure, and I chcked the Monster's Manual. AHA! Well, we didn't want to rerun it, and the ranger didn'tseem too bent out of shape....
|
The first part was my fault; I'm a curious gnome and I can't help but poke things... including the severed head intruder alarm in the necromancer's bedroom.
the head was tooo juicy a tarrget for the kender handler in our group - he tried to stuff it in his bags.... and tryied to stuff it faster when it started yelling, thinking it might be quiet in the bag...he then proceeded to trow the head at filge as he came down the stairs.
he also stole the rangers ring of feather fall - almost causing him to die from the mouth trap.
PC: Aerelius (Half-elf ranger1)
Adventure: Filge's Tower
Catalyst: Pickin' a fight with a dead man. And stupidity!So this one was pretty straight-forward. We'd gone to Filge's to get the dead kid's folk's bones to bury, and ended up in a knockdown-dragout with Filge and his boys. The stupidity was twofold, really. The first part was my fault; I'm a curious gnome and I can't help but poke things... including the severed head intruder alarm in the necromancer's bedroom. Thus, we lost the advantage of suprise. the second act of lethal stupidity was not so much that as ignorance. Y'see, our GM's kind of knew, and accidentally gave the zombies universal damage resistance 5 as opposed to the normal DR5/slashing. Also, her zombies were a little spry.
It's not so much my newness that was to blame on running the zombies it was my tired state. I hadn't gotten a good nights sleep in a while and was misreading things. At least I gave you the extra XP for it. The first part of the fight though I wasn't using a DR on any of the zombies or undead until the very end of that encounter when Aerelius was already down. That was my mistake because I didn't fully read the entry. The second part of the fight I did give them DR just too much of it. Anyway, so it only affected that last bit of the encounter. But at least I was fair in bumping the Encounter level up by 1 to make up for my lack of attention. I promise this won't happen again. If it does y'all have permission to mutiny! I am glad that even though there have been a few DM blunders that y'all are still enjoying yourselves. Thanks for posting the obits too Neville!
Hoped to never post in this thread...
Name Molak
Race Half Elf
Class Fighter
level 2
i converted kullen to a shifter barbarian, and in there initial role playing confrontation (hired by the 3 adventurers to find the pc's tomb there exploring) they tried to fight them (doh!) i had to have a npc save them. This put kullen in jail. after that they learn they need to talk to him about the bodies. Heading back to the sherifs office they arrive as the gang is making a break for it (sherif took a big payoff and skipped town). In the ensuing melee (kullen withough axe) one of the npc's written with a glaive in his stats... which criticled... 31 points of damage, put the pc to -17...owwww. Molak was the person who inherited the old mine office (in the dragon article) and he returned as freedom.. a warforged fighter/jugernaut eventually.
PC: Theo (Halfling Cleric 4)
Adventure: The Faceless One's Inner Sanctum
Catalyst: Low hp and lining up for a lightning bolt...twice!
Theo was a brave cleric of the Shinning One. Pelor's blessing seemed to shine upon the little 3 feet high cleric. However Theo was not bless with a strong body or a great constitution.
As the group pressed on in the labyrinth comabt erupted in the inner sanctum and things went downhill for them. The Faceless One summoned a fiendish centipide followed by a Web by an Acolyte. The Druid, her wolf, the Barbarian and Theo had neatly lined up behind one another, making them easy picking for a Ligthning bolt, knowking both Theo and the druid in the negatives. The rogue used the wand of CLW on theo who healed the druid but not enough to make here conscious. Thinking the lightning and the encounter agaisnt the Wind Warriors would make them realize the dangers of lining up I didn't think the FO would have the opportunity to use that scroll of Lightning bolt...was I wrong!
The very next round the Barbarian, the wolf and Theo lined up again...with dire consequences. Theo bleed to death because no one could heal him.
PC: Haulik (half-orc fighter)
Place: Temple of Hextor, 3FoE
Catalyst: Theldrick nailed him with a critical when he had only 1 hp left. Yikes!
PC name- Gruel half-orc Paladin 2 of Lathander
Place of death- the Wispering Cairn- The Architect’s lair
Catalyst-earth Elemental, Lurking Strangler, And Brown Mold.....
With no means of Freezing the brown Mold, The party had ingeniously gone to the bedroom and managed to flip over the stone base of the ‘airbed’ creating (almost) a hoverboard. It at least hovered enough to allow them to push it over the brown mold and use it as a stepping stone to jump over the mold into the wok shop.. After a harrowing battle with the earth elemental, the party’s Psion wandered off to check out the bed room. The Lurking strangler had been waiting for its opportunity and struck. Fortunately the psion’s psi crystal took off for help. As the party rushed to save the psion ( which they did only by the skin on his teeth), the paladin was struck by the strangler’s fear eyebeams and went fleeing in panic... Straight into the brown mold. Previous damage from the elemental proved to much. By the time the party found him.... He was frozen solid. Tough last few days for the party.... Last time they lost the Dwarven fighter to the wolves at the Cairn’s entrance.... Tonight the Paladin.... We’re only half thru the WC and I’m starting to see a demoralizing body count.
((OOC)) In character
With poor Thezra still recovering from being weakened by the gas trap, the rest of the adventurers, ((Mazeanoff the human bard, Travis the human fighter, and Ghalia the aasimar druid)) decided to see what they could see for themselves. After effortlessly dispatching a swarm of vile beetles and a pair of giant bombadeir beetles, the party found their progress in the Cairn obstructed by a dark flooded chamber. seeing no other way around the water, a coin was enspelled for Travis to carry and Mazeanoff lit a torch. Ghalia's aasimar eyes could see perfectly in the lightless room. The group sloshed warringly into the water, doing their best to both be on guard and not to disturb the serenity of the place. Despite these efforts, an insane water elemental sensed their presence and struck from the concealment of the water.
It lashed out at Mazeanoff, dropping his torch to the water. Travis turned nigh simultaneously, but was at a loss of what to do. Mazeanoff lashed out, but missed. The water elemental reciprocated and hit poor Mazeanoff in a vital area. The bard slipped beneathe the water.
Wasting no time Ghalia collected the bard and dragged him off to safety. Travis swore for his indecisiveness and rushed the watery fiend. His sword, which had saved him many a time, this time, failed him. The elemental, more enraged than before struck Travis. The fighter's eyes closed and he slipped below the water. And with him, went the remaining source of light. Ghalia found herself sorely pressed indeed. She managed to administer a potion to Mazeanoff a,d just barely brought her club to bear when the elemental slammed her hard. The party had been overmatched. Guilt and despair crept into Mazeanoff as Ghale slipped beneathe the water, her head gashed open. Alone, in the dark and without an ally or prayer, poor Mazeanoff there witnessed things one should never see...
((Fret not for poor Mazeanoff - as his player was not there that night he was not sacrificed. He was Deus Exed out of the Whispering Cairn, but when he awoke was unable to speak and his hair had turned stark white. A vital lesson in combat I find. When you have the highest initiative, ACT! As for Travis and Ghalia, they were recovered by colleagues at the Bronzewood Lodge who swore to avenge the druidess. Ghalia was burned on a sacred pyre in a ceremony held by Nogwier. Travis's funeral is next game. He had to be prepared by the clerics of Wee Jas))
First PC death in my AoW campaign.
Nor MoSta was a rotund and corpulent human rogue/fighter who cared more for his gullet than for disabling traps. After the party explored the Lair of the Architect they then figured they would search the Indigo elevator. They saw the bones, they all voiced that it was most likely a trap.
He pushed the button anyway.
He took damage and because he was so large I told him he had to hold his breath. After a scrambling to the sarcophogus the party eventually frees him and he is healed. Never to be shown up by any damped (mining term he uses as a curse word) trap he searched and found the trap mechanism. He then attempted to disarm the trap and ended up setting it off again. This time he was still injured from his last trip down the elevator and he began to bleed to death.
I use a modified Death's Door rule (-10 or - Con score, whichever is lowest) so he had 14 rounds to stabilize with a 1 or 2 on a d20. The party needed to roll Strength checks to move the sarcophogus.
He rolled three 20's, two 19's and nothing lower than a 6. The party rolled a good number of 1's (which I ruled as them falling prone and not being able to help next round as they try to stand up).
Short story long the party is trying to figure out how to return his crushed 300+ pound corpse to Diamond Lake. One player described this as trying to move a bean bag filled with pudding.
3FoE - Final battle with Faceless One
As described in tacts, the FO summend a giant centipede to wait behind the door which the PCs are ment to open.
Our druid bashed in the door just to fact the huge vermin. Because of initiative order, he got struck by two scorching rays from two acolyths and one lightning bold from the One. That smashed him out of the door, our of the reach of the vermin, and against a wall tumbling down with lots of minus HP. The player calculates his reflex save and declares his PC dead just before the bard in the group shouts "do not forget the +1 save from my bardic music!"
Well - the druid was unconcious not dead then...
|
|
PC Name: Dog Dog (Animal Companion)
Adventure: Whispering Cairn
Location of Death: True Tomb
Catalyst: Wind Warriors Sonic Attack and Sword Blows.
Long Description: Dog Dog went to assist Jub Jub his faithful Halfling Druid companion who lay unconscious on the cold stone floor. He was quickly overcome by horrific sounds and sword blows in a vicious effort to save his master. His master recovered and was mortified to find Dog Dog dead. Dog Dog is now survived by Dog Dog II,. Dog Dog II appeared by Jub Jub side roughly 24hours later in Diamond Lake near the stone circle,
Name: Tamaren-sheth (Brownie d'Jorasco)
Class: Wizard/Apocalypse Mage
Setting: Eberron
MOD: Spire of Long Shadows
COD: Rolling a 4 on a prismatic spray (green)
That pretty much says it all. Of course, before that we had:
Name: Kanatesh
Class: Soulknife (cohort)
COD: Crit off of Nezzarim's sword of eeeeevilness.
The cohort was the first person Nezzarim reached, and he rolled a near-max-damage crit. The monk in the party had dropped to -4 in the round before, so I was planning on using Death Knell the next round; a spell that doesn't get used enough IMO, and I was going to LOVE that moment. But the wizard Dimension Door'd the monk out of harm's way; in retaliation, Nezzie took a full-round coup de gras to pull off Kanatesh's head and throw it at them. He doesn't move quickly in all that armor, so I was trying to get them to come closer. The party was, in a word, stunned...and they beat him to a pulp in one round :)
PC Names: Timit son of Timit, Timit and Allistar
Adventure: Whispering Cairn
Location of Death: The elevator trap
Catalyst: Mass stupidity
Long Description:
The first thing you probably ask yourself is how can 3 characters all kill themselves in the same trap? Well, I will show you that it is easier than it sounds.
This is our second play session and the party has just returned from clearing out the tomb area at the bottom of the "yellow" elevator. They are looking for other places to explore. For some reason, even though it was pointed out multiple times, they never decided to look into the hole that the beatles came out of. So, they turn thier attention to the elevator with the crushed skeleton in it. When they first saw this elevator, they all said "I am not going in there!". However, this time they decided that they should go in there. Better than just one character, they should send two! Just in case there is something to fight at the bottom. So, Allistar the human rogue and Timit son of Timit the half-orc fighter squeeze into the crushing device. Brilliant!!!
The other character, Timit, is the other half-orc's brother and has a combined int(4) + wis(7) + chr(3) of 14. His death was basically a mercy killing. He went to investigate his brother's remains, when the elevator closed on him too.
Never under estamate the stupidity of a party. Or, as the saying goes, "None of us is as dumb as all of us."
Remus, dwarven fighter of Greysmere.
Slain by a critical hit from Shukak, the lizard king.
|
|
Name: Gaer
Race/Class: Halfing 1st level Spell Thief
Adventure: The Whispering Cairn
Catalyst: Wrong place at the wrong time and a little too brave for so little hit points.
Gaer, the bravest member of the party fell victim to the swarm of acid beatles when to close to the collasped elevator did he go. He might have lived had he not take so much damage in the fight with the earth elemental. By the time the party managed to finish of the acid swarm, it was too late.
Gaer now rests in the Hall of Heroes.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Here's a recap: 183 Dead, 2 Quit
Whispering Cairn: 65 Deaths
Three Faces of Evil: 69
Encounter at Blackwall Keep: 7
Hall of Harsh Reflections: 15
The Champion's Belt: 9
A Gathering of Winds: 3
Spire of Long Shadows: 3
Library of Last Resort: 1
Side Quests/Treks/Random Encounters: 11
Players that Quit: 2
Some of these numbers are off because I added 4 or 5 for any TPK that didn't include numbers of players.
And, obviously, these are only the deaths listed in this thread.
|
|
When all is said and done, I'm confident that Spire of Long Shadows will have claimed the greatest number of unfortunates. Thanks for compiling the recap, Big Jake!
TWO Fort saves away from a probable TPK in "Whispering Cairn" last session; the three-hero gestalt group which I run had two of their number paralyzed by Uluvaunt, and only the badly injured half-orc barbarian (who'd already survived a coup de grace from the baddie) left to face him while still in the water. He was struck twice, but made both Fort saves. The ghoul had only ONE hp left when he began his paralyzing spree... and they had earlier decided to keep their rat familiar and eagle animal companion away from the fray, for fear that they'd be paralyzed. Would've been a shame if they'd all died, for love of a rodent and a bird...!
Name: Thelo
Race/class: half-elf 3rd level monk
Adventure:TFoE
Event:A lethal dance with the female barbarian grimlock.
After dealing with the grimlocks on the ledge and the 2 chokers below the party tried to check out the small tunnel below the ledge. Anso, the enlarged cleric, boosted Thelo up and he started tying down a rope, so the rest could follow him. That's when the barbarian suprised him. Thelo tried to defend himself but the barbarian's knives found his heart and he was thrown down below to his shocked partymembers. The enraged party managed to take her down after but before that she also almost killed Leto, the human swashbuckler (-9hp).