PC: Daejin, Fighter 7 (Cohort to party Cleric)
Adventure: Champion's Belt
Cause of Death: Too long in the belly of the Ulgurstasta

Mates cut him from the belly of dead beastie only to find he'd become a dreaded SOK. Killed him again. Had him resurrected.

Hmmm... 25% of AOW PC deaths from bad save rolls... 25% good NPC rolls... 5% to save the rest of the party and the last 30% to classic player overconfidence. No offence to those players.

This leaves 15% unaccounted for.

andrew berthiaume wrote:

Hmmm... 25% of AOW PC deaths from bad save rolls... 25% good NPC rolls... 5% to save the rest of the party and the last 30% to classic player overconfidence. No offence to those players.

This leaves 15% unaccounted for.

Well I never said math was good on me lol. The last 15% would go into other, since every DM plays differently so theres bound to be deaths from variables from game to game. That should be 100% now.

Well -
This isn't exactly a PC death, but it was such a great use/abuse of the system that I thought it might be fun to share.

Name: Madtooth the Hungry
Adventure: Champions Belt
Location: Arena
Catalyst: Enfeeblement, Well-placed Coupe'd Grace, and a foggy Monk
Long Description: OK, here it comes ...

The creaky, herky-jerky motion of the elevator platform rose through dust and beams of sunlight. The Black Company hastily cast several spells upon various members of the party in expectation of meeting a new opponent on the floor of the Champions Belt Arena. As they were lifted fully into the sunlit arena grounds, the crowd gathered in the stands roared with excitement ... the Black Company never seemed to disappoint their need and lust for chaotic mayhem and unrestrained bloodshed. The Black Company was prepared to meet their new challengers .. yet there was nobody, or nothing, present. The crowd continued to roar, but after a few minutes, as the Black Company stood alone and unopposed, the noise began to wind down, and then to change and rise again to a cacaphony of resentful jeering ... a riot seemed apparent ... the crowd can be fickle, and if not fed on time can turn nasty!

Time continued to wear on, the crowd grew in size, and it's temprament continued to grow proportionally larger and more nasty. Spells wore off, and Lina Longlegs, the wise monk, wandered across the arena, sat near the far end, away from her fellows, and began to meditate. She began to shut out the noise of the crowd, letting the sunshine fill her with warmth. She began to contemplate the events of the previous night, when she and her companions had battled some odd undead creatures, and she had almost been infected, yet again, by those singularly pesky parasitic green worms. She was beginning to tire of those creatures, and their spawn. And then came the "Outsider" ... he was not necessarily the most difficult challenge the group had yet faced, but one of the more interesting. But in the end, he fell, as did his summoned scorpion ... Lina felt bad for the creature, after all, it did not choose its' way. But something tickled in the back of her mind. The "Outsider" had carried scrolls upon his person, and the group had been asked to find a certain set of scrolls. Had anyone yet investigated the scrolls closely? Lina remembered them being scryed for magic (and they were), but she was certain that not one of the party who were learned in magical inscriptions had actually looked closely at those items. She must remember to mention this to Calen.

Suddenly, as Lina was coming to this realization, the doors to the arena, closest to where she sat, burst open. A group of men-at-arms hastily dragged in a massive, wheeled iron war wagon, and quickly let loose the restraints that held the doors tight. The noise of the crowd, which had grown quite ugly, was suddenly hushed, and as the men-at-arms ran for their lives, the creature, the abheration that had been housed inside was loosed! It let out a deafening roar/scream that sent a collective shudder of fear and trepedation through the huge crowd. The Black Company, on the far side of the arena (except for Lina), stood their ground and took stock of this monstrosity. It's form was indescribable, something from a nightmare with more arms than necessary, like some kind of twisted land-borne octopus. Lina quickly rose, with the beast a mere few feet from her position. The Black Company quickly began to heft weapons and recast spells that would make some of their party more formidable, but from Lina's vantage, this seemed almost comical against a creature of this size.

In an instant, and in what felt like slow-motion, Madtooth the Hungry (as the beast was known) spat forth a long thick tongue that struck Lina forcibly, wrapping securely around her. As spells were finished, the rest of the Company began to move toward Madtooth, except for Ara, who moved obliquely and began loosing well-targeted arrows at the foe. Lina tried to free herself from the grasp of the tongue, but to no avail, and was easily lifted into the air, and pulled effortlessly into the gaping maw of the monsterous Madtooth. What seemed like possibly her final thoughts were, "You've got to be kidding?!"

The Company staggered for just a moment, seeing Lina disappear into the gullet of the giant foe, and yet, they did not completely falter, but came on, even against all hope. That is what the Black Company is all about - the task is not finished until it is finished. A couple of seconds went by as Wargon (our stalwart dwarf) and MT (quick and dark) moved close enough to begin hacking and slashing with their specialized weaponry. Ara continued to stick arrows into Madtooth, but they neither appeared to harm the beast, or to enrage it .. it just didn't seem to notice. Calen the Green held back, trying to decide on the best course of action, while the non-plussed paladin, Jensen Bane (yes - the one and only paladin - Jensen Bane of legend!!), bade his celestial warhorse to appear and assist!

Lina was sucked deep into the belly of the beast, and unbeknownst to the rest of the party was actually in fair shape, alive and not too terribly cramped within a dark, moist, warm chamber. Stomach acid burned her skin, eyes, and lungs ... her lungs. An idea flashed quickly into mind, and she reached into her belt pouch, pulled forth a small bottle, and let its effervescant liquid bubble down her throat. "If nothing else", she thought, "I will not die this day." Her body immediatley began to tingle, and it felt as if all of her molecules were dissolving - but not from acid - she felt no pain, only a significant lightness of being. Lina sublimated, her solid body forming a concentrated foggy mist. Lina had become a sentient gas, mobile, and manueverable. Now to the task at hand!

Outside, the battle did not at first appear to be going well for the Black Company. Calen managed to enlarge Jensen, and a few carefully placed blows had been delivered by both Wargon and MT. Ara's arrows were protruding all over the hide of the beast, giving it the appearance of an underdeveloped porcupine, but it did not seem phased. In fact, Wargon and MT were suddenly enveloped in grasping holds, and rendered completely useless. MT had earlier been enlarged, and as such did not appear to be in danger of being ingested; however, Wargon went the way of Lina, and was swiftly sucked into the maw of Madtooth.

The crowd was beside itself ... as a body it was "oohing" and "aahing" ... gasping as arrows continued to sink into Madtooth's flesh, roaring wildly as the dwarf disappeared into the mouth of the monster, cheering as Jensen suddenly grew in stature. They really didn't care who won or lost, they were here for the action, for the spilled blood, for the intense rush of being able to watch a scene of undescribable horror unfold before their eyes. To a person, they envisioned themselves as the players, as the victors ... this was what they lived for!

Lina began to move through the creature. As a gas she easily wafted back up through the esophogeal tube, into the mouth of the creature, and then following the bronchial tube down toward the lungs. It was not difficult, as being in a gaseous state she just followed the natural movement of air into the creature's body ... it literally inhaled her into its lungs.

Outside, Jensen began to charge, in order to engage the creature. Bravery, or folley, it was not readily apparent, especially after witnessing what had quickly befallen three very compentent comrades. Calen deliberately pulled a wand from his belt and began to let loose rays of sickly, pale, yellow-green light ... magic that sapped the strength from Madtooth. And, yes, arrows from the bow of Ara continued to sink into the monster.

The next things occurred so rapidly, the crowd, afterward, were not quite sure what exactly happened. But what did transpire was such that even great-great-grandchildren would still be talking about it many years to come.

The magical light from Calens wand sapped the strength from Madtooth, and he collapsed under his own weight, unable to even lift his tentacles in defense. Jensen strode forth, and with his mighty great sword, and with a singular call to his diety (sacrificing some of his own life-energy in order to increase the efficacy of his blow) he sunk his blade deep into what he guessed was the head of the beast. And within its left lung, Lina materialized and began hacking with small, sharp blades, scything them through the soft, moist, spongy material, causing significant, mortal damage to the delicate material. As well, Wargon had consumed a similar potion, but before he could wind his way into the lungs, the beast fell, dead, and with its dying breath expelled Wargon into the arena where he rematerialized. Lina burst forth from the body of the beast, a bloody, foaming mass of whirling energy as the crowd went from deafening silence to a thunderous crescendo of cheering and applause. The Black Company stood tall (MT and Jensen literally!) and quiet, basking in the glory and soaking up the moment.

This challenge was over, the heroes gathered together and let the men-at-arms fall in around them to escort them to their gladiatorial quarters once again. Lina took a mental snapshot of the event, and then allowed herself to think, "A long hot bath is in order. And after that, I think a bit of brandy."

Name: TPK
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Location: Temple of Hextor
Catalyst: Bad planning plus bad rolling
Long Description:

The party had just gone down the elevator and killed the two teiflings, but not before one of them had knocked on the door to Hextor's temple. The party went into the temple and were replled by the skeletons and more tieflings with darkness spells.

They regrouped in the main room with the pool, drank some healing potions and decided to go up and rest. This would have been a good idea, but somewhere along the way, they changed thier mind. This was to be thier last mistake.

Healed up, they went back into the temple. Things were going well, until on round 3 when the Beast joined the fight! With the main fighters rolling 5 or less on thier attack rolls, round after round, they dropped one by one to the Beast. Once the fighters were down, the casters were mopped up with ease. Only the monk was able to run for her life and live to tell the tale.

Well, AOW was fun but with the TPK, we are moving on to the Savage Tide. I am sure you will hear from me again on that Obit thread. :-)

Deceased: Aladon, Human Barbarian 4

Location: 3FoE, Grimlock Caverns

The party was at the bottom of the sloped wall in the entrance to the primary living areas for the grimlocks. The grimlocks had set themselves in a defensive formation with rows of bristling long spears backed by javelin-throwers.

After a few initally volleys back and forth, the party had killed all but three of the spearmen. These survivors threw themselves at the front ranks of the party. One of them rolled a critical on Aladon and alas, he is no more.

I find it interesting that so many people found this part of the adventure to be a cakewalk. My players loaded up on healing potions, scrolls, alchemist fire, and several other things and this part has been brutal for them. Apart from Al's death, three other characters went into negatives in the past two sessions.

The haven't even gotten to Grallak Kur yet. It might get worse before it gets better.

Cohort Name: Valentin Sunbeam
Profession: Human Cleric of Pelor 6
Module: Hall of Harsh Reflections
Cause of Death: Confused Party Fightress

Description: After the Party ignored the Spirit Naga (which had gone invisible) and followed their Drow guide, whom they had suggested into leading them to his boss, into the living cave of the drow.
In the first round, the party fightress drops two Drow (thanks, cleave) with big, meaty hits. But when it is Myrianaas turn, the drow cleric casts her Confusion spell and targets the big, scary fighter-lady without a will save.
Lots of running away on the parts of the parties spellcasters that got a chance to act and a "lucky" 79 on the percentile roll later, Teutonia the killing-machine turns on the cleric, a cohort to the party bard. Ever wondered, what a hasted fighter can do with a full-attack and a cleric with all his hit-points? Drop him. Drop him real dead.
Well, the party decided to use Myrianaas weapon to finance the raising.

Name: Crunk, ogre barbarian 8 and Solze, human favored soul 9
Adventure: Champions Belt
Location: Kyuss shrine
Catalyst: Alkilith demon surprise
Long Description:

The party slaughtered Bozal in one round (see Cakewalk thread) and were resting, trying to figure out the zombie and the chest in the tiefling's chamber. The zombie suddenly got up and started walking deeper into the shrine. Puzzled, the team followed, paying little attention to what was behind the curtain.

Bad move. One of my players, who had been off for a couple months while his wife had a baby, paid a surprise visit, and I let him play the demon. He ripped into his buddies with glee. First Stinking Cloud, then a strategic Wall of Ice, three Cones of Cold mixed with a couple Teleports, and a whole lot of +19-to-hit whoopass. The ogre was knocked into negatives three times before the last one finished him.

The favored soul, who had been right behind the ogre in the hallway, unable to get by, caught the last CoC dead on after the ogre dropped. The rest of the party scattered and ran - the two NPC hirelings bolted early, each down to 3hp. The soulborn fighter curled up and played dead, then dimensioned door out. The warmage ran into lavatory, crapped himself, then dived down the hole(!). He eventually ended up at a manhole underneath the city.

They actually went back and got the favored soul and Raised him. They don't know how close they were to killing that CR 14 creature and collecting a boatload of XP.

Name: Vandar, male human 4th level fighter/4th level rogue
Adventure: Hall of Harsh Reflections
Location: Zyrxog’s lab.
Catalyst: Ripped in twain by the advanced Octopin. Two hits and then a rend with almost maximum damage. Man. I forgot how nasty rend can be.

Character: Alix, Elven Wizard

Location: Whispering Cairn.

Cause of death: Gravity.

That wind trap is real nasty. And when they went back next session, they almost went right back to it.

PC Name: Soveliss, Elven Wizard 10
Adventure: A Gathering of the winds
Location of Death: Whispering Cairn
Catalyst: -Failed Will-save of the wizard
-Fight against Il-Tane AND Froghemoth

Party: - Elven Wizard 10
- Elven Ranger 10
- Half-Orc Barbarian 10
- Half-Orc Barbarian 10 (never always!! otherwise we
have a cleric of pelor 10)
- Human Bard 11
- Human Druid 11

So far...

We have to fight against Il-Tane AND the Froghemoth...yes we knew that in advance...

But the fight was so terrible that from our 6 PC's died 3..
1/2 TPK !

We have made a plan, from that we thought it could work.
(Use of "Wand of Force" to split both enemies)
But not in statistics hand.

In the first round there were four worm-infected and no Il-Tane and no Froghemoth...Ok we thought...Our two barbarians run to the zombies and yes (OH Yes!!) both make their 4 saves against will DC 14, 19 !! Ok no problem.

Then me, the wizard of the party failed his save with a "4" (+14) against DC 19...OH NO !!
I have to use my memorized spell "Teleport" back to the Academy in Greyhawk...and have to view the very exciting pictures and rooms of the academy, while the other 5 PC's blooded out...or were swallowed.. (--> 7rnds Fear)

Ok now the rest of the party was alone...against 3 zombies and Il-Tane AND the big frog.

Next our elven Ranger was the target of the frog...Two rounds later ok...good meal, the frog would have said...
Oh oh..
and the next round our bard took 69 hit points out of his 74...next action "dimension door" with our druid..ok they were save..

But the fate of our two barbarians was the same as for the ranger...R.I.P....

But one of our two barbarians have made the journey through the portal and YES died against Il-Tane, who comes to the portal, 2 rnds later...

Ok bye for now
(Register my post at the head f the AoW, please !)
--> Problem with will-saves against the fear-aura

Soveliss

It finally happened.....

Jezlo Trumblynne(Ranger 6)
HOHR
death by octopus constriction

The giant octopus claims another victim! The whole party of six almost went down on this one. The Ranger's brother in RL is the party wizard and almost led the group to their death as he instructed everyone to rush in and save Jezlo. A couple rounds later we have 4 grappled pc's, one dead ranger, and a cleric going insane with a wand of CMW. Near TPK, but only because their emotions got in the way of tactics.

Bwahahah, the killer DM in me has been unleashed! My party has access to reincarnate now, which means that all bets are OFF. In the spirit of all bets being off, I killed three out of four PCs tonight.

Interesting twist - I personally always do the reincarnate rolling, because i'm a rat bastard and don't want fudges on it. It's turned out a couple of interesting results tonight.

Name: Premise, Elven rogue
Location: A Wine Cellar beneath the free city arena...
Catalyst: bad disable device check, followed by bad fort save.
Yes, that's right, the slay living trap nailed the rogue. she was reincarnated as a halfling.

Name: Talbor the Unkillable (hah! gotcha!), Human Warmage
Location: The Hidden Shrine of Kyuss
Catalyst: DM rolls 14 points of damage on the Apostle's Con-Damage Breath Weapon.
flat. out. dead. talbor the unkillable my @SS. Reincarnate as... guess what? a human. oh, but it gets stranger...

Name: Loradove, Orc Fighter
Location: The Hidden Shrine of Kyuss
Catalyst: Nasty Con damage and one bite later...
That's two sessions in a row the fighter's been killed. she needs more hit points or better AC, beacuse some ofthese shouldn't have been hitting her. last session, she reincarnated from half-orc to full orc. this session's reincarnate roll was... guess what... Orc. yeah, seriously.

how's that for bunking probablity? of 3 reincarnate rolls made tonight, 2 characters ended up the exact same species.

how's that for bunking probablity? of 3 reincarnate rolls made tonight, 2 characters ended up the exact same species.

earlier in the forum someone rolls reincarnate for the same char 3 times i think in the same session (i could be wrong. its about 1-2 pages back) and all 3 times he came back as a halfling, so your not the only one to have the dice go "default" if you will.

I´m going to have to go through my papers to find out who died were, cause there´s been a few so far. But the posts will come!

And about Madtooth, first round of combat, the wizard wins initiative and casts ball lightning. Easiest match the group had in the arena, I could have sworn they fell for the "weakness to fire" ruse.

Adventure: The Whispering Cairn
Names: Rashal (Shifter (Gorebrute) Barbarian) and Paela (Elf Ranger)
Situation: The party was exploring the(not-so)abandoned mine office and went into the cellar. They were set upon by 6 dire rats-alas, Rashal and Paela did not make it for they had been hurt in previous battles. The druid left and set fire to the whole place as their funeral pyre.

We had two deaths this last session.
Adventure: The Champion's Belt
Names: Neras (Human Cleric)
Situation: The party was exhausted from fighting Bozal but continued exploring the shrine. They came across the Alkilith Demon and engaged it. The wizard blew his knowledge check and the cleric's player is a novice, so he didn't even try. The symbol of fear took out their heavy hitter and a short way into the fight, a good role on a cone of cold put him down. He was later raised via a Raise Dead scroll they got from Ekyam (I felt sorry for the inexperienced player).

Adventure: The Champion's Belt
Names: Suspiria Basir (Human Fighter/etc)
Situation: The fight with Madtooth the hungry didn't go too well for the PCs. They were overconfident from the way they trounced the 3 teams the first day and Pitch Blade the day before. They also believed they had helpful information from the guards.... Regardless, they don't have much in the way of group buffing tactics statted out, and Madtooth ate Suspiria and Oz (shifter ranger). Oz cut his way out (and was promptly reswallowed and cut his way out again) but Suspiria didn't make it.

Name: Najek, Human Warlock
Location: The whispering Cairn
Catalyst: Caster acting stupid and investigating strange noices up front without protection.

He was killed by the swarm that came up from the collapsed elevator. First session and a new character had to be made.

Name: Gatts, Human Fighter\Barbarian
Location: Caves of Erythnul, Horseshoe cavern.
Catalyst: Player rolling bad, Grimlock barbarian w\ daggers rolling very good.

Gatts uses a biiiig sword (huge greatsword) and anyone who cant guess were this character was ripped off from should watch the anime berserk. Anyway, Gatts went up against the barbarian alone, and got wasted in about 3-4 rounds. He got raised though.

Name: Tireleh, Elf Wizard
Location: Zyrxog´s Lair
Catalyst: Failed a reflex save.

The Naga got pissed and lobbed a fireball away, Tireleh simply didn´t have the hit points.

Name: Ikkus Rummel, Human Cleric of Wee Jas
Location: Zyrxog´s Lair.
Catalyst: Multiple critical hits.

When fighting the drow, Ikkus, buffed up and wearing full-plate decides to run up Myrianas, actually around Myrianas, giving her and two of the drow thralls AOO´s. They all scored critical hits, and Myrianas used smite. Now he could have taken one step at the time, but his famous last words were "nah, they´ll never hit me anyway". Ikkus got reincarnated as a halfling.

Name: Gatts, Human Barbarian\Fighter, Nicolette, Human Rogue\fighter
Location: Zyrxog´s Lair.
Catalyst: Bad-ass Mind Flayer.

All the characters fails their will saves, and whoop, brain snacks all around. Nicolette had ok stats, but the player didn´t want to raise her because at 8th lvl or something, as a frontline person, she had 37 hp. Some of Gatts remains were retrieved, and he was raised. After that the party spent about 3,000 gp to buy pots and spells, whopped Zyrxog in 2 rounds of combat.

Name: Janus Heart, Dark Child (home brewed race) Fighter\Rogue
Location: The Arena
Catalyst: Got eaten by Ugly

Yes he is a fighter, but the same round he was put into the negatives, the rest of the party managed to kill Ugly, it was closer than they´ll ever know!, unfotunetaly for Janus, he died the next round. He was raised afterwards.

Name: Tireleh, Elf Wizard\Loremaster
Location: Icosiol´s Tomb.
Catalyst: Caster up front before the rogue has given the all clear

Tireleh´s second death was her last, the Elder Black Pudding made short work of her, and destroyed all her equipment in the prossess. She shouldnt have been alone up front, but she was, and the rest of the group has no way out of the Tomb.

Well thats the deaths so far, I´ll be duly impressed if there isn´t any more by the time we are done. Tireleh and Najek was played by the same player, he needs to learn that casters stay back. Ikkus went crazy with animate dead, inside the Free City, He decided he needed servants, and animated dead beggars and such, of course he was caught red handed, and imprisoned. So he won´t be returning to the band anytime soon.

Anyway, I´ll come with updates as more PC´s get killed in my AOW campaign.

Name: Grigorii, human barbarian/rogue
Place: mindflayer lair
Catalyst: torn in two by octopin.

After breaking down the door Grigorii rushed in the room with the brain and made his save v.s. the brain. Finding nothing else he rushed on to find enemies to chop, expecting the rest to follow. The rest of the party did but only piecemail allowing the brain to succesfully dominate 2 of his fellow partymembers. The result was that had to fight the advanced octopin alone while the rest of the party were fighting among themselves. Grigorii dealt alot of damage because of being enlarged and raging but due to this and an entangling breath attack by one of his dominated partymembers his AC was so low that 2 tentacle hits and rend damage was almost garantied every round (that's 8d6+28/round combined!). After killing the octopin and subdueing their dominated partymembers the rest of the party beat a hasty retreat.

Grigorii will be raised.

Name: Thallos, 2nd level elven ranger (Near TPK)
Place: Whispering Cairn, Lair of the Architect
Catalyst: Artophanx's Fist

I started the players in WC at 2nd level. In the Lair of the Architect, the wizard player did not have ray of frost memorized and yet despite my warnings of possibly damaging unnatural cold emanating from the brown mold, Thallos, One-Eye (2nd level dwarven druid) and Shadowmane (2nd level Elven wizard) ran through some of the brown mold's area into the room with the elemental egg taking 3d6 non-lethal damage (the dwarf avoided the damage using the updraft spell from SC). Thallos was reduced to 8 hps (did 8 damage), the wizard had 3 (did only 5 damage to him) and the dwarf had 20. The halfling scout Bucco intelligently remained outside the room.

Then, before deciding to rest, the party searched the room and touched the egg. A medium Earth Elemental appeared (changed from small as party was 2nd level) and since no one spoke Terran, Artophanx attacked. The dwarf did good damage (about 20 hps before dropping to -5). Then Thallos drew his long sword and bravely attacked the Elemental at +3 hit. He missed and I informed the player before rolling the die that I could only kill him on a critical. I rolled in front of the group and of course, a 20 came up! I confirmed the critical and did 28 pts of damage to Thallos as the elemental's fist burst out his back! Then I attacked the scout and dropped him to 1 hp. The party was sweating and some handy Tumble checks saved the scout before the wizard nailed the elemental with an alchemist fire flask (found in a 1st level adventure) that killed it. Needless to day, the party will not be touching any more eggs from now on!

Name: Benjamin (cleric 5)
Place: mindflayer lair
Catalist: Empowered lighting bolt

Protected by the bulk of the party he could do what he could do best, provide healing. The bulk however, couldn't protect him from the empowered lightningbolt that tore throught their ranks.

Name: Roderick (sorcerer8/rogue1)
Place: mindflayer lair
Catalist: Empowered lighting bolt

Roderick survived the first lightning bolt that struck down Benjamin, he didn't survive the second one however. Being the sort that bragged about killing many foes with a single magic missile(after the rest of the party softened that target for him) and even bragged about the fact that his position at the back of the farty allowed him to flee when a fight went really bad this was poetic justice.

There were two deaths, since I last posted, so let´s get this over with:

Name: Valentin Sunbeam (Human cleric 7, cohort)
Place: Free City Arena
Time: Battle against "The Death´s Avengers" (the Diamond Lake cast)
Catalyst: evil optimizing (tm) on my part ;o)

Description:
Well, Valentin dies again. I pitched my group against Pitch Blade in the first battle of the Champions Games already, so I could get Filge (Dread Necromancer 10), Kullen (Barbarian 9) and a new character (Gravetouched Ghoul Human Cleric 7) in a one-on-one battle against my guys.
It was a great battle, after half of my baddies (supported by two zombies and two skeletons) rushed to meet the party (Quick March, I like you), the party wizard cast a Wall of Force to divide the enemies. After a lot of battling and sweating players, they managed to take the Avengers down, one by one.
But: I gave Filge several feats from Libris Mortis, amongst others the Destruction Retribution. So all the undead burst in a bubble of negative energy. One of those in the end killed Valentin.
Player dialogue right before that:
Wizard: "So, should I transposition him out there and switch places with him?"
Bard (whom the cohort "belongs"): "Nah, he is fine, see: he´ll do a 5-foot-step and heal himself."
Wizard: "Yeah, you´re right. I´ll try to hit them with a lightning bolt instead."

Ah, good times were had by all. Now my players don´t care much about the Apostolic Scrolls and Lahaka yet. That´ll bug them in the end, I think... *eg*

Our AoW campaign has been going on for sometime now
and its time I paid tribute to those that have fallen.

-Gallen Shadowwraith-male Human Hexblade
Stabbed to death by a doppelganger in a bar brawl.

-Gorrun Holderale-male Dwarven Barbarian
Bit to death by black dragon{Ilthane},raised,dissolved by elder
black pudding,not raised.

-Atom Outlander-male Stonechild Fighter
Crushed to death by a ogre barbarians big club.{wandering monster}

Name: Vandar, male human 9th level fighter/rogue
Adventure: The Champion’s Belt.
Location: Secret entrance to the hidden shrine of Kyuss under the Free City Coliseum.
Catalyst: Missed saving throw against the Slay Living glyph.

The party had figured out from the drawing of the insane prisoner that there Kyuss worms around so the party choose to investigate. Using a wand of secret door detection, the party finds a secret door in the wine cellar under the Free City Coliseum.
Vandar checks for traps and fines none. Vandar opens the door. Vandar misses his fort save. Vandar falls down dead.

The party now has a dilemma: What do they do about Vardar’s death. They are still involved in the Championship games and they do not want to explain how one of their team mates died in between matches. Vandar was killed during the night after party had won their first match. I suggested that the cleric animate him as a zombie and then he could still participate in the next match. For some reason, the lawful good cleric vetoed that idea. Then our sorcerer came up with summoning an unseen servant to carry him into battle and have him drop the first time that he was hit. Basically, I am looking at “Weekend at Bernie’s: D&D edition.” I actually find it pretty amusing as did everyone else with the exception of Vandar’s player.

^^^ Instant classic moment! I lol'ed! :D

LMAO Now thats got to be the best idea for handling a PC death I've ever heard. BTW, anyone else note that the slay living glyph has nailed 2 rouges now? Last time I checked, rouges don't die by a trap lol. Anyway, I think on monday I'm gonna set up a forum for all the wonderful funny moments that all you guys on the boards have seen in your games cause a weekend at Bernies bit like that should be shared with everyone on the other boards lol. *looks around* woops, hijacked the page. I'll hush now ;)

*weekend at Raknians...... a new classic :)

And here we go: my party was defeated by the Apostle of Kyuss.

Name: Teutonia (Human Fighter 5 / Thayan Knight 5)
Place: Free City Arena
Time: Battle against Madtooth the Hungry
Catalyst: Being swallowed whole

Teutonia stood no chance against the Froghemoth. The Rogue luckily survived being swallowed whole, Teutonia had not as much luck.
She was raised on the same evening.

Name: Rogak (probably Lemuria, Half-Orc Wizard 5 / Mage of the Arcane Order 5)
Place: Free City Arena
Time: Battle against The Apostle of Kyuss
Catalyst: Necromantic Acid

Rogak sacrificed himself by using his Benign Transposition spell to switch places with the party Fighter (Teutonia, surrounded by an aura of unholy light heralding the bad things that will happen should she end up in the Apostles belly) and gets picked at by the Apostle. An 8 on the Necromantic Acid die later, he died. Unluckily, Auric already was dying in the belly of the ulgurstasta, therefore the two of them got animated as Spawn of Kyuss.
By the way: the party hit Auric with an empowered Ray of Enfeeblement in the first round of battle (before the Apostle appeared) for a strength penalty of 16. That left Auric completely useless. They basically cut there own flesh there.

Name: Atlantis Lemuria (Human Bard 10)
Place: Free City Arena
Time: Battle against The Apostle of Kyuss
Catalyst: being breathed upon by the Apostle with her half-brother Spawn of Kyuss

When the Apostle finished the transformation of Auric and Rogak to Spawn of Kyuss, it hit Atlantis with the Breath Weapon. 11 points of Con-drain kill the toughest bard. Or so I have heard.

And here we go: my party was defeated by the Apostle of Kyuss.

Name: Teutonia (Human Fighter 5 / Thayan Knight 5)
Place: Free City Arena
Time: Battle against Madtooth the Hungry
Catalyst: Being swallowed whole

Teutonia stood no chance against the Froghemoth. The Rogue luckily survived being swallowed whole, Teutonia had not as much luck.
She was raised on the same evening.

Name: Rogak (probably Lemuria, Half-Orc Wizard 5 / Mage of the Arcane Order 5)
Place: Free City Arena
Time: Battle against The Apostle of Kyuss
Catalyst: Necromantic Acid

Rogak sacrificed himself by using his Benign Transposition spell to switch places with the party Fighter (Teutonia, surrounded by an aura of unholy light heralding the bad things that will happen should she end up in the Apostles belly) and gets picked at by the Apostle. An 8 on the Necromantic Acid die later, he died. Unluckily, Auric already was dying in the belly of the ulgurstasta, therefore the two of them got animated as Spawn of Kyuss.
By the way: the party hit Auric with an empowered Ray of Enfeeblement in the first round of battle (before the Apostle appeared) for a strength penalty of 16. That left Auric completely useless. They basically cut there own flesh there.

Name: Atlantis Lemuria (Human Bard 10)
Place: Free City Arena
Time: Battle against The Apostle of Kyuss
Catalyst: being breathed upon by the Apostle with her half-brother Spawn of Kyuss

When the Apostle finished the transformation of Auric and Rogak to Spawn of Kyuss, it hit Atlantis with the Breath Weapon. 11 points of Con-drain kill the toughest bard. Or so I have heard.

Ruh-roh Reorge! Is this end of campaign, or are you continuing with some sort of apocalyptic battle against the 10,000 wights infesting the Free City?

Ruh-roh Reorge! Is this end of campaign, or are you continuing with some sort of apocalyptic battle against the 10,000 wights infesting the Free City?

It is definitely not the end of the campaign. The two players are thinking of playing a mage-couple from the Free City.

Since we are now standing in front of the very last encounter, I will add some numbers from our group to the list of heroic and/or stupid deaths.

1.
Orvan Kilgrimm, Dwarf Rogue/Fighter 7
HohR
Zyxrogs Lightning Bolt, Mindblast and 2 Sneak Attacks from the Dark Creepers spelled doom to the poor Dwarf. Always remember not to stay too crowded on a stair leading to unknown areas!

2.
Haldefast, Cleric of Wee Yas 10
Return to the wispering Cairn
Full Attacks from all four(!)corrupted Wind Warriors
After a long decision Haldefast asked for a last 5 foot step, seconds after he declared his regular turn over. The DM grinned and agreed. The Wind Warriors took their 5foot step too...
Famous last word: "Oh yes, and I take my 5foot step."

3.
Haldefast, Cleric of Wee Yas 10
Return to the wispering Cairn
Full Attack from two Air Elementals with reach
Just granted the benifits of being a necropolist undead by the great godess, Haldefast forgot his lesson learned by the Wind Warriors. The elementals took their 5foot step too...
Famous last word: "And..., I take my 5foot step."

4.
Procellarum, Wizard 11
Spire of long shadows
Disintegrated by Beholder
Procellarum was the only one left out in the open after our air cavallery was turned to stone. He failed his save, naturally.

5.
Caranthir, Ranger 12
Spire of long shadows
Kyuss Beetle with critical hit.
Caranthir was the only one able to really hurt the Kyuss Knight. So the knight ordered his "pet" to attack the flying artillery. And so it did.

6.
Orvan Kilgrimm, Rogue/Fighter/Dark Hunter 12
Spire of long shadows
Insane Celestial and his full attack
Orvan thought he still had enough hit points. He might have had, because we leveled up 5 minutes before. Sadly the everpresent rule lawyer forgot to level up his SC.

7.
Orvan Kilgrimm, Rogue/Fighter/Dark Hunter 15
LolR
Titans full attack
Orvan, as well as the rest of the group, learned by hard experience not to stand in the way of their enemys full attack. Usual tactic employed the proper use of spring attacks. Until the (still haven't died) Fighter thougt a Charge Attack will turn the tide against Cranathos. Barly standing after the AoO, orvan decided to leave his hiding place and sneaked the Titan with a full attack for noticable damage. He sacreficed himself with this action, when the titian brought him to -45 hp!

8.
Dragotha
???
Flooded with holy water from the inside of his ripcage. Kind of a pushover.

9.
Procellarum, Wizard 21
??? (last episode of the AP)
Advanced Broodfiend with breath weapon
Procellarum took the elemental Savant prestige class and is cuite vulnerable to acid now. A failed save for the Broodfiends breath weapon meant 198 points of damage to him.
So far the most deadly/challenging encounter we had for maybe 8 levels. It took us 7 rounds to take the beast out.

I forgot:

10.
Orvan Kilgrimm, Rogue/Fighter/Dark Hunter 20
Tomb of Horrors
Sphere of Annihilation
Anticipating the short visit to the Tomb of Horrors with its famous bodycount Orvan tried to steal the Sphere and missed his controll check by one point. Sphere moved towards him. End.
Nearly, as Orvan had all the portable Holes with all the loot from the previous adventure with him. Took us two carefully worded wishes and a true resurrection.
Famous last word: "Hey, I know that dungeon!"

Well, from the last module in the last post we return to the start and Whispering Cairn. I'm running the AP with two groups. Group V are all over veterans with collectively 50+ years D&D experience (between 3 players), the second group (Group N) are newbies with my 11 year old nephew and 7 year old (just) son (totalling a collective 1 year experience rounded up).

See previous post for the two deaths in Group V.

GROUP N

Name: Legolas (Elven Ranger 2) started module at lvl 2
Place: Whispering Cairn (Lair of Labours)
Time: Second battle against Mad Slasher
Catalyst: being brave ;)

Description:
The group consists of a shifter gorebrute barbarian, a warforged fighter, a human fighter, a human cleric, Legolas, and another elven ranger. They had done really well against the wolf pack, and figured out that the sarcophogous moves (with some well placed scratches on the floor). The beetles burst out and they chased characters around munching (mainly on the shifter) leaving the warforged (with adamantine plating and tower shield) to pound the mad slasher within an inch (6hp) of its life. The mad slasher fled back down the hole as it repeatedly failed to hit. Eventually the beetle were turned into handy ' cooked meat with own plates' and the party rested up.

After resting they decided to head down the beetle hole and Legolas climbed down with the gorebrute and warforged holding the rope. At the bottom he started lighting a torch and as he did the lasher saw its chance and attacked. Alone and in almost complete darkness Legolas quickly fell. The gorebrute skimmed down the rope and I allowed a charge from ten feet above on the lasher, he missed (and took the falling damage), but then put his great axe through the slasher's eye. Unfortunately, Legolas was on -14 after the slasher's final attack.

So far:
Group V 2
Group N 1

Name: Vala, Elven Rogue 3
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Location: Citadel of Hextor
Catalyst: Summoned Fiendish Ape used her as a nail file.

Name: Verdant Greentree, Elven Ranger 3
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Location: Citadel of Hextor
Catalyst: Summoned Fiendish Ape used him as a toothpick after a botched rescue of the rogue above.

Other Details:
1) Rogue followed the Cultist into area 11 on her own, despite the party wanting to wait. Theldrick closed the door. Rogue spent the following round being hammered by a "Spiritual Flail" and ginsu'ed by the Summoned Fiendish Ape.
The party broke the doors down using aid another rules which led to.....

2) Fighter of the group rendered useless via Hold Person.
3) Sorcerer of the group was just about out of spells.
4) Cleric of the group threw some spells at Theldrick. That evil bastard has great saving throws.
5) The Fiendish Ape scored a crit or three (iirc).

Still fun as heck.

Name: William, Human Paladin of St. Cuthbert 4
Adventure: Encounter at Blackwall Keep
Location: Blackwall Keep
Catalyst: The encounter at Blackwall Keep

Spawn of Kyuss, party. Party, spawn of Kyuss. The paladin, whose charisma is infinite, but his wisdom obviously is not, decided to try and drop the wormy undead attacking him instead of worry about the green worm crawling over his armor, looking for a way in.

All three spawn fall that round, but both the barbarian and paladin have worms in them. Only I know that they both only have 2 rounds before they start losing grey matter to the hungry buggers. Round 1, heal check on barby, no prob. Round 2, heal check on pally, whoops. With no spells available to destroy the worm, the sorcerer puts him out of his misery (and stops him from rising as undead) with a flaming sphere. Leftovers are brought back to the church to get raised.

Only 2 deaths so far. Much better ratio than RttToEE...

PC Name: Miö (Clr7)
Adventure: Encounter at Blackwall Keep
Location of Death: Harpy Lair in Twisted Branch Tribe's Mangaroo Home
Catalyst: Focused massive damage
Long Description: In 15 months of running this game, I had PCs in negative hp only on three occasions. During their Operation Get'em on the lizard folk lair, they finally met an opponent that could make some saving throws. I had to up the lair as per the sidebar instructions for a party of 7-8th level PCs, so after annihilating three harpies, 24 lizardfolk (one green worm eruption), the half-dragon lizardfolk lieutenant arrived. The party wizard who has become an acid energy only wizard, found his spells didn't do anything against the guy and was rewarded with a breath weapon attack in return, liquifying his 0-level apprentice. Miö moved to block the lizardfolk from the wizard and subsequently took 31 hp, 19 hp (healed 18 with a defensively cast healing spell), and another 31 hp to drop him to -9. The lizard folk had made his save vs. the hold spell by a power score result, even with the negatives from raging. Two rounds later the paladin critically struck on his smite evil attempt which wiped out the lieutenant for good, but the players suddenly were worried about their supposed "cake-walk". I doubt they'll announce another "Operation Get'em" for a while.

Farewell to Grubber, Mak and Storm, all of whom died bravely at the hands of Kyuss or his minions. Grubber found himself INT drained to 0 after Myalee turned his eyes to worms. He subsequently rose as a favored spawn and proceeded to Implode his brother, Mak. The drow sorceress storm succumbed to the horror of watching Kyuss engulf another of her allies, at which point he engulfed her as well.

Farewell to Grubber, Mak and Storm, all of whom died bravely at the hands of Kyuss or his minions.

It was such a sad ending to a very cool story hour.

I had my first PC death in my Age of Worms campaign yesterday.

PC Name: Llelden Terenthas (CN Gray Elf Beguiler 1)
Adventure: The Whispering Cairn
Location of Death: Lair of the Laborers
Catalyst: Lots of beetles and a desperately thrown flask of burning oil
Long Description: After Hrothgar, the duergar lurk, reported that he'd seen a large mass of beetles, memories of the first time they'd fought a swarm of acid beetles surfaced. The first time, they'd been unprepared and two had nearly died, so the party began preparing themselves to fight the swarm. They started lighting torches and Hrothgar made another bomb out of a flask of oil, like he had been forced to during the first fight with the acid beetles. While they were preparing, however, a tired-looking bull beetle wandered around the corner. They hadn't heard it coming and it was suprised to see them. It began chittering madly and spewed a cloud of acid, burning the eyes and lungs of a few of the party members. Zayne, the human swordsage, reacted with lightning speed and ran forward, slicing the bull beetle in half with a brutal swing of his greatsword. Suddenly the sound of thousands of mad acid beetles filled the halls, and a swarm of acid beetles rounded the corner and engulfed Zayne and Hrothgar. Llelden dove over the swarm of beetles and saw the cow of the beetle colony approaching. He fired his bow but missed, and the cow let loose its acidic cloud at him. The swarm was resilient, and even the spells of Kolja, the tiefling wizard and adopted son of Allustan, were missing the swarming beetles. Lleldon, distracted by the swarm, could do nothing as the cow beetle savagely bit into him, causing him to lose consciousness. The party was swinging torches at the swarm to no avail. Finally, a magic missle from Kolja dispersed the swarm, but not before Zayne had also fallen due to the swarm's acidic bites.

The cow beetle was still alive, and breathed acid once again at the party, dropping Kolja. A disabled Hrothgar, always looking out for himself first, desperately threw his makeshift firebomb at the cow, catching it on fire and spraying the unconscious Zayne and Lleldon with buring oil. With this, the duergar slumped against the wall of the elevator and blacked out. The last one standing was the priest of Kelanen, Thomas Silversword. He was one step away from being knocked out himself, but he bravely strode foward and dispatched the burning acid beetle with his bastard sword. He managed to revive Kolja, Zayne, and Hrothgar, but Lleldon was already dead.

Yay! I actually get to add some character deaths from my tabletop game! This is a prime example of why people should split the party and then get attitudes!

Name: Leilia, Duskblade/Rogue 3 (Gestalt)
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Location: Dourstone Mines
Catalyst: Unarmed & Unarmored getting an attitude with the guards

Name: Jackal Stormbringer, Paladin/Cleric of the Ascended One 3 (Gestalt)
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Location: Dourstone Mines
Catalyst: Attempted to avenge Leilia armed only with a dagger.

Deciding that Balabar Smenk didn't to go down, and by taking him by force they could force him to help them get into Dourstone Mines and the Temple underneith, they scout his manison, wait for the thugs to leave and sneak though a back door. (I had the dire apes alittle more tamed then written, Smenk had made them well trained guard dogs basically). Weary of the dire apes, and the chain the running though all the manison, they sneak around until the come acrossed a full lite office, where Smenk was waiting for them, after a blown move silently check by one player, he invites them in, sending the last remain indentured servent to get Todrik (?) to escort them in, only to find its alot more the one, playing it cool, he invites them in as well. After some discussion, group decides to cooperate with Smenk for now, making a deal for him to smuggle in their equipment if they get jobs at the mines and take care of the cultist (figuring they will die trying), also they go for their evident against him to disappear, and his evident against them as well.

Characters get a job working in the mines, waiting a day in half before the next shipment to arrive for the Mister Dourstone to take it down, before they are suppose to get their smuggled equipment, at which point the plan is for the person with the highest hide/move silent to sneak up and confirm their equipment, they over looked the barrier through, the smallest character with a strength of 9, can't really get through it all that easily, so wonders off to make fun of the barbarian who is shouldering big stones to carry them out of the mine, during which point the warmage and the psion sneak over to them while the guards are busy with harrassing another miner. The warmage gets them back on the right path, saying that he will slow the guards down when the barbarian breaks the barrier down.

Mean while deeper into the mines Leilia was put to work, as she toils away at the iron ore, the guards caught her trying to steal raw ore, they tell her to put them back in the cart before they take her some place and straighten her out, after some more lies and threats, Leilia attempts to touch of fatigue one of them, failing to do so. She screams something and kicks one of the guards, and a fight breaks out where the two guards are barely able to grapple her down as she almost beats them both barehanded, but another group of guards arrive to try to shackle her, and she continues to fight, until they have to release her and draw their clubs to beat her down, she attempts continues to fight even with shackles on, she gets beat on... almost down, she attempts to flare and to tumble away, and fails to do so, provoke attacks from all the guards, which kills her.

After getting their equipment, and remove a patrol of guards, the warmage sends the shealth character along to retreive their remaining two companions in the mine, Jackal and Leilia. Sean, said sheath character, comes upon a scene of the guards stashing the now dead Leilia since they didn't mean to kill her. He gets mad and upset and runs back towards the group, finding Jackal on the way, who almost immediately runs off to avenge Leilia through realizes without a weapon and armor he stands little chance and was almost ready to return to get his equipment when Sean slipped him a dagger to fight with and would back him up. Two quickly return to the guards who were making their way up the mine, attacking them. Jackal fumbles on his charge, slamming his head into a rock and dazing himself, and which point the guards draw their clubs to beat down the attacking armed miner (knowing nothing else). Sean burns one up completely, right after the six attack Jackal (one scored a critical and one missed the unarmored cleric/paladin).

Jackal does attack again, being a paladin the idea of retreat is foreign, and then gets beat on again (dropped to -29). Sean flees back to the Warmage who after waiting for them to return had rushed up ways, finding the fleeing sean with the guards chasing him, he manages to kill another before the remaining three flee to warn Dourstone, the foremen and the rest of the guards, after grabbing up the bodies of the fallen companions they retreat to the elevator, disabling it so that no one can come up or go down (also two of them remained there and caught the two of the cultist guards fleeing to warn the temple, and beat them down, before the warmage came in and killed them for the evil worshippers they were, they group were preparing to start a miner's revolt when we cut for the night.

Name: Silas, Duskblade 6
Adventure: Hall of Harsh Reflections
Location: Hallway in Sodden Hold (10)
Catalyst: Bullrushing Doppelganger

Description: After opening the trapped doors and dropping two characters, including the duckblade into the pit, two other party members began the process of extracting them. The rogue decided to begin checking the other doors in the hallway. The doppelgangers in those rooms open their doors and begin fighting the party. The others had successfully secured a rope so the two in the pit could begin climbing out. The fight was going very well for the PCs with no one taking damage from the STR 12 doppelgangers.

Finally the other two members successfully climb out of the pit. After clearing some room (since the PCs were fighting at the edge of the pit), the duckblade is able to step in front of the Beguiler and quickly dispatches the doppelganger facing him. The remaining uninjured doppelganger now has a running start, straight-line to the duskblade who is directly in front of the beguiler who is on the edge of the pit.

The situation just screamed to do this, even though I doubted I would be very successful, I decided to take the AOO and try to bullrush the two characters into the pit (with my 12 STR). The doppelganger took two AOOs just getting there, but was able to start the bullrush attempt. He rolled a 20 on his Strength check, while the duskblade rolled horribly. He was moved 10' (enough to get him into the pit). So, I made the Beguiler make a roll to oppose the same bullrush. He also failed but not as much, he was only moved 5'. Both those distances were enough to get them both in the pit. The beguiler survived; alas, poor Silas could not withstand a 2nd trip into the pit. Incidentally, the doppelganger died as the result of a 3rd AOO with was provoked by moving the 10' during the bullrush.

AOW has been deadly for my Players...15 sessions, 13 deaths...

PC Name: Ehrune (swashbuckler 2/wizard 6/eldritch knight 4)
Adventure: Spire of Long Shadows (of course)
Location of Death: The infamous room #5
Catalyst: Two invocations of the worm preceeded by a greater dispel magic layed him low.

Name: Askalar Kantomar (Clr3), Baylos Skuljin (Sor3), Miriam Cobblesteel (Ftr3), Lily Griblingtine (Rog3), Culvan Dugan (Clr3)............. TPK.
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Location: Grimlock Caves (The Gauntlet)
Catalyst: Everything went wrong.
1) Both Clerics failed the Fear save vs. the Krenshars scare ability. This led to a 45' fall eventually for both, and later a crazed female Grimlock Barbarian finished both clerics and the weakened fighter.
2) Archers nailed the Rogue, and Sorcerer.
3) bad attack rolls, bad ability check rolls, bad tactics, etc.

Horrible session yesterday.

R.I.P. Krull shifter Scout 10
return to the whispering cairn

The party had returned to Diamond Lake and discovered that Ilthane had destroyed several buildings and killed many of the townsfolk. the party discovered that the dragon took off in the direction of the whispering cairn. Well Krull thought it would be a good idea to go up there by himself and scout the area out...until the dragon came and attacked the lone scout...Krull tried to talk his way out of certain death...but the charisma 7 came back to bite him in the butt....RIP Krull

PC Name: Delgatto
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Cause of death: Battle with the Ebon Aspect

This was originally written for the players after a long hiatus as a recap of the previous session

It had been a difficult battle against the Faceless One and his minions. The barrage of Lightning bolts, summoned centipedes and apes, and an undead creature that proved nearly impossible to hit, had left the group of adventurers weak and spent. Waywreth, the battle hardened cleric of WeJas was depleted of spells, as was Mathis the blossoming wizard and apprentice of Alustan. Calypso, proud elven member of the Bronzewood lodge was not in much better shape. Everyone suffered from numerous wounds; the lightning bolt from the Faceless one had nearly wiped them all out. Flondo, the halfling, was in the best condition; he had spent most of the battle comatose, in the fetal position, having succumbed to an evil presence within the walls of Vecna’s laboratory.
Unfortunately, the Faceless One had escaped. With his entourage dead, and his repertoire of spells depleted, he reached into his robes and removed a small vial, quickly downing its contents. As Delgatto, the faithful follower of Zoukan, closed in to finish him off, the Faceless one became insubstantial, his body turning to a fog like substance which quickly seeped under the door behind him and into the hallway beyond. Delgatto whipped open the door to give chase, only to find the hallway choked with webs, a spell cast by an acolyte before his demise. Delgatto quickly turned and made his way back through the laboratory, down another hallway and met up with the rest of the group in Vecna’s inner sanctum.
“Quickly! This way! He’s escaping!” Delgatto yelled, as he sprinted past Kago, who stood over the freshly dead corpse of an acolyte that had been no match her mighty greatsword. Waywreth, Kago, and Flondo still out of breath from battle, followed, knowing that the Faceless One held the answers they sought. By the time the group crossed the room and made their way into the storage chamber, the faceless one had disappeared. Flondo took a moment to give a quick search, finding the hidden lever to open a secret door back into the labyrinth. They quickly marched into the maze, hoping to find their quarry before he lost himself in the many hidden niches within the endlessly winding hallways.
Mathis and Calypso however, chose to take a few moments to search the clutter of overturned tables and toppled bookshelves of the Faceless One’s laboratory. Shattered beakers and vials littered the floor, the smell of ozone still hung heavy in the air from the remnants of the lightning bolt spell. After a few minutes of searching, Mathis found a piece of parchment. It appeared to be a code key. Mathis reached into the folds of his robes, removing a parchment, which they had uncovered within the halls of the temple of Hextor. After a few minutes of quick decoding, Mathis’ face paled, as the contents of the note struck home. “Calypso, if this says what I think it does, we’re in trouble.”
It was at that moment that an enormous rumble shook the entire complex, causing the few unbroken bottles and beakers on the laboratory’s tables to rattle and shake. It was followed seconds later by a second rumble, and then a third. “Come on,” said Mathis, “Let’s get out of here.”
In the labyrinth, the trembling was even more intense. Knowing trouble was brewing, the party made quick march back to the main temple, all thoughts of finding the Faceless One suddenly gone in light of this new danger. Delgatto reached the door first, whipping it open and scanning the room beyond. Standing in the temple was a most foul beast. It stood over ten feet tall, with six thrashing arms protruding from its rippled torso. Its gray skin, which still dripped the foul black ooze from the pool from which it had just emerged, pulsed with an intense blue arcane power. Its face was gaunt and skeletal, with massive fangs protruding from the corners of its mouth. In roaring fits of rage, the beast seemed intent on destroying all around it, pummeling the temple’s columns with its muscular arms, causing stones from the rocky cavern opening above to come cascading to the temple floor, shattering debris across the room like thousands of shards of deadly shrapnel.
Delgatto looked back at the rest of the group, “If that thing reaches the elevator platform, we’re done for”. Delgatto didn’t need to elaborate, for the rest of the party realized that if that beast destroyed the lift, they would all be facing a two-hundred foot vertical accent in order to see daylight once again. Thoughts quickly raced back to the debacle in the caves of Erythnul, in which nearly half the group perished in a descent only one fourth that height.
“Let’s do it!” Delgatto yelled as he began to make his way down the short hallway leading to the temple proper.
Flondo however, got the jump on everybody, quickly slipping past Delgatto, and finding himself face to face with this aspect of evil. With a quick twirl of his wrist, he let loose with a bullet from his sling, striking the beast squarely in the forehead. The monster let out another hideous roar, its three stumped arms pounding its chest. From there the scene became one of total mayhem as the creature charged forward to meet the rush of the rest of the group.
The next few moments were like a nightmare, as swords and fists flew, blood splattered, and howls of rage and pain echoed throughout the chamber. Kago was the first to fall, a mighty barrage of fists from the beast proving more than the brave warrior could handle. Weywreth, depleted of healing magic, was left with no choice but to continue to pummel the creature with his mighty mace until, he too fell to the floor unconscious from the creature’s steel like fists. Sensing triumph, the beast let out another roar before tearing into Delgatto, all three fists striking home, the third collapsing his skull and sending him careening across the room, landing in a heap against the near wall.
It was then that Calypso and Mathis reached the inner Temple just in time to see Flondo, who had tossed aside his sling, facing the beast alone, tear into it with his sword. He managed to strike home once, before he too fell beneath a barrage of fists. “I’ve got nothing.” Mathis stated flatly, swallowing hard.
“It’s the only way out.” Was Calypso’s response as he unsheathed his scimitar and strode down the hallway.
The beast by this time was battered hard and showing signs of weakness; over a dozen wounds seeped ichor, pulsating out in deep rivulets in tempo to the azure energy which rippled across its frame. As Calypso moved in, the beast lunged forward, and by the grace of Obad-Hai, all three of its fists swung errantly. Seeing his opening, Calypso stuck, his scimitar slicing cleanly into the newborn flesh of the creature’s abdomen, more ichor spurting from this fatal wound. As Calypso sidestepped, the creature dropped to its knees, falling forward to lay face down on the cold temple floor.

Calypso, using the last of his healing spells and his magical wand, managed one by one to revive the unconscious party members. The scene before you is one of total chaos. Debris from fallen rock and shattered columns litters the floor. In addition to the lifeless body of the Ebon Aspect, the bodies of the mine manager Raggnolin Dourstone and his 8 guards lie scattered about the temple, dead from your hands just a day ago. The lift, pummeled by falling stones, appears yet serviceable. You should feel pride in you accomplishments. In a short week, you have rooted out and destroyed a nearly unspeakable evil that had taken root beneath Diamond Lake. The merging of the three faces of evil: Hector, Erythnul, and Vecna has been thwarted. And perhaps even more importantly you destroyed the Ebon Aspect. Had that foul creature which emerged from the dark pool been able to reach the populous above, there is no telling how many lives might have been lost. But victory came at a cost; a companion and friend was lost, one who had on many occasions saved the lives of the rest of you. Instead of sweet, on this day, the victory tastes bitter.

PC Name: Boneslicer (level 5 half-giant psychic warrior)
Adventure: Hall of Harsh Reflections
Location: Collapsed Chamber
Cause of Death: Critical hit or drowning, take your pick

The battle against the invisible stalkers was not going well. They had been lucky in that Calypso just happened to have a Fairy Fire spell prepared which made one of the stalkers visible. That one they had been able to take down easily. Unfortunately, Kago was now trapped in the middle of the room, fighting the second stalker single handedly, quite literally actually, as one hand was hanging on to a post to keep her from falling into the water. Red cast enlarge on Boneslicer who now stood over 15’ tall. Boneslicer jumped into the pool and waded forward through the waist high water to assist Kago, shrugging off the damage from the hundreds of spears and rusty swords that littered the pool. As he reached her, the stalker struck Kago with a torrent of wind, knocking her loose from her perch and sending her splashing into the water below. Full plate makes swimming difficult, and she sank like a rock. Boneslicer, not wishing her to drown, assisted her in climbing back out of the water. The stalker chose this moment to strike, blasting Boneslicer this time with a critical hit causing 31 points of damage, knocking him out at –9. Kago had already used her lay on hands ability to keep herself conscious, and the rest of the party was too far away to lend any assistance. Boneslicer was able to stabilize himself via some psychic ability, but it was four more rounds before anyone could reach him. By then, he had drowned.

This is the second character that has died for this player (see my post above) Delgatto was the first. He’s in a quandary in that if the party revives him, he’ll drop back to level 4 while the rest of the group has just reached level 7. My bet is that Boneslicer will travel to some far off plane to rest for eternity with his god, and we will see a new 6th level character in his stead.

I had my first two PC deaths a couple of weeks ago in the lair of the faceless one in Three Faces of Evil.

Death #1
PC: Rurik Axeblood (dwarf fighter)
Catalyst: Two acolytes are readying scrolls of scorching ray at whatever comes through the door that is taking a beating. Out bursts Rurik, and down goes Rurik.

He has since been raised.

Death #2
PC: Brother Hector Vashengar (human cleric of Heironeous)
Catalyst: After bearing down on the faceless one, poor Hector ends up taking the brunt of both lightning bolt spells. He goes down after this. The other PCs flee the scene and the faceless one coup de graces the cleric with a magic missle.

Hector has not been raised, but there was a lavish funeral in his honour. He will be missed by all.

It was fun to finally scare the crap out of my PCs; they had been pretty confident up till now. It was also fun that the Faceless One escaped. He was a cool character and it will be nice to bring him back later in the campaign even more powerful than he was. I'm thinking maybe Champion's Belt...

Name: Lazlo
Class: Rogue
Race: Reincarnated so many times I'm not sure...
Adventure: LoLR
Reason: Weird cast by the big tree in the doomshroud forest

Name: Sereph
Class: Wizard
Race: human
Adventure: LoLR
Reasom: He made Darl Quenthos extremely angry and got a implosion right in the face. PC's captured the Effret and asked for a true ressurection for his freedom.

PC Name: Tultha Duin (now Tultha the Doomed or Tultha Doom for short) (elven Fighter/Wizard/Eldritch Knight)
Adventure:Library of Last Resort
Location of Death: Nightmare Beast Chasm
Catalyst: Failed save vs. Darl Quethos' implosion

Long Description: I used Library of Last Resort as a plugin in my last campaign, and Quethos' party decided to ambush the PC's after the Nightmare Beast encounter. Only a very spotty monk saved them from complete ambush, but it would not be enough to prevent the implosion of the party's Wizard, one of only three surviving members of a party of five which had started at 1st level. Ironically, I had never been able to previously damage him significantly because of the player's caution and skill. An unceremonious and ignominous death, but caused a major planar ruckus because he (and everything he was bearing)was destroyed while carrying the Eye of Vecna, the Index of Boccob and a Black Dragon Orb. He was granted quasi-deific powers by an ailing Boccob (for whom he was on a mission) and is now part of the pantheon for my new campaign (a fitting consolation prize for the player). Unlike the above party, they were unable to capture the Efreet, and even if ressurection was possible, I think Boccob would have kept him close at hand in any case (the player wanted to try something new anyway).

Name: Logun, Bugbear (Reincarnated) Ranger 6/ Fighter 6
Cause of Death: Brazzemal the Burning

After a tense airborn battle against Brazzemal who snatched the Phylactery only to have it destroyed by flamestrikes (holy damage), the Ancient Red went berserk in rage at his failure. He had the phylactery in his claws, and though escape was more difficult due to the phylactery's magical wards, victory seemed assured as he dove towards the Wormcrawl. Then the thing shattered... The heroes scattered in every direction, some flying, while four remained in the broken remains of the citadel. Brazzemal became intent on killing everyone, so rushed back towards the biggest cluster. He landed between the four land-borne PCs and Tempest Breathed two of them into the rift canyon (they lived). With only Logun and another Ranger (Eleborn) left, the dragon charged, chasing the two back up the citadel's halls. Brazzemal scored a number of hits, but Logun was a mere ten feet from a narrow hall that the dragon would have to squeeze into. And then it breathed.. Logun was reduced to ash, and while Brazzemal could find no others to slay, he took the corpse as a trophy, including its potent magic itmes (Swords of the Wind Dukes, among a slew of undead and dragonbane weapons). True ressurection has not been attempted on the hero, but it might not work for certain reasons... (Mwahahahaha!)