RotRL Obituaries


Rise of the Runelords

601 to 650 of 1,339 << first < prev | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | next > last >>
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32

NobodysHome wrote:

In short, I have no problem with it, but it does add significantly to the difficulty of the fight if they had trouble with Koruvus. He was barely a speed bump to my party, but they did make their PER rolls to see him awfully early.

** spoiler omitted **

There were some bad rolls, and non-optimal tactics. They had 'K' down a lot of HP early, but bad rolls from them and good from me changed things. No one was complaining, but this is the first thing I altered from adventure as written, was wondering if I made it too hard. Thanks for your input


Willow level 3 Varisian witch

The party had split, One PC (who was absent) stayed behind to guard the stone masons who were bricking up the door to the upward leading collapsed stairs where Erylium was thought to be trapped (in the Catacombs). The other four assaulted Thistletop taking on and killing Ripnuggets court. After a short rest Shalelu led the left behind PC to Thistletop. Unbeknownst to the party Erylium had changed into a centipede crawled up and freed Tsuto from the garrison jail and followed in hot pursuit.

The party now reunited stumbled into the temple of Lamashutu where the Yeth hounds howled alerting everyone. The party killed off the Yeth hounds.

However Lyrie choose to run and join Nualia past the hallway trap. Erylium and Tsuto went and got Orik and interrupted Brutazmus's "personal time" and followed behind. The party's rogue found the trap and thought she disabled it. The summoner, witch and rogue were trapped with Nualia and Lyrie when the trap was triggered by the party's paladin who lept back out of the way.

Willow the witch made the decision to step up and threaten Nualia allowing the rogue to flank. Nualia used a villain point and did two attacks killing her dead (after being critically back stabbed). Willow the witch is survived by her sister Zenovia the rogue..


Name of PC: Adrika/ Kobold
Class/Level: Ninja/6
Adventure: Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: Being Impaled by Xanesha
Story: Party of 5 went in, saw a demon flying around, figured to huddle in the top of the tower and goad it in to fight them, Adri was getting ready to go invisible when Xanesha sneak attacked her, and it was over for her there. Party nearly died as well, but her medusa mask didn't work, and I seriously can't believe that was supposed to be an equal fight even if they were lvl 7...just...ouch. She is survived by Darius/Human Inquisitor 4/Cleric 2 of Iomedae, Imaharu/ Kitsune Barbarian 6, Zangar/Dwarf Wizard 3/Ranger 3, and the hero of the bout Turtle/ Half-orc Tower Shield Specialist 6.

After Adrika was impaled Barbarian raged and tore up her mirror images, the fighter got a bunch of crits, the Inquisitor and Wizard made nuisances of themselves. Inquisitor got tore up in the fight, and was a few hp from unconsiousness, the barbarian and fighter did the grunt work. And I can't roll for **** when trying to hit squishies.

Liberty's Edge

Name of PC: Alahandra a.k.a. 'Pious'
Class/Level: Aasimar Paladin of Sarenrae 3
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Chewed up by giant gecko

Story:
Entering the thorn maze to Thistletop, Alahandra is the first to encounter a dozen or so displaced goblins from other tribes. Believing this to be an opportunity to give the little blighters a second chance, he asks them to lead the way to the Thistletop chief. His death will free them from their awful conditions. The paladin also asks what is roaring down below a hole to the ocean. The goblins happily take the opportunity to prove their worth to their new tribe by suckering the paladin into going next to the hole and collectively pushing him in.

Paladin fights a bunyip while trying not to drown in his armor. The rest of the party rescue the paladin after killing off the goblins and druid.

Paladin refuses healing from a cleric of unknown origin (the player of cleric refused to divulge his deity, although signs pointed to Desna).

Wipe out most goblins in the Thistletop barracks, and then the party encounters the Chief riding his giant gecko. A critical bite from the gecko tears out a chunk of the paladin's ribs, dropping the already heavily injured Aasimar.

Kudos to the player, though, as he usually plays Lawful Evil Half-Orc Fighters.

Liberty's Edge

Name of PC: Indrana a.k.a. The Golden Sun
Class/Level: Tiefling Sorcerer (Bloodline: Elemental, Fire) 4
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Wholly devoured by Malfeshkenor

Story:
Curiosity and stubbornness paved the way for this death. The party unlocked the ancient room and confronted Malfeshkenor. Or rather, Malfeshkenor chuckled with pleasure and hunger and appeared amidst the group, cutting half off the members from the doorway and potential escape.

Though the party slowly did damage to the barghest, Malfeshkenor ripped the sorcerer apart in seconds when she didn't back away. Although she was still raggedly breathing, no one could approach to aid her and an eye blink later she was wholly devoured by the evil outsider (causing two massive AoOs from the fighter and bard/barbarian, who still required a few more chops to drop the creature).

Kudos to the player, though, as she usually plays Chaotic Neutral Human Rangers.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Name of PC: Chuck
Class/Level: Air Elemental Sorceror/2
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Eaten by Malfeshnekor
Story:

How The Sorceror Became Lunch:

Attempted to force Malfy to give him concessions in exchange for his life. Malfy asked him to come closer and seal the deal. Then he ate him.

Name of PC: Uriel
Class/Level: Cleric of Sarenrae/11
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Catalyst: Disintegrated by Mokmurian
Story:

How the Cleric got Turned to dust:

After the Headless Lord warned Mokmurian of the PCs approach, he hid in the library and readied the disintegrate spell. The party, seeing no thrats, began exploring the library. The cleric looked over the edge of a railing (I changed the layout slightly, creating lower level of the library, as I felt it was rather small as presented in the book)he had time to see Mokmurian and a green flash before he died.

Name of PC: <can't remember the first name at this moment> Ironbriar
Class/Level: Infernal Sorceror/11
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Catalyst: Disintegrated by Mokmurian
Story:

How The Sorceror Joined the Dust Party:

After getting hammered by several spells and summons from the sorceror, Mokmurian got tired of it and cast his last Disintegrate, dusting the character. I really hadn't expected to kill 2 characters by the spell.

Shadow Lodge

Name of PC: Henric Marduzi, Half-Orc
Class/Level: Monk/7
Adventure: Hook Mountain Massacre
Catalyst: Face meet Ogrekin hook


Name: Akbar the halfling trap crafter
Class: Elemental sorceror level 6(i think)
Adventure: Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: headbutting a bell 100' in the air.

we all know this trap. halfway up they start dropping bells. He had time to shout his cathc phrase "it's a trap!" before taking a be to the head(unconcious) and then falling 100' to splatter all over the towers floor. The fighter also got hit and fell but a good con and larger hit dice left him at an amazing 1 hp.

Unfortunatley I was one scorching ray away from TPK by zanessa at the top when the Ranger decided to crit with his rapid shots.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Name: Kyne, the nature loving pirate
Class: Cleric of Gozreh - 6th Feather and Weather Subdomains
Adventure: Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: Vorel's anti-burning Phantasmal Killer effect

So my party constantly tries to burn crap down to avoid dungeons. They tried with Thistletop and were only successful in the last room of the first floor after having encountered most things. They saw Foxglove Manor as another opportunity to do this. The cleric cast fly on himself and flew to the roof of the house to set the kindling and start the fire. Amazingly fails his Will save to disbelieve the image. Makes his fortitude save and takes 16 points of damage. Decides to try to light the fire again. Again amazingly fails his will save. This time he fails the fortitude save as well. The cleric drops three floors as his fly spell has no effect on his corpse and is buried by the rest of the party who go off to look for another cleric.


Name of PC: Mark
Class/Level: Fighter 9
Adventure: Hook Mountain Massacre - cave at peak of hook mountain
Catalyst: Barl Breakbones
Story, short version: Barl Breakbones is a fierce opponent, and when this is coupled with many bad saves, this is a devastating encounter. Mark died twice. Breath of Life brought him back for a second valiant struggle, but this only ended in a second death.

Long version (I feel this is warranted, kind of epic):

The party entered the chamber where Barl Breakbones was seated with his lieutenant. Mark and the rogue went to attack the lieutenant, hoping either to end the rock-throwing threat, or because he seemed the bigger threat at the time. Barl ended this by casting Fear, which drove Mark and the rogue away, causing them to drop their weapons. The rest of the party followed (merciful healer cleric, generalist wizard) ran with them to avoid being left behind with the stone giants. Barl and his assistant collected the weapons and followed the party slowly.
This gave the party some time to prepare, but this did not help them much. Barl animated one of the ogres into a zombie, and this provided a meat shield for their second attack. Ghoul Touch delivered by Spectral Hand, Fireball, thrown rocks, Vampiric Touch, Blindness/Deafness twice (for blindness), Fireball again (arcane bond), more Vampiric touch, etc. in combination with failed saves all contributed to making this a miserable encounter for the party. With two party members blind, one paralyzed, one frantically healing, the party realized this was a lost cause, so half the party fled (once the paralyzed rogue un-paralyzed), but before everyone could leave ...
Mark did not get to leave, as he was paralyzed (thanks to Barl for preparing Ghoul Touch twice). The lieutenant finally killed Mark with a coup de grace (Barl was safely hovering in the air). With Breath of Life, the cleric saved Mark. Our group plays such that death ends spells that do not work on objects (which is how I think it's supposed to work, but just in case, I'm mentioning it), so this ended the paralysis early, but also affected some of Mark's buffs. In any case, he was able to finish off the lieutenant. Blind Fight was significant in this endeavor, as this was not the first time Mark has been blinded. I think it's the 3rd or 4th time this campaign (that player seems to get the worst maladies on his characters). Anyway, instead of running off, he urged the cleric to stay with him to help finish the fight.
Mark intended to remove the flight advantage by tricking Barl into following back into the cave, which worked. However, Barl cast Fear yet again, and this frightened the cleric. Mark carried the cleric into the cave. Barl used Magic Missile, which failed due to the spell-absorbing ioun stone found in the dam earlier. Which would have contributed very positively to this encounter, but the player forgot he had it, so I ruled it was not automatic, rather the character can choose when to use it. Eh. So he gave up on the missiles, and he was pretty much out of spells at this point, so he abandoned this and switched to throwing rocks. The cleric got free, and ran into the mining tunnels. Barl gave up on the rock throwing, switching to his masterwork earthbreaker. It became a one-on-one fight, melee, with the stone giant wizard against the blind fighter. Mark had almost gotten Barl down into "surrender" mode (which would have been totally justified, given that this guy became blinded, and for which death was only a temporary setback), but alas, Barl dealt a blow enough to knock Mark unconscious. The cleric returned from her escape into the tunnels, and she saw the situation, and ran away, taking a few hits from Barl in the process. She escaped with 2 HP left, but this was ultimately a major defeat for the party.

I expect next week will be a hunt for revenge! And for all the unsold loot, since Mark had all of that stuff...


Edit to the above: upon reviewing "the tape", it would seem that Blindness/Deafness has permanent duration, not instantaneous, meaning that death cures it. So, effectively this just means one death for the PC in question, and that I'm gonna have to potentially retcon the fight's ultimate result, but all that aside, just one death, delivered by Barl's lieutenant's coup de grace, while the PC was affected by paralysis from Ghoul Touch cast by Barl.


Name of PC: Frost (First PC death of the campaign)
Class/Level: Male Inquisitor, 7th level
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders (Anniversary Edition)
Catalyst: Scarecrow (Construct)

Plot spoiler:
The Party discovered the Shadow Clock Tower in Magnimar and just began their search of the first floor. Undisputed group leader, a no nonsense human inquisitor named Frost is searching a cart in the middle of the room and out of the corner of his eye sees the Scarecrow Construct throw off his cloak and swing his large scythe at him.

He isn't taken by surprise but he isn't quick enough to act. First swing from the Scarecrow cuts him pretty good but its the second that gashes him horribly on the chest (doing a whopping 53 points of damage). Frost survives the massive damage and even though that strike would have brought a normal man down, Frost has a knack for holding on to consciousness.

Before the construct can swing again, Trig, the group's aloof gnome wizard casts a spray of grease to cover the constructs weapon which immediately slips from his hands.

Frost knows the groups in trouble and he is faced with two choices run or fight. He picks the third choice and attempts to run... with the constructs deadly scythe in hand to help the party out. Unfortunately with the grease still covering the weapon he too is not able to get a grasp on the weapon from the floor.

Good plan, but unfortunately for frost the scarecrow still has its meaty fists and proceeds to beat Frost as his attempt to pick up the slick weapon failed. It was the Scarecrow's final backhand that put Frosts lights out for good.

At least until the Party finds a way to bring their leader back.

Dark Archive

I made a TPK in The Skinsaw Murders.

Level 5 human cleric - Bruthas
Level 5 human sorc - Rexx
Level 5 human fighter - Anthonl
Level 5 human cavalier - Dragul

In the Foxglove Manor. After traps and haunts for hours they decide to go outside and rest. As they feel that the dungeon below is very dangerous. Them being semi damaged and ready for a fight they go outside. I pull the ravens on them. This turns out - VERY BAD. The fighter rolls 1 on a hit, 3 times in a row. The table for fumble rolls decides, he ends up chopping off his own leg.
This makes the party in total shock. They flee inside the manor to find a safe place to rest.
The cavalier being an idiot and searching the dungeon while the party sleeps. He encounters Mr. Foxglove and they have a talk, as the cavalier is the "chosen" for this part.
The cavalier ends up taking the fight for himself. I wants the honor of defeating the "boss" all alone.
The fight wakes up the other guys. And they come down to help. And there they just fight as bad as possible and end up all dying by the hand of the skinsaw man.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

And another one goes down!!

Name of PC: Ithania
Class/Level: Female 5th level Catfolk Celestial Sorcerer
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: Ghast/Ghoul Pack at the farm

AND

The Druid's second animal companion (wolf)

Ok the party make-up consisted of the character above plus the following (all 5th level)

Human Gunslinger (pistelero)
Halfling Monk
Tengu Druid (pack lord archetype, two wolves)

Story:
To be honest, this was almost a TPK. The party arrived on the farm to investigate the report of scarecrows by Maester Grump. The party did a thorough job cleaning out the ghouls in the fields and rescued one of the infected farmers (the other was killed accidentally by the paranoid druid). However when they reached the farm all their planning went for naught. They ignored the barn at first and went to check the house. The gunslinger and Monk were inside checking the house and corpse for clues when the ghast attacked. The others moved towards the house to assist, then I ruled that the ghouls (6) in the barn burst forth and charged the party still outside. Well things went south quickly when the two wolves were paralyzed in the first round of combat.

The two party members in the house were doing a wonderful time holding off the ghast (and the gunslinger eventually crit killed it), but were tied up and couldn't get out to assist. The ghouls eventually paralyzed the Druid and Sorcerer as well (about the time the ghast was killed). Two coup de graces later and the party is down a caste and an animal companion.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Munchings and crunchings for Gurglie Ghoulies, oh yes ...


Name of PC: Tephlon, Valtyra, Zaigan
Class/Level: Wizard 2, Sorcerer 2, Paladin 2
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Goblin bridge trap at Thistletop
Story:

Spoiler:
The party took one look at the rickety rope bridge and said "its a trap!" , they concluded to go one by one so the Paladin offered to go first. When he reached the other side the goblins on patrol (they went mid day derp) sounded the alarm. The party in a panic all decided to move onto the bridge... spilling our two arcane casters into the water, unconscious and beginning to drown. The cleric jumped in after them attempting to save them, readying a channel for right before he landed. Arcane casters were concious, cleric was down. Neither of the spellcasters could roll a swim check though, and drowned anyways.

Meanwhile the Paladin on the other side eventually got swarmed with goblins and attempted to parley. Unfortunately, Ripnugget had other plans for the tiefling Paladin (best present to Nualia ever amirite). Rogue eventually dived in to save the cleric the round before he died too.

Water: 1, Party: 0


It is awesome to see this thread still going strong.


dunebugg wrote:
Water: 1, Party: 0

Wouldn't that be "Water: 3, Party: 0"? :P


Gluttony wrote:
dunebugg wrote:
Water: 1, Party: 0
Wouldn't that be "Water: 3, Party: 0"? :P

Water 4, the thief dovr in and drowned too.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Turin the Mad wrote:
Gluttony wrote:
dunebugg wrote:
Water: 1, Party: 0
Wouldn't that be "Water: 3, Party: 0"? :P
Water 4, the thief dovr in and drowned too.

...and Yippy the Bunyip continues to grow in girth...

Grand Lodge

It is incredible to me how many have succumbed to the bridge. Our party got wet. And then how many can't swim once in the water. Three of five characters were drowning in our campaign. They were saved by the two who could swim.

Then there is the Bunyip. This has become maybe my second favorite avoidable monster in a module. (First would be the Remorhaz at the bottom of the rift in "The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl.")

I am curious how many campaigns out there avoided the Bunyip? Maybe for another thread. ;)


Turin the Mad wrote:
Gluttony wrote:
dunebugg wrote:
Water: 1, Party: 0
Wouldn't that be "Water: 3, Party: 0"? :P
Water 4, the thief dovr in and drowned too.

Don't write obituaries right before bed. The rogue saved the cleric the round before the cleric died. They were the only two survivors!! They were taking their time getting out of the water so I started screaming "DUHHHHHH NUH" at them (Jaws music) until they noticed the Bunyip swimming slowly out..


dunebugg wrote:
Turin the Mad wrote:
Gluttony wrote:
dunebugg wrote:
Water: 1, Party: 0
Wouldn't that be "Water: 3, Party: 0"? :P
Water 4, the thief dove in and drowned too.
Don't write obituaries right before bed. The rogue saved the cleric the round before the cleric died. They were the only two survivors!! They were taking their time getting out of the water so I started screaming "DUHHHHHH NUH" at them (Jaws music) until they noticed the Bunyip swimming slowly out..

Classic. ^____^


My party avoided the Bunyip and by shear happenstance went over the bridge in two waves where no single group had 3 med sized creatures by pure luck! Of course Nulia killed the witch but hey you can't win em all


Name of PC: Tigivish
Class/Level: Druid 11
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Catalyst: Enga Keckvia

The party was fighting Enga, and Enga realized she would not win. She detonated the remaining beads on her Necklace of Fireballs IV (she had already used the most powerful bead earlier). The resulting blast of eight fireballs of various strength killed her and the druid, who failed the saves involving the most damage.

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Ramona:

Class/Level: Ranger 2
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Four Goblin Dogs
Story: Having captured Tsuto, the PCs decided that striking at the heart of the goblins (and hopefully their mysterious backers) is the best call. Ramona easily tracked them through the Nettlewood, leading up to the brier tunnels. Inside they faced and defeated the goblin refugees with ease. Ramona's powerful double-bladed sword tore through goblins like paper. Her blade(s) alone claimed half of the pesky melon-heads.

However, they stumbled into a group of vicious goblin dogs. A combination of poor rolls and gang-tactics led to Ramona falling, with the rest of the party just barely overcoming the dogs before succumbing themselves. Battered and bruised, the party slowly worked their way back to Sandpoint. They handed Ramona's body over to the Father for safe-keeping.
She had no known relatives.

Targus Fallspire:

Class/Level: Cleric of Desna 3
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Bruthazmus the Bugbear
Story:
After reorganizing in Sandpoint, the group aquired a new party member and headed back into the Nettlewood. They overcame Gogmurt, and swept through the surface level of Thistletop; Ripnugget gave them the fight of their lives, with two of the PCs going down at least once. However, Ripnugget's ferocious charging powers were cut short by quick thinking and tenacious bravery on Targus the cleric's part. Although not the designated defender (tank) of the party, he saw what needed to be done and lept in harm's way, keeping Ripnugget from building up the momentum to use his Spirited Charge ability (which he had used to Critical the Inquisitor on the second round of combat). They defeated him, looted his possessions, and traveled down.
There, they encountered a naked Bruthazmus and his goblin wenches. The wenches, trained in acrobatics, flipped and skidded out into the center room, distracting the gang while Bruthazmus attacked with his bow. Frustrated with the party's dodgy nature, he moved up with his Heavy Flail to attack, but was met at the door by Targus. Targus fought Bruthazmus almost single-handedly while the rest of the party tried to handle the nimble goblin hookers.
However, Bruthazmus was on his game that day, and landed several powerful blows, and with a critical to Targus' head, dropped him. The gang revived him in-place, but the goblins kept them from moving Targus away from the battle. Seeing Targus Channel Energy and heal the party more than once while standing guard, Bruthazmus focused all his energy on bringing the healer down.
He succeeded, and made sure to finish off the dangerous Cleric. Enraged, the rest of the group slaughtered the goblins and the bugbear.
Targus had relatives somewhere in the slave trade of Cheliax.

He was simply a traveler who dreamed of mapping and exploring the entire region of Varisia on foot.


First player death so far last night...sigh.

Name of PC: Feran
Class/Level: Level 4 Cleric of Sarenrae
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Nualia
Story: After triggering the trap in the ancient hallway with the statues a Yeth Hound came from the East and started terrorizing the group. While it distracted them they heard several round of spellcasting from another room to the northeast. Eventually Nualia showed up and tore the party to pieces. She crit the Cleric for 32 damage while he only had 16 points left and killed him outright. Eventually Nualia was best by a flanking team of a raging barbarian and a half-stuck in the trap hole fighter.

Dark Archive

Name of PC: Rall Kaddok
Class/Level: Shoanti Barbarian 2/Oracle of Battle 1
Adventure:Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Yeth Hound

Story: The group bursts into the Chapel to Lamashtu after a very good perception check allows them to hear some sort of whooshing in the air beyond the doors. They were expecting trouble and found it in two flying Yeth Hounds. The hounds howl and Rall and his ranger compaion flee (two 1s, yuck). Rall is only gone 4 rounds total and the ranger rolled max so he was gone 6 rounds of fleeing and then 6 rounds back. This left the cleric, sorcerer and paladin to fend for themselves. They hold their own until Rall gets back. Bruthzamus shows up after awhile - extricating himself from his goblin lady-friends to don his armor and weapons to find out why the hounds were wailing. He crits the cleric with his bow sending him to negs and leaving Rall without his personal healer. Down to 3 HPs, the Yeth Hound gets off a crit for 25 points and one of Gorum's chosen enter's the Boneyard. Tough fight but the rest survived.


Name of PC: Azula
Class/Level: Cleric 13
Adventure: Sins of the Saviors
Catalyst: The Scribbler and several good hits.

Okay, so The Scribbler was supposed to be a pushover encounter. Despite knowing that, I tweaked him a little. He gets Dimension Door at-will in the shrine, and I've always wanted to try Dimensional Dervish and its kin. So I swapped out a few feats and made it so. I figured the party could handle it, they're pretty good. Well, The Scribbler cast Confusion, and every single one of them failed their saves (the spell did not bypass the wizard's SR, but the player forgot he had it until later, so at that point, I ruled he teleported away from the chaos as a compromise). I didn't manage to roll a single "acts normally" for the confused characters, and it usually ended up with "hits self" or "attacks nearest creature". As a group, we scrutinized the text of the spell, and yep, they all end up in a vicious 14-round brawl, since the spell mentions automatically attacking the last creature that attacked it. In the initial round, the ranger's animal companion bites a chunk out of Azula the cleric. During the fight, the Scribbler gets bored of watching, and uses Dimensional Savant, and critically hits the cleric 3 times, and once normally, along with the unholy weapon effect. Dead cleric.

Name of PC: Mark
Class/Level: Ranger 13
Adventure: Sins of the Saviors
Catalyst: Imp Companion of Party Wizard

Confusion pretty much battered the party. The wizard had fled (teleport), leaving his imp companion behind (he is a diabolist). The ranger's animal companion finally got an "act normally" after a break from the brutal retaliation that Confusion dictates, and ran to get the cleric, who had died, and carry her to safety. Thus, the ranger was free to fight The Scribbler. After a brutal dimensional-hoppy struggle, Mark managed to get a round next to him, and brutally shred his adversary. With 4 rounds remaining in the confusion, he babbled for a little while, and struck himself, going unconscious. With a fantastic stablization check, it looked like he would survive. The only living creature in the vicinity was the imp companion. The imp then killed Mark the ranger, due to the opportunity being handed to him on a silver platter.

Lesson? 1. Feel free to up the challenge to keep your skilled players on their toes, and certainly feel free to run with just 3 in attendance, particularly if one is an amazing healer (in-combat healing is practical with this lot), and with two having companions, but do not combine these approaches. 2. If you ban evil characters (as I did), don't forget to ban evil familiars, animal companions, and cohorts. Party conflict could be fun, but it's really more of a sandboxy thing, I'd think.


Some six months ago:
Name of PC: Never got as far as a name
Class/Level: Elf Wizard 3
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Bruthazmus, the Elf hating Bugbear, with the heavy flail.
Story: The party are exploring down a corridor, and the thief fails a stealth check big time, allowing Bruthazmus to get the drop on them. Bruthazmus does major damage to the thief in the surprise round. The wizard (top of the initiative order)dashes forward to give resistance to the thief, who promptly and sensibly tumbles as far away from Bruthazmus as possible. Bruthazmus, with no other target, steps up and crits on the wizard for some 30 points of damage, turning the wizard into an interesting splatter pattern on the wall.

The last session:
Name of PC: Albretcht
Class/Level: Fighter 5
Adventure: Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: A well.
Story: The party are about to leave the Foxglove mansion, where they have had a really rough couple of days. For some reason, they are really worried about the Carrionstorms. Albretcht (who has taken from serious WIS damage) decides to lead a heroic charge and charges out. The rest of the party decide to stay exactly where they are. Albretcht panics and (after I double and triple check with him) decides the quickest escape from the Carrionstorms is to leap down the well. Lots of D6s are rolled. Albretcht was technically correct; the Carrionstorms no longer both him, due to the terminal impact injuries. Cue the rest of the party launching a heroic body looting down a 100' deep well while under attack from Carrionstorms.


Last session...

Name of PC: Brother Declan
Race/Class/Level: Human cleric of Sarenrae 10
Adventure: Homebrew interlude between Hook Mountain Massacre and Fortress of the Stone Giants
Catalyst: Assassins in the night, failed save on coup de grace.
Story: I'm running a partly-homebrewed interlude between Book 3 and Book 4. The party was traveling from Magnimar to Kaer Maga to recover the Sword of Lust that had been stolen from the Pathfinders. In their investigation, the party had tangled with the Aspis Consortium, and had killed an Aspis Gold Agent. The Consortium sent a team of assassins after the party, and caught up with them while the party was in the village of Melfesh, and struck at night while the party was asleep in separate rooms at an upscale inn. Declan failed three Perception checks, and failed to notice the assassin breaking into his room, then rolled a '1' on his saving throuw vs the coup de grace.

Declan won't be out for long, though, as the party has a single-use raise dead item that anyone can use (called the unguent of revivification).


randomclass wrote:

Some six months ago:

Name of PC: Never got as far as a name
Class/Level: Elf Wizard 3
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Bruthazmus, the Elf hating Bugbear, with the heavy flail.
Story: The party are exploring down a corridor, and the thief fails a stealth check big time, allowing Bruthazmus to get the drop on them. Bruthazmus does major damage to the thief in the surprise round. The wizard (top of the initiative order)dashes forward to give resistance to the thief, who promptly and sensibly tumbles as far away from Bruthazmus as possible. Bruthazmus, with no other target, steps up and crits on the wizard for some 30 points of damage, turning the wizard into an interesting splatter pattern on the wall.

Sorry. Can't resist being snarky, so I apologize in advance:

"Gee... you made it all the way to 3rd level and Thistletop without ever bothering to think up a name for yourself?!?!?!?! Roleplay much?"

Snarkiness done. Back to your regularly-scheduled PC killings...

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Don't do that to me NobodysHome! I saw you posted in here and feared for your PCs!


Cori Marie wrote:
Don't do that to me NobodysHome! I saw you posted in here and feared for your PCs!

LOL! I forgot that last time I posted here I got a whole bunch of "Where's the writeup!?!?!?" feedback on my thread!

Sorry! I'm annoying enough to post in other threads (including obits) disturbingly frequently.

But no; our party is hale and healthy, and unlikely to be in any danger until they meet Big M. I'm planning on running his tactics as-written, and I'm worried for my group because they're just not very experienced with Pathfinder and he's a ton-o-nastiness, but I trust Shiro and Raesh to figure something out before they're all dead... I hope...

Grand Lodge

I am tempted to post a sad NPC death, but this seems to be taboo.


Mazra wrote:
I am tempted to post a sad NPC death, but this seems to be taboo.

Oh no it's not. If it's entertaining enough, post it! ^______^


Name of PC: Nemo The Gnome Bastargarde
Class/Level: Alchemist/2
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Enraged Barbarian at Erylium encounter.
Story:
The party low on resources attack on Erylium, although they did have some scrolls of Protection from evil they got form the mayor for helping the city, and other important consumables, whose could be used to turn around this fight.

Erylium created a sinspawn and summoned a infernal Hyena and wolf. The battle went pretty much as expected with the summon dismissed by damage, but sinspawn's sinful bite enrages the party barbarian who proceeds to drop his fellow party member into negative HP. The rest of the party escape, with the barbarian behind them.
Bard finally fascinate the barbarian and the rages wears off. Meanwhile, Erylium had some special plans for the dying Alchemist......

The Exchange

1st Adventure Burnt Offerings 3 deaths so far. Two when they tried to take thistletop. I had the druid do everything he can to delay them and when they finally arrive the goblins were more than prepared.


Name of PC: THORALD Thicktights
Class/Level: Male 5th level Bard
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: Gandalf/Balrog moment on a revenant

It is uncanny but my PCs are exceptionally good at following the flow of the modules. The found the revenant and broke the trance. As it goes to leave the Bard is standing in the doorway. I ask, "What do you do?" He decides to stand there. She attacks. The other 6, yes 6, members of the party decide to watch. 1st full round of combat the Bard goes first. I ask again, "What do you do?" He attacks. Misses. She attacks, hits twice, and kills him outright. The rest of the party gets out of its way.


Name of PC: Tad the Magnificent
Class/level: Male 5th level Ranger
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: Object of Wrath of the Skinsaw man

Tad was Aldrn's wrath obsession. The party was a bit beat up from the goblin ghasts in the room outside. Aldrn managed to paralyze him and survived three attacks of opportunity to do a coup de grace. He was then dispatched the next action by the players after give a long evil laugh. That was about a month ago.

Name of PC: Tad the Magnificent / Llewyn / Rufus
Class/level: 6th level Ranger /6th level Barbarian /6th level Cleric
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: Trying to sneak into the sawmill via the Rookery and alerting Ironbriar.

The Alchemist goes invisible and levitates up to the rookery, notices the trap door and tries to open it. He gets is open and keeps it open with a crossbow bolt. Ironbriar made his perception roll as he was in his office preparing for that night's ritual. He leaves his office to alert his chaps. There is much shuffling around by the party after tying a rope to the Rookery and having most of the party infiltrate the mill that way. The cultists had plenty of time to gather in the middle of the mill and wait. After the initial group was dispatched at the top level the cultist from the undermill started climbing up the rope and Ironbriat was just waiting to engage. The Barbarian does a lovely grapple on the first cultist on the rope driving him into the ground. The rogue also jumps out the window to handle that threat.

Meanwhile the Cleric, Ranger and Alchemist are on the top level with a fresh wave of cultists, three summoned lemurs and Ironbriar who chooses now to open fire. It was a long close fight. The Ranger went down first after going toe to toe with Ironbriar. He was pretty much the only one who could hit him effectively, that and the alchemist rolled a 5 or less on more than 6 bomb attacks.

The night ended with Ironbriar dead the rogue and the alchemist splitting the loot and going their separate ways.


Name of PC: Raunkin
Class/Level: Wizard 14
Adventure: Sins of the Saviors
Catalyst: Azaven, Finger of Death

Pretty basic, quick death right at the start of combat.

The Exchange

Name of PC: Quin Ray
Class/Level: Wizard 2 Cleric 1
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Sacrificed to Lahmatsu when the pc's failed to raid thistletop a 2nd time.


Name: Noodles
Class/Level: Wizard 2
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Death by Bunyip

I have DM'ed for a few years and this is my first player death. I'm a softie, what can I say. Anyway, the wizard Noodles and his cat/familiar Steven were an odd pair. When the party reached the Bunyip hole in the briar patch, they noticed some shiny stuff in the bottom. Noodles thought it would be great to be lowered by rope so that he could use Mage Hand to pull up some treasures. However, the Bunyip's howl caused the Barbarian to drop the rope and flee.

Over the next several rounds, Noodles tried to swim to safety and ended up getting bit into unconciousness. Around the same time, the Alchemist dropped a well placed bomb to scare off the Bunyip for a bit. The group was able to pull up the rope (it had caught halfway down the hole...I'm a softie) but Noodles hit negative CON one turn before reaching the top.

Upon seeing that Noodles was fully dead, the quick witted player instantly said, "Steven suddenly morphs into an elf and says, "Thank goodness! That crazy Noodles trapped me in that cat form years ago..." Who can say no to something like that?


Not a PC's death but during the initial goblin assault on Sandpoint my druid PC lost his animal companion to the gob commando's horseslayer.

The animal was an Owl by the name of Edith (bad pun intended for french speaker) and I kept emphasizing during to this PC during character creation that this kind of companion is suited for scout duty, not combat.

But despite all warnings she kept having it attacking the ranged fighting commando finally earning the goblin's attention and wrath (and to be honest the volatile looked quite appetizing to him). One crit later and the owl was no more.

Scarab Sages

Name: Mortis
class/level: Cavalier 2
Adventure : Burnt offering
Catalysts: Sinspawn and Wrath

Auskaa ans Mortis ran down the smugglers tunnel, Ulric had stayed behind helping Xyrora recover from the many burns those pesky goblins had done to her. They came to a fork and could hear the echoes of Tsutos feet but were unable to determine down wich he had fled. Auskaa pointed his crossbow down one way "Take the other way" said the half orc. Morris goes down one way and eventually the rough walls turn to brick. Alone, he steps throught the hole only to come face to face with a sinspawn. Now Mortis is at a certain disadvantage, he is wounded, he is alone and he his a particularly angry guy, some might even say wrathful so I ask him to roll a save vs wrath, he fails. Combat starts and within moment its over. The sinspawn opens up with a devastating critical, Mortis drops his sword and decides to tackle to Spawn to the ground and misses. Sinspawn finishes him off. Eventually the pcs find out what happened to Mortis.


Name of PC: Raunkin
Class/Level: Wizard 15
Adventure: Spires of Xin-Shalast
Catalyst: Wendigo

The party was watching the Vekker brothers' ghosts struggle in the cabin, when the wendigo struck, ripping apart the cabin in the surprise round. The wendigo's high initiative and a good roll allowed him to go first, and our poor wizard was standing quite near the door. One full attack later, and our wizard is dead on the floor. His story is not yet over, as he returns to this mortal coil in the body of a half-orc via reincarnation (after having been born a half-elf, and somewhat recently been reincarnated as a human).

Liberty's Edge

Name of PC: Vor
Class/Level: Ranger 12
Adventure: Sins of the Saviour
Catalyst: The Scribbler

My party quickly disengaged from the Scribbler and pushed on into the Cathedral with the Glabrezu. The Glabrezu succeeded on his summoning attempt, quickly escalating the fight from a breeze to an ugly confrontation with two scary monsters on either side of the party. The party dealt with the demons but were pretty badly hurt. Vor was Confused and left behind as the party edged south to deal with some summoning sounds they had heard from the next room (the Scribbler readying to engage).

Vor crashed to the ground when an anti-gravity spell ended and the Scribbler appeared at the back of the party over top of him and proceeded to crit him a couple times in the first full attack.

He died and the PC didn't want to continue on so he's coming back as a Dragon Disciple or something.


Name of PC: Smoke (Cat-folk rogue)
Class/Level: Rogue 2
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Catacombs of Wrath, Enraged Barbarian at Erylium encounter

Depleted party saved the Cathedral for 'last' on the map, wandered in with low hit points and limited healing capacity. Party was significantly wounded by Sinspawn and summoned monster, Barbarian decided to taunt Erylium by pouring booze into Runewell to "bespoil it".

Erylium responded with a slumber hex that dropped the raging barbarian into the runewell, nearly killing him and turning him on the party.

The Catfolk rogue was "nearest" after 2nd round, and was skewered on a longspear. The nearly dead barbarian was slept by the PCs. Zen archer dropped next but survived the encounter, Erylium was eventually dropped with a critical hit from a Earthbreaker.


While this wasn't the death of a PC, I must admit it was such an... interesting death that I had to share it.

Name of NPC: Erylium
Class/Level: Quasit Witch, Lvl 4
Adventure: Burnt Offering
Catalyst: An insane Halfling priestess
Story: First, I should note that I increased the level of all the monsters faced by one, either by giving them the Advanced Template or giving them class levels. I did this because I started the group off at 2nd level... because I wanted to AVOID random player deaths. And as I've only three players, the group also includes an NPC Thief with the Trap Spotter Rogue Talent so to avoid problems with the GM knowledge.

This adventure almost didn't happen, as the group talked to Tsuto and he rolled high for Bluff... and everyone else flubbed their Sense Motive check. Thus the hick worker Tsuto almost managed to walk out... but on a random die-roll decided to try to backstab the half-orc Barbarian. Yeah. That didn't work very well, especially as he missed. After taking him alive and charming him, the group rested up and then went to investigate the passage under the Glassworks.

Fairly early on they decided to head down the corridor leading to Erylium. The halfling priestess decided to cast Purify Water on the Water of Lamashtu (which led me to spending 10 minutes reading up on it to decide what would happen - finally I decided it just turned it into water... but would be corrupted again later) and then walked in on the Quasit. The Sinspawn Barbarian that was summoned did manage to hold up half the party... but the halfling priestess would have none of that and went running after the Quasit. By this point the NPC Sylph Rogue had peppered Erylium with several arrows... to no effect, so Majoram realized regular weapons wouldn't do. So she pulled out her silver holy symbol for a SPECIAL role.

Erylium didn't want anything to do with a mad halfling who was swearing in Spanish (or the equivalent language in the Pathfinder world) and went invisible. Sadly, Majoram rolled a nat. 20 for Perception... and a second nat. 20 for Grapple. At which point we had a halfling riding an invisible quasit while swearing in Spanish... and shoving her holy symbol down the throat of Erylium.

I was so surprised I forgot the free attack of opportunity for the grapple. I ruled afterward that Erylium was so shocked that SHE forgot to defend herself... and then was vainly trying to keep from suffocating with a silver holy symbol of a good goddess shoved in her throat.

Finally the rest of the crew surrounded them and they stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast. (Bad die rolls.) At last the half-orc Barbarian managed to get one good blow in... and the quasit was subdued. At which point Majoram slit the quasit's throat.

And let me tell you... this battle was almost replicated when they took Lyrie alive with the halfling grappling an invisible mage who didn't dare attack back lest she lose her invisibility... and finally was taken out by the NPC rogue/wizard with a magic missile... because she just didn't want to take a chance. (In fact, Tsuto, Lyrie, and Nualia have been captured alive. The Skinsaw cult are going to break them out when they're shipped to Magnimar and I think I'll show the group that mercy is not always the best quality to have with murderous folk.)


Name of PCs: Old Man Scrimshaw; Garret Brimblebuck
Class/Level: Evoker 9; Cleric 10
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants (3.5)
Catalyst: Longtooth
Story: Found a cave...

Spoiler:
They found Longtooth in his lair, and refused his offers of information. Not that they so much doubted the source, but they couldn't deal with the slaughterer of innocents. Longtooth's first gout of flame nearly crippled the flying wizard and the halfling cleric he was carrying. When Scrimshaw hung in breath weapon range in order to unleash a second cone of cold, it spelled the doom of both him and Garret. The party squeaked out a victory before anybody else fell, and made some tight DI rolls to bring the wizard and cleric back to life.

For anybody that dismisses the use of DI, they should know it works both ways in my campaigns. The fighter that could not stop mocking Norgorber's name also made his DI roll this session, and now all attacks against him double their threat range.

601 to 650 of 1,339 << first < prev | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | next > last >>
Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder Adventure Path / Rise of the Runelords / RotRL Obituaries All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.