As I started this thread this is a bit odd that I am posting yet another fallen in the same area
Name: Xerxzayas
Race: Suli
Class: Summoner 2
Adventure: Howl of the Carrion King
Where: The Refuge of Nethys
Catalyst: Confused and separated
The group had cleared the Refuge and camped the night, but had not found the hidden cave, Haidar found evedince of the group and knew someone had invaded his lair but could not find them in the secret room {area 8]
The next morning the group opened the secret door and entered the Gauntlet of the archmagi, half the group feel prey to the mist and while the others pulled most of the group back into the other room Xerxzayas refused too go back and pushed ever deeper into the caves.
Haidar hearing the invaders shifted and hid in the shadows of the entryway as Xerxzayas stood at the entry way looking at the barge yelling back for the others to come look. This is when Haidar struck, laying low Xerxzayas Eidolon.
With the rest of the group 40-80 feet behind him Xerxzayas tried to get a defensive spell up but was eviscerated by Hadair before the others could come to his aid.
His party did avenge him, laying low the foul shape shifter and laid the fallen summoner to rest within the garden of the monastery.
Veras Beahlor
Adventure:Howl of the Carrion King
Catalyst: SARLAAC!!!!!
Story:
TPK ><
Elyr (Half-elf ranger1/druid1), Vanboon (Kelishite Alchemist 2), Kreat (Chelaxian rogue 2), COrvus (Chelaxian Fighter 2)
Adventure:Howl of the Carrion King
Catalyst: The cursed hermit and the breath of nethys
Story:
I'm really surprised that there are no player deaths to pugwampis... In the big pug fight, had there only been 4-5 pc's instead of 6, I'm sure at least one would have died. As it was, three of them were neg hp at once... I was sure that someone would have posted a death by bad luck...
Honestly while there were no deaths to pugwampi, there was ALOT of frustration and near falls. The first thing that happened was the paladin stepped in the room yelled a judgement on them (in the chapel) and declared they get out and change their evil ways or be smited. He was flanked by the cleric and the Fighter. Quickly the pugwampis responded by using their shatter abilities and with poor luck the paladin had no weapon or armor, nor did the cleric or fighter. And then the tiny arrows were surprisingly deadly. After these plus King Mocknock, my players HATE pugwampis.
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I'm really surprised that there are no player deaths to pugwampis... In the big pug fight, had there only been 4-5 pc's instead of 6, I'm sure at least one would have died. As it was, three of them were neg hp at once... I was sure that someone would have posted a death by bad luck...Honestly while there were no deaths to pugwampi, there was ALOT of frustration and near falls. The first thing that happened was the paladin stepped in the room yelled a judgement on them (in the chapel) and declared they get out and change their evil ways or be smited. He was flanked by the cleric and the Fighter. Quickly the pugwampis responded by using their shatter abilities and with poor luck the paladin had no weapon or armor, nor did the cleric or fighter. And then the tiny arrows were surprisingly deadly. After these plus King Mocknock, my players HATE pugwampis.
You know, every fight after the first in the cactus field, I completely forgot about their shatter ability. :-< Quite sad now that I look back on it. Ah well. :)
I had one of my players go down twice this week, getting close to dying. Once he was crit'd twice by the peryton, first time on his charge gore, then on the peryton's full attack on him. The second time he went down was when he (the half-orc sorc in the group) charged in past the fighter/rogue, the barbarian, and the rogue to be hit with readied actions by two gnolls, then get hit by four more on their turn... He'll learn... :)
Not to digress, but I had a similar experience with my Barbarian. He showed up in the chapel with a longsword, mace, dagger, and shortbow. Every weapon but the shortbow was broken, then destroyed by the little buggers' abilities. Having to roll saves twice against the shatter effect due to the unluck aura made it that much tougher. So while not deadly, they were frustratingly dangerous.
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Sadly, my first kill came tonight the last session of Howl of the Carrion King. I almost had more, since I thought I had strangled the bard with a coffer corpse, but forgot the part where they fell if they took more than 6 damage, so he was saved from a horrible death.
The death happened at the hands of another PC. I had four of the six PC's fall under the confusion effect of Xulthos' drone. The first (half orc dragon sorc) rolled to attack nearest, which happened to be the barbarian (also confused) and since he attacked, the barb was forced to attack the sorc, and it became a back and forth between them. The bard rolled badly to countersong, and before he had a chance again the barbarian did exactly enough damage to bring the Sorc to negative his con. *sigh*
The day was saved however when the bard then caused Xulthos to become nauseous who then attempted to flee. The barbarian got an attack of opportunity before Xulthos could escape, rolled a crit (we use the crit/fumble deck) and then proceeded to deal 72 points of non-lethal damage to the puking daemon, knocking it unconscious, which quickly led to the three rogues using it as a pin cushion.
What's really sad (or maybe the cause of the player's bad luck) he had bought and painted a mini just for the character... *sigh* I hate killing pc's unless its their own stupidity... Of course, the funny thing is, the barbarian and sorc had had a rivalry since the sorc hit the barb in the face with an acid splash during the pug fight in the cactus field, so it was kind of fitting... ah well.
Last saturday my group finished "The Jackal's Price". To be honest - they've tried to run down walls... literally spoken... I had to adjust most encounters for my group because they rely on heavy melee attacks. No creature could stand a chance - unless they met the eye of the deep. As I know my players - the illusion with the golden sword worked just fine because of their greed. You all could imagine how this encounter went, do you? Because I don't wanted to kill the evening I let them survive - but as a matter of fact the complete group would have died by the hands of this nasty, nasty beast. Hold Monster and Enfeeblement as a free action per round with a DC 19 plus the standard action 2d4 round stun, DC 19, too... This beast will kill most PCs in his natural environment! Lucky for them, they haven't encountered the Sahuagin by the time they found the Emabier so I send them to save my PCs.
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Oof...lots of PC's went down last night.
Noone died permanently, but the Oracle bit it for a wee bit.
Who: Halfling Oracle 14
Where: At the top of the Brazen Tower
Catalyst: Fighting the Janni General-Monk, and dropping a Harm on him.
Our fights had been going well so far. Get chopped up, Heal or Cure Wounds, move on. Then, we met Mr. Happy-Pants the Monk.
The first thing he did was disarm me (the Paladin and primary damage dealer) of Tempest, then Spring Attack and dance away from us.
Taking several rounds to move into position (Smite, Holy Sword, Change Shape, move, get tripped, etc) I couldn't bring weapons to bear on this chump, and the Alchemist was stuck doing splash damage only, thanks to his Snatch Arrows feat.
Enter the Oracle.
Moving while Invisible to touch-zap the BBEG, he sneaks a Harm through his SR, hitting him for 70, and really irritating him.
In return, Fortinbras the Stone Oracle eats two rounds of full attacks (the first dropping him unconscious, which brought on a Heal from the Cleric) and eventually gets knocked to -19 with an 18 Con.
Breath of Life once again resuscitated the poor halfling, just as the Paladin finally got within Smite range of the baddie. One full attack later with a +5 Holy Rod of Alertness, and Mr. Monk was paste.
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Name: Hakeem
Race: Dwarf
Class: Fighter
Level: 10
Where? The final fight against Obherak in the End of Eternity
Normally I can see the potential dangers coming from the BBEG of an adventure but in Obherak I missed the nastiness.
The players wisely used their enchantment magics to take out Obherak's Shaitan bodyguard and then descended to engage him in combat.
Then it started to go badly wrong for them. Teefa the halfling monk and Qabil the human rogue got hit badly by Obherak and each had to retreat, leaving Hakeem to face him alone.
3 hits (including two criticals) later poor Hakeem hit the floor never to rise again.
Now the PC's were in trouble but as luck would have it Obherak had used a wall of stone to seperate members of the party earlier. the players used this to their advantage throwing fireballs from a Necklace of Fireballs until Obherak finally expired.
They have realised that this trick is unlikely to work now that they are in the City of Brass...
I hate it when players make desicions like that. It really writes the GM into a corner. It usually results in a TPK, or causes the story to somehow get hacked/fudged so the party survives, thus encouraging the behavior again. Neither are great options.
Gina, in your case, how did the rest of the party survive?
Name: Andilynn, Wiz8
Adventure: End of Eternity
Where: The Black Spire
Catalyst: Impatience
The PCs arrive at The Black Spire, see the ghasts moving about the bonefield, and note that they don't leave the bone fields. Never one to discuss strategy, Simon the party fighter wades in and is quickly involved in a huge with the ghasts. Simon is taking several small hits but it dishing it out better than the ghasts can give it.
Not wanting to let Simon have all the glory, Tharaden the dwarven bard joins the melee quickly followed by Nu'maan the ranger.
Bored with the melee types having all the fun, Andilynn the wizard joins the group, pathetically waving his dagger around just to provide a flank for the others.
The half-dozen remaining ghasts, being intelligent, decide that the unarmored human would be an easier, tastier meal than the fighters. Andilynn is quickly paralyzed and then ripped to shreds by the ghasts.
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Name: Ekhart Baden
Race: Human
Class: Inquisitor (Pharasma) 7
Adventure: House of the Beast
Where: Carrion King's throne room
Catalyst: human-bane greataxe criticals hurt
The death of the inquisitor, who was moldspeaker, allowed me to have some fun during the party's subsequent interaction with Zayifid, who revealed himself after the king's death and told them they needed to get him the Scroll of Kakishon "to truly rid the place of evil." I'd added a few bard levels to the janni, and with undetectable alignment there was little chance the party would see through his ruse (the inquisitor had been the Sense Motive monkey).
I'd already described Tempest fusing to the inquisitor's hand with mold at his death (the rogue starting asking about his dead "friend's" equipment ...), and noted that it was spreading over his body when the paladin went to pick up the corpse. As the party followed Zayifid to a "safe" resting place, the mold was able to animate the corpse just enough to whisper "He lies" in the paladin's ear. The paladin then asked Zayifid (still posing as a priest) to take a look at the corpse, at which point Tempest pricked the janni and the paladin let loose with his greatsword.
Name: Farzad
Race: Human
Class: Monk 7
Adventure: House of the Beast
Where: Carrion King's throne room
Catalyst: human-bane greataxe critical AoO
The Carrion King noticed the monk and the ranger heading for him and chose to stand, ready for them to come into range. On the monks turn, he closed with C.K. catching an AoO attack thanks to C.K.'s reach. C.K. landed a critical on the monk which took the monk to below 50% from full health. Since C.K. was readied for the attack, he took another swing and landed another sizable hit which took the monk to below neg. CON.
The GM, in a fit of temporary insanity, sent an invisible guardian (Zayifid) to the monks rescue and poured a cure potion down the monk's throat which took him to -CON + 1. In hindsight, I should have let dead monk's lie. I had failed to note that the Druid in the party had just gotten the ability to reincarnate. *Shrug* I guess I will just have to kill the monk again next session.
Name: Throwing Rocks
Race: Neaderthal
Class: Barbarian 1/ Fighter 4
Adventure: House of the Beast - Coils Of Flame
Where: Lava Chamber
Catalyst: Multiple-Critical combined with Rage
Name: Raffles
Race: Human
Class: Fighter 1/ Rogue 5
Adventure: House of the Beast
Where: Maggot Throne Room
Catalyst: Wrong place at the wrong time/Human-bane great-axe.
Name: Simon
Race: Human
Class: Fighter 10
Adventure: End of Eternity
Where: Oberehk's Diamond
Catalyst: Player stupidity?
During the night Oberehk and his bodyguards show up and combat begins. Simon jumps down from the stone and charges Oberehk. His bodyguard puts a wall of stone around Simon and his king so they may fight man-to-man. Already hurt and with no help, Simon is quickly dispatched by the King.
(Actually, Simon, on the verge of death, begs for his life and promises to serve the king. Oberehk is pleased to have another subject and has him lay on the ground and then Stone Curse's him into the steps to deal with later. Unfortunately, Oberehk eventually falls. Party hasn't said anything yet about Simon's surrender.)
Name: Nu'mann
Race: Human
Class: Ranger 10
Adventure: End of Eternity
Where: Oberheck's Diamond
Catalyst: Player stupidity?
Name: Andilynn
Race: Human
Class: Wizard 10
Adventure: Impossible Eye
Where: Hallway protected by fire elementals
Catalyst: Poor tactical positioning
The players make their way past the slain efreeti which triggers the fire elementals to come pouring out. Andilynn and the party ranger are at the back of the group which puts the elementals firmly in the middle of them.
On Andilynn's turn, he steps up and tries chill touch. It does a bit of damage but the counter attack by the elemental kills the low hit point wizard.
Really, a touch attack? Wouldn't running your butt back down the hallway away from these things have been a better tactic?
Name: Andilynn
Race: Human
Class: Wizard 10
Adventure: Impossible Eye
Where: Fire giant barracks
Catalyst: Poor tactical positioning
Players are battling the bronze giant, the pyrohydra, and some fire giants in the barracks area on level 4. Andilynn's sleet storm is wrecking havoc on the bad guys, keeping the party from being overrun. Drunk on his effectiveness, Andilynn moves (for reasons unknown) within a 5 foot step of a fire giant who got through the fog. Dead wizard.
(We play with hero points. Andilynn used all his back on the 16th to avoid the death from his earlier poor positioning. That's 4 actual deaths for this *character*, 6 character deaths for this player.)
Name: Coisilriel, Elven Female Oracle of Healing 8
Module: The Jackal's Price
Location: The Jackal's inner sanctum
Cause of Death: Father Jackal
Details:
Coi had an alternate class feature that replaced her Sleep Immunity racial feature with something else. At any rate, in the battle against Father Jackal, he had the assistance of the Emkrah and Tamir (who had been re-statted out with the Conjurerer school/ Teleportation subschool. Father Jackal quickly closed with the group, setting up flanks with the Emkrah. After about three rounds of fighting and maneuvering, Coi unfortunately rolled a 1 vs Father Jackal's Sleep Gaze, falling unconscious in front of him. One Coup-de-Grace later, and Coi was no more.
Name: Nu'mann
Race: Human
Class: Rgr 13
Adventure: Final Wish
Where: Jhavul's Chamber
Catalyst: Tempest
The party has stumbled in Jhavul's cave when they were not ready to be there. A tactical retreat is called for and the party falls back into a tunnel - except for Nu'maan. When Tempest realizes his enemy Jhavul is in sight, Tempest exerts his ego, overtakes Nu'maan, and has the ranger charge in (player did this on his own). The ranger lasts only one round going mano y mano with the efreeti.
(Hero points keeps Nu'maan alive. The party monk manages to run in and Abundant Step his mostly dead body out of there).
Name: Qadir
Race: Human
Class: Wizard 12
Adventure: Final Wish
Where: Jhavul's Chamber
Catalyst: Lowly Wizard Hit Points
The party has regrouped and is assaulting Jhavul's chambers. Jhavul though has called on his mistresses to help defend the chamber. Qadir and Nu'maan, flying about on the magic carpet, attract the attention of two of the Erinyes. Three rounds of Unholy Blights kills the wizard.
Name: Simon
Race: Human
Class: Ftr 14
Adventure: Final Wish
Where: Jhavul's Chamber
Catalyst: Grapple + Dumb Wizard = Dead Fighter
Simon is on the eastern ledge of the lava cave when he gets grappled by the lava tentacles. Being a sitting duck, he attracts the attention of two Erinyes who begin unloading Unholy Blights on him. He fails grapple checks for several rounds and just has to sit there taking the Unholy Blights.
Finally, the party cleric arrives and casts freedom of movement. Simon is free and lets out a roar, ready to head into battle. Just then, Qadir and Nu'maan arrive on the flying carpet, Qadir hoping to flee from the Erinyes that are about to kill him.
So in addition to the 2 Erinyes already casting Unholy Blights, the wizard has brought an additional two more. Four unholy blights kill the fighter. Simon, a character that survived the entire campaign to this point, dies in the penultimate battle without every swinging his sword.
Name: Nu'maan
Race: Human
Class: Rgr 13
Adventure: Final Wish
Where: Jhavul's Chamber
Catalyst: Dumb Wizard
Nu'maan, still on the magic carpet, also dies when exposed to 4 Unholy Blights at once.
Character: Graben, Half-Orc, Fighter 10
Book: The End of Eternity
Catalyst: Obherak
He died well . . .
I'm just starting book 2, but I've got a few deaths from Howl to put up. Here's the first of many.
Book 1 - Abandoned Monastery or Sarenrae
Character: Rogue Lvl 2
Catalyst: Did you hear that?
The party decided to rest for the night in the monastery after clearing it out. The rogue took first watch, and heard a noise near the entrance. He investigated, and saw a pack of hyenas entering. After some minor metagaming from the sleeping party members (he wanted to take care of them himself) he awoke the paladin and they set off, leaving the cleric, summoner and magus to their rest.
Upon seeing two hyenas in the chapel, the paladin strode out to meet them, while the rogue tried to sneak around them with stealth.
He chanced across the hidding place of two more hyenas and was hut by their AoO.
The cleric heard the noise and woke the rest of the party and hurried off. By this time rogue was on -HP, and the paladin had killed one of his hyenas. He then room position above his fallen comrade in a valent attempt to fend off the hungry animals.
While the magus and cleric rushed to the rogues aid and the summoned called forth a monster to distract the beasts, the hyenas tried a final ploy to earn their supper. Two of the hyenas attacked while the third tried to drag the helpless PC. While it wasn't able to get the rogue, it did deal enough damage to bring him within a few points of death.
In the end the rogue failed his last stabilization attempt the round before the cleric arrived.
Almost TPK
Adventure: The Jackal's Price
Where: Dinner Party (!) and One Source Warehouse
Catalyst: Lycanthropy, Zayifid, Named One Source NPCs, Emkrah
This was an epic catastrophe, which kept coming, session after session, in which five players managed to have seven characters die in 9 hours of game-time.
Name: Oxvard
Race: Chelaxian Human
Class: Cleric of Abadar 7 (Law and Protection)
Type: PC
Means of Death: Ranged dagger sneak attack by Zayifid
Name: Rygnerik
Race: Garundi Human/inflicted wereleopard
Class: Rogue 8 (Burly spear-wielder; Haleen's adopted son)
Type: PC
Means of Death: Coup de Grace by Father Jackal while unconscious
Name: Haleen
Race: Half-elf, reincarnated as Elf
Class: Swashbuckler 7 (with Dervish Dance)
Type: NPC Ally/replacement PC
Means of Death: Coup de Grace by One Source Thug, Hold Person cast by Tamir
Name: Daoud
Race: Aasimar (masquerading as mwangi human)
Class: Celestial bloodline Sorcerer 7
Type: PC
Means of Death: Khair al Din
Name: Mialee
Race: Half-elf, reincarnated as elf
Class: Ranger 8 (Bow)
Type: PC
Means of Death: Digested by Emkrah
Name: Brotis
Race: Garundi Human
Class: Warrior 2/Fighter 4 (Trip-fighter, Rygnerik's girlfriend)
Type: Rygnerik's Cohort
Means of Death: Dropped by mummy, digested by Emkrah
Name: Jamir the Hedgehog
Race: Halfling (moldspeaker; dual-weapon saw-tooth sabres; spiked armor)
Class: Fighter 8
Type: PC
Means of Death: Survivor!
Name: Rayhan Xobadhi
Race: Garundi Human
Class: Diviner 8
Type: NPC Ally/replacement PC
Means of Death: Survivor!
When the party arrived in Katapesh, Rygnerik (rogue) was an inflicted wereleopard, and Zayifid was still on the loose and after the scroll. The party managed to not pay attention to the date, and schedule the dinner party to begin at sunset on the night of the full moon! Furthermore, Rygnerik was the appointed bearer of the Scroll of Kakishon, since he had the highest Sleight of Hand check. I swear, I did not set this up. As the last guest (Kazim) arrived, Rygnerik transformed into an out-of-control giant leopard with a pounce sneak attack, and started attacking everyone, almost killing Haleen. The PCs were getting nowhere fast, so Kazim cast Calm Emotions, and the leopard calmly jumped through the window into the night.
Tamir was no fool. As soon as a creature started transforming in his sight, the first thing he did (after ducking behind the couch) was Detect Magic, which enabled him to see that the overwhelming aura of the Scroll of Kakishon was melded into the body of the lycanthrope! With a little Dimension Door and Message, he coordinated his One-Source Thugs to ambush the wereleopard in the streets, in an attempt to kidnap him and the scroll. When the party got there, they thought the thugs were allies, and were sorely surprised when they were double-crossed. Just as things seemed to be going right, with the thugs routed and Rygnerik unconscious but in party hands, Zayifid popped up one more time. This time, the party cleric, Oxvard, was prepared with Invisibility Purge and Dimensional Anchor, but Zayifid managed to kill him before finally going down.
When the party arrived back at the dinner party, their guests were not impressed, but the silver-tongued Daoud (sorcerer) convinced them to stay. Kazim had a little chat with them, foreshadowing her later ultimatum.
Tamir, who escaped the street battle, is still no fool. He knows that although his cover is blown, the PCs are low on spells and missing their cleric, so he decides to do the raid on Rayhan's house that night, after the party guests have left. The PCs all survive (barely), but Tamir manages to kidnap both Rayhan AND Rygnerik/the Scroll of Kakishon. It turns out Detect Magic works great when ransacking a house for artifacts.
Kazim arrived to investigate the ruckus with guards, seriously annoyed, and issues the ultimatum: 24 hours to get Rygnerik and the scroll back, or they must get out of town. She also says the the Church of Abadar won't consider raising anyone unless the PCs prove they aren't as completely incompetent as they have seemed so far.
At the warehouse, the PCs let Maysam Fajr escape, so everyone downstairs knows they are coming. They rush full speed into the Outer Sanctum to face three ghouls, six thugs, Maysam Fajr (now healed), Tamir, and Khair al-Din. Maysam and Tamir did horrible things to the melee characters with Hold Person and Hideous Laughter, and Khair al-Din mowed down the casters. At the end of the fight, only Mialee (ranger), Brotis (trip-fighter cohort), and Jamir (fighter, moldspeaker) were standing, and although they were now in possession of several wands of cure moderate wounds, which the ranger could use, they were unable to identify them, and so kept going at less than full HP.
They had a pretty easy time with Emabier, although they lost their thug informant, and thus had no clue what was coming next. They rescued Rayhan, and then, thirsty for vengeance and assuming the worst was over, stormed headlong into the Inner Sanctum, where they were thwarted by Father Jackal's sleep gaze, and then the arrival of the hatchling and mummy. Mialee was digested quickly, while Brotis tried to use her superior speed to put distance between herself and the hatchling, but was ultimately taken down by the mummy. Rayhan used Fly, which has no material components, to avoid the combat. This left Jamir heroically full-defending in a doorway, with single-digit hp, to hold off the baddies, while Rayhan (now played by a player whose character was dead) flew through the complex, looking for his gear. He encountered the Captain of the Sunset Ship, got the Vial of Dreams, and used it to take out Father Jackal and the Emkrah. With the other baddies gone, Jamir managed to kill the mummy, and Rayhan collapsed from exhaustion.
Now Jamir gets to spend all the loot on raise dead, reincarnate, and restoration!
I thought I would wait to post my obituaries for a whole book. My group just finished the Howl of the Carrion King. Here is the death toll.
Name: Alexander
Human Paladin 2
He suffered a crit from a patrolling Gnoll's spear. Unfortunately, I rolled max damage.
Name: Krolag (Our moldspeaker in the group)
Half-Orc Rouge 4
Due to the circumstance of the fight with Kardswann, he was left toe to toe with the huge janni. He could not handle the onslaught of brutal attacks.
Name: Zavrik (Player who had just lost Alexander)
Tiefling Cleric 5
A careless player, he set off some traps that I placed within the crypt, and left with low hp. He did not survive the following attacks of the crypt. Hopefully, this will not continue throughout the AP.
Name: Urbakken
Human Fighter 5
The group continued to make their way down to Xulthos with no cleric or any other healer support class. They were all fairly healthy and had some potions, but the drone affect left him vulnerable to some attacks. After a series of bad rolls for him, his last round consisted of a crit with the tail, one normal bite, and one normal claw resulting in the death of Urbakken.
Group's been going at it for some months now, almost finshed with chapter one (with some very fun side-trecks involving too many goblins )
Name : Ku'unda
Mwangi Human male Witch 2nd
After freeing the Sarenraeic monastery on the southern rim of its many nnon-registered occupants the group came up into the courtyard again, meeting the Geier in broad daylight. Ku'unda, never he most heavy-set of men and brave shaman extraordinaire stepped out intending to intimidate the screeching bird with his evil eye. Alas, the Geier decided he looked edible, snatched up the slight limbed Mwangi and flew off. Magic striking at it in mid air caused it to drop the struggling witch, who managed to cling to the ridge line by sheer luck. Two consecutive "1" on climbing tests and reflex saves followed by a "3" to catch anyting on his sharp fall down the cliff (for 8D6 of damge) ended his promising journey to the "rough north".
His Ancestors' spirits around the eternal bonfire were surprised to see him this early....
Name: Isaac
Race: Halfling
Class: Two Weapon Fighter
Level 6
Max HP: 48
Adventure: House of the Beast
Where: By the door to the tower on the left, horizontally sideways to The Carrion Kings Throne.
Cause: I forgot to ask the Alchemist (Davor) for a potion of Bull's Strength and Bears Endurance, went walking in with a smile (thinking I was going to die anyway) and then stood defensively which boosted my AC to 24.
One hit from the raging beast dealt 25 points of damage to me, so I 5 foot stepped backwards, downed a potion of cure moderate wounds (rolled a natural 1 which I kept doing for everything that concerned life) and was stuck in a situation.
I had the Sorcerer of Sarenrae behind me (Caim), a pit to my right and a door to my left. I could have fled through the door and jumped out of the top of the tower with a ring of featherfall, but if I did that chances were the Sorcerer would be killed as he was right behind me. The pit seemed a bit too much of a bad idea to jump down and pondering the tough situation (I loved my character), I told the Sorcerer to run and just stood there defensively again (I had three attacks by this point, but didn't use one of them as the King had reach and I'd already 5 foot stepped back to heal) and knowing my time was up I just stared up at the Kings face and smiled.
His next hit took me down to about -16 and then he attacked me on the floor again just to make sure, which took me to about -37.
The Sorcerer then ran and as the King chased him, Davor popped out of invisibility with an attempt to sunder and rolled a natural 1, then got mauled by a full attack (taking him to -16).
The sorcerer then ran with a slowed double movement (he forgot to take his familiar off of his shoulder), and the King double moved up to him and still got a full attack off....killing him outright.
Then the Zen Archer Monk (who was incredibly overpowered to such a point it was ridiculous) started jumping across the pit with his incredible jumping abilities, so the King couldn't reach him.
Out pops a giant Centipede (which apparently boosted the CR up to 18) that did about 30 odd damage to him and poisoned, so he runs around and jumps across the pit again (DM forgot to do the attack of opportunity and forgot to include poison damage every round), and he runs out of the door we all came through and escapes without checking to see if we're alive (the DM put the Kings Advisor in the doorway and forgot he was there, as he was planning on skewering the Monk - what with waiting there, invisible with a pike stuck out, facing forwards for the Monk to run into it).
The monk bullied my halfling and slung slavery jokes at him all of the time (even though he was an ex Gladiator, not slave), calling him his halfling, kicking him through doors and everything, and Isaac never attacked back as he knew it'd be fatal, but just didn't realise the Sorcerer and Alchemist (ex slave) would have backed him if it came to it.
Nobody liked the arrogant Zen Archer. He went on about teamwork all of the time, telling us to work together, and the one time we did, he was the one to run off. Anyway, he then jumped out of the tower window that we originally climbed in through, picked up the slaves we found and then 8 Unchosen Gnoll's appeared. He threw an Elemental Stone at them and that summoned a large Fire Elemental which they took out (though it took a few out) and when the Gnoll's approached him, he thought forget this, left the slaves behind and ran away. I think he was on about 3hp and should have died.
Anyway, that's where the campaign ended.
Other deaths:
Name: Caim
Race: Human or Dragonborn with the Draconic Bloodline I think (he was going to go into Dragon Disciple).
Class: Sorcerer of Sarenrae
Name: Davor
Race: Half-Orc
Class: Alchemist Bomb Thrower (he was incredible at killing large creatures)
Should have died:
Name: Daikyu
Race: Half-Elf though his character pic was a pure elf)
Class: Zen Archer of Sarenrae
Ah, poor little Isaac was a good guy and in the battle market after he put his scarf over the top of his head and looked down, he walked around to the right (past the bar and back around towards Haileen) and then looked up swiftly and stabbed the Half-Ogre (or Ogre, I can't recall) in the back, dropping him to the floor.
He then managed to hold off 10 gnoll's and 2 bug bears (killing them all) which built up a pile of bodies bigger than himself, so he climbed onto a table and continued killing them all from height, and ended up taking them all out whilst only taking 1 hit during the entire encounter(losing 10hp). People were impressed and so was I.....so he jumped into the middle of the central arena and celebrated (clever), where he was surrounded by 4 smuggler rogues and punched by one of them as a warning (there was a parlay arranged by Almah I think it was, so they weren't allowed to kill me) to not jump into the arena for any reason, other than to fight unless you want to willingly die (I thought the place was empty after this encounter, as did my 7 intelligence Halfling).
Name: Roksaneh, Druid 12
Volume: 5, The Impossible Eye
Where: The Bursar's Room
Catalyst: 2 Critical hits in 2 rounds and a misplaced animal companion.
Roksaneh and her Animal Companion were engaged with The Bursar while the other characters attacked from range in order to try staying out of range of The Bursar's longspear. After receiving a critical hit while power attacking from the longspear, Roksaneh 5-foot stepped out of reach range so she pull out a wand of cure serious to heal a little bit. She positioned her animal companion in a way to try and prevent The Bursar from five-footing back into range of Roksaneh. Unfortunately, the animal companion did not close off a five foot diagonal step. On the Bursar's next turn he took that five-foot step and gave Roksaneh a second critical which took her down to below negative con.
I should mention that did not roll a single '1' when determining damage done. Both damage rolls were moderately above average.
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A character death, but I did allow the party to resuscitate her because. it's the first character death in a long, long while, and I didn't want the player punished for the other players' lack of attention.
Character: Halima, Elven Witch 6
Whodunit: Grundmoch along with one of his Cleric Shamans.
The group of seven heroes is facing off against an exploratory party of Grundmoch, two clerics, and 4 trogs. The heroes have killed the Carrion King, and are getting ready to explore the pit, and the trogs come upon them as they prepare to descend. After an abortive attempt at diplomacy, the heroes attack the trogs, and Grundmoch successfully casts hold person on the witch. Even though there are no less than 4 PCs able to defend the witch if they chose to, they instead concentrate their fire on the cleric, killing him, and the shaman disembowels the poor held witch with a coup de grace.
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The first of these was from nearly a year ago real time (well over a year in the game timeline):
Name: Gyr
Race/Class: Gnoll (Humanoid2/Ranger2) (Beast Master archetype) Gnoll-Killer
Gyr and the party's priestess of Nethys were separated from the rest of the group while they were heading back to the monastery for a bit, and the pair thought it would be a good idea to take a look around the graveyard outside the temple in Kelmarane on their own. Halruun took Gyr down and the cleric fled. Gyr's downfall was the fact that he carried just a regular battle axe with no special qualities to help with DR. Halruun had a lucky crit.
The second was from three or four months back in real time:
Name: Ras Kasam
Race/Class: Human Inquisitor (Cohort of PC Sorcerer - level 5 at time of death?)
Ras Kasam took two direct smacks from an Ettin's club at the oasis ambush with the Sons of Carrion. End of game for Ras Kasam for the first time.
Then about a month later:
Name: Ras Kasam
Race/Class: Human Inquisitor (Cohort of PC Sorcerer - level 7 at time of death)
Ras Kasam was brought back from the dead, but he bit the dust again for the second time at the Black Spire in Kakishon when ghouls surrounded him and shredded him up pretty good. The PC Sorcerer, Avin, took one of Ras Kasam's fingers with future plans to bring him back to life again.
From this past week:
We're in the Impossible Eye now. The party narrowly missed a TPK with Brass Men in the Hazneh due to some unfortunate local teleportation to start the battle off. No one died there, but I did have my second starter PC die just a bit later:
Name: Nova
Race/Class: Awakened Wolf (Awakened Magical Beast2/Animal2/Psion-Kineticist8 (from Dreamscarred Press)) Moldspeaker
Alternately, Nova the Talking Wolf, and Nova the Green (post-moldspeaker status). This unusual character was there from the start and died when the average party level was around 11. They had just escaped the Hazneh and ran into Grovth. Nova made his first save versus Grovth and then the party was able to do some negotiation with Grovth to make him re-veil. Nova decided to psionically mindwipe Grovth. Grovth then forgot about all of the negotiations they had just performed. Nova bit it hard....pile of ash.
This actually happened a couple sessions ago, but I held off in the event that they drew a TPK the next week. Since nobody else spoiler-tagged in this thread, I won't, either.
Name: Hurley Stonebrew
Race/Class: Dwarf Gunslinger 2
Cause of Death: Heroic Sacrifice
Agent of Misfortune: Haidar the Accursed
Breaking into the shrine, the party found the hidden room with the magical barque hovering in the air. They disturbed the lone individual huddled under it, and he rose and confronted them about what they were doing there. The module is a little vague about what area is filled with the gas, and the party was basically standing in the doorway, so I kind of ad-hoc ruled that they weren't subjected to enough of it to matter. I hate confusion effects anyway.
So the party diplomat, the druid, was asking him why he was there and where he was from, while the party Rogue was egging the guy on to fight him, and about half the party was complaining that he was just a nut, and they ought to leave. Haidar, meanwhile, was becoming more paranoid and defensive, so Hurley the gunslinger moved in to subdue with a kick (unarmed strike). Since he missed, Haidar didn't immediately transform. But, when it comes to rolling attacks, well, in the words of Col. Quarritch, "I'd say diplomacy has failed."
Initiative rolls were made and the party moved into flanking positions to subdue him, including the barbarian, who attempted to deliver subdual damage with his axe. And also missed. Hurley then piled into a grapple with Haidar. I reasoned that grappling is about as stressful as taking damage, so Haidar hulked out into the leopard hybrid form and broke the grapple.
The gunslinger fired point blank into the leopard's face, doing 3 points of damage, not enough to break DR. The barbarian's player then metagamed, complaining about how the module was crazy and too tough for 2nd level and there was no way he could beat a DR10 (it would have been pretty easy, as his damage, raging and power attacking, was 11 minimum) and he decided his PC would run away. I asked how his PC knew what the DR was (since he was wrong anyway). He said "I guess he wouldn't... but I'm still getting out of there." So he did. And drew an AoO from the vicious dagger, which knocked him down to half HP. The witch healed him for most of it, but he kept running. At that point it became a rout. One by one, the PCs ran away, leaving the dwarven gunslinger behind, keeping the were-leopard cornered in the druid's entangle so he had to save every turn. The druid was the last one to leave besides him, and he finally told her to go or they'd both die. When she was out the door, he detonated his powder keg. Both dwarf and were-leopard saved against the blast, but the combination of the entangle and the dwarf's noble sacrifice bought the party time to run away.
They ran back to camp, and Almah doubled the guard. In spite of that, the camp was attacked the minute the party left to go rescue the NPC Cleric who was brought out to be fed to the dust digger. When they got back, they found out that one of Almah's mercenaries had been killed. The party realized that they were being stalked by the cat, and they followed the trail of the murdered guard, predictably back to the shrine.
Well, when it came to a fight, they rolled well, and the were-leopard rolled badly, and the person who delivered the killing blow was the new PC, played by the player who just sacrificed his dwarf gunsmith. There was a bit of poetic justice in that.
Both dwarf and were-leopard saved against the blast, but the combination of the entangle and the dwarf's noble sacrifice bought the party time to run away.
Duh. While true, that doesn't seem to make much sense. Both saved, but the gunslinger was down to 2 hp, and the tiger struck him into the negatives on its turn that same round, and a killing blow the round after that.
Name: Erryou
Race/Class: NE Gnoll Rogue 3/Barbarian 3
Cause of Death: Destiny, with help from the Carrion King
Where & When: The Carrion King's harem, "House of the Beast"
Erryou started out as a LE gnoll rogue 1, with a built-in backstory connected to his Gnoll Killer campaign trait. Erryou's player started out knowing that Erryou had been born somewhere in the Brazen Peaks, but that about a decade before the campaign started, when he was still a whelp, a rival pack led by a "giant gnoll" slaughtered his elders and sold him into slavery, resulting in him growing up a gnoll-hating "city dog" in the city of Katapesh. Near the end of Howl of the Carrion King, right as the player was thinking about multiclassing with barbarian (requiring an alignment shift), he had an encounter with the prior shaman of the Kulldis pack, known to the PCs only as "the den mother," who despised Rovagug worshipers and tipped Erryou off to the probability, based on his depiction of events, that his pack was wiped out by the Carrion King during the Carrion Tribes' initial push to convert or eliminate rival packs around Pale Mountain. This left Erryou less pleasant than ever (changing from LE to NE and picking up some serious rage), plus a new mission in life: Kill the Carrion King!
Just as our group progressed from Howl of the Carrion King to House of the Beast, however, Erryou's player had to suddenly leave the campaign due to a job change and scheduling issues. I discussed how Erryou should go out, and we opted for blaze of glory rather than turncoat.
I didn't make go to any particular effort to kill off Erryou, but as HotB started, everyone knew there was a doomsday clock ticking down over his head.
The PCs entered the House of the Beast via the Mountain's Maw, and after blasting their way through their first unchosen, Lazrul's bunch, and a big spider, they decided that before they retreated to rest and tend to the surviving slaves, they would just. Check. One. More. Door.
Following a staircase down, the PCs popped open a door hoping to find a good hiding spot--and instead found themselves barging in on the Carrion King and his wives. They managed to grab Goreshred before the Carrion King could, but in the battle played out it didn't matter much.
Erryou immediately bound into the room, keeping the Carrion King busy while the party alchemist and sorcerer spent the fight pelting the warlord with fire and ice, the cleric conjured up a Large fire elemental and hid with Goreshred, and the gnoll-killing ranger--his Strength badly depleted by Carrion Guard poison--hung back to focus on taking out the surprisingly annoying drugged-out gnoll wives.
The dice were seriously against the Carrion King, and he spent most of the fight bleeding and completely engulfed in flames. He and Erryou spent round after round just barely whittling each other down--each of them basically getting one good whack in the other--but in his last turn, the Carrion King finally rolled higher than a flippin' 5 and tore Erryou open from gut to gullet with a single swipe of his claw. At the start of his next turn, before he could step over Erryou's corpse to take on the nearby ranger, the Carrion King burned to death from ongoing fire damage.
And that's when Rokova and a wave of reinforcements threw open the doors and the surviving four PCs were immediately forced to flee, leaving Erryou and the Carrion King lying dead in the same expanding pool of blood.
That was several sessions ago, and at the moment three of those PCs are now cooling their heels in the slave pen. Meanwhile, the alchemist PC has joined up with a self-motivated three-person "rescue party" and are currently trying to find and save their buddies. Two of those three reinforcements are slotted to become cohorts as soon as the PCs hit 7th level: Haleen Tropp (the alchemist's sister), and a NPC created for my game (an ex-concubine bought off Amwyr Yuseifah a year earlier before she could be hauled up here to her doom). Joining those two is the just-barely-domesticated Dashki.
The two cohorts-to-be are being run by their prospective PCs' players, while Dashki is being run by the player whose cleric was mostly responsible for rehabilitating him after the Three Jaws debacle. I don't plan on purposefully killing off Dashki, but I'm not going to hold back from letting him go out in a semi-redemptive blaze of glory, either.
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The first of these was from nearly a year ago real time (well over a year in the game timeline):
Name: Gyr
Race/Class: Gnoll (Humanoid2/Ranger2) (Beast Master archetype) Gnoll-KillerGyr and the party's priestess of Nethys were separated from the rest of the group while they were heading back to the monastery for a bit, and the pair thought it would be a good idea to take a look around the graveyard outside the temple in Kelmarane on their own. Halruun took Gyr down and the cleric fled. Gyr's downfall was the fact that he carried just a regular battle axe with no special qualities to help with DR. Halruun had a lucky crit.
The second was from three or four months back in real time:
Name: Ras Kasam
Race/Class: Human Inquisitor (Cohort of PC Sorcerer - level 5 at time of death?)Ras Kasam took two direct smacks from an Ettin's club at the oasis ambush with the Sons of Carrion. End of game for Ras Kasam for the first time.
Then about a month later:
Name: Ras Kasam
Race/Class: Human Inquisitor (Cohort of PC Sorcerer - level 7 at time of death)Ras Kasam was brought back from the dead, but he bit the dust again for the second time at the Black Spire in Kakishon when ghouls surrounded him and shredded him up pretty good. The PC Sorcerer, Avin, took one of Ras Kasam's fingers with future plans to bring him back to life again.
From this past week:
We're in the Impossible Eye now. The party narrowly missed a TPK with Brass Men in the Hazneh due to some unfortunate local teleportation to start the battle off. No one died there, but I did have my second starter PC die just a bit later:
Name: Nova
Race/Class: Awakened Wolf (Awakened Magical Beast2/Animal2/Psion-Kineticist8 (from Dreamscarred Press)) MoldspeakerAlternately, Nova the Talking Wolf, and Nova the Green (post-moldspeaker status). This unusual character was there from the start and died when the average party level was around 11. They had just escaped the Hazneh and ran into Grovth. Nova made his first save...
Lots of death this past weekend to add to the list.
We're just starting the Final Wish and have gotten through the first Kelmarane encounter.
Name: Kizumi
Race/Class: Kitsune Sorcerer13
Kizumi decided to appear as an old, bald, male human dressed in nothing but a loin-cloth while he was in another PC's bag of holding. When an unexpected human came out of the bag of holding during the middle of combat, Kezumi was sneak attacked to death by a fellow party member.
Name: Razstan Dreamwalker
Race/Class: Elf Fighter6/Rogue7
Razstan was the one that sneak-attacked Kizume. Razstan survived getting a Janni body hurled at him from a tower which crit'd him. He stood up and pulled a thundering bastard sword out of the Janni's body and refused to give it back to its dwarven owner; the one that threw the body at him. Dwarf cut him down with a nine-lives stealer greataxe.
Name: Dryven Kozlov
Race/Class: Dwarven Barbarian9/Fighter4
Dryven was the one that slew Razstan. The other party sorcerer dominated him, teleported him several thousand feet up, and dropped him (so that he hit terminal velocity) into the bridge at the north of Kelmarane. The dwarf was still alive, but bleeding to death, unconscious, and drowning at the river bottom. The sorcerer teleported back down and put the icing on the cake by zapping the river with a lightning bolt.
In-party fighting left only two living members of the player character party. The dwarf and elf were the last two final founding members of the party.
Chapter= The Final Wish
Characters= Graben, Half-orc Fighter 14
and
Searos the Moldspeaker, Human Barbarian 14
Catalyst = Jhavhul
In addition to the two PCs listed above, the group consisted of Krysnis (Halfling sorcerer), Ricnan (human druid) and Nefeshti. All of the group had permanent fly spells thanks to Nefeshti’s generous wishes.
Upon entering the chamber, Searos flew across the chamber to confront Jhavhul. Jhavhul waited for him, and an overconfident Searos was nearly dropped by the attacks of opportunity. A round later, Searos was dead on the stone floor. Jhavhul’s harem effectively harassed the rest of the group, inflicting serious damage.
As Nefeshti has not used up her wishes for the day, one of the PCs wished for the healthy restorating of Searos. The barbarian moldspeaker threw himself at Jhavhul with renewed fury. However, Jhavul replied with several critical hits, sending Searos to his doom again. Jhavhul then grasped the fallen warrior by one leg and tossed his body into the lava river.
Enraged at the loss of their companion, Nefeshti and Graben broke off from the erinyes to attack Jhavhul directly. The efreet flew above the lava to meet them. Graben dealt tremendous damage upon the efreet, nearly killing him. However, Jhavhul again retorted with several critical hits from his flaming scimitar. Graben died and fell to the lava below.
Nefeshti then landed a killing blow, sending Jhavhul into the burning lava river. Unfortunately, an erinyes then dropped her with a well aimed arrow, and Nefeshti joined the dead in the lava.
The rest of the party seeing the demise of their best warriors, and the success of their mission, fled the chamber to regroup. They returned later to find the harem had left, and rescued the imprisoned citizens of Kelmarane.
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It's not a PC, but it's a death worth mentioning :
Chapter : Howl of the Carrion King
Monster : Xulthos the Daemon
Catalyst : The 4th level Witch, the 4th level Paladin and poor rolls.
After Xulthos says that he wants to kill every PC until the last one begs to become his slave, everyone rolls initiative.
The witch rolls a natural 20, and acts first.
She moves at 30 ft from Xulthos and cast the sleep HEX.
I roll the will save in front of the players it's a 7, and I needed an 8 to make the save !
Xulthos sleeps.
The paladin comes by, everyone waits for the next turn, and then the paladin smites evil with a coup de grace.
I roll poor again, and fail the fortitude save (DC above 30).
Game over Xulthos !
It was way too easy for the players, I did not follow the recommandation that the PCs should be level 5, because they are Pathfinder characters. They were only level 4.
Aletheia, Dragon* Oracle 14
Catalyst: Jhavhul
Rude Awakening #1- As the rest of the party speculated was likely with all his other obvious enhancements, Jhavhul has true seeing.
Rude Awakening #2- 15+ crit range.
So yeah. A single AOO took her from full HP to dead, and sent her crashing right into the middle of the lake. Ouch.
* Permanent wish version of Form of the Dragon II
I'm not one of those GMs, but it was pretty satisfying after this party breezed through every other major battle in the AP without ever breaking a sweat, and it really added some tension to the rest of the final showdown.
Chapter: 1, Howl of the Carrion King.
PC: Ringlefinch Winebladder, gnome ranger 2.
Catalyst: Frustration at a poorly-built character.
The player, Jacob, decided he'd had enough of his character. He loved the game, but he'd built his character in a bad way (rolled bad for stats, and he was a freaking gnome ranger with a spiked chain. After clearing out the old monastery, during which he didn't manage to land a single hit (except with the +1 warhammer looted from King Mokknokk), he decided it was time to kill off Ringlefinch. During the fight with the dire boar in Kelmarane (which would have been a TPK if I hadn't fudged a roll or two), he tried to effectively commit suicide by laying down in front of it. It didn't work, and the fighter and rogue took the beast down.
I called a bathroom break, and when I came back, two of the players had their heads in their hands and the other four were laughing their heads off. I asked what was so funny, and was told Ringlefinch had decided to hump Timberlain (the dwarf fighter)'s head, and the fighter had stuffed him up the backside of the dire boar, where he'd been for the last ten minutes. I facepalmed, and told Jacob to roll up a new character. (He's now playing a half-orc barbarian called Clonkus, and he's enjoying the game much more now that he doesn't have a useless character.)
We're a group of total newbies, myself included. I'm honestly surprised there haven't been more deaths.