KILLER GM RETURNS: with Campaign Classics & Character Carnage


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So awesome. I know I'd love playing your games, because I just love rolling up new characters!


Ah, characters in heavy armour attempting to swim in boiling water...
Excellent work by the dragon... :D


Thanks Sir Charles.

Be nice to have you in, Mergy.


Here's July's session...

In July’s session of the Campaign Classics campaign, there was one (1) PC fatality. We resumed where we left off with the PCs tangling with the CR 10 red dragon “Scorch” in the boiling lake room. After watching his two comrades bet bull rushed into the boiling lake, Bates the rogue was unwilling to risk getting killed in direct melee with the dragon or ending up down in the lake. Bates’ sneak damage could have been significant against the dragon, but Bates wasn’t having any of that.

Upon going into the lake, Low-eye-que took 10d6 damage. On his action, he immediately dropped his tower shield, and began trying to swim to the surface and to the shore (he was ten feet deep and fifteen feet away from the shore of the cavern lake. He made two successive swim checks (including the –6 armor check penalty), and made it to the shore and out of the water with all of about 10 or 15 HP remaining. Meathead #5 wasn’t so lucky, and the damage he took on the final round of being in the water (yet another 10d6) finished his boiled self off permanently:D

That left only Biggles the dwarf cleric. A total PC route appeared absolute. Then, as is typical of my luck sometimes, Biggles fired off a damn Holy Smite spell and the creep successfully blinded the dragon who failed his save on a nat’ 1 roll. The dragon (not knowing if/when the blindness would abate) then failed a 'morale check' that I rolled, and fled immediately. That was it. The PCs then grabbed the trident Wave. One bad roll separated me from a TPK and total route of my lame-brained players…

The Players then spent a day or two healing up, and a fifth player character, Moron-icus, a 7th level Ranger, joined the group. Following the debacle with the dragon, my players then added insult to injury, by going to return Wave to Nightfear and his troupe of inadequate gnomes. Nightfear was sporting a huge smile thinking he was about to receive Wave, only to find that he was given the business-end-first by Low-eye-que the paladin.

I’m not even going to attempt to recount the disgusting and despicable actions of the players during this encounter, save to say that Nightfear went down faster than a Blindfolded, one-armed schoolgirl fighting Mike Tyson. Nightfear didn’t even get to act before his ass was at Negative 20 HP plus, and promptly assumed the consistency of compost. The rest of the gnomes then proceeded to immediately (and collectively) S**t a Sailboat and surrendered on the spot. Player laughter at my expense promptly ensued.

The group then polished off a number of insignificant encounters before getting to the large cavern with the wooden disks suspended above boiling mud by chains. The group was able at length to get across these without incident. The group soon thereafter tangled with Ctenmiir the Vampire and Qesnef (the false Keraptis) Ogre Mage. Ctenmiir played the role of a chained prisoner to perfection, fooling everyone present. Ctenmiir successfully dominated two of the five characters present, who were told to lay down and go to sleep. That left three characters (Low-eye-cue, Meathead #5 and Biggles the dwarf cleric) left to take on both Ctenmiir and Qesnef. Large scale PC destruction again appeared likely.

To my dismay, the damn dwarf cleric then rolled a nat’ 18 or 19 on his turn check, and sent the Vampire Ctenmiir packing off into another room to hide. That left only Qesnef, and though the ogre mage was wielding Whelm, and fired off his Cone of Cold, he was unable to deal with the remaining three PCs, and went down valiantly against the evil and war-mongering PCs.

Thus two likely TPKs turned into two extremely lucky PC fiasco wins, and the group claimed 2 of the 4 weapons. The August game should see the group hopefully complete Return to White Plume Mountain.

Though the low fatality rate is cause for concern, two facts cause me to be optimistic.

#1: Upon the conclusion of Return to White Plume Mountain, I'll be starting Return to the Tomb of Horrors. No group I've run through Return to the Tomb, has ever even gotten to Moil, much less won the whole thing.

#2: Even better, I have three new players scheduled to join the group. Body bags please…


Good stuff.


You, sir, are an evil, evil man.

I must remember the dragon on a ledge/ boiling hot pool combo. Good show!


Thanks Guys. Your encouragement makes me try even harder to waste every player character in sight. Fairly, mind you...:)


meomwt wrote:

You, sir, are an evil, evil man.

I must remember the dragon on a ledge/ boiling hot pool combo. Good show!

There are a few "situational placements" of dragons that I have found to be very 'helpful.' A narrow ledge above a hazzardous environment is one. It keeps the PCs from getting to the beastie, save at maybe one at a time. The Bull Rush worked like a charm.

Previously, I used this same dragon to assail the PCs in the Age of Worms campaign, where they were in a boat, crossing a lake. The dragon was in flight (approached invisibly to make it worse), and the PCs couldn't move to melee him because he was in the air (no one had a Fly spell/potion), and the PCs couldn't run away because they were in a boat! I just had the dragon fly back and forth and continue to roast the PCs and their (wooden) boat repeatedly, until the boat burned out from under them, and the group either swam for it, drowned, or got incinerated. Sort of like shooting fish in a barrel:)


In the August session of the Campaign Classics campaign, there were Three (3) character fatalities.

The following characters were present in today’s session (my names for the PCs, not what the players call their characters):
Low-eye-que (Human Paladin 8)
Moron-icus (Human Ranger 8)
Meathead #6 (Human Paladin 8)
Master Bates (Skulk Rogue 8)

and 3 new Players arrived with their PCs:
Dead Meat (Wizard 8)
Punch Drunk (Cleric 8)
Jean Claude Van Dumber (Ninja 8)

The PCs began their assault on the lower level/indoctrination center of Return to White Plume Mountain. The PCs dealt with some irrelevant encounters, before tangling with Blackrazor wielding False Kepaptis Efreeti Nox. This encounter appeared to be very difficult for the group, as they were initially trying to “con” Nox, the same way they “conned” Nightfear, but Nox wasn’t having any of it. When the PCs refused a request, he laid into them. Nox first cast Black Tentacles on his surprise action, and almost the entire group was successfully grappled. Only half of the group had even made it through the doorway into Nox’s chamber, before the group had to stop and dialogue with the Efreet and got grappled, so several characters couldn’t do anything substantive other than try to get free of the tentacles. Initiatives were then rolled. I went first.

I made a CRITICAL mistake, when I had the Efreet (Nox) (who also had 2 levels of Anti-Paladin and the spell casting abilities of a 9th level wizard-False Keraptis, tacked onto his normal stats…) Cast Scorching Ray, followed by a Quickened Scorching Ray at Low-eye-que the Paladin, who was the ONLY character who was not grappled by the Black Tentacles. I only rolled the damage for the initial Scorching Ray spell (all 3 rays hit). Had I remembered to roll for Hit and damage, I would have greased Low-eye-que on the spot. As it was, he took nearly 60 HP in just 3 rays from one spell, and was almost down. The PCs then moved into action. The efreet was airborn by that time, so the PCs couldn’t engage him in melee.

In the second round, Nox dropped a Fireball on the entire group (some still grappled by the Black Tentacles) and then hit Low-eye-que with another Quickened Scorching Ray, which put him at only 5 HP remaining. Player actions against Nox in round 2 were insignificant and ineffective.

In round 3, Nox again flambéed the group with another fireball and hit Low-eye-que with yet another Quickened Scorching Ray. Low-eye-que had been getting cured by Punch Drunk the Cleric and was healing himself on his actions, so he ended up at negative HP this time, and it looked like a PC route was becoming increasingly likely. And then my stupid luck reared its ugly head again. Punch Drunk the cleric fired off a Dismissal Spell successfully, and sent Nox packing back to the Elemental Plane of Fire, at FULL friggin HP and not a scratch on him, while the PCs were mostly at about half HP each (except Low-eye-que, who was at Negative HP). I elected to make it easy on the Players (and probably myself) by having Blackrazor NOT go with Nox to the elemental plane of Fire. In 24 game-time hours, Nox can Plane Shift back to White Plume Mountain, so the PCs will have to tangle with him again.

While searching for the final weapon Frostrazor, the PCs stumbled into the chamber with the Basin of Boundless Life. Sadly, I was unable to trick any player into having their character take a bath in the basin (which would have been fatal). They did end up with several newly animated pieces of equipment for their troubles (which they think is great, and I’ll make use of to my benefit in the future. Nothing like the PCs trying to sneak up on someone, only to have their weapons start singing like the Frog in the old Warner Brother Looney Toons cartoons to alert their enemies…)

The PCs then went into an old, unplundered research laboratory, and found the Deck of Destinies (simiilar to a Deck of Many Things). As my players are all rather idiotic and reckless, they couldn’t help but have their characters have a try with the deck. Sadly, Jean Claude Van Dumber lived up to his name and first drew the card that sent his character straight down into the earth and into the magma. The player of Moronicus the Ranger had previously drawn the card that granted his character a Wish, but he wasn’t going to waste it on saving Jean Claude Van Dumber, and Jean Claude immediately took 20 d6 and turned into a Charcoal briquette:D

Jean Claude Van Dumber #2 (new character that I allowed to immediately join the group) then went for another card which killed off his new character on the spot as well:D

Jean Claude Van Dumber #3 (new character, just like the last) then went for yet another card, and drew the vampire card, and became a 6th level Ninja, and the Player stated something to the effect of, “I have no desire to play a 6th level character, which will get greased in no time flat, can you help me?” I had the character step into the next room, where I had perennial re-occurring villain ’Necros’ (Greek for Death) waiting, and he messily dispatched Jean Claude Van Dumber #3 in short order.

Finally, Jean Claude Van Dumber #4 arrived, and yes, you guessed it folks, couldn’t resist another draw from the stupid deck. He ended up being 7 and ½ feet tall. Rather odd for a Ninja, I reckon…

The PCs then went after the final weapon, Frostrazor. I swapped out the scripted False Keraptis Mossmutter, in favor of an Elemental Ice Demon (from the Dragon Compendium) who had 8 levels of Anti-Paladin (a CR 6 creature with 10 HD plus the 8 levels of Anti-paladin equaled a CR 10 Creature with over 200 HP.) If I could get the PCs to within melee range, this guy (with 18 HD) could turn them into swiss cheese. Unfortunately, the PCs learned some lessons from dealing with the previous aerial combatant, and were more effective in laying into “Bad Mr. Frosty” the ice demon. He dropped to below 50% Hit Points at the end of round two, and plummeted into an icy chasm, where the PCs didn’t opt to go down to finish him off. They did however claim Frostrazor, which was where we left off for the day. The group will finish the final encounter in the Fane of White Plume Mountain when we begin nest time.

Following the final encounter in Return to White Plume Mountian, the group will then Immediately begin Return to the Tomb of Horrors. I may/may not opt to start a separete campaign thread for this notorious adventure. See you in late September/early October with undoubtedly many tales of PC horror and destruction... ~KGM


Killer_GM wrote:


Jean Claude Van Dumber (Ninja 8)

1. I really like the way you helped out.

2. I think you should be able to insist, because of that helpfulness, that the player actually change the PC's name to Van Dumberer. That, and because of his actions.


I've decided to move the next part of this campaign to its own campaign journal thread: Killer GM's 2011 Return to the Tomb of Horrors Campaign. See you over on that thread:)


A shameless bump...


Shameless bumps are seldom rewarded ... other than with SAN loss.

Here layeth the path to madness and death.

The Horror on the Orient Express begins 16th June 2012, ladies and gentlecritters. Please be so kind as to stop by for the AARs. <evil grin>


I will likely be resuming the "Campaign Classics" campaign sometime this month. I have until recently been a pleased participant in Turin the Mad's wonderful Jade Regent campaign. My personal circumstances have changed significantly, making all Saturdays for the foreseeable future unavailable. Regrettably, I've had to bow out of the Saturday Jade Regent game, and I had thought into "retirement" from gaming.

I was conversing recently with the player of Bates/Red Shirt #10 (on this thread and the Tomb of Horrors thread that I kept just after this one), and it was agreed that I would run a short (60-90 minute game session) on Thursday evenings, (which my schedule will allow), with Bates and several of his family members as players. So, though I had not hoped to GM again for some time, I now find myself preparing to do so. I find myself ill-prepared for the task, but I'll give it my best effort. I suspect this continued campaign will have both pre-published (1st/2nd edition adventures) and some home-brewed material to tie it together.

I don't have a start date, but it may happen in late February. The characters will be 5th level when we start.

I don’t know the names the players will give their characters, but I do know their character classes. The line up is as follows:
Bates/Red Shirt #10 (a skulk 3rd level rogue)
a 5th level Cleric
a 5th level Fighter
a 5th level Wizard
Possibly a second 5th level fighter

I will be starting them in Dungeon Crawl Classics #17 Legacy of the Savage Kings at 5th level. Upon completing Savage Kings and reaching 6th level, I'll be whisking the group off to a weekend paradise in the 2nd edition Ravenloft adventure "Hour of the Knife." Beyond this, we'll see what happens. ~KGM


Hooray!


Macharius wrote:
Hooray!

Hi Mach. It is nice to be playing. I didn't think I'd be playing, but since I am, hopefully it'll be like past campaigns. Given my players general level of questionable decision making skills (Bates/Red Shirt #10) and inexperience (family members of Bates), it could be rather messy. I almost want to hope that all involved outperform my expectations for them. Somehow, I think they'll probably find a way not to...


Be sure to delineate any 'house rules' well in advance for the young 'uns to digest.

Then be prepared to be surprised. ;)


Turin the Mad wrote:

Be sure to delineate any 'house rules' well in advance for the young 'uns to digest.

Then be prepared to be surprised. ;)

I'll do that.

Regards, Al.


#1 I shall have to see if I have a copy so I can follow along.

#2. I am so ridiculously happy to have you back! Ah.. so many Red Shirts, so little time…

#2a: Feel free to be descriptive with the PC gore. I like that stuff.


CapnVan wrote:

#1 I shall have to see if I have a copy so I can follow along.

#2. I am so ridiculously happy to have you back! Ah.. so many Red Shirts, so little time…

#2a: Feel free to be descriptive with the PC gore. I like that stuff.

Re: #1. Ah ha! I do.

Re: 2a: And by that I mean the wailing and gnashing of teeth around the table.


CAP'N VAN. Good to see you Sir. I will endeavor to be descriptive with all things gore-related. I have at times thought of "turning over a new leaf," and being a kinder GM to the Red Shirts of the World... Happily, given the bone headed mistakes this group is likely to make, even deliberate benevolence on my part won't stop these clowns from dying like flies. ...So, Descriptive Gore it is!


The campiagn officially began last night. I made a last minute switch, and started with the 1st Edition d&d module C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. I had been leaning toward the DCC adventure Legacy of the Savage Kings, but nostalgia, combined with an unexpected trip this past weekend to Florida, and its palm trees and tropical climate swayed my choice in favor of Tamoachan. Once the player characters reach 6th level, I'll put them through the meat grinder in the Ravenloft adventure ‘Hour of the Knife.’ At 7th level, I'll either do Savage Kings or Ghost Tower of Inverness.

The player characters begin as wanted fugitives who were on the run and took ship headed anywhere. They ended in the jungles to the south, and had to flee their ship when another ship loaded with bounty hunters, arrived in pursuit. This was the original background for the Module.

The line up of five player characters is as follows (note, the nicknames are mine):
Bates the Rogue #8 (a skulk 3rd level Rogue)
Medic, a 5th level Cleric: Wis 18, Dex 12, Con 14, Cha 14
Red Shirt #1, a 5th level Fighter: Str 20(22), Con 16, Dex 13
Squiggy, a 5th level Wizard: Int 18, Dex 16, Con 14, Wis 12
& Lenny, a 5th level Dwarf Fighter

For what it’s worth, the Players are rolling 4d6 per ability score, and I am (as always) NOT making use of any sort of ability score point-buy system. In the past, this has almost uniformly resulted in PCs with HIGH ability scores. So don’t feel too bad for the characters if/when they buy the farm.

1st Ed. Module C1: HIDDEN SHRINE OF TAMOACHOAN.
I was a player in this adventure in 1984. Since my experience playing in Tamoachan in 84 (with Turin the Mad no less), a lot of things could have happened in the Lost Shrine. Numerous inhabitants of the place could have come and gone. I will use this rationale to replace some of the listed encounters. The main reason I am swapping out some of the listed encounters however is that many simply don’t have 3rd ed/Pathfinder equivalents or pre-published statistics, or what has been converted is not applicable (too high or low in terms of CR rating). Simply put, I don’t wish to ‘home brew’ statistics for the original encounters, and would rather swap out something I’ve already got in a Bestiary book to save myself the time and trouble. Listed below are the room numbers (for those of you who have the original adventure), the current encounter, and the old encounter I swapped it out for. If a number below (1-54) is not listed, then the original adventure did not have an opponent listed for that area, and I’m trying to stick to what the original design had in mind. All encounters are CR 5 to CR 7 in terms of difficulty. The nice thing about Tamoachoan (from a player perspective) is that you can miss numerous encounters, depending on the route you select and whether you choose to enter areas that are “off the path” towards completing the adventure. The players characters may well miss many of the encounters altogether. I will use the occasional listed trap, but I would tend to think that many of these have been activated previously, and (unless reset) would not be an issue anymore. A 5th level Rogue (or a 3rd level Skulk Rogue) probably can’t handle a lot of DC 20 Disable Device checks and survive, so I’ll use the listed traps when I deem it ‘desirable.’ Also, the constant poisonous gas that is used in the tournament use of the module will also be there, albeit at a reduced severity:)

Room 1: No encounter
Room 3: No encounter. An old shell of a dead giant hermit crab.
Room 7: Human Fighter 5/Vampire CR 7, same as in the text. The player characters are likely to miss this room is modestly hard to find. This creature is dormant when the PCs find him, and they have to be rather stupid to end up fighting him…
Room 11: No encounter.
Room 13: Lamia CR 6 in lieu of a previous Nereid
Room 18: Three Shadows EL 5 in lieu of previous Zombies
Room 20: Mummy CR 5 in lieu of a previous Wight
Room 22: No encounter
Room 25: Fire Beetles EL 2 or 3, same as in the text
Room 28: Gelatinous Cube CR3, in lieu of previous Gas Spore
Room 30: Weretiger CR4, for statistics to use for the existing Werejaguar
Room 33: Advanced Cyclops Cleric 3, CR 7 ½ in lieu of previous doppelganger/Tamoachoan
Room 35: Advanced Gargoyle Antipal2 (CR6) “the Butcher”, in lieu of previous Ogre Mage (now a CR 8)
Room 37: 2 Degenerate Serpentfolk (CR 4 each) EL 6, in lieu of the previous Polyp
Room 38: No encounter
Room 39: A 5th level Fighter bounty Hunter (CR 4 w NPC value gear). This area is where the poison gas ceases to be an issue, and thus, the bounty hunters looking for the PCs hole up here to wait for the PCs to arrive. A 7th level wizard bounty hunter is upstairs when the PCs arrive here. She does not intervene until this fight is basically concluded. The bounty hunter 7th level Wizard (CR 6 with NPC value gear = 4650), encounter serves to link the next adventure, which follows (Hour of the Knife).
Room 41: Wood Golem CR 6 in lieu of the Yellow Mold (or maybe in addition to…)
Room 42: Couatl, as in the text, though the PCs don’t fight him, and he helps them significantly if they do the right things.
Room 46: Gibbering Mouther CR 5 (I may give him the advanced template for a CR 6),
Same as in the text
Room 47: No encounter
Room 48: Water Elemental CR 5 (large) or CR 7 (huge), in lieu of the 1st Ed Water
Weird (the serpent water creature that drowns people, for which there is no 3rd ed/
Pathfinder equivalent). The elemental can assume the form of a watery serpent. He’ll just have to beat the PCs to a pulp rather than drown them.
Room 49: No Encounter. The centaur mummy was already deceased, and any recent occupant was dispatched by the bounty hunters who entered the top of the pyramid in search of the player characters.
Room 52: There is clearly no translation of the Nahual for Pathfinder or 3.5 stats. He was however a totally Kick-Ass villain, and I will either homebrew his stats, or use the statistics of the Soul Eater (CR7) for the creature’s stats, but will otherwise keep the encounter the same, and use the illustration of the same in the text.
Room 54: No encounter as in the text. The trap remains. The bounty hunters knocked a hole in one of the walls, allowing them to enter this place, and later found the secret door that allowed them to go down to the second tier and later, the first tier.


I had to spend a little time covering the intro, and the surroundings, but the players got down to playing in short order last night. The group was chased by a swarm of bounty hunters through the jungle. They stumbled into the clearing that housed the Pyramid of Tamoachan. The group fell into the collapsing hole and started at area 1. Given that this happened at night, and on account of the poison gas and the steep drop in the dark, I decided that the bounty hunters would not immediately follow the PCs into the hole which leads to Area 1 on the Map. Since the bounty hunters couldn't see the PCs, shoot arrows at them in the dark, or get down safely, I had them hurl more rocks and insults down at the group and wait for sunrise before coming after the PCs.

The PCs puttered about in area 1 & 2. Bates the Rogue wanted to search for traps all along the hallways. When I started giving each character 1 HP of damage from the poison gas per turn, Bates quit searching for traps in the corridors, and the group hurried along. The group found the dead giant hermit crab (where's the Rancid Crab Butter when we need it) in Room 3, and went Left down to areas 8 & 11. Nothing of consequence happened in these areas, apart from the players taking more time then they probably needed.

We finished for the evening at Room 13. The characters booted in the door and found the Lamia waiting for them. The Lamia used a Suggestion Spell while the group tried to decide what the hell to do. Naturally, Red Shirt successfully made his save and didn't do what the Lamia suggested he do... something about shoving his weapon in a certain place... Initiatives were rolled, and Bates the Rogue went first and rolled a 19+24=43 Stealth roll. Yes, my misery returns with Bates the skulk and his insane stealth rolls. Not to worry. I've got some things in store for dudads flopping Bates the skulk...

We resume next Thursday. ~KGM


1 hp per turn - I assume you mean per 10 minutes' game time (as would be the case in the original module).


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I don't think it's that your players lose interest in long campaigns, not being able to remember plotlines, etc. If you're only playing every 2nd or 3rd Saturday, I think that is probably why they can't remember any of the storyline.


Turin the Mad wrote:
1 hp per turn - I assume you mean per 10 minutes' game time (as would be the case in the original module).

You are correct Turin. I tended to go a little easier on them that exactly 10 minutes...


Ched Greyfell wrote:
I don't think it's that your players lose interest in long campaigns, not being able to remember plotlines, etc. If you're only playing every 2nd or 3rd Saturday, I think that is probably why they can't remember any of the storyline.

My past players haven't reported that, but it could be a factor. As a player, I certainly forget details and can lose interest in prolonged campaigns that don't have "clear beginning and end points." I like having clear objectives, and start and stop points. Modules provide that. When I've run longer campaigns or home brews, I've had to remind players of "why there character is there and what they've done to get themselves where they are now..." It didn't really matter the amount of time in between games, even ten years ago, when I GM'd once per week.


Friends,
I'm going to start a new thread for this coming campaign. This current thread indicates a campaign that largely was finished in 2012, and the adventures listed at the beginning aren't applicable. I don't know how to create a link, but you'll see it. See you over there. ~KGM


Toggle how to format your text. Open 2nd window/tab to view the new journal. Should be easy to do from there.


For this minimally adept GM, 'tis more difficult that one might imagine... Thanks Turin.

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